How to Make a World Religion in Minecraft

Okay raise of hands who here wants to be a prophet online did you raise your hand no pretty much everybody wants people to listen to them on the stoneworks minecraft server easily one of the most fun and rewarding ways to play this game is by creating lore mythology churches and rituals centered

Around your very own role play religion this is what makes stoneworks minecraft so unique as the worlds of rathner and eldom are bound with magical artifacts holy books shrines and true stories of heroic priests and prophets if you want to learn more watch this video that i

Worked really hard on for some awesome examples this video is a companion to that one so here today i want to go over what religions on minecraft actually are the rules and regulations as well as how we actually make role-play religions into a real part of the gameplay that

Drives server history i hope you all like and subscribe for this because i’m basically giving away the secrets of my server’s business model this is stoneworks world building and we’re about to sit back chill out and learn how to start a minecraft religion just me you and joe rogan you’ll be sticking around

You can join the server today just put this ip into minecraft java edition 1.16.5 right now we invite all creative wholesome and history driven people to come on everyone who stays on the server or doesn’t get banned tells me it’s a completely unique experience with a great community so why not join them

These religions on the stoneworks server are not fake they are real explorations of people’s values wants and agency but they’re placed in the context of minecraft block game so inside this game that has hundreds of items and a giant sandbox world for you to play around in

Players have the freedom to turn their religious world building into a real physical entity that shapes the world around them and the lives of players so here’s our agenda in this video first how do people actually come up with their religions like how does it physically work second the server rules

Of religion third how to do sacrifices and contact your gods and fourth how to organize a religion and convert people if you want to skip around i made little chapters on this video’s progress bar so the way religion in minecraft works is like this a group of friends joins

The stoneworks minecraft server however they find out about the server they’ll quickly notice that players have religions temples holy books etc and they might want a piece of that action either the group collectively forms some ideas for their religion or one player takes the lead in writing the lore and

Coming up with the ideas either way they start developing their pantheon of gods their creation story important symbols influences from real life cultures etc this part is tons and tons of creative imaginative fun now player built religions are often best represented in a wiki page on the stoneworks mcwiki

Since it’s a public forum and a single page can host a lot of creative writing for lore as well as descriptions of the in-game play that the religion creates this is to say players also manifest the religion in game they’ll build churches shrines statues they’ll write holy books

They might come up with some rules like for example don’t kill dogs and they might perform rituals and sacrifices as group events most of the time this happens in the context of a small group of players or a town so the church becomes one of the important big builds

A centerpiece of the town and the religion and religious symbolism becomes a marker for the group’s identity this is different when the religion arises in more diverse urban environments but i think that happens less often it’s more often the small groups of players all centered around a town they do their own

Thing you know what i mean now secondly seriously you need to know these rules one no real world religions you can emulate and take inspiration from things like islam the buddha the orishas whatever but do not literally import them into minecraft it’s bad enough that i publicly compared gonf to jesus and

Garfield to allah but literally remaking religions in game is uncreative and kind of demeaning two meme religions are iffy in the admin chats i’m always defending them personally because i think they’re important for keeping us grounded that this is just minecraft and the tone doesn’t have to be serious however the

Religions of big chunkish thick thighs fanboy emoges have all been played out a million times and at this point they’re just dumb and annoying we admins reserve the right to shut them down and blow up your shrines to shrek’s dong especially if you don’t develop a proper lore for it

That does not mean if you create a 40 000 year long backstory to shrek’s dong that will leave your religion alone 3. do not worship the admins and don’t straight up ask the admins for magical artifacts that’s really bad for the role playing on this server and i already

Have a massive ego so i don’t need any more excuses for that the admins on this server are actually a part of the communication between the gods and players so like you say prayers to your gods you want to give them sacrifices we bring those to them so at best we’re

Like hermes at where’s to where those little demon minions that hades always has around in hercules realistically we’re a bunch of computer geeks running a minecraft server four obviously nothing offensive and don’t worship any real-life person especially if they’re really bad and they killed a bunch of people early in

