Note: For the benefit of players and people who just purchased thegame, spoiler information has been moved to the bottom of the FAQ.

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• <H3>What is Trinity?</H3>
• Trinity is a science-fiction role-playing game of the near future from WhiteWolf Games. Most player characters are "psions," mentally gifted humans whouse their psionic abilities to defend humanity from a variety of threats:bloodthirsty aliens, evil mutants and earth-bound conspiracies. It is a sciencefiction game world complete with many science fiction staples: teleportingjumpships allowing interstellar travel, at least 4 alien races, psionics,mutants, biotechnology and much, much more.<H3>Didn't it used to be called something else?</H3>
• Trinity was formerly known as Æon, named for the benevolent organizationthat many player characters work for in the game. Viacom (owner of MTV) threateneda lawsuit, however, saying the name was too close to their trademarked property"Æon Flux," even though role-playing games and TV series are completelydifferent types of properties. While some minds think White Wolf could havewon the case on those grounds, it would have meant delaying production untilthe court case had been resolved (and losing a lot of money), so the game'sname was changed.<H3>When and where is Trinity set?</H3>
• Trinity is set in Earth's near future -- the year 2120, to be precise. Withthe help of the psions, humanity has colonized nearly all the planets of oursolar system, as well as five other star systems and one nebula. Earth itselfis quite different from the one we know; the former United States is a fascistdictatorship, Europe is an anarchic wasteland, and the oceans are populatedwith floating and undersea cities.<H3>You mean this isn't the WoD? And it isn't even Gothic/Punk!</H3>
• Trinity is not the World of Darkness in the future. There are nowerewolves, vampires, wraiths, mages or fae lurking in the shadows, nor werethere ever. The "future history" that leads humanity to the events of 2120has some definite historical differences that preclude it from being the futureof the World of Darkness. The mood of the Trinityverse -- encapsulated bythe words "Hope, Sacrifice, Unity" -- is not as dark as the WoD, either.<H3>Can I do a Trinity/WOD crossover?</H3>
• You can do whatever you want. The White Wolf Game Police will not hunt youdown. Various folks on the 'Net are experimenting with using psions in theWorld of Darkness and using World of Darkness creatures in Trinity. There'splenty going on in the Trinityverse without them, though.<H3>What's changed from the Storyteller system?</H3>
• The major change from Storyteller is the way dice are handled. All rollsare difficulty 7. Only one success is required. If the Storyteller judgesa task is more difficult than usual, she can require more successes. Furthermore,rolled "1"s do not subtract from successes; they merely determine how severea Botch is if no successes are rolled.
  There are other differences as well:
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• Abilities are now grouped under specific Attributes.
• Instead of Normal and Aggravated, the two kinds of damage are Bashingand Lethal. Bashing damage is recovered quickly and can be soaked. Lethaldamage is more severe, and generally cannot be soaked without armor.
• Soak -- whether a character's normal Soak or from armor -- subtractsfrom the attacker's damage die pool, not from the damage levels rolled.A successful attack will always roll at least 1 die of damage, even ifthe target's Soak exceeds the damage die pool.
• Demeanor has been replaced with Allegiance. Allegiance not only givesthe player insights into his character's beliefs and core values, butgives the character a starting set of Abilities that reflect her backgroundand basic training.
• Initiative is the sum of your character's Dex+Wits+1d10, not a Wits+Alertnessroll.
• There are actual vehicle combat rules.

