From: Kevin Mowery Subject: Conspiracies Abound! (fwd) I was asked to repost this to WoD-l, and I figured I'd add a couple of more mailing lists to it (since it deals a lot with Mage, and got started on Changeling-l, it seems only fair). A few comments have been added in brackets ([...]) to expound on things I felt needed expounding on. ___ This is a little something I've been working on, still in a very rough form. It was initially inspired by the Arcadia Moon-trod conspiracy ideas of Erik Dahl on Changeling-l, although I've left most of that out for the time being. White Wolf has long put various supernatural agencies behind major world events and conspiracies, often without bothering to link them together very much. What I've done is take a number of "real-world" conspiracies, groups, and events and link them together via the World of Darkness background. Doing this meant that I ended up using events and groups which some people may find upsetting, and putting them in a conspiratorial game context. If something in this offends you, rest assured it wasn't meant to--I am not trying to make light of any of the horrors of the real world. I've also left out a number of juicy conspiracies, because I couldn't find a place for them--or they didn't link up directly. And while there are many great political assassination conspiracies, I only touch lightly on them in reference to another conspiracy. I encourage storytellers to do their own research and try to fathom the murky depths of motivation. I'd also urge storytellers to buy _The Big Book of Conspiracies_ by Doug Moench. It does a good job of summing up lots of conspiracy theories and cross-referencing them. And it's pretty cheap, really. [This isn't quite a plug, since I don't get anything for it--I've just found it extremely useful, and if this stuff interests you, you'll probably feel the same way about it.] So without further ado, the tangled web of WoD conspiracies (and I know that some of this likely violates WW canon). THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON The Temple of Solomon, one of the holiest of sites, was built by laborers whose secret wisdom the Freemasons claim to have inherited. The Temple was a symbol of the Jewish faith, and a place of worship. Jewish magicians, known as Kabbalists (or Qabbalists, or any of a number of spellings), have strong links to the Order of Hermes, as do the Freemasons themselves. During the Crusades, the Knights of the Temple, or Templars, were named after the Temple of Solomon. Readers interested in this aspect of the Templars are directed to _The Occult Conspiracy_. In addition, on the former site of the Temple of Solomon now stands the Dome of the Rock, a holy site of the Muslim faith. The Assassins (or hashishim) were a fanatical sect of the Muslims, with links to the Assamites. The Muslims themselves had links to the tradition of Mages known as the Ahl i Batin. THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA In 300 AD, a council of Christian elders met and compiled what is known as the Bible today. In addition to the Torah, influences from all over, including Greek philosophy, were included. A number of things were left out because they did not fit with the elders' ideas. It's very likely that this was the work of the Celestial Chorus, or a proto-Chorus, attempting to fit their own philosophy of ascension into the still-new religion. THE TEMPLARS The Templars were an order of holy knights created by the Church during the time of the Crusades. It is from the Templars and other knightly orders of the time that the concept of the professional soldier springs. During their time in the middle east, the Templars had contact with both the Jews of the region and the Muslims, including the Assassins. From their contacts, the Templars grew to be a 'church within the church', handling their own banking, revoking excommunications issued by bishops, and answerable only to the Pope. They were later branded heretics and supposedly destroyed, on the face of it because the King of France wanted to get his hands on their wealth and bishops were angry at the power of the order. In fact, while both of these factors contributed to the supposed end of the Templars, it was ultimately the work of the Celestial Chorus. The Chorus had originally created the order to help force Christianity on the Holy Land. In the course of their duties, the Templars came into contact with the Kabbalists and Ahl i Batin who introduced them to the Gnostic philosophies that were later branded 'demon-worship' by the Church (and the Chorus). The remnants of the Templars ended up in the Freemasons, particularly the Scots Rites Masons. During the time that the Templars were being exterminated, Robert the Bruce of Scotland was under excommunication and therefore not subject to Church law. THE FREEMASONS The Freemasons have a long history of dealing with the supernatural forces of the World of Darkness. They are also notable for being a major force behind the United States government (many of the movers and shakers of the past and present had Masonic links) and the French Revolution (again, interested