Design Monologue 20: Diaspora

The colonists of Karma stuck to their mission goals. They had set out to find a new home for humanity. They would build a new world, a world of social equality, sustainable prosperity, and universal justice.

The 10,000 settlers of Karma were of many nations, but they would discard all racial and cultural boundaries. Their Utopian world would be a scientific paradise, where religion would be free but the people free from religion. All would be entitled to unalienable rights, but also responsible for their own impact on society and the world.

This worked pretty well for a while. They built space-age settlements, idyllic communes to complement their beautiful Homeworld, living a sustainable and equitable life.

There were always disagreements. The colony was governed by a system in which elected representatives guided debate on issues, and all bills were ratified or rejected by a universal popular vote. This democratic system was enough for a time, but certain issues grew more polarizing, and threatened to tear the community apart.

Zion

The first and most contentious issue was religion. Originally, the colonists had decided to pursue a modern, Western philosophy of separation of church and state, with religion free from government and vice versa. However, the circumstances of the ship's detour to Homeworlds space were, to many, undeniable evidence of a supreme being. For many former agnostics, it seemed too unlikely that their ship would jump across the galaxy for no reason, violating many laws of physics in the process, and arrive conveniently near an idyllic paradise. Clearly, this world was meant to be a new beginning, a Promised Land for humanity. For all they new, Earth had already been destroyed in their wake.

The debates intensified rapidly, with both sides wanting to completely nullify the other. The Zionists, as they came to be called, constituted about a tenth of all voters, enough to cast doubt on the majority's continued dominance of politics.

The Zionist movement gained further strength when they began a separatist movement. A number of non-Zionist voters approved of the idea, though there was much debate over how it would be conducted. Partitioning the world would be a political nightmare; exactly what percentage of the planet would each faction get? But if the governments were to separate, it would be highly impractical for their citizens to continue living in the same cities.

The solution came as fortuitously as their arrival in the Homeworlds had. A supernova lit up the night sky, and when it faded, it revealed a new star. Somehow, the star had gone unnoticed by previous efforts to map the area. On closer examination, it was actually a trinary system, with several candidate worlds. The momentousness of the discovery did not go unnoticed by the Zionists.

The movement shifted their efforts toward that system, now convinced they were being offered a home of their own. The system was a ways away...another 18-year haul with the existing colony ship, which, incidentally, had not been outfitted for a second journey.

Nevertheless, a motion was made to re-outfit the colony ship, and for all willing citizens to journey to this new system. Nearly all of the Zionists volunteered for the journey, not to mention hundreds of other interested individuals. They began to refer to themselves as Pilgrims, and the journey as the Last Pilgrimage.

The motion carried with an overwhelming vote. They set out a few years later, when the colony ship was fully outfitted and certified for another long journey.

The Pilgrims named the system Trinity, a name not without its controversy, as, while most of the Pilgrims were nondenominational, the concept of Trinity was clearly a Christian idea. Still, no better name was proposed, so it stood.

In the system they found a habitable planet and several candidate worlds for terraforming. They named the planet Eden, and proceeded to settle, much as the previous generation had settled Karma.

They spent years trying to form a government, but religious differences made it impossible. Notwithstanding the specific sectarian concerns, the people were divided as to whether to make the government a religious democracy or a theocracy.

They formed a number of governments, each lasting only a few years, with groups splintering off and founding their own colonies. Battles were fought, though there was never what one could call a true war. At one point, a strong movement formed to return to Karma; they took the colony ship, but their opponents destroyed it in an attempt to seize it for themselves.

Karma did not hear from Eden for some time. Generations had passed before they reestablished contact. Zion declared itself a nation, and claimed they had established a stable religious republic, a confederation of colony-states with the freedom to govern their own people in a manner befitting their religion. They explained that the colony ship had been destroyed in an unfortunate accident.

Zion's government went through several more revolutions over the years. Different sects colonized different systems, and civil wars flared up and flared out. The central faction remained mostly dominant for most of their history.

Zion lagged significantly behind Karma in technology and population. Many efforts were made to enrich Zion, but always with political fallout.

