Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/"Purifier" Anti-Psychic Programme

The Voshkod is, depending on who you ask, a nation of contradictions, or a nation of Eorzean hypocrites.

They espouse equality for all, yet there is a large divide between the common folk and the party, they pride themselves on having no governer with unchecked power, yet all of their people follow an autocracy that was first made by Robb, they love to boast that everyone has a say, yet their known for imprisoning poeple who questions them in the infamous gulags. And they were the first nation to tap into psychic powers, and yet they are the few nations who outright abhors it.

Origin
This contradiction does have an origin, which is a combination of its three recent rulers. From Emet Garlean, Cherdenko, to Lunafreya.

Prior to The Great Voshkod-Aquilan War psychic powers were considered a myth, and at most a hoax made to scam people, with the only factions that truly know it exist was the Heralds of Chaos, being its first practioner, and the Grey Steel Order, but even then they only know it exists as they have live to witness the Chaos Sorcerer's magic.

But the first public use of psychic power outside of the Heralds had come during the midpoint of the war, where both sides had reached a stalemate and desperate to find a way to break it. As Emet began reading battlefield reports he noticed something.

These reports ranged from their enemies turning on each other for no reason, spies willingly surrendering and giving them their secrets, to outright a commander giving them his platoon's vehicles. Yet all of these events had one common thread, that being that they involved a young conscript known only as Yuri, who is now known as the de facto leader of the Collective.

Impressed by these reports Emet had invited Yuri to his court to test if these so-called "psychic powers" are true. And after a showcasing of his powers, the highlight of the showcase having Yuri take control of Alexander Romanov and having him dance on Emets table with his pants on his head, Yuri was promoted as the head of the newly made "Omega" Branch, where the field of psionics skyrocketed. And in a few months of the Omega branch inception, the battle began to tip in Garleans favors as the new "Omega Troopers" could take control of their enemies or even kill them with pyrokinetic darts.

But even then they were not enough to and soon the battle turned against the Voshkod, ending with the death of Emet and the rise of Cherdenko.

Cherdenko's Law
One of Cherdenko's first, and most controversial, laws was the immediate disbanding of the Omega Branch. And when he was rebuffed by Yuri he immediatly sent his Black Guards and Spetsnaz to wipe out the branch by force.

To this day no one knows why he would torch the Voshkod secret weapon. But two theories arise, since Cherdenko never revealed his past up to his death.

The first was that Cherdenko had come from another timeline where the Omega Branch continued even after Emet's death. Which eventually led to the branch forming its own army, led by Yuri, who was strong enough to take over Gaiaterra, and Cherdenko and his friends, Gregor Zelinsky, Krukov, and Reznov, had managed to escape by using a time machine to go back to the ending days of the GVAW to ensure that Yuri doesn't rise to power.

The second theory is that a young Cherdenko had witnessed his village fall to ruin by a cult of Chaos, barring the anti-magical Khorne, which led to him seeing psychics as a force of corruption and evil.

Thanks to Cherdenko the psychic research the Voshkod had was wiped and further research brutally suppressed. Though the nation's hatred of magic would solidify with the rise of the current Premier Lunafreya.

The Purifier Program
Feeling that Cherdenko was too lenient in the field of psychic suppression. Lunafreya had initiated the Purifier program. Creating an organization that is tasked with eliminating any psychics within and without. While drilling in constant propaganda about how psychics are only powers of corruption used by cheaters and monsters. And creating weapons built to specifically counter psychics.

But unlike Cherdenko there is evidence as to why Lunafreya abhors psychics. And all of it involves an operation she took during the Cold War when she was just a Spetsnaz, known only as "Tunguska".

The Horrors Of Tunguska
To those who heard it on the news, the Tunguska incident was a strange event that had wiped out the sleepy town,

(Lore incomplete)

In the end, Lunafreya and her team realized that the town was now a cult worshipping the Chaos God Nurgle. And in the ensuing battle, Lunafreya had witnessed the horrific powers of psychics, from one of her teammates slowly melting to death as he gets infected by a virus that causes the body to liquidate to the cultists growing grotesque tumors to "heal" their injuries. And, realizing how big the cult was, overloaded the city's reactors, causing them to explode and douse the entire city in a concentrated defoliant, which she only survived by hiding inside an underground military bunker.

By the time the army came to the town they only found a barren land filled with defoliant sludge and melted buildings. And at the entrance was Lunafreya, the only person in the city, her eyes hollow and broken.