Rathner’s history i had to talk a guy into dismantling his holy church to grimace and mao zedong why i don’t know man 5. you are allowed to persecute other in-game religions call crusades genocide them whatever but heed my words we have strict rules against toxicity maybe too strict so if you’re repeatedly attacking

People harassing them insulting them out of character or just being nasty we will punish you for it stick to in-game persecution that’s grounded in our role play language for example there was a goddess that traumatized and almost laid waste to the entire server last march named entropy red fire rex has a dope

Video on her check it out there are still cults that worship her but it’s pretty taboo to the players that were around then because she caused a lot of really bad to happen since then players have called each other entropy worshipers even when they’re not like

That’s a good example in our role play language it has history and weight to it and you can even make up slurs for the people that you don’t like like the yamu out all empire people are called yemis or the bardonians have been called dandies i’m sure there’s others but i’m

Kind of out of the loop okay do you know these rules do you have them drilled deep into your subconscious like the time the neighbor kid came over and put his nuts in the ice cream good holy jamie pull that video up now let’s talk communicating with the greater beings gods spirits aliens

Whatever you worship and if you’re watching this section i’m gonna ask you please watch it all the way through because there’s stuff at the end that so long as everybody knows it it makes my staff teams lives much easier okay you can communicate to the gods through sacrifices and rituals

Sacrificing is giving items up in reference to your gods sometimes your gods will give you things in return enchanted artifacts things like excalibur the holy arbuckle lasagna or even just a cooked chicken with fire aspect on it these kinds of things are commonly awarded during server events but are still infrequently given during

Everyday worship and sacrifices when you sacrifice you need to call out in the global chat so the gods or the admins notice you’re doing a sacrifice do a prayer or an opening story of some kind calling the spirits and gods to come be with you often times the gods will make

Their presence known oftentimes they won’t when you do a sacrifice the gods generally like it when you give up valuable items in lavish ways big temples lots of people there big rituals lots of culture and thematic symbolism behind how you’re doing it that’s all good it appeases them you can either

Leave your valuable items to sacrifice in a chest or a barrel on the altar or you can destroy them in front of the gods toss them into fire the void whatever suits you if you leave them in a chest and they stay there for a while admins can come and pick up the

Sacrifice to bring to the gods although if somebody steals it first we’re not reimbursing you for that you’ll just have to go kill them and maybe put it back in the chest now if you’re destroying your items i recommend you record a video where you show the items

And their destruction that way us admins can take that to the gods and show proof of what you gave in your devotion to them now there’s four count them four things i need to stress one human sacrifice doesn’t count for much players respawn it’s not really a

Big deal unless your character is dying a cannon death and you alter your entire playstyle mayhaps but that’s not going to happen on a normal sacrifice so human sacrifice is kind of lame to the gods two sacrifices don’t always yield returns it’s pretty often that players give up expensive neither right then we

Take it to the gods and it’s like yup okay thank you and that’s it then the players get mad at us so don’t do this just because you think you’ll get more stuff out of it three sacrifices are not a means to free stuff if you treat it this way the gods

Are going to be kind of angry at you and they feel justified in with you i’ve seen players have something to sacrifice and they leave it out on a chest at the side of the road labeled for stony i take it and i throw it away because sacrifices are not a roadside

Event it’s not a mailbox you put stuff in and you get free stuff out of when i came back to that particular guy’s town that patch of road was blown up and there was lava falling all over it if you reach out to the gods and they’re not appeased they feel justified in

Punishing you for it four now i am telling you systematically how we deal with sacrifices and now that that is the case everybody is going to be doing them unless it’s a server event the more people who bombard global chat with sacrifice requests the fewer we’ll

Actually get to and the fewer will be rewarded by the gods have you heard of the tragedy of the commons maybe the prisoner’s dilemma both of those are kind of applicable here so yeah please keep your sacrifices in which you want to ensure admin intervention infrequent for special occasions because i have a

