-An illustration of a Thevetat by William Dyer
(Credit to Eran G)
The heavier industrial pollution TTL, born out of a combination of the USS overhauling its manufacturing sector in a bid to compete in the wake of the Soviet Restoration and an American policy of deregulation under Haig, would have a profoundly accelerating effect on global climate change going into the new century, and the first and most obvious sign of this would be severe Antarctic ozone depletion. Steps would be taken worldwide to address the issue starting in the nineties, but the larger size of the hole would leave decades of work ahead and the global Regressive movement would fixate on the depletion as an intentional plot by the Soviets or other actors to drive their rivals to extinction through environmental degradation.
It would be this conspiracy theory that would prompt an American Regressive cell to head off for the continent with the stated goal of climbing Mount Kirkpatrick, the tallest peak of the Transantarctic mountains, as a demonstration of resolve, a ploy for international attention and, it must be said, an excuse to leave the country before President Powell's domestic crackdown on Regressive activists and thought leaders. As with all best laid plans, the small group began encountering unforeseen difficulties almost immediately, from inadequate provisions to the hazards of inclement weather and deadly crevasses. The group was feared deceased, and the United States would dispatch a rescue mission in the wake of international pressure. There would be only one confirmed survivor.
Found halfway up the mountain, severely frostbitten and delirious from exposure, William Dyer would be arrested upon his return to the United States on suspicion of terrorist activities, but would eventually be released on time served owing to lingering health complications from his ordeal. Dyer would spend the rest of his life telling anyone who would listen what he had seen on the ice. Claiming to have been shown a vision by a long vanished prehuman race, Dyer began promulgating a new theology with his book
Meditations Under the Southern Cross. A strange mix of Buddhism, Theosophy and science fiction,
Meditations offered a metaphorical reinterpretation of the Theosophical doctrine of "
root races", arguing that the dragon Thevetat which had supposedly corrupted the Atlantean root race had actually been a dissident faction of the Polarian race intending to help rather than hinder the later races of men. Rather than viewing the gradual transition from an ethereal to a material existence as one of corruption, Dyer maintained that the the Thevetat had directly instantiated into material bodies, creating a vast and sophisticated civilization in Antarctica before being wiped out in a cataclysm that saw their civilization annihilated and the continent covered in ice.
Regarded as little more than a New Age fringe belief during Dyer's lifetime the text would become quite popular in the Antarctic Economic Territories, becoming the holy text of a new religious movement called Zoranism that synthesized the text with Cosmicist thought and would prove instrumental in creating a unified sense of purpose on the continent, seeing it as their holy duty to combat the Three Poisons (delusion, greed and hate) through providing education, economic support and medical treatment to those in need in the Territories. Following the Revolution, the Zoranist movement would continue to expand even as the Commonwealth governments took over much of the work in these areas, and by some measures Zoranism makes up a plurality of religious adherents on the continent. Zoranism makes no definitive statements on life after death but puts great stock in the ritual use of entheogens to foster inner growth and has produced a body of work that forms a distinct strain of Cosmicist thought occasionally called Esoteric Cosmicism to differentiate it from the temporal body of the Movement itself.
Most of the organization is made up of lay members, though Gyrovagues (priests-errant) are stationed at lodges throughout Antarctica, moving somewhat regularly to help with the sharing of perspectives and the growth of empathy between the Commonwealths. When not traveling, a member of the priesthood dwells in one of the monasteries scattered throughout the now renamed Dyer Mountains in a life that combines a focus on religious and technical education to make the Gyrovagues valued members of any community they settle in. The largest monastery and seat of the faith is actually located in the highlands of Leng, according to legend the seat of the Thevetat's greatest city, and is staffed with the highest levels of the mixed-gender priesthood, overseen by the Nameless Priest, who ceremonially sheds their old life and public identity in order to serve the Church with impartiality. The symbol of the Church is
Zoran's Equation, a symbol representing "perfect knowledge" and taken from the French novel
The Ice People, one of the clear influences on
Mediations (along with
At the Mountains of Madness).
Given the focus on personal inner revelations the Zoranist Movement has a fairly high tolerance for deviations from the pure faith, with the most outlandish or radical tendencies eroded as a natural result of the nature of priesthood within the faith. The exception that proves the rule, however, is a splinter faction calling itself the Tsalal. Interpreting the
Meditations through the lens of Regression rather than Cosmicism, the Tsalal oppose the Antarctic Revolutionary Commonwealths on principle as a force that is occupying and despoiling what they perceive to be their holy land. Regarded as a terrorist group and suppressed by the government, the extremely harsh lifestyle of the Tsalal has ensured that their order remains a small one limited largely to the wild interior of Leng. Departing from traditional Regressive symbolism the Tsalal use black rather than green, symbolizing the polar night, and use a stylized representation of a vajra to represent their strength and the harshness of their environment.
*Reminder- Ridley Scott directed a long and incredibly popular series of Dune movies in the eighties and as a knock on consequence we never get
Prometheus*
)
