One and The Other

Given humanity's preference for duality it's no wonder the list of dichotomies is as long as it is. I'd start listing them off but I'm sure you can figure out more than a few. Tonight in my inability to sleep the sleep of the just, (or the injust for that matter,) my mind draws to an old philosophical standby of mine, Love and Hate. I find it interesting that these two emotions are as defined by each other as they are, often in literary works they are juxtaposed to each other but I find it odd really that, to me at least, the most appropriate example of this dichotomous couple is found in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Why do I use this work of horror as an example,? Because of the unnamed monster of the work, this creature that has such complex emotions regarding its creator that in reading the work I could not decide if it was motivated wholly of Hate, or if it was driven also by a love that could never be expressed without hate. Because of how this tale marked me I'd like to demonstrate a pertinent point about these two passionate emotions, that in many ways they're indistinguishable. Now when I refer to the emotions of Love and Hatred I am not thinking of the banal emotions that are simply the difference between "like" or "dislike" or the more grounded natures of fondness and contempt. I am referring to those groups of irrational, powerful, and ofttimes inexplicable emotions that are the exclusive purview of Love and Hate. Indeed I have often noted that both of these emotions are attractors, they pull oneself towards the subject of emotion rather than drive one away. While the point can be made that there are aggregate parts to these emotions, I've noted that Love and Hate are not made of these emotions they do however create them. There is an intrinsic nature between Love and fondness just as there is between Hate and contempt, however Love and Hate are their own emotions and create their own complex emotions that are dragged into their wake. Irrational, attracting, and active emotions that have their own insanities and have their own patterns, but yet in the throes of either we can see behaviour seen in both, merely the difference between positive and negative theme. Why Love and Hate? To a degree it's meditation on my conditions, on my emotions, on my depression. So curious then that I passionately Love and Hate myself at the root of these things, so much to be proud of, so much to be disgusted by, so much to admire, yet with so much contempt. I doubt this is strange to many, but it feels odd to talk about it, to put this down as words. I Hate myself as much as I Love myself, sometimes one definitely takes precedent over the other, and yet here I am. I suppose in that respect my reasoning to compare to Frankenstein's monster isn't that unusual. Such conflicting feelings applied to self and environment with those twin emotions as figureheads, this I understand well, the isolation, the Love-Kill-Hate-Fuck directed at the world that brings so much joy and pain. For every desire for non-existence to be a euthanasia for the suffering of awareness there is a delightful curiosity to discover just what miracle of living is coming next.

Tenebris Mundi

Seed:

In the modern day, humanity as a species has achieved miracles since the days when people walked the earth following the herds of beasts in their routes of migration. Humankind has made societies, knowledges, languages, civilizations, politics, and perhaps most unique to this world safety. For the majority of history the primary motivations for progress were a combination of safety and survival. It's what people want, good health, safe neighbourhoods, and a bright future. It was never imagined that the improvements in medicine, education, communication, and general progress would have any downside. The mistake that most of the modern world made was to assume that the safety of progress meant that it invalidated all of the old ways and practices that had any element of danger, sexuality, or morbidity. By the year 2000 several active moments began a movement to sanitize common culture of these aspects not realising that from this desire to protect they were sacrificing something greater in exchange, they were killing humanity's creative drive. Creativity is born from the interaction between the Libido, the life impulse, and Thanatos, the death impulse. Though Libido is that which gives energy, Thanatos is that which gives the drive to create, it is through their co-existence that moves the world forward. By such choices made has the world gone out of balance, death is veiled, violence is sterilized, and the cosmic trickster of entropy has been caged as a butterfly's flapping wings. there is something seriously wrong with the world and if you can't see why you're part of the problem.

Chained Icarus

Standing there in a blasted room

Two doors out but neither worth choosing

Open doors, open sky, open dreams chasing across my mind

Chained to ground, chained to life, chained to destiny.

I dream of a world where I can matter,

I dream of a life I can earn,

Posibilities branching from choices,

Wings locked by a king I'll never see.

I'm standing here eyes reaching for the sky,

I'm tied here by another man's dreams,

The lie of the future all I've eaten,

The Shit from the past all I've seen.

Daedelus built me my wings to reach for the sky,

Flight to freedom meant to reach for the impossible,

Never reach the sun, never reach the air

Set to reach for the top never to hit the horizon.

Dad I want to open my wings,

I want to fly to my destiny,

You gave me the tools,

You gave me the hope to reach for the stars,

Your child not a hostage but a statistic.

Better to fall a million times,

Crash and Burn and Learn my lesson,

No one said life was easy,

Pain and experience a certainty,

I don't want anything you didn't earn.

But no one saw the chains that hold me,

Wrapped around by people we've never seen,

Not for safety,

Not for help,

Not for Slavery,

Made for a future where my gifts were unseen.

Can't you see these chains wrapping me,

'Cause Jacob Marley's got nothing on me,

Nothing wanted, nothing needed, nothing allowed,

For a future like a dust on a breeze.

Did you feel the chains constricting you,

Placed layer by layer over the years,

No Freedom, no future, no home,

Like a chained Icarus too held down to try to fly.

Sun's burning warmer on pained glass shards,

A thought experiment in Describing Tangible Darkness.

We all assume that black is the same as dark. It's a reasonable assumption, lack of light makes it dark and lack of colour makes it black, it seems logical doesn't it? We are of course wrong, Darkness by itself is a genuine absence of light, whereas black is just a blue that found a way to absorb all the light. Amoung us there are people that can tell dozens of shades of black, each a near-imperceptible degree of colour mixed in that differentiates itself from the rest. Darkness is much simpler, perceivable darkness is in direct contrast to the nearest source of light. The further away you are from that light the more shadow blends in with the light until you're practically blind, In this sense the darkness is invasive. What creeps us out is when the darkness develops texture instead of contrast, which is a curious way to put it. Normally in the visual medium degrees of darkness are contrasted with each other usually by means of colouring and shading, however unlike the visual evocative medium the written medium is invokative, that is to say rather than bringing the idea out one desires to manifest the idea within the "Cartesian theater" of the mind. One can create imagery however the goal is to create the image within the reader's mind with clarity while still utilizing the reader's imagination. In this case it is not like the difference between metaphor and simile though this difference is relevant. Saying that "the darkness oozes oil-slick across the floor with a rapier point," creates a different feel than saying "like oil the darkness oozed across the floor developing an edge as sharp as a rapier." It's the active voice vs. passive voice problem, but there is a deeper issue at hand, and it's the problem with describing colour. One cannot describe the greenness of green without comparison to another green object for reference, and the frustration of describing what may be considered the indescribable is making it's mark on me. Example: On another project I'm doing with a friend we were deciding how to describe an elemental force made manifest, not elemental in the Aristotelian sense but in a Platonic sense of Essences, and I described a being made of dozens of bird wings with a single reptile eye emanating from the center, this being is coloured a multitude of slightly transparent emerald green, it smells like citrus and sulfur, it sounds like a crescendo of euphoniums, and it tastes like pepper, soil, and juniper. Now, I grant you describing it in the active voice from a character's perspective will make it seem less awkwardly written, but the issue I feel is the same experience I have with writing about a living, tanglible darkness, that words fail when images work better, if barely.

Affirmation to the Realization of Be-ing.

We are the Never-Men, those that tread the edges of reality in dream and fiction.

We are the twilight walkers, the greeters of dawn, the fools hidden in the noon day shadow.

We empty our heads to erupt a vacuum of desire so that the pull to experience is endless.

We empty our hearts to prove that they are without boundary or limitation.

