parent nodes: Weird Sun
Life of a thaumocrat
Before the Great War, Venus' population lived enclosed in bubble-cities that floated upon the vast cloud-cover, in limbo between the heavenly void above and the hellish realm beneath. Maria Moreño was raised in Schiaparellia, the largest EU colony, by Her Italian mother and Brazilian-German father. As the lifeline to Earth was cut, fantastic and nightmarish reports piled up, and the hell below seemed more literal with each passing week, the Cythereans grew increasingly desperate. It was then that the Weird Sun shed its veil and bared its secrets to the Lady Maria. The brilliance of the God of Gods surged through her mind, body and soul, and she was excellent. YIHOVEAUM! said the Lady, and the acid ocean parted. I AM ETERNITY! She said, and grass and forest sprouted on the shores of the Soda Sea. Honeyfrogs squacked and lions roared in the invigorating air of the new, beautiful Terra Nostra. The Landing of the City on the slopes of Mount Candy is still the holiest day of Venus' dayless year.
The Lady fundamentally transformed the people and society of Venus, unlocking their essential gifts of magery. She spurned the trappings of decadent "modern" society, which had ended in the Great War and Earth's annihilation. A system of government was erected in which each citizen played a vital role, and where leadership was firmly in the hands of the most qualified, to be determined by continuous comparison of merit. The holy Sollibro, Sunbook, finished shortly before Her tragic departure, details the philosophy of the eternal Sunchild.
Venus is home to some sixty million souls. Half of these are weirdless, known as the Dismal. The Bright middle-class may be the mainstay of Cytherean society, but real power, in every sense, lies with the Brilliant Families. They engage in constant intrigue and backstabbing in a political system that owes most of all to Machiavellian Venice. (Cesare Borgia himself sits in the Peak, an early weird-in from a magical alt-1498.) The 50,000-strong ruling class proper tends to have Magery in the double digits. Even the very dimmest Brilliant One should be built on at least 500 points, stretching into the multiple thousands at the Peak. The Bright and Brilliant regard the Dismal much like Victorian aristocrats viewed the lower class - with pity, contempt, often genuine sympathy, and a healthy dose of fear. The main purpose of the weirdless in the Cytherean economy, apart from unpleasant menial labor, is to provide raw willpower for mages to forge into products, services and projects. Thus, education for the dismal is one-third social etiquette and two-thirds concentration training. For bright kids, it's not so simple.
Pre-War, Moreño was a member of the Nöosophical Society, a tiny esoteric sect with roots in early 21st century Chaos Magic and New Ageism. The way of life she infused into Venusian society is clearly marked by it. The magical revolution spawned disdain not just of synithic technology but of scientific reasoning in general. There was simply no need for it in a society ran on sheer belief and willpower. Venus' life of the mind is dominated by a host of wacky theories, the one more outlandish than the next. 'Science' lessons consist of a syncretic blend of Aristotelian physics, mythology from every corner, and whatever the teacher considers appropriate. The curriculum varies wildly from one day to the next. This is intentional. It encourages the pupil to disregard the teacher's exact words, and instead rearrange their essence into a fresh paradigm that is wholly her own. Once the pupil has assembled a working system of meta-belief, her formal education is finished.
Sometimes it behooves the magician to believe in certain gods, theories or ideologies, and other times that belief becomes a hindrance. That is not to say that passions and convictions are changed as simply and commonly as clothing. Unless your belief is genuine, it doesn't work, and whatever self-suggestive effort you went to is wasted. Unbelieving en gros is a protracted and painful process, one that few go through very often. The modest form of disillusionment, which every bright Cytherean performs regularly, is called gnostic grooming. Let's say that you meta-believe the Sun to be a magnificient ball of molten mozzarella, and that giving it tribute has served you well as a source of power. Then suddenly, your sacrifices to the great Cheese God have no effect. Your enchantments start to fray at the seams, your invocations ring increasingly hollow and your divinations are obscured in fog. But there's no need to panic. After a short bout of soul-searching, you meta-realize that it's not mozzarella, it's Fontina, and then everything comes back to normal. On Venus, this kind of spiritual hygiene is as natural and necessary as its physical counterpart. Among the upper class, shibboleths and snippets of meta-beliefs rise and fall as fast as fashions in uptown Selenopolis.
Meta-belief is the Gnosis, or source, of a mage's power. Its other component is Focus, the aspect of reality affected. Focus and Gnosis are independent; a dozen necromancers may draw their power from equally many gnosoi, and conversely, a single school of meta-belief may count members with various foci. Focus is not strictly limited: it's possible to have the power, say, of divination, illusion and enchantment, but each will be weaker than had the mage focused in a single area. In GURPS terms, Focus is roughly congruent with Spell Colleges, while Gnosis can be modeled with a few mental Disadvantages and Quirks and optionally a limitation on Magery, such as "only while quoting Sartre" or "only while doing eurhythmics", or even something less contrived. Cythereans practice almost every kind of magic system, from rune magic to blood magic to ritual magic.
Meta-belief must be genuine or it is useless. This fact makes a deep impression upon Cytherean society. Thaumocrats can become so convinced of their school's rightness that they engage in bitter rivalries, street duels and even vendettas. Ruthless struggles between cults of contrived nonsense are an accepted part of daily life. This is held to brighten the essence of the contending parties and thus strengthen society as a whole. Most central to the thaumocrat's code of honor, however, is service to the Pyramid, the great union in which the lowliest Dismal One plays a part as integral, if not as individually important, as that of Xenarch Marcella herself. The typical Venusian is possessed of a peculiar aristocratic restlessness, a burning desire to carry out splendid and noble deeds for the greater glory of Aphrodite (and the lesser glory of themselves). It is a common rite of passage for young mages to band together and set off in search of Lacíttavetro, or even Atlantis, or do battle with fearsome monsters in the light of some distant sun.
Cythereans can sometimes be told apart by tan alone. Unlike the uneasy Martians and deathly pale Kuiperians, Venus' thaumocrats invest great effort and pride in their bronzed skin. What's more, if you look into a Brilliant's eyes you may well catch a fiery golden glint, as if the Weird Sun were reflected in her very soul. They say the Lady Maria could strike a man blind with a single stare - inadvertantly. Sexual relations are nominally equal but actually clearly tilted towards matriarchy. Every Xenarch has been female and nearly all the Brilliant Families are headed by Mothers. A recurring character in the Sollibro is Gaia, the Earth-Mother. (According to modern theology, Mars is now violently raping her.) Although there are many powerful wizards, they are burdened with extra weight when climbing the ranks. Thus, to Martians and others, the stereotypical mage is a witch, not a wizard. At the same time, Venus is quite meritocratic. The main component of social status is magical ability. The Brilliant Families are just that, the bloodlines of Venus' weirdest, but this is only a result of the inheritability of magery. The Families can and do adopt any one of lower birth who has shown herself to be capable enough. On the other hand, a thaumocrat somehow deprived of her art, such as Zænia Woods, the young witch recently kidnapped and xenectomized by Santurite terrorists, is coldly rejected and left to fend for herself among the Dismal - after her defilers are summarily disposed of, obviously.
Although humans are a clear majority, the Pyramid embraces xenonts from every world and reality. A number of places on the Peak are held by innately magical races like fantasy elves and First Martians (whom the current Martians call "Greys"), and even demons. The Desmond Family, which is what most foreigners associate with "Venus Vampires", are rather different from most mythical and existing vampires. They don't fear sunlight: they fear its absence. Although they crave the blood of live humans (generously provided by the Dismal) and can be slain by a wooden stake through the heart, they have no fear of either garlic or running water. Perhaps the most stereotypically Brilliant form of transportation, and a common sight in the sky, is provided by the Fsywznezten clan of dragons. (Or Syshneshten, or F'cihnehten, depending on transliteration - it's kind of hard to pronounce for humans.) Breaking with their fiercely independent-minded kin, the Sysh threw their lot in with the Cythereans early on. Although their social status is higher than average on account of their great magical prowess, the wyrms often voluntarily serve as void-mounts for fellow Brilliant adventurers. Like the equally iconic pegasi, by a trick of the mind they soar through deep space at effective speeds approaching or surpassing the latest Martian fusion rockets. (They have to beat their wings for it to work.)
Another mark of Venus is the ozblade. Traditionally donated by the thaumocrat's family upon her 16th birthday, this weapon is an elongation of the mage's personal essence (with a matching appearance) and should ideally stay with her for the rest of her life. Properly wielded, an ozblade may sever not just the limbs of a foe, but the very threads separating his physical existence from the astral otherworld. The nearby and immanent beliefs, concepts and essences spill over, roil furiously and may easily consume a lesser opponent. An ozblade consists of a solid hilt that upon the mental command of the owner (a free action) projects a blade of energy, much like a lightsaber. It uses Force Sword skill and has Damage 8d(5) burn, Reach 1,2, Parry 0, Cost $10,000, Weight 1 and ST 3. The wielder may opt for an Ontoclysmic Strike at any time. Invest up to 15 FP in a single attack, then roll 3d vs the number of FP burned. If the ozblade pierces DR and the OS roll succeeds, the target suffers Catastrophic Weirdness Effects at the GM's discretion. Critical failures backfire badly.
When designing a Cytherean character, ask yourself these questions:
-What class do I belong to: Dismal, Bright or Brilliant?
Assuming Bright or Brilliant:
-What is my Gnosis? Be creative!
-What is my ozblade like? You can customize not just color but stuff like hilt style and sound.
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