Projekt STURM: Difference between revisions

Line 8:

According to Adelfons and Schauermann's theories, latent psionic abilities would only be exposed under extreme stress - hence why there was an uptick in reports of psionic activity during the Civil War. Adelfons' team, most notably his right-hand man Dr. Wessermann János, therefore subjected those individuals who passed the SAMAA to a battery of chemical, psychological and physical tortures in an effort to induce the individuals' psionic abilities and help them "ascend". Fatality rates in these experiments climbed as high as 40% in 1942, primarily due to cardiac arrest induced by prolonged intense stress, while at least four researchers also died by suicide as a result of their participation in the programme. By 1943, it was clear that there was little hope of success, and the programme's efforts shifted towards use of hallucinogenic drugs (easy to obtain in Hendalarsk due to their role in traditional religious and cultural practices) as interrogation aids. Survivors of the SAMAA-era programme were placed in psychiatric institutions, and the psionics project was shut down entirely. Adelfons and his team used chemically-altered forms of hallucinogens like psilocybin as "truth serums", with subjects largely convicted criminals (including war criminals) whom the Jendaburger authorities had reason to believe were concealing information around aspects of their crimes. These chemically-altered hallucinogens had been developed in the course of psionics testing, in an attempt to strip away millennia of embedded "anti-psionic conditioning" in the human psyche, but Adelfons was able to pass them off as having been aids from an abandoned line of his neuroscientific enquiries. This second wave of experimentation was less lethal than the first, although several prisoners ultimately committed suicide and many more experienced profound nervous breakdowns subsequent to their exposure to the chemicals.<ref>Adelfons claimed in his defence testimony that some of these prisoner suicides were due to increased levels of empathy brought about by hallucinogenic experiences, thereby causing these prisoners to feel the full weight of their crimes and act rationally in those circumstances. The court rejected this line of argument.</ref>

This line of research was also deemed a failure given the resources expended on it; although some useful information was gleaned from some subjects, many more simply babbled incoherently or seemed to invent new life stories from whole cloth, while even that evidence deemed useful was plainly not admissible in court due to the level of coercion involved in its extraction. Seventeenth Directorate military officials became increasingly concerned about the programme's budget by 1945, and a full audit was ordered in early 1946. It was in the course of this audit that the SAMAA-era tests were discovered, and their details leaked first to the governments of the other Pentapolitan cities and then to the media in Hendalarsk despite attempts by the Jendaburger government to perform damage control. Adelfons, Wessermann and their subordinates (as well as Schauermann) were promptly arrested and tried on dozens of counts of manslaughter. After a months-long trial which generated sensational coverage, despite the Seventeenth Directorate's efforts to censor proceedings and keep them behind closed doors, Wessermann was sentenced to twenty-five years in "scientific confinement"<ref>A form of imprisonment where he was able to continue certain kinds of scientific work, largely theoretical, while nevertheless remanded in custody.</ref> while Adelfons and Schauermann each received the sentence of ''~~vogelfrey~~'', the most serious punishment available under the post-war Pentapolitan legal code,<ref>''~~Vogelfrey~~'', literally "free as a bird", is a form of civil death in which a convict is condemned to exile. Should they choose to return to the country from which they were exiled, they must wear a clear identifying tag, and are entirely unprotected by the legal system, even in the event that they are imprisoned or killed by private citizens. A medieval punishment in origin, it remains legal in both Hendalarsk proper and the Pentapolis, although it is extremely rarely used in either. Khunyer law has no provision for civil death.</ref> and duly went into exile in August 1948.

This line of research was also deemed a failure given the resources expended on it; although some useful information was gleaned from some subjects, many more simply babbled incoherently or seemed to invent new life stories from whole cloth, while even that evidence deemed useful was plainly not admissible in court due to the level of coercion involved in its extraction. Seventeenth Directorate military officials became increasingly concerned about the programme's budget by 1945, and a full audit was ordered in early 1946. It was in the course of this audit that the SAMAA-era tests were discovered, and their details leaked first to the governments of the other Pentapolitan cities and then to the media in Hendalarsk despite attempts by the Jendaburger government to perform damage control. Adelfons, Wessermann and their subordinates (as well as Schauermann) were promptly arrested and tried on dozens of counts of manslaughter. After a months-long trial which generated sensational coverage, despite the Seventeenth Directorate's efforts to censor proceedings and keep them behind closed doors, Wessermann was sentenced to twenty-five years in "scientific confinement"<ref>A form of imprisonment where he was able to continue certain kinds of scientific work, largely theoretical, while nevertheless remanded in custody.</ref> while Adelfons and Schauermann each received the sentence of ''fogelfré'', the most serious punishment available under the post-war Pentapolitan legal code,<ref>''Fógelfré'' (old Hendalarkisch: ''vogelfrey''), literally "free as a bird", is a form of civil death in which a convict is condemned to exile. Should they choose to return to the country from which they were exiled, they must wear a clear identifying tag, and are entirely unprotected by the legal system, even in the event that they are imprisoned or killed by private citizens. A medieval punishment in origin, it remains legal in both Hendalarsk proper and the Pentapolis, although it is extremely rarely used in either. Khunyer law has no provision for civil death.</ref> and duly went into exile in August 1948.

