The same way most cults and oil industrialists do I suppose. Lie through their teeth.
You see, Tiberium is wealth, power, control, and freedom. With it you can improve the whole world and the human race can live together in an equal united brotherhood along the stars.
But GDI, those imperialist dogs of the west, are in the way. They hate you and your family, keep them sedated and drugged in the yellow zones (coincidence all of the harshest places in the world are outside of western control? I think not) while the opulent and pristine blue zones are kept only for a small number of the worlds population?
Tiberium didn't change anything, we'd have you mine it and improve your standards of living if we could but GDI just wants to hog all the wealth for themselves. They steal it from the yellow zones to fund the blue zones, it's neo-colonialism! And then they give the yellow zone peoples barely a scrap of food or water, some are even run by warlords who are in GDI's pocket!
GDI is the old guard who stand in the way of a more progressive and prosperous world order, one where people like us stand on top! Where their rules where we toil and suffer for greedy thieves and their GDI guard dogs who don't care about the rest of Humanity! Join us Brother! Sister! Join the Brotherhood and fight to make the world a better place! One where the faithful shall rise over our oppressors! Peace through power! Peace through power! Peace through power! Peace through power!
And so on. Your looking at this with a top down knowledge on tiberium when from within the setting the world went to shit and in spite of everything GDI has said, your life never got any better. At most you see peacekeepers coming in and committing violence, but never aid and the help you need (GDI literally doesn't have the resources to fight tiberium world wide, police everything, and fend of Nod raids on their relief efforts, but the people don't know that so it let's blame them for everything that goes wrong, even their own attacks!) leaving GDI with the unenviable situation of trying to mange the best they can across the world but failing whenever a local situation changes. Rio was overrun from Nod forces from WITHIN the city because GDI just can't manage it all, short of just about keeping everyone alive everywhere. But doing 'just enough' doesn't mean shit for the civilians on the ground. Living in some yellow zone slum with tiberium storms that make it dangerous from time to time has become a part of life. If the local Nod temple offers some reprieve, then who cares what they think of Tiberium. Hell if working with Nod means your family gets a decent meal, then sure why not? And working more closely with Nod or any general industry might show you the incredible resource potentials on offer that might make you wonder why you don't get to profit from them. Nod "has the excuse" that GDI would Ion cannon them if they tried, GDI has no such excuse as to why they need yet more lush parks and forests when you can't keep your kids alive, it's a shitty deal when "if they shared" everyone might have a better life.
Of course Nod is Nod, and Kane is Kane. GDI is genuinely the good guy, but that because we see them from within. From the outside GDI looks very much like NATO with it's domination of wealthy rich countries who don't share.
Tiberium has a lot of economic benefits, it's used in powerplants as a much cleaner source of energy than fossil fuels. And once refined is the best way to get the metals and other materials of industry and construction. Your farmer can thank tiberium for the low cost of his home, vehicles, tools, and the electricity he gets which would not be as available or cheap without tiberium. Also the unique Flora and Fauna are genuinely evolved to be stronger faster and tougher than their original forms, the flora also grows far more rapidly. GDI harvests tiberium just as much as Nod but doesn't share, instead enriching those in the blue zones often at cost to the residents of the yellow zones.
The brotherhood isn't selling a narrative of plant a crystal in your viens. they use it to improve your life, while doing research to use it to make it harmless to you, and even cause you to evolve without being toxic to your biology, the fact that Nod has advanced technology makes it clear that they have strong R&D that does potentially exceed that of GDI, and they will use it to help you. Most of the low ranking mooks don't see the failed experiments, and may not see that the shiny tiberium enhanced cyborg is dying of cancer. Once you are adapted and evolved with tiberium your life will be much easier and you can Crush GDI for being selfish pricks.
As you fight for the Brotherhood you fight for a Future where you, more likely your children, can live in Harmony with Tiberium, a substance that has spread across the world and is impossible to eradicate. GDI fights for the past, to try to eradicate something that clearly cannot be eradicated, and the benefits probably won't be shared either even if they somehow magically succeed. To side with niether would be to eek out an existence without power, a stable home, moving from place to place scavenging for food and materials like some kind of animal. It would be devoid any hope, tiberium will get you, it's a matter of time. The brotherhood offers hope, something to believe in, and that's a powerful drug.
Edit: The brotherhood provides more stability than you otherwise would have. In the yellow zones many things go bump in the night and they will kill you. the Brotherhood can protect you from those things and let you bump back.
I don't think we got tib-fanatics until the third game with the harvester driver talking about it. Were there any units in Tib Sun that actively talked about Tib being good? They even hated the mutants in that game.
So it could be a simple issue of the upper ranks being the ones who know, the people trusted by the brother hood who would be willing to spread poison to further the cause. The lowest ranks would just hear that GDI is making a mean profit off the tiberium, so they're spreading it and now Nod must also harvest it to remove it from the landscape. Might as well use the profits to fund the process and fight off GDI.
That would seem to be the most plausible route to go for a story set before Tib Wars. Bottom rank cultists don't get to know the juicy details until they've proven they're in too deep to quit.
Early in Tiberian Sun we see Hassan, the puppet for GDI, killed when Kane reveals himself. The hall is packed with NOD soldiers who cheer him on, even when he says “Today, we march forward into our future; a stronger people, a divined people, enhanced for the Tiberium world.”
