Greenpeace terrorist organization

[Scurron]

Hi there people of these forums! I am once again in the need of some help from fellow worldbuilders.

The world I'm working on has gone through a lot of stuff. There was a modern, global empire that spanned 5 continents and was capable of space flight, but it collapsed due to a defensive satellite network going berserk and killing off 7/10 of the population (plot relevant so I wont go into detail who and why)

On the other, western hemisphere there is a huge archipelago of islands covered in perilous jungles and forests that was barely touched by the Infinite city (as the empire was called) because of the nature of the vegetation and fungi of the place: it grows everywhere, it's VERY aggressive and uses every patch of the world with organic matter and moisture to grow on it. Includes humans. In the days Before, several decades before the fallout, actually, it became home to a terrorist group who mobilized the local tribes (whose bodies have adapted to the aggressive nature of the various spores) into an army against the technological side of the planet.

Now, I have various tech-based organizations trying to rebuild the world on the eastern hemisphere, so I thought that having a very fanatical group armed with biological weapons would be kinda neat. I'm wondering, though, what would the rest of the world think of these people, assuming not each and every one of them would be a tech-hating bastard (a lot of them want to escape their homeland, actually) but with their bodies being covered in really aggressive seeds and spores... would the social stigma against them ever end? If you know that simply breathing the air around them might kill you... there would probably be lengthy periods of isolation and quarantine in the more civilized lands, and a "kill on sight" order in the more barbaric ones.

Also, what should I base their culture on? I'm thinking of a mixture of voodoo culture and pirates with a bit of celtic thrown in.

[Oracle_of_Void]

Well, that'd be an interesting situation. On the one hand, technology killed most of the world so I'd imagine many people would be sympathetic or at least understand the terrorists' motives. On the other hand, they're plant covered freaks who want to destroy the things you love and live in a deadly environment that'd take years to adapt to. So I think most people would, if they don't share the terrorists' views, see them as misguided folk who mean well but have cross the line. Others would see them as strange freaks or even violent savages who might not be people. Could people come to accept the tribal people? Only if they stopped the terror attacks, I think.

For the tribal culture, voodoo celtic pirates would work. They'd probably believe in nature spirits and all that jazz.

[Bob of Mage]

I'm wondering, though, what would the rest of the world think of these people, assuming not each and every one of them would be a tech-hating bastard (a lot of them want to escape their homeland, actually) but with their bodies being covered in really aggressive seeds and spores... would the social stigma against them ever end? If you know that simply breathing the air around them might kill you... there would probably be lengthy periods of isolation and quarantine in the more civilized lands, and a "kill on sight" order in the more barbaric ones.

Also, what should I base their culture on? I'm thinking of a mixture of voodoo culture and pirates with a bit of celtic thrown in.

Well first off I'd say there would clearly be quarantine of the western area no questions asked. How well it would be enforced is up to the setting, but any power that could would try to stop the infect people from killing everyone else. Depending on how often an infected people show up in the east would effect how likely they would be shot on sight and the body burned. If they appeared often they would be killed even by the good-aligned factions as it would be too hard to contain them all. If there were rare I would say the good factions would put them in a bubble, but otherwise let them live.

Now the question is what else would be done. I feel that some of the good people would try to find a "cure" for the infected. Also if it could be done there would be attemps to contorl the western islands by the eastern factions. This could range from contant firebombing missions by the evil factions (so burn it all with fire it's the only way to be sure), to blockades. There is also a chance for some of the areas to be allied or out right controled by eastern factions. So armies in clean suits and/or infected islands that are outright memebers of an eastern nation. These could be vassels that are get soruces of cheap labour (ie slave labour), or pitied memebers of a larger state with all the same non-travel rights.

So to sum it up the infected would be both feared and pitied. The area is have seems large enough that you can setup of number of differnet groups based on you story telling needs.

