Like what though? I can't really think of what else you could put in there, but I would honestly love to hear other peoples' ideas!
[MOD] After the End - A post-apocalyptic America mod
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Like what though? I can't really think of what else you could put in there, but I would honestly love to hear other peoples' ideas!
What are you talking about? Voodoo is a very important part of Louisiana culture and history.
In my section of New York (NYC north-western exurbs) you're more likely to see Catholic, Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, Reformed (Reformed Church in America, aka Dutch Reformed), and Lutheran than Evangelicals. Perhaps some sort of fusion of mainstream Protestants?
I'd suggest that if anything 'americanistesque' exists outside of the east coast it be an entirely different religion.
People in Mount Rushmore worshipping the presidents would have no cause to do so with the same traditions, customs, laws, beliefs or etc as the Americanists.
Unless say, some Americanists in DC found reference in ancient scripture to the great monument of rushmore and made a long, perilous pilgrimage and against all odds ended up establishing a colony there.
New York/Hudson is probably big enough to pull off a religion of it's own. But really Evangelical seems fine to me as it makes Americanists more enclosed, and to me atleast they're the underdog protagonists of the mod, charting the period of history where they rose from obscurity to dominance... So the potential for their enemies to the north to ally with their enemies to the south sits good.
Evangelical in the mod is the fusion of mainstream Protestantism. More oriented towards the South than North, sure, but it's still meant to be more mainstream. The 'Charismatic' heresy is the one that's like half-sliding towards Revelationist paganism what with the speaking in tongues and so forth.
I feel like some sort of western heresy of Americanism should exist. One that also could include western figures like Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, etc... There's plenty of monuments out here dedicated to them as well, so I feel like some sort of religion around them could exist.
I agree, see posts about wild west stuff above, but not as a heresy. As a whole different religion.
TO be a heresy it needs to be a branch of the same tree, not a whole different religion and society that developed independently with no common ground that just happens to share similar beliefs.
To be a heresy they'd have to had been mainstream east coast americanists who's society or beliefs or laws/politics diverged to the point of breaking away from the 'core'. Not developed on the other side of the continent by different people for different reasons without knowledge or common ground.
I guess I was taking your idea of east coast Americanists heading to the west, finding all these other monuments around Mount Rushmore, and incorporating those into their religion as well. The idea of an epic quest across post-Apocalyptic America just seems really cool to me.
What to put in New York?
Americanists!
...Sorry...
Well, there's a bunch of possibilities. We could just have some variation of Protestants, sure, but that'd be boring (no offense meant to Protestants). Historically, upstate New York was the source of important religious movements in the US, most notably the Mormons, but I'm assuming we want to save them for Utah/Deseret/whatever. So we could have another one of the Second Great Awakening movements, like the Shakers, or the Oneida Community. Maybe as a heresy of Anabaptists? Places like the Adirondacks and the Hudson Valley seem like they would lend themselves nicely to some sort of nature-worshipping religion, which could tie in nicely to some sort of hippie or New Age religion based around Woodstock, though that would probably be pushing the non-specificity of the apocalypse date. I also feel, for some reason that I'm not sure, like Spiritualism could be a good fit there. Or maybe something to do with women, on account of Seneca Falls?
Also, Wikipedia has this gem: "The Capital District [Albany] has been pivotal in the history of Santa Claus in the United States including the first written reference to Santa (Sinterclaas) in 1675 and the first publishing of 'Twas the Night before Christmas in 1823." Make of that what you will. *cough*Santa-worshiping religion*cough*.
If we're going to have Jews in the mod, New York would be the place to put them. I would say give them a couple of counties or one duchy at most (looking at Raritan, Hudson Valley, and the Catskills), and one patrician family in the Republic of New York.
Americanists!
...Sorry...
Well, there's a bunch of possibilities. We could just have some variation of Protestants, sure, but that'd be boring (no offense meant to Protestants). Historically, upstate New York was the source of important religious movements in the US, most notably the Mormons, but I'm assuming we want to save them for Utah/Deseret/whatever. So we could have another one of the Second Great Awakening movements, like the Shakers, or the Oneida Community. Maybe as a heresy of Anabaptists? Places like the Adirondacks and the Hudson Valley seem like they would lend themselves nicely to some sort of nature-worshipping religion, which could tie in nicely to some sort of hippie or New Age religion based around Woodstock, though that would probably be pushing the non-specificity of the apocalypse date. I also feel, for some reason that I'm not sure, like Spiritualism could be a good fit there. Or maybe something to do with women, on account of Seneca Falls?
Also, Wikipedia has this gem: "The Capital District [Albany] has been pivotal in the history of Santa Claus in the United States including the first written reference to Santa (Sinterclaas) in 1675 and the first publishing of 'Twas the Night before Christmas in 1823." Make of that what you will. *cough*Santa-worshiping religion*cough*.
If we're going to have Jews in the mod, New York would be the place to put them. I would say give them a couple of counties or one duchy at most (looking at Raritan, Hudson Valley, and the Catskills), and one patrician family in the Republic of New York.
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So do I, and have you never heard of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Laveau
Hell, I've even met some people who practice voodoo.
You'd want something like that to happen in game though, third sons and disposed families joining up, getting can't inherit traits and venturing across the continent through dangers and perils to found a new society that slowly melting pots into a syncretic culture as they marry into the local tribals who worship the stone giants and fall to their knees to those strangers who know their true, secret names which only tribal elders should know.
But what would be the odds of that happening in game, as awesome as it sounds. I just think not having Mount Rushmore be controlled by Americanists is a missed opportunity. I mean, the place is already built like a temple, with granite columns with all the names of the states inscribed in them, and a giant amphitheater overlooking the sculpture itself.
There's even a North Pole up north of Albany (though that 1675 reference must have been to Saint Nicholas before he morphed into Santa.)
You're assuming Rushmore is still standing. In 1000 years the mountains could be little more than featureless heads open to interpretation from any religion in the area. I would make it an americanist holy site and I would have them make pilgrimages there and give them a flavor event for when they conqueror it or lose control of it but we are being too static with out thinking.
Mount Rushmore will most definitely exist 600 years from now, in fact, it could possibly survive 10,000 years without any human interaction upon it (sorry, I'm studying geology so this is kind of my thing, haha)
You'd get some weathering of the faces and the noses would probably break off, but they shouldn't overall be in worse shape than the Sphynx.
On Voodoo, I think it should stay in Louisiana for two reasons:
A. It's much cooler than anything anyone else will ever be able to come up with. A religion based on rituals, spirit possession, and syncretic deities? Come on. I can just imagine events based on getting possessed by the loa, using gris-gris to bless yourself or curse your enemies, raising zombies (in the traditional sense), initiation rituals, etc. Some of this might veer into the stereotypical, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because religions in the mod shouldn't be religions as they exist today, they should be modern religions viewed through the lens of people in the far future, which is my next point:
B. The religion and culture of different regions shouldn't be based on what those regions actually have now, they should be based on what people in the distant post-apocalyptic future would think they would have had. This is why we have Amish Pennsylvania, Rust Cultist Rust Belt, Americanist Mid-Atlantic, snake-handling Kentucky and Tennessee, and this is why we should have Voodoo Louisiana (and a cowboy-worshiping West, for that matter). We can't be anachronistic, it's the future, and trying to be overly "realistic" will just lead to a sea of Christians, which is boring.
I'm sure, anyway, that Voodoo existing in Louisiana in the mod's timeframe would involve contact with Haiti. Probably the future Louisianans would have some sort of vague notion (correct or not) that their ancestors practiced Voodoo, and contact and trade with Haiti would allow them to "rediscover" it so they would adopt the Haitian religion.
Since I've mentioned it, I'll weigh in on the cowboy religion thing: I think that there should be some sort of religion in the West based on revering and worshiping cowboys and other Western tropes and stereotypes since all of that is a major part of American culture (minus the worshiping, of course), but I don't think that that religion should be an Americanist heresy (though at least Mount Rushmore should be Americanist). Maybe cowboys themselves could work like knights in the GoT mod. The West should also have a heavy Native American presence: Sioux in the Dakotas, Navajo and Pueblo in the Southwest, Cherokee in Oklahoma, etc.
