The Traditionalists | The Starset Bulletin
The Starset Bulletin is an in-game independent free press, bringing news, updates, and lore from the tabletop RPG world of Starset: The Great Dimming.
The Traditionalists
Deep within the fields spread across the middle of Centralized America, a small band of people live simple lives. They call themselves ‘the traditionalists’. Composed of little more than 200 people, this community has rejected modern technology in favor of the “old ways” of living. Their leader, or ‘father’, as they call him, is a charming, friendly older man who leads his followers by example. The community lives without datasticks, holograms, rails, net access, or even Transfer Codes. The traditionalists’ father has negotiated an agreement with a local anonymous agent who allows him to pay for his entire community’s datasticks to be “used” regularly in order to avoid SRM detection, while also keeping the datasticks completely outside the boundaries of their small community. This dodging of the SRM law does require anonymity for both the traditionalists group and their supporters, for their own safety.
The traditionalists have secluded themselves from their neighbors and strive to make themselves completely self-sufficient. They farm their own land, raise animals, and keep their entertainment entirely off the public net. Community-wide movie nights using ancient projector technology are popular, and nearly every citizen listens to music through the use of individual speakers that play using ‘CDs’, with less than 20 songs on average available per CD. Visitors to the small community are scanned for unauthorized technology, and cybernetic enhancements are strictly forbidden on their land. Their leader claims that combining humanity with technology so closely is “an abomination”, and he doesn’t want these abhorrent influences on his people. The leader has also strictly banned all autocycles, rotocycles, and modern Tauron cars from the traditionalists' land. The community has one specially designed Tauron car for occasional transport to their nearest city, but it was made without internal net access, satellite gps, or any entertainment systems except for a built-in CD player, and procured by the same anonymous agent that controls their datastick purchases. The rest of their transport consists of old-fashioned gasoline-based tractors for farm work or hauling animals such as horses or cows.
The traditionalists chose this lifestyle for many different personal reasons. Some are religious, with one young woman stating, “People out there, flying through space and corrupting their bodies, they’re playing god. One day he’s going to show them how far from him they still are.” Others are simply tired of the competition and danger they have faced elsewhere and are seeking the “simple life”. One of the traditionalists’ first members, a leader in the community and a father of four, had this to say on the topic, “We’re just looking for a place that we can raise our families in peace. [We] don’t want any trouble with the government or nothing, just a…a little space.”
Their leader claims that the traditionalists have no plans for expansion or evangelism of their lifestyle. “Anyone willing to live by our rules is welcome, of course, but we’re not trying to convince anyone of anything.”
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