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--- religion [2013/08/19 05:45]
storyteller [FRAAL PHILOSOPHIES OF MIND]
+++ religion [2021/12/04 00:39] (current)
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+======Religion======
+Religion is one of the most powerful factors in human history. The power of faith and religious belief has created two stellar nations, and even beyond the borders of the [[hatire_community|Hatire Community]] and the [[orlamu_theocracy|Orlamu Theocracy]], more than half of all sentients consider themselves believers in one faith or another. Even those who don’t profess a particular belief system are affected by religious forces.
+All religions struggle with the issues of faith and destiny. It’s not enough to simply look back on the words of prophets and ancient texts. People want to know where they’re going—as a culture, as a nation, as species. As humanity and its allies adapt to their first few centuries in space, their solutions to the puzzle of belief have become more complicated than ever.
+[[hatire_religion|Hatire]]
-====== Religion ======
+[[humanity reformation religion|Humanity Reformation]]
+[[insightful_relgion|Insightful]]
-Religion is one of the most powerful factors in human history. The power of faith and religious belief has created two stellar nations, and even beyond the borders of the Hatire Community and the Orlamu Theocracy, more than half of all sentients consider themselves believers in one faith or another. Even those who don’t profess a particular belief system are affected by religious forces.
+[[Orlamism religion|Orlamism]]
-All religions struggle with the issues of faith and destiny. It’s not enough to simply look back on the words of prophets and ancient texts. People want to know where they’re going—as a culture, as a nation, as species. As humanity and its allies adapt to their first few centuries in space, their solutions to the puz-zle of belief have become more complicated than ever.
-===== ANCIENTIST =====
-A small but growing religion is sweeping through many of the stellar nations. Begun in the Borealis Republic, this new faith focuses on the ruins and monoliths left behind by a spacefaring civilization that rose, flourished and disappeared long before humanity left its home world. The faithful call themselves the Children, but the popular press refers to them as “the Ancientists” due to their fervent inter-est in the past.
-This faith believes that this ancient civilization was a species of gods. Historians have la-beled this mysterious group the Precursors.
-Their power and majesty can be seen in the structures they left behind, claim the Ancientists, and they believe that the Precursors will someday return. On that day, the Precur-sors will grant humanity the knowledge and technology it needs to take its place beside them.
-“We are the children of the Precursors,” the Ancientists claim, “and soon they will return to see what we did with what they left be-hind. If we did well, they will shepherd us to the next level of existence.” Some Ancientists also believe that the Precursors will test and judge humanity when they return. If they find humanity wanting, the Precursors will destroy humanity and reclaim their ancient home. Ancientists, naturally, believe they will be spared this judgment—provided they can decipher the clues left behind in the Precur-sor ruins.
-Ancientists tend to be scholarly, inquisitive, and fond of exploring and studying Precursor sites and artifacts. Their young faith has few established churches or hierarchical struc-tures. Though it has a seminary on Sapphire and a Grid presence in many systems, mem-bers of the faith usually gather at Precursor sites to meet, exchange information, and worship.
-===== HATIRE =====
-The Hatire are followers of a god they call the Cosimir, an alien deity that they have adopt-ed as their own. Though they became infa-mous for their “by-the-sword” conversions during GW2, they are also well-known for their passionate dislike of advanced technolo-gy, especially tech that alters the human body. In truth, the Brethren of the Hatire Community—which accounts for more than half the total followers of the faith—follow a conservative philosophy and lifestyle that seems to invite attack and ridicule by outsid-ers.
-The Brethren accept the burden of their repu-tation, as undeserved as they believe it to be. Why? Like most religions founded in the last three centuries, the Hatire faith is a proselytiz-ing one. The Hatire see themselves as mis-sionaries, determined to bring trust in the Co-simir to the masses, exalting in the spirit revered by the long-vanished dwellers of Ha-ven. For both the Brethren and the ancients whose stories they have translated, worship is about purity and purification. All other factors being equal, the ideal Hatire life pursues sim-ple harmony, without complicated technolo-gy to distract the spirit. It would be a simple agrarian life, focused on spiritual contempla-tion. Nothing would stand between a believ-er and the universe.
-This is not the universe the followers of the Cosimir must live in. In a fierce, contentious universe, the Hatire must gird themselves with weapons and technology they abhor. The Hatire priesthood offers special dispensa-tions, called technology indulgences, to those who volunteer to contaminate themselves in this way. The Brethren must fight fierce wars, undertake far-flung expeditions, and even research spaceships and other instruments, though ultimately these things are only dis-tractions from the truly important goals in life.
