Dryads
"In the 13th Century, mankind murdered evolution. In the 33rd, we're bringing it back."- Tyler Palahniuk, Dryad
Contents
Motivation
To the Dryads, technology is a parasite, using humans as a host for its own evolution. Their ultimate goal is the release of humanity from this liability. To this end, they push the human (and human-derivative) body to its limits, attempting to show the rest of the world that they need no longer rely on mechanics since Heritage 7 has placed evolution within the reach of a single generation.
The Dryads have attracted a large following of viewers to their "displays".
Of course, the irony that they first came into public eye when they began using technology to record and publish their exploits is not lost on their leaders. They have taken a very limited "fight fire with fire" strategy to publicity for their cause and releasing humans from their reliance on technology. If a machined explosive, for instance, can destroy a grocery store distribution center, forcing thousands to hunt and gather until emergency shipments can come in, the end justifies the means.
Organization
The Dryads are too small to have much of any organization. What hierarchy exists is decidedly tribal, with Dryad founder Tyler Palahniuk as the chief. They do, however, encourage other groups to spin off. While they are generally nomadic, if a trusted lieutenant falls in love with a location, he or she is encouraged to stay behind and start a new tribe.The Dryads are also attempting to reproduce via the Grid, their videos rife with rhetoric encouraging young people to train their bodies, claiming that anyone is capable of what they have been recorded doing. To Palahniuk's mind, any chaos is good chaos if it drives people out of the arms of technology.
History
To Palahniuk and the Dryads, the invention of hand tools was the beginning of the decline in human spirituality. Because reproduction and trait combination was so much easier for tools, because a tool "generation" could be anything from half a minute to half a lifetime, they evolved faster and better than the humans who were guiding their evolution. Eventually, in 3215, tooling reached its pinnacle--the Syntek--and a few select members of humanity looked on what they had done in horror. As the rest of humanity prepared to accept the growth of the Syntek to sentience, Palahniuk and his closest adrenaline junkie friends retreated into the wild brinks of Albus, dismayed at what had become of the world.Palahniuk led these men and women, who began calling themselves the Dryads, in getting back to mother Nature, honing their bodies into the tools they were meant to be, pressing the edges of human performance and living on the thrill of adrenaline. Soon they realized that they were no longer happy just saving themselves. They needed to release the rest of their friends, family, and fellow human derivatives from the grip of technology. Embracing Heritage 7 as nature's secret weapon in the fight against artificiality, they began a series of what they called pranks. The rest of the world called it terrorism. They reluctantly picked up weapons and began to liberate the world.
In 3218, on the same day as intersystem leaders gathered together to celebrate Syntek "human"-hood, they broadcast their first "prank." Since then, they release videos approximately once every two weeks, videos from all over the systems. In a little under a year, their rippling tattooed bodies and insane stunts have become common viewing amongst teens and young adults, and there is little shortage of cheers when they upload a video of a burning machine shop.