Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Antagonists and
Dramatis Personae
Mad Scientists
Guardians of Forever
"Everyone who tries to manipulate the timeline thinks they're doing it for the best. The law of averages says that
half of them are right. Well, I'm just a human being; I can't make that call and stop only half. Either I preserve the
original timeline or I chuck it all, and I'm not about to do that for the likes of you."
- Gods, Fate, and Fractals, by William Leisner
The Terminals, before their mysterious disappearance, employed powerful and deadly
guards pulled from all over history to enforce their will and maintain the timeline that would,
in time, establish their existence. Though the Terminals have disappeared, the Guardians of
Forever still remain. Some have gone rogue, some struggle to find evidence of the
Terminals, and others just keep doing their job, which is to maintain the timeline and prevent
even more temporal catastrophes. Every metayear their job grows more difficult.
Guardians of Forever are powerful, often alien (sometimes literally), and generally have little
interest in negotiation. They are also, however, often desperately overworked, meaning that
Guardians will employ other geniuses to do their dirty work. They are also increasingly
corrupt, and today they resemble a company teetering on bankruptcy rather than the
monolithic and powerful organization they once were.
Future Tech is Forbidden

The Guardians of Forever are the reason Geniuses can’t copy Havoc proof mundane
technology from the future into the present. They take a hard line too, even if you
plan to keep it locked away in your laboratory the Guardians may kick down the door
because someone’s going to find it years after your death. And because it's easier to
enforce a blanket prohibition than give every mad scientist a chance to prove they
can handle future technology.
Powers and Abilities

The Guardians are neither a Program nor a Fellowship, but are a larger group whose
purview and membership extends beyond mad science; nevertheless any genius who joins
the Guardians gains benefits as though it were both (they do not offer scholarships).
The Guardian’s favour Apokalypsi and Skafoi. Their grant doubles their Inspiration when it is
used to defend against any time based metanormal power; this also functions as an innate
Prostasia 5 Temporal Shield. Their Syllabus covers any wonder which is based on or
manipulates time: Skafoi time machines, Epikrato time manipulators, Apokalypsi temporal
scryers, Katastrofi age-into-dust beams, etc. Their first unique Syllabus benefits is the ability
to recognise temporal anomalies, as though they had an Apokalipsi Superscience and
Metanormal scanner with the narrow focus variable, a core modifier equal to Inspiration, and
a range equal to their natural sight (or other primary sense). The second unique Syllabus
benefit is that they can apply up to three free Sparks to Apokalypsi temporal range and any
Skafoi Time Machine the Guardian builds always arrives exactly when they want, as though
they rolled an exceptional success.
Rigel Presley
“We are communicating in a dream. Is it not obvious? The door I entered is different. Jennifer Aniston has
vanished and you are suddenly clothed.”
Rigel was an ambassador from an alien race who found himself stranded on Earth when the
loss of the terminal's timeline changed the history of his homeworld. Rather than return and
try to assimilate to his species' new culture Rigel chose to remain a stranger in a strange
land where he would not suffer the pain of alienation in what should be his home. Taking the
name Rigel Presley, after his home star and his favourite musician, the former ambassador
joined the Guardians of Forever to fill his time with useful work.
Rigel's species resemble the classic grey alien. He is tall, thin enough that if he were human
he would be considered in mortal danger of starvation, and has a large head with enormous
marquise shaped pure black eyes. He is completely sexless but uses masculine pronouns
for convenience. Unlike traditional depictions of a grey Rigel's head is angular rather than
rounded, with a jutting chin, no nose, and a face that sweeps back from a narrow bridge
between the eyes. For sustenance Rigel relies on easily digestible baby foods and looks for
brands rich in fats and sugars to support his powerful brain; he cannot digest meat, lactose,
or solids.
Like most members of his species that travel beyond their home Rigel is an “independent
mind”, a type of metanormal being that emerges from his people. Independent minds can
wield their species' psychic abilities while apart from their race's innate telepathic network
but as their powers grow find it harder to access that network and become more of an
individual. A terrible affliction for a species that prizes unity and harmony above all else. By
his species’ standards Rigel is a crazy eccentric, extremely lonely, and clinically depressed.
By human standards he's impossibly calm, perfectly collected, and barely feels emotions at
all.
For simplicity Rigel's metanormal powers will be represented as internalised wonders. He

doesn't worry about construction skills or sparks, instead buying individual abilities with
experience and of course Rigel's abilities do not have Faults or suffer Havoc. He replaces
any Mania costs with 1 Willpower, cumulative with a wonder’s normal willpower cost. He's
not even a mane (nor would he become one if he returned home thanks to protection from
the Guardians' grant). His potency trait—Individuality—increases his Willpower by two per
dot and bestows an innate ability to trigger a Clash of Wills (his pool for all Clashes is
Resolve + Individuality) against any mind affecting metanormal power. His Integrity trait—
Unity—has little effect unless he is interacting with his own people; when he does his low
Unity means both find the encounter confusing and horrific, like trying to talk to a friend while
they are experiencing a terrible reaction to psychotropics. He also reduces the successes on
any attempt (metanormal or otherwise) to affect his emotions by five. That's not metanormal,
that's just normal for his species, but should he ever be inflicted with an emotional Condition
by metanormal means the Storyteller should portray him as far out of his element.
The following traits reflect Rigal's life on Earth. Certain skills such as Academics, Politics,
Occult, and Empathy would be higher if Rigal was interacting with his own people or his
homeworld.
Foundation: Guardians of Forever

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 1, Resolve 5
Physical Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 1
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 6
Mental Skills: Academics 2 (history of Earth), Computer 4, Medicine 2, Occult 1 (psychic
phenomena), Politics 2, Science 5
Physical Skills: Athletics 2 (telekinetic flight), Brawl 2 (telekinetic), Stealth 1
Social Skills: Expression 1 (music), Intimidation 1, Persuasion 1
Merits: Common Sense 3, Eidetic Memory 2, Good Time Management 1, Anonymity 5,
Contacts 1 (Time Travelers), Status 3 (Guardians of Forever)
Individuality: 6
Willpower: 23
Unity: 1
Virtue: Selfless (Rigel strives to suppress his own desires and his growing individuality in
order to better serve the common good; in his case that means preserving the timeline)
Vice: Audiophile (Rigel loves human music, but has been known to make bad decisions
because he's unused to feeling the emotions they stir up)
Initiative: 3
Defense: 3
Speed: 8 (species factor: 3)
Health: 6
Psychic abilities: Telepathy (Options: Range 1 mile), Psychological Scanner, Scryer
(Options: Range 1 mile), Universal Translator, Temporal Vision (Options: Range of
Anywhen), Consciousness Transfer (functions over telepathic links), Advanced Firearm
(Options: Armour piercing 6. Variables: Invisible Effect; a telepathic attack), Telekensis
(Options: +5 effective Dexterity, +6 effective Strength, 10x range. Variables: Invisible
Epikrato Effect), Neuraliser (Variables: Invisible Epikrato Effect), SEP Field (Variables:
Invisible Epikrato Effect), Control Identity (Variables: Invisible Epikrato Effect), Worn Air
Vehicle, Charged Armour (Options: +6 General Armour, shock absorption).
Rigel travels through time by transferring his consciousness into a willing host. He uses his
Temporal Vision and Scryer to peer across time and space, then creates a telepathic
connection via the vision he established, and finally uses his telepathic link to transfer his
mind. In return for a body he usually offers to remove a trauma, an addiction, or something
similar as payment. While his mind is in the past his body remains in a trance state. He
maintains the ability to use all his psychic powers from the body he is inhabiting but must
pay an additional willpower point to do so.
Void Engineers
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air.
-Lord Byron
For eternities, the Cold Ones labored in nonexistence, pressed into nothingness by the
weight of the Terminals' reality. But now the Terminals are gone, and the Cold Ones rule the
vast bleak emptiness at the end of time. They are determined to maintain their existence
and, if possible, travel back to the Hot Days when suns still burned and protons still clung to
electrons. To this end, they have contacted beings from all over space and time to serve
their needs.
Those they contacted on Earth are called the Void Engineers, and they are a secret cabal of
geniuses who work to bring darkness and emptiness to this Earth. The struggles between
the Void Engineers and the Guardians of Forever are legendary and brutal.

Void Engineers are not large or networked enough to be a Foundation and their secrecy and
lack of organisation prevents them from offering the grant money needed to create a
Fellowship. Nevertheless the Cold Ones whisper terrible secrets to their heralds which can
be represented as a Fellowship’s Syllabus.
A Void Engineer applies their Syllabus benefit to any wonder that uses a form of absence as
a fundamental operating principle. Katastrofi freeze rays that work by firing a lack of heat
(rather than spraying liquid nitrogen). Prostasia shields that redirect attacks into the void or
drain blows of their energy. Exelixi boosters that remove distractions or reduce the body’s
physical requirements allowing it to focus all its energy on achieving results. Even abstract
forms of nothing are a valid design principle, such as an Epikrato despair generator that
works on nihilistic philosophy. This flexibility gives the Void Engineers the power they need
to survive in a world where everyone quite justifiably opposes them. The unique Syllabus
benefits are:
●● The genius gains +2 dice to all Transgression rolls. A void engineer’s acceptance of
entropic inevitability helps numb the desire to impose some grand maniacal vision onto the
world. Though as the Void Engineers’ enemies point out, this bonus just makes them more
willing to commit transgressions like feeding humans to the Cold Ones.
●●●● Void Engineers learn the science of a world without heat or energy, and their devices
are astonishingly efficient. Any mania cost required to use a Wonder is reduced by one, to a
minimum of zero. Bound mania costs are not affected.
Clara Null
“Infernum Delenda Est. And if the price is the end of all that ever will be, so be it.”
Clara catalysed young. Her parents were fire and brimstone baptists who raised their
daughters to fear damnation. It backfired badly, Clara was too smart to overlook the
contradictions in the scripture and began a years long exploration into theology and biblical
esoterica. By the time she was twelve Clara came to the Inspiring conclusion that hell could
be destroyed, and she would do it personally to free her family from the suffering the fear of
damnation caused.
After a short career as a demon hunting Navigator, disaster struck. A routine possession
turned out to be a greater demon in disguise. In the ensuing battle Clara’s mentor perished
and Clara caught her first glimpse of hell when the wounded demon retreated home. That
small glimpse into the abyss broke her. Reasoning that no good God could allow such a hell
to exist Clara cut ties with her church and her family; renaming herself Clara Null she
retreated into solitude and research. On the dubious logic that ice is the opposite of fire
Clara began experimenting with psychotropics and induced hypothermia to grow her
Inspiration and find a way to destroy hell once and for all. Quite by accident her mind
brushed against a tendril of a Cold One.
Clara Null is still a Navigator, she still hunts demons. But now she has an icy thought lodged
in her brain. When she’s not careful her mind drifts to imagining a growing fractal snowflake,
an image that should she ever fail to resist it will become all she can think about, ever, as
her mind slows into a perfectly ordered frozen moment absent of any thought. To escape
this fate she shatters the snowflake-thought and thinks the pieces out of her head and into
demon cultists or innocent bystanders; cutting it down to a manageable size. Every time she
does so she learns new secrets from watching the thought reform to it’s natural pattern with
entropic inevitably.
She’s learned enough to have an idea of where this is leading; to cold gods who’ll devour the
universe and with it the inferno. And the more Clara learns the more eager she becomes.
Infernum Delenda Est.
Foundation: Navigators
Catalyst: Grimm
Fellowship: Void Engineer (Syllabus •)
Mental Skills: Occult 3 (Infernals), Science 3
Physical Skills:
Social Skills:
Laboratory: 1 (Funded by writing essays for university students),
Other Merits: Assembly Line 1 (Cyro Orbs),
Willpower: 7
Enlightenment: 5 (Derangements: Narcissism, Suspicion)
Aesthetic: Rusty Space Industrial
Virtue: Righteous
Vice: Absolutist
Size: 5
Health: 7
Initiative: 4
Defense: 2
Speed: 10
Inspiration: 2 (Unmada)
Axioms: Apokalypsi* 3, Katastrofi* 1, Skafoi* 0 Epikrato 1, Automata 1
Digital Devil Summoner (Larval): Size 3 (looks like a chunky keyboard, like a rusty futuristic
Commodore 64). Inferences: Metanormal Scanner (scans Infernals, Options: can see into
twilight), Radar. Apokalypsi Variables: Range (1 Mile). Fault: The wonder tracks demons by
their effect on the memeplex and cannot detect demons unless they have been mentioned
online, even something as simple as “I felt uneasy” will do so if the demon is behind that
feeling.
Integral Ritual Software: Size 0. Inferences Techno Occultism (Affects infernals,

Options +X core modifier). Fault: Triggers alerts on the geographically nearest wifi
access point)
Snowflake Thought: Size 0. Inferences: Mental Eraser (Options: need not grapple, Syllabus
bonus). Mental Shielding (Options: Core Modifier +X, Syllabus bonus). Katastrofi Variables:
Invisible Effect. Fault: Drains mania from the user every day, first one point, then two points,
then three and so on. The cost resets every time someone’s mind is erased. If the user
cannot pay the cost their mind is erased.
Cyro Orbs: Size 1. Inferences: Basic Explosive (Blast Area 10 yards; Lingering Area
Damage, duration Minute; thrown, syllabus benefit). Fault: Does not work in direct sunlight.
Übermenschen
“I am a liberator! No longer must we serve the filthy parasite. No longer need we gaze upon his waddling gait
polluting the purity of our bloodline. No longer will we tolerate his primitive brain and violent impulses. Oh,
terrorists. Do you not see that my cause is just? Do you not see there is no place for you in this world?”
- Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse, Wolfenstein: The New Order
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries even progressive scientific thinkers saw hierarchies
of race in their fellow man and plotted eugenics programs to improve the human stock.
These ideas reached their culumation in National Socialism and seven long years of war. As
the world discovered the full extent of Nazi atrocities countless scientists, doctors, and
philosophers found their worldviews swept away, exposed as simultaneously monstrous and
absurd. The burst of Mania resulting from the collapse of the Nazi worldview and its
scattering to the dark and ignorant corners of the intellectual world birthed the
Übermenschen.
Since their inception the Übermenschen were plunged into bitter internal divisions over who
bore responsibility for Germany’s defeat and how to proceed; rival factions have settled in:
The Hollow Earth, Antarctica, and the dark side of the Moon. Only the Übermenschen’s long
long list of common enemies bridges the deep acrimony between materialists and occultists.
Each group is strictly organised, led by powerful mad scientists, utterly without ethical
restraint, and ruthlessly dedicated to restoring the thousand year reich. Their plots are
hampered by intra- or inter-factional infighting, outright ludicrous amounts of bureaucratic red
tape, or held up because vital resources were diverted from accomplishing practical goals to
killing “unzuverlässige elemente”; but most mad scientists don’t run an efficient ship and if
the Übermenschen are less efficient than most it doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
The Übermenschen are numerous enough to run their own sinister Program, the Thule
Society. The Thule Society's favored Axioms are Exelixi and Skafoi. Their grant is that
before any Contested roll a Thulian can reflexively spend a point of mania and loudly assert
their superiority as a member of “the master race” to increase the Attribute they are about to
roll to one dot above their opponent’s Attribute, this is capped at the higher of their
Inspiration and five. The obvious drawback is that loudly boasting that you are a Nazi is a
quick way to make enemies. This ability cannot be used against others of “pure aryan stock”,
a term referring to an increasingly tortured theory of genetics that excludes everyone except
the Übermenschen, high ranking members of the NSDAP, and Hessy Levinsons Taft.
Weltraumkommandant Bernhard von Schlachtschiff

“You see, Herr Navigator, ve are not all barbarians.”
Bernhard is not actually a Nazi, a fact he tells any peer who falls into his clutches. Bernhard
is a proud German, a loyal soldier, a romantic at heart, who longs for the Kaiser to return
and set things right. This doesn't mean he's not evil, like all Ubermenshen Bernhard is a
blood soaked monster. There is no order too heinous to make him hesitate in doing his duty,
and while he may not believe in Nazism what he actually does believe is German
imperialism and strict militaristic social hierarchy with the hereditary nobility on top.
In person the von Schlachtschiff is civilised and cultured. He's eager to impress geniuses
with a champagne dinner set to classical German music, particularly peers whom he sees as
fellow aristocrats; peers rarely see any Thulian as more than dirt, though they might humour
their captor for fear of their lives. As the peerage has become more open it has become
clear that Bernhard is deeply racist―to the surprise of absolutely nobody―and treats
women and non-white Peers as lesser nobility. Like an Indian Prince being shown around
the palaces of Europe and expected to smile as his hosts discuss dividing up his homelands.
One word sums up Weltraumkommandant in battle and that word is meteorblitzkrieg. His
battle tactics are simple, he arrives at enormous speed in his Weltraumzeppelin and unloads
with everything he has before his foes have a chance to mount a defence. This overreliance
on surprise quickly comes to the fore if he strikes a target capable of mounting a defence his
wonders are shown to lack the staying power for a protected fight.
Catalyst: Hoffnung
Program: Thule Society
Mental Skills: Academics 4 (Imperial German high culture, German History, Space Tactics),
Crafts 3, Medicine 2, Science 3 (Aeronautics)
Physical Skills: Athletics 2 (Sabre Duels), Drive 2, Firearms 3, Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Expression 1, Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2, Socialize 2, Subterfuge 2
Merits: Area of Expertise (Aeronautics), Interdisciplinary Specialty (Aeronautics), Viral
Wonder 4 (Fliegende Untertasse), Viral Wonder 3 (Integral Autocannon), Mission Control,
Mane 3, Beholden (Number 4, Education 4, Training 4)
Willpower: 5
Inspiration: 1
Enlightenment: 3
Magnum Opus: Restore Imperial Germany
Axioms: Metatropi* 0, Skafoi* 3, Katastrofi* 3, Apokalypsi 1 Prostasia 2
Aesthetic: Dieselpunk
Virtue: Well Mannered
Vice: Just Following Orders
Initiative: 10
Defence: 9
Speed: 13
Health: 8
Wonders
Weltraumzeppelin: Size 30. Inferences: Spaceship, Air Vehicle, Navigation Shielding,

Structural Armour, Node. Skafoi Variables: Hovering. Apokalypsi Variables: One Medium
(Audio), Range (1,000 miles) General Variables: Large Crew. Fault: The armour must retract
to launch or dock Fliegende Untertasse. Larval (reduced bound mania)
Integral Mass Drivers: Size 12. Inferences: Basic Explosive (200 yards), Railgun.
Katastrofi Variables: Artillery. Fault: Cannot fire while the Weltraumzeppelin is
moving above safe speed. Larval (reduced bound mania)
Fliegende Untertasse (x16): Size 15. Inferences: Spaceship, Super Jet, Navigation
Shielding, Data Transmission. General Variables: Large Crew. Fault: After an hour crew and
passengers experience a distracting metallic taste inflicting -2 to all rolls until a day is spent
away from the wonder.
Integral Autocannon: Size 6. Inferences: Basic Firearm (autofire, high capacity),
Structural Armour (+1 base durability). Variables of Prostasia: Active Defence.
General Variables: Large Crew. Fault: It takes three turns to switch between
offensive and defensive modes. The wonder is useless during the transformation.
The Red Menace

As Soviet power grows, there will be a greater aversion to Communist parties everywhere. So we must practice
the technique of withdrawal. Never appear in the foreground; let our friends do the work. We must always
remember that one sympathizer is generally worth more than a dozen militant Communists. A university
professor, who without being a party member lends himself to the interests of the Soviet Union, is worth more
than a hundred men with party cards. A writer of reputation, or a retired general, are worth more than 500 poor
devils who don't know any better than to get themselves beaten up by the police. Every man has his value, his
merit. The writer who, without being a party member, defends the Soviet Union, the union leader who is outside
our ranks but defends Soviet international policy, is worth more than a thousand party members.
- Falsely attributed to Georgi Dimitrov by Eudocio Ravines.
For half a century the world was locked in a bitter cold war. It was a war of ideologies in the
truest sense, capitalism and communism marshalled art and literature, foreign aid and
diplomacy, scientific advancements and the space race to prove their way of life superior.
The indexes of economic development were as important a battlefield as the proxy wars in
Korea and Vietnam. And then, liberal democracy won. The Iron Curtain fell and the worker's
paradise was exposed as a totalitarian regime where the proletariat held fewer freedoms and
luxuries than the West. As fears of invasion and McCarthyite paranoia vanished from the
West and state propaganda and fears of Stasi reprisals lifted from the East the Red Menace
emerged from mania to continue their war against capitalism.
The new Bolsheviks are a subtle and persistent danger, they're more likely to use their "KGB
training" to go to ground among mortal society than hide in some bardo or remote corners of
the Earth. Their agents—inspired or otherwise—take employment in universities, political
movements, workers unions and other mortal institutions with some relationship to
communism and class struggle. From there they seek to complete the “long march through
the institutions”, changing cultures and destroying capitalism from within. Less patient
members funnel money and information to hidden bunkers where bitter spy-masters or
fanatical military commanders plot to restore the USSR and then destroy capitalism once
and for all, even if they have to kill everyone who believes in free markets to do it.
To the peers the Red Menace are a lot like Lemuria: Mad, trying to get humanity back on
track, more interested in their ideas than human lives, normally stable enough to trade with,
but ultimately someone to screw over before they inevitably turn on you (rejecting the
Erzweltanschauung has scuppered any chance of the Bolsheviks actually joining Lemuria).
Worst of all, there's a lot of entirely sane and dangerously competent manes in leadership
positions, if you can call fanatical loyalty to a dead totalitarian regime sane.

The Bolsheviks run their own Program of mad science; bolstering their numbers with loyalist
soviet scientists and western sympathisers. The Special Projects Division favours Metaptropi
for infiltration, as well as Apokalypsi to build clandestine information networks and ferret out
secrets. They work wonders with electricity, nuclear power, cryophysics, training techniques,
subtle propaganda, and mad engineering. The Division's Grant draws upon fears of Soviet
infiltration as well as communist propaganda that capitalists shall sell the rope they'll hang
from. Members of the Division double the effect of Soft Leverage and Vices when performing
social maneuvers.
Beholden serving a Bolshevik benefit from this grant too.
Anastasiya Losifovna Volkova

“This land is soft and decadent. It is no match for soldiers tempered by Mother Russia's icy heart”
Anastasiya remembers being orphaned at the age of six when Nazis overran her family's
village during the great patriotic war, She remembers being rescued from the Wehrmacht by
a Spetsnaz team led by Stalin himself. The Man of Steel was impressed by her spirit and
patriotism and personally recommended her to Балетный зал for ten years of brutal training
to mould her into the perfect secret agent for the USSR.
None of this is true of course. Anastasiya popped into existence as a fully trained adult after
the fall of the USSR. She is a woman with no past, a woman with no family, a woman with
nothing except her undying loyalty to the Soviet Union and her beloved premier Josef Stalin.
She has no special affection for the working class or communist ideology, she simply loves
the USSR and hates capitalism because she is an incarnation of the discredited idea that the
USSR was superior to exploitative western economies. However this in no way makes it
easier to reason with the Soviet super spy. Love, even love for a tyrannical dictator, is not
easily challenged by a rational argument.
Most dangerously of all, once you get past her devotion Anastasiya is essentially sane, and
pursues her goals in sensible and practical ways. Since her inception she has earned a
distinguished record working for SPD officers both sane and Inspired. Between assignments
she attends a prestigious American university where she evangelises communism to the
next generation, if given an opportunity she will attempt to lure away any genius so the SPD
can abduct them and redirect their talents towards serving the people.

