So, how many religions exist in Tarus Space? As many as there are people!
Alright, fine. There’s two. On the planet of Kolce where the story they’re split down between the Machinists and the Red Gods worshippers. Our intrepid Hussars are followers of the Machinists and more specifically, they’re in a denomination that interacts with the Machinists through the holy dialogue of lolcats. Indeed, in the grim dark future of humanity, there is only lolcat.
So, what exactly are the Machines? They’re super-sentient (because that’s a word) artificial intelligences or enhanced intelligences (cyborgs) that exist and have been around for a long time. Most of the technology which exceeds human understanding are maintained by them but overall the Machinists are a group of artificial intelligences concerned more about morality and ethics, as well as social management, rather than technological advances. They represent the concepts of wisdom.
On the other hand, the Red Gods are more mysterious, their origins less known and people never ever actually see them. What they do see is advanced gadgetry or “tech blessings”. They give them to their high level followers. It’s always something powerful enough that it’s treated like magic. Of course, the Red Gods keeps everyone in line by making sure everything they give is a one-shot deal. There’s no replication, reproduction or blueprints given. That way their followers are always asking for more gifts.
But being Machinist or being a Red Gods followers doesn’t really mean much in terms of laws. There’s no guide books. In fact, most Red Gods worshippers never even see or interact with a Red God and whole populations might not receive any tech blessings. That’s the case with the people on Kolce; half the population worships Red Gods, zero of the people have ever dealt with them. This means they can make of the religion what they will and that in itself is powerful. Machinists on the other hand can actually interact and the people on Kolce get to see Sigma-9 (a cyborg). Of course, Sigma-9 is just one cyborg so in a population of over a hundred million people, you might not really get a chance to get a word with her.
There are those, though, out in the space wilderness of the Rim Sector that the Second Fleet of the Husaria patrols, who do receive tech blessings from the Red Gods and use them to gain brutal military advantages over others. They’re known as the Tainted. These aren’t a single people, but many disconnected collapsed civilizations that had come to rely on these tech blessings so much that their societies disintegrated. This is the threat the Husaria was originally formed to combat; the evil technobarbarian hordes known as the Tainted.
Blood and courage Hussars!