Life as a Guardian Knight

Though a Guardian Knight takes the three vows of a religious; poverty, chastity and obedience, his life is not as onerous as many in the Wilds. Regimentation is a way of life. Like many monastics the rhythm of the Guardian Knight's life is tied to the prayer of the Church. In barracks or vessel day starts with Morning prayer, followed by Mass in the Oratory or ship's chapel. After breakfast training is the task of the morning. At noon the Angelus, followed by a simple lunch. More training takes up the afternoon hours. Then Vespers, followed by supper. Study and prayer fill the evening. Compline ends the day. Duty periods are rotated through the company.
Aboard ship maintenance augments training, otherwise the schedule is much the same.
In the field prayer is often said in private or small groups rather than in company. Combat, tracking or other tasks fill the days.
Unlike many religious the knights tend to use medical nanotech more universally. This is because of the relatively greater danger to which they are exposed.
Like many monastics the guardian knights, while in their bases or aboard ship each live in private cells. Each cell has a bed and a chair. Aboard ship it may also contain a standard computer terminal. A locker for the individual knight's gear is also stored in the cell. Each locker is issued to the knight for his use, but he does not own it. Brother Guardians who do not take permanent vows come to the order with nothing and leave the order with nothing. Except for inspections no one but the guardian may enter his cell. This is meant to prevent any number of possible sins and temptations.
Each knight is issued a combat cybersuit, an equipment pack, weapons and various utility items, as well as a uniform habit. An electronic breviary contains required daily prayers and can be used to store many thousands of books and manuals for use by the Guardian. And of course each Knight Guardian is issued a Guardian Wand, a weapon that originates with the order.
Professed members of the order are permitted to use the honorific OKG after their name. Brothers under temporary vows are not allowed this privilege. Members of Militarum Auxilium Christi who have become Tertiaries are permitted the initials TOM (Tertium Ordo Militis.)

Militarum Auxilium Christi

It should come as no surprise that the greatest number of members of Militarum Auxilium Christi live in the Highlands. The Guard Tertiaries do not as a rule serve in the Wilds, though they may from time to time retreat or even serve at Guardian Bases or Oratories.
In the world Tertiaries are organized into Chapters, each of which has a Chapter Master, Treasurer, Chaplain and Quartermaster. Various other positions are filled for short periods of time, but basically consist of committee chairman, whose groups are committed to specific tasks, such as fundraising or recruitment.
The Chapter Master leads the group and though elected from among the membership, must be ratified by Grand Chapter.
The Treasurer is responsible for funds raised by the organization and their disbursement to both the local Chapter and the Quartermaster.
The Chaplain is a clerical member of the Knights of St. Bix and must be a priest.
The Quartermaster is responsible for all of the gear which is seconded to the Knights.
Typically specific Chapters or groups of Chapters support individual Units or Bases used by the Knights.
The Grand Chapter is located at Primus Frost, in what is now the Highlands. It is led by the Grand Master of the Secular Order. The Grand Master must have once served under temporary vows in the Order of Knight Guardians. He may be be either married, single or under a vow of temporary or perpetual Chasity.
The Grand Chaplain is the senior cleric seconded to the Third Order and is under the jurisdiction of the Chaplain General.
Other positions may be held by women, and several lay and religious women have held senior positions as both Grand Treasurer and Grand Quartermaster.

The Knights of St. Bix, Organization.

