Although every Mapotherian cleric could be trained in the use of the gauntlets, the intricacy in their production meant that it was a privilege to be even be allowed to make one. The good reverend has mentioned all the times when he had to rely on conventional methods he learned in med school before his ordination and for times when even his gauntlets aren’t up to the task.
Mapotherianism is heavily invested in archaeology, focused mainly on the study and, on occasion, reproduction of the technological accomplishments of the ancestral Leveller civilization. The rarity of the gauntlets and the difficulties involved in their creation gives insight on why Mapotherians hold archaeological artefacts with reverence.
Up until recently, most of the equipment used to build machines that were required to make healing gauntlets and other apparatuses happened to be found in Leveller sites, and it was only recently that some of these necessary parts could be reproduced.
“It’s also why some Mapotherian organizations quickly become corrupt.” Says Reverend Jehan. “Those less convicted to the cause of serving others will quickly take advantage of the power they have over others, especially if you alone could heal them.”
The Mapotherian mother churches tend to sponsor archaeological digs, either in exclusion or alongside academic institutions, and have had a long history of hoarding equipment for their own use. Most of the ecclesiastical abuses commonly ascribed to Mapotherians revolve around their digs, something that was said to continue in Mapotherian mother churches in Meridian.
The mother churches in the Federation, however, often lack the systematic control of the churches in Meridian. The ones in Galt work closely with the local healthcare system as part of their duty to serve the people, and many members of the clergy themselves work for the public health service on the side.
One of the many peculiarities I remember in all my years living in these tunnels is the sheer number of recruiters from new religious movements here and there. There’s at least one or two of them in some corner of every station (major converging stations can have up to 15). The first time I encountered them was traveling with my friends Aurelia and Todd about six years ago, who at the time lived in the same capsule hotel as I did. Aurelia told me to dodge them, as she finds them exceptionally bothersome. They usually were in loose communion with the Order of Sigismund, a council of polytheistic sects.
Aurelia is Pascalese and Todd is a Meridian, practicing their own religions that they feel very strongly about. Aurelia is an ardent follower of Pascalese monotheism, a religion heavily tied to the Pascalese cultural identity; she doesn’t take too kindly to new religious movements, claiming them to be cult-like, but that may also be because it jibes against her monotheistic sensibilities.
Todd tends to avoid talking to them as much as he can; he is a Mapotherian, lapsed when he first came here but gradually became more observant as time went on. Mapotherians and members of the Order of Sigismund are not known to get along all that well due to a colourful history of discrimination and persecution between the two that gets flipped depending on who was the minority at the time and place. Outside major cities like the Galt metropole, Mapotherian discrimination is even stronger due to anti-Meridian sentiment; Mapotherianism is the state religion of the Meridian Empire.
I personally don’t have that much to say about the recruiters themselves, only that I tend to avoid them for convenience’s sake. Admittedly, I only ever paid lip service to my own religion so I’m not really the one to judge others, nor do I show too much interest.
One minute I was asking Darville about her religion’s obsession with Leveller-era artefacts and the next thing I knew I was attending a Mapotherian Monday service, which also provided healing sessions. This isn’t as farfetched as it sounds. All Mapotherian clergy are licensed medical practitioners by legal requirement in most countries they operate and often operate alongside modern medical practices. Darville’s late father was a Mapotherian cleric, and the church she attended was headed by one of his colleagues, Rev. Jehan.
What does make it peculiar is the way the Mapotherians practice healing. Mapotherian clerics use some sort of medical healing apparatus—a ‘magic gauntlet’—to heal many minor injuries.
They claim, though, that it is the wisdom of the revered forerunners that had made them hale. Indeed, some larger Mapotherian churches have larger apparatuses that do look like actual medical equipment, though they’re usually reserved for more serious injuries or diseases, especially those beyond the capabilities of non-Mapotherian medicine.
After the service, I requested a chat with the head cleric as to the details of the healing gauntlet and its workings. To my surprise, Rev. Jehan himself was more than happy to explain the basic principles behind their healing and even offered to demonstrate it on the minor cough I’ve been experiencing.
Apparently, a broken arm could be healed in seconds. A bacterial infection? An hour and a half.
Rev. Jehan explained the intricacies of the gauntlet’s settings and the extent of its abilities, which included minor tissue regeneration, resolving early stage infections and inflammations, and the puncture-less delivery of vaccines. Although clearly meant to be technological nature still baffles most casual people and even those with a basic grasp of mechanics such as myself.
Guardians of True Progress: The Mapotherian Religion
The Mapotherian faith represents the state religion and ideology of the Meridian Empire. Usually seen as heavily bureaucratic, repressive, and meddlesome, the religion is relatively unpopular outside of Meridian communities. Their beliefs in particular are perceived to be outlandish. This, coupled with the occasionally tyrannical and cruel workings of its clerics and the menacing and pompous image of the religion at large, has contributed to their negative image to outsiders, particularly where different religions or irreligion dominate.
The center of their faith is the Grand Congregation of the High Inquisition in in the city of Gotterdam, seat of the realm poetically known as Mapotheria.
Tenets
The prime tenet of the religion is that the humans of the planet are descended from an advanced race of precursors who came from the stars and, because of upheavals, ceased contact with humanity. They believe that these precursors will one day come back to reclaim them.
The ancestral peoples, as so named, are believed to be benign and are interested in the wellbeing of the humans, but somehow, all they could do is watch until a message is brought to call them down. Messages must be sent to them to bring them back and usher in mankind's true potential.
Their sacred food is bean curd, believed to give them strength and longevity. Soybeans are often grown close to Mapotherian temples. Mabo Tofu, a sacred dish, is served to the believers in their religious attendances.
The planet's moon, Tropetron, features heavily in their symbolism and is where much of their religious attendances are based upon.
