I Can't Believe It's Not Magick - Technocratic Union (Mage Lore)

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In this much requested sequel we talk about the Technocratic Union in Mage: The Ascension, its Conventions, Hypertech, and efforts to manufacture Consensus.
00:00 Intro
03:23 The Technocratic Union
10:19 History
36:03 Organisation
53:45 Management
1:05:52 Technomagick
1:10:27 Requisitions
1:18:19 Iteration X
1:26:03 New World Order
1:36:34 Progenitors
1:46:29 Syndicate
1:56:51 Void Engineers
2:07:04 Outtro
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[@korstmahler]

Your computer is made of dead ghosts. My computer is made of arcane electronic symbology. We are not the same.

[@HarPaelTheMessenger]

You- uses a rock to look around areas far away. Me- tricks a rock into looking around areas far away. We are not the..... wait....

[@fanboygamer3e]

Man my computer is just made of plastic & metal. I need to upgrade my shit.

[@ShadowfireReality]

I recommend the dead ghosts route, you do of course need to be able to kill a ghost to opt in. @@fanboygamer3e

[@funninoriginal6054]

I'd be more concerned if the ghost were alive honestly

[@michaelo5665]

​@@funninoriginal6054 WoDs got you covered. In Wraith even the dead may die.

[@wandiriswan6116]

This man is ADAMANT about not doing werewolf and I respect that

[@KairoStark]

He said in the fundraising video that W:tA is coming. And as someone who sees a lot of parallels between Garou and real life politics, cant wait.

[@resq6244]

v5 werewolf coming in august so i think its because of that

[@KairoStark]

@@resq6244 hopefully nothing will ever come from that

[@benjaminhenderson5025]

Who still has their captain planet ring?

[@Wulgreath]

To be fair, Werewolf is kinda on the nose. Ultra violent neo-pagan theocratic berzerkers, to borrow a turn of phrase. The old material also might have some less than gracious depictions of First Americans, compared to what is palatable thirty years later. Still, looking forward to what he does with it when it comes around.

[@vexedlex8230]

Ah, the Matrix agents, Men in Black and the SCP foundation, mixed together with a healthy dose of denial. Easily one of the most interesting factions in the WoD.

[@scienceface8884]

And that's just the NWO! Ever read the original MIB comics by marvel? Almost no aliens, it's just a day in the life of a green NWO agent.

[@kingcrimson3039]

Exactly my thoughts.

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

I'm not really "into" WoD, but from all these videos, it seems like all problems could be solved if these guys communicated more. or at all.

[@cdubsb3831]

​@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlongyou'd think so but (keep in mind this is my own interpretation) God is an obsolete computer whose world simulation is constantly crashing and leading to corrupted memory. Factions get reset, world histories and fundamental mechanics of the universe get overwritten, and those that remain clued in to all of these mistakes either reset, get purged, or learn to keep their head down.

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

@@cdubsb3831 just fix god? idk seems simple enough

[@fanboygamer3e]

God damn. I thought the Alfabusa crew was just playing up all the madness that’s included in the world of darkness when they did their video essay on it but they were just scratching the surface

[@jordanetherington1922]

Dude you have no idea. Spirit nukes, my good dude

[@ebros5758]

I was hoping that someone else would make this observation

[@KairoStark]

Its a lot of fun, I cant lie

[@purgeutopia8696]

EVIL BURGERS!!!

[@VallornDeathblade]

Mage is the part of WoD where the madness goes full bore into alternate history extra dimensional nonsense, but Changeling is an acid trip of a game too. Most of the time even Vampire characters don't know or care about the ascension war, traditions, technocracy, etc going on (except maybe some of the eldest Tremere but they were part of it so that's kind of cheating).

[@TimdeVisser86]

I do love the World of Darkness approach to conspiracy theories: 'yes it's all real and also they want to control how you think, but you're totally wrong about who 'they' are and how and why they're doing it.'

[@Jaydee-wd7wr]

I mean that’s the best approach to importing conspiracies into fiction, you get to mould how it fits into your setting. It actually makes more sense anyway, if conspiracies where true there’s no way the average person would be able to figure out the intent behind them.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@@Jaydee-wd7wrwell, outside of things like Watergate or MKUltra or the flat earth conspiracy conspiracy (CIA funded the Flat Earth Society's rise to prominence in order to discredit the term "conspiracy theory" in the public zeitgeist), where conspiracy theorists were pretty much right on the money. But that's mostly just because there have to be a few grounded and understandable ones to make it seem like the outlandish ones about giant blind lizard people from the hollow Earth are secretly trafficking skin walkers to the surface world to build an ice wall for the NWO seem even more unrealistic by by comparison, because clearly the government are a bunch of morons and asshats in the pockets of oil companies, not magic wielding grey aliens from the underworld who need us to dredge the oil out of their homes for them, and we've found all the actual, real conspiracies and understand what they actually are about...

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

@@Jaydee-wd7wr Yep. And often the narrative behind the conspiracy theories is nonsense and incoherent anyway so a writer will need to change it into a way that makes story sense.