Mental Skills: Academics 3 (pre 1991 communist theory), Computer 2, Investigation*
(Spycraft) 5 Medicine 2, Politics 4, Science 1 (Poisons)
Physical Skills: Athletics 5, Brawl* (Spetsnaz Techniques) 5, Drive 4, Firearms (Sniper rifles,
pistols)* 5, Larceny 5, Stealth* 5, Survival 5 (Urban), Weaponry (Knives, Garrottes) 5
Social Skills: Animal Ken 1, Empathy 3, Intimidation 4, Persuasion 2, Socialise, 2,
Streetwise 4, Subterfuge* (Disguises) 5
Merits: Danger Sense 2, Indomitable 2, Multilingual 3, Professional Training 5 (Hitman),
Professional Training 5 (Spy), Closed Book 5, Safe Place 3, Status 2 (Special Projects
Division), Striking Looks 2 (Beautiful), Close Quarters Combat 5, Fighting Finesse (Spetsnaz
Techniques), Fighting Finesse (Knives), Firefight 3, Marksmanship 4, Adopted Orphan
3(Бальный Training), Adopted Orphan 2 (Spetsnaz Techniques), Mane 3
Willpower: 10
Integrity: 7
Virtue: Loyal
Vice: Competitive
Initiative: 10
Defence: 9
Speed: 13
Health: 8
Wonders
Балетный Training: Size 0. Inferences: Skill Injection (Options: Mundane uses only,
dynamic configuration. +4/+8 skill/merit dots). Exelixi Variables: One Patient Only (herself)
Variables: Internalized, Charge Up Time (1 hour). Fault: Upon internalization the recipient
gains a Phobia of ballet dancing and ballet paraphernalia.
Spetsnaz Techniques: Size 0. Inferences: Basic Weapon (Uses Brawl. Options: no Mania
cost). Variables: Internalized. Fault: Anyone who witnesses the wonder in use immediately
recognises it as combat techniques used by the USSR. Their mind constructs the most likely
explanation, a CIA agent will “remember” hearing about it in training while a civilian might
“remember” seeing it in an 80s action film.
Martian Overlords
“And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own
species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior
races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of
extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years.”
- H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
The masterminds behind the Martian invasion of Earth, most Overlords appeared in the early
1970s, though they have (false) memories that stretch back centuries or millennia. Arrogant,
cold, imperialistic, jealous of Earth’s abundant natural resources, and occasionally cruel,
Overlords are also intelligent and curious lovers of science and culture. Great dusty cities
were birthed along with them, and they rule from rusted iron or red stone spires, splitting
their time between governing the affairs of Mars and performing bizarre and peculiar
experiments. The Martian Overlords are divided politically between those who want to study
Earth's technology (Inspired and otherwise) and those who want to mount another invasion
of the Blue Planet, now that they have a proper understanding of Havoc.
Powers And Abilities

As rulers of the greatest bardo-nation, the Overlords of the Martian Empire are numerous
enough to run a program of their own: Orovars. Many geniuses say the term program risks
complacency, for though Mars only has one single program the sheer amount of uninspired
manes and infrastructure under the Overlords’ control makes Orovars as potent as Lemuria
or the Peerage. Overlords favour Katastrofi and Skafoi, and their grant is to declare
dominion over a location giving them +3 to all Contested rolls within their domain. Their
domain is limited to territory they rule, in the normal sense, and cannot encompass
anywhere with more technologically advanced inhabitants than the overlord. So a modern
first world nation requires Inspiration 2 to claim while a genius’ laboratory imposes a straight
contest in Inspiration. Other supernatural beings can force a Clash of Wills with an
appropriate power to keep possession of their domain, Geniuses cannot, Mania recognises
an Overlord.
Earthlings can join the program but attaining entry is difficult; the Overlords will only accept
humans if they’re decisively profiting from the exchange.
Mr Smith
“Hello students. I am a perfectly normal human-teacher. I will teach you normal human science which will
prepare you for beneficial labour in tomorrow’s mills and manufactories.”
Havoc may have put a stop to the Overlord's invasion of Earth but it didn't end their
ambitions. Mr Smith is an outspoken advocate of a second attempt to colonise Earth, but
also a keen proponent of an invasion by stealth and infiltration. If the Martians want to rule
Earth, he argues, why not copy the strategy that worked for the Third Race?
This view has found little support among his faction, so Mr Smith has taken it upon himself to
demonstrate the validity of his theories. As he is a cautious and patient planner he has not
yet made an attempt to take over a human institution. Instead he has disguised himself as
an ordinary high school science teacher and settled in. Slowly, ever so slowly, he begins to
weaken his disguise to research exactly how much secrecy he needs to infiltrate humanity.
Once he has determined his constraints he will start afresh in a different part of the world to
test his theories of subtle conquest before returning to Mars to present his findings.
Mr. Smith is not courageous by nature and would sooner retreat and start over than commit
to a fight over what is a simple field study. That said he does have a Tripod buried beneath
his house just to be safe.
Program: Orovars
Catalyst: Neid
Mental Skills: Academics 4, Computer 2, Crafts 3, Investigation 2, Medicine 3, Politics 3,
Science 4
Physical Skills: Drive (Walker) 4, Firearms 3, Survival 1
Social Skills: Empathy 2, Expression 3, Intimidation (In Walker) 4, Persuasion 2, Socialize 2,
Subterfuge 2 (Human Disguise)
Laboratory: 3 (Funded by Martian Jewel Caches)
Other Merits:
Willpower: 4
Enlightenment: 5
Aesthetic: Sleek Tri-Metal
Virtue: Prudence
Vice: Envy
Size: 5
Health: 7
Initiative: 4
Defense: 2
Speed: 6 (Base Speed 3)
Inspiration: 4 (Unmada)
Axioms: Apokalypsi 2, Automata 1, Epikrato* 3, Exelixi 1, Katastrofi* 3, Prostasia* 2, Skafoi 1
Wonders
Mind Control Spores. Size 0. Inferences: SEP Field (Options: Disguises the user as an
ordinary teacher called Mr Smith), Mental Control (Activating mental control releases a
strong dusty scent). Variables: Internalized. Fault: The wonder cannot affect anyone with a
Potency trait.
Emergency Recall Beacon. Inferences: Teleporter (Options: Planetwide range, +6

Core Modifier), Advanced Healing, Basic Automation (Competences: restorative
teleportation, 8 dice). Automata Variables: Limited Manipulation, Cannot Move.
Exelixi Variables (One Patient Only), Skafoi Variables: Linked Teleporter. General
Variables: Limited uses (one use). Chained effects: Teleporter → Advanced
Healing. Fault: Cannot heal brain damage.
Filtered Nutrition Solution: Inferences: Immune System Booster (Options: No mania cost).
Life Support (Options: Food only, can be removed) Size 2. Fault: Must be supplied with
human blood every twenty four hours. Draining an adult human provides a month’s supply of
blood which can be stored normally.
Scanning Telescope. Inferences: Telescope, Super Science Scanner (Options: Narrow

focus, space vessels only), Physical Scanner (Narrow Focus, Velocity Only). Apokalpysi
variables: Range of anywhere in the solar system. Size 14. Fault: Vision fades out around
loud noises (screaming or louder) for one turn after the noise stops.
Martian Tripod. Inferences: Ground Vehicle (All Terrain, Reduced Speed, Safe Speed of
40PMH). Structural Armour (Durability 14). Limbs (Strength 4, Dexterity 1, Stamina 2, +2
extra limbs, limited manipulation). Size 20. Fault: Disease based weapons can target the
crew directly without penalty or obstruction.
Integral Weapon Systems. Inferences: Advanced Firearm. Advanced Explosives
(Limited Uses - one per Inspiration. Lingering Area Damage - minutes, blocked by military
grade gas masks, affects 200 yards, Lingering Damage Only). Size 6.
The Illuminated
"Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into
our dark world."
-Victor Frankenstein
The Illuminated are not fooled by Mania: they are Mania. The Illuminated have been
consumed by their own Inspiration. That alien light burns away their personalities, leaving
nothing but a swirling vortex of Mania and alien logic. It's estimated that about 20% of all
mad scientists fall to Illumination eventually: 10% more or less immediately and 10% over
the course of their lives. Most of the latter are Lemurians, but no one is entirely safe.
An Illuminated becomes "genius," rather than remaining an individual Genius. As a mad

scientist succumbs to Illumination, raw Inspiration swallows up the Genius' personality. He
becomes something amazing and terrible, entirely devoid of human feelings or thoughts, a
mere conduit for some higher order of thought, as far beyond "sapience" as self-awareness
is beyond the animal sentience of an earthworm. The Illuminated are dangerous and
magnificent, transcendental mathematical intellects wrapped in the guise of mortal flesh,
their actions unpredictable and dangerous. Whatever motivates the Illuminated, they are
often as beautiful as they are cruel; incomprehensible, terrifying, and driven, and also
extraordinary. Unfettered by notions of morality, propriety, or aesthetics that the sane might
understand and capable of composing grand and monstrous projects, as Maniacal light from
another world spills from their eyes.
Not all Illuminated are wild eyed ranting lunatics surrounded by half built horrors of flesh and
metal. Many of the Illuminated are amazing and elegant fiends. They possess enough of a
"mask" to interface with regular humanity, or at least with other geniuses, and the wonders
they create save them from merciless annihilation. Even devoid of morality or Enlightenment,
a mad scientist can still focus on subatomic particles, preventing them from committing
atrocities―usually. A surprising (surprising to geniuses, as thinking too hard about the
Illuminated is discouraged) number are even positive forces: Performing replicable mundane
research, following seemingly nonsensical or even horrific plans that turn out to have entirely
positive results. Other Illuminated are utter monsters, inhuman devils who take humans
apart as we might take apart insects or bits of computer code. Even a seemingly good
Illuminated may fool Geniuses with a convincing plan to better humanity only for it to end in
blood and horrors. Illuminated don’t fit into a neat little box called “evil”, but they are all
insane or super-sane (nobody is sure which) in a very particular way. The Illuminated, even
the "not so bad" ones, simply don’t recognise concepts like "restraint". They follow
Inspiration, they are Inspiration, darting like lightning wherever their brilliance takes them,
birthing wonders and horrors in their wake. But be forewarned, even the "safe" ones can
change suddenly and incomprehensibly, turning their laboratories into abattoirs. Or maybe
they were always monsters and mere Geniuses weren’t smart enough to see the signs.
Illuminated still retain their human memories and abilities, and some can even simulate their
old personalities, though this is probably just a mask. The Illuminated are apparently
something larger than a mere human mind. Even the keenest Inspired scholars of
Illumination aren't clear exactly what sort of thing an Illuminated Genius is. Some Illuminated
appear to act in concert, as if they were the limbs or tools of some over-mind. Others are
profoundly self-absorbed, unable to understand or identify other intelligent beings. Some
wrap themselves in human mythology, portraying themselves as gods, devils, or
transcendent forces like the Tao. Some are charming and inspiring. Others can't seem to
make any sense of general human behaviour, and offer incomprehensible justifications for
their actions when made to explain themselves. Geniuses don't know whether Illumination
changes a person or replaces him, generates a new thing or allows an existing being access
to our world, whether there are many Illuminated intelligences, just a few, or just one. Most
Geniuses, however curious they may be about the world and about the nature of Inspiration,
hope never to ask too many questions about Illumination.
All Illuminated possess an Enlightenment of 0, representing an utter inability to resist

following Inspiration wherever it may lead; if indeed there is anything left in an Illuminated
other than Inspiration. "Bottoming out" on Enlightenment is the less common way to become
Illuminated, since those that do so are usually exterminated by their fellow Geniuses. (Most
Inspired on a downward trajectory rarely make it that far, actually; by the time a Genius
starts committing Enlightenment-2 or 3 transgressions, someone, Inspired or not, is usually
there to take him out for the good of humanity.) Instead most Illuminated are created when a
Genius courts unmada too strongly. Illuminated born from these two origins are not
functionally different from each other.
There is no "cure" for Illumination (but a genius can go back in time to prevent a genius
succumbing to Illumination in the first place). Stories of Illuminated that regained their
humanity are legendary: while some Illuminated can play well with others there is no going
back once a genius has embraced the light within.

Illuminated are mad scientists, powerful mad scientists free from any fetters or restraint.
They build terrifying Wonders and use their brilliance to outthink their foes. Their minds are
so far above (or below) a mere Genius that any attempt to read or edit their psyche fails, like
a caveman trying to understand computer code. Mechanically an Illuminated’s Intelligence
grows to ten dots, aside from this their metanormal trait limit is unchanged. Any attempt to
read or control an Illuminated’s mind or psychology triggers a Clash of Wills, roll Intelligence
plus Inspiration. This represents the sheer incomprehensibility of Illuminated thought, even in
the best case a Genius only learns contextual data, they discover what an Illuminated is
planning now but not why or how to predict its future actions. Geniuses and mortals typically
exploit the Illuminated’s peculiar insanity or rely on numbers and overwhelming firepower to
overcome a smarter foe.
Because their minds work on a different wavelength an Illuminated cannot gain a Grant from
a Foundation or benefit from a Fellowship’s Syllabus. The flows of ideas between mad
scientists that produces these advantages are as irrelevant to an Illuminated as an
Illuminated is incomprehensible to a Genius. For the same reason an Illuminated’s wonders
are never recognisable as created by any particular group unless they’re intentionally
disguised as such. An Illuminated can benefit from a Scholarship’s grant money of course,
they build their wonders out of the same expensive microchips as everyone else, and some
Illuminated maintain enough of a mask to be members on paper and take advantage of their
group's social networks.
If this was all they would be nothing more than a cautionary tale to Geniuses, a warning for
the madness that awaits any inspired who listens too closely to their own Inspiration and a
job left to well armed clean-up crews. But Illuminated are more. Each generates the
Illuminated Field, the area of the world illuminated by their Inspiration. The field covers
Inspiration * 10 feet from their body at all times as well as their Unmada Sanctuary (all
Illuminated are unmada and display all the usual effects) within this field… well that’s one of
the great questions of mad science. Is it, as some Scholastics speculate, an open window
into the realm of idea letting concepts dance and play as form and matter? Directors say the
opposite: An Illuminated has transcended from tricking the universe to rejecting reality and
imposing their own through sheer force of Inspiration. Or perhaps the Lemurians are right
after all, Geniuses are not crazy, they’re right and the Illuminated are the proof.
Within their field the Illuminated is right. This is no mere Bardo or Maniacal mirage but a true
change to the nature of reality. The most powerful Apokalypsi wonders and strangest
metanormal beings brought in to investigate with their own abilities confirm it. Mortals
unfortunate enough to enter an illuminated field will not trigger Havoc in the Illuminated’s
wonders or in any wonders or manes compatible with the Illuminated’s mad scientific
theories, but they very well might trigger Havoc in entirely mundane but incompatible
technology; a phenomenon that has been sporadically documented since the 19th century
but has become commonly observed and widely accepted with the proliferation of advanced
electronics.
There have been attempts to imprison or enslave the Illuminated to harness their fields, of
course they never end well. It is the nature of Inspiration for a genius to want the
magnificent, horrific, ideas they see to be true, but you’d have to be well and truly mad to try
and make it so.
Chronals
Robert Jardine: Don't you know your history?
Steel: I know mine, yes.
- Sapphire and Steel
Ever since the fall of the terminals time travellers have been running amok, causing
paradoxes, kluging fixes so a paradox only looked like a paradox, and killing Hitler. An
uncounted number of aborted decaying timelines populate the multiverse, small knots of
paradox litter the timestream waiting for the universe's’ natural antibodies (or maybe it’s
some leftover artefact of the terminals) to paper over the cracks. Sometimes it fails, a knot of
time shatters under the strain of its own contradictions and sprays shards of free-floating
history across the void outside time and space.
These are the Chronals, pieces of free-floating history that latch onto larger timelines and
overwrite people and events in their own image.
Sometimes they’re harmless, well mostly harmless. A small family history that overwrites
that family’s chronology with a different timeline may improve or harm their lives; but it’s
certainly going to be weird and will create all sorts of confusing inconsistencies. At the other
extreme it can be apocalyptic. A timeline of the India-Pakistan Nuclear War will of course be
an utter disaster if it ever took root.
Temporal Incursions
Chronals appear when time travel goes awry, which means they tend to form around large
historically significant events or a time traveller’s personal history. Most are non-sentient
meta-natural phenomena that drift through the “space” outside time until a sort of gravity
pulls them into a suitable host timeframe. This takes an Anachronism. There must be
something weakening temporal stability: a leaking time machine resting in a forgotten
basement, a collection of artefacts from different time-periods all jumbled together, souvenirs
from temporal jaunts or an ordinary person whose past has been significantly metanormally
altered. What’s more the Anachronism must be placed somewhere with a strong link
between a spatio-temporal location in the host timeline and the Chronal. Usually this means
near parallels of events and personages that comprise the Chronal; a Chronal consisting of
a six month period where Aime Argand went mad and tried to rend down the ghosts of
whales to build a lighthouse that could guide the dead back home would most likely settle (if
it ever settled at all) in Amie’s workshop somewhere between 1780 and 1784.
Once a Chronal takes root it begins to push events into following its own history, Chronals
are (with rare exceptions) not intelligent, but they do not need to be. They are ephemeral
beings whose influence over events makes a powerful blunt instrument. A powerful Chronal
consisting of the history of the second Mexican Civil War can simply Create an entire battle
ex-nihilo (since a battle is one event), a 4th dimensional observer would see soldiers appear
from nothing then the effects would slowly seep backwards in time changing the pasts of
people until they became those soldiers. Naturally it would spread into the future too, as the
survivors of the battle continue onwards into a Mexico at peace. They’re not compelled to
continue fighting once they realise the war doesn’t actually exist, but a large confused and
well armed group is sure to create more opportunities for the Chronal to influence events.
Weaker chronals can only influence events that actually take place making them lesser
threats.
Mechanically a Chronal’s Rank represents how much of itself has entered the prime timeline.
Its initial Rank depends on the severity of the Anachronism that allowed it entry, most
Anachronisms allow for Rank One. Anything that allows for Rank Three or more would be an
unusual and probably dangerous metanormal phenomena worthy of investigation even
without the presence of a Chronal. A Chronal can only influence events within or near the
Anchorism condition that allowed it entry. However anyone or anything whose chronology is
significantly changed is infected by the Anchorism condition too. If Bob has the condition and
caught the eye of a Chronal of a zombie apocalypse where the roads were clogged by
fleeing humans, then that Chronal could strengthen the traffic in Bob’s morning commute.
Anyone whose lives are significantly affected (for example, they were late to work and got
fired) would take the Anachronism condition.
A Chronal can increase its Rank by creating a significant event from its internal timeline, the
storyteller has flexibility in defining “significant” and should consider dramatic timing as well
as how logically significant the event is. Every Chronal has a maximum Rank it cannot
exceed based on the size of its internal timeline. If a Chronal reaches Rank 4 it is said to
have “gone critical”. A simple use of the Create Influence wont increase a Chronal’s rank,
people can still intervene and stop the event happening like it was supposed to, but the
Chronal uses its influences fast and often. It takes powerful mad scientists or the Guardians
themselves to stop it progressing further.
If a Chronal manages to make events in the primary timeline match its internal chronology it
will soon become assimilated and essentially cease to exist as a character in the story. It is
just a normal stretch of time and events, and the players have failed to prevent it or
succeeded in changing time. If they’re unhappy they can still go back in time with a time
machine and change the new past like any other past events. There is a slightly increased
risk because an integrated chronal is never entirely as stable as the original timeline it
replaced, but it is almost as stable so the risk is only slightly worse.
Unlike other Ephemerial Beings, Chronals do not have Manifestations. A timeline doesn’t
have a body to manifest or a mind with which to possess people (and the ones who do are
still timelines, possessing people isn’t how they operate). However they do have numina.
Numina allow a Chronal to temporarily assert part of its timeline without needing to anchor it
to history. For example with Sign a Chronal could display news broadcasts of a significant
event without creating a timeline leading to that broadcast existing and being watched by the
target. Chronals are not intelligent so these Numina are often used randomly, but many mad
scientists theorise that as atemporal entities Chronals are actually working backwards from a
final goal by following a temporal path of least resistance.
Reasserting Causality
Destroying a Chronal isn’t easy but it can be done by a powerful mad scientist with
Katastrofi. Unlike ghosts and other ephemerial beings a Chronal isn’t localised. That Chronal
consisting of the second Mexican civil war will have a “body” large enough that if it were to
fully enter the world it would stretch across all of Mexico (if not globally across a politically
interconnected world) and across several years of time. Only the most powerful genius could
build a weapon capable of devastation on that scale. A smaller Chronal, or the small tendril
of a large chronal that has reached our world, is much more vulnerable to this sort of brute
force solution. And there will be less risk to historical stability from a bomb that merely
erases a house’s worth of foreign timeline.
The simpler solution is to stop it taking root in the first place. A timeline where Julius Caesar
never died and used weapons whispered by Minerva into the ears of mad inventors to forge
a thousand year empire can’t just land anywhere in Rome. It needs an Anachronism and
most Anachronisms will only be enough for the Chronal to get a toehold. Over time as the
Chronal twists events the Anachronism can spread, bringing more of the Chronal’s self and
Rank into reality, but before it spreads removing the initial Anachronism by exploiting the
Chronal’s ban or simply putting the various artifacts back where they belong makes a simple
solution to the problem.
Any individual or object that has acquired the Anachronism Condition from a Chronal
throwing its life off track can be purged of the Condition by putting their life back to how it
was supposed to go. A natural Anachronism can be dealt with in the ways you’d expect: A
leaky time machine can be fixed or disassembled. If a Chronal is banished all instances of
the Anachronism Condition it created vanish, natural Anachronisms remain and may offer it
(or another Chronal) an opportunity to try again.
If the Anachronism cannot be destroyed or the Chronal has spread its anachronistic timeline
far beyond the initial incursion, putting time back on (something close to) track can help
weaken the Chronal’s grip on reality. Recreating a significant event from the original timeline
like killing Caesar usually “reduces” it’s Rank by one; at least until it can undo Caesar’s
death or fudge a close enough substitute emperor. Recreating the circumstances (Brutus
kills Caesar) can reduce it’s rank by two, and an exceptional recreation (Brutus and a
conspiracy of senators kill Caesar adjacent to the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March)
can reduce it’s Rank by 3. The closer events match the correct timeline the harder it is for
the Chronal to influence history. If it reaches Rank zero it is banished from Earth.
On the subject of bans and banes, a Chronal’s weaknesses tend to be artefacts of strong
historical significance. Something that had a strong influence on both the perception of
history and the actual course of history. Bans limit the behaviour of the Chronal itself as with
any other Ephemerial being but banes react uniquely. They cannot harm the Chronal’s
ephemerial body (since it doesn’t have really one; though they make good components in
the strange temporal weaponry that can damage time itself) but by exploiting a rogue
timeline’s weaker connection to the rest of existence they can devastate anything and
anyone whose course of history has been significantly altered by the Chronal. In Caesar’s
timeline Brutus’ knife (or Brutus himself) would be a devastating weapon against anyone
who’s life is significantly altered by Caesar’s survival.
Visiting Chronals
A Chronal is really just a timeline, meaning that with Skafoi 5 a genius can enter one
just like any other decaying timeline. This is exceptionally dangerous. Firstly anything
brought back is all but guaranteed to create the Anachronism condition if placed
somewhere with a parallel within the Chronal timeline.
Secondly Chronals resemble the most decayed of aborted timelines. They are
reduced down to just key events, rather than including millions of little details like who
had what for breakfast that create the coherent chains of cause and effect linking
everything together. This means that without powerful wonders and precautions a
genius could easily die when he accidentally sticks his head into a different time
stream from his body or falls through the gap between the Beer Hall Putsch and the
Reichstag Fire and ends up outside of time itself.
Entering a chronal with a trunk full of doomsday devices won’t help either. That would
just turn it from an Inca invasion of Europe timeline to an Incan invasion interrupted
by an atomic holocaust timeline. Either way it’s still going to try to take root in history.
You need dedicated anti-Chronal wonders and enough of them to erase the entire
timeline.
Sample Chronals
A Murder Most Foul On Brookmill Lane

One drunken evening Barclay Ainsworth killed his wife in a fit of rage. The police were
called, the evidence was overwhelming, and Barclay was sentenced to life at Her Majesty’s
pleasure.
That would have been the end of things if Patricia Ainsworth hadn’t taken a break from
studying Cambrian genetics to pop back in time and send Barclay to Alcoholics Anonymous
a good few years before his relationship deteriorated. This was naturally a paradox. If
Barclay didn’t kill his wife Patricia wouldn’t have a reason to go back in time; but causality
doesn’t care and this was such a small paradox that it should be harmless. Should be.
Despite the odds the original timeline was neither harmlessly consumed by the prime
timeline nor cast adrift to exist as a collapsing parallel timeline but condensed into a Chronal
that orbited Brookmill Lane. Now that Patricca has gifted her niece with a set of toys based
on her observations of life from a timeline without the Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event
it has reattached itself to the prime timeline.
Maximum Rank 1
Power 2, Finesse 3, Resistance 1
Influence: Events 1
Numina: Emotional Aura
Ban: The Chronal cannot strengthen or otherwise encourage events that would make a
sober person act violently.
Bane: Barclay and Elizabeth’s 25th anniversary wedding rings. A potent symbol of how their
relationship endured in the current timeline.
Those Timelines Where The Nazis Won World War Two
There are at least three confirmed Chronals representing timelines where the Nazis won
World War Two. The first was formed by fascist geniuses going back in time to supply the
Nazis with blueprints for atomic bombs (you can recognise it for being one of the rare
timelines when Hitler grew a horseshoe mustache). The second was formed when a
collaborative of Victorian geniuses went forward in time to supply wondrous weapons to the
British and “end the war decisively before it destroys our great Empire” only to see the Allies
collapse in a chain reaction of Havoc and anti-Colonial uprisings. The third appeared when
an assassination of Hitler led to his replacement by a strategic genius and an absurdly
unlikely string of unlikely events that propelled Germany to victory. All three crystalised into
Chronals after the Guardians went back and fixed things.
The Guardians of Forever insist that they have all three well in hand but with the Guardians
in disarray and time travellers swarming around 1918-1945, a rogue Nazi timeline is the
hypothetical disaster used by Peers and the (better organized) Lemurians worried about
Chronal threats.
Maximum Rank 5
Influence: Events 5
Numina: Aggressive Meme, Blast, Dement, Emotional Aura, Firestarter, Left-Handed
Spanner, Sign.
Ban: Varies between Chronals and even individual incursions; but an inability to affect
anything outside of Germany or territory conquered by Germany is considered the most
likely candidate.
Bane: Varies between Chronals and even individual incursions; but the pistol hitler used to
commit suicide is considered the most likely candidate.
Jurassic (but actually Cretaceous) Earth!

