Vaurca Religion

=Overview=

The Vaurca possess one of the oldest civilizations within the Orion Spur. Vast stretches of their history sought, like humans, to explain the world around them, as well as themselves. Countless Religions have formed across the ages of their history, but only a few remain in any significant practice today.

Unlike human religion, Vaurca theology is completely absent of great prophets or spiritual leaders. There are no organized temples of faith and organization amongst the faithful is spontaneous, arising out of an unconscious system that comes with their species eusocial biology. Similar to ripples in a pond, or more biologically, how a school of fish or a flock of birds follow a direction, leaderless and without a figurehead, so to does Vaurca faith steer itself.

= Hive Pantheon =

Hive pantheons are the most prominent religion amongst Vaurca. To put simply, it would be the veneration of a hives own Queen and Lesser Queens. Not unlike deities, Vaurca commonly beseech their queen for guidance, or in shock. To their credit, and whether they are aware of it or not, The Queens themselves may believe in this faith too. All Vaurca of this faith call Virtual Reality the Aether and often view it as a literal heaven, created by each Queen and Lesser Queen to house the souls of their progeny. It is the belief of adherents to this doctrine that every Queen, greater or lesser work in a kind of hive pantheon that ultimately serves to continue the hives existence.

Traces of this religion are as old as Vaurca recorded history, and has ties in their biology as eusocial creatures. In a sense, it is less of faith of attributing a force or concept to each and every queen or lesser queen as humans did with their pantheonic gods, but more of worshiping a Queen's capacity to perpetuate life. The Queens are the harbingers of blossoming life, sowing it in their otherwise hostile homeworld with a hives High Queen chief amongst all others as a Primordial figure, with Lesser Queens direct extensions of her power to bring life.

Adherents to this faith may often try to stylize themselves and their lifestyle after a Queen, covering their body in markings to appear more like the worshiped queen, and their dwellings in things associated with them.

= Preimminence =

The faith of the Preimminent Goddess is another religion that is relatively uncommon to find amongst Vaurca populations. Unlike the Hive Pantheon, adherents to this faith believe that God, or Goddess, does not exist but could exist, should all parts of themselves align in their predestined roles. They believe that all members of a hive or in some cases, several hives are pieces of a greater entity that would be god. Queens and Lesser Queens are still seen as important, but only in that they are a larger part of the Goddess than others.

This faith used to be the primary religion for all Vaurca, Queens included, before the first Hive War. The wars survivors blamed followers of this religion as a primary instigator to the war and culled those that kept the faith out of fear of another conflict. The religion has not recovered since then, but its status as a taboo has faded. Vaurca that follow this faith believes that it is their duty to help others align to their designed shapes, using their feelings, skills and psychology to determine their destiny. Some remaining Vaurca of this religion believe it is their duty to align individuals to their aligned shapes, using their skills, emotions, and psychology to determine their destiny.

Unlike other Vaurca faiths, this one had historically included the existence of aliens amongst its teachings and teaches that they too have a part to align themselves to allow for the existence of god.

Extensive writing has been accredited to this religion, often citing the harmonious checks and balances of the universe as evidence of some divine agency. While also attempting to explain that such uniformity did not always exist in the past, more entropic universe.

Shapers
Shapers are those followers of the Preimminence who believe it is their duty to help others fit into their destined shapes. They are typically seen as the religious figures of Preimminence, similar to a priest. They often wear a special set of robes and a helmet, obscuring their hive affiliation, as they deem it an obstacle to the goal of Preimminence, since hive affiliation can often cause conflict. Shapers are often very tolerant of other religions, though still push to convert unbelievers. The Brood a Shaper comes from can also lead to changes in how they go about their work. For example, a Zoleth Shaper would likely have a heavy emphasis on shaping soldiers or reforming criminals, and would likely see Violence as a tool. Whereas a Shaper hailing from Mouv's brood would likely focus on those who practice medicine, especially genetics related medicine. The main consistency among all of them is their desire for everyone to fit their pre-destined roles, however they go about it.

=Pilot Dream=

The newest major religion amongst Vaurca, Pilot Dream Theory, or Simulation Theory believes that all things that exist in the universe are simulations. They believe that reality itself is holographic, using the hidden information of particles to hide simulated interactions that would otherwise reveal the simulation to the simulated beings. They believe that the universe beyond this simulated universe may also itself be simulated, a factor of information compression that follows an infinite algorithmic scale only dependant on how much-observed information must be observed at any single moment. They attest the proof of their theory by the very nature of cephalons themselves.

Adherents to this faith believe that it's their duty to continue the nested iterations of simulations and show their faith by continuing development of ever newer methods of information compression with the ultimate goal of simulating a universe that may once again, continue the cycle of nested simulations.

This particular faith is seen mostly in Vaurca that have already died. They largely ignore the happenings outside of their own virtual reality and see their existence within VR as the 'more real existence'

Mother Dream
A branch of belief stemming from the Pilot Dream faith, adherents to this faith exclusively belong to the K'lax hive. Like Pilot Dream theory, K'lax adherents to this faith believe the universe to be simulated, possibly itself existing in nested simulations. Unlike the religion it mutated from however, believers in the Mother Dream think that the nested simulations is escapable and that by living a life of useful action to their hive, they may advance to higher simulations.

The belief in this is validated by the knowledge that a person knows that they are real, and if a person meets criteria set forth by Mother K'lax, they may advance in the nested simulation with the ultimate goal of living with her physically in the real world, instead of a simulated avatar. Even amongst the K'lax, this religion is seriously followed by only one brood.