Ideologies and Religions

[The_Winterwolf]

One thing that has always irked me is the seemingly unified front that Materialists and Spiritualists have with themselves. These xenos are really all getting along because they are spiritualistic, even though their deities might be completely different or even at odds with each other? Then taking the materialistic spectrum into things where scientists are not having rather brutal debates and conflicts due to opposing viewpoints in their ideologies?

I would propose adding a new mechanic to make this dichotomy of Spiritualist and Materialist more diverse and interesting.

Spiritualists would get access to religions, where on empire creation you can create your own religion which grants various buffs and potential negatives. Things that can help better round out your species potentially or bring out greater potential in your species. For example, if your religion preaches fertility it could be represented in pop growth and crop growth. Likewise if it preaches valor and bravery, you might get bonuses for your army as well as a small bonus to ship damage or the like. Religions would add their own dichotomy similar to ethics. You could have some religions that embrace robotics and see a thinking machine as potentially being another spiritual being rather than a toaster getting too full of themselves. Just look at Warhammer 40k with the Adeptus Mechanicus, you could have Tech-priests via religious creation.

Ideologies are the Materialistic version of religions, whereas Spiritualists focus on divinity, materialists focus more on the here and now and how best to go about dealing with the here and now. For example, some materialists might actually be wary of venturing into robot/ai tech for fear of an uprising, you want an example of this look at Elon Musk or even Stephen hawking, both very intelligent and I dare say materialistic men of science who shared a distrust of Ai. Ideologies instead of preaching virtues, would have focuses instead, like agricultural focus, or military focus. Which scientific branch or way of thinking is the best. This would even allow Ideologies that don't outright dismiss spiritualistic views, and in fact could lead to Ideologies that could explore and research Psionics and Psionic theory, understanding it less from a Divine gift point of view, but rather as a new, complex form of science. Think of it similar to Biotics from Mass Effect where they are essentially psionic implants and the like!

Of course these religions and ideologies would have ways of spreading their influence to other empires, especially when agreements are formed and there are ways to keep your beliefs in control. Essentially it could boil down to adding another 'Factions' screen where you can suppress, support, or embrace a new religion or ideology at will!

Rational ideologies can expand into spiritualistic empires, potentially creating more materialistic believes as a result, likewise religions might spread into materalistic empires causing rational minds to once again believe in old deities.

This would add an additional layer of flavor to materialists and spiritualists, allow more complex interactions between these two ethics and adds a new mechanic that can even evolve over time. Ideologies and religions potentially splitting off into sub-sects, or even reforming and adding even more benefits to them. New ascension perks could be added that let you reform and change these beliefs, adding more to them, and even getting bonuses for having a variety of belief systems.

This would also even play into Authoritarian - Egalitarian, and Xenophile - Xenophobe ethics. Where Authoritarians would most likely want a singular belief system and get benefits to maintaining that, while egalitarians benefit from the plethora of new ideas and beliefs. Xenophobes would better repress and reject new ideologies and religions, where as xenophiles are more likely to accept and spread them.

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Now some of you might ask, why create effectively a renamed religious system for Materialists? Why not just make religions for spiritualists and call it a day? Again, I come down to the unified front issue. Most materialists end up becoming buddy buddy with other materialists from the get-go, but this isn't typically the case in the real world. Scientists have differing views on what should or shouldn't be done. What is 'ethical' and what is not. While we have other ethics to go off of, there are more morality based ethics that could be played with by using an ideological/religious system.

Religions have different ways they perform their... well.. religious practices, likewise there are differing ways scientists approach scientific problems and the scientific community clashes just as much as religious communities. Scientists, materialists, are not all a united front that all believe the exact same things, likewise with the spiritualists. Just because you believe in gods, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to ally with this xeno that also believes in gods because your gods might hate their gods, and vice versa, or they could be buddy buddy even!

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Anyway, I think this would add an extra layer of complexity to the game and add mechanics which would have long-term effects, being a constant throughout Early-Late game. I also like the roleplayability implications and the customization you can further go into when shaping your species. I'd even say empires without Spiritualist or Materialist would get to effectively create a religion or ideology as well, they just wouldn't get the benefits as if they had one of those two ethics.

A lot of my inspiration for this idea came from the Rimworl - Ideologies DLC, which features a lot of inter-ideological interactivity and I think having that sort of thing would benefit Stellaris.

Thank you for reading! If you do not like this idea, please explain why down below, likewise if you do like the idea, tell me what you like about it and what more could be expanded upon. Honestly, this is a rough concept idea, but something that could go far with making your empires feel more like... well.. your empire, your people.

