Medicism
Medicism or Medic philosophy is a religion and school of thought which arose out of the Commonwealth city of Meditat during the first days of the Somber War. Medics regard Civcraft as the intended foundation for the establishment of the Aquarian religion prophesied in the turning of the astrological age into that of Aquarius, and a necessary stage in the development of social consciousness. King Peter5930 is identified as the central figure of the Medic mysteryand seeks to cultivate "Praxis", a state of enlightenment reached through a radical belief in the game world. Various writings are currently being produced by Reffelruz on Mount Olympus in CW(CMC).
Conception
In the Early days of The Commonwealth (CivClassic), before the capital was named or the parliament constructed, two travellers arrived in town by the names of jasonbord and reffelruz. Both players had big plans, both of them seeking to build property and open establishments to do business in the area. Both did so, but while jasonbord's mind turned to politics, participating in the local Augustan government, reffelruz turned to philosophy and religion; walking between businesses one day, reffelruz noticed a street preacher in the streets of early Westminster, by the name of trevie333 - he was the figurehead of what would be come to known as the cult of Trevie; the scene was performed in entirely ironic fashion: the words were unimportant, the worship was a joke, the whole thing meaningless. Seeing this, reffelruz set out to give the world true religion - to learn the history of Civcraft and of the Commonwealth, to study the ways of players through the ages, to find the patterns hidden in the story of the game, to ponder the All and the One, to see the purpose of the simulation - and to deliver it all in the form of an original Civcraft mythology.
Not long following this decision, the Somber war erupted in the streets of Westminster - obsidian rained down on the city, clogging up the canals, littering the rooftops, coating the roads and the faces of buildings; the city was evacuated before the attack, but reffelruz remained behind; he had many possessions in the city, and did not wish to part with them. He collected all he could carry, and when it was safe, he carried a minecart down to Union Station and boarded the line to Meditat - there he took refuge, in the hot sand and shady palm trees of the desert oasis; there, while the war raged on, he began to meditate on the world, and on his experiences- and he began to read, and he began to write.
He studied every mythology and read every sacred script from every religion he could find across the world, seeking wisdom that applied to Civ, and attempting to conceive of a grand synthesis; he then delved into philosophy in the same manner, then history; he had never been interested in learning before- all throughout school he was bored and unhappy with life, utterly uninterested in these topics or any others, but the simulation gave them new life in his eyes, and here he began his education. At the same time, he studied Civ history, going back to the oldest records, and imagined how he might write the equivalent of classical works for this world.
During the war, the small oasis town of Meditat became a sprawling desert city; when not building houses in the city, reffelruz could be seen in the sheep pens with a pair of shears in one hand and a book and quill in the other; he was beginning to experience visions in the desert - stories, gods creation - and frantically wrote them down in notes. He arranged the images into narratives, and shared them excitedly with his neighbours in the desert, who mostly dismissed them; despite showing no interest in gods or religion, local CWers mike0war and Lodish had begun construction on a temple complex to go with the desert theme; having seen reffel build much of the city, mike saw him as capable, and allowed reffelruz the chance to build his visions directly into the architecture of the temple.
The Temple
The Temple consisted of a ziggurat and pyramid standing face to face in the desert. Between them was a great pit with water at the bottom, and a tent-shaped outer building to the ziggurat.
The Ziggurat had five layers; on the sandstone terraces there were lush gardens with trees, grass, flowers and vines, with rushing water flowing through and over the side of the layers. Two obelisks and two lions flank either side of a ramp leading to the summit, where there sat a sandstone throne on a lapis lazuli floor; the roof of the throne room was capped with purpur; underneath the throne room lies the gods abode, where the floor is the sky of the human realm; in the centre of the sky-floor is a pool of water, beneath which is a portal through the floor, guiding the interloper down through the firmament-roof onto the earth below: a symbolic birth into the world from the one above.
The main room of the temple lies at the bottom of the cascade; surrounding the pillar of water from the sky are twelve pillars holding up the ornate sky/ceiling; the stars displayed are accurate to the night sky in-game; on the east wall is a statue of the beginning, called DREN: a figure male and patriarchal in appearance with beard and outstretched hands; on the west wall is a statue of the End, called NETRI: a winged serpent, wielding a saber in her right hand and a pearl in her left; she is surrounded by four statues of broken eggs, representing the previous worlds; she gives birth to these eggs, and then she consumes them; DREN is a force attempting to intervene on this cycle, to give the offspring time to be born, to grow, and finally to mature into beings that can face NETRI themselves and defeat her in battle; the fifth egg, or world, is represented as the space within the pillars where the player enters the room.
South of the ziggurat stands the pyramid, within which lies a puzzle chamber; there is a door in the floor, sealed unless the interloper can solve the puzzle; beneath the pyramid is a vast dark maze; its purpose and treasure are unknown.
Theology
"In the Beginning was the End, and the End bore all, and the End consumed all." These first lines of what is now the short tome 'Zero' were the first words that came to reffelruz in the desert, and he wrote them down. Later came more: "One was in the End in the Beginning, wherefrom all things were taken, and She consumed him not."
