Forums » RP Discussion » Zoroastrianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

I am trying to make a religious allegory using zoroastrianism in either a futuristic scifi setting or a modern one. I'd like to focus on the story of the Fravashi and urvan:


I'm trying to make it fit into my Q character (Quatre Bornes) being the Urvan, and a companion character (known as Overslept) the fravashi.

I've read up through wikipedia on the general stories of the religion and the basic theory of fravashi and urvan, but there doesn't seem to be much info out there, so what I'm working with is incredibly thin.

What I have right now is a few ideas I've been trying to work with. They make sense, but I'm getting caught up on the 'battle of good versus evil' bit (which you'd think would be the easiest part, lol).

- futuristic scifi world where body mods and "Splicing" (making furries, basically) became popular but were very recently outlawed. Q is a member of a police o r militia force that goes around trying to hunt out splicing circles. Overslept is either the company psychologist, Q's behind-the-scenes partner/agent, his boss, or the leader of one of the splicing rings (it varies, I haven't solidified an idea yet).

Here are the possible scenarios:

- Q has a tail he got via splicing, but was in the force before this. Because of the tail, he's turned into an undercover officer to take out the splicing rings. He either a) becomes conflicted and doesn't know which side to go for, b) doublecrosses militia c) goes 'feral' (spliced people going 'feral' was the main reason it was outlawed. Think splicers in Batman Beyond cartoon)

- Q was born with a tail, it was not acquired via splicing, but he is an undercover officer anyway because of it. He a) goes 'feral' in some way, b) is suspected of losing sight of the true goal, so is appointed a psychologist (Overslept), who Q becomes obscenely annoyed with.

- Overslept is Q's psychologist, who is supposed to make sure Q doesn't doublecross the police. He either a) is undercover/a spy himself b)turns out to be Apolloyon (devil, basically) c) manipulates Q into doing whatever he wants (whether that's good or bad, it's undecided).

Now for the splicing rings, I've got a few ideas, but they're scattered. On one hand, I'm thinking they're just a bunch of (irl) furries or therians who mean no harm but ocassionally accidentally kill due to this going feral business. Or, they splice others as a sort of 'initiation' thing to their gang. On the flip side, I've thought they were a religious cult of somekind, where they give sacrifices monthly. Another idea was that they force-spliced people, similar to vampire mythology, but what their intentions/drive was to this, I'm unsure. Some else entirely is that they're not really splicers at all, they're actually were-creatures that finally decided to out themselves to humankind.

I just need help, I guess, with understanding more about zoroastrianism so I can come up with significant parallels that actually make sense. Also some more about what the general 'good vs evil' thing is about in terms of the religion. And maybe some help sorting out my current ideas and/or creating new ones, in hopes to create a better story.

I hope this makes sense. Dx

Simply based off reading the side-definition you have of what a fravashi and urvan is, I would have come up with something where part of his conciousness (or soul, or what you wish to call it) becomes seperate from him, and that is what goes through the moral battle -- maybe his body is trapped in some form of stasis (perhaps through the splicing process) and the battle is entirely on a concious level in a dream-like state. Battles in this way have been done in sci-fi to good effect, both in stargate sg1 (replicators) and stargate atlantis (wraith/team and replicators/team).

Zoroastrianism isn't all that foreign as long as you learn to see past the bizarre names you can't recognize. If you understand Judaism you can have an understanding of the better part of Zoroastrianism. The jews underwent a period of captivity in babylon and ended up reflecting it through their culture. It was their exposure here that made them believe in an afterlife; their exposure that made Satan more than a challenging force sent by god but, in fact, a devil/antithesis of God. The later archangel structures reflected through Zoroastrian hierarchy, as Sraosha-vs-Aeshma later reflected through Raphael-vs-Asmodeus, and so on. The beliefs go pretty hand in hand, so if you have trouble wading through weird info out there, try to keep those parallels in mind.

I really don't know what to suggest with your character, I like people truly designing things themselves and I don't like influencing it. Do note that I play an Aeshma, however. He's temporarily retired until at least spring but I'll be bringing him back around. So if you want anything from that angle... go ahead and ask me some time.