Deriving their name from the infamous Age of Enlightenment cult, the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order is an enigma; there are plenty of dictators who would love to know who its members are so they can silence them, but that's precisely why the Rosicrucian society keeps its membership secret. The members of the Order are known to be scientists an engineers, but also philosophers and sociopolitical activists as well, working at cross purposes with one another to fulfill their own goals, using the Order and the local Invisible College as a cover. The Cosmic Order sits at the center of the Republic of Letters, which may or may not stretch the entire Verge and Bleed, and may or may not exist everywhere - or just in the fevered dreams of paranoid delusional authoritarians who seek to silence criticism. In any situation, this group does exists, although in what capacity and to what extent is largely a mystery. The Verge and Bleed is rife with philosophical debate and existential questions, and the Republic of Letters is where they're found.
Who the Cosmic rosicrucians AreThe nature of the Cosmic Rosicrucian movement is, deliberately, obscured. It does exist - the organization is a very real organization, and it has a structured hierarchy. The organization is pseudo-religious in nature, often blending heavily with the various types of esotericism that exist throughout the Verge and Bleed, encouraging them as another way to try and understand reality - or realities. There isn't a uniform mission statement for the organization beyond "foster knowledge" and "foster discovery," as well as "share knowledge;" each planet that has members within the Society of Letters has its own Invisible College, and each of these Invisible Colleges works for local purposes. Some Invisible Colleges may seek to bring about an authoritarian regime, since that's what the intellectuals and educated elite feel is best. Others may seek to usurp such an order. There are rumors of Invisible Colleges existing in the Monarchy and Imperium, where the order, along with its more concrete cousin, the Free and Accepted Order of Masons, are very much illegal. However, regardless what the Invisible College is, the Society of Letters all appears to use the same rank for those who are indicted into the society; those who are indicted into the society don't have to worry about their reputation score; the reputation network only exists for those outside of the Order.
The Cosmic Rosicrucian Order tends to draw learned individuals from all different institutions. The ASAI is rumored to be part, as is the Archimedes society and other major universities. However, just as many scientists reject the CRO, noting that the emphasis on esotericism doesn't help spread science. Even then, however, the comfort that belonging to an organization with similar goals brings and the purpose it provides, especially in an anti-intellectual authoritarian regime, is often comforting enough that even the most strident of atheists will find a home. The Order doesn't have a fixed physical location; it exists in cyberspace, it exists as a mobile office, it exists wherever the brains that make it up gather and exist. It exists as the written word, carried across the ether. This means it doesn't necessarily have campuses that individuals can turn to in order to get resources; the best way to get resources from the Order is to know someone who is a part of the Order or to be part of the Order one's self. Even in relatively tolerant Republics like Bluefall and parts of the Regency the Order keeps a low profile; it wasn't that long ago that Almeida controlled the Regency and it isn't unlikely something like that might happen again, so there's point in advertising their presence. Local Invisible Colleges never issue ranks above Grand Warden; Magisters, Illuminated Magisters, and Thrones tend to be immortal and thus, act on a much larger scale. As with the Society, this lack of transparency makes the Order a very popular target for conspiracy theories, especially among those who support authoritarian policies and regimes but also from anarchists and autonomists who are turned off by the lack of transparency. |
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What the Cosmic rosicrucians Wants
While it can seem like the Order is a chaotic mishmash of different and mutually opposing goals, these goals are not instrumental goals; the Order only has one instrumental goal and that's the goal everyone agreed too when they became a Supplicant or Striver: to uncover knowledge, and to take part in the extensive peer review network it offers. To that end, their goals look very similar to the goals of the ASAI and the Archimedes Society (and in no small part to the Order likely including many members of the ASAI and Archimedes Society). How an Order goes about achieving this depends on the local Invisible College, and each Invisible College has different mechanisms and methods that they use to achieve their goals. Sometimes, these Colleges may take a direct role; other times, they take a subtle, indirect role in affairs. However, like any secret society or semi-secret society, the Order will generally prefer to use individuals not directly attached to them to get what they want. Most Invisible Colleges are also endlessly fond of alien artifacts that still function or pieces of knowledge that corporations and governments don't want to be public, and will often pay for people to get that information.
What the Cosmic Rosicrucians can Provide
While not direct, there are some things those with high rep or who are members can expect. The Order has tremendous intellectual firepower, but their habit of making information difficult to get actually makes them lousy for supplying training. They can offer training in some appropriate Hidden Lore skills. Similarly, they don't use a lot of equipment, but can give professional discounts on particular electronic hardware.
The types of assistance that the Order can provide are likely to include:
The types of assistance that the Order can provide are likely to include:
- Artifacts. they have a niche ability for getting their hands on alien artifacts.
- Hideout. These individuals are good at hiding.
- Immunity. Occasionally, they can pull strings behind the scenes to achieve legal immunity for certain individuals.
- Lore. While not as good at it as the ASAI, they do know things that others don't, and at higher ranks, grant access to a huge swath of hidden knowledge.
- Maps
- Special Orders: equipment that requires special conditions to purchase.
Rank
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
Title
Supplicant Striver Agent Veritas Warden Grand Warden Magister Illuminated Magister Throne |
Advnatages
Rank 0 Rank 1 Rank 2, Security Clearance [3] Rank 3, Hidden Lore IQ-1 Rank 4 Rank 5 Rank 6, Security Clearance [5] Rank 7, Hidden Lore Rank 8 , Security Clearance [7] |
A Republic of LEttersThe role of the Society of Letters isn't just to exchange information and share studies; it's another reputation network for scientists and amateur scientists a like, linking together philosophers, biologists, engineers, technicians, computer scientists, and all other areas of science in an effort to facilitate a free exchange of information, resources, capital, and the like necessary for experiments. The actual scale of the Republic of Letters is unknown, but the association of the Republic with a network that includes all aspects of academia rather than just the hard sciences (which is what the Research Network Associates, or RNA, does), as well as aspects of theology and esoterica, produces an entirely different feel from the RNA, setting it aside as something wholly unique. |
History of the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order
As noted above, the history of the organization is deliberately obscured. They are a quintessential secret society, although some historiography done on the subject seems to suggest that they appeared at roughly the time that the Argonauts emerged, and that the two may be connected. This would put their formation back to the Battle of Storm, or just after that. However, they remained an almost entirely underground organization, often associated with the anarchists and autonomists, until the ascension of the Archimedes Society and the Freemasons on the galactic scale, resulting in them becoming modestly well known.
Something that gets overlooked is their connection with the ASAI. The ASAI and the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order tend to overlap significantly in a number of ways, and while they have a working relationships, some suggest that the CRO was developed by a group of ASAI researches who were either too religious for the organization or lacked the the religiosity necessary to be in the organization, depending on which era one is talking about. That the ASAI would have founded the CRO makes a degree of sense; the CRO's infatuation with esoterica and the esoteric is legendary. However, this is simply a theory with no real support beyond a number of suspicions.
A small but growing number of conspiracy theorists hold that the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order is headed by a group of Glassmakers aliens, post-humans, and digital copies of the God AIs, and that their goal is to force humanity under their thumb. This view is likely incorrect, but the idea there's a connection between the CRO and the God AIs isn't entirely unfounded; the precise number of God AIs may never really be known, but early AGIs and even ASIs divided themselves into factions based on their ontology, and it's possible the CRO is an outgrowth of these factions. Whatever the situation, the real history is probably lost and may never be known.
Something that gets overlooked is their connection with the ASAI. The ASAI and the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order tend to overlap significantly in a number of ways, and while they have a working relationships, some suggest that the CRO was developed by a group of ASAI researches who were either too religious for the organization or lacked the the religiosity necessary to be in the organization, depending on which era one is talking about. That the ASAI would have founded the CRO makes a degree of sense; the CRO's infatuation with esoterica and the esoteric is legendary. However, this is simply a theory with no real support beyond a number of suspicions.
A small but growing number of conspiracy theorists hold that the Cosmic Rosicrucian Order is headed by a group of Glassmakers aliens, post-humans, and digital copies of the God AIs, and that their goal is to force humanity under their thumb. This view is likely incorrect, but the idea there's a connection between the CRO and the God AIs isn't entirely unfounded; the precise number of God AIs may never really be known, but early AGIs and even ASIs divided themselves into factions based on their ontology, and it's possible the CRO is an outgrowth of these factions. Whatever the situation, the real history is probably lost and may never be known.
Culture of the Rosicrucian Order
The Order tends to value things like curiosity and a desire to explore above all else, but there isn't a great deal that can be said about the order given the lack of uniformity among the members. The only thing unifying them is a desire for anonymity, and often times, existence in a repressive regime. Beyond that, there's little in the way of a culture for the group, outside of a strong desire to learn and to help progress the sum total of human knowledge ∎