Editing Setting:Nutopia/Factions (section)

==Ecliptionists== 
"Eclipsed: A Critical Look At Trends of Human Technological Development" was the title of a paper presented at the First Annual Technological Reconstruction Conference, 5 AC, by an obscure cog-sci/neuroprogrammer named Daniel deVit. The study graphed a number of indices of technological progress in AI development and computation technology, arguing convincingly that had The Fall not occurred, Humanity would have reached the point of technological singularity; uploaded minds, true artificial intelligence, the emergence of a transcended post-humanity would have been possible had not the revolution destroyed most of corporate infrastructure, databanks and research labs. DeVit lamented the Fall as a disaster of enormous proportions; claiming to set humanity free, the Liberty movement had in fact doomed it to the slavery of a physical, mortal body, to the prison of a biological, imperfect mind. Having published the paper, DeVit went back into obscurity, dedicating his life to working on "cortical stack" technology - advanced imaging and storage equipment intended to create an instant back-up of an entire mind, complete with memories, emotions and personality structure. But the essay he published sparked a movement, Ecliptionism, that was to spread through all Liberty settlements.

Most Ecliptionists are scientists, working to achieve Singularity by advancing mankind's knowledge of cybernetics, neuroscience and computation. Many are Crackers, longing for power and glory, willing to sacrifice their human minds to become host to a new life form, the merging of man and machine minds. Some are concerned well-wishers or nostalgic ex-Corp dwellers, regretting the freedom that Liberty gave them and dreaming of the potential transcendence of humanity. In short, most Ecliptionists are harmless or even beneficial contributors to Liberty life. However, fringe groups espousing radical versions of the Ecliptionist creed present a very real danger to life in Liberty and worldwide. Few can forget the LADDER incident, when an Ecliptionist cult attempted to create a super-being by fusing a number of forcibly uploaded minds with an AI construct. The resultant abomination, placed in a salvaged thinktank body, went on a bloody rampage across Western Europe and was eventually brought down by an unlikely alliance of the Gibraltar Gateway Cracker community and Weimuller-remnant Merc forces. Whether or not the experiment was a failure is still open for debate; one of the last communications from the LADDER entity was the enigmatic "Free... free... the well and the wheel is one!". Even with incidents like LADDER being rare, Ecliptionist groups are a constant threat to settlement safety, digging in corporate infocaches, releasing rogue AIs into the infosphere or kidnapping humans and sabotaging Makers to create materials for unsanctioned experiments.

A common Ecliptionist symbol is a stylized eclipsed moon with an eye inside it. One often finds this symbol even in reputable neuroscience labs and respected Cracker dens. Ecliptionist Delvers aren't unheard of, but ever since the LADDER incident and the Glorious Release cult's unleashing of the serial killer construct Retribution-5 into the Sidney-Melbourne Metroplex infosphere the less extreme followers of this ideology find themselves increasingly ostracized and monitored.