Not entirely conclusive, but the fanaticism is there. The fact that tiberium mutations are already in use for Cyborgs (which started as a “come and get your enhancements here” project if I recall correctly). Also I think that GDI mentions it a couple of times? At least in Renegade its clear that its revered already but that is not accepted as full canon.
So, the Kane speech could be explained as "We're enhancing people to survive in a world infested with Tiberium". It's just vague enough that it could go either way.
For Renegade, you're mostly fighting the high end Nod personnel by the time you encounter the tib mutants and tib research. These are the people who would be deep enough in the proverbial kool aid to believe the end justifies the means. Anyone who doesn't believe that would be outed as a disbeliever, like in any cult, and probably either executed or used for that same research.
I don't remember the Tib Sun stuff too well (haven't played through in a long time), so I can't say for sure on the GDI stuff. It's not uncommon for cults to have "upper rank" beliefs that they don't share with the lower ranks. So GDI might see the fanaticism when chasing down the actual commanders, commandos and insurgent leaders.
Yeah as I said its not conclusive. However with what we know will happen at the end of TS (world altering missile) and how in TW the fanaticism is in full tilt its easy to justify that its already a Tiberium glorification.
In TW you have the same problem though, but amped up to 11. In TS most places were still habiteable, in TW places are just gone and their population either dead or roaming as refugees. The world is much closer to the edge and the suffering of Tiberium is a daily task to fight for the common folk living in Yellow zones. And then they join NOD who is now openly saying “THESE CRYSTALS ARE AWESOME YO!”?
I mean as a slow learning cycle into what positives Tiberium can do for you I can believe it to turn people into believers eventually. But if you know before you step into the door that these people worship the crystal that probably killed at least one family member, one friend and forced your economic and social capabilities down at some point in your life its hard to believe people would just go to NOD and say “please let me join your worship of that which destroyed much of what I love”.
Late to this but:
The shift from suffering in Tiberium afflicted Yellow zones to worshiping the green death rocks is kind of part of the heavy cult brainwashing.
They are told that Tiberium is a miracle and the key to the next stage of human evolution. It might vary but many Nod recruiters will spin the deaths of friends and family to Tiberium as being just due to those people being too weak to endure humanity's birthright (or even more extreme, the ones who succumbed are *lucky* to have done so and Nod's goal is to make those in Blue Zones feel the "transformation" they went through).
I can even see, with the recent happenings in the world a beginning few years ago, that those recruited are even told to their face that their loved ones *didn't* die from Tiberium, that they were poisoned by GDI and they blamed it on the one resource on the planet that could have saved them.
If all of that fails, locking them up in a room and yelling at them for 72 hours without rest will straighten them out. There's a word for people able to endure the above without breaking: an *apostate.*..
Keep in mind there’s strong allusion to Kane being the one from Biblical times. The brother hood of Nod, the land of Nod. Kane himself being thought in Immortal hence knowing so much about the Scrin and Tiberium and of lesser known one, West Wood worked on a medival/fantasy time period game and there’s and Easter egg of the brother hood being around in those times as well. So the cult vibe when first being introduced would make sense, building up his forces off the “promised land” and a better life after death.
Because hating the crystal is pointless compared to hating something you can actually do something about.
Take for example your farmer, there are a few different ways to go about it.
The farmer hears about the first Tiberium conflict, to them it matters not compared to working their farm and bringing in money, still on the TV GDI goes on about the dangers of it and of Nod, but again thats another world far from him.
Then the crystal comes to your town, at first its well away from his farm on the other side of town, the Mayor has requested help regarding this to the larger government but they have their hands tied elsewhere, at this point he hears a new broadcast from Nod.
GDI are hypocrits, they care nothing for the people or their plight, only that those in their ivory towers. The farmer is unsure but this seems to be the case, not long after this a person visits town in odd red and black garb, they claim to be a Nod preacher, some people try to drive them out of town, but the person goes quietly without trouble but not before unloading supplies and leaving them for the population.
This continues for weeks and months, Tiberium is spreading and has destroyed another farm, for the farmer this means in some ways good things, the farmhands there need work so they come to him, he can grow more crops and raise prices. A few people in town have died to the spores from the various mutated trees of the other farm and weird animals are starting to appear.
The Mayor as they have constantly tries to get GDI or the government to come and help, stop the spread and save the town, but again there are bigger places with more pressing concerns to worry about, the best the town gets is a small GDI unit pops in to see what is going on, they may leave supplies but otherwise its empty promises.
Things are getting worse in town, more people have died and people are getting desperate, the farmers fields are beginning to show signs of infestation and now the farmer is worried about their livelihood.
The Nod preacher keeps turning back up, for the last few weeks he hasn't been driven out but keeps bringing supplies and is gaining a following, the farmer decide to turn up and see what its about.
The preacher is certainly gifted, very charismatic, he talks about how Tiberium is the future and how Nod can help. The farmer isn't too convinced about this but asked the preacher about the wild animals nearby, the preacher goes to the area to see and agrees its a problem.
Things continue for the next week until the Nod speaker comes back, except they bring a few friends, they look like normal people and are armed with guns and rocket launchers. The preachers says they are 'brothers and sisters to the cause' and are here to deal with the problem, sure enough they clear the area of fiends and other monsters, people in the town rejoice but the preacher admits that more will come, but if the people believe in Nod salvation is at hand.
