Forever Zero : Chapter VII

The world of The Fire of Eden is very different from those of previous Forever Zero chapters. The familiar settings and personas of the alternate After Colony era have become part of humanity's lost history, buried with the truth beneath the ashes of time. In its place lies an ideal world, born of the lessons that humans have learned from the long period known as the Dark Age. Untold decades, perhaps even centuries, of chaos have given way to a world governed by science, and maintained through pure spirit. Whether or not that spirit is corruptible shall soon be seen.

The history presented in Adept Laraby's report presents the foundation for the current setting. However, like all views held by individuals, it is only part of a much larger story. Laraby's text alludes to a perfect world, where peace has become a fundamental element of human nature, and combat has been reshaped into a mere tool of necessity. In a sense, it is the truth, but it is also only one man's take on a system that he has been a part of since birth. Were Adept Laraby privy to the bigger picture, and able to see pass the blinders of his faith, then he would discover that the Earth Sphere of CC 151 has yet to achieve true perfection.

For the most part, however, what the Adept says of the Dark Age is true. The After Colony years were time of great conflict, where war underwent a constant cycle of rebirth between tense periods of peace. During these years, the great innovations that past societies had taken for granted were slowly wiped out. The sciences that allowed space craft to travel faster than the speed of light, that were responsible for constructing space colonies, and even the manufacturing process for mobile weapons were all lost. Other advances soon followed, branching across a variety of fields, from physics to medicine. To make matters worse, the surviving examples of these sciences also fell victim to the Dark Age, either as targets during conflict or through the shear ignorance of those living through the chaos.

Humanity was collapsing, and the blame was placed on the natural aggressive tendencies of human beings, the built-in battle lust that merged with other negative emotions to provoke conflict. A set of self-proclaimed enlightened humans sought to eliminate these adverse impulses through genetic engineering, and that is how the AVN Code was born. Now, the Code is an everyday part of life, a treatment that is as normal for expectant mothers as any other prenatal test or exam.

Those born infused with the Code are called pure ones, for they represent the future of humananity. The pure ones live as their ancestors did during the Dark Age, and even before. They attend schools, find jobs, and raise families as any civilian would be expected to. The key difference is in their behavior; for a pure one, aggression is considered the most vulgar means of human expression, the way of barbarians and wild animals. They prefer to live and act pasively, solving their problems through logical thought and reasoning. They can become irritated, and even angry, but only in the most extreme situations. Giving into aggression is almost nauseating for them; society and biology have pracitcally programmed that view in. On a side not, the AVN-treated are also unable to develop psychic abilities, an intentional element that is meant to preserve equality and harmony.

By contrast, you have normal human beings, born unaltered by the AVN Code. In the Earth Sphere, they are considered to be ugly reminders of the Dark Age, and as such are treated like second-class citizens. Norms or mutts are just a few of the kinder slang terms used to describe them. Given their station, norms are usually limited to only the lower levels of the workforce. Most of the jobs available to them involve hard, often dangerous, labor. Even those who manage to break into the executive world are limited in how far they can progress. A norm will always be passed over for promotion, always paid a little bit less, and always treated with a combination of contempt and pity. Allowing them to enter schools, find work, and thrive is considered to be one of the unfortunate necessities that pure ones have to live with. The only advantage that a norm seems to have is that they can be born with psychic abilities. However, the gene for this trait is far less common than it once was, to the point where only one in thousands may possess it.

Ruling over this segregated utopia is a spiritual government know as the Circle of Ministers. The Circle is made up of supposedly devout pure ones who come from different religious backgrounds. There are no public elections for these positions; each member of the Circle is choosen by a group of high-ranking peers, much like the selection of the Roman Catholic Pope. The only requirement is one's assured dedication to their faith, shown through dedicated years of service to one of the Earth Sphere's monastic orders. The applicant then serves their term for life, and gains the priviledge of infallibility.

The guiding religions of the Earth Sphere have all been dramatically restructured since the Dark Age. On the surface, there are few differences between them. They all retain the central belief of the supremacy of a single God, and the salvation of humankind through purification. A devout spirit, merged with the eased mind of an AVN encoded person, is deemed to be a certain path towards divine recognition. It's one of many beliefs that make the pure ones feel especially good about themselves, not to mention superior. Other than these central tenants, the different nuances that come with a religion's region or cultural influences still separate faith along the older lines. However, each is merely seen as a different path towards the same goal, and little to no competition exists between them.

