Armageddon Convention
The Armageddon Convention was a conference of the major galactic powers with the intention of outlawing some of the more devastating weapons they had developed. Organised by Irving Braxiatel, it was convened on the flying island of Laputa near Venice in 1609.
History
It took much painstaking negotiation for Braxiatel to get the major powers to agree to attend the Convention. One of the preconditions they insisted upon was that it be chaired by the First Doctor, whose campaign to outlaw miniscopes had won him respect across the galaxy.
However Braxiatel's agents accidentally brought the wrong man, the human churchman Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who bore a strong physical resemblance to the Doctor's first incarnation. The Convention was then actually mediated by Bellarmine, who believed he was intervening in a war between angels and whose negotiating strategy was thus largely derived from the Biblical Book of Revelation.
The Convention was nearly destroyed by the Greld, who attempted to infiltrate a composite meta-cobalt bomb onto Laputa despite Braxiatel's defensive precautions. Fortunately the weapon never achieved critical mass, largely due to the involvement of the Doctor, who ironically was impersonating Cardinal Bellarmine. Braxiatel's own servitors, the Jamarians, proved unexpectedly ambitious, and attempted to loot the delegates' ships for knowledge of advanced technology they wished to use to carve out their own empire. They were destroyed, though, when the meta-cobalt device eventually detonated. The Convention eventually concluded successfully, with Bellarmine returned to Venice with his memory erased. Braxiatel, though, decided to retire from politics. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass [+]Loading...["The Empire of Glass (novel)"])
The Seventh Doctor quoted the Fourteenth Resolution of the Armageddon Convention, which dealt with prohibiting the use of icaron radiation. (PROSE: Original Sin [+]Loading...["Original Sin (novel)"])
The Eighth Doctor remembered being at the Convention and being responsible for getting miniscopes banned, and used this as an example of how he used to be "a bit of a firebrand". (AUDIO: The Force of Death [+]Loading...["The Force of Death (audio story)"])
Powers represented
- Chelonians
- Dentraal
- Devgherrians
- Ellillians
- Greld
- Ice Warriors
- Jullatii
- Krargs
- Ontraag
- Oolians
- Rutan Host
- Sontarans
- Vilp (PROSE: The Empire of Glass [+]Loading...["The Empire of Glass (novel)"])
Notable non-participants
Inevitably, several of the galaxy's most warlike cultures refused even to attend the Convention. These included the Daleks and the Cybermen. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen (novelisation)"]) Despite this, the Convention still outlawed the use of Cyber-bombs. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen [+]Loading...["Revenge of the Cybermen (TV story)"])
