Other Transcendence

[Flecker]

Introduction​

In 2030 the nations of the world were taken aback by the announcement of a group called the Society of Magic. The announcement was shocking, and many people were unsure of how to treat such news. The Society numbered around 2,000 members and was distributed worldwide with chapters in America, Canada, Brazil, Japan, England, France and many countries. They demonstrate magic that passed all the tests skeptics tried out on them and passed accredited tests by scientific teams. The years after that have been the toughest for every human, magical or non magical.
Debates raged between 2031-2033, and opinions were thrown back and forth. What are their rights? To what extent magic is considered safe? Do they have more responsibilities? Are we all safe? And sometimes it got to a point where people were questioning what makes a human, human.
2031-2034 was a violent moment, and while not all of them antagonized each other, a handful of people made everything seem so much worse. Policemen, deputies and federal agents performed random investigations, arrests, and questionings. Information from other parts of the world reported of kidnappings and missing people after practicing/demonstrating harmless acts of magic for shows or to assist people.
In 2033 groups started spawning from multiple sides of the world. Japan's reputation as one of the safest places in the world became challenged when the Kensei Brotherhood spread instructional videos on using magic in a violent way, advocating disruption of peace, vandalism, destruction of public property and assaulting lawmen. Similar anarchy groups spawned in different places all over the world and riots were commonplace. Acts of crime were committed everywhere, ranging from mild tasteless prank and vandalism to brutal acts that can only be explained as an act of magic.

 

[Flecker]

Chaos​

A video published on the eve of January 23rd, 2034 changed everything. A video showing a woman, smiling as she cut herself, twisted herself in ways a person couldn't imagine and eventually committed suicide as the thickly Russian accented voice of a man commanded her to, broke the internet. Russian authorities claimed that the man was not russian, nor could it possibly be in Russia due to the low rate of magical activity in the nation.
French reporter Eric Foley, with strong antimagic sentiment, flew all the way to Russia after a tip from an anonymous informer. The Frenchman discovered a body, Elvira Polsky, a 22 year old cafe waitress, in the address that he was given. It made national news in France and the European countries.
Russia of course started a nationwide investigation of the issue and discovered a 53 year old mage and physiotherapist, Anatoly Kiev, guilty of the act. In the documented interview between a TV host and the man, Kiev’s words were "The human mind is like a guitar that I can play with. I know which string to strum to make whatever music I like." The interview continued on with gruesome details on how he's able to slip past police questioning by using memory spells multiple times. This made that interview the most upsetting one in such a long time. Russia's image as a country capable of controlling its citizens sank all the way to the bottom.
Diplomats could only do so much to lift the image of Russia from the brink. Drastic measure was necessary. Arrests were commonplace, Russia allocated massive space to gather people suspected of sorcery to be executed by firing squad, people lynched others as guilty of committing sorcery and magic was deemed illegal in the country.
China followed Russia's direction in implementing that air of fear and dread, deeming magic illegal. Death squads were sometimes sent to "clean" reported locations of violent magical activity. Fear of magic that could enslave the mind was propagated throughout the world. Churches began to offer protections against magic, and exorcism services were high in demand. It peaked by the end of 2034 when people clamored for the Vatican to declare a state of emergency and polls were made to see if "Salem Trials" should be done again.

 

[Flecker]

Struggle​

January 1st, 2035 was a historical moment for humanity. At this time, a crowd of 4,000 people gathered outside America's Russian embassy. Television and documentation of the event showed how they were all mages, empathizing for the countless deaths from firing squads, a number that was likely to be forged. Russian government reported less than 1,000 people had died from its purge, but NGOs and Human Rights organizations reported graves that easily surpassed the 10,000 people mark. Their demands included the stopping of Inquisition officers sent out to houses of suspected mages, and the cessation of talks regarding a bill that made magic illegal.
Yet the core of their message was not addressed to the non magical humans-- it was for their brothers and sisters that they advocated acts of kindness and peace with magic. Led by Philipa Lewis, the peaceful act echoed and resonated with many countries.
Figures of magical peace became prominent and politically involved. Peter Murtaugh, a mage with a JD from Cornell, actively fought for the rights of mages and defended countless mages from biased and wrongful accusations. A russian neuroscientist, Svetlana Tolstoy, wrote an intricate and many times reviewed journal exploring how unlikely it was for a mage to be capable of mind control, stating that the ability must be innate and, even then, strong sedatives would be needed to penetrate the mind of an otherwise healthy adult.
Tolstoy also wrote methods of counteracting mind assault which proved to be 70-85% effective. These methods ranged from relaxation techniques, meditation instructions, and ways to focus the mind in such a way that the mind is in a state of intense focus or in heightened calm state. Tolstoy's paper clarified what was unclear, and nutshell versions of what were in the paper were spread all over the world. Tolstoy herself was invited to speak on various events regarding tricks or her life story as a witch. Questions that the public originally dared not ask a mage were imposed on her. While views on Tolstoy were largely positive, a stigmatized view towards magic and mages remained on the negative. Tolstoy found the questions asked to her were questions that would corner mages in general, questions like, "What is your weakness? How can a mage die? Are there any of you who worship satan? Will religious symbols hurt you?" Prominent magical public figures were plenty, yet they hadn’t struck the people's hearts.

