Join the new world

A couple of days ago, Jesse2016 wrote a piece about the resilience of Christianity. The article inspired me to publish a story on the history of eReligion.

For those of you not familiar with the history of eRepublik, in the early days—as citizens were born and grew, a movement took hold to promote religion in the game. The history of this religion is fascinating, entertaining and its origins are surprisingly akin to many RL religions.

While it may surprise you, the first real super power in eRepublik was ePakistan. ePakistan was a titan that grew to conquer half of the eWorld, subjugating over 2/3rd of the early citizens of the game. Behind this great power was a political party (or brotherhood) called the Stardust Crusaders—a group of ePakistani elite citizens that controlled and ruled ePakistan with an iron fist.

The long-time leader and founder of the Stardust Crusaders was a man named Dio Brando. While his birth in eRepublik was meager, he grew to lead the largest empire in the history of the game. In honour of his own greatness (or vanity), ePakistan was renamed the Holy Empire of Pakistan and he inherited the title of God Emperor.



As Pakistan’s influence spread, so to did the followers of Dio, growing their flock into an organized religion called Dioists. The deity of the religion was the God Emperor himself, who’s teachings and mandate are scribed in the Book of Dio for all to follow.

The nomadic Emperor God was a socialist, who believed in programs to aid his flock. By his word, social assistance was distributed throughout his empire. He was also a bisexual polygamist, who was written to have “the greatest harem of all”. A harem that held both female and male succulents for him to choose from.

The core belief of Dioists was that "all are created from sand, and all shall return to sand… and that sand controls all".

While Dio died (or as his Book states, “moved to another realm”), his faith continued for a while, re-adopted into sub-sects that led to infighting among the faithful.

The full collapse of the Dioist organized faith accompanied the collapse of the Holy Empire of Pakistan. The Empire could not hold against the growing powers in the Balkans, a then newly established center of military and economic power.

Today, many of the games older players continue to mention or reference Dio, but the pageantry that once paid respect and honour to the God Emperor has all but disappeared from the game.

With the collapse of Dioism, a few other faiths popped up from the far corners of the eWorld, but none grew as powerful in numbers as the hordes that followed Dio.

Perhaps religion will return, but more likely than not, it will join the rest of the game... by fading away.

Cheers,

Roger Griswald