Islam-still exists, Stretching from morocco to afganistan and filtering here and there into sub-saharan Africa. Major thing-a few years ago a madman/divinely inspired very rich corporate islamic guy actually built a series of "pilgramage paths" all over the islamic world. It's like this-in the real world every islamic mosque (like a church) has a wall facing the city of mecca in saudi arabia(? not sure, someone check). This religious visionary actually built a path from every single mosque to the city of mecca, so if you look at a satellite photo of the middle east it looks like an irregular wheel with all the spokes pointing to mecca. Very weird, pilgrims are all over these roads, cheap hotels, brothels, gas stations, etc. etc. line the roads. nice landmark if you're stuck in the desert. Why'd he do it? No-one knows. Please note that islam requires that , if possible believer should, at least once, make a pilgrimage to mecca. Islam is thriving in rifts earth, though many sects are FAR more liberal than what you'd expect. Some women wear no veils or anything and some you can't even see their eyes. It's weird. Also, Egypt and the phoenix empire is near the middle of the "islamic wheel". The death worship of the phoenix empire is usually quite at odds with the local muslims. Islamic architecture is really cool for rifts stuff--all positioned facing mecca (hardcore ley-line nexuss) lots of minarets (towers) to call people to worship (or shoot people from), intricate written decoration to hide secret messages in, lots of statues (on non-religious structures only!) to enchant and make into golems, and labyrinthine structures great for Aliens-style tunnel fighting.
Hinduism- has gotten really really really weird. If you've ever seen a hindu temple, they're all based on numbers, sequences, circulation. Hindu has become a major majormajor techno-wizard religion, mostly around india and southeast asia but spreading fast. It's a mathematical religion, counting down the days until the dawning of different ages. Techno-monks staring at the sky counting stars building machines to open rifts---a large round base is a big part of hindu iconography-analogy with the shape of a rift. Major religious resurgence here
Christianity-major boom in catholicism in NGR (religion is not illegal there) and South America and Mexico--think about it, you're fighting gargoyles and vampires all day after a major cataclysm (apocalypse). OH my god, you think, the bible was right and crosses DO keep vampires away. Priests are the most respected humans in Mexico (next to priest/mage/anti-monsters in jaguar armor, of course) they lead vamopire hunting parties all the time. Catholicism and Protestantism are basically peacefully co-existing in the NGR. The CS does have a religion (just like hitler) it's a very antiseptic, divine-power oriented protestantism called the Church of the Empire. Technically, Prosek is the head of the church, but it's less a religion than a front for fascist indoctrination and an excuse to kill mages, psychics and non-humans. I'm not writing up stats for jesus, that's just silly.
Judaism-is scattered across the globe, as usual, there are a few small mostly jewish city-states but other than that, nothing unusual.
I will not deal with the religions of the east here 'cause I need to look at rifts-japan but I will say that no matter what (the otherwise very informative) jeff fapp says confucianism is NOT a religion, that would require the deification of confucius which simply never occured (at least in the pre-rifts world). And Lao Tsu did nothing like found taoism, he just wrote the tao-te ching which is the most popular taoist text. He didn't found it no how no way never no wrong wrong wrong (not that this has any rifts significance).
Riftsports, a short note. The coalition loves football but no way would they create the "mech football" described here, training non-army warriors in vast numbers is dangerous! However!!!!!!!!! in Siberia there is a WHOLE NATION centered around a form of mega-damage football! The playing field is a valley between two high mountains. anyone can play. The government literally IS the football games: all legal disputes are settled by bets on the game, or on individual player performance. Society centers around the players who are major landowners or employees thereof, lots of betting on individual performance. No firearms, missiles, flying, psionics, or magic allowed, though weird natural abilities usually are. Professional judges magically inspect new members of the league and determine what abilities are legal. The field is forty miles long. A touchdown is worth one point, no field goals. The judges try to make the teams fair by mixing together different types of players. Killing a player results in the killers team losing a)fifty points or b)all points won so far, whichever is higher. No field goals. A disc is used instead of a ball. Figure out throwing range yourself using ps rules. Cheaters never play again. Games last eight hours split into two halves.
By Zachary Smith.