 

[Gwalihir]

This looks interesting. Are you seeking contributing authors for characters?

 

[Flecker]

This looks interesting. Are you seeking contributing authors for characters?

Ohh okay! Let's move this to conversation.

 

[Flecker]

Heartstrings​

Deng Li, a playwright of many Cantonese and modern operas, wrote "Daughters of Sunlight", a play telling the story of a Chinese teenager belonging to a family living in the Chinese sewer system. Deng was inspired based on a story he got after he interviewed sewer dwellers that swelled up once the decree that magic is illegal had taken place.
It tells the story of "Chen" as she traveled to the surface with 8 of her friends, all of whom were mages with non-magical parents. It tells the story of how Chen was an apprentice mage at 15 years of age, with only the ability of cleaning objects. With this, she went above ground during the day to do odd jobs and offer her services to Chinese families.
Deng told the story of rivals-- fellow sewer kids with similar abilities intimidating, bullying, and abusing each group so they could earn dominance to gain money. In Chen's group, no one knew how to use magic to defend themselves, and their bodies were largely emaciated, incapable of physically defending themselves. Chen was forced to work at a place 4 miles away from where her parents were due to the other groups' dominance.
She also told stories of when she couldn't earn any money and was forced to eat food she salvaged from landfill, washed, then cooked. It would have been better if her parents were also looking for income, but most of the dwellers suffered permanent injuries after escaping the death squad's advances.
Chen's father was paralyzed from the waist down due to a bullet, and her mother suffered a bad case of tetanus and had her left leg amputated. Chen's parents were considered to be lucky to only have that-- There were others who suffered total blindness, complete loss of hearing, and full body paralysis.
The death squads went to the site without mercy, shooting bullets, tear gas, and explosives, as if the zones were war zones. Common for Chen and her friends was to witness the kids not returning to the sewer. As the adults would say "The sun has taken them to a better place." A cheerful, if not strange, reaction the parents would have, since usually when that happened, Chen would witness parents of her friends weeping. Her parents would continuously repeat that sentence as, one by one, her friends were taken by the sun to be its daughters.
The story took on a different light when Chen befriended a boy with a rather clean uniform defending her from thugs and bullies. It was amazing of him to take on multiple kids capable of casting magic and beat them up, but when she looked closer at his outfit, she realized the boy was none other than a very young officer of the army who took pity on what she had gone through.
The officer didn't just do that. He would repeatedly leave food for her and even allowed her to visit his house to shower and bring fancy food to her family. One day, he promised a day when he would allow her family to visit his house. However, such a day was merely a dream, for he was found dead with a bullet wound on the head and on the chest, his naked body floating in the sewer with a message on him written in blood, "We Know".
Clearly the refugees' place was compromised, but to move such a large group away with haste was just beyond comprehension. Soldiers arrived and rounded up the sick and incapable of moving. Those who fought back and ran were shot in the back, and Chen was arrested.
Promised with the prospect of seeing her parents again, she told the soldiers all she knew, even admitting that she's a witch. The soldiers never did what they promised and instead, they threatened her with immediate death. They offered to let her live and to work on the transfer of her parents to the prison so they could be together only if she'd take a watered down LSD, as "suppressants" for her magical ability.
The rest of the story was grim, but in the end she found her parents' burial documents in a mass grave, and she successfully ran away. Even now, Chen spent her life as a refugee hiding inside the sewer hoping that one day she could see sunlight again. Deng's words imply that Chen was not a unique case, and many kids experienced what she experienced. The spread of information was slow, but by 2036 journalists and foreign reporters flocked to Beijing and many parts of China to investigate the truth of the claim.

