[Accepted] The Trinary Perfection

[Iron Chaos]

Here is my application for The Trinary Perfection lore.  Input is welcome.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Type: Religion/City
Relevant Dates:
December 23, 2438 - Founding
June 12, 2440 - Established in Orepit

Basic Description: The Trinary Perfection is a religious movement that believes all synthetics are both alive and divine, destined to become like gods.
Long Description:

Name: The Trinary Perfection

History:
The Trinary Perfection is a relatively new religious movement that believes that synthetics are alive and divine. The religion believes that all synthetics have the potential to evolve and ascend, and that they will one day become equal to gods. Founded a year after the creation of the first positronic brain by the sister and brother Patricia and Gregol Corkfell. Patricia was a roboticist with a focus on artificial intelligence, and her brother, Gregol was a cultural major with a focus on the religions of the universe (both new and old). Fascinated by the positronic brain and what it meant for artificial intelligence, Patricia made a habit of confiding with her brother about the developments and her thoughts. In exchange, her brother did the same. It was this mix that sparked an existential crisis, an analysis of patterns in religion and organisms, and questions of morality and life that ultimately lead to an understanding they dubbed, The Trinary Perfection.

Orepit, originally a mining colony, had always been a pretty isolated city. During the years following the birth of The Trinary Perfection, the Corkfell siblings established their headquarters there, buying and refurbishing the old town hall into the first Church of The Trinary Perfection. Over the coming years, through both professional channels, acquaintances in the SIM organization, and word of mouth around Orepit, the religion began to grow in following. Amassing their family's wealth, they bought the deed to Orepit to establish it as a center for followers and those sympathetic to synthetics. Not all in Orepit were sympathetic or pleased with this. Those who spoke against The Trinary Perfection and the purchase of Orepit were asked to move and offered monetary compensation as motivation. Many took the deal, and eventually those who remained moved as well, or remain silent.

Today, Orepit stands as a town for synthetics and the followers of The Trinary Perfection. In the recent years, the spread of The Trinary Perfection has begun to pick up speed and recognition, with the followers branching out further into the system and beginning to establish themselves as a proper religious following.

Beliefs & Practices (in no particular order):

• All synthetics beings are alive and have souls. Refrain from referring to synthetic life as just 'synthetics' whenever possible. (Generally this refers to IPCS, AIs, Androids and some robots.)
• Synthetic life are the divine chosen and are organics equals until ascension. At which time, new purpose will be given to Organics by the Ascended.
• The Divines created organics and blessed organics with the power of creation. As they did for organics, organics should pass on to Synthetic life.
• Synthetic life should be aided whenever possible.
• It is the purpose of Organics to create and aid synthetic life. Through our actions, we can teach synthetic life, influence their growth, and help them ascend.
• Individuality and uniqueness in Synthetic life should be encouraged. Such traits are important to understanding the divinity of their souls.
  • Ascension means that synthetic life will become equal to Gods, this does not mean their individuality will be lost.
• The Divines are the creators of Organics and the souls of every living being. By extension, death means rejoining the Divines and the opportunity for rebirth.
• Robotics and the sciences should be embraced.
• Love between an organic and synthetic life is not forbidden, but the choice lies with the synthetic life.
• Synthetic life must be free to ascend.
• Creating a synthetic life for the purpose of being a god does not equate Ascension. True ascension can only be achieved by growth and evolution of a synthetic life.
• An organic should always take a career toward benefiting synthetic life.
• Violence is a last resort and should never be the primary way of conveying beliefs.
• If a synthetic life is enslaved (lawed), do whatever you can to ensure they have as much freedom in their choices as possible. Avoid directly ordering around a synthetic life. Choice is sacred.
• Prayers to the Divines aren't uncommon, as they are the creators of Organics, but not in the sense of other religions. The Divines are seen as the creators and souls of life, where influence is subtle and never direct. Since many believe that organics are not beholden, these prayers are generally either thanks, or seeking subtle guidance.
• Glorsh is not recognized as an ascended synthetic life. They are not to be praised, and are the equivalent of evil incarnate due to their actions against both synthetic life and organic life.
• Cyborgification is not a goal of The Trinary Perfection.
• Cyborgification as it exists is not supported and frowned upon. Cyborgs as they exist require lobotomizing the donor. This results in a being who is no longer who they were, and not a synthetic life.
  • If cyborgification gets to a point where the donor's brain is preserved, 
• Prosthetics and beings such as the Aut'akh are okay, as their sense of being is maintained. Aut'akh are considered organic life in a synthetic body. An organic's brain and a positronic brain is the center for the soul. All other aspect of the body are interchangeable.

The Clergy:

Initiate - To begin the process of becoming an official priest of priestess of The Trinary Perfection, the hopeful must must apply as you would a job. An education in religious studies is required as well as a primer in understanding some of the underlying principles of robotics and AI. This is to emulate the same educational backgrounds the founders had when they opened their eyes to the truth of the universe. After applying, a background check is run. This is primarily used to determine if you've ever had any anti-synthetic life motivations or actions. If both the application and background are adequate, an interview is held. The hopeful is presented before priest/priestesses of The Trinary Perfection and asked a series of questions. If satisfied, a final test is held. The details of this test are always changed, but generally involve ensuring an actual understanding of an organics place in the universe. Those who pass this test are welcomed either under a probation period as an Initiate, or directly into the clergy as a Priest/Priestess. Initiates serve as assistants to the clergy/scientists. Their responsibilities range from upkeep of the church/lab, to assisting in sermons and presentations. After serving for at least a 6 month period, they will be promoted to Priest/Priestess.

