The least science-fictional part of this is the idea that a magazine could spawn a religion (Traveller)

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Science fiction, particularly space-oriented science fiction like Traveller, does not often treat religion well.  Either religion goes ignored, or exists only to be argued against (glares at the New Atheists), or is played up for wackiness.  Even moreso if the religion in question isn't some realworld religion like Islam.  This is unsatisfying to me, as a member of several fringe religions (where are the Thelemites in the United Federation of Planets?) and as someone quite fascinated by UFO religions and other attempts to religiously understand new scientific concepts.  I'm also quite intrigued both by the seeming incoherence of the future to the present and by the interplay of old and new in the fringe religions of space.

However, my own space opera setting for Traveller puts quite a bit more attention on religion.  It was a Unitarian-turned-Spiritualist who discovered (or was instructed by the spirits how to build) the Electric Messiah.  The Electric Messiah (which is powered by sex,) in turn, is the only mechanism able to harness the Casey Jones Effect, the results of an old train engineer managing to transition completely into the noosphere.  Apotheosis, in other words.

The background religion of the galaxy, then, is Spiritualist in nature, all seances and channeling.  Spiritualism, of course, is one of those fascinating religious processing science (in this case, the telegraph, with Spiritualism's child Theosophy focusing on evolution.)  In this fecund mix, the Spirit Associations ~ such as the Association of Electrizers that gave John Murray Spear the New Motive Power ~ loom large.  But many other ways of approaching the divine and the holy litter these starry skies.

A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
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• God View:  Rational Atheism.  A rejection of the existence of a Supreme Being on the basis of science, logic, or reasoning.
• Spiritual Aim:  Worshipers will be received into paradise when they die.
• Devotion Required:  Daily.
• Organization Structure:  Loose hierarchy with most decisions on the regional level.
• Liturgical Formality:  Services are conducted in a "holy tongue" few worshipers can understand.
• Missionary Fervor:  Active among a limited number of sophonts.
• Number of Adherents:  51,863,606,959,219 sophonts
• 263 (0.00000000000507%) Wrecking Ballers
• 175 (0.00000000000337%) Morgan-Beavisians
• 56 (0.00000000000108%) Beyonders
• 36 (0.00000000000069%) Hausulings
• 4 (0.00000000000008%) Nomians

A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research is a widely published magazine billed as "a solemn out-pouring in public of the nobler feelings of Humanity and its descendants, inspiring them with larger and more comprehensive thoughts towards a beautiful system of morality with Love as a principle, Order as the basis, and Progress as the goal, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."  It has become both the expression and center of a burgeoning religious movement.  Members stretch the whole breadth of human territory, both imperial and not, and beyond to the polities of the parahuman species and even into the interstellar states of the Greys and Pleiadians.  The viewpoint espoused by the magazine rejects introspective and intuitive knowledge, in favor of knowledge built up by direct and personal experience by one's own senses of natural phenomena, their properties, and their relations.  Also suspicious is putting much, if any, weight on the experiences reported by others, for both deceit and the Derridan process of the reflection of meaning are inevitable.  

A complete system of belief and ritual has grown up in and around the magazine and the writings contained within, with liturgy and sacraments, a dual priesthood (of editorial priests and the teacher-priests who write the contents of the magazine) and pontiffal council.  Subscriberism (the common shorthand to refer to the movement as a whole) embraces determinism, detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary, proposing that spiritual literature should be like controlled experiments in which the characters function as the phenomena being experienced.  When humans with their creations confront the world of nature, the illusion of gods is revealed and the universe's indifference realized.  When they are not confronting the natural cosmos, the extraordinary and excessive features in human nature are influenced by the social environment in the forms of a class structure based on slavery, social change, and heredity (all large, cliodynamical forces according to Subscriberist thought, beyond any individual's control) which inevitably and horribly isolates certain individuals.

Organized around the public veneration of Humanity and its descendants, Subscriberism relies on associations in its general language use, hoping that by doing so they can create sensory experiences, rather than relate their flawed interpretations of their experiences.  Many of these associations revolve around the story of the legendary architect Hiram Abiff and his artistry in building an ancient Temple during which construction he is said to have died.  Despite a general mistrust of anything which cannot be perceived with the individual's senses, this religion without a metaphysics or a theology generally agrees that some sort of afterlife exists.  They call this principle the conservation of the observer; because one cannot perceive any situation in which they are not perceiving, the existence of such situations is less certain than the existence of situations in which one is perceiving.  Certainty is simply a synonym for reality (as seen with an analog analysis), and so being unable to perceive is less real than eternal perception, otherwise known as the afterlife.  However, because said afterlife cannot be perceived by the living or communicated by the dead, it is rarely described in the magazine, at least with any detail.  The metaphor of the Temple Hiram Abiff Built is often leveraged on the relatively rare occasion that a Contributing Author feels the need to discuss the afterlife.  Though it is the relationship of Hiram to the temple that is most important, many Subscribers imagine that the Temple Hiram Abiff Built is a "place" which places no restrictions on the ability to experience, allowing one to experience anything they wish and have new and surprising experiences without any effort or obstacle.  In other words, a Subscriber paradise.

Didactic stories in A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research and Subscriber attention in general are centered on people's mental life, such as impressions, feelings, sensations, and emotions, without trying to interpret them.  In a perhaps surprising twist given its veneration of Humanity and descendants as a whole, the magazine's teachings tend to focus on a particular person's perception of events and subjective point of view of reality rather than generalizing, for the same reason. The most important people's perceptions to relate are those that lie outside the norm, on the blurred edges of reality, when viewed without romantic idealization or dramatization.  Stylistically, Contributing Authors select few details to convey the sense impressions left by an incident or scene.  Both in their art and their thought, Subscribers strive to represent all that they experience truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions such as embellishment or interpretation, as well as implausible, exotic, and supernatural elements.  They build everything around third-person objective reality and focus on everyday, quotidian activities and life.  As such, the Subscriber approach inherently implies a belief that such reality (or truth) is ontologically independent of man's conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, and beliefs, and thus can be known (or knowable) to the individual observer.

Interpretation of the empirical evidence of one's own senses is sadly necessary for any conclusions or decisions to be made therefrom, and so the magazine is yet replete with fictionalized accounts of various contributors' experiences, particularly intense, exciting, or rare ones.  The best of these strive to leverage child-friendly prose of the adventure writing and detective mystery story genres (and its accompanying art) to demonstrate the habits of thought for which the readers of the magazine strive, the interrogation of and limitation to the evidence of the senses and the avoidance of putting undue weight on one's interpretations of the things they sense.

The hyper-individualistic beliefs and practices of this religion veer past the limitations of the scientific method.  Theory is an interpretation of sensory experience and, thus, less trustworthy.  The circular dependence of theory and observation is broken, and only observation reigns supreme.  In fact, all of history is broadly divided by Subscribers into three ages in the pages of the magazine.  The first, called the Theological Age, is one in which people don't experience things themselves, but receive experience from putative Gods and the much-less-putative authorities that claim to intercede before them. One's place in society is governed by their association with the divine presences and with the church, and the probative qualities of the senses go ignored.  Logic brings the Metaphysical Age thereafter, a whole age where individual interpretation of all the grand universe rules.  Senses are now and newly honored, but only in service to the imaginary models and theories that seek a single, if complex, answer to fit every question.  Universal rights become the focus of ethics in this time.  Finally the third age, the Scientific Age, comes.  Now the contradictions are resolved; the universe is divorced from itself, denied a false unitarianism.  Individual sensations can be savored, without the dulling veil of preconceived and abstract idea, and the conquests of the individual will become centered in all ethical questions.

All societies, human and nonhuman, must proceed through these three stages in linear procession, first the first and then the second, according to Subscriber belief.  Much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws ~ the same experience being so precisely, if not perfectly, recreatable by setting up broadly similar conditions ~ so does society, according to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research.  In fact, the magazine has ranked the types of sensation according to each one's positivity, the level of detailed exactitude immediately available in each, and thus the surety of recreating any given individual sensation.  The positivity of each sensation and general type it has determined mathematically, making that abstract science the gauge by which priorities are determined.  In order of decreasing positivity, the hierachy, as presented in the magazine, is astronomical experience, physical experience, chemical experience, biological experience, and social experience.

Trinitarian in nature, A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research generally reveres the New Supreme Great Being (Humanity and its descendants), the Grand Fétish (the Planets which give Humanity and its descendants their life), and the Grand Milieu (the Cosmos in which everything exists.)  The basic, local organisational unit of Subscriberism is the Publishing and Archival Lodge, often abbreviated PAL.  These private groups are supervised at the regional level (usually coterminous with county, or a subsector if the population of Subscribers is small enough) by an Omphalic PAL, or OPAL.  Subscribers organize themselves by degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Reader, and Contributing Author.  It's common practice for Subscribers to precede their names with abbreviations for their degrees: E.A., F.R., and C.A.  The candidate of these three degrees is progressively brought to an empirical understanding of the meanings of common associations used by the writers in the magazine and entrusted with grips, signs, and words to signify to other Subscribers that they have been so initiated.  The ceremony for each degree is part allegorical morality play and part lecture.  In each of these ceremonies, the candidate must first take the new obligations of the degree (including those of secrecy and to support other Subscribers in need), and is then entrusted with the secret knowledge confined to their new rank.  

The PAL meets daily, just after the workday finishes, and conducts the usual formal business of any small organisation (approve minutes, elect new members, appoint officers and take their reports, consider correspondence, bills and annual accounts, organise social and charitable events, organise local publication of A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research, managing their library of past issues, etc.).  In addition to such business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a degree or elsewise receive a lecture, which is usually on some aspect of Subscriber history, philosophy, or ritual.  Ritual or teaching, this portion of the meeting is conducted in a language known as Metrical Lojban, a descendant of the logical language known as Gua\spi, itself a tonal descendant of Lojban (in turn a descendant of Loglan.)  The name of Metrical Lojban is a bit of a pun, as it uses the rhythm of its tones to focus its grammar and syntax on a very mathematical and bare description of observed reality within the confines of the logic built into it.  Few Subscribers understand this language, of course, but it is considered both the most precise and the most concise with which to express Subscriber ideas nonetheless.  At the conclusion of the meeting, the PAL holds what they call a festive board (a formal dinner, sometimes involving toasting and song.)

