Some lesser known Conventions. I used these in my game to cover areas that the more established Conventions tend to ignore. Under this scheme Iteration X has Time as its preferred Sphere, the New World Order has Mind, the Progenitors have Life, the Syndicate has Entropy and the Void Engineers have Spirit (Dimensional Sciences). This way every Convention covers a different Sphere just like the Traditions, except for Prime which is an 'occult science' for the Conventions.
The Commission (Commission of Natural Resources)
When Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was composed of electricity he placed the sphere of Forces at the service of the Technocracy. Virtually every subsequent 'discovery' and experiment has served to further demystify and mundanize the power of Forces. Through the further machinations of Thomas Edisson and Albert Einstein the forces of charged Quintessence were firmly grounded in static reality. These men of reason have placed the power of the gods in the hands of Sleepers everywhere. With understandably predictable results in the rape of the earth and weapons of destruction that exceed anything that the ancient gods could even imagine.
Originally composed of Sons of Ether who favored the Sphere of Forces over Matter, the Commission promptly acquired it's own voice among the Conventions. By pushing the Light Particle Theory at the Symposium the Commission caused the schism between the Sons of Ether and the other Conventions. Today the Commission oversees the use and development of energy resources by Sleepers. From everyday applications such as the advancement of electrical storage materials to oversight and regulation of nuclear facilities. The Commission handles all use and abuse of energy resources. Many of the problems in the Middle East stem from the Commission's long term plan to exhaust the fossil fuel supply in order to deny Traditions the use of Dragon's Blood as a source of Quintessence. Large scale mining operations designed to destroy Ley Lines, Dragon Lines, Caerns, Nodes and Dragon Nests can also be laid at the feet of the Commission.
The Commission is only peripherally involved in the Progrom. Mostly to discredit any Sons of Ether who happen to dabble in the Sphere of Forces. The Tradition most concerned with stopping the Commission however is the Cult of Ectasy. They fear that the Convention's use of nuclear Forces will unleash devastation unlike any seen before. In truth the Cultist are unaware just how much the Commission has achieved in the despoiling of the Earth. Strip mines, oil spills, nuclear fallout, all these things and more have been encouraged by the Commission in order to harness the Forces of Nature and make them subservient to the Technocracy. The greater goal of course is to exhaust all these 'static' resources so that Sleepers can move on to renewable resources such as solar, hydroelectric, wind and fusion power. This sort of thinking is a holdover from late Victorian times where the idea of preservation was to go out and kill things to mount on the wall. The Cult of Ectasy falls into the Commission's ultimate goals by preaching the use of clean energy and protesting Nuclear energy and strip mining.
Philosophy: When energy is safe and accessible it will no longer seem a force of nature to be feared and respected, but as merely another tool for man to use.
Organization: With earthbound offices, the Commission relies heavily on the Syndicate for funding and the New World Order for Safety. Commission Mages have little to do with field work or field agents, but many have visited or lived for a time on Autochthonia. Though small in size this lesser Convention is actually even more influential than the Void Engineers by virtue of their involvment with mortal institutions the world over. The Commission maintains it's fragile independance from the Syndicate by playing them off against Iteration X and the New World Order. This delicate balance of power and utility has allowed the Commission to avoid being absorbed by the larger Conventions.
Meetings: The Commission, despite or perhaps because of it's small size, has a great deal of pull at the Symposiums. Commission Mages are intimately involved with the Timetable and handle a great deal of the execution of the general plans of the other Conventions with regard to Sleeper politics and development. Sometimes new theories on energy and energy management are discussed but for the most part the Convention has left behind the theoretical underpinings of Forces to concentrate on the practical applications.
Initiation: The Commission uses a combination of indoctrination and nepotism to select it's new members. Doctorate decrees in any branch of the physical sciences will do, even sometimes a math degree. But the true test of a Commission Mage is his ability to manage. Prospective recruits are discouraged from actually putting their knowledge to use and are placed in charge of unruly geniuses and maverick innovators to see if they can reign them in and get results.
Chantry: Posing as the Commission of Natural Resources the Convention is housed at the United Nations in New York.
Acolytes: Engineers, Electronics Repairmen, Safety Engineers, Civil Engineers and anyone who works with power or natural resources.
Sphere: Forces
Foci: Geiger Counter - Entropy/Spirit, Generator - Forces/Life/Matter, Red Lights - Mind, Uranium and other fissionables - Prime, Wires - Correspondence/Time
Concepts: Electrical Engineer, Nuclear Physicist, Theoretical Physicist
The Founders
One of the more ancient Conventions, the Founders have their roots in the Guild of Craftmasons. The Founders were instrumental to the Technocracy during the Industrial Revolution. They developed and disseminated mass production, the assembly line and many of the common practices and ideas of industry. The Founders constitute the substructure of the Technocracy. They are the faceless cogs that keep the Great Machine going. And although they were crucial to the Technocracy during the Industrial age, the Founders have seen their importance and influence wane throughout the Atomic and Information eras. But make no mistake, the Founders of the Age of Reason are the foundation upon which the Technocracy rests today.