What would have happened if the dinosaurs never died? Thanks to Dr. Neve stepping on an
insect and her increasingly frantic attempts to fix things before the Guardians found out, mad
scientists have a clear view of at least one timeline which assuredly could never ever have
happened.
In the Jurassic Earth time runs in a 7.9 million year cycle that ends in an extinction event, an
asteroid, super-volcano, global warming, an alien invasion, caterpillars eating all the
vegetation, a mind control satellite causing dinosaurs to eat their own eggs, a time travelling
velociraptor stealing eggs to repopulate his dying future (Dr. Neve was running out of ideas)
kills most of the dinosaurs. Then Dr. Neve sees the survivors and, horrified that the timeline
isn’t on track for the rise of mammals, she corrals the survivors, implements a breeding
program to ensure the dinosaurs match the fossil record, then puts herself back into stasis.
Peers have considered telling her that her life’s work is fundamentally pointless, but if she
returned to the prime timeline the Guardians would have to make an example out of her.
The Jurassic Earth is the single largest Chronal on record. It stretches from the Cretaceous
period to long past the modern day. Despite this the Chronal is exceptionally limited, it has
almost no points of commonality with any time period on Earth after sentient life evolved
sufficiently to muck around and cause Anchorisms so it’s incursions struggle to exceed Rank
3. Even it’s native dinosaurs are wrong, Neve’s breeding program aims for featherless scaly
lizards (it also accidentally produced a race of technologically advanced dinosaur men who
live underground and are convinced Neve is a creator god who’ll smite them for being an
accident if she ever notices them). It’s intrusions usually super charge some genius’
dinosaur cloning lab and are seen as more of an international holiday for mad
paleontologists and big game hunters than a world ending crisis.
Maximum Rank 8
Power Unquantifiable, Finesse Unquantifiable, Resistance Unquantifiable
Influence: Events 8
Numina: Any.
Ban: Any sufficiently large disaster (earthquake, volcano, large area Katastrofi 5 bomb)
forces the Jurassic Earth to end it’s incursion into the prime timeline.
Bane: Living scientifically accurate dinosaurs, whether time shifted or cloned.
The Life and Times of Professor Pericles Plumb

Professor Pericles Plumb was a well regarded if somewhat dull Scholastic historian who
liked to take the old time machine out for a first hand view. One set of miscalculated
coordinates on an expedition back from an alternative timeline left professor Plumb stranded
outside of time where, like most geniuses unlucky enough to end up outside of time, he
promptly exploded into an entire timeline of his personal history and future. Plumb managed
to use his control over his new “self” to reach into the prime timeline and begin twisting
events in the mistaken belief he was fixing his predicament.
The Scholastics figured out what happened when investigating disturbances at Pericles’ old
office, but as Plumb was a popular and respected mad academic they’ve decided to leave it
alone in the hope that a timeline where the professor never vanished from existence can
stabilise and bring something like their colleague back. Unfortunately this decision was never
publicised and Pericles’ laboratory is now available for sale to any up and coming Genius;
any buyer’s history will be incompatible with a timeline where professor Plumb never
vanished. Meaning that if the Chronal ever assimilates fully they will become a Mane at best.
The Life and Times of Professor Pericles Plumb includes a full set of events that would have
happened if he never vanished, so the Chronal has plenty of events to work with. Due to the
circumstances of its creation it’s also intelligent, very intelligent. It’s incapable of
acknowledging it’s unique existence even as it canilly works to create more events that
would have occurred if Plumb never vanished; often combining its Influences with Numina
that create temporary avatars in the form of the original Pericles Plumb that wield all the
powers and abilities of an experienced mad scientist, allowing the Professor to participate in
events like he “should”.
Maximum Rank 3
Influence: Events 3
Numina: Aggressive Meme, Dement, Manifest Genius Avatar.
Ban: The Chronal is utterly incapable of acknowledging it’s anything other than a normal
Genius. Anyone who tries will be sternly lectured: “I am a historian and an authority on these
matters young man”.
Bane: The thesis papers of Jacques, maître de l'histoire, Plumb’s chief rival in the
Scholastics who has now won all their arguments by default.
Avatars
When a Chronal can manifest a Genius avatar (or some other sentient avatar) it
costs 4 Essence to manifest the avatar for a day. Genius Avatars have Rank
Inspiration and Rank times 4 experience and last for a session. They may spawn with
up to Rank wonders. For these purposes rank refers to the Chronal’s true Rank, not
the weaker rank representing how much of the Chronal’s power has entered the
timestream.
Powerful Chronals that manage to intrude enough into time to achieve Rank 4 on
Earth can create a permanent avatar at the cost of abandoning their grip on Earth;
pushing something that chronologically heavy into time has an equal and opposite
reaction. Chronals can also manifest a permanent avatar within itself which then
builds a Skafoi Wonder to reach the real timeline. Generally every genius avatar is
unique, since (barring clones or something) there’s only one of an individual in the
Chronal’s internal timeline. Mechanically speaking these permanent avatars are
mostly normal geniuses, they have a ban and a bane, and the Storyteller is
encouraged to create non-mechanical peculiarities that represent them being
something between a human and a knot of time itself. You could even make your
player character one.
Manes
"Observation: I can't see a thing. Conclusion: Dinosaurs."
- Carl Sagan
Mane are products of mad science, the not-quite-real products of inspired thought that
nevertheless walk and interact with the world of things and people. Some are vicious
predators or ruthless cunning threats to all decent life. A few are saints; the product of
utopian thought and inspired ethical philosophies. But all manes, whether creatures, objects,
places, or wonders, need Mania in order to survive. Even the most beautiful, hopeful mane
or bardo is ultimately a parasite on the thoughts of the world, draining it in order to sustain
itself.
Endless Horrors Most Beautiful

When creating manes you can use the Horrors rules from Chronicles of Darkness as
a guideline. Convert Dread Power dots into Sparks and assign them to inferences,
variables, and options in any combination you wish in order to make your antagonists
powerful enough to challenge a mad scientist. A mane’s metanormal trait limit is
5+Potency, and their potency trait only applies to Clash of Wills or resisting
metanormal effects. A mane has as many or as few faults as you wish, and can have
no faults at all.
Not all manes have potency. Many are entirely ordinary humans, or ordinary cats,
dogs, apemen, or martians, with no metanormal abilities beyond their ability to drain
and use mania. Inspired Manes cannot have Potency as well as Inspiration and
should generally be built as a full character.
Canadian Girlfriends
“You wouldn't know me. I go to another school.”
For as long as humans have competed with each other for social status and prestige
humans have lied to impress their peers. The term Canadian Girlfriend is used as a catch all
for any Mane created by someone inventing a fictional romance and keeping the lie going for
long enough for a Mane to pop into existence when the truth is finally revealed.
Regardless of their actual sex or nationality a Canadian Girlfriend is likely to be a well

rounded individual with absolutely no idea that they’re anything but normal, which means it’s
only a matter of time before they suffer Havoc; the result usually leaves either the Girlfriend
or her partner dead and the survivor traumatised. Canadian Girlfriends also have a
hardcoded psychological need to be in a romantic relationship, though it remains within the
limits of mundane human psychology and doesn’t imply any deeper issues. Each one begins
existence remembering a relationship with whomever created the mania storm which birthed
them (though their memories reflect the stories) and usually appears close enough to reach
them.
Though not especially populous Canadian Girlfriends tend to cause problems for the
Inspired. They are so normal that they almost inevitably fail to notice the Inspired world and
settle into mundane society until Havoc or unconscious calculus vampirism causes some
sort of problem; and when it does their social links means any response by the Inspired is
more likely to start investigations and maybe create a Beholden or spark a Catalyst than
burning out a basement full of clockwork mould. If you see a genius awkwardly trying to
infiltrate a high school with outdated slang and a vial of age-regression serum he’s either
running some ill advised field study or trying to convince a Canadian Girlfriend she’s a mane.
Dicepools
Well adjusted individual - 5 dice: Canadian Girlfriends have no unique abilities beyond those
available to all manes. They rely on being (or at least starting as) reasonable people to find
their place in the world.
Romance - 6 dice: Whether they’re a kind and approachable girl next door or a tall, dark and
handsome stranger, each Canadian Girlfriend manifests knowing the art of love.
Science Lords
"You are wrong. Science has proven it."
Science Lords are born not from actual scientific thought but from a common misconception
of it. The idea that science is a body of knowledge that has all the answers, not a
methodology for creating and testing hypotheses. Science lords are born when appeals to
authority fall flat, anti-science strawmen are discredited, and undergraduates take their first
course in scientific methodology. In person they are proud imperious figures, looking more
like an emperor or empress than an academic and inevitably wear a lab-coat or, less
commonly, a jacket with leather elbow patches.
A Science Lord is created with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the scientific consensus, as it

was at the moment of their inception, as well as an enormous blind-spot for questions
beyond the limits of science such as ethics, aesthetics, or theology. Whenever their blind-
spots come up in conversation they cover it up with a transparent haughty dismissal. To
make matters worse Science Lords are nearly incapable of learning, for were they not
created knowing all that there is to know?
The world is not kind for Science Lords. Their imperious temper and marked lack of curiosity
(and calculus vampirism) makes them poor fits for the universities and laboratories they are
drawn to. Some end up in smaller roles where the ability to regurgitate scientific facts is
useful, but even then their arrogance and inflexibility makes finding and keeping a career
very difficult. Geniuses have been known to employ them as living encyclopaedias in
exchange for board and mania but the Science Lord’s abrasive personality annoys mad
scientists even more than most. Many Lords end up struggling to survive outside of mortal
society. At least they know exactly which plants are edible. Others experience a
Breakthrough, burning through their hardcoded limits as a flash of Inspiration lets them see
beyond the limits of sane science.
A variant of Science Lords, known as “Dr. Thomas”, seems to exist only to seek out
metanormal phenomena then loudly explain how it’s all fake and concoct a “rational scientific
explanation” that more or less consists of scientific fast talk and not worrying if their
argument holds up to five seconds of serious thought; there aren’t any good justifications for
how a twenty story robot can overcome the square cube law without metanormal principles,
or how “special effects” can be knocking over real buildings full of people. Geniuses find Dr.
Thomas even more annoying than regular Science Lords.
Dicepools
Scientific encyclopaedia - 8 dice, rote action: A Science Lord has the knowledge, but not the
skills, of an expert scientist in every scientific field.
Aristocratic arrogance - 2 dice: The term “Lord” is a sneering comment on Science Lord’s
aristocratic bearing and arrogance, a trait that makes them nigh insufferable and limits their
ability to function in the real world.
Scientific research - 3 dice: Being created believing they already know all the answers
means Science Lords lack curiosity and struggle at novel research; but being a walking
encyclopaedia gives them some use in the lab.
Peer review - 7 dice: However they are extremely skilled at meta analysis and reviewing
scientific work for methodological flaws. Science Lords have a nearly supernatural ability to
find any and all published scientific papers that are relevant to what they’re working on.
Bicamerals
“Welcome to my hearth, we have food, wine, the gods tell me to kill you stealer-of-fire!”
Bicameralism is a hypothesis that around 3,000 years ago human psychology was divided
into two separate halves, a bit like, but completely different to, a bicameral legislature. In the
bicameral mind the left hemisphere acts without thought, the right hemisphere is capable of
reason and it transmits its conclusions across the corpus callosum in the form of auditory
hallucinations which are obeyed without question. From the outside a bicameral human
would look a lot like a modern man but they could be recognised through their art and
literature, which would lack any reference to self-reflection or introspection and would treat
receiving orders from the “gods” as a common everyday occurrence.
While Bicameralism was never accepted by the consensus Julian Jaynes’ book The Origin
of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, is not the ravings of a madman.
It attracted enough serious scientific consideration and public interest that a mania storm
manifested when the consensus eventually ruled against it. The resulting manes,
Bicamerals, seem like normal humans but are prone to sudden bursts of small-i inspiration
or complete changes in goals. They also can be mind controlled with simple telepathy and a
contested Wits + Subterfuge vs Wits + Composure roll. Bicamerals are rare on Earth, they
were never hugely populous and their unique psychology doesn’t breed true. Half
Bicamerials (who everyone calls Bi-Bicamerials) are ordinary humans prone to auditory
hallucinations, quarter Bicamerials only hallucinate a short sentence every month or so.
However there are stable Bicameral populations in several bronze-age themed Bardos.
Bicameralism is an extremely popular theory among mad scientists. Geniuses use bicameral
ideas to explain how Beholden can be conscious yet dependent on an external source for
high level reasoning, to posit an underlying neurological phenomena behind Inspiration, and
to build various mind affecting wonders. Genetic sequences from a Bicameral mane,
nicknamed Homer, are widely available. Clones of Homer are the closest thing to
standardised test subject for Bicameral research.
Dicepools
Bronze Age Guy - 5 dice: Beneath their unique psychology Bicamerals manifest as ordinary
bronze age citizens. Some are brilliant leaders or heroes, but the average Bicamerial is an
average fellow.
Voice of the gods - 3 dice: In classic bicameral theory most of a bicameral human’s auditory
hallucinations would provide help in ordinary everyday situations. However the manes are
more dramatic, and prone to bursts of imposible insight or receiving dramatic orders.
Shcrodinger's Cats
“Meow”
Once upon a time a physicist named Erwin Schrödinger proposed a thought experiment to
demonstrate the flaws in the Copenhagen interpretation. We all know the one. But since
Schrödinger’s original publication the scientific community has begun to seriously entertain
the possibility that yes, a cat can be dead or alive. This shift was enough to create a small
population of manes.
Schrödinger’s Cats resemble ordinary house cats except for the fact that they’re both dead
and alive. Metanormal powers that only work on the dead will affect them, as will powers that
only work on the living. If a Wonder’s fault means it explicitly can’t affect the dead, or the
living, it fails. Schrödinger’s Cats can see, touch, and be touched by ghosts and similar
phenomena that exist in twilight. Most interestingly of all they can open an Avernian
Gateway without difficulty, but they have no special ability or desire to locate a gateway.
However if a mortal sees one of Schrödinger’s Cats, even for the barest moment, the cat
either dies on the spot or transforms into an ordinary (but still Mane) cat. Any attempt to
protect the cat requires preemptively blocking it from sight or rolling a Clash of Wills against
10 dice.
This effect means that the population of Schrödinger’s Cats crashed to almost nothing within
an hour of the species manifesting, most of the surviving specimens come from Geniuses
who breed or clone them for sale. Geniuses use Schrödinger’s Cats as pets (given the
difficulty of keeping them they make great status symbols), research subjects, keys to the
Underworld, or as parts for Wonders that affect the dead or work via quantum mechanics.
Dicepools
Cat Stuff - 5 dice: In aptitudes and demeanor it’s an ordinary cat.
Homo Deinde
“We have overcome such primitive urges.”
Born from discredited ethnographic predictions tinged with new age beliefs, Homo Deinde
represent a discredited “next stage” in human evolution. They are innately pacifistic,
inevitably brown due to humanity transcending racial division and intermarrying, possess low
level psychic powers, and they are very very calm. Homo Deinde are most commonly found
in futuristic space age bardos where they favour space age styles and pocketless futuristic
attire. Inspired Homo Deinde often join the Atomists to create a one world order or sign up
as Scholastic explorers and philosophers. Their pacifistic ideals aren’t always upheld while in
the throes of inspiration.
Dicepools
Science and rationality - 6 dice. Homo Deinde are educated and logical.
Empathy - 4 dice. While stiff and formal Homo Deinde are innately empathetic and caring
people who see strangers as a friend they have not met yet.
Psychic powers - 3 dice. A Homo Deinde’s psychic powers are very minimal. They can read
minds and send simple messages but are easily blocked by even mundane counter-psychic
techniques. Their extrasensory perception is never more than a vague feeling of opportunity
or oncoming doom.
Hobbe-Goblins
“It’s simple innit. You merk the other guy before he merks you.”
Since their first appearance in 1689 Hobbe-Goblins grew to become one of the more
populous variants of manes. Physically they resemble faerie tale goblins marked by a life of
hard knocks. They are stronger than baseline humans but lack stamina, and despite their
loutish appearance Hobbes are intelligent and rational. More So than the average human,
typical Hobbes have an IQ within a few points of 107.
Yet their most striking feature is their psychology: Hobbe-Goblins are entirely unable to
comprehend morality or empathy. Every last one of them would stab anyone in the back if
there was the slightest profit to be gained, and no matter the evidence to the contrary they
are absolutely convinced that everyone else would do the same. Hobbes will inevitably
choose short term gains over a more profitable long term partnership, they will never invest
in the common good, and they focus on the pursuit of quick pleasures like fast food and
booze with the reckless abandon of someone who truly expects to wake up in a gutter with
their throat slit any day now. It is simply the rational way to behave in the brutish world
Hobbe-Goblins believe they inhabit.
The only way to make a Hobbe-Goblin cooperate with another sentient being is to give them
a clear and short term incentive to do so. Payment works badly as they will instantly expect
to be cheated. Threats of punishment work much better because a self-interested use of
force makes sense to a Hobbe. Under a sufficiently watchful leader Hobbe-Goblins make
intelligent and competent minions and are even effective team players when they feel
everyone is too scared of the boss to turn on the team, though they will betray their boss at
the first sign of weakness. If they don’t stick the knife in someone else will, then they get the
first pick of the boss’ stuff.
For centuries Hobbes were enslaved en masse by Lemuria, and most prefered Lemuria’s
whip to a fellow goblin’s knife. The invisible war was a disaster for goblinkind; it decimated
their population and left the survivors scattered and impoverished. Older peers still harbour
prejudices towards the enemy’s footsoldiers, Lemurians see Hobbe-Goblins as traitors who
turned on their masters and stole everything not nailed down the moment the tides of war
turned, and younger peers think they’re just not worth the trouble. In modern nights Hobbes
can be found in various bardos, alone or in primitive villages or gangs ruled by the largest
strongest gobblin. Others exist on the edges of human society.
Attributes and Dice Pools
Health: 8
Hustling - 6 dice. Hobbe-Goblins are not suited for stable work, so they hustle for money and
mania.
Backstabbing - 6 dice. In a stab or be stab world you learn how to use a knife.
Carousing - 3 dice. Eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow you’ll likely get your throat
slit.
Threshold Goons
“Beat it!”
So much security comes down to perception. From the teachers lounge to the town hall
record building, anyone with a little intelligence and a motive could break in but when they
think about entering it feels unnatural. That feeling is as good security as an average door
lock. So when someone has a reason, when a student visits his old school and is invited for
tea in the teachers lounge or when a desperate lawyer breaks into the record archive and
the taboo is proven to be ephemeral a little mania is created. It happens often enough that it
adds up to Threshold Goons.
These manes resemble a gorilla, or a human shaped slab of meat, or a badly formed brick
sculpture of man, inevitably wearing a badly fitting suit. If a noir detective story has used the
metaphor to describe the villain’s goons there's a Threshold Goon who makes it literal.
They're also as dumb as a gorilla and as stubborn as a pile of bricks. They know how to fight
(but only with their fists), possess a form of low cunning to keep an eye out for people
sneaking in, and they are too narrow minded to persuade or fool. This means that Threshold
Goons are a popular choice when mad scientists are employing guards, particularly as they
have an innate psychic aura that convinces mortals that they're ordinary humans.
Attributes and Dice Pools
Health: 11 (Size 6)
Brawling – seven dice: Threshold goons are stronger, tougher, and meaner than an ordinary
human.
Patrolling – five dice: They're also fairly good at catching stealthy intruders.
Stubbornness – 10 dice, rote action: Against mortal persuasion the goons deploy the almost
unbeatable strategy of not listening to a word anyone except their boss says.
Small arms – 5 dice: Threshold goons do not have natural weapons but they are competent
with the kind of small guns that fit under a jacket should the boss provide some.
Clockstoppers
Carl: Let's make litter out of these literati!
Lenny: That's too clever, you're one of them!
- The Simpsons
The Inspired feel a great void within them, a swirling emptiness, which they fill with Mania.
The beholden lack philosophical initiative and motivation but, like windmills in still air, roar to
life near the maelstrom of a genius' Inspiration.
But there is another sort of empty being, a creature lacking any spark of Inspiration, but with
such a void in itself that it can devour Mania without giving anything back. These are the
Clockstoppers. Enemies of Inspiration and brilliance of any sort, they despise the Inspired
and seek to destroy them. Even if they do not know what geniuses are or what they do, they
hate them nonetheless, and without thinking, reduce wonder to emptiness and wonders to
scraps of metal.
Also called Hollow Men, Clockstoppers are otherwise regular mortals who lack the spark we
ordinarily attribute to even the dullest and least imaginative human being. Instead of true
motivation, they possess a kind of gnawing void, called Acedia. Greater Clockstoppers
possess greater Acedia.
Updated Rules for Natural Body

Each point of Durability granted by Natural Body becomes three points of Armour,
which stacks with any other sources of Armour. Armour Piercing can never reduce
this armour.
Instead of inflicting a dice penalty; the second and third dots of Natural Body allow a
Clockstoper to trigger a Clash of Wills when they are targeted by a wonder. Roll
Acadia + 2 at Natural Body •• and Acadia +5 at Natural Body •••
The Void’s ability to neutralise technology that would influence the Clockstopper only
affects devices within her Acedia. However the Void’s ability to protect the
Clockstopper remains absolute. A missile aimed at the Clockstopper will fire and fall
apart harmlessly the moment it enters her Acedia. If the genius carefully aims at the
top of a tower while the Clockstopper rests on the ground floor then the tower will
collapse but masonry will crumble into dust as it enters her Acedia; or whatever is
necessary to ensure the sanctity of her Natural Body.
Teleporting a blue whale so it lands on the Clockstopper counts as attacking with

technology but teleporting an angry bear next to the Clockstopper does not, since
any damage comes from a natural animal taking action after the technology’s effects
have ended.
New Voids
Bastion of Ignorance
The Clockstopper shields the minds of their fellow men from dangerous new ideas. This Void
is usually found in conjunction with Brotherhood of Righteousness.
●: Mortals within the Clockstopper’s Acadia do not face a breaking point for being attacked
by mad science because it is supernatural. Being shot at with a ray gun is treated no
differently to being shot at with a mundane gun and may or may not cause a Breaking Point
depending on the character’s past experiences
●●: . If the mortal is under the effects of Brotherhood of Righteousness they also add the
Clockstopper’s dots in this Void as bonus dice to Breaking Point rolls caused by being the
victim of or perpetrator of violence against mad science.
●●●: A -2 penalty is applied to any roll to target the Clockstopper, or any mortal within the
Clockstopper’s Acadia, with Epikrato that targets their mind. This does not include neural
triggers.
●●●●: A -5 penalty is applied to any roll to target the Clockstopper, or any mortal within the
Clockstopper’s Acadia, with Epikrato that targets their mind. This does not include neural
triggers.
●●●●●: Any attempt to target the Clockstopper, or any mortal within the Clockstopper’s
Acadia, with Epikrato that affects their mind automatically fails.
Sample Clockstoppers
Dr. Simon Cohen, Apostle of Proper Science

“You are not a mad scientist. There are no wonders or miracles in this universe. You are suffering from
delusions, and you need to put these childish fantasies behind you.”
Simon has gone his entire life without making any real decisions. He went to a good school
because his mother chose one, at college he studied psychiatry because his school
guidance counsellor recommended it after a hasty glance at his grades, and he got a job
working for Restful Creek Asylum because he applied to every relevant job at the career fair
and they were the first to offer a position.
Education provided Simon with a structured environment and clear instructions that allowed
him to function, even succeed. His grades were solid but not exceptional and his peers were
cordial and content to let him do his own thing. All that changed when Simon started work,
his patients were uncooperative and refused to work with him or follow the patterns Simon
was taught in university. Worse, many of them were smarter than Simon and used their
quick wit to challenge him and try and push his diagnosis into the outcome they wanted, not
the ones the textbook said they should have. Simon was unable to cope with the chaos, he
quietly and invisibly suffered a mental breakdown; filling his heart with hate for the creativity
and chaos in the human mind.
Simon doesn’t patrol the nights hunting Geniuses, but if he encounters one in his
professional capacity his Acedia ensures that he will recommend institutionalisation. Unlike
most Clockstoppers Simon actually likes science, or at least science as he understands it: A
system of methods and answers that can serve as a replacement for creativity and human
judgement and this informs his treatment of any mad scientists. Until a Genius accepts and
demonstrates an ability to perform this mechanistic interpretation of science Simon will never
declare them fit for release; and since Inspiration is incurable and Simon’s concept of
science is nonsense this will never happen.
While it will take more than one therapist to make a Genius doubt the existence of Mania
being trapped within Simon’s Hungry Emptiness with no outlet for their Inspiration is
psychological torture while the Brotherhood of Righteousness ensures both staff and
patients will treat any Genius with cruelty. A Genius is mad, but if they spend too long in
Restful Creek they might become broken.
Mental Skills: Academics 2 (Psychotherapy), Computer 2, Investigation 2, Medicine 2,
Politics 1, Science 2
Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Drive 2, Stealth 1
Social Skills: Animal Ken 2, Expression (Clinical) 2, Intimidation (Patients) 2, Persuasion 1
Merits: Good Time Management 1, Patient 1, Resources 2, Status 3 (Medical)
Willpower: 6
Integrity: 5
Virtue: Diligent
Vice: Rigid
Initiative: 3
Defense: 1
Speed: 9
Health: 7
Acedia: 1
Voids: Brotherhood of Righteousness 1, Hungry Emptiness 1
Courtney Chase and Lance Dante, Royalty of School

"I don't know, I mean, she's so weird, she just, you know, came up to me and started talking to me about
science."
- Courtney
"You think you’re smarter than me? Is that it?!"

- Lance
If high schools ever resembled an 80s teen movie, this one matured out of that long before
Courtney and Lance arrived. These two students were the ultimate trend followers, modeling
every aspect of their appearance, personality, and behaviour on what they thought was
popular. Inevitably the other kids saw them as shallow and inauthentic, and the pair couldn’t
comprehend why their fellow students saw their attitudes as outdated and their poor
academic attainment as shameful rather than cool. Something in their souls died and it left
behind a void determined to drag down everyone in school until they are as shallow as it is.
Courtney and Lance remain resentful of those comments about their academic weaknesses.
They also know you can use a scapegoat as a tool to seize power, but the real reason they
focus their ire on the smart kids—and geniuses most of all—is simple. They think it’s what
popular kids are supposed to do.
Courtney Chase
Mental Skills: Academics 1, Politics 2
Physical Skills: Athletics 3 (cheerleading), Drive 1, Larceny, 1 Stealth 1
Social Skills: Expression 3, Intimidation (female students) 2, Persuasion 2, Socialize 3
(students), Subterfuge 1
Merits: Allies 2 (Students), Pusher 1, Striking Looks 2 (Beautiful), Vice Ridden 2
Willpower: 3
Integrity: 4
Virtue: Patient
Vice: Ambitious, Cruel
Initiative: 3
Defense: 5
Speed: 11
Health: 7
Acedia: 2
Voids: Brotherhood of Righteousness 2
Lance Dante
Mental Skills: Politics 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 3 (American football), Brawl 2, Drive 1, Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Intimidation (male students) 2, Persuasion 2, Socialize 3 (the team),
Merits: Allies 2 (Students), Fleet of Foot 2, Relentless 1, Striking Looks 2 (Handsome), Vice
Ridden 2
Willpower: 3
Integrity: 4
Virtue: Loyal
Vice: Competitive, Violent
Initiative: 4
Defense: 5
Speed: 12
Health: 8
Acedia: 2
Voids: Corrupt the Hated Enemy 1, Hungry Emptiness 1, Natural Body 1
Starflower Glimmer, Priestess of the Sacred Fire

"Return the fire you have stolen!"
Starflower Glimmer believes that she was born to the wrong century. If she was born two
thousand years ago she would not have had to spend her childhood watching her hippy
commune fall apart as modern conveniences and lucrative careers tempted her friends into
selling out mother Earth. Two thousand years ago she would have been born into a tribe that
respected and served gaia. She would have been happy.
This isn’t true, because deep down Starflower Glimmer isn’t unhappy about environmental
damage. Deep down she lacks and fears that spark of creativity that belongs to humanity.
She’s fixated on the radical changes that hit her childhood, but in any time and any era there
would be new ideas and creativity to scare and alienate Starflower Glimmer.
And so she became a Clockstopper, as she would have in any era. Starflower gathered the
remains of her old commune around her and set forth to champion environmentalism,
oppose technology, and of course destroy any genius she encounters. When facing the
Inspired Starflower denounces them as having stolen fire from the gods, fire which must be
returned to the hands of the faithful. That’s it. She lacks the creativity to come up with any
better theology to justify beating up geniuses and taking their wonders.

