Personnel Files
Name: John Israel al-Numan
Date of Birth: 2nd of May 2300 AD (6064 according to the New Sun Count)
Homeworld: Lalande
Place of Birth: The Town of Evangelie, Gabriel Province
Prior Criminal Record: Membership of the New Sun Brotherhood; pardonned.
Prior Service: The Great Colonial War
Character Description:
John has a New Sun tattoo on the back of his neck
Family: The al-Numan family his fairly numerous: John at one point had seven siblings; three brothers and four sisters. One brother and two sisters perished during the War. His father too died, but from starvation. His mother is still alive. One grandfather still lives; his other grandfather died of old age, as did a grandmother; the other grandmother died during the war. Seven aunts and six uncles rendered some five-dozen cousins, about a third of whom are still alive. Their family was particularly hard-hit during the war.
Biography: The history of Lalande is fascinating in many ways, but most interesting to our story is the way it was settled. Lalande was the first colony to be founded and primarily inhabited by second-wave colonists; those who had lived some amount of their life in one of the existing colonies before making the jump to Lalande. The colony was, in many ways, the product of disappointment with the Martian colonies: the promised freedom which drew so many to settle the New Frontier was lacking, as so close to Earth, both the Earth governments and the corporations exerted their influence unabated. As one colonist noted, there were backwaters on Earth that were harder to reach than Mars itself was, and Earth was eager to use Mars for their own propaganda.
While the Red Front only emerged in 2155, the presence of nationalist forces made itself known before in the form of incidental violence. Religious minorities were often the targets of this nationalism, and due to the international nature of the colonies, most religions were to be considered minority religions. These minorities had little to expect from their brothers and sisters back on the Blue Marble; schisms within the Abrahamic faiths had been rampant since the first days of settlement. For the Muslims, the question of Pilgrimage had separated them from Earth Islam, since it was incredibly difficult for those living in the colonies to make the Hajj. Questions on the direction of prayer in the colonies were left unanswered, not taken seriously by most Muslim scholars, or at least not the ones with proper funding and authority. Catholic Christians asked the Pope to appoint Martian bishoprics and expand the college of cardinals, but in the Papal bull Orbis Alius the Pope denied the possibility that Martian soil could be sanctified, and as such, no cathedrals could be constructed and no bishops could be invested. The Orthodox Christians, most hailing from Russia, found similar deaf ears with the Patriarch in Istanbul.
Those of protestant and reformed faiths, due to their decentralised position, had an easier time in the colonies, but it was that decentralisation that led to a very distinct theology forming, especially with regards to the explanation of those biblical verses relating to the World. This was something that all Peoples of the Book had in common, but it was the primary challenge for the protestant Christians. Of extreme importance was the Gospel according to John, which mentions the world in various instances:
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
These quotes from the Gospel according to John, and various like it in other different texts, led to a very distinct theology springing up simultaneously among multiple different Abrahamic faiths. These theological points were eschewed by their contemporaries, and especially by the mother organisations back on earth, but this only served to grow the divide between them, the colonists feeling misunderstood.
And we have not sent you, O Muhammad, except as a mercy to the worlds (note the plural).
The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception
The violence between nationalist, religiously orthodox groups and the New Faiths would lead to their exodus in the 2150s. Many settled in the Lalande system, especially on the planet of Lalande. It was dangerous at first, but it had been slowly terraformed over the previous fifty years by the terraforming-pods that had been sent there. By the time the colonists arrived it was a barren, desolate place, but with a somewhat breathable atmosphere and temperatures ranging between +60 and -50 degrees Celsius, which made it at least habitable. Human interaction with the planet made it more liveable with every passing year, and the harshness of the colonisation made it necessary for the people of various faiths to collaborate. So far away from home, they found comfort in the colonist-friendly theologies of their fellow Peoples of the Book. These faiths would, over time, slowly merge, yet never being given a true name; everyone just referring to it as the Faith. It lacked an organisational structure per se, but there was lively debate among the various settlements and their congregations in various different bodies, partially mimicking the Old Earth organisations, though the entire Faith had a distrust for any organised, powerful body.
The Seventeen Year War was particularly brutal, and the new Faith partially found itself in that conflict, as the necessities of war dictated what tenants were to be important. From the Christian tradition came the concept of Martyrdom, as they saw themselves in conflict with a new, pagan Roman Empire in the form of Earth. The idea that the Church in Rome secretly controlled the government was common among the inhabitants of Lalande. Both Christianity and Islam knew the concept of Holy War, although it was more doctrinally developed in Islam. Also from Islam came the concept of strict theological legalism, although sources were taken from the Talmud, the Bible and the Quran together. Judaism had always played a more minor influence because of the small amount of initial Jewish settlers, but it contributed heavily in the legal department.
All this to say that, although they were not with many when the war began, the ferocity and zealotry of the Lalanders shocked the galaxy. These were units that would not surrender, that fought to the bitter end, and who would often take no prisoners. While this made them hated throughout the galaxy, their prominence also spread their religion to all those who wanted to hear. A small but devoted group of soldiers took their side in the war, and refugees from all over the galaxy found their way to Lalande. A growth in population that was almost entirely negated during the Great Siege, the campaign for Lalande, which saw Terran troops landed planet-side to quell the rebellion. It was a slog that would only see its equal during the Great Colonial War, some 140 years later. Eventually the planet had to surrender, but during those 140 years, the Long Peace never quite reached every end of Lalande, and sectarian violence aimed at the ‘invaders’ flared up from time to time.
