Paradigm are the high order of wizardry within the continental United States. Their magical tools are symbols of power. The yuppie has his business card, cellphone, cufflinks, sports car, Harvard ring. The police officer has his badge and uniform. The politician has certain key buzzwords. These are their foci.

The Paradigm finds its members fluctuating between the ranks of the Guilty and the Architects of Progress. The Guilty strive for immortality and redemption via transforming into paragons - men and women who personify perfectly the symbols they have wrapped themselves in: the Hero Cop, the King Maker, the Crime Lord. It is a daunting task, and those who attempt it frequently stumble and fail.

The Architects of Progress are amoral, convinced that the Ideogrammation can still be steered in their favor.

The Iroquois are the low order, the hedge wizards, the shamans of American pop culture. They know the secret rites to travel the invisible highways like James Dean and incantations to the lesser and greater Elvis summonings. They seek the Green Glass Grail, the platonic ideal of Coca-Cola, hidden somewhere along Route 66.


The Big Rock Candy Mountain is where the Old Gods of America, the Free Men of the Woods, went into exile ahead of the power of the Ideogrammation. The Iroquois both hope and fear that the Green Glass Grail will bring about their return from that distant realm.

When the rail-roads were finished and the old gods fled, the hobos defended the world from The Behinder and the hideous Things What Ride the Rails at Midnight. The hobos went on to their reward while the Behinder's ilk, the American titanspawn, hid and slunk into the gutters and alleyways fleeing the malevolent luminescence of the Ideo.

To this day Paradigm men summon Behinder demons from the sewers to do their dirty work in exchange for power and protection, while the Iroquois seek the Last True Hobo who will lead them on their Grail Quest.

>lesser and greater Elvis summonings
Alright, I'm hooked, what the fuck is this?

These American wizards, who feel uncomfortable around magazines, radios, and televisions (because the Ideo can reach out and get you through them), prefer to use a series of pneumatic tubes built by DARPA in case of nuclear war and then forgot. By circulating their leaflets and information in this obscure manner it doesn't join the mass consciousness and thus cannot be a medium for the Ideo to move thorugh.

Of course wizards use magazines, tv, and so on all the time; but in their work. Pop culture is something to conjure by and not to be taken lightly; so as a personal matter of culture and paranoia their secret communiques go through the pneumatic tubes.

The Scions of Turin felt that the internet could be kept safe from the machinations of the Ideogrammation with it cut off from the corrupted ley-lines. Forced to face facts in the wake of the Pop-Up Offensive the wizards have all but abandoned it, having uninformed vassals do the dangerous work for them. Worse still is the influence Outsiders can now wield through the satellites in orbit.

...more, please.

They have it so much easier in the Old World. There the demons are bound, they have the ancient rituals to keep the Outsider out, and their wizards consumed all the ambiant magic before mass media could unleash the Ideo in their lands.

All they have to worry about is the constant back-stabbing politicking and warfare between the hundreds of high, low, and high-and-low orders of magic they got over there.

That's the Old World charm. No spirit wars to worry about, just an academic rival summoning a vampire to eat your face while you sleep.

Which raises trouble when the various factions meet and mingle. Well-traveled Paradigm know at least some of the basics of the Old World glyphs and wards - their close relationship with the Free Comtes means that they have some tutoring. Likewise, when those of the Old World come they are forced to rely upon these American symbols.

One common method requires the financial sections of no less then three but no more then nine widely circulated newspapers.

Beware ye Iroquois who steep yourselves too deeply in the Hobo Heresies, the eyes of Paradigm are watching. They will not let your grail stop their Ten Thousand Years of Progress. Certainly the walls aren't cracking, certainly the Ideo aren't coming for them.

Certainly they will gain back control of the things their corporations unleashed.

And when they do The America of the Future will be a reality.

Disgruntled Iroquois whisper at their bus stops and halfway homes that the Ideogrammation was not the mistake that the Paradigm claim, but part of their long term plot for control. The Paradigm argue that it is the stain of the Equation breaking free on that Blackest of Fridays.