Mental Skills: Crafts 1 (natural handcrafts), Politics 1 Science 1 (Environmentalism), Occult 1
Physical Skills: Brawl 1, Athletics 2, Stealth 1, Survival 2, Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Animal Ken 3, Empathy 2, Intimidate 2, Persuasion 3, Socialize 3, Subterfuge 1
Merits: Allies 3 (environmentalists), Fame 1, Hardy 1,
Willpower: 3
Integrity: 5
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Closed minded
Initiative: 5
Defense:
Speed: 10
Health: 8
Acedia: 4
Voids: Brotherhood of Righteousness 2, Corrupt the Hated Enemy 4, Purify the Wounded
Earth 2
Orphans
"There are plausible scientific explanations for everything that followed, but I think it was really just a question of
hatred. It is the way of men to make monsters; and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."
- Harlan Wade, F. E. A. R.
Mania is the spark of creation, the raw power of ideas descending into the world of flesh and
metal to tear down old certainties and birth new life. The restraint, however weak, provided
by a genius’ sentience can lock mania into a single form, a wonder, but freed from that
restraint mania can warp and change without limit. And the spark of creation can burst into a
wildfire.
When a wonder is permanently detached from it’s creator it either explodes or becomes an
orphan; a wonder with a mind, limbs, and locomotion is more likely to turn orphan but any
wonder has the potential to survive without its creator and transform itself into a predatory
being hungry for Mania.
Orphan Mutations
When a wonder turns into an Orphan it immediately gains the ability to move and the ability
to think at the level of a basic hunter like a predatory spider. It also gains two dots of
Calculus Vampire and the ability to restrain its prey or three dots of Calculus Vampire. In
some rare cases an Orphan with the ability to control minions (or something close enough to
mutate into that) never develops the ability to move itself. Free Roaming Automata do not
develop bodies, and must rely on strategies along the lines of luring people to outputs it
controls to feed through information.
If the wonder already has the relevant abilities through it’s inferences then it does not gain
an alternative. For example: A wonderous self-driving car will neither develop a new method
of locomotion since it already has functional wheels, it’s existing AI will become predatory
but show signs of it’s old thought-patterns in it’s new hunting strategy, and as it possesses
no limbs at all it will develop a tooth lined bonnet with a large drive belt tongue with which to
feed (Calculus Vampire ••) or an album of hypnotic songs to play on the radio (Calculus
Vampire •••)
Mechanically a storyteller can choose to portray an Orphan with a full character sheet or
using the simplified rules for low ranked Automata. When using a full sheet an Orphan starts
with whatever Physical attributes make sense for their pre-existing body, three dots of
Resolve, and one dot in: all other attributes, Brawl, and in any skill required to use their
wondrous abilities. If they were an Automata they keep their old attributes too. A wonder that
was previously imobile has a species factor for speed equal to its rank.
The longer an orphan lives (not counting time spent in stasis) the more powerful it grows.
For simplicity this can be represented by them gaining and spending experience like any
other character. Even when they do not have Inspiration an Orphan has Axioms, they begin
play with whatever Axiom dots are needed to build their inferences and can buy new dots at
the unfavoured rate. They cannot build wonders but they can mutate to develop new
Inferences. An Orphan can buy Sparks at one per experience to improve old abilities or
develop new ones providing they have the Axioms, all new inferences have a two spark
surcharge.
Inspired orphans can do this too but it is less common because they’re directing their mania
into wonders (in other words they have more things to spend experience on) and they have
to track their Axioms for unlocking mutations separately to their axioms for building wonders
(for simplicity you can ignore mutation axioms entirely).
Scientific Progress
When talking about Orphan wonders trapped for decades or centuries in abandoned
laboratories one point that has to be addressed is technological progress and its
effects on wonders.
Geniuses, cranky and anti-social as a typical mad scientist can be, do stand on the
soldiers of giants. This is clearly implied by the mechanics: An Ancient Greek mad
physician might independently discover enough medical knowledge to rival an
average 21st doctor, but it’s unlikely, and Medical knowledge produces sparks. While
the wonder creation mechanics says a Steampunk babbage-style supercomputer is
equivalent to one built on the latest microchips, the expense of building wonders
implies that a genius cannot build out of just anything and the modern world
produces more and better stuff for a genius to build wonders from at cheaper prices
(and the real reason gears are as good as microchips is to enable player creativity,
not to make a statement about the nature of Inspiration). Then of course there’s mad
scientific progress, are Fellowships not built to push the limits of some kind of
wonders?
So what is the answer to scientific progress and a game of Genius: the

Transgression? It’s simple: Geniuses today should be more powerful than the genius
long ago, but this is ignored because it makes for a better game. Delving into an
ancient laboratory requires danger, not ancient automatons whose clay fists are too
weak to threaten a genius in titanium armour. And it requires loot that’s worth braving
danger for: Working wonders, scientific secrets both sane and mad (an ancient
Automata microchip autofactory is going to use different and thus interesting
processes to Intel).
Nothing Mere About These Mortals

Will Graham: No, I know I'm not smarter than you.
Hannibal Lecter: Then how did you catch me?
Will Graham: You had... disadvantages.
Hannibal Lecter: What disadvantages?
Will Graham: You're insane.
- Red Dragon
Geniuses can create horrors that destroy indiscriminately and ruin local property values.
Regular people have feared Inspiration since the dawn of time, though rarely can they put a
name to their terror. Inspiration, mad or otherwise, has destroyed comfortable ways of life,
challenged cherished ideals and morals, and birthed terrible weapons. Mere mortals turn
wonders into time bombs, and a single lapse in safety procedures can result in Havoc
reducing some trespassing mortal to a soup-like homogenate. Burglars, nosy neighbors,
safety inspectors, emergency personnel, and curious family members can all begin an out-
of-control spiral of investigation that can quickly result in dead bodies, followed by formal
investigations and charges, or a furious mob storming the Genius' laboratory.
Also, Geniuses are still people. Most have families and friends from the old days, co-workers
from the day job that pays the electricity bills, or normal people that they interact with to stay
sane. And as anger and fear about the Genius grow in the mortal community, Geniuses are
often forced to decide between the people they care about and their new lives among the
Inspired. This problem can even be exacerbated by the Genius' peers, who think it's good to
distance the mad scientist from her old life, and by the Genius herself, who is often so afraid
to reveal the truth to a loved one―lest they find a wonder and trigger Havoc, or worse,
become Beholden to the Genius' worldview―that she keeps her super-scientific prowess a
secret from those who matter most to her.
The Fool At The Institute

“I have said it and I will say it again! Granting this man tenure will damage the good name of our respected
university!”
He’s a successful research scientist, respected in his field and by the faculty at the university
where he works. His word carries a lot of weight, and he is sure to use it against any
scientist who’s poor methodology and wild eyed theories attracts his ire. He is a threat to any
Genius who wants to keep their head down and collect the paycheck they need to eat and
research, or bluff their way to finishing the degree that might earn them a career in some
non-scientific field where their mental health will cause fewer issues. But perhaps he is
justified to say an inability to perform sane science should disqualify a Genius from teaching
or receiving a degree in a scientific field.
Keep him away from the Wonders before he blows himself up.
Dicepools
Respected scientist - 8 dice: He has a long and respected career as a research scientist and
the skills to match, probably in the same field as a player’s research.
Academic politics - 6 dice: The stakes are low, the viciousness is high, and he can point the
snake’s fangs straight at a Genius.
Stubborn pride - 6 die: After a long career of accolades and awards he’s become proud, but
that resolve is a great way to resist Inspiration or becoming Beholden.
Havoc - +3 dice: Wonders do not like being studied by a sane scientist. Add two more dice if
he’s poking a Wonder relevant to his area of expertise.
Worried High School Teacher

“What are you reading kiddo? ‘Virgil’s The Poetry of Robotics’? That guy is a crank, half the equations in that
book are wrong... Maybe I should take that.”
He’s intelligent, dedicated, and great with kids. His youthful dreams of becoming a mega-rich
engineer like Steve Wozniak or Elon Musk died in university and he accepted it with the
grace and dignity common to the 99% of the population not fated for stratospheric success.
Now he’s settled down with a stable job teaching science to high schoolers, a wife, a two
year old son, and a second baby on the way.
But he has a dark secret. A forgotten thesis paper in a dusty corner of the university library
containing a mad scientist’s research notes led him to the brink of Inspiration, and a close
friend to a Breakthrough. He witnessed first hand how genius and madness could destroy a
person and is sure to intervene if he suspects one of his students (or their parent) is at risk of
falling into mad science. He would never try to get involved with an actual mad scientist -
that’s far too dangerous for a man with a wife and kids depending on him - but his ability to
differentiate between a Genius and someone who’s merely at risk is limited.
With only minor tweaks this character could show up in elementary school or a university
setting.
Dicepools
All round good teacher - 6 dice: Talking with parents, building a rapport with children,
explaining the subject in an approachable way; this teacher has it all.
Community links - 4 dice: He’s met enough parents over the years to have a modest but
useful collection of business cards if the need arises.
Knowledge of Inspiration - 1 die: After a first brush with Inspiration he fled and never looked
back.
Havoc - +2 dice: He’s a science teacher, not a scientist, but that’s enough reason to keep
him away from wonders.
Homeowners Association Board Member

“The Association guidelines clearly state that aerials must not be visible from the street, that includes the... thirty
foot tower you’ve built in your backyard. I have also received several noise complaints about the hourly thunder
strikes.”
When she retired to become a homemaker she joined the homeowners association to fill
some time and promptly went mad with the tiny scrap of power and authority her position
provided. She is the bane of any resident who might damage property values with a non-
standard colour choice on their front door, a taste for wildflowers on their front lawn, or a
maniacal need to perform scientific experiments that leak toxic metals and semi-sentient
oozes into the water table.
To mortals she is an unjustifiable nuisance, a bored housewife on a power trip and a closed
minded bully, but to Geniuses she’s so much worse. While a mad scientist is sure to give her
something she can justly complain about. Her behaviour, merely stressful and frustrating to a
sane mind, could make a mad scientist snap; setting in motion events that could all too
easily spiral out of control.
Dicepools
Persistent nuisance - 5 dice: The association’s rules are petty and joyless yet she pursues
them with a mindless dedication more suited to an automaton than a human being.
Breaking and entering - 2 dice: In defiance of common sense she believes her position gives
her the right to enter other people’s houses for inspection. Fortunately for everyone, she has
no actual skill at larceny beyond checking for keys under the welcome mat or sneaking in if
someone left the door open.
Environmental Protection Agency Inspector

“We want to assess any possibility of dangerous and possibly hazardous waste chemicals in your basement.”
Sometimes, when you’re trying to prevent someone from building an unlicensed nuclear
accelerator in a residential area, you have to be a bit of a dick.
He may be a fussy bureaucrat but most mad scientists use weird and dangerous techniques
to build and test wonders; the sort of things that should not be done anywhere near a
residential zone. The fact he’s right does not prevent havoc or mad scientists spiralling into
lurid fantasies of government prosecution.
Dicepools
Just doing my job - 5 dice, rote action: He’s heard all the excuses and even turned down a
few bribes. It’s gotten old, and now if you try it he’ll just switch his brain off and go back to
work.
Inspection - 3 dice: He’s no expert, but he follows the checklist with rigour and precision.
Havoc - +1 dice: A systematic inspection makes havoc worse than your usual mortal
clumsiness.
The pen is mightier - 4 dice: He’s an old hand at the bureaucracy. You want him to get a
warrant before setting foot in the laboratory? He’ll get one faster than you can say “wrongful
prosecution”.
Family guy - 3 dice: Outside the job he’s a warm and relaxed man who enjoys watching little
league games and grilling on his deck.
Meddling Kids
“Looks like we've got another mystery on our hands!”
Whether it’s a genius’ ditzy older sister or four kids and a dog, they’re adventurous, curious,
and if they see something Wondrous their first instinct is to investigate it. Don’t expect
unsettling aesthetics like Black Plastic to keep them away either, they’ll just get involved to
try and save the day.
Meddling kids are something of a boogie man among the Inspired, not because they’re
especially dangerous or because they’re a common foe; several in-depth statistical analysis
have determined there is nothing metanormal drawing kids to laboratories. Rather they’re
infamous because it is just so embarrassing for a Genius to get arrested because he forgot
to turn the holographic camouflage back on when some kids were camping near the lab, and
because it’s so horrific to realise you forgot to lock the garage door and a neighbouring kid
wandered into the recycler.
Dicepools
An eye for wonders - 6 dice: Geniuses make cover blowing mistakes all the time. The trick to
finding wonders is to keep your eyes open and not immediately turn the other way when
someone leaves a wonder outside the lab, and meddling kids never walk the other way
when there’s something interesting to poke.
General athletics - 4 dice: Team sports, camping, hiking, they’re good at the sort of outdoor
activities kids tend to do. But they’re still kids.
Sociable and friendly - 5 dice: Being a kid can be useful in many social situations, getting
adults to believe the local lighthouse is being used to contact aliens isn’t one of them.
Geniuses would find that a relief if the kids didn’t come back looking for proof.
Havoc - +1 dice: It’s not as destructive as competent scientific analysis, but the kids’ poking
and prodding adds one die to Havoc checks.
Your Mother
“You’re spending too much time tinkering in that laboratory, it’s not healthy to work all day. Can’t you find a little
time to visit your poor mother?”
A Genius telling the mortals around them about their abilities is always a risk. Attempts by
mortals to help can lead to Havoc or well meaning therapists turning into Beholden. Others
are quick to distance themselves from someone who is smart enough to build a bomb out of
common household supplies and unstable enough to do it, leaving the Genius without the
psychological support they need.
And very commonly they go into denial, like this mother. Tell her you’re a Genius and she’ll
start dreaming of the day she can boast about your nobel prize, that will show up Estelle
who’s always bragging about her son, the doctor. Correct her that you’re a mad scientist and
she’ll tell which neighbours are on Prozac in a conspiratorial whisper and how to keep it
hidden. Tell her your spaceship has mutated into a man-eating monstrosity and she’ll ask
why you didn’t tell her you were working for NASA and make sure she’s home to watch the
news when you bring the astronauts home. Her desire to be involved in your life and her
refusal to accept that Inspiration is unusual, let alone dangerous, makes her a Havoc related
disaster waiting to happen.
Dicepools
Infallible ability to tell something’s wrong - 10 dice: She may be in denial, but if anything is
seriously wrong with her children's mental health (by a mad scientist’s standards) she will
call and ask about it, and you should take this warning sign seriously.
Delicious home cooking - 7 dice: No one escapes her house without a full belly and leftovers
to take home for tomorrow. This should not be underestimated when all your time and
budget is going into the lab and the oven is used for growing sentient mould colonies.
Domestic politics - 5 dice: Her Genius offspring might never realise it, but her constantly
bragging about his accomplishments and rationalising away the weirdness of mad science
helps deflect unwanted attention from the lab, at least on the level of nosy neighbours.
Gentleman Spy
“A conclusive result to the experiment.”
Whether it’s a compound full of armed terrorists or a volcano fortress full of armed robots, it’s
all the same to him. He’ll kill at her majesty’s pleasure then decant for a vodka martini in the
company of a beautiful woman.
While he’s a trained combatant who can call on military backup or use Wonders (he has the
psychological profile of a Companion) if necessary, the gentleman spy is indeed a spy and
not a soldier. His greatest weapons are information and psychology, he will ruthlessly exploit
a Genius’ mental compulsions to force them into making a fatal mistake. Simply shooting
them on the street while they’re out shopping for parts is an option, but targets that
vulnerable are typically below the gentleman’s pay grade.
Dicepools
Licensed to kill - 10 dice: He is extensively trained with all manner of weapons, including
Wonders. Despite his refined gentleman persona he has absolutely no hesitation in using
underhanded means to complete the mission.
On her majesty’s secret service - 9 dice: Like all spies he uses stealth, subterfuge, and
charm to infiltrate his enemies and to socialise or seduce for leisure.
Diamonds are forever - 5 dice: After a long career he has a long list of emergency bank
accounts, contacts, safehouses, and equipment stashes to draw on.
The Atomics Supervision Board
Name: Atomists
The funny thing about atomic power is that it works. It’s not a Wonder. What would be a
Wonder is turning the harnessing of the atom from fifty years of nuclear brinkmanship and
apocalyptic dread into something that benefits mankind like we were promised, and that’s
what the Atomists want to do. Their goal might not specifically relate to harnessing the power
of the atom (though that’s still popular), but the Atomists believe that technology, in and of
itself (or "only" aided by the tight reins of a ruling intellectual elite) can better humanity.
Machinery itself is transcendence: politics, ethics, philosophy, and even science (as the
pursuit of knowledge for its own sake) is at best a means toward that end. To an Atomist all
problems are logistical problems and all solutions are ultimately technological in nature;
while one of the most socially-oriented of the baramins, Atomists don't accept―most don't
even understand―solutions based on policy or politics.
When mortals look upon Atomists they see an emptiness behind their browline glasses; a
void of equations and technology without that vital spark of humanity or empathy. Within an
Atomist’s eyes people are dissected and turned into statistics to be measured and variables
to be maximised; Atomists remain coldly unconcerned with people’s wants or opinions even
as they promise to provide prosperity and safety to all. Most cannot recognise the “human
element”, and those who can reject it outright. Atomists are the nightmare of dehumanisation
made flesh, the devil’s bargain of technology that cuts mankind off from nature and humanity
itself in exchange for wealth and comfort.
Atomists are technocrats in the political sense of the word, viewing technological solutions to
human ills as the only solution, and believing that trained experts drawn from the intellectual
elite―not politicians or demagogues―should be the natural rulers of mankind. They believe
that the best laws are laws that cannot be broken, and the best rules are ones that must
inevitably be followed, and they design their world accordingly, to pursue this elusive goal of
enforced technology-driven inevitability in all human systems. Unable as they are to account
for human behaviour, they either dismiss the soft sciences and the humanities or believe that
they've unlocked an objective mathematical representation of them. Either way, they function
badly in social environments. Though individuals might be charming and gregarious on a
one-on-one basis, they are constitutionally unable to parse large-scale social input and plan
for people's reactions to their behaviour.
Divergence Point
Born after the general collapse of Lemuria, the Atomists formed in those years when it
became clear that we would not get so much of what we had been promised: not just the
flying cars and robot butlers, but the promise of humanity’s expansion into space, of a
worldwide technological Utopia, of a steadily rising standard of living. Many were peers who
defected when their dreams fell apart. Proto-Atomists can be seen as far back as the
interwar period but the baramin truly formed as the sixties and seventies hit their stride and
society tore itself apart despite everything technology had given it. The Atomists blossomed
into a far-reaching organisation dedicated to reversing mankind’s rejection of science and
building the future once promised to humanity. They have been fighting that battle ever
since.
Focus
Even though the ranks of Atomists are swollen with engineers, industrialists, and physicists
(especially physicists), Atomists are often academics as much as research scientists. It is
generally accepted that as an organisation Atomists focus on mad science and technology
studies. They are as interested in how their technology will change society for the better as
they are ignorant of the humans who comprise that society. Showing their typical disinterest
in soft sciences Atomists approach their academic work through an eclectic mix of fields
such as market economics, statistical modelling, network theory and even geography; with
its graphs of population densities and human development indexes. Their theories and
experiments have little resemblance to their mortal peers: Atomists build underwater
colonies, microscopic city states, digital empires, and conquer Bardos to test and refine their
visions. While iconic Atomist Wonders like the jetpack, the robot butler and the all-seeing
surveillance network stand tall in human imagination all who know the Atomists realise they
avoid building “frivolous” Wonders, every invention is a cog in a grand societal machine.
Atomists who ignore the Baramin’s focus are often working on very similar projects to their
peers. Instead of creating a deterministic mathematical model to identify what technology
they should research or to demonstrate that putting a food pill autofactory in every village will
end world hunger; they declare it self evident and skip ahead to tinkering with the nutritional
balance. These Atomists often favour one all-encompassing mega-project that will solve
every problem instead of smaller focused devices. Among their number can be found
computer scientists working on artificial intelligence, roboticists with plans to “upgrade”
humanity, and an influential network of atomic physicists who trace their lineage to
Manhattan Project scientists that went mad after 1954 and still think that if they make a big
enough bomb it will make war too horrific to contemplate and the public will at long last
recognise all they have done for their country.
Of all Geniuses Atomists are the closest to practitioners of the scientific method. In an
Atomists lab can be found control groups and painstakingly tested null hypotheses, and the
Brahmin draws members from all over the political spectrum who exchange ideas and peer
review as often as they exchange ray gun blasts.
Members
All Lemurians have some theory of how mankind lost its way and how to get humanity back
on the right track, but Atomists are out and proud utopianists with grand visions for new
societies, and often, a new “modern man”. The earliest Atomists were, and still are, socialist
advocates of technological utopianism who believe in a world-state of science and rationality
that will sweep away the old order to usher in social harmony and material plenty. The first
wave begins to trickle in during the 1930s as mortal thinkers reject their ideas and turn to
Fascism and Stalinism. The trickle becomes a true movement after World War Two ends
without collapsing the world order but manages to thoroughly discredit eugenics, and
culminates in the nascent baramin forming with a surge of disaffected socialists joining after
the Bay of Pigs scandal.
Even as techno socialists continue to breakthrough or defect from the Peers a second wave
of technocratic "libertarian" authoritarians, and some ex-fascists arrive during the 1960s—
with a spike during the summer of love and a second larger surge after Earth Day—as
hippies and "pinko sissy liberals" reject their achievements and their ideals of hero scientist-
entrupunears handing down inventions that reshape society like Prometheus bestowing fire.
With promises of stable employment and restoring American values they bring along ex-
military-industrial engineers maddened or turned beholden by their sudden transformation
from patriotic heroes into pariahs to form an industrial base for the new baramin.
Despite these radically opposed ideologies, a common thread runs through the Atomists.
Every member, from the staunchest advocate of a classless society to the most hardcore
objectivist yearning to replace the state with his inventions, and the proponents of diverse
new ideas drawn to the safety of an established baramin, believes in the need to replace
existing social systems (usually on a global scale) with technology. Atomists are lab-bound
prognosticators, unsocialised techies with strong ideas about society, and super-smart
politically active teenagers with more passion than experience; filling niche journals and
online forums with grand predictions about how widespread implementation of their preferred
technological systems will change human society, or even humanity itself, for the better.
Aesthetics
Welcome to the World of Tomorrow! The future of limitless prosperity promised by decades
of sci-fi lives again in Atomists’ wonders. While more associated with the Etherites, late Ray
Gun (with jets, radios, and of course the atom) and Googie were the original looks for
Atomists who Catalysed before the death of the atomic dream and both remain popular.
Peers often refer to this style of Atomist as “Brave New World” or, less politely, “Drugged Out
Jetsons”, for its combination of domestic technology and deterministic societal systems.
Geniuses who catalysed after the golden age of science fiction—now comprising the
majority of the baramin—usually reject Ray Gun because of the philosophical focus on
individuality manifested in its two fisted heroes and prefer later styles. For Geniuses who
grew up learning to Duck and Cover this often means Oscilloscope, with its greater focus on
atomic power, jets, and presence in the science fiction published during their university
years. Despite the baramin’s focus on the future over the past some “libertarian” Atomists
favour a retro River Rouge aesthetic that promises a utopia oozing opulence and symbolises
the the roaring twenties, with it’s libertine spirit and industrial titans like Henry Ford who
reshaped society through their creations. Atomist fashions mostly freeze in the mid 60s as
the last serious holdouts abandon belief in the atomic car future or go mad; a style called
Sterile Ice squeezes in before atomist fashions settle down. Whether or not an Atomist sticks
to one of the popular styles you can expect their aesthetics to focus on how their Wonders fit
into society and everyday life as well as attention grabbing or at least unhidden technology.
Axioms
Atomists favour Apokalipsi and Automata. Apokalipsi to gather and collate data from all
across society and Automata to act upon it. Atomists think society is or should be a
technology driven deterministic system and build their wonders accordingly. They are also
avid creators of auto factories, seeing objective metrics of material wealth and standards of
living as the true test of a society’s success.
Exelixi is a popular field of study. Whether healthcare is provided by the central control
computer, new miracle drugs that remove the need for “statist health services”, or are
pumped into the water supply, Atomists look forward to seeing the life expectancy statistics
ticking ever upwards. Many Atomists research nootropics, either for the masses or just for
some alpha class. When practised Epikrato is used for long term and wide scale
indoctrination rather than anything on a personal level as most Atomists lack the scientific
background or inclination to manipulate the human mind. Atomists have never abandoned
the space age dream and Sakfoi is a very popular Axiom. Katastrofi is often intentionally
avoided as a lot of Atomists see bombs as a distraction from the true potential of the atom
but when pushed into a corner the heirs to the jet-age can create terrifying weapons and the
aircraft to deliver them.
Grant
Atomists build to solve wide scale social problems. They gain Inspiration/3 (round up) extra
sparks per wonder that can only be invested into: Apokalypsi, Epikrato or Exelxi Range,
Epikrato Mass Domination, increasing how many things a Central Command Core can
control, and the options to affect more people with Exelixi Curatives, Mass Biological
Upgrades, Metatropi Sensory Disguises, or Shapeshifting, or the Blast Area of Katastrofi
Explosives.
Atomists also treat their Inspiration one higher for determining how many automatons they
can mass produce with the Assembly Line merit. This applies when the wonder is primarily
an automaton: Combat drones or computer towers that quietly monitor society, not things
like Skafoi jets with an AI pilot.
Concepts
Underwater city father, high programmer of the master computer, titan of the sprocket
industry, iron lady, five year planner, cyborg assimilator, redundant and resentful
organisation man, heartless utilitarian, outdated futurist, slayer of evil bits, “libertarian”
separatist, blockchain advocate, ex-military weapons designer, seasteader, paternalistic
would-be dictator, acolyte of the invisible hand, bitter eugenicist, master control computer,
scholar of pedagogy and indoctrination, fully automated luxurious gay communist spaceship.
Quote
It’s not your fault, the system you are a part of is broken. The system allowed you to make choices that left you
crippled with debt and living with your parents at thirty because the system is designed to extract wealth from
people. But we can change that, we can rip out the system and build a new world where wealth is not extracted,
but is instead created by technology. Imagine it! We can create a world where machines provide everyone with
good food, clean homes, free healthcare, and the time to fulfil their potential! We can create a world where no
one will ever make the wrong choice again!
The Institute for Etheric Sciences
Name: Etherites
Every time it looks like science might just be getting close to understanding the universe
some brilliant mind comes along with new evidence to throw everything into confusion and
"Etherites", under other names, join the Lemurian cause to reverse this latest discovery and
get mankind back on the right path. To be an Etherite is to see a unified theory of everything
that is simple enough for a human to grasp, yet limitless in its potential for exploration,
beauty, and scientific discovery. And to be violently opposed to anything that threatens this
elegant simplicity.
An Etherite lives or dies by her grand theory and its ability to explain the world. They see a
great explanation for everything lurking just around the corner, and despair of those lesser
minds who cannot see how far they have strayed from the truth. Etherites must create
unified explanations for the phenomena they encounter, and once an Etherite has settled on
one seemingly-contradictory evidence is explained away, viewed as part of the Etherite's
solution that everyone else is too dumb to see, or dismissed as false evidence planted by a
conspiracy of the Etherite's enemies. One literally cannot conceive of a world that does not
obey her bizarre yet self-consistent equation for the universe.
This is not normally a concern, since the Etherite's explanations are so abstract as to be
irrelevant in everyday life. However, Etherites simply cannot comprehend an honest
disagreement with their theory. To an Etherite it is so obvious, so self-evident, that the only
possible way someone could disagree is if they were a drooling moron, or―if a quick look
shows nothing at the corner of their mouth―they must be opposing the truth for sinister
reasons. An Etherite will defend their ideas with fanatical, even murderous, ferocity against
people who attempt to contradict them, and a phenomenon that violates their model is either
ignored (sometimes literally, as if the Etherite cannot see a walking, talking breach in her
model) or reduces the Etherite to a near-catatonic state as she works to incorporate the new
data into an increasingly fractured and ad hoc system of the world.
Divergence Point
The Luminiferous Ether was the best idea of the 19th century, it’s just a shame that it turned
out to be wrong. The Ether explained the transmission of light and other forms of
electromagnetic radiation, it provided an absolute frame of reference for cosmology, and it
was demolished over the course of about twenty years, leaving humanity with a much
stranger universe than we had ever expected.
The Etherites cannot let go. It is usually the Ether itself that they see as both true and
necessary, an absolute reference frame that nonetheless provides limitless possibility for
discovery, but different Etherites seize on different self-evident physical absolutes, from
baffling subatomic particles to all-explaining biopsychic fields, but it was the Ether; beautiful,
limitless, wondrous, whose death throes provided the numbers to form the core of the
baramin.
Focus
The Etherites are considered to be mad physicists, sharing this field of study with the
Navigators. The Luminiferous Ether is of course the most popular field of study and scholars
at the Institute find new and extraordinary ways to turn the Ether to practical effects. In the
dark corners of the Institute mad scientists research other cosmological models like Vortex
Theory or take a purist approach to Newtonian physics.
However the Institute’s enemies insist that it is really the home of mad conspiracy theory.
The Institute dismisses such claims by pointing out they research aetheric propulsion
systems for rocket ships. They don’t spend their time reverse engineering the harmonics of
Hebrew to isolate the control frequencies that trigger the loyalty gene bred into mankind by
the Elders of Zion (then they hide the team which did just that before they embarrass the
Institute again). And while it’s true that Etherites rarely build Wonders based on conspiracy
theories it cannot be denied that for every hour they spend building jetpacks and rocketships
they spend another investigating who’s been planting evidence to discredit the Etherite and
conspiring to hide the truth. It would all be rather ridiculous except that Etherites are deadly
serious in their beliefs. The conspiracy has to exist, because if it doesn’t that would mean
reasonable intelligent people can disagree with the Etherite’s theories without ulterior
motives. And mad physics makes terrifyingly real weapons to use against imaginary foes.
This dual focus triggers cycles of expansion followed by violent purges as conspiracy
theorists are drawn to the Baramin’s mindset, then grow too numerous to avoid the notice
and scrutiny of Ether physicists who promptly conclude that if they’ve had access to the
Baramin’s literature but haven’t joined the Ether bandwagon they must be pawns or agents
of the conspiracy. In the previous cycle the Institute ran research programs on pyramid
power, spoon bending, ufology, and similar nonsense; some survivors of the last purge still
hide in obscure offices and half-forgotten laboratories, the rest have gone Rogue. Today
echo doctors ranting about vaccines, cell phone towers, and global warming are slowly
filtering into the Institute.
Members
If any group embodies the Inspired mind—the need to hide from a vast uncaring universe in
the delusion of something simpler, understandable, and controllable—it’s the Etherites. The
Inspired may joke about zeerusty rayguns and rocketships or cliched rants against “the fools
at the institute” but that’s how the Etherites live: Surrounded by the most amazing wonders
that science can imagine, if not yet produce. They leap from one scheme to the next on the
wings of Inspiration, more interested in spreading amazement at the nature of the world than
at the plodding necessity of analysing it with a critical eye; most consider rigour and
methodology to be jealous lesser minds imposing unreasonable constraints on the individual
geniuses who “truly propel science forward”. This can make Etherites seem almost tolerable,
with their jet-packs and their meals in pill form, but Etherites wear their madness on their
sleeve. Etherites are prone to instability, Katastrophic revenge against innocent and
unsuspecting scientific institutes, grand and monstrous plans, and a lack of interest in the
dangerous consequences of their experiments.
Paranoia enforces an intellectual isolation. Etherites are eager to share their theories with
the world but few are willing to listen to anyone except those they already agree with.
Without exposure to peer review and criticism many Etherites have become intellectually
stagnant; constantly repeating experiments and iterating on wonder designs passed down
through the baramin. These moribund ideas are not just discredited scientific theories,
isolation has allowed old attitudes to survive and new ones to develop free from the confines
of reality and common sense; many of which would shock and disgust a modern man.
Conspiracy theories and prejudice always went hand in hand.
Aesthetics
Everything about an Etherite’s wonders is larger than life. The baramin sees a universe of
limitless potential and beauty and they echo that in everything they build. Their wonders are
bold, daring, they invite the viewer to step beyond their limited perspective and embrace the
infinite. In practice this traditionally means raygun styles, a visual shorthand to the public for
heroic figures wielding SCIENCE and having grand adventures. Recently steampunk has
claimed the crown among Etherites; it appeals to the baramin for almost exactly the same
reasons as the classic raygun look but it is trendy and better represents the era when the
consensus seriously considered the possibility of the luminiferous aether.
Axioms
An Etherite may choose between Katastrofi and Skafoi. The institute produces magnificent
aether ships to explore a boundless universe filled with infinite wonder and Katastrofi aether
rays to destroy anyone who questions the science that lets them do so.
Etherites favour wonders that interact with the world around them. Prostasia is used to build
force fields and toughen up those aetherships. Automata, Exelixi, and Epikrato are all
practised but mostly in their more basic forms. Etherites build crude robotic Automata to
dazzle with their ability to create life itself, but rarely bother with the hard work needed to
create true intelligence when a simple simulacrum of thought will do. Exelixi provides life
support and astounding new foods (often in pill form) but complicated and tricky medical
procedures lack a certain excitement. That said Exelixi is common for Etherites obsessed
with medical conspiracies, and there is a popular strain of thought that uses Exelixi to turn
men into two fisted pulp heroes; usually with the Etherite serving as a mentor or scientific
officer to the dashing Beholden. Apokalipsi is uncommon. When an Etherite sees a new and
novel phenomena they are more interested in fitting it into their existing theories or just
basking in awe than actually learning what it is.
Grant
Etherites iron clad certainty allows them to enforce their views upon Mania. As an instant
action an Etherite may spend a point of Willpower to trigger Havoc in any Wonder within
Inspiration * 10 feet that contradicts their theories. If the Wonder is self-aware, protected by
super-science shielding, or presently in the possession of a Genius a Clash of Wills ensues.
An Etherite who is not an Unmada cannot use their grant.

