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The Technocracy Within: The Thirteenth Hour CrossoverHistory of the Technocracy
“One World, One Truth, One Reality.”- Sha’I Inabre
The Order of Reason was founded in 1210 to protect humanity from the depredations presented by Prodigals in adirect result to the treachery of the largest Hermetic House: Tremere, of the Order of Hermes. The dangers thatspread onto the face of the Earth as a result horrified many of the awakened beings and guilds, who banded togetherto bring reason and logic to the peoples. The Order of Reason consisted of Awakened beings who believed that theworld could be understood by universal rules and that each person should be able to fully comprehend these rules.The belief was that through universal law and common understanding of those universal laws that reality wouldbecome more solvent and less terrifying to mankind. In these darkened times, a response was needed to the betrayalof House Tremere for founding a ritæ that involved their ascension into a Clan of Vampires. The Order found resolvein protecting mankind from any possible prodigal in Nature; Vampires struggled in powerful battles over the citiesthat lined the Face of the Earth; Shape-shifters covered the lands between, running rampant and devouring theinnocent; faery folk lured the unsuspecting into their heathen groves and grotto’s, bewitching man unto temptation. Itwas truly a dangerous and arcane time to be nothing more than mortal, and it was the will of the Order of Reason toprotect Mankind.For these reasons the Order of Reason initialized themselves in a small group and gathered together to destroy theHermetic Covenant of Mistridge in 1210. To allow further magus to perform such volatile rituals such as the recentlyperformed ritæ that House Tremere brought down upon the world would only endanger Mankind, and as Mistridgewas the Chantry that allowed these crimes against Mankind to be performed, its destruction ensured the destructionof the tools, ritæ, and sources for recreating the ritual. Thus began the Ascension War, and suddenly philosophersfound themselves at ends with magus that they once shared common ground and common likeness with. Toextremists there was no middle ground – you could either join the Order of Reason, become enlightened and seek tounderstand the workings of the Universe, or you could join the Traditions and dwell in darkened time, grasping forcontrol over Mankind and ultimately lead to its destruction. Many saw that the Lightkeepers – and the Order ofReason – truly held the best interests of the world at heart, and joined against their former friends to keep the forcesof the Willworkers at bay.One of the many reasons that the Order of Reason appealed so greatly to the awakened is because it shed light on thequestions that Mankind had come to gather over the ages. It offered understanding of common problems andsolutions for how to avoid these problems in the future. Through the devise of scientific study and research, theOrder of Reason brought light to the source of natural elements that they formerly attributed to God’s prowess;breathing was more difficult when climbing a summit because the air was thinner the higher you ascend into theatmosphere; lighting striking the trees was not an arbitrary nature spirit, but rather a regular condensation ofelectrostatic potential and the resulting sudden equalization of said potential. At its inception, it did not consider thatfaith and spirituality were a violation of science, but sought to bring an understanding to the explainable world.Personal philosophies and spirituality was still highly regarded for the next one hundred or so years while thescientific method was being formed.The roots of the Order of Reason took over one-hundred years to spread and stabilize in the medieval world, and hasbeen through several evolutions. On March 1
st
, 1325 the Convention of the Ivory Tower began, drawing those loyal to
 
the Order of Reason together and forming the Precepts of Damian, the central philosophy that is the ideologicalbackbone of the Modern-day Technocratic Union. During the 100 years between the destruction of Mistridge and theformal formation of the Order of Reason, there was much change occurring. Hubris was spreading through themachinations of the Order, and they deemed that they needed to control all “Reality Deviants” that threatenedMankind – including their former brethren. On March 25
th
, 1325, the Declaration of the Ivory Tower was completeand the Order of Reason was formalized. Craftmasons and High Guilds assembled their masses, and several‘Conventions’ of Thought were assembled; some were created. At the Creation of the Ivory Tower, these consisted of:The Artificers, the Cabal of Pure Thought, the Celestial Masters, the Craftmasons, the High Guild, the Cosian Circle,the Solificati (who separated from the Order of Reason in 1335), and the Void Seekers. One year after the separationof the Solificati, the Ksirafai is founded to enforce the dictates of the Inner Circle (Ruling Council) of the Order ofReason, who meet every 15 years. The terminology from Inner Council was adjusted to “Invisible College” around1851 when the Order of Reason was reorganized into the Technocracy. It wasn’t until 1897 when the became knownas the shadowy bureaucratic force called “Control”.The Precepts of Damian have remained the same throughout the centuries since the formation of the Order of Reasn.Though the interpretation of the Precepts varies considerably, and some Technocrats privately (or secretly) dismissspecific subsections, they nevertheless offer the ideological foundation that leadership refer to, to determine policy:1.Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known,Unity will be won.2.Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality.Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
3.
