LEADERSHIP: Philosophical Fellowship
GOVERNMENT: Ideological advisory
IDEOLOGY: Individualist
STATE: Mercenary
MAGIC: Abundant
SECTS: Currents
LOCATION: Queen Mary’s Hospital
In terms of population, or at least population that strictly consider themselves ‘Evolvers’ or adjacent, this is the smallest of the five factions attending the Summit, and their secured land boasts few amenities. What they do have is Queen Mary’s Hospital, where, not six metres from the doors, a portal opened in 2004, and left a site for refugees. It has perhaps the best equipment for dealing with the kith of Domus. They also have one thing nobody else in London does – the loyalty of other survivor bands. Being further away from London’s ruined centre, the effects of firebombing and radio-arcanum alike are diminished, though still very much present, and rebuilding efforts have taken hold despite minimal central planning. The hospital, and medical resources, as well as the hands-off and advisory nature of what passes for Evolver government, has earned trust and trade with small enclaves of survivors scattered through the suburbs, and provides the Evolvers with a greatly enhanced understanding of a far wider area than anyone save for the Survivalists.
The Evolvers do form a coherent bloc all the same, but they are essentially a volunteer organisation. At their head sits the Fellowship, a loose and ever-shifting collection of the most outspoken philosophical thinkers in their midst. It was originally birthed from a nearby second conference after the outbreak of war, where the first took place immediately after the opening of the portals. Being so quick to lay out a programme for rebuilding, even if it has long since radically changed, the Fellowship earned the trust of other survivors of the collapse. They became the voice of reason, and the dearest advisers, of anyone who would hold the strength to bring people together. Following the establishment of the Evolvers proper, a series of modifications and experiments became commonplace in the hospital, and the ascension of the Fellowship to the official guiding hand. All that is given to them is voluntary, but comes with the recommendation that those that help are granted special privileges, or paid in scrap, scavenge, favours, alchemical ingredients, or biological augmentations. As a result, the Evolvers, and the vast majority of their allies, have moved with the flow of time into an extreme acceptance of magic and rejection of “stagnant” humanity and “long-dead and overdue” world before, and with an evolving mercenary apparatus that surrounds them.
Approach to Magic
Magic in Evolver territories is abundant and prosperous. Woven into everyday life, the plight of people who suffered once or now from weaknesses in the body or the blood ought to be things of the past. The most respected Evolvers are those who have, as the name suggests, evolved. They are vampires who have spliced themselves to alter their need for blood or fear of light, or humans who are adapted to walk through arcanum unscathed. Mages are not an uncommon sight, though the ability to simply command magic is secondary to the ability to have it infused with oneself. Whilst the hospital still runs services for those in need of sustenance, such as the blood for vampires, ultimately the hope is that these issues will be overcome through the evolver principle, that those in need would become greater.
Look and Feel
Evolvers value novelty and experimentation. Clothes should be remodelled to suit that, but also to show off modifications to the self. If you have a tail, make sure your clothes have a hole for it to come out loud and proud. If you have gills, never wear a high neck. Those with memories of old Earth, or with access to pictures might try to copy artistic fashions, complete with lace and sparkles, or a mesh top with fur poking out. The practicality of clothing is secondary to signalling your freeform philosophy – after all, isn’t your body supposed to already be adapted to the new world?
History and Geography
The Evolvers arose from the old world, or at least the world before the collapse, though of all the factions that did, they have the least in common with it. When the portals opened, the leaders of the world were not the only influential people to meet. Refugees, charitable foundations, action groups, and academics all met, in large and small groups, either to aid directly, or to understand what this new state of affairs meant. One such outgrowth was the Conference on the Evolution of Humanity, which came after a series of discussions in other groups. The conference would go on to receive some funding from different universities (mainly KCL and Cambridge), and eventually set themselves up in a building on Huntingfield Road, near Queen Mary’s, where a lot of initial arrivals were treated. Their practical output was, officially, a mixture between biochemists, a medical ethics board, and inter-world relations advocacy. In truth, the Evolutionary Fellowship that arose from their third conference, and became the acting head of the society, had greater ambitions. They had seen the failures of both worlds, and saw in their combining a chance to start anew. This place was never Domus, and could no longer be Earth. Instead, it must be something new, something greater. They devised ideas on what the species that populates the new world ought to be, how best to adapt themselves to the new challenges that would face them by combining the best of different peoples. They thought of new laws, new systems of governance, bold new medicine that would never be allowed before.
