The Fallen Continent: Religious Movements

Both established religions responding to the crisis, and new movements seeking answers.

Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He;’ and shall lead many astray.

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Introduction

Prior to the Great War, people had many predictions surrounding the fate of organized religion in the aftermath of a worldwide nuclear conflict. Some theorized that, faced with such an unprecedented disaster resulting in the deaths of billions, people would give up all hope and abandon their faiths. Others believed that such a crisis would galvanize the hearts of many and win people over for their faith, with nothing else to turn to in such a dark time. The experienced outcome was somewhere in between; many lost their faith, and many found it. Some found solace in the established religions of the world, who had to adapt and respond to the crisis, often finding themselves bereft of their paramount leaders following the war. Others turned to new, radical interpretations of said religions, or something else altogether.

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Mainstream Christianity

As the largest religion in the United States and the entire world, both before and after the Great War, Christianity still has a powerful hold over countless Americans and the factions that they inhabit. Still, the war has greatly shaken it up and posed questions that are yet to be answered. Some denominations have been able to weather the storm, while others are more hard-pressed in America. Worldwide, their demographic edge is not as keen as it once was, as they barely outnumber Muslims or Hindus, and the proportion of unorthodox believers within Christendom is higher than it used to be.

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Catholicism

First and foremost is the world’s largest religious organization, the Catholic Church. The Vatican City was not directly targeted during the Great War, but Rome, being the capital of Italy, was, and the Pope perished alongside the rest of the city. The surviving cardinals of the world immediately gathered in São Paulo, Brazil (later to become the capital of an independent State of São Paulo) and convened the College of Cardinals. With urgent speed, they elected a new Pope: Pius XIII, a compromise candidate whom nobody objected to, yet few truly loved. They reasoned that, more than anything else, immediate continuity and undisputed leadership were key to ensuring the Church’s continued survival. Though not remembered for extreme zeal or grandiose plans for the future of the Church, Pius was a capable and well-liked leader who helped hold the Church together in one of its darkest moments.

The Papacy continues to reside in São Paulo, where it is an extremely influential voice within the republic and beyond. Once politically neutered, the Pope is now beginning to flex his muscles once again and exert control over his worldwide flock. Cut loose from more liberal, modernizing European elements, the Catholic Church is now much more American (Both Latin and English) in character and is generally more conservative than it was thirty years ago.

Within the former United States, Catholicism remains the largest religious denomination, although all Protestants combined still outnumber them. The Roman Catholic Church does not endorse or recognize any one American government, although its habitation in São Paulo means that it interacts with and is well-disposed towards the Elizabeth City naval government, which is sponsored by São Paulo. There are only a few Catholic factions in America and only one Catholic theocracy, the St. Paul Republic in Hanceville, Alabama, whose presidency is tied to the seat of the Diocese of Alabama. Other factions may still have a strong Catholic presence, and certain warlords and statesmen enjoy the endorsements of their particular local bishop.

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Eastern Christianity

Although only a small percentage of America’s population, the Eastern Orthodox Church is heavily concentrated enough that it can be found in a select few locations on the map.

The largest Orthodox church in the United States is the Orthodox Church in America, whose seat is in Sitka, Alaska. Their Patriarch of All America and Canada is the influential patron of the so-called Emperor of Alaska.

The Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York is now the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which recognizes the Patriarch of Moscow-in-exile in Sakhalin, a frigid island off the Russian Pacific coast.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is headquartered in Spring Hill, Florida, the domain of a Greek-American warlord from the Tampa Bay Exclusion Zone who built his regime along ethno-religious lines; their Patriarch of Constantinople-in-exile now resides on Mt. Athos, a remote monastic community that escaped the Great War and is now an independent monastic state.

The Antiochian Church in America operates almost independently of its Middle Eastern See, while the smaller immigrant communities, such as Serbians, Georgians, and Romanians, had so few remaining members that its adherents either persisted on their own as effectively independent parishes or joined larger Orthodox jurisdictions.

Because of their association with Russia, the hated enemy of the United States, Orthodox Christians are among one of the most despised religious affiliations in the country. The few Orthodox Christians in America are a very insular and tightly-knit people, as a result.

America’s Oriental Orthodox Christians and other Eastern Christian churches were cast adrift by the Great War. Like the smaller Eastern Orthodox communities, Oriental Orthodox and Syriacs in America operate independently of their Old World parents, with very infrequent communication across the Atlantic Ocean.

