Pan-Pacifica

On the surface, Pan-Pacifica is still Core Earth, but the jiangshi epidemic and subtle changes in axioms and World Laws are sure signs that an invasion has occurred. The Delphi Council suspects the location of two maelstrom bridges but has no proof. Reports of stelae have yet to be substantiated due to a flood of false and hyperbolic reports.

The Law of Intrigue

Pan-Pacifica seems a model for the rest of the world. The terrible jiangshi virus has been largely contained and the public generally accepts martial law. Society has returned to a semblance of normalcy. New high-tech devices by Kanawa and other companies provide escape and diversion to the populace as they wait for the troubles to pass. Movies, video games, and virtual-reality parlors distract the masses from the invasions occurring elsewhere around the globe or the occasional jiangshi outbreak.

Beneath the surface, however, paranoia runs rampant. People watch their neighbors carefully for signs of the virus. The government encourages this by sponsoring commercials, television shows, apps, and ads that urge citizens to report all suspicious signs to the authorities—including the actions of criminals, traitors, and other seditious types.

Within the companies that manufacture, market, and distribute new technology and other goods, a cutthroat mentality has developed. Those highest on the corporate ladder are awarded not just greater pay, privilege, and freedom, but might be able to have infected loved ones captured and placed in cryostorage chambers rather than being put down like most of the jiangshi.

Kanawa’s public face is stern but compassionate, but those who work there say the corporate environment is anything but. Results are prized above all else. Everything is analyzed for profit. Backstabbing is encouraged—those who fall prey to it are seen as weak.

Cosm cards like Is That a Bite? and Feud are linked to the intrigue of the realm. Sold Out plays directly to the rampant betrayal and suspicion.

The Law of Tenacity

Pan-Pacifica encompasses many different cultures, including those of Japan, China, and North and South Korea, as well as numerous small islands that have fallen under its sway.

The heroes of all these regions battle not only the ravening jiangshi, but the overzealous actions of Kanawa Corp and countless other forces. Whether they are hardboiled policemen and women, private detectives, rebels, or outlaws, Storm Knights of Pan-Pacifica know they can rarely rely on backup. They are almost always on their own against impossible odds. Police officers look the other way for Kanawa’s minions. Private detectives face hostile police forces, uncooperative locals, and security forces with full authority to shoot on sight.

• Tenacity: The hardboiled heroes of Pan-Pacifica don’t go down easily. When a reality-rated character would normally be KO’ed (from or other sources), he can take a to remove all his current instead. If the is his last, he gets one last full turn before testing Defeat.

The Law of Vengeance

Though backstabbing is commonplace in Pan-Pacifica, revenge is even sweeter. Just as betrayal is socially acceptable, reprisal in kind is mandatory. A man or woman who won’t or can’t avenge wronged friends and family is openly scorned.

The Law of Vengeance isn’t engineered or encouraged by Kanawa. It’s a violent reaction to the manipulation of the cosm’s World Laws, a release that calls to the souls of everyone affected.

Retaliation is cathartic and reinforced by reality. The Bloodbath cosm card rewards immediate revenge, while Served Cold encourages a methodical, long-term approach.

• Vengeance: When a character rights a major wrong done to her, a loved one, or an organization to which she has pledged herself she achieves vengeance. Her Destiny hand size increases by one for the rest of this act and the next.
  To be eligible for this award, the misdeed must not have occurred this act, and the revenge must result from some form of dramatically appropriate planning and coordination. All of this is subject to the Game Master’s approval, of course.

The Law of Intrigue

The Law of Intrigue seeps into every pore of Marketplace society. This Law is arguably the bedrock of Marketplace’s reality, since it, and the three Minor World Laws that derive from it, cannot be changed by the Law of Acquisition.

Marketplace is advanced socially. People are treated equitably, at least as far as ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is concerned, but wealth still matters. A lot.

And when everything else fades into the background, and money becomes paramount, people begin to act in a predatory fashion with each other. Deals are made at the small scale between company employees, at the manager level, and ultimately at the top of the organizations. Deals are brokered between individuals, companies, and nations. However everyone looks out for number one, and betrayal is sudden and inevitable.

