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aberrantangelsThe original version of this post, the version that was going to be written in character, made only one unsupported interpolation into the Trinity Universe timeline — I arbitrarily stated that Michael Daemon Donighal was born on this date in 1900. Hugh has already written about Donighal's involvement in the Hammersmith Incident and how it turned him into Dr. Primoris. What he didn't write about is what happened after that.
Some say it started in the late 1930s, with the death of Æon founder member Annabelle Lee "Crackshot" Newfield, not yet 30. She had betrayed the Society because of her unrequited love for Primoris (who in turn nourished a Gamgee-esque affection — movie!Sam not book!Sam — for Maxwell Anderson Mercer).
Others say it started with Donighal's transformation. Hugh was only expressing his author's views when he said that Primoris was a nova in an age of stalwarts. One of the last documents in the "Setting" section of the Adventure! core rules — the last but one, in fact — is A Vision for the Future, in which Donighal takes the position that the Æon Society must seize the reins of history, must make a better world, the world the "hoi polloi" would never have the wits or will to make for themselves..
No, that's not a direct quote from Donighal, but it's from someone who would have agreed with what he had in mind. By N-Day, Æon was wholly in the hands of people like that.
(For the record, the very last item in that setting section is Max Mercer's "Considerations for Moderation" — more or less a point-by-point rejection of Donighal's program.)
In 1943, the combination of Crackshot's death and his own frustration with the state of the world led Donighal to break with Æon in a dramatic battle, in the aftermath of which both Dr. Primoris and Michael Daemon Donighal died, to be replaced by a chap called Divis Mal.
Mal's importance to the next sixty years of Trinity Universe history was (and, at the equivalent present, still is) that of a gray eminence, shaping events behind the scenes. Not to worry; we'll deal with it in due time.
Now on to...
This day in Trinity Universe history
In 1999, Æon's Project Utopia made a major public policy announcement and a major private policy decision. Both play roles in the pivotal events of the Nova Age.
The official announcement was of Team Tomorrow, Utopia's nova enforcement arm, made up of novas who'd been working with Utopia since its debut — had, in fact, been among the first to respond to Æon's offer to meet with novas and help them learn to use their powers: the likes of Shelby "Cæstus Pax" Eisenfaust, their leader; Pratima "Splash" Basham; Anthony "Lightning" Chang; Gvuthbjörg "Ragnarockette" Danielsdottir; Hiram "Slag" Goldberg; Ricardo Montoya Bernal; and Alison "Psyche" Pfaltzgraff. Their enemies: global terrorism, organized crime, and natural disasters.
Justin J. Laragione, officially Utopia's director (in practice, he answers to Æon's mysterious board of directors, but they usually allow him free reign), returned to his office from the star-studded press conference at which T2M had been unveiled to find a proposal on his desk. The author, an agent of Utopia's Internal Affairs division who used the code-name "Thetis" to write the proposal, suggested a secret division of Utopia which could do the less glamorous work (read: wet work and other black ops) involved in preserving and expanding Utopia's (i.e. Æon's) vision of a better world. She suggested calling it Project Proteus — probably inspired as much by Æon's own "Proteus Division" (already filling just that purpose) as by the mythological antecedents she claimed. Laragione was appalled by the Thetis Proposal — and even more appalled when Æon approved Project Proteus, put Thetis in charge of it and gave her carte blanche to do whatever she deemed necessary.
On this day in 2000, the Y2K bug hit, with actual effects. Thanks to Utopia, the only visible ones were that airlines and banks were down for a few days, and Web service was spastic for some weeks. It was the biggest PR coup for Utopia (and by extension Æon) since N-Day. (It was also an excuse for Proteus to take a few files the world didn't need to see — like, data proving that the nova phenomenon did not begin with N-Day — and make them vanish into its "Babel Dossier".)
Beginning in January of 2002, and continuing into 2005, true media consolidation began — not consolidation of media ownership in this case, but of the actual media. Communications networks — the Internet, broadcast airwaves, and phones both landline and mobile — merged into the OpNet — think Wi-Fi if everywhere were a hotspot.
Also in that January, Pax announced that T2M (which was increasingly unwelcome in the US) would be splitting into T2M Americas (based out of Mexico City, led by Montoya Bernal, and also including Psyche and newer recruit Jennifer "Slider" Landers) and T2M Europe (Pax, Lightning, Slag, Splash, and Byron "Saxon" Graham, among others).
Finally in January of 2002, Utopia launched a licensing arm, Novation, which would produce official Utopia comics, action figures, and OpCast series (like Slag: Hot Metal Fury.)
One year ago today, E! Entertainment Television spun off N! The Nova Network — all nova-related content, all the time: novas in the news, nova biographies, nova sports, nova interviews, the science of novas. By April, it was already the highest-rated channel of all time.