As with many successful orders holy founders were followed by devote organizers.
The Knight Guardians were formed along military lines. Small units formed around a cadre of officers, with each unit having a priest chaplain, assisted by deacons, instituted acolytes and brothers. Officers benefited only in having more authority.
Each member took vows of poverty, chastity, piety and obedience. Initially a recruit took vows for only a set period. After a period of time a Brother Guardian might chose to take vows for life, or they might return to the world.
St. Bix was styled as the Knight Commander of the order. The Chaplain General was the highest ranking cleric in the order, responsible for all of the order's priests and clerics. Initially the order was under the authority of the local bishop or other ordinary.
Bix was succeeded by Bl. Henry deVentille, a man of great talents in both combat and diplomacy. He succeeded in getting the Pope to place the order under the control of its own Ordinary. This protonotary apostolic position was not equal in authority to a bishop, but conveyed some of the privileges or pontificals proper to bishops, including the ring and pectoral cross.
In 2297 Pope Pius XXIV confirmed in the Chaplain General of the order the particular rights of independence from the local hierarchy, especially in the area of granting faculties to order priests.
Under the Knight Commander Unit Masters commanded order outposts or vessels. According to the rule each unit was to have at least one priest. Larger units were to have more than one priest. To ensure a supply of clerics the order founded its own seminary at it's headquarters on Primus Frost in the then Midlands.
The ownership of the land and building resides in the lay association Militarum Auxilium Christi. Militarum Auxilium Christi is directly tied to the Knights of St. Bix, but is a separate entity within the Church. The  organization forms a Secular Order which is associated with the Guardians. The Guard Tertiaries are lay members and consist of both men and women who are not bound by the vows of the order. They do make solemn and public promises. Members are permitted to marry, and many have previously served under temporary vows in the Knights. For the most part Militarum Auxilium Christi owns most of the land, ships and other facilities and equipment used by the knights.

The Knights of St. Bix

By 2247 humanity inhabited a growing sphere encompassing many thousands of cubic light years. Civilization made up a much smaller volume. As might be expected the Church spread almost as fast as humanity. As had happened too many times in the past, beyond the power of courts and police and peace-keepers some took advantage of those too weak to resist.
Initially travelers, pilgrims and colonists outside the boundaries of the coalescing Grand Human Union turned to private security companies. Such companies often hired personnel of dubious character themselves, and more than one group found their hired guards untrustworthy collaborators of pirates or criminals themselves.
Bix Woodforde  was a retired soldier who decided that there was a better way. He realized that a mercenary group inspired by payment, in the absence of civil authority, could easily slip into piracy or outlawry itself. He studied the still existing Order of Hospitallers, otherwise known as the Knights of Malta, as well as the Teutonic Knights, and the lay orders of the Knights of Columbus and of course the original Catholic order of knighthood the Order of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, the Knights Templar.
He became convinced that only a group of soldiers who worked for a higher purpose, who took vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, and were dedicated to the protection of those in their charge might avoid that fate. He saw in the strict rule of the failed Templars the seeds of their failure, as well as a possible hope for a future order.
So Bix Woodforde needed a rule. Rather than the basing it on the Rule of Benedict, as did St. Bernard of Clairvaux, he based it on the Rule of St. Francis of Assisi. That made his Knight Guardians, as he called them, mendicants, that is, they neither individually nor collectively own property.  All must be donated to their use. Even ships and weapons belong to the Church, or still to those who have donated their use. In this way Bix sought to avoid the accumulation of wealth which was the downfall of the Order of Knights Templar.
The brothers would observe the Hours in their ships and bases. They would treat their foes with Christian charity and those under their care with respect and in such a manner as to guard their souls as well as their mortal bodies, or so was Bix hope.
Bix sought out a group heading into the Wilds, and with the backing of a number of priests in that group recruited men to join the band that he was forming for the group's protection.
This was the start of his order. Bix profited through the fact that some twenty years later one of those priest became first a bishop, and then a cardinal. Some fifty years later, with his order grown into the most powerful non-governmental military force in the Wilds, Blessed Bix Woodforde was canonized and the order of Knight Guardians became the Knights of St, Bix.

