Protectorate Civic Religion
Not all citizens of the Cobalt Protectorate believe in Ancestral Patronism. In fact, the Protectorate core is comprised of citizens who hail from several great clans which were, in turn, historically confederations of smaller tribal groups living on Evermorn when Wurth Harkin and the others returned from their exile at the hands of the Iron Talon Mining Concern. Thus, in pre-modern times, there were few universal cultural touchstones around which the nascent Protectorate could be unified save for those which could be imposed by new institutions.
For this reason, the founders of the Cobalt Protectorete engineered a 'civic religion' - a set of established political values, holidays, symbolism, and other cultural touchstones that mirror those created by actual religions - as a nucleus around which cross-cultural political cohesion could be established in the absence of shared heritage. This civic religion is promulgated by governmental institutions, particularly those involved with education or the preservation of history. The civic religion is not imposed by force or even open proselyization, When a Cobalter who is otherwise an athiest or adherent to a non-Patronist faith expresses patriotism, it is the Protectorate's civic religion to which he or she is making reference.
Mythology & Lore
The Protectorate civic religion lionizes historical figures important to the development of the Protectorate and encourages scholarship into their lives and contexts. Many of these figures also appear as Patrons and Matrons under the actual religion of Ancestral Patronism, but many others were simply important figures in Protectorate history for which no further spiritual resonance has been assigned. For example, an arcology might create statuary, parks, museums, and other public spaces dedicated in the names of early local council members, artists, inventors, and other historical figures who once lived there, especially if those figures achieved notoriety beyond the confines of the city in the wider Protectorate.
Political Influence & Intrigue
Civic religion influences political discourse within the Protectorate on a few different levels. Those more inclined to accept and promote the civic religion tend to have more nationalistic and interventionist beliefs, while those who reject it or find it pointless tend to have a more internationalist perspective and are slightly more likely to seek emigration to the Republic of the Obsidian Shores. Ironically in the light of this dichotomy, those who immigrate from the Periphery region to become Cobalt Protectorate Citizens tend to embrace the civic religion even more vigorously than those born into the Core region.
Just as strongly orthodox religions sometimes find themselves at odds with the scientific community over questions of cosmology, strong adherents to the Protectorate civic religion sometimes find themselves at odds with those who embrace realpolitik or who are strongly partisan with regards to certain issues to the exclusion of others. A lot of political capital is spent on striking a balance between the civic virtues of the Protectorate and the concrete needs and desires of subgroups within it. For example, while eradicating the Cinnabar Hegemony in detail would probably serve to render Evermorn a safer place, it would contradict Wurth Harkin's final edict and the required violence would violate the principles set forth in the Code of Evermorn which enumerate certain natural rights ascribed to all members of the human family.
Type
Religious, Other
Parent Organization
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