[@jondw]

I like the idea of a void engineer getting transferred to the front lines with a team from other conventions and shocking the team when they casually pull out some plasma gun and blasting a monster. you know, right before they remember "oh yeah, paradox is a thing"

[@ReverendLeRoux]

Because of how consensus works, though, it would be pretty easy to convince people that plasma weaponry is just really advanced and difficult to make and super expensive, so it's only used when it's absolutely needed. The idea is that the people who see you use it have to be reasonably convinced that it could happen. Void Engineers are space marines, so if someone from the Society saw them use it, they would probably fully believe it's possible, before insulting the engineer for a lack of imagination.

[@achristiananarchist2509]

I never really thought about it this way before but upon watching this it occurs to me that scientists are functionally a type of hedge wizard in the WoD universe.

[@luska5522]

Kinda, but true Hedge Magicians use Hypertech

[@wtfbbqpwnzercopter7737]

Focus of intention with a set measurement of effect so it can be dialed in, is magic. We have literally accomplished things thought impossible, transmutation of matter for instance. Nuclear reactors produce gold platinum and palladium, in small amounts but it's actually transmuted and novel. Some important isotopes are only obtained this way.

[@generalgrievous2202]

@@wtfbbqpwnzercopter7737 yup, americium is basically only found in used reactor rods, and americium is the key detector agent in fire detectors

[@achristiananarchist2509]

@@wtfbbqpwnzercopter7737 well "only" is a bit of a stretch. Exotic isotopes don't exist in nature because their halflife is crazy short, but they are still made with regularity in stars and supernovae. They just decay into more boring stuff before anything with intention can use them. The only source for these isotopes close enough for us to actually get to before they decay are technological devices like nuclear reactor, but it's not like we built some element nature couldn't. There are some technological systems that there don't exist any evolved equivalents to, like radar, but these are generally complex emergent systems rather than things like new elements.

[@korstmahler]

@@generalgrievous2202 Afaik radioactive fire detectors are less common compared to photoelectric fire detectors today.

[@Wulgreath]

As someone named David, I feel comforted that the N.W.O. is looking out for me. Totally not because I am contractually obligated to feel comforted by that knowledge. Remember, reading fine print only costs you Time. Also, Technocrats are my favorite because they are what's best of WoD. Noble intentions over time leading doen a road of evil, monstrosity, with a core of morality that can't be crushed.

[@snorpenbass4196]

I'd say _some_ early technocrats had good intentions. But the majority of them are the same people who were behind the mass colonization of other countries (the Americas, Asia, Africa) and slavery etcetera. Even the early technocrats were kind of awful, and the modern ones are basically the guys spying on you through your cellphone to sell ads. 😉

[@charlebrownga]

Thank you David for your contribution

[@electroeel148]

I am more afraid of the justice of a Righteous Man than that of an evil lying man, because his evils do not end for as long as he believes it's "For the Greater Good."

[@Wulgreath]

@@electroeel148 C.S. Lewis sends his regards.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@@electroeel148a man who knows he is evil must contend with his doubts and guilt every day, s man who knows he is righteous regrets only that he could not have done More for his cause.

[@randonimity84]

I don't know why but the way Burger said "Meet Google Drive -I mean the Technocracy" just had me in stitches.

[@itwasidio1736]

Hey, gang. Popping in to tell you that if anyone says that you're running your World of Darkness chronicle "wrong" cause you changed the lore even slightly, they're probably a Technocratic agent.

[@luska5522]

Hell yeah the true heroes

[@RunningOnAutopilot]

I love the insane mental gymnastics of enlightened science and how reality is subjective and how they are molding reality with their own subjective beliefs and how some constructs work on rules incomparable with reality but they just say enlightened science and reality does work the way we are trying to make it work it just doesn't work that way yet but this all makes sense. And it does, somehow it makes sense.

[@antuanyammine1537]

that's technocracy, babyyyyyy

[@KairoStark]

Mage really works on Ork Logic: "if I believe it strong enough it be that way"

[@fluidthought42]

Because that's how human brains work. We create conceptual tools, some on the fly some passed down generation to generation, to help us deal with the world as it is. These conceptual tools are things like words, names, maps and metaphors. They're all lies of a sort, a "treachery of images" sort of deal. But that doesn't mean it's not useful. Any useful map must be incomplete, and any useful concept must be abstracted to some degree and thus incomplete. So while there may be an objective reality, our practical world is that of symbols and metaphor, of a scene projected onto a wall in Plato's cave. This doesn't erase objective reality, it makes it's study all the more interesting and fascinating when you learn where and how our simple metaphors break down and where a new shadow can dance across our minds.

[@anyoneatall3488]

No no no, you see, it's just really advanced science, you wouldn't get it/s

[@95keat]

Using subject reality to make objective reality to screw the lib-mages 😎

[@sp1r1t2001]

I just had an epiphany that the SCP Foundation would fit right in here. Maybe one of the methodologies.

[@MarquisLeary34]

The Technocracy was a clear inspiration for it.

[@IapitusMcHeimer]

​@MarquisLeary34 the Global Occult Coalition is almost exactly the technocracy

[@MarquisLeary34]

@@IapitusMcHeimer Maybe the NWO, but not the Union as a whole.

[@imedudes2196]

Mages would just be called reality warpers.

