The Third Law Canon
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Startup (1881-1939)
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The early days of the paratech industry, as companies like
Prometheus Labs form to capitalize on the potential of
anomalous research in the wake of the Sixth Occult War.
Many important discoveries are made during this period,
laying the groundwork for all future paratech development.
Normalcy preservation organizations begin to assume their
modern forms, and the idea of the Veil — long upheld by
informal consensus — is first articulated as a formal policy.
Bubble (1939-1992)
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The Second World War, the concurrent Seventh Occult War,
and the subsequent Cold War create a surge in demand for
paratech, leading to a parascience bubble that will last until
the end of the Cold War. This period is filled with numerous
mergers of paratech suppliers as the market consolidates in
order to better meet growing demands. Normalcy
preservation organizations and national paranormal
agencies reach the height of their power, giving rise to a
strong Veil and the so-called "Golden Age of Normalcy".
Burst (1992–1999)
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The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War
causes the paratech bubble to burst. An anomalous black
market begins to emerge as old Soviet paratech stocks are
lost and looted. The decline and eventual dissolution of
Prometheus Labs in 1998 sends further ripples through the
already reeling paratech market. The downsizing of national
paranormal agencies and the emergence of new mass
communications technologies puts the integrity of the Veil in
question for the first time in decades.
Repercussions (1999– )
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The emergence of several smaller companies from the
remnants of Prometheus Labs leads to increased
competition within the paratech industry, driving a period of
technological advancement and economic recovery. The
paratech black market continues to expand as Prometheus
Labs paratech lost during the breakup falls into criminal
hands. Normalcy preservation organizations fight to
maintain the weakening Veil as they adapt to the chaotic
landscape of the new millennium.
The Current Landscape
Third Law has a wider scope than most canons, lacking an
overarching narrative or a fixed setting. Instead, Third Law
is defined by a single continuity, a common tone, and a set of
recurring themes; as a result, almost any story which fits
these criteria is eligible for inclusion in this canon.
a. Continuity. While a full overview of Third Law's expansive
continuity would be too long to cover here, the following are
the basic tenets of the canon's worldbuilding which form the
foundation of the continuity. If an article contradicts a point
listed here, it is fundamentally incompatible with Third Law.
b. The universe is ultimately comprehensible. While there
are many things that exist which defy the conventional
understanding of physics, the universe is fundamentally
ordered and logical, and all anomalous phenomena may
eventually be understood, given time and effort. This is most
evident in the fields of parascience — thaumatology,
metaphysics, psionics, etc… — which have succeeded in
providing theoretical frameworks for many anomalous
phenomena, even if they remain separate from conventional
physics. This is a more optimistic take on the
Foundationverse than is usual, and it means that works
which take a more pessimistic stance — works that can
usually be classed as cosmic horror — are likely to be
incompatible with Third Law.
c. Paratech is common. This serves as a corollary to the first
point. Rigorous parascience has allowed for the extensive
development of paratechnologies, which are widely used on
both sides of the Veil. Many consumer products contain
technology that is paranormal in nature or derived from
paranormal phenomena, although the truth of this may only
be known to a few. In an expanding anomalous world,
normalcy preservation agencies like the Foundation
increasingly rely on paratech to uphold the Veil, despite
potential ideological reservations.
d. The Veil is present but weakening. The existence of the
anomalous, including entire fields of parascience, is
concealed from the majority of the world by normalcy
preservation agencies and national governments, in an effort
known as the Veil. This largely takes the form of suppression
of information relating to anomalous phenomena, although
agencies such as the Foundation may take a more proactive
role in attempting to contain anomalous objects. The Veil is
not absolute — most people have at least a vague awareness
of the existence of things unexplained by science, although
few individuals would admit to such if pressed. Indeed,
entire cities and communities exist on the other side of the
Veil, populated entirely by people aware of the anomalous
and the efforts to conceal it. Peaking in strength in the
middle of the 20th century — shortly after the 7th Occult War
— the Veil has been steadily deteriorating since the end of
the Cold War, despite the best efforts of normalcy
preservation agencies.
e. Normalcy is defined by consensus. Anomalous
phenomena are an inherent part of the universe and are only
deemed "abnormal" by the consensus of those who uphold
the Veil. Many thoroughly understood fields of parascience
are kept behind the Veil, while many mysterious phenomena
have been publicly documented by conventional science. The
decision on what is and is not anomalous is often due more
to politics than science.
f. Artificial Intelligence is exceedingly rare. Due to the
extreme potential danger posed by the possible development
of machine thaumaturgy, all research into general AI is
heavily restricted by normalcy preservation agencies. As of
2020, the only general AI in existence are the GOC's Silicon
Nornir, the Foundation's SCP-2897, and a small number of
uncontained Bardeen-derivatives.
g. There is no Heaven. There are various empirically
observable phenomena which can be considered "souls", and
it is possible for consciousness to persist after death,
independent of a body, but cessation of consciousness is
final. If there is an afterlife, no one's found it yet.
h. Tone. Third Law is best described as science fiction in an
urban fantasy world, a combination which gives rise to its
own unique tone. The world is full of fantastical wonders and
horrors, but through human ingenuity and capability, they
can ultimately be understood, and even harnessed. Yes, there
are monsters and demons and even worse things from
Outside, but humans can and will fight them. Thus, the
overall tone of the canon is one of optimistic stubbornness in
the face of a universe that is terrifyingly vast and unknown.
Themes
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If the tone of Third Law is one of scientific optimism, then
the themes are those of scientific consequences. Stories and
articles within Third Law should try to explore the effects —
both direct and indirect — of parascience on the world at
large. This can range from technical documentation of a
paratech project to a slice-of-life tale about a day in an
anomalous enclave. Another potential avenue is to take the
various frameworks of parascience to their logical
conclusions, examining edge cases in a framework or
looking at how different paranormal phenomena interact.
a. Knowledge is power. This is important enough that we
made it the subtitle of the entire canon, and it's the in-
universe motto of both Prometheus Labs and the
Foundation's Department of Analytics. Every organization in
the Foundationverse is ultimately working to increase their
own knowledge — of the anomalous, of each other, of
everything — because knowledge gives you the power to alter
the world, sometimes extremely literally.
b. Actions have consequences. Usually unintended. The long-
term effects of any individual action are numerous and
unpredictable, and even the best intentions can go horribly
awry. Try to keep this in mind.
c. Magic is just another form of science. This ties back into
the universe being comprehensible. There's a lot of weird
stuff going on, but it should all behave consistently, because
there is an underlying logic to even the most bizarre
anomaly. You don't have to reveal this logic, but you should
know what it is.
d. Technology is a force multiplier. No technology is
inherently good or bad, but it can make good situations
better and bad situations worse. Everywhere paratech
appears, it should be used to further the ends of the person
using it, whether those ends are good or bad.
e. Humans are jerks. Tying into the above, technology might
not be bad, but humans have a tendency to quickly find the
worst way to use it. Human ingenuity is the most powerful
tool at our disposal, and it so often ends up being applied
against other people. Most conflict should be driven by
human motives and actions, and not outside context
problems.
Parahistory
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It is nearly impossible to give a concise summary of
parahistory, for the history of the anomalous is expansive,
long, and prone to time-travel-related complications. Much of
it has been naturally lost to time, but even more has been
destroyed by those who seek to conceal information of the
anomalous. Seemingly basic pieces of information, such as
the date of the First Occult War, are entirely absent from the
parahistorical record, forcing scholars of the occult to rely on
hearsay and speculation.
The modern era of parahistory is thus defined by the
consistent presence of reliable records of paranormal events
and is generally regarded as having begun after the end of
the Sixth Occult War. The emergence of modern normalcy
preservation organizations, the codification of the Veil, and
the start of the Paranormal Renaissance in the aftermath of
the war all contributed to the widespread documentation of
anomalous phenomena — even if the conditions of the Veil
meant that such documentation was kept secret.
The Sixth Occult War
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The first major occult conflict in over two centuries, the
Sixth Occult War lasted from 1875 to 1882. A multi-faceted
conflict involving many different occult groups and
individuals, the underlying causes and motives that led to the
outbreak of hostilities are still poorly understood to this day.
This is in large part due to the unprecedented level of
devastation caused throughout Europe and the Middle East,
resulting in the destruction of most primary sources created
during the conflict. The war reached its climax in 1881,
when a cabal of German occultists completed a working
which resulted in the destruction of an ancient Semitic deity,
a demiurge with power over the nature of thaumaturgy and
the distribution of occult potential throughout the human
population. Backlash from this working created a massive
storm tide in the North Sea, which inflicted thousands of
casualties along the western coasts of Europe.
Reacting to the widespread destruction and the perceived
threat of mass hysteria, national governments intervened to
bring an end to the conflict and conceal its very existence
from the general public. These efforts led to the emergence
of national paranormal agencies and normalcy preservation
organizations in their modern forms and resulted in the first
formal codification of the Veil. The paranormal, long an open
secret among scholars and intellectuals, was now segregated
and hidden from the world at large. As mundane science
continued to charge forwards, belief in the anomalous and
the occult was relegated to the superstitious and the
secretkeepers.
The Paranormal Renaissance
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However, the Veil was not absolute. The demise of the
demiurge had caused a tremendous amount of occult and
psionic backlash, triggering a mass awakening of occult
potential across the world and creating a surge of new
paranormal phenomena. This sudden spike in the
parahuman population in turn gave rise to new fields of
science behind the Veil — thaumatology, psionics,
metaphysics, and others. While normalcy preservation
organizations initially opposed this Paranormal
Renaissance, they eventually became the driving force
behind its growth, once they realized the potential
applications of parascience in technologies for maintaining
the Veil.
Already weakened by the Sixth Occult War, and facing heavy
scrutiny from national paranormal agencies, the
longstanding occult orders and cabals that had previously
dominated the paranormal community soon found
themselves in competition with new organizations and
companies that had formed in reaction to the aftermath of
the war. Applying a more methodical, scientific approach to
the study of the anomalous, organizations such as
Prometheus Labs and the International Center for the Study
of Unified Thaumatology rapidly advanced the
understanding of the paranormal, laying the groundwork for
much of modern parascience.
While the early portion of the Paranormal Renaissance was
dominated by advances in theory and experimentation, the
later half was marked by a focus on archeological and
exploratory expeditions. Working off a basis of folklore and
fragmentary parahistory, the first efforts at systematically
documenting localized paranormal phenomena across Earth
were made and initial forays to catalogue the local
multiverse were launched. This would eventually culminate
in an archeological race in the years leading up to the
Seventh Occult War, as numerous organizations competed
to acquire paranormal artifacts — both for their scientific
value, and to deny them to competitors.
The Seventh Occult War
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Largely coinciding with the Second World War, the Seventh
Occult War is normally considered to have started in 1939,
following the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. In the
years leading up to the war, the Ahnenerbe Obskurakorps
and their allies in the Thule Society had been acquiring
artifacts needed to perform the Rite of Solomon, with the
intention of using the Rite to restrict occult ability to
members of the Nazi regime. As Nazi Germany continued to
make gains in the face of British appeasement, the
Obskuracorps grew more overt in their efforts to acquire
artifacts, eventually bringing them into conflict with other
occult groups. Spearheaded by the Knights Templar and the
British Occult Service, the Allied Occult Initiative was soon
formed to oppose the Obskuracorps and their operations.
After securing an early victory in the Battle of Prague, the
AOI would spend the next six years covertly battling the
Obskuracorps across the world. The coalition of occult
organizations present within the AOI continued to expand
throughout the course of the war, even as the Nazi regime
came to occupy most of continental Europe. Despite their
numerous successes, the AOI would not become fully aware
of the Obskuracorps' intentions for the Rite of Solomon until
the last year of the war.
With the conventional war clearly turning against Germany,
the Foundation finally entered the conflict on the side of the
AOI in September of 1944, when they launched a surprise
strike to capture Konrad Weiss, the director of the
Obskuracorps' research arm. With the intel provided by
Weiss' capture, the AOI and the Foundation discovered both
the Obskuracorps' plan for the Rite, and their intention to
attempt to complete it with ersatz components created to
replace the missing artifacts which were in AOI custody. A
final operation was assembled to strike at the location where
the Rite would be performed, which succeeded in stopping
the execution of the ritual and routing the remaining forces
of the Obskuracorps, bringing the occult portion of the war to
a close.
The Golden Age of Normalcy
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In the aftermath of the Seventh Occult War, the Allied Occult
Initiative was reorganized into the Global Occult Coalition
and placed under the aegis of the nascent United Nations,
with the intention of creating an international and nominally
impartial normalcy preservation organization to serve as a
more accountable counterpart to the Foundation — and to
ensure the mistakes of the Seventh Occult War could never
reoccur. With the backing of national governments and the
larger paranormal community, and occasionally playing on
Cold War paranoia to their advantage, the GOC and the
Foundation were able to greatly strengthen the Veil,
ushering in an era that would become known as the Golden
Age of Normalcy.
The Seventh Occult War had brought a great demand for
new paratechnologies, and this demand continued unabated
into the new age of normalcy. Normalcy preservation
organizations required new and better tools for maintaining
the Veil in the face of accelerating technological
advancement and a growing population, and the Cold War
powers had challenged each other in a paranormal arms
race that rivaled the nuclear one in fervor. As they expanded
to meet increasing demand, paratech developers began to
leverage their control over paratech supplies into a series of
concessions from normalcy preservation organizations,
eventually resulting in permission to sell obfuscated
paratech outside the Veil. The paratech industry flourished,
with companies like Prometheus Labs growing into
international conglomerates with billions of dollars in
revenues.
Even as paratech covertly infiltrated conventional products,
normalcy preservation agencies cracked down harder on
more overt paranormal phenomena. A mass exodus of
anartists and parahumans began near the end of the 1960s,
as the Foundation worked to expel these communities from
urban areas in Europe and North America, driving them into
pocket universes like Three Portlands and Backdoor SoHo.
Partially in response, the GOC orchestrated the creation of
Eurtec to serve as a regulated paranormal enclave, where
the Veiled community could flourish under its watch. As a
result of these efforts, the paranormal was almost completely
segregated from the normal world, with the strength of the
Veil reaching a peak sometime in the late 1970s.
The New Millennium
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The Golden Age of Normalcy came to an end with the
dawning of the new millennium, as events of the last decade
of the 20th century drastically altered the fundamental
landscape of the paranormal community. The collapse of the
Soviet Union had resulted in the dissolution of the KGB
Division of Special Circumstances, formerly tasked with
securing the country's supply of weaponized anomalies,
resulting in a paratech black market flooded with illegal
Soviet paraweapons; the end of the Cold War brought about
a downsizing of national paranormal agencies, which had
been greatly expanded out of political paranoia; the
conclusion of the paraweapons arms race dealt a staggering
blow to the paratech industry, eventually resulting in the
breakup of the Prometheus Labs conglomerate, once the
global leader in parascience research and paratech
development.
Moreover, the world outside the Veil has changed. As the
21st century opens, the human population is approaching 7
billion, and growing rapidly; mass communication
technologies are proliferating, with cell phones and
household internet already commonplace, and smartphones
and social media approaching on the horizon; attitudes
towards mainstream science have shifted, and conspiracy
theories are starting to gain greater traction. Consensus
normalcy is under threat from behind and beyond the Veil,
and normalcy preservation agencies are struggling to
grapple with these newfound problems.
However, even more concerning than the failing Veil is the
growing threat of another occult war. The weakening of the
Veil has resulted in an accelerated progression towards
general AI, which brings with it the danger of machine
thaumaturgy — and the possibility of mass produced
eigenweapons. Normalcy preservation organizations are
stuck playing for time, as they race to find a permanent
solution to the looming crisis.
Meanwhile, the world grows weirder every day.
Anahuman Anahuman Freelancers
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When creating an anahuman, there are a few points to
Anomalous consider: a) to be a weird entity from beyond the knowledge
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of mundane science, b) to have no control over what abilities
If one were to map all the planes of creation, the Outside is
you have; to accept randomness in your destiny, c) to be
that maddening un-place off the edge of the paper.
aware that other characters may find you as alien as you
Occasionally its strange dimensions intersect with reality,
really are and may seek to even harm you, and d) to be aware
giving birth to anomalies, and some of those errors have
that several paranormal agencies are probably after your
forms that could be analogous to flesh and spirit. When
procurement and/or detainment, if you are seen outside
permitted to be molded by the dreams of human, something
occult enclaves.
akin to a humanoid is spawned.
Anahumans favor the wizard, warlock or sorcerer classes.
Two sample freelancers are described below.
Physical Qualities Scar Korlov is a sorcerer. He is the three-dimensional
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shadow of the sentient plane of the Squamous Garden as it
Anahumans range from reality benders to shapeshifters and
intersects reality. He delights in mutating time and space
may or may not have dissociative morphologies culled from
with a mere thought and takes odd jobs for the Global Occult
the self-image of living things– from pond-life to animals and
Coalition to gain mastery over his psionic abilities.
humans. Adventuring anahumans appear like normal
Decaf David is a wizard and the son of the Lord of the
humanoids but may have hidden or clear abberant qualities,
Unwavering Eye. He seeks to produce new, impossible
like multiple eyes, eyestalks, pseudopods, tentacles, chitin,
coffee blends and is somewhat inconsiderate about their
mandibles and other pseudobiology. Their flesh might
effects on his traveling companions' sanity and/or circadian
resemble the stuff of the material plane, but when wounded
rhythm.
they might bleed fluid, color, sound, or even concepts.

Attitudes & Beliefs Anahuman Names

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As with their society, anahumans will take names from their
Beings influenced by the Outside are often seen as being
host culture and are often named by their parent (assuming
chaotic, or evil, but anahumans are more coherent in their
their survival of the union or birth).
interactions and are able to forge relationships with sentient
Male Names: Zechariah Southern, Johnny Trinidad, Evgeny
creatures, but are usually Chaotic, due to their inherent
Kritzkow, Chauncey Sturm
nature of unstable powers. Anahumans are often kept to the
Female Names: Andrea Hutchins, Greta Goldman, Michiko
fringes of history, appearing in texts and recountings as
Milam, Karie Clemens
monsters infiltrating societies for their own nefarious means,
but can emerge as “gods” or leaders when in leadership.
Traits
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Anomalous Communities As a child of the confusing Outside, you can put your
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anomalous features to good use.
Their strange tendencies always alienates them and often
Ability Score Increase. Your Anomalous Ability Score
frightens mundane communities into shunning them. Some
increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice
anahumans have a strange, insidious force of personality
increases by 1.
that at its strongest can dominate groups of humanoids, with
Age. Anahumans often outlive their mundane kin by
cults forming around them. Those who want peace, however,
centuries or even millennia, due to the otherworldly nature
often turn to occult enclaves, where their quirks and abilities
of their being. As each individual is so varied, roll a 10d10
are not as weird to those often exposed to thaumatology and
and times the result by another 10d10 to get your maximum
other paranormal stuffs, and their abilities are more often
age, in years.
than not curtailed by other more powerful anahumans,
Alignment. Anahumans can be considered to be normally
demigods, or deities.
aligned entities, however, if the anahuman accesses the
information about their origin, they often turn to either their
chaotic nature, or their sense of control magnifies into
lawfulness.
Size. Anahumans range from just over 5 feet to more than 7
feet and weigh 80 to 260 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common, and
one Exotic Language of your choice.

Random Height & Weight

Features
Anomalous Ability Score
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The entities within the Outside are as varied and as alien, as
they come, and it is only natural you are too. Number your
ability scores one to six and roll a d6. The ability score that
corresponds to the number rolled is considered your
Anomalous Ability Score.
Shifting Nature
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While some anahumans may look as humanoid as they
come, their instability sometimes shows through their
carefully constructed facades. Roll a d6 every long rest. Even
numbers reveals your creature type to be an Abberration.
This effect will last until the next long rest.
Anomalous Qualities
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When you create your character, assign values ranging from
1-12 to the abilities in the table. Roll a d12 to get a racial
feature. You can flavor this feature to explain how the
mechanics work for your character.
Wandering Gaze
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You gain proficiency in Perception, you can see in all
directions, and cannot be surprised.
Wandering Voice
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You can choose two other Non-Exotic Languages and mimic
any sound or voice you have heard within a day. Creatures
can tell that these sounds might be imitations if they make a
successful Wisdom check against your Deception Check.
Wandering Mind
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You can communicate mentally with another creature that
knows at least one language within a 60-foot radius. This
creature doesn't need to share a language with you but
unless they have telepathy themselves, they can only receive
and respond but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic
conversation. You must be conscious to use this trait and
cannot telepathically communicate with multiple creatures at
once.
Wandering Fate
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You have a limited amount of control over this and it is
largely up to your Dungeon Master what happens. However,
when a creature attempts to teleport within 10 feet of you or
attempts to teleport while within 10 feet of you, you may
force them to make a Wisdom saving throw a number of
times equal to your Anomalous Ability Score per day. On a
failed save you become aware of the means they were
attempting to teleport and can force them to teleport to a
location of your choice within 30 feet of the creature's
original destination. The DC for this saving throw is equal to
8 + your proficiency bonus + your Anomalous Ability Score's
modifier.
Wandering Arms
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You have advantage on ability checks to grapple creatures
and your reach increases by 5 feet when using a one-handed
melee weapon. You cannot wield multiple two-handed
weapons with this trait.
Wandering Hide
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You can use a reaction to instantaneously gain AC equal to
your Proficiency bonus. You can use this ability a number of
times equal to your Anomalous Ability Score per day.
Wearing armor will render this ability useless.
Outsider’s Mind
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When a creature attempt to read your thoughts,
telepathically communicate or form some other mental bond
with you, you become aware of the attempt, that creatures
location and you can read their thoughts or communicate via
the same method as if you had telepathy or had used
whatever means they had to initiate this contact.
Outsider’s Eyes
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You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were
bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't
discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. In addition,
you have advantage on saving throws against being blinded.
Outsider’s Will
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You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed
or frightened.
Outsider’s Rush
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You may add your proficiency bonus to your initiative bonus
and as a bonus action, you may teleport 30 feet to an
unoccupied space you can see. You regain use of your ability
to teleport when you complete a short or long rest.
Outsider’s Face
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As an action, you can polymorph into any humanoid of your
size that you have seen, or back into your true form.
However, your equipment does not change with you. If you
die, you revert to your natural appearance. You retain all of
your normal statistics while in this form. You may use this
feature once before you must complete a short or long rest to
use it again. Additional uses beyond the first incur one level
of exhaustion.
Outsider’s Blood
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You are immune to diseases, the poisoned condition, and you
have resistance to poison damage.
Sidhe Society
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Sidhe society is deeply rooted within the rules that govern
Otherworldly Grace them. They are very tricky with words due to their inability to
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lie, and the nature of their deals. The Summer Sidhe are
Sidhe are typically beautiful beyond any mortal dream, with
generally viewed as being kind and benevolent due to their
pointed ears, reminiscent of elves, and occasionally possess
association with warmth and growth, but this perception can
feline or otherwise animalistic traits, like cats eyes. Rather
be misleading. While Summer does seem warm, they are
than detract from their normal beauty, these features tend to
still dangerous and can be vicious, perhaps doubly so
enhance them. Summer Sidhe have hair and skin that
because it can be unexpected. The Winter Sidhe are seen as
feature warmer tones, while Winter Sidhe tend to be pale
malevolent and dangerous, giving in to their more predatory
with hair the various colors ice can take, such as shades of
nature. They are associated with the cold, death, and decay.
blue, white, and silver. Finally, Wild Sidhe take after the
There are also a portion of the Sidhe who are unaligned,
forests and greenery, and are often found with chestnut or
known as the Wild Sidhe. They are more neutral, though
hazel hair and an earthy skin tone.
their actions can shift closer to those of the aligned courts.

