[color=#009900]Rawr.
While playing my Gaian characters, while talking to people ingame in roleplay and out of roleplay, when discussing things in Skype or reading forums I often ran into situation when my interlocutor either had no idea what is Gaian roleplay about or had some confusing misconceptions. That's why I decided to make something like this to explain the Gaian lore, Gaian ideology, some aspects of Gaian roleplay. I also will compare it with actual faction roleplay and explain how we play according to one part of our lore or another. Let's say that it's an another attempt to step away from image of 'space hippies' and provide some pretty logical picture of Gaian movement.
This text is based on rumors from Vanilla Freelancer.
[color=#009900]What are Gaians.
Uh, the first thing to talk about is what are Gaians and how they explain their movement. This is one of my favourite rumors, by the way.
'The Molly's hatred for BMM is an advantage to our own attacks upon that corporation, and though we don't share the same motivation that Mollys' do, our disgust with the dispoilers of BMM is just as intense. Unlike many underground operations we're not motivated by the acquisition of money. We're a political organisation dedicated to improving the quality of life for all who live in Bretonia, even our enemies, though they are too blind to see it.' - Terry Devereux, Gaians, Trafalgar, NL
That's the point. Gaians are not a religious group that praises nature, even while some people may use it for their individual roleplay. Gaians are not a bunch of hippy-pirates on drugs even while you may meet some of that kind as well. Basically, Nature's Last Hope, the official Gaian faction, was created as group of oldschool, traditional Gaians in opposition to part of movement that degraded under the Corsair influence. The relations between Gaians and Corsairs, as well as the general opinion of Gaians about open criminal activities are also an interesting thing.
[color=#009900]Gaians and Corsairs.
'The Gaians don't know what to do of those real criminals, the Corsairs. I think all those Cambridge University grads are scared to death of the Border Worlds bad guys. That's not what they signed up for.' - Mike Dorn, BHG, Canterbury, NL.
'We bring in all of our supplies, other then our locally available Oxygen and Water, from Trafalgar. It is most ironic that the only place we can land is the despised Junker base - guardians of filth, corruption and the criminal elements.' - Quincy Pearse, Gaians, Islay base, Edinburgh.
This comes to a certain contrast with Gaian infocard and empathy, based on a supposed alliance. This isn't that terribly wrong. As a group which is fighting against almost everyone in Bretonia, Gaians needed support. It came from the group that was as well opposed to Bretonian Crown. And while Gaians hadn't in any way shared the ideas of Corsairs in general, they were pretty different and those close relations finally caused the breakdown of movement on so-called Gaian pirates and Gaian traditionalists - Nature's Last Hope. But without piracy even a small group won't have resources to construct ships, to buy supplies and to construct bases, finally. Here comes the simple explaination.
[color=#009900]Gaians And Green Front.
'If it wasn't for the Green Front, I doubt the Gaians would be able to operate at all. We have the support of intellectuals in Bretonia and the educated elite of Cambridge, but without the financial assistance that Green Front brings in... Well, let's just say that the good causes don't fund themselves.' - Terry Devereux, Gaians, Trafalgar, NL
The Green Front is a special topic. It's not a minor group, but a political movement with its history and its supporters in all social groups. It's a network of informants and whistle-blowers, powerful lobby and contacts among political and business elite.
'We have information indicating that the centuries-long terraforming operations run by Planetform will never succeed. A top secret government report obtained by the Green Front asserts that the planets will lose their nascent atmospheres within several hundred years of completion of the process due to uncontrolled outgasing.' - Parker Glenn, Gaians, Islay base, Edinburgh.
'I don't understand how we became enemies of the Gaians. We're only engaged in tourism, not in ecological change of planets like Planetform, Inc. The same New London elites that secretly support the Gaians enjoy the facilities on our cruise ships. I would say it is a bit hypocritical.' - Julia Blake, OSC, New London, NL.
When it came to establishing Green Front as the political party, the platform behind the movement became a question. Current Green Front is a social-democratic environmentalist party with a lot of support. Gaians don't really represent some absurd ideas - they, as organised terrorist group are pretty logical and don't have problem with public support I think I will paste a short description of Green Front here to explain what it is. Just to mention - it's a new write-up, not perfect and, which is more important, not presented in Vanilla in any way.
