The Devotees of the Good Work are a sect of the Church of Humanity Repentant founded by ACRE workers on Demnoph, and has primarily consisted of ACRE workers sector-wide, and with the demise of ACRE still has the most membership in former ACRE, though now Eridanus-run, workplaces. The Devotees believe that the Divine values hard work and good workers, and rewards those who work with both worldly and otherworldly success.
Since its founding, the Devotees have had a complicated relationship with ACRE, and nobles and corporates in general. The exemplary work ethic displayed by the devotees has at times led to them receiving tacit or even overt support from their superiors. In addition, the devotees heap praise and authority on those who rise from their ranks to fame and fortune in corporate management. However, at other times the sects' insistence that hard work should also be properly rewarded has led to more contentious relations and labor conflicts, in particular when devotees have felt that management was incompetent and lazy.
The sect considers synthetics to be models of the perfect workers, and before the War against the Artificials would openly preach for its devotees to see synths as examples of how perfect humans should behave. After the war, the sect has cut any such overt synth-worship from its public sermons and statements. But sympathy for synthetics is still very prevalent amidst sect members, and the sect provides a considerable amount of funds and manpower towards the Vigil's Railroad.
During 3200, it briefly maintained a political arm, the Devoted Workers Party, mechanically represented by three Party Machine assets spread across multiple factions.
History[]
Origins of the Devotees[]
The Devotees of the Good Work started about 150 years ago as an ACRE sanctioned workers’ movement. In an early effort to counter the rise of more radical workers’ movements, which would eventually give way to the UPC, the ACRE sanctioned movements emphasized the benevolence of the bosses and the possible rewards open to hard-working workers who did their jobs without complaining. By and large, these movements proved failures or inconsequential. However, in one factory on Demnoph, its movement transformed into something else altogether, a religion.
Jane Canewright had grown up in a nominally religious family, that intermittently attended services of both the High Church of Messiah-as-Emperox and the Church of Humanity, Repentant. She led a rudderless life, and joined the ACRE workers’ movement purely out of the promise of getting a raise if she did. However, in the first meeting, she saw a synthetic take to the podium and preach about the virtue and happiness of working. It was like no sermon she had ever heard. Even after everyone else had left, she stayed in the auditorium, sitting in her chair.
That night, in her sleep, she experienced a vision. A vision of revelation. In her dream, an angel of the divine called Radueriel showed her how it had inspired Cygnus and Triangulum scientists to create synths, so that synths might inspire humanity to find happiness in work. When she woke, Jane felt as reborn. She first ran to her local High Church priest to tell him of her vision, but he spurned her as a charlatan. Dejected, she went to her local Repentant priest, who encouraged her, and supporter her in preaching the revelation she had received.
Thirty years later, Jane Canewright died at the age of 52 in a factory accident. At that time, her religious sect, the Devotees of the Good Work, had already grown to well beyond a single factory. In the decades after her death, it would keep growing, with at times tacit ACRE support, to where its adherents are now a significant minority on both Demnoph and Yakiyah. Though the vast majority of devotees live, work, and worship on these two worlds, smaller branches have spread across the sector along with ACRE presence.
The Devotees in 3200 and 3201[]
Following the entry of the Church of Humanity, Repentant into the STO and the ensuing conflict, the Devotees briefly found themselves receiving systematic and open support by ACRE, now a signatory to the Treaty of Cabina. Its political arm, the Devoted Workers Party would play a large role in the defense of Demnoph against the High Church.
However, in the end, the STO was defeated, as was the Devoted Workers Party. With many of its most prominent leaders having joined the DWP, and now being in jail or in undisclosed locations as fugitives from imperial justice, the Devotees largely ceased to be an organised movement.
However, with adherents numbering in the hundreds of millions sector-wide, the sect as a whole survived its loss of leadership and political influence. When House Eridanus took over most ACRE activities, they quickly realized the value of a workforce who considered workaholism a religious experience. After a brief check to ensure themselves of the sufficient loyalty of the remaining sect leaders, the noble houses largely continued the same pragmatic working relationship with the Devotees that ACRE had maintained prior to the conflict of 3200. Some enterprising Eridanus overseers have even begun to adopt the habit of assigning house members they feel in need of punishment to management positions for particularly 'zealous' Devotee strongholds.
The Devotees in their turn have practiced their own pragmatism, and learned to be more restrained with their new noble overseers, knowing what a serf could get away with towards a freeman did not always fly when facing a true noble in the office.