The Circle rules from the only Earth Sphere space colony to survive the Dark Age, a gigantic station-settlement known as Gaea. Set in close orbit to the Earth, just between the planet and its moon, Gaea is treated as a holy land by all faiths. Only those who are recognized members of a religious order are permitted to enter it. Normal citizens are not allowed to even set foot on it unless they are part of a strictly organized and guided pilgrimage. Members of the Circle, and those lucky enough to live on Gaea, rarely leave the colony. Instead, they prefer to rule through the attendents and cardinals that they send to out, who are each assigned an area of the Earth Sphere to watch over.

This system is not supposed to represent a united government and its nations, but it has ended up becoming this. Cardinals and regents often portray themselves not as mere shepherds of their assigned people, but as their rulers. They often make their own laws, administer their own taxes, and even compete, and sometimes fight, with neighboring rulers. The Circle turns a blind eye to these antics, stepping in only when a situation is judged to be totally out of control. Ironically, everyone is aware of how corrupt the system is becoming, but no one wants to admitt that there is a problem. After all, when your rulers are pure ones, they must be doing the right thing.

The Warrior Houses of the Earth Sphere are not immune to this slide in principles either. Founded to protect the new order from outside threats, many of these militaristic clans have become bored with the lack of conflict. They now look inward, searching for situations that allow them to compete with one another. If two cardinals are getting on one another's bad side, a House may send in an advisor to one who will recommend a military response. Likewise, a rival house will step in to "help" the other side, giving them an opportunity to test their mettle against an equal foe. It is unknown how deliberate these arrangements are. Some cynics even believe that Houses meet with one another first to plot these battlefield engagements.

There is a world beyond this "perfection." Far from the Earth Sphere, and even the solar system, are the distant space colonies of humankind. Established some time during the Dark Age, these settlements were discovered by the Circle in CC 114, when a deep space probe sent back its sensory scans. Without faster-than-light travel, it took an Earth Sphere exploration vessel nearly two decades to reach these colonies, only to be greated with revulsion rather than open arms.

Those living in deep space, while excited to see that civilization still thrived in the Earth Sphere, were horrified by what it had become. They see the AVN Code as a tool of slavery, and the Circle as a tyranical body that hides behind its words of faith. Many colony leaders have called for aggressive action, to topple the "false paradise" before it can impose itself upon them. The colonies certainly have the technology to try, including a group of coveted FTL ships. However, a reluctance to repeat the chaos of the Dark Age has kept them from acting so openly. There are, however, plans for a more subtle undertaking.

Going back to the Earth Sphere, the technology of this region is a mismatched collection of salvaged advances and old fashioned ingenuity. For the most part, the average citizen lives in a relatively comfortable lifestyle, equated with about the second century of After Colony era. Communication throughout the entire solar system is still possible, though somewhat difficult given the dependency on generations-old satellite networks. Space travel is available to the public, but shuttle flights can be extremely expensive, and are have their passengers limited to officials of the Circle or Warrior Houses.

Genetic engineering, cloning, and other biological enhancements are treated more like the stuff of science fiction than fact. There are stories of how these sciences made miracles possible during the Dark Age, though they carried a price too high for humanity to often bear. As a result, few institutions are particularly eager to research and explore genetic fields. The rest of medical science is doing a bit behind, but it still has a few generations to catch up with the level that was stable in the RPG's fifth and sixth chapters. Bionics, for example, are effective, but lack the flesh-and-blood look of bio-synthesis replacements. Likewise, psynetics are almost completely unknown, given that psychics themselves are such a rarity.

There you have it. The Earth Sphere's proclaimation that it has brought the blessing of heaven to humanity seems lofty, but few stand to openly argue with it. Beneath the veil of paradise, however, lies the signs of an oppressive society, built on prejudice and fanaticism. Most people are blissfully unaware of it, taking the Circle's word as law, and trusting in the righteous origins of their world to keep their confidence. Those who do resist are branded as traitors, Reavers, or worse, heretics. Yet, if the Earth Sphere is so stable, why is the Circle becoming more and more obscessed with finding material from the Dark Age? Why does it insist on banning all use and distribution of data records besides its own? And what about the colonies? What level will they stoop to in order to "liberate" the Earth Sphere?

It is the year CC 151, and these questions will soon be answered. If there is indeed a God in heaven, may he help us all.

Artwork by Chris Smith & Local Network CG