Human Dilatrism

[KaiserMelech]

Category: Personal Lore

Body:
Human dilatrism is an archaic religion that, while old, is still somewhat fringe among the faiths of the galaxy. The origins of the religion are more myth than anything else at this point. The founder of the religion is a quasi-historical figure who is claimed to have lived on the human homeworld of Coruscant thousands of years before the foundation of The Republic. The founder has no given name in the religion, and is simply referred to as "The Prophet."

Human Dilatrism has an dual-layer belief system. All believers pray to a single, universal creator god of all humanity. In the Coruscanti, and therefore oldest tradition, this god is known as Rishon, although the name has changed over time in most communities. In addition to Rishon, a second god of a vast and often expanding pantheon is worshiped by the faithful. This second god is often viewed as a sort of national god, and is unique to individual families, tribes, nations, or planets, and often takes on a form relevant to the location. Agricultural people may worship a god that provides rain, while militaristic societies may worship a warrior god who aids people in battle. While other secondary gods in addition to one's own are widely believed to exist, worshiping more than just your people's god is an extreme cultural taboo. Depending on location and deity, worship styles are highly variable. Advanced societies usually engage in simple prayer in designated temples, while more backwater worlds are known to continue animal sacrifices. Each individual deity has their own prophet, or line of prophets, and direct descendants of these people hold not only great spiritual authority, but often immense political power as well.

The religion accepts converts, but does not actively dispatch missionaries, meaning that natural family growth is the main form of demographic expansion. The splitting and colonization of new worlds by the faithful over the centuries and millenia has caused the faith to spread from Coruscant to significant communities across the Core Worlds, Colonies, and Inner Rim. While holy texts do make vague references towards an afterlife, there is no unified canonical description of judgement or salvation, further weakening appeals for converts. There are at least 3 recorded cases of mass conversions of populations to Human Dilatrism, including one case of forced conversion after a planetary civil war led to the emergence of an expansionist theocracy.

Human dilatrism is often viewed highly negatively by much of the galaxy. Human Dilatrism is, as the name suggests, also a human based, and often humanity-supremacist faith. Except for human-derived near human species, no aliens are allowed into the faith, and would immediately be put off by the humanocentric language. The religion devoutly believes that humans are the only divinely-inspired species. While other species are admitted to be intelligent, and the clergy continually preach against religious-based discrimination, non-humans are still derogatorily viewed as nothing more than evolved animals. The religion carries an incredibly vocal anti-force philosophy. As both the Jedi and exile faiths deny the existence of the gods in the first place, relations were poor from the beginning, and non-force sensitive followers of force-based religions are negatively though of as pagans. The idea of the force is vehemently rejected as it contradicts and supersedes the described abilities of deities, and the force has officially been declared to be nothing more than lies spread by demons and devils, with force users being nothing more than evil sorcerers. Attempting to give more validity and understanding to this extreme anti-force dogma, prominent individuals have attempted to apply logical arguments to the religion's beliefs. Religious sage Philo Demetrius of Alderaan wrote that since gravity and physics were installed by the creator god, and by using an invisible mental power, rather than machinery or physical force, to move objects shows that force users are not just internally corrupted, but the embodied enemies of the gods. Another intellectual, Josephus Mattias of Coruscant, took a species-based approach towards the evils of the force. Since the force was both not present in the vast majority of humans, and was prevalent in many non-human species, it could not be an intentional creation by the gods, and instead had to have been imparted through demonic possession. Jedi prevalence for war and civil conflict helped to solidify this view in many scholars.

Intent: I really wanted to introduce a religion that not only did not believe in the force, but was openly hostile to it. At least one, and possibly two of my characters will subscribe to this religion, and I think it will be fun to see how it shapes their interpersonal relationships with jedi, exiles, and non-human species. On discord, there were people talking about religious fundamentalist movements, and I think that this faith does give a lot of leeway for a person to give a character background to being militantly anti-force or anti-alien.

