Path of Inspiration: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"'God?' Where does such a being exist? You should know by now how the 'Ethos' came about... It was an organization created by [[Hidden Elf Village|Solaris]] aeons ago solely for the purpose of managing ignorant humans. Its doctrines are just deceptions designed to control the masses."''|'''Verlaine''', ''[[Xenogears]]''}}

 

 

[[Plato]] himself [[Utopia Justifies the Means|advocates doing this]] in ''The Republic''.

A specific subtype of [[Ancient Conspiracy]]. Distinct from the [[Corrupt Church]] in that instead of being a legitimate religion that went bad, the Path of Inspiration is by design rotten to the core. Distinct from the [[Scam Religion]] in that the Path's leaders are true believers, not con artists. If the religion is openly evil, it's the [[Religion of Evil]] instead. The typical high-ranking member is a [[Straw Hypocrite]]. Usually has a [[Dark Messiah]] as the figurehead, whose outright evil is part of [[The Reveal]]. May overlap with [[Hollywood Satanism]], especially in [[Conspiracy Theories]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* The religion from Rossiu's village in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' was specifically designed to let the village's elder keep the population below 50; notice, however, that he did this more out of necessity than out of evil, [[Shoot the Dog|because the village couldn't support any more people]].

* Holy Mauser faith in ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'' {{spoiler|was actually designed by the aliens who conquered Earth and exiled brainwashed human survivors to a small portion of its surface. Its function was to a) prevent humanity from ever discovering their true history, b) allow semi-sentient weapons named Peacemakers to act without interference as "Lord Mauser's angels", c) rally the entire world population against the person carrying the genetic anomaly enabling her to "cancel" Peacemakers' presence and challenge the status quo, who just happens to be the protagonist of the show. It may be also notable that all this was apparently organized for humanity's own good, at least, from the alien point of view.}}

* Father Cornello's cult the Church of Leto in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' which was created so that Father Cornello could have his own army, Cornello is revealed to be a fraud, and is killed but Envy reappears as Cornello to complete the work using the weak willed members of the church. There's also the fact that the deity Leto turns out to have been the [[Big Bad]] Father in disguise, so the entire religion is an example of this.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'''s episode "Brain Scratch" had a cult that brainwashed people into giving up their physical forms for a supposed digital existence by recording their brain waves onto the internet.

 

== Comic Books ==

* The Church of Transcendence in ''[[The Authority]]'': its leader, John Clay, infected all of his devotees with a psychic virus. This virus forced them to venerate him as well as give him some of their energy, turning him into a superhuman capable of taking on the entire Authority by himself.

* ''Just Imagine Stan Lee Writing The DC Universe'' has the Church of Eternal Empowerment, run by [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Reverend Darrk]].

 

== Film ==

* The [[Apocalypse]] film series Antichrist Franco Maccalusso has his [[Religion of Evil]] masquerade as this, with a [[Secret Circle of Secrets]] working in the shadows.

* The [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] film ''[[Licence to Kill]]'' had TV evangelist Professor Joe Butcher and his Olimpatec Meditation Institute serving as a front for Franz Sanchez's drug empire, with their donations going toward Sanchez's operations and "targets" being drug dealer lingo for agreeing new market prices for their product.

 

== Literature ==

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars]]'' novels, the religion of the red Martians, which encourages the old and infirm to make a pilgrimage to the South Pole in search of heaven, was created and is controlled by a society of cannibals who use the pilgrims as their primary food source. ''Their'' religion is in turn the product of another sect of cannibals who feed on ''them''. When John Carter discovers these facts, and relates them to the world at large, he's nearly executed for heresy before he manages to prove it.

* In [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''[[Foundation]]'', the titular Foundation manages to turn the four empires surrounding their homeworld, Terminus, into puppet states by creating a "religion of science" as a guise for providing technological aid while gaining influence. At one point, despite handing the [[Big Bad]] of one story a battleship to invade Terminus with, the Foundation proved that it had ultimate control of both the technology and the people.

** Showing off his abilities to understand the changes in societies, in a later book of the series, someone attempts to use that religion and finds out that economics is now more important to the current people then religion. The time of religious fervor has passed.

