The "Promethean Creed" is a religion and faith that is both heavily nontheistic and pantheistic, emphasizing an intrinsically sacred value to the natural human species. Many previous religions and faiths were generally 'absorbed' into it, creating an all-encompassing, non-personal "Divinity" which could be referred to in thousands of different ways.
"Prometheanism", as it is also called, was forged in the era before the rise of the feudal Empire, when the Human race was under threat by various invasive alien beings. The unprecedented invasions ended the Golden Age of the Individual, a peaceful, 'utopian' lull in Humanity's history, dealing mass death to the apathetic generations that came out of it.According to the Creed, when all was nearly lost, when Humanity had little hope of resurgence, the Red Prophet and his disciples appeared, spread their teachings, and bestowed 'Champions' to be the new leaders of Humanity. What is now known as the 'Great Holy War' was then begun.. Thousands of years of expansion and never-ending war with every intelligent species Humanity could find.
The Prophets and later Saints claimed prescience, vision of possible futures, and dictated that only through the close following of their teachings could a beneficial future be reached. Namely, the Creed came to most strongly support two concepts: That the Human physical form may not be altered; and that Humans may not be replaced by alternate intelligence or machines. To further explain, evolution was declared only acceptable if natural, and to use highly intelligent machines or to replace bodily organs with false ones was to be put to death. Other laws dictated that other intelligent species were not to be given mercy, unless they were never hostile in the first place, or that human gender was not to be discriminated within respective social classes. Enslavement of humanity, the use of atomics against humanity, and the use of anti-matter against humanity all became the deepest of sins.
Most importantly, the Red Prophet named his first Champion as "Emperor of the Universe" or "Emperor of Humanity."
As lands were gathered by this new Empire, each 'world' was ruled by the followers of the Emperors as gifted rewards for conquest and loyalty.
As time went on, centuries becoming millennia, feudalism developed as the ruling method of government; Positions were immediately hereditary, though the head monarch, the Emperor, was never to be ruled by one single dynasty, but chosen through popular vote of the powerful.
While a priesthood does exist, Promethean priests are more akin to ascetics, scholars, and philosophers of old, rather than any sort of powerful theological authority.
Rather, for the past 10,000 years, the authority of Prometheanism has been upheld by the Empire's ruling elite, as 'sins' often come with draconian punishments within this Empire.
The Promethean Creed is named so for a famous hymn in the Old Tongue passed down from a certain St. Comnena, who dictated that Prometheus was the primary hero of all humanity:
He who gave us the embers,
We mourn your torment,
For yours is the most noble of gifts;
He who suffers on our behalf,
We make a creed for you,
That your efforts go not unrequited. |
Faiths of the Known Universe
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