Ritualists in the Outer Planes
The largest concentrated populations of thaumaturges live in the outer planes, hands down. Though the settlements there maintain strong ties with mundane Earth, they are easily the most magically inclined human beings living today – few on mundane Earth can honestly say that they have hunted monsters for food, conjured permanent shelters, bought all household conveniences from an enchanted item market, or learned magical theory (albeit not its praxis) in late high school rather than through higher education. The thaumaturges are counted as less than mainstream in mundane Earth societies, but they are ubiquitous in even the smallest outer plane settlement. The situation lends itself to a weird kind of culture shock, since everyone living in the outer planes is effectively an immigrant (the outer planes have no native human population). Traveling in the outer planes often means running smack dab into the language barrier, because any Earth nation with access to interdimensional gates has citizens settling (or hiding out) here. The usual solution is to have a Comprehend Language spell cast. A settlement or landmark in the outer planes is often given a name consisting of two simple nouns (e.g. Rockmouth, Waterdance, Circlepillow) so that it may be more easily translated.
Some even consider the settlements in the magical realms to be a kind of adopted homeland for magi, but the political issues concerning that frontier are complex. The mundane Earth governments are wary of giving magicians too much political power or their own lands (with their own laws), so they mostly try to deal with (and thus give political legitimacy to) intentional/interdimensional corporations of magicians than any other type of magician-run N.G.O. (like Civil Rights groups). The mega-corps, relying on government good will to grant them access to consumer markets and public contracts, will choose to avoid rocking the boat whenever possible. Earth countries usually put serious social restrictions on both casting spells and the movements of thaumaturges – magicians must be registered, carrying ID badges in public spaces, publically announcing the spell being cast, and so on. Harsher governments force magicians to live in ghettos, submit to behaviour-restricting mind control, receive longer sentences when convicted of a crime, let the government search their homes without a warrant, and are limited in the amount of spells they may cast per day. In game terms, most mundane Earth governments treat their CR as one or two higher when dealing with magic. An unusually pro-magic country, such as The UK, does not have heightened spell CRs. Every few years or so, a country may loosen or tighten their restrictions on magic in accordance with the political winds. Only a few governments on Earth seriously ban magic outright, even if they all fear both magical botches and magi uprisings. The mega-corps (and magi in general) often have to downplay or suppress incidents involving magical crime, disastrous botches and wizard supremacist terrorism, just to avoid backlash from the mundane population like civil unrest (including hate crimes), harsher laws, loss of consumer confidence in magical products and increased police scrutiny. Some even accuse mundane governments of purposefully making the laws burdensome enough that any given thaumaturge will eventually break a law, so they may thus legitimise harassing disfavoured or anti-government magi. Darker still are the rumours that misuse of magic is being deliberately under-reported, and unregulated spell casting is even secretly routine in the outer planes.
The laws in the outer planes settlements, naturally, are far less stricter on average, since they are supposed to be magical outposts – “company towns” (owned by the mega-corps) are even run entirely by magi and boast the richest markets for magic, with a standard of living to match. Of course, those frontier settlements not run by the mega-corps could just be minor anarchist communes, petty warlord encampments, glorified puppets of a mundane government, scavenger/prospector shanty towns and other political non-entities. Because there is less pressure and restraint put upon the caster, botches are more common in the outer planes.
Reports of magical artefacts (grimoires, places of power, charms, elixirs, enchanted stuff) found in the outer planes further encourage explorers, settlements and research.
Organisations in the Outer Planes
Most major settlements on the outer planes are funded through private businesses or international governing bodies – legally considered either self-governing city-states (if privately funded) or extensions of Earth countries or the U.N. (if not). Outside of state issues, other outer plane organisations function much like their Earth counterparts – corporations, mercenaries, gangs, charities and secret societies operate (perhaps illegally) in the outer planes and interact with settlement local laws like they would on Earth.
This changes the more you venture beyond the edges of the civilised frontier and into the wilderness – the untamed and unoccupied No Man’s Land only abides by the law of the jungle. The “unofficial” organisations operating in these reaches resemble a very philosophically primitive civilisation indeed.
The Keepers
The police forces of the outer planes deserves special mention. Because the outer planes cops – nicknamed “Keepers” – are magi, they are under more scrutiny from the public, who generally doesn’t trust authorities sanctioned to use magical force without abusing their power. This scrutiny means the Keepers are routinely indoctrinated and vetted, via magical brainwashing and surveillance, to be pathologically straight arrow professionals. The public won’t trust a Mage to enforce the law honestly and wield its power responsibly unless he is forced to, is the general consensus. They need assurances that the Keepers won’t become a boot on anyone’s neck.