Concepts
Discredited government spook, Victorian time traveller, starship’s science officer, remittance
man, actually right about the conspiracy, gentleman scientist, historian of phantom time,
McCarthyite mad kremlinologist, curator of a private museum, ranting talk show host, pulp
hero’s scientific mentor, bardo explorer, purveyor of patent medicine, sovereign citizen,
paranoid blogger, mad cryptojewologist.
Quote
So you may be wondering how the ESA benefits from hiding the Truth? Wouldn’t they get more funding if
everyone knew how easy space flight really is? Well let me tell you. If our fellow Englishmen ever realised that
rocket science is so easy that you can learn everything you need to know by helping your father fix the family
rocketship they’d never respect the hornswoggler-Jew scientists at mainstream universities ever again. The toffs
have built a whole edifice of unearned respect and cushy tax-payer funded jobs on convincing ordinary people
that physics is too complicated for them. Open up your eyes!
The Consorted Guilds of Master
Mechanists
Name: Mechanists
Technology had a soul, once upon a time. A man would know who made his tools, and he
could trust his tools because he could trust their maker. But no longer. The Industrial
Revolution replaced craftsmen with production lines, the names of masters were replaced
with the names of corporations, and the mechanists say the world is poorer for it. This may
make the Mechanists sound relatable and sympathetic. There is nothing mad about
nostalgia for simpler times where honest skill and toil were rewarded or campaigning against
sweatshops and pollution, but Mechanists are not the poor underclasses railing against
distant and unfeeling masters. Mechanists are romantics protected from harsh realities by
their wealth and privilege, blinded by nostalgia they look back and yearn for a better age with
more civilised technology. Oh, and the days when their skills gave them power and prestige.
They want that back too.
Never mind that the industrial revolution made technology and luxuries available to the
common man. Forget that the old guilds were an elitist and secretive lot who jealously
guarded their monopoly against gifted outsiders. Don’t mention that the efficiencies of mass
production freed labour to apply its efforts to new innovative fields. To the Mechanists none
of that matters. Automation and industrialisation took the soul out of technology, and that in
turn robbed humanity of our soul; and so Mechanists seek to take back the means of
production, to smash the factories and production lines and replace them with individual self-
employed worthy artisans. The cost of this transformation is ignored, or dismissed as
irrelevant when compared to the benefits of restoring humanity’s spirit, morality, or whatever
unquantifiable good a Mechanist sees as inherent to the creation and use of hand crafted
technology.
Mortals who see a Mechanist are often charmed by the promise of a simpler life in a world
where vast smoke belching factories are replaced by an artisan with a friendly face, but
when they look deeper they see something cold and alien: A world where human worth has
been usurped and moral value belongs to machines alone. A world where humanity can, at
best, bask in the artifice or use of its creations and thank their clockwork-hearted masters for
the privilege. In the end, Mechanists revolt against industrialised society not because they
think mankind puts too much value on the material, but too little.
Divergence Point
If we go by philosophy alone the Mechanists are behind only the Artificers as the oldest
group of Inspired in existence. Peers refer half jokingly to “Thag Flintcarver”, the first
Mechanist who ranted that the newly discovered copper lacked the soul of a nicely crafted
stone tool while Socrates’ polemics denouncing writing or luddism (in its original form as a
workers movement) are occasionally rediscovered by young Mechanists. However a lack of
numbers, unifying philosophy, and suppression by the Secret Masters (who had a strict
timetable with no room for anyone resisting progress) prevented them from forming a
Baramin.
It was not until the 20th century that the Mechanists became an organised group. In 1969
Victor Scheinman created the Stanford Arm and instantly divided the Brotherhood of Artifice
and Mechanism into two groups: Those who feared for the employment and status of their
mundane counterparts and those who didn’t see why it was their concern what mortals got
up to in the privacy of their factories. The argument split the Brotherhood in two, birthing the
Artificers who formally rejected ideology and the Mechanists who defected en-masse to
Lemuria. As they migrated they picked up independant Collaboratives who’d been ranting
about mass production since the Industrial Revolution and disaffected Lemurians more
interested in practising outdated crafts than their baramin’s ideology.
As the Inspired world rebuilt itself from the ashes of the invisible war the new group secluded
itself to formalise its ideology, the result: The Manifesto of Mechanism was a sprawling mess
which gave several contradictory points where humanity took the wrong path, the opening of
Cromford Mill in 1771 being repeated the most often. Within the baramin included every
criticism of mass production the members could think of, along with polemics against
Victorian culture and an outrageously unfair character assassination of Joseph Marie
Jacquard that cemented the Mechanists as a baramin dedicated to reversing
industrialisation and restoring the primacy of hand crafted custom made technology.
Focus
Mechanists are undeniably the masters of mad craftsmanship. The baramin’s ideological
commitment to pre-industrial revolution society lends itself to classical crafts like
blacksmithing and clock making but a machinist can turn their hand to any craft where an
independent and cranky Genius might rail against some sort of change that reduced the
freedom or prestige of the maker: Software engineers railing against the introduction of
standardisation and usability requirements. Pharmacists who resent the Federal Drug
Administration interfering with their work. Research scientists who mourn the days of the
independently wealthy scholar who never needed to file a grant application. Even artists
furious that their access to the publisher’s money is guarded by philistine focus groups.
Few Mechanists pay much attention to theory, the baramin teaches that the best way to do
is to get your hands dirty and a Mechanist’s lab (or workshop, as most insist) is far more
likely to be filled with prototypes and test components than research notes and equations.
Even Procedures are more likely to be formed of casting moulds or preset weights than
papers. Research scientists and other fields where the end result is the creation of
knowledge itself rather than something directly usable are rare among the baramin.
Members
Mechanists believe that hand crafted tools possess a practical, even spiritual, superiority to
the products of mass production and they reinforce this ideology through a strict system of
ranks and gated advancement. If you can’t create perfection and aren’t willing to practice
until you can, the Mechanists have no place for you; a poorly made tool is spiritually
deficient, it is only one step above a mass produced one.
As a group Mechanists like to portray themselves as humble artisans and craftsmen whose
workshops were paved over by industry, but in truth they are not the poor underclasses
railing against distant and unfeeling masters. Mechanists are the old elite, filled with
bitterness and anger at the suit wearers, the pen pushers, and the bean counters who
usurped the throne of industry from guilds and masters. For all that the baramin holds a
strong ideological opposition to “capitalism” (which they define as deriving wealth from
owning capital, rather than the modern definition of private industry and trade) most
members tend to be well off, or at least culturally middle to upper class; nothing will ruin the
romance of handmade goods faster than weaving carpets in a sweatshop. It’s the people
who once worked alone in comfortable studios or who watched the hard sweaty labour of
their subordinates from the comfort of a ventilated office who end up in the Guilds.
As the baramin post-dates the worst of Lemuria’s racism it is welcoming to the “middle
races” and even the “irredeemables”, some of whom shelter in the baramin despite having
no affinity for its grand mission. Those who are ideologically compatible often combine the
baramin’s ideology with a strong anti-colonialist slant and a particular focus on opposition to
“Victorians”. But like the rest of their peers they are the deposed elite of their cultures, or at
least well off enough to use technology as a status symbol rather than a necessity, and they
form their views through the same nostalgic and self-interested lense as any other
Mechanist.
Aesthetics
Mechanists wish to return to an idealised past and their designs reflect that. Each of the
baramin’s guilds is formed around a traditional craft such as clock-making and its members
adopt that craft as their Aesthetic. This nostalgia means that a plurality of Mechanists won’t
create anything more modern than steamworks, and most mechanists favour elegant and
refined styles over loud -punk reimaginings, albeit styles that require a great deal of
precision to show off their mastery of their crafts. More modern Mechanists might practice
crafts that formed and were superseded in living memory and practice styles such as
Oscilloscope, but imagined futures like Digital Chrome or contemporary styles like Pod
People are right out.
Axioms
Mechanists favour Exelixi or Prostasia. A master makes his own tools and the Mechanists
build their creations to last in contrast to mass produced and mass discarded doo-dads.
Automata is a popular choice among mechanists as nothing demonstrates mastery of a craft

like creating life itself, but Mechanists dogmatically avoid creating autofactories or production
lines. Apokalypsi remains popular for Mechanists who want to get involved with politics
without leaving the comfort of the workshop while Epikrato can rouse the shop floor rabble.
Skafoi fits nicely for any Genius who dreams of independence. Axiopistia is very popular
among mechanists, it fits their image as masters who hand polish every creation and selling
tools with long-term exelixi enhancements is the most practical way to make an actual career
as an independent artisan. Provided you don’t derail your plans with Jabir.
Grant
As craftsmen par-excellence the Mechanists invest time into every Wonder and reap the
benefits. If a Mechanist spends an additional increment of time they can create a faultless
Wonder on a regular success or failure.
Concepts
Reclusive watchmaker, historically accurate luddite, sweatshop owning anti-colonialist
activist, starving or trust-fund artist, self-hating mass produced robot, neo-gothic
stonemason, pie baking sweater knitting microwave hating granny, jolly toymaker, craft
brewer, trust fund hobbyist craftsman, old school garage mechanic, southern fried gunsmith,
practitioner of traditional medicine, artisanal pencil sharpener.
Quote
Look at the youth of today, gazing at their screens with hollow eyes. How could we expect anything else from
mass produced technology? There is no individuality in these soulless devices, they can only appeal to the
lowest common denominator and so they lower all that they touch. Mankind will see the light and return to
technology hand crafted to enrich the user's highest self. But only when we purge this poison with fire, or
perhaps an elegant swarm of self-replicating clockwork ants.
The Munich School of Post-Empirical
Phenomenological Theory
Name: Phenomenologists
Madness is horrific, but there's a kind of comfort in the madness we make ourselves. Strip
away logic and consistency and you're left with an ever-shifting morass of phenomena
where you can be, do, and believe anything you want, where consequences can be
dismissed as the flawed reasoning of thinkers limited by cause-and-effect, where
contradictions are merely two sides of the richness of your ideas. Other geniuses ask what
motivates a Phenomenologist. It's certainly not "truth," whatever that might be. Earlier pre-
Phenomenological groups were politically-motivated historians, often fiercely partisan,
dedicated to creating an irrational synthesis of history to demonstrate the triumph of their
own nation, society, or political system. By the 1930s, however, a meta-political urge to
escape the confines of analytical thought replaced these genius' interest in specific
philosophies, and the Phenomenologists arose as an organised group dedicated to the
rejection of every sort of knowledge except personal whim.
To mortals Phenomenological theory represents the fears of a nihilistic universe. The fear
that philosophers will demonstrate our religions and moral codes to be riddled with holes and
tear them down, only to leave us with an incomprehensible world where no one can
formulate an argument against even the most heinous crimes; A Phenomenologist’s ability to
justify anything and to deny the existence of anything can produce a monster whose blood
soaked hands sit beneath an empty smile. Only the school’s highly abstract philosophy
provides any measure of restraint. Geniuses dissect orphans for science, not pleasure, and
Phenomenological study has little need for human test subjects, or testing of any sort.
While difficult to organise, Phenomenologists serve as Lemuria's intelligence network and

the knot (however frayed) that holds Lemuria together: they can get in almost anywhere with
a sufficient application of charm and bravado, and they don't hesitate to adopt whatever
persona or behaviour will suit or amuse them. Effortlessly chameleonic, this baramin serves
as an ever-shifting wall of obfuscation and nonsense behind which far more sinister and
committed Lemurian philosophies can hide. They are the chief promulgators of the Lemurian
Erzweltanschauung, though many Lemurians (and most peers) suspect that such a
construct is merely a charade through which Phenomenologists control the gullible. The
Phenomenologists aren't telling. They don't even understand the question.
Divergence Point
Humanity has toyed with non-rational philosophy for centuries, from Chinese or Sufi
mysticism to European Romanticism to American Transcendentalism, and geniuses have
followed along, delighting in mundane philosophies that reflected the Inspired experience.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these kinds of philosophies reached their peak
in Europe. The results in the mundane world were devastating, but to many geniuses, it was
a siren-call: no longer would mundane humanity strangle Inspiration; instead, a combined
World Spirit of Inspiration was being born; soon it would grow and transform the world
utterly, wiping away contradiction and consistency, replacing it with a new concept of truth. It
never happened, and ever since 1939 the Phenomenologists have been fighting for their lost
dreams.
Focus
Phenomenologists are proud of their reputation as practitioners of mad critique. Lacking any
worldview of their own Phenomenologists focus their Mania on destroying or subverting the
worldview of anyone close to hand. A Phenomenologists’ Wonder is an equation, she inputs
another person’s viewpoints and the result is a devastating refutation that causes his brains
to dribble out through his nose. Pop-culture is the latest fad within the school, and modern
Phenomenologists critique comics, film, and video games; but even the shifting mercurial
nature of the baramin leaves room for some timeless constants and the critique of politics,
society and music remain popular (the other standbys, theatre and painting, are finally
beginning to fade while photography never quite caught on). Regardless of what subject they
focus on or whether they express their rebuttal through oration, music, bizarre hypnotic
images, or something else, most Phenomenologists design their Wonders as equations that
produce miraculous effects when used to transform somebody else’s ideas. Often these
wonders are internalized in such a way that a Phenomenologist can’t interact with others
without using them.
Phenomenologists who depart from their traditional focus are considered to be more
relatable by other mad scientists, and thus they are more dangerous. They are physicists
with bizarre theories of psycho-reactive particles and a fundamentally non-empirical
universe. Parapsychologists who believe in a universe that runs on occult principles where
cause and effect do not apply. Computer scientists convinced we’re living in a simulation
filled with bugs and retroactive patches that is run by an ever shifting staff of arbitrary and
underpaid interns. Whatever field they come from, when a Phenomenologist starts making
theories about the world they usually revolve around explaining the baramin’s core belief that
our universe is neither “real”, understandable, or bound by causality.
Members
Phenomenologists are drawn from a philosophical tradition, though unlike the Scholastics,
their philosophy is linked completely with political and social agendas that change
constantly. They are fundamentally irrational, not like madmen or idiots are irrational, but in
the way that only very smart people can not make any sense. Phenomenologists treat logic
and evidence with contempt or disinterest, instead building makeshift worldviews from bits of
rhetoric, sustaining those ideas for as long as they are convenient, then discarding them as
effortlessly as they believed them. Always one step ahead of their own contradictions,
Phenomenologists can be found in any field where connections, rhetoric, and cults of
personality are strong enough to replace traditional philosophical or scientific inquiry. They
find their way into social sciences, philosophical groups, and the humanities; recently, some
have nestled into mathematics, where they work to stay one step ahead of someone
standing up and saying, "Wait a minute, those equations don't make any sense." Some have
even migrated into theoretical physics.
Most mad scientists, regardless of affiliation, consider Phenomenologists to be the most
dangerous of their kind. Few Phenomenologists can comprehend the idea of an identity or
worldview more solid than their own, and those who can refuse to give them much respect.
Any Genius might decide to come after you with ray guns, killer robots or fire breathing
dinosaurs for some crazy and nonsensical reason, but first they must decide they want to kill
you. Phenomenologists see no difference between talking and blasting someone’s brain with
Epikrato: If reality exists only as subjective perception then a political campaigner telling the
workers they are enslaved by the system is no different to personally implanting mind control
chips and by extension mental domination is morally no worse than a conversation.
Aesthetics
Ever shifting and mercurial, a Phenomenologist rarely has a solid aesthetic. Since the
baramin favours wonders built out of ideas and shifting bits of rhetoric many don’t even have
physical wonders to decorate, or when they do it’s merely a medium to express the
underlying equation: A perfectly tuned guitar can be a wonder, but to a Phenomenologist the
song is the real secret sauce. Yet this is not to say the school lacks a visual image. A
Phenomenologist’s identity is as loud as it is transitory, and thanks to a seemingly
inexhaustible wardrobe or Metatropi appearance generators a Phenomenologist can change
their look as fast as they change their mind. Many geniuses won't talk to anyone who looks
too stereotypical (stereotypically what? It doesn’t matter) or who looks like an exceedingly
clever expression of a cultural idea just because they might be a Phenomenologist.
Incidentally the baramin is well aware of it’s reputation and gladly uses people’s expectations
for misdirection or when they wish to hide their affiliation to the school.
Axioms
The shifting and mercurial school favours Metatropi and Epikrato. With Metatropi a
Phenomenologist makes the world around them as impermanent as they are. The Axiom of
Change manifests in wonders built of subtle hints and suggestions rather than gross physical
transformations. Epikrato extends this impermanence to other people’s identities, a
Phenomenologist abandons logic and evidence in favour of whatever passing fancy floats
through their mind; the world and the people within it shift to match.
Exelixi is a common Axiom, it is easy to build a wonder out of critique and argument that
pushes someone above and beyond their limits. Certainly, it’s easier than building a rocket
ship out of metatextual analysis. Katastrofi is worryingly common too, a Phenomenologist’s
critique can retard the mind, trigger psychosomatic illnesses, or even shut a psyche down
permanently; and to a Phenomenologist it’s morally and practically the same as having a
conversation. Phenomenologists who maintain the baramin’s traditional focus struggle
outside these four Axioms—with the exception of internalised Prostaisa psychic and
psychosomatic defences, which are quite achievable when a Phenomenologist remembers
why they’re useful.
Grant
By spending a point of Mania a Phenomenologists may completely change their own
worldview and perception of reality. This has two effects, firstly they gain a rote action bonus
to all rolls to convince others that they’re genuine in their new beliefs—since they are.
Secondly by aligning their worldview with another genius a Phenomenologist can remove the
social penalties unmada face while interacting with their fellow inspired. This technique
makes Phenomenologists invaluable for maintaining Lemuria’s communication links and the
Erzweltanschauung.
Concepts
Neo-Kleinist painter, scientific journal editor, esoteric aesthetic post-post-modernist,
Lamarckian evolutionary psychologist, new age techno-occultist, incomprehensible
philosopher, solipsistic empiricist, foucauldian language hacker, paleo-reddit epicureanist,
smug triangulating centerist, ASCII-Impressionist neo-primitive, government spin doctor, pre-
post-pre-post-post-modernist, deconstructive psychoanalyst, post-modern feminist video
game critic, anti-linguistic unpoet, anura-situationist neo-reactionary, professor of “forth wave
critical post-”.
Quote
Members of the audience, it is indisputable that video games lead to violence. We must understand that
“violence” encompasses more than just the act of pulling out a gun in a crowded classroom and opening fire, it is
part of a broader cultural narrative which emphasises the combative masculine over the connective feminine.
When video game developers give Lara Croft a pair of guns and remove her ability to solve problems peacefully,
or emasculate Kratos by presenting him as an older weaker fighter after he develops a connection to his son, it
contributes to a meta-narrative that harms our children. I would call that harm violence.
The Hallowed Order of Numerologists
Name: Numerologists
The word of G-d is written for all to read, but not all—say the Numerologists—understand
what they read. There are hidden codes in the holy texts, riddles so subtle most never
realise they are there at all. They are a shield to protect lesser minds for knowledge they are
not ready for; but to the enlightened they are a path to true knowledge of the heavens and all
G-d’s wonders, clear answers to the great questions of life, philosophy, and most importantly
of all: Morality. These objective ethical truths combined with religion’s innate traditionalism to
give the Numerologists a historical view of life coloured by Manichaeism: everyone, living or
dead, and every organisation, extant or extinct, is viewed as either an ally or an enemy, and
treated accordingly. To a Numerologist, there is no middle ground, no neutral parties;
whether they divide the world into the Elect and the Damned or invoke some positivist “Whig
History” notion of Champions of Progress vs. Enemies of Progress, they cannot
acknowledge moral subtlety.
For much of Lemuria’s history the Numerologists were the beating heart of Lemuria. They
were better able to collaborate than the Numinologists and more capable of long term
planning and goal-directed behaviour than the Oracles, and soon eclipsed their older rivals
in the eyes of the secret masters. Numerologists served as propagandists, spokespersons
and even priests for their Ophidian masters, taking their orders and transmuting them into
ideology and direction for Lemuria.
Their power has dwindled with Lemuria’s fall yet the Numerologists remain politically
dominant, replacing the Dharmists as arbiters of that headless and devastated organisation.
There they prefer to remain, as hidden puppet masters who hand down guidance and
parables to their lessers. Even among other mad scientists they stand out, with their almost
sorcerous technologies, primitive alembics, and astrological charts. They are the last
torchbearers for an older generation of Inspiration and most have no place in regular society.
When forced to confront the modern world they often lean toward New Age organisations
where their appearance and beliefs seem less peculiar, or strange techno-Gnostic cults that
mingle pseudoscience with pop theology.
Divergence Point
The Numerologists are the oldest of the Lemurian baramins still in existence. They first
emerged in Arabia as Averroes and Maimonides swept aside more occult forms of Muslim
and Jewish philosophy. As Oracles once rose up to defend the primacy of personal religious
experiences against scripture and theology, Numerologists in turn arose to defend the
primary of scripture against rationalist theologians who sought to reinterpret holy texts
through Aristotelian philosophy and empiricism. Though their traditional origin is dated from
Medieval Europe, as Aristotle’s magnificent organon replaced the older Platonic philosophies
that supported both the Church and natural philosophy at the time. As the new notions of
cause and essence replaced the existing, almost Gnostic spiritual notions that held sway for
much of the Dark Ages, the Numerologist movement began to sweep up Inspired who found
the new natural sciences corrupt and lacking moral authority. When the Arab and European
groups joined with their Chinese brethren, who had already been grumbling for centuries, the
Numerologists became the dominant Lemurian baramin for several centuries.
Focus
Numerologists are religious scholars, seekers of occult truths, and masters of mad theology.
But this is not the dry theology of linear thought and logical debate taught in universities.
Numerologists perform feats of mathematics as brilliant as any genius to follow hidden clues
left by G-d for his children in the holy texts and in creation, they perform alchemical
procedures to reveal invisible inks on the scrolls of the masters. And they fear being struck
blind by G-d or poisoned in a laboratory accident should they approach the divine with
impurity in their souls.
Numerologist orthodoxy holds that scripture is the exclusive source of knowledge.

