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The Light Keepers = an Order dedicated to truth, beauty, the joy of life and spiritual enlightenment, founded in the mid 21st century. The five tenants are: 1) Do no harm to others 2) Revere all life in the universe 3) Frugality makes inner happiness, 3) Spirituality and rationality compliment each other. 5) Freedom is a basic right for all.

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The colonists of Alpha Centauri were some of the first to leave Earth. They wanted a fresh start after seeing the destruction of the environment of Earth and the wars they left behind. The lightkeepers flourished there. The colony was seen as a refuge. Prisoners had been sent to the planet for years, many no longer feeling any emotional ties to Earth. The Whitesun family would get it’s official start (according to Earth records) on Alpha Centauri. As time went on, more wars occurred. The refusal of the colonists to get involved caused the Earth Federation to move them to Mu Arae. Their they would be “out of the way” on O’Neil 7. They could work refining ores and terraforming Mu Arae. The lightkeepers refined their order on Mu Area. Several would lead the terraforming of the planet. Legend has it they were the first to breathe the air planetside.

Their neutral stance would cost them dearly when the Se’hirzoth invaded Earth controled space. On 31 March 2133, humans made contact with an alien vessel. They opened fire at once. Few believed the reports, until February 1st of the following year. Several colonies would be invaded. The loss of life was catastrophic. In 2137 the Se'hirzoth, as they were know, were stopped just before they made planet fall on Earth. Ten years latter, a virus developed by Earth and colonial scientists killed the last of the forces. Several hard fought military battles had taken place.

The war caught the Lightkeepers unprepared. They tried to send peace envoys. All were killed. The Council of Twelve was formed to deal with the crisis. Council members had board discretionary powers at first. They spent vast sums of the ordrer’s money on medical treatment for wounded Earth Federation troops and the smaller Colonial militias. Several hospitals were built all over the Federation. However a slight majority of the rank and file did not wish to join the military. Corporate military forces had been drafted to fight alongside their government counterparts, but even they found few recruits among the order. Some did become medics or other non-combat troops. The Federation’s intelligence agency, the Skywatch, began to probe the order, the Ministry of Information hinted that the Lightkeepers were not only pacificists but actively disloyal to the human race.

The first Mahatma, Pearl Whitesun, issued a statement “We wish to live in peace, but we must never forget that some times fire and blood must be used to secure that peace. The Se’hirzoth were filled with hate and fury. With them gone we must put aside our hatred and focus on the future. War may have saved our worlds, but it is a poor tool to build a future.” Just a scant eighteen months after Whitesun issued that statement, the “Se’hirzoth Surprise” plague hit. A bacteria was left behind by the invaders. It defied all efforts to contain it. As the Federations best medical minds scrambled for a cure, Lightkeeper-run hospitals filled with the victims. Costs soared. The plague burned on. It reached a fifty percent mortality rate, then seventy five. One colony lost a city of a million people in the space of two years.

Lightkeepers discovered several treatments. The organism was engineered to kill, but they discovered that the Se’hirzoth’s knowledge of human biology was poor. That the organism was fatal at all seemed to be a coincidence the invaders exploited. Several medicines were developed to slow the plague. It mutated twice before Earth and Colonial scientists, with significant Lightkeeper help, developed a vaccine.

But nothing stands in the way of a good rumor. Word spread on several planets that the Lightkeepers had given the Se’hirzoth help in developing the plague. That Earth developed it to depopulate the colonies, with the Lightkeepers being paid to design the plague and use the Se’hirzoth as cover. Or that the Lightkeepers were deliberately spreading the plague to kill the followers of what ever religion was popular at the time. One nasty rumor had the order holding back medicine to raise prices to cash in on the plague. That rumor was started when the order was facing a severe cash shortage. They had only a few ships at the time, they had just purchased a large cargo ship, but it was not ready. Forced to use commercial transports or Federation military ships, they raised their fees to cover the costs.

The result was the “Night of the Fallen Stars”. Several Lightkeepers-run hospitals were ransacked. Lightkeepers were forced out of their homes. Stores and shops were robbed. Several members were assaulted in public. Many hid out of fear. Over 1,000 members were killed in the looting and the riots of 13 January 2249. Some left the order, others pledged to redouble their efforts to find a cure. On 17 Jul 2153, a Lightkeeper who lost his husband in the riots was among the team that found a cure to the plague.

The order is famous for its tolerance. As humanity pushed itself outward, several strides were made in biology and ecology. Humans went form terraforming new worlds to designing new crops and new medicines to improve the general quality of life. Population control began to come up as several colonies saw “baby booms” with each migration from Earth. After the Se’hirzoth war, Earth turned it focus on the colonies it had neglected. Many felt that they needed to be controlled for earth directly. Male to female ratios would be adjusted by the Federation’s medical service to ensure that the human race would live on and that no colony would suffer overcrowding. That smacked of fascism to most of the colonies. Not helping matters were the pre-natal hormone treatment designed to cure such conditions as psychopathy, homosexuality and other “less that desirable behaviors”. Transgendered and homosexual right groups object tobeing lumped in with criminal behavior (especially since many had fled Earth based nations for that reason). Trying to “cure” anything in the womb made colonists uncomfortable. Several of the treatments were shown to do more harm than good.