The Keeper brainwashing means the outer planes cops are rendered incapable of breaking the law or acting anti-socially, on duty or off. No torture, no racism, no unnecessary force, no sexism, no stealing from the evidence locker, no bribes, no illegal searches, you get your one phone call, you get fully informed of your rights, you don’t get roughed up in the interrogation room, and so on. In game terms, Keepers have very little negative mental disadvantages like Intolerance, Greed, Callous, Bully and Selfish.
The outer planes police forces are also expected to dedicate themselves to extra quality training, as a matter of indoctrination. They spend a lot more time studying their job skills off the clock than mundane cops, and their instruction facilities are better funded, maintained and effective as well. As a result, any given Keeper will likely have better stats than his mundane counterpart, in addition to being a mage. The Keepers sometimes resemble an order of monks more than a standard police department.
The less obvious downside is that the indoctrinated Keeper are painstakingly by-the-book, and possess zero tolerance for simply glossing over minor offences or comprising for the sake of the big picture. If an Keeper finds a single illegally downloaded song on your music player, you will be fined. If he finds a single marijuana seed in your car, you will get arrested and the car is impounded. If he spots you jaywalking, you get fined. In game terms, the Keeper have Honesty, Workaholic, Fanaticism (Uphold the Law), Code of Honor, Truthfulness, and other extremely lawful mental disadvantages magically imprinted into their personalities. You’re better off trying to bribe the judge at trial than the Keeper who slapped the cuffs on you.
Thus, outer planes corporations, sensitive private citizens (warlords, most notably) and other NGOs prefer using their own security forces or an informal posse to sort out complicated criminal matters within their territories, rather than getting the actual police involved – there’s less chance of tiresome legal fallout that way, and more “options” are kept open. Some people NEED enforcers who can bend the rules or take bribes (this hasn’t helped the reputations of the mercenaries employed by the corporations at all). Even the Keepers themselves have no undercover agents, preferring to rely on outside informants and civilian collaborators. Magi urban legends tell of Keepers who get their indoctrination suspended, so they may infiltrate organisations directly.
Each major outpost in the outer planes has its own Keepers department acting as its local police. Each department would be statted as an organisation via Social Engineering: Boardroom and Curia. The Contacts would be police skills and magical skills. Member Traits include Magery, Legal Enforcement Powers [5], Duty (all the time or quite often, Involuntary), and whatever combination of Disadvantages represent the magical brainwashing (12 or less, -34%). Its Type includes Enforcement, Government, Investigative and Occult. Keepers are usually a CR4 organisation. Loyalty to the Keepers is magically fixed at Good, Very Good or Excellent levels, depending on department doctrine and politics. Keepers have Police Rank. All other stats of a given Keepers department may vary.
Important International Corporations
The magical corporations supply the mundane population and civilian governments with magical research, enchanted items, civic projects, mass entertainment, magical hospital supplies, the gates and other major, expensive works. While they are subject to regulations and laws, they are allowed lobbyists, highly visible advertising, military contracts and other benefits of incorporation.
Three of the magic-focused corporations that are majorly relevant on the scene are;
Platinum Angel, Inc.
Mission Statement: An interdimensional corporation focusing on magical development for use in the fields of the military, infrastructure/construction, utilities (including man-made Places of Power via sacred architecture), personal weaponry/protection (prototypes for laser guns and powered armour, for example), vehicles and security systems. It is the corporation that works the closest with first world nations, and politically supports their governments the most. It has covertly worked with local police forces, federal agencies, mercenary companies and private security guards – both for the sake of profit and to uphold a favourable civil order.
Capabilities
TL: 5+3
Members: 32,000
Wealth: Wealthy
Contacts: Magical skills-18 [15]; business skills-15 [10]; military skills-15 [10]
Member Traits: Magery 0 (12 or less, -34%) [4]; Secret (Trade Secret) [-5].
Notable Resources: The corporation has some noteworthy military assets in the form of in-house security personnel, connections to major militaries, enchanted weapons, enchanted armour, favoured mercenary companies, fortified outposts and high grade vehicles. On the less militant side of things, the corporations have simple but secure offices in a major city on each outer plane, and minor offices in a few major Earth cities. The experimental laboratories for secret projects are Undisclosed facilities [1].
Reaction-Time Modifiers: +2. Working across dimensions takes longer; +4. Providing indirect, unofficial support for combat operations requires “creative” paperwork and plausible deniability; +4.
Costs and Values
Startup Costs: $6,240,000,000
Resource Value: $31,200,000
Patron Value: 25 points
Enemy Value: -40 points
Ally and Dependant Value: The Seraphs security forces are available as an Ally Group worth 75-200 points. Single businesspeople within the corporation may count as a Dependant or an Ally, worth at least 50 points and as much as 350 points.
