Behind The Veil

[Oracle]

The Technocracy:

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.

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) abhors the idea of consensual reality. Individuals who violate the rules laid down by their scientists are labelled Reality Deviants, because they are both exceptions of the rules and defy consenusal 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 is perhaps counter productive in certain supernatural creatures such as werewolves and vampires, who are not affected by perception by the masses and in fact, benefit from remaining hidden (a primary concern of World of Darkness vampires being the maintenance of their Masquerade).

Organization:

The Technocracy is divided into five Conventions defined by their philosophies toward science and their scientific 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.

The Precepts of Damian:

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, they nevertheless offer the ideological backbone to the Technocratic Union and are the principles to which Technocracy leadership refer to determine policy.

1. Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
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.

Mission Protocols:

Mission Protocols represent a strict guideline for how an agent should act in the field. They are the bible for field agents and any violation of them must be explained to Control (should they find out).

1. Do no openly acknowledge the presence of the occult to anyone outside the Technocracy.

2. Do not employ blatant Inspirational Science unless authorized. The use of vulgar displays cannot be tolerated, either inside or outside the Union.

3. Do not communicate with deviant mages unless authorized to do so as part of the mission.

4. Do not cross the Gauntlet or Horizon without authorization.

5. An amalgam may program its own assigned employees and citizens. The member of an amalgam may not affect the programming of other agents.

6. Any protocol may be subject to change with authorization of the local Symposium.

- obedience to these protocols varies, depending on who's giving the orders and who's expected to follow them. Liberal Unionists tend to avoid the 3rd protocol while Extreme Unionists treat it as sacrosanct. At the same time members of the NWO treat the second protocol as sacrosanct while field ops of the Iteration X tend to view it as more of a guideline (especially since it would prevent them from using their best toys). However if an Agent is going to break a rule he'd better first be sure he knows where his boss stands.

[Oracle]

Being a Technocrat: The Upside

Money. Being a member of the Technocratic Union is a full time job, however unlike the Traditions it pays like a full time job, and it pays well. How much money a Technocrat has depends on her station and her convention, obviously members of the Syndicate have much more money then the others, but every Technocrat is provided with more then enough money to have a financially comfortable life. Estimate that non-Syndicate technocrats have a salary that runs between 50,000 to 150,000 a year. This money comes in many forms but it belongs to the Technocrat and can be spent however she wants (keeping in mind that her financial records can easily be tracked by her employers). The Technocracy does not expect it's non-Syndicate members to pay for work related matters, those who are forced to can expect compensation through the proper channels.

Equipment. The Technocracy has a lot of money and with that money comes the ability to buy nice toys. Technocracy agents get the best equipment that money can buy, and then some. A technocracy agent working as a scientist has a lab whose equipment starts at the best mundane equipment, with hypertech supplementing it. Those scientists who work as field operatives can easily requisition guns, small explosives, body armor, and other things which would take even the best SWAT teams months to obtain, they even get the permits to go with them. Effectively this means that those Technocrats choosing to work in labs can stock their sanctums labs with virtually any mundane equipment they need to do their work. Field agents may do the same with things such as weapons, armor, false identities, cars, etc....however they should PM Oracle before obtain large amounts of any of these. Also hypertech is much harder to come by, those wishing to possess large, expensive, or rare pieces of hypertech should PM Oracle with a request to Control for the requisition of said equipment. Those agents who will require a large amount of money for a specific project or mission should PM Oracle with a request to Control explaining the need for additional funds.

Contacts. Being part of a shadow intergovernmental magickal conspiracy makes getting information a lot easier. A Technocrat can usually run records pulling up things like an individual's criminal record, birth certificate, driver's license, and even financial or health records with surprising ease. Of course those records can be obscured by means both magickal or mundane, but your average sleeper doesn't go to the trouble (or even know how to do it), neither do many novice young supernaturals. Those agents requesting information on PCs or influential NPCs should PM Oracle with a request to Control for the information.

