Freelance Traveller

by Peter Gray

The People's Republic

Capitol

Neumann/Gazulin (Trojan Reach 3105)

Political Organization

Undivided federation with six internal political subdivisions (counties). Presided over by a governor and a bicameral legislature.

Astrography

The PR includes all Commonwealth territory in Trojan Reach subsector, save for Tobia/Tobia and the Grudovo Pendant in trailing Tobia Subsector (Trojan Reach H), and Menorial Subsector (Trojan Reach A). In the Spinward Marches it includes the rimward portions of both Glisten and Trin's Shroud subsectors (Spinward Marches O and P) and all worlds rimward and trailing of Collace and Forine/Plankwell (SM 1237 and 1533). The spinward coreward quadrant of Trojan's Reach is in a state of transition, as it proved to be culturally incompatible, and will be transferred to the control of the Enterprise Federation by NE 75.

Symbolism

An orange sunburst hovering against a black sky over three golden pyramids (the latter being the old Lakh Aorlakht's symbol). Populist starships are adorned with a streaking eagle motif. Federation colors are black, orange and gold.

Population

Mostly Imperial culture humans with sizeable Aslan (Fteirle) minority, the latter approaching fifteen percent of the total population. Droyne found on Bantral/Pax Rulin (TR 1906), Clark/Tlaiowaha (TR 2322), and Iscand/Neumann (TR 2904) (Ayidem/Tobia being part of the Tribune). No other significant minor races exist beyond the Llarta of Craw/Glisten (SM 1939) and a few minor human races in Egyrn Subsector (Trojan Reach B). The Republic has the second largest population of any region of the Commonwealth, nearly twenty percent of the whole.

History

The first known settlement of Trojan Reach sector and the rimward Marches by any starfaring race occured in -300,000, when the Ancients settled Gazulin (Trojan 2708) and a few other worlds. After the destruction of these in the Ancient's Final War, the region was deserted until the end of the Vilani Ziru Sirka period. Vilani colonists fleeing Vargr advances into Corridor sector after -2300 settled a few worlds, most notably Horosho/Glisten (SM 2138), and the region around Senlis/Pax Rulin (TR 2108). The Trojan Reach Vilani built a sizeable pocket empire, which collapsed a few centuries later after a brutal bout of internal warfare involving bacteriological weapons. With the exception of Horosho, all of these colonies died out by -1400. Aslan Ihatei began crossing the Great Rift around -1000, though their numbers and organisation were limited by the obstacles of Cross-Rift navigation. The Florians, a "manufactured" minor race native to Trojan Reach, reattained jump technology late in the Long Night period, and their Federation was recognised by the Imperium after IY 308.

After the collapse of the Rule of Man in -1776, a number of Solomani or mixed population groups made their way across the Great Rift not to long afterwards. Included in this mix were even a few Terran sublight missions that reached Rhysk (TR 2304) and Caraz (TR 2306) around -1550. Unlike their brethren that reached Foreven or coreward Spinward Marches, the Trojan Solomani were better organised and had better luck. Those that settled Gazulin were even able to maintain interstellar trade, albeit at the lowest possible tech level. The Gazulin Trade League lasted until -230 when it fell victim to internal tensions and piracy, though most of the human populated worlds that lie to spinward and rimward in Pax Rulin and Tobia subsectors and along the Borderlands are its lasting legacy. Scouts from the Third Imperium recontacted these colonists in IY 40, and Imperial Navy forces began securing the region for the Empire after the conclusion of the Vargr Campaigns. Many of the Solomani resented this intrusion and resisted the Imperium's advance until IY 540, when the resistance leadership on Albe (TR 2211) surrendered to Imperial forces. Piracy along the long and porous Imperial frontier remained a problem, thanks in large part to Zhodani interference after the Third Frontier War. The region's remoteness continued to attract refugees and "runaway" colonists from as far away as the Solomani Confederation, and the lawlessness that accompanied them prompted the Imperium and Traveller's Aid Society to place non-aligned worlds under a blanket red or amber zone declaration until after the Fifth Frontier War.