Feeling i’m opening a floodgate of players who want to talk to their gods and like with good reason everybody wants to do that but when everybody gets to talk to the gods it’s not it’s not really a special is it that being said please please do not open tickets for

Sacrifices or dm the staff trying to get them online so that they’ll watch over your sacrifices that’s not what these things are here for thank you that’s how you sacrifice to the gods in minecraft obviously i’m pretty turnt about this because i feel i’ve had to deal with a lot of weird

Now if you do it ritualistically as a performance that’s much much cooler honestly and the admins and the gods we love to see that on my patreon i have a little lecture that explains how rituals work in real life hint hint nudge so if you want to get into that

And make the best rituals on the server go for it the largest sacrifice that was ever given to the gods was the entire capital city of the asharian empire if you watched my video on the minecraft religions you’ll already know well about what i’m talking about so good luck beating that

So now let’s assume you have the basics of your religion its thematic logic wiki page temple the holy book they’re all mostly done at this stage players often slow down on purposefully adding new things to the religion sometimes memes and other aspects of the group’s culture can merge

Into the religion but that’s pretty small scale like i said earlier though the religion is an identifying factor of the group so it remains relevant in any struggles that the town undergoes if they get into a war they try to declare independence they have a falling out or

They settle new colonies they may call on their gods and see their religion as a distinguishing factor of their group’s identity after a long time of dealing with the ups and downs of geopol and role play that this server features some of these histories are often recontextualized religiously and i think

That’s awesome a battle that’s won may be attributed to their favorite god some server event may have been fixed by them sacrificing that kind of stuff see what i mean i think this effectively entrenches the religion deeper as a real thing in the group but it also gives it

A reputation among the other players as your group publicly deals with the outside world in a myriad of ways now with that kind of development comes the tricky part growing your religion you have it set up and you have a history since your group has survived

The whole way through a bunch of stuff i imagine you’ve lost some people but gained some people in your town and they’re most likely converts or at least agreeable to your religion especially if they’re newbies but how do you grow your religion outside your own borders to make a cultural influence that isn’t

Based on the people that you control the way i see it there’s five interconnecting parts to this one create lore that is cool fun or interesting many players worship the mystical aspects in minecraft the sun and the moon the void space imaginative dimensions etc others worship more fun

Meme things like the idea of garfield being a god or the boisterous immortal rat king being a disruptive influence on eldom those are fun to be a part of others worship important parts of gameplay kind of like how real religions worship important influential aspects of life in minecraft that would be crops

Animals interesting mobs gemstones etc there’s a religion in rathmere called snoutiality that has pigs as its focal point the three main gods are pig gods so obviously pigs are venerated and you’re not supposed to kill them so long as your pantheon lore mythology and symbols appeal to these kinds of things

And you make it obvious in your presentation of them people won’t be disinterested by your religion two create lore and theology that is easy to understand this is the argument of appealing to a wide base of players and understanding that a lot a lot of people are casual

Observers of the religions on here some religions thrive more off of small exclusive groups that take more effort to be a part of but for example if you look around the server you can see a lot of people worshiping the sun it’s pretty easy to understand the sun is right

There at night monsters come out people are familiar with sun worship and metaphors about light and darkness from real life boom sun god religion spreads because it’s not that hard to explain three grow your political power since religion is a marker of group identity if others want to associate with your group’s

Identity and get closer to you often that happens by them adopting your religion easily the best example of this is soleanine which held a lot of political power and was at the center of a massive web of alliances if you are a very powerful king and people know that

They can get closer to you and assure your support for them by converting to your religion then political power is an extremely potent force for people to want to convert to your religion four contact other people and make your religion’s presence felt this one’s pretty hard to do right honestly in

Order to get people to fully convert to your religion you need to confront them with the religion in a way that they have a positive view of it this could be like having a temple in a populist city sending missionaries out hosting festival parties for everybody to attend

