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Philosophy/Religion

Brandix

Trickster god of the First Terran Empire

Kaal

Father god of the First Terran Empire

Meletia

Triple goddess of the First Terran Empire

Chrislam

Fusion of Christianity and Islam, popular in Umoja in the 21st century.

Lorecanism

Human philosophical/spiritual movement founded by Grigor Haentil (Loreca) c. 7900 CE.

About 7900 CE, in the Credixian Imperium, the Imperator was on the outs with both the Meletian clergy and Kaalian churches. Devotees of Brandix were following a course of neutrality which began about 6000 CE.

Then came Loreca. Born Grigor Haentil of Amny, he studied at the Brandixian School on Amny until he was about 30. Then, being a student of alien philosophy, he persuaded a Galactic Rider to take him to Nephestal, where he eventually found his way into a Daamin philosophy group.

Grigor Haentil was of a Kala Phenkae branch that produced Schiller-Hertzfeld scores in the high 500s. With drugs, he was able to virtually imitate the Daamin Forever Dreams and their peculiar nonlinear causality.

In 7932 CE, when he was 56, Haentil returned to Amny. He got a lecturing post at the Brandixian School there and started on the philosophies that formed the basis of the Book of Loreca. By the time the Book was published (7943 CE), there was a growing community of Haentil's disciples on Amny and even throughout the Imperium.

In 7943 CE, at a pre-publication conference on Amny, Grigor Haentil took the pseudonym Loreca and began calling his movement Lorecanism. In part it was based on scraps of Daamin philosophy, in part on the Wakmarel disciplines, in part on pure Brandixian contrariness. But Loreca was no fool, and subsequent history has shown that he charted the right course for his movement to increase and prosper.

Mass communication played a part in the spread of Lorecanism, and the Book of Loreca became something of an undergorund bestseller. But the key to the movement was the induction of a state of awareness called kedankat, a mixture of Wakmarrel obdumat and Daamin Forever Dream, not too effective for those with low Schiller-Hertzfeld scores. The introduction of kedankat had to be done in person.

Indeed, Loreca had styled Lorecanism somewhat like a mystery religion, with kedankat in the role of the central mystery.

During his life, Loreca had two audiences with the Imperator, and in 7948 CE the Imperator gifted the movement with Credixian land and buildings that later formed the nexus of Circe Mater.

Lorecanism maintained friendly relations with the Brandixian Church, and less-than-friendly ones with the cults of Meletia and Kaal. This fact alone tied Lorecanism to the Throne, for the Imperator saw a chance to counterbalanace the power of the other Churches.

And in the course of time, Lorecanism spread through the Galaxy and became the state religion of the Second Terran Empire.

The KBM Cult

The KBM (Kaal/Brandix/Meletia) cult began with the Council of Credix in TE 164...thereafter the three dieties were linked in numberless councils and in the pages of the Journal of Experimental Theology, a Terexta-based publication that soon became the voice of the new religion. JET was a rather weird publication: it featured not only scholarly philosophical articles but also theological fiction, ongoing discussions, and a vast number of articles having absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Codified, the new faith spread widely with broad appeal. It stressed the Empire and the Imperial system, and won friends by linking the Throne with the trinity. In 278 Pilip Lütken officially recognized the KBM cult as the Empire's semi-official religion, and styled himself Kaal's incarnate son. Shortly thereafter the three-spoked wheel was accepted as the symbol of KBM.

By TE 300 Emperors routinely made pilgrimages to Lathyros, to the Mother House in Paris, and to whatever ridiculous and inaccessible site was promulgated as the True Home of Brandix (at least this year).

As KBM became more respectable, some of the thrill left the movement for True Believers. JET ceased publication in 282, and although annual conventions continued to be held in its name, the coterie of readers faded until by 350 there was no more trace of them.

Mother House of Meletia, Terra

Located in Paris, the Mother House is the adminsitrative headquarters of the Sisters of Mercy, the chief ministers of the Meletia cult.

Formerly the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Mother House was acquired by the Sisters during the economic collapse of the Catholic Church c. 2100 CE.

The Meletia cult

The cult of Meletia began as a Catholic offshoot. By AD 2100 there were references to Saint Meletia, and by the time the Empire began she had quite a following. By 2150, the Sisters of Mercy had redidicated themselves to work with the poor, and had begun to give up their Catholic orientation in favor of Saint Meletia. The order continued to work out of their Mother House in Paris. In TE 27 the Sisters of Mercy officially aligned themselves with Meletia. Along about TE 100 Meletia began to be referred to as an independent goddess. In TE 164 the Council of Credix declared Meletia a goddess in her own right; when the dust of the Council had cleared, devotees of Meletia found that their goddess had entered into an uneasy trinity with Brandix and Kaal.

In the eternal trinity, Meletia was seen as the Mother Goddess, the Lover, the female principle, the divine embodiment of the generative and nurturing -- but she could also be the stern emobodiment of death.

The Kaal/Brandix/Meletia Cult.

The Brandix cult

Brandix was originally a Tr#skan deity, a capricious one at that. His/her worship became popular among university students in the final pre-Imperial decade, and was institutionalized over the next half-century as they grew.

It was not until TE 164, with the Council of Credix, that Brandixian theology became linked with the cults of Kaal and Meletia.

In the eternal trinity, Brandix is the Trickster, the Other, the spirit of youth and rebellion, the divine embodiment of androgyny, change, unconventionality, disaster; the Eternal Outsider. Brandix was a particular favorite of minorities and those on the outskirts of society. S/he was also a traditional advocate for gays.

The Brandixian sacred litany starts: "This hour, call it one. All that has gone before, forget it; wipe it out; it can hurt you no longer. All that will come, prepare to meet it."

The Kaal/Brandix/Meletia Cult.

The Kaal cult

The Kaal cult first sprang up in the late TE 30's as a philosophical exercise carried on by an ecumenical group meeting on Lathyros. It struck a responsive chord, and Kaal-worship spread over the next hundred years to the rest of the Empire. For a time there was a hierarchy of Kaal-worship leading to a Council of Elders on Lathyros. By TE 130, though, Kaal-worship was becoming decentralized and stressed the concept of the family leader as the representative of Kaal.

The Council of Credix in TE 164 confirmed the idea of Kaal as an independent god, and it was at that time that the cult of Kaal became linked with those of Brandix and Meletia, while still maintaining an independent structure.

In the eternal trinity, Kaal was seen as the Father God, the masculine principle, the divine embodiment of authority and hierarchy.

The Kaal/Brandix/Meletia Cult.

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