Overview of non-magickal elements in Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl

Disclaimer: This is alternate history. Any resemblance to anyone or anything real, living or dead, is purely coincidental and is not meant to be a challenge or commentary.

If you're completely new to Budapest, Hungary, skimming the relevant page of the CIA World Factbook might be a good first step.

City state

Budapest is a quasi city state, sort of like a state in federal Australia, with laws separate from the rest of the country, and, if the GM likes, patrolled city limits and/or custom control.

It's a bit more populous than in real life, just over the 2 million mark.

Wealthy

It is an economically thriving community with a booming building industry; skyscrapers are shooting up in a handful of places, and people have learned to accept the the sights, noises, smells, and never-ending traffic build-ups around the large-scale construction sites all over the city.

Corrupt

Corruption is rife at all levels of government, down to district councils, parking maids, and traffic cops, all the way to corporation CEOs and the political elite.

Where legitimacy for the regime comes from

This is an open secret, but people tend to turn a blind eye and keep the current administration (GMs are invited to make use of the Hungarian name generator to come up with the people ruling the country/city) in power for 3 main reasons, all underpinned by conspicuous propaganda (random news generator coming soon):

• Protection from the threat of terrorism (the threat is (surprisingly!) a real one, but it's actually magical in nature, as we shall see, and politics has no understanding or control over it).
  This practically means a heightened police presence, people routinely stopped for spot-checks, and some government posters calling for vigilance.
• Promises of independence from the rest of the country - Budapest is by far the most affluent part of the country, and the idea that it should stop paying to keep the rest of Hungary above the poverty line is popular(ized). The current ruling party's opposition is horrified by the idea, but the promise of even greater levels of average wealth if and when Budapest becomes an independent city state are alluring to some.

Note that the city's wealth is also magically induced, and has also nothing to do with which political party happens to be in power.

• There's a self-help movement vaguely like Dianetics, emphasizing clarity of thought and efficiency of mental processes that those in power have adopted as the national panacea to cure all societal ills. The official party line, heavily supported by state-sponsored media, is that everyone practising these mental disciplines is psychologically superior to non-practicioners.

Admittedly, I have yet to come up with any tangible details for this self-help philosophy, apart from its name (the "Szekeres-Bara ideals"), and that it is opposed to mysticism and the occult.

Next time: How do the Technocracy, the Traditions, and other magical factions fit into all this?  Where does the so-called terrorism and the very real wealth in Budapest come from?