http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/mage-the-awakening/7826-technocracy-in-awakening-changing-paradigms
MY NOTES
- The Great Refusal stopped this. The Technocracy achieves the Singularity and creates the God-Machine.
- The Pantechnicon has many branches: representing what never was... like the Void Engineers etc.
- Use Science Magic/Gifted from Mage Chronicler's Guide page 56
The title more or less says it-I'm thinking of switching the Seers out with the Technocracy, but I'm not sure how to work it given the dynamics of the universe and reconcile it with the Free Council and Silver Ladder, so I'm knocking for thoughts. Go.
Im gonna mention this fun fact that normally nobody brings up. The sons of the ether paradign is the same as awakening, isnt that weird? I would say that for that you could amp the technocracy lure, they offer magic without paradox (well not really but with a lot less) so the great refusal of the free council should be even bigger deal. Are you planning to enforce paradign in your setting? Because if you dont, then the bigger issue could be the adamantine arrows, the technocracy offers them highly efficent method of magic if they only pay lip service to the technology. If you do use paradign i would say threat the ladder as the order of hermes (good intentions but too much politics) and the free council as sons of the ether+virtual adepts
I prefer Awakening's metaphysics, but prefer the Technocracy over the Seers. So the main change is to the Technocracy, not the world.
I have a couple of suggestions.
1. Use the Mage Translation Guide extra content that Malcolm posted a while back.
Technocratic Actualizations and Utopias
Technocrats don’t undergo “vision quests” or “mystery plays”— or at least say they don’t. At the cusp of comprehending Enlightened Science, these prodigies undergo a moment of Actualization, where they harness their knowledge to fulfill a moral imperative. They imagine a glorious end of history their methods will bring about: a Utopia.
In a game where Technocrats Awaken to the Watchtowers, their Paths and Realms might look something like this:
The Garden, Utopia of Engineered Life (The Primal Wild):
The prodigy dreams of an engineered natural paradise, where all human needs can be met by biological machines. Intelligence has been engineered into virtually every species, and immortal humans live among them as simply as hunter-gatherers, but free of disease and filled with the sum total of human knowledge, which grows within them as an instinct. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Biology and often become Progenitors.
The Market, Utopia of Free Exchange (Arcadia):
Humans become true rational economic actors, rejecting all laws except for freely negotiated contracts. This is a culture of tremendous wealth, able to build projects requiring eons to complete. Still, one must be careful of the self-made Executives who can build worlds out of their desires. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Utility and often join the Syndicate.
The Republic, Utopia of Social Harmony (Pandemonium):
Ubiquitous surveillance and rational ideologies create a world without conflict. Only merit determines one’s social position. Advanced psychology diverts destructive emotions to useful ends. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Society and often join the New World Order.
The Singularity, Utopia of Transhumanism (Stygia):
Engineering, AI and uploaded minds create a world of spiritual machines. Humanity is gone; self-modifying, immortal patterns of information construct the bodies they wish. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Engineering and often join Iteration X.
Type V, Utopia of Cosmic Humanity (The Aether):
Spreading across the known universe, humanity harnesses the total energy of this reality and others seething in quantum foam—a “Type V” civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Physics and often join the Void Engineers.
In a game with this setup, many Virtual Adepts Awaken to Utopias instead of conventional Supernal Realms, though some may tread into their mystic manifestations instead, and spend their lives reconciling reason and mysticism.
2. There's one reference to the Technocracy in the Mage core rulebook. The Seers of the Throne sent emissaries to the nameless cabals that were at war with the Diamond orders. The seers offered an alliance to wed technological (techngnostic) and cultural magic to the Seers' agenda of control. Perhaps, in your universe, the nameless cabals agreed to form the Technocracy.
3. Oh, you could also use the rules for scientific magic from the Mage Chronicler's Guide.
I noticed that you’re considering the Technocracy as a replacement for the Seers of the Throne. I’m assuming, then, that you’re thinking of the Technocratic Union in terms of being the oppressive establishment that mages struggle against — as opposed to, say, being the champions of science and reason in a world full of superstition and madness.
On the subject of how the Technocracy thinks about magic, I would second Octavo’s recommendations: read the “Gifted Science” section in the Mage Chronicler’s Guide to get a sense of their mindset; but ignore what that section has to say about Gifted Scientists not having Paths, and use the Technocratic Utopias as their equivalent of Watchtowers. Note that this is still a somewhat awkward patch: according to the Technocratic Utopias, the Path of Biology deals with spirits; the Path of Engineering deals with ghosts; the Syndicate doesn’t deal with Prime, and the Void Engineers deal with neither Space nor Spirit. Frankly, you might be better off handling the various Conventions (or even individual Methodologies) as Legacies rather than as Paths. However, my favorite choice here would be to treat them like the Seers’ Great Ministries, complete with Prelacies — but with technological overtones. You know how the recent Convention Books ended up giving the New World Order, the Syndicate, and the Void Engineers customized versions of Correspondence, Prime, and Spirit, respectively? Well, you could give the New World Order a Space-based Prelacy based around the concept of Data; the Syndicate could get a Prime-based Prelacy built on the concept of Primal Utility; and the Void Engineers could get a Spirit-based Prelacy emulating Dimensional Science. To round it out, I’d give Iteration X a Matter-based Prelacy dealing with mechanics, and the Progenitors should get some sort of Life-based Prelacy.
Note that since the Union is not the Seers of the Throne, this implies that they don’t serve the Exarchs — which throws a significant monkey wrench into Awakening’s metaphysics, which heavily feature the notion that the Exarchs are responsible for the Abyss and for the Lie. To a large extent, the Seers are a reflection of the Exarchs, and would probably exist in any cosmology that includes the Exarchs. I think that you’ll probably need to tweak the metaphysics ever so slightly. Were it me, I’d use the sample Global Organization from God-Machine Chronicle for inspiration:
In the days of myth and legend, the gods were all-powerful; then Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals. The first mortals touched by the fire of the gods became mystics and wizards, shaman and priests, channeling the source of creation toward their own selfish ends. Eventually the stolen fire ebbed to mere cinders. The greedy fire-touched mortals sought to ascend to the heavens to supplant the gods and warm themselves by the divine fire for all eternity.
As in most stories of unbridled hubris, this story ended badly. The God-Machine destroyed their civilization, and over time, the remaining fire-touched retreated to the corners of the world, bickering with each other and licking their wounds. The survivors began to plot anew, scheming to discover a new means of achieving power. They denied the God-Machine and struck all memory of it from the minds of men, shrouding it in sorcery. It was their foolish belief that a thing forgotten would lose all power. In time, they even began to believe the lie themselves and banished the God-Machine from their thoughts. They created new myths to explain the fall of the ziggurat, passing down the story to their apprentices.
In short, replace the Exarchs with the God-Machine. The God-Machine destroyed Atlantis and placed the Abyss between the Supernal and Phenomenal World. Instead of having angels as the agents of its agenda, it uses Technocrats. It is what the Union refers to as Control. And it is what gives the Conventions their Prelacies.
Originally posted by Dataweaver View Post
Note that since the Union is not the Seers of the Throne, this implies that they don’t serve the Exarchs — which throws a significant monkey wrench into Awakening’s metaphysics, which heavily feature the notion that the Exarchs are responsible for the Abyss and for the Lie.
Or maybe they do, the exarch could be "control" a godlike entity who infest the organzation. Because the main difference between the Technocracy and the Seers is the fact that the former are sympathetic so you could make it a symphatetic organization with noble goals being infested by something "wrong". They dont know about the exarch or served them readily as the seers but the exarchs do exert control over the organization in subtle creepy way
To me, if you drop the cosmological points and just go with the politics, you’ll end up with something that’s essentially indistinguishable from the Seers of the Throne. That said, much of this depends on what exactly ArcaneArts is looking for in the Technocracy. What is it about them that you prefer to the Seers of the Throne?
I understand some of what the Seers are going for-people en masse want security and also want a (reasonably) secure way to go up in their lot in life, but on the whole, the Seers goal-lockdown all of humanity-is pretty blandly evil and only has so much moral grey to it-that exists at a individual level,which is fine in it's own way. I admit part of it just might be I don't understand the Seers well enough, so I suppose that makes a strong second place.
The Technocracy is pretty fucked up too, I grant you that, but I get their big goal-Awaken and Ascend humanity slowly according to their Time Table- is a lot more interesting to me,as is their methods done in this case. From the brainwashing of an individual to the tyranny of ideas(that, admittedly, the Seers have), so much about the Technocracy is both horrifying and understandable.
Mage for me(Awakening anyways) has always had an emphasis on Mages and the Abyss, mostly because I feel that the core of the game revolves around the individual and this struggle nicely opens those doors, but also because most enemy mage options just weren't extremely appealing. Left Hand Path has changed a lot of that, but the Seers have always left me with a want, a want that the Technocracy offers.
I understand some of what the Seers are going for-people en masse want security and also want a (reasonably) secure way to go up in their lot in life, but on the whole, the Seers goal-lockdown all of humanity-is pretty blandly evil and only has so much moral grey to it-that exists at a individual level,which is fine in it's own way. I admit part of it just might be I don't understand the Seers well enough, so I suppose that makes a strong second place.
The Technocracy is pretty fucked up too, I grant you that, but I get their big goal-Awaken and Ascend humanity slowly according to their Time Table- is a lot more interesting to me,as is their methods done in this case. From the brainwashing of an individual to the tyranny of ideas(that, admittedly, the Seers have), so much about the Technocracy is both horrifying and understandable.
Mage for me(Awakening anyways) has always had an emphasis on Mages and the Abyss, mostly because I feel that the core of the game revolves around the individual and this struggle nicely opens those doors, but also because most enemy mage options just weren't extremely appealing. Left Hand Path has changed a lot of that, but the Seers have always left me with a want, a want that the Technocracy offers.
Then i strongly suggest that the exarch could be "control" a godlike entity that infest the organzation. Because of what you are looking for, you could make it a symphatetic organization with noble goals being infested by something "wrong". They dont know about the exarch or served them readily as the seers but the exarchs do exert control over the organization in subtle creepy way. Maybe the Void Engineers fight the abyss without knowing that the Exarchs (or Control) is responsible.
11-11-2013, 03:20 PM
The Technocracy's goals are probably slightly different with Awakening cosmology.
The Precepts of Damian
Article 1:
Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
Article 2:
Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
Article 3:
Protect the Gauntlet, the Astral realms, and maintain the barriers against the Abyss. Irresponsible Individuals who open the Gauntlet with impunity threaten to overwhelm the world with chaotic extradimensional entities. Meddling in the Temenos can threaten the stability and direction of the collective unconscious. Portals to the Abyss also allow Scelesti to grant destructive entities access to our world. This must never happen.
Article 4:
Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
Article 5:
Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity. Note: this directive is relaxed in regards to the Guardians of the Veil, who rarely destabilize reality with their talents.
Article 6:
Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
I'm not really satisfied with the above. I've only largely modified Article 3 to reflect the goals the Technocracy would maintain in the Awakened world. I would assume that the NWO would spend the most time in the Temenos trying to memetically re-engineer humanity's collective unconscious. Most Void Engineers would patrol the Shadow to look for marauding spirits, while more daring Void Engineers would explore more dangerous realms like the Underworld, the Hedge, or even Emanations of the Supernal.
ArcaneArts: How big of a deal is the Technocracy’s focus on technology in your view? Is it something that’s just for the masses, something that Technocrats dabble in (i.e., similar to how Ars Nova is most prevalent in the Free Council, but is neither exclusive to them or universal among them), or something that’s central to their identity?
Part of my problem is that, in nWoD terms, it's easy to see the Technocracy as an evil fusion of the Free Council and the Silver Ladder. A big part of this is getting perspective on the value of the Seers, even if I think the Technocracy is the better choice(because, honestly, Octavo's list looks a lot like the Seers thingy, which backtracks on them being a better choice).
Getting back to the question from Data, that's part of the problem-In Ascension, that shit was important, here, it's only so much. So as is, my attention to their focus on tech is...fluid. I guess I don't hyper-worry about it, but the cooler or more dynamic it makes an Awakened Technocracy, the more prevalent it is.
I dunno, in short. It's hard to decide just how important it should be in Awakening, which makes an argument of tweaking the Seers web of misinformation over porting in the Technocracy.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 1:
Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
I would delete “stasis and” from this. Bring order and predictability? Sure. But a highly ordered system can also be very dynamic.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 2:
Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
OK; but why? Specifically, what’s their justification for promoting these things among the masses? In Ascension, the justification was that the propaganda campaign would become a self-fulfilling prophesy if enough Sleepers bought into it; but Awakening doesn’t have a Consensus. So what’s the motivation here?
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 3:
Protect the Gauntlet, the Astral realms, and maintain the barriers against the Abyss. Irresponsible Individuals who open the Gauntlet with impunity threaten to overwhelm the world with chaotic extradimensional entities. Meddling in the Temenos can threaten the stability and direction of the collective unconscious. Portals to the Abyss also allow Scelesti to grant destructive entities access to our world. This must never happen.
This seems reasonable enough.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 4:
Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
And with Awakening’s metaphysics (short of Imperial Mysteries, which is a playing field that the Technocracy shouldn’t worry about), this article’s underlying premise is broken. It may need to be deleted outright.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 5:
Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity. Note: this directive is relaxed in regards to the Guardians of the Veil, who rarely destabilize reality with their talents.
Terminology needs to be re-examined, to make sure that it actually means something in the context of Awakening’s metaphysics.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 6:
Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
Sounds reasonable.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
I'm not really satisfied with the above. I've only largely modified Article 3 to reflect the goals the Technocracy would maintain in the Awakened world. I would assume that the NWO would spend the most time in the Temenos trying to memetically re-engineer humanity's collective unconscious. Most Void Engineers would patrol the Shadow to look for marauding spirits, while more daring Void Engineers would explore more dangerous realms like the Underworld, the Hedge, or even Emanations of the Supernal.
Err… Supernal Emanations are still on the “other side” of the Abyss, and thus beyond the reach of regular mages.
Er, yes. I just wrote that because I assumed there would be some Archmage Void Engineers, and I couldn't think of any additional Otherworlds for the VEs to explore.
