Hello to those of you that showed interest, and the lurkers! I'm just taking a roll call so I know if you'll be planning to participate/join in this RP or not. So please raise your hand and say here if your planning on playing! I've only gotten one Maybe via PM, and I'm just concerned that I'm putting time into creating the guide, and making maps when no one is actually going to play.
(I've also @ some of the people I've seen viewing this page more then once....Hello there friends!)
WIP --- There are still a few religions from before the flood floating around the ocean. Newer religions have cropped up and are also around.
Here and there in the smaller communities, like floating villages, are religions based on pre-waterworld fiction and pop culture. For example someone long ago would retell the story of The Avengers and Marvel universe, so now 350 years later there is a small floating village out there who worships Iron man, the hulk, Thor, and so on as real gods who actually did all the things from the stories. --- The following are just the religions mentioned in player's Character sheets, and within the IC.
Followers of this religion are called Zolotoys. The religion was started on the Dominus ship Zoloto, and has spread into some of the larger cities, and a few random villages.
Those born on the ship are considered born under the Gods eye, and thus have the abilities to reach god status upon their death. The Priest and Priestess of this religion are born and raised on the ship, once they are considered fully educated, and devout they are sometimes left in cities and villages to preach, establish churches, and gain more followers.
Most of the religion centers around ancestor worship, and Zoloto founding bloodlines. Each family has a personal altar with trinkets and offerings dedicated to the deceased members, similar to an ofrenda or butsudan.
The Zolotoys truly believe they are better than the rest of the world. They are also credited with creating the slavers guild.
The Zoloto Ship itself is considered the equivalent of what Vatican City was to Catholics, or what Delphi was considered to the ancient Greeks.
At the center of the Church stand the Founding Families, the descendants of the original passengers of the ship. Their family lines closest to divinity, with extended family trees going all the way to the beginning of the journey. After that come the Lesser Families, people with no blood ties to the founding families, the newer believers and the like.
The Founding Families have a schism over how to control their bloodlines. This splits them into the Purists and the Breeders. Purist families believe that Founding Families should only breed among each other, and believers and the like are nothing more than assets.
Breeder families believe that preserving the family name is more important than preserving blood, and are ready to marry and have children with Lesser Families, though they put strict rules on when and who to marry. You can only breed with true humans, which also counts syborn. Mutants such as Plywak, Blue-Bloods, and Marsapiens considered abominations.
Every full moon, the unmarried Zolotoy adults take part in a masked orgy, and children conceived from this ritual, no matter what their bloodline, are considered blessed by god, and that god and the divine ancestors can communicate with them through dreams.
A ceremonial communal meal takes place every new moon. During this ceremony one man and one woman are chosen to be sacrificed. It is considered a great honor to be chosen, becuase the sacrifice upon their death is said to become immortal in the God realm. Masked dancers, music, and singing area common parts of this feast. WIP
They display excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to their leader, Elroy Whitt, whom is considered the all divine prophet and savior. Members regard the belief system, ideology, and practices as the complete truth, and law.
Subservience to Lord Elroy and the cult requires members to cut ties with family and friends from outside the ship, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group. When first joining the leviathan cult, you are blessed with a new name, and a job.
Questioning the doctrine, and doubt of any kind are discouraged and normally punished. Most punishment is carried out in the repentance room, the basement of the ship. In severe cases members are put in Isolation. Members are told whom to date, what job they get, whom to marry, and even if they are allowed to have children. Members are encouraged, and required to live and socialize only with other members.
For the community to make trades they sell the things they make. At the end of every week they community bring their creations to the prayer hall, and the leaders (Holy Generals) comes to collect. The generals then go outside the ship to sell and trade it all. Produced items are as follows: Soap; candles; hand knitted things; crocheted items; weaving; carved drift wood; woven baskets; dried herbs; goat cheese; ground citrus peals, fish jerky; etc.
People normally Never leave the Leviathan ship unless they are band, which has only ever happened once to a women whom got pregnant out of wedlock and would not tell Lord Elroy who the father was. After she had the baby she was band, the baby stayed behind.
They believe that the great flood was the end of the unholy world, and that god sent the flood to wash the demons out of the world. The survivors were the chosen ones to recreate the world as holy and good. Followers believe that Elroy Whitt speaks directly to god. They believe that everyone is a descendant of the holy flood survivors, but many have gone astray, and forgot the truth, that in order to enter heaven when they die, their spirit has to be live in an earthly body, persevere under the sun, and follow the messiah Lord Elroy. They also believe they are meant to have many children, in order to supply earthly bodies to their waiting kin spirits. They think they are going to become future angels of heaven.
On a persons 13th birthday they go to see the Messiah lord Elroy. He gives them a small book. The book is called 'The Angels Way'. The books contains Illustration of angels and stories of the (made up) saints and what they did. The leader gives them a speech about striving for perfection and such. They are then assigned their official job on the Leviathan Ship.
People normally get married around the ages 16-20, The marriages are chosen by Elroy.
