tRENOC HISTORY & RELIGION

OVERVIEW:

Trenoc religious culture went through two different stages in its evolution, the first stage when a sentient race began to spread across the earth, and the second created by an event that still greatly dictates Trenoc culture to this day.

The early millennia of the Trenoc race were spent as roaming family groups who roamed the land, and competed with each other for the scarce resources. At about 2.3 million years ago we begin to find the first stone tools, at this point the same roaming family groups occupy the southern peninsula of Hajahn, where they hunted in the forest for game, and collected seasonal fruit, but all of the groups were no more than extended families. At around 60,000 years ago we begin to see the expansion of these small family groups into the larger kin groups, that became the clans.

It is in the age of these early clans that we begin to see the first mythologies develop, each clan had a unique pantheon of gods, most of whom personified the forces that shaped these early Trenoc lives. Their were gods of wind, and water, gods of the heavens and of the sun and moons. Very little remains of this early age, a few clay or stone figurines, a few stone lines, paths cut into the rock.

None of these clan gods survived long, every clan was at war with neighbouring clans, who vied each other for the resources available, the weaker clans were killed and their gods went with them. Expanding clans schismed and fractures, and fought with their once kin. In this state of continuous warfare their gods were as transient as the rude settlements, that were forever being built, growing and being burnt down.

By 50,000 years ago the Trenoc had expanded out of Hajahn, the increasing population drove the dispersal. Coastal clans who faced defeat took the risk to escape to sea, there simple hollowed canoes sometimes found land, and sometimes did not. Soon the coastal land of all the temperate continents was colonized (though the polar continents were never successfully settled until 30,000 years ago). With the new resources the clan population exploded, wherever a tribe settled in their new land they would erect their first settlement, and it would grow at first, until the clan self destructed giving rise to half a dozen new feuding clans who set out and expanded again. All the while believing in their primitive gods.

Religion became very powerful, though no major religions had developed, a clan with gods were better at surviving than one without. Gods allowed them to explain their victories, and their defeats, it excused them of their wars and atrocities. However one clan was going to change this forever.

About 48,000 years ago a tribe migrating Trenoc come to settle in the deserted continent of Sorot. But as they set up their first settlement in the river estuary there was a subtle difference in the way that they survived. The first difference was that their first settlements were built on the river cataracts, which would provide them with excellent defensive positions, but these river cataracts were small, and settlements could not grow easily, so new settlements were settled up and down the rivers course, but most importantly they remained as one society.

These early river settlements were still reliant on each other survival without other islands was impossible, if an island was in danger of flooding another island would help shore up their defences, as at another time they might need help themselves. So along this first river, the Kadara-nar, the first true civilization of Trenoret had emerged.

This early civilization would have fractured like so many others, but it took a belief that would have precipitated schism anywhere else. Each Trenoc clan was led by a single family, and all other families had allegiance to, or were related, this is what gave the clans their strength, but in this emerging river culture, families were rapidly expanding and spreading. This problem would have led to the clan falling apart, if it were not for the fact that the clan was kept expanding. Each new settlement took a representative sample of all the families of the other surrounding settlements, including a member of the founding family, soon the river along its entire length was sprawling with dozens of settlements, each of which had a representative of the founding family.

It is fortuitous quirk of Trenoc biology that the Trenoc’s sentient and decision making citizens were also unable to breed. The founding family’s breeding stage and infant stage had always remained on the first settlement, and from there it dispatched the intelligent protector stage representatives to the outlying colonies. All the colonies were dependent on replacement representatives of the founding family as they could not be bred at the protector stage.

This simple bond between the river settlements worked well through the expanding era, but the system would be refined before a true civilization developed. The founding families have always discussed with each other the way in which their clan should be run, but now in a sprawling society it became difficult for a founding family representative to both commune with their relatives and govern their settlement. This began the next stage in their social evolution.

Long before Trenoc expanded out of Hajahn, the structure of relationships in a family had grown very complex, this was more out of their unusual breeding physiology rather than social culture. The Trenoc go through three stages of life, their first is an infant stage, which are not sentient, a family keeps proud possession of their female young as these will develop into that families breeders, male infants are exchanged with other families, often for political allegiance. But as the female infants become the breeder stage they gain more intelligence, but are still only as intelligent as children, it is at this stage they produce the next line of infants, and after one or two litters they develop to the final stage protector. When we consider the minds of the people of these civilizations we really only considering the protector stage (protectors are all female, males never develop sentience or evolve much beyond their infant stage), at this stage in their life they can no longer breed, but they form deep bonds with other protectors. It is this last type of bonding that form the other great political ties, where sharing males shares blood with other families, protector bonds unite families without blood line, this became very important for the emerging civilization on the river.