Maybe repurposing the Seer mandates will end up being more useful.
Conquer the Watchtowers
The Oracles made the Watchtowers and Awakening has survived in the Fallen World. Control seeks to understand the Watchtowers and their Paths so that they can be seized from the renegades.
Control Magic
Irresponsible use of Magic by renegades threatens the utopia that Control plans to create. Seize every hallow, artifact, or imbued item and place it in the service of the Technocracy.
Guide Humanity
Without the guidance of the Technocracy, sleeper society would fall into chaos. The mandates of the Time Table keeps society stable and carefully progresses it toward utopia.
Destroy the Pentacle/Diamond
Atlantis nearly destroyed the world with its Celestial Ladder, and its heirs must not be allowed to build it again.
Enslave the Old Gods
The extradimensional beings Control cast out of the Supernal plague humanity still. They must be subjugated or destroyed.
Protect Humanity
Control ultimately cares about humans and wants them to be safe. Protect them from renegade mages, blood drinkers, shape changers, and all other predators.
Regulate the Abyss
The Abyss is the worst threat most mages (or anyone for that matter) will ever encounter, but it provides one necessary function - it keeps the Supernal in the capable hands of Control. Do not let the Abyss destroy the fallen world, but do not let the Pentacle eradicate it entirely.
This was fun to write up, but your mileage may vary. I think the biggest difference between the Technocracy and the Seers of the Throne is that while both are violent oppressors, the Technocracy, or at least its propaganda, has benevolent intentions. The Seers want to acquire power for its own sake and they are quite blatant that they do so by serving the very concepts of oppression.
Disguise Magic
Magic is dangerous in any hands but ours, and it should be disguised. All Union use of magic needs to be demystified. All dedicated magical tools should either have moving parts or should be powered by electricity or other non-mystic component. All imbued or enhanced items should be in the form of technology. The Abyss cannot be tricked by imbuing a vulgar spell into a gun or Tesla coil, but humans can be.
I think you were on the right track with the revising of the Precepts of Damian; you simply didn’t go far enough. My comments on the second article weren’t intended to imply that the article should be dropped; rather, it was an invitation to think more deeply as to why they’d want an article like that. For example, if the God-Machine is behind the Technocracy, then the fundamental reason why they seek to spread technology among the masses is simple: it makes life easier for the God-Machine.
Also: if Control is neither the God-Machine nor the Exarchs, what is it? (Not that I’m discounting the former two options; frankly, combining the God-Machine with Mage Chronicler’s Guide's Gifted Science as the metaphysical basis for the Technocracy feels like a natural fit to me.)
Maybe there is no offworld Control, and the Technocracy was an outgrowth of "barbarian mages" who were pissed at the Diamond Orders for breaking the world. In this case, a lot of the Technocracy motivations would remain the same. They would want to end the perceived tyranny and mysticism of Atlantean mages, they would want to explore the fallen world and learn all of its rules (science), and they would want to learn non-atlantean/scientific methods of calling down Supernal power (techgnosticism/Ars Nova). They might have originated as a union between Tamers/Elemental Masteries, Banishers, and heretics from the Diamond Orders.
Okay, so as it goes-with tech, let's assume that the God Machine comes in at some point, but on the whole for both options, with or without the tech emphasis, let's consider this a subtler ploy on the Exarchs.
How do you reconcile the Technocracy and the God Machine BOTH manipulating the group? I actually see it as an interesting chess game between the G-M and the Exarchs- they have a lot of similarities and such, so the main thing this Technocracy does is much the same, but there' still plenty of counter too and fro. The Exarchs are the dominant control, but the God Machine is a good player at this game.
but then the diamond order would be the dominant force. Even in ascension the sole focus of the Technocracy is not eliminating the Traditions but advance humanity. If the technocracy was fully focuses in crushing the diamond and the diamonds is the same weakened non-dominant one of awakening (because in awakening, you play the good but understaffed with little resources mages) then the technocracy would have crushed the diamond long time ago.
And even if they didnt downright eliminate the diamond in 2013 they might as well have won. Mysticism doesnt dominate anything or almost anything and science is the new religion. Wich could be a interesting game but then you are not just replacing the seers with the technocracy you are doing much more.
I know you are not promoting this idea just brainstorming too.
Recall how Iteration X used to worship the Computer, until Autochthonia was cut off from Earth by the Dimensional Anomaly? How might things have turned out if that god-machine had been located on Earth instead of in an extradimensional realm that could be sealed off?
i would suggest revised edition core rulebook. If you want setting alone its perfectly fine read. However if you want hard facts rules i would say give it a try, at the very least you are gonna gain a new appreciation about how the new rulebooks are edited and organized. Or if you only want the technocracy "guide to the technocracy" is a great read.
Tha main thing is paradign, that the core difference. Why the technocracy takes the time to hunt down a bunch of wood witches and voodo priest? because they need everyone to believe their point of view about reality itself in order for mass ascension. Everyone who voices a different opinion is a potential danger to their consensus (the paradign of humanity). The technocracy formed in a era rule by mysticism and superstition and wanted to give the common man a better life but as eras passed they started to believe that they and they alone knew how to archive the "better life"
Thats one of the main problem with transplanting the technocracy to Awakening. Paradign doesnt exist in Awakening and in Ascension the technocracy is the hardest paradigm of all. In awakening mages cast whatever is most convenient at the time however in ascension only Masters can do "wishing very hard upon a star" casting. A technocrat surrounded by Cthulhu like entinties without their focus (ray gun or whatever) is not just gonna cast fireball, he just cant his belief system doesnt allow for "casting fireball from his fingertips" as possible or duable.
Pollitically the other problem comes that the reason technocracy fears the traditions to a degree. Should they sway the consensus on their side then technology would stop working as it does now and many people would suffer for that so the symphatetic side shines a lot more
There's a neat group in Seers - the Skopoi - that spends a lot of time trying to divine the will of the Exarchs through various means. Some of them are really good at divination, but sometimes something else hijacks them, pretends to be the Exarchs and these Skopoi find themselves serving someone else's will. (In my game, a Skopoi pylon was co-oped by an Arisen who sent them dreams).
In classic Ascension Iteration X was a convention of artificers who were trying to create an advanced machine intelligence that would become sentient and then improve upon itself. Basically, they wanted to make a Kurzweil Singularity. At an unknown Iteration of their algorithm, they believed this occurred. In reality, a spirit of technology inhabited their Computer and essentially took over the convention.
I think these ideas could be combined. In this universe, perhaps the Exarchs started to form their Seer cults after the fall of the Ur-City, but the God-Machine started intermittently hijacking the followers of the Exarchs, compelling them to spread tools and machines among sleepers and cloak their magic with a techgnostic praxis. As this does not interfere with the plans of the Exarchs, if they know, they don't care very much.
On the nWoD side of things, remember that during the Nameless War just prior to the 20th century, the Seers approached the proto-Free Council with an offer. If the Free Council had taken them up on it, there would have been a Pantechnicon Ministry within the Seers. Not quite the Technocracy, mind you: they would have existed within the context of the Seers of the Throne, for one thing, with all that comes with that.
Also, the Seers claim to serve the Exarchs; but it’s an open question whether the Exarchs have any interest in the Seers.
The most easy way (that wich dont involve changes to the system) is to think of the technocracy as seers without exarchs to a degree. They hunt/convert mages in order to protect the world from their abuse of power and all the while they "help" the masses with their projects for the betterment of all. They want the betterment of humanity in their way and they way alone and they are so sunk in buracracy that they just cant see how corrupt they sometime can become. Play down or downright elimnate the "magic vs science" because if a technocrat can just do "wishing upon a star" casting then the magic vs technology becomes a little silly.
For example, lets say you are a newly awakened mage you are chilling in your house when they knock on your door. As you watch who is it, you seen the fedoras and mirror-shades men who want to speak with you. They talk nice enough about how they want to recruit you to help the world, its like green peace with Ferraris they tell you and "insist" the you accompany them.
They take you to an office with a very energetic person who talks about how life is potential waiting to happen and how you are special and the world needs your talents. Now lets say you accept because you want to help you fellow man. So this guys start telling you that there are other "special" individuals who dont want to help. They want to give everyone to much to quickly wich would result in chaos and anarchy because you know in your life someone who shouldnt by any mean get special god like powers. This group who dont want to help is misguided, they claim to come from a ancient society but c´mon ideas from 500000 bizilion years ago can be as utopian as they seems. They name it atlantis, can you believe it? They want people to live in a society based in a Disney movie!! That doesn't sounds crazy at all. Would you like to go back to the era of slavery? Raids? Women being inferior to men? of course not, we live in the here and now and while we all want to live in a utopia this other guys are not only counter to our efforts but they actively damage us.
They have guardians of the blindfold or something who go arround making cults to lure the weak and exploit them and they take in themselves to eliminate everyone who they think they are "threath", KGB much? They have this diamantina arrows guys who just come to bully everone they dont like and justify everything they do as "warrior code" or "honor", you hate bullies dont you? Then they have the silver bladder guys who think that give infinite power to a 5 year old child or a serial killer is a responsible way of action!! Can you believe some people would think that? Of course they wanna do that while staying on top as they claim they are best suited to lead than everyone else, I heard of funny little guy in North Korea who used to think in the same way, so a guy in Irak who also did. And finally we have the Street Council, or something who they are well intentioned and they have decent people with decent goals and would they accept out offer they we would accept them with open arms but they just dont want to follow rules or protocol or security measures they play it by ear and while is noble and daring, i, as a supervisor, would never sent my men to do something without a security need. Would you jump from a flaming building without a net to catch you? No you wouldnt.
So you enter working for this cool guys helping the world but as time passes is not as much fun as it seems. Its a lot of paper work and field work just documenting but at least you know you are helping. But at least you get to know other special people. Intiration X guys who work in this amazing robotic and computer stuff who they say is gonna change the world for the better, they believe that a machine would be the best government and they strive for a god machine ideal or something. They seem cool but a little cold and muted in their way of moving and acting like they are detach. Then you have the syndicate guy who look like a wall-street reunion of power-brokers, they are friendly enough but the way they speak it seems like the put a price tag in your soul the moment they see you and after that they are just negotiating, they talk a lot about power thru financial stability but every time you bring out that some places are way too poor in comparison to other they just look at you like a child out of order and start talking about the "bigger picture" and how sometime is necessary to "break some eggs to make an omelette".
Then you meet the progenitors guys who are a bunch of lab coats who talk in fancy words you barely understand they scare you because every-time you pass near them they are discussing "outbreak here" a "controlled cure there" and "control of population over there" like they just plan for those tragedies to strike the world. You guess its nice that they see the good side in tragedies like viral outbreaks but it feels like they are tying to sterilize the world not cure it sometimes. And the New World order guys, who are like a mix between physiologist class and TMZ. They talk about everything from social studies to current trends, and you even found out they finance the disney movie of Atlantis. They are nice and everything they speak is always PC and it all pleasant to talk to them but....... sometimes you feel like they are just too polite or to PC, you know that noone is 100% happy and nice all the time but this guys never go there.... they never deviate from opinions or even fight with each other they just are nice and cool as they just can figure out anything else to be.
And Finally you have the Void engineers, who are like a big boys club. Laughing, drinking and sharing stories of what new thing they hunt. They talk about monster in they hunt and you feel glad that the kind of creatures they describe are dead and cant hurt anyone and specially you are glad their weapons arent pointed at you. One day your supervisor ask you to do a mission. You get, of course, exited to this break of monotony so you accept. They tell you to grab this communicator and to listen to control, a sort of mission coordinator who is gonna give you your instructions. Her voice is calm and sweet and she reassures you she is here to help you make a better world and to listen to her...
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Thats how i would treat them. If you want similar organization to use as technocracy in awakening i would say:
Itiration X: A mix between the left handed legacie of the Austere and the other robotic legacie that wasnt left handed (i dont remember wich)
Syndicate: The panoticon of greed but a little more emphatetic.
Thats all the ones i cant think now without my books at hand
Arc: Most of the orders, Technocracy included, were getting their orders from on high in some way or other. The Traditions were headed by archmagi that lived in Chantries (bit different meaning, but don't sweat that.) Revised is a fabulous place to start because a dangerous barrier rose between them and their high command. This was new in that edition, as was the Ascension War ending with Consensus locking down a bit, so they spent a good deal of time discussing how the Traditions and Conventions handled being separated from the higher realms. Seems to me the best fit for what you seek.
Seers only tend to follow the one Exarch at a time. Even those who follow the same one don't tend to match perfectly. The Conventions could be fit into existing Seer ideology with only a few shims here and there, and not need to ditch anything existing. Obviously, a series of Seer cults that ganged up to be more powerful and try to perform their functions as a team, of sorts, would be a very noteworthy force, and would shift emphasis, but not in a game-breaking way. Biggest shift I can see is that the technocrats might bring down worse relations with the Free Council.
The group may consider the GM their ally, in the sense that their leadership sent it down to aid and guide. They may, however, suspect that it might have grown out of its purpose.
The main tweaks I can think of off the noggin:
Whispers is not direct link, generally, but rather requires some effort on the part of the recipient. A special form of radio to receive the messages, or a specific meditation, you get the gist.
No prelacies, since the focus of worship is wildly different.
Casting tools must involve technology or scientific action. Use whatever technomagic rules are desired.
Might want to shift the concept behind their tech-magic to using the Infrastructure to their advantage. It would look a lot like technomagic, it would simply not quite be the same thing.
By the way, the Void engineers would only really need to have some means of exploring space and/or the abyss. Through that, they can find things that may or may not actually exist... planets, creatures, and so forth. They could map the wormholes that they find (in real-space or dark-space), which could provide a means of locating emanation realms or their Command, albeit at great personal risk. We already have rules for that.
11-12-2013, 12:20 AM
It all really depends on whether you want to use the Grey Hat antagonists/alternate protagonists version of the Technocracy as seen in GttT and the Rev Ed or the Black Hat jackbooted techno-fascist version in the 1st Ed. Certainly both versions have their appeal though I've always been more fond of the former over the latter. While it is fun to fight against a force of evil with no real redeemable qualities I've always found enemies that aren't necessarily evil to be more interesting.
