Editing Setting:Nutopia/Factions (section)

=Liberty Factions=

==Aegis==
The revolution that brought about The Fall came into being as a concerted effort by many disparate organizations across the globe. Various civil rights and anarchist groups, techno-utopians and neo-luddites, fringe extremists from diverse ideological and religious creeds and even corporate intelligence agencies trying to the end to manipulate events in their favor came together in the uprising. The war itself was carried out in a mad combination of planned, surgical strikes on infosphere and realspace assets and simple, brute mob violence. The rallying flag for the global movement, splashed across the Central Park broadcast and flown in the streets, was some variation on a broken chain in a circle, typically accompanied by the local equivalent for the word "Liberty". The general idea of the intensely anti-totalitarian Liberty movement remained after the Fall, but once the rebellion had achieved its goals, differences in ideology became increasingly difficult to ignore. Some of the more idealistic projects (such as a global council in which all factions involved in the Liberty movement were to be represented) had to be abandoned as squabbles between rival groups stalled the decision-making process.

As the surviving settlements struggled to restart damaged technology and defend themselves from looters, terrorist saboteurs and ex-corp raider bands, Liberty was faced with a difficult task. Having been given full responsibility for the lives of all survivors of the Fall, it became clear that a military task force was needed in order to provide security and to prevent disasters that could result from abuse or malignant use of dangerous technologies (such as the infamous murdering, by a rogue Cracker cult, of all inhabitants of Brusselsphere through manipulation of the weather control system). The debate and subsequent vote to create this agency was a long and painful process, and following it, many of the more radical anarchist and pacifist groups left Liberty for good, but in the end Aegis was created. Named for Athena's mirrored shield of legend, Aegis is tasked with the difficult and thankless job to combat the writhing, serpent-haired snake pit of threats, both foreign and domestic, that menace the free world and its citizens. This includes terrorist cells, rogue scientists, fringe cults, corporate remnant agents, raider activity or military incursions from the Alliance of Unincorporated states, as well as between-settlement skirmishes.

Aegis is a non-hierarchical organization, with no central headquarters. Instead, local "chapter houses" serve as a combined training, medical/mechanical and recruitment center, as well as a place for Aegis-booked Delvers to rest and recuperate before a mission. Aegis has no permanent agents, but rather recruits its staff from Delver teams on an as-needed, per-mission basis. The results of all Aegis missions are made public on the Liberty intranet, ensuring that no air of secrecy and suspicion hangs over its activities. This doesn't mean that there's no dark side to Aegis; individual operatives in the field have cooperated with criminal gangs or even slaver parties in order to further their goals. The conflict between base ideals and conditions on the ground is a constant one, leading frequent agents into an attitude of bitter pragmatism. Theirs is a seemingly impossible task after all, holding back the brink, but one they feel is worth doing.

Rumors persist, of course, that not all of Aegis' operations are as open and transparent as they would like you to believe, and that there exists a secret list of jobs and contracts only available to select, trusted agents. There is little concrete evidence to the veracity of these claims, but they persist nonetheless.

==Mission Ascension==
One of the most prized hauls a delver can discover is a previously unknown or not widely distributed technology. Hauling back a few tons of ammunition or foodstuffs can do a great deal of good for the local settlements, and getting a power station or factory back online can improve a whole region, but bringing back research, or better yet schematics and prototypes, for new technologies can have a global impact. These discoveries, along with a core humanitarian drive, are what brought Mission Ascension into being. 

Modeled on similar programs of the past, this group operates with the intent of bringing the best technology has to offer to the corners of the globe that never seemed worth developing, whether due to scarcity of resources, local danger or both, to the powers that be. Teams comprised of intrepid explorers, doctors, and scientists venture into areas of the world where the tech level is as high as the late 20th century at best, and usually then in all the wrong places. If the automatic weapons are more up to date then the farming equipment, Ascension wants to be there.

Their simple stated goal is to take the most useful technologies that delvers haul out of the ruins and make them openly available. More directly, they wish to bring these technologies to backwater nations, if they want them, and "bring them up to date" so to speak on the fruits of corporate inventive progress. Most Ascension missions, however, refuse to distribute or develop weapons technology (as the founder of Mission Ascension, Dr. Herbert Solms, said in a widely-publicized interview, "people have the means to kill each other quite in hand, what we come to give them are tools to help them feed themselves and care for their sick and dying"). 

