The Great Peace Organization

The Great Peace Organization (GPO)—named in contrast to The Great War—was established to fulfill the gods’ command to spread peace throughout the universe. Like all organized efforts in baltarik society, the GPO was funded entirely through individual donations of resources and services.

At its founding, donations were motivated solely by fear of the gods' wrath. During the era of its expeditions to Earth, however, the GPO also received funding through public archive contribution requests. Researchers dispatched to Earth—whether for long-term residence or short-term information-gathering missions—returned books, articles, movies, audio recordings, and other educational and entertainment materials. These were processed by GPO members based on Ji, where the organization’s headquarters was located, and reformatted for public access via digital archives in libraries across the five planets. Over fifty years of expeditions yielded a vast trove of content that fueled interests, research, and hobbies galaxy-wide. During this period, donations were often accompanied by requests for additional information or new installments of popular entertainment.

In the thirty years preceding the GPO’s long-term presence on Earth—known as Onsite Research—archive contributions were sporadic and limited. Researchers made occasional short trips to Earth to collect materials for study and publication. As the time required to decipher human languages and digital formats decreased, contributions gradually increased.

Product requests were also common. Human-made items retrieved by the GPO were made available for viewing or use in the GPO’s sharing center or offered for trade through its storefront.

The most frequently requested item was condoms by members of the allosexual minority. These requests were ignored until the onset of Onsite Research, when Kwil Farkos, the only known allosexual within the GPO, began supplying a limited quantity. Initially, the GPO sold them grudgingly at exorbitant prices. When they consistently sold out, the organization began supplying them regularly—though still overpriced. Most buyers were businesses specializing in allosexual products. These businesses frequently purchased the GPO’s entire stock for resale. This spared their clients the ridicule often faced when buying directly from the GPO, but further inflated costs. The GPO never met demand, and with Jigo Kadas as its most vocal critic, it became the target of frequent protests and criticism for discrimination and price gouging.

The GPO’s contributions and product sales were most profitable during the first seventeen years of its twenty-year residency on Earth, with daily contributions to the archives and weekly product additions. During this time, the organization maintained five to ten researchers on Earth and allocated 30 to 50 members to processing, publishing, curating, and distributing the steady influx of materials returned to Ji.

In the final three years of Onsite Research, the GPO’s output dropped sharply alongside its workforce. During this period, the contributions of Kwil Farkos, the only researcher remaining on Earth, were supplemented by small, frequent expeditions. Though contributions helped preserve the GPO’s public image, its research focus had shifted—unbeknownst to the public—to Kwil's failed experiment. The drop in information did not go unnoticed and contributed to growing public concern about the GPO’s standing with the gods. These concerns were confirmed when the GPO admitted its failure and dissolved following the conclusion of Onsite Research.

Despite its ultimate failure, the public eventually recognized the GPO’s contributions to the gods’ mission. Its collection of human-made materials is considered its greatest legacy. GPO-supplied media remains accessible in libraries across the five planets, and its item collection was redistributed to other collections, libraries, and sharing centers—where they continued to be heavily used and studied for decades after the organization’s disbandment.