ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

The Technocracy has many spies among the Traditions. Following the old intelligence acronym MICE (Money, Ideology, Coercion and Ego) they have convinced many Tradition mages to serve them in various ways. Although many mages won't admit it, power and wealth can be tempting even for the Awakened, and the Technocracy has plenty of both. Other mages are convinced that it furthers the interests of their own Tradition, cabal or chantry to support the Technocracy, usually against their enemies. The Technocracy is, of course, well known for its coercive methods, ranging from Syndicate extortion to Progenitor clones. Finally, there is the most insidious trap of all: the Ego.

Vance

Vance is a young Orphan. He Awakened in a car accident when his entire family was killed. The entire car and its contents just dissolved into blinding light and he ran away unscathed. For several years Vance grew up on the streets, slowly learning about his powers through trial and error. When he attracted the attention of a cabal of other mages, he grudgingly accepted their promises of training and protection. He never really fit in with the Tradition mages, and usually felt they dragged him along more as an interesting experiment than a friend.

Then the Technocracy struck. The cabal had been investigating the ties between a local politician and a group of drug dealers. This alerted the Syndicate. The cabal found itself under attack from every direction, and they sought to cut their losses and flee from the city. Vance was left behind as the rest escaped in a van, perhaps by mistake, perhaps because he realized they had no chance. The van was destroyed in an "accident" on the highway. At the same time he was approached by a smiling man in an expensive suit, who invited him to come to his limousine to discuss a business proposal. Vance, ever the survivor, naturally accepted and began working for the Syndicate.

Vance is no more loyal to the Syndicate than he is to anyone else. He knows he is expendable, but as long as he provides them with interesting information and minor services, he will get paid and appear useful. He is drifting between various groups of mages, mainly the Cult of Ecstasy and the Hollow Ones, never remaining long enough to arouse suspicion. He sells various titbits of information to the Syndicate in exchange for money or Tass. He is constantly on the outlook for interesting information, and would not hesitate to dig a bit if he finds something really juicy.

Vance isn't very impressive; a skinny, rather pale youth in a worn leather jacket and faded jeans carrying a rucksack with his belongings. He isn't very social and usually remains just outside groups of people, listening and looking vaguely uncomfortable. Somehow, people always feel sad for him and try to introduce him into the group. His magick is almost always coincidental, mainly Mind and Correspondence.

Essence: Primordial
Nature: Survivor
Demeanor: Loner

Doctor Jonathan Terman

Dr Terman is a respected Son of Ether, involved in several projects to bring true Science and Technology to the masses. His most notable contribution has been a method to turn waste from the food industry into a light and strong plastic, "Bioplast", more versatile than normal oil-based plastics. Naturally he has had a few problems getting it into the Paradigm, but he is generally optimistic. Other areas of his research has been radio-projection, where radio can be transmitted using "virtual antennas" projected into the air (its untraceability has interested the Virtual Adepts) and a system of beamed power lines not unlike the work of Tesla.

However, he has recently begun to worry about the other Traditions. In his contacts with environmental groups among Sleepers and mages whom he tried to interest in his plastic, he noted many who dislike all advanced technology, regardless of how ecological it is. They apparently want to return to a more "natural" lifestyle, somehow removing all the unnecessary gadgets and banning all "non-appropriate technologies". As a true Etherite, Dr Terman was appalled. The worst thing was these groups got much of their inspirations from hardliners within the Dreamspeakers and Verbena, who definitely wanted to end the "decadent technomantic Western civilisation".

Dr Terman realized that even if the other mages belong to the Traditions, they constitute a threat against the more technologically oriented Traditions. They would certainly try to stop them from advancing if they got a chance. So he decided to do something about it. Using his skills of manipulation of radio waves, he found a frequency and coding scheme used by the Technocracy. From time to time he sends information about the activities of the hardliners within the Traditions to the Technocracy using his untraceable radio projector. The Technocracy apparently approves of his initiative, and he has at least once got a "Thanks. Keep up the good work." reply.

Dr Terman certainly doesn't see himself as a traitor or spy. It is the "eco-nazis" who are traitors against the Traditions, trying to sabotage the work of the Etherites and Virtual Adepts. He would absolutely never transmit anything he thought could hurt anyone else, and the thought of receiving payment for his information is alien to him. He prefers to think that he is balancing the situation a bit, so that he and his Tradition can help the Sleepers undisturbed.

Essence: Pattern
Nature: Visionary
Demeanor: Plotter

Patricia Gibbons

Patricia is a member of the Cult of Ecstasy. She once had the misfortune of participating in an ill-planned attack on a technomancer stronghold inside an office building. Her entire cabal was captured as the elevator car they were in was filled with a strong narcotic neurotoxin before they were even close to the technomancers (if they ever existed). After months of gruelling interrogations and reprogramming, the New World Order released her with a new set of memories. She no longer remembers how they reprogrammed her, but now she has complete memories of how she was kept prisoner by the Technocracy, resisted their horrible torture while her friends slowly broke down and finally escaped using an ingenious Time effect. The whole experience has filled her with an unrelenting hatred for the Technocracy and especially the New World Order.

