Church of the New Epoch

Church of the New Epoch
Type	Global religious movement
Membership
Leaders	The Nine

The Church of the New Epoch is a global religious movement that emerged to challenge EuroCorp. The Church Sermon in Syndicate 2012 suggests it's also present in that timeline.

History

The Church of the New Epoch is a new and mysterious organization that became the first serious threat to EuroCorp's global sovereignty in fifty years. While their spiritual message is - as far as EuroCorp is concerned - the usual melange of half-baked cod mysticism and rigid hierarchy that characterizes most extremist sects of their type, conveniently collated into The Book of Cataclysm, what is extraordinary about them is their technical sophistication, as Church devices seem to demonstrate technological advancement far in advance of EuroCorp's cutting-edge research. They have been classed an Alpha-l security threat by the syndicate.

Ironically, the origins of the Church are secular, rather than mystical, and very close to home. The Nine, the founders of the Church, were originally members of the Cybernetic Cognition Conference or C3, working at Reykjavik on a top secret EuroCorp R&D program in. The program's objective was the design of a machine capable of amplifying human cognitive abilities to levels beyond those of AIs. The team got further than the design stage, and managed to construct a human intelligence-enhancing device, more effective than anything in conventional cybernetics. Against the orders of Ko-Paull Vissick, certain members of the group then used the experimental cerebral amplifier they had made, on themselves. C3 member Tyrone Chodak was the first to use the device and was able to formulate scientific theories well in advance of anything EuroCorp had achieved. Compiled into a Codex consisting of intensely complex mathematics, quantum physics, genetics and some brand new work in fields as diverse as unified force mechanics and evolutionary cognition and enough revolutionary science to keep every AI in UTOPIA busy for years.

However, a power struggle erupted between Chodak and Vissick, climaxing in an explosion that wrecked the C3's Reykjavik facility. In his notes, Chodak accused Vissick - who was nowhere to be found after the explosion - of sabotage. Chodak also charged EuroCorp with complicity and threatened to use technology derived from the Codex to completely annihilate the Syndicate. The rest of the C3 followed Chodak's lead, disappearing together with him less than 48 hours before the Harbinger virus demolished UTOPIA worlwide. It appears the founders of the Church disappeared into the Nuuk Cathedral, formulating dogma and putting into practice the theories of Chodak, including the development of personal anti-gravity harnesses, the aforementioned virus, and many other weapons. The Church of the New Epoch became a vehicle for carrying out Chodak's threats to destroy the Syndicate.

Beliefs

The Church believes that it is engaged in a holy war against EuroCorp.

The ultimate goal of the Church, or rather, the Nine, is the destruction of humanity on Earth and a new beginning, achieved by cloning the Nine en masse. All servants of the Church are also to be sacrificed, immortalized as Saints of the New Epoch, and anyone who disobeys would be eradicated by the Sanctum Protectorate guards, elite Disciples protecting the Nine and the Ion Gate on Earth's Moon, as they prepare to wipe humanity out.

Organization

The Church is a strictly hierarchical organization under the leadership of Tyrone Chodak, its visionary, genius creator, and ideologue hell-bent on remaking the world. Chodak is part of the Nine, the collective leaders of the Church, who in turn disseminate orders to Disciples, peers of EuroCorp agents equipped with the best weapons and technology the Church can provide.

A separate troop of Disciples, known as the Sanctum Protectorate and distinguished by the golden armor and black cloaks.

Behind the scenes

• In the Syndicate Wars official game guide, apparently relying on an earlier draft of the story line (which isn't surprising given how stories and plots evolved), the Church is not the result of experiments with artificial intelligence, but actual, legitimate alien technology discovered in Reykjavik. Whether this was meant to be a tie-in with Creation that Bullfrog was working on the time, or they realized that it was a bit too campy and replaced the alien idea with the more down-to-Earth cyberpunk notion of AI, the Church was originally set up as the Otherworld Research Group in Reykjavik that hijacked EuroCorp's alien research.

"You've noticed that recently all the tidy little organizational rules have been unraveling. But did you guess that all the trouble can be attributed to... aliens? Yeah, right, this is not a big ha-ha. We're talking spaceships and serious technological advancement and hush-hush secrets. It's for real, and I mean it's a real problem.
The Syndicates found it first. They got word of some strange discoveries at an arche- ology dig site outside of Reykjavik. They sent some guys in white coats to check it out, and the next thing the archaeologists knew, the Syndicate was bussing in the best scientists they had and set up the Otherworld Research Group (ORG), to see how the alien technology could be adapted to things like kicking the mud out of anyone who went up against them. Everything was going smoothly... right up to the moment people started dying.
CHURCH OF THE NEW EPOCH
These guys weren't keeling over due to some dread alien disease that had lain buried for thousands of years. Nope, these guys were dead from ammunition poisoning. Before the Syndicate knew what happened. ORG has taken their recent discoveries and formed their own group called the Church of the New Epoch. It was based on the Codex, which I've found out is just a fancy name for some encrypted information about the aliens and their technology. The original ORG scientists christened themselves the Nine, and went deep underground to continue their research. That's essentially all I've been able to find out to date. I've got a couple of leads as to what's going to happen and why, though. Apparently the Church is planning a complete takeover of the most hostile sort. That much is just common logic. The strange part is that they also seem adamantly opposed to CHIP-control. They're not trying to usurp the operation; they're doing their best to short out the CHIPS entirely. There have been commando attacks at CHIP data stations and strikes at the satellites.
Power is controlling the masses. The question is why are they breaking the CHIP link, rather than simply taking control of it?
On that thought, I'll sign off for now.
Agent 8702"

–Official game guide