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Okay. Is this thing on? Yeah?
Yeah, okay.
Welcome to the Tactical Theology Department.
Yeah, all two of you. Not sure why they bring out the microphone and the stage for this whole thing when there's only this many. Air of gravitas, I guess.
Well, uh, I'm Dr. Jonathan Akabeze. It's nice to meet you…both.
First off, let me start by saying I know what you're going through. You probably got the usual comments about the reassignment, once we made it public. The jokes, the comments. the usual stuff. Matter of fact, you probably agree with most of what they're saying. And if I were in your shoes, I'd agree with you. Once we've got God in a cage, what's really the point of a Theology department?
Welcome to Project Khthon.
The Tactical Theology Department of the Foundation is small. Most people figure this is because of the Foundation's famously skeptical perspective on theological matters in general — gods and demons and saints aren't part of the Foundation's general MO. The Foundation is rational. Logical. Scientific. It's beyond such things, and that fact is drilled into you from your first day on the job. Most members of our organization believe that theological entities, if they exist, are not in any way significantly different from the thousands of other anomalous beings we contain. As a result, many (if not most) of them do not regard the Tactical Theology Department highly, and you've likely received your own share of derison about this assignment.
As you'll learn in your time here, this is by design, as is everything we do.
In 1977, we captured God, capital-G. You can go see him in lockup if you want — you have the clearance now. The Tactical Theology Department was created by unanimous decision of the O5 Council seven days later. It was difficult in the early days — there were gods and divinities and angels everywhere we turned. We couldn't flip over a rock in the Holy Land without unearthing some kabbalistic entity or six-eyed beast claiming to be a Sumerian deity. But a lot of these things could be explained, or reasoned away. Our planet has a long history of reality warpers and anomalous ontological entities. But we can fight these things. We can slap SRA's around them or say the right words and lock them up or kill them dead.
As we learned soon enough, there are some things you can't fight or kill. Entities which ignore Hume levels and XACTS devices. There are living concepts which subsist on nothing but faith and belief, which exist in faith and belief. And this realization led us to the breakthrough that is the very foundation of the Tactical Theology Department: Belief, contrary to everything you have ever learned in your life, is real. Specifically, it is an acasual and atemporal morphic field which is generated and sustained by human beings. Each and every one of us alters it with the things we believe, and if enough people believe the same thing, creating a Morphic Resonance, then that concept is strengthened in the real.
This is how the Department got it's start. Belief is real, and it can be shaped. Conceptual warfare is nothing new to the Foundation — the Antimemetics Divisions predate us (and themselves) by years. But this was a new frontier entirely. We were running up against things backed by centuries of belief and faith in their ability, entities that we could not trap or kill because millions of people believed that they could not be trapped or killed. This presented an unacceptable risk to normalcy and containment of the supernatural, and led to the development and implementation of Project Khthon.
You'll find more information about the specifics in your Orientation Manual, but simply put, Project Khthon is a θ-Class Morphic Resonance, measuring at 8.1 on the Erdashev Scale, established in 1982 by order of the O5 Council. Project Khthon is based on two fundamental truths we discovered pretty early on. First, how to make a god. It's pretty easy — no less than twelve thousand people with unshakable and singular belief in a single concept or entity, which is enough to begin affecting the morphic field on a relatively low level. By this classification, there are people and companies and even countries out there that classify as 'gods'. CEOs, for example, who are charismatic because people believe they're charismatic, or countries that have never been invaded because everyone believes they can't be. The second thing we learned, however, was that to truly alter the morphic field in a Biblical manner, a significantly greater morphic resonance is needed, measuring at 2.12 or higher. You'd need millions of people, all believing in the same thing with the same unshaking faith and reverence. That it's right and it's strong and it can never ever be defeated, even by other gods.
Long story short, we made the Foundation into a church, and the Tactical Theology Department is it's god.
If that sounds absurd to you, just think about it. How often have you heard what we do referred to as silly or ridiculous? How often have people told you with absolute certainty that what we do is easy, that the things we deal with are either non-existent or can be contained easily using extant methods? Why do you think God stays in his cage?
Because we believe he will.
There are millions of people around the world who believe that we can do what we do, and do it easily. Of course, this belief is focused, harnessed, tamed. The Department and it's members cannot part seas or break islands in half. We can't put out the sun or wipe the world clean, because no one believes we can. There is exactly one thing that the belief of millions empowers us to do, and that is battle divine entities on an equal playing field.
But still, it is a terrible power we hold. That's precisely why the Department is so small, and why you specifically were selected for this position. Our psychological evaluations have shown you have the fortitude and capability to handle the unique stresses of this Department and it's responsibilities. This will be like no position you've held before. Already — since the moment you accepted this transfer, in fact, and news of it was made public — your concepts have begun to stretch and expand. By the time you're finished with this letter, your Morphic Resonance Field should have reached 5.2 or thereabouts, at which point you will be able to perceive divine and conceptual entities.
Welcome to godhood. The Foundation thanks you for your service.
Signed,
Dr. Ian David Osgrey,
Tactical Theology Department, Head of Divine Operations
