OK, let’s create a new religion ~ you probably remember that this is one of my favorite things!
Frustratingly, I can’t seem to find the version of my world creation file that has the 1d20 version of the God View table, so I roll 3d6 and find that this religion’s basic theology is avatar polytheism (6). Like certain interpretations of various Hinduisms, this religion has a multitude of many gods, all of which are manifestations or names or forms of a small handful of divine beings. Similar interpretations of Greco-Roman religion (Poseidon Earth-Shaker is not necessarily the same as Poseidon Horse-Lover; alternatively, Neo-Platonism was all about mapping the manifestations of the One through the Ideal Forms to the bewildering diversity of earthly beings), Afro-Diasporic religions (where different “roads” or “paths” of various beings are discussed, and the orishas are sometimes referred to as classes of spirit beings rather than individuals), and Neo-Wicca (which oft repeats that “All gods are one God; all goddesses are one Goddess”).
A 2d6-1 result of 6 tells us that this religion preaches that worshipers will be received into paradise when they die, whereas the same roll comes up 8 to reveal that the religion requires a monthly devotional practice. This starts to give me a bit of an inspiration about this religion, as I begin to see in my mind’s eye images of coven meetings every “moon” ON the moon. Maybe it’s related to Ishee’s parahuman and bioroid Bio-Witches movement?
On the other hand a 10 on 2d6+1 tells us that there is no organization beyond the regional level and a 13 on 2d6+3 gives the religion a highly informal liturgy with some limitations on topics or references. I’m starting to feel like this religion is SUPER domestic and homey, pursuing a cozy feeling as its preferred altered state of consciousness within a Neo-Wiccan avatar-dualism theology. These monthly devotions with their highly informal liturgies could be very classic witchy ~ not 13 people around a cauldron, but a bunch of folk gathered in a kitchen cooking together. Galactic culture as a whole might be stymied by the deep, deep importance laid upon these gatherings, but remember that this culture treats eating as a private matter away from everyone else. Shockingly to Assemonite society, members of this religion allow people who aren’t their family or spouse to see them eat ~ it’d be the equivalent of, say, a high-class Victorian woman showing her ankles to someone who wasn’t her husband or parents, or a conservative Muslim woman taking off her burqa outside of the home, or ancient Roman Christians performing unisex rituals where rich and poor participate equally. Incredibly intimate, and one’s coven is thus composed of your ultimate confidantes.
The 2d6-2 roll for Missionary Fervor comes up 4, revealing active efforts to proselytize the religion among a limited number of sophont species. In truth, this is probably about as high as it makes sense for this religion to have on this table ~ zealous proselytizing on Amon Assemon would likely result in any number of indignant slaps, if not worse, as you invited people to violate a cultural taboo. And if we hold to the Neo-Wiccan duotheism, then the religion would likely not make sense to species with strong gender binaries. Hell, it likely flourishes among humans, but I’m a human and nonbinary and I find Neo-Wicca too binarist for me to practice it!
This religion stretches beyond whatever meager atmosphere Amon Assemon might have, as it has tens of thousands of adherents (3d6-4=4). Turning to random.org, I set the number at 73,217 practitioners ~ there’s only 532 unaligned people left on Amon Assemon! That’s 6% of the moon’s population, so I’m gonna roll 1d60 (divided by ten) to figure out this religion’s share of that population: 4.4%, which is most of that remaining population, or 390 sophonts. Rolling the dWikipedia, let’s call it the Tickseed Feast.
Oh, and I’m thinking that the higher levels of organization (surface region, planetary, galactic region) are composed of 4th degree and higher practitioners who spend their time traveling between various monthly home meetings to dispense wisdom and provide cohesion to the religion. 1st degree would be a new initiate or acolyte, 2nd a full initiate able to participate fully in the religion, and 3rd the ability to act as a host and invite people to your home for the monthly gatherings.
Going back and reading the earlier blog post on the Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft on Ishee, I determine that there is no connection between the two religions.
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
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