The disintegration of the Third Imperium after the Dulinor Coup in IY 1116 had significant consequences for the region. The withdrawal of the Corridor Fleet by Lucan the Black to fight Dulinor's forces allowed Vargr corsairs to overrun Corridor Sector and menace the Domain of Deneb's coreward and trailing border. Trojan Reach Sector Duke Quinn dispatched naval units from his sector to support the Domain against this threat, only to see Aslan Ihatei swarm into HIS sector shortly after the removal of these defenses. The Aslan advance swallowed up Sindal and Tobia subsectors, and Ihatei intruders were present on several worlds in every subsector between Gazulin and Mora. Only the timely divide-and-conquer policies of false accommodation pursued by Quinn's successor, Sharik Arcadia, prevented the Aslan from overrunning the entire rimward portion of the Domain.

Arcadia used solicitous diplomacy to carefully play the Ihatei factions off against each other. As infighting reached all the way back to the Tlaukhu clans that sponsored the invasion, the number of Ihatei immigrating to the Domain dropped off precipitously, and the Domain government was able to concentrate upon its more critical relations with the Zhodani and other Imperial factions. When the AI Virus escaped containment in IY 1130, the silicon predator raced through the war-ravaged data networks of the Imperium and its neighbors, bringing about about the Collapse. Word of this approaching catastrophe led Deneb and its neighbors to enact the Spinward States Accords in 1130 to stave off its advance. But before the new Regency of Deneb could get to the business of defense, it had to reclaim its worlds in Trojan Reach. Under a carefully calculated policy, Regency forces bluffed or intimidated the Fteirle lords of these captured worlds into surrendering, and those populations that remained were assimilated into the Regency as citizens. On a few worlds, however, conditions did not warrant a full takeover, and the new landlords were legitimised as their rulers by the Regency government.

The populations of these "Fait Accompli" worlds protested this arrangement vigorously, and had the popular support of populations on liberated neighboring worlds. But the Regency government had to worry about the bigger threat of Virus, and backed up their overlords with its full legal might. That is not to say that First Regent Norris and his officials found the situation on these worlds to be adequate. While publicly the government supported the status quo, privately it fretted that tolerance of these governments would contradict the democratic reforms they intended to enact. Thus Norris tacitly approved of resistance efforts by fait accompli populations in spite of his declared support, which created an enormous "pretzel" of incoherent policy. When the Regency declared the Representational Reforms in IY 1152, the government tried to distance itself in a way that allowed it to straddle the controversy between the two sides. The result of this was the Liberation Riots of the 1160s, which very nearly started a war between Deneb and the Hierate. The Regency government crushed the rioters and rebels at the behest of a peaceful accord with the Fteirle government, giving the sector's human population a reason for defiance. For decades afterwards, the liberated worlds walked a path of borderline rebellion with the Regency government.

Regent Caranda succeeded his mother in IY 1190, and worked for years to mollify the fait accompli situation and reconcile the aggreived worlds. To rectify the former, a military plan was drafted for retaking the worlds through limited "duel wars" and was placed on his agenda for the early 1200s. But it was delayed when the Zhodani Exodus crashed across the Regency's borders in 1200. This distraction was followed by the reopening of the Regency Frontier in 1202, and the subsequent bloody confrontation with the Tong of Kaasu. After that the military option was impossible due to increasing priorities to spinward. But Caranda did manage a reconciliation with the "free soil" worlds by his steady support for the Mora Conventions and his support of local governments through a liberalised trade and tax policies. More importantly Caranda removed many of the oppressive martial law edicts, and the military forces garrisoned to enact them, that were imposed upon both free soil and fait accompli worlds after the Liberation Riots. His assassination therefore came as a major shock to the rimward populations, as did the high handed policies of his "temporary" successor, Lemat Arthurian.

