Sanctuary has a number of technical and scientific standards that are geared toward characterizing it as the premier technological giant in the setting. Everything in this article is their standard, any deviation from it is typically done with this framework in mind.
{Table of Contents}
- Magical Dampening
- Detection Systems
- Surveillance
- Defense and Response
- Sanctuary Enforcers
- Containment
- Robotics and AI
- Production
- Master Controls
Overview
NOTE
It's worth nothing that, all of the technology here is at its most potent in the Capital City. Outside of it, things get more muddied and complicated. There is almost never a point where it's
completely ineffective, but there are points when it's nearly so.
Sanctuary's technologies are based around the principles of quashing powerful, supernatural threats. Their defense systems are created with the goal of eliminating things of extreme power, as well as regulating their nation. The systems they have are extremely powerful, far surpassing all supercomputers you would see in our modern day.
They have a lot of things touched upon, each explained below as
optional reading, but the following is what one would expect when entering Sanctuary.
- The dampening of strong magical energies. The stronger the entity or device in question, the more their power is lessened.
- Various systems of detection and tracking for supernatural entities.
- Constant surveillance of the nation through a variety of methods.
- Powerful defense systems.
- Trained military with state-of-the-art, anti-supernatural equipment, vehicles, and communications technology.
- Extremely effective containment procedures.
- Automatons built for the purpose of policing both the State and the supernatural.
- Use of various factories and areas that produce Aurichalcum, a distinct and powerful anti-magic resource, and other things.
- Master controls over most areas run by technology.
- High-level civilian technology made for the purpose of both surveillance and ease of living.
- Areas of varying levels of effectiveness for all of the stated features of the nation.
To top it all off, the people who do this are pretty smart, themselves. Smart enough to build all of this. So, expect Sanctuary scientists to be either rather intelligent to supergeniuses.
Keep in mind that, as a cursory read, that's all that you would need to know to play in the setting. If you want to know more in-detail, look below. Everything there is optional reading.
Magical Dampening
Upon entering areas of Sanctuary, all magical entities will find their powers lessened should they attempt to use it. The strength of the effect is directly proportional with the strength of the entity in question - the stronger the subject, the weaker they become.
GENERAL RULE OF THUMB.
For those who use the Option Stat System created for the site, a good rule of thumb is that all stats (sans maybe Intelligence) will be lessened by a certain amount.
The general idea is that the higher the stat, the more it'll get dampened. This means that a stat of 6-7 would become more like a 1, 5 and 4 would become a 2, while 1-3 don't change.
This, of course, means that the weaker you are, the weaker the effect. The energy lost does not regain itself quickly at all, and even when it does, it will be dampened once more, and you'll start off from square one.
For more powerful beings, the dampening takes place almost immediately, while lesser beings would have to do a bit to get their powers on the radar.
A frightening feature of the Dampeners is the ability to "restore reality", preventing the use of all forms of reality warping and restoring the physical laws of Sanctuary back to its previous state.
Dampeners, much like the other technologies, grow weaker as you get further from the capital city, but no being is ever able to reach very powerful status within the walls of Sanctuary.
At the very edges of the nation, the farthest you can get from the capital, a god would still only be at a fraction of their original power and nothing more.
When Dampeners activate, they also ping out the location of supernatural entities via the Detection Systems.
Detection Systems
It is extremely easy for Sanctuary to detect magical energies. These systems are in place alongside the Magical Dampening, and are activated when those processes occur. It takes the basic signature of the being, and permanently stores it so that they can keep track of them.
These processes bypass attempts to "change" energies (shapeshifting, lowering output, etc.), as the system will detect those changes and log them as a part of the entity. These changes are logged into the system, and though it is harder to track them down in the beginning, given enough time to process the new energies, the systems will be able to accurately track the creature once more.
Detection becomes weaker as you move farther away from the Capital, but more powerful beings will almost always be on the radar, even if their location becomes slightly harder to discern.
Surveillance
Surveillance is one of the cornerstones of Sanctuary. The terms "eyes everywhere" is almost literal here; there are very few places where there would not be at least one type of surveillance.
The efficiency of the surveillance systems ensure that any major events will be caught and analyzed. The streets, buildings, neighborhoods, facilities, and other places of importance are almost always under some kind of watch. Anything suspicious caught is logged and taken in for investigation, and will be determined if it warrants Enforcer intervention. Minor events are less likely to be caught, but if done in public or Sanctuary-owned places, they might be logged and processed.
This extends even to the digital, where malicious or security-risking actions are logged by Sanctuary. Hacking attempts, breaking into security systems, digital attacks, and other forms of attack are able to be found easily by their technologies.