History Sidhe Names

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Sidhe have been around since the dawn of time, waging war
Sidhe tend to have names that are rather long and eloquent.
between the courts of Summer and Winter.
Their given names are not their True Name, but a name by
Their magic has long been coveted by the rest of humanity,
which are known, or a title.
and time and time again, wars and battles have broken out
Male: Kringle, Talos, Oberron, Herne
between the two races. By the end of the 10th century,
Female: Titania, Maeve, Aurora, Mab, Leanansidhe
however, the Sidhe had already been corralled into their last
bastion, Avalon, aided by the legendary King Arthur and his
mage advisor Merlin. Traits
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Another encounter would involve the enigmatic Factory,
The Sidhe are fae creatures that are usually bound to either
wherein the mechanisms would enslave and brutalize the
the Summer (Seelie) or Winter (Unseelie) courts.
captives into the production of several anomalous and
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma increases by 2, and
malevolent items This resulted into a bloodbath when the
your Dexterity increases by 1.
Foundation decided to finally intervene.
Age. The Sidhe are immortal, though they grow based on
After the global thaumic backlash at the end of the Sixth
power/responsibility. Some are born as a Changelings, who
Occult War and the subsequent collapse of the Sidhe
are children born of a Fae parent and a mortal. These beings
homeland, British agents would negotiate with the native
have the level of development of whatever age they chose
genius loci and siphon the refugees to the Portlands.
their fey nature.
The Sidhe has sine coexisted with the other humans and
Alignment. Sidhe are always Lawful alignments, with
entities within the city, and even influenced the local English
Summer being Good, Winter being Evil, and Wild Fae being
dialect.
Neutral.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages. You know Common and Sylvan.

Random Height & Weight

 Winter Court
Features ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cold. You gain resistance to cold damage.
Natural Spellcasting. You know the Frostbite cantrip. When
Fey Sight you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Bane spell as a 2nd-
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level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so
You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were
when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you
bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't
can cast the Crown of Madness spell once with this trait and
discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Compulsion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Sidhe cannot tell a direct lie, however they can twist the Wilderblood
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
truth in such a way to mislead and deceive. You also must
Wild. You gain resistance to lightning damage.
give a direct answer to any questions that are asked of you
Natural Spellcasting. You know the Minor Illusion cantrip.
three times and are bound to your word in such case.
When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Sleep spell as a
2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do
Iron Adversion so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
can cast the Mirror Image spell once with this trait and
The touch of iron and related metals such a steel burns you.
regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
If you touch any iron or steel with your bare skin, you take
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
1d4 damage per turn in contact with the material. Your
starting metal weapons and armors are made of an
equivalent material, but weapons you find in dungeons and
other encounters count as steel unless otherwise stated.

Fey Ancestry
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have advantage on saving throws against being
charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Summer Court
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warmth. You gain resistance to fire damage.
Natural Spellcasting. You know the Firebolt cantrip. When
you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Bless spell as a 2nd-
level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so
when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you
can cast the Flaming Sphere spell once with this trait and
regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
 Creating A Mage
The Mage
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to use magic but don't have the patience?
The terrorists sit at ease, late at night. Suddenly, a figure Mages are spellcasters that often don't have the time or
appears behind one of the bandits and disintegrates him patience to prepare spells every day but lack the innate
before blinking out of existence. Now on alert, the terrorists abilities of a sorcerer. By creating a shortcut to actual
stand, but before they can make any further moves, the memorization, they store a limited number of spells in their
figure blinks back into sight in the center of the camp and mind as a sorcerer would, but also keep the spell effectively
unleashes a fireball, burning all of them in one single wrist "prepared" in a focus. This way they only need a small
flick. In moments, all enemies lie dead, the battle and not a gesture or word to finish the given spell and don't have to
soul moves within the camp. The figure that killed them keep track of as much knowledge at once, allowing for free
slumps in front of the campfire as blue EVE particles time like no wizard will ever know!
dissipate from the dead bodies.
An elderly man that lives on the edge of a farming town
performs daily rites at sunrise and sunset. Most in the town Class Features
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
believe him superstitious and a fool, but what they do not
As a Mage you gain the following class features:
know is that his offerings are all that keep the nearby Sidhe
gang from cursing the crop to wilt. A young woman living in
the same town invokes thaumaturgical hexes to lay a curse Hit Points
of retribution on the mayor of a nearby city for raising the Hit Dice: 1d6 per Mage level
people's taxes. Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + Constitution modifier
Small and scared, a Sidhe child backs into a dead end, her Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + Constitution
back bumping against the cold concrete wall. Her entailing modifier per Mage level after 1st
captors approach, grinning maniacally. She furrows her
brow as she whispers in an occult language, and they freeze, Proficiencies
their eyes beginning to bleed. Suddenly, their skulls cave
Armor: Light Armor
inward as hands made out of blue EVE energy crush their
Weapons: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light
heads and they slump to the ground, their brains turned into
crossbows
mush. The girl wipes the trickle of blood from her lips, and
Tools: Choose one
teleports away.
Saving Throws: Spell Ability, Dexterity
Mages are often eager and impatient to become the powerful
Skills: Choose two
master of the arcane they believe themselves to be.
Beginning early, they pursue reckless powers with
occasionally devastating effect, often using what little actual Equipment
knowledge they have for flavor and utility. You start with the following equipment, in addition to the
equipment granted by your background:
Occult Knowledge a. a dagger or b. a quarterstaff
a. a dungeoneer's pack or b. an explorer's pack
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Due to the nature of the Veil, many magical practitioners are a. an arcane focus
often found in hidden enclaves that are dispersed throughout
the globe, free, mostly, of judgement and interference from
their peers and government authorities. As with many
mundane gatherings, however, curiosity will spur the
creation of research teams in order to understand more
about their powers.
The City of Three Portlands, for example, has three learning
institutes with high, mid, and low levels of occult training.
Your character could be a graduate from the local
International Center for Study of Unified Thaumatology
campus, a highly technical college funded by the Global
Occult Coalition, an anartist from the elusive Deer College,
or a mundane physicist who took Thaumatology 101 at the
more grounded Three Portlands Community College.
Spellcasting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a student of magic... you gave up using your spellbook
years ago. You can snap your fingers and do magic, what use
is a dusty old tome? You can figure the rest out as you go.
Cantrips
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 1st level, you know three cantrips which you may choose
from the bard, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell lists. You
learn additional cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as
shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Mage table.
Casting Spells
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mage table shows how many spell slots you cast your
spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you
must expend a spell slot of the spell's level or higher. You
regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
You prepare each spell only once, imbuing it into your focus.
An effective shortcut around the age-old practice of
preparing spells each morning, you can cast each as many
times as your spell slots will allow.
Learning Spells
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Each time you gain access to a new level of spell, you learn a
single spell chosen from the bard, sorcerer, warlock, or
wizard spell list of the appropriate level.
Much like a wizard writing spells in their spell book, you may
use scrolls or other tomes you find along your way to change
the imbued spells in your focus, but your focus may only
carry one spell of each level.
Spellcasting Ability
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can choose between Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma
as your spellcasting ability for your Mage spells, since the
power of your spells relies on your knowledge of the occult.
You use your Spellcasting Ability whenever a spell calls for
it. In addition, you use your Spellcasting Ability Modifier
when setting the saving throw DC for a mage spell cast and
for setting an attack roll for one.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Spell
Casting Ability Modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your
Spellcasting Ability Modifier
Spellcasting Focus
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have been figuring things out on your own ever since
you abandoned your spellbook, and you've got a good
method now.
At 2nd level, choose a skill or a tool. Your proficiency bonus
is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the
chosen proficiency.
At 6th level, you can choose another skill or a tool
proficiency to gain this benefit.
Arcane Bolt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evocation cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: Somatic
Duration: Instantaneous
Your signature and masterpiece.
At 1st level, you gain Arcane Bolt as a bonus spell which you
may cast without using a spell slot. For purposes of
Counterspell & etc., this spell's level is equal to your
proficiency bonus.
Make a spell attack against a creature you can see within
range. The target has to make a dexterity saving throw on a
hit, Arcane Bolt deals a number of damage dice to the target
equal to your proficiency bonus. Each time you cast Arcane
Bolt, choose a unique damage type among acid, cold, fire,
force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and
thunder. You must complete a short or long rest before you
can cast arcane bolt with the same damage type again.
Starting at 1st level, roll d6 for damage. Increase the damage
die size by one at 6th (d8), 11th (d10) , and 15th level (d12).
Imbuing & Casting Spells
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mage table shows how many spell slots you have to cast
your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these
spells, you must expend a spell slot of the spell's level or
higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a
long rest. You prepare each spell only once, imbuing it into
your focus. As an effective shortcut around the age-old
practice of preparing spells each morning, you can cast each
as many times as your spell slots will allow.
When you find a spell of 1st level or higher of a spell list you
can imbue, if it is of a level for which you have a spell already
imbued you can spare the time to decipher and prepare it in
place of your current spell of the same level. This process
involves deciphering the written spell and the channeling of
magic between your focus and the object in which the found
spell is inscribed. You perform the ritual over the course of 1
hour, which can be done during a short rest. At the ritual's
completion, you have imbued the found spell in your focus
and can cast it as such. The source of the inscribed spell
(scroll, spellbook, etc.) now contains the spell that you had
prepared previously, no longer imbued.
Practice Makes Perfect
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have been figuring things out on your own ever since
you abandoned your spellbook, and you've got a good
method now.
At 2nd level, choose a skill or a tool. Your proficiency bonus
is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the
chosen proficiency.
At 6th level, you can choose another skill or a tool
proficiency to gain this benefit.
Tricks of The Trade
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not being up to the usual study of schools and books, the
Mage sets about a different means of getting by. Picking and
choosing to find the best path for themselves.
At 3rd, 7th, 10th, 14th, and 17th levels, a Mage may gain a
feature of any other class as long as a character of that class
could do so at that level or lower and can ignore any other
prerequisites associated to attaining the feature.
A feature which grants access to a single spell automatically
grants it as a bonus spell. You must still have your focus in
order to cast such a spell.
A feature which grants access to more than one spell
(Warlock patron spells, druid circle spells, etc) does not
grant bonus spells, but if you choose such a feature you may
choose from the spells it provides when learning spells of a
new level.
Features which go off of levels in a class are substituted with
levels in mage and progress as normal.
Alternatively, you can take feats instead of taking features.
You must still meet the prerequisites of these feats.
Ability Score Increase
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and
19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice
by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by
1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20
using this feature.
Efficient Spell
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 18th level, casting some spells has simply become second
nature.
When imbuing your focus, you may now have up to two
spells that are reduced by one spell level. Each of those
spells counts as being one spell level lower for figuring
which spell slot to spend when casting it, but not for what
spells you know.
If done on a 1st level spell, the spell becomes a cantrip that
takes no slot or material components unless the spell is cast
at higher levels for increased effect. Reducing a 1st level
spell to a cantrip is permanent, as cantrips cannot be
unlearned.
Permanency
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have been imbuing spells in your focus for so long that
you don't even have to think about it much to get the magic
flowing.
At 20th level, you may cast a spell which requires
concentration and keep it permanent without concentrating.
Alternatively, you can cast any spell which targets yourself
and keep it permanent with the same conditions. Any
condition that would end the spell other than time or
concentration will still end it. If the spell would be forcibly
dispelled or negated through means such as Counterspell or
Dispel Magic, your opponent must roll for success no matter
what level of spell slot they used to counter or dispel, if the
spell slot your opponent used to counter or dispell your spell
is equal to or lower than the spell level, the roll is made with
disadvantage. The DC for your permanent spell equals 12 +
the spell’s level. If the spell would be suppressed, such as by
an Antimagic Field, you may roll vs. your spellsave DC using
your spellcasting modifier. On a success, the spell is not
suppressed and cannot be suppressed for 1 minute.
You may only have one permanent spell active at a time.
Casting a second permanent spell ends the first.
Anartist
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anartists are skillful thaumaturges and exploiters able to
bend reality to their ideology, vision, or message. While not
necessarily terrorists, their art is often harmful to the
mundane public, as these pieces are made without
consideration for the danger it causes when not in a
paranormally safe setting. As such, many normalcy
preservation organizations declare many anartists in the
mundane world as terrorists and seek their capture and
detainment.
When choosing this background for your character you must
ask yourself these questions: Is your character self-taught?
Are they a natural at what they do, or must they work as hard
as they can? Is your character struggling or successful? If
they are indeed good at what they do, are they well known or
new to the anartist scene? Do they have a high opinion of
themselves or are they humble? What has brought them into
the world of freelancing? Did they choose to join a
paranormal freelance operation for inspiration? Or are they
caught in the midst of a mess they can’t get out of?
Skill Proficiencies: Arcana and Performance
Tool Proficiencies: Artist’s Tools
Equipment: One burglar’s pack, a set of artist’s tools, a
backpack and some clothes, and a wallet containing $15

Feature: The People’s Voice

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have made a name for yourself making works of anart
that point out the flaw in society, making fun of those in
charge, of religion, law enforcement. Though the suits,
skippers, and gawkers may not fancy your company, the
anomalous community love you for your satirical,
controversial, and potentially dangerous artwork.

Specialization
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not every anartist is great at everything. Though you may
dabble with the different types of artistry, there will always
be one thing that places you above the rest. What is that
thing? And are you the best?
Paranormal Agent
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are an experienced operative under the payroll of one of
the several active Groups of Interest, due to your knowledge
of the paranormal, the occult, or the anomalous. It could also
be simply because your survivability percentage is higher
than the rest of your squad.
You may have been tasked to stake out a location, keep an
eye out for one of your fellow party members, or maintain an
agency influence within multi-agency operations. Your higher
ups are expectant, and they trust you to do your duty, shut
your mouth, and accomplish your mission. Failure to do so
will result in termination and investigation.
Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, then choose one from,
Athletics, Stealth, Arcana, Perception, Deception
Tool Proficiencies: Choose two
Equipment: A Swiss pocketknife, a secret identification
token, a backpack & clothes, and a wallet containing $15

Feature: Briefing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prior to commencing a mission (adventure), you request an
overview and analysis of the area of operations from your
superiors. You are briefed via letter on the current situation
in the region and some lore about the area (at the DM's
discretion). This lore tends to relate to military threats,
hazards and potential assets (including some side-quests).
Additional information in a briefing may be included at the
DM's discretion. Additional letters may be sent at later dates
containing additional information.
 The Veiled City
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The City of Three Portlands, commonly called Three

Portlands, Three Ports (3Ports), or simply Portlands, is an
independent city-state and paranormal enclave located
within a self-contained pocket universe, accessible via Ways
located in and around Portland, Maine; Portland, Oregon;
and the Isle of Portland in the United Kingdom. With an
estimated permanent population of approximately 80,000
persons, Three Portlands is the largest paranormal enclave
in North America and is one of the most populous locations
to be entirely concealed behind the Veil.
Three Portlands' sovereignty has historically been
challenged by the United States, arising from the need to
monitor and limit access to the city in order to maintain
consensus normalcy. Since 1940, Three Portlands has been
in free association with the United States, which recognizes
and guarantees the city's autonomy while reserving the right
to enforce laws and regulations necessary to protect
normalcy within the adjacent regions of America.

