Religion in the Empire
Religious belief is widespread throughout the Empire, including many senior members of the Noble Houses. However, religion is largely fragmented, as the beliefs and practices grew up independently on isolated planets before the time of the Empire.
Thus, few organised religions have power outside of a single Noble House, and they have power only because of their prominence within that House. Their influence on Empire scale events can change greatly depending on their state of favour with the high-up individuals in the Houses.
The Council of Faiths
The Council regularly convenes every six months, to discuss the issues of the day, to make sure that religious views are represented in the Empire's actions and policies. They limited their power, despite - or because of - their large collective following: the sheer variety of religions leads to many viewpoints and little consensus. Even qualification for membership to the Council is a topic of continual debate: the Church of the Increate arguing that only those with a philosophy conductive to honour and the wellbeing of the Empire deserve their voice to be heard; the Spirit Speakers feel we should welcome all to the fold; many others give their opinions somewhere in-between, or disagree over which principles should form the 'common philosophy'.
A few extremists call for a single, unified Imperial Religion: either by fusing existent faiths together, or proving one conclusively better than all others - but few tenets of faith are subject to proof, and there are few matters all faiths agree upon, so little progress has been made. A few call on the Emperor to explain his own beliefs, seeing this as the true test of worthiness and honour, but no Lystra has done so yet.
There are also some who have formed an Imperial cult, and worship the Emperor as a manifest divine being. This is largely regarded as silly, and isn't officially recognised, even by the Emperor.
Major Groups
Although most religious organisations are confined to the sphere of influence of a single House, there are some that have gained wider power. Below are a number of organisations which enjoy popularity amongst the Noble Houses; the list is by no means exclusive.
Forerunner Worship
While not one religion, but many disparate ones, the Forerunner Worshippers form a loose coalition within the Council of Faiths to make sure their voices are heard. Individually, the religions tend to be confined to single planets, but there are many and the common theme helps them act together.
Some see the Forerunners as gods who walked among the stars, leaving us their Legacy from the goodness of their hearts. Others revere them as mortals of exceptional virtue, whose examples we should follow.
Followers of the One
A coalition of religions who worship a single being - a shadowy figure believed to have wrought destruction on a previous corrupt human civilisation. As this is somewhat more specific than the general worship of the Forerunners, this is taken by some in the Historicals to be evidence of a genuine historical event; a few wonder if this overthrown civilisation was the B'Twae, who could well have preceded the Forerunners.
However, there is again considerable disagreement as to the exact nature of this One. Some say he was a god, who embodied himself to personally deliver divine justice. Others say he was the leader of the Forerunners, who lead them to glory; religions of the Emperor of Those Who Came Before tend to be popular on Truniss planets.
The Cult of Ascension
All those in the Cult aspire and strive towards one goal - to throw off the shackles of physical existence, and live eternally as pure energy on a higher plane of existence full of knowledge and power. This is known as Ascension.
There are four levels of existence, according to the Cult, categorised by levels of self awareness and conscious ability. Lowest is the Physical level, where animals and machines with no self awareness are. Next is the Mental level, containing most humans and alien races, who have awareness of self, but are still confined mostly to physical reality. Then there is the Psychic level, where those with Meta and Imprint psychic powers are; they who have experienced that which is beyond physical reality and have embraced it. The highest is the Astral level. The apex of existence is the Astral self, the self utterly beyond the mortal form; this is the body of light achieved in Ascension.
Our physical existence is full of suffering, most of which is caused by desire for gratification, be it for possessions or for physical pleasure. The only way out of suffering is to follow the path to Ascension: listen, apply, meditate and teach.
Another belief of the Cult is that technology is a distraction; it is locked in the Physical level, which we must rise above to Ascend. Technology fails and when it fails those without the skill to survive without it fall. Some devices are used by the Cult - printing presses and space ships - but anything beyond these necessary evils is to be avoided. The most devout Noble Cultists eschew even Preservation.