The Great Compromise

The Great Compromise is a symbol of both the imperfection of the temporal universe and the consequences of demographics on history. Some would also say it is an indication that a Pope's decisions outside the area of faith and morals are not infallible and might even be detrimental to the short term good of the Church. Others would point out that the Church should never impose but merely propose.
The Great Compromise is a legacy of the failings of the Progressive Era and the vast demographic shift of parts of Europe from Christian to Muslim. As secularism was squeezed out Sharia law became the predominate legal system for areas not traditionally Muslim. This did not sit well with all of the non-Muslim population, especially when coupled with the violence against Christians, Jews and non-believers that seemed to follow the Islamitization of most places.
This resulted in a long series of sectarian violence as Christians and secularist started taking reprisals for Muslim violence against non-Muslims in Islamic nations. For every church firebombed a Mosque was set ablaze. The Church spoke out against these actions, but was a lone voice as a combination of fear and survival instinct took over.
The remaining Secular/Christian nations, seeing the result of allowing Islamic groups to engineer demographic shifts through a pattern of emigration without absorption and eventual political manipulation responded by  passing reciprocity laws. That is Muslim immigrants were prohibited from practising their faith publicly because Christians were prevented from public practice of their faith in nations under Sharia law.
Eventually The Christian East looked to the Pope as the one man in the Christian West who could speak for the Unifying Church. At Dover a group from what was left of the European Union, the Organization of American States and various non-aligned nations met with the Pan Islamic Union under the oversight of the Pope.  Under much pressure from the national governments, the media and the Church the resulting treaty became the Great Compromise.
Under the Great Compromise the participants agreed that the reciprocity laws would be codified into international law. Christians would neither  seek converts nor publicly worship in Islamic territories. Likewise Muslims would no longer be allowed to raise Mosques nor establish schools or attempt to convert in Christian territories. A policy of ethnic cleansing would for all intents and purposes be allow by which groups would be "induced" to emigrate out of their homes and into the respective sectarian territories.
As might be imagined many Christians saw this as a betrayal of the Great Commission placed upon the Church by Christ. The Church's position was that Christianity should not be imposed at the point of a spear and rational argument was not possible with a philosophy which rejected rational theological discourse. Time was on the side of the Church, it was argued, and the problem should be left in the hands of the Lord.
While the Compromised reduced, indeed almost eliminated the violence in the First World, Africa continued to be a battleground right up until the beginning of the twenty third century and the invention of the Barnes-Gutierrez Hyperspace Engine and the diaspora.

The Actors of St. John Paul

The charism of an order is any of the spiritual graces and special characteristics which are exhibited by the order as a result of the vows they have taken and the orientation of the order to its task in the Church. Traditional charisms are embodied in the works of a teaching order (Jesuits) as compared with that of a missionary order (Maryknolls) or one devoted to the care of the poor(Missionaries of Charity). Often in the Church new orders, with new charisms, come into being to address some new situation or difficulty for the Church. For example the Dominicans (the Order of Preachers) was founded to counteract the Albigensian heresy.
One such order founded in the declining years of the Progressive Era is the Actors of St. John Paul. Founded by Blessed Curro Aguilar the special charisms of the Actors is the preaching of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, especially to young people, through the medium of performance.
When the diaspora occurred members of the order quickly followed the spreading humanity to ensure that faith was not left behind.
The order's work in this area have resulted in the formation of the largest fleet of private couriers in both the Midlands and the Wilds, almost exclusively dedicated to the service of the Church.
Where ever they go Actors establish radio and video communication systems. They foster theater and music, all dedicated to teaching the faith of the Church, especially to the young.
Members of the order can most readily be identified by their devotion to Mary. While most have adopted the black jumpsuit with Roman collar worn by many other priests, they uniquely wear a blue rosary bracelet which is worn with another bracelet which consists of five white stones upon which are engraved the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.
Actor courier ships tend to be run like small monasteries, with the crews following the order of the hours amid their shipboard work. They uniquely contain not only a chapel, but also a stage/studio where the performance of Christian plays is a regular occurrence.
The order is headed by a Master of the Order, who during the time period of New Diasporia is Fr. Nicolas Socius. Because the area of the New Diasporia is so far ranging local provincial governors have great flexibility and independence, as long as they keep to the rule of the order. Individual communities, which may be a ships crew or provincial house are run by a director, who is appointed by the provincial, with concurrence of the Master of the Order. The Master is appointed by the Pope from a list of three candidates proposed by the provincials. A number of roving censors act as agents of the Master and report to him on the functioning of the various communities.
Individual Actors sometimes take assignments from local Bishops or even the Holy Father himself. There have been several Actors who have been raised to Cardinal in the past, but none at the present time.