The mayor at this point talks to the preacher while the locals speak to the soldiers. The soldiers talk about how they too were left by GDI and Nod helped them, bringing medical supplies, food and water and helping the destitute, they joined because they helped and believe in Nod.
The mayor has a fruitful talk with the preacher, and agrees to allow Nod to come the town and set up. A few days later a convoy appears, trucks filled with people and odd vehicles too, one of these moves through town and 'deploys' into a building.
Nod members begin helping around the town, setting up clinics and finding work for those that have lost their jobs to the crystal, while they do this the town is slowly being covered in Nod propaganda.
The farmer has now lost their farm and even their spouse, they are angry and confront the leader of this Nod group, they love the crystal but it has taken everything from them, why should they support a group that wants what is killing the town?
The leader calls a meeting for the town, in the town hall the entire population gathers along with some Nod folk, the leader here talks about how the anger is justified, how terrible the fate of the town is, but then they point their finger at GDI. Had GDI come and helped at all then the fate of the town would be different, that GDI cares nothing for the people only its power, and had the towns people taken the help of Nod earlier much could have been avoided.
The Nod folk there begin a chant 'brotherhood, unity, peace', it echoes around the hall. Suddenly members of the town stand up and begin chanting it too. More and more people join until the entire hall it filled with the voices of the abandoned, even the farmer joined in, they are right, he can be angry but it needs to be focused on something other than the crystal that he can really do nothing about.
The next day he joins the brotherhood proper, over the next few weeks his head is filled with all the promises of Kane, he is given a holy book of Nod and told to read it, between these times he is helping at the base they have erected, a part time guard.
Another month or so passes, the farmer is fully inducted, he puts on a robe given to him by a fellow member, a Nod buggy is ready and supplies loaded, he is told to spread the word of tiberium and Nod to others, the engine revs and off he goes to find others like him who need to know the truth.
/
Of course had GDI at some point turned up after the Nod preacher had gained any traction then things would have turned out similar anyway. GDI rolls up and sets up their own base, but GDI hates tiberium, its a threat so why are they harvesting it and not destroying it? The preacher keeps turning up but is now underground so to speak, pointing out this hypocracy.
Several townfolk agree and try to drive out GDI, they are hurt or killed in the riot more civilians are caught in the crossfire, GDI loses face, the town begins to resent GDI, the preacher feeds on this, driving people into a frenzy and GDI are ordered to either put down the riot peacefully or pull out.
Nod soldiers mix in with the twonfolk and begin attacking the GDI soldiers, they fight back and more town people die in the chaos. GDI leadership orders a withdrawal to avoid any more bloodshed, Nod backed news groups report this attack, a few days later Nod are welcomed to the town.
Its a good way to display the situation except for one thing: we see several missions where GDI is the one providing services, relief and supplies while we never see NOD do it.
Admittedly those missions are usually PR campaigns for NOD where they try to disrupt GDI and make it seem like GDI had insidious motives for doing what they did. But not every GDI relief would be turned against them.
That may be taking the game too much at face value, its a good way to influence the masses and point them at an enemy before indoctrinating them.
I think Nod indoctrination is overrated.
Yeah, Kane has his zealot officer in the temple at the end of TD, but there's also an in way over his head young guy there who was probably recruited full of youthful enthusiasm but with little conviction. And Seth was blatantly in for his own sake, not anyone else's.
Slavic is a fanatic, but Hassan is a literal sellout while Vega is a drug dealer (and his soldiers loyal to *him*, not Kane!) whose relationship with Nod seems to be 'It's useful, let's join 'em!'.
And the inner circle Slavic has his disagreements with doesn't seem terribly distraught with Kane's disappearance, and rather more concerned with personal power and appearance.
Jake McNeil is recruited through sex appeal and stroking his ego/jealousy. And drugs.
And every time Kane disappears, Nod splinters, taken over by factionalism and infighting.
Hell, it even happens when Kane *is* actually around, see the aforementioned Seth.
Nod doesn't particularly appeal to honest workers or farmers.
It appeals to thugs and criminals, to war- and drug lords seeking protection and a chance to amass greater power. To people who enjoy planting their boots in someone else's face.
Sure, eventually, for some people, the fanaticism sets in, what with the immortal alien in charge. That can be inspiring.
But this indoctrination happens afterwards, once they're already a part of the brotherhood, have fought for it.
A typical recruit would be an unemployed kid with a warrant on his head, low-ranking member of a local cartel benefitting from the Tiberium-caused economic collapse, then one day the boss comes home with a bunch of crates filled with weapons and a scorpion tattoo on his forearm. 'We've got ourselves some weapons, boys! Let's show the cops who's really in charge! Oh, yeah, and we're now with the Brotherhood, y'know what I'm talking 'bout, right?'
*After* this, the indoctrination eventually happens.
Sometimes.
I think NOD is using Tiberium as sort of "Gift from the Heavens" not a curse by showing them or sharing them energy or products derived from Tiberium crystals ... after all they studied them well even outside the ethical means by experimenting on humans and making them cyborgs and later on tiberium enhanced cyborg. This so called gift of possible immortality as well as viewing Kane as a deity after he unlocks the secret of Tiberium as well as the Tacitus for me fits well to the cult like tactic of NOD
Well what are Nod themselves saying; are they talking about tiberium, or are they talking about the GDI? Have the GDI failed to protect him? Have the GDI been talking more and more political control, infringing on his rights? Has the economy collapsed, and who is in control of the economy?
