Seek and Record Cataloguers — Syncretists
Who are the Seek and Record Cataloguers?
A Syncretist viewing a religious practice during their travels
Seek and Record Cataloguers, often referred to as seekers, recorders, cataloguers, or most times as Syncretists, are a group of specialized anthropologists that have tasked themselves with the study of, understanding of, and cataloguing of a vast array of religions and philosophies found within the vast territories of the Delta Space.
These highly intelligent people, who are educated by and granted their titles by a central governing body known as the Seek and Record University, travel the cosmos seeking out new spiritual and philosophical groups, peoples, and cultures to study and catalogue. While they often get hired as individuals or in small groups to conduct independent studies, they always adhere to the teachings, rules, and modus operandi of the university first.
Most important of all, is the meticulous recording of each and every spiritual practice and/or philosophy they encounter. This information is often recorded in text or audio on small devices carried by the Syncretist, then transferred over to an array of small to medium-sized databases that can easily be stored and travelled with over extended periods of time.
However, these databases must be returned to the central university to be transferred onto the group's main hard drive/database. The exact location of which is a secret to all but this group of archivists. The hope is that one day all knowledge on spiritualism and philosophy will be collected and studied so that a grander understanding of the universe may be devised and a sort of enlightenment may be closer at hand for those to abide by it.
These Syncretists are called as such because they often follow a personal belief system that is cobbled together from their own learnings and experiences throughout their time as cataloguers. Often, the longer one has been a catalogue, the more complex their own belief system becomes, even confusing other younger Syncretists.
A large unknown that is often mused over by both the general populace and cataloguers alike is the whereabouts of the central database. The general populace of course, generally, have no clue as to its location other than it likely resides within the Seek and Record University. Though even the university's location is kept under complete discretion, as only those that are invited can attend — even then, they are escorted there and don't leave until their education is completed, only then are they entrusted with its location.
Syncretists have more to go on, being familiar with the location of the university and the university's layout itself; however, when they drop off databases to be transferred to the central database, they do not do so themselves. They drop the database off at the university's archivist's department, and they are then tasked with the input of the data. And the process of doing so is shrouded in mystery and secrecy; likely only a few dozen members of this group conduct this important task and are of the highest position within the Syncretists.
Some have begun to speculate that the database is either damaged, lost, or never existed in the first place. And that the archivists at the university are merely hoarding countless drives in a vault somewhere, hoping that one day they will either be able to fix or construct a database able to store all of the knowledge collected by the Syncretists.
The Seek and Record Cataloguer, often referred to as Syncretists, involves individuals who journey across the Delta Space to systematically record and archive the vast array of religions and philosophies encountered, oftentimes by immersing themselves into said religious or philosophical communities, and then compiling them into a comprehensive central database. The whereabouts of the database is a tightly held secret by the Syncretists. They act as knowledge-keepers, they often find themselves following a blending of the spirituality and philosophies they record in their daily lives — hence the adoption of the name Syncretists by many.
While the Syncretists are generally welcomed by most to study and become involved in their spiritual practices or philosophies, some have accused the cataloguers of ethnocentrism — judging the spiritual practices and philosophies of others based on their own. Oftentimes, this is merely a misunderstanding; the Syncretists often speak openly about the various things they have learned. Pontificating openly and comparing the various things they've learned to each other. This can often be deemed rude or worse, but most Syncretists don't intend it this way and are famously, at least amongst themselves, open and flexible about their personal belief systems. With their philosophies and spiritual practices constantly changing and evolving, the longer they travel and work as a Syncretist.
Regardless, in some circles, this has harboured such a poor reputation of the Syncretists that they are no longer welcome. Infamously, Syncretists are not welcome in any official manner anywhere in the territory of The Imperial Council of Planets. A major blow to the Syncretist goal of knowledge preservation. And while the parent organization of cataloguers continue their efforts in swaying the leaders of the Imperials to ease their ruling and allow for even a few cataloguers to enter their territory and officially conduct their work they have not been able to sway them thus far. Despite this, several Syncretists have, in secret and at their own peril, decided to illegally enter Imperial territory and conduct their studies in secret. Luckily, most citizens of the Imperials, at least in their expanded territory, do not mind the cataloguers' presence and have thus far not reported them.
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