The Cult espouses flexibility and receptivity to new ideas and facts. They pride themselves in having beliefs on the Forerunners open to scrutiny from historical research. The Cult's founder, the charismatic Darval Truniss, was himself a Historical and an Imprint Psychic and based the Cult's beliefs on his own observations of Forerunner sites. Many Cultists believe, as he did, that the Forerunners Ascended; they now watch over humanity, helping to guide us towards Ascension. They may have had plentiful technology at some point - as the writings in the Grand Library show - but that they later saw them as the distractions they are, and forsook them - hence the Library being buried and abandoned. Others believe they tried to Ascend, but forced it upon themselves with technology, and thus condemned themselves to eternity in the shadows.
The Cult has followers within all Houses, and a few Hollann planets, but is most popular within Truniss, who feel that their abundance of psychics is a sign of favour with the Ascended Forerunners. There are also many members within Karpeer - the Cult is especially attractive to commoners let down by an education system geared only to the top achievers, and who feel technology has nothing to offer them.
The most important temples are on Sarra, Truniss's capital, and Vilgar, a Karpeer Agri world; there are smaller temples on several Agri and Mix worlds across the Empire. Some of the temples contain icons, Impressed by Darval to carry what he believed to be the Imprints of Ascension. These temples are not just places of meditation; they also teach locals reading and writing, loan books, and offer the chance to translate Forerunner writings in the 'History@home' scheme. The Cult also fund secular education programmes, gaining them popularity even with commoners who don't believe their precepts.
The Church of the Divine Prenuminous
The Church worship the Divine Prenuminous. The Prenuminous, they say, is the sum total of all human understanding, the knowledge stored within society, the collective intelligence of the Lystran Empire, and even of Triquetra and Hollann. It is at the same time the population of the universe and more. The Church believe that once the Divine Prenuminous has assimilated enough information, it will undergo a change. It will have a great and beautiful revelation, and people across the world will understand how to form the perfect society: without fear, hate or conflict. Nobody will want for anything, and there will be no war. (This event is known by the Church as the Critical Point.)
The way that the Church go about this worship is by collecting information. Information of all kinds: census data, infographics, news archives. All of it is stored and carefully filed in their vaults beneath Striton.
Their headquarters is a complex on the atmosphereless moon Striton; they additionally have a great deal of farmland and suchlike on the Mix World which Striton orbits. Small communes are reasonably common on planets across the Empire.
The Cult of Humanity
Unlike those that worship the Forerunners, or a god, or some other shadowy unseen figure, the object of the Cult of Humanity's worship is physical and easily identified; humanity itself.
According to the Cult, the Forerunners must have been human - otherwise their technology would not work for us. Either humanity survived the calamity that wiped out the Forerunners, showing its superior stamina, or it independently came to be across the galaxy, showing that humanity is the form to which others strive to become.
It is a wonderful thing, to be human. We have precise minds and strong bodies; we can understand the world with our science and harness it with our machines; we can form empires of honour and glory. And we may take pride in our bloodline and lineage: inheritors to the Legacy, to the universe...
We must celebrate and revere this; it is in our nature to do so. We must be true to our nature; this is the duty that comes with existence. We must propagate and prosper. We must act with honour and virtue. And, of course, our greatest duty to ourselves is to keep ourselves Human: to keep blood free of corruption and mind free of alien influence.
Unsurprisingly, Cultists often also subscribe to the tenets of Purity. However, some feel that aliens or mutants should not be treated with violence but pity; they will never know the perfection of the human state. They want to purge our bloodlines of mutation taint to stop others entering this miserable state of existence.
The Cult of Humanity is not one of the foremost religions of the Empire, but is slowly growing, and has a few Noble sympathisers. Its followers boycott those who trade with the Triquetra, and call for greater ties with our "unsullied brethren" in Hollanni Space. They are often seen as promiscuous and hedonistic; most religions - who worship or aspire to become something non-human - criticise them for lacking humility and ignoring the imperfections inherent to the human condition. The Cult replies that any actual problems we see in humanity are from outside taint - if a human is not perfect, it is because they have not worked to rid themselves of this contamination.
