Research on the religion of the islands of Lilliput and Blefuscu

[Civil War Bugle]

Scientists, scholars, and others have taken a great interest in the islands of the tiny people since their discovery near the beginning of the 18th century. An influential volume written by the individual who first made contact with them was published in 1726¹, and has been dominant in views of their society among the general public and, for a long period of time, among academics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that, due to the circumstances and nature of the initial researcher's time among the Lilliputians, his account was not as full and accurate as hypothetically possible. Naturally, his early scholarship did not benefit from the standards which contemporary social scientists and academic theologians and scholars of religion would apply, given that he worked prior to the development of modern standards. More importantly, he was an individual trained in medicine rather than even the academic standards of the day for the predecessors of modern social science and religious study; he was placed in a situation alien to his upbringing in both language and culture, and while seemingly attempting in good faith to relay his findings, he was untrained in the most relevant methodologies available. And, perhaps most importantly, the circumstances of his arrival in Lilliput mean that he was at times overtly and at all times practically speaking a captive of the political regime dominant in Lilliput at the time of his presence there. This captivity, in conjunction with the considerations mentioned above, meant that he had both limited information and limited ability to interpret and contextualize that information.

Now that new information has become increasingly available, funders² have kindly enabled more detailed research into the religious beliefs of the tiny people. Our aim is to organize and present this information for a lay western audience unfamiliar with sources other than L. Gulliver's original treatise, and we intend to provide regular updates on this topic as they become available from our researchers.

¹See generally L. Gulliver, A Voyage to Lilliput, Motte Printing House, 1726.
²Our thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Estate of Joan Kroc.

[Civil War Bugle]

Meta

This thread is intended to serve as a public presentation of a religion I am creating after having read Zompist's religion construction kit and certain other items. I am primarily interested in developing the religion qua the religion, and am using the setting mentioned in the first post largely as a narrative hook. I had been interested in placing my fictional religion in the real world, fictionally speaking since I intend this project to be creative rather than actually religious, but have not yet developed enough of a conculture to place the religion into; thus, I am framing it around something which already has been described but where I can claim the previous descriptions were wrong in some important way. Since right now my focus is on the religion, I feel I can modify it later as needed if I use it for a conculture or other setting.
I will be gradually posting information about myths, religious organization, practices, theology, and other similar topics in this thread. I hope you enjoy.

[Raphael]

Sounds fun and interesting! I especially like the list of grant-givers.

[Civil War Bugle]

Overview

The religious system of the tiny people is largely divided into two broad and separate spheres, the royal rites and the popular rites. Each focuses on different gods, has different purposes, serves different justifications, although there is some institutional overlap in the form of the colleges of monks and their allied lay associations. The king of Lilliput is held to be maintained in office by virtue of the mandate of Flimresh¹, the protector of penguins and thus by proxy the god of the sea; the emperor of Blefuscu is supported instead by Colmin². Flimresh has some following outside the royal cult but is of much lesser importance there, and Colmin has almost no following except within the royal cult; their roles within the royal cults are almost entirely for legitimizing the royal family and for predicting the future.
Outside the royal context, the gods are seen more as explanations of aspects of the world and creation than as targets of worship. The fact that Golam created crops via sexual congress with a flock of birds, for example, may be cited as the explanation for the rituals of the spring planting, but Golam is not mentioned in these rituals and in no way is he held to promote or inhibit crop growth after a well- or poorly performed ritual.
In essence, popular religion is focused on ritual activity which either induces some ecstatic experience or is oriented around some family or community oriented act, such as marriage, remembrance of the dead, or passage through different stages of life. These rituals are not ontologically required, merely useful or desirable for their intended purposes. The rituals are, however, probably the most important aspect of religion. Golam, Flimresh, Colmin, and their fellow deities may be largely ignored except as the topics of stories, and the rites they initiated may be for practical purposes rather than to promote something like salvation, but the rites are viewed as the very glue which binds society together. The eggs used in the royal cult are a major metaphor - if the fetus within is deformed, it bodes ill for society. Likewise if a ritual is not carried out correctly, it points to some ill effect in a person's character, even if the person could have chosen to avoid the ritual for valid reasons - the person must have some error inside his metaphorical shell. The orders of monks and the fraternal organizations which surround them, with their hoop and rope games, are major influences in the preservation of the rites and promotion of knowledge about them, As we advance further in this treatise, we will be exploring all these things in more depth.


