[K5pbem] History of Kazei 5 Universe

[Michael Surbrook]

This is about as official as official can be -- formatted for HERO  
Games publication even!

I offer for review the first two pages of the History of the K5  
universe. Input more than welcome.

<chapter>chapter one:  CYBORGS, ESPERS, AND GENETIC UPGRADES:  THE  
WORLD OF KAZEI 5

“I firmly believe that before many centuries more, science will be  
the master of man. The engines he will have invented will be beyond  
his strength to control. Some day science shall have the existence of  
mankind in its power, and the human race shall commit suicide by  
blowing up the world.”
-- Henry Adams, 1862

	At one point the twenty-first century was predicted to be a  
technological paradise, with flying cars, vacations on the moon, and  
robotic servants performing most household chores. Food would come in  
small pills, crippling diseases would be a thing of the past,  
automation would mean more leisure time for the common man, and  
atomic power would hold the answers to all of man’s energy needs. If  
only it were so simple.
	The world of 2030 is a far cry from the one imagined during the  
highly optimistic 1950s. Instead of a bright, shiny future, filled  
with gleaming chrome and bright plastics, there is a more dark and  
disturbing reality. One where international megacorporations rule  
nearly every segment of their employees’ lives:  where they live,  
what they eat, where they spend their money, and what they spend it  
on. Where the police are just another profit-minded company,  
supplying their services only to those who can afford to pay for the  
privilege of local law enforcement. Where replicated humans are  
manufactured and sold as simple products, no different from cars,  
computers or home appliances. Where crime and urban violence has  
become so prevalent whole sections of cities have been sealed off and  
abandoned. A future where man, in the never-ending effort to improve  
himself, has turned to genetic engineering to produce a superior  
human. Where technology has traded mere flesh for cybernetic  
enhancements. Where so-called “esper weapons” command vast  
psychokinetic forces.
	But to truly understand the nature of the modern world, it is  
necessary to look nearly two hundred years into the past, and the  
middle of the nineteenth century.

1700-1800:  THE FIRST ESPERS
	If there is one thing that defines the world of 2030, it is espers.  
They are some of the most precious of corporate assets, jealously  
guarded and often hidden away until needed (at which point they are  
usually displayed prominently). But where did they come from? Some  
historians consider the Comte de Saint Germain and Count Alessandro  
di Cagliostro, two eighteenth century charlatans and/or occultists to  
be two of the earliest documentable epsers. Others consider Franz  
Anton Mesmer, and his studies into what he called “animal  
magnetism” (better known as “mesmerism”) as the first example of  
esper research. In any case, it is generally agreed the rise of  
Spirtualism marks the origin of the modern epser.

	In the 1840s a religious movement started in upstate New York.  
Labeled “Spiritualism,” it dealt with attempts to contact God,  
angels, and the dead though the use of séances. Mediums, the name  
given to those who did the contacting, often exhibited various  
paranormal powers, such as levitation, telekinesis, clairsentience,  
and so on. As the movement became more popular, and the demand for  
mediums increased, some took to the stage, exhibiting their powers in  
front of paying audiences. While many mediums were exposed as frauds,  
others bore up under close scrutiny, with no signs of trickery ever  
found.

	While spiritualism, mesmerism, and séances died out in the late  
1920s, scientific interest in the powers of the mind was just  
beginning. Various experiments into the existence of of extrasensory  
perception (i.e. “ESP”) culminated with the controlled environment  
tests conducted by Dr. J. B. Rhine of Duke University during the  
1930s. His discovery of and research into what he termed  
psychokinesis” resulted in the first documentable epsers; people who  
could demonstrate feats of mind over matter on demand. However, the  
results of his rather amazing discovery, and the implications  
thereof, were delayed for more than decade by the Second World War.  
It wasn’t until afterwards, with the rise of the Cold War, that the  
scientific and intelligence communities would take a closer look at  
the epser phenomina.

THE 1950s:  MAN ENTERS THE ATOMIC AGE
	The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan marked the end of the  
Second World War and the beginning of the so-called “Atomic Age.” It  
also saw the United States of America rise in prominence to become a  
world superpower, equaled in power only by the Soviet Union. With the  
threat of Nazi Germany gone, it didn’t take long for the two former  
allies to quickly become enemies. Staring at each other of the  
shattered ruins of Europe, the two nations settled into an  
uncomfortable stalemate, content to wage a hidden “cold” war of  
technological one-upmanship. Naturally, spies played a big part in  
this struggle, and both sides were quick to start conducting research  
into Rhine’s discoveries.

		Starting in 1950, both the American Central Intelligence Agency  
(aka the CIA) and the  Soviet Committee for State Security (aka the  
KGB) made investigative forays into the phenomena of ESP. Their  
experiments discovered a number of espers, all of whom were very weak  
(by modern standards), but were capable demonstrating their talents  
at will outside of a highly controlled laboratory environment.  
Spurred on by the idea of intelligence agents capable of reading  
minds, both organizations immediately begain to study ways to  
increase a known epser’s powers, as well as ways to unlock esper  
potential in others.

[[SIDEBAR]]
THREE REAL WORLD CIA PROJECTS
	Three programs of the CIA, and their intended use are as follows:
	Project BLUEBIRD:  Experiments in drug-induced mind control and  
interrogation.
	Project ARTICHOKE:  The follow up to Project BLUEBIRD, it dealt with  
methods for inducing amnesia, implanting posthypnotic suggestions, or  
extracting confessions via chemical means.
	Project MKULTRA:  A series of studies investigating the use of LSD  
and Mescaline as truth serums on an unsuspecting American pubic.
	Obviously, in the Kazei 5 setting these projects would have aims,  
and produce results, far beyond what they did in the real world.
[[SIDEBAR END]]

	
	THE 1960s
	THE 1970s
	


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Michael Surbrook
susano at guisarme . net http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/index.html

The Phoenicians were not great philosophers... they pondered the  
simpler questions, like "If I stick this spear in you, can I take  
your stuff?", "Do you have relatives that would be mad if I took your  
stuff?", and "Can my relatives beat up your relatives?"

Doug Robarchek