* The Clave from the ''Second [[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' commits mass human sacrifices "for a good cause". Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that...

* The eponymous Electric Church of Jeff Somers's cyberpunk novel "The Electric Church". Adherents of the faith have their brains mounted in artificial bodies to give them "time enough" to discover the truth of salvation. They tell others that "Time is your enemy" and ask them to "Let us show you an endless trail of sunsets," offering free immortality to anyone and everyone. Of course, {{spoiler|systems in the artificial body suppress your higher brain functions to keep you an obedient servant. The whole thing is a monstrous world-conquering scheme to rule by religion, facilitated by the fact that converts keep their legal status as citizens in the world government because the brain is still alive, despite all free will and volition being suppressed by the technology involved.}}

** Subverted when the major prophecy spread by the Missionaria on Arrakis ends up being fulfilled by Paul-Muad'Dib, much to the surprise of the Bene Gesserit.

** Subverted again by Leto II, this time intentionally. After merging with a sandworm, he sets himself up as [[God-Emperor]] of his own theocratic state, with the state religion specifically designed to be as restrictive and frustrating as possible for humanity. That in turn is part of his [[Plan]] {{spoiler|([[Thanatos Gambit]], actually)}} to get humanity to save itself through expansion and innovation, making him a [[Necessarily Evil]] form of this.

* In the ''[[Animorphs]]'' books, The Sharing is a Path of Inspiration that is disguised as a secular fraternal organization. It provides fun, social occasions, and volunteer work for the community, but its real purpose is to seduce people into voluntarily allowing themselves to be taken over by [[Puppeteer Parasite|alien invaders called the Yeerks]], and to serve as a front organization that keeps up the [[Masquerade]].

* In ''[[Lord of Light]]'', Hinduism is used for this purpose, to allow a handful of self-styled gods to control all technology under the guise of protecting the populace from progress too quick for them to understand. The protagonist uses Buddhism as a religious tool to recruit the opposition.

* Originally, the [[Earthsea Trilogy]] portrayed the Kargish religion this way, it's religious beliefs (particularly [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|their prejudice against magic-users]]) being imposed by evil gods. This was later retconned into being a good/neutral religion which got corrupted as the author felt herself guilty of [[Unfortunate Implications]].

* In Neal Stephenson's [[Snow Crash]], L. Bob Rife's religion is in fact {{spoiler|an attempt to render people suceptible to brainwashing using the ancient Sumerian language, which is in fact a programming language for the human brain}}. The title refers to {{spoiler|the drug that does this, and the computer virus that can do this to people in the virtual world}}

* In the Han Solo trilogy of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] the T'landa T'il can produce a state of complete pleasure in a person. This state of pleasure is highly addictive. Normally it is used to attract T'landa T'il females, but instead the self appointed priest use it to lure their victims to Ylesia. They go from planet to planet and recruit people. People who experience it and are not strong enough to resist it are drawn into it and become adicted. The pilgrims become slaves in the Ylesian spicemines. The revival is a major part of their day where the pilgrims get their daily fix. These poor slaves are completely brainwashed and can not live without their drug. The faux religion that the T'landa T'il have established is just a ploy to get free slaves and spice. The whole operation is owned by the Hutts. When the slaves are brainwashed and dependent enough they get shipped off to the spice mines of Kessel or sold as sex slaves in a brothel.

** Speaking of [[Star Wars]], the Potentium Heresy. Basically it says that dividing the Force into good and evil is too simplistic, and that as long as you listen to the Force, everything will work out for the best. It was a Sith lie. It actually catches Han and Leia's son, though he, somewhat [[Genre Savvy]], doesn't teach Luke's son about it. This leads to a huge [[What an Idiot!]] moment.

** Not to mention {{spoiler|[[Our Vampires Are Different|who's in charge.]]}}

* The Lazarus Intent in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin Missing Adventures|Missing Adventures]] novel ''The Crystal Bucephalus'' was set up by a criminal who ripped off Christanity wholesale to create a religion which, rather than teaching the Messiah was resurrected and would return, taught that it was up to believers to invent time travel, and rescue their saviour from the moment of his death. The Doctor notes that while the church may be a fraud set up by a egomaniac (Lazarus isn't even a [[Dark Messiah]], just a conman who thinks big), devout Lazarites tend to be good people.