The Order of Divine Enlightenment
Every so often, according to the Order of Divine Enlightenment, the divine immanentises within a individual. The individual becomes something greater - they Know, Understand and Hear more than regular mortals. That individual is now an Oracle, and their advice is to be heeded for it is the echo of divinity. The Order of Divine Enlightenment recognises these enlightened ones, and follows their wisdom.
The Order usually do not divulge the identity of their Oracles, to protect their privacy; they say that if their identity were widely known, they'd be beset by advice-seekers. (The more cynical say the secrecy is actually to stop the 'divine inspiration' being recognised as Space Sickness and cured.) They are sceptical of the Cult of Ascension, feeling that technology can be a valuable aid in spiritual development, but ultimately the Order is an inclusive religion that can easily coexist with most others.
The Order are rather hazy on the subject of just what the divine is - a god, the Forerunners, or a metaphor for the transcendental spark that exists within us all. They claim it is a subject one cannot understand without a touch of enlightenment - to label would be to misrepresent, for the divine exist beyond the rational and the named. Each person must seek out the meaning to receive their own enlightenment - there is no easy path, it cannot be done for them.
Whatever the nature of the Oracles, they do seem to be capable of some shrewd decisions - the Order, even though it is not the largest, is the richest of religions thanks to some wise investments. But while their Oracles may have uncanny insight, they are not immune to error. The Order declared Daryoon Machello to be an Oracle, only a year before his attempted coup. The Order immediately denounced his actions. The Daryoon they knew was less extreme, and some of his ideas had their merit - the Empire did need to be strong and prepared. Daryoon had been touched by the divine. He saw the truth, but through twisted eyes. In his madness he had taken this new-found knowledge and warped it, seeing only in extremes and choosing the path of dishonour.
This was a blow to their popularity. Many viewed them with suspicion as a likely home to more followers of the mad, traitorous prophet - the ODE welcomed the vigilance. None of his followers were found. Rumours say they now have to tell the UIC who the Oracles are, so they can keep a closer eye on them.
The Spirit Speakers
So much of the world is alive, if only we could see it. There are spirits in the stonework and the trees; there are deities of the trams and the talkies; there are lords of the space-ways and viceroys of cul-de-sacs.
The gods of the world are mighty within their own demesnes - each has its own niche, a nook and cranny of existence to keep running properly. They make the planets orbit the stars, and the grass grow, the radio talk and the gravcycles float. The Forerunners knew of them - their technology is cared for by the spirits. The Legacy could never survive without their blessing.
The Spirit Speakers recognise these countless gods and their work. Their sermons are full of praise and prayer for their tireless toiling. The most devoted clergy give constant whispers of gratitude, singing to the spirits of the soil on which they step. Speakers aspire to be serene and peaceable, seeing hardship as simply part of the way things are - misfortune is only unfortunate from our own perspective, and who are we to say that the world should be shaped for our convenience?
The Speakers work to make the Council of Faiths as inclusive as possible - they believe strongly in religious freedom. They accept converts but do not seek them out, feeling that evangelising might infringe on people's liberty.
The Church of the Increate
Followers of the church hold that outside of time and space there exists an entity called the Increate, the Prime Cause who brought about all that exists today.
A perfectly good and honourable being, the Increate gathers the souls of the dead to Itself, and sends back particularly blessed individuals to act as guides. These guides, according to the Church, are the benevolent gods of other religions. Worshippers of the Increate therefore practice tolerance and friendship towards those with religious beliefs that can be considered fundamentally honourable.
Many members of the Church also hold that the Increate has an opponent- an entity entirely lacking in the Increate's properties and hence perfectly dishonourable and evil. This being is referred to as the Disincarnate, and according to the Church he dwells amongst us, somewhere in the universe. Originally corporeal, the Disincarnate is said to have learnt to cast off his body and become a creature of pure, scheming intellect.
