So, aside from World of Darkness, I like to think of GUMSHOE as my 'pet' RPG setting. It's got a lot of really cool ideas, and a lot of really cool lore. It's based on the primary assumption that investigation games aren't about finding clues, but interpreting them, and in a horror setting, that goes a good, long way. Horror is all about not showing. Letting the investigators see the eviscerated corpse of their friend, pinned to their ceiling, with no clue what did it, is a lot scarier than catching the monster in the act. With this in mind, let's take a look at the standard human enemies within the GUMSHOE setting of Unremitting Horror, the Esoterrorists.
Now, the Esoterrorists are a prime example for why not everyone should have magic. The Esoterrorists are defined, in fact, by not having magic, or at least, having only the smallest possible smidgen of it. What the Esoterrorists want, at its core, is power. Now, Esoterrorists will wax lyrical about how they want a world of wonder, where dragons and pixies, and angels that shit fairy dust frolic in the clouds, and to accomplish this, they're willing to gut a little girl from down the street, pull her entrails out, and work their magic from there. They're willing to murder dozens of people, exsanguinate their corpses, and display them for the public to make people believe, just for a split second, that the Chupacabra is real. You see, core to the belief of the Esoterrorists is the concept of the Membrane, the veil between objectivity and subjectivity. Human belief defines the Membrane, and the more the humans believe in the supernatural, the easier it is for the Esoterrorists to use their magic.
In a word, the Esoterrorists are totally misguided. In much less flattering terms, the Esoterrorists are unpleasant, irresponsible, stupid, fucking morons who are tampering with forces they have no hope of controlling. In exactly the same way as Chaos cultists in Warhammer, or alien-worshippers in Call of Cthulhu believe that they're going to be at the very top of the pyramid when the new world comes along, and end up being eaten by the monster they summon, the Esoterrorists are playing with fire. The Membrane is very real, and serves a very real purpose. What it protects the world from is the Outer Black, a horrible, hostile dimension of chains, electric drills, skewered flesh and nightmarish demons with wings of torn plastic from turning reality into their own personal hellpit. The Esoterrorists wearing the Membrane away would allow them to use magic, yes, real magic, but that isn't going to provide even the slightest defense against the powers of the Outer Black. To relate this to my other pet RPG setting, the Esoterrorists are exactly how the Technocracy sees the Traditions in Mage: The Ascension. Totally irresponsible, self-obsessed idiots who would feed the world into the maw of oblivion if it meant they could shoot lightning from their hands with no repercussions.
Now, accepting that the Esoterrorists are stupid doesn't make them any less dangerous, as the poor agents of the Ordo Veritatis will find out. In fact, if anything, it makes them even more dangerous. The Esoterrorists are so assured of their own power and understanding of magic, that they don't give a fuck what they summon up. The Esoterrorists are totally confident allowing and even encouraging a mortal occultist to summon up a horrifying demon, totally convinced that their wards and protective symbols will hold it. The problem with the Esoterrorists is that they can't accept that magic isn't real. The little hole that they create in the Membrane to let their flesh-devouring demon through, is not also going to allow themselves to protect against it magically. Yet the Esoterrorists are so fanatical, so totally committed to their goal, that they allow the most nightmarish monsters into our realm, all for the sake of weakening human belief in the rational. More often then not, the investigators of the Ordo Veritatis are going to find their first clue in the dismembered corpses of the idiotic magicians, and the shattered wards that they foolishly tried to defend themselves with. This is the kind of mess that the Ordo Veritatis has to deal with, but unfortunately, unlike the Technocracy, they don't have advanced laser weapons, HIT-MARK robots or other sci-fi gear to fight the monsters that the Esoterrorists summon. Just normal human brains, guns and body armor.
One thing to understand, most importantly, is that the Esoterrorists are losing. They can't simply manifest whatever monsters they want. Each monster needs to be individually created and made to fit into rational reality. Esoterrorists can't just wave their hands and conjure a creature made of living air that tears the blood-vessels from its prey. The Membrane holds, as long as the Ordo Veritatis tries to maintain it. As much as the Esoterrorists don't want to admit it, the Ordo is the winner here. Reality bends to their whims, and if a monster doesn't work within the laws of physics as set down, all the Esoterrorists will have is a pool of burning viscera in their summoning circle, and a trip back to the drawing board.
Now, what makes the Esoterrorists evil, as well as totally idiotic, is the fact that if a monster doesn't exist yet, they'll do anything in their power to make people believe it exists. The Esoterrorists regularly gouge the eyes out of teenagers in their bathrooms to make people believe in Bloody Mary. They rape and slaughter young women to make people believe that the Pookas exist in the dark swamps of the Scotland. They're fanatics, and totally self-obsessed fanatics at that. What makes them so morally repugnant is that they're doing all of this, not because they're trying to make a better world, but because they want their magic to exist. All Esoterrorists are driven by the belief that they will be the dark, sorcerous overlords of the world they create, never imagining that they will be the one man in the world with a handgun, fighting against a world of utter darkness and terror, devoid of hope.
Some neat works of fiction to inspire an Esoterrorist campaign.
The Cthulhu Mythos: A pretty obvious one, given that it was one of the primary inspirations for the RPG, but it's an absolutely perfect example of what happens when someone with more ambition than brains decides to tamper with forces beyond their understanding.
Mage: The Ascension: I feel like I'm cheating with this one, because it's another RPG, but The Esoterrorists gives a near perfect example of how the Technocracy sees the Traditions. Admittedly, it's a bit more morally grey in that setting, but if nothing else, Esoterrorists gives Tradition players something to think about when they assault the Technocratic base with summoned spirits and ritual magic.
The Evil Dead: Definitely more of a comedy than a horror movie, but everything about it, especially the more serious remake, shows exactly the kind of stupidity that the Esoterrorists can reek, especially when they try to utilize magic to open doors to things that probably shouldn't be opened to.
- Kephn
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