Extinctionists
Created by: Garry Stahl
Author's Note: I have
noticed that this is one of the most called on pages at my site.
I am curious as to why so many people are searching for
extinctionists. If you are willing to tell me send mail to Brockovert
Number of Members: Limited, no more than 100 active members with a sympathy base of 100 to 1000 times that.
Nature of Members: Grim moralizers and fatalists.
Organization: Cell structure common to terrorist groups.
Game Role: To give the PCs a difficult to find and harder
to root out opponent that might have some politically powerful allies,
in secret.
World Role: To convince the general population by means of
coercion if necessary that high tech living and space travel are futile
and worthless.
Relative Influence: Large for their size. Everyone is
aware of them police organization seek them, political entities have to
take their existence into account.
Public or Secret?: Secret membership. Knowledge that you are a member of the Extinctionists would land you in jail.
Public actions. In
order to push their viewpoint Extinctionists sabotage power plants,
food and water supply structures and defiantly any attempt to contact
other worlds and other civilizations.
Publicly Stated Goal: Struggle is useless, we are all going to die, we might as well get it over with without damaging the environment any more.
Real Goal (if different): Some really underhanded
politicians are using them as a stalking horse to gain power. The hard
core Extinctionists are not aware of this.
Relative Wealth: Poor, with limited access to resources.
One or two relatively wealthy contributors, as well as a dependence on
theft keep them going.
Group advantages: Secrecy. No one knows who they are.
Outside of actual terrorist operations the Extinctionists can move
freely to gather intelligence and plan operations.
Special Abilities: Knowledge of explosives and public psychology is common among members.
Group disadvantages: Lack of wealth. Members must scrounge
to gather resources by means legal or otherwise. Due to their
convictions (why plan for the future, invest etc.) legal means are
limited and extra legal means are risky. Each extra legal activity to
gain wealth increases the chance they will be busted.
Special Disadvantages: Hunted by every law enforcement organization on the planet.
Who belongs: Followers of an obscure (and dead) philosopher of doom.
Who doesn't belong: Anyone sane.
Those who favor them: Persons that fear contact with the
"outside" and see the Extinctionists as part of the means of shutting
down the "Star Drive" programs that frighten them. This limited public
support is not in agreement with their entire philosophy.
Those opposed to them: Anyone sane. Expansionists and optimists.
Area of Operation: World of McGuffin
Headquarters Location: None, due to the cell organization
Public Face: Shadowy, violent, crazy people.
Notable Members: Hiram Brockovert Last era philosopher that started the extinction movement.
Charvee Maston
(secret) The charismatic, manipulative, and slightly mad "head" of the
Brockovert Extinction movement. Maston is unknown to the public and
likes it that way. He himself has never committed any crime. Charvee is
a anarchist and xenophobe at heart.
Cellica Randolpherst Rich heiress that was kidnapped and converted to the movement. Current location unknown.
Upright Goodman
(secret) Politician with a bankroll and an agenda. Goodman is in favor
of a more authoritarian regime, with him at the head of course. He
secretly funds the Extinctionists to raise public panic to the point
that his "reforms" sound good. Thus far he has had some success. Public
knowledge that he is funding them would ruin him.
History of the Organization: In the last era of McGuffin
during the rise of McGuffin's industrial era Hiram Brockovert suffered
a vision that said the struggle was doomed. The more the people tried
to better their condition. the worse the impact on the world, and the
sooner the end would come. It was better to live an abject life of hand
to mouth poverty and slow the pace of extinction.
He attracted a certain number
of followers, mostly among those whose trades were being replaced by
machines. Together they fought vainly against the evils of rising
consumerism and industrialization. In addition to his anti-technology
stance he adopted a strict moral code of non-marriage and communal
living. This was opposed to the current moral code of the day.
Brockovets as they were called were condemned as wrong-headed and
immoral. Contemporaries saw him as a nut, and the tide of history
buried him and his followers.
Toward the end Brockovert
faltered and wrote a thesis rejecting his non-violent methods (that
plainly did not work) and allowed that when the moral cause is
righteous enough, violent means are permitted. Brockovert himself never
practiced any violence, nor did his direct followers. Their quaint iron
age village became an obscure tourist attraction until it was torn down
to make way for a nutritional fabrication plant two centuries later.
Throughout the next four
centuries this philosophy reared its ugly head any time a major change
in technology threatened the lifestyle of anyone dependent on the old
technology. "Brockovets" would rise and oppose the change, some in the
manner he first proposed, some violently as he allowed later in life.
None followed the entire regime his philosophy demanded. All of them
died out to the inevitable changes.
The latest incarnation of the
Brockovets are firm adherents to the later thesis, in a fundamentalist
sort of way. They do not allow for violence, but embrace it as the only
way their movement can succeed. Few if any of Charvee Maston's converts
have even read Brockovert. They certainly have not followed his first
advice of abandoning all technology. They have concentrated, due to the
influence of Maston, on the extinction aspect of the writings. They
believe the sooner the better and the world can return to it's pristine
state.
Should they get their hands
on bio-weapons of any sort McGuffin would be in a bad way. As it stands
they have small bombs, little support in public opinion, and the weight
of most of the government against them. If it was not for the
subversion of Upright Goodman the movement would likely have been
tracked down and eliminated by this point.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and
situations are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, places, or
situations living or dead is coincidental.
© Garry Stahl: 1997-2006 unless other Copyrights apply. All rights reserved, re-print only with permission.
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