Most PALs host occasional social functions of some sort, allowing members, their partners, and non-Subscriber guests to meet openly.  Often coupled with these events is the discharge of every Subscriber's and PAL's collective obligation to contribute to charity.  This occurs at many levels, including in annual dues, subscriptions, fundraising events, PALs and OPALs.  Subscribers and their charities contribute for the relief of need in many fields, such as education, health, and old age.

Editorial priests produce the magazine itself, which is seen as a form of collective prayer.  They are seen as interstellar ambassadors of altruism, arbitrating in industrial and political disputes, while the teacher-priests are charged with writing articles for the magazine and directing public opinion.  Both of these orders strive to be scholars, physicians, poets, and artists.  Indeed all the arts, including dancing and singing, are practiced by them, like the bards of ancient societies.  This requires long training, so training generally begins from the age of twenty-eight, studying in Subscriber schools.  After seven years, the priest generally announces whether they are to be among the editors or the teachers; they then spend another seven years serving in an apprentice position as a proofreader, commentarian, and secretary for those who have chosen the teacher path and a ritualist for those aimed at the position of an editorial priest.  Only then, at the age of forty-two at the youngest, can they become a full priest.  They earn no money from the magazine, and are barred from holding offices outside the priesthood.  In this way their influence is purely spiritual and moral.  

A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research generally posits that "feminine values" represent the triumph of non-sentimentality, disillusioned objective understanding, and moral force; various writers published regularly in the magazine attempt to define and further these virtues for the readership.  Both editorial priests and teacher-priests are thus required to be married to at least one feminine partner, regardless of their own gender, in order to attain full priesthood because of the ennobling influence of womanhood.

A series of degrees above that of Contributing Author exist beyond the level of the OPAL for editorial priests, leading in a hierarchy up another thirty degrees to the eventual top of the Subscriber hierarchy, the 33rd-degree Subscribers holding the title of Editor-in-Chief.  They gather in bodies known as Commissioning Omphallic Publishing and Archival Lodges (or COPALs.)  Although the Editorial Board (made up of all of the Editors-in-Chief) functions as the pontiffal authority for A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research, that authority is greatly limited both officially and effectively by the hyper-individualistic philosophies of the publication's readers and writers.  Most Subscribers treat any proclamation, decision, or missive from an authority higher up than their regional OPAL as something only marginally more important than a curiosity.  Contributing Authors may also extend their mastery of Subscriber philosophies by taking further degrees outside of this hierarchy, in groups that may or may not be affiliated with their PAL or OPAL; these extended degrees are generally recognized by other Subscribers whether or not approved by their own OPAL or that of the advanced degree-holder.

Almost all officers of a PAL are elected or appointed annually.  Every PAL has an Installed Master, two Wardens, a treasurer and a secretary.   Subscriber ceremonies are guarded by a sixth officer known as the "Tyler" (who may or may not be a priest of either type) outside the door with a drawn sword to keep out unqualified intruders.  The Tyler is necessarily senior, because at the door they may hear ceremonies limited to the highest degrees, and, thus, a less affluent elderly Subscriber is often offered the office to relieve their need for Subscriber company, refreshments, and/or fees, without having to pay a subscription.  In fact, Tylers may be paid to secure the privacy of Subscriber ritual!  They take minor parts at the door of all meetings and ceremonies.  

As stated, there is formal instruction as to the duties of a Subscriber, but on the whole, Subscribers are left to explore the ideas of the magazine in the manner they find most satisfying.  Some will simply enjoy the dramatics, or the management and administration of the PAL, while others will explore the history, ritual and symbolism of the craft, and yet others will focus their involvement on their PAL's social side, perhaps in association with other PALs, while still others will concentrate on the PAL's charitable functions.  

To be a Subscriber...

• Oppose all metaphysics, especially ontology and synthetic a priori propositions
• Reject metaphysics not as wrong but as meaningless
• See logic and even mathematics as expressing only tautologies that lay outside the realm of direct sensory experience and thus unable to provide meaning
• Insist that language is thus limited in its ability to remain meaningful by futilely striving to be a mere reflection of facts
• Understand science as a byproduct of sensory experience, a linguistic or numerical set of statements that are not to be trusted
• Believe that sensory experience is nature and nature is sensory experience; and out of this duality, all theories and postulates are created, interpreted, and ultimately shown to be false
• Believe that all theory and thought incorporate ideas that are discontinuous from the experience they claim as their object
• Believe that one's senses produce specific experiences that are dissociated from the personality, thoughts, and social position of the investigator
• Believe that sensory experience is predominantly transcultural
• Believe that sensory experience is markedly cumulative
• Insist that at least some of these statements are testable; that is, amenable to being verified, confirmed, or shown to be false by an individual's empirical observation of reality.  Understand that that observation is individual, and thus may differ.
• Respect the Human Species, conceived as a continuous whole, including its unified past, the exponentially speciating present, and the uncertain future
• Act altruistically, leading to generosity and selfless dedication to others
• Seek to bring order to the chaos of society
• Pursue progress as the consequence of industrial and technical breakthroughs for society
• Espouse the twin principles of absolute liberty of conscience and human solidarity  
• Above all work on the project of "rational reconstruction," in which ordinary-language concepts are gradually replaced by more precise equivalents in a standard language

The sacraments practiced by Subscribers total eleven, not all of which are experienced by every Subscriber, obviously:

1. Introduction (when one is given a name and a sponsor purchases them a subscription to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research)
2. Admission (marking one's education as complete)
3. Initiation as Entered Apprentice
4. Destination (in which a Subscriber announces their choice of career)
5. Initiation as Fellow Reader
6. Marriage
7. Initiation as Contributing Author
8. Installation as an Installed Master of the PAL (abbreviated I.M.), or as one of their appointed or elected officers.  This installation lasts a full year, at which point the I.M. is named a Past Master (P.M.) in the next Installation, with privileges in the PAL and OPAL.
9. Retirement (performed upon reaching six standard decades of age)
10. Separation (the removal of a Subscriber from the community, by their choice or the community's)
11. Incorporation (celebrating someone's absorption into history; performed on the third anniversary of their death)

Denominations of Subscriberism

Several threads weave the complex and somewhat freewheeling tapestry of Subscriber thought.  None are exclusive of any of the others and, though individual Subscribers may primarily identify themselves with but a single one of these threads, in truth the vast majority of Subscribers incorporate elements of many.  The Bannermen are relatively unique among these denominations for their focus on incorporating elements of specific old Earthling cultures; specifically, Bannermen syncretize their ideas with those of the Indian subcontinent.  This focus is paired with an emphasis on writing for children and propagating Subscriber thought through those means.  Meanwhile, Steadmen put their emphasis on scientific and technical endeavours pursued in an idyllic atmosphere and related with a lyric tone that allows for greater use of allegory.

Pembertonian Subscribers are creatures of the finer things in life, dandies and frequenters of clubs from the exclusive to the tawdry, with a penchant for nigh-unbelievable heights of adventure and scientific criminology.  Harradens (sic), on the other hand, lean into the Subscriber preference for "feminine virtues" and work to manifest them in society by influencing its social scene and theater with their writings and performances.  They do, however, tend to reject militancy and exclusivity on the whole in this pursuit and that also of the advancement of non-men in situations that oppress them.  The alienation of the individual in the modern world haunts their works, and a slight romance bleeds into their beliefs thereby, with a focus on love for disagreeable men whose actions can only be seen as what they are by the Subscriber.  Their stories also show a marked tendency to end with tragic and meaningless deaths, such as by traffic accidents unrelated to the plot, emphasizing the fallibility of interpretation.

Both the Harradens and the Looneys place a special honor on the writings of Shakespeare, though that latter camp likes to claim that they were authored instead by a man they say was named de Vere (which they go on to claim means "from Truth".)  The Looneys see the process of writing as revealing an intimate, credible psychodrama to which principles of Subscriber empirical psychology can be applied, and insist that the value of the magazine is increased if it is read outside (however that is defined on a given planet.)  They have a marked tendency to become editorial priests for the magazine.  Glaspellites share the Harradens' focus on feminine virtues, and are known among Subscribers for their daring views on justice and morality, manifested in a willingness to make principled stands and political dissent, to engage in debate for fun, and to lampoon the upper classes.  Reluctant to seek publicity and tending to downplay their achievements, they believe that compassion, rooted in their interpretation of Subscriber ethics and given an especial prominence when directed at nonsophont species, is the path to being worthy inheritors of the land.

In many ways the hipsters of the Subscriber religion, Crane Style Subscribers are often attracted to stories of war, either fictional or journalistic.  Each throws away their name and refines an individual and distinctive dialect to seek a life full of vivid intensity, intellectual honesty (as much as a weak mental machinery will allow,) immediacy, and irony.  Themes of fear, spiritual crises, the disillusionment from the glory of war when faced with its realities, and social isolation proliferate throughout Crane Style thought; much is discussed of the degradation of youth as it moves from innocence to a being who has collected many experiences.  They vehemently reject sentimentality in their explorations of these themes, asserting that a story should be logical in its action and faithful to character. Truth to life itself is the only test, the greatest artists are the simplest, and simple because they are true.  Aloof, moody, skeptical, reserved, and rebellious (though friendly,) they tend to ignore mathematics and science in favor of history and linguistics, these studies only being eclipsed by a vigorous dedication to military-style drills and various sports descended from the old sport of baseball.  These physical pursuits tend to take priority over the action of the mind in Crane Style.  The moral prescriptions of others are deemed by Crane Style Subscribers to be even less worthy of attention than their interpretations of their sensory experiences; they love to deflate the hypocrisy they see surrounding them.  Looking at the universe with an honest and unsentimental eye, Crane Style Subscribers deem the human nature found in the slums to be open and plain, with nothing hidden.  Accordingly, they can often be found haunting the bars, brothels, and flophouses there.  Subscribers of this Style talk about three stances, or three ways of approaching the world:  the Red Stance (flexible, swift, abrupt and nervous), Open Boat Stance (supple majesty), and Monster Stance (closed, circumstantial, and normal in feeling).  They rapidly flow between these three stances, as needed in the moment.

