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The Magi | The Granite Home Page |  |
The history of the magi of New England, and especially of New Hampshire, is as colorful and varied as the as the millions of people of all races, creeds, colors,and religions who have left their footprints on its verdant hills. Our story reflects many of the the same issues faced by all peoples at one time or another, nestled into a backdrop of supernatural catastrophe and compounded mysteries. The world here is a dangerous one, but not for the usual reasons and in the usual ways.
The chronicle of the lives of the characters making their lives in the Manchester area is decisively influenced by 'what has gone before'. While untangling the mess left behind, not a day goes by without someone being impacted by the ripples in what is definitely a very turbulent pond. In a place where Reality itself proves to be violent in new and unexpected ways, simple Paradox can almost be seen as a friend. Yet one thing is certain: for those willworkers living in and around Manchester in the early part of the 21st Century, no one can afford to be complacent.
The stories and legends about the magickal world in New Hampshire prior to the settlement of North America vary as widely as the people telling the tales. What is universally understood and accepted is that native Dreamspeakers rapidly dwindled in number and strength as their lands and peoples were taken from them by the perpetual advance of the white man. By the time of the American Civil War, the native mage population had pretty much been decimated. As a tradition, the Dreamspeakers have neither forgotten nor forgiven the atrocities heaped upon the native peoples, and especially those brought at the hands of the Order of Reason. The seeming complicity on the part of the Council of Nine, as well as continued hostilities on the part of the Celestial Chorus, were seen by the Spirit magi as an affront that likely would never be forgiven.
Colonization and settlement, as well as the agents of the Order of Reason working toward industrial expansion, created a fertile environment in which varied intrigues could be put into motion by players from all sides. As the Technocracy was just beginning to convince the masses of the benevolence of science, commerce, politics, and the power of rationality, the Order of Hermes managed to gain a foothold in New England. Placing its members and allies throughout Academia, the Hermetics used the sudden decline of the influence of Clan Tremere to position themselves to strike back at both of their hated foes.
Throughout the Victorian Era, and up until the general decline of 'secret' societies in the years following the Second World War, the Order of Hermes established footholds and played influence games that confounded the Union with their sheer complexity. The Aubrey Road Chantry in Merrimack, named for a street whose name changed in 1902, proved to be one of the principle power bases for the Hermetics during this time. Having sizable libraries and a small Horizon realm made it a place that many willworkers paid out many a favor to have access to.
The Celestial Chorus was another significant influence in the region, by working from within church-going culture to achieve their own ends. The revivals and Great Awamkenings that shook church halls all over the region only increased the Chorus' strength as religious fervor also recruited Chorus consors. The Puritan Fathers who created the town meetings from which American democracy would eventually grow, extended healthy faith in the One to their flocks.
It would be no surprise to find that only a few Verbena were caught in the murderous witch hunts of the 17th and 18th centuries. Though many of their number were hunted down and exterminated, the few who survived buried themselves in the local population, remaining a quiet and noted presence, especially in Salem, Massachusetts. They plied their skills where prudent and bided their time until there was greater safety for them and their beliefs. The Tradition itself continued to practice in closed circles even after the resurgence of Paganism and Wicca in the 1980's. The ranks of Verbena consors and allies among the Sleepers swelled dramatically during that time, especially in New Hampshire, where it was said that 'You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a witch.' However, even with the new acceptance, the Verbena as a group has remained mindful of the past and are still not quick to fall in with anyone.
The Euthanatos presence has varied in strength and number over time. Depending on the period, British, African, and Greek members all played their part in the unfolding American drama. In modern times the presence of the Tradition is a quiet one, though there are whisperings that there are powerful interests who are keeping their eyes on Manchester for reasons not so clearly understood.
The Cult of Ecstasy has had an interest in the area since a young adept had a spontaneous vision while lunching in a ring of toadstools on the banks of the Merrimack. Otherwise a long and colorful history, especially where bootlegging and other trafficking in controlled substances was concerned, the tradition has suffered at the hands of a culture that became increasingly paranoid about the use of intoxicants. However, in the 1960's, after a long period of repression, the Ecstatics rode back onto the scene in a chartreuse microbus and started spreading their own special brand of 'Peace and Love'. Cultists, with the Verbena and Dreamspeakers, kept traditional knowledge of the legitimate uses of sacred plants and helped to promote widespread interest in alternative medicine. As is always true with The Cult, its hard to say what they know about the events of 2004, but the general suspicion is that they know a bit more than they let on.
