So I have this campaign plot thread that I really need some help tying together.  So far, I've been able to skate by on gross generalities and vague handwaving allusions.  But the more I pick at it, the more I'm convinced it could be x10 as fun if I really had any idea what I was talking about.  

So here's the challenge: I need to turn Isaac Newton's Principa (Book 1) into a numerological occult nightmare.

Here are those vague allusions I've put forth so far.  Isaac Newton, in my game, is a bit of a pompous prick.  In publishing his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, he got something wrong.  A mistake that actually allowed something dark and terrible into the world, like a demonic seed of an idea that begins to grow and fester in reality.  It's enough that he's gone underground (and not very willingly) while the sorcerous order he's part of actively works to fix the mistake.  Meanwhile, the church of Rome is after him in full force, regardless of the conventional boundaries of their influence.

Trouble is, I have only a vague idea of the capabilities of numerology and have no idea how it and calculus could really intersect.

My initial thought was quite literal, that something in the work allowed something evil into the world (like a extra-dimensional portal composed of pure thought).  But the more I explore the concept, the more possibilities present themselves.  I just have no idea how to really tie it together into a cohesive idea.  The premise remains the same, but as the players explore it I would really like to have a firmer idea of what the core of the problem is.  Historically, Newton was an alchemist, an astrologer, and a believer in numerology.  He used to to predict the end days.  In a magically active world, there is no telling how far he could have taken the theory and tied it in with his initial theories of calculus and physics in plotting the course of the heavenly bodies.  

So please, take a stab at taking this idea from rough concept to "holy shit Isaac Newton must die!"  Or just spout off fringe theories that might work.

Thanks!
Tom

Quote from: Blusponge;907613Trouble is, I have only a vague idea of the capabilities of numerology and have no idea how it and calculus could really intersect.

My initial thought was quite literal, that something in the work allowed something evil into the world (like a extra-dimensional portal composed of pure thought).  But the more I explore the concept, the more possibilities present themselves.  I just have no idea how to really tie it together into a cohesive idea.  The premise remains the same, but as the players explore it I would really like to have a firmer idea of what the core of the problem is.  Historically, Newton was an alchemist, an astrologer, and a believer in numerology.  He used to to predict the end days.  In a magically active world, there is no telling how far he could have taken the theory and tied it in with his initial theories of calculus and physics in plotting the course of the heavenly bodies.  

So please, take a stab at taking this idea from rough concept to "holy shit Isaac Newton must die!"  Or just spout off fringe theories that might work.

Does it have to be numerology? My initial thought was to tie it in with non-Euclidean geometry (and then the Cthulhu Mythos), since messing with Euclid in the 19th century was controversial enough that Gauss wouldn't publish his discovery (and thus three mathematicians are credited with discovering non-Euclidean geometry).

Perhaps this would be helpful:

Quote from: WikipediaNewton felt that just as the writings of ancient philosophers, scholars, and Biblical figures contained within them unknown sacred wisdom, the same was true of their architecture. He believed that these men had hidden their knowledge in a complex code of symbolic and mathematical language that, when deciphered, would reveal an unknown knowledge of how nature works.

Maybe he actually damaged how nature works through a computational error, or fell into a trap left by some being outside our universe (or its followers) in some less reliable source and thus opened the way for it. People have been trying to read historical events from the digits of pi for a long time, and the calculus would provide various ways to compute it further; perhaps his error computed a sequence of digits that functioned as some sort of disastrous magical invocation.

The idea I've been using in my Call of Cthulhu game for Rhan-Tegoth is based on the Holographic Principle, that in string theory a space can be described by a description in less dimensions.  Thus, a two-dimensional space can be used to describe a space with three or more dimensions, that our own universe might be information encoded holographically on a two-dimensional space.  And what is a page but a two dimensional space?  

In my game, Rhan-Tegoth's true multi-dimensional -- and extra-dimensional form -- has been encoded on the pages of various codices as illuminated, two-dimensional text which hints at a third dimensional shape.  The text is placeholders for three-dimensional sigils, which in turn describe Rhan-Tegoth's extra-dimensional majesty. (If two-dimensional space can describe three or four dimensional space such that our universe is actually a shadow on the wall of a larger, more real and extra-dimensional reality, then three-dimensional sigils can describe something that exists in spaces of five or six dimensions, maybe even more.)

 If anyone were to extrapolate the true, three dimensional shape of the letters encoded on the pages of the codices, then Rhan-Tegoth, being described, can be brought into existence, literally written into our reality.  The formula which describes Rhan-Tegoth is hidden across several books -- a Ukranian bible, a mathematics text, a book on cryptography, and a book on puppetry.  Rhan-Tegoth is referred to in these books as the bound god, because he is both bound and barred from our universe right now and because he is bound within those texts.

Anyway, something like that could be cool.

