Exceptionalism: A form of bastardized Christianity, especially popular in the Mid-Atlantic Free States. This faith holds that America was founded as a new Jerusalem; that the Founding Fathers were divinely ordained to shape the new nation and ascended to become angels after their death; that the Presidency is a holy office and that Presidents are not only temporal but also spiritual leaders of the federation (unless he's a non-Exceptionalist, in which case Exceptionalist believers essentially declare the leadership of their religion 'sede vacante' until an Exceptionalist once more sits atop the Presidential Chair in Philadelphia), anointed by God but also raised high by their people in democratic elections; that the Constitution is worthy of reverence, perhaps not on the scale of the Bible itself but as part of 'holy tradition'; and that they have every right to only reunite America under their banner, but also bring the light of freedom to the rest of the world in due time. Many Presidents, in keeping with Exceptionalist tradition, have had an eye on restoring Washington DC and moving the capital of the FSA there, which Exceptionalist doctrine states is one of the necessary steps to bring about the Second Coming; thanks to Marshal Douglas Grant, who captured the ruined city in a daring offensive in 2550, there is now a chance of all that finally happening (well...maaaaybe not the 'Feds move back to DC = Second Coming inevitable' part).
This religion's cradle is Pennsylvania, where it is taken so seriously that even despite the First Amendment some county authorities will look the other way when a lynch mob breaks down the door of a critic of any President, but less so on the New York coast where the cosmopolitan plutocrats are more welcoming of foreign influences, and has made few inroads against the Catholics and traditional Protestants of New England. The 'Black Bureau', a holy order dedicated to defending the President of the Free States (regardless of his/her actual religion) and smiting their enemies, was founded in Philadelphia in 2355 by seventeen fanatical Exceptionalist soldiers and bureaucrats in the wake of yet another Free Stater defeat at the hands of the Confederacy; today, the 'Men in Black' (as the order's soldiers are known) are rightly dreaded by all who see their black helicopters or vans approaching, friend or foe, for they have also taken to investigating the government's inner workings for corruption as well.
Revelationism: Another bastardized form of Christianity, this time emerging from Pentecostalism, Hyper-Calvinism and reactionary fundamentalism in general after undergoing severe post-apocalypse distortions. Revelationists believe that the Apocalypse written about in the Book of Revelations has already come to pass in WW3, and that they are now God's soldiers in the Tribulation, carrying the holy duty of preparing the Earth for the arrival of His Son by exterminating all who offend Him. As one may predict from that doctrinal development, they tend to be violently xenophobic and fanatical, demanding that any unbeliever they find either convert or burn first in their worldly flame before they start burning in Hellfire. It is not unheard of Revelationist missionaries to murder unbelievers who refuse to listen to them on the spot. They denounce all other Christian faiths as heresies whose adherents should be given precisely one chance to turn to their light or be annihilated as servants of Satan, and non-Christians as unworthy of even a chance at redemption - clearly, if God wanted them to be saved then He'd have made them right Revelationists before they ran into each other, right? Revelationists are also (in)famous for their practice of snake-handling and imbibing small quantities of poison from childhood to both express the power of their faith and build up a natural immunity to poison, while dismissing any casualties as a sign that the boy or girl who died clearly did not have God's favor: to nobody's surprise, this practice has only further entrenched their reputation as psychotic lunatics in the eyes of their neighbors.
The Revelationists are common in the Appalachian Mountains, even in the Columbian Confederacy where the authorities have been working hard to suppress their faith in favor of the Southern Baptist Convention (which, despite being authoritarian in structure & approving of first slavery and now serfdom, generally frowns on endangering children with snakes and poisons + murdering strangers for not listening to you). Small, secretive Revelationist communities also exist as far north as Michigan and as far south as Texas, and the Grangers are also looking at this warlike religion with increasing interest. In the free Appalachian territories, though the Revelationists have no proper holy order like the Exceptionalist Black Bureau or the SBC's Brotherhood of the Holy Grail, their elite warriors are known to favor flamethrowers and blowtorches as weapons with which they can burn sin out of the world.
Marxism-Lennonism: The primary belief among the workers of the Illinois Commune, Marxism-Lennonism is a syncretic blend of Buddhism, Communism, spiritualism & pop culture. According to Marxist-Lennonists, there are no gods, but humans trapped themselves in a vicious cycle of oppression known as the 'Eternal False Revolution' where kings and the bourgeoisie will constantly battle each other for the right to oppress the unenlightened proles, due to their own selfishness and pride. However, the Marx brothers discovered a way to break this wheel, attain enlightenment and build a paradise on earth: they had to awaken the consciousness of the oft-dominated proletariat by getting them to set aside all interpersonal struggles so they can focus on the class struggle, after which they must cast the kings and bourgeoisie of old down and build a new, industrial paradise of harmonious equality and prosperity where nobody starves or sleeps without a roof over their head atop the bones of the oppressors. Though the brothers were put to death by the pre-apocalypse authorities, their friend John Lennon transcribed their texts and boiled it down to a few catchy songs (chief among them 'Imagine', clearly a description of what the Enlightened Earth should look like) for the convenience of future generations, and Marxist-Lennonists feel it is possible to commune with the spirits of these deceased great men through channelers; only once the Eternal Revolution has ended and a paradise of enlightened workers reigns over the Earth can their spirits finally rest.
Marxist-Lennonists are obviously mostly found in the Commune of Illinois, as those who would spread the Word of the Marx Brothers elsewhere are often in danger of being executed by local authority figures if they get caught. Within the Commune's borders, more fanatical adherents of this ideology have founded the 'Red Guard' to supplement the Communal armed forces: accepting soldiers from all walks of life under the belief that all who unconditionally accept, meditate on and fight for the Word of the Marx Brothers will have already done their duty to earn a place in paradise, they make up for their relative technological inferiority with sheer numbers (the Red Guards are the most numerous holy order on the continent) and raw zeal. |
with Post-Apocalyptia, as long as we make it a character driven one and not a nation driven one.
Vicarius Provinciae
Re: Barry's Bar
Mr. Conservative
Idea missing.
Primicerius
Senator
S A M U R A I F O O L
Dux Limitis
Originally Posted by Bastard Feudalism
I say, what, what?
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