Churches

Churches are places of worship for many of the world’s religions. Despite this, the term “church” is typically used to denote places of worship for Christianity.

Great World War II
At the beginning of the Great World War II, most of the world contained churches. Many cities and towns contained a church or two with attendance at an all time high. However, the Soviet Union considered these structures to be symbols of oppression towards the working class and actively destroyed any churches they came upon. One such example was of Torun, a small pro-Allied town that happened to have a church. The church was razed along with the town in attempt to instill fear into any who opposed the Soviet onslaught. After the war, many churches were rebuilt in the same designs as before the war. Churches, even during the war, continued to collect major monetary donations with the donations being stored in a crate for easy access. Despite international protests and local resistance, the Soviet Union pillaged the church donation boxes for money. Even the Allies were sometimes forced to pillage the churches, though only if funds were desperately needed.

First Tiberium War
At the dawn of the Tiberium age, Europe and Africa contained the highest population of churches and churches were often the center of social life in many towns. Unfortunately, many churchgoers were put at risk from the Tiberium particulate and many died from inhaling the particulate. Tiberium also brought another serious threat to churches, The Brotherhood of Nod. Nod believes that any worship other than that of Kane is blasphemous and that the blasphemers must be punished. Churches were destroyed on sight and clergy and churchgoers were killed or taken to internment camps for “reeducation” in the name of Kane and the Brotherhood. One such church in Mexico was to be destroyed and the clergyman and his wife were to be taken to the nearby Nod internment camp but, luckily for them, Nick “Havoc” Parker, a GDI commando, was able to save them in the nick of time with the help of some GDI Minigunners. Just as churches received donations in the GWII, they continued to get money and support from the local population. Rumors abound that Nod, and even GDI, pillaged churches for this money to support their respective war efforts. Despite their campaign of terror, even Nod took notice of the churches’ appeal and designs. They incorporated certain aspects into their own structural designs to inspire awe and faith among its supporters. This was extremely apparent in their own “church”, the Temple of Nod.

Second Tiberium War
By the time of the Second Tiberium War, churches had lost their appeal as a consequence of religion declining in importance due to the spread of Tiberium. Many churches were abandoned to the advance of Tiberium across the globe. Only a few churches remained active, typically in cities either protected by GDI or far enough from Tiberium for the denizens to remain safe. Even then, church attendance was extremely low. The overall collapse of much of the world’s infrastructure and economies from Tiberium caused money to become scarce and very valuable. As such, people held onto whatever money they could and didn’t spend needlessly. A consequence of this was a shortage of church donations. Thus churches no longer held significant money deposits. Pillaging churches was deemed pointless by many banditos and Nod. Strangely, churches in Tiberium rich-areas underwent a revival in importance. The Forgotten began to claim abandoned structures as humanity fled from Tiberium. Among these structures were the churches. Most likely due to their much shortened life spans, the Forgotten began to attend “mass” in an attempt to deal and reconcile with their terrible fate.

Third Tiberium War
With the classification of the world into different zones, many churches wound up in Yellow Zones and Red Zones. While many Yellow Zone churches could still be functionally used, Red Zone churches were unusable and, sometimes dangerous, husks of their former selves. Churches were often in severe disrepair and at the point of collapse. Many Red Zone churches had already crumbled to dust or were about to crumble to dust. Tiberium grew all over these churches and, in some cases, propped up the remaining church infrastructure.