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The Anglican Communion

With no Canterbury to return to, the Primate of All England was a vacant office for some time. With a convoluted process for selecting bishops and an absentee Supreme Governor, the Church of England simply lacked the personnel and procedure to make a quick decision for a new primate.

The Supreme Governor—better known as the King of England—was briefly King Henry IX, who was living in Santa Barbara, California on the eve of the Great War. Henry survived the nuclear strike on Santa Barbara and had to flee among a train of refugees to Bakersfield, where he was brought on board as an unofficial member of the California rump government. He remotely communicated with the second British rump Parliament in Truro, Cornwall, who recognized his kingship, and met with an emergency church council to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury-in-exile.

Months later, Truro was hit by a secondary nuclear strike, as was Bakersfield. The Archbishop was confirmed dead, while the king was presumed dead and never heard from again. James, the Earl of Wessex and a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was next in line for the British throne. The small naval flotilla that had escaped from the Falklands named him King James III on board the deck of the HMS Forth, and brought him to the South Atlantic isle of St. Helena, where he stayed for two years. Back in the United Kingdom, a third rump government had formed on Holyhead Island, off the coast of Wales. When James III landed in Holyhead, he appointed a new Archbishop to the years-vacant office.

Britain, although severely weakened and depopulated, with one of the world’s lowest survival rates, at least has continuity of government, and the authority of the King, and his Parliament is not disputed. The authority of the Archbishop, however, is; the Global South Fellowship, a body of conservative Anglicans roughly corresponding to the lands of the former British Empire, broke with the monarchy and elected their own Primate in Mombasa, Kenya. The schism has still not yet healed, and there remain two rival Archbishops of Canterbury, neither of whom live in or have any connection to Canterbury itself.

Within the United States, most of the small Anglican Communion belongs to the Episcopal Church, whose headquarters are now in Laconia, New Hampshire. The smaller, more conservative Anglican Church in North America, which recognizes the Mombasa Primate, is based in Elizabeth City. Here, again, the São Paulo connection comes into play, as the small Brazilian Anglican community belongs to the Global South Fellowship.

The Anglican Communion’s inability to effectively respond to the crises brought on by the Great War has also caused many Anglicans and Episcopalians to split off from the Church and form their own local denominations. Marksville, Louisiana—now known as New Alexandria—is home to a fundamentalist “Patriarch of Alexandria” who styles himself the primate of the “Church of the United States.” The most high-profile instance of an Anglican schism in America is the Kingdom of the Ozarks’ Evangelical Church of the Ozarks, a schismatic Anglican Church in North America created by King Malcolm to support his rule. The Church of the Ozarks is a big tent denomination which incorporates aspects of other Protestant denominations and some new fundamentalist principles of its own, however, and cannot rightly be called Anglican anymore.

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American Protestant Churches

Most Protestant churches lack the rigid, hierarchical structure of the Catholics, Anglicans, or Orthodox. These churches, which include the Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, had initial struggles over a lack of leadership, but have since gotten back on track. The Missouri Synod Lutherans, for instance, now outnumber the Evangelical Lutherans and tend to enjoy more political influence in the lands they inhabit.

Other churches, like the Southern Baptists or the Church of Christ, already have an autonomous structure that can operate independent of central leadership. These churches experienced less logistical difficulties during the Starving Time than their episcopal counterparts, but also had greater difficulty in reining in heterodox pastors or pastor-warlords who took up arms over their very particular ideas about God.

So far, this article has mostly only discussed the structure and leadership of Christian churches. But more important than that is what they actually believe, and how it’s changed since the Great War. Within the Protestant American world, these developments are generally referred to as the Fifth Great Awakening.

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The Fifth Great Awakening

This term denotes the wide range of Protestant revival movements that swept the country following the Great War. In times of crisis, there are two directions in which people are drawn: the comfort of tradition, and the disillusionment with traditions that had failed to protect them from the crisis. As such, American Protestantism was pulled in two different directions, and the Fifth Great Awakening can be divided between two broad classes of movements: fundamentalism and millenarianism. Some add a third class: heterodoxy, though most Christians would refuse to consider heterodox movements Christian at all, and not deserving of being included with the rest of the Great Awakening.

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Battle flag of the Evangelical American Republic, flown only by the military in times of war. The peace flag is similar, but lacks a motto or charge, the canton is larger, and the red bordure is replaced by a red side sinister.

