NEWTONIA
by Richard Bell
Newtonia is governed by the paradigm that the results of the
Michelson-Morley experiment was properly interperated. Light
travels at constant speed with respect to the ether, the Earth
is at rest with respect to the ether, and the Earth is at the
center of the Universe (supported by Hubble's observations).
The major effect of this was to prevent the need to create quantum
physics to explain the effects of an ether-less universe.
EVERYTHING IS DETERMINATE; THERE IS NO UNCERTAINTY; NEWTON'S
CLOCKWORK REIGNS SUPREME.
All of Newtonia is ordered. The landscape has been sculpted into
what people think Nature should be like. The roads twist and turn,
not because they follow an old cow-path, but because curves in the
roads make the towns and cities more pleasant. Garou visiting
Newtonia will find it very distubring (more on them later).
Economics:
The economy of Newtonia is driven by tass. To make the sleepers
comfortable with the idea that "Prime is Money", most of the nodes
were shifted to the mines, oilfields, factories, and universities.
Tass is available in low-grade, and high-grade, forms. Coal, oil,
natural, gas, and mineral ores are all low-grade tass (a few tenths
of a point per ton), while ergominium (at one point per kg) is high
grade. Coinage is minted with a Matter 2, Prime 3 effect to remove
any undesirable resonances. The fact that the currency contains
quintessence makes counterfiets impossible to pass of on Scientists
with at least Prime 1, and criminals who circulate counterfiet
coinage among the sleepers are actively hunted. Scientists could
cause rampant inflation, in theory, by meditating at nodes and
flooding the economy with new coins (a single point of quint is alot
of money); the consumption of quint in experiments offsets this
effect (three points of quint spent to reduce the difficulty of an
effect would be three months' pay for a day-labourer). To keep the
tass flowing, rail lines, pipelines, canals, and roadway all run
along ley-lines.
Technology:
Without Quantum Physics, there are no electronics, but that does
not eliminate high technology. There are mechanical and fluidic
computers driving the information technology, and there are no
quantum effects to limit possibilities of miniaturization. The
television is based on reciprocity of an interesting effect: when
certain crystals are mechanically stressed, they emit light, so
when they are impinged upon by light, they deform. There is an
equivalent of every high-tech device in Newtonia, it just works
differently. Laser beams are emitted by incredibly small klystrons
and magnetrons; supercomputers based on the wave interaction of
beams of light are every bit as fast as semiconductor processors,
even though they are fundamentally different.
The industrial prime mover is the steam turbine; although, extensive
use is still made of the piston internal combustion engine, and
gas turbines where specific power is important (automobiles and
aircraft). Mass transit is powered by steam or electric locomotives.
Air travel is by lighter-than-air, gas filled, dirigibles; winged
and rotorcraft; or cavorite (gravity shielded) airships. Water-
borne transport is by steam or sail.
Standard of Living:
There is little crime, and no unemployment. The Economists ensure
that there are opportunities for all of the sleepers. Psychiatric
specialists can adjust deviants, when they crop up, so there are
also no prisons. All homes and apartments have gas lines, waterlines,
compressed air lines, along with the microbore tubing that carry the
basic four audio, and two video information and entertainment
channels (the television is a shuttered gaslight with mirrors
controlled by a pneumatic computer). Mechanical devices in the home
are powered by either air or gas turbines depending on size.
More affluent residences have electricity, and electrical appliances,
and can receive the radio broadcasts. Within the city, the limited
of pneumatic, or hydraulic information lines is not a problem, and
electric telephone lines link up the cities.
Society:
The society is structured along the lines of victorian england, and
any sleeper at home in one, would quickly get used to the other.
Mages would find startling differences. The sleepers know about the
existence of SCIENCE!, and understand that Scientists are striving to
improve everybody's lot. Mages who are not Scientists are accepted,
so long as they do not indulge in luddism. Tribals, as non-Scientific
mages are called, often find work as mediums and faith healers, and the
greatest criminologist of the realm is a cultist of Ecstasy. The
sleepers know that if they are in dire straits, they can go to the
Scientists, and in return, they allow the Scientists to govern.
Scientists
are expected to always help sleepers for no more than the sleeper can
reasonably afford. Many members of Newtonia's elite are sleepers, as
the Scientists often have more important things to aquire than wealth
and power. The education system sifts through the each generation to
ensure everyone finds their place, and no task is left undone.
Mage society centers around The University which is divided into the
colleges of Dimensional Science (Correspondence),Thermodynamics (Entropy
and Prime), Physics (Forces), Chemistry (Matter), The Humanities (Mind),
Biology (Life), and Chronology (Time). Some Dimensional Scientists
dabble in Spirit, but such research is not considered important. The
seven
faculties are housed in a huge ring of building around the Great Meeting
Hall. The Hall is situated above the only node in the capitol city of
Philosophia (which encourages Scientists to take part in the discussions
of State). All of the other regions of Newtonia also have research
institutes above nodes where Scientists gather to discuss business [and
aquire quintessence]; these gatherings are called symposia.
Scientists are charged with the care of the sleepers, and disputes are
almost always decided in favour of the sleeper. Mage crimes are
Luddism,
(attacking the State), theft of resources (tass), and abusing the
sleepers.
These crimes are always dealt with promptly, and with great severity.
For example, any mage who kills sleepers by rending them for
quintessence
will be gilgulled, and then pattern bled at regular intervals until he
has learned his lesson, before being finally executed.
Police, and Other Petty Officials
Because of the temptation to meddle with the minds of annoying
constables
and beaurocrats is very great, they are selected for very high willpower
and/or implanted with devices that record external mental influences.
