Primitive Animism: Also called Shamanism, the yinrih’s primal religion hung on a simple syllogism:

1. My movements are the result of an act of will.
2. Other things in nature also move.
3. Those things must possess a will of their own.

It is characterized by a female shaman who tended a fire, as well as the funeral custom of using the bones of the deceased as architectural adornment.

The Bright Way: began after an event called the Theophany, where a single omnipotent God revealed itself^[1] to the yinrih species as a whole and instructed them to seek out its other creatures among the stars. The Bright Way continued many of their primal religion’s practices, such as an all-female clergy in charge of tending a hearth and using the bones of the dead to decorate the walls of their houses of worship.

Neoshamanism: after centuries of failed attempts to breach Yih’s atmosphere, some concluded that spaceflight was impossible and broke away from the Bright Way. The original shamanists had died out ages ago, and these schismatics attempted to revive the old ways while borrowing many elements of Claravian philosophy.

Atavism: “reject humanity, return to monke” as a serious ideology. Atavism was likely present in some form or another since the very beginning, but only coalesced into an organized movement during the Shakeoff. Atavists regard sapience as a curse and wish to return to being irrational animals.

Pious Dissolutionists: a traditionalist movement that formed within the Bright Way after the organization shed most of its religious character, becoming a system-spanning megacorp that controlled Focus for over 33 millennia. The Pious Dissolutionists wanted to dissolve the Bright Way’s monopolies and return the organization to its roots as a religion seeking to fulfill the Great Commandment.

Partisans: militant secularists descended from debtor slaves indentured by the Bright Way for not paying their tithes. While they share the Pious Dissolutionists’ desire to loosen the Bright Way’s economic grip on Focus, the Partisans want to eradicate the Bright Way altogether, ostensibly to make sure their former masters can never rise to power again.