Bolism

**Bolism** was a family of philosophies, sometimes classified as a religion, in the civilization of the Pharneans. It proposed to 'cast forward' (*bolos*) life into a higher form, primarily through intellectual teachings that constituted superior outlooks and worldviews, as well as prohairetic medicine and enhancement of the body, experimenting boldly and without regard for the fetters of tradition with the sole goal of attaining its ideals.

## History

### Origins and Valesianism

Bolism developed starting in the 2nd century PB from various Pharnean intellectual and medicinal movements, in the context of rule by the Klud Cousids. The highly developed but also divided Kludo-Pharnean order gave rise to radical philosophical ideas among Pharneans, whose cultural ideas of freedom constantly clashed with arbitrary Cousid rule, but whose pre-existing extensive prohairetic practices (building on Asaphite foundations) were given wide room for further exploration under the period's prosperity. Specifically 'bolist' movements emerged in the late Nghyl Empire of the 1st century PB, led by charismatic teachers competing to present the most efficacious prescriptions. Improvement of life and ability through bolism was widely seen as a weapon of resistance to Klud rule. Early practices primarily focused on metabolic improvements for clarity of mind and optimal physical functioning, and even rejected synthetic biology as a mere instrument for despotic social structures such as bhujas or matteh.

The most successful and influential of the first bolist teachers was Valesius, whose philosophy transcended quibbles over experimental particulars but could also connect to his biological methods in a clear way. Valesians staged an uprising against the Nghyl beginning with the Fall of Rhotheas in 1 MB, instigating the Valesian Revolution. A collection of lection states led by Valesians known as the Principate replaced the Kludo-Pharnean empires, and at all levels of post-Nghyl society in Ganit the Valesians had become hegemonic; their principles were adopted by all succeeding movements. However, there was no unified Valesian movement, and after Valesius' disappearance the fragmentation of bolist practice into competing and often contradictory sects became inevitable.

### Sectarian era

By the 3rd century a degree of concern had developed over the movement of various sects away from the original Valesian ideological consensus. A great movement known as the First Revision tried to restore the primacy of various Valesian tenets, in the process producing codified corpuses of what they sought to be essential to bolism, which tended towards becoming dogma. One such movement, Visity, became the state religion of the Tio Empire that conquered Ganit. Its rivals, though persecuted by the state, were never extinguished, and eventually grew into the Thesis-Sects that overthrew the Tio in the Wars of Dissension in the 420s.

With these developments the practice of bolism diverged between 'sectarian' forms as imposed on members of regimented orders, and 'popular' forms where religiously unaffiliated citizens combined common wisdom with more particular, initiated hypotheses at their choosing. As the era of the Thesis-Sects progressed, specific sect codes became seen as the only legitimate forms of bolism, and sect initiates alone now made up free society. The Metastatic War and the Athelitic Desolation further left sects as the only units able to practice bolism, now in an even more closed and religious form. The practices and culture of bolism would also be spread with the Great Roving, as the Thesis-Sects repopulated devastated lands and reshaped them according to their teachings. Under the Toncar bolism did not exist as a distinct or unified pursuit, but as a mere aspect common to each Thesis-Sect's codes; meanwhile in areas where the Roving reached, bolist sects founded entirely new traditions soon unable to recognize each other.

Major biotechnological advancements were made in Ganit from the 5th to 9th centuries, partially guided by a new approach to science championed by Visity which extracted principles for their own sake. Biofuels and bioelectricity, as well as derivative accomplishments such as cetoics, reflected a high degree of advancement that Ganit stagnated at for centuries after this era. Few of these were related to the field of human enhancement, continuing early bolism's distaste for the direct, utilitarian modification of humans (in favor of perfection through careful cultivation). That these radical advances were made altogether was usually attributed to generic improvements in health deriving from bolism allowing for better stilus functioning and prohairetic abilities.

### Peuthean era

The Peuthean Cetocracy promoted the Second Revision that revived interest in a 'general' bolistic philosophy. However, bolism as a movement in itself now gave way to religious that developed from its milieu, such as Baradranism.