Unified Terran Community

Maeldune:  Well, it seems we have a little time to fill.  We should continue with your instruction in the early history of the Community and the end of the time of Dictators.

Eris:  It’s a priviledge to have you as a mentor, your knowledge of such matters seems inexhaustible.

Maeldune:  Truly, the time of the Dictators was a dark time for civilisation.  The rise of the dictators themselves was insidious, although it did not go unnoticed.  Indeed many of their conspiracies were so crude and ill disguised that those very factors stretched the credulity of the people of the time.  The people couldn’t believe that their leaders would be so bad at covering up their secret activities.

Eris:  So they hid in plain sight?

Maeldune:  Quite simply, yes.  That’s exactly what they did.  On other occassions they simply didn’t bother to try and hide what they were doing at all.  Blatant vote rigging, that kind of thing.

Eris:  I’m not familiar with vote rigging

Maeldune:  It’s part of the method of social control they used at the time.  Remember? the one called Democracy?

Eris:  I remember, that was a good one.  Anyway, vote rigging?

Maeldune:  Well, not content with total control on the candidacy for leadership and indeed the way in which the total votes were interpreted, sometimes the leadership needed to engineer specific results so they would indulge in the practise of vote rigging.  Essentially, they just make the result whatever they need it to be.  For example in one island nation of the time, they were holding a sub election where one side of the party was expected to lose heavily to the other side of the party.  Now, its important to remember to the people of that dark age, this party was percieved as being several opposing parties.  The party expected to lose was the faction that was officially in charge at that time.  Instead of losing, the ruling faction won by a landslide.  When those playing the role of the ‘Opposition’ demanded a recount, it was discovered that all the votes had gone missing.

Eris:  Not very subtle.

Maeldune:  Indeed, but it further obfuscated the illusion of choice between parties.  It was still some time before the people realised they had been duped.  By then of course, much worse things had happened.  State sponsored Bio Terrorism and other crimes against humanity.

Eris:  The Nations used Bio Weapons against each other?

Maeldune:  Among many other types of weapon, but in this case, no I was referring to attacks on the Nations own people.

Eris:  Huh.  Why on earth would you do that?

Maeldune:  For any number of reasons!  I’ll give you an example, during the period of the Imperial Coalition the dominant wing of the leadership was known as Corporation.  Corporation was heavily involved in perpetuating the system of slavery they used called ‘Money’, remember?  Anyway, the system requires that the people spend money on goods and possessions, so Corporation spend its time devising ways to seperate people from their money.  Corporation was keen to boost its profits.  Profits was their term for the money they took for you in exchange for things you either didn’t need or shouldn’t have to pay for.  Clear so far?

Eris:  Perfectly.  Will you arrive at the point soon, do you think?

Maeldune:  Hmmph!  Impertinent child.  Anyway, they created a hybrid virus and engineered its release into the various Nations.  Careful manipulation by the state controlled media made it seem as though the strain of virus was particularly deadly.  Once a suitable panic had been whipped up, Corporation offered a drug for sale, which might or might not actually do anything to alleviate the symptoms.  They made billions of units of their currency in profits.  This also allowed another wing of the leadership to implement a plan of their own.  They announced mandatory vaccinations against the ‘killer’ virus.  Under this guise they were able to carry out a number of tests on an unwitting public, with the perfect alibi.

Eris:  That’s really grisly.  What happened to these people?

Maeldune:  Well, that’s another story…

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Subject:  Early Lectures of Heru Seleem.

Sub Category:  The Illumined.

Date of Recording:  17/06/2028

Status:  Withdrawn from Community Access.

Excerpt:

“…these and related considerations, lead us to the subject of the Illumined, their nature andtheir role in allowing this Community a chance to survive.  Although the Illumined seem like us, in a physical sense, we are not the same.  The Illumined represent something that we can only hope to aspire to.  They are the next step in humanity’s spiritual evolution, the stage of enlightenment just prior to being worthy of becoming one of the people of Heaven.  It is this proximity to Heaven that gives them the ability to wield occult forces and manipulate certain aspects of our percieved reality.  To our ancestors, these beings seemed godlike in their prowess and were worshipped as such.  In some respects, they might be considered the opposite number of the dread Outsiders.  This is not truly accurate, as their origins are quite seperate.  Additionally, it would be foolish to assign notions of benevolence to the Illumined.  They are now, as they have always been, largely indifferent to the activities of we, the unevolved members of humanity.  The Illumined have lived along side and amongst us for millenia, rarely interfering.  Often, the question of their continued presence has been addressed by the ancient scholars.  Why have these beings not left the mortal world and ascended to the Heavenly sphere?  Clearly, a evolutionary point has not been reached, but what is taking so long?  In this case, it is a simple matter of scale.  The Illumined are true immortals, the passage of time, as we percieve it, is meaningless for them.  They are ageless and undying.  This is not to say that the Illumined are indestructable, merely that it would require the action of another of their kind or an Outsider to terminate their existence.  As we begin to use the Mnemosyne Device, as sense of this timelessness will be gifted to us and we may begin to understand that for the Illumined, their spiritual ascension is proceeding at a reasonable speed.  It has been hypothesized that there is something preventing this apotheothis, and certainly when one looks into the activities of the Illumined there are numerous examples of petty and vengeful behaviour.  However, it is not our place to speculate on and judge the actions of these beings, for in truth, without their assistance we would still be living under the jackboot of the Dictators.  They have freed us from slavery, it is now our responsibility to make sure that such a situation never happens again…”

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Excerpt from a discussion on the Avalon Community Forum:

Harrier posted 20.03.2237
Having recently joined a Chroniclers group, I was looking for detail on one of the military battles that took place during the founding years. I discovered that the outcome of the conflict had revolved around the use of powerful psychics on the side of Heru Seleem. On an impulse I checked a few more and discovered much the same thing. There was considerable variance in the number of forces involved, but every battle I could find information on had, essentially, been fought between a small group of psychics and a much larger force of conventional troops. The result was always victory for the psychics. It was the specific accounts by Community members, who had been those soldiers in past incarnations, that caught my attention. In one account, heavily verified, a psychic flayed a thousand armoured troops with an ‘ululating cry’. There were many, many more accounts of such spectacular feats. And then it struck me, since that time, there have been no psychics with such raw power. Not even close. Anybody got any ideas?

Dinarzade posted 20.03.2237
Harrier, I’m a practising Psychonaut and have been for my last three incarnations. I work with psychics frequently and am one myself, and I assure you, there is a vast spectrum of ability and strength. However, particularly traumatic events can cause the memory to warp. I suspect these events have become slightly exaggerated through misremembering. Also, Seleem probably recruited the strongest psychics he could.

An0nymous posted 21.03.2237
Harrier, keep searching! consider, why does the Seleem Configuration Count go to a figure that no human has ever had?

Dinarzade posted 21.03.2237
An0nymous, the score that you’re alluding to, represents a hypothetical situation whereby all of the genetic markers are found in one person. From your other posts I’d say you were a little paranoid. Your choice of username is in itself a bit worrying. I can help you, message if you’re interested, Dinarzade@unifiedterrancommunity.co.uk

An0nymous posted 24.03.2237
Harrier, I now have docs which prove that Heru Seleem was working with a group who all had a Configuration Count of 100. It was from this baseline that all humans are measured. I have your details, will forward docs.

Harrier posted 24.03.2237
What do you mean you’ve got my details? How? and what do you mean ‘all humans are measured’?

Harrier posted 25.03.2237
An0nymous? Still waiting for those docs!

Dinarzade posted 29.03.2237
Harrier, I have another theory for you, about your powerful psychics. I just became aware of a group called the Mechanics. The one I met was able to take down an Outsider which had managed to break through from the spirit world. Its more than possible that you have been discovering the early origins of that group. Did An0nymous sent your docs?

Harrier posted 29.03.2237
Nope, never got them. Probably never existed!

Dinarzade posted 30.03.2237
Had a strange dream last night, I’ve meditated on it and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a significant amount of volcanic activity from Mount Etna. You heard it here first!

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Although the Unified Terran Community has no single leader, as such, they were initially guided by the vision of a cabal of scientists, philosophers and philanthropists. Pre-eminent among them was the man known as Heru Seleem. The precise origins of the man are shrouded in mythology, it seems, however, that Heru Seleem was the first human to retain full memory of his previous incarnations every time he was reborn. Heru was believed to have been born in Egypt near the end of the period referred to, by twenty first century scholars, as the Early Dynastic Period. It is thought that Seleem was a member of the Egyptian priesthood on several incarnations, as well as living diverse other lives serving as advisor to several Pharaohs, as well as developing numerous agricultural and alchemical techniques over several lifetimes. Many of the advances in agriculture which made food readily available Egypt were methods pioneered by Seleem. For Seleem himself, his most useful discovery was an alchemical recipe, ancient even then, which taught him the skills required to create living, but soulless simulacra. He used these vessels to reincarnate himself into an adult form, so that he could continue whatever work was consuming him at that time.

