The Acrophage By Anders Sandberg Many mages are hubris personified, Nietzschean Übermen able to warp reality with a single thought. They think they are able to Ascend and transform the world. But there are unseen dangers on the path towards Ascension, and the Acrophage is one of them. The Acrophage is not a paradox spirit, but it and their kind share some similarities. The Acrophage is the response of reality to hubris, and gains power from trapping mages in their advances. Humble mages are ignored, while the quest for Ascension of hubristic mages attract its attention. The Acrophage will usually manifest as a beautiful man or woman a head taller than the mage, dressed in classical clothes (usually brilliant white). An unseen light source illuminates the Acrophage from above, making its presence both intense and overbearing. In the physical world it sometimes manifests on television screens or on the phone. Its powers are always similar to but greater than the mage; the Acrophage will manifest greater forces before a mage who has mastered the lesser forces and teleportation before a mage able to just perceive space. The Acrophage seeks out questing mages, and diverts them from the quest by challenging them and their hubris. Sometimes it claims to be the final opponent to be overcome on the quest, which is a complete lie. Often the Acrophage simply attacks one of the most cherished tenets of the mage's life and starts an escalating duel of magick. The only way of defeating the Acrophage is to ignore the challenge, but few mages can resist trying to defeat the arrogant being. Another method it uses is simply to appear during the quest and demonstrate its powers in a way the mage feels it has to overshadow in some way. The Acrophage grows stronger the more the mage fights it, and does not care much about paradox or damage to innocents. Instead it gradually lures the mage into a more and more desperate fight that will destroy him. For example, Dr. Stanislaus Tergoz spent several years fighting an increasingly desperate scientific battle against an unknown colleague (the Acrophage), until he was killed in a massive paradox backlash after trying to harness the power of the entire world against his competitor. Sometimes the Acrophage succeeds so well that the mage forgets the path to Ascension and instead begins to Descend; the final triumph of matter over spirit. The mage has become so obsessed with proving his supremacy that he becomes the Acrophage.
The Angel of Pain By Anders Sandberg
Description In the high Umbra all kinds of concepts exist in manifested form, emanations from the minds of the Aeons. Some are beautiful, others terrible, but they all have a purity of existence impossible to understand by mortals. Except perhaps one, the Angel of Pain. The Angel looks completely human -- except that it lacks skin. Its glistening organs are clearly visible and some of its tendons have been severed so that all muscles hang freely from its body. The loose muscles (which do not bleed) serenely drift around its body like a seaweed in the ocean, red veils of agony. All its movements are slow and graceful, as it floats weightlessly a foot above the ground. The Angel is the manifestation of pure pain. Everyone in its vicinity feels its presence, not as pain but as potential pain; as if a sharp knife moved a hairsbreadth above the skin, ready to cut a deep gash. Anybody who touches the Angel, either physically or magickally, immediately is paralysed by agonising pain. The pain is far beyond anything normally experienced by mortal flesh, it is the essence of anguish magnified a thousandfold. In some rare cases the Angel has kissed a mortal, who has been "blessed" with total agony for the rest of his or her (usually short) life. The Angel seems to be an independent being, not serving any power other than itself. It doesn't care about the affairs of mortals or their wishes, and it doesn't strive to extend its pain to others -- maybe there is enough pain in the world already. It never speaks or tries to communicate. In fact, the Angel seems almost serene, and a few mages have argued that if one could only accept it and reach the same mental harmony its touch would no longer be agony but ecstasy and tranquillity united.
Systems Any contact with the Angel, through touch, magick or through a tool (Like a sword hitting it or a gunshot) will cause agony in the human. The important thing isn't physical connection but the fact that the person seeks contact with the being, a thrown rock will be just as painful as a direct touch. The pain is not physical but mental. Mages with Mind can counteract it using their Arete against a difficulty of 8 to reduce the pain of the Angel. It has 5 dices of pain initially if the mage just touches it, and 8 dice if it deliberately reaches out and embraces the mage. Some rotes can also build up a mental barrier before touching the Angel; they also reduce the number of dice. To be able to act at all while in total agony, the victim has to succeed with his Willpower against a difficulty equal to the remaining pain dice plus four. A botch means the victim has been completely overcome with pain and cannot do anything until it ends; a multiple botch might lead to a permanent phobia against all painful stimuli. If the victim succeeds in steeling his will and acts, his dice pool is reduced by the remaining dice of the Angel. After being touched, the pain will gradually subside with one step per turn, until the victim is painless again (if it has not been touched by the Angel in the meantime, of course). However, if the angel kisses a victim on the mouth (which requires it to hold him in its arms) it can insert a fragment of its being into the very soul of the victim. The resulting pain will never go away until the soul is cleansed -- somehow.
Bittersweet (Melancholy Epiphling) By Tod T. Fox (
[email protected])
Statistics Willpower: 4 Rage: 2 Gnosis: 10 Power: 30
Image This spirit is a bit of shimmering color and light like the smoky light overhead from a movie house projector. As it moves about, all who can see it and, to a lesser extent, Sleepers present, will find pictures displayed on its form, along with other appropriate sensory impressions -- the taste and sight of semi-sweet chocolate, candied ginger, or espresso in white demitasse cups; popcorn smells along with tragic yet redeeming scenes from recent movies (Titanic is seen often in recent months, much to the chagrin of some Hermetic Magi); the sighs and sounds of lovers; that special smell of the summer day before you go back to school and other bittersweet images. The Bittersweet epiphling is most commonly summoned when melancholy, happy-sad feelings are felt. It appears to feed on the emotions, and most strongly on tears and other emotions of release. The spirit will use its various Charms in order to bring on these emotions; its actions, however, rarely seem malicious. It will not bring about sadness if it does not think, within its admittedly alien intelligence, that it will be beneficial to the creatures in question. In a turn of events that can only be termed bittersweet in and of itself, the Bittersweet Umbrood are becoming more and more rare as humans become more set in their ways and start to view life in more and more black and white terms. The delicate spirits are also occasionally harnessed with ulterior motives -- a few uncaring or heartless Mages have tried to summon a Bittersweet spirit in order to goad a person into revealing some deeply kept, emotionally charged secret. Many of these Mages, however, have had a rude awakening when their own, happy-sad memories are brought to bear.
Charms Airt Sense (1 power) Appear (4 power) The Bittersweet epiphling can appear to anyone, but only out of the corner of the eye (hence the reduced cost). The spirit will appear as some physical but ephemeral manifestation of some missing or desired thing. Some Mages have also reported that the spirit can use a similar ability to draw attention to an object or symbol that will be reminiscent of a lost loved one.
Catharsis (1 power) By expending one power, the spirit can then charge itself by absorbing the cathartic grief and laughter in an area. Amount of power gained ranges from 1 to even 15, depending on the power of the emotions released.
Cleanse the Blight (10 power) Most often used in scenes of tragedy brought on due to corruption, and only used after the successful application of the Catharsis charm.
Create Rain (1-6 power) The spirit can create catharsis through rain. The power cost ranges depending on the strength of the rain summoned and the existing weather conditions. The better the weather, the harder it will be to bring on rain and the less it will be able to create; a perfectly clear, cloudless day will completely inhibit the use of this charm.
Memories (3 power) While the images that normally appear in the presence of this epiphling are taken from the collective unconscious, with the use of this charm the spirit can harvest specific memories, images, or sounds from individuals or small groups. Common images include lost friends, childhood toys, or, disconcertingly, a person's own voice speaking to or about a lost lover.
Chronomancers By Tod T. Fox (
[email protected])
Time Paradox Spirit
Statistics Willpower: 5 Rage: 4 Gnosis: 2 Power: 15 Charms: Appear, Calcify, Lightning Bolts, Short Out, De-Aging (Cost is 5 per day of time removed, target must be calcified)
Description Chronomancers usually appear in groups of 3-5 and have never been seen alone -- if all but 1 Chronomancer is destroyed or dispelled, the final Chronomancer will spontaneously vanish. These spirits appear as humanoid figures in dark blue hooded robes. They float over the ground with no visible legs. The arms of their robes hang limply at the ends as if they have arms but no hands. Where the 'face' of the figure should be there is instead a golden analog clock face. It has ebony black hour and minute hands that move constantly in reverse at a rate of approximately an hour every 5 minutes. The Chronomancers seem especially angered by Technomantic paradigms but can appear during any magickal act involving Time Paradox. Tactics primarily involve appearing and disappearing to confuse Mages by making them think there is only one very quick spirit. They will attempt to group around a Mage and calcify him. Then they will reverse the Mage in time, undoing whatever event that caused the Paradox by surgically removing that person from the events in question. Failing this they will shoot lightning from their arms and try to kill the Mages involved. Sleeper witnesses of these events end up with a blank hole in their memories. The spirits communicate in a constant audible hum much like a chanted 'ohm.' Spirit 2 is of limited use as the creatures are very nearly mindless.
Ciphon By Malcus Dorroga (
[email protected]) "So, how long have you had that little pet?" "Oh, about three months. Stupid spirits; I'm surprised you can see the thing." "A master of the Umbra can see whatever he damn well pleases. What is it?" "Punishment." "And when will it go away, do you think?" "At the rate I'm going, probably when I die." -- an overheard conversation between Hermetics, bani Flambeau.
Level Five Paradox Spirit
Statistics Willpower: 8 Rage: 2 Gnosis: 6 Power: 20 (+ special) Charms: Mind Speak, Attach (cost 5; the spirit attempts to attach itself to the mage, thus allowing the use of its Curse Magick charm. Roll Gnosis vs. the target's Willpower; a single success allows the Ciphon to attach), Curse Magick (special cost; see below)
Associations Spirit, Prime, Entropy
Background One of the most persistent Paradox spirits, and possibly one of the rarest, Ciphon is a curse that can last months, possibly even years, because it perpetuates itself every time the mage tries to use his power. It appears as an arachnid-like creature, about the size of a human hand, with a 3-foot long tail. Ciphon began its first recorded official appearances during World War II. Marauders and Nephandi conjured up so much Paradox during this time that pockets of it coalesced in the air and began to form into spirits. These spirits, looking to absorb more Paradox, began attaching themselves to mages and drinking in the generated Paradox. Being spirits of Paradox, however, they soon began using the consumed power against their hosts, thereby creating more Paradox. Mages came to fear these spirits, and for good reason. When a Ciphon appears, it speaks to the offending mage and gives it a single chance to revoke the vulgarity. If the mage does not respond properly, the spirit attempts to attach itself to the willworker, and will continue to do so until it either succeeds or is destroyed somehow. Once attached, the Ciphon converts the Paradox that created it into a "Curse pool". Every time the mage uses his power, the Ciphon can spend up to 3 "curse points" to pull successes away from the roll. If this causes a botch, a Paradox backlash immediately ensues, and the Paradox is absorbed into the Ciphon's pool.
Example: Dr. Simbaka, a Son of Ether, experiences an 8-point backlash and Ciphon pops up. Refusing to undo the ultra-cool laser-mirror effect he just acomplished, the good doctor finds the Ciphon attached to him with an 8-point Curse pool. Later that day, when Simbaka attempts to use his Backflux nullifyer to stop a Nephidic fireball, he rolls 3 successes and a single one, giving him 2 successes. The Ciphon, seeing an investment opportunity, uses 3 Curse points to nullify all 3 successes, leaving the etherite with a single one: a botch. Not only does the fireball knock him back and blow up his lab, but he suffers a backlash that feeds the Ciphon's pool. There are two ways to get rid of a Ciphon. If the mage can step into the Umbra before it attaches, he can fight it and destroy it. If it attaches, the mage can simply stop using magick; the Ciphon loses one Curse point per day the mage uses absolutely no magick. When all Curse points are gone, the spirit dissipates from starvation.
The Cleaners By Andrew Weitzman (
[email protected])
Description In the Ascencion War, people disappear without a trace. Some die from accident or murder, others succumb to Paradox, while a few are swallowed by their own Arcane. Every so often, a cabalmate or mentor falls through the cracks of reality and never returns. That is when the Cleaners arrive. The Cleaners manifest as nondescript humans who arrive to "clean up" the residence or workplace of a missing mage. The precise form varies -- they have appeared as janitors, charwomen, professional movers, and such. A Cleaner's features are forgettable, their clothes generic, and witnesses have found they cannot recall any identifiable details at all. If challenged, the Cleaners will always have the correct authorization to perform their job; threats of violence can make them leave, but they always return later to continue their task. The Cleaners have a terrifying power: the ability to erase any trace of someone's existence from reality. Anything handled by a Cleaner loses any connection it had to the person who owned it. Aspects like identifying marks, distinctive decorations, and the like are wiped away; the mementos and personal effects of the victim are transformed into anonymous possessions. A place visited by Cleaners loses any trace of the personality who once lived there. There are a variety of theories on the exact nature of the Cleaners. Some say they are agents of the Technocracy who tie up the loose ends surrounding a kidnapping or assassination. Another opinion holds they are subtle Paradox spirits erasing the existence of an offending mage from the Tellurian. Magickal scans reveal a Cleaner possesses the pattern of a human being, but with a hollow where a mind or soul should be.
Covert Executives By Stuart Ellis (
[email protected])
Description The Technocracy has a problem - it's short of humanity. Technomancers, particularly the senior officials, no longer think or act like normal people. This is partly due to the lifestyle and indoctrination systems but is also caused by Resonance, the principle that magick leaves traces on everything, especially mages. So over time Technocrats slowly become more like stereotypes -the ruthless executive, the amoral politician, the passionless scientist etc. and are less able to relate to Sleepers. Think of Cancer Man and his colleagues, or Bill Gates... Their creations and minions are even more inhuman, and have serious problems interacting with society -- Superiors range from being slightly sadistic to totally psycho; HIT Marks and Men In Black can terrorise but could never befriend a Sleeper or even subtly manipulate them. This has led to the use of Covert Executives, Sleepers recruited from intelligence and law enforcement agencies who are carefully trained and indoctrinated to be used in the war against the fantastic. They are rarely used to terminate reality criminals; their role is to carry out the routine work of paradigm enforcement -- investigation, surveillance, basic sanitation (cleaning up traces of weird events), handling (manipulating ordinary Sleepers into doing things) and other tasks which require more brains, social graces and autonomy than most Techno have. CovEx usually operate in teams of two to six, and pose as minor officials with enough influence to get the job done without being too conspicious -- private or police detectives, health inspectors, lawyers and even repairmen. Their ID is always flawless, and the cover story always convincing. These agents are not mindless thugs but intelligent, dedicated men and women working to protect civilians from alien things that the population would be terrified to know existed, and those dangerous and irresponsible people who try to harness uncontrollable powers for their own ends. STs can use CovEx to give players both roleplaying and moral challenges -- 'retiring' a death squad of cyborgs or Superiors is common sense but killing misguided humans is straight murder, and if anything happens to their investigators the Technocracy will become even more interested. The CovEx can also justify their work; in fact their appearence in a Chronicle will probably be the result of characters seriously disrupting static reality in a way that harms Sleepers. If there is a fight then the Executives will make full use of their intelligence and teamwork, either to capture isolated Awakened or retreat to call in the cavalry, and a discreet van full of 'men' in bulky coats or a black cadillac will soon be on its way. They also have subtle defences -- their Willpower is normally high and because they are unAwakened they count as Sleeper witnesses for mystical magick (but not for technomagick such as Etheric science or VA gear), so using vulgar Effects against them is always dangerous. A modified government agent profile works well (CovEx usually have good Subterfuge and Bureaucracy skills).
Electronic Cats By Anders Sandberg
Introduction I was in that comfortable state between waking and sleeping when suddenly a small cat jumped up onto my back, turned around a few turns (as if to inspect its new domain) and then scurried down to the end of the bed where it sat down and began to lick itself, purring contentedly. I rested in warm assurance for several minutes before a small thought began to intrude into my consciousness. I didn't own a cat. But how could a cat appear in my apartment? I looked up, and for a moment I thought the cat had vanished like a dream. But then I saw a shape on the desk, a small grey figure watching me intently with its shining green eyes. Our eyes met, and it was as if the kitten carefully read my soul without giving any hints back. When I suddenly broke free the cat jumped down from the desk, padded over to the bookcase and calmly walked into the crack between two dictionaries. Shocked and confused I jumped up and looked into the crack. Inside the tiny space I clearly saw how the cat had removed parts of its fur, revealing printed circuits and electromechanical muscles, and a flat cable connected it to a socket inside the darkness. It purred. Suddenly it turned around, impaling me with its green gaze, filling my field of vision. I awoke in my bed, alone. Cats are mysterious even to mages. That many felines can see into the Umbra is quite well known, but there are other kinds of cats too, cats so bizarre that perhaps only the marauders can understand them. The electronic cats look and behave almost as normal cats. They like to eat fish, stalk through the night, hunt and play with rats. When petted they purr or bite, just as unpredictably as normal cats. But beneath the warm and furry skin (which is removable) they are built out of electronics and artificial muscles covering an aluminium skeleton. They are apparently biomechanical devices, not unlike the HIT Marks of Iteration X. But the Technocracy has not sent them; they appear out of nowhere, behave normally and then vanish, transmitting information they have gathered... where? Electronic cats seem to be able to cross the Gauntlet freely, and often do so. They also seem to have almost quantum properties: when watched they behave normally, but as soon as you look away they can vanish and appear somewhere else, even in locked rooms or on top of inaccessible places. Their gaze is almost hypnotic; they will never look away or blink, keeping the opponent fixed with an intense stare. And they seem to extract information from the minds of anybody who looks in their eyes...
Electronic Cat Str 1, Dex (graceful) 4, End 1, Cha 3, Man 3, App (feline) 4, Per 2, Int 2, Wit 3 Alertness (observant) 4, Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Dodge 3, Stealth, (hide) 5 Electronic cats have claws that do one die of damage; they are not especially powerful fighters and will try to flee from attackers or hide. If pressed they will vanish completely. Willpower: 3 Arete 4
Powers Suck Information (Mind 4): The cat can read the memories of a person, storing them within its own circuits. Forget it (Mind 4): The cat can briefly take control over a person and rewrite his memories to make the person forget a specific event, such as seeing the cats innards or that it has just emerged from empty air.
Vanish away (Corr 3 Spirit 3): If unobserved, the cat can appear somewhere else, or move into the Umbra. Cute (Mind 2): The cat can look cute and irresistibly cuddly, or beautiful and dignified. Each success will increase the difficulty of harming or interfering with the cat one step the first time someone attempts it. This is also used to create a feeling of comfort and warmness in people resting with or petting the cat.
Remember (Mind 1): The cat remembers everything it sees and experiences, and can later transmit this information.
GARGOYLE By Alexander Shearer (
[email protected]) Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 3, Stamina 7, Perception 4, Intelligence 1, Wits 3, Appearance 0-1 Abilities: Alertness 4, Athletics 3, Awareness 2, Brawl 4, Stealth 2 Willpower: 7-10 Arete: 0 Quintessence: 3 innate (may be harvested as Tass) Paradox: Depends on Dormancy state, see below. Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -1, -1, -2, -2, -3, -3, -4, -5, Incapacitated Attacks: Wing buffet (Str dmg), Claw (Str+2), Ram (Str+1), Gore (Str+1 to Str+3, depending on horns). Innate Countermagick: The gargoyle may have 1-3 dice of innate countermagick, usually more if older. Notes: Inadvertently created by the creative drive of the sculptor who made them, Gargoyles are living statues, with bodies of animate rock. Gargoyles tend to stay dormant for decades on end. They become active every so often for reasons only speculated at - perhaps it is due to a threat to their "home" building, or maybe just a strange call to the species. The Paradox of the Gargoyle varies with its activity level. For every month of activity, a gargoyle gains a point, as well as a point gained every time a significant group of people sees it in action. These points drain away once the Gargoyle goes back to where it is supposed to be. Yes, this is in Mage terms, even though it was a Werewolf-l post that prompted it. I thought Mage stats would work better, and this is, after all, a cross-game beast.
MATERIAL BEIGNS (GREMLINS) By Anders Sandberg These beings lack their own bodies, and when they manifest in a physical form, they animate dead matter. Using their powers, they can make otherwise rigid objects bend and move, and they can control machines. For example, a being can animate a marble statue, giving it the power to move and act. It is still hard marble, but the marble changes shape when it moves. A being possessing a car can make it move as it wishes, override what the driver does, lock the doors and possibly make it crunch together. A being possessing a knife can make it jump through the air at a target, and burrow into its flesh. An Entity doesn't see the world very well (except using the senses of the possessed object, if it has such). They see it from an Umbral level, noticing mostly life and magickal things but having great trouble distinguishing material things. They are attracted to strong negative feelings like fear, pain and death, and seek out sources of them directly. On the other hand, they feel Paradox as pain, so they try to avoid sources of paradox. Nephandi sometimes use these beings to attack their enemies, defend their labyrinths or just set them loose in the world to cause suffering. Often they appear in large schools, hunting together. They are not very bright, and don't understand much. They follow orders to the letter, often without any imagination at all. Subtlety is above them, and they prefer blunt, direct approaches. As soon as their victim begins to feel negative emotions (like fear when glass shards start to creep around), they will zoom in on the source, often causing even more negative emotions (like combined fear and pain when the shards pierce the flesh). This makes them even more active, and they will continue trying to cause more negativity as long as possible. When they cannot extract any more, they go dormant if there is no other sources in the vicinity. Dormant entities can remain so for a long time, but often succumb to the paradox they have garnered during the wait.
Arete: 3 Animate matter (Matter 3): the being can animate a material object and make it change shape to move, or control its actions. Most beings can't use the more subtle functions (like reprogramming a computer), and prefer simple physical actions (like strangling a victim with the power cord). [ The number of successes will equal the beings physical traits, modified by the nature of the animated object. For example, a statue will increase strength and stamina with 2, a car strength, dexterity and stamina with 4 and a pane of glass decrease the stamina with 2. ]
Mind 2: The being can feel sources of negative emotions in the vicinity. Mind 1: The being will always understand the capabilities of any object it possesses. If it becomes a car, it will know all functions of the car (but no traffic rules).
Guardian of Dreams By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
Description This being has guarded the barrier between the dreaming and the waking worlds since time immemorial. It prevents the beings of nightmares from escaping into the material world, and sleepers from entering the wrong parts of the dreamworlds. The Guardian is extremely powerful, but subtle; most people who encounter it never realise the extent of its influence over the land of dreams. Most beings in the dreamworlds understand how powerful the Guardian is, and fear its powers: it could sever all ties between the waking world and dreamworlds, or banish dreambeings into the harsh banality of reality. If a dreamer has the Guardian's favour the word will quickly spread among the dreams and he will be well treated. Even the Dreamlords fear the Guardian, and often seek to placate him (especially since they occasionally transgress his rules by entering into the waking world). It is said that the Wonderwhats (see Book of Worlds) occasionally serve it, to run errands, guide favoured dreamers or scare away disfavoured dreamers. It is also believed by the Order of Hermes to be a sub-aspect of the greater and feared being called the Dweller on the Threshold, which guards the higher planes from the unworthy.
Manifestation The Guardian often manifests in a dual form, reflecting that it guards the threshold between worlds. In ancient Rome it was Janus, the two faced god of doors and beginnings. Today it often manifests as a human half white, half black, half male, half female, half angel, half demon. In its hands it holds a staff that can both open the way and bar it, strike down any being or heal it. It moves and speaks in a dignified but friendly way to everybody who pays it respect, and ignores those who don't pay proper respect.
Powers Bar entrance: The Guardian can bar a being from entering or leaving the dreaming. This is most commonly used to prevent nightmares from escaping, but the Guardian can also prevent people who have displeased it severely from dreaming; creativity is drained in the daytime and sleep no longer gives true rest. An even rarer use is to trap a dreamer in the dreamworlds: it is said that mages who go to sleep with enough Paradox will be trapped in the dreamworlds until they have atoned for their actions.
Open gate: The Guardian can open gates into the dreamworlds or waking world with its staff. These gates allow beings and objects to pass between the worlds under its watchful eyes. If attacked it often throws the attacker physically into one of the deepest nightmares possible.
Two Story Ideas Death Dreams: An Etherite researching sleep and dreaming has been experimenting with the myoclonic spasm, the sudden jerk which often occurs just before falling asleep. Using his DYnamical COrtico-POntine MOtor Neutralizer (DYCOPOMON) he has found a way to inhibit the jerk when falling asleep, and started to study if it has any effect on his sleep. What the Etherite didn't know was that the jerk is one of the manifestations of the Guardian, a spirit-oriented mage would say it is his gentle nudge with the staff to prevent a sleeper from falling into the darker regions of dreaming. From a more Etherite perspective it is an evolved defence against having nightmares manifest: during the Palaeolithic era few individuals and tribes whose dreams came real survived for long, while individuals who in some way could prevent nightmares from manifesting prospered. The myoclonic jerk is simply a favourable mutation in this view that prevents nightmares from becoming real. Unfortunately the Etherite doesn't know this, and Terror sneaks out through his unguarded mind. Soon it will start to spread in the waking world, turning it into a nightmare.
Breakthrough: A powerful mage once committed a crime in the dreamworlds so great that the Guardian banished him from dreaming forever; today the mage is a respected master but secretly longs to return to the dreams she lost. So she has devised a clever plan to break through to the dreamworlds and get her revenge on the Guardian. She has made contact with one of the dreamlords, the Seriph of the Ten Monoliths. The Seriph seeks to enter the physical world, so she suggested an exchange: his kingdom for hers. She has used her significant powers to summon and bind a huge number of paradox spirits into a fetish; once the fetish is broken these spirits will hasten to bring their delayed revenge upon many mages. She plans to send the fetish to the Seriph, who will send back another fetish filled with dreams. At a given time they will destroy the fetishes, letting loose the spirits and dreams, both unable to get home to their worlds. The Guardian will be forced to open a portal to let them through, and the
Seriph and mage will switch places in accordance to ancient tradition in the dreamlands. The PCs are sent to give the paradox fetish to the Seriph and bring back the dream fetish, since the mage cannot enter the dreamworlds. Since they do not know anything about the plan they can safely pass the scrutiny of the Guardian and will think it is just an exchange of gifts between two powerful beings. However, a small group of spirits and dream-beings know about the plan and want to stop it for various reasons (one of the most important is to give a service to the Guardian). They will try to steal the fetishes, and possibly convince the PCs that great ill will come to happen if the plan succeeds.
HIT Mark 5.1 By Bob Cooper (
[email protected])
Introduction "Good Morning. As we have much to accomplish this morning, I shall dispense with the pleasantries and get right to the point. According to the reports that have recently come in from the observation team, the Hyper Intelligent Technologies Mark VI prototype, or HIT Mark 6 Alpha, has met with a very untimely and permanent end at the hands of a construct of Etherites. With the complete failure of the HIT Mark 6 project, I would like to once again reiterate the need for diversification in our current front-line model, the HIT Mark 5. For this reason, and others mentioned in previous meetings too numerous to bring up at this time, I give you the specifications for the HIT Mark 5.1 Alpha." -- Robert Smith, 100101101011 I have been long perplexed by the lack of diversification in the HIT Mark 5. It seems as if there are two available possibilities -either use the standard HM5 or a dramatic departure such as the Cyber-Tooth Tiger. For this reason, I have come up with a list of potential modifications to the standard HM5. The basic concept revolves around dividing the HM5.1 into five separate areas of note, and then offering alternatives in those areas. In all cases, the "standard package" is described in the first entry of each chart. Storytellers are strongly discouraged from "random rolling" unless the players have entered into Iteration X production factory -- HM5.1's represent a considerable investment and are not going to be assigned to particular roles haphazardly. The five areas of significance in the HM5.1 are as follows: External Cover (the "skin"), Internal Payload (the "Chest/Back cavity"), Internal Structure (the "Skeleton"), Limb Enhancements (the "hands" -- occasionally the "feet") and Programming (the "Mind"). Additionally, due to some further enhancements of the original design, up to four "dots" of additional Talents, Skills, or Knowledges can be imbued in a given HM5.1 after "Programming" is selected. This is done only in specific instances, and "generic" HM5.1's will not have this benefit.
Tables External Cover: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Armor 4 Magic Resistant Thermal Resistant Stealth (No armor, renders HM5.1 invisible)
Internal Payload: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Chain Gun Additional Limbs Missile Launcher Magic Sink Damage Sink Bio-Realistic Flotation Explosive Additional Processing Power Parachute/Hang glider/Rocket Pack
Internal Structure: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Primium Hyper-Steel Bio-Realistic Disconnective Extra Musculature
Limb Enhancements: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Claws Hand-Gun Shotgun Flame-thrower Lockpicking Tools Data-Access Tools
7. Additional Processing Power
Programming: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Standard Combat Heavy Weaponry Infiltration Seduction Information Gathering
Descriptions External Cover Armor 4: This is the standard HM5 armor rating, sub-dermal armor meant to absorb physical impact. Magic Resistant: This replaces the standard HM5 Armor with additional Primium plating. While not as durable as "standard" armor (Armor rating of only 2) it confers an additional die of Countermagick.
Thermal Resistant: Another alternative to the standard HM5 Armor, this variant takes the form of an armor plating that is specifically designed to resist forces-based attacks (mostly fire and lightning). While only conferring an Armor rating of 2, it also provides 4 dice of "soak" against fire and lightning based attacks (which normally ignore armor completely).
Stealth: In place of armor entirely, the HM5.1 can be covered in a light-redirecting substance which renders it virtually invisible. This can be activated and deactivated at the option of the HM5.1, and operates in similar manner to the Forces 2 effect (Assume 5 successes upon activation, reduced by the innate countermagick of the HM5.1).
Internal Payload Chain Gun: Standard "heavy armament" of the HM5 (Diff. 8, Dam. 8, Range 200 yd, Rate 4, Clip 200). Additional Limbs: This represents two additional arms which can be retracted into the interior of the HM5.1. Each of these additional limbs can be further enhanced with Limb Enhancements, as described below.
Missile Launcher: A single-missile Missile Launcher, it also has adequate space for a single reload (reloading the Launcher takes a full turn's actions) (Diff. 7, Dam. 14, Range 2 mi., Rate 1, Clip 1+1). Use the skill Heavy Weapons with this weapon. Firing this weapon causes a "back-blast" 2 yards behind the HM5.1 inflicting 4 dice of fire damage.
Magic Sink: A large additional mass of Primium allows the HM5.1 to be far more resistant to magick (2 additional countermagick dice).
Damage Sink: A reinforced internal structure, giving the HM5.1 a +1 Stamina and 2 additional Health Levels. Bio-Realistic: The innards of the HM 5.1 are designed to resemble actual organs. Thus, the HM5.1 can suffer considerable wounds and will still appear (dependant on actions, of course) to be a normal human. Onlookers shouldn't be able to notice anything unusual at all, and medical personnel on site need to roll Int + Medicine at a difficulty of (10 - Health Levels Lost) to tell the difference. The difficulty increases by 2 if Bio-Realistic Internal Structure is also taken, but is only useful if the injuries are not to the head or the limbs where other enhancements would be obvious.
Flotation: Ordinarily, HM5's are useless for underwater operations. Simply put, they don't float. They're far too heavy for even their own considerable strength to be able to swim effectively. This enhancement counteracts this problem by providing the HM5.1 with an internal flotation device allowing it to swim readily (normally, HM5.1's with this enhancement will have some or all of their extra 4 Abilities dice placed in Swimming).
Explosive: A very straightforward (but rarely used because of the price involved) modification, the HM5.1's payload in this case is a very large explosive device (Dam. 15, reduced by 1 per yd. from the HM5.1). This can be set to go off from a preprogrammed set of circumstances (after entering the center of the Chantry), upon the destruction of the HM5.1, or both. A variation on this concept, for use with the Flame Thrower, is an additional tank of fuel that will support 15 minutes of use (obviously, firing both will use it up twice as fast) and will explode if the HM5.1 is destroyed with Forces, or if the tank (Stamina 3) can't soak the leftover damage that destroys it, for damage equal to the # of minutes of fuel left in the tank.
Additional Processing Power: Simply put, this HM5.1 model has got brains in other places than its head. The internal payload has sufficient room in it to store a full 3 additional programs. When a HM5.1 has access to multiple programs, it may make use of the best attributes of each at all times (example: The HM5.1 has both the Seduction and Information Gathering programs. It has an effective Charisma of 4 and Perception of 5).
Parachute/Hang glider/Rocket Pack: Depending on the need for subtlety (both in terms of reality and in terms of attracting attention), the HM5.1 can carry a variety of devices allowing it to survive falls and/or escape a difficult situation. The Rocket Pack option only carries about 30 minutes worth of fuel, or 10 minutes if the HM5.1 is carrying a passenger as well. The Hang glider
option is not capable of carrying a passenger, and the Parachute will only reduce fall damage to 4 health levels if a passenger is carried (easily soakable by the HM5.1, not necessarily so for the passenger.
Internal Structure Note: A standard HM5 has Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5, Appearance 4)
Primium: Normally, it's the Primium "bones" of the HM5, which gives it its innate 2 dice of countermagick. Hyper-Steel: Opting for durability rather than magic resistance, Hyper-Steel gives the HM5.1 two additional Health Levels. Bio-Realistic: The bones of the HM 5.1 are designed to resemble actual bones. Thus, the HM5.1 can suffer moderate wounds and will still appear (dependant on actions, of course) to be a normal human. Onlookers shouldn't be able to notice anything unusual at all if a leg or upper arm is broken, and medical personnel on site need to roll Int + Medicine at a difficulty of (10 Health Levels Lost) to tell the difference (again, only for leg or upper arm injuries). See Bio-Realistic under "Internal Payloads" for further use of this modification. A HM5.1 with this modification has a -1 Stamina.
Disconnective: The Internal Structure of this HM5.1 is designed to come apart -- this is similar to a contortionist's ability to put limbs out of their sockets. This modification, in addition to allowing the HM5.1 to get in, out, or through spaces that should be too small for it to fit through, confers an additional +1 to Dexterity with a -1 to Stamina.
Extra Musculature: This model of HM5.1 is greatly over-muscled. Designed for sheer, raw punishing power at the sacrifice of modest amounts of mobility, this variety of HM5.1 has a +2 to Strength and a -1 to Dexterity.
Limb Enhancements Select 2, one for each arm.
Claws: A standard HM5 has retractable claws in its forearms, allowing it to inflict Strength + 3 Damage on a Claw attack. Hand-Gun: As an alternative, the HM5.1 can have a handgun inset into the forearm (Diff. 7, Dam. 6, Range 35 yd, Rate 2, Clip 6).
Shotgun: Another alternative is to provide the HM5.1 with a shotgun for additional punch (at close ranges) (Diff. 6, Dam. 8, Range 20 yd, Rate 1, Clip 5+1).
Flame-thrower: Sometimes, a more dramatic approach is called for. HM5.1s can also insert a Flame-thrower into their arm. Nasty weapon. Diff. 6, Range 60 yd. A single die determines damage. Roll the die and multiply by 10. That's the % of the body covered in napalm, and the # of health levels suffered per turn for 10 turns. Large objects suffer damage in like manner, but with obviously smaller %s of surface covered. The flame-thrower attachment only has enough fuel for 2 minutes of operation, but see the Internal Payload "Explosive". Use the skill Heavy Weapons with this weapon.
Lockpicking Tools: The hand of the HM5.1 has several hidden (self-retracting) lockpicking tools that can be used to break through most any sort of lock with much greater subtlety. They can also be used for disabling security systems (reduce all Lockpicking and Security difficulties by 3).
Data-Access Tools: Serial, Parallel, and Network connections? No problem. Hidden in the HM5.1's forearm are all sorts of direct data connections, and powerful cracking/decryption equipment as well (allows the HM5.1 to plug directly into a computer without using a keyboard/mouse interface, and reduces all Computer and Computer Hacking difficulties by 3).
Additional Processing Power: Just like the module of the same name in "Internal payload", but to a smaller scale. The limb enhancement has sufficient room in it to store 1 additional program. See Additional Processing Power under "Internal Payload".
Programming Standard Combat: The typical HM5 has the following Abilities and Attributes: Cha 1 Man 1 Per 3 Int 2 Wits 2 The Talents of Alertness and Brawl at 3, all Skills and Knowledges in the baseline Mage book except for Meditation, Stealth, Occult, and Cosmology at 3.
Heavy Weaponry: Designed to handle larger weapons (such as the Rocket Launcher and Flame-thrower enhancements). Cha 1 Man 1 Per 3 Int 2 Wits 2 Replace Brawl 3 with Heavy Weapons (BoS) 3
Infiltration: Intended to enter into enemy strongholds to recover or assassinate. Cha 2 Man 2 Per 3 Int 2 Wits 3 Add Stealth 3, Lockpicking (BoS) 3, Subterfuge 2. Remove all Skill and Knowledges that do not pertain directly to the mission (Etiquette would be retained if an Embassy were infiltrated, as would Lore if it were a Mage Chantry).
Seduction: Rather straightforward. Also somewhat modified by the extremely powerful to create "personal companions". Cha 4 Man 1 Per 2 Int 2 Wits 3 Seduction 4 (BoS). Some models have a custom "External Cover" which increases Appearance to 5 or even 6.
Information Gathering: Need a secret recovered, or data retrieved? This is the program for the job. Cha 1 Man 1 Per 5 Int 2
Wits 2 . Alertness is increased to 5, and some models even have 1-2 dots of Awareness. Research and Investigation are also increased to 5, but combat skills (Brawl, Melee, and Firearms) are reduced to 2.
Examples A HIT Mark 5.1 that is designed as a complement to the standard Combat team, but intended to take out a large target would have Thermal Armor, a Missile Launcher payload, a Primium structure, Flame-thrower Limb enhancements (both), and the Heavy Weaponry program. A HIT Mark 5.1 designed to infiltrate a Cabal and recover a captured Technomancer would have Stealth, a Rocket Pack, Primium structure, Lockpicking Tools and Additional Processing Power for the Limb Enhancements, and both the Standard Combat and Infiltration programs (even bare-handed, a HIT Mark is a dangerous foe, and weapons can be carried readily). A HIT Mark 5.1 designed for hand to hand combat (this is a popular model in the Asiatic Constructs) would have Armor 4, either a Damage Sink or Extra Limbs, Extra Musculature, Claws on both (or all four) arms, and the Standard Combat Programming, replacing Brawl with Martial Arts and adding 2 dots of Dodge. A HIT Mark 5.1 designed for ongoing observation in a delicate setting (such as an embassy or a deep-cover around other mages) would have Magic Resistant, Realistic Organs and Bones, Data Access tools and Additional Processing Power, and have both the Seduction and Information Gathering programs.
Homing Chihuahua By James Hertsch III (
[email protected])
Cost 4
Level 2
Arete 3
Quintessence 10
Introduction Graphs don't lie, Doctor Velazquez thought, regarding the descending population curve. The homing pigeon will very soon be extinct. Such a useful creature, too. More's the pity. Tired from a long day's work, Velazquez exited his basement lab, shut off the lights, and retired for the evening. Toss. Turn. Barking from outside. Yip-yip-yip-yip. Crash. Boom. Dogs scavenging through the trash again. Discontented, Doctor Velazquez activated a Canine Repellant Field, and watched as the little dogs scampered off into the night. Pausing for a moment, Velazquez wondered how the little chihuahuas managed to get everywhere. And, more importantly, Doctor Velazquez thought, could they serve mankind in the same way as homing pigeons once had? Capturing several of the rat-dogs, Velazquez used Lamarckian genetic techniques to instill in his simple chihuahuas the ability to remember where "home" was, and the ability to journey from anywhere to home. As the homing pigeon faded from the biological spectrum, the world became ready for: Doctor Velazquez's Homing Chihuahuas!!
Description The Homing Chihuahua is, in effect, a Living Talisman. Gifted with a certain amount of Quintessence to power its gifts, the dog grows extremely tired after several runs. Tass for the dog is available in the form of a high-protein dog food (available from Doctor Velazquez at reasonable rates). The Homing Chihuahua can return to any location defined as "home." The mage gives the Chihuahua a sense of "home" by showing it the area, saying the phrase "Here is home," and then keeping the dog in a cage. When released, the mage activates the chihuahua by saying "Go home, boy! (or girl)" and the dog races back towards the home location. Because of its small size, the chihuahua usually can't carry more than a small message in a tube around its collar. Rumors exist of Velazquez breeding later generations of Homing Chihuahuas with the abilities to step sideways (Spirit 3), or rapid travel to the "home" location. (Mind 1, Correspondence 1, Time 3).
LF-106 (Life form No. 106) By Ian Ward (
[email protected])
Introduction The aliens described here are based on the creatures in the Alien film trilogy and also on the Genestealers by Games Workshop (which are also based on the Aliens films). They are not the actual aliens from the films, but a lot of ideas have been taken from them, so please don't write to me saying that you've studied the films and you think that my rules are wrong. These aliens can be used in any WoD game, but will probably fit best into a mage game 'cos mages like this sort of thing. I know there are other stats for aliens, and mine are fairly similar, but I am more concerned here with the abilities of the aliens and the implications for the Progenitors and Void Engineers, rather than the actual stats for the creatures.
Prelude -- Perimeter secured. 1st unit sent in. -- Initial scans show area clear. Sergeant Collins led the first unit through the corridors of the outpost. Everything seemed quiet. Too quiet. His personal life form scanner showed absolutely no signs of life nearby, even though the research station should have a permanent staff of 45. The rooms of the complex were neat and tidy and showed no signs of any attack. It was as though everyone had suddenly disappeared into thin air. They hadn't even sent out a distress signal; the only reason anyone knew that something was wrong was when no weekly report was received from the outpost. -- No signs of disturbance. Moving into inner complex area. Collins continued deeper into the complex, feeling more and more apprehensive with each passing moment. -- Second unit reporting in. We've found something. -- Location ? -- Medical lab. -- On my way. Collins stepped in to the medical lab, "What is it corporal ?" "Over here. We were hoping you could tell us what it is." Corporal Jones pulled back the cover on the dissection table, revealing the body underneath. -- Life form 106 discovered. Body being returned to drop ship for further examination. Awaiting further orders. -- Message received. Continue search of complex. Collins slumped in to a chair, trying hard not to show any fear. He didn't want any of his men getting alarmed. None of the other marines had seen a 106 before, but Collins had. It was something he had hoped he would never have to see again. It had been one of his first missions in the deep universe; they were to investigate a beaten up ship drifting through the Wolf-359 system. Life scans had been unable to pierce the ship's extremely thick hull and so they were going in blind, not knowing what creatures they might be facing. Out of fifty marines that were sent in, only 4 survived. They escaped back to the mother ship expecting to be told to nuke the ship but instead they were ordered back to Earth, leaving the ship alone. The last thing Collins had heard about it were rumours that some elite troops were being sent in to the ship to try and recover some of the creatures for study, and that meant the Progenitors were interested. The thought of what the Progenitors could do with a creature like that made Collins shudder. "Are you all right?" The sudden noise made Collins jump, "Oh.. yes. I'm fine. I was just thinking about something." All Collins wanted to do now was to run back to the drop ship and get the hell out of there, but he couldn't. He had orders. -- Continuing search of inner complex area. No other life forms detected. He wondered why they were not picking up any life readings from other 106's. Could it be possible that they were not many on the planet and that they all died off. But if that was the case then where were all the colonists. It didn't make sense, but then suddenly he had his answers. Entering one of the rooms he discovered a huge hole in the middle of the floor. The 106's must live
underground and if they were a long way down then the rock would be too thick for the life form scanners to pick up any signals. -- Discovered underground passage. Awaiting orders. -- Make brief search of passage. Return to drop ship if any LF-106 detected. Collins slowly led his unit down into the passage. Suddenly the life scanners started showing multiple life forms heading towards them from various passages at an inhuman speed. Collins quickly estimated that they had less than one minute before the creatures arrived. Shouting back up the passage he order his men in to standard defence formation, with heavy weapons up front. There was no need for the men to take cover as the 106's had no weapons and relied only on hand to hand combat. -- LF-106's converging on our position. No time to run. -- Acknowledged. Return once first wave destroyed. The first wave would be quite easy to take down. The marines were in a good tactical position with a long corridor of fire. This would, however, be their downfall. Without warning, laser weapons started firing at the marines, taking many of the front row down. Then the hideous creatures poured down the passage shooting and clawing at anything in their way. There was mass panic from the marines as they ran back up the passage towards the light. None made it out alive. The last thing Sergeant Collins saw was a three armed monstrosity bearing down on him, holding what was obviously a VE weapon in its hands. -- Test site one reporting in. Test was a complete success. Hybrids performing as planned. Hybrid casualties 5%. Marine casualties 100%.
Life Form No. 106 In the early 1970's, a VE scout ship crashed on a remote planet while on a standard recon mission. The crew of 5 was not badly injured, but their ship needed several hours repair before they would be able to leave. The planet had previously been scanned for life and only simple life forms had been detected, but then about an hour after the crash the scanners suddenly started showing about 20 unknown humanoid life forms approaching the ship from all directions. The crew quickly set up life disruption fields around the ship when the creatures suddenly attacked. The ferocity of the creatures was amazing . At first they were just throwing themselves wildly against the disruption fields, but then suddenly they all stopped and seemed to be looking for something. Then, as if by some unspoken command, they all started to attack the disruption field projector. The Void Engineers were amazed by this sudden display of intelligence and assumed, correctly, that there must be some kind of hive mind in operation. They managed to send out a distress call, but it was far too late. Within minutes the creatures had destroyed the field and killed the helpless Humans. When a VE rescue ship finally reached the crash site, all they found was the deserted scout ship. Life Form No. 106 (or LF-106) is the official name for these creatures, identifying them as the 106th intelligent extra terrestrial creatures discovered by the Void Engineers. Most technocrats know very little about LF-106, although they are aware of their existence. The people that know the most are top ranking members of the Void Engineers and Progenitors, and for reasons known only to them they are keeping things very much to themselves. This has made members of the other conventions, especially the NWO, very concerned about what they might be planning. There are various rumours being spread around about the Progenitors and VE's creating a human/LF-106 hybrid, which will have the amazing strength of LF-106 and the dexterity and intelligence of humans which should enable the hybrids to use weapons. The Progenitors have in fact created several successful 106 hybrids, but are keeping them very quiet. The hybrids aren't quite as strong as the truebreeds, but the Progenitors have managed to increase their intelligence and have taught them some basic skills. The hybrids obviously can't be used on Earth, so they are mainly being used in remote areas of the deep universe, well away from the prying eyes of the NWO. Several NWO operatives have been sent out to try and discover what the VE's and Progenitors are up to, but they have all either disappeared or died in some mysterious accident, all of which has been blamed on the Nephandi. LF-106 normally live in deep underground passages, but in later years they have been found living in various man made labyrinths as well. There have even been reports of LF-106 living in derelict space craft, some of Human design and some not. No one is sure how they control the ships, but some scientists have suggested that they don't. Most of the Human ships have automated life support systems, and it is believed that the LF-106 just float around in the space craft waiting for someone to discover them. It is not known if the LF-106 have a particular mission, but if they have then it does not involve communicating with Humans.
LF-106 Warrior Physical
Mental
Strength ***** Dexterity ***** Stamina *****
Perception ***** Intelligence * Wits *****
Talents
Skills
Alertness ***** Stealth ***** Athletics ***** Survival *****
Awareness ** Brawl ***** Dodge **** Intimidation *****
Willpower: 8 Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -2, -5, Dead Appearance: Height ranges between 8ft and 9ft, although they are usually stooped so their true height is actually about 11ft. Although tall, they are amazingly flexible and are capable of squeezing into spaces only a few feet wide. They have 4 arms, each ending in a 3 clawed hand. The skin is very hard and thick (gives an extra 2 dice for soaking damage (the stamina score shown is for endurance) ) and also protects against harsh environmental conditions. It is also a vary dark colour, and as the LF-106 are usually most active at night this acts as perfect camouflage. Under the skin is a layer of acid which is capable of melting through almost all known substances (in fact, the LF-106 skin is the only known substance the acid does not effect), but the corrosiveness of the acid is reduced after repeated reactions with various substances (one drop of acid can melt through a block about 10cm thick, but this varies depending on the substance being corroded). The legs are very powerful and are capable of propelling the LF-106 up to 50mph for short periods of time.
Notes: All LF-106 function as one by using a hive mind. This hive mind is controlled by the LF-106 Queen (see below). The hive mind allows each LF-106 in the tribe to be aware of where all the other LF-106's are and to experience what they experience. This means that all LF-106 learn new things at the same time as each other. The hive mind has a radius of about 2 to 3 miles, and so most LF-106 don't stray too far from the Queen.
LF-106 Queen Stats: As above, but with int 5 instead of 2 and willpower 9 instead of 8. Appearance: Same as for warrior, except that the Queen is usually more battle scared and has a larger body. Notes: The Queen is the controller of the hive mind. All things sensed by all the LF-106 in the tribe are felt by the Queen, who processes the information and then sends the relevant bits out to all the other LF-106. The mind can be sensed by any mages using mind magic, but the amount of information involved can easily overwhelm even the most powerful mage. As the Queen is the most important LF-106, it is normally very heavily guarded by other LF-106 whose sole job is to protect the Queen. If the Queen is killed, then after a few days another LF-106 in the tribe somehow evolves very quickly to replace the lost Queen. Until that time the tribe is disorganised and very vulnerable to attack. The Queen is also the only egg layer in the whole tribe, and so usually stays in one place. About the only physical movement the Queen ever does is lay eggs. That is unless the eggs are under attack in which case see will fight ferociously to the death.
LF-106/Human Hybrid Physical
Mental
Strength **** Dexterity **** Stamina *****
Perception **** Intelligence *** Wits ****
Talents
Skills
Knowledges
Alertness ***** Stealth ***** +Computer ** Athletics **** Survival **** +Science ** Awareness *** +Firearms *** +Cosmology ** Brawl **** +Melee *** Dodge **** +Technology ** Intimidation *****
Willpower: 7 Health levels: OK, OK, OK, -1, -1, -2, -2, -5, Dead Appearance: Hybrids are smaller than true LF-106, but they are still over 6ft. They usually have only 2 arms, but sometimes they can have 3 or 4. The 2 arms have humanoid hands on the end which are capable of holding and using weapons. The other 2 arms (if they are there), have the standard 3 claws on the end. The skin is not as thick as a truebreed (only gives 1 extra soak dice), but hybrids still have the corrosive acid. Hybrids are nowhere near as fast as their truebreed cousins, and are only slightly faster than humans.
Notes: Hybrids are less influenced by the hive mind and so are capable of more independent actions which is what the Progenitors currently want. However, if they are allowed too near to a Queen then the hive mind can take over. For this reason, hybrids are kept well away from any other LF-106. Some hybrids have unfortunately come close to a Queen and there are now several LF-106 tribes roaming the deep universe containing quite a few hybrids. The hybrids knowledge of human technology makes these tribes very dangerous indeed. Hybrids are also capable of very crude speech, and so can communicate with
humans. The stats marked with a + will vary between hybrids depending on what they have been trained for. All other stats are the physical abilities of the hybrids and will not vary unless the Progenitors have made any modifications. The stats above are for a standard Border Corps Division hybrid. Most variations will have at least very basic training in computers and technology, due to the amount of VE technology they will be using.
LIQUID PEOPLE By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (10 Nov 94) Jason looked at the man in dark suit across the street. Such emptiness, no trace of new possibilities... this unfortunate soul was in desperate need of the Good Death. He moved silently back into the shadow. "Excuse me, do you have any spare change sir?". The man looked into the dismal alley, right into the unkempt face of Jason. Jason struck out with his hand in a silent and swift movement, intended to painlessly and cleanly break the man's neck. To his surprise his hand just sank into the flesh instead of connecting with bone. With more confusion than fear, he saw how his hand had seamlessly merged with the man's throat like molten rubber. A strange numbness spread from his hand. Desperately he tried to pull away, but only managed to drag the still expressionless man close to himself. He tried to shove him away, but his free hand just melted together with the suit, which had become fluid and warm as flesh. With a scream he backed away, tripping over a pile of trash and falling over with the man on top of him. The last thing Jason saw before their faces merged was how the expressionless eyes had begun to melt. These nightmarish beings appear to be vaguely allied with the Marauders or Nephandi, if they are indeed allies and not creations of the mages. The liquid people look human, at least to a casual observer. Closer scrutiny will however reveal that their bland and expressionless faces are somehow inhumanely smooth, almost as if they were painted onto their heads. The nose lacks nostrils, and the mouth has no teeth. They never speak or do anything to attract attention, and their clothing is uniformly bland. Its when they are hurt or in a fight the difference become obvious. Their bodies and clothes are made of liquid flesh, flowing smoothly from one form to another. Wounds will just seal up, with no bleeding. Arms and legs bend jointlessly, and are quite elastic. When their flesh comes into contact with the flesh of another being, it will instantly and painlessly merge with it. A person striking a liquid person will suddenly find his hand seamlessly joined with the opponent. Further struggle usually brings them closer into contact, and usually ends in both combatants being melted together into a single mass. When this happens, the mass slowly divides into two new lumps of flesh, which reform into two exactly identical liquid people looking like some kind of average of the victim and the liquid person. The liquid people are not particularly bright, and often behave a bit like discreet sleepwalkers. They have an amazing ability to avoid notice, just walking along with other people and following the crowd. Their origin is unknown. Some mages claim they are a Technocracy experiment. One possibility is that they are a failed Progenitor experiment. Another is that they are the raw material for the Men In Black. Other mages guess that they are spirits lusting after the stability of material life, or some kind of magickal disease. And there is some evidence they might be used by the Marauders and Nephandi for unknown purposes. Some fear that they are stocking up for a wholesale invasion with liquid people, turning them into an unstoppable army. Others equally fear that the liquid people are already among us, secretly doing the bidding of their masters.
