Static Verbena-Dominated Alternate WoD

Subject:      Re: Help with an alt. MAGE setting
From:         [email protected]
Date:         1998/05/04
Message-ID:   <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf,alt.games.whitewolf.mage
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In article <[email protected]>#1/1,
  Phil <[email protected]> wrote:
>     What if the Verbena controlled the global Reality Pardgim?
>     Let's be clear here- I'm not talking about the Verbena as in the
> ones described in the Mage books. This would be different- a corrupted
> Verbena, kind of like the way the Order of Reason was twisted into the
> Technocracy.

I enjoy this sort of exercise... I tend to think that anyone winning the
Ascension War would be a very bad thing...

> The idea would be that in the midst of the Burning times
> there was a ferocious backlash by the Verbena, Dreamspeakers, Garou and
> others which prevented the OoR gaining control.

I've got an idea, but the Garou won't stick with it for long...

> The Verbena were then
> left with a paradgim which was slightly tilted in their favour and
> decided to go about pushing it further.

This is the part I find odd... the traditions that the Verbena
Tradition is based on aren't evangelical at all - they were never
intent on spreading thier own beliefs - this calls for a fundamental
change... I wonder who or what the catalyst would be (aside from the
'burning times').

> Obviously, this would create a
> radically different world and I was thinking of creating an alternate
> setting which would eventually be published on the web. I'm looking for
> some people (esp. Verbena experts- CoX is *my* forte :) to help me on
> this. I'd appreciate it if anyone interested would write back, either to
> me or the newsgroup (it could make quite an interesting thread...)

Well here are the ideas that leapt unbidden into my mind as I read your
post.  It comes out a very different setting....

OK, so the Verbena come out on top in the Paradigm struggle and decide
to spread thier version of truth over the world, much as the Technocracy
and the CC did in the age of exploration... The Verbena were very concerned
with the cycles of nature.  They'd just survived a horrible attempt on
their collective existance, and they'er looking for a rationale to strike
back.  They adopt as a sort of central dogma the idea that thier beliefs
and practices are responsible for the continuing cycles of nature... that
without them the seasons would grind to a halt in endless winter, nothing
would be born, and the world would end...  That gives them the justification
to take over the world, much as the Technocracy started out to 'protect'
humanity from the supernatural.  The Verbena become crusaders trying to save
the world.

Of course the Verbena need a winning strategy:  The Technocracy had
Reason which gave them scientific investigation leading to improved
technology leading to advantages in war and trade leading to global
dominance.  The Verbena, if you remember thier Tradbook, were once the
'Twisters of Fate.'  Where the Technocracy had science the Verbena
have Prescience.  Of course, they also have to factionalize and/or
recruit others to give them a good coverage of the Spheres.  The
Twisters of Fate end up divided into Circles (instead of Conventions
or Traditions) like this:

The Wyck:  The true Twisters of Fate, the exculsively female Wyck
master the Sphere of Entropy and harness the power of fate to control
the world.  Anyone of any importance has thier fate 'woven' by one
of the Wyck, locked into a fixed pattern of destiny, often from an
early age.  This 'Cirlce' is effectively the leaders of The Twisters
of Fate.  In addition to Entropy, the Wyck also persue the sphere of
Forces (mostly weather control), and Prime.

The Druids:  Slightly more worldly than the Wyck and second (barely)
only to them in power, the exclusively male Druids are the glue that
holds the far-flung ifluence of the The Twisters of Fate together.  The
Druids are masters of Time, but also versed in the arts of Prime and
Correspondence.  Thier great stone circles dot the continents of the
world, often resting on the foundations of cathedrals, and other places
of power.  A great network of leylines conect the circles.  With them,
this Circle moves quintessence, information, and thier own membership
about the world at will.  Druids are the advisors, priests, historians,
and judges for the thousands of petty kingdoms that are all the government
the Wyck allow the sleepers to organize.

The Dreamspeakers:  The shamans of Africa, Australia and the Americas,
the Dreamspeakers are concerned with the Sphere of Spirit and leave the
running of the world to the Druids and the Wyck.  They are sometimes
worried that the world is becoming stagnant - that it's great spirit
Giai has fallen into too deep a sleep.  But, so far, they have not acted
against the other Circles.

The Bards:  The Cult of Extacy was drawn into this Circle.  They are
the wandering entertainers, of the world.  They concentrate on the
sphere of Mind to help them remember the vast number of stories and
poems they compose - and to win friends and influence people.

