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Old 01-27-2013, 06:21 AM   #48
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: The Shadow Court of HM Queen Elizabeth II

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edman View Post
According to this this wikipedia article, there is not MI18, despite there being an MI19. ... the idea of a secret organization that should exist but doesn't, is somewhat tantalizing
MI19 has not existed for many years. The plausible mundane explanations for the lack of an MI18 include it having been in a plan at some stage, but never created - it's entirely plausible that MI19 would not be renamed, since that would be hard work in an all-paper administrative system - or it being a deliberate gap to confuse people. Icelander does seem to be trying to keep the 20th century history of his campaign world very close to reality.

Quote:
so what if there was a secret occult cadre to match the Nazis?
An occult study group to try to predict the effects that occultism would have on Nazi policy and strategy is plausible*, and doesn't require that the organisation doing it believes in the occult. (I play in a WWII secret-magic campaign that has used this as a cover story a few times.) But it doesn't sound plausible as an MI department in its own right, since that would require it having more official structure and paper trail; it would be easier to keep it secret as an internal branch of MI6.

* For the definitive account of how Germanic occultism did influence the Nazi worldview, see The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.

Last edited by johndallman; 01-27-2013 at 06:22 AM. Reason: spelling
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