We see what is not there and take from that empty void the power to change minds.

We hear the unspoken words, thoughts, hopes, and dreams and we speak to fill their absence.

We fall a million times plummeting to the abyss for the day that we would find the means to fly.

Better afflicted with the paradox of life than drudgery in the simple gift of living.

The Void is not my enemy, it is the basis of my creation, Silence is not my foe it is my opportunity.

There is no colour, no taste, no sound, no feeling that can be wholly described, yet try we must.

There is no Truth, no Love, no Justice, no Kindness, no Hate, and no Faith unless we make it so.

Either nothing is sacred or everything is sacred.

And within that quantum-thin boundry between light and darkness where shadows become defined, I will find my soul.

Prosetry no. 1

Quiet dreams single stain the glass of my expression,

The brown and gold of my cornea are tinted tired,

wistful,

Lonely.

I tried sleeping,

waking wishing dreaming I await Mr. Sandman's last call at the bar,

my money isn't good here,

I wait for the dregs of sleep that more wealthy patrons leave behind in the glass,
when my money's good I can drink all I want,

when it's bad my throat gets sore from thirst.

Lust, Interest, and a Mercurial attention are my bedmates,

the four of us sharing a bed meant for two,

I'm the biggest one here, but they take up all the space,

tiredness rests on me like a blanket too small,

I can't cover up,

wrap around,

or keep myself comfy,

If I'm brain tired I'm not body tired,

If I'm body tired I'm not emotionally tired,

But if I'm not tired enough I'm spiritually tired.

What do others think about, when they stare into the nothingness waiting for death's little cousin,

do they think about the same things I do?

Kisses,

Mu Shu Pork,

factoids growing into facts that want to grow up to be full information

do they all lust for the sex to exhaust body and soul,

the crave that last drink to uncomfortable oblivion,

the rocking sensation of a parent's care that makes you fall on angel's wings into warm nothingness?

Illness sucks.

A world's Genesis

I have an idea for a novel, and this one I don't want to let die or be transformed into gaming material. SO....

I plan to write a few exerpts from the story I plan to write, this is the first, the prologue, the beginning.

First there was nothing, and in this absence of everything the cosmos was born.

Within our universe a thing manifested, but it was the only thing in existence, and it was lonely.

So it divided itself and from these two halves came light and darkness, they met and intermingled and explored the extreme limits of each other's existence, and though light and darkness were no longer lonely they wished to create something new to experience the world.

So light and darkness took of themselves and made the elements, made the stars, and set them all in motion. From this material creation light and darkness found new beings to talk to, they met the waters, the earth, the air, and the fires. And each spoke with different languages but with the same voices as light and darkness. They spoke of sight, sound, movement, creation, and change. And when they had spoken all that could be spoken of the six beings wished to create more. The gods made trees, grass, fish, animals, birds, and people. They listened to all these new voices in the world, though the plants and creatures they created swished, barked, cawed, breyed, and bubbled the gods did not hear voices from them they were accustomed to. Then they heard two divine voices from across their world, the gods of life and death had joined the discussion. Yet despite all the new things to talk about and all the things that exist in creation and interact within creation the gods felt something was missing from their creation. So the eight gods gathered together and made the dreaming, and from the dreaming they gave men imagination, and from this creation the god of dreams joined the pantheon and things began moving faster.

The god of dreams inspired men to create themselves, and from men's creations the gods found new members joining them. The god of time, the god of civilization, and the god of knowledge. But then the god of dreams inspired the last god, the god of the glyph, and at last all was good. From this last god and his creations each god found themselves named, each piece of knowledge could be recorded, times could be specifically told, and the glyphs of power were made. Great wizards could use and combine the glyphs to aid peoples and make new things, discoveries were made in time and after time all could be said to be good. But long after the glyphs were discovered and the words of man could speak with the words of gods an awful, terrible thing happened.

Outside of the cosmos, in a place past the stars, where the gods did not create the universe a thing entered the cosmos, and the gods not knowing what it was thought it was another god within creation. Ebal, the light-giver sought to welcome the being to the god's creation, though the thing hid from her gaze, it did not like the light. Unable to find the thing Ebal asked Narroh swift-shadow to find it. And Narroh searched in the hidden dark places of creation where only he may tread faster than light falls. He found the thing and wanting to be courteous approached it from earshot and introduced himself. The Thing responded in a language Narroh had never heard before, speaking in a voice of such hatred and anger that Narroh was so shocked when the Thing attacked him the god faster than light was unable to dodge out of the way. Caught by the Thing Narroh fought hard to free himself though he knew that the Thing meant to eat him. Unable to prevent his end and knowing that the Thing meant to possess his power Narroh released his command over darkness though the Thing managed to consume the barest fraction of Narroh's power. Ebal felt her companion's end, and all the gods felt the lack of Narroh's presence in the dark places in the cosmos as his power was released. Suspecting that the thing ended Narroh the gods spoke to each other fearing that the thing meant to unmake them and take over their creation. Though each god knew something needed to be done each feared for their safety as any being that could end such an old god was a frightful thing indeed, fire would not burn it, water would not drown it, air could not blast it, and nothing made of or on earth could harm it. It was not born so it could not die, it could not be tamed, it could not be aged, and there were no known weaknesses. Then from the depths of imagination Ensud the dream-shaper from the depths of the dreaming found an answer. Taking some of the released power of Narroh, Ensud nightmare-wielder crafted a cage for the Thing that would contain it. Ensud sought the Thing and baited the trap with a meal made of dreamstuff. Poisoning the Thing with dream Ensud confined it within a cage of a deep dark dreaming. The Thing was taken away from the Cosmos and it was hoped that it would never be able to escape. Ensud darkness-trapper was congratulated and given some of the nighttime responsiblities that still required a god's supervision while Ebal Shine-Sorrow wept the lost of Narroh Light-companion.

All was well for some time, though the god of Light did grow distant from creation. Unable to escape from the Deep Darkness the Thing experienced the dreaming, and began to understand some of the power it stole from Narroh darkness-delver. Though the thing could not physically escape from the Deep Dark Dreaming it learned how to manipulate the things of darkness, and extend itself into the darkest of the dream. Mimicking the things it found within the dark dreams of the cosmos it learned how it would smite upon the god's creation. Of the powers the Thing stole it could only use them on the Dark of the moon. Bidding it's time the Thing watched humanity grow and decided to strike against it specifically as they attracted the most interest of the gods.

When the thing struck, it was a nightmare of living darkness, from shadows the monstrous and indescribable things emerged from shadow and dream and struck against humanity. Though many were killed or driven mad the old weakness of the Thing did prove to be humanity's shield, only those who rested in light were immune to physical harm, though night terrors continue to plague humanity. Ensud nimble-thought was sorely vexed at such horror inflicted upon humanity, and sought a solution to the problem within the farthest, deepest realm of the dream where the dreams of philosophers meet. And thus, a solution was found, though humanity knew how to make light the dreams of people were meant to be sacred, though the gods were mighty they were not so imaginative as humanity, Ensud guard-maker made it possible for humans to fight the Dark Terrors of the soulless moon.

Ensud gave to humanity the gift of dreams and the gift of drawing from dream and imagination the terror and horrors that humanity could create to fight against the machinations of the Thing. Thus humanity saw Dreamweavers erupt from the Nights of Dark Terror, those taught by Ensud in the timeless dream how to defend against the Thing. Though despite the defenders, the plan was incomplete, though Ensud honour-martyr could not stop the Thing from causing the Nights of Dark Terror, he could actively guard and improve the prison to keep the Thing from learning from Humanity's darkness allowing humanity to develop better weapons to fight the thing.