Fundamentalism

This doesn’t necessarily imply militant religious zealotry, as many readers might initially guess. It simply means a return to fundamentals which believers felt were lost by a “watered-down” faith. All throughout the country, even in states where irreligion held the majority of the population before the war, big tent revivals stoked the flames of Christian fundamentalism. Both among the refugee encampments and within the walls of quarantined safe zones, pastors and laymen alike turned to fundamentalist principles to light their way forward. The practice isn’t unique to Protestantism, either; Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians also experienced fundamentalist revivals, in their own respective fashions.

Several “Army of God” factions that can be found across the country promote extreme versions of fundamentalist Christianity. Alamo, Nevada, Lovell, Wyoming, and Portsmouth, Ohio, are all seats of such armies. Other factions, like Louisiana’s Beauregard Parish, the Evangelical American Republic, the Heartland Social Republic, or the Alaskan Empire aren’t explicitly theocratic states, but strongly promote some kind of fundamentalist Christian movement. Beauregard Parish is unique for harboring one of the country’s largest Catholic fundamentalist movements, the Order of St. Amos, while the Heartland Social Republic is allied with a renewed SSPX order. The Order of St. Amos is a daunting topic and better reserved for the Louisiana article, as it is intrinsically linked with the history of the state.

Fundamentalism often concerns itself with social and political issues that they believe are affecting the faith of the people, and different movements concern themselves with different issues. Some accuse the antebellum society of its godlessness and vanity, targeting secularism and atheism and its continued hold over parts of America. Others identified greed as the principal evil, and attacked those who sought answers through political ideologies instead of Christ. And still others preached against the such controversial topics as abortion, homosexuality, and sexual sin in general.¹

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Soldiers from the Armageddon Authority, an uncommonly well-organized millenarian militia based in Lumberton, North Carolina. Blending right-wing militia rule with theocracy and legitimate local government, the eclectic Authority’s stated aim is to prepare for and survive the End Times.

Millenarianism

Not quite as widespread as fundamentalism but much broader in scope is millenarianism, a collection of apocalyptic religious movements. Many, but not all of them, viewed the Great War and its aftermath as being somehow related to the End Times of Biblical prophecy. Others, at the very least, viewed the war through some kind of apocalyptic, eschatological lens. Mystics and miracle workers multiplied throughout the country during the Starving Time. These wandering holy men preached new gospels and messages of their own to the desperate, cold, and hungry, who were disillusioned with their old beliefs and eager for answers.

Many of these mystics amassed a fanatical following of militant zealots and took up arms as warlord bands, attempting to conquer a Kingdom of God for themselves. Most of them fizzled out and died quickly amidst the anarchy of the Starving Time, and the believers who were not slain quietly slinked away to other faiths or abandoned religion altogether. A few still survive today, though only one of them—the Purified Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ Kingdom of God in America—can be considered truly powerful. The True Disciples of Christ’s Kingdom of God in Benton, Kentucky, may have gone further, if they weren’t hemmed in by unfavorable geography and powerful, hostile neighbors.

Other millenarian movements didn’t take the path of warlordism, but instead developed into cults or marginally acceptable religious denominations, some of which still remain extant today. These movements tended to identify the Great War and its associated evils with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and searched and hoped for yet another Horseman, whose Rider is called Faithful and True, to return to the Earth and save them. Many millenarian preachers identified themselves with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and others chose similarly related figures, such as the alleged Archangel Michael in Gettysburg, South Dakota. As none of these figures are, in fact, the real Second Coming of Jesus Christ, these movements have to wrangle with the question of what happens when their Messiahs age, dwindle, and die. Again, most movements die out by that point or were already dead long ago, but some have the devotion to carry on even without their leader, as is the case in New Jerusalem, formerly Rensselaer, Indiana.

There are innumerable smaller millenarian sects, although they grow fewer and smaller as time goes on and the excitement of an anticipated apocalypse subsides. The most popular millenarian movement, surpassing even the Purified LDS, is the Tishbite Movement, named after Brother Elijah, a charismatic wonderworker who sparked a wildfire movement that spread throughout the eastern US. The intricacies of Brother Elijah’s theology and the Tishbite movement are better reserved for some other article: likely South Carolina, as that is the state with the largest Tishbite presence. To briefly overview them, there is no one official Tishbite church, as Brother Elijah’s ministry only lasted for two years before his disappearance, but there are many different churches who follow Elijah’s theology and apply their own, varying, interpretations. The Tishbites are generally “low church” Christians, but the movement is extremely broad and ranges from decentralized charismatic Christianity to old school, “high church” Protestantism. The Tishbites’ opinions on Brother Elijah himself differ; some consider him merely a contemporary hero of the faith, others hold him to be a prophet, and still others believe he was the real Biblical Elijah, come back to Earth as one of the Two Witnesses of Biblical prophecy.

Whatever the movement, millenarians are generally disliked by governmental authorities wherever they can be found. They tend to be very insular and independent and are seldom fond of respecting government authority—there are a lot of different people in America who have been charged with the accusation of “Antichrist” at some point or another. The Dodge City government of the United States has long contended with insurrectionist millenarian movements, to the point that it now has a general dislike of Christianity itself and has taken on an anti-clerical stance.

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Heterodoxy

Among the countless religious movements that briefly flourished during and after the Starving Time, many were what could broadly be referred to as “heterodox.” There is nothing to unite these groups together other than the vague sense of spirituality that does not conform to Nicene Christianity. Beyond that qualification, movements of all stripes can be found here: neo-pagans, New Age spiritualists, post-Christian cults, Satanists, Santa Muerte, and—depending on who you ask—Mormons.

Others heterodox movements gained followers through their open rejection and scorn of Christian orthodoxy, trying to escape as far as possible from the old American faith. Here can be seen the pagans, spiritualists, devil-worshippers, and other occult practitioners.

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Mormonism

Mormonism is perhaps America’s oldest “new religious movement,” and blurs the lines between what can and can’t be considered Christian. That distinction has only grow vaguer since the Great War as new movements within the Latter Day Saint world rise. The principal Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, much like the Roman Catholic Church, evacuated to São Paulo and reconvened from there. It continues to guide the LDS Church in America from afar, but has experienced greater difficulty in preserving its flock than Catholicism.

The millenarian, fundamentalist Purified Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (PLDS), which dominates central Utah, has eschewed many of the characteristic trappings of Mormonism in favor of a more restorationist approach. They reject the Mormon doctrines of the godhead, of exaltation, and the plan of salvation. Instead, they subscribe to a sola fide mode of salvation and believe in the Nicene conception of the Holy Trinity. They keep the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price in their Biblical canon, but have removed many of the other articles of the LDS Doctrine & Covenants. They can be likened to a more hierarchical, militant, and socially conservative counterpart to the Community of Christ church, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; like the PLDS, the CoC split with mainstream Mormon leadership in the 19th Century over similar issues. They tend to think of themselves as having more in common with other Protestants than with rival Mormon churches; the Kingdom of God in America grants official toleration to Nicene Christians, but not to other Mormons.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), who maintains many beliefs that are at odds with Nicene Christianity, Purified Mormons, and even orthodox Mormons. The most famous of these is their continued practice of polygamy and arranged marriages, codified in their doctrine as plural marriage and placement marriage, respectively. Other tenets are included in the FLDS Church as well, such as the Adam—God Doctrine, Serpent Seed (the infamous belief about certain races being the Children of Satan), and plain dress codes. While the FLDS was a small, fringe movement before the war, they gained a large new host of disillusioned converts and are now the dominant religious movement in southwest Utah and southern Nevada.

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Other Christian Movements

The Mormons are only the first among many heterodox sects that still might be considered Christian under certain criteria. Though heterodoxy is spurred on by a disillusionment with established religion, some still find comfort in at least the symbols and iconography of the traditional faith. Other such movements which blend Christianity with foreign spirituality include the 11th Hour Salvation Church of God—in which Jesus Christ is identified as the Maitreya Buddha—or the New Apostolic Temple; both of these can also be classified as millenarian movements, as can the Purified Mormon church.

Last is the Christian Identity movement, primarily found within the confines of the Northwest American Republic. The C.I. Church melds Protestantism with white nationalist ideology in a manner different from other far right currents within Christianity. The core distinctions of C.I. is the complex, sometimes mentally torturous process by which the Biblical covenant between God and the Israelites is transferred from the Jews to European peoples. C.I. is a broad movement and ideas on how this works differ; some simply chalk it down to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ establishing a new covenant. Others argue that the Indo-European peoples themselves are descended from the Biblical Israelites and cite the legendary wanderings of the lost tribes of Israel and the Book of Maccabees’ assertion that Sparta was a Hebrew colony.

