Progressivists

The Progressivists are one of the factions and sects within the Sons of Ether.

## Nicknames

Radicals, Children (insulting; from a proposal to rename the Tradition), Lab Harpies (Hastings Fellowship investigators; insulting)

## History

The Sons of Ether began with noble goals, but for an organization bent on helping the planet, it was somewhat lacking in diversity. Every single founding member of the Electrodyne Engineers was white, male and European; from their perspective, there was nothing wrong with this. This makeup certainly influenced the renaming of the Tradition. Before breaking with the Order of Reason, scattered uses of the name were attached to Oxford secret societies and upper-class Scientific pranks. Within the old Electrodyne Engineers, the Sons were Ether-obsessed rebels whom nobody admitted to knowing, but they earned the occasional amused nod when they put one over on the Black Coats and the damnable Void Seekers. When that Enlightened old-boy network took command, they saw no reason to change a thing.

Until the 1930s, the back rooms of men’s clubs and segregated faculty lounges were where the Tradition’s business took place. Ignoring “aberrant intellects” such as Marie Curie became more difficult; debates on suffrage, more serious. In 1935, the segregated culture of the Tradition took a serious blow when Paradigma published the infamous “Anonymous Edition.” Subtitled “A Matter of Minor Corrections,” the entire issue was devoted to revealing that some of the most important inventions of Ether Science were created by partners and colonial servants of the white, male Scientists who originally took credit for them. Originally dismissed as a hoax (and the chief cause of divorce among the Ether set in the late ’30s), the journal’s claims were confirmed when the formerly anonymous Scientists refused to work. After two Chairs and a number of prominent Professors could no longer perform the feats attributed to them, the Utopian’s Ethics Council removed all ethnic- and gender-based criteria for positions within the Tradition.

Naturally, the old guard continued to cling to power (often rightly so, since aside from the hoaxers, they were brilliant minds). To agitate for further change, disenfranchised Researchers began co-authoring papers in Paradigma and challenging Tradition practices. These self-labeled “Progressive Scientists” still do so in greater numbers than ever. The greatest triumph for the faction came when one of its members served as the Etherite Primus for the Council of Nine. Although she’s presumed to have fallen during the Reckoning, her Progressivist followers still campaign for such popular causes as changing the Tradition’s name and taking an active hand in Sleeper politics. More radical members of the faction teeter on the edge of Mad Science and advocate violently intervening in Sleeper affairs.

## Science

Most Progressivist Science is not too different from that practiced by other Etherites. For the most part, the faction cares more about politics than methods. Social Scientists are slightly more common, as “enlightening” Sleeper minds is a common Progressive concern. Others review their peers’ research to root out anything that bias might have hidden. Startling inventions using previously unconsidered principles emerge from the faction’s labs on an irregular basis.

## Organization

It’s perfectly possible to be a Progressivist and a member of another faction. When a Scientist acquires a reputation for volatile politics, however, that reputation tends to overshadow other affiliations. Etherite society has advanced considerably, to the point where most of the friction a Radical Scientist encounters is personal, not systemic. Politics may put Etherites at loggerheads with one another, but that only carries as much official force as the participants can muster.

Joining is easy; declare yourself a Progressivist and work on one of the faction’s leftist causes, and you’re in. Of course, every member follows his conscience differently and passionately, leading to as much argument between them as with outsiders. Most meet in small interest groups between bouts of independent research, but a few work together fulltime on anything from philanthropic projects to guerilla warfare.