¹'Strengthens-Wing'
²Literally an archaic form of 'Green', but used as a name for Jupiter.

[Civil War Bugle]

Sounds fun and interesting! I especially like the list of grant-givers.

Thanks! Somehow I am amused by the idea of funding for this 'research'.

[Glenn]

I am enjoying this so far; the overall flavor reminds me of what I have heard about ancient Roman religion.

Sounds fun and interesting! I especially like the list of grant-givers.

Thanks! Somehow I am amused by the idea of funding for this 'research'.

The list of funders sounds very much like the list one typically hears thanked for programs on NPR.

[Civil War Bugle]

I am enjoying this so far; the overall flavor reminds me of what I have heard about ancient Roman religion.

Thanks!

Sounds fun and interesting! I especially like the list of grant-givers.

Thanks! Somehow I am amused by the idea of funding for this 'research'.

The list of funders sounds very much like the list one typically hears thanked for programs on NPR.
[/quote]

Weird how that happens.

[Lērisama]

I am enjoying this so far; the overall flavor reminds me of what I have heard about ancient Roman religion.

This says it better than I would; I am enjoying this, and it does remind of Roan religion slightly. I am eagerly awaiting new research on the origin and nature of the little-/big-endian schism. From Gulliver 1726, I'd assume it was first political and then retroactively justified with religion, but I would love to hear a more modern take on this. Please don't feel rushed or anything; I am perfectly happy waiting, and would still enjoy it even if that were beyond the scope of your research

[Civil War Bugle]

I am enjoying this so far; the overall flavor reminds me of what I have heard about ancient Roman religion.

This says it better than I would; I am enjoying this, and it does remind of Roan religion slightly. I am eagerly awaiting new research on the origin and nature of the little-/big-endian schism. From Gulliver 1726, I'd assume it was first political and then retroactively justified with religion, but I would love to hear a more modern take on this. Please don't feel rushed or anything; I am perfectly happy waiting, and would still enjoy it even if that were beyond the scope of your research

Research has not yet fully indicated the details of this but we may learn more in the future. And thanks for your patience; I’m unsure how rapidly I will be posting updates, as the semester at my school is beginning, with uncertain impacts on research speed.

[sasasha]

This is really fun and I'm looking forward to reading more! Thanks to the funders for generously making this possible.

[Civil War Bugle]

This is really fun and I'm looking forward to reading more! Thanks to the funders for generously making this possible.

Glad you're enjoying it! The current research is focusing on the colleges of monks and we have elucidated many interesting details about them. I have begun to draft a post on this topic which I hope to post tomorrow evening or on Sunday.

[Civil War Bugle]

The previous estimate was woefully wide of the mark, due to a loss of research funding. We are currently working on obtaining new grants and hope to resume posting soon, thanks to having a new degree and thus ability to obtain funds available for post-doctoral researchers. Please be alert that new posts may be arriving soon if grantwriting is successful.

[Civil War Bugle]

Today, we will be discussing the monastic colleges. These organizations are the backbone of institutionalized religion, such as it is, on the islands. Some of their practices are among those most remarked upon in early scholarly reports, namely, the acrobatic use of hoops and ropes for ecstatic and divinatory purposes (divination will be discussed in more detail at another time). The colleges contain two classes, the priests (one of the few groups in tiny society who overtly pay homage to the gods as such) and lay monks, who are by far more numerous. Priests remain in a college indefinitely after ordination, and practically speaking, can only be removed for gross misconduct. Lay monks ordinarily take vows to remain with a given college for some specified time, conventionally four lunar years. However, this period is merely customary and can be set to whatever period of months* may be agreed upon by a college and a specific candidate at the time he takes his vows. There is nothing barring a monk from renewing for an additional period at the expiration of his vow.

