Non-Government Organizations and Non-State Actors

Non-State Actors and other subunits

An observer from the 21st or 22rd century (Or indeed one from the NNU) might be somewhat surprised at how non-Westphalian the Expanse's international order is. Perhaps inevitably with the presence of the White Flame organisation, the Expanse has developed all manner of powerful NGOs, associations and secret societies. With some exceptions predictions of all powerful corporate entities that have been made down the years have not been realised as semi-post scarcity economics have reduced the power and influence of corporations, but also allowed other forms of NGO (who now have far more ability to control resources through access to fabricators) to flourish.

Peaceful Contact IG

Peaceful Contact IG are an interest group/NGO who seeks to ensure peaceful contact with new alien species. They are a non-profit organisation but cover operating costs by offering first contact training and other services such as translation to various governments, individuals and other interest groups.

PCIG are generally regarded as rather idealistic, almost head in the clouds by governments and other interest groups who believe alien beings are a threat, however, PCIG maintains that it's only doing what's practical, that peaceful coexistence is the most logical strategy and anything else will merely bring ruin.

The Sisterhood of Inanna

The Sisterhood of Inanna is the largest veteran association in the Expanse, and has branches in both the Dark Rose and White Flame allied camps in the Expanse, as well as neutrals. The various branches usually claim they're separate entities, especially during the current cold war, but many regard the Sisterhood as somewhat suspect, even potentially unpatriotic.

The Sisterhood's reputation is not helped by the political beliefs of many of its members, a high profile number of whom hold militaristic, almost fascistic views and use the Sisterhood as a vehicle to spread them. Officially the Sisterhood declaims any political position, claiming merely to be a social club and support group, but people, and an increasing amount of the press wonder.

Eternal Vertigo

Eternal Vertigo (the origin of the name is unknown) are a strange philosophy who argue that humanities destiny lies in retreat from the physical universe into virtual reality hubs where their digital consciousnesses can survive indefinitely, gradually speeding themselves up as their technology improves and leaving the dangers and uncertainties of the physical universe behind them.

Eternal Vertigo is currently assembling a series of severs which test groups will use to migrate into what they call the new reality and begin laying the ground work for the great migration that will follow. Strangely this has actually caused some friction in the group as those who believe that all humanity should migrate at once and those who believe in an incremental approach begin to argue.

Both the White Flame and Dark Rose have condemned Eternal Vertigo's quest as dangerously Solipsism.

Insight

Insight has been described as one of the most significant commercial and cultural projects of our time. The idea behind it is simple: to break the hegemony of for profit software (at least in the individual market) by creating a user friendly and subject accessible database of all freeware in existence. By means of the Insight database its hoped that just about any software application anyone might want will become accessible and widely used.

Insights prime movers tend to be annoyed software professionals or at least software graduates of various kinds many of whom hold infosocialist political views. The database its self is distributed across members computers, saving costs and storage space.

Despite its socialist nature, Insight has obtained a large body of funds from donations and is rapidly becoming a massive cultural phenomena. Rumours that many of its founders are associated with anti-capitalist and anti-monetarist political movements have not reduced its popularity.

Minerva Corporation

A classic example of Sakuran Colonial Corporations, Minerva is one of the biggest and held up by most commentators as a archetype of what colonial companies should be about. The Corporation engages in various commercial activities in order to raise capital which is then invested into newly discovered worlds in return for a slice of the profit created by the new colony and a series of incentives by the government.

Minerva also provides services directly to new colonies, including everything from infrastructure projects to bioengineering to security, and employs a large number of ex-military personnel mostly recruited from elite Sakuran units such as air assault troops, space commandos or marines.

The Sable Society

The Sable Society is the most exclusive and many say the most decedent social club in the Expanse. Inviting only the most powerful and fashionable people to attend, the Sable Society is renowned for its debauchery and the conspiracies theories that surround influence peddling by its members. According to most sources the Sable Society is merely a social club, and rumours of anything sinister about it are merely the overactive imaginings of network bloggers. According to other sources however the Society is nothing less than a giant conspiracy by numerous rich and powerful of the Expanse to control its collective destiny.