Pearian Subscribers are explorers, driven to experience things that have never before been experienced by the people of their home culture.  They train to endure much and to survive in nearly any environment or situation.  Sharing these experiences is a virtue second only to gaining them, and in true Subscriber fashion, they seek to do so as directly as possible.  Underhanded methods such as theft and deceit are explicitly and openly allowed in pursuit of this second virtue.  If a new experience cannot be shared directly and without interpretation, Pearians strive to be as uninterpretative as possible, mastering surveying, technical-artistic, and mathematical techniques to describe things as specifically as they can.  They are also known for their mastery of the less-glamorous fields of quartermastery and supply chains and the like, all to help ensure their ability to range well beyond what is known to them and their people; their thirdmost important virtue, after all, is tenacity.  Many have accused Pearians of being primarily interested in accolades, celebrity, awards, and recognition.  For their part, Pearians mostly change the subject when these accusations come up.

Finally, Doylist Subscribers tend to focus their scientific studies on the life sciences ~ biology, botany, and medicine ~ and their political efforts on preventing the atomization of large polities.  In fact, great emphasis is placed among them on political engagement, usually in support of that position, as well as of military engagement, criminal appeal, and colonial reform.  Many can be found among numerous deliberative bodies across the galaxy.  They are also very concerned with the danger of becoming trapped in (by) their creations, so they are well-known for doing things like trying to kill off popular characters in stories.  Their curiosity has less of an explorers' edge, being concentrated upon mysteries and the unexplained; a puzzle of justice gone cold fascinates a Doylist far more than the promise of a distant and unseen planet.  To this end, Doylists also show a marked interest in history, sifting through time for unanswered questions.  Doylists are also more willing to consider questions outside of their experience, indulging in the occasional spot of speculation or fantasy as a means to sharpen their intellect by creating unbelievable mysteries to solve and meaningless questions to answer.  This school of Subscriber thought places great emphasis on vigorous sport; pugilism, team field sports, golf, billiards, and bodybuilding are common pastimes among Subscribers of this type.  They also tend to find great and joyous wisdom in architectural design.

Doylists are the Subscribers most sympathetic to the mainstream Spiritualist religions, happy to investigate paranormal and ghostly phenomena, which they collectively call "The New Revelation" or "The Vital Message."  This sympathy (which can extend to syncretism) extends also to various Christian and fairy religions, as well, and is a main cause for the occasional ridicule Doylists (and sometimes Subscribers as a whole) face.  Because A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research rejects any evidence beyond that which is personally sensed by the individual, Doylists have been known to continue believing in some paranormal experience they've had, even after the perpetrator of the fraud, trick, or illusion takes great pains to impress upon them the truth of the experience's falsity.  Sometimes they are called "the Gullibles" as a result.

Subscriber Character Ideas

Prospective contributor to the magazine (adventurer/author):  Eager to become a Contributing Author, this Fellow Reader is treating their degree as if they were a journeyperson in a guild, travelling the galaxy hoping to have grand new adventures.  They hope to write the new experiences gained thereby into a series of articles they can submit to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research.  They are likely to get distracted by any sort of opportunity for a new and strange sensation, their eagerness conflicting with both more immediate concerns and other possible virtues.  They are also likely to skip sleeping so as to make time to agonize over each and every word choice in the interminable series of articles on which they are working.

Scientific sensualist:  One of the most intellectual species of Subscriber, this hedonist is out to enjoy all the varied pleasures of the galaxy for themself.  They subject their experiences to intense scrutiny so that they can wring every last bit of pleasure out of an experience.  Massages from them are moments in heaven stretching languorously between the very deliberate pressure of their hands.  Food cooked by them is unmatched in its delectability.  What they lose in novelty, they make up in intensity ~ though they do seek out new sensations, of course.  Practice only makes perfect if it occurs in a myriad of contexts.

Utopian technocrat:  If the social world operates on laws just like the physical world does, than its problems are solvable.  If viewed unflinchingly, without theory or sentimentality, and from below, that is.  Some Subscribers arrange to work in the administration or governance of settlements/polities of a variety of sizes and types.  From there, they grapple with perfecting society, chasing the dream of a just universe.

Anti-theoretical detective:  Subscribers who work in the criminalogical fields frustrate their co-workers to no end.  They simply refuse to come to conclusions or theorize about who might have committed the crime.  Instead, they merely log and describe the evidence they discover, every last, little, seemingly insignificant bit of it.  Lawyers love this care and effort, of course, as it builds completely unpenetrable cases that invariably win.  If they don't put the Subscriber detective on the stand, of course.

A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research in the Scimecan System

The Scimecan system plays host to a total of eleven PALs (metacommentarial note ~ once I have created the other solar systems in the county, one of these might turn out to be the local OPAL):

• The Order of Precedence PAL in Thomas Henry's Magisterial Consulate City (the only city on Wrecking Ball), consists of 87 Subscribers
• WE-GO PAL in Thomas Henry's Magisterial Consulate City consists of 78 Subscribers
• Yellow Snowdrop PAL in Armée (the only city on Morgan-Beavis) consists of 65 Subscribers
• Dacrydium PAL in Armée consists of 58 Subscribers
• Friedel Kienzel-Tietze PAL in Beaver Crevasse (the only settlement on Beyond Counting) consists of 56 Subscribers
• Trinity Church PAL in Melanderi Station (the only city on Nomia) consists of only 4 Subscribers, but also serves the 36 Subscribers on Hausu
  
• Bill's PAL in Thomas Henry's Magisterial Consulate City consists of 40 Subscribers
• Amirov PAL in Thomas Henry's Magisterial Consulate City consists of 30 Subscribers
• Tarrafal PAL in Armée consists of 29 Subscribers
• Philocaesar Philoromaios Eusebius PAL in Thomas Henry's Magisterial Consulate City consists of 28 Subscribers
• Opus Development and Dictionarial PAL (often abbreviated ODDPAL) in Armée consists of 23 Subscribers

A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research lacks enough Subscribers on both Morgan-Beavis and Nomia lack the numbers to exert much of an influence on those planets.  Among the teeming masses of the former planet, the Subscribers mostly disappear into the metropolitan crowd.  Despite this, Tarrafal PAL provides Subscribers the greatest access to the ears of the contract nobility (and possible contracts themselves;) though the religion possesses more cultural gravity on another baronial world, the Baroness Hausu is not well-disposed to be friendly toward her subjects.  ODDPAL provides a similar function for Morgan-Beavisian Subscribers who wish access to the halls of corporate power.  All approaches to Subscriber thought are in exhibition here, ebbing and flowing into, over, and through each other, with no one way becoming trendy long enough to dominate the Subscriber scene on this world.

On the other hand, the nigh-singularity-tech world of Nomia plays host to a mere handful of Subscribers, giving surprise to many that it is possessed of a PAL while the nearby baronial planet of Hausu isn't.  The magazine notably fails to provide an explanation for this or the Trinity Church PAL's authority over the more numerous Hausuling Subscribers.  Baroness Geertruida Sachs barely tolerates the situation, though she is no more forthcoming than A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research, limiting her resistance to courtly, legal, and legislative maneuvers to prevent this off-planet influence on her subjects.  The truth of the matter is that the Hausuling Subscribers make up the primary organizing force for the liberation and self-determination of the Hausulings.  These Harradens and Glaspellites are rebels against the Baroness, who finds her hands tied by the need to keep the situation on Hausu only vaguely known offworld.

The neo-feralist culture of the ice-planet Beyond Counting, where the Unionists' Guild maintains its primary Scimecan lyceum, rejects the stupefying abstractions of civilized, technological culture.  Many among them have thus found resonance with A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research's insistence on the primacy of one's own sensory experiences.  Of course, literacy isn't exactly common among the Beyonders, but Friedel Kienzel-Tietze PAL gets around this minor obstacle by lavishly decorating their walls with pictorial translations of the magazine's contents and teaching a small group of Contributing Authors to read and then relate those contents with grand storytelling.  Harraden and Crane Style ways of understanding these presentations are popular, with their focus on social alienation, also a large part of the neo-feralist critique of city culture.  Between the two, Crane Style is the most popular, with its focus on stories involving the taking of risks which Beyonder culture also prizes.  The presence of the Unionist lyceum and discussions with the prospective Unionists studying there has also led to a strong undercurrent of Doylist Subscriberism incorporating bits of the Spiritualism of the Unionists' Guild.

Wrecking Ball was granted to the various parahuman species by special marquesal proclamation.  It serves as a diplomatic center and welcoming threshold to the Scimecan system as a whole for parahuman visitors, as well as any Greys, Pleiadians, other aliens, and even humans who wish to visit.  As such, it has found a surprising use for (and, accordingly, adherence to) the teachings of A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research.  A dedicated resistance to the act of interpretation helps prevent intercultural blunders and promote listening to others describe the meaning of their ways rather than seeing them only through the filters constructed of one's own.  Promoting more Stedmen and Pembertonian approaches also helps in pacifying potential conflicts with idyll and pleasure.