'While the ecological movements appeared around Bretonia since the so-called Golden Age and the industrial rise of the Kingdom in 589-674 A.S. resulted in environmental collapse on Leeds, the Green Front as the political movement formed only in 685 A.S. on Planet Cambridge and for the next hundred years existed as the joint force of Bretonian environmentalists and intellectual elite from Cambridge. With the network of whistle-blowers and significant public opposition to the mining efforts on Planet Gaia, GF accumulated substantial funds and gathered a powerful lobby. The change in party occurred in the last decade when the new social-democratic program resulted in merge of Green Front and several movements on Leeds and New London in a year transforming them from the smallest elected parties to a single green-red that attracted young environmentally aware urban voters along with middle-class and even a part of LWP electorate due to involvement of GF in numerous health care and social welfare related initiatives as well as in a half a century long series of assizes against BMM on Leeds. Along with IFC, GF declared its opposition to Tau war along with the opposition to terraforming project on Planet Harris that Marta Bonnet, current speaker of the party characterized as the most blatant embezzlement of budget funds and hive of corruption.'
Apparently, Gaians target the same organisations as Green Front, but instead of lawsuits and public tribunes they use hit-and-run tactics and economical warfare. And again - while there are people with different motivation and approach to the general faction struggle - Gaians don't fight for abstract ideas and just to shoot more BMM, Planetform and Orbital Spa and Cruise Lines ships.
So, I think it will be a right approach to list rumors concerning every Gaian enemy and explain what are the reason for fighting them and what methods do Gaian use.
[color=#009900]BMM.
'Back in New London, more then a few people are starting to question the official media's version of Gaians. Instead of engaging in general piracy, the Gaians focus their efforts on Gaia and terraforming-related activities in Bretonia. I must admit, it is an unique planet that represents something we have lost in Bretonia. It's worth protecting from Cobalt mining, or whatever BMM wanted to do.' - Harrison Cawdron, BowEx, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'I like visiting the place. Normally I look out of my office in Leeds and can't see anything green through all the sulfurous clouds. My company's executive office wants to exploit Gaia much as they did with Leeds, with little or no government foresight. I'm not sure that it's such a good idea at this point, given our track record.' - Franklin Beeching, BMM, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'I've seen company documents that described negligible amounts of Cobalt on Gaia. It was a ploy for the government to let us in and begin full-scale mining of Aluminium and Titanium, the Basic Alloy metals that we have almost exhausted in Stokes. So, the Gaians and Cambridge researchers were not unfounded in their accusations.'- Franklin Beeching, BMM, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'The pollution you see in this system is a byproduct of BMM's industrial practices, but there wasn't much choice, as Bretonia had to catch up with the other houses in the early years. You will hear the lower classes speak of the ruthlessness with which BMM has run its corporation and its employees, but what they don't understand is that there was no other way.' - Chandler Batt, BMM, Stokes Shelter, Leeds.
Bretonian Mining and Manufacturing, example number one. This corporation is responsible for environmental collapse on Leeds and the one that attempted to start Cobalt mining operation on Gaia. To bring BMM to their knees is basically another wording for forcing the corporation to repay for what they did, to forget all their plans on Gaia and to invest in cleaning Leeds - both system and planet. To do that Gaians mostly harass BMM operations in Dublin and perform strikes on objects in open space - something that can be done ingame. In other words, Gaian attacks on Dublin have nothing to do with 'polluting vacuum', have nothing to do with 'destruction of mother nature's bounty' or so - it's a logical act of sabotage of enemy's most profitable operations. This as well explains their secret deals with Independent Miners Guild that is more than interested in forcing BMM out of most ore-bearing fields.
[color=#009900]Planetform.
'Gateway doesn't handle any Edinburgh traffic - this is Planetform territory. I don't know why they are starting this new project. They haven't even finished Harris of California Minor yet. They should just leave this place alone.' - Kenneth Enfield, Gateway, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'Construction and mining machinery, that's what Perth in Edinburgh needs as soon as possible. You look just like the one to do it too. You don't mind fighting off a few rich snobs who've read too many datapads for their own good, do you? That's right, you'd be doing me a personal favor if you could kill one of those illies. Gaia might not not. bleed, but Gaians will.' - Bill Sysco, PFI, Planet Leeds, Leeds.
