Virtual Adepts

== Overview and Paradigm == We represent all to which humanity aspires. No longer will we go the way of all flesh, because after the flesh is dead our souls will live on. Before then, however, we'll rip through the barriers that block us, the locks that keep us out, and the security systems that try to stop us. It's our destiny to know, to sense, to alter, to crash, to steal, and to become one with the Ghost in the Machine, the soul of the computer. We are the future. We will continue to evolve in this way until we become the tools of our Ascension. The Virtual Adepts originated as a Convention of the Technocratic Union known as the Difference Engineers. While the Union believed that the world should be kept in the dark about things they are not ready for so as to bring order, the Difference Engineers felt that information should be free and available to everyone. It was this variance in opinion that caused the Difference Engineers to rebel, and eventually become the Virtual Adepts. As history tells it, the Adepts sought refuge with the Council of Nine and eventually ended up taking up the seat of Correspondence. Virtual Adepts believe that communication and information are the keys to success. They argue that information should be free and available to everyone, which is represented in their primary sphere of correspondence - that everything is everywhere and that distance is meaningless. == The Fall and Reconciliation == All technomancers have been warned at one point or an other that dependence on 'toys' would eventually be their down fall. Any technomancer worth their salt would laugh and simply gesture to the world around them as proof of near infallibility of technology. Not to mention the fact that everyone was so hopped up from rush the Information Super Highway gave them to heed the warnings of ignorant Luddites. One of the problems of living in the future is that you end up forgetting about the past and ignoring the present. In principal, the Fall should have been a welcome change to the Virtual Adepts, in reality it was a digital holocaust. It went something like this: Baba Yaga eats the Russian Prime Minister on TV, Virtual Adepts, as usual, begin to enthusiastically circulate this footage to anyone and everyone. The Union responds with the previously unknown fury. Being the favorite scapegoat for Union fuck ups, the Virtual Adepts defection and subsequent encouragements of free information are cited by the Union as a major cause of the Fall. The Union, furious that reality is literally coming apart at the seams, no longer has a reason to practice restraint and goes all out. The most notorious and high profile individuals are targeted first. The Virtual Adepts send out the cattle call to mount a counter offensive they had be waiting for since their defection, thus bringing most of the Tradition online for what they believe will be the defining battle in the Ascension War. Just as the Adepts are manning the virtual battle stations, the Digital Web goes down like the Titanic. With three quarters of the Tradition online at the time, the Virtual Adepts were nearly decimated. The date was April the 14th, 2004. This date is still observed by the Tradition as the beginning of 'Silent Spring'. On that day, the Tradition as a whole abstains from the use of the Matrix. == Current Status == Those that survived the Union purges and Silent Spring took their rotary telephones and cd-roms and went into hiding. When the Matrix came online, making what was previously considered high speed Internet seem like dial-up, the Adepts were among the first to ride. With the Matrix came the advent of the Neurolink and the cyberdeck, further blurring the line between man and machine. Controversy over the invention of the cyberdeck, the Neurolink and the Matrix still rages to this day with both Union and Council Technomancer camps taking credit and with no clear definition to be had. Rumors abound about rouge Adepts trading their secrets to the Union in exchange for protection. The arguments, flame wars, hacking and shit talking have returned in full force. Those not involved in that aspect of the ideological turf war consider it one of those inevitable things. The next logical step in technological evolution. Regardless of who invented it, it's a major field goal for the Virtual Adepts in the post-Fall Ascension War. Not only has technology evolved but it seemed that the Sleepers have evolved as well. Unprecedented numbers of Sleepers began to 'jack in' and awaken, many of whom (but not all) joined the Virtual Adepts, replenishing their ranks at a rapid pace. These new Adepts seemed to be born to the Matrix like a fish to water. While lacking the hard won technical proficiency of the veterans of the Fall, they had an uncanny intuitive (some say spiritual) connection to technology and the Matrix. The surviving Virtual Adepts all of a sudden have their hands full training the new recruits. Besides that, the stakes of the Great Race has been raised two fold and with the Corporations more dependant on the Matrix than they were on the Internet, with their new found allies in House Thig, there is a lot of hacking to be done. Some Adepts have begun to lease their services to the Corporations seeking to change things from the inside. While some consider the sell outs, they provide invaluable insider information about corporate happenings and emerging technology. == Foci and Style == Computers, information technology, the Matrix, cyberdecks, cybernetics, A.I., coffee, cigarettes and raw deals are all part of the Virtual Adept style. == Suggested Reading == * Tradition Book: Virtual Adepts * Digital Web 2.0 * Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson * Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson