Path: news.kth.se!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!jobone!lynx.unm.edu!argo.unm.edu!not-for-mail From: rkelly@unm.edu (Robert Kelly) Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf Subject: The RISE of the TECHNOCRACY Date: 1 Dec 1994 06:46:21 -0700 Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Lines: 320 Message-ID: <3bkk3d$2pdn@argo.unm.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: argo.unm.edu My Version of the Technocracy: History and Additional Stuff. --Note, this is the way I play White Wolf's WOD. Previous to this time: AK Brothers, Dreamspeakers, and some neo-Verbena, neo-Euthanatos, and neo-Ahl- I-Batin existed as awakened mages. All of them have been highly influenced by the rise of the Technocracy. You can take as much as you want or leave it all. I'd appreciate an embellishment. All quotes come from the Encyclopedia Britannica. 1800 BC Babylonian Astronomy: non-magical scientists learn how to predict the actions of the stars. 5th c BC Ionia at this time is developing the sources for money, later will produce the first "coin" of a valuable metal. Pythagoreans develop Greek astronomical theories to demonstrate "Order of the Cosmos is fundamentally mathematical." Invention/Discovery/Creation of "0" awakens the first Questing and Dynamic essences. At this time, the most advanced magical spheres are Mind 1 and Matter 1 by what is to become Iteration X. Currently, there are no convention/tradition mages, just Awakened people who trade ideas and by doing so, perpetuate one form of thought or another. Combination of the "Predictions" and Numerology, "The universe holds a central fire which all heavenly bodies--including the Earth-- revolves around." This concept plants ideas into neo-Celestial Chorus, which rise to power in the next five to seven centuries. 4th c BC Plato & Aristotle: "A constant motion requires a constant cause, as long as a body remains in motion, a force is action on that body. Nothing can exist in a Void, for in a void, resistance is zero and the relationship is undefined." While these void words are not pondered upon directly by Awakened beings, they will become the founding of a convention in two thousand years. Birth of the Rationalist Philosophers, with the motto "If we can rationalize it, then it exists." This statement lead to wider Awakenings. 3rd c BC Rise of Archimedes. "Give me a lever big enough and I can move the world." The Rationalists split, nearly destroyed, by the machinations of Archimedes. Celestial Chorus-types take major control of developing Greek Civilization and later the Romans. Both Philip the Great and Alexander the Great were Awakened individuals. Archimedes becomes the first casualty in what escalates into Ascension War. The race to Awaken sleepers begins. The losing side of the split become the Pythagorean Numerologists and move to the isle of Sicily. Later manipulate Carthage to fight Rome and lose soundly. "Principia Mathematica" is written, later lost, and the Numerologists begins to lose cohesion. Year 0 Celestial Chorus, after discovering Prime 2, go for all out control. first wide-spread use of a "meme" as a mental virus. Verbena, Dreamspeakers, and Akashic Brothers are discovered by the way-ward Phythagorean Numerologists, who learn greatly from them. 2nd c AD Greek texts lost to Arabic cultures, giving rise to the Ahl-I-Batin, who are resistant to the rise of Rome and the Celestial Chorus. 7th c AD Ahl-I-Batin influences Judaism in subtle ways to give rise to Qabbalists, later pre-Order of Hermes. Symbolic Occult and Alchemy is heavily influence by the Pythagoreans Numerologists. by the combination of these two events, the first Order of Hermes mage (Hermes Trimestes.) awakens. 12 th c AD Rise of the University as guided by former Numerologists and neo-New World Order operatives--a little known sect of monks call the Order of Barakat secretly import a Ahl-I-Batin scroll into a university near Islamic Spain to create the some of the largest forerunners to the now Sons of Ether. The Order of Barakat then manipulates the Knight Templar and spur the rise of the Inquisition, targeting Judaism (therefor Qaballah and Order of Hermes, somehow, it gets far out of control and the Celestial Chorus starts attacking all mages. The Order of Barakat uses France to create 2 popes-- further limiting the power of the Celestial Chorus. This is the first coffin nail for the Celestial Chorus. Several members of the Order of Barakat leave to merge with the Numerologists. 12/13th c AD The merging of Barakat and Numerologists create the Hanseatic League , working throughout the old world to give the rise to scientific powers and research. Marco Polo finds money for financing his trades with the Far East-- thus the neo-Syndicate spread (as does the Celestial Chorus). However, since the Celestial Chorus stuck out like a sore thumb, they received most of the brunt from other mages. Together with the neo-Sons of Ether, mages begin developing new mathematics and new theories in earnest to awaken more sleepers. 15th c AD Celestial Chorus falls into another trap as the Sons of Ether offer--as a peace treaty--that the Bible be the first book printed on the new printing press. The press necessitates the need to learn written language, spurned on by universities and free thought. The Order of Barakat is discovered and purged by the Celestial Chorus. No longer hidden, these awakened being call themselves the Principal Mathematicians, dedicating their lives to solving the equation of the universe mathematically. 1492 AD Spain "discovers" America--the New World-- which the Hanseatic League encourages the birth of the New World Order. Combined with the printing press, and their activities as the Order of Barakat, and a wayward Order of Hermes tradition, the New World Order slowly rises to power within the conventions. The NWO develops memetic warfare into a science--everything from a divorce of a king to the sonnets of a poet become warfare in their hands. 