Social Attributes
Type: Commercial, Military, Occult
CR: 3
Loyalty: Good (14; +2)
Rank: Merchant Rank 0-7 [3/level]
Income Range: $1,300 (Struggling) to $26,000,000 (Multimillionaire 2)
Reputation: +2 (as successful and powerful interdimensional provider of magical technology, amongst most people); -3 (as hard-case sellouts to the inferior people holding us back, amongst anti-mundane magi extremists)
Notes
Its typical corporate iconography (including uniforms) uses white, black and gold colours with religious and warrior motifs. For example, statues of Jacob wrestling the angel, Archangel Michael’s victory over dragon Satan, knights, samurai, Saint George slaying the dragon, Beowulf fighting Grendel, Odin fighting the wolf Fenrir, Odin giving up an eye and hanging himself from the World Tree and Heracles fighting the Hydra decorate their headquarters. It’s logo is a gold shield with four white wings spreading out from its sides, and a black-hilted broadsword crossed in front of it.
Platinum Angel uniforms feature military-style or predator animal themes – berets, crew cuts, hair buns, camouflage, hunting gear, leopard prints, heads shaved bald, tiger stripes, bear/lion skins, medals on the chest, bandoliers, black and white chessboard patterns, chess pieces and ritual scarring.
Platinum Angel security forces are named The Seraphs, who often guard their corporate property and provide on-site protection for their employees. They’re one of the few well-known corporate mercenary details who don’t consider contempt towards employees of rival corporations to be a professional obligation – they maintain a dispassionate respect towards any and all they meet while on the job.
Their Trade Secret might any number of bleeding edge magical technologies – including TL 9 gadgets.
Arcadia Hedge Media
Mission Statement: This corporation that has become the major market leader for magical home entertainment, magical innovations in the music industry, the magically enhanced production of TV shows and movies, and various news outlets that double as pro-magic propaganda machines. Their senior management has an ideological interest in making the mundane public passively accepting of magic, even if they have to lie and underplay risks to achieve this. Although Arcadia Hedge maintains what is perhaps the best reputation amongst the mundane public, insiders in the magical subculture are well aware of the corporation favouring underhanded, illegal, and even downright cruel tactics for dealing with problems – they built up a lot of money and status with blackmail, espionage, emotional manipulation, deception, seduction and back-stabbing.
Capabilities
TL: 5+3
Members: 18,000
Wealth: Wealthy
Contacts: Magical skills-15 [10]; business skills-18 [15]; entertainment skills-15 [10]; investigative skills-15 [10]
Member Traits: Magery 0 [5]; Secret (Utter Rejection) [-10]; Secret (Trade Secret) [-5].
Notable Resources: Television stations, news outlets (in print and online) and production studios for both music and movies are the most visible assets of Arcadia Hedge Media. Several factories operating on Earth and in the outer planes manufacture enchanted home entertainment appliances and other goods. The various dirty tricks and shady operations of Arcadia Hedge get handled by the corporation’s Unseelie division, a few hundred Undisclosed employees with training in criminal or intelligence skills [1]. The Unseelie keep secret Hidden dossiers full of blackmail material, surveillance, stolen databases and so on [5].
Reaction-Time Modifiers: +2. Working across dimensions generally means slower going (+4). The Unseelie can pull out some dirty tricks or do some covert criminal activity, but the necessary precautions and begging for permission involved will take time (+4).
Costs and Values
Startup Costs: $3,959,280,000
Resource Value: $19,796,400
Patron Value: 25 points
Enemy Value: -40 points
Ally and Dependant Value: A single agent of The Unseelie is available as an Ally worth 75-200 points, while Ally Groups of Unseelie are rarer options (usually worth 100-150 points each). Dependants provided by this organisation are typically low Rank employees doing the visible (legal) scut work of the corporation’s ventures, none of them worth more than 75 points.
Social Attributes
Type: Advocacy, Commercial, Investigative, Occult, Secret
CR: 3
Loyalty: Neutral (12; +1)
Rank: Merchant Rank 0-7 [3/level]
Income Range: $1,300 (Struggling) to $26,000,000 (Multimillionaire 2)
Reputation: +3 (as prosocial magical entertainers and news broadcasters, among the mundane public); -3 (as backstabbing spooks and liars, among anti-mundane magi and certain clued-in folks)
Notes
Red, gold, green and purple colours combined with Fairytale motifs (Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, elves, Cinderella) is considered its signature style. Arcadia Hedge Media uniforms display flamboyant show business or trickster styles – circus outfits, playing cards, dice, punk rockers, thorned roses tattoos, top hats, drama masks, masquerade ball masks, domino masks, waistcoat with tie, body glitter, eyeshadow, four leaf clovers, gems, fleur de lis and rainbows. It’s logo is a ring of green thorns around a red rose.
