From: Paul C Duggan <pduggan at world.std.com>
<<What about the detail (IIRC) in the Long Sun that the religion of the Whorl "parodied" that of the state religion at the time of Typhon? Does that indicate a kind of connection to christianity ("sign of addition", minimally)?>>
If you look at the features of the Vironese faith, it has only a tenuous connection to Christianity. Some of its features compared to Christian ones:
--Vironism-- --Christianity--
polytheistic monotheistic
animal sacrifice no
human sacrifice (only recently abolished) no
reading of entrails no
theophany as major element no, but visions have been important confession and forgiveness confession and forgiveness sign of cross sign of addition
Really, Vironism resembles nothing so much as the Roman religion, a syncretic popular religion based primarily on the original Roman polytheism, but open to any cult with a popular following. Had Christianity exhibited a willingness to sacrifice to the Emperor, it probably would have been absorbed into the Roman religious "marketplace." Popular Roman religious practice has to be distinguished from the state religion, which was conservative and focused more on the old (pre-Greek-borrowings) Italian (Latin? Etruscan?) deities, such as the Lares and Penates, the Bona Dea, and so on. In Viron, Jehovah (or is it Allah?) has been absorbed as the "Outsider."
The Romans as individuals were into Isis, Mithras, mystery cults, and so on, all of which were grafted onto the original pantheon. This is not unlike Hindu syncretism as well.
In any case, the religions of the Whorl appear to all be parodies of Urth (or rather, Earth) religions, sometimes with a sting or joke attached. Triviguante's religion and culture are parodies of Arab culture and religion with the sexes swapped, for example. The religion of Gaon (in On Blue's Waters) appears to be more-or-less a parody of Hinduism.
Pas/Typhon did this on purpose to divide the inhabitants of the Whorl.
In short, we can deduce little or nothing about the religion(s) of Urth from those of the Whorl.
-- Dave Lebling
(aka vizcacha)