 

There are a total of 355,791 sophonts residing in the Scimecan System.  Of those:

• 217,954 (61%) claim no adherence to any one religion, or haven't decided on a religion
• 91,338 (26%) list themselves as Spiritualists without any particular denomination
• 29,953 (8.4%) are adherents of the Water-Candy Way
• 2098 (0.59%) are adherents of Mujtama al-Khullaanin an-Nassin Tafsiiriyy (Interpretative Society of Friends of the Text)
• 1726 (0.49%) list their religion as "other"
• 897 (0.25%) follow the Reeths-Puffer Method
• 574 (0.16%) describe themselves as Finnish Evolutionary Pagans
• 534 (0.15%) subscribe to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 289 (0.081%) participate in the Aṣẹ-Ball Championships
• 184 (0.052%) practice the Money Spider Technique for Exaltation as a Latter-Day Hero
• 116 (0.033%) are adherents of Confession
• 83 (0.023%) are adherents of Valovovanism
• 30 (0.0084%) are adherents of the Bread and Roses Syndic of Mama Nature's Children
• 8 (0.0022%) are adherents of Miresa
• 3 (0.00084%) are adherents of the Unpurchased Sybilline Essays of One Jeremy Sharp, Policeman

The religious breakdowns of each of the inhabited planets in the system follows:

Hatfield, 261,606 sophonts

• 167,428 (64%) non-religious/undecided
• 70,635 (27%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 21,713 (8.3%) the Water-Candy Way
• 941 (0.36%) other
• 889 (0.34%) Reeths-Pufferites

Wrecking Ball, 936 sophonts

• 372 (40%) non-religious/undecided
• 263 (28%) Subscribers to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 197 (21%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 87 (9.3%) other
• 17 (1.8%) Money Spiders

Nomia, 710 sophonts

• 355 (50%) nonreligious/undecided
• 341 (48%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 6 (0.85%) Money Spiders
• 4 (0.6%) Subscribers to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 4 (0.6%) other

Hausu, 381 sophonts

• 201 (53%) nonreligious/undecided
• 118 (31%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 36 (9.4%) Subscribers to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 10 (2.62%) Ballers
• 8 (2.1%) Reeths-Pufferites
• 6 (1.6%) Money Spiders
• 2 (0.52%) other

Sprinter's Commonwealth, 617 sophonts

• 475 (77%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 67 (11%) nonreligious/undecided
• 66 (10.7%) Money Spiders
• 8 (1.3%) other
• 1 (0.17%) the Water-Candy Way

Morgan-Beavis, 83,208 sophonts

• 59,077 (71%) nonreligious/undecided
• 14,977 (18%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 8239 (9.9%) the Water-Candy Way
• 308 (0.37%) Khullaanin
• 230 (0.276%) other
• 175 (0.21%) Subscribers to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 116 (0.14%) Confessors
• 83 (0.1%) Valovovans
• 3 (0.004%) Sharpers

Goat's Rue, 171 sophonts

• 145 (85%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 20 (11.7%) nonreligious/undecided
• 5 (2.92%) other
• 1 (0.58%) Money Spiders

Robenhymer, 7459 sophonts

• 4177 (56%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 1790 (24%) Khullaanin
• 574 (7.7%) Finnish Evolutionary Pagans
• 432 (5.8%) other
• 276 (3.7%) Ballers
• 149 (2%) nonreligious/undecided
• 30 (0.4%) Children
• 23 (0.3%) Money Spiders
• 8 (0.1%) Miresalai

Beyond Counting, 703 sophonts

• 288 (41%) nonreligious/undecided
• 274 (39%) undifferentiated Spiritualist
• 65 (9.2%) Money Spiders
• 56 (8%) Subscribers to A Pocketful of Positivist Miracles and Psychical Research
• 17 (2.42%) other
• 3 (0.43%) Ballers

Cheese it, it's the cops! (Traveller Tuesday #12)

Time to determine the law level in each of the four Isheean nations.

The Guild-State of the Rose Brothers rolls 2d6-4 for its law level. We roll for each of five different types of law, and then average them out to get an idea of its overall law level. First up is weapons law, which gets a 2. This a low level of law; only nukes, body pistols, explosives, poison gas, and portable energy weapons are prohibited. Of course, weapons are one of sophontry's favorite things to tinker with and invent, which is an act revered by the Rose Brothers and impossible to do if you don't have them around. Trade law is also a 2, quite reasonably (for a nation like this one, anyway) leaving trade quite free. How can innovations shift paradigms if they can't get around? The law gets stricter when it comes to criminal acts, rising to a moderate 4. And it rises even higher in civil suits: 7. I imagine this represents a strong patent and trademark law, which has metastasized into a complicated and severe litigational landscape. If someone does you wrong in the Guild-State, hiring a lawyer will be scarier to them then calling the cops. Personal freedoms are about as restricted as criminal acts (4, moderate law). Overall, the Guild-State scores a 3.8, just at the very higher edge of what can be called low law; it's known as a fairly libertine area, but not unusually so.

Both Marches determine their law levels by rolling 2d6-2. Oleinik March gets our attention first, with a weapons law level of 7, high law. I can imagine Oleinikan criminals sneaking over to the Guild-State to arm themselves; after all, essentially all guns are banned here. Trade law receives that moderate 4 which seems so common. As for criminal law, it gets that self-same common 4, and civil law is even looser, at 2. The marquis of Oleinik doesn't seem to have dismantled the legal precedent that placed pre-eminence on marquesal decrees (as subject to the tangled labyrinth of what is allowed or required in the marquesal contract) over the resolution of disputes. Oleinikan and Rose Brother legal theory are almost unrecognizable to each other, both for its vastly different focus and foundation and because of Oleinik's imposed standards of legality (not laws) versus the Guild-State's consolidation of power. Finally, we figure out how repressive the March is: with a 5, it's a bit more restrictive than the Guild-State but not very much so. This all averages out to an overall law level of 4.4. It's nowhere near a draconian regime, but it is significantly more limited in what it allows than the Rose Brothers.

Jermaine March distinguishes itself as possibly the wildest place to live on Ishee with a weapons law level of 1, the lowest a nation can have and, well, still have laws. This is paired with current high in trade law; it's a 5. But criminal law is almost as freewheeling as restrictions on weapons with a 2. This is starting to feel quite like the Wild West of Ishee. I suppose that's what you get with an indifferent absentee liege lord. Civil law continues the trend at 3, but there are as many personal freedoms here as there are across Ishee (4). This laxness of the law is reflected in Jermaine's overall law level of 3, the lowest yet on the planet.

And finally, TCI's roll is 2d6-1. This means that, due to its control by an offworld polity (as opposed to the Marches working within limits imposed by someone offworld), it has the potential to be the most totalitarian of the four states. Weapons law, that cornerstone of any authoritarian regime, shows what I mean. At an extreme level of 11, not only are all weapons banned, but even the free movement of civilians around the country is restricted. Trade is mostly unrestricted, though, at a level of the 3. I've suspected that TCI was founded by the as-yet-undetermined sophont species that controls it in order to facilitate trade with the Guild-State. I guess that's quite proven now, as is the fear the nation feels about their enemies exporting their war here to Ishee (genuine or engineered by those in power? I actually think the latter is more interesting, so let's give the rulership some credit and assume they're just as fearful as their populace). Criminal and civil law aren't too different at 7 and 5, respectively. Like Oleinik, TCI is more concerned with its citizens breaking the law then in resolving disputes. It is, however, much more repressive than the other Isheean countries: personal freedoms law is a 9 (high law). Working it out, it seems that TCI has a high overall law level of 7.

We'll average all this out to an overall overall law level ;-) to use in the bUWP. That comes out to a moderate 4(.55) ~ bUWP α-3D-0704-? (α Greve-Eau Pleine-Bishop Scheumack-Ishee)/????774-?/?/??/Em

The face is not always the same as the heart, sadly (Traveller Tuesday #11)

We've got religions on Ishee of every size from tiny to immense. Let's see what's up with this one . . . 1d20 gives us 13 ~ ah! Deism, with its watchmaker God who created the universe, set its rules and systems like gears in a watch and then walked the eff away. This is the most remote divinity of the theistic religions of Ishee Rolling a 9 on 2d6+1, we see that believers perform charitable acts to create a better society for posterity. I've been thinking about this option in terms of the Rose Brothers ~ that family of traditions seems to suffer from an over-focus on Great Scientists and a lack of focus on using technological breakthroughs to actually like, I dunno, help people?

The faith requires devotional services only once a year (12 on 2d6+2). I wonder if this religion doesn't have a bit of a chip on its shoulder about it being the Rose Brother tradition to actually engage with the problems of the people. Perhaps this annual devotion is largely composed of dedicating everything one has, including all technological possessions, scientific knowledge, and innovative inventions, towards helping those less fortunate than them. It's one day where everyone does this.

Only those within easy communication can effectively make decisions about how to help those who need it, so there's no hierarchy above the planetary level (11 on 2d6+5). We also get some more information about that day of helping: evidently, it emphasises communal teaching with only limited ritual, which fits my image of it pretty well, I think. Some theological and ethical teaching and a whole lot of passing on science and technology to those you're helping, and a little ritual mixed in as well.

Adherents are active in their proselytization efforts ~ again, there's a recruitment drive but no intense push ~ and it only reaches out to a limited number of sophont species (4 on 2d6+2). Probably, they've determined that Hermachis of the Horizon built other rules into the clockwork of the universe to help those beings and so any efforts by the church would be wasted. One does wonder how they came to that determination, however . . . .

These conversion efforts seem to have paid off! A 10 on the 3d6-4 roll gives us tens of billions of adherents! I daresay that this religion is what most of the galaxy thinks of when it comes to the Rose Brothers, and would be quite surprised to visit the Azeyrenawt-dominated Guild-State. Random.org gives us 81,874,634,730 followers in total. Considering the respective numbers and my positioning of this religion as a fourth splinter sect of the Rose Brothers, I'm just gonna say that it accounts for all of the remaining Isheeans. Although, double-checking, the Clarencians have like 10 times as many faithful as this religion, so they're probably the actual galactic face of Rose Brotherhood.

Now we roll dWikipedia for a name: the Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood.

The religious landcape of Ishee:
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) Open and Assistive Galactic Rite of Rose Brotherhood (generally called Assistants, (the) Rite, or Rose Brothers)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)

Scapegoat or not, this alien religion is the one everyone worries about (Traveller Tuesday #10)

Let's roll yet another 1d20 for the God View of the next religion. Another 12 gives us another remote monotheim. That's actually kind of interesting: Azeyrenawt is the numerically dominant religion in the Guild-State (I think) and this gives it two foils: one with a very different take on shared origin and the other with a similar theology. That contrast continues into the religion's Spiritual Aim, as an 8 on 2d6+1 tells us that the faith's focus is more on the individual than on society as a whole like in Azeyrenawt. In fact, it shares an Aim with the Bio-Witches described in the last post, framing ethical decision as providing benefits in and of themselves. We'll see if this religion is more prescriptive about right and wrong than the Barnwells, however.

Oh, wow! It seems likely that this religion is much more willing to tell its followers what's right and what's wrong. What makes me say that? The 5 I rolled on 2d6+1 for Devotion Required. Unlike every other Isheean religion with their monthly, bimonthly, or once to a few times during your life requirements, here we have a religion that demands devotions several days per week! I can imagine that difference alone can build a distance between them and the overculture, complete with distrusting prejudices of them as a brainwashing cult.

Its Organizational Structure ~ roll of a 4 on 2d6-2 , which is a rigid hierarchy with most decisions made at the local level ~ adds yet more strength to both the religion's ethical proscriptivity and its image amongst the rest of Ishee as a brainwashy cult. Despite Azeyrenawt's human supremacist theology, this faith is probably the one considered dangerous by most Isheeans (and some of its resonances with the bioroid identity religion of Scientological Witchcraft probably doesn't help either faith).

Although . . . a 6 on 2d6-3 reveals that the faith's several required services a week consist of formal church ritual with only limited teaching. No, on the other hand, that makes perfect sense. The limited teaching amounts to a dripdripdrip of theological bits paired with a reminder that right and wrong are their own reward, followed by a list of good and bad things. It's honestly not far from the Roman Catholicism in which I was raised.  Maybe this faith is descended from one of the Catholic faiths, one stripped of Heavenly rewards?

And yet another reason for the Isheean population to be wary of this faith: a 2 on d6-2 means that it's zealous in its proselytization efforts. Here, we have witnesses going door-to-door and people sitting and/or preaching at intersections, and friends who will inevitably mention that you should join their religion if you spend enough time with them. In fact, I'm now starting to see this faith as some sort of Calvinist Catholic faith tinged with elements from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Calvinist, because predestination of afterlife can create the view of ethics this faith possesses. That 2 also tells us that it's a one-species-only religion, the third on Ishee. It seems that there are deep, deep genetic rifts on this planet. The political conflicts ~ contractual hijinx, offworld wars finding a battleground here, etc. ~ seems to have at least two more societal conflicts joining them: the echoes of the schism in the Rose Brothers and conflicts between the species.

OK, let's work out the size and name of the religion before I begin speculating on what the one-species nature of this religion means. 5 on 2d6-2means there's hundreds of thousands of worshippers. I'm thinking that this will account for most of the remaining Ishee population, but random.org refuses to allow it, giving the faith 243,163 adherents, 78% of whom live on Ishee. And dWikipedia will name it . . . the Johnny Mellis Christian Church of the Blues-Metal Gospel? Naw, I don't like that. How about just Mellis?

OK, so that naming has pushed me to think of Mellis as an alien religion, rather than a human Christian-derived one. I don't yet rightly know the details of the alien species that follows Mellis, but I'll work that out! It does make me think that Mellis might be centered primarily in TCI, which tells me that TCI (which is a captive state) might be an alien outpost. Only, TCI has like ten times the number of sophots as Mellis does, so I think the dynamic needs to flip. Mellis is the dominant faith of the stateless captive state faction, the one that's pursuing an offworld conflict with TCI's masters here on Ishee. Might be time to name that group . . . Our Lord's Militant Mellis Church.

I'm not tryna decide right meow, but that does remind me that there's a stateless faction led by a messiah controlled by some sort of council. Obvi, that'll be tied to one of these religions . . .

The religious landcape of Ishee:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 humans (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
67 bioroids (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
189,667 alien!species#1 (app. 1.2%) Mellis (generally called Mellits)
582,307 sophonts (app. 3.6%) not yet accounted for

First we had Science-Monks, and now we have Bio-Witches?? (Traveller Tuesday #9)

We're so close! The 1d20 gives us a 14. One of the more unusual options (and one that I've added, as explained before), that means this is a religion of self-worship. It's a path concerned with becoming, realizing, or just being a god your own damn self. You might say it's a form of monolatry ~ the existence of other gods (other people) in actuality or possibility is recognized, but only one (the self) receives devotion. The Spiritual Aim can give us a lot more information about what that means, so let's roll that 2d6+2. An 8 tells us that the religion sees ethical action as their own reward, separate from any other spiritual awards.

Hmmmm . . . so if people are or can become gods, then this religion might preach that they're unable to be controlled or bound. We are all bound to be free, but that freedom is total as apotheosis and near-omnipotence approach. Far from draining ethical questions of meaning (as some might expect), this intensifies their importance, while stacking all of their weight on the decisions and introspections of the individual. The only ethic the faith can teach is that only the individual can decide their ethics and that they have a supreme obligation to do so.

Of the various apotheotic systems I can think of (some Satanisms, Mormonism, Thelema, the Feri/Faery tradition of witchcraft, etc.), I keep thinking that this religion we're creating right now most closely resembles Thelema and Feri/Faery. It could even make some sociohistorical sense, tying into the Freemason/Rosicrucian element of the Rose Brothers.

Another 8 on 2d6+1 reveals a monthly Devotion Required of followers of this faith. Though the form of this is decided a few steps down the line, I imagine this is a ritual designed to trigger memory of or progress towards one's own divinity, probably in some way related to moon-phase rituals of old. With a third 8, we get a loose hierarchy with most decisions made on a local level; the coven is the primary unit of the faith, though initiates of higher degrees do form connections and cultivate some power beyond that level. Those churchly positions carry some weight but lack much power over the covens within their remit. Covens are probably rather larger than many Wiccans would expect: say, maybe, a couple hundred people at the highest end.

We roll 2d6+1 for Liturgical Formality and get a 9. Rather than being transformational rituals, the monthly devotions emphasize communal teaching with limited ritual. Now I'm thinking of mixing in some self-help, inspirational/motivational speaker elements. Like, the theologies and many of the ethics of the faith are drawn from things like Thelema and Feri/Faery, but their monthly services resemble Tony Robbins, Landmark Forum, and things like that ~ imprecations to claim your pre-existing divinity and applying a number of techniques to liberate people from their own blocks that prevent them from stepping into that godhood.

You know, thinking about it, if we vague up that formula a bit, it could also describe the Church of Scientology. There are probably bits of that mixed in here.

Missionary Fervor gets a 5 on 2d6-2: active but intolerant of other sophonts. Once again, “active” here means there are efforts to get the word out but they don't necessarily affect the day-to-day lives of most adherents. I am tempted to make it another human-supremacist religion, what with fairly strong ideas of a heavy mix of human faiths feeding into it. But I think, instead, I'll mix in yet another element: Black Identity religions like the Nation of Islam, Rastafarianism, and the various incarnations of the Nuwaubians.

In my Traveller universe, there's a good century of rampant genetic engineering à la Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase before the Greys manage to answer their lost ship's distress call (à la GURPS Black Ops) and we end up fighting a war against them. The War Against the Greys only ends when a small Spiritualist cult reveals that they have developed John Murray Spears's New Motive Power technology into noosphere-based FTL travel with the aid of the Casey Jones Effect. One legacy of that transhuman era is the widespread presence and use of bioroids (such as the Aslan model developed by the Turkish militry, the Vargr models developed by a Scandinavian company from licensed Aztechnology Xolotl specs, and others) in the early interstellar period. The first conflict of the Galactic Age was a bioroid revolt against their enslavers, seceding to form their own polity.

I'm now seeing the religion we are creating as a Bioroid Identity movement, a religious response to their once and continuing oppression at the hands of the evolved species, and primarily of humans. In that sense, saying that they are “intolerant of other sophonts” is somewhat of a misnomer. They aren't intolerant of humans and evolved species, but it would be as inappropriate as a white Rasta or member of the Nation of Islam.

We roll a 1 on 3d6-5 for the religion's size. Huh, another surprisingly small religious tradition. Whereas the Lost Secrets are small because it's old, this one is small because it's new, putting it in a very similar social position to the Black Identity religions at their origin points. In both cases, they are responses to oppression both fed by and in contrast to an overarching societal optimism. Random.org tells us that there are precisely 67 members of the faith. All of them will be on Ishee, of course.

And finally we roll the dWikipedia for a name: the Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft.

The religious landscape of Ishee:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 sophonts (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
67 members (essentially 0%) Barnwell Tradition of Scientological Witchcraft (generally known as Bio-Witches or Barnwells)
771,974 sophonts (app. 4.8%) not yet accounted for

Space opera, race, and fringe religious movements: an appearance of an idea that should get written about all on its own (Traveller Tuesday #8)

OK, less than one-tenth of Ishee's population has yet to have a religion. Maybe we'll finish it off with this one!

That 1d20 I should have been rolling all along gives us a 17: rational atheism. This is a religion that has scienced, logiced or in some other way reasoned the divine out of existence. Wouldn't it be fun if the techgnostic Rose Brothers had spawned a retrograde, materialistic child of a faith? Sadly, despite that being hella rad, I'm getting tired of thinking of things as being ultimately tied to the Rose Brothers ~ I want some more diversity, dagnabbit!