Liquid Person Str: ** Cha: * Per: * Dex: ** Man: * Int: * Sta: ** App: ** Wit: * Alertness: ** Brawl: ** Stealth: ** (Other skills like Drive or Law are possible depending on the previous victims).
Arcane: **** Willpower: 1 Liquid people seems to almost completely lack willpower. If confronted with a problem, they just give up and walk away. They don't have any thoughts or emotions, and their memories are hazy and "soft".
Arete: 4 Life magick has trouble dealing with their liquid flesh. They have 2 extra dice countermagick against Life magick.
Health: 0, 0, 0, -1, -2, -3, dissolved (immune to non-aggravated damage)
Powers Merge: Their liquid flesh will merge with any other flesh it touches, immediately growing into it. This doesn't feel anything, the victim just feels a strange numbness in the area. The two persons will be inseparably joined unless the link is severed in some way. To be able to
merge, the liquid person has to touch skin to skin (its clothes doesn't work very efficiently for this, taking several turns to merge with flesh). When a victim has been more or less completely attached, the liquid flesh flows around and into him, turning him into liquid in a few turns. All attacks done by the liquid person (who usually uses its fists) which touch an unprotected person will cause a merging. The same is true for all brawl attacks against it. Its enough that the attack hits, not that it does any damage (if a dodge manages to evade the attack nothing happens). Instead of doing any damage to either the victim or liquid person, the attack results in a partial merge or a more complete merge. When the total "damage" reaches 10, both have merged totally and start to unite completely. The only way to escape the merging is to sever the connections, all attempts to push away will just result in further merging.
Regeneration: The liquid people are fairly immune to damage. Penetrating damage like guns or knives simply heal directly, just causing the flesh to flow together. If a cutting weapon manages to sever a limb or a head, it will fall off and dissolve in a puddle, doing just one point of aggravated damage. Aggravated damage (magick, fire and acid) work as normal, destroying parts of the person which fall off. It will take seven aggravated wounds to completely destroy it.
Undetectable: Liquid people are normally practically impossible to spot in a crowd. They blend in completely, leaving no trace. When among other people, increase their Arcane to 6.
"Little Nasties" By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) "Little Nasties" are minor beings which tend to be attracted by the activities of mages, usually harmless and merely annoying. The near umbra of a mage's home can be a very strange place... Some mages wage a virtual war against unwanted presences, building wards and performing exorcisms. Others accept them, and claim they belong to a home just like rats belong in a house (It is worth mentioning that cats often seems to be able to perceive the beings and hunt them). Anyway, they are very hard to keep away for long.
The Eaters of Dust These Entropy-minions are quite common, they feed on quintessence from the scraps left by mankind. The usually manifest as dust in the corners, stains or sticky patches and feed on cookie crumbs, spilled liquids, dirt or lost objects as they vanish into the Shadowlands. They are both ubiquitous and harmless; they appear in large numbers in places where people forget and spill things, like bars, untidy rooms or in gutters. They are naturally attracted to Entropy mages.
Huulh This is a somewhat more powerful relative to the Eaters of Dust, a spirit attracted by sex. Huulh is invisible in the material world, but in the Umbra it manifests as a ball (around 30 centimetres in diameter) of sexual organs, dribbling fluids and quivering slightly. It seems to feed on the emotions of stale sex, hovering around prostitutes or neurotics and subtly encouraging them to get involved in more sex. It is actually repulsed by true passion, and prefers to keep its distance from many Cultist Mages.
Abyss Hunters The Hunters are a mixed groups of minions who only exist for the hunt. They are able to hunt down their quarry across space and time, finding even the most clever hiding places. Usually a pack of Hunters are summoned by a mage or another spirit and given the task to find someone; the hunt itself and its dangers is their payment. Hunters can look like just about anything, but physically they usually manifest as hound-like shadows, suggestions of faces in the wallpaper or woodgrain, the sound of heavy steps closing in or a distant howl. They can hunt just about anywhere; in the physical world, in the Umbra, in the Shadowlands, and pursue their victim relentlessly, feeding on its paranoia and growing fear (quite often the victim is given glimpses or hints that he is hunted long before the Hunters arrive). Finally they appear, surround the victim and wait for their master to arrive.
Lurkers Lurkers are quite discreet beings, who quietly hide in shadows, behind furniture and in inaccessible places. They are usually only felt as a presence watching people in the room. While many mages are a bit paranoid about having spirits spy on them (not to mention how much cats likes to hunt the lurkers), they are usually harmless and merely curious. Sometimes they appear just before something important is going to happen, watch it and then vanish again.
The Watchers The Watchers are an enigmatic group of beings, apparently unable to cross the Gauntlet by themselves. They see and hear just about anything; they constantly keep track of what happens in the world using Correspondence and Spirit, quietly watching what the humans are doing. According to some theories they are an older race than mankind, they were created before the physical world and are unable to enter it of their own power. Instead they silently watch over it, hoping/fearing to somehow find a way in. Both the Ahl-I-Batin and Order of Hermes agree that this would be a bad thing, although they are unsure of exactly why. Many mages communicate with the Watchers, hoping to gain valuable information from the elder beings. A few conservatives frown on this practice, warning that such an exchange could be harmful for both parts.
"Don't Think About It, Because It Will Get Worse" This is one of the most bizarre entities from the High Umbra, apparently recently unleashed into the Near Umbra. It personifies the concept of something you should not think about, but of course are unable to avoid ("Don't think about a white elephant!"). When people fail to avoid thinking of something it gets stronger, and gradually take on the form of whatever one shouldn't think about. When it manifests, its shape is undefined until it is formed by the fears of someone present (everybody in the vicinity intuitively realises its true nature and the danger). One could guess that the Imp of the Perverse would be very fond of this being, who could serve as a MindParadox spirit.
Emotrophic Growths These are among the lowest minions, hardly more than umbral plants, feeding on emotions (a wraith would say Pathos), using their energy to grow and reproduce. They look differently depending on the type of emotions they feed on (and the paradigm of the viewing mage, of course); growths around a building filled with rational thoughts become clear and crystalline, while an old and homely flat might contain baroque polyps reminiscent of brown corals.
Emotrophic Reefs and Psychic Vampires
While the Growths are harmless and merely annoying, sometimes they can infect a very weak-willed human under severe emotional stress. The growths absorb every scrap of emotion and memory from his mind, and he becomes little more than their symbiote, a psychic vampire. The vampire begins to absorb emotions and energy from others, bringing them back to the growths which feed on them. In time the growths develop into a complex reef of mixed mentality, while the vampire grows more and more hungry for true emotions. It is not uncommon for the vampire to be completely unaware of that anything is wrong, they just feel empty and strangely detached from everything while their homes get more and more filled with mementoes, unsorted garbage and things they don't need.
The Luggage By Andrew Weitzman (
[email protected])
Nature Fanatic
Demeanor Curmudgeon
Attributes Strength 5, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 2, Perception 3, Intelligence 1, Wits 3
Abilities Alertness 3, Brawl 5, Dodge 1, Intimidation 4, Tracking 5, Stealth 2
Willpower 9
Innate Countermagick 3 dice
Health Levels OK x 3, -1 x 3, -2 x 3, -4 x 2, Incapacitated
Attacks Crush (similar to body slam, but Luggage suffers no Health Level damage); bite (Strength+2, difficulty 6); Snap (similar to grapple, but if Luggage scores three more successes than opponent, opponent has been swallowed whole by Luggage).
Powers Infinite internal volume: Some sort of natural Correspondence Effect inherent to the Luggages' nature allows them nearunlimited internal storage space within their bodies. Assume a Luggage can store anything that can be fit through its opening, and can store any number of things without penalty.
Umbral travel: Luggages possess an innate ability to break through Gauntlets, Horizons, and Pericarps. "Bash through", actually; a Luggage shifting to the spirit worlds literally smashes its way through the barriers. Luggages cannot botch this sort of roll.
Owner link: The Luggage always knows which direction its master is, no matter how far away she is. At worst, the Luggage with have a general sense in which direction to go to rejoin its owner.
Description The Luggages are among the most coveted trade goods among merchants plying the Deep Umbra. Fashioned in some far-off Realm, the method of their construction and even their true nature remain mysteries. Mysticks who have attempted to classify them label the Luggages as "part talisman, part fetish, part familiar, and completely homicidal." At rest, a Luggage appears to be an ordinary steamer trunk made from a blondish wood that resembles pine. The sole indication of its unusual characteristics is a tendency to stare; though they have no eyes, Luggages have a peculiar ability to give one the sense that they are regarding you with the same attention a pin has for a butterfly. Their bizarre qualities make themselves clear when the Luggage begins to move. Stubby wooden legs, like those of a centipede, sprout from the base. These allow it to trot -- or, if angry, charge -- across almost any terrain imaginable. When in battle, Luggages have a disconcerting habit of licking their chops with a tongue the color of mahogany. These abilities stem from the material Luggages are made from: sapient pearwood. This plant grows in areas left unstable by magickal Effects; as far as can be determined, they "solidify" the reality of areas of their native Realm that have become too chaotic for any other form of life to colonize. Sapient pearwood has been likened to Primium in the way it can shrug off magickal interference. Sapient pearwood also has a primitive intelligence that prefers stable situations -- a "rootedness" if you will. This trait carries over into goods constructed of sapient pearwood. Curious mages who have used Mind to delve into the alien psychology of the Luggages have discovered that they form a close bond with their owners. To serve its owner is the reason for a Luggage's existence; the absence of the owner from its life causes a Luggage great mental distress. In the usual run of events this simply means that a Luggage will always trail on the heels of its master unless specifically ordered not to. This does not mean that a Luggage likes its owner, merely that it is supremely loyal. Luggage owners have likened the experience to owning a rather grumpy dog. The notorious reputation of Luggages stems from their fanatical devotion to their masters. A Luggage will follow its master to Hell...literally. Nothing will stop a Luggage from finding a lost owner. The longer it misses its owner, the angrier and more stubborn it will get. Anything that gets in its way -- people, Umbrood, mountains, continents -- with be summarily trampled over if the obstacle even hints at getting in the Luggage's way. Luggages have trouble with the concepts of "over," "under," and "around." The meaning of "through" is crystal-clear. Luggage combat is pretty forthright, involving a frontal assault that leaves its opponent in small pieces. They are capable of low cunning when the situation demands it; most Luggages simply don't go to the trouble. One nasty trick is their use of their vast internal volume to...well...eat their enemies. Opponents gulped down by a Luggage are never seen again. No one knows where they go -- presumably they are banished to a far region of the Luggage's innards. Attempts to find them end in failure as the Luggage innocently shows the owner's clean underwear instead.
MANICHAENS By Arthur-Trevor D.M. Lasher, for The Southron Republic
Nicknames Serials
Description Fully processed Serials are identical to the original template, right down to the finger and retinal prints. In non-processed form, however, a Manichaen is a blank slate with nondescript, sexless features. Manichaens are specially-designed Revenants, modified by Progenitor procedures and Tzimisce Vicissitude. They are born tabula rasa, with no personality engrams or even much dura matter, outside of a residual medulla and brain stem. An individual's brain is surgically placed inside the Manichaen body and molded to a perfect fit and it is only then that the Revenant's true nature comes to fore. The transplantee's brain triggers the Revenant body, causing its latent Vicissitude to shape itself to conform to the brain's selfimage. This image may not necessarily be identical to the original template. Often it is an idealised image. The finger and retinal prints, however, remain the same as the template. The Manichaen now is a stirling near-carbon copy of the transplantee's original body...with a twist. For now the template can live to several centuries of age and benefits from the body's low-level Vicissitude (limited to Flesh and Bonecrafting to him or herself, only). Mages who transplant their brains into Manichaen bodies find an additional benefit: the full use of True Magicks. Being alive and not undead, the Manichaen's Avatar is identical (or so they think...) to the template's. Whether this is accomplished through transplantation or some kind of 'soul cloning' is unknown, though it is certain that the Tzimisce hold the key to this process and it is the culmination of several centuries of experimentation along the Path of Death and the Soul.
Appearance Whatever the template's original appearance was, though many Manichaens tend to have idealised features. All Manichaens, however, are identifiable by a single gene implanted in their genome by Progenitor technicians. Otherwise, they are indistinguishable from humanity as a whole.
Family Estates Not applicable as a group, though many of the first numbers of Manichaens were high-level Cabal and Southron Republic dignitaries and members of society. Most of them had estates in the southern tip of Africa. Today's Manichaens have no real estate pattern.
Backgrounds Most Manichaens are high-society; the upper upper classes of the Republic. As the price of a Manichaen transplant goes down, however, more and more of the middle classes--including the burgeoning and swiftly growing black middle class--are opting for the procedure.
Character Creation Dilattantes, Fanatics, you name it. Any Nature/Demeanor combination is applicable these days, however many of the older generation tend to lean towards Director/Architect types.
Disciplines Only one, a minor form of Vicissitude. Also, the use of True Magicks for those templates who're already versed in it.
Weaknesses There's a hidden weakness in the Manichaen, though it hasn't yet been discovered and probably won't for another decade or so. Manichaens, like all Revenants, must breed within their community to keep their line together. However, fertility rates are low and not many Manichaens have yet been born since the process was introduced. Those who have been born, however, bear a striking resemblance to one of the parents. Soon it will be discovered that Manichaens produce only copies of themselves. There is no genetic mixing of gametes. They sire clones. And not just clones, but clones with the full range of memories of the sire. When this is discovered, much thought will need to be put into whether or not something need be done. While a hundred Mozart-like Manichaens might be enjoyable, a hundred Hitlers is a frightening thought, even to the Cabal.
Preferred Paths Varies from individual to individual.
Family Organisation None, though there is an attempt among the younger Manichaens to organise politically, 'networking' with others of their kind. Since there are no real ties of kinship, however, this seems an odd proposition to some.
Gaining Family Prestige Not applicable.
Sabbat Duties None.
THE MONITORS By Michael Moolick (
[email protected]) (24 Nov 94) In the earliest fights against the Order of Hermes and the Traditions, the technomancers and their earthly allies were not alone. They had the aid of several spirits, making deals with them to gain their support. These spirits received much for their aid. They have been fed with quintessence, given dominion over spirits that joined the cause later, and access to the physical world. More importantly, the technocracy has pledged that with the defeat of the traditions, the Monitors will not be swept over and conquered by the hordes of man. They will become friendly alien races, and powerful AI systems, and many other things, while those who did not join will be hunted to extinction. Over the centuries, the once diverse and naturalistic spirits that were origionally recruited have changed to meet the technomancer paradigims. They have abandoned roots in the natural world and become more technological in nature. They have become entrenched in the technocratic command structure and are among the technocracy's most valiant defenders of the gauntlet and horizin against the horrors of the umbra. The Monitors are still widely varied. Some are small and weak, while others are virtual leviathans. Many are unique, while others have standardized to the extent that they are identical. Many have specialized to heed the calls of specific Void Engineer rotes, and fight in the ascension war at there command. The following are a small sample of their vast diversity.
The Satellite Monitors Ever since before Sputnik, the Void Engineers have had their own satellite systems girding the earth. Sleepers think of satellites as complex machines and marvel at their abilities. The technomancers know their true capabilities. They are massive techno-fetishes, enabling Monitors near the horizon to sense the physical world. A few allow them to attack in the physical world too, but none allow them to actually materialize. Types of satellite monitors follow.
Communications Monitors These indispensible devices provide sleepers and technomancers alike with an easy means of moving information arounf the globe. All kinds of transmissions are carried, from TV to phone conversations to computer information. Naturally, all is recorded and beamed to the NWO. Technomancers access the higher functions of these devices and the spirits attached to them. In the umbra, the Communication Monitors appear as fractal balls made of metal with lightning playing over their surfaces. The satellites skirt the inside of the Horizon, and are connected by arching beams of energy which form a web of light that stretches farther than the eyes can see. There are rumors there this "Horizon Web" has an internal reality, much like the Digital Web has one in the gauntlet. Contact with the beams causes violent force effects. The Communications Monitors are not very effectual in a fight, but defend themselves and the Horizon Web.
Attributtes: Str 1, Dex 3, Sta 2, Cha 1, Man 2, App: 0, Per 4, Int 3, Wits 2. Abilities: Alertness 2, Computer 4, Enigmas 3. Spheres: See Magick below for specific abilities. Willpower: 5 Arete: 3 Quintessence: 3 Paradox: 0 Health levels: OK / -2 / -3 / -5 / incapacitated Attacks: Ram - the only physical attack these spirits have is to ram an opponent. This causes damage equal to their strength, but their powerfully electrified surface causes three additional dice to bring the total to four dice.
Magick: The Communications Monitors can use the following rote effects: - Secure Transmission Web ( Entropy **, Forces ***, Mind ***, Prime ** ) This is used as a massive communal magick that maintaines the Horizon Web. It gives the web's strands the following properties: 4 Countermagick Dice vs. attempts to interrupt, read, or alter inter-monitor signals. Monitors are aware at activation of the Countermagick. A Forces three general-spectrum attack is made one anyone that countacts the Horizon Web. Injection ( Correspondence *** ) - The Monitor self-digitizes and moves through the Horizon Web to a distant satellite.
Spy Monitors
These spirits are highly valued by the Technocracy. They spy on both the earth and the Deep Umbra, looking for enemy action. By circulating stories about the accuracy of spy satellites and having authorities refute them, sensor acuity is enough to read license plates and the like without fear of paradox. The Monitors associated with these satellites have a number of sensory abilities. In the umbra they appear as metal, many-eyed incectoid creatures. They are slightly larger than man-size, and have beautiful solar-pannel wings.
Attributes: Str 3, Dex 3, Sta 3, Cha 2, Man 2, App 0, Per 5 (photo-realistic), int 4, Wits 3. Abilities: Alertness 5, Awareness 4, Computer 3, cosmology 3, Enigmas 3 Spheres: See Below Willpower: 5 Arete: 5 Quintessence: 5 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: OK / -1x2 / -2x2 / -3 / -5 / Incapacitated. Armor: The metal exoskeleton of the spirit gives it two dice of armor. Attack: The spirit can attack with it's razor-sharp probiscis, causing Str + 1 damage. Magick: - Monitor Gauntlet ( Corresponcence **, Entropy *, Spirit *, Time ** ) This rote lets the Monitor scan the gauntlet and the horizon. The rote searches out and predicts weaknesses and rifts, reporting them immediately to Void Engineer teams. - Monitor Earth ( Correspondence **, Forces *, Mind *, Spirit * ) This lets the Monitor extend it's senses to the earth. It can sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum with incredible acuracy and evaluate all it sees. Developing technologies to allows this to operate through weather disturbances has been an area of constant research. - Alert ( Correspondence **, Forces ***, Prime ** ) With this rote a Spy Monitor accesses the Horizon Web and downloads intormation to technocract computers. Problems are red-flagged as are assaults on the Monitor itself.
"Killer" Monitors The Void Engineers have relatively few of these combinations of huge spirits and powerful devices. They were launched during the Reagan "Star Wars" era and are orbital battle stations. None have been launched since SDI was discountinued and the VE's are disgruntles when their allies deemed it necessary to discontinue the sleeper projects which helped them place these without paradox. In the Umbra, a single spirit is associated with each ASAT. These are shaped like thick, bloated worms. They are covered in metal to the extent that only they and the VE's know if they are not entirely technological. They have beaked mouths surrounded by a ring of clawed tentacles. They have various powerful weaponry. They are universally guardians of areas of importants. Places where the Horizon is very weak, where an Umbral assault is predicted, where "white holes" the VE's have tapped are located and in the center of clusters of other monitors are likely locations for them.
Attributes: Str 7, Dex 2, Sta 8, Cha 2, Man 2, App 0, Per 4, Int 3, Wits 4. Abilities: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawling 5, Firearms 5. Spheres: see below Willpower: 8 Quintessence: 15+ Paradox: 4 Health Levels: OKx3 / -1x3 / -2x2 / -3x2 / -4x2 / -5x2 / Incapacitated Armor: The metal plating gives the Monitor three extra soak dice. Attacks: - Bite - The killer Monitors can Bite for ten dice of damage, but must grab the victim and put them in their mouth first. - Tentacles - A Killer Monitor's six tentacles can be used without dividing it's dice pool. The tentacles cause seven dice of crushing damage with a difficulty seven attack. Attacking with more than one tentacle causes one more die of damage per tentacle. The claws
can be used to cause eight dice of damage with a difficulty seven attack in place of a crushing attack.
Magick: - Over-Monitoring ( Correspondence **, Entropy *, Time ** ) This allows the killer monitors to watch over a large number of lesser monitors. Time allows it to predict where it will be needed. It is also receptive to messages sent by other Monitors and Void Engineers with high clearance. - Shock ( Forces ***, Prime ** ) - This simple forces attack electrifies the spirit's skin in a Forces 3 attack. This causes six dice of damage. Any thing grappling it that takes three dice or more will have let go. It does affect those in it's tentacles, but it can't crush at the same time without splitting it's dice pool. - Laser / Particle Beam ( Forces *****, Prime ** ) This powerful attack can only be used on distant targets or those in front of the creature's mouth. It causes 24 dice of damage and burns five points of quintessence in the blast. - Assign Aura Monitor: ( Forces 5, Prime 2, Spirit 2 ) This allows the Killer Monitor to assign an Aura Monitor, a type of monitor with less power and authority, to a target. Any one killer monitor will only have command of three of these at a time.
Aura Monitors These Monitors traditionally have been the guardians of Void Engineer umbral research stations. Recently, at the urgings of fellow technomancers to become involved in the pogrom, the VE's have been using them as magickal assasins. These spirits are composed entirely of complex energy fields, and can be "projected" into the physical world through special VE equipment. They are often directed by Killer Monitors or high level Void Engineers to attack individuals who threaten their goals. In appearance, these spirits are very beautiful. They are floating, shimmering curtains of miltichromatic light. They are believed to originally have been nature spirits associated with the northern and southern lights, and are most populous at the poles even today.
Abilities: Str 0, Dex 5, Sta 4, Cha 3, Man 1, App 5, Per 2, Int 2, Wits 4. Abilities: Brawl 3, Cosmology 3 Spheres: See Below Willpower: 5 Arete: 4 Quintessence: 8 Paradox: 3 Health Levels: Ok / -1x2 / -2x2 / -3x2 / -5 / Terminally Disrupted. Attacks: While an Aura Monitor has no physical existence, it can cause the energies about it's edges to briefly solidify, a quick slash while doing so makea a whip-like attack that causes four dice of damage with a difficulty of six.
Magick: - Manifest ( Spirit *** ) - Unlike most Monitors, the Aura Monitors can make themselves seen and act in the material world. - Quantify Avatar ( Prime * ) - The Monitor can sense strong avatars. If attacking a group it attacks them preferentially. - Reform ( Correspondence ***, Spirit *** ) - The Monitor can fade from it's present location, disperding it's energies and re-forming elsewhere in the Umbra. - Radiation Attack ( Forces ***, Prime ** ) - To perform this, the Monitor must perform a grapple ( it has no strength, but this lets it superimpose itself over another ). Once this is done it intensifies it's own energies, causing damage due to radiation and microwaves, as well as electrical disruption. They prefer this attack, for it kills cleanly and leaves no external evidence as to the cause of death, as the damage is entirely internal. Progenitors can hush up any "natural-looking" death like this very easily, faking autopsies and the like.
The Hubble Monitor To sleepers, the Hubble Space Telescope has been viewed alternitely with hope of its promise, dismay at its cost, rage of it not working properly, and finally acceptance that its fixed. Sleeper scientists are now convinced it is a success, and they convinced the public. To most mages, the telescope is reguarded as another example of the conventions punishing the Void Engineers. To most technocrats, it is a waste of money. To the Void Engineers, the Hubble Space Telescope is a front for an Umbral physics project of startling success despite frequent paradox problems and some major setbacks. The Hubble Monitor is a singular, powerful spirit now associated with the Hubble Space Telescope, existing in the same umbral areas as the scope does in space. A site of research for a number of Void Engineer masters, they have been pushing their technologies
and theories to the bare edge at the site. In the Umbra, the Hubble Monitor is visible as a huge spirit shaped like a thick worm; over one hundred and fifty feet long and thirty feet in diameter. It seems to be made mostly out of metal and plastics. The major exceptions being its spread solar collector wings and it's ominous lense facing directly outward from earth. The whole is just within the horizon. The Hubble Monitor is known as "the Big Eye" or " the Reality Cannon" among the Void Engineers. The device can peer into the Deep Umbra more efficiently than ground-based VE scopes, and most outsiders assume this is its function. The true main function of the Hubble device is to operate as a "static cannon." The static cannon is a complex, powerful magickal effect. Upon sighting a Deep Umbral Realm, it can selectively co-locate it with a part of the physical world. Space is distorted so that a large area of physical space is co-located with a small area of the Umbral Realm. The co-location is screened with spirit, mind, matter, and prime magick so that only limited sections of the properties of the spaces are combined. The paradigm of the physical world is imposed upon the area of the Umbral Realm stongly, static reality is slammed into effect in the Umbral Realm. When the static cannon is used, any physical or magickal aberrations from the physical world's paradigm immediately begin to attract, cumulate, and suffer from paradox. Often, this creates a powerful paradox storm that has, in test runs, decimated or destroyed large areas, even entire small realms. The Void Engineers are still tyring to perfect the process. Currently, the process causes paradox, results in paradigm anomalies in the physical space used that increase as the duration of the firing increase, and consumes prodigous amounts of quintessence. The Hubble Monitor can defend itself if attacked, spending large amounts of quintessence in its own defense. The Void Engineers do go to great lengths to ensure this does not occur. The area near the scope is patrolled by Void Strikers, the small combat versions of Void Engines. A small Umbral research station is nearby, with competent mages and Iteration X guardians. The entire area is scoured by Spy Monitors, as are all approaches. Preparations have also been made against attacks from the physical world. The Hubble Monitor's nuclear reactor serves as a node of power, providing it with quintessence and Tass in the form of thruster fuel, which the spirit stores in internal tanks. The Hubble Monitor is very intelligent, and an active participant in the research that it is involved with.
Attributes: Str: 7, Dex: 2, Sta: 8, Cha: 3, Man: 3, App: 0, Per: 6, Int: 5, Wits: 3. Abilities: Alertness: 2, Brawling: 5, Computer: 4, Cosmology: 4, Etiquette 4 (technomancer), Firearms: 4, Science: 4, Spirit Lore: 5 (monitors), Spirit Names: 3.
Spheres: Correspondence: 5, Forces: 3, Matter: 3, Mind 3, Prime 4, Spirit 5, Time: 2 Willpower: 8 Rage: 8 Arete: 7 Quintessence: 20 Tass: 100+ (will use it too.) Paradox: 5 Health Levels: OKx4 / -1x3 / -2x3 / -3x3 / -4x3 / -5x3 / Incapacitated Attacks: - Tentacles: The Hubble Monitor has eight tentacles to attack without dividing its dice pool. The tentacles cause seven dice of dmaage and are used with a diffculty of seven. attacking with more than one tentacle increases damage by one die per tentacle used. They can be used to bash a victim or grapple them. - Armor: The heavy Primium armor of the Monitor gives it there extra soak dice. The Monitor also has two dice of countermagick against any magickal attack. - Regeneration: The Hubble Monitor is self-repairing, and regains one health level per round so long as the damage isn't aggravated.
Magick: - Static Cannon ( Correspondence 5, Matter 3, Prime 4, Spirit 5 ): The static cannon is the main experimental function of the Hubble Monitor. initiating the use of it is a prolonged process, involving at least 20 points of quintessence and several hours. Once the effect is established, Paradox is incurred in the Umbral Realm as if it was an area of the physical earth. The corresponding space of the physical world is destablized and the force of paradox there greatly reduced. This is in outer space however, and changes with each firing. The static cannon is only effective on Deep Umbral targets, and if it became effective against Horizon Realms the Traditions could be seriously endangered. - Umbral Sighting ( Correspondence 3, Spirit 1 ) As a prelude to firing, the target must be sighted and precisely targeted. The
locations viewed can be at almost infinite depths in the umbra. Unlike other Monitors, the Hubble Monitor is capable of producing a variety of magickal effects to defend itself and attack others with relative spontaneity.
Digital Monitors Many of the defenders of technoturf are really daemon Monitors. There are also some monitors akin to electrical elementals. The Void Engineers have a number of interests on the Digital Web, and it is not surprising that they have a number of allies spirits which inhabit the web. The technocracy spirits are the Digital Monitors. One of which is the Surge.
Surge Surges are among the most violent Digial Monitors. They have been shaped by time and magick from primitive electrical spirits. They act as Black ICE and assassins in the technomancer controlled portions of the Digital Web. They spend most of their time in a passive resting state, going into action only when noticing a security breech or being sent tracking an icon by a Void Engineer. In the resting state these spirits disperse into a "Surge-net", a form that is difficult to detect. Only a mage using Forces 1 and Spirit 1 will be able to detect the diffuse, spirit-charged current that compromises the Surge in this form. Those using Prime 1 as well will notice quintessence concentrated into a rapidly moving point within the web. The Surge-net is often placed at or within the entrances to technocracy controlled areas of the web. When an unauthorized icon enters the Surge-net, the spirit flows into the icon and the net collapses. The Surge Monitor stays within the icon and waits for an oppertunity to attack, preferring to do so when the icon is alone. The Surge Monitor may attack the icon directly or the mage's body. For the first, a duplicate icon "steps out" of the cybernaut and attacks. The icon quickly loses individual form and reverts to a standard technocratic icon, complete with neon red/blue/green color scheme, in mere minutes. The surge's physical attacks are backed by raw electric voltage. For the second, the Surge attacks the mage through his VR equipment, blasting him with light, sound, and possible electricity to blind, deafen, and kill. The Surge Monitor's quintessence can be collected as Digital Web resonant electrical tass. Virtual Adepts prize the utility of the tass, but getting it is seldom worth the fight.
Attributes: Str: 3, Dex 4, Sta 4, Cha 1, Man 1, App 1/As Icon, Per 4, Int: 3, Wits 4. Abilities: Brawl 3, Computer 3, Stealth 5 Spheres: Correspondence 2, Forces 3, Mind 3, Prime 2, Spirit 3, Time 2. Willpower: 7 Rage: 7 Arete: 4 Quint.: 5 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: As Human Attacks: As a Surge is fully on the web, it's physical abilities are used in combat, not its Per and Int. Its strikes have the additional property of causing four dice of non-aggravated electrical damage.
Magick: - Monitor Web ( * Forces, * Mind, * Prime ): This effect Monitors Icons that pass through or near the Surge. It indexes the icon's force and prime structures against those allowed access ( memorized with mind 1 ). Because of the Prime component, altering an icon's appearance is not enough to fool the spirit. - Surge-Net ( ** Forces, ** Prime ): This allows the Surge to disperse itself into a Surge-net form and re-condense itself. - Infiltrate Icon ( ** Forces, *** Mind ): With this a Surge can enter an icon. It has no control over the icon, but receives all the sensory input the icon's user does for as long as it remains, including magickal senses. - Trace Icon: ( *** Correspondence, * Forces, * Prime, ** Time ): This allows a Surge to track and icon that it has sensed or been given a full data-set about. - Equipment Surge ( *** Correspondence, *** Forces, ** Prime ): A Surge can channel it's spiritually charged electrical body into any electrical device, though only computers and VR gear are routinely entered. They can then cause the device to overload and burn out, obliterating stored information. It is with this ability that a Surge can most viciously attack a cybernaut. By entering VR equipment, it can cause the equipment to release damaging levels of light, and sound. Those systems that use electrical stimulation to simulate touch ( like most VA systems ) can also deliver possibly lethal electrical damage. Its nasty nature lies in the fact that a Mage already
projected into the web is not using his body's senses unless an additional Co-locate Perceptions magick is used. Thus, the mage will probably not be aware of the effect before being rendered unconscious or seriously injured.
Note: A mundane "surge protector" will not prevent a Surge's Equipment Surge from having effect. They were introduced by Virtual Adepts so that they could manufacture co-incidental talismans to ward against Surge attacks.
Restriction Monitors These Digital Monitors are a type of guardian spirit which are incorporated into many of the technocrocy's secure systems. Their purpose is not perimeter defense, but the defense of the data the systems contain. Any time guarded information is accessed, the transaction is monitored. If an unusual or unauthorized use of the data occurs, the monitors acts to apprehend the culprit. Because these precise-minded spirits can be an annoyance to any operator besides the equally precise Iteration X mages, they are only used to defend data that is either very important or seldom accessed. Restriction Monitors appear as faceles humanoid technocratic icons. Their icons carry unusual pistols which shoot metallic rays. If sensed with the spirit sphere, they appear as man sized metal spiders . Attributes: Str: 2, Dex: 3, Sta: 4, Cha: 1, Man: 3, App: 1, Per: 5 Int: 3, Wits: 4.
Abilities: Computer 5, Investigation 4, Research 4. Spheres: Correspondence 4, Forces 2, Mind 4, Spirit 4. Willpower: 6 Rage: 4 Arete: 6 Quint.: 3 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: As Human Magick: - Monitor Data Flo ( *** Correspondence, * Forces, *** Mind ): This allows the Restriction Monitor to watch over it's assigned data in technomancer computer systems. Any use of the data brings its attention. Unusual manipulations begin investigation, unauthorized ones bring attacks. - Relocate Data ( **** Correspondence, * Mind ): When data is accessed, the Restriction Maintains an unadulterated copy in its files, as well as a running log of alterations made. This allows these files to instantly be sent to a "vault" computer, one that is not otherise connected to the web or technocracy machinery. Such files can then be consulted by skilled mages. This prevents most VA programtraps and isolates computer viruses for study. - Data Scan ( * Forces, *** Mind ): An apprehended Cybernaut is scanned with this rote to determine what information he has taken and where this information is located. - Data Wipe ( **** Correspondence, ** Forces, **** Mind, *** Spirit ): Armed with a victim's knowledge of where information has been moved to, this effect allows the Monitor to immediately attempt to delete it from computer files and make persons forget it. The second application is vulgar and incurs paradox. - Icon Supression ( **** Correspondence, ** Forces, **** Spirit ): This is a technomancer version of the classic spirit charm Calcify. With it, the Restriction Monitor attempts to anchor an icon firmly to its present location in the Digital Web. A Willpower roll is made against the target's own Willpower. Each success decreases the victim's effective physical attributes ( or Willpower in the case of spirits ) by one and establishes 1 die of countermagick against Correspondence ot Spirit attempts to move. When the sucesses decrease the abilities to ero and countermagick dice exceed the mage's Arete the victim can no longer move. - Icon Ejection: Restriction Monitors can activate the icon-dump paramater of technocracy controlled areas of the Digital Web. They roll their Arete against difficulty 6 against the victim's willpower to send icons offline. The Void Engineer spirit 2 effects often call upon Monitors for many tasks. One such task is self-guided weapons, in which the Void Engineers even surpass the Iteration X convention. Void Engineers have smart weapons as small as tranquilizer darts and smallcaliber bullets. They also have very small, one-shot, anti-personell missile pistols, with brilliant-level micromissiles.
Progenitor Nightmares By Boris (
[email protected])
Prelude: The Grey Nation and MJ12 During the early 1920s, a captured "alien" craft was recovered from its crashsite in Roswell, NM. From the mostly destroyed remains, which the Technocracy had immediately seized and moved to a secret base, Iteration X extracted enough geneticsrelated technology to forever cement the shift from "natural" to current machine and chemical related medicine. The "Grey" race responsible for the crashed ship are a breed of Nephandi beings from somewhere in the Deep Umbra intent on altering Gaia to the extent in which they may suitably inhabit and dominate the planet. The Technocracy, aware of the potential threat posed by such an "advanced" race, created a joint Void Engineer/Iteration X/NWO coalition, known alternately as Majestic, or MJ12. Their purpose: to reinforce through the dissemination of "alien"related information and conspiracy theories the outer-space paradigm, to escalate the readiness of Sleepers to accept radical new technologies, and to create a general atmosphere of fear of "invasion from Beyond." Later, in the 40s, when more crashed ships and a handful of bodies were recovered, their objective was to keep the sleepers from knowing of the Technocracy's involvement with the Greys, thus the Men In Black. In the mid-80s, contact was finally made. MJ12 became the official emissaries of Earth in "Alien Affairs." They are currently engaged in the wide-spread use of Syndicate-controlled media to covertly prepare the sleeping masses for "alien" contact.
The Grey Nation The Grey Nation originated on Mars some 5 1/2 million years ago, shortly before they were forced to flee to the Orion Galaxy, and after a long period of evolution and unification as a species. At the time of their departure, they were at least as technologically advanced, ccomparatively speaking, as the current staate-off-the-art of Iteration X knowledge. Their time in the Orion Umbrae was mostly a period of stagnation, ideologically speaking. What we refer to as science and technology had already been taken to their upper limits,following almost the same methodologies responsible for the Technocracy and their paradigm. The Greys, like us, imposed the artificial state of rigidity (rigidness of thought, body and spirit) known to us as the Gauntlet, and this was responsible for the eventual destruction of Mars. The Greys' technology was/is just as destructive to themselves and their environment as ours is now. First, carbon-based fuels polluted and weakened their atmosphere, weakening their life patterns on a wide-spread basis, reducing their exposure to the energies of prime and stunting the evolution of their avatars. This, in turn, reinforced the rigidity of the species further on the path of their downward spiral. With the advent of nuclear-based technologies, the energies of the prime of their realm were further tainted. As silicon-based technology was introduced, static reality "crystallised" further. Everything exists as vibration, whether you call it prime, quantum waves, ether, or the unified field. Just as radioactive vibrations are harmful to organic vibrations and carbon monoxide vibrations are lethal to ozone vibrations, silicon vibrations are harmful to human vibrations. The closing of the gauntlet cuts off the perception of the etheric body. It can be considered analogous to a block between the 1st chakra (your grounding cord, "rooting" you in the organic dimensions) and the 2nd chakra (the emotional center). Essentially, the gauntlet separates human intelligence from its emotional body. (An interesting sidenote....the archtypal image of a gauntlet is of armor worn for battle, allowing one to inflict pain without having to feel it oneself) The etheric body, as implied by its name, is composed of the same electrically-charged, supra-interconnected substance as the stuff of emotions (i.e., pathos, gnosis, vitae, quintessence, glamour, etc.) and is the source of magick. The human body, or, more specifically, the nervous system, is capable of out-performing any piece of technology or machinery, however advanced. The mistake of the greys, and likewise the technocracy, was in externalising this form of manipulative control, thus creating duality and exclusion. And so the gauntlet was born, through the replication of the human energy field in a static pattern. The greys, even though they knew this, had so totally mutated their life patterns that they had become hopelessly addicted to their destructive paradigms. This separation between 1st and 2nd bodies, or between physical and psychical bodies, was not complete, as that would have completely killed them, but was rather a separation of misalignment. An analogy can be drawn from the Digital Web, where icons and programs are actual cognizant spirits, rather than the robotic, mindless functions supported by the the technocratic paradigm -- you tend to become what you believe in. Besides the destruction of their atmosphere, the pollution of the gene-pool and the misalignment of their auric fields, another factor had arisen that forced the grey nation to leave the galaxy completely. This was an occurrence similar to the precession of the equinoxes on Earth, but rather on a galactic scale. (From "Nothing" page 12) "The Earth's axis has 23 1/2 degrees of tilt, which gives us the seasons. At the celestial equator, the plane of the Earth's equator cuts the celestial sphere or the imaginary sphere on which the stars seem to lie. So if you take the Earth's equator and extend it out onto the sphere of the sky, the two points where the sun crosses this celestial equator mark the spring and fall equinoxes. At these points, day and night are of equal length. Now, the Earth's axis is wobbling in such a way that shifts the equinoctial points about 1 degree every 72 years. So every 2160 years, the equinoctial points move into a different zodiacal constellation. Every 25920 years, one full wobble or one full cycle circulates the zodiac. Over 25920 years the tip of the north pole traces an ellipse. At one focus of that ellipse it is closest to the center of the galaxy; at the other it is furthest away."
A similar phenomenon occurs in every celestial pattern among the living realms; every 5 1/2 million or so years, all elliptic foci point to the center of the galaxy, the granddaddy of all harmonic convergences. It is at these times that galactic ascension is possible, as the core of every star sends out an explosive shockwave of prime energy, much like the firing of a nerve cell's electro-chemical transmission. The greys, with their misaligned auric fields would have ceased to exist, shattered into a gazillion pieces, so they opted to leave. The time during their stay in the Orion galaxy remains mostly a mystery, muddled even in their own collective consciousness. What is known, however, are two things: First, that they brought their problems with them, and that these problems worsened their situation. Due to their life patterns' inability to assimilate and process prime energy, their polluted genepool could no longer produce healthy new bodies for themselves. They were forced to rely on defective clones, reproduced from their own polluted genestock, among other similarly self-limiting processes. It was for this reason they returned to the Solarian Umbra. After the last galactic ascension, the center of life moved from Mars to Earth, riding the shockwave's return to the solar core. (Another interesting sidenote.....this is why the next leap in consciousnss is supposed to be a "return" to the intuitive, beautiful, female mother aspect of consciousness, as we return to the energies associated with the planet Venus.) The original inhabitants, who lived exclusively in the Gaian dream-time, were the Lemurians, and the coming of the Greys altered life on Gaia permanently. As the first Grey scouting party "translated" itself into the living Gaian matrix, the Realm accordingly assimilated the Grey "reality." The distinction between spirit and body was introduced, and beings formerly existing solely in the Gaian dream-time were forced into the organic dimensions. Here lies the answer to questions of the Atlantean Plague -- the Atlanteans, as the Greys came to be called, were themselves the plague. Approximately 25900 years ago the last Solarian shockwave ascension took place, an event second only to the galactic ascension. "Coincidentally," this time period corresponds to historical accounts of the fall of Atlantis, the great crystal which was aimed through the heart of Gaia. Some philosophers theorize that the coming of the greys was the reality behind the symbol of the great crystal, and that the guardian at the heart of the garden was Gaia herself; all the killing that took place was the translation from dream-time to the organic dimensions, the only plane where death is possible. Other philosophers take a more literal view of historical mythology from this period. Without more information from the greys themselves, confirmation at this point is impossible. The greys encountered on Earth at this time are of two varieties: the artificial and the genuine. The technocracy, upon recovering some specimens from crashed ships, have attempted to model human bodies after the grey "drones," the perfect Umbral travelers. Keep in mind that the greys are subject to the same restrictionsimposed by the horizon gauntlet as we currently are -- they can't, for instance, walk to the nearest moon and back, like the garou. Consequently, with millions of years of time to experiment with their genetic manipulation, they have created the most perfect bodies for travelling the technocratic void of "space." Of the other varieties of grey aliens beyond the drones we have already encountered, we know very little. Their societal structure has evolved into a sort of insectile hive-mind, with the drone and warrior castes, and we have concluded that in theory, one or more queens exist, probably somewhere in the Orion belt. Their telempathic abilities are truly impressive, they are able to communicate with each other instantaneously, read the complete consciousnss of any being they come across, and even communicate with their home galaxy from ours. Physically, they are rather weak, comparable to pre-pubescent child, but their average telekinetic abilities compensate for this. At this time they are known to have made "diplomatic" agreements with representatives of Earth (or at least the technocracy) and have at least two covert bases on the planet. More are rumored to exist.
Earthlab -- The Facilities Fifteen miles outside city limits, in the desert east of Austin, TX, lies the well-armoured underground testing facilities known to a select few as Earthlab. Since its inception in 1943, it has been used extensively by upper-circle members of the Technocracy for its superior genetics laboratory facilities. The equiptment it is stocked with consists mostly of restored "grey" genetech recovered from UFO crash sites. Top researchers from amongst the Progenitors and Iteration X have spent millions of manhours deciphering the complex machinery, which rivals even best Autocthonia has to offer. Fertile hybrids, plant/animal crossbreeds and man-sized viruses are but a few possibilities Earthlab is capable of. Earthlab scientists, using their equipment, are capable of taking a single strand of DNA and mutating it through the time-stream to any point on its evolutionary path, past or future, and cloning an entirely new body using the single sample.
Physical Appearance Approaching the facilities from an out-of-the-way dirt road, Earthlab maintains a fairly innocuous appearance. Two armed soldiers occupy the guardstation where the road ends and the razor wire begins. Identification is asked for while Forces-warped antigravitational robots monitor from above. These drones use electromagnetic fields to warp light around themselves, affecting invisibility, while hovering 12' or so above the scene. They are armed with miniature laser pulse rifles (zap guns) and are unfriendly to intruders. Beyond the guard station, set into the side of a slight hill, is the huge iron doorway leading to the facilities themselves. Inside the door, security panels demand palm-print scans (DNA signature) and retinal scans (brainwave signature). After security is cleared, a wall slides away, revealing the elevator to the bottom three sublevels.
The genelab itself occupies most of the bottom floor of the converted nuclear testing facilities. It contains equipment for organic manipulations: the "Greytech Manipulator," a machine that filters gamma radiation through tiny, perfectly formed silica crystals into lasers capable of passing through organic material without damaging tissue. The information decoded from the laserscan is processed by the manipulator, altered and/or recombined with other samples by the operator at the control panels, and then translated to the plasma vats, tanks filled with simple proteins capable of self-organization. The second sub-level contains various specimens the Progenitors there see as having potential for future uses. This is the archetypal "mad scientist monster lab," with rows of cells containing various abominations. Some of these life-forms require liquid environments, and they can be seen suspended in giant tanks of viscous fluids. This sublevel also has the most by way of security systems -- should one of the specimens break loose from its restrictions, tracking lasers appear from every niche and corner. In the event of total containment breach, the entire floor seals itself off from everything with powerful forces effects and quietly explodes. In the history of Earthlab, this has yet to happen. The top sub-level contains the living quarters and office space for the 12 resident members. These are all upper echelon members of MJ12, with a few recruits taken directly from the GRUDGE/BLUEBOOK program during the 40s, Drs. Wulfgang Himmel and Karl VonRossenberg. The newest recruit, Dr, Lance Graves, came from a small college town in the Pacific Northwest in 1995. None of the other members have been there less than 25 years.
Relations to Conventions The New World Order is by far the most distrusting of Earthlab's intents and purposes. Since first contact with the Grey Nation, the Technocracy was forced into an uneasy truce with them. Their technological might gave them no choice, and the NWO is the most resentful of this. They keep a tight watch on Earthlab, to the point of infiltrating the facilities with one of their spies, Dr. Graves. Since 1971 and the arrival of the Gigergene, Earthlab has seemingly been in a lull. This is furthest from the truth, and the eye of Big Brother has been attracted. Iteration X and the Syndicate both have a vested interest in Earthlab. The cross-breeding of technology, from the Grey Nation's and the Earth Nation's, has proven itself fertile ground for previously unconceived ideas. Should the Masses become accepting enough, the Greys would provide a very convenient venue for rapidly pushing previously paradox-prone technology. The Syndicate has pushed for life-forms capable of surviving the ocean's depths ("Oh, the implications...") and self-maintaining "equipment" for mining and other operations in Deep Space. The Progenitors are the most supportive, naturally, among the Conventions of the Earthlab program. Since its opening in 1943, breakthrough after breakthrough into genetics and the nature of organic chemistry has come from Eartlab. Few Progenitors know of their source, however, as Earthlab has maintained an extremely low profile, preferring to disseminate information through other channels. It is rumoured that Proteus was first conceived here, by mixing genetic tissues from a sea-sponge with that of a human brain. The Void Engineer Convention owes a great debt to Earthlab. The Greytech Manipulator, when it first arrived, already contained the geneprint for one of their drones, and the first replication of a grey alien for space travel was accomplished here.
Amalgams ICOS (Internal Community Operating Systems) is the only amalgam within the Institution.
Organization Drs. Himmel and VonRossenberg are the acting directors. They work closely together on most projects, supervising the work of others. They work so closely together that they have momentary lapses, and seem to share great stretches of communication without talking. There are four other doctors involved in creating and studying new species: Drs. Pullington, Forgosa, Schullsom, and Kennard. The other five members work as assistants to Himmel and VonRossenberg. All members, with the exception of Dr. Graves, have lived and worked within the construct since its opening. As such, in-house meetings and Initiation of new recruits are not an occurrence here. The directors attend the annual Progenitor Symposiums, but have had minimal progress to report. No one other than the two directors know of the successes of Species 016 and 017, but the NWO has come to suspect that something is afoot, and has obtained joint permission from the other Conventions involved to place Dr. Graves within the compound. The closest thing to acolytes here are the two pairs of rotatingshift guards posted at the perimeter check-station.
Notable Personalities Dr. Lance William Graves Essence: Pattern Nature:Co-conspirator Demeanor:Conformist
Attributes: Str 2, Dex 3, Sta 2, Cha 4, Man 5, App 3, Per 3, Int 5, Wit 3 Abilities: Alert 4; Brawl/Dodge (Aikido) 4; Express 3; Intuit 2; Streetwise 2; Subter 4; Research 3; Stealth 2; Tech 4; Comp 3; Science (Organic Chemistry) 5 Spheres: Life 3, Mind 2, Matter 2 Arete 4 Willpower 6 Backgrounds: Allies 5(NWO), Influence 2 Lance Graves was born the child prodigy of progenitor parents, taking to Biology and later Organic Chemistry at an early age. He graduated top among his class, completed his doctorate degree and was ripe for initiation into the Progenitor Convention, when the NWO snatched him out of their grasp. He was forcibly awakened by Men In Black, who kidnapped him as he was leaving work and then took him to one of the Grey's established bases in northern Idaho. They then brought him before Mr. X, an army general with MJ12, who educated him about the World of Darkness in general, and the Grey Nation in specific. Lance was detained and observed for six months while they tested his absolute loyalty and taught him the science of Mind. After his sixmonth probationary period, he was briefed on the Earthlab Project, taught what he needed to know to avoid detection, and delivered to Austin,TX, and the Earthlab facilities. Roleplaying tips: You're a competent scientist. You do what you're told, looking over your own and other people's shoulders when you think no one's looking, and try to find out what those directors are doing when no one's around. If you manage to get out on furlough anytime soon, hopefully you'll have something to report. From the feel of things here, it should be something pretty interesting.