Hail to Ensud! God of Dreams, protector against the Thing, and patron to Dreamweavers.
May you be forever honoured for your noble sacrifice.

An examination of the hierarchy within the Eulicid Foundation as far as the Agents are aware.

Eulicid Foundation

• Public Operations
• Business Management
• Diplomatic core
• Communications
• Foundation Management
• Headhunting
• Executive Organization
• Internal Security
• Temporal Operations
• Operations Departments
• Academy
• Basic Training
• Education
• Indoctrination
• Archives and Intelligence
• History and Informational Archiving
• Intellegence sorting and conglomerating
• Social Science Studies
• Training
• Archanotech
• Magickal R&D
• Magickal Archiving
• Magickal Training and Indoctrination
• Implant training
• Counter-Ops
• The Karma Bureau
• Intellegence training
• Foundation Team Assignment
• Intel.
• Medical Core
• Emergency Medical Training
• Surgery
• Xenobiology
• Thauma-medico corps
• Psych ward
• Mortuary
• Meta-human Resources
• Accounting Dept.
• Agent Assessment and observation
• Counciling Dept.
• Human Resources
• Life Security
• Inter-existential Relations
• Training
• Quartermasters
• Armory
• Costuming
• Equipment Training
• Equipment Maintenance
• Equipment Control and Acquisition
• R & D
• Public Relations
• Fiscal Adjustment
• Media Control
• Network Maintenance (Spys and Contacts)
• Paperwork and Political Presence
• Organisational Liaisons
• Inter-Organisational Relations
• Situational Management (Cover up and clean up)
• Training
• The Vault
• Dangerous Item Storage
• Internal Affairs
• Prisoner Storage and Corrections
• Training
• Field Mission Teams
  Mission teams are frequently made up of Agents cleared for field work from other departments, they are grouped on a mission-to-mission basis based on the relevant abilities presumed neccesary.

EF Status Benefits

Status * EF Agent Template, really? You don't think that's enough? You get status 1 for free for heaven's sake!

Status *** Agent Gains three Dots to apply to Allies (EF Department) and may purchase Allies dots within the EF at half cost. Agent now may use Allies Merit to gain additional resources or clout when interacting with specific Eulicid Foundation Departments.

Status ***** You are being watched by those Agents that have passed through the smokescreen into the executive level of the Foundation. You’ve been given a secret, a powerful secret, but an important secret, if you manage to hold onto it for long enough you will be given the option of Ascending the corporate ladder. Your Character gains a powerful ability or a transcendent piece of knowledge by the storyteller that may represent a chronicle long achievement by the Character...Hint HINT!

Eulicid Foundation: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

In a Game like the Eulicid Foundation it is fair to assume that the EF is not the only organization out there. As such I'm listing a few societies that have either gotten exposed by the EF or work paralell with EF intentions. Here are some of the other conspiracies and active organizations and a small blurb about them, some organizations will recieve more blurb to them than others, this is supposed to be a look over, they are hardly all of them, just a few to give ideas on what MIGHT just be out there. I've separated them as per my favorite spaghetti western as per the namesake characters.

The Good

Excalibur - U.K.'s post-war Reboot of H.M.O.I. Created after the second world war by in the post-war boom of anti-communist agencies. They are very messy in their methods but good at cleaning up the evidence.

The Ghost Warrior Society: A strangely international fellowship of shamans and spirit warriors dedicated to fighting off the beings that prey upon this world. Despite any differences between culture, nationality, or even distance within space share a totem, the totem of the Ghost Warrior.

The Inquisition- The modern incarnation of the Catholic Inquisition, on a black budget and trained in the holy blessings of god!

The Knighthood of St. George: Pan-British group of monster hunters and occultists that use the resources of the Church of England to destroy the tools of Satan.

The Promethean Order - Victorian founded group of extreme humanists that push a Church of Satan Style idea of Human Determinism.

Section 9 - The United States Anti-Occult task force, not quite police, not quite army, still trying to understand what is neccesary in today's world.

R. O. K. S. T. (Russian Occult Crime Security Taskforce): Created post-world war two, benefiting from Soviet Research in psychic phenomena, most experienced with otherworldly phenomena.

Order of the Silver Dagger - A Neo-Pagan group of community defenders said to have been founded by Gerald Gardner against the old evils in the world.

The Bad

Ancient Order of the Ivory Chalice
There are Ivy league schools, Ivy League clubs, and fellowships older than grave dirt. This is one of them, Generals, Senators, Members of Parliament, Captains of Industry, people who have joined a fellowship for the privilege of power and the connections to maximize it. Pity that no-one told them what exactly they drank when they took the pledge, or what the Chalice was made of.

The Corpse Eaters
Entropy is a powerful force, it's an inevitable force, it's also a terrifying force that scares the shit out of humanity. But then there are the people who don't fear it, the people who instead choose to embrace it, become it, consume it. Embodying entropy in order to stave it off, they feed of the corpse of the universe, and it is their fuel and purpose to achieve a great oblivion of apotheosis and be free of their spiral of destruction.

The Omega Conception
No one knows from where this disease began, some blame a military bioweapon allowed to develop to some conscious ascension, some blame intra-terrestrials trying to blend in our universe, the truly fearful worry that it just happened one day, a natural mutation brought on by humanity's rapid development over the last millennium. Either way the Omega Conception is the first meta-virus in existence able to manifest in non-biological, non-physical forms, and it is trying to become pandemic.

Order of the Basalt Throne

This order of psychopathicly ambitious maniacs really is no order at all, there are no ranks, there are leaders but leadership goes to the strongest, and only the most effective in power survive. But why this focus on power. Because their God is the Idiot Demon-King that Howard Philips Lovecraft woke up screaming to one night. A being devoid of all intelligence with literally omnipotent power, all you have to do is take it, and use it.

Temple of the High Ones

This is a neo-religion, it began with strong celebrity backing and it is slowly growing across the globe as a modern polytheistic revival of Greco-Roman state religion. But that is the face they show the public, and like their public face the high ones are not so human, nor are they so beatific. They demand great things from their close followers, most of the time more than any sane person can give.

The Rebis Assembly

A nightmare conglomeration born of Transhumanists, Computer Scientists, and Alchemists. Their goal is nothing more than upgrading humanity into the obsolescence of the reactionary biological. It is lead by the electronic fusion of the two founding members that performed the fusion according to Alchemical principle. They transformed themselves into a Rebis, a complete hermaphroditic being born of paradox. The Rebis wishes to join all of humanity into their being thus creating a greater oversoul for their former humanity by which perfection of form and thought can be made thus abandoning human limits.

The Ugly

The Blind Collegiate - An informal school of occultists and will workers underneath the streets of London. Cultists are rendered blind in order to be trained to read the the secret knowledge that writing conceals in books and media. While not strictly dangerous these individuals frequently know too much, about anything, thus it makes them unpredictable in their inscrutable motives.

Children of the Fimbulwinter - Norse Asatru cult that are actively trying to prevent ragnarok, and believe that they are all descended between a tryst between Baldur and a giantess. Neo-Vikings that practice the less than media-friendly rituals and will as likely save an agent as kill them in their quest for Valhalla.

Eater of Nightmares - Drug addicts, psychoneurosis, mystics, visionaries and lost souls. They find sustenance for a being that lives off the dreaming fears and miseries of humanity. In serving they find themselves experiencing a blissful state of serenity as they are freed of their fears and worries. Though as they find their abilities to feel fear slowly atrophy they must find new sustenance for their patron, or make it.

