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Does the Universal Brotherhood still exist in any capacity?

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Desiani

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« on: <02-28-17/1754:17> »
Mostly the title.

The reason I ask is because I'm thinking about expanding a one off mission into a possible whodunit metaplot that is about how the UB is reorganizing under a different banner, but with the same goal of being a big front for bug stuff.

I'm not looking for Indepth analysis of their activity after Being exposed ( if there is one can you point it toward me please?) just if there is 4e/5e material that references them in any capacity in 2075/6.

Thank you in advance

Reaver

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« Reply #1 on: <02-28-17/1940:29> »
Not really.

After being exposed as a larder for Bugs, the Universal Brotherhood disappeared. Course, having shadowrunners, Firewatch teams, and the Feds ALL gunning for you puts a limit on your life  path....
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Desiani

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« Reply #2 on: <03-01-17/0314:13> »
I figured. I've been reading the 2e Universal Brotherhood splat book. Was really fun and just wondering if there was a sort of 'after the fact' blurb somewhere

Jack_Spade

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« Reply #3 on: <03-01-17/0322:40> »
If you read the new Cutting Aces book you can get a glimpse on some new Bug action - this time it's not about getting the unwashed SINless masses under control... 8)
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MijRai

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« Reply #4 on: <03-01-17/1209:58> »
The Universal Brotherhood is dead, yes.  However, there could be other 'charitable' organizations acting as a front for Insect Spirit hives.  That's by no means difficult, as it gives them access to people who want them to separate and help them.  It's an easy pool to draw victims from, so I expect a lot of hives have done it.  Just not on the scale of the Universal Brotherhood. 
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firebug

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« Reply #5 on: <03-01-17/1216:34> »
The Universal Brotherhood is dead, yes.  However, there could be other 'charitable' organizations acting as a front for Insect Spirit hives.  That's by no means difficult, as it gives them access to people who want them to separate and help them.  It's an easy pool to draw victims from, so I expect a lot of hives have done it.  Just not on the scale of the Universal Brotherhood.

On one hand, people will be wary of such an organization, even if they're desperate, if the organization resembles the UB in any way.  On the other hand, it has been 20 years.  But, that's 20 years after one of the biggest catastrophes of the century, who's effects have only recently begun to heal in parts of the world.  Such an organization would have to be very, very small, appeal only to the most desperate, and put a extreme amount of effort not to come off as an insect cult.

Seriously; if someone raises a ruckus about this charity being another insect cult, you better believe there will be some serious effects.  Even if you're just a normal charity, if people believe that you'll start to die real quick.

That said, I could also see such a thing being a good run for the PCs.  "So and so believes this group to be like the UB of two decades ago, confirm it, and if it's right be prepared to fight for your life."
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farothel

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« Reply #6 on: <03-01-17/1500:29> »
Or the equally likely: go fabricate some evidence that group so and so looks like UB of 20 years ago.
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Longshot23

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« Reply #7 on: <03-03-17/0602:35> »
Or for people who reckon bug spirits are 'played out': Apep Consortium as a shedim 'hive' . . . .

Desiani

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« Reply #8 on: <03-03-17/1109:23> »
What exactly is sheidam? Those are the spirits that posses dead bodies and hate meta humanity right?

Longshot23

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« Reply #9 on: <03-03-17/1129:42> »
Yup, that's them. There is the possibility that they *might* be more than that too . . . .

RowanTheFox

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« Reply #10 on: <03-03-17/1233:26> »
Yup, that's them. There is the possibility that they *might* be more than that too . . . .

*cough* Horrors *cough*

Probably why we didn't hear much from ye olde Laughing Man during Year of the Comet.
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Mirikon

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« Reply #11 on: <03-03-17/2139:43> »
Shedim are not Horrors. However, they are a harbinger, of sorts. Basically, mana levels are still too low for them to cross over without a massive rift to open the door for them, and without a host, they starve from lack of mana, same as with the bugs. When mana levels are high enough that they need not have hosts in order to remain here, then you will start needing to worry about Horrors crossing over. (Though that says nothing of Horrors who are already on this side, or trapped in 'between' places, like alcheras.)

And no, the Universal Brotherhood does not exist any more. After Chicago, people rewrote the idea of 'extreme prejudice' when dealing with the UB chapterhouses around the world. Now, did any UB insect shamans escape? Of course. But the organization itself was put to the torch, if not blasted from orbit. As for other 'charities' carrying on that work, everyone knows the signs, now, so any group that starts looking like they're infested is going to have runners, at the least, checking things out, if not Firewatch teams.

But more to the point, the bugs just aren't working together any more. They naturally hate those of different kinds, or different colonies, and have been seen fighting eachother on multiple occasions. So you may get a local charity or group to act as a front for, say, a Wasp colony, but you're not going to see a national or international organization with multiple types of bugs all working together, not unless something major happens.
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Crimsondude

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« Reply #12 on: <03-04-17/2204:02> »
The UB doesn't exist, but the bug spirit revelation didn't just destroy that organization. It also tainted every other and future benevolent organization in the world as a result. You have to remember or realize that before it was discovered, even among Players, that the UB was a front for the bug spirits that the UB was the nicest, kindest, friendliest, and overall best people in the Sixth World. Even shadowrunners thought that it was the one set of "good guys" that existed in the world ... until they weren't. This is why Horizon earned so much suspicion when it came to power. People saw this strategy before, and absence of proof was not by any means proof of absence. (The reality of what Horizon is should be terrifying enough, but the problem with being paranoid is that you lose the forest for the trees.)

So Fordians, who are also super nice, super friendly people were suspect. Of course, they are also kind and nice towards the Infected, so that made them targets. Then they got money from Dunkelzahn, and thus ... And all of the benevolent or charitable organizations have remained under suspicion over the years as a result of the UB's nefarious true purpose. Then you have groups like the Empowerment Coalition, which is influenced if not controlled by Mantis spirits and has been targeted by other bug spirits for attack or infiltration. At the same time, it and the Timmons Memorial Fund, under which it falls now (because the EC's director was made the director of the bigger Timmons Fund, so she slid EC into Timmons) has benevolent purposes but has the EC taint as well as the UB suspicion. As it stands, almost every charity has been infiltrated in whole or part by some group, so the ultimate effect is that there is no group even remotely as good, even on its face, as the Universal Brotherhood was.

BlackMyron

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« Reply #13 on: <03-05-17/1535:20> »
In one sense it does - back in the day, there was a core called the Secret Hive that was part of the UB and survived its fall.  Gen. Yeats, one of the candidates for the UCAS Presidency in 2057, was a member - the biggest threat against them was the Mantis spirits