Drs. Karl VonRossenberg and Wulfgang Himmel Drs. Karl VonRossenberg and Wulfgang Himmel are no longer human. During the 50s, after seeing the success of the first grey alien cloning experiments, they became fascinated with the remarkable brain capacity of the subjects. These first experiments, replicated Grey Drones, showed amazing intellectual capacities. They were uncooperative, however, and had to be neutralised. Later experiments with cross-matched human and alien genetic tissues produced specimens with similar mental capacities that were linked to the human subconscious, rather than the signal emanating from the Grey Queen somewhere in the Orion Belt. Continued observation of the specimens proved them suitable for Technocracy purposes, and they were handed over to the Void Engineers for their V2 Flying Disk program. The brain power of the human/alien crossbreeds held the two directors enthralled, and they devised a plan. In a courageous gesture of self-experimentation, Dr. Himmel transferred his consciousness to a specially-prepared clone of himself, with a new brain cultured from the Grey/human mix. The results were astounding. Dr. VonRossenberg followed suit twelve weeks later. Neither of the two directors told anyone of their experiment, partly in order to observe the reactions of unbiased and uninformed observers, but mostly out of fear of discovery by an "unenlightened" world. As time passed, increasingly unignorable impulses to perform very specific experiments and to act in increasingly irrational manners caused the two directors to take an unwanted sabbatical. They both left the facilities in separate vehicles, seemingly unaware of the other's intentions, and were surprised to run into each other in the remote foothills south of Santa Fe, both travelling impulsively, on separate paths, where they were greeted by a blinding light. It is here that their memories hit a seeming blank spot. Neither of them mentioned anything to anyone about the incident. This occured on Oct. 7th, 1971, 4:20 AM. Immediately afterwards, the two directors began mass-producing clones of themselves, with a wide variety of characteristics and capabilities, which they keep hidden in a secret storehouse below the third sub-level. The only traits they share in common are their physical and social appearances and continuous memories (they are both telepathically linked with each of their clones). The clones take shifts, often changing late at night, so the bodies masquerading as the two directors are often not the same from day to day. None of the clones remember which is the original. After the arrival of the Gigergene, things changed drastically at the compound. The first of the species experiments was deemed a failure (see Steve Kok and Eric Wicklund'sSpecies file) and work with the Greytech Manipulator was supposedly brought to a temporary halt. The third sublevel was shut down and all personnel were restricted to the upper two levels. In actuality, the clones below were working feverishly day and night to perfect the Gigergene strains. For purposes of game mechanics, the two directors may have any attribute/ability scores, with the following exceptions: 1: They may not have ratings in either Prime or Spirit--they may use others' tech which uses these powers, but they, like the Greys, are incapable of manipulating these energies. 2: Willpower, Intelligence, & Perception are all at human max.
Artifact--Greytech Manipulator (*****) The Greytech Manipulator may use all life effects within certain limitations....as a device created from Grey Technology, it cannot channel free Prime to new patterns. Instead, it recycles the pattern-locked Prime energy from within the pre-existing patterns.
This energy is supplemented with nuclear/Wyrm/death-tainted energies in the form of electrical power supplied by the onboard fusion power plant. The creatures it creates are inevitably morbid, usually murderous abominations. No one but the two directors are capable of using the manipulator; it is just what it looks like, totally alien technology.
Progenitor Nightmares Excerpted from last received videolog from "Nemesis" Shuttle: -Houston, this is Roberts...We've got a situation here... -Roberts, this is Ground Control...Your transmission is breaking up...Check your {static} -Ground Control, I lost contact...the lifeform is showing signs of some serious activity...Ground Control!...It's broken into the cabin. Oh my God the air its {screams} Video records fleeting image of alien ovipositor attacking crew member. He crashes into camera; end transmission.
Aliens/Species: the origin of the "Gigergene" In 1971, deep in the hills outside California, a high-security Technocracy Void Shuttle, the Nemesis, returned from a routine rendezvous with a satellite monitor that had gone off course after downloading Military information from a Void Engine, the Nostromo, returning from the Grey's galaxy. A semi-crysalline lifeform had attached itself to the hull of the ship in an attempt to use it as an incubator. Somewhere between the Orion Umbra and the Solarian Umbra, the lifeform had clung to the craft, its silicate physiology, combined with a deep and truly powerful empathic ability allowing it to avoid detection by both the Engine's computer and the spirit of the Monitor. When the shuttle Nemesis left its rendezvous with the Monitor, the crew in cryogenic sleepchambers, the lifeform was attached. Of the two crewmembers, the first served as a host to the silicon/carbon based incubi, allowing it a rudimentary scan of the human collective Subconscious. The second passenger served as its first meal. The shuttle, operating on computer autopilot, landed at Spacestrip 519 in Nevada at 4:15, November 17, where Technocracy agents eagerly awaited.
Summary: Video Archives, Series 0354967-45-b3476, [Nov 17, 1971, 4:10 AM] Landing strip, uniformed soldiers with heavy artillery stand at the ready. Camera pans to sky, the blaze of the approaching shuttle looms closer & closer. Pan back to landing strip area, a huddled group of scientists in white labcoats and two men in dark suits, the obvious directors. {Voice-over from loudspeaker}: Receiving from on-board navigational computer; autopilot functioning in optimal working order...Prepare for landing sequence. The soldiers shoulder their weapons; a few shuffle nervously. The craft lands without incident. Two "volunteer" soldiers move cautiously toward the craft, blow the airlock and step back from the smoke and falling debris. A dark blur shoots through the opening, slaughtering the first two soldiers immediately. Shots ring out from all sides as the soldiers open fire. Close-up on the lifeform, a simpler variant of Species 016. Bullets ricochet off the exoskeleton as it surveys the assembly, hissing. One shot penetrates and it charges the nearest cluster of soldiers, taking out five more before the heavy-weapons infantry moves in. A Wavefield Generator is raised at the alien; it crumples and soldiers with restraining gear quickly move into place. The lifeform is boxed up, loaded into a van and driven away. Tape ends.
Earthlab The magnetic videotapes from the Void Engine and Satellite Monitor were viewed in Austin, Texas, approximately sixteen hours before the shuttle landed. Over 50 New World Order and Iteration X strike teams were assembled at the spacestrip where the Nemesis landed. The lifeform was captured alive, stunned, and transferred by armoured convoy to Earthlab, near Austin. Earthlab is an underground Progenitor testing laboratory, stocked with "Grey" genetech. The only access point on this side of the Gauntlet is a single door at the end of a long dirt road, inside restricted-access Military ex-nuclear facilities, shielded with five foot thick ferro-cement Gauntlet-reinforcing walls. It is protected by a wide range of security systems, from barbed wire and armed guards to optical and palmprint scans to closed camera circuits and identicard checkstations. Using the Grey's genetech, the Progenitor team bypassed the creature's normal means of reproduction (by parasitically devouring its host's nervous system and adapting its own physical shape to approximate its host's) and synthetically grafted the lifeform's DNA to a sample of human genetic tissue donated by one the participating scientists. The result was, to casual observation, a human child with abnormally slow life-signs, and rapidly accelerated growth processes. During a stressful episode at the the laboratory the child's true abilities were revealed. During an intensive intelligence test, the child (already six days old with the body of a thirteen-year-old) transformed into its biomechanoid form after seducing and mesmerising the scientist performing the testing. It killed and partially devoured the scientist, and almost escaped before it was terminated by internal security systems. Later experiments, using cloned cell-samples from the original alien, were conducted under stronger precautionary measures
after the damage to the equipment and lab was repaired. Several specimens, while still somewhat uncontrollable, were considered wildly successful. -Species 017B proved a more stable variant of the first organism, and was reported to have ahigh success rate in biologically accepting behavior programming RCC's. -Species 016, Variant C Class 5, was a joint effort with the Iterators, using a HIT-Mark endo-skeletons and Internal Computer linkage, covered with organic cell-tissue from the original human/alien mutation.
SPECIES 017b (in transformation) Codename: Project Starfish Standard Profile Attrib Human Morph Health Levels STR 4 6 OKx4 DEX 4 6 -1 STA 5 6 -1 CHR 2 -2 APP 3 -3 MAN 2 -3 PER 5 6 -3 INT 2 2 -3 WIT 4 6 Incapacitated
Description: Outwardly human unless under duress, these creatures manage to simulate human behavior unless engaged in social interaction, where some discrepancies may appear. Some 17's, during the beginning stages of their moulting phase, may show patches of greenish scales. All 17's are outfitted with remote control chips and extensively conditioned, allowing their human forms some semblance of humanity. These are basically the same creatures as from the "Species" movie; see also the Species file by Steve Kok and Eric Wicklund."
Special abilities: In addition to their human and biomechanoid forms, 17's can assume any in-between combination of forms (Mix-morph at Sta, difficulty 4, 1 success needed). In morphed form, they possess powerful exoskeletons that give them an additional 3 dice to their soak pools. This, and their ability to remain alive beyond the incapacitated level unless aggravated wounds are sustained, is due to their silicon/carbon physiology, which gives them another -2 difficulty modifier to all soak rolls plus a -1 modifier to all Sta rolls; they regenerate one level of damage (aggravated included) per day. Their original genestock comes from a highly telepathic "alien" hive-mind, giving them powerful empathic abilities. Combined with their ability to "smell" heat, they have 4 additional dice to all their location rolls. {This is equal to the Sense Life and No Mind Mage effects}
Attacks: Claws have a difficulty of 6 and do damage at Str+3 aggravated. Bite has a range of 2, difficulty 8, and does Str+3 aggravated wounds. Tail has a range of 4, difficulty 7, does Str+2; it can be used in combination with either attack with no penalties. {Counts as one action}
Other: These are extremely hideous creatures with no social ratings at all. They are so terrifying that Sleepers viewing them suffer effects of delirium. Even magickal creatures must make a will roll to avoid panic/frenzy. They themselves are immune to all psychological and will effects, and vampires cannot dominate them.
Suggested skills: {Human/Morph} Alertness 2/5; Athletics 3/4; Awareness 2/4; Brawl 3/5; Intim 2/5; Leadership 2/-; Melee 3/-; Stealth 2/4; Survival 5/5; Enigmas 3/3
SPECIES 016c/5 Codename: Project Hairball These are your standard Sigourney Weaver-brand of Alien, augmented with bionics. Using prepared HIT-Mark endo-skeletons, the Progenitors at Earthlab have perfected the process of cloning cell-tissue around bionic cyberstructures. Most Hairballs (of the ten total 16's at date 11-8-95, 4:15) are only deployed in the Deep Umbra or ultra-secret clandestine domestic "raze-andburn" operations such as Chernobyl. They are immune to Will and Mind magic attacks.
Description: Like their cousins the 17's, 16's possess strong exo-skeletons (+3 to soak pool) in addition to the HIT-Mark internal frame (+4 to soak). They regenerate one wound level per combat round and the acidic concentration of their blood causes 1 wound for every 2 wounds of damage from melee they incur. Like the 17's, their silicon/carbon physiology (+2 more to soak= +9 total to soak rolls; -1 difficulty all Sta rolls) causes them to be able to survive anything not aggravated. They are carnivorous, completely silent (unless fitted with electronic tansmitters) and utterly repugnant to everything--vampires included-and incite Delirium. They perceive through their sense of smell; they can sense heat with amazing accuracy. Str 6; Dex 5; Sta 6; Cha -; App -; Man -; Per 4; Int *; Wit 4 *Computer guided
Health levels: OKx6, -1, -2, -3, Destroyed.
Attacks: Claws do Str+3, difficulty 6; Bite does Str+3, difficulty 8, range 2; Tail does Str+2, difficulty 7, range 4 and can be used with either attack. All wounds inflicted are aggravated.
Suggested abilities: Alertness 4, Athletics 4, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Intimidation 4, Stealth 5, Survival 3, Tech 3, Enigmas 3, Science 2
NIGHTSIDE ENFORCERS By Michael Moolick The Progenitors in charge of damage control have, over the years, developed a number of effective enforecers. Unfortunately, the use of many of these in any form of public capacity as yet is not in keeping with the technocratic aims. By the mid seventies, it was appearent that an internal conflicts would eventually take to the streets as the Pharmacopiests went to the street with the drug trade. At the 1976 progenitor Symposium, special grants were established for laboratories who produce reasonably intelligent, normal appearing, efficient enforcers. A number of chantries begane competitive research in hopes of obtaining the grants. Many approaches were tries, from bioengineering "controlled carriers" that could expel arsenals of diseases to enhancing Superior mentality. Several of the grants have been taken. One such grant was taken by a technomancer Amalgam in Philadelphia for their development of the Nightside Enforcers. One of the more ambitous Enforcer programs was "Project Nightside". It involved a coordinated attempt to caprture, analyze, and exploit the abilities of the vampire population which the progenitors have been aware of for some time. The project's inital phases were unsuccessful. The vampires eliminated no less than three progenitor students in the first years, and it soon became appearent their magick didn't affect the creatures normally at all. However, by late 1978 three professional individuals were detemined to be covering up evidence of the vampires' presence, one of them a Doctor in the medical facilities the Progenitors monitor. The three were promptly captures and taken to a research chantry for analysis. The simplest Pharmacological and Genetic testing showed a number of extraordinary anomolies. The mages immediately proceeded with interrogation. It was soon appearent the subjects had been subjected to very deep-rooted mental conditioning, and were entirely devoted to the vampires. The Progenitors gained little more information than that they were of the "Grimaldis" and had powerful friends before the escape attempt occurred. The individuals had appearently been able to place hypnotic commands i the minds of several technicians, opening the chantry to attack by a group of vampires. The chantry would have been overwealmed if not for some Iteration X defense droids. It was decided the prisoners were too dangerous to be allowed to remain conscious, and were placed into a drug induced comma. The study of the biological properties of these "samples" continues to this day. However, the Chantry has learned many things form them. New ways of heightening a subject's physical abilities, healing rate, and natural immunity were gained. Presently research is trying to assay the reason the individuals were able to hypnotize loyal technicians, though progress is slow. The application of the things learned from the subjects has led to the development of the Nightside Enforcers. There are made from clones of certain hired enforcers, with extensive memory alterations. The process of creating a Nightside Enforcer requires special genetic modification of the embryo and explosure of the fetus to certain fractions of the "samples's" body fluids ( which were difficult to culture ). After their accelerated growth takes them to adulthood, their bone marrow is irradiated and replaces with that taken, again, from that cultures from the original samples. Certain artifical organs must be implanted and a regimen of drugs maintained to keep the enforcers in fighting condition. The progenitors have made the enforcers genetically dependent on dispensed medications which sleepers have no concept of, and use this to ensure against any who think they can betray or leave them. The Nigthside Enforcers are still psychologically unstable, but their intelligence has been stablized at satisfactory levely by memory implants. Progenitors are still trying to eliminate an appearent impurity in the samples which causes a slow softening of the body's connective tissues. Because of this, Enforcers have a life span of less than Seven years after deployment. The Enforcers are presently in normal use against rogue Progenitors, and have been for three years. Production has been stepped up as the chantry has been given the go-ahead to try them against the traditions' mages.
Attributes: Str: 4, Dex: 4, Sta: 4, Cha: 2, Man: 2, App: 3, Per: 3, Int: 3, Wit: 3. Abilities: Alertness 3, Athletics 4, Brawling 4, Dodge: 4, Drive: 2, Firearms: 4, Melee: 4, Occult: 2, Research 3, Stealth: 3, Streetwise: 2.
Disciplines: Potence, Celerity, Fortitude ( 3 dots total ) Willpower: 4 Arete: 0 Quintessence: 0 Paradox: 5 Health Levels: OK / OK / -1 / -1 / -2 / -2 / -5 / Incapacitated. Life Countermagick: Nightside Enforcers receive three dice of countermagick against any magick involving the Life sphere because of manipulations to allow them to hunt renegade Progenitors.
Blood Pool: 10 max, can spend 1 / round. Nightside Enforcers use modern weapons and Progenitor supplied equipment similar to those used by DNA operatives ( See the Werewolf:The Apacolypse Stroyteller's Handbook ). They are effectively magickally-produced Revenants. They gain one blood point a day from their metabolic processes. Progenitors can sysnthesize and injectable Vitae product, but son;t often because it takes quintessence to do so. They would need to contact actual Vampires or wait on Progenitor research to learn additional disciplines.
The Living Plastic Creations of Dr. Rhenborg By Anders Sandberg One of the most bizarre uses of Matter developed so far is the living plastic invented by Dr. Rhenborg. He has combined the normal properties of plastic with properties of living beings such as movement, healing and instincts, for use as servants and weapons. The plastic creations are brightly coloured, elastic beings able to stretch immensely before breaking. They are resistant to acids, but become stiff in cold environments and tend to melt when confronted with fire. They are completely mindless, only able to perform the duties stamped into their molecular structure by Dr. Rhenborg when the plastic is polymerised. Usually he keeps them in the form of plain blocks of plastic, which are then activated by heating them somewhat or ripping away a protective cover. The earliest designs were patterned after dinosaurs and other plastic toys (the doctor had originally planned them as presents for his grandchildren), but today they instead become amorphous beings with hundred of small legs, claws, flapping slits and antennae (possibly a sign of the increasing Quiet of the doctor). One typical application is the Carrying Creation, a big blue glob able to move heavy objects as indicated by the doctor. Another is the Gripper Plastic, a small block of red plastic which when thrown onto at starts gripping with plastic tentacles. A third kind is the Black and White Destroyer Ball. By combining big blocks of plastics and heating them, they form a huge chequered ball that will aggressively attack anything perceived as a threat; it will bash down walls, roll over cars or crush people. Unfortunately it is also a bit unpredictable weapon. Other experiments have been the Green Guard Spider, the Purple Tyrannosaur-Dog and the Yellow DanceOn-Paper-Pyramid.
THE PRODIGIES By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (11 Oct 94) The Progenitors stated goal is to perfect mankind, both physically and mentally. While the superiors are attempts to create physical perfection, the prodigies are an attempt at perfecting the human mind. Early progenitor experiments focused on drugs which increased the mental abilities of their users. Although they had some serious drawbacks, they led to the nootropic drugs of today. Their next approach was genetic: first through selective breeding of intelligent people and later through direct genetic manipulation. The prodigies are the result of a combination of genetic engineering and the use of careful hormonal control during infancy. Prodigies are usually cloned from genetically altered cells, usually from highly talented people. During their incubation in the clone tanks the Progenitors give them measured doses of morphogens, designed to expand the potential of their brains by increasing the neural connectivity and growth. Early experiments had very enlarged heads to house immense brains, but their extra neural capacity was offset by the increased strain on their bodies which usually led to very short life spans. Today the researchers have opted for a more conservative design, and just increased the brain volume by a few percent. Instead they have concentrated on maximising the interconnectivity of the neurones and their speed. Prodigies are geniuses from birth. Their education starts already in the clone tank, and continues for several years. It is common to simply link up their brains to computers which feed them with relevant information around the clock. When the prodigies are less than two years old they have reached mental maturity and usually surpass most unaugumented humans in intelligence. This leads to several problems. The prodigies have a tendency to go insane in various ways. Most common are psychoses, especially paranoid schizophrenia, but many succumb to catatonia or develop complex personality disorders. To avoid this the Progenitors handle them with great care, placing them in calming environments and constantly monitoring their mental activity. Another way of making them more stable is to make them retarded in most areas except their specialisation, turning them into Idiot Savants. Although this makes them less flexible, they become much more predictable. Another problem is the fear that a prodigy could turn against them. This is usually solved by placing biological failsafes in their bodies, making it possible to terminate them if they should start to malfunction. Despite that, many progenitors are worried that their creations could outsmart them. Therefore they do their best to condition the prodigies to not only be loyal, but to actually love their "parents". Many live in happy families in the countryside together with their beloved (surrogate) parents. From time to time the nice people from the city come and test them or ask them for advice. Many prodigies soon understand the real situation, but that doesn't mean they loose faith in their friends. The mental capacity of a full prodigy is amazing. Most are extremely fast learners and can handle enormous amounts of information without forgetting anything. Their mental processes are lightening-fast, often both highly intuitive and strictly logical at the same time (the Progenitors pride themselves in being able to resolve contradictions machines cannot solve). Many prodigies function as living computers for the convention, solving advanced problems in their heads or pointing out relevant information gathered from their computers. Others act as advisors and assistants to the technocrats. A few are placed in mundane society, often in academic circles to act as scientific geniuses used to disseminate new ideas. One problem with prodigies is the possibility of Awakening. Due to their extreme mental capacity, they would make excellent mages, but there are many problems. Many prodigies simply lack Avatars, probably due to their cloned nature. Another problem is that most prodigies quickly become autistic when they Awaken, apparently turning inwards with their new powers into inescapable Quiet. Some prodigies awaken spontaneously, usually under great stress, with unpredictable consequences. The Progenitors regard the prodigies as a great success, and relish on not having to be dependent on computers from Iteration X to do their work. However, the two conventions have working together in developing a artificial intelligences consisting of prodigy brains combined with the latest computers. Another current project is to disseminate prodigy genes among the sleepers, usually through sperm banks or by infecting foetuses with certain viruses. Another current experiment is to combine prodigies with superiors, to create a true master race. So far they have not succeeded, but recent breakthroughs in mental stabilisation have been hopeful.
A Typical Prodigy: Gilbert Priestly Gilbert lives on an isolated farm somewhere together with his two parents (two progenitor psychologists) and his little sister Anne. He is a young boy, apparently around five but somehow looking much older at the same time. He always wears a baseball cap, which hides the scars on his head from the computer link he was connected to until he was decanted. He is fairly frail and doesn't like to go too far from the house, where he spends much time reading information in the progenitor databases. He is honest to the point of absurdity, absolutely never lying and always becoming very upset when other people lie to him. His main interests are psychology, programming and linguistics, which he seeks to formalise into a science of intelligent processes on his spare time. During the weeks he and his sister spend most of their time studying and working on their assignments (Gilbert develops informationgathering systems for the Progenitors and New World Order). Their work is interrupted at regular intervals by obligatory physical training, which both children loathe but their parents think is absolutely necessary for their health. The same goes for the healthy food they are given (Which contains a compound both children are dependent on; if they don't get it for over 48 hours, they will die). Gilbert is fairly alone. He loves his parents, but they are so stupid and don't understand much of his ideas. His sister is obsessed with her proteins, and only wants to talk about them. From time to time progenitor scientists visit, and although they often have interesting problems for him to solve, they are not that sociable. His best friend is his dog, a genetically altered Doberman (which in reality is his bodyguard) which he calls Octavius. Another way to pass the time is to write novels. So far he has written several huge, baroque creations with far too many levels of meaning and symbolism to be readable.
Essence: Primordial Nature: Visionary Demeanour: Conformist Str: Dex: Sta:
* * *
Cha: Man: App:
* * ***
Per (intuitive):***** Int (brilliant):***** Wit (lightening-fast):*****
Alertness:*** Research (academic):***** Computer (programming):***** Expression:** Technology:*** Culture:*** Subterfuge:**** Enigmas (verbal):***** Investigation:*** Linguistics:***** Medicine (neurology):**** Occult:*** Science:*****
Willpower: 10 Allies (parents and Octavius): *** Library: *** Dream (inspiration): **** Gilbert has mental abilities corresponding to Mind 1 (including 2 dice of countermagick against Mind). He is especially good at controlling his own mental processes, effortlessly multitasking or concentrating single-mindedly on one task.
Sapphire and Steel By David Hood (
[email protected]) (3 May 1995)
Introduction "All irregularities are to be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Trans-Uranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available; Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned." -- Opening Credits Sapphire and Steel Werewolves are often described as being the immune system of Gaia. However, they are not the only such expression of Gaia. Another group which defends Gaia are the Elements.
Elements Throughout the course of time, human beings have characterised the world as being made up of various elements. These elements have a spiritual representation which in mythic times was represented by elementals (Fire,Earth, Air, and Water in the Western tradition). With the growing complexity of the models used to describe the components of the world, the spiritual manifestations too have grown more complex. The modern forms of these elements are in many ways equal to mages. Because they are themselves defined by consensual reality, such self-aware modern forms, known as Elements, serve to help define reality. They serve to protect Gaia, and consensual reality, from intrusions from beyond the Horizon. Some have argued that because the effect of these spirits is to protect static reality, they are a form of Weaver spirit. In fact, because their true function is to protect Gaia from paranormal damage, the best description is that just as the Changers are the Wyld defenders of Gaia, Elements are the Weaver defenders (both springing from Gaia however).
Nature of Elements Because Gaia and the Umbra are but reflections of each other there is not a direct correspondence between the periodic table of the elements and the spiritual versions. Many elements (the spirits) survive from alchemical times (such as Sapphire), while others appear as the form more commonly thought of by people (Steel rather than Iron, Diamond rather than Carbon). The home of the Elements lies in the gauntlet rather than in the Umbra. They are sensitive to breaches created in the gauntlet and will emerge to restore any breaks. As they are not true Umbrood, and never actually have to cross the gauntlet, the strength of the gauntlet in the vicinity does affect their materialisation. Indeed, they are unable to manifest in areas where the strength of the gauntlet has been reduced to zero. Rather, they must emerge nearby then travel to the site of the breach. The Aim of Elements is to stabilise reality -- sealing breaches in the gauntlet, neutralising the source of the breach or otherwise stopping the weakening of static reality. One danger to mages is that Elements may mistake paradox flaws as disruptions to reality and seek to remove the disruption. This is only going to happen if the flaw (or the mage) is stationary. On the bright side a paradox spirit operating within a very small area could also attract their attention.
Essence Pattern. They reinforce static reality, what else do you expect.
Appearence When manifesting, to avoid causing disruption, elements appear as humans. While in human form their appearences (and behaviour) are related to the (physical) element on which they are based (e.g. Steel appears as a man in a grey suit with a cold, rigid manner). Their pupils reflect the color of their element and when using magic their eyes glow brightly in that color.
Tactics They try to cause as little disruption to reality as possible. They avoid direct confrontation and don't use vulgar magic in front of witnesses. They contain then seal off breaks in reality after first having gotten back anything (that was taken away) that will be
missed and sending back anything that has come through (that will be noticed). Elements operate in groups of 2 (or at most 3), each Element having complementary spheres and abilities. In dealing with any particular disruption, the other Elements will defer to the one with most relevant experience.
Attitude to mages "If they knew of us they would seek to interfere for their own ends. Avoid them, or if you cannot avoid them do not let them know what you are."
Stats These stats were produced before The Book of Madness came out, and even now I wouldn't change much because I find werewolf style powers too fiddly to keep track of when running Mage. For those who want stats I suggest Attributes 7/6/4, Skills 16/10/6, Background of Arcane 3. Arete 6. Willpower 8. Health Levels: Human + 1 extra O.K.
Power Manifestation: Elements can move freely in and out of the Gauntlet (Though prefer not to be observed when doing so). While in the Gauntlet (and in spirit form) they can travel very quickly, so often step into the Gauntlet to move from one physical location to another. Elements can look out from the Gauntlet to determine if they will be observed emerging.
Magic Spheres:Mind 3 + 7 more points in spheres Foci: None (-1 to Difficulty for Coincidental Magic, +1 for vulgar w. witness) Elements are subject to paradox as per mages (in the final series of Sapphire and Steel they are trapped in a Correspondence Paradox realm for eternity).
Heavy Elements Heavy Elements (those relating to radioactive elements of the periodic table) are much more powerful than other Elements. Also, as befits their name, they are somewhat unstable (Dynamic Essence). Because they cannot be trusted to preserve static reality, they are only deployed outside of the Gauntlet deal with powerful threats.
Symbiotic Exotic Biological Organism (Seborg) By Gregory Deych (
[email protected])
Introduction L3 Planetary Defense Station hummed with activity. Ken Goddard could feel the subharmonic vibration in his bones. Usually, the hum of activity reassured him, but now the activity seemed to have a bit of a frantic edge to it. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, staring out through the several inches of transparent crystalline steel analogue, out beyond the Lunar orbit. It was a long day, coming after a long week, which itself trailed an even longer month. A soft chime sounded behind him, and he turned his chair around, facing his doorway. Svetlana, his assistant, was ushering his next appointment, the PDC's Director of Training. Smiling, he stood up and offered him a hand, showing him to a chair. "As you can see, Mr. Goddard, we're stretched to the limit, and the NWO just mandated we shift some of our and BCD's marine personnel under their operational control. 'Unspecified duration' transfer, they called it. If we shift any more personnel to them, we will not have enough to patrol even the circumstellar space." The DoT subsided unhappily. Goddard nodded quietly. He pondered the matter for a few seconds, trying to see some alternatives. "I can't do anything about that, Harry" he said slowly "the plans have been made and it would hurt us a lot if we refuse. But, we may be able to salvage the situation. I'm authorizing you to reactivate the Icarus training facility, at 120% occupation levels." He smiled bitterly. "We'll have to go with that SEBO scheme, hell or high water."
Description The SEBO program was initially proposed by the exobiologists of the Void Engineer R&E division. In their explorations of the universe, VEs have encountered a staggering array of life forms, sometimes intelligent, most often not. The R&E was illequipped to catalogue all of the life forms, let alone determine their capability, but a small fraction of the most promising ones were scrutinized more closely. One such lifeform, inhabiting a class M planet in the Epsilon Eridani system, came to the attention of the researchers by exhibiting a very wide range of symbiote-host relationship. Usually, a symbiote or a parasite will restrict itself to a single species or a related group of species. Even more interesting was the fact that the host populations which were not infected by a symbiote appeared to be less vigorous then their infected counterparts. In short, this was a real example of a relationship benefiting both sides. Since that discovery, research concentrated on medical applications of the newly discovered lifeform, popularly christened "McKiernan's symbiote". The "symbiote" is approximately 3-4 inches when fully grown and nests in the abdominal cavity of the host. By siphoning off some of the nutrients, it relieves itself of the necessity to go out and gather its own meal. Its secretions, on the other hand, act as a general stimulant on the host, making it more likely to catch its own preferred prey. The Progenitor scientists brought in to help the research along have synthesized several compounds from the symbiote's secretions. However the rate of metabolization of those by the patient was rather high and duration rather short. Inevitably, research turned to the possibility of whether Human-symbiote mutuality was possibleÖ Symbiote Exotic Biological Organism is the technical name for the McKiernan Symbiote whose DNA has been modified to be able to meld with humans. The human hosts who are usually called Seborgs, receive a number of powers from their symbiote along with a few inconveniences as well.
Powers The usual secretions of the symbiote act as a general stimulant, enhancing the usual human physical abilities by about 20-30%. In game terms, the subject receives a +1 to all 3 physical attribute permanently. The host's endurance is increased even more than all the other attributes, with additional +1 to Stamina for any tests involving endurance, like long-distance running, holding your breath etc. (not the soak pool). The healing factor of the host is also much accelerated. If well fed and rested, the subject heals lethal damage as if it was bashing. Health Level Recovery Time Bruised-Wounded 1 hour Maimed 3 hours Crippled 6 hours Incapacitated 12 hours The symbiote is able to partially filter many kinds of poisons, toxins and diseases out of the host's bloodstream, automatically subtracting a single success from the adverse effect or adding one success to the resistance roll (this may include Life magick if it's stated as a viral or toxicological attack). Research is ongoing to modify the symbiote's DNA structure further, in order to enhance this ability.
In addition, the symbiote senses when the host is in danger, by her altered neurochemical balance, and responds accordingly. While in a dangerous or threatening situation, the subject gains the following abilities: +2 Strength +2 Stamina Hyperagility (+1 extra action per turn)
Disadvantages Unfortunately, the Symbiote-Human meld is far from well understood. The Seborgs have encountered a number of specific problems, among them: The demand on the host's and symbiote's metabolisms require drastic increase in food consumption. If not involved in vigorous activity, the Seborg requires approximately 50% more food than a normal human of his body type. If he is involved in vigorous activity such as combat, her food requirement jumps to 200% of normal or twice the normal amount. There are some implications that the increase in metabolism may reduce the subject's maximum lifespan, though an Enlightened medical practitioner should be able to compensate for the effect. Also, the symbiote requires certain mineral substances which humans do not consume as part of their daily diet. Those specialized substances are usually stored in a subcutaneous dispensers, sufficient for 15 days of operations. The overdrive effect may have mildly deleterious effects on the human body. If the attributes are permanently increased above 5, the host may (Storyteller's discretion) exhibit adverse reactions, like muscle aches, torn ligaments or hypertension. Lastly, and potentially most significantly, the symbiote sufficiently alters the mindset of the user to block him from using Inspirational Science. Technocratic Devices remain usable.
Field Experience The Seborgs are part of the Void Engineer convention, but are often assigned to alongside NWO Men in Black and ItX Hit Marks. They are recruited from the same candidate pool as VE marine contingent. DSTAC members figure it's better to field test them along the more controllable conditions on Earth (and where other Conventions can pick up the slack if something goes seriously wrong). If the field tests prove successful, they will be assigned to VE teams in space operations as well.
Game Statistics The effect is a Life 4 Spirit 4 rote, requiring 10 successes to be completed.
Shadowing Lemmas By CD Skogsberg (
[email protected]) What with all the "2d vs. 3d" and "what can you do wih 2d" debate going on on the list, I decided to post this little tidbit of a beastie.
Author's Notes Shamelessly stolen from Terry Pratchett. I of course have no intentions of infringing Mr. Pratchett's copyright etc.
Correspondence paradox spirits
Willpower 6
Rage 7
Gnosis 4
Power 30
Description Shadowing Lemmas are two-dimensional beings from the High Umbra. Their two-dimensional nature makes them invisible when viewed "on edge," as it were. Natural behaviour for a Lemma on this side of the Gauntlet would be to "slither" along the ground, seeking an unwary mathematician, for the Shadowing Lemmas stalks and eats mathematicians. No-one knows why. It may be that this allows them to return to their home Realm. Anyway, many a mathematicians last sight was of a patch of shadow rising from the floor, perfectly flat, engulfing him. Their presence can be sensed with Corr. 1.
Charms Airt Sense, Engulf (Transfers the Engulfed person elsewhere, probably to a Correspondence paradox realm; costs 15 Power to use), Materialize, Two-dimensionality*
*Two-dimensionality is more of an inborn property than a "charm" as such, but it has certain side-effects, among them invisibility (on a successful Gnosis roll, diff 6).
Shadow Moths By Stuart Ellis (
[email protected])
Description These spirits are no bigger than the insects they resemble and rarely harm living creatures, but their presence in an area can be enough to terrify veteran technomancers and Euthanatos. Less experienced mages who think of all the inhabitants of the Deep Umbra as tentacled monstrosities often underestimate a swarm of black moths, but only once. In their home realms Shadow Moths are just mindless scavengers that consume the remains of anything which has become too corrupted by entropy, and are probably eaten in turn by other entities. On Earth they can be devastating because a swarm will rapidly cover and absorb any object which is already tainted by entropy. Strangely, contact with Shadow Moths accelerates the rate at which entropy increases. The result is similar to a powerful Erode Matter (Entropy 3) effect as the moths land on the oldest or most decayed object in the vicinity and reduce it to dry powder before flying on to the next meal. Items with unusual amounts of Quintessence appear to be particularly attractive. Talismans are often the first target, especially if they use Entropy magicks or their physical form is weakening, but the traces of power which cling to Foci also make them choice morsels. Spirits and the living are safe unless they are severely corrupted, like terminal cancer patients, mages of Entropy and Fomori. If there is nothing more tempting in the vicinity then such beings will be engulfed and slowly absorbed. This is quite painless but does one die of aggravated damage per dot of Entropy or Taints that the victim possesses as the dark threads in their Pattern grow and the moths feast. Swarms do not have Traits as such because they don't do anything except eat and fly. Individual moths will be killed automatically by any attack which hits them, but they have good enough instincts to dodge (swatting a moth has a Difficulty of 9) and each swarm consists of several dozen. Entropy, Life and Mind magicks are probably useless, but Forces could be helpful, and sunlight repels them (although it does no damage). In most realms Paradox will stop the moths reproducing and totally annihilate them within hours. Not surprisingly, the more reckless and knowledgable Nephandi often consider using Shadow Moths against the Technocracy. However they can only be summoned in areas with a low Gauntlet by characters with the appropriate Lore, Spirit 2 and Entropy 1. A separate Spirit 4 effect is needed to actually control them, and without it the summoner is likely to become the first victim.
SHARDS By John Thompson (
[email protected])
Description Shards are people who can influence the local paradigm. They are not quite mages, and not quite human either. Shards are about as common as wielders of True Magick -- quite rare. Most are unaware of their ability. In game turns, if a Shard is a witness to a Magickal event, she causes the difficulty to be biased as one toward her paradigm. If Michael Walks-Far, a Shard that follows the Dreamspeaker paradigm is around, technomagick is a +1 difficulty, and animist magick is at -1 to difficulty, because of the Shard's belief. This does not change the overall modification of no more than +3/-3 as stated in the rulebook. Shards can follow any Magickal Tradition or Craft. They are unable to influence the paradigm by their will alone; rather they can modify the local consensus. A shard has no other innate abilities. Like Mages, they could be ghouled and retain their ability, but being Embraced destroys the ability. Being a Shard is a +7 Merit. You must choose a paradigm to follow, and your beliefs could change over time, but it is as difficult as changing Nature. Shards are very valued companions to Mages, and when discovered, rarely have boring lives. It is hypothesized that Shards are the pieces of Avatars either shattered by Gilgul or Avatars becoming weaker and no longer able to do Magick, yet still have some power. Others see them as sentient Nodes.
Superior Modifications By Peter Sears
Introduction Gentlemen. Recently it has been my privilege to go on a cross-country trip. And in doing so I have had an opportunity to meet with, and inspect a number of our Laboratories. Some of the Modifications that our inventive young minds have created for the use with our standard Superior templates were to my mind astonishing. I have taken the liberty of compiling a list of these for our common use and I hope that they will expedite the ascension war and your own research. Acreditation of the Doctors involved, and genetic blueprints are in the appended file. -- Lionel Fisk.(
[email protected])
1) Increased Countermagick As most of you who have worked in Damage Control know.The standard Superior has CounterMagickal Symbols drawn on the protein of the D.N.A. This is what gives them their magical resiliency. Of course this makes them resistant to further tinkering. Many of these permutations unfortunately require the Erasure of these symbols. However, A lab in tuscon,Az. has discovered a way to increase the magickal protection for these clones for long term spying. Often a number of these clones can used to create a magick-proof lynch mob or strike team. Would that we had access to these lovely creations during the Burning times. The process involves ritual Scarification of the internal organs and scripting countermagickal symbols on the interior of the flesh and the exterior of the bones. It has been further theorized that a comprehensive tattooing process could yield further Countermagick but this theory is unfortunately impractical and has yet to be tested.
System: I.C. clones possess 4 dice of countermagick instead of 2. Most other forms of enhancement will not work in conjunction with this one. However, Progenitors normally use I.C.clones with other forms of altered clones.
2) Regeneration One of our labs in Montana has had recent difficulties with local Werewolves. These trials did yield some viable samples of genetic material. The program director has managed to crack the regenerative Gene with some success.
System: Regen Clones are capable of regenerating 1 non-aggravated wound level per turn. Regen clones are often fitted with other forms of enhancement and can occasionaly kill garou if they attack in swarms. Aggravated damage, asphyxiation, decapitation and total systemic shock are the only ways to destroy these clones. Unaccountably, Regen Clones often possess bad tempers and they have inherited a vulnerability to silver.They suffer aggravated wounds against these weapons. Regen Clones cannot have counter magic, but do not take Unbelief damage.
3) Increased adrenaline: Often used on strike team and sentinel style clones, This form is often mated to a number of other Enhancements.
System: These clones possess 5 "charges" of super-charged A.C.T.H. Each turn that they wish to use this they must make a stamina roll. One success is sufficient, but the diff goes from 4 to 9 as each use increases the diff by one. The effect is similar giving the clone Celerity 2, Potence 3,and Fortitude 2 for that turn only. Clones of this sort are often irritable and easily provoked. After combat, these clones will be ravenous and sleepy and will be unable to initiate many actions involving heavy physical action. They also are unable to spend willpower. Clones of this sort do not have countermagick and may take unbelief damage if witnessed in action.
4) Reduced Pain Receptor An idea taken from one of our Iterator Colleagues. This kind of enhancement is often used in conjunction with most types of combat Clones. This Type of enhancement removes pain receptors from the clone's body. The clone can feel no pain and is thus hard to slow down in a combat situation. The downside of this is that often the clone will take damage and simply not be aware of it. There is an anecdote about a clone that had set itself on fire and did not become aware of what was going on until it's vision became obscured. In the process of walking around, the flaming clone destroyed most of a laboratory.
System: These clones do not take penalties from wound levels at all. Penalties might be otherwise imposed though.(such as a clone attempting to sprint on a broken leg.) These clones may have countermagick as the Attenuation of pain receptors is a simple Neurosurgical process. In addition they do not take Unbelief Damage.
5) Abrasive Skin Often used only on Horizon realm clones. this was achieved by splicing in Shark D.N.A. Less than pleasant to look at, but they do get the job done. The Void Engineers have found a multitude of uses for these Clones in their Aquatic theater Operations. Coupled with gills, and a few of the other enhancements, these make excellent underwater shock-troops.
System: The flesh of the clone has a number of rough hook-like projection. Touching the flesh can do a health level of damage and in Hand to hand combat add +3 to brawl damage. Countermagick cannot be taken, and the clone will take unbelief damage if observed. Note that damage taken from these does count as aggravated.
6) Chromatophores Of only limited use as the clone must be nude to be effective. This is a common enhancement for other non-humanoid creatures. A South Carolina Amalgam has created Aquatic clones with this enhancement with a great degree of success for use against offshore targets.
System: The clone has dermal cells which adapt to their surroundings. Countermagick cannot be taken; the clone does not take unbelief damage. When in use add 3 dice to stealth pool.
7) Sub-dermal armor Used often for heavy attack troops. Not recommended for use with clones that are a substitute for people unless that person is an extreme Endomorph. Confers an amount of damage reduction via the introduction of Bio-silicates in pockets under the flesh and in the hollows of the body. Clones of this sort will sink in water.
System: This enhancement protects the clone as if he were wearing class four armor. Subtract 2 from dex; the clone does not take unbelief damage and cannot have Countermagick.
8) Natural weaponry This covers a bewildering array of physical attack mechanisms that have been bred into strike clones, the most common variety being retractable fangs and claws. With a bit of de-melinization and some metabolic tinkering, we can make ersatz vampires and with otherforms of enhancement, Ersatz Werewolves. Although, natural weaponry doesn't stop there. I have been informed of doctors who have created clones with prehensile tails, Patagia and even one doctor who is attempting to give a clone Quills.
System: Some of the clones with the wilder forms of enhancement will take unbelief damage, whereas others with subtler manifestations will not. Ersatz Garou and kindred are usually spottable by those races although they could pass to the uninitiated or to others outside that race. Ersatz Garou have been known to trigger the Delirium but this is a lesser version and has a +3 on the scale. Clones attacking with natural weaponry do count as supernatural beasts for the purposes of Aggravated damage.
9) Emitters Doctor Nedra Sellars came up with a clone that had been engineered with its own set of super-concentrated Musk sacs. From what I understand, this modification has been used against Garou and Tradition mages alike with great success. The effective range is 40 feet.
System: No countermagick and no unbelief damage until exposed. The effects identical with Vomit gas.
10) Gills A natural for underwater operators, often combined with increased visual spectrum, and pressure hardening for a more complete package. Also good to combine with abrasive skin and/or Chromatophores.
System: The gills are often hidden in the hair, the pelvis, and the armpits. No countermagick; no unbelief damage.
11) Poison Sacs
I have seen Clones that could sweat virulent contact Hemo and Neurotoxins. There are also modifications that enable a clone to spit contact poison up to 30 feet and there are clones who can make their blood extremely poisonous to kindred. There is a research project jointly held between us and Iteration X to create clones that can broadcast non-organic compounds.
System: Spitters cause 3 dice of aggravated damage and possibly blindness; they have 4 charges before they must rest to replenish. Sweaters and "chalices" natural replenish their toxins. Chalices cause 2 levels of aggravated damage to their drainer for each Bp drained but there is an onset time of several hours. Often they are in their coffin by that time and may never rise again. (torpor) Sweaters Cause tear gas syptoms in those who come in contact with them in addition to normal damage Unbelief damage is entirely dependent on exposure. Spitters sustain it most often, while sweaters rarely do and Chalices never do. No countermagick.
12) Carrier Agent You must receive prior approval of your project director before implementing one of these clones. If you are not very careful, you could cause a widespread epidemic. This is basically a clone that carries powerful versions of many types of Virus that it is immune to. The clone retains control of it's own release vectors, but unfortunately once the virus is passed on,the cat is out of the bag. Often these clones are equipped with many different types of Virus. Seducers are often equipped with a pheremone control package and A.I.D.S. While infiltrators are often equipped with anthrax, polio, or Chaos Agent.
System: This is one of the few types of clone that can possess countermagic; this is because the virus has a separate life pattern and many are custom tailored to fit their host. Unbelief does not affect these clones as there is precedent in history (Typhoid Mary, an experimental subject who got loose.) Approval for the use of these clones is very rare and termination of that clone's life is personally overseen by Damage Control.
Terror Great Epiphling By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
Description This entity has been with life ever since the first animal realized that it was trapped with nowhere to run and horror fast approaching. It filled the darkness of paleolithic nights, it accompanied wars and defeats, it manifested at the death of billions of people. Just like all other epiphlings it seeks to manifest its idea in the world, causing total terror with no escape. Ever. Normally Terror resides in the High Umbra, only manifesting in the minds of people when it is invited by circumstances. But it has for a long time sought entrance into the physical world to truly bring terror to everyone. The rise of panic anxiety is partially its work, a sign that it moves closer to the real world now than before. Another region of the mind it has always prowled is the deepest dreams. It hides outside the dreamworlds and its smaller nightmare cousins, in the grey limbo of dreamless sleep where it causes night terrors, the formless horror that occasionally brings children and adults screaming awake, still filled with terror but with no clear threat. But the Guardian of Dreams has always prevented it from using this avenue -- so far. If given a chance it will manifest to cause widespread terror. Terror has one main weakness: it cannot directly hurt anybody who doesn't fear. But that doesn't mean it can't make others run amok with terror carrying heavy firepower or lead the fearless into a trap. Its strategy is to fill as many people with terror as possible; killing is just a way to achieve it. If it can induce terror better in some other way it will use it: Terror is completely impassionate about who gets hurt as long as people fear.
Willpower 8
Rage 8
Gnosis 6
Power 60
Powers Terror will regain power from terrified people, at a rate of one point for every terrified person in its vicinity each turn.
Darkness (Power cost 5): Terror can fill an area with total darkness, where no sight is possible at all. The darkness is cold and impenetrable, and seems to cling to people like heavy mist. If the victim is claustrophobic it will feel like it is closing in on him, while agoraphobes suddenly feel all alone in a huge threatening openness.
Terrify (Power cost 5): This power allows it to fill anybody inside its aura of influence with terror; in the Umbra it uses its Rage, in the physical world Charisma + Intimidation against a difficulty of 6. The victims roll their willpower against 6 to resist the overpowering fear they feel. If Terror wins they will be terrified; a botch will lead to complete catatonia and perhaps posttraumatic stress disorder (Terror gains 5 points of power from such breakdowns). A multiple botch might cause derangements.
Hide (Power cost 5): Terror can hide inside a terrified mind, like smoke pouring back into a bottle. The victim will not notice anything amiss, although his or her nightsleep will be a sequence of truly awful nightmares which are very hard to awake from (actually they are the creations of Terror and not true dreams; the fear generated by them will feed Terror even more at a rate of one point of power per hour's sleep). Terror can slightly influence the host in this state, but not really control his or her actions.
When needed (especially when the host is frightened) Terror can re-manifest in the physical world.
Manifest (Power cost 33): Terror can, if allowed into the physical world, manifest physically. Its exact shape is undefined as it hides in total darkness, but it is a towering presence with huge claws able to disembowel a werewolf that moves soundlessly through the darkness, impossible to stop or escape. In this form Terror is practically unstoppable, and will if wounded just hide away. Str: 7 Sta: 7 Dex: 7 Cha: 6 (terrifying) Man: 6 (cunning) App: - Per: 6 (omniscient) Int: 6 (warped) Wit: 6 (sudden) Alertness: 4 (ready) Brawl: 6 (claws) Intimidation: 6 (total terror) Stealth: 6 (unexpected) Claws: Str+2 difficulty 5 Since the manifested Terror always surrounds itself with darkness and lacks well defined shape it is quite hard to hit with anything (+3 to all difficulties to hit it). Bright beams of light don't damage it, but forces it to strengthen the darkness, costing it power.
The Host By Adam Solis (
[email protected])
Overview Face it guys, Banes are just stupid. They trade their individuality, powers, and immortality for a short trip as a fleshly creature. Not all Spirits are that stupid though. So be careful, that "fomor" you may be confronting may be Host. Tell me, do you happen to know any spirit mages? If you do, they make great friends and worse enemies. One of their tricks is guesting a spirit, so that they can channel the Spirit's power through themselves. Well, The Host are a lot like that trick, except it is the Spirit's idea to begin with. These guys are just bad news; to begin with they are a better breed of spirit to begin with. The end product is something more along the lines of a Kami than a fomor, usually. You kids are probably not interested too much in their cultural values or political opinions, so I'll start off with their powers.
Powers of the Hosts First of all, the Host retain their innate spiritual nature unlike those fomori types. So Host retain their charms, power, gnosis, and Rage. Oh yeah, they can definitely use those powers too. Now think about it pup, The Host by definition already has a body. They also already have rage, but it is their charms which are the killer. Take the Charm Manifestation for example; that is definitely one of their faves. The Host retains all the abilities and characteristics of the "meatbod," their pet name for the fleshly part of their little union. With the expenditure of a little power, The Host could increase its dexterity, stamina, strength, health levels to any amount it wanted. It could also heal its body, or give itself any kind of ability (talent, knowledge, or skill) to levels that leave Dream or Past lives in the dust. In other words, think of any manifested spirit you have ever fought with a free base of a human or animal meatbod to begin with. Scary thought, eh? Also, Host with the Shapeshift Charm can still shapeshift, and pretty much use any other charm in its repertoire with the obvious exception of Possession, which is already in use. Mental and social aspects of the Host depend apon the meatbod's social and mental characteristics as well as the Spirit's Gnosis. (I have not quite decided on the rules for this yet. Any thoughts?) Host regain power, gnosis, and rage like every other other spirit. Since Host do not tie themselves to the meatbod as tightly as Banes do, they may leave the meatbod at any time and are also vulnerable to exorcism as well. Furthermore, if the meatbod dies, well the Spirit can always find a new meatbod to possess.
Variations Magick: Just as certain Spirits can use magick, so can certain Host. Such Host have Arete, spheres, and suffer from paradox like any other magic worker. Host can even belong to a specific paradigm, although most can be safely considered Orphans.
Host Fomor: Although Host invariably consider themselves superior to fomori, host can have fomori characteristics. Create the fomor as usual according to Freak Legion, but such fomor always have the Banespeak and Unpossessed merits and the Dispersal power. These aberrations are looked down apon by The Host.
The Spirits Themselves The Host are not so much a race as a state of being. The only requirement for becoming Host is that the spirit have the Charms Possession and Materialization, or their equivalents.
Middle and High Umbra: Spirits of any of the Triat can become Host. There are rumors that the dreaded WyldThings are really Wyld Host. There are several Bane Host, as in Warriors of the Apocalypse. The most famous fomor host is Malfeaxis, the Wyrm Bear. Weaver Host are unusual, but possible.
Low Umbra: It may be possible for there to be Host of a meatbod and Wraith/plasmal/spectre. It would require Puppetry 5, and Embody at the very least. These are essentially living Risen.
Maya: A Chimera Host? Anything is possible...
T'Kra By Stephen Johnson (
[email protected])
Prelude "Sir?" Coordinator Shing looked up from the console abruptly, at the PDC Marine who had just entered the data analysis room of the Deep Universal Explorer Isaac Newton. "Yes? Ah, those are the catastrophic monitoring tapes?" "No Sir, both units have been destroyed. These are more log tapes from the ruins of the personnel quarters Sir!" "Relax Marine, whatever hit this Outpost is long gone by now." "SIR!" With a sigh Coordinator Shing silently dismissed the Marine, muttering after she had left. "Espri deCorps is all fine and well, but thinking is what keeps you alive out here." "It didn't keep the Co-op of this Outpost alive." Investigator Levi said as she closed the door behind her. "Of course overwhelming firepower is a little hard to sidestep." Coordinator Shing shrugged. "They were slaughtered and the Outpost looted, we knew that much coming in. It fits the pattern." "Eight Outposts in fifty years, same pattern, no clues. The official explanation isn't cutting it any more." "Shhh! The Hall Monitors back dirtside might hear you." Coordinator Shing said, rolling his eyes. "This is not the work of a Marauder!" "Or the Traditions or the Nephandi, agreed. Nor any of the other Outsiders we've encountered thusfar out here. Too methodical, to focused and too bloody interested in our Technologies." "It would have been nice to get a tissue sample for our Progenitor friends, how is the Syndicate-" "To replace this Outpost I'm going to have to talk to the Ivory Tower types and make the threat real to them. Then maybe the next time we can have a fortified Outpost waiting and get some information out of that next raid."