Despite their heavy religious inclinations, the clergy of the Mapotherians are not averse to science. Although they show no hostility to the ideas on the supernatural or the afterlife, they consider such matters irrelevant. They instead invest their primary ecclesiastical studies on the sciences, building up much of their body of knowledge and understanding of natural laws.
They believe in a general concept of an incomprehensible supernatural, which they equate with the concept of the monotheistic God if believed to be conscious. This deity, while acknowledged and respected, is not directly worshipped.
While they do not rule out the possibility of the supernatural, they firmly believe that the ancestral people’s relics and legacy was accomplished through scientific means Moreover, the coscious supernatural rarely meddles the natural laws. Its poorly understood intervention, if it exists at all, usually manifests in an amplification of natural law.
Organization
The "Guardians of True Progress" are led by a high inquisitor, who presides over the High Inquisition. In theory, the high inquisitor is chosen exclusively by the conclave of inquisitors, but in recent years, Imperial politics have seeped into the church and have brought cronyism and nepotism to the congregation.
Lower tiers of the church are occupied by clerics, who act as the spokespeople of the Church and its beliefs. They too have been accused of corruption and oppression, although they go unopposed due to their ties to the Meridian government. While the malevolent stereotype for their religion persists, many Mapotherian clergymen—inquisitors and clerics alike—do try to serve the believers and treat them as equals, or at least choose to not oppress them at all.
Culture and Appearance
The temples of the Mapotherians are elaborate complexes built upon wide circular plans, incorporating large domes that, on occasion, provide openings for telescopes. Their temples are oriented toward the positions of Tropetron, and mysterious and delicate instruments are pointed at it many times.
White, black, and scintillation are an important aspect of the religion's art and culture. Clerics wear mostly black whereas inquisitors wear white, with the high inquisitor wearing both colors at equal ratios. The temples are a brilliant off-white, decorated with red, gold, and black accents.
The clerics often wear form-fitting, conservative long-sleeved clothing in black. Higher-ranking church officials like inquisitors often wear more elaborate clothing; the high inquisitor often wears shining black and white robes to distinguish himself from the crowds.
Relics
The presence of the space people is argued from the existence of mysterious objects called relics, bizarre items made of mysterious material that often come with great, unexplainable powers and abilities. When wielded by clerics, these artifacts can do such wonders as heal the sick, cause the weather to change, and much more.
It is said that some relics are unstable and cause destruction. Relics are only handled and wielded by elder clerics, sometimes only by the high inquisitor himself. It is considered anathema to even touch a relic without the permission of the Church and its elders.
Relics are often recovered in archeological digs organized by the church.These digs are often cruel places where laborers work under the lash for little pay.
Issues
The Mapotherians, as the "Guardians of True Progress" reject many forms of conventional science currently in mainstream usage, believing them to be crude, untrue or inefficient.
The unusual beliefs of the Church has led them to be the object of ridicule as other new religions and the irreligious (in particular those who reject their beliefs of the origin of the planet's inhabitants) perceive their beliefs to be laughable and eccentric.
Adding to it are the abuses committed by the clergy (such as the slave-like treatment of the workers in their archeological digs), ecclesiastical corruption, close association with the Meridian aristocracy, and isolated rumors and reports of clergy using their relics in the development of weapons have marred the image of the Church, caricaturing it as the ideological arm of the Meridian Empire.
It is interesting to note that such unabashed abuse of power is not always universal throughout the Empire and its sphere of influence. There are less fanatical and generally better grounded members of their church. Often pronounced where they are they are the minority and are proselytizing or in Merid-majority colonies far from the capital. In the Republic of Shinar, the Mapotherian Church is a generally respected social organization and among the most powerful advocates of democracy and public funding for the sciences.
Their disdain for some forms of "modern" technology lies not in a rejection of science but an (historically justified) aversion to archaic methods rendered unnecessary by previous scientific advancement.
Origins
The Mapotherian Church has the largest collection of leveler-era artifacts and is currently the only scholarly organization that plays host to documents from the Leveler-era.
Official statements, authorized for release by His Holiness the High Inquisitor traces the origin of the Mapotherian religion to the communications offices of Ragnarok Station, today a Leveler ruin. It is believed by the church to be one of the initial surveyor camps based of the planet during the age when it was being terraformed.
A rough story was pieced together based on the surviving records curated by the church.
The religion owes its name to Emmanuele Mapother, the station's head communications officer, who oversaw much of the communication between planet's surveyors, terraforming crews and personnel, and the Tropetronian lead-in bases, which, in turn, thought to be the main source of supplies and communication from the human homeworld.
As the colonies got cut off, the communications offices struggled to maintain their equipment working as they desperately waited for responses from Earth. Mapother and her crew had made efforts to continue making contact with Tropetron to constantly inform them of the developing crises that enveloped the colony.
Over time, Mapother's crew had sought to continue improving their chances of maintaining contact with Tropetron Colony, although the machines became progressively inoperable and irreparable a mere decade before Mapother's death. To preserve their mission to maintain contact with the colony and receive supplies, they began forming a society that would continually seek out salvageable bits of irreplaceable technology, study them, and keep them safe in the gradually collapsing society of the colonies until it stabilizes and develops the factories that could be used to resume their manufacture.
Scholars believe that the crew and their followers and descendants became the only people aware of the value of the lost technology, they became very zealous about owning them. Correctly equating the lost technology—consisting of medical and construction equipment—to powers beyond their comprehension, the surrounding people, largely unable to procure or use them, were gradually compelled to ask their permission for its use.
Subsequently, years of rebuilding and upheaval have caused the society of the original crew to morph into a religious order fixated on the relics. Mapother is hailed as their sacred spiritual leader, lending her name to the religion.