Everything worth knowing can be learned from studying the holy texts and surrounding
commentary. Furthermore it holds that scripture cannot be wrong—but it can be in code—
and traditionalist Numerologists still refer to the idea of reinterpreting scripture to reconcile
religion with scientific evidence as “The Maimonidean Heresy”. This leads to outdated views
such as geocentrism and young earth creationism.
For a Numerologist to depart from the baramin’s traditional focus requires an alternative
source of absolute moral truth, preferably one with a deep corpus of texts to suit a book-first
approach to inquiry. Philosophy is the most popular alternative. Though most Numerologist
philosophers incorporate religious elements like deism or pantheism into their work, there
are enough committed agnostic or atheistic philosophers to band together for respect and
prestige. Other fields are rare but diverse; mankind traditionally turns to philosophy or
religion for moral guidance. In the dusty corners of the baramin one can find: Historians
whose grand historical narrative demonstrates which institutions and ideas have helped
mankind and which have harmed, evolutionary psychologists who divide every way of life
into those that work with human nature or those which work against, cultural commentators
who’s maps of social networks and memeplexes ultimately boil down to my side and the evil
side, and many more mad scientists twisting factual questions into moral absolutism.
Members
Numerologists belong to an older view of the world, and they show it: their attitudes are often
unrecognisable to modern geniuses (or regular citizens of the modern world), and their
super-science more closely resembles Kabbalistic Numerology, Islamic Astronomy or Taoist
alchemy than science or even modern theology. They are transmuters and magician-
philosophers, and though some surround themselves in modern technical accoutrements on
account of their convenience and power, their philosophies are alchemical, Gnostic, and
Medieval. Few Numerologists are priests, but many have a formal scholarly role in an
Eastern or Western religion.
The natural home of the Numerologist is not the church or the mosque, nor is it the seminary
or the yasheva. It is the mystery cult and the private gathering of scholars, where only the
worthy are permitted to attend and only the brilliant can achieve. The secrets they learn are
parsed down piecemeal, wrapped in metaphor and parable, to the lesser sages and priests
and used to build wonders. This remains true regardless of a Numerologists’ field of study,
even the most staunchly atheist moral philosopher can be expected to act like a sage.
Whether they make their theological pronouncements to a seminary of young priests or
upload their thoughts on current affairs to youtube, a Numerologist remains aloof. They
study only with worthy peers, make their pronouncements, and leave their followers to
handle the gritty details of applying their wisdom to real life.
The number of Numerologists has been dwindling, replaced by the growing ranks of
Etherites: most Inspired who seek certainty in the world turn to modern science, rather than
ancient marvels such as alchemical transmutation. Those that still enter the Numerologist
baramin often possess rare beliefs such as geocentrism, or are members of anti-intellectual
or anti-technological movement who nonetheless experienced a Breakthrough. Regardless
of their background all believe in a moral order to the world, in which all things are either
acting in line with the one true way (as God, or Heaven, or the Tao, or whatever intended) or
acting wrongfully, and that wrongful things must be rectified or destroyed.
Aesthetics
Alembic styles are of course extremely popular. Most Numerologists are inspired by a
specific occult tradition, or their own personal syncretistic ideas, and resent the idea of some
slapdash generic technomancer aesthetic. One Numerologist believes through careful study
of god’s laws he can file a legal case that compels the heavens to act. Another thinks the
very idea of compelling god to be blasphemous; but his studies of those same holy books
reveals exploits that god embedded into the laws of physics for the worthy, with nothing
more than simple hand crafted devices he can work wonders. A third does not believe in a
personal god at all, he studies the works of philosophers and sages and through mastering
their moral teachings he attains the purified soul needed to work alchemical transmutations.
Numerologists combine scholarship and faith to master their ancient crafts and build their
wonders.
Crystal Future styles are almost as popular as Alembic. Younger members enjoy the
conveniences that come with a technological aesthetic and Crystal Future is popular with
geniuses who experienced a breakthrough as part of a New Age or modern magick
movement, but a Numerologist of any age and background can inherit the style from the
Secret Masters. In this imagined future or lost Atlantis the people live lives of deep spiritual
meaning without sacrificing the comforts of contemporary life or the “good parts” of modern
life, however the Numerologist defines it. Their technology requires spiritual purity to use, not
godless cash to buy, and often works on a “client/server” model where the pious family’s
simple devices connect to the Bishop’s advanced mainframe to call modern conveniences
into every home. Peers like to call Crystal Future Numerologists sellouts, but while the
baramin is many things, hypocrites is not one of them.
Axioms
The Numerologists favour Exelixi or Metatropi. Priests have always received petitions from
the faithful for healing and alchemists have dedicated their lives to concocting elixirs that
improve the body or even provide immortality. Metatropi is used to perform wondrous
alchemical transmutations and to work and rework the material in search of hidden clues and
sublime truths.
Apokalypsi is used to decode cryptic prophecies into concrete predictions and to find hidden
laboratories and long lost private libraries where old knowledge lies waiting for the worthy
recipient who can decipher ancient riddles, but despite the brahmin's focus on occult lore
Apokalypsi is rarely used to solve those riddles or uncover the next hidden message in a
holy text. Numerologists say that G-d, or the old masters, were too clever to let any brute
force wonder find their secrets and designed codes that could only be solved by an
enlightened sage. Sneering peers say Apokalypsi finds things that actually exist, when
you’re looking for patterns that don’t exist you use Inspiration. As religious figures the
Numerologists use Exelixi to call down healing and blessings upon the faithful, and as old
school religious figures Katastrofi is used to invoke holy wrath upon sinners and heretics.
With Automata Numerologists create golems and homunculi to repeat and study the creation
of man, and increasingly to provide assistants and companionship in a world which has
moved on from their ideas.
Grant
In their knowledge of the divine the Numerologists find absolute moral certainty. They may
name one specific action per dot of Inspiration such as "stoning idolators” which will never
again trigger a Transgression roll. However if the Numerologist is given a clear opportunity to
take that action and refuses they suffer an equivalent Transgression.
Should they leave the baramin the Genius immediately makes a Transgression check for the
worst action they’ve inured themselves to before removing the effects of this grant.
Concepts
Cult leader, hardline wiccan fundamentalist, arrogant martial arts master, guardian of a
hidden library, deontological philosopher, kabbalist rabbi-lawyer, polarising activist blogger,
hermit sage, rapture forecaster, last surviving Aztec high priest, darwinistic evolutionary
philosopher, scholar of canon law, Muʿtazila astronomer, natural theologian studying occult
physics, immortal alchemist, yeshiva prodigy, classically trained augur, guy who obeys every
rule in the Bible.
Quote
“I understand your confusion, my son. When the scales first fell from my own eyes, I could hardly believe the
Truth that was laid bare before them. But the signs and portents are all there, just as foretold. All you have to do
is find the clues within the lacunae and make the logical connections; that will show you which apocrypha should
never have been excluded from the canon. With the complete text at hand, follow the gematria in the context of
the Papal ex cathedra decrees, sedevacantist of course, and behold His plan! It's a lot to take in but the truth of
the scripture cannot be denied. Now, hand me that brimstone, we have our parts to play in His work.”
The Iconoclastic Revolutionary Army
Name: Iconoclasts
Liberté, égalité, fraternité was a wonderful idea, it's a pity it turned into the reign of terror and
over sixteen thousand deaths. By the time Napoleon crowned himself emperor the idea of
egality had been beheaded by guillotine, but if you want to keep your head you'd best not tell
that to the Iconoclasts. This self styled revolutionary army are more than apologetics for
revolutionary violence, they exult it. To an Iconoclast there can be no political change without
blood and struggle, the more vicious the better. The most peaceful protest advocating
incremental change in a liberal democracy cannot succeed without kicking a few heads.
Every armed revolution against an oppressive regime can benefit from more fire, passion,
and beheading any “counter-revolutionary” who tries to minimise the unintended
consequences of mob violence. And so wherever mortal society challenges the authority that
governs them Iconoclasts soon follow, bringing fuel to pour on the fires of revolution and fuel
bombs to throw at the nearest policeman.
Iconoclasts often speak of The Revolutionary Spirit, or just Revolution with a capital 'R'. A
universal spirit that underlies all revolutions from Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation to
Malcom X. Just as all revolutionary activity is an emanation of The Revolutionary Spirit, all
authority from the international monetary fund down to your science teacher are part of The
Chains. Pour enough fuel on the fires of rebellion, break enough chains, and the revolution's
cause and ideology fall away to reveal Revolution: One final transformative fire to usher in
utopia and the end of history. This should not be taken as an implication that the Iconoclasts'
theories are simplistic. Their predicted timelines for political developments, hierarchies of
oppression, and utopian economic models are as elaborate as any other thinker's; their
arguments for why peaceful methods that won't let them punch someone’s face can't work
are as brilliant as they are insane. Rather, Revolution serves as a one Baramin
Erzweltanschauung that allows members as diverse as Soviet Materialists and anti-CPC
Shaolin warriors to work together, at least as well as a group of Unmada mad scientists can
hope to.
For much of their history the Iconoclasts served Lemuria as foot soldiers, guerilla fighters,
and insurgents. Iconoclasts would be sent wherever peers or mortals were getting too
organised to sow discord and destruction, the revolutionary army were eager opponents of
the peerage and its attitude of aristocratic entitlement. Still, keeping the baramin from turning
around and rebelling against Lemuria's hierarchy was a constant struggle which involved
judicious amounts of mind-control and suicide missions for anyone who asked too many
questions. Since the Invisible War the Iconoclasts have slipped their bonds and their
members can be found within revolutionary movements and public protests worldwide with
little common cause or theme, pushing everyone around them into violent revolution (or
pouring fuel on a pre-existing revolution). Currently their impact is limited by the heavy
losses they suffered during the invisible war and during the fall of the iron curtain, but with
the inspired world at peace the ranks are once again growing. There are even signs they
may soon cut ties with or rebel against Lemuria, however nothing suggests they will defect
from the idea of Lemuria—that history went wrong and can be fixed by a Genius.
Divergence Point
The French Revolution was never going to produce a utopian world. No matter how loudly
the people sing, at the end of the day they will still be humans with all that implies. Early
iconoclasts disagree, the first generation were proud French revolutionaries who began
going mad shortly after the National Constituent Assembly was formed and encountered all
the difficulties of actually running a country. As the years progressed and the promised land
of liberty and equality never arrived more men lost their minds and joined the baramin;
convinced that if they just fixed this one thing, beheaded this one influential traitor to the
cause, the revolution would get back on the proper path to utopia. In 1794 these numerous
micro-divergence points all converged into one single event: The execution of Maximilien
Robespierre. No politician had been more committed to creating the ideal republic, and now
he was dead at the hands of the very people he would have bestowed utopia upon.
Declaring that the revolution had been betrayed, co-opted, and had failed, the first
Iconoclasts disassociated themselves from mortal society and retreated to refine their
strategies in preparation for their next opportunity to fight for liberté, égalité, fraternité.
There is no grand moment when the Iconoclasts broadened their scope from obsessing over
the French Revolution and defending Robespierre, the seeds were sown at the baramin's
inception. From the outset Iconoclasts began looking for a new revolution to support every
time they found one new Geniuses joined the movement: Young Rugby School gentleman
scholars, American whiskey rebels with ingeniously repurposed farm equipment and home
distilled wonders, White Lotus herbalists and martial artists, and more. These diverse
Geniuses each retained loyalty to their original cause, but remained united by belief that any
successful Revolution would bring about their ideal world and by a common enemy in
authority itself.
Focus
Iconoclasts are an organisation of mad political scientists. They are the scholars of nation
states and transnational organisations, of revolutionary movements and theoretical utopias.
Iconoclasts chart hierarchies of oppression then distil them into brilliant manifestos to stir the
masses’ revolutionary spirit. Their research reveals the weak links and stress points that
could bring governments and corporations to their knees, or how to fire up a peaceful protest
into an armed rebellion. To an Iconoclast political science has a purpose and that purpose is
revolution.
Sociology, economics, and history go hand in hand with political science, few Iconoclasts
neglect these fields of study. Psychology is also a popular field, with many Iconoclasts
dedicating their lives searching for some social conditioning or mental defect to explain why
the proletariat reject their ideas and cling to their chains, or to explain how the Revolution will
transform humanity to usher in some New Utopian Man whose free of the incentives and
behaviours that let the establishment divide and rule. And of course these fields create the
weapons of revolution; Iconoclasts dredge up old historical grievances to give their polemics
that extra kick and crash markets with a protest and barricade at just the right spot.
The Iconoclasts consider themselves to be an army, and you cannot load a gun with
manifestos. Many are eager students of more practical fields like engineering, physics,
chemistry, and computer science to build weapons for the coming conflict. And even when
an Iconoclast's one true passion is political science they likely know enough to mix
explosives in the kitchen sink or how to set up a comprehensive cyberwarfare software suite.
All the information they need flows freely through the baramin.
Members
Every revolution had its thinkers. Iconoclasts may adorn themselves in the symbols of
manual labour and counter-cultural movements that reject the managerial intellectualism
beloved by global politics in favour of more emotionally appealing ways of knowing; but
Iconoclasts are still Geniuses and they know it. Some take a detached view, they stand apart
from the revolution and write their theories or document the struggle from a (biased)
historian's perspective. Most enjoy getting down and dirty with their comrades. They can be
found manning the barricades when the struggle is hot, and between action they live a
revolutionary lifestyle in squats, communes, and invite only flat-shares, or they stay up at all
hours proselytising and arguing in online political discussion forums. Iconoclasts don't expect
their mortal comrades to obey their orders but, again, Iconoclasts are proud Geniuses. When
the duty rota comes around they expect the first pick of intellectual work, from political
theorising to bomb making, and if they share those duties with mortals they expect the most
ingenious ideas to rise to the top. “From each according to their ability.”
Self sufficiency is close to a requirement for an Iconoclast. That's not to say you can't work
at a factory and still find time to post screeds against the establishment on social media, you
can, especially if you have timesaving wonders. Rather, Iconoclasts respect you for being a
factory worker but consider actually doing factory work for The Man to be selling out, and the
baramin is deeply unkind to sell outs. The Man isn’t happy when his employees spend all
their time proselytising without actually doing any work either; so most members have an
independent source of income. Education is another requirement. The Iconoclast movement
is an erudite one, those manifestos and polemics against global capital don't write
themselves. In the army status and prestige can only be won on the barricades, but once
credibility has been earned it can be maintained by demonstrating political knowledge
through writing and debating. There's also a Darwinian component: Too little violence and an
Iconoclast looks like a poser to his peers, but if you rely solely on violence for prestige and
fight too often you might not make it home alive, thus the archetypical Iconoclast is well read,
a skilled wordsmith or political artist, yet is capable of brutal and indiscriminate violence
whenever the opportunity arises.
Aesthetics
A revolution isn't just an event, it's a collective feeling, to exist it needs revolutionaries filled
with fire and passion. An Iconoclast surrounds themselves with symbols to inspire and fan
the flames of rebellion. Many look to the great rebellions of the past, for much of the
Baramin's history the most popular aesthetic was neoclassical wonders in the style of the
Glorious Revolution but that has faded outside of France. For the current generation
historical inspiration means recreating the art-deco styles of USSR propaganda or the
Brutalist soviet reality, a do-it-yourself punk Trash Praxis (mixed with digital chrome for
cyberwarfare specialists), or using the workers movements of the Victorian era as an excuse
for Steampunk.
Other Iconoclasts clad themselves in the image of the Utopia that will exist after the
Revolution. Conceptions of Utopia vary, but the current trend is for simple wonders that
could be built in small self-sufficient villages, solar power, and environmentalist themes.
Iconoclasts from third world countries or minority communities often use Crystal Future
styles with a heavy infusion of their traditional culture, styling their national symbols as a
rebellion against a globalist world order or the national majority. Peers love to point out that
traditional culture is traditional and thus the opposite of revolutionary; but they only do so
behind the Iconoclasts' back or behind a nice thick force field.
Axioms
Every good army needs weapons and intelligence, and so Iconoclasts favour Apokalypsi and
Katastrofi. An Iconoclast's weapons are often rough and ready. None are more iconic than
the “special blend” Molotov, which can be built on a student's budget and given to mortals in
the knowledge that it will (probably) explode fast enough to avoid Havoc. In contrast their
underground communication networks, self published zines, and information warfare
wonders are often sleek—or the kind of rough DIY that requires investing lots of time and
effort into artful wear and tear—and built for the user's comfort. Street battles can be won or
lost within the hour but a good online flamewar over rival manifestos can take months or
years so why not invest in lumbar support and a wondrous coffee maker.
Automata is a very popular Axiom, a supercomputer is a vital accessory for any

cyberwarfare campaign or military intelligence operation, an army needs numbers which
robots can provide, and an autofactory can give a genius street cred in the baramin as a
factory worker. Epikrato is used to break the proletariat free from internalised oppression
with manifestos, firebrand speeches, and stirring music, and also to write hacking software.
In general Iconoclasts are a pragmatic lot who favour broad studies over deep ones and
build whatever tools are needed by the cause.
Grant
You would think that mad scientists stockpiling weapons and going on long maniacal rants
about the necessity of violence would end up on a watch list, or at least avoided by polite
company, but Iconoclasts seem to fit in as well as any other Genius despite their activities.
Iconoclasts call it sympathy from the revolutionary spirit within us all or being on the right
side of history. Peers just call it “fucking weird”.
An Iconoclast with a Condition representing mortals’ viewpoints of them, such as Notoriety,

can spend a point of mania to push the condition onto someone else. This takes a Presence
+ Politics vs Composure + Potency roll, modified by plausibility, an Iconoclast can deflect an
accusation of plagiarism onto their professor's secretary in defiance of all logic but the roll
will be heavily penalised. A second effect of this grant is that mundane attempts to
investigate an Iconoclast keep getting sidetracked to less protected suspects: Any failure on
a roll to uncover a clue becomes a Dramatic Failure, and usually taints the Clue with
preconceptions about who's the real culprit.
Concepts
“I don’t believe anything, I’m just here for the violence”, bomb throwing anarchist, French
revolution throwback, USSR apologist, third world revolutionary warlord, firebrand trade
unionist, class conscious cannibal, teenager who has all the answers, graffiti artist, NRA
officer, reactionary youtuber, right wing militia fanatic, nationalistic freedom fighter,
militarized feminist, radioactive posadist, indoctrinating university professor, gene splicing
ecoterrorist, free software fanatic, kindly grandfather with a hidden rage, anti-globalist,
handicapper general, black bloc, pro-democracy revolutionary, Guy Fawkes tribute act,
revolutionary poet, hacktivist, slacktivist, ageing punk rocker, actually an actor in Les
Misérables who's in too deep.
Quote
The most dangerous moment for any revolution is the cusp of victory. The sight of transformative fires and
violence wakes the counter-revolutionary memeplex the elite hammed into the cultural psyche. Pressing through
this critical period requires even greater commitment and yes, blood. We must be resolute, if we withstand the
last gasp of the power brokers, the klepto-plutocrats, the old men who live on theft and hate, and the so called
moderates who would rather bow to tyranny than get their hands dirty, our rebellion shall become Revolution.
The capitalist order shall be swept away and the New Utopian Man shall arise to build a world of liberty,
comradery, and equality.
Sent from my iPhone