Calendar

The calendar used in the Grand human Union is the Earth centric Gregorian Calendar which is still used at Rome during the diaspora period. It is based on the birth of Christ as calculated by the monk Dionysius Exiguusin in 525 A.D. This is the official dating method used by both the Church and the civil government. Many worlds also have a local date which is dependent upon local planetary orbit and world rotation, but this is not used by the civil government of the Union.
A dual day system is used by most local populations. In space, and in any other place where the local day is not reasonably applicable to human living cycles, a 24 hour day based on Roman Standard Time is used. This is 1 hr after Greenwich Mean Time aka Coordinated Universal Time.
Anywhere a reasonable local day exists (typically defined as a day between 20 and 30 hrs long,) that day is used with the local day divided into temporal hours made up of varying amounts of minutes, based on the actual astronomical length of the local day.
The Church divides the day based on the ancient liturgical hours, which are only loosely tied to exact hours. For Roman Standard Days the times are the traditional time. For local days the periods between each liturgical hour are lengthened or shortened as needed. The exact designated times are set by the local ordinary.
Those times are the traditional times as set by the Church. The Angelus is prayed three times a day, at 6 am, noon and 6 pm. It is typically marked by the triple stroke repeated three times of the Angelus Bell. It is traditional for the morning Angelus to be prayed with Lauds (morning prayer) and for the evening Angelus to be prayed with Vespers.
Other Hours are Matins or the Office of Readings, which has no specific time and Compline, which is the last prayer of the day.
Hours are typically rung at religious houses and at parishes. The Legion similarly marks the hours, at least in the non-minority units.

So what do they wear?

One of the most common characteristics of those in clerical and religious vocations throughout history has been their custom of wearing clothing which differentiates them from the laity. In the late twentieth century, in the heart of the Progressive Era, there was a movement by some priest and religious to adopt the style of dress of the laity, which was generally a sign of heresy or at least a rebellion against orthodoxy. This short lived and generally abortive practice, almost none of the religious orders who adopted this convention survived past the middle of the twenty-first century, signaled the low point for religious vocations. In the decades and centuries that followed clerics and religious orders returned to the traditions of the past, with reasonable accommodations for their situation.
As it has been for centuries the Roman military collar, a "collarino" that covers a white collar almost completely, except for the top edge and a small white square at the base of the throat, is worn by priests of the Roman, Anglican Ordinate, and many other rites. The cossack, a traditional ankle length robe with a Roman collar, continues to be worn within Church environs as house dress. Outside, in the world, priest, at least diocesan priests, tend to wear clothing which matches local norms, with the exception that a Roman collar is worn. So if a shirt and slacks is the common business dress a priest will wear the same, though often in grey or black or some other color, with a Roman collar. In space it is not uncommon to see a priest in a black jumpsuit with a Roman collar.
Permanent deacons are not constrained to the wearing of religious attire except when actually engaged in their ministry. So while most possess a set or two of clerical garb most wear it only occasionally.
Religious clerics and brothers continue to wear the religious habit, most commonly consisting of a robe and cowl. In space the robe is often replaced by the more practical jumpsuit toped with a separate cowl which falls above the shoulders.
The garb of religious sisters tends to run to the traditional when in the convent or cloister and toward the veil and holy habit when in public. In space, where gravity fields may be variable, most women religious wear a two piece pajamas, typically in black or the color of their regular habit, often with a hair band instead of a veil. A crucifix or rosary is often part of the habit of many orders. A pin or badge is often affixed to the pajama top of many orders in place of this sacramental.