The most secretive employees of the mega-corp, not known to many, are the Unseelie, who act as privately owned spies, saboteurs, con artists, astro-turf activists, targeted liars, honey pots, agent provocateurs, thieves, interrogators and sometimes assassins. Personal grudges against the rival corporations is worryingly common amongst the Unseelie, because their director of operations believes firmly in the power of revenge fantasies. Agents of The Unseelie have Secret (Corporate Black Op) [-20] and Duty (12 or less) [-10]. Unseelie have Merchant Rank 3-6.
Full Moon Thaumaturgic Consumer Products
Mission Statement: This academically-minded corp specialises in magical research, medical supplies, shops for Charms, Enchantments and Grimoires, information on Places of Power and actually teaching magic. Of all the magi corps, Full Moon is the one whose corporate philosophy is most radical; it is firmly pro-intellectualism, it lobbies the most against laws restricting magic, and it exalts curiosity, the scientific method and futurism over tradition, morality and social convention. A common saying amongst them is that it is better to be dead than close-minded. Detractors call this mindset elitist at best, and anti-mundane subversion at worst.
Capabilities
TL: 5+3
Members: 11,000
Wealth: Wealthy
Contacts: Magical skills-21 [20]; business skills-15 [10]; academic skills-21 [20]; medical skills-15 [10]
Member Traits: Gadgeteer (6 or less, -67%) [9]; Magery 0 [5]; Tenure (9 or less, -50%) [3]; Secret (Trade Secret) [-5]
Notable Resources: In addition to storehouses of symbolic material supplies, Full Moon also has corporate property such as full ownership of mana-rich land (places of power), and private libraries of grimoires assigned to their employees for the purpose of doing their jobs. Full Moon owns, runs and maintains magic schools – including two whole universities dedicated to Thaumatology. Even universities not directly involved with the corporation still hire Full Moon researchers as professors of Thaumatology. Hospitals have Full Moon train their magically gifted staff, and buy their magical supplies from them. It manufactures enchanted equipment and magical medical supplies in its own factories. Three different chains of magic shops (charms, elixirs, grimoires, and so on) are subsidiaries of Full Moon. Full Moon’s in-house security teams, the Tranquility Squad, keep it all safe. Not to mention plenty of laboratories and workshops fully staffed with researchers…
Reaction-Time Modifiers: +3. Working across dimensions is harder (+5). Creating new enchanted items, grimoires and researching new magics is also quite slow, not to mention expensive (+5).
Costs and Values
Startup Costs: $2,951,520,000
Resource Value: $14,757,600
Patron Value: 25 points
Enemy Value: -40 points
Ally and Dependant Value: The entry level employees – clerks, shopkeepers, laboratory assistants – of Full Moon are available as Dependants worth no more than 75 points. A single rising star professor or regional manager is an Ally worth 75-100 points. Individual powerful spellcasters may be worth 150-300 points as an Ally. A class of journeymen spellcasters, each worth 75 points, may be an Ally Group to a professor of Thaumatology or someone hiring magical staff on retainer.
Social Attributes
Type: Commercial, Occult, Research, Teaching, Trade
CR: 2
Loyalty: Very Good (16; +4)
Rank: Merchant Rank 0-7 [3/level]
Income Range: $1,300 (Struggling) to $260,000 (Filthy Rich)
Reputation: -3 (as radically minded snobs, amongst anti-magic people and traditionalists); +4 (as brilliant intellectuals and innovators, amongst pro-magic academia)
Notes
Full Moon prefers their uniforms and corporate iconography to invoke esoteric, academic and weird motifs – pyramids, the moon, eyes, triangles, scholar outfits, scarves, monocle, circles, wands, pentagrams and stars. Their signature colours are blue, silver and black. It’s logo is a stylised full moon on a black night sky.
Full Moon hires its own in-house team of security professionals named the Tranquility Squad for all its leg-breaking, secret keeping and asset protection needs. These security teams often tote exotic enchanted equipment (bullet charms and gas grenade elixirs, for example) – perhaps as a means of field-testing for R&D.
The Gadgeteer and Trade Secret in Member Traits both represent a large staff of research scientists and cutting edge exotic magical resources combined to create new Thaumatological plot devices.
Other Corps
Other magic corps this book will only give a rough sketch of (the GM can build off these basics to create their own kind of corporations);
Crimson Crate Shipping
A mega-corp focusing on magical transportation and storage across the planes. It’s logo is a crimson crate with a yellow “C.C.” monogram stamped on it.
Xenologue Incorporated
A mega-corp focused on researching the outer planes, particularly its unnatural creatures and plant life. It’s logo is a stylised open book with diagrams of various shapes written in it.
Twisty Passages Industries
This mega-corp’s stock in trade is general magical consumer products. It’s logo is a square maze drawn in black lines.
To be continued…
Three Hundred and Thirty-Three 