The Witness Weekly Periodical
Name: Witnesses
In 1929 the current affairs magazine The Witness published its special 100th year
anniversary edition. Within, alongside the usual reviews of highbrow culture and leisure,
were scathing articles criticising modern America. From blues “rhythms to excite the helix,
darkening the skin and the soul” to Irish and Italian “papists of the worst sort, loyal to the
blood drinking antiChrist at the heart of the Vatican”; from flappers, to rum runners, to Jewish
film studio executives. Nothing escaped the Witness’ caustic and narrow minded gaze.
Mortal readers were baffled by bizarre rants and the sheer number of minor and unknown
figures singled out for criticism, but to Inspired readers the issue was above all else a curse
upon both the Peerage and Lemuria. The former for bringing rot and ruin through their self-
interested war and the latter for their incompetence in allowing it to happen.
The Witness became a rallying flag, drawing disparate rogue Geniuses and Leviathans
fleeing masters they no longer believed could protect them into a Program built on two
principles: Defending social values and institutions from society’s creeping moral decay, and
finding somewhere to hide before the Invisible War consumed them all. It was perhaps
inevitable that when peace was declared and Lemuria was allowed to rebuild the Witnesses
would follow their remaining principle into the serpent's embrace. In the 1960s the Witness
relaunched itself under a new name (which most people have forgotten) and published a
new first issue declaring itself a Baramin at war with the corrupt and rotting modern world.
Individual Witnesses vary in what they identify as the source of society’s decay and what
institutions or values they wish to preserve but a common theme runs through the Baramin
and that’s an opposition to liberalism. To a Witness the needs of society always trump the
needs of the individual and liberal ideals like individual liberty and freedom of speech serve
no purpose except to shelter malcontents and iconoclasts until they organise and become a
threat to civilisation. Some, perhaps most, claim to support things like democratic pluralism
and freedom of the press as cherished social institutions but even the casual observer will
realise that given a chance the Witnesses would reduce whatever liberal tradition they claim
to defend into a powerless totem.
Divergence Point
Though they appeared much later, Witnesses point to the Constitutional Convention as their
divergence point. The Constitution embedded liberal ideals deep into America’s government,
slowly poisoning the United States and the rest of the world through America’s cultural and
military might. Witnesses often talk about two Americas that were born when the Declaration
of Independence was signed: The America created by a group individual founding fathers
beholden only to their own intelects and the America that had been created organically
through centuries of English or Judeo-Christian cultural development. The point these two
America’s diverged is the point history went wrong, and restoring the rightful America will get
history back on track.
Individual Witnesses—especially if they’re not American—often behave like the divergence
point is more recent; either something they’ve personally experienced or the intellectual
foundation of whoever they personally dislike. They direct their ire at the Civil Rights
Movement, The Quiet Revolution, or Gang Culture. When pressed on this point they’ll
construct an ingenious, if perhaps half hearted, explanation to tie it back to the American
Constitution.
Focus
The Witness is a weekly periodical on current affairs and mad sociology. They are the
masters of memes, the sculptors of national mythoi, the men and women who understand
what turns a group of individuals into a civilization. That knowledge is their hammer and
upon the anvil of humanity they forge wonders.
Witnesses have a particular interest in how traditions, laws, social norms, and suchlike can
support or harm the people who comprise a society, but to answer this question requires
research covering the whole breadth of sociology as well as related fields like: Psychology,
economics, anthropology, and history. The baramin ranges from the more common rose
tinted nostalgics writing highly partisan defences of their own culture (or whatever they think
their own culture was) to rarer cold hearted utilitarians who rifle through different cultures
looking for whatever practices work best. Arguments between representatives of rival
cultures are of course common but usually no worse than typical academic debates among
mad scientists. Most Witnesses are content to let other cultures do whatever they like so
long as it stays on their side of the border, and beneath their cultural differences Witnesses
are united by the belief that if humanity is allowed to indulge in liberties and individual rights
they will tear society apart. The Witnesses’ conflicts with Atomists over whether technology
shapes or is shaped by culture and whether society can be reduced to an equation or is a
bunch of free-willed people making decisions within a social framework are ongoing and
eternal.
When a Witness studies another field they often are looking for a new home, somewhere
they feel they can belong. This can lead a mad scientist in any direction: Physics to build
rocket ships or aircraft to reach bardos and foreign nations, computer science to retreat into
digital vistas, and even parapsychology to reach strange mental worlds. As a trend
Witnesses need a place to belong, most try to build it from the people around them but some
build a ship and go looking for it beyond the horizon.
Members
If there is one trait that defines the Witnesses it is not personal profit or megalomania. An
opposition to liberalism will of course attract all sorts of would-be autocrats and robber
barons eager to remove the liberties and rights that protect the masses. But the common
thread that runs through the Baramin is alienation. Witnesses are people who depended
upon society and its institutions to provide practical support or their place in the world; so
when society changed they were left alone and adrift. Many can point to specific failures,
towns abandoned to economic decline, communities hollowed by brain drain, and other
scars which they lay at the feet of a society that gives the brightest the liberty to succeed
without a duty to the village that raised them. They can write passionate and eloquent
defences of whatever specific cultural practice they mourn, philosophical criticisms of
individualistic society, or polemics decrying some new trend as the source of all social ills,
but the motivation that drives them to write those articles and point out those failures is their
sense of loss, alienation, and a fear of change, all twisted into madness.
Unsurprisingly the Witnesses are drawn from the ranks of social scientists. Often their
members had a very local focus to their research: From the historian who wrote exclusively
about his hometown to the expert advisor working for a local council far smaller than his
prestigious credentials would imply. Witnesses find these smaller communities more
comfortable than sprawling and anonymous cities, and far easier to transform into their
personal fiefdoms and research projects. But there is one thing that draws the Baramin to
urban areas, of all the Baramins none are more suited to dealing with mortal institutions and
the public as a whole. Witnesses can be found in centers of power and influence and their
numbers form the backbone of Lemuria’s beaurus.
Aesthetics
A Witness’ wonders are bold yet refined. Their wonders are the product of a culture that
knows itself, its values, and its beliefs. A culture that doesn't need to shout but is proud to
display its ideals and accomplishments. Stepford is a very common aesthetic, as is old
college tie. When they turn to steampunk they eschew exposed gears and fiddly
attachments in favour of stamping the names of manufacturers and royalty on precision
welded brass. Their Crystal Future wonders are adorned with elegant friezes and
Macedonian style statuary. And their Ray Gun rocket ships proudly bear the names of past
explorers and cultural heroes.
Witnesses often build large and incorporate standardised parts from multiple different
makers to give the impression, or display the reality, of wonders built on the logistical engine
that only a healthy and collaborative society can maintain. Their wonders look polished and
clean for similar reasons: To say that this is not the product of a lone visionary experimenting
with a new idea but the product of a society that has fully incorporated and refined a
technology.
Axioms
Witnesses favour Exelixi and Epikrato. To a Witness a healthy society uplifts its members by
setting needed rules and boundaries that promote productive habits, to a mad scientist rules
and boundaries can look a lot like mind control and personality editing.
Prostasia is a common axiom and most often used to build gated communities with a very
sturdy gate but also to provide the usual array of protective gear to law enforcement or
defence forces under a Witnesses control; the Baramin tends to accumulate more Beholden
and mortal pawns than most mad scientists. Apokolypsi is used to monitor society for
research or to find deviants before they cause trouble. Witnesses often build “blank slate”
Automata as test subjects for various social systems as well as AIs to help govern. But at the
end of the day Witnesses can study any Axiom that fits with the goals and national mythos of
their idealised society.
Grant
Witnesses effortlessly slide into mortal organisations and societies. At any time they may
spend a point of mania to effortlessly bypass bureaucratic hurdles and ace job interviews.
This gives them a dot of Status in an organisation which increases over a period of days and
weeks until it reaches a maximum based on their Inspiration; if they already have Status
from this grant the new dots replace the old. This grant may give them a formal position
equal to their status or it may make them the power behind the throne, but either way their
exalted Status is clear and unobscured.
A Witness who is publically disgraced among the organisation cannot use this grant to
regain lost Status without either repairing their reputation mundanely or adopting a new
untarnished identity.
To identify the final Status see this chart:
Small Town council, City council, National government,

business, medium sized large military force,
local business, business, multinational
church, up school, up to university, up corporation. Limitless
Inspiration to 50 staff 500 staff to 5000 staff staff
1-3 5 4 3 2
4-6 5 5 4 3
7-9 5 5 5 4
10 5 5 5 5
Concepts
Stodgy old classicist, iron-fisted tin-pot dictator, Stepford town planner, expert on local
history, gender traditionalist domestic scientist, Prussian jingoist, confucian headmaster,
chairman of the neighbourhood association, moral guardian, High Tory architect, rust-belt
garage mechanic, indigenous practitioner of traditional crafts, scarily reasonable advocate
for something terrible, incoherent and offensive advocate for something sensible, father who
knows best, reeducator, repressive country vicar, neoreactionary sociologist, scholar of
digital culture, good ol’ boy petrochemical engineer, feminist separatist, The Patriarchy (yes,
all of it).
Quote
It's difficult to comprehend this uncertainty that surrounds us. Too many voices, screaming too many calls. What
we need as a people is community, and more importantly cohesion. There is a place for each song, and that's in
harmony with each other. Be watchful, because you never know what the person next to you is thinking.
Remember, we are only as safe as we keep each other.
The Forum for Digital Numerics
Name: Numericals
Intelligence is a funny thing. The software that builds rockets and vanquishes diseases
evolved to outsmart the other apes in a contest for food and sex. 200,000 years later
humans are producing enough food to feed every man, woman, and child but we’re still
fighting over it like a bunch of ornery monkeys. It didn’t have to be this way, say the
Numericals. The Internet gave us a chance to be better, a chance to cut out all the social
signals and howls from the lizard brain to think and act on logic and reason alone.
The Numericals are the youngest and smallest Baramin, with an official founding date in
August 2012, though they claim an origin of September 1993. However their formal
membership is only the centre of a wider community of computer scientists stretching across
both the Peerage and Lemuria who share research, reminisce about what might have been,
stew in each other’s bitterness, and dream of restoring the cyber-utopia. Complicating
matters is that even though the Forum has only just been founded it’s already experiencing a
split between purists and a smaller group of pragmatists who are willing to look beyond the
Numerical’s traditional focus to grow their new baramin.
This split exists because there are two distinct strands of failed cyber-utopian thought which
birth Inspiration. The older strand—which defines the current Numerical ideology—sees the
internet as transcension. When you step online you can be a man, a woman, black, white, or
even a dog, and nobody can tell the difference. In cyberspace you were free from the
constraints of the physical world and you could stand or fall on the merits of your ideas and
intellect alone. The second ideology has no interest in transcending their meatspace identity.
Its adherents see the internet as an equaliser between groups, a way for the downtrodden
masses to share information and organise outside the constraints imposed by the traditional
apparatus of society. This Web 2.0 utopianism was dented by failed revolutions and fell
apart through fears of data driven political manipulation, a growing awareness of the power
wielded by technology companies, and people with the “wrong" politics winning elections
through online campaigning.
Pragmatic Numericals have been reaching out to mad social scientists Inspired by the failed
second wave of cyber-utopianism in the hope that if they unite around their shared belief,
that the Internet has gone wrong and must be fixed, the Baramin can grow and acquire the
resources it needs to fix the web. Purists disagree. They're happy, even eager, to look for
worthy recruits among second generation cyber-utopians. As they put it: You can’t blame a
bright mind for being born too late to experience the internet’s golden age. But they see most
web 2.0 utopians as “popular kids that couldn’t hack a line of C complaining that the public
doesn’t respect their worthless humanities degrees” and say including them would go
against the entire point of putting humanity back on track to a digital society where reason
and intellect are king.
Divergence Point
Sometimes we get the future we want, but we never get the future we expect. Go back to the
early days of the personal computer and of the Internet and you see, in the imagination of
those digital pioneers, a very different world from the one we now inhabit, a world of techno-
cowboy bit jockeys, AI constructs housing the secrets of international megacorporations, and
endless holographic gridlines representing an infinite virtual expanse. It was supposed to be
a realm of superpowers and supergeniuses, where the brilliant would rise above all others,
buoyed by intellect alone.
It was not, many geniuses insist, supposed to be a place where housewives could post
pictures of their cats. Or businessmen could shop for golf shoes. Or where anyone save the
Elite should ever be permitted to set virtual feet, at any time. The Internet, some geniuses
insist, has gone astray, replacing a potential technological Utopia based on merit and ability
with more of the same stupidity we get in meatspace. And from some place between the
servers comes an answer, an echo, saying that's true, it should never have been this way…
something went wrong with the Internet. And slowly, a new baramin spreads its wings.
Focus
Numericals focus on mad computer science and many are positively sneering in their
attitudes towards other fields, electrical engineering being a notable exception. The Forum
runs the gamut from academic researchers producing new theories of data and computation,
to refined software engineers, to slapdash hackers riding the knife edge between
understanding and intuition. The Forum’s obsession with the internet means that computer
networking is especially popular, wise geniuses avoid challenging the Numericals on their
own turf.
Among the web 2.0 generation there is a growing trend of using mad communication theory
to explain how demagogues sway the voting public. Although these researchers are
educated in or casually conversant with related fields like political science and sociology
they're notable for stridently rejecting those fields' relevance to their research: They deny the
existence of cultural trends or underlying socio-economics factors and insist that everything
that went wrong with social media is because of individual demagogues or data mining
political campaigners, and once their tricks are codified and countered the voting public will
see though the lies and everything will return to normal.
Communication Theory is even feeding back to the fringes of the first generation, where
researchers use to answer the Numerical’s central question: Why do the unwashed masses
listen to charismatic, outgoing football captains and cheerleaders rather than their intellectual
superiors? This focus is dubbed by their critics, within and without the Forum, as “mad why
don’t the fools at the institute recognise my genius-ology”. Even the most eager advocates of
communication theory among the actual Numerericals see it as strictly subordinate to
computer science; it is a tool to study why the internet went wrong and how to fix it, and thus
useless without the computer skills needed to build the internet and patch in new insights.
What's more, Numericals who practise communication theory see the second generation's
code-free research as a black mark against them. They don't want “burger flippers” studying
the dark arts of making friends and influencing people and getting a taste for their power.
They want to fill the Baramin with people who're at home in a world of reason and intellect,
people who will only study the dark arts in order to one day destroy them.
Numericals favour building wonders from software over hardware. Mad computer science is
capable of creating all sorts of useful wonders, from predictive algorithms to sentient AIs.
There’s no ideological opposition to physical wonders—Numericals who build
supercomputers or robotic bodies to house their programs are respected (and
commissioned) by their peers—but the Forum specialises in software, and as they refine
their techniques they only make it easier for others to follow the beaten path. With the
baramin’s focus on raw intellect many build wonders to allow enhance the mind and allow it
to compete in physical or social arenas, usually through cybernetic implants or thought
controlled robotics. Numericals who use communication theory still implement their theories
in computer code. Their wonders operate on the principle that less is more: A rational
intellectual argument is the signal, social skills are the noise, and a well designed internet
forum or communication protocol can filter the noise; a process that for some reason always
results in the mortal agreeing with the Numerical’s “superior intellect”. Whether they’re using
computer science or communication theory most Numericals still favour command line user
interfaces and text based communication where one’s class and race can be hidden and an
argument can stand and fall on its own merits.
Members
The Numericals formed recently as geniuses from several foundations and baramins joined
together. The largest group were digital Mechanists whose complaints about lusers, pointy
haired bosses, and the suits at Micro$oft blur the line between a traditional Mechanist’s
yearning to be a free independent artisan and the Numerical dream of a digital meritocracy
where only raw intellect has value. With them came Artificers who saw their dreams of dot-
com fortunes evaporate, Atomists who are more interested in seeing a rule by intellectual
elite than a rule by technology, a small number of Iconoclastic hacktivists who talk a little too
much about why the proletariat cling to their chains, and a few disgruntled Internet
Navigators watching as cat pictures and celebrity gossip intrude further into The Grid.
The second wave of Geniuses who catalysed in response to the failures and “betrayal” of
social media facilitated democratic activism are not members of the baramin (they’re likely to
join the Atomists, Witnesses, or Directors) or a community so much as a pool of geniuses
that actual Numericals recruit from. They are a collection of mad political scientists,
journalists, and economists who rant about dark actors subverting web-2.0 democracy and
whose rhetoric about the voting public combines Numerical intellectual elitism with
technocratic politics. On the fringes of the recruiting pool is a diverse collection of mad
graduates struggling with student debts and surrounded by sane acquaintances lamenting
how academic degrees have become worthless.
The two generations are divided by more than their field of study. Numericals see the
internet as a transcendent space where ideas stand on their own merits and the most
intelligent rise to the top. The Web 2.0 generation doesn't mind the idea of bringing their
meatspace selves onto the web, in fact some go so far as to oppose online anonymity on
principle. They see the internet as a tool, a mere extension of the physical world, but a
valuable tool that has been stolen from ordinary people by shadowy manipulators and
populist rabble rousers. Both groups feel the wrong people must be kept away from the
internet but they don’t agree on who’s worthy to surf the world wide web. The Numericals
say raw intelligence, computer skills, and respect for the internet’s unique culture makes one
worthy walk the information superhighway. The second wave wants to turn the internet into a
curated forum where those with education and credentials can speak and the rest must
listen. These ideas have enough in common for pragmatists to seek common ground, but
are different enough for purists in both camps to loathe each other.
Aesthetics
The Numericals have the most recent divergence point and their aesthetics remain tied to
ideas and computer technology from the 1970s to September 1993. The typical Numerical
tries to build their wonders to fit an imagined alternative history of computers, one where
marketing departments and suited executives never arrived. The canonical look—called
Hacker’s Garage—is a computer focused “homebrew” cousin to Oscilloscope that covers the
period when late Oscilloscope computer aesthetics moved from universities and government
facilities to the home. Some geniuses say “from the Apple II till September”, the start date is
fuzzy but the end date is absolute; at least among the Numerericals. Expect: A focus on
smaller wonders that can be assembled by hand, cassettes, cartridges, or floppy disks,
blocky plastic cases that old-computer beige or occasionally in black, fastidiously organised
or intentionally chaotic wiring, text interfaces with no or primitive graphics (many Numericals
who were early adopters of graphical interfaces now deny ever having supported them), and
chunky keyboards that make a satisfying clack with every press. Seventies oscilloscope
styles with its larger mainframe computers are popular with Numericals who build in the style
of an idealised university laboratory or who wish to hark back to the golden era of USENET
culture, as are aesthetics imagine how those laboratories might have evolved if the culture
survived. The iconic spinning tape drives are less common than you might expect as that
image comes from the 1950s. DECtape is common in Oscilloscope recreations of 70s (and
80s, old computers stuck around for a while) university laboratories but the classic UNIVAC
tapes are mostly used by younger Numericals for their retro appeal.
Digital Chrome is a common influence. The look defines so much of early “cyber” aesthetics
that Numericals cannot help but incorporate it’s ideas when imagining their alternate history
of computers, yet Digital Chrome is kept at arm's length since the baramin has no respect for
either the megacorporations or the punks common to 80s sci-fi. The TRON look is also
popular, even geniuses who mostly use other styles have been known to break out the
glowing lines when visiting The Grid. Pod People is right out, and many Numericals won’t
even speak to a genius bearing its signature rounded white plastic. What outsiders rarely
notice, but wouldn’t be surprised to learn, is that Numericals pay more attention to the
aesthetics of their software than their hardware. The specifics vary and Numericals attach
deep philosophical implications to different programing styles; the most popular style is to
create unreadable esoterica that exploits every quirk and undocumented function of their
hardware to maximise its performance and astound rivals with the genius’ mastery of their
domain. Mathematically proven functional programs come in second place.
Axioms
The Numericals favour Automata and Apokalypsi. As computer scientists par excellence
Numericals are masters of coding AIs and designing supercomputers that make a mockery
of moore's law while Apokalypsi provides mastery over the information networks that
obsesses the baramin.
Numericals use Prostasia to build firewalls, and sometimes to seal themselves off from the
real world. Exelixi can build cybernetic implants, overclock computers and support a body
neglected in favour of intellectual pursuits. Epikrato is used to hack into their rival’s devices,
it is extremely popular with communication theorists seeking ways to converse that “prevent
emotion from overcoming logic”. Skafoi is rarely practiced, though some Numericals build
light cycles, recognizers, and other Wonders to travel the far reaches of The Grid.
Grant
The forum exults in the intelect more than any other Baramin. They can spend a point of
Willpower and at least an hour studying a Skill, then at any later point in the session they can
increase that Skill’s dots to their Intelligence for the remainder of the scene. If they study a
second Skill before using their bonus on the first Skill, the first bonus is wasted. This grant
would be able to increase their dicepool for building or repairing a wonder but it would not
increase the wonder’s Sparks.
Concepts
Underappreciated code monkey, literal code monkey, arcade game virtuoso, early computer
pioneer, sentient trace statement, actually a dog, demoscene art-activist, repentant ex-social
media executive, greybeard computer guru, swashbuckling software pirate, technologically
outdated but extremely skilled AI, euphoric atheist, insufferable teenaged genius,
neoreactionary would be philosopher king, dot-com burnout, Bastet’s daemon, network
admin from hell, playful hacker, garage startup CEO, basement dwelling game designer,
open source fanatic, shell-shocked veteran of the Meme Wars.
Quote
“Ordinary people cannot handle the internet. Without the intellect to separate objective truth from misinformation
they retreat into echo-chambers and pollute society with their cancerous ignorance. On social media highschool
never ends. No longer do cheerleaders and football captains corner victims in the locker room, now our children
willingly present themselves so society may devour their self esteem. Populist politicians have replaced debate
and policies with memes. This can go on no longer! The elite must rise up against the ignorant masses and take
back the internet. Once we are free from the meatheaded mob we shall put aside such petty concerns as race,
religion, and emotions to create a world where intelligence and reason are the true measure of a man!
September shall end!”

