Garden Worlds for Hope
"We used to think Garden Worlds for Hope were misguided. Then they detonated a fission bomb over Johannesburg and marched into the desert with rifles made of bamboo and carbon. That’s when we realized they’re not misguided. They’re prophets—of apocalypse by innocence."
Origin of a Twisted Ideal
Garden Worlds for Hope (GWH) began in earnest during the waning years of the 5th century as an activist group advocating for the preservation of untouched exoplanets. Originally composed of biologists, ecologists, and rewilding enthusiasts, their philosophy centered around the sanctity of non-sapient ecosystems—lush worlds free from the "psychic pollution" of sentient interference. When the Pan-Solar Consortium began planning the Space Rush to reach lost colony ships and untouched stars, the GWH movement radicalized. The discovery of the Ruins of Altair—once home to the extinct Altairans, a species destroyed by an Ogh warlord—solidified their conviction: intelligence is a virus. Life, they believed, thrives only when mind dies.
The Bomb That Bloomed
In 491, GWH unveiled their true nature with horrifying clarity. A covert cell infiltrated Earth and detonated a nuclear weapon over the Johannesburg city-state, obliterating nearly a million inhabitants. This was followed by an attempted northward ground invasion through the Sahara Desert. Expecting orbital retaliation, they brought downing Equipment to ward off air strikes. Instead, Abednego Cassaman, Technocrat of Earth, personally led a force of the Grand Army of the Homeworld into battle on foot. The invaders were annihilated, their carbon-composite armor and biodegradable munitions reduced to charred relics in the sand. But even as they fell, the GWH broadcasted their manifesto: "Only extinction renews the garden." The message spread like invasive ivy. Small-scale cells took root across the system.
Seeded in Silence, Grown in Violence
Today, Garden Worlds for Hope is an ever-fracturing network of zealots, saboteurs, and eco-messianic doomsday cults. Their tactics range from disrupting Terraforming systems to seeding viral retroagents in gene banks. House Helicon in particular has declared them a "Category Black" memetic threat, as GWH's doctrine tends to radicalize fringe ecologists and despairing colonists alike. Intelligence agencies like Terran Homestar Intelligence and Great Houses with ecological holdings remain locked in a whack-a-mole war against their schemes. Yet every failed plot, every thwarted bombing, brings them more attention. And with attention comes new donors, new sympathizers, and new believers who see sapience not as salvation—but as the infection to be burned away.
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