Lore

See also: Danald's Story, Leesa's Story

Over two centuries ago a group of scientists and politicians and adventurers saw the destruction of Earth was imminent and started planning. They gathered together DNA samples of the best and brightest that earth had to offer across all races and classes. They sent out highly automated colony ships to as many planets as possible that had the potential to support human life. Some failed to find habitable planets, some were destroyed, but some survived. How many survived is unknown since communications were lost as the ships got further and further apart from each other. This is the story of one of the survivor colonies. Rhyldan.

During the long journey, important scientific advances were made, including the ability to imprint memories into humans. They called this the Judair Limiter technology and it let them capture a ‘snapshot’ of a person’s memories, emotions, and skills.

At first, when the TSS Northern Star landed on Rhyldan, mankind was united under a common goal: Survival. Soon the new settlement was dedicated and named Plymouth, and that name once again marked the discovery of a new world. Plymouth was slowly built up using a combination of local resources and of parts of the Northern Star. For some time there was peace and unity among men as one of the native species, referred to as the Lesoo, waged a series of attacks on the new settlement. But while the Lesoo are a strong and hardy species, they were outmatched technologically.

The laws of the land were simple, every person needed to pull their own weight and life was not a right, it was a privilege. Rhyldan was a dangerous world and death in the wilds was a common occurrence. With the Judair Limiter’s up to the minute record of memories and emotions, along with the ability to quickly rebuild humans from their DNA, this made death nothing more than a very painful setback.

But the peaceful cooperation among the settler clones wouldn’t last long. Things took a turn for the worst when a man named Obore Daniels began to stir the pot. Daniels objected to the fact that children were not permitted. He was told that children couldn’t pull their own weight and worse yet, they would make the adults less productive too. It takes a village to raise a child and this village, Plymouth, was under threat of attack by the Lesoo and couldn’t afford to divert the manpower away from survival.

He also took issue with the fact that the Council, a collection of the original colonists, chose which DNA to use on new clones and kept the DNA locked away from everybody else. Some colonists wanted to have friends or family members restored, but unless the dead had possessed unique talents to justify the cloning time, they were told it was not possible with the resources available.

Daniels continued to be vocal about his feelings and over time he swayed a number of other citizens to push for changes. The protesters refused to work until this issue was resolved. They started out with peaceful protests that all too often ended up with clashes between the factions causing vandalism and damage to the city and even more outrage than before. The unity of mankind was splintering, emotions were running out of control, and the settlement was weakened by a lack of essential supplies and workers

To quell the rebellion the Council created the first of a series of Cyborgs, which they called Peacekeepers. These Peacekeepers were created using a mix of hybrid DNA and integrated with brain wave inhibitors that made them controllable and completely loyal to the Council. They were first used in an attempt to force people back to work but when they were pelted with stones and debris they opened fire and human blood was shed on Rhyldan at the order of other humans.

Daniels urged peaceful resolution and even petitioned the Council for permission to start a sister city, but the Council refused. Then he disappeared while out on patrol one day, reportedly falling prey to a Lesoo ambush. The Council decided against spawning a new life for Daniels. From their standpoint he was a troublemaker and could be better replaced by someone who would be just as productive, and much less of a problem.

This decision did not sit well with Daniels’ followers. Protests were begun by a number of citizens, led by a woman named Emily Salazar. Salazar theorized that Daniels had been murdered at the will of the Council and while there was no evidence to support this, the refusal to restore his life left it open to question. Tensions rose and over time the sabotage organized by Salazar became more and more of a problem.

Then Salazar and those supporting her fled to become outcasts. They named themselves the Free People’s Republic (FPR) and took to the wilds where they seemed to disappear. The Council thought the Lesoo, or some other hazards of the unexplored areas had killed them. Until one night when they staged a well-coordinated and successful attack on the Cloning Facility at Plymouth. The FPR took away a large collection of DNA strands and equipment, making it possible to create their own clones and build an army for themselves.

The Council condemned this act of theft and disunity and declared themselves a nation of their own. Thus the OWON was born. One World, One Nation. Founded on the belief that the FPR splinter has weakened all of mankind, and that it was done purely for selfish reasons. The goal of OWON is the survival of humanity and they will not allow individual agendas to get in the way of that.

The FPR feels that the OWON is an oppressive, totalitarian government who refuses to listen to outside opinions on how to achieve the survival of the human species. The FPR wages a propaganda campaign against them in an effort to reach out to new clones and to force the Council to open its ranks to others. While the OWON paints the FPR as a villainous band of separatists who will blindly divide the people until the Lesoo and other dangers are able to destroy them all.

The sides are so diametrically opposed that they’ve fallen into a state of open war. Power struggles and disgust at the political maneuvering has further splintered the factions. Small groups have broken off of both sides and declared themselves independent. The OWON labels them Rogue Nations and even the FPR has taken up that name for them. An ever-shifting mosaic of alliance and aggression exists between the Rogue Nations and the two larger factions, but mistrust of anyone outside of their own power structure keeps cooperation very limited.