A full-blown religion based on centered Santa Claus is probably too jokey, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to have regular Christians assuming that he's an actual saint (modern American Santa Claus, that is, not Saint Nicholas) and praying to him along with the rest. There's probably a lot of images of him lying around, at least.
See my previous post.
Alright, updating this. It turns out that Spiritualism in America actually did originate in Upstate New York with the Fox Sisters, so I think that would be a really cool religion to have up there. And another prominent religious movement from the region are the Millerites, who became the Adventists, who would also be cool. Maybe some sort of Christian sect combining all the Second Great Awakening movements (Awakened? Awakeners? Wakers?) that the future Hudsonians read about in crumbling history movements and don't understand but like the sound of the Oneida Community's group marriages. Or straight Adventists or Shakers, or Spiritualists, or nature-worshipers or tech-worshipers or hippies or feminists. Anabaptists, even. Mormons, even. There's lots we can do. Anything but Catholic or Evangelical.
A. It's much cooler than anything anyone else will ever be able to come up with. A religion based on rituals, spirit possession, and syncretic deities? Come on. I can just imagine events based on getting possessed by the loa, using gris-gris to bless yourself or curse your enemies, raising zombies (in the traditional sense), initiation rituals, etc. Some of this might veer into the stereotypical, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because religions in the mod shouldn't be religions as they exist today, they should be modern religions viewed through the lens of people in the far future, which is my next point:
B. The religion and culture of different regions shouldn't be based on what those regions actually have now, they should be based on what people in the distant post-apocalyptic future would think they would have had. This is why we have Amish Pennsylvania, Rust Cultist Rust Belt, Americanist Mid-Atlantic, snake-handling Kentucky and Tennessee, and this is why we should have Voodoo Louisiana (and a cowboy-worshiping West, for that matter). We can't be anachronistic, it's the future, and trying to be overly "realistic" will just lead to a sea of Christians, which is boring.
I'm sure, anyway, that Voodoo existing in Louisiana in the mod's timeframe would involve contact with Haiti. Probably the future Louisianans would have some sort of vague notion (correct or not) that their ancestors practiced Voodoo, and contact and trade with Haiti would allow them to "rediscover" it so they would adopt the Haitian religion.
Since I've mentioned it, I'll weigh in on the cowboy religion thing: I think that there should be some sort of religion in the West based on revering and worshiping cowboys and other Western tropes and stereotypes since all of that is a major part of American culture (minus the worshiping, of course), but I don't think that that religion should be an Americanist heresy (though at least Mount Rushmore should be Americanist). Maybe cowboys themselves could work like knights in the GoT mod. The West should also have a heavy Native American presence: Sioux in the Dakotas, Navajo and Pueblo in the Southwest, Cherokee in Oklahoma, etc.
A full-blown religion based on centered Santa Claus is probably too jokey, but it wouldn't be too far-fetched to have regular Christians assuming that he's an actual saint (modern American Santa Claus, that is, not Saint Nicholas) and praying to him along with the rest. There's probably a lot of images of him lying around, at least.
Did no one take into account what I said about a Jewish resurgence?
See my previous post.
Alright, updating this. It turns out that Spiritualism in America actually did originate in Upstate New York with the Fox Sisters, so I think that would be a really cool religion to have up there. And another prominent religious movement from the region are the Millerites, who became the Adventists, who would also be cool. Maybe some sort of Christian sect combining all the Second Great Awakening movements (Awakened? Awakeners? Wakers?) that the future Hudsonians read about in crumbling history movements and don't understand but like the sound of the Oneida Community's group marriages. Or straight Adventists or Shakers, or Spiritualists, or nature-worshipers or tech-worshipers or hippies or feminists. Anabaptists, even. Mormons, even. There's lots we can do. Anything but Catholic or Evangelical.
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