Socialists as opposed to capitalists perhaps? Think of the McCarthy witch hunts in the 50's, or the Spanish Civil War. Politics can be as intoxicatingly violent as religion.

who knows what experiments the advent did before they perfected their 'psionic' capabilities

No, its not. please stop babbling nonsense and lift your head a bit. yes. thats ok. thank you. *fires novalith*

You don't like Advent? Don't worry, we've got a cure for that horrible affliction.

*Fires Deliverance Engine*

They love me, they really, really love me!


All the other sides wave around their big guns, but we send hot burning love rocketing among the stars. We're pacifists, really. [telepathy]Ignore the fleet approaching your colony, these are not the warships you are looking for.[/telepathy]

well, the advent were/are humans who were banished from their home worlds because of experiments different beliefs and mind control. This is the TEC's sins. The Advent return for revenge on the human(Their sin). I see the advent as more evil than the TEC in the game due to the fact that their weapons are things that torture the mind.

Such cosmetic differences are trivial. Both are essentially human, and both will make fine valued citizens in the reborn Vesari Empire.

The title, I'm pretty sure, is referring to both the TEC's (or trade order's, at the time) treatment of the advent, and to the Vasari. A common theme in the game's backstory seems to be the sins of the past coming back to wreck you.

Anyway, I like the TEC simply because the Kol is badass.

Of course they are deviant sinners. They broke the Trade Tractates, by depriving populations of their free will and denying them the access to a free market. We were merciful. We only banished them. We did not mass drive asteroids into their world's core. We did not lock our missiles on their frigates as they were fleeing. For this, they return, and wish to subjugate us all, turn us into automata - slaves.
We do not repeat our mistakes.

In the Beta version, the storyline was all about the Vasari being given birthright to all the territories in the universe (or something like that)

I think the developers just watched too much Stargate and went on a crusade against the False Gods of the universe

I agree with ParDream, The campaign better be awesome....yet simple. Not "bad guy good guy" simple. More of a "Not writing myself into a coner and having to retcon most everything to save myself" simple.

As for the Advent, My guess is as good as anyone's. It's explained in the intro and the lore that they were a isolated culture praticing social taboos. There are many mirrors in real life situations, human experimentation, use of drugs, forms of marrige, religion, ect. Past experiance has shown that when "normal" (larger more connected) society comes across an isolated one (smaller) everything comes across as "shocking" to the observer, yet is normal to the observed. Anyone remember a certian west Texas religious fellowship??
Anyhow, I'm sure everything will be explained in campaign. The TEC most likely acted as they thought was the best way to handle the Advent when they were "discovered". Banishing "socialy corrupt" to be "out of sight out of mind" than try some messy military operation by an empire that did not have a military to speak of. The Advent on the other hand is an uprooted and displaced empire that had the very foundations that they had built thier society around declared "wrong" by thier own people. So they are out to reclaim what they belive to be rightfully thiers. Trowing in "sins" is probably nothing more than a propaganda tool, a very old propaganda tool.

I was going to ask this question myself I thought the Advent sound like nice people.

Another thing I thought was funny about the intro was the part about "an entire planet, banished to the depths of space." I'm sure the guy meant they just cut off all contact and trade routes and whatnot, but I'm amused by the idea of the TEC literally hurling an entire planet into the void (possibly by crashing all of their ships into one side of it and firing full thrusters?)

I heard that it's because of what they did. Gene tampering, mind altering drugs, artificial implants, social collectivization and who knows what else. The Trader's believed that they shouldn’t play god and tamper with the human body and it seems as if every other human world had these taboo's when they were found and brought into the Trade Order. When they discovered the Advent and discovered the various aspects of there culture and attitudes they were shocked. There oldest and deepest taboos, all of them broken. A group of humans actively interfering with the human body was as an abomination. It's a wonder that the Traders didn’t end there heresy right then and there.

Now the reason why they had these taboos. This would most likely be covered in the Expansion pack, but if I had to guess there was a War that ravaged human space, those worlds not outright destroyed were reduced back to pre-space flight technology. This war might have something to do with the Advent whether they were a group of people that advocated certain principles that could be quite similar to the advent philosophy (Gene Modification, social collectivization and etc.) except for being MUCH milder. A certain branch of this group split off just before the end of the war and survived later becoming the Advent. Baseline humans achieved a Pyrrhic victory against these Proto-Advent. The idea is that the war was so destructive that the human worlds were cut off from each other. This period of isolation and probable technologic regression could be classified as an “Old Night” scenario. The remaining scattered, isolated human worlds shared history. (Earth, The War, the Proto-Advent.) would have faded into myth and legend. However the War could not wholly be forgotten and while the forgot the Proto-Advent as a whole there Gene Tampering, Collectivization, Implants and etc. would become socially taboo. Eventually Man relearns space flight and takes to the stars once more. Thus creating the Trade Order, there history reduced to speculation, myth, legend and tradition