 December 8, 2011 - 5:07am | Its very likely that no real consensus will develop concerning Fo1, and that there will be as many views on this institution as there are people who play SF. So I think we should discuss what the possibilities are and then if neccessay explore the individual possibilities in separate threads. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 8, 2011 - 5:59am | There are two basic options: A) Fo1 originated in antiquity and has a history spanning over a millennium like the Catholic Church or B) its a more recent development. Having an origin in antiquity means it should be very widespread and have a very pervasive influence. Having a more recent origin (and by that I mean 2-3 centuries or less) it can be widespread but not very pervasive like the Jehovah Witnesses or perhaps Mormonism. It will be important to understand how much influence the Fo1 should have. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 8, 2011 - 6:34am | Imperial Lord outlined an origin for Fo1, have to go look it again, where in the midst of clan violence a teacher arose preaching peace and brother hood. From him came 12 followers who spread the teaching further and brought about a dynamic ship in Yaz society. This option has the benefit of being born of war since I don't believe that a radical shift in religion will come about without radical circumstances paving the way. Personally I didn't like it since it sounded too much like Christianity, but to be certain part of that dislike mist stem from my own personal baggage. None the less his ideas need to be on the table. This one qualifies as an origin in antiquity with a very pervasive influence in modern society. EDIT: ran down Imp Lords work: Yarzirians have the most violent history of any race other than the Sathar. Clan violence finally ceased several hundred years ago after the Enlightened Ones came down with Jesus-like religious conviction and got the Clans to respect each other, at least in terms of life, limb, and property. Yarzirian religion revolves around the teachings of these Wise and Peaceful Brothers, who taught the Yazirians to take their tremendous energy and enthusiasm and turn it into something else besides war - especially on other Yarzirians. Hence, the Yazirians make a major and massive break with the development of the Sathar. Unlike the Sathar, the Yazirians had ALWAYS had a strong philisophical / religious / peaceful streak in them. It just took hundreds of years to finally take root and change the warrior-culture of the Yazirians. Yazirians in my campaign are very Klingon-like. They are dour, easy to insult, and take slights very seriously. Most have poor senses of humor, and "not getting the joke" just makes them angrier and makes them think that they are the butt of the joke! Ritual is EXTREMELY important to Yazirians. Their Enlightened Brothers saw rituals as a way to soothe the violent ways of the Yazirian reptilian mind. It helps, to a point. Yazirians have ceremonies for almost everything, even relatively mundane events and holidays. Major events and honors have ceremonies that can last hours! Screwing up a ceremony is a serious insult. This is another reason the Yazirians don't get on well with Dralasites, who have a lot of trouble supressing their giggling during Yazirian these somber scenes! Clan is EVERYTHING to Yazirians. Being "Disinherited" is really devastating. Many of these Yazirians become criminals. The only fate worse than Disinheritance in Unjust Disinheritance. However, some Clans do allow an atonement process. Many Yazirians simply kill themselves when faced with such dishonor. There are many Yazirian folktales / myths of ancient heroes who were unjustly disinherited. They bring tears to the eyes of the most grizzled and battle-hardened Yazirian veteran. Although their society is as varied as the others in the Frontier, the Warrior Ethos among the Yazirians is still very strong. Their Battle Rage is symptomatic of their readiness to fight to the death at a moment's notice. Battle is in their blood! Yazirians do not get on with people outside of their clans, let alone with other races! However, an excellent way to make a friend of a Yazirian is to share their sacred Life Enemy and help destroy it, or participate in battle with him or her. A Yazirian friend is a friend for life, in most cases. The ultimate honor that a Yazirian can bestow upon another is invitation to join their Clan. Although this is rare, it does happen - mostly with Humans and Vrusk. Once inside of Yazirian's clan, the true warmth and spirit of these beings is displayed. Yazirians among their Clans "let their fur down" and party big-time. Yazirians love large halls that can capacitate the entire clan for parties - always involving massive amounts of alcohol and other intoxicants. Dancing, singing, story-telling, gliding from the rafters, sexual ribaldry and all the other things one would associate with a drug/booze soaked party often occur at these Clan gatherings. Non-Yazirian members of Yazirian clans become pretty much Yazirians themselves to the Clan members. Money is loaned freely at zero or low interest. All Clan members are expected to put up other visiting members of the clan. Generosity for other Clan members is one of the most endearing qualities of the Yazirians. Many down-and-out humans have been saved by long-forgotten clan members who have happened upon them. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 8, 2011 - 7:17am | My own view of Yazirian religion is that the Family of One is not ancient and probably nothing like ancient religious practice (hence my invention of Bailorism, or rather the reconstitution of that ancient religious practice; or my hearty endorsement of Iggy's Legend of the First Clan myth) I don't believe that with the yazirians, preaching is enough to create a radical shift in society and change them from a primitive, possibly polytheistic practice to the Fo1. I cite Mohammad (or a statement attributed to Mohammad) "the sword is far more effective for evangelism than preaching" Some things we can say for sure about the Yazirians 1). they made a major "star exodus" (as I like to call it) whereby huge numbers of them suddenly arrived in the Frontier and almost immediately colonized 4 systems 2). they have an autocratic religion that seems to be the power center in Yazirian society 3). terra forming is important to them, hence the GODco mega corp dedicated to that enterprise. My basic suppositions: A.) that the yazirian colonization of the Frontier is an Exodus; they came en mass and set about recreating their homeworld, and yet they did not just recreate the homeworld but immediately settled 4 systems. the fact that they set up 4 worlds and not one makes it unlikely its a "pilgrims fleeing persecution" story IMO. It seems like they were fleeing something and else, and I postulated the destruction of their homeworld (thanks TomS for the help with the wandering brown dwarf scenario). How do you accomplish an exodus form a dying world- B.) it will take a strong top down authority and require the marshalling of the whole world's economy and workforce. Since they are warlike I supposed that at some time in antiquity an imperial warhon arose that united a seriously large % of the population and planet under his control and ended the millenia of clan war and struggle. When a scientifically minded clan detected the close pass of a wandering brown dwarf star and it was realized that their world would be destroyed the Imperial Warhon ordered the fledgeling space industry to find a new world. C.) Evolving during this time was a philosophy of "were all in this together" and it came to be known as the Family of One. It was a belief system but not overtly religious, However, yazirians loving ceremony began to include ceremony in this philosophy. (note the process of confirming the eventual destruction of the planet Yaz, searching for a new world, and conducting a star exodus would take something like 50 years. D.) the big change occured when the scientific clan in charge of scouting and terra forming the new world discovered that they were not allone in the Frontier sector. Possibly there was some animosity/jealousy toward the Warhon, who was getting the credit for directing the salvation of the yazirian race while Clan Anglann did all the work that made that happen. At anyrate I had Clan Anglan rewrite their mandate and ussurp the control of the Family of One philosophy making it a full blown religion and using it to try to control the population. atheism had been on the rise in yazirian society and the advent of this family philosophy had truly united the yazirian race for this titanic struggle to save their race which gave it a powerful and widespread adherence in yaz society, Clan Anglan tried to capitolize on that by taking it over and setting itself up as the priest hood. They diverted colonization waves to new planets instead of having them land on Hentz as they began to envision a star empire. The final piece was the rumored assassination of the Warhon and his household and bodyguards since their ship mysteriously never arrived in the Frontier. Naturally some were suspicious and some would not just roll over and let Clan Anglan establish itself at the head of a star empire. However all the daughter colonies were dependent on Hentz for terra forming and because the Fo1 controlled the gene bank brought from Yaz so in the early days they could not just tell Hentz to go jump in black hole. Benefits of my version of the Fo1 are that there is no centarl yazirian authority (though Fo1 wants to be this) after their arrival in the frontier (that is sort of important to the setting). Fo1 is an autorcratic beleif system as implied by the scanty canonical evidence but probably not that pervasive in its influence which it would be if it had a history spanning millenia. Its a crass form of societal control and not trully a religion (religion is always a sticky thing with people-"dont talk politics or religion") i think this version of the Fo1 will be more open to people to play with since its not so much about religious belief but philosophy and was used to control the population. Finally we can explain its sudden rise in history and its present influence with the crisis of the star exodus and the engineered crisis of the loss of the imperial authority. Plus there is the set up for conflict as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 9, 2011 - 10:26am | I do not have a problem with the Catholic Church model for the Fo1, it is wide spread enough to justify being entrenched in even new colonies and small enough to justify room for many other and even older theistic cultural foundations. I am pretty happily content with the concepts