Morality's Path

Morality's Path -- in Zdetl, Tavrziansh -- is one of the major belief systems within Zhodani Space.

• Some Terran observers have likened it more to spiritualism than an organized religion, per se.

Description (Specifications)

The Zhodani Consulate promotes this quasi-religious philosophy as accepted truth. Its adherents (virtually the entire Zhodani population within the Consulate) strive to pass through various life cycles and eventually unite with the universal energy field by leading virtuous lives. Zhodani are prohibited from subscribing to other faiths. According to Morality's Path, the "good" of a personality is recycled into new living beings for fulfilling its duties in life, while the "bad" of a personality is permanently lost.

The central text for this philosophy is Fevranzhtavr (the Book of Morality). A small academic organization, the "guardians of the book" or Fevranzhtavrchedl', oversees Morality's Path. Every 50 years or so they release a slightly modified version of the book.

Merit in this philosophy is associated with psionic power. When a member of the prole class displays psionic power, it is interpreted as a sign of his or her devotion to duty in previous cycles -- greater duties are a reward. This is also a sign of past devotion in the family of such a prole. The gradual spread of psionic potential within the Consulate is taken as proof that the Zhodani as a society are behaving well, in line with their duty as a race.

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Heretical Offshoots

Several "Unabsorbed" worlds in the Zhodani Consulate have non-standard interpretations of Morality's Path.

Batlpat (Ziafrplians 1326) has introduced the Fevranzhvlastavr or 'book of superior morality', based on revisions to the Fevranzhtavr. Its leaders proclaim the world to be following the Vlastiansh -- the superior path -- and the class distinctions between Noble, Intendant and Prole have been discarded.

The oppressive government of Inzhishfiet (Knoellighz 0424), meanwhile, considers psionics a sign of holy purity and lack of psionic potential as degeneracy -- a lack of soul or spirit in the individual. Those who fail psionic testing in youth must, by law, be marginalized through being sent to live on the planet's tumultuous seas.

References & Contributors (Sources)

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This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Loren Wiseman. "Contact! The Zhodani." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 09 (1981): 8-11.
• Marc Miller. Expedition to Zhodane (Game Designers Workshop, 1981), 40-43.
• John Harshman, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman. Library Data (N-Z) (Game Designers Workshop, 1982), 32-33.
• Marc Miller. The Traveller Book (Game Designers Workshop, 1982), 156.
• Loren Wiseman. "Zhodani Philosophies, by Brienshqloriashav." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 23 (1985): 42-44.
• J. Andrew Keith, Marc Miller, John Harshman. Zhodani (Game Designers Workshop, 1985), 3-8,12-14.