Now that we've got an idea of the political situation on Ishee, we get to start looking at one of my favorite things: its religious landscape! In college, I became fascinated by the interactions between science/technology and religion. I studied the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism) in light of the very specific moment in anthropological histriography in which it began (their idea that First Nations peoples were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel was a short-lived scientific theory) and Spiritualism as envisaging the medium as a human version of that new-fangled invention called the telegraph and Theosophy as continuing Spiritualism after the telegraph lost its shininess and Darwin was the new thing. And I studied UFO and ancient astronaut religions, like Scientology, Raelianism, the various formulations of Nuwaubianism, Heaven's Gate, and more. The Nuwaubians are extra-fun because they hit my other button: identity religions like the Radical Fairies, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, Rastafarianism, etc.
So, we start off by giving a number to the atheist/agnostic/non-religious population of Ishee, the folk we won't capture with our randomized religions. Let's just roll 1d100 and call it a percent. A reasonable 31% of Isheeans list themselves on surveys as atheist/agnostic/non-religious, or 4,966,607 sophonts.
Because FTL travel in my religion is built on technology derived from actual Spiritualist weirdness (the New Motive Power of Unitarian abolitionist turned Spiritualist free love preacher and abolitionist John Murray Spear), there needs to be at least a significant percentage of the population of any planet that practices a Spiritualist religion. I'm gonna choose the appropriate God View until I'm satisfied with that percentage.
So, our first religion will be one of ancestor worship (God View 5), which means we roll 2d6-2+(5-3)/3, or 2d6-1, to determine its Spiritual Aim. Oh, goody! We rolled a 3, which means that the religion believes in reincarnation with a karma doctrine (meaning that one's actions, morality, and/or devotion in this life determine or affect your next life). Next, we roll 2d6-7+3 for the amount of Devotion Required. 11-4 is 7, so there are fortnightly services, with anything more being in the realm of personal piety rather than religious requirement. That feels more like a focus on a morality-based karma doctrine than a devotion-based one. Or, maybe, a simple consequential karma (if your actions create a 'verse with more poor people in it, than your chances of being reborn as a poor person are greater. Duh.)
The Organizational Structure of the religion ends up as a flat 2d6 roll, which results in a 6, which means that it has a loose hierarchy, with most decisions made on a regional (as in interplanetary) level. I'm thinking that means that there are some higher reaches of clergy that oversee several worlds and discuss theology, ethics, liturgy, and the like, with most of the lower clergy (planetary and local) generally listening to them and going forward with what they think while mebbe putting their own bit of a spin on it. Mebbe something like Islam's hierarchical structure but with a Spiritualist personal-gnosis approach rather than a reverence for an unchangeable text. There is a central authority in this religion (unlike Islam, or modern Islam anyway), but it mostly functions collegially and academically to keep the various regional leaders talking to each other for unification and the development of the understanding of the religion.
A 2d6-7+6 roll of 10 tells us that ritual (which, recall, is only held fortnightly) is generally limited to formal study groups discussing and interpreting church writings. I think this is a twofold thing. One, the religion focuses less on seances and spirit possession, and more on the little everyday ways that the spirits of the dead (especially one's own dead and the various Spirit Associations contacted long ago by John Murray Spear) direct and guide our lives. There is a whole body of religious writings talking about how the ghosts might do that, or about developing the discerning, present awareness to notice when they do. Another body of religious literature would, in fact, come from seances and spirit possession, generally practiced only by clergy (and practiced more, the higher up in the hierarchy you are). This body records direct communications from the Spirit Associations and is studied by adherents of the religion in order as a guide to belief and action.
The Missionary Fervor of the religion is always determined with a 2d6-2 roll, which in this case comes up 4. This means that adherents of this religion actively (but not zealously) proselytize among a limited number of sophonts. A friendship with a member of this religion won't involve a conversion attempt every time you hang out, or even once every five times, but there's a good chance there will be at least one conversation about how your ancestors and the Spirit Associations are trying to guide you and direct your life to your betterment and that of everyone that is, was, or will be. I'm getting the sense that, while there is some idea that there are bad actors among the spirits, this religion doesn't really focus on that very much, considering it uncommon or rare.
According to the theologians of this church, every sophont species has its own Spirit Associations leading its dead, and not all of them have come into communion with the Associations of Human Spirits that the church focuses on. This means that some sophont races are exempt from its proselytization efforts and encouraged instead, if it comes up (adherents won't bring it up) to talk to their dead to see what they should be doing.
Finally, we roll 3d6-4 to determine how many people follow these teachings and channelled documents. Wow, this is a popular one! We rolled a 12, which means that the religion has literally trillions of adherents ~ I'm imagining this covers at least a couple of subsectors, if not more. Let's use random.org to come up with an actual number: 2,045,958,269,515 people follow this religion. How many of those are on Ishee? We've accounted for 31% of its population, so let's roll a d69 to find out. 48% of Ishee's population belongs to this religion, or 7,690,230 sophonts.
We need to give it a name. Let's roll that dWikipedia and see what we can come up with . . . how about the Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners?
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