"Communism as a religion in a far, post-apocalyptic future:

Theology and culture:

• The original works by Marx and others are either long lost or very fragmentary, which allowed interpretations and forgeries to run wild. The whole thing was made into a religion by a post-collapse prophet and warlord Tyrone Ogden (yes, an homage to this), who "found" a "long lost manuscript" mixing socialist ideas with his own mystical musings. The times were hard, so his teaching fell on fertile ground, beat the secular competitors and overtook former California, after which his and his inheritors' conquests spread it across America. Over more than a thousand messy years all memories of Communism being a purely political and materialist philosophy faded (often not without aid), and now most see this chain of events as a rediscovery and revival of an already existing "ancient faith".

• Believes not in god or gods, but in a Dao-like, impersonal, universal force called Prassa, or "Process" (bastardisation of "the historical process"). It's the all-organizing energy, the movement of all things towards complexity, that created this world from the primordial chaos and keeps shaping it towards full realisation to this very day. It's the source of all movement, all life, and all consciousness. Whether this Process is itself conscious, there's a debate.

• The Process shapes the universe through Revolutions - rapid fundamental changes to the natural laws, released spontaneously like some videogame updates. They can be large, like industrialisation or apes becoming humans, or small and hard to register - which leads to all kinds of political and climatic perturbations to be declared as them for political reasons. Some denominations concluded that there exists a constand background of little revolutions and that Process is always at work, constantly shifting some tiny cogs in the universe's fabric, which occasionally synergizes into larger changes. Others believe Revolutions are realised in their full form instantly, and that between them the Process remains in equilibrium. Many divide Revolutions up into multiple counterintuitive stages and try to predict which one of them the world is currently at and guess what to expect next, but with little success.

• In the far future, sooner or later, the Process will create the final paradise, where everyone will be equal and unified in their merging with it. No passions or conflicts will exist, only eternal nirvana of enlightenment and bliss.

• Those who do the right things and live in accordance with the faith's commandments can reincarnate in that perfect future. Their souls will be stored in the Process through their contribution to it, in a state of nusfir (bastardized "noosphere") - which, depending on denomination, can mean either a state of dormancy or active co-creation with it. By devoting oneself to Labour, a person channels the Process, harmonizes with it, and in this way saves their soul. In some versions that includes their entire personality and memories, in others - only a spark of consciousness.

• Process works in mysterious ways - however disastrous a Revolution it rolls out, everything in the long run will work out in favor of its plan and, conversely, the true faith. The job of the church (or "pati" - party) is to keep track of these changes and determine whether they mean a test of their faith, a sign that they've stepped off the true path, or something else, and act accordingly.

• Labor (Leiba) is the most direct way the Process manifests itself through man, and the church's most sacred staple. Definitions of it vary and are not limited to literal physical work - it's something more global, like "jihad" in Islam, and has many forms, of which physical work is just the lowest one ("lesser Leiba"). In most basic terms it means living a righteous life, promoting the Process through one's actions.

• Reaction (reakshin) is the analog to sin and heresy - a conscious falling away from and resistance against the Process.

• Marx is basically a Moses-like semi-mythical prophet. The details of his life are largely invented and his ideas "reconstructed" by Ogden from scraps and quotes that had survived to his time. Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Castro and the like are seen as his great followers, apostles of conquest, while Stalin is the black sheep - a fallen apostate, a perverter of ideas. Engels is a half-forgotten "disciple" of Marx.

• Mythology retains some rough scraps of scientific knowledge about the world's history. Evolution of humans from apes, of complex animals from simple ones, of simple animals from non-living matter, etc., is recognized in rough details, but everything is understood teleologically - the Process triggers these Revolutions in order to organize matter further and express itself more fully through it.

• Life is distinguished from non-life by the special flow of the Process through its material; basically "life force". The consciousness of man is similar - humans work and change the world intentionally, thus expressing the Process more directly than any other living thing, which is the reason they were created in the first place.