Despite a history for rebellious sentiment, the "Populists" of Trojan Reach did not practice the kind of reactionary politics preferred by the "Pro-Imperial" opposition. Compared to the Purifier faction of Spinward Marches and Sabinar, they were more faithful to Norris's original democratic vision and increasingly antiauthoritarian. When Arthurian made his imperialist pretensions evident through increasingly aggressive moves towards the Zhodani, popular sentiment turned against him and his government very quickly. The Black Regent was more concerned with stabilising the Regency's rimward borders in anticipation of his war with the Zhodani than in ameliorating the intolerable politics that made it so unstable in the first place. This rekindled resistance to the Regency government, and by IY 1230/NE 30 the region was a tinderbox.

Arthurian's options for dealing with this defiance, which was vertically distributed from the dingiest streetcorner to the sector goverment and local military garrisons, was limited by the increasing allocation of resources to spinward. So in NE 31 he "reorganised" the sector's military forces and defenses, firing or purging key military officers from vital border defense fleets or posts, and playing havoc with its logistics. He also created the impression among the fait accompli lords and their cross-border sponsors of momentary weakness through leaks and careful diplomacy. He had hoped that this policy would silence his critics, by preoccupying them with their own security, long enough to permit his glorious expedition to Zhdant to proceed unhindered by their criticism and resistance. After he had recreated the Imperium, he would then have the prestige to silence them permanently.

But the Grand Fleet's defeat at Zarontse in NE 32 robbed him of his dream, and it created instant chaos within the Reach. When word of the defeat reached the Hierate, a number of clans defied the orders of the Tlaukhu to immediately launch a new offensive across the border. Just as in IY 1116, the local garrisons were to disorganised to put up an effective defense. This time, however, the local population was better able to recover from the initial shock of the attack to put up effective guerilla resistance. And on the worlds of Albe, Gazulin and Neumann, the besieged defenders were able to hold off the invaders with the concentric rings of defenses constructed by the Regency just for such an eventuality. The Fteirle forces were not as well organised as in 1116, in part because of factionalism on the Tlaukhu, and their fleets were hung up at Neumann, Glisten (SM 2036) and Tobia (TR 3215). After about a year of inconclusive fighting, the invaders attempted to smash Neumann's defenders in a mass attack, but were decimated themselves by the unexpected firepower of its defenses. Liberator Admiral Hiroe Kayoi used this setback to launch her Red Fleet to Tobia, destroying the Aslan fleet there without worry of enemy reinforcements. She relieved Neumann and Gazulin, retook Peridot (TR 2805) and rescued Pax Rulin and Sindal subsectors in convergence with forces that broke out of Glisten and Collace. When the Ihatei factions refused to accept a peace agreement that divested them of their fait accompli conquests, Kayoi invaded the Borderlands, crushing the Ihatei in battles at Nike (formerly Oiwoiieaw, TR 1723) and Khusai (TR 2023). Kayoi dictated terms to the broken Tlaukhu, and the Peace of Tyokh gave the new Commonwealth of Deneb control of every human populated world in the Reach, and replaced the older Treaty of Ftahalr with an updated nonaggression pact.

Culture

Because of their diverse roots in Imperial and Terran culture, and a lengthy history of self-rule before the Third Imperium's advent, the people of the Republic refer to themselves as Populists. This isn't in the socialist connotation popularised by Communist regimes on old Terra, but in the literal sense "the people", a nation united by their freedom, pride and dignity. The Imperium found this region a challenge to rule during its reign, and later governments, including the Commonwealth, have had only slightly more success in bending its citizens to its will. That is not to say that they are Anti-Government, but the passing of several interstellar governments from the scene in their long history has made them unwilling to trust central authority beyond tangible programs or policies. Though the Commonwealth is much more in keeping to their otherwise impossible standards, they have promised no letup in keeping it to its promises of fair and honest government.

