Luddic Church

The Church of Galactic Redemption
General Information
Ship name prefix CGR Starting attitude Neutral (0) Offers commissions Yes Allies Luddic Path (+75 Cooperative) Enemies Tri-Tachyon (-50 Hostile) Pirates (-50 Hostile) Illegal goods Recreational Drugs, Harvested Organs, Luxury Goods, AI Cores Capital Gilead (Size 7), Canaan Star System

	"Inspired by the martyrdom of a figure known as 'Ludd' during the fall of the Domain, the Church of Galactic Redemption is a hierarchical church with highly syncretic dogma formed from a core of Abrahamic texts and apocrypha along with Domain-era reaction against perceived corruption, depravity, hedonism, and transhuman abomination. The Church offers a vision of life lived more simply, of agrarian virtue and humanistic values and prayer against the violence and technological alienation that's torn the Sector apart in the years since the Fall."
–In-game description

The Church of Galactic Redemption or Luddic Church is one of the main factions in the Sector. They blame technology for the downfall of the Domain, and seek to return to a more pastoral lifestyle. Their most hated enemy is the technologically advanced and amoral Tri-Tachyon Corporation. The Church also has a military offshoot, the Knights of Ludd, to enforce the word of Ludd and the Church's faith. They are loosely connected with the radical Luddic Path, terrorists following the same faith, though with far more extreme methods.

Faction Info

The Luddic Church control two systems - Canaan, and Eos Exodus, with a total of four inhabited planets. Tartessus is a major agricultural world and also produces large amounts of domestic goods. Hesperus is an organics and ore production complex. Gilead is a veritable "promised land" resembling Old Earth, with abundant organics and food. Finally, Asher provides all of the industry for the tens of millions on Gilead, with extreme pollution obscuring the sun itself.

Known Ships

The Luddic Church mainly use low tech ships. The types they field are considered ancient and outdated, unlike the Hegemony, whose ships are tried and true. Doctrine wise, they are far laxer in their training, and their ship production quality is sacrificed in favor of fielding more ships for their faithful. They also tend to use Converted Hangars to maximize the number of wings they deploy.

Frigates

• Hound (LC)
• Lasher (LC)
• Vanguard

Destroyers

• Buffalo Mk.II
• Condor
• Manticore

Cruisers

• Eradicator
• Mora

Capital Ships

• Invictus
• Retribution

Known Weapons

The ballistic weapons the Church field are old, yet cheap ordnance-wise. The only energy weapons they field are Mining Lasers and Mining Blasters, and that's because they can also fit on ballistic mounts. Notably, they have access to the Pilum LRM Catapult as their main support missile and a selection of Hammer-class Torpedo Launchers for all three mount sizes.

Ballistic Weapons

• Light Autocannon
• Light Dual Autocannon
• Light Dual Machine Gun
• Light Machine Gun
• Light Mortar
• Vulcan Cannon

• Arbalest Autocannon
• Flak Cannon
• Heavy Mortar
• Thumper

• Devastator Cannon
• Hellbore Cannon
• Mark IX Autocannon

Energy Weapons

• Mining Laser

• Mining Blaster

Missile Weapons

• Annihilator Rocket Launcher
• Breach SRM
• Hammer-class Torpedo (Single)
• Hammer-class Torpedo
• Harpoon MRM (Double)
• Harpoon MRM
• Sabot SRM (Double)
• Sabot SRM
• Swarmer SRM Launcher

• Annihilator Rocket Pod
• Breach SRM Pod
• Harpoon MRM Pod
• Jackhammer
• Pilum LRM Launcher
• Sabot SRM Pod
• Salamander MRM Pod

• Hammer Barrage
• Hurricane MIRV Launcher
• Pilum LRM Catapult

Known Wings

The Church only field three types of wings. Their only wing of note is the improvized Perdition Bomber Wing, which has a Hammer-class Torpedo as its payload.

Bombers

• Perdition Bomber Wing

Fighters

• Broadsword Heavy Fighter Wing

Interceptors

• Talon Interceptor Wing

Lore

	Inspired by the martyrdom of a figure known as 'Ludd' during the fall of the Domain, the Church of Galactic Redemption is a hierarchical church with highly syncretic dogma formed from a core of Abrahamic texts and aprocrypha along with Domain-era reaction against perceived corruption, depravity, hedonism, and transhuman abomination. The Church offers a vision of life lived more simply, of agrarian virtue and humanistic values and prayer against the violence and technological alienation that's torn the Sector apart in the years since the Fall.
–In-Game Faction Description

The Church was founded in c.8 post-Collapse as a result of a compromise between a handful of the largest sects who agreed that worldly organizations were necessary to uphold the teachings of Ludd. Many sects including the Luddic Path remained outside the Church. The Church participated in the First AI War and conflicts such as the Mazalot uprising.

Luddic populations and shrines are found on various planets, including those outside Church administration such as Jangala.

Knights of Ludd

	"The military branch of Luddic Church of Galactic Redemption, modeled on monastic warrior societies from previous millenia. In areas of Church domination they are authorized to enforce Technological Correctness as well as ensuring, through force, that virtue is promoted and vice chastised. In areas outside Church domination, when able, they covertly impose the same."
–Factions

Behind the scenes

The Luddic Church is named after and partly inspired by, but distinct from, the historical Luddite movement involving a labour revolt against displacement by new machinery.

	So what are these people even about? In writing the Pilgrim’s Path, I had to figure out how to provide more answers to these questions than I have previously. Speaking of, I do have a very old document from perhaps a decade ago where I wrote out my thoughts on the background of all the factions. I’ll quote a section from the “Cult of Ludd”: "In extremely broad terms: The Luddic Faith is a bit like early Christianity. A more conservative & hierarchical church structure is forming (The Church of Galactic Redemption), though it’s doctrine still has (many) conflicts to be resolved. The church has a militaristic arm (The Knights of Ludd) which, from a certain point of view, is at odds with the prophet Ludd’s generally anti-militaristic message but is terrifically practical. Militant extremist elements exist outside of control of the Church hierarchy and their values do not mesh well with contemporary Sector society (such as it is), to put it lightly." And from the next section “Who is Ludd?”: "A revolutionary/spiritual figure with an impressive and divisive legacy. Active in the cycles leading up to the fall of the Gate system, gave a message that was somewhat apocalyptic / of need for humanity to reform, to turn away from the excesses of the Domain. All sorts of things have been attributed to Ludd and if half of them are true then Ludd would have been at once a nihilistic megalomaniacal cult-leader and a saint who brought a wave of spiritual reform that swept away the detritus of millennia of cruelty and corruption."
–David Baumgart, "The Pilgrim’s Path"

	So with Ludd I was thinking of something both natural and spacey, both hippy and Starfarer. The double-ended tree didn’t quite work (and is an existing symbol for something or other, I discovered), so that is out. I was finally taken with imagery that alludes to cosmic swirls, like galactic arms and nebulae. Though I’m sure no one particularly shares the viewpoint of Ludd, I’d imagine the world as they see it being a whole interconnected being with its own greater needs whose importance outweighs the destructive hubris of human technophiles.
–David Baumgart, "Designing Faction Icons"

Markets

Canaan	Eos Exodus
Gilead, size 7 Asher, size 5	Tartessus, size 7 Hesperus, size 5

References

The name itself is a reference to the English word "Luddite" which is a person who rejects technology and seeks to live in the style of a previous time. Often these have formed colonies in the past to live a pastoral lifestyle. The Amish with their restrictive and slow adoption of new technologies may be considered to have Luddite beliefs.

• \Fractal Softworks\Starsector\starsector-core\data\world\factions