 

[The_Winterwolf]

Not sure if I could actually link pictures of Rimworld Ideologies or not to better... showcase what I'm trying to suggest...

I'd even mention Civilization or hell.. Crusader Kings custom religion systems moving forward as potential ideological/religious systems for Stellaris.

 

[GOLANX]

I support religions but Materialist, ideologies sounds too thought out. Yes the scientific world is cutthroat taking down other scientist is amazingly lucrative. The proper way to show this is to remove Materialist bonus opinion of 1 another, they have up to 2 other ethics to decide wether they like you and all those opinions have more weight, wether your science is Apeture Flavored, or DARPA Flavored can easily be determined by ethics.

 

[The_Winterwolf]

I support religions but Materialist, ideologies sounds too thought out. Yes the scientific world is cutthroat taking down other scientist is amazingly lucrative. The proper way to show this is to remove Materialist bonus opinion of 1 another, they have up to 2 other ethics to decide wether they like you and all those opinions have more weight, wether your science is Apeture Flavored, or DARPA Flavored can easily be determined by ethics.

Honestly, I can see religions getting out of hand if Materialists can't participate in them. You could argue it would be a spiritualist equivalent of robots (In terms of gameplay advantages), however if not balanced correctly it could end up being far superior (Which again might not necessarily be a bad thing given the materialist supremacy that is currently still an issue)

The thing is Materialists literally do not acknowledge any form of higher power, hence why they are materialists (It even mentions in their descriptions they throw away notions like gods and higher beings of power. When people start delving into the shroud they go "There must be a scientific explanation!") Religions are all faith based, so I think a similar system set for the Materialists would make more sense where they present more philosophical concepts rather than divine mandates.

 

[GOLANX]

Honestly, I can see religions getting out of hand if Materialists can't participate in them. You could argue it would be a spiritualist equivalent of robots (In terms of gameplay advantages), however if not balanced correctly it could end up being far superior (Which again might not necessarily be a bad thing given the materialist supremacy that is currently still an issue)

The thing is Materialists literally do not acknowledge any form of higher power, hence why they are materialists (It even mentions in their descriptions they throw away notions like gods and higher beings of power. When people start delving into the shroud they go "There must be a scientific explanation!") Religions are all faith based, so I think a similar system set for the Materialists would make more sense where they present more philosophical concepts rather than divine mandates.

To me the way to do this would be to have Atheism as a religion, Atheism doesn't have any particular bonuses but makes the pop resilient against a religion change. In the context of Stellaris Agnosticism would be a pop without religion, receptive to religious ideas without belonging to any 1 faith. On empire creation Materialist would be able to choose Atheist or Agnostic, Spiritualist cannot be Agnostic, and anyone else has their pick (they can have religion they just won't lean on it like Spiritualist).

Religions cuts one off from different ideas. This can result in banning robots as in stellaris, or banning Genetic Engineering or Cloning, it can be a ban on slavery and interacting with Slavers, or codify a class structure into a Caste system with Slaves underneath. Atheist cut themselves off from the ideas of religions and any bounds they might apply. Materialists I don't think need any more than that, Materialists themselves shouldn't hold Taboos as part of the ethic or belief system, any Taboos would come from other Ethics, an Egalitarian would believe in allowing a diversity of ideas to thrive and supporting the maximum of people such that any idea with merit may flourish. An Authoritarian Materialist may wonder the difference between a adult slave and a child slave and conclude the child slave fits in tighter spaces. Now should players have a better ability to push themselves to gene, Psi or Synth I think yes, even Materialists should be able to consider each path instead of the pigeonholed synth path forced on them now.

 

[The_Winterwolf]

To me the way to do this would be to have Atheism as a religion, Atheism doesn't have any particular bonuses but makes the pop resilient against a religion change. In the context of Stellaris Agnosticism would be a pop without religion, receptive to religious ideas without belonging to any 1 faith. On empire creation Materialist would be able to choose Atheist or Agnostic, Spiritualist cannot be Agnostic, and anyone else has their pick (they can have religion they just won't lean on it like Spiritualist).