The Traditions and Technocracy were not the only groups playing power games. The Fallen had their own part to play in local affairs. Sewing the seeds of corruption as far and wide as their small number allowed, a small cabal of Nephandi created headaches for both sides as the Union was cementing its Paradigm in place. The spree of murder, defection, and corruption lasted for almost 100 years before a careless slip of the tongue by Richard Bronston, a Hermetic Barabbi, brought to light the existence of the Dorsett Hill Cabal near Lowell, Massachusetts.
It took very little time to organize a meeting to decide upon a course of action. The decision itself was was blessedly simple--destroy the Barabbi and their chantry house. Completely. However, among those in attendance was Harold Martin, a Union spy who had been quietly gathering intelligence for almost a decade. Being the first such opportunity to be in the presence of so many local Hermetics at once, he took a lot of names and reported them straight back to his superiors even as the force was being marshalled to attack the Dorsett Hill magi.
During the night of September 8, 1923, a large group of Hermetics and their consors moved in, killing 4 of the Fallen and razing the house where they operated from. The Hermetic magi declared themselves victorious, believing that they had destroyed all the barabbi. However, two members of the cabal were off the premises at the time of the attack and upon return to the ruins, fled and hid themselves in the cities to the North. Unknown to the other magi, these two formed the foundation of Nephandic activity in the Merrimack Valley in the decades to follow.
The good deeds of that night in 1923 hardly went unpunished. The information obtained by Harold Martin was put to effective and decisive use by the Union as they made great strides toward taking control of Reality as we know it. Over the next 25 years, Hermetic chantries all over New England fell to attacks of all kinds, usually manipulated and coordinated by technocratic agents. Martin himself was killed in an attack on the cabal that he worked from, considered 'expendable' by his NWO superiors in the face of the greater 'good'--ridding the world of the Hermetic Deviants. Martin's secret died with him, as no one inside the Order of Hermes ever discovered his treachery.
Increasingly frustrated by their losses, the Hermetics appealed to the other traditions for assistance in 1951. But as has been the case throughout the history of such interactions between Tradition factions, the support and ultimate follow through was lacking. There were other matters to attend to, especially with the huge outpouring of effort being placed on repairing the damage that the German and Japanese war machines had done to the world, especially in the face of the new and extremely uncertain nuclear age. Ironically, when the Dreamspeakers stepped out of hiding to offer what little help they could, the Order of Hermes rejected them with the usual arrogance. The Dreamspeakers vanished again and a tenuous alliance formed in 1953 between Boston-based Choristers and Aubrey Road Hermetics that allowed both groups to network more effectively. This cooperation started a new round of quiet intrigues that kept the Technocracy on its toes for the next 25 years.
The Technocracy finally struck a decisive blow against the Boston Choristers in Late August 1978 when Syndicate agents discredited and toppled a high official in the Boston Diocese. Charges of embezzlement and having sex with female parishioners rocked the religious community as the scandal was aired openly in the media. In creating a new cynicism and distrust of Church officials, the event had the desired effect of driving people away from churches in general and toward belief systems more acceptable, and influenceable, by the Union.
Having their connections to the community so severely weakened, the Chorus was blinded to the movements of the Boston Technocrats. By the time that word filtered through that plans were in the works to attack Aubrey Road, it was too late to do anything to stop it.
The New World Order, aided by both Iteration-X and Void Engineers, attacked in the early morning hours at Aubrey Road. HITMarks and crack Border Corps officers under the command of high-level NWO agents participated in a nearly unprecedented assault on the Hermetics. The battle raged for a short time until a Paradox storm kicked up and proved a deadly enemy, especially to the Hermetics. When the backlash killed the chantry leader, the other members panicked and fled. From there, Union forces swept through the building, destroying everyone and everything they could find. Some few survivors passed the Gauntlet only to be attacked by waiting Void Engineers.
In the end, one adept and one apprentice made it back to Doisstep to tell the story.
The Technocracy wasted no time in making a cover story for their activities of that night. Occupants of the Aubrey Road house were described as fanatical cult members with possible ties to Jim Jones' People's Temple. After the unbelievable tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana during the previous summer, the masses were ready to believe and approve of the heroic actions of 'government' officials to protect the public from such a menace.