New History
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The origins of Three Portlands are unknown, and the subject
of much speculation, but it is generally assumed that the city
did not exist prior to the incorporation of Portland, Oregon in
1851. Parahistorian L. Rowe has theorized that Three
Portlands may have been formed by the global thaumic
backlash from the 6th Occult War, which would place the
city's origin in the 1880s. The earliest reliable record of
Three Portlands is an internal memorandum of the British
Occult Service dating from 1899, documenting the activities
of various minor occult cabals in the south of England and
the adjacent multiverse; this memo indicates that Three
Portlands had been lightly populated for at least a decade at
that point, which closely matches Rowe's timeline.
In 1905, following negotiations with the native genius loci,
the BOS began using Three Portlands to house Sidhe
refugees from the ongoing collapse of Avalon. Although
many of these would eventually be relocated to isolated
portions of the Hebrides, the influx of displaced Sidhe
greatly increased the city's population and left a lasting
influence on its culture and future development. However,
aside from the Sidhe relocation efforts, British authorities
remained largely disinterested in Three Portlands, preferring
to focus their attentions on occult activities on Earth.
With the start of the First World War, the BOS became
committed to preventing an outbreak of occult warfare; most
British operatives in the city were recalled, leaving Three
Portlands to manage its own affairs. In 1915, a city council
was elected and a municipal government organized,
although this went unrecognized by British officials, who
continued their policy of treating the city as the demesne of
the native genius loci; this lasted until 1922, when the city
charter was amended to include the genius loci in the
government as the Mayor.
The near total absence of any paranormal authorities was
quickly capitalized upon by various criminal organizations,
who used the city's extensive Way network to evade US
customs authorities and — following the passage of the
Volstead Act — Prohibition agents. Even after the end of the
World War, the BOS did little to curb the growth of
paracrime, despite the increasing British presence within the
city. However, recognizing the strategic importance of the
city's Way network, British authorities began working to
actively conceal its existence from other normalcy
preservation agencies, including those of the United States
government.
Despite the efforts of their British counterparts, American
law enforcement discovered Three Portlands in 1929, after
Bureau of Prohibition agents managed to track the
operations of the bootlegging group known as the Chicago
Spirit to the city. In accordance with federal policy at the
time, the existence of the city was concealed, and all related
cases were transferred to the Bureau of Investigation. BOI
Director J. Edgar Hoover immediately began waging a
clandestine war against the Chicago Spirit within Three
Portlands. While early raids and sting operations were highly
successful, the BOI soon met opposition from the citizens
and city government, who resented the unprecedented
intrusion upon their autonomy, ultimately culminating in a
firefight between BOI agents and members of the city
council.
In response, Director Hoover had all known entrances to
Three Portlands within the United States placed under
siege, imprisoning anyone who attempted to enter or exit the
city. This standoff lasted for almost two months, only ending
with the intervention of President Herbert Hoover and the
formulation of the Hoover Mandate. Under the Hoover
Mandate, the United States would guarantee the autonomy
of Three Portlands; in return, federal agents would be
allowed to operate within the city to a limited degree.
Fearing furthering escalation, the city council eventually
accepted President Hoover's terms, despite protests from
many of the city's inhabitants.
The British response to the Hoover Mandate was extremely
negative, as the United States' guarantee of autonomy was
perceived as a threat to their expanding operations in the
city, particularly their use of the Way network. Although
direct confrontations between British and American agents
were rare, tensions remained high throughout the next
decade, as both sides made competing claims of jurisdiction
and sought to exercise exclusive authority within Three
Portlands. The outbreak of the 7th Occult War in 1939
finally encouraged the British Occult Service to seek a
rapprochement with the Unusual Incidents Unit, eventually
leading to the Howard-Grant Agreement in 1940, under
which the United Kingdom abandoned its claims on Three
Portlands in exchange for a number of wartime concessions.
During the 7th Occult War, Three Portlands played a
significant role as a clandestine supply route and shelter for
the Allied Occult Initiative4, with the AOI making extensive
use of the city's Way network to move personnel and
materiel between Britain and North America. As a result, in
1943, Three Portlands came under attack by a force of
Obskuracorps commandos and Thule battlemages, who
apportated onto the Isle of Portland and opened a Way into
the city, with the intention of seizing the ICSUT campus and
looting the AOI storehouse there. Despite the
unexpectedness of the attack, a combined force of UIU
agents and BOS operatives, alongside ICSUT faculty and
students, municipal police golems, and local citizens,
succeeded in repelling the assault.
The city grew rapidly in the post-war era, driven by a global
tightening of the Veil, which led to the mass expulsion of
parahumans, occultists, and anartists from urban areas in
Europe and North America, many of whom sought refuge in
paranormal enclaves such as Three Portlands and Backdoor
Soho. The city's status as a major paranormal freeport was
further cemented in 1956, when Prometheus Laboratories
chose to massively expand its operations in Three Portlands,
motivated by its unique taxation laws and its exemption from
most Veil regulations. Over the next few decades, Three
Portlands evolved to become a hub of both anartistic
endeavors and parascientific research, reflecting many of the
same cultural pressures that were shaping the adjacent
Portland, Oregon.
As part of the Howard-Grant Agreement, the UIU and the
BOS had both agreed to continue the policy of concealing
Three Portlands from most other normalcy preservation
agencies, with exceptions made during the 7th Occult War to
facilitate AOI operations. While these efforts were never
totally effective, especially given widespread awareness of
the city among the paranormal communities in adjacent
regions, they were deemed necessary to preserve the city's
status as a paranormal freeport. Following the
reorganization of the AOI into the Global Occult Coalition,
the primary focus of these efforts then became concealing
the city from the Foundation, which was — and still is —
viewed as the single largest threat to Three Portlands'
autonomy.
Although the Foundation's eventual discovery of the city was
largely viewed as inevitable, UIU agents, relying heavily on
memetic misinformation campaigns, succeeded in delaying
this event until 1970. This marked the start of a major shift
in relations between the UIU and Three Portlands residents,
ushering in an improvement of public opinion that swelled
even further following the death of Director Hoover in 1972.
Local recruiting into the UIU increased dramatically, and by
the end of the decade, almost a quarter of the Unit's irregular
agents were from Three Portlands.
Starting in the late 1970s, Three Portlands emerged as a
center for the nascent Maxwellist movement; the city's
thriving paratech industry and relaxed Veil made it a perfect
fit for the transhumanist religion, which was facing active
suppression efforts by major normalcy organizations on
Earth. As Maxwellism continued to spread throughout the
city and its paratech industry during the 1980s, the GOC
responded by orchestrating the creation of Eurtec, a
paranormal freeport controlled by one of its member
organizations, with the intention of establishing a competing
hub of parascientific research under its own oversight.
Under the GOC's sponsorship, Eurtec rapidly grew to rival
Three Portlands, leading to a gradual erosion of the city's
paratech industry.
The decline of the city's paratech industry was further
exacerbated by the economic shock from the end of the Cold
War and its accompanying anomalous arms race. While
Eurtec offered generous bailouts to local businesses, Three
Portlands' paratech companies were left to weather the
downturn on their own, resulting in the near total collapse of
the city's paratech industry, culminating in the closure of the
Three Portlands offices of Prometheus Labs. At the same
time, organized paracrime was beginning to return to the
city, this time in the form of the Lighthouse Mafia.
The city finally began to recover with the start of the new
millennium, due in large part to the efforts of Portland native
Vincent Anderson and his paratech startup, Anderson
Robotics. Taking advantage of the void left by Prometheus
Labs, Anderson established his corporate headquarters in
Three Portlands and rapidly expanded, spurring a revival of
the city's local industry. This, along with his numerous
philanthropic contributions throughout the city, helped
endear Anderson to Portlands' population, particularly its
large Maxwellist contingent.
This popular support made it politically unfeasible for the
UIU to take action against Anderson, a fact which he
exploited to circumvent — and eventually ignore outright —
federal and international restrictions on paratech
development. This flagrant disregard for normalcy eventually
drew the attention of the Foundation, which launched a
protracted campaign against Anderson and his operations,
with limited success. Anderson further consolidated his
company in Three Portlands, using the Hoover Mandate to
shield himself from Foundation reprisals.
The stalemate between Anderson Robotics, the UIU, and the
Foundation lasted until 2018, when it was discovered that
Anderson had used his Saker androids to infiltrate the
United States Government. A warrant for his arrest was
issued and he vanished from public life — both the
Foundation and the UIU believed he had been taken into
Foundation custody. However, Anderson Robotics continued
operating with Anderson secretly in control, until his final
capture in 2024 by a joint task force of the Foundation and
the UIU. The accompanying raid on Anderson Robotics'
Headquarters in downtown Three Portlands was the largest
concerted UIU action in the city since Hoover's Siege,
leading to widespread protests and a decline in public
opinion of the Bureau to the lowest levels of the post-Hoover
era.
Anomalous Urbanites
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Portlands is by far the largest paranormal enclave in
North America, with an estimated 80,000 persons
permanently residing in the city. The current number of
people at any given time is often greater than this, due to the
large transient population which passes through the city
each day; as many as 2000 persons with full-time jobs in
Three Portlands live in one of the adjacent Portlands on
Earth, relying on Ways to commute to work; an even larger
number of occultists and anartists travel to the city
sporadically to purchase supplies and procure services. As a
result, it is difficult to produce a complete and accurate
assessment of the city's demographics, a problem
compounded by the lack of any kind of comprehensive
census.
With its connections to two major American cities and the
United Kingdom, Three Portlands has developed a unique
multinational character. The dominant Anglo-American
culture has seen significant influence from the sizable Sidhe
minority, and the city's status as a paranormal freeport has
attracted parahumans from many different nations and
cultures, all of whom have contributed to Three Portlands'
diversity. As a general rule, Portlandsers tend to be
distrustful of authority, especially external authority;
individual expression and liberty is highly valued, but there is
a strong undercurrent of mutualism throughout Three
Portlands — this is particularly pronounced among local
Maxwellists, who are responsible for many charitable
ventures within the city.
Three Portlands has the largest Sidhe population outside of
New Avalon and is a major center of Sidhe culture. The
distinctive architectural styles of the Sidhe can be found in
many buildings, including the exterior facade of City Hall.
The Sidhe language of Modern Celtic is common throughout
the city, and shares status with English as one of Three
Portlands' two official languages, with nearly all signs and
notices made in both; while full fluency in Modern Celtic is
rare outside of Sidhe communities, most native Portlandsers
possess a limited degree of fluency, and Portlands English
has assimilated many pieces of Sidhe vocabulary.
While artists make up a much smaller proportion of the
population than they do in anartist enclaves like Backdoor
Soho, Three Portlands is widely renowned within the
paranormal community for its thriving art scene. Public
displays and performances are common, and the relaxed Veil
within the city allows for anart to be displayed openly
alongside more mundane works. While Three Portlands is
best known for its visual arts, with numerous galleries
displaying works of painting and sculpture scattered across
the city, it has a notable performance art community as well.
Cambium Circle hosts local theater troupes on weekdays
and public concerts on weekends, and the infamous All
Orpheum Theatre is occasionally located in the city.
Almost half of Three Portlands' residents identify as having
no religious affiliation, although only a tenth of these
(representing approximately 5% of the total population)
describe themselves as atheists. Christianity and other
"conventional" religions are a minority within the city, with
the largest faith being Sidhe ancestor veneration (12% of the
population, largely among the Sidhe minority). This is closely
followed by Maxwellism (11% of the population), which has
been steadily increasing in popularity since its emergence in
the 1970s. In contrast, non-Maxwellist Mekhanite faiths are
a considerable minority, with less than 1% of the population
identifying as Mekhanite but not Maxwellist.
Living Lands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The pocket universe containing Three Portlands is a finite 3-
space bounded by two elliptic paraboloids. Local gravity is
oriented downwards along the central axis, allowing for a
distinction between the upper and lower paraboloids. The
lower paraboloid is a solid surface which constitutes the
ground; the constant gravitational vector and the curvature of
the ground surface combine to produce a gentle but
noticeable slope. Three Portlands occupies a roughly
circular area upon this surface, centered around the lowest
point of the ground paraboloid. While the curvature of the
ground is extremely shallow, it still makes it possible to see
any point of the city from any other point, resulting in an
inverted horizon that can be extremely disorienting for
newcomers.
Three Portlands has no natural astronomical or
meteorological events, although a day/night cycle and
weather are provided by the Mayor. The upper paraboloid
which encloses the pocket universe is used as a skybox; a
point light is projected onto this surface to produce daylight,
moving across the skybox in mimicry of the sun. Solar time
as provided by this artificial sun approximates that of
Portland, Maine, although sunrise and sunset times may
differ by as much as an hour. Weather, mostly in the form of
rain, closely emulates the current weather of the adjacent
regions of Earth.
The ground surface of Three Portlands is constantly
expanding away from the city center. The rate of this
expansion is normally imperceptible, but results in the
gradual outward migration of almost all permanent
structures. At a distance of approximately 3 miles from the
city center, there is an impassable, invisible barrier imposed
by the Mayor, which delineates the outer edge of the city,
called the Periphery. The ground surface continues for an
unknown distance beyond the barrier, forming a region
known as the Outer Periphery; local reality in this region
gradually degrades with increasing distance from the city
center, producing a transition layer between the pocket
universe and Outside unspace. Old buildings are abandoned
as the expansion of the city pushes them into the Outer
Periphery, where they eventually pass into the Outside and
deconceptualize.
While most buildings in Three Portlands inevitably move
towards the Periphery as a result of the city's expansion,
there are a handful of structures that are anchored in place
relative to the city center, providing a set of fixed landmarks.
These anchor points can disrupt the normal outwards flow of
the ground, causing distortions in the polar street grid and
potentially even creating tears in the underlying surface that
expose the Outside. As a result, the City Council has placed
tight restrictions on anchoring parts of the city; most existing
anchor points were created by the Mayor, with only a small
number of independent anchorings maintained by private
thaumaturges.
The most prominent anchor point is the city center itself,
Three Portlands Plaza where City Hall and other municipal
government buildings are located. The Plaza is surrounded
by Cambium Circle, where the city's outward growth
originates. The rapid pace of expansion in the Circle makes
it unsuitable for development, and as a result it sees use as a
public park. At semi-regular intervals, once enough
expansion has taken place, the outer edge of the Circle is
sectioned off and zoned for new development, allowing for
the replacement of buildings lost to the Outer Periphery.
The largest anchor point is Prometheus Plaza. Created in
1956 as part of an urban planning experiment aimed at
establishing a downtown area, Prometheus Plaza hosted the
local headquarters of Prometheus Labs, after whom the
Plaza was named. The Plaza developed into a mixed-use
industrial and commercial district occupied by a variety of
parabusinesses that desired permanent leaseholds in the
city. However, the size of the Plaza caused a major
disruption to the city's surface expansion, which resulted in
the Docks District. Situated on the leeward side of the Plaza,
this region of the city is marked by gaping chasms in the
ground surface that expose the Outside. Reality near these
chasms is extremely thin, giving rise to the densest cluster of
Ways in the city, which have made the area a major transport
hub.
Other notable anchorings include Memorial Park and the
ICSUT campus, a pair of points located near the Periphery.
The ICSUT campus anchors itself using advanced
architectural sorcery, and forms the largest anchor point not
maintained by the Mayor. The adjacent Memorial Park was
created by the City Council to preserve the site of the Battle
of Portlands, and contains the 7th Occult War Memorial.
Due to its proximity to a major GOC affiliate and the residual
anchoring effects near the campus, the area around
Memorial Park hosts offices and embassies for many
representatives of the global paranormal community,
including the Sidhe Consulate and the local Gormogon
Wedge.
In addition to anchor points, Shadows provide another type
of landmark in the city. Shadows are metaphysical
projections of locations and events in the adjacent Portlands.
While anchor points maintain a fixed location relative to the
city center, Shadows maintain a fixed location relative to
each other and the city's Way network. Under normal
circumstances, Shadows are imperceptible and non-
corporeal; however, various occult workings exist that can
render a Shadow visible, and certain structures, such as
lighthouses, have reality stabilizing properties that cause
their Shadows to manifest naturally. There are eight such
lighthouse Shadows in Three Portlands, which serve as
valuable navigational aids for the Way network, due to their
strong manifestations and high visibility.
Three Portlands' street plan is arranged along a polar grid,
with straight "spoke" streets radiating from the city center,
connected by concentric rings at irregular intervals. There
are numerous narrow alleyways between buildings, created
by the expansion of the ground beneath the city. As Three
Portlands is primarily a pedestrian city, these roads are not
designed for motor vehicles and are largely inaccessible to
them; moreover, the City Council maintains a city-wide ban
on personal automobiles and heavy motor vehicles, with only
a few limited exemptions. Instead, personal transportation is
provided by several cab companies operating auto-
rickshaws, which are able to navigate through Portlands'
narrow streets.
In addition to these auto-rickshaws, Three Portlands has a
robust mass transit system based on street-level trolleys.
These trolleys run along all major spoke and ring streets at
regular intervals, with a special express line connecting
Prometheus Plaza and Three Portlands Plaza. Use of the
trolley system is free to all, except for members of the FBI;
the city offers a monthly transit pass to members of the UIU
for $20, with the Bureau providing compensation for this
cost to agents who request it.
While electrical and hydraulic utilities are provided by the
city through the Mayor, Three Portlands' communications
infrastructure is much more patchwork. City-wide intranet
access is provided via a combination of Maxwellist network
hubs, cafe WiFi, and independently maintained point-to-point
hardlines. This intranet is not connected to the global
internet, and as a result is not subject to the information
sanitization that would normally be required by the Veil. The
Three Portlands intranet has its own forms of social media,
the most popular being Void, which is essentially a local
clone of Twitter.
Connections to the global internet are provided via the
Prometheus Labs Aethernet protocol and were formerly
handled by that company at the behest of the city. Following
the breakup of the Prometheus conglomerate, the city
purchased a fifty percent stake in Prometheus' former
Aethernet subsidiary and reconstituted it as Asterism
Communications to serve as a municipal ISP. Asterism has
partnered with local Maxwellists in an effort to expand and
consolidate Portlands' patchwork intranet and internet
infrastructure, although progress in this venture is slow.
Outgoing internet traffic is required to pass through UIU
filtering servers to ensure compliance with the Veil, which
has hampered the addition of more Aethernet access points.
Golemancy & Thaumaturgy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Portlands lacks a local currency; as a result, most
business is conducted using the US dollar and the British
pound sterling. In addition, there is a well-developed barter
economy within the city; geas work contracts are often used
to guarantee delivery of promised services, allowing for the
direct exchange of goods for labor. This sector of the
economy is largely unregulated and uncontrolled, despite the
best efforts of the Unusual Incidents Unit and the Infernal
Revenue Service.
The city's labor economy is almost entirely based upon
golem workers, and the local golem-makers union,
Golemancy United, exercises significant political and
economic power within the city. Golems fill jobs in
manufacturing and construction, supplement the ranks of
the local police force to perform crowd control and security
duties, and are involved in the operations of city services
such as sanitation and transit. While the replacement of
human labor with golems has allowed many residents to
pursue creative and scientific endeavors, it has also resulted
in widespread unemployment. Attempts to relieve this
problem by limiting the use of golems has met stiff
opposition from Golemancy United; at this time, there are no
city ordinances regulating the type or number of golems a
business can employ, and this is unlikely to change in the
near future.
Much of the city's overalll economy is based around the local
paratech industry, which contains a large amount of
sensitive manufacturing that cannot be handled by golems.
This industry is based out of Prometheus Plaza in the
downtown area, but many startups which lack capital for a
lease in the Plaza rent space throughout the city. While the
industry is anchored by a number of relatively stable
companies, such as Anderson Robotics and Vanadox, the
current economy is dominated by venture-capital-funded
startups that often fail within the first few months of
operation. Even when successful, these companies often
suffer from high rates of employee turnover and chronic
stability problems, and their proliferation throughout the city
has enabled gentrification and led to housing shortages.
ICSUT and the GOC have remained relatively constant
factors in the city's economy since the 1940s, with ICSUT
Portlands receiving a large share of the GOC's research
contracts. In addition to student researchers, ICSUT
employs a large number of the city's residents in auxiliary
roles, and often partners with local companies to work on
major research projects. Over a hundred mechanics and
thaumic engineers are employed just in the maintenance of
the university's massive Everhart Resonators, and the GOC
often outsources paratech production contracts to ICSUT's
local partners.
The city government maintains title to all land in Three
Portlands, which is rented out through fixed-term leaseholds.
The fixed-term nature of these leases allows the City Council
to control zoning as buildings migrate towards the
Periphery, and the rents collected constitute the majority of
city revenues. While sub-letting is relatively common, rent
control policies and aggressive adverse possession laws are
in place in an attempt to limit the ability of landlords to
engage in rent seeking. Additionally, the city maintains a
number of public housing projects, in order to cope with the
high levels of unemployment within Three Portlands.
Despite these measures, housing shortages are still
common, with gentrification of the areas around Prometheus
Plaza resulting in the displacement of many low-income
residents.
With most city services maintained by the Mayor or operated
by golems, city revenues are primarily spent on public works
projects. The City Council provides endowment funds to
various anartistic and parascientific endeavors throughout
the city and employs numerous artists to design public art
installations. The daily public performances in Cambium
Circle are all paid for out of the city's art budget, with most
scheduling slots reserved for unemployed performers.
However, the efficacy of these programs is limited, due to the
golem monopoly on construction work, which is the normal
cornerstone of jobs programs. The City Council is currently
evaluating hiring citizens to act as guides for visitors,
although there are concerns that this would undercut the
local scam economy.
Education
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Portlands notably lacks a public school system;
attempts by the City Council to establish a local school
district have been met with resistance by the city's citizens,
citing concerns that the federal or municipal governments
could use it for indoctrination. Instead, primary education is
done through home schooling and independent community
schools. These independent schools are run as charitable
endeavors and are generally established and maintained by
the city's non-human inhabitants, as the human population
has the option of enrolling in one of the adjacent Portlands'
school systems (although this practice is discouraged by the
UIU due to the potential risks to normalcy it presents). While
rare, private for-profit schools also exist within the city,
although these are generally considered inferior to the
community schools they compete with.
In terms of secondary education, Three Portlands hosts a
number of occult and non-occult colleges. Three Portlands
Community College is the largest of these, with enrollment
open to all Portlands residents. TPCC offers two- and four-
year degree programs in a variety of mundane fields and
paratech disciplines, as well as a small anart studies
program. However, the college does not teach courses on
thaumatology beyond an introductory level and is generally
not considered an occult college as a result.
The city's occult colleges are dominated by ICSUT
Portlands, the Three Portlands campus and branch of the
International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology.
Established in 1941 as one of the concessions of the
Howard-Grant Agreement, ICSUT Portlands initially housed
the administrative headquarters of ICSUT, which were
relocated from London during the 7th Occult War. Since the
conclusion of the occult conflict, ICSUT Portlands has
grown to become a major technical and research university
in its own right, with the highest levels of enrollment of any
ICSUT campus. Offering extended degree programs
focusing on advanced occult studies, ICSUT Portlands
attracts students from across the globe.
The other major occult college in Three Portlands is the
local Deer College. Founded in 1948 and anchored to the
Shadow of Reed College, Deer is often seen as the liberal
arts counterpart to ICSUT Portlands, and the two schools
have a well-developed rivalry. Deer's thaumatology
curriculum is much less technically inclined, and instead
focuses on combining mundane and occult studies. The
college's anart program is generally well regarded and is
considered one of the institution's cornerstones. While it
lacks the lucrative GOC research partnerships of its rival Three Portlands is also a major recruiting ground for the
ICSUT, Deer benefits from several generous endowments, UIU's irregular agents, as its diverse parahuman population
including one from Anderson Robotics, which it uses to fund offers many talented individuals willing to work for the
scholarships for non-human students. Bureau. This is especially true in the wake of Director
Hoover's death in 1972, as the UIU's popularity in the city
The Mayor has risen considerably — although recent events involving
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anderson Robotics have done much to damage the Bureau's
The municipal government of Three Portlands is organized reputation. Joint operations with the Foundation through
under a Mayor-Council model, with the Three Portlands City Joint Task Force Delta-3 have provided supplementary
Council exercising combined legislative and executive manpower to deal with crisis operations, such as the raid on
functions under the nominal oversight of the Mayor. The City Anderson Robotics Headquarters, but over-reliance on
Council is a unicameral body, whose members are selected Foundation agents risks compromising the Hoover Mandate,
by city-wide election using a single transferable vote system and may further damage public opinion of the UIU. Due to
to achieve proportional representation. All permanent this, plans for further joint operations in Three Portlands are
residents of Three Portlands above the age of majority are currently on hold.
entitled to vote in these elections; notably, Three Portlands is
one of the few municipalities to allow ghosts to vote.
The City Council is responsible for drafting and passing
municipal ordinances and regulations, as well as carrying
out the day-to-day business of the city. The Mayor's role in
the city government is largely a formality, as it rarely
participates in the City Council's deliberations. Instead, as
the native genius loci of Three Portlands, the Mayor is
ultimately responsible for the overall health of the city — the
day/night cycle, weather, ground expansion, periphery
barriers, anchoring points, and electrical and hydraulic
utilities are all controlled directly by the Mayor, although it is
suspected that much of this control is exercised passively or
unconsciously. While the City Council is able to
communicate directly with the Mayor when needed, this is a
rare occurrence.
Local law enforcement in the city is provided by the Three
Portlands Police Department, which is comprised of a small
officer corps supplemented by volunteer auxiliaries and
special security golems. Due to the Unusual Incidents Unit
holding primary jurisdiction over most major investigations,
including investigations of all felonies, the focus of the Three
Portlands Police Department is largely on crime prevention
and community outreach. TPPD provides security to major
local events, runs regular patrols throughout the city to deter
vandalism and violence, and assists the UIU in its
investigations when necessary.
Three Portlands operates its own municipal courts, which
cover violations of city ordinances and handle most civil
cases arising in the city. Federal judicial functions are
performed by the United States Domestic Security Court for
Three Portlands, one of the seven Domestic Security courts
responsible for handling Veil-related cases. The USDS Court
for Three Portlands is responsible for authorizing local UIU
warrants, trying criminal cases brought by the Special US
Attorney, and hearing civil lawsuits outside the jurisdiction of
the municipal courts. All proceedings of the Domestic
Security Court are done under geas-seal, in order to preserve
the integrity of the Veil.
Federal authority in Three Portlands stems from the Hoover
Mandate, first issued in 1929, and upheld in the Compact of
Free Association signed between Three Portlands and the
United States in the wake of the Howard-Grant Agreement.
The terms of the Hoover Mandate grant the UIU primary
criminal jurisdiction within the city, and exclusive
jurisdiction over matters related to the maintenance of the
Veil. Due to the size of the city, the local UIU field office is
the largest of any paranormal enclave, and is second only to
the Miami field office in caseload.
Groups of Interest
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many organizations that operate behind the Veil,
either wholly concealed within or straddling the border
between the paranormal and the normal. Their purposes are
many and range from upholding the Veil to tearing it down,
but their methods are often the same, relying on the
application of paratech to compensate for the deficiencies in
manpower and funding that are nearly omnipresent among
the paranormal community. To this end, almost every major
organization that operates within the confines of the Veil is
involved in parascience research to some degree, as it is the
surest way to gain an edge against potential rivals.
While no two organizations are exactly alike, most of the
groups that operate behind the Veil can be placed into one of
four categories, based on their goals and structure.
Npo & Npa
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By far the largest players in the paranormal community,
normalcy preservation organizations and national
paranormal agencies responsible for maintaining the Veil, a
task which they often refer to as protecting normalcy.
Comprising a mix of clandestine units of national agencies
and independent international conspiracies, these
organizations are also the ones responsible for forming the
consensus on what normalcy is. As the custodians of the
Veil, these organizations are tasked with regulating the
paratech industry and policing the paranormal community —
and with backing and funding from national governments,
they are among the few groups able to consistently project
force against other Veiled actors.
However, this power is not absolute. The sheer size of the
Veil often forces normalcy preservation organizations into
compromises and half-measures, and the restrictions on the
development and proliferation of paratech ironically make
them dependent on the same organizations they are tasked
with regulating. These conflicts of interest often give
paratech developers a great deal of leeway in following
regulations, so long as they make a token effort at
compliance.
The Foundation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The largest of the normalcy preservation organizations, the
Foundation is a global conspiracy unaffiliated with any
national government, with numerous fronts, facilities, and
personnel around the world. The entire organization is
headed by an Overseer Council composed of 13 anomalous
(or otherwise) individuals whose true identities are known
only to each other. The Foundation's stated mission is the
acquisition, containment, and study of anomalous objects for
the safety and benefit of humanity, although its true motives
have been questioned by other normalcy preservation
organizations. Despite an institutional and ideological
opposition to the use of anomalous objects, it will resort to
the use of paratechnology and other well-understood
anomalies when circumstances require.
The Foundation is bureaucratically divided into dozens of
departments, divisions, directorates, and task forces, all
operating on strict compartmentalization of information.
Some of the more notable ones are listed below:
Department of Analytics — The Foundation's primary signals
intelligence apparatus, the Department of Analytics is tasked
with collecting and analyzing a wide variety of information
from nearly every imaginable source. They possess
significant operational and support capabilities of their own,
and thus are able to function almost entirely independent of
the rest of the Foundation.
Records and Information Security Administration — The
archival and IT department of the Foundation, responsible
for maintaining and securing Foundation records and
communications. Almost every piece of information collected
by the Foundation passes through RAISA multiple times,
although there are certain highly-secret projects which do
not generate RAISA records, instead reporting only to the
Overseer Council.
Global Occult Coalition
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Global Occult Coalition is an international normalcy
preservation agency backed by the United Nations, formed
from the Allied Occult Initiative after the end of the Seventh
Occult War. It is approximately equal to the Foundation in
power and reach, and shares a similar goal of protecting
humanity and preserving normalcy. However, the GOC
differs in its methods, choosing to rely heavily on widespread
use of paratech in its operations, and prioritizing a policy of
destruction of dangerous anomalous objects rather than
containment.
The GOC is composed of over 100 individual organizations
involved in the occult and paranormal, including a number of
national paranormal agencies. Some of the more notable
ones are listed below:
a. Ancient Noble Order of the Gormogons. Founded in the
18th century to oppose the Freemasons, the Gormogons
have evolved into a corps of demolition experts specializing
in destroying anomalous structures and breaking defensive
wards.
b. British Occult Service. The primary paranormal agency of
the United Kingdom, the British Occult Service was formed
in reaction to the Sixth Occult War, and has played a leading
role in normalcy preservation efforts since that time.
c. International Center for the Study of Unified
Thaumatology. The largest occult college in the world, the
ICSUT is one of the GOC's biggest research partners.
Founded in 1913, ICSUT specializes in the study and
teaching of thaumatology — the scientific investigation of the
mystic and occult. ICSUT has campuses all around the
world, including locations in London, Zurich, and Three
Portlands.
d. Holy Order of Knights Templar, Reformed. Officially
disbanded in 1312 by Pope Clement, the Templar Knights
remained in hiding until 1939, when they reformed to
oppose the Obskuracorps and found the Allied Occult
Initiative. They played a decisive role in the Seventh Occult
War, providing the bulk of troops for AOI commando teams.
e. Servants of the Silicon Nornir. A transhumanist religion,
the Servants believe that their purpose is to bring about the
creation of the "True Silicon Goddess" — a benevolent
hyperintelligence that will shepherd humanity into the future
— by hastening the onset of the technological singularity. To
this end, they follow a trio of precognitive sentient
supercomputers — named Urthor, Verthandi, and Skuldir
after the Norns of Norse mythology — which direct them in
their efforts.
f. Universalist Order of the Æsir. A cult of Scandinavian
neopaganists, highly regarded for their extensive knowledge
of runic thaumaturgy, particularly divination. The Order
believes that the GOC is the instrument through which
humanity will be unified to fight against Ragnarok.
g. World Parahealth Organization. The paranormal arm of
the World Health Organization, tasked with combating
memetic pathogens, infectious curses, psychic parasites, and
other paranormal diseases.
Unusual Incidents Unit
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The FBI's Unusual Incidents Unit is the primary domestic
paranormal agency of the United States, tasked with
enforcing paratech regulations and upholding the Veil. Due
to a limit of means and jurisdiction, the UIU largely focuses
on investigating paranormal crimes and covering-up
anomalous incidents. One of their most important functions
is policing the numerous pocket universes within the US,
which act as enclaves for the paranormal community. To
compensate for personnel and budgetary limits, the UIU
extensively employs parahumans and anomalous individuals
as 'irregular agents', especially within paranormal enclaves
where their presence is less noticeable.
GRU Division “P”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the Soviet Union's two major paranormal agencies,
GRU-P was created during the Second World War to protect
the Soviet Union from paranormal and occult threats, and to
utilize esoteric weaponry against the country's enemies.
With the onset of the Cold War and the paratech arms race,
the division's role was expanded to include recovery and
reverse engineering of anomalous objects and paratech. In
this role, it performed corporate espionage and theft of
intellectual property on a number of foreign companies and
agencies.
With the end of the Cold War, GRU-P has found itself as the
sole remaining paranormal agency of the Russian
Federation. Its operations are now focused largely on
dealing with the black market for anomalous objects and
paratech that has arisen in post-communist Russia.
Joint Occult Venture of Europe
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Joint Occult Venture of Europe is a multinational
paranormal organization composed of various European
national paranormal agencies and loosely affiliated with the
European Union. Organized along similar lines to Frontex,
JOVE performs a role similar to that of the American UIU,
maintaining the Veil within Europe and policing paranormal
enclaves. Extremely limited in personnel and funding, JOVE
primarily acts as a facilitator and coordinator for the multiple
national and international organizations operating within
Europe.
The catalyst for JOVE's formation, and the primary focus of
its few field operations, are the expanding activities of the
paracrime syndicate Scarlet Hammer and the accompanying
influx of illegal Soviet paratech into Western Europe. In this
role, JOVE has been instrumental in coordinating the multi-
agency response to incidents of paraweapon trafficking
across national and international borders.
Paratech Industries
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
medicine but remains committed to the continued
development and support of ANAs.
ii. Archimedes. Formerly Archimedes Solar, a subsidiary of
Almost every Veiled group of significance operates their own Prometheus Energy, Archimedes rebranded itself and
parascience research effort, but there are numerous widened the scope of its operations following the collapse of
organizations dedicated solely or primarily to the study of Prometheus Labs. The core of Archimedes remains centered
parascience and the creation of paratechnologies. Many of on solar power generation, but the company has expanded
these groups date back to the Paranormal Renaissance, into related areas such as heating, electrical wiring,
where they played an instrumental role in the early desalination, and wireless power transmission.
development of modern parascience. iii. Argo Automotives. Known as Prometheus Automobile
Although some focus only on advancing the frontiers of Group prior to the collapse of the conglomerate, Argo
scientific knowledge, most researchers of parascience are Automotives operated from 1998 to 2009, when it was
also engaged in the supply of paratech products to the world forced into liquidation following the failure of the
behind the Veil. And while the constraints of the Veil make it paraeconomic investment strategy it had relied on for
impossible to openly market paratech, many companies have funding. During this time, it had a reputation for selling high-
found ways of circumventing these restrictions; the tech, high-performance vehicles.
dominance in paratech development by a handful of major iv. Iris Arts. Originally an offshoot of Prometheus Chemicals,
suppliers gives them a great deal of influence with normalcy Iris Arts was an early venture into mass commercialization
preservation organizations, allowing them to take advantage of paratech marketed at individual members of the
of regulatory loopholes with relative impunity. paranormal community. The company's core product line
consists of a variety of art supplies intended for use by
Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. anartists living in paranormal enclaves.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v. Redzone Security. A software company specializing in
At one point the largest manufacturer of paratechnology in
creating programs for anomalous applications, formed by the
the world, Prometheus Labs was founded in 1892 as a
core development team of Prometheus Software Solutions
closely held corporation with the goal of researching
in 1998. It is also responsible for maintaining the servers
anomalous phenomena in order to develop new technologies
that made up the Prometheus Labs intranet, which has kept
for the benefit of humanity. The company played a pivotal
this network available, to a limited extent, to Prometheus'
role in the advancements of the Paranormal Renaissance,
successor companies.
emerging as a leader of parascientific research at the start of
vi. Silver Hand Cybernetics. Previously the Prosthetics
the 20th century. During the 7th Occult War, Prometheus
Division of Prometheus Medical, Silver Hand Cybernetics
Labs lent its significant technological expertise to the Allied
developed products almost exclusively for sale to the
coalition, resulting in major research and supply contracts
paranormal community. It operated from 1998 until 2004,
with the GOC and national paranormal agencies in the
when it was bought out by its primary competitor, Anderson
immediate post-war era — setting the stage for the
Robotics.
company's explosive growth in the Golden Age of Normalcy.
vii. Titan Consumer Appliances and Electronics. Formerly
Riding on the front of the post-war paratech bubble,
Prometheus Consumer Technologies, Titan Consumer
Prometheus Labs rapidly expanded, buying out competitors
Appliances and Electronics took on its current name and
and incorporating new subsidiaries to become a global
branding in 1999. Titan focuses on developing consumer
research conglomerate and the undisputed titan of paratech.
applications for paratech, a goal which often brings it into
At its peak, the conglomerate employed almost 300,000
conflict with normalcy preservation agencies.
people and had net revenues of approximately $75 billion,
with its numerous subsidiaries providing a vast array of
mundane and paranormal products, ranging from
dishwashers to cruise missiles.
The end of the Cold War brought an abrupt end to the
Golden Age paratech bubble, leaving Prometheus Labs in
dire financial straits — made even worse by the company's
heavy reliance on esoteric investment techniques. A series of
catastrophic research accidents in the late 90s managed to
finally push the company over the brink of insolvency in the
early months of 1998. Over the next few months, the
company was dismantled piecemeal — its many subsidiaries
either bought-out by competitors or spun-off as independent
ventures — and in September 1998, the primary holding
company was finally dissolved, irrevocably splintering the
once-massive conglomerate.
Of the many companies to emerge from the breakup of
Prometheus Labs, some of the more notable ones are listed
below:
i. Amrita Therapeutics. Formerly a subsidiary of Prometheus
Bioengineering, Amrita Therapeutics rebranded itself after
the collapse to continue manufacturing the highly profitable
All-Natural Automatons. In recent years, Amrita has begun
expanding into the development and commercialization of
stem-cell based technologies in the field of regenerative
Anderson Robotics
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once a rising force in the paratech trade, Anderson Robotics
was a cybernetics and robotics startup founded in 1994 by
Vincent Anderson. Taking advantage of the disruption
caused by the end of the Golden Age of Normalcy, Anderson
Robotics quickly came to dominate a large segment of the
paratech market, combining sorcery and circuitry to create
cutting-edge prosthetics, hyperrealistic androids, and
beyond-state-of-the-art combat drones. Led by its brilliant but
egotistical founder, Anderson Robotics openly flouted
regulations on paratech, eventually drawing the ire of the
Foundation, and later the UIU.
In 2024, following almost two decades of investigation and
unsuccessful sting operations, a joint Foundation-UIU task
force performed a raid on the Anderson Robotics World
Headquarters in Three Portlands, capturing most of the
company's upper management — including Vincent
Anderson — and putting an end to its global operations. In
the wake of Anderson's downfall, a number of ex-employees
went on to form Phoenix Cybernetics, a new cybernetics
startup built around the core of the former Anderson R&D
team. This new company is committed to avoiding
Anderson's mistakes, and is being closely monitored by the
UIU.
Oneiroi Incorporated
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally conceived in the 1960s as an offshoot of
Prometheus Labs' expeditions into metafictional space,
Oneiroi Inc provides a wide variety of esoteric services, from
tailored dream vacations and subconscious behavioural
therapy to data storage and retrieval within metafictional
facilities. The technological foundation for these activities is
poorly understood by anyone outside of Oneiroi Inc, and the
company's reclusive and frequently anonymous leadership is
more than happy to keep it that way.
Oneiroi's experiments with metafiction and dreamspace
have often aroused the suspicion of normalcy preservation
agencies, although the nature of said experiments makes it
difficult to prove anything. Some of the company's clients
claim to have experienced unusual and disturbing side-
effects following treatments, including vivid but sporadic
visions of another world and recurring meetings with an
unidentifiable figure. The nature and similarity of these
symptoms has led the World Parahealth Organization to
label Oneiroi technologies as a potential vector for cognitive
pathogens, although Oneiroi Incorporated refutes these
claims.

