[LORE] question about VANU

he declined to have a lore discussion here? ... here, as in 'the official PS2 forum'?

I could never understand why so much aversion for this forum

Ding! We have a winner. The guy who made the banners is a Vanu. No more complicated than that. And he clearly was not the brightest human-hater in his House of Purple People Eaters. (Vanu intelligence is just a myth. Personal experience.)

Enjoy.

Lore makes them no money. So they don't bother. Could it make them tons of money? You bet. But as N. Korea has revealed, smart talented people with vision, do not work for Sony.

Like a seperate thread for lore discussion, you can raise the issues - I tried, he said there wasn't much interest from the community.

Noooooo. Spending time changing the forums just to have an empty none active sub thread would be his real worry. The **** are you on about money for?

Here's a write-up I did on this topic.

During your fights on Auraxis you've doubtlessly been at either the sending or receiving end of the VS taunt "Find enlightenment!" more than once. But have you ever considered its meaning?

According to Wikipedia, "enlightenment" can refer to a number of concepts. One is the Age of Enlightenment, a time where the scientific method became widely adopted in society. It was a revolution in human thought which fits with the science aspect of VS ideology. Another more literal translation cites enlightenment as meaning "full comprehension of a situation". It also cites enlightenment as a translation for many spiritual concepts from many religions/philosophies, concepts that bear a striking resemblance to Planetside.

In Bhuddism, enlightenment translates the concepts Bodhi, Kenshō, and Satori. Bodhi is knowledge of the causal mechanism by which beings incarnate into material form and experience suffering. Kenshō* is an initial insight or awakening. Satori is another term for awakening, comprehension, or understanding; often used interchangeably with Kenshō.

In Hinduism and Jainism, enlightenment translates into Moksha, meaning liberation from Saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth, as well.

While most definitely unintentional on the part of the devs, the war depicted in Planetside 2 reflects these concepts. You spawn in a rebirthing tube, fight, die, and repeat. An eternal cycle of suffering. The VS, however, see that this cycle has been repeating itself far before we invented nanite rebirthing. They see themselves as having achieved a form of *Bodhi*. This knowledge is an understanding into the causality by which sentient beings come into existence, as well as the operations of the mind which keep sentient beings imprisoned in craving, suffering and rebirth.

They believe this consequence, called Pratītyasamutpāda manifests itself in aspects of human nature like greed, anger, and jealousy. Far in the past when we existed as early hominids these traits were essential to drive natural selection. Now they only serve to cause suffering. All the wars in history serve as evidence. Early in Planetside's timeline, the humans of Earth were on the verge of nuclear suicide. Only the threat of an outside force, a wormhole collapse that destroyed Pluto, was enough to pull them from the brink of extinction. Many VS believe the wormhole was created by Vanu and credit the being(s) with saving humanity. After that the most successful and peaceful society mankind had ever seen, the Terran Republic, was created. 195+ years of peace. People thought humanity had finally learned its lesson.

"Most in the T.R. are good people. They truly think they’re doing the right thing. They really believe there’s a danger of sliding back into the chaos and wars of old, but I disagree. I think over the last two centuries we’ve moved beyond those days."

~Geraldo Pérez, Freeman Institute, New Conglomerate

If only he could see us now. All it took was one isolating disaster, another collapse of the wormhole, ironically, to drag us down once more into chaos.

The VS "fully comprehend" this and have lost all faith in humanity. They seek to achieve a version of Nirvana or Moksha through transhumanism, modifying human psychology and morphology with technology until all traces of *Pratītyasamutpāda* are eradicated. This is the "Evolve" part of the VS "Evolve or Perish!" taunt. Vanu acts a role model to them, their Bhudda, as species that had already attained enlightenment as an energy being or fifth dimensional entity beyond current human comprehension.

They view the enemies they fight with a sort of condescending pity, calling them "lost brothers and sisters". This is established as canon on the official wiki, not counting those who joined the VS bandwagon for augmentations alone (fancy voice packs). Though they engage TR and NC grunts in brutal combat, they do not hate them for being human. They see this tendency to be misled as one of many flaws programmed into **** sapiens (really forums, censoring the name of our species?) by evolution. Their goal is to bring down the TR and NC governments that would seek to hinder progress.

“We’re not siding with either of them, if that’s what you mean. But we also can’t stay on the side any longer. To save the world that Vanu once ruled, in order for humanity to reach its full potential, we must take up arms and destroy them both. We must eradicate all that stands against us. Today we have declared our Sovereignty, a Vanu Sovereignty. Only one force can live on Auraxis, and it must be us."