Description The Void Engineers have a problem moving in from the Deep Umbra they really don't understand yet, the T'kra. Slowly but steadily they have been losing strategic Outposts monitoring the approaches to the Gaia Tellurian. Each Outpost displays a similar pattern of events. Emergency Assault Alert, usually cut off in mid transmission. The rush to move something in for reinforcement, always too late. Discovery of the remains of the Outpost, no survivors, no records. The Investigation, always useless because there is too much damage. The Report, a listing of people and equipment lost and questions. The Rebuilding, another Outpost with more firepower, useless. Emergency Assault Alert at another Outpost..... It's the Deep Universe/Umbra, resources are tight and stretched thin. If there was a real threat the fund would be made available, but the T'kra are nothing if not cunning. There is no evidence, just all the mystery of missing people and equipment. So the Void Engineers suspect something, but in the absence of facts can do little more. The T'Kra have good reason to insure the Void Engineers have no facts... yet. The T'kra are the Wanderers of the Deep Umbra, and rightly feared by all who have encountered them and survived. In a now decayed, desiccated and dead Tellurian they were born millions of years ago. Like Humanity some amongst them Awoke and began to shape the reality around them with the sheer force of their will. Like Humanity they discovered the dichotomy of internal/external foci and fought a War over it. The T'kra had always been warriors from their point of view, conquering and enslaving their lessers to provide those things Warfare can not. Like Humanity they turned their external foci, their tools, to killing but even the most savage killers in Human history would be amateurs compared to the average T'kra. In time the T'kra attained their vision Ascension, to become the perfect warrior society. Unfortunately the cost of their Ascension was the draining dry of their Tellurian's supplies of Quintessence and other resources as well. With their tools, Their Technology, they pushed out into the Deep Umbra and found a new Tellurian, rich with resources and Quintessence as well as a primitive people ripe and ready for enslavement and use. The T'Kra reached out and conquered this new Tellurian, it was not an easy task and the very process of abandoning their own Tellurian changed them. They became more corrupt, ruthless, cruel and vicious; even the Nephandi will find them to be a bit... extreme.
Time passed and their rapacious use of their new Tellurian rapidly drained it of Quintessence and other resources as well. Once again the Deep Umbra beckoned and once again they sought out another Tellurian to rape, use and discard. Thus they have been for time out of mind, growing and spreading as they go. Leaving a trail of decayed, desiccated and dead Tellurians in their wake. At some point early on they encountered a Tellurian with beings following a course of tool use evolving into a unique technology. The conquest of the Ja!Ku'pok almost broke the T'Kra and forced them to split into several... well Tribes or Clans are words that will serve as well as any, though truly they do not fit well at all. Each Tribe/Clan owns a Tellurian they are in the process of using to pursue their vision of Ascension, the perfect warrior society. In fact the T'Kra have become so corrupt honor means nothing to them, victory is their only measure of worth and it has been very long indeed since they last faced an equal opponent. The T'Kra still fear the Ja!Ku'pok in fact though they believe them destroyed. Few Tellurians have been spared by the T'Kra, only those of such utterly alien a nature to be unnoticeable to them as a rule. They are powerful enough to enforce their paradigm on the Tellurian they are invading and make it change to suit them. Still that can take time with the more alien of paradigms so the closer or more primitive a paradigm is, the more the T'Kra prize it and rush to take the Tellurian and make it their own. They also prefer those Tellurians with someone to... resist them and to provide them with a crushing victory. Nomadic tribes are good, stone age savages are better. Civilization is bad, civilizations with Awakened individuals are very bad, Technological Civilizations are worse, Technological Civilizations with Awakened individuals are the stuff of T'Kra nightmares. In short the T'Kra have descended away from their ideal of Ascension to become secret Cowards. Still they pursue the ideal of Ascension, if not the actual thing any more. The first T'Kra scout found the Gaian Tellurian around 1100 CE, noticed that there were inhabitants and moved on. It was only an initial survey after all and the majority of the Tribe/Clan had just settled down in freshly conquered Tellurian and were still busy finding out just how satisfying a splat the local inhabitants could make when dropped from some height. The T'kra finished their leisurely survey around 1270 CE and settled down to serious decadence and barbarism for the next few hundred years. The local inhabitance not only splatted in such a satisfying manner, the sounds they made as they were consumed alive were entertaining too! About 1435 CE another scout passed by the Gaian Tellurian and noticed a particular upswing in Quintessence flow in the Tellurian. Before they could investigate further however they were attacked and destroyed a band of Fuoji (see below) who promptly backtracked the scout's path through the Deep Umbra and found the main body of the Tribe/clan. They sent out messengers to other Fuoji and then attacked the T'kra with everything they had. Which wasn't much really but they managed to get in amongst the local inhabitants and Awaken a few of them. This plus a continuing stream of fanatic hate filled Fuoji finding them and then, of course, promptly attacking. Kept the T'kra well occupied for the next five hundred years or so. By the early 1900's the T'Kra Tribe/Clan was beginning to see the signs that it was time to move on to another Tellurian. Fewer and fewer resources to find, Quintessence flows slowing to a trickle, no more locals to amuse themselves with, an unbreathable atmosphere, water so polluted it was poison, a dead ecology. Little clues like that told them it was time to move on. So they dusted off the old scouting reports and picked the Gaian Tellurian as a prime candidate for conquest. They sent out scouts and were horrified to discover a technologically advanced civilization in the Gaian Tellurian, worse it contained Awakened individuals. The T'Kra took an early Void Engineer Outpost intact, stripping it bare before retreating back into the anonymous depth of the Deep Umbra. The technology was primitive by their standards, but it was better then even the dreaded Ja!Ku'pok had possessed. The T'Kra next attacked a mixed Tradition Horizon Realm, they were a War Chantry in the midst of Summer, the T'Kra almost lost, it was a very, very close run thing. It scared the T'Kra, scared them enough for the Tribe/Clan to send out messengers of warning to the other Tribes/Clans scattered throughout the Depths of the Umbra. Each Tribe/Clan contacted has responded, capturing a Void Engineer Outpost and discovering the terrific pace of technological advance the Technocracy is pursuing. The truth is that if just one Tribe/Clan of T'Kra had attacked the Gaian Tellurian would have fallen. By now however the Technocracy is getting suspicious and the Void Engineers are in controlled panic, they Know something is out there. The Fuoji have noticed the sudden concentration of Tribes/Clans and have begun to attack as well. Even worse for the T'Kra they have begun to infiltrate the Gaian Tellurian, delighting in the discovery of such an Awakened community. Some of them have even managed to begin associating with some of these Awaken inhabitants on a regular basis and have a small but growing influence on them. But the nightmare for the indecisive T'Kra are rumors that the Ja!Ku'pok may not be dead, or even worse the Gaian Tellurian may contain the survivors of the Ja!Ku'pok. With Fuoji bands gathering strength and internal politics to distract them the T'Kra have yet to move on the Gaian Tellurian. However the Nephandi have yet to discover and contact the T'Kra, though some are actively pursuing rumors. All in all interesting times lay ahead... The Fuoji are surviving mages and acolytes of Tellurians the T'Kra have conquered and destroyed. They take their name, which is only how Humans would pronounce it by the way, from the mages of the first Tellurian to fight back against the T'Kra and survive to help other Tellurians. Many of the Fuoji are so insane they would make a Marauder nervous, they are one and all however dedicated to the extinction of the T'Kra. Most of them have stolen T'Kra ships or created vessels of their own to move within the Deep Umbra in some safety, comfort and swiftness. When they find a T'Kra Tribe/Clan they send out messengers to other Fuoji bands of their discovery and immediately attack. Usually they are so vengeance driven they can't even wait to plan and just fling themselves headlong into the slaughter. Some rare ones however can hold back and make plans and coordinate to do more damage. There are legends amongst the Fuoji of
three Tribes/Clans that they have managed to destroy to the last T'Kra, when such leaders emerge. Such Fuoji are usually major spirits (Incarna, Lord or better) or Oracle level mages. A great many Fouji have a terrifically difficult time "tuning-in" to the T'Kra reality to do any serious damage. Think in terms of an octopi type being who, when stiffening it's limbs causes horrific social, psychological and even physical damage in it's own reality and culture, standing up in the midst of a firefight and stiffening it's limbs. Or a being that screams deadly curses that actually translate as rather funny jokes. The disconnect between the realities can be that great. Yet, experience teaches the Fuoji what works and experienced Fuoji can teach less experienced Fuoji the fundamentals. This is one of the Fuoji's greatest strengths, their very diversity allows them to find "someone" who can slip into a conquered Tellurian and Awaken the inhabitants and begin a resistance to the T'Kra. They are also, quite simply, the finest intelligence network in the Deep Umbra. They have to be to find the T'Kra in the limitless depths between the Tellurians. The T'Kra are a tough opponent to anyone they run into. They breed easily and quickly, the smaller Tribes/Clans number in the low billions while the largest number in the tens of trillions of individual T'Kra. Add to this that about one in a million of them is Awakened, and the rest have access to a Technology able to move their entire population across the Deep Umbra and conquer Tellurians at will. Also by sheer numbers they are able to shift the paradigm of any Tellurian they enter. Still they have their weaknesses. The T'Kra worship victory and this has led them to avoid any difficult or costly fights if they can, it's also led to vicious internal infighting. Also their entire existence is based on stripping an entire Tellurian of it's resources and available Quintessence and then moving on, thus they are vulnerable whenever it comes time for them to move on. Their ruthless cruelty and arrogance is legendary, it makes them enemies where ever they go and enemies can pile up. Witness the Fuoji. Their technology is another, abet subtle, weakness even though it is also their strength. They have never faced an enemy with a comparable technological expertise. For example somewhere out in the sea of unformatted sectors of the Digital Web are connections to the T'Kra computer systems and the T'Kra don't even have a clue to the existence of the Digital Web... yet.
Vampire Bygone By
[email protected]
Description As a Bygone, this Vampire is a Thaumavore. However, it can extract Quintessence from its victims' blood, so it is not dependent on Nodes or Mages for its existence in physical reality. The Vampire needs about 1 Quintessence per week to maintain its unlife. In civilized areas, this can increase to 1/day, while very superstitous or appropriate surroundings (Transylvanian Castles) reduce it to 1/month. In addition, the Vampire uses up extra Quintessence when it has accumulated Paradox; each day when it sleeps it loses one extra Quintessence which cancels one accumulated Paradox.
Statistics Attributes: Strength 5 (Inhuman), Dexterity 3, Stamina 5 (Inhuman), Charisma 2, Manipulation 5 (Compelling), Appearance 4 (Fascinating), Perception 3, Intelligence 4 (Experienced), Wit 5 (Cunning)
Abilities: Alertness 3, Awareness 3, Brawl 4 (Grab and Bite), Dodge 2, Intuition 3, Intimidation 4 (Gaze), Subterfuge 4 (Urbane), Etiquette 4 (Old Fashioned), Melee 4 (Sword and Shield), Stealth 4 (Silent as Death), Culture 3, Enigmas 4 (Wisdom of the Ages), Linguistics 4 (Old Forms), Occult 5 (Ancient Secrets), History 4 (Personal Experience)
Backgrounds: Followers, Resources, Avatar, Destiny Willpower: 10 Arete: 5 Quintessence: 10 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: OK,OK,OK,OK,OK,-1,-2,Becomes Mist
Image The Vampire is a tall, pale, imposing, nobleman. There is something fascinating, exotic, almost hypnotic about him. He exudes power and confidence, yet great restraint and patience, as well. When he does lose his temper he is as ferocious as any wild beast.
Weaknesses Repelled by crosses, holy water, etc, cannot walk on consecrated ground, cannot recite from the scriptures. Cannot cross running water (natural streams and rivers), though he can be transported over such in his coffin. Sleeps, helpless, in his coffin (which must contain earth from his grave) during the day (during which time his soul is tormented in Hell). Cannot enter a dwelling unless invited (but only needs to be invited once). Cannot consume normal food or drink. Casts no reflection. Repelled by garlic or wolvesbane. Takes Agg damage from fire. Takes Agg damage from (direct) sunlight as if engulfed in flame.
Powers Recovers any non-Agg damage upon awakening each night (Agg damage is also healed but uses 1 Quint/HL) Can only be permanently slain by fire, sunlight, a stake through the heart followed by decapitation, or the consecration of all his coffins and the earth they contain. Will: the Vampire has a remarkably developed Will; he can Countermagick any direct effect without using up his Arete pool. Curse: anyone drained of blood by the Vampire is cursed to rise as a Vampire within three nights. Such Vampires are little more than beasts (Mental and Social Attributes of 1, no skills or knowledges and their only powers are 'Scent the Life' and 'Drink the Life' below). If the Vampire drains a willing victim over three nights, it becomes a fully sentient, fully powered Vampire, like
himself.
Effects Drink the Life Prime 5, Life 4 This effect allows the Vampire to obtain the Quintessence he needs to maintain his mockery of life by drinking the blood of the living. [The effect costs no quint to use, the Vampire must succeed in a STR + Brawl contest to grab and bite a resisting victim. Each success on the Vampire's Arete drains 1 HL (Aggrevated) from the victim, and gives the Vampire 1 Quintessence.] F/X - doesn't draw Paradox (oddly enough)
Hypnotism (Willforce) Mind 4 The Vampire's dread gaze can overwhelm the will of nearly any Mortal. The Vampire can command the Hypnotized victim to perform nearly any act, can plant post-hypnotic suggestions, and alter memories. Multiple uses can leave the victim insane, or a 'broken' puppet of the Vampire, or both. The victim has no memory of what occurs while she is Hypnotized. [Costs one Quint, and requires an Arete roll, Diff 7. If it works, instead of normal Resistance, the victim and the Vampire make contested Willpower rolls each time a new command is given. The Vampire's difficulty is always 6; the victim's varies based on the command, from 8 for simple commands she might be tempted to obey anyway, to 4 for unspeakable acts.] F/X - Coincidental.
Reveal the Beast Within Life/Matter 3 The Vampire is not really a human being anymore. If he chooses, he can abandon his human form for one that more accurately represents his inner nature: a blood-drinking bat or predatory wolf. [Costs one Quint, and requires an Arete roll, Diff 7, 8 with witnesses; only one success is required, and there are no penalties for assuming the animal form (it is 'natural' to the Vampire). As a bat, the Vampire loses two OK HLs but, has +2 DEX, can fly at twice his normal running speed, and has a -2 on his dodge and stealth difficulties. As a Wolf, he has enhanced (-2 diff) senses of smell and hearing, can run at twice normal speed, bite for STR+1 Agg damage (but not use 'Drink the Life,' above), and has +1 STR, +1 DEX, and +3 STA.] F/X - Vulgar.
Blush of Life Prime/Life/Mind 2 Though the Vampire is a creature of the night, he can move about during the day, though it is not his natural time, and his powers are weak. [Costs one Quint per scene, no Arete roll required. The Vampire appears completely human, and, in fact, takes damage as if he were human for the duration of the effect (though he will still vanish into mist if taken below Incapacitated) and can be affected by Life Magick, as well. This effect temporarily suspends the Vampire's vulnerability to sunlight (though it is still unpleasant to him). While using this effect, no other Vampiric power can be called on, and the Vampire's STR and STA are both reduced to two.] F/X - Coincidental. There's no such thing as Vampires.
Scent the Life Life/Prime 1 The Vampire can smell blood in even the tiniest amounts, and has the predator's instinct to track his prey once scented. He can also tell much about any person whose blood he tastes. [Costs no quint to use. The Vampire roll PER + Awareness (difficulty 4 to note the presence of fresh blood, 6 to track or identify a specific victim, or 8 to infer the magickal powers of a victim).] F/X - Coincidental.
Werewolf Bygone By Blake1001 (
[email protected])
Wolfman Description The more modern version of the werewolf, the wolfman is an individual cursed to kill on the nights of the full moon. This is the Lon Chaney Jr. type of lycanthrope, that becomes a hairy brute, but never actually turns into a wolf. Like most werewolf bygones, the wolfman has no human memories or compunctions when transformed -- in fact it is supposed to be driven to murder those it loves the most -- and no memory of what has transpired once it has returned to human form. The Curse is generally transmitted by the bite of another wolfman. However, plagues of werewolves are not common, as the wolfman is extremely homicidal, and victims rarely survive to suffer the effects of the curse, unless they kill or otherwise drive off the wolfman after being bitten.
Statistics Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2, Perception 2, Intelligence 3, Wit 2 Abilities: Alertness 3, Awareness 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 4 (Claws), Dodge 3, Intimidation 3, Drive 2, Firearms 1, Melee 1, Stealth 3, Medicine 1, Occult 1, Science 1
Backgrounds: None Willpower: 5 Arete: 0 Quintessence: 10 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: OK,-1,-1,-2,-2,-5,Incapacitated As Wolfman: OK,OK,-1,-1,-1,-2,-2,Incapacitated
Image The Wolfman looks like a perfectly normal, though possibly haunted or disturbed, human being. It may show some of the classic signs of the werewolf, but this is far from certain. As the Curse progresses, the Wolfman often acts less and less human, becoming more prone to violence and anger. Even more sinister is the Wolfman who gains a measure of control over the Curse, coldly deciding when to transform and whom to kill. A Wolfman suffering from Pattern Bleeding becomes a physical and emotional wreck, as the starving beast within him tries vainly to reassert itself -- he may be unable to eat, or crave raw meet, neglect to change (or wear) clothes, visibly sicken and waste away, or evince symptoms of paranoia, manic-depression (bipolar disorder), schizophrenia or other form of violent madness. A Werewolf who gets more than enough kills (has 10+ Quintessence), on the other hand, is vital, self-assured, and occasionally even particularly charismatic.
Weaknesses The Curse: The Wolfman involuntarily changes forms on the nights of the full moon (this is approximately three nights out of the 28 day lunar cycle). And resumes his human form by daybreak.
Bloodlust: The Wolfman is driven to kill on nights of the full moon. It will prefer to attack solitary victims by surprise, but may also be drawn to stalk those it particularly loves or hates. Once the Wolfman attacks, it always tries to kill, retreating only if confronted with Wolvesbane or Silver.
Bestial: The Wolfman loses all of his human intelligence and memories while transformed, acting on instinct. It avoids bright light, loud noises, crowds of people, and the like much like a normal animal would. But, it's bloodlust overcomes even those instincts eventually.
instincts eventually.
Repulsed by Wolvesbane: The Wolfman cannot approach the herb, wolvesbane, though it will not be easily kept at bay with a single sprig (Willpower roll to attack).
Side-effects: The Wolfman may have one or more of the classic signs or marks of the werewolf such as hairy palms, brows that meet in the middle, a prominent widow's peak, etc. Victims of this form of lycanthropy become increasingly agitated on the days before the full moon, and are given to anti-social behavior, explosive temper, odd cravings for raw meat, and the like, during that time. Most wolfmen are also wracked with guilt and self-loathing, once they realize what's happening to them. Dependent on Quintessence: Since the Wolfman is a Bygone, it needs Quintessence, which it gets by killing innocent victims, or in some cases, specifically, those he loves. A Wolfman who does not kill at least one human victim during the three nights of the full moon suffers Pattern Bleeding. The effect of the Pattern Bleeding is not simple wounds, but illness or madness: the Wolfman loses Willpower and Stamina, instead of HLs. Each transformation uses up 1 Quintessence or 'bleeds' a Willpower or Stamina point (ST's choice), if none is available, and the Wolfman also needs one Quint per month just to live. A kill yields 10 Quintessence, so a Wolfman can kill once a month and survive quite easily, and can even miss a kill in one month out of three or four.
Powers Transformation: On nights of the full moon, the Wolfman turns into a bestial fusion of human and wolf. This ugly fur-covered humanoid form is larger and stronger than the human form (STR +2, STA +2), has claws and fangs (STR + 1 Aggravated damage), and heightened senses of smell and hearing (-2 PER rolls). The Wolfman can only be killed by silver, though there can be specific conditions. Any other form of normal damage is regenerated at 1HL/turn. Aggravated damage other than silver hurts the werewolf, but may not be enough to kill it permanently (ST's option). The effects of silver vary. Silver weapons do Aggravated Damage. Silver bullets do Aggravated, Unsoakable, Damage. A Silver bullet through the heart (+2 diff, minimum 3 successes), or one fired by someone who loves the wolfman, is instantly fatal.
Voluntary Change: Some Wolfmen can control their transformations; assuming the wolfman form voluntarily requires a Willpower roll (base difficulty 8, +1 during day, -1 if the wolfman is particularly angry) and uses up a point of Quintessence. A difficulty 9 Willpower roll allows the Wolfman to resist changing on the 1st night of the full moon. The difficulty is 10 on the 2nd night, and the transformation cannot be resisted on the third night, unless the Wolfman has voluntarily changed, and killed, before then.
Self-Control: Some Wolfmen can maintain some level of conscious thought while transformed. The Wolfman can spend a point of Willpower to resist attacking a specific person, to seek out a specific victim, avoid a trap he knows of as a human, or otherwise use his human intelligence or memories. If he also has Voluntary Change, the Wolfman can spend a Willpower and make a difficulty 8 Willpower roll to resume human form at a time of his choosing.
Contagious Bite: If the Wolfman attacks and injures, but does not kill, a victim, that victim will in turn become a werewolf. This effect is automatic against sleepers with no magickal protection. It can be countered by mages with knowledge of Life and Entropy (3 successes) will keep the Curse from being transmitted, but curing one already cursed is much more difficult (Life & Entropy 4, and an extended ritual).
Lycanthrope Description The Lycanthrope is the literal man who changes into a wolf. Though the curse can be transmitted by a bite, as with the Wolfman, Lycanthropy, as described here, is more often a family curse or other magickal punishment. Lycanthropes turn into actual, ordinary, wolves, with no human intelligence or volition and generally have no control over when they change (this is a curse, after all). The transformation seems to draw relatively little Paradox, and never occurs when there are witnesses. Unbelief is a problem for modern Lycanthropes. Each transformation draws a point of Quintessence from the lycanthrope's pattern, causing Pattern Bleeding if none is available. Since the typical Lycanthrope isn't a mage, he will rarely have Quintessence available. Modern versions of the Curse are sometimes given a pool of Quintessence to draw off of until they wear off. Otherwise, it's possible for the curse to be fatal due to Unbelief-induced Pattern Bleeding (sometimes this is the intent). It is also possible that Unbelief will simply overcome the curse first. Finally, in some cases, the Lycanthrope somehow gains the ability to absorb Quintessence -- perhaps by instinctively sniffing out nodes and other sources, but more often by killing and devouring innocent victims.
Statistics Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Charisma 1, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3, Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wit 3 Abilities: Alertness 3, Awareness 1, Brawl 2, Dodge 3, Intuition 1, Intimidation 3, Subterfuge 1, Etiquette 3, Melee 3, Stealth 1,
Culture 3, Occult 1
Backgrounds: Resources/Followers/Status (the Cursed family is often noble). Willpower: 3 Arete: 0 Quintessence: 10 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: OK,-1,-1,-2,-2,-5,Incapacitated.
Image Anyone can be a Lycanthrope. There may or may not be any physical signs of Lycanthropy while in human form. Typically, the Lycanthrope will act nervous and out of sorts when the impetus for his transformation is close at hand, and many are profoundly reclusive or despairing as a result of the Curse. When transformed the Lycanthrope looks like an ordinary wolf, though there may be some correlation with his human appearance, such as human-looking eyes, or fur the same color as the human form's hair.
Weaknesses The Curse: The Lycanthrope has no control over when he assumes wolf form. The transformation is triggered by the terms of the Curse which could include any of the following: Nights of the Full Moon Every Night Any night when out of doors after dark Any night while in the woods or wilderness Annually on a certain night (the anniversary of the bestowal of the curse) Every night, once married Every night of the Lycanthrope's adult life Every night until a certain wrong is redressed When aroused When violently angry Whenever he feels an urge to do violence or commit a particular crime Etc.
Physical signs: The Lycanthrope may have some subtle physical deformities or other signs that mark him as a werewolf: widow's peak, brows that meet in the middle craving for meat, etc.
Aversions: The Lycanthrope is repelled by Wolvesbane or True Faith. While in wolf form, the Lycanthrope has the mind and instincts of a normal wolf. Any damage taken in wolf form is still present after returning to normal.
Powers Transformation: While in wolf form, the Lycanthrope has STR +1, DEX +1, STA +3, runs at twice normal speed, and can bite for STR +1 Aggravated Damage. He also has the sensory and mental abilities of a normal wolf. If the Lycanthrope has been suffering from Pattern Bleeding as a result of his transformations it is possible that he will develop the ability to assimilate Quintessence. If he already had some magickal potential, this may manifest as an ability to sense and absorb Quintessence from nodes an ley lines while in wolf form. More often, the Lycanthrope must kill and devour innocent victims (10 Quintessence each). Transmit Curse: The Lycanthrope may, in some cases, be able to pass his curse on to others. He can effectively use the Rote, below, to make more Lycanthropes. This may or may not be voluntary.
Voluntary Transformation: Very rarely, a Lycanthrope has the ability to precipitate his transformation to a wolf at will (Willpower difficulty 9). He still changes into a normal wolf, and has no control over when he will change back. He still changes involuntarily under the conditions of the Curse.
Rote: The Curse of the Wolf Spheres: Entropy 4, Life 4, Spirit 3 Description: This ancient curse is attributed to European Verbena and it causes the victim to become a Lycanthrope, as detailed above. The Curse must be cast while the victim is present and the conditions that will provoke the transformation are in
force (or at least being described to the victim). For instance, if the caster wishes to Curse an evil nobleman so that he becomes a wolf whenever he is about to abuse one of his peasants, she does not have to catch him in the act, but may simply relate one such incident while casting the spell. On the other hand, a Curse to change on nights of the full moon, would have to be cast on a night of the full moon. Animal forms other than that of a wolf are possible.
System: The fourth rank of Entropy is used to perpetuate the Curse, possibly through generations if this is desired. Life, of course causes the actual transformation (Level 4 is all that's required since there is no need to preserve the victim's intelligence while he is a wolf). Spirit 3 is used to awaken the victim's 'Beast' -- the wild, animal spirit that is suppressed by normal humans -so that he acts like a normal animal while transformed. The victim may resist with Willpower -- though one who knows the Curse is being justly given may have to make a Willpower roll to do so -- and Countermagick (if a Mage). A fairly large number of successes are usually needed, especially if the curse is to last through generations. A shorter Curse -- say one that will last until the Lycanthrope has redressed a particular wrong or otherwise mended his ways -- may require as few as 3 or 5 successes. Prime 4 is needed if the caster wants to give the Lycanthrope the power to transmit the Curse to others (though it is possible that this may happen anyway, as a result of Paradox, or the will of the victim). Prime 3 is required to provide a modern Lycanthrope with a store of Quintessence (up to 20) to power his transformations. Without such Quintessence, the Lycanthrope may well become a man-eater to survive. Though the Lycanthrope bears the burden of Unbelief, the caster is also subject to Paradox, as the Rote causes the victim to suffer his first transformation when it is cast, and is thus Vulgar.
Boxenwulf Description The word 'Boxenwulf' is German, but I'm using it here to indicate any sorcerer who has acquired the power to change into a wolf. The Boxenwulf is a creature of dark magick, typically, a Diabolist makes a pact with a demon that grants him a special talisman that allows the wearer to transform himself into a huge, powerful, wolf. This bygone usually has control over his transformation and becomes a very deadly wolf. The Talisman used to change into a wolf is sometimes called a Wolf-Strap, and similar, nonDiabolistic Talismans existed in some numbers through the 18th century, when widespread belief made them static. Such devices can still be made, though only as actual Talismans.
Statistics Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Charisma 2, Manipulation 4 (Conniving), Appearance 2, Perception 3, Intelligence 4 (Occult studies), Wit 3
Abilities: Alertness 3, Awareness 3, Brawl 4 (Bite), Dodge 3, Intimidation 3, Stealth 4 (Stalking), Enigmas 3, Linguistics 1 (Occult Language), Occult 4 (Witchcraft)
Backgrounds: Talisman Willpower: 4 Arete: Varies Quintessence: 0 Paradox: 0 Health Levels: OK,-1,-1,-2,-2,-5,Incapcitated. As a wolf: OK, OK, -1,-1,-2,-2, Returns to human form.
Image The Boxenwulf varies greatly in appearance, as anyone could make the right pact with a demon for such power. A witchy old woman, prosperous merchant, innocent child, devoted wife, violent transient, anyone might secretly own a Wolf-Strap. A Boxenwulf that is an otherwise accomplished Diabolist may have been marked in some way, as a result of other pacts with the Powers of Darkness, but aside from any such evidence, and the possession of a Wolf-Strap, there is no sure way to spot such a creature.
Weaknesses The Boxenwulf can be forced back into human form by some means, chosen when the pact is first made. Possibilities include:
Being called by name three times. Being called by name by a loved one. Treading on holy ground. Confronted by True Faith. Being struck across the muzzle with a straw broom. Being struck by an item of its own clothing. Touching cold iron. Touching steel. Having a piece of steel (like a knife) thrown over its head. Being forced to wear any article of human clothing.
Powers The Boxenwulf can instantly switch between human and wolf form by putting on or removing his Wolf-Strap. While in wolf form, the sorcerer's physical stats are boosted (STR +3, STA +3, DEX +2), his appearance is reduced to zero (huge, monstrous wolf), and he may bite with his huge jaws (STR +2 Aggravated Damage). He also has the wolf's sharp senses (-2 most PER difficulties) and may track by scent. Firearms (and other modern weapons) are of no avail against the Boxenwulf. It cannot be hit with any kind of mundane bullet. However, this protection is circumvented by any sort of magick, including sleeper superstitions (like silver bullets), used to enhance a firearm. In legend, only a few Boxenwulf seemed to have this protection. Non-Aggravated wounds taken in wolf form disappear when the Boxenwulf resumes his human shape. So the Boxenwulf cannot be slain in wolf form without some means if inflicting Aggravated damage. However, it will take Aggravated Damage from any kind of enchanted weapon, even those merely credited with special properties by sleeper superstition (again, including silver). Unlike Garou, the Boxenwulf does get to Soak damage from silver weapons. [This power is a concession to the Storyteller system, to make the Boxenwulf a more credible threat -- in legend, they were not that much harder to kill than normal wolves.] Since the Boxenwulf is typically a Diabolist, he may have other Demonic Investments or Diabolic powers to call upon. Possibly including Path magick (see WoD: Sorcerer) or even True Magick.
Talisman Wolf-Strap
AETHERIANS By DeGorian Smith (
[email protected]) for Changeling: Beyond Arcadia and Mage: The Void
Description The Sons of Ether and the Nockers have been friends since the beginning of the Ascension War. Before the "destruction" of Earth, the Nockers help the Sons of Ether escape. Well, to cut to the chase, the Aetherians, or Aetherlites as their parents call them, are the children of the Nockers and the Sons of Ether.
Appearance They appear relatively human with a reddish face. In their fae meins, they have more reddish faces and pointed ears.
Seemings Childlings: They crawl around their parents' devices like gremlins, fixing one thing while breaking another. Wilders: This is the main age group of the Aetherians. Their inventions are the stuff stories are made from, comedies and tragedies.
Grump: As of now, there are no grumps.
Lifestyles Tinkering and Inventing. They have labs with their parents or workshop somewhere else.
Affinity Prop
Birthrights Chimera Creation: (See Changeling: The Dreaming p141) Fix-it-All: (See Changeling: The Dreaming p141) Magicks: Aetherians have access to true magicks. All Aetherians must begin with an Avatar background of two and an Arcane of two.
Frailties Anachronistic: The technology they use is either too far in the past or too futuristic. Any coincidental effect from an archaic/futuristic device will be ignored. This is because Reality will pass it off as luck that the device worked.
Technomagics: The only way an Aetherian can do magic is with a technofocus. Quirks: Instead of having the nocker's Flaws, the Aetherians get quirks. Their inventions work great, too well at times. Their inventions sometimes will have a unique effect, undesirable or not. Example: A robot who follows orders too literally.
Foci Technofocus: All
Quote "This is the best device for this job"
Outlook Boggans: You got to like the little buggers. Such simplistic devices Clurichaun: Sell them weapons. They'll love you for life. Eshu: They don't use our devices, but they can tell us stories about folks who have. Ghille Dhu: They're into organics. How Verbena-Progenitor like. Nockers: That part goes there, Dad. That part goes there. Got it? Pooka: They love rocket-powered pogo sticks. Redcaps: Always feed them a homemade bomb. Satyr: Okay, so my last invention sent one to the medic. He seemed happy. Selkies: Watersuits, they want watersuits. Sidhe: Fancy ships, no functionality. Sluagh: The things they want. (Shutter) Trolls: Advance weapons they like. Old-fashion weapons they like. They are easy to please. Celestial Crusaders: Did God tell you to leave my folks behind? Nephandi: They like annihilation. So we'll annihilate them. Teknolords: They hate our pets. Wu Lung: Nice dragon. Good dragon. Cybermancers: The Virtual Adepts have finally got it right. Euthanatos: Embrace death and get it over with. Freetrader: If it works and its really fancy, they'll by it. The Order: I'll have a cheese steak, you pompous twit. Progenitors: You know the doppelgangers are still looking for ya, Dr. Frankestein. Dreamspeakers: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Marauders: Perfect test subject for inventions you know will explode. Verbena: Now that's the biggest freaking tree I ever seen. Sons of Ether: I heard mother-knows-best, but sheesh. The Hollow Ones: The others think they're dead. Idiots.
AGAPE FELLOWSHIP By Zachary Tieman (
[email protected])
Description The Agape Fellowship is an offshoot of the Celestial Chorus, believing they (the Celestial Chorus) have gone astray in their ways by their all-too-human means. The Fellowship claims to have no part of the Chorus, but for the same as all else -- all must be cared for, loved, and ministered to. It doesn't matter if they are normal sleepers, or hyper-powerful mages, whether they are saints of another gathering, or the embodiment of evil. They only exception to this rule is to evil spirits, or those that are capable and/or planning to cause harm. These should be cast away, and/or destroyed at all costs. To have more of an idea, just read the Bible, as they are Christians. There is no set group home of any sort, as they believe this world is not one to which they belong. All see each other as brothers and sisters, with none above the others. Even the newest members have the same respect as the elders. To become one, one only must wish to join and believe the same with full conviction. Only two types of magic may be used: those of healing, raising the dead, etc. or dealing (casting away of destroying) with evil spirits. In healing, there will be no Paradox, but the subject must have complete and total faith it will work, or nothing will happen. In raising the dead, there must be others present, and they must have total faith it will work. Then, it is for the Storyteller to decide. Dealing with spirits is as the norm, except for that for each nearby person that completely believes the deed will work, the Christian's roll will be increased by 25 percent. Healing spells of any sort done by another character may not work against a character of this order, unless they are also of the Agape Fellowship. Also, battle spells will be rendered ineffective if the character knows one is being done to them before it takes effect, has a willpower of 10, and spends twice the time it takes to cast the offensive spell in meditation there and then.
Philosophy There is a God; there is a Satan. Anyone that does not get saved will go to Hell. Period. Love everyone. Try to get them saved.
Sphere Spirit
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: So Evil is really Good? I know something this absurd can't be true! Celestial Chorus: Whose power are you using there?
Cult of Ecstasy: Beware the upcoming, for you don't want its experience! Dreamspeakers: There is only one God. Dealing with the rest only wastes your time. Euthanatos: Moping around scaring people is not how life is to be spent; even the Cult of Ecstasy knows this! Marauders: Chaos is only a way of hiding truth from yourself. Nephandi: These need love most of all. They just don't understand. Order of Hermes: This is odd... Sons of Ether: One question: where did it all come from, though? Verbana: If you think person-juice will really do all of those things by itself, you need to think about it for a second. Virtual Adepts: Making toy Gods in your head doesn't change reality. The Hollow Ones: Another example of how to shield yourself from reality with an attitude you think will impress others.
AKASHIC BROTHERHOOD PARADIGM By Tetsu
Author's Notes As much as possible, I have used Western terms to describe Eastern concepts. When this is not possible, I have tried to include both Japanese and Chinese terminology. These concepts are found in most Eastern societies, and I apologize for my lack of familiarity with the terminology of the other major Eastern cultures. The Mage books, by the way, are heavily biased towards Japanese terminology (as am I), despite the fact that the Japanese did not develop many of these concepts until far after the mainland peoples did (in fact, many of the concepts were imported). Even Do is a Japanese term meaning "The Way." If the Akashic Brotherhood really is as old as they seem, a reasonable explanation for their use of terminology must be the more recent refinements (1500 AD to present) to martial arts that the Japanese have introduced. This would imply an evolution of the Paradigm to its present form.
The Paradigm The Way: There are things, and there is a Way to all things. There is a way to paint and a Way to paint; there is a way to shoot an arrow and a Way to shoot an arrow. There is a way to move and a Way to move; your training in Do teaches you part of the Way of moving, as well as the Way of fighting. Do is much more than this, but you must understand the existence of the Way before you can proceed on the Path. The Way of doing a thing is to do it correctly, so that mind, body, and spirit are one and focused on the achievement of the goal. Masters live their chosen Way at all times, whether it is the Way of painting, shooting and arrow, or Do.
Magick The Way of Do - Focus: This Way is not magick, though many will call it that. A student of Do is a gifted martial artist with a natural or developed ability to achieve a Way of Being of high order. Mind, body, and spirit are in harmony with each other and the universe, and when this is so, a person is capable of great achievement: to leap great distances, to anticipate others as if reading their thoughts, to sunder unbreakable objects, and many other feats. Nothing is impossible to the Way as long as you accept it can be done and Focus on achieving the goal.
The Way of Sorcery - Magick: There are many other people, on this world and others, who can achieve great acts but do not follow our Way. These others practice Sorcery and Magick. Their Ways are different and many. Do not close your mind to the many possibilities.
Spheres Correspondence - Distance: The greatest secret of succeeding in combat is the control of distance and space. If you fight barehanded, stay beyond the distance of your opponent's longest weapon, the leg. If you fight with weapons, stay beyond their length. If you fight with guns, stay beyond their range. If you fight with armies, the control of paths and territories is essential. Do not the games of Go and Chess teach us this, to force the opponent to commit to territory they cannot adequately defend or control? People of great ability have such a great mastery and control of Distance that they can seem to traverse it in an instant.
Entropy - Weakness: Nothing on this world is perfect, including yourself. You must strive to purge yourself of all weakness. When you do so, you will achieve Enlightenment. Others will try to take advantage of the Weakness of a thing. Karma, Joss - Fate, in this world, cannot be counted upon, but it can be influenced.
Forces, Matter - The Elements: The Ancients believed the world to be made of five elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Void. You can harness the power of the Elements in your life as you walk the Path. Know the sun and the moon. Study the Way of the storm. Meditate by the ocean, and listen to the power of the waves. You can harness this power with good Focus.
Life - Body: All living things have a body, the plants, the animals, the trees, and the people. When you understand the body of a thing you understand its life -- how it can move and how it cannot move, how it can be hurt and how it can be healed.
Mind: This is the seat of the conscious and unconscious. It is the source of Focus and of Will. You must rigorously train your mind to Focus better. If you understand the minds of others, you can glimpse their Way. Profound understanding leads to profound ability; this is why you must study and train always.
Prime - Ki, Chi: There is a flow to all things, a cycle of living and dying, of breathing in and out, of yin and yang, in and yo. Binding this cycle and flowing through it is Ki. Ki is energy, and it is much more. You must learn to sense the flow of Ki within
yourself, and through it the world. This is essential to learning Do and to mastering the Elements. By learning to master Ki you will be able to harness the powers in you and the powers of the universe.
Spirit: The study of Spirit is the study of emotion and inner essence. As you learn about yourself through the trials of Do, you will become aware of your own potential, and the potential of the universe. There are spirit realms beyond our world inhabited by our ancestors, kami, demons, and more. To learn of the spirit worlds is a difficult undertaking, for there is much to learn. Spirits can be helpful or vindictive, good or evil or something in between. You will encounter them in your travels; the more you know of them, the better you will be able to come away from your encounters with wisdom and not injury. The world of the spirits is reflected within you. Meditate upon this now.
Time: Our concept of Time is not the same as the Westerners see it. To them Time is a measurable thing, to be broken down into units and more smaller units to regulate their lives. This way has no meaning, and is futile. Time is infinite and forever. How can you divide the infinite? Time is like a flowing river: it always passes by, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. You must learn to see the river, the whole river in its entirety. When you can grasp all of time you can control how you think of it. You can slow it down so that you can act faster. You can glimpse the past, and the possibilities of the future. The master of Time can even move beyond it.
Arete - The Path Each member of the Akashic Brotherhood has set himself upon a path of knowledge and self discovery. On this path each will learn much about himself, others, and the world. Progress on the path is measured by the amount of harmony between mind, body and spirit. At the end of the path lies Enlightenment. Skill in Do is not the Path, it is only a part, a tool used by masters to teach certain skills to the Disciples. Physical prowess is easily learned and mastered with practice. Much harder to bring into harmony are the sicknesses of the mind and the power of the spirit. Masters of Do are generally equally matched physically; it is the more subtle development of Willpower, guile (Wits), and Intelligence that will determine the outcome of any contest.
Quintessence - Ki, Chi The force that flows through and binds the universe can be channeled with the proper Focus. This is why you must learn to sense Ki within yourself and in the world. In the world you will find places where the flow is very strong, and even the springs from which this flow comes. These are places of great importance in the world. You should take time to meditate in places such as these. This will greatly help you to Focus.
Paradox - Incorrect action If an action is taken with improper Focus, there is the possibility of error. To make an error is a Weakness, and Weakness opens up oneself to the consequences of their incorrect action. Sometimes an opponent will take advantage of the opportunity. Perhaps the universe will attempt to deny your success and you will accumulate Bad Karma. Ultimately, it is your failure that will allow others to harm you. Do not fail!
Ascension - Enlightenment This is the goal of your studies, the total harmony of body, mind, and spirit. When you have achieved Enlightenment, you will have mastered the Way. You will truly understand who and what you are, and your place in the scheme of things. It is said that the Masters are capable of great feats. It is also said that the Masters have achieved a great sense of peace, of harmony with all things. This is the goal of Do, and of the Way.
ALCHEMISTS By Anders Sandberg
Introduction The Alchemists are a sub-group somewhere between Order of Hermes and the Sons of Ether. While they use the terminology and symbols of the Order, they share the solitary attitude and the interest in the sphere of matter with the Etherites.
History and Politics The origin of alchemy is lost in time. Alchemists sometimes claim that the Art was created in Egypt, by the god Thoth (Sometimes identified with the Greek Hermes). During the Alexandran period (4th to 7th century AD) alchemy flourished. Alchemy developed, influenced by the Gnostics and by hermetic groups in the Mediterranean. Many Alchemists argue that the great truths of the Art were first discovered by Hermes Trismegistros (The thrice blessed Hermes), a mage, somewhere in the first century. But it was not until the middle ages that alchemy became the Art known today. The Alchemists have a history of ignoring the politics of the Order. Like the Cabalists, they gained considerable influence after the fall of the false order. Disappointed hermetics joined the Alchemists, and they became one of the most influential sub-groups of the Order during the renaissance. During this time the Alchemists were the bridge between the Order of Hermes and the Sons of Ether. They could perform their arts almost in plain sight, as physicians and learned men. There were several famous mages in their ranks, like Artephius, Geber, Paracelsus, Agrippa and Count Saint-Germain. Some of these may still be around. The Alchemists unwittingly created the ideas the Technocracy used to create their chemistry and medicine, thereby slowly destroying the power base for them as physicians and pharmaceuticists. In fact, some Alchemists joined the Technocracy in order to help them create a true system of the science of matter. Newton may have been one of them. According to malign rumours among Alchemists, the young Newton (hardly more than apprentice) had created an intelligence increasing elixir, which he used that fateful summer when he "discovered" the laws of mechanics and gravity. Afterwards he joined the Void Engineers (founded by Copernicus himself). But unfortunately his reliance on his secret elixir made him prematurely senile, a just punishment according to the Alchemists. The Alchemists became known as goldmakers and frauds as the technomancer grip on chemistry, medicine and physics increased. But the Alchemists turned out to be a bit more resistant than the technomancers thought, and managed to survive. Today they still use their magick, using health food and alternative medicine as camouflage for their own medicine. Alchemical societies exist in many larger cities. The Alchemists and the Sons of Ether are very close. Some Alchemists have begun to use the methods of the Sons, trying electricity and technical methods. Sons of Ether have been deeply influenced by the Alchemists in their models of how the ether behaves (The Alchemists claim to have developed the theory in the early middle ages, something the Etherites hotly dispute). In fact, it is hard to tell where the Alchemists end and the Etherites begin. The most notable difference is terminology. Alchemists prefer the hermetic obtuse symbolism, using Cabala, astrology and the Greek gods in their magick, while the Sons prefer their own quasi-scientific jargon. Like the Sons of Ether, Alchemists pursue their pet projects with single-minded determination, often not stopping until they succeed or fail miserably. If an Alchemist has an idea, he will not hesitate to do anything to test it. This has led to some brilliant results, like Paracelsus Homunculus, but also to the early death of many Alchemists. Alchemists do not engage in the Ascension war directly. They instead try to subtly spread their ideas, and sabotage technomantic science. Their most successful method has been the spread of distrust against Technomancer medicine and the upsurge in alternative medicine. They have several times succeeding in turning technomancer pawns into their unwitting helpers or even convert them completely. Pons and Fleichmans cold fusion may have been a joint Sons of Ether-Alchemist project. Another thing the Alchemist struggle against is fluoridation of drinking water. The alchemists suspect that the fluorides are used for mind-control or even nastier things. They have managed to spread much bad press about fluoridation. Still, the Alchemists are hardly any match for the technomancers, but manage to survive due to their secrecy.
Alchemic doctrine The most important idea of alchemy is that everything is evolving. Everything will slowly become something more advanced given time. A child will grow up to become an adult. Stones will evolve into ore, which will evolve into metals or gems. Lead will evolve into gold given enough time. This evolution can be sped up by the mage. This is the essential idea of the Great Work, the Alchemist's Ascension: that the mage, by his art, can encourage the evolution of everything into even higher forms. There are three kingdoms: mineral, plant and animal. These correspond with the three alchemical elements (do not confuse with the classical four elements) Salt, Sulphur and Mercury. Each kingdom will slowly evolve into the next. A stone will become ore, which becomes metal, which becomes a simple plant, which will become more advanced plants, which will become a simple
animal, which evolves into higher animals, which will become a man, who will evolve into higher, unknown levels. So far, the universe has not evolved very far, and the process takes a very long time, especially at the lower levels. Almost no plants derived from metals have appeared yet, and very few animals derived from plants. The Alchemists try to understand the evolution of matter and life, by dividing substances into their components, refining these and then merging them together again. This process will not only influence the substance, but also the mage. The whole process of transmutation lead into gold represents the transformation of a sleeper into a mage, or a mage into an ascendee. By mixing the proper substances, the mage will change himself. By changing himself, matter will change. The mineral kingdom is ruled by the seven kings: lead, tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver and gold. Since the mineral kingdom is the lowest and most fundamental kingdom, these metals are very important. The other mineral substances, like salt, sulphur, saltpetre, earth, gems and water are used in the alchemical processes ruled by the metals. The Alchemist slowly learns to transmute base matter into finer matter, lead into tin, tin into iron, iron into copper and so on. This is a preparation of the Great Work. The Great Work consists of finding the Red Stone, also known as the Philosophers Stone or the Elixir. This (not only a physical substance but also a spiritual one) will transmute everything. Lead into Gold. Man into Superman. It is the alchemical Ascension, when everything will evolve into the highest possible state and the universe becomes truly complete. The Alchemists want to hasten this evolution by finding the Red Stone. Like the rest of Order of Hermes, symbolism is everywhere and everything is connected to everything else. Each organ of a patient's body is ruled by a planet and a zodiacal sign, which in turn corresponds to an element and a metal. To cure a heart disease, the Alchemist would use elixirs containing gold and fire. Every plant and animal has subtle signs telling the experienced Alchemist their uses and symbolism.
Philosophy "When handled properly, the base material will turn into The Black Stone. The Black Stone will be transmuted into the Yellow Stone. The Yellow Stone will become The White Stone. And the pure White Stone will become The Red Stone, known as the Philosophers Stone to the lay-people. "Do you understand? No, I didn't think so. The process is not just a chemical process, it is also a spiritual process inside the mage. And it is also a spiritual evolution of the world. When we finally have achieved the creation of the Red Stone, It will transform the whole world. That is why we are tirelessly working in our laboratories, to bring about the great day. "How far we have come? Even if I wanted to tell you, you wouldn't understand anything. Misunderstandings can be even more dangerous than no understanding at all. Alchemy is the secret art, and not to be discussed openly."
Organisation A loose network of individuals and alchemical societies. Most Alchemists are solitary, with perhaps an apprentice or some helpers. Sometimes, especially in larger cities, they form alchemical societies, where they meet to discuss the art.
Meetings Seldom. The alchemical societies sometimes meet on astrologically important days, to perform experiments together. Many Alchemists schedule their work after the stars, planning so that it will be initiated and end on correct days (this may lower target numbers).
Initiation Several years of apprenticeship are required. During this period the apprentice is often treated more as a janitor than a future mage. Slowly the apprentice learns the art from scraps of information, the rantings of the master and his own intuition. Some Alchemists claim that the hard apprenticeship is necessary for to impart the practical knowledge and the burning desire to succeed a true Alchemist need.
Chantry Alchemists often stay at the chantries of other hermetics, but seldom found their own. In Paris there exists a alchemical society, founded by count Saint-Germain himself (he is rumoured to still be the leader), which has a secret chantry somewhere.
Acolytes Amateur chemists, health food freaks, gullible rich.
Sphere Matter. Alchemists often study Life almost as intensely as matter. Most Alchemists start with Matter, then begin to study Life when Matter is mastered. Other common spheres are Prime, Forces and Mind. Time is very seldom used, due to the severe restrictions (see below).
Foci Alchemists use chemistry (not the technomancer perversion of course, even if some Alchemists are quite adept chemists too) as focus for all their magick. To perform a magickal effect, they must perform a alchemical reaction of some kind. The most used are melting, crystallising, distilling or burning. For example, a Ball of Abysmal Flame would require the Alchemist to throw a mixture of gold and iron dust into a fire, which would explode. In healing, the mage would distil some blood from the patient with some copper-salts, and give the resulting fluid as medicine. One of the good things about this method is that the Alchemist does not have to do alchemical reactions "in the field," if he already has done them in the lab, and taken the end-products with him. The only requirement is that the mage is present for the final use of the magick. Many Alchemists use prime or other spheres to create "one-shot-talismans," potions or substances that will perform their function even without the mage nearby.
Correspondence: Tin, or sometimes sea salt. The metal of Jupiter. Entropy: Lead. The metal of Saturn. Cold, heavy and inert. Forces: Iron. The lodestone feel the forces of nature, and steel gives mankind the powers to transform it. Magnetic iron is very powerful.
Life: Copper. The daughter of Gold and Silver. Often organic materials are used instead, especially for creating life, healing or transforming. Alchemists are strong proponents of the Law of Sympathy, and prefer to use fluids or body parts from the subject of the magick. (This will also give a decreased difficulty)
Matter: Heat. Fire represents the purifying force, which destroys impurities and transmutes base material into finer. The heat of sun nourishes the plants and allow them to evolve from seeds into fully grown plants. The heat of a body nourishes the egg and evolves it into an animal or a man. Generally, the lower the substances involved, the greater heat is required. The most advanced operations require extremely slow and careful heating.
Mind: Mercury. Quick, brilliant and flowing. Symbolic of the planet and the god. Son of Gold and Silver. If taken in the wrong way, it will destroy the mind of the user (Poor Newton!).
Spirit: Silver. The metal of the moon. The wife of Gold. Lapis Infernalis, silver nitrate, is often used. Prime: Gold. The sun-king of the metals, which rule the others. Often used as dust or in solution in aqua regia. Sometimes diamonds or other fine gems are used instead (the more expensive, the more powerful)
Time: Time. Alchemists using Time will perform an alchemical process taking a certain time, and preferably on an astrologically correct day. The time used depend on how powerful the effect is. A simple Time 1 effect is just a minute of silent thought (many Alchemists use Time 1 to time their experiments), while a powerful Time 5 rote would take several months of time. The rote "Zen and the Art of Panhandling" would, if an Alchemist performed it, perhaps consist of keeping gold and iron melted in a crucible for seven months, and then pouring the mixture into water, and drinking the hot water on a Sunday. Many Alchemists prefer to allow their processes to take long time, just to be sure.