Slayers of Apep

Cultists of Suketh, they have existed since the Middle Kingdom, to spread chaos and the destroy the horrors from beyond our world. Neither benign nor wholly malignant, they exist to both destroy and protect with equal fanaticism.

The Janni
They call them different names, but they are all the same, the spirits of the material elements, as powerful as they are universal. But there are those who know how to speak to them, master them, and have them serve. These wizards have taken the name of a race of half-jinn, and abuse their rituals of control for their own purposes.

Eulicid Foundation: A Skeleton History filled with "Fluff", and with a question pad.

These are a few points in the Official History of the Eulicid Foundation, All agents are given a run over on Foundation history so that the agents may mentally prepare themselves for the strangeness that is going to become an everyday occurance and be able to spot any weird happenings that have historical precedent within the Foundation.

- The original techniques and methodology that would be the genesis of groups like the Eulicid Foundation were founded in the days of Sumer and their efforts to protect the city states from the demons that stalked the night. Many of these methods and techniques were introduced into the plethora of culture that later developed in Post-Mesopotamian culture and were either improved upon or translated by the adopting culture. Remnants can be extrapolated from elements of Semitic, Vedic and Middle Eastern Culture.

- Many of the better implants associated with the Eulicid Foundation were discovered around 600BCE in a region of mountains that would become Pamir National Park in Tajikistan, early demon hunters were awed at the implants ability to aid the fight. Though due to a lack of medical knowledge some of the implants were not nearly so effective, methods needed to install some of the more common implants often had people dying during implantation, or it required the patient to go through trepanning and risk a structurally weakened skull or severe cerebral damage.

- By the period of classical antiquity (BCE 400 – CE 500) Each Culture had developed its own paranormal protectors or demon hunting society, usually under the auspice of a state cult or religious group. Each group was formed with the intent to protect the people of their societies from those dark things that existed beyond the gods or made from the evils the gods allowed.

- With the advent of Christianity and the catholic church in the roman empire many of these cults and societies either went further underground developing into a more conglomerated organization or shared their knowledge and members with the new church and her developing groups of exorcists, sicarii (red robed Dagger-Monks), and witch hunters to combat against the infernal enemies of the church.

- As official secular organization the foundation began as an obvious Sub-branch of England’s intelligence service created during the reign of Queen Elizabeth by Sir Francis Walsingham. It should be noted that this was the first organized intelligence service by any government in Europe.

o Sir Walsingham named the branch Her Majesty’s Occult Intelligence and had the operations headed by John Dee, a well-known mathematician, astrologer, and sometimes magician. Who would keep the intelligence service secretly going until his death.

o During Dee’s tenure he would divorce HMOI from English intelligence in order to become a black budget operation to allow his engagements minimal difficulty from court Interference. His organization was awarded ownership over many plots of land to fund his efforts. Little known to the Queen, Dee’s ability to scry into the future had allowed him glimpses of the most profitable investments centuries ahead of time. Not the Dee’s Prophesies were limited to financial efforts, many of his prophesies were related to agency expansion and events to prepare for. After his death his successor to HMOI and discovered with his will many letters forward dated and sealed for the benefit of the future of mankind.

- During the English civil war HMOI was forced to flee the majority of its operational holdings, which was relocated to Scotland in a former monastery just outside Edinburgh city limits. During this time HMOI began distancing itself from its intimate connection to the crown in specific and instead upon England’s safety as a whole, no matter the cost.

- IN the 17^th to 18^th centuries HMOI developed its appearance from a government branch into a corporation that invested in trade routes and international property. Using this as subtext for occult exploration and research. Calling itself the Goldscale trading company, they began using the company to infiltrate other countries in the attempt to keep an international eye on matters of king and country. The secondary goal was to hopefully poach information from other organizations.

o It was in this era when the Foundation achieved its major Coups within the occult community. The revolutions in America and in France allowed the agency to set itself up in America outside of the scrutiny and power of the monarchies in Europe. In the French Revolution Agents within France were able to steal valuable material that was previously fashionable in the former court of Louis XIV. The real Coup was to extract several Vatican Agents from Paris mid-Terror and recruit them into the organization with their skills, connections, and information.

o Furthermore the expansions of the various European empires allowed the organization to move forward into new countries opening trading houses and using them to spread their influence even further. The new international trade routes allowed information to pass farther and faster, and let agents to move about across the globe.

o In new lands and cultures the Foundation began adopting a culturally pragmatic attitude in regard to the many new witch-hunter groups and occult societies. The Foundation frequently found itself saving cultures that their countrymen were exterminating.

- The New occultism of the 18^th and early 19^th century made recruitment for the Eulicid Foundation easier and countering the more malicious groups much more straightforward in means of opposition. But in a time when the most powerful people lead lives both especially public and especially private the contemporary conspiracies both benign and malignant get confused in the needlessly complicating social haze of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Occult and Spiritual movements such as Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn became breeding grounds for new recruits and new oppositions, by the end of the era the Organization had effectively decided who were the fakes, the real deals, and the real threats.

o The growing knowledge and technologies of including the new sciences of Anthropology, Psychology, and discoveries in medicine and engineering helped be foundation in the coming decades.

- The First World War, a previously unknown horror was introduced to man. Of the many world ending plots that would have lead to mass death or societal destruction it was a horrifying Irony that mankind committed itself to a massive death toll without outside encouragement. The subsequent effect across the twilight had ghost hunters working for well over a decade calming ghosts down. It was half-thought that the great depression was one giant karmic payback for the death toll for the war.

o Fortunately the growing mechanization and political upheaval of the world forced the Foundation to begin further preserving people and Ideas from destruction. As total censorship became a common political tool. The sheer number of books and art saved from the furnaces by the foundation has stunned historians who join the Foundation.

- In the late 1930’s the organization had already began anti-Nazi operations long before Hitler and Himmler began their attempts to use the supernatural to empower their movements. When the war began the Organisation actively and comparatively openly aided the Allies against Axis occult interests by "officially" allying themselves with the Allies war interest. This decision was made upon realising how difficult it would be to continue covert actions while allied intelligence kept their eyes open for suspicious activity, which Eulicid Foundation Agents would no doubt be doing as part of being a Foundation Agent. The Foundation made itself invaluable by countering cultist groups that benefitted from Axis sponsorship to move forward their own twisted agendas. Frequently the Foundation would work with OSS agents to perform covert actions against axis developments, occult or not. This alliance continued right past the end of the war, the Foundation was fighting SS werewolves (Nazi partisan resistance groups) for years.

- Due to their open activity in the Second World War the Foundation realised that not since the days of Queen Elizabeth I was the Foundation so well known to world powers. The United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. all knew about this organization, worse still they knew it was old, settled, and needed. Though each country would create their own anti-supernatural agencies after the fact it was generally agreed that they couldn’t significantly interfere without removing an entrenched global safety net. So instead of trying to stop it, they came up with the next best thing, Defining it. The Eulicid Foundation was internationally recognized by the newly fledged United Nations in an international accord as a non-government-organization with international policing jurisdiction. It was passed with the most undefined terms in regard to the official political powers of the Foundation, but that was made for the safety of member countries…because there was always the fear of giving the foundation too much power or worse not enough.

o The Agents of the foundation have the following rights and duties according to this UN Declaration,

§ The Foundation is expected to remain discrete in the everyday knowledge of world citizens; Foundation Agents have permission to have Interpol, UN, or similar credentials when dealing with significantly localized law agencies.

