The Chronists and Musings

The Prompt: "Develop a religion where people worship something that no one would ever worship in our world. And it can’t be silly."

The Chronists are a sect that believe that God lives and experiences time opposite of his creations.  Or in other words, what we see as the past God sees as his future.  All mortal creatures, be they human, bird, fish, cattle, insects, plant life, and even the universal creations such as stars, planets, etc., are constantly heading towards their death and destruction, God is a being that is moving in an opposite direction and is continually building all life towards its purest form.  What we view as the beginning he sees as the end.

The Chronists naturally believe in an afterlife and their eternal rewards are determined by their actions in the here and now.  Those who lived moral lives, passed fair judgment on their fellow creatures, and made charity their chief motivation may receive the knowledge of not only living with God but to experience time as he does.  Those who disdain him will continue on to chaos and utter destruction, even in their incorporeal sense.

Symbols they respect would be the hourglass and the ruler, both measuring instruments that teach them respect for time and to keep their mortal lives organized; the uneven balances, as a reminder that if their lives are weighed down by one thing to make sure that it is the weight is their faith; and the infant, as they represent purity and innocence, where they all wish to be.

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That's as far as I wanted to go with that prompt.  This took about a day to work out in my head.  Creating a completely new religion is tougher than I would have guessed and it's no wonder that fantasy authors generally don't bother planning one out, if they focus on religion at all.  I tried not to make it silly (my criteria: don't make anybody worship a sponge especially since some people in this world actually might) but even I find the concept of the Chronists laughable.

There are elements I like about this, though.  The idea stems from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, with the queen whose memories run backwards or rather, she remembers the future but not the past.  Merlin has a similar thing in T.H. White's The Once and Future King.  So I thought, what about somebody who doesn't just remember things backwards but actually lives backwards from us.

This is not a unique idea.  "Counterclockwise" by Alethea Kontis has a similar theme in Intergalactic Medicine Show (online internet magazine for sci-fi/fantasy; check it out.  The material is great and the price is very reasonable.)  My spin on it was making this an object of worship and I do like what's in it.

Will I make a story out of it?  I don't know yet.  This is just a setting and not a very developed one; I was concerned with the core doctrine and some basic answers to the question of "What's life about?"  I've spent no time at all considering a priesthood or church government, history of its creation, scriptures, mythology, the different sectarian beliefs or how they are treated by outsiders, what missionary work they do, or how much influence they have socially, politically, or economically.  I didn't really want to, although if I do come up with some characters and a plot that uses this setting, I will delve into it a little.

And now you know a little bit how my crazy mind works.  Thanks for reading.