Isma'ilis Deserve Better - Rewriting Mechnoir's Shiat al-Raj'a

Nizari village shrine in Porshnev, Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan

In what appears to be an inescapable pattern, I read through Mechnoir + its three transmissions as part of an attempt to learn more about the plot node maps that Technoir-derivatives employ and wound up with this. I might go back and form it into a proper transmission later, but I just wanted to get some ideas out for now. It's still too wordy for the typical TECH-ENV-SOC openers that transmissions employ, anyways.

Mechnoir is gonzo in a pretty fun way: definitely soft on the ol' sci-fi Mohs hardness scale and the three major factions dueling over Mars are clone cult Jehovah's Witnesses, mechboxing-obsessed anarchocommunists, and a celebrity NRM in "Hashashin" cosplay (two out of three are cults based on real world religions - an interesting choice.) All are probably worth exploring a bit more, but I was drawn to the Shiat al-Raj'a for much the same reason that I was to Eclipse Phase's Martian Sunnis/Profundans or Haqqislam from Infinity - I'm Muslim and take a perverse interest in tabletop content that centers around the Islamicate, almost always with the same painful results. I like to think of myself as inured to disappointments of this kind; studying African history while participating in a hobby where the Losthomeland orientation of Afrofantasy is rooted this deeply will kill your soul(s) quickly enough. Every so often, though, something will inch close enough to grasping something extremely cool that you get hurt when it falls short.

To be clear, I'm aware that the vibe they're going for is a distinct one - as mentioned, the Shiat al-Raj'a are the Assassins of historical myth (certainly not historical reality) crossed with Scientology. The references are very on the nose sometimes - even though the listing for Hadith 2.0 makes me want to die, Syn Rashid and the Qaf Mountaineers kinda loop back around to being awesome - but it's not really worth going all "Nizari Isma'ilis don't actually pray five times a day, their du'a ritual differs significantly from Sunni salat - ding!" over it**. They're doing their own thing, I get it. That being said, I dislike that the overwhelming majority of Isma'ili influences in fiction fixate around rehashings of the lurid accounts written by their enemies. The Shiat al-Raj'a here are no different - the image of the fanatical death cult reinforced by liberal executions of the wavering reappears, drugs as indoctrination tool + reward show up as Sama-soma, the imam at the center engaging in religious charlatanry to accrue wealth and status. It's boring...and honestly just a waste, considering how rich Isma'ili history is! The Neoplatonic thought of the Ikhwan al-Safa exercised a vast influence over subsequent Islamicate philosophy. The Isma'ili development of ta'wil principles for Qur'anic exegesis opened new theological horizons. Satpanthis in South Asia and Badakhshanis in the Himalayas formed deep and beautiful channels of interrelation between Hinduism, Buddhism, Yungdrung Bön and Islam. Even if we must be chained to narratives focused on states and war, there's so much more to the Isma'ilis - warrior-scholars whose brilliantly designed mountain strongholds housed some of Eurasia's most impressive libraries. Builders of one of the most significant empires of the Middle Ages. Survivors who weathered the Mongol extermination of their people, massacres conducted with such ferocity that many observers assumed the Nizari dispensation of Isma'ilism to have gone extinct as a religion sometime during the 1200s-1300s until they popped right back up, kept alive in the hearts of da'is and peasants. 

Like I said a bit earlier, part of why I felt especially let down by this supplement is that I believe there's actually synergy between modern Nizari history and some of the ideas that cyberpunk fiction tends to play with that a TTRPG could work with. I'll walk y'all through a couple of approaches.

