Robotech New Generation: Italy 1 : Church of Cosmic Mother

[Alpha 11]

Most of Italy was wiped out by the Dolza's attack. Survivors climbed out their desperation and rebuilt as they did so many times before...While part of world government Italy watched with wary eyes both the sky-high military expenses for the Pioneer Missions and the rising of ASC.
While the country wasn't hit during the Second Robotech War something begin to change. An apocalyptic cult arose from the ashes and when the Invid came the Church of Cosmic Mother was born.

Many towns in Italy now pay at least lip service to the church: every unbeliever, every heretic is put at the stake and burned.

The Church's dogma
1) Protoculture is evil and Robotechnology is a weapon of Satan ("The Great Void"). Humans can't use it (unless they are blessed by the Cosmic Mother's touch). Everyone using it must know his sins and repent.
2) While Invid are angelic creatures as they somehow serve the Cosmic Mother (The Regess). They will purify the Earth so they must be helped in everyway possible.
3) Zentraedi and Clones aren't evil per se but they are born in corruption: they must be cleansed with the flame but without hate.
4) Robotech Masters are unknowingly agents of the Cosmic Void and must be hunted and destroyed.
5) UEEF soldiers are pawns of the Great Void, corrupted by their voyage among godless stars. They can be converted to the Church: those who does not mut be cleansed by the flame.
6) Humans can purify themselves if the Cosmic Mother touches them. Purified humans become angelic soldier of the Cosmic Mother.

I can see it happening.

[glitterboy2098]

i don't know if a psuedo-catholic iconography is the best fit for it, but i could see people on Invid held earth revering the Invid.. especially if you had a collaborator who started promoting it. the problem is there really isn't enough time for a fully new religion to sprout up during the invid occupation..and the Invid fit better as 'demonic' entities in most of the real world faiths.

your best bet might be to have some sort of fringe religion that already had stories of benevolent aliens coming to help human kind (something like the heaven's gate cult from real life for example), that the Invid arrival and occupation could be applied to as 'fulfillment of prophecy' or somesuch.

the alternative is a fringe psuedo-christian cult which does see the Invid as demons, the robotech wars as some kind of tribulation, and their leader uses offerings to the invid as a way to 'placate the demons' or somesuch..

personally i'd go with the first option.. less likely to alienate your players..

[taalismn]

Agreed.....the Church of Cosmic Mother seems more New Age-ish, only given a kick-start with the Flower(I imagine they feature in in their rituals).

The first part of their doctrine is probably what got them accepted at first by the older Churches, on the points that a) the alien technology is likely evil, akin to a poisoned Apple of Knowledge, and the Robotech Wars a test of Humanity. Harmless radicals who could be tolerated or used.
Then the Cosmic Mothers started consorting with the Invid and selling out their critics and the pre-SDF-1 religions realized they might have underestimated these loons. Banding against the Cosmic Mother@@@@@s and their new buddies might just be the impetus for some of the splintered 'old schoolers' to re-unite against a common enemy/heresy.

[taalismn]

Ouch...yeah, these nuts are DEFINITELY losing their tax-exempt status after the Liberation.

[taalismn]

Wait until the returning UEGovernment-in-exile's IRS shows up to audit them. The Cosmic Mothers will be wishing the Anti-Symps had gotten to them first....

[SRoss]

Imagine the shock if the Church suddenly starts retaliating with Shadowtech weapons?

[taalismn]

Imagine the shock if the Church suddenly starts retaliating with Shadowtech weapons?

That would take some serious mental gymnastics for an organization aligned with the Invid to sudden be accepting help from the Haydonites.
Then again, crazy people can make leaps of illogic like that, and the Haydonites have twigged to the fact that Humans can be easily persuaded to be patsies.

[SRoss]

Imagine the shock if the Church suddenly starts retaliating with Shadowtech weapons?

That would take some serious mental gymnastics for an organization aligned with the Invid to sudden be accepting help from the Haydonites.
Then again, crazy people can make leaps of illogic like that, and the Haydonites have twigged to the fact that Humans can be easily persuaded to be patsies.

Not all that much of a leap. Consider that they would't likely know about the Invid Hydonite conflict, and a religion that believes that the use of Protoculture is a sin would make perfect dupes for the Haydonites. Just appear to the faithful as Arcangels of the Cosmic Mother, and provide them with Shadowtech weapons and mecha that look somewhat Invid-like.

Then pray they never come across an Invid Prince(ss)/Simagent who stayed behind.

[taalismn]

[Not all that much of a leap. Consider that they would't likely know about the Invid Hydonite conflict, and a religion that believes that the use of Protoculture is a sin would make perfect dupes for the Haydonites. Just appear to the faithful as Arcangels of the Cosmic Mother, and provide them with Shadowtech weapons and mecha that look somewhat Invid-like.