readers are referred to _The Occult Conspiracy_). Many of the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria (the AISB) also fled into Freemasonry when their order was abolished. The Templars still have a strong influence in the Masons--the junior order is known as DeMolay, after the leader of the Templars who was burned at the stake for heresy! THE AISB The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria was established in the 18th century by Adam Weishaupt. Weishaupt had either been a Jesuit, or was Jesuit-educated (depending on the history you read). [In fact, he had been Jesuit-educated.] At the time, the Jesuits were out of favor with the Catholic Church. Weishaupt created a secret society (the AISB) with the stated goal of the abolition of organized religion and the establishment of a world government based on principles of reason. This sounds very much like a goal created by the Technocracy. In fact, the influence of the New World Order can be seen in the recruiting practices of the AISB. They would observe candidates and test them, all without the candidate's knowledge. If the candidate was deemed worthy, he would be initiated; if he wasn't he would never know the AISB had been interested in him at all. [These candidates were chosen from people who had risen through the ranks of Freemasonry.] In addition to the NWO, the AISB had strong Masonic links, and therefore links to the Templars, who would likely have enjoyed working against the Celestial Chorus. The Tremere have at times been described as 'The Illuminati' because of their structure, and possibly a close relationship to the AISB, also known in short form as 'The Illuminati'. The term only means 'Enlightened Ones' or 'Illuminated Ones'. While the Tremere may be the Illuminati, they were not the AISB. [The description of the Tremere as the Illuminati was from, I think, the 1st edition Vampire Player's Guide and may not have been repeated in the 2nd edition.] It is rumored that after the AISB was outlawed, Adam Weishaupt fled to America, taking the place of George Washington. The two men did have a remarkable physical similarity. The symbol of the AISB, the eye in the pyramid, appears on the one dollar bill. It was also prominent in French revolutionary literature. THE NAZIS The Nazis had numerable occult links. In addition to the Get of Fenris, the Nazis were under the control of the Progenitors (who were breeding the Master Race) and renegade Sons of Ether, drawn to the Nazis by the degree to which the Nazis would support scientific advancement without worrying about ethics or loss of life. In fact, while the Get would like people to believe that they opposed the Nazis for the most part because of their cowardly tactics in exterminating the Jews, it is likely that they left when they uncovered the extent to which the Nazis were involved with Magi. Many of the European Get of the time were probably still raised with the idea that honor is reserved for fellow gentlemen--just as there is no dishonorable way to kill the Wyrm, they would probably not see a dishonorable way to kill those humans they felt were Wyrm-spawn. The Holocaust itself was a plot to kill the Jews and Gypsies, both groups with strong occult ties--ties which were not with the Technocracy. It also served as a cover for Progenitor experimentation (see ALIENS, below). THE CIA The CIA grew out of the OSS (Office of State Security), which was created during the Second World War. During the war, Allen Dulles, a member of OSS, developed links to many Nazis, including Wehrmacht Colonel Reinhard Gehlen. At the end of the war, Gehlen made copies of all the information the Nazis had on the USSR and created the espionage organization ORG in Switzerland. Dulles worked with ORG while creating the CIA. The CIA was also involved with Project: Paperclip, which obscured the Nazi affiliation of many German scientists to bring them to America after the war. Many of these scientists ended up in the American speace program. Allen Dulles was fired by John F. Kennedy, and later served on the Warren Commission, which found that the Kennedy assassination was the work of one man. MIND CONTROL The leader of the Assassins used hashish to whip his followers into an ecstacy of religious fervor, supposedly showing them the delights of heaven. Assured that they would be able to return to heaven for acts of murder, he thus insured their loyalty. The Nazis also attempted to find ways to induce chemical mind control, under the guise of creating drugs for aviators. The highpoint in the history of chemical mind control came when the CIA initiated MK-ULTRA, which tested the mind-controlling effects of LSD on CIA agents, military personnel, and ordinary US citizens. In many of the political assassinations of the modern day, the perpetrators have been described as glassy-eyed and in trance-like states. Lee Harvey Oswald served at one of the few military bases in which LSD was tested on the troops. CLONING The company at the forefront of cloning technology in the World of Darkness, DNA, is a front for the progenitors. DNA is also of note for their interest in the Garou. From a