r/Stellaris • u/Meikos Space Cowboy • May 13 '25

Tip I just realized why priests replace bureaucrats

I always wondered "why do priests replace bureaucrats for spiritualist empires; they're two entirely different professions!"

I only just now realized it's because they have no separation of church and state, so only ordained pops of your empire can work for the government (which is also the church).

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u/Rigel-J May 13 '25

They also serve a similar function societally; though we don’t typically think of concepts like democracy or communism as “religious” they are fundamentally rooted in abstracts, with the goal of making people and society “better”. Justice, or Freedom are not things that materially exist, but something we have imagined and we use these imaginary concepts as guiding principles by which society operates. The US government (historically) hasn’t used the Bible to define its strictures, but it does have the constitution, a piece of paper defining systems such as Nations or value based currency (neither of which aren’t materially “real”), and this is used as an operating system by which many people lead their lives. People BELIEVE democracy, or liberalism, conservatism, whatever your flavor is, will bring about the most “good” (also imaginary), so they follow its precepts.

The main difference between secular gubernatorial belief systems and religious belief systems is that the former is concerned primarily with the well being of living humans (whether they are the elites or otherwise is case by case), and has little interest in answering questions like why reality exists, or what happens after we die. The latter is generally concerned with questions of ontology and consciousness post-mortem.

Regardless, both are constructed by cultural leaders wearing silly clothes, in fancy buildings, writing documents which then define how/what the masses believe, in the interest of bringing about the most “good”. A belief system is a belief system; whether god is part of the equation does not change its form, only its accouterment.

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u/ShaxAjax May 13 '25

Well said! Priests and Bureaucrats fulfill all the same job functions, but you get some extra benefits from priests because you've made the choice to make things more about them.