Ad Astra

Every game has a certain atmosphere, which can vary widely even in the same genre. For example, a Wild West game set in the world of “The Man with no Name” would be very different from one that features “The Lone Ranger”

Jusnoctis

Jusnoctis aka London by Night or LbN (Mages) has a very specific atmosphere and it is not an optimistic one.  It is not clear why this should be the case; the Mage STs don’t want to promote anomie and alienation. However, a clique of players seems to enjoy inducing these feelings in new players.

Perhaps it is because all long-term JusNoctis players are comfortable in an environment where they have only 2 options: trivial soap opera or implausible threats of TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World As We Know It).

Fear Addicts

The defining aspects of JusNoctis Mages are fear and their response to that fear. They love - they are addicted to - the frisson of possible doom. They have a need for the fictional conceit that “this time” there will be a genuine threat to their existence and hence a justifiable requirement for action. This response might be within or outside the game, but that is irrelevant to the addict. Fear is the sole justification needed for their actions and - for these players - the ideal action is cowardly, brutal or duplicitous (possibly all 3)

One interesting aspect of the JusNoctis addiction is that the alleged danger does not need to be real, or understood, or verifiable; any alleged threat is gleefully accepted.

Conclusion

Like all addicts, the clique of JusNoctis Mages needs a “fix” in order to function. They do not feel fully functional unless they can revel in a state of fear. This gives them meaning, structure and (perhaps most importantly) excuses for their behaviour.

This craving leads to the characteristics of any addiction: denial, rationalization, projection and increased tolerance to the substance (in this case, fear and reaction to it). Imbalance is accepted as normal, which leads to increasingly harmful and unpleasant consequences.

With every addiction - and JusNoctis is no exception - addicts minimize their problems and blame them on others. Unfortunately, the only available “others” are new members of the game .

The Scientific paradigm is admittedly weak on the concepts of soul and spirit - but we wish to examine both in our consideration of London as a lifeform.

On one level, a city such as London is ‘merely’ a three-dimensional exercise in architecture - or perhaps sculpture.

However, there is an undeniably organic quality to any city; it adheres to most of the definitions of ‘life’. Indeed, few would refuse to accept that (even if only in metaphor) London is alive; it moves; it changes form; it courses; it throbs; it cycles - and it may one day die.

Poets have always believed that every city has its own rhythm, its own pulse, its own personality, all in transcendence of the multiplicity of lives living within - assuming there is a ‘within’ to speak of.

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Leicester Square webcam (view from the cinema)

Leicester Square webcam #2 (view from Radisson Hotel)