[@vexedlex8230]

From what I can tell, the SCP is heavily based on the Technocracy as a whole. Their goal to maintain a safe, consistent reality is the same, they have seemingly near limitless funding (Syndicate), a wide intel gathering apparatus (NWO), outlandish biological and mechanical technology (Progenitors and Iteration X) and operate beyond standard space and dimensions (Void Engineers). Really, the only major difference is that if there is no practical use for a captured RD/SCP, the Technocracy eliminate it while the Foundation just contains it. Otherwise, they're nearly identical. Though it makes me wonder, how does the Foundation get approval to spend presumably billions on the safe storage of SCPs that pose an existential threat to humanity and provide no practical uses whatsoever. Seems like upper management would abandon such a monetary sinkhole.

[@carlbirchard2918]

God I love the sporadic lore videos of shadowrun and then WOD sprinkled throughout the regularly scheduled programming of philosophy and the human condition

[@KairoStark]

Bold of you to assume WoD doesnt tackle philosophy and human condition.

[@killianb4042]

Bold of you to assume that this isn't a WoD channel with random tangents

[@basara7]

I personally like the option that the avatar storm would have calmed down years ago, but the Void Engineers have been artificially been keeping it stirred up because doing so keeps a greater threat they've given the codename Threat Null trapped in the Umbra.

[@cogsworther1639]

I love the Technocracy as a kind of sympathetic villain/antihero, depending on what the storyteller prefers for their setting At their best, they can be like X-COM, a unified front presented against incomprehensible terrors. Sure, they're a little shadowy, but they're humanity's first and last line of defense against the incomprehensible horrors that lurk in the dark between the stars At their worst, they're like Commstar. An endless conga-line of bureaucratic back-stabbing so wrapped up in their own conspiracy that nobody knows what's even going on anymore

[@TheAngryXenite]

A lot of people like to forget that without the Technocratic Union (well, their Order of Reason predecessors), mankind would still be ruled by a collection of tyrannical mage and vampire overlords while werewolves openly attacked various communities. That bureaucratic rationalist paradigm might be really convoluted and now in the service of literal fun police, but it's done more to help out the average person than basically anything ever has. Better yet, it's done such a good job that the Sleepers are steadily eroding Technocrat control just by continuing to push their own limits.

[@WilliamRoyNelson]

A while back, Mildred from ThoughtSlime did a video about ADHD and it started with him talking about going down a huge delve into World of Darkness lore, and I remember being very disappointed that the rest of the video wasn't about World of Darkness lore. So, thanks for doing this important work. You're making the world a better place.

[@tiltiege7842]

Oh hey, another Thoughtslime fan. Small world :D

[@wbrooks5913]

Seriously, thoughtslime is a world of darkness fan? Based.

[@jordanetherington1922]

Hell yes

[@Amazatastic]

I believe they go by Mildred these days

[@WilliamRoyNelson]

@@Amazatastic Dangit, you're totally right. I don't know what happened. I must have been watching an older video or something.

[@cogsworther1639]

To quote my favorite summary of the Technocracy: "Their original draft made them out to be, in keeping with the heavy Romanticism of the original World of Darkness, villainous curs out to crush all wonder and joy out of the world to make room for more boring urban developments and soulless industrial complexes, but over time they gathered more and more fans who pointed out that anyone who invented public libraries, democracy, and toilet paper couldn't be all bad. And with Traditions like the Verbena wanting to knock us so far back the Stone Ages would look like distant golden eras of progress for reasons of purest dogmatism, or the Order of Hermes trying to take over the world and rule over the muggles with an iron fist, they clearly weren't the worst game in town. Eventually, White Wolf got out of their patchouli and weed-scented cave and, blinking in the sun, agreed, making them playable and quietly retconning their earlier portrayal as Tradition propaganda. It was a smart move that improved the game immensely. Nowadays, they're pretty much an alternative playable set of factions, with their own "reforming a corrupt, stagnant monolith from within" game feel compared to yet another "scrappy rebels fighting against the modern world" plot you can get anywhere else in the World of Darkness. After all, even in their original portrayals, they were the front-line fighters to keep ordinary people safe from supernatural threats, and they still have their share of people who genuinely want to make the world a better place. A long time ago, they tried to wipe out the Traditions by force in a program of attack called the Pogrom. It was largely successful, but for a number of reasons they dropped it a while ago, and only splinter elements want a return to it. Nowadays, the Technocracy is largely committed to "winning the argument," and only intervening when local mages are getting out of hand. The Traditions and the Technocracy hate each other, but since they ultimately both want humanity to "ascend," no matter how sharply they disagree on what that means, their hearts are both in the right-ish place, and they both regularly declare truces and cooperate to fight Nephandi, Marauders, and regular-old human evils. And that makes them among the best foils/opponents in the tabletop gaming community."

[@atpsoldat6108]

I see you like 1d4chan as well.

[@cogsworther1639]

@@atpsoldat6108 Guilty. It has its ups and downs, but it does have moments like these where I think it truly shines

[@YuNamZhang]

Mage is the crown jewel of the wod for me. Always good to see more. Fingers crossed for the disparate alliance or threat null next.

[@KairoStark]

But we just had Threat Null /at home/ just now. Threat Null is the true face of the Technocracy, they're not even trying to hide who they are and what they want.

