The Holy-Mendicant Order of St. Joseph of Cupertino

If you have to deal with some sort of governing body out in the colonial sectors, make sure it's the Cupertinans. The governments are a bit iffy when it comes to trustworthiness and how well they interact with us simple spacers. More than a few of the ambitious colonial systems have been known to conscript spacers in need to their own fleets or the corporate ones charge such a high price that you end up indebted so deeply you've got no choice to work for years to pay off. But them Cupertinans, despite being priests or monks or some such, they're like us. Like to be left alone to pursue their work to their best, don't like getting involved in politics or wars. More than willing to help somebody out without expecting anything in return. And they care about the important things- freedom, quiet, peace, collaboration, and equal partnerships. They live by the spacer's code, even if they call it something else. Benedictine rules or something. Doesn't matter, but they can be trusted not to take advantage of you, or kidnap your or anything else. | Van Cliffton, Licensed Diesel Engineer, Third Class

Structure

Operating under the auspices, funding, and authority of The Coalition of Terran-Based Religions , the Cupertinan Order is organized in the manner of a monastic order. On Terra, the Grand-Abbot oversees the highest level of the Order within the various Terra-based religions and Christian sects. However, beyond that, and acting as an ambassador to the Terran governments and closest colonies, he or she has little day-to-to day authority over the functioning of the Order. It's simply too dispersed and distant in regions of space without infrastructure to easily communicate back and forth. Rather, monastery-worlds are the key organizational component of the Cupertinan order, before they are opened to full colonization. These have an Abbot or Abbess overseeing the world's operations. They act as spiritual advisors and leaders for the monks and nuns engaged in the process of terraforming, their families, and support staff, as well as the chief engineer of the project. Beneath the Abbot or Abbess, there are a variety of departments focusing on different aspects of the process, overseen by respective Supervisors. Each world is autonomous until the world is opened up for colonization, at which point, the Cupertinans sell off vast tracts of lands to governments, corporations, and other organizations, or donate if need be, to assign land and initial resources to a variety of colonies. With this completed, the Cupertinans disassemble and load their equipment into a colony ship and move on to a new world to restart the process.
ORGANIZATION Grand Abbot -Central Monastery of Luna Autonomous Abbots/Abbesses Supervisory Friars Monks/Nuns

Culture

The culture of the Cupertinan Order is healthy, trusting, contemplative, borderline mystical, cheerful, and optimistic. Unlike other religions orders, even within the Ecumenical Christian Coalition, there is no chance for wealth or great power that once was synonymous with religious organizations like the Benedictine Blackfriars. Nor is there a chance for fame, as members of the Order will rapidly find themselves on the farthest fringes of human space, as soon as the next colony ship is ready to depart and establish a new monastery-world. Those who join the Order are those seeking greater spiritual growth and connection to the Lord, a chance for new beginnings, adventure, and the chance to discover new worlds and help establish a better future for humanity. This pervades the entire order, with even the most technical engineers having a rich spiritual life in a variety of practices and communities. Over the course of their life, every member of the Order on a monastery-world will have a deep and comprehensive theological education, fostering sharp minds, keen intellects, and an appetite for the search of truth on all levels.

Public Agenda

Cupertinan's public agenda is quite simple. They exist within the Ecumenical Christian Coalition as the primary Christian religious order dedicated to colonizing uninhabited worlds and to help humans spread across the galaxy, and caring for the spiritual needs of those who dwell in space and on the frontier. Their mission is broken into three goals: 1. The exploration, surveying, and charting of uninhabited worlds for future human colonization efforts. 2. Establishing, overseeing, and completing terraforming projects to turn uninhabited, inhospitable planets into worlds capable of independently supporting human life. 3. Maintain and ensure these human colonies have adequate spiritual support in their personal, social, and environmental spheres of living by maintaining small parishes and church communities in human colonies.

Assets

All things, considered- the Cupertinan Order is one of the wealthiest organizations in Human Colonial Space, as long as cash is not considered, because their wealth is not in easily accessible cash, although they do have enormous accounts with the Colonial Commerce Guild, primarily from their sale of lands in worlds that are opened to colonization, but also tithes and donations, though those are primarily addressed to the local groups of the order rather than the Cupertinan Order as a whole. The bulk of their wealth, however, is in colonial lands, facilities, ships, and works of art created on the monastery-worlds during the process to record their history and events. Given the expenses of terraforming and colonizing, the vast amount of wealth is misleading, as it is not something that allows for members to live richly or lavishly. Almost all of its income and wealth saved from the previous set of sales will be used up in the development of the next worlds. If they were a business, they would be barely surviving. Their off-shoot, the Knights-Stellarum are better off, however, as they have a steady income from working for various colony worlds to protect against piracy, smuggling, and other things, as well as the sale of seized pirate vessels and assets, as well as donations from a wide variety of sources.