Religions cuts one off from different ideas. This can result in banning robots as in stellaris, or banning Genetic Engineering or Cloning, it can be a ban on slavery and interacting with Slavers, or codify a class structure into a Caste system with Slaves underneath. Atheist cut themselves off from the ideas of religions and any bounds they might apply. Materialists I don't think need any more than that, Materialists themselves shouldn't hold Taboos as part of the ethic or belief system, any Taboos would come from other Ethics, an Egalitarian would believe in allowing a diversity of ideas to thrive and supporting the maximum of people such that any idea with merit may flourish. An Authoritarian Materialist may wonder the difference between a adult slave and a child slave and conclude the child slave fits in tighter spaces. Now should players have a better ability to push themselves to gene, Psi or Synth I think yes, even Materialists should be able to consider each path instead of the pigeonholed synth path forced on them now.

Agnostic is basically the belief in a higher power, you just haven't really decided on what to believe in. It would make sense a spiritualist could be agnostic, but not a materialist. By the materialists own definition in the game they do not believe in any sort of divinity or higher power, making Agnosticism a laughable notion. Atheist is basically the only stance a Materialist could take.

The whole thing about materialists is THEY ARE NOT RECEPTIVE TO RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

 

[The_Winterwolf]

See just cause you're a spiritual person, doesn't mean you've decided on what religious faith to believe in. That's what agnostics are, they believe in some sort of divinity, its just uncertainty in which religion is the right one in their eyes. So again, Materialists could not do this, given that they are strictly Anti-religion.

Don't confuse individual scientists for Materialists. A scientist can have religious beliefs, but materialism is a whole different animal.

 

[GOLANX]

See just cause you're a spiritual person, doesn't mean you've decided on what religious faith to believe in. That's what agnostics are, they believe in some sort of divinity, its just uncertainty in which religion is the right one in their eyes. So again, Materialists could not do this, given that they are strictly Anti-religion.

Don't confuse individual scientists for Materialists. A scientist can have religious beliefs, but materialism is a whole different animal.

I agree you can be a spiritual person without a defined belief, I don't think you can be a Spiritualist Empire with a State Religion and Temples built to Preach the word and not a defined faith from which to derive the word. In this context I don't agree with the idea that Spiritualist empires can be Agnostic, you can't organize a principle of litterally I don't know.

The definitions don't need to perfectly match their real world counterparts either. Real world Materialism and Spiritualism are defined by the search for Material goods and Material wealth, vs Spiritual growth and Spiritual wealth (funnily enough still a binary).

As those ethics are modified from their real world meaning I suggest modifying Agnosticism and Atheism such that Agnosticism is a Neutral State without Religion and thus susceptible to religious influences, Atheism is a Religious belief antagonistic to other Religions. When a Spiritualist empire seeks to spread its religion it is the Agnostic Empires that it will seek to convert as they are the neutral state, depending on the religious beliefs they may Adapt other religions to grow even among other Spiritualist. Atheist are typically a hard no on religion and a relatively insurmountable obstacle for a Spiritualist empire's ability to spread its beliefs. In this sense a Materialist can be Agnostic because they are open to others ideas even if they don't have any defined belief, this may also encompass the idea of a civilization not yet exposed to religious beliefs, rather than one predicated on opposition to Religion.

Materialist shouldn't be concerned with spreading their beliefs, they may hold onto them true, but spreading beliefs really is the chosen purview of Spiritualist and their religions. Materialist should be more concerned with self empowerment, and the increase in efficiency such as logic dictates. Yes xenophile Materialist are less self focused but I think of it as a means to an end, "by working together in cooperation with the community, I will benefit from the wisdom of all." Xenophile is its own additional ethic with its own values that help inform an ethic like materialism or spiritualism.

I also personally know a exceptional Scientist with strong religious beliefs, in fact most scientist throughout history have probably had 1 religion or another. So yes not all Scientist are Materialist, not to mentions Spiritualist empires can have a lot of scientist, and I'm not just saying that cause you buy scientist with Unity.

Spiritualism should not be defined by religion, all empires should have access to religion, Spiritualism is defined as the desire to grow and expand the religion. As Spiritualist should be able to through either war or peace spread their religion and other empires need to allow religion in order for it to spread and grow. As that is Spiritualist shtick Materialist have no such need, if an Atheist has such a need then he is not Materialist, these are not the same.

 

[The_Winterwolf]

I agree you can be a spiritual person without a defined belief, I don't think you can be a Spiritualist Empire with a State Religion and Temples built to Preach the word and not a defined faith from which to derive the word. In this context I don't agree with the idea that Spiritualist empires can be Agnostic, you can't organize a principle of litterally I don't know.

The definitions don't need to perfectly match their real world counterparts either. Real world Materialism and Spiritualism are defined by the search for Material goods and Material wealth, vs Spiritual growth and Spiritual wealth (funnily enough still a binary).