The Factory
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite being one of the largest suppliers of anomalous raw
materials, the entity known as the Factory has no known
investors, board of directors, executive officers, or even
manufacturing facilities. What is known is that they act as a
supplier of anomalous materials and components to other
paratechnology companies, although the quality of these
materials is often suspect. Despite its poor reputation, the
decline of the paratech industry since the end of the Cold
War has left many paratech companies with no other
suppliers, forcing them to turn to the Factory.

Marshall, Carter & Dark, Ltd.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although primarily a "gentlemen's club" catering to the
super-rich, Marshall, Carter and Dark also engage in the
buying and reselling of paratechnology. They act as a sort of
middleman for the paratech industry, establishing links
between suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers of
finished goods, and consumers of paratech products. They
benefit greatly from their client base in this role, using their
connections among the global elite to orchestrate highly
profitable exchanges with relative immunity from normalcy
preservation organizations.
Religions & Initiatives
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While parascience is the result of applying the tools of the
scientific method to paranormal phenomena, it should come
as no surprise that there are those who instead turn to
religion for answers when confronted with the inexplicable
and unknown. Emerging out of the discoveries of the
Paranormal Renaissance, numerous anomalous religions
flourish behind the Veil, despite frequently coming into
conflict with normalcy preservation agencies that seek to
suppress the spread of information which serves as the basis
of their beliefs.
Although frequently non-religious or non-denominational in
nature, the handful of humanitarian groups that operate
behind the Veil share a similar status as the anomalous
religions. Lacking the clout of major paratech suppliers, and
often advocating policies in opposition to the Veil, such
humanitarian interests face intense scrutiny from normalcy
preservation organizations.
Church of The Broken God
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Church of the Broken God is not a single monolithic
religious institution; instead, the term refers to the diverse
collection of neo-Mekhanite cults and denominations which
share a common origin and central dogma. Modern
Mekhanism traces its origins to the archeological efforts of
the Paranormal Renaissance, which were responsible for
recovering many artifacts and texts of the ancient and extinct
Mekhanite religion. Neo-Mekhanites base their beliefs on
modern reconstructions of these ancient Mekhanite sources,
although the fragmented nature of the recovered texts means
that there is a great variety of competing interpretations.
All Mekhanite sects can be described as deistic and gnostic
— sharing a common belief in a deity which has been
rendered inert and fragmented, trapping the divine spark
within the physical world. Mekhanites believe that organic
life is a corruption of the material perfection of the universe,
and seek to reunify the disparate fragments of their god in
order to bring about a technological apotheosis. Many
Mekhanites engage in radical body modification, replacing
biological tissues and organs with mechanical — and often
anomalous — components to "purify" themselves, which they
believe will bring them closer to the divine perfection of their
god. It is this process of mechanization that has brought
Mekhanites into conflict with normalcy preservation
organizations, forcing them to keep their evangelizing behind
the Veil.
Of the many Mekhanite sects which can be considered part
of the Church of the Broken God, there are several major
denominations which are particularly notable.
a. The Broken Church. The oldest neo-Mekhanite
denomination, and the closest thing to an orthodox church
among modern Mekhanites. The Broken Church first
emerged in the 1920s, partially in reaction to the horrors of
the First World War, basing their new theology on the then
recent discoveries of ancient Mekhanite artifacts. Further
discoveries over the next few decades led to a refinement
and codification of religious dogma and institutional
structure, with Robert Bumaro emerging as the undisputed
leader of the sect by 1946. The Broken Church believes that
the fragments of Mekhane have a physical form and seek to
literally reassemble their god from these pieces. They are
dedicated to acquiring said pieces for this purpose, although
many supposed fragments of Mekhane happen to be
dangerous anomalous objects in the custody of normalcy
preservation organizations.
b. Church of Maxwellism. Emerging in the 1960s and 70s as
an offshoot of the Broken Church, Maxwellism takes a
syncretic approach to Mekhanite theology, combining
modern (para)technology with ancient Mekhanite scriptures
to create a decentralized church with a flexible dogma.
Maxwellists believe that the fragments of the Broken God do
not have a physical form, and that they are instead spread
throughout the entire expanse of human consciousness and
culture. Maxwellists seek to create a single computational
network connecting every human mind and containing all
human knowledge, which they believe will result in the
reunification of their god and the apotheosis of humanity.
The Horizon Initiative
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A multi-denominational religious organization encompassing
the major Abrahamic faiths, the Horizon Initiative is a hybrid
religious order and normalcy preservation agency, formed in
the aftermath of the Seventh Occult War to counterbalance
the perceived dominance of secular groups in determining
consensus normalcy. Lacking the same level of funding and
support from national governments that the more
conventional normalcy preservation organizations receive,
the Horizon Initiative relies heavily on volunteers and
donations — and as a result, the Initiative is highly
decentralized, with the main corps of the organization
numbering less than a thousand people. Despite its best
efforts to achieve self-sufficiency, the Horizon Initiative
remains at least partially dependent on the support of
orthodox religious institutions, particularly the Roman
Catholic Church, leading some to accuse it of being a Papist
conspiracy.
The Initiative works to incorporate independent Abrahamic
mystical orders wherever possible, relying on their existing
infrastructure to conduct its field operations — primarily the
acquisition of religious artifacts and the disruption of cult
activity. Due to its multi-denominational character and lack
of institutional cohesion, the Horizon Initiative has
occasionally been compared to the old Allied Occult Initiative
— a comparison furthered by the inclusion of several former
AOI members within the Initiative, and its focus on securing
religious artifacts.
Manna Charitable Foundation The Serpent's Hand
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Manna Charitable Foundation is a nonprofit Straddling the line between terrorism and activism, the
humanitarian relief organization founded in 1971. While Serpent's Hand is a loose collection of individuals aligned by
most of their operations are mundane in nature, they have on their opposition to what they consider the authoritarian
numerous occasions attempted to utilize paratechnology to nature of consensus normalcy. Members of the Hand have
provide humanitarian aid. Despite heavy opposition from consistently campaigned against the restrictions of the Veil,
normalcy preservation agencies, these efforts have been focusing especially on the perceived mistreatment of
largely successful, although a small number of highly parahumans and anomalous non-humans by normalcy
damaging failures resulting from faulty paratech have preservation organizations. Many of the Hand's members are
somewhat tarnished the organization's reputation. parahumans or non-humans themselves, although some of
its most vocal members are baseline humans. Due to the
Sarkic Cults nature of the Veil, which makes it difficult and dangerous to
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- publicly oppose normalcy, the Hand primarily operates in
Sarkicism is a religious/philosophical system that and from paranormal enclaves; the Wanderer's Library in
encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual particular is often used as a base of operations, as the
practices largely based on teachings attributed to “Grand Library's strict neutrality and enforced ban on violence serve
Karcist Ion”1, its deified founder. Adherents practice ritual to shield the Hand from potential reprisals by normalcy
cannibalism, human sacrifice, corporeal augmentation, preservation organizations.
thaumaturgy, dimensional manipulation, and the formation Due to its decentralized nature and lack of consistent
of pacts with otherworldly entities. Organic manipulation has leadership, the Serpent's Hand has very little control over
allowed certain Sarkites to achieve anomalous states of the actions of its members — and the absence of a formal
being, transcending the physical limitations of baseline membership structure makes it nearly impossible for the
humans. movement to disavow any particular group or individual
Highly secretive, the general public appears to have little to acting in its name. As a result, the Serpent's Hand has been
no direct knowledge of their existence. Some organizations repeatedly linked to violent attacks against normalcy
are aware of them, such as the Global Occult Coalition and preservation organizations, leading many to view the entire
the Horizon Initiative, while the Church of the Broken God movement with suspicion.
views them in apocalyptic terms2. Though it hinders
investigation, their clandestine nature is ultimately beneficial
to the preservation of normalcy.
Disease is often viewed with reverence and Sarkic shrines
have been discovered with offerings of swollen lymph nodes
and tumorous growths. Certain Sarkic cults treat contagions
as consecration, a means to "cull the weak" and purify the
masses, and thus actively seek to ensure their spread. Most
but not all Sarkites display an inherent resistance to
pathogens, though it remains unknown if this is an
anomalous or naturally occurring attribute.
Sarkic anomalies are not without risk to their users. While
Sarkites are able to augment themselves into physically
superior forms, it has been shown that such alterations (or
perhaps, the secret truths they come to learn along their path
to apotheosis) have a degenerative influence on mental
stability. The exact cause of this remains unexplained but it
is most exemplified among known karcists, who frequently
display symptoms of psychosis.
Syndicates & Terrorists
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Existing in direct opposition to the Veil and the organizations
that uphold it, these groups are considered terrorists and
criminals. Some are driven by ideology, while others are
simply seeking to make a quick buck. Often, the distinction
between these groups and those tolerated by normalcy
preservation organizations is a matter of political
convenience. Whatever the case, these are the outcasts of
the paranormal community, shunned by anyone who fears
drawing the ire of those who maintain the Veil.
Chaos Insurgency
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Chaos Insurgency is a loose coalition of several different
radical occult groups. Their goals and their methods are
varied and various, to such an extent that it is not uncommon
for different factions within the Insurgency to be working
against each other. What they all share, however, is a desire
to overturn the existing status quo as enforced by normalcy
preservation organizations.
Considered a terrorist group by most major powers, the
Insurgency operates through stealth and subterfuge. Their
activities include smuggling anomalous objects, weapons
dealing (both mundane and paranormal), human and
anahuman trafficking, espionage, blackmail, and sabotage.
Chicago Spirit
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At one point the largest paracriminal organization in the
Western Hemisphere, the Chicago Spirit originated in 1895
as a small-scale smuggling operation engaged in the
trafficking of anomalous objects. Over the next three
decades, the Spirit expanded rapidly, adding new kinds of
crime and paracrime to its activities and spreading its
influence across North America. The organization reached
its peak during the Prohibition Era, using its knowledge of
the Way network to run highly profitable bootlegging
operations. However, the Spirit was already in decline by the
1930s, largely as a result of an intense crackdown on its
activities by the Foundation and the UIU. When the
Foundation captured the leader of the Chicago Spirit,
Richard Chappell, in 1933, the remainder of the organization
quickly unraveled. By 1938, the Chicago Spirit was
effectively defunct, although many of its members continued
to engage in criminal activity at an individual level
throughout the following decades.
The end of the Golden Age of Normalcy created a massive
availability of black market paratech, bringing about a drastic
increase in street-level paracrime. Of the many criminal
organizations that emerged to capitalize on these illicit
opportunities, at least one has laid claim to the mantle of the
long-disbanded Chicago Spirit. Although it has been
implicated in several major paratech heists, the so-called
Chicago Spectre is still an extremely small-scale operation,
far removed from the power and reach once attained by the
Chicago Spirit.
Obskura
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Obskuracorps was the paranormal arm of Nazi
Germany's SS Ahnenerbe, responsible for all
experimentation and research regarding the occult and
anomalous; the ultimate goal of its research was to perform
the Rite of Solomon and use it to advance the racial agenda
of the Nazi regime. They were aided in this effort by the
Thule Society, a group of German occultists with ties to the
Nazi Party. With the outbreak of the Seventh Occult War —
which occurred as a reaction to the increasingly aggressive
actions taken by the Obskuracorps in their efforts to acquire
artifacts for the Rite — the Obskuracorps also became
responsible for waging the occult conflict for Nazi Germany.
At the end of the Seventh Occult War, the Obskuracorps and
their Thule Society allies were decisively routed; the
surviving members of these organizations soon became the
targets of an international manhunt by the Allied Occult
Initiative and its successor, the Global Occult Coalition.
While many Nazi occultists would eventually be caught by
the GOC, a number of them managed to evade capture and
went into hiding, eventually going on to form the occult
terrorist organization known as OBSKURA. OBSKURA's
goals in the aftermath of the total destruction of the Nazi
regime seem to be centered largely around revenge against
the GOC, focusing on dealing as much damage as possible
before OBSKURA is inevitably destroyed.
Scarlet Hammer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Division of Special Circumstances was the paranormal
arm of the KGB, responsible for maintaining the Soviet
Union's stockpile of paraweapons. When the USSR
collapsed in 1991, the KGB, including the Division of Special
Circumstances, was disbanded due to its role in the abortive
August Coup. In response, multiple officers within the DSC,
led by the former Director, went rogue, disappearing with a
large number of Soviet paraweapons. These renegade DSC
elements would become the paranormal crime syndicate
known as Scarlet Hammer.
Scarlet Hammer are the largest dealer of paraweaponry and
illegal paratech within the former Soviet bloc, although their
operations have also extended into Western Europe and
Southeast Asia. They are believed to be in competition with
the Chaos Insurgency, another major seller of black market
paraweapons.
The Black Queen
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Black Queen is the moniker of a number of individuals
with the innate capability of traveling between multiverses.
Due to their different origins, each Black Queen typically has
their own distinct goals and methods, though certain
common aspects exist, such as the disappearance of a father
figure and the discovery of their multiverse's version of the
Wanderer's Library.
Several Black Queens are currently active within our
multiverse, many of whom are engaged in cross-multiverse
paratech dealing. At least one Black Queen is involved in the
operations of the Chaos Insurgency, and others are known to
be loosely affiliated with the Serpent's Hand.
A Brave New World
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world is full of places that are, in some way, inherently
anomalous. Most of these are minor anomalies — haunted
houses, vanishing buildings, improbability zones, cornfields,
and most kinds of liminal spaces — and are thus not notable,
but there are some locations that are so anomalous that they
must be concealed behind the Veil. Many of these places end
up as paranormal enclaves — sanctuary zones where the
paranormal community can live openly, segregated from the
mundane world. Others are prisons, jails constructed to
house vengeful gods, eldritch nightmares, and human
monsters. Often, the difference between the two is not
always clear.
Backdoor SoHo
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pocket universe and anartist haven branching off from the
SoHo neighborhood of New York City. The city within is
under the protection of a mysterious Doorman, named
Charlie, who controls entry and exit from the pocket
universe; however, as with most paranormal enclaves within
the United States, law enforcement is performed by the UIU
under the terms of the Hoover Mandate — and despite
protests from the city's more anarchic anartists, Charlie
maintains the UIU's open invitation into the city. Aside from
the Doorman and the UIU field office, there is almost no
other local government in Backdoor SoHo — something
which the city's small number of exceedingly eccentric
citizens are perfectly fine with.
Eurtec
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A pocket universe and independent city-state accessible from
almost every major city in Europe, built by the Servants of
the Silicon Nornir at the behest of the GOC to facilitate the
research, development, and consumption of paratechnology,
all within a contained environment that can be closely
monitored by normalcy preservation organizations. Its
business-friendly legislature and laissez-faire approach to
paratech have attracted many organizations to the city,
despite the constant presence of GOC surveillance.
Representing itself as the quintessential megalopolis of the
future, Eurtec actively solicits paratech producers,
consumers, and entrepreneurs to take advantage of what is
essentially the largest celebration of paratech of Earth.
Paramax
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
United States Penitentiary, Paranormal ADX, colloquially
called Paramax, is a federal supermax prison designed for
containing anahuman felons and mundane paracriminals
who cannot be amnesticized. Built in 1947 with assistance
from the Foundation, Paramax is located in its own artificial
pocket universe. Originally created with a permanent Way
connecting it to Alcatraz Island, the Way was collapsed when
the federal prison there was closed in 1963, leaving the
pocket universe to float freely through the Outside alongside
the mainline universe.
Paramax is considered to be one of the most secure facilities
in the multiverse — no prisoner has ever escaped, nor has
anyone ever infiltrated the prison from the outside. As one of
the few facilities of its type, a number of nations have entered
into agreements with the US Government that allow them to
house their anahuman prisoners within Paramax — the
alternative is turning them over to the Foundation or GOC
for detainment or constructing an equivalent facility.
Three Portlands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Portlands is a city-state located within its own pocket
universe, which can be accessed via Ways in Portland,
Oregon; Portland, Maine; and the Isle of Portland in the UK.
It is the largest paranormal enclave in or adjacent to North
America. Although Three Portlands is an independent city,
with its own city council and mayor, the city government has
(mostly) voluntarily surrendered some of its autonomy by
granting the US Government jurisdiction within the city,
under the terms of the Hoover Mandate. Per this agreement,
the UIU is tasked with enforcing US federal law (both
paranormal and mundane) in Three Portlands; the UIU's
Three Portlands field office is second only to the Miami field
office in size and caseload.
The population of the city is incredibly diverse, comprising
humans, parahumans, and sapient non-humans of all kinds.
There is a rich anart scene (although not as rich as Backdoor
SoHo) and a strong paratech industry (although not as
strong as Eurtec) within the city, both driven by the sheer
size of the paranormal community there. Three Portlands is
one of only a few paranormal enclaves to host multiple occult
colleges, with both an ICSUT satellite campus and the local
Deer College located in the city.
The Wanderer's Library
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A massive multiversal nexus taking the form of a vast library,
containing works of fiction and non-fiction collected from
across time and space throughout the multiverse. While it is
the single largest repository of knowledge within the
multiverse, the Wanderer's Library is far from
comprehensive, despite the ceaseless efforts of the
mysterious and eldritch Librarians and the many freelance
archivists they employ.
The Wanderer's Library is maintained as a neutral and
apolitical center of learning, with anyone free to come and go
as they please so long as they abide by the Library's rules.
There is a strict prohibition on violence within the Library,
and any violation of this rule will result in swift punitive
action by the Librarians. While all are free to browse and
read through the Library's extensive collection, removing
books from the Library requires a Library Card, which can
be extremely difficult to acquire — usually requiring the
performance of a favor to the Librarians.
Supplemental
Readings
Applied Thaumatology
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Good evening. Please have a seat. You will find wine, water,
bread, and salt at the back of the room, if you require
refreshment. Also coffee and donuts and all the rest of that
stuff. And go easy on the wine. I have rarely met a PHYSICS
operative who could maintain decorum around free alcohol.
"While you get your refreshments and get seated, let me talk
a little bit about rituals.
"Bread and salt is a traditional means of greeting
distinguished guests in Eastern Europe. Unsurprising, after
all: bread being considered the staff of life, salt being an
expensive but necessary supplement in those days. It was
traditional for the guest to tear a piece of bread off the loaf,
dip it in the salt, and consume it. Does this ritual sound
similar to anything else you may have encountered? Ah. I see
that the Protestants in the room understand immediately.
Yes, it is similar to the communion method known as
intinction, where the bread is taken from a loaf, dipped in a
common chalice, and the elements taken together. I see that
some of the Catholics in the room are a bit confused. As are
those of you who grew up in an environment where Holy
Communion was taken in a different manner. In both cases,
the ritual is a symbol not only of welcoming, but of
fellowship. It is for that reason that we consider it an act of
fellowship to 'break bread' together; why so many dates
begin with or include a meal.
"Also, water. When Saladin captured the Crusader leaders at
Hattin, there was a man among them named Reynald de
Chatillon who he hated over all else. Chatillon, in Saladin's
opinion, was a cruel and untrustworthy man who broke his
vows and acted with great perfidy towards the faithful of
Allah. When the nobles of the Crusaders were brought to his
tent, Saladin provided water for the Crusader King: Guy de
Lusignan. The King, of course, passed the water to his
friend, Reynald de Chatillon… at which point, Saladin
pointed out, very curtly, that it was Guy who had given water
to his hated enemy without his permission. Providing water
to guests in such an arid region was considered a promise
that no harm would come to them. Saladin, intending to kill
Reynald, was very intent that his actions not be seen as
breaking a sacred vow.
"Nowadays, we provide donuts and coffee as a courtesy to
guests who may miss their breakfasts by coming to these
seminars, and as a means of making sure that you do not
need to leave to eat or drink, should you require refreshment.
But it is not difficult to see a common line between this
seemingly mundane courtesy and the sacred rituals of our
past. All of which is a long and convoluted way for me to say,
as all of you get to your seats: welcome.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is [REDACTED].
You may call me Professor. I am a Professor Emeritus at the
Massachusetts campus of the International Center for the
Study of Unified Thaumatology: ICSUT. My specialty is in
Constructed Intelligence. The cat is my companion,
Midnight. This lecture is intended to give you new PHYSICS
operatives a working understanding of the basic principles
behind Unified Thaumatology. Don't think that after this,
that you can perform a working or summon an Outside
Intelligence. But I hope that this short lecture will give you
some understanding of what it is that we Type Blues do, and
how we do it.
"We begin with first principles. Thaumatology is the study of
magical principles as a practical science. In many ways, it is
similar to Physics, except that it is born from very different
principles. For instance, modern physics may be said to
begin with the principles of Newton's three laws of motion.
Thaumatology begins with a very different set of basic laws,
called the Law of Contagion and the Law of Similarity. They
may be summed up thusly: 'The part affects the whole,' and
'Like produces like.'
"You can already see where this runs into a problem. Physics
already teaches us that these two principles are invalid: if I
break a piece off of this loaf of bread and burn the piece, it
doesn't cause the rest of the loaf to char. Neither does
powdered rhinoceros horn cure male impotence, no matter
how similar that appendage might look to a male penis.
Which leads us to the third basic principle of magic,
originally stated as: 'Magic requires a talented practitioner.'
Only certain types of people can perform magic. How and
why was never established. And this was the state of
practical thaumatology for hundreds of years… up until the
early 20th century.
"You see, up until that point, thaumatology… or magic, as it
was still known back then… was in a crisis. Advances in
science and physics were beginning to crowd out the grey
areas that they had relied on. Practitioners were beginning
to lose effectiveness. Theories were brought up ranging from
human expansion changing the flow of mana in the world, to
the very progress of science changing reality into a more
stable state. Practitioners even went so far as to deliberately
isolate themselves from modern society in order to avoid
having their minds contaminated by scientific discoveries…
up until a man named Heisenberg proposed a stunning
proposition in 1927.
"Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that when dealing
with a particle, the more precisely its momentum is known,
the less precisely its location is known, and vice-versa. It was
not this theory itself that galvanized the thaumatological
world, but its correlating principle: observation changes the
world. That is when the third principle of magic was revised
from 'Magic requires a talented practitioner,' to 'Observation
changes Reality.' Or, more simply put… certain minds can
change the way the world works.
"Incidentally, it is now believed that Type Green reality
benders may be persons with unusual talents in this area,
hence the alternate name 'Outside Observer' proposed by
some. There is, in fact, a movement to reclassify both Type
Green reality benders and Type Blue thaumaturges within a
single category. I don't know what we'll call it: Type Teal?
Type Aqua? We shall see.
"As time went on, and new theories about quantum
mechanics arose, the magical community came to realize
that their world had more grey areas than they had
anticipated. Nearly overnight, the magician changed from the
reclusive hermit hiding from the world, into the young
scientist, eagerly exploring it. Even the name of the field
changed from the staid and superstitious 'magic' to the much
more scientific 'thaumatology.'
"… then the Seventh Occult War broke out… and we faced