The worship of the Increate appears to have originated on Hirona, House Machello's capital world, and it's main temple remains there to this day, despite the increased popularity the Church has enjoyed in recent years amongst House Lystra. It's popularity was dented by the involvement of one of its priestesses in the attempted coup of 620EY; the Church fared better in the event's wake than the ODE, in part thanks to the help of two other prominent Increate worshippers - the Imperial Executioner and the Imperial Advocate - in putting down the insurrection.
The Cult of the Fool
Hark, hark, the dogs do bark
the wise frown on the jolly
but the stark of the dark makes fools remark
true fools are the ones without folly
The Cult of the Fool is one of the more individual religions of the Empire. It has no prescribed beliefs, save for an implicit one - don't take things too seriously. It has no formal ceremonies, although followers often make them up: impromptu auguries, parties, and hours of improvised free verse tend to be popular. Practical jokers often use the religion as justification for their japes.
The original Fool from which the Cult takes its name was said to see the future in the giblets of chickens and hear the past in the whispers of madness. Many listened to his advice - the ODE declared him an Oracle, he attended the Imperial Court. The modern Cult of the Fool still offers advice and riddles, but few believe they are more than the ravings of those not taking themselves seriously enough. Still, even a fool must now and then be right by chance...
The Cult is rather famous considering its small size; it is most popular in Omar and Vinka, and least popular in Machello. It usually sends a representative to the Council of Faiths, wearing motley and wielding a bladder on a stick - the other councillors have learnt to tolerate their tomfoolery, and to ignore their interjections into more serious discussion.
Other Philosophical Groups
Purity
An extract from one Purity's manifesto:
- Existence is war. War between species, even between individuals within species. It is a war of extinction, annihilation and oblivion, in which only the strongest can survive unsullied. Purity believes that Mankind must work to win that war. We believe that;
- As all species are hostile to each other, so all non-human species must be hostile to man.
- The Human bloodline is a beautiful thing, worthy of preservation.
- Corruption of the human bloodline may weaken us, or turn us into things we abhor, or make us vulnerable to alien influences.
- We must purify Humanity. We must purge ourselves and our brothers elsewhere in the Galaxy of alien influence, and of the corruption of mutation.
Purity is a political movement, fiercely loyal to the Empire and, above all, to humanity. Its members are mostly military types, thanks to the emphasis on warfare; they come from all Houses, although Karpeer has the most. There are many Purity supporters within the Sentinels, especially within the Hold of Courage, the demons being a prime example of the alien menace to humanity's existence. Purity call to cut off ties with the Triquetra and cleanse Death worlds with mutant demi-human populations.
There are a few Purity Education Centres, dotted around the Empire; the harshest are on Death and Mining worlds, while the smaller 'lower intensity' camps are on more hospitable Mix worlds. These teach Purity's ideology and instill the virtues of self-sufficiency and toughness - they are also the place of training for Purity's paramilitary wing, the White Shirts.
There is some crossover in membership with the Cult of Humanity, but many find the Cult's predilection for loose living to be counter to Purity's penchant for strength and survivalism. Non-members tend to think of Purity as, whilst undoubtedly honourable, ultimately a bit too extreme.
Influence
Hierarchies vary between religions, but for the major groups Influence means:
- Rank 1: You are a fully-fledged member; possibly you have just joined the clergy (if your religion has one), or possibly you are a sponsor from the laity.
- Rank 2: You have proven yourself devoted and useful, and may represent the religion at the Council of Faiths.
- Rank 3: You are the relgion's leader, or amoung the select group of leaders.
Because religions do not wield much power relative to other organisations in the Empire, there is no Rank 4 or higher.
If you wish to be the founder of your own religion, it can be represented by the skill Private Resources. It is possible to expand your religion during the course of the game.