• The collapse of the 21st century global civilization was one of the bigger Revolutions. Through it, the Process prepared the right conditions for the "revival" of the "ancient faith" of Kommunism, as well as other important events not yet revealed to us.

• The image of a classless society persists as a mythological utopian realm of the enlightened that will exist shortly before the Process will complete its plan and end history.

• Believes that Marx and his followers were against specific religions of their time, not religion in general. The "opium of the people" quote is interpreted as a criticism of the false religions that keept the masses dumb and submissive instead of revealing the truth and saving their souls, like Kommunism does.

• Social, economic, and political issues are still a big thing in a sense. In practice, it's still mostly a social/legal doctrine, with all the metaphysics serving more as a foundation and a backdrop rather than the main focus.

• History and chronicles focus more on general processes (described in terms of Process-triggered Revolutions) rather than personalities.

• The main virtues are hard work, selflessness, altruism, comradeship, mutual aid, loyalty, asceticism, and control over animal impulses. In light of that last one the mores are extremely conservative - the sexes are strictly separated, women are subordinate to men, there's a strict dress code, obligatory rituals, addresses, etc.

• Prominent political virtues include social justice (not really equality, more like "respect thy peasants"), brotherhood of nations (meaning just putting faith above ethnicity), local tight-knit communities, and disgust for monarchy (defined as "worldly autocracy"), hereditary power, or focusing too much on blood relations in general ("everyone shall be judged by their Labor").

• Wealth is greatly disfavored as something that binds man to himself and his passions, leading him away from serving the universe. Especially if it's gained through the suffering of others; we're all equal manifestations of the same Process, so a crime against an honest comrade is a crime against Process itself. Merchants are at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

• A strong analog of the Heavenly Mandate exists: how much the ruler conforms to the Process. If he has deviated from it, fallen into Reaction, it'll let the populace known, and they'll be obliged to overthrow him.

• Red is the traditional color, like green in Islam. The main symbols are a red, five-pointed star, and the hammer and sickle (hammansikel). The latter represents Labor through the "lesser Labor" of peasants and blacksmiths (though alternate, more poetic interpretations also exist), and the former symbolizes the Process itself. Wheat wreaths are also a frequent motif, as the symbol of life that the Process gives to the world.

• In the popular, "low" religion, the Process is often seen as an intelligent entity, capable of influencing people, heeding prayers, and working magic through sages (understood as a temporary local revolution). The veneration of images of Marx and early revolutionary leaders is believed to please it and promote good fortune, as well as bring social harmony.

• On the opposite side of the scale, various esoteric schools exist that profess more intricate and mystical forms of theology. The main focus is usually the nature and structure of the Process - they give it all sorts of autonomous aspects or hypostases, discern patterns and various cycles within cycles in in its actions, etc. Some promote the existence of an equal Counter-Process that's behind all the world's Reaction, but these are decried as heretical. Others try to use the energy of the Process for magic and repeat the famous miracles of antiquity, such as space flight, healing of various diseases, etc. Again, with little success.

• Science in our sense isn't practiced - the belief is that the Process can rewrite any law of reality at any moment, so it's more reliable to study It than the ephemeral world.

Denominations and movements:

• Leiba Pati. The larger of the two major currents. Believes in the constant background of Revolutions, in nusfir as active co-creation with the Process, and in reincarnation of your whole personality as opposed to just a spark of consciousness.
States in this tradition are ruled by Genseks - lifelong "watchmen of the revolution", chosen within the church to maintain their societies' conformity to the Process. Depending on local traditions, this can mean anything from direct rule over everything to simply approving decisions of a secular parliament. The strongest empire, Fonian Union, has a caliph of sorts - Leader of the Revolution (lida o'revalushin), whom all Genseks are spiritually subordinate to.
Generally more authoritarian in rule and militant in foreign policy, but less fundamentalist in theology and culture than the second major current. More lenient towards syncretization too; so the folklore is full of all sorts of spirits, demons and other entities, interpreted as the dead who failed to fully enter the nusfir because of various sins they'd commited.
Marx, Ogden, and the First Leaders are revered about equally; it's believed their souls continue to watch this world from the nusfir and guide the righteous on their path, especially political leaders.
Symbol: Hammansikel in a symmetrical composition, reminiscent of both a cross and a crescent. Represents Labor through its lesser form.