Medical Nanotech

Medical nantoech takes two major forms at TL A. For quite a number of years non-replicating medical assemblers have been used to perform medical intervention in patients. This kind of care includes treatment of ailments and injuries of all types. Many of these types of treatments predate the Grytotech inspired nantotech ban, and so have a long history of acceptance among both the Church and the public.
More revolutionary, and a later technology is the implantation of nanotech factories in the human body with the goal of not only repairing disease and trauma damage, but also in extending life. As might be expected the existence of such technology opened up deep theological and ethical questions.
Is it moral to use such life extending technologies? Obviously manipulation of human fertility processes, without the known side effects of hormone or chemical contraceptives, would cancel out the secular penalties of their use. This does not touch on the obvious moral reasons of the prohibition of contraception, and the negative societal consequences. So as for as for all technology the capability to do something is not a license to do it.
But a complete interdiction on the technology would not be moral either. It is not immoral to extend a human life using surgery or medicine. So implemented in a moral framework the use of anagathic nanotech factories (ANFs) should also be moral.
As might be imagined a technology that can theoretically extend human life indefinitely has real social impact. The limitations of the technique is also important. To be morally justified ANFs must not interfere with fertility or normal procreative process. This limits some of the treatments that can be done, especially in women, and especially during the normal years of child bearing. This has resulted in a societal trend to limit full activation of ANF implants until after the fourth decade of life. Prior to this the standard aging process is allowed to continue, though benefits in disease and trauma repair are typically activated.
ANF implants are basically nanotech factories which create biological assemblers which cooperate with the existing biology of the patient to give enhance healing and repair abilities. The units are typically implanted after puberty, and activated in maintenance mode until after menopause in women and at about the same time chronologically in men. At that time full anagathic activation takes place. Not every Highland citizen can afford or even wants implants.
Conventional medical nanotech is very effective against common injury and disease. Despite ethical considerations some individuals have been known to push limits and the technology is still new enough that some people have doubts about its possible side effects, both moral and physiological.
The Church's stand has been nuanced. Use by clerics is not prohibited, but the hierarchy has shown a preference for advancing men who have not taken the treatment to the episcopate. Many religious disdain the use of ANF as just another form of worldly riches, though they do not refuse more conventional medical nanotech treatments.
The treatment is recent enough that effectively almost all first generation recipients are still alive, so that in a medical sense the long term effects of the treatment are unknown. Not every possible disease can be conquered and not every trauma can be repaired, but many can. The fear of the Church is that physical immortality might overshadow spiritual immortality. That has not seemed to have happen yet, and since such treatments are considered heroic treatment it is not a sin in the eyes of the Church for a recipient of the treatment to turn off their ANF to allow their bodies to gracefully grow old.
With nanofactories the production of the ANF implants is neither difficult nor unduly expensive, however penetration into the Midlands is spotty at best. Penetration into the Wilds is almost non-existent at this point, though it is known a few Highlanders with the implants are in the Wilds.