-Missionaries of the Cosimir travel throughout the Stellar Ring and beyond, spreading the word. The average believer can comfort her-self with the though of someday returning to the spiritual life—once all of humanity has been prepared for it. That’s the job of the Co-simir’s disciples. The most famous are the Hat-ire Mind Knights, trained in special academies such as the Mindanaoth Academy of Grith in the Verge or the Académie du Monde on the Stellar capital of Haven. The Hatire’s less vio-lent followers include its telepathic Seers and the members of the Chorus.
-The ranks of the faith are fairly simple. Breth-ren begin as reverents, then they become or-
-dained missioners, for a local church and pos-sibly diocesans, responsible for an entire plan-et.
-The Chorus is a Hatire religious order that be-lieves faith heals injuries. Chorus members view psychometabolists as masters of the Hat-ire faith, adepts who have perfected them-selves and others without using technology. The largest Chorus community in the Verge dwells within the Forest Cathedral on Grith, a moon in the Corrivale system.
-The Hatire faith continues to grow, especially within the Thuldan Empire. While it’s true that Hatire ministers have had to adapt their teachings to overlook the Empire’s manipula-tion of the human genome, belief in the Co-simir is winning over the hearts of the Thuldan people—members of a culture that the Brethren consider spiritually bankrupt and ready for change.
-===== HUMANITY REFORMATION =====
-The Reformation’s tenets acknowledge that all human faiths—indeed, all humans—are flawed. Theocratic governments, rigid belief systems, and well-defined canon produce nothing more than a docile, weak-minded populace and a wealthy religion. The faith acknowledges a single god, responsible for the creation of the universe. Worship, howev-er, is irrelevant to the creator—worshipers must help themselves. Blaming one’s short-comings on an omnipotent god is just anoth-er failing.
-According to Reformer tradition, humans should never expect divine help to overcome problems. Instead, the creator expects sen-tients to solve problems in themselves, in oth-ers, and in society. When a person sees a wrong, he should right it. More importantly, when a Reformer discovers greed, malice, or any other flaw within himself, it is his duty to confront it.
-At the same time, Reformers must help believ-er overcome their flaws—psychological, physi-cal, or spiritual. To take advantage of an-other’s weakness, or worse, take joy in it is a greater crime that to sin or have personal fail-ings of one’s own. Followers of the Refor-mation are expected to devote themselves to lives of achievement, giving generously to charity, helping those in need, and opposing injustice.
-Opposing injustice often puts the faith’s cler-gymen in conflict with local authorities, other churches, and seven stellar nations. Accord-ing to Reformation teachings, a member must oppose injustice even when doing so violates local laws. For example, the Reform-ers actively oppose VoidCorp’s ownership of its employees and work actively to help es-caped sesheyans. Despite its high-profile trou-blemaking, the Humanity Reformation is widely accepted throughout the Stellar Ring. The only issue that divides the faithful is no-menclature. The church is open to sentients of any species, but its name implies that only humans are fully welcome. It’s an open ques-tion whether the next church council will re-move human-specific titles and doctrines.
-Clergy begin as initiates, and are given small tasks to prove their worthiness. Once these tasks are completed, an initiate is given the title of father or mother and is assigned to a specific location. Alternatively, the initiate is ordained as a reformer, a wandering priest who searches out wrongs and helps others as part-time counselor and adviser. The reformers are considered the faith’s true patri-ots, and competition is fierce for such assign-ments. Abbots are the rulers of individual Re-form settlements. While a father or mother can become an abbot or abbess, he or she can’t rise any higher unless named a reformer at a later date. Finally, the term “reformer” is also used by those outside the church to de-scribe all of its members.
-Bishops are the next highest rank, made up entirely of prominent reformers who have achieved great success. A bishop is assigned to a region to watch over, which may be as small as a continent or as large as a star sys-tem. Bishops appoint fathers, mothers, and reformers, and occasionally sponsor initiates into the order. Ultimately, the religion is guid-ed by thirteen cardinals led by the pontifex. Collectively, the cardinals and the pontifex make up the Council of the Reform. Their an-nual meetings are held on the planet Desire, in the StarMech Collective. This body is the faith’s highest, and it controls all bishop ap-pointments, doctrinal issues, and financial ar-rangements.
-[[insightful_relgion|Insightful]]
-===== ORLAMISM =====
+=====Old Earth Religions=====
-Unlike any other religion except the Church of the Oracle, Orlamism is a dynamic faith built on a foundation of technology and sci-ence. The Orlamist faith was born from the invention of the stardrive and subsequent dis-covery of drivespace. While testing the star-drive, pilot Jeff Sendir had an encounter with the divine. When he returned to normal space, he abandoned his former life and set forth the principles of the faith: drivespace is the groundwork of God. Just as the universe all around was the conscious act of the crea-tor, the space behind space remains the source and origin of all things. Drivespace is nothing less than the Divine Unconscious.
+Waves of emigration from humanity’s homeworld have yet to weaken the venerable belief systems developed on its surface. Some have seen a percentage decrease in their numbers compared to the whole of the population. This decline can be partly attributed to the same factors that led to the [[First Galactic War]]; far from religious centers and leadership that were still based within the Sol system, faith among the colonial powers wandered.  It’s also likely that the discovery of non-human sentient life—and the unfriendly response that more conservative religious groups offered—played a role in decreasing the attendance of some Old Earth churches, synagogues and temples.
-The doctrine of the Theocracy is centered around a single objective: understanding and contact with the Divine Unconscious. To ac-complish this goal, the Orlamus constantly experiment to advance their understanding to drivespace. Doctrine changes as necessary to fit the latest theory supported by the scien-tific evidence. Disputes and disagreements among the Orlamist faithful are more than permitted; they are encourage, just as divi-sion and argument are vital to the scientific community. Not surprisingly, a secondary re-sult of all this experimentation on the Divine Unconscious has been the superiority of Or-lamu stardrives over the last 300 years.
-The Theocracy can only loosely be consid-ered a united religion, since it lack elders who preach a common doctrine. The only require-ment for an Orlamist is that one’s activities help to understand the Divine Unconscious. By seeking to understand what drivespace truly represents, one comes closer to under-standing God. For example, the 121-hour du-ration of each starfall ahs led some Orlamists to suggest that this was the span of creation itself. A more radical Orlamu cult the very use of the Divine Unconscious as a means of trav-el; might not trespassing alter the very nature of God? At the same time, the religion’s open-ness and tolerance extend beyond its own faith. Orlamists are accepting of all religions.
-===== OLD EARTH RELIGIONS =====
+Yet as human population has grown, so have the numbers of followers of most Old Earth faiths. Missionaries sent to convert the alien species have enjoyed some moderate success as well. More than one and a half trillion sentient beings follow an Old Earth faith. All of the major religions in existence prior to the discovery of the [[stardrive]] still flourish, including Christianity (in all its denominations), Buddhism (in Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric branches), Islam (both Sunni and Shia), Judaism (in all of its sects and divisions), and Hinduism (in three major traditions encompassing a variety of sects).
-Waves of emigration from humanity’s home-world have yet to weaken the venerable be-lief systems developed on its surface. Some have seen a percentage decrease in their numbers compared to the whole of the pop-ulation. This decline can be partly attributed to the same factors that led to the First Galac-tic War; far from religious centers and leader-ship that were still based within the Sol sys-tem, faith among the colonial powers wan-dered. It’s also likely that the discovery of non-human sentient life—and the unfriendly re-sponse that more conservative religious groups offered—played a role in decreasing the attendance of some Old Earth churches, synagogues and temples.  Yet as human population has grown, so have the numbers of followers of most Old Earth faiths. Missionaries sent to convert the alien species have enjoyed some moderate success as well. More than one and a half trillion sen-tients follow an Old Earth faith. All of the ma-jor religions in existence prior to the discovery of the stardrive still flourish, including Christi-anity (in all its denominations), Buddhism (in Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric branches), Islam (both Sunni and Shia), Judaism (in all of its sects and divisions), and Hinduism (in three major traditions encompassing a variety of sects).
-====== ALIEN RELIGIONS ======
+===== Alien Religions =====
-The alien species encountered by humanity haven’t embraced human religions as quickly as they’ve embraced human technology. In-deed, all of the sentient species have offered up their own answers to religious questions—though most humans find these answers al-most incomprehensible.
+The alien [[species]] encountered by humanity haven’t embraced human religions as quickly as they’ve embraced human technology. Indeed, all of the sentient species have offered up their own answers to religious questions—though most humans find these answers almost incomprehensible.
 [[fraal philosophies of mind religion|Fraal Philosophies of Mind]]
-===== MECHALUS CREDO =====
-Ever since the genocide that converted most of the aleerins to pacifistic ways, these sen-tients have suppressed their own native faith, the Warrior’s Credo. Founded by a warrior/programmer named Thetor, the faith taught that only through struggle could the me-chalus species attain and maintain unity. The little evidence available indicates that the reli-gion involved special implants and software as well as ritual acts of prayer and violence. Most mechalus today look back on these be-liefs as primitive and even distasteful, much as many humans frown on some old human re-ligious practices such as blood sacrifice.
-Since contact with humanity, however, the mechalus have demonstrated some interest in human faiths. Currently, many mechalus adhere to Old Earth Buddhism or claim mem-bership among the ranks of the Insightful.
-===== SESHEYAN FABLE ANIMISM =====
+[[Mechalus Credo religion|Mechalus Credo]]
-The sesheyans have their own beliefs, based on tales and proverbs told by their shamans. These tales vary from shaman to shaman, but almost all contain one of three important fig-ures: Neshii’en the trickster, Tal the hunter, or Vec’t’lir brood-mother. In particular, the para-ble of Neshii’en and his enemies have sus-tained the sesheyans during the dark times of their servitude to VoidCorp—though many of the public rituals and outward expressions of the faith have been lost.
-Sesheyans religious practices are strictly ver-bal within VoidCorp space; possession or manufacture of sesheyans religious parapher-nalia is punishable by heavy fines, demotion, or relocation. If anything, this restrictive at-mosphere has strengthened the hold of reli-gion on sesheyans culture; new tales of
-Neshii’en’s conflicts with agents of VoidCorp circulate as pervasively as jokes and rumors.
-===== CH’NALISM =====
+[[sesheyan fable animism religion|Sesheyan Fable Animism]]
-T’sa religion is a complex polytheistic faith commonly referred to as Ch’Nalism. Ch’Nalites believe in a single, all-powerful creator who provides a guardian deity for every sentient creature. After creating the universe, Ch’Nal created many lesser gods, the Ch’Nakan, for each kind of living thing. Each Ch’Nakan watches over its own piece of creation, acting as guide and guardian to its charges. The Ch’Nakan can appear in what-ever aspect suits them.
-While the t’sa revere Ch’Nal and celebrate his holy day during the harvest, they reserve their daily worship for their personal guardi-an, K’san Ch’Nak, a tireless patron who takes good care of the t’sa. The t’sa joke that it is good that K’san is immortal, because other-wise his curiosity would have killed him many times over. K’san Ch’Nak embodies all the qualities that the t’sa value most in them-selves. He is curious, friendly, and quick-witted.
-Within the T’sa Cluster, almost all t’sa worship Ch’Nal and K’san Ch’Nak. In human space, many t’sa cling to their religion, but some have adopted other belief systems. The t’sa back home consider this odd, but not blasphemous, since they assume that every spe-cies has its own Ch’Nakan guide.
-===== THE WEREN HERESIES =====
+[[Ch nalism religion|T'sa Ch'Nalism]]
-Many Weren still living on Kurg have em-braced Orlamism. Unfortunately, these weren often hold heretical versions of the Orlamu beliefs. For these weren, the Divine Uncon-scious is indelibly linked to the universe itself. Their version of the Orlamu god—the Divine Unconscious—takes them from their home-world to other, better worlds. The Divine Un-conscious isn’t a subject of scientific study to
-them, but a force that believers must ap-pease. A weren who make proper offerings before leaving Kurg will find her way to one of the paradises of the Great Beyond. Those who fail to do so end up in one of the uni-verse’s many hells.
-The native religion of Kurg is a sophisticated form of animism that depends on its adher-ents’ belief to give strength to a clan’s warri-ors through the channeling of the proper spirits. Beyond that point, interpretations vary from tribe to tribe.
-Weren priests offer a number of simple expla-nations for everyday problems. Hexes, curses, astrological predictions, and the summoning of disease by hostile prayers are widely held beliefs, especially among the nomadic marrizhe-herders. The details of these beliefs vary, but the position of priest is one of the few in weren society with as much prestige as that of warrior. The priests watch over the sacred combats of the faith’s high holy days and perform ceremonial bloodletting that pu-rifies a clan’s warriors. These religious festivals sometimes become little more than drunken riots, as the were argue points of doctrine and the merits or interpretation of each indi-vidual combat. Few outsiders can withstand the sheer noise of a were religious gathering.
+[[weren heresies religion|The Weren Heresies]]
+{{tag>religion hatire tsa fraal weren mechalus human}}

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