After the fall of Aubrey Road in 1978, the Union wasted no time in putting its plans into full swing. As the Technocracy extended its iron grip into New Hampshire during the 1980's and 90's, the influence of the Union spread on the wings of a prosperity founded in the boom of both banking and technology. With the dramatic and swift shift in power and policy, Tradition magi found themselves hunted nearly to extinction by Convention agents anxious to consolidate power. Though criticized by some, the move toward implementation of the Pogrom on the local level was seen as a way to plant the seeds of the ultimate destruction of the enemies of the Technocracy.
Only in the outlying areas of the state, and only in secret, were willworkers left to ply their craft in relative safety. As the few survivors spread out into the countryside and smaller cities to the north and west, technocratic operatives, agencies and business fronts settled into the cities virtually unopposed. Cementing a decisive victory in an increasingly one-sided war, the technocrats built new and more advanced MANAR arrays as Convention fronts became trusted providers of goods and services in the major cities. By the time of Doisstep's destruction in 1997, the Technocracy amalgams were firmly entrenched in Concord, Manchester, Nashua, as well as the Seacoast Region and the militarily-dependent cities of Portsmouth-Kittery.Ê
After nearly two decades of almost completely uncontested hold over the lives of the people of New Hampshire, the Union started making greater effort to institute programs of social engineering that would grant them a more firm and almost unshakable hold over the lives of unwitting Sleepers. To outside observers who knew of such things, it looked very much like the Pogrom had been successfully instituted. The situation was bleak, at best. Boston's status as the hub of Regional technocratic activity remained uncontested. Location and a lot of internal politics proved beneficial as Manchester eventually usurped Portsmouth's position as the secondary hub. With this status came numerous benefits that made assignments to local amalgams coveted positions.
The New World Order
Omni New England Telecom was the major player in telecommunications and internet commerce until 2004.
The company's roots were little more exciting than a small town phone utility in Maine, Prescott Telephone Company. 'Foreign' investors bought and saved Prescott and several other telcos from bankruptcy in the Mid 60's. Upon completion of the long string of mergers, the interest was renamed Omni Maine Telephone Incorporated. Throughout the 70's, while the recession economy was hampering almost every other company around, OMT was quietly upgrading and bringing new technology to the growing number of towns they served. They branched into cable television in 1978, which proved to be surprisingly popular and lucrative. In 1991, after buying into a number of information technology-based businesses, 23 rural phone systems, and a host of other similar interests from Maine to Connecticut, OMT became Omni New England Telecom.
By the time that Bill Clinton coined his famous phrase, ONET was poised and ready to jump on the 'Information Superhighway'. Becoming a clear money maker during the early boom years of the Internet, the operation netted billions of dollars and served as a primary feed for information to the New World Order. Through this conduit, the Ivory Tower was able to compile seemingly inconceivable amounts of information on the population of New Hampshire and the Northeast. The ability to gather data 'at the speed of thought' made the business of coordinating surgical strikes against enemies of the Union almost effortless.
The New World Order also had its agents deeply entrenched throughout the government at both State and Federal levels. The prominence of the New Hampshire Presidential primary came as a huge boon to NWO efforts in the state, giving them wide latitude to make broad sweeps to find supposed threats to the safety of the candidates and the democratic process. The FBI, as well as the State Police were unwitting pawns in the apprehension and eventual termination of some a number of deviants in the Merrimack Valley. Marauders, Nephandi, Traditionalists, and Orphans fell before coordinated strikes by teams of NWO and Iteration-X operatives.
Progenitors
Faukner Pharmaceutical began its life as a small medical supply house, mostly serving the needs of home health care patients and hospices. In the mid 1980's, with the venture capital of several physicians, the company branched into the lucrative business of pharmaceutical supply and laboratory services. In 1986, after a long and arduous bout with cancer, Faukner died, leaving the hundred-million dollar operation to his son-in-law, Jared Jameson, an enlightened Progenitor operative. Under Jameson's watchful eye, Faukner became a respected vendor to almost every sizable health care facility in the region. Faukner's Progenitor backers used the company's access to spread their influence throughout the medical community with frightening ease and put their agents, wherever possible, in positions to influence health care policy.
