You loved Torg week last year, so here’s some more Torg. Because man, Torg is pretty great.

Well, certain sections of Torg are pretty great, anyway. I do not recognize the Living Land. But the Cyberpapacy? That is some top shelf nonsense of the highest order. Based in CyberFrance, they’re an invading reality that was originally based on the idea of the line of French antipopes forging a dark feudalism in the modern era. On its way to imprint on Earth, though, it crashed into a cyberpunk reality and got…remixed? Fused? With the exception of the subplot involving a synthetic AIDS virus, the whole Cyberpapacy is a perfect exercise in slipstream camp. It is very difficult to take seriously, yet I remain fascinated.

The GodNet (1991) is an important sourcebook for the Cyberpapacy that explains how its virtual reality internet works. It is the equivalent of Shadowrun’s Matrix or the Net in Cyberpunk, but with a Catholic aesthetic. I find the mix of stereotypical netrunner types dealing with gothic and rococo environments endlessly entertaining. It is housed in a web of Holy Exchanges, Program Monasteries and Data Cathedrals. Inside the net is mostly the digital construct of the church data fortress and its outlying structures, but CyberHeaven, CyberPurgatory and CyberHell all exist there as well (along with the remains of the original cyberworld reality). As in Count Zero, there are cyber entities that are not accounted for by the CyberPope, like demons and the Great Beast.

Grant Goleash, Rick Harris and Allen Nunis are the interior artists. They all contribute to the vibe (though Nunis always reads as Star Wars-y to me). I think Goleash is my favorite, because he sort of apes the gritty look established by Tim Bradstreet in the main sourcebook. Alan Hashimoto did the cover; it could be more ridiculous.