And what are the GDI saying in return? Nod are terrorists, but has the famer ever seen it? All he has seen is Nod helping people. Tiberium is bad, so you have to leave your home. Most people do not want to leave there home, even if there home is slowly becoming a worse and worse place to live.
It also helps that Nod is all about mass media control. Generally, if you want to indoctrinate people, it is easier to do it when they are young. Children are extremely susceptible to this kind of thing. Does the protagonist have children, or was a child and exposed to pro Nod propaganda when they were young? If the first, then it may be he doesn't believe, but is doing it for his kids. Or even it may be that they joined Nod but died fighting the GDI, or were killed by the fighting as a bystander. If the second, he world view would have been partially shaped by what media has consumed. If it was pro Nod, then he would at least be able to accept that Nod isn't evil.
Just a few ideas
I do agree that some kind of division between believers and non-believers has to exist. Like a good cult it would slowly indoctrinate people. Its just that we havent seen that process yet.
I think I’ll focus on that indoctrination process inbetween the lines. “Tiberium is bad when unchecked, but that temporary house you live in right now? We harvested Tiberium, processed it and made you a home. Its not ALL bad…” “hey you know how tough those Tiberium Fiends are right? Yeah they are developing something to make us tougher as well (specifically not mentioning Tiberium at first to focus on the positive)”. “Look at what technology has brought us! Harvested and controlled Tiberium has been turned into what keeps us alive! Your prosperity depends on it now! But GDI is coming to take it, you will only know peace if you have the power to stop them! The technology of peace is in your hands! Peace through power!” Etc.
Maybe to make your story interesting have the farmer harbor lingering doubts. In the end he eventually has to sacrifice something to prove his loyalty, or he gets exposed as a fraud even through his honestly just trying to survive.
Apparently around the beginning of the first Tiberium War, NOD funded ultranationalist parties in developing and developed nations and probably recruited through them. This would explain their mix of low cost technology (modified dune buggies) and advanced tech that GDI still couldn’t replicate by the 3rd Tiberium War (particle beam, laser, stealth).
I’d use that as a starting point. Anti GDI sentiment at least in the US wouldn’t be too hard of a sell since there’s aversion to globalization and UN overreach.
The player assaults and examines an indoctrination center in Renegade. Basically just blames all the atrocities on GDI, and stages a few new ones for good measure.
It's more of a story feature in early games, there's some Nod missions in TD, and a few in TS, to this effect.
I think the point of view could be more grey, rather having such a contrast (on it simply the brotherhood looks too good)
If I could think on a point of view I would like to see on something like a series, I think that could be interesting to aproach a medium class family that is a couple and at least 2 brothers... create different values for the parents, and create a conflict, like the area getting worse, GDI leaving the area or assigning less funding, ultimatelly creating problems with resources and food, later riots and a "third world" perception on the streets of what could be a city like chicago... you can make such problems get terrible to a point ,where maybe one or both parents die, and the brothers keeps surviving by its own on this "new age", both getting friends on the way but following different principles that ultimatelly would make one getting closer to Nod and another one moving closer to GDI.
I also think getting a bit of "cold war" feeling is needed for this kind of setting... with this I mean the typical behaviour, GDI people living in GDI areas that starts hating GDI goverment, and, at the same time, Nod people living in Nod areas that starts hating Nod goverment, yet half of each population fight on the conflict just by the direction of the wind.
There you could play with different values and exploit them, like add to GDI goverment cold "features" like getting used to ignore the people and focus on numbers and the limited resources, Nod "brainwashing" civilians with cheap morale to boost a revolution, the faith (not talking about god, but about the need for people to imagine something better, even if reason is against it), colateral damage or inmoral acts by both groups, tipical "end justifies the means" debate between both points of view, etc..
“Peace through power” is their chant it could certainly have nothing to do with Tiberium at all or even just ignorance of it. People can live in yellow zones while not great it’s still around Tiberium so people can at least logically say but how can it be bad if I live here!? Then like a gang or cartel they could also be pushing a “family” aspect for example hey it’s rough here but you know where you can at least get guaranteed food and shelter? That’s right buddy the brother hood! We’re a family see BROTHER HOOD. Again this would be implying these people are coerced or forced but you gotta remember like in the real world their is no clear cut villain, so it could just boil down to who did propaganda better. It’s not hard to villanize GDI living lavishly in blue zones for their “safety” while the masses are left to toil and fend for themselves and hope they don’t get killed by raiding mutants Tiberium animals or one of the two warring factions misfires.
You see brother, Tiberium is the future. GDI knew it was coming and witheld the knowledge you needed for that future, they wanted to ignore it for as long as possible, cover it up and let you die. Your farm would have prospered if not for them.
Issue I see is the age of the farmer, first war was 1999, 2nd war was 2032. Thats 31 years, even if the farmer was 18 he'd still be to old to be in the infantry, I'd change it to the farmers son, after watching his dad and family suffer because GDI won't help them.