<H3>How do the Lethal/Bashing health levels work?</H3>
[*]Attacks are classified as Lethal or Bashing; which is which is pretty straightforward.Fists, clubs, barstools, falling, vehicle crashes and the like are Bashing;knives, guns, lasers, Aberrant claws and so on are lethal. A character has7 Health Levels, just as in the regular Storyteller system; both kinds ofdamage are tracked on the same scale. When a character takes Bashing damage,the box on the character sheet is marked off with a slash; Lethal damage ismarked with an X. If a character who already has Bashing damage takes Lethaldamage, an extra slash changes the Bashing level to a Lethal X, and the Bashingdamage is moved another level down the chart. When a character reaches Incapacitatedfrom Bashing damage, he's unconscious, and another level of damage -- whetherBashing or Lethal -- will kill him. Some players and storytellers have complainedthat this rule makes combat too deadly, and have proposed a house rule thatBashing damage inflicted after unconsciousness transforms a level of Bashingto Lethal; the character wouldn't die until all Health Level boxes have beenX'd out. As with any WW game, the golden rule is paramount: If it doesn'twork for your game, throw it out.<H3>Can characters soak Lethal damage in this game?</H3>
[*]Normally, no. Armor is the only means of soaking Lethal damage; armor israted in terms of Bashing and Lethal soak levels. If you plan to run a lessdeadly, more "cinematic" series, though, there are optional rules allowingcharacters to soak some Lethal damage (you'll find them on page 241 of themain book). Of course, Aberrants break all the rules... most of them probablyhave Lethal soak levels.<H3>What are the psionic aptitudes?</H3>
[*]There are eight psionic aptitudes known to humans: Biokinesis (shapeshiftingand body control), Clairsentience, Electrokinesis, Psychokinesis (encompassingpyrokinesis, cryokinesis and telekinesis), Quantakinesis, Telepathy, Teleportationand Vitakinesis (physical and mental healing and wounding). Two of these,Quantakinesis and Teleportation, are lost to humanity, along with the ordersthat practiced them.<H3>What are the orders? How are they related to the Æon Trinity?</H3>
[*]The orders are organizations associated with the psions. Most psions workfor one of the orders, or the Æon Trinity itself. The Æon Trinity,a worldwide philanthropic and political-action organization, helped organizethe orders and wields a lot of influence with them, but does not control themdirectly. There used to be eight orders; currently, there are six. Only oneactually calls itself an Order, but the word has come to be used as a genericterm. Each is a different type of organization, and is associated with a differentpsionic aptitude. The current orders are:

• The Aesculapian Order (a.k.a. Docs, Rexs, Vitakinetics): A nonprofitpublic-health and safety organization, similar to the Red Cross, basedin Basel, Switzerland. Aptitude: Vitakinesis.
• The Interplanetary School for Research & Advancement, or ISRA (a.k.a.Seers, Clears or Eyes): A freeform, vaguely religious university basedon Luna; kind of a cross between a seminary and a commune. Aptitude: Clairsentience.
• The Legions (a.k.a. Psychokinetics, Legionnaires, PKs or War Dogs):An Australian military order, with support, mercenary and space-defensedivisions, and regional defense divisions in Australia, North Americaand Europe. Aptitude: Psychokinesis.
• The Ministry of Psionic Affairs (a.k.a. telepaths, teeps): A bureauof the Chinese government. Aptitude: Telepathy.
• Nova Forca de Nacionales (New National Force) (a.k.a. Norca, biokineticsor shifters): A semi-legitimized criminal cartel based in South America.Aptitude: Biokinesis.
• Orgotek (a.k.a. electrokinetics, Eks, Orgotechs or teks): A North America-basedmegacorporation, preeminent worldwide in the fields of biotechnology,computers and spaceships.