• Sovit Pati. The smaller of the two major currents. Rejects Genseks and Leaders as "individualism" (the idea that an individual can be special in the eyes of the Process and express it perfectly without the help of the collective), instead promoting governance by councils (sovits) with rotating chairmen (chirman). Traditionally has countries ruled by 5 chief councils (according to the number of star's points) that control each other's powers in a circle.
Believes in Revolutions as instant, sharp leaps, nusfir as dormancy until the end of the world, and only a spark of your soul being preserved in the Process, with no memory or personality. Divides the Process into five aspects that originate from each other and are responsible for different aspects of the universe - which is where the five councils thing comes from.
Honors only Marx and Ogden as teachers; the opinion on the First Leaders is ambivalent.
Sees Leiba Pati's fondness for authocraty as a repeating of Stalin's Reaction - of course, with a swift heavenly retribution somewhere in the coming.
Tends to respect the autonomy of individual parties more and is in general more democratic in politics, but compensates this with more fundamentalism in culture and mores.
Symbol: The red star. Represents the Process with its five aspects.

• Soshal Pati. Anarchist fundamentalists. Deny all power as Reaction, believe that the best Labor is to live in small, non-hierarchical communes, where everyone strictly honors the teachings. Hyper-collectivists. Every faithful's duty is to make sure others follow traditions to the letter, so as not to let the spirit of Reaction into the community. Close in theology to Sovit Pati, but rejects the Pentadity, considering the Process unknowable.
Have no states of their own; followers live in small, warlike communities in inaccessible areas, mostly in the Rockies. Occasionally some sage in a civilized area will adopt this doctrine and try preaching it to the urban masses too, but with little success.
Symbol: A simplified star inscribed in a circle.

• Tru Prassa Pati (Party of the True Process). Believes that the final paradise is not the future of the material world, but a separate dimension that exists outside of time, where righteous souls go immediately after death, instead of waiting in the nusfir - or rather that the nusfir is a bridge, not a state. Certain sub-bodies also believe in the Counter-Process. Condemned and persecuted by the mainstream denominations as heresy and influence of the old religions. Exists either in secret societies or communities on the peripheries that were recently converted from Abrahamic faiths.
Symbol: A lavish bridge leading to a star.

• Lidas Pati. Not a single denomination, but the name for a bunch of schools that give more focus to any particular First Leader's precepts. Leninists, Trotskyists, Castroists, Maoists, etc. Try to follow their ways, while heavily "reconstructing" them, because not much has survived.
Symbols are mostly permutations of the hammansikel.

• Engelsians. Not a church but a series of movements in other denominations. Believe Engels' role in the founding of their religion was more significant than it's commonly thought, if not equal to that of Marx. Sometimes grouped with Lidas Pati.

• Deconstructors. An esoteric doctrine relying on scraps of 20th and 21st century postmodern Marxist writings. Considered a dark heretical cult. Have reconstructed their precursors' ideas as the illusory nature of the world; believe that both it and the Process are a mirage (konstrakt) of consciousness, which is also a mirage of itself. The true final paradise consists in the realization of this mirage and liberation from it, disembodiment back into nothingness.

• Stalinists. Underground heretics. Believe in the "misunderstood" Stalin - supposedly an honest and wise follower of Marx, denigrated by his too narrow-minded contemporaries. Treated pretty much like satanists and associated with a bunch of unflattering Thuggee-like rumors.

• Various apocalyptic cults prophecising the coming World Revolution, after which the world will end and everyone will be judged. Happen in all denominations.