---

Ha! You think the Old Wind Gods and the New Black Gods of the Air would allow any of the earthly factions to delve into their realm? Look at what their wrath has already done to some of the greatest Hobo fortresses, and now look at the growing ink spat from the Leviathan? Good luck crossing the blue without their blessings.

Rumors such as these tend to keep the Iroquois in the States, but those who have braved venturing abroad claim to have found markings left by the First Hobos in shanty towns and forgotten radio stations. Could the Grail have moved beyond their grasp?

WERE DOES THE GREAT AND TERRIBLY 4CHAN FIT INTO THIS?

Yes, Yes!

UUUUUUuuuuuu.....

I came.

The Outsiders.. if someone's crazy enough to serve those things, I've never met them and I don't want to. I have no idea what one would ask you to do. They're a big question mark in everyone's book, and that's what makes them a threat. No one knows what they are, where they come from, and what they're after. The best we can hope for from them is that they'll get bored and leave.

The servants of the Outsiders come in all sorts of shapes and forms, living on the fringes of global society. The group that has reached most notoriety is the Church of New Flesh, who rose in Japan and tried to release some sort of bio-weapon on the subway. The press said it was sarin gas, but we know differently. Like we know how all the members of that Church had at least three eyes.

I hear in the States, especially in LA, that there's this group called Urban Red, a kind of urban exploration group that serves as a front for an Outsider cult. They explore the sewers and storm drains, looking for big, vacant spaces under the city to do.. whatever the fuck it is the Outsiders want them to do. All I know is that the homeless population of the city's been dropping rapidly.

Rumors abound that Ray Gun One Eye attempted to drop the captured essence of the first Outsider discovered over the Kremlin to shatter the Cold War. Those in the know point to the Challenger Disaster and mutter darkly that this entity known as the King was tricked for a short while, promised a trip back to its realm. The glyphs on the shuttle were not enough to contain its wrath.

Further down the rabbit hole, some wonder if other shuttle disasters were due to the same creature...

To be sucinct about it, whether it's Iroquois getting too wrapped up in the Grail Quest and Hobo prophecies or megalomaniacal Paradigmists suffering from The Guilt (they say that Paradigm wizards have the stain of their forebearers giving the Ideo it's first life in the public consciousness upon their souls), the fight against the Ideo spirits can lead you down dark path.

Their are worst things than the mere evil of the Behinder's humbled devils or even the blindingly cold light of the Ideo. Things from the Beyond the Beyond, whose messages were unlocked by the early space probes.

Your typical Outsiders, things so inhuman they make demons shit themselves. Guys like mr.New Flesh there are Outsider-infected.

At least someone who has been consumed by the shining fire of the Ideo will have the same sort insane logic as an Old World fey lord. Genii loci always do. And even demons of dark emotions and the cess of the world like the Behinderspawn in America have understandable motives (greed, lust, shadenfreud). But Outsiders...

>>10760119
Does 4chan even exist in this setting?

>>10760132
Ave Ideo.

We glorify it for keeping us entertained when we are bored.

We worship it for fulfilling our base needs.

We accept it for giving us an identity which is not of our creation.

We feed it by the creation of new models of infection for it to spread.

We guard it as the first strands of crystallized vibrations weave together in to ultraviolet silk as it prepares it cocoon.

We will be its first meal when it is reborn.

>>10760207
I want that poster.

The new gods live in the cities, gods of lightbulbs and car crashes; gods of trash compactors and beer cans; gods of red light districts and emergency rooms. Pray to them, if you're brave enough.

The Old Ways are dead, and your Old Gods have abandoned you, embrace the New Ways and wield the power of the mass-media consciousness, for it is our only hope against the ravening beasts at our doorsteps.

The Old Gods are not dead, but weakened. They have adapted to the changing faces of the world, but they are not what they once were. And in their weakened state, they find new gods nipping at their heels. Are you a servant of the Old, seeking to preserve what is, or a child of the New, looking to tear it all down and rebuild it in your image?

Or have you fallen under the sway of the Outsiders, those who warp and twist the words and images of Ideo and Old alike, forming the infectious madness with which their alien minds find amusement?

The New Gods run their pantheon like a business. So there are perks, their workers get a lot out of making deals... but are expected to put a lot in in return. More than most people are actually capable of giving. The God is your boss, who you report to and who pays you for your work. You are asked to do a lot, but have a fair bit of freedom in how you operate.

