Tomorrow's Son or a member of the Lodge of Wires
The Lodge of Wires is a Lodge of the Iron Masters. It's current leader is Tomorrow's Son, who believes in the Panopticon.
The spirit patron of the Lodge of Wires is Digital Eye.
Overview[]
Born in the high-speed world predotcom crash, the lodge originally studied the spirits of the Internet, hoping to turn it to the Uratha's advantage - just another startup trying to bend the 'net to their whims. A young but powerful spirit took umbrage at their meddling and nearly destroyed the Wireheads. One pack survived, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The pack members slowly rebuilt the lodge, focusing not on bending the Internet to their whims, but studying what it had become. Social networking and collaborative creation lead them to investigate humans who used the Internet to maintain distributed personalities. Soon, the lodge was home to the wolves at the heart of the burgeoning transhumanist scene. Wireheads immersed themselves in the culture, and the humans influenced the Wireheads.
They claimed that they were studying strange new spirits, but they ignored the changes that they were going through. The Lodge of Wires has slipped from its original remit. They're thinking about what might happen in the future, and how werewolves must change to deal with that. New technologies and new ideas spark debate on a daily basis. Would digital duplicates of living minds have spirits? How about digital duplicates of animals? If those humans died, would they leave ghosts? The Wireheads are certain that they would - and that such a phenomenon would be wondrous and horrific. They're certain that they will be the inheritors of Father Wolf's duty when their future becomes the present. The lodge's current leader, Tomorrow's Son, is a charismatic speaker who considers the future to be his territory, and damn anyone who stands in its way.
The Lodge of Wires pays lip service to Red Wolf, but members save their reverence for the Digital Eye, a vastly powerful spirit of the future. Only a few Wireheads know that their patron is also the Lord of Surveillance, and the lodge his chosen warriors. Most Farsil Luhal haven't heard of the lodge or assume that it was wiped out with the crash. Those who know of the Wireheads' continued existence don't know of their particular patron - and that they may be a danger to the tribe as a whole.
Membership[]
The Lodge of Wires approaches werewolves who may be interested, rather than vice versa. An Iron Master who wants to follow up the lodge's offer must meet with a member of the lodge in person to discuss politics, philosophy and technology. The lodge has four packs spread throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and another pack has recently emerged in Edinburgh thanks to the concentration of science-fiction writers and futurists.
If the initial meeting goes well and the prospective member's views are compatible with the Wirehead's broad vision of the future, the lodge offers the werewolf a chance to join. If she's deemed incompatible, she never hears from the lodge again - and if she goes looking, powerful spirit magics obstruct her path. She's given a crash course in how Wireheads will take on the Uratha's duty in the future. She must also complete a range of assignments on how werewolves can make use of bleeding-edge technology and psychology. The current high point is a paper on using social collaboration tools such as MySpace, Facebook, and Ning to organize several unrelated packs into a distributed denial-of-service attack on a powerful Incarna who would otherwise have leveled a large part of Silicon Valley. During her training, the prospective Wirehead can contact only other forward thinkers - all of them members of the lodge. At least two members of the lodge use brainwashing techniques to bring new recruits around to their way of thinking. Once her training is complete, the recruit petitions the Digital Eye. If the Lord of Surveillance believes that she will advance his agenda, he erases all traces of her from the world's computers, welcoming her to the lodge.
Game Mechanics[]
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
Prerequisites[]
All potential members of the Lodge must have demonstrated their affinity for cutting-edge technology (Computer •••, Science ••) and knowledge of when to be subtle in their enquiries (Cunning ••, Wisdom •). Those who would become Wireheads must be able to deal with humans without their hidden predator causing much trouble (Primal Urge 4 or less).
Benefits[]
All members of the Lodge of Wires treat Information Gifts (see The Rage, p. 118) as Affinity Gifts. Wireheads can purchase the Computer, Politics and Science Skills at an experience cost of (new dots x2) rather than (new dots x3). No werewolf can raise her Primal Urge above 4 and remain a member of the lodge; the pressure of her Rage prevents true consideration of the future.
Fetish[]
- Eyepiece ( •• or •••): Most Wireheads create or inherit an Eyepiece shortly after becoming full members of the lodge. The werewolf must bind a spirit servant of the Digital Eye into a cutting-edge smartphone with runes of the future etched into the case.
- All versions of the Eyepiece can call any phone or access the Internet from anywhere. A lack of phone signal is no problem, neither is the Gauntlet. Each Eyepiece also monitors news sources, flagging news stories that might be of interest to its owner. More importantly, the Eyepiece is the only way that a Wirehead can access the secure computer networks of the Lodge of Wires.
- The three-dot version of this fetish gives a werewolf a measure of the Digital Eye's true power. He can use his Eyepiece to see through any surveillance camera within a mile. If he selects a specific target, he can seamlessly track that target using any camera in range, until the target moves more than a mile away.
References[]
- WTF: Tribes of the Moon, p. 136-138
