You know, in a way, the whole nanite/biological enhancement thing between NF and BE could be considered in a way, religious. Cultural divide as it were. Supremacy of genetics, the body, versus supremacy of technology, the machine. HAH! Next thing we know, this is gonna turn into a Matrix clone.
well, i think thats the way it was intended to be looked at not really religious but more... cultural the 2 cultures are so opposite of each other in some ways that they could not coexist with a majority/minority rule coming in effect, people have waged war over "the other guys having a bigger nose overall" in the past for example so i dont think it is not unreasonable that if a country had 2 breeds so distinct as old jekotians and bertonian citizens (1 are strong and healthy people, enhanced muscles and body structure, possibly a tad bigger then there BE cousins and a whole lot stronger in pure body power, not a mindless brute but a smart and strong people, having overall the same technological capabilities as BE but accenting it on different fields and the BE normal looking humans, relying more on machines and automated machining to do the work for them clearly it shows the same differences the belgae gauls and the roman empire had, even 1 or 2 heads taller then the average roman (roman people being averagely small, belgae gauls being averagely large = extreme difference) the whole of gaul became forcefully "romanised" trough wealth and luxury importation (making them "want" to be roman), but eventually broke off of rome again at the first sign of trouble in roman capital appeared (think its 100 ad or something, cant remember out of my head) anyway, the similarities are striking in my opinion
The concept of this is pretty ancient I believe, i've read about similar concepts in hindu philosophy from thousand of years ago. I'd like to compare it to System Shock and the Thief trilogy, The Many vs SHODAN, Hammerites vs Pagans. Although I don't know how Megel envisioned it when he wrote the backstory.
The only religious stuff outlined in the canon is that the war that destroyed Jekotia was started over the discovery some ancient ruins. Both nations claimed rights to them, stating they were the true descendants of the lost civilization that built what became those ruins. War erupted, Jekotia fell, NF rebellion/insurrection began, you know the rest. Nanomechanical augmentation vs biological augmentation is purely philosophical, each side has a different belief in how they should be 'building better people', kind of like Bioshock and the whole splicing thing.
I thought both sides were atheists, since they've got no problem with body modifications and there are no religious icons in the canon and ingame.
having no problem with body mod's has nothing to do with religion, not all religions are against body mod's also, the bertonian cross or the northern faction 3 triangles could be religiously inspired symbols for all we know they come over atheistic to me too, but that is due to other reasons then you mentioned
wow, I never really thought about all this indepth stuff, I was just happy for them to slug it out and let me play the game
I suppose the ancient civilisation may be considered 'Holy'. Gawd...i've been here so long and still haven't read through Megel's epic storyline...
your loss, its a decently good read (decent as compared to novelists who do it for there job, f*cking awesome if you would mention he did it for a game...) edit, excuse my language, but its true...
Ya I know, i've read a fair few chapters, but then I sorta stopped when I started writing mine. Meep...!
Or religion could be so ingrained into each society that the background and subtext aren't explained explicitly.