Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
The Dali Lama is from Tibet, and has a lot of connections around the world, perhaps he functions as an information broker?
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
I suppose it's possible. In any case, he has some role, but I haven't decided what.
|
Sounds like the right basic tone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
Saudi Arabia's Wahbaism sect has it's fingers in a lot of pies, sponsoring madrassas around the world, and has important connections to the House of Saud.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
From what I can tell, Wahhabi clerics or idealogues would be very unlikely to consider magic or the supernatural compatible with Islam.
I've actually introduced several groups or organisations with a predominately Sunni membership and occult interests in an earlier campaign set in the same world, but none of them were Wahhabi and, in fact, those hard-line Wahhabi Muslims I featured tended to consider the occultists apostates or heretics.
|
I think that Wahabists would be out looking for signs of sin and heresy* too denounce and oppose, but I think they would be more likely to notice such things than many.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
Judaism tends have a fairly extensive communication networks between rabbis as well.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
And Israel is new enough as a state to have less institutional inertia and entrenched resistance to paradigm-altering information, like the existence of other realities and preternatural powers, with an intelligence and security community famous for mental flexibility that rarely distinguishes any group of bureaucrats.
I've cast Israel as a regional power in occult terms, far more willing to accept evidence of anomalies and take action based on inherently hard-to-believe data, but I'm not sure whether Israel is large and powerful enough for any occult programs they found to be on the same scale as the British and Vatican occult conspiracies...
|
I think you have a good handle on this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
Mormons and American Evangelical movements spend a lot of time in odd corners of the world helping the poor.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
How might devout Mormons or members of American Protestant Evangelical movements react to the supernatural?
...
And for those influential within the churches, what would they decide needs to be done if they are convinced?
|
Oddly.
Evangelicals first, the two are not equivalent.
Most Evangelicals would be like the Wahabists above, but some may also be on the look out for more signs that God is signaling the beginning of The End Times. Then there are odd sects like snake handling Pentecostals that may run with an obscure Bible interpretation and wind up who knows where.
Mormons have some odd basis for their form of Christianity, like the Golden Plates that Joseph Smith used a crystal to read. They would be more likely than most to be looking for new Revelations from God. They are also doing things like trying to baptize** everyone who has ever lived, faith appropriate or not. Something that, in your setting, may have a basis in magic returning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adm
Large NGOs like the Red Cross and OxFam spend a lot of time in odd areas as well.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
They do indeed.
Would people who learn about the supernatural through their charitable work form some kind of network or conspiracy within the Red Cross or other NGOs to investigate or counter it?
|
More of a case for passing information on to others, I'm reasonably sure that the CIA/FSB/MI6 etc. keep tabs on these groups. Anything that rates as "chatter" will be noticed, and at least tagged as a potential bio-terroism concerns. A lot of odd behavior can be traced to drugs, disease, fungus, etc. and patterns of similar occurrences will be noted.
EDIT: I would add that NGOs and PMCs work together, or at least are in the same areas, often enough that they may be an information source for your leader. He may even have one or two as some sort of an asset.
* My apologies for the use of Christian terms, I don't want use terms I am unfamiliar with and misstate my intent.
** Holocaust Baptisms. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/u...s-beliefs.html