* ''[[Book of Amber|Nine Princes in Amber]]'' suggests that this has been done by the Amberites in at least one Shadow.

** The religion started by [[Manipulative Bastard|Shift]] and [[Anti-Anti-Christ|Puzzle]] definitely counts. Originally, Shift is just decieving creatures into believing Puzzle is Aslan so he can get whatever he wants. Then things escalate and he teams up with some equally opportunistic Calormenes to create the worship of "Tashlan", a mash-up of Aslan and Tash that true believers of both are equally horrified at, so that he can get rich selling Narnian resources (including its ''people'') to Calormen.

*** It's worth noting that C.S. Lewis caught considerable flak for writing "The Last Battle," including accusations of being racist, with the claim that the Calomene's were thinly veiled parodies of Arabs. Of course, C.S. Lewis' real point has nothing to do with race at all. Rather, the "Tashlan" bit seems to be a [[Take That]] against religious syncretism as a means of forming a super-religion.

* The syncretic mishmash of world religions called Enigma Babylon One World Faith that becomes the official one-world religion during the first half of the Tribulation period in the [[Left Behind]] books, believing that all religions are true and have valid paths leading to God, yet denouncing biblical Christianity (as defined by the books' authors and the Tribulation Force characters) and its message of Jesus Christ being the only true way to God as heretical. Of course, in following with the interpretation of Mystery Babylon in Revelation chapter 17, this "anti-church" was merely set up to serve the Antichrist for a time and then would be destroyed, only to be replaced by the single-deity worshipping religion of Carpathianism.

 

* The Divine Order in ''[[Lexx]]'' is a textbook example of this trope.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': "Hallowed are the Ori". Interestingly, after {{spoiler|the Ori are killed, in ''[[The Ark of Truth]]'', their former subjects take up Origin as a legitimate religion, albeit with some changes. "Can you take out the parts about burning people alive?"}}

* In the third season of ''[[Weeds]]'', a new suburb called Majestic {{spoiler|which ultimately absorbs Agrestic in a kind of weird symbiosis}} springs up next door. The community is centered around Absolute Truth Ministries, an ecumenical, quasi-Christian megachurch which exists to propagate a religious conservative ideology and fleece its congregation and the community for everything it can get (the massive sign on the complex not-so-subtley highlights its acronymn, ATM).

 

== Music ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

* The Path of Inspiration of [[Eberron]] is seen, by name, in several high-level adventures in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online]]'' game. Player characters with the True Seeing ability will see the not-so-diminutive Quori creatures, which animate and control the faithful, latched on the head of the Inspired. They preach out in the streets about their happy ol' church, with none (but the player characters) ever the wiser.

* The Glabados Church from ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' qualifies, though one must both play through the whole game and read the Germonik Scriptures to get this whole picture.

* The Church of St. Eva in ''[[Breath of Fire]] II''.

** The religion of the Urkan from ''[[Breath of Fire]] III'' also somewhat qualifies. {{spoiler|Though their god isn't exactly malevolent (just so overprotective of the world that she decided to commit genocide on a race that COULD destroy it, even though they were a very peaceful race), she IS the final boss.}}

* The White Mantle in [[Guild Wars]] straddles this and [[Corrupt Church]]. The founder of the White Mantle was a decent guy who wasn't aware the Mursaat were evil; by time that became apparent, the Mursaat had saved his people and taken him away never to be seen again. On top of this, once the Mursaat are beaten, it turns out they had been holding back an even worse evil.

* The Cult of the Watchers seems to be the state religion of [[The Empire]] in ''[[Drakengard]]'', though actually they don't even bother making pretenses of good intentions. They just straight-up [[Mind Control]] all their subjects and anyone they capture. It's the quicker, easier way really. It's not a [[Religion of Evil]] because the "Watchers" they serve and worship are the same beings as the gods worshiped by the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]] religion.