Oh and about the comments about who could be Control if not the God-Machine or the Exarchs, there are two other options as I see it. The first being that Control is simply made up of the Union's equivalent to Archmasters. After all what would happen to those Technocrats that achieve Archmastery?
The other option is a little more interesting regardless of which version of the Technocracy you wish to use. Control is in reality the Oracles. Maybe they created the Technocracy to co-op the God-Machine's control over the world. Or maybe they see the Pentacle Orders, or at least the original four, as misguided fools who are doomed to repeat the mistakes of Atlantis, creating the Union to prevent the rise of another Atlantis while laying down a plan (the Time Table) to Awaken everyone. Perhaps they've always been guiding some mages to that end since the beginning, the rest of the mages are simply the ones who slipped through the cracks as it were, nothing more than rejects.
1)Definitely prefer the Grey Hats, however dark it might get.
2)ERMEGERD, that Oracle option is phenomenal.
There is a Pantechnicon...
To the extent that they incorporate it into an ideology of progressivism they are.
Okay, forget that tack of comparing specific examples; if you were describing the "ideology" of the Seers to somebody who knew nothing of the Technocracy, what would it be?
Pentacle mages, and keep Sleepers safe from supernatural abuse.
I would argue that the Seers revolve more around control and power, Seers want to be the guys in charge. The worship and servitude of the exarch is less about genuine faith (although I have no doubt it exists, history full of genuinely devout men exploiting religion for politics) and more about getting a leg up over your competition. It doesn't matter what the ideology or theology of the Seers, it comes back to power and control.
And that there is one of the problems I have with Mage: the Awakening. Most of the antagonists don't really feel like they have a soul. With the Seers they just feel largely like they are either mad fanatics to uncaring gods, terrified servants who have given up on any other kind of life or those who seek more and more power. While the Technocracy was originally presented akin to that as the line progressed they started to evolve the Technocracy into something more. The Introduction Chapter of Guide to the Technocracy presents the best justification I've seen for why the Technocracy could actually be seen as the true heroes of the MtAs world.
As for the Oracle idea I've found it amusing how people generally assume the Oracles are good guys from the Mage PoV. Who's to say if they really are better than the Exarchs. They could be just as bad or worse.
Originally posted by theye1 View Post
I would argue that the Seers revolve more around control and power, Seers want to be the guys in charge. The worship and servitude of the exarch is less about genuine faith (although I have no doubt it exists, history full of genuinely devout men exploiting religion for politics) and more about getting a leg up over your competition. It doesn't matter what the ideology or theology of the Seers, it comes back to power and control.
…and that feels every bit as much like a gross oversimplification of the Seers of the Throne as “Black-Hat jack-booted techno-fascists” is a gross oversimplification of the Technocratic Union. Seers of the Throne depicts genuine faith in the Exarchs as a significant aspect of the Order, with numerous statements to the effect that it’s common for Seers to serve the Exarchs because they believe that it’s the right thing to do. Religous dogma isn’t just an instrument that Seers use to control Sleepers; it’s something that they tend to subscribe to as well.
Originally posted by AkatsukiLeader13 View Post
And that there is one of the problems I have with Mage: the Awakening. Most of the antagonists don't really feel like they have a soul. With the Seers they just feel largely like they are either mad fanatics to uncaring gods, terrified servants who have given up on any other kind of life or those who seek more and more power. While the Technocracy was originally presented akin to that as the line progressed they started to evolve the Technocracy into something more. The Introduction Chapter of Guide to the Technocracy presents the best justification I've seen for why the Technocracy could actually be seen as the true heroes of the MtAs world.
Indeed. If you want to play Seers as potentially heroic figures, you essentially need to tweak the Exarchs so that they’re more ambivalent, rather than being inherently malevolent. At the very least, play up the “protect the Sleepers” thing a lot more, and provide reasoning for it that’s a bit more sympathetic than “what’s the point in ruling the world, if there’s nobody to rule?” Something more along the lines of a “Noblesse Oblige” attitude would go a long way toward improving matters in this regard.
As I see it, the Seers of the Throne, as currently conceived, are intended to represent the worst excesses of religious fundamentalists and control freaks. So the trick to making them more “gray” than “black” is to incorporate more of the positive aspects of “ministry”: make the Paternoster be the go-to place for devout priests who minister to their community; make the Hegemony the place to go for statesmen who seek to pass and administrate laws designed to improve peoples’ standard of living; make the Praetorians the first line of defense against monsters who would do us harm; make the Panopticon a group that seeks out the more hidden dangers to society. The same sort of thing that recast the Technocracy from one-dimensional villains to ethically-gray potential protagonists could be applied directly to the Seers to similar effect.
A religious fundamentalist sincerely believes in the religious dogma of his faith, but he also seeks to impose that faith on others. Another example, an autocratic Communist seeks to control the behaviour of his fellow citizen through state machinations. As I said before, being a true believer isn't an actual refutation of my point, history and politics are full of true believers exploiting their ideology for personal gain.
I like the Seers, while not being a generally nice organizations, are very human.
My idea on how to reconcile both Seers of Throne and Technocratic Union in Awakening setting - The Great Refusal.
Not all Namless Cabals of XIX century refused to joined Seers. But they couldn't be in Seers on ideology of their - it was... too tyranical for they taste. Also, being back by openess and modernism movements, they could state to serve so old idea as Exarchs. They knew also that world is changing, and in 100 year Seers will be no more. So they made second best move - they made alliance with old Ministries in keeping Fallen Worlds safe. They work togetherr on major project, they even swap members on occasions. But they are spereate things in the end.
And when responsible ex-Free Council Mage want to defect to the right side, they send him to the Union, with all his technogeeks in there. At least the Earth is safer.
BTW: And I also made Great Pantechnicon Ministry based on God-Machine. Now I need to remade it a bit more devious.
So, I have things squirreled away, so let's define this more:
1)Let's have the Technocracy in a world that still has the Seers, THe Free Council, and the Silver Ladder.
2)A Technocracy in league with the God Machine, generally because the G-M is finding ways to hack into Awakenings(Not consistently). As such, barring Archmages, the best most Technocrats think they do is some matter of techgnosis, with many of them just thinking of it as weird science(per MGC). As such, the tech angle is important.
Any other grounds we need to set up, or is this impossible enough?
Mine Great Refusal idea is perfect for this - just tap that Nameless Cabals where "inspired" by God-Machine before, and joined Seers on lose alliance after Great Refusal of Free Council. Nice, clean, and setting logical. I myself will use it now, as I was always wanting to use MCG Gifted as antagonists in chronicle.
I would argue that Seers do have a redeeming quality.
- Seers want to protect the world for mage hubris.
- By exerting control on magic and Awakenings and becoming gods, the Exarcs can protect the Supernal and Phenomenal from hubris.
- As long as Abyss doesn't destroy or cripple too much of the world, it's Abyss is fine.
I think that pretty much covers it.
How young is the Technocracy? In the original World of Darkness, the Technocratic Union was founded in the mid-19th century, and was built on the remains of the (by that point) largely disfunctional Order of Reason. In the new World of Darkness, the Great Refusal spawned two groups at the dawn of the 20th century: the Free Council and the Pantechnicon Ministry.
The desired notion here is to have the Technocratic Union be a separate faction from both the Free Council and the Seers of the Throne, but allied with the God-Machine. Is there room for a Pantechnicon Ministry in such a setup, or would such a Ministry overlap conceptually too much with the Technocracy? I tend to think the latter; which implies that the Pantechnicon needs to be a virtually nonexistent entity in this scheme.
Proposal: the new World of Darkness’ Technocratic Union was born out of the remains of the Pantechnicon Ministry, sometime in the 30s (or 40s?) when said Ministry discovered the God-Machine and promptly shifted its allegience (or was co-opted, depending on who you ask).
Since I know more about the Technocracy than I do the Pantechnicon Ministry, feel free to bump them out.
The technocracy is a relatively recent thing,but on this run around of time, the God-Machine has been working hard to set up its' mage front(namely by 'hacking in'(to the best of it's abilities) to Awakenings(the Utopias are the result of such experimentation) for a long time, and it's major foothold was still the Renaissance.
12-06-2013, 07:17 PM
I’ve got to say that the notion of the Gifted as “Awakened to the God-Machine” is an intriguing one. If I were to do it, I’d scrap the “no Paths” bit that Mage Chronicler’s Guide posits, and I’d replace it with something similar to (but not quite the same as) the Technocratic Utopias in the Mage Translation Guide outtakes. The main difference is that I’d shuffle the Subtle Arcana around a bit:
Technocrats don’t undergo “vision quests” or “mystery plays”— or at least say they don’t. At the cusp of comprehending Enlightened Science, these prodigies undergo a moment of Actualization, where they harness their knowledge to fulfill a moral imperative. They imagine a glorious end of history their methods will bring about: a Utopia.
The Singularity, Utopia of Transhumanism
Engineering, AI and uploaded minds create a world of spiritual machines. Humanity is gone; self-modifying, immortal patterns of information construct the bodies they wish. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Engineering and often join Iteration X. Ruling Colleges: Matter and Fate; Inferior College: Spirit.
The Republic, Utopia of Social Harmony
Ubiquitous surveillance and rational ideologies create a world without conflict. Only merit determines one’s social position. Advanced psychology diverts destructive emotions to useful ends. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Society and often join the New World Order. Ruling Colleges: Space and Mind; Inferior College: ???.
The Garden, Utopia of Engineered Life
The prodigy dreams of an engineered natural paradise, where all human needs can be met by biological machines. Intelligence has been engineered into virtually every species, and immortal humans live among them as simply as hunter-gatherers, but free of disease and filled with the sum total of human knowledge, which grows within them as an instinct. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Biology and often become Progenitors. Ruling Colleges: Life and Death; Inferior College: ???.
The Market, Utopia of Free Exchange
Humans become true rational economic actors, rejecting all laws except for freely negotiated contracts. This is a culture of tremendous wealth, able to build projects requiring eons to complete. Still, one must be careful of the self-made Executives who can build worlds out of their desires. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Utility and often join the Syndicate. Ruling Colleges: Time and Prime; Inferior College: ???.
Type V, Utopia of Cosmic Humanity
Spreading across the known universe, humanity harnesses the total energy of this reality and others seething in quantum foam—a “Type V” civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Physics and often join the Void Engineers. Ruling Colleges: Forces and Spirit; Inferior College: ???.
Most of this text is straight from the Mage Translation Guide outtakes; I added the Ruling and Inferior Colleges.
Rationale for the Gross Arcana: Assigning Matter to Iteration X, Life to the Progenitors, and Forces to the Void Engineers are self-evident. Space goes with the New World Order for reasons outlined in the Data Sphere write-up in the NWO Convention Book. That leaves Time for the Syndicate, which isn’t a bad fit.
Rationale for the Subtle Arcana: Assigning Mind to the NWO is self-evident. Prime should go to the Syndicate for reasons outlined in the Primal Utility Sphere write-up in the Syndicate Convention Book, and Spirit should go to the Void Engineers for reasons outlined in the Dimensional Science write-up in the Void Engineers Convention Book. Fate should go with Iteration X due to their obsession with making everything predictable, and Death acts as a counterpoint to Life for the Progenitors.
I’m not sure how I’d assign the Inferior Arcana, other than to make Spirit Inferior for Iteration X.
I also wouldn’t have the Gifted Colleges be mere relabelings of the Arcana: tweak the College counterpart to Space to be more like Data; tweak the Prime counterpart to be more like Primal Utility; and tweak the Spirit counterpart to be more like Dimensional Science.
My main concern with that is that the Ruling Arcana of the various Watchtowers usually don’t mesh well with the Conventions. The Progenitors have never been particularly good with Spirit; that’s always been the Void Engineers’ specialty. Conversely, Life isn’t something that Void Engineers show any special aptitude in; but given their reactionless drives, lasers, and force fields, Forces is something I could definitely see associating with them. Granted, none of the Conventions as originally presented show any particular expertise in dealing with matters of Death; but it’s less of a bad fit for the Progenitors than it is for the others — in particular, associating Death with Iteration X clashes as badly as associating the Progenitors with Spirit.
At the very least, I’d want to shuffle Death, Spirit, and Prime around among Iteration X, the Progenitors, and the Void Engineers, without shuffling Matter, Life, and Forces around. But since I’m willing to go that far, I might as well go the final step and let the Syndicate get Prime, giving Fate to Iteration X. Really, the New World Order is the only Convention that fits comfortably into an existing Watchtower’s Ruling Arcana (though Fate and Time is almost as good for the Syndicate as Prime and Time is).
And if you’re going to have Technocrats Actualize Paths other than the ones that traditional mages Awaken to, the God-Machine is as good a justification as any for doing so, and is better than most. If you’re planning on using the Gifted Science rules from Mage Chronicler’s Guide in part or in whole, tying the God-Machine to the Scientist’s Enlightenment explains both the techno feel of Gifted Science and the general de-emphasis of the Supernal World found in that hack: as written, it scraps the Paths entirely, and points out that the Gifted don’t hold the Supernal World to be a reality to the same extent that the Awakened do. Actualizing Paths of the Utopias isn’t something that the Gifted Science rules do; but it complements said rules quite well, and resolves one problem that the Gifted have as written: with no Ruling Colleges, they’re at a disadvantage compared to the Awakened.
Thus my suggestion of “Awakening to the God-Machine” rather than having the God-Machine hack into a traditional Watchtower Awakening. In this view, the Utopias are not the Watchtowers; they’re Supernal Truths of their own that resonate particularly well with the God-Machine, and which bear about as much resemblance to the Watchtowers as Mummy’s five Pillars resemble Mage’s five-fold soul. That is, there are parallels you can draw; but I’d caution against trying to equate the two.
A fair point, and certainly one I can see others using. For my own personal canon though, it's not what I'm going for.
A big part of this is just the nature of Mage-unlike Werewolf, you can't reject system and still get away with it. Even Seers, who are backed by people in the Supernal, can't Awaken without the Watchtowers. THe God Machine might be one of, if not the, undisputed master of the Fallen World, but it is still a god of the Fallen. It cannot metaphysically trump the rules, only tweak and subvert some aspects. Weird for me, of all people to say that, but it's true in this case.
