By David "Dead Avatar"Barrena (a920060@zipi.fi.upm.es)
- It isn't possible to change the history changing the pictures of a wall. -Jawaharlal Nehru.
- HAHAHAHAHA -Anonymous mage.
Internal File NWO659783IV
Subject: The Historians
Access granted to classes: A,B,D.
Related Files: SOE3657GU,NWO298792OP,NWO30098AG,NWO732168PS,NWO38690DW, NWO38691DW,NWO32226HI,ITX98373EH,SYN439803GD,NWO93748HI,TECH382.
Start of file.
General Information: The modifications to the history they design are called Changes. A Change is a very complex process, because is necessary to hand a lot of information and the consquences of a little change can be vast and uncontrollable.
This huge information handling only was really useful after the developement of computers. Before that, all the calculations had to be done by the human computers of the Sons of Ether (see file SOE3657GU), slower than real computers. Anyway, a Change is a slow process, that usually takes months of hard work.
Structure of a Change:
Personnel:
Historians: The typical group of historians is composed by 6 members.
2 Analysts: Working closely with some members of the Forecasters, they analyze the ramifications of a Change and decide if the Change is possible.
2 Field Agents: They locate and destroy(or modify) the physical evidence of history and make the necessary "deals" with archaeologists and other scientists about the evidence already discovered.
2 Publicists: They work with the Syndicate to make our version of the history widely kwown among the Masses. They use any mean in their hands to spread their ideas, from commemorative festivities (of events that really didn't exist or events that existed in a different way as are remembered (see file NWO93748HI: Woodstock) to books or movies.
10 Men in Black: The MIB are used when is needed a direct action against a target. This actions can be as different as to intimidate a rebel scientist or to eliminate a dangerous Tradition mage. The MIB are also used to protect the Historians' construct together with security guards extracted from the Masses.
Consequences: Do the Historians change really the history ?
The right answer is: Sometimes. As it is explained before, the Historians change the history changing what is known by the Masses, who change the history (remember belief=reality) themselves. But there is a problem: Reality doesn't like to be changed, and if there are a significant number of Masses (this number is unknown by the Historians) that know the real history, even if they are greatly outnumbered by the Masses who know the modified version , then the history will not change.
[ Storytellers note: If Time 2 is used to see the changed event, it will be seen as the original version, or more usually, a version with the original and the Technocracy-altered history mixed or superimposed, as with Divided Sight (corresp. 3) ].
Only if no sleeper knows about the real history,and all believe in the modified version, the history really changes.
[ST note: The use of Time 2 will show the new history].
Another problem found by the Historians is that the parts of history related to awakened beings and powerful magick are almost impossible of delete or change, so the tactic used is to disguise history as legend (see above).
Paradox: The Historians are (with the possible exception of some members of Iteration X ) the Technomancer subgroup more affected by paradox forces, not because of the vulgarity of their effects (most of them are consistent with the paradigm) but for the important modifications of the history they implement.
The forces of paradox usually strike in one (or both) of this ways:
1. Changes in personal history: Some members of the Historians have noticed important modifications on his personal lives, such as a different house . In extreme cases, even the people they know are not the same. Evidence of these changes has not been found, but careful interrogation of the subjets suffering these effects make us to think that Paradox changes the personal history of the Historians, just like they change the history of the world.
All these changes make them pyschologically unbalanced,so they are strongly watched over by all the Technocracy, especially by NWO (another reason for this vigilance is the importance of their work).
2. Paradox Realms: In some extreme cases a Historian has been trapped in an alternative reality (a typical case of paradox realm) where the Change that the Historian was working on had been twisted in a strange form. The classic example is the reality experimented by a Historian who was working in the discovering of America, who was trapped in a paradox realm where Europe was discovered by American natives before the Middle Age and the dominant paradigm was the imposed by the Dreamspeakers.
(This is a typical show of "poetic justice" as is usual in the paradox reactions. Some of our best brains (natural and artificial) are trying to modify this demeanor to make paradox a more impersonal force (see file TECH382) ).
Rotes
File NWO38690DW
Subject:Locate Physical Rests (Rote)
Access granted to classes: A,B,D,H,I
Related Files: NWO659783IV
Start of File.
Knowledges needed: Correspondence 2,Mind 3,Matter 1,Time 2.
Known effects:This Rote analize the impact of an object in the flow of history (Mind, Matter, Time) and locate other objects related to it (Correspondence,Matter). To make effective this goals, the object is analyzed, discovering its origin and most of its particular history, then, complex statistical works are made to see what people remember about the historical fact related to the object.
Then, a complete investigation work is done, searching in museums, private colections, doing archeological works, etc, to find the objects related to the target of the Rote.
The results of the investigation are exponential, because as other objects are found, the Rote is cast upon them and with each casting more and more objects are found, so all the investigation around a historical fact is done in relatively a short amount of time.
File NWO38691DW
Subject:Reality Erasure (Rote)
Access granted to classes: A,B,D,HI
Related Files: NWO659783IV
Start of File.
Knowledges needed: Prime 4,Correspondence 2(4).
Known effects: The rote extracts all the raw Quintessence of an object's pattern.The object thus disappears from reality. Similarities has been discovered between this rote and the effect known to members of the Celestial Chorus as Flames of Purification.
Correspondence is required only if this rote is not casted to an object near the mage. Correspondence 2 to cast the rote (line of sight). Correspondence 4 if the use of Qintessence is needed (as usually does if working from a distance.Line of sight is hard).
File SOE3657GU
Subject:Human Computers (Rote)
Acces granted to classes: A,B,G,J5
Related Files:
Start of File.
Knowledges needed: Time 3,Mind 4,Life 4,Forces 2.
Known effects: This rote transforms a human being in a powerful computer allowing to connect the subject of the rote to a printer or other output machines and accelerating his mind processes. The continued use of the rote upon a subject kills him (death caused by brain damage). This rote is more useful if casted on a Awakened subject, whose mind is more flexible.The usual tactic is to use the Rote in a captured member of the Traditions (to use a Marauder or Nephandi is very unpredictable).
File NWO30098AG
Subject:The Grail
Access granted to classes: A,B,HI.
Related Files: NWO659783IV, SYN987870.
Start of File.
Powers: Unknown, but rumors say that is able of awakening people who drink its contents.
The Grial (and everything related to it) was a main target of the Historians (see file NWO659783IV) during some time. Its history, and all its mystical connotations had to be destroyed. The elimination of all the facts related to the Grail was impossible, but the causes of this are yet unkwnon.The only possible alternative was to transform the history in legend. When the Change was analyzed, some apparent incongruences were detected, what made the Historians to think that the history of the grail was already changed by the Celestial Chorus, to make a powerful symbol as the Grail closer to their beliefs.
Anyway, the Grail has remained in the imagination of the masses during too much time, and this have to be changed. A new project is being developed by the Syndicate: a "famous director" is working in a film that will relate the Grail to alien beings, in an attempt to destroy all the mysticism in its history (see file SYN987870).