The intensity of C.I. beliefs varies as well. Some believe that all men are created in God’s image, even if they are not equal, while others do not even believe that nonwhites are even recognizably human. C.I. is not a very centralized movement and allows for a great diversity in belief, as long as that belief is by and for white people. Whatever their particular leanings, Christian Identity forms the majority of the NAR’s Christian population and is its only legal church. There is ongoing dialogue within the NAR about establishing an Old Catholic church as an alternative to São Paulo, and there are similar concerns about legalizing Mormonism and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

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Paganism

Though paganism has always held some degree of cultural influence over western cultures, it ceased to exist as an organized religious movement until very recently. Modern-day pagan movements can broadly be categorized as either eclectic, reconstructionist, ecological, or ethnoreligious in nature. Eclectic pagans seek broad inspiration from the pre-Christian world and even from select parts of Christianity. Reconstructionists, meanwhile, seek to accurately reconstruct the practices of pagan Europe based on whatever information they have access to; since the already-scant records of traditional paganism were made even more inaccessible by the war, this has rendered reconstructionist paganism a very fringe movement. Ecological pagans are a fringe pantheist, naturalistic movement that places a heavy emphasis on Gaia, the mother earth. Ethnoreligious pagans try to reconstruct pagan movements based around a specific national or ethnic identity, like Hellenism, Celtic mythology, or Germanic mythology; such exclusive movements tend to be very far-right in character.

Because of the difficulty in constructing an organized pagan movement and winning over followers for it, there are very few outright pagan factions in America. There are a handful of warlord bands that take on a culturally pagan demeanor, such as the Battle Axes of South Dakota or the Pagans motorcycle club in Virginia. The only explicitly pagan faction large enough to be found on a map is New Vinland in Minnesota. The faction is led by the neo-pagan mystic Sigurd Loken, leader of the “Great Heathen Army.” As the most powerful and influential pagan in America, Loken is also paganism’s most controversial figure due to his alleged Christian syncretism. He denies the charge and maintains his hatred for Christianity, but one cannot help but think that his belief of a resurrected, self-sacrificial Thor saving humanity from Ragnarök bears some resemblance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

After New Vinland, the largest organized pagan movement in the former United States is the Old Believers Association, an ethnic, political, and religious association for non-Christian religious movements within the Northwest American Republic. The OBA includes Asatru, Wotansvolk, Nordic Faith, and Wicca and Druidic organizations to govern pagan worship within the Republic. The Old Believers form a substantial political faction within the Northwest Independence Party, and generally a rift has been growing between the pagans, Christians, and irreligious of the NAR. A long-standing stereotype within the Northwest Front movement is that the core territories, centered on Idaho, are more pagan while the outlying frontier is more Christian; a similar trope is that the women of the Republic are more Christian while the men are more pagan. Despite the tension between Christians and pagans in the NAR, there have been efforts by the government to curtail it. Christians are already heavily restricted in terms of public outreach, while explicitly anti-Christian agitators are barred from the OBA and restricted from preaching inflammatory messages.

Other pagan movements tend to be more eclectic and occult in nature. There is a substantial rise in Thelema, Theosophy, Wicca, and Druidism, although they are scattered throughout the country and lack the centrality to bring their forces to bear on the map. The only exceptions are a handful of small factions like the I AM Temple straddling the border with Maine and New Brunswick, or the Ascended Ancient Teachings Society which overthrew the Caddo County government in Oklahoma. The collapse of the United States didn’t lead to an enlightening pagan sweep like how some believers hoped it would, but it similarly failed to produce any Second Coming of Christ or mass salvation of the country through any particular Church. Despite what some would consider a disappointing turnout, paganism has earned its stay in America on a small scale for the foreseeable future.

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Satanists

The most extreme degree of disillusionment with traditional Christianity results not in the rejection of religious belief, but the alignment with the enemy of God: Satan. Satanism is an even more fringe movement than neo-paganism, but because of the radicalism of its members, it is better able to manifest itself on the map. There are numerous devil-worshipping cults in America, such as the Lightbringers in Antonito, Colorado, Baal’s Army in Vincennes, Indiana, and Anarchy 666 in Martinsville, Virginia. Many of these cults are just vicious bandits who employ their beliefs as an excuse to rape, plunder, and murder with impunity, though a handful really believe that they are striking down a cruel and vengeful Christian God.

