Pastafarianism
This entry is intended as a game specific interpretation and expansion of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and as such is not a source of Pastafarianism canon. Go check out the official word at https://www.spaghettimonster.org/
Pastafarianism reached the public eye on earth in 2005 when an open letter was published in response to the Kansas School Board declaring it would teach the religious belief Intelligent Design along side Evolutionary theory as if Intelligent Design were also a scientific theory, with the letter stating that the universe was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster and this theory stood on equally credible scientific ground. After this very splashy introduction to the public eye, the number of visible members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster grew, leading to a number of challenges to unevenly applied religious freedom laws, donation campaigns for humanitarian causes, and a lot of people dressed as pirates eating pasta and drinking rum.
Some people dismissed it as just satire, but regardless of if its members really believed a being made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe or not, the one thing that Pastafarianism succeeded at on equal ground with any other religion in the world was fostering a community.
Fast forward to the 24th century, and Pastafarianism was going strong but it had changed. Over the centuries humanity had gotten better about stopping their bigotry and a lot of the laws and societal problems the church pushed back against weren't enough to keep the pirates busy anymore. Humanity also reached the stars and met other species. The church splintered into mainly two groups as a result:
One group leaned into the pirate lore, forming crews of people who dressed up much like the old Hollywood movies portrayed pirates. They purchased ships—both tall sailing ships on earth's oceans and spaceships—or land surrounding bays on islands near earth's equator to build into cities modeled after Nassau as portrayed in the "historical" series Black Sails, and formed communities that leaned into all the romanticized glory of pirate life: sword fighting, rum, every person their own boss, and high adventure. Sea Shanties sung, rum drunk, and pasta eaten on Fridays, and art often portrayed the Flying Spaghetti Monster. When people elected to become ordained ministers, they would take on a name inspired by the famous pirates of old — real and fictional alike. The post scarcity society of the Federation made this lifestyle pretty easy to achieve.
The other group leaned more into faith and service. Where the first group was often a mix of ordained ministers and followers, this group was largely ministers who would wander and spread the noodley word to any who would listen, and do good deeds as they needed doing without expectation that those they helped would need to listen to a sermon to get it. Their dress was more humble and based in the historical fact of the golden age of piracy, practical garments with lines and finishing in line with what was actually worn during the tall ship era. They also would learn trades that would better enable them to help others, ranging from carpentry and engineering, creative pursuits such as writing, music, and physical arts, or more academic and skill based things like medicine and law.
The two groups had overlap, and the second group would often stop over to visit their more flashy counter parts, or even travel with them when their paths were pointed in the same direction for a spell, but the perspectives of the two groups were different enough that they were hard pressed to find common ground outside of sharing pasta and rum on Fridays.