'Just between you and me, the real reason we've started Ayr is that government contracts pay the bulk of the milestone payments for an entry process during Phase I. Harris is so far behind schedule that it's on company costs now. A lot of our money is being siphoned off to Tau-31. Once it's complete, we'll probably bail out on Edinburgh and Gaians.' - Theodore Shaw, PFI,
Planetform is another one from top three of Gaian natural enemies. One of its main sins is having a license on capture of lifeforms from Gaia for commercial purposes. It's a project backed up by the Government and even Green Front or Cambridge Research Institute can't do a thing. Involvement of company in bad enough as it is political atmosphere around Gaia attracts the attention to their main business - terraforming, or in other words, altering natural environment. Terraforming of lifeless planets such as Ayr or Harris don't hurt that much, but they are a projects that attracted enormous sums of money - and once again the Gaians hit Planetform's supply lines in Tau-31 not for abstract fight against terraforming in general, but to increase the hole in Planetform's budget. Terraforming of Miura by GMG and Kishiro or Stuttgart by Synth Foods and, probably, Planetform are much more serious mistakes made by the aforesaid organisations and they will pay for them one day or another.
Once again - the motivation of individual characters may differ and there are a lot of radical Gaians that refer to natural balance as a basis of existence or some sacred feelings - here I'm trying to create a logical image of the whole faction.
[color=#009900]OSC.
'Business has been very good on the Shetland. The Bretonian populace enjoys visiting an unspoiled paradise like Gaia. Unfortunately, tourists' impressions of Gaia have served to increase public sympathy for the Gaian movement, making it more difficult to obtain governmental funds for eradicating the terrorists.' - Samantha Paterson, OSC, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'The austere majesty of Gaia is cheapened by the swarms of tourists that set foot upon the planet. Orbital Spa and Cruise, thought it may feign to preserve the abundance of its locales, cares for nothing more then its next credit.' - Nicholas Hammons, Gaians, Islay base, Edinburgh.
'The Cambridge researchers on Gaia have made quite a stink about us all being here in Edinburgh. They think it'll lead to deterioration of the environment and mass extinctions. I don't think I'd go that far.' - Dolly Jackson, BPA, Aberdeen border station, Edinburgh.
'I'm going on unofficial hunting expedition tomorrow. I met a Bounty Hunter who says he can find me a blue ground sloth. That would be an interesting addition to the collection of heads in my study.' - Franklin Beeching, BMM, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'The researchers on Gaia don't even want us tourists there. They say we introduce alien viruses and diseases to the indigenous animal population. It's been an ongoing dispute between Cambridge University and Orbital Spa.' - Jared Goorney, Cryer, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
Historically, Gaians are the adherents of scientific truth. That's a thing to remember that Gaians are closely tied to Green Front as well as to Cambridge where they have high support - so their position towards any operations (tourism, mining, whatever) on a certain level represents the image of crazy researcher trying to change the world with a doomsday machine pretty well. The Gaians are Chaotic Good on the matter, fighting for obviously good things that can't survive in the world themselves, but their methods are as radical as possible.
[color=#009900]Public opinion.
That's also a reason why Gaians are a special group - unlike the Mollys with their separatism ideas and attempts to create their own independent Dublin, the Gaians have public support in Bretonia and their struggle based on the formative issues of Bretonia - so the official reaction to them and the methods Bretonia uses to fight them differ significantly.
Here I will put the rumors relevant to the public opinion as well as the ones that describe how actions again Gaians differ from the actions against other groups.
'I always believed in what the Gaians were fighting for; I just didn't like the way they went about doing things. I didn't take them as seriously as the others - just rich kids, ya know. Well, that all changed a few months ago when they zapped my mate on a routine patrol. We weren't even in attack formation - just flying by - and they opened up on us. Roger's ship imploded before I could blink.' - Arthur Moore, BPA, Planet Leeds, Leeds.
'I just got back from Edinburgh. It's pretty messy up here. The Gaians have more cover and seem to be more organized then anyone else here. I don't get why they think that stupid planet is so important. I say us Bretonians should be able to assert our rights and live where we want.' - Brenda Crusher, BHG, Canterbury, NL.
'We get conflicting reports from London on how to handle the Gaians. One week it's 'Vaporise them all on sight'; next week it's 'Leave them be if they aren't causing problems.' - Mathais Hatcliff, BPA, Aberdeen border station, Edinburgh.
'We aren't really here to control the Gaians. That's just the public that the government spewed out. Our primary mission as far as London is concerned is Outcasts monitoring and suppression.' - Mathais Hatcliff, BPA, Aberdeen border station, Edinburgh.
Here I can mention two important points. First one is that Gaians are not the primary targets for BAF and BPA operations in the region. They are low in numbers and with their hit-and-run tactic fighting them becomes a hard work - and since they don't really have resources to crush Planetform and Spa and Cruise and have their support among many civilians, they remain the secondary target - unlike the Outcasts.
The second point is the conflict between Outcasts and Gaians. Actually, any kind of serious struggle here is completely impossible.