1543 AD The New World Order steps forward as the leader. They invite the Hanseatic League, the pre- Sons of Ether, and the Principal Mathematicians to work together. Under their hands, the Pogrom becomes officialized by the groups involved. The Prunetic Tables and Copernicus' Revolution of Celestial Orbs place more nails into the coffin of the Celestial Chorus. The Order of Hermes is spurned by the New World Order, but good relations are kept to prevent a similar war with them--but the NWO knew they were only buying time and set up contingencies. Principle Mathematician Copernicus's best idea was to stop trying to change the world as it was right now--it was too hard and the Celestial Chorus held most of the cards. To change the world's future was much easier. His actions lead to the creation of the "Forecasters": then called the Prediction of Thought and Matter. The most powerful of the conventions were chosen to become, Copernicus one of them. circa this time: Between 1400 and 1600, the Gauntlet becomes a force to be reckoned with. With the destruction of Ahl- I-Batin and Celestial Chorus nodes, the Gauntlet is observed to spread. Horizon realms, which were once widely used by other traditions, now become necessary for mages to work, study and experiment. The Order of Hermes abandons most of their mundane activity. Paradox starts to become a serious problem for mages at this point in time. 1669 AD The Hanseatic League disbands. After the Principle Mathematicians and Sons of Ether discuss their "discontent," moderated by the New World Order, a splinter group rises to power, the Gnomes of Zurich, who exist to influence societies through money and colonization. They create several large banks--especially in Holland, Denmark, and England-- to further their control. 17-19 c AD Several Awakened persona return from the New World. Formerly the New World Order, their journeys had changed them drastically--almost making them as useless to the rest of the conventions. At first, they had a pipe for a focus, but the Sons of Ether created better vessels for which they could travel. Charles Babbage and his machine give rise to the Difference Engineers, who immediately apply for membership within what they called the Technocracy. The term stuck. The Principal Mathematicians predict the Xth Iteration of their mathematical equation to unlock Ascension. The appropriately change their name to Iteration-X. Late 1800's Two genius Sons of Ether engage in the War of the Currents. Tesla's and Edison's hatred for each other becomes legendary. To prevent further embarrassment, New World Order plots the downfall of the Sons of Ether. Iteration-X encounters a monk named Mendel, and the Gnomes of Zurich sponsor Charles Darwin to go on a trip around the world. Combined with socialist theory of the New World Order mage Marx, the rise of the Social Darwinists are guided into the light-- soon they change their name to the Progenitors. They join, with the New World Order, in the bitter fight of evolution vs. creationism. 1900's While Tesla and Jules Verne are on the moon in their Ether-Balloon, the Technocracy, egged on by a jealous and insane Edison, votes to destroy destroy the Ether. Edison is shot in the head soon thereafter and a Progenitor/It-X golem is left in his place. Verne is succumbed by paradox. The New World Order, showing that it no longer needs the Sons of Ether, has an unawakened man, Albert Einstein, promote their views across the world. Randolph Hearst becomes the first Syndicate/Gnome mage to known to the traditions in nearly one hundred years. A Cult of Ecstasy mage, a tradition hardly unheard of or involved in the Ascension, supports Orson Welles in his portrayal of this evil Technocracy member. The result leads to Hearst being sabotaged and killed in his eerie mansion. The Sons of Ether fight back: knowing that the Technocracy depends on analysis of the here and now to predict/change the future, they create an anti- meme: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle--thus creating the largest obstacle to the Technocracy's Pogrom. The New World Order manipulate the US Government to allow big business and organized crime to rise. The Gnomes of Zurich rename themselves after their largest acolytes: the Syndicate. The Progenitors create the Watson-Crick DNA stand with the Iteration-X paradigm. The New World Order use the last great inventions of the Sons of Ether to promote their control of the masses: Movies, Television, and Radio, creating centralized areas from which they can program the minds of the masses. My version of each convention Reality, under the Technocracy, is scientifically driven and mathematically proven. IT-X's sole purpose is to create/discover the mathematical solution which solves/dissolves the world. When Ascension occurs, the Technocracy will no longer have to care about the physical world, therefore they do not care about using the world's resources. The New World Order seeks to create a hegemony of semiotics, images that automatically produce other images, which in turn will signal a mass, unified Ascension where everyone is performing the exact same signal for Ascension at the same time. Progenitors are seeking a mathematical solution to all the forms of life--genetic codes, fingerprint whorls, the numbers of hair on your head. Only they and the New World Order are working at defining the past and the future. The Syndicate seeks the influence of money, and is uniquely tied to the roots of the Technocracy by spreading the concept of Zero. The more one realizes that he or she has nothing, then the more one realizes that they could have something more than Zero. The way to get more easily is to have money, to make money, you have to have money, if you don't have any money, you need to borrow money... and so on. Some Virtual Adepts tease that the Syndicate seeks to indebt everyone in the world and simultaneously remove it--causing so much emotional impact that the world ignites through Ascension. The Void Engineers? Remember the statement, "Nothing can exist in a Void, for in a void, resistance is zero and the relationship is undefined." Well, they seek to exist in a Void. Of all the conventions, they are the weirdest and most bizarre. What, I didn't mention the Forecasters? Funny, that. [PS, as I was spell checking this doc, the word creationism was flagged and the suggestion was cretinism. Funny, that too, the Technocracy works in strange ways.] Robert Kelly rkelly@unm.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * To speak is to lie * To live is to collaborate * Everyone is a coward when faced with the Nova Ovens _Nova__Express_, William S. Burroughs