[@raipe125]

Null please

[@basilpines2201]

Dude dropped a 2 hour LECTURE on mage and god damn itz fire

[@Raykkie]

1:03:52 Even ignoring any conscious actions toward the potential good leaders, hierarchies will naturally weed out people who are sympathetic to others, simply because ruthlessness and egocentrism are powerful self-promotion tools. That will cause any stable structure to over time corrupt itself bit by bit, and that secondary effect will also cause some people to either grow stoical or outright leave if they try to go against the system. What results from it are hierarchies that cultivate and promote psychopathic traits among its members The game was rigged from the start, no matter if you're a discord mod, part of a nondescript governemental organization with a hierarchichal ladder a member of the Technocratic Union

[@olivermorin3303]

Or all three.

[@sinistertwister686]

or maybe this is what THEY want you to believe!

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Sounds like Tradition propaganda to me

[@Amazatastic]

Oh yeah it's anarchist wizard time

[@NoOne-us9os]

You could say the same things about the order of Hermes ​@@thomastakesatollforthedark2231

[@vxicepickxv]

No we don't use magic. We just use this code to realign our satellite for real time analysis of a designated area. Real time, plus or minus thirty minutes.

[@Mr.Monacle]

I love the implications of the plus *or* minus 30 minutes.

[@OctopusWilson]

Watching this, with all the talk of consensus, I realize that humanity in this setting are the orks of 40k

[@charlebrownga]

Look up the concept of the tulpa.beleif brings things to life .

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@@charlebrowngaI mean, the tulpa from all my investigation into them, including working with a few, is basically just a form of extreme DID where an alter is built from the ground up, as opposed to the common methods of specialist disassociation (where the yous that store specific skillsets become independent alters [also, yes, technically everyone has multiple selves, they just tend to blend almost seamlessly together, though may require rituals like wearing specific clothing or breathing in a certain way to bring to the front or return to the back under normal circumstances]), back-up corruption (where the back-ups your subconscious keeps of you to fix/replace you if you error in specific ways that would result in a drastic cessation of function end up with severe errors and changes due to prolonged trauma), and fragmentation (an alter, usually the host, splitting into two or more pieces, often due to extreme rejection of certain components of itself, often resulting in very dysfunctional alters, such as ones which only contain one of the fight, flight, freeze, fawn, etc. responses while the others are incapable of that specific response). Tulpas seem to fall into the same category as imaginary friends and predictive models (simulations of how one or several people will act, which, if sufficiently large can evolve into a full alter once it's no longer useful for its original purpose), as well as the original ego, being formed independently from a prior alter. The only other ways I've found for consciousness formation of an alter are controlled fragmentation, where you basically cut/copy a portion of an alter out and build an alter around that aspect to have it replace that function (good for replacing things like anxiety about the future with something healthier like curiosity and planning behaviours that can latter be reintegrated into the alter you took it from), branched back-ups, where you take them back to a point where events could have easily resulted in them becoming very different and building out a parallel history from there to form a version of the host that has been shaped in the desired direction (not sure what use it has by itself, but can be useful when paired with the prior method), and Id-SuperEgo interaction, which basically amounts to taking desires and ideals and forcing them into prolonged contact, producing something similar to the Ego of a young child around 5-7yo (not surprising as this is basically how the Ego is formed at that age), though it typically has a bunch of extra stuff you didn't intentionally add and requires a lot of polishing to make it particularly useful to the system. Pretty much every method has some advantages or disadvantages in common with the Tulpa method.

[@ataraxia7439]

Thank you for dressing up for the conventions. Some ppl would be too nervous or shy but it adds a lot of joy to the videos

[@mykeCA82]

2 hours and 10 min? What a legend

[@ryancronwell6368]

I just realized, the technocracy basically put the ravnos guy under a giant magnifying glass.

[@luxsuperbia1531]

By far the best antagonist in the OWOD also f for hunter

[@KairoStark]

I would also say "the most overpowered". I'd say that "rocks fall everyone dies" in WoD is translated to "you're considered a Deviant by the Technocracy"

[@wandiriswan6116]

​@@KairoStark I have never heard of that proverb

[@Evergreen_Wizard]

@@wandiriswan6116 It comes from the D&D community. It describes a situation when an angry (and mean) DM wants to wipe the player party in a quick distasteful manner without a chance of surviving. “Rocks fall, everyone dies. The end.”

[@TheAngryXenite]

​@@KairoStarkNah, RFED in WoD is "that pale guy over there is Caine, and homie is PISSED."

[@cosmicwaffles2024]

Also I love your videos Burger. I don't play World of Darkness, but I find it fascinating, and your explanations are interesting and hilarious. I do hope you cover Promethean someday. I find that one very interesting. Everything from the ideas of alchemy to playing a Frankenstein like character is just cool.

[@ianyoder2537]

My personal head cannon as to why the technocracy doesn't just wipe out the other monsters in the setting and win, is because they've already won and don't want to ruin it. The technocracy already has what it wants to a certain extent. A world ruled by scientifically minded humans, or at least humans who's brains are so dulled by technology that they're easy to manipulate. And there's no other supernatural faction that's in any real position to challenge the technocracy's rule. As for the rest of the monsters in the dark, they sort themselves out and are better than the alternative. Belief is a fact of human nature that simply cannot be overruled. So it's better that humanity believes in monsters that look and act like people that want to stay unknown, than monsters that are very not human and wish to be known. Comfortable status quo, a reason to not complicate things with unnecessary interaction, reasonable enough explanation (in my opinion), and there's nothing scarier than a villain that's already won.