The Populist cathedral is the battle arena, the firing line where life and death are separated by the thinnest lines of protocol, ritual and training. Having lived so long among the Fteirle without the assistance of their own national government, the Populists have codified a world defined by set lines and categories. Contracts, with their definitions and limits, are to them the backbone of orderly society within a chaotic universe. But where some reactionary groups tend towards worship of the tangible, and become rigid and inflexible towards change, Populists see it merely as an essential threshold against the evil side of life. This tends to make them paradoxical: both curmudgeonly and warmly loving towards their fellow man. They are perfectionist to a fault, but are unusually generous in their defense of those unfortunates who do not live up to their lofty standards. They worship law and order, but are unusually liberal at times in their interpretation. They are continually suspended between their straight shooting ideals and the bumpy frictional ride of real life. Behind their walls of definition and order they tend towards paranoia and fear-especially with higher authority-but can be counted upon in crisis to be among the first to dart out towards the enemy. Their neighbors find them to be weird and wonderful at the same time.

The Populists sense of isolation was reinforced by the Regency governments public tilt towards the fait accompli lords, and Norris's dishonest liberation policies. Because of these policies of accommodation, and their partial adoption of Fteirle culture, they became virtual outsiders within their own country. The Liberation Riots and subsequent flirtations with Sword World terrorist organisations like the Swords of Vengeance and the Jormungandr alienated mainstream Regency society for several decades, and created an atmosphere of distrust with the Regency government. But it was this outcast status that allowed them to bitterly oppose the Purifiers and their carefully hidden cynicism behind the policies of Lemat Arthurian. With few exceptions, the Stronghold and Corridor mainly, resistance in most of the Regency to the Black Regent was muted. In the Thinrim it was vehement. And though it eventually cost them when Arthurian abandoned them to the Fteirle, their activism encouraged the more placid but better organised resistance of the Stronghold, which eventually became the launching ground for the Liberator coup.

Populist culture is tailor-made for coexistence with their alien neighbors. Despite their anger towards the petty tyranny of the Fait Accompli clans, they were much better equipped than anyone (including their conquerors) at learning and mastering the interloper's culture. The Fteirle simply possessed a culture that was in many ways a more intense version of their own. During the Regency Century the self styled "New Lords", human politicians that had mastered the Fteirle Codices of Sakolusalo that governed honor, rose to prominence in the Reach's political hierarchy and drove their neighbors to fits. The Fteirle learned to respect, even fear, these councilors when disputes drew them into their territories. Local military units learned to govern their fear in battle through rituals and simple mental conditioning, and were often the equal in valor to Aslan militia units.

For their part the humans created copied many of the family structures and traditions of their neighbors, and extended clans ruled by a handful of esteemed elders had become the social norm. Upbringing of children is very conservative, and the adults tend to look down upon the more frivolous entertainments of Metropolitian Commonwealth. Local human children are the wards of their families until the age of sixteen, then undergo a coming-of-age ceremony during which they determine their future career paths, and then enter into training for a profession or vocation. When a newly confirmed adult enters an undertaking, he or she is obligated to carry it out to a successful or satisfactory conclusion, lest it dishonor them, their family and their community. Military service is popular, and most adults have some kind of martial training, though this usually consists in drilling, self-discipline or an understanding of the Commonwealth's military traditions. The status of persons in a clan depends upon both their public distinction and their political skills: many families are dominated by powerbrokers who operate behind-the-scenes by using their distinguished accomplishments as barter.

Businesses are often family owned, either by an individual clan or through a network of interlocking ownerships and franchises. This only extends to small businesses however, and larger companies are closer to the Commonwealth norm. Property lines are carefully delineated, though are not as rigidly held as their alien neighbors, being more in line with the "dotted line" capitalism of the Stronghold. A well developed legal profession caters to both business and individuals, and contract law is very clearly spelled out. Common law predominates here more than statutory law, and abstract third party regulation is resisted vigorously. This has led the Commonwealth government to directly negotiate with the locals for mutual benefit, rather than merely dictate bureaucratic directives from afar as the Imperium and Regency did.