The second thing is that while the Utopias align the Paths with the Conventions, I have trouble seeing it as a straight crap shoot. For example, what if you Actualize into a Marketeer, but end up being a Void Engineer? Technocratic Actualizations are a product of alignment of the soul with a Watchtower subverted into suggesting a role and purpose for an individual, and yet it can't negate the power of free will. And to be sure, even though primary roles line up with primary conventions, each convention still needs a little of each for the unified fulfillment of the Time Table(and of the God Machine's Heaven).
As for stuff not fitting, eh. It's not like the World of Darkness doesn't sometimes have a theme of needing to use a square peg in a round hole. All Mages are united in some way, whether they recognize it or not, and the fact the paths aren't inherently convenient leads to some people having some interesting conversations and doubts about the way things work out.
Besides, the Technocratic Archmages need SOMETHING to do.
How about letting Utopias to be connected with original Watchtowers. but then giving each Covention it's Ruling Collage as third one? Convetions are more like Legacies in Awakening, and Legacies can certinly give you third Ruling Arcanum. This way we have both metaphysical logic - Gifted Awakens to Watchtowers, only seeing it diffrent - and setting like, with Conventions as great Legacy-like groups.
Fair enough.
What’s your opinion on the possibility of the God-Machine being able to provide something akin to Prelacies? You say that the GM can tweak and subvert some aspects of the rules; so maybe each Convention grants its members access to a means of altering the rules of magic. So maybe something like:
• Iteration X lets you pick up techniques for working with and/or creating Imbued Items using Matter instead of Prime; and makes Matter count as a Ruling Arcanum.
• The NWO lets you use Space effects over communications links instead of sympathetic links, and makes Space count as a Ruling Arcanum.
• The Progenitors let you make permanent changes to living patterns, and makes Life count as a ruling Arcanum.
• The Syndicate lets you treat some human endeavors like Hallows, and makes Prime count as a ruling Arcanum.
• The Void Engineers grant dimensional manipulation abilities using Spirit, and make Spirit count as a ruling Arcanum.
(The exact mechanics would need to be worked out: some might work like Crown Prelacies; some might work like Sword Prelacies/Legacy Attainments; some might even work like Temple Prelacies, though that’s unlikely to be needed.)
The means of opting into these special capabilities works the same way as a Seer opting into a Prelacy: join the appropriate group, pay the requisite experience cost, and get access to the associated benefits.
Guide to the Technocracy has Hypercram(?) their variant of the old Dream merit, where the mage reads and collates a huge amount of data in a really short space of time in order to briefly boost their abilities. You could transport that style over to the new Dream merit, after all they're technocrats, reading and correctly understanding the systems they're studying will tell them what to do.
In Mage: The Ascension, the Technocratic Union (or Technocracy) is a world-wide
conspiracy that employs a technological paradigm to pursue an agenda promoting
safety over freedom; however, it claims amongst the lower echelons of its membership
to pursue an agenda opposed to superstition and faith-based belief systems.
Furthermore, it claims to champion science while rejecting any innovation not
approved by its own leadership. In this way, its agenda prevents effective criticism as it
can always claim its ideological opponents are themselves against the benefits of
science, many of which the Technocracy itself opposes while claiming to uphold. It is
the primary villainous organization of the game.
Contents
1 Overview
2 Principles
2.1 The Precepts of Damian
3 Organization
3.1 Conventions & Methodologies
3.2 Secret Societies
4 History
Overview
In place of mysticism, the Technocracy uses Enlightened Science as its way of describing magical phenomena.
Its current tools are the advancement of scientific methods and principles (along with the technology this
produces), the spread of capitalist market-forces, and the application of political power. While many Technocrats
(being members of the Technocracy rather than pawns controlled by it) use magic, few accept that their actions
are anything other than the successful application of a little-known scientific principle.
Not all Technocrats are mages (roughly one in ten can use true Enlightened Science in the form of reality-altering
magic, and perhaps as many as half can use simple supernatural abilities such as psychic powers), and what
defines a Technocrat is more a matter of the absolute belief in science, commerce, and politics as the foundations
of a Utopian worldview. As a scientific meritocracy, however, the Technocracy's highest ranks are occupied
entirely by mages. In addition to using Enlightened Science, the Technocracy makes use of hypertech, or
technology that is not yet accepted by the Masses and is therefore subject to Paradox. Hypertech, in many
respects, is no different from the creation of enchanted items by more traditional mages.
A central aspect of the Technocracy's mission is to define the rules by which reality operates, and their definitions
(as a matter of principle) abhor the idea of other influences on consensual reality. Individuals who violate the rules
laid down by their scientists are labeled Reality Deviants, because they are both exceptions of the rules and defy
consensual reality. Because of its strong stance against reality deviancy, the Technocracy is essentially at war with
all supernatural beings in the World of Darkness, including vampires, werewolves, and other mages. In practice,
this conflict is a cold war, and the Technocracy has had far more success in proving to the Masses that
supernatural beings do not exist rather than eliminating them. Many beings, such as changelings and 'bygones'
(mythic beasts such as dragons, manticores, and harpies), will simply cease to exist if the world stops believing in
them. However, this approach is somewhat counterproductive with respect to certain supernatural creatures such
as werewolves and vampires, who are not affected by the perception of the masses, and in fact benefit from
remaining hidden (a primary concern of World of Darkness vampires being the maintenance of their Masquerade).
Principles
The Technocracy was founded on a central philosophy known as the Precepts of Damian. Though interpretation
of the Precepts varies considerably, and some Technocrats privately (or secretly) dismiss specific subsections
(usually the last one), they nevertheless offer the ideological backbone to the Technocratic Union and are the
principles to which Technocracy leadership refer to determine policy.
The Precepts of Damian
1. Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known,
Unity will be won.
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2. Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of
rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
3. Preserve the Gauntlet and the Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the
stability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces, such as Nephandi, access to our world.
This must never happen.
4. Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental
forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
5. Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity.
6. Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
Organization
The Technocracy is divided into five Conventions defined by their philosophies toward science and their scientific
specializations. Each Convention is further divided into any number of Methodologies, which represent further
specializations. Each Convention is an independent hierarchy, and the five branches of the Technocracy are only
unified by a central command authority known as the Inner Circle and their broader administrative based,
Control. Control is responsible for the formation and direction of mixed teams of Technocrats from multiple
Conventions called amalgams. Amalgams are the primary operational unit of Technocratic agents. In addition to
the amalgams, each Convention maintains its own staff, scientists, and operatives who are beholden to Control
but do not receive their orders from its offices. The ideological differences among Conventions, in addition to this
compartmentalization, has led to some degree of behind-the-scenes conflict within the Technocracy, and several
secret societies have resulted from these conflicts.
Conventions & Methodologies
Iteration X: Dedicated to the adoption of the precision, speed, and unity that Machines offer over Flesh.
BioMechanics: Focus on using cybernetic implants to achieve a man-machine interface
Macrotechnicians: Focus on the construction of optimal equipment for other Iterators.
Statisticians: Focus on the use of predictive models and simulations to anticipate future events.
Time-Motion Managers: Focus on the maximization of efficiency and the design of information
technology.
The New World Order: Dedicated to covert concealment of the supernatural and the Technocracy from the
eyes of the Masses.
The Ivory Tower: Performs the bulk of Control's administrative tasks and directs the Union's policies.
Operatives: Focus on using covert operations and counter-intelligence within the Technocracy.
Q Division: Design and create the equipment used by the New World Order.
Watchers: Focus on surveillance and media control to monitor the masses.
The Progenitors: Dedicated to mastery of human control over biological processes.
Genegineers: Focus on harnessing the power of applied genetics. Also known as Mutagenic
Engineers before the 1950s.
Damage Control: Cross-Methodological group operating under Genegineer jurisdiction,
continues the previous work of the FACADE Engineers in crafting and engineering genetic
monsters, tailored viruses and other biological warfare.
FACADE Engineers: Focus on biological implants, grafts, and other alterations. Also known as the
Forced Adaptation and Clone Alteration Developmental Eugenicists.
Pharmacopoeists: Focus on the development and control of drugs and narcotics.
Syndicate: Dedicated to the total control of currency and commerce as a means of changing reality.
Disbursements: Responsible for the management and distribution of the Technocracy's finances.
Enforcers: Responsible for ensuring, through force and guile, that Syndicate interests are protected.
Financiers: Responsible for control and manipulation of the world economic market.
Media Control: Responsible for infiltration and control of the commercial media.
Special Projects Division: Responsible for the Syndicate's equipment and miscellaneous projects
(see The Pentex Conspiracy below).
Void Engineers: Dedicated to the study, colonization, and eventual control of realms beyond Earth. In
addition to their duty of patrolling the Umbra, or spirit world, and protecting the citizens of the Earth, the
Convention also takes part in patrolling and mapping Cyberspace, or the "Digital Web". Their primary rivals
in this are their old colleagues, the Sons of Ether, and they maintain a sporting attitude to it all, calling it the
"great race", which causes friction with their fellow Technocrats.
Border Corps Division: Responsible for repelling invasions from beyond the reaches of Earth.
Dimensional Science Evaluation, Administration and Training Committee (or DSEATC): The ruling
committee of the Void Engineers, this remote body makes decisions for the rest of the Convention.
Earth Frontier Division: Responsible for exploring extreme environments on Earth, such as the
ocean deep, frozen poles, rain forests and jungles, inaccessible mountain-tops, and underground
caverns.
Aquatic Exploration Teams: Also known as "Aquanauts", or "Squids", dedicated to mapping
and exploring the sea-bottom and deep seas.
Cryogenic Specialists: Also known as "Snowdogs", perform surveys of the arctic and
Antarctic regions.
Hydrothermal Botanical Mosaic Analysts: Also known as "Weedwhackers", explore the deep
jungles and rain forests of the world.
Inaccessible High Elevation Exploration Teams: Map and survey the world's tallest mountain
sides.
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Subterranean Exploration Corps: Also known as "Groundhogs", the spelunkers and cave
explorers of the EFD.
Neutralization Specialist Corps: Responsible for identifying and eliminating Reality Deviants.
Department of Psychological Evaluation and Maintenance: Treats Void Engineers and allies
driven mad by the horrors of the Deep Universe.
Enforcement Training and Conditioning Agency: Implant safety conditioning into spacebound
personnel (and deactivates unwanted NWO conditioning).
Pan-Dimensional Corps: Responsible for the exploration and study of the Deep Universe, the Digital
Web and other alternate dimensions, including time itself.
Research & Execution: Responsible for the development of dimensional science, the Technocratic
study of the Umbra.
Cross Convention Methodologies: A few methodologies are not limited to a single convention.
Panopticon: Formed in the wake of renewed assaults on Technocracy bases, Control authorized the
creation of a cross convention methodology dedicated to internal security.
Secret Societies
The Cassandra Complex: Dedicated to the use of arcane predictive models to foresee and avert crises
within the Technocracy.
The Five Elemental Dragons: Not one but five societies that evolved separately from the Technocracy, but
now conceal themselves within it in Asia.
Miao Guan: Dedicated to direct mental control of the self and of others to maintain peace and order.
Saensaeng: Dedicated to maintaining art, honor, and cultural purity in the face of globalization.
Taiping Tianguo: Dedicated to the pursuit of individual freedom and entertainments.
Zaibatsu: Dedicated to the absolute elimination of all supernatural entities.
Zi Guang: Dedicated to seeking the perfection of the human form.
The Friends of Courage: Lone operatives who fight as vigilantes against both corrupt Technocrats and
Reality Deviants.
The Harbingers of Avalon: Dedicated to maintaining the original vision of the Order of Reason
The Pentex Conspiracy: A broad conspiracy based in the Syndicate's Special Projects Division involving
collusion with the Wyrm-controlled corporation, Pentex.
Project Invictus: Dedicated to destroying the Pentex Conspiracy and its Reality Deviant sponsors without
revealing this corruption to the rest of the Technocracy.
History
Officially founded under the banner of the Order of Reason in the 14th Century, the original Union was very
different from the one presented as contemporary in Mage: The Ascension. Also known as Daedalians, its
original members at the time of ratification were as follows:
The Artificers: Pursuers of technological advancement.
The Cabal of Pure Thought (also called the Gabrielites): Advocates of a unified Christian church.
The Celestial Masters: Scholars of the heavens.
The Cosian Circle (also called the Hippocratic Circle): Pursuers of the advancement of medical science.
The Craftmasons: Pursuers of moral, spiritual, and physical perfection
The High Guild: Pursuers of a new trade-based system of commerce.
The Solificati: Pursuers of higher truth through alchemy.
The Void Seekers: Explorers of unknown places.
The Solificati were almost immediately purged for their over-reliance on alchemy, while the religious beliefs of the
Gabrielites and Craftmasons led to their eventual elimination from the Order. In the meantime, a shadow faction
called the Ksirafai developed, and worked behind the scenes to aid in these eliminations while shaping the Order
of Reason into what would eventually become the Technocratic Union. The Artificers became Iteration X, the
Cosians became the Progenitors, the High Guild became the Syndicate, and the Celestial Masters and Void
Seekers unified to become the Void Engineers. The Ksirafai shaped policy until they arranged for their own
disappearance, leaving the New World Order (a secular descendant of the Cabal of Pure Thought's principles of
information-control, said to have been founded in their modern form by Queen Victoria) to take their place as
masters of covert operations, espionage, and counter-intelligence. White Wolf Game Studios describes this
history in detail in its historical setting for Mage, entitled Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade.
With the advent of the industrial revolution and the information age, the Technocracy sought to adapt by allowing
the formation of the Electrodyne Engineers (experts with electricity and ether) and the Difference Engineers
(experts with electronics and information technology). Both, however, eventually rebelled against the Technocracy,
becoming the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts. These two groups now belong to the Traditions and are
reviled by the Technocracy as Reality Deviants for having embraced technomancy.
It is important to note that the Technocracy's own account of history does not square with history as told by the
Traditions. Just as the future is uncertain, the Technocracy's own work at rewriting history brings into question
whether the past is equally uncertain.