A big one - the Nizari Imamate could, right now as you read this, easily be considered an early example of the blends between transnational non-state actor and post-Westphalian state that are so familiar from cyberpunk:

The organizational dynamics of the Isma'ili Muslim community raise important questions about the nature of citizenship and political identity at this moment in history. They present a basic challenge to theoretical and popular understandings of the state, of globalization, and of Islam. They point to a transformation in the relationship between territory and allegiance, a fundamental shift in the possibilities for sociopolitical organization. The Isma'ilis are widely scattered across the planet, but their community’s institutional infrastructure is highly centralized and provides for subjects a vast array of services, symbols, and social spaces. Isma'ili institutions penetrate deeply into participants’ lives; they suffuse the fabric of their daily activities. In this way, the complex of Isma'ili forms, processes, and structures seems to represent a new possibility for transnational social organization, for sociopolitical participation beyond the nation-state, for citizenship without territory. The Isma'ili community is neither national nor ethnic; it is bound neither to a territorial unit nor to a government; it is politically anomalous while it enjoys, in many contexts, legal recognition and autonomy; at its foundation is religion, and yet it provides for its members a staggering set of secular structures. While in some cases these services are provided in addition to those provided by the state, in others, where the state is either unwilling or unable, they are provided in the place of state infrastructure. Thus in some settings Isma'ilis live and move within a centralized, nonnational, nonterritorial polity from which they derive the central emblems of their identity. They enjoy both material and symbolic benefits from their membership in this transnational network.

- from Steinberg's Isma'ili Modern: Globalization and Identity in a Muslim Community

Maybe a decentralized series of communities is connected by Aga Khan Development Network services? I'd also like to preserve the original transmission's concern with faith and institutions, it's a cool angle to take in this genre, even if the results turned out wonky here. Connecting to the earlier part, an interesting thing about the modern Nizaris is how deeply the personal charisma of the Hazar Imam Aga Khan has been bound up in the AKDN:

The Ismaili imamate has shown a degree of resilience and a propensity to experiment with new forms of leadership, building on an authority rooted in the past. This is a peculiar case. I have struggled to find a proper name for this new form of authority because of the many diverse qualities that are now embedded in it. I propose to, minimally, use the term “kaleidoscopic leadership,” because of the different roles that the Ismaili Imam plays as the head of the AKDN and as the incumbent Imam. This is a leadership with a corporate dimension dominant in it; yet it carries the weight of authority too, seeing the Imam as both the “Chairman of the Board” and the “Ismaili Imam” (holder of religious authority). As it can be sensed here, there is also a very strong entrepreneurial dimension to this leadership, which has often confused Western viewers as to how it can be reconciled with the role of a Muslim leader (and we see this in the responses of the Aga Khan himself.) This is an integral point in the vision of the Ismaili imamate, which has now, more than ever, established its conviction that there is no dichotomy between the faith and the world. This point is further explored in the section on the Ismaili Imam’s vision. This book attempts to show that during the imamate of the present Ismaili Imam, Aga Khan IV, the institution of the Ismaili imamate (with its associated institutions) has been increasingly represented by the work of the AKDN.  I argue that the decision to adopt these changes is an unprecedented development with far-reaching implications and consequences for the organization of the Ismaili community and its leadership. This research demonstrates that perceptions of leadership, and of the authority of a religious leader, have changed under the reign of the present Ismaili Imam, Aga Khan IV. My contention is that the AKDN is now, as I have chosen to describe it, an embodiment of the transmutation of the authority of the Ismaili Imam. This network of institutions has had a dynamic interaction with the leadership he represents. Using the term “transmutation,” I explain that the form of this authority has radically changed; the underlying perceptions in the vision of the person who is currently the Ismaili Imam have changed, and we now face a thoroughly different leadership. 

- from Poor's Authority without Territory: The Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamate

I'm not sure if there's anything more genuinely cyberpunk than the charisma of a centuries-old hereditary religious office and the managerial aspect of a corporate chief officer bleeding into each other.  Alongside the plethora of folk Isma'ili beliefs that the AKDN quietly disapproves of (see Isma'ili Modern for more on this) let's have some tension between the bureaucratizing trend here and the practice of popular faith. There's also room to incorporate the original's use of a female imam(ah) without being disrespectful - the current Aga Khan has stated that he isn't against female inheritance of the office, assuming primogeniture. Altering the title accordingly, we can call our fictional descendant the Aga Khatun. Since this is Mechnoir and God smiles on nonsense, there should definitely be a straight-up medieval Nizari castle on Mars as well. With all that in mind, let's try to redo the Shiat al-Raj'a transmission's TECH-ENV-SOC section.