The usual sexual distinction between male and female in Fteirle culture is abhorrent to the Populists, who tend to be more female dominated as most Commoner cultural groups are. The extension of dueling codes to them has made the local humans quite capable at defending themselves either with a blade or unarmed. Artwork, especially visual and poetic arts, are highly prized, both because of their proximity to aliens that treasure such works, and because of their own highly developed traditions in these areas. Poetic verse is often used as a means of communication between different communities, particularly in negotiation and conflict resolution, and a person who can masterfully conduct themselves in language is highly honored and has a significant advantage in business and political dealings.

Worlds of the People's Republic

PR worlds are generally run down in appearance. Their architecture is designed to be nondescript and generally bland to preserve the privacy of their inhabitants, and keeping interactions between local clans and outsiders to a formal few. Usually few of their worlds have the soaring skylines more typical of Sabinar or the Islands, and a great many of their business areas are built in cramped, open building or even underground. Orbital and grav-assisted habitats are common, though most of these are not open for business or uninvited contact. This aloofness extends to public landscaping: most cities are subdivided into wards by walls, strategic placing of foliage and natural obstacles, and changes in zoning. The interiors of homes are much more opulently furnished than is indicated by their external surroundings, and many include courtyards with running pools of water and leafy gardens.

Travellers are more often confined to the sprawling startowns. Here accommodations are opulent and affordable, amenities are abundant, and security is unusually tight. Most business with the locals is afforded through special "speaker rooms", secure auditoria and conference rooms provided at most hotels with a modicum of privacy. Honored guests and long-term employees are more often put up within the private homes or employer-provided housing, and are not subjected to the cold shoulder. These communities are very well patrolled by police and Brotherhood cadres, both public and privately employed. Trespassing is a serious crime, though simple asking of permission from the landholder or manager is usually sufficient to gain access to most areas. Most facilities, with the exception of most government offices, requrie some sort of reservation or appointment to access, and uninvited guests are often blackballed from the premises and their personnel for long periods of time.

Populist Careers

Name

Populist Duellist

Description

The People's Repulic adopted many features of Fteirle (Aslan) culture, including honor duels. Under Commonwealth and Republic law the majority of duels must culminate in either Firukhte (insult ritual) or adversarial legal arbitration (lawsuits). But in some cases the challenge to personal or family honor is so severe to demand that a stronger response be fielded by the injured party. Human duellists train in unarmed martial arts that combine physical attacks with various weapons, such as savate derivatives (Le Canne and Baton Francais), or martial arts that replicate the duelling style of the Fteirle (such as "Praying Mantis" kung fu). They also receive training in firukhte and other psychological tactics. Duellists are chiefly retained as bodyguards to protect high ranking family members against dishonorable attacks, either from craven assassinations, or the challenges of unworthy opponents. Uncommissioned duellists are known simply as Footmen.

Duellist Officer Ranks

D1: Master of Arms
D2: Sergeant of Arms
D3: Lieutenant
D4: Lieutenant of Arms
D5: Deputy Captain
D6: Captain

Prerequisites

STR and AGL 6+, One previous term in military career, Homeworld Population=Moderate+

First Term

Commission

7+, No DM

Skills(all)

Melee-3, Acrobat-1, Interaction-1, Charm-1, Determination-1

Subsequent Terms

Promotion

8+, No DM

Officer Skills

Melee, Determination, Charm, Language (Fteirle), Social Science, Interaction, Tradition

Enlisted Skills

Melee, Vehicle, Interaction, Vice, Charm

Special Adventure

Use the Marines entry in the main rule book

Contacts

2 (Law enforcement, Brotherhood and military) per term

Other Effects

Initial 3 point skill in melee must be concentrated in one area: unarmed, small blade or Aisai (replica dewclaw). 2 Ship DMs per term.

Library Data

Ahriy

Aslan term for the Pride, or extended family by relation and marriage. It is headed by an Aewar.