She is currently doing her best to coordinate other mages into attacks on the Technocracy, finding weak points in their defence and tracking down and eliminating their allies. Her hatred has, however, not made her stupid, and she will not take unnecessary risks. After all, dead mages cannot fight. Other mages regard her with a bit of unease due to her fierce hatred, but everyone accepts her dedication and trusts her. Everyone agrees she has an uncanny insight in the methods of the Technocracy.

What no one knows is that she works for the New World Order. "The best way to learn about a conspiracy is to start it yourself". Since Patricia is actually behind the attacks, the technomancers will know about them beforehand and can prepare. Usually they remove key personnel and important experiments, but sometimes they set up ambushes to capture and neutralize important or dangerous mages. They just make sure that from time to time she appears to win an important victory.

Patricia is controlled using special code words. If she hears a certain sequence of words embedded in a sentence, she will turn into a loyal (if somewhat impersonal) servant of the Technocracy. She will then answer any questions or report what she has learned. A second sentence will return her to normal. She has been conditioned to regularly dial her beloved "parents" (her real parents are dead), who will debrief her. There is also another group of code sequences which will activate some of her real memories. If they are just activated to a sub- or semi-conscious level, she will feel intense pain, fear and guilt. If they were revealed in their totality, it's quite probable she would turn completely insane.

Patricia is a smallish woman with extravagantly colored hair and an otherwise incongruous, vaguely British appearance. While she is usually smiling and polite, her eyes reveal her hatred for the Technocracy: every time the subject is brought up they harden into pools of darkness and her left hand will make snaking, aggressive motions. Her magick reflects this too: her usually beautiful and fragile webs of magick turn into killing shards against her enemies, without any trace of elegance or remorse.

Essence:Dynamic
Nature: Fanatic
Demeanor:Bon Vivant

Open File

Open is one of the more influential Cypherpunks among the Virtual Adepts. He has a solid reputation for the brilliance and flexibility of his encryption schemes, not to mention his style. Everybody admires him for his skill in hacking the computers of Iteration X, where he frequently has found very exciting information, including secret passwords or control codes. What no one has even guessed is that he actually is working with the Technocracy.

Open learned everything he knows from his mentor Core 1, an older Adept who was one of the minds behind their defection from the Technocracy. However, Core told him that the real reason for the defection was quite different from what the rank-and-file Adepts thought. The leaders of the Technocracy had realized that the Adepts were becoming more and more uncomfortable within the bureaucratic framework of the Technocracy, and sooner or later this friction would cause real trouble. Therefore they developed a brilliant plan: they would let the Adepts defect to the Traditions. In this way the Technocracy could use the resulting chaos to purge itself of useless or disloyal members, force many departments to rationalize and become more efficient to meet the new threat, leak enormous amounts of misinformation and most importantly: gain a foothold within the Traditions. Outside the Technocracy, the Adepts would continue their research, apparently in conflict with it but secretly allied. They would gather information about the Traditions and relay it back, until the day when the Technocracy would strike a decisive blow against the Traditions with the help of the Adepts, who would then yet again become a Convention in the victorious Technocracy.

Open has succeeded Core as the informal leader the secret cabal, Exit(0), which is coordinating the Adepts in their clandestine mission. Exit(0) gathers information from the entire Tradition (quite easy, due to the freedom of information in their nets) and relays it to the Virtual Adepts still inside the Technocracy. They also manipulate their Tradition in various ways to make sure it serves its real purpose. They carefully list various members and their loyalties, influence internal politics and recruit the best and brightest for their cause.

Open is especially involved in making sure the Cypherpunks won't become too dangerous. He reports about any new encryption schemes developed, and has created several systems himself with secret trapdoors for the Technocracy to use. He is also involved in spreading misinformation by pretending to hack into Iteration X systems and revealing false data.

Open is proud to be a part of the secret leadership of the Virtual Adepts and working for its real goal. He suspects that there might be other, similar cabals, but it doesn't bother him since he realizes the gravity of their mission. Some secrecy and redundancy is always needed. From time to time he despairs at the huge task he has undertaken, and secretly wonder how the Technocracy will ever manage to complete its plan. But he quickly forgets his doubts and turns to the important work at hand instead.

Open's icon in the net is a humanoid shape created out of thousands of file icons, which open to reveal their contents as he moves. Few other people have met him in the flesh, where he is an apparently normal man around 30 years old. In the net he usually speaks in flowery language interspersed with cryptographic terms and odd allusions to programming. His many friends usually joke about it as "Open Dictionary".

Essence:Questing
Nature: Traditionalist
Demeanor:Jester