Elroy personally takes young men under his wing, and mentors them into becoming deacons and preachers of the cult. The select few who are eager to please him, and extremely devout can make their way up the cult levels to become one of Elroy's personally chosen "Holy Generals". They have all the privileges, and are rewarded by being able have more then one wife. ---------------- - Some of the rules include -
No running unless your in fear of your life. Always stay calm and collected.
Speak calmly and quietly. Laughing should be kept to a minimum.
Pray at least five times a day.
No singing anything unless it is one of the ten holy songs.
No reading anything except the 'The Angels Way'. Written words have powers to harm the mind.
Idleness leaves you open to demonic spirits tricks. So always work hard.
Bow on your knees to Lord Elroy when greeting him.
Only eat twice a day.
Never drink unblessed water.
No electronics as they are an invention of the unholy ones.
Red is the color of demons, So do not eat, or drink red foods, for that would be is to accepting the demons into your body.
Do not wear red clothing or jewels.
Fast every Tuesday from sunrise to sunset.
No dancing.
No lying.
No sex before marriage.
Follow everything the Leader says, without question or doubt.
Do not be greedy, you are given what God wants you to have. Personal possessions are sinful.
Everything is everyone's, so share, and give freely.
Nothing in excess.
Be Healthy and clean.
Practice Self Control.
Be Productive.
Practice penance, and fasting.
The followers of this faith are referred to as the Dominites because of their reverence for the Dominus Ships, and their belief in worshiping Science and its fruits.
The followers refer to their own souls as BIs, Biological Intelligences. Although consciousness would be a more accurate term. Syborn are considered to be Fruits of Science, and so rather then BIs they are thought to have AIs. AI within this religion is more of a word for a "machine soul". There is a serious debate over whether other races outside of Human and Syborn once had AIs or BIs, because their origins are a mystery. The general consensus is that if you were born, you have a BI, and if you were created, you have an AI. You are not of lesser worth if you have an AI, and in some cases it might make you revered.
The Followers don't believe in the supernatural. They are fully aware that the Dominus Ships are man-made creations. But in their reverence to "Science and its Fruits", science turns into a force of nature (If not an outright anthropomorphic personification) that speaks through humanity's collective unconscious
"Science is what grants us our BIs, and it is through Science that we build its Fruits and grant them their AIs".
Followers carry around their necks, necklaces with plates strapped on. At the start of their lives they have only one plate with their birth ship's symbol carved on it. Devout followers usually take a pilgrimage, to each Dominus Ship, with the exception of Zoloto. During their pilgrimage they add a new plate each time they finish a quest upon/within the ship, until they have all seven plates. It is then that they choose a Dominus ship to call their home. After they can still visit other ships and cities, but everything in their lives is bound to their chosen home ship.
Needless to say the majority of Dominites are Dominus ship born, and bred.
Each Dominus Ship has an additional title the followers refer to them as:
Musaeum - the Lorekeeper
Mammoth - the Clothier
Yeezui - the Healer
Earnale - the Messenger
Jackal - the Smith
Zoloto - the Heretic
Desalina - the Pure
Syans - the Fertile
(Created by Chiro)
Kitalohiya, or just Kital, is a loosely structured belief system centered on the core concepts of self-invention and an evolving world. The religion is a blend of spiritual and technical, faith and fact.
Priests are called Savants, beneath them are Students, taught one-on-one in the style of a master and an apprentice, though sometimes a Savant will have more than one student.
Students become adepts under savants, defined as knowledgeable but untested.
Essentially this religion is set up a bit like martial arts; there's a master, the savant, and one or more students, and then a few that aren't students but aren't proven masters either and those are the adepts, trained but not renowned.
The main quirk of the religion is that machines, complex mechanical ones anyway, have spirits of their own. Most people find it reasonable to assume animals have spirits, plants have spirits, and people have spirits, but machines have many of the characteristics other living things do, just a bit different, like comparing jellyfish to aardvarks; made of way different stuff, live in way different environments, experience the world in way different ways, and this is similar to the beliefs within this religion.
This leads on to the philosophy that aligns personal development, with organic evolution and technological innovation. Meaning everyone and everything everywhere are always improving themselves, it's their life's purpose. It's not about struggling to survive; it's about struggling to be better. What that means is up to interpretation, but considering Kital beliefs like to blend with scientific understandings of the world the most common interpretations are more literal in that they all want to become better at their chosen profession. Another common undertone is compassion, being a better person means being kinder and happier etc, but it also commonly gets twisted into selfishness; better for their self instead.
Rather than an afterlife, the Kitalohiya followers believe in Reincarnation.
Understanding how the world works and carving their place in it is the focus
People really like to be complemented, typically on their appearance, or talents. But my absolute favorite compliment to receive is “you smell really good.”
I think this has to do with the fact that I was bullied a lot in early Elementary school for smelling bad. Due to some medical conditions I was born with I had a few accidents at school as a kid, and was forever bullied about it until my family moved away in 4th grade.
Anyway anytime anyone randomly tells me I smell good I fill up with joy.
Member
Scrawl Banditta,
KTostada,
Neziul,
The Savant