As the centuries rolled past, Seleem wandered the planet, exploring the rise and fall of a multitude of civilisations. As Seleem travelled, he began to see a pattern emerging from the history of ages. He began to take note of what aspects of a culture caused its initial growth and prosperity as well as taking note of the characteristics of cultural degeneration. He slowly began to conceive of a society where mankind could truly prosper. The main obstacle to overcome was the implementation of this massive cultural change. Seleem swiftly realised he would require considerable time and help to realise his plan and began to seek out certain individuals who he felt would see the value of his scheme. As preparations slowly built, Seleem was saddened and frustrated by the loss of his comrades to the inevitability that was death, and subsequent loss of memory upon reincarnation. Seleem understood the cause of the phenomena, and began to dream of a method of crossing the Lethean Barrier, while retaining recollection of past events. Employing principles conceived of by Pythagoras, Seleem began to work on the prototype of the Mnemosyne Device during the sixteenth century, aided in his work by Dr John Dee, advisor to the English Queen, Elizabeth I. During this period, Seleem also had frequent contact with Francis Bacon, whose ideas, he strongly influenced. When the first Mnemosyne Device was finally constructed in the seventeenth century, Dr Dee was the first soul to employ it as a means of incarnating into a simulacrum. Seleem carefully hid the Device from world at large, and began to approach the people who eventually become the founders of the Unified Terran Community.

Meanwhile, the endemic violence of the human race continued. Despite not actively fighting, Seleem was killed sixty three times during the Second World War. By this time, Seleem had seen thousands of years of conflict and strife between the nations of man and had concluded that a truly fundamental change had to occur. Seleem gathered his technologist allies and, in the dark days of the early twenty first century, they made their move. It took the rest of that incarnation for Seleem and his allies to stabilize the Community. As he approached the end of his incarnation, Seleem announced that he would not return immediately, but instead planned to explore the spirit world and return once he had learned the ‘wisdom of the distant shadows’. That was a little over two hundred years ago, and no one has seen or heard from Heru Seleem since.

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Day to day life in the Unified Terran Community is radically different to life in our own time. As mentioned previously, all of the repetitive, laborious work is now in the hands of specially designed robots. This and the work of the Bio Engineers in providing synthetic but nutritious food for all have profoundly altered the nature of humanity. Freed from the monotony of the capitalist system, with the abolition of currency, the members of the Community are able to focus their energies on more rewarding activities. Numerous project groups exist, developing improved technologies, accumulating centuries of knowledge and providing entertainment for the society. These groups generally have no one who can easily be identified as being ‘in charge’ and conflict is rare. If a group member is unhappy with the direction the group is working towards, he or she need simply leave and find or form another group more suited to their tastes. Many groups have overlapping spheres of activity, indeed, the Life Engineers and the Bio Engineers were one group initially. As time and the Community progressed, the group splintered in two although some technology, such as genetic manipulation and cloning is the product of both groups activities.

Significantly, there is no obligation, no pressure from the rest of the Community, to join a group. The principle reason this is possible is the activities of the Bio Engineers. With their mastery of synthetic biology, these technologists can manufacture limitless supplies of food and are also responsible for ‘growing’ the lightweight, incredibly strong materials that buildings are constructed from. These materials, in turn are developed to be able to convert sunlight into usable energy. Thus with free food, shelter and energy, humankind is finally able to develop it’s potential. An atmosphere of cooperation over competition is created. Obviously, Community members are free, and encouraged, to pursue personal interests as well. The philosophy of the Community is that anything which does not harm the Community, enriches it in some fashion. As all members of the Community are considered equal, so too are the groups regarded. Certain groups would appear to be more crucial to the functioning of the Community, but even these are cross dependent on numerous other groups. Each group requires the others to function to the best of it’s ability.

