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Stellaris Dev Diary #184 : Fwd: Notice of Termination

Congratulations, [Employee.GetFirstName]!

Due to consistently meeting or exceeding performance goals and receiving high marks from both your manager and colleagues, you have been selected for termination at the end of this quarter! Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated by all of us here at Dodacorp™, and we’re lucky to see you go!

Your manager will be in touch with you to provide instructions related to termination benefits, reallocating your Dodacorp™ retirement credits to your next of kin, and the necessary paperwork for your desired post-termination arrangements. As a valued member of Dodacorp™, remember that you have an employee discount on cremation services from our partners at Burnatech™ and don’t forget that you can claim your complementary Eternal Interment™ urn from our Repositrexx™ subsidiary.

Ask your manager about securing a spot for your urn on the Wall of Honor™, the most desirable places are going fast!

Please make sure to complete all of the requisite forms by the first of
[Employee.TerminationDate.PreviousMonth] so you don’t miss this exciting opportunity.

We’d like to thank you again for your service here at Dodacorp™, and appreciate that your sacrifice today will lead to record profits tomorrow!

Sincerely,

[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullName]
[Employee.Division.Supervisor.GetFullJobTitle]

Dodacorp(tm) image - NOT JEFF


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Inspired by the extreme popularity of CK2’s Sunset Invasion, we continue our exploration of mortality with two more civics that we’re planning for an upcoming release, the Death Cult and Corporate Death Cult.

Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Death Cult civic - sadly the Curators aren’t allowed to secretly be a death cult

Corporate Death Cult Civic - NOT JEFF

Corporate Death Cult civic - ritual murder for funds and prophet


Available to Spiritualist empires, empires with either of these civics replace the Temples that Spiritualists can normally build with Sacrificial Temples that provide both Death Priest and Mortal Initiate jobs.

Sacrificial Temple - NOT JEFF

Sacrificial Temple building - funny how there always seems to be a Help Wanted sign in the window

Death Priest - NOT JEFF

Death Priest job - dedicated to improving game performance

Mortal Initiate - HOPEFULLY NOT JEFF

Mortal Initiate job - the benefits are to die for


Death Cults that have Mortal Initiate positions filled gain access to three new Sacrifice Edicts that let them perform the ritual slaughter to the gods (or whatever force your empire’s pops believe in). They’re a bit fickle though, and the magnitude of the benefits varies, but the more blood that is shed, the more likely you are to get the better blessings.

Sacrifice: Togetherness - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Togetherness edict - let’s remember the good times we had together

Sacrifice: Harmony - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony edict - you can finally get that corner desk and red stapler you wanted

Sacrifice: Bounty - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Bounty edict - it’s like voluntary purging that doesn’t get you yelled at by the Galactic Community


Sacrifice: Togetherness and Sacrifice: Harmony each have a base cost of 50 influence, Sacrifice: Bounty costs a base of 100 influence. These are, as usual, modified by things that affect Edict costs (such as the Spiritualist modifier).

When the Sacrifice is made, the Death Priests will inform you as to how it was received by the divine.

Sacrifice Event - NOT JEFF

Sacrifice: Harmony - should have built more Sacrificial Temples, these are rookie numbers

Despite being societies revolving around ritual murder (and the Sunset Invasion joke), the theme of these civics is intended to be one of voluntary sacrifice, where the sacrifices are appreciated and honored. As such, it is not open to Fanatic Purifiers, who would probably have a more... uh... aggressive policy.

I know last week I said that we would try to take a glimpse into life in the Mishar Cabal, but they spaced the journalist sent to interview them after they "saw too much". We'll see what we can share about them soon.

Next week we’ll reveal what’s hidden under the blurred text in the Death Cult civic and maybe even meet
JEFF
.
 
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Hum... I didn't seen the "Not inward perfection"... Why so ? It matches perfectly with the concept of a closed small crazy civilization...
 
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I've just noticed, Corporate Death Cult doesn't really need all these exclusivities – Corporate empires can't get any of those other civics.
 
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@Katsue I miss read it my bad it says Fanatical Spiritulist

Gospel of the Masses
  • Spiritualist.png +50% Spiritualist ethics attraction
  • Building Can build Temple of Prosperity Corporate Building
  • Trade value.png +0.25 Trade Value per Spiritualist Pop on empire or planets with Branch Offices
Spiritualist.pngFanatic Spiritualist.png SpiritualistThis Megacorporation embraces a curious blend of commercial and spiritualistic values, in which the position of ordained minister and corporate officer have merged into a single role.
 
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I mean, Corporate Death Cult? Giving your life so that someone else gets profit?
Am I the only one unable to wrap my head around that? I mean, I can't even begin to imagine how would species like that think or feel. Seems to be kind of immersion-breaking...

Is it really any more unbelievable than any other kind of voluntary suicide? There are several examples in history of religiously motivated ritual suicide, the people do it because they fervently believe that by offering themselves up their people will be better off for it. A religious megacorp is like an American evangelical megachurch crossed with amazon. Given that level of fervor a belief in ritual suicide really doesn't seem so far fetched as to be immersion breaking in a science fiction world.
 
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This is a lot of death things lately. Are you guys OK? Do you need someone to talk to?

On another note, if only the Curator enclaves are barred from being Death Cults, does that mean the Trader and Artisan Enclaves CAN be Death Cults?
 
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Is it really any more unbelievable than any other kind of voluntary suicide? There are several examples in history of religiously motivated ritual suicide, the people do it because they fervently believe that by offering themselves up their people will be better off for it. A religious megacorp is like an American evangelical megachurch crossed with amazon. Given that level of fervor a belief in ritual suicide really doesn't seem so far fetched as to be immersion breaking in a science fiction world.

I don't know, I can definitely understand religious suicide - because, as you rightfully pointed out, they are offering themselves for the good of their own people.

But you don't go and work in a corporation for the good of your colleagues and your boss; you go work there for your own good! Why in heaven would you offer them your LIFE?
 
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But you don't go and work in a corporation for the good of your colleagues and your boss; you go work there for your own good! Why in heaven would you offer them your LIFE?

Not if the business literal is your religion, ie you understand yourself as a small cog contributing to a greater something, in this case the greater something is the business. If you can understand religious suicide the idea of corporate suicide should be even easier, religious suicide you're killing yourself on the basis of faith (nothing discernible is necessarily going to happen) corporate suicide would lead to increased morale, productivity, reappropriation of your worldly goods to the body corporate, which in this case, is the entire society.
 
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Not if the business literal is your religion, ie you understand yourself as a small cog contributing to a greater something, in this case the greater something is the business.

The closest IRL examples of business being a religion I can think of are corporations like Apple and Google, who have "making the world a better place" as such an important part of their ethos...but even these organization are by far not religious enough to make people literally kill themselves.
 
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The closest IRL examples of business being a religion I can think of are corporations like Apple and Google, who have "making the world a better place" as such an important part of their ethos...but even these organization are by far not religious enough to make people literally kill themselves.

Yeah but so? Google and Apple also haven't taken over the world (yet) and replaced social norms and mores with those that serve company interests.

You're killing yourself for the greater good, megacorps are in the position where they can inculcate into their citizenry from a young age that they are the greater good.
 
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Not a fan of the implementation of the civics. The civic and job descriptions reference very specific ritual practices which limit RP use, but at the same time the civic's gameplay effects were clearly designed to not align with any specific ethic. Perhaps I want to play a militarist empire that captures aliens to sacrifice, or a cutthroat megacorp that ritually kills poorly performing employees. These are really basic and restrained examples, yet under the current implementation they contradict the flavour text! The fact that this is mutually exclusive with fanatic purifiers is particularly shocking, the two concepts seem to go hand-in-hand. It really seems like a missed opportunity to expand on an interesting and oft-requested concept.
 
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I don't know, I can definitely understand religious suicide - because, as you rightfully pointed out, they are offering themselves for the good of their own people.

But you don't go and work in a corporation for the good of your colleagues and your boss; you go work there for your own good! Why in heaven would you offer them your LIFE?

Look at the pics in the first post. They show pretty clearly you need to be some degree of Spiritualist to take the civic. Even if you're a megacorp.
 
Look at the pics in the first post. They show pretty clearly you need to be some degree of Spiritualist to take the civic. Even if you're a megacorp.
Fair enough! If it's some kind of cult I can totally imagine how would it work out...I was just basing my feeling on the flavor text in the beginning of the OP.
 
Fair enough! If it's some kind of cult I can totally imagine how would it work out...I was just basing my feeling on the flavor text in the beginning of the OP.

Keep in mind that "megacorp" encompasses also things like criminal syndicates, megachurches and cults.
 
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I don't know, I can definitely understand religious suicide - because, as you rightfully pointed out, they are offering themselves for the good of their own people.

But you don't go and work in a corporation for the good of your colleagues and your boss; you go work there for your own good! Why in heaven would you offer them your LIFE?

The key point is that this isn't just a regular IRL corporation, it's a Scifi megacorporation. It's effectively a state if the constitution of said state started and ended with "return shareholder value". On top of that this is a religious megacorporation. It's like if every one worked for the catholic church and were also fervently catholic.

Lets run with the Catholic church, not exactly how it is but as an example of a megascale religious institution. Did you know they have a revenue greater than apple? The Catholic church takes in roughtly $175 billion a year from the US alone. Now take that idea of an organised religion the size of the Catholic church and add in the prosperity gospel. If you're unfamiliar it's an idea popular in radical American evangelicals in which one's material wealth in life is directly proportional to one's faith. The better you are at following the commands of God (taught via the church) the more wealthy you are. This basically gets us the spiritualist megacorp currently in stellaris. Something with a scope and reach greater than the catholic church with a focus on increasing revenue as a virtue.

It's not to hard to imagine how someone might work for this church, even in a very minor position, but still do things like give most of their paycheck back to their boss. All out of some belief that by doing so they will be rewarded by god, because they're supporting the church. Now add on a ritual sacrifice belief, it's not so hard to think that employees who are true believers in their organised religious employer would also go to the lengths of sacrificing themselves for others, or maybe just out of a belief that by doing so they'll be greatly rewarded in heaven.
 
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