Ascension operations range around the world from the jungles of South America to the deserts of the Middle East. They move with little consideration for national borders or protocol, preferring to operate on a local level, and outright ignoring the prohibition of their actions by exterior forces if they feel their help is needed. They duck xenophobic militias and even Chinese military cordons to get their supplies and professionals through. Mission Ascension is vehemently pro-open-source, arguing that concepts such as copyright or patents have no meaning in a world where everyone is struggling to survive, and where all tools of technological progress are needed everywhere. Mission Ascension and its personnel (nicknamed Missionaries) is banned from entering all Unincorporated Alliance countries, as the bloc accuses the organization of being spies for corporations or "destabilizing ideological elements". Mission Ascension does not care.

Delvers will typically come into contact with this organization in one of two ways. Firstly they might be outright hired on as either security, guides, or experts for a particular expedition, or to retrieve a specific prototype or schematic Ascension thinks it knows the location of. Second, if venturing in the undeveloped wilds, Delvers friendly with the organization can always find shelter with expedition base camps. Finding these can be tricky, their locations aren't exactly broadcast globally for fear of raiders searching for easy pickings, but on a local level, or if on good terms with the organization, delvers ought to be able to pick one out as a place to stop and replenish supplies or seek assistance. Lastly, some Ascension Missionaries may choose to leave the organization and become free Delvers themselves; the harsh reality of the world often strips the idealism from an active Missionary in the space of a few expeditions. Still, even if they are cynical and jaded, most former Missionaries still retain a passion for justice and a desire to help those in need, and due to their connections and experience, ex-Ascension Delvers are invaluable resources to teams operating in unincorporated territories or other low-tech areas.

==The Volhvy==
A group of Russian Hivers that have studied under an old woman called Baba Yaga in reference to the ancient witch of Russian legend. They act as spiritual leaders, healers and historians in the Russian frontier.

==Biotypical Rights Movement (BRM)==
''The manipulation and modification, by corporate power, of the human body gave rise to a new underclass. In the view, widely espoused by corporate spin-doctors, but also by transhumanist activists, the entire Homo Sapiens species was defined as defective, limited, and in constant need of upgrades, updates and improvement. Those who opposed this move, those who rejected the technology or the great majority for whom modification was never an option, the tech-poor, the tech-impaired, saw their species-typical bodies and minds become handicapped, powerless and inferior, were labeled retrogrades, disabled and voiceless. We were a problem to be solved, or a detritus to be left behind in the wake of evolutionary progress. As part of the Liberty movement, we managed to stem the tide of technological development that threatened to tear humanity apart. But our struggle isn't over, for we must ensure that our rights as species-typical individuals remain unthreatened by any group or ideology that would plunge us back into the Hell from which we only recently emerged.''

''-Councilor Anita Gall, addressing the 3d Biotypical Rights Congress in Dublin, Ireland, 10 ACE''

A great number of humans living in the Corporate states were modified with cybernetic or genetic augmentation. Most of them were enhanced for utilitarian reasons, to be better at whatever task the corporation needed them for, a select few belonged to the true transhumanist elite, choosing their modifications to suit their fancy or personal needs. But the vast majority of humans on Earth, in Corporate or U-States, were unmodified: "baselines", "norms", or "biotypicals". The Biotypical Rights Movement grew out of the feeling of frustration and disenfranchisement that the tech-poor, bioconservative masses experienced as the corporations turned from them in search of more lucrative markets. During the Fall, various cells and sections of the BRM contributed a significant amount of manpower and resources to Liberty's victory, and following the end of hostilities, the movement became a powerful bloc in Liberty, to the chagrin of other, more techno-liberal groups. The Biotypical Movement's conservative agenda has led to them being misnamed a Luddite or retrograde faction, but according to BRM ideologue and war hero Anita Gall, that couldn't be farther from the truth; according to the official line, the BRM simply strives for equal rights for tech-poor and tech-impaired humans, making sure that modifications do not become mandatory for participation in Liberty society or that modded transhumans do not lose their link to humanity, splitting Homo Sapiens into 2 species. Of course, in practice some of the biotypicalist settlements discriminate against augmented humans, and more extremist anti-transhumanist groups like the infamous "Take Back Humanity Army" ensure that suspicion falls even on mainstream movements like the BRM. Nevertheless, the BRM remains an important, influential and powerful part of Liberty.

The symbol of the Biotypical Rights Movement is a Vitruvian Man silhouette. During the fall, this symbol was the most common graffiti tag, second only to the broken-chain motif of Liberty.