Culturewise I'd go with more then one since it's spread of a large enough area. Since it seems that the infected are still true humans the idea of getting a cure would be a big thing for them. One group would want it so they can flee what seems like a Warhammer 40K deathworld, while the others would see it as weak. This could lead to an out right conflict which would have a defining effect on the people and would mean that there should be at least two cultures. If it's mostly small islands then a pirates mindset would work well for the greenies. Those who want to be cure might mirror the tech cultures to some degree, and at the very least know a lot about medcine. I would say the greenies would not know as much about medcine since they don't care about looking for a cure and have a over all hard time with tech (regardless of the evil Greenpeace's efforts the planet life would mess up the fine moving parts and computer chips need for advnaced tech).

[pfm1995]

First off, let me say that I love this idea. Tech vs. Plant in a more modern setting sounds like a lot of fun, especially given how infectious the plant life is. I do have a few questions though:

1. Was the Infinite City a dystopia? Whether it was or wasn't will change the tone of your campaign significantly.

2. Why hasn't this invasive plant life been firebombed out of existence before? I assume that during the Before the people of the infinite city had some form of wheat/soy/algae which they were able to grow in a controlled fashion. Was this stuff infective as well? (this would give you green spots in the middle of cities, as well as make the plant-people necessary for food production) If not, did it survive the fallout? (Again, food concerns.) And if the City did have it's own food production why not just wipe out the eastern plant life using their weapons satellites?

3. How did they control the plant life before? (I'm picturing a wall covered in robot-controlled flamethrowers/ a special division employed to man the wall)

4. What kind of weapons would the infected (probably not their word for it) use? You mentioned biological weapons. Would these involve essentially being a carrier for the infectious plant life, or something more scientific? If they use weapons, where are they getting them and how does being hosts affect their use? (I'm thinking the Vietnam war here, and the difference in usability between the AK and the M-16. M-16 was incredibly accurate and well made, but required you to break it into twenty-some small pieces for cleaning, and had to be cleaned twice-three times a day to prevent jamming. Compare to the AK, which had/has very little accuracy, but has all of one moving part and can be dropped in mud, picked up, and fired.)

5. Does being infected give them some form of special powers (i.e. is the plant life more of a symbiote than a parasite)? If so, why is this a bad thing, culturally?

Can't wait to find out more about this world.

[Scurron]

Thanks for your replies and interesting question, guys! I think I'll answer them the best by answering the five questions from the previous poster.

1. Was the Infinite City a dystopia? Whether it was or wasn't will change the tone of your campaign significantly.
-It depends on your point of view, to say the least, but almost all major factions agree that tech is too valuable to just be thrown away. The infinite city used to be impossibly large and powerful, and the tech there often crossed the line with magic (for example solid light, self-building structures, a portal network to the moons) Of course certain groups were oppressed, especially those that lived at the bottom of the urban sprawl, who were basically without rights and used by the government for various shady doings. The people that lived in the buildings had it nice enough, but the amount of administration and laws was a form of oppression in itself. Also people who did not agree with the government are a big part of this setting too.

2. Why hasn't this invasive plant life been firebombed out of existence before? I assume that during the Before the people of the infinite city had some form of wheat/soy/algae which they were able to grow in a controlled fashion. Was this stuff infective as well? (this would give you green spots in the middle of cities, as well as make the plant-people necessary for food production) If not, did it survive the fallout? (Again, food concerns.) And if the City did have it's own food production why not just wipe out the eastern plant life using their weapons satellites?
-Because the area is large and bombing it out of existence is wasting resources. The people on it hated the eastern world, true, but the "attacks" were mostly brushed off as "incidents" because the city has had to deal with internal struggle at every point of its history. Also, the islands do not contain any valuable resources and the plants grow back unusually fast, constantly adapting. The weakness of the plants is temperature extremes and lack of moisture, so a tropical environment is the only one that can support it for a longer period of time, and once spread in such an environment it is almost impossible to get rid of it. A dusty, polluted city is not a place for this plant to keep around for long.
-The people did have huge greenhouses inside of their city-skyscrapers were they were growing all kinds of plants.
-The weapon satellites are a defensive network only and had been deployed offensively only three times against parts of the city that wanted independence in their equivalent of WW2. Using that weapon on the infected islands would have the same effect as real world America nuclear bombing the middle east - war.

