Looks Like I'm Going to Have to Do a Lot of Worldbuilding

Since I've been writing, I'd always tried to stay away from too much worldbuilding. I've seen a lot of authors go a bit overboard. I've thought worldbuilding can sometimes become a distraction that can draw authors away from writing their actual manuscript.

But now my work has turned into a direction where more serious worldbuilding is necessary.

It's not that I don't enjoy worldbuilding. I enjoy it very much. My fear is that I may enjoy it too much.

On the surface, my series of books is about a galactic human civilization, past alien civilizations, wormhole, etc. But I've always intended the stories to explore politics, religion, philosophy, etc. And maybe even have a main theme per book.

In the work I am currently working on, I am exploring how benign religions can evolve to be paranoid and controlling. And in this stories case, the religion is not an existing one. So that means I need to create a religion.

That means creating central tenets, dogma, practices, scripture, commentary and clerical heiarchy. But I also have to design the religion's symbol, worship spaces, liturgical vestments.

Fortunately, expanding on a philosophical and visual themes comes naturally to me as a brand strategist and creative director.

For example, here is the religion's symbol.

The symbol itself was a happy accident. It is a stylized treatment of the two greek letters Phi and Omega. This is the name of the ship and was named so as one of a fleet of ships designated by greek letters.

Then when I wanted a religion to evolve within this ship, I discovered that this symbol itself could resemble a cutaway of the ship's habitation area. It was a bit of serendipity. And I ended up having the characters experience and utilize a similar type of serenity.

Also, one of the characters is going to have a crisis of faith. He is going to question the orthodox versions of this religion. And to show her questioning, I need to both show the orthodox view of a certain subject and how his view contradicts it. So last night I wrote what was either as snippet of scripture, commentary on scripture or a sermon. The to show his thoughts I wrote a pieced that could eventually be an entry in his journal, thoughts in the narrative or a monologue he either delivers to the religious authorities, his mentor or his friends.

Still on my list to do:

1. The vestments that the members and leaders of his order wear, both in their primary service and day to day
2. The order of their primary service and samples of prayers
3. More samples from their scripture and commentary
4. The design of the chamber in which their primary service is held

And in some cases, I need to design multiple versions. One for the overall religion, one for the order in which my character serves and a smattering of samples from the sister orders. 

A lot of this reminds me of the organization and graphic elements created for the different Corps Geoff Johns created in the Green Lantern universe as well as most universes Johnathan Hickman creates. And I know for a fact that Johnathan Hickman himself has a graphic design background.  

I know that my worldbuilding could take some time. And I'm curious how much time creators like Johns and Hickman spent on their projects.