Santa's Workshop

-----intercepted transmission-----
-----Source: report to Kanawa Corporation
-----Subject: Santa's Workshop

For centuries a connection between Core Earth and this pocket dimension has opened up one night a year, December 24th. During the period that the connection exists the man known as Kris Kringle, Santa Claus and a variety of other names around the world journeys to Core Earth and in one night manages to visit innumerable locations worldwide to deliver gifts to good boys and girls. These gifts are all built in the pocket dimension yet show intimate familiarity with Core Earth products as well as matching consumer demands.

It would be of great benefit to the Kanawa Corporation to learn the secrets of Mr. Claus' means of determining the desires of his world- wide consumer base, his means of duplicating products produced by Core Earth (and lately Marketplace) corporations, his means of acquiring the necessary raw materials and producing the quantity of material demanded, the extent of his intelligence network that reports to him who is deserving of his generosity and the means by which he is capable of personally delivering his gifts on a worldwide basis in such a short period of time.

As per Kanawa-sama's report #AC09R56-C of his "reality technicians" being unable to locate the pocket dimension through conventional means numerous operatives were dispatched to the artic icepack last year to locate the connection when it opened and Mr. Claus began his journey.

Operative 9754 reported an aurora borealis effect and went to investigate but never reported in again. Search parties were unable to locate 9754 or any trace of his presence so it was assumed that he had indeed found the connection to Santa's Workshop and had passed through it but became trapped on the other side when it closed.

Surprisingly, 9754 was discovered by Kanawa operatives in Alaska forty-eight weeks after his disappearance. We have been able to determine that he spent approximately 37 weeks in Santa's Workshop before being left at an Inuit village by what would appear to be Ayslish dwarves but were called elves by 9754 and the Inuits who were interrogated.

9754 appears to have undergone transformation to the reality of the pocket dimension and has been resistant to questioning but we have gleaned the following information:

According to 9754 the connection between Core Earth and Santa's Workshop is magical in nature and consultation with our Ayslish specialists say that an axiom of 15 is the minimum requirement for such a feat. Magic also appears to play a large part in many aspects of Mr. Claus' operations which may complicate our acquisition and adaptation of his techniques. Examples provided by 9754 include flying reindeer, a sack and sleigh capable of containing the entirety of Mr. Claus' donations in one trip and various abilities attributed to Mr. Claus himself, such as the ability to teleport himself inside domiciles and his longevity.

Based on 9754's descriptions it would at first appear that Santa's Workshop is actually rather primitive technologically speaking, somewhere down around the level of Aysle. But from the sheer volume of Core Earth level material produced there we must assume that it in fact has a Tech axiom at least equal to that of Core Earth. Recent evidence of Mr. Claus delivering high-tech gifts to children in Nippon Tech, the Cyberpapacy, Tharkold and Akashan zones last year suggest though that the axiom could be as high as 30 - but it is possible that Mr. Claus employs Possibility-rated craftsmen to handle the production of these items as does Kanawa Corporation.

Our best estimate is that despite a lack of any form of religion in 9754's descriptions there exists a slightly greater amount of spiritual energies there than in Core Earth itself, a "feeling" 9754 reported. Since this is unsubstantiated and impossible to verify in any way we have arbitrarily given the Workshop a rating one level above Core Earth.

This is the most disturbing part of what we've conjectured from 9754's descriptions. It is apparently impossible for "evil" to exist in Santa's Workshop. In addition, people of this reality appear to possess the ability to identify evil in others upon cursory inspection, which we believe is the source of Mr. Claus' ability to determine "who's been naughty and who's been nice".

It is possible that this level is artifical, the result of a World Law rather than sociological development, for based on 9754's descriptions Mr. Claus' organization does not appear to be that advanced.

The Law of Toys - We believe that the ability of Santa's Workshop to reproduce items manufactured in other realities as well as the volume of material produced by the denizens of the Workshop is due to a World Law rather than ultra-advanced manufacturing techniques and successful corporate espionage. It is also possible that this World Law is responsible for the Workshop's ability to produce materials above its Tech axiom.

The Law of Delivery - Mr. Claus' ability to reach everyone on his list within one evening is apparently an extension of his reality rather than a magical effect (though he does appear to use magic to assist him in his deliveries, see the earlier reference to the reindeer, sleigh, sack and entering domiciles without forced entry.) It is our assumption that Mr. Claus carries a talisman of his reality with him on his deliveries to insure that there are no problems.

(Suspected) Law of Good Will Towards Men - This would produce the effects of a Social axiom of 29 WRT "evil" without actually requiring the axiom to be that high.

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page created 12/7/97, originally posted to the Torg mailing list 12/20/95, updated 4/11/2000