Heaven's Gate

**Heaven's Gate** is a fanatical religious nation based out of Heaven's Gate, North Idaho.

## Historical background

Originally a peaceful Christian nation founded by a pastor and his congregation, Heaven's Gate has become an imposing juggernaut of military might and zealous belief in God. Its industry is almost entirely powered by steam cores, miniaturized steam generators small enough to be carried in the palm of your hand.

The Innocence Lost Massacre changed the way Heaven's Gate looked at outsiders forever. Saint Michael's rise to power only furthered the radicalisation of the clergy, and the cracks are beginning to show. Soon, all outsiders will be sinners in the eyes of the Lord.
- Scenarios country selection screen quote
Formerly a peaceful Christian nation, Heaven's Gate has since began following an "archangel", believing all outsiders to be "sinners", due to a massacre the nation suffered in the past.

Despite their religious nature, due to their use of "Steam Cores", a steam-producing fission core, Heaven's Gate is highly advanced in science and technology. Their Steam Core functions by boiling water with uranium in a compact casing, In spite of this, they view robotics as "soulless monstrosities worthy of nothing more than destruction", believing them unworthy to develop or research in any capacity.

Their views on ghouls and mutants differ, as they view ghouls as being different from no other living being, having not lost their soul, so long as they are willing to embrace faith and work in God's name. In contrast, Heaven's Gate only accepts mutants if they are willing to repent, are devout, or show the ability to understand their teachings.

## National focus

Main article: Heaven's Gate National Focus Tree

The Heaven's Gate national focus tree can be divided into 8 branches and 1 sub-branch:

Legacy of Scripture Branch
This branch allows Heaven's Gate to determine its history, from its birth to its current crisis of faith status through resulting events, eventually unlocking the other branches of the nation.
Evolution of the Guard Branch
The air and land technology/doctrine branch, allowing Heaven's Gate to advance in technology and doctrine based around air and land forces.
Serfdom in the Steam Age Branch
The infrastructure and research branch.
Developing the Gate Branch
The Heaven's Gate-centered branch, allowing for the expansion of the city, as well as focuses on if Arms or Civilian Workshops should be built.
* Steam-powered Dreadnoughts/Steam-Power Armour Sub-branch

The decision between pursuing tank or power armor technology, as well as advancing Heaven's Gate into an "Age of Steam".
The Great Debate Branch
The political branch of Heaven's Gate, deciding if the Theological Elite should remain in power, or be challenged and marginalized, firmly deciding the religious fate of the nation.
The Heathens of High Chapel Branch
The religious war branch of Heaven's Gate, declaring war on High Chapel, as well as deciding between conquering the Murtaugh Reformers or Lord's Anointed.
Memories of Innocence Branch
The branch deciding if Heaven's Gate should seek to convert and forgive its enemies and those that would seek ill against it, or seeking vengeance and revenge against those it sees as enemies.
A Culture of War? Branch
The branch deciding if Heaven's Gate should seek to forgive its enemies and those that would seek ill against it, or seeking vengeance and revenge against those it sees as enemies.

## Politics

### National spirits

Heaven's Gate starts with four national spirits:

**Divided Leadership**

* Daily Political Power Gain: **-0.20**
* Recruitable Population Factor: **-10%**
Saint Michael stands above all others as a leader, a mouthpiece for God himself who can not lead us astray!

**Theocratic Elite**

* Daily Political Power Gain: **-0.20**
* Consumer Goods Factories: **5.0%**
* Stability: **+20.00%**
* War Support: **-20.00%**
The men who speak the word of God are held above all others in our society, for reasons clear to all.

**Blessing of Steam**

* Resource Gain Efficiency: **+20.00%**
* Max Factories in a State: **+20%**
* Construction Speed: **+20.00%**
* Free repair: **+50.00%**
Steam is a blessing, a blessing that has allowed us to survive where so many other have failed.

**Steam Core Powered Weapons**

* **Infantry Equipment**:
	+ Soft attack: **+10%**
	+ Hard attack: **+10%**
	+ Reliability: **-1%**
In the old world along the Northwest commune there was a great deal of investment put into a ingenious creation known as the Steam Core.
Originally, it was put forward by the Northwest Commonwealth during the old war during the prototyping stages of the AER project as a potential candidate, it was rejected in favour of designs using MF cells. Despite this, the economics of the region had become too reliant on the rejected fission core (aptly known as steam cores) design, and thus development of the weapons fueled on steam cores continued.
These steam cores give all of our equipment a powerful kickback in the strength they give out, yet also come with certain rare failure incidents.

### Leaders

Main article: Political parties and leaders

## Behind the scenes

*"Heaven's Gate follow their own doctrine of Christ, and refer to themselves as "Men of The Steam." They're neo-revalationist in that they believe that biblical revelations are still occurring to this very day. Unlike their cessationist neighbours in the south who believe that "public revelation" ended with the death of the Apostle, John: Heaven's Gate believes that God is very much alive and well in the world.

They believe that the second coming of Christ is what many call the "Great War", and that God cleansed the world of sinners, baptising them in heat and purifying their souls with the power that binds the universe together. In their eyes, all who remain in the world are the descendants of those God deemed "pure." This fact is a large contributor to their zealous belief that non-practising people, and practitioners of heathen religions, must be killed to save them. It is abhorrent to them that, following the salvation of man, the children of pure souls would lose their way and betray God. In the eyes of the priesthood of Heaven's Gate, the only way to save a soul is to do as God did: to kill them.