<H3>What about the other Orders you mentioned?</H3>
[*]The Chitra Bhanu, an India-based scientific research foundation, was thesmallest of the orders, with only a few hundred members. The quantakineticswere revealed to be in league with the Aberrants, and they were hunted downby the other orders and were either killed or arrested (and then executed).Their Prometheus Chamber was reported to have been destroyed. Thereare occasional reports of fugitive Chibs hiding out in the North Americanblight zone, in Antarctica, or on the outer planets, though.
[*]Following the Aberrant assault of the space-station Esperanza, which sentthe station crashing out of orbit onto the heart of France, all themembers of the Africa-based Upeo wa Macho vanished, along with their PrometheusChamber. Their aptitude was teleportation.<H3>Can a character have a different Aptitude than the one of the Order theybelong to? In other words, do all telepaths work for the Ministry, and areall Ministry agents telepaths?</H3>
[*]No, and no. To address the first question, some of the orders have agreementsthat allow them to "swap" psions; if the Legions recruit a fellow who hasa strong latent tendency for electrokinesis, they will contact Orgotek andpromise to "dunk" one of the corporation's latent PKs in their PrometheusTank later in exchange for activating their guy in Electrokinesis. Psionsare (more or less, depending on the order's policies) free to leave theirorder and go to work for another, for the Æon Trinity, or for themselves.The Trinity also wields enough leverage to ask the orders to activate latentpsions for them now and then. Secondly, psions are extremely rare. Most ofthe people who work for the orders are normal people -- doctors, nurses andorderlies working for the Aesculapians, Orgotek technicians, salesmen andfactory workers, ISRAn teachers and researchers, and so on.<H3>Then why aren't there any Orgotek quantakinetics, or ISRA teleporters,for example?</H3>
[*]Bolade Atwan, the Upeo Wa Macho proxy, was very possessive of her jumpers.No teleporters ever worked directly for the Trinity or any other orders. What'smore, when the Esperanza crashed, it's reported that all teleporters everywhere,even those on the distant colonies, said something along the lines of "Whoops,gotta go" and vanished. When they did, their Prometheus Chamber went too,so we won't be seeing any more of them. As for the Chibs, it's conceivablethat some of the orders may have concealed a "quark" or two among their ranks,but for the most part, they were all turned in and offed. And their tank wasreportedly destroyed, so there will be no more of them, either. Both aptitudesrequire such a high level of latency that Auxiliary Modes in these aptitudesare unheard of.<H3>Will there be more orders and aptitudes coming out in the future, likethe Bloodlines or Crafts in the other WW games?</H3>
[*]Trinity creator Andrew Bates has said, paraphrased, "Not while there isbreath in my frame." The origins of the proxies and the Prometheus Chamberskind of precludes that. There may well be other player groups, but they won'tbe Psi Orders.<H3>Who are the proxies? Where did they (and the Prometheus Chambers) comefrom?</H3>
[*]The proxies are both the leaders and the "parents" of their orders, as wellas the most powerful psions on earth. In 2103, back when they were all justregular people, each of them answered a mental call and gathered in a secretmeeting on Luna, where they were triggered in their respective psionic aptitudesand given the Prometheus chambers that let them create more psions. The bestspeculation of Æon researchers is that the agency that did this -- whichthe proxies have only obliquely referred to as their "benefactors" -- waseither a covert human group, an unrevealed alien race, or the proxies themselvesprojecting backwards in time.
The individual proxies are:

• The Aesculpian Order: Dr Matthieu Zweidler
• Chitra Bhanu (lost order): S.K. Bhurano (deceased?)
• Interplanetary School for Research and Advancement: Otha Herzog
• The Legions: General Solveig Larssen
• Minstry of Psionic Affairs: Rebecca Bue Li
• Nova Forca de Nacionales (Norca): Giuseppe del Fuego
• Orgotek: Alex Cassel
• Upeo Wa Macho (lost order): Bolade Atwan (missing in action)

<H3>How does the Prometheus Process work?</H3>
[*]The process has been revealed only a little at a time. Here's what we doknow: each Order has and controls only one Prometheus Chamber; each Chambercan only activate a psion in its specific Aptitude; a psion "dunked" in atank will come out with that tank's Aptitude, regardless of any inherent latenttendencies (though strong latent tendencies may be responsible for AuxilaryModes); a tank can only activate one psion at a time; and the process takesabout an hour (coincidentally, about the same amount of time as it takes toformat bioware), but there is a varying period of disorientation afterwardduring which the psion's mind acclimates to and learns to control his newpowers. Now, what the Prometheus Process actually does to activate a psion-- whether the process works chemically, genetically, noetically, nanotechnilogically,somethingelseally or some combination of the above -- has not been clearlyrevealed. It's been said that even noetic scientists in the game world don'tunderstand it all that well. It's just another one of those mysteries.<H3>Can a psion go through the Prometheus Process twice? What happens?</H3>
[*]In a word, "sploot." You're dead. Nobody can go through the process twice,not even in the same chamber.<H3>Can a person become a psion any other way, without going through the PrometheusProcess?</H3>
[*]The utterly unsatisfying answer: Sort of. The game makes mentions of psychomorphs,a.k.a. "proto-psions," people who spontaneously manifest low-level psionicabilities. As of yet, though, there have been no rules released about howto build or run proto-psion characters. (This info is said to be coming inthe Trinity Player's Guide, along with a more free-form method of aptitudeuse.) And before you ask, it's not been revealed what happens to proto-psionswho try to go through the Prometheus Process.<H3>What's the difference between a Psion and an Aberrant?</H3>
[*]Psions manipulate Psi energy, Aberrants use Taint.<H3>OK, smarty, then what's the difference between Psi and Taint?</H3>
[*]A psion uses subquantum forces, powered by the recently discovered "psionparticle," through as yet unrevealed means, to manipulate the fundamentalparticles and forces of the universe. The Mazarin-Rashoud Node in the brainof Aberrants allows them to manipulate the strong and weak inter-nuclear forces,using a type of radiation known as "taint." They are completely differentsources of powers. Really. They mean it. They're not kidding.

