In Search of Paradise, Prophet McNeil and the Binaric Temple

Genesis....

       The year was 1927, and times were good, technology and progress was the way to the future across the world, especially in New York, the city of tomorrow. Among the teeming masses of the great metropolis, none looked forwards to tomorrow more than John McNeil. Son of a Scots minister, McNeil had developed a knack for engineering and business, and had made a name for himself as a tinkerer and fixer of biplanes and automobiles. Graduating from NYU with a degree in engineering, McNeil founded a locomotive works where he both designed and built streamlined steamers for the New York Central RR, earning both a fortune and a name for himself as a designer of fine express locos.

      In 1931, McNeil fell off the platform at Grand Central and suffered a severe concussion that put him in the hospital for three months. He dipped in and out of consciousness during this time and while lucid would write sequences of numbers, binary code, that he later explained was how he perceived the world around him. After he was released from the hospital, McNeil Locomotive Works literally exploded with activity. In 1934 the world’s first electric express train, the Zeus, debuted at the Chicago World’s Fair arriving at Union Station under its own power though no one knew how it did so, being an unconventional design that worked, as McNeil called it, via “wireless”. Soon McNeil Wireless Locomotives we’re on every railroad throughout the nation, replacing steam in quick succession for nearly everything short of long freight trains which were too heavy for the Wireless’ small power output. 

       It was during this time that McNeil began to devote himself to more spiritual matters. Seeing the universe in ones and zeroes gave him a lot to ponder as he began to look at his father’s Bible and then to the Hebrew Torah looking for answers to life’s great mysteries. Learning Hebrew at a rapid pace (along with several other languages), McNeil noticed an odd pattern in the Torah. Almost exactly like the binary code that tied everything around him together. It was a predictive code at that. Working feverishly over the course of a year he discovered that binary and Hebrew could be interechanged almost seamlessly. He began writing out what he saw. Predictions. Prophecies. All manner of the secrets of the universe long withheld. With the rise of Nazi Germany, he foresaw a great and terrible war through the “Binaric Torah” and began to draw up designs and plans for a way to escape the coming world conflagration. 

      In 1939, the war he had expected to come began. By this time he had gathered a following of engineers, scholars, scientists, and even ministers and rabbis from all over the world to his grand project. Quietly selling off the locomotive works and bringing in the few employees who were not part of the “automated” process that McNeil had developed by now, the “Faithful” as they would be called by future generations, disappeared from the face of the earth mere moments before a massive Nazi airfleet bombed New York and turned the “Big Apple” to ash. Their passing was not missed by the inhabitants of the world as the nuclear fires of the Second Great War burned everything and everyone. And civilization was no more.

Exodus....

      In truth, the Faithful had been led through a great gate to a place far beyond the reach of earth and its warring nations. To a world beyond the edge of the night, named New Canaan,  by McNeil. Here was a world bountiful but also harsh. Tribes of creatures roamed it’s waste places and cities of alien design and otherworldly creatures ruled the fertile plains and valleys. McNeil sought the “Tor-Binaric” for guidance and wisdom and the Faithful obeyed. Becoming great in numbers, they multiplied and did not mix with the natives of that land for they were evil and treacherous. McNeil spoke to his congregation and prophesied saying that as long as they kept the Tor they would inherit the stars and none could stand before them, but should they fail to keep the Tor, they would be destroyed and overcome by their enemies. And he divided them into twelve Units, and each Unit had its Multiples, and they went under twelve standards into New Canaan and conquered the cities of the plain and made war with the inhabitants of the hill country and the even into the sea itself. Using their advanced technology to bring the world under their dominion. And when all was conquered and settled before them, they turned their hands to the labors of industry and created the great city of New Salem. A hive of wonders from which the Binaric Assembly judged and guided the Faithful now numbering in their millions. The Prophet McNeil guided his people for 105 years to new innovations and advances in technology before going to his eternal rest.

Students of the Temple performing ritual maintenance on the outer defenses of the ancient complex.

New Salem. Tech historians have preserved one of the earliest works of the Prophet, the streamline locomotive, which they use for educational purposes.

Lamentations and Revelations...