Concepts Chemist, Herbal healer, Scientist
Quote "Do you know what INRI really means? Of course I know what the Church says, "Iesu Nazarinus Rex Iudorem", but that is just the exoteric meaning. The esoteric meaning of INRI is "Igni Natura Renovatur Integra", "All of nature is renewed by fire". Do you understand? Don't you see now, why you must keep the fire constantly burning under the crucible? Don't you see how this relates to the Great Work, to the Ascension?"
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Meditation is nice, but hardly any magick. And martial arts can be useful too, but they are also hardly magick.
Celestial Chorus: What are they trying to do? The Great Work cannot be done by merely singing hymns and praising the light. They simply prefer to bask in the knowledge of the Higher, but not to achieve it.
Cult of Ecstasy: Can't say much about their magick, but several of them are good customers of mine. You would be surprised how much tass they pay for some of my elixirs.
Dreamspeakers: I thought my apprentice didn't have a clue, until I saw these. Euthanatos: Survival of the fittest? They believe in their own perverted evolution, but true evolution towards the heights cannot be forced by death and violence.
Hollow Ones: These mages are the first faltering steps towards the new race which will evolve out of humanity. Too bad that most of them lack training and control. That is something that someone should do something about.
Necromancers: That's funny; each time I search for some tome, they suddenly appear, spy a bit, and disappear. They seem to think that I know something. Or they know something. Creepy.
Order of Hermes: Without our brethren we would never have come this far. Without their magnificent work in cataloguing, studying and formulating the principles of magick, no alchemy would be possible.
Rosicrucians: What have they done?! They have turned the Art into a pastime for bored rich! The millennia old secrets of nature are told to almost anybody!
Sons of Ether: Brilliant fellow researchers. They are a bit short-sighted, but that's not a problem for us. Their ideas will one day help furthering the Great Work.
Verbena: These witches have some very good ideas, and some very bad ideas. Their blood magick is brilliant, and we have to admit they are far ahead of us in that area. But they have completely misunderstood the meaning of evolution! They try to turn humanity back to the animals we once were! We must stop them from trying to turn the clock backwards!
Virtual Adepts: Huh? What are they doing? "Transcending the human condition through technology!" They are completely insane. How can anybody believe their parody of true evolution?
Rotes Light the Elemental Fire (Forces 2) The Alchemist use a little lamp of iron filled with consecrated oil for this rote. By pouring some sulphur into the oil, the oil ignites into a pure blue-white flame. This fire is quite normal except its colour, and is used to ignite other fires in the lab (Sometimes Alchemists use fire ignited by lightning instead). The longer the fire is kept alive, the more pure it will become. Some Alchemists have fires which have been kept alive for centuries, passing from master to student countless times. These fires are almost talismans in themselves, and extremely pure. Their exact powers are not very understood, but they are generally sought after.
Transmutation (Matter 4) The most well known rote of all Alchemist rotes. The mage heats a piece of metal for a long time, carefully meditating on the true secrets of transmutation. When the metal cools, it has become pure gold.
Growing Gold (Matter 2 Prime 2) Another gold-creating rote, this one invented by Nicolas Flanel (The Alchemists need much gold to finance their expensive magick and for use in Prime). Since everything is alive to some extent, metallic gold can be coaxed to grow given the right nutrients. The mage places a small amount of gold in a crucible and adds another metal, preferably mercury. The crucible is heated, and the result is that the gold absorbs nourishment from the metal and the heat and becomes more gold.
Elixir of the Sun (Mind 2 Prime 2) The mage mixes together mercury and gold into an amalgam. This amalgam is left in the sun during the day, and heated during the night. After several days, the amalgam is pulverised and added to wine. This wine will, if drunk, make the user to appear much more powerful than he really is. The user will, at least for a while, make people around him very impressed and awed.
Love Potion (Mind 2 Prime 2) While most Alchemists think this rote is a bit silly, they can't deny the demand for the potion. Besides, its a classic almost all
apprentices want to learn. A typical love potion will work by making the drinker both susceptible for seduction and more amorous. The Alchemist mixes mercury salts, rose water, expensive spices and a small amount of gold (preferably from a wedding ring or something like that). The mixture is carefully heated and then distilled. The distillate is added to food or drink. [Each success will lower the target number with one for all attempts at seduction or other amorous skills for the victim. It will also make the victim see every possible partner as having more in appearance and charisma than they really do. Each success will increase the apparent charisma and appearance with one. ]
Elixir of Longevity (Life 3) Another classic rote, invented in countless variations. The Alchemist distils some of his blood, add expensive spices and salts, and drinks the final product. This elixir will halt the aging of the mage for a time, but not rejuvenate him (there are lots of competing rejuvenation elixirs around).
Reanimation (Life 3 Prime 2) The Alchemist burns a dead (or alive) plant or animal. The hot ashes are mixed with exotic chemicals and salts. Finally, gold solved in aqua regia is added, and the mixture is allowed to crystallise. By performing the necessary incantation and slowly heating the resulting salts, the mage will restore the being to life. If the mage succeeds well enough, the being will be completely normal in all aspects. A less successful experiment would give a being that would die after a while, turning into salts again. And really bad results create "nothing but ye liveliest Awfullness." Some Alchemists experiment with turning people to dust, and trying to raise them again. If anyone has succeeded, they have not told anybody.
Homunculus (Life 3 Spirit 2 Prime 2 Time 3) Paracelsus developed this famous rote. The mage takes some of his bodily fluids, adds silver and gold salts, and pours the result into a vessel. The vessel is kept at a constant body temperature for nine months (In the middle ages, a heap of dung was used). After the time, a small, fully grown man has developed in the vessel. This homunculus is intelligent, have a will of his own and will grow at the normal rate after he has left the vessel. Some mages will keep their homunculus inside it for safe keeping, feeding them of their own blood. Homunculi are often used as advisors, familiars or servants. But if the mage treats them bad, they may rise up against him.
Famous Alchemists Count de Saint-Germain Count de Saint-Germain, alias Count Surmont, Count Welldone, Count Soltikoff, Count Tzarogy, Marquise di Aymar, Prince Rakoczi or Ahasverus, is one of the most powerful Alchemists around. Known as an adventurer, gentleman and scholar. Exactly how old he is unknown, as is his nationality. According to rumours he learned alchemy in Egypt, and is more than 2000 years old. What is known is that he was in France in 1748, where he moved in the highest aristocracy. He was favoured by Ludvig XV, and became envoy to Netherlands. Something went wrong, and he fled to London 1760. In 1762 he was in Russia, and then in Belgium, where he met Casanova. In 1776 he was at the court of Frederick II of Prussia, where he entertained the King with chemical experiments. In 1784 he (officially) died in Schleswig, where he was building a paint-factory for the Count of Hessen. But Count de Saint-Germain continues to appear and disappear around the World, a bit more discrete after the technological age. For example, in 1930 he was seen on the deck of an Atlantic liner. The witty count never said anything directly about his true age, or whether he really could create gold. He was a fantastic storyteller, always telling stories about historical events almost like he had been there. Sometimes he made a mistake, like when he told his friends about the life of Henry IV "...and then the king turned around and smiled at me...I mean, he smiled at Duke X...". The count never said that he was really immortal, just avoided the question. Sometimes he said "I just look younger than I am." Count de Saint-Germain is probably master of Matter and Life, and has a high arcane. He is regarded by mages as one of the greatest Alchemists, and also as a true gentleman. The count seemed to spread the belief in alchemy during the period before the French Revolution, but afterwards he went underground, only appearing from time to time to keep the public interested and irritate the technomancers. If rumours are true, he is the leader of an alchemic society in Paris for the moment, or he is travelling the world spreading the art.
THE ALHAMBRA FOUNDATION By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (29, June 1996)
Description Most mages curse the forces of Paradox, but they have to acknowledge that they also protect reality from the Things Beyond. And at least once Paradox has defeated one of the major Things. During the winter 1872 in Darmstadt, a group of hermetic barrabbi led by the infamous Nephandus Samuel K. Reuss (who had singlehandedly defeated and slowly killed over 50 inquisitors and hunters sent by the Traditions, Church and Technocracy) attempted a major ritual to open a rift through the worlds to their lord, an unnamed Thing from beyond the Abyss. They had gained access to a powerful node, and with them they had the remains of several soldiers killed in the war on significant leylines; the barrabbi planned to use them as sympathetic links to drain several remote nodes and sacrifice their souls. The ritual backfired. A rift opened, but the powerful web of Entropy, Prime, Correspondence and Spirit became unstable in the presence of the Thing. For a moment, the entire town of Darmstadt hung between the physical world and the abyss, where the darkness moved to devour its faint light. But then static reality snapped into place and sealed the rift with tremendous force. The backlash wrinkled time and space around the wounded part of reality, sealing it off and imploding it like a black hole. The building where the ritual took place and all its inhabitants -- human and otherwise -- were totally destroyed as Paradox met the Beyond. And the Nephandi Lord was caught in the maelstrom. When a cabal of mages arrived at the place a few hours latter, led by the intense fluctuations in the quintessence fields they found what they called the anticube. It was a small thing, around a decimetre across but strangely warped - it looked like a cube, but seen from the inside! It had not color or other properties, but seemed to reflect them from the surroundings in some odd way. This paradoxical object appears to be a permanent flaw in the fabric of reality; its walls are made of imploded paradox and quintessence trapped by an insoluble conflict. Inside (if that has any meaning for an inside-out object) a major Nephandi Lord is trapped. Its sudden absence was felt across the world by many dark mages, and several K'hallassa independently destroyed themselves with fire and water. It took some more time before the Traditions realised what had happened, but eventually the cabal that had found and taken the anticube understood what they were carrying with them. Horrified they sought out the Masters of the traditions for advice. It soon became clear that the force that held the Lord imprisoned was Paradox. If the anticube was removed from static reality its walls might weaken; to keep it safe it had to be located in strongly normal reality. And so the Alhambra Foundation was created to safeguard the anticube and prevent the release of its contents. Alhambra Foundation originally consisted of the mages who found the anticube, but in time other mages joined as the old left. At first the anticube was kept in a small apartment in Geneva. During the second World War the Foundation feared that the Nephandi would find it and contacted the Technocracy; they invited it to help them keep the anticube under lock and key. The Technocracy accepted and took over. They moved the Foundation to Zurich, where they gave it a new home in an extremely anonymous office building. But the first technocratic chairman of the Foundation made the former members a surprising offer: in the interest of keeping reality stable and secure, the Foundation would accept help from Tradition mages. If a traditionalist came upon some kind of artifact that threatened reality, he or she could give it to the Foundation with no fear of the Pogrom. Although many tradition mages remain sceptical of the offer, and several hardliners within the Technocracy have argued that it is almost treason, the Foundation still keeps this policy. In the post-war years the Foundation started to gather other dangerous artifacts to keep them out of the hands of Nephandi, Marauders or other dangerous groups. In several highly protected caches in Switzerland the Foundation keeps objects that might undermine reality but cannot be destroyed by the Technocracy. The caches are surrounded by powerful Paradox Zones, technomagickal wards and mundane security. In addition to the original Nephandi and Marauder artifacts, the Technocracy sometimes use the Foundation to keep other things they do not want but cannot destroy. This has given rise to the persistent rumors about "Hangar 13" where everything from the Ark of the Covenant to the immortal lighbulb are kept. The truth is a bit more practical, most of the caches consist of sealed steel or primium boxes marked by bar-codes, in concrete-walled rooms with electronic surveillance active at all times and massive primium bulkheads. The Foundation is organised as a small democratic group, led by a chairman (currently Vito Tagliaferri of the Void Engineers) and seven other technomancers. Each runs a different section, ranging from the five containment sections that keep the artifacts to R&D and defence. They have quite extensive resources, divided in independent cells (in the case one part was lost to the Nephandi). In the past most of the work has been to keep control over the collections, but recently the amount of Nephandi activity has increased and security is becoming a major concern. In the Ascension War, the Foundation stands as one of the few (overt) examples of collaboration between the Traditions and Technocracy. There is little doubt that many Nephandi would willingly give their lives to get the Anticube and move it into the Umbra in the hope of releasing the Lord.
The Ahl-i-batin Revised By Brian Connors (
[email protected])
History The Arabic magi who created Mount Qaf are an ancient order, one of the few that reach back to the Roman era. Their roots date back to the early days of the Roman Empire, when a group of mages in modern Yemen began experimenting with magick that would now be considered Correspondence and Mind magick. This cabal began to develop forms of telepathy that were unheard of even among the most learned, forms which allowed a certain persistence of a thought even when no one was actually thinking it. By 50 AD (during the decline of Emperor Tiberius) Mount Qaf had come into existence, rather by accident. It seemed that two of the mages involved in the project had been visiting Roman Palestine and had gone in town to one of the takeout shops that dotted Roman cities. A recent shipment of very expensive Italian vegetables had just arrived, and the two mages (Qadim and Abdul are said to be their names, though this was almost certainly fabricated in the 1700's by a non-Batini), had an extensive telepathic conversation with the rest of the cabal. After an hour or so, vast amounts of information on topics ranging from imported vegetables to prices of unspecified local entertainment to the seemingly borderline maniacal street preachers (who apparently made some excellent points, by the way) had become "remembered" within the web that had been created. Mount Qaf had been established. The Ahl-i-Batin were an organization long before any other modern group but the Order of Hermes. Mount Qaf grew to an incredibly vast repository of information that virtually any Ahl-i-Batin could access with a bit of training. However, the group remained small for centuries, until the beginnings of Islam began to spread from Arabia. At the time, around 800, a group of Afghani Batini came across a cabal of Akashic Brothers from what is now Tibet. This was the true beginning of the modern tradition. The Batini grew to become an important force among mages, and were responsible for uniting the arts of conjuration, abjuration, and divination into what would become the Sphere of Correspondence. They also picked up a reputation for being sneaky; a few Virtual Adepts claim that the "hacker ethic" they live by so steadfastly developed from the philosophy of the Batini. It worked fairly well for a while. The Batini and the Solificati ultimately could not get along well, but since the Order of Hermes was the only group that did it wasn't surprising. However, in the 1700s a female Ahl-i-Batin named Yasmina introduced a lover of hers, a rogue Solificatus named Gerardo, to Mount Qaf. The relationship disintegrated soon after that, leaving Yasmina in shame and Gerardo bitter enough to join the Order of Reason. The defection of the Solificati became inevitable at that point, leading to the birth of the Electrodyne Engineers. The Ahl-i-Batin were slightly shamed from that point on, but were still at least tolerated. The true crushing blow came when oil was discovered in Arabia and the Technocracy made a power grab. The Batini were forced to leave behind their council duties to go back and defend their ancestral territory. They have not been heard from as an organization since. They continue, though, and are biding their time until they have enough power to return to the Council. The hacker ethic is wllentrenched among them (incidentally, the vast majority of modern Batini are Christian, and of the few Moslems among them, none are strictly fundamentalist) and they in fact maintain that Mount Qaf and the Virtual Web are one and the same. Their numbers are small now, less than a hundred. Their main chantry keeps moving (they are unwelcome in Iran and a number of the former Soviet Central Asian countries, and distrusted elsewhere); it is currently located in southeast Turkey, where there is less prejudice against Christians than in other places. They wish to have their seat back on the Council, but are more than willing to share with the Virtual Adepts if the Council will allow it. Some have even proposed a merger with the Adepts, but no one has gone to one of the Adepts' home chantries to speak to them about it. The Batini hold the Tenth Sphere to be Paradigm. They have some interest in studying it to see if they can use it with Correspondence to channel Paradox productively.
Philosophy There are advantages to knowing how to archive things. We realized centuries ago what the Sleepers are only now understanding: information is the key to everything. Therefore we need to know how to transport it, store it, and if need be, ration it.
Foci Optical instruments, paper, pencils.
Sphere
Correspondence
Quote "Perhaps the Technocracy has stolen our ideas, but our ethics are something they will never understand. Follow us and learn the true meaning of liberation."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: We have philosophical differences, but much of our culture comes from theirs. Respect, even for those you do not like, is in order.
Celestial Chorus: They are too conservative. It is their fault we are so close to being lost. Cult of Ecstasy: They need a focus. Dreamspeakers: They have the right idea about information, but they go about it the hard way. Euthanatos: Their cycle is too convenient. Life simply doesn't work that way. Hollow Ones: I would love to know what they hold as an ideal. They are a complete mystery to me, and what I understand I don't like.
Order of Hermes: Good Lord, they need to lighten up. The whole idea of magick is that you don't have to play by the rules. Sons of Ether: The source of the failings of the Adepts. Their love of technology will get them in trouble if they get carried away. Verbena: Blood, blood, blood. After all these years, they're still pagans, but at least they admit it. Virtual Adepts: What we were, they are. Though they need to realize that the VR goggles are overkill for what they do, they are truly our heirs.
Technocracy: They have gone over the line too many times. The individuals may be pardoned, but their organization must be dismantled.
Iteration X: They have it backwards. You build technology for fun. Information is what's important. New World Order: (crosses himself and shudders) Progenitors: Perverts. Plain and simple. The Syndicate: I would love to know what the Virtual Adepts are up to with them. They deserve a good chain yanking. Void Engineers: Their ambition is really rather separate from what is really practical. At least they are relatively harmless. Nephandi: Lose them in their own corruption. You will never truly destroy them, but they're perfectly capable of handling it on their own.
Maurader: We're working on the Paradox thing ourselves, but these guys are still way too dangerous.
THE ANIMAGICIANS By Stephen Esdale (
[email protected]) (29, Nov 94)
Introduction Mika Shimizu was a production artist for Kadowkawa Publishing Company, a Japanese Animation (Japanimation) company that was known, among other things, for the animated move Silent Moebius. She'd worked for many studios, been an artist for many features including Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Bubblegum Crisis. Yet, even this did not satisfy Mika totally. For some stange reason, just drawing the futuristic vehicles, the sleek mecha-suits, and menacing weaponry was not good enough. Something deep inside wished to go beyond the celluloid of film, wanted to make her designs real. Mika was embarrased by these feelings. She did not have the engineering degrees to build such devices, even if building such things were possible. She barely had enough education to be a technical artist. Anime is the art of the impossible. It would unimaginable to create a cycle that could do bootleg turns at 70mph, or vehicles with an endless supply of interal equipment, weaponry, and gadgets. Even the simple job of building a powered mecha-suit of human size presented a formidable job for even the best technical minds in the world. She dismissed her dreams and for two years worked at her job faithfully. Worked, that is, until she was laid off. It seems that several films produced by the animation house had bombed at the box office. The studios involved lost the equivalent of millions of American dollars. Thousands were laid off, Mika being one of them. The industry itself was in a lull after years of unchecked growth. There were no jobs for animators in Japan, even for talented ones as Mika. She was forced to find work at a small business, producing cheap technical drawings for a tiny engineering magazine. The magazine, called the Tokyo Paradigm, often discussed theories that totally went against normal science. Its editor, Naori Kochiya, was an eccentric scientist who still believed that ether existed in some form in outer space. Drinking heavily during this time, Mika was oblivious to the fact the she'd never seen the Tokyo Paradigm in newsstands. Nor did she notice the strange objects, some as big as refrigerators, seemed to appear overnight and then as quickly disappear or that weird things, and strange noises were going on in the basement. Or that Naori was taking an awful interest in her technical work. One night, she left her workstation, half-drunk. She had been glossing over old sketches that were used in many of the films she had been a part of. The flying cruiser in Silent Moebius, Kaneda's bike from Akira... The memories were too harsh to take, so she started into the stash of saki she kept in her desk. By the time she reached the streets, all thoughts of the past were hidden in an alcholic haze. She was so wasted that the whole night was a very unrecognizable muddle. It was for that reason that when she stumbled into work the next day, she didn't immediately recognize the object before her. Standing in the middle of the office was the Akira motorcycle, with Naori, the smug little scientist with a sheepish grin on his face, standing beside it. When it finally dawned on her, she nearly fainted. From the plans on her desk, Naori had built the Akira bike in less than six hours! "You couldn't have build this on your own... You had help, you kept it in the basement, you..." Mika spat out the words. "No. No help." Naori's smile broadened. "I made it in about fifteen minutes. Including five minutes for coffee." "You couldn't have. Its phsyically impossible!" "Physical laws are not immutable. My friend, you will soon learn the elasticity of physics." Naori taught the young Mika the best he could, but the training did not go as well as both of them had hoped. Mika was uninterested in learning the outmoded physics of the Sons of Ether. 19th century gibberish and 20th century techo-mysticism were alien and repulsive concepts. How was one to free technology from the Technomancer static reality if these ancient, usless theories were employed. In the end Mika left Naori's tutelage, their relationship strained but still intact. Amongst her own Tradtion, she was frowned upon. She had had the audacity to question the SoE paradigm! This artist with no degrees, no knowledge of the universe was telling them how reality was supposed to work! The Sons of Ether worked hard to discredit her work, finally forcing her to leave. In response, she formed the sub-tradition of the Sons of Ether known as the Animagicians. To prevent the SoE from recognizing her name she took the pseudonm Yuki Katsumi, using two first names of characters from Silent Moebius. She then went on to recruit other animators and Anime enthusiasts that had vision. From there it spread to North America (and spawned the ACMEngineers, a group of Mages using western cartoons as their paradigm). Currently it is unknown how many Animagicians there are in the World, though with both the Technocracy and the Sons of Ether eager to know their whereabouts, they rarely make their presence known.
A Few Notes about the Animagicians
Animagicians are an extremely diverse group, ranging from science ficition "mecha-builders," to surreal Manga enthusiasts. Even within that group everyone is an individualist, inspiration each coming from a different Japanimation feature or a different character. There is no clear stereotype of the Animagicians, other than their facination with Anime. Many Animagicans, following Yuki Katsumi's (aka Mika Shimizu) lead have taken pseudonyms to hide their identities. They even go so far as to dress the part, use similar lingo, obtain similar equipment. Katsumi herself resembles her anime counterpart, dresses in the uniform of the AMPD (the Attacked Mystification Police or Abnormal Mystery Police; depending on whatever source you talk to). Note that mecha builders rarely make anything larger than man-sized mecha. The last person, an American Animagician called Roy Fokker (yes, he used Robotech names over the original Macross) attempted to construct the Veritech VF-1S in Battaloid (humanoid mode). The construction of a 40+ foot tall mech generated enough paradox to incinerate the mage where he stood. The mecha disappeared a few hours later, just before the Men in Black appeared in force. No one exactly knows were it went, and the Animagicians are not telling... Finally, Animagicans cannot recreate something in the real world without altering it in some way Anime. Guns will have strange scopes, sleek barrels, and weird handgrips. Vehicles and other objects also tend to have appearently useless extraneous parts, and hidden compartments. Finally, some objects will be asymmetrical and of strange colouration or lustre. The difficulty of making something exactly without "improvements" is up to the Storyteller, but a Willpower roll may be required.
Philosophy Technology, to be truly dynamic, must unshackle itself from all theories and restraints. Whether they be born of the Technomancer Pogrom, or the asphyxiating theories of others of our kind. Technical achievement can only be achieved from the power of imagination. We make the thought take form, make the drawing become real. Through the unfettered reality the world of Animation has given us, we will reshape the world of sleepers into a world of wonders.
Organization Animagicans are less organized than the SoE; most work alone in isolated labs at their Chantry or in their own animation studios throughout the world. At its best, Animagicians with the same Anime source of inspiration group together, each assuming the role of a different character. Like the SoE, Animagicians status comes from scientific achievement. However, the only accomplishment these Mages respect are Anime objects made real (which function in our reality as they on celluloid).
Meetings Animagicans do not meet regularly. Occasionally, a meeting will be called in the Chantry if some important discovery is uncovered, or some discussion is urgently required. Small groups of Animagicans who work on similar wavelengths (say American "Robotech" Animagicans, and their Japanese "Macross" counterparts) or have the same inspirations (say "Gunbuster") will meet regularly to compare notes. Otherwise Animagicians work alone or in their regular cliques (see organization).
Initiation Normally, Animagicians recruit fellow animators and other artists in the Japanese fashion (including American imitators/emulators), especially those who seem to wish to go beyond just drawing their creations, but actually make them real. This is done by subtle hints, followed by using Matter to create small Anime objects (like a gun or a piece of jewelry) and place it in some location where they alone will find it, like a desk. If they react favourably, the Mage will approach them and teach them about the Tradition. Others (like Japanimation fans) are also approached, but only if they have some talent or ability that benefits the Tradition.
Chantry Takara-Jima, an island approximately 175 miles south of Ky shu Province of Japan, midway between the main island and Okinawa. The island holds a powerful underground Chantry and laboratory complex that is currently being kept secret from the other Traditions, especially the Sons of Ether, who would die (or perhaps kill) to get their hands on this important resource. When referring to the island, many members just use the word Macross...
Acolytes Animators, Artists, Japanimation Enthusiasts
Sphere Matter
Foci Because of the vast nature of Animation (and Anime), it would be ludicrous to attempt to list foci for them all. Each different subgenre of Anime has a different atmosphere. Those Mages that use Japanimation for their inspiration develop their own Foci that enforces that Paradigm of reality and allows them to tap the power of their avatar. Only the Drawing Utensils (Matter/Life/Prime) are used by all Animagicans. Therefore, a player must know his character concept and his animation source well enough to construct suitable foci for the other six spheres. The following is an example, used by Yuki Katsumi and other Mecha-oriented traditions.
Matter/Life/Prime - Drawing Utensils: The most important part of a Animagician (and the common foci of the Tradition). This is any device used to draw freehand (pen, pencil, crayon, finger-paint). Since Drawing is the most important thing in a Japanimators life, it is no surprise that it is very important in creating things, both animate and inanimate, and keeping it in the real world (Prime). The writing utensil is a unique item, the most cherished of the Mage's possessions. Drawing can be a quick sketch (+1 to +3 initiative, depending on size and complexity of object), though in non-combat situations an Animagician may spend days drawing.
Spirit/Forces - Heads Up Display: A set of Goggles (or the classic Anime monocle-visor). These specifically display all sorts of information about Spectroscopic and Spiritscopic information. It is not unique.
Time/Correspondence/Entropy - Calculating Device: Animagicians who use these spheres need some device to calculate the intricacies involved. It is not exactly known what kind of Mathematics an Animagician uses when calculating the space-time relations or possibility analysis or a spell, but its definitely unrelated to anything the SoE or the Technomancers use). This may be some Anime calculator, or a complex body-computer with holographic display and voice readout. Animagicans go very wild as in regards to this Foci item design. However it is not a unique item (as regards to its importance to magick). Adds +2/+3 to spheres used with this foci.
Mind - Communicator: No, not the Star Trek one, but very similar. They range from headset microphones, to handheld or wrist mounted models. Some have outlandish antennae, while others are barely noticeable. Depends on your outlook. It is not unique.
Concepts See Acolytes
Stereotypes Ahl-i-Batin: The Ali-WHO? Are these guys for real? Akashic Brotherhood: Yeah, we've used plenty of Martial Arts in Anime. This "uniting mind and body" is interesting, but personally I like uniting mind and matter better.
Celestial Chorus: Songs and rituals mean nothing to me. I want something more concrete than some metaphysical mumbojumbo.
Cult of Ecstasy: I admire their free spirit, but they are wasted talent. They should focus their energies more into art than debauchery.
Dreamspeakers: The future of humanity dwells in the physical not in the spiritual. Gaia's plight may be serious as you say, but I don't think bouncing around in the Umbra is going to help. A Mecha-tank with a converging beam cannon will stop those Amazonian plunderers right in their tracks.
Euthanatos: Entropy? You guys must be very sick, killing people because you feel they are "ready to die." The only way to reach Ascension is by building things, not tearing them down.
Hollow Ones: All these guys need are mentors of some kind, someone to give them guidance and hope. Just don't expect us to do it. These mages are just too depressing to be around.
Order of Hermes: Hermetic magic is no better than the crap the Technocracy is dishing out. Magic must be dynamic and not a jumble of formulae, no matter how much magical significance they hold.
Sons of Ether: Bunch of old fools. You expect us to follow the same antiquated path you have followed for decades. Hunt us down if you wish; we have a few experiments are dying to show you! Verbena: They do with living things, what we do with matter. I bit too bloody for my taste though. Virtual Adepts: I'd put them in the same category with the Technos and the Sons of Anachronism if it wasn't for the Digital Web. WOW! We have to meet with these guys...the Web will make a great place to test new Mecha designs!
Rotes of the Animagicans Vidcom Communications (Correspondence 2, Forces 2): An unneedfully complex rote, but necessary for some groups in the Animagicans (for status mostly), this creates a video communication system imitating hologram projection. Those seeing the person, view him suspended and a oval shape 3D object, glowing with an eery green light. This is used most often to call together for those infrequent meetings at Macross.
...Not your father's [insert car name here] (Correspondence 5, Matter 4): Basically the same as Semi-Auto CAD CAM (see Mage Rotes, pg. 221) except it combines the best aspects of vehicles into one form. Each success allows the mage to exchange one aspect of the vehicle (top speed, size, maneuverability, etc). The vehicle will resemble both of the old vehicles with a distinctive Anime twist (if the Animagician doesn't force himself not to).
Thought made Form (Matter 2, Mind 3, Prime 2): Allows the Mage to create an object envisioned by another. This is normally done by Animagicians when they recruit a new Mage, creating their heart's desire (normally some Anime device) to show them the power they could possess. One success will give a flawed or warped translation of the object; three success will create the item accurately, and five success or more will give an exact replica of the object (right down to the colour and "feel").
Akira Bootleg (Correspondence 5): Not a rote but a magickal effect, the Akira Bootleg allows the person to make stops and bootleg turns at any speed. The Mage casts the spell, only braking if he is intending to stop the vehicle (the famous Akira 70-0 mph skid). The Correspondence power warps space, causing the bike to loop back upon itself or increasing the immediate length of the road to allow more room to slow down. While not totally imitating the Akira manoeuvre, the Animagicians think its a first step into understanding the principles required in creating Anime-style working technology.
Animagician Talismans Akira Bike (Level 3) Omega Battler Mecha Suit Z (Level 5)
THE APOSTLES OF IALDABAOTH By Anders Sandberg (2 March 1995)
Description It is an almost universal fact that for every tradition of people seeking enlightenment, there is a corresponding group of people who reverse the teachings and strive for the opposite. The Apostles of Ialdabaoth are the dark reflection of all mages seeking spiritual enlightenment; instead of striving to put spirit above matter and breaking free from the prison of reality, the Apostles encourage everyone to partake in the pleasures of the world, forget all higher goals and let matter rule spirit. The Apostles are an ancient and mixed group of mages and sleepers, and have existed as organised groups only for brief periods of time. They trace their beginnings to the Hellenic era in the West, where they opposed the Gnostic enlightenment, and to ancient Indian sects which sought to show people the glories of living and reincarnating. They incited many heretical Christian sects, were influential in the formation of modern Satanism, and have successfully corrupted more mages of the Traditions and Technocracy than all other Nephandi together. At least that is their boast. The basic tenet of their philosophy is the supremacy of matter, division and pleasure. They argue that the One created the world and split apart into the Pure Ones in order to experience it, to learn and revel in being physical and alive. Those denying the flesh and the world, trying to transcend it and join with the Highest are just trying to leave the party before its over. If they really understood the wishes of the Highest, they would instead use their powers to take pleasure in the world, to continue the great fall from Spirit into Matter. There is no need to strive for higher goals; soon enough the Highest may decide to call all of the shards of Creation home again, but before that, it is their duty to undergo all the transformations, pains and pleasures of living. In the West, the Apostles have had great success perverting and seducing many young Cultists of Ecstasy who didn't truly understand their tradition's teachings. Instead of using pleasure and experience as a tool to break through all illusions and joyfully transcend them, they mire themselves down in physical pleasures with no higher goal than mere gratification. More experienced Cultists do their best to counter the cancer spread by the Apostles, with mixed success. Often the Apostles mix with the wandering and idiosyncratic cultists, appearing to be normal members. This causes painful internal schisms, especially since many apprentices and disciples think their mentors are just spoil-sports who have lost the spark of enjoyment. However, the greatest triumph of the Apostles is the corruption of the Technocracy. While they are not responsible for all Its atrocities, they have been very successful at poisoning the philosophy of the technomancers. Instead of boldly looking forward and upward, plotting a path towards Ascension of mankind, they are more interested in adding new technologies and sciences to the paradigm. They have become petty demiurges themselves. The Syndicate is most infected, and has devoted itself to making sure the Masses turn from spiritualism to materialism. Many Syndicate mages have also been blinded by greed and ambition, losing their concern for Ascension in the pursuit of power. The members of the other conventions are not as infected, but the entire technomancer movement (including the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts) has been somewhat influenced and blindly moves in the direction of the Apostles. And through the Technocracy, the Apostles has influenced billions of people. The Apostles are, of course, regarded as enemies of Ascension by almost all traditions. The Akashic Brothers and Euthanatos often join forces in combating their spread of materialism in Asia. Influential members of the Cult of Ecstasy do their best to rid their tradition of the disease. The Celestial Chorus zealously guards the spiritual purity of itself and its associates (which often is mistaken for fanatism and inquisition). However, the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts regard most of the fear of the Apostles as outdated, since technology now gives mankind a way out from the world of matter by reshaping it; the world of spirit can be built. The Apostles have a complex relation with the Nephandi. Although the Traditions regard them as Nephandi who strive to tempt everyone from the path of Ascension, the Apostles do not serve any other powers than themselves. This sometimes puts them in conflict with the "real" Nephandi, who serve dark, outside powers, something the Apostles find just as silly as serving the high ideals of the Traditions. In fact, the Apostles have seduced many Nephandi away from their path to Descension. This has made many powerful Nephandi declare the Apostles to be their enemies. However, there are other groups of Apostles and Nephandi who get along quite well, seeing each other as necessary parts of reality. The Technocracy does not regard the Apostles as very important at all. The New World Order has simply classified them as mages seeking personal gain instead of changing reality, and therefore not the kind of direct threat as the Traditions, Marauders or Nephandi. Since most Apostles prefer to work in a rather low-key way and mainly use coincidental magick, they are no big threat to static reality. In fact, the Syndicate has found many promising recruits among them. The Apostles are more a philosophy than a real tradition; their ideology has independently been rediscovered many times. In fact, most groups of the Apostles have never been in contact with each other. They don't need to, since they all agree on the course: show the world that pleasure and materialism is good and rewarding, while spirituality at its best is fruitless. Most members are complete hedonists, doing their best to experience all kinds of new and exciting vices. They also use their magick to gain more wealth and power, finding new ways to acquire them without getting caught by Paradox, society, other mages or their own conscience. However, pleasure can take many forms and does not necessarily have to involve the conventional vices. Many Apostles are very keen on travelling and exploring, seeking out beautiful and exotic places. They argue, "If they weren't intended to be enjoyed, why would they be there?" Other Apostles enjoy more intellectual pursuits, like literature and science. Although they might appear to seek higher levels, they are really just enjoying the works of Man and nature. This faction has been the most successful at infiltrating the Order of Hermes and Technocracy.
The Apostles have many allies and unwitting pawns. Among the spirits, they get along very well with the Hestilcs, which they often summon to interact with. They also have some contact with the Toreadors, especially the Poseurs. But it is among sleepers they have their real influence. Many of the Apostles have groupies, followers and admirers who they freely manipulate. They often gather economical influence, and some Apostles are extremely rich. And since they like to move in the jet-set, they tend to know a lot of interesting and important people. What makes the Apostles so insidious is the seductiveness and simplicity of their message. They are masters of making mages stray from the Path and turn to comfortable and joyous stagnation. The worst thing is that even if individual Apostles aren't that interested in tempting others, they tend to do it anyway just by existing. When young mages ask their mentors why the Apostles seem to do so well, and get no satisfactory answer, they start to wonder if they really have to put up with all the restrictions and formalism of their traditions. And when the seed has been planted, it grows...
Philosophy Ascension: who cares? Yes, its quite possible that you could evolve to perfection and merge with the Godhead after a few centuries of meditation and asceticism. Is it really worth it? Is that really what you think the universe was created for?
Initiation Usually the Apostles gradually introduce sleepers to their world and philosophy, showing them unimaginable wealth and new pleasures. Those few with the right spark to delve right into it are initiated by journeys of pleasure and beauty that would impress even the most jaded Cultists of Ecstasy. It opens their eyes to the amazing things there is to enjoy in the world, and the equally manifold ways a mage can get them.
Spheres and magick The Apostles have no definite main sphere. Those who have fallen from a tradition retain their main sphere and their foci. Orphans remain orphans. However, since the Apostles have close ties to the Cult of Ecstasy, very many members are good at Time. Other common spheres are Entropy, Mind and Life. Many also begin to use vices as foci for their spheres, just out of convenience. They mainly see the spheres as tools to use for their continued enjoyment of the world, and usually don't try to understand or master them for their own sakes. This, combined with the fact that they usually aren't interested in higher matters like Ascension, tends to stagnate their magickal development. Many Apostles who have left their traditions never develop further. Sometimes energetic members make an effort to advance, usually to gain more ability to control the Illusion around them, but it is uncommon.
Correspondence: Since everything is essentially one, space is really just a temporary result of the division of the One. But we are thankful for it. This sphere is good for getting around, spying on your enemies and finding new exciting destinations.
Entropy: We are still moving from pure spirit to base matter, and Entropy is the obvious result. Everything that is high and ordered will sooner or later break down into even lower levels. Since the world is filled with randomness and decay, this is one of the most potent spheres. Make your own luck, and dispatch your enemies or other spoil-sports with decay.
Forces: Forces are the brilliant and loud arpeggios of the symphony of the world. Fun, but a bit too flashy. Life: There is no doubt that life is the greatest creation of the Demiurge. Such an ability to feel, to live, to exist! And we can reshape it to new forms, with new abilities to experience the world. The Sphere of life is about all the pleasures of the flesh.
Matter: Pieces of matter are the building blocks of the world, the bars of our golden cage. Enjoy their beauty, gather them into wealth and reshape those parts of the world which are not to your liking.
Mind: Mind is the spark of consciousness the One let descend into the world, in order to experience it and remember it. Since all minds once were one, what one mind thinks or feels, another mind can also think and feel. Our minds give us the ability to influence others, to play with emotions and thoughts like the toys they are.
Prime: Quintessence is the essence of the One, which It shaped into the world. Since we fulfill the wishes of the Highest, we are also able to reshape the world, to grant existence or remove it from things just like the Demiurge we seek to mirror.
Spirit: There are a manifold levels of existence, forming a complex interlacing web witnessing of the ingenuity of the creator. We can travel these other levels and interact with their denizens. It might even be possible to use this sphere to return to the primordial unity, but that would be rather stupid.
Time: Time is the great curse and boon the Demiurge gave us. It makes everything transitory, which ends the pleasure but also forces us to seek out new pleasures and experiences. It hides what will come and has been to avoid spoiling the fun (although this sphere allows us to peek anyway).
Chantry The Apostles have no real chantries. Most are solitary or gather in small cliques to enjoy themselves. While some gather at brothels, exclusive resorts or on private yachts, others prefer to keep moving all the time. A few found various sects, ranging from satanic covens and sex-cults to televangelist churches.
Meetings They seldom search out each other, simply because they don't need to. They have no doctrinal differences to settle, no higher aspirations, no seeking of Ascension.
Acolytes Hedonists, Thrill-Seekers, Poets
Concepts Tempter, Playboy, Self-made man, Adventurer
Other Names The Apostles have no central organisation, and have no real name for themselves. The name "The Apostles of Ialdabaoth" was coined by the Order of Hermes, and is mainly used about those Apostles actively corrupting others. The Celestial Chorus name them after the gnostic movements they influenced as Sarkikes, Hylikes and Borborites. Other common names for them are: The Children of Maya, the Worms of the Clay, The Sons of Matter, Descenders and The Servants of the Demiurge.
Popular symbols The downward pointing pentagram (symbolising matter over mind), clay (the material world) and a descending lightening bolt (the descent from spirit into matter).
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They deny everything. They deny the outside world, they deny their flesh, they deny their feelings. A hard nut to crack.
Dreamspeakers: They are too serious, too worried about the environment, the spirits and their responsibility. If they only could understand that there is a whole world waiting outside the holy sweating lodge!
Celestial Chorus: They are the kind of people who constantly look at their watches during a great party, eagerly awaiting the right moment to say their good byes and go home, just because they are too inhibited to really participate. The world isn't that bad!
Cult of Ecstasy: They are moving closer to us all the time. Of all the traditions, they show the most promise. Euthanatos: These serious, dedicated killers seek to remove everyone who has too much fun for their limited taste. Avoid them, stop them and reveal who they really are to the other Traditions.
Hollow Ones: Promising! Order of Hermes: The pursuit of knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to enlightenment. In fact, the entire Order has slowly been moving in our direction the last thousand years.
Sons of Ether: These mages have really understood the joy of the Demiurge when he created the world. Everyone of them is inventing their own new world.
Verbena: So close, so far away.
Virtual Adepts: They have been seduced by the Gnostic vision, and try to create a perfect world of information instead of spirit or matter. Fortunately, most of them are conscious of the rest of the world, if a little bit too inhibited.
Quote "Let me get this straight. You are seeking Ascension in this rat-hole, with no heating and a leaking roof. In order to pay the rent you have to take a boring day-job which often leaves you too exhausted to do your real work here. But you could use your magick with no effort at all to get enough money to move to a small mansion where your Seeking wouldn't be constantly interrupted by the landlord or the plumbing. Would that really be misusing your powers and straying from the Path, or just plain common sense?"
Rotes Perfect the Ecstasy (Life 2 Mind 2)
This is often used by the Apostles to enhance their experiences. They go into an altered state of consciousness where they experience everything as different kinds of pleasure; sounds, touch, pain, thought, sorrow and sight, all are exciting sensations. The mage will still be aware of the outside world, although the pleasure may cloud his judgement (after all, in this state a car accident is orgasmic). Animal Attraction (Correspondence 2 Mind 2 Life 2)
This fills the mage and a victim with intense sexual attraction to each other, both on the mental and physical level. They are linked together by a bond of passion, which can only be released when they have enjoyed each other. The Apostles find this rote very useful, since many of their victims latter rationalise their behaviour and think they really wanted to give themselves to the mage. O Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi (Entropy 2 Time 2 Mind 2)
By linking their subconscious with the flow of randomness and time, the Apostles gain an inordinate amount of luck and opportunity. They just follow their impulses, and they often turn out to be both right and enjoyable. For the duration of the effect, as long as the influenced person just follows his or her whims, he or she will be able to avoid accidents and irritations, while having good luck and stumbling over opportunities. Prison of Beauty (Mind 3)
This defensive rote was apparently inspired by the weakness of the Toreadors. The Apostle simply floods the mind of the victim with the beauty of something, be it a flower, a person or just a shadow. The victim becomes entranced and forgets everything he or she was doing. Haven't I seen you before? (Mind 3 Time 2)
This is a trick the Apostles often use to gain the friendship of influential people. By subtly manipulating memories, emotions and sense of time, they can make other people think they recognise the mage as a friend, although they don't remember when they have met. The mage uses Mind and Time to dredge up plausible bits of information, which are used to "remind" victims ("Don't you remember me James? At Lord Winthorphe's dinner, across the table?"). Although they still won't be able to remember meeting the mage, most people quickly rationalise away this and believe he really is an old, if forgotten, friend. Enter the World (Correspondence 3 Spirit 2 Mind 1)
Some of the more mystical Apostles seek greater union with the world than just enjoying it. This rote is the first step: they expand their awareness more and more to all levels of existence, seeking to encompass them. Such mages may spend days or even weeks in blissful trance as they experience a multitude of sensations. Join the World (Correspondence 5 Spirit 5 Mind 5 Prime 4)
Some of the most powerful Apostles actually become the world. By spreading their consciousnesses into every part of it, to every level, and then dissolving the physical boundaries of their bodies, they become an integral part of everything. They can experience all pleasure, all pain, everything that happens everywhere. Forever. This is the closest thing the Apostles have to Ascension.
THE GUILD OF ARTIFICERS AND ALCHEMISTS By ??? (Send me email if you know who wrote this.)
History The Guild was founded in Toledo in the year 1340 AD, taking its pupils from the best mages and craftsmen available. A large percentage of their members hail from the Order of Hermes "House Verditius" and the rest hail from the Orient, all astronomers and engineers and alchemists of skill and power. Even in those dark days, the Guild excelled in the fields of Metallurgy, Weaponsmithing and GemCrafting and the results were metals of uncanny resilience, edges that would never dull and armour that was nigh impenetrable. These magesmiths worked their hardest in the ages of turmoil between the Traditions and in the Age of Magic became powerful and influential, selling their services to the highest bidder and providing lesser services to lower bidders. The Age of Reason did not sway these Masters as their methods became indoctrinated into modern science: the processes of creating alloys and tempering steel, of unguents and diakatholicons. The magesmiths and alchemists became famous and in their own way contributed to the rise of the Technocracy and all that would bring, essentially ushering in the Age of Darkness. Hermes Trimegistus, Paracelsus, Galileo all contibuted and it was only when the alchemists began to fail in their transmutations and the artificers noticed their toys were dormant that they realised what they had done. The result was that they distanced themselves from humanity, staying away from the centres of Reason where dull grey machines chugged monotonously and the glory and wonder and beauty of creation left the world. The Industrial Revolution arrived and the Age of Darkness was complete.
Philosophy Conflict is natural and while men live they will war against each other for reasons no others can understand. In the past we provided a service, providing the warriors with their weapons and armour with which to fight the wars but in recent times it has become necessary that we be more selective in our trade. The price is too high to sell only to the highest bidder; we must take into account the future and fight alongside those who desire freedom.
Organisation The Guild is composed of several Guild Houses (Chantries) with a rigid hierarchy similar to that present in most academic institutions. Each Guild House is separate in its own right and they only communicate in their meetings. Status within the Guild is obtained through the Craft. A piece of work must be produced which meets the standards of the Masters of the Guild and it is here where the test lies as not only magickal effect is judged but also aesthetic value as well. If anything, magick is secondary.
Meetings The Guilds meet once a year in Toledo at the main Chantry when the greatest of the works are displayed and the individuals rewarded for their work. Guild-masters meet once a 'season' to discuss important matters, usually in Toledo though other locations such as Museums have been utilised.
Initiation Only the most talented craftsmen are ever chosen to be Awakened and also their kin, as the skill is obviously passed from generation to generation. Judgement of an individual is reserved for those who show greatest dedication and dilligence in completing their commissions.
Chantry Toledo, Spain.
Acolytes
Craftsmen, jewelers
Sphere Matter
Foci Forge : Matter/Correspondence Brazier: Spirit/Mind Still: Life Crucible: Forces/Prime Glass Dropper: Time/Entropy
Quote What do we seek? Why the creation of beauty -- and the beauty of creation. Power?
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Their dedication is admirable but they tend to techniques and forms rather than finished products. Celestial Chorus: For all their claims of Divinity, there were none in times past who were more brutal in battle. Worthy, even though their goal is not tangible.
Cult of Ecstasy: There is always a refuge for those without talent and those desperate to belong. Foci make up for our shortcomings; they should not, however, be our masters.
Dreamspeakers: Though primitive, they are to be admired for their tenacity. However, the world as it is can only provide half the answers; we must create the rest ourselves.
Euthanatos: Good company. At least they know what it is they do. Commendable in battle. Hollow Ones: Though they appreciate beauty, steer clear of them for their are fractious, useless beings. Order of Hermes: We have respect for them but our directions are different. I, for one, am glad of this. Sons of Ether: Creation and Experimentation for it's own sake is wasteful. Their creations lack aesthetic value and they should spend time realising what monstrosities they have wrought.
Verbena: Disgusting. A tree is not beauty, it is a tree. Blood, sweat and gore are tools of troglodytes, not the Awakened. Virtual Adepts: Amazing! They create beauty and wonder within kinder realities where the laws are not so strict. By other Traditions, the Guild is viewed as a harmless version of the Sons of Ether and in part, this may be right.
Rotes The examples below represent spontaneously created items though many magesmiths will have embued these powers into talismans as they did in the past.
FiveSaws (Matter 3): This rote produces a blade forged from the association of five elemental blades locked to one handle and woven together. The result is a blade with five cutting edges which cut as one. This blade will cut through all but the hardest substances (Matter 5). Each success permits another blade to be added to the first. Prime 2 may be used to spontaneously create the blades though this is frowned upon. A similar rote creates a bludgeoning weapon which hits as several clubs but this is deemed too unsophisticated for the Guild members. Damage: Weapon +2 Armour is at -2 dice.
Hornet's Swarm (Forces 4 Matter 2 Prime 2 Life 1): These items, when not activated, look like copper drillbits. They may be activated at a thought and then they will fly through the air (using redirected gravitational energy) towards the target (locked by
Life 1). Their range is line of sight and they will track a target until destroyed. They will not stop till they contact bare flesh and once they do, they will burrow under the flesh, armour providing protection for the first round of contact. Magesmiths often carry reusable Hornets imbued with their own quintessence so they may be retrieved after they vanquish foes.
Spectral Blade (Matter 3 Life 1 Prime 2): The name is misleading as the blade actually has very little to do with the Umbra. Rather the blade is sequentially substantial and insubstantial and keyed to a Life pattern so that it will pierce the flesh easily. This blade may also be keyed to Matter and therefore armour thus ignoring the protection that armour may provide. Damage: Weapon +1 OR Armour -1
Sorrow Blade (Matter 5 Life 3 Prime 2): The blade created will not only do normal damage for its type but when the blade scans a target using its Life it will reconfigure the blade so that it is toxic to the organism or will produce toxic effects if not treated. This can be as simple as the blade becoming silver when combating Garou to the blade producing harmful microorganisms on its surface . During the turmoil of the Age of Magick, this blade was known as Sorrow-Steel as it reputedly wept poison on command.
Glamour Crystals (Mind 4 Matter 2 Prime 2): This creates crystals of stunning beauty, though the beauty is only part-real and part illusion. The target will do his utmost to obtain these crystals for himself at the cost of another though his actions may be influenced by the magesmith. For some subjects, the illusion of material wealth is insufficient, for example Vampires may be taunted by use of a Glamour of Blood which would use similar principles though perhaps not similar spheres.
ASATRU By Anders Sandberg
The Speech of the High One I know I hung on that windswept tree, Swung there for nine long nights, Wounded with my own blade, Bloodied for Odinn, Myself and offering to myself, Bound to the tree That no man knows Wither the roots of it run. None gave me bread, None gave me drink, Down to deepest depths I peered Until I spied the Runes. With a roaring cry I seized them up, Then dizzy and fainting, I fell. Well-being I won And wisdom too. I grew and took joy in my growth: From a word to a word I was led to a word, From a deed to another deed. From the Poetic Edda
History of the Asatru The Verbena have always been regional, and differ much from area to area. In Scandinavia, the Verbena have been the protectors of the old religion and the old ways against the tide of Christianity and the Technocracy. Actually, the Verbena was behind the Old Faith of Asatru which ruled before Christianity. Asatru means the "belief in the Aesir," the old pagan gods. During the pre-Christian times they were the priests and counselled the leaders about the will of the gods. Their magick was devoted to practical things like helping the crops, fishing and hunting, protecting the people from wild animals and worse, controlling the weather and protecting the universe from the forces which sought to bring about Ragnarok, the destruction of the world. During this time magick was more common than today, and most people knew a few minor magics. These were often of a simple protective nature and used to protect against spirits, the faeries, the dead, injuries, accidents and bad luck. These magics consisted often in inscribing a special rune (The runic alphabet was regarded as magical, and to be able to inscribe runes was regarded as a kind of magic), or singing the galders, songs sung in a high-pitched voice. These rotes were passed down through generations, or given to people by the priests or sibyls. All in all, minor magic seems to have been quite common, a bit like how most people today know a few tricks with technology. Year 829 AD a monk named Ansgar arrived in Sweden. He was sent out by emperor Ludwig to convert the Vikings of Sweden to Christianity (perhaps to lessen their raids and make them easier to trade with). The attempt failed, but soon other missionaries arrived. The Celestial Chorus was probably among them, and a struggle ensued between the pagans and the Choristers. The struggle continued for several centuries, but Christianity slowly became the religion of the kings and leaders and later the rest of the inhabitants. Both groups adapted to each other, and it seems as the Asatru went underground and continued its activities with support from the people, while the Choristers left them and their beliefs more or less alone as long as they weren't visible. Then came the Technocracy, which defeated the Celestial Chorus. The Asatru remained hidden.
