Just a teaser. Here's an excerpt from the ComStar/History Section.
When the Lights went out – A critical review of the HPG Black Out – What Really Happened?
By Professor Marie Anwar, Oxford University, Terra 3025
Jerome Blake created ComStar as a neutral organization to protect technology, and therefore humanity. What he neither intended, expected or noticed was that his organization would become a safe haven not just for those individuals who believed in his message and methods, but also for those individuals who would take it to the extreme – those people who were scarred by the wars and who would not look at ComStar as a safe haven, but as not safe enough, and who would take Blake’s mandate to extreme degrees.
These individuals, later known as the Order, created a subculture within the ComStar organization and set plans in motion for the Inner Sphere to burn itself out. Blake’s organization, which espoused neutrality and sought out to protect technology and knowledge, would be used against him, against ComStar, and against the Inner Sphere – for these individuals used ComStar’s cloak of neutrality and its network to manipulate the policy for their gain. They secretly demolished HPGs, making it look like terrorist attacks or deliberate assaults by the House Lords. These actions led Blake to force his hand, interdicting the Inner Sphere to prevent what he perceived as violence against ComStar. And so, to protect the organization’s neutrality, he set out to silence the Inner Sphere. In doing so, Conrad and his disciples used this window of opportunity that they had created to enact their grand plan to destroy the HPG network. And thus, Blake’s policy unlocked Pandora’s Box.
So, who’s to blame? Well, Conrad of course. But on a deeper and less sinister level, Blake himself. For although interdicting the Inner Sphere was a mistake, it was an inadvertent one that could have been avoided had he spent more time scrutinizing the individuals within ComStar, rather than just those outside of it, and instead of simply providing a safe harbor for anyone who asked for it. In the end, Blake’s altruism worked against him.
Sadly, both this mistake and the manipulations behind it have left a lasting legacy for ComStar. For even after spending well over a century rebuilding the network and repairing the mistake they are still haunted by Conrad’s actions and the deeds of his followers. They have to be very careful that their best intentions are not yet again perverted and used against them. A trail of mistrust and secrecy follows ComStar even to this day, and while they are not a religious organization, their actions are reminiscent of the Free Masons of old – minus all of the mystical trappings. ComStar must still directly face their infamous legacy to this day – encountering pockets of people throughout the Inner Sphere, decades later and on isolated worlds, who believe in the ideals that Conrad espoused, and where his cult of personality still persists to this day. People, who are still willing and waiting to try to take down the network yet again.