Rawma,

Nope. Doesn't have to be numerology at all. It just seemed like a convienent component to add in the mix. Due to the period of my game (early 1690), Newton's Principia (1687) makes perfect sense. That it was one of his first st published works that explored methods of calculus, also makes perfect sense to use. Beyond that, I'm pretty much open to anything. It would have to be just obvious enough that the church would get involved FOR REAL, not just label him a heretic but actually dispatch agents to England to take him out. But that doesn't mean they have a full picture of the issue, either.

Everyone knows "no man knows the hour or the day..."  What only the Church and the initiated know is that no man ought to know the hour and the day, for that is part of what brings about the end.  If you do the math and get a near date, you doing the math and knowing the date is what sets the date for the end of the world.  And the only way out is to erase both that set of calculations and all knowledge thereof.  This is unfortunate for the calculator, but if there's ever a case where the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, the true end of the world would seem to cover it.  Publishing the Principia put the tools out for any reasonably educated individual to calculate and precipitate the Apocalypse, so in addition to rushing around "fixing" all the individuals who've already triggered it/them, the Church is going for the source.

There's still the question of the exact mechanism.  Perhaps calculus is necessary to unlock the Bible code in this world, so calculus alone would be safe as long as no-one starts messing around applying it the Bible, but then that bastard Luther has already opened that barn door, and then burned down the barn to make certain.  Or possibly the Principia is the key to a truly useful and accurate form of astrology, based on the true movements and locations of the planets, unknown until now:  so accurate the day and hour is written right there in the stars for anyone to see.  Although that's more Book 3 stuff, there's enough in Book 1 to point the way.

Quote from: Blusponge;907613Isaac Newton, in my game, is a bit of a pompous prick.

Historical accuracy, check.

QuoteIn publishing his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, he got something wrong.  A mistake that actually allowed something dark and terrible into the world, like a demonic seed of an idea that begins to grow and fester in reality.

Bit of a twist on history, but true from the viewpoint of certain wacky religious nuts.

QuoteIt's enough that he's gone underground (and not very willingly) while the sorcerous order he's part of actively works to fix the mistake.

Invisible College, check.

QuoteMeanwhile, the church of Rome is after him in full force, regardless of the conventional boundaries of their influence.

Trial of Galileo conducted within living memory and the Vatican has knowledge, books, etc. no one else (or almost no one else) has, check.

QuoteTrouble is, I have only a vague idea of the capabilities of numerology and have no idea how it and calculus could really intersect.

Mathematically, I’d say numerology is closer to number theory than it is to calculus. So the direction I'll go is that the Principia moves away from the relatively simple, discrete mathematics of numerology to the continuous and far more complicated mathematics of the real numbers and even the imaginary numbers e.g. the square root of -1.

Calculus provides mathematical solutions to a series of problems the philosophy, specifically Zeno, posed, e.g. Tortoise and Hare, Arrow and Target, etc. Perhaps Zeno was right and there really is a paradox. And the heart of the solution to that paradox is the benevolent god behind many major religions. It is only due to the intercession of that benevolent deity that we can experience space and time in the way we do. By bringing an alternate, ungodly solution into the world to the problems of time and motion, Newton has weakened the benevolent deity and strengthened the forces of the ungodly e.g. demons, witches, etc. So that ironically, the scientific explanations Newton provides are actually strengthening the chaotic and anti-scientific forces of magic.

Calculus presumes numerical infinity, (both countable and uncountable) whereas traditionally most of the mathematics that was used was either finite or at least countably infinite. Short version of the difference, think of numbers like the integers 0, 1, 2, 3, ….; also -1, -2, -3,…. These can extend infinitely, i.e. there is no biggest (smallest) number because you can just add 1 to it (subtract 1 from it) to get a bigger (smaller) number. While that probably intuitively makes sense to lots of people (especially people who learned math in the modern era), the uncountably infinite is harder to grasp. But numerical continuity is presumed and necessary in the calculus.

Instead of "numerology", you should consider the Qabalah.  It combines numbers and letters (each hebrew letter having a number equivalent), the bible, and it is already a part of Qabalistic lore that if the code to the true name of God is correctly pronounced, it will bring about the apocalypse.

Quote from: RPGPundit;908841Instead of "numerology", you should consider the Qabalah.  It combines numbers and letters (each hebrew letter having a number equivalent), the bible, and it is already a part of Qabalistic lore that if the code to the true name of God is correctly pronounced, it will bring about the apocalypse.

Isn't assigning numerical values to letters also part of numerology?

A Kabbalah angle certainly works too. Though I think Bren, right. What you are describing could certainly be an intersection between the two.

Quote from: Bren;908847Isn't assigning numerical values to letters also part of numerology?

Yes, but numerology is way more lame. It doesn't have any kind of cosmological foundation. What I mean is, it doesn't really have a framework to give the symbols some kind of reasonable correspondence to universal phenomena.