History

Established in the mid-20th century on Terra, the Holy-Mendicant Order of St. Joseph of Cupertino was created in the first Ecumenical Council between the assorted Christian sects as the first ecumenical holy order from the combined three branches of Christianity- Roman Catholic, Protestantism, and Orthodox as their contribution to the The Coalition of Terran-Based Religions in preparation for the first wave of colonization efforts of the Sol system. The Cupertinans, as they became known, were the first to establish the terraforming base on Mars, Mercury, and Venus, with other orders from the other religions preparing for the second wave of the systems beyond the asteroid belt, which made navigation nearly impossibly at the time. Starting off with three ships per world, (The Apostle Peter, The Apostle Andrew, The Apostle James, The Apostle John, The Apostle Philip, The Apostle Bartholomew, The Apostle Thomas, The Apostle Matthew, The Apostle Junia, The Apostle Thaddeus, The Apostle Simon, The Apostle Barnabas) the Cupertinans launched themselves into space in the first colonization fleet to depart Earth's orbit. Not all the ships arrived, being lost to mechanical difficulties or crew error, but most made it to their destination where they were able to establish their inhabitable monastery-complexes composed of all genders, predominantly married (an exception to most monastic and holy orders). There, they established themselves on the three planets and began the centuries-long terraforming process. Nearly six hundred years later, the initial stages of those colonization attempts are finally coming to fruition. Mercury, Venus, and Mars are almost completely inhabitable along with Terra, and have allowed the rapidly crowding Terran governments to give their citizens the choice (willing or not) to set their roots anywhere in these new worlds, with many eager to rapidly establish fully functioning, self-sufficient colonies as quickly as possible, within the divisions brokered by the Coalition between the various governments. With governments staking their claims and taking more active roles in the administration of these colonies, the Cupertinans have begun withdrawing much of their presence and influence from the worlds, leaving only those necessary to maintain the terraforming equipment and the monastery grounds across the planets. In the meantime, however, starship and terraforming technology have progressed rapidly, with the Cupertinans taking the lead in many of the instances of human colonization, pushing the borders of human space further and further out into the galaxy, setting up waves of terraforming monasteries to pave the way for later colony ships once planets could support the larger populations. It has not always been easy for the Cupertinans, as there have been numerous examples of jealous governments and corporations seizing the order's assets--ships, money, facilities, even people-- for their own advantages, and they fell under heavy attack during the Second Solarian Nazi Suppression Conflict when both the Third Reich Remnants and Allied Anti-Fascist Coalition conscripted both resources and personnel to fuel their efforts. It was after this that the Cupertinans adopted and studied the ways of their Shaolin brethren and established the offshoot order, the Knights-Stellarum to protect their monastery worlds and their people. The order proved itself crucial in the next two centuries as as a scourge of piracy and inter-colonial conflicts erupted across Human Colonial Space without any central efforts by the primary Terran nations to secure their colonies. The Coalition took on the main role of organizing defenses against piracy and eventually brokering peace between the various factions, while the Terran governments were occupied with a series of colonial border wars within the Sol system itself, instigated by more Third Reich Remnant provocateurs in a concerted conspiracy to usurp the governments. Following this, the Great Colonial War broke out between the Terran governments, their colonies, and by extension, the most developed colonies beyond the Sol System for independence and self-rule. The largest, most destructive war in Human Colonial Space, pitting all of the major powers against each other, and fundamentally altering the political and economic landscape of humans in the galaxy. The Sol System was reorganized into the Old Terran Confederacy, with the major Terran powers uniting into a single economic and political entity, on all planets within the system. In this time, the Cupertinan influence diminished as they responded to these wars and conflicts by removing themselves from the Inner and Middle Colonial Regions to the frontier where they could continue their mission most effectively, and taking their knightly order with them. For now, they again reside nearly completely only on the edge of Human space, building colony ships, terraforming worlds, and scouting out the next ring of worlds to colonize.