What a difference a day makes. And happy real-world new year to all and sundry.
Some say it started in the late 1930s, with the death of Æon founder member Annabelle Lee "Crackshot" Newfield, not yet 30. She had betrayed the Society because of her unrequited love for Primoris (who in turn nourished a Gamgee-esque affection — movie!Sam not book!Sam — for Maxwell Anderson Mercer).
Others say it started with Donighal's transformation. Hugh was only expressing his author's views when he said that Primoris was a nova in an age of stalwarts. One of the last documents in the "Setting" section of the Adventure! core rules — the last but one, in fact — is A Vision for the Future, in which Donighal takes the position that the Æon Society must seize the reins of history, must make a better world, the world the "hoi polloi" would never have the wits or will to make for themselves..
But we must have power, power to order all things as we will, for that good which only the Wise can see....deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.
No, that's not a direct quote from Donighal, but it's from someone who would have agreed with what he had in mind. By N-Day, Æon was wholly in the hands of people like that.
(For the record, the very last item in that setting section is Max Mercer's "Considerations for Moderation" — more or less a point-by-point rejection of Donighal's program.)
In 1943, the combination of Crackshot's death and his own frustration with the state of the world led Donighal to break with Æon in a dramatic battle, in the aftermath of which both Dr. Primoris and Michael Daemon Donighal died, to be replaced by a chap called Divis Mal.
Mal's importance to the next sixty years of Trinity Universe history was (and, at the equivalent present, still is) that of a gray eminence, shaping events behind the scenes. Not to worry; we'll deal with it in due time.
Now on to...
This day in Trinity Universe history
In 1999, Æon's Project Utopia made a major public policy announcement and a major private policy decision. Both play roles in the pivotal events of the Nova Age.
The official announcement was of Team Tomorrow, Utopia's nova enforcement arm, made up of novas who'd been working with Utopia since its debut — had, in fact, been among the first to respond to Æon's offer to meet with novas and help them learn to use their powers: the likes of Shelby "Cæstus Pax" Eisenfaust, their leader; Pratima "Splash" Basham; Anthony "Lightning" Chang; Gvuthbjörg "Ragnarockette" Danielsdottir; Hiram "Slag" Goldberg; Ricardo Montoya Bernal; and Alison "Psyche" Pfaltzgraff. Their enemies: global terrorism, organized crime, and natural disasters.
Justin J. Laragione, officially Utopia's director (in practice, he answers to Æon's mysterious board of directors, but they usually allow him free reign), returned to his office from the star-studded press conference at which T2M had been unveiled to find a proposal on his desk. The author, an agent of Utopia's Internal Affairs division who used the code-name "Thetis" to write the proposal, suggested a secret division of Utopia which could do the less glamorous work (read: wet work and other black ops) involved in preserving and expanding Utopia's (i.e. Æon's) vision of a better world. She suggested calling it Project Proteus — probably inspired as much by Æon's own "Proteus Division" (already filling just that purpose) as by the mythological antecedents she claimed. Laragione was appalled by the Thetis Proposal — and even more appalled when Æon approved Project Proteus, put Thetis in charge of it and gave her carte blanche to do whatever she deemed necessary.
On this day in 2000, the Y2K bug hit, with actual effects. Thanks to Utopia, the only visible ones were that airlines and banks were down for a few days, and Web service was spastic for some weeks. It was the biggest PR coup for Utopia (and by extension Æon) since N-Day. (It was also an excuse for Proteus to take a few files the world didn't need to see — like, data proving that the nova phenomenon did not begin with N-Day — and make them vanish into its "Babel Dossier".)
Beginning in January of 2002, and continuing into 2005, true media consolidation began — not consolidation of media ownership in this case, but of the actual media. Communications networks — the Internet, broadcast airwaves, and phones both landline and mobile — merged into the OpNet — think Wi-Fi if everywhere were a hotspot.
Also in that January, Pax announced that T2M (which was increasingly unwelcome in the US) would be splitting into T2M Americas (based out of Mexico City, led by Montoya Bernal, and also including Psyche and newer recruit Jennifer "Slider" Landers) and T2M Europe (Pax, Lightning, Slag, Splash, and Byron "Saxon" Graham, among others).
Finally in January of 2002, Utopia launched a licensing arm, Novation, which would produce official Utopia comics, action figures, and OpCast series (like Slag: Hot Metal Fury.)
One year ago today, E! Entertainment Television spun off N! The Nova Network — all nova-related content, all the time: novas in the news, nova biographies, nova sports, nova interviews, the science of novas. By April, it was already the highest-rated channel of all time.
What a difference a day makes. And happy real-world new year to all and sundry.