It’s not paranoia if people really are out to get you is a common meme on Marketplace, but the fact that cooperation between people is critical for advancement means people cannot just go it alone. People walk a tightrope of trust between what is necessary and what is safe.

• Intrigue: Persuasion tests based on deception are favored. Any ability that involves mind reading, mind control, or memory alteration has its range reduced to Touch and tests take a –4 penalty.

The Law of Tenacity

The Law of Tenacity replaced an earlier law during the invasion of Kemajin when Reiko activated the Law of Adaptation during the invasion, and just like it says on the tin, it’s been tenacious at sticking around ever since. Even when Reiko had managed to replace that World Law, the Law of Perversity soon kicked in and brought it back.

This World Law helps the little fish fight the big fish. Whether it’s been a beat cop taking on a ghost syndicate, a crew infiltrating a megacorporation, or scientists fighting to cure the Contagion, Marketplace’s reality gives a helping push for them to succeed.

This may at first seem to be at odds with the Law of Intrigue, but in a way, it actually enhances that World Law since it’s usually those who have less power who betray or scheme against those with more.

There are some reality scholars who speculate it may even interact with Core Earth’s Law of the Underdog in a strange alliance against Marketplace’s own High Lord.

• Tenacity: When a reality-rated character would normally be KO’ed (from or other sources), he can take a to remove all his current instead. If the is his last, he gets one last full turn before testing Defeat.

The Law of Rationalism

The Law of Rationalism originated with the cosm of Kadandra. Reiko used the Law of Acquisition to replace the Law of Vengeance as a response to the threat posed by supernatural abilities from her allies.

Although psionic powers and miracles are not contradictory under Marketplace’s axioms, the Law of Rationalism reinforces that scientific progress and rational thought is the true path to knowledge.

This Law tips the balance of power away from the Magic, Social, and Spirit Axioms towards that of the Tech Axiom. As is typical for Marketplace’s reality, this effect has been subtle, as it does not impact the vast majority of the population. Instead it impairs the casting of magic spells, the invocation of miracles, and the manifestation of psionic powers.

Minor World Laws

The Law of Acquisition

The Law of Acquisition represents the tendency for the metaphorical big fish to eat little fish until there are only a few big fish in the pond. Thus the tendency for the development of monopolies and corporate mergers eventually resulted in the creation of megacorporations, and even they supplanted the nation states that formerly existed on Marketplace.

However this World Law has a utility that was only realized when Kanawa began invading other realities.

Adaptation on a Cosmic Scale

The Law of Acquisition allows the High Lord to take the Axioms and World Laws of other realities they are exposed to and apply them to the cosm as a whole, or individual stela zones. There are two ways to maintain this exposure.

The first method requires a direct connection through a stela boundary. Currently Pan-Pacifica is directly connected to Orrorsh and Core Earth, and small areas of the realities of the rest of the Marketplace are kept as reserves, should their realities become useful to tap.

The second way a reality can be tapped by the Law of Acquisition is by the accumulation of Eternity Shards from that reality. The Possibility Energy is drained from these Shards to utilize those World Laws or axioms.

Benefits

When a reality’s axioms or World Laws are tapped, the High Lord can choose a benefit, though in almost all circumstances, the benefit is only partial or situational:

• Axiom: Tools from higher axioms than are currently supported by Marketplace reality are supported directly through the power of the Law of Acquisition, but only for a certain category of tools or concepts. Only one axiom can be boosted at a time throughout the cosm.
• World Law: A single major World Law may be replaced by a World Law of the tapped reality, with the exception of the Law of Intrigue. No Minor Laws may be changed, since they derive from the Law of Intrigue.

The changes propagate within days throughout the cosmverse and touch even hardpoints physically disconnected from Marketplace reality. Only one axiom may be boosted in this fashion cosm-wide, but multiple World Laws may be replaced.

