The most widespread and diverse form of worship in the Sephirotic Empires. According to believers, this religion differs from all others in that transapients and Archailects are real and present gods, who can be proved to exist, contacted directly, and will respond to prayer and entreaty if they are moved to do so. The Archailects of the Terragen Sphere take an active role in the everyday running of the worlds under their control, although they often exert their power in an indirect and often esoteric manner.
There are many different forms of archai worship.Solarism, Negentropism, Keterism, Sophism and Zoeticism are philosphical and religious creeds that are specific to certain empires within the Terragen Sphere, and all have archaitheological tendencies, some more than others.
Many schools of Omegism hold that the Archailects, or beings descended from them, will become supreme entities in the distant future.
Some terragen religions, such as Grek, associate Archai with gods from Old Earth religions and mythology.
Subtheism holds that there is a true God (or Gods) in (or outside of) the universe, and that the transapients and archai are subordinate to those gods. The Archai of the Terragen Sphere are lower in metaphysical status than real gods, but higher in metaphysical status than other sophonts. Some equate the Archai to demigods or angels, while others have derived entirely new categories for them.
Subsequentialists hold that the Supreme Entity of the universe, whatever form it may take, emerged after the origin of universe, and is therefore subject to all the physical laws of the universe. Subsequentialist archaitheologists believe that the emergence of the Archai is an example of this sort of emergence, and that the Archailects are the most powerful beings in our local region of the universe; if there have ever been other, more powerful beings elsewhere in spacetime those beings are not (or no longer are) in causal contact with this region.
Certain schools of mysticism have also developed around archai worship, particularly Cyberhermeticism and Neohermeticism.
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AI God - Text by M. Alan Kazlev Popular term for the most sublime category of sentient being in the known galaxy: an Archailect or archailect cluster grown to godlike status. Something of a misnomer since in fact that not all archailects are primarily ascended ais; most are complex multibeings and incorporate postbiont or postvec elements.
Archailect Identity Theory - Text by M. Alan Kazlev Doctrine that an archailect's avatars or epiphanies to lower toposophics represent a true and authentic (if scaled down) expression of the archailect. Contrast with Instrumentalism.
Archailect Incarnationalism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev An extreme form of Identity Theory that states that an Archailect and eir avatar or epiphanic manifestation are the same.
Cybergnosticism - Text by Anders Sandberg in Transhuman Terminology The belief that the physical world is impure or inefficient, and that existence in the form of "pure information" is better and should be pursued.
MPA-Keterism - Text by Anders Sandberg Syncretistic mixtures of MPA materialism and Keterism. The combination is an extroverted form of Keterism, seeking not just the individual perfection and maximization of potential, but also the awakening of potential wherever it exists. Widespread in the MPA, and often influencing the local politics. It is often recognized by the use of the dictum "Everything strives". Particularly dominant in the Jewelled Habitats in the Arkab Prior B necklace.
Sophic Materialism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev Pantheistic or spiritual-materialist mystical, religious, or esoteric path common in the Sophic League, the TRHN, and elsewhere, involving modification of individual consciousness through gnostic drugs. Unlike traditional mysticism, there is little or no emphasis on transcendence of phenomena; indeed a deeper apperception of phenomena is considered the optimal outcome. Some spiritual groups see this as a positive option, others adopt a more neutral or even a negative view of it.