With such a large trading empire, and having been around for millions of years the Puppeteer Government has evolved into a dangerous manipulative organism. Its dangerous side is of course represented by the Experimentalist Faction which does not think twice about meddling with the affairs of other races.

Birthright Lotteries and Psychic Luck

The history of mankind is littered with near-misses and escapes that could easily have spelled disaster for the entire race. Nuclear war was a constant threat for many years, while pollution, corruption, and economic difficulties were capable of laying waste to the population in ways more subtle but equally absolute.

According to the Puppeteers, luck is the stongest and most desirable trait in humans. The Experimentalists began to plan to systematically breed humans for luck through bribery and blackmail of the officials in charge of Earth's fertility laws, created to reduce overpopulation. The law stated that parents could not have more than one child, and some people could have none depending on genetic defect or aberrant behaviour; however, the Birthright Lotteries allowed some to have multiple children, as many as they wanted for every Lottery won.

The Puppeteer Experimentalists believed that one way to win the Birthright Lottery was through luck. They selected sixth generation Lottery winners for the experiment in the hopes that their luck would "rub off" on Nessus, the Puppeteer who led the first expedition to the Ringworld and shield him from danger.

The experiment was a resounding failure from the Puppeteer's point of view.

The effect of the Puppeteer interference in the Birthright Lotteries is known only by a select few humans and Kzinti, as is the reason for the Outsider sale of the hyperdrive to humanity, a related incident of luck. When questioned, the Puppeteers say they have saved humanity from enslavement, and the creation of less hotile Kzinti makes their extermination unnecessary.

Puppeteer Influence on Man Kzin Wars

With their proverbial caution, the Puppeteers studied the Kzinti carefully for hundreds of years. The Kzinti were a dangerous race who would no doubt attempt to take the Puppeteer homeworld and make slaves of the inhabitants. Though there was no possibility for the relatively unsophisticated Kzinti to achieve such a goal, the Puppeteers were unwilling to give them the chance. They created a plan to exterminate the entire Kzinti race and were ready to begin implementation when the first Man-Kzin war provided an alternate solution.

The solution first involved a great deal of debating over the threat of the Kzinti. Experimentalists factions said that the Kzinti might provide a useful buffer against possible attacks from other races, such as the Pak, or whoever constructed the Ringworld. Conservative factions argued that the race should be exterminated simply because they were too dangerous for a comfortable margin of Puppeteer safety. The Experimentalists were coming into power at the time of the debates and their arguements prevailed. The result of the decision was to conduct a selective breeding experiment that would produce Kzinti who would be more docile and open to negotiations and politicking rather than open fighting.

The Kzinti ships were better armed and more maneuverable than the Earth fusion ramships, but the Puppeteers figured that giving the humans superior technology would undoubtedly kill the first generation of warriors from the Kzinti populace. The Puppeteers used a starseed lure to draw an Outsider ship into Human Space, where the mysterious race sold the mayor of the planet We Made It the secret of the Quantum I hyperdrive shunt (on credit).

The effect was immediate. The Kzinti ships could never hope to outdistance or catch a hyperdrive-equipped vessel. The war instantly turned against them and they were pushed back, planet by planet. As predicted by the Puppeteers, the most fierce and dangerous Kzinti were killed, assuring their stock would not breed again.

Defeat was not an idea taken well by the Kzinti, and revenge had always been a strong motivator for their race. The Kzinti re-staged their attack against the human-held planets in the Second Man-Kzin War. Of course, the humans had learned their hard lesson. General Products Hulls and thrusters significantly improved the human defensive fleet. No. 2 Hulls were often converted from their original use as survey ships to attack vessels, while the huge No.3 Hulls were made into battle cruisers equipped with reaction-less thrusters, fusion drives, and the Quantum I Hyperdirve. The Kzinti ran straight into Earth's new warships and quickly collapsed. Several of the Kzinti-held worlds were annexed and the slave populations released.

The Kzniti were not willing to let another defeat go unpunished. They attacked again and were repulsed more easily. They attacked a fourth time, lost, and finally gave up, the empire they had built over thousands of years drastically reduced.

In each attack over the centuries, Kzin had lost two-thirds of its fighting population and was unable to recover the original fighting spirit. The population of the non-sentient females had been untouched by the ravages of the war and the Kzinti's numbers grew again, aggressive, but not dangerous enough for the Puppeteers to feel the race required extermination.

The Kzinti reluctantly opened diplomatic relations with other species. Speaker-to-Animals, later known as Chmee was one of these "Diplomats".

Conservatives Verses Experimentalists

Puppeteers have two different and nearly contradictory views about the direction their race's leadership should take: the Conservatives and the Experimentalists. The Conservatives are unimaginative and cautious, believing that the Puppeteers must remain unknown by other alien races to maintain their safety.

The Experimentalists usually take power when some crisis threatens the Puppeteer race, such as the advance of the Kzinti empire, or the discovery of the galactic core explosion. The Conservatives maintain their rule longer than the Experimentalists, who are usually deposed once they have acted and eliminated the threat.

The two factions have the safety of the Puppeteer race in mind, but have different solutions, one believing in noninterference, the other total control. The factions constantly bicker as to the guidance of the race's destiny.