the consequences of this new science, just as the world faced
the sobering consequences of the nuclear age, leading to the
formation of the Global Occult Coalition. But that is a lecture
for a different time.
"So. What can an old wizard like me tell you about
thaumatology?
"First of all… remember those three basic principles: Like
Produces Like. The Part Affects the Whole. Observation
Changes Reality. It is that third principle that is the main
focus of modern thaumatology: the isolation of the EVE
quantum, the fundamental unit of living energy, has taught
us how observation changes reality. It is the guiding
principle behind the COLLICULUS imaging system. And it
has led to new technologies that would have been
unimaginable just one hundred years prior.
"For instance: all of you have had a colloidal silver pattern
tattooed somewhere discreet on your body. This is a vital
defense against thaumatological attack: All of us shed bits of
ourselves wherever we go, ranging from skin cells to hair
cells. Were you not protected, a single hair from your body
could be used to do you great harm. The wards break the
quantum linkages between your living body and the unliving
parts that it sheds, helping to protect you from your enemies
with voodoo dolls. On the other hand, we can use those same
principles to our advantage: getting a hair or DNA sample
from a target could allow a GOC thaumatologist to track the
person where our technological means cannot. Something to
consider prioritizing when you're in the field.
"Let's go to something a bit more spectacular. This is an
Apportation circle. It's basically one big magical quantum
teleporter: it basically convinces every particle in your body
that it should take the infintesimal chance that it's
somewhere far away, rather than where it should be. It
requires incredible amounts of energy… and the process of
forcing the universe to express such an improbable state
causes many other improbable things to occur. We call it
backlash, and it's the reason why we don't use Apportation
as much as we could: every time we do, something weird
happens, and we're generally in the business of stopping
weird things from happening, not causing them.
"Yes, hands down, I know this sounds like a bad Douglas
Adams story. Did you know he was inspired by quantum
physics? Food for thought.
"Here's one more practical application to consider. Say hi to
Midnight. Midnight here is what we called a 'familiar,' now
better known as a Construct Intelligence. Think of her as a
piece of pure intelligence given feline form. Where did that
intelligence come from? Ah. These are the questions, aren't
they? The ones we're trying to answer.
"Because thaumatology is a new science. It's been studied
for years, but as mythology and superstition. It's only in the
past fifty years or so that a real study of it has been made.
And we've got a lot of things left to learn.
"In any case, I hope that I've helped to break some of the
misconceptions around thaumatology and illustrated a few
places in which laypersons like yourselves can utilize it for
your benefit. I'll be taking questions now.
Aetheric Energy & Aspect Radiation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Good afternoon. I hope you had a pleasant lunch. Please be
seated, and we will resume with the second portion of this
seminar.
"The first portion of my lecture covered the three
fundamental laws upon which thaumatology is based, and
the ways in which they may have an effect upon a PHYSICS
Division operative's choices in the field. At this point, I am
going to proceed to a somewhat more esoteric field: Elan-
Vital Energy and Aspect Radiation.
"EVE is the fundamental energy that powers thaumatology.
What EVE is, we are still trying to understand. It appears to
be somehow linked to the Observer Effect directly. It has
been described as 'life energy,' or 'magical particles,' but
such terms are gross oversimplifications. If you are
interested in the more esoteric aspects of EVE theory, you
will find some recommended reading in your seminar
syllabus. But for now, I will simply discuss the aspects of
EVE that are pertinent to a Coalition field agent.
"EVE is emitted by living things. It is also often emitted by
paranormal objects. EVE emission is not a perfect indication
of whether or not a person or object has paranormal
properties, but often, that is the case. Higher and more
intense levels of EVE are generated by beings with higher
levels of sapience: their Observer Effect is stronger, thus
their EVE levels are stronger as well. Humans over Animals,
Animals over Plants.
"Interestingly enough, the Goddesses that the Servants of
the Silicon Nornir operate also generate EVE energy. Food
for thought.
"Training you on recognizing and identifying EVE patterns is
beyond the scope of this one-day seminar: you'll be provided
a handbook with common patterns and schemes to
recognize and memorize. But for now, let's try it out.
"On the table in front of you, you'll find a COLLICULUS
Aetheric Resonance Imager. I've already set up the imaging
nodes, so all you'll need to do is put on the headset. But
before you do that, let me give you a quick rundown on how
to use it.
"The system can be put on like any other personal image
enhancement headset. It can be worn using a headstrap or
attached to your helmet. Other variations attach to your
rifle's Picatinny rail. There are three components: power
supply, headset, and image processor. For now, the power
supply will be the extension cords at your tables, and the
image processor should be left on the surface of the table.
"When I tell you to do so, and not before, pick up the image
processor and turn this wheel here all the way to 0. That's
the image brightness control. You also want all three of these
switches: "CAL," "VIS," and "ARI," set to the "ON" position.
Only then will you flip the power switch and put the headset
on. After that, you can adjust the image brightness until the
calibration bar at the bottom of the screen is properly
adjusted: you should see eight distinct squares, each one a
different shade of grey, ranging from near-black to near-
white.
"Go ahead and put them on now. I'll be coming around to
help anyone who's having problems.
"Everyone all set? Having fun? Interesting stuff, isn't it?
"What you're seeing in the COLLICULUS headset is the
EVE energy being given off by you and your classmates.
You'll see that different people have different color and
shape patterns. Over time, you'll learn to read and recognize
these patterns. A skilled COLLICULUS operator can not
only detect a person, they can also read their emotional state
and some paranormal properties.
"They can also see through walls. In a moment, I am going to
activate a secondary COLLICULUS array located in the
conference room next door. If you will please all direct your
attention to the front of the room…
"There we go. Location and position of every human being in
the room next door, through the walls. I am now going to ask
you to set the VIS switch to "OFF," but keep your thumb on
the switch, please. It might be a bit difficult for you to find it
once you've turned off visible light processing.
"Interesting, isn't it? How you can see the entirety of the next
room? Aetheric Resonance. Older models of the ARI system
could only directly detect EVE emission patterns. The
newest ones can also use EVE interaction with inert matter
to draw a map of the surrounding area. The resolution isn't
very good at the moment, but we're already working on the
next-generation technology.
"Ah. I can see that someone noticed that Midnight here
comes off as a bit different. Midnight, if you'll recall, is a
Constructed Intelligence. That is, to say, she is a piece of raw
mind put into the form of a cat. You'll notice that there are
some unusual spikes in her aura signature, as well as some
dips that don't appear in human beings. Her color scheme
also tends towards blue significantly more than the rest of
the class.
"Aha! And now the gentleman in the front row has
recognized something else as well… my aura pattern also
tends blue. And now you're remembering that "Type Blue" is
the GOC designation for thaumaturges… Not a coincidence, I
assure you. The image processing software is designed to
process the EVE signature of a thaumaturge as blue. Same
with Type Reds and Greens. Type Blacks… they're another
story.
"In any case, take a few more moments to experiment with
the COLLICULUS system. I'll be coming around to answer
any questions you may have."
"I'm going to end this segment of the seminar with a
discussion of Aspect Radiation, or ARad. EVE, you see, isn't
just an indication of the Observer Effect. It's also a
transformative power in its own right. When EVE intensity
gets to the point where it can alter or change reality, that is
what we call Aspect Radiation.
"So, to answer the first question: Aspect Radiation is simply
EVE in concentrations high enough to cause reality warping
effects. Think of it as gamma radiation: Gamma rays are
simply the upper end of the electromagnetic spectrum, the
same spectrum that contains X-Rays, visible light, heat, and
radio waves.
"We categorize Aspect Radiation along three axes: Hue,
Pitch, and Weave. Plus Intensity, that's four characteristics
that should provide a solid description of the level of reality
alteration that we might be dealing with.
"Intensity is measured in Caspers, a term which has a very
technical definition that I will not get into here. One hundred
Caspers is considered normal "background" radiation levels.
At one thousand, you may start seeing paranormal effects. At
ten thousand plus, you are seeing severe and immediate
reality alteration. Word of advice: unless you are specially
trained to deal with reality alteration scenarios, you should
avoid any ARAD field higher than one thousand.
"Hue. Originally, Hue used six of the seven colors of the
rainbow. That turned out to be a problem… people would call
in "Type Blues" with ARad characteristics reading "3
thousand, Black, Flat, Tight," and people would get
confused. So we extended the scale a bit and changed the
terms. The Hue scale is now: Ruby, Topaz, Lemon,
Malachite, Sapphire, Ebony, and Over-Ebony. Or, you could
just say Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Black, and Over-
Black if those colors sound too frou-frou for big, manly
soldiers like yourselves… but you might confuse people.
"One common misconception is that Hue is a measure of the
danger level of Aspect Radiation. Not the case. Hue is
actually a measure of… I guess the best way to put it is how
"blatant" the change is. For instance, a Ruby change might
just be an acceleration in the decay rate of a small amount of
radioactive material, while an Over-Ebony alteration changes
the past fifty years of history to add an event back in the past
that didn't occur before. On the other hand, Pitch, Weave,
and Intensity also need to be considered… A Ruby level
alteration that causes a sub-critical mass of plutonium to
reach prompt criticality is a much more severe event than
Mussolini having tea instead of coffee for breakfast one
morning.
"Pitch is what mages used to call "White Line" versus "Black
Line" magic: how destructive a particular burst of Aspect
Radiation is. It comes in five categories: Double-Flat, Flat,
Natural, Sharp, and Double-Sharp. Double-Flat is the most
destructive, the most disruptive to the operation of the
mundane universe. Double sharp is the most constructive:
these changes tend to become integrated into the very fabric
of reality itself. This is not to say that Double-Sharp is
necessarily good… if you want an example of a hostile
Double-Sharp working, consider the anomalous Daeva
Civilization: an ancient civilization of bloodthirsty
thaumaturges that, periodically, have their decline and fall a
few years later than before. That's a Double-Sharp Over-
Ebony scenario right there.
"Finally, Weave. Comes in four varieties: Sparse, Loose,
Tight, and Locked. Explaining it is… difficult… mostly
because it's the only characteristic of Aspect Radiation that
we don't have a way to detect. The only way to assess Weave
is by direct observation by a Type Blue like myself. But what
you need to know is: Sparse is vague and strange. Loose is a
little more understandable. Tight is usually about where we
get to what most people think of as "magic" or "reality
warping" - the purview of Type Blues and Greens. And if you
ever hear "Locked," turn and run like hell, because there's a
Type Black in the area.
"All of this must sound complicated, because it is. I'd have to
give you an undergraduate level course in basic
thaumatological physics to explain further. But this all
relates to one of the big questions I keep getting asked:
namely, why doesn't the Coalition use magical workings for
everything? Why do we need Strike Teams and Assessment
Teams?
"The reason is backlash. Every time you utilize Aspect
Radiation to make a change in reality, it bounces off the
fundamental fabric of existence and causes a secondary
effect called Backlash. The formula for measuring Backlash
intensity is a bit complicated, but it can be summed up like
this: A percentage of the original spell's Intensity. Opposite
Pitch. Opposite Hue. Same Weave.
"So let's say I perform a working to create a door in that
wall, where there wasn't one before. That might be… 3
kilocaspers, Ebony, Sharp, Tight. I plug the numbers into my
formula here… and I can expect a backlash of 1.75
Kilocaspers, Ruby, Flat, Tight. Maybe I suddenly give off a
burst of gamma radiation. Maybe the carpet in a five meter
radius bursts into flame. Maybe there is a burst of light and a
glowing pattern of runes. In fact, when I do my working, I'm
going to be trying to redirect the backlash into as harmless a
pattern as possible. That's why thaumatologists use casting
circles and geometric patterns: to redirect the backlash into
predictable patterns.
"On the other hand, there are some workings that we still
haven't figured out how to reabsorb all the backlash from.
The most notorious being apportation. Altering reality so
that quantum tunneling causes a large amount of mass to
instantly appear somewhere else… it's a really ugly
alteration, and the ARad backlash is huge.
"Worst of all, backlash itself is a burst of Aspect Radiation
which can itself cause backlash… and so on and so forth. In
fact, one theory as to why paranormal objects exist is that the
Big Bang was the most powerful magical working in the
universe… and it's still backlashing upon itself, causing
reality to bend and alter at regular intervals.
"I'm starting to see that I'm losing some of you. Let's take
another break, and when we get back, we'll talk about killing
things and having sex."
Thaumatic Workings
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I see that my little statement last time got everyone's
attention. Let's get into it.
"Every thaumatic working, whether it's carried out using eye
of newt or a desktop computer, has four components: the
Source, the Shaper, the Target, and the Sink. You might
think of them as the components of a firearm: the Source is
the propellant that drives the entire process. The Shaper is
the barrel and firing chamber that directs the force of the
explosion. The Target is the bullet that is driven down the
barrel, the effect you're trying to perform. And finally, the
Sink consists of the recoil compensation mechanisms.
"There is, of course, a fifth component that isn't an actual
part of the working: the Practitioner. That would be you, the
finger that pulls the trigger.
"I see I'm starting to lose some of your attentions, so please
direct your attention here.
"I knew that would get your attention.
"What you are looking at is not only an orgy, but the source
of a thaumatic worki— yes, she does have impressive
breasts, and—"
<pause>
"Do I have your attention again? Thank you.
"As I was saying, what you are looking at is the source of a
thaumaturgical working. Remember what I said before about
Pitch of aspect radiation: Sharp is creative, while Flat is
destructive. And there are few acts more creative than the
act of reproduction… or more destructive than the act of
murder.
"… I'll give you another moment.
"All right, let's continue.
"The examples I've just shown you are extreme, but they are
also clear examples of two different very extreme kinds of
thaumaturgical Sources. In each case, the practitioner was
attempting to "pitch" their energy source hard towards
Sharp or Flat. What kind of working do you think they were
trying to perform?
"… actually, no. In both cases, the practitioner was
attempting to perform the same working: namely, the
creation of a Constructed Intelligence… or the summoning of
a demon, as was said in the older days. In both cases, the
end purpose of the ritual pitched strongly towards Sharp, or
creation. The difference came in just how patient the
practitioner was in setting up their Source.
"Remember what I said about Backlash? When a working is
performed, the excess energy bounces off the fabric of reality
and rebounds… at an opposite Pitch and Hue. Hue is
generally easy for the practitioner to shape right out of the
source… what is harder to shape is Pitch. The latter working
began with a Source that was Pitched strongly Flat:
destructive. The energy was then channeled into a simple
working at a low Hue: the circle of light that you see
appearing around the practitioner's feet. The remaining
energy Backlashed at an opposite Pitch: Strongly Sharp and
opposite Hue: High Ebony, heavily creative and heavily
blatant. The energy was then recaptured and worked into the
final spell. Thaumatologists call this a Speckmann Rebound.
"Allow me to show you an example from an actual PHYSICS
Division operation. A Strike Team, equipped with Current
Gen technology is raiding the home of a rogue thaumaturge.
Teams Alpha through Delta provide perimeter security,
while Echo Team acts as the assault element. Echo Team's
point man enters the working area and discovers the
following scene: Two persons engaged in sexual intercourse,
one of them the Type Blue. Across the room from them, a
Class 9 ectomorphic entity is taking shape. Meanwhile, the
walls are starting to light on fire. You are Echo Team's point
man. What do you do?
"Terminate the Type Blue? That is one option… but the
working is already in progress. There is a lot of free Aspect
Radiation being generated. If you terminate the controlling
agent… well, unless you're a Type Blue yourself, you're going
to end up on the wrong side of a high amount of wild EVE.
Not a good place to be.
"Terminate the ectomorph? I did mention it was a Class 9,
wasn't it? And the team had Gen +0 Technology? Not a
winning proposition there.
"What the Echo Team agent did instead was terminate the
Type Blue's sexual partner. The agent recognized that the
working's Source was the same Pitch as the Target…
namely, both Sharp, or creative. He then shifted the energy
of the Source powerfully towards Flat… towards destruction.
The end result disrupted the still-forming ectomorph and
caused the working to fail. It also had the side effect of
creating a mist that quenched the flames caused by the
backlash. On the other hand, it resulted in most of the team
having to be treated for steam burns.
"Yes, sir, you had a question?
<pause. audience laughs.>
"… I actually don't find that question particularly funny.
Actually, the gentleman had a good point. If the source had
been a human sacrifice instead, one method to disrupt the
working could have been to introduce a strongly Sharp
pitched energy into the working: and yes, I suppose that
making love inside the Source area would have worked. On
the other hand, I doubt that any man… or woman, for that
matter… could be heroic enough to maintain arousal in the
presence of a rapidly forming hostile Class 9 ectomorph… or
skilled enough to complete in time to disrupt the working. In
that case, a better response would be to disrupt the initial
working that is being used to shift the Pitch of the spell: the
Speckmann's Rebound. Destroy the heat sinks or light
sources that are being energized to create the backlash.
"Alternatively, you could push the original practitioner into
the target area and terminate him there, introducing a surge
of Flat Aspect Radiation into the circuit after the Rebound. I
know at least one team that dealt with a nasty working in
that manner. It has the disadvantage of leaving no one to
question afterwards.
"In practice, of course, most modern thaumaturges prefer to
use less dramatic Sources for their workings, mostly
because the majority of the workings we perform don't
require that dramatic of a Pitch, but also because we've
learned techniques to alter the pitch of a working more
precisely: they're less efficient than Speckmann's Rebound,
but far more controllable. The most common Source
thaumaturges use these days, in fact, is a simple drop of
blood: blood is fairly neutrally pitched, and can actually
provide quite a bit of EVE if properly Sourced. At higher
energy levels, there is the Everhart Resonator. The
conversion rate from electricity to Aspect Radiation is
inefficient, and still requires a thaumaturge as catalyst, but
it's still the most convenient way to generate high levels of
EVE.
"As an example: a simple apportation working, like the one
that transported your squad here, would require thirty
human sacrifices… or an hour-long orgy with over one
hundred participants. I suppose that would be more
entertaining to watch than an Everhart Resonator slowly
spinning up for a few minutes… but not exactly the thing one
can order up at a moment's notice.
"We will take one final break for dinner, and when we return,
I'll wrap up my lecture, and answer any remaining questions
you may have."
Conclusion and Q & A
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"And we're back for the last session of this seminar. We're
almost done. I just have a few more things to say, and then
we'll be able to break for the night.
"I do want to address one thing that I was asked over
dinner… namely, now that Unified Thaumatology exists, can
it be considered a grand unifying theory for the paranormal?
"We would like that to be the case… but sadly, the answer is
'No.' Unified Thaumatology does provide a strong basis for
the study of magic: we believe that it may also have
implications into other fields. But there are places dealing
with the paranormal where the theory starts to break down.
"Two very large examples are Type Green Reality Benders
and Type Black or Ex Machina Divinities. Remember what I
said before, that every thaumatological working has a source
and causes a backlash. Type Greens violate both of those
rules: they are able to alter reality without a Source, and
their alterations do not cause backlash. There are a lot of
theories as to why this may be: one theory is that the
backlash is shunted into a parallel reality… perhaps as a
paranormal phenomenon for them to deal with? Another
theory is that the backlash is absorbed into the Type Green's
own consciousness. Perhaps that explains why so many go
insane. Unfortunately, we don't have the answer to that. It's
one field that the Institute is devoting many resources to
study. Progress is, by necessity slow, as is any study
revolving around Type Greens. It's hard to collect useful data
when that data could be manipulated by your test subject.
"Type Blacks and Ex Machinas… they're even stranger. Their
effects are similar to thaumatology and reality bending, but
they don't seem to obey any of the thaumatological laws
we've encountered. There are no bursts of Aspect Radiation
caused by their abilities. They can't even be detected through
Aetheric Resonance Imaging. In fact, the code word
designation for a demi-divinity, 'Type Black,' comes because
many of them simply don't have aetheric auras… sorry, EVE
patterns… at all. We have no idea what these things are…
except that they are very powerful, and in many cases, hostile
to humanity.
"Then there are the many threats you might face that have
nothing to do with Aspect Radiation. Anomalies in space-
time. Cryptids. Mad cyborgs. Telepaths. The truth is, the
more we learn, the more we realize that the world is a
stranger and more terrifying place than we did before we
began our study. For each answer we find, two more
questions are raised.
"But that's the nature of scientific inquiry, after all.
"If there is a point to this seminar, however, I hope it is this:
that you came away from here with a basic understanding of
what thaumatology is and what it is that thaumaturges do.
Part of the fear and power of magic was that it was so
mysterious. By peeling away some of that mystery, it is our
goal to arm you with the strongest weapon you will need if
you ever come up against a thaumatological threat: the
knowledge that you, as a non-thaumaturge, are not helpless.
A student of mine once gave me a novel with a line I enjoyed
greatly: 'No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife in the back
can seriously cramp their style.'
"I will now be taking questions."
Can Sharp and Flat can be tied to sex with protection, or in
vitro fertilization?
Well, yes. But in practice, the procreative act is most
effective when done for the purposes of procreation between
two persons. I suppose if I had to list them on a sliding scale,
it would probably be in-vitro, masturbation, nonprocreative
sex, procreative sex, with childbirth somewhere near the top
as well. Then again, there are also acts of sex that tend
strongly towards Flat. I won't go into details here. I'm sure
you can think of them.
Why use blood? Couldn't you just get some jugs of milk at a
supermarket if you need EVE?
You could, but the longer that a bodily fluid is separate from
the body, the less effective it becomes. Same with dead
bodies… at some point, a dead body or jug of milk ceases to
be a living thing and just becomes… a thing. Although I
suppose that breast milk for lactating persons could work in
a pinch… blood is simply more universal. And there's a bit
more dignity in cutting your thumb with a secespita than in
the alternatives.
Have there been any attempts to utilize type greens in the
same way that type blues are employed? Or has it always
been recognized as too dangerous to consider?
I cannot speak for the Coalition on that, but yes, there have
been attempts to utilize Type Greens. They have invariably
failed, due to the tendency of Type Greens towards
megalomania, and the difficulty in taking them down if they
break control.. Although rumor has it that there have been
one or two successful cases. The two most common suspects
are D.C. al Fine and the Cornwall Hero.
Is the Coalition squeamish about using anomalous means to
combat parathreats?
That depends on your definition of anomalous. The official
position of the Global Occult Coalition is that Type Blue
thaumatology falls under the realm of "tangential
technology," not anomalous parathreat. Those of us
employed by the Coaltion have sworn the same oaths as the
rest of you. We are still human. We still want to protect
humanity. And we do so with all the talents at our disposal.
The eventual goal of thaumatological research, after all, is to
incorporate magic theory into our modern understanding of
physics. Once that is done, won't the concept of "magic" have
been finally destroyed?
There are ways to eliminate parathreats aside from a bullet.
If the Coalition had to look at itself as a parathreat, what
threat level would it be at? What would it take for it to grow a
threat level?
If the member organizations of the Coalition were to turn
against the best interests of humanity, it would result in an
immediate failure of all missions, probably requiring a
Pizzicato Level Response. The Coalition exists, however, to
prevent such events from occuring.
It is, however, interesting to contemplate what might happen
to the Coalition if its major rivals were eliminated or
incorporated into its ranks. Absolute Power corrupts
absolutely, after all.
Perhaps it is best that no one organization controls all the
power in the paranormal world.
Where is the point at which thaumatology becomes
inefficient and impractical when compared with technology,
even 0+ technology? I mean… I'm thinking about the
previous example involving a bus ride and/or a massive orgy,
it is clearly impractical. Does magic require more effort than
what it's worth for important material changes?
In many cases, yes. For instance, it's easier to build a rifle
using a factory than a working. It's also much more useful to
take a cab downtown than it is to apport there.
Where thaumaturgy excels is when you need to do the
impossible. For instance: you need to get a Strike Team from
Michigan to Siberia… in one hour. Thaumaturgy. You need to
get into a person's files and erase their identity?
Thaumaturgy.
Speaking of which, that does remind me of a case where
thaumaturgy proved to be 100% more effective than anything
that normal technology could do: I oversaw an identity
reassignment to a young trans woman joining the Coalition. I
don't care how good of a surgeon you are, you'll never
perform a sex reassignment good enough to result in a fertile
adult human female.
Is information gathering easier and cleaner than reality
