The Manalists

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

The Manalists are a religious group which have a great deal of power in the world. They are the only organized religion on the world and they actively persecute those who follow other religions or hold other supernatural beliefs.

The Manalists believe in a God called Father Manala, who is one of many gods, however, he killed those other gods and became the god of everyone. He is worshiped because he is thought to represent strength, ambition, and ruthlessness. Those are qualities which are looked highly upon by the religion.

Although the Manalists worship Father Manala, they really worship the qualities which he represents. The best way to worship Father Manala is not to prayer, fasting, self denial, charity, or anything of that sort. To worship Father Manala, a person must simply strive to be great at everything they do. They must strive for power, personal glory, and greatness in general.

Those who are considered to be talented, beautiful, capable, wealthy, or in any other way superior to most people, are called the BLESSED. Those who are seen as mediocre, average, weak, poor, and so on, are called the Cursed.

The Manalists follow the Book of Manala, which is a guide book for everyday living. It features stories of great individuals who did admirable heroic deeds. The book teaches Manalists to be capable, selfish, strong, self reliant, responsible, and emotionally controlled.

Manalists themselves can become priests or High Priests in the temples. Priests and High Priests learn how to control Manala energy. Manala energy is an energy which exists in all living things which can be manipulated into "magical" powers such as healing, flying, creating energy beams, or transformations.

Only Manalist priests and important supporters of the religion are allowed to use Manala energy.

The vast majority of people in the world do not know how to use Manala energy, but, in the case that they would try to learn, they would be arrested and likely killed.

Aside from use of Manala energy, priests and High Priests are allowed to use a drug called Red Leaf. Red Leaf is derived from the leaves of a special birch tree. The drug gives hallucinations and increases the power of the user for a few hours.

The drug is strictly regulated by the Manalists, and by the Anti Drug commission, which is an alliance of various groups concerned about drug use in the world.

The highest religious authority is THE MASTER. The Master is also known as Scrag.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

Manalist Rankings

Standard Positions:

Acolyte- a Priest in Training
Priest- the religious leader of a Temple
High Priest- may oversee the temples and priests of an area OR be employed at the Hightest Temple in Rome
Manalist Soldier/Guard- standard soldiers/guards for the Manalists

Temple of Terror Positions:

Torturer
Flesh Monger (only one of these)
Red Jester (only one of these)


Specialized Positions:

Crusader- a zealous, elite soldier
Inquisitor- a priest/judge/torturer involved with an inquisition and knows Manalist laws well
Templar- a priest/maintainer person ...or a priest who maintains the temple
Mortist- a priest who specializes in healing/necromancy

Wrath Positions

Wrath Soldier- a wrath member that generally takes orders and isn't specialized
Wrath Assassin- a Wrath member that specializes in assination
Wrath Operative- A wrath member that is capable of doing a variety of tasks


Elite Positions:

The Watcher- spies on people and oversees the Eyes of God
Grand Inquisitor- is a judge/high priest, leader of an Inquisition
Lady of Wrath- General for the Wrath
Lord of Wrath-General for the Wrath
The Master- Leader of the Manalist religion

[Jack Kruschev]

Currently, there are three sections of Manalists based out of Europe, Asia, and North America. Each one of them has an individual Dreamer, each with a different purpose. All ranks remain essentially the same, only per sect. Have fun.

Classic Manalism
The first is the most influential. They are led by Jethro the Watcher and work out of Detroit. Classic Manalists are mainly funded by All Mart and the World bank, making them economically extremely influential. Their power is held by making deals with all companies in the world, enforcing taxes, and the utilization of a giant Sleeper Agent network known as “The Invisible Hand.”

They mainly value intelligence, particularly that which leads to financial success. They own the only dreamer, which is used to avert violent behavior. They all have a very “it’s just business” attitude. They don’t promote unwarranted violence and and believe is psychological and sociological studies.

They are publicly supported by All Mart and the World Bank. In Washington DC, their Dreamer emit’s a wave to help people remain calm, although it’s success varies with the individual.

Jethro the Watcher- An old man kept alive via massive, regular doses of Red Dawn. He doesn’t promote war and is regarded as rather liberal by most Manalists. Still, his influence is enough to avert some conflict between the Evo-Manalists and East Manalists.

Evo-Manalists
The branch of Manalism based in London. They are ruled by Scrag and have good terms with Genetech and Sota. They have converted large parts of Northern Europe into jungle-like rainforests and swamps that are able to maintain their state(s) even in freezing weather. The produce renewable fuels from the chemicals in plants. The killing of animals is frowned upon and many Evo-Manalists have undergone genetic operations or surgeries.

Evo-Manalists believe Father Manala punished the world by taking away the gift of nature. As such, they enforce strict environmentalist laws, outlaw the killing of animals for purposes other than industrial or food, and promote primal rite of passage. Red Dawn is completely legal in Europe as a result of Evo-Manalist support of tending nature.

They are publicly supported by Genetech and Sota. Their Dreamer is hidden in Germany and forces most of the atmosphere over West Europe to generate a rainforest-friendly atmosphere.

Scrag- Scrag is literally linked into the land and seen as a “direct link” to Father Manala. The area around him is a wildlife park, formerly London, which is then walled and protected by a private army supplied by Sota. For many, he is worshipped as a physical god on Earth.

East Manalists
East Manalists used the underwater city of Tokyo built for them by Intelligent Design and powered by TaiCo. East Manalism isn’t very popular due to it’s emphasis on technology, leading to most East Manalists either being highly intelligent and arrogant along with the various artificial modifications they must buy according to law in East Asia. All East Manalists have some type of cyborg operation, regardless of their species. Momo leads them in addition to Intelligent Design and is permanently rigged into her Dreamer.

There is an enormous importance held in technology with East Manalists. In addition to everybody constantly having upgrades performed, they tend to be smarter than the average human being.

East Manalism is publicly supported by TaiCo and Intelligent Design. Their Dreamer creates a “hive mind” network so Momo can both give commands and find any piece of information she needs at any given time from anybody linked into her network in Asia.

Momo- Momo is everywhere in Asia. Anyone hooked into her network, with an active connection, can be controlled by her. At this point, anybody who want to talk to her can sit next to most people, of whom she can speak through.