The society cuts across both White Flame and Dark Rose aligned powers, though interestingly it is known there are no Dark Rose or White Flame members.

Data Preservation Association

The Data Preservation Association is the premier history society in the Expanse, existing both to ferret out history and to preserve it for future generations. Run on a strictly non-profit basis, the Data Preservation Association receives a substantial amount of funding from numerous governments and corporations who want the good publicity... or sometimes want a certain historical fact or datapoint followed up. The DPA is currently very active in the NNU, recording not only their history but the much better preserved records of 20th through 21st Century Earth they bought with them and preserved, along with themselves in relativities comforting embrace.

Green Leaf Society

Known for its green cypress tree emblem the Green Leaf Society are perhaps the most prominent anti-alien group in the Expanse. The group's members come from a variety of political backgrounds but are united in the idea that aliens are mostly hostile and inferior to Expanse humanity. Their proscription to the 'alien problem' varies, ranging from simple isolationism to suggestions of outright extermination against dangerous alien groups, though this is usually played down for fear of the public outcry about the idea.

Since the discovery of the NNU, the Green Leaf Society have been one of the most prominent voices calling for their integration into expanse style society, by force if necessary. It is also believed that in several occasions the Society has gone beyond mere advocacy and even deployed mercenary or volunteer strike teams against alien groups or those they see as their sympathisers.

The Guanxi Lake

The Guanxi Lake is an association that exists to do favours for its members. All members have the ability to claim hospitality from all others, and may demand various other favours based on a complex set of rules involving that boil down to preventing demands which are too onerous or life destroying.

To facilitate this process the Lake offers two services: an almost infallible series of identity checks and navigational services listing the nearest members. They also keep track of the amount of favours asked and paid by a member to the society, to make sure all members pull their weight.

The Quick Silver Sisterhood

Quicksilver Sisterhood are professional do gooders, who train in an esoteric form of martial arts and set out to right wrongs about the cosmos. Many of them come to bad ends in their quest, but others have managed to become well known heroes and peace keepers who selflessly put themselves at risk to save others, be it from criminals, state or non-state violence, alien raiders or natural disasters.

The Quicksilver Sisterhood's martial arts are widely known as some of the most dangerous in the Expanse, combining elements of various other styles into a highly effective real world form. Most Sisterhood agents do not rely on them exclusively however, also using all manner of high technology.

Blue Heaven

Blue Heaven is perhaps the Expanse's best known PMC, though this label is regarded by many as inaccurate. Rather Blue Heaven is an army without a state, operating beyond the bounds of nationality and often the law. Created a century ago by a charismatic ex-White Flame mercenary named Nilesia Nillens, Blue Heaven opened its doors in Saphtar with two rules: first they would recruit anyone with the proper skills, and second they would work for anyone who offered them the cash to continue operations. This second policy has bought them into conflict with legitimate governments several times, but so far Nillens and her successors have managed to steer a successful course between the various Expanse polities avoid being kicked out (or exterminated) by what Saphtari government exists. Blue Heaven has never been all that profitable, rather pushing its funds back into personnel and equipment, keeping the army operating and fighting. Most of the long service personnel simply love war and wish to continue fighting as long as possible.

Diarists

Diarists are a lose association, some say a cult dedicated to preserving complete records of their lives and the lives of everyone around them for future posterity. Most diarists use sophisticated recording devices to record what goes on around them and supplement it with notes, shadows and even full on ghost download set to various points to allow for better recall and memory. Many Diarists are members of omegists sects or interested in deep time shelters and similar projects.

Red Diamond

The medical charity Red Diamond are the successor to the ancient Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations which sought to tend to battlefield causalities and other victims of suffering and hardship. While there is little work for them in the near utopia of the Expanse, the Red Diamond still works actively in dozens of conflict zones and is engaged in extensive operations in the Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere, and maintain close links with other organisations such as Soul Finders.

