The Sects
The sects are the governmental departments of The Temple, which is the governing body for the Nation (or the Order–they are mostly interchangeable). Each sect has an assigned color and the priests and priestesses wear those colors, although other colors are acceptable if they are used in a pattern. Ceremonial robes are all one color, however.
1—Temple Guard and Security—royal blue
2—Arts and Education—rose pink
3—Agriculture and Commerce—peach
4—Building and Parks—mint green
5—National Security and Reparation—deep purple (black)
6—Medicine and Science—sky blue
7—Law Enforcement and Order—red and gold
8—Transportation and Communication—lemon yellow
9—Energy and Technology—emerald green
10—High Council—Treasury—violet (silver)
The Parishes
The parishes are the territories of the Nation. There are 10 in all and Temple City. Parishes are located near reclamation zones, which are the large cities where the survivors of the Plague Wars scavenged for raw materials to start over again. Although the reclamation zones retain the names of the cities they once were, the parishes are named by the areas of the nation they reside in. Reyism maintains that ego helped create the evil that destroyed the world and naming structures, cities, roads etc is inherently ego-driven.
The MagLev train connects all the parishes. However, as people spread out after the wars, freight lines were added, criss-crossing the nation and to bring serum and supplies to outlying areas.
Temple City–near Boulder, CO and the Denver Reclamation Zone
NorthEast–Near the Buffalo Reclamation Zone
East–Near Lexington, KY Reclamation Zone
SouthEast–Near Mobile AL reclamation zone
NorthMid–Between the Milwaukee and Green Bay ,WI Reclamation Zones
Mid/Central City–Located near the St. Louis, MO Reclamation Zone
Southmid–the Gulf Coast, Located near Houston, TX Reclamation Zone
NorthWest–Located Near Spokane, WA, Reclamation Zone
West/Lake City–located near the Salt Lake City Reclamation Zone
SouthWest–Near Phoenix, AZ Reclamation Zone
***North–Located near the Calgary Reclamation Zone
*** The only Canadian parish
The Temple
Temple structure–Temple City is the seat of the government. This is where the head of the government, The Prophet, and his family resides. The High Council resides here as well. The council is composed of the head priest or priestess of the Temple City sect, which governs each of the sects in the parishes.
Every parish, has one or more Temples, all of which run the government. The main Temple is where the parish head priest or priestess resides. The head priest is chosen by the High Council, with consultation of the heads of the sects in that parish.
Holidays
Founders Day–Each Sect has a Founder’s Day, which that sect celebrates exclusively.
The Prophet’s Birthday–a national holiday (which is what opened The Liars).
Forgiveness Day–This occurs two weeks before Testing Day. It starts on Saturday with fasting and prayer. At the end of the day every parishoner writes a list of people who have caused them harm that year. During the Temple service the parishoner throws the list into an altar fire, signifying forgiveness. Afterwards people return home for a day of celebrating with family and exchanging gifts. Two weeks of celebrating commences, ending with Testing Day. (Forgiveness day coincides closely with Judeo-Christian celebrations, in an effort to ease the transition to Reyism during the early post plague years.)
Testing day–a national holiday. It’s replaces New Year’s day, when every child who turns 14 that year takes The Test.
Parishes may have holidays of their own.
The Test
Basically a re-labeled version of the Meyer-Briggs test. It’s mandatory for every child at the age of 14. After that schooling is based partly on the test, called The Sectioning. This allows teachers to emphasize the best attributes of each mark aspect, and to teach information more likely to be used by people with certain marks. Sectioning begins with first year, splitting kids between Social and Observers. The next year it’s Goal or Processor, and it moves along that way until each child is being taught based upon their mark.
Although no one mark is intrinsically better than another, over the course of 274 years, prejudices have come into play. Early on, the Temple decided that people who marked Social were better leaders merely because they were outgoing and more likely to share. Because the Temple believed that runaway emotionalism played a big part in creating the plagues, people who scored Logic were considered early on to be more stable and better leaders. Temple jobs are better jobs, so people naturally want those scores. However, the Test is given while hooked up to a lie detector, and if a person is discovered lying, the punishment is brutal.
You can take the Meyer’s Briggs test here and determine how you would score.
The Mark
Social/Observer
Controller/Processor
Emoter/Logic
*Sensor /Intuitive
Neri’s mark, as far as the Temple is concerned, is SCES
Neri’s actual mark is OCEI
Jarvis is OCLS, Evan is OPEI
Clothing
Because of Integration, the Temple wanted to make sure that citizens did not bear children from inappropriate mates. Clothing became more restrictive. Both sexes were required to be thoroughly covered up. Men wear long-sleeved tunics that fall past the hip, and pants. Women wear gowns, with relatively high necks. The Temple makes an exception for beaches and pools to prevent rebellion, where people wear regular swimming suits up to and including bikinis. While priests and priestesses wear gowns, or tunics and pants in the color of their sects, parishoners generally dress in browns and greys–clothing provided through subsistence. Wealthier parishoners dress in any color they like, but aren’t allowed inside a Temple in that clothing, since colors other than brown and grey are reserved for sect members.
Although the jackets in the Indian Sherwani (traditional wedding clothes) are too long, these photos come close enough to depict PostPlague men’s clothing. The only people in the nation who would ever dare to wear gold, other than as a light decoration, would be the Prophet and his family. 274 P.P. that would be Grayson Starling (the Prophet), Neri Symmes, (the High Priestess), and Casbar Starling, (the Apprentice).
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