As those ethics are modified from their real world meaning I suggest modifying Agnosticism and Atheism such that Agnosticism is a Neutral State without Religion and thus susceptible to religious influences, Atheism is a Religious belief antagonistic to other Religions. When a Spiritualist empire seeks to spread its religion it is the Agnostic Empires that it will seek to convert as they are the neutral state, depending on the religious beliefs they may Adapt other religions to grow even among other Spiritualist. Atheist are typically a hard no on religion and a relatively insurmountable obstacle for a Spiritualist empire's ability to spread its beliefs. In this sense a Materialist can be Agnostic because they are open to others ideas even if they don't have any defined belief, this may also encompass the idea of a civilization not yet exposed to religious beliefs, rather than one predicated on opposition to Religion.

Materialist shouldn't be concerned with spreading their beliefs, they may hold onto them true, but spreading beliefs really is the chosen purview of Spiritualist and their religions. Materialist should be more concerned with self empowerment, and the increase in efficiency such as logic dictates. Yes xenophile Materialist are less self focused but I think of it as a means to an end, "by working together in cooperation with the community, I will benefit from the wisdom of all." Xenophile is its own additional ethic with its own values that help inform an ethic like materialism or spiritualism.

I also personally know a exceptional Scientist with strong religious beliefs, in fact most scientist throughout history have probably had 1 religion or another. So yes not all Scientist are Materialist, not to mentions Spiritualist empires can have a lot of scientist, and I'm not just saying that cause you buy scientist with Unity.

Spiritualism should not be defined by religion, all empires should have access to religion, Spiritualism is defined as the desire to grow and expand the religion. As Spiritualist should be able to through either war or peace spread their religion and other empires need to allow religion in order for it to spread and grow. As that is Spiritualist shtick Materialist have no such need, if an Atheist has such a need then he is not Materialist, these are not the same.

I mean whose saying that the spiritualist empire has a state religion? They could have a plethora of different gods from different religions. The key thing about the spiritualists is they believe in a higher, divine power, it doesn't state they collectively believe in the same one. That's how you would use religions to differentiate the spiritualists. Cause Right now basically all spiritualists worship the same deity by game mechanics lol.

If you want to know how to have a mass of spiritualists that don't all believe the same thing, look at the umbrella term of Paganism which includes all natural world religions. Viking Paganism to witch doctors, to native american beliefs all fall under this broad umbrella term.

The definitions I'm going by aren't real world, they are literally the game's definitions and descriptions, my friend.



But here is an idea. Instead of calling it a religion, we can call it a belief system! Or more appropriately... CULTURE! Eh? Spiritualists would definitely have more of an influence over cultural matters over materialists, so I think that term might fit better and can work similar to a religious system where you can spread your culture which would also come with ethics I suppose. Idk its a bit complicated.

However spiritualists are defined by religion, its literally in the.. well.. in the name itself. lol

 

[Gui10]

Agnostic is basically the belief in a higher power, you just haven't really decided on what to believe in. It would make sense a spiritualist could be agnostic, but not a materialist. By the materialists own definition in the game they do not believe in any sort of divinity or higher power, making Agnosticism a laughable notion. Atheist is basically the only stance a Materialist could take.

The whole thing about materialists is THEY ARE NOT RECEPTIVE TO RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

Agnosticism is the belief that we either have no proof of the existence or non-existence of any divinity (moderate agnosticism) or that it is impossible to ever know whether the divine exist (radical agnosticism). I have no trouble imagining materialist (in Stellaris) remaining agnostic (believing they have no way to proof divinity in any direction, so it is better to dedicate their energy to more fructiferous endeavours), while radical materialist might take issue with that, as they would consider it a remnant of misticism that hinders progress.

Also, small reminder for the threat: empire ethics and pop ethics are different things. A radical materialist empire that opposes all kind of misticism is an empire whose goverment pursues such goals, not one whose every pop is strongly against spiritualist beliefs. A radical spiritualist empire is one that is convinced conciousness creates the universe, not the other way around, not one whose each and every citizen is convinced their faith can stop a planet-cracker. Most pops can't even have radical ethics!

 

[GOLANX]

I mean whose saying that the spiritualist empire has a state religion? They could have a plethora of different gods from different religions. The key thing about the spiritualists is they believe in a higher, divine power, it doesn't state they collectively believe in the same one. That's how you would use religions to differentiate the spiritualists. Cause Right now basically all spiritualists worship the same deity by game mechanics lol.

