By the way, in what module and what game year did Provolution kidnap the Manchurian Olympic team? Or did I hallucinate/misremember reading that - it was many years ago...
I think that you might be thinking of something in some third-party supplement. That sounds suspiciously like the PLO with the Israeli Olympic team in Munich.
Provos are my favorite group in all of 2300. So the players have crossed them multiple times. Often at odds, sometimes they're allied, other times they're members of them without even knowing it. These write-ups are written for 2300 (not 2320).
ProVolition
They're a group of mostly harmless university students who mostly concern themselves with pranks and sometimes a shallow political statement. Their motto is simply: "think" (or it's local equivalent). Their actions are often humorous and sometimes have a kind of crude justice about them. They're most active on Earth in North America and Europe, though some of the most famous members are from Asia and South America. Despite their mostly frivolous and harmless reputation, they do have links to the Provolution network and many authorities believe them to be a "gateway group" with members graduating to the more hardcore NARL, Life Foundation, and Provolution itself. While mostly noted for humorous incidents like spiking alcohol sold in Chicago during St. Patrick's Day to turn the drinker's skin green, they've also been known to take up more serious issues. For instance, in 2317, when French courts in Cameroon acquitted several men of forcing their daughters to submit to the abominable practice of "womb scaping" (a primitive method of extracting ova from women as a cheaper supply of fetal cells common in many poorer nations for the amount of money it brings in - women are often not told that the process will leave them sterile at the very least but often leads to medical complications and occasionally death), ProVolition managed to treat the judges with potent drugs which caused sterility. Though the process (in both cases) is reversible, ProVolition then rallied the citizens in a call that if the judges desired to have their own sterility reversed, they should pay for the operations of the young women as well. While blasted by governments and law enforcement, the move brought them the admiration of women's groups and indeed, it was rumored in tabloids Emperor Nicholas Ruffin himself upon hearing of the incident remarked to his wife "Outstanding!" (a rumor that the Imperial Household PR vehemently denies).
I use ProVolition as an example for my players of various gray student groups that exist in 2300.
The Libra Organization
Often overlooked in the Provolution movement, the Libra Organization stands as quite possibly the most dangerous of all them. Sometimes referred to as Division Libra or simply Libra. The founder of Libra, was one of the Solificati (see below), one Doctor Ezekiel Hartmann. Like all of the Solificati, he was a brilliant man and recognized the struggle of Provolution as a struggle against the status quo of human society. He deplored the "obfuscation and quixotic nature" of most of Provolution, as he believed if humanity was to follow the path that Provolution advocated, it had to understand the nature of the struggle and why the status quo was unacceptable. He also believed that Provolution needed a home base, a sanctuary where members could hide and operate from. Necessarily, they needed to be close to large populations and there needed to be many of them to prevent any one from being destroyed.
Hartmann chose the slums and poorer places of Earth as his target. He believed that the poor were the best targets as nowhere else in humanity was potential simply being wasted. Even in 2300, there are slums and places where poorer people live. While they might be assured basic services, they often lack opportunities. In 2268, he began by opening a mobile clinic in a van in one of Chicago's poorest districts. He overcame the usual lack of good supplies simply by synthesizing his own copies of expensive medicines used in the most expensive clinics. Unlike many black market providers, Hartmann's products were just as good as those put by major companies (and in the case of generics, sometimes better quality) and he didn't sell it and offered it (again for free) to the various cash-strapped charities doing medical work in the slums. At first, he simply did trauma surgeon services for youths, family planning aid, and health care for the aged and those victimized by industrial accidents. As his trustworthy reputation grew and he became certain the people were more loyal to him than the authorities, he moved to his next stage of his careful plan. He opened a better-equipped clinic in a secret location and opened a school, utilizing the chemo-hypno methods utilized in the Solificati's own academies. He began providing basic cosmetic surgery for free, as he recognized that despite society's scorn of it, people do judge almost entirely by appearance. Along with this, he began with pregnancy counseling (to eliminate birth defects and "unfavorable" traits).