During the Long Peace, however, the population of Lalande exploded, and its religious faith began to diversify. With a strong tradition of dialogue borrowed from the Jewish tradition, but no strong central authority, there were bound to grew doctrinal differences. While many parts, like the saintly veneration of martyrs, continued, and the general disgust of Earth continued, there were various more practical issues on which different congregations diverged. While the Great Terran Devil remained, this would never grow into full-on war, but to call the debate peaceful would not do it justice. It was during the second half of the Long Peace that the Brotherhood of the New Sun arose. It began as a coalition of the descendants of those warriors who had died on Earth during the Seventeen Year War and various armed groups that were still engaged in sectarian violence. They saw Earth and its inhabitants as a demonic influence, worshipping Sol as a life-giver like the Pagan cults of old. The Brotherhood thought that the Earth and its inhabitants had to be extinguished, its holy sites destroyed and its people purged, so that the demonic influence of Earth would disappear. For this, they required a strong, central leadership and a theocratic state, which they set about building.
While the Brotherhood was always violent, authoritarian and warlike, it enjoyed some initial support. Lalande was no stranger to terrorism in the name of their liberty, after all, and they held no love for the Terran occupying force and the hard justice that had sent many of their heroes to the gallows. But as the Brotherhood became increasingly dictatorial and genocidal, it lost many of its more moderate followers, who joined in the Free Faith Coalition in 2315. Fifteen years before this split, John was born.
Now, the rural Lalande economy, consisting of small villages that could be hundreds of miles apart, was a hard place to grow up in, and the various religious and political organisations provided what little relief there was in the area. They often provided communication services when Earth companies found the area unprofitable, and their armed gangs were more for safety than for control. John grew up in an area that was dominated by Brotherhood activity, and even after the FCC formed in ’15, that disorganised theoretical club could do little to supplant the work the Brotherhood was doing, and as such, the Brotherhood maintained a rather sizeable control over Lalande. Though, of course, they were never in direct opposition to the Terran government, and only provided extra services.
That was, until 2315. The Martian nuclear holocaust of Earth was met with jubilation on Lalande, much to the dismay of the small Terran administrative population, mainly contained to the space ports. A low-level bureaucrat, during one particularly festive night, shouted for the revellers to shut up from her apartment window, indicating that she had lost her children during the attack. Angry Brotherhood zealots broke into her home and crucified her, placing the cross under guard on the city square. It took the woman three days to die, the process being streamed live on television. Her death was the signal for the coup to begin, and after some initial skirmishes the small Terran garrison, a skeleton force following the withdrawal of troops for the war, surrendered. John counted himself among the Brotherhood armed rebels at that point, as did many of his compatriots. But soon after, the Brotherhood began what it called the ‘Great Finishing’: “as our Martian brothers kill the Terrans in their beds, so will we slaughter them here. They will find no resting place among the stars”.
The New Sun genocide did not end with Terran-borns. Among the first victims were also those of more traditional religions, Christians and Muslims for example. Those descended from them too, until the Brotherhood issued their Purity Decree: only the descendants of the First Colonists, chosen by the Lord, could be allowed into their new Kingdom of Heaven. It had all the worst parts of a Christian kingdom, a caliphate, and a Jewish state, being extremely authoritarian and war-like. When the genocide began, many Brotherhood fighters, including John, decided to switch sides, and joined the FFC, which in turn struck an alliance with the Terran navy. Now, this was unpopular, and many joined various other armed groups, but John kept loyal: a deal with the devil could be struck to prevent worse evil, and there existed the idea that somehow, John had to ‘make up’ for the nuclear rain on Earth. The FFC militias were integrated into the Navy, mostly, and together, they would win ‘space vietnam’, though the traditional Terran units suffered extreme casualties against the ruthless Brotherhood militias.
John just stayed with the Navy when the fighting was mostly over. Though the fighting never really ended, eventually the Brotherhood had been pushed back to the jungles and swamps of the hinterland, not capable of threatening the space ports and industrial centres. John became a soldier, and would later become a legal officer, for the Terran navy, keeping the peace among his own people. Rather he do it than some overzealous, war-torn Terran veteran who had lost family during the Rain. John would play an important part in the build-up of a post-war Lalande, with modern institutions and a more secular government.
It is now 2338, and there is need for John to move abroad. The Brotherhood has increased its attacks against Lalande-born officers and personnel on the planet, choosing covert and terrorist tactics instead of their traditional guerrilla style. As such, John, like many of his companions, has been taken off-world and spread throughout the fleet, partially as an attempt to integrate Lalande more with the military infrastructure, but also to keep knowledge about the society alive for when there is another war.
Enlistment Files
Current Service Branch: Navy
Current Rank: Commander
Past Rank History: Ensign, Junior Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander
Service History: From 2318 to 2338, twenty years in total.
Specialization: Investigation/Legal (love the gold trim)
Service Position aboard Ship: Military police and chief investigative officer