Influence. The Technocracy has it's fingers in a great many pies, and although it's power isn't infinite it is vast and even a new Technocrat can tap a small portion of that power to great effect. The Technocracy's influence has spread into areas of: health, police, politics, financial institutions, bureaucracies, academia, media, criminal organizations, and other places. The Technocrats can use this to gain access to information and resources, or deny access or resources to others. Many of the enemies of the Technocracy have mortal identities or contacts, and by flexing their influence the Technocracy may make normal life very uncomfortable for these people. Those Technocrats wishing to flex the influence of the Technocracy in large ways (such as ways that will effect a large number of players on the board) or against PCs or influential NPCs directly should PM Oracle. Keep in mind that the lower the Technocrat is in the organization the less influence she can flex. Beginning agents should stick to smaller scale uses until they rise higher in the organization.
Back up. Although the Union's resources are stretched thin at the moment an agent may still call for back up or additional enlightened and non-enlightened agents. Unfortunately with resources being what they are there is no guarantee that the Union can spare someone, but the agent can always try. While usually the providence of field agents, enlightened scientist who work in labs sometimes also require additional support. A small staff of unenlightened research assistants are a given, however even researchers may sometimes have to contact Control for additional enlightened assistance for specific projects. Researchers and field agents can expect a team of 5 unenlightened assistants who can perform various tasks, as a given, anything else requires a call for backup. Those agents who need additional support should PM Oracle with a request of Control. Also those agents concerned with the nature of their unenlightened NPCs should also PM Oracle with any questions.

Paradigm. The Technocracy and it's agents do not perform magick. Instead they perform a form of enlightened science which is guided by their genius. This science involves technology and scientific procedures which are anywhere from 20 to 200 years ahead of the curve (when not on Earth the technology can be even further ahead, but said science rarely works on Earth). Because there magick relies on science it is more likely to be coincidental, in fact the Technocracy as a whole frowns on vulgar science being used outside the lab.

[Oracle]

Being a Technocrat: The Downside

- Freedom. One of the first things that a new agent notices when joining the Technocratic Union is that their usual civil liberities (if they lived in a country that had any) have been permanently suspended. Freedom of speech no longer exists, the agent is still reasonably free to express her opinions but that expression is monitored to various degrees for dissident beliefs or thoughts (and yes they can and do check their agent's thoughts, get used to it). Freedom of religion is a joke. The Union exists to stamp out superstitionist beliefs and that includes all forms of religion. While a small amount of religion is sometimes tolerated (and by tolerated they mean they will only skip you for promotion, grants, and all other forms of advancement), treating religion as a right is traitor talk. On the upside other forms of descrimination are considered equally foolish, science has long ago proven that women and minorities of all kinds can do the job just as well as anyone else, therefore an agent found to be holding someone back due to ethnicity, gender is dealt with in much the same way as those who cling to religious beliefs. Sexual orientation is also not legitimate grounds for descrimination within the Union. The Union encourages monogamy in all it's forms as it helps people to develop predictable patterns. Same sex unions may even be fertile provided the couple is fine with a little gene splicing and possible use of a technological surrogate for the womb.

- Resonance. The Technocracy serves the forces of order and discipline and as such Technocracy agents begin with more resonance then other mages. All Technocracy mages begin with one point of Static resonance, and one other point of resonance (again usually Static). This effects the way they do magick with magick that involves structure and patterns being easier and all other forms of magick being harder.

- Paradigm. The scientific paradigm is a boon and a curse. The curse is that it isn't as flexible as the paradigm of other mages. The Technocracy agents genuinely believe they are doing highly advanced science, not magick, and therefore have more difficulties then most mages in working without the right tools. While every Technocrat worth his stuff has Macgyvered something together at least once, they can rely on that. A Technocrat who finds herself without the proper tools for the job, usually can't do the job at all. On top of that Technocracy focii tend to be more numerous with one focii per effect being common, even within the same sphere. The Technocracy might get the best toys, but without them many of it's agents are dead in the water.