2d6+3 determines our latest religion's Spiritual Aim with an 11, perhaps taunting my idea of separating from the Rose Brothers theological line. This is another religion dedicated to expanding the boundaries of knowledge through inquiry and speculation, much like the Lost Secrets. Let's go with what seems to be the way everything is going. Maybe the Rose Brothers schismed in half, with one half retaining Hermachis of the Horizon but losing its forward orientation, and the other half trading Hermachis in for a continued gaze toward the future.

The Devotion Required's roll of 13 on 2d6+4 tells that adherents are called to devotion only several times during their life. This sounds like its about completing projects (like the Azeyrenawti). Here's a thought: logicing away the divine has caused the religion to set the sights of its ambitions rather lower. No longer do its adherents seek to create a new technology, unlike any seen before, that changes everything that society is and does forevermore. Paradigm shifts no longer bring Hermachis of the Horizon into the world, after all, so now these faithful strive to be a bit more like Elon Musk. The idea is to focus intensely on one field, one Big Project, learning as much as possible and innovating incrementally for years or decades, until one's intellectual curiosity is absolutely and fully expended, and then to move on to a completely different field. It is the obsession and depth of their study that is their focus, not on the grandiose effects of their work.

An 11 on 2d6+6 tells us that there is no organization or hierarchy to the religion above the planetary level, and rolling 2d6+4 results in a 12 and services being informal study groups with extensive limits on allowable subject matter. When someone reaches the end of a period of delving into a particular field, they work with municipal, national, and planetary colleges of the faith to call a World's Fair and present their innovations and the results of their research to the church as a whole. Almost inevitably, these Fairs involve presentations and installations from several people. Though they may not be as dramatic as the annual Old Rose Brothers Future-Shock Festival, these conventions (which happen a couple or a few times a year on Ishee, I imagine) can still gather quite the crowd and garner press attention in multiple star systems.

Missionary Fervor gets a 4 on 2d6-2. Once again, there are active conversion efforts: missions, proselytes, etc. ~ but these efforts are largely divorced from everyday interactions. No member of this faith will badger others to join or push the issue when there is no consent to hear it. The speciesism that took root in Azeyrenawt seems to have, to a lesser degree, infected this religion as well, as they limit those missionary efforts to a limited number of sophont species. I would bet, however, that their claims about the differing neurobiology of the species goes the other way than in Azeyrenawt. Some species, they claim, lack the neurological ability to intensely focus and build upon previous knowledge like the religion would require. Thankfully, they do avoid the human supremacy in Azeyrenawt, but (with deeper consideration) is that actually helpful or better?

Confession time: this is not the first time in my life that random planet generation in Traveller has brought me into an exploration of race politics and their intersection with fringe religious movements through the medium of space opera. It seems to be quite the obsession for me.

Finally, how many people follow this religion? 3D6-4 gives us 8 ~ hundreds of millions of followers ~ and random.org gives us the exact number as a quite respectable 827,561,177 (more than dectuple the size of Azeyrenawt). Rolling on random.org for the percentage of Ishee's population that are among that number, we realize that, well, I'm not a fan of the result we got. 1% feels both frustrating, as I'm trying to get to the next step of the process and a little too small for one of two major denominations of what was once the dominant faith of the planet. Let's try again. 4.1% is still small, less than half of the remaining population, but more satisfying. We'll go with that number, which is 656,874 (somewhat more than a third of the Isheean Azeyrenawti population, so we definitely learn something about the underbelly of Isheean culture with this result).

And as for a name . . . how about the Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers? Yeah, let's go with that. I like it.

The religious landscape of Ishee:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 sophonts (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
656,874 sophonts (4.1%) Clarencian Unit of Monastic Rose Brothers (generally known as Clarencians, Science-Monks, or (the) Unit)
772,041 sophonts (app. 4.8%) not yet accounted for

What bedeviling alchemy performs its transmogrifications when the future becomes the past? (Traveller Tuesday #7)

Oh, look, I missed a thing ~ I've adapted the list of God Views from The World Builder's Guidebook to account for more theologies than listed, and to flatten out the curve to remove that system's monotheism-is-better-than-primitive-polytheism-but-not-better-than-agnosticism-and-atheism-is-best bullshit. But it's been a year since I last looked at it, and I forgot to do that >.< Anyway, rather than going back and redoing everything, I'll just start rolling 1d20 to determine the God View of all subsequent religions.

I roll a 12 on the 1d20 roll, so this next religion is a remote monotheism. Somewhere between the reluctant God of the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers and the watchmaker God of complete deism, the number of times God has involved Themself with the world is, according to this religion, very small. Another 12, on 2d6+1 this time, tells us that the Spiritual Aim of this religion is to preserve the knowledge and wisdom of the past, possibly specifically the stories of the few times God (or mebbe Hermachis of the Horizon) has deigned to interact with the world.

What if this was a descendant of the Rose Brothers? Going from a dedication to developing new tech and shifting paradigms and transforming a futureshocked society into something once more unrecognizable to a disillusionment with the idea that people can actually come up with new ideas that quickly (think the original hullabaloo around the iPhone turning into the humdrum banality of yet another minutely-different iProduct)? And then that disillusionment grasping for a straw of hope and becoming ever-more-desperate to remember those times ~ the Gutenberg Bible, the assembly line, et cetera ~ when the new idea really did change something? A desperation that metastasizes into hope and history?

2d6+5 gives us 14, which in turn gives us a Devotion Required that only occurs once in a worshipper's life, just once sometime before dying. That kind of makes me think of the hajj, and I could justify that within the bounds of the Rose Brothers turned historians idea. It would be a pilgrimmage to the site of some major paradigm shift ~ to see the first printing press or the city where agriculture was invented or Charles Babbage's workshop or whatever. But I think, instead, it would make more sense as the religion calling on its members to, once in their life, erect or enact some grand monument to a technological revolution or to some invention that changed everything. These are the people who fund musea and install statues and host grand virtual historical recreations and write epic poetry. The more religious people in this faith spend much of their lives and money on these testaments.

Organizational Structure is determined by a 2d6+7 roll of 9 (yep, rolled a 2). We continue the tradition of Isheean religions involving great variation amongst its subgroups, as this one has a loose hierarchy that leaves most decisions up to individual worshippers. There are higher clergy, but they exist to enable learning and the creation of monuments, not to lead or dictate. They are librarians and teachers and financiers and the people who introduce you to the people you need to know. Another 9 (this time much more predictable, as it's a 2d6+2 roll) tells us, sensibly, that services consist of communal teaching with only limited ritual. When a worshipper completes their monument, they host an unveiling ceremony with a little ritual and a lot more teaching and spreading of knowledge about the innovation at hand.

OK, now this result takes me aback a bit. These faithful are zealous proselytes. That part makes some sense: driven to ensure that the galaxy remembers the past, they have a habit to (at the least) go off on rants about various moments in history when an invention transformed the way people interacted and behaved. That part isn't surprising, but the fact that the religion is intolerant of other sophont races is (2 on 2d6-2). Let's call them a human religion, cuz that's fun. Turns out that these qweens are rather speciesist, insisting that human are the only species with plastic enough neural structures to experience such dramatic shifts in their thinking. Against the evidence of history, they like to claim that other sophont species had a much more gradual and hidebound path of development and that, since entering the galactic community, humans have been responsible for all technological advancement. What jerks!  But it does let me show that racism/speciesism can be subtle, it can be nonviolent (which doesn't make it any less dangerous), and it can present itself as something that people could admire, like a commitment to learning and teaching.

This intolerance of other species has worked to limit the size of the religion, which rolled a 7 on 3d6-2 for its size. That's tens of millions, and random.org tells us that it's specifically 69,207,559 sophonts. Significantly more than all of Ishee, still. Rolling for a random percentage of the remaining Isheean population, I get 9.4%, which comes out to 1,506,003 Isheeans. Most of those will be in the Guild-State, obviously (at least with the current religious makeup of the planet). As an interesting demographic thought (it's way too early in the process to do this kind of demographic work), the Guild-State has about 38.5% of the Isheean population. 0.094 divided by that percentage comes out to about 25% (roughly) of the Guild-State following this religion, which is a significant number. If the other percentages carry over appropriately, then the Guild-State would also be (all percentages approximate at the moment) 23% atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other, 36% Liberty Fellowship, and 2% Beaumonters. When I do get down to that kind of work, though, I think the Associationists would cluster in the Consular Marches, being more representative of galactic culture than Isheean, resulting in fewer of them in the Guild-State.

So, this significant religion, what's it called? Let's roll that dWikipedia! We're just gonna steal that village's name directly and call it Azeyrenawt.

The religious landcape of Ishee so far:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious/other
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
1,506,003 sophonts (9.4%) Azeyrenawt (generally called Azeyrenawti)
1,428,915 sophonts (app. 8.9%) not yet accounted for

Techgnostic Mormonism: The Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (Traveller Tuesday #6)

OK, this is interesting: I just rolled a 9 on 3d6 for the next religion's God View, which means that it's an interactive monotheism. Like Mormonism and some evangelical Christianities (and, I imagine, some Judaisms and Islams, too), this religion says that there is only one God and that that one God is constantly and ongoingly actively involved in the lives of sophonts. This is “God is My Co-Pilot” and “I Have a Testimony” territory. How is this going to interact with the Spirit-Listeners' watchful eagerness to take the path the spirits of the dead have made easy? Will they be great allies on this tech-worshiping world, or will they be at each others' too-similar throats? Let's find out!

Also, the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers are monotheistic, meaning that this might be the successor to the previous religion, perhaps a Mormon-like and/or fundamentalist shift in the guild's teachings?

Well, rolling a flat 2d6 gives us a Spiritual Aim of 6. It appears that this is a religion focused on getting into a heavenly paradise after death. That certainly doesn't sound like anything the Rose Brothers would put forth, nixing that idea. So, is that highly-interactive God trying to get you into Heaven, trying to create situations in which you have to make that choice, or trying to prevent you from going to Heaven after you die? Those last two are more interesting to me than the first. On the one had, you have a God actively campaigning against indecisiveness, apathy, and going with the flow and on the other, you have either a malevolent God who wants to hurt everyone (a maltheism) or a benevolent God trying to save sophonts from the numbing euphoria that awaits them.

