The Rods of Asclepius

The Rods of Asclepius are an organization that seeks out MES patients and provides them the tools to stabilize their disorder. It sees itself first and fore most as a health care facility focused on MES. They also offer some basic education on using psychic abilities and provide a service of brain-guards for galactic and corporate leaders. Their primary center of operations is on Pherusa in Pusti. But they maintain influence on several planets in this sector. The leadership team is called the Rods and includes both full-fledge psychics and normal human experts.

Asclepius’ main objective is to expand treatment of MES patients and prevent nations from exploiting psychics and their abilities for political or monetary gain. To achieve this Asclepius peruses MES cases to provide care and acts as an advocate for local psychics. They aim to promote planet stability by working alongside local governments and promote mutual beneficial relationships between psychics and these bodies. Asclepius has been expanding rudimentary bases on many planets in the sector to advance these goals.

Now, the Animorum Institute does compete somewhat with Asclepius, they have rather different ideals. The Institute prefers to focus on research into more advanced psychic abilities. Their studies have progressed farther in most of the disciplines, though in metapsionics Asclepius reamains unmatched. Asclepius has also been much more successful at off world expansion; enjoying the affection and loyalty of a much wider array of the sector’s psychics. It remains to be seen who can get the upper hand in the long-term.

Mission
The mission of Asclepius can be broken into three parts:

1.      Health Care for MES patients

2.     The Brain-Guard

3.     Expansion and Exploration

Health Care for MES patients
This operation is led by Orlaith Donaghue a powerful Metapsionic. She can dampen the surges of metadimensional energies that sometimes pulse through her patients. This allows them to safely practice controlling their abilities and form neurological pathways to channel their powers in normal circumstances without the terrible side-effects.

Sometimes patients who become particularly skilled in controlling their powers are invited to join Asclepius and receive further tutelage. These students are boarded on site and are given their education at no cost, but they are expected to serve as a brain-guard on Farusa for some period of years. Completion of the program generally takes four to five years followed by the time in service. Upon graduation most students stay on as Asclepius members, they might continue to serve in the brain-guard, but many go on to other worlds to support the treatment of psychics.

Orlaith also leads a team of researchers who further the techniques used to train psychics. Their focus is Meta-Psionics, but they also have significant resources devoted to Precognition and Biopsionics.

The Brain-Guard
Rory Taggart, a rod member, leads the guard on Pherusa. They specialize in protecting against psychic aided attacks of galactic leaders as well as any other psychic tampering. This also provides world leaders, and their deputies, opportunities to work alongside psychics. Part of the goal is to reduce stigma and provide frameworks for how mutually beneficial relationships between these groups can be maintained under the law and with reasonable transparency to the public.

This also is the primary way that Asclepius can remain solvent. With the collapse of the Galactic Hegemony new clients are quickly being sought out. Further, Asclepius is trying rapidly upgrade the presence of these Guards on other planets to follow the demand. Several members of the Farusa Guard are being transported to other planetary bases to support this aim.

Expansion and Exploration
This is a much more diffuse department with many different goals being pursued. Asclepius is always looking to advance to other worlds but generally prioritize larger population groups or frontier planets where the likelihood of finding psychics is higher. (Something about the frontier region seems to promote higher incidence of MES.)

In frontier worlds Asclepius also plays a role in keeping the navigational charts for spike drive travel up to date. This is also were the resident PreCogs are most often employed. Asclepius is expanding research into this arena in the hopes that they can open new routes through the luminal space. They are hoping to find lost planets colonized pre-scream to find advancements in psi-tech to help them catch up scientifically with the Animorum Institute.

Future Goals
Asclepius hopes to secure a bright future for psychics. But in the far term they hope to bring psychic abilities to directly support the general public. Envisioning new advancements in the discipline of Biopsionics as they build new psi-tech hospitals with doctors working alongside psychic physicians. From its founding Asclepius has been focused on the health and wellbeing of MES patients. Going forward it hopes to expand to general public health especially on worlds in the frontier that do not otherwise have the resources to build such technological marvels.