Asatru Today Today the Asatru have survived in remote corners of Scandinavia. During its long persecution by the Church and Technocracy its members have become adept at hiding, often in plain sight. Much of the old faith has survived as old superstition and local customs, and the secret priests have carefully protected the faithful. Most of the believers live in rural or wilderness areas far from civilisation. They live in small settlements in the forests of Sweden, in small fishing villages in Norway or in the remote
corners of Iceland (their current stronghold). Some of them emigrated to America during the 1800s and built their own small communities there, far from civilisation. They often keep to themselves, and avoid outsiders. The belief often goes in the family, tying the tradition together with bands of blood. While their enemies control the political world and society at large, the believers in Asatru work on the local scale, with practical methods. They promote their own and similar beliefs, often spreading the old superstitions to undermine the new faith. They have succeeded very well with spreading respect and affinity to nature among the masses in Scandinavia. They infiltrate agricultural organisations and influence their work, often using them as tools to strike at the projects of the city-dwellers. They promote a healthy xenophobia to protect their old customs from the influence foreigners and city-dwellers. In fact, many of them are supporting local low-level nationalism and racism to encourage the sleepers to become more tied to their roots and to mistrust anything else. Their relations to environmental organisations are a bit ambivalent. On one hand they support them, since the protection of nature is one of their own most important tenets, but on the other hand they regard the environmentalists as do-gooders from the city who don't know anything about the real problems and only care about cute seals or flowers, not the uglier aspects of nature. In fact, many of the believers work against the environmentalists, seeking to protect their land and way of living against environmental laws or restoration programs which they regard as yet another way for the masters to try to wipe them out. Recently some New Agers have begun to worship the old gods and form different groups more or less based on Asatru. The real mages view this with scorn, and generally dislike them. The New Agers have just borrowed much of the names and myths, and then turned them into yet another fuzzy and nice mythology. The real Asatru believers scornfully remark that most of them don't even sacrifice blood on the blots. However, some of the real believers have begun using these groups as places to recruit people and a way to gain a foothold into the cities. Since most of the New Agers are so easily manipulated, they provide quite useful pawns. The same is true about neo-nazis, which the believers subvert by their magick and their grasp of ancient myth. They can be used in a similar manner, and are a very good method of harassing their enemies or diverting the attention of media and government from their own activities.
The Faith Asatru revolves about the worship of the old gods, the Aesir. They represent the forces which have formed the universe, and still uphold it. By worshipping them the believers help upholding the universe against chaos and destruction, and may also gain help from them. Unlike modern monotheistic religions, it does not demand that the believers should serve the gods. Instead the gods will help those who ask them for help in exchange for following their ideals and respecting them. This doesn't have to be much, a salutation or a small sacrifice of some food and drink is often enough to make the gods friendly. Anyone can perform the small acts of devotion to get the help of the gods. However, the mages are more advanced than this. They are the priests of the cult, and arrange the larger celebrations, the Blot. Blot are by tradition held at the Sabbaths, especially at the four equinoxes. The Blot are mostly held in remote places, where the worshippers can meet without suspicion. In Sweden the cult-places are often glens with one or more oaks around it, on Iceland old stone-circles are used. The Blot generally involves the ritual sacrifice of animals whose blood are used to ensure fertility, harmony and the old ways. The priests collect the blood in the hlautbowl, consecrate it to the gods and sprinkle it using evergreen twigs at the trees, on the idols of the gods and on the participants. Afterwards the Blot turns into a feast where the meat from the sacrifices is eaten. The tree is a sacred symbol to the, symbolising the World Tree Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil is a great ash, which grows through the worlds of the dead (Hel), the living (Midgard) and the gods (Asgard) and upholds creation. It must be protected from the forces which seek to kill it, because if it dies the world will be destroyed. That's why the priests carefully water it with the blood of the Blot, and seek to heal any damage to it they are able to. The gods are not representations of abstract forces, but powerful beings which happen to be good at different things. They are not the ultimate lords of the universe, merely the creators of it and the currently most powerful beings. They might be powerful, but they have a human side and can become angry, drunk, fall in love or otherwise behave like normal humans, just on a higher level. The most important gods are: Odin is the oldest and most powerful god. Together with his brothers Vile and Ve he killed the giant Ymir and shaped the universe out of the dead body. He is the god of wisdom, magick, war, death and leadership, riding on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir to oversee battles together with the valkyrias. If he throws his spear Gugner over somebody, that person will die in the fight. Odin has two ravens, Hugin and Munin, who spy on everything that happens and whisper it into his ears. He is also oneeyed, since he gave his right eye in deposit in the Well of Wisdom. The sacred animals of Odin is the horse and raven, and he is also the god of the hanged ones (because he voluntarily hanged himself on Yggdrasil as a sacrifice to himself to gain the secret knowledge of the runes). At Blots in his honour in the autumn the priests hang horses and people in the trees as sacrifices. They are left hanging so the ravens can gorge themselves on the carcasses. The god of thunder, Thor, is rather well known. The red bearded god races across the heaven in his chariot drawn by goats, throwing his hammer Mjolnir at the trolls and giants, protecting mankind and gods from the forces of evil. He is the god of strength, fighting prowess and the forces of nature, especially lightening, but also farming and marriage. The sign of his hammer scare away the trolls and elves, and gives protection from lightening. Frey and his sister Freya, are the gods of fertility, growth and love. Both are extensively worshipped to ensure the harvests, good
weather, health and virility. Both are described as blond and fair, and Frey is often depicted as a sitting figure with a drinking horn and large phallus. The sacred animal of Frey is the boar and of Freya the cat. They are the most often invoked gods at the Blot, and while Odin and Thor are generally mentioned first, Frey and Freya are the ones who most worshippers really love. The Blot of Spring is celebrated in honour of Frey, so that he will bless the crops and livestock and make the weather good during Spring and Summer. Horses and boars are sacrificed in his honour, and usually the worshippers select a young, blond man who will represent Frey during the celebrations. The god is then carried around with great adoration, and he blesses the fields and worshippers. The Blot of Midsummer is celebrated to Freya, so that she will make the men virile and the women fertile. The participants sing bawdy songs and engage in ritual sex. Balder is the god of light and peace. He is said to be the most beautiful and shining of the Aesir, and both wise, eloquent and helpful, although a bit impractical. His sacred plant is the mistletoe, because he was killed by an mistletoe arrow fired by his blind brother Höder (who was fooled to fire by the treacherous Loki). It is to his honour the Blot of Midwinter is celebrated, so that the light will return to the world. There are many other gods revered by the worshippers. Heimdallr is the perceptive sentinel of the gods, standing watch at the rainbow for any intruders into Asgard. Skadi is the wild goddess of hunting, roaming the mountains in the winter with her bow and her wolves. Her husband Njord is the god of the sea, fishing and travel. Loki is the god of fire, deceit, wits and theft who causes and solve problems. Idun is the goddess of health and longevity, and her husband Brage is the god of poetry. Frigg, the wife of Odin, is the goddess of home and motherhood. Tyr is the god of war and bravery. Hel is the dark goddess of death. And so on, there are many lesser deities revered in special situations.
Philosophy "Once upon a time there was only the great void of Ginungagap. When the ice from Nifelheim (the world of ice and mist) and the fire from Muspelheim (the world of fire and heat) met in the void, they created the immense giant Ymir. The three brothers Odin, Vile and Ve, the grandsons of Bure, killed him, and formed the world out of his body. His blood became the seas, his bones became the mountains, his flesh became the earth and his skull became the sky. "However, Bergelmer, one of the sons of Ymir, survived the cataclysm of his fathers death. He swore revenge against the gods, and his descendents, the giants, still seek the undoing of the gods and to destroy the world. They are helped by the giants from Muspelheim and Nifelheim, the traitorous Loki and his three children Hel, the Fenris wolf and the Midgard serpent. One day Ragnarok will come, when the world and most of the gods will die. Before it there will be the great Fimbulda-winter, three winters in a row without any summer between. War and violence will spread across the world, and the three roosters will signal the final day to the gods, the giants and the dead. All bonds break, the dead invade the world, the gods and giants kill each other in battle, the sun darkens and the World Tree Yggdrasil catches fire and falls, taking the world with it. But from the wreckage a new world will emerge, with clear waters and lush vegetation. The fields will bear crops without any planting and Balder will rule with peace and light. "That is why we must protect the world as long as it stands. We must fight the forces that seek to bring it down, be they supernatural or mundane. We must keep Yggdrasil healthy and strong, heal its wounds and fight its enemies. We must keep the giants and the dark forces at bay. We must protect the old traditions of the Blot and the runes, so that the people will not forget the gods entirely and the gods will not forget us. We must strengthen the people so they will fight bravely against the forces of death and destruction, or the giants will surely win."
Organisation The believers congregate around sacred sites and are led by their priests. These priests are generally equal, although the oldest and most respected of them lead the others. Different groups have little contact, but sometimes priests contact neighbouring groups to discuss mutual problems.
Meetings Mainly at the equinoxes, especially Midwinter, Spring and Midsummer. Also some ceremonies at the other Sabbaths and at special occasions (often just to celebrate and thank the gods for success, or to ask them for help). Beside the Blot, many worshippers hold small "prayer meetings" where the participants toast the gods, sing the ancient songs and sacrifice some food.
Initiation The initiates are mostly chosen among the faithful. One common way to Awaken initiates is to ceremonially hang them in a sacred oak, and let them hang there. The delirious initiates will undergo the same visions that Odin saw when he hung himself, and will thus become awakened, or the initiates will die and become a sacrifice to Odin.
Chantry Asatru has no true chantries. There have been no real chantries in Sweden since the burning of the temple of Uppsala around year 1100, and probably no others in the rest of Scandinavia. Instead the believers often form small isolated communities, where they can practice their religion in peace. The acolytes most often come from these communities.
Acolytes Farmers, survivalists, neo-nazis, fishermen and hunters.
Sphere Life. The priests especially devoted to Odin generally learn about Mind and Prime, while the priests of Thor learn Forces and Matter. Female priests tend to concentrate on the preparation of potions, mead and the singing of galders, while male priests learn the art of the runes. The völvas are the only mages who deal mainly in Spirit and Time (see below).
Foci Blood: Life, Prime This is the most important focus. The blood of the sacrifices is especially powerful, and the sacrifices from the Blot is the best. Human blood is naturally powerful, and the blood of a voluntarily sacrificed believer has amazing power. The bloodline is important, and royal blood is of course the most powerful (in the old days the priests used to sacrifice the king to stave off famine if it looked really bad). In using the blood, it is important for the mage to give at least some to the gods to show respect, otherwise they might become angered. However, in Life magick other bodily fluids can be used, especially in magick regarding to the giver.
Bowl: Entropy, Spirit This is known as a hlautbowl, where the blood or drink is first poured and consecrated by the priest. It is often a wooden or silver bowl with intricate ornaments. Hlautbowls are often inherited through generations in families of believers, and regarded as sacred.
Herbs: Matter This works as normal for Verbena, but substances from the animal or mineral kingdoms are sometimes used. Some specially important substances are oak leaves, mistletoe, salt, yeast, earth, iron, snake venom, ice and poisonous mushrooms.
Hammer: Correspondence, Forces, Time This is the hammer of Thor, Mjolnir. Most often it is a small stylised hammer worn around the neck. Currently this is rather popular fashion in Scandinavia, so it is easy to hide. In earlier times the mages sometime used crosses to hide their true faith.
Circlet: Mind This circlet imitates to the Brosingamene, the silver necklace worn by Freya. According to one myth, she has to let Loki wear it half of the year after he stole it and tricked her into his debt. During this time nature vanes and darkness reign, but in the spring she will wear it again and become happy, thus ensuring spring and summer. It thus represent both the allurement of Freya and the cunning of Loki, a fitting symbol for Mind.
Concepts Recluse, local politician, eccentric, sect leader
Quote "What are you doing to protect the World Tree, Yggdrasil? Don't you see how the dragon Nidhögg gnaws at its roots, how the frost giants of Nifelheim and the fire giants of Muspelheim just await the right moment to bring about Ragnarök? You might think that they are just old myths, but we know they are real, far too real..."
Stereotypes Akashic Brothers: "They might be good warriors, but spending all day thinking is not good for any man." They lack focus, and celebrate body over mind. They will never learn anything. Celestial Chorus: "Their god of light and caring is a worse tyrant than any mortal king! They mercilessly crush anything in their path just to make sure nobody dare to disagree with them! They burnt our temples, bribed the leaders and defaced the runes! They deserve all the misfortunes they have suffered, and more."
Pagans whose blood rites were justly stopped. Cult of Ecstasy: They celebrate the joy of living like we do, but without any respect. Wild, powerful and scary. Those people are dangerous, and more than a little insane. You would probably be a bit insane too if your faith had been prosecuted for a thousand years, I guess. Dreamspeakers: Like us, they respect nature, but they don't control it. They believe that Erda will help them and give them orders, unlike us, who know that we must fend for ourselves. The gods help those who help themselves.
They are arrogant and foolish, and yet important. They are one of the last links beside us to the old days, and we must accept that. Euthanatos: Noble in their own way, but easily misled. They seek out those fylgia has reached them, and do what needs to be done. We have done the same ourselves through generations without having to build elaborate theories about it.
They have understood that death is just a beginning, and most of them don't fear it. While their ceremonies and myths may be good or bad, their mindset is very balanced. Many of them have the fatalism of true warriors. Order of Hermes: Typical city dwellers. They spend all their time in their houses looking in books, instead of looking at the reality that surrounds them.
They have some primitive understanding of the importance of the balance of the forces of nature, but are trapped in primitive beliefs and their religion. They must learn that the world around them is just a small cog in the great wheel. Sons of Ether: Useless gadgeteers. They could learn much from the dwarves. Running around sprinkling blood and drinking mead? No thanks! Virtual Adepts: What's the point? They have lost contact completely with the ground and are living in their nice castles of air. What will they do when the storm comes?
Yech! Like all those nature-freaks, completely nuts. Technocracy: They are our enemies, and must be crushed in the long run before they bring about Ragnarok in their own way. However, while they control the cities we are taking over what really matters, the countryside.
A small residue of the old religion. Some folkloristic interest, nothing more. Marauders: The followers of Loki. Like their master they will one day show their true allegiance and turn to the forces of destruction completely.
Stuffy and pretentious, but they want to return to the old age like I do. Too bad they won't help. Nephandi: These are the servants of the giants. They seek to help their masters to undermine the World Tree, weaken the people and betray the gods. These are our true enemies, and on the day of Ragnarok we will destroy them.
Silly, inbred peasant-mages who think they know everything. They are dying, and slowly corrupting themselves without even our help. The Undead: We have known for a long time of the existence of undead beings, ghosts, wraiths, vampires, wights and whatever. These beings should be sent back to Hel where they belong to protect the living from their evil.
Dangerous, very dangerous! These mages might not know much about our society or our true nature, but they make it up with their cunning, their sheer stubbornness, their willpower and their magick. They are not afraid of death, and they know many secrets of the Blood and of the Spirits which they use against us. The Werewolves: The children of Fenris are our enemies. These grandchildren of Loki attack our villages, kill the livestock and destroy our sacred places. They must be hunted down and destroyed for the preservation of the Tree!
These Wyrm-spawned breeders are a blight upon the land and must be cleansed away! They deal with dark forces and protect the humans against our righteous wrath! By Thor, we will not rest until every one of these accursed mages are left dead!
The fey: These beings are too diverse to be judged. Some, like the dwarves, can be our grudging allies while the trolls and giants are our enemies. But every one of them is an individual, and most of them are capricious. Be careful in dealing with them, and remember that they flee the iron of Mjolnir.
Funny figures... have danced in their sacred spots a rather long time now. We would really like to play more with them, but they have so much cold iron around them all the time...
Rotes Heritage of the Blood (Time 2 Life 1): In ancient time, the god Heimdallr travelled the land, and sired the thralls, the bards, the farmers and the jarls (the leaders). The trace of the god is still upon the people, and a priest knowledgeable in the ways of the blood can still see it. By feeling the force in the blood, the mage can follow the lineage back through time to its source, and see which group someone really belongs to. This is also used to trace the lineages, and find those special bloodlines which contain the life of the people.
Brew Venom (Life 2 Prime 2 Entropy 1): While the Vikings regarded poison as foul, some of the modern mages use it in the defence of their homes and traditions. By boiling together a foul mixture of blood, salt, yeast, earth, iron, ice and some drops of snake venom under invocations of the powers of death, they create a potent and untraceable poison. The poison can be applied in food or drink, placed on weapons or even on surfaces. The poison will seek out the weakest point of the victim and make him very sick or kill him. System: The poison works as an infection or other disease, completely coincidental. Typical effects can be heart attacks, allergic reactions or food poisoning. It will find the weakest point in the body of the victim using an effect like Dim Mak and then strike. It does three times the number of successes damage levels.
Magic Mead (Matter 2 Prime 2 Mind 2): By adding special herbs and some blood to mead and then brewing it together, the priestess can create a mead which will infuse the drinker with the emotions of the her choice. This is used to create the mead drunk during the Blot, or a subtle way of influencing people.
Mead of Blood (Life 3 Prime 2): This rote may have started as a kind of travesty of the Catholic Mass. By pouring mead into the bowl and adding a few drops of blood, the priest can turn it into blood. However, it doesn't have to look like blood or taste like it, the priest can make it appear to be normal mead. Afterwards, the mead can be used instead of blood as a foci, be imbibed as a source of strength or even used as sustenance for vampires (although practically no modern kindred know about this. Only the oldest Scandinavian Methuselahs have tasted such mead).
Galders Galders are magickal songs sung in a peculiar high pitched voice, with simple and practical effects. These were the most common type of personal magick during the old days, and were completely coincidental. However, as reality became more rigid, they became harder to sing with effect, and today only the priests can use them. They have some peculiar advantages and disadvantages; on one hand they do not require any foci except the song itself. However, the only galders which work today are those which have been sung since the old days, and it is impossible to create new galders with power. It seems as if they have become locked into static reality and cannot change anymore. Naturally, the mages have spent much time preserving and researching the old songs, but unfortunately only a few are known. Here are some typical examples:
Ettergalder (Matter 1): This galder was used by the legendary Egil Skallagrimson when he suspected that his drink was poisoned. He sung it to the mug, and it shattered, showing that the contents were poisoned.
Frostegalder (Life 1): This galder protects from cold and freezing. The mage sings the galder to his flesh and limbs, making them liven up and get warm again.
Runegalder (Prime 1): This galder makes the runes in the vicinity of the singer to shine with their light, making them easy to read. By the intensity of the light the mage can see how powerfully they were inscribed.
Gastegalder (Spirit 2): This galder protects from ghosts and other denizens of the night. By singing it the mage can scare away most of the lesser unbeings.
Bragdegalder (Mind 2): This is a rousing galder which inspires frenzy and bravery among those who hear it. Giljegalder (Mind 2) This galder evokes loving feelings from a person of the opposite sex. Lösegalder (Matter 3): This is a galder which helps mages who have been imprisoned. The mage sings the galder to the bonds, which will release him.
Runes (Prime 3) The art of carving runes is one of the best kept secret of Asatru. Even Odin had to pay dearly for the secret. Once anybody who
knew how could carve the magical runes, but today they require quite powerful magick to create. The physical shape of a rune is no problem, but creating the secret pattern inside which gives it power is hard today after the activities of the Church and the Technocracy. Each rune has to be consecrated with a drop of blood by the carver while he whispers its secret name and concentrates, and the inscription must be charged by tass. However, when finished, the text of runes will work as a kind of talisman, retaining its powers as long as it is charged. If they are recharged or placed on a place where they can recharge from the environment they will last nearly forever. (like on the runestones, which are often placed on ley-lines or nodes. Many retain their power even today)
Vigrunor (Entropy 1 Mind 2 Prime 3): These are runes which are inscribed on a weapon under invocations to Tyr, and will give the wielder success in battle. He will be able to see the weaknesses of his enemies, become brave and fearsome to his foes. System: The Entropy effect will make the user notice the weaknesses of his foe, while the two Mind effects will make him brave and fearless while his foes will become nervous.
Bränningsrunor (Entropy 2 Prime 3): These runes protect ships at sea from accidents and wreckage. They are inscribed on the bow and on the helm. System: The runes will protect from all random accidents and give the helmsman a subconscious ability to find the best course through storms and reefs. Each success will add to his skill.
Lemrunor (Life 4 Prime 3): These runes are the most potent way of healing somebody today in Asatru. Once this type of healing was quite simple, but it has turned hard. The priest writes the runes on the bark of a tree, usually with the blood of the patient. This creates a potent healing force that will seek to heal the patient continuously, thus overcoming and hindering even the most serious diseases as long as the runes are inscribed on the tree. However, the runes can also be used to curse, causing wounds or sickness in the same way as they can heal. By adding or deleting a rune, the inscription can be turned around, which makes it important to keep them secret from enemies. System: The runes will seek to heal any wounds and sickness of the person they mention. Each time he is hurt or becomes sick, the runes will get a chance to heal him. If they cannot heal him completely, they will at least prevent any worsening of the condition.
Protection Runes (Varies, Prime 3): These runes are inscribed on the runestones marking and protecting the old nodes and ley-lines. Usually they consist of nasty and powerful curses (generally the most powerful the present priests can invoke). If the runes are destroyed, the flow of power through the stone is disrupted or somebody moves it, the curse will activate. This has given the Technocracy in Sweden a lot of problems in the past when they have wanted to move the ley-lines. Currently they simply let the stones stand (and actually protect them, to avoid having any spurious magick getting loose) and lead new ley-lines around them.
Edsrunor (Varies, Prime 3): These runes are used to seal oaths, deals and curses. When finished, they force the parts to obey to the text. If any part breaks it, he will suffer the effects described. These are usually the worst possible curses the priest can do, and it is not uncommon to add curses beyond the ability of the mage just for effect. In the case of pure curses, the victim is forced to obey the caster or suffer the full curse. These texts are usually inscribed on stone or wooden boards, and then often placed in sacred places for safekeeping. The only way to remove a curse is to find the runes and erase them, but some really cunning mages write them on pine-needles and scatter them in the forest.
Seid (Spirit, Time) The magick of the Asatru does not deal much with the world of spirits or advanced forms of divination. That was the realm of seid, a kind of magick not done by the normal priests and mages. It was originally a type of magick of the Lapp shaman of northern Scandinavia, and it was regarded with suspicion and fear. Today it is more accepted, but still it remains a slightly separate tradition. However, some elements have been incorporated into modern practice and is used by specialised priestesses, known as völvas. They are respected, but a bit apart from the priesthood of the Aesir. They are recognised by their magickal rods (völva means literally female bearer of a rod), which are their unique foci for Spirit and Time. Some völvas are even said to fly on their rods, or on wolves. Their link to this rod is so strong, that they are said to protect it even after their own death. Seid involves ecstatic trances, where the völva can communicate with the spirits and see the future and past. These are achieved by her sitting on a special settee singing certain ancient galders (or having acolytes sing them at her). These galders are reputedly both beautiful and terrifying, but seem to send the völva into trance. Now she can go out into the spirit world, summon the dead, see past and future or reveal the hidden secrets.
Talismans Idols (Level 1) Bolverk (Level 2) Spawn of Draupnir (Level 2)
Rod of the Volva (Level 3)
Artifact Mead of Poetry The gods created a man called Kvaser as a part of a peace treaty after a civil war. Kvaser was the wisest man who has ever lived, and was able to answer any question. He travelled around the world giving advice and helping people, but one day he was invited as guest by two dwarves called Fjalar and Galar, who killed him. To the gods they explained that Kvaser had gagged on his own wisdom, since nobody could ask him enough. The dwarves brewed the Mead of Poetry out of his blood, which was able to turn anyone into a great poet by drinking it. After many adventures the mead was finally stolen by Odin, who drank most of it and gave some to his fellow gods and some humans. There may still be some mead left somewhere, and if anybody find it and drink it they will gain the gift of poetry. A small note: The old Nordic names are not easy to transcribe, and frankly I lack any linguistic knowledge in this area. I have used those names who fit my impression of old Scandinavian best or have appeared in my sources. Not to mention the problems with the national characters (which didn't exist before the 16th century). Another thing to remember is that the myths are contradictory in many places, and I have made no attempt to simplify things.
AVATARS OF JUSTICE By Carl L. Congdon (
[email protected])
Prelude The first question I always ask myself, as I'm getting into my costume, is why. Why not just get out there and fight? Why risk my neck at all? Don't the Machine Heads have special troops for things like this? Why not just dial 911? But as the screams get louder, I realize: I do it to keep hope alive. I do it because no one else will. I do it...because. A moment to pause, to become one with my fancy suit, and I'm ready to take care of the Thing those bastards summoned. Hopefully, no one's been seriously hurt....
Description There have always been heroes. From the avatars of India to the demigods of Greece, there have always been those mere mortals who went one step beyond the ordinary in their efforts to bring peace, justice, and beneficience to those who could not do for themselves. Although many consider the modern world bereft of heroes, and even the need of them, those who follow this Path know that to be blindness. There will always be heroes, and all the Technocratic advances and cheap nihilism in the world won't change that. The need for a hero is beyond reason and beyond destruction. Those who follow this Path know that, no matter how ridiculous their costumes seem, no matter how easy it is to feel like a joke, no matter how dangerous it can get, their work has to be done. There is no choice in the matter; no room to argue. The rights and dignity of every human being are constantly imperiled, and wishywashiness won't save the day. They take many guises. Some as shadow-dwelling vigilantes, some dress as garish, four-color comicbook heroes, some as Sorcerors Arcane, some as martial artists, some as visitors from other realms. No matter what persona they assume, they do it because they know that the spectacle is almost as important as the mission. They do it because it must be done. They do it because it's who they are.
And it works! Sometimes even the most vulgar of magicks seem acceptable to the Sleepers if it comes from someone wearing a weird-ass costume and spouting cheesy comic-book rhetoric. Somehow, the self-proclaimed Avatars of Justice have tapped into something that the Council Mages have forgotten, the Technocracy can't tap into, and the Marauders and Nephandi can't hope to extinguish. None can say why, and this enigma unnerves them to no end. But the Avatars endure suspicions of Marauder-hood (and less kind slurs) with a shrug, and go back to fighting for Truth, Justice, and a Better World.
Origins Where did they come from? No one knows for sure. Many think that, after World War 2, they came together from the Traditions and Technocracy (and maybe a few from the Marauders) because they were disillusioned with the so-called "Ascension War" and wanted to get back to the basics of helping the so-called "Sleepers." Maybe their fancy get-ups, weird weapons, and highflown purple prose help them push back an ever-graying, ever-dying reality. Maybe they saw a void, and rushed to fill it. Or maybe they are all Marauders. No one seems to know, and if they do, they aren't telling.
Philosophy We aren't gods; we aren't willworkers; we are heroes. That is the beginning and end of why we do it. We do it for the people; we do it for ourselves; we do it because everyone has to relearn that what they do matters. Yeah, we're flashy and come close to being suicidal. Yeah, the pay sucks, the hours are long, and there's no such thing as retirement benefits. But it goes beyond us and our petty concerns. There are other things to worry about, and we care about them, a lot.
Tools/Style The wind at our backs, the enemy in front of us, with only the power of righteousness and the will to make it happen, that's what makes us what we are. The capes, gadgets, rhetoric, and foolish stunts are all gaudy wrapping; we know it, and so does everyone else. What matters is that we separate ourselves from the mundane, and in so doing rise above it. But we protect those who can't help themselves, and that's where our power comes from: our purpose.
Organization
The new recruits are looked upon with respect and hope, while the veteran heroes are prized for their experience and savvy. On the whole, everything is decided in a democratic manner.
Initiation Many "solos" who have Awakened are picked up and taught a few things that every mage should know. Joining is voluntary; ironically, the numbers of this Craft are growing at a remarkable rate. The initiate plans his persona (costume, catch-phrase, mock-history, and special "powers") and announces them to his mentors. After a couple of missions, the initiate is accepted, either as a full member, or as a contact.
Avatar Usually appears as the ghost of a lost relative, a comic-book hero, an alien contact, or a enigmatic mentor.
Followers Family, fan-boys and fan-girls, sci-fi nuts, true believers, ex-convicts on the straight and narrow.
Concepts Pick up a comic book and figure it out!
Stereotypes Council Of Nine: If you're not helping The People, you're not doing what you're supposed to! F*** your pointless Ascension War!
Technocracy: Ends do not justify means. Ends become means and soon means become ends in themselves. You had your chance, but you became what you sought to overthrow.
Nephandi: The Antithesis of us. Ask for no quarter, and if necessary, give none. I wish there was a better way, but sometimes there simply isn't.
Marauders: As dangerous as the Nephandi. Pity them, but keep them away from the innocent, first and foremost. Orphans: They'll come around.
Notes The Superhero Effect (what allows them to pull of their kewl stunts and sooperpowers) is allowed by a Charisma + Blatancy roll, difficulty 8-10. Also, their Arcane can fluctuate depending on whether or not they're wearing their costumes or not.
CONTINUUM AND NEXUS MODIFICATIONS By Shelby Babb (
[email protected]) (with additions by Constantine Thomas and Anders Sandberg) for Constantine Thomas's Continuum tradition. (Also see Constantine Thomas's Nexus, and Arthur-Trevor D.M. Lasher's Southron Republic virtual)
Creatures of Nexus Introduction Scattered throughout Nexus are numerous forms of life unique to the dimension. Some forms of life use the fluctuations of time to accelerate themselves, slow their prey, or even as a source of food. Continuum researchers have discovered many strange plants and animals, and even a few even more exotic life forms, manipulating time to aid in their survival. Below are just a few of the more commonly encountered creatures native to Nexus.
Lance Grass The plant known as Lance Grass appears as a patch of very thick grass of irregular size, with some blades no more than a few inches tall and other blades several feet in height. Whenever a creature passes by, advanced thermal sensory cilia in the grass triggers a growth reaction in the smaller blades, causing them to shoot up from the ground and impale themselves in the passing animal. After the blades strike their prey a set of secondary cilia along the blade begin to siphon fluids from the slain creature. Once the plant grows out to its fullest length, it can no longer accelerate its growth and will soon sprout thousands of baby seedlings around itself. Lance Grass has been known to stay in the seedling stage for decades, waiting for a passing animal to start its growth cycle. Some species of Lance Grass are known to grow fractally - these are identical in behaviour to the normal species, but as they grow in the body the blades split into smaller and smaller fractal branches. Also, the sructure of the fractal plant constantly appears to shift depending on which angle it is viewed from. [Lance Grass can be treated as having 0 STA and 0 STR. For every square meter of grass present the plant can take three wounds, and attacks with a damage of 2 and an automatic hit. Once a patch makes an attack, it can strike repeatedly due to it's numerous seedlings.]
Fungal Wind A horrible parasitic fungus has recently been discovered in one of the Virtuals and brought back to Nexus where it has thrived (see "Fungal Wind" in Virtuals). The Fungal Wind is an airborne spore that takes root in any mammal's lungs and throat. Once in place the spores begin to grow throughout the creature, increasing his adrenaline and endorphins while destroying his nervous system and body. Once a creature is infected he becomes a transmitter, spreading the spores to all who come within ten feet of him (three feet in Nexus due to the speed of growth the creature experiences. While the Fungal Wind typically took five to six weeks to kill its host in its home Virtual, it grows more rapidly in the more humid environment of Nexus -- this gives its host only three to four weeks of life. But the Fungal Wind of Nexus does not completely destroy the host's mind, turning him into a fully rational creature of death and disease. [Whenever a mammal is exposed to a carrier (or group of carriers), have him make a stamina roll (Difficulty of 10, three successes needed). If he succeeds he is immune to all attacks of Fungal Wind; if he fails he becomes a carrier. In Nexus the Fungal Wind changes a character's attributes as follows: STR +2, STA +4, all Social scores at -5. In the original dimension the Fungal Wind caused the following changes: DEX -1, STR +3, STA +5, INT -3, WIT -2, and all Social Attributes at -5. Life magic can be used to affect the Fungal Wind, but all attempts are at +2 difficulty.]
Shimmer Wave The debate continues among Continuum members as to whether or not this is even a form of life. The "no-lifers" say that the Shimmer Wave is merely attracted to the bio-electrical fields of living creatures, much as dust in space is attracted to planets by gravity. The "lifers" disagree, stating instances of Shimmer Waves using tactics to stalk its prey and other Waves seemingly trying to protect Continuum researchers. Either way, Shimmer Waves appear as bizarre, two-dimensional clouds of golden light up to a dozen meters in diameter. Shimmer Waves wash over plant and animals, either accelerating or reversing the age of a creature. Inanimate objects are also
affected, but the Shimmer Waves are drawn towards living creatures. There appears to be no known reason for Shimmer Wave behavior, or any way to predict which path a Wave will age those it passes over; some will be aged and some will be made young again. In fact some Waves have been known to immediately return to those it has passed over, reversing its own changes. [For those the Wave ages, subtract one from all Physical attributes and add one to all Mental attributes. For those the wave makes young, subtract one from INT and STR, and add one to DEX and STA. Inanimate items are also affected so that an old car may become new again, or a new watch may turn rusted and stop working.]
Keevar The Keevar are a breed of dinosaur-like carnivores originating from Sauron that are able to "jump" through their evolutionary path. The first form of the Keevar is that of a giant shark with legs to swim, the second is a very fast tyrannosaur creature that uses it arms to grab prey, and the third is a large winged harpy-like beast. The Keevar will shape-shift throughout combat in order to frighten and confuse its prey. Keevar always travel alone, except during the mating season when huge flocks will gather for an orgy of breeding. Many among the Continuum fear that the Keevar will soon develop another form, a form that will give the Keevar the power to force the Continuum out of Nexus. Given the growing intellect of the Keevar, and the increasing numbers of Keevar, this view is gaining followers quickly. [The Keevar have three forms, and are able to change from any form into any of the other three once per turn. Keevar health levels are shared between forms so that if a Keevar take five wounds in its shark form, all forms have five wounds less. Keevar health levels are: OK (x5), -1 (x5), -2 (x3), -3, Incapacitated, Dead. Shark Form: STR 10, DEX 3, STA 12, PER 4, Dodge 3, Brawl 3, Alertness 3. Treat as having 4 points of armor. Bite (Diff: 6, Dam: 12), Trample (Diff: 8, Dam: 14). Running Speed: 15 yards, Swimming Speed: 35 yards. Tyranno Form: STR 11, DEX 5, STA 10, PER 3, Dodge 2, Brawl 5, Alertness 2. Treat as having 1 point of armor. Bite (Diff: 6, Dam: 14). Running Speed: 35 yards. Harpy Form: STR 6, DEX 9, STA 8, PER 6, Dodge 3, Brawl 1, Alertness 5. Claw rake (Diff: 6, Dam: 6), Bite (Diff: 8, Dam: 8). Flying Speed: 45, Running Speed: 9 yards.]
Fallers Fallers are only theoretical to the Continuum at this point. As a series of data collections was being conducted in Nexus, the research team began noticing fluctuations in the time-stream. The researchers were able to determine that something was traveling backwards through time, and that this something was about to appear. Ten minutes later one of the members was comatose, three had disappeared into the future, and two were dead and partially devoured. With mental probes of the comatose victim, the Continuum was able to discover that a species of insects were falling from the future into the past, and that they used sentient life from the times they entered to take their place in the future. Some Continuum members fear that these creatures acting in Nexus, and the Zigg'raugglurr acting in Gaia, point to the existence of the Aswad of Time waiting for them in the future of the Continuum. Further inconclusive encounters with the Fallers have yielded enough information to allow the Continuum to at least theorise about their nature and behaviour (though as yet no-one has seen a Faller in the flesh). It appears that Fallers are beings that travel linearly (but in a non-continuous manner) through time, from our future to our past. As they travel, they devour Quintessence from Patterns around them in order to power their jumps back through time -- the amount of Quintessence devoured determines the span of the jump. This puts Mages at great risk, as their Avatars can provide much fuel for the Fallers' journeys... The consensus in the Continuum is that Fallers are very insidious agents of the Darkness, created to destroy Virtuals (though they can be found in Nexus). They arrive at the end of the timespan of the Virtual Corridors (perhaps where the walls of the Virtual are the weakest) and travel back in time along the Virtual, devouring any Quintessence along the way. When they arrive at the start of the Virtual Corridor (remember that the universe before the Virtual branched off from Main Corridor is also duplicated when the Virtual is created), they are very powerful through the Quintessence they have devoured along the way, which allows them to devour the nascent Virtual universe before it even has a chance to form - of course, this means the Virtual effectively never existed. Since they are agents of the Darkness, the Fallers themselves are unaffected by the destruction of the Virtual however, since the Virtual itself never formed (because they ate it when it was young) all the Quintessence they absorbed never existed. So they leave the 'destroyed Virtual' with no more Quintessence that they started off with, and then move on to another Virtual, where they arrive at the end of that Virtual's timestream relatively weak and start the whole process again. There are obvious similarities between the Fallers and the Zigg'raugglurr in MC, and it is believed the two are related somehow. [No one has yet encountered a Faller and been able to give a complete description; even the mental probings of the comatose subject revealed little. However, the Continuum fears that Fallers cannot be wounded by those outside of their timestream, and that the only way to hope to stop them is to freeze time in an area, and let Fallers fall into the frozen moment.
If anyone should encounter Fallers their stats are as follows: STR: 5, DEX: 6, STA: 3, PER: 4, WIT:???, INT: ???, Brawl: 3, Dodge: 2, Alertness: 3, Other Abilities: ???. Claws (Diff: 6, Dam 6), Bite (Diff: 7, Dam: 8). Has 2 points of armor. Health Levels: OK (x2), -1 (x2), -3, Incapacitated, Dead.]
Tran The Tran are a species of carrion-eaters with the ability to foresee the deaths of other creatures. The wolf-like tran are usually very peaceful creatures, especially since they know where their next meal is coming from. But, if food is scarce, tran have been known to attack. Despite this, most animals are calm in the presence of a pack of tran who are just waiting. Continuum members in Nexus often look for tran as a warning of impending danger. Sometimes fate will not be denied, and the presence of tran causes enough fear and excitement that the very act of fleeing causes creatures to die. [Tran tend to travel in small packs of three to six members. Tran stats are as follows: STR 2, DEX 3, STA 2, PER 3, Dodge 1, Brawl 1, Alertness 3. Bite (Diff: 6, Dam: 3).]
Time Mosquitos These insects are the Nexus version of common mosquitos, but suck time instead of blood. They usually suck out a few seconds, which will vanish while the insect is biting -- the victim will just notice that everything seems to jump a little bit, nothing more (the bite is however rather itchy). However, a swarm of time mosquitos can be quite irritating or even fatal, as they suck out time at a crucial point. These swarms are very confusing, since the mosquitos phase in and out of time, suddenly appearing out of nowhere or vanishing when struck.
Jumping Plants Another relatively harmless kind of being. Many plants are able to move through time, and use this both to get as much sunlight as possible and to avoid herbivores. When the sun is clouded, the weather is going to become too dry or the plant is in shadow, it will move forward into time until conditions are good again, and it will vanish when someone tries to eat it or hurt it. Sometimes whole fields or groves just vanish, only to reappear later.
Waiting Rabbits These small creatures look somewhat like very small rabbits although they spend most of their time sitting around waiting. They are able to snatch beings out of the timestream, especially Jumping Plants, and spend most of their time waiting for something to pass. They can make long jumps in time and space, and when scared they just vanish. They also have the irritating habit of snatching passing things regardless of what they are and hiding them in their burrows.
Timespiders These large spiders build elaborate four-dimensional nets, catching small animals moving through spacetime into their region. They look like a Picasso rendition of a spider, constantly shifting in perspective and surrounding by a strange net which seems to grow from nothing, expand to a size of a few meters and then shrink and vanish as 'now' moves past it. Time mosquitos, young waiting rabbits and birds suddenly find themselves trapped in the net and eaten by the spider.
Eating Balls A spherical creature, when young, not unlike a tribble from Star Trek, but its adult form is a big, shaggy ball which rolls,jumps and teleports so that something moving through time will get trapped inside their specially adapted digestive systems (they don't need any mouth). They are omnivorous, and eat time mosquitos, jumping plants, waiting rabbits and careless chrononauts...
Snatchers Snatchers look like packs of wolves with strangely irradescent fur (actually, the effect is quite similar to Timestone) and unusually big mouths filled with fangs which reflect light in a distinctly odd way. Snatcher packs roam Nexus, and find places close to virtuals where they gather together, chew a hole through reality into a virtual, and snatch away their food. From inside the Virtual the event looks just like the victim vanishes into thin air, possibly leaving a bloodstain. These beings are behind many
unexpected disappearances, and their ability to chew through the walls of reality is very worrying...
Coding Virtuals Introduction In labeling Virtuals, the Continuum tries to use a standardized classification system -- the Virtual Profile -- for ease of recording basic features. Virtuals are labeled regularly labeled as below, but as new Virtuals are discovered the system is revised and updated to better conform with increases in the knowledge of the Continuum. The Continuum classes Virtuals as follows: Common Name Energy [Quint] Rating Human Factor Magick Factor Tech Factor Environmental Factor Control Factor Entity Factor Danger Factor Temporal Proximity Unique (ID) Code Common Name
Coding Explanations Common Name: This is the name by which the Continuum commonly refers to the Virtual. Occasionally the name by which its inhabitants refer to it is used. In the Classification Scheme, it is placed either before or after the Profile itself, depending on the preferences of individual agents.
Energy [Quintessence] Rating: Perhaps one of the most important codes for a Virtual, this indicates the strength of the Virtual's existence. Since Virtuals are invariably weaker copies of Main Corridor, they contain less inherent Energy [the Continuum term for Quintessence] than MC. The Energy Rating indicates how many points of Virtual Quintessence are equivalent to one point of MC Quintessence. Many Virtuals are have a Quint Rating of 2 - ie. two Virtual Quint points are equivalent to one MC Quint Point. The most potent Virtuals have a Quint Rating of 1, which means that one Virtual Quint point has the same strength as on from MC. The Energy Rating of the Virtual determines how vulnerable it is to attack by the Darkness - weaker Virtuals may be more unstable... [Editor's note: I'm sure that the strength of the Virtuals would have other important effects on magick cast by MC Mages there, but I can't figure out what this effect would be (aside from the difference in Quint strength) - any ideas?] 0 Main Corridor. Only Main Corridor has this rating. This means that the Corridor is an original and not a Virtual. 1 Level 1 Virtual. The Virtual is derived from MC, but is strong enough that one point of Virtual Quint is equivalent to one point of MC Quint. The difference between Codes 1 and 0 is subtle -- while a Code 1 Virtual may be Quintessentially as strong as Main Corridor, it is still derived from MC. 2 Level 2 Virtual. The most common type of Virtual, where two points of Virtual Quint are equivalent to one point of MC Quint. 3 Level 3 Virtual. The weakest known Virtuals, these are particularly susceptible to destruction by the Darkness. Three points of Virtual Quintessence are equivalent to one point of MC Quintessence here. U Unstable Virtual. Very few Virtuals receive this classification, which indicates that the Virtual is losing cohesion either through invasion by the Darkness or other unknown means. Collapse may or may not be imminent, but it is inevitable unless the process can be halted somehow (eg. Neverland). Note that there are no Virtuals weaker than level 3.
The Human Factor: The first number of any label, the Human Factor indicates the presence and strength of humanity in a given Virtual. 1 2 3 4 5
Humanity is the only dominant race to be found (e.g. our Earth). Humanity is the dominant sentient race, but others exist in hiding (e.g. the World of Darkness). Humanity and one other race share (or fight over) dominance of the Virtual together. Humanity and multiple other races share dominance of the Virtual. Humanity exists, but another race holds dominance over the Virtual, keeping humanity subjugated or in hiding (e.g. Vamp World).
6 Humanity does not exist in the Virtual, and may never have (e.g. Sauron). 7 No sentient races exist in the Virtual (e.g. XX). S The dominant species is sentient, whether human or not. N The dominant species, while most likely intelligent, is not sentient. X The dominant species no longer exists. This can occur through catastrophic war, disease, natural extinction, or other means (eg. Neverland).
The Magick Factor: This factor indicates the strength of one or more paradigms of magic in the Virtual. This factor is also given a letter designation as well, to better define the factor. 0 Quintessence exists, as does Paradox. Thus, only Mages and Awakened beings can perform magick. However, there is no dominant paradigm, which allows the Mage to perform all Vulgar Magick as if it was Coincidental. An example of this is the MC Umbra. This is frequently the case in uninhabited Virtuals (eg. Lucifer). 1 Magick does not exist in any form, and never has. Vulgar magicks are impossible, and coincidental magick causes paradox as Vulgar does normally. Escape from the Virtual is usually only possible by some special way (e.g. real Earth's Bermuda Triangle). Note however that Quintessence always exists, even on magick-free Virtuals. 2 One paradigm of magick holds sway, and is commonly accepted as truth. All others are subject to Paradox (e.g. the Order of Hermes during the Mythic Era). 3 A gathering of paradigms are merged and hold power, while all other magicks are subject to Paradox (e.g. the Technocracy in the World of Darkness, and the Cabal of Deathtech). 4 All collective paradigms are empowered, but the threat of Paradox still exists due to mages still being few in number and the majority of individuals unaccepting of magick. For example, mages are capable of many feats expected of them, but Paradox would hinder other effects (e.g. Eldritch). 5 All individual paradigms are supported, and Paradox is non-existent. Individual thoughts (even of non-Awakened beings) can alter vast amounts of reality. The Continuum has yet to encounter such a Virtual and believes them to be merely theoretical. C One or more non-human species may have magical abilities, and only these creatures possess magickal abilities. T Indicates the dominance of a technomancer paradigm. N Indicates the dominance of a non-technomancer paradigm. M Indicates the dominance of a mixed technomancer and non-technomancer paradigm. I Indicates the existence of identical or similar paradigms to MC in the Virtual. U Indicates the existence of unique and unknown paradigms in the Virtual.
Technology Factor: This factor represents how similar the technology of a Virtual is to that of the mainstream (nonParadoxical) technology of Main Corridor. 0 No technology exists at all. This code is commonly used Virtuals with no intelligent life. 1 The technology of the Virtual is identical to that of the Main Corridor in every way. 2 Certain minor differences exist between the Virtual and Main Corridor. For example one world may have interactive television in every home, and/or Xerox machines are unknown. 3 Major differences exist between the two. Citizens of a Virtual may all have hand held lasers and sentient robots while another still has yet to forge a suit of plate mail. A Technology as it is known in the Main Corridor is non-existent, but an alien technology is highly commonplace. For example, a Virtual may utilize life energy to power its technology (which is organically-based as well). F Futuristic Technology. The technology within the Virtual has advanced to a level greater than that in MC. P Primitive Technology. The technology in the Virtual is less advanced than in MC.
Environmental Factor: This indicates how similar the physical environment is to MC Earth. It is useful for determining the need for physical protection before entering. E Earthlike environment. No special environmental protection measures are needed. I Inconvenient environment. Generally Earthlike, but surface conditions require special needs. Eg. Breathable but tainted air, planet covered entirely by water, desert or glacial planets. D Dangerous environment. Air is still breathable, but physical environment is dangerous to life -- eg. highly volcanic worlds, high radiation levels etc. X Extreme environment. Conditions are not remotely Earthlike, and highly dangerous without substantial protection. Eg. no/toxic/corrosive atmosphere, unusual physical laws, very high or low surface temperature (eg. Lucifer)
Control Factor: An important factor to explorers among the Continuum, the control factor indicates the level of freedom and oppression (and also chaos and stability) present in a Virtual as compared to that of Main Corridor as well as how the existence of the Continuum, Nexus and magick would be viewed by natives. 0 No control. The Virtual is uninhabited. Code 0 alone implicitly assumes that no Continuum Base has been established on the Virtual. However, Code 0B (see below) indicates that while the Virtual itself is uninhabited, the Continuum has established a base there. 1 The existence of freedom is omnipresent and individual rights are held by whoever has the most power. The concepts of justice and law are practically unknown, such as in packs of animals.
2 The amount of an individual's freedom is based on his or her social status, religion, or economic worth. For example, in ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs held much more freedom and power than the slave workers. 3 An individual's freedom is subject to his geographic position and government much as current politics dictate in the Main Corridor. 4 Only one governmental system can be found in the Virtual, containing limited amounts of control; a one world democracy/republic. 5 Only one governmental system can be found in the Virtual, containing intensive amounts of control; a totalitarian one world state. B The Continuum has established a Base on this Virtual. If already inhabited, this base is kept extremely secret. Usually, Bases are established only on uninhabited Virtuals. S The existence of magick, Nexus and the Continuum must be kept a secret from the natives of the Virtual at large. This code is given to all Virtuals by default, and only extreme amounts of evidence will call for an A classification. A This Virtual has been, after vast gatherings of data, found to be accepting of the existence of magick, Nexus and the Continuum. Of the thousands of Virtuals the Continuum has found, only a handful have ever been even considered for A classification.
Entity Factor: The existence of entities with vast power is often encoded into the labeling as well, but only if the existence of such is known as an indisputable fact. E Within this Virtual exist one or more beings of immense power equal to that attributed to gods of legend. W This Virtual definitely does not possess powerful entities such as Oracles, Incarna, or Antediluvians. However, worship of similar such entities may still be present despite the lack of "deities." Such Virtuals usually have low Magick Factors. U The existence or non-existence of Powerful Entities in this Virtual is unknown.
Danger Factor: The single most important label to many members of the Continuum, the danger factor indicates the nature of especially dangerous Virtuals. Only the most deadly of Virtuals can expect a special notation. 0 A literal paradise. Threats to life are practically unknown and non-existent. Only three Virtuals have ever received this code, and one later had it revoked. 1 The dangers within this Virtual are roughly equal to those found within the Main Corridor and Nexus. This is the most common classification to be found for the Danger Factor. A The animal life found on this world is much more dangerous than normally expected. Extremely so. Usually, such creatures are the dominant life of the Virtual. E There are one or more entities in this Virtual which threaten those who would explore the Virtual. More often than not, these Virtuals are given a Z rating instead and are sealed. M There are multiple factors that have combined to make the world as deadly and dangerous as it is. P The plant life found on this world is much more dangerous than normally expected. Extremely so. Occasionally, such creatures are the dominant life of the Virtual and animal life may be unknown. R A sentient race present in the Virtual has been evaluated as too much of a hazard, and contact with members of this race is to be as limited as possible. V There are one or more illnesses present in the Virtual which are highly hazardous. Many such Virtuals receive the Z rating if they are found to be great a threat to Nexus. Q Quarantined. No contact is allowed from Nexus, except by specially trained teams and exceptional circumstances. The Portal to the Virtual is constantly guarded, and any inhabitants who escape (by having a Temporal Avatar) are hunted down and 'contained' - a complex procedure involving Mind, Prime, and Spirit magick which blocks the Temporal Avatar and prevents it from leaving the Virtual again. Additionally, all memory of the existence of Nexus is erased for the fugitive's mind. This Code is usually applied to those Virtuals whose inhabitants are highly xenophobic, though there are other reasons. However, there is usually a reason why the Continuum wishes to continue accessing the Virtual, which would make Sealing it off forever (see below) undesirable. Z The danger of this Virtual is so extreme and threatening to Nexus and the Main Corridor, that the Continuum has decreed that the Virtual is to be permanently Sealed for eternity. Should someone break the Seal they will be forced to undergo Gilgul. If they are lucky. Only a few Virtuals have ever received this rating. (Sealing is a very complex procedure, similar to the Containment of Temporal Avatars described above but on a much larger scale - it permanently shuts off the Virtual from Nexus. No-one can enter it, and no-one can leave it unless very powerful magicks are used).