In stepped Aurora Sara Whitesun. She refused pre-natal hormones despite being ordered by her colony’s Family Protective Service. She sued in Federal Court. In 2163), Whitesun vs. Earth Federation Ministry of Health, Dept of Reproductive Services (ReproServ), established that the Federation could provide reproductive services but only with the consent of the parent. The doctors wand to administer hormones to her baby to “stabilize the child’s sexual orientation and gender identity”. Whitesun refused saying that is was not their concern. Commenting on the case, the Ministry of Health’s Secretary of ReproServ calling the Aurora family “Godless degenerates”. Publicity surrounding the case caused homosexual and transgendered populations to welcome the Lightkeepers. They helped rebuild the order after the war. Many more court battles would be fought against attempts by Earth based groups to “repair” the homosexual population. When several colonies became more conservative after the war, their sexual minority population would flee to join the order.

Earth would have a brief bit of revenge against the order however. Many Earth based Lightkeepers felt that the order was becoming too focused on the colonies. Earth’s population was started to grow again after decades of decline. Some even called for a return to Earth , that humanity should not grow to large or expand to far out. These Lightkeepers would break with the order and become Terra Seraphim. The “Schism of Light” pit the more conservative members against the newer members. Some still kept old prejudices (sexual orientation, religion, etc). Others felt that the Whitesun affair was bad publicity. Whitesun’s family is made up of many large circle marriages. That information did not endear the order to Earth or several conservative colonies. Taking the Earth based part of the organization with them, Terra Seraphim became very influential on Earth. TS and the Lightkeepers would be cool toward each other for years.

As the order recovered, they Earth Federation had reached its zenith. Earth’s economy had grown dependant on colonial labor and resources. Relations with the colonies were deteriorating. Plagues, famine and other natural disasters would hit several colonies, Earth lackluster response caused colonials to believe that the Federation did not care about them. Several “bloodmoney” wars between powerful corporations would be ignored by the Skywatch and the earth federation military. It seemed that when conflict or disaster threatened Earth, the federation would move quickly. After defeating several smaller terrorist groups, the Federation missed the growing discontent and resentment.
The Lightkeepers knew. They watched as corporations, student associations, political groups, criminal gangs, labor unions and even colonial governments banded together. They may have hated earth even more. Each brought their unique skills to what became the Alliance of Independent Suns. The Alliance asked the Lightkeepers to join them. Then needed pilots, medical personnel and (most importantly) artists to spread the independence mission. The order by this time ran hospitals, private universities and owned several media companies.

But this time the Lightkeepers wanted no part of the war. They did not wish to fight the Terra Seraphim on Earth. Others thought that the alliance should try to negotiate with the Earth Federation. Many feared what conflict would do to the smaller colonies. Many Lightkeepers lost business because of the corporate bloodmoney wars, they did not want to die to make them rich. Spurned, Alliance cells attacked the order. Using their historic anti-war stance against them, they accused the order of being pro-Earth and a tool of the Skywatch. However, as the alliance fought with the Skywatch and the Earth Federation Military and Police, they started to lose. The Federation use ruthless measures to restore order. Civil liberties eroded, travel was restricted. As more colonies joined the Alliance, the Federation became desperate.

Lightkeepers everywhere vowed not to get involved. The Order’s Council of Twelve resolved to remain neutral. When riots claimed over 100 million lives, the Lightkeepers were there, rendering aid for free to Alliance and Earth Federation alike. In the course of a few years, the Alliance declared the order a neutral aid agency. The Earth Federation on the other hand placed them on the “Subversive Org” list. Earth based corporations and travelers were forbidden from contacting the order until the order pledged its loyalty to Earth. They arrested several prominent members, seized supplies from several of their ships and restricted their movement between colonies. Yet the order survived. They even doubled their hospitals as the Earth Federation restricted medical supplies to loyalist colonies.
Earth would lose the war. Against orders, a fleet of Alliance ships bombarded the planet, turning it into a barren waste land. Even die-hard Alliance members were horrified at the loss of life. The Alliance would splinter into several factions, fighting with each other now that the Earth was gone. Those star system still loyal to the Earth Federation would become the Galactic Commonwealth.

Once again humanity had fought a war. Mahatma Colton Lyn would muse that “we did what the Se’hirzoth could not, all of us are guilty of killing Earth.” He led efforts to rebuild the colonies most affected by war. He reached out to those Terra Seraphim that had escaped Earth. The order took in Earth Federation personnel displaced by the war. Many colonists who worked for the Federation had nowhere else to go. When the star systems around Mu Arae banded together, the Lightkeepers were the first to help the young nation establish itself.

The order helped found the Republic of Arae. They convinced former Earth Federation military personnel to join the Republic armed forces. Many of the refugees the order had taken in would be given jobs by the Republic, establishing its bureaucracy. In the mean time, the order established good relations with other interstellar non-governmental organizations. Many were former Alliance cells and pro-Earth political parties that had renounced violence in favor of building peace in the galaxy.

At the present time, the Lightkeepers occupy position of power and influence in the Republic of Arae. Several prominent Lightkeeper families control various aspect of the order, and by extension, parts of the Republic. All is not well however. The Union of Free Suns was also founded after the Earth-Alliance war. They hate the Lightkeepers and the Republic of Arae. While the order welcomed many Federation refugees, the Republic was also founded by former Alliance members. The most prominent were the infamous “Killing Doves”. It was a splinter faction of the Killing Doves that destroyed Earth. The Free Suns passed a law against the “LightBringers” as they call them. Several nations allied with the Free Suns passed similar laws.