Zompist Bboard Again

Hodgepodge of random questions here.

What do Catholics of Maraille do regarding the Pope? Is he taken seriously, considered some sort of distant semi-metaphorical figure, ignored, forgotten, something else? The nature of the papacy, viewed from a perspective that doesn't adhere to the dogma of the Catholic Church, seems to have shifted in various aspects over time, and it's possible that it has shifted more by the 50th century, and then the lack of contact with other planets adds another wrinkle for those Catholics who are living in the retrohabitat areas of the planet. I'm also curious how much the religious orders which you mention are a combination specific to Maraille vs a hint of how Catholic monasticism has shifted over the millenia? The Jesuits currently exist, and I get the impression that the Inquisitors are probably a group specifically created by the Patriarch of Maraille for reasons considered valid by the Patriarch, but if the other groups are real in our reality, I am unaware of them. (The Mendicants have a generic enough name that they could theoretically be any old group of Catholic monks who got a name change, admittedly. Or perhaps you intended it to be a wholly generic name, rather than a formal name taken from what used to be a generic term.)

I'm also curious if the Shi'a tend to be Twelvers, as one might predict from a basic assumption that Twelvers are the biggest current Shi'a grouping and likely to remain so, or if there are any specific details about Maraille Shi'a based on future doctrinal shifts, the peculiarities of who happened to settle Maraille, etc.?

Always fun to get an Incatena question. Still, be aware that that page is a lightly updated version of notes made 30 years ago for an RPG that never came together. If I ever decided to revisit Maraille for an Incatena story, I reserve the right to change stuff. And if anyone wants to actually use the material for an RPG, they're free to do the same. But anyway...

1. The Pope is theoretically still head of the church, but since he's inaccessible, in effect all his powers go to the Patriarch.
2. The orders reflect changes in both the Incatena and 1700 years of Maraillais history. Catholic orders can come and go. I figured the Jesuits have longevity; the Mendicants can be taken as Franciscans or similar orders. The Inquisitors are a local development, but recall that institutionally it still exists, under the name Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Medillinians are representative of social justice movements in the Catholic Church. The Picarians can be taken as neomedieval equivalents of the Teutonic Knights etc. (Also, there are likely more orders that happen to be uninteresting for RPGs.)
3. The Twelvers make up 90% of Shi'a today, but according to my page the Maraillais Shi'a derive from Indonesia, which is not presently Shi'a. That's not a mistake— who is Shi'a has varied dramatically over the centuries. But it suggests that they might be a different or a new sect.

zompist wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 4:54 pm Always fun to get an Incatena question. Still, be aware that that page is a lightly updated version of notes made 30 years ago for an RPG that never came together. If I ever decided to revisit Maraille for an Incatena story, I reserve the right to change stuff. And if anyone wants to actually use the material for an RPG, they're free to do the same. But anyway...

1. The Pope is theoretically still head of the church, but since he's inaccessible, in effect all his powers go to the Patriarch.
2. The orders reflect changes in both the Incatena and 1700 years of Maraillais history. Catholic orders can come and go. I figured the Jesuits have longevity; the Mendicants can be taken as Franciscans or similar orders. The Inquisitors are a local development, but recall that institutionally it still exists, under the name Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Medillinians are representative of social justice movements in the Catholic Church. The Picarians can be taken as neomedieval equivalents of the Teutonic Knights etc. (Also, there are likely more orders that happen to be uninteresting for RPGs.)
3. The Twelvers make up 90% of Shi'a today, but according to my page the Maraillais Shi'a derive from Indonesia, which is not presently Shi'a. That's not a mistake— who is Shi'a has varied dramatically over the centuries. But it suggests that they might be a different or a new sect.

Thanks!

Perhaps this just reflects my unfamiliarity with the setting, but how much would religion even matter in such a technologically advanced society? Surely science would have made some massive headway in resolving questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness that render our current debates over the soul and such obsolete.

I think Mark can go into detail on religion in the overall setting if he wants, but of the many planets of the Incatena, he presents Maraille as one where the original colonizers thought it would be cool to arrange for all but one island on the planet to live a pre-industrial lifestyle. The upshot is that one small island on the planet is inhabited by people with 50th century technology who handle relations with other planets, and the continents are inhabited by people who largely are unaware that technology more advanced than what was available in 1400 exists. (The other 49 or so planets are living the high life that you seem to be expecting.)

Removed religious discussion to Ephemera.

Drifting away from Maraille particularly... has Zo Thought been developed in any particular way, beyond being the thing that induced the population of Homeland not to be overly Ayn Randian at each other? I've always hazily envisioned it as being one of those things, like Buddhism or Confucianism, which is on the hazy line between popular conceptions of religion and popular conceptions of philosophical schools, but it occurs to me that I have no basis for my impression.

I don't really have specifics, but your take is similar to mine. The idea wasn't to introduce gods, but more community-oriented behavior, with just enough rituals and interesting cosmology to make the religion sticky.