Preserve the
Gauntlet
and the
Horizon
. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten thestability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces, such as Nephandi, access to our world.This must never happen.4.Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forcesof the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.5.Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity.6.Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.The Renaissance saw further changes for the Order of Reason. In 1670, the Ksirafai, who were founded to enforce thedictates of the Inner Council, followed a direct edict from the council to destroy the Craftmasons; ironic consideringthat the Craftmasons were the founders of the Order of Reason. All records and artifacts from the era of the earlyAscension Conflict were “lost”; information on the Art was destroyed, suppressed or revised so thoroughly from itsoriginal form that it was no longer detectable. Ksirafai erased all records of the Craftmasons, and eventually theyoung and the new forgot about the heritage of the Order of Reason. In 1745 the White Tower of Languedoc wasdestroyed in a magical battle; due to the nature of the attack and the ongoing Ascension Conflict, Tradition mageswere blamed for it’s destruction; some claim that it was 535 years in the planning (since the destruction of Mistridge).Many Tradition Mages lay claim to the destruction of the first inception of the White Tower, but in reality there islittle supporting evidence that it was an intentional strike in the Ascension Conflict.Some members of the Technocracy are uncertain of the loyalty of the Ksirafi, or the machinations of the Convocation.This we know: in 1716, the Ksirafai claimed to have ‘defeated’ their own selves and sought admittance into the Orderof Hermes; they were accepted into House Ex Miscellanea as House Janissary. Shortly after the foundation, theFounder Dincer Albayrak selected a replacement; a young Bedouin by the name of Caeron Moustai. Unfortunately forthe Ksirafai, Moustai had already been trained by the Ahl-i-Batin and in the combination of knowledge of the Batiniand the Ioxi, Mustai realized that Armageddon and Ascension were one in the same. If preventing Armageddonmeant turning away from Ascension, so be it. Intentionally, he guided House Janissary away from its originalpurpose, and encouraged both inter-House (blinding the Order of Hermes to the corruption of the Consanguinity ofEternal Joy) and inter-Tradition (preventing the Golden Chalice from realizing anything was amiss) conflict. In 1764,still under the lead of Caeron Moustai, House Janissary left House Ex Miscellanea, and was promoted to its ownstanding within the Traditions.If the Renaissance saw drastic change to the Order of Reason, the Victorian era refined the Union. The 19
th
centurysaw decadence begin, with sciences being studied by the majority of Mankind; little known principles of the previousera were now accepted by the masses (“The Earth is Round”, Gravity, Medicine and anatomy, astronomy…and many
 
more) as fact – not fiction. Theories of relativity abounded and science-fiction was adapted to explain theunexplainable – all the while, trying to find a rational way of thinking. The Voltarian Order was founded in 1806,under the precepts of Alessandro Volta and the theories of Physics; many of their members were the remnants of theNatural Philosopher’s Guild. They were restructured along with the rest of the Technocratic Conventions in 1851 tobecome the “Electrodyne Engineers”; but when the Consensus eliminated “Ether” from the sciences in 1904, theEngineers defected from the Technocracy and joined the Council of Nine, renaming themselves the “Sons of Ether”.1823 saw the inception of the Difference Engineers shortly after the creation of Charles Babbage’s difference engine,and later the Analytical Engine. As with many of the changes that the formation of the Technocracy saw in 1851, theytoo were reorganized into the Analytical Reckoners. The 1830’s saw the Cabal of Pure Thought’s retraction from theOrder of Reason. Many left due to their Christian beliefs; others, instead of believing that they channel the power ofGod, chose to believe that logic and reason are God’s Gifts, remain within the Order of Reason. Those that aresegmented from the Order are deemed to be a violation of the Highest Order and became a top priority to be purgedfrom Reality as they could not be purified to the ways of logic. For those not mentioned above, all Guilds in theOrder of Reason were reorganized in 1851 to Convocations of Thought at the Great Exposition in London. After theExposition, they became the group known as the Technocratic Union. The following were in attendance:
1.