[Oracle]

The Bad Guys:

- The Technocracy has done some terrible things, and continues to do terrible things. They've held back vital technology which could have saved lives. They've systematically gone about disproving faiths which brought hope and happiness to millions. They've manipulated and controlled humanity for centuries, taking away the rights of the masses to decide for themselves how they will live there lives. And those are just some of the things they've done to humans, what they've done to mages and other supernaturals are far worse.

The Technocracy has killed people, in fact it has killed a lot of people, most of them mages. The Union has and will assasinate, brainwash, threaten families, lovers, friends, torture, steal identities, and do countless other terrible things to try to win the Ascension war. They've used other supernaturals and sometimes other mages in various experiements which run the gamit between harmless to torturous, all in the name of progress. The Technocracy and it's rigid paradigm is literally chocking the imagination of humanity.

And yet the Good Guys?:

- For all the evils the Technocracy has committed there is a method to it's madness. The Union seeks to protect the world from the forces of the supernatural. To make the world safe. For the Union Reality itself is a very fragile idea, if no one impossed order or protected reality then it would fall apart as differing philosophies literally tore existence to shreds. The agents of the Union have taken up the mantle of protectors of the world and they do it well. The Union is the reason Demons and Faeries are no longer able to prey openly on humanity. The Union has freed humanity from the shackles of devotion to capricious gods, or obedience to even more capricious mages.

They have also created the most accessible form of magick ever created, science and technology. Enjoy your TV, thank the Technocracy. That life saving surgery, same source. Money, once more go team Technocrat. Enjoying all that gravity? Well I suppose you now know who to thank, and this is just a few of the things the Technocracy has provided. Of by all means the Technocracy hasn't invented all of these things, nor can it even take credit for inspiring most of them, but what it has done is act as the thankless guardians of the system that allows these things to work. If it weren't for the Technocracy science as we know it would have fallen prey to other far worse paradigms a long time ago.

[Oracle]

Different Voices:

The modern Technocracy has faced two major events which have changed the very face of it's operation. The first event is the Avatar storm. Most agents know about the Avatar storm, and that it is the reason that the upper echelons of the Technocracy can no longer give clear orders to the lower ranks. In an organization as hierarchically driven as the Technocracy this has been a devastating blow to the status quo. The Avatar storm began in 1999, however another event preceeded it which has also had a great impact on the Technocracy.

The true details of the second event are known only to a few, and many of them are trapped on the other side of the Gauntlet. In the year 1999 an old and unbelieveably powerful vampiric creature woke up in India and attacked. It took a full scale assault involving some of the Technocracy's most powerful weapons (including nuclear weapons, and a solar satellite array that blasted the beast with sunlight magnified a hundred times it's normal strength) to destroy the creature. The Union had never seen anything like it, and they upper ranks had just enough time to become truly panicked before communications were cut off. Only a small percentage of the Technocrats left on Earth know what happened in India, and they have no idea what to do, so they are sending conflicting orders. The only clear message that low level Technocrats are getting is that the Ascension war is no longer our top concern, we have bigger fish to fry.

This has led to a political factioning of the Technocracy based on how people are reacting to the changes. Below are the three stances the Technocracy is taking. As with all politics an agent may agree to only a certain degree with her chosen camp, but all agents belong to one side of the three fences (whether they mean to or not). Although the political schisming is not officially recognized by Control it can affect the every day lives of agents, and their bosses alike. If neither side comes out on top soon the Technocracy itself may dissolve into bitter infighting and maybe even civil war.

The Extremists:

- The Extremists reacted to the lack of orders and burgeoning new threats by cracking down harder then they ever had before. Within the Technocracy there has always been people who violently opposed the supernatural, and weren't exactly in favor of free will for the masses either. After all if the masses were capable of protecting themselves they wouldn't need the Technocracy, and if they were capable of making their own decisions they would have awakened and joined the Union. The Extremists are extremely strict about discipline and order, they also maintain a policy of the end's justifies the means with regards to many things. The Extremists are also bar none the most violent section of the Technocracy, as many of the agents who's goals were to hunt down big foot and shoot E.T. migrated here.