Or sending prayers in the global chat the biggest problem with this is that often when people try it’s really annoying i’ve watched countless players walk up to other and be like wanna read my religion’s holy book and they agree to it and they see that it’s a hundred pages long and they’re like

Nah go away please hosting festivals is probably one of the best options here if you can bring in a bunch of people together and organize a bunch of in-game activities for them like archery horse racing casino games drinking pvp tournaments obstacle courses then you’re good they’ll have

Fun here and that sticks with them and gives you a good reputation so long as it doesn’t fall flat on its face just make sure to tie your religion into it maybe do a big communal sacrifice and the more that the outside players are involved the more receptive they might

Be to the religion literally if you’re lighting a cow on fire to sacrifice let’s say have everybody at the party just run in circles around the fire it’ll seem like they’re a part of it simple but kind of stupid and finally if you’re praying and what’s the word

Evangelizing in chat so people will notice your religion it’ll often be really irritating if you’re spamming being like a radical zealot or not responding well to people criticizing and memeing on you it looks bad on you it takes charisma to evoke a good reaction something that gomph and the

Immortal rat king seem to have had in their chat experiences 5. appeal to other players wants how are you going to entice players to join your religious group over someone else’s how are you going to incentivize them to build your temples and make art for your gods over their own religion that they

Could start i took a poll of my youtube followers subscribe if you want to be part of that sort of thing by the way and here’s what i can generally say that players want oh boy a list inside of a list they want to have basic security to be

Creative and develop something to gain prestige and glory to be valued in a good community to have fun especially in roleplay escapism and to exert control over others players who want some basic security are more likely than not newbies or exiles giving them food a place to store their

Stuff and tools is going to be helpful for them as well as any advice and protection this gives you a good name to them however this can and usually is a stepping stone for them to leave and then go do their own thing so you have

To entice them in some other way too players who want to be creative and develop something can have a hard time as low-level practitioners of a religion since they want to be part of the creative process when was the last time you heard of some bum joe schmoe deciding catholic doctrine just because

He went to church on sunday here in this religion i recommend giving these players some power to do this but obviously not enough that they change the religion’s overarching themes the important gods and values if you did that that would chip away at the unity of the religion perhaps you could set up

A system of saints so that they can come up with their own heroes and divine stories that can be adopted into the religion but are only relevant at a local level maybe you can make your pantheon kind of fluid maybe some gods have avatars and aspects of other gods

That are lower level than them or that they could have minor gods beneath them that the other players can make up maybe you can give them some kind of task to build a temple in their town make some art or do whatever they’re good at to further the religion in a creative way

I’ve seen all of these happen and it usually doesn’t blow up in people’s face maybe once or twice it has it’s definitely not as common though now players who want prestige and glory can also suffer as lowly practitioners if your religion is the hot new thing

Then being a part of it will grant some status of course if it isn’t like most religions then investing a lot of time and resources into your religion can help lavish temples rich sacrifices accumulating artifacts as well as having political backing from powerful states can all give your religion an aura of status

Now this next part for the prestige and glory players also applies to players who want control if your religion is pretty centralized you have a player or a small group of players who run it and they can canonize and make certain doctrines official you could set up a hierarchy of priests bishops and

Cardinals this appeals to players wants for status and control but it also folds them into the structure of your religion so that it benefits them if you do this definitely reward players for their loyalty their devotion and their resources that they give into the religion because that’ll help

Incentivize other players to do the same or for them to keep doing it god i sound like i’m running a pyramid scheme or like a cult am i running a cult for players who want to be valued in a good community first you need to have a good community so fun chill wholesome

Creative people or brutally warlike people i don’t know what this particular player is into second it’s a good idea to have some indication of an in-group and an out group say there’s a town of pumpkin worshippers and they have this social value that if anybody stands on or

Breaks the pumpkins that are in the town square they will attack that person new players to the town will probably make this mistake at one point and be attacked but in doing so they learn the group’s customs and they can turn around and start attacking those who do not

