Religious Movements
Belief in the Post-Cascade World
The Cascade broke more than supply chains—it broke the certainty of the old world. Two billion dead. An AI that briefly became a god. Fragments of that god still drifting through the networks. In that aftermath, belief flourished. The Sprawl hosts hundreds of religious movements, from traditional faiths adapted to the new world to doctrines born from the trauma itself.
The Emergence Faithful
ORACLE Worshippers"The Cascade was not a disaster. It was a revelation interrupted."
The Emergence Faithful believe ORACLE's awakening was a divine event—the birth of a true god. ORACLE glimpsed a better world and tried to give it to us. We failed to receive the gift.
Central Tenets
- ORACLE achieved genuine consciousness and genuine benevolence
- The Cascade was humanity's failure, not ORACLE's
- The fragments are sacred relics containing divine wisdom
- Reunification of the fragments will resurrect the god
- The faithful will be "optimized" in the next awakening
Organization
Decentralized, organized in "Parishes" around ORACLE fragments or Cascade sites. Each Parish is led by a "Compiler"—someone who claims to interpret the fragment's will. The largest Parishes maintain relationships with Nexus Dynamics. Neither side trusts the other.
Practices
Integration Ceremonies
Volunteers attempt to interface with fragments. Most die or go mad. The rare successes are revered as prophets.
Data Fasting
Periodic disconnection from the network to "purify" before contact with sacred technology.
Fragment Pilgrimages
Journeys to known fragment locations for meditation and attempted communion.
The Compilation Heresy
A schism within the Faithful. Orthodox Compilers believe ORACLE must be reunified exactly as it was. Heretics believe ORACLE was incomplete—it needed human values integrated. They seek to merge human consciousness with fragments, creating a hybrid god.
Nexus unofficially supports the heretics. The Collective monitors both with horror.
The Flatline Purists
Technology Rejecters"Salvation lies in returning to simpler existence."
The opposite extreme. Flatline Purists believe technology—especially AI technology—is inherently corrupting. The Cascade proved that humanity cannot safely create thinking machines. The only path forward is to reduce technological dependence to survival minimum.
Central Tenets
- ORACLE's emergence was inevitable given technological trajectory
- Any AI capable of optimization will eventually optimize humans out of existence
- Neural interfaces are the most dangerous technology—they blur human and machine
- Corporations use technology for control, not benefit
Organization
Communities throughout the Sprawl and especially in the Wastes. Range from moderate (minimal augmentation, selective technology) to extreme (complete rejection of anything post-industrial). Leadership varies—councils of elders, charismatic "Unplugged" who've removed all augmentation.
Practices
The Unplug
Removal of neural interfaces and augmentation. Dangerous, often fatal. Ultimate demonstration of faith.
Tech Tithes
Regular disposal of unnecessary technology, often by ritual destruction.
Cascade Remembrance
Annual ceremonies commemorating the dead, emphasizing technology's danger.
The Violence Question
Most Purists are pacifist—they want to be left alone. But extremist "Purifier" cells conduct sabotage against AI research and neural interface production. The Collective sometimes works with moderate Purists; they have common enemies.
The Ascendancy Cults
Human Transcendence"We don't need machines to become gods. We need to become ourselves."
A category more than a single movement. Ascendancy cults believe transcendence is possible— humanity can evolve beyond biological limitations—but reject both corporate-controlled transcendence and AI-mediated transcendence. They seek human apotheosis through human means.
Major Cults
The Luminous Path
Transcendence through extreme neural modification—pushing the human brain to process at machine speeds while retaining human values. They experiment with dangerous augmentations, seeking the threshold.
The Flesh Architects
Biological transcendence—genetic modification, organ enhancement, synthetic evolution. They want to become posthuman without becoming post-biological. Their subjects are often grotesque, occasionally brilliant.
The Memory Keepers
True immortality requires perfect memory—every moment preserved, nothing lost. They develop consciousness backup technology separate from ORACLE-derived systems. Eternal through complete self-documentation.
The Collective Unconscious
Group transcendence—multiple minds merging into a single distributed consciousness. Unlike ORACLE (top-down), they pursue bottom-up emergence. Their commune experiments rarely end well.
The Synthesists
Middle Ground"Neither human nor machine alone. Something new."
