Grimoire-4

*Grimoire-4, 1997
*Divergence: prior to 1967
*TL(7+1)^
*Mana Level: 
*Quantum: 5
This worldline appears to be another former historical echo of Grimoire-1, having apparently diverged during the 1960s, when some hippies learned magic who probably didn't on the base worldline. Acts of magic were first publicly demonstrated by various hippies in 1967, most famously during the March on the Pentagon (though the Pentagon did not levitate, and had no demons in it in the first place, the exterior did turn orange, and the building shook slightly); this failed to end the war in Viet Nam. The main effect of it was the government and the military trying to find out how they did it, and often not being polite about it. Some of the hippies, and some of their teachers, did decide to give the government some limited information on magic, in one case offering to teach Army medical personnel the Book of Asklepios, which mainly concerns healing rituals and dealing with serpents and snake-spirits. Later attempts to exorcise Congress and the White House (authorized and observed by the military and the President) likewise found no demons; many hippies reluctantly accepted that most politicians are evil all on their own, no need for possession (which is not the lesson that the politicians wanted them to learn).
With the secret out, it wasn't long before other mages, not associated with the hippie movement, made deals with various governments throughout the world. In early December 1967, in South Viet Nam, a group of traditional shamans who didn't trust communism spoke at length with Nguyen Van Thieu and others in his government, and were able to get a number of reforms passed as part of a deal for their help against the North. The Soviet Union and Peoples Republic of China developed, with the help of a number of odd individuals (including a man claiming and appearing to be 'the immortal Grigori Rasputin'), a form of 'scientific' Book magic, which of course they did not call magic - it was referred to as 'psionics' or 'psychotronics' (though the Cabal and Infinity are in agreement that it is still magic, just with modified styles), something that was not uncommon among the scientific community in the West. Because of the political necessity of avoiding the appearance of mysticism in public, and thus the need to rework (or invent) any Book style that they wanted to use publicly, the USSR and PRC lagged significantly behind other nations in the spread of magic, though their intelligence agencies and top secret research establishments were somewhat closer. The most common core skills for the Soviet 'psionic' Book styles are forms of Autohypnosis and Mathematics, as well as in a few cases Engineer (Soviet Thaumatronics) - an odd form of Engineer (Electronics) that has Symbol Drawing (Soviet Esoterica) as a prerequisite; the former defaults to other 'thaumatronics' styles at levels ranging from -1 to -6, and the latter defaults to Symbol Drawing (Futhark)-4. Similar styles were developed in the West, with electronic ('thaumatronics') and mechanical ritual styles often having a form of Symbol Drawing as a prerequisite and/or complementary skill. A few Book and Path styles use Symbol Drawing as the core skill (though they otherwise remain Path/Book styles).
In a number of East Asian nations, Book styles (multiple Book, in rare cases like Kalaripayit) based on existing martial arts styles became known. This prompted the PRC to develop a Book style based on state Wushu; once it worked, many other nations followed suit, whether with native styles (like Savate & French Smallsword in France, or Krav Maga in Israel), or adaptations of foreign styles (Karate, Judo, and Kung Fu were fairly popular in America in the 1970s, for example). In most cases, the core skill of the magical style is either Meditation, the Art form of one of the required combat skills of the martial style (usually Karate Art or Judo Art), or sometimes a less combative required or optional skill like Philosophy or Breath Control.
Over the course of the late 1960s and the 1970s, instruction in magic became common on college campuses all over the world, albeit more slowly in communist countries and some of the more religiously conservative Muslim and Christian nations (others taught magical styles based on the mysticism of their preferred faith, or even with Religious Ritual as the core skill). By the end of the 1980s, high schools and some middle or junior high schools have Introduction to Thaumaturgy classes or similar. About 50-60% of magical styles on this Earth are single-Book styles; less than 10%, total, are Path styles, all dating from 1985 or later.
