The Cyberpunks (A.K.A. Mutualists, Collectivists, Anarchists, Social Reconstructionists) are a faction of the Virtual Adept Tradition. This group favors the use of extreme forms of hacking, cybernetics, and violence to achieve its ends. Recently, they have began using Ideological War to fight the Technocracy, trying to dismantle the political mindset that allow their hegemony to endure.
History[]
The origins of this faction trace back to the very inception of the Union, where some Technocrats looked back to the ideas of ancient Greeks Stoics and Cynics when debates about the nature of the World Government after the domination of the world by the Union began.
This kind of influence would be seen again in the 19th century, where the ideas of the Anarchist Movement would make their way into some Technocrat minds. The Spanish Civil war in the 30's was a perfect opportunity to try these ideas out. Some Technocrats helped the Spanish Anarchists in the foundation of their "Free States", which thrived beyond anyone's expectations. The Technocracy as a whole, however, saw these independent cities as a possible breeding ground for ideas that could menace the Technocrat hegemony, and aided the fascist side of the war in the crushing of this experiment.
The Technocrat Anarchists were, understandably, outraged by this action. Many of them were already Virtual Adepts, and a group of them volunteered as the rear guard of the Adept Revolt, ensuring that everyone would get out of the Union safely.
After the Adept defection to the Traditions, the Cyberpunks continued their work as the field units of the Tradition, diving deep into the Ascension War. Their high point in the War was the crashing of It-X's Artificially Sentient Mainframe, a deed which led to a purge of hackers worldwide and, to this day, inspires technocrats to hunt them for this attack.
The Avatar Storm shook the faction. After the loss of many of their leadership in the White Out, they began fighting the Technocracy on the field of ideas, trying to dismantle their grasp on sleepers' political thinking through their idealistic foundations.
References[]
- MTAs: Tradition Book: Virtual Adepts, p. 46-47