From a post to the Trinity mailing list by game creator Andrew Bates:

"Taint is supposedly what causes the development of the Mazarin-Rashoudnode; has interacted with the Midwest ecology in a different way to twistand sterilize much of the region; has combined with and broken down somepeoples' genetic structure as with D. Frankly, scientists are unsure exactlywhat the taint is -- and whether Aberrants spread it, or it creates Aberrants(or both!). And they've had a century to puzzle at it. (The fact that itseems somehow opposed to psi -- an energy source said to permeate everythingin the universe -- is very significant. But scientists aren't yet certainwhat, exactly, it means. They're a very frustrated bunch right now.)<H3>Do I have to play a psion? Could I play a normal/alien/Aberrant?</H3>
[*]The game is designed around playing psions, but there is a sidebar for creatinghighly skilled normal characters. There are not rules for playing aliens,though they may come in the future. If you want to play an Aberrant, rulesfor that are contained in the game of the same name, though it's not providedfor within the Trinity setting.<H3>What aliens are in the game? Do they have psions/jump tech/other paranormalpowers?</H3>
[*]So far, there are at least four alien races:

• The Qin: The Qin are meter long slugs that walk around in biotech humanoidbodies so as not to freak the mundanes. They are generally friendly tohumanity. They are experts with biotechnology, though they do not possessFTL/jump tech. Humanity met them, and gave them rides on our ships. Theydo possess low-level telepathic powers.
• The Chromatics: They first appeared attacking a human mining colonyin the Crab Nebula. They did not used to have FTL/jump technology, thoughit appears they were recently given a jump ship by some outside agency.They are masters of "photokinesis," able to manipulate light in amazingways.
• The Coalition: Some time ago, ISRA clairsentients detected a "spaceark" travelling at near-light-speeds toward Earth. The jumpship sent tomeet it returned and was heavily classified, but the rumors regardingthe interaction are quite sinister. The Coalition is made up of an unknownnumber of different alien races, three of which the humans have dubbed"Envoys," "Spinals" and "Sasqs."
• A fourth alien race is revealed in the Darkness Reavealed adventureseries.

