International Brigade

Revolution has never been so necessary as after the end of the world

The Situation

Ten years ago, the world ended. The TITANs (Total Information Tactical Awareness Network) the Seed AIs that were last great bid for dominance of the United States of America, went rogue, bootstrapping themselves to far more than sapience. What precisely went wrong is still unknown, but something in the TITAN's makeup, perhaps their desire to know all that could be known set them to attempting to destroy humanity, sending fleets of robotic weapons to harvest and upload, and legions of robotic war machines to destroy. The other great powers, already enmeshed in a new cold war turned increasingly hot, responded with their own arsenals and special project, but were increasingly outfought by the more sophisticated and intelligent TITAN machines and software infestations. The war ruined much of the planet, and killed many millions of people. Other areas were transformed, changed by the war machines, or transformed by less understood processes.

Then, just as suddenly as the war had started, the war stopped. The TITANs simply vanished, war machines and nanoswarms ceasing operation. Humanity was left in the ashes of its world, trying to survive.

In the aftermath of the Fall, those states and non-state actors that retained resources created Merlin, an alliance with the mission of preserving humanity, rebuilding the world and combating what are called X-risks, things that might create the extintion of humanity. It has become clear however that this alliance cannot be trusted: the forces of Merlin routinely employ military force against any that do not submit to their edicts. The protection of humanity all to often translates as the protection of corporate interests, the removal of so called surplus populations and harsh repression of decent, all for the good of humanity.

You are some of those who choose to fight against this oppression, seeking a true salvation for humanity. You are the international brigade.

Inspirations and rules

https://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/ > Legal downloads of all EP supplements (Free)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufaDurSCKOk&ab_channel=ParamountPictures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW-F1H-Nonk&ab_channel=tinkertailormovie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq5KWLqUewc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQ-Xqt-d0A&ab_channel=UltimeciaFFB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf6YFrV7zes&ab_channel=CrispinFreeman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUvwFmlRA7c&ab_channel=outsidexbox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D522fRIFfhI&ab_channel=DYNITchannel
http://dresdencodak.com/2010/07/26/dark-science-04/
Road Side Picnic
Stalker
Hardwired

What Was

In the waning days before the Fall, the world was split between five competing great powers and their alliance systems: The European Federation, The United States of America, China, India, and the greatest of them all, the Equatorial Alliance. Formed by an Alliance of newly emergent economies in South American, Africa and the Pacific, and in control of the newly built space elevators, the Equatorial Alliance quickly became humanity's richest, most technologically advanced nations. It was the emergence of the Equatorial Alliance and its construction of orbital elevators which first gave humanity easy access to space. Transhuman technology became increasingly common, including genetic and cybernetic manipulation, the creation of AI, and the uploading of living minds into computers. Soon, bodies were something that could be exchanged, and digital immortality became possible, at least for those rich enough to afford a continual supply of new bodies. Computational technology advanced as well, with the creation of sapient AIs, but also oracle machines, often made of one shot, unstable computronium, capable of rapid data decryption or the construction of theories. Different models of intelligence, biological or AI minds with radically different drives and emotions, or various forms of other data management, such as using borrowed processes from ecology to manage huge numbers of autonomous units were both used heavily by all powers in the decades before the fall. The one commonality of all of these technologies was its swift application to military use. By the time of the Fall, Strategic Computers, legions of artificial super soldiers and military AIs were all common throughout the militaries of the great powers.

Off Earth, the so called hypercorps, vast corporate structures which based themselves off world dominated economic life, a convenient face for the economic power of Earth's blocks, and able to operate at a distance in areas outside Earth laws and away from the disapproving eye of Earth's public. Earth based megacorporations and multinationals sort to gain their own orbital holdings, but it was the hypercorps who dominated the market place of the inner system.

In the outer areas, things were more anarchic, various nations and alliances formed their own colonies, often as much to forge peace as for claim jumping, as space Land would always be expensive, or attempted to escape Earth. The most populous of these groups before the Fall were the Nordic/Canadian colony on Titan, which sort to rebuild the old alliance between the Europe and North America, and the Trojan fleets, radical anti-transhumanists who wished to escape the emerging technologies of the approaching singularity before it was too late.

In the years leading to the fall, tensions between the great powers reached new heights, with a seemingly endless series of proxy and brush fire wars, terrorism, espionage and event evolving military actions. As these conflicts reached their height, the TITANs emerged. Some suggest they were activated as a result of this international tension, however most believe that they were the initial cause of it. Whatever the case, the TITANs control of information allowed them to unleash a wave of software plague, many of which were capable of jumping from computers to human subjects. Hacked robotic factories unleashed waves of war machines, and military autosystems attacked those who had previously thought them their masters.

The response of the rest of the superpowers spread the devastation, and the war that followed was incredibly lethal and chaotic. The most noticeable of these projects, the Equatorial Alliance's Dryad system, which spread vast bionanotech combat ecologies across the affected areas and China's duàn lù qì (Circuit Breaker), which deployed a large number of synthetic posthumans into command positions of Chinese forces spread almost as much havoc as the TITANs themselves. In the wake of the War, Earth's weather, already chaotic from climate change has become even worse. Various species of TITAN and other weapons, as well as whole settlements of victims of the software plague, nanoswarms and worse still roam earth's wilderness, and long range travel is still difficult. Much of humanity ended up evacuating the Earth, and other parts still live as effective survivalists in the wastes between humanity's remaining city fortresses.

The World of 10 After Fall

The centre of gravity for humanity is rapidly moving away from Earth, with new interest in settlement on Mars and the outer system, and new prominence for the alliance of corporate and national interests known as MERLIN. The discovery of (perhaps TITAN built) artefacts which allow wormhole travel to other systems, and the arrival of the strange, alien Factors have only accelerated this process. Mars Orbital band is now the largest single area of human population, with those still stuck on Earth desperate for a ticket out, even if it means working an indenture on the other end.

Titan is a far better place to live than the inner system, and while nominally Merlin aligned, its government still fully, and increasingly, democratic, but has its own problems. PTSD, mental illness and crime remain rife as the colony stretches its resources to attempt to deal with the vast number of evacuees that came there, all of whom need bodies, and many of whom have suffered grave trauma in the fall. The presence of a massive artefact of the TITANs, what appears to be a failed attempt to build a jupiter brain within Saturn's moon Iapetus, and increasingly hostile relations with more transhuman or Exhuman out system polities, cause heightened tensions within the outer system.

In the Jovian system, the Trojans dominate affairs, but are suffering increasing problems in sourcing resources they need now they are fully cut off from Earth. While their worst fears of technology have been proven correct, living without it is proving even more complicated in a post fall world than it was before, and they face increasing aggression from in system powers.

Character Creation

Each character gets the following for Free

Free Running +20

Fray +20

Infiltration +20

Infosec +10

Interfacing +20

Kinesis +10

Persuasion +20

Programing +20

These stack with anything you get from your character packages.

Use this program: https://firewallagency.wordpress.com/download/ and the rules found in Eclipse Phase, Transhuman: to build your character.

Do not worry about a morph or equipment as one will be provided to you. You may want to buy Rep however. Most characters will also include skill soft slots.