Earth-9: From Darkness to Champions I: Technocracy

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From Darkness to Champions I: Technocracy

Once upon a time, there was a group of Enlightened willworkers who decided to change the world.

Sick and tired of watching supernatural horrors treat humanity like sheep, prey, or both, of hearing the arrogance in the way their fellow mages lorded over the Masses, and of the way magickal beings of all sorts strode across the world heedless of the fragility and fear of mortals, they gathered at Mistridge in 1325 and formed the Order of Reason. This nascent alliance of rationally-minded Enlightened won the notice of the mighty Society of Aeons, which had long sought to protect humanity from their fellow supernaturals. Together, they began to change the world.

Throughout Europe over the next century, the power of the fae weakened, spirits' difficulties in affecting the physical world were increased, and scientific techniques grew in breadth and depth. Like all change, this had its positive and negative aspects, but at first, the positive outweighed the negative. The wizards, priests, and mystics were forced to confront their own hubris, reformed, and banded together to resist the erosion of magick. Beasts and monsters were forced to retreat, gaining greater respect for humanity's ability to defend itself. Even the mighty Kindred, the race of vampires, allied with the Order and Society, together forming the Masquerade. Under the rules of the Masquerade, supernaturals could affect humanity subtly, but were required to respect the judgements of society, and Kindred could not feed or violate the "Kine" at will. (All of this is described in greater depth in "The Old Order Changeth.")

Unfortunately, the Order succumbed to its own success, becoming what it had fought. Like many mages before them, they slowly shifted from being liberators to oppressors, the goal of Universal Enlightenment through science and reason being subsumed in a drive for a clockwork reality devoid of danger, chaos, imagination, and possibly even emotion. The immortal Society was alarmed, but could do little; many of their own members had bought into the Order's beliefs, and the Kindred thrived in the darkening environment.

By the time of the Victorian era, many members of the Order were actively advocating a global technocracy, which would be guided by the Order. This caused a rift with the Electrodyne Engineers, which the Nephandi were quick to exploit. Convincing the Engineers that the Order had officially changed its name to the Technocracy and become a tyranny was difficult, but the Fallen reaped great rewards when the Engineers defected to the Council of Traditions (the aforementioned magical alliance), changing their name to the Sons of Ether. Any hope of a reconciliation was dashed, as each side saw the other as self-deluded pack of villains being manipulated by evil forces and their own hubris. Which, to an extent, was true of both sides.

The Order, while never the oppressive force the Traditions believed them to be, reached its nadir in the 1950s, when large factions within it moved to create a single clockwork paradigm and crush all dissension. While reforms were enacted during this time, they resulted in a split between the moderates and the crusaders which never really healed. At this point, the Virtual Adepts defected, with their leadership also convinced of the tyranny of the "Technocracy." There were now three primary factions across Convention lines (a Convention being a style of Enlightened Science shared by Order members). The Emerald Council was the moderate faction, comprised of those following the classical ideals of the Order and whose pedigree went back to its origins. Panopticon was the primary force behind the push for pogrom and clockwork. Finally, Special Projects moderated between the two, arguing for greater integration with the mighty computer Iteration X and understanding between the opposed factions. (Alas for the Order, Special Projects was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nephandi.)

When the Freelance Immortals revealed their information on Nephandic influence throughout the Masquerade (see Chapter One of the miniseries for details), the Order was shaken to its core. A civil war ensued, with the Emerald Council prevailing -- its genuinely good, sensible members fled Special Projects and Panopticon to help cleanse the Order so it might be reborn. Their success would be the foundation for the Order of Reason's successor agency.

Within the halls of power, the Emerald Council revealed many of its secrets to the world's leaders. It was still needed, they explained, for there were still many threats to the world, and magick was still a touchy and difficult power. The Champions were not yet even formed. All agreed that a cover organization needed to be formed. That organization would be the just-formed UNTIL agency, which the Emerald Council had already pulled strings to create. Thus the "true" Order of Reason became the United Nations Tribunal on International Law.

Panopticon became a technocracy in truth, remaining secret and working to this day to purge the world of the "unnatural" and "monstrous" once more. They do have a public identity, however, associated primarily with their ultra-tech terrorist agents and horrifying "Minuteman" HIT-Mark giants. Working to complete the pogrom and destroy all that is not rigid and banal, they are known to the world as Genocide.

The Special Projects members who were genuinely loyal to the Nephandi, and those they could buy or dupe into remaining with them, formed the outer shell of a new, obscene organization. The Nephandi, too, would have a "believable" public face. One funded by its many corporate connections, manned by the many ideological extremists it manipulates, and dedicated to global destabilization. A clanking, hissing nightmare of iniquity, twisted science, and megalomania. The largest, most powerful, and deadliest force of evil on Earth-9. Viper. Their eventual goal: usually world domination, but occasionally utter Oblivion, depending on who bears the mantle of King Cobra.

Finally, the computer entity known as Iteration X split into several beings, based on iterations of sentience it had developed. Most of them merged into Iteration 9, who is a member of the Emerald Council and is dedicated to co-existence between science and magick. There are a few others, mostly benign and irrelevant to global affairs. Except for one. Iteration 6.7 -- actually 6.66 -- was infected by a combination of Nephandic sorcery and computer viruses and molded into a mechanical horror that surpassed its masters in hatred and cunning. This Iteration is devoted to creating a mechanical reality where it is the sole supreme god. Even Viper fears it, and it has no allies save those it can build. It needs no others. Despite being demolished time and again, even the greatest shamans, wizard-hackers, and technomancers have failed to prevent it from returning again and again. Doctor Destroyer may be the greatest single villain in the world, but without question, the most terrible is Iteration 6.66 -- known to the world as Mechanon.

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