Calinoligists

Calinoligists are a strange religion, many would say a cult which is banned in several polities. The Calinoligists believe that since all human beings are inherently sinful, and since there has never been direct guidance from a higher power that humans must ultimately take responsibility to one another's actions by constant observation, and now, a constant mind link, allowing all Calioligists in a cell to hear one another's thoughts and feel one another's sensations.

In practice this has led to high levels of psychological damage to some members, especially those subject to the censor of the group, and in some cases accusations of brainwashing and reckless psychological alteration. Calioligists defend themselves from these criticisms vigorously, and often litigiously, accounts of violence directed at critics are officially denied by the main Calinoligist church.

Wanders Association

A fraternity of interstellar explorers and vagrants, the Wander Association includes many amateur explorers and geographers. While most members stick to already explored worlds others prefer to break new ground, and members are often part of the first wave of landings on a newly discovered habitable planet. Wanderings offer training to new members, and possess an extensive database of tips and

Soul Finders

Soul Finders are a charitable organisation dedicated to finding and retrieving lost mindstate storage devices and restoring damaged achieves and the like and are one of the oldest and most significant charitable concerns in the Expanse. It was Soul Finder lobbing that originally led to the wide provision of offsite reloading across the Expanse, and Soul Finder operatives searching for stacks or other data storage devices are a common sight in any disaster zone. Currently, Soul Finders is most active in the Nirvana Co-Prosperity Sphere

Total Civilisation

Total Civilisation are strange philosophical group who believe in an extreme form behaviouralist ethics. It is the believe of members of Total Civilisation that the technology of conditioning should be used to completely eradicate human unhappiness, crime and other social ills, even if the cost is some measure of human free will.

This is not a particularly popular philosophy in the Expanse mainstream but an increasing number of Total Civilisation settlements have grown up lately as the group expands its membership through breeding and cloning together with a steady stream of new recruits.

Retreat

Retreat believes that the government of a contemporary state is too complex to be handed to anyone but minds specifically created for the purpose, in other words, extremely advanced artificial intelligences, probably built into computer systems which would cover the whole of a room or building. These AIs would be carefully programmed to make decisions for more normal transhumans and would gradually replace them at every level, elevating all transhumans to a life of leisure and efficiency, and providing better quality of life all around.

Retreat has given up attempting to lobby for these moves in any existing Expanse policy, none of whom seem particularly interested in the idea, and is currently seeking to build such a government AI on a new colony world that it has (as an association) purchased, for the purpose of creating a new polity of its own to apply its ideas.

Outreach IG

A more organized and political version of the Wanders Association, Outreach IG is concerned with peaceful exploration of new worlds and the discovery of new sentient life. Outreach has several hundred survey ships of various kinds and is constantly seeking to push back the boundaries of explored space and discover new alien species and establish peaceful contact.

Outreach IG is also responsible for extensive lobbying, memetic and other efforts at minimising the confrontations between Expanse and alien life and making sure that further colonisation efforts are peaceful and non-exploitative to any natives found. This has sometimes bought them into conflict with other groups such as Sakuran colonial companies who Outreach sees as at best imperialist and at worst actively evil.

Milestone Group

While not as large as Blue Heaven, the Milestone Group of private military companies has a far better reputation, and is well equipped and professional. Based in Saphtar, Milestone never the less uses many Sakuran and Edenite personnel, and has good contacts with the Sakuran and Edenite militaries.

Milestone supports military services from training to security guards to fully combat capable armoured units. It's leaders take a moral line, claiming that their business often provides weaker parties with a recourse they would not otherwise have had against stronger ones, however for all its PR glitz, the Milestone group has its fair share of dark rumours, including several allegations of war crimes and accusations that the group provides security and training for groups such as illegal mind program and addictive narcotic traffickers.

All Faiths Association

All Faiths Association is a strange religious group who's prime belief is that all religions are true. Derided by many theologians, AFA is never the less attempting to fit as many religions as possible into a single unified cosmology, using as much historically accurate data on the old gods of earth as possible.

Many people do not take the AFA seriously, however they have become a somewhat growing force, with their processions being a time of celebration in many areas. They are disliked by the Dark Rose, the Azure River Pact and other religious groups, many of whom accuse them of not taking religion seriously.