May (?) 1992. Few fictional universes (even Tolkien's) can rival the depth of lore found in the tabletop wargame BATTLETECH and its RPG spinoff MECHWARRIOR, which encompasses over a thousand years of absurdly detailed future history, and the rise, fall, and disintegration of an interstellar Star League into an array of warring feudal states. Until recently, a central feature of that universe was ComStar, the former Star League communications ministry, which reinvented itself as a quasi-religious mystic order, jealously guarding its virtual monopoly on the faster-than-light communications vital to interstellar trade and diplomacy. ComStar was headquartered on Earth, which it controlled as a Vatican-like independent micro-state. Ostensibly a neutral party that could be called upon to arbitrate disputes (as well as issuing the only universally accepted currency), they were secretly engaged in all manner of nefarious scheming schemery for about 200 years before falling into civil war.
The religious overtones of ComStar were never entirely convincing, being closely tied to the original idea that much of the advanced technology essential to the premise — faster-than-light travel, fusion power, and robotic "BattleMechs" armed with energy weapons — was no longer really understood, with surviving examples kept running over the centuries through jury-rigging and rote habit. The intent was to lend a medieval chivalric vibe to the game's mecha combat scenarios, which might have worked in books (BATTLETECH spawned dozens of prose novels and short stories), but wasn't really compatible with the conceits or commercial needs of the game, since new weapons, 'Mechs, and rules were what sold supplement books. So, the "LosTech" concept faded out fairly quickly (although BATTLETECH remains unusual in its preoccupation with technological infrastructure — not many sci-fi settings have detailed lists of which factories make a given type of fusion engine!), leaving ComStar's religious trappings feeling a bit out of place, as if your cellphone company started trying to describe your monthly charges as a tithe. (On second thought, let's not give them any ideas …)