The practices of those who reside in the monasteries can be divided into essentially two types, the ecstatic and the meditative. (I include the priestly dealings with the gods in the second category; as previously mentioned, this is one of the rare cases where gods serve as more than a story-telling element.) We begin with ecstatic experience, because it is more variable between differing institutions. The most famous monastic practice is, of course, acrobatics. Although not a majority, the single largest fraction of monasteries, about 40%, engage in this. Its primary purpose is to instill a feeling of connection with the supernatural - the focus required to engage in the highly physical activies often is described as inducing delerium by those who discuss their mental state after the fact. Much training is devoted to rope-walking, as it is perhaps the most dangerous of the practices in this category. A rope is tied between two high points in some area considered fit for the purpose. Ideally the rope is tied between two trees, but any place with a view of trees, or, metaphorically, a view of something with the green tone of the olive tree prevalent in the two islands is acceptable. (Colors are highly symbolically important but will be discussed at another time.) Once a monk has progressed to the point of being able to maintain balance on the rope, he begins working on the leaps which so impressed early reporters. The ultimate goal is to be able to jump, spin in the air, and land back upon the rope without falling and ready to continue leaping. While leaping, the monk is to focus on the mental image of green, or of the color assigned him at his coming-of-age ceremony (also discussed later.) Jumping sessions typically last somewhat over an hour, possibly up to an hour and a half, at a time, depending on how a given institution chooses to schedule it among the various activities which the institution engages in.

The other primary ecstatic practice is common among about 1/3 of monasteries, and consists of ritual chanting and dancing. This practice was not directly mentioned in the earliest reports of the society of the tiny people, although it has some correlations with other religious practices and views which were briefly described in the most famous of the earliest reports. There is no doctrinal reason that monastic colleges cannot practice both types of ecstatic practice, and some practice both, but the ritual dance and chant is more commn in Blefuscu and the southern parts of Lilliput, while acrobatics, which is believed to be the older practice, is mostly uniform in its geographic distribution. Each monastery which regularly practices dance and chant has its own specific form, but the forms can be broadly grouped into two lineages, the penguin egg lineage and the emu egg lineage. Groups in the penguin egg lineage typically use pentatonal harmonies in their chant, while emu egg lineages use a heptatonic scale. Penguin egg chants tend to be praise anthems to deities, natural features, or prominent individuals, but references are almost always held to be metaphorical, and there is an extensive literature of pamphlets aimed at the laity explaining the meaning of various metaphors. These pamphlets generally contradict each other, and an analysis of how they do so is beyond the scope of this research project. When asked about the intended metaphorical meanings of the chants, monks of the penguin lineage usually redirect to another topic. It is presumed that monastic leadership considers the metaphorical meaning to have an esoteric meaning inappropriate to share with those who have not undergone initiation into the particular monastery in question.
The emu egg chants are almost entirely nature-focused, usually based on prominent geological features of the area near a given monastery or of some animal considered especially typical of the local area. Monks are much more overt about the metaphorical meaning of their chants - they hold that there is none, and that any seemingly symbolic content is merely a fig leaf protecting the spiritual sensibility of the monk while he attempts to reach the trance state which is the stated goal of all monasteries practicing dance and chant.

Other practices of the monasteries are more variable and generally depend on the particular history and traditions of any given institution. Many involve the smoking or ingestion of herbs, but there is little commonality between these practices. The specific herb in question varies widely, from the hallucinogenic to the merely invigourating (several plants in the camillia taxonomic family are common in the tiny islands and have very high caffeine content) and the specific uses to which they are put vary even more widely.