that have been laid out for the PGC being involved with the Yazirian colonial explosion from Hentz... and with that historic first contact in support of the PGC explosion of around the same time, the original homeworld (and it's current state) is a somewhat guarded secret held by the Fo1 and PGC... and is considered 'quarantined with prejudice to all interlopers' and outside the official jurisdictions of the Frontier Council, and under the protection of PGC and Yazirian fleets. Together this allows for both an ancient root to the Fo1 anda recent empowerment during the "star exodus" from their dying homeworld. Supports the stage for the claims of Yazirian self-sovereignty outside the Frontier jurisdictions and the PGC economic superiority via the Yazirian expansion. Reinforces the relations of PGC and GODco in seemingly opposed forms of professional competition and mutual support. I am also in support of these proposed theistic models in coexistence, Bailorism, Legend of the First Clan, and the Enlightened Brotherhood can all be the basis for the rise of a Family of One as a sort of Universalist Church Conglomerate during the exodus crisis years - these theistic groups were the keepers of the technology that allowed the necessary push to flee from the 'burning house' that many other clans were inclined to feud over... The Family of One and it's doctrine may be in a true or imagined lineage to the First Clan, but the claim is supported by the Enlightened Brotherhood monastics (from which the historic origins of the noted 'psi-guard' that act as the Fo1 efforceres may be drawn, if a GM is using that element of the Fo1 brotherhood & honour-guard or not), and Bailorism dogmatics, and via political pressures that place the various 'lesser spiritualists' in a situation of 'adapt or die' they are also in support of the rights of the Family of One's claim of First Clan... Finally the PGC involvement in advancing Yazirian technology through trade for the purchases of large amounts of real-estate... supports both the political position that keeps the Family of One at the advantage through GODCo and other financial front's, and the financial position that keeps PGC far ahead of the corporate game. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
December 9, 2011 - 1:23pm | I am pretty happily content with the concepts that have been laid out for the PGC being involved with the Yazirian colonial explosion from Hentz... and with that historic first contact in support of the PGC explosion of around the same time, the original homeworld (and it's current state) is a somewhat guarded secret held by the Fo1 and PGC... and is considered 'quarantined with prejudice to all interlopers' and outside the official jurisdictions of the Frontier Council, and under the protection of PGC and Yazirian fleets. .... Finally the PGC involvement in advancing Yazirian technology through trade for the purchases of large amounts of real-estate... supports both the political position that keeps the Family of One at the advantage through GODCo and other financial front's, and the financial position that keeps PGC far ahead of the corporate game. Currious of where PGC involvement with the yazirians has been put forward? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 10, 2011 - 8:07am | The Garden of Yaz PGC 'first contact trade treaty' with the Yazirians PGC 'special sanctions charter' that allowed them autonomy beyond the political borders of the original Frontier Charter, and operational jurisdiction outside of the Council's political jurisdictions - all in the name of seeking new trade partners, finding allies for possible xenothreats from an unconfirmed enemy, and discovering possible sites for further precursor research - thus resulting in the PGC becoming the first Trans-stellar Megacorporation (by definition) PGC trade advancing Yazirian technology in exchange the purchases of large amounts of Yazirian real-estate, further resulting in a destabilized balance of power that led to Athor's Independence from Fo1 control PGC increases backing of Fo1 via trade and politics, and the establishment of GODco brings the Yazirians into the Megacorp arena Araks providing support staff and colonists, in hopes of expanding Yazirian economic interests to competitive levels with the rest of the frontier, assisting PGC expansion of their sector under autonomous Yazirian sovereignty, separate from the still rather young Federation Council. PGC and GODco combined terraformation project in Granna Garu Yazirian and PGC interest's begin a 'friendly competition' to advance the exploration of this region, and expand each others political and economic security PGC expansions beyond the Yreva Nebula using Yazirian space as a operation springboard Rumors of first-contacts with new primitives and entire space-faring civilizations opens interest in the Vast Expanse(beyond Lynchpin, Yreva Nebula, and Yazirian space) to privateers seeking adventure and high-profits, claim jumping runs rampant outside StarLaw jurisdictions and beyond the patrols of SpaceFleet interference... ...or something like that, probably didn't cover everything, but it's a useable outline... plenty there to show a strong connection with the PGC and Yazirian politics, and establish the PGC as a sort-of 'east india' MegaCorp model. hope you like it  Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