The 9 we roll on 2d6-1 gives us a point of similarity between this religion and the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers: both have meetings only every other month, Isheean religions don't ask for much in the way of formal worship from their members! (So far, anyway.) I get the sense that Isheean culture, whether Fraternal, Oleinikan, Jermainish, or TCI focuses primarily on the ethical and embedded elements of religion, rather than orthodoxy or ritual. Rolling an 8 on 2d6+2 merely provides more evidence, as we learn that this religion has a loose hierarchy that leaves most decisions to the local level. I'm starting to get a sense that this religion might be similar to some Mormonisms, with a strong focus toward receiving testimony from Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother(s), and/or the angels. In the case of this science-fictive religion, the hierarchy would mostly be chosen on two bases: (1) a higher-than-average rate, comprehensibility, accuracy, and detail in the messages they receive from the divine, and (2) more importantly, their skill and creativity at incorporating the testimonies of their congregants into a guiding plan for the community as a whole. Above the local level, clergy would be receiving more testimonies and, as they rise in rank, more summaries of collections of testimonies and trying to synthesize them into a whole ~ high clergy's role is reactive, rather than proactive.

Maybe their theology is modeled on distributed computing? A syncresis of Mormonism and distributed computing? We are all the sons and daughters of God, which means that we are all components of a massive distributed algorithm designed by that God for some ineffable purpose. But how does Heaven fit into this? Ah! If we take it as a God who is creating situations in which we need to make a choice between Heaven and Hell, then each life could be a bit in the process, bit as in the technical, computer-science meaning of the term.

It seems Isheean culture as a whole sees religion as something more akin to philosophy, as we again roll a 10 for liturgical formality, resulting in those bimonthly meetings being formal study groups discussing and interpreting holy writings. As I develop this idea of a testimonial/oracular distributed theo-computing, I imagine them discussing and interpreting not only the writings of the past that laid out the foundations of their beliefs, but also the testimonies of other worshippers and communities, reflecting on how those visions intertwine with their own.

There are active efforts by this religion to acquire converts across the subsector, if not further (rolled a 4 on 2d6-2). After all, the more sophonts engaged in God's distributed computing efforts, the faster, more powerfully, and more effectively the program can run. However, certain sophont species possess nervous systems so divergent from those that devised this religion that its followers cannot see how their testimonies (if they have testimonies at all) could fit together with those of the church as a whole, and so such sophont species are left alone by the missionaries.

3d6-4 gives us hundreds of thousands of adherents to this religion. Random.org tells us that the precise number is a highly respectable 810,552. That's smaller than the remaining available population of Ishee, so I'll invert my process and roll to see what percentage of those adherents live on Ishee. 53% of them live on this planet we are creating, which comes out to 429,593 Isheeans.

Finally, we roll the dWikipedia for a seed of a name . . . how about the Beaumont Cosmological Computing System? Yeah, let's go with that, with a note that the name doesn't capture the heavy Mormon influence on the origins of the religion ~ I'm seeing it as a techgnostic take on Mormonism.

The religious landscape of Ishee so far:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
2,934,918 sophonts (app. 18.3%) not yet accounted for

A tiny li'l ol' religion in the Guild-State (Traveller Tuesday #5)

I'm hoping that we roll up a religion that could fit as the Rose Brothers' semi-mystical worship of innovation. Let's find out!

This time we roll 3d6 to determine the religion's God View, and an 11 tells us that this is a crisis monotheism. So, one God who only intervenes at crucial moments in human history. Is it a form of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or something else? Well, the Spiritual Aim might help us narrow that down, and that's a roll of 2d6-2+(11-3)/3, or 2d6+1. We may indeed have the Rose Brothers' religion! The Spiritual Aim of this group is for believers to expand the frontiers of knowledge through inquiry and speculation.

Rolling a 9 on 2d6+4, we learn that this religion requires only bimonthly devotions. Another 9 (this time on 2d6+2) tells us that the religious hierarchy is a loose one with most decisions left to individual worshippers. Rose Brothers or not, this combination sounds like the clergy and religious hierarchy aren't really what you might think of as such, but are really just recognitions for advancing knowledge or achieving a depth of study ~ more collegial than priestly. We go on to determine that the bimonthly devotions are completely informal, open exchanges of ideas and concepts in a casual setting (14 on 2d6+2).

Now we get to the last test as to whether this can be “the” Rose Brother religion or just merely some spin-off splinter sect. I've got my fingers crossed that these three rolls result in at least a high five-digit number. Our first roll is on 2d6-2; it turns out that the religion has an ordinary Missionary Fervor and will accept any sophont among its ranks (rolled a 6). Though a recruitment drive of sorts exists, mostly by means of talks and panels rather than missions or proselytization, the majority of this religion's adherents are perfectly happy to not try to convert their friends. Sadly, this is a tiny religion, as rolling a 0 on 3d6-6 means that there's only a maximum of 9 members.

Rolling the dWikipedia for a name . . . how about the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers? These (actually randomly generating the number) 6 elders, the oldest people in the Guild-State, still follow the religion of the Rose Brothers in its original form: that the omnibenevolent God of Mystery (Hamachis of the Horizon) can only intervene in human affairs when human ingenuity creates an opening for It to do so. Humans create such openings (is it a cosmological opening, the world torn asunder? Or is it psychological, opened by the wonder and panikon of future shock? These six remember fondly and with melancholy the days when that was still an active theological argument, if a bit of a tired one). They can only get together every other month to reminisce about the old days, discuss theology, and try to impress each other with their new ideas and inventions, but they never miss a meeting. And they're perfectly happy to tell others the Lost Secrets, but they recognize that history has passed them and their beliefs by. If they can't create the opening for Harmachis of the Horizon, then mebbe whatever has replaced their ways can.

So far, the religious landscape of Ishee involves:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers
3,364,470 sophonts (21%) not yet accounted for

Religion and Boanerges (Fantasy Friday #4)

When we get to determining the proficiencies Boanerges gets as a splintersoul zealot vigilante, the time comes to finally determine his patron. Alignment matters here, too ~ vigilantes can have two alignments next to each other, zealots have alignment restrictions like clerics, and splintersouls qualify for class features and things if only one (not both) alignments does. I’m fairly strongly attached to him as CG/CN in a predominantly CE society, which (I realize now) changes who I’ve been thinking his archangel is.

Presterjho’s pantheon, as it were, is modeled on that of one of my favorite not-quite-obscure RPGs, In Nomine, Steve Jackson Game’s complete redesign of a French angels-and-demons game. So far, as I’ve been digging into the details of Boanerges, I’ve been assuming that he would follow Telakh, the hola archangel of Faith (equivalent to Khalid in In Nomine). But Telakh is staunchly lawful! Back to the drawing board . . . Gebhuri, naifo archangel of Fire (Gabriel) is something of a chaotic counterpart to Telakh, the burning ecstasy of faith as opposed to the rigid discipline thereof. But I’m feeling like Boanerges’s patron should be more neutral good. For one, this gives the splintersoul splintered identity some oomph, but on another, it reinforces the “sneaky redeemer” aspect of Boanerges, which I fear is getting lost. Let’s see, the list of neutral good archangels is:

Dhanebsonhi, kruv archangel of Dreams
Khashamsorof, kruv archangel of Children
Nanahoy, hola archangel of Lightning
Yorethil, faras archangel of Revelation
Themnoth, yaim archangel of the Voice
Newosli, kruv archangel of Flowers
Sennao, wekyosthet archangel of the Ocean
Awi, yaim archangel of Destiny
Razal, rogigyos archangel of Death

That’s 9 out of the 22 most popular archangels in Presterjho, easily the most common alignment thereamong.

Let’s see . . . I want a focus on redemption and converting folk to the cause of good, yeah? So we can immediately rule out Nanahoy, Yorethil, Themnoth, Sennao, and Razal, as they’re all more concerned with other things. That leaves Dhanebsohni, Khashamsorof, Newosli, and Awi. As much as I really enjoy making unusual servitors of Children in In Nomine, I think I’ll have Boanerges serve the very mysterious Awi, whose focus is entirely on ensuring that the world turns out for the better. It also makes Boanerges quite cosmopolitan, as he comes from Not-CentralAfrica and follows a religion from neighboring Presterjho shaded by the atheistic Jedi-like worship of Time centered in Scarhas (Destiny and Fate replace the Light and Dark Sides in that religion).

Awi believes that the use of weapons leads to rash actions, and that rash actions tend to fulfill Fate far more often than Destiny. Accordingly, his favored weapon is the unarmed strike, and Boanerges gets Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

Social talents available to Boanerges at 1st level are somewhat disappointing, actually. I think you’re expected to take renown, but that would dilute the theme of his discomfort at having to stuff his normally huge and flamboyant personality into a small and subtle secret identity, of intimidating bluster struggling towards compassionate persuasion. I consider gossip collector for a hot second, but it feels kinda tacked-on, not hitting any particular element of his character or background. I decide to go with social grace finally. We’ll choose Intimidate, to further the contrast (and cuz it’s Boanerges’s highest mental skill).

Zealot replaces vigilante specialization with an inquisitor’s inquisition, the choice of which is ridiculously easy: Boanerges benefits from the Redemption inquisition. Awi chose him as their agent specifically to seed goodness within an evil horde. The vigilante talent at 2nd level isn’t so easy. I consider the channel energy zealot talent, but that still seems like an “overwhelming presence” thing. Harsh judgment? It does allow the judgment of purity, which is awfully tempting when surrounded by inherently magical beings like ifrits. Magical familiarity, on the other hand, is within Awi’s purview, as he is the most arcane of the archangels, and also the most associated with time. I wonder if there are any good time-related cantrips to give Boanerges? Shadow’s speed and shadow’s sight seem like good, solid, boring workhorse talents, while steely resolve makes some sense for a servant of Awi, I suppose. Team player, on the other hand, seems appropriate enough to join harsh judgment (purity) and magical familiarity as the front-runners. A quick glance at the list of cantrips reveals nothing I want for Boanerges. Let’s go with harsh judgment (purity). And splintersoul requires us to take an early quick change talent at 3rd level (the earliness costs us unshakable, too).