Syndicate
Triad Financial Corporation was a respected provider of support services to the banking industry. Sometimes called 'The Banker's Banker', Triad provided a wide variety of needed and desirable services to banks and savings-and-loans. Clients of Triad could expect top-quality advice, access to some of the best investment management houses on Wall Street, and increased profits. In the end, the simple greed of people netted Syndicate operatives significant influence over regional banking, and also compromised the financial privacy of millions. It is worth noting that because of the collapse of Triad's operations during the early part of 2005, the Ventrue banker, Clyde McDonald, was finally able to consolidate his hold over the state's banking industry.
Other Syndicate interests included both legal and illegal gambling, cashing in on the New Hampshire Presidential primary, shadow support of a new-age bookstore chain, and a questionable cooperation with Pentex and sleepers in the adult film industry.
Iteration-X
Carmicheal Orthotics Limited served as a primary front for Iteration-X activities in the Merrimack Valley. Through an uneasy understanding with local Progenitors, Carmicheal was able to recruit a number of suitable candidates from the paraplegic and amputee communities.
Integrated Robotics Systems was nothing more than a name on a lonely old building in West Manchester. The front it provided more than adequately hid its activities as a mobilization point and barracks for Iteration-X, Void Engineer, and Ivory Tower agents involved in strikes against Deviants. IRS was also charged with monitoring and neutralizing threats in the Web. With the explosion of the Internet, the amount of resources directed to this operation roughly increased by a factor of ten between 1996 and 2004.
Void Engineers
The Void Engineers maintained a silent watch over Manchester Airport, but maintained its primary facilities in Portsmouth and Boston. Apart from a token presence in Manchester, Border Corps agents moved in and out of the area masquerading as State Police Special Detachments and National Guard Units. The Convention did its primary recruiting in local aerospace programs or through Air Force ROTC programs.
Though firmly in control of the population centers of the state, the Union found it difficult to extend itself as fully into sleeper affairs as it would have liked. It should be no surprise to anyone that there would be resistance to the kind of influence the technomancers were attempting to exert. During these years, the Union suffered a number of setbacks and failures that managed to keep it from absolute dominance--usually at the hands of the sleepers it claimed to be 'protecting'.
Time and again, the people of New Hampshire were mobilized against various threats to their health, well-being, and environment by newspapers and activists. Through loud objections heard in the halls of government all over the state, the people proved that they would not be led to the ends that 'special interests' would take them. Three different attempts to gain control of water resources failed when informed citizen watchdog groups mobilized against them. School initiatives that would have granted the NWO more authority over schools and education at all levels failed, both in Concord and at ballot box referendums. The most abysmal of the failures was when the NWO backed Governor was voted out of office for idle comments about the need to institute a personal income tax and sales tax.
Supernatural threats also did their part to frustrate the Technocracy. Vampires, who had ever been deeply entrenched in the affairs of business and government, proved to be very elusive foes for Union power brokers. When vampiric interests surfaced somewhat openly in late 2000 over some somewhat innocuous looking taxation reforms, the Technocracy got a glimpse of some of the players and acted. Hiring lobbyists, they helped push through the legislation, unwittingly touching off the fuse on a powder keg in the vampiric world that would explode some 4 years later.
As well, Infighting between the various amalgams managed to keep some needed resources and manpower sidelined during an attempt to root out a small group of native Dreamspeakers near Mount Washington in 1999. Border Corps officers found themselves outnumbered and outgunned as they faced magi backed by their shifter allies. The only man to get out alive was a support crewman who had been driving one of the trucks when the the convoy was ambushed. The man died in transit to the hospital, raving about 'herds of bears' in the mountains.
Another complication that frustrated the efforts of the Union came with the 2001 disaster in the Pacific. No one could have predicted the moment when half of the main island of Hawaii would tumble into the ocean, but the resulting tsunami was every bit as devastating as imagined by the the scientists who had foretold the possible disaster. The resulting deep water ripple rolled up out of the ocean to create a wall of water estimated at 100 feet high that obliterated everything it came in contact with. When the waves receded, much of the Pacific Rim lay in complete ruin.
