Worldbuild Month, Day 9

Do gods exist? Yes. They're very clear on that fact. Do they create and proliferate belief systems? Some of them! Some gods take a personal interest in their followers, or they think that a specific belief system will make them more useful in accomplishing their goals. Sometimes they pull a page out of Exodus and make a solid list of rules. More often, they communicate a certain idea through their go-betweens, like "help those less fortunate than you" or "Always be prepared for an ambush" or "hide your visage so that you will be proven by deeds alone" and let their mortal administrative-types translate that into rules. Those who don't give their followers teachings generally run their factions like corporate bodies, with no other strict goal than to improve the body. You stick to the party line and you raise through the ranks higher. Simple as that. Do gods have symbology? Yes! Any god with a sufficiently-sized flock will create a holy symbol that they can identify themselves with. This symbol will also be branded into any tools or equipment blessed by the god. In rare cases, it might even be tattooed on some supplicants with a very particular bond to the deity.

If you want religions similar to ours, with things like faith and morals and such, you generally have to look outside of the gods. There are the cults of arts and science, which are cults based around the glorification of entertainment and scientific prowess, respectively, and each believe in some great, immense power beyond the gods that their actions curry favor from. It's not always obvious, since the cults' public faces are goofball clowns and kooky mad scientists, respectively, but there is a power there that neither academic magicians nor non-mad science can quite parse, and neither of them are pleased about it. Additionally, there are the various ideologies put forth by philosophers, which develop into religions in the same way that Confucianism did. These are most popular in Tenzuri, where the cultural power of academia allows for philosophies to permeate into popular culture with ease, but they can be found anywhere with a decent academia sector or, barring that, a built-up history of wisdom passed down from elders to elders. This is usually where you get religious texts from.