Society of Ether

This article provides information on the Sons of Ether specific to Radio Noir.

When the Electrodyne Engineers left the Technocratic Union in 1904, they did so due to fundamental disagreements over Paradigm. They joined the Council of Nine and took the vacant seat of Matter and entered an alliance with the eight other Mystic Traditions. They left a strict and regulated hierarchy, where quarterly reports and ideological orthodoxy could make or break a Mage’s career. They entered a loose alliance ruled by centuries old relationships and mistrust. As newcomers, the Etherites arrived with few such bonds established, and coming directly from the enemy’s camp as they were, they met with suspicion from may of the ones they had fought against while part of the Technocracy. The fact that their Paradigm was built on the scientific method, even if their version of it was now deemed obsolete by the Technocracy, further strengthened this suspicion.

Following their collective defection from the Union and subsequent lukewarm welcome from the Traditions, many Etherites are working hard to strengthen the Society’s standing with the other Traditions. Others, particularly those who either sided with, or have later come to agree with Czar Vargo, are maintaining ties to the Council of Nine while focusing on building a base of power independent of both sides of the Ascension War. Though these efforts are largely kept a secret, and despite this being fully in accordance with Council of Nine practice, the fact that the Society is gathering resources is causing some members of the other Traditions to question their loyalties. Yet others have elected to seek out their own fortunes, leaving the Society altogether.

The lack of trust the Society is facing from the Traditions is further exacerbated by the Society of Ether splinter group working with the Technocracy in the Soviet Union. These Mages have even adopted the Society's old name, styling themselves the Inzhenery Elektrodin. Though these Mages have severed ties with the Society at large – they even issued a manifesto to that effect upon joining the Technocratic Soviets – they are often used as justification of continued caution by those in the Council of Nine who warn against trusting the Society.

Organization
More than anything, the Society of Ether like as a special interest group. Its members are recruited from academia, the navies, or from the small workshop or private laboratory where they made some groundbreaking scientific discovery. The Etherites tend to identify with one group or the other, but a large majority of them simply belong to the faction funding their research.

Status within the Society is based on the student’s understanding of the Principles of Awakened Science. These ranks are not nearly as rigid as in some other Traditions, but still provides a social framework for the internal dealing within the Society.
 * Assistant: An un-Awakened human who has accepted the existence of magick through exposure or conditioning. Will not count as a Witness for the purposes of Paradox.
 * Technician: A Scientist working in the field of Linear Science, a.k.a a Sorcerer.
 * Student: An Awakened student of Non-linear Science, a.k.a. a Mage.
 * Professor: A Scientist capable of overseeing an independent lab or Etehrship (fourth dot).
 * Chair: Leading an institute, research organization, or committee, usually a Master in a Scientific discipline, by appointment.
 * Professor Emeritus: Archmastery in a Sphere.

The Grand Symposium
This gathering of learned scholars, naturalists, and engineers meet annually to debate matters of Paradigm and policy. This gathering of Chairs and Professors is the highest authority of the Society of Ether. Any resolution carried through the Grand Symposium becomes dogma and must be upheld by the Society’s Chairs.

The Council of Enforcement of Scientific Ethics
Established in 1916. As a response to the unethical science brought about by the Great War, the Council of Nine informed the Society that unless it established an internal code of justice, the Council of Nine would have to rely on the Euthanatoi to provide necessary “corrections” when needed. The Code of Scientific Ethics initiative was spearheaded by the Utopian League and passed into law by the Grand Symposium.

Following its founding, the Council of Enforcement of Scientific Ethics has established its own investigatory cabal, the Bureau of Applied Ethics, to follow up on malpractice reports and to look for Technocratic infiltrators on important research stations. This is as close to having an internal police force as the Society gets.

