Cirinists

**Cirinists** are followers of Cirin. Their religion is known as Cirinism.

## History

When the Sepran army withdrew from Upper Felda after their 100 year occupation, they executed all males between the ages of five and forty. This left only the children, elderly males, young women and mothers. The mothers' concern for their children's future drew them to Cirinism and the five cornerstones.

The group started out as knitting circles in the small rural town of Riverside. The women were fearful of their children's future, and in the five cornerstones they saw hope for the future. Once the group starts wearing the head to toe robes, they took their focus off their cosmetic biases, became equals and started focusing on what they saw as the real issues. The group shared their material possessions and child rearing responsibilities, and took to calling themselves "The Mothers", "The Motherhood" and "Quilting". As "Quilting" spread to the neighboring towns, commerce, i.e. farmer's markets, began to decline. The men started to take up drinking and the women, work. Violence in taverns was tolerated, but domestic violence wasn't. A communal safety group was formed to kill all such violators. Any violence against women was met by swift execution. This members of the communal safety group were called Cirinists in homage to the original Cirin. As more and more women joined the quilting circles, more women wanted to help maintain the safety and the ranks of the Cirinists grew. They grew so much that eventually the name of the main group changed to Cirinist, despite the original Cirin's objections.

Cirin had been staging revolutions and infiltrating populaces throughout the world. She had purged her own inner circle three times since the revolution.

## Group Traits

It was revealed in issues 150-151 that
Cirinists were telepathic with one another and any harm to one of them caused all others in the vicinity to "swarm" the attacker. According to Vera's Prisoner, "All women read minds, with very few exceptions." From the various ways it was used, it would seem that this ability was affected by distance, and the Cirinists had to use either unusually strong telepaths, or more mundane, mechanical signals to transmit messages over a long distance.

Cirinists soldiers were deadly fighters.

Citizenship in a Cirinist-run government was determined by childbirth; only mothers were citizens. Infertile women were of very low status, and abortion and birth control were outlawed.

Cirinists kept extensive files on all political dissidents, and often had stenographers taking reports on any possibly important exchanges. "It is the very essence of our movement that all information is exchanged freely, that it is assessed carefully and its application is measured and just."

## The Five Corner Stones of Cirinism

The Five Corner Stones of Cirinism were developed by the Original Cirin.

1. Communal Safety
2. The sharing of resources
3. Hard labour from sunrise to sunset
4. Quarterly Festivals (lasting three days) of excess and debauchery
5. Asceticism in all areas of existence

After Serna took Cirin's name, she instituted a 6th Corner Stone of Cirinism:

* Ten percent of rations for communal safety

## Quotes about Cirinists

* "It's the Cirinist who are partial to blunt instruments." Weisshaupt

## Appearances

This list only covers appearances of Cirinists as a group.

* *Cerebus* No. 20
* *Cerebus* No. 28 - cameo or mention
* *Cerebus* No. 40 and *Cerebus* No. 41 - cameo or mention
* *Cerebus* No. 64 - cameo or mention
* *Cerebus* No. 100
* *Cerebus* No. 151 to *Cerebus* No. 161
* *Cerebus* No. 164 to *Cerebus* No. 167
* *Cerebus* No. 193 and *Cerebus* No. 194

## Dave on Cirinists

* "The Cirinists are the most recent incarnation of the original matriarchal society that once dominated Estarcion. They have a foothold now that they have formed the revolutionary government of Upper Felda, but almost everywhere else on the map, they are either a grudgingly tolerated or rabidly persecuted minority."

## References

 1. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 194, pages 6-8
2. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 194
3. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 28, pages 6-7
4. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 28, page 18
5. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 150 - No. 151
6. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 164, page 3
7. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 170, page 19
8. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 194
9. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 64
10. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 26, Letters Page