Children of Gaea: The EXCOM

There is a notable exception: political parties of the Green Movement are not affiliated with the EXCOM, though individual politicians may be. The Green hard core prefers to avoid the web of interests and deals that ensnares congresses and parliaments by working entirely outside of the structure of national governments.

The basis for the EXCOM's founding and mandate was the perception that neither corporations nor governments were capable of voluntary change of the extent the founders saw as necessary to stabilise the Earth's degradation. Nor would the populations of the developed world raise their snouts from the trough long enough to act for the benefit of future generations. The only recourse would be coercion by a third power, with the moral courage to place the healing of the Earth above short-term comfort and political demagoguery.

Some members of the EXCOM still call this process education. Others, increasingly in the majority, talk of ecological hygiene. The fanatics have started to speak of judgement.

In 1972, a private religious group travelling to study the moai of Easter Island radioed reports of drifting off course, unexplained encounters and uncharted reefs of impossible aspect. The transmission fell silent. For 25 years, for all humanity knew, the Pacific Jesus Foundation lay in a watery shipwrecked grave. Then young, bearded men and braid-haired women appeared secretly in Los Angeles, Auckland and Rio de Janeiro, seeking out the leaders of alternative religions and ecological groups, to deliver a message: a great and inhuman civilisation stood ready to contact those of the human race who would support their cause.

The newly-organised EXCOM acted swiftly to contain the news and keep this channel of communication under its own control, as clearly the most worthy allies for the submariners. In return for promises of scientific and mystical secrets, and allies who could give mastery of the seas, it seemed a small enough price to monitor expeditions headed to certain remote oceanic spots, and provide reconnaissance of other places on land for the aquatic beings.

Some knowledgeable environmentalists have begun to question the abyssals' purpose in controlling the points of the "Earth Star", theorised by fringe researchers since the 1970s, which may just be the most powerful Doorways existing on this planet.

Headquarters: Manila
Major Branches: Berkeley, Washington DC, London, Basel, Amsterdam, Moscow, Tokyo, Asunción, Benin City
Followers: About 3000 dedicated operatives, and more than 3 million financial members, sympathisers, contacts and mailing list members
Resources: Extensive experience, special vehicles and supply networks for expeditions to remote environments. Numerous sea vessels including advanced research platforms, helicopter carriers and icebreakers. Alliance with the abyssals. Intermittent cooperation with the Invisible College. Exchange of information with the Carrying Capacity Working Group. Safe meeting grounds with the sidhe.
Secret Knowledge: Revival of nature-based Faith FX, especially Shamanism, Druidism, and forms of Voodoo and Wicca. Advanced chaos-theory techniques for prediction of environmental change.
Primary Goal: Contain and reduce the damage caused by human population and production to the other species of the planet.
Common Missions: Sabotage of exploitative industrial facilities in sensitive environments to cause economic damage, loss of morale due to casualties, and public outrage over loss of civilian life and environmental damage. Undermining of aid and development programs in areas unsuitable for human population. Testing and deployment of biological weapons. Support for abyssal attacks on facilities and expeditions within the Vile Vortices.