The Crafters:  Some of the Artificers of the Order of Reason defected
when they saw which way the wind was blowing.  The Crafters are mostly
men.  Miners and metalworkers, they mine and mint the gold and silver
used in trade, tin & copper used to make bronze, and the vital 'cold
iron' that the Circles use against the other supernaturals.  Obviously,
they master the sphere of Matter.

The Wise Women (or Witches):  A numerous, but not influencial Circle
that includes many hedge mages and sleepers, the Witches master the
Sphere of Life, they are midwives and healers.  The keep the population
quite healthy - death from sickness or childbirth is rare, and life
expectancy (barring violence) is long.

Opposing the Wyck are the 'Traditions' (mostly not changed that much...)
Who are divided up into several sub-groups based rougly on geographical
origin:

The Orientals

The Akashic Brotherhood  (Mind)
The Euthanotos   (Entropy)
The Al I Batint  (Correspondence)

The 'Romans' (for the use of latin)

The Order of Hermes  (Forces)
The Holy Church (Celestial Chorus) (Prime)
The Seers of Chronos  (Time)

The 'Greeks' (remnants of the Order of Reason)

The Parminideans (Sons of Ether) (Matter)
The Sworn of Hypocrates (Progenitors) (Life)
The Ptolomeans (Void Seekers/Engineers) (Spirit)

As if that's not enough troublemakers....

The Marauders are insane mages who roam the world killing and
destroying all in thier paths...  (confused?)

The Nephandi are evil magi intent upon corrupting the perfect
order the Twisters of Fate seek to impose upon the world.  They
are primeaval monsters and perform bestial rites...

However, the Twisters of Fate have allies - even if they aren't
knowing allies.  The force of Paradox exists, and strikes against
any mages who tries to use 'new' magicks.  The would-have-been
Technocrcy are, of course, most susceptible, since few of thier
magicks were ever accepted by reality.  Likewise, the inveterate
experimenters among the Order of Hermes and the miracle-workers
of the Holy Church frequently fall victim.  Only those magicks
practiced since time immemorial... the rites of the Wyck, Druids,
Dreamspeakers and the other Circles are safe from Paradox.  Of
course, even Circle mages, being awakened, are capable of, and in
extreme situations use 'new' or impromptu magicks.

Cosmology:

The Cosmology is similar to Mage, though the Twisters of Fate aren't
terribly down on the Umbra, they still keep the Gauntlet up because
they consider it 'natural.'  The earth is flat.  There are only 5 planets.

But there are some big differences too.  The biggest is a result of
the Verbena's aproach to stasis.  The Verbena came to believe that thier
rituals and belief were maintaining the natural cycle... thus anyone who
opposed them was, perforce trying to destroy those cycles.  Using thier
ability to predict the future and warp fate, the Twisters of Fate have
bound the world into a nearly-perfected natural cycle.  There is no change.
People are born, live, and die.  Fields are planted, reaped, and left
fallow.  The proscribed rituals are performed at the greater and lesser
sabats to keep the whole thing going.  The earth yeilds it's bounty, but
must be propitiated with blood.  There is precious little self-determination
left in this world.  The Wyck find each person who will be of importance
in the coming generation and twist thier destinies to thier own ends -
at least in as much as they have the resources to do so... potential mages
often slip by...

So, in this world, as in the WoD, stasis is ascendant.  The Garou cosmology
reveals a surprising consequence of stasis brought on by nature-oriented
mages:

According to the Garou, there is a Triat of natural forces that must be
kept in balance.  The are the Weaver (stasis), the Wyld (change/creation)
and the Wyrm (destruction).  In this world, as the Verbena rose to the
crest of thier power, and gained control of the dominant paradigm, the
Weaver went mad, but it was the Wyld, locked into the endless cycles of
the Verbena's beliefs, that was trapped and went insane.  Robbed of it's
rightful powers of Dynamism, the Wyld struggled on, but it could no longer
change, only corrupt....  The Wyrm - and it's valiant minions, the Garou -
battle on, destroying the twisted, corrupt offspring of the Wyld, but to
little avail.  Even the Garou realize that, as shapeshifters, they bear
the taint of the Wyld.  Victory seems impossible.

Of course, the psycho-killer marauders, and bestial Nephandi, fit nicely
into this explanation.  (make a little more sense now?)