When in his vigilante identity ~ which I realize I really should name . . . . how about, like, the Unseen Heart of the Flame? ~ Boanerges possesses a moderate aura of good. He can also cast spells like an inquisitor as the Unseen Heart. Or would, if his wisdom was higher >.< 5 points is a lot to ask for, but I wonder if we can’t make up for it with a magical item? The answer, sadly, is hell no ~ even the smallest boost of a +2 costs 4000 gp, and at 3rd level, Boanerges only has 3000.

I know a lot of players out there would say that I’ve made catastrophically suboptimal choices when building Boanerges, but I like to think that Awi had this exact process in mind by choosing him. Boanerges is meant to seed goodness within his horde, and the process of doing so is meant to build within him the wisdom that Awi so prizes. The plans of an archangel, let alone a yaim archangel (the yaim are not like other angels ~ they are direct emanations of the divine), are fractal, complicated, and multifaceted. In terms of planning for the future, Boanerges should be all caught up in terms of spellcasting by 7th level (with his 4th-level ability increase going to Wisdom, and a headband of inspired wisdom +4 costing 16,000 gp).

Santa Claus as Post-Scarcity Memeweapon

I'd wanted to get this idea for Eclipse Phase out earlier, but I've a new Dominant and she's been needing ALL the service, so I've been busy!

-----------------------------------

You might think that the Jovian Republic, as the seat of the Jovian Catholic Church, largest of the three primary successors to the pre-Fall Catholic church* would be a wonderful place to be come December 25 on the pre-Fall Earth calendar (which happens eleven, or rarely twelve, times a Jovian year). You could be forgiven for expecting a festive atmosphere, decoration, feasting, and celebrations throughout Jupiter's system.

And, in fact, these things all exist in some fashion. The uniquely Jovian blend of Christianity, fascism, bioconservatism, and nanotech refusalism has had its mark on the flavor of the holiday. Institutional Christmas trees stand hyper-Brutalist and stark, adorned with images of a militant Christ-child in service to the state. With any gathering of twenty or more quickly dispersed by the Civil Defense Corps, this imposing symbol of governmental authority isn't even softened by crowds of people enjoying themselves by doing such things as ice-skating at its base, as was common for decades in pre-Fall New York City, for example; a few scattered tables attempt weakly to do the same as small clusters of up to five share a warm beverage and a small meal which bravely struggles against governmental nutritional regulations to provide sweetness and comfort. Meanwhile, individual Christmas trees are scarce, items of tastefully private conspicuous consumption by the Jovian military higher-ups, senators, Security Councilmembers, the rare few Jovian hyperelite, and Jovian Catholic archbishops, cardinals, and pope; the farms beneath Liberty City can barely produce enough food to meet the demands of a population allowed a feast of 15% more calories for Christmas Day, with the 2% per day ramp-up leading up to it, without giving precious space over to putting a decorative tree in every dwelling!

Jovian habitats are enlivened with decorations during the season, however ~ foil, plastic, and even paper are cheap enough to mass-produce after all, even eschewing nanofabrication. Every Jovian civilian is given a small allotment of money by the Republic every Christmas with which to purchase these decorations from vendors vetted and approved by governmental and church censors. Citizens receive a little bit more, enough to fund a few twinkling decorative lights if they take care to budget the cost of the power outlay. The Masses provided by the Church via simulspace (with added XP undertones), however, are even more airy, grand, beautiful, and full of colored light than usual, and most Jovians find themselves drawn to greater attendance during the season, if only to enjoy these magna opera of Church simulspace artisans. Movies, XPs, and simulspace games flood the Jovian mesh with their hybrid of military propaganda, religious themes, and Christmas movie. In years when the Junta and the Planetary Consortium are experiencing political friction, the old movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians tends to come into popularity (after suitable editing by governmental and Church censors).

Don't think the bleakness of fascist spectacle and VR escapism define the day for Jovians. Many fully enjoy the season, throwing themselves into decorating and family gatherings that sometimes risk edging over the CDC's limit on assemblies. Many Jovians even express gratitude for the restraints placed upon them by their government, claiming that it compels them toward greater intimacy and reminds them to return to more family-focused celebrations. Fond memories of warm celebrations are almost as powerful an escapism as Mass, and creative ways found to get around the nutritional limits. Stories abound in Jovian media and the memories of the people concerning acts of kindness and are brought to life as Jovians pull together to make everyone's lives brighter for the twelve days leading up to the birth of their savior. Caroling is just possible, if the chorus is kept small. Gift-giving even persists as a tradition, with handmade gifts cobbled together with hoarded scraps being the rule. This is as much due to the JCC absorbing elements of American Protestantism vehemently opposed to the commercialization of Christmas as it is due to their resistance to post-scarcity technologies.

It's also where Christophie Odinskind and his team come in.

Born in a Titanian hulder morph well before the Fall to two proud papas, a life consciously modeled after that of old American West cowboys, and an Asatru family tradition, Christophie became a dedicated nanarcho-democrat and member of A-Bloc while attending Titan Autonomous University. Co returned to the peaceful life of a caribouherd after graduation, cor political beliefs disconnected from any action stronger than a presence on the @-list and a voting record in the Plurality. An idle conversation with cor ariel friend Rudolf Morin, a baptized and confirmed member of the Anarchic Roman Catholic Church-in-Exile changed that.

Sitting around taking potshots at ice pebbles, the two began mocking the Jovian Republic, a common enough time-wasting conversation among Titanians and among these two in particular. This time, however, Rudolf began ranting about the JCC, as he often did, and their heretical beliefs around Christmas. Anarchic Roman Catholics have a tendency to describe everything about the JCC as heretical.

Christmas gifts and Santa Claus came up in their conversation, and a spark of inspiration began its quest to fill Christophie's mind with, as they say, An Idea. What better way to undermine Jovian fascism, spread nanarcho-democratic ideals, and have a few yucks than bringing Santa to the beleaguered masses memewashed into scarcity worship?

The two Titanians burned a lot of @-rep and built a decent amount of g-rep only to burn it in order to finance their operation. One EVA sled, a modified olympian morph, a handful of modified ring flyers, and a very visible desktop cornucopia machine later, and they made their first run into Liberty City. It was a modest success, but it was fun and it was enough to attract significant attention from the Jovians, the @-list, the Plurality, and media across the system. That was AF 7; they've continued ever since.

The idea is basic memetic warfare. By leveraging imagery inherent to the Republic's memetic landscape in such a way as to showcase the CM, “Santa” works to inspire the Jovians toward developing a desire, and then a demand, for nanofabrication. Though Christophie believes that this taste for post-scarcity will naturally lead to breakdowns of the fascist regime and an upswelling of nanarcho-democracy, co purchased two griefers after that first run, smuggled them into Liberty City, and began an art/propaganda campaign to ensure that result.

The team has grown, now including 4 transhumans other than Christophie and Rudolf:

* a Titanian journo and hacker covering this daring and artistic effort to undermine the Junta (and hoping to get on MRGCNN in the process) who goes by the name “Goodness's Sake” when embedded as one of Santa's elfs,

* Eetu Laakso, a surya child born after the Fall who won an @-list contest to get a place as an elf last year,

* an AGI from the Jovian moonlet Carpo who loves Christmas as only a virtual Victorian who's lived its life almost entirely in simulspace can and goes by the name Florence Beechworth, and

* Batch Quanta, a scum bot jammer who's one of the Lost, who both serve “Santa” as reindeer


-----------------------------------

* In 1 AF, the Council of Liberty was held on Ganymede. There, the Jovian Catholic Church was founded and almost immediately experienced their first schism. Shortly after the appointment of the Exilic Pope, a large number of delegates stormed out, railing about the Line of Peter, apostolic succession, and the mass murder of the College of Cardinals by the TITANs. These priests quickly began to build what they called the Anarchic Roman Catholic Church-in-Exile, founded upon the theological claim that God had ushered in a new period of the Church in which it had to find His grace without the protection and guiding hand of Peter. Ironically, the ARCCiE both enabled the hardline bioconservatist elements within the JCC to embed their beliefs in doctrine and theology and also represents the closest theology (if not liturgy) to that of pre-Fall Catholicism, as the JCC has incorporated a few elements of American Protestantism (including Mormonism), Russian Orthodoxy, and Chinese Patriotic Catholicism into what does still remain a Roman Catholic framework.

The third largest post-Fall Catholic denomination is a small but rapidly growing group within the ARCCiE. They call themselves the Anarchist Catholic Church of the Enduring and New Third Scripture (ACCENTS). Building a new theology out of combining anarchist political theory with Catholicism, they have begun to compile a new Scripture or Testament from the texts of Christian anarchist and communist writers. Thus, it includes the Books of Francis, the Book of Petr Chelčický, the Books of the Diggers, the Hopedale Book, the Books of William Greene, the Book of the Kingdom of God, the Book of David Lipscomb, the Book of the Heavenly Discourse, the Book of Thomas Hagerty, the Books of Nikolai Berdyaev, the Revelation of Precarity, the Book of Ammon, the Books of Dorothy Day, the Book of Peter Maurin, the Books of Ernst Bloch, the Book of Jacques Ellul, the Books of the Berrigan Brothers, the Book of Ivan Illich, the Book of Diane Drufenbrock, the Book of Camilo Restrepo, the Book of Vernard Eller, and the Books of Alexandre Christoyannopoulos.