 

[Malon]

@KaiserMelech —

I like the path you are on with this; the site (and Star Wars in general) is in need of a wealth of religions to diversify the galaxy. However, there are some problems with this that I would like to address:

1. Where did this religion originate? How did it originate? How did it spread and what was the catalyst of its spread? (You make some mention of this, but I'd like to see it expanded upon in more detail.)
2. Please clarify the deity situation here. In your first sentence on the matter, you make it seem as thought the religion is monotheistic, then you mention a second god who, himself, is over an expansive pantheon of deities. The wording in this section is extremely confusing. When creating something like a religion, it is important that you really flesh out this information; give these deities names and specific functions. Just calling them the "first god" and the "second god" and a "pantheon" makes the entire situation confusing and really hard to utilize in an RP.
3. Expand more on why this religion is so anti-Force. There's nothing wrong with being anti-Force, but your religion has some issues: unlike real-world religions, the Force is very evident in the galaxy far, far away (i.e., there is literally a war of space wizards with its power going on all around them) so a religion denying its existence could not gain much traction. You'll need to explain how this religion convinces its adherents that the Force is nothing more than dark magic.

Feel free to take as much time as you need on your edits. I want to see this article flourish, and you're welcome to consult myself and @Brandon Rhea if you need help, as we both would like to see more religious diversity in the Star Wars galaxy our site is creating. Give it the necessary time to really flesh out the lore and I think you'll have a solid piece.

 

[Malon]

@KaiserMelech Do you plan on making edits to this?

 

[KaiserMelech]

@KaiserMelech Do you plan on making edits to this?

Yes. I've already added on to the body, and I am expanding on the anti-force aspects.

 

[KaiserMelech]

@KaiserMelech —Where did this religion originate? How did it originate? How did it spread and what was the catalyst of its spread? (You make some mention of this, but I'd like to see it expanded upon in more detail.)

I've added a bit of history, but with all religions, the start really is a mix of fact and mythology. I based the spread of the religion off the growth of non-proselytizing religions like Judaism, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism, largely though population growth and movement and a few notable major conversion events.

Please clarify the deity situation here. In your first sentence on the matter, you make it seem as thought the religion is monotheistic, then you mention a second god who, himself, is over an expansive pantheon of deities. The wording in this section is extremely confusing. When creating something like a religion, it is important that you really flesh out this information; give these deities names and specific functions. Just calling them the "first god" and the "second god" and a "pantheon" makes the entire situation confusing and really hard to utilize in an RP.

I actually based the deity structure off of Semitic paganism. There was a central creator god, El, and then each individual tribe or nation had a national god who was usually a god of storms or war. Everyone has two gods, but since the two gods are not the same with every group of people, the religion is dilatrist (worshiping only two gods, even though more exist) instead of ditheist (only two gods exist, and you worship them both). Since people who make characters who adhere to this religion will come from all parts of the galaxy, they'll have the freedom to at least custom-craft one of the gods their characters will worship.

Expand more on why this religion is so anti-Force. There's nothing wrong with being anti-Force, but your religion has some issues: unlike real-world religions, the Force is very evident in the galaxy far, far away (i.e., there is literally a war of space wizards with its power going on all around them) so a religion denying its existence could not gain much traction. You'll need to explain how this religion convinces its adherents that the Force is nothing more than dark magic.

Now we're getting into midichlorian territory. Trying to logically rationalize religious tenets is a tricky subject. I've tried to add in some arguments from religious scholars, so hopefully I got some good enough points in.

 

[Malon]

I'm glad you've addressed some of my concerns, but here's another one from your newest edits:

Since the force was both not present in the vast majority of humans, and was prevalent in many non-human species, it could not be an intentional creation by the gods, and instead had to have been imparted through demonic possession. Jedi prevalence for war and civil conflict helped to solidify this view in many scholars.

This is just a blatantly false statement. Most Force-users in the franchise are Human or Near-Human. In fact, there are entire human-related or human sub-species, such as the Miraluka, whose entire existence derives from abilities granted by the Force.

Furthermore, Dark Jedi, and, later, the Sith, tend to have very humanocentric views themselves, and, thus, the majority of their members are Human—especially the more powerful ones.

 

[Malon]

Archived.