Hegemonic Ministry
Overview
The State is the soul. Utopia is attainable[1]. Sleepers must never be allowed to attain it, can never know it’s truly possible and above all, can never be allowed to find out that it used to exist. The Archigenitor Exarch of Unity embodies a perverse contradiction. To maintain Creation’s oneness, human beings need to be split apart into warring tribes and castes. If they ever set aside their differences and Awaken, they could crack the cosmic firmament. This is the mission of the Seers of the Throne that work in the Hegemonic Ministry.
Love the flag, the anthem and the tribe. Hate foreigners and dissenters. Enslave legitimate moral outrage to ruthless politics. Flags, tribes and issues don’t matter. They’re channels of power, threads the Hegemonic Ministry tugs and weaves to suborn nations. It doesn’t stop there, either. The Ministry loves rebellions too, when they turn revolutions into reigns of terror.
Governments have never been so complex and all- encompassing as they are now. There are no unclaimed territories and no frontier where a community can rule according to its own customs. They don’t need to do it as often as other people, but even hermits deal with cops, bureaucrats and tax collectors.
The modern Ministry formed in Western Europe during the 15th century. The early Renaissance provided fertile ground for the Unity’s cult — several cults, in fact. These pylons let Italian city-states fight their battles for them. Florence, Milan and Venice prevailed.
At the dawn of the 16th century, Seers from each city met and formed L’Hegemonie Secrète (French was the language of the elite at the time) and from there, followed traders, explorers and conquerors to the rest of the world, absorbing rival Unity worshipers as soon as they found them. Two centuries later, L’Hegemonie shifted its main strength to England and the Americas, and reached the height of power, going so far as to reshape other Seer factions in the image of the British Empire and the burgeoning Masonic societies of the colonies. A Ministry is called a Ministry today because of the hegemons; they never tire of pointing it out.
The first true Ministry finds itself embattled by factional conflicts, as globalization nips at the heels of the servants of the Unity, Exarch of control through nationalism[2]. Dominating nations and attracting leaders, the Hegemons did quite well while humanity existed in a collection of nation-states and far-flung empires, but have fallen prey to the subversive power of the merchant class, represented by the Lesser Ministry of Mammon, servants of the Chancellor. As theocracies and corporate interests rise ascendant over political interests, many within the Pyramid whisper that the 21st century will be the last with Hegemony as a Great Ministry.
Methods
The Book of Mirrors[3]
The Ministry’s as fond of laissez-faire capitalism as hardcore Leninism. It loves rules that take on a life of their own and ignore individual cases. Ultimately, these systems are tools for the agendas of anyone smart and ambitious enough to take the reins: sociopaths, venal politicians and egotistical revolutionaries. The Instrument is called the Book of Mirrors because for all its pages, it contains no wisdom — just the reader’s desires, reflected by whatever she takes out of the text.
The Golden Apple[3]
Sometimes communities form around relatively pure, compassionate ideals. They start to get things done. The Golden Apple is the response. The Instrument is the philosophy of strategic discord. A hegemon preys on differences and doubts. She might tell one revolutionary cell that the other’s going to strike a deal with the government, or spread rumors of an incipient power play in the local Consilium. If she does her job perfectly, it forces victims to find someone else to arbitrate — and hegemons stand ready for the task.
The Tethered Staves[3]
The Tethered Staves are the classic Roman fasces. It’s fitting, because the Instrument is fascism, pure and simple. To employ the Instrument, a hegemon backs an elite class to control resources and political power. These leaders warn everyone else against ideological or cultural “impurity” or “decadence.” They give the threat a face: an internal minority or foreign group. This Instrument fell out of favor from World War II to the end of the 20th century. Seers in those days believed Sleepers wouldn’t fall for it so easily after the war. Hegemons now believe that people are as naïve as ever. In fact, the Instrument may work better now, because people believe that they can readily identify and counter fascism, even as they ignorantly warm to its tenets.
The Hive Souled[4]
A Hive-Soul is both a highly trusted servant and a group of highly trusted servants. One mind and one soul spread across multiple identical bodies, the Hiver thinks as one being (albeit one being enhanced to the point of being able to control multiple forms simultaneously), reacts as one being to magic but has more than one physical form. When a Hiver works on a task, it is an image of Unity’s supernal perfection with duplications of the same person all working together in smooth concert without the need for coordinating speech or management. They make for excellent managers of other slaves, sublime personal assistants, superior coordinating agents for pylons (where each group of Seers takes one of the Hiver’s selves with them) and deadly combatants.
Prelacy
The Unity grants the Crown of Obligation[5]. The character gains an additional Vice, and regains one point of Mana every time she gains Willpower through either Vice. Also, she reduces her opponent’s Doors in Social maneuvering by her Mind dots.
References
- ↑ MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 56-57
- ↑ MTAw: Mage: The Awakening Second Edition, p. 72
- 1 2 3 MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 58
- ↑ MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 219
- ↑ MTAw: Mage: The Awakening Second Edition, p. 103