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Scarlet Crusade appears like this to Alliance players in a major quest line leading up their instance. Then after this quest line has shown that they are a [[Corrupt Church]], players encounter another turn of events in Stratholme, a high level instance, where it turns out that the faction was led by a ''demon''.

* In the ''[[Halo]]'' series the Covenant is both a religion and an interstellar alliance incorporating multiple species. They worship the [[Precursors|Forerunners]], who they think [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence]] by means of the Sacred Rings, and seek to recreate this "Great Journey." Unfortunately for them, what actually happened was that the Forerunners lost their war against [[The Virus]] and decided to go out by ''[[Taking You with Me|annihilating all sentient life in the galaxy.]]'' In the second game, the Prophet of Truth seems to be redirecting the Covenant into a [[Corrupt Church]], eliminating his fellow prophets and concealing key facts from the wider Covenant.

* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' has an interesting variant. Dak'kon follows the teachings of Zerthimon, one of two leaders of his race who led a species-wide rebellion against a race of evil psychics. After the rebellion was successful, Zerthimon argued against the other leader's declaration that their race's goal should now be to hunt down every one of the psychics and destroy them, and the race split in two halves that have been at war ever since. {{spoiler|Hints in his holy text (The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon) indicate to you that Zerthimon may have been under mind control at that time, and that his actions were influenced by the evil psychics who sought to split the rebels. In other words, the teachings of Zerthimon may have been used to turn his entire species into less of a threat to their former masters, and Dak'kon reveals that suspicions about this have always plagued him. Later, you discover a hidden passage in the text indicating that Zerthimon's mind was untainted and that he had genuinely good reasons for splitting off. Ultimately, however, you discover that the Unbroken Circle was created by a previous incarnation of yourself; it was intended purely to keep Dak'kon from getting a crisis of faith.}}

* The Circle of Thorns in ''[[City of Heroes]]'' are part this, part [[Ancient Conspiracy]], and... well, they kidnap random people and have them possessed by ancient ghosts, and that's just the ''start''...

* The Children of the Cathedral from the original ''[[Fallout]]'' have to count. {{spoiler|They're led by an insane mutant made up of several people who wants to turn all humans into Supermutants}}, after all.

* The Church of Optimology from [[Chzo Mythos|the Chzo Mythos,]] which [[Word of God|by Yahtzee's own admission]] is pretty much Scientology in sheep's clothing.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' offers us the Order of Messiah. The guy they worship... let's say he was the former poster boy for [[God Is Evil]]. The Senate Elders? The Four Archangels. The [[Dark Messiah]] they're trying to create to summon the [[There Will Be Cake|Millennial Kingdom]]? [[The Hero]].

* The Order of the Mechanists in the ''[[Thief]]'' series. The Mechanists want to spread advanced technology to improve life and inspire progress in The City. [[Sinister Minister|Father Karras]] wants to [[Omnicidal Maniac|kill everyone]] because he believes that [[Machine Worship|machines]] are the chosen of [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|the Builder]].

** {{spoiler|You know that war that happened 10,000 years ago between Granas, the benevolent creator, and Valmar, the destroyer? And how Granas won? That was a bit of a lie. The truth is... when they both defeated each other, Granas was the one who died and Valmar was split into multiple pieces. And the highest members of church knew this and kept it from the general populace, to keep order.}}

** {{spoiler|The pope lied to Elena about the reasons for gathering the remaining pieces of Valmar. It wasn't to kill him in one strike. The pope just wants to be [[A God Am I|the new reincarnation of Valmar.]]}} {{spoiler|[[Oh Crap|He succeeds.]] Kinda.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* The Way in [[Juathuur]]. It actually ensures that juathuur will not achieve power over men.

* The 'Angelo's Kids' organization seems to be this in [[Our Little Adventure]].

* The {{spoiler|spirit's cult}} in [[The Phoenix Requiem]] didn't start as one, but became one once its origins were forgotten.

 

== Web Original ==

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:The Index Is Watching You]]

[[Category:Villains]]