The Founders are the Convention most concerned with the preservation of static reality. Instead of going for bleeding edge tech like Iteration X and the Progenitors, the Founders produce everyday equipment vital to the maintenance of the other Convention's high tech toys. Founders are constantly called upon to tone down the excesses of other Conventions when introducing new tech. Optical Laser Storage Material becomes CD's in the Founders hands. Germline Reconstructive Surgery is toned down to Genetic Therapy. Photocopiers, computer networks, anti-lock breaks, airplane hydraulics and a host of other technical gew-gaws that are beneath the attention of other Conventions but are too complex for the average Sleeper to comprehend are the domain of the Founders. They produce and maintain all the ordinary equipment the other Conventions can't be bothered with. Without them Iteration X wouldn't have guns and mechanical tooling facilities. The Progenitors wouldn't have medical equipment, labs or pharmacuetical facilities. The Syndicate wouldn't have appliances to distribute to the masses. The burgeoning information network would lack the groundlines that allow high speed cable transmission. Despite all these sources of potential power the Founders are a minor voice in the Technocracy. Since they are indispensable to the function of the larger Conventions no one Convention wishes to see them become too independant or fall under the sway of a single Convention.
Among the Traditions the Founders are mostly unknown and ignored. They do not fight in the Ascencion War, they don't produce high-tech gadgets and in general do nothing that would attract attention. The Founders are entirely passive in their defense of Static Reality. They minimize the negative side effects of the introduction of new technology. They repair and clean up the mistakes made by other Conventions. They work closely with Sleepers so that objects like cars, computers, firearms and similar items become integral parts of their lives and no longer need Technomagick to support their use. They do however do one thing that is proactive in the war for static reality. They install insulation in houses and buildings that raises the Gauntlet through Technomagick. If this Convention were to be destroyed or subverted the rest of static reality would soon follow in it's wake. Outside the Conventions the Celestial Chorus and the Nephandi have the most influence over the Founders through TV evangelists and churchgoing members. The Founders are still close enough to their Sleeper charges to be influenced by Sleeper beliefs.
Philosophy: Everything in it's place and a place for everything. When everything works like it's supposed to, things take care of themselves.
Organization: The Founders have only a nominal power structure. Whenever the Founders seem to be organizing on an international level the New World Order and the Syndicate step in to make things fall apart. The local Constructs of Founders tend to organize into cliques of people that have the same responsibilities and functions. This leads to a decentalized organization that has no central purpose and whose members are usually ignorant of the activities of the Convention as a whole.
Meetings: The Founders send representatives to the Symposiums to learn what paradigms are to be implemented and which are obsolete. They rarely present anything before the Symposium unless it's something that is being carried out by another Convention that has to be delt with for the safety of Sleepers. Individual Founders usually learn what is expected from them in the Timetable when a Syndicate or New World Order representative co-ops them for use in a project.
Initiation: There is no standard for Initiation in this Convention, however the tradition of apprenticeship is widely maintained. Technomages who spontaneously awaken are sometimes put to work immediately as Founders to learn their trade 'on the job'.
Chantry: The Founders have no central Chantry. After losing Salisbury, England and the Detroit Steel Mills to changing economics the Founders have not managed to reestablish a central command center. Ony a few in upper management suspect the hand of the Syndicate and the New World Order at work here.
Acolytes: Policemen, Lawyers, Soldiers, Public Servants and any sort of Maintenance or Repair worker.
Sphere: Matter
Foci: Converter Box - Forces, First Aid Kit - Life/Mind, Flowchart - Time, Gasoline - Prime, Hammer, Monkeywrench - Entropy, Insulation - Spirit, Toolbox - Matter, Wiring - Correspondence
Concept: Ombudsman, Teacher, Plumber, Electrical Repairman, Construction Foreman
The Producers
There is a consensual reality beyond this one into which even the most unenlightened Sleeper may journey. A fragmented chimerae realm in which everything is possible and nothing is forbidden. A realm where heroes exist and one man can make a difference. A realm of dreams and nightmares in which humanity loses itself on a daily basis and that the Technocracy uses to program Sleepers into numb acquiscience. You know this realm as Television. The Convention of the Producers oversees this reality and makes the entertainment circus available to the masses. In the Technocracy's grand design, the Producers are in charge of crushing the human spirit. The means for this end are simple. Saturate the masses with comforting lies and bland entertainment until they no longer question anything.