The Mind of the Church

Now the intent of New Diasporia is to be as accurate as possible in matters of Natural Law, Church teaching and morality. It's your game and I don't have Dogma police to chase you down, if in your own game, you decide to make the Church corrupt or claim that the Church will change Dogma in the future or that Mars is inhabited by pink unicorns who serve some mythical Hindu god.
However the intent of New Diasporia is that the Church be holy as Our Lord is holy, and that as it has from the beginning that the Church's Dogma be unchanging and unchangeable. If this is your intent then it is important to understand the difference between dogma, disciplines and practice.
The perpetual virginity of Mary is a dogma. The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a dogma. The fact that there are seven Sacraments is a dogma.
Priestly celibacy in the Roman rite is a discipline. The custom of allowing married men to be ordained in the Eastern and Orthodox Churches, but not to allow ordained single men to marry is a practice.
It is possible for the Church to alter a discipline. So yes it is possible that some day the Roman Rite may allow married men to be ordained (as a more general rather than highly specific practice.) It is unlikely that the Church would change the very ancient practice of not allowing ordained men to marry, or of raising married men to the bishopric.
In my New Diasporia universe I have chosen to have the Roman Rite continue to follow its ancient discipline.  But it is perfectly proper to decide in your game that the Church no longer follows that particular discipline. I would not set the Dogma police on you even if I could.
The Church cannot ordain women to the priesthood. It can not give up its moral stands rooted in Natural Law, so its stands on family structure, sexual activity and promiscuity, all of which are based on Natural Law, as well as Scriptural teaching, will not change.
Will some members of the Church disagree with these stands, perhaps even live lives in contradiction to them. Most certainly. They can even be Player Characters. But under the general tone of the game they will not be highly admired and are likely to come to a bad end, barring a conversion moment. That is the reality of life and of the Church. We were never promised that the members of the Church would be holy, or that her ministers would be holy, only that the Church itself would be holy, and that only through the working of the Holy Spirit.

The Church

One of the major pillars of the New Diasporia universe is the Church, specifically the Catholic Church. As the Church of the Apostolic Age and the Church of the Middle Ages is the same Church as the Church of the twenty first century, so is the Church of New Diasporia the same Church. As are many of the trappings of the Church different from the first century, the twelfth century and the twenty first century so are the trappings of the Church different in the time of New Diasporia.
Two key theological concepts of Catholicism are relevant here. The first is the promise of Christ to his Church given in Matthew 16:20.

On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

This is called the Petrine Promise. It is the basis of both the Supremacy of the Pope and of the promise that the Church would endure until the end of time.

The other point is is from John 17:

Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

The wish of Christ was that Christians be one, under the guidance of his Vicar, the Pope, and joined in one Holy Catholic Church.

In New Diasporia is is postulated that in the future the Church will continue to seek reunification. In our present time Anglicanorum Coetibus has authorized Ordinariates where Anglicans can re-join the Church while keeping some of their prayers and liturgical practices. Dialog with the Orthodox continue, seeking to define the role of Peter as understood in the early Church. Even the once almost schismatic Society of Saint Pius X is engaged in talks with the Holy See on reunification.

Meanwhile the old mainstream Protestant groups, having rejected Natural Law find themselves hemorrhaging members. Yes in some places Catholicism is losing worshipers too. These are the very places where in the New Diasporia universe Christianity has been replaced, not by secularism, by a vibrant and culturally strong Islam.

In the New Diasporia universe the Church has met Christ's call for reunification. The Great Reunification, not accomplished by a single act, but by a series of pastoral, intellectual and theological actions has result in a larger more diverse Church. Now the Church has not compromised on any of its doctrines, but it has given ground in areas that are not doctrinal. Roman Rite Catholic priest, still do not marry, but there are many other rites, Anglican, Orthodox, etc. where they do. Liturgy in Latin? Yes for some. In Greek for others. The vernacular or a mixture of all three for others. Before Trent there were dozens of different local rites. One liturgical rite has never been a dogmatic requirement of Catholic practice.
What of the Protestant Churches? Outside the Highlands, in the Wilds some still exists. Evangelicalism, primarily a phenomenon of the American century, faded under the light of theological intellectual discourse. Others choosing to follow the world into the Progressive Era faded as did the failed ideas of that age.

So what is the Church like in the twenty fourth century? In the Roman Rite much is the same. Bishops still lead diocese, which are divided into parishes, led by priest. But they share the stage with Eastern Rite bishops leading eparchies, Anglo-Catholic bishops leading Ordinariates, Orders of religious of various traditions some under their control and some not, Personal Prelatures and other structures, all part of one Church.