Tens of millions of lives were lost and the remaining manufacturing base was left stranded by the loss of infrastructure. The global economy suffered a devastating blow as people all over the world experienced shortages of common goods and it is expected that it will take decades for a complete recovery to happen. This event affected the Technocracy on a worldwide scale as sources for components that had been moved overseas in the 70's and 80's dried up, practically overnight. For places such as New Hampshire, which had suffered when industry moved out, new life was breathed into their manufacturing base. Jobs became plentiful and easy to get in the fields of textiles, high tech, and ship building.
It is unlikely that the annals of history ever will record the name Moira Davenport and her role in this pivotal event. The young and attractive consultant had made big money during the Y2K fiasco and had since taken to contemplating the possibility of a life in a cabin with nothing more than a phone line and electricity to run her computer. Then she fell in love with and married Roger Davenport, an Ivory Tower operative who worked for the State Department of Education.
Not long after their marriage, Moira discovered that her husband was involved in some questionable 'experiments'. She was alarmed to find that not only was he possibly killing people, but that she was scheduled to become one of his next subjects. During the several days following the discovery, she felt betrayed and angry. Her anger grew to the point that she was willing to get revenge against the husband who apparently was willing to do her harm. It was then, as she contemplated what to do, that confided in an online pal. They got together in Nashua and after talking it out, he gave her a diskette and a set of written instructions on how to use it.Ê
On December 24, 2004, Moira sat down at the laptop. The sun was just setting and the beginnings of a snowstorm kicked up outside. She was alone in the house and Roger was supposedly coming home late from work. She followed the instructions with the disk, typed in a strange sort of verse, and then hit enter. The chain reaction that followed would change Manchester and shape of the Ascension War in New Hampshire for good. Moira Davenport vanished without a trace.
As the highly specialized computer and machine virus contained within that disk percolated through the Net and other systems, it ravaged technomagickal components within the targetted systems. It spread from machine to machine through routine file transfers, and moved to the other sites through the same means. A careless sysadmin failed to notice the contagion until it had infiltrated the file systems of all the other Conventions. As he was putting out the alert and started an emergency shutdown, the console he worked at exploded, killing him instantly.
Before anyone knew what happened, deadly chaos ensued. Fueled by large quantities of stored quintessence and the side effects of exploding technomagickal devices, the effect kicked up a storm that raged on both sides of the Gauntlet in Manchester. The resulting psychic shockwave dropped every mage within 100 miles, with some remaining unconscious for days and even months afterward. Those with technomagickal implants suffered the worst, many of them dying horrific deaths as the devices failed violently.
All of the Technocracy fronts in the city suffered complete systems failure, causing the deaths of both on and off duty personnel. At 7:32pm, when the sensor arrays went offline, all five installations in Manchester were destroyed. The effect on enlightened tech was so powerful that a momentary blip registered in sleeper systems as well, baffling the few people who were around to notice such things on that night. With the unusually high activity in the Web and the disturbances in long distance scans, it was decided to dispatch Void Engineers to investigate. Subgenius, a new and experimental Void Engine sent to investigate what was happening, vanished without a trace.
As the sun rose over Manchester, the havoc of the previous night touched everyone in one way or another. As crews worked frantically to restore water and sewer service to 50,000 people on a major holiday, the news was reporting problems with power and telephone systems as far away as Maine. Elsewhere in the city, unknown to the besieged Technocracy, other supernaturals found themselves putting the pieces back together following the effects that the backlash had upon them.
Christmas night, an Explorer class vessel was detoured from its return to base after a year in the Deep Umbra to investigate the disappearance of the Subgenius. The craft believed that it had located the missing Void Engine just moments before reporting systems failure and going off the scopes. The Sub-Director for the Regional Ivory Tower Construct, out of fear of reprisals, ordered an immediate and deep cover up. Both ships were listed as being lost in the Deep Umbra.
By this time, the virus itself had gained access to numerous Technocracy systems and done untold amounts of damage. Fully three quarters of the enlightened technology within the initial area of the effect lay in ruin and contact between the remaining agents was necessarily moved to the much less secure sleeper tech, with stern orders to limit discussions of sensitive matters to face to face encounters. Because of the continuing threat, a quarantine zone was declared in a ten mile radius around Manchester on 26 December 2004.