conspiratorial point of view, there are reports of numerous Oswald look-alikes in the vicinity of Dallas during the Kenneday assassination. Kerry Thornley, future author of _Principia Discordia_, claims that Oswald, who was a personal friend of his in the Marine Corps, was a breeding experiment. THE MOON LANDING When astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, inadvertently opened the gateway to Arcadia. It was at this point that the Void Engineers, who were behind the moon landing came under the scrutiny of the rest of the Technocracy for possibly being under the influence of the fae. Reports that the moon landing was faked were accurate, in that a mock moon landing was filmed to cover up the opening of the Arcadia Moon-trod. Later a device was exploded on the moon to close the moon-trod. This was gone over at much greater length by Erik T. Dahl on Changeling-l. I'd advise the interested to check on there. ALIENS The era of the modern UFO started in 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold saw 9 crescent-shaped objects skipping through the air like saucers over water (hence the 'flying saucer' appellation) over Washington's Cascade Mountains. 1947 was also the year of the Roswell crash, the events of which are familiar to most conspiracy buffs and therefore do not need further elaboration. These and similar sightings resulted in the creation of Project: Grudge, later changed to Project: Bluebook. The overt purpose of the Project was to investigate UFO sightings. The covert purpose of the Project was to discredit and discourage anyone claiming to have seen UFOs. Both of these were obviously front operations for the NWO, concerned with the secrecy of the project. The apocryphal Majestic-12 group is the true NWO operation. Majestic-12 (MJ-12) currently operates out of Area 51. It is known that the Nazis worked on flying disk technology in World War Two, but were unable to make it work. The Nazi scientists, including the renegade Sons of Ether responsible for the flying disks were later brought to America where they continued their work. The 'Greys', the standard grey-skinned, big-eyed aliens of the modern era, are in fact, humans genetically engineered into forms more suited to space travel. This work was begun by the Progenitors during World War II with prisoners from the Nazi death camps. The purpose of the Greys and the flying disks was not only to explore space, but to prepare humanity for the idea of alien races, in accordance with the mission of the Void Engineers to change consensual reality in such a way that umbral spirits became more scientific creatures from space. Alien abductions may be the work of the Technocracy, although it has been rumored that the Greys are rebelling against their masters. With the advanced technology on the flying disks (and the capacity for Umbral travel that the disks have), as well as the inside knowledge of Technocracy dealings, the Greys could prove a serious threat to the Technocracy should they defect. That's all I have right now. I'm currently thinking of the Greys as being essentially like humans, but with typically lower STR and STA, and higher DEX. They probably have a genetic predisposition to Psychic Numina, although I doubt the Progenitors would have allowed them to develop full-blown Avatars. Consider them Awakened for all practical purposes, though unable to learn Sphere Magick. Full Greys would have a 0 APP, although since they're still genetically human, crossbreeding is possible. Crossbreeds would have standard human stats, unusual features (though not necessarily unattractive), and a predisposition for Psychic Numina. They'd also have full-blown Avatars (and as such be capable of Awakening). [In the twisted recesses of my own mind, should the Greys come up in a campaign, I have decided that Full Greys get 5 pips of Psychic Numina and 0 APP (starting characters could have a maximum of 3 in any one power). Half-breeds have normal appearance (although their faces seem a little expressionless) and 3 pips of Psychic Numina). Half-breeds also have the option of forgoing Psychic Numina and becoming Mages, although they will have weaker ties with Grey society. Grey society is organized around their ships, known as colonies, the largest of which house as many people as a small town. Advancement is based upon intelligence, power, and service to the colony. Ironically, the horrific tales of medical experiments and sperm and egg collection by aliens are usually the work of those Greys *not* aligned with the Technocracy. Technocracy Greys try to sell people on the idea of benign alien visitors with advanced technology to cure society's ailments. Free Greys use the human genetic material they collect to create the half-breeds. This quest to regain their human heritage is the reason that they left the Technocracy. Grey colony ships can travel exceedingly fast, travel into space or below the ocean's surface, and some can travel into the Umbra. Most Greys never leave their colony for any extended period of time, although some half-breeds live and work among humans with only occasional contact with their colony.]