If you'd like to throw a curve ball to your players on strong possibility is in the character of the church. While most people are going to assume the old fashioned Catholic Church with its medieval character it would almost make sense that it's taken some turns over the ages, especially with the strong Latin American influence in the Jovian Republic. I strongly recommend reading at least a little bit on the Liberation Theology movement (Basic history http://www.landreform.org/boff2.htm). This would provide an unusual take on the Church which would surprise players and make the Jovians feel quite a bit more sympathetic, even if you leave pretty much everything else as written.

I forget, what does Rimward mention about the Pope, if anything? I know it said the Pope got their own transport off of Earth, but the Pope's identity itself is open to GM interpretation. …I keep imagining it being the first female Pope.

Jesus never ordained any white men (I think?) but plenty of them have been Pope. But yes, the RCC can be pretty stubborn. I wouldn't be surprised to see some non-white papacies by the time of EP, but attempts to elect female Popes would probably result in another schism. (Or even to appoint female cardinals. Regular priests... Maaaaaybe.)

Erulastant wrote:

Regular priests... Maaaaaybe.)

Nope, ordination is ordination. However, you may see female deacons.

I'm really amazed at how well this thread has gone on without getting nasty. I just wanted to add a couple of my thoughts upon reading it as a new player. 1) I personally don't find the idea of moons being named after neo-conservative 'heroes' to be ridiculous or cartoonish. If you take the timeline as canon, you're talking that the setting is, what, 80-100 years in the future? Given medical advances and the persistence of very conservative ideologies, it would not surprise me in the least to see at least some morphs that actually knew of (or were) some of the younger figures in our history. If you want an idea, remember Tom Petty in the movie The Postman, when a dazed Kevin Costner says, 'I know you. You were famous.' 2) I pretty much agree with the idea that the Jovians are terrified of what the TITANs did (and could do in the future), but I'd also argue that one of the primary reasons to want to live there is security. Even if you're self limiting in a way that the corebook says most transhumans find horrifying, there's plenty of history that shows a large portion of humanity is quite willing to allow for a loss of personal freedoms in place of security. In particular, I'm reminded of an old quote: "The world can live with tyranny but not with anarchy." They may be restrictive, but they have a powerful military and they don't lean on the same technology that was used to butcher the human race. 3) There's a section in the corebook that describes the comparisons of transhumans and flats that I think carries over to the political/economic argument - one side looks at the other from a position of obvious 'superiority', and I'm sure it rankles a lot of people that the groups that most embrace transhumanism seem to be making out the best in the new reality - but it just may be that that's what happens. No one really complains that agricultural societies fared so much better than hunter/gatherer ones that the latter just almost completely stopped existing because of it. Maybe the Jovians are just comfortable in their curmudgeonly society which will surely fall apart at some point, and certainly seems to be in decline right now.

Aye. The Jovian bioconservatism may actually turn out to be a winning edge against certain x-risks.