As reports from the other Conventions of the loss of contact with their Manchester amalgams filtered in, several ground teams were in sent to investigate. As their devices began to fail, there were new reports that sensor arrays and equipment as far away as Lowell and Portsmouth were suffering from unknown failures. Attempts to recover equipment and missing personnel ended on 27 December 2004, when the quarantine zone was widened to 27 miles.
The Technocracy
No further investigation into the events of that night was ever launched. Sensor probes and long-range scanning showed no indication of deviant activity, but did show a growing number of strong disturbances in the fabric of Reality itself. Every effort on the part of the Technocracy to send agents in, whether sleeper or enlightened, was met with equipment failure and worse as the teams attempted to cope with the situation. What little useful intelligence gathered on these missions proved to be sparse and made little sense. These factors contributed strongly to the position of the Ivory Tower that Manchester and the quarantine zone should remain inviolate.
The loss of so much key infrastructure also hit the Conventions in the budget. It is well known that where the Union is concerned, 'The Bottom Line' affects everything. Within a short period of time, New Hampshire became known as 'The Dead Zone' and rumors started to spread about what might have really happened up there. Further fueling speculation were the persistent whispers of corruption in the highest levels of command, especially since no one understood why there was so little desire to remedy what was so clearly such a serious situation.
It has only been in the last year that the Technocracy has again focused its attention on Manchester. After years of no sign of anything but equipment-scrambling disturbances, long range scans pinpointed the location of what they believe to be the wreckage of the Subgenius. Given the circumstances, the Union was content to wait for further confirmation before attempting to salvage the ship, However, the theft of a number of files by what was believed to be a 'cabal' of Marauders working out of Manchester brought the focus back to the city--and discussions of what to do about it.
Teams were sent in again in 2008 and were making headway when disaster struck again. This time a crew of 10 were killed while attempting to recover Subgenius. In that same time frame, MiB teams in the city encountered deviants. This discovery has redoubled efforts to find a way to get to their old sites and salvage what they can from them. At least for now it is believed, based on reports from the handful of enlightened and sleeper personnel in the area, that whatever the organization and strength of the deviant presence, that they are hampered by similar problems. Because the effects of the instabilities in local Reality are believed to be harmful in the long run and may have been the cause of the mounting death toll, agents in the area have limited support and are rotated out on a regular basis. While giving the Technocracy a small measure knowledge of activities in the area, the gaps in coverage, coupled with the need to use portable detection equipment, severely limit efforts to locate the deviant presence.
The Traditions
With the dust starting to settle over Manchester, Tradition magi from as far away as Connecticut were left tending the injured and wondering what happened. On the night of the 25th of December, at location hidden deep in the mountains of Vermont, The Green Mountain Men, cabal of magi from both Tradition and independent backgrounds convened a meeting. After some hours of discussion, it was decided to make contact with as many of the known magi in the immediate area around Manchester as possible. After three days, all but one of the searchers had returned, bringing with them several injured and stricken.
The usually fractious Tradition magi somehow put aside the usual fare of squabbles and agreed to meet in Bennington, Vermont on New Years Eve, 2004. Friendly enough communications beforehand made it a little easier for the disparate willworkers to talk and discuss things in close proximity.
As each of the attendees rose and told of what they knew, the reports proved to be all the same. Something big had hit the Manchester area, very hard, and virtually every mage within spitting distance of the borders had suffered some kind of psychic trauma. At least one death was reported when a young Akashic consor violently awakened and immolated himself in a Paradox induced firestorm in a dojo near Boston.
A Virtual Adept known as The Shadow reported that as far as anyone knew, there was nothing going on in Manchester. The activity in the Web on the night of the event spiked off the scale, forcing several members of the Networx Cabal offline in the most unpleasant of ways. CosmicRay, the nominal leader of Networx, had attempted to reenter the Web on the night of the 25th and had not been seen since.
The Reverend Silas Green, a Chorister from Keene, New Hampshire, reported that the rumblings in the Prime sphere were a significant cause for alarm and had threatened to force him from his home. Green also noted that he had heard nothing from a Son of Ether, Dr. David Moller, with whom he had years of casual and friendly association with. "Sunflower" Mackensie, a Cultist from Laconia reported similar phenomena, until an intemperate word from Laslo Keeler, the cabal leader from the Hermetic group in Amherst, Massachusetts, tipped off a heated argument that threatened to bring the meeting to an end.