MY NOTES
- The Great Refusal stopped this. The Technocracy achieves the Singularity and creates the God-Machine.
- The Pantechnicon has many branches: representing what never was... like the Void Engineers etc.
- Use Science Magic/Gifted from Mage Chronicler's Guide page 56
The title more or less says it-I'm thinking of switching the Seers out with the Technocracy, but I'm not sure how to work it given the dynamics of the universe and reconcile it with the Free Council and Silver Ladder, so I'm knocking for thoughts. Go.
Im gonna mention this fun fact that normally nobody brings up. The sons of the ether paradign is the same as awakening, isnt that weird? I would say that for that you could amp the technocracy lure, they offer magic without paradox (well not really but with a lot less) so the great refusal of the free council should be even bigger deal. Are you planning to enforce paradign in your setting? Because if you dont, then the bigger issue could be the adamantine arrows, the technocracy offers them highly efficent method of magic if they only pay lip service to the technology. If you do use paradign i would say threat the ladder as the order of hermes (good intentions but too much politics) and the free council as sons of the ether+virtual adepts
I prefer Awakening's metaphysics, but prefer the Technocracy over the Seers. So the main change is to the Technocracy, not the world.
I have a couple of suggestions.
1. Use the Mage Translation Guide extra content that Malcolm posted a while back.
Technocratic Actualizations and Utopias
Technocrats don’t undergo “vision quests” or “mystery plays”— or at least say they don’t. At the cusp of comprehending Enlightened Science, these prodigies undergo a moment of Actualization, where they harness their knowledge to fulfill a moral imperative. They imagine a glorious end of history their methods will bring about: a Utopia.
In a game where Technocrats Awaken to the Watchtowers, their Paths and Realms might look something like this:
The Garden, Utopia of Engineered Life (The Primal Wild):
The prodigy dreams of an engineered natural paradise, where all human needs can be met by biological machines. Intelligence has been engineered into virtually every species, and immortal humans live among them as simply as hunter-gatherers, but free of disease and filled with the sum total of human knowledge, which grows within them as an instinct. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Biology and often become Progenitors.
The Market, Utopia of Free Exchange (Arcadia):
Humans become true rational economic actors, rejecting all laws except for freely negotiated contracts. This is a culture of tremendous wealth, able to build projects requiring eons to complete. Still, one must be careful of the self-made Executives who can build worlds out of their desires. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Utility and often join the Syndicate.
The Republic, Utopia of Social Harmony (Pandemonium):
Ubiquitous surveillance and rational ideologies create a world without conflict. Only merit determines one’s social position. Advanced psychology diverts destructive emotions to useful ends. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Society and often join the New World Order.
The Singularity, Utopia of Transhumanism (Stygia):
Engineering, AI and uploaded minds create a world of spiritual machines. Humanity is gone; self-modifying, immortal patterns of information construct the bodies they wish. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Engineering and often join Iteration X.
Type V, Utopia of Cosmic Humanity (The Aether):
Spreading across the known universe, humanity harnesses the total energy of this reality and others seething in quantum foam—a “Type V” civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Physics and often join the Void Engineers.
In a game with this setup, many Virtual Adepts Awaken to Utopias instead of conventional Supernal Realms, though some may tread into their mystic manifestations instead, and spend their lives reconciling reason and mysticism.
2. There's one reference to the Technocracy in the Mage core rulebook. The Seers of the Throne sent emissaries to the nameless cabals that were at war with the Diamond orders. The seers offered an alliance to wed technological (techngnostic) and cultural magic to the Seers' agenda of control. Perhaps, in your universe, the nameless cabals agreed to form the Technocracy.
3. Oh, you could also use the rules for scientific magic from the Mage Chronicler's Guide.
I noticed that you’re considering the Technocracy as a replacement for the Seers of the Throne. I’m assuming, then, that you’re thinking of the Technocratic Union in terms of being the oppressive establishment that mages struggle against — as opposed to, say, being the champions of science and reason in a world full of superstition and madness.
On the subject of how the Technocracy thinks about magic, I would second Octavo’s recommendations: read the “Gifted Science” section in the Mage Chronicler’s Guide to get a sense of their mindset; but ignore what that section has to say about Gifted Scientists not having Paths, and use the Technocratic Utopias as their equivalent of Watchtowers. Note that this is still a somewhat awkward patch: according to the Technocratic Utopias, the Path of Biology deals with spirits; the Path of Engineering deals with ghosts; the Syndicate doesn’t deal with Prime, and the Void Engineers deal with neither Space nor Spirit. Frankly, you might be better off handling the various Conventions (or even individual Methodologies) as Legacies rather than as Paths. However, my favorite choice here would be to treat them like the Seers’ Great Ministries, complete with Prelacies — but with technological overtones. You know how the recent Convention Books ended up giving the New World Order, the Syndicate, and the Void Engineers customized versions of Correspondence, Prime, and Spirit, respectively? Well, you could give the New World Order a Space-based Prelacy based around the concept of Data; the Syndicate could get a Prime-based Prelacy built on the concept of Primal Utility; and the Void Engineers could get a Spirit-based Prelacy emulating Dimensional Science. To round it out, I’d give Iteration X a Matter-based Prelacy dealing with mechanics, and the Progenitors should get some sort of Life-based Prelacy.
Note that since the Union is not the Seers of the Throne, this implies that they don’t serve the Exarchs — which throws a significant monkey wrench into Awakening’s metaphysics, which heavily feature the notion that the Exarchs are responsible for the Abyss and for the Lie. To a large extent, the Seers are a reflection of the Exarchs, and would probably exist in any cosmology that includes the Exarchs. I think that you’ll probably need to tweak the metaphysics ever so slightly. Were it me, I’d use the sample Global Organization from God-Machine Chronicle for inspiration:
In the days of myth and legend, the gods were all-powerful; then Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals. The first mortals touched by the fire of the gods became mystics and wizards, shaman and priests, channeling the source of creation toward their own selfish ends. Eventually the stolen fire ebbed to mere cinders. The greedy fire-touched mortals sought to ascend to the heavens to supplant the gods and warm themselves by the divine fire for all eternity.
As in most stories of unbridled hubris, this story ended badly. The God-Machine destroyed their civilization, and over time, the remaining fire-touched retreated to the corners of the world, bickering with each other and licking their wounds. The survivors began to plot anew, scheming to discover a new means of achieving power. They denied the God-Machine and struck all memory of it from the minds of men, shrouding it in sorcery. It was their foolish belief that a thing forgotten would lose all power. In time, they even began to believe the lie themselves and banished the God-Machine from their thoughts. They created new myths to explain the fall of the ziggurat, passing down the story to their apprentices.
In short, replace the Exarchs with the God-Machine. The God-Machine destroyed Atlantis and placed the Abyss between the Supernal and Phenomenal World. Instead of having angels as the agents of its agenda, it uses Technocrats. It is what the Union refers to as Control. And it is what gives the Conventions their Prelacies.
Originally posted by Dataweaver View Post
Note that since the Union is not the Seers of the Throne, this implies that they don’t serve the Exarchs — which throws a significant monkey wrench into Awakening’s metaphysics, which heavily feature the notion that the Exarchs are responsible for the Abyss and for the Lie.
Or maybe they do, the exarch could be "control" a godlike entity who infest the organzation. Because the main difference between the Technocracy and the Seers is the fact that the former are sympathetic so you could make it a symphatetic organization with noble goals being infested by something "wrong". They dont know about the exarch or served them readily as the seers but the exarchs do exert control over the organization in subtle creepy way
To me, if you drop the cosmological points and just go with the politics, you’ll end up with something that’s essentially indistinguishable from the Seers of the Throne. That said, much of this depends on what exactly ArcaneArts is looking for in the Technocracy. What is it about them that you prefer to the Seers of the Throne?
I understand some of what the Seers are going for-people en masse want security and also want a (reasonably) secure way to go up in their lot in life, but on the whole, the Seers goal-lockdown all of humanity-is pretty blandly evil and only has so much moral grey to it-that exists at a individual level,which is fine in it's own way. I admit part of it just might be I don't understand the Seers well enough, so I suppose that makes a strong second place.
The Technocracy is pretty fucked up too, I grant you that, but I get their big goal-Awaken and Ascend humanity slowly according to their Time Table- is a lot more interesting to me,as is their methods done in this case. From the brainwashing of an individual to the tyranny of ideas(that, admittedly, the Seers have), so much about the Technocracy is both horrifying and understandable.
Mage for me(Awakening anyways) has always had an emphasis on Mages and the Abyss, mostly because I feel that the core of the game revolves around the individual and this struggle nicely opens those doors, but also because most enemy mage options just weren't extremely appealing. Left Hand Path has changed a lot of that, but the Seers have always left me with a want, a want that the Technocracy offers.
I understand some of what the Seers are going for-people en masse want security and also want a (reasonably) secure way to go up in their lot in life, but on the whole, the Seers goal-lockdown all of humanity-is pretty blandly evil and only has so much moral grey to it-that exists at a individual level,which is fine in it's own way. I admit part of it just might be I don't understand the Seers well enough, so I suppose that makes a strong second place.
The Technocracy is pretty fucked up too, I grant you that, but I get their big goal-Awaken and Ascend humanity slowly according to their Time Table- is a lot more interesting to me,as is their methods done in this case. From the brainwashing of an individual to the tyranny of ideas(that, admittedly, the Seers have), so much about the Technocracy is both horrifying and understandable.
Mage for me(Awakening anyways) has always had an emphasis on Mages and the Abyss, mostly because I feel that the core of the game revolves around the individual and this struggle nicely opens those doors, but also because most enemy mage options just weren't extremely appealing. Left Hand Path has changed a lot of that, but the Seers have always left me with a want, a want that the Technocracy offers.
Then i strongly suggest that the exarch could be "control" a godlike entity that infest the organzation. Because of what you are looking for, you could make it a symphatetic organization with noble goals being infested by something "wrong". They dont know about the exarch or served them readily as the seers but the exarchs do exert control over the organization in subtle creepy way. Maybe the Void Engineers fight the abyss without knowing that the Exarchs (or Control) is responsible.
11-11-2013, 03:20 PM
The Technocracy's goals are probably slightly different with Awakening cosmology.
The Precepts of Damian
Article 1:
Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
Article 2:
Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
Article 3:
Protect the Gauntlet, the Astral realms, and maintain the barriers against the Abyss. Irresponsible Individuals who open the Gauntlet with impunity threaten to overwhelm the world with chaotic extradimensional entities. Meddling in the Temenos can threaten the stability and direction of the collective unconscious. Portals to the Abyss also allow Scelesti to grant destructive entities access to our world. This must never happen.
Article 4:
Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
Article 5:
Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity. Note: this directive is relaxed in regards to the Guardians of the Veil, who rarely destabilize reality with their talents.
Article 6:
Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
I'm not really satisfied with the above. I've only largely modified Article 3 to reflect the goals the Technocracy would maintain in the Awakened world. I would assume that the NWO would spend the most time in the Temenos trying to memetically re-engineer humanity's collective unconscious. Most Void Engineers would patrol the Shadow to look for marauding spirits, while more daring Void Engineers would explore more dangerous realms like the Underworld, the Hedge, or even Emanations of the Supernal.
ArcaneArts: How big of a deal is the Technocracy’s focus on technology in your view? Is it something that’s just for the masses, something that Technocrats dabble in (i.e., similar to how Ars Nova is most prevalent in the Free Council, but is neither exclusive to them or universal among them), or something that’s central to their identity?
Part of my problem is that, in nWoD terms, it's easy to see the Technocracy as an evil fusion of the Free Council and the Silver Ladder. A big part of this is getting perspective on the value of the Seers, even if I think the Technocracy is the better choice(because, honestly, Octavo's list looks a lot like the Seers thingy, which backtracks on them being a better choice).
Getting back to the question from Data, that's part of the problem-In Ascension, that shit was important, here, it's only so much. So as is, my attention to their focus on tech is...fluid. I guess I don't hyper-worry about it, but the cooler or more dynamic it makes an Awakened Technocracy, the more prevalent it is.
I dunno, in short. It's hard to decide just how important it should be in Awakening, which makes an argument of tweaking the Seers web of misinformation over porting in the Technocracy.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 1:
Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
I would delete “stasis and” from this. Bring order and predictability? Sure. But a highly ordered system can also be very dynamic.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 2:
Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
OK; but why? Specifically, what’s their justification for promoting these things among the masses? In Ascension, the justification was that the propaganda campaign would become a self-fulfilling prophesy if enough Sleepers bought into it; but Awakening doesn’t have a Consensus. So what’s the motivation here?
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 3:
Protect the Gauntlet, the Astral realms, and maintain the barriers against the Abyss. Irresponsible Individuals who open the Gauntlet with impunity threaten to overwhelm the world with chaotic extradimensional entities. Meddling in the Temenos can threaten the stability and direction of the collective unconscious. Portals to the Abyss also allow Scelesti to grant destructive entities access to our world. This must never happen.
This seems reasonable enough.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 4:
Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
And with Awakening’s metaphysics (short of Imperial Mysteries, which is a playing field that the Technocracy shouldn’t worry about), this article’s underlying premise is broken. It may need to be deleted outright.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 5:
Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity. Note: this directive is relaxed in regards to the Guardians of the Veil, who rarely destabilize reality with their talents.
Terminology needs to be re-examined, to make sure that it actually means something in the context of Awakening’s metaphysics.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
Article 6:
Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
Sounds reasonable.
Originally posted by Octavo View Post
I'm not really satisfied with the above. I've only largely modified Article 3 to reflect the goals the Technocracy would maintain in the Awakened world. I would assume that the NWO would spend the most time in the Temenos trying to memetically re-engineer humanity's collective unconscious. Most Void Engineers would patrol the Shadow to look for marauding spirits, while more daring Void Engineers would explore more dangerous realms like the Underworld, the Hedge, or even Emanations of the Supernal.
Err… Supernal Emanations are still on the “other side” of the Abyss, and thus beyond the reach of regular mages.
Er, yes. I just wrote that because I assumed there would be some Archmage Void Engineers, and I couldn't think of any additional Otherworlds for the VEs to explore.