==Legacy==

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 According to Adelfons and Schauermann's theories, latent psionic abilities would only be exposed under extreme stress - hence why there was an uptick in reports of psionic activity during the Civil War. Adelfons' team, most notably his right-hand man Dr. Wessermann János, therefore subjected those individuals who passed the SAMAA to a battery of chemical, psychological and physical tortures in an effort to induce the individuals' psionic abilities and help them "ascend". Fatality rates in these experiments climbed as high as 40% in 1942, primarily due to cardiac arrest induced by prolonged intense stress, while at least four researchers also died by suicide as a result of their participation in the programme. By 1943, it was clear that there was little hope of success, and the programme's efforts shifted towards use of hallucinogenic drugs (easy to obtain in Hendalarsk due to their role in traditional religious and cultural practices) as interrogation aids. Survivors of the SAMAA-era programme were placed in psychiatric institutions, and the psionics project was shut down entirely. Adelfons and his team used chemically-altered forms of hallucinogens like psilocybin as "truth serums", with subjects largely convicted criminals (including war criminals) whom the Jendaburger authorities had reason to believe were concealing information around aspects of their crimes. These chemically-altered hallucinogens had been developed in the course of psionics testing, in an attempt to strip away millennia of embedded "anti-psionic conditioning" in the human psyche, but Adelfons was able to pass them off as having been aids from an abandoned line of his neuroscientific enquiries. This second wave of experimentation was less lethal than the first, although several prisoners ultimately committed suicide and many more experienced profound nervous breakdowns subsequent to their exposure to the chemicals.<ref>Adelfons claimed in his defence testimony that some of these prisoner suicides were due to increased levels of empathy brought about by hallucinogenic experiences, thereby causing these prisoners to feel the full weight of their crimes and act rationally in those circumstances. The court rejected this line of argument.</ref>
-This line of research was also deemed a failure given the resources expended on it; although some useful information was gleaned from some subjects, many more simply babbled incoherently or seemed to invent new life stories from whole cloth, while even that evidence deemed useful was plainly not admissible in court due to the level of coercion involved in its extraction. Seventeenth Directorate military officials became increasingly concerned about the programme's budget by 1945, and a full audit was ordered in early 1946. It was in the course of this audit that the SAMAA-era tests were discovered, and their details leaked first to the governments of the other Pentapolitan cities and then to the media in Hendalarsk despite attempts by the Jendaburger government to perform damage control. Adelfons, Wessermann and their subordinates (as well as Schauermann) were promptly arrested and tried on dozens of counts of manslaughter. After a months-long trial which generated sensational coverage, despite the Seventeenth Directorate's efforts to censor proceedings and keep them behind closed doors, Wessermann was sentenced to twenty-five years in "scientific confinement"<ref>A form of imprisonment where he was able to continue certain kinds of scientific work, largely theoretical, while nevertheless remanded in custody.</ref> while Adelfons and Schauermann each received the sentence of ''vogelfrey'', the most serious punishment available under the post-war Pentapolitan legal code,<ref>''Vogelfrey'', literally "free as a bird", is a form of civil death in which a convict is condemned to exile. Should they choose to return to the country from which they were exiled, they must wear a clear identifying tag, and are entirely unprotected by the legal system, even in the event that they are imprisoned or killed by private citizens. A medieval punishment in origin, it remains legal in both Hendalarsk proper and the Pentapolis, although it is extremely rarely used in either. Khunyer law has no provision for civil death.</ref> and duly went into exile in August 1948.
+This line of research was also deemed a failure given the resources expended on it; although some useful information was gleaned from some subjects, many more simply babbled incoherently or seemed to invent new life stories from whole cloth, while even that evidence deemed useful was plainly not admissible in court due to the level of coercion involved in its extraction. Seventeenth Directorate military officials became increasingly concerned about the programme's budget by 1945, and a full audit was ordered in early 1946. It was in the course of this audit that the SAMAA-era tests were discovered, and their details leaked first to the governments of the other Pentapolitan cities and then to the media in Hendalarsk despite attempts by the Jendaburger government to perform damage control. Adelfons, Wessermann and their subordinates (as well as Schauermann) were promptly arrested and tried on dozens of counts of manslaughter. After a months-long trial which generated sensational coverage, despite the Seventeenth Directorate's efforts to censor proceedings and keep them behind closed doors, Wessermann was sentenced to twenty-five years in "scientific confinement"<ref>A form of imprisonment where he was able to continue certain kinds of scientific work, largely theoretical, while nevertheless remanded in custody.</ref> while Adelfons and Schauermann each received the sentence of ''fogelfré'', the most serious punishment available under the post-war Pentapolitan legal code,<ref>''Fógelfré'' (old Hendalarkisch: ''vogelfrey''), literally "free as a bird", is a form of civil death in which a convict is condemned to exile. Should they choose to return to the country from which they were exiled, they must wear a clear identifying tag, and are entirely unprotected by the legal system, even in the event that they are imprisoned or killed by private citizens. A medieval punishment in origin, it remains legal in both Hendalarsk proper and the Pentapolis, although it is extremely rarely used in either. Khunyer law has no provision for civil death.</ref> and duly went into exile in August 1948.
 ==Legacy==

Projekt STURM: Difference between revisions

Navigation menu