OT A question regarding a culture I'm working on

[dogscoff]

Will has a point. If they can reconcile two official religions within their society (I would be very interested to find out if there are power struggles/ conflicts/ tensions/ resentments between the two religious sects. It seems likely) then there is a basis for reconciling outside religions too. Those religions, though, would have to have strong overlaps with the official religions- they may even have to overlap on *specific* issues, ie the core ones that overlap between the state religions.

What I would suggest is that you invent a word to represent the 'core' beliefs/ dogma that are common between the two state religions, and which therefore allows them to co-exist. In other words, all Icarans believe in "core". However half of them believe in "core" with pseudochristian bits bolted on while the other half believe in "core" with pseudobuddhist bits bolted on. Obviously all of these things would have to have credible sounding names and more precise definitions. That system sounds to me like the kind of highly rational and regimented solution your Icarans might come up with.

Maybe "core" is the bit taught in school, while the bolt-ons are taught in the home. Better yet, maybe "core" is taught to all first-schoolers, and then they move to a specialist "bolt-on" school to complete their indoctrinat^H^H^H^Heducation. If later schooling is specialised according to the student's abilities (this seems quite Icaran to me) then this could lead to interesting class divisions: For example, perhaps engineering schools tend to be of the pseudochristian variety, so pseudobuddhist-type engineers are less common than the pseudochristian ones. This imbalance could well be a source of tension (especially if it means one religion is less likely to be well-paid/ reach prestigious rank), which is key to any novel.

If an outside religion can be somehow reconciled with core (and the Icarans would probably make deliberate attempts to modify a 'conquered' religion to this end - it certainly wouldn't be the first time in human history) then that religion can be absorbed and accepted. If it's tenets are too far from the 'core' to be reconciled (ie atheism, perhaps polytheist systems, any system which rejects religious involvement in politics) then it will have to be eradicated- even if this belief system has significant overlaps with the "bolt-on" parts of Icaran religion. Obviously, any belief whose supporters are too resistant to change to accept the 'modifications' the Icarans demand could expect similar treatment.

I would also draw your attention to this extract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostage -
Major powers, such as Ancient Rome and the British who had colonial vassals, would especially receive many such political hostages, often offspring of the elite, even princes or princesses who were generally treated according to their rank and put to a subtle long-term use where they would be given an elitist education or possibly even a religious conversion. This would eventually influence them culturally and open the way for an amical political line if they ascended to power after release.

Given the ancient echoes you are trying to introduce into your Icarans (I seem to remember they have their roots in antiquity in some kind of alternate timeline) this strikes me as appropriate behaviour for them as a means of indoctrinating a conquered people, and also as a means of introducing foreign characters into Icaran cricles- this is very valuable from the author's point of view, since it allows you to write exposition for the reader, ostensibly for the benfit of the protagonist. Note that this kind of hostage-exchange didn't always work for the Romans: On more than one occasion the hostages went back to their people at the end of their stay and then built an army to oppose Rome. Might be worthy of your research, anyway.

In one of my earliest prototype stories Icaran FedSec soldiers (at the time called StateSec changed for obvious reasons SS abbreviation) would be deployed to take children away from their families (often kicking and screaming) and literally drag them into the Icaran schools where they would not see their parents again until the world was "cleansed" (i.e last generation pre-conquest died out).

They would also have no problem shooting rebels without any sort of warning or attempt at arrest, sometimes destroying entire towns that rebelled or resisted too heavily (I.e after their military is defeated armed Partisans are expected to lay down their arms or are instantly considered rebels/warcriminals)

I don't really know how the Icarans would respond to all this- presumably they aren't immune to pity (although conditining can do an awful lot to make people think pity doesn't apply to certain types of other people- hence all the horrible things that humans have done to one another throughout history), and so some kind of dissent could be fostered within Icaran society if ever get to see just how just how grisly it all is.

However I can tell you how the victims of this repression would react. Again, this isn't new to human history, and the reaction of the repressed is always the same: For as long as some members of the persecuted group survived, and for as long as the oppressors pursue this policy, they will have to deal with violent resistance. To quote Iain M Banks:
"Outright destruction of rebellious ships or habitats - pour encouragez les autres - of course remains an option for the controlling power, but all the usual rules of uprising realpolitik still apply, especially that concerning the peculiar dialectic of dissent which - simply stated - dictates that in all but the most dedicatedly repressive hegemonies, if in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more; an equation based on human nature which seems often to baffle the military and political mind."

Just out of interest, has Icaran-buddhism retained the "do no harm to any living thing" principle that is central to buddhism? That could make things... complicated. How would the Icarans deal with an 'old-school' buddhist, Ghandi-style non-violent protest?

Finally, have you ever read HHGTTG? They aren't really the same as your Icarans, but the people of Krikket in the third or fourth book might be worth your attention. They do share a certain absolutist, self-centred psychology when it comes to foreign policy. If you haven't already, read it. (All in the name of research, you understand.)