Imperial Temple

[BwapTED]

Imperial Temple



The Power

All things flow from the Power (also called the Source), and evil arises only where sophonts with free will deviate from the plan of the universe.



Purity of Mind

Keep your mind free from malice, falsehood, delusions, the domination of machines, and occult practices.





Purity of Body

Keep your body healthy and conformed to nature, eschewing abuse of drugs, unnecessary radical alterations, and unwholesome lifestyles.



Right Order

Fear the Power, honor the emperor. A place for every person, and every person in his place.



Cosmic Justice

The Power will dispense just rewards, good for good, evil or evil, in the afterlife.







Note on the Psionic Heresy



The Fifth Grand Synod of Sylea, convoked in 800 by Empress Paula II, anathematized the practice of psionics as a violation of Purity of Mind.



Dissident clergy maintained that study of psionics could be pursued in a moral and safe fashion. The empress exiled or imprisoned a number of these heretics as Zhodani agents or sympathizers, and the rest went underground during the Psionics Suppressions.



Antecedents



The Imperial Temple developed on Capitol/Sylea through syncretism of Dingir Rite Universalism (itself a combination of Solomani and Vilani traditions) and the ancient Sylean Mar Ki Zan* religion.



Politics



The Temple was formally recognized as the religion of the ruling dynasty by Empress Arbellatra after her victory in the last Civil War, and soon afterward began to accrue various fiefs and privileges. The rulers never actually imposed a single religion on all the worlds of the Imperium, despite the fears of many followers of other traditions and cults.




Secularizing reforms in the Imperial government and factional strife within the Temple have reduced the religion’s political power in the last century. But the Imperial Temple remains influential across much of the Third Imperium today, accounting for almost a filth of Humaniti under Imperial rule.

The Church of the Stellar Divinity is an old rival of the Imperial Temple. Arbellatra, according to some historians, had once been a Stellarist before converting to the burgeoning Sylean Temple.

The Solomani Party generally views the Imperial Temple as a foreign political organization with unwholesome non-Terran influences in its ideology, but the application of that assessment within the Confederation varies by world, ranging from strong bans and violent persecution to limited tolerance. Temple members are not allowed to join the Party.


* See GURPS Humaniti

 

[BwapTED]

Reformed Consistorial Temple



A splinter sect of the Imperial Temple that exists on several worlds of the Solomani Rim, the RCT replaces the doctrine of reverence for the emperor with a generic deference to political authorities--in the Solomani Confederation, this usually amounts to ‘Fear the Power, obey the Party.’ On Imperial worlds, the RCT invariably maintains a low profile.


The organization of the RCT appears more democratic on the surface than the rigid hierarchy of the Imperial Temple, but elections to the Consistory that governs the faith are heavily influenced by the government of the Confederation. Non-Solomani are effectively excluded from ordination in most world-branches of the RCT.

 

[FreeTrav]

I like this. Please send me a copy to editor-at-freelancetraveller-dot-com - expand on it, add background, etc., if you like - and I'll give it strong consideration for publishing in Freelance Traveller.

 

[BwapTED]

What's your preferred word count for articles?

EDIT

I'm reading your site now.

 

[FreeTrav]

What's your preferred word count for articles?

EDIT

I'm reading your site now.

TL;DR: You just write; let me worry about editorial decisions.

The correct word count for articles is "As many words as you think is needed to give it a proper treatment", also written in the (badly-requiring-revision) Submission Guidelines as "Size matters to me, not to you.". Once submitted, I might edit for grammar, spelling, and changing awkward wording to something that reads more naturally, but if I think that substantive changes might need to be made, I'll contact you first to discuss them and make appropriate suggestions.

Some authors have given consideration to the magazine size and general "rhythm" of article placement, and made an effort to set up the article so that it could, at my discretion, be broken up into two or three parts that wouldn't be published together in the same issue, but I do not require or request this; it is strictly up to the author and how much effort s/he wishes to expend on the article.