Maybe repurposing the Seer mandates will end up being more useful.
Conquer the Watchtowers
The Oracles made the Watchtowers and Awakening has survived in the Fallen World. Control seeks to understand the Watchtowers and their Paths so that they can be seized from the renegades.
Control Magic
Irresponsible use of Magic by renegades threatens the utopia that Control plans to create. Seize every hallow, artifact, or imbued item and place it in the service of the Technocracy.
Guide Humanity
Without the guidance of the Technocracy, sleeper society would fall into chaos. The mandates of the Time Table keeps society stable and carefully progresses it toward utopia.
Destroy the Pentacle/Diamond
Atlantis nearly destroyed the world with its Celestial Ladder, and its heirs must not be allowed to build it again.
Enslave the Old Gods
The extradimensional beings Control cast out of the Supernal plague humanity still. They must be subjugated or destroyed.
Protect Humanity
Control ultimately cares about humans and wants them to be safe. Protect them from renegade mages, blood drinkers, shape changers, and all other predators.
Regulate the Abyss
The Abyss is the worst threat most mages (or anyone for that matter) will ever encounter, but it provides one necessary function - it keeps the Supernal in the capable hands of Control. Do not let the Abyss destroy the fallen world, but do not let the Pentacle eradicate it entirely.
This was fun to write up, but your mileage may vary. I think the biggest difference between the Technocracy and the Seers of the Throne is that while both are violent oppressors, the Technocracy, or at least its propaganda, has benevolent intentions. The Seers want to acquire power for its own sake and they are quite blatant that they do so by serving the very concepts of oppression.
Disguise Magic
Magic is dangerous in any hands but ours, and it should be disguised. All Union use of magic needs to be demystified. All dedicated magical tools should either have moving parts or should be powered by electricity or other non-mystic component. All imbued or enhanced items should be in the form of technology. The Abyss cannot be tricked by imbuing a vulgar spell into a gun or Tesla coil, but humans can be.
I think you were on the right track with the revising of the Precepts of Damian; you simply didn’t go far enough. My comments on the second article weren’t intended to imply that the article should be dropped; rather, it was an invitation to think more deeply as to why they’d want an article like that. For example, if the God-Machine is behind the Technocracy, then the fundamental reason why they seek to spread technology among the masses is simple: it makes life easier for the God-Machine.
Also: if Control is neither the God-Machine nor the Exarchs, what is it? (Not that I’m discounting the former two options; frankly, combining the God-Machine with Mage Chronicler’s Guide's Gifted Science as the metaphysical basis for the Technocracy feels like a natural fit to me.)
Maybe there is no offworld Control, and the Technocracy was an outgrowth of "barbarian mages" who were pissed at the Diamond Orders for breaking the world. In this case, a lot of the Technocracy motivations would remain the same. They would want to end the perceived tyranny and mysticism of Atlantean mages, they would want to explore the fallen world and learn all of its rules (science), and they would want to learn non-atlantean/scientific methods of calling down Supernal power (techgnosticism/Ars Nova). They might have originated as a union between Tamers/Elemental Masteries, Banishers, and heretics from the Diamond Orders.
Okay, so as it goes-with tech, let's assume that the God Machine comes in at some point, but on the whole for both options, with or without the tech emphasis, let's consider this a subtler ploy on the Exarchs.
How do you reconcile the Technocracy and the God Machine BOTH manipulating the group? I actually see it as an interesting chess game between the G-M and the Exarchs- they have a lot of similarities and such, so the main thing this Technocracy does is much the same, but there' still plenty of counter too and fro. The Exarchs are the dominant control, but the God Machine is a good player at this game.
but then the diamond order would be the dominant force. Even in ascension the sole focus of the Technocracy is not eliminating the Traditions but advance humanity. If the technocracy was fully focuses in crushing the diamond and the diamonds is the same weakened non-dominant one of awakening (because in awakening, you play the good but understaffed with little resources mages) then the technocracy would have crushed the diamond long time ago.
And even if they didnt downright eliminate the diamond in 2013 they might as well have won. Mysticism doesnt dominate anything or almost anything and science is the new religion. Wich could be a interesting game but then you are not just replacing the seers with the technocracy you are doing much more.
I know you are not promoting this idea just brainstorming too.
Recall how Iteration X used to worship the Computer, until Autochthonia was cut off from Earth by the Dimensional Anomaly? How might things have turned out if that god-machine had been located on Earth instead of in an extradimensional realm that could be sealed off?
i would suggest revised edition core rulebook. If you want setting alone its perfectly fine read. However if you want hard facts rules i would say give it a try, at the very least you are gonna gain a new appreciation about how the new rulebooks are edited and organized. Or if you only want the technocracy "guide to the technocracy" is a great read.
Tha main thing is paradign, that the core difference. Why the technocracy takes the time to hunt down a bunch of wood witches and voodo priest? because they need everyone to believe their point of view about reality itself in order for mass ascension. Everyone who voices a different opinion is a potential danger to their consensus (the paradign of humanity). The technocracy formed in a era rule by mysticism and superstition and wanted to give the common man a better life but as eras passed they started to believe that they and they alone knew how to archive the "better life"
Thats one of the main problem with transplanting the technocracy to Awakening. Paradign doesnt exist in Awakening and in Ascension the technocracy is the hardest paradigm of all. In awakening mages cast whatever is most convenient at the time however in ascension only Masters can do "wishing very hard upon a star" casting. A technocrat surrounded by Cthulhu like entinties without their focus (ray gun or whatever) is not just gonna cast fireball, he just cant his belief system doesnt allow for "casting fireball from his fingertips" as possible or duable.
Pollitically the other problem comes that the reason technocracy fears the traditions to a degree. Should they sway the consensus on their side then technology would stop working as it does now and many people would suffer for that so the symphatetic side shines a lot more
There's a neat group in Seers - the Skopoi - that spends a lot of time trying to divine the will of the Exarchs through various means. Some of them are really good at divination, but sometimes something else hijacks them, pretends to be the Exarchs and these Skopoi find themselves serving someone else's will. (In my game, a Skopoi pylon was co-oped by an Arisen who sent them dreams).
In classic Ascension Iteration X was a convention of artificers who were trying to create an advanced machine intelligence that would become sentient and then improve upon itself. Basically, they wanted to make a Kurzweil Singularity. At an unknown Iteration of their algorithm, they believed this occurred. In reality, a spirit of technology inhabited their Computer and essentially took over the convention.
I think these ideas could be combined. In this universe, perhaps the Exarchs started to form their Seer cults after the fall of the Ur-City, but the God-Machine started intermittently hijacking the followers of the Exarchs, compelling them to spread tools and machines among sleepers and cloak their magic with a techgnostic praxis. As this does not interfere with the plans of the Exarchs, if they know, they don't care very much.
On the nWoD side of things, remember that during the Nameless War just prior to the 20th century, the Seers approached the proto-Free Council with an offer. If the Free Council had taken them up on it, there would have been a Pantechnicon Ministry within the Seers. Not quite the Technocracy, mind you: they would have existed within the context of the Seers of the Throne, for one thing, with all that comes with that.
Also, the Seers claim to serve the Exarchs; but it’s an open question whether the Exarchs have any interest in the Seers.
The most easy way (that wich dont involve changes to the system) is to think of the technocracy as seers without exarchs to a degree. They hunt/convert mages in order to protect the world from their abuse of power and all the while they "help" the masses with their projects for the betterment of all. They want the betterment of humanity in their way and they way alone and they are so sunk in buracracy that they just cant see how corrupt they sometime can become. Play down or downright elimnate the "magic vs science" because if a technocrat can just do "wishing upon a star" casting then the magic vs technology becomes a little silly.
For example, lets say you are a newly awakened mage you are chilling in your house when they knock on your door. As you watch who is it, you seen the fedoras and mirror-shades men who want to speak with you. They talk nice enough about how they want to recruit you to help the world, its like green peace with Ferraris they tell you and "insist" the you accompany them.
They take you to an office with a very energetic person who talks about how life is potential waiting to happen and how you are special and the world needs your talents. Now lets say you accept because you want to help you fellow man. So this guys start telling you that there are other "special" individuals who dont want to help. They want to give everyone to much to quickly wich would result in chaos and anarchy because you know in your life someone who shouldnt by any mean get special god like powers. This group who dont want to help is misguided, they claim to come from a ancient society but c´mon ideas from 500000 bizilion years ago can be as utopian as they seems. They name it atlantis, can you believe it? They want people to live in a society based in a Disney movie!! That doesn't sounds crazy at all. Would you like to go back to the era of slavery? Raids? Women being inferior to men? of course not, we live in the here and now and while we all want to live in a utopia this other guys are not only counter to our efforts but they actively damage us.
They have guardians of the blindfold or something who go arround making cults to lure the weak and exploit them and they take in themselves to eliminate everyone who they think they are "threath", KGB much? They have this diamantina arrows guys who just come to bully everone they dont like and justify everything they do as "warrior code" or "honor", you hate bullies dont you? Then they have the silver bladder guys who think that give infinite power to a 5 year old child or a serial killer is a responsible way of action!! Can you believe some people would think that? Of course they wanna do that while staying on top as they claim they are best suited to lead than everyone else, I heard of funny little guy in North Korea who used to think in the same way, so a guy in Irak who also did. And finally we have the Street Council, or something who they are well intentioned and they have decent people with decent goals and would they accept out offer they we would accept them with open arms but they just dont want to follow rules or protocol or security measures they play it by ear and while is noble and daring, i, as a supervisor, would never sent my men to do something without a security need. Would you jump from a flaming building without a net to catch you? No you wouldnt.
So you enter working for this cool guys helping the world but as time passes is not as much fun as it seems. Its a lot of paper work and field work just documenting but at least you know you are helping. But at least you get to know other special people. Intiration X guys who work in this amazing robotic and computer stuff who they say is gonna change the world for the better, they believe that a machine would be the best government and they strive for a god machine ideal or something. They seem cool but a little cold and muted in their way of moving and acting like they are detach. Then you have the syndicate guy who look like a wall-street reunion of power-brokers, they are friendly enough but the way they speak it seems like the put a price tag in your soul the moment they see you and after that they are just negotiating, they talk a lot about power thru financial stability but every time you bring out that some places are way too poor in comparison to other they just look at you like a child out of order and start talking about the "bigger picture" and how sometime is necessary to "break some eggs to make an omelette".
Then you meet the progenitors guys who are a bunch of lab coats who talk in fancy words you barely understand they scare you because every-time you pass near them they are discussing "outbreak here" a "controlled cure there" and "control of population over there" like they just plan for those tragedies to strike the world. You guess its nice that they see the good side in tragedies like viral outbreaks but it feels like they are tying to sterilize the world not cure it sometimes. And the New World order guys, who are like a mix between physiologist class and TMZ. They talk about everything from social studies to current trends, and you even found out they finance the disney movie of Atlantis. They are nice and everything they speak is always PC and it all pleasant to talk to them but....... sometimes you feel like they are just too polite or to PC, you know that noone is 100% happy and nice all the time but this guys never go there.... they never deviate from opinions or even fight with each other they just are nice and cool as they just can figure out anything else to be.
And Finally you have the Void engineers, who are like a big boys club. Laughing, drinking and sharing stories of what new thing they hunt. They talk about monster in they hunt and you feel glad that the kind of creatures they describe are dead and cant hurt anyone and specially you are glad their weapons arent pointed at you. One day your supervisor ask you to do a mission. You get, of course, exited to this break of monotony so you accept. They tell you to grab this communicator and to listen to control, a sort of mission coordinator who is gonna give you your instructions. Her voice is calm and sweet and she reassures you she is here to help you make a better world and to listen to her...
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Thats how i would treat them. If you want similar organization to use as technocracy in awakening i would say:
Itiration X: A mix between the left handed legacie of the Austere and the other robotic legacie that wasnt left handed (i dont remember wich)
Syndicate: The panoticon of greed but a little more emphatetic.
Thats all the ones i cant think now without my books at hand
Arc: Most of the orders, Technocracy included, were getting their orders from on high in some way or other. The Traditions were headed by archmagi that lived in Chantries (bit different meaning, but don't sweat that.) Revised is a fabulous place to start because a dangerous barrier rose between them and their high command. This was new in that edition, as was the Ascension War ending with Consensus locking down a bit, so they spent a good deal of time discussing how the Traditions and Conventions handled being separated from the higher realms. Seems to me the best fit for what you seek.
Seers only tend to follow the one Exarch at a time. Even those who follow the same one don't tend to match perfectly. The Conventions could be fit into existing Seer ideology with only a few shims here and there, and not need to ditch anything existing. Obviously, a series of Seer cults that ganged up to be more powerful and try to perform their functions as a team, of sorts, would be a very noteworthy force, and would shift emphasis, but not in a game-breaking way. Biggest shift I can see is that the technocrats might bring down worse relations with the Free Council.
The group may consider the GM their ally, in the sense that their leadership sent it down to aid and guide. They may, however, suspect that it might have grown out of its purpose.
The main tweaks I can think of off the noggin:
Whispers is not direct link, generally, but rather requires some effort on the part of the recipient. A special form of radio to receive the messages, or a specific meditation, you get the gist.
No prelacies, since the focus of worship is wildly different.
Casting tools must involve technology or scientific action. Use whatever technomagic rules are desired.
Might want to shift the concept behind their tech-magic to using the Infrastructure to their advantage. It would look a lot like technomagic, it would simply not quite be the same thing.
By the way, the Void engineers would only really need to have some means of exploring space and/or the abyss. Through that, they can find things that may or may not actually exist... planets, creatures, and so forth. They could map the wormholes that they find (in real-space or dark-space), which could provide a means of locating emanation realms or their Command, albeit at great personal risk. We already have rules for that.
11-12-2013, 12:20 AM
It all really depends on whether you want to use the Grey Hat antagonists/alternate protagonists version of the Technocracy as seen in GttT and the Rev Ed or the Black Hat jackbooted techno-fascist version in the 1st Ed. Certainly both versions have their appeal though I've always been more fond of the former over the latter. While it is fun to fight against a force of evil with no real redeemable qualities I've always found enemies that aren't necessarily evil to be more interesting.
Oh and about the comments about who could be Control if not the God-Machine or the Exarchs, there are two other options as I see it. The first being that Control is simply made up of the Union's equivalent to Archmasters. After all what would happen to those Technocrats that achieve Archmastery?
The other option is a little more interesting regardless of which version of the Technocracy you wish to use. Control is in reality the Oracles. Maybe they created the Technocracy to co-op the God-Machine's control over the world. Or maybe they see the Pentacle Orders, or at least the original four, as misguided fools who are doomed to repeat the mistakes of Atlantis, creating the Union to prevent the rise of another Atlantis while laying down a plan (the Time Table) to Awaken everyone. Perhaps they've always been guiding some mages to that end since the beginning, the rest of the mages are simply the ones who slipped through the cracks as it were, nothing more than rejects.
1)Definitely prefer the Grey Hats, however dark it might get.
2)ERMEGERD, that Oracle option is phenomenal.
There is a Pantechnicon...
To the extent that they incorporate it into an ideology of progressivism they are.
Okay, forget that tack of comparing specific examples; if you were describing the "ideology" of the Seers to somebody who knew nothing of the Technocracy, what would it be?
Pentacle mages, and keep Sleepers safe from supernatural abuse.
I would argue that the Seers revolve more around control and power, Seers want to be the guys in charge. The worship and servitude of the exarch is less about genuine faith (although I have no doubt it exists, history full of genuinely devout men exploiting religion for politics) and more about getting a leg up over your competition. It doesn't matter what the ideology or theology of the Seers, it comes back to power and control.
And that there is one of the problems I have with Mage: the Awakening. Most of the antagonists don't really feel like they have a soul. With the Seers they just feel largely like they are either mad fanatics to uncaring gods, terrified servants who have given up on any other kind of life or those who seek more and more power. While the Technocracy was originally presented akin to that as the line progressed they started to evolve the Technocracy into something more. The Introduction Chapter of Guide to the Technocracy presents the best justification I've seen for why the Technocracy could actually be seen as the true heroes of the MtAs world.
As for the Oracle idea I've found it amusing how people generally assume the Oracles are good guys from the Mage PoV. Who's to say if they really are better than the Exarchs. They could be just as bad or worse.
Originally posted by theye1 View Post
I would argue that the Seers revolve more around control and power, Seers want to be the guys in charge. The worship and servitude of the exarch is less about genuine faith (although I have no doubt it exists, history full of genuinely devout men exploiting religion for politics) and more about getting a leg up over your competition. It doesn't matter what the ideology or theology of the Seers, it comes back to power and control.
…and that feels every bit as much like a gross oversimplification of the Seers of the Throne as “Black-Hat jack-booted techno-fascists” is a gross oversimplification of the Technocratic Union. Seers of the Throne depicts genuine faith in the Exarchs as a significant aspect of the Order, with numerous statements to the effect that it’s common for Seers to serve the Exarchs because they believe that it’s the right thing to do. Religous dogma isn’t just an instrument that Seers use to control Sleepers; it’s something that they tend to subscribe to as well.
Originally posted by AkatsukiLeader13 View Post
And that there is one of the problems I have with Mage: the Awakening. Most of the antagonists don't really feel like they have a soul. With the Seers they just feel largely like they are either mad fanatics to uncaring gods, terrified servants who have given up on any other kind of life or those who seek more and more power. While the Technocracy was originally presented akin to that as the line progressed they started to evolve the Technocracy into something more. The Introduction Chapter of Guide to the Technocracy presents the best justification I've seen for why the Technocracy could actually be seen as the true heroes of the MtAs world.
Indeed. If you want to play Seers as potentially heroic figures, you essentially need to tweak the Exarchs so that they’re more ambivalent, rather than being inherently malevolent. At the very least, play up the “protect the Sleepers” thing a lot more, and provide reasoning for it that’s a bit more sympathetic than “what’s the point in ruling the world, if there’s nobody to rule?” Something more along the lines of a “Noblesse Oblige” attitude would go a long way toward improving matters in this regard.
As I see it, the Seers of the Throne, as currently conceived, are intended to represent the worst excesses of religious fundamentalists and control freaks. So the trick to making them more “gray” than “black” is to incorporate more of the positive aspects of “ministry”: make the Paternoster be the go-to place for devout priests who minister to their community; make the Hegemony the place to go for statesmen who seek to pass and administrate laws designed to improve peoples’ standard of living; make the Praetorians the first line of defense against monsters who would do us harm; make the Panopticon a group that seeks out the more hidden dangers to society. The same sort of thing that recast the Technocracy from one-dimensional villains to ethically-gray potential protagonists could be applied directly to the Seers to similar effect.
A religious fundamentalist sincerely believes in the religious dogma of his faith, but he also seeks to impose that faith on others. Another example, an autocratic Communist seeks to control the behaviour of his fellow citizen through state machinations. As I said before, being a true believer isn't an actual refutation of my point, history and politics are full of true believers exploiting their ideology for personal gain.
I like the Seers, while not being a generally nice organizations, are very human.
My idea on how to reconcile both Seers of Throne and Technocratic Union in Awakening setting - The Great Refusal.
Not all Namless Cabals of XIX century refused to joined Seers. But they couldn't be in Seers on ideology of their - it was... too tyranical for they taste. Also, being back by openess and modernism movements, they could state to serve so old idea as Exarchs. They knew also that world is changing, and in 100 year Seers will be no more. So they made second best move - they made alliance with old Ministries in keeping Fallen Worlds safe. They work togetherr on major project, they even swap members on occasions. But they are spereate things in the end.
And when responsible ex-Free Council Mage want to defect to the right side, they send him to the Union, with all his technogeeks in there. At least the Earth is safer.
BTW: And I also made Great Pantechnicon Ministry based on God-Machine. Now I need to remade it a bit more devious.
So, I have things squirreled away, so let's define this more:
1)Let's have the Technocracy in a world that still has the Seers, THe Free Council, and the Silver Ladder.
2)A Technocracy in league with the God Machine, generally because the G-M is finding ways to hack into Awakenings(Not consistently). As such, barring Archmages, the best most Technocrats think they do is some matter of techgnosis, with many of them just thinking of it as weird science(per MGC). As such, the tech angle is important.
Any other grounds we need to set up, or is this impossible enough?
Mine Great Refusal idea is perfect for this - just tap that Nameless Cabals where "inspired" by God-Machine before, and joined Seers on lose alliance after Great Refusal of Free Council. Nice, clean, and setting logical. I myself will use it now, as I was always wanting to use MCG Gifted as antagonists in chronicle.
I would argue that Seers do have a redeeming quality.
- Seers want to protect the world for mage hubris.
- By exerting control on magic and Awakenings and becoming gods, the Exarcs can protect the Supernal and Phenomenal from hubris.
- As long as Abyss doesn't destroy or cripple too much of the world, it's Abyss is fine.
I think that pretty much covers it.
How young is the Technocracy? In the original World of Darkness, the Technocratic Union was founded in the mid-19th century, and was built on the remains of the (by that point) largely disfunctional Order of Reason. In the new World of Darkness, the Great Refusal spawned two groups at the dawn of the 20th century: the Free Council and the Pantechnicon Ministry.
The desired notion here is to have the Technocratic Union be a separate faction from both the Free Council and the Seers of the Throne, but allied with the God-Machine. Is there room for a Pantechnicon Ministry in such a setup, or would such a Ministry overlap conceptually too much with the Technocracy? I tend to think the latter; which implies that the Pantechnicon needs to be a virtually nonexistent entity in this scheme.
Proposal: the new World of Darkness’ Technocratic Union was born out of the remains of the Pantechnicon Ministry, sometime in the 30s (or 40s?) when said Ministry discovered the God-Machine and promptly shifted its allegience (or was co-opted, depending on who you ask).
Since I know more about the Technocracy than I do the Pantechnicon Ministry, feel free to bump them out.
The technocracy is a relatively recent thing,but on this run around of time, the God-Machine has been working hard to set up its' mage front(namely by 'hacking in'(to the best of it's abilities) to Awakenings(the Utopias are the result of such experimentation) for a long time, and it's major foothold was still the Renaissance.
12-06-2013, 07:17 PM
I’ve got to say that the notion of the Gifted as “Awakened to the God-Machine” is an intriguing one. If I were to do it, I’d scrap the “no Paths” bit that Mage Chronicler’s Guide posits, and I’d replace it with something similar to (but not quite the same as) the Technocratic Utopias in the Mage Translation Guide outtakes. The main difference is that I’d shuffle the Subtle Arcana around a bit:
Technocrats don’t undergo “vision quests” or “mystery plays”— or at least say they don’t. At the cusp of comprehending Enlightened Science, these prodigies undergo a moment of Actualization, where they harness their knowledge to fulfill a moral imperative. They imagine a glorious end of history their methods will bring about: a Utopia.
The Singularity, Utopia of Transhumanism
Engineering, AI and uploaded minds create a world of spiritual machines. Humanity is gone; self-modifying, immortal patterns of information construct the bodies they wish. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Engineering and often join Iteration X. Ruling Colleges: Matter and Fate; Inferior College: Spirit.
The Republic, Utopia of Social Harmony
Ubiquitous surveillance and rational ideologies create a world without conflict. Only merit determines one’s social position. Advanced psychology diverts destructive emotions to useful ends. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Society and often join the New World Order. Ruling Colleges: Space and Mind; Inferior College: ???.
The Garden, Utopia of Engineered Life
The prodigy dreams of an engineered natural paradise, where all human needs can be met by biological machines. Intelligence has been engineered into virtually every species, and immortal humans live among them as simply as hunter-gatherers, but free of disease and filled with the sum total of human knowledge, which grows within them as an instinct. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Biology and often become Progenitors. Ruling Colleges: Life and Death; Inferior College: ???.
The Market, Utopia of Free Exchange
Humans become true rational economic actors, rejecting all laws except for freely negotiated contracts. This is a culture of tremendous wealth, able to build projects requiring eons to complete. Still, one must be careful of the self-made Executives who can build worlds out of their desires. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Utility and often join the Syndicate. Ruling Colleges: Time and Prime; Inferior College: ???.
Type V, Utopia of Cosmic Humanity
Spreading across the known universe, humanity harnesses the total energy of this reality and others seething in quantum foam—a “Type V” civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Physics and often join the Void Engineers. Ruling Colleges: Forces and Spirit; Inferior College: ???.
Most of this text is straight from the Mage Translation Guide outtakes; I added the Ruling and Inferior Colleges.
Rationale for the Gross Arcana: Assigning Matter to Iteration X, Life to the Progenitors, and Forces to the Void Engineers are self-evident. Space goes with the New World Order for reasons outlined in the Data Sphere write-up in the NWO Convention Book. That leaves Time for the Syndicate, which isn’t a bad fit.
Rationale for the Subtle Arcana: Assigning Mind to the NWO is self-evident. Prime should go to the Syndicate for reasons outlined in the Primal Utility Sphere write-up in the Syndicate Convention Book, and Spirit should go to the Void Engineers for reasons outlined in the Dimensional Science write-up in the Void Engineers Convention Book. Fate should go with Iteration X due to their obsession with making everything predictable, and Death acts as a counterpoint to Life for the Progenitors.
I’m not sure how I’d assign the Inferior Arcana, other than to make Spirit Inferior for Iteration X.
I also wouldn’t have the Gifted Colleges be mere relabelings of the Arcana: tweak the College counterpart to Space to be more like Data; tweak the Prime counterpart to be more like Primal Utility; and tweak the Spirit counterpart to be more like Dimensional Science.
My main concern with that is that the Ruling Arcana of the various Watchtowers usually don’t mesh well with the Conventions. The Progenitors have never been particularly good with Spirit; that’s always been the Void Engineers’ specialty. Conversely, Life isn’t something that Void Engineers show any special aptitude in; but given their reactionless drives, lasers, and force fields, Forces is something I could definitely see associating with them. Granted, none of the Conventions as originally presented show any particular expertise in dealing with matters of Death; but it’s less of a bad fit for the Progenitors than it is for the others — in particular, associating Death with Iteration X clashes as badly as associating the Progenitors with Spirit.
At the very least, I’d want to shuffle Death, Spirit, and Prime around among Iteration X, the Progenitors, and the Void Engineers, without shuffling Matter, Life, and Forces around. But since I’m willing to go that far, I might as well go the final step and let the Syndicate get Prime, giving Fate to Iteration X. Really, the New World Order is the only Convention that fits comfortably into an existing Watchtower’s Ruling Arcana (though Fate and Time is almost as good for the Syndicate as Prime and Time is).
And if you’re going to have Technocrats Actualize Paths other than the ones that traditional mages Awaken to, the God-Machine is as good a justification as any for doing so, and is better than most. If you’re planning on using the Gifted Science rules from Mage Chronicler’s Guide in part or in whole, tying the God-Machine to the Scientist’s Enlightenment explains both the techno feel of Gifted Science and the general de-emphasis of the Supernal World found in that hack: as written, it scraps the Paths entirely, and points out that the Gifted don’t hold the Supernal World to be a reality to the same extent that the Awakened do. Actualizing Paths of the Utopias isn’t something that the Gifted Science rules do; but it complements said rules quite well, and resolves one problem that the Gifted have as written: with no Ruling Colleges, they’re at a disadvantage compared to the Awakened.
Thus my suggestion of “Awakening to the God-Machine” rather than having the God-Machine hack into a traditional Watchtower Awakening. In this view, the Utopias are not the Watchtowers; they’re Supernal Truths of their own that resonate particularly well with the God-Machine, and which bear about as much resemblance to the Watchtowers as Mummy’s five Pillars resemble Mage’s five-fold soul. That is, there are parallels you can draw; but I’d caution against trying to equate the two.
A fair point, and certainly one I can see others using. For my own personal canon though, it's not what I'm going for.
A big part of this is just the nature of Mage-unlike Werewolf, you can't reject system and still get away with it. Even Seers, who are backed by people in the Supernal, can't Awaken without the Watchtowers. THe God Machine might be one of, if not the, undisputed master of the Fallen World, but it is still a god of the Fallen. It cannot metaphysically trump the rules, only tweak and subvert some aspects. Weird for me, of all people to say that, but it's true in this case.