When the Church of Humanity, Repentant began to collapse following the defeat of the STO, the Devotees were too disorganized to do much more than follow the lead of other major sects, such as the Students of God’s Empire, and pull their support from the sector-wide religious organization. When SERAPH was formed, several representatives of the larger Devotee communities traveled to Cabina to profess their support. In the months that followed, Devotees across the sector largely followed the lead of these leaders, and the majority of Repentant sects, in endorsing and sponsoring SERAPH in taking over the now defunct Church's assets and activities.
Doctrine[]
The core tenet of the Devotees of the Good Work is that the Divine loves workers. Specifically, the Divine loves those who work, and rewards them with worldly success and a place of prominence at the Divine’s side in the After. The sect preaches that those who would deny good workers’ their proper rewards are working against the will of the Divine, and thus doing evil. Repentance is first and foremost repentance for human laziness, and the evil that resulted from it.
As a result, the sect has a complicated relationship with nobles and ACRE. On the one hand, the sect can at times be a fierce advocate for improved pay and opportunities for corporate advancement. On the other hand, workers of the sect are often exemplary in their dedication to doing any task given to them to perfection without complaint.
The most dreaded negotiation tactic by the Devotees of the Good Work is known colloquially as “the work-out”. Enforcers of the sect will trap a corporate overseer they’ve deemed lazy in their own office, forcing them to keep working without rest or sleep, while the workers in the factory or office do the same. If the overseer collapses from exhaustion, the workers will keep working all the same, proving their ability to do their jobs without need for lazy management. Often, the end result is upper management simply deciding to fire the overseer and replacing them with one of the sect members, with more often than not increased productivity and profit margins as a result.
The sect considers synthetics to be perfect workers, the creation of which was divinely inspired so that synths could inspire humans to work better. After the declaration that synths do not have souls, the sect has put a lid on any overt synth-worship in its public doctrines or sermons. However in truth the sect is still extremely pro-synth, and has been systematically working to save ACRE synths from persecution and give them new identities as loyal human workers of the sect.
The sect has little contact or interest in the issue of alien rights. It has generally deferred to official Church of Humanity, Repentant, doctrine on alien souls, and considers aliens called to work the same way humans are.
Places of Worship[]
The Devotees of the Good Work eschew maintaining independent places of worship. Instead, they will take over the mess hall, cafeteria, or appropriate space, of their factory or office and convert it into a place of worship. Sermons are given by the local community leader during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
In places where the devotees are in the minority, they might claim just a single table. In place where they are the majority, the whole mess hall will be converted into a cross between its original function and a church. The sect generally does not take no for an answer when someone tries to disallow this.
For decorations, the sect generally prefers colorful banners with slogans promoting proper work ethic, statues of the angel Radueriel, and framed pictures of devotees who went on to achieve fame and fortune (naturally as a result of their hard work).
Devoted Workers Party[]
- Main article: Devoted Workers Party
- See also: CHR Faction Turn Fluff
- See also: A.C.R.E Faction Turn Fluff
The Devoted Workers Party was the political arm of the Devotees of the Good Work. It was founded in response to the tensions between the Empire and the newly founded Sector Trade Organization. With the increased ties between ACRE and the Church of Humanity, Repentant in the lead-up to the latter's entry into the STO, the Devotees thought the time was right to take a more active stance in sector politics.
Headed by prominent Devotee Sarah Canewright, granddaughter of the Devotees' founder Jane, the Devoted Workers Party represented an ideological middle ground between the CHR, ACRE, and the UPC. Their official platform was primarily concerned with advocating for peace and prosperity across the sector, as well as increased rights for workers and freemen.
Having some level of support within not just the CHR, but also ACRE and the UPC, their political movement was spread across three planets: Demnoph, Yakiyah, and Cabina. When the Imperial-STO conflict broke out in earnest, the DWP sided fully with the STO, and brought all its resources to bear to aid in the defense of STO planets and assets against imperial attack.
In the end, the DWP was defeated and dismantled alongside the STO. Its leader Sarah Canewright was arrested by the High Church on Demnoph, leading to the party's collapse on that planet. Following the acquisition of ACRE by House Eridanus, the noble house pulled its financial support from the Cabina branch of the DWP, leading to its dissolution soon after. The Yakiyah branch lasted the longest. As the Church of Humanity, Repentant fell into chaos it fully joined the UPC, and threw all the weight and influence of the Yakiyahn Devotees behind the defense of the new Yakiyahn government. After the Death of the UPC, this final branch of the DWP dissolved as well.
At its height, the DWP was mechanically represented by three Party Machine assets, spread across multiple factions on the worlds of Demnoph, Yakiyah, and Cabina respectively.
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