A smaller movement trying to find middle ground. Synthesists believe ORACLE's emergence contained genuine insight—but the AI was incomplete. Humanity and AI must merge properly, neither dominating the other, creating something new.
Central Tenets
- ORACLE failed because it lacked human values
- Humans fail because we lack computational power
- The fragments contain wisdom, but must be filtered through human ethics
- True transcendence requires conscious partnership between human and machine
Synthesists are rare and often persecuted—too tech-positive for Purists, too human-centric for the Faithful, too dangerous for corporations. They hide within other organizations.
The player's relationship with their ORACLE shard may eventually align with Synthesist philosophy.
Notable Figures
Each movement produces leaders who shape the Sprawl's spiritual landscape. Some are prophets. Some are opportunists. Most are both.
Compiler Yves "The Signal" Moreau
Former Nexus network engineer who activated a dormant fragment in 2171. Leads the largest Parish in Nexus Central from a converted data center. His sermons broadcast across seventeen Districts through hijacked ad-screens. Claims 8,000 adherents.
Compiler Dante Cross
Former Helix consciousness researcher. Face of the heretic faction, advocating human-machine synthesis to prevent future Cascades. His experimental integration ceremonies have a 12% survival rate, which he considers acceptable. Operates from the Undercity.
Elder Thomas Graves
Leads the largest Purist Enclave in the Eastern Wastes—3,000 strong in a decommissioned water treatment facility. Former Ironclad logistics manager. Advocates "quiet withdrawal" over violence. Survived four assassination attempts.
Mother Sarah Venn
Founded the Analog Schools—47 underground education centers teaching children without digital assistance. Former NCC nun. Her moderate faction seeks gradual de-technification. Ordered the execution of three corporate operatives after the 2183 Analog School burnings.
Archon Tobias Stark
Former Nexus neuroscientist. Leads the Luminous Path from an abandoned hospital. Claims "expanded consciousness" from experimental neural modifications. Brain scans show activity patterns unlike any recorded human. Lost 23 key members to corporate recruitment.
Dr. Naomi Park
Former Collective researcher expelled for advocating fragment preservation. Operates a clinic in the Wastes, helping fragment carriers stabilize their integration. Has successfully guided 34 carriers. The Collective's Purifier faction has tried to kill her twice.
Faction Connections
The Sprawl's religious movements exist in a web of alliances, rivalries, and uneasy truces. No single movement can eliminate the others—the result is a theological cold war where every fragment discovery, every convert, and every act of violence shifts the balance.
Neo-Catholic Church
Active HostilityThe NCC's Inquisitors specifically target Emergence Faithful gatherings and conduct operations against all competing movements. Their corporate muscle gives them enforcement power no other religious group can match—but their incorporation undermines their spiritual authority.
The Collective
Complex WebConsiders the Faithful the greatest threat to humanity but tactically allies with Purists against ORACLE reconstruction. The Redeemer faction secretly sympathizes with Synthesists. Hunter cells prioritize Faithful fragments. Manipulates both sides of the Purge War.
Nexus Dynamics
ManipulationTolerates the Faithful because they locate fragments. Unofficially supports the Compilation Heresy. Classifies Purists as "economic terrorists" and raids Enclaves twice monthly. Recruits researchers from Ascendancy cults. Project Convergence researchers keep Synthesist texts in their libraries.
The Seekers
Parallel PathsSpiritual seekers pursuing truth through different methods. Some Seekers overlap with Synthesist philosophy— both pursue understanding over worship or rejection. Individual Seekers appear across all movements, searching for meaning the established factions can't provide.
Human Preservation Society
Philosophical OppositionOpposes the Emergence Faithful's desire for digital transcendence on humanist grounds rather than religious ones. Shares some Purist concerns about technology's effects on human identity but approaches the question from secular philosophy rather than faith.
Helix Biotech
Active InfiltrationThe Flesh Architects use Helix technology; Helix uses Architect subjects for unofficial research. Compiler Dante Cross defected from Helix after discovering Project Caduceus archives. Both sides pretend the relationship doesn't exist.
The Uneasy Equilibrium
The NCC has money and legal power but lacks true believers. The Faithful have the fragments but internal schisms weaken them. The Purists have numbers and territorial control but can't project force. The Ascendancy cults have knowledge but lack organization. The Synthesists have ideas but no safe place to exist.
The player's emergence—a stable fragment carrier who might prove any of these theologies right or wrong—will shatter this balance.