The Pure Dawn Collective

The Pure Dawn Collective is a group of people who have shunned the modern life in the Great Cities and sought out one where their impact on the planet is even smaller than that of the rest of Talitha Harbor. The Collective, as they call themselves, was started by First Member Hannah more than 700 sol cycles ago.

Structure

The Collective is decentralized like the rest of Talitha, but they take it a step further. While the cities use a Vocational Government System built around their workers, they have no structured system. If the group can’t come into an agreement, then they vote for a leader on the spot. No one is allowed to offer themselves up as someone worth voting for. Volunteering to be a leader is a guarantee that you won’t be.
Instead, six names are called by members in the crowd. They vote who should lead from those names on the spot. The person voted for leads the group in what needs to be accomplished or makes a decision, then they lose their role. Whoever that person is, they may not be called upon for the next two disagreements.
They have designated jobs, but it is not as structured as the vocations. If a person is good at a task, then that is what they do. When a new member arrives without a useful skill, then they are expected to work with others and learn until they find their skill or skills.
If a person is found guilty of a crime by Talithan society, they are given two choices. They can stay in the city and live with a Watcher or they can join The Collective and abide by all of their rules. If they join, then it is a lifelong choice. However, they have no Watcher and are integrated into the society from day one. The only exception to simply being another member, is if there is a significant shortage in a specific duty. Then they will be expected to fill that space.
Like the rest of Talitha, they know that letting someone perform work that they value will achieve better results. The member is content then they contribute to The Collective more. Of course, there are those rare exceptions, but they have a way to deal with those.

Culture

The most notable thing about The Collective is that there are no children. Only Talithan’s who have graduated or aged out of the school system may join. Before arriving it is required that they are medically sterilized. They believe that one of their biggest contributions to keeping their effect on the environment low is not creating more humans.
Though many initial perceptions of The Collective are that they are a very uptight group, that is not completely accurate. Their life is simple. They farm, gather food, maintain their living structures, tend to the ill, and other basic tasks needed to maintain life. There is no complicated technology or social structures to upkeep. This gives them more free time and fewer responsibilities.
Not having children to care for also lowers their workload. There is no need for Caretakers or special educators.
They also have a system set up with the three cities where they get some supplies through them. They take those who have broken Talitha’s axioms and the cities send over clothing and medical supplies. Occasionally if there is a surplus of food items they will bring those as well.
As long as there isn’t a significant natural disaster or other event that throws their way of life off, things are typically low stress. They usually have enough new members to replace any who can no longer work, whether it’s due to age or a medical reason.
They spend their free time in games, sport, music, dance, con, storytelling, and sometimes debate. There are several communal areas built into their complex and they are rarely empty. Since they are located on an island, they can also swim.
For those who enjoy it, there is hiking, though they don’t have carved out trails. It’s all free range. Occasionally someone gets lost, but they are usually found. When the sun starts going down everyone checks in. Then if someone is missing they will search for them as a group.
The Collective celebrates Unity Day like the rest of Talitha. They brew a special liquor from the unique fruit that grows on their island called Hexlong Fruit. They can brew a sweeter and a more sour version of the liquor and it is consumed only on that day as a special treat.

History

In Talitha Sol Cycle 640, an Ecologist by the name of Hannah decided she'd had enough of Talithan Society and wanted to live on her own. Being an Ecologist, she knew that people living rough in the environment wasn’t allowed. It was fine if they wanted to live off of the credit and identity chipsystem, but they were to stay out of the untouched parts of Talitha.
This was not far enough away from everyone for Hannah. So, she demanded a Call to Council and asked for permission to establish herself on the island that was located southeast of the continent of Anunitum. The island was a good twenty plus hour trip by sail, which is exactly what she wanted, to be completely left alone.
As her Council Call drew on, her ideas appealed to others. Instead of living solo, Hannah ended up with a small group of followers. Once she realized they had every intention of coming with her, she required that anyone who came with her have their reproductive abilities blocked. She didn’t want her island to be filled with kids. She wanted to have a smaller impact on the land, not a larger one. It would not be practical to have birth control brought to her island regularly. It also went against the idea of less contact with the city people.
Hannah is the only singular leader that The Collective has ever had. Before she died, she developed a way for them to continue without a single leader. She didn’t want another person to ruin what she’d started. She also never intended to be the sole leader, but as the first, everyone looked up to her.
For the first 120 sol cycles the group had a good, for a population start of only eleven, influx of people. When they had survived for a few sol cycles, their population grew a little. The population of the planet was still less than 250k so they were not receiving many new people. By the time they reached this point their number was at 36. Less access to medical resources resulted in a slightly higher number of deaths. However, they had already come with a lot of knowledge about the island. So, they were not dying in significant numbers. Their small population also made resources gathering fairly simple. They didn’t need to cultivate very much food.
There was an intense heat wave in sol cycle 761 and the idea of moving to a semi-tropical island with no power wasn’t very appealing. Also, during that time period, the Talithans were re-organizing themselves between their first city and a new one named Simmah. As a result, they had no new members for several sol cycles.
It wasn’t an issue right away. Their influx averaged only two people every sol cycle. After several sols and a couple of member deaths, they grew concerned. With Talithans dividing themselves between two cities, there were shortages in some of the Anunitum vocations. One was the Protection Vocation, more specifically, the Watcher branch. In discussing what to do about their overworked watchers, someone brought up the Pure Dawn Collective and the idea of just dumping people there. Though they did not intend it to be a serious idea, it stuck anyway.
A couple of Tier-III Directors from Protection went on the next trip to the island and bring their idea. The commune agreed, but also asked for some payment in return. They wanted a steadier supply of clothes and first aid. These particular things were difficult to make with their limited island resources. Though they didn’t like the idea of mass production, even the limited Talithan version, they could still recognize that in this case it was more environmentally friendly for the vocation to make these items. The next visit brought the requested supplies and their first new member who’d been found guilty of a crime. The crime in question was murder.
The accused was a woman named Meridah. She had experimented a little too much with tea and stolen opiates. She had worked in the Health Services Vocation as a Tier-I nurse. Though there have been changes to how they store those drugs they were not really monitored then. She had easy access and made special tea for some of her patients, whether or not they needed any pain killers. She’d given one person too much of the drug and they died.
She was a good first guilty member. The Collective didn’t fear danger from her. They didn’t even have opiates on the island and they would simply give her duties other than cooking. They also took the time to sit with her and find what exactly influenced her decisions. She had wanted people to truly need her. Wanted them to need her as more than just a day nurse. As the only member from the Health Services Vocation in their commune it was easy enough for them to fulfill that impulse. Though, they were still cautious about consuming anything she suggested for a long time.
The publicity of Meridah’s trial and her decision to join The Collective put them back in the discourse of Talithan society. Though the idea of an island potentially filled with guilty members who were just dropped off with no oversight didn’t appeal too many, there were some who were happy to overlook that.
The option didn’t bring in a large number of new people. The Watchers were still a more popular choice. But, their numbers started growing again. They got a large variety of people who had joined because of being sentenced. Not all of them worked nicely, but over the years they developed ways to deal with these members.
The commune’s population is a little over three hundred members, each group broken into smaller pods of around one hundred, each with their own leader.

Type

Geopolitical, Colony

Alternative Names

Called Purists by the rest of Talitha