<H3>What do you get if you put an alien, like a Qin, through the PrometheusProcess?</H3>
[*]A really nasty mess inside the Prometheus Tank. Oh, and a really nasty visitfrom the Qin Ambassador. Aliens can't become psions. Some of them can becomeAberrants, though... heh heh heh...<H3>Why are there so few extrasolar colonies, and why are the ones we haveso far away?</H3>
[*]Humanity only had a couple of years with the Upeo Wa Macho's jumpships toset up colonies before they mysteriously disappeared. Since then, humanityhas just finished developing jumpships that do not depend on the Upeo's psionicabilities, and just reestablished contact with the colonies.
It has not yet officially been established why the colonies are where theyare. A commonly expressed opinion is that, since the colonies were locatedby psi powers, and transported to via psi powers, those locations are somehowpsionically "interesting." Another theory, one that's picking up adherents,is that humanity was "pointed" toward them by the Benefactors.<H3>The Æon Trinity can't really be that squeaky-clean, it must be ahuge conspiracy factory, right?</H3>
[*]On the one hand, this is not the World of Darkness. The Trinity developer,Andrew Bates, has been pretty emphatic that, in general, Æon is workingfor the betterment of humanity. However, it is not a monolithic organization,and there may be members who are not as "good" as the others. It also is alarge organization and, in general, large organization with lots of powerare not to be 100 percent trusted.<H3>What happened to Europe and the U.S.? Who are the new world powers?</H3>
[*]The U.S. was the favored stomping ground of the Aberrants and is scrabblingto return to the glory days of the 20th century. In the wake of Aberrant attacksthat sank the state of Florida, crashed the OpNet (successor to the Internet)and laid waste to the nation's food-growing heartland, the government wasslowly and subtly taken over by fascistic elements from within. Europe alsosuffered from Aberrant attacks and the OpNet crash, and had a bigassspace-station dropped on it from orbit, turning much of France into a smokinghole.
The new world powers are: Brazil, due to the strength of their natural resourcesand cultural dominance; China, which was the only real superpower to weatherthe Aberrant Wars well; and Australia, which absorbed a lot of the regugeesfrom America and Europe and is the home of Big Media.<H3>What's culture like in the Trinity future?</H3>
[*]As there are different cultures in the present, there are different culturesin the future. The life of an everyday person in Australia (the new entertainmentcaptial of the world) and an everyday person on the Moon are completely different.
Some of the more notable features of 2120 culture include: a fascination withLuna and the Qin; low-gee or zero-gee sports; a resurgence in interest inspiritual matters, including "anima," the principle that spirits inhabit everything;the pervasiveness of computers and satisfactory-intelligence computer agents;holovid (3-D) entertainment; bioware chic; and "bang" music, strident electronicsuccessor to rock 'n' roll. (Subsets include ambient/atmospheric Anima bangand Middle Eastern-influenced Muezzin bang.)<H3>What's bioware? Do you have to be a psion to use it?</H3>
[*]Bioware is organic technology -- tools, machines and vehicles that are grown,not built. Ordinary people can use some bioapps (pieces of bioware -- shortfor "bioware applications"), though they are much more limited in what, andhow much, they can use due to the way psionic energy powers bioware. Psionscan have bioware "formatted" to their DNA, allowing them to access more featuresand exert more control of bioware. Some bioapps work only when formatted.<H3>What's the bonus for formatting a biotech weapon?</H3>
[*]+2 Accuracy, +1 Damage. It's in the weapons chart, under the "FT" entry.<H3>How does this vehicle weapon/armor adds stuff work?</H3>
[*]Vehicle weaponry is defined as Xd10 [Y] L. When a vehicle weapon fires upona person, it automatically does Y health levels, plus however many derivedfrom the Xd10 damage roll. Vehicle armor is defined as X [Y]. If a normalweapon is fired at a vehicle, X and Y are both subtracted from the damagedice, and unlike normal armor, if the damage is less than zero, no damageroll is made. Vehicles firing at vehicles ignore the adds altogether.<H3>How come different size spaceships all have the same number of damagelevels?</H3>
[*]The armor scale is supposed to represent the size and durability of a spaceship,not the Health Levels; it's harder to do those 7 levels damage to a biggership, after all. This is one of several glitches in the vehicle combat rulesthat Andrew Bates said would have been ironed out if there was time; thereare especially problems in compatibility between the main book and the TechnologyManual. There is the "Vehicles as Extras" sidebar in the main book and optionalrules in the Tech Manual for giving certain kinds of ships more or fewer HealthLevels if you don't like how the system works.<H3>How come kick maneuvers suck? </H3>Since extra to-hit-roll successes add on to damage dice (up to a limit of5 extra dice), the +1 to-hit difficulty of a kick offsets its one damage dieadvantage over a punch. Unless you roll exactly 7 successes to hit, a kickwill do the same damage as a regular punch, but hit less often. Some say itcould be deliberate to reflect how bad a maneuver a kick is for those nottrained in martial arts; others say it's a simple math oversight that oughtto have been corrected by now. Either way, the solution commonly suggestedby the game's writers is that charcters with martial training be allowed toadd +4 or even +5 damage dice for a martial kick, at Storyteller's discretion,but that normals ought to be stuck with the wimpy basic kick maneuver.<H3>Why aren't there warp engines/transporters/spaceship shields/hand phasers/otherStarTrekky crap?</H3>
[*]Short answer: Because this isn't the Star Trek RPG. It's also not the Babylon5 RPG, the Star Wars RPG or the Lensman RPG. The technology that works inTrinity was decided upon for reasons, primarily because the creators wantedto put the emphasis of the game on individual characters and their psionicpowers, not ubertech. If you had transporters, who would need the Upeo?<H3>Are there sentient AI computers or androids?</H3>
[*]There are "Satisfactory Intelligences" in Trinity. While not fully humanin computing power, these "SI" agents are getting closer and closer. Thereare also robots, though they are generally not built to look identical tohumans. It's generally considered a bad thing to have completely human-appearingrobots, but the Japanese -- who are big into hardtech but have a near-pathologicaldislike of biotech -- have a few.<H3>Is there other Trinity stuff besides the role-playing game?</H3>
[*]Trinity was conceived from the start not just as a role-playing game, butan entertainment property that can be expanded into many fields: other games,TV series, movies, novels, comic books and more. The first spinoff, Trinity:Battleground, White Wolf's first miniatures-combat game, was released in August1998. Aberrant, the second role-playing game set in the Æoniverse, cameout in July 1999. A third game, covering the pulp-era of the Æon Society'sfounding days, is tentatively scheduled for some time in 2000. There are alsoT-shirts, dice, pins and such; plans for a series of novels by acclaimed sci-fiwriter George Alec Effinger (author of the story at the beginning of the mainrulebook) were shelved, but may yet happen. What else will come remains tobe seen.
[*]