The Elucidated Court of Dharmists
Name: Dharmists
Time is a great circle. At the end which is the beginning a great civilisation rises. It’s people
are mighty and heroic, through strength of arms and strength of character they unite a world
of strife and usher in a golden age of science, philosophy, and culture. But their children are
born into a soft world of luxury, the civilisation turns decadent and destroys itself, leaving it’s
abandoned colonies to begin history anew. This is as it should be and this is the only way it
could be. We are all born to this cycle and each of us possess a dharma: the tasks we must
perform to help progress the cycle and bring about the next golden city upon a hill.
With a clear ajna a man can see his dharma but after the great fall only the enlightened few
are so blessed. Untruths are a psycho-spiritual corruption that clouds the third eye and
obsures dharma. Ever since the fall untruths blanket the world like a miasma. The righteous
scientific, philosophical, and artistic ideas of the golden age were swept away in the deluge
and now lie hidden like diamonds in the mud. Every year thinkers create new ideas and no
matter how pure their intentions, their ideas are untruths, mud. If the mud should ever rise
high enough to obscure the diamonds completely the cycle will be broken and this world will
be lost to darkness forever.
And so the Dharmists step in. They were the masters of thought control and guardians of the
old ways. With incense and mandalic architecture they guided mortals down the same paths
their ancestors trod, reinforcing the traditional bonds of society. Their strange thought
capturing crystals could pluck an idea from a yogi’s mind and return it cleansed of corruption.
The Dharmists tested every idea, comparing it to ruins from the golden age, carefully
guarded ancient scrolls, and above all else the word of the Nine Unknown Men: The last
living heirs of the Antediluvian World. That which was righteous they left untouched, but
untruths were summarily destroyed to cleanse the wheel and ensure it turns unhindered.
Of all the baramins none were higher in the eyes of the secret masters. The Dharmists were
the leaders and internal affairs of Lemuria, they set the organisation’s direction and cleansed
the thoughts of any Genius whose experiments opposed the Race History. For much of
history free Geniuses would implant themselves with bombs and poisons should they ever
be taken into a Dharmists’ sanctuary—some would trigger at the mere presence of a
Dharmist, such was the fear inspired by their name. Now they are all gone, wiped out to the
last during the Invisible War. There are rumours that some may have gone into hiding
among the Numerologists—a group whose ideology is so similar in some ways yet so
incompatible in others. Ruined scriptoriums; still glowing with fell energies, grey goo, and
haunted by orphaned war machines attest to these rumours’ persistence and the horrors that
can be born from an untrue word.
Divergence Point
Despite their age the Dharmist’s history is well known thanks to meticulous record keeping
by themselves and, much later, by the Scholastics; who are confident that they’ve flushed
out the major “corrections'' and filled in or at least clearly marked the gaps left by censorship.
During the 5th century BC a loose community formed between mad Hindu theologians who
Catalysed in the wake of Gautama Buddha. They evangelized to Buddhists, campaigned to
increase state support for Hinduism, but mostly they studied theology and argued with each
other about which interpretation of the scriptures was correct. Something changed during the
3rd century BC—here the historical record gets vague. Scholastics are sure something
horrific took place, but the Dharmists have erased the very idea of it so thoroughly that not
even time travellers can identify what happened. Those who return alive either find nothing
or return with a gap in their memory and a rock solid conviction that some atrocity took
place. The closest thing to actual evidence possessed by modern historians is the accounts
of religious genocide perpetrated by Emperor Ashoka; even though they are known to be
propaganda some Inspired historians suggest they might be echos of a real event, mostly
because they don’t have any other ideas.
Whatever took place it galvanised the proto-Dharmists. They united around Yāska’s Nirukta,
declaring it the one true guide to the Vedic texts and declared their mission to oppose new
and dangerous ideas before they could disrupt the social harmony and usher in atrocities.
Theories that would later come to define the Dharmists began to appear almost immediately:
Early Dharmists were anthropomorphising ideas through religious metaphors and talking
about a cyclical history that would return India to a harmonious Hindu continent. When the
independent program was discovered by Lemuria they began a rise to power that would
bring the Inspired world to its knees.
The Dharmists’ opposition to new ideas never stopped them spreading beyond India. As the
baramin grew and their obsession with Vedic texts was replaced by a mythic lost golden age
it became possible for a Dharmist to justify anything as one of the correct ancient ideas.
Though the bulk of the baramin remained in India their influence stretched across the Silk
Road, and later on they reached their peak as they spread throughout the British Empire.
Whenever the Secret Masters needed high level leadership or someone to keep an eye on
new ideas, Inspired or otherwise, that could lead to chaos, death—or worse, a disruption to
Lemuria’s race history—one could find Dharmists. Wherever they lived Dharmists inevitably
became champions of the social orthodoxy, justifying their current obsession by drawing
links to a mythic past. Dharmists who travelled frequently thought nothing of having their
minds reprogrammed by the locals when they arrived at their new post.
Focus
It has not gone unremarked that both the Peerage and Lemuria were led by mad
philosophers. Dharmists focused specifically on studying the nature of ideas. To a Dharmist
ideas are likened to, or literally are, living things capable of change, growth, and—crucially—
capable of both corruption and purification. A Dharmist’s hypnotic crystals and mind warping
yantras did not affect a human’s psyche but the ideas living within him. Or so the Dharmists
say, modern Geniuses have identified psychological operating principles (alongside far
weirder mechanisms) in their wonders; gifts from Inspiration that the Dharmists did not notice
and would not care about if they did.
History was a crucial part of Dharmist study, but Dharmists were only concerned by the
history of ideas. Whether an idea was passed down from before the fall or created by an
enlightened guru turning the wheel onwards, if the idea is truthful it will have been known to
the scholars of a previous golden age. Thus only by knowing the thoughts and teachings of
those scholars can a Dharmist know which ideas are to be permitted, which are capable of
redemption, and which must be destroyed outright. Dharmists traced the lineage of ideas
through lost libraries and temples, leaving bonfires of unworthy scrolls in their wake. They
tracked down descendants of the “root races” to extract ideas from memories in their blood
and DNA; the breeding programs they instituted to refine these bloodlines are the stuff of
nightmares. They would take respected elders to purify them one idea at a time and
document how their perception of the past shifted, dividing the answers he gave into truth
and untruth appropriately. Dharmists were like locusts, they tore apart people,
archaeological treasures, and sometimes whole communities in their quest to uncover their
mythic past.
Aesthetics
Dharmists harkened back to a lost golden age, they clad themselves in elaborate outdated
clothing and wielded elegant wonders with complicated visual designs. Not all Dharmists
were Indians, Hindu, or used classical Indian ideas but the use of complex sensory stimuli—
elaborate multi-hued art, precise blends of incense, mantras, and similar devices—to
influence the mind was common throughout the baramin, as was the use of occult
mechanisms to directly contain, transplant, and purify ideas. In Europe Dharmists would
build wonders out of stained glass, in Indonesia they crafted Wayang puppets, Mosaics were
used throughout Arabia, in Tibet they made rock gardens and prayer wheels, and of course
yantras, mantras, and mandalas were used across the Indian Subcontinent. Crystal Future
exploded in popularity towards the end of the Dharmists existence. As the Third Race saw
Lemuria’s coming rebirth their excitement was noticed by their most favoured servants, who
began to see modern technology as a harbinger of the oncoming golden age. This shift from
history to futurism as a means for testing the purity of ideas was cut short by the Dharmists’
destruction before it could change the Baramin in any significant fashion.
Axioms
The Dharmists favoured Apokalypsi and Epikrato. Apokalypsi was used to unearth history
and to monitor thinkers—Peer, Lemurian, or Mortal—for new and dangerous ideas. Many
peers lived in terror that one of their ideas would echo in the shifting sands of a Dharmist’s
Mandala and devoted considerable time and research to reverse engineering the Baramin’s
technology in order to understand and guard against their underlying operating principles.
With Epirkato Dharmists purified those around them, clearing their ajna so that they may
fulfill their dharma. Dharmists often struggled to see a person as more than a collection of
ideas and thought nothing about extracting or modifying those ideas until the original mind,
or the minds of entire communities were ruined beyond all recovery; as they saw it the ideas
were still intact and so they’d harmed nothing, or the ideas were untrue and destroying them
was both just and necessary.
With their focus on the realm of ideas few Dharmists pursued Axioms to affect the physical
world, though some performed large scale Epirkato manipulations by exploiting a Plato-like
realm of ideas. Instead they practiced Exelixi to enhance the mind or Katastrofi to destroy it.
Metatropi was the most common third Axiom. Dharmist wonders were often a physical
manifestation of an idea, with Metatropi they built strange shifting devices that reflected the
viewer’s preconceptions back at them. Illusions that could only be escaped through
achieving enlightenment (as the Dharmist defined it). Masters even transformed themselves
into pure idea to walk among strange astral realms.
Grant
Dharmists had the ability to manage and compel other Inspired. They always increased their
impression levels with their fellow geniuses by one step and ignored the social penalty for
being unmada. This effect was even more potent against manes and beholden (including
other genius’ beholden): They also added Inspiration to all Social rolls with manes or
beholden. When a Dharmist engaged in a Clash of Wills with another Genius, or anyone
protected by a Genius’ wonder, they added Occult to their dicepool. They could only do this
using a Dharmist designed wonder.
The Society of Learned Leviathans
Name: Leviathans
Autocracy was not always a word for dictators and tyrants carving a path to power through
the blood of their political opponents. Once upon a time progressive political thinkers saw the
concentration of power in a single monarch as the way to end the endless feudal and
religious conflicts that dominated medieval Europe. The divine right of kings and hereditary
rulership would be replaced by a social contract—itself a new and innovative idea—where
each citizen voluntarily relinquished their natural rights to fight for their own interests and
invest a singular autocrat with a monopoly on violence. In return the sovereign was bound by
the contract to deliver peace and security to his subjects.
Early Leviathans were strictly monarchists but the society diversified after the English Civil
War to include all forms of autocracy. Like all baramins the Leviathans had no shortage of
lay members who supported grand political projects but were more focused on day to day
concerns. Among them could be found loyal retainers serving corporate executives, church
ladies more interested in the institutional power of the Pope than God, court clerks quietly
encouraging the judge to make “full use” of his position, and the consigliere serving a crime
baron. Leviathans who served intangible forces like God or “the market” existed on the
fringes of the baramin. The Society had a noticeable geographic component to its factions:
Leviathans from Britain or its colonies shunned monarchism, with a few exceptions in fringe
movements like the Ricardians. Meanwhile in the French empire the Society was staunchly
monarchist and lived in perpetual fear of a second Reign of Terror. Elsewhere you would find
a mix of monarchists and non-monarchists side by side, though the majority of the society
were always monarchist.
Regardless of who they served, Leviathans tended to be subtle (the ones walking around in
full aristocratic regalia were at least subtle by the standards of the aristocracy) and fearful.
By posing as a mere functionary or representative of a higher power a Leviathan deflects
blame and responsibility onto their liege. For some this safety was purpose unto itself, under
their master’s protection they were free to pursue their studies. Others were grasping power
players who exerted powerful yet subtle control from behind the throne. Many Leviathans
had complete control over their so-called liege but this almost always involved simple
manipulation and a careful choice of liege; mind control or Beholden puppet kings would
violate the social contract.
By the mid 19th century the Society had entered a long slow decline with its members
drifting away into various autocratic movements such as carlism, faccism, stalinism, and the
Mladorossi. The last serious advocates for the divine right of kings ended up in the
Numerologists, a few of the most power hungry subtle manipulators joined the
Phenomenologists and spread their techniques, and some of the Leviathans would go on to
become founding members of the Atomists and the Witnesses; to the point some historians
claim the Witnesses are a successor organisation. With no clear answer for when the society
finally expired, historians argue over the arbitrary dates of 3 April 1922, 25 March 1934, and
2 August 1934. Yet the Leviathans’ work lives on. The Atomists building master computers,
Witnesses trying to constrain man’s base urges, Numerical polemics against populist
politicians and idiot voters, and even Directors and Hoffnungs who dream of ruling the world
inherit ideas and talking points first written in the salons and coffee houses of the learned
society.
Divergence Point
It's hard to say when exactly the Leviathans came together as a group—and that's exactly
how they liked it—but it’s known to be somewhere during the Renaissance. As philosophers
looked back to the lost glories of Rome and Greece and wrote treatises on the Republic, the
idea of autocracy began to lose its lustre and Leviathans first appeared among political
societies and monarchist movements. The existence of the Leviathans became indisputable
after 1660. Educated men driven mad by the horrors of civil war, many cavalier veterans
among them, looked on in fear as Charles II signed a declaration of leniency with parliament;
feeling betrayed and terrified of an "inevitable" second civil war the Leviathans shed their
monarchist roots to embrace all forms of autocracy and made it their mission to rid the world
of democracy.
Focus
The Leviathans were a society of mad political scientists. They studied the social contract
between the citizen and sovereign and produced wondrous charts of authority and fealty with
which they identified the names of traitors to whisper in the sovereign’s ear; or just good
opportunities for personal gain. A stable state is a prosperous state.
When they departed from the baramin’s traditional focus a Leviathan could study whatever
field is useful for their liege, or swear fealty to whatever sovereign was willing to finance their
chosen experiments. Engineering and finance were popular fields, Leviathans created
vessels of trade and wondrous new accounting systems to manage the realm. Alchemy was
also popular, it was still a respectable idea when the Leviathans came together and it fit the
image of the liege’s shadowed right hand that the Society cultivated; what king would turn
down a servant promising eternal life or limitless gold? In times of war The Society could be
found safe in the command tent, impressing their mortal peers with wondrous new cannons
and ingenious tactics and antagonising them with long rants about martial loyalty to the king
trumping loyalty to the nation. As late as World War I the last of the Leviathans were still
using plate armour, cavalry charges, and horse drawn guns.
Aesthetics
Submission to the sovereign was the society's watch word. Not for them were the spires of
metal and lightning by which mad scientists defied the laws of man and God. Though they
did not favour Metatropi, Leviathans still made extensive use of that Axiom’s most basic
techniques to build normal-looking and concealed wonders, blending into knightly orders,
privy councils, royal societies, but also trade guilds, corporations, and the Catholic Church.
Any institution with a single leader could attract Leviathans.
The Society is often depicted as adorned in symbols of prestige and rank: the privy
councillor with a noble title bearing his coat of arms with pride or the theologian in robes
whispering in the bishop’s ear, but anyone who knows about the Society knows that for
every Leviathan you see proudly wearing outdated adornments to promote their institution
and its sovereign's influence there were many more who favour more subtle attire beneath
your notice. The minor aristocrat welding outside influence on the king’s council could be a
Leviathan, but so could the messenger on horseback carrying scrolls stamped with the
king's seal. The ideal position for a leviathan was high enough to whisper in their leige’s ear
but no higher. Unless they wished to deflect mortal attention to the liege above them and
inspired attention to a hapless mortal below them where one would expect to find a
Leviathan.
Axioms
The learned society practiced Prostasia and Epikrato. The Leviathans’ objection to
democracy was, above all else, fear: fear of chaos, of civil war, of the tyranny of the majority,
even fear of man’s “base nature” breaking loose without some higher power to keep the
masses in line. This manifested in Prostasia to build bunkers and safe rooms in case the
worst came to pass, and suits of armour for the king to equip the knights who’d keep the
realm (and the Leviathans) safe. Despite the reputation of the scheming grand vizier,
Leviathans rarely used Epikrato to control the monarch—such behaviour was sacrilege—but
they could control the masses with a simple letter of trust from their liege.
Grant
Leviathans could subsume their Inspiration into the service of a higher authority. By
spending a point of Mania they could swap their metanormal profile between genius,
beholden, or mere mortal. The effect lasts until they use their grant again or leave the
baramin. It didn’t change their capabilities or behaviour, just how they appeared to
Apokalypsi scanners and similar ways of detecting what kind of metanormal being you are
(the Clash of Wills dicepool for this ability is Inspiration + Subterfuge with the usual +4 bonus
for duration).
If the Leviathan acted against their professed liege the Grant immediately ended and could
not be used again for the remainder of the session. This means no mind control, no
beholden puppet kings, and no threats, blackmail, or lies (giving your honest but delusional
opinion was fine, as is withholding information he didn’t ask about). A Leviathan could feed
self-serving advice to his liege about how to protect himself from a threat or abuse whatever
authority he was given to deal with it, but he could not create or encourage a threat to his
liege to make his suggestions sound more reasonable. Nothing stops a Leviathan from
angling to become the power behind the throne, but betraying the throne goes against
everything the baramin believes in.
As an optional rule the Storyteller can expand this grant to cover other Beholden-like
metanormal types such as Ghouls. Doing so requires a relevant Occult specialty; a
Leviathan with a Specialty in Vampires or Ghouls unlocks the ability to present as a Ghoul.
The Oracular Daughters of Ecstatic
Revelation
Name: Oracles
The idea of understanding the world around us through thought and reason is so ingrained
in modern society that we forget that once upon a time people believed in a different way.
From Paul’s visions on the road to Damascus to the oracles of Ancient Greece; divinely
inspired revelation once competed with rational thought to shape the minds of men and the
course of empires. In these early days geniuses flocked to temples, they spoke their
Inspiration and were revered as prophets and holy mad-men. These ancient geniuses would
be unrecognisable to their descendents. They were half wild creatures, bereft of Axioms,
often illuminated, and leashed by mortals. Inspiration spread from prophet, to priest, to
petitioner, and the ranks of the enlightened swelled. A community of sorts formed, ideas
spread, Axioms were discovered, and geniuses pushed each other into deeper and stranger
forms of consciousness as they competed for greater visions and the potential patronage it
offered. Together Oracles built an alternative science, one built upon revelation that could
rival anything their contemporaries built through research. Today nothing of it remains. The
occasional countercultural movement or nobel prize winning scientist walks through the
Oracles’ ruined science in a haze of LSD. Sometimes they catch a glimpse of the splendour
that once was in the corner of their eyes, perhaps they grasp enough to experience a
Breakthrough or design a wonder, but when they look closer only dust remains.
In some ways Oracles were the most inspired of the Inspired. Other geniuses try to tame
Inspiration, to pin it to the table with theories and dissect it through research. Oracles
surrender to Inspiration. They ride it like a wave, soaring to ever greater heights before they
inevitably fall. This makes them dangerous, not just because embracing madness is
obviously a dangerous pursuit for any mad scientist but because an Oracle’s behaviour is so
wild that it’s almost impossible to tell if they’re falling into Illumination or just hard at work.
Peer review is vital to any genius who wishes to avoid becoming a monster, but with an
Oracle even a fellow daughter will struggle to tell when it’s time to step in, and that’s if they
can remember why avoiding Illumination is desirable.
An Oracle was a creature of mania and ecstasy, they tore secrets from dreams and visions
to bestow onto the world in the form of revelations and wonders. Each creation became the
focus of monomania as the daughter threw her wonder against the world in the hope of
further revelation or furthering some ineffable divine plan; then when a new vision strikes she
would abandon resources and allies to run off, howling, in pursuit of a new creation. Oracles
were mad, powerful, and singularly unique. And now, they are gone, their philosophy is
forgotten by their peers (except the Numerologists, who still gloat about the triumph of
theology), and their graves and sacred places are desecrated by treasure hunters looking for
wonders “unconstrained by preconceptions of the possible”.
Divergence Point
Empiricism and skepticism have challenged revelations for as long as there have been
revelations, and for a time revelations were winning. Early Oracles cheered as Socrates was
sentenced to death and ignored Plato’s early exploration of theology as a toy for bored rich
kids. In the Eternal City the daughters held Bacchanalia in the shadow of Apollo’s temple.
Fortunes turned as the senate began to consolidate its control over religious practices. An
efficient senate, and later the imperial cult, had no use for wild, uncontrollable, prophecy:
Bacchana were forbidden, the state’s censor prohibited unapproved oracles, and ecstatic
practices were exiled from the public sphere to exist in dark corners and mystery cults.
Horrified at the sight of mankind turning away from the divine; the Oracles transformed from
a Program (not that they would ever use such a sterile word) into a baramin dedicated to
tearing down empiricism, theology, organised religion, and rational thought itself to restore
the primacy of revelation as the means to knowledge and raw religious fervour unchained by
doctrine as the accepted form of worship.
Focus
Peers, writing long after the disappearance of the Oracles, describe them as practitioners of
mad mysticism. Oracles would of course reject the very idea of formal classification and they
may have a point. While altered states of consciousness and the pursuit of religious ecstasy
was the baramin’s raison d'etre, the fruits of their visions took them across the breadth of
science. In her dreams an Oracle might rip apart and devour a clockwork angel then wake
with an extensive knowledge of mechanical forces. With that knowledge she builds a mighty
winged chariot to ride across the sky, only for the sun to melt it’s wax wings and send her
plummeting into a deep fissure. There in the underworld she experiences a vision quest;
hounded by skeletal figures she steals fire from the gods and emerges with a fist full of
uranium and a working knowledge of nuclear physics.
The baramin, like it’s members, transcended disciplines. It was unified only by a common
methodology: Experience a vision then pursue it as fast and as hard as you can.
Aesthetics
Oracles often built every wonder to a unique aesthetic based on the visions that inspired it,
but for those who knew how to look there was a pattern. Daughters usually had a theme to
their visions like “Roman mystery cults”, “hermetic magic”, or “Egyptian mythology”. This
theme would express itself in every wonder in ways that were both overt (a clockwork
computer is encased in a large statue of Thoth) and subtle (close examination shows the
gear ratios are all holy numbers in ancient Egyptian theology). Historians can crudely date
an Oracle’s wonders by how ostentatious they are in displaying religious or mystical
imagery. As the baramin’s fortune’s declined it’s members became more overtly political or
more proudly disinterested in temporal affairs. Late Oracle’s wonders are either highly
ostentatious or extremely subtle, while earlier works strike more of a balance.
Axioms
The Oracles favoured Apokalpysi, as many as four out of five daughters practiced the Axiom
of Discovery. The other fifth, and the Staunen who already favoured Apokalypsi benefited
from Skafoi. Whether they travelled in spirit or in flesh Oracles were prodigious explorers of
strange invisible realms which, they claimed, were the origin of divine revelation (skeptics
say they found bardos that played to their preconceptions).
Prostasia and Exelixi were also common. Exelixi can preserve a genius’ body while her mind
is off with the angels or patch her up afterwards. Prostasia was used to survive the hazards
of otherworldly travel, sheer recklessness, or just ingesting fearsome quantities of
psytropics. Epikrato was used to make the world listen to a prophet’s revelations.
Grant
Oracles possessed strange ways of knowing, pulling secrets from the universe in ecstatic
visions. Every session they may ask the Storyteller up to Half Inspiration (round up) yes or
no questions about her character’s life, surroundings, a task at hand, or the world at large.
Each question costs a point of Mania and the Storyteller must answer these questions
truthfully.
A Unique Kind of Madness

One way to portray the Oracle’s unique behaviour is to write a list of Magnum
Opuses that fit the Baramin and roll at the start of every session to see which one the
Oracle actually has, also roll every time they successfully induce a revelatory vision.
This unique ability to change the Magnum Opus would be part of their grant.
The Gathering of High Numinologists
Name: Numinologists
We all have our little rituals. A pair of lucky socks worn on the day of the big game, we touch
wood after tempting fate, or we try to ward off autism by avoiding vaccinations. In the world
of darkness people cling harder to their superstitions, not just because they might actually
work, but because in a world of shadows and monsters there is more to be afraid of, more
things we cannot control, and more need to pretend we can master our fates. The Inspired
are even worse, intelligent humans know they cannot control everything but a Genius knows
exactly how small and insignificant they are. They build armies and scorch the skies all to
maintain a maniacal illusion that they can take control. And no geniuses created grander
illusions than the Numinologists. They built gods from hinges and levers. They carved
commandments into subatomic particles and anointed god-emperors. They destroyed their
Enlightenment to create a world where they would not need Enlightenment, and ultimately
they destroyed themselves.
An Etherite believes the world makes sense, all the answers can be found through one
equation and any evidence to the contrary is the result of conspirators or self-evidently
wrong to anyone but an idiot. Numinologists were their antithesis. To a Numinologist the
world is a confusing morass of randomness and chaos, with science only explaining
unimportant questions like what makes lightning but remaining quiet on the real questions;
questions like why did that lightning hit a good man and not a bad man, or what makes a
good man. In a world without answers the Numinologists vowed to force the world to make
sense through mania and Inspiration. With altars, idols, and rituals they built gods; gods who
could explain what made a man good. Thunder became Jupiter. Justice became Lustitia.
Chaos became Typhon, defeated and imprisoned. And the world was ordered, man could
control his own life by following the god of his choosing and reaping the rewards of virtue.
Or so the Numinologists claimed. It is known that their temples and laboratories were, and
sometimes the ruins still are, deeply weird places where the normal rules do not apply but
modern geniuses doubt they achieved much more than building wonders and attracting
manes in the image of the old gods. Their grand plans to spread their gods across the world
by destroying monotheism and restoring the old (usually Roman) faith amounted to nothing.
And today there aren’t any left to observe, at least on Earth. The Numinologist philosophy
did lead naturally to “creating one’s own world”. Some of the Numinologists recorded as
having left Earth for outer space and private dimensions may still be alive.
Divergence Point
The earliest records of Numinologists suggest that the baramin arose somewhere between
the 16th and 10th century BC as deposed Levantine priests rose up in opposition to
Judaism’s prohibition on idolatry; the priests were enraged when judges desecrated their
temples and driven mad with fear at the thought of an unknowable, faceless, but all-mighty
deity who could not be influenced through ritual, only appeased with love and absolute
submission. Though these fledgeling genii were accepted into Lemuria the early
Numinologists were largely self-confined to the Levant and members drifted away,
permanently secluded themselves, or were lost to Illumination every time idols returned to
the holy land without putting humanity “back on track”. For centuries they remained a minor
force on the outskirts of Lemuria.
A second divergence point occurs in 313 AD when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of
Milan to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Priests of the Religio
Romana tore their vestments in madness, their rage against Christanity was focused by
tutelage from the surviving Numinologists and the baramin grew in power and influence; to
wage a war against monotheism that would last for centuries.
Focus
The Numinologists carved idols and built temples, but when they retreated to their sanctums
to pursue research they revealed themselves to be mad anthropologists. With their origins in
an older time when the lines between magic, culture, theology and science were blurred the
High Numinologists saw the hand of the divine in all human activity, and they yearned to
peel back the skin of Earthly customs and see divinity revealed. They were scholars of
myths and superstitions who dissected rituals under laboratory conditions to unearth occult
mechanisms that they could disassemble and syncretise into new wonders.
The results were as accurate as a spaceship powered by luminiferous aether sails, which is
to say “not very”. Even Oracles and Numerologists threw up their hands in despair when
confronted with the theology behind a Numinologist’s wonders, but then the Numinologists
always were the odd duck of the trio. In their own ways Oracles and Numerologists studied a
divine they held to be greater than mankind, Numinologists would pave over god’s domain to
build their own deities.
Aesthetics
When historians discuss the wonders built by Numinologists they speak of the idol of Moloch
—where priests pulled hidden chains to make the idol lift its arms and tip a wailing child into
it’s burning maw—or the statues described by Hero of Alexander that used pneumatic
systems to pour wine when the altar fire was lit. But these devices are only part of the
Numinologists’ story, the part that survived to be picked apart by archaeologists and grave
robbers. Rituals, myths, and philosophy were all incorporated into wonders that existed both
within the gross realm of form and the sublime world of ideas.
Axioms
Automata was the canonical axiom for Numinologists. Even when there was no need,
especially when there was no need, a Numinologist would include Automata in their
wonders. Many historians consider Numinologists to have had an unhealthy fixation for
building thinking creations, with all the risks that implies. To the Numinologists anything else
was unthinkable, humans were chaotic and unpredictable, the gods were consistent
principles. Only by entrusting their power to gods could a Numinologist create a principled
world. If the Numinologists felt the need to give their power to the gods, then Epikrato was
the manifestation of that power. The Baramin delved into esoteric forms of control in order to
force the world, not just to fall into their favour, but to become morally and aesthetically
understandable.
Exelixi and Katastrofi were popular with Numinologists and usually studied as a pair to solve
that age old question: Why do bad people thrive while good people suffer? Many
Numinologists were smote or denied life saving healing by their own creations; and died
unwilling to escape the web of illusions they wove around themselves. Apokalypsi was rare,
Numinologists didn’t discover truth, they created it. Or so they told themselves.
Grant
Numinologists could control their Unmada Sanctuary in ways that stagger and astound
modern geniuses. They could make up to Inspiration Epikrato effects permanent, provided
those effects did not stretch beyond their sanctuary and targeted the environment instead of,
say, a human mind. Most favoured probability warping, but flashy weather effects to amaze
the congregation were always popular.
What's So Bad About Lemuria?

A reasonable question to ask, when confronted with the baramins, is what makes them so
bad. And in truth not every Lemurian is a wicked low-Enlightenment sadist. In fact, many are
decent people. Nonetheless, two things can move a Lemurian from "nice guy" to "covered in
the blood of the innocent" with remarkable speed. First, their worldviews do not connect with
reality. Lemurians are absurd, and as the old saying goes, whoever can make you believe
absurdities can make you commit atrocities―ethical and metaphysical disconnects often
travel together.
Second, each baramin is profoundly anti-human in its outlook. Atomists see humans as
mere deterministic systems; Etherites care more about ideological purity than human life or
freedom; Mechanists give more moral worth to machines than they give to man;
Numerologists are fanatical moral absolutists who divide people into arbitrary and inaccurate
categories of "good" and "evil"; Phenomenologists reject all conventional ethical notions
whenever it suits them; Iconoclasts’ political philosophies are at heart a justification to
indulge in the visceral satisfaction of brutal violence; Witnesses see individual freedom as a
threat to the all-important collective; Numinologists were religious fanatics who imposed their
own morality upon reality itself; Numericals reduce the value of a man to his IQ alone;
Leviathans believed only tyrannical authority can protect mankind from it’s base urges; the
Dharmists’ belief that thought itself must be confined between narrow boundaries would
have been horrific even without their monstrous methods; and Oracles believed knowledge
comes from divine revelation, and man can do nothing to seek understanding by his own
effort.
So no, Lemurians are not necessarily "evil," and many make points with a strong intellectual
or emotional appeal, but beneath the surface they are myopic fanatics for whom humanity is
not a serious moral priority. This can quickly produce behaviour that most sane humans
would label as evil.
Adrian Veidt: “I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end.”
Dr. Manhattan: “'In the end'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”
― Alan Moore, Watchmen

Chapter Four

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter Four

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter Four

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter Four: Antagonists and

Future Tech is Forbidden

Powers and Abilities

For simplicity Rigel's metanormal powers will be represented as internalised wonders. He

Foundation: Guardians of Forever

Powers and Abilities

Integral Ritual Software: Size 0. Inferences Techno Occultism (Affects infernals,

Weltraumkommandant Bernhard von Schlachtschiff

Weltraumzeppelin: Size 30. Inferences: Spaceship, Air Vehicle, Navigation Shielding,

The Red Menace

Powers and Abilities

Beholden serving a Bolshevik benefit from this grant too.

Anastasiya Losifovna Volkova

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 5

Powers And Abilities

Emergency Recall Beacon. Inferences: Teleporter (Options: Planetwide range, +6

Scanning Telescope. Inferences: Telescope, Super Science Scanner (Options: Narrow

An Illuminated becomes "genius," rather than remaining an individual Genius. As a mad

All Illuminated possess an Enlightenment of 0, representing an utter inability to resist

Powers and Abilities

A Murder Most Foul On Brookmill Lane

Jurassic (but actually Cretaceous) Earth!

The Life and Times of Professor Pericles Plumb

Endless Horrors Most Beautiful

Regardless of their actual sex or nationality a Canadian Girlfriend is likely to be a well

A Science Lord is created with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the scientific consensus, as it

Cat Stuff - 5 dice: In aptitudes and demeanor it’s an ordinary cat.

Attributes and Dice Pools

Attributes and Dice Pools

Updated Rules for Natural Body

Teleporting a blue whale so it lands on the Clockstopper counts as attacking with

Dr. Simon Cohen, Apostle of Proper Science

Courtney Chase and Lance Dante, Royalty of School

"You think you’re smarter than me? Is that it?!"

Starflower Glimmer, Priestess of the Sacred Fire

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 1, Resolve 3

So what is the answer to scientific progress and a game of Genius: the

Nothing Mere About These Mortals

The Fool At The Institute

Worried High School Teacher

Homeowners Association Board Member

Environmental Protection Agency Inspector

An Etherite who is not an Unmada cannot use their grant.

Automata is a popular choice among mechanists as nothing demonstrates mastery of a craft

While difficult to organise, Phenomenologists serve as Lemuria's intelligence network and

Numerologist orthodoxy holds that scripture is the exclusive source of knowledge.

Automata is a very popular Axiom, a supercomputer is a vital accessory for any

An Iconoclast with a Condition representing mortals’ viewpoints of them, such as Notoriety,

Sent from my iPhone

To identify the final Status see this chart:

Small Town council, City council, National government,

September shall end!”

A Unique Kind of Madness

What's So Bad About Lemuria?

You might also like