[color=#009900]Gaians and Outcasts.
'London doesn't give us much for a Gaian bounty. Outcasts, on the other hand - they'll keep you in business. This is their main access route to the inner systems of Bretonia.' - some BHG from Aberdeen Border Station I don't remember.
'If you want to rack up the bounties, just hang out by the Leeds jump hole in the Islay cloud. You'll have company since its the main supply and smuggling route into the rest of Bretonia for the Outcasts and Gaians.' - Gregory Lewis, BHG, Luxury Liner Shetland, Edinburgh.
'The reason the Outcasts are here is because of the Jump Hole to the west of the radiation zone in the LD-14 field. The hole goes to Edinburgh, which is where the Cardamine comes from.' - Anne Sullivan, BHG, Battleship York, Leeds.
Unfortunately, I can't add the rumor that mentions that Outcasts have enough resources to crush OSC operations in Edinburgh if someone will try to stop Cardamine dealing there - but it was somewhere around. The point is - Outcasts are a powerful force, semi-house with a war machine, using the passage from Tau-31 to Leeds in Edinburgh for their business. Gaians are not suicidal enough to try and do something that will interrupt the flow of Cardamine to Colonies. I agree that hatred against Outcasts and disapprovement of Cardamine as something dangerous for a small Gaian community may exist and exists among certain characters, but in Discovery with Kirkwall base being dangerously close to Lewis hole, close enough to become a staging point for operation against those 'treehuggers that think too much of themselves', Gaian-Outcast hostilities are a result of overrated Gaian-Corsairs alliance mentioned above.
[color=#009900]Gaians and Mollys.
On the other hand, Gaians have enough enemies around without Outcasts. While Gaians and Mollys could cooperate, they are separated by their ideology. The main reason for Gaians to attack Mollys as well as attack any of their other enemies are the methods Mollys use to achieve their goal. For example, it's a rather well-known fact that Mollys planned to use dirty bomb to attack New London - which is reflected in the rumors.
'Normally, running Toxic Waste from a ship like this one is not an attractive target, but those Mollys think they can build a dirty bomb with some of this nasty stuff, so we have to deal with stress both ways from LD-14' - Rick Burton, BowEx, BS Norfolk, Cambridge.
'You can process tiny amounts of weapons-grade Plutonium from MOX. We steal the MOX as it gets shipped from BMM's LD-14 base in Leeds. Soon we'll get enough MOX to detonate a bomb in skies over New London. Maybe then they'll leave Dublin to us.' - Eric Adamson, Mollys, Arranmore base, Dublin.
[color=#009900]Gaians and intellectual superiority.
So, Bretonia, including Police Authority and Armed Forces, and, lately, Intelligence Agency of Bretonia; Bounty Hunters Guild; corporations and whoever else and, finally, Mollys. In such a hostile environment Gaians survived since approximately 740 A.S. when the ones disappointed in peaceful solution formed the terrorist group. The key to survival here is being smart. Taking into consideration the roots of Gaian movement, their loyalty to their own ideas and the help they recieved from Corsairs in exchange of support of their operations around Bretonia, it becomes easier to understand how a small group of radicals had evolved into the most dangerous terrorist group in Bretonia.
'I just got back from Edinburgh. It's pretty messy up here. The Gaians have more cover and seem to be more organized then anyone else here. I don't get why they think that stupid planet is so important. I say us Bretonians should be able to assert our rights and live where we want.' - Brenda Crusher, BHG, Canterbury, NL.
'The Gaians are getting too smart for their own good. We've heard reports that they are towing Ice asteroids from Birmingam into the tradelanes. If that is true, then the Gaians just bit off more then they can chew. One thing the Crown will not stand is the blocking of tradelanes, and more companies are starting to increase bounties.' - Sherri Gellar, BPA, Kingston, Manchester.
'Those Gaians are subborn a lot. I had me on his knees - a flaming wreck, weapons gone. He tried to ram me, so I had to finish him off. I guess he knew what was waiting for him in Newgate. All those working-class blokes in there fancy a little upper-crust Cambridge companionship on occasion.' - Lucas Moriarty, BHG, Aberdeen border station, Edinburgh.
[color=#009900]Something else.
Actually, that's all about rumors. This guide is not full and represents my opinion about Gaians as a pretty logical group with more then logical ideas. At the same time the logic in Gaian community coexists with radical forms of environmental philosophy that is mentioned in Islay Base's infocard.
