WScience fiction will sometimes address the topic of religion. Often religious themes are used to convey a broader message, but others confront the subject head-on—contemplating, for example, how attitudes towards faith might shift in the wake of ever-advancing technological progress, or offering creative scientific explanations for the apparently mystical events related in religious texts. As an exploratory medium, science fiction rarely takes religion at face value by simply accepting or rejecting it; when religious themes are presented, they tend to be investigated deeply.
WThe Fremen are a group of people in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. First appearing in the 1965 novel Dune, the Fremen inhabit the desert planet Arrakis, which is the sole known source in the universe of the all-important spice melange. Long overlooked by the rest of the Imperium and considered backward savages, in reality they are an extremely hardy people and exist in large numbers. The Fremen had come to the planet thousands of years before the events of the novel as the Zensunni Wanderers, a religious sect in retreat. As humans in extremis, over time they adapted their culture and way of life to survive and thrive in the incredibly harsh conditions of Arrakis. The Fremen are distinguished by their fierce fighting abilities and adeptness at survival in these conditions. With water being such a rare commodity on the planet, their culture revolves around its preservation and conservation. Herbert based Fremen culture, in part, on the desert-dwelling Bedouin and San People.
WThe Guardians of the Whills are a faction in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise. The Guardians are depicted as an organization of ascetics who revere the Force, a metaphysical concept in the Star Wars fictional universe, though unlike the Jedi or the Sith, they do not appear to wield overtly supernatural powers derived from their connection to the Force.
WHaruhi Suzumiya is the title character and heroine of Haruhi Suzumiya, a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa. Despite the series being named after her, the main protagonist is Kyon, who narrates the story. She possesses unconscious god-like abilities to change, destroy, and reshape reality to her desires. In an interview, Tanigawa stated that the idea for the character came during a sleepless night at the beginning of the 21st century.
WHis Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000). It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes. The novels have won a number of awards, including the Carnegie Medal in 1995 for Northern Lights and the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year for The Amber Spyglass. In 2003, the trilogy was ranked third on the BBC's The Big Read poll.
WThe Jedi, Jedi Knights, or the Knights of the Jedi Order are the main protagonists of many works of the Star Wars franchise, often working symbiotically alongside the Galactic Republic and the Rebel Alliance. The Jedi Order are depicted as an ascetic, monastic, academic, and meritocratic organization whose origin dates back approximately 25,000 years before the events of the first film released in the franchise. The fictional organization has inspired a real-world new religious movement, Jediism.
WDevil May Cry 4 is a hack and slash action-adventure game developed and published by Capcom in 2008 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows platforms. It is the fourth installment in the Devil May Cry series and is written by Bingo Morihashi and directed by Hideaki Itsuno. The story follows Nero, a teenager possessing demonic powers who is on a mission to stop the series' main character, Dante, after he assassinates the leader of the Order of the Sword. The player assumes the role of both Nero and Dante as they fight enemies using their demonic powers and a variety of weapons.
WThe fourth season of Parks and Recreation originally aired in the United States on the NBC television network, and began on September 22, 2011, and ended on May 8, 2012. The season contained 22 episodes. It stars Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe, with supporting performances from Jim O'Heir and Retta.
WThe Silence are a religious order in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, represented by humanoids with alien-like physical characteristics. Executive producer Steven Moffat created the Silence, intending them to be scarier than past villains in Doctor Who. Though the phrase "Silence will fall" recurred throughout the 2010 series of Doctor Who, the Silence were not seen until the 2011 series' opener "The Impossible Astronaut". Their origins are eventually revealed in the 2013 special "The Time of the Doctor".
WThe Sith are the main antagonists of many works in the fictional universe of the Star Wars franchise. The Sith Order are depicted as an ancient monastic and kraterocratic cultist organization of supernaturally gifted Force-wielders driven by a machiavellian-imperialist agenda of galactic domination and revenge against their arch-rivals, the Jedi Order.
WSpira is the fictional world of the Square role-playing video games Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2. Spira is the first Final Fantasy world to feature consistent, all-encompassing spiritual and mythological influences within the planet's civilizations and their inhabitants' daily lives. The world of Spira itself is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on a setting influenced by the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan, most notably with respect to its vegetation, topography and architecture.
WDead Space is a science fiction/horror video game series and media franchise created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, developed by Visceral Games and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise centers on a series of video games, and includes two films and several comic books and novels. It began in 2008 as an eponymous video game aimed at creating, in Schofield's words, "the most terrifying game we could acquire", the game was successful and spawned a prequel and later a sequel released in 2011.