As the eugenics movement is strong in Newtonia, strong willed sleepers
are
shockingly plentiful. Thus petty officials have, depending on their
authority,
willpowers of 8, 9 or 10. The exception are the customs officials, who
have
10 willpower to a man. All peace officers are perceptive and aware,
even
though they are sleepers. All influencing mind effects against peace
officers
are vulgar with witness.
Kindred
The rules of the Masquerade are different in Newtonia, due to the
ruthless
efficiency of awakened vampire hunters. No killing, no forced taking of
vitae, and never drinking deeply of any vessel. Creating progeny is
very
difficult, due to the trouble of finding someone that noone will miss.
Due
to the sects feeding and breeding habits, the Sabbat has been totally
wiped
out.
Garou
The only garou in Newtonia are a sept of bone gnawers who managed to
persuade the Biologists that they were worth preserving. After much
begging and scraping, they preserved their cairn; although, it was
shifted to the janitors' lunchroom of The Great Hall, where the sept is
now employed. All of the other garou were too proud to try such a
surrender, and died trying to protect their cairns. Garou visiting from
outside will find the place very disturbing, and hopelessly calcified by
the weaver, but they will not be persecuted if they are not causing
trouble.
Unscientific Mages
Visiting mages will be confered with the status of 'tribals'.
Dreamspeaker
and Virtual Adept mages will have the most difficulties. Newtonia is
more
attuned with the shadowlands, than the near Umbra, and the computers of
the
Virtual Adepts are quite vulgar. SoE mages will fit right in with
society,
but there may be paradigm clashes with local reality. Marauders who do
not
indulge in luddism, or don't disrupt orderly society are tolerated;
otherwise,
they are dealt with like any other rogue mage. The Nephandi were
destroyed.
NOTE: Because the sleepers know what Scientists do, and they actively
support the Scientific paradigm, and mold static reality to strengthen
the
Scientists, the Scientists can ride roughshod over all perceived enemies
of
Ascension.
Newtonia's Darker Side (This is the WoD, afterall)
Newtonia is stagnant. Only the inability of anyone else to interfere on
the Scientists home turf keeps out the enemies. If the trail that the
Scientists are blazing to Ascension doesn't get there soon enough, the
velvet glove will peel off of the mailed fist. When Newtonia's
opponents
can overcome her security, Newtonia will disintegrate faster than
Socialist
Romania. I have described Newtonia in its summer.
Interesting Inhabitants:
Professor Emeritas Otto Van Heeswyjk
This small inoffensive little man appears to be a marauder, but is
really
an oracle of Spirit. He is affectionately known as "Uncle Otto", and
the
sleepers view him as an intercessionary figure between them and God (the
sleepers of Newtonia are predominantly protestant christians). He does
not visit Newtonia often, but he arrives to either meet interesting new
people, or to preside over trials of capital crimes. Anyone who attacks
him must counter his sheild, a
forces/correspondence/life/matter/mind/prime
spirit/time/entropy effect that preemptively strikes entities that
direct
harmful effects his way with hostile intent from anywhere (even through
the
gauntlet) that removes all of their weaponry, strips them of any
quintessence, and reduces then to incapacitated with aggravated damage.
The effect is coincidental, with six successes, that does (per success)
four levels of damage and steals three points of gnosis/blood/quint, as
appropriate and removes all clothing, non-talisman posessions, teeth,
and nails. Talismans lose three points of quintessence per success.
Garou
also lose one point of rage per success. Only the first seven points of
unsoaked damage are applied. The effect is coincidental due to sleeper
belief in Otto's powers. If encountered outside of the court and not
attacked,
Otto will babble meaninglessly, at 10 arete he is too disjoint from
reality,
nod politely, do something nice in an incomprehensible fashion for
unfathomable reasons, and then depart.
Sherlock Holmes (call a spade, a spade)
A tribal of high repute who helps solve all manner of crimes. He is a
cultist
of Ecstasy with arete 5, and at least one pip of each sphere. Sherlock
has
at least mind 3, time 2, correspondence 2, to enable him to look about
crime
scene and determine what happened, by whom, and why.(I wish I had my
notes with me).
Arthur Trvithick
A Customs Officer, Arthur is unawakened, but aware. He derives
significant
pleasure by making mages respect his authority. His high willpower
makes
him immune to the veil, and almost impossible to dominate. Majesty
improves
his efficiency, not his temperment.
Game Effects:
The Gauntlet between Newtonia and the Near Umbra is 9 in the cities and
towns,
and 8 elsewhere (5 in the janitors' lunchroom of The Great Hall).
Linking
with the shadow lands is difficulty 7 and is otherwise treated like the
near umbra.
Technomancy based on the Bohr atom, the photoelectric effect, special
and
general relativity, probability waves, particle wave duality, Heisenburg
uncertainty, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, any
subatomic
particle besides electrons, and alot of other things that I can't think
of
offhand are all vulgar. Most technocracy talismans will cease to work
when imported into Newtonia, unless infused with quintessence, and they
have the minimum arete necessary to perform their function. The
following
is a short, and definitely not exhaustive, list of these talismans:
digital
watches (time1), video cameras (time2,corr2, forces2 with TV), and
everything else with at least one transistor. Any use of these devices
will
garner paradox.
For a visitor's magick to be coincidental, it must be within the mage's
paradigm, and Newtonia's governing paradigm (the most fascinating
interactions in my wife's campaign revolved around trying to figure out
what was coincidental in the region that the players were in).
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Anders Sandberg / nv91-asa@nada.kth.se