By 2300 (and even further in 2320), Hartmann's investment is finally coming to fruition. His "Robin Hood" status within poorer areas ensures that the authorities will never come close to shutting him down. The educated sons and daughters are enrolled into universities on scholarships and often graduating years early, only to go set up similar cells in other poor districts. If some of Hartmann's "friends" need to stay in such sanctuaries, they simply need to produce evidence they are authentically his "friends" and they'll vanish just as completely and safely as he did. Hartmann's only requirement is that any "unpleasantness" be conducted with the utmost discretion and that they never prey on "his" communities.
The Solificati
Though history records the "Provolutionist Plot" having been shattered when it was discovered, and that the 2300 organization has no ties to the original group, the story is not completely true. Though the true believers of the organization were indeed rounded up, sympathizers to the original group survived the purges. While the majority totally abandoned the cause, a few never totally gave up their sympathies. If the histories of the group are correct, one Viktor Korsakov defected to the West aided by the US military who were keen to find out what he knew. He provided them with what he knew and worked with the US military for a number of years on "super soldier" plans. However, he eventually grew disenchanted with the military's desire for simply a better killing machine for while Korsakov's faith in Socialism had faded, his vision to develop the "new man" hadn't, and this "new man" was to be much more than a simple killer.
He next fell in with New America, as they saw his desire for an "improved man" to coincide with their desire for the preservation and improvement of the "white race" (though Slavic, New America found his looks to be sufficiently "pure" to be acceptable). Nevertheless, Korsakov never truly fell in with New America's "laughably superstitious and primitive" ideas, but was not above exploiting them ride through the dark years after the Twilight War in comfort and privilege while providing examinations and education and refining New America's "race science" all while working on his own projects which rarely paid dividends to the New Americans.
By 2010, New America no longer served his interests and Korsakov shed them, instead moving to Japan, parlaying his skill in technical German to pass himself off as a German educator, David Hansen. It was in Japan that he began first trying out his "advanced education" methods and where he began to refine the "Hansen Method" at a private school in Japan. Though the gains were modest for most students, "problem" students - such as those with a history of learning disabilities, made dramatic gains and assured Hansen's success.
After years of books and media appearances worldwide, the ailing Hansen retired and vanished from sight. Yet, again, it was just stage in his plan as he retired from the world to concentrate on his true project - the creation of a society of people educated and "optimized" to his dream state. His money bankrolled genetic research, his influence with his former students ensured patrons and discreet funding and when Hansen finally died in 2024 on a tiny island in the Seychelles, he knew his dream would live on.
In the decades since, Hansen's dream has slowly built itself, though it has had schisms and crises. The Hansen Endowment, the Hansen Institute, and so on continue his work discreetly. His students mature, have families of their own and have their children genetically "optimized" in institute labs and clinics, and are educated in schools that use his methods, refined and improved over the years. Of these, the best specimens are the Solificati, the Crowned Ones, who seek influence of the nations of the world, and ultimately to guide human destiny.
The group's methods are as indirect as the secretive group itself. Each of the Solificati, after graduation, receives an endowment - a kind of trust fund - which the graduate can use on his or her life work. There is no specific order - any plan can do. Hansen believed that only through both times of cooperation and competition could humanity thrive, and that a single "universal government" was a sure recipe stagnation and as a result, it's not unheard of for Solificati to even oppose each other. However, as of 2300, most Solificati agree that the stifling control of Earth over the colonies is unacceptable.
The result is reflected in the broad aims of Provolution and it's organization. It should be no surprise that the Solificati control or bankroll many cells.
, was briefly mentioned in the Director's Guide of 2300 AD. The first fragments of information were given in Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook and Rotten to the Core. In both these sources they were given a rather generic "terror cell" of the 80's description with some strange uses of cybertech.