And, by the end, they saw the war reaching British shores, and sheltered their members, and gathered supplies. When the collapse happened, they were the best place, and those that listened to the Fellowship got first access to food, to clean water. The hospital relied on them, and so soon they had the best surviving medical equipment and a site of a portal, too. Once they were established, different philosophical currents began to emerge, and this was encouraged. No one person, one idea, should hold all the power, and so anyone could join the symposia, to debate and discuss the best way forward. Nobody would be forced to act in a way they didn’t wish to, but as time went on, and power and argument alike became the domain of the Fellowship, most people who had the capacity to act agreed with someone.
With this, they expanded outwards. They grew new, modified crops on the fields surrounding them. When AVs moved deeper into the densely populated areas, they spread out towards suburbs, picking up bands of survivors and forming loose alliances that almost seem to reach open fields. Almost, not quite, as something was found to be living out there, something formed from the magic bombardment that wasn’t stopped by London’s defences. Still, they expand, communicate, and experiment. After all, this is their chance to prove themselves right – the new world belongs to those who adapt.
Approach to Magic
Magic in Evolver territories is abundant and prosperous. Woven into everyday life, the plight of people who suffered once or now from weaknesses in the body or the blood ought to be things of the past. The most respected Evolvers are those who have, as the name suggests, evolved. They are vampires who have spliced themselves to alter their need for blood or fear of light, or humans who are adapted to walk through arcanum unscathed. Mages are not an uncommon sight, though the ability to simply command magic is secondary to the ability to have it infused with oneself. Whilst the hospital still runs services for those in need of sustenance, such as the blood for vampires, ultimately the hope is that these issues will be overcome through the evolver principle, that those in need would become greater.
Look and Feel
Evolvers value novelty and experimentation. Clothes should be remodelled to suit that, but also to show off modifications to the self. If you have a tail, make sure your clothes have a hole for it to come out loud and proud. If you have gills, never wear a high neck. Those with memories of old Earth, or with access to pictures might try to copy artistic fashions, complete with lace and sparkles, or a mesh top with fur poking out. The practicality of clothing is secondary to signalling your freeform philosophy – after all, isn’t your body supposed to already be adapted to the new world?
Stereotypes
- Survivalists – To be alive is one thing, but to live is another. Without guidance, they lack one.
- Pilgrims – How can you be so close? You see how much the magic can help, why those touched by it rise above, and then you just do… nothing?
- Erudites – For all your sums and equations you lack the heart, the courage, to truly step beyond.
- Traditionalists – The old ways are dead! Its corpse makes a terrible life raft.
- Purists – We’ve heard rumours, here and there. It’s them or us.
Notable NPCs
Harvey Wallace
Warlock, mutant, 57 years old
Philosopher
Harvey is a peculiar sort, always babbling on about his next great revelation. A staunch Kantian and Transcendental Idealist, Wallace rushed to attempt to understand a theory of mind within magic the very day of the Exodus. He founded a theory of ‘Entropism’, the position that magic is a fundamental motive force that moves towards a given end, but that this motive force has a conscious mind, and intertwines with the will of those who commune with it. In line with this belief, he willingly contaminated his own body with radioarcanum, causing dramatic mutations. He has had a fair few “corrective surgeries” to better integrate his new parts into the whole, aiming towards his “intended self”.
Despite his… eccentricities, Harvey is a well respected pillar of the community, always offering a helping hand, and an hours-long lecture.
Doctor Katherine Reed
Human, 30 years old
Doctor
Doctor Reed is by no means a committed follower of the Evolver’s philosophy, in fact, she couldn’t care less what’s in people’s minds. What she cares about is what’s in their bodies, and if she can help it, what’s not in them – namely shrapnel, stab wounds, glass, and radiation poisoning. Nevertheless, she refuses to leave Evolver territory, where they have the best medical facilities to allow her to do the most good she can, as well as reaching out to other communities who are struggling.
Reed was on the front-lines during the Exodus, even working in St Mary’s when the portal opened up inside. She dedicated her life from that point on to understanding how to heal every Kith she could, and has from that become an expert in cross-species first aid, triage, and general medicine. Her services are invaluable, no wonder the others keep trying to poach her.
Red-Eyes-Come-Singing
Fae, Unknown age
Community leader
The monsters of London, of Britain as a whole, avoid the Compact, an area of woodland to the South of the Evolvers. The community thrives under promises of bountiful harvest and perfect social harmony in peace and song, and they are met. Refugees and survivors flocked there, under the seemingly-benevolent leadership of a mysterious Wild Kith known as Red-Eyes-Come-Singing. It’s said their voice can be heard no matter how far away by those who need to hear it.
The Compact trades some of their harvest with the Evolvers in exchange for medical supplies, as whatever woodland commune they have seems lacking in any modern technology whatsoever. Nonetheless, not a single envoy has ever had a bad word to say about Red, even the ones the Evolvers have sent themselves.
Red-Eyes is aloof, often even callous, but is fiercely protective of their community when it comes down to it.