The Twisters of Fate hold the world prisoner in chains of Prescience and
Cold Iron, while the Wyld sows corruption and the world lurches towards
apocalypse....

---                                           |
Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple        ---|-.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1317/         '-|---
                                                |

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Subject:      Re: Help with an alt. MAGE setting
From:         [email protected]
Date:         1998/05/05
Message-ID:   <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf,alt.games.whitewolf.mage
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In article <[email protected]>#1/1,
  Saif Ansari <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Excelent take :) I only had one brainwave and I'm just going to spew it
> out while its fresh...  take it with a dose of "Ward vs. Unpreparedness"
>
> The Orientals.  What if the Orientals REALLY rose in opposition to the
> Verbenna?
>
> This over-cultivation of the world would mean that the Verbenna aren't
> exactly working along with the wheel as well as they should be.
> (Perhaps in their excessive zeal to maintain the sanctity and security
> of their paradigm and the world?) and thus, only one spoke of the whell
> is cultivated to any extent.  The Wych becomes more political and
> powerful in its capacity (if you can sort of see where I'm going with
> this.)

> I'm trying to exchange the 4 Essences here.  What if the Verbenna begin
> to fall into Stasis and Hubris?

Yep, that's the idea... in Phil's alternate, the Verbena become the
dominant paradigm, and are thus the same kind of static corrupt
conspiricy  as the Technocracy in the WoD.
>
> The Romans and Greeks wouldn't be far
> behind, with their "rigid routines" and narrow minded paradigms

Might be true of the 'Romans' but the 'Greeks' - the remnants of
the Technomancers - in the alternate, are the Dynamists, the champions
of change, and, probably, push the Metaphysic of Magick.  ;)

>(except maybe the Seers of cronos... who'd fit in really well with the
> "orientals" set I have in mind...)
>
> So in opposition, in the Dynamic side, we have...
>
> The Euthanatos
> The Akashics
> The Ahl li Batin
> The Seers of Cronos (added)
>
> This quartet would be led by the Euthanatos, who become eager to give
> the wheel a spin in the other direction, to stall the over-growth and
> restart the "standard" decay of things.
>
> Can't you see a fantastic clash of Entropy here, between the Euthanatoi
> Magi and the Wyck?

Yes!  Actually, that works perfectly, casting the Euthanotos in the role
of the SoE or Vdepts:  Initially, the Euthanotos are fighting thier
interminable war with the Akashics.  The 'Twisters of Fate' (the uber-Verbena
Phill postulated) bring thier world domination plans to the Orient.  The
Euthanotos, of course see potential allies - the Verbena seem, on the
surface, to understand the Wheel.  Quick alliance, the Euthanotos become
a Circle, and the Akashics get the worst of it.  But, over time as the
Wyck become more static and corrupt, the Euthanotos defect to the Traditions.

>The Ah li Batini and the seers would cast nets of
> corospondence and time across the globe, and allow the euthanatoi
> assasins and "desolvers" who spread desease, and death in healthy doses
> around the constrictingly thick foliage and populations to work together

I love it, the 'good guys' spreading disease & death.  It fits the corrupted
Wyld/Pure Wyrm bit perfectly.

> with "SWAT teams" of Akashics (Dragon Flies? :) I love Oriental names
> even if I'm very bad with them) to form an underground, resistance.
> Taking the throne of the Dynamic.
>
> Of course, they would have a few allies... among them, the eastern
> crafts (Especially the Wu-Lung (aren't they the nobles?  I always get
> Wu-Keng and Wu-Lung mixed)) would be great.  The nobility of China would
> be very angry with the "western" setup of things and their devolution of
> tech (printing press, rockets) would be bad.  The Wu-Lung would
> retaliate along with the "Orientals" maybe.
> Perhaps a branch or two of the Order of Reason?  The Void Engineers,
> particularly?

I think the Chineses nobility might be sanguine with the whole thing...
if they liked the idea of returning to the old China, of many individual
kingdoms.  China was very traditional, so most of thier culture and magick
would be preserved, but, yes they'd lose the toys like gunpoweder and
printing and so forth.  There probably should be Oriental Technomancers
too.

I would picture the 'Orientals,' 'Romans,' and 'Greeks' ultimately
working together like the Traditions.