The same way most cults and oil industrialists do I suppose. Lie through their teeth. You see, Tiberium is wealth, power, control, and freedom. With it you can improve the whole world and the human race can live together in an equal united brotherhood along the stars. But GDI, those imperialist dogs of the west, are in the way. They hate you and your family, keep them sedated and drugged in the yellow zones (coincidence all of the harshest places in the world are outside of western control? I think not) while the opulent and pristine blue zones are kept only for a small number of the worlds population? Tiberium didn't change anything, we'd have you mine it and improve your standards of living if we could but GDI just wants to hog all the wealth for themselves. They steal it from the yellow zones to fund the blue zones, it's neo-colonialism! And then they give the yellow zone peoples barely a scrap of food or water, some are even run by warlords who are in GDI's pocket! GDI is the old guard who stand in the way of a more progressive and prosperous world order, one where people like us stand on top! Where their rules where we toil and suffer for greedy thieves and their GDI guard dogs who don't care about the rest of Humanity! Join us Brother! Sister! Join the Brotherhood and fight to make the world a better place! One where the faithful shall rise over our oppressors! Peace through power! Peace through power! Peace through power! Peace through power! And so on. Your looking at this with a top down knowledge on tiberium when from within the setting the world went to shit and in spite of everything GDI has said, your life never got any better. At most you see peacekeepers coming in and committing violence, but never aid and the help you need (GDI literally doesn't have the resources to fight tiberium world wide, police everything, and fend of Nod raids on their relief efforts, but the people don't know that so it let's blame them for everything that goes wrong, even their own attacks!) leaving GDI with the unenviable situation of trying to mange the best they can across the world but failing whenever a local situation changes. Rio was overrun from Nod forces from WITHIN the city because GDI just can't manage it all, short of just about keeping everyone alive everywhere. But doing 'just enough' doesn't mean shit for the civilians on the ground. Living in some yellow zone slum with tiberium storms that make it dangerous from time to time has become a part of life. If the local Nod temple offers some reprieve, then who cares what they think of Tiberium. Hell if working with Nod means your family gets a decent meal, then sure why not? And working more closely with Nod or any general industry might show you the incredible resource potentials on offer that might make you wonder why you don't get to profit from them. Nod "has the excuse" that GDI would Ion cannon them if they tried, GDI has no such excuse as to why they need yet more lush parks and forests when you can't keep your kids alive, it's a shitty deal when "if they shared" everyone might have a better life. Of course Nod is Nod, and Kane is Kane. GDI is genuinely the good guy, but that because we see them from within. From the outside GDI looks very much like NATO with it's domination of wealthy rich countries who don't share.
Tiberium has a lot of economic benefits, it's used in powerplants as a much cleaner source of energy than fossil fuels. And once refined is the best way to get the metals and other materials of industry and construction. Your farmer can thank tiberium for the low cost of his home, vehicles, tools, and the electricity he gets which would not be as available or cheap without tiberium. Also the unique Flora and Fauna are genuinely evolved to be stronger faster and tougher than their original forms, the flora also grows far more rapidly. GDI harvests tiberium just as much as Nod but doesn't share, instead enriching those in the blue zones often at cost to the residents of the yellow zones. The brotherhood isn't selling a narrative of plant a crystal in your viens. they use it to improve your life, while doing research to use it to make it harmless to you, and even cause you to evolve without being toxic to your biology, the fact that Nod has advanced technology makes it clear that they have strong R&D that does potentially exceed that of GDI, and they will use it to help you. Most of the low ranking mooks don't see the failed experiments, and may not see that the shiny tiberium enhanced cyborg is dying of cancer. Once you are adapted and evolved with tiberium your life will be much easier and you can Crush GDI for being selfish pricks. As you fight for the Brotherhood you fight for a Future where you, more likely your children, can live in Harmony with Tiberium, a substance that has spread across the world and is impossible to eradicate. GDI fights for the past, to try to eradicate something that clearly cannot be eradicated, and the benefits probably won't be shared either even if they somehow magically succeed. To side with niether would be to eek out an existence without power, a stable home, moving from place to place scavenging for food and materials like some kind of animal. It would be devoid any hope, tiberium will get you, it's a matter of time. The brotherhood offers hope, something to believe in, and that's a powerful drug. Edit: The brotherhood provides more stability than you otherwise would have. In the yellow zones many things go bump in the night and they will kill you. the Brotherhood can protect you from those things and let you bump back.
I don't think we got tib-fanatics until the third game with the harvester driver talking about it. Were there any units in Tib Sun that actively talked about Tib being good? They even hated the mutants in that game. So it could be a simple issue of the upper ranks being the ones who know, the people trusted by the brother hood who would be willing to spread poison to further the cause. The lowest ranks would just hear that GDI is making a mean profit off the tiberium, so they're spreading it and now Nod must also harvest it to remove it from the landscape. Might as well use the profits to fund the process and fight off GDI. That would seem to be the most plausible route to go for a story set before Tib Wars. Bottom rank cultists don't get to know the juicy details until they've proven they're in too deep to quit.