If a religion is going to have an effect or be able to spread then there needs to be a single defined religion as the state religion, I don't put too much stock in flavor text, you can find flavor text in gestalts that call them individuals. In terms of Paganism that would be a trait you would add to the religion that let's them add the gods of other faiths to their belief system, if you wanted to play space Hindus you would add Paganism, and would be able to add pops other beliefs to your own. Hinduism is basically comprised of many many many other religions with their own different beliefs and stories, with a common belief in the major gods of Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva, and until recently a hard belief in a caste system with Priests in the topmost Caste.

If you took the UNE and made it spiritualist then which real religion would it be spreadding? As the missionaries go to the Blorg which religion do they try to get the blorg to convert to? Temples shouldn't just be increasing spiritualist attraction they should be increasing religious attraction, to which religion? By having a designated State religion you can apply specific religions with their bonuses to yours and other empires. With a single state religion its principles or codified into the law of your empire instead of just the reductive Robophobia that is applied to spiritualist now.

If you want to know how to have a mass of spiritualists that don't all believe the same thing, look at the umbrella term of Paganism which includes all natural world religions. Viking Paganism to witch doctors, to native american beliefs all fall under this broad umbrella term.

The definitions I'm going by aren't real world, they are literally the game's definitions and descriptions, my friend.



But here is an idea. Instead of calling it a religion, we can call it a belief system! Or more appropriately... CULTURE! Eh? Spiritualists would definitely have more of an influence over cultural matters over materialists, so I think that term might fit better and can work similar to a religious system where you can spread your culture which would also come with ethics I suppose. Idk its a bit complicated.

However spiritualists are defined by religion, its literally in the.. well.. in the name itself. lol

It could be Culture that's fine but I would suggest that Spiritualist get a Bonus to it to represent religions that makes it their strong suit, and their goals would be to spread their Culture, with additional abilities to achieve that, and bonuses for doing so. Materialist by contrast would find Culture their weakness, they wouldn't have the desire or abilities to spread their culture, instead remaining insular.

In order for religion to spread non spiritualist empire need to be able to have religious pops, they however would not have temples increasing religious attraction or all the tools spiritualist use to spread their beliefs and the same level of benefits for doing so. While you could create and benefit from a religion for such an empire it wouldn't be the animating force behind your policies, it may be a source of conflict with other empires or be supplanted by a spiritualist empire.

 

[Slaughter]

I have thought about it and came to similar conclusions. Ideologies are pretty much the secular/materialist equivalent of Religions.

If we're thinking in terms of Pop System, it would be interesting if every pop had a Religion and Ideology, like in Victoria - do remember there are Ideologies that are straight religious or pro-religion, or anti-religion - conservatives and traditionalist ideologies tend towards being in favour of religion, sometimes even to a cultural evel even if the individual is not part of it (Cultural Christians and such), while there are also materialistic ideologies such as Communism which are usually against religion.

So you could have ideologies that make your pops more likely to be religious, or non-religious.

Which could be reflected on ethics.

Again, we can use the Ethics system to model religions and ideologies. So for example, something like the Fascism would be Militaristic/Fanatic Authoritarian, while Anarchism would be Fanatic Egalitarian/Pacifist (or Egalitarian/Pacifist/Materialist for more.

For religions, I think we can actually forgo the "Spiritualistic" axis because its implicit - so you could say its "Spiritualist/Fanatic Spiritualist" by default. Which btw I don't think we can do with Ideologies, because not all ideologies are Materialistic. Which is not a bad form of asymmetry btw. Ideologies should't be a mirror copy of religion.

So for example, Catholicism would be Authoritarian/Pacisfist/Xenophile (Strongly hierarchical church structure/Just War beliefs and tendency towards non-violence/Universalism), while something like Norse Asatru would be Fanatic Militarist/Xenophile (Strong warrior culture/Commonly engaged with outsiders by trade and even service).

If Religions have ethics, you could also use that to organically make relations between Spiritualists with different religions work. A bunch of Spiritualist Pacifists who believe in non-violence shouldn't be buddy-buddy with the other space aliens whose religion is literally "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!". They should be more friendly with the nice Fanatic Pacifist Materialists nearby.

(btw looking at it, I think there's a strong argument that we need an extra ethics point - I don't you think you could depict, say, The Imperium of Man, properly in the current system)

 

[Lazy Name]

IMO it doesn't really make sense to restrict ideologies to Materialists, though. Every ethic is itself an ideology with many "sub-ideologies" beneath it; All militarists may be part of an ideology that believes war and conflict is good, but one may believe in war for the greater good, another may believe in war for their own profit, and others might just enjoy war for wars sake. None of them should actually get along all that well, and they're only grouped up in the same ethic because they all fall under the general category of "does war a lot."