 

[Flecker]

Awakening​

2037 was even more of a ride. The year began with a strong denouncement of China's actions by America as Pierre Petit and Elizabeth Rowe created a series of detailed articles by living with the sewer dwellers. Their stories confirmed plenty of what was in Deng's play. They were lucky that they still had food in their backpacks and didn't have to eat the refurbished junkyard food.
International support grew for the underground people, with various public figures showing countless support. They continued to pressure the Chinese government. Western adaptation of the play was popular, and it inspired the growth of similar stories. "Amelia'' was another famous play telling the story of magical and non magical love.
"2045" was written as an idealistic essay on how the two lives could coexist, depicting a utopian, imaginary world brimming with tolerance, culture, and absence of poverty. It emphasized how modern and advanced life would be if the two sides managed to put aside their differences and work towards a common goal. A quote famous from the movie was uttered by a side character, Benjamin Moore: "I believe in America, magic or no magic. Once an American, always an American."
A video made by Philipa Lewis in early 2037 went viral. In the video, Lewis challenged herself by finding salvageable foods from trash bins or landfill, and then she would clean and cook them just as Chen was doing in Deng's play. Lewis's idea inspired tons of videos doing a similar activity made by political figures, influencers, and social media stars, usually followed by donations to China's fund for the unfortunate.

 

[Flecker]

EMA​

Mid 2037 the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European countries declared their full support of magical people, Prime Minister Andrew Holmes stated, "Our ancestors made their mistake when they fear the unknown, they made that mistake so we will not fall to the same hole." The European countries then formed the EMA (Europe Magical Association) and its goal is written right on its charter, "Establishing a stable, cooperative environment for mages within and outside of Europe".
A month after the formation of the organization, denouncement of China's actions was formally made by the European coalition. Countries on the same spectrum as them made similar declarations that followed. Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada. But the most popular question of the hour was, what about America?
America was the first one to denounce China's acts, even before 2037, but since then there really has been mostly silence. The hot political climate between the two countries meant every statement no matter big or small is important for peace to exist between them. Magic was freely practiced in America, but restrictions exist to control them, while they're not illegal as the case was in China, they're far from the freedom mages have in EMA.
Lewis was a strong critic of America's stance and frequently emailed, organized strikes and petitioned the government for greater magical rights. However it was not without reason, many countries think that magic is a form of disease, curable with extreme treatment, sentiments of those notes resonated in Vietnam, China, North Korea, Indonesia and the Arabic nations.

 

[Flecker]

Uprising​

Ever since 2036, the year when Deng's play came out, China has been on the edge. While peaceful protests, hunger strikes and sit-ins were common from time to time, after August 2037 things changed for the worst. On the eve of August 23rd, 2037 the corpses of Deng Li, Chow Ho and Xen Han were discovered in Deng's apartment. The manner in which they died was, in a way, a tasteless joke for their executioners.
Chow Ho a vocal, aggressive, highly intelligent expert on sociology and debating was found with his tongue cut and hung from the ceiling, Xen Han, an olympic swimmer with strong humanitarian spirit was drowned with the toilet bowl and Deng was shot in the head and chest.
Bloody riots, looting and chaos soon followed. The "Beijing Movement" as they called themselves. They were tired of peaceful protests, some would resort to outright guerrilla actions from the buildings, ambushing soldiers or people who were suspected to be soldiers then stealing their weapons and using them to fight the government. Pressures were being placed by foreign countries on the nation, but China itself blamed the nations of the west for assisting, organizing and supplying the movement. An accusation that America strongly dismissed.
America's president Frank Lipton observed the hostile exchange between China and America. It certainly needn't be gaslighted any further, yet the actions of the EMA continued to further deteriorate the relation between the two factions. Boycotts of Chinese products and sanctions sterner than ones America placed on China were in place.

 

[Flecker]

Justice​

Philipa Lewis's struggle in America was getting even more difficult. After sending hundreds of emails to her government, she was facing legal issues on accounts of food poisoning caused by her challenge. In "State of Ohio V. Philipa Lewis", it was stated that Lewis's irresponsible call to action caused a massive upsurge in food-borne illnesses and a "pediatric emergency," as many of those who followed Lewis's trend were largely children.
Murtaugh called in a couple favors back at Cornell and assembled a team of highly qualified lawyers, including Professors Robin Matthews and Lee Farley, former judge and district attorney, and famous legal experts on cases related to magical humans. They defended Eddie Frisk when he was arrested after performing "incendiary magic" to break up a gang fight and burning one of the delinquents.
In what was described as a long, mentally exhaustive, paper consuming, academically challenging court proceeding that lasted for 30 consecutive days, the verdict was "not guilty" for Lewis and she won a settlement of $25,000.
Following the recommendation of Murtaugh and his insiders, it was decided that the duo were being targeted by US officials as "destructive elements" towards the foreign relationship between the United States and China. Governmental support for the two grew thin, and it was decided by the end of 2037 the two would move to the United Kingdom for their personal safety and greater leeway for them to advocate their mission.