bending? I heard of a Type Blue agent using a subject's hair
to determine their relative position within an unmapped
forest area. Can that have a backlash, or does it have less
negative consequences?
In many ways, every thaumatological spell is a form of
scrying: remember that it all comes down to the observer
effect, and how hard you observe. Locating individuals is a
common spell, and in most cases, the backlash is easily
manageable through shunts and sinks. It's a fairly low-
Intensity application, for one: remember that backlash
occurs proportionate to the original spell. If the original spell
only used a small amount of energy, the backlash is usually
negligible.
That is, of course, assuming that we're doing looking cross-
or upstream… sorry. Into the present or past. Downstream
scrying… that is to say, predicting the future… is much
harder, like riding a mountain bike uphill as opposed to
laterally or downhill. In fact, the most effective downstream
scrying working to date is the Silicon Nornir… and they
require two entire supercomputers calculating and scrying
upon the present and past in order to drive a third cluster
performing the future sight.
Sorry, Sir, I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful
presentation and ask you… is there any chance whatsoever
that religious groups built around certain miracles or
portents are actually the inheritors of Type Green or Type
Blue founders? Do we have evidence on the matter?
Yes, there is a chance. Yes, we do have evidence. No, I'm not
going to tell you who.
I'm not sure I got that right a couple of hours back, sorry. Is a
Type Red able to bend reality in any way?
That depends on the type of Red we're talking about. Many
of them simply have accelerated healing systems. Many
others, however, especially Expanding Regenerators, are the
result of out of control thaumaturgical powers. Remember
that Type Red is an indication of effect, not source.
For how long can Aspect Radiation related to a Blue event
remain in the environment?
Proportionate to the intensity, pitch, hue, and weave. In
general, these three factors tend to increase Aspect
Radiation duration: greater intensity, lower hue (that is,
tending more towards Ruby then Ebony), and tighter weave.
Pitch tends to degrade, over time, towards the center: it will
usually swing back and forth for a bit, before slowly settling
down, rather like a pendulum.
Of the three, however, weave is the single most important
aspect to determining ARAD longevity. There is a reason
why the tightest level of Weave is called "Locked."
If one part affects the whole, couldn't you use any object to
change the nature of the entire universe?
Yes. But it's a matter of inertia. Namely, that the universe
shows a resistance to change. And the more you try to
change, the more energy it requires, and the more difficult it
becomes. For instance, it could be possible to change the
gravitational constant of the universe using a grain of sand.
We would need to devour the entire energy output of around
one hundred thousand galaxies the size of the Milky Way to
do so.
What's the difference between a Type Black and a type Ex
Machina?
A Type Black is a human being that exhibits the
characteristics of a Type Ex Machina. Ex Machinas tend to
operate at a much higher level than Type Blacks. But
functionally, in thaumatological terms, they're pretty much
identical.
Are there any types of thaumaturgical resources other than
vital energy?
There are, but EVE is the most efficient energy source we've
found so far. And in many cases, what we thought were
alternative energy sources to EVE turns out to be EVE in a
different form… Ley Lines, for instance, were once thought to
be an alternative energy conduit to EVE, before we came to
realize that it was EVE pitched and hued in a combination
we'd never seen before.
The current cutting edge in EVE research is consolidating
Elan Vital theory with the Grand Unified Theory. Exciting
stuff.
Has anyone ever tried to use thaumaturgy to deal with global
issues like war and hunger? And if so, how come they never
worked?
They did. We called it the Cornwall Incident: a Type Black, in
alliance with a large coven of Type Blue allies, attempted a
massive magical working to end human pain and conflict.
The end result threatened the end of the human spirit.
You see, war and hunger all derive from dissatisfaction with
your current status quo. When you are completely satisfied
with your status quo, you have no motivation or desire to
do… anything. Getting rid of war and hunger and pain
required getting rid of jealousy… getting rid of identity. And
there were some who felt that sacrifice worth it.
If it weren't for the heroic actions of a few Global Occult
Coalition, humanity as we know it would cease to exist. We
still strive to end war and hunger… it is the goal of the United
Nations, after all, to promote Peace on Earth. But we have to
do it the long hard way. The short path is paved with good
intentions.
Whenever I imagine magic, I think of old guys in robes,
holding staves and wands and stuff like that. Did you guys
ever use any of that stuff?
I've got my ceremonial robes, hat, and staff in my office.
Interesting fact: the wizard's stave originates not only from
the very practical walking stick, but also from the staff used
to mark time in ancient shamanic rituals. Early
thaumaturges also found them useful for inscribing circles:
much easier to draw from a standing position than having to
drop down to your knees. The idea of the magic wand, I
think, probably originates from the practice of using live
cuttings from trees in ceremonial practices.
We use them about as often as modern scholars wear cap
and gown, or use quill pens and inkwells. Some older
institutes and GOC member organizations still require them:
same with grimoires. On the other hand, I can get a much
more precise pattern using lasers and mirrors, or even a high
resolution LCD screen. The modern thaumatologist
generally has less to do with old guys in robes carrying
staves, and more to do with younger people in jeans, carrying
laptop computers.
Of course, some claim that the ceremony and emotional
state that comes from wearing a fancy robe and hat and
carrying a staff can help the thaumaturge perform their
working. If it works for you, more power to you. Me
personally, I think that robes are way too breezy and staffs
are a pain in the ass to carry around.
What is the process for becoming a Type Blue?
If you figure it out, publish your results. There's a ten million
dollar prize on the line for the first person who figures out
how that works.
Because really… no one knows. We just don't know why it is
that some people gain the ability to manipulate magic and
others don't. It seems to be linked to genetics in some cases.
In other cases, it seems to be linked to intelligence, or close
proximity to magical effects. But then there are 'wildcat'
mages that appear out of nowhere, defying all perceived
factors.
The best analogy I've seen is cancer. There are a lot of risk
factors involved in whether you will get cancer: age, genetics,
environment, exposure to carcinogens, and so on and so
forth… but whether or not you're actually going to get cancer
is mostly a matter of luck.
"I guess that's everything then. I've got one more thing to
say, then you're all dismissed.
"The consumption of alcohol is a pretty-much universal
means of establishing brotherhood and friendship. You see
examples all the way from Christ's Last Supper, to the cult of
Dionysus, to frat and stag nights all around the world. I
personally am a fan of sessions: similar to the Chinese yum
cha, where the drinking and eating is secondary to the
fellowship and conversation around the table.
"What I'm trying to say is: the seminar may be over, but
there's no reason why the conversation has to end. Feel free
to meet me at the enlisted club, and I'll buy the first round of
drinks."
Not Sigma-3 Briefing
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hello. Thank you all for coming. For those of you who don't
know me, my name is Dr. Tilda David Moose. I am the
director of Site-19.
"I'm here to — pardon my colloquial tone — I'm here to talk
to you about magic.
"I'm not a very good speaker. Just letting you know that up
front. If it were up to me, someone else would be standing
here. So let's start this with some questions. Just raise your
hands like you're back in school. Easiest way, don't you
think? I — Oh. That's… that's too many hands. Alright, you in
front, go ahead.
"No, this isn't an orientation for Mobile Task Force Sigma-3.
Sigma-3 is a task force that doesn't exist. It doesn't hold
'orientations.' I think they had one orientation, ever, and that
was when they were created. If you're here from Sigma-3
and you think you need an orientation, your superiors
haven't been doing their jobs. Next question?
"I thought I said don't ask me questions about — okay, fine.
She just asked why everyone here is from Sigma-3. First
answer, it's not everyone. More… two-thirds of you. I see at
least a dozen are high-ranking members of Tau-9, the
Bookworms. Some of you are clearance 4 researchers
who've just been read into this program, at least three of you
are new directors, and some of you are… 'spooks'. Not saying
who, of course. Just have fun wondering about that. Anyway.
"Very, very few people in the Foundation are allowed to
know anything about magic. This is… by far the largest
number of people I've ever spoken to about this. I guess what
with everything that's been happening recently, the
Overseers want more people, ah… knowing what's going on.
"Yes, okay, ask your question. — His question was — what
exactly is 'Sigma-3'?
"In that case, I have a question, too. How the hell does
anyone in here not know what Sigma-3 is? You should've
been sent material on… right, great, still in the process of
declassification. I see. I take it back, I suppose.
"Okay. We'll start with what we call "the anomalous
community." Give you the lay of the land. How the world
works, out there in the shadows. I'll explain how our Groups
of Interest fit into this. I'll tell you about the Wanderers'
Library. And, yeah, I'll explain a little bit about Sigma-3. In
between, we'll have breaks, so you don't hate me too much.
"I assume you all already know this, but… There may be
about a hundred of you in here, tonight. Still, you are a
fraction of the Foundation's population. We're going to keep
it that way. Anything you hear from me, anything, is not to be
discussed with anyone who's not read into this program. On
pain of death. Probably.
<clears throat>
"Finally, I'm going talk to you about magic.
"Don't panic. No, you're not hallucinating. There has been no
containment breach, and, I promise, there are no drugs in
your coffee.
"I am quite simply talking to you in the color blue.
"This is because I am what they call a "mage". Or, if you like,
a "Type Blue"… or "a witch". This is stuff we can do. It's, well
— magic. Trivial magic, but magic nonetheless.
<clears throat>
"But I'm not going to talk about magic quite yet.
"I said I'd talk to you about Mobile Task Force Sigma-3,
"The Bibliographers". The boring name is on purpose.
"Let me preface this. I'm not in Sigma-3. I only consult. I did
induct a few of you myself a couple years ago, but I don't do
that anymore. Yes, I see you, Agent Navarro, stop waving. As
I was saying, since I'm not in Sigma-3, this will be the short
version.
"Sigma-3 is a Foundation task force which deals directly
with the anomalous community. On friendly terms, or at
least as friendly as we can manage. If this sounds ridiculous
to you, good. Means we haven't had any leaks.
"Originally, Sigma-3 was one of the Task Forces that took
part in the failed invasion of the Wanderers' Library, three or
four decades back. It was the only one left mostly… intact.
Afterwards, it was reformed and repurposed by order of O5
Command.
"They are not a paramilitary task force. Nor are they a
containment team. They are the product of our superiors
being very, very concerned about the idea that the
Foundation might miss out on some important things —
world-ending things — simply because we are so isolated
from the anomalous world.
"Even with the invasion of the Library… if we had sources
within the anomalous community, and if the task forces, or at
least their leaders and the people doing the planning for
them, had been cleared to know what we did already know
about the Library — then the operation could have gone
significantly differently.
"As it was, the Library incursion involved no people who had
even heard of the Library before the op began. It was too
highly classified, and we didn't have any direct sources,
people who'd been in there long enough to seriously know
what it was like.
"We still don't even know what happened when we went into
the Library. The memories of everyone who went in were
different. Even our existing recordings — actual audiovisual
footage — directly contradict each other. Some of the
survivors don't remember even going in at all.
"What we know for certain is that even now there are still
Foundation members left behind in the Library, imprisoned
beyond our reach. Beyond any reach. And that this was
completely preventable.
"But I'll get back to the Library.
"We have always had some sources in the anomalous
community. We have a long history of cooperating with the
Global Occult Coalition, which is far more part of the
anomalous world than we are. We also created Mobile Task
Force Tau-9 — the Bookworms — to deal with anomalies
related to the Library, the Hand, and 'magic', in a more
traditional manner.
"But that could only take us so far. Command decided we
needed ears on the ground.
"Originally, Sigma-3 did not make use of any direct
anomalous means. In recent years, this has… changed. There
are people who are actual, practicing magicians in this very
room, members of Sigma-3. People who are anartists.
People who do double duty for organizations like Marshall,
Carter, and Dark, the Serpent's Hand, and other anomalous
organizations.
"And they've had results. Sigma-3 has contained a high
number of actively dangerous anomalies that could not have
been secured without cooperation with more benign
anomalous entities. There are at least three dozen SCP
objects which Sigma-3 contained directly that I'm aware of.
And more that Sigma-3 acquired at least some information
for.
"I'm not allowed to name most of them tonight, because not
all of you are on Sigma-3 and cleared to know that. But just
from SCPs I've worked on as project lead… Sigma-3 helped
locate SCP-003, the first SCP object I was assigned to,
through a remote viewing operation coordinated with
outside sources of information from the Wanderers' Library.
Sigma-3 also discovered and acquired SCP-472 through
contacts in the anomalous community.
"On a larger scale, Sigma-3 helped prevent a direct,
coordinated assault against the Foundation about a decade
ago, after Incident Zero — an assault that would've crushed
us, and that's almost impossible given the Foundation's size
and defenses. I can't tell you the exact number of times that
Sigma-3 has literally saved the world, but I can tell you it's in
the plural.
"In exchange, Sigma-3 is set apart from other Foundation
task forces. They do not aid in the containment of any
anomalous entities, not even indirectly, unless it's done with
the cooperation of members of the anomalous community.
"This is where many people stop and raise hell. This is
worse, to them, than even task forces like Omega-7 or Alpha-
9. Those task forces use or used anomalous entities — but
this task force actively shields certain anomalous entities
from containment! Worse — sometimes Sigma-3 even makes
deals which allow anomalous entities to go free.
"This goes against the fundamental ethos of the Foundation,
they say. And maybe they're not wrong. But as things stand
now, the Foundation is not capable of simply containing
every anomaly out there in the wild. Until that time, Sigma-3
has proven its worth. What good is our ethos if we don't have
a world to protect?
"Let me get colloquial again. Sigma-3 are the people whose
job it is to know if some cultists are summoning Cthulhu.
Generally, their friends and neighbors don't want the world
to end. But maybe they can't really do much to stop it. But we
can. They have the knowledge. We have the resources.
"They may not know we're Jailors… er, members of the
Foundation, but when Cthulhu's involved, they don't mind
telling someone who knows someone who knows someone
else who can call in one of our bigger Mobile Task Forces
and bust some heads. And save the world.
"Not that I'm saying Cthulhu really exists… if It does, then
you're not cleared to know about it. Just an example.
"Alright. The 'anomalous community'. What's that mean?
"The anomalous community makes up all the people in the
world whose lives involve the anomalous. People of all types
imaginable. A patchwork of individual communities, totalling
a few hundred thousand people worldwide.
"That's probably more than you'd guess, but so it goes — and
another reason why Sigma-3 is necessary. These are all
people who are aware of, and often are exposed to, the
anomalous world. For some of them, it's part of their daily
life.
"Many of them have access to the Wanderers' Library, and
most of them have heard of it. Many are involved in the so-
called anart community. Many are involved with the Global
Occult Coalition and the Serpent's Hand.
"Even the Foundation itself has roots in the anomalous
community, from a very long time ago, if you listen to some
of the stories — no, that's not an official statement, I'm only
repeating rumors. Take them as you will.
"How many actually have anomalous capability? Well, that's
an open question. A distinct minority are low-level Type
Blues, who can do little tricks or learn a few spells out of
books. Mages, witches, magicians, soothsayers, etcetera.
People like… well, me, before I defected to the Foundation.
"When we catch these people, we don't usually classify them
as SCPs. The ones we've kept are mostly classified as
anomalous items. Sigma-3 handles a good number of them.
"In terms of GOIs in the anomalous community… well,
technically, they all are part of the anomalous community, in
some way. But the bigger ones are… let me get this slide
working.
Are We Cool Yet
The Chaos Insurgency.
The Church of the Broken God
The Fifth Church
The Global Occult Coalition
The Horizon Initiative
Manna Charitable Foundation
Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd.
Office For The Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts
Oneiroi Collective
Sarkic Cults
The Serpent's Hand
Unusual Incidents Unit (UIU)
"As you can see, that's… most of 'em. A-W-C-Y, the
Insurgency, the Fifthists, and the Sarkicists are more…
fringe. Technically, so is the Church of the Broken God, but
the so-called 'Devout' are far more accepted in the
anomalous community than you might think, except by
Horizon allies.
"Manna, Horizon, and ORIA are 'initiatives' within the
anomalous community, I guess you'd call them. MC&D is
just what you think it is — the rich people in the anomalous
community are mostly all part of it or associated with it. And
Oneiroi… gods only know what the Oneiroi are, so… I won't
speculate.
"Then we have the two biggest ones — the Coalition and the
Hand.
"We have a reputation, too. People who don't sign on with
the GOC, and even some of those, call us Jailors. But the
Coalition gets called 'Bookburners'. So… it could be worse.
"About the Insurgency — people outside the Foundation
don't view it the same as we do. We see them as… well,
insurgents, half-crazy defectors from the Foundation who
want to destroy everything for who knows what reason.
"The anomalous community sees the Insurgency as a
movement, more akin to the Sarkic Cults than anything else.
A movement to remake the world, with strong religious
overtones, despite the Insurgency's professed atheism.
People who want to become gods. Destructive beyond
reason, and crazier even than the people who want to
summon dark gods.
"Actually, even the people who want to summon dark gods
tend to think of the Insurgency as going too far. They're
popularly referred to as "the Sowers of Discord" and "the
Madmen". Keep in mind these are literal death cults calling
them that. The Insurgency won't be winning any popularity
contests anytime soon, which is probably why they haven't…
no, I digress. That's classified.
"Let's talk the Hand and the Coalition.
"The Global Occult Coalition is the Big Brother of the
anomalous community. They're the cops, and the
executioners. They have 108 member organizations, all of
them anomalous in some way, all of them shielded from us
by the Coalition.
"The Coalition cares a lot about maintaining the so-called
Masquerade — they wish to preserve normalcy just as much
as we do. But we aren't part of the anomalous community —
and they are. Generally, all the respectable members of the
anomalous community, or those in high society, are on board
with the Coalition.
"They're called 'Bookburners' because, after their formation
after the Seventh Occult War — around World War II — they
essentially enacted a hostile takeover of the anomalous
community. Either you signed on with the Coalition — with
Big Brother — or you got crushed.
"Some elements of the Coalition got on the wrong side of the
Library… and they were mystically barred from it, ever after.
Just like us. Ironically, even though they crossed the Library
first, they were acting on information they got from us… but
that's a story for another time.
"Suffice to say, many Coalition members are still spitting
mad about losing their Library access; I suspect it caused the
Coalition to tamp down many of their activities. Them being
barred made it a lot easier for people who hated the
Coalition to go underground. All they needed to do was get
into the Library.
"The Serpent's Hand is sort of the yin to the Coalition's yang.
The Hand are a movement springing from opposition to the
Coalition's whole… Big Brother thing. And to the idea of
containing or suppressing the anomalous community.
"They're the radical activists of the anomalous community…
but also the ordinary people who don't take to their
equivalent of Big Government. The Hand takes all types,
anyone who wants to join. So there's a lot of decent folk and
a lot of death cultists, too. There's heavy overlap between the
Hand and the fringe communities, obviously, plus
movements, like religious cults — or the occasional full-
blown religion, like the Church of the Broken God — and
anartist groups.
"Hand types tend to dislike us, too, but they like us better
than the Coalition, because we try not to kill people. This is
also why Sigma-3 can exist.
"Full disclosure: I used to be a member of the Serpent's
Hand. I got into it through a college organization. Spent a
few years in it before defecting to the Foundation. It's how I
became a Type Blue — a magician.
"What is the Wanderers' Library? Most of you have probably
heard of it, and know it's, um, a library, and that the
Serpent's Hand uses it and we… don't.
"…And that's about it.
"The Wanderers' Library is a library containing almost every
book every written, and many that haven't been written yet,
and many that will never be written.
"We've got some footage for this. Give me a second to cue it
up.
"Alright, more than a second. Gonna … keep talking.
"We won't be showing you the outside of the Library because
as far as we know, no one has ever seen it. The Library is a
place outside space. "Extradimensional" is the technical
term, though not very descriptive. The Library isn't on our
world, though it's connected to it.
"You reach it through Ways. Ways are a network of…
basically magic portals that take you from one place to
another. They're scattered around the world. The
Foundation contains a number of them, mostly classified as
anomalous items — a few networks are classified as SCPs.
"The Library is a nexus of Ways. The largest one on Earth. A
Way that connects to the Library is called a Door, because
they attach to doors within the Library. Pretty simple.
"Using the Ways isn't so simple. Okay, some of them are.
Each has a trick to it, to make it work. Some of them you just
need to be invited in. Others require some ritual — sneeze on
a shadow, recite a code-word, befriend a fairy, follow your
pet cat, kill a sheep, play the harmonica as you walk through
a doorway. Sometimes these are called Knocks.
"A Way can be anything you can picture as a door. Or
anything like a door. A cave, an archway, the back of a truck.
Technically, every shadow or mirror could be a Way, just not
a useful Way. Some of them are just art pieces — I once used
a picture of a door to enter the Library, back when I still
could. Some of them are corridors between the stars.
"They're more common than you'd think, too. At least a few
in every major city. We know the locations of a few, but we
know that many more exist.
"If someone from the Foundation or the Global Occult
Coalition tries to use Ways, they either don't work, or the
Library redirects them into … dangerous places. Other
planets. Barren, hostile lands. Outer space. Someone
reported that one literally opened into Hell — you can take
that for whatever you think it's worth. More commonly,
though, they just funnel us into the Library Archives and
make us into Librarians.
"I'll explain that in a moment — we've got the footage
working.
<The footage shows two women and one man, walking
through a forest. One woman wears a skimpy Godzilla
costume. The other woman wears full plate armor. The man
is dressed in a red costume covered with plastic flames.>
"So this is a fairly typical — Question? — Why the costumes?
Oh — this particular Way requires you to dress up as
something you're not. So… cosplaying. These are our agents,
by the way. In plainclothes. Er… I guess not… plainclothes.
"Godzilla is Agent Jones. The knight is Agent Liu. The last
one's here today — Agent Navarro. The one in the, um,
flaming outfit. Say hi to everyone, Agent Navarro. You know
you want to.
<The footage shows the three agents walking between two
trees which have grown closely together. As they pass
between the trees, they vanish into thin air. The footage cuts
out.>
"Anyway. These are three of our members of Sigma-3 who
can access the Library. Out of the entire Foundation,
generally only members of Sigma-3 can get into the Library
— and only some of them can, at that.
"We think the Library has some way of knowing who's going
to use the Library to target its patrons — and not just in the
present, but in the future. Yeah, the Library seems to have
some limited ability to see the future. How? Your guess is as
good as mine.
"This is, by the way, why Sigma-3 doesn't help the rest of the
Foundation contain people in the Library. If they did that,
they'd simply be kicked out. And then we'd lose our 'in' to
one of the most important anomalous locations in the world.
<The footage resumes. It shows Agents Jones, Liu, and
Navarro, now in ordinary clothing, standing in a huge hall,
surrounded by massive shelves of books, going up,
skyscraper-high, too high to see the top. In the hallway are
many tables, and many people — well over a hundred, at
least. As the footage plays on, it becomes obvious that not all
of the people in the lobby are human. One person passes in
front of the camera — their face is blue and covered in
spikes. A thirty-foot-tall walking carpet sits down at a nearby
table, with a book in each of its three tails.>
"This is the main hall of the Library. It's… even bigger than it
looks. This is actually a pretty empty day — usually there's at
least a few hundred people around at any given time. And it
can hold thousands just as comfortably.
"Spaces are deceiving, in the Library. For example, in the
main hall, it takes half a day to reach the back walls… yet the
space you've crossed is at least the size of a continent.
"Oh, and that's just the main hall. The Library has many
wings. Some of them are small — only the size of a city. It
just goes up from there. Some of them are actually built into
forests and some of them have their own skies…
<As the footage continues, Agent Navarro appears to try to
converse with a robed humanoid figure. The figure has no
mouth. Where its left hand should be, there's a chain
connected to a glowing brass lantern.>
"…Ah yes. That is a Librarian. Yeah, that one has no mouth.
"This is because being a Librarian is a punishment. Usually.
There are a few voluntary Librarians, and they look
particularly strange. But we won't be seeing those on this
recording.
"The ones with no mouths are Docents. They guide people
through the Library and… enforce the rules of the Library.
They are scary as hell — just one can take out one of our
paramilitary squads all on its own, with ease. When they've
been involved in containment breaches, which has been
incredibly, incredibly rare, the damage has been massive.
And they're not even the Library's biggest defenses.
"The other two common Librarians are Archivists and
Pages. You can see some of the Archivists in the background
of this shot here — they're at the large desks to the left. They
are attached to their chairs — they have no legs. And you
can't see it from this angle, but they have no eyes. Don't need
