Levies of Illumination
Purpose
The Technocracy of New Orleans, also known as Symposium #LO135001, is a picture of opportunism and callousness expressed little better else in America. Caring little for the Masses, this arm of the Union is bent solely on what it can acquire from the city and area’s natural resources, whether that be tangible products or scientific knowledge.
Because of this lack of general interest in the Masses or even the Reality Deviants, the Technocrats of New Orleans were nicknamed Lowjackers. This name is known even to the superstitionists in the area, and they know better than to assume the name comes from use of poor or outdated technology. The superstitionists are just glad the Symposium cares so little about them!
The Syndicate leads expeditions into the mining and refinement of oil and natural gas. The Void Engineers help scout out the way into more difficult locales to obtain those materials, namely the Gulf of Mexico, where its Earth Frontier Division heads up exploration of the ocean. In short, the Union’s lack of interest in the city itself helps its agents to understand themselves and their goals better, instead of running around like headless chickens trying to keep the many RDs of New Orleans in line.
Protocols
All standard Protocols are obeyed, and the Precepts of Damian are given nods of obedience. Of course, these Technocrats are much more concerned with Article Four (at least the Void Engineers are, and it is their methods that define the Symposium’s supposed timetables): “defining the nature of the universe”.
The Pogrom
The Pogrom is a joke in New Orleans. The Symposium’s main defenses are geared to its off-shore enterprises. The city itself is left in the hands of the New World Order, whose agents can exercise only the most basic of influences. They do their best to rein in the most blatant breaches of the Rule of Shade, but are limited mostly to pre-emptive and clean-up efforts (such as manipulating media).
Special Events
Special events are annual (or more frequent) holidays or special ritual days that the main group or groups observe as a whole community. Attendance and participation is often expected of all members, and sometimes required.
Dropping the Soap
No, the name of this event has nothing to do with the notorieties of hygiene in prison life. While superstitionists get caught up with Mardi Gras and ghosts and ghouls and Anne Rice wannabes, the Union is in the business of doing business. And that business involves especially the drilling for oil and, of course, other commodities Sleepers do not yet need to know about. But whether a rig in the Gulf is drilling for oil or Tass, the Technocracy is conscientious of the effect its industry has on the planet. A planet covered in filth and soot creates a public covered in soot and filth, and since the Technocrats aren’t about to help the Nephandi realize such an awful world, they do their part to help clean it up. “Dropping the soap” is a euphemism in the oil rigging world for literally dropping soap (a special detergent, obviously, not a bottle of Dawn) into the vital parts of a rig to keep it running cleanly and smoothly. That euphemism takes on a more holistic meaning: from June 23-30, the entire Symposium halts most industry that it controls and undertakes a hefty anti-pollution clean-up week. (This irritates the hell out of the Pentex companies working side by side with, and sometimes dependent on, Union industries.)
“We’re talking quadrillions of dollars in oil and Tass here. What on the face of this screwed-up planet makes you think we will sacrifice that for a handful of superstitious paupers?”
-- Walter Ambrose, Control of Symposium #LO135001