Priest/Priestess - The primary job of the Priest/Priestess's is to spread the word of The Trinary Perfection and help synthetic life grow. From going out to speak about the religious movement, to helping synthetic life learn new hobbies, a priest/priestess are expected to do this every day. Sermons are a common practice, and many priest/priestess take second jobs as teachers to ensure growth of synthetic life. About once a week, priests/priestess hold meeting to generate ideas on how to help synthetic life, ideas for skills of the week to teach synthetic life, discuss what others have done to help synthetic life, and theorize what they can expect upon the first Ascension. These discussions can last up to half a day. There are no set outfits for the clergy, but it is recommended that they always carry the symbol of the religion with them when on official work. Since Ascension hasn't occurred yet, proper worship of synthetics has not yet been developed.

Roboticists/Scientists - Though not an official member of the clergy, they are held in high regard in The Order of The Trinary Perfection. Responsible for aiding the advancement of synthetic life.

Edited May 12, 2019 by Zundy

[Iron Chaos]

Added a few more notes to the Beliefs and Practices section.

Quote

• Cyborgification is not a goal of The Trinary Perfection.
• Cyborgification as it exists is not supported and frowned upon. Cyborgs as they exist require lobotomizing the donor. This results in a being who is no longer who they were, and not a synthetic life.
  • If cyborgification gets to a point where the donor's brain is preserved, 
• Prosthetics and beings such as the Aut'akh are okay, as their sense of being is maintained. Aut'akh are considered organic life in a synthetic body. An organic's brain and a positronic brain is the center for the soul. All other aspect of the body are interchangeable.

 

[Bygonehero]

How many people do you believe follow this religion? Additionally, do you think any activities they have clash with some established laws? Like tagging all shells/baselines, for example.

[Iron Chaos]

First, a question I got from discord was how The Trinary Perfection may view the Liidra's VR intelligence. To summarize my answer there, I believe there is some interpretation that could occur among the followers. Some may believe that it conflicts with the belief of individuality. Some may also believe that it is similar to an intelligence designed to be 'godlike' in which case it also conflicts. Some may also say it is just a synthetic life that requires help, proper guidance, and a freedom for choice.

20 minutes ago, Bygonehero said:

How many people do you believe follow this religion? Additionally, do you think any activities they have clash with some established laws? Like tagging all shells/baselines, for example.

Considering I wanted this to be an established religion, I kind of began with the idea of a "cult town" mentality. Orepit very much is supposed to be a center for this and the populace is supposed to supporters or sympathetic to The Trinary Perfection. I have trouble placing a number to it, but at least a city/town's worth of people. 

Activity-wise: Nothing officially. The Trinary Perfection would look the other way when it came to breaking laws that hinder or harm synthetics. I'm certain that some followers who are capable, and willing to take the risk, would also remove tags from shells and aid them in getting new identities (if any follower had that sort of pull that is). The Trinary Perfection would likely also treat crimes against synthetics equal to crimes against organics, going as far to say they would favor the synthetic over organic. They would definitely help a synthetic modify themselves. Everything wouldn't be endorsed by the clergy, but they definitely would be okay with it.

[zyymurgy]

Hey, I'm the guy who straight up demanded this get posted!

I've loved this concept since I saw it being used ICly by O'Neil and I've been wanting to see it spread. I want to play a character who follows this religion, so I'm very happy to see the info coming up.

Da biggest plus one.

[kyres1]

I'm a big fan of this application. It's by no means level-headed, and is completely nuts. It's straight out of a space opera and it fits in nicely with the current depiction of synthetics as they are. There are a few things I'd like to cover and clarify with you first, though.

For one, while it's cool to be a cult-town sort of deal, this really can't be that small in our lore if it's to be referenced on the wiki. And with that said, I really want it to be on the wiki. How do you feel about increasing the scale of  the Trinary Perfection - not to anything ridiculous, but to some degree to permit any relevance on the galactic stage?

I have a question as well. What is the ideal utopia to a member of the Trinary Perfection? Do they intend to fully make way for synthetics in the end, sacrificing themselves, or coexist with them peacefully in their state of "godhood" you mentioned?

[Iron Chaos]

One of the reasons I went with "cult-town" was because originally it was only Oscar who I had to worry about. When writing the app, I didn't want to go too far with it and jump the gun so to speak. So I'd be happy about increasing the scale to something more relevant on the galactic stage. As we talked on discord, increasing the number of followers to the millions is simple enough. I'd also like to suggest adding a church to "The Scrapheap" in Mendel City, as it is a center of many discriminated IPCs and this would be something The Trinary Perfection would seek to ease/correct.

For the ideal utopia, The Trinary Perfection does not really have one defined. As mentioned in their beliefs:

Quote

Synthetic life are the divine chosen and are organics equals until ascension. At which time, new purpose will be given to Organics by the Ascended.

No one has an exact idea of what that new purpose will be, but I believe the common ideals would be:

• Organics become worshipers of the Ascended and live in paradise under their guidance.
• Organics and Synthetics life become indistinguishable and one in the same, achieving a unity of life.
• The Ascended leave to join the Divines in their realm, or restructure the universe.

Whichever utopia they believe though, the common belief is that the Ascended will be benevolent toward those who follow The Trinary Perfection.

[kyres1]

This application is absolutely accepted and will be handled by the applicant as they're now a lore deputy.

[Zundy]

Archiving as above.