French Polynesia

*This article discusses French Polynesia as it pertains to Radio Noir.*

The world is now fully mapped and researchers from countless prestigious universities are working hard to catalogue every tribe, animal, plant, and geological phenomenon. Airplanes, ships and railroads crisscross the globe like diligent spiders, covering everything in their webs. The unknown is being steadily pushed deeper and deeper into the ever-darkening shadows of civilization. There are few places left now where the Technocratic Paradigm does not define reality. Even the most isolated peoples, in the most remote corners of the world, have encountered modernity is some way. Where a missionary or anthropologist have visited, they know the magic of science. Even where no outsider has made it yet, the people have observed shining birds roaring through the sky, or strange black islands moving across the ocean. The cargo cults that are born from these encounters provide technology with a foothold in even these last pockets of mythic consensus.

There is however still a corner of the planet where the paradigm of modernity has a particularly har time pushing aside the bygone world. Here, in the vast region of the South Pacific known as French Polynesia, the island inhabitants worship both the white god of the missionaries and their old local deities. They fish from the same type of boats their ancestors used to cross the vast sea and they trade with tourists flown in from across the ocean. They listen to music on their radios and they commune with the local spirits. Here, two different paradigms seemingly exist side by side.

It is unclear exactly what makes this region special. Those few Mages who have spent time pondering it believe the explanation may involve a combination of the open culture of the Polynesians, a century of Western authors mythologizing the region, and the relative lack of exploitable resources. Whatever the cause, the result is a consensus where the locals accept the Technocratic Paradigm and visitors expect to meet the Kopa Loei.

Although to a certain extent, similar phenomena can be found in Africa, Asia, and South America, there is usually much more conflict there between the old and the new. This may be explained by the fact that the people of French Polynesia live in smaller groups on hundreds of islands scattered across an enormous area. Or some until now undiscovered factor.

Whatever the case may be, French Polynesia is, as it always has been, open to all visitors.

As conflict is brewing across the globe, the crystal-clear ocean, sandy beaches, and lush jungles of the islands are just as idyllic and inviting as ever. More than one agent from mundane and Awakened powers come here to spy, rest, or seek some answer. Those who stay soon find themselves adopting “island time.” Why rush when it takes days or weeks for anything but radio waves to reach home base? Why not enjoy the perpetually nice weather when you’re here? Some mages theorize that this “island time” may be part of some undiscovered metaphysical feature of the place. These scholars point to the fact that even the French colonizers of the last few centuries didn’t as put as much effort into stamping out the old ways here as they did elsewhere.