them to read, apparently. And —
<Something like a human spider scuttles across one of the
shelves above Agent Liu's head. She doesn't seem startled.>
"—that's a Page. They take care of the books directly. I've
never seen one touch the ground.
"All of these used to be people. Most of them were human.
Now, they're not.
"See, the Library has rules. Don't damage books, don't steal
books, return books on time. Don't damage the Library. And
don't harm those within the Library.
"If you break rules too egregiously, you are forcibly made
into a Librarian. And… yes. A number of Foundation agents
are trapped in the Library right now, serving out sentences
as Librarians. Given the nature of their offenses… if we're
lucky, they'll get out in a few hundred years.
"Question in the back. No. Unfortunately, there's nothing we
can do for them. We don't even know which Librarians they
are. Ah — more questions — alright, let's pause the footage.
<The footage pauses, as Agent Jones appears to be flirting
with a floating, regal-looking mermaid, surrounded by a
stack of green books floating in orbs of water.>
"Alright. More questions. You in the, um, shirt, go ahead.
"Can we use Sigma-3 to retrieve books from the Library?
Um, no, not as such. First, the Library already has its eye —
metaphorically, I assume — on us. If we start making plans
like that, even seriously start entertaining them, we might
lose access to the Library. We have to rely on whatever
information can be filtered through our Sigma-3 agents.
Whatever they can film, copy down, etcetera. Believe me,
that's better than nothing.
"Second, I haven't yet talked about Library Cards.
"To check out books, to take them out of the Library, you
need to have a Library Card. The Library gets a copy and you
get a copy. On that Card is a magical signature that counts as
your True Name.
"For the majority of you who don't get the significance of that
— we don't have time to get into the True-Naming business,
but what that means is, anyone with that Card can cast spells
on you as if you're willing. They can do nearly anything to
you if they're good enough, and the Library certainly is.
"Library Cards also confer the protection of the Library, to a
certain extent. Killing Card-holders is part of why the Global
Occult Coalition got kicked out of the Library — they were
smart enough not to kill anyone in the Library directly,
though they did end up killing — sorry, I digress.
"Point is, the Coalition used the Library to monitor
'dissidents' and execute them once they left. And you can't
cheat the Library.
"I bring that up as another reminder: this is why Sigma-3
cannot, ever, help the rest of the Foundation contain
anomalies using the Library. We can get death cults and
suchlike because they're also targeting other Library
members and because other Library members are helping us
do so, but even then, we have to be cautious.
"Let's keep going.
<The footage resumes. Navarro, Jones, and Liu head past
more massive, endless shelves, and walk into an atrium.
There's a coffee-house set up incongruously on the edge of a
field of wildflowers. People perch laptops atop stacks of
books. Liu gestures animatedly at an empty blue "couch"
that looks like it was designed for something much larger
than a human, and probably with a different limb
arrangement.>
"Another question — Does the Library have free Wifi? Okay,
I know you're joking, but the answer is actually yes. The
Library has almost anything you can think of. People can live
their entire lives in the Library — they typically don't, but it's
possible.
<A massive, towering behemoth lumbers into view. Like a
cross between a sauropod dinosaur and a kraken. Its many
eyes fix on each small humanoid in turn as it passes, blotting
out whatever strange light source emanates from the top of
the Library atrium. Its eyes seem to fix for an especially long
time on Jones, Navarro, and Liu, but then it passes onwards,
vanishing through an archway that's much too small for it to
fit under.>
"…And that… is one of the Library's bigger defenses. This one
didn't appear when we invaded. Worse things did. It might
be some kind of Librarian, it might be something else. Who
knows?
"They call it the Elephant God, even though it's not much
like an elephant. The size, I guess.
<The footage ends, as the three Foundation agents gawk at
the monster's disappearing tails.>
"And that's all we have for today. Keep in mind, all this is
only a fraction of the Library. The parts that can easily be
accessed from Earth. The Library has what they call
Archives, which include the inner workings of the Library, as
well as the wings of the Library where humanoids like us
don't visit.
"None of the Sigma-3 agents who can get into the Library
have access to the Archives. Library doesn't like us enough.
But we have people working with us who can go there. A
very few, mind you. The Archives are not entered lightly.
They have a manticore in there.
"And… the Archives are where things really went sideways
when the Foundation forced their way into the Library. The
strange-ways, the Boiler Rooms, the guards on the Roots,
the… I'm sorry. It's hard to talk about some… aspects of this
place without… sounding like you're speaking fairy-tale.
Anyway, like I said, no one really knows what happened
when the Foundation tried to take the Library.
"So. Magic.
"Anyone who can perform magic on a consistent, sustained
basis is a Type Blue. Colloquially, a mage, a witch, a
magician, whatever.
"The term, Type Blue, the Foundation lifted from the Global
Occult Coalition. The Coalition classifies humanoids with
anomalous capability using colors. We at the Foundation
mostly use their terms for Green and Blue. Green is reality
bender. Blue is magician.
"Before coming here, some of you read transcripts of a
lecture given to new Global Occult Coalition operatives
about 'applied thaumatology.' Magic, in other words. The
rest of you will have access to some of those transcripts after
this session.
"Your higher-ups want you to read these because new GOC
trainees still start off reading those, even though they're
decades old and some of the information is… I would quibble
with its presentation. The important thing is that you know
half the baseline our competition has started from.
"I'm here to give you the viewpoint of the other half. You
already know that I used to be a member of the Serpent's
Hand.
"You in the back, who raised her hand when I mentioned the
Coalition transcripts?
"For anyone who didn't catch that question, she just asked
about 'that Hogwarts shit.' She wasn't joking, no. 'Hogwarts'
is the, ahem, International Center for the Study of Unified
Thaumatology.
"It's not exactly Hogwarts, more a university focused
exclusively on research, but… yes, it is on some level a school
for wizards. Depending on your definition of 'wizard'.
"Why haven't we contained and shut them down? Well,
remember what I told you about Sigma-3. But, sure, we don't
need to use Sigma-3 for that. The real answer is that the
Center is protected by the Global Occult Coalition, among
other things, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that
attacking it could trigger World War Three.
"Something I need to keep reminding people. We're here to
secure, contain, protect, not to blow everything into the
daylight just to make sure we possess every paranatural
artifact on Earth.
"Either way, it's not up to us; we're to leave the Center alone
by order of the O5 Council. But yes, it exists, as part of the
anomalous community. No, I don't think Foundation
members can attend.
"The Hand and the GOC have a number of Type Blues in
their ranks. With the Foundation… officially, we have no
Type Blues. There are no Foundation magicians. Of course,
you know that's not true. Still, we have only a few, and
almost every Type Blue Foundation member is associated
with Sigma-3.
"But all that aside.
<clears throat>
"You want to know how I could talk to you in blue.
"Well, it's not especially easy. I did a few rituals before
coming here so I could do this a few times on cue. All with
the permission of our higher-ups in the Foundation — yes,
there are people higher than me, of course there are. I'm
only a Director.
"Point is, any and all magic that any of you will be
performing will be done under strictest supervision, unless
you're out in the field and need to blend in. All of it will be
done in the service of the Foundation.
"One of you asked me a question when you were supposed to
be having dinner. Ze wanted to know: why can we talk about
Type Greens — reality benders — when we can't talk about
Type Blues?
"Some of you have already guessed the answer. The truth —
the truth that none of you are to repeat in mixed company,
certainly not to anyone else in the Foundation — is that
anyone can become a Type Blue.
"Anyone can become a magician. Anyone can learn to
perform magic. Many of you are going to at least attempt to
learn. Most will not succeed, but it is possible for any of you
to succeed.
<clears throat>
"That gets a little wearing after a while. And a couple of you
look ill. Sorry about that.
"Anyway. Anyone can become a Type Blue, but there are
some caveats. The first is sometimes called Potential. At
least, it was called that when I was a member of the Hand.
"A few people get Potential through their genetics, but 99.9%
of the population is born with a Potential of nothing. After
that, whether you get Potential is like whether you get
cancer. There are about a million factors. Some of it's how
you think. Some of it's how you do or don't fit into society.
Some of it's your kind of intelligence. And sometimes there
is no identifiable cause.
"Generally, if you want to become a magician — a Type Blue
— you first figure out what your Potential is. What life's given
you. If you're lucky, you'll find an established magic tradition
that suits you. If you're very lucky — by which I mostly mean,
you're a Type Blue already and didn't know it — you can just
go ahead and start practicing. Otherwise, you have to take a
good, long hard look at yourself.
"Because becoming a magician is hard. It takes a lot out of
you, something different from every person. It usually
requires some kind of sacrifice.
"Question? Go ahead.
"No, I don't mean a blood sacrifice, necessarily. Even in the
anomalous community, that is very much not socially
acceptable. When I say sacrifice, I mean… physically,
emotionally, spiritually. It's different for everyone.
"Why a sacrifice? Because it's about perspective. Not just
your perspective. But the perspective of others, on you. The
perspective of reality. It's about changing how the World
sees you. How you see and interact with the universe.
"You're confused. That's understandable. Let me try to
rephrase. Becoming a magician is all about discovering and
altering your metaphysical place in the world.
"This can be temporary, or permanent. Temporary is easiest.
Most people can create a really minor Working, or a spell.
Serpent's Hand members often start with making blue lily
flower chains.
"Then they follow a really complicated set of instructions
that, with the right materials and mindset, as well as
membership of the Serpent's Hand, produce temporary
Potential inside them, which they then use to Work the
flower chains, to add magic to them. Anomalous effects.
"Those effects are different for everyone. It's impossible to
try to make every Type Blue make a luck charm, because
almost everyone who doesn't believe in luck will reliably fail
it, except, oddly, actual statisticians, who know what it would
take to create actual luck. Point is, it's not directly
predictable what any one person can and can't do.
"Let's have some more demonstrations. At this point, you've
all heard me talk in blue. Let's see what someone else can
do. Agent Navarro?
"What do you mean, no one told you in advance you'd need
to put on a show? I'm telling you now. You up for it, or not?
"I thought so. Alright, everyone who doesn't know, this is
Agent Daniel Navarro. Agent Navarro is a former anartist,
and like me, he is a Type Blue.
<Director Moose hands Agent Navarro a slip of paper, and a
knife.>
"Whenever you're ready, Agent Navarro.
<Agent Navarro glares at Director Moose. After a moment,
Navarro picks up the knife, and, with a dramatic gesture,
slices across his left palm. A burst of iridescent fire blazes up
from the wound. Navarro holds up the fire in his hand. It
whirls and twists in the dimmed room.>
"Agent Navarro was born a Type Blue. He discovered his
talent when he tried smoking as a child and got an… unusual
result. He discovered the blood magic aspect of his talent
through resources in the Wanderers' Library.
<Navarro conjures more bubbling bursts of iridescent fire,
and begins juggling. A few people cheer in the audience.>
"Alright, that's enough, Navarro, you're getting blood
everywhere. Sit back down. Someone get him a bandage.
"Go ahead, you in the back.
"Ah yes. I mentioned magic traditions. I'm actually quoting a
Dr. Everett Mann, here, who's done some interesting
thaumotology studies for us: Magic is magic. The Coalition
are generally taught the same basic framework for magic,
stuff like hue and backlash and all that. The Hand tend to be
less consistent, go more into really esoteric stuff.
"There are many, many traditions, and almost no universals.
Unless you're talking rituals and such which are made to
work for anyone, Potential is different for different kinds of
magic. One Old European pagan tradition may work for you,
and another originating from less than fifty miles away may
not. And people like Agent Navarro don't even have a
"tradition" in any real sense, just "some stuff that works".
"I mentioned Navarro was born a Type Blue. I was not born
a Type Blue. I became a magician another way.
"I was talking about Potential, right? Well, to do anything
serious, you can't get by on temporary Potential. It has to be
permanent. And that means you become a Type Blue.
"Let's be clear, here — that means you become an
anomalous humanoid, even if it's in a way that's nearly
invisible. Agent Navarro and I? Anomalous humanoids. You
might say, well, if we never performed magic again, we'd be
indistinguishable from normal, too, right? Well, no. Beyond
our… anomalous capability, there's a type of anomalous
radiation associated with being a mage. The GOC have
scanners that can visually read this — so do we, actually,
though we don't usually use them in the field. The GOC
color-code this type of radiation blue. Hence, Type Blue.
"So how do you become a Type Blue?
"You have to shift your perspective on the world.
"You know that Center we mentioned? The GOC-protected
magic school? They have a standing 50 million prize for
anyone who can identify a reliable, universal, standardized
process for becoming a Type Blue. No one will ever win it
because you can't just make people reliably, universally shift
their perspective on the world.
"Almost everyone in the world is capable of doing it — but
almost everyone in the world is capable of cutting off their
left hand. How many people are actually going to do that?
Especially if it might not even do anything for you, because
little did you know you needed to lose an eye?
"Becoming a mage isn't always as awful as that… but for
some people, it's worse.
"There are three major avenues to becoming a mage. Some
of them are acceptable to members of Sigma-3. Most are not.
I hope that which is which will be obvious.
"Let's start with the easy way.
"This is to just hang out around magic. Simple exposure.
People with high Potential, or outright Type Blues. Wearing
magical jewelry. Creating minor Workings. Becoming a
member of a magically-inclined organization, or a cult of
some eldritch deity.
"A big thing is spending time in a magic-saturated
environment, like the Wanderers' Library — or Sigma-3's
training facilities, with Sigma-3 members who are Type
Blues. This is one principle of magic, beyond the scope of
what we have time for today: like affects like, and like
produces like, too.
"Do this long enough, and if you're lucky, you'll become a
Type Blue. Many people aren't lucky.
"The second way, done alongside the first way, is to forcibly,
drastically, change who you are as a person. Move countries.
Change religions. Re-address your sexuality, see if you can
find some suppressed aspects. Alter your mind directly with
anything from spells to amnestics. Scarification and tattoos
are common. Give birth to a child, raise the child. Yes, even
becoming a parent changes your Potential and the nature of
who you are.
"Either way, the idea is to give something up. Sacrifice, as I
said. It's simplest to give up 'who you are'. Often this is the
most appealing option, more appealing than it might sound.
After all, you might end up a better person, when all is said
and done, and a better person who can perform magic.
"For the desperate, this method includes making a bargain
with a powerful anomalous entity. However, even in the
anomalous community, this is rarer than you might think,
because most of these entities are predatory. Many will take
everything a person values and give little to nothing in return.
"But there is no real limit to what you can give up. These are
dangerous waters. One may sacrifice body parts, loved ones,
pieces of their life, their future… and in some cases, that's
even worked out in the magician's favor. Well, not for
sacrificing loved ones. I hope I don't need to tell you all that
sacrificing loved ones for magical power is never worth it,
not even in practical terms.
"The third and final way is to change the world, or wait for
the world to change.
"Of all of these avenues of gaining supernatural power, this
runs the most counter to the goals of the SCP Foundation.
Yes, even more so than sacrificing loved ones. We want to
preserve normalcy. The world can certainly change on its
own terms, but the Foundation doesn't want the world to be
forced to change by anomalous means.
"The Serpent's Hand does want to change the world. And to
some extent, though you won't hear most of us in the
Foundation admit this, they've succeeded. While we don't
have exact numbers, we know for a fact that there are more
Type Blues today than there were fifty years ago. More than
there were ten years ago. At least some of this can be
attributed to the recent swelling in the ranks of the Hand.
"The Chaos Insurgency also understands this. This is why
they wish to change the world, to their liking — that's why
they're called the Chaos Insurgency. It's not just a cartoon
supervillain name. I mean, it is that, but it's also a statement
of purpose.
"Sigma-3 only works with factions of the Hand who do not
want the world to change, at least not to the extent that the
Insurgency does. They may want more Type Blues in the
world than we do — they may want to eventually break the
Masquerade — and we don't want that, and we can't and
won't help them with that, but they still want the world
intact. Like we do.
"There are a lot of dangerous things out there, some of them
people, some of them far beyond people, who have immense
motivation to change our world for their own benefit.
"They're the worst of the things out there who want to drag
us all back into the dark. In most cases they aren't even evil.
They just want to rearrange the anthills to make themselves
the new queen.
"Hopefully now you understand why a little better — this is
the only thing we can understand about some of those…
things, because they're unknowable in every other way.
"There's another side to all of this. The ultimate reason why
all this Type Blue stuff has to be kept secret, and why we in
the Foundation can't just become a cult of magicians.
"If the entire Foundation embraced magic — if every
researcher or MTF agent took advantage of the power, the
real, significant power that magic has to offer — if everyone
outside of Sigma-3 all became Type Blues like me — then
our perspective on the world would change. And if that
happened, we might not be able to hold back dangers to
reality any longer.
"Everyone at the Foundation, at a sufficiently high level,
spends their time around anomalies. We contain them, and
honestly very effectively even with the odds so strongly
against us, with science and concrete. The vast majority of
our containment procedures — with exceptions made only
when strictly necessary — are non-anomalous in nature. You
could say that we believe in science and concrete.
"Can you imagine what would happen if we stopped
believing? If we changed the way we saw the world? If
everyone at the Foundation became mystics?
"It could be the end of containment, forever. The end of the
Foundation's preservation of normalcy. And then we'd all be
at the mercy of all the horrible things out there, the old gods
and demons that would ensure humanity does nothing but
huddle in caves around campfires and scratch on the walls,
forever.
"Your mileage may vary on whether this is true. But let me
be clear: your mileage is only allowed to vary within the
specific context of Sigma-3. I say Sigma-3 because everyone
else here already knows this. No one else in the Foundation
is to be exposed to this perspective, or they might not be able
to contain threats to our reality.
"This is also why most members of the Foundation don't
even know magic is real. Sounds small. But it starts small.
Say, a researcher fantasizes about casting Wingardium
Leviosa, or an agent with an unfortunate romantic streak.
And it ends with being unable to believe that Cthulhu can be
contained behind sheets of steel and walls of stone.
"But it's not my job or your job to keep Cthulhu's
containment from failing. That's the job of the rest of the
Foundation. Your job is to do things the rest of the
Foundation can't. Your job is to find out what everyone else
knows about Cthulhu that we don't.
"We share their perspective. Something no one else in the
Foundation can risk.
"In this way, we preserve the world, and serve the primary
mission of the SCP Foundation, in a way no one else can.
"Any final questions? Okay. That's a lot of hands. I'll take just
one for now.
"Ah, yes. You're right. I didn't tell you how I became a Type
Blue.
"Well, I'm not going to go into detail. Let's just say, I took the <Director Moose leans against her lectern, looking strained.
second way. I made… sacrifices. Major sacrifices. Among The moose figurine is gone. After a moment, she smiles.>
other things, I deliberately did things to my own mind that I "Now you know how I became director of Site-19.
absolutely do not recommend. "…A joke. Just a little… joke.
"Many of my friends did similar things — some did worse — "Right.
and failed. Some did not survive the experience. And I… I will <clears throat>
never get back some of the things I gave up. "…That's enough for today. I'll take questions after an hour's
"Such is magic. Such is the anomalous world. break, from anyone who sticks around. Thank you all for
"But, even now, I can still do… something like… this… coming, and… see you on the other side."
<Director Moose takes out a small object and places it on her
lectern. A small, carved moose figurine. She leans over, and
whispers to it.>
<There is a gust of wind, coming from nowhere in the indoor
hall, and a massive black, cloudy figure towers over the
audience — the shape of a demonic moose, with antlers
stretching across the ceiling, and many eyes, shining like
coals from within the roiling mass. Someone screams.>
<The moose resolves into a cartoon of a frowning face with
antlers, ruining the intimidating effect, then shifts and
dissipates into smoke.>
Index of Terminology
# function. Sold by Prometheus Labs from 1985 to 1995,
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6th Occult War. Large-scale occult conflict lasting from 1875
to 1882, culminating in the destruction of a major demiurge.
7th Occult War. Global occult conflict lasting from 1939 to
1945, centered around attempts by the Ahnenerbe
Obskurakorps to complete the Rite of Solomon.
A sufficient planning and preparation, backlash can be directed
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Aetheric Oscillation Detector. Also known as a Randall
Detector, after its inventor, Dr. John Carver Randall. A device
which can detect changes in background aspect radiation,
commonly used for locating unopened Ways.
All-Natural Automatons. Organic robots created through
genetic engineering of cloned human zygotes, using
technologies developed during Project Samsara. One of the
few Prometheus Labs products that were untouched by the
restructuring, production began in 1990 and continues to
this day.
Amnestic. Amnesia inducing drugs, widely utilized by
normalcy preservation agencies to conceal the existence of
the anomalous.
Anahuman. Abbreviation of anomalous human. An individual
who possess anomalous abilities or attributes. Generally
does not include non-human humanoids. See also;
Parahuman
Anart. Short for anomalous art. Used to refer to artwork
which was created with or incorporates anomalies.
Anomalous. A catch-all term to describe things which
seemingly violate the known laws of nature and defy logical
explanation. When used alone as a mass noun, it can also
encompass the occult and paranormal.
Antimeme. An idea with self-censoring properties; a meme
which discourages dissemination or which is impossible to
remember or transmit.
Apportation. An occult method of instantaneous
teleportation. The extreme EVE requirements and the
magnitude of the resulting backlash make apportation
impractical in most instances.
Argo Marque Automobiles. The primary product line of Argo
Automotives, consisting of temporally displaced cars from a
year in the future. Sold from 1998 to 2008.
Aspect Radiation. EVE emissions with an intensity great
enough to alter reality.
Aura. The natural, low-level EVE emissions given off by most
living organisms and many paranormal entities. Auras
fluctuate relatively consistently in response to numerous
physiological and psychological factors, which makes it
possible to use aura patterns to determine an individual's
emotional and physical state.
Automated Exorcism System. A machine for automatically
performing exorcisms and other similar occult workings,
although the presence of a thaumaturge is required for it to
customers included the Horizon Initiative, the Global Occult
Coalition, and the Foundation.
B
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Backlash. Randomized alterations to local reality, occurring
as a result of thaumaturgy and similar occult activity. With
and partially controlled.
Baseline. The mainstream or normal version of something,
as in baseline human or baseline universe.
Basilisk. A hazardous meme which disrupts human
cognition, either temporarily or permanently.
Branch Universe. A dependent pocket universe emerging
from a mainline universe or one of its branches.
C
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Cognitohazard. Anything which, when perceived, induces
anomalous or harmful effects in the observer.
Concept. A concept is the fundamental and ultimate
encapsulation of the qualitative properties of a thing and
represents the basic unit of metaphysics. Concepts exist
(metaphysically) independently of the things they describe,
allowing for arbitrary manipulation of reality by modifying a
thing's concepts.
Conceptual Machinery. Machines that are composed of basic
concepts, commonly appearing as translucent structures that
are quasi-physical, resembling physical objects while lacking
corporeality. These are commonly used in conceptual
modification. AKA conceptual structures, "conceptech."
Conceptually Null Clearsolid. Glass-like material that
possess paradoxical concepts, such as the concept of having
no concepts. Organic material that comes in contact with it
experiences the rapid modification and loss of concepts.
Conceptuvore. An entity that feeds on or consumes concepts.
Counterconceptual. Something which is impossible to
perceive or conceptualize. A paradoxical or
incomprehensible concept.
D
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Deconceptualize. The process through which an object
reverts to its base concepts, usually occurring as a result of
unshielded exposure to the Outside.
Deity. An anomalous non-human entity possessing extreme
reality bending abilities, and largely outside the limits of
human comprehension. Deities often occupy higher
dimensions of space or adjacent planes of reality, either in
whole or in part.
Demiurge. A deific entity possessing significant power and F
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responsibility over the nature of certain aspects of a
Familiar. A fragment of raw intellect given form and
universe. A reality bender capable of altering specific and
animated by thaumaturgy. Commonly bound by
limited parameters of reality on a universal scale.
thaumaturges to serve as aides and companions. The
Demon. A loosely defined term used to refer to a wide variety
preferred technical term is Constructed Intelligence.
of anomalous creatures originating from other regions of the
multiverse, most of which are hostile to human life.
Demonarcotics. The practice of using demons and similar
G
anomalous creatures, in whole or in part, as components in ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

