While elite consensus gradually coalesced around the Uniform Platform, many (perhaps most) Viridians longed for a return to prosperity. The term Renovationism first gained currency in the early 5300s in reaction to the activities of the Rayechton Group, and remained a rallying point for Viridian populist dissenters well into the next century. Never a movement or a philosophy so much as a constellation of dissatisfactions and dissenting views, Renovationism generally implied:

1. A desire to find a new power source to replace the Third Nova Generator. In this capacity Renovationism inspired much valuable science and also exacerbated certain interspecies tensions.
2. An attachment to the Viridian system. Although Renovationism had much sympathy out on the Free Rocks, almost no Renovationist groups endorsed a full-fledged Return to the Stars.
3. An interest in historical architecture, perhaps the closest point of agreement between Renovationism and movements such as Hands Alive, although they parted company over the Renovationist drive to recolonize old arcologies.
4. A veneration for historical figures such as Elgani Bariarch, although the old statesman surely would not have condoned the Renovationist enthusiasm for Wosimymy.

—Thucydides Plutonium