Lockbox Doctrine

Idea
See also: Rational Ascendancy; Sleeper

Many individuals and factions on the Edge use magic. However, they usually act discreetly, both to hide their advantages and to avoid public confusion or panic (e.g., some fundamentalist religions would view most magic as evil). Many factions label their mutual agreement to keep magic a secret "the Lockbox Doctrine" (or simply "lockbox").

Lockbox is the outcome of a secret war for control of Earth's paradigm. The victors were the Rational Ascendancy (RA).

Essentially, during the so-called Enlightenment (circa 1800), a group of influential paranormal humans came to believe that they could establish a single dominant paradigm. This "mono-paradigm" would center science, technology, and engineering as its "gods." This included applying engineering principles to social problems through disciplines such as political science, mass communication, and exploitation economics (e.g., colonialism). Order would be imposed, taxonomies would be tidy, and hierarchies would ensure relatively-smooth continuity of power.

All the messy and unpredictable "oddities" would be forced into the shadows or offworld, or simply killed. This included devils and demons, which was probably for the best, but also all metahumans (e.g., Kobolds), Fey, and paranormal beasts.

-Entry on "Earth" from The T'Aramont Imperial Encyclopedia