      In 2339, the Binaric Assembly, made a ruling on the use of artificial intelligence. As laid out in the Tor-Binaric, the truly autonomous AI was to be shunned and was forbidden, for the prediction that the Singularity would swallow up and destroy the souls of men. Alongside certain biomechanical enhancements to the human form which were also forbidden. The human “temple” was sacred and not to be violated with machinery that invaded the vessel of the “nephesh”, the soul. This did not sit well with some technocrats who sought to bring about the Singularity as they saw it as the final form of humanity and the “unification” with the Tor itself. Soon religious sects began to form and break away from the Binaric Temple. This began the “Time of Lamentation” as the Faithful split into those who preserved the teachings of the Tor and those who sought to twist them to bring about the Singularity. By this time the Twelve Units had spread themselves to hundreds of worlds across the northern sector of the galaxy. But rather than using ships for travel, they had mastered the Binaric codes so well that they used the Prophet’s Gate for interstellar travel. The ability to mathematically predict the presence of new worlds and then travel to and settle them gave the Faithful a powerful edge in conquering the galactic north. The Binaric Commonwealth was rent in two by the Singularity War. With hundreds of worlds falling to the fallacy of the “false prophets” as they were called by the Faithful, and many were enslaved or destroyed by the AI that came to be known as “The Adversary”. Since those dark times, a new Prophet has risen from among the Multiples of the Fourth Unit. Yoda Ben-Adam, who preaches a holy war to retake the lost worlds and re-establish the Tor-Binaric. As the Tor also prophesies that the Faithful shall inherit the stars this also means that the Commonwealth seeks to add new worlds to its Tech-Theocracy through war or peace and that the non-human should be destroyed as they are an anomaly to the Binaric code. Only the Council can foretell if their people are worthy enough to inherit the stars themselves.

Warriors of the Faithful fight against the automatons of the Singularity in the ruins of Bothal.0561

The Prophet John McNeil, ca 1935. The Father of the Commonwealth of the Twelve Units of Binary.

On foreign regiments in the Villenese Army

      Whilst I have covered the main national regiments of the Count's army, I have yet to tell of the extraordinary men of the famed foreign volunteer regiments of Villenois, the Irish and Scottish regiments, also known as the San Patricio and the San Andres Regiments respectively. 

      While the immigrant Irish nobility serve in the Wild Geese cavalry regiment, their supporters and clansmen serve in the San Patricio Regiment. Clad in blue grey uniforms with bright green facings, the Irish are some of the hardest fighters the Count can rely on in battle.  More often than not they are put in hopeless situations by Lumerier because he knows that they will hold their ground or die to the last man rather than retreat. This is especially true when elements of the British army are present in a battle. The hatred the Catholic Irish have for the Protestant English lends a fiery fury to their determination to win a battle. They, along with the Wild Geese, are nominally led by Francisco O'Donnell. Himself a descendant of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Francisco is rightly considered the chief of the Irish in Villenois, as the bulk are from Donegal, Clan O'Donnell territory. The regimental standard is St. Patrick's Cross.

     The San Andres Regiment similarly is another fantical band of tough Scots soldiers. These men likewise are Catholic and have a particular hatred for the English. Jacobites to a man, they see James II as the rightful king over the Protestant Dutch usurper William of Orange and as such took service with the Count in the hopes that one day when the clans of Scotland engage in another uprising that Lumerier will provide support to the Jacobite Cause. Taking their queue from the French Guarde Ecosses, or Scots Guard, the San Andres Scots are considered to be elite shock troops of the Villenese army. The Davault counts also have distant blood ties to Scotland so the Count treats the Scots rather favorably. Clad similarly to the Irish, in blue grey coats with red facings, the Scots are a very professional force who channel a cold anger into their discipline, especially when facing the British in open battle. Though unlike the Irish, the Scots will not readily quit the field if Villenois becomes an unlikely ally to British interests, as relations with Scots regiments in the British army, while far from cordial on most occasions, still evince a professional politeness as more often than not, these regiments are made up of their kinsmen from home. The principal leader of the Scots regiment is Alisdair MacDonald. A distant cousin of the MacDonald of the Isles, Alisdair is a battle hardened supporter of King James and will  not return to Scotland unless he is at the head of a Jacobite army ready to reinstate the rightful king on the British throne. Until that time though he remains at the Villenese court, a most welcome strategist whose calculating and careful deliberation makes him a good counterbalance to the hotheaded O'Donnell. The banner of the regiment is St. Andrew's Cross.