§ The Agents of the Foundation have all the rights of Sworn Officers of the Law including the right to carry concealed deadly weapons, protect citizens and fellow agents, perform investigations, apprehend suspects, take prisoners, and collect evidence. Agents are expected to respect the local laws of the country they are in, any necessary violation of local laws are expected to be cleared through the Foundation, preferably before the fact.

§ When in situations where questions of agency jurisdiction occur the Foundation has a higher authority.

§ The Foundation is allowed a degree of extraterritorial jurisdiction and autonomy on matters of taxation, licences, and property on all official Foundation property.

§ Article 9 Section 4: In the event that the agent is meeting with local government, be it peace officers or otherwise, the agent is allowed to deny relevant knowledge if there is reasonable evidence that said knowledge becoming general knowledge will cause greater harm.

Storyteller Questions and Answers (Likely to be expanded as they come):

Where is the money coming from? Shadowy Jewish bankers? The Masons? Bilderbergers? The Rothschild’s? The United Nations? How much money do these chaps have to play with, anyway?
Oh, this storyteller knows how they are bank rolled, and sadly it’s mostly a mundane answer. If you consider the idea that the official organization was founded in Elizabethan England and that they have had the ability to grow and develop outside of a government black budget for years, the foundation has more money than many small countries, and you probably didn’t know you’ve been supporting them for years.

-Could they get their hands on a nuke if they spotted great Cthulhu himself in the deep sea, near Antarctica?
Hypothetically? Yes. It would take more time than most mortals would like since we’d all be going batshit crazy with face eating and whatnot. But they hypothetically could….but it would likely be a Russian nuke on an experimental bomber of late Cold-war design.

-How does the group relate to international government? How does the EF deals with mundane governments and interests like bankrupt Greece, bankrupt Ireland, the Taliban, the PRC, post-Kaddafi Libya, etc.
Nothing is ever easy politically. In a world full of psychos and governments that think of the United Nations as “a good idea if I was in charge of everything,” The Eulicid Foundation was allowed to exist under the UN with comparatively generous powers, but the hidden world doesn’t wait for paperwork. Though regular channels are preferable, in emergencies it’s better to beg forgiveness than seek permission. Furthermore if forgiveness is impossible you have two options: coercion or simply ignoring the political problem. Results matter, and it’s not the Foundation’s purview to stop normal everyday crime.

Part of the challenge of running a globetrotting game is squaring up how the horror genre relates to the everyday horror of international policy. What bad things can happen to characters in this game, what does the Eulicid Foundation do to mitigate this?
The real strengths of the agency are its resourcefulness and its spread. But outside of agency property the real world frequently doesn’t work on any ideal. The Foundation is more feared than respected by those official organizations that know of it, agency credentials intimidate, and the shady nature of what the Foundation does doesn’t help people’s response. If someone wants to cause unofficial trouble or official trouble there are the means to do so, least of all at the end of a gun. Most of the time Agents prefer to avoid notice or pretend to be something else, it’s easier that way. While the agency will help get agents out of mundane troubles, when their problems are combined with the government such as supernatural interference within political systems at which the black ops nature of the Foundation comes out of closets and foot lockers. The Foundation has an official policy that they will not be passively bullied and that every violent action against Foundation or Agent will be answered with Karmic efficacy.

So far, the EF has wisely decided to use its resources to preserve and rebuild its agent's sanity. What, then, does the mindset of an agent who's been with the EF since the sixties look like? What sort of implants does he have installed? What mnemonic devices and meditation techniques has he learned? How elder-vampire broken is this guy? For that matter, has such a person encountered some serious, elder-level, one-hit kill Cthulhian hoodoo and lived to tell the tale? How?
That’s for the players and the characters to find out. People do survive, people learn how to survive, but it’s more fun for people to figure this out In Character. This may seem like an ST cop-out to get out of explaining things, but really part of the game deals with secrets and how they can change you, so I have to say that If I told you I’d have to kill you, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

What parts of the normal WoD world is Part of the Eulicid Foundation world?
Well, I'm planning to do a series of rapid fire questions to quick answer much of that, and the short story is: Not much.

Vampires do not have covenants, I’m not even sure if they have clans, many of them might have no resemblance to requiem vampires, what might be considered a vampire might not be a hemophagic human in a sapient permanently animated post-mortem state.

If you encounter a werewolf, it sure ain't gonna be an Uratha. First of all, there was no Father Wolf guarding the boarder between the Shadow and the Mortal realm. Second of all if you find werewolves they will have better similarity to either the Varity of creatures from Changing Breeds. Think either Dog Soldiers or American Werewolf in London. On the other hand, there is a Shadow though some details will obviously different.

If there are Mage-esque supernal realms, no human has ascended to them. On the plus side, there is no abyss as Mage the Awakening understands it. There are will-workers in this world, however these people have none of the Gnostic benefits that awakened would normally have. However the many Astral, and other planes of existence do exist, though some details may change.

Prometheans likely exist, but gods help them. Made in the same azothic manner, with similarly humanistic goals, by the same Demiurges, the primary difference is the sheer lack of numbers and organization. Though the five core lineages do exist the Created lack any form of recognizable society, but they are much more developed individually. There are perhaps sixty Prometheans on the planet, and much fewer pandorans.

Changelings likely exist, but they are less "the lost" and much more lost. Lost to humanity and abandoned by humanity. Changelings are still stolen by the fae, they still escape from arcadia, but if there are no great number of stable courts to help them organize and give stability to their lives the lost frequently give in to their madness and become more changeling than mortal. There are maybe a thousand changelings across the planet, possibly two, but we are only counting the ones with enough clarity to be still humane.

Geists. Well, since synergy wouldn’t work in this model of humanity, a Sin-Eater would go batshit right quick unless they are really really lucky or they had some kind of obscure occult background to equip them for intimate lives with such alien entities. Sane Sin-Eaters are rarer than an honest politician and twice as priceless. You’d be lucky to find ten sane Sin-Eaters across the globe.

But if they're more powerful than normal conspiracies, isn’t corruption isn't far behind?
Well, that's the question isn't it, corruption involves abuse of power, and as much power that an agent may have, corrupt compared to what? As much as they police the world they police themselves as well, that and agents who aren't mentally or ethically equipped for the job don’t last long either way. The other problem is that they aren't a faceless corporation, foundation agents frequently work with each other, consult each other, and cross train with agents across the globe; however they are a really ambiguous organization past a point. There is no glass ceiling in the Eulicid Foundation, however after a point there is a smokescreen. Agents know most people in their organisations and parallel departments, but past the middle management level of organization knowledge is sparse. No one knows who officially runs the organization, there are thirteen positions at the top and their names have not been officially mentioned since 1784. Not to say that members don’t step up to positions in this executive realm of shadows, it’s just that no one can remember their real name, or what they used to do...funny that.

What about other conspiracies? Do they exist?
Short answer: Yes. Long answer:
The Eulicid Foundation has never been the only organisation in the world that fights the horrors in the darkness, they just have the benefit of being the most organized and the most resourceful. Other groups have existed for centuries and have stuck around long enough to have some clout and skill, while some are decades to years old and without much of the benefit of years that the Foundation has. The Catholic Church’s Inquisition still exists, though they no longer make work of seeking traditional heretics. Several aboriginal groups have “ghost hunting societies” that pass on a cultural traditions that have worked since time immemorial. Taoist Wizards, Brahmins, Imams, many religious groups have traditions of guarding worshipers from the influence of evil. Then there are the more modern groups: some are hunting lodges of one sort or another, some have more exploratory urges driving them into the supernatural, and some like those groups made after the second world war in many western countries, just try to keep up with the professionals in defending their people. But still, these are the “good guys”, perhaps misinformed, perhaps superstitious, perhaps jealous rivals, but at least they want the best for humanity. The Opposition has secret conspiracies too, doomsday cults, compacts between soul-sucked abominations, covenants with entities that want nothing but to drink the screams of those dying in pain, or those sick mundane freaks who blindly kow-tow to dark powers in human form or not effectively placing their sheepish necks right into the predators jaws…Worse still, these are the one’s we know about.