It is with this knowledge that all of those under Sanctuary must be wary. This system ties directly into Sanctuary's Intervention Clause on the forums.
Defense and Response
Sanctuary's defense systems and paradigms are second to none. Within their protected areas are various kinds of automated technology, such as gun turrets and automatons of various kinds. They have ground, marine, and anti-air-based defensive systems, including powerful walls and barriers around places of importance, displacement fields, and atomic weaponry.
Their response systems alert Sanctuary of things that threaten the State. Both silent and noise alarms are pinged when something like this occurs. The State has a few thousand satellites in orbit, surveying not only the station, but the world at large and outer space. The satellites used for the purpose of surveying beyond the borders are a lot harder to maintain, but still work.
Alongside this, their response systems and technologies allow them to analyze magic sufficiently, adding it to their knowledgebase for processing, storage, testing, and countering in the future. While they already have a good deal of supernatural information logged, they are easily able to learn more.
Sanctuary Enforcers
The true terror of the State lies in the people who use all of the technology. The Enforcers, the military of Sanctuary, are extremely powerful, organized under the Commander of the Enforcers and answer to the orders of them and the Director.
Enforcers have a number of technologies that they utilize to further the goals of Sanctuary. Among them are powerful weaponry made with Aurichalcum functionality, using the resource's properties to pierce through supernatural defenses for tactile disabling of threats.
Higher tier troops are usually equipped with uniforms built to protect from grievous damage, which also have systems for detecting entities with electromagnetic, heat/cold, particle, wave, and other forms of supernatural tracking. Atop this, they have equipment that resists psychic incursion, rendering their minds impervious to attack.
This is compounded by the vehicles that the most powerful of the military have. Floating humvees with powerful mounted weaponry, all-terrain cars, gunships, and air carriers are examples of their arsenal. These vehicles are armored, protected from most forms of physical and magical attack, and are engineered to be nearly perfect machines that run on very little to no form of gas-related fuel.
Containment
The containment protocols for Sanctuary differ depending on the severity of the threat.
For those who commit mundane crimes and are of mundane origin, you'll find that the prison systems mirror our own here in the real world. Nothing very spectacular.
However, for those involved in the supernatural, reality is much bleaker. Unbeknownst to the public, there lies a facility for the collection, study, and interrogation of the supernatural. This facility is shadowy and cruel, separating the captured supernatural into a variety of classes to denote the level of danger they pose to the world. These supernaturals are kept under wraps, with their containment measures ranging from moderate to extreme.
Alongside this, they often interrogate or torture those involved in the supernatural in some way or another.
Robotics and AI
Robotics, cybernetics, and AI are important fields in Sanctuary technology. They account for a lot of their security proxies, as well as great deal of their production.
When it comes to robotics, they boast a number of very advanced automatons. These automatons are built to fight supernatural threats efficiently, made with the equipment and defenses necessary to deal with them. There are a number of different robotic proxies that can exist, and many designs have been made over the years.
Cybernetics are a revolutionary field. It isn't uncommon to see people with cybernetic prosthetics or enhancements of some kind - some go the full route and become cyborgs entirely. This offers them a number of benefits that differ based on the manufacturer and intent, but the highest tier could even turn one person into a one many army.
Finally, the field of AI is vast, but many of the AI programs made by Sanctuary are used for large, specific tasks.
Hacking into the systems of these technologies is extremely difficult, and at the top it's almost impossible without inside help of some kind. Those that make it in often find themselves expelled from the system soon after, and their attempts are logged.
Production
The production of the equipment necessary for the processes of Sanctuary is one of their biggest industries. They possess many factories and laboratories for the processing and manufacturing of their weaponry, equipment, necessary civilian technologies, and other such pieces of paraphernalia.
One of the most revolutionary resources is the element, Aurichalcum, an "anti-magic" element used in nearly all forms of defensive engineering within Sanctuary. It is primarily native to the land Sanctuary is on, and is most potent there.
More information on Aurichalcum can be found here.Master Controls
Finishing off their repertoire is the concept of "master controls". Put it simply, there is an extremely complex, highly-encrypted system that ensure that all forms of Sanctuary technology can be recalled, controlled, and changed at a moment's notice.
All Sanctuary-built technology is subject to the master controls, and technologies found and analyzed by Sanctuary could be put under the master control when they are acquired by the system.
The power of the master controls depends on the clearance of the people using the control, as well as the technology attempting to be seized. Lower level technicians have little to no clearance for master controls, while at the very top, the Director has what's called the "Master Order" - the fullest authority over all things under the master control program.