The Utopian League
The largest of the factions within the Society, the Utopians believe that above all else, Science must benefit humanity. It was their outrage at the Technocracy’s suppression of unlimited free energy and the persecution of Nichola Tesla that pushed the Society to leave the Union. The majority of Utopians are students of psychology or politics, although it is not uncommon for them to also actively pursue other fields of study as well. Many of the Mages of House Luxor, abandoning the Order of Hermes in 1936, found a home among the Utopians.

The Royal Ethernautical Society
The most prestigious and widely known group within the Society of Ether, the Etehrnauts were formed under a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1851, to “exploit the phenomena of Luminiferous Ether and Celestial Phlogiston for aerial exploration and to investigate the uncharted altitudes of the Heavens.”  They stunned both the Order of Reason and the Queen’s Privy Council when they carried out a moon landing in 1892 (still a state secret in Great Britain). This push towards space led to the discovery of Etherspace, a parallel universe.

By the turn of the century, the Ethernauts’ research had been discredited by the Technocratic Union on the grounds that their exploration into Etherspace, as opposed to the Union’s focus on exploring the physical Universe, was jeopardizing the Agenda. This led to the loss of funding and resources from the Union, and the Union’s government contacts also blocked support from the British state. This caused outrage among the Ethernauts and greatly influenced the Society of Ether’s decision to leave the Technocratic Union.

Despite the best efforts of the Union, the Royal Ethernautical Society’s Victoria Station still serves as the largest near-Earth supply base from its position in the moon’s Penumbra.

The Society of Adventuring Scientists
This group, usually referred to simply as the Adventurers, is as renowned for their minimal contributions to Ether Science (they almost never publish papers for peer review) as they are for saving their fellow Etherites from certain doom by swooping in at the last minute. Despite their lackadaisical approach to Science, the group is as old as the Society itself. They claim to have roots back to the Phoenician explorers of Antiquity and have been pushing at the white areas of the map ever since.

They also claim to be the parent-group of the much more prestigious Royal Ethernautical Society.

The Progressive Party
The creation of this new group is often attributed to the infamous “Anonymous Edition” of the Society’s journal Paradigma. Here a series of allegations were leveled against the culture of patriarchy, colonialism, and sometimes even open racism perpetuated by what it described as the “Whites Only Gentlemen’s Club of the Old Guard.” Needless to say, this caused quite the scandal, but since its publishing, the Progressives have grown fast.

The Free State of Ether
This group left the convention before the rest of the Etherites defected from the Technocracy. They were closely connected with Czar Vargo and many in his fleet flew the flag of the Free State. Despite the secrecy surrounding their return to the Society in 1936, rumours abound. There is talk of a great fleet of ships hidden in a secret Umbral Realm. More than one Technocracy spy has been caught photographing Ether-charts, hoping to discover the location of their mysterious base.

Whatever the truth is, their return has given the beleaguered Society a much needed second wind.

Institute for Advanced Ether-science
In the years first years following the Society of Ether's defection from the Technocratic Union, several Enlightened Scientists moving to Victoria Station. There was plenty of room and Ether-science was becoming increasingly more ridiculed on Earth. This led to the formation of the Victoria Station Institute for Advanced Ether-science (IAE).

The Dissidents
This problematic splinter group is often merely referred to as the Mad Scientists. This is less of a faction than a catch-all term for those Etherites who left the Society following the establishment of the Code of Scentific Ethics. The Dissidents clam that such measures will only hamper scientific discovery. A few of the Mad Scientists are reported to be working with the Technocracy in Germany and the Soviet Union.

Though the Society has publicly denounced the Dissidents, their continued existence is often used by the Society’s critics within the Council of Nine as an argument for why the Society should not be fully trusted.

Inzhenery Elektrodin
Frustrated by the suspicion and lack of resources in the Council of Nine, as well as what they described as the imperialist philosophies of the Society, these Mages officially left the Society of Ether in 1917. Led by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, they joined the Technocratic Soviets shortly after. At this time, they also reclaimed the Society’s old name, Electrodyne Engineers.