On the Question of the Altruism of the Eucilid Foundation, a dialogue.

Sam says:
(on the Eulicid Foundation)
I think the only wrong way to do it is making them ultimately altruistic. There need to be some skeletons in the closet.

Dan says:
*chuckle* Dude, this is still the world of darkness

Sam says:
No no, I getcha. Just sayin'.

Dan says:
They are ultimately altruistic, but they have taken such a teleological stance that you could strap magnets to Kant's corpse surround him with copper wire, and he'd power the Netherlands.

Sam says:
And their altruism doesn't necessarily conform to the standard "acceptable" form.

Dan says:
Well, mass murder tends to be frowned upon, even when it could be near-perfectly justified, the same with assassination, blackmail, framing, or a simple death-curse Good doesn't mean nice, and sometimes Good People have to do horrible things to keep other Good People going.

Merits for Eulicid Foundation Sanity Mechanics

When introducing a new set of mechanics to a World of Darkness game, especially one where I am creating the setting as well as the mechanics, there's the question of "just what can I do with this?" Usually it manifests itself with merits and abilities that represent a natural evolution in response to the new mechanics. and since The Foundation is such an old and powerful institution you'd think they'd have a trick or two up their sleeves...that did not include the concealed dart launcher tipped with curare.

Coldblooded (****)
Prerequisites: Composure 4, Empathy 2
Effect:
Some people learn how to be cold, hard, bastards. It does not mean that they are emotionless beings who would not coo at a child, give a happy dog a pat and maybe a good scratch, or that they would never cry at an emotional scene in a movie. It does not mean that they lack human empathy, usually it’s the opposite problem, that they may empathise just enough to develop a greater sense of complex ethical responsibility or that they become inured to such unpleasant tasks that they must find a way to cope with the fact that they still are empathetic human beings.

This mindset does not merely encompass such extreme acts as murder or torture, but also thievery, perjury, or any instance where the person is knowingly performing an act where they know they are somehow harming another human being. While the difference between a mother stealing a loaf of bread to feed her starving family and a detective murdering a serial killer in cold blood because they will get off charges on a technicality are different in order of magnitude the coping techniques used by the people who must learn to do these things are the same. When the character has to perform a sin against humanity that is required from a sense of higher ethical responsibility they receive a +2 Bonus to their Sanity Defence for the purpose of not receiving Sanity Damage.
Note: People who take this merit have learned to cope with the horrific things that must be done, but they have learned how to do them without costing them their ability to empathise with other human beings. Individuals who can do these things without feeling any significant amount of regret are either sociopaths or clinically insane. Remember that.

Jaded (**)
Prerequisites: Emotional Detachment (Asylum P. 50)
Effect:
When you see your first accident close up, you feel disgusted, you might puke, or it might disturb you on an emotional level you’ve never felt before, or never wanted to feel again. But after you’ve seen the same kind of thing again and again, you get used to it, even mass murder can be objectively observed if one has had the misfortune to have seen it often enough. It’s the method of adaptation that is all too human in nature, that when you see bad things often enough, they don’t provoke the same reaction the same way. While you may still feel disgust, horror, or most commonly a great sympathy for what you perceive it just doesn’t shake you anymore, because you’ve seen it all before. The character gets a +3 bonus to Sanity Defence when encountering a horror event that could be described as an atrocity.

Quick Witted (**)
Prerequisites: Wits 3, Composure 3.
Effect:
In an emergency, while everyone else is still in shock, you’re one of the first to recover and take account of the situation. Maybe it’s an enhanced survival instinct, or it’s the fact that you’re good at problem solving in stressful situations, or it’s simply a talent you’ve always had. While most people will still be there slack jawed or panicking you’re one of the people who have already decided to do something. The character recovers two shock damage in the amount of time it would normally take to recover from one.

Unflappable (****)
Prerequisites: Quick Witted, Wits 4, Composure 3
Effect:
Things just don’t faze you like they do others. You aren’t just the guy who is first among the mob to act in an emergency, you’re already trying to figure things out while people are still deciding just what the hell happened. It’s not that you can’t be shocked, surprised, or otherwise caught off guard, it’s that it takes a hell of a lot to do it. On top of the benefit of being quick witted the character also soaks the first two shock damage that the character would normally receive from a horror event.

Dr. J. Daniels Psychiatrist (**)
Prerequisite: Flaw: Addiction
Some people need help coping, some people need chemical help, and we aren’t talking about anti-psychotics...or at least what most people consider anti-psychotics. Though the traditional aids have been alchohol, nicotine, and opium many individuals found their own escapes and ways to deal with those things that keep them up late into the night. When giving into their addiction after receiving a significant amount of sanity damage(more than five points of Trauma damage) the character may heal either three trauma damage or one psychosis damage. This ability may only be used once per game session.

Tempered by Faith (****)
Virtue: Faith
Sometimes believing is enough, sometimes holding to your beliefs can let you deal with the horrors of the world. For you, your Faith in God, Allah, Goddess, or even the sincere compassion of a bodhisattva gives your willpower some extra durability against what the world can throw at you. When a character spends a willpower to increase their Sanity Defence, in the event that damage is still inflicted, the character may soak either two shock damage or one trauma damage.

Pillar of Virtue (***)
Hope, Fortitude, or Justice Virtue
Some people, no matter how screwed up, can find within themselves a powerful foundation built upon their willingness to maintain integrity and keep going in the face of hopelessness. You are the kind of person that proving yourself again and again to be a virtuous person has let you rise above everything the world throws at you. Once per game when the character would otherwise regain all willpower from acting on her virtue they may instead downgrade all Sanity Damage that the character has inflicted upon them.

Willing Ignorance (****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Resolve 4
Effect:
You’re not sure how you learned the trick, but you can erase your own memories. There is no real manual for this technique, and no one can really teach it, but still some individuals just learn how to affect their own minds adequately to just remove unwanted memories completely. While you may still remember the context of these memories the memories themselves are completely gone, down to the last detail. By spending a willpower the character may remove two trauma damage or one psychosis damage from their Sanity boxes. This ability can only be used once per game session.