Belgard Sojourn

Former interstellar state, located in Egyrn subsector apparently founded by a disgraced Imperial admiral sometime after the Wars of the Imperial Throne. The Sojourn barely deserved being called an interstellar state. By the time of the Imperial Civil War, the government on Belgard could barely maintain what few starships it possessed. In 1120-1121, an Aslan clan called the Hlearkhea invaded the state and quickly swept aside the feeble defenses. The local human population eventually recovered from the shock and became somewhat cooperative with their new overlords. The former worlds of the Sojourn were wrested by Commonwealth units during the Crucible War, and are now Common territory.

Borderland

Old name for the non-aligned worlds in Trojan Reach sector between the Third Imperium and the Aslan Hierate. These worlds were settled entirely by Imperial culture humans, though in a few cases old Rule of Man and Long Night era colonies were already extant. The region was non-aligned by virtue of its economic backwardness and a mutual desire on the part of both the Imperium and the Aslan to maintain a neutral buffer zone between themselves. The Imperial Civil War led to a breakdown in Aslan recognition of the Peace of Ftahalr and Ihatei swarmed over the weakly defended worlds in a lightning attack in 1118-1119. Frequent guerilla activity and the locals pronounced resistance to assimilation impeded the Hierate's control over these worlds, as had continued tensions with the Regency. Very little was been done to resettle or develop these worlds for the Hierate's benefit. The invasion of the Red Fleet Group during the Crucible War wrested these worlds away from the Hierate and made them apart of the new Commonwealth of Deneb.

Codices of Sakolusalo

The 64 volume written authority for Aslan customs, courtesies and rituals. The codices are applied by Fait Accompli Aslan to all of their subjects, both Aslan and Human. Contrary to what has been reported by other authorities, the Codices are inconsistently applied as each clan has its own interpretation of how they should be applied in more obscure or special circumstances.

Delphi Foundation

Non-profit organization that was dedicated to preserving the traditions of the Third Imperium. Delphi was founded on Neumann/Gazulin in 1134 by surviving members of the Tukera family, and its charter dedicates the foundation to financial and moral support for preserving Imperial tradition, culture and governance. Naturally such a body was a strong bastion of conservatism and opposition to Norris's reforms. At times the Foundation had been either a magnet for resistance by the nobility, or limply supported the governments initiatives in an attempt to weaken or confuse popular support. During the later years of the Regency, its senior leadership bankrolled most Purifier politicians or those sympathetic to their cause, including a young Lemat Arthurian. After Arthurian ascended to the Regency in 1221/NE 21, the foundation and its officers were nearly assimilated wholesale into the government, and many of its senior officers dictated policy to the bureaucracy. When the Grand Offensive collapsed in NE 33, several of them resigned their posts and fled for the Ziru Sirkaa, eventually paving the way for the surviving Purifiers to flee for the Fourth Imperium a few years after the War ended.

Ekho

Aslan term for the immediate family. It is headed by a male Tao'.

Fteirle

The proper name for the "Aslan." Regency humans persist in using the older, more pejorative name.

HH-4301

Controversial research base built on top of the now defunct Research Station Delta at Fidelis (Trojan Reach 3003). Delta was, in Imperial times, a class 4 containment facility used to carry out chemical and biological experiments that were too dangerous for experimentation on more habitable worlds. The facility was abandoned and evacuated in 1120 as the Domain of Deneb could no longer guarantee its security. After the Regency retook the system in 1131, the restoration of the facility took the backseat after other existing concerns while the colony charter was sold to a small belter collective from Zaibon/Lunion. The Regency did retain the containment facility on a planetoid designated HH-4301, but it was a low priority facility until about 1135, when the government restricted access to the facility and the surrounding space. After the Rape of Trin the facility was quietly interdicted and a large region of space around it was closed off to civilian traffic. Behind this blanket, the Regency Quarantine Service and Navy pursued Project Crescent Wrench, a captive Virus research and breeding program, in a massive subterranean vault hollowed out of the planetoid. Given the 156 km diameter of 4301, this is a very large facility indeed. Defenses included a regiment's worth of Marines backed by Meson deep sites.

The fallout of the Tong War led to the political disclosure of this project in 1209/NE 9, though Regent Caranda kept large parts of its applications top secret. During the Crucible War, Fidelis-bred Viruses were used to man automated weapon systems against the Zhodani during the pivotal battles of Great Race and Lunion subsector.

Huiha

The Aslan term for Clan. It is headed by a Fouheh, which is the lowest ranking "person" who may be represented upon the Tlaukhu or any equivalent political assembly, according to Aslan law.

Liberation Riots

Intercommunal warfare that erupted on several Thinrim worlds in the period of 1155-1164. The riots were a spontaneous event, following the inability of populations on Fait Accompli worlds to obtain the right to participate in the Representational Reforms and the Regency's refusal to extend the reforms to such worlds without the consent of their Vargr and Aslan overlords. Popular anger escalated into an open revolt on Fait Accompli worlds and several neighboring systems as well. Many Thinrim worlds still had strong feelings and memories about resistance to the Aslan occupiers during the Civil War period and the flagging Self Defense movement was revived as entire human populations were radicalised.

The revolt took the Aslan entirely by surprise and they were slow to respond with their forces. Large sections of several of their worlds fell to rebels armed by militias on nearby "free soil worlds". Several human world military forces engaged in raiding and infiltration operations of their own in an attempt to aid their brethren. Riots eventually consumed integrated Aslan and human communities on worlds like Gazulin and Peridot and the Regency and Hierate threatened war against each other. In the end the threat of Virus, and the lack of Regency government sanction, slowly turned the tide against the rebels. Improved Aslan military units like the Steikhiy crushed each center or resistance, one by one. The local populations soon burned themselves out on armed resistance.

New Lords

Titles taken by Liberation leaders after the Liberation Riots. A deliberate play upon the "Lakh Aorlakht" title used by Ihatei leaders during the Civil War period. Like so many other aspects of the Thinrims "liberty" culture, this act of copying and adaptation is a very human attempt at registering defiance towards their Aslan neighbors and overlords. The phrase is now passé following the liberation of the fait accompli worlds after the Crucible War

Prophets of Geynim

Cruel, xenophobic cult once native to Scaladon/Tobia (TR 2616). The origins of this cult have been lost to the mists of time. They were already established on this strange and deadly world when the Imperium contacted them in 341. Normally they are hostile and aggressive to intruders and secretive of their habits and beliefs. But defectors and refugees that left en masse during the 1150s and 60s filled in Regency authorities on the cults beliefs.

The Geynimites worshiped a god named Geynim, who either lives or is trapped in the depths of their world's wilderness and its crushing atmosphere. Geynim did not create the universe, but did create all of the sentient species and brought them the gift of knowledge. A group of very ancient races ascended to enormous heights of technological command and scientific ingenuity, but they soon chafed at Geynim's rule and grew jealous of his power. Several of them ambushed and seized the god and trapped it in an inescapable prison; but their victory was pyrrhic, as Geynim used the last of its power to do irreperable damage to them and their societies until they faded into obscurity. The Geynimites teach that this god contacted them, offering enlightenment in return for their assistance at freeing it from its prison and restoring its honor.

Supposedly for almost two thousand years the Geynimites have labored through bizarre and graphic rituals to free their "god" from its hiding place, often reverting to brutality in order to accomplish it. Most rituals consist of forced marches in ritual circles, psionic "conciousness" raising with the assistance of extreme states of pain and privation, and even rumors of human sacrifice. The self-destructive manner of this cult finally exhausted the patience of a good portion of its believers, who used the Escape Clause to emigrate to Tobia or Gazulin. Escalating cruelty led to a final revolt in NE 14, and the cult leadership fled for parts unknown to spinward shortly thereafter.