![]() Symbols are an important part of any religion and the main pillar of totemism. The totem (here, the Helix) is a reflection of the tribe’s consciousness, chosen as a symbol to represent it. According to him, this is the most fundamental and primitive style of religion. This is perhaps an example of Durkheim’s totemism. In a sense, Helixism has itself become a true religion and, more than that, it was created consciously through the consensus of a tribe (here defined as a group of people sharing the same interests and symbols). The Church of the Helix was born in a very short time span and possibly already have more followers than many of the world’s “true” religions. And then they went on to beat the game, but that’s not important – let’s take a closer look at the whole religion thing. Long story short, eventually the players revived the fossil (yes, that’s possible in the game in a very Jurassic Park style) and received the pokémon omanyte in return. The pidgeot, the most reliable pokémon in battle, became Bird Jesus flareon became the False Prophet, a servant of the Dome Fossil and many other pokémons received places in the mythology, accompanied by a lot of fanart on the internet. The Helix represented Anarchy Mode, while the Dome represented Democracy. The Helix Fossil had been previously chosen by the players in spite of the Dome Fossil, which then became the Enemy, or the Devil, if you will. Artwork by Chlorine17 ( ).įrom this point onwards, the mythology of the Helix developed really fast. It did not take long for people to decide that the fossil was a god and that Red, the protagonist, was consulting it as a sort of oracle in order to discover the best way to proceed on his adventure. And, boy, people spent a lot of time in the inventory clicking on the Helix Fossil (and thus receiving in return the message “This isn’t the time to use that”). One item in particular could not be discarded it was the Helix Fossil (the fossilized shell of a ammonite-like pokémon). This way, items were discarded, pokémons were released and, even worse, eevees turned into flareons.īut let’s return to the Helix. Not intentionally, mind you, but as a result of the way in which commands were given and computed. And, as a matter of fact, many bad things were happening in the game – in the Anarchic world of TPP, bad moves and poor strategies were running amok. They started to interpret whatever was happening in the game in a way that it would make sense from a cosmic point of view. TPP is a very boring way of playing Pokémon and the players soon turned to other stuff in order to make it a little more exciting. Most people preferred Anarchy, because it was supposedly more fun, and turned to Democracy only when it seemed otherwise impossible to advance in the game. People could vote to switch between Democracy and the original mode (hence renamed as “Anarchy Mode”) at any time. Then some programmer had the idea of initiating a system (named “Democracy Mode”) in which the game compiled votes every 10 seconds and the command inputted on the game was the one with most votes. With thousands of people giving commands at the same time, there was a huge confusion and progress was very slow at the beginning. It took a little more than two weeks for the players to complete the game and this was more than enough time for the birth of an entirely new religion. Twitch Plays Pokémon (henceforth “TPP”) was a crowdsourced event in which everyone could type commands through the website’s chat window and try to finish the game that was being streamed, namely Pokémon Red. The Cult of the Helix was born in a most unorthodox manner: on the first iteration of Twitch Plays Pokémon. So how was this cult born? Nature-worshipping barbarians coping in a dangerous environment? An old bearded guy receiving revelations in the desert? A bald hermit meditating in the mountains? Well, none of the above. I bid you welcome to the Cult of the Helix. So rejoice!, for today is one of those days. It is not everyday that I manage to join two of my main interests, mollusks and mythology. Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany.Įberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.Įmail: (at) gmail (dot) com ![]()
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