Mechnoir Transmission - The Jamat

Technology

Early 21st century pioneers in post-territoriality and blurred NGO-state borders, the Aga Khatun Development Network's sprawling "humanitarian megacorporation" is the only local actor able to afford the staggering costs required to maintain and expand space infrastructure in the wake of the Pretoria Accords. Dominance in telecommunication, geoinformatics, and broadcasting is secondary to the chokehold this grants on the planet's logistics. Other factions might control a handful of spaceplanes or rickety old mass drivers, but numbers are king -- and the Jamat has the numbers. The fact that the Agakhatunis can threaten to deny access to their critical infrastructure, going so far as to destroy that which might fall into the hands of others, is a powerful deterrent that makes up for their mercenary-reliant military. Jamati riggers have incorporated much of the soldier's battlefield animism into their mystical framework. Rigs are walking zawiyahs: covered in Zulfiqar decals and calligraphic prayers for victory like Nizari armors of old. Wise pilots wear talismanic jackets stuffed with amulets and even the military contractors have adopted Naqshbandi retreat-in-the-crowd mantras as a centering technique. 

Environment 

While all Martian settlers rely on standard-template refurbished habs, the ability to import goods more cheaply allows Jamatis to really make their homes their own. The Imamate's old love affair with Critical Regionalism casts a long shadow: while prefab modules are styled after Pamiri homes and spaceports evoke Lamu Town, AKDN architects aim for a Martian contextuality that gradually pushes Jamati built spaces away from Terran principles of design. Nondescript dome-covered buildings open into the vast underground Pluralism Center, providing religious services for the broad array of faiths among the Jamat while gently reminding them who leads by proximity to the Aga Khatun's stately residence. These services are largely attended by those with roots in Western diaspora communities or the families of AKDN staffers. Most "homelander" Isma'ilis worship as they did in the Himalayas or Zanzibar: in their houses and out on the Ride, seeking the blessings of the Aga Khatun but wary of her sterile jamatkhanas. Dotting the rough country between communities, shrines honoring spirits of the Martian desert stand next to ones devoted to Imam Hussain and Malikah Arwa. AKDN-HQ is maintained in Gerdkuh Fort, an imposing citadel modeled after the medieval stronghold of the same name. 

Society 

Jamatis are well-off by Martian standards - life in Jamati habs would be comfortably familiar to many Terrans. A busy spaceport, physical academic centers, and unrestricted access to orbital media add a cosmopolitan flair often lacking in post-Accords wildcat colonies. The Jamat is officially run by the United Settlements Board, an organizing body for independent microtowns, but the major tie binding Board communities together is a shared reliance on AKDN services and support systems. While the AKDN refrains from direct involvement, its values - and thus, the Aga Khatun's - tend to guide Board voting. The absorption of large numbers of ex-corporate citizens in the process of acquiring Martian interests has rendered Isma'ilis only half of all Board citizens...and many of these newer affiliates are wary of the shadow cast over Board affairs by the Imam of the Age and her bureaucrat-devotees. Others have found solace in the eclectic blend of mountain-veneration, Shaktism, Platonism, and Shi'i Sufism that the rocketwallahs brought with them, converting and marrying their own traditions into folk Isma'ilism. These divides are heightened by class and race; the origins of Jamatis brought in on AKDN programs skew heavily towards traditional Isma'ili strongholds in the Global South - the Indian Subcontinent, East Africa, Central Asia - in stark contrast to the former corp citizens. 

**Though I will say this, just to get it out of my system: adding (PBUH)/(SAW) after names of religious figures in your project is not cool or innovative Islamicate-inspired worldbuilding. It's a HACK move for FOOLS.