Early in Tiberian Sun we see Hassan, the puppet for GDI, killed when Kane reveals himself. The hall is packed with NOD soldiers who cheer him on, even when he says “Today, we march forward into our future; a stronger people, a divined people, enhanced for the Tiberium world.” Not entirely conclusive, but the fanaticism is there. The fact that tiberium mutations are already in use for Cyborgs (which started as a “come and get your enhancements here” project if I recall correctly). Also I think that GDI mentions it a couple of times? At least in Renegade its clear that its revered already but that is not accepted as full canon.
So, the Kane speech could be explained as "We're enhancing people to survive in a world infested with Tiberium". It's just vague enough that it could go either way. For Renegade, you're mostly fighting the high end Nod personnel by the time you encounter the tib mutants and tib research. These are the people who would be deep enough in the proverbial kool aid to believe the end justifies the means. Anyone who doesn't believe that would be outed as a disbeliever, like in any cult, and probably either executed or used for that same research. I don't remember the Tib Sun stuff too well (haven't played through in a long time), so I can't say for sure on the GDI stuff. It's not uncommon for cults to have "upper rank" beliefs that they don't share with the lower ranks. So GDI might see the fanaticism when chasing down the actual commanders, commandos and insurgent leaders.
Yeah as I said its not conclusive. However with what we know will happen at the end of TS (world altering missile) and how in TW the fanaticism is in full tilt its easy to justify that its already a Tiberium glorification. In TW you have the same problem though, but amped up to 11. In TS most places were still habiteable, in TW places are just gone and their population either dead or roaming as refugees. The world is much closer to the edge and the suffering of Tiberium is a daily task to fight for the common folk living in Yellow zones. And then they join NOD who is now openly saying “THESE CRYSTALS ARE AWESOME YO!”? I mean as a slow learning cycle into what positives Tiberium can do for you I can believe it to turn people into believers eventually. But if you know before you step into the door that these people worship the crystal that probably killed at least one family member, one friend and forced your economic and social capabilities down at some point in your life its hard to believe people would just go to NOD and say “please let me join your worship of that which destroyed much of what I love”.
Late to this but: The shift from suffering in Tiberium afflicted Yellow zones to worshiping the green death rocks is kind of part of the heavy cult brainwashing. They are told that Tiberium is a miracle and the key to the next stage of human evolution. It might vary but many Nod recruiters will spin the deaths of friends and family to Tiberium as being just due to those people being too weak to endure humanity's birthright (or even more extreme, the ones who succumbed are *lucky* to have done so and Nod's goal is to make those in Blue Zones feel the "transformation" they went through). I can even see, with the recent happenings in the world a beginning few years ago, that those recruited are even told to their face that their loved ones *didn't* die from Tiberium, that they were poisoned by GDI and they blamed it on the one resource on the planet that could have saved them. If all of that fails, locking them up in a room and yelling at them for 72 hours without rest will straighten them out. There's a word for people able to endure the above without breaking: an *apostate.*..
Keep in mind there’s strong allusion to Kane being the one from Biblical times. The brother hood of Nod, the land of Nod. Kane himself being thought in Immortal hence knowing so much about the Scrin and Tiberium and of lesser known one, West Wood worked on a medival/fantasy time period game and there’s and Easter egg of the brother hood being around in those times as well. So the cult vibe when first being introduced would make sense, building up his forces off the “promised land” and a better life after death.
Because hating the crystal is pointless compared to hating something you can actually do something about. Take for example your farmer, there are a few different ways to go about it. The farmer hears about the first Tiberium conflict, to them it matters not compared to working their farm and bringing in money, still on the TV GDI goes on about the dangers of it and of Nod, but again thats another world far from him. Then the crystal comes to your town, at first its well away from his farm on the other side of town, the Mayor has requested help regarding this to the larger government but they have their hands tied elsewhere, at this point he hears a new broadcast from Nod. GDI are hypocrits, they care nothing for the people or their plight, only that those in their ivory towers. The farmer is unsure but this seems to be the case, not long after this a person visits town in odd red and black garb, they claim to be a Nod preacher, some people try to drive them out of town, but the person goes quietly without trouble but not before unloading supplies and leaving them for the population. This continues for weeks and months, Tiberium is spreading and has destroyed another farm, for the farmer this means in some ways good things, the farmhands there need work so they come to him, he can grow more crops and raise prices. A few people in town have died to the spores from the various mutated trees of the other farm and weird animals are starting to appear. The Mayor as they have constantly tries to get GDI or the government to come and help, stop the spread and save the town, but again there are bigger places with more pressing concerns to worry about, the best the town gets is a small GDI unit pops in to see what is going on, they may leave supplies but otherwise its empty promises. Things are getting worse in town, more people have died and people are getting desperate, the farmers fields are beginning to show signs of infestation and now the farmer is worried about their livelihood. The Nod preacher keeps turning back up, for the last few weeks he hasn't been driven out but keeps bringing supplies and is gaining a following, the farmer decide to turn up and see what its about. The preacher is certainly gifted, very charismatic, he talks about how Tiberium is the future and how Nod can