The second thing is that while the Utopias align the Paths with the Conventions, I have trouble seeing it as a straight crap shoot. For example, what if you Actualize into a Marketeer, but end up being a Void Engineer? Technocratic Actualizations are a product of alignment of the soul with a Watchtower subverted into suggesting a role and purpose for an individual, and yet it can't negate the power of free will. And to be sure, even though primary roles line up with primary conventions, each convention still needs a little of each for the unified fulfillment of the Time Table(and of the God Machine's Heaven).
As for stuff not fitting, eh. It's not like the World of Darkness doesn't sometimes have a theme of needing to use a square peg in a round hole. All Mages are united in some way, whether they recognize it or not, and the fact the paths aren't inherently convenient leads to some people having some interesting conversations and doubts about the way things work out.
Besides, the Technocratic Archmages need SOMETHING to do.
How about letting Utopias to be connected with original Watchtowers. but then giving each Covention it's Ruling Collage as third one? Convetions are more like Legacies in Awakening, and Legacies can certinly give you third Ruling Arcanum. This way we have both metaphysical logic - Gifted Awakens to Watchtowers, only seeing it diffrent - and setting like, with Conventions as great Legacy-like groups.
Fair enough.
What’s your opinion on the possibility of the God-Machine being able to provide something akin to Prelacies? You say that the GM can tweak and subvert some aspects of the rules; so maybe each Convention grants its members access to a means of altering the rules of magic. So maybe something like:
• Iteration X lets you pick up techniques for working with and/or creating Imbued Items using Matter instead of Prime; and makes Matter count as a Ruling Arcanum.
• The NWO lets you use Space effects over communications links instead of sympathetic links, and makes Space count as a Ruling Arcanum.
• The Progenitors let you make permanent changes to living patterns, and makes Life count as a ruling Arcanum.
• The Syndicate lets you treat some human endeavors like Hallows, and makes Prime count as a ruling Arcanum.
• The Void Engineers grant dimensional manipulation abilities using Spirit, and make Spirit count as a ruling Arcanum.
(The exact mechanics would need to be worked out: some might work like Crown Prelacies; some might work like Sword Prelacies/Legacy Attainments; some might even work like Temple Prelacies, though that’s unlikely to be needed.)
The means of opting into these special capabilities works the same way as a Seer opting into a Prelacy: join the appropriate group, pay the requisite experience cost, and get access to the associated benefits.
Guide to the Technocracy has Hypercram(?) their variant of the old Dream merit, where the mage reads and collates a huge amount of data in a really short space of time in order to briefly boost their abilities. You could transport that style over to the new Dream merit, after all they're technocrats, reading and correctly understanding the systems they're studying will tell them what to do.
In Mage: The Ascension, the Technocratic Union (or Technocracy) is a world-wide
conspiracy that employs a technological paradigm to pursue an agenda promoting
safety over freedom; however, it claims amongst the lower echelons of its membership
to pursue an agenda opposed to superstition and faith-based belief systems.
Furthermore, it claims to champion science while rejecting any innovation not
approved by its own leadership. In this way, its agenda prevents effective criticism as it
can always claim its ideological opponents are themselves against the benefits of
science, many of which the Technocracy itself opposes while claiming to uphold. It is
the primary villainous organization of the game.
Contents
1 Overview
2 Principles
2.1 The Precepts of Damian
3 Organization
3.1 Conventions & Methodologies
3.2 Secret Societies
4 History
Overview
In place of mysticism, the Technocracy uses Enlightened Science as its way of describing magical phenomena.
Its current tools are the advancement of scientific methods and principles (along with the technology this
produces), the spread of capitalist market-forces, and the application of political power. While many Technocrats
(being members of the Technocracy rather than pawns controlled by it) use magic, few accept that their actions
are anything other than the successful application of a little-known scientific principle.
Not all Technocrats are mages (roughly one in ten can use true Enlightened Science in the form of reality-altering
magic, and perhaps as many as half can use simple supernatural abilities such as psychic powers), and what
defines a Technocrat is more a matter of the absolute belief in science, commerce, and politics as the foundations
of a Utopian worldview. As a scientific meritocracy, however, the Technocracy's highest ranks are occupied
entirely by mages. In addition to using Enlightened Science, the Technocracy makes use of hypertech, or
technology that is not yet accepted by the Masses and is therefore subject to Paradox. Hypertech, in many
respects, is no different from the creation of enchanted items by more traditional mages.
A central aspect of the Technocracy's mission is to define the rules by which reality operates, and their definitions
(as a matter of principle) abhor the idea of other influences on consensual reality. Individuals who violate the rules
laid down by their scientists are labeled Reality Deviants, because they are both exceptions of the rules and defy
consensual reality. Because of its strong stance against reality deviancy, the Technocracy is essentially at war with
all supernatural beings in the World of Darkness, including vampires, werewolves, and other mages. In practice,
this conflict is a cold war, and the Technocracy has had far more success in proving to the Masses that
supernatural beings do not exist rather than eliminating them. Many beings, such as changelings and 'bygones'
(mythic beasts such as dragons, manticores, and harpies), will simply cease to exist if the world stops believing in
them. However, this approach is somewhat counterproductive with respect to certain supernatural creatures such
as werewolves and vampires, who are not affected by the perception of the masses, and in fact benefit from
remaining hidden (a primary concern of World of Darkness vampires being the maintenance of their Masquerade).
Principles
The Technocracy was founded on a central philosophy known as the Precepts of Damian. Though interpretation
of the Precepts varies considerably, and some Technocrats privately (or secretly) dismiss specific subsections
(usually the last one), they nevertheless offer the ideological backbone to the Technocratic Union and are the
principles to which Technocracy leadership refer to determine policy.
The Precepts of Damian
1. Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known,
Unity will be won.
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2. Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of
rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
3. Preserve the Gauntlet and the Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the
stability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces, such as Nephandi, access to our world.
This must never happen.
4. Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental
forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
5. Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity.
6. Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.
Organization
The Technocracy is divided into five Conventions defined by their philosophies toward science and their scientific
specializations. Each Convention is further divided into any number of Methodologies, which represent further
specializations. Each Convention is an independent hierarchy, and the five branches of the Technocracy are only
unified by a central command authority known as the Inner Circle and their broader administrative based,
Control. Control is responsible for the formation and direction of mixed teams of Technocrats from multiple
Conventions called amalgams. Amalgams are the primary operational unit of Technocratic agents. In addition to
the amalgams, each Convention maintains its own staff, scientists, and operatives who are beholden to Control
but do not receive their orders from its offices. The ideological differences among Conventions, in addition to this
compartmentalization, has led to some degree of behind-the-scenes conflict within the Technocracy, and several
secret societies have resulted from these conflicts.
Conventions & Methodologies
Iteration X: Dedicated to the adoption of the precision, speed, and unity that Machines offer over Flesh.
BioMechanics: Focus on using cybernetic implants to achieve a man-machine interface
Macrotechnicians: Focus on the construction of optimal equipment for other Iterators.
Statisticians: Focus on the use of predictive models and simulations to anticipate future events.
Time-Motion Managers: Focus on the maximization of efficiency and the design of information
technology.
The New World Order: Dedicated to covert concealment of the supernatural and the Technocracy from the
eyes of the Masses.
The Ivory Tower: Performs the bulk of Control's administrative tasks and directs the Union's policies.
Operatives: Focus on using covert operations and counter-intelligence within the Technocracy.
Q Division: Design and create the equipment used by the New World Order.
Watchers: Focus on surveillance and media control to monitor the masses.
The Progenitors: Dedicated to mastery of human control over biological processes.
Genegineers: Focus on harnessing the power of applied genetics. Also known as Mutagenic
Engineers before the 1950s.
Damage Control: Cross-Methodological group operating under Genegineer jurisdiction,
continues the previous work of the FACADE Engineers in crafting and engineering genetic
monsters, tailored viruses and other biological warfare.
FACADE Engineers: Focus on biological implants, grafts, and other alterations. Also known as the
Forced Adaptation and Clone Alteration Developmental Eugenicists.
Pharmacopoeists: Focus on the development and control of drugs and narcotics.
Syndicate: Dedicated to the total control of currency and commerce as a means of changing reality.
Disbursements: Responsible for the management and distribution of the Technocracy's finances.
Enforcers: Responsible for ensuring, through force and guile, that Syndicate interests are protected.
Financiers: Responsible for control and manipulation of the world economic market.
Media Control: Responsible for infiltration and control of the commercial media.
Special Projects Division: Responsible for the Syndicate's equipment and miscellaneous projects
(see The Pentex Conspiracy below).
Void Engineers: Dedicated to the study, colonization, and eventual control of realms beyond Earth. In
addition to their duty of patrolling the Umbra, or spirit world, and protecting the citizens of the Earth, the
Convention also takes part in patrolling and mapping Cyberspace, or the "Digital Web". Their primary rivals
in this are their old colleagues, the Sons of Ether, and they maintain a sporting attitude to it all, calling it the
"great race", which causes friction with their fellow Technocrats.
Border Corps Division: Responsible for repelling invasions from beyond the reaches of Earth.
Dimensional Science Evaluation, Administration and Training Committee (or DSEATC): The ruling
committee of the Void Engineers, this remote body makes decisions for the rest of the Convention.
Earth Frontier Division: Responsible for exploring extreme environments on Earth, such as the
ocean deep, frozen poles, rain forests and jungles, inaccessible mountain-tops, and underground
caverns.
Aquatic Exploration Teams: Also known as "Aquanauts", or "Squids", dedicated to mapping
and exploring the sea-bottom and deep seas.
Cryogenic Specialists: Also known as "Snowdogs", perform surveys of the arctic and
Antarctic regions.
Hydrothermal Botanical Mosaic Analysts: Also known as "Weedwhackers", explore the deep
jungles and rain forests of the world.
Inaccessible High Elevation Exploration Teams: Map and survey the world's tallest mountain
sides.
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Subterranean Exploration Corps: Also known as "Groundhogs", the spelunkers and cave
explorers of the EFD.
Neutralization Specialist Corps: Responsible for identifying and eliminating Reality Deviants.
Department of Psychological Evaluation and Maintenance: Treats Void Engineers and allies
driven mad by the horrors of the Deep Universe.
Enforcement Training and Conditioning Agency: Implant safety conditioning into spacebound
personnel (and deactivates unwanted NWO conditioning).
Pan-Dimensional Corps: Responsible for the exploration and study of the Deep Universe, the Digital
Web and other alternate dimensions, including time itself.
Research & Execution: Responsible for the development of dimensional science, the Technocratic
study of the Umbra.
Cross Convention Methodologies: A few methodologies are not limited to a single convention.
Panopticon: Formed in the wake of renewed assaults on Technocracy bases, Control authorized the
creation of a cross convention methodology dedicated to internal security.
Secret Societies
The Cassandra Complex: Dedicated to the use of arcane predictive models to foresee and avert crises
within the Technocracy.
The Five Elemental Dragons: Not one but five societies that evolved separately from the Technocracy, but
now conceal themselves within it in Asia.
Miao Guan: Dedicated to direct mental control of the self and of others to maintain peace and order.
Saensaeng: Dedicated to maintaining art, honor, and cultural purity in the face of globalization.
Taiping Tianguo: Dedicated to the pursuit of individual freedom and entertainments.
Zaibatsu: Dedicated to the absolute elimination of all supernatural entities.
Zi Guang: Dedicated to seeking the perfection of the human form.
The Friends of Courage: Lone operatives who fight as vigilantes against both corrupt Technocrats and
Reality Deviants.
The Harbingers of Avalon: Dedicated to maintaining the original vision of the Order of Reason
The Pentex Conspiracy: A broad conspiracy based in the Syndicate's Special Projects Division involving
collusion with the Wyrm-controlled corporation, Pentex.
Project Invictus: Dedicated to destroying the Pentex Conspiracy and its Reality Deviant sponsors without
revealing this corruption to the rest of the Technocracy.
History
Officially founded under the banner of the Order of Reason in the 14th Century, the original Union was very
different from the one presented as contemporary in Mage: The Ascension. Also known as Daedalians, its
original members at the time of ratification were as follows:
The Artificers: Pursuers of technological advancement.
The Cabal of Pure Thought (also called the Gabrielites): Advocates of a unified Christian church.
The Celestial Masters: Scholars of the heavens.
The Cosian Circle (also called the Hippocratic Circle): Pursuers of the advancement of medical science.
The Craftmasons: Pursuers of moral, spiritual, and physical perfection
The High Guild: Pursuers of a new trade-based system of commerce.
The Solificati: Pursuers of higher truth through alchemy.
The Void Seekers: Explorers of unknown places.
The Solificati were almost immediately purged for their over-reliance on alchemy, while the religious beliefs of the
Gabrielites and Craftmasons led to their eventual elimination from the Order. In the meantime, a shadow faction
called the Ksirafai developed, and worked behind the scenes to aid in these eliminations while shaping the Order
of Reason into what would eventually become the Technocratic Union. The Artificers became Iteration X, the
Cosians became the Progenitors, the High Guild became the Syndicate, and the Celestial Masters and Void
Seekers unified to become the Void Engineers. The Ksirafai shaped policy until they arranged for their own
disappearance, leaving the New World Order (a secular descendant of the Cabal of Pure Thought's principles of
information-control, said to have been founded in their modern form by Queen Victoria) to take their place as
masters of covert operations, espionage, and counter-intelligence. White Wolf Game Studios describes this
history in detail in its historical setting for Mage, entitled Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade.
With the advent of the industrial revolution and the information age, the Technocracy sought to adapt by allowing
the formation of the Electrodyne Engineers (experts with electricity and ether) and the Difference Engineers
(experts with electronics and information technology). Both, however, eventually rebelled against the Technocracy,
becoming the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts. These two groups now belong to the Traditions and are
reviled by the Technocracy as Reality Deviants for having embraced technomancy.
It is important to note that the Technocracy's own account of history does not square with history as told by the
Traditions. Just as the future is uncertain, the Technocracy's own work at rewriting history brings into question
whether the past is equally uncertain.
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