What’s a Cliomancer to do when all the major historical sites have been explored? Be there when someone creates a new one.
The War Dogs is primarily a Cliomantic cabal centered around Washington, DC and other world capitals (chapterhouses are rumored to exist in Moscow, the Hague, and Bern, Switzerland)–though the War Dogs spend much of their time in far-flung places across the globe.
Dangerous far-flung places.
The founder of the group was a World War I veteran and student of the creator of Cliomancy, Dugan Forsythe. Jean St. Claire hit on the idea shortly before Dugan’s disasterous foray into China and put it to the test in the Spanish civil war in the formerly sleepy little town named Guernica.
His attempt to gain a Major charge at the town made famous by Picasso’s painting of the same name failed–though he was right that a new site had been created (albeit not a horribly important one). He also perfected his tactics of impersonating military and government officials there.
World War II was, needless to say, a jackpot for the physically fit and couragious adept, garnering him Major charges at Omaha Beach in Normandy, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blast sites and several other locations. During that time, St. Claire gathered up a collection of students and followers, though not as many as Forsythe (the attrition rate was higher).
Since the end of World War II War Dogs members have kept careful tabs on world leaders, waiting for even the faintest hint of international conflict. Members take care not to influence world events (at least not magickally), mostly out of fear that using their powers to create a historical site would prevent it from being having any mystical potency. Once they get an inside scoop, members race to the potential conflict site to be the first to harvest it.
The War Dogs’ tactics lead to interesting discoveries and interactions–including the discovery of Avatar magic. Though most Archetypes don’t mesh well with War Dogs’ aims (avatars of the Warrior are said to especially hate them), it’s said that Jean St. Claire channeled the Two Faced Man before he died. A number of War Dogs since then have employed Masterless Men and Executioners as muscle from the Cold War on.
Founder Jean St. Claire, by the way, was assasinated in 1963 by a KGB agent on the presumption that he was an enemy spy. Nobody said the quest for magical power was safe.
I like the idea of sites of major historic importance being mystically useless because someone used magick in their creation. It could come as a rude shock to a group of clios who have just fought tooth and nail to secure a significant site.
I’ve deliberately avoided the ‘shadowy conspiracy controling the world’ cliche here. Partly because it’s exactly that and partly because actively creating history seems like it would violate the theme of Cliomancy as a magickal school.
I definitely like them more as vultures than as predators, waiting for the blood to spill and the collective unconscious to pay attention before swooping in to get that first, delicious major charge. And then leaving, since the places aren’t exactly prime real estate and people will stop caring soon anyway. So, good call there.
What did St. Claire use his multiple major charges on? No definitive answers of course, but what kinds of stuff are likely? Are the War Dogs permanently occulted or something?
I honestly hadn’t thought out St. Claire much at all–I’d say one of them was probably to wish away radiation poisoning (visiting the site of a nuclear blast can’t have been healthy). Hiding his existance is probably a good one, too. Then there’s the old standbies of youth and wealth. I figured that aside from forming a Cliomantic cult, he really didn’t create that much of a visible effect before he died. Plus, being an avatar of the Two Faced Man would mean it would be difficult to know much about him, not even what he looked like.
Don’t forget the eternal youth gig.
If you’ve got a cliomancy major charge and somehow have no grand vision to expend it upon, staving off wrinkles for a few years is good if you figure you won’t be able to hold onto the hot potato.
There’s always the possibility he thought getting the charges was more important than using them and just broke them down into sigs. Though even by adept standards, that’s pretty crazy.
He also may have a caused a major historical occasion to occur, safely and in a way that meaningfully involved the majority of the area (a duel in the main hotel, an assasination in the corner store, a famous general ordered an asian cuisine meal to show his peaceful intent at a local buffet, etc.). Why did he do this? To keep the whole town free of cliomancers and, depending on what exactly happened, possibly corrupting a good deal of other possible magick harvests in the styles of other significant schools of magick he disagreed with or wanted to protect the place from. So that his family would be safe(r). Or so he’d have somewhere peaceful to retire to. Or whatever.
It does bring up an interesting question: If someone uses magick to make, say, a bridge dangerous for bungee-jumping or river diving, could an entropomancer charge up off of it? Not just that someone altered it with magick, but that someone specifically made it risky through magick.
Yeah, they could, as long as they aren’t the person who magickally made it more dangerous.