Need help developing a christian-myth alt fantasy world

[Johonebesus]

Fleshing out the habits and lifestyles of the people in the Roman Empire, are Christians going to stick by the Friday-Saturday sabbath? How much of the Jewish law is Jesus really going to turn over? Because if Jesus really was a Jew, then he would follow kashrut laws. That would restrict what your Christian characters would eat on their travels. And how they act.

On the other hand, most Jewish taboos had to do with marking the Jews as YHWH's people. If Jesus is fighting the God of Abraham, why would he enforce His taboos and holiness laws?

[pieman3141]

One last correction on the China naming scheme.

Zhongyuan is a region in China, near Beijing and ending somewhere west of Xi'an/Chang'an. It means Central Plains.

The official name for China that the Chinese use often reflects the dynastic name. Thus, in 1000 AD, it would be the Song Empire. In 1428 AD, the Ming Emp., etc. The name "China" is a Western-derived name. The most common generic name for China would be "Zhongguo*1," or Central/Middle Kingdom/Empire. Thus, you have the Zhonghua Renmin Gonghe Guo*2 (Chinese People's Communist.. State? or more officially, the PRC)*3 currently ruling Mainland China, and Zhonghua Minguo (ROC) ruling Taiwan.

*1 Zhong, when said in the first tone, can mean central or middle, depending on the context. "Middle Kingdom" isn't quite the most accurate translation. All of the zhong's used in this post use the same Chinese character.

*2 Guo can mean state, empire, country, kingdom, or any independent polity. Another word is added to specify what kind of polity. Di4 guo means empire, wang2 guo means kingdom, etc. Again, all of the guo's used in this post use the same Chinese character.

*3 My own translation of the Chinese name for the PRC. CPCS is a cooler acronym than PRC, IMO.

[Rye]

Fleshing out the habits and lifestyles of the people in the Roman Empire, are Christians going to stick by the Friday-Saturday sabbath? How much of the Jewish law is Jesus really going to turn over? Because if Jesus really was a Jew, then he would follow kashrut laws. That would restrict what your Christian characters would eat on their travels. And how they act.

On the other hand, most Jewish taboos had to do with marking the Jews as YHWH's people. If Jesus is fighting the God of Abraham, why would he enforce His taboos and holiness laws?

Yeah, plus Jesus went against kashrut anyway with that part about "what goes into your mouth can't make you unclean, only what comes out of it."

[Academia Nut]

Yeah, plus Jesus went against kashrut anyway with that part about "what goes into your mouth can't make you unclean, only what comes out of it."

So swallow, don't spit?

More seriously, if you want a good material for beating up on angels and want to keep the iron angle without falling into the obvious problem of iron being rather abundant, perhaps meteoric iron? Maybe the lower ranked angels that followed Jesus could be harmed by regular iron, or maybe only blessed iron or the like, but if you want to take down one of the big fuckers you need rarer stuff. Meteoric iron is relatively rare and has the whole fell from heaven vibe to it to boot.

[Rye]

Yeah, plus Jesus went against kashrut anyway with that part about "what goes into your mouth can't make you unclean, only what comes out of it."

So swallow, don't spit?

That's precisely what I said to emperorsolo on sb.com and got warned for it!

More seriously, if you want a good material for beating up on angels and want to keep the iron angle without falling into the obvious problem of iron being rather abundant, perhaps meteoric iron? Maybe the lower ranked angels that followed Jesus could be harmed by regular iron, or maybe only blessed iron or the like, but if you want to take down one of the big fuckers you need rarer stuff. Meteoric iron is relatively rare and has the whole fell from heaven vibe to it to boot.

I would go with the blessings angle. Works well in the 40k setting, would work well here with similar constraints on everything.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The problem with blessed metals hurting angels is (to me) at least that you've got divine vs. divine. Blessed metal should do well against demons, but I think for angels it might be necessary to go a step beyond blessings and use 'imbued with power'. What I mean by that is that a high-ranking angel or Jesus or God themselves would have to put a portion of their power into the weapon personally, and that power would then reside there as a sort of battery.

Meteoric iron is also a really good idea, it will definitely have a place there. I'm actually slowly accumulating a private collection of meteoric iron to one day have a weapon made from it.

[Academia Nut]

I was thinking, since silver has been regarded as a ward against evil for a long time it demands being worked in some how, and the whole precedent of iron chariots seems to also be useful, perhaps iron can still work against angels, it just needs to be special iron. Specifically, I'm thinking high strength tempered steel, ie. steel that has been subjected to extremely high heat, ie. hellfire.

Thus you would have the angels on one side with their gleaming silver weapons, and the demons on the other side with their warped and rainbow banded tempered steel, weapons that chip and shatter easily, causing ragged wounds and leaving shards to cause festering and infection. Mortals who wish to replicate such weapons have to push the limits of their technology to get the fires hot enough and to maintain the weapon long enough for it to see even one fight. Meteoric iron, having already been touched by heaven and superheated in its plummet to Earth, is by far the best material a mortal can get their hands on as they do not need to subject the metal to such thermal stresses and can thus make an actual, good quality weapon.

Sound good?

[Knife]

The gnostics are the 'freedom fighters' of my world. They use mysticism and magic to strike back against the forces of Jesus and his angels. Much of their stuff is being powered by the Holy Spirit, who is secretly helping them in an attempt to weaken Jesus and reunite the Godhead.

Then you might as well toss in the nyphlem in there too. If gnostics are the 'rebels' then you could have the holy ghost leading a counter revolution with the son's of man and angles. A by line about the angles of God and even Jesus, hell even Samiel, being by humans so much that sometimes one of them gets it one with a human and their children wander aimlessly through the carngage of earth until the Holy Ghost picks them up and shows them what they are, for his/her own army type thing.

[Knife]

The problem with blessed metals hurting angels is (to me) at least that you've got divine vs. divine. Blessed metal should do well against demons, but I think for angels it might be necessary to go a step beyond blessings and use 'imbued with power'.

Sorry for the double post;

A demon should only be an angel that followed the Morning Star in rebellion against God. Hence an angel and as vulnerable as the rest of them in one way or another. So if it kills a demon, it should kill an angel.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Actually, demons and fallen angels are two different things. According to dogma, when God created angels they were given a one-time choice without the possibility of ever repenting. Those who didn't choose God became demons. At a later time, the Morningstar led the rebellion in heaven, and a third part of the angels (not a numerical third, mind) were cast out. They are able to rule over the demons, as they are/were closer to God for longer.

I take your point, though, about the nephilim. Those are a good possible creature for the universe.

[Darth Fanboy]

So what will Joseph Smith do in Utah?

[CaptainChewbacca]

So what will Joseph Smith do in Utah?

Given the story is set in the year 1000 A.N. (anno nacie) I think he will continue to not exist for another eight centuries.