There is an emphasis on familial groups within the Community. However, with the advent of Seleem’s Mnemosyne Device and consequently a knowledge of past incarnations, the concept of Shadow Families has evolved. The Shadow Family is an extended group of souls, who have, down through the ages, always been born into the same mortal family tree. These souls are considered to be linked in some fashion. Another facet of this idea is that of Shadow Partners, lovers who have frequently or always found each other during incarnations. So far the Psychonauts and Life Engineers have advanced several theories as to why some souls seem eternally drawn to each other, none however has been taken as the consensus opinion.

Individuality is prized and greatly encouraged within the Community. This had lead to eccentric settlements comprised of buildings constructed in a bewildering array of styles, ranging from the ancient to the fantastical. Unhindered by an industry dictating certain modes of dress, the clothing favoured by the Community members is rich and varied. Numerous textile groups exist and manufacture clothing designs limited only by their imaginations. The current fashion for naming in the Community is to employ the name of one’s first incarnation, though this is by no means a firm rule.

The members of the Community are free to pursue their interests and desires, all the Community asks in return is that no harm is brought to the other members of the Community in the process.

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Despite the outward harmony, there are two significant threats to the survival of the Community.  These threats are respectively referred to as Outsiders and aberrant personalities.  The latter are more understood by the Community.  Aberrant personalities are those human souls who would have been considered psychopaths.  they are individuals who, at a fundamental level, think differently to other people.  They have no grasp off, or interest in, the social conventions of the Community and they have no conscience.  The aberrant personalities are aggressive, domineering and are prone to violent yet calculated actions.  They are dangerous simply because there is nothing they will not do to achieve their aims.  The aberrant personalities are usually very clever, but a limited ability to learn from their mistakes prevents them from hiding too long in the Community.  Numerous therapies have been tried to try and integrate the personalities into the greater Community.  These have not only been unsuccessful, but also equipped the aberrant personalities with the tools they needed to better hide in the Community, they now knew how the Psychonauts were identifying them.  The Community’s current policy towards the aberrant personalities, is to detain them when they are revealed and then subject them to an intense program of ‘re-education’.  After this process is complete, the Life Engineers who oversee the procedure, release the reformed people into experimental sub communities.  Thus far, the Life Engineers have enjoyed an impressive success rate with their rehabilitation techniques, unmanageable individuals are prevented from reincarnating until such time as they are willing to try the program.

The Outsiders are a completely different matter.  Their origins are unclear, even to the most experienced of Psychonauts.  The one thing that is clear, is that the Outsiders are souls or spirits who have never been human.  Outsiders are not born on earth in any of the conventional fashions.  They strike from the spirit realm, shredding the soul of a living human and seizing their now soulless body for their own.  The Outsiders also manifest a range of supernatural abilities, making them more than a match for most members of the Community.  To give a sense of perspective, the Outsiders were considered demons and dark gods in bygone ages.  The response of the Community to an intrusion from an Outsider is markedly different to their approach to the aberrant personalities.  Once captured by Life Engineer operatives, the host body is destroyed and the Outsider cast back to the spirit realm.

Over the last twenty years, the Life Engineers have become aware of an unwelcome development from the aberrant personalities.  While the Outsiders had always stolen bodies, the aberrant personalities had to be reborn in one of the conventional methods.  This allowed the Life Engineers to proscribe certain individuals temporarily.  In the last twenty years, the aberrant personalities have developed the ability to possess bodies in a manner similar to that of the Outsiders.  How they developed this alarming ability is, as yet, unknown.

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There is a vast number of groups in the UTC, each working on a multitude of different projects.  One of the more academically orientated groups is the Chroniclers, whose work encompasses the study of Ancient and Modern history, Archaeology and Contemporary Studies.  Their contribution to the Community is in three main parts.  In the first instance, they hold many seminars and classes aimed at students with varying levels of  knowledge and experience.  The second major contribution the make is both educational and entertaining as well.  The Chroniclers pour enormous amounts of effort into incredibly detailed ‘living dioramas’.  They may choose scenes from history of special significance, or merely recreate a day in the life of a person or place.  These constructions are impressively researched and are built to scale, wherever possible.  Historical personages, famous or otherwise,  are recreated by cleverly fashioned Synthetics,robots who appear human to the tiniest detail possible.  The Synthetics have a limited Artificial Intelligence which permits them to remember and carry out a sequence of tasks, but provides very limited adaptive ability.  This is a safety precaution, as the Synthetics are extremely life like in appearance.  The remaining contribution of the Chroniclers, is that they keep an up to the minute record of the present times as well.  In many ways they also function as a kind of news media.  Unlike conventional media outlets, the Chroniclers place a high premium on impartiality and accurate reporting of events.  This information is generally disseminated through the Terran Net, a high tech system which grew out of the Internet of the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