<HR><H2>The Spoiler Stuff</H2><H3>Who are the Benefactors?</H3>
[*]The Darkness Revealed adventure series revealed the existence of the Doyen,an interstellar race of protoplasmic balls of psionic energy. Being composedof living psionic energy, they were quite alarmed by humanity's propensityfor erupting into Aberrants who would go around spreading Taint everywhere.There are at least three Doyen points of view on the subject of humans: thosewho want to wipe us all out, those who want to quarantine us as best theycan in our corner of the galaxy, and those who want to prevent us from becomingAberrants by turning the genetic code that causes the Mazarin-Rashoud Nodeinto something else entirely. This is the faction that won the day, and gavethe Proxies the Prometheus Chambers. Not only are Psions handy cannon f--uh, that is, allies against the Aberrants the Doyen fear, but humans activatedin Psi can't become Aberrants later. Two birds with one stone.

What the Proxies don't know is that the chambers not only activate psionicpotential in a latent human, they also lock the new psion into a restrictedframework of psionic powers, unlike the Doyen, who can manifest multipletechniques with facility. Trinity developer Andrew Bates has said that whenthe Proxies discover that the Aptitude/Mode structure of psionics is anartificial restriction, "they will be royally pissed."<H3>So what are the other Doyen up to?</H3>
[*]Short answer: No good. Some of them discovered the Chromatics and gave thembiotechnology, spaceships, and the means to capture and control psion teleporters,forcing them to jump their spaceships to where they could attack humans: Karroofirst, and later, Earth.<H3>Aha! So that's what happened to the Upeo wa Macho!</H3>
[*]Well, not quite. Some of them were captured and forced into servitude bythe Chromatics, but not all. Read on.<H3>OK, what really happened to the Lost Orders?</H3>
[*]Remember the Doyen and how they can manifest multiple psionic abilitiesat high levels? Well, there's one little trick that they can't do: Quantakinesis,the psionic ability to manipulate the strong and weak forces of atoms. Rememberwho else does that? Uh-huh. Aberrants. Unlike the other psi orders, the ChitraBhanu were a Doyen experiment. Their Proxy, S.K. Bhurano, was from the startpossessed by a Doyen (they can do that, sliding their protoplasmic selvesbetween a human's cells). When the Doyen were satisfied with the results oftheir experiment -- that Quantakinesis is in fact a dangerous thing to Doyen-- they shut the project down, using their telepathy to plant suspicion inthe other Proxies' minds, and finally planting "evidence" that the Chibs werein cahoots with the Aberrants. The other Orders swooped in and wiped themout. (A few were stashed away by the Norça and perhaps Orgotek, alongwith a few critical components of the Chibs' chamber, though.)


