London is where the Technocracy was born, and is still, in a sense, its heart — although the Union would scoff at the metaphor. It remains a place of enormous power for them, despite Britain no longer being quite so much at the center of the world. Yet despite that, they remain palpably unconcerned by the presence of the Traditions in what the Technocrats like to consider their city. Why?

The Union in general, and the London group in particular, believe that the war is over, and that not only have they won, but that the Traditions are so beaten down that even the idea of them posing a threat again is absurd. They’re about as worried about the Council of Nine as the United States was troubled by die-hard soldiers of Imperial Japan hiding out in the wilderness after World War II. Their plan to transform society is proceeding apace; the Olympic Games of 2012 showed the world the future that the Union has in mind — totalitarianism with a smile and a stiff upper lip — and the response was a resounding “that doesn’t look so bad, actually.” In their own minds, they have better things to do than worry about the doings of a band of irrelevant anachronisms who don’t have the wit to realize they might as well lie down and die.

There’s also a strong element of false camaraderie at work. The Union would like to see themselves as the ruling party and the Traditions as the mostly-loyal opposition, a group that, yes, has some quaint and foolish ideas, but is nonetheless still on the right side of a conflict in which the Nephandi and the Marauders are most emphatically on the wrong side. They’re useful to have around when the Union would prefer not to get its hands dirty, and also as a nonthreatening practice opponent to get the less experienced Technocrats sharpened up to face the real enemy. True, sometimes that results in injuries or fatalities (on both sides), but hey: the Union can afford them.

The result of all this is that the Traditions can get away with a lot — just as long as they aren’t perceived as attacking the Union itself. Skirmishing with Union personnel, squabbling over Nodes, playing politics with the Masses to try to get this or that accomplished — none of this really matters to the Union, and their complacency means that they usually won’t go scorched earth unless the other team does first. Of course, they’re only so genial because they believe they can’t lose. When that belief is threatened, the “good show, old chap!” facade goes out the window; they’ll act decisively and with overwhelming force to wipe out the source of that threat, then go right back to status quo ante.

In short: the NPC Union forces will oppose PC initiatives, but will not, generally speaking, set out to wipe out PCs or PC groups. Things that could change that include assassinating (not merely causing the death of in a “fair fight”) Union personnel, assaulting Union strongholds (not just places the Union has an interest), getting outed as barabbi, deploying vulgar magick on a large scale or in front of a large segment of the public — that is, things that remind them that maybe they haven’t entirely won the war yet after all.