Phoenix Point First Campaign Update
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The Fig campaign for Phoenix Point is off to a great start, with over half of the initial goal gathered in less than a day, according to the first progress update.
Apart from the encouraging news, the update also treats us to a piece of alien concept art, a short write-up on the game's soldiers, and a lengthy lore-filled analysis of one of the game's human factions - The Disciples of Anu. Here's an excerpt:
Preliminary analysis suggests that the Anu cult is a syncretic religion that arose in response to the global catastrophe, synthesizing elements of major Abrahamic religions with the beliefs of several pre-existing doomsday cults, some of which may have been previously investigated by the Phoenix Project. (It should be noted here that we have an index file that references an extended investigation into groups with apocalyptic beliefs matching certain patterns, but most of the actual files appear to have been lost at some point in the 2020s. If backups or hard copies exist, it would be tremendously useful to locate them.)
The worldview of the Anu cult is deeply misanthropic, seeing human nature as inherently (biologically) corrupt and technological civilization as incapable of saving itself. They view the mist as both punishment for human hubris and as an opportunity for salvation. Although details are scarce so far, particularly due to the group's secretive, extremely hierarchical nature and obscurantist language, it would appear that they are attempting to deliberately mutate human beings using the effects of the mist, while somehow making sure human intelligence is maintained in the resulting creatures.
The process appears to be far from fail-safe, but failure can easily be explained within the group's theology as insufficient belief in the teachings of the Exalted. The latter appears to be their spiritual leader and representative of a higher spiritual entity that may be referred to as "the Dead God" - but further research is necessary before we can even begin to guess at the potential significance of any of this.
Our encounters with the disciples of Anu have been peaceful; so far the frenzy to which the priests will frequently drive their followers seems to be mainly directed inward, as an expression of self-negation and dedication to the cause of physical transcendence. Their relationship with Synedrion is neutral; reports suggest that Synedrion is dedicated to respecting religious freedom, but philosophically hostile to hierarchies and obscurantism, and thus conflicted in its response to the Anu cultists. Hostilities seem more likely to break out with the genetic purists of New Jericho, but so far the two groups seem to be keeping their distance.