This is not to say that the Extremists are evil, just highly motivated to protect humanity at all cost. The Extremists happily hunt down Nephandi, Marauders, and Rogue mages who actively work against the cause of the human race. Of all the Technocracy factions the Extremists are the most active in hunting vampires, refusing to give the blood suckers any leyway with their parasitic behavior. Like most Technocracy agents the Extremist avoid the Werewolves and other shapeshifters due to the difficulty in killing these beasts and the fact that it usually possesses little benefit to humanity. However woe to the Werewolve that steps to far out of line and begins to abuse the humans around her, for the Extremists are more then willing to mount death squads to take out shapeshifters who prove themselves a threat. On the whole the Extremists would still love to wipe out all of the shapeshifters, and many of their best scientists slave away in labs building new chemical and biological weapons to wipe out the shapeshifters, they just need more samples.... The Imbuded are perhaps the only group that is given any mercy by the Extremists, and that is only to those who actively hunt and destroy the supernatural. Although sometimes fanatically dedicated to the cause the Extremists aren't stupid, and they recognize that letting someone else do the work is more cost effective, especially if you can easily kill them after it's done.
- of all the groups the Extremist are most like to wind up with either Static or Entropic as their second resonance point.

The Moderates:

- The Moderates as the name suggests are the middle ground. These are the Technocrats who reacted to the current changes by doing the best they can to maintain the status quo. Many are certain that the Masters and Archmages will fix the Avatar storm problem any day now, and once they do everything will return to normal.

The Moderates like all Technocrats still eliminate both Marauders and Nephandi with extreme prejudice, although they are much more cautious then the gung ho Extremists. With regards to other mages the Moderates try to convert rather then kill (even going so far as to brain was other mages into the conversions), however they are willing to kill those mages who can't be turned. Vampires and werewolves are usually left alone provided they clean up their own mess and don't cause too much trouble. The Imbuded are a point of interest for these Technocrats and many are on the fence as to whether or not to view them as a threat, for the time being most are satisified with further study, from a safe distance.

The Liberals:

- The Liberals have gone the opposite direction of the Extremists. In the abscence of clear orders from Control the Liberals have decided to go a head with serving humanity however they please to. For good or ill these are often the least violent of Technocrats, with many simply wishing to help humanity. These scientists are currently pushing for a more rapid technological progress with things like life saving medicines being introduced now rather then 10 years from now when Control believes humanity will be ready for them. Thus far this has met with some mixed results and a surprising number of paradox backlashes, however the Liberals persist in the hopes that with better marketing and education they will be able to build the Utopia of tomorrow today.

With regards to Nephandi the Liberals still take a hardline stance, killing the corrupt mages whenever they can. Unfortunately the more open stance of the Liberals has left the line a little blurry between what is and what isn't a Nephandi, and those without Prime or Mind magicks sometimes have problems telling the difference. Other mages are treating with a bit more respect, and unless they are causing trouble left alone. The Liberals will even work with Tradition or Craft mages to tackle larger threats such as the Nephandi. The Liberals are dangerously curious about both Werewolves and Vampires, seeking as much information as possible about both groups. While the Liberals are the least likely to kill a Vampire or Werewolf they are the most like to uncover some secret that the supernatural groups might find more threatening then a few deaths. The Imbuded can sometimes gain open assistance from Liberal groups as the two seem to have a kinship, especially with those of the Mercy or Vision creeds (well the sane Vision creeds).

- of all the Technocrats the Liberals are the most likely to have either Static or Dynamic as their second resonance.

[Oracle]

Lexicon:

Contruct - the Union word for Chantry

Amalgam - a grouping of mages who work together, much as a cabal would do.

Control - the overarchy bureaucracy which still attempts to run the Technocracy.