Psionic Suppression: A High Law?

[SJE]

So, apparently during the Psionic repressions

Psionics Suppressions (800 to 826):The revelation of
scandals (financial, ethical, and moral) within the psionics
institutes in the years 772 to 798 resulted in a shift in public
opinion against the institutes. Over a 26 year period, various
institute charters were cancelled, leading figures jailed or
otherwise repressed, and restrictive laws passed limiting or
prohibiting the practice of psionics.

Now heres my question for the lore-masters: Were these anti-psionic laws part of the Imperiums High Law or did the various planets of the 3I adopt them locally with different local variants?

As its an Imperium-wide thing that there are no Psionic Institutes and psionics are illegal, it leads me to think High Law, as I've yet to see any write ups of local Imperial systems defy the suppressions and openly support psionics in the past 300 odd years? and given the size of the 3I, you'd expect some planets to be contrarian and permit psionics, if they were not constrained by some sort of pan-Imperial law.

But, the (rarely codified apart from 'anti-slavery' )High Laws never really mention psionics, unless I've missed something.

Thoughts?

SJE

 

[dragoner]

800 Empress Paula II signs the first of 65 suppression orders for the Psionic Institutes, and eventually revokes all
Institute charters. Supplement 11 - Library Data (N-Z), GDW, 1982, p. 15.
800 Psionic Suppressions begin; SuSAG is badly damaged as psionic drugs are declared illegal, manufacturing
plants closed and all stocks confiscated and destroyed. Supplement 08 - Library Data (A-M), GDW, 1981, p.
10, 22, 43.
800 As the Psionic Suppressions begin throughout the Imperium, they carry over into the Solomani Autonomous
Region. Alien Module 6 - Solomani, GDW, 1986, p. 30.
800 c During the psionic suppressions, minor groups of refugees from the Imperium flow through Tarsus (Spinward
Marches 1138). Module 1 - Tarsus, GDW, 1983, p. 16.
800 c 4518th Lift Infantry Regiment raises anti-psionic battalions to support the Psionic Suppressions. Spinward
Marches Campaign, GDW, 1985, p. 38.

There is more if you hunt through the integrated timeline.

 

[SJE]

I guess if the Empress signs the 65 Supression Laws, that makes them High Laws then?

Thx for that dragoner- really useful.

SJE

 

[dragoner]

I would say yes as well. You are welcome.

 

[GypsyComet]

The cancellation of the Institute charters qualifies as high law, but the hysteria of the times caused a great many worlds to also pass local laws. The treatment of a discovered psion varies considerably from world to world based on that world's laws. While those laws have the tacit support of the Imperium, the planetary laws regarding psionics are not High Law as such.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

So, apparently during the Psionic repressions

Psionics Suppressions (800 to 826):The revelation of
scandals (financial, ethical, and moral) within the psionics
institutes in the years 772 to 798 resulted in a shift in public
opinion against the institutes. Over a 26 year period, various
institute charters were cancelled, leading figures jailed or
otherwise repressed, and restrictive laws passed limiting or
prohibiting the practice of psionics.

Now heres my question for the lore-masters: Were these anti-psionic laws part of the Imperiums High Law or did the various planets of the 3I adopt them locally with different local variants?

As its an Imperium-wide thing that there are no Psionic Institutes and psionics are illegal, it leads me to think High Law, as I've yet to see any write ups of local Imperial systems defy the suppressions and openly support psionics in the past 300 odd years? and given the size of the 3I, you'd expect some planets to be contrarian and permit psionics, if they were not constrained by some sort of pan-Imperial law.

But, the (rarely codified apart from 'anti-slavery' )High Laws never really mention psionics, unless I've missed something.

Thoughts?

SJE

300 years ago. Hard to say what Law Level codes were used back then.

 

[GypsyComet]

Now heres my question for the lore-masters: Were these anti-psionic laws part of the Imperiums High Law or did the various planets of the 3I adopt them locally with different local variants?

As its an Imperium-wide thing that there are no Psionic Institutes and psionics are illegal, it leads me to think High Law, as I've yet to see any write ups of local Imperial systems defy the suppressions and openly support psionics in the past 300 odd years? and given the size of the 3I, you'd expect some planets to be contrarian and permit psionics, if they were not constrained by some sort of pan-Imperial law.

SJE

Some planets will merely deport a discovered Psion. Others imprison, extradite to Imperial authority, or even lobotomize.

There are clandestine Psionic Institutes still in operation around the Imperium, usually on worlds with either a very high population they can disappear into or a very low population they can avoid by being on another part of the world entirely.

By the older accounts, the "Imperium" does not have laws against the practice of psionics, it merely does not condone their training or protect their practice. Originally the Psionics Institutes operated under Imperial charters, so the laws of the worlds didn't really matter. Then someone decided to dial back the acceptance of psionics "just a little" through amateurish and misguided use of psycho-historical techniques. It backfired, and anti-psionic sentiment ran rampant through the Imperium. Worlds passed laws and generally repudiated the practice of psionic talent entirely. To avoid coming to blows with a large number of worlds, the Imperium revoked the charters for the Institutes so it would no longer be openly supporting research and practice of, for all intents and purposes, Witchcraft. Two Institutes were re-opened as secret operations with Imperial support, the rest went underground without Imperial support or disappeared in less pleasant ways.