The Core Explosion and Puppeteer Migration

The nuclear forces within the core of the galaxy are tremendous and unstable. When a sun flares or goes nova, there is a chance that other suns will also be affected, flaring or going nova too. The Puppeteers hired Beowulf Shaeffer, a human scout pilot, to use the first Quantaum II Hyperdrive ship and investigate the new readings from the galactic core.

Shaeffer discovered that the core had undergone a cataclysmic explosion, and the radiation shockwave was going to reach Known Space in 20,000 years. The Puppeteers immediately panicked in fear of the "impending" disaster; the Experimentalists came to power at once to orchestrate the extragalactic migration.

They bought a drive from the Outsiders capable of moving the Puppeteer worlds through space at near light speeds, rather than risk hyperspace migration. The five worlds are heading towards the Lesser Magellanic Cloud some 200,000 light years away. Artificial suns keep the four farming worlds' plant alive, while the last world is solely lit by the lights of streets and industry.

A few humans have been allowed to settle on one of the farming worlds. Conservatives use the humans to investigate dangerous regions in the path of the migration.

The Puppeteers vanished entirely from Known Space, with the exception of a handful of courageously insane, mainly left behind to handle unfinished business and to keep an eye on the developments in Known Space.

The Experimentalists After the Migration

The Experimentalists belive they have chosen the safest possible method of travel. Flying five worlds through space is dangerous. The unknown depths of the intergalactic void could hold terrifying surprises.

Once the exodus was under way, the Experimentalists were.

deposed and the Conservatives took power. The Conservatives want nothing more to do with the Ringworld. Experimentalist factions have their doubts; they believe it will take approximately 87,000 years relative time (180,000) light years to make the journey. The Fleet isn't efficient enough to maintain itself that long without outside resources. The Experimentalists believe that the Puppeteers will have to migrate to a new home, and the Ringworld would be an excellent choice. The Ringworld could even serve as a refugee ship.

The Experimentalists are also determined to learn who built the Ringworld. They feel it would be important for them to know if there is a need to defend the Puppeteer race against the Ringworld Engineers.

Hindmost and Puppeteer Politics

The Puppeteer herd instinct of survival and protection influences every aspect of their lives. Their "turn from danger" instinct give them a view that leadership is best provided from the rear, the area of greatest safety and wisdom. The supreme executive of Puppeteer government is called the Hindmost, or "he-who-leads-from-behind". Hindmost is also a term provided to the leader of any Puppeteer group or expedition. The current Hindmost has a strong personality, unlike the majority of the Puppeteer race, who act strongly only when they perceive a danger that can be avoided and have a means to force aliens under their command to act. This is typically the case with manic-depressive Puppeteer emissaries. The Hindmost's actions are often unpredictable.

History and Politics

It is theorised by Known Space scientists that the greatest problem faced by any advancing civilisation is not economics, health, or safety, but heat. Heat is produced by any suffienciently industrialised race in great amounts, and eventually the heat threatens the ecology of the planet, which in turn threatens the lives of everything on the world. Expansion to other systems is not a solution since the heat problems are merely carried from world to world.

The Puppeteers faced this dilemma early in their star-faring history. A Conservative faction ruled at the time, and they were forced to hear insane proposals from the Experimentalists. The Conservatives relinquished control of the seat of government to the other party. The Puppeteer homeworld was moved away from its sun to dissipate the heat, and four farming worlds were terraformed, seeded, and placed in convenient orbits.

The Puppeteer planet had escaped its danger. The Experimentalists were immediately removed from power by the Conservatives, who maintained control for centuries. However, the Experimentalists were still a strong force in Puppeteer government and took control for brief periods to expand the commerical interests of their financial empire. The General Products Corporation was formed by the Experimentalists to allow the Puppeteers control over the advance of alien races and as a medium for initial contact.

The Kzinti threat brought the Experimentalists back to.

power after six centuries. It was their monumental egotism that influenced the development of both mankind and the Kzinti Patriachy during the Man-Kzin Wars. The Experimentalists ensured that the humans would be able to buy an Outsider hyperdrive shunt, ensuring military disaster for the Kzinti and killing our generations of aggressive Kzinti warriors; this left more tractable Kzinti to breed and control the government.

The General Products Corporation gained enormous profit from trade with Known Space. It was at this point that the Experimentalists began directly manipulating the destiny of man.

The Superconductor Plague

The Outsiders sold the Puppeteers the location of the Ringworld in 1733 a.d. Searching for a way to expand trade at no risk, the Experimentalists immediately sent robotic probes to determine the feasibility of an expedition.

The Puppeteers mistook the City Builders to be the Ringworld's engineers and become suddenly afraid to encounter so powerful a race. The Puppeteers examined the Ringworld's superconductor material and created a technophytic bacterium to seed the Ringworld and destroy the superconductor. The strategy was to follow the probes with trading ships and come to the profitable rescue of the City Builders. However, the Puppeteers quickly realised that the City Builders could not possibly have created the Ringworld, and soon discovered several Pak artifacts. The Puppeteers feared the Pak above nearly all other threats.

The Conservatives took control of the government and the Ringworld project was abandoned. The Experimentalists regained power under the threat of Kzinti expansion and decided that a manned expedition to the Ringworld might reveal treasures worth the risk (especially if they could convince others to take the risk for them). When the decision was made, the plague had reduced the Ringworld to barbarism, destroying thousands of years of civilization.

Copyright © 1996- 2001 Nesssus
Most recent revision December 26, 2001

Sources Consulted: The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld by Kevin Stein