OK, so the Drag Moon of Amon Assemon already has a large population of people unaffiliated with any one religion in particular, a strong presence of Associationist Spiritualists, and almost equal numbers of Neo-Wiccan gender-duotheists and speciesist scientific historians. What will come next?
We roll a 6 on 3d6, again! Well, now, avatar-based theology seems to be really popular amongst these moon-qweens. Maybe this religion is related to the Tickseed Feast in some way, or maybe this one will be more Hindu. By the way, do any of my readers know of any good Hindu representation in science fiction? I feel like it’s been woefully passed up for the “. . . IN SPAAAAACE” treatment, but maybe I’m just reading the wrong books.
Will the follow-up 2d6-1 roll continue and cement the similarity? That’s a resounding NO, to the tune of an 11. In fact, this newest religion seems to have more in common with the Guild of the Rose-Brothers than to anything else, as believers seek to expand the frontiers of knowledge through inquiry and speculation. If it’s in that fruitful line, then perhaps it’s more Neo-Platonic than Hindu, seeking to understand the One by understanding the Forms, which one can only understand by examining the individual imperfect objects of the world. Or it could be both, with a handful of devis and devas (or just the Trimurti) being a stage between the Forms and the One ~ I have run across Neo-Platonic ideas of the One yielding the Two which then begets the Three, et cetera, before we get into the Forms.
Another 11 comes up on the Devotion roll ~ much more expectedly, this time, I should add, as it’s a 2d6+4 roll ~ to give us a semiannual devotion. Twice a year, this religion meets to worship and advance the boundaries of knowledge. We continue the 2d6+4 rolls with one to determine the Organization Structure of the faith, getting a 7. That means that it has a loose hierarchy with most decisions made on the planetary level. That, in turn, means the Liturgical Formality is just a 2d6 roll. An 8 means that rituals are combined with an open teaching policy. I’m feeling, again, that religious gatherings resemble an academic conference more than a tent revival.
Speaking of, how much Fervor do its Missionaries have? 2D6-2 tells us that only an ordinary level of proselytization is present and that any sophont species is welcome with an 8. Let’s roll the dWikipedia to name this religion now, and maybe we can flesh out some more of its ways before we determine how many people practice it. How about the Students of Great Men? I addressed issues of religious racism down on Ishee (well, speciesism, but it’s the classic space-opera substitute) and it’s shown up here on Amon Assemon, so why not mix in some explorations of scientific/spiritual sexism up here? Also, I have brushed up against way too much gay-male sexism in my life (being coercively assigned as male, they always seem to think they can talk to me as if I’m “one of the boys”) and this small Assemonite religion could be a good way to comment on that.
OK, so let’s imagine a new take on Rose Brother or even Azeyrenawti teachings. No one is trying to summon Hermachis of the Horizon or remember the world-shaking inventions that have done so in the past. This faith believes in a handful of Genii (plural of genius, mind you) who project images of themselves by means of the ancestors (for an Associationist element) into “images”, great men who swell the bounds of science and achieve great feats of engineering. Much of the Students’ study is dedicated to identifying which of the handful of Genii are manifesting any given image ~ because the ancestors control the cosmological technology to allow the projection, they can manipulate and shape the image according to their tastes, and often dress up the more disreputable Genii in upstanding images that portray the values of their society to the utmost.
Imagine the rows that develop between the Azeyrenawti and the Students, over species and sex, over the number of divine beings and the relevance of Spiritualism, over the steady progress of projection and the respectful honor due the grand inventions of the past!
A 4 on 3d6-8 allots the Students of Great Men tens of thousands of followers. Random.org can narrow that amount down to 65,802 Students of Great Men. With numbers like that, I say we finish off Amon Assemon’s population with 142 Students, or 1.6% of the planet.
Religious landscape of Amon Assemon:
5227 sophonts (59%) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
2747 sophonts (31%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners
390 sophonts (4.4%) the Tickseed Feast (Tickseeds, Feasters, Tickers, Seedies)
354 humans (4%) Azeyrenawt
142 sophonts (1.6%) Students of Great Men (Students)
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