New Colchis: People and Culture

Beliefs

“Wheelies” believe that all life exists in a cycle of birth and death followed by reincarnation. Selfless actions lead towards enlightenment and ultimately nirvana; escape from the cycle of life and death. They also believe in a spiritual reality hidden behind the material one. Spirits have entirely lost the capacity for selfless action and can never die. Therefore they cannot accumulate good karma or be reborn into a better life; for them the Wheel of Life has stopped turning. Spirits occur throughout nature, embodied in almost every inanimate object. They can be befriended or placated, but remain ultimately selfish and capricious.

The cycle of samsara, the Wheel of Life has two extreme ends. Chaos at one end, is inhabited by the capricious spirits, who neither know nor care about karma. Order at the other end, is exemplified by the unchanging material perfection of the crystal.

Crystals alone in nature are unpolluted by the spirit world; they are common objects of veneration in Wheelie households. Wheelies meditate on crystals, trying to attain their selfless perfection.

Some Wheelies believe that they can manipulate the capricious spirits and harness the chaotic energies that flow in the spirit world. These magicians sacrifice the purity of selflessness and good karma for material well being. Magicians, and indeed anyone with an unseemly addiction to material wealth and power, are known as raksasas - man eaters.

There have been extreme cults, which constructed stone circles to harness the telluric energies that flow through ley-lines. Colchis and New Home both have fine examples of this ancient monumental style. New Colchis is believed to contain a higher than average amount of telluric energy, which naturally swirls and flows amongst the impact craters that pepper its surface. Other sects have been accused of using human sacrifice to harness the necromantic energies released by death.

These “Chaos Cults” were harshly suppressed on Colchis. No known cultists were allowed onto La Revolution, and there are no reliable records of any cult activity on New Colchis. Rumours and occasional witch-hunts persist though.