[@GovernmentFails]

Vampires do not violate consensus because when you can’t see them it doesn’t matter and when people can see them the local consensus becomes “holy shit thats a vampire”

[@TheAngryXenite]

I'm fairly certain it's because, as a result of their mutilated souls and the divine curse responsible for it, they're Concensus neutral entitles: they don't affect it, and they're not directly affected by it.

[@JamesHeier]

I absolutely love all of your OWoD content, man. It was my first TTRPG, I met a ton of my friends through it, and though I've moved on to NWoD/Chronicles of Darkness and various other RPGs, some of my own design, it will forever have a special place in my heart, especially its lore.

[@jamesfreeman3617]

Wow i thought changeling or hunter would be next but i can understand why hed do mage again

[@appleseed8282]

I wonder if he'll do Demon at some point

[@jordanetherington1922]

Clearly he should do Kindred of the East! : p

[@Seetor]

person who didn't watch the charity stream outing themselves

[@jordanetherington1922]

@@Seetor tbf mine was a joke but also yeah I didn't watch it

[@Redfox0928]

You have every other convention and then the Void Engineers just show everyone how it's done.

[@luska5522]

Hell yeah word

[@charion1234]

Some of the technomagic can be pretty insane. Like summoning a giant Ricky Richardo to punch a nazi tank back through a portal.

[@vampyboi438]

I was literally just getting back into the technocracy today and this shows up You must be a reality deviant to time it that perfectly

[@ryangoldstrich7334]

Can't wait for a video on the Disparate Alliance before Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Not sarcastic, the DA is awesome

[@zer0homer]

1:51:30 Russians were eating the best... - Russian here. Big fat lie. 80s were a freaking daily fight for calories unless you had access to deficit goods to sell them on black market. Quality meat was unobtainable for common folk. You had to wait ages to buy crappy car in queues, and people actually sold or reached through nepotism the end of queue positions. Fruits and produce either came from dacha - a small private summer houses given to workers by the end of Soviet era or seasonal, and were of poor quality, often rotten. Everybody but party elite and maybe top of the srop academia were three times poorer than your pair of boomers in USA and even in Western Germany. Hence why they had less children, hence the later exacerbated demographical pit. People had no fat to spare. Otherwise awesome vid, Burger. Love your WoD content, and content overall.

[@snorpenbass4196]

People tend to assume that just because the average citizen in the USSR had housing, that they had it good. But that housing often made the Projects in major US cities look like luxury apartments. Like...sure, they had a roof over their heads. Maybe not an _intact_ roof, and maybe the rats took most of the living area, but hey, it was housing! *Edit:* It's the usual mistake of "Capitalism sucks, so communism must not have sucked". But _both_ could suck.

[@zer0homer]

@@snorpenbass4196 exactly. Some of 'free' Soviet housing was outright radioactive, (I'm not mentioning early Soviet barracks and communal flats, those had their own brand of awfulness) and provided little privacy due to walls being paper thin. And you had to wait for 20+ years to get new accomodations having 5 people, including your now adult kids that had no room to have their own kids even on some 44 square meters. Hence why camping was so popular in USSR, you get out and let mosquitos the size of helicopter suck on your arse in Karelia just to have a little private time with your sweetheart, and maybe have SOME adventure in a group of friends your age, because there were no quality blockbusters spare for maybe two made in USSR and you've already read all the books available in library and distributed by dissidents reproduced almost by hand. Honestly, westoid socialists are disgusting. They want their mediocrity to be gov proofed? There's a trade off, then, because to any smart and non-conformist person late Soviet clusterdump was freaking suffocating, and brain drain happened in waves for a reason. Ever wondered why athletes and diplomats from USSR refused to return and then evaded KGB agents and begged for refuge in the West? Or how Israel from a struggling state became a nation of startups? Look into demography of aliyah of the last 50 to 70 years, it's quite peculiar to say the least: secular, educated (or not allowed to be if not mixed with slavic ethnicities in papers due to paragraph 5), modern people. One can only wonder why.

[@aleksanderk99]

Yeah, right, in our world that was this way, Burger was paraphrasing from one book about technocracy for first mage, in WoD this is "truth" (as much as we can speak of truth bcs of consensus)... Or Burger is fucking tankie.

[@anyoneatall3488]

Did you live it or were you told by your parents? Not saying that you are lying but i am sincerely interested in this

[@zer0homer]

@@anyoneatall3488 my parents did. They were middle class yet they struggled with deficits all the same

[@chronorebel_greatgryffon1312]

Void Engineers are my favourite, because they really only care about doing their research in their corner, and are the most willing to cooperate with the Traditions. They're the best of the Technocracy.

[@thisisstartacus1175]

I only recently became acquainted with this setting, and I'm happy to see others like you putting in the time to make the lore more comprehensive for newcomers. I love these videos, and I can't wait to see what's next.

[@bejammin2000]

The Syndicate is best described as Silicon Valley Tech Bro Billionaires... that can use magic!

[@charlebrownga]

And Wallstreet banksters

[@dakunssd]

@@charlebrownga Same difference.

[@thedude1099]

Do you wanna know the funniest instance of technocracy type shit in real life? Look at the Area 51 raid, people knew it was a meme and after a few people showed up there was a fucking rave party that to this day no one knows who paid for it with free booze and a live show. This is not conspiracy this is real shit that actually happened it reminds me of something that the technocracy would legitimately do.

