Editing Genius: The Transgression (section)

==Foundations==
The other axis, the Foundations provide a Genius with the ''what'' and the ''how'' to complement the ''why'' of the Catalysts. The Foundations are groups of like-minded Geniuses who have banded together to pursue a common goal.

Together the five Foundations form the Peerage, which is more or less a scientific take on the [[Mage: The Ascension|the Nine Mystic Traditions and the Technocracy]]. Together they oppose the Baramins of Lemuria, a group of Foundations that act like a mix of the ''worst'' parts of the Traditions and Technocracy, plus [[Vampire: The Masquerade|the Sabbat]]. There are also Rogue Geniuses who are not part of a Foundation or the Peerage.

They are at least partly a support group as much as a faction, gently reminding one another that they are, in fact, mad, and that they should be careful about transgressing and the like or letting people handle their stuff.  

===The International Union of Artifice===
Formerly just a bunch of eccentric tinkerers, the Artificers have started to make a name for themselves by building top-notch devices, objects and other Wonders. They practice the art of ''mad engineering'', and while simple tools and weapons are within their purview they greatly prefer large, complex devices. Artificiers build because that's what they do, only stopping when they need to find more resources and materials to continue building. They are a poor and loose-knit foundation, accepting anyone who can work with tools regardless of who they are or what their ancestry might be. For this reason, the Union has recently become an ''actual'' union, organized in their labor so they don't get screwed too hard.  They tended to keep out of politics until recently and would much rather build stuff than engage in philosophical knifefights. Their favored Axioms are Automata and Prostasia, making them the foremost creators of robots and armor in the business. Their Grant allows them to create Wonders faster than other Genii, using their experience building things.

===The Fellowship of Manifest Direction===
The Directors are the kind of fellows who sit in dimly lit rooms discussing on how to better rule the world. They are the most organized of the Foundations: they are highly regimented, from the lowest Geniuses all the way up to the Clade, a group of 44+ Directors who do the whole secret council meeting thing. They are the masters of ''mad psychology'', interacting with their fellow Geniuses to see what makes them tick. They are the least likely to break out their Wonders though, instead relying on their interpersonal skills to get what they want. Their devices are the likes of hypnosis, manipulation and control, fitting into their whole men in black shtick. Their favored Axioms are Automata and Epikrato. Directors like to be in control, which they attain by either mind control or being in charge of the individual in question to begin with. This is aided by their Grant, allowing them to spend Mania to boost their social skills.

===The Center for Circumferential Navigation===
The Navigators are the masters of ''mad physics'', they build machines that allow them to travel at incredible speeds on land, sea and air, as well as through the ground itself, lava and space. They are the most recent of the Foundations, having joined the Peerage some 50 years ago. They left Lemuria because they were sick of being treated as second class Geniuses who were forced to do the heavy lifting with their Wonders instead of being allowed to be researchers in their own right. Because they travel a lot the Navigators are disorganized lot, mostly sticking to themselves while navigating the world on their mobile Wonders. With all their traveling Navigators tend to be tough explorer types, able of dealing with the hardships of the road and the wild, though a militaristic bent is also common. Their favored Axioms are Katastrofi and Skafoi: one to travel the world with, one to defend themselves from attackers with. As the most likely Inspired to get into physical scraps, their Grant allows them to spend Mania to enhance their physical abilities.

===The Reformed Society of Progenitors===
The Progenitors in their current form have risen from the ashes left behind by their predecessors, the Children of the Demiurge. They were a festering wound in the Peerage, filled with Lemurians and Illuminated who were on a dangerous course. So the Peerage uprooted the Children of the Demiurge somewhere in the early 90s, but were surprised and somewhat concerned when something new arose: a vibrant young group of scholars of the body seeking to give evolution a helping hand. As such, the Progenitors took up the place of the Demiurges in the Peerage alongside the survivors of the purge and went on their way. Theirs is the way of ''mad biology'': raising the dead, cloning, genetic engineering, making monsters, creating and eradicating diseases and so on. You may have noticed that most of those are Obligation transgressions, and, indeed, they are the least worried by morals and ethics of all the Peerage, making them more likely to become Illuminated, worrying many who ''just dealt with this shit goddamn''. Their favored Axioms are Automata and Exelixi, [[Simic Combine|which allows them to create and improve on life]]. Their Grant allows them bonuses in making tiny Wonders, allowing them a leg up in the field of NANOMACHINES, SON.

===The College of Scholastic Theory===
The Scholastics are all about That What Man Was Not Meant To Know. They descend from an ancient Persian Zoroastrian cult, so they are very big on Truth.  Knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that's what they do. They practice ''mad philosophy'', looking to figure out just what Mania is, how Inspiration really works and other wonders of the world as well as a grab bag of other stuff (as in "natural philosophy", the precursor to modern science). They are often the adventurer archaeologist types, looking to uncover that which was lost and learning from them in an attempt to better understand the world. They have the most internal strife, with Scholastics constantly bickering and trying to make themselves look good. This has created several fields of study that all compete with one another, even trying to get them dissolved for their own gain.

Oddly enough, they have a decent working relationship with the Free Council, despite the Awakened and Inspired usually hating each other. The book notes that this generally means they're the middleman whenever the similarity between Mages and Genii leads to some newly-awakened Mage being mistaken for a just-catalyzed Genius or vice versa, and then having to be returned to the appropriate faction before they go nuts.
 
Their favored Axioms are Apokalypsi and Metaptropi, allowing them to find lost knowledge and change things according to their whims. This also helps with understanding their own Wonders, with their Grant allowing them more control than usual over their Wonders' faults.

===Programs===

There are also minor Foundations, not part of the formal Peerage but large enough to have favored Axioms and a grant. The one detailed in the sourcebook is the Ten Thousand Fans, sometimes called "Formalists" by outsiders, which formed from the Chinese survivors of the Lemurian's purge in the 20th century. They use Taoist philosophy, Western science, traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Indian medicine, and [[The Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic|all that good stuff]]. Their axioms are Metatropi and Exelixi, and their grant is the ability to spend Mania to sustain yourself; one point can replace one day of food or water, one minute of air, or six hours of activity without penalty for lack of sleep.

There are also three others described but given no mechanics; the Ubermenschen, the Hollow Earth Nazis, are despite their vileness not Illuminated or even unmada (though they are mostly(?) Manes), and have a program. Mexico has an Aztec-inspired/descended numerology and architectural geomancy program, the Muslim world has a rocketry and astronomy program which may or may not summon aliens from distant stars (Abdul Alhazred isn't ''quite'' name-dropped), and India is probably hiding a non-Lemurian program somewhere. (Non-Lemurian geniuses aren't allowed into India but there's probably some holdouts from the purge working in secret.)