The largest and most organized of these sects is the Haggmannist Temple of Satan, founded by Texan refugee and mystic Martin Haggmann. Haggmannism, also called Neo-Satanism, is a libertine sect that worships Lucifer as a freedom fighter against God. They have a loose sway over a certain kind of countercultural dissident in much of the southern Great Plains and even have been recognized by the USA-Dodge City as a legitimate, tax-exempt religious institution. In terms of their devotion and spirituality, they can be placed somewhere between the fully occult theistic Satanists—which are more prominent throughout the Great Lakes states—and the atheistic LaVeyans. They believe that God and Satan are real, literal figures, but do not claim to outright worship the devil as a deity. The nucleus of their spiritual and political presence is in the Satanist Emancipation Council, a large and well-organized militia based in Emporia, Kansas.

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Santa Muerte

The final major religious current worth exploring in this article is Santa Muerte, a collection of mostly Mexican folk-Catholic beliefs that have taken a course of their own since the Great War. Santa Muerte possibly dates as far back as the Spanish colonization of the Americas or even earlier, and incorporates syncretic Mesoamerican pagan practices with Roman Catholicism. By the 21st Century, a sizable cult to the quasi-goddess of death had formed throughout much of North America. The veneration of the saint involves its own rituals and is heavily associated with Mexican and Mexican-American criminals and homosexuals. The cult prospered among Latin-American drug cartels, who enforced worship among their members and built up a parallel pantheon of cartel saints. Some worshippers resorted to human sacrifice in order to appease the goddess, though most only made presented offerings of candles, cigarettes, alcohol, food, flowers, or money.

Surrounded by death and peril, it is no wonder that millions of Latin Americans turned to the Lady for protection and comfort following the Great War. The cult is the majority religion among Latin-Americans on both sides of the antebellum US-Mexico border, and has continued to spread both north and south into central Mexico and the western United States. Santa Muerte, literally “the Holy Death,” sounds awkward when directly translated, so the small (yet growing) English-speaking community typically refers to her as the White Lady or Lady Death.

A particular strain of the cult has taken root in Aztlan, where President Hidalgo has propped her up as a staple of his rule. The White Lady is officially the Patron Saint of Aztlan, by Hidalgo’s proclamation, and worship is enforced by the Aztlan federal government and some state of its state governments. The Aztlan state-sponsored Santa Muerte cult—officially the Communion of the Catholic Church under the Protection of Our Lady of Holy Death—differs from some other variants of the cult through its eclectic implementation of other religious beliefs and practices. It bears a resemblance to Charismatic Christianity with its energetic worship and emphasis on gifts of faith. The highest levels of the Communion’s hierarchy, including President Hidalgo himself, also dabble in the Rosicrucian occult and believe in a cycle of rebirth and reincarnation. The Communion’s most infamous practice is human sacrifice, conducted annually by the Aztlan elite in a highly ritualized ceremony. Their victims include convicts, captives taken from defeated factions, and political prisoners—people whom no one in Aztlan would miss, and would in fact rejoice over their grisly execution. The Mexican government is officially neutral towards Santa Muerte, and takes no stance towards it, nor does it take any stance towards the Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church already denounced Santa Muerte before the Great War and maintains their vehement opposition to all forms of the cult to this day. Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the position in a formal statement ex cathedra in the late 2030s, and traditionalist Catholics continue to wave his burning words as wards against the cult throughout the Americas. Within Aztlan territory and just beyond their frontiers, there is a large, organized Catholic resistance movement, known as the Orden de Cristo Rey. As shorthand, Cristo Rey typically refers to the civilian, clerical-political order of Mexican and Mexican-American Catholics in communion with the Holy See. Their military arm, the Ejército de Cristo Rey, is more informally known as the Cristero movement. The Cristeros are a small, but capable and ever-growing guerilla army that continuously wages war on the Aztlan frontier. As Aztlan pushes further north and east into Texas, the Cristeros’ Mexican-American core is beginning to be supplemented by a growing number of Anglo-American Catholics who are taking up arms in the defense of the faith.

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Index

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1. These topics were less controversial following the Great War, when most liberals were killed and the people who remained had more pressing matters to attend to than arguing over six-week bans or gay marriage. Most factions who have an official stance on abortion or homosexuality outlaw such practices, as they want as high of a birthrate as they can possibly get.