Neroism

A belief born from the preaching's of Nero, and given violent birth in the Neroan Uprising, Neroism has been one of the most significant movements of the third millennium and in its short existence has radically changed the face of politics and society across the Solar System. The core tenant of Neroism is the belief that humanity was born into a world of limitations and strife to compete and grow. They believe that the destiny of humans is to challenge themselves as completely as they can, and that this growth is not just a goal, but a holy mandate.
In the name of this mandate they have gone on to launch massive societal and economic reforms aimed to produce a meritocratic society, kickstarted a new age of technological development and brought millions of people out of poverty and squalor.
They have also used this mandate to launch the bloodiest wars humanity has seen since the end of the System War, both in a desire to purge humanity of those who would stagnate it, and further encourage competition and evolution through the highest of stakes.

Good fortune is a reward, ill fortune is a trial, but everything that happens, happens for a reason.

Nerosim is founded on two guiding principles. The first principle is a creed and a promise, it states that every step a person takes forwards is for the betterment and evolution of humanity. In this competition is not only accepted, but necessary, as the best way something can grow is by having a foe to struggle against, this applies for individuals and societies. Everything a person does to grow themselves and their society is for a grand holy purpose, the most holy way a person can live in life is to improve, and in doing so they help themselves and the world around them.
The second principle in Neroism however is a warning. It states that sometimes the strong grow greedy, they fear completion and instead work to snuff it out before it can grow, they no longer want to improve they simply want to stay on top. When that happens it is the duty of all the faithful to remove this cancer, and ensure holy evolution can continue.

Origins

Neroism had its origins from among the lower classes (often indentured servants) of the "Xadia Sphere" a collection of nations under the influence of the megacorporation Xadia Corp. In this sphere a massive wealth disparity grew between the upper and lower classes of society, so much so that many people were forced to toil away in practical slave labour while the wealthy leaders of society became more and more detached from the world, many of them never even setting foot on Mars. In these oppressed masses the words of Nero spread quickly, his teachings of a grand spirit and a grand plan for which all the suffering was for was extremely attractive to those disenfranchised people.
At first the spread of the religion was largely ignored, in fact many of the Xadia sphere leaders saw it as a faith that encouraged compliance with some even going so far as to encourage its early growth. However they made little attempt to truly understand this new faith, viewing it as a flight of fancy for the commoners. This meant that even as the religion became ever more secretive, establishing private temples and hidden sermons, little effort was made to investigate what was being taught in these increasingly secret sermons.
And so another core aspect of Neroism taught largely in secret was missed, the belief that those who stifle the evolution must be purged, and the growing cult soon began to step up from just hostile rhetoric. Hidden temples were built across Mars right under the noses of local governments, many soon being upgraded to secret factories producing weapons of war, while regular sermons began to include military training, as a grand plan was built across the Xadia sphere.
By the time of the Neroan Uprising this faith had already spread far across much of Mars, though it remained strongest within the Xadia Sphere. Thanks to the meticulous preparations many of the faithful were better armed and even better trained than the regular armies sent to contain them, and combined with overwhelming numbers the resultant uprising was a stunning success. After Nero himself slaughtered most of the Xadian leadership on the moon of Phobos, he announced to the entire Solar System the birth of the Neroan Unity.

Mythology

The Universal Spirit is not a god to Neroans. It is something greater, something so grand that the simple mortal mind cannot truly comprehend it. It has no shape, no symbols and no voice, only it's inexorable will it has placed upon the universe. According to Neroan's this Universal spirit existed before time and reality, which it created with the Big Bang along with the universe, a universe it then guided to eventually create life on the planet Earth. It gave that life a desire to constantly grow and propagate, but also placed it in a universe of limited resources.
All of this was done to create an environment of competition, one in which the ultimate perfect being could be born. For the most part it simply watches, but when life becomes stale, and lazy the Universal Spirit will unleash a cataclysm to shake up the world. Such was the case with the major extinctions of the past, as again and again the Universal Spirit broke the world to see what would come next.
With the evolution of Humanity the next step had finally been taken, and at first the spirit was content to watch. But eventually humanity grew greedy, complacent, stagnant, and so the Universal Spirit again struck humanity. Not out of hatred or wrath, but necessity, it destroyed the old nations to force humanity to once again step forwards and grow.
But once again humanity fell into the old trappings of greed and stagnated yet again. But this time there existed a human who could see the pattern of the cosmos, and so Nero set forth to spread this truth, and to save humanity from its own impending disaster.

Death

Unlike most faiths, Neroan's don't believe in any sort of afterlife. They where born into this world to grow as much as they could, and their legacy will be the mark they left on humanity.
At least that is the official creed as preached by Nero himself, since his death there has been a gradual shift in the faith as more and more priests have begun to espouse the idea of reincarnation similar to the process in Buddhism, where what form or life a person will receive after death is determined by their worth in life. As of now this is still an unofficial belief, but it is growing.

Founding Date

2497

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Leader

Valerius

Leader Title

Hierarch

Permeated Organizations

• The Second Neroan Unity

Deities

• The Universal Spirit

Worship

Neroism is a faith in which simply doing your job is viewed as a form of worship, as such its prayers and temples serve different functions from those in most other religions. Neroan temples are not places to pay homage or confess sins, instead Neroans attend temples for one of three reasons.

• Prayer; Neroan prayers typically consist of the practitioner espousing their progress in whatever field they work in. The prayer set themselves goals, and reflect on what previous goals they have met and those which they still need to reach. These prayers are typically done in private but can be made directly to a priest.
• Sermons; Neroan sermons are performed by a priest, and most commonly consist of two parts. The first being the Priest espousing the achievements of past Neroan Saints (most commonly Nero himself), and the second sees the Priest
• Supplicant; Guidance is where a Neroan practitioner will approach their respective priest, usually in private, and confess to whatever goals they have not met and why. There the Priest will then provide guidance to try and help the supplicant reach those goals.

Technically speaking none of these need to be done in a temple, but as every Neroan is obligated to attend a temple at least once every week, most simply wait until then.

The Universal Spirit

Neroism takes inspiration from a variety of old religions, most prominently the Abrahamic faiths. This can be best seen in the faiths deity, the Universal Spirit, which many outside observers have likened to the Abrahamic God in its similar role as the sole deity responsible for all things. Such comparisons are seen by Neroans as the closest any non-Neroan religion has ever come to truly understanding the Universal Spirit, and this similarity has helped convert many followers of Abrahamic faiths, today most Neroan's trace their origins to historically Christian and Muslim societies.

Other faiths

Neroism is largely viewed with hostility by most other religions, who take umbridge to the Neroan belief that all of their faiths are just misreading's or misunderstandings of the "true" faith. Christians have a particular hostility to Neroism, both from its historic success in converting their followers, and its heavy adoption of Christian terminology.
Neroism has been, and still is, the target of numerous Jihads, Crusades and other various forms of holy war, however these faiths lack the material and political power of the Unity to make much real impact. 
Meanwhile the violence Neroism has unleashed has resulted in a growing distrust of religion in general across the Solar System, accelerating a trend of spreading atheism in the wake of the System War.