Mental Fortresses: “Fighting style” (* to *****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Intelligence 3, Wits 3, and Academics 2
Effect:
The Ancients had a technique, or more appropriately a method by which long series of information could be memorized through a series of memetic cues that would retranslate information into specific image-thoughts created within a greater construct which could then be added to and improved. In Ancient Rome and Greece this was the method that great orators could perfectly recite hours of speech verbatim from how they were written. In the early history of the foundation these techniques that were normally more academic in nature could be used to reinforce the mind itself. By building a literal fortress of thoughts and ideas to sort through, differentiate, and apply information in a deliberate manner with all the same intent of an architect building a castle.
* - Bricks and Mortar
By having learned the memetic tricks associated with the ancient means of memorization Foundation agents can benefit from the original intent of the Method. The Character can easily memorize any series of information including cognitive patterns; if the character must roll dice to recall information they have actively observed they receive a +2 dice modifier. This stacks with Eidetic Memory.
** - Forming the Walls
From the bricks and mortar of ideas the Agent can now begin rebuilding their mind with the deliberate intent of organizing and reinforcing specific cognitive pathways. In effect the character’s fortress now has walls to keep nuisances out! The Character can use the higher between their Resolve or Composure as their Sanity Defence.
*** - Raising the Watchtowers
With walls in place to prevent unwanted invaders from getting in the Agent then must find a way to foresee problems approaching and for a castle the method to do so was to build watchtowers. For the agent the metaphor applies just as well as they create early warning systems to allow the agent to prepare for incoming attacks. When the character has been warned of a specific horror event they may add +2 to their Sanity Defence as if they spent a willpower point to enhance their defence.
**** - Arming the Ramparts
The best defence is not just a high wall, it’s a high wall with stakes on the bottom, boiling pitch on the top, and several nasty things all over that make the fortress even more uninviting to invade. Agents begin devising constructs within their fortresses designed to work actively in maintaining the defence of the fortress. The character adds +1 to their sanity defence.
***** - Depths of the Hidden Keep
The Castle has been built. The defences are up, and every detail about it means something to the agent who built it. But what Agents learn as they master this technique is that while a fortress can be defined by its walls it may also be defined by its depths. The agent begins creating shortcuts to the forgotten places in the mind where thoughts go to die, and with an expenditure of will, some intended invaders find themselves in such an oubliette. By spending willpower point the character can absorb a number of Sanity Damage points equal to their resolve. The character will soak the worst Sanity damage on the character first. However this ability can only be used once per game session.

These following merits are techniques that were developed by the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung with aid from fellow psychiatrist-psychologist Wilhelm Reich. The works by these two men were both too radical for their mentor Sigmund Freud, and they were certainly too radical for their respective eras, but fortunately their work was long admired by the various agents within the Eulicid Foundation who often remarked that contemporary society seemed to stymie the potential of these two men. Having admired their works from afar In 1950, the Foundation sought both Doctors out to hire for their unique viewpoints and specialties, Jung agreed and worked further in his cognito-symbolic research, Dr. Reich however wished to try to move forward his orgone theories into common usage in the US. When the United States Department of Drugs and Food began their persecution of Dr. Reich with the intent to silence and Jail him the Eulicid foundation chose to aggressively recruit Wilhelm Reich by faking his death in 1957. Noting the unique ability of these men to synthesise esoteric ideas the two doctors were tasked to work together to create new psychological methods to protect Foundation Agents in the field, their achievements were only marred by Carl Jung’s natural death in 1961 at the age of 85. Though his colleague died and their combined work ended Dr. Reich’s continued research in Orgone therapy has long benefited the techniques and skills of Foundation medical teams well past his death in 1998 at the ripe age of 101.

Cerebral Vent (*)
Effect:
The Mind has dark places where things are forgotten, where the stress and strain of existence can vent and release. By adapting a practice that would eventually be discovered by Cognitive Behavioural Therapists the doctors realised that the stresses that would normally crack the human mind could be safely redirected by creating overflow channels into those dark and forgotten places. In any event where a character receives enough sanity damage to roll over a grade, the character in effect negates that one damage preventing the leftmost box of shock into Trauma, or the leftmost box of Trauma into Psychosis.

Resilient Psyche (**)
Prerequisites: Resolve 3, Cerebral Vent
Upon realising the potential of Cerebral Venting Dr. Reich wondered what would happen if they applied the same techniques using an active system rather than a passive one. Rather than allowing the overflow of damage to flood the mind, and letting minor cognitive constructs work to their maximum he devised a method whereby several memetic techniques could effectively redistribute the overflow en mass unto these mental abysses. In the event that a character receives enough psychic damage to roll over into a new grade of damage and it would roll over more than one grade the character may spend a willpower point to negate any additional damage past that single point. Note: this effect stacks with Cerebral Vent’s effect.

Jungian Seed (**)
Effect:
According to Carl Jung, The Shadow is a personality of a person’s unconscious mind that exists in everyone, born of a person’s weaknesses, repressions, fears and ambitions the Shadow exists as both and unwanted element within the psyche and a necessary one as well. The Jungian Seed is a psychological technique using an amalgamation of their specialties they found a means to allow a person to manifest their Shadow in the event of an emergency to save the self and allow the whole self to recover. In the event that the character would be rendered unconscious or otherwise mentally disabled the player may choose to activate the Jungian Shard so that the Character can escape whatever situation caused the effect. Despite the distasteful reputation and makeup the Jungian Shard genuinely cares about the character and has their best interests in mind, though perhaps not the most ethical ways of showing their best interests. In the event of a threat they are as likely to cowardly run away as they are to fight like psychotic maniacs against what they would perceive as a threat. The Shadow can use all of the character’s skills and abilities though they are purely motivated by the fight or flight survival instinct should said threat no longer exist the shadow will return to the character’s unconsciousness. This effect can only last for a number of rounds equal to a character’s permanent willpower, though the player may choose to spend a willpower point to allow the survival instinct of the shadow three additional rounds before expending itself and being dragged back into the unconscious thus causing the character to return to unconsciousness unless they may reawaken(storyteller decision.)

Special Rule: In the event that a character is entirely full of psychosis damage and they have this merit their shadow may manifest for an extended period until the character has had sufficient time to recover at least one psychosis point thus allowing the unconscious mind to assist the process of healing the agent. Though this allows agents to return to duty, the time taken to recover by this means is considerable.

Gestalt Partition(**, ****, *****)
Prerequisites: Meditative Mind, Intelligence 3, Resolve 3, Occult 3
The Consciousness is not a mono-entity, it is made up of many processes that create the whole that we recognise as a person. What Dr. Reich theorised was that it was possible to take some of the functioning of these processes and create a backup consciousness separate from the primary consciousness and supplemental to it. Each 2 dots create another box of sanity “health” that exists outside of a person’s normal mental health like a separate row of boxes. The Character may use these boxes to “store” damage received in the line of duty or to “soak” incoming attacks. As the partition is both supplemental and separate the character does not experience any penalties associated with damage received. The time taken to recover the damage within the partition is added to the recovery time, as the two systems do not function in parallel for purposes of healing.

The Darker Twin (*****)
Prerequisites: Jungian Seed, Gestalt Partition (** or **** or *****)
When the Doctors first discovered Sie Doppelt Dunkler, as they referred to it, they were unsure if it was a benign creation or not. It occurred to an agent who despite her talents and her adoption of the Jungian Seed and Gestalt Partition was frequently found suffering from the mental trauma that would affect her worse than other Agents. However, on a mission in Tajikistan when it seemed that she was rendered catatonic, fellow agents noted that she got back up and began attacking the enemy with renewed vigour, enthusiasm, and cunning that was entirely unlike their previous experiences with her Shadow, not to mention that after the threat was gone the Shadow stuck around. After assessing that it was not possession they took her back to base and it was discovered by Jung and Reich that she somehow amalgamated her Shadow into her Gestalt Partition to create a mirrored personality. Possessing many of the aspects of her Shadow she was a “Dark Twin” to the primary agent’s personality, though it maintained the function and overall goals of the Shadow to protect the primary personality. Though it was discovered that The Darker Twin was a benign form of multiple personality disorder many agents outright refuse to learn how it was done for fear of what their Twin might do or say.

The activation of The Dark Twin is the same as the Jungian Shard, however instead of a being of limited drive and energy the alternate personality that is made from their Shadow and the Partition is instead the shadow’s reflection of the real deal. The Dark Twin has its own sanity boxes at +4 health boxes added to the Gestalt, these boxes can no longer be used to take away sanity damage. The Twin also adds +1 to their sanity defence, defence, perception rolls, social rolls to get what they want, and rolls to attack. However the twin receives a penalty of -2 to any task that involves an extended action or any action that is not actively seeking a direct solution. Furthermore the Twin must roll Resolve + Composure whenever they must do something that would be terribly dangerous and grievously harm the character or do something that will likely threaten their sanity further. Though the Twin cannot be banished by normal means the prime personality recovers sanity at twice the rate while their twin is active.