[@alkhemi8175]

This, this helped my world. Thank you. The Syndicate. They will be big in my Las Vegas by night Chronicle. Thank you Dude!

[@Cyberwar101]

This entire setting sounds like a modern-times prequel to warhammer 40k. Wouldn't be surprised if good ol' Big E running around in this setting

[@ChiefGarth]

Ive watched multiple times the immense intrigue and great presentation of it has me coming back for more.

[@asteck113]

I cant wait to see you cover the breadth and width of World of Darkness! Me and my group love this setting and I particularly enjoy your interpretations of things within the lore.

[@Heamoanne]

YES, I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

[@Mion11c]

Now i wanna mix the God Machine chronicle with Technocracy stuff

[@IvoryKnight22]

Angels and Demons using reality code hacks to fight while MiB Magi loose their minds for a moment before blasting the monsters with Spirit and Forces. God that sounds pretty good if only my brain could wrap around God Machine and Angels lol

[@rikhenry9701]

with these long form videos you have been putting out I like to listen to them while I game. So imagine my complete and utter surprise when I click back to the image of you with awesome glasses and phone wire on your head at about the 1:25:49 mark. Marvelous!

[@chrischristodoulidis3339]

Damn I love Mage: The Ascension! I am currently running a chronicle cyberpunk style where Technocracy has prevailed but there is a twist! Keep the content coming please!

[@cyborglion4179]

What's the twist

[@bellaususfitzpinguidpalate3194]

I've watched this a dozen times now and am still in awe of how he presents and explains the Technocratic Union. I am now a Mage fan!👍

[@afterlightstorytime]

Your book "34 Worlds" was just delivered! The cover looks better than I expected; it's simple but very eye-catching. I look forward to starting it this weekend.

[@pauseforthejaws7469]

Love the use of costumes in this one, upping the props department is definitely worth the patreon pledge.

[@iainhansen1047]

This series is so great

[@theculturedjinni]

The technocracy shall achieve the ascension!

[@Palidine4M0O]

Your video is a great social commentary on power structures and perspectives of cultures

[@Yuriel1981]

Someone please send this man a mic arm, some lights, lots of WoD materials and a new sock for his mic. Love your content so far. Delivery is superb. Keep it up brotha. Also, in Iteration X's defense. If you have ever build a PC you know sweet talking your tech is absolutely a thing.

[@AnarchoLoserist]

This was cool! I hope we can see you talk about the technocratic spheres sometime!

[@whiskeytangofoxtrot3861]

Wearing a wetsuit during your void sections made me laugh. I assume most technocrats despise Void Engineers.

[@antuanyammine1537]

Yeah, but to be fair, most technocrats despise each other with the rage of a thousands suns for a lot of reasons (most of them justifiable), they mostly work together because they belive in the ideals of the organization as a whole and because they see no other alternative.

[@vexedlex8230]

The Syndicate hates that they're mostly a money sinkhole that provides little to no profit, and the NWO hates that they're generally more renegade and cavalier with their use of hypertech and adjustments around sleepers. But both conventions begrudgingly accepts them because no one else can deal with dimensional rifts, alien invasions, were-beasts or "ghosts" as well as they can. The Progenitors and Iteration X have a functioning relationship with them because of their sharing of tech blueprints and the like.

[@lendelsmanio6412]

Your videos on the world of darkness makes me love the settings more than I already do. Now I want to dm a technocracy focused game

[@GabryelFile]

I would love to see one of these about Pentex

[@Pikeya]

I'm loving that for the void engineers, your costume is a swimming sunshirt😂

[@Le_Codex]

The smoothness of the transition between talking about funny wizard organizations and the threshold of incompetence is remarkable. Very good stuff

[@herbert-kenumera960]

Your vids are entertaining and quite enjoyable. Thank ye for your effort.

[@tumansibiri]

I can't wait how TheBurgerkrieg will shit on the Technocracy, while explaining that the rule of Sorcery Kings of old aren't better alternatives to it. With Second Inquisition in picture, I'm on the fence of "are they grey or just good" faction. As I'm squishy mortal with 0 powers, every other faction treats me like a meat bag or a snack, having one faction that actively trying to protect me, because I'm a human being, is kinda refreshing. P.S. I'm waiting for Saint Leopold's society video. This comment was written down, before the video.

[@snorpenbass4196]

"Protect you? How productive are you, plebe? Your protection very much depends on how useful you are to the -corporate- hierarchy bottom line." -Technocrat.

[@tumansibiri]

@@snorpenbass4196 That's a straight up infiltrated Nefandi agent quote, dude.

[@KairoStark]

@@tumansibiri or your most basic Syndicate agent

[@TheAngryXenite]

​@KairoStark Syndies actually run the gambit. Plenty of them are true believers in shit like capitalism and free exchange making the pie bigger for everyone, and plenty are amoral assholes purely out to turn a profit. Like everything in the Technocracy, there's a real divide between their better nature and their leadership.

[@fearlessmidget]

Just for the record my day gets a little better every time I see your face, Burger. Thanks for the videos.

[@marcusbenjilake]

Fantastically comprehensive.

[@skeletonking4119]

Thank you!!! I was looking for this !

[@gabrielmiranda4578]

Is this the video about the good guys in WoD??