 

[Mithras]

Do we think SuSag helped to set up some of these institutes following he suppression in order to provide a market for their very expensive, now even more expensive and illegal, psi drugs?

 

[GypsyComet]

That may have happened in a few cases. Some of them may actually be SuSAG fronts for testing facilities. In the grand scheme of a campaign I probably wouldn't spring that on a PC who sought out training since Institutes are already hard to find. As one of the after-effects, though, he might show up in local SuSAG "customer" records.

 

[Mithras]

Or, you get your training, then find out ... You work for SuSAG now as a 'special agent'

 

[dragoner]

Do we think SuSag helped to set up some of these institutes following he suppression in order to provide a market for their very expensive, now even more expensive and illegal, psi drugs?

IIRC, SuSag moved it psi-pharma operations to outside of the Imperium, one of the old JTAS issues is all about SuSag.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The cancellation of the Institute charters qualifies as high law, but the hysteria of the times caused a great many worlds to also pass local laws. The treatment of a discovered psion varies considerably from world to world based on that world's laws. While those laws have the tacit support of the Imperium, the planetary laws regarding psionics are not High Law as such.

The backlash of the Psionic Suppressions was INTENSE. Consider that in Marc Miller's Traveller Psionics Institutes psionics at the start of the Third Imperium (Years 0 to 200 ) was widely known and accepted as a part of Imperial society, if not locally liked:
p.5
"Psionics in the Third Imperium
During the first few hundred years of the Third Imperium, Psionics is an accepted part of life for most citizens. Several branches of the Imperial government are rumored to include psionicists, some of whom (for example) are said to advise Cleon and his senior staff when opposing negotiators are not telling the truth. On prominent worlds throughout the Imperium, citizens can attempt to learn psionic powers by going to the neighborhood Psionics Institute. On even the most sparsely settled worlds, there will sometimes be a local master of the art, helping to bring the ancient discipline to new frontiers. On the other hand, there exist people and organizations adamantly opposed to the practice of psionics."

p.7
"Psionics and the Imperial Government
Due to the range of opinions about psionics within the Third Imperium, Cleon has not publicly embraced the concept of psionics. However, he has somewhat covertly included psionicists among his advisory staff. In addition, several branches of the government are assumed to be using psionicists to one degree or another. None of these rumors has been officially confirmed, but the common belief is that psionicists are indeed retained by the Imperial government in certain situations."

 

[Nathan Brazil]

This implies that the start of the Third Imperium (IY0-IY200)

1.Imperial policy was benign neglect
2.Psionics was somewhat prevalent
3.Psionics training was more or less available openly and at a local level.

CT Library Data indicates a burst of popularity occured around IY 650. More popular than in IY0? Sounds like the Imperium was going Zho by then.

OTOH, as an interesting conspiracy theory, would it have been possible that the First Barracks Emperor Olav hault-Plankwell had Zhodani agents in his fleet or have been influenced by them? He finished the First Frontier War in 604, took the fleet back to Core by 606 and assassinated Jaqueline I. And look by 650 psionics is massively popular. Just saying...

 

[GypsyComet]

Not a bad idea, though I wouldn't re-write the history books just yet.

Another factor is that the first 200 years of the Imperium was also a time of expansion and war. The Imperium wouldn't reach its final borders until centuries later. Those "neighborhood Psionics Institutes" are in Core, Vland, and parts of Lishun, Fornast, Massilia, and Dagudashaag, all of which are part of the early Sylean expansion.

 

[Epicenter]

OTOH, as an interesting conspiracy theory, would it have been possible that the First Barracks Emperor Olav hault-Plankwell had Zhodani agents in his fleet or have been influenced by them?

iirc, there is actual official Traveller material where it discusses the nature of the scandals. I don't remember which book, but I recall pretty distinctly that the Zhodani were in fact supporting the pre-supression Psionic Institutes. I think that was a factor in the crackdown.

Now, mind you, being psionics themselves and believing their society to be superior in many ways (which it undoubtedly is), the Zhodani probably did not have any sinister goals in supporting the institutes; they probably a figured a more psionic TI would be better neighbors because the two sides would become more similar and thus easier to understand.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

The official material is in the old CT Library Data (N-Z) Psionic Suppressions entry itself. It states that:
"In the latter half of the 700's. high lmperial figures (the Office of the Emperor and the Intelligence Agency) became convinced that the approximately 60% of the psionics institutes within the region spinward of the Corridor sector were being financed, at least in part, by Zhodani money."

My wacko conspiracy theory is simply to explain how by 650 per the Psionics entry:
"However, even though it assumed scientific validity, psionics remained a backwater science until about 650, when it underwent a tremendous burst of popularity. Psionics within the lmperium reached its peak in the latter half of the 700's."

To infiltrate and impact even just spinward of Corridor takes time. Only so much can be done with psionics. Travel time from Zho space, false identities, laundered money, infiltrating the institutes and so on.

 

[GypsyComet]

To infiltrate and impact even just spinward of Corridor takes time. Only so much can be done with psionics. Travel time from Zho space, false identities, laundered money, infiltrating the institutes and so on.

Not to mention that Zhodani are bad liars.