Glimpse Inside - Freespacers

December 02, 2002

Net-7 Archive Item #87908G4658D3-FREESP

The Freespacers
While most political and social histories of the past few hundred years concentrate on the three distinct races - Terran, Progen, and Jenquai - another more mysterious group also exists. The Freespacers left Earth in the 2120s at the beginning of the Great Migration, and remain a fixture in many areas of the galaxy.

Because of their often reclusive nature and convoluted social evolution, the Freespacers are a difficult group to even classify, much less study. Some sociologists even consider the Freespacers to be a "fourth race" or species that has evolved from humans on Earth, though this topic is hotly contested and by no means universally accepted. (Most Freespacers themselves vehemently oppose this idea.)

Relk Goodspeed, teacher of the Jumpstart skill, is a known Freespacer
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The original Freespacers were relatively few in number, and were driven by ideology. Their beliefs stemmed from the rejection of human-constructed categories -- race, nation, ethnicity, etc. They insisted that these categories were ultimately meaningless, and that every person and thing is a unique individual. Most of them were fleeing the racial and national conflicts of their day, both relics from the 21st century past and budding divisions into the three proto-races. So the Freespacers became space-dwelling nomads, spawning a culture even more space-based than that of the Jenquai. Many of them died in their early exploration of space, and their first migration ended relatively soon after it began. These first migrants, and their descendants, are now known as the Old Families. Very few remain.

The second migration of Freespacers began with the advent of the MK8 Infiniti Pulse Drive (the first true warp drive) in 2190. This migration consisted mainly of fringe elements of the three established races and 'non-raced' neutral spacers who had been exposed to the ideas of the Old Families in far-flung outposts. The new members of the Freespacer clans were reacting primarily to the Three Races and the growing conflicts between them, and saw these as just another example of the same tired conflicts that had always plagued humanity.

Buying or cobbling together warp drives, the Freespacers - both new recruits and Old Families -- headed out in every direction. They always moved away from civilized space, and some are thought to have established human outposts in systems as yet unsurveyed. This second wave of Freespacers became known as the Middle Families.

One expedition, made up primarily of Old Families, set up the first human habitation in the Vega System around 2220. (This habitation was space-based, as are all Freespacers settlements.) However, InfinitiCorp acquired the rights to the system in 2240 and ceded it to the Progen in 2244. Needless to say, the Progen were incensed when they found Vega already inhabited, and as might be expected, hostilities erupted. There are few accounts of what occurred during those conflicts, but it's clear that those Freespacers in Vega suffered heavy casualties.

New converts to the Freespacers have various names, but they are most commonly called "the New," "New Families," "Newbloods," or the "Free-made." Because of their widespread roaming and nomadic lifestyle, the Freespacers have evolved (and possibly devolved in at least one case) in a number of interesting ways. Many of them have had little or no human contact (including other Freespacers) for generations. Some still maintain ties to the three established races, while others simply aimed for the stars and never returned. Many Freespacers yearn for knowledge and enlightenment, and tend to gravitate toward the Jenquai. However, the one common trait among the Freespacers is their rejection of human-constructed categories.

The Old Families have become an oddity, even by Freespacer standards. Some of the Old Families have separated themselves from humanity for so many generations that their culture is scarcely recognizable. Their language is incomprehensible to most humans, and one branch of the Old Families is believed to have gone "feral." This last group, the bio-harvesters, is believed to have "devolved" from the Old Families. They are largely inbred and animalistic in nature, and sort through wreckage fields to salvage body parts and genetic material, which they later sell to pirates. They are particularly loathed by Progen Reclaimers, and Centuriata gene-maps are highly prized among the bio-harvesters. This group has also been known to attack other spacefarers, simply to harvest their body parts.

Freespacers are also known to congregate periodically at their so-called "Voidmoots" - gatherings where Freespacers socialize, trade, and celebrate. The largest Voidmoot is held semi-annually in the Jotunheim sector. Non-Freespacers are typically unwelcome and harassed at Voidmoots, with the interesting exception of Terran historian Desmond Huxley, who wrote the book "20 Years of Voidmoots."