The Old Gods work on a different model which, though adapted to a more modern face, still has a lot of feudalistic roots. The Old God is a lord to which you swear fealty and serve loyally. You do what he tells you and have little self-determination otherwise. You may not be asked to do as much, but when you are asked you must obey to the letter.

High weirdness is the norm. All hail Emperor Reagan. The coronation was held in secret, when the man was more than half-mad with age. It was a holy madness, as few know this but the man Joshua Norton took an Irish wife. The Ray-Gun was his descendant and rightful heir to the Empire of America and Protectorate of Mexico.

Deep in the halls of the Pentacle, the Pentagon Below, blind men click their tongues in invocation to the dead Ray-Gun; hoping their false god will save them.

The Iroquois know that in parts of the country at midnight you can see Reagan McCool and his twisted shadow-aspect, Ray Gun One Eye, do battle.

Pretty goddamn neato.

The Betrayer, The Holy Fool, The Trickster

There are lesser orders, mostly cross-contamination from Europe. The Free Comtes sometimes cross the pond to jam culture and cause mayhem, their affinity groups flash mobbing, performing live, spontaneous symbolic rituals in the middle of crowded places. Their ultimate goal is to use this psychological alchemy to gain immortality as avatars of the mass consciousness.

The harder-edged members of the Iroquois and Paradigm view this as dangerous consortation with the Ideogrammation by foreign practitioners who don't know any better and tend to come down on the Comtes hard each time they surface in the States.

But even the American wizards are broken apart. The American Gods are weak and their hold on the ley lines tenuous at best. The Clerics of Madison Avenue must pursue ever more arcane methods...focus groups, social media, the lost Roman science of demographics to hold onto their power. Some are said to sell their very essence to the K Street Masters, giving shares of their soul in exchange for power. Those who lose a controlling interest transform in to beings of pure hunger and greed.

It's a common belief that all Hoboes are Iroquios and vice versa. Nothing could be further from the truth. While all hoboes are wise, few are skilled in the arts of magic, and not all cunning men follow the honorable path of the hobo. The Noise exists to combat the control of the Ideo over music, battling passionless pop with blind rage and discord at their public rites masquerading as block parties.

There's actually more spirit-oriented wizards in the Old World than you might think. Of course, Charlemagne destroyed the Woden Oak and the observatory in the Extern Stones, but we still have a firm grip on those points. Not to forget the Brocken. What most Paradigm magicians refuse to believe is that what they are creating are spirits as well.

>>10759869
Do not confuse the Guilty with the True Ideal. The Guilty are simply Architects who attempt to hold on to some sort of moral code, policing their ranks.

The True Ideal's members strive to become those personifications you mention: their ranks included the Ruthful Babe and the Dean.

The Red Sox Folly carried out by the Ruthful Babe was not a curse but an action of sacrifice for his home city. It was due to this that there was sufficient latent power stockpiled for the GIs to carry the banner of the American Dream during the Second World War.

Can we spill our ideas out or is all this copy pasta?

Bah, if you think groups like Urban Red or The Church of New Flesh are bad, wait until you meet one of the outsiders solo-agents in a deep ally on a dark and stormy night.
The might have been men once, but they've made the dark pact, and now they are at the same time more and less than human. A friend of a friend met the Zipper Kid, and I tell you, he was lucky to only get 2nd degree burns over half his body.

>>10760567
This stockpile was consumed when America failed to beat its swords back into plowshares following the war. Iron Cutter Ike tried to prevent this but ultimately failed.

The death of a President is not a thing to take lightly. All Secret Service personnel carry a coin in a pocket of their suit made from a melted Lincoln Continental.

There is a magic bullet, though it took two presidents for it to reach its true power. Its second baptism was completed when it was retrieved from Reagan McCool's body and has been used countless times to slay America's enemies, carefully gathered from the target to be reshaped and reused.

>>10760640

For real. Is this an actual game? Because I am so gay for Americana Fantasy. Holy shit.

>>10760640
Toss it in!

>>10760640
but mark it so we can tell the difference.

