Everything

Money is power – not only because of what it can buy but because the very idea of money defines what people are worth. Words like “value,” “wealth,” and yes, “worth” reflect the influence money holds in human society. We define ourselves and view others in ways often based on fiscal ability. Notions of class and style depend upon the things that money can buy. And so, in many ways, the Syndicate is the most powerful group on Earth today.

can buy but because the very idea of money

defines what people are worth. Words like

You wouldn’t know it to hear the scuttlebutt. After all, popular misconception links the word “syndicate” with the lowlifes of organized crime. A common image of Syndicate operatives depicts them as gangsters – dangerous, certainly, but no match for true Enlightenment. And although there’s some truth to that impression (illegal goods, after all, are profitable), it’s a carefully maintained camouflage that cloaks the true scope and power of this Convention. On the few occasions when a Tradition mage crosses paths with an obvious Syndicate rep, bullets are sure to be exchanged. What that pitiful sorcerer never understands, though, is that the gun-toting bully is as close to the halls of influence as most spell-slinging weirdoes ever get. The real power, meanwhile, rests comfortably in executive offices high above the fray.

In many ways, the Syndicate has always run the Technocracy. Where else, after all, would the Craftmasons have gotten the funds to build their cannons? How else could the Explorators have constructed their ships? Artisans and priests and knights all need money in order to purchase the tools and toys of which they’re all so proud. And since the earliest days, that money has come from the vaults of the High Guild. In return, the Guildsmen extracted taxes, tithes, and plunder at the same time that they set the agendas… and, quite often, the very realities… that governed the other Conventions. Though the Guild seldom got its own hands dirty, its operatives and funds spread the group’s influence across the human world.

Stripped of its gangland connotations, the word syndicate refers to “those who bring things together.” When the Order of Reason transformed itself in the 1800s, the High Guild (whose name, guild, refers to payment in gold) assumed that word as its name. While other Technocrats experimented in labs, chased Reality Deviants, or pushed the boundaries of science into the 20th century, the Syndicate brought them all together through the power of wealth. Bankers, tradesman, politicians, and the occasional criminal tied the world into a single profitable enterprise, linked by global commerce, diplomacy, and media. From the international shipping companies of the imperial age to the pervasive corporations of today’s world, the Syndicate has literally banked on human progress.

Whoever makes the gold makes the rules.

And fortunately, I can do both.

Fellow Conventions: We’ve got a winning team so long as they remember which side their bread is buttered on, and forget who holds the knife.

The Traditions: Some gamblers don’t know when to fold their cards and go home. If that means liquidating them entirely, so be it.

And so, although most of the Ascension War has pitted Black Suits and HIT Marks against desperate superstitionists, the Syndicate has consolidated the world into a handful of associated corporations… most of which it controls.

The Disparates: Red ink on the hoof, they’re like homeless drunks running loose in your casino with half-loaded .45s. In short, they’re bankrupt enough to be dangerous.

This sounds sinister… and yet, without trade and money, culture as we know it would be impossible. Language and mathematics evolved through trade; technologies spread through commerce; regulated monetary systems helped civilizations expand and prosper. Even Jesus understood the importance of “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Money and its attendant benefits are the rewards earned by hard work and imaginative enterprise. It stands to reason, then, that the people who understand those systems best should be the ones who benefit from it most.

commerce; regulated monetary systems helped civilizations expand and prosper. Even Jesus

understood the importance of “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Money and

its attendant benefits are the rewards earned by hard work and imaginative

enterprise. It stands to reason, then, that the people who understand

those systems best should be the ones who benefit from it most.

Organization: Organized like a corporation (or perhaps it’s the other way around…), the Syndicate descends in a top-down pyramid. At the apex sits a CEO and 10 Vice Presidents of Operations (VPOs) who head the Board; from there, the various Chairmen (or Vision Men) answer to the Board, supervising each Construct and Symposium. Managers answer to these Chairmen, and Associates (or Magic Men) answer to the Managers. Those Associates comprise the lowest rank of unEnlightened Syndicate ops, with Providers (a.k.a. Our Friends or simply Staples) rounding out the lowest duties and handling most of the busywork at the bottom of that pyramid.

Presidents of Operations (VPOs) who head the

Board; from there, the various Chairmen (or Vision

Men) answer to the Board, supervising each Construct and Symposium. Managers answer to these Chairmen, and Associates (or Magic Men) answer to the Managers. Those Associates comprise the lowest rank of unEnlightened Syndicate ops, with Providers (a.k.a. Our Friends or simply Staples) rounding out the lowest duties and handling most of the busywork at the bottom of that pyramid.

Initiation: Talent, hard work, industrious imagination, and a gift for playing hardball mean everything in this Convention. Recruits often come from offices or business schools where scouts watch for rising stars… especially ones who are deeply in debt, incredibly skillful, or both. After a series of interviews, the would-be recruit is tested, employed as a Provider, and groomed for ruthless acumen and personal responsibility. If and when a prospective Associate reveals that she controls money rather than letting money control her, she receives a promotion to the head division. There, she begins to learn the secrets of desire and the means to manipulate reality’s bottom line.

Convention. Recruits often come from offices or business schools where scouts watch for rising stars… especially ones who are deeply in debt, incredibly skillful, or both. After a series of interviews, the would-be recruit is tested,

employed as a Provider, and groomed for ruthless acumen and personal responsibility. If and when a prospective Associate reveals that she controls money rather than letting money control her, she receives a promotion to the head division. There, she begins to learn the secrets of desire and the means to manipulate reality’s bottom line.

Affinity Spheres: Entropy, Mind or Primal Utility. Focus: Ars Cupiditae, the Art of Desire, provides the heart of Syndicate methodology. Refined by the High Guild during the medieval period, this portfolio of techniques focuses on self-mastery and social psychology. Essentially, the practitioner disciplines his own body and mind, refines relationship techniques, and establishes a kingdom around himself that he gradually expands into an empire of subtle but compelling influence.

mastery and social psychology. Essentially, the practitioner

disciplines his own body and mind, refines relationship

techniques, and establishes a kingdom around himself

that he gradually expands into an empire of subtle but

compelling influence.

Except in the most desperate circumstances, a Syndicate rep never resorts to vulgar Procedures; even then, those Adjustments employ high-tech weapons, martial arts, or other stylishly technological methods. Most often, a Syndicate Associate manipulates people and systems with subtle yet effective nudges – phone calls, bribes, handshakes, perfumes, seductions, power lunches, PowerPoint presentations, hypereconomics, social domination, and so on – that get other people to pull the trigger while the Associate tallies up the profits. Might is Right in the Syndicate world; without it, civilization as we know it is on a One-Way Trip to Oblivion.

Organization

Organized like a corporation (or perhaps it’s the other way around…), the Syndicate descends in a top-