[*]The Upeo Wa Macho were humanity's only link to the extrasolar colonies.Already somewhat unbalanced by the Doyens' mental meddlings in the ChitraBhanu affair, the Proxies started to get suspicious of the teleporters, whowere intensely loyal to their Proxy, Bolade Atwan, and would never leave theUpeo to join up with anyone else. Worried that the power of life and deathover the colonies was too important to leave to one group that had its ownagenda, the other Proxies began to come up with their own, Chromatic-likeplan to enslave the Upeo. Atwan learned something was up, and fearing a Chib-likepurge, began to implement a scheme of her own, an evacuation planned in caseof mass Aberrant attack. The eventual assembly of the Legion, Orgotek andother troops for an assault on the Upeo's headquarters was noticed by twoentities: Atwan, who set the evacuation into motion, and The Colony, an immenselypowerful Aberrant faction leader, who feared the troops converging on theteleporters' home meant an imminent attack on the Aberrants' interstellarhideouts. The Colony sent its minions to distract the psions by shoving theEsperanza station out of orbit. The other Orders pleaded with Atwan to savethe station, or at least teleport their people there so they could fight offthe Aberrants. But Atwan, knowing the troops were moving, thought Esperanzawas a trick to get her to delay her flight, refused to help, and took herOrder and Chamber to Ruan's World, a hospitable alien planet the order haddiscovered in earlier wanderings. Esperanza smashed France, and the rest ishistory.<H3>That's really evil. They were really going to enslave the teleporters?</H3>
[*]Yes, they had pretty much talked themselves into it, with arguments about"the good of humanity" and the like. To their minds, it wasn't slavery, morelike eminent domain -- if the overwhelming good of the majority requires somethingthe only source refuses to give, the majority is within its rights to takeit. Besides, Atwan had just revealed to the other proxies the existence ofthe planet Eden, ruled by benevolent, sane, non-tainted Aberrants. The proxieswere worried Atwan was leading the teleporters down the Chib path, and couldn'tlet that happen. Whether the proxies were in their right minds or not duringthis process isn't clear; Doyen meddling has been rumored.<H3>But you said that teleporters have been seen since then. Wouldn't theyhave found out that the Esperanza really did crash, and come back?</H3>
[*]While in exile, a few of them did slip away -- with or without Atwan's consent-- to come to the aid of the far colonies when absolutely needed, especiallyat Karroo, an African colony. But, fearing capture -- Atwan knew her peoplewere disappearing, she just didn't know it was to the Chromatics -- she absolutelyforbade jumping to Earth. Anyone who tried was hunted down and "broken" --their powers were stripped from them. This only had to happen a few timesbefore the teleporters stopped trying. Since then, the other psi orders discoveredthe location of the Chromatic homeworld and joined forces to invade and freethe captive teleporters there. This act of good faith led Atwan to allow herpeople to return to Earth again, though the order remains headquartered onRuan's World. (These events are covered in Ascent Into Light, the third ofthe Darkness Revealed adventures, and Invasion, the first of the Alien Encounterseries. Information on Ruan's World, the Upeo wa Macho order, and the teleportationaptitude are contained in the supplement Stellar Frontiers.)<H3>I guess the shit hit the fan then.</H3>
[*]You bet. Upon their return to Earth, the Star-Crossed -- the group of teleportersthat disagreed in the first place with the decision to leave -- formally splitfrom the Upeo. Cowed by her misjudgment in the Esperanza crash, Atwan is reversingher former once-an-Upeo, always-an-Upeo attitude and letting them go. Thedeveloper has also revealed that the Star-Crossed will return to the Upeo'sAfrican headquarters, where they will join up with the soon-to-be-foundedEigth Legion and disaffected groups from other orders to found an eighth psiongroup. This group will not have a Prometheus Tank or a Proxy, so whether ornot they can properly be called a Psionic Order is a matter for future debate.<H3>Speaking of the Upeo and Karroo... who are those "friends" that helpedthem wipe out the Chromatic fleet that was about to paste the station? Doyen?</H3>
[*]Nope. Aberrants. Honestly. Well, they don't call themselves Aberrants; theM-R Node-enhanced inhabitants of planet Eden call themselves by the pre-AberrantWar term, "Novas." They run sort of a benevolent dictatorship over severalthousands of normal humans who left with them during the exodus. They're remarkablylow on Taint for such powerful beings, and also remarkably sane. Remember,it was mentioning these sane, nice Aberrants to the other Proxies that ultimatelyled to the whole Upeo enslavement-Esperanza crash-Upeo evacuation fiasco.<H3>So what's next for the Trinityverse?</H3>
[*]Process 418. That's clairsentient proxy Otha Herzog's codename for the visionof doom that he sees coming around 2122 -- beyond which neither he nor otherClairs can see Earth. Coincidentally, that's about the same time as the Coalitionspace ark should be reaching Earth orbit. Beyond that, we'll just have towait and see...</UL>