Clearwater Jerusalemism
The largest and best-known religious minority in the NLC is Jerusalemism. A sincerly religious movement which brings together several faiths which trace their heritage to a line of prophets and divine figures centered around Jerusalem on Earth. On Terra Nova, these diverse faiths have come together under the Jerusalemite banner, but each sect continues to hold to its own religious priorities. A large number of Jerusalemites who followed the teachings of Muhammad of Mecca and Fatma of Amman settled the Irrian region of Terra Nova during the colonial period, leading to the Indo-Arabic linguistic and cultural atmosphere of the region. Jerusalemites tracing their origin to the prophets of ancient Israel and Ruth Beth-Zion settled around Lake Clearwater in the same period. While the former group was largely displaced by the rise of Revisionism, the Clearwater communities exist to this day and even absorbed many of the Muhammadian and Fatmian faithful into their communities.
Clearwater Jerusalemism has suffered from discrimination since the rise of the NLC and has responded by building its own communities. These communes are largely rural and dot the countryside, especially along the northern coast of the lake. Both Franklin Harbor and Exeter have significant Jerusalemite populations who worship at urban temples and the region is perhaps more tolerant of religious pluralism than anywhere else in the league other than Sesshu. Jerusalemite communes are highly cooperative affairs that often feature shared eating spaces and an egalitarian division of labor. The largest such community, Beth-Zion Commune at the western tip of Lake Clearwater, has a population of 8,000 and is a major trade and service center for the region. Communes also maintain their own farmlands and try to remain as self-reliant as possible. In smaller communities, trade with the outside is often the purview of a select group of merchants selected by the community for their skill and knowledge. Communes are headed by one or more religious teachers (called imams or rebis).
The closed nature of many communes has allowed Jerusalemism to survive a largely hostile climate by promoting selfreliance and Community cooperation, but it has also allowed rumors and fallacies to grow among Revisionists. Common Norlights often have a very prejudiced view of life within a commune; common misconceptions include communes being dominated by dictatorial imams, centers of subversive political activity, full of illegal drugs and immoral material, or Jerusalemites living in poverty or starvation. Jerusalemites do their best to dispel such misconceptions, but the rise of religious fundamentalism has made most Norlights less and less receptive; immigration out of the NLC has been on the increase among Jerusalemites, especially those living in urban centers.
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