*The tiny people use a lunisolar calendar, which I may refer to as a lunar calendar from time to time as a convenience. The new year is dated from the day after the spring equinox, and a leap month is inserted periodically when directed by a high-ranking religious official. In Lilliput, this is the chief priest of Golam, while in Blefuscu, the duty falls to a particular priest of Colmin, the Bearer of the Green Thread. This has the effect that the date differs in each of the two realms, since the two priests are not obliged to coordinate with each other. Currently, the date in Lilliput is 11 days behind the date in Blefuscu.

[Raphael]

Fascinating!

*The tiny people use a lunisolar calendar, which I may refer to as a lunar calendar from time to time as a convenience. The new year is dated from the day after the spring equinox, and a leap month is inserted periodically when directed by a high-ranking religious official. In Lilliput, this is the chief priest of Golam, while in Blefuscu, the duty falls to a particular priest of Colmin, the Bearer of the Green Thread. This has the effect that the date differs in each of the two realms, since the two priests are not obliged to coordinate with each other. Currently, the date in Lilliput is 11 days behind the date in Blefuscu.

Not sure about this. If the calendar is lunisolar, and the only discretion the priests have is to insert a leap month, shouldn't any calendar differences have the length of a month, or perhaps several months?

[Civil War Bugle]

Fascinating!

*The tiny people use a lunisolar calendar, which I may refer to as a lunar calendar from time to time as a convenience. The new year is dated from the day after the spring equinox, and a leap month is inserted periodically when directed by a high-ranking religious official. In Lilliput, this is the chief priest of Golam, while in Blefuscu, the duty falls to a particular priest of Colmin, the Bearer of the Green Thread. This has the effect that the date differs in each of the two realms, since the two priests are not obliged to coordinate with each other. Currently, the date in Lilliput is 11 days behind the date in Blefuscu.

Not sure about this. If the calendar is lunisolar, and the only discretion the priests have is to insert a leap month, shouldn't any calendar differences have the length of a month, or perhaps several months?

The real answer: I messed up.
The in-universe answer: One of the priests screwed up for political reasons and added a funky month one time.

[Raphael]

Not sure about this. If the calendar is lunisolar, and the only discretion the priests have is to insert a leap month, shouldn't any calendar differences have the length of a month, or perhaps several months?

The real answer: I messed up.
The in-universe answer: One of the priests screwed up for political reasons and added a funky month one time.

Thank you! Don't let me discourage you!

[Civil War Bugle]

As previously noted, the gods are less important in the religion of the tiny people than they are in some other religions. However, it will likely be useful for the audience to have more information about the gods, in order to contextualize other material presented in this thread. Therefore, we will present a brief overview of divine beings in the religious life of the tiny people.

There are three broad categories of deities - broadly speaking, the natural deities, the domestic deities, and the gaseous deities. These categories are broadly thematic, in a very general sense. The division is old, and has roots in both traditional theological discussion and academic scholarship, but is conceded to be arbitrary by all commentators. The categorical division is basically a sorting device for the aid of those who wish to comment on religious affairs. The number of gods is large, and we will cover the most important ones here, in a somewhat expeditious fashion. More detailed accounts of myths or other relevant material will be presented as needed in future updates - this post is an overview discussing the names and identities of major gods and some interesting facts about them.

The natural deities
This thematic category covers the deities who have some important or striking connection with the natural world.

Flimresh (Strengthens-Wing) is strongly associated, metaphorically and in myth, with penguins and the collection of eggs as food. He was born as the result of a romantic union between an octopus and a butterfly, enabling him to transcend the border between the land and the depths of the ocean. Inheriting elements from both of his parents but not wholly resembling either of them, he left (or was abandoned by) his parents and gathered together a group of penguins who, like him, combined elements of both swimming and flight. His mentorship to the penguins allowed them to prosper, and he exacted as his due the right to eat their eggs, selecting and preparing one in forty nine as his divine due. The mythos is ambiguous as to whether he is strongly protective of the penguins, or whether his seeming protection is a fig leaf for exploitation. He has by extension become the protector of seagoers and sailors. Because the tiny people reside in an archipelago, he has been a popular deity and the political class in Lilliput has appropriated him as the protector of the state.