performance enhancing drugs. Also refers to the drugs Gawker. Slang term for a member of the Global Occult
created through this practice. Coalition, derived from the initialism 'GOC'.
Demonics. Refers to the application of demons in integrated Geas. The use of memetic agents to force a person to obey a
circuits, through the use of solid-state demon summoning set of rules or guidelines. Widely employed in upholding the
devices. Veil.
Ghostlight™. A line of lightbulbs manufactured by Titan
E Consumer Appliances and Electronics, which utilize the
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ectoluminescent properties of ghosts to produce light.
Ectomorph. Paranormal entities composed of ectoplasm,
Recalled in 2006 due to quality problems in the supply of
sometimes created by the death of a living organism. Also
ectomorphs used. Manufacturing resumed at a later date
known as ghosts, spirits, specters, and shades.
under Foundation supervision.
Ectoplasm. A semi-corporeal fluid which is transparent
Golden Age of Normalcy. The period during the 20th century
under normal circumstances and evaporates at room
when the strength of the Veil reached its peak.
temperature. When subjected to an electric current it will
Golem. A physical construct animated by thaumaturgy,
emit visible-wavelength photons in a process known as
possessing basic sentience and a rudimentary intelligence.
ectoluminescence.
Essential instructions and complex behavioral parameters
Eigenweapon. A paraweapon capable of killing large
can be ascribed with an emet, a written inscription on or
numbers of people and/or dealing massive amounts of
within the golem. While technically only referring to
damage to terrain, infrastructure, or the environment. An
constructs animated via Kabbalistic thaumaturgy, the term is
anomalous weapon of mass destruction.
commonly and colloquially used to refer to any type of
Electroneural Cognitive Interface. An implanted neural
thaumic construct.
prosthetic, used for electronic telepathy. Based on the work
done by Conrad Trent and Myra Rider in 2015 on behalf of
H
the Maxwellist Church. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Esoteric. An alternative term for the occult and paranormal,
generally encompassing both.
EVE. Elan-Vital Energy. The fundamental particle of aetheric
energy, which powers all thaumaturgy.
Everhart Resonator. A machine used to produce EVE from
electricity, developed by John Everhart at ICSUT during the
Seventh Occult War. The conversion requires a thaumaturge
to start the process, and is extremely inefficient, but it is far
more reliable than any other method for generating large
quantities of EVE.
Evocation. A spontaneous act of thaumaturgy, done without
preparation or planning, and typically relying on the caster's
own energy reserves as a source of EVE. Extremely difficult
to perform successfully, and highly susceptible to backlash.
Exorcism. An occult ritual intended to remove non-corporeal
entities from a person or object. If the exorcised entity or
entities originate in a different universe, they will be returned
to it if possible.
Exploit. A term for pattern-based reality bending accessible
by any sufficiently skilled persons. Usually limited in scope
and scale. Commonly associated with anartists.
Hoover Mandate. A longstanding policy of the US Federal
Government, enacted by President Herbert Hoover to
address the handling of paranormal enclaves within the US
following the disastrous mishandling of initial relations with
Three Portlands by BOI/FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
I
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Infohazard. A cognitohazard which can affect an individual if
they learn about it, even without directly perceiving it.
ISV Daedalus. A massive spaceship, intended for use as an
interstellar research vessel. Construction was abandoned by
Prometheus Labs in late 1997 before it could be completed.
The unfinished hull is currently in a low-orbit around
asteroid (532) Herculina.
 K N
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Köln Agreement. A bilateral treaty between the GOC and the
Foundation, signed in the immediate aftermath of the 7th
Occult War, which establishes the terms for the joint
containment of the Rite of Solomon and its components, and
provides a framework for future joint efforts between the two
organizations. Along with the GOC Charter, serves as one of
the foundational documents of the post-war Veil and
international consensus normalcy.
L
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Law of Contagion. The part affects the whole. One of the
basic tenets of unified thaumatology.
Law of Sympathy. Like produces like. One of the basic tenets
of unified thaumatology. Also called the Law of Similarity.
M
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Mainline Universe. The central universe of a multiverse,
from which all of the branch universes ultimately derive their
structure and existence. Also called a baseline universe.
Mekhane. The fragmented and dormant deity worshiped by
Mekhanite religions. Also called the Broken God.
Meme. An infectious idea which influences human actions,
especially one which encourages further propagation of
itself. Memetics is the study and application of memes.
Memetic Bomb. A meme carrying a dormant cognitohazard,
activated by a predefined trigger (which may be a specific
date, a time delay, a perceptual pattern, or even simply
random.) Effects are various, and can include death, insanity,
and spontaneous localized reality alterations.
Metafiction. The field of metaphysics dedicated to the
application of paratech in order to manifest and manipulate
self-contained, dependent realities based on fictional
narratives, most often with the goal of inserting or removing
persons and objects from specific fictions.
Metaphysics. The scientific study of concepts as independent
and fundamental expressions of qualitative properties. Often
considered a more rigorous and practical extension of the
philosophical field of the same name, from which it derives
much of its terminology.
Mnestic. A memory-enhancing drug used to counteract the
effects of antimemes.
Multiverse. The section of reality composed of a baseline
universe and all of its associated branch universes. Many
multiverses are known to exist throughout reality, although
the total number is impossible to know with certainty (and is
possibly infinite). Travel between multiverses is
extraordinarily difficult and exceedingly rare.
Mundane. That which is normal. Lacking in any anomalous,
paranormal, or occult properties.
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Necromancy. The act of consulting the remnants of a
deceased intelligence in order to gain information which may
be used in attempts to predict future events.
Normalcy. That which is accepted and understood. The
status quo.
NOTUS. A Prometheus Paraeconomics supercomputer built
in 1968 to produce accurate stock market forecasts for
selected stocks of interest to the company's economists.
Later acquired by the Foundation in 2005.
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Observer. An individual or entity capable of perceiving and
manipulating EVE. See also; Thaumaturge
Observer Effect. The term for the ability of thaumaturges and
many deities to use EVE to alter reality. The mechanism
behind this remains poorly understood.
Occult. A term for things that violate the laws of physics, but
which act in a manner consistent with the theory of unified
thaumatology. AKA "magic".
Ontic Bleed. A term used to describe the aspect radiation
flux that commonly surrounds Ways, which arises as a result
of branch universes drawing on the reality of the baseline
universe to support their existence.
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Parahuman. An alternative term for humans with anomalous
properties. Largely interchangeable with the term
anahuman, although different organizations have different
usage preferences.
Paranormal. A term used for things which, while
unexplainable under current laws of physics, act in a
consistent, logical manner.
Paranormal Renaissance. The era between the 6th and 7th
Occult Wars, during which many important discoveries of
modern parascience were made.
Parascience. An encompassing term for scientific fields and
endeavors which work behind the Veil to study paranormal
phenomena and principles, with the ultimate goal of
producing explanations compatible with standard physics.
Paratechnology. A catch-all term for technology that is either
non-anomalous but beyond the current state-of-the-art, or
which is derived from or makes use of paranormal principles
which are understood well enough to reliably replicate. Often
abbreviated to paratech.
Paraweapon. A weapon which incorporates paratech as a
critical part of its operation.
Plasma Projector. A type of directed energy paraweapon S
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developed during the Cold War and employed throughout
Seance Dust. A paradrug that enables post-mortem
the Soviet Bloc. Plasma projectors typically use a blackbox
communication, commonly used recreationally in Three
power source to generate a highly-charged, dense plasma,
Portlands.
which is then accelerated to hypersonic velocities and fired
Shadow (metaphysics). The conceptual projection of an
at a target. The resulting projectile inflicts extensive thermal
object or event into an adjacent universe. Normally invisible
and mechanical damage upon hitting a target, and produces
and incorporeal, Shadows can be stabilized into physical
a noise resembling a thundercrack.
artifacts through thaumaturgy or from innate reality
Pocket Universe. A smaller universe associated with a
anchoring properties in their source. Lighthouses are a
particular multiverse, which may or may not be dependent
common source of self-stabilizing Shadows.
on the reality of the relevant mainline universe. Most pocket
Sigil Machine. A machine that can generate various occult
universes are dependent branch universes, but independent
symbols and sigils to aid in thaumaturgical workings, with a
pocket universes may naturally arise when a branch universe
uniformity and precision greater than that normally attained
becomes separated from the mainline, or artificially through
by unaided thaumaturges. Derived from the technology used
the actions of a thaumaturge, deity, or reality bender.
in the Automated Exorcism System.
Powdered Unicorn Horn. A retrocausal contraceptive and
Skipper. Slang term for a member of the Foundation,
industrial pesticide sold by Marshall, Carter and Dark.
derived from its commonly used initialism 'SCP'.
Project Auto-Magus. A long-term research and development
Suit. Slang term for a member of a normalcy preservation
program at Prometheus Labs in the early 1970s, focused on
organization. The plural form is commonly used to refer to
creating a fully mechanical thaumaturge. Canceled in 1976,
all the organizations involved in maintaining the Veil, or to
the technologies developed were later used to create the
the general concept of normalcy preservation organizations.
Automated Exorcism System.
Project Bardeen. A project undertaken by a team of neural
T
network researchers at Prometheus Advanced Logic ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Devices, with the goal of developing an artificial intelligence. Thaumatology. The parascientific study of paranormal
Despite its success, the project was shut down after phenomena historically referred to as magic. Unified
Prometheus Computing was purchased by the Foundation. thaumatology is the most widely accepted theoretical
Project Samsara. Originally a program for developing framework within this field and provides the basis for nearly
regenerative stem cell treatments, it transitioned into all modern implementations of functional magic.
studying full-body regeneration and brain uploading in the Thaumaturge. An individual capable of harnessing EVE via
mid-1990s. Met with some early success prior to the breakup the Observer Effect to perform occult workings. Also called
of the Prometheus conglomerate, and was later revived by Type Blues, Sorcerers, Wizards, and Observers.
the Foundation. Thaumaturgy. The use of occult workings to alter reality, in
PSAT Setanta. A Prometheus Astrotechnologies Geas conformance with the theories of unified thaumatology.
Switchboard Communicator satellite launched in 1972, The Outside. The infinite void of conceptual unspace which
which served as a legal witness for the contracts involved in surrounds and encompasses the multiverses. It is a realm of
geas bindings until its decommissioning ten years unbounded concepts, devoid of mind or matter, which defies
afterwards. rational comprehension or explanation.
Psionics. A field of parascience dedicated to the study of The Veil. The name given to the ongoing policy of world
psychic and extrasensory abilities, and of individuals who governments and normalcy protection agencies of hiding or
possess these abilities. Psionics focuses on documenting disguising the existence of the anomalous, paranormal, and
various forms of psychic phenomena, analyzing their occult from the majority of humanity.
biological origins, and treating psionic diseases and
disorders. U
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Psychic. An individual possessing any number of psionic Universe. A single self-contained region of reality with its
abilities, including extrasensory perception, innate own physical laws and characteristics. Travel between
precognition, telekinetic manipulation, and multiple forms of universes is accomplished via Ways.
telepathy.
W
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Way. A portal between universes within the same multiverse,
Reality Bender. An individual with the innate ability to alter which can be opened with an incantation or ritual to allow
reality without employing thaumaturgy or exploits. Also passage. Ways can also be created artificially by
called Type Greens, Bixbies, and Shapers. thaumaturges and reality benders.
Rite of Solomon. A powerful occult working of extreme
magnitude, which can be used to indirectly alter the
underlying nature of thaumaturgy.