Prime
You can and will be scrutinized by admins and players in your department.
Also known as the preacher, the prime's role is to provide a variety of support to the crew who need it. You have access to a church garden, the biogenerator, and your office from within the chapel.
It is vital that you use the radio to call people to the chapel, because otherwise it is less frequented than the library.
Duties
Each prime is free to invent the details of their rituals.
- Funerals: You have a stock of coffins you can use for wakes and burials. Some employees appreciate wakes being held for friends and loved ones.
- Psychological care: This includes counseling, pharmaceutical remedies (consult the chemist), and confessions. Most crew members rarely if ever submit to psychological care of their own initiative; offer to help when someone looks troubled. Prisoners are most often in need of attention.
- Church Services: Give sermons and sing hymns. You're free to take inspiration from existing practices or create your own, just keep them sane.
- Other possible activities: Investiture of new vectors, psychical research and seances, and pilgrimages to various places.
The Church of the Absolute
The church of the absolute follows a very simple and specific set of rules that all primes and vectors are expected to follow and adhere to. The absolute views all religions and all paths as variables headed to one specific end and that all people, knowingly or unknowingly, will follow this path. The founder of the church, Augustine Browne, described the idea using numbers in that if one were to count forward or backwards you would eventually find both the beginning and the end. She described this beginning number and end number as god, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end and likened the sequence of numbers to time. From the progress of time one would always, no matter their choices or interpretations, come to an end that was absolute and stand before god.
This core belief that all paths end in the same place has lead the absolute to see all other faiths as fractals of themselves. Each faith, its interpretations, and its word for god is merely a lower number in the sequence that will eventually lead them to their absolute destination. Because of this the church is open to all faiths and is considered non-denominational in essence. Those that lack a cruciform and have not joined the church fully are called 'fractals' while those who have a cruciform and actively aid the church are known as vectors. Those who lead the flock are known as primes.
Due to their non-denominational stance the day to day tasks and operations of the church are subject to the prime and have a very open approach on how they conduct themselves, the only absolute hah expectations shared between them are as follows:
- Full members of the church must have a cruciform installed.
- The church is expected to provide free food and drink, generally that which is produced by the garden, to all who ask.
- All members of the church are expected to provide aid, within reason, to those who request it. Be it through the use of their cruciform or their works.
- The biogenerator must be kept powered at all times.
- The church is encouraged and qualified, though not required, to repair, rebuild, and maintain most complex devices, ranging from simple machines, consoles and airlocks all the way up to exosuits, telecomms, and robots, should there be an absence of willing or able Artificers or Roboticists. They are also qualified to perform surgery, though they typically only perform it for other members of the church unless there are no qualified doctors on-duty.
- Due to their outdoor location, the solar arrays are most commonly maintained by the Church.
Though it is not required, members of the church are encouraged to volunteer in other departments and aid them however possible and while it's allowed, it's discouraged to help the soteria. Members of the church may work fully in other departments but as per an agreement by all heads of staff but may not work as heads of staff in other departments.
Regarding the installation of the Devout upgrade. It shouldn't be given out to anyone who isn't a vector or prime normally, special circumstances like a code red scenario that doesn't warrant a crusader upgrade could be valid, but under normal procedure it shouldn't be given out for free. Also, in such scenarios, it is still up to the prime/vector doing the upgrade to decide whether the individual deserves the extra power and litanys. There is a reason why it is given to only the church roles instead of everybody with a cruciform.
Background Information
The church of the absolute is considered by the Sol Federation a cult in possession of stolen technology. The original creator of the cruciform and founder of the church, Augustine Browne, was once a member of the soteria institute and tells her primes and vectors that the discovery of the technology allowed her to see a glimpse into the truth of all faiths. During their exodus to the colony on the outer fringes of space (the colony), they sustained heavy losses as Solfed police forces attempted to apprehend them.
The function and use of the cruciform is still a mystery, even to the prime, but what is known is that it can only be charged through the use of an active biogenerator. How the cruciform applies its fantastical abilities is a subject of speculation, in particular to the baffled soteria institute.
Propitiating the Gods
The pray command is like an adminhelp, but is in character, and should be worded deferentially (e.g. "Oh Great and Wise Absolute, please grant your humble servant...). It is advised that you only pray later in the round; the gods have a habit of ignoring early prayers.
Prayers are more likely to be answered if they are somehow thematically appropriate: wishing for an RCD for no apparent reason is unlikely to be fulfilled, but praying for, say, a divine mission or the tools to complete such are more amusing to the gods.
You have candles and crayons in your locker. Candles can be set anywhere and lit (they eventually burn down). Crayons can be used to draw runes (commonly placed in front of the podium), as well as graffiti (not really your style) and letters (allowing you to write out messages across the ground).
Do not expect any prayers to be answered. Gods are fickle beings. Nobody knows what they are going to do next in their great designs.
Artifacts
Your Book
You begin the shift with a prayer book that can provide a good resource of knowledge and is highly valuable for both your rituals and in using your cruciform. Keep it with you and safe at all times.
Ritual Knife
An odd item that is used in rituals to install a cruciform and induct someone into the church.
Your Sword
A specially made crusader sword capable of stunning those without cruciforms if used in both hands. It remains in a stone pedestal and comes with its own unique sheathe.
Church Armory
In addition to a small ritual room in your personal quarters and office you have an armory locked away with several laser rifles, ballistic pistols, and a munitions for both. This armory is strictly for your followers and should only be opened during a code red scenario to defend church grounds or yourselves. Fortunately, in your personal locker is a ballistic pistol and four spare mags for both non-lethal and lethal variety for your own personal protection. Withdrawing ammunition or weapons from the armory at an inappropriate time will result in disciplinary actions taken by the church internally.
Heresy and Excommunication
Despite the open nature of the church their are things you specifically should not do and if caught doing so you will be demoted to vector permanently or excommunicated from the church entirely. The only person capable of giving judgement on charges of heresy or excommunication is Augustine Browne herself.
- Heresy - Heresy is the act of installing a cruciform into an unwilling person or installing a cruciform in a person who isn't allowed to have one such as a criminal or non-faithful. Punishment is excommunication.
- Abuse of Power - This involves using their cruciform on others only when it benefits the user or using their position to command unreasonable or degenerative acts as arbitrated by Augustine. Punishment is normally permanent demotion to vector but may result in excommunication by discretion.
- Extortion - This covers selling or benefiting from installing a cruciform on someone through some form of compensation and will result in excommunication of both the prime and buyer.
- Tampering with a cruciform - This covers modifying a cruciform or allowing another person to modify a cruciform. This changes to excommunication if anyone within the soteria is allowed to study or modify a cruciform.
- Committing a grand crime - Any prime or vector found convicted of a red paragraph or severe crime will be excommunicated as a result as per agreement between faction owners. This is non-negotiable and cannot be overridden, even by Augustine herself.
Crusader Protocol
The church has few enemies and while it maintains a small armory is does not generally need weaponry. There is one exception to this rule and that is the crusader protocol. The church has long since viewed the techno-organic virus known as the "Hivemind" as a corruption and completely heretical creation that must be destroyed at all costs. When the detection of a hivemind entity has been discovered on the colony any prime or vector may pray for their crusader protocol to activate. If the threat is deemed strong enough it may, flooding the users body with combat stimulants and enhancing their fighting capability temporarily for a few hours. In addition a crusader active church member is given a special prayer that will summon an energy sword, energy shield, and a suit of armor. In some rare cases a church member may have their crusader protocol activate even when a hivemind is not around, such as when a serious code red or code delta scenario is triggered.
Objectionable Technology
Certain developments of technology are designed to benefit the colony but there appearance can be uncomfortable to the unlearned colonist. As such, any designs or disks found in the primes locker should be kept discrete, along with the devices they may create. Failure to do so can and will result in a prime's demotion to vector permanently.