Alisdair MacDonald, captain of the San Andres Regiment.

 

 The French Scots Guard.

 

Banner of the San Andres Regiment, the White Rose, once a symbol of the northern House of York, became a symbol of Stuart supporters after the Battle of the Boyne when James, like Richard before him, lost his throne to a foreign invader.

 

A soldier of the San Andres Regiment.

 

Banner of the San Patricio Regiment

 

A soldier of the San Patricio Regiment.

 

Standard bearer and soldier from the San Andres Regiment. Nearly a fourth of the men serving under MacDonald are from his clan or from clans allied to the Lords of the Isles.

On foreign regiments in the Villenese Army

      Whilst I have covered the main national regiments of the Count's army, I have yet to tell of the extraordinary men of the famed foreign volunteer regiments of Villenois, the Irish and Scottish regiments, also known as the San Patricio and the San Andres Regiments respectively. 

      While the immigrant Irish nobility serve in the Wild Geese cavalry regiment, their supporters and clansmen serve in the San Patricio Regiment. Clad in blue grey uniforms with bright green facings, the Irish are some of the hardest fighters the Count can rely on in battle.  More often than not they are put in hopeless situations by Lumerier because he knows that they will hold their ground or die to the last man rather than retreat. This is especially true when elements of the British army are present in a battle. The hatred the Catholic Irish have for the Protestant English lends a fiery fury to their determination to win a battle. They, along with the Wild Geese, are nominally led by Francisco O'Donnell. Himself a descendant of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Francisco is rightly considered the chief of the Irish in Villenois, as the bulk are from Donegal, Clan O'Donnell territory. The regimental standard is St. Patrick's Cross.

     The San Andres Regiment similarly is another fantical band of tough Scots soldiers. These men likewise are Catholic and have a particular hatred for the English. Jacobites to a man, they see James II as the rightful king over the Protestant Dutch usurper William of Orange and as such took service with the Count in the hopes that one day when the clans of Scotland engage in another uprising that Lumerier will provide support to the Jacobite Cause. Taking their queue from the French Guarde Ecosses, or Scots Guard, the San Andres Scots are considered to be elite shock troops of the Villenese army. The Davault counts also have distant blood ties to Scotland so the Count treats the Scots rather favorably. Clad similarly to the Irish, in blue grey coats with red facings, the Scots are a very professional force who channel a cold anger into their discipline, especially when facing the British in open battle. Though unlike the Irish, the Scots will not readily quit the field if Villenois becomes an unlikely ally to British interests, as relations with Scots regiments in the British army, while far from cordial on most occasions, still evince a professional politeness as more often than not, these regiments are made up of their kinsmen from home. The principal leader of the Scots regiment is Alisdair MacDonald. A distant cousin of the MacDonald of the Isles, Alisdair is a battle hardened supporter of King James and will  not return to Scotland unless he is at the head of a Jacobite army ready to reinstate the rightful king on the British throne. Until that time though he remains at the Villenese court, a most welcome strategist whose calculating and careful deliberation makes him a good counterbalance to the hotheaded O'Donnell. The banner of the regiment is St. Andrew's Cross.

Alisdair MacDonald, captain of the San Andres Regiment.

 

 The French Scots Guard.

 

Banner of the San Andres Regiment, the White Rose, once a symbol of the northern House of York, became a symbol of Stuart supporters after the Battle of the Boyne when James, like Richard before him, lost his throne to a foreign invader.

 

A soldier of the San Andres Regiment.

 

Banner of the San Patricio Regiment

 

A soldier of the San Patricio Regiment.

 

Standard bearer and soldier from the San Andres Regiment. Nearly a fourth of the men serving under MacDonald are from his clan or from clans allied to the Lords of the Isles.