'Eventually any plans to mine the surface of Edinburgh were dropped -- mostly out of fear that it might cut into the burgeoning tourist industry -- but the Gaians had already broadened their horizons by an influx of radical elements from Cambridge who sought a ban on terraforming technologies. Planetform, Inc. was the natural target. What emerged was a militant terrorist group philosophically opposed to the exploitation of planets, and terraforming in particular. The group enjoyed considerable popular support on Cambridge, funded by the efforts of the legitimate arm of the Gaians called the Green Front.'
The question about the Gaian point of view on terraforming in general still stands. One can say that Gaians are completely opposed to terraforming and that's the very basis of their current ideology - and natural balance of things as the general idea, that way turning any way the humans interrupt natural evolution of life or lifeless worlds into a crime against the universe. Another will disagree and mention that it don't work well with the scientific truth, so the movement is opposed only to exploitation of living worlds for human needs in their endless struggle for resources and profit - such as Leeds, Stuttgart or Miura that already faced the short-sightened nature of humanity or Gaia that they managed to protect so far. This is a permanently ongoing discussion between players and the only actual way to solve the issue is playing characters with different points of view.
Actually, different groups coexist under the under the 'umbrella brand'. I personally see NLH as the logical Gaians that experience significant influence of Green Front that was involved in many events in the past - including, most probably, the creation of Claymore Gunship, as well as significant support from their lawful colleagues. But at the same time, Gaian movement includes different people, even in the NLH one may meet so-called 'bretonian Gaians' such as Sequoia Hart which more or less corresponds to the first rumor mentioned in this guide; you may meet Jonah Blint who is a Gaian that represents the radical philosophical approach; Shizen no Hikari - a Kusari girl and a cosmopolitan Gaian; Lurue and Lady Deirdre Skye who are a rich heir to Planetform actives and bretonian noble; the list can be continued.
This guide is not a gospel truth in any way. Some points of it are debatable, some are more then debatable, especially when it comes to the last Gaian philosophy or to Green Front's role in environmental movement in Bretonia; sometimes vanilla lore doesn't correspond with Discovery lore, but all that is irrelevant since the general picture is much more clear now.
While working on this guide I used a certain freedom to fill the blank pages of Discovery lore for Gaians. There are certain points I find debatable. Corsairs were mentioned up there - and I don't really think that talking of the organised Gaians, the situation changed much; while they needed the resources only the Corsairs could provide, Gaians never fall into a complete alliance with them. Gaian NPC faction diplomacy suffers from the same overreacting issue as many others.
The ties between Gaians and Corsairs are balanced with Outcasts that used Edinburgh and the Islay field as the main smuggling route to Colonies. Gaians, closely affilated with Corsairs will be pushed into the battlefield and destroyed before they could even step over their status as the bunch of agressvie hippies on a single rock in the ice cloud.
The NPC faction diplomacy with Kusari is specific as well. Their ties to Kusari are less obvious; basically, while they fight the same enemy and Gaians even got their precious "Claymore" gunboat project made by Samura Industries, Gaians never had the resources or the reason to fight openly on the battlefield, they are just merely weak. Yes, there were occasions when Gaians jumped into such fights, but that's not the best idea for them. Yes, Gaians cooperate with Hogosha and helped Kempetai in their operations in exchange on information, but once again it wasn't something common or too public.
Green Front's role here is quite interesting. While being the main supporter of Gaian movement, it's the political organisation that bases its ideology on the issues formative for the House. Remember, that the most populated planet in Sirius, Leeds survived the collapse of ecological system; it's not something that can be put aside from everything.
Green Front took the shape of modern socialist parties that have a tendency to merge or closely cooperate with ecological movements for the good of people's Mother Nature or something. Yes, it's something that appeared later during the work on the Green Front as a political party in the Parlament of Bretonia, but it's something most fitting.
The role of a mere party is not something that will explain the whole involvement of Green Front in Gaian affairs. An organisation that provides money to make the terrorism in Bretonia rolling; an organisation that, most probably, was behind the "Claymore", since it's not a cheap toy, it's an unique gunship; the organisation of that kind looks more like a secret society, it makes more sense as a society and it's much more interesting to play as the society of a kind.
It's common that the ideas that become a ground for radical groups are discussed publicly and have their own supporters among the usual people. Yes, Green Front may have a hard time covering some of Gaians' activities or denying any ties between them and the terrotists, but they still do that.
Igiss shaped the general line, but how the faction exists in the pre-defined boundaries is only the faction's matter and that is that freedom that is totally sufficent to feel no actual limitation when constructing the logical storyline.