Building Religions 30: Relics

Only two of our world's major religions include relics as objects of devotion: Buddhism and Christianity. Despite that fact, however, they seem to appear in a number of fantasy settings as an unquestioned part of religious practice. What I would like to discuss here, following up on my post on how to deal with death and the dead, is an overview of what relics are, their perceived status in the religions that focus on them, and the kinds of religions that might incorporate their veneration into their rituals.