Then pray they never come across an Invid Prince(ss)/Simagent who stayed behind.

Children of Darkness and Followers of the Shadows indeed.

Plus they cast relatively harmless sects and splinter groups like the Flower Children (those who survive; a pacifictic pro-human/peace/love/ intermarriage sect devouted to remaining under the radar and getting high off the Flower of Life would have problems avoiding trouble) in a bad light.

[SRoss]

Not a good route to take, because then even the UEEF, which might have stepped in to provide a peace keeping force to back everyone else off, would suddenly see them as a strategic level threat, and would flip sides immediately. If these guys are using this sort of gear, not only are the Invid worshiping fanatics, but they are also apparently in the Haydonites pockets. Not a good niche to shoehorn them into.

The idea would be to keep things subtle. The big problem these guys would have post-reflex point, is they've got no mecha or energy weapons and alot of enemies around them that do. I mean while the Invid are around, the Church has a pretty good thing going. They provide a ready source of sympathisers, and villages full of willing farm workers and experimental subjects. All in an area with a strong well equiped resistance force. The Regess would have to be stupid not to take advantage of that.

However if you carry this past the Battle of Reflex Point, they're boned. They're massively outgunned, probably outnumbered and surounded by people who bear grudges that can last generations. Even If the UEEF were willing to act as peacekeepers would they have the resources, or would they leave the colaborators to lay in the bed they made and deal with more immediate problems?

[taalismn]

However if you carry this past the Battle of Reflex Point, they're boned. They're massively outgunned, probably outnumbered and surounded by people who bear grudges that can last generations. Even If the UEEF were willing to act as peacekeepers would they have the resources, or would they leave the colaborators to lay in the bed they made and deal with more immediate problems?

ANY sign of Haydonite collaboration at this point...even a red robe and cyclops ocular badge, and they become an immediate problem of the 'let's push some space debris...we have plenty of it...on a meteoric trajectory atop them and call it an act of God' sort.

[SRoss]

However if you carry this past the Battle of Reflex Point, they're boned. They're massively outgunned, probably outnumbered and surounded by people who bear grudges that can last generations. Even If the UEEF were willing to act as peacekeepers would they have the resources, or would they leave the colaborators to lay in the bed they made and deal with more immediate problems?

ANY sign of Haydonite collaboration at this point...even a red robe and cyclops ocular badge, and they become an immediate problem of the 'let's push some space debris...we have plenty of it...on a meteoric trajectory atop them and call it an act of God' sort.

I see your point.

[taalismn]

I imagine that after the hideous losses of the Battle of Reflex Point, and a general war-wariness on the part of the UEEF, it might in engender in some veterans a rather grizzled 'not taking this $#!+ any more' attitude, with a tendency to smack problems down with whatever seems handy, rather than try to defuse them or put them off. While this might make for some bad PR, on the other hand, in some situations it just might be better than kid glove diplomacy.

[glitterboy2098]

why have any return? we know Ariel and Sera stayed behind by choice, no reason that other humanoform invid couldn't.. and if they all start exhibiting Regis type powers, a group of them could probably start creating a new Invid offshoot by pooling their powers together. (might be a good way to justify using the Third Invid War site's original invid ideas)

and i could see some of the higher caste non-humans ones possibly staying as well. toss in the possibility of the Regent's forces having gone to join up with the Regis after the death of the Regent and becoming a more independant faction within the Invid on earth..

or the possibility of 'mutant' invid caused by some oddity (similar to how the Gura-invid split off, but not as extreme) leaving a few invid hives still on earth..

the invid equivilent of Neo saying "no" when the regis does her vanishing act and keeping a hive on earth through sheer force of will..

lots of options that wouldn't require the invid to actually return..

[taalismn]

And then the let-down for the CCM when the Invid stay-behinds they thought to go to for protection discover that these particular humans are utter nutbars, and the sort they don't want to associate with.
There could be a number of splinter-groups of Invid, and that division could prove most confusing and disturbing for the CCM, if it's looking for patronage from the ones 'closest to the Flower'. There's the Gura-Invid, who are more likely to see the cultists as a food source rather than allies. Maybe the Disciples of Corg who want ALL humans dead and Earth as their new home, regardless of what the Regis thought. Then there's the Tolerators, who figure that maybe if they introduce Flower of Life to the humans as a renewable peaceable power source, they can gradually ween them off Protoculture, and for that, they're willing to tolerate Protoculture use. And there's the Flower's Thorn/Shadows' Bane faction, who tolerate Protoculture and see it as one common tool in unifying with the humans in fighting a common enemy, the Haydonites.