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The UTC is home to numerous technological wonders, as is befitting to a society dedicated to the improvement of the human condition.  The field of healthcare has been revolutionised by the development of two principle technologies.  The first is the advanced science of nanotechnology, decades of study and refinement has taken this science to unimagined peaks.  All surgery is performed my microscopic nano bots, and for a time the Community experimented with an Enhanced Immune System [EIS].  The EIS worked on the principle of having a permanent presence of nano bots within the body, which could respond to threats to the health that the normal immune system could not contain.  The other healthcare technology in popular use is the Pythagorean Harmoniser.  This device, the prototype designed and built by Pythagoras himself, works on the principle that human bodies vibrate at a certain frequency.  When the body is in ill health, the afflicted area vibrates to a different frequency, and through the Harmoniser, a technologist can re-align the various frequencies of the body.  Both systems are equally effective, the procedure used is generally a matter of personal philosophy.

Transportation technology has also evolved considerably.  Within the settlements themselves, and linking them together, is an unobtrusive network of high speed maglev trains.  These sleek vehicles easily reach speeds upwards of 500 miles per hour, allowing safe and efficient transport between the various districts of the Community.  Personal vehicles exist as well, battery technology has improved tremendously granting personal vehicles a range of between 250 and 600 miles depending on the size of the vehicle.  All vehicles carry at least one back up battery, as technology has improved the bulk and weight of these items.  Vehicles for inner settlement travel, tend to be small and manoeuvrable, with some having limited maglev in the larger settlements.  Vehicles for travel between settlements or into the Wild, are generally far more rugged, with either large reinforced wheels or tracks.  In addition to carrying extra batteries, they will often have a back up charging source, such as a fold out solar panel array.

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The Life Engineers have become one of the most important groups in the Community, definitely first among equals.  They perform several functions that are essential to the continued survival of the society.  First and foremost, they facilitate the process of incarnation, whether it be the soul’s first incarnation or it’s hundredth.  This is only one facet of their purpose.  they are the geneticists of the Community, responsible for the creation of the clones, and the development of numerous drugs to enhance physical and mental performance.  The most pivotal role they play is in the detection of intrusions from the spirit world.  Both the Outsiders and the Aberrant Personalities have developed means to cross the Lethean Barrier and seize living bodies, displacing the original soul.  As far as the Life Engineer telepaths have been able to determine, a displaced soul is destroyed in the process.  The telepaths are the lynchpin of this detection, as they ‘hear’ a psychic scream when a soul is displaced.  The cloning technology used by the Life Engineers is extremely advanced.  The growth vats, used to develop the clone, are an outgrowth of artificial womb technology.  Originally the process of growing a clone took a time comparable with natural aging, now however, the process to grow an adult clone takes about two weeks.  The technology available means that a clone can be grown to the exact specification of the person who requires it.  The one factor the Life Engineers cannot duplicate is the series of markers known as the Seleem Configuration.  These are the markers which govern psychic ability, with the number of markers present being proportional to psychic ability.

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One of the more unusual groups in the UTC are the Psychonauts.  The Psychonauts perform several roles in the Community, all through their use of the drug Entheogen.  Their principle activity is the exploration of the mind.  With the combination of the drug and various cognitive techniques they discover how the mind works, using this information to help people to improve their psychological state and their cognitive functions.  Some of the Psychonauts are involved in the study of the Pineal gland, specifically it’s relationship to dreaming and psychic ability.  Through their extensive use of the drug Entheogen, almost every Psychonaut has developed psychic abilities of one sort or another.  The Psychonauts perform two other important functions within society.  Due to their enhanced awareness of the spirit realm and a high incidence of ecstatic experiences, they fill the role of spiritual advisor to many of the Community, and, with their extensive knowledge of the mind they are responsible for helping people to master any psychic abilities they have manifested and use them safely.  In essence, the Psychonauts offer a holistic spiritual and mental health service.

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