Zero is an account of the destruction and creation of the world, representing the succession of servers which have carried the Civcraft banner to the present day. A player becomes a god, and creates a world; that world is populated with life, and due to the machination of players, the server experiences a life cycle; when that server dies, it creates the desire for a new server filled with life to take its place; one player from the previous world rises up to become the creator of the new world - they sacrifice their bodily existence so that the world can live on. This creates a cycle of god->world->god. The goal becomes the cessation of the cycle through the creation of the eternal world; this idea will be explored further in the later, extended version of the creation myth, titled 'One', which describes the whole life cycle of the world in the form of seven gods, each of which gives rise to the others in some way.
The Primordial Medic Pantheon
Although the old gods would be sidelined in the culture in favour of King Peter, before his rise to godhood, the old Medic pantheon would remain a window into a deeper understanding of the mystery of the King; it is claimed outright by reffelruz, the Architect of Medicism and author of the original creation and temple, that Zero and One foretold of Peter.
DREN - Beginning; creator of the world; admin; confined to outside the world
NETRI - End; destroyer of worlds; all-mother; the source of everything, the end of everything
NAYAH - Light, sun; creator spirit after they are consumed by NETRI; consumption becomes inpregnation
ANUM - Earth, dead matter given life by NAYAH, raised from the deep- from NETRI
SIN - Born from NAYAH and ANUM; First being not part of the world, but apart from it; sees himself, goes toward it, drowns
MANDU - Midwife; moves THE SEVENTH from the womb to the tomb; incestuous daughter of SIN and NETRI;
THE SEVENTH - the player; the fruit, the sacrifice, the god incarnate; their birth, life and death reproduces the cosmic cycle
A further metaphor is given in the mystery religion of Karl, the carrot deity of Norlund lore, also developed by reffelruz(under the name bhieex3): the components of agriculture - seed, earth, water, light, time, and farmers - come together to form the fruit, which is also the seed to restart the process. This is what the old Medic Pantheon describes in cosmic terms, associating the cycles of agriculture with the cultivation of worlds, their inhabitants, their destroyers, and their creators.
Philosophy
Medic philosophy views Civcraft as an RPG, where the players play the three-fold role of PC, NPC, and designer. This places the responsibility for the server's health and growth on the players themselves, as opposed to the admins. It concludes that players ought to think about how what they do and build in-game contributes to the gameplay experience of others, and aim to contribute good experiences. The world exists for each of us to enjoy, and yet each of us is part of the world; this is not to say that there can be no opposition in the world - indeed there MUST be - but that everything done should be done in the game of a good time for all. For this reason, Medic philosophy heavily encourages the use of socially friendly outlets for conflict and competition, such as sports, contests, and the market.
Medicism teaches the principle of Non-division: that is, one should narrow their focus to as small a space as possible, and not spread themselves out; this applies to build projects to nations, and to citizenships. Medics value loyalty above all else; one who has stuck with their first nation through thick and thin and remains with them today is a good player in the eyes of a Medic.
Medicism pays close attention to the problem of scale in Civcraft: the world's scale is necessarily off from the real world, and what we get in game is an insufficient representation. The reason for this insufficiency is, at least in part, a lack of adherence to the principle of Non-division. But the principle of loyalty prevents consolidation of states, and so finally the Medic view is at war with itself. Students are invited to take on this philosophical battle within themselves, as they make themselves part of the world through their interaction with it.
Praxis
Praxis was the codename for a project created by Ttk2 to produce an original stand-alone platform for Civcraft to take place in perpetually; the project was ambitious but ultimately fell through, and Civcraft has remained to this day a Minecraft genre; though experiments have been undertaken on alternative platforms, none have threatened to replace Minecraft anytime soon.
Medic activism takes the name Praxis to refer to the ideal Civcraft: one permanent world, utterly self-sustaining and full of life, culture and political happenings, all of which are genuine and unforced by a need to roleplay situations that would not otherwise occur; thus, Praxis refers to a state of harmony between the ideal form of the game imagined by its players, and the actual reality of the current server; further thus, Praxis is a state of being that is content with the simulation, finding it sufficient for one's desire to inhabit it.
Praxis as a general term usually refers to actions taken in the world to further a certain view or goal, especially in the realm of politics. Medic Praxis is a conscious use of one's in-game actions to bring the world closer to the ideal Civcraft as imagined based on its potential; Medics recognize that a jumpstart is necessary on behalf of a smaller population of creatives, who must produce cultural content aimed at attracting new players, convincing them to be invested in the world; furthermore, the type of player brought into the world is important, and should be considered in relation to all actions in the world: one's actions in the world suggest what the game is about, and therefore creates an image of the world and the game that will attract players of a certain taste and proclivity; if what goes on in the world is war, the world will attract those who seek war; if the world is full of culture, the world will attract those who seek culture - those who exist in the world today must choose the world they wish to live in; this is contrary to orthodox civ wisdom, which prescribes an endless war against the baddies, which the Medic sees as counterproductive.
In this framing, the ideal Civ is achieved through the mass production and proliferation of cultural content including art, literature, drama, history, education, philosophy, religion and festival - which will bring in a population of new players who are looking to engage with these aspects of the game over those of war and state-drama; the playerbase must be genetically altered by producing a gameplay space that cultivates certain types of players over others.
The religion has the added intention of giving players a stronger resistance to death(quitting); it provides a framework that cannot be lost or tainted by in game actions in any way - on the contrary, even in-game events with a negative impact on a player can carry strong meaning within the religious framework, and therefore has gameplay value beyond what it would have without the framework overlayed.