[@luska5522]

Sorta. The World of Darkness doesnt have straight up "good guys", but the Technocracy is one of the better ones. They commited genocide, yes. Imperialism? Guns, Germs and Steel, yes. But its the Void Engineer starships that protect us against Chutulhu, the Men in Black who keep the peace, the Progenitors pushing out new vaccines and the Iterators creating machines everyday. A cellphone, a computer and a car were all Magic[k] before the Union introduced them to the common person. Like, if you wanna check what they are all about read "Technocracy: Reloaded"

[@nuttherapist2742]

#JusticeForCraftmasons

[@luska5522]

@@nuttherapist2742 One of the darkest moments in the history of the Order of Reason.

[@KairoStark]

No, so far he hasnt said anything about the Amenti. The second closest thing, the Garou, are coming.

[@notsae66]

Yes.

[@KatanaDen]

You know if I ever played WoD I'd want to play Hunter but man does this video make me want to play a Technocracy campaign.

[@luska5522]

You can do both

[@Russelldourden1993]

Love to see more Mage the Ascension stuff, the absolute BEST World of Darkness 'monster'.

[@walterkruse348]

So... basically the SCP Foundation, if the SCP Foundation was also made up entirely of reality warpers. And... you know... actually succeeding for the most part instead of barely hanging on. Neat.

[@sp1r1t2001]

Tbh the SCP Foundation would've been much more successful if their world contained something like Paradox and Consensus systems that are keeping most of the craziest shit in check. There they need to deploy reality anchors to get anything similar and those are limited, expensive pieces of equipment that still can malfunction...

[@d9797773]

Thanks please continue making these

[@kanarokan6060]

I just love the lore, and the way he talks about it is even better.

[@PratzStrike]

I had never understood exactly what the Technocracy was (my exposure was WOD 1st and 2nd edition by way of VTM and WW and some Wraith) so this video was like the infodump I never knew I wanted. Thank you so much.

[@ToteRatte]

Thank you for the Video. I felt personally spoken to and loved that you even called me by Name. ❤

[@jupiterzombies]

in a changeling game we ended up on a technocrat's radar after unleashing once too many times near a base of their operations and it became a really awkward cat and mouse game of not knowing what each other are or is doing to the laws of physics, trying to mess up their data collecting, and just being a general nuisance for the heck of it.... and we're pretty sure we never really stopped them monitoring us in the end. the technocracy is a REALLY fun antagonist, very paranoia-inducing.

[@IRLSpain]

Hope you do Changeling the Dreaming some day! I think it's an underrated game by many.

[@BullofCrete]

Once again snubbing the Werewolf fans. Keep the meme alive.

[@NIL0S]

Control seems pretty chill to hang out with.

[@henriquefinger935]

So Iteration X is just the Adeptus Mechanicus got it.

[@CelticPheonix101]

So’re the Progenitors, sounds like, just more on the Magos Biologis side of things

[@henriquefinger935]

@@CelticPheonix101 Progenitors are Cawl

[@nalrashido]

With Cybernetic/Cyberpunk Magicks at their disposal.

[@theculturedjinni]

​I will so look forward to this video! Though I prefer both Hunter & Vampire, Mage is still good.

[@DungeonBro-wl4ps]

Hello! Just wanted to say that I love your work and your WOD content has inspired to make my own Vampire themed content in the future until I get a better mike and recording software. Maybe one day we can do a collaboration and we can have a fun little video of you teaching me more WOD stuff so that you don't have to be talking to just a camera lol.

[@FraeuleinSeptimus]

I really feel like running a very strange one shot with sleeper Agency part of the Tecknocracy. Were the heigher ups screed up somehow leaveing the team with one awakened agent to deal with a big realety brakage

[@duel424]

yessss. I was waiting for this.

[@duel424]

By the way, totally worth the wait. Burger does a great job of covering lore and I really like the Technocracy.

[@The_Anthologist]

Ok I'm confused on something. Is consensus and pretty much all the other World of Darkness stuff exclusive to Earth? Burger mentioned that there are aliens and that the Technocracy has a lot of plates spinning in the wider universe but is the consensus and having to worry about things like it only a human problem or is it a thing that affects anything with consciousness? And if so, what the hell makes Earth so special?

[@antuanyammine1537]

the consensus only affects earth because of humans, all humans constantly do magic "passively" with the things that they belive to be true (thats literally what consensus is), but it only affects this specific earth where the humans live in. If you are in another dimention (the umbra and the other realms/worlds) the consensus cannot affect you (until you come back and disapear of the existence because the paradox you acumulated in the umbra comes to bite your ass in the most drastical and violent way posible)

[@KairoStark]

Consensus seems to be somewhat limited to what the masses know. If it were known that there's life in other planets, Consensus would affect them, although by that point known technology should have advanced enough to achieve intergalactic travel without the usage of magic (or with "explainable" magic), thus closing the circle. "What the hell makes Earth so special?" Well, this is theorycrafting, but it might be that Earth itself is a nexus that lies "in the center" of other worlds in terms of supernatural activity. That's my theory. What seems to be the best answer is, unironically, "God willed it so": in Vampire lore it was the Mark of Caine that kickstarted the whole event, or Demon starting due to Biblical stuff. In Werewolf its a bit different, but Earth is literally special due to it being the "body" of Gaia, the greatest opponent of the Wyrm. Its also important to say that most splats dont even have to deal with interplanetary travel (not the same as Umbra travel) so you're tied to Earth all along.