It was then that Joseph Greyfeather, a native Abinaki Dreamspeaker, rose from his seat and quieted the squabbling magi with a single thump of his staff on the floor. In a voice that was very soft, yet commanding, the old man spoke, saying to the assembled, "We have fought among ourselves for so long that reflection of the world now bears the the scars." Then he looked derisively upon Keeler and Green, pointing his finger before adding "Discord made things as they are. May the spirits who perish because of this forgive us for casting this Darkness upon them." Then, with nothing more than a glance at the others to the meeting, the old Indian turned and made his way to the door and left into the night.
After Greyfeather left, several theories were bandied about as to the possible cause of the event ranging from technomagickal disaster to Marauders to Nephandi. No particular conclusions came from the meeting that night, apart from the need to try and contact those who had not yet been found and attempt to find those who had disappeared completely. Three different attempts to scout the city met with failure as the magi encountered the strong disturbances in local Reality. Weeks and months passed and it became apparent to everyone that something more horrid than they could readily imagine had gone wrong in Manchester.
It took several months of careful checking, but eventually it became apparent that the Technocracy had suffered a severe blow and had more or less abandoned the area. This was both encouraging to the Traditions, as it meant that perhaps there was some hope of establishing a foothold there again, but also worrisome to the more conservative among them. After all, if there was something big enough to deal that kind of a blow to the Union, then it might be bigger than any of them could handle as well. In 2007, it seemed that things had finally died down enough that it might be worth trying to scout again the city again, but continuing problems in other places made this less important than digging in and attempting to keep the much weakened Technocracy at bay.
In 2008 it was reported that several magi had apparently moved into Manchester itself. Very little has been reported from them, about them, and how they are faring, though the talk is that anyone who chooses to live in Manchester has to be about half Marauder to be able to stand the unstable nature of things there. However, Euthanatos and Akashics have taken a greater interest in the region, noting among themselves that the recycling of avatars all over New England is on a dramatic increase.
The Mad Ones
When Marauders communicated with each other following that night, they usually did so in hushed whispers and giggles. As the ones who were least affected by the psychic disturbance, most of them got back on their feet and went on their merry way. None appeared to be any more maladjusted than before, but then again, it's pretty hard to tell with this particular group.
One thing that was certain to the general consensus(such as it ever is) of the few who ventured to the area in the years afterward--Manchester was gonna be a good time for someone to clean up. Yet even as they thought about the opportunities to raise mayhem in the unstable environs, there was no sudden rush to go there and take up residence. As with most things having to do with the Mad Ones, something new caught their attention and they moved on, though it is rumored that one or two have spent enough time in the Dead Zone to learn some few of its more curious secrets.
The Nephandi
It is indeed ironic that The Fallen find themselves in the position they are in today. The Nephandi were undoubtedly the big winners in the events of December 24, 2004, having managed to accomplish something considered vital to their goals as a group. It was their disk and their curse that wreaked havoc on Manchester and its technocratic overlords, but the additional power fed to the effect by stored quintessence and the two Void Engines carried it to a scale beyond which they intended. Yet, even as they were congratulating themselves in their sanctums, they too found themselves caught up in the storm and fell victim to it like all the rest.
If the effect had succeeded as planned, they would have managed to take out the files systems of the NWO as far away as Boston. It would have been an even greater success for there to have been enough additional power in the storm to rend and destroy this part of Reality completely. However, because of the pure, dumb, blind luck that let them score such a decisive blow against their foes, it was that same luck that caused the disaster that left them as helpless as most everyone else.
Caught in the quakes and rumbles of Manchester's unstable Reality, the Nephandi are also unable to damage it further. Those who have attempted same have vanished without a trace, with a new round of violent quakes shaking the area for weeks and months afterward. It is speculated among them that there is some greater force interfering with their efforts and some of them who have disappeared may have encountered it directly somehow. There are others that believe that the keys to the puzzle lay within a little bit of obscure lore that only a very few of have access to.
Orphans
Being an Orphan is never easy. Awakening on your own in an area prone to this kind of psychic disturbance goes beyond the concept of frightening. Unfortunately for the overwhelming majority of the newly awakened within the quarantine zone, many wind up dying long before their time, or falling to the predations of the Nephandi.
Many thanks go to Imp, Scampi, Archimedes, and Sue for their inspiration, contributions, and support with this history file.
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