Colmin (Green) is in essence the sky deity. She is associated with Jupiter. His parents are the wind and the ocean - one evening, the wind blew from the land towards the sea, and carried a branch from a tree on the shore into the water. When the branch hit the water, the wind's action helped it produce foam, and Colmin appeared shortly afterwards as a result. The wind carried her up into the air, where she seized an albatross to ride. She now peers down at the world and sends esoteric messages via the movement of the stars, moon, comets, and so forth. Colmin is most widely referred to with female pronouns, but is considered to be both male and female. In many contexts, male pronouns also will be used.

Golam (Male-Goat) appears in myths connected with animals and plants, but also in myths connected with alcohol, and is more strongly associated with the latter. He has no origin story, and his mythos is perhaps too broad to characterize more than it has been here, without providing specific myths. As previously mentioned, he is held to have given rise to crops and horticulture, but is not widely invoked in connection with agriculture in any way.

Clefrin (Wine-sweet) is the lunar deity, so to speak. Clefrin resides in the sky with Colmin and is in turn pleased or displeased with Colmin, accounting for the lunar cycle. Clefrin is strongly associated with the planting season in agriculture and in consequence with the calendar, or perhaps vice versa, and most of his myths, beyond the basic accounts of his disputes and reconciliations with Colmin, are fundamentally agricultural. (Clefrin's name has a literal meaning but the term wine-sweet idiomatically refers to a particular flavor common in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and some dessert foods, rather than being taken literally. The history of the name as attached to the god is unclear.)

Recral (Columnar Basalt) is a somewhat unusual god, connected with certain things still poorly understood about the tiny islands. He is a mercurial and temperamental god, unpleasant to deal with, and is commonly the figure supplied in any myth where an antagonist is needed (although Golam also frequently appears in variants of the same stories; the focus on one of these gods over the other in any given story is correlated with region, weakly, with Golam being more prominent in Blefuscu in general.) Recral is, however, chiefly known for his role in the eponymous mythological account of the migration of the tiny people to their current home from a place across the sea. He is associated with lava and volcanic activity in the story, something which features not at all elsewhere in the mythos or culture of the tiny people. He possessed a pair of shoes, described in differing ways in different parts of the narrative, with higher or lower heels and various decorative styles, which enabled him to walk on lava and water, and would do battle with other gods to compete for the role of patron of the tiny people. The geological history of Lilliput and Blefuscu has not been well-studied - it has some outcroppings of basalt, principally columnar basalt, but the islands have not had active volcanic activity in living or historical memory, and what geological studies have been done make the exact origin of the basalt unclear. It is commonly but not universally supposed that the tiny people migrated to their current area from New Zealand, with estimates of timing ranging from 1500 to 2500 years ago. If true, this would partially explain details contained in the Brundrecral, which has been compiled into a canonical volume believed to have been collated from multiple variant stories.


The domestic deities

These beings are chiefly known for their favorite activity (readily induced if not directly named in the descriptions below), and have few personality traits beyond a fondness for said activity. Legends about them are widespread but depictions of a given god in the stories are about as consistent as western depictions of Santa Claus. The figures are popularly held to have a protective role in the abstract and small household shrines will be constructed to them, with token offerings given... the population is also perfectly willing to treat them as the target of fun, however. Usually, holidays will be associated with one or more of these gods.

Galbet (Emu egg) is the protector of the curtilage and the household garden, with occasional extension to the domestic animals less likely to be kept in the home. She is most strongly emphasized (to the extent that any god is emphasized) in rural areas and in the interior of the islands.

Balcon (Red Ochre) is the patroness of sweet foods, and her spouse Phona (Arrowhead) the patron of savory foods. They reign over the kitchen and are especially associated with the festivities of the new year.

Lan (Slumber), the dreamer, who is also more generally associated with the bedroom and other similarly private areas of the household and their private activities. He is taken most seriously of these gods, as some practitioners of the tiny people's religion place the reenactment of dreams in high importance.

Dendo (Horse) patronizes equine activities and also partakes in blacksmithing and similar crafts, most saliently but not exclusively in connection with horseshoes and other horse-related items.

The gaseous deities
This is a conventional phrase originating among the clergy. These deities are exclusively the province of the monks, and, strictly speaking, may not be discussed outside monastic contexts, although academic discussion is grudgingly ignored by the monks if done in a respectful way. It is quite clear that the name originates from the monastery of Blefmil, which is at the site of natural gas wells and which specializes in hallucinogenic ecstatic experiences.

Flimnap (Strong-Will) is the prophetic guide who is chiefly responsible for fortunetelling as a whole. He created time and is its master; prediction of the future would be impossible without his careful design of time.

Gurdilo (Frog-sweat) is the illuminator. He created light and is the one who enables humans to see, in both the literal sense and insofar that his majestic luminescence is the background against which we have religious visions. The name comes from the fact that secretions from the slickback frog (Lymnodynastes Blefuscensis) are used in some of the monasteries to induce visions.

Frelock (Milk) is a maternal deity. The exact details of her maternal nature vary by monastery, but broadly she is either seen as the mother of the gods generally or of plant life. In either case, it is emphasized that her status as mother gives her abilities in shaping the future, for all that Flimnap is its creator, and she is given a high status in fortunetelling.

Marsito (Huntress) is a quest-giver commonly encountered in ecstatic experiences. Accounts of her vary widely.

Evlame (Octopus) is the sister of the ocean, and is portrayed as a figure of extreme calm, of extreme peace, but also of extreme danger. Sometimes one can find deep truths or images of the future reflected in her eyes but sometimes the images are misleading... usually due to some method in which humans commonly delude themselves, such as wishful thinking or lack of perspective.

Flestrin (embodiment of the mountain) is a genderless being who appears principally to those meditating at certain monasteries or temples near one of the hills in the central regions of Lilliput and Blefuscu. This being knows the secrets of all those who encounter the deity, and is alleged to share profound insights. Many names of persons and deities have transparent meanings; Flestrin is one term referring to a deity where the transparent meaning is somewhat stronger in everyday speech than its status as a name, as most people construe it as something closer to a title for the god than as a name. It can also refer to ordinary people or animals, usually those who can metaphorically be analogized to mountains - indeed, it is among the first words reported from the Lilliputian language, by L. Gulliver himself for reasons which might be guessed even by those who have not read his work.

[Civil War Bugle]

Thank you! Don't let me discourage you!

Not a problem - I'm working on this sporadically when commitments in my personal life allow me to, so it's possible for mistakes to creep in as a result.

[Glenn]

I found the descriptions of the gods very interesting; I liked that, while they are somewhat reminiscent of, e.g., Greek or Roman gods or pre-Christian Slavic deities, they have their own quirks and avoid falling into the simpler stereotypes associated with a sky god, a sea god, etc. (I did find the story of Flimresh and the penguins a bit disturbing, which I suspect was the point.)

[Civil War Bugle]

I found the descriptions of the gods very interesting; I liked that, while they are somewhat reminiscent of, e.g., Greek or Roman gods or pre-Christian Slavic deities, they have their own quirks and avoid falling into the simpler stereotypes associated with a sky god, a sea god, etc. (I did find the story of Flimresh and the penguins a bit disturbing, which I suspect was the point.)

My general feeling is that a lot of religions contain things which, superficially or not, can seem disturbing to outsiders, or sometimes even insiders.

I have been gradually developing the next post, on the state cults. I will be taking the bar exam at the end of the month, and I am unsure if I will be posting this new segment before or after the exam, but it is in the process of being developed, in any case.