Much of this dramatic, militant doctrine was brought about by their leader, their Prophet. After a particularly traumatic event in the state of "Innocence Lost", where a tribe decimated a community of Christians, he learned that he was the mortal embodiment the Archangel Michael. While the people of Heaven's Gate had been overtly dramatic about their twisted beliefs (think the westboro baptist church), the architect of God's war against Lucifer coming to them with messages of total war served to stir the pot quite a bit.

Ultimately, their religious doctrine is a deep mixture of various denominations. The Men of The Steam are the bastard children of a wasteland with few answers for the faithful, of a melting pot of mormons, catholics, and protestants who witnessed God's wrath with their own eyes. They're elitist in their views, seeing themselves as the only "true" denomination. Their symbol, the IX monogram, is an ancient symbol that represents Jesus Christ. In a nutshell, they're militant neo-revalationists who believe the Archangel Michael is leading them on a great quest to continue God's work of purifying the souls of man. Steam, the atom, and heat are their holy trinity of religious symbolism. Steam from the boiling seas caused by God's fury, the atom from the tool of God's simultaneous creation and destruction, and heat: the killer of all things.

Remember, you can be purified through death, but your soul will shine brighter if you live long enough to be dragged to The Steam. There, chained over one of the mighty exhaust vents used by the magnificent and disastrous fission core reactor, the priesthood shall read your sins aloud for the gathered crowd. As you struggle and scream for freedom, the people overlooking your execution will smile at you with compassion: because as your blood boils and your skin cracks, they'll witness a pure soul ascending to God's side.

Hope you found my answer useful!"*
- Zapdude277, on what branch of Christianity Heaven's Gate is.
* Garnithor created the Heaven's Gate focus tree, but believes it is not solid.
	+ The original focus tree itself was originally a submod Garnithor had began making for the Hinterlands, but ended up being used for Heaven's Gate.
	+ The nation was inspired by the themes and presentation of the *11 Bit Studios* 2018 video game: *Frostpunk*, such as the themes of human struggle and survival breeding extremism, as well as the concept of steam-based advanced technology. Future ideas Garnithor has planned for the nation also originated from playing the game.
* Heaven's Gate Steam-Power Armor was envisioned by Garnithor as being similar to a Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition "Steam Trooper" armor, with either a "kind of half boiler apparatus on the back" or chimney mounted on the armor.

## References

1. ↑ Development Diary #6 (OWB Dev Diary 6: Update 1.1 (The Broken Coast) - releasing July 28th): *"We’ve been keeping this one under wraps up until now. 1.1 replaces the Hinterlands with a new nation known as Heaven’s Gate, named after their capital city, located in real life Heaven’s Gate, Idaho. They’re a collection of religious fanatics following an “archangel” in human form, and to them, everyone is a sinner. You’ll find out more about them when 1.1 releases and you get to play them yourselves!"*
2. ↑ **What exactly are the Steam Cores at the core of Heaven's Gate's advanced tech? How do they work?**
Garnithor: *"Steam cores are a fancy name for portable fission generators that produce steam instead of electric output. Imagine a nuclear water boiler running on uranium and in a very compact form."*- Obtained from Discord, 12/4/2020
3. ↑ Development Diary #17 (Development Diary 17: The Technology Un-Entanglement): *"What this basically means is that all technology has been broken up into categories, and said categories decide what you can and can’t research in those respective areas. Heaven’s Gate is very scientifically capable, but they view robots as soulless monstrosities worthy of nothing more than destruction. Hence why they can’t research any, but their other tech shines through in quite some capacity."*
4. ↑ **Apologies if the answer to this is in the mod but what is Heavens Gate's attitude towards Ghouls?**
Garnithor: *"It's not, and it's actually a perspective I haven't been thinking much about yet. Ghouls are not soulless, they were humans once. Soo I could actually imagine Heavens gate just viewing them like any other who walk the wasteland."*
- Obtained from Discord, 7/24/2020
5. ↑ Garnithor: *"Yes
I mean we have a law governing this, but the more I think about it. The more would HEA accept them like anyone else
As long as they embrace their faith and toil hard in gods name."*
- Obtained from Discord, 7/24/2020
6. ↑ **And what is their attitude towards the Super Mutants (Especially Heaven's Gate)**
Garnithor: *"@Nicolas... I would say that HEA would very much not enjoy the simpler kind of mutant, but mutants that are devout, or show the ability to understand their teachings would be very valuable assets.
Nobody is beyond redemption if they repent after all"*
- Obtained from Discord, 7/31/2020
7. ↑ Garnithor: *"It's having creative standards evolve over time. Hea and BRK were the first trees I made. BRK is still solid to this day, but HEA is not."*
- Obtained from Discord, 4/9/2021
8. ↑ Garnithor: *"What I do remember tho is that what HEA got as focus tree was originally a submod I started making for Hinterlands.
When I got a bit bored"*
- Obtained from Discord, 3/28/2022
9. ↑ Garnithor: *"But yes, Hea is heavily inspired by that thematic that underlies Frostpunk. Human struggle and survival that breeds extremism, or at least that's where it originally came from. Then the whole generator idea happened. And if you see teaser, you can see where that train of thought landed."*
- Obtained from Discord, 3/3/2021
10. ↑ Garnithor: *"The future ideas I have for heavens gate are heavily inspired by playing copious amounts of frostpunk"*
- Obtained from Discord, 3/3/2021
11. ↑ Garnithor: *"https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/6a/86/7e6a86281c4479e4a51468e057d977c7.jpg*how I imagine Heavens gate power armour looks like, with some kind of half boiler apparatus on the backperhaps even a chimney?*"*
- Obtained from Discord, 3/3/2021