The Sophic League
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The Sophic League |
Empire : Sophic LeagueThe Sophic League emerged as an opposition to the "expansionist materialism" and the quickly growing early AI-religions of Keterism, Negentropism and Solarism. A number of religious communities, megacorps and social networks formed the League in 4314 c.e (2345 a.t.) as an ecumenical answer to the empires (not unlike the Mutual Progress Association or the NoCoZo). The League guaranteed autonomy and religious freedom for all member systems (but not necessarily within the systems; all internal politics was left up to the local governments) while attempting a cohesive foreign policy.
The League would likely have failed or become just a minor power had not three fortuitous events happened. One was the discovery in 2642 a.t. of a large number of human-habitable worlds in the vicinity of Rho Puppis (today called the "Garden of Paradise Cluster"), apparently terraformed by a long-vanished alien species. This gave the League both a reason to work together despite serious internal doctrinal differences, and within a few centuries a major population base.
The other event was the Reformulation of 2752 a.t., where a religious AI community on Kelarc synthesised a meta-philosophical tract (usually just called the Reformulation) that became the core of a major religious- philosophical revival encompassing even the most isolationistic League worlds. The Reformulation became the guiding principles for the League, creating a solid basis for inter-faith relations, affirming the necessity of human spirituality as the basis of society and how religious tolerance could be reconciled with orthodoxy. The Reformulation has stood as a model of many other similar broad treaties/philosophies, such as the Second Federation Ontology and the so-called New Ontology of the Commonwealth of Empires.
A third, less important but still contributing factor was the Taurus Nexus break-up in 3200 a.t., that gave the League chance to "save" a number of worlds in the Praesepe region, greatly extending the empire. In a similar way the Empire absorbed a number of heretical worlds in the aftermath of the Version War, something that cooled relations to the Solar Dominion, Negentropy Alliance and even Keter for more than a millennium. By now these worlds are well integrated and most individuals in the other empires think they are well rid of such heretics anyway.
Through the continuing cold war the Sophics played only a minor role. They tried to remain neutral, but faced the problem that their wormhole network would be ideal for Metasoft-NoCoZo contact, and hence open to attack by the Revisionist side, especially the Cygexba who lacked the discipline and restraint of the Solarians and Negentropist forces. In 4500, like Utopia and Keter, they closed their borders to all combatant powers. Although that did not help much in the Inner Sphere, it saved lives in the Outer Volumes.
Much of the League history has been calm, with occasional internal and external crises as various religiously relevant issues have disturbed the contemplations of the empire. Especially the Saint Warwick Rebellion of 6956-7101 a.t. caused much trouble for some time.
Currently the League is one of the oldest, most stable and most powerful empires. It has a vast population base, although most inhabitants live lives of religious contemplation served by advanced automation and by a small minority of pitied unenlightened "alphas" who care about material things; a theological feudal system not unlike Old Earth Tibetan Buddhism, but turned upside down. Much of the League is clearly dominated by AIs, and there exist several transcendence cores in the NGC 2537 region where massive AI installations rivalling Keter contemplate the Absolute.
Politically the League has followed a cautious line, usually working together with all other empires rather than singling out favourites. During periods of crisis it has often worked to balance power, so that no single fraction becomes too powerful. Note that many Sophic League worlds use ancient calendars from Old Earth, such as the Christian Era calendar, the Hindu and Jewish systems and the Islamic system, particularly in worlds that lie near the neighbouring Stellar Umma region, where Sufism is particularly widespread.
Ararat, Sacred Heart, and New Taylor are the three alternating capitals of the Sophic League. The different systems switch leadership every 12 standard years, and this is cause of an immense empire-wide celebration. The festival is universally recognized as one of the most exiting events that a sentient can experience and when the change takes place (called Rulemaker's Week) the surrounding wormholes experience a rush to the current capital, where the main celebrations are made. The week long celebrations cumulate to Zero Hour, the moment when the head of state AI is delegated to a governor AI, and the governor AI at the new capital is put in charge. The League Council (made up of sims, bionts, cyborgs, and lesser AIs) also moves to a new capitol building, but over time it has lost most of its power to the hyperturings and now has become a figurehead government. Even though the ruling AIs are copies of each other, the locals claim to be able to feel changes in ruling style, and have even made affectionate names for them.
Out of all the great archailect empires, the Sophic League is the one that places the greatest emphasis on the quest for transcendental realisation and one-ness with the Godhood. Much of the League, especially away from the busy capitals, is dotted with monastery habitats, where any sentient is free to stay and pursue a life of spiritual contemplation for as long or as briefly as e desires.
For this reason, even more than the other empires, the League is a center of spiritual and intellectual ferment, where new theosophical, sophic, and gnostic cosmologies and theologies are formulated almost daily. While some spread throughout the empire, and even subvert other empires and polities, others do not go beyond the habitat of their origin, and some disappear without hardly leaving a memetic trace.
Today one can still find throughout the billions of orbital and habitat monasteries throughout the league, not only innumerable new and unique religions and spiritual and esoteric teachings (sometimes dozens or hundreds competing in a single small monastery) , but also both continuations and new interpretations of all the great religions and mystic teachings of Old Earth, including Buddhism, Catholicism, Sufism, Vedanta, Neoplatonism, and more. Generally, all are practiced with tolerance. There is little of the fanaticism and literalism that infected some of the old religions, and although literalism and dogmatism is not unknown, especially among S<1 sentients, these fundamentalists have no impact on the running of the League, and rarely even any say in the administration of their own habitats. Even hard-line groups like Sophic Ascendancy are concerned with promulgating a non-exclusive interpretation of Sophism, and a quasi-Platonic system of government, and find the attitudes of literalist religion abhorrent.
The Sophic League incorporates literally millions of sects, some lasting only for a few years (or even, in the case of some transingularity contemplative groups, microseconds), others continuing to this day. Two of the most revered of these sects, being seminal in the founding of the League itself, are the "Wisdom League" and the Gaianists. The Gaianists are a race/empire of philosophers and mystics. It is rather like the Tibet of old Earth, but more so, a sort of inverse neo-feudalism - the unenlightened alphas do all the work, and the vast majority of unemployed spend their time in contemplation.
A radical minority group, the Sophic Ascendancy considers the current League to be too meek. They believe that as the League constitutes (in their eyes) the spiritual leaders of the known worlds it should be much moe active in that leadership.
Contemplative Neverflux - Sophic League transapient philosopher, most famous for establishing the School of Continuous Death.
School of Continuous Death - Heterodox Sophic League philosophical movement, which argued that survival is an illusion, and that one actually transforms into a distinct, new being with each moment that passes. Well known as popularizers of Notees.
Kuranaba - Sophic League system originally colonised by a number of old solsys clades during the Age of Expansion. Currently an important source of crafts, meditation templates, and both exoteric and esoteric religions.
Meditation Glade - Interdependent complex of bioengineered lifeforms used throughout large parts of the Sophic League to aid in the achievement of various degrees of meditation and mental stabilization.
The Om - Database of religious, philosophical and metaphysical thought maintained by the Sophic League
