Last week I began my series on the
art of world-building: a project focused on promoting world-building artists
outside of mainstream speculative fiction who have inspired me. World-building
has inherent value to the fan of fantasy or science fiction, and much of it is
overlooked because it isn’t attached to a commercial product that can reach a
mass audience. There are a variety of artists creating fascinating worlds on
the internet, many of which I have connected with on Deviant Art. The second
artist I want to explore is the art of Vincent Coviello, otherwise known by
V4m2c4. Specifically, I want to focus on his Earth Religions Beyond the Milky Way series.
This series brings together two of
my favorite topics: aliens and religion. While aliens are iconic to science
fiction, religion is a topic often looked down upon by the genre, if not
overlooked entirely. But for all the technological and scientific progress that
has been made within modern history, religion remains a dominating and
inspiring aspect of contemporary culture. Though religion may often appear
threatened by such progress and adopt of hostile disposition towards it, religions
nevertheless endure and some even incorporate rational calculation and
scientific consensus into their theologies. Projecting this dynamic into the
speculative future imagined by science fiction, and it is entirely possible, if
not probable, that we will take our religions with us to distant stars. They
may even be the inspiration to the faithful to make the journey, if only to
convert sentient alien life on planets beyond our solar system.
This is the basis of Vincent’s
series: imagining the intersection of alien biology and culture with religious conversion to the Terran cults of the space colonists they encounter. Each
artwork is a juxtaposition of familiar religious inconography with alien biologies
radically divergent from the conformting familiarity of our own humanity. This accentuates the alien quality, the
absolute and transcendent otherness, of
the religious imagination itself. Religions imagine the impossible as not
merely possible, but as eschatologically inevitable; believing devoutly in what
much of fantasy postulates for mere creative entertainment. Thus the project
appears to be not merely a projection of human religions onto aliens but also,
and more crucially, displays the strangeness within religion itself. These are
alien interpretations of our terrestrial theologies but they also reveal how
alien our own theological ideologies are to our humanity. Do not the strongly religious
among our own species show patterns of thought often utterly alien to those
outside of their community? The adoption of human religions among alien species is an argument that not only humanizes the alien but also de-humanizes theology, making it transcend association with any finite species and opening itself up to the infinite possibilities inherent in the divine.
Below is an image of each imagined race and their
adopted religion, with a brief synopsis and a link included to the original
material. Thus far he has only imagined Christian, Buddhist and Islamic alien
communities, but I hope that he will return to the project and imagine other combinations
of religious and alien culture. Please check out the rest of his amazing artwork, much of which I expect to return to in the future. And yes, Vincent is
the same artist I was fortunate enough to be able to commission to provide
the amazing new header graphic for my blog: a critical debate between an
eldritch being, a fantastic fae, and an alien creature. This not only captures
the eclectic interests and critical perspective of my blog but also displays
Vincent’s range of skill as an artist appealing to the speculative fiction
community.
"Christianity and Jesus became a
fertility based faith and deity. When a female is with child she will be marked
with the Ichthys emblem, signifying her transition to Dominas. When the male
child is born he is deemed the “Christ child.” . She will be considered the
mother of god and will reign with her son along side the clergical court. With
the death of her son she will return to a lay position, though always seen as
blessed. Jesus’ crucifixion mirrors the male child’s sacrifice. While prized
and revered throughout his short life the male’s sole purpose is to repopulate
the Kristraseen race with a fresh strain of offspring. Though rare, multiple
sons have been born during a birthing cycle. If the case, the other sons will
be considered apostles and will also populate along side the god son. A single
female can reproduce more than one male throughout her life and if so she will
become part of the permanent clergical court and will advise the new king and
mother. While the bible is considered the holy book, only the clergical court
and reigning family has access. While the Kristraseen bible has many
similarities to the earth bible, a lot of stories are deemed unnecessary and
invaluable to the race."
"Coshum by nature are hermaphrodites, a fact originally unknown to
the Islamic leaders and Imans. Yet once a method of gender identification and
classification was established, all be it inaccurate, “males” were sent to
learn from Imans. When missionaries began enforcing strict gender rules, roles,
codes and conducts there was a great deal of confusion. Categorized male Coshum
would next day be exhibiting what was believed to be female roles and
mannerisms. Once completely understood, Islamic law was eager to rectify the
believed to be impure behavior. This free wielding sexuality was deemed an
abomination and was strictly prohibited by force. While many did comply to
identifying with a singular gender a “third gender” did appear. This third gender
continued to practice the indigenous ideologies and hermaphroditeism. Most third genders still play a vital role in society as they are the only ones equip with
indigenous knowledge, such as medicine. Worshipping towards Mecca was
established quite early and the problem of accurately facing Mecca was
rectified through the celestial astrolabe. This piece of machinery is capable
of locating Mecca across the galaxy, pin pointing the exact location of
devotion. Many devotees also use shrapnel from the original ship, the ship that
brought Islam, as a religious artifact used during worship."
“Biologically “immortal” Kamadhatu’s have a 4-stage metamorphosis. The
last, ending in death or rebirth, is the Chrysalis stage (the Birthing coffin). A natural part of the life cycle, the dying Kamadhatu will produce a thick
shell, where it will decompose and if healthy enough will reconstitute and
“rebirth” with in 2 weeks of its chrysalis formation. Once a natural process it
is now reliant on technological models, at least for those living in the
industrialized world, to undergo a possible rebirth. (Traditional belief states
that those who have more to accomplish will be rebirthed and will reincarnate
in the specific stage based on the individuals conviction and the cosmic and
biological forces that dictate it)…Buddhism came unbeknownst when Chinese
embargoes took fleet to create trading agreements, so many different Buddhist
sects and teachings were fragmented and loosely translated into a homogenized
Buddhism. Buddhism was considered a fad religion in most of the industrialized
world, practiced loosely, superficially and secularly as mysterious religion
from the stars. Yet in the rural parts of the planet Buddhist teaching has been
absorbed and incorporated quite seamlessly into the remnants of the indigenous
religion. Many Buddhist teachers, leaders and even the Dali lama consider the
Kamadhatu to be celestial Devas spoken of in Buddhist cosmology. The oldest of
the Kamadhatu, most reincarnated, are seen as bodhisattvas constantly
reincarnating to teach and enlighten.”
"It was the Catholic belief of transubstantiation of the
Eucharist, which sparked the initial resistance. A religion founded on the
teachings of a risen from the dead man god who’s followers ate his ‘flesh and
blood’ was taken with great horror and touched upon racial taboos of Partaking
of flesh and necromancy. This piece of information harkened to the indigenous
belief shared across all tribes of the luwongne. Christianity became synonymous
with the belief in these necromantic lords. Luwongne are believed to be plague
bringing, carnivorous, reanimated bodies of Jian Naodai and are able to summon
the dead and other forces as its army. They are believed to convert living
followers promising them power and riches. It is not entirely know whether or
not the supernatural aspects of the Luwongne stems from any truth. As
Luwongne do in fact exist. They are typically rogue warlords and are a possible
threat to Jian Nodai tribes. Many in fact came to use Christian iconography and
see Jesus as a necromantic deity. This sparked hysteria across the planet
similar to the witch craze that plague earth’s history. Human inhabitants of
the planet, regardless of faith, were regularly attacked believed to be
Luwongne henchmen. Churches and other human built infrastructures are regularly
attacked and destroyed. Fellow Jian Naodai who became devote or suspected to be
Christian are ritually sacrificed to tar pits."
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