Auron said:
Skyrim's civil war has a religious motivation as backdrop not really sure it's strong enough a point to be relevant however, Oblivion has a focus on representations of demons and hell but the Daedra's beliefs and cults are not really front and center.
But there is Morrowind - it's not perect textbook on religion but it does a decent job, at least. There are two religions operating in the land - the Tribunal temple of people who worship the three literal gods of Morrowind (you even go and talk to them) and the Imperial cult who are...the Imperial cult. Your character can even join these and progress through the quests and up the hierarchy. If new to Morrowind, I'd suggest going with the IC first - the first quest for the Tribunal, while really atmospheric (don't think that's the correct word, but should give you an idea) is also quite long and takes a very long while to complete, thus delaying the progress of the other quests in the Tribunal. And there are the Daedra worshippers but I don't think they were as prominent. You do see them and visit their shrines but I think the other two games have a better portrayal.
DoomGnomes said:
For example I would exclude; Black & White, Knights of the Old Republic, Crusader Kings 2 and Mass effect.
Have you considered KOTOR2? I'm not sure your exact angle on the topic but that game goes into the Jedi/Sith beliefs, particularly the Jedi and more to the point, how they could be failings. Also depicts the universe after a galactic religious war - the Jedi/Sith conflict from the first game. You don't need to play the first, though - short version is the two battle and there are massive fleets and stuff. It's pretty high level overview, KOTOR 2 shows how the normal humans were affected by it and even how some of the veterans fare. It's interesting to visit the planet where the Jedi council resided - it isn't a spoiler per se, but it's a very minor revelation - the people of the planet
hate the Jedi for the destruction that was wrought thanks to them.
Bot other than those, I can't currently remember others that dealt a lot with the subject. Thief had those Hammerites (damn awesome religion - it involves
hammers) but I can't actually recall how in depth they went with it. Just check a wiki, I guess. Heroes 6 isn't too overly religious but it does show angels of the dragon of light (think Christianity) operate in a heavenly war.
Actually, it might be interesting to look up the religion of Ashan (Heroes 5/6's world) even though it's not explained that much in the games - mostly referenced. Short version is, there are dragons, which are worshipped as gods - the dragon of light is one, but there are few others (of the darkness, of chaos, etc). They are counterparts of existing stuff, though, just coated with some paint - the light dragon is sort of Abrahamic god and it's all about truth, justice, goodness and such - you can already guess his shtick from the name alone, the dragon of chaos, however, is Satan Urgash who is locked away in the fir pit of hell Sheogh. Those are the most obvious ones - the other dragons are just elemental gods - of the sea (the naga worship it), of the air, of the earth (the barbaric orcs worship those two) and so on. Asha, the dragon of Fate, is more eastern-ish with the wheel of fate and stuff under her name. I suppose it's a good idea to see how can one paint over the religions and present them in a game. There is some small merit in playing Heroes 6 for the angels but...I'd suggest you just read the plot somewhere - it's not a bad campaign but it's disjointed and long.
That what I can think of for video games. But since you said your topic is on media, do take a look at other stuff - PnP RPGs in particular have a long and quite detailed looks at their religions. Some even take a look at the current religions present. Sometimes badly, other times well - but hey, you can at least write on both accounts. If you want a recommendation, I'd suggest Demon: the Fallen - it's a sister franchise of Vampire: the Masquerade but with actual demons - the fallen angels variety. The backstory is lifted from the Bible more or less, but it's viewed from their perspective - why they lead a rebellion against God, what happened, and what are they doing now. OK, spoiler, they were imprisoned in hell until just a few years ago (the game takes place in 2003) but in 1999 some managed to escape to find the world really different than before. Oh, and God is apparently not around, too.
Finally, I'm not sure if it's of interest exactly but the original Devil May Cry was a...rather loose adaptation of Dante's Inferno. OK, not an adaptation but heavily modelled after it - Dante, Vergil, different layers of hell. If such a thing is of interest, then Dante's Inferno may also need to be noted. Erm, there is Graham and Paul's Let's Play of it [http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/archive/gplp/date/desc/_] which would probably be more entertaining to watch. They also have Brad on board, who is the history expert and would frequently compare how well the game fares compared to the original source (spoiler: not very but still there are rather close elements).
).