[@fluidthought42]

Humans, basically, but also there's important spiritual history for Earth. This makes it so that aliens and spirits are more or less determined by your perspective than any quality inherent to them (usually, wraiths are verifiably not completely alien). If it's a weird thing you found not of this earth, if you got there through magic it's an umbral spirit and if you got there through a spaceship with a warp drive it's a xeno-lifeform. So these non-human entities might very well not share our spiritual or cultural interconnectedness (indeed, there's probably an argument to be made that alternate reality humans don't either). So instead of.influencing us they would at most just be limited to their own sphere of influence.

[@TheAngryXenite]

Outer space isn't real in WoD. What we know as "space" only really exists shortly past the orbit of Mars, with everything beyond that being increasingly less defined until you reach more or less complete madness out past Pluto. This is because space is actually part of the Umbra, and the dimension that Earth exists in is sort of protruding into it, expanding as our knowledge increases. Aliens, to that effect, are all Umbrood or else created by human belief (these guys, like AI, can influence concensus, but it bears repeating that they're ultimately created by us and our pushing is far greater.) While the cosmology of the various splats don't work together well, following Demon lore reveals that the reason why we're like this is because humans were quite literally created by fucking God to be lesser analogies to His own creative power. Being a Mage is arguably wielding the reality-shaping powers we were MADE to have, in the image of the divine. It's so fucked up because A) those who because the Fallen sort of broke things when they made us sapient instead of letting us achieve it on our own or not at all, and B) God directly intervened in the War in Heaven, and the metaphor used to describe the effect the infinite brushing the finite had on reality is "like a car being struck with a wrecking ball."

[@funninoriginal6054]

Kinda late here but paraphrasing what the reply above me said, it's theorized that each species has their own form of Consensus, which is why Vampires and Werewolves can do crazy shit while humans have to rely on either magic, true faith or other external resources

[@nathanburns5553]

the props... i love

[@marcoboscarol2420]

1:18:28 Awesome look Burger XD thanks for the vid btw

[@DocTaxian]

Your content is great.

[@leszekfrankowski7333]

I just discovered your channel this weekend and very quickly subscribed as your RPG lore videos are a thing of beauty. One thing though - where did you get the idea that people in Russia ate the best in the world before the collapse of the Soviet Union? I mean, you're obviously a guy who likes to do his research and this feels like some tankie meme bullshit so it got me curious, especially since I'm from Poland and old enough to remember the turmoil of system change.

[@alexandertheok5649]

he's mostly referring to the times before `85 which is when the mix of IMF pressure on satellite states, ramped up Reaganite economic warfare (which happened immediately after detente mind you) and Gorbachev implementing some really garbage policies (even if you think that market reform was a good idea, the way Gorby went about it could only result in production chain collapse, which is exactly what happened) cracked the soviet sphere's economy like dropping multiple hammers on a single kneecap. Prior to that, most old people ive talked to (im romanian lol) sort of universally agree that shit was actually pretty fucking cash economically speaking

[@basara7]

I just got my deluxe hardback of M20 Victorian age, from a skimming it looks to be set just before the Order of Reason transitions to the Technocratic Union.

[@saucerr3691]

Drinking game idea: take a shot every time Burger brings up a previous World of Darkness video he's made.

[@kaitlynburke9511]

id prefer my liver intact thank you

[@Theoneandonly-0]

I'm begging you please do changeling the dreaming

[@elKinesis]

1:19:49 - Can confirm. Rocky Mountain air, while being a little thin, is wonderful

[@GeirfreidGaming]

I want to see his explanation on Pentex and all their subsidiaries because they are a horrid nightmare.

[@matteodelgallo1983]

God this video was awesome, I loved it very much, I love the Technocracy they are cool and complex and nuanced as fuck

[@Goku__]

I love these videos.

[@Falafelsz]

Don't fall into the werewolf pit, we need someone to explain changeling or kuei-jin. Out of natural curiosity and to spite the werewolves. I may love werewolves in general but need a deeper dive into the unknown.

[@snorpenbass4196]

Honestly, I agree. I definitely think changelings need a serious video treatment, because they're often sneered at by the die-hard fans of the WoD, and IMO they're the darkest game in the whole line. Like...changelings aren't just facing some vague apocalypse. They're facing a mass death of _self._ Literally. And some of them get off on draining emotions from people to the point they leave apathetic husks behind.

[@jordanetherington1922]

THat part where you discuss the fundamental contradiction of Technocracy management's aims and the reality was really insightful. Particularly how Management is able to determine what Consensus Reality is supposed to be...while also being unable to actually exist WITHIN that reality due to Paradox. It's a great metaphor for out of touch privileged people who think they can determine the right way to do things while being utterly unable to actually understand it.

[@ItCameFromTheSkyBeLo]

The Syndicate: "Captialism is magic yo. No. Actually. Its magic. It only works because we believe it does." Fucking has me dying

[@JohnQ5]

Mage lore is the craziest stuff in the WoD.

[@GleefulNihilism]

I am a little surprised you never meantioned Threat Null. Probably one of my favorite Technocracy related things in a while. But there is a lot as you said so maybe I should just chill. :P