Temporal Proximity: This indicates how similar the history of the Virtual is to MC Earth's. High Proximity ratings are indicative of those Virtuals whose history diverged from Earth's a long time ago -- these usually have many natural and environmental differences to MC. Remember that each Virtual is chronologically synchronised with MC Earth -- in all Virtuals, it is now the year 1995 (even if the natives have a different dating system). However, the rate of technological/biological/social evolution may be different to MC Earth's, so civilisations on the Virtual may be more or less advanced than our own even though it is the same time. 1 Recent Divergence. Branching from MC history occurred within the last century (ie. after 1900 AD, MC time). 2 Millenial Divergence. Braching from MC history occurred within the last millenium (after 1000 AD, MC time). 3 Bimillenial Divergence. Braching from MC history occurred within the past 2000 years (ie. after 1 AD, MC time) 4 Ice Age Divergence. Branching from MC history occurred within the past 18000 years, since the last Ice Age. This span of
time encompasses all of recorded human history. 5 Prehistoric Divergence. Branching from MC history occurred within the past 650 million years (the dawn of the Cambrian Era). This encompasses the history of multi-celled life on the planet. 6 Archaean (ancient) Divergence. Branching from MC history occurred within the past 4600 million years -- up to the formation of the Earth (and Solar System) itself. 7 Universal Divergence. Branching from MC history took place before the Earth ever existed, up to 15000 million years ago -the birth of the Universe. Note that Virtuals with Proximity rating above Code 4 are increasingly likely to differ from MC Earth, as tiny changes in the Virtual's history this far back are likely to have very large knock on effects further down the line (Chaos Theory is alive and well in evolution...). As a real-life example, the Cambrian Explosion, the huge proliferation of life that took place 650 million years ago, produced many bizarre forms of primitive life, including spherically symmetric forms, and even a form with seven pairs of legs and five eyes. If one of these forms had survived instead of the one that later evolved into our most primitive ancestors, then it is likely that the life that evolved from that initial 'progenitor organism' would not be bilaterally symmetric, possessing 4 limbs and a sensory appendage (the head). Note that Code 7 Virtuals are usually highly dangerous places, since the Earth either does not exist, or the physical laws (set at the start of the Universe) are different there.
Unique Factor (ID Code): To distinguish one Virtual from another that has an identical label, the Continuum uses a four letter/number code. Also, Virtuals are typically given a "common name," used in the field and in less formal matters. The system used to identify Virtuals is usually as follows: (initials of discoverer, number of Virtuals discovered by him) Thus, Frederick Brown has discovered his 14th Virtual. The code will therefore be FB14. This system is commonly used to categorise uninhabited Virtuals. However, in some cases the Virtual is given a special ID code to make it more recognisable. These Virtuals are the more commonly explored or better known ones, such as Sauron, Aegypt and Vamp World. In these cases the ID Code is similar in appearance to the common name of the Virtual (eg. Sauron is SAU1, Vamp World is VMP5)
Existing Virtual Codes (updated) With this expanded classification in mind, the Profiles for the existing Virtuals are now as follows: KEY: Name - Common name for Virtual Energy - Energy [Quint] rating Hum - Human Factor Mag - Magickal Factor Tech - Technological Factor Env - Environmental Factor Ctrl - Control Factor Ent - Entity Factor Dngr - Danger Factor Prox - Temporal Proximity ID - ID Code Name
EnergyHumMag TechEnvCtrl EntDngrProxID
Vamp World 1 Fungal Wind 2 Wotan 2 Aegypt 1 Sauron 1 Lucifer 1 Neverland 1U Lemuria 2 Terra Prime 2 Reich 2 Armageddon2
5S 1S 2S 3S 6S 7 7X 4S 1S 2S 1S
2CI 1 1 2P 2CNU1 2CMU3A 4CNU3A 0 0 0 1 2CNI 3P 1TI 3F 2CMU2F 1 1P
I X E E E X E E E E D
5S E 1S W 5ABE 3SBE 3SBU 0B U 0B U 4SBE 5S E 5S U 1S W
M 1 VZ 1 1 3 EMQ4 1 5 M 6 1 1 1 3 RMQ1 RMQ1 M 1
VMP5 YF73 WOT1 AEG8 SAU1 LCF6 NVR0 PT06 TER1 RCH1 GB12
Virtual 3S-2CI-1-2S-E-M-VMP5 (Vamp World) First came the warnings of "Varney the Vampire" and then "Dracula," but it wasn't until the year 1908 that the world came to
realize the truth of vampiric existence when the Damned Legion made it's first appearance in Germany. With the powers that the vampires' held they overwhelmed every enemy they encountered, adding fallen soldiers to their ranks as they swept across Europe. The first World War began as America, Russia, England, and African forces all united to contain and overwhelm the undead of Europe. Then the Second Wave began. In 1945 the most powerful heads of the Lasombra, including the Antediluvian, united to create the Darksphere, a twilight cloak across the globe that let in a twisted form of light so that plants could still grow, while keeping the world dark enough to protect the undead from the rays of the sun. The plan would have succeeded completely if it hadn't been for the Tremere, who feared that amount of power belonging to any other clan. The Tremere interrupted the Lasombra in the middle of the Darksphere ritual, causing the Darksphere to suffer from fluctuations, some temporary and some permanent. Despite the lack of complete success with the Darksphere, the vampires initiated the Third (and final) Wave. From hidden lairs across the world, the vampires attacked the resisting nations. Some, such as England, were spared the cover of the Darksphere and were able to hold out better than others. Nearly a century later the vampires have conquered the world, and only scattered bands of freedom fighters and nations spared the touch of the Darksphere can hope to resist. Currently the various clans of vampires view each other in a number of different ways, all under the leadership of the Lasombra led Camarilla against the Tremere supported human forces of the Sabbat. The Assamites were reluctant supporters of the Lasombra in their bid for dominance, eliminating VIPs among both human and Kindred. However, the Assamites still hold grudges against many among the Kindred for their part in the Tremere curse made during the dark ages. The Brujah relish the conflict, leading huge armies of ghouls into battle against the free humans for the glory of combat. In fact, many Brujah allow humans to survive freely so as to provide challenging opponents to deal with, especially if said humans interfere with the other clans. The Gangrel tend to follow one of two camps. The Warriors have joined the Camarilla as fighters and leaders, competing with the Brujah as warlords for either the Camarilla or the Sabbat. The Isolated seek only peaceful existence by themselves in the wilds, away from all other factions. The Giovanni were known to have existed at a time long ago in the past, but all members of the clan seem to have been destroyed two hundred years ago. Some rumor that a few, highly paranoid, individuals still exist in absolute fear for their unlives. The Followers of Set have joined with the Tremere due to repeated attempts by the Camarilla to destroy them. With the protection of the Sabbat, the Setites have been able to increase their numbers greatly. Recent rumors also indicate that Set himself has been moved to Rome for reasons currently unknown. The Lasombra, after claiming leadership of the Camarilla during the Inquisition, led the vampires strongly and well. With the awakening of Lasombra himself in the late 1890's, the clan was acknowledged as the one true leader by all. Now, the Lasombra work to strengthen the Darksphere and continue rule of the others. And aid Lasombra in his other projects. The Malkavians have united under the banner of a human claiming to be none other than Malkav. Currently, he directs his followers to overwhelm both factions in order to free humanity again. Many disagree with him, but this living mortal undeniably holds power unknown to even the Antediluvians. The Nosferatu, like the Giovanni in the past, are being hunted to extinction. The Methuselahs and a few Elders are all that remains, but they have banded together in the islands of New Zealand and are preparing for the worst. No life is allowed to come near the islands save the herds of native pigs. The Ravnos have joined the Sabbat, seeing the birth of the Darksphere and the complete devastation of the world as a horrendous abomination. The Ravnos are also the only other clan to regularly deal with the Malkavians, who see them as worthy for survival. The Toreador tend to work as the "shepherds" of the Camarilla's herds of humanity. The Toreador are known for their experiments in flavoring of human vitae, as well as grotesque arts they make of human flesh and bone. They are perhaps the most despised of all the Camarilla clans, after the Lasombra. Tremere are the most "human friendly" of all the clans. The Tremere have even gone so far as to teach the arts of hedge magic to those who will accept them. They lead the Sabbat not only to ensure their own survival, but also to give them the power they so greatly crave. With the awakening of Tremere, the clan as a whole is filled with a feeling of invincibility. The Tzimisce is unknown to natives of this world. The Ventrue have been relegated to a position of overseer of society, taking the roles of bureaucrats among the Camarilla. The Ventrue objected at first, but the power of the Lasombra kept their voices silent. But with Ventrue himself leaving torpor this may soon change. Other bloodlines are known to exist, but their power and numbers are limited at best. Humanity consists of either food stock kept in breeding kennels by the Camarilla, or free humans siding with the vampires of the Sabbat. The Camarilla discourages the creation of ghouls, instead preferring the creation of blood bound kindred. The Sabbat however encourages the creation of ghouls, with humans using the Viniculum as a means to keep themselves free of the Blood Bond. But even Sabbat humans refuse to become vampires themselves except in the greatest of need. Whereas the Camarilla cares nothing for the humans they deal with, the Sabbat knows that their continued survival depends on their unity with mortals.
As such, Sabbat vampires commonly only feed from animals, blood bags, or willing individuals. In return, free humans often give blood donations to keep their allies fed. While neither side enjoys the situation, both prefer this over enslavement and death. Also of note is that werewolves, mages, wraiths, and faeries are unknown to exist save only as legends. Even the Antediluvians don't know the truths behind these legends. With the creation of the Darksphere, the entire environment was altered. While plants can still grow, they tend to suffer more mutations than before, growing stunted and twisted, or enlarged and tumorous. Crops are still safe for consumption, but the plant life looks greatly changed from what we would recognize. The structure of the Darksphere is flawed, allowing pure sunlight to creak through from time to time in various places. Some areas like England and the central United States are completely free of the Darksphere, but these areas are very rare. Despite the freedom the Darksphere gives vampires, it also has a cost; vampires have become vulnerable to the light of the stars at night as if it were an overcast day. Walking unprotected at night will burn the flesh of the Kindred! Currently England, the Bread Belt of America, Australia, and Rome are the only strongholds left of free humanity. Of these four, only the first two are free from the grasp of the Darksphere. Australians tend to be paranoid even by free human standards and its the only thing keeping them alive. The power of faith shines in scattered areas, but no where does it shine stronger than in Rome, stronghold of the last free humans to not ally themselves with the Sabbat, the Inquisition.
Virtual 1S-1-2-1S-W-V-7YF3 (Fungal Wind) The Cold War was a time period of weapons stockpiling, in preparation for a war no one really wanted. But despite the power of the atomic bomb, on this Virtual the weapon of choice wasn't nuclear, it was biological. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations spared no costs to develop the ultimate weapons and cures, leading to highly advanced understandings of biochemistry, genetic engineering, and other "monster-creation" sciences. With the reign of Kennedy and Khruschev came the Cuban Missile Crisis, but with a decidedly different ending. Kennedy, receiving erroneous reports of a "germ-missile" launch from the USSR towards America ordered the launching of the US germmissiles. Soon, all sides were launching all matter of horrendous microbes and organisms in what became known as the Fungal Wind (so named due to the heavy amount of Fungal Wind released in Cuba by the US during the first launch). When many of these creations were exposed to each other, the low background count left from the few atomic blasts, and the tailor-made antibodies created for protection, the germs mutated into even more bizarre life. Decades passed as human civilization disintegrated, forcing mankind to revert to bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers. Over 40% of the population of the planet was wiped out by the accumulated diseases; the death tolls would have been much higher if it weren't for the limited effectiveness of advanced antibiotics and medications. In the present day over hundreds of viruses still roam across the globe, most notable being the Fungal Wind. The Fungal Wind is a horrible disease that takes root in a person's respiratory system where it incubates without any sign of symptoms. After a period of two weeks, the virus spreads to the host's nervous system and becomes air-transmittable. At this point, victims begin to experience slight headaches that grow in intensity and duration. After another two to three weeks the virus completely destroys the victim's higher reasoning powers, turning him into little more than an animalistic predator. During this stage the victim's eyes turn to a dark black, as the virus attacks the optic nerves. Finally, after another three weeks the victim dies, his nervous system completely eaten away. Another problem often encountered is that of the Impregnator, also known as the Maggot Momma'. Genetically engineered from several predatory insects, such as wasps and mosquitoes, the impregnator is a race of hermaphroditic flying insects that are constantly breeding. The Impregnator injects its eggs, via its stinger, into any warm blooded mammals it can find. Once injected the eggs soon hatch and begin to eat the insides of their host, careful to avoid the vital organs of its host in a way similar to some wasp larvae. As the larvae grow, they begin to burrow their way to the surface of their host, where they "hatch" fully grown. Entire swarms of Impregnators have proven deadly to both humans and farm animals, decimating thousands of both. Even the waters of Fungal Wind are a threat due to hundreds of new life forms, including the HEPs. Hallucinagenically Engineered Protozoa are microscopic algae that grows in fresh water. The HEPs are ingested by animals and people, causing the ingestor to experience a series of audio and visual hallucinations of a frightening nature, a "bad trip" that can last for days depending on the amount of HEPs a person has consumed. In addition, the HEPs have been designed with an additional feature; while boiling will kill the microbes, their hallucinogenic chemistry will still remain effective for days. Only the collection of steam for condensation back to liquid will be free of the HEPs. Hundreds of other life forms exist, along with hundreds of minor mutations among each species. So far, these three are the only life forms researched among the Continuum explorers of Fungal Wind. Other life forms, some not so microscopic, have eradicated those who have tried to study them.
Virtual 3S-2CNU-1-5A-E-1-TR5O (Wotan) Wotan is so named due to the presence of a unique individual known as Wotan (called Odin from here on) in the Norse mythos. While almost identical to the Main Corridor, Wotan is different in a few significant ways due to the centuries long presence of Odin. The races of Kindred, Garou, Mages, Faeries, and Wraiths are completely unknown. Odin claims to have slain them all, single handedly, millennia ago. Also of note is the strong presence of the Church of Odin as the largest religion of Wotan. Other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism still exist, but most monotheistic beliefs were turned to the worship of Odin long ago. Continuum explorers have long debated over the history of this Virtual, but have been able to determine a few facts. They have
been able to prove that Odin is a being of power equaling that of an Incarna easily, but possessed of human emotions and mentality. Secondly, Odin desires nothing more than to lord over his some patch of the multiverse, and as such the Continuum openly interacts with him and exchanges non-sensitive information. The presence of Odin dates back at least 1700 years, and some believe this could be extended another 500. The worship of Odin is done partially out of fear and partially from faith by the masses. The Continuum has also noted that some (Wotan's equivalency of Christians and Moslems) view Odin as a great deceiver, trying to lure them away from the worship of the "true Lord." They point to the meddling of Odin in human affairs as the work of a great evil being, but the Continuum disregards these statements as the words of envious religious minorities. Odin finds the entire situation quite humorous. The existence of other Norse gods in Wotan is denied by Odin, but they may exist elsewhere. The Continuum dreads the concept of God-like beings hopping around the multiverse, using Nexus as a launch pad. As if this weren't enough, many of Odin's children (of whom there are hundreds) possess limited versions of Odin's vast powers.
Changeling: Beyond Arcadia By DeGorian Smith (
[email protected])
History "Earth is gone. It was destroyed during the last quarter of the 21st century." -- The Mirrorball Man Or so they thought. In reality Winter has come. The Mages were not the only ones to head for space on their own. The changelings knew about the coming Winter. The royalty of the changelings did not want to be around when Winter came, and did everything in their power to return to the Dreaming, to no avail. Finally the sidhe asked the nockers for help. They wanted a spaceship to get off Earth. The nockers replied on the condition that they could come with them. The sidhe lied and said yes. After the ship, The Golgafricham, was finished the sidhe with their associates left Earth, leaving behind the nockers and the other commoners to face the Winter alone. The commoners and their friends and families went into hiding, deep hiding. They went underground, into the layers of the sluagh. And thus the Winter began. The year was 2190. The remaining changelings decided to try to rebuild Earth, a difficult task with the geological-metaphysical changes. The folks who remained on the surface had to fight the elements, the remaining humans, the Euthanatoi, and the Tempest itself. In the end the changelings persevered. The year is 2277. Spring has returned and the world is a whole different place.
Note: On Earth the changelings normally wander around in their mortal seemings. In space they forgo the mortal seemings for their faerie miens.
Rules Mage: The Void was used as a background for this. It would be a good resource for some settings in Changeling: Beyond Arcadia. It is advisable to have the books for Changeling: The Dreaming, particularly Dreams and Nightmares. The books for Mage: The Ascension will also be useful, particularly the Book of Worlds.
The Kithain Boggans The boggans are still around, and they're still homebodies. They were among of the few changelings that helped rebuild Earth.
Spaceships: When the boggans leave the Terran system, they would use one-man convertible ships called Omnibees. They also use colossus wasps to fly to distant worlds.
Base of Operations: The boggans' base of operations is the planet Earth. They rarely leave the Solar Systems. Clurichaun These guys travel the universe for a good fight or the perfect drink. They also travel the universe in jest to the Celestial Crusaders, who, some of them blame for the destruction of their homeland.
Spaceships: The clurichaun travel around in a ship patterned after a bird of prey. Base of Operations: The clurichaun's base of operations has been and shall always be the Emerald Isle. Eshu The original space gypsies. When the mages left Earth, the eshu followed and have been traveling ever since.
Spaceships: They don't uses ships. They use carpets. They also bum rides or go star clad. Base of Operations They have none.
Ghille Dhu The ghille dhu are traditionally earthbound. Some have followed the Verbena to space.
Spaceships: The ghille dhu have smaller, more fanciful versions of the Verbena treeships. Base of Operations The new rain forest of Earth. Nockers The nockers helped rebuild Earth and explored space all at the same time. The nockers already had advance scouting parties into space centuries before Winter set in. They have the most accurate maps.
Spaceships: The nockers have many ships, too many for an accurate list. Their main ships are Inferno Freighters and Aetherlight Patrollers.
Base of Operations: Mummer 2. A space station between the Earth and Moon. Pooka The clowns of the changeling society are still around and, somewhat like the eshu, they pop up in the strangest places.
Spaceships: Even the pooka spaceships look like animals, mostly cats. Base of Operations Wherever they can cause the most trouble and have the most fun. Redcaps The redcaps are the terrors of space battles. They go through battles like they go through dinner, fast and messy.
Spaceships: Redcaps go around in swarms of dark ax-shaped fighters. Base of Operations: The Red Planet, Mars Satyrs The universal partiers.
Spaceships: Luxury yachts and hotels. Base of Operations: Anyplace a party is needed. Selkies They rarely leave the seas of Earth. When they do, they travel in . . . .
Spaceships: . . . Elegant aquatic creature-designed spaceships. Base of Operations: The seas of Earth. Sidhe The sidhe fancy themselves as the undisputed masters of space.
Spaceships: The sidhe spaceships are different for each house but their standard ships are the Starcastles, Star Vipers and Storms.
Base of Operations: Alpha Beta City on Earth's moon. Sluagh The underground and the dark places still ring of the sluagh's silence.
Spaceships: Dark shadowy ships that resemble spiders. Base of Operations: The planet of eternal night, Pluto.
Trolls The trolls are still the stout guardians they have always been.
Spaceships: Large and protecting the main ships of the Troll Defense Fleet are their Pinnacle Battlestars. Base of Operations: Titan, biggest moon of the solar system.
The Thallain "Where the kithain go the thallain shall follow." -- Darksong Jester, Eshu scout
Beasties The beasties are a band of marauders.
Spaceships: The beasties use modified Y-wings. Base of Operations: A moon of Mars, Phobos. Boggarts A band of space business men somewhat similar to the Freetraders.
Spaceships: Spaceships called Marauders are what the boggart use. Base of Operations: The moon of Jupiter called Io. Bogies Another dweller of the underground.
Spaceships: The bogies use ships they call Raiders. Base of Operations: The moon of Pluto, Charon. Goblins The little chaos makers of the universe.
Spaceships: Special fighter they designed called Chaos Fighters. Base of Operations: Solar Space Dock, in orbit of Earth. Ogres They are the thugs of outer space.
Spaceships: The ogres travel through space in big bulky ships. Base of Operations They don't have one; they are too stupid.
The Nunnehi The nunnehi typically do not leave Earth. The ones who rarely do are describe below.
May-may-gwya-shi Earth fishers you have become space miners.
Spaceships: Asteroid mining ships. Base of Operations: Earth and the asteroid Ceres.
Rock Giants Warriors and brutes of space.
Spaceships Big battleships called Dreadnaughts, or small heavily armed freighters. Base of Operations: Earth Yunwi Tsundsi Like the boggans, the yunwi tsundsi are workers in space.
Spaceships: They use Omnibees and space tugs. Base of Operations: Earth Canotili The privateers of space.
Spaceships: Privateer rockets, Arrow fighters and space bows. Base of Operations: Earth Kachinas The farmers of space.
Spaceships: Cloudship Base of Operations: Earth, Venus and the Cloud Giants. Waterbabies The protector of any space orphan.
Spaceships: Similar to the selkie ships but filled with water. Base of Operations: Earth Numuzo'ho Another group of space miners.
Spaceships: Asteroid mining ships. Base of Operations: Earth and the asteroid Ceres.
The Gallain The ships of the gallain depend on the location of the gallain.
South America The boto don't normally leave Earth. When they do they travel in ship that put the selkie ships to shame. The curupira use ships that are a combination of ghille dhu and canotili.
Europe The fatae travel in the same luxury as the sidhe. The pamarindo travel in luxury yachts. The folletti travel in high speed fighters.
The pixie travel in high speed fighters. The rest of the European kiths use whatever they can get their hands on.
Asia The hsien of the orient travel with celestial dragons, space junks or in ships patterned after vehicles in Anime. They also have a base of operations on the moon, Tycho Prefecture. The pari travel space either star clad or by strange four arm ships. The genie travel by their magic.
Africa The African changelings either travel with the eshu or use ships patterned after ancient Egyptian ships.
Australia The djidjigargaly only travel to space to deliver messages to the Dreamspeakers. They go to space through the Dreamtime or by spaceship. Their ships look like the famed boomerangs.
The Houses As said before the sidhe house have personalized ships beside those ships that are standard to them.
House Ailil The ships of Ailil are dark and foreboding. Their base of operations is the moon of Callisto in orbit of Jupiter.
House Balor The ships of Balor, like Gwydion, are big and somewhat ancient. They also use lithe two-man fighters called starfighters. Their base of operations is one of the moons of Uranus, Oberon.
House Dougal The ships of Dougal are large winged dreadnaught ships called Katanas. They also have heavily armed fighters called Excaliber Katanas. Their base of operations is Federation Station, right outside of the solar system.
House Eiluned The ships of Eiluned are strange ships made of chimerical materials. Their base of operations is the theorized tenth planet of the solar system, Nemesis.
House Fiona (The Fionawarriors) The ships of Fiona are modified dreadnaughts and artistic couriers. Their base of operations is the planet Venus.
House Gwydion The ships of Gwydion are big and somewhat ancient. They also use large two-man fighters called gunstars. Their base of operations is one of the moons of Uranus, Titania.
House Leanhaun The ships of Leanhaun are beautiful crystal ships. Their base of operations is Crystal Heart Station in the Near Dreaming.
House Liam The ships of Liam are strange indeed. Their bases of operation are Alpha Beta City and the planet Nemesis.
House Scathach The ships of Scathach are built for adventure. Their bases of operations is Alpha Beta City and Great Britain.
The Changelings of the New World "A whole new world. . ." -- Aladdin With the return of Spring new fae and new changelings have come to Earth.
Androids Nocker genetic androids.
Spaceships: As of now, Nocker-made ships. Base of Operations: Earth Anamori A race of shapeshifting centaurians.
Spaceships: As of now, Nocker-made ships. Base of Operations: Earth CHiMeRa A strange band of Inanimae-like creatures who ally themselves with the changelings.
Spaceships: A ship of their design called an Omniform. Base of Operations: The Planet Procylon Doppelgangers The ultimate in shapeshifters.
Spaceships: The doppelgangers ships look different each time because even their ships change form. Base of Operations: Anywhere and nowhere. Gizmos The gizmos are the busybodies of space.
Spaceships: Some of the gizmos are their spaceships. Base of Operations: Wherever they want it. Project GeeKeR An experimental type of changeling robot.
Spaceships: They can go through space star clad. Base of Operations: Earth The Greys These fae have been to Earth before. They return to Earth now to see what was left. They were not pleased.
Spaceships: The ships they have been know for all this time, UFO's.
Base of Operations: Secret. So secret that even the greys won't speak about about it. Juicers Drug enhanced nockers.
Spaceships: As of now, Nocker-made ships. Base of Operations: Earth Kaemera A strange race of shapeshifters made of energy.
Spaceships: Strange crystal organic technical ships. Base of Operations: Right now in orbit of Earth and a base on the moon. The Myriad A race of spacefaring, psychic fae.
Spaceships: Their ships are called Colonyships. They are strange-looking flying saucers. Base of Operations: Anywhere they're wanted or needed. Neutrinos A bunch of fun-loving telekinetic changelings.
Spaceships: Quick cruisers called Runners. Base of Operations: A dimension they called X and the Planet Mercury. New Atlanteans An ancient race that has come out of hiding.
Spaceships: Aquatic-modular ships. Base of Operations: Atlantis with an outpost on the moon Psirens Psychic changelings.
Spaceships: They either travel by astral projection or strange ancient ships. Base of Operations: Earth Robots Nocker made robots.
Spaceships: As of now, Nocker-made ships. Base of Operations: Earth
The New Houses of the New World With new changelings and fae, comes new noble houses.
House Avalon A house whose members are small in size but great in resolve.
Spaceships: Avalon ships are many and mighty. Base of Operations: The mystic isle of Avalon House Blackadder A small house who reach space by sheer dumb luck....
Spaceships: House Blackadder has only one ship, the Inferno's Game. Base of Operations: House Blackadder's base is the Inferno's Game. The Borg Members of House Dougal who have gone too far with their technological upgrades.
Spaceship: Their ships are monsters of order and terror. Base of Operations: Somewhere in Deep Space, a place called the Hive. Imperial House of Centauri A house of taurs and their kin.
Spaceships: The Centaur use ships that make portals from one place to another. Base of Operations: Alpha Centauri. The Changelings In Black The changeling branch of the Men In Black.
Spaceships: Patrol ships and Cruisers. Base of Operation The Terran system. House of Chronos (The Timelords) A house of the changeling guardians of time, the Timelords.
Spaceships: Ships called TARDIS. Base of Operations: A giant TARDIS called the Phoenix. Darklords of the Sithe A house of disillusioned Dougal sidhe.
Spaceships: Sithe spaceships are large, dark and threatening. Base of Operations: A planet they call Exular. House Dracos (The Draconian Empire) A house allied with the ancient dragons.
Spaceships: They will either use dragons or spaceships that look like dragons. Base of Operations: The infamous planet of Pern. Elven Labor Force The hardest working house in the system.
Spaceships: The ELF's ships are any that they have designed and sold. Base of Operations: The North Pole of Planet Earth
House Goodfellow A house of extremely technical fae.
Spaceships: Advance ships of their design. Base of Operations: Goodfellow Manor in what's left of Upstate New York and Ariel, moon of Uranus. Iron Nation A house of Nockers.
Spaceships: Special types of Nocker designed vehicles Base of Operations: The Russia Cosmodome. House Mariner A house of space rogues and corsairs.
Spaceships: Modified solar sailers. Base of Operations: The moons of the planet Neptune. The Ringdancers (The Faeris Army) A school of changeling elemental rogue mages.
Spaceships: Their spaceships are based of the elements they use. Base of Operations: The moon of Titan, and a space station in orbit of Saturn. The Star League The house of the shapeshifters.
Spaceships: Morphological spaceships. Base of Operations: Anywhere and nowhere. House Vulcan Enlightened house of scholars and scientists.
Spaceships: Faster than light shuttles. Base of Operations: A planet in orbit of 40 Eridani A. The Sons of Kahless A noble house of honorable trolls.
Spaceships: Ships befitting a race of warriors. Base of Operations: The moon of Titan.
The Curiosities of Spring They are other factions that are taking notice of the changelings activities, or getting involved in the changelings politics. They are described below.
Vampires Most of the vampires died in the Great Winter. A few escaped only to be hunted and killed by mages. Some of the vampires had changeling help to survive.
Brujah: Some survived because they where duped by the Eiluned, and subjugated. Malkavian: They survived because some of them escaped to the Dreaming while others escaped to space in spaceships the nockers had made. The Malkavians have been seen in orbit of Neptune in one of their two ships.
Nosferatu: Most survived because they went underground with the Sluagh. Ventrue: Some of them were enslaved by the Eiluned. Werewolves Not many of the garou survived the Winter. The ones that survived are now rebuilding Earth with the nature loving changelings. There are a few prominent garou tribes around.
Fianna: Some of the Fianna did not want their cubs to face the coming Winter and gave their cubs to House Fiona. Well, the cubs have returned with some new fire in them.
Glass Walkers: They tried to follow the nockers into space and had to be rescue by the nockers. They now help with the technical rebuilding of the Earth.
Nuwisha: The Nuwisha knew what was about to happen and tried to warn the others, but no one listened. Now the Nuwisha try to teach the young ones not to fall into the same mistake.
Shadow Lords: The Shadow Lords were not going to go quietly into the night. They built themselves a bomb shelter to survive the Winter. Only one half of them survived.
Wraiths The wraiths don't get involved with the changelings save the sluagh, who they thank for the company during the Winter.
Mages The mages consider themselves the rulers of space. They also think Earth has been destroyed. They don't really know that the changelings have a fleet as powerful as theirs. Only a few mages have an inkling of the changelings potential.
Dreamspeakers: The only clue to the Dreamspeakers of the changelings might is the survival of the djidjigargaly, who come to them with insight and leave with mystery.
Euthanatos: Upon returning to Earth, they were attacked by a nocker patrol. The sluagh have made a treaty with them. The other changelings don't trust them.
Hollow Ones: The Hollow Ones went underground with the sluagh. Jedi Knights: A new class of mages who chase after the The Darklords of the Sithe. Marauders: The growing numbers of changelings in their space does not faze them at all. Sons of Ether: The Sons of Ether owe their escape from Earth to the nocker Aethernauts. Now the Sons of Ether and the Aethernauts travel space together.
Timelords: The timelords know about the changelings but are not getting involved. Verbena: Their only sign of the Return of Spring when a small forest on their colony of Spring disappeared. Wu Lung: They have an alliance with the Draconian Empire, well their Celestial Dragons do anyway. Immortals The immortals do not leave Earth. Only one has. The rest wholeheartedly do not leave Earth. The only reason is unknown. The sluagh found out that it has something to do with something called "Zeist". What "Zeist" is, the sluagh don't say.
Psychics: They knew about the coming Winter and were prepared. They knew about the returning Spring and were prepared. They are welcomed around changelings but watched.
Homeworlds "There's no place like home." -- Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz The Terran System
Mercury: The Neutrinos have establish a colony there. It's the quickest route to their Dimension X from there. Venus: It's one of the planets the Kachinas use to refuel and repair their ships. This is also the base for House Fiona. Earth: The Earth is the center of the new changeling civilization. It is the jumping point of most of the changeling space force. The Moon: The Moon is the sidhe capital of the Terran system. This is where they can monitor the comings and goings of Earth. Mars: Home to the Redcap Assault Fleet. This is also the location Beastie marauders, on the moon of Phobos. The Asteroid Belt: Nunnehi asteroid mining. Command base is on the asteroid Ceres. Jupiter: House Ailil has their base on the moon of Callisto. The boggarts have a trading station on Io. Is one of the planets the Kachinas use to refuel and repair their ships.
Saturn: The Ringdancers have a station in orbit of Saturn. Is one of the planets the Kachinas use to refuel and repair their ships. Titan: The biggest moon in the Terran system is the home for the Troll Provisional Guardian Fleet. It is also the capital for the Sons of Kahless. The Ringdancers have a training dome there also.
Uranus: House Balor, House Gwydion and House Goodfellow have bases on some of the moons of Uranus. It is one of the planets the Kachinas use to refuel and repair their ships.
Neptune: The moons of Neptune are launching points for House Mariner. It is one of the planets the Kachinas use to refuel and repair their ships. The Malkavians have been seen in orbit.
Pluto: The Sluagh and the Bogies have bases here. Nemesis: This is the neutral planet of the outer Terran system. A planet only the changelings can reach. House Eiluned and House Liam have bases here.
Spaceships A short description of the standards ships to be seen and who uses them.
Omnibees Users: Boggans, Yunwi Tsundsi Range: Short to Medium Usage: Hard labor Description: The Omnibees are small hardworking ships used for multiple tasks. It can be upgraded for defense duty. Clurichaun Hawk Fighter Users: Clurichaun Range: Medium to Long Usage: Joy riding and assault Description: Quick attack fighters used by the Clurichaun. Flying Carpet Users: Eshu Range: Long Usage: Travel Description: A beautiful tapestry for travel. Ghille Dhu Treant Treeships Users: Ghille Dhu
Range: Long Usage: Travel and Defense Description: A smaller more personal type of treeship. Inferno Freighter Users: Nockers Range: Long Usage: Transport, Attack and Defense Description: One of the workhorses of the Nocker fleet. Space Cat Users: Pooka Range: Long Usage: Exploration Description: A comical looking ship. Dark Axe Fighter Users: Redcaps Range: Medium to Long Usage: Assault Description: Dark, heavy armored and armed fighter. Luxury Yacht Users: Satyrs, Pamarindo Range: Medium to Long Usage: Travel Description: A space yacht. Callifrey Cruiser Users: Selkies Range: Short to Long Usage: Travel Description: An aquatic piece of art in space. Sidhe Star Castle Users: Sidhe, Fatae Range: Long Usage: Base of Operations Description: Beautiful floating technical wonders. Spidercruiser
Users: Sluagh Range: Long Usage: Spying Description: Dark menacing ships. Troll Pinnacle Battlestar Users: Trolls Range: Long Usage: Defense and Protection Description: The mainstay of the Troll Provisional Guardian Fleet. Large and noble, just like the trolls. Pirate Y-wing Users: Beasties Range: Medium to Long Usage: Assault Description: A modified Y-wing used for annoyance. Boggart Marauder Users: Boggarts Range: Long Usage: Business Description: A boggart's transport for profit. Bogie Shadow Raider Users: Bogies Range: Long Usage: Assault, Pirating Description: Another dark ship. Chaos Fighter Users: Goblins Range: Medium to Long Usage: Annoyance and mayhem Description: The goblins' transport of trouble. Ogre Basher Users: Ogres Range: Medium to Long Usage: Attack Description: The ogres big attack cruiser.
Asteroid Miner Users: May-may-gwya-shi, Numuzo'ho Range: Medium Usage: Asteroid mining Description: Powerhouse of the small Nunnehi mining company. Rock Giant Freighter Users: Rock Giants Range: Medium to Long Usage: Transport and Battle Description: Heavy stock freighter. Arrow Fighter Users: Canotili Range: Medium Usage: Defense Description: A canotili standard patrol fighter. Kachina Cloudship Users: Kachina Range: Medium Usage: Ecological replenishment Description: A beautiful ship used for planetary ecological replenishment. Manta Users: Waterbabies Range: Short Usage: Joyrides Description: A water filled ship. Boto Hitchhiker Users: Boto Range: Long Usage: Escape Description: A beautiful aquatic organic ship. Canopy Treeship Users: Curupira Range: Short Usage: Transport Description: Similar to the Treant Treeships.
HyperFox Arwing Users: Pixie, Folletti Range: Long Usage: Travel and Defense Description: High speed fighter. Hyper Fury Users: Folletti, Pixie Range: Long Usage: Travel and Defense Description: High speed fighter. Hsien Macross Cruiser Users: Hsien Range: Long Usage: Battle Description: One of the many Anime style ships the Hsien have. Shivaship Users: Pari Range: Long Usage: Travel Description: A strange four-armed ship. Oracle Cruiser Users: Genie Range: Long Usage: Travel Description: When genies don't travel star clad they use these stylish cruisers. Djidjigargaly Boomerang Courier Users: Djidjigargaly Range: Long Usage: Courier Description: The ships the djidjigargaly use to transport info to an fro the universe. Ailil Python Fighter Users: House Ailil Range: Long Usage: Attack
Description: Dark attack fighter of House Ailil. Balor Formorian Battleship Users: House Balor Range: Long Usage: Attack, Transport Description: Mainstay of the House Balor Conquest Fleet. House Dougal Katana Dreadnaught Users: House Dougal Range: Long Usage: Attack and Defense Description: Standard ship of the Dougal fleet. House Eiluned Chimera Cruiser Users: House Eiluned Range: Long Usage: Transport and Espionage Description: Beautiful, elegant spaceship. Arcadia Courier Users: House Fiona Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: Common Transport for House Fiona. Gwydion Danaan Cruiser Users: House Gwydion Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: The mainstay of the Gwydion fleet. Leanhaun Glamour Ship (Cryoship) Users: House Leanhaun Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: A ship with cryogenic technology. Omni Cruiser Users: House Liam Range: Unknown
Usage: Travel Description: The ever-changing rarely seen ships of House Liam. Scathach Starship Users: House Scathach Range: Medium to Long Usage: Transport and Defense Description: The Scathach alien-looking ship. Clone Fighter Users: Androids, Robots Range: Long Usage: Transport, Defense and Attack. Description: A stripped down modified version of the Pirate Y-wing. Giga Fighter Users: Anamori Range: Long Usage: Patrol Description: Main vehicles use in the Anamori Earth Defense Core. CHiMeRa Omniform Users: CHiMeRa Range: Long Usage: Travel and Defense Description: Alien ship made by an alien phyla. Star League Cruiser Users: Dopplegangers, Star League Range: Long Usage: Defense Description: A ship similar to the Liam Omni Cruiser, but more seen. Skiff Users: The Grey Range: Long Usage: Travel Description: A ship seen in the past by unsuspected humans. Jumpship Users: Juicers, Imperial House of Centauri
Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: An experimental ship which uses Wayfare in its design. Crystalis Shuttle Users: The Kaemera Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: A crystal-organic shuttlecraft. Conclave Colonyship Users: The Myriad Range: Long Usage: Transport, Base of Operations Description: The colonization ships of the myriad. Neutrino Runner Users: Neutrinos Range: Long Usage: Joy riding Description: Strange little quick ship. Attilan Spaceship Users: New Atlanteans Range: Medium Usage: Transport Description: Transport of the New Atlanteans. Dreamer Starship Users: Psirens Range: Long Usage: Transport Description: A ship powered by thought. Molecular Fighter Users: House Avalon Range: Medium to Long Usage: Defense Description: A multi-vector attack fighter. Inferno's Game
Users: House Blackadder Range: Long Usage: Base of Operations Description: The "flagship" of House Blackadder. Borg Starship Users: The Borg Range: Long Usage: Assimilation Description: A strange technical juggernaut. CIB Patrolship Users: CIB Range: Medium Usage: Patrol and Retrieval Description: The Changelings in Black space age LTD. TARDIS Users: Timelords Range: Infinite Usage: Time Travel Description: Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Star Destroyer Users: The Sithe Range: Long Usage: Terror Tactics Description: Large and foreboding. Draconis Spelljammer Users: House Dracos Range: Long Usage: Transport and Defense Description: A large starship big enough to hold one full grown dragon. ELF Shuttle Users: Elven Labor Force Range: Long Usage: Escape Description: Runabout for the Elven Labor Force.
G-tech Fighter Users: House Goodfellow Range: Long Usage: Multi-task Description: Strange fighter made with strange technology. G-Mek Alpha Fighter Users: Iron Nation, Hsien Range: Medium to Long Usage: Attack and Defense Description: Standard Iron Nation fighter. Gossamer Sailer Users: House Mariner Range: Medium to Long Usage: Travel Description: An elegant sailing vessel. Ringdancer Fighter Users: The Ringdancers Range: Medium to Long Usage: Defense and Training Description: A small fighter. Manasu Warp Shuttle Users: House Vulcan Range: Medium to Long Usage: Transport Description: Standard type Vulcan shuttle. Falcons of Kahless Users: The Sons of Kahless Range: Medium to Long Usage: Defense, Patrol and Attack Description: Standard ship of the Sons of Kahless. Event Horizon Users: Clan Malkavian Range: Unknown Usage: Experimental Exploration Description: Mysterious ship of experimental technology.
BLACKSMITH By Thom Scott (
[email protected])
History In ancient Scotland there was a goddess, Scatha, who commanded that all those who would be blacksmiths and truly wished to be masters of the craft come to her. She took human form and made her human home on the Isle of Skye where she was known as a prophetess and wise woman. But to the prospective blacksmiths she was far more. She taught them not only the forge, but the arts of war, healing and magic. Woe betide the foolish man or monster who dared to challenge a town whose smith had spent his youth on Skye. When the vikings came, Skye and her Backsmiths held them and their runecasters off. When the inquisition came in the burning times, the unlucky inquisitors discovered the fires on the inside of the wickerman. When the Black Spiral Dancers tried to take Skye...well you get the picture. The Technocracy is begining to force its way slowly into northern Scotland, and the Blacksmiths stand ready to this day. They have passed the knowledge of the forge and the fire within from master to apprentice as Scatha taught the first of them. This time they know they cannot wait for the enemy to come to them. They must strike and destroy the Technocracy while they can. From the Isle of Skye they have prepared for the war, gathering resources and allies. The Isle, for now, gives them that freedom. They know it will be a hard fight to maintain it.
Philosophy The Technocracy has to go and we're gonna see them to Macha's black door. Man was not meant to be turned into some massive machine for their amusement. When we get through with them they'll know how the steel feels when the hammer comes down. They think that Ascension is that!? They're fools -- each must find their own Ascension,it cannot be chosen for them.
Organization Close knit, almost a clan. They've been sending representatives to the more promising traditions, seeking allies. They have also formed an alliance with the Fianna Eirinn, the Garou Fianna, and the Skye manes for the mutual defence of the northern Celtic lands while they carry out their various agendas.
Meetings The eight Sabbats of the year and the new moons. They spend full moons at the forges on Skye creating powerful talismans
Initiation Promising young craftspeople are contacted and tested, if they pass they are apprenticed to a master to learn the Craft.
Chantry The Isle of Skye, Northern Scotland. The Island is still relatively immune to paradox due to the immense buffer of the Scottish highlands and rural Ireland, where the technomancers have had little success overcoming superstition and local folk beliefs. Some have theorized that the Technocracy primarily supports the war in Northern Ireland to reduce hope so it can better try to overcome those beliefs.
Acolytes Sculptors, steelworkers, construction workers, engineers
Sphere
Matter
Foci Forge: Matter, Prime Weapon: Forces, Correspondence Tool: Mind, spirit, Entropy Jewelry: Time , Life
Concepts See acolytes, blacksmith
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They understand the value of introspection and the drive for perfection, but they need to put it to constructive use.
Celestial Chorus: Too high and mighty for my taste. Plus the idea of giving up my individuality to become part of their "one". No thanks.
Cult of Ecstasy: Poor kids. Lotsa potential, little return. Discordians: They come in handy on occasion, but don't start talkin' politics with one. Dreamspeakers: They're spooky as hell, but we like em. They respect the earth and its creatures. . . and the value of hard work. Euthanatos: One of them tried to take me, heh, (lifts hammer) I got 'is good death right here. Hollow Ones: Goddess have mercy on 'em, or better yet give em to me. I'll make 'em into someone to be proud of. Order of Hermes: Theory is all well and good but nothing beats hands on experience. Runecaster: Lough bastards. Glad we're on the same side this time. Sons of Ether: Bright lady, ya gotta love a duck. Crazy arse crackpots, one and all. Wouldn't miss em for the world. Technolibertarians: Too bookish, but their hearts are in the right place. Verbena: We'll use 'em, but we don't gotta like 'em! Virtual adept: Scary thing is, under the flash, they got some good ideas. Wikka: We've lived side by side with 'em for 10,000 years, nuff said. Wanderers: Great conversationalists, but I've just never gotten on well with drifters. Sons of Jupiter: Some of these blokes are great. Some, Constantine in particular are real bastards. Cerebus: Useful as long as they work against the 'Mancers. Don't care otherwise. Necromancers: Does long jaunt, short furnace give a clue? Fianna Eirinn: Good fighters, heads on straight, and worse bastards than us in a fight. Between us there's a chance for this Earth.
BLADES OF MERCURY By Nicholas Rossier (
[email protected])
Description The in-line skating phenomena of the last decade has spurred on the development of a multi-traditional group called the Blades of Mercury. They are often found in larger, urbanized cities of the United States, particularly in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, and even as far south as Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. Their members tend to be of the younger generation, many coming from the so-called Generation X group. While not strict traditionalists, neither are they anarchists. Most hold to a code of street honor, the competition to be the best, but an underlying belief in the superiority in themselves and their cohorts. The Blades of Mercury was founded in the late 1970s by a group of Virtual Adepts and Cult of Ecstasy mages who found that their combined spheres of influence, Correspondence and Time, functioned in superior ways while skating on the open roads of the city. There was something about the wind in your face, the smell and sound of the city, and the freedom from bulky vehicles that acted as an interesting experiential focus for the use of magick. Thrilled by this idea, the Blades began to inspire many others to the point that skating as a recreational activity for adults became a popular fad. When the Technocracy discovered several mobile, efficient, and subversive mages traveling below their senses, they used their influence in the media and government to place many restrictions and extol the dangers of such travel. The Syndicate, too, was concerned, as travel by human power was more efficient and less profitable than travel by car or rail. As the fad died out, the Technocracy felt it had scored a victory for safety and order. As the 1980s drew to a close, a new design in skates was developed. The in-line skate, often referred to by the brand name Roller Blade, reintroduced the mode of travel. On college and high school campuses, on the streets of suburban towns, and on the busy roads of the commercial centers of the West, people began to once again travel by skate. Again, warnings were issued and the public, it was hoped, would turn away from such a liberating idea. Instead, many people involved in corporate life, those who lived by the Technocracy's rigid time schedules, began to take up skating as a recreational activity to relieve the predictable tedium in their lives. Out of this background, the Blades of Mercury re-emerged, more powerful and numerous than ever. Today, the Blades of Mercury act as couriers, spies, and warriors in the Ascension War. More than just a cabal, the faction has members in many cities. While some have entire cabals, others have only a few members part of a larger group or chantry. Ma ny are young, adventurous, and skeptical of the rat race that they claim to despise. They come from all areas and all socioeconomic backgrounds, though some are more represented in some areas than in others. Most are members of the Virtual Adepts and Cult of Ecstasy, though Orphans are also counted in their numbers, as well as recent additions by the Akashic Brotherhood, Sons of Ether, and city dwelling Dreamspeakers. Currently, there are no known members of the Order of Hermes, Verbena, Celestial Chorus, or Euthanatos, and if they did exist, their fellow Traditionalists would most likely use the information to toss them right out of their organization.
Rotes Cityscape (Correspondence ** Mind *) This rote allows Bladers (as some like to be called) to conjure up a map of the city in their minds. After having studied an actual city chart, Bladers can locate themselves anywhere in the city, and even discern street conditions, i.e., traffic, road closures, potholes, that may impeded their travel.
Turn the Corner (Correspondence *) A Blader often needs to know what lays just around the next corner. This rote gives them the extra "feel" for the terrain and what they may encounter.
Crossing the Street (Correspondence ***) Sometimes street traffic gets worse than even a Blader can stand (pesky pedestrians). This rote allows them to literally soar above those who travel on foot or by car or truck. A Blader will often use the Turn the Corner rote first, to find a necessary ramp or irregularity in the area to use as a means of achieving flight. Extraordinary jumps are possible this way, crossing entire streets (thus the name), but anything more may be considered vulgar, as flying skaters do have a tendency to attract alot of angry
attention.
The Punch (Correspondence ****) Life on the street can get rough, and sometimes it is necessary to let the other guy have it. While most Bladers are physically fit, not all have brawling skills, and a quick and dirty advantage is often needed. Related to the Akashic rote Strike of the Four Winds, this allows a Blader to strike an opponent with a single blow that comes from many directions.
I'm Outta Here (Time *** Correspondence ***) As dangers on the street increase, especially from attacks by the Men in Black, angry vampires, or pesky Garou, a Blader may find it necessary to enact a tactical retreat that assures success. This effect extradites the Bladers from harm in the blink of an eye, and many reach speeds exceeding 100mph for at least a few moments. Running the very edge of Coincidence, this rote is used only when real danger, or simple flight will not be enough to escape.
Rocket Skates (Forces *** Prime **) While most Bladers feel it is sacrilegious to incorporate mechanical aids into skates, the Sons of Ether have made a case for "enhanced" skates. These will often have a small attachment made to the sides of the heel of the skate to summon a powerful burst of speed to get an extra edge. Some modifications (Forces ****) include an added bonus of allowing the Blader to skate right up the sides of buildings. This, of course, is accompanied by a sonic boom and a blinding flash of light, allowing the effect to be Coincidental, as long as it only lasts for a few moments.
Philosophies The Messenger While speed and ability are cherished gifts, the point of travel is to carry messages from one place to another. Whether it be a Nephandi plot, an attempt by the New World Order to influence key political figures, or the numbers to the weekly lottery, information is a sacred trust that can only be entrusted to the eternal courier. From Mercury and Marathon, to Paul Revere, to the Pony Express, brave souls have always dared to carry the word forth of change. These people have acted with courage and hon or and provided a service that was needed. Many messengers know the legends of their forerunners, heroic messengers from the past who carried information that was vital and helpful to the world.
Street Samurai Knights in an age and era of rogues, the Street Samurai act with a strict code of honor and sense of purpose. Fast and deadly, they take the code of Bushido or laws of Chivalry quite seriously. On the streets were violence is quick, and innocents often harmed, the Street Samurai protect the weak and fight against the chaos that threatens to tear the night apart.
Road Warriors The dark version of the Samurai, the Road Warrior rules by force and lives by deception and deal making. Where the Samurai has honor, ideals, and virtues, the Warrior has one thing on his mind: Survival. They deal with any power and betray any friend in order to survive. They fight to be the best and do not make lasting friendships. Those few Kings of the Road who have experience, charisma, and something to offer can galvanize these brutal Bladers into a fighting force which can rule the nights and threaten even powerful Technomancers.
Lone Wolves By their nature, Lone Wolves tend to be uncomfortable around others and unable to cooperate with many. Still, they make the best spies as they have the gall that the other groups lack. They have nothing to prove to the others, only to themselves. Many are Orphans, cast out by their fellows, or wanderers, seeking to forget their old lives. Sadly, many do not survive long on the streets, as their line of work often proves terminal.
Templates
Messenger Str 2, Dex 3, Sta 3, Man 2, Cha 3, App 1, Int 4, Wit 3, Per 3 Willpower: 6 Arete: 3 Nature: Visionary Demeanor: Jobsworth Essence: Questing Spheres: Correspondence 2, Time 2, Mind 2 Talents: Alertness 3, Athletics 2, Streetwise 3, Meditation 1 Skills: Technology 2, Stealth 1, Survival 2 Knowledges: Area Knowledge 4, Urban Lore 4, Linguistics 2, Occult 3 Backgrounds: Arcane 2, Library 3, Contacts 3, Dream 2 Merits: Corporate Ties Flaws: Intolerance (Non-Bladers) Quotes: Sometimes the message outshines the Messenger. That is the nature of the beast. It is best to accept this inevitability and come to terms with it, than seek to be master over what is greater than yourself.
Street Samurai Str 3, Dex 4, Sta 3, Man 2, Cha 2, App 2, Int 2, Wit 3, Per 3 Willpower: 7 Arete: 3 Nature: Judge Demeanor: Gallant Essence: Dynamic Spheres: Correspondence 1, Forces 3, Prime 2 Talents: Alertness 3, Awareness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 3 Skills: Melee 3, Firearms 3, Stealth 3 (Do for Akashics) Knowledges: Area Knowledge 3, Law 2 Backgrounds: Avatar 2, Destiny 2, Dream 1, Arcane 2 Merits: Code of Honor Flaws: Compulsion (Judge others) Quote: I am the shining hope in the darkest night. Fear no more.
Road Warrior Str 4, Dex 2, Sta 3, Man 2, Cha 3, App 1, Int 2, Wit 3, Per 3 Willpower: 5 Arete: 2 Nature: Fanatic Demeanor: Deviant Essence: Primordial Spheres: Correspondence 1, Mind 2, Entropy 1, Forces 2 Talents: Alertness 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Intimidation 2, Streetwise 2 Skills: Melee 2, Stealth 2, Technology 1
Knowledges: Area Knowledge 4, Law 3, Occult 2 Backgrounds: Allies 2, Destiny 1, Resources 2 Merits: Underworld Ties Flaws: Driving Goal (Rule the Streets), Short Fuse, (Some have Derangements) Quote: I said I want my money now. Oh, you don't have it. Well, I think its time you learned a little respect...Get'em boys.
Lone Wolf Str 3, Dex 3, Sta 4, Man 2, Cha 2, App 2, Int 3, Wit 4, Per 3 Willpower: 7 Arete: 4 Nature: Penitent Demeanor: Loner Essence: Dynamic Spheres: Correspondence 3, Forces 3, Mind 2, Prime 2, Time 2 Talents: Alertness 3, Awareness 2, Athletics 1, Streetwise 2, Survival 3, Brawl 2 Skills: Stealth 3, Firearms 2, Technology 1 Knowledges: Area Knowledge 3, Occult 2, Enigmas 2, Linguistics 2 Backgrounds: Arcane 3, Avatar 3 Merits: Iron Will Flaws: Strangeness, Secret, Dark Fate Quote: I have nothing to say...for now.