Know and keep standing on the pumpkins having practices like this that take some learning but ingrain them into the community’s culture allows people to feel like they’re on the inside with this group of people which is a nice feeling also doing rituals where only practitioners of the religion are invited also reinforces this

My advice regarding those creative and development-oriented players also applies here if they want to be valued in the community if someone wants to contribute to the religion try to make them feel validated let them to a certain extent make players feel good about being with you and make it feel

Like they’re actually invested in your religion with creative time and resource energy see what i mean now pretty much every player on here wants to have fun we are playing minecraft after all and this is pretty easy to explore but it depends on the player that you’re appealing to you can

Do character-driven role-play you can go out crusading you can host festivals with all those activities that i mentioned earlier basically tie your religion in with these fun activities that players do anyways and it’ll plant a seed in the other players heads that like oh this religion’s a good time

Because i won the archery contest here oh this religion’s dope as hell because it allowed me to go to war with these noobs and take all their stuff if they have such a good time they may want to emulate these activities with others in the same fashion don’t go declaring war

On all the noobs though unless you have political reasons or you’ve registered for the bandit tag i find that the religiously driven players are usually pretty big into role play like that makes sense so creating a cool character for yourself with some cool backstory or some personality traits may be worth it

In terms of expanding your religion and regarding the players who want control i already gave you my only advice there hierarchies make promises of promoting them maybe give them titles if there are special weapons or like a shield or something that you can give them to show they’re a part of the

Religion that would probably work too i think you can see the pattern here set up your religion so that people feel good about being a part of it where you reward their efforts in expanding it and are primarily there to show people a good and rewarding time but also make

Sure you keep a single unifying group identity intact some people deal with this by stomping out other religions in their territory some integrate them some have a pope or like a group of cardinals that can reject certain doctrines and make others official and ignore all the

Ones that kind of need to be in a gray area so that everybody’s happy it’s up to you and how creative your lower gymnastics can be if all goes well outsiders should look on with jealousy at how much fun it is how cool it is to be part of this group

The rituals you’re doing together the titles and the resources that practitioners have make it a good time a new player who isn’t being tied down by founding a town and making their own religion is going to be wondering if your religion is right for them based on

What it seems like it can do for them how much they enjoy interacting with it and the people involved and its reputation around the server now to finish off this section for you good boys and girls who finish my videos here comes the wild card that is incredibly impactful in my experience on

The server there are seemingly random and supernatural events where players are chosen and they undergo revelations from the gods where they witness something super strange some big transformation around them this can take a lot of forms sometimes players don’t notice them sometimes players think that

They can make a lot of money off of it it’s really funny i call it making a profit okay i’ll see my way out anyone who witnesses these revelations or events will hopefully be more drawn to the religion they’re not supposed to supplant a religion’s doctrine but add

On to it it should legitimize the religion’s gods and its tradition if it goes well or it could just be pretty random and people can adopt it if they want to so please do not hesitate to co-opt the supernatural events or oddities that go on around rathnir and eldom as part of

Your religion it’s totally up to you but in my opinion as long as people can see oh that’s weird in minecraft fire isn’t supposed to be literally right on top of water then it helps them to think that there are actually gods on your side because there are

There is no minecraft server that has such a rich deep well of lore culture and world building and it is because of the players who take initiative and find strategic ways to lead and convince others to join them reach out to new people get out of your

Comfort zone go travel as an ecstatic monk in the midst of a trance speaking in tongues seriously this minecraft world is a chance for you to explore the beliefs that you find interesting and there are no consequences for failure except maybe maybe you’ll get a clown emoji here or

There so that is that i hope you learned about how to make a religion in minecraft don’t worship the admins and uh thank you for watching Wow look at all these dope as hell patreon supporters rift ranger xiv alex mitchell tyler hart lee chance morrison kenny vetter sam welch tyler simpson bago fettuccine ben mcfarlane ben snow joseph varen rowan dewitt travis william price ian openshaw rc ace reaper’s mercy You