3. How did they control the plant life before? (I'm picturing a wall covered in robot-controlled flamethrowers/ a special division employed to man the wall)
-I'm orry, even though your idea sounds awesome, it was mostly just left alone on its island. There have been attempts at purging parts of it but almost all have failed because of the aggressive and cunning nature of the inhabitants. As for when it came into the city: "evacuate, dry and let it rot" was a standard protocol.

4. What kind of weapons would the infected (probably not their word for it) use? You mentioned biological weapons. Would these involve essentially being a carrier for the infectious plant life, or something more scientific? If they use weapons, where are they getting them and how does being hosts affect their use? (I'm thinking the Vietnam war here, and the difference in usability between the AK and the M-16. M-16 was incredibly accurate and well made, but required you to break it into twenty-some small pieces for cleaning, and had to be cleaned twice-three times a day to prevent jamming. Compare to the AK, which had/has very little accuracy, but has all of one moving part and can be dropped in mud, picked up, and fired.)
-The "infected" arsenal has gotten more modern with the passage of time and consists mostly of stolen/gifted weaponry and machines, some of which they've learned to build on their own. They have fleets and cannons covered in spores that have a large explosive radius once they hit their target. It is much cruder than the weapons the "modern" factions have (they lack railguns, laser tech, plasma cannons and so on) but they certainly know how to use it and deal the most damage that they can. Luckily, ever since the end of the Before they've been in interested in the numerous islands of the big ocean, spreading their influence there. It has something to do with a religious prophecy of some sort.

5. Does being infected give them some form of special powers (i.e. is the plant life more of a symbiote than a parasite)? If so, why is this a bad thing, culturally?
-There are a few interesting things that can happen. An immune person can feel all people walking around on the plant's roots, much like a spider feels vibrations in his web, through their sense of smell they can detect special hormones the plant produces. It is thought that this was an evolutionary process to predict where spore production is at its peak, but later it became, literally, a language between the plants of the islands and the humans. Also they can perform a ritual suicide (or just a suicide if they have no time) and let the plants consume their flesh in order to make it grow much faster. Sometimes this fails and the humans involved become literal walking dead for a few hours.

Sorry for the long post! If you think there's a problem/if you want to know more/if you want to critique this idea feel free to post a reply and I'll get to it as fast as I can!

[pfm1995]

I haden't even considered that they would just evacuate the area and wait, that's genius. Going back to your original two questions, how people would react to them and how their culture would look, I have a couple of ideas off of the top of my head.

In terms of reactions, I think it depends a lot on the food situation. If these guys are the only ones with a reliable source of grown food besides the local warlord-equivalent, fresh fruits and veggies could become a major selling point/recruitment strategy. This would also mean that the local warlord-equivalents would most likely have shoot-on-sight orders.If they don't, or if the only guides to dealing with these people exist from the before and people have never encountered them before, there would most likely be a quaratine period if it can be afforded, or they may be warned off with a couple of shots off the bow if it can't.

In terms of culture, I like the pirate motif but I see them as following druid or even mayan religious ceremonies rather than voudoo, especially given the reverence shown towards plants and the idea of self-sacrifice to make the jungle grow/provide a bountiful harvest. Can they sacrifice others? (both the mayans and the druids are recorded as doing this to prisoners or criminals) Voudoo, at least as I understand it, is about relenquishing your pride and giving yourself up to the loa, or spirits, and had very little to do with plants. Also, if you're looking to include the idea of a voudoo zombie, there's no reson not to mesh that with other traditions. (You see people being revived as plants or in association with plants in a couple places, though the Xtabay is the only one I can think of off the top of my head).

Again, I love this world idea. I'm also curious what rules sytem you're planning on using, as I don't know of one besides Dark Heresy that incorporates that level of future-tech. Shadowrun, maybe?