The
Artificers
, who believe the universe and everything in it is a machine.
2.
The
Celestial Masters
(Cabal of Pure Thought), scholars of the heavens.
3.
The
Difference Engineers
, experts with statistics and the flow of information.
4.
The
Hippocratic Circle
, dedicated to the improvement of human life through medical science.
5.
The
High Guild
, who know that money is what drives not only progress and invention but all of society.
6.
The
Void Seekers
, who seek to map the unknown corners of the world.
7.
The
Voltarian Order
, focused on the transmission of energy in all its forms.From the Ashes of the old Conventions were created the Following:
1.
The
Æsculpian Order
, dedicated to the improvement of human life through medical science. Formerly the
Hippocratic Circle
. When the final overturn of the Order happens, they evolve into the
Progenitors
.
2.
The
Analytical Reckoners
, devote themselves to the collection, analysis and communication of information,formerly the
Difference Engineers
. They will in the final evolution become the
Virtual Adepts
and willrecede from the Technocracy and join the Traditions.
3.
The
Electrodyne Engineers,
focused on the transmission of energy in all its forms. They evolved from theirinception as
Voltarian Order
. In the final evolution, they become the
Sons of Ether
, and as mentioned recedefrom the Technocracy when Ether was eliminated from the consensus in 1904.
4.
The
Explorators
, who seek to map the unknown corners of the world. This one Convocation consumes boththe
Celestial Masters
Guild and the
Void Seekers
Guilds into its Convocation and principles. They will giveway to the evolution of the
Void Engineers
.
5.
The
International Brotherhood of Mechanicians
, who believe the universe and everything in it is a machine.The Convocation was born from the Ashes of the
Artificers
. This lasts until the closing years of the 19thcentury when the Technocracy hosts its final organization and the Mechanicians become
Iteration X
, namedafter the self-aware computer they created, which achieved sentience at an unspecified iteration (hence ‘X’).
6.
The
Invisible Exchequer
, who know that money is what drives not only progress and invention but all ofsociety. They were reformed from the
High Guild
and will evolve into the
Syndicate
.
7.
The
Lightkeepers
, who are the beacon of light in a world of ignorance. While the Majority of the
Cabal ofPure Thought
was purged from the Order of Reason in the 1830’s, most Gabrielites couldn’t correlate theirbeliefe that they were channeling the power of God with the increasing secularist attitude of the rest of theOrder. The Remnants of the Cabal of Pure Thought became the Lightkeepers. Though the details are largelyunknown, they will evolve into the
New World Order
; see below for more details on the Ksirifai.The New era saw many other subtle changes. The Ksirifai, being nearly completely unknown, purged several of theirown members and all remaining records of their existence; largely because they were acting on both sides of theAscension War…both as the ‘Secret Police’ for the Order of Hermes in general (as their own House Janissary), andalso for the Hands of the Inner Council of the Order of Reason. They laid the foundations for their Future as the NewWorld Order (House Janissary). The end times also saw that the Ksirifai contributed to the political warfare-turned-deadly which destroyed the Magus stronghold “Doissetep” in 1997 and many of the great masters of the Order ofHermes. Mustai himself was responsible for the death of Porthose Fitz-Empress, but perished in the process. In 2001
of 00

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