Political Formations of the
Post-Commonwealth Era

KNIGHTS OF GENETIC PURITY

After the fall of the Systems Commonwealth, many political, philosophical, and religious movements sprang up seeking to find meaning in the chaos and despair gripping the known worlds. But none were more pernicious than the Knights of Genetic Purity. Founded a decade after the Fall by a cadre of human former High Guard officers, the Genites put the blame for the Commonwealth's fall squarely on the use of engineering to alter the human genome. With their motto of "a pure universe for pure humans," the Genites quickly attracted a huge number of devoted followers and proceeded to wage war against the Nietzscheans as well as other humans they determined had been "corrupted" by genetic engineering. With legions of supporters and access to a wealth of high tech weaponry, the Genites slaughtered millions of Nietzscheans and other engineered humans, and for a time looked set to succeed in their goal of purging the human gene pool of all they considered impure. Only an ad hoc alliance between the Drago-Kazov and other Nietzschean Prides eventually succeeded in defeating the Knights of Genetic Purity after a series of pitched, bitterly fought battles across the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies.

After the Genite threat had been crushed, the Nietzscheans quickly resumed their internal quarrels. Since that time, groups claiming to to be successors to the original Genites have periodically arisen, once a century or so, though none as organized or effective as the original Knights. Persistent rumors maintain that the Genites have secretly established a power base somewhere in an isolated region of space and are in the process of rearming in preparation for another crusade, but these reports cannot be confirmed at this time.