Today, Zion is ostensibly ruled by a democratic government, though that government is a puppet of an absolute theocracy. The Supreme Prophet, as their leader is called, rules his empire with an iron fist, and has managed to keep the empire relatively stable for the last 120 years of his artificially-extended life.

Karma, the Foundation, and many other factions often criticize Zion's government and policies, and even conduct rogue missions of humanitarian aid to relieve settlements suffering under Imperial rule. The Foundation remains vigilant against a possible civil war when the Supreme Prophet finally dies, though there is no knowing when that will happen.

Neo-Terran Consortium

Even after the Last Pilgrimage, not all were satisfied with the policies of the Karma government.

Many felt the governing philosophies of the new nation were too restrictive on individual ambition, that without some freedom to pursue wealth and new opportunities, humanity's potential would be stunted.

The key point of disagreement was the article in the Karman Constitution which established that, forevermore, every square meter of land on Karma could never be owned by any individual, organization, or entity, except for the collective citizenry of Karma. Thus, in their system, no one owned land; everyone paid a usage tax for the land they lived and worked on, and that tax went to maintaining the land for all current and future generations.

This was a sticking point with the more conservative element in society, who felt they could not pursue any reasonable kind of prosperity without the concept of land ownership. Without land ownership, one could not prospect for minerals, or sell food; instead, one was providing a service of mining gold, and processing food. This philosophy just didn't sit with some people.

Thus began the Objectivist Party, who remained a minority for many years, though are credited with many bold initiatives, such as the beginning of earnest colonization of new worlds in the system.

Later, they seceded from Karma's government, as the majority were unwilling to go to war over their ideas. They began their new nation on the sister planet of Karma, which they renamed Terra Nova.

Neo-Terra became a haven for capitalists, especially a particularly ruthless kind of corporate capitalists. 20 years after Neo-Terra split from its mother country, their industrial capacity nearly rivaled that of Karma, and skeptics wondered how such a thing was possible.

It turned out that Novacorp, the largest mega-corp in the consortium and majority shareholder in their monetized government, was churning out clones to serve as factory workers and mercenaries. This sparked a major international incident, resulting in an unconditional ban on Novacorp goods on Karma. Since the mother planet accounted for over 80 percent of Novacorp's business, this was unacceptable. They used their majority power to vote into law a war against Karma.

It was almost comical to watch, as neither power had a passable fleet. Novacorp had an impressive standing army of clone mercenaries, but the ships they used to deliver them to Karma were slow industrial movers with limited combat capability. Karma was similarly ill-endowed, but they were much more clever in their use of existing technology, as well as secondary combat strategy.

For instance, after losing several initial battles, costing them dearly in life and property, they realized that the enemy soldiers were all engineered clones; while they were not identical, they had all been bred to be servile. This emphasis on certain traits had a side effect of making the soldiers very vulnerable to suggestion and peer pressure. Karma mounted a propaganda campaign, distributing information through various channels to confuse and demoralize the clone soldiers. It worked far better than it ever would have on ordinary humans, and gave them time to produce a modest fleet and army.

When the Karma counterattack came, Neo-Terra was on shaky ground. Novacorp was taking a lot of hard questions from other Consortium shareholders about their use of clones, which was seen by many as an unfair business practice. Novacorp had been pushing them around for so long that, when Karma's fleet and army showed up, they aided them in storming Novacorp's headquarters and outposts.

The war ended when the former minority shareholders of the Consortium had split Novacorp's assets and voted to surrender. The treaty included stipulations that the Consortium write a new constitution, which would include, among other things, making involuntary genetic engineering as illegal as it was on Karma.

The new, improved Neo-Terra was much more friendly with Karma, especially after having been put in their place. They did, after all, have what they wanted; a government of their own, free of most of the restrictions of the Karman government, but also in good enough standing with Karma to sell their products to them.

However, the legacy of Neo-Terra was not over by a longshot. Novacorp may have been disbanded, but many on its executive board still remained, and were not happy with the state of their new nation.