The Twin personality has all the same attributes and skills and abilities as the Prime Personality, they have however less inhibition, greater arrogance, and often have personality traits that are the exact opposite of the personality they are based on.

Eulicid Foundation Character Template

Foundation Agent Template

Pick Virtue and Vice

- Attributes: 5/4/3/

- Skills: 11/7/4
- Merits: 7

- Health = Size + Stamina

- Sanity = Seven boxes

- Willpower = Resolve + Composure

- Defense = Lower of Dexterity and Wits

- Sanity Defense = Lower of Resolve + Composure

- Initiative = Dexterity + Composure

- Speed = Strength + Dexterity + Size

Agent Template additions

- 1 free Dot in Investigation, Athletics, and Survival

- Gain 1 Free Dot in two skills Skills relevant to the training stream that the Agent goes through, be it Conflict Management, Public Relations, or Research and Development.

- Agents Gain these Merits: Requisitions 4(Equal to Resources 3 in salary 4 in life style equivelent), Status (Eulicid Foundation) 1, and Sworn Officer 5( explained in 13th Precinct p. 81)
- Gain Violet Diamond Implant
- Gain Plato's Lantern Implant

- Gain 8 Merit dots to buy from Foundation Agent List of Special Merits.

Special Flaws.

Without the Diamond.

However it happened the Violet Diamond was never installed within you. Perhaps you resisted the idea of having an implant in your brain, perhaps it was violently rejected by your body, whatever the reason you are one of the few agents walking around without the protection of a Violet Diamond to keep your maintain your sanity. You don't have a Violet Diamond, you lack the bonus to your sanity defense.
Benefit: Gain 20xp For the Additional time you spent training instead of recovering from Installation.

Lanternless:
Against the strong suggestions of your peers and your superiors you have declined the implantation of your Plato's Lantern. You are unusual among agents for this trait, as most accept the implant as either part of the necessary preparation or see the benefits of the implant. Though uncommon some agents choose this due to personal reasons, spiritual reasons, or Magical reasons. You lack the Plato's Lantern Upgrade. In the event you wish to have it installed and must take two months of character time to get it implanted, adjusted, and the trainng involved to use it.
Benefit: Your Character had two more months of cross-training than the others, Gain a free dot of Occult, and a Free Dot in any physical skill.

Normal Flaws:

Collared
You're a probationary member, you've had all the same training as the rest, you get almost all the same benefits as the rest except one, the others are trusted, or as trusted as any other active agent is. As soon as you were allowed anything sensitive or dangerous a failsafe was used on you. They traditionally used to be collars that carried some form of death-curse if certain conditions were met, like you becoming a loose cannon, or the demon that fueled your powers proved to be very able at possessing you. Now, no one knows what it is, you still are given a collar, but it's as mundane as a McDonald's Hamburger. No, the Collar is there to remind you.

Drawback: You're useful to the Foundation, otherwise they'd have killed you, but you're not trustworthy enough to be allowed complete freedom. You have an unknown Sword of Damocles placed upon you, a very unpleasant and leathal one at that. Most every agent has heard the story of Abbas The Catburglar, who was caught trying to escape with many Dangerous Relics from the Black Vault, convinced that he had successfully countered his failsafe he decided to make a run for it with valuable relics to sell on the black market. When confronted and found he died of several snake bites, of snakes he threw up, that were made from his internal organs, before an avatar of Suketh came to consume his soul. This happened twenty years ago, and was the first time any agents acctually witnessed a failsafe activate. You can prove your loyalty, but at what cost?

Plato’s Lantern
(Agent Advantage)
Chi, Orgone, Pranya, Viril, Ether, many different names for one essential energy that exist immanently with the universe. Normally directed by effort of human will, human beings have a finite ability to focus and direct said energies. The foundation has frequently found inventors and Magicians who have been able to harness this energy, but it was the work of Nicola Tesela who found a solution to the limit of human ability by creating Plato’s Lantern. Appropriately enough the Item in question is lantern shaped but no larger than a soda can. The Tool is implanted inside the agent resting inside the chest cavity near the solar plexus. It allows the agent to store “Etheric Energy” within the lantern and channel it without over expenditure of effort. However the method by how the lantern works limits the storable EE. In order to recharge Plato’s Lantern the agent must deliberately refill the lantern’s EE, the energy cannot be gathered passively. It was said that Tesela was working on an even more refined design, however his death in The Carpathian Incident slowed research to a crawl.

Benefit:
Plato’s Lantern is a battery for paranormal ability. It can store up to 3 “willpower points” for the sole purpose of activating powers or objects by the Foundation Agent, these “willpower points” cannot be used to improve rolls, to resist effects, or to spend for non-paranormal merits. To refill the Lantern The agent must meditate in an area “Full of natural dynamism”, to quote the whimsical Serbian inventor himself, namely the agent must focus on the surrounding natural elements that are either in motion(such as stream or being outside while the wind blows) or actively interacting with the agent(Being exposed to a rainstorm or being in a forest glade that is actively purifying the air) in order to gather the Dynamic Etheric Energy from these environmental factors to the Lantern.

System:

The Agent rolls Wits + Composure + Modifiers

Each Roll represents 30 minutes in deep meditation while attuning the lantern to the surrounding environment, in order to gather Etheric Energy(From here on referred to as EE ) the agent must not break meditation or she will have to start over.
Note: As ridiculous as the idea is, it IS possible to spend willpower on this roll representing the extreme focus of the agent to achieve this state of meditation and gather the etheric energy.

Dramatic Failure: The Agent suffers from Houdini Syndrome until she spends an hour retuning the Lantern back in sync with her being and sleeps for a night. (represented by a normal Resolve + Composure roll and a night’s good sleep. )

Failure: The Agent cannot sync up the lantern to her environment and cannot gather EE.

Success: The Agent can recharge the battery equal to one EE per two successes

Exceptional Success: The Agent completely fills up the Lantern with five successes

Modifiers:

+1 Meditation Aid (Meditation Beads, Rosary, Mandala) (Non cumulative)
+2 Meditation Music
+3 Location of meditation is relatively safe
+3 Agent is at full willpower and is unharmed.
+4 Area’s Natural Dynamism is very active (ST approval)
+5 The Agent is at a Geomantic Nexus
-1 Per health box filled with damage over Stamina Dots *
-2 Distracting people in agent’s presence *
-2 Agent is drugged/poisoned *
-3 Agent is knowingly in an unsafe location *
-3 Agent is under the affect of an enemy’s supernatural powers.
-4 Agent is in violently unstable environment(Earthquake, Tossing seas, in the middle of pitched battle.
-1 to -5 Agent is surrounded by noise/activity that is confounding attempts to attune to EE( -1 represents minor pollution/unreasonable noise pollution, -3 represents being outdoors during rush-hour or in a park that is more concrete than grass, -5 is either being in an active office building or at a construction site in the middle of demolition.) *
-2, -3, -4, -5 Agent is within the sphere of effect of a haunt, a portal, a perversion of nature, and a ”hell mouth” respectively.
(Modifiers cannot exceed +5 or -5 though they are cumulative.)

Note: To those players who buy the meditative mind merit, for the purposes of recharging Plato’s Lantern you are able to ignore up to a maximum of -4 in cumilative penalties with an (*).