Before the Information Age and the Virtual Web became an accepted component of Static Reality there existed a different form of Information Web. Radio, Telegraph, Telephone and Cinema all carried information to the masses and sucked their curiosity dry with absolute answers and empirical evidence of the way things were. Before this time a man could read a book and question the validity of its reports. With the advent of Telegraph and Radio men started to take information at face value. The information came immediately. Doubt started to fade as events were described as they occured. A certain radio operator managed to convince an entire county that the earth was under attack by aliens. The Technocracy realized then that information is a power apart from what can be gained from it. The New World Order decided to step up its efforts to clamp down on the exchange and dissemination of information. When the Virtual Adepts and the Syndicate created the Information Exchange Net, the New World Order tried to regulate all use of the new medium. Their efforts were not entirely successful but they managed to keep Television and Computers separate entities in the human consciousness. Through this they managed to maintain a stranglehold on the most influential means of information distribution even after the defection of the Virtual Adepts. In this era the Producers were born.
The Producers are composed of Technomancers who managed to survive the Red Scare of the fifties while still being able to ride the fads that swept through the world in the sixties. The Convention was formed between the disgraced members of the Syndicate who had been laboring with the Virtual Adepts and the New World Order Mages who had severed the Information Web from the Media Net. This new realm composes most broadcast media and recently has come to include cable and satellite communications as well. The leaders of this Convention are canny old men who use intrigue and power brokering with the casual ease of a thousand year old Vampire manipulating its Ghouls. The younger members usually work with special effects and editing.
Though the Producers have a say in everything produced for mass media they don't produce that entertainment themselves. They supply the money to get movies made. They approve what shows get aired on TV and what songs will be played on the Radio. They also make sure that whatever is on that the message of the Technocracy is planted firmly in the subconscious of the masses and that no one questions the hold of the Technocracy on consensual reality. They do this by promoting what they want to prosper and letting everything else wither and die. The Producers don't have to resort to the heavy handed tactics of other Conventions. If they want another Stallone Blockbuster to do well they will give it promotion and keep it in the public eye until it makes a profit. If they want to destroy a thoughtful and insightful movie on the inequalities of life in the US they turn sponsors away from it and have the critics pass it up. Most Hollywood producers learn the lesson and create broad appeal entertainment.
The Traditions view the Producers as merely a Construct of the New World Order. Having been formed after the Virtual Adepts defected there is not much information about them available to the Traditions. However they are very influential within the Technocracy. They are the ones who determine just how far the Technocracy can push matters concerning technology and morality. To take one relatively recent example consider the movement for Equal Rights for Black Americans. The Producers were the ones who decided the time was right to highlight black etertainers in radio and cinema. In the news they approved the transmission of Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech across America. Of course they are also the ones who encourage the emergence of white rappers. In such subtle ways they control the advancement of the Timetable.
Philosophy: The show must go on. If you control what people watch then you control what they think.
Organization: The Producers have a Corporate Heirarchy at the upper levels. But they also have a great number of loose cannons that go unaccounted for.
Meetings: Let's do Lunch is not merely a casual phrase to be dropped around for members of this Convention. The Producers don't attend Symposiums. They are too new and have yet to be formally recognized as a Convention even though they are no longer classified as a Multi-Convention Construct answering to the Syndicate and the New World Order. However, people in the know see that Producer agendas are always carried out by the other Conventions. The message is clear, the Producers are vital enough that they don't have to attend the Symposiums.
Initiation: Working in the Entertainment Industry one would think that a background in entertainment would be necessary for membership in the Convention. Nothing further from the truth. Economics and Business majors are the first recruits that Producers look for. After they have proven their managerial skills they can then start to mess with production and editing of entertainment media. A fact which annoys the hell out of artistic Sleepers who see them as interlopers ruining their life's work in order to save a few bucks. On the creative side, the Producers are the most open of the Conventions and have even been known to accept members that would naturally gravitate towards one of the Traditions. But these inductees are destined for dissapointment. Not only are they barred from the higher ranks of the Convention, but as soon as their creative juices run dry or they try to buck the system, they're out.
Chantry: New York, not Hollywood is home to these bloodsuckers.
Acolytes: Anyone working in News or the Entertainment industry.
Sphere: Correspondence
Foci: Camera - Correspondence/Forces, Contracts - Entropy/Mind, Movie or TV Set - All Spheres
Concept: Sleazy Producer, Editor, Accountant, Director, Standards and Practices Censor
Constructs: Animatronic Beasts are used to patrol the broadcast net against spiritual incursions. More recently Computer generated creatures have been used, sometimes to cross over into this world.