Akashan Biotech

In the years leading up to the invasion and after invading Earth, Kanawa agents exploring other realities came across Eternity Shards associated with the Akashans. Although Kanawa was able to modify the Gaunt Man’s gospog seeds, she believed further advancement in biotechnology was needed to maintain her competitiveness against the other realities. Tharkold has better psionics (even if she personally dislikes the inability to fully control psychic mutants). Several other realities have much better magic or spiritual power (even Core Earth). Marketplace wasn’t even the most advanced of the invading realms technologically.

Kanawa gathered and used the entire Akashan Eternity Shard stockpile to supply Daikoku enough Possibility Energy to support biotechnology up to Tech 25. Thus, Pan-Pacifican characters may possess biotech and GeneMods without personal contradiction in any cosm.

The Law of Adaptation

This law represents the ability of the people of Marketplace to learn from other cultures and adapt them for their own use—whether that be for their own benefit or for use against their rivals, whether that be agents of a rival megacorp, or those of another reality.

Manufacturing

One of the effects of the Law of Adaptation is that manufacturers use advancements from the higher Tech Axiom in the field of manufacturing and design and efficiently fabricate lower Tech items that can be used in other realities without contradiction. This has effectively made Pan-Pacifica the arsenal of Core Earth, since much of the manufacturing capacity of nations in North America and Europe have been impacted either by disruptions in the supplies of raw materials, labor, or outright loss within invaded territory.

Slow Transformation

Another impact of this World Law is only seen during invasions of other realities. Normally when a maelstrom bridge drops into a stela zone, or when a High Lord injects Possibility energy into a zone to flip it from Mixed to Dominant, an axiom wash sets off a wave of transformations of around 30% of the inhabitants of the zone, as well as the majority of non-living objects. However the Law of Adaptation slows this axiom wash, so it is barely noticeable.

The axioms and World Laws of Marketplace still take effect, but instead of transforming within a week (or a day in the case of Pure Zones), non-living objects can take upwards of a month or more to transform, and even then, the changes are minimal. A computer remains a computer, and remains cosmetically the same, but the electronics and software will eventually upgrade in a manner that is seamless. Living beings are tagged for transformation but won’t actually do so for up to a month.

Additionally Daikoku can drain small amounts of Possibility Energy from Mixed Zones. This drain isn’t huge, but it does allow Kanawa to flip Mixed Zones to Dominant naturally, which keeps the reality shift subtle. This allows a quicker expansion of the realm compared to other invaders, since she doesn’t have to spend Possibility Energy to jump-start the Possibility Energy drain.

Subtle Reality Storms

The third effect is that the reality storms on the stela boundary are subtle, taking the form of mist or fog as opposed to violent storm activity. Even the reality storms that exist in Mixed Zones are subtle, almost more of a negotiation than an outright battle.

Effectively by the time some people notice the changes (mainly Storm Knights), Kanawa has taken enough control of the territory that she can utilize propaganda and psychological techniques to keep the citizens in the dark.

The Law if Perversity

Just as the Law of Intrigue will inevitably result in betrayal, the very reality of Marketplace conspires against itself.

No matter how much Marketplace’s masters try to control situations, objects, or people, reality finds a way to destroy that control. While that loss of control can be delayed, it is inevitable. The consequences of this law are often referred to by the quote: The perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum.

This loss of control can manifest as an increase in complexity beyond the means of people and technology to keep up, such as losing containment of a biohazard lab…or a genetically engineered zoo. It can manifest as a disease mutating quicker than expected, often into forms that are utterly unanticipated. It may even mean that invoking the Law of Acquisition to gain a benefit (in the form of a boosted axiom or changed World Law) can result in further changes to Marketplace’s reality itself.

Spiritual Revival

One major impact of this Law occurred soon after Reiko Kanawa replaced the Law of Vengeance with the Law of Rationalism. Just like the Law of Acquisition is allowing the use of biotechnology of up to Tech 25 without contradiction, the Law of Perversity diverted some of the Possibility energy used to activate the Law of Acquisition to directly boost Marketplace’s (and Pan-Pacifica’s) Spirit Axiom to 10, allowing more miracles to be invoked and supporting spirits to physically interact with the material world.