The unacknowledged Infinite Worlds timeskip

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by ehrbar

The Armanen Order commands some psionicists and mystics, sure. It's also weak enough that it has to actually hide from the German government, and the power-users aren't (apparently) running the Order. There might be some members who resist joining with the Condor, but I doubt it's really all that effective.

After the Condor Group merges with/takes over the Armanen Order, the only obvious place for there to be a speedbump is if the Reich-5 Japanese have their own occult mystics who are good enough that Japan can't be subverted by the Condor.

I'd imagine the issue with using mind control when there are psions about isn't so much that the psions are more resistant as it is that the psions will notice the others being under mind control, and a "mind control most of the leadership" plan normally relies on nobody recognizing that said leadership is mind controlled. I don't know enough about the setting(s) to know if the psions could actually do anything to prevent Condor from taking over, but it could well be that, with the knowledge there are hidden psions to account for, Condor is being sufficiently cautious in probing Reich-5 that they are nowhere near taking over.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I don't know enough about the setting(s) to know if the psions could actually do anything to prevent Condor from taking over, r.

I don't know if Condor has enough casters with Mind Control College ability to take over a whole timeline. What they seem to be associated with on Merlin-1 is Necromancy (sometimes at a ridiculous scale).

If the typical Condor Mage is one of those booby prize winners with Magery(Necromancy only) then there won't be the necessary Enslave Spell casting.

Note also that if you have any longer term aspirations than weaseling out of your bar tab you need Enslave which takes 30 energy to cast. Merlin-1 would be a fine place to get the 20 pt Powerstones required to do it the easy way but in a Low Mana world those would only recharge at a pt a week. Ceremonial Magic would get around that but kiss doing this with subtlety and flexibility good-by.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Note also that if you have any longer term aspirations than weaseling out of your bar tab you need Enslave which takes 30 energy to cast. Merlin-1 would be a fine place to get the 20 pt Powerstones required to do it the easy way but in a Low Mana world those would only recharge at a pt a week. Ceremonial Magic would get around that but kiss doing this with subtlety and flexibility good-by.

Sounds like being able to use Enslave on a large number of people in a relatively short period of time would call for bringing a large number of Powerstones and/or sending the empty ones back to Merlin-1 so they can recharge in a more timely fashion (between 5 days if you find a Very High Mana area to do the recharging and 20 days if you simply leave it in Normal Mana - but either is a huge advantage over the 140 days - a bit shy of 5 months - required in Low Mana). Is such a setup within the means of Condor Group to manage while still avoiding the Nazi occultists' attention?

[Rupert]

Of course the caster also has to get to the target, then cast it with a -5 penalty for low mana (and how many casters from normal mana environments will have sufficient skill to overcome that and still be able to cast quickly and without rituals and with a high effective skill?), and any penalties for range, and overcome the would-be victim's will. This probably means using a ton of other spells on bodyguards, etc., and each one means that much more chance of something going wrong, and an expenditure of energy, and penalties for maintaining them, and a lot of the more useful mind control spells are slow to cast.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Rupert

(and how many casters from normal mana environments will have sufficient skill to overcome that and still be able to cast quickly and without rituals and with a high effective skill?), t.

That would be the guy with Enslave-20 who already runs the Condor Group. I'm not sure he still does field work ant more. :)

[Willy]

Remember being in contact doesn´t mean, one group wants to control the other.

Given the at least partly similar goals of both groups at least a cooperation in certain fields is possible.

In 8 years a lot can happen. Given Reich 5 has a already means of worldtravel and the chronoautobahn it will spread like a wildfire through the Quantum, and only some ISWAT operations and a chronic lack of ressources ( because the order is hiding his own secret from the gouvernment ) could hamper that. With the troops and ressources you can get out of the burgundy without raising alarm you can only do so much.

Of course if Reich 5 gets behind the secret of the order or a leading order member gets the new nazi leader all bets are open.