I think that the problem you're describing, "Most materialists end up becoming buddy buddy with other materialists from the get-go, but this isn't typically the case in the real world. Scientists have differing views on what should or shouldn't be done," is really more of a problem with the simplified ethics system of Stellaris than a problem with Materialists specifically. The best way to fix it would be to create a more complex ethics and culture system that lets you customize the beliefs and principles of your empire to a greater degree, but I'd imagine that something like that would be unlikely to be made until a Stellaris 2.

 

[GOLANX]

IMO it doesn't really make sense to restrict ideologies to Materialists, though. Every ethic is itself an ideology with many "sub-ideologies" beneath it; All militarists may be part of an ideology that believes war and conflict is good, but one may believe in war for the greater good, another may believe in war for their own profit, and others might just enjoy war for wars sake. None of them should actually get along all that well, and they're only grouped up in the same ethic because they all fall under the general category of "does war a lot."

I think that the problem you're describing, "Most materialists end up becoming buddy buddy with other materialists from the get-go, but this isn't typically the case in the real world. Scientists have differing views on what should or shouldn't be done," is really more of a problem with the simplified ethics system of Stellaris than a problem with Materialists specifically. The best way to fix it would be to create a more complex ethics and culture system that lets you customize the beliefs and principles of your empire to a greater degree, but I'd imagine that something like that would be unlikely to be made until a Stellaris 2.

Yeah that's one of my major problems too, Materialists don't need a mirror system for Religions. Religion needs to be added as a part of a system that affects all empires including Spiritualist and Materialists, and Ideologies could be that, with religion as a Super Ideology, or a Super trait in an Ideology. Spiritualist would gain extra bonuses to spreading their religion and Ideology to other empires and gain benefits from doing so.

 

[Scyobi_Empire]

Tech Cult! Tech Cult!

 

[GOLANX]

Tech Cult! Tech Cult!

I know people read that and think tech priests and 40k, I Think Brotherhood of Nod. A Spiritualist organization focused on the development of technology and advancement of science with no Taboos. It's actually the not Spiritualist with Tech Taboos and the moral imperative against the unethical experiments of the Spiritualist.

 

[Slaughter]

I know people read that and think tech priests and 40k, I Think Brotherhood of Nod. A Spiritualist organization focused on the development of technology and advancement of science with no Taboos. It's actually the not Spiritualist with Tech Taboos and the moral imperative against the unethical experiments of the Spiritualist.

I think Brotherhood of Steel myself, through they don't worship tech itself, they are more like an order of monks and knights who preserve the knowledge of the before-times with religious fervour. Like the monks in Europe who preserved so much knowledge through the dark ages.

(they do have kind of a personality cult involving the Maxson bloodline, tho)

 

[indalecio248]

I know people read that and think tech priests and 40k, I Think Brotherhood of Nod. A Spiritualist organization focused on the development of technology and advancement of science with no Taboos. It's actually the not Spiritualist with Tech Taboos and the moral imperative against the unethical experiments of the Spiritualist.

I could also think of Alterra Corp from Subnautica. I find they have a very cult-like mindset, just a materialistic and secular one, instead of spiritualist.

 

[GOLANX]

I could also think of Alterra Corp from Subnautica. I find they have a very cult-like mindset, just a materialistic and secular one, instead of spiritualist.

I wouldn't call Alterra Cult-like thats just the way megacorps are, particularly in the eyes of the lefty unknown worlds devs. I can't even think of anything Alterra did as being particularly cultish TBH, a hedonistic devotion to profit? But that's all corporations, your supposed to be willing to sell your mother into slavery for a profit, it's only a Cult when that becomes litteral.

Now if you want a tech Cult that isn't necessarily spiritualist I'd look at the corporation from DOOM (the name escapes me), litteral Human sacrifices and blood pentagrams to extract energy from hell.

 

[indalecio248]

I wouldn't call Alterra Cult-like thats just the way megacorps are, particularly in the eyes of the lefty unknown worlds devs. I can't even think of anything Alterra did as being particularly cultish TBH, a hedonistic devotion to profit? But that's all corporations, your supposed to be willing to sell your mother into slavery for a profit, it's only a Cult when that becomes litteral.

They seemed cultish in the way they wanted to control every aspect of your personal life. Some of the audio logs from the crashed spaceship gave that impression.