Quote:
Originally Posted by Pip Boy
A LOT.
Brazil is a country that has a rich religious diversity. Due to cultural miscegenation, fruit of the various immigration processes, we find in our country several religions (Christian, Islamic, Afro-Brazilian, Jewish, etc.). By having a Lay State, Brazil presents freedom of religious worship and also the separation of State and Church. The data of 2010 census gives us:
- Roman Catholic: 64.6%
- Evangelicals: 22.2%
- Spiritist: 2%
- Umbanda and Candomblé: 0.3%
- Without religion 8%
So, a whopping 88% of the religious brazilians are christians. Monsters and the supernatural would be seen as very demonic in nature, as "devil spawns", "witches sons", and so forth.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Empada
about religion, in Brazil the Christians. church mix a lot! Catholics some times go to Spiritis centers, Spiritis go to Umbanda’s Terreiro, etc. I think only some Evangelicals don’t mix and are very untrustfull against Spiritist, Umbanda and Candomblé. Also, Umbanda has a lot of elements from the Catholic, Spiritist and Candomblé, some people say that it is the mixture of the 3.
I think Brazilian hunters, even Catholics employed by the Church, would rely frequently on Umbanda’s “knowledge”.
You can use the word Macumba for a magic performed by a Umbanda or Candomblé practicioner.
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Thanks to both of you for the thoughtful replies about religion.
To go a bit deeper into that, my idea is that the 'mainstream' view about those in authority who know about the supernatural is very harsh condemnation and a shoot to kill policy. To some degree, this is probably religiously motivated, i.e. if you believe you've personally witnessed agents of Satan preying on innocents in this world, it's hard to justify any kind of 'withcraft' as harmless superstition. But in another sense, it's also correlated with the perception of police officers, soldiers and intelligence officers who encounter the supernatural that they are in a war against monsters and anyone who meddles with the occult is on the wrong side.
Every veteran detective aware of the occult has heard stories of, and often even experienced, incidents where apparently ordinary people, maybe informants, maybe just kids they grew up with, gets involved with the supernatural and ends up a radically different person. Maybe possessed, maybe corrupted, maybe just insane, but the prevailing orthodoxy among Brazilian monster hunters is that anyone who meddles in the occult ends up hurting himself and everyone around him.
The analogy for how it's perceived is probably how many cops perceive illegal narcotics. There is a very real risk involved with using drugs in the real world and magic in my setting, but there is also a tribal 'us vs. them' mentality going on that exaggerates everything so that those who do 'it' are marked as 'criminals' or 'witches' and thus instantly become part of the enemy.
Even in peaceful Iceland I notice the extreme prejudice many cops have for anyone who even casually associates with narcotics and in
Tropa de Elite, the fact that the middle-class college kids at the NGO smoked pot clearly made them 'enemies' in the eyes of most of the law enforcement characters. I imagine that this is how Brazilian monster hunters tend to see anyone who studies the occult, as opposed to just trying to track down any and all supernatural threats, shoot them, decapitate them and burn the remains.
Of course, just because is the mainstream and accepted view among those in authority in Brazil who are aware of the supernatural threat, it doesn't follow that every single detective, commando or intelligence officer in Brazil involved in fighting monsters and witchcraft will subscribe to such a simple worldview.
After all, while real police departments usually have an official position of zero tolerance for narcotics and drug dealers, there still exist cops who use drugs and/or accept bribes from traffickers. And presumably there are also detectives who use informants among the criminal classes (and drug users/traffickers) and may even come to like some of them, regardless of the 'us vs. them' mentality.
So there will be monster hunters who make allowances for 'good magic' that doesn't count as 'witchcraft' and are even prepared to make use of occult means to fight supernatural evils. They'll just be a minority among Brazilian monster hunterscompared to those who hold the hardline view, mostly because the years of relentless and savage urban warfare against criminals influenced and led by monsters and magicians has served to harden attitudes among those engaged in the fighting.
The 'Comando da Santa Cruz' among ABIN may appear to their colleagues from the Catholic Church to be ruthless and uncompromising in their attitudes toward 'withcraft', but the fact that they are at all willing to work with Vatican scholars of the occult, who make some use of ritual magic*, actually makes them more liberal than the mainstream of Brazilian hunters, most of whom (by numbers) belong to
Policia Militar teams like BOPE or other COE units, ROTA, GATE or BOE/GOE/DOE//Batalhão de Missões Especiais.
I expect that detectives with the
Policia Civil might have a less universally adversarial relationship with the underworld, so at least some of them might have cordial acwuitanceships with occult informants. The
Policia Federal I intend to be much less actively engaged in covert warfare with the supernatural and the faction of it that is aware has so far mostly collected data (which is informally shared with other parties who act on it, like local PM/PC tactical teams), not carried out operations.
I imagine the
1º Batalhão de Forças Especiais as the primary national strike force against supernatural threats. I haven't decided if they are as fanatically opposed to any and all occult practices as the military police elite units tend to be, but I'd welcome suggestions for how typical (if elite) paratroopers will regard alleged demons, the supernatural, witchcraft, etc.
I'm looking for a plausible institution in Brazil to have as the base of a secular, scientific faction among counter-paranormal activities. I was thinking that with the Vile Vortex located at sea, maybe the Navy would suit. Or would it be more plausible for the Navy to be a hotbed of occult experimentation, using magic to fight magic?
At any rate, I'll need at least one organization in Brazil that is a part of the loose allegiance against the supernatural threat, but distrusted by most other monster hunters because they are perfectly willing to employ folk remedies, amulets, counter-curses and protective charms, don't reject Umbanda or Candomblé believers and engage in various occult research. What might be a suitable organization for this?
*Albeit only a narrow sub-section of allowed rituals according to secret Vatican scriptures, mostly protective, cleansing and warding magic, as well as some minor blessings.