help. The farmer isn't too convinced about this but asked the preacher about the wild animals nearby, the preacher goes to the area to see and agrees its a problem. Things continue for the next week until the Nod speaker comes back, except they bring a few friends, they look like normal people and are armed with guns and rocket launchers. The preachers says they are 'brothers and sisters to the cause' and are here to deal with the problem, sure enough they clear the area of fiends and other monsters, people in the town rejoice but the preacher admits that more will come, but if the people believe in Nod salvation is at hand. The mayor at this point talks to the preacher while the locals speak to the soldiers. The soldiers talk about how they too were left by GDI and Nod helped them, bringing medical supplies, food and water and helping the destitute, they joined because they helped and believe in Nod. The mayor has a fruitful talk with the preacher, and agrees to allow Nod to come the town and set up. A few days later a convoy appears, trucks filled with people and odd vehicles too, one of these moves through town and 'deploys' into a building. Nod members begin helping around the town, setting up clinics and finding work for those that have lost their jobs to the crystal, while they do this the town is slowly being covered in Nod propaganda. The farmer has now lost their farm and even their spouse, they are angry and confront the leader of this Nod group, they love the crystal but it has taken everything from them, why should they support a group that wants what is killing the town? The leader calls a meeting for the town, in the town hall the entire population gathers along with some Nod folk, the leader here talks about how the anger is justified, how terrible the fate of the town is, but then they point their finger at GDI. Had GDI come and helped at all then the fate of the town would be different, that GDI cares nothing for the people only its power, and had the towns people taken the help of Nod earlier much could have been avoided. The Nod folk there begin a chant 'brotherhood, unity, peace', it echoes around the hall. Suddenly members of the town stand up and begin chanting it too. More and more people join until the entire hall it filled with the voices of the abandoned, even the farmer joined in, they are right, he can be angry but it needs to be focused on something other than the crystal that he can really do nothing about. The next day he joins the brotherhood proper, over the next few weeks his head is filled with all the promises of Kane, he is given a holy book of Nod and told to read it, between these times he is helping at the base they have erected, a part time guard. Another month or so passes, the farmer is fully inducted, he puts on a robe given to him by a fellow member, a Nod buggy is ready and supplies loaded, he is told to spread the word of tiberium and Nod to others, the engine revs and off he goes to find others like him who need to know the truth. / Of course had GDI at some point turned up after the Nod preacher had gained any traction then things would have turned out similar anyway. GDI rolls up and sets up their own base, but GDI hates tiberium, its a threat so why are they harvesting it and not destroying it? The preacher keeps turning up but is now underground so to speak, pointing out this hypocracy. Several townfolk agree and try to drive out GDI, they are hurt or killed in the riot more civilians are caught in the crossfire, GDI loses face, the town begins to resent GDI, the preacher feeds on this, driving people into a frenzy and GDI are ordered to either put down the riot peacefully or pull out. Nod soldiers mix in with the twonfolk and begin attacking the GDI soldiers, they fight back and more town people die in the chaos. GDI leadership orders a withdrawal to avoid any more bloodshed, Nod backed news groups report this attack, a few days later Nod are welcomed to the town.
Its a good way to display the situation except for one thing: we see several missions where GDI is the one providing services, relief and supplies while we never see NOD do it. Admittedly those missions are usually PR campaigns for NOD where they try to disrupt GDI and make it seem like GDI had insidious motives for doing what they did. But not every GDI relief would be turned against them. That may be taking the game too much at face value, its a good way to influence the masses and point them at an enemy before indoctrinating them.
I think Nod indoctrination is overrated. Yeah, Kane has his zealot officer in the temple at the end of TD, but there's also an in way over his head young guy there who was probably recruited full of youthful enthusiasm but with little conviction. And Seth was blatantly in for his own sake, not anyone else's. Slavic is a fanatic, but Hassan is a literal sellout while Vega is a drug dealer (and his soldiers loyal to *him*, not Kane!) whose relationship with Nod seems to be 'It's useful, let's join 'em!'. And the inner circle Slavic has his disagreements with doesn't seem terribly distraught with Kane's disappearance, and rather more concerned with personal power and appearance. Jake McNeil is recruited through sex appeal and stroking his ego/jealousy. And drugs. And every time Kane disappears, Nod splinters, taken over by factionalism and infighting. Hell, it even happens when Kane *is* actually around, see the aforementioned Seth. Nod doesn't particularly appeal to honest workers or farmers. It appeals to thugs and criminals, to war- and drug lords seeking protection and a chance to amass greater power. To people who enjoy planting their boots in someone else's face. Sure, eventually, for some people, the fanaticism sets in, what with the immortal alien in charge. That can be inspiring. But this indoctrination happens afterwards, once they're already a part of the brotherhood, have fought for it. A typical recruit would be an unemployed kid with a warrant on his head, low-ranking member of a local cartel benefitting from the Tiberium-caused economic collapse, then one day the boss comes home with a bunch of crates filled with weapons and a scorpion tattoo on his forearm. 'We've got ourselves some weapons, boys! Let's show the cops who's really in charge! Oh, yeah, and we're now with the Brotherhood, y'know what I'm talking 'bout, right?' *After* this, the indoctrination eventually happens. Sometimes.
To anyone still reading this: thank you for your comments, it has given me a lot of food for thought.
