The Society for Magical Research is exactly what its name suggests, a society of scholars, scientists, and engineers dedicated to the research of the arcane arts. It is a rather old organization, with its roots going all the way back to when modern civilizations were first being formed, but it wasn’t formalized until about a century ago.
Even now, the organization is composed of several loose departments, each containing a number of disjoint, more or less independent groups that perform their own experiments. Each department has regularly scheduled conferences, usually monthly but may vary among departments, during which its groups discuss results of their research, new research topics, funding, etc. Every four months, a larger conference is held across all departments. The contents of these major conferences are more or less the same as the minor conferences, but discussions regarding the formation of new departments or the dissolution of pre-existing departments may be held as well.
The SMR has a presence in most major cities, but its “headquarters” of sorts is located in Imperis. As such, most major conferences are held in Imperis. The Imperis Central Library is owned by the SMR and houses the results of much of its research.
Goals within individual departments may vary. But overall, the SMR is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake rather than for any practical purposes. In other words, they want to figure out how stuff works because it’d be cool. Research that can be considered “unethical” are still frowned upon, as the SMR as a whole does not want any trouble with any law enforcement organizations.
Each department has its own leader. They will only be mentioned in the story as necessary, and your character can be one of those leaders if you want. The leader’s main duties are documenting research topics and results, making decisions regarding funding, addition and punting removal of members, as well as disallowing any research that will get them arrested is unethical. The leader of SMR as a whole is Abraham Sage, the leader of the Department of Etherics (see below). He is also in charge of the creation and dissolution of departments.
The SMR accepts mostly everyone who has a desire to contribute. And even if you seriously screw up, most of the time the worst thing that’ll happen is that your funding will get cut. However, if you repeatedly violate the SMR’s research ethics, you will be punted politely asked to leave the organization, and possibly reported to the police.
The following is a list of all currently existing departments within the SMR. If you have an idea for a new department, PM me, and I’ll consider adding it. Each department below has at least one joke associated with it, so I’d prefer that you think of an associated joke when you suggest a new department.
Departments[]
The Department of Etherics: A department primarily concerned with researching the properties of space, time, and other dimensions. Their ultimate goal is to open a portal into another plane. What? Potential extradimensional invasions? That’s someone else’s problem!
The Department of Autonomics: A department focused on the construction of artificial lifeforms and artificial intelligence. Their ultimate goal is to create a new, fully functional, self-sustaining living species. Hopefully without having said species go berserk and take over the world.
The Department of Anthropic Physiology: A department focused on researching how the human body interacts with magic, including how magic is learned. They don’t have any specific goals other than “learn more”. Any rumor claiming that this department is trying to create super-humans is a blatant lie spread by people who are jealous. As for rumors about cocaine, this department does not work with narcotics. For cocaine and other narcotics, see the Department of Alchemics.
The Department of Alchemics: A department focused on the interactions of magic with physical matter. There is a great abundance of engineers in this department, as they work on the magical materials that make up modern infrastructure. This department also doesn’t have any specific goals other than “learn more”. No, they will not transmute all your junk into gold. Also, their goal is not to produce mass amounts of cocaine. For cocaine and other narcotics, see the Department of Anthropic Physiology.
The Department of H4xx0rz Information Technology: A department focused on h4xxing computer science, both hardware and software, and the implementations of such hardware and software with magic. Their goal is to create better computers and software to sate their egos for the benefit of the society at large. Also, any suggestions that this department should be merged with the Department of Autonomics have been h4xx’d politely turned down, so don’t bother trying.
The Department of Metamagics: A department hell-bent on interested in discovering the underlying physical laws that govern how magic itself functions. Saying anything like “magic can’t be explained” will earn you their vehement contempt.
The Department of Ascended Creationism Universal Origins: A department interested in finding out the origin of life, the universe, and everything. Seeing as there is concrete physical evidence of the Creators’ existence, more often than not this department spends its time gathering information about the Creators. They also possibly enjoy shooting down other stupid ignorant delusions religions for teh lulz. Just a little. Oh, and they’re totally not a cult worshipping the Creators. They resemble that remark.
The Military’s Dogs Department of War Death Destruction World Domination Battle Magics: As the name suggests. For obvious reasons, this department receives the most funding from the government, and works somewhat closely with the military. Due to this, and the nature of its research in general, there’s always some tension between it and other departments.
Short Term Goals[]
To attain knowledge.
Long Term Goals[]
To attain all knowledge.