> The big deal here is, the classical setup of the oriental mages would
> insulate them from the huge paradox the Teckies are susseptable to.  So
> that evens the scales a *little* bit even if the numbers and paradigm
> still favor the V's.

Again, parralleling the Technmancer Trads in the WoD, the Euthanotos
would have that advantage.  The Akashics, OTOH, with thier individual
Paths to Ascension, and the way Do isn't really taught so much as
discovered anew by each generation, well, they'd have some problems with
the flavor of Paradox in that world.

> Still, the idea of Entropy battles, Essence, and stalling (or at least
> *slowing*) the Wheel of Life is the thing that leapt out to me when I
> saw "Verbenna Paradigm".  :)

You've got it.  Fate replaces Technology....

The other thing that occured to me, is that the Middle East - again, as
in the WoD - would be an area where the dominant Paradigm is weaker.  The
Circles' traditions wouldn't addapt too well to the desert, and the Hermetic,
Church, and Batini would all have influence in the area.  Plus the Middle
East is where much of the old Greek knowledge was preserved prior to the
Renesaince - in this alternate, I could see the 'Greek' Technomancers
retreating there.  Oh, and the Verbena likely don't go in much for cities.
Couldn't you see Rome or Jerusalem, Mecca, and Alexandria becoming major
Horizon realms of the Church, Batini, and Hermetics?

Oh, and something I left out of my first post.  I mentioned 'Cold Iron'
a couple of times.  The idea is that it's like Primium - an anti-magickal
metal that does Agg damage to supernatural creatures.  It's different from
ordinary iron in that it's worked magically, without heating.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject:      Re: Help with an alt. MAGE setting
From:         [email protected]
Date:         1998/05/06
Message-ID:   <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf,alt.games.whitewolf.mage
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In article <[email protected]>#1/2,
  Saif Ansari <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> [email protected] wrote:
> > Might be true of the 'Romans' but the 'Greeks' - the remnants of
> > the Technomancers - in the alternate, are the Dynamists, the champions
> > of change, and, probably, push the Metaphysic of Magick.  ;)
>
> So maybe the entire structure is building towards a reconstruction of
> the Traditions (as you mentioned later).  The only problem... being that
> the Greek are so in-opposition to the Romans, that I have a hard time
> picturing them together.  Especially since the Greeks were established
> in direct opposition to the Romans...

Hehheh, not exactly.  Remember the Cabal of Pure Thought was an outgrowth
of the Celestial Chorus, and, at the time of the Inquisition, many
scientists were still quite devoutly Christian.  Besides the same is
true of the WoD Traditions - the Hermetics & the CC were at eachothers
throats as were the Akashicks and Euthanotos - now they're all allies.

The same would occur in the alternate world:  the remnants of the
Technocracy, the CC, the Hermetics, and the other Trads would have to
burry thier differences to stand against a common enemy... not that
they're wouldn't be *plenty* of friction.  :)

> > Yes!  Actually, that works perfectly, casting the Euthanotos in the role
> > of the SoE or Vdepts:  Initially, the.....
> > Euthanotos, of course see potential allies - the Verbena seem, on the
> > surface, to understand the Wheel.  Quick alliance, the Euthanotos become
> > a Circle, and the Akashics get the worst of it.  But, over time as the
> > Wyck become more static and corrupt, the Euthanotos defect to the
> > Traditions.
>
> I wonder how the Kuei-Jin and Hyengokai (sp?) influnece would be in all
> of this...

I have no clue.  For some reason, they seemed to stand by while the western
Vamps & Technarchs changed the world, maybe they'd have a similar attitude.
Though, I hadn't really thought about anything beyond Mage and Garou yet
(since those are the games I usually run...)

> > I love it, the 'good guys' spreading disease & death.  It fits the
corrupted
> > Wyld/Pure Wyrm bit perfectly.
>
> Right, it is a "simple reversal" of roles.
> Still, if the cosmology remains intact up until the point of the Burning
> times and the Garou remain the champions of the Wyld...

You know, the Verbena victory looks so improbable given WoD and RL history
up to that point, maybe the real divergence was much farther back...

> What I'd like to see are the Wyrm minions and Wyld's Defenders ... Would
> the Spirals and Garou exchange places?  Or is the influence more
> subtle?  What about the other Changeling Breeds?

