PmWiki - UnknownUSA.UACosmology

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Rob's UA cosmology differs from canon in several places, though not as drastically as it may seem. The main change I started with was that our cosmology is purely national in scope. All the Avatars are America-specific, both in origin and effect, and just about everything of any occult significance is American too. People on the UA mailing list sometimes complain that UA is USA-centric; that's explicitly one of the cosmic principles of our game.

Another change is that all the Avatars are closely tied to the Tarot MajorArcana (a la LastCall). My thinking here is that these are the routes available for ascension. The other archetypes in the UA books may sometimes be folded into these slots, but the slots available are fixed. So when JohnHenry ascended to the Arcanum of Strength, he continued to represent the Working Man, the Freed Slave, the Dignity of Labor, etc. And that shapes America's understanding of and experience of "Strength" ever after. If an aristocratic Aryan uber-mensch ascended to the Arcanum of Strength, it would alter America accordingly.

These two changes would seem to invalidate the idea of the InvisibleClergy as a cosmic odometer that reboots the universe when it rolls over at 333, but I've never been crazy about that angle anyway.

One aspect of the UA cosmology that probably seems to be taking a beating is the idea of a human-centered cosmos: the idea that everything that happens is the result of human actions and desires (as the back of one of the books says, "YOU DID IT"), and the corresponding absence of powerful supernatural beings that are beyond humanity in origin and power. (Nephilim, Selenim, Dero, I'm looking your way...) But I've actually tried not to violate the principle of ultimate human agency and responsibility, or at least to always leave it an open question. This may sound pretentious, but I kind of see this as a question for the game and the players to answer rather than a principle that is established before hand either way.

Where we have split from UA canon, I guess, is with all the NPC groups and factions: the New Inquisition, the Sleepers, etc. Many of the groups in the UA book have appeared in our game, but with different names and faces. But that's a subject for another Wiki page. [Rob]

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