~Chairman Willis Scott

Once the people living under the TR and NC are "freed" they will be brought into the VS. Though many would adopt VS ideology, it's inconceivable to think there are those who wouldn't resist. They would interpret VS nirvana as being brainwashed. Again, the VS wouldn't blame them. Fear of change is an inherent human characteristic. Depending on your point of view, the VS would either forcefully augment them or use them as a control group. If you've ever read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (excellent book) humanity eventually becomes a race of clones. A bunch of identical linked beings comprised of the best bits of DNA and cybernetic enhancements human evolution has produced. Pretty VS like. They didn't do away with regular old humans, however. A great many colonies were established for traditional human life to serve as a control group and fallback should the clone path be a bad idea. An argument could be made that creating such a control group out of stubborn TR and NC would be admitting that the path of Vanu could be fallible. A counter-argument could also be made saying that not including a control would be A: Immoral (though morality doesn't seem to be a priority for anyone on Auraxis) and B: Bad science. Science is pretty much how the VS "worship" Vanu as it allows them to follow in his/their footsteps toward nirvana. Not including a control group could be considered deviating from the path. It would likely be a point of argument within the Sovereignty.


TL'DR:

VS are space bhuddists trying to bring about the artificial evolution of the human kind just like Vanu did.

Seriously? That's some bullsh*t. All he needs to do is take a look at any "which faction is the good faction" debate thread to see why lore is good for the game.

Whenever someone Capitalizes random Words in their Sentence, it makes me read it as if They're raising their Voice at weird Parts in their Sentence.

I am pretty sure the reaction was more along the lines of "why in the flying **** would you reinvent the bicycle again?" Serious question, by the way: was there some part of planterside's lore that derped so hard that it was better to start anew that I missed or something?

And speaking of Vanu, wouldn't some part of the concepts contained into Übermensch kind of fit? Specifically, those parts about the humanity as it is now paving way for the next iteration that would create a new system of values beyond what is given by religion and state - beyond what has bred countless ever escalating wars in the species' history?

Absolutely loved your NC explanation. Exactly what I always envisioned NC, but could never put it into words.

Also, this last line cinched it for me:

THIS.
This right here cuts to the heart of the matter.

And I won't deny, the NC are in it for the paycheck every bit as much (if not more) than for the defense of freedoms.
BUT!
The freedom to chose how and where each person puts their time and effort is indeed a major part of why the NC exist.

I have to say, given the NC's being the best of the best humanity has to offer for playing with numbers, they're really the only logical conclusion should SOE ever declare a clear winner of the war on Auraxis.

They know how to balance budgets, timing, employee power, and unexpected delays.
They'd take a while to learn to apply this to war, but after all these centuries, with brilliant number crunchers who are literally immortal, they're the only side that could possibly win unless the connection to Earth were re-estabilshed.

But even then, the NC just wanted to get back to the free and iddylic Terran Republic of Earth.
The whole reason they broke off from the TR of Auraxis to begin with was that it became a dystopian Totalitarian system (A government where the government itself acts as a dictatorship, controlling what the civilians do on a personal level. Even to the extreme of right down to the selection of meals they can eat, what hairstyles they're allowed to have, etc.), with curfews and restrictions on the lives of the general public due to the inability to punish criminal activity with death.
Though the relatively small number of mercenaries the NC officials brought with them from Earth found out they wouldn't get paid under the control of the TR offshoot on Auraxis.

Oh I see now. So the earth-shattering effort of setting up a sub-forum is "just too much"? Let's do some calculations, shall we... gui software... divide a lazy cm... carry the eleven... DING!

Ah yes, it would take FIVE WHOLE MINUTES to set up a sub-forum using the off the self software used by this multi-national corporation. EGADS MAN! Are you INSANE! That's five whole freakin' minutes out of someones life. All to satisfy people who should clearly be using Twitter,Twitch, Twang, Fecesbook or anything else at all, but this forum. Not to mention the whole ten minutes it would take to monitor the sub-forum! I smell a strike.

I mean it's been made abundantly clear it's those Lore-Mongering Hax0rs that have ruined everyones game and colluded with N. Korea to hack and crash Sony. That lore must be STOPPED at all costs! Well, at no cost whatsoever actually. See how that works now? I mean DUH.

*Shrugs* If you want a sub forum, you can ask him again - I asked him somewhere around 6 months ago.

Vanu are special (if you know what I mean) but don't tell them

I never liked TR, reminded me of NOD from Command and Conquer with the colors , fake Tyranical fascist Republic. Never wanted to play them, I stuck with Vanu for a while but it made me feel like I was fighting for the Covenant in Halo.

The only logical conclusion is NC, it may be Corporate Greed but it is good Corporate greed to eliminate Tyranny and better the planet for it's people.

I see many Blueberry scum have infiltrated our ranks.

It is only logical to follow the Vanu. Knowledge is power. Technology is might. In our quest for knowledge, the Terran Republic feared the power we were gaining. So they banned our research, and forced us into exile. As our technology advanced, and we began to improve our minds and bodies alike with it, the New Conglomerate feared the might we would wield. So they attacked us outright.

We never sought this conflict. We attempted to abstain from the war between the oppressive TR and the corrupt NC. But you forced our hand.

We are your reckoning. Join us, and become enlightened. Or face oblivion.

Ok, you seem to have a misconception here, the USA is a Republic AND a Democracy the terms are not mutually exclusive, a Republic's head of state is the leader of it's Senate. Meanwhile, the UK is a Parliamentary Democracy meaning that our head of State is not the same as the leader of the Parliament.

Not a story driven game, pew pew i pwned you. No story to the game, no care to its lore. But thats how I feel about it.