The thought I had was to switch the Wyld and the Wyrm, and switch the
Garou aliegance to match (so the BSD would be 'Wyld-corrupted').  The
reason is that the Verbena are so nature oriented that the mass destruction
of the Wyld couldn't happen in a world where they became dominant.  But,
they do become static.  Thus the idea of the Wyld being caught by the
Weaver and going Insane, and the Wyrm fighting the losing battle to stop
it....

> What I'm getting at, is the melodrama of once Holy Defenders of Gaia now
> finding themselves serving a member of the triat gradually descending
> into madness.  The Wyrm's children (Were the spirals, White Howlers at
> this time? I'm not that familiar with WW) finding themselves set up
> against once allies who are now reluctant enemies... does a split in the
> Tribes take place?
> Or am I overthinking this?

Not at all, I took a simple route...  that could work better.  It depends
on when the world 'really' diverged from the WoD.

> The Wyrm is sort of the propogator for this retaliation, but that by no
> means paints it in a light of "goodness" in the eye of the commoner...
> Death Destruction and Chaos is still "Evil" to the layman.  So what does
> it do to the Wyrm "Spawn"?
> Metaphysics.

> Seriously though, it would be more than the simple attack on technology
> that would provoke this retaliation.... it would be the entire invation
> of the West and the Differing Spirit worlds and all that bit spilling
> into the picture.  The Wick would try to establish holds on the Dragon's
> Nests and ride the Dragon's Tracks.
> See what I mean?

Yes.

> > I would picture the 'Orientals,' 'Romans,' and 'Greeks' ultimately
> > working together like the Traditions.

> Still, the entirely scientific/dogmatic approach of the Greeks clashes
> so badly with the Classical/Metaphysical approach of the orientals...
> Perhaps a tweak on the Greeks is in order?

Ah, but they haven't gotten to be scientific/dogmatic yet.  In the alternate
the nacent Technocracy was cut down in the flower of its own idealism.  The
'Greeks' are revolutionary free-thinkers in this world.

> Thought.
> Paradox would be really funky, overall though, wouldn't it?  A lot of

I think so... since the Verbena a mystical, it would have to be.  The
best baseline I could think of was that Paradox would lash out against
anything new (since the uber-Verbena of the alternate world are convinced
that thier traditions stretch back to the begining  of time, and that
only the observance of those traditions keeps the world from ending).
I hadn't thought much about the form it would take.

The Three-Fold Law of Return is a possibility - that anything you do
comes back to you.

Hmm.... I just had a flash:  In M:SC they call Paradox 'Scourge' and
it works a little differently.  Well, in the Fatalistic paradigm of
the 'Twisters of Fate,' let's call Paradox 'Doom' - when you violate
the natural order by using 'new' magicks (new as in not a tradition
dating back to time immemorial) Fate works against you.  Paradox backlashes
would tend to be deadly and take 'poetic justice' forms.  You probably
wouldn't get to take flaws or otherwise burn off 'Doom'... it just
accumulates, very slowly, until it destroys you...

>
> > Oh, and something I left out of my first post.  I mentioned 'Cold Iron'
> > a couple of times.  The idea is that it's like Primium - an anti-magickal
> > metal that does Agg damage to supernatural creatures.  It's different from
> > ordinary iron in that it's worked magically, without heating.
>
> Hrm.  Who's this for, though?  Most of the things we're talking about
> are Magikal in nature... would this be kind of like the Changeling war
> of Steel(or whatever it was called)?

I meant anti-Dynamic-Magick.  The idea is that the Verbena in this world
believe they are following a One True Way that goes back to the begining
of time.  The Circles (those alied with the Verbena) use Consensus aproved
'old' magic, while Dynamic 'new' magick is subject to 'Doom' (Paradox).
That latter is what Cold Iron is effective against, though it'll do Agg
damage to just about anyone.

---                                           |
Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple        ---|-.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1317/         '-|---
                                                |
The Verbena are going to be pissed at me for all this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Subject:      Re: Help with an alt. MAGE setting
From:         [email protected]
Date:         1998/05/06
Message-ID:   <[email protected]>
Newsgroups:   alt.games.whitewolf,alt.games.whitewolf.mage
[More Headers]
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In article <[email protected]>#1/1,
  Mike Faneros <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I think I like your ideas.  I think I like them allot!  I can almost picture
> North Americas now.  Or would they have been discovered?  Maybe only by a

I think they would have been, but not by ships.  Druids and Bards, and, later,
the Wyck, would journey there to spread the True Way, and, the local
Dreamspeakers would probably be much more receptive.  After all, the
Twisters of Fate revere ancient traditions, and the Dreamspeakers would
really impress them... here they are living the same way they have for
eons.  Sure, they'd find the Dreamspeakers a bit 'childlike' still depending
on spiritual 'parents,' as it were, but, the Tribal social system would
have seemed just perfect to them.  They'd establish thier Circles and
Leylines, and start aprenticing the newly awakened natives into the Wyck,
but I see it overall as a much smoother absorbtion...

