The old religions that centered on worship of the divine collapsed very shortly after the Great Cataclysm 1776 years ago, which saw the deaths of the gods and the destruction of all magic in the mortal realm. The complete unwillingness or inability for faith to manifest miracles anymore quickly led to a disillusionment in the concept of religion, though there are still various cults and sects that believe that the long silence of the divine is still just some sort of test. Others have discovered or rediscovered the secret and forbidden ways to contact mad gods who survived the Cataclysm, but that way lies madness and corruption.

Instead of faith-based religions, most of the world has come to embrace reason-based philosophies. These include:

*Accordance: communal action and subservience to the group leads to peace and greatness; the official philosophy of the military, paramilitary, and indeed the governing Hegemony itself *Alethism: all laws can all be understood, and through knowledge comes power; includes scientists, inventors, archivists, and lawyers *Arctavianism: greatness comes from discovering one's place and one's path, and then working hard to express that potential with full commitment; something of an official philosophy for artists and craftsmen who create things of great value *Firestarting: authority is inherently corrupt, so cast down those in charge and drag everyone else into the light of truth, kicking and screaming if necessary; anarchists, revolutionaries, and conspiracy theorists *Freethinkers: philosophy is hogwash, just leave us alone; essentially libertarians and atheists, or at least agnostics; commonly explorers and homesteaders *Furies: entropy is unstoppable, therefore it's the whole point; some Enders are violent nihilists, others are desperate hedonists, and a few stoically make peace with the futility of existence *Keepers: temporal power leads to all good things - wealth, respect, even simple survival - so get powerful by any means necessary; commonly businessmen, politicians, and thieves *Madmen: chaos and randomness are fundamental to the universe, so embrace that; cultivate disorder, immodesty, irreverence, randomness, and contradiction in daily life; many are vagrants and anarchists, others are artists and mathematicians *Perfectionism: the universal rhythm is something one can live in tune with, if one is silent; stilling one's thoughts and subsuming the self allows one to hear the song of the universe and become fully part of it; many monks and psychics are drawn to Perfection *Psychopompism: The deaths of the gods is allegorical to the state of ongoing death experienced by all things - certainly, everyone must have died in the Cataclysm, for life is hell; but embrace one's own death, and pass on; stoics, caretakers for the dead, funeral councillors, etc. *Repudism: cynics for whom the deaths of the gods show that nothing was divine and nothing is worth blind devotion; focus on what is real and test it constantly; excellent educators, engineers, and explorers *Actualism: empiricists and hedonists who believe the universe contains all sorts of secrets, but they can only be understood though personal experience; you should try anything at least once; includes artists, druggies, explorers, and tourists *Dreamers: solipsists and sophists who believe that each individual is the source of his/her own personal reality, and someone is dreaming everything else - each claims to be the prime dreamer; despite their egotism, they are also diplomatic and fair, just in case they're wrong *The Lost: despairing in the innate divinity or worthiness of any truth, the Lost claim there is no intrinsic meaning out there and nothing really matters, except for what personal meanings one can find; paradoxically, common philanthropists and caretakers for those broken by the mad universe *The Vigil: the righteous feelings of fury and vengeance in the face of injustice show that crime must be punished for goodness to be safe; bountyhunters, executioners, vigilantes, and dungeon-keepers