BROTHERHOOD OF THE MYSTICAL WORK By Anders Sandberg
Description This group is devoted to the study and pursuit of Ascension. Its members seek out anything that can give a clue to the nature of true Ascension, and spend much time seeking it themselves. They share their wisdom with each other and anybody who asks. The members are mostly from the Akashic Brotherhood, Celestial Chorus and Order of Hermes, but it is open to all traditional mages who sincerely seeks knowledge about Ascension. Most of the members have a scholarly or mystical bent, and most are Masters in at least one sphere. There is no formal membership; students who show promise and devotion are simply thought of as members when they have established themselves well enough. The Brotherhood lacks any central organisation, and is divided into small groups around respected mages, not unlike the antique philosophical schools. The mentors discuss the philosophy and lore of Ascension with their circles of students, sometimes with a clear teacher-student relationship, sometimes as a free discussion group. Joining and leaving such groups is voluntarily, although sometimes a mentor asks somebody to join or try to make disruptive students leave. Most of the mentors reside at well established chantries, especially centres of education (like Order of the Burning Light, which is closely allied to the Brotherhood. Abelard himself is a member). Students sometimes travel to other chantries to learn from their masters, or to try to apply their knowledge. The groups meet on a larger scale at irregular intervals to discuss what they have learned. These convocations are generally called by the most respected mentors, and are held at the chantry of the mentor. These deep philosophical discussions can become extremely complex and occasionally even rather heated. However, most members frown upon such displays of childishness, and prefer quiet and reasonable discussions. The Brotherhood is very involved in philosophical and mystical pursuit, and keep an eye on all kinds of things, ranging from the theories of obscure sociologists to the latest discoveries of the Masters. Regarding philosophy, cosmology and other arcane arts the Brotherhood is second to only the Oracles in amassed wisdom. Unfortunately it's not always easy to find when it is needed, since most of the wisdom is transmitted orally or in the libraries of the mentors. Many members work outside the chantries, some living solitary lives of meditation, others as observers or researchers of different things. Most have a mystical bent, sometimes making them rather impractical, but it is often made up by their wisdom and knowledge. Having a visiting member is often an honour for a chantry, and they are generally treated very well by most traditions. Only the newest or most anarchic groups ignore the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is very well respected. Most members have already mastered much magick, and have turned to deeper things. That has given it an overabundance of older, experienced mages with an mystical bent. Especially the Celestial Chorus and Order of Hermes revere them greatly, and gladly support the Brotherhoods activities. However, the prestige of the Brotherhood has also given it a political side. Its members generally supports forces in the traditions which promote peace, stability and conservatism. Since it is so well respected, its influence is rather profound. Some opponents have pointed out that the Brotherhood's well-meaning meddling weakens the traditions further against the Technocracy.
BROTHERHOOD OF BERTRANDO By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (18 Apr 94)
Description This is a small group of mages devoted to the protection of mankind. They see themselves as a kind of magickal police, ruthlessly destroying any mage threatening mankind. They are well organized, trained and fanatic. What makes them even more frightening is that the seem to believe in their cause, and have not allowed themselves to be corrupted by greed or lust for power. The Brotherhood of Bertrando was founded during the middle ages in Europe, as a response to the fact that many mages experimented with diabolism or other dangerous activities. The founder, only known as Bertrando, seems to have been an influential mage in the Order of Hermes. At first, it was just a kind of secret, unofficial police which in secret investigated rumors of diabolism or the abuse of magick. If they found the suspect guilty, they often turned him or her over to the Quaesitors, the Inquisition or the mundane authorities. But during the late Diddle Ages, the group became more and more extreme. They saw how darkness spread everywhere, how pestilence and famine erupted and the number of mages involved in it constantly grew. They felt that they had to fight the evil harder, and instead of just tracking down offenders they also punished them, most often by death. The name of the Dark Lightning became feared among mages of all traditions. When the lesser Rrder of Hermes dissolved, partially because of the widespread attacks from the Inquisition and the Brotherhood, partially because of internal chaos, many of the mages from House of Quaesitor joined the Brotherhood. It became a secret army, spread across Europe. During the years that followed, the organization tracked down many mages and killed them, often for minor offenses. Slowly, the attacks ceased as the mages learned to hide themselves or perhaps because they had become very few. The Brotherhood also dwindled, yet again becoming a small organization. Today it still exists, and yet again seek to destroy all abusers of the powers of magick. It ruthlessly kills marauders, nephandi, rogues and any tradition-mage who they feel misuse their powers. Their relation to the Technocracy is a bit strange. Since their idea of magick is fairly medieval, they tend to regard most technomancers as non-mages, and only attack the Technocracy if they find out that it has used something that is clearly magick in an unsuitable manner. They regard themselves as the judges over individual mages, not whole organizations like the Technocracy. The Technocracy, on the other hand, regards them as allies against the Marauders and Nephandi, and tolerate them as long as they do not turn against them. The Brotherhood today is small, just one or two cabals of mages organized into small teams. The members are all formally equal, but each team is led by a Veteran, generally the most experienced member. There is also an informal ranking system, depending on experience, power, dedication and how long the mage have been member. Prospective members are invited to join, and subjected to a series of grueling tests to test the members loyalty, magickal experience and willingness to ruthlessly destroy evil magick. Their ideology is simple: they must guard mankind from all kinds of misuse of magick. "Misuse of magick" is defined by the Brotherhood and quite flexible. To use magick for personal gain is forbidden, as is manipulating or controlling somebody else, hurting or killing people with magick and of course any magick dealing with evil (or any) spirits. Of course all magick used to commit crimes of mundane nature are forbidden. They also punish crimes against the old laws of the lesser Order of Hermes, like scrying on other mages or killing another mage. The punishments they give are strongly medieval, and generally quite harsh. Minor offenses, like using magick in gambling or for theft is punished by mutilation. More severe crimes, like demonology, is punished by burning at the stake (if possible). The Brotherhood have no strict rules, but generally tend to fall back on the old judgements in the Codices. Each Codex is an old journal containing the details of the cases against their enemies and the punishments. Today the collected Codices number 15 large volumes. All cabals of the Brotherhood are required to keep copies of the Codices, and enter their actions into them. They are often quite gruesome readings, but also important sources of information about both the organization and their victims. That is why the Brotherhood carefully guards the Codices, and will ruthlessly hunt down anybody with a copy. However, there are a few copies which have been lost (especially after the middle ages, when the membership of the Brotherhood began to dwindle). The members are mostly recruited from the Celestial Chorus, Order of Hermes, the Trenchcoaters and rarely the Akashic Brotherhood. Most members keep their loyalties to the Brotherhood secret, and often have prominent positions inside their own Traditions. Their main enemies, besides the obvious Marauders and Nephandi, are the Euthanatos, Verbena, Orphans and some groups in the Order of Hermes, who have been hunted by the group for a long time. However, not many mages today know about the organizations existence, and most thinks it is a thing of the past. The Brotherhood does not advertise either, and tends to avoid leaving any trace. Its methods are a mixture between magick and detective work, and when they attack a wrongdoer, they often use mundane methods. They have found that most mages are quite well prepared against magickal or supernatural attacks, but can be easily brought down using a bit of thought, planning and expertise. When they are done with the criminal, they often arrange things to look like an accident or a mundane crime.
BROTHERHOOD OF CAINE By David Gallo (
[email protected]) (25 June 1994)
Description The Brotherhood evolved as a sort of offshoot from the Verbena, Sons of Ether, Euthanatos, and Aesclepius. They are interested in the study of the Kindred. Most Kindred are not at all thrilled with them either. In fact, they rather avoid them as they avoid sunlight. The Brotherhood has a notorious reputation for decimating the kindred population in an area. The Brotherhood is most interested in "curing" vampirism because they believe that it impedes Ascension. They are also very interested in how the kindred are able to produce magickal effects and affect sleepers without gaining Paradox. There are some that are interested in the Tass harvesting prospects as well. A major concern of The Brotherhood is AIDS. They fear that this might be a prelude to vampirism. The Euthanatos among them have mixed feelings about the disease. Much like the Verbena, they work their magick through blood hoping to hit upon the secrets of the Kindred. Lab equipment is of importance because of the research scientist aspect that they have taken upon themselves. Most attribute it to the Son of Ether/Aesclepius influence.
Philosophy Vampires are the lost children. Many have attempted to define them -- to understand them -- and none have succeeded. We look at them as separate beings, trapped as they are. Their avatars have been twisted, deformed, and in the process they have been denied what should be rightfully theirs. Ascension. Through their lust, their hunger, they fight their own internal struggles. And we observe. By observing we can attempt to help them. To guide them back to the path towards Ascension. Perhaps, one day, we will be able to cure this disease. But for now, we experiment and gather our data. A few might suffer, but it is for the greater good!
Organization These mages tend to gather in experiment/lab groups, each headed by a research specialist. In turn, each specialist makes monthly reports to a supervision board which puts out a quarterly report on findings.
Meetings The Brotherhood usually gathers once or twice a year in various locations, disguised as conferences/conventions.
Initiation Usually new members are initiated based on experience with, and interest in, the subject. They will then be given a few "breaks" (in the form of grants, new findings, etc), and observed to see how they respond.
Chantry The main chantries are located in Egypt, England, New York, and Paris.
Acolytes Blood bank workers, lab assistants, Blood Dolls, vampire hunters
Spheres Members usually pick one of the following as their primary sphere -- Life, Matter, Prime, or Spirit. By far, Prime and Matter are the most popular with Life as a close second.
Foci Syringe - Life/Prime/Spirit Microscope (or other lab equipment) - Life/Matter Blood - All spheres
Concepts Doctor (vampirologists, virologists, immunologists, hematologist) Vampire Hunter Occultist Historian
CABALISTS By Anders Sandberg (Version 2.0)
Introduction The Cabalists are among the oldest and most influential subgroups in the whole Order of Hermes. Their symbolism and methods are the backbone of modern Western hermeticism. For example, the Seal of Solomon is of Cabalistic origin, as is much of the symbols used in the Circle.
Origin and History The Cabala is of Jewish origin, and seems to have roots in the magick of the tribes of the middle east, combined with Egyptian and chaldean magick. According to some Cabalists the tradition was received by Moses on Sinai directly from God, but this is unsubstantiated. The oldest Cabala is known as the Merkabah mysticism, or Hechalot (Which means "ascent"). The Merkabah was the name of the throne of God in Hebrew, and the aim of the Merkabah Mystics was to be able to see God upon his Throne. Little is known about this school outside the Order of Hermes and Celestial Chorus. The mystics contemplated the early chapters of Genesis and the Vision of Ezekiel. To perform the ascent the mystic had to pass through the seven palaces of heaven, giving the correct words, talismans and signs to the guardians. The Merkabah mystics were quite obviously influenced by the Celestial Chorus. During the earliest centuries of the Common Era the Cabala used today began to evolve. The books "Sepher Yetzirah" ("The Book of Formation") and "Bahir" were written. Greek magick and philosophy influenced the Cabalists. They began to interact with the Order of Hermes and the Gnostics, a group of mages in the Celestial Chorus. During the rise of Christianity the Gnostics were purged by the Chorus and branded heretics. Many joined the Order of Hermes and the Cabalists. This may have been one of the reasons the two traditions fought each other later in the middle ages. The Cabalists had become an integral part of the Order, but had little influence. They were spread out across Europe, in isolated ethnic groups. Then the Order began the experiment with the false Order of Hermes. Most subgroups in the Order joined forces and began to work together on the great plan. But the Cabalists refused, explaining that they thought the plan was doomed to fail. The rest ignored them and went along with their fateful plan. After the Failure the Order was on the brink of dissolution. Many of the subgroups, like the Goetic mages, were discredited and dissolved. Many mages left the Order completely. The Cabalists, who had persistently warned the others, suddenly appeared to the disenchanted hermetics as the saviours of the Order. Many non-Jewish mages joined the Cabalists. Suddenly the Cabalists were one of the most influential groups inside the order. Many mages became Cabalists and retreated from the world into Cabalistic study. This lead to a renaissance for Cabala. In the fourteenth century Moses de Leon wrote Zohar ("The Radiance"), one of the central texts of Cabala. Other hermetic mages developed their own ideas, using cabalistic symbolism and theories. Cabala became one of the cornerstones of the Order, a position it still occupies. Cabala expanded and began to dilute, and lost much of its Jewish origins. At the same time the Cabala was discredited among many Jews after the appearance of a false messiah who actively supported the Cabalists. New groups emerged from the Order, like the Enochians and Rosicrucians, who based much of their magick on the Cabala. The Order of Hermes continued forward, and the Cabalist's influence began to wane. It began to return to its roots, and became more Jewish again. At the same time Cabalistic methods, ideas and symbols had become mainstream in the Order. It is often required training for an initiate in the order to understand some of the Cabala. Today the Cabalists are a small subgroup, but held in great respect by most hermetics. They still exert a noticeable influence on the theories of the Order. There are many types of Cabalists, ranging form ultra orthodox Jews to secular mages happily mixing Cabala, Enochiana and Goetia and performing Gematria on computers.
Links to Other Groups Cabalists have often had ties to the Celestial Chorus, and have influenced their thought too. In fact, some Cabalists think of themselves more as members of the Chorus than the Order. The Cabalists are the strongest link between the Traditions, and often employed as diplomats and envoys. There are however a small group inside the Chorus who actively work against the Cabalists, perhaps due to their ethnic origin or even their old involvement with the Gnostics (which now partly have returned to the Chorus to complicate matters further). The Cabalists are conservative hermetics, which mean they do not meddle in the affairs of mortals. They point out that every time mages have done this, the end result have been disaster. Instead mages should spend their time in study, and work to understand magick before imposing their ideas on humanity. Most mages have only half an idea of what they are going to
accomplish, and tend to become corrupted when confronted with the mundane world. The Ahl-I-Batin and Cabalists have had many contacts, and share much of their basic philosophy. There is no sharp dividing line between the Batin and the Cabalists, and nobody tries to draw any. However, most Cabalists dislike the meddling in mortal affairs of some Batin groups, pointing out what happened in Europe last time. The Cabalists are not very interested in war with the Technomancers. They have a long history of stoically surviving attacks from sleepers, mages and the technomancers. Instead of fighting, they try to avoid the enemy and wait. Patience is their weapon, as they know that whatever may happen, it will not last forever. This may be their greatest mistake.
The Cabala In the Cabalistic world view, everything is symbolic for something else, and the world is filled with subtle connections. Even the most trivial text or thing hides deep secrets. Using this knowledge the Cabalists hope to understand the universe fully. God created the universe by allowing some of his quintessence to flow down, transmutating into the material universe. The goal for many Cabalists is to understand this process, the universe and the way back to God. The idea of God in Cabalism is quite complex, and not necessarily religious in character. God has many names with different powers ruling over hierarchies of angels, but is also a completely abstract entity. Many Cabalists say that it is impossible to say anything about the nature of God, except possibly what things God isn't. The most important symbol in Cabala today is the Sephirothic Tree, a diagram consisting of ten spheres ("Sephiroth") and 22 paths joining them. This is a kind of blueprint for the universe, showing how the quintessence flows down into the material world through different levels. Each sephiroth represents one type of existence. The lowest, Malkuth, the Kingdom, represent the material world. The highest, Keter, the Crown, is the source of the unmanifest quintessence. Between these there are sephiroth representing for example Force, Form, Intelligence and Balance. Each sephiroth corresponds to a number, a colour, different names of God and other symbols. The 22 paths correspond to the 22 letters in Hebrew and the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The system has many similarities to the Enochian theory. The Tree does not only represent the creation, it also represents the human mind. Each sephiroth correspond to a part of the mind or soul. Using this knowledge, a Cabalist may use his magick to transfer energy from one sephiroth to another to change himself or the world around him. For example, a mage wishes to temporarily increase his speed of thought: he invokes Hod (Splendour, intellectual clarity), using the number 8, the colour Orange, Mercury, Cinnamon and the names for the angels of Hod. If he had wished to become stronger he would have invoked Geburah (mental strength) or Malkuth (physical strength). Another important part of Cabala is the esoteric study of holy texts. A text often contains subtle secrets, which can be revealed by the mage. Gematria consists of calculating the number of a word by giving each letter a value (for example A=1, B=2 and so on) and adding this together. This number represents the word, and words that have the same number have some connection. For example in Hebrew, AChD (Unity)=13=AHBH (Love). And 13+13=26=YHVH, the unspeakable name of God. Other ways of finding the secrets in a text is to read only the first letter in every word, or every 50th letter. In Notarikon, the mage creates acronyms for sentences, or tries to find the sentences hidden in acronyms. Temura mixes the letters according to some rules, like A becomes B, B C, and so on (Avgad) or Aiq Bekr, in which the letters are divided into nine equivalence classes and exchanged inside these classes. This numerology and word magick is often used in constructing talismans and words of power, and to hide secrets inside seemingly innocuous texts. Cabalistic Magick is often ceremonial like the Enochian system, and often more directed toward enlightenment and the acquisition of knowledge than practical matters. Many Cabalists spend more time studying than performing magick. Still, the Cabalists have shown competence in creating useful talismans and defences against spirits and malign forces. Cabalistic talismans are often pieces of parchment inscribed with symbols, names and ciphers. They are often worn as an amulet around the neck. They seldom have direct, obvious effects like talismans of other traditions. Instead they often help the mage perform his magick (for example by lowering target numbers) or protect him. The Cabalists are well known for their talismans against evil spirits. Typical examples of talismans are talismans of health, which help the bearer to recover, talismans of Hod, which make the bearer quicker, more business-minded and more intellectual and talismans of Michael, giving the bearer protection against evil forces. Cabalists are very interested in spirits and their realms. Most common is simple scrying into the Umbra, but some Cabalists actually travel through it. They are very interested in the relation of the Celestines to each other and the world, and try to collect as much information as possible about the geography of the Umbra. Another area of research is evil or disharmonious spirits and realms known as the Qlippoth, or "shells." They are thought to be leftovers or flawed parts of the creation which have not yet been recycled. Cabalists often use hierarchies of angels, somewhat like the Enochians. The holy names of God are used to call upon angels and spirits of different levels. There are angels associated with the sephiroth, the paths and different material phenomena. To accurately understand and remember the angelic hierarchy is one of the most important steps in learning Cabala. Instead of using the common nine spheres, some Cabalists use the sephiroth as spheres instead. This means that sephirothic magick concentrate on the desired result, not on the exact way of achieve it. A normal mage will heal someone by using the sphere of life to repair the patients damaged pattern. A Cabalist in the same situation would call upon the forces of mercy and health (Chochma and Tiphareth) and allow him to heal the patient in the best way. If the magick works correctly, both methods
will lead to the same result. Cabalists tend to excel at static magick in their daily lives, and use dynamic magick only in their temples.
Philosophy As above, so below. The universe is filled with connections, both subtle and obvious. Everything, how small or trivial it may seem, has some hidden significance. The forces which rule the Macrocosm are like the forces which rule the Microcosm of man. Study these subtle secrets, which are revealed in the holy texts and the dance of the letters. We will find our way upwards in the Tree, towards Keter and the divine brilliance behind the Three Veils. But we will not follow the way of the Staff, the path of the Mystic. Instead we will follow the way of the Serpent, the path of the Mage, balancing the forces of the universe as we progresses. Along the way we must help other seekers to find their paths, even if they are not parallel to ours. Beware the Qlippoth, for they will weight you down and drag you down into the matter. Mankind has its place in the world and a part in the great plan. But we mustn't interfere with this, as our destiny is not the same as the destiny of humanity.
Organisation and Meetings Very informal, if any at all. Cabalists are often solitary, and meet in informal ways to discuss their latest theories and ideas. Many Cabalists communicate only by mail (or using magick).
Initiation The Cabalists seldom have one obvious initiation; mentors prefer to guide their initiates slowly through several years of study. The mentor often begin by giving the initiate texts to translate and analyse, then continues with more and more complex problems in gematria and symbolism. The initiate slowly understand more and more, until he suddenly gain insight in the interconnectedness of the universe. Often the initiate swears an oath afterwards, affirming his determination to the study of magick.
Chantry The Cabalists have few chantries, but the most important lies in Prague. This chantry houses the second largest library in the whole Order (The largest is probably Cordoba). This library contains many extremely rare tomes, in every conceivable language. Especially books from the middle east are very well represented. Many mages from other traditions visit the Library.
Acolytes Pious Jews, Scholars, Artists
Sphere Spirit or Forces. Many Cabalists study Mind and Prime with great zeal. Matter and Entropy is regarded as a bit dangerous, and study is sometimes discouraged by other Cabalists. Still, many Cabalists have had important insights in the structures of Matter and the role of Entropy.
Foci Cabalists almost always use the conventional foci of the Order of Hermes, mostly because it was they who defined them. When using sephirothic magick they prefer to have things around them associated to the sephiroth used. A mage using Geburah would draw pentagrams, wear red clothes, wield an iron sword and burn irritating incense. It is not necessary, but many mages claim it makes the magick easier. Often only some symbol for the sephiroth used is needed, like an iron knife for Geburah or a golden ring for Tiphareth.
Language: Almost always Hebrew, but unorthodox Cabalists use Latin, enochian or other languages. Circle: Tend to be inscribed with Hebrew names of angels, powers and the secret names of God. Often housed in a consecrated room or temple.
Seal of Solomon, Showstone: Conventional.
Concepts Rabbi, Wise old Man, Surreal Author.
Quote "Contemplate the secret meaning of the Seal of Solomon. The lower triangle is the symbol of fire, and the upper triangle the symbol of water. Water and Fire. The Star of David show two opposites balancing each other in perfect harmony, creating something greater than its parts. It is a fitting symbol for the Macrocosm. Notice it has six rays, showing that it represent Tiphareth. If you put it on the Tree, its rays will point at the planets, with the Sun at its centre. It is a most powerful symbol of balance."
Stereotypes Ahl-I-Batin: We are so alike, yet they do not realize the danger of overly meddling in mortal affairs. Have they not learned at least from their own mistakes?
Akashic Brotherhood: They understand much, but unfortunately only on an intuitive level. Their intuition serve them well, but they will not be able to go further until they understand what they feel.
Celestial Chorus: Our brothers and sisters. They have indeed seen the light. We feel sorry for them in their fall, but perhaps it was necessary for them to experience humility. We sincerely hope that they will rise again. The world needs them.
Cult of Ecstasy: Spending their lives in the sphere of sensation, without any thought of tomorrow. Pitiful, and ultimately doomed. If they do not rise above the lower planes, they will fall prey to Qlippoth of their own creation.
Dreamspeakers: These mages worship Malkuth, the daughter of God. They seek to restore the balance, to reunite her with her husband in Tiphareth. Unfortunately their magick is primitive and too bound to the lower planes to be of any use.
Enochians: Strange mages. They have indeed found something, or is it something that has found them? Euthanatos: Perhaps this Tradition have understood the Abyss of Daath better than any others. But they have not crossed it yet. If they manage to do that, they will become something never seen before.
Hollow Ones : Strange children. We do not understand them. Order of Hermes : Our brethren have taught us much, and they have learned much from us. But have they really understood what we have said?
Rosicrucians: They haven't learned anything from the great Failure. They try to repeat it again, this time using some of our magick too. They could be the downfall of the whole Order.
Sons of Ether : Whatever one may say about their "magick," they have at least understood the need to avoid mundane society. Verbena : Trapped in the lower worlds. Their blood magick is obviously of Qlipphotic origin. They represent the dark side of Malkuth, Lilith, the queen of flesh and lust. They should be studied, but very carefully.
Virtual Adepts: They don't know it yet, but their computers are based upon the secret patterns of letters and numbers we have seen. We have done the same things as they do now for centuries, but by hand. Still, computers are very useful for some magick, but you should know what you really are doing and treat the symbols with respect. Their lack of respect for the powers they use will one day spell their doom.
Rotes The Yetziratic Sealing Rite (Mind 3): Originally from Sepher Yetzirach, this rote is widely used for protection. The mage draws permutations of the letters Yud, Heh and Vav in the six directions with an incense stick while praying. Now the mage is protected as long as the rote is active. People around the mage will ignore him and will not remember him very well, if at all. They will not think about the mage if he does not attract attention. This rote became very popular among the Rosicrucians, who called their rote the Rose Cross Ritual (In which the mage draws crosses instead of letters) [ The rote will make people overlook the mage. Three successes are enough to be ignored by all people in the vicinity of the mage. Each success will subtract one die from every perception roll to spot the mage, as long as he does not attract attention. Since most people ignore each other anyway, the mage will in effect be almost invisible]
The Middle Pillar Ritual (Prime 2): This rote will strengthen the body, mind and soul of the mage. The mage stands and visualises himself as the middle pillar of the Sephirothic Tree. Below him is the material world, and above his head Keter, the source of prime. He feels the energy flowing through him, into the world and from the world back to the source. The mage will feel filled with power, in perfect balance of mind and body. [ The mage will pump quintessence into his own pattern for a while. This will temporarily strengthen the mage's own pattern and hopefully weaken intruding patterns. Each success will remove one success of magick (Both helpful and harmful), like a countermagick roll. The target number for the rote is the highest sphere involved in the effect + 3, or 5, whichever is highest. It will not heal any damage already done nor stop any flaws in the mages own pattern. Prolonged use of this rote has been shown to cause egocentricity, as the mage unconsciously begin to believe he is the centre of the universe. ]
Bless the Faithful Servant (Prime 2 Spirit 2): The mage blesses a spirit, pouring quintessence into its pattern. This is something most spirits desire, as it will make them more powerful in the long run. Besides, at least to a human, they seem to derive pleasure from it. This rote is often used to thank spirits who have helped the mage.
The Invocation of the Four Archangels. (Spirit 2): The mage stand with his arms straight out to the sides, so that his body forms a cross. He invokes the four Archangels: "Before me Raphael. Behind me Gabriel. On my right hand, Michael. On my left hand, Uriel. For around me flames the pentagram, and within me shines the six-rayed star." By using this rote, the mage will scare away most spirits, fearful for the powerful Archangels and the powerful mage. The Rosicrucians have developed their own version, the Lesser Banishing of the Pentagram, which works in almost the same way. [ The Archangels will normally not appear in person, but will (if the mage is lucky) send subordinates to the mage. They will not manifest physically, but their presence is often felt. The subordinate angels will scare away lesser beings from the vicinity. After they are done, they will report back to their superiors what happened. It is very unwise to misuse this rote. ]
CARTOGRAPHERS By Mark VanderMeulen (
[email protected])
Paradigm: Choice Every day we make choices. Every moment we choose a path to follow, and by setting one foot upon that path other paths are closed to us, and new ones open up. The trick to life is to be aware of the choices that you are making, every second of the day. The universe is not truly composed of three or four dimensions, but of infinite dimensions, allowing infinite choice to those who know how to choose. When they are born, humans have the ability to make only a few kinds of choices. As they grow, they learn how to make many more. Most sleepers, however, stop searching for new choices to make, and even forget some of the choices they were able to make when they were children. Instead they are satisfied with a limited amount of choice which they are familiar with, and which make sense to them. The tradition connects its history back to the ancient Phoenecians, who became traders and world travelers, and discovered an interesting phenomena: education and the experience of different cultures opened one up to thoughts, experiences, choices that one had never even considered before. They began to look closely at the concept of choice, and to map out, in the same way their trade route maps did, what the effects were of making certain choices. They also sought out these new experiences, in hopes that it would help them to expand their minds, and lead them to make new and unique choices. Members of this group tend to be wanderers, sailors, and mathematicians. Their view of the universe causes them to see the universe in terms of a strange landscape or ocean to navigate through, or a mathematical space of infinite dimensionality, and they learn to "move around" in it by experimenting and writing out the results in the form of a map. This is the group from which the Virtual Adepts were spawned, and so share the sphere of Prime and their major sphere.
Magick: Decision-making Everyone knows how to make decisions about how to move in normal, three-dimensional space. The Cartographers, however, know that the universe is not limited to three or four dimensions, but in fact has infinite dimensions. Magick is fundamentally learning the ways to "move" down one of those other dimensions (to choose where along that dimension you wish to exist). The mage slowly picks up an understanding of the "axes" that define each dimension, and is able to move herself along one or a set of axes until she arrives at the "coordinates" she desires. The mage is also able, by extension, to "decide" for other persons or things where in infinite-dimensional space they will exist. It is important to remember that the Mage isn't moving himself to another world where what he wants exists, but rather is making a decision about himself and about the things that describe him, in this world, and then changing those descriptors. Also, humans tend to rebound back into their "normal" state in the infinite-dimensional universe unless spending continuing attention to where they are. This is not a hard and fast rule, but a generalization.
Spheres Correspondence: Movement For a being who is learning to "move" in infinite-dimensional space, the vagarities of normal, three dimensional space are quite simple. The mage may simply "move" himself into a dimension where spatial distances are much smaller, take a single step, and then "move" back out into 3-space.
Entropy: The Cohesive Choice Material existence in infinite-dimensional space may seem slightly strange to someone unused to it. One of the choices that any material thing makes is whether its component parts will remain together, or will disperse to be used in the forming of something else. Normal humans can do this by "convincing" the part to come apart by slamming it against something hard. This is called the Cohesive Choice, and is one of the choices that a Mage can make for another object by imposing his will.
Forces: The Active Choice
Material things can also choose to be in motion or to be still. This is the basic choice that gives rise to all the forces that we know in the ordinary world: the movement of electrons to produce electricity, the movement of photons to produce light. Normal humans know how to put an object into motion by throwing it. With the imposition of will, the Mage can learn to make the Active Choice for an object, or to change the dimensionality of a material object which is already moving.
Matter: The Static Choice Material things also make the choice of what to be. Usually, material things are unable to make choices for themselves, and so tend to retain their current choice until it is changed for them. Normal humans know how to change the state of water from liquid to ice by cooling it. Mages can impose their will on such material things to make that choice.
Life: The Vessel Things which are living are special types of material things which have at least some ability to make their own choices. Thus their normal state is to be moving, at least partially, through infinite-dimensional space. Thus, they can be compared to boats on an ocean. Simple life forms can only make very simple choices. It is only by possessing a true Mind that the full range of possibilities can open up.
Mind: The Navigator Life can make rudimentary choices, but only a true mind can be creative, and realize choices which are not obvious to our admittedly limited normal sense perceptions.
Prime: Possibility Things which can actuate themselves in the infinite-dimensional universe are composed of a kind of stuff for which decisions can be made. We call this stuff, out of which all real things are made, possiblity. It is possible to remove the possibility from an object, at which time all choices in it are set to naught, and the possibility gained can be used to make the choices for it which will bring something new into existence.
Spirit: The Unchosen It seems that things, once chosen, cannot easily be unchosen. Humans have used their minds to believe in a great many things during their time in existence. When they believed them, they were real, but when they choose to disbelieve them, they didn't become unreal, but simply moved out of reach. We can search this wasteland of lost ideas to expand our minds with great benefit.
Time: The Voyage In infinite-dimensional space, time is simply another dimension. The "normal" state along this axis is Active, and most of the time we are content to let that be. However, this seems to be an axis which is governed by strange laws. Material objects draw 'vectors' behind them along this dimension, and we can easily back track and view these imprints. However, the objective "now" seems to be a reality, beyond which we can predict only based on the movement of the vectors from the past, and these predictions rapidly become inacurrate.
Backgrounds Arete: Perspective A Mage slowly explores and understands a greater and greater portion of the infinite-dimensional space, and finds it easier and easier to correctly navigate in it.
Avatar: Conviction This measures the Mage's faith in himself, and therefore his ability to "force" his decisions upon other material objects.
Paradox: Eddies/Unstable landscape Infinite-dimensional space seems to have some of the properties of a strange fluid. Perhaps this is the "zeroed" Possibility that has been removed from material objects, and before it can be incorporated into something new. At any rate, movement too fast or too far or along too many axes seems to "stir it up" to the point where it can become dangerous, not least because it can overcome the Navigating Mind and impose its own decisions upon the Mage. Indeed, at times it seems to have a strange form of Mind itself.
Quintessence: Trapped Possibility In order to store primal Possibility, at least a few of its axes must be set to non-zero coordinants, or else it escapes material form and is recycled. However, in this simple form it is very easy to make for it any choice the Mage wishes.
Arcane: Privacy It's amazing how effective a mage can be a Choosing not to be bothered.
Destiny: Wind in your Sails Some mages seem to be compelled into new ideas and choices. They may find very powerful news areas of the infinitedimensional space, or change the current path of Consensual Reality (see below) in a new and powerful way.
Dream: Insight Some mages have the ability to open themselves up to new parts of the infinite-dimensional universe and find areas to where they can move in order to get certain things done. [StoryTeller's note: some characters will try to say that they will move themselves to an area or infinite-dimensional space where they suddenly have a 5 in Firearms. Admit to them that this is possible, but that they haven't explored the right parts of infinite-dimensional space to get there.]
Node Some material things which seem to be non-living nevertheless seem to impose a choice upon Possibility. In these areas primal (unincorporated) Possibility is given a few non-zero coordinates, which make it possible for a Mage to get a handle on it and use it for her own purposes.
Talisman Certain areas of infinite-dimensional space are so handy, it pays to write them down so you can move yourself there in a hurry. One of the easiest ways to do this is to find a helpful spirit to memorize it for you, and then keep it where you can get a hold of it.
Foci Compass: Entropy, Forces, Matter. Map: Correspondence, Mind, Life. Sextant: Prime, Spirit, Time.
Consensual reality Most humans are willing to make only the choices that their normal senses make obvious to them. When a large number a
people do this, their single-minded directionality creates a tidal current in the fluid of the infinite-dimensional universe, which tends to keep them going in the same direction. This is the reason that mages tend to "rebound" back to normal states unless they continually pay attention to where they are on a particular axis. They get "drawn along" with the rest of humanity. This is also the reason why "crossing the current" brings up the eddies which form Paradox Spirits. Understandably, this is a source of irritation for the Cartographers. Ascension, they believe, will only occur when more people are made aware of the choices which they can make, and stop all moving in the same direction. Only then will all humanity have the ability to freely make all the choices that are open to them.
Stereotypes The Traditions Akashic Brotherhood: They seek inside themselves while we seek outside ourselves. Perhaps we search for the same things, but our way is much more interesting.
Ahl-i-Batin: Who? I've never met one. Celestial Chorus: Too often they limit themselves by assuming that they already understand the One. If they would admit their ignorance and acknowledge that the One is infinitely complex and therefore unknowable, perhaps even by the oracles, they would begin their approach to the path of wisdom.
Cult of Ecstacy: They are at least open to new experiences, but unfortunately seldom in a state to learn very much from them. Dreamspeakers: Renowned wanderers and seekers of the unknown, they are our brethren, if a bit too focused on the spirit world.
Euthanatos: They are too quick to snuff out a stale life. Better that sleepers be severed from the ties that bind them to one place and be given a chance to wander and experience more of life than to be robbed of that tiny bit which they possess.
Hollow Ones: Proof positive what remaining too long in a stifling environment will do to a once promising avatar. They should be taught the joys and enlightenment of the long road before they end up like this. Save them if you can, but many are like the withered tree: never again will it be able to stand straight.
Order of Hermes: How strange. They study the words and symbols on the map, but never go to the places which they describe. Experience is lost on those for whom the form has become all.
Sons of Ether: Intellectual development and scientific creation are both forms of journeying, but getting out of the lab now and then would do them all worlds of good.
Verbena: Life is just the vessel which carries the self on it journey. They may find power in their control of the vessel, but they have missed the point completely.
Virtual Adepts: Perhaps creating a virtual world can bring the enlightenment of experiencing the real one. What is more likely, however, is that they will just become lost in their own illusions.
The Technocracy Due to their philosophy, Cartographers tend to avoid conflict unless it is conflict itself that they are interested in. Although they support the values of the Traditions, they tend not to become directly involved in the Ascension War. This is probably just as well, because their tendency to move on and avoid trouble rather than stand and face it means that few of them are very good at combat skills. Their strength, rather is in their knowledge and research, and they are highly respected for their Lore and understanding of the spheres. They make some of the best tutors for the tradition disciples, particularly in the Sphere of Correspondence, much preferred over the reclusive Virtual Adepts or the elusive Batini. However, potential students be warned: you will probably be asked to undertake a quest for your tutor or accompany her on a journey as a test before the request is granted. Indeed, many students find afterwards that the quest was itself part of the instruction. Although they do not directly fight the Technomancers, they do work in their own way to undermine the power of the technocratic paradigm. They do this by interacting one-on-one with sleepers, encouraging vacations and trips to different parts of the world, and then arranging for unique and enlightening experiences to happen to them on the trip. Many powerful avatars are awakened in this way, and if not, then at least the sleeper has discovered that not all parts of the worlds are the same, and neither are all people. In some cases, the cartographer will go so far as to break every tie that holds a person in one place: a girlfriend may get the perfect job in a distant city, then the subject loses his own job, has his apartment robbed, then the building condemned, his bank closes in scandal. Just when it seems he has no options, a long lost aunt leaves him an estate in Madagascar, or a high school buddy offers him a job at the company branch in Paraguay, or Finland, or Thailand.
Werewolves The Cartographers have long cultivated friendships with the Garou, who have a unique perspective which the mages find fascinating. It is not unheard of for a Cartographer and a Silent Strider to journey together for some time, or for a Cartographer to seek a renowned Stargazer. They tend to leave the more confrontational tribes alone, however. Due to this long association, their Tradition's Garou Lore is better than that of any other except the Dreamspeakers.
Vampires Although they find it difficult to break the Masquerade, the Cartographers have been aware of the existence of the Kindred for some time, and have avidly collected Kindred Lore. Although they have sifted much of the fact from the fiction, their Lore is not yet as good as that Euthanatos. However, they find the Kindred perspective to be just as fascinating as the Garou, and all the more sweet for being rare. Occasionally a Cartographer has befriended or been befriended by a vampire, particularly those of the sect known as the Gangrel, which are the only type to take wanderering seriously. In addition, the kindred finds the mage to be a valuable companion when travelling the countryside.
Wraiths Cartographers enjoy helping wraiths complete unfinished business in return for information on the afterlife, mostly to help the soul return to its next journey. However, although there are a few who are interested in the Shadowlands and wraiths, on the whole there is remarkable little interest in the dead. Most seem to view wraiths as somewhat tasteless, not knowing when to move on to the next stage on the journey, and consequently pay little attention to them. The living is more important for the living. Those who are interested in the dead and the Shadowlands are looked at as somewhat strange, but tolerated cheerfully.
New Skill: Cartography All Cartographers write maps and understand maps with subtly. Although classically maps represent geographical areas, we now use them more so much more. We have maps of galaxies, maps of the human genome, maps of computer programs, maps of interpersonal relationships and politics, and many more. People with this skill can not only create accurate maps and successfully read and understand the maps of others, but also can understand the perspective and values of the author of the map. Every map is at least partly subjective, and so may not be entirely accurate, for the author can only portray the information which she has and believes in, and as always, belief can lead to the recording of things which aren't there, as well as to the skipping over of things simply not believed. In addition, choices must be made concerning what to include and what not to include even among the perfectable acceptable and believable data, because a map cannot hold everything. A good cartographers can sift the truth from the fiction, and occasionally even discover the truth that lies behind the fiction. Further, since all Cartographers record their magick in a cartographic way, a score of at least one in this skill is required to study from Cartographer Tomes or to use their renowned Umbral Maps.
Chantry: The Erraticus Rex The Tradition has only one Chantry, not surprising for a group whose philosophy is to keep moving. It is called the Erraticus Rex which is Latin and translates roughly as "Wanderer King." The Chantry itself is a huge wooden sailing ship, which is generally found sailing the Great Oceanic Plane of the Shard Realm of Matter. However, due to a strange Correspondence/Spirit Rote worked into the very wood of the hull, it is able to "sail" through the Umbra to other places. This mobility has so far kept it safe from the Void Engineers. The Ship itself is composed of three hulls, the main hull, only slightly smaller than the famous QE2, and smaller outrigger hulls, on the port and starboard sides (of course). The outrigger hulls include cargo holds as well as guest suites and classrooms, while the hull houses the Chantry members and their labs, as well as the famous Map Room. This room contains at least one copy of virtually every map that has been made by humans. In addition, there are maps made by the Cartographers themselves, including the famous Umbral Maps which are in great demand from members of the other traditions. Further, because the magickal writing of the Cartographers consists of maps, this room also functions as the arcane library. Remember that to intrepret this magickal writing or that of the Umbral Maps, the user must have at least one point in the cartography skill. This skill can be taught by any Cartographer. The Map Room is a long room that runs along the center of the main hull, almost the entire length of the ship. Although most maps are printed on plastic/paper/parchment/papyrus, there are also a number of globes, starbowls, astrolabes, and even more curious 3-D maps. However, the most wondrous map of them all resides not in the Map Room, but in its own three storey tall room at the heart of the ship. This is the Grand Umbral Astrolabe, and it is a magickal talisman of great power, whose great Brass and wood epicycles and orbits chart out the movements of the various Umbral Realms in relation to one another, as well and pinpoint the location of the Chantry in the Umbra. This is a great aid to the Captain of the Chantry when he navigates the Chantry through the Umbra. The Grand Umbral Astrolabe is magickally set to "read" the umbra with Correspondence and Spirit
magicks and then display what it finds using Matter and Forces. Naturally it is more accurate with the area close to the ship that with that on the opposite side of the Umbra, but it is able to chart the appearance and movement of unstable phenomenon such as Dream Realms and Paradox Realms. This may be valuable to characters seeking paradox-grabbed companions or mentors. The Chantry is governed by its Captain, who has final authority in all things, and is the only member who always remains on board. The current Captain is a Master of both Correspondence and Spirit, and enjoys exploring the various parts of the Umbra. So while the Chantry is most often found in the Shard Realm of Matter, or in the Shard Realm of Correspondence for teaching purposes, it can potentially be found almost anywhere (including in the middle of what may appear in the spiritual topography as completely dry land). The Captain is the one who characters must see to apply for associate membership (and thus admission to the Map Room and the Grand Umbral Astrolabe). The Captain usually requires either a quest to prove their worth, or else a recounting of their travels and the enlightenment it has brought them, propounded as a public speech for the general benefit. Indeed, such talks, or Travellogues as they are called, are the social events of the Chantry. The Captain appoints three members of the Chantry to sit on a committee to determine the worth of the speaker. The affair is held in a Salon in the main hull set aside for just this purpose. They are usually followed (when the candidate is successful) by a party and banquet. The parties tends to run more toward ballroom dancing and storytelling than to loud music and drinking, but stranger things have happened. Besides, it is said that more lore is spilled at parties on the Erraticus Rex than beer at a Cultist rave. The inhabitants of the Chantry, other than the mages, are all sentient creatures resembling waterbirds. There are gull deckhands, albatross lookouts, penguin hospitality staff, pelican chefs, osprey marines, and duck, loon, and tern library staff, many of which make excellent copies with their own loose quills. The Chantry is supported by four nodes, which also serve as its primary portals. Each is located in extrememly out-of-the-way locations on earth, and require considerable travel by boat or on foot to reach. Each but the South Node has a powerful Guardian Spirit. The North Node is located on a small island off Spittsbergen (look north of Iceland on a map). The node itself in is a cave on the island which is covered with carvings of runes which resemble ancient Icelandic, but which no one has been able to interpret. The node was discovered by a Cartographer member Capt. Henry Hudson. It is guarded by a spirit that resembles the yeti (abominable snowman) and carries a huge and intricately detailed battle axe). The South Node is in a small, out-of-the-way resort on New Zealand's South Island called the Albatross Inn. The resort is owned by the tradition. The East Node is located in the pool below a waterfall in the mountanous jungles of Thailand. To reach it the character must swim underwater and under the waterfall. This is not as dangerous as it might seem, because for those in the know there is a ledge to the side of the waterfall which can be climbed under and used to crawl under the waterfall, thus avoiding the dangerously violent water immediately below the fall. The passage still requires the ability to swim (under Athletics). Its Guardian resembles a giant crab. The West Node is located in a small mountain glade in a remote part of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, USA. The closest building to the node is a small ranch owned by the tradition, but it is still a good day's hike from the ranch to reach the node. The Guardian resembles a great sabertoothed cat.
CELESTINE By Erik Nielsen (
[email protected])
Prelude That evening, as I sat on my porch watching the sun set over the ocean, feeling more calm and rested than I had all week, an old friend, Roger, dropped by. I hadn't seen Roger in over three years; he'd left San Diego back then for a lucrative reporting position in a small South American country with a well-known cable news network. I pulled a couple of beers out of the fridge, and we settled down on the porch to swap stories in the twilight. We chatted about old times, about old friends and old acquaintances. I'd kept up with more of the old gang than he had, but he had the occasional bit of news that I hadn't yet heard. I told him about my work with a small but secure software firm, and he regaled me with harrowing tales of some of the adventures he'd found down there. Pretty soon it was approaching midnight; we'd drank several more beers, and I was starting to yawn. I told Roger he was welcome to camp out on my couch; he agreed, and we turned in. And that should have been that for the night. Around two, though, I suddenly awoke, tense and alert, the last vestiges of whatever strange dream I'd had vanishing as I became aware that something, somewhere in the house, was not right. If I'd still been living in L.A. or Oakland, this wouldn't have been unusual, but my neighborhood in Encinitas is safer than either of those two towns. I got up quietly, without turning on a light, and threw on a pair of jeans, then, just as quietly, made my way out of my room and down the hall to the living room. As I came in view of the couch, I noticed that Roger was nowhere to be seen. Then, through the heavy glass on the door, I caught the silhouette of someone standing on the porch. Crouching down, I slowly made my way towards the door. As I passed the couch, Roger tapped me on the shoulder, nearly giving me a heart attack. He was lying on the floor behind the couch, and he motioned for me to be quiet and come nearer. "What the hell?" I hissed, joining him on the floor. "I was afraid this might happen," he whispered back. "People you know or should I call the police?" I asked quietly. For some reason I remained remarkably calm. "The police would probably ask more questions than these guys would," he muttered. "Quick question, Rog." "Yeah?" "Are we in any danger?" As if in answer, some broke in one of the panes on the door with a crowbar, sending broken glass onto the floor. A gloved hand reached clumsily through the hole and pawed around for the lock. Roger and I backed away from the couch quickly, without another word, and headed for the kitchen door. Looking through the curtains, I couldn't see anyone out there, and I told Roger as much. He quickly unbolted the door and sprang outside, me right behind him. As we lept over my neighbor's fence, I heard the sound of someone breaking the chain off my door. We skipped through my neighbor's yard out into the street. Miraculously, a cab was just then going by. We flagged it down and hopped in. "Where ya headed?" asked the cabbie. "Chula Vista," said Roger, and the we took off. "Lucky you caught me," said the cabbie. "We don't too many cabs 'round here this time of night." Roger smiled. "Yeah, lucky. Say, could you turn on the radio?" The cabbie complied, and soon strains of easy-listening music were soothing my nerves. "All right, Roger," I said in a low voice after I'd calmed down a bit, "What's going on?" "Well," said Roger, "it all started when a priest I know gave me a copy of a manuscript and asked me to get it out of the country...."
Description The Celestine Prophecy, is a book written by James Redfield. In this book, Redfield makes the claim that an ancient manuscript was recently discovered in Peru; this Manuscript supposedly contains Nine Insights detailing how humanity can evolve to a higher state of existence. The story within the book supposedly illustrates these Nine Insights, how they are gained, and how they can be applied. The writing style is easy to read (thus perhaps accounting for the book's popularity), and each
Insight is presented in a chapter which includes an example of that Insight. The metaphysics described in the book are the sorts of things most basic students of the occult already have a firm grasp on. Unfortunately, the book is vague and unclear when it comes to the actual techniques involved in the gathering and sharing of energy. Soon after this book hit the stands, however, Technocratic monitors have picked up a peculiar trend. Some of the people who read this book (though not all, and certainly not most) move from the vague mysticism described therein to more specific varieties of mysticism, incorporating, say, Buddhist breathing exercises with the theories of energy control espoused in the book. An alarming number of these seemingly spontaneous mystics then Awaken in a limited fashion, although their paradigms seem entirely regulated by the book and the Insights it purports to reveal. If this were simply a Luddite Awakening movement, the Technocratic council would have little hesitation in simply discrediting and destroying this group entirely. Unfortunately, there is evidence to suggest that the book was originally generated as part of the $yndicate's attempt to take over the metaphysical publishing market; certain elements at the end of the book suggest that its followers should pay those people who give them insights and enlightening ideas, thereby ensuring that more metaphysical funds will be funneled into the economy at large. Also, the book is not at all anti-technology. On the contrary, the book thoroughly supports technological progress. Some Technocrats believe that this could be the bridge between Sleepers and Technocracy they've been waiting for, that this could be the key to the next step of becoming transhuman. Others, of course, see it as mystical nonsense that threatens the foundations of the Technocracy itself. The argument continues to rage. In the meantime, the Celestines (as they call themselves) are at liberty to pursue their own peculiar brand of mysticism. This mysticism involves Nine Insights, although some hold out for the Tenth Insight, which the author hinted at broadly in the last few pages of the book. Those first Nine Insights include the following: history is a progression leading from savagery to our present civilization and the coming millenium, coincidences are meaningful, all living things possess energy fields that can be manipulated by will, one is the synthesis of one's parents and one must come to understand their struggles in order to understand one's own struggles, the ideal life involves living in a state of constant awareness of this energy and the coincidences that occur because of it, all human beings will come to this realization on their own, and, when one achieves the right level of energy, one will transcend this plane entirely. The energy involved can be gained through other people, they say, but it is better if this energy is gained from the environment through a kind of meditation that deals with appreciating the ambient beauty. Once infused with this energy, all things become effortless to the Celestine, as one follows one's own destiny perfectly. The Celestines are a Craft composed almost entirely of the spontaneously awakened. They are not taken very seriously by the more traditional mages because their metaphysic seems to run rather shallow.
Philosophy There is beauty in everything in the world, and you just have to open your mind to it. Once you understand the Insights, your life will fall into order, and you'll truly become what it is you're destined to become. You really should read the book. It really opened my eyes.
Style This Craft's magick is almost entirely coincidental. They prefer energy manipulation to outright vulgar magick. Since most of their magick has to do with the gaining and sharing of quintessence, they focus a lot on meditation.
Sphere Prime (Note that since their paradigm has mainly to do with energy, few Celestines progress above the second rank in any other Sphere, except Matter and Forces, in which they very rarely progress above the first rank, and Life, in which many seem to progress to the third rank. Also, a Celestine may never have a rank in another Sphere higher than his or her rank in Prime. For many Celestines, the progression seems to be from Prime to Entropy)
Common Foci Meditation, beautiful surroundings, breathing exercises; some of the more mystically oriented Celestines may also use crystals.
Organization Most large cities have at least one chapter. Each chapter produces its own newsletter detailing the activities of the chapter and providing insights on the Insights. Otherwise, most Celestines tend to meet simply by coincidence... if you believe in coincidence, of course.
Initiation It all starts with a single book. If the Initiate appears receptive to the Insights, a more senior member will act as Mentor to the Initiate. For some, this leads to Awakening; for others, this leads to being an acolyte.
Acolytes Celestines with little mystical aptitude, New Agers, New Age Christians, fledgeling students of the occult.
Concepts Dreamers, seekers, students, teachers.
CEREBUS By Clayton S. Caddy (
[email protected]) (10 Oct 93)
Background During the time after the age of fantasy, in what most would call the enlightened age, a small number of people began manifesting unexplainable powers. If they revealed the powers, they were persecuted as witches, or demons. Thus, they concealed their power, but began aiding others like themselves to understand their gifts. As they studied, they found that certain practices of relaxation, meditation, and focusing allowed them better grasp and control over their power. They built on this, and developed an intense understanding of the way they saw magick. Unfortunatelly, no one ever told these people they were mages. In time, and while listening to the great thinkers of their days, they began to see their powers as an extention of the mind. By focusing their thoughts, they could shape reality by will alone. A vocabulary taken from various psychology and parapsychology books became used by these collected orphans, and a new tradition was born: one of the mind affecting the world. Terms such as psychokenesis, telempathic projection, and other psychobabble became the may of the world. Only years later, once the tradition was