> few?  I think in the world you'd have to have some sort of mass
communication -
> something akin to the ability of the ley walkers in Rift - ley line
> communication?  This would be *essential* to have a world wide dominate
> paradigm.

Yes.  The Druids, with thier global network of leylines and stone circles,
fill that role.  In fact, I was thinking they could open gates at the
henges (two standing stones capped by a third to form a sort of dorway)
that just anyone could walk through... the equivalent of air travel today.
There could be regular 'conjunctions' and, the truely elite could have
Druids open special portals for them (the equivalent of having a private
jet)...

> I think the best part of this idea I like is that *all* the WoD games would
> affected.

Hmm... I hadn't thought about that as much... lets see...

> Changelings wouldn't be affected by banality as much.  Would they
> more open to the sleepers?  I'm not sure of the druidic culture - do they
> believe in the little (and sometimes big) people?

Yes, they did.  In Ireland, they were considered the predecessors of mankind.
The other Celts did seem to believe in otherworlds and fair folk, but it's
not clear weather they were supernatural races, spirits or gods...

The world is becoming static (and thus banal) under a single paradigm,
though, so there would be some effect on the Changelings, I'm just not
sure how it would work...

>Vampires would be hunted down
> almost to extinction - they do not futhure the natural cycle.  Well, I guess
> they'd be as hunted as they are now, but they don't have any smoky bars or
> cellars to go hide in during the day.  It'd be a continuation of the Dark
> Ages book, I would suspect.

Dark Ages, I think.  Or, the Vampires (who were also targets of the
inquisition) could throw in with the Verbena (at least secretly).  The
Verbena do use blood magick.  Maybe Vamps would be able to Blood Bond a
few of the highest-ranking Wyck...

> Wraiths?  They'd still be dead, but they'd have more
> interaction with every day life.  In a society where they sleepers actively
> believe in ghosts and revere the dead as another step on the wheel (but I
> that's a Euthanatos belief) The dead might have a honorific place during the
> normal day.

I'd think there'd be fewer, less organized Wraiths, but they'd have a lot
more influence and power individually.  The Dead would be expected to
have some say with the living (returning to protect you children or avenge
you murder for instance).  On Samhain (holloween), the Shroud would be
virtually nil, and Wraiths could go about resolving thier problems.  Wyck,
Dreamspeakers and Druids would likely be busy helping lay ghosts to
rest at that time of year (either helping them transcend or dooming spectres
and the like to Oblivion).

> Would the Jade Kingdom exist? (I'm not to knowledgeable about
> Wraith.)

No clue.

> The only problem I have is the Verbena: Euthanatos thing.  They're on
> opposite sides, but the way you made the dominate paradigm sound - people >
> living, dying, being reincarnated - sounds directly out of the Thanatos's
> in it's handbook.
>
> Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these things.  This is just off the
> of my head - I haven't read any of the handbooks in about two/three months.
> School and finals, don't cha know.

You're absolutely right.  Just as the Sons of Ether were quintessential
technomancers for centuries.  The Euthanotos would fit right in as a
Circle for a long time.  But, as the Verbena paradigm dominates and becomes
more static, and important difference emerges.  The Wyck are creating a
world where the natural cyles (the Wheel to the Euthanotos) will turn
*forever* - maintaining the Wheel for it's own sake has become the
purpose of the Circles.  But, to the Euthanotos, the Wheel has always been
a means to an end:  Ascension.  The Wheel must be kept turning, because
it is only while people go through the cycle of reincarnation that they
have a chance to Ascend - to leave the Wheel.  In the alternate world,
the 'Twisters of Fate' come to care only about the Wheel, not Ascension,
and *won't let anyone off*.  The Euthanotos, thus, defect.  :)

At least, that was the logic I came up with...

---                                           |
Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple        ---|-.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1317/         '-|---
                                                |

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