Xero Veta

A small cult with distant origins in 21st century Scientology, Xero Veta is a religion created out of the momentous meeting between humans and Cetians. Like their forebearers, the Vetans are strongly opposed to psychiatry; what this means in the modern Earth Republic is that they are staunch opponents of invasive neurological tampering, the use of brain-enhancing and psychotropic drugs, and screening for mental disorders. The Vetans do not believe in mental illness at all, and aggressively use religious exemptions to avoid treatment and diagnosis of mental illnesses. Increased pressure from the Earth Republic government has further radicalized them and forced the Vetans into reclusive enclaves, usually in frontier space, where their actions may escape monitoring. Modern Vetans believe that Praezorians and Cetians evolved psychic abilities first through breakout “deviant” mental behaviors that look like troubled mental states to non-psychic individuals, and that humans with deviant mental traits should be encouraged, protected, and selected for in the gene pool. They show a marked preference for schizophrenics, believing that people who hear voices are in fact hearing far-away mental messages from other psychic species, even in other universes on the other side of hyperspace. They believe that these individuals are visionaries, priests and prophets, showing them the way, and the statements of these priests are often taken quite seriously. Moreover, individuals from a bloodline where mental illness is present are encouraged to have many children, while mentally-ill individuals are encouraged to marry others like themselves. The cult is lead by three families who trace back to the cult’s founding in the 2080s: the Oneiro family (former American Illuminati), the Sova family (Russian underground Scientologists), and the Syntrea family, a Swedish family with the cult’s most notable priest line of strong schizophrenics.

​The cult spent much of its life on Epsilon Eridani. In 2155, they began to relocate to the Goldeneye system in the Pollux Corridor, settling on remote Calypso Twilight around the planet Oceanus. They are one of many cults seeking peace (and freedom from Earth Republic laws) on Calypso Twilight. Their main cash crop is chrystabell.

Xero Veta first appeared at Gryphon 2 "Promised." They are currently in use by the ERS Gryphon storyline.

At "Promised," the ERS Gryphon discovered a young schizophrenic priestess of the cult, named Lovad Syntrea, trapped in the smuggling hold of a cargo ship in the Pollux Corridor caravan. Her brothers, fellow cult members Krigar and Lysande Syntrea, had been murdered by former cult member Lin Tornay. Lovad and her brothers are the grandchildren of current High Priest Lorne Syntrea.