Earth: The Opening
What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos.
- Kerry Thornley
This is simply going to be a place to toss miscellaneous info, and to make the world section a little less bulky. Fringe groups, odd religions ... just bits and pieces of stuff, really.
Organisations
Our whole evolution up to this point shows that human groups spontaneously evolve patterns of behaviour, as well as patterns of training people for that behaviour, which tend on the balance to lead people to create rather than destroy. Humans are, on net balance, builders rather than destroyers.
- Julian Simon
This section consists of a look at organisations in the world, currently. They are arranged alphabetically. Each one consists of its Name (including basic variants on that), what type it is (a religion, government organisation, grassroots movement etc.) and its location, which is often local, national, international, global or interglobal, the latter referring to organisations that have influence or reach out beyond earth/mars/the moon/asteroid belt, whichever they’re located on. That’s followed by a quote of some kind, often relating to the organisation or its goals or mocking them, then a very brief description of the organisation. This is largely a player reference, not a PC one. Few PCs would have any reason to know that the CFR exists, for example, but all would know of DisUnited.
Name: The Brothers of Trees (also known as the Brotherhood of Trees)
Type: Religion (cult)
Location Scattered, many in South America and Canada.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
- Thomas Jefferson
Many disenfranchised animal rights activists (who were disenfranchised when the animals got there own voice and no longer needed them) have turned to the vegetables, saying that plants have as much right to live as the rest of us. Most of these groups soon starved to death on a diet of mineral oils and hard water -- some even just with mineral oil since the radical ones even eschewed drinking water as plants require water to live. As a radical move against humanity, the Brothers of the Trees turned to cannibalism. Commenting on this, the DisUnited columnist Warner said that “I'm pragmatic enough to say everything has as much right to live as anything else. But if its that cow or me that cow had better learn to fight .“ They have made death threats against him. They’d likely have to stand in line to carry them out.
Name: Then Council of Foreign Relations (CFR)
Type: Intergovernmental body
Location: Classified, varies
I'm no more apt to lie than you are, but there are a hundred ways to hide the truth.
- P C Hodgell
The CFR is an international body that exists to help regulate trade between earth and the colonies, largely. Operating in conjunction with the UN, it is nonetheless an independent organisation. No one is sure quite when it was founded but the leaders of many nations or their relatives sit on it and many future leaders find it useful to join the council as well, for a wide variety of reasons. While existence of the council can be found out by anyone who looks it up, exactly what it does remains a mystery. Many conspiracy theorists claim that the CFR created the United Nations, or that the UN is a front for some evil goal, such as world domination, eternal re runs of Gilligan’s Island ... as yet, they have no proof of any wrongdoing.
Name: The DisUnited
Type: Newscast Service (Tabloid)
Location: Interglobal
No truth is placed on System.
- Unknown
A UN-watching Tabloid that sometimes has anti-UN sentiments and keeps close watch over the UN., mostly for scandals. Some of their reporters have begun to guess that the last secretary-general (Charles Eldore, from England) didn’t really die of a heart attack at all. They’re right, and perhaps too close to the truth for comfort.
Many Disunited columnists tend to be anti-UN, but few offer many solutions as to a better watchdog on nations. The UN has bite to go with its bark, and that obviously leads to some abuses as any institution can. One noted columnist, referring to the sec-gen post and the recent Resource War, known only as “Warner” points out that its a “strange world we live in where our world leader has a tittle that sounds like he could order people to fight and die with papers he can type up himself.” Some people said the sec-gen was considering suing over that remark, but if so it was settled out of court.
Name: The Round Table
Type: Coven/School of mages
Location: Europe, with a few followers in the Americas
We change what we touch, be it magic, power or another life.
- Barbara Hambly, "Dragonsbane"
The round table is a collection of magic users, largely from the British Isles, who believe that Merlin brought magic back into the world and follow certain tenants they claim have been passed down by Merlin through the ages. Members goals range from re-creating or finding Excalibur to preserving magical knowledge. Most of them are very powerful mages and well versed in their arts and it is said that the Round Table knows more about magic than any other school presently existing. Membership is by invitation only.