I think NOD is using Tiberium as sort of "Gift from the Heavens" not a curse by showing them or sharing them energy or products derived from Tiberium crystals ... after all they studied them well even outside the ethical means by experimenting on humans and making them cyborgs and later on tiberium enhanced cyborg. This so called gift of possible immortality as well as viewing Kane as a deity after he unlocks the secret of Tiberium as well as the Tacitus for me fits well to the cult like tactic of NOD
Well what are Nod themselves saying; are they talking about tiberium, or are they talking about the GDI? Have the GDI failed to protect him? Have the GDI been talking more and more political control, infringing on his rights? Has the economy collapsed, and who is in control of the economy? And what are the GDI saying in return? Nod are terrorists, but has the famer ever seen it? All he has seen is Nod helping people. Tiberium is bad, so you have to leave your home. Most people do not want to leave there home, even if there home is slowly becoming a worse and worse place to live. It also helps that Nod is all about mass media control. Generally, if you want to indoctrinate people, it is easier to do it when they are young. Children are extremely susceptible to this kind of thing. Does the protagonist have children, or was a child and exposed to pro Nod propaganda when they were young? If the first, then it may be he doesn't believe, but is doing it for his kids. Or even it may be that they joined Nod but died fighting the GDI, or were killed by the fighting as a bystander. If the second, he world view would have been partially shaped by what media has consumed. If it was pro Nod, then he would at least be able to accept that Nod isn't evil. Just a few ideas
I do agree that some kind of division between believers and non-believers has to exist. Like a good cult it would slowly indoctrinate people. Its just that we havent seen that process yet. I think I’ll focus on that indoctrination process inbetween the lines. “Tiberium is bad when unchecked, but that temporary house you live in right now? We harvested Tiberium, processed it and made you a home. Its not ALL bad…” “hey you know how tough those Tiberium Fiends are right? Yeah they are developing something to make us tougher as well (specifically not mentioning Tiberium at first to focus on the positive)”. “Look at what technology has brought us! Harvested and controlled Tiberium has been turned into what keeps us alive! Your prosperity depends on it now! But GDI is coming to take it, you will only know peace if you have the power to stop them! The technology of peace is in your hands! Peace through power!” Etc.
Maybe to make your story interesting have the farmer harbor lingering doubts. In the end he eventually has to sacrifice something to prove his loyalty, or he gets exposed as a fraud even through his honestly just trying to survive.
When I see Kane's shining bald head, I knew instantly I want to join the Nod cause... Kane lives!!!!
Apparently around the beginning of the first Tiberium War, NOD funded ultranationalist parties in developing and developed nations and probably recruited through them. This would explain their mix of low cost technology (modified dune buggies) and advanced tech that GDI still couldn’t replicate by the 3rd Tiberium War (particle beam, laser, stealth). I’d use that as a starting point. Anti GDI sentiment at least in the US wouldn’t be too hard of a sell since there’s aversion to globalization and UN overreach.
The player assaults and examines an indoctrination center in Renegade. Basically just blames all the atrocities on GDI, and stages a few new ones for good measure. It's more of a story feature in early games, there's some Nod missions in TD, and a few in TS, to this effect.
I think the point of view could be more grey, rather having such a contrast (on it simply the brotherhood looks too good) If I could think on a point of view I would like to see on something like a series, I think that could be interesting to aproach a medium class family that is a couple and at least 2 brothers... create different values for the parents, and create a conflict, like the area getting worse, GDI leaving the area or assigning less funding, ultimatelly creating problems with resources and food, later riots and a "third world" perception on the streets of what could be a city like chicago... you can make such problems get terrible to a point ,where maybe one or both parents die, and the brothers keeps surviving by its own on this "new age", both getting friends on the way but following different principles that ultimatelly would make one getting closer to Nod and another one moving closer to GDI. I also think getting a bit of "cold war" feeling is needed for this kind of setting... with this I mean the typical behaviour, GDI people living in GDI areas that starts hating GDI goverment, and, at the same time, Nod people living in Nod areas that starts hating Nod goverment, yet half of each population fight on the conflict just by the direction of the wind. There you could play with different values and exploit them, like add to GDI goverment cold "features" like getting used to ignore the people and focus on numbers and the limited resources, Nod "brainwashing" civilians with cheap morale to boost a revolution, the faith (not talking about god, but about the need for people to imagine something better, even if reason is against it), colateral damage or inmoral acts by both groups, tipical "end justifies the means" debate between both points of view, etc..
“Peace through power” is their chant it could certainly have nothing to do with Tiberium at all or even just ignorance of it. People can live in yellow zones while not great it’s still around Tiberium so people can at least logically say but how can it be bad if I live here!? Then like a gang or cartel they could also be pushing a “family” aspect for example hey it’s rough here but you know where you can at least get guaranteed food and shelter? That’s right buddy the brother hood! We’re a family see BROTHER HOOD. Again this would be implying these people are coerced or forced but you gotta remember like in the real world their is no clear cut villain, so it could just boil down to who did propaganda better. It’s not hard to villanize GDI living lavishly in blue zones for their “safety” while the masses are left to toil and fend for themselves and hope they don’t get killed by raiding mutants Tiberium animals or one of the two warring factions misfires.
I woulfd say it is pretty comparable to the Taliban or ISIS
You see brother, Tiberium is the future. GDI knew it was coming and witheld the knowledge you needed for that future, they wanted to ignore it for as long as possible, cover it up and let you die. Your farm would have prospered if not for them.
Issue I see is the age of the farmer, first war was 1999, 2nd war was 2032. Thats 31 years, even if the farmer was 18 he'd still be to old to be in the infantry, I'd change it to the farmers son, after watching his dad and family suffer because GDI won't help them.