Outside the Highlands things become a bit more flexible. Great Orders, some with traditions spreading back centuries; Jesuits, Dominicans, Opus Dei, others somewhat newer; the Knights of St. Bix, Cyberistians, Actors of St. John Paul, preform the ministries the Church has performed for over two thousand years, run hospitals, scriptorium, monasteries and churches.

In the Wilds the militant orders have seen a resurgence as travel for pilgrims and missionaries has once again become just too dangerous without protection of arms.

The Church is led by Celestine VI, the first Benedictine Pope since Pius VII in the nineteenth century, and the first Pope not to have been born on Earth ever. With the vast scope of the known universe the Holy See, always famous for working very slowly is even more likely to move deliberately due to the great time lag to the mission territories. This makes it even more important that local bishops and archbishops be holy men and that men appointed as papal legates and national patriarchs know the mind of the pope. It also means that not all men raised to these positions are worthy of them, and that petition to Rome of abuses of power or authority are slowly if ever answered.

Not all members of the clergy are Saints. Nor are all Saints good administrators, good judges of character, or good leaders.

More on characters from among the clergy and religious in the post on player characters.

What kind of game is this?

I've given some of the background of the New Diasporia universe. right now you might be asking your self: So what kind of game is this? What kind of characters and adventures can I play in this universe?
If you've read the broad outlines of the area spheres of known space you will hopefully have realized that a vast array of different kinds of games can fit into this background. Many of the kinds of characters that inhabit other RPG universes can be found somewhere in New Diasporia.
Specifically the Highlands are an advanced interstellar civilization where some kinds of technology are very advanced and other kinds of technology are simply not used, due to their immorality. Now the easy answer would be to say they are banned, but that is not really accurate. They are instead philosophically shunned. That is the vast majority of the population considers them unconscionable practices.
An in universe example might be the practice of brain taping. In and of itself the total recording of a human mind is morally neutral. However if that record is then loaded into a biological construct, a clone, what you would have was a man, with his own self being subjected to eradication or sublimation. He might think he was someone else, but in actuality the individual who had made the recording would not be transferred to the clone. That person's soul would either be still inhabiting its own body or have passed out of it. The clone would not be him.
Like wise if the recording was transferred to a machine that machine might "think" it was the person, but it would not be him. It would merely be a machine who "thought" it was a person. It would not be a person. it would not have a soul.
The vast majority of the population knows and believes this, so these practices are not only banned by the Church and government, they are seen as morally reprehensible by the people.
In the Midlands the same prohibitions on most of these kinds of technologies are still followed, but not all of the permitted technologies  available in the Highlands are available there.
In some ways this follows the safe tech concept used in GURPS to produce the retro tech feel of Science Fiction from the Golden Age. This concept, however, includes the questionable moral practices of our own age. That's why this is a Christian Catholic Science Fiction RPG based on Natural Law. In the game world abortion and contraception have resulted in vast demographic changes on the pre-diaspora Earth. They have seen the negative social, political and individual Repercussions of the immoral choices of the Progressive Era. Moreover the strongest proponents of these concepts have simple failed, failed to reproduce, failed to convince the succeeding generations of their irrational world view. So though many technological methods of contraception are known they are simply not used, because the social, environmental and health consequences of their use are well known.
The Wilds are another story. There almost every failed philosophical theory is still in effect. Most often they result in yet another failed society. This is where AI pretends it is really alive, until its human servitors all die off or rebel, or the power dies rendering them the objects they really are. It is here the last followers of Nietzsche play the Last Man, until knocked down by the "slaves" whom they have tried to exploit or by a passing hero/Saint directed perhaps by the hand of God. It is here the high tech society crashes into stone age ruins in a few generations because they fail to acknowledge Natural Law and that actions have consequences.
So what kind of game is New Diasporia? It is a game where there are consequences to actions.