>>10760753
These solo-agents are not simply a weapon of the Outsiders.

The Pentacle Below, the Wounded Pentagon, has a servant known only as Special Agent Eight six three dash eff dash eight dash are zero - it is named after the special order which gave it form and its power. It has a clearance higher then God and serves the Trinity: Security, Government, Control.

Is it a real game or not? Is it your setting? Information, please.

>>10760857
...

Est-f-e-r0.

Estfer0

Esther Zero.

Very nice.

>>10760932
A setting which may or may not has been co-opted by a writefag working on an idea that said writefag cannot pry out of its brain.

>>10760961
Want to archive it?

>>10761006
Only if other people want to.

I used this as a writing exercise, taking the old copypasta I was using to add further notes to. You might find the original thread I took this from in the archives.

>>10761030
I want to archive it, but I feel the author would be best at a fitting description. Please archive it.

>>10761053
Nawh, I'm cool.

Someone else will archive it, they'll add their own spin to it, the thing will mutate further.

>>10761093
So it'll die.

>>10761112
Then archive it.

>>10761170

Thanks for your request.
It has been added to our database and the thread will be archived as soon as enough request for that thread have been made.
This thread has been requested 1 times now.

Well, if people are done posting, -I'm- going to see about making up a character for this damn setting. Anyway...

Robert Gallows - Gallow's Hill, The Hero Cop, The Shield

People worry about Officer Gallows. He has an unimpeachable record, is well liked by anyone he encounters, a history of service to his community both on and off the clock, and seems hell bent on never advancing his career beyond that of Police Detective First Class. The man seems to live for his job.

The simple fact is that he does. After being shot in a tense hostage stand-off, Gallows sold his soul to his badge. The Badge, in fact, one of the Old Gods which has managed to find some some toe-hold in this modern world. Embodying a keen sense of law tempered with justice, The Badge demands that all of its servants uphold ideals which seem out of place in this modern world. He was scouted out by the Paradigm shortly after his miraculous recovery and has found himself working double to serve his Master. Just as with the police force, he refuses to take on more advanced duties which would keep him off the street. He stands as a paragon of what the Paradigm could be, idealistic individuals who work hard at making a Brave New World. This puts him at odds with his fellows at times.

>>10759750
ｃHRｉsｂEAｒ_PooLtaRd,_REMｏvｅ_ＹＯＵｒ_ClOWｎ of: HTｔＰ://ＴＩＮＹuRl.ＣOｍ/3axvE5Ｄ oyz qjaqwaozxgh dcleycixqhhe eyqoq n

>>10761595
Gallows strives to -protect-. The Ideogrammation stands for rampant consumerism, a loss of individuality and thus personal freedom. He will not allow this to take place. In a world rapidly descending in to selfishness and hunger, he stands as a man apart trying to act as a one-man Shining City on the Hill. His personal stakes in this matter are high, as the Ideogrammation is a cunning opponent and already you can see in popular culture how the police are shown to be alternatively corrupt or inept. As he walks the path of the True Ideal, the closer Gallows comes to becoming a Paragon the more attention the Ideogrammation pays to him - a common danger faced by those who follow this method.

The Shield carries the Law in his hand. When he is on duty, he is able to read a crime scene in ways which only frustrate those who want him among the ranks of Detectives and can embody the public trust to rally those around him. Just one look at how he carries himself and you cannot help thinking 'cop'; this engenders a feeling of guilt and fear in those with an uneasy conscience, which can make his dealings in the War of Ideas rather difficult. While not invincible, he finds that shots taken at him tend to either miss or simply graze him, unless he's acting to protect someone: then he seems to draw all of the fire.

His duties to The Badge weighs heavily on a conscience already highly developed. When he finds himself taking an action that violates his moral code, he must find some way to make amends. Leaving the police force is beyond question; the moment he stops serving he stops living.

Gallows is handsome, in a slightly dated fashion; his clothes are all neatly pressed and he takes a pride in his appearance that comes less from vanity then from his desire to present what he views an officer of the law should look like. His profile is one of control and certainty - head held high, chest out, arms on his hips.

>>10761432
Up to a grand spanking total of two requests now. Woo.

Guess some days the magic doesn't work.

>>10761790
You know /tg/ has its own archival service, right?

The power of change and rebellion is part of the cultural fabric of the new world. If the status quo is not to your liking, then change it. There has been a growing movement in recent ages of a magical and cultural idealogical backlash against chasing the paradigm.

Generations of young wizards, tired of chasing after unobtainable symbols of power and becoming paragons of power have struck their own paths. Seeing the system as fundamentally flawed and held too tightly by the already established, they see America turning more and more into the Old World.

This unorganized movement has various goals, some wish to distribute the symbols of power evenly, others to build a thousand different paradigms to dilute power while others truly just wish to see the cities burn.

It is somewhat ironic then, that shadows and murmurs have slowly gained strength. Men and Women who seek to upset the Paradigm slowly BECOMING paragons themselves.

This is of course not lost on any wizard with some sanity left. Some have rejected this power outright, others have tried to use it to benefit their movement or worst, themselves.

The culture war has yet to spark, but each side is preparing

>>10761921
Point.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/10759751/

If land with only a short history of human settlement has more demons roaming free, researchers on Antarctica are shit out of luck.

>>10762091
The Hollow Earth collects the ambient energies.

>>10762091
you cannot begin to fathom what sleeps beneath the ice.

Why yes my dear boy! It gives me great pleasure to speak to you about my experiences in the musical continuum!

I was a veteran don't you know back in England during the reign of the Iron Lady.

We waged a revolution! Don't let my wear and tear get you I was a front line punk and I was there when The Clash enacted the London Calling. A great moment of triumph as we culled all those preppy fucks by the hundreds before they even know what hit em. The war was eventually lost of course which was alright, we never really had any goals or future plans or central leadership, we simply wanted to shake society up and we did that quite well. Sometimes though, I wish there was a substantial punk revival here again, just a column of HARD ASS, LEATHER WEARING HOOLIGANS to march down London and break the faces of all those twee pop fakers.

>>10762243

Now far be it for an old timer like me telling you youngsters about where to ply the musical currents but a kid like yourself should really find yourselves into the electro circuit, especially those fancifulelectro runes they have over in good old Gaul.

Now I know it seems a bit corny and overplayed to ply the french electro underground, but they did produce the Gods of Daft and the magic left before their ascension is still hidden in places all across that country. A talented young magician like yourself might be able to discover one of these caches and start off your own movement.

>>10762243
You can't truly revive something, because of the Law of Conservation of Authenticity. People today who would have become genuine punks back in the day can't do it any more. They can either become hipsters, who are defined by their lateness-to-the-scene and ironic scavenging of dead subcultures, or they can look for different outlets for their punkishness.

The reason is that the God of Punk is dead. Now the ghost of Punk does battle with the ghost of Reagan in the underworld forever

>>10762050
The similarities between these so-called Third Revolutionaries and the Ideal faction of the Paradigm is not lost on the wizards of America which are in the know.

They have their usefulness, of course. The Architects have been known to book them passage across the Great Blue to the Old World so that their attempts to undo the ancient glyphs will keep their rivals on their toes. A massive volcano shook the continent after some idealistic fool attempted to unchain an Alfar - many Skalds lost their lives putting it back in its prison.

The Paradigm has not been welcome back to the country since.

>>10762091
Yeah, the last batch sent there ended up on a Strange Journey.

>>10762369

Many people have this misconception that Punk is an all powerful and all vengeful god. But it isn't, it is an avatar, a musical representation of Rebellion. Rebellion isn't a god neither, but a movement, a cosmic force that we can tap into.

We don't consider Rebellion sweeping down and helping us but it gives us strength of conviction and powers to effect change around us.

the phonogram is a cool music/magic comic if you're interested in that

>>10762521
I know what I am talking about when I am talking about the revolutions. The people who read the books go to the people who can't read the books, the poor people, and say, "We have to have a change." So, the poor people make the change, ah? And then, the people who read the books, they all sit around the big polished tables, and they talk and talk and talk and eat and eat and eat, eh? But what has happened to the poor people? They're dead! That's your revolution. Shhh... So, please, don't tell me about revolutions! And what happens afterwards? The same fucking thing starts all over again!