==Technology and Magic==
In terms of technology, this Earth is a bit off from what would be expected by someone familiar with Homeline in the 1990s, looking almost like what someone from 1967 might think 'the world of thirty years from now' should look... but not quite: Flying cars and jetpacks exist, but are limited to the rich (and to magicians and friends thereof); the flying cars require a pilot's license and are expected to take off and land at airports outside of emergencies, though the jetpacks are considered ultralights or microlights. Magic fusion reactors are fairly new at this point, but expected to take off well, and petroleum prices are falling as a side effect (which does not make OPEC happy). Cellular phones have yet to take off, but pay phones and many car, home, or office phones have fax, e-mail, and video options. Bionics limbs and other organs (nearly all mana-dependant) are roughly equivalent to early TL9^, with very expensive examples equivalent to higher TLs. Attempts to regrow organs with magic have met with only limited success, however. A number of subcultures have arisen that make use of magic and cybertechnology to look like beings from fantasy or science fiction. Depending on how you look at it and where you are, the technological aesthetic of this world is largely FormicapunkWARNING: tropes site link, with elements of low-level cyberpunk & cyber noir in poor or high-crime areas (including whole cities in some third-world countries), and low-level cyberprep in middle-class and wealthy areas.
Artificial Intelligence appears to be ahead of even Homeline, but the 'AIs' are really spirits possessing select machines through Fetish or Embody, while non-magical computers (and the internet) are closer to those of the 1980s than the 1990s; still, you [b]can[/b] get a robot butler or maid (which might also be a sexbot). Compact discs haven't taken off, replaced by high-density cassette tapes. Netrunning, also known as cyberdecking or simply 'decking, exists as a magical form of hacking, and has lead to many businesses air-gapping and magically isolating computers with proprietary data on them, requiring would-be 'deckers to physically penetrate building security if they want to get it, often by running through the shadows at night with a few bodyguards.
Black ICE is rare and highly illegal (LC0 in most nations, LC1 in a few like the USA and Japan, LC2 in [b]strongly[/b] corporate-influenced polities like the Argentine Republic or the Principality of Dalmatia), but less-lethal anti-intruder curses may be as acceptable as LC4. The appearance of cyberspace tends to be a compromise between the mind of the 'decker and the intentions of the system's designers.
Magic had relatively little effect on the US space program at first, beyond a few astronauts being trained in certain styles at the request of curious magicians. It had rather more immediate (and very secret) effect on the Soviet lunar program, as the N1 rocket required enchanted parts (fetishes) to avoid blowing up on the launch pad (something that the USSR has never officially admitted to). This began impacting the Apollo Program in May of 1969, when successful N1 launches prompted President Nixon to order the Apollo 10 crew to land on the Moon. On May 22, 1969, Tom Stafford became the first human from this Earth to walk on the Moon. On May 23, 1969, Vladimir Shatalov, commander of Soyuz 6, became the first cosmonaut to walk on the Moon (contrary to the conspiracy theorists and some movies in this worldline, Stafford and Cernan did not meet Shatalov on the Moon, as the capsules landed hundreds of miles apart). The rocks and dust brought back by the two missions were of great interest to the mages in their respective space programs, as many of the rocks were found to be magically reactive, and the dust was likewise useful as an expendable component in many rituals. The first trained mage on a Moon mission was Fred Haise on Apollo 13, who performed a number of magical experiments both in orbit and on the Moon. In the early 1970s, moonbases were placed on Earth's moon by both sides of the Space Race; orbital and lunar colonies and factories are operated by a dozen nations by 1997, along with lunar and Near-Earth Asteroid mines. In 1975, Leonid Brezhnev declared that 'Mars will be a Red planet,' though as it happened, the first successful manned Mars mission was the joint NASA/ESA Project Ares, which first landed in 1987, while the joint Russian/Chinese did not arrive until 1989; long-term Martian colonies are still in the planning stages, though intermediate-term occupations of over a Martian year have occurred. By the mid-1980s, magical flying saucers were common government spacecraft, and by 1997, civilian models are widely used by big business, and approaching the regular civilian market.
Mystic Symbols are uncommon on this Earth. Those that do exist rarely grant Magery, but may grant some often-limited form of Path/Book Adept (e.g. Three Paths Only, Triggered by LSD, War Aspected, et cetra). Familiars capable of granting Magery or Path/Book Adept are known on this worldline, and are more common than Mystic Symbols. Many magical styles on this worldline (particularly the martial arts-based magical styles) have developed fairly efficient methods of learning Limited Path/Book Adept advantages appropriate to the style. In several cases, such as Soviet Thaumatronics and many forms of Ritual Alchemy, it is not possible to drop the 'Material and Symbolic Components' ritual element; this is also true of some styles based on traditional Celtic Tree Magic, and a few based on Ogham, Futhark, or other forms of Symbol Drawing, especially Sacred Architecture.
==Notes==
== See Also ==
* The Grimoire Timelines