World information:

Religions in the California Wasteland

Overview:

The Great War led to a religious crisis for many of the survivors – surely a loving God would not allow nearly the whole world to be burned down by nuclear fire. Many others found consolation in faith and not a few abused this need for consolation to found new religions that were not really
founded for reasons of altruism. In any way, Faith still exists after the Great War – and it does so in many divers forms. On the following pages a few of the largest religions of post war California are sketched. This list makes no claim to be complete and – this has to be mentioned at this point – the mentioned, non fictitious religions are not sorted in any way. Their religious doctrines are not explained here, those can be reviewed in greater detail on Wikipedia or an encyclopedia of choice. Should someone read a judgment about certain real religions in these lines, this is not the intention of the author of these lines and to be frank, the author of these lines couldn’t care less.

The great pre war Religions:

The great world religions that existed, thanks to freedom of religion, at every corner, still exist even after the Great War. Judaism, Christianity in many facets, Islam and yes, Buddhism and Hinduism, too. In most settlements and in the whole of the NCR exists freedom of religion and many
settlements have churches, synagogues or other established places of worship, even if most of them are not as grandiose as those places were before the Great War. At the end, a church needs little more than a simple table as an altar and two nailed together planks as a cross – and a mosque needs little more than knowing where east is.

Holy books, for religions that used those, were printed in such large numbers before the War, that they can often still be found somewhere and Jewish Rabbis especially, often performed great feats of heroism to save their Torahs from fire.

The Church of Hubology:

Founded shortly before the Great War by Dick Hubbel, the Hubologists are an often fanatical sect that believes that humans are plagued by the spirits (or neurodynes) of the dead. For a small, symbolic donation of 1000 caps (also payable in NCR Dollars or precious items, but in these cases,
slightly more expensive due to symbolic administrative fees) the Church of Hubology offers a Neurodyne-Alignment, that removes those foreign, disruptive influences and help the people to lead a better life. Praise the great Hubbel!

Hubologists often talk of the heavenly wheel to explain their existence, in which Dick Hubbel is regarded as the heavenly axle.

In September of 2241 the Chosen One has, in a gunfight that lasted hours, decimated the main base of the Hubologists in Northern San Francisco, as part of a deal between her and the Shi in the south. The survivors resettled on the opposite side of the bay. Furthermore some smaller groups of
Hubologists survived undamaged, among them those in Shady Sands and in a small outpost south east of San Francisco.

The religions of the tribes:

Most of the wild tribes have shamans, that are, among other things, responsible for creating healing powder out of Brock flowers and Xander roots, but also often take over the duties of religious leaders. The religions of the tribes vary and reach from nature worship to ancestor cults – sometimes both wildly mixed.