Each founding family representative would choose a bond within the settlement, and as a pair they govern the settlement, each has the power of command. This allowed the founding family representative to return to her family, while their partner ruled the settlement. At this stage the actual power of the emerging civilization was transformed. The founding family had become less the rulers and more the representatives of the communities, this sprawling family of diplomats forged the first government, which was held in the first settlement. Their partners ruled the settlements in their absence.

At the end of a founding families representative’s life, their partner would request another representative of the same family, as their bond allowed them to be kin with the founding family. If at the end of their life, the representative would choose another partner, usually of the same family. In this way the reigns of power were continued through successive generations. And through this the expanding civilization would never be able to schism, as family lines always remained intact, every community having a ruler, and member of the founding family of their civilization.

Soon this new civilization on the continent of Sorot, from which their name, the Soroteth is derived, spread across its entire land. After 5000 years of peaceful civilization, the Soroteth had become the single largest power on the planet, they ruled a continent, and while their distant ancestors still quarreled they had developed the benefits of civilization.

The Soroteth had kept their deistic religion and with their new technologies and art they built lavish temples to them. But these people now could not go back to confront their ancestors, their technology had advanced too far. So the Soroteth developed as an island race unable to expand as they were surrounded by endless lands filled with barbarians which could not be reasoned with.

As they became unable to exploit new resources they were forced to develop better and better technology, they developed complex agriculture to make best use of the land for their growing population, with no war all their energies were put back into the community, and in this age science and technology bloomed.

The Soroteth survived countless millennia, and there technology was forever advancing, until about 35,000 years ago where the biggest change to Trenoc history was about to begin. The Soroteth had come a long way since they arrived in their simple canoes and stone tools, over ten centuries they developed, they discovered metal, they began to use steam engines, eventually these began to be replaced by electricity, and the electricity was finally powered by fusion, meanwhile their barbarian relatives had discovered the bow. The Soroteth could no longer stay, more and more their shores were landed upon by their primitive kin, soon they realized that their existence would become known, and that war would be inevitable, their advancement had made them out of place on their own world, so they had begun to construct a means to get off it.

Very little archaeological evidence remains of the Soroteth, they very nearly erased their entire physical history. They did this, as their technologies would give any colonizing clan an advantage which would unfairly unbalance the clans, they even erased their temples so that they would pollute the religions of any that follow after. However before they left they left the greatest mark on the Trenoc civilization ever, the outcome of their actions would begin a new age for the people of Trenoret which would create a civilization for all, not just the fortunate few.

35,000 years ago the Soroteth began visiting in their aircraft all the clans of their world, telling them of what they had done, teaching them ways to live their lives, and most importantly telling them stories and parables. We still have no good evidence of why they did this, the current belief is that creating spectacles of this size would encourage their barbarian relatives to forget their differences and found new civilization. The outcome was to lead to global civilization but the path was slow with many footfalls, but the day of civilization’s coming was much hastened by the Soroteth’s last act.

Soon after these spectacles the Soroteth moved out of history completely, no one knows exactly what has happened to them, maybe they have re-settled amongst the stars, maybe they stayed long enough to watch the new age they had created. They left much information about themselves elsewhere in the solar system, but by the time the new Trenoc had discovered these they had become mature enough to take this information.

The new age was about to begin on the continent of Thurl, where one clan had genuinely began to follow the advice that the Soroteth had brought, most other clans although have been taught the same things had pretty much ignored the new concepts, just expanded their theologies with the recent events. But in one community, which had grown so that it was beginning to schism, the Soroteth had brought a new way of existing, and rather than these handful of settlements falling back to war, they became united under the revelation. This new civilization took the name of Trenoc, which meant the people. They formed the first organized religion that sort to teach everyone the tenets that had been taught in the revelation, soon every citizen began a new lifestyle, the church, that would become the known as the first church, encouraged a peaceful co-existence with the belief that anyone could become kin to the church and that all would be protected under it. Like the Soroteth, expansion caused the creation of a central and local governance, and with family bloodlines all but reduced to ceremonies, they began to gain the power that the Soroteth first wielded.

But a problem lay in their future expansion, rather than spreading out into an unoccupied land, they were bordered on all side with barbarians, the first church used the old weapon of war to aid in expansion, destroying settlements that would under no means join, but as there power grew and an increase in security they began to convert more and more settlements. The power that the church had risen to made people rebel against their own founding families, soon revolt after revolt, large chunks of the continent were beginning to come under the power of the church. But the process was slow, newly pledged communities still quarreled under the church, but in time they to became calm.

            The first church, like the Soroteth began to find itself developing ahead of the people at its frontiers, at the centre of this new empire culture and art had risen to levels never achieved before, and from every frontier missionaries came forth in boats and caravans with their new artwork and technology.

            This became the age of the churches, soon on every continent the countless feuding clans began to fall under the church’s control. It took many generations for the world as a whole to become truly peaceful, every clan had a history of the revelation, and but at the end of the expansion era, the church began to run into similar communities, which merged with the greater whole, they only feuds that happened after this point were within the church’s philosophy.

            The first church believed in a way of living, something separate from the gods of before, that the true power was in the people of the church not in any potential god. They encouraged introspection and moral lessons, nearly all of the Trenoc who came into the church believed in these creeds. But other churches were to arise, none of these would dispute the fundamentals of the first church but they would give believers new ways in which to think. First church had become the foundations, people who developed their beliefs further took schooling in one of the other churches, and it was then possible to study in another church. Each of these churches gave new understanding to believers.

            Three major new churches began to develop after the first church became ubiquitous, these ‘new churches’ took the views of the first church and extended them in their field areas. The church of the prophets took on moral lessons on individual lifestyle and began to extend them to running whole communities and civilizations, this church was to generate most of the Trenoc’s greatest leaders. Another church and the most recent church to be founded (~15,000yrs ago), the celestial church, developed to extend ideas of the people in relation to the world, the moral lessons, became in later years to increasingly resemble the beginnings of natural philosophy, this church fostered the greatest thinkers and scholars, and in modern times is still followed by scientists and engineers. The most enigmatic of these new churches was the church of the age of enlightenment, the exact nature of this church is hard to define, and at it’s topmost levels the secrets of the lessons are very closely guarded. The church of the age of enlightenment explores the divine and the mystic, it seeks to define and to probe the intangible aspects of reality, this church is regarded to be the most spiritual, and the most evolved from the first church.

            Since the permanent establishment of the churches, and therefore the age of enlightenment Trenoc civilization has not faltered to this current day. The significant events of the last 20,000 yrs have been the rare natural disasters, and even rarer crises amongst the churches. However the new found spirituality of the Trenoc meant that technological progress beyond the spurt during the enlightenment was gruelingly slow. Communities developed technology until they lived comfortably and then took up spirituality. Powerful minds who could have drove technology and science a century or so forward were likely directed into one of the new churches where they would still change hundreds of people’s lives by the writings they left behind, but left civilization as a whole intact.

But this long stasis did teach the Trenoc something, it taught them the value of sustainability whose wise methods probably saved many a disaster as they slowly crawled through the technological ages. But there reaches a point where civilization can not slow the tide of advancement, and like Earth’s industrial revolution, the last 400 years on Trenoret saw the evolution of the church into a new phase.

The churches had always been a place of learning, but in the years of advancement, the role of teaching came to the fore. Whereas Earth was plagued with conflict between new science, and outdated religion, the Trenoc churches moved hand in hand with the new technologies, as the churches were based on moral systems that could never age. In the last two hundred years which covers the time between the Trenoc’s first venture into space, and the formation of the modern federation, the church has come to encompass everything in Trenoc society.

To merely think of the Trenoc church as the organization of religion does not describe the powers and abilities it has. It is all the things that Earth developed separately rolled into one, it is foremost the government, and the framework for the democracy, it is the centre of all religion, the home of learning and knowledge, the institution that drives science, and provides all the utilities of civilization, it oversees food production, industry, service provision and public health. The unification of all these services under one secure system has always given society remarkable stability, the churches have become less the constructions of religion, and more the infrastructure of society.

The church has also proved durable in federation history seamlessly merging with new federation practices, when the Trenoc have to elect members as representatives to the Federation council they just extend the duties of those already serving those posts within the church. The Trenoc are the founding race of the Federation, and they have come across the remarkable differences in the races that make it up, but none of this has changed the church, it has merely been extended to form part of a greater whole.