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. 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.

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.

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.

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

Orlamism

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).

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

Mechalus Credo

Sesheyan Fable Animism

T'sa Ch'Nalism

The Weren Heresies