So a while ago I played my first successful Paradox megacampaign in the games Crusader Kings III, Europa Universalis IV, and Victoria 3. In it, I made a custom faith, a religion formed by a fictional Emir Kanafa of Manding, but I never gave a satisfactory ingame explanation of the religion. I worldbuilt it later, but not enough. So I want to worldbuild that now, here.
First of all, though the game called this a form of Islam, it will be clear in the worldbuilding that this faith is its own thing entirely. It’s not even monotheistic.
So the holy language of the faith is Classical Arabic. It is believed by the followers of Kanafa that God, the same god as the Canaanite YHWH or El, the Carthaginian Ba'al Hammon, the Egyptian Ammon, the Greek Kronos, and the Roman Saturn, created heaven, then hell for the wicked, then the earth as a testing ground. He created a partner for himself, the same goddess as the Greek Maia, the Carthaginian Tanit, and the Canaanite Asherah. Maia was equal to El in all ways, and the pair, upon taking the first human forms which they found aesthetically pleasing, had a nonbinary child, Iblis - the same as the Judeo-Christian Satan, the Egyptian Wepwawet, the Greek Hermes, and the Roman Mercury. This nonbinary deity was also intersex, having the top half of a female and the bottom half of a male. This is the faith’s holy trinity - the Father, the Mother, and the Child.
Kanafa’s followers say the three deities loved this form so much that they created not only animals but even an animal in their own image. Half the population would be male, half would be female, and a select few would be intersex. They were a relatively intelligent animal, and a social one, but still mere animals, living in tribal societies with no agriculture and certainly no clothing. The people were happy, and most were virtuous.
But Iblis wanted to see them become something greater, the kings of the animals. So they gave them more intelligence, a supreme amount. But they accidentally made humans prudish, and they began to wear clothes in shame of the bodies that the gods found so beautiful. Men used their strength to dominate women as humanity figured out agriculture and settled society, and the utopia was over, replaced by a patriarchal dystopia in which love meant ownership.
Iblis was horrified, but El did not forgive them. So Iblis was cast out from heaven to be crucified in hell, never to die as they were a deity. Maia was devastated but dared not oppose her husband and sunk to a secondary position.
So El chose the Israelites based in Jerusalem to be his representatives on Earth, going as YHWH. The Israelites failed and were split in two. He then chose Carthage, going as Ba'al Hammon, but they also failed.
Then El had a second child, a demigod son with a human woman in the hopes that he would spread love - Jesus. Raised by humans, he wasn’t perfect, but he did his best until he was crucified. It was then that Maia, seeing El’s failure to protect yet another child, finally had the courage to challenge her husband, making him agree to free Iblis. She finally gave Iblis power and authority equal to their parents. Iblis made hell a temporary place to serve them, to teach the evil to be good… or, if one desired, a permanent place to serve them.
Meanwhile, Jesus founded a church in Rome, but it grew corrupt quickly. El then tried to replace it with a new supreme empire of humanity - creating the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates. But the Umayyads fell in the 1000s.
This, the first holy cities were Jerusalem, Carthage, Rome, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and Cordoba. All of them played a part in guiding humanity, but none of them had truly succeeded - until at last Iblis intervened in the late 1000s and gave visions to Kanafa. Kanafa had his court return to the vision of the gods and shed their clothing. He preached free love as the gods, according to his followers, intended.
Thus, the next holy city was Niani, followed by a return to Cordoba, then London, then a return to Niani, and finally, Djenne. Thus, ten holy cities, the perfect number.
First of all, though the game called this a form of Islam, it will be clear in the worldbuilding that this faith is its own thing entirely. It’s not even monotheistic.
So the holy language of the faith is Classical Arabic. It is believed by the followers of Kanafa that God, the same god as the Canaanite YHWH or El, the Carthaginian Ba'al Hammon, the Egyptian Ammon, the Greek Kronos, and the Roman Saturn, created heaven, then hell for the wicked, then the earth as a testing ground. He created a partner for himself, the same goddess as the Greek Maia, the Carthaginian Tanit, and the Canaanite Asherah. Maia was equal to El in all ways, and the pair, upon taking the first human forms which they found aesthetically pleasing, had a nonbinary child, Iblis - the same as the Judeo-Christian Satan, the Egyptian Wepwawet, the Greek Hermes, and the Roman Mercury. This nonbinary deity was also intersex, having the top half of a female and the bottom half of a male. This is the faith’s holy trinity - the Father, the Mother, and the Child.
Kanafa’s followers say the three deities loved this form so much that they created not only animals but even an animal in their own image. Half the population would be male, half would be female, and a select few would be intersex. They were a relatively intelligent animal, and a social one, but still mere animals, living in tribal societies with no agriculture and certainly no clothing. The people were happy, and most were virtuous.
But Iblis wanted to see them become something greater, the kings of the animals. So they gave them more intelligence, a supreme amount. But they accidentally made humans prudish, and they began to wear clothes in shame of the bodies that the gods found so beautiful. Men used their strength to dominate women as humanity figured out agriculture and settled society, and the utopia was over, replaced by a patriarchal dystopia in which love meant ownership.
Iblis was horrified, but El did not forgive them. So Iblis was cast out from heaven to be crucified in hell, never to die as they were a deity. Maia was devastated but dared not oppose her husband and sunk to a secondary position.
So El chose the Israelites based in Jerusalem to be his representatives on Earth, going as YHWH. The Israelites failed and were split in two. He then chose Carthage, going as Ba'al Hammon, but they also failed.
Then El had a second child, a demigod son with a human woman in the hopes that he would spread love - Jesus. Raised by humans, he wasn’t perfect, but he did his best until he was crucified. It was then that Maia, seeing El’s failure to protect yet another child, finally had the courage to challenge her husband, making him agree to free Iblis. She finally gave Iblis power and authority equal to their parents. Iblis made hell a temporary place to serve them, to teach the evil to be good… or, if one desired, a permanent place to serve them.
Meanwhile, Jesus founded a church in Rome, but it grew corrupt quickly. El then tried to replace it with a new supreme empire of humanity - creating the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates. But the Umayyads fell in the 1000s.
This, the first holy cities were Jerusalem, Carthage, Rome, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and Cordoba. All of them played a part in guiding humanity, but none of them had truly succeeded - until at last Iblis intervened in the late 1000s and gave visions to Kanafa. Kanafa had his court return to the vision of the gods and shed their clothing. He preached free love as the gods, according to his followers, intended.
Thus, the next holy city was Niani, followed by a return to Cordoba, then London, then a return to Niani, and finally, Djenne. Thus, ten holy cities, the perfect number.