Other religions:

• Nitshaism. A polytheistic religion of the same "generation" as Kommunism, but with roots in European neo-paganism and bastardized Nietzscheanism. Came to fruition first in the neo-Nazi warlords of northern Flyover, from where it then spread throughout the continent with their raids. Formed slightly earlier than Kommunism and in many ways inspired it.
Believes the world was created and is constantly shaped by an impersonal principle (or energy) of Will, which strives to organize all matter, including through human actions. Has an extremely rich mythology and pantheon, inherited from European paganisms. Originally these served as metaphors to express ideas, but over more than a thousand years of new Dark Ages everything became literal - so in the modern version, the Will created an entire ecosystem of gods and demigods, that some traditions worship, while others merely honor, reserving the true worship for their source. The idea of eternal return is also echoed in their cosmology, through epic, million-year long cycles the universe goes through on eternal repeat. Samsara is inescepable, the world will perish and be born again forever and ever. But if one devotes oneself to the Will, becoming its purest expression, one can attain enlightenment and accept this order of things, which will purge all suffering from their soul.
Original Nietzsche's individualism and amoralism have long since evaporated - only a residue of anti-egalitarianism remains in the culture, expressed in a rigid caste system. The heroic pathos has also diminished, and the brand has shifted to mysticism, though some try to revive this tradition. The kin is considered sacred.
Nietzsche (Nitsha) is treated like an ancient buddha, the first in the line of mostly post-collapse prophets.
Symbol: Swastika. Symbolizes either the panteon's sun god, or the eternally spinning wheel of the universe.

• New Ordnung. The reformed religion of the descendants of the Amish, who survived the collapse thanks to their independence from complex technology, relative cohesion, and high birth rates, and spread over much of the East Cost in the following centuries. At some point a prophet came along and established the New Ordnung to replace the Old one, giving comprehensive, final, and of course God-inspired instructions on how to live on Earth now, after the collapse purified it. This included, among other things, consolidating politically and spreading his "sacred order" to the surrounding barbarians, by word or by sword. His scripture doubled as a kind of constitution for most states these Post-Amish established. Because of this politicization though his faith didn't spread much beyond the conquered territories and remained a purely ethnic religion. The treatment of the regime as sacred also caused them to reject any reforms, so when the onslaught of Kommunist empires came, they couldn't do much against it. Now the heart of the former Amish empire is being slowly, and agonizingly, converted to Leiba Pati.

• Septefilianism. A new Abrahamic doctrine derived from Christianity as a result of a new prophet's revelation. Believes that Jesus (Hesu) was not the only "son of God," but one of seven. "Son" here is not a hypostasis, but a state of especially close relationship with god - the one and non-triune Cosmic Father - who can "adopt" a particularly enlightened human, transforming his nature. The nature of this kinship, the "Cosmic Family," is an unknowable mystery, but it assigns the man a sacred mission and allows him to work miracles, drawing on God's power (the Holy Spirit). Jesus is seen as simply the most prominent of such Sons; the missions of others (some of whom lived as far back as Paleolithic) had a different character and remained unknown to mankind until the arrival of this doctrine's creator - the last of them. A complex and "psychedelic" cosmology is present, with many created worlds and stages of the Plan, as well as some Native myths integrated (mainly as stories of Hesu's especially ancient "brothers"). Some rituals use psychedelics.

• The remnants of Christianity. Over the last two thousand years have lost a lot of power and held on only in the dreary, sparsely populated kingdoms of eastern Canada and somewhere in the Old World. Genealogically descended from Catholics, but of course are already a new denomination with a different theology and a completely different aesthetic. Retained most of their scripture but changed interpretations, and added a couple new books written before or immediately after the collapse, which was also integrated into the mythology. Still waiting for the second coming of Jizus. Believe that the Antikrist has already come into the world and even died, so now it's surely the end times, and any day now they'll be raptured and the world will be judged. No longer proselytize and just wait for the world to end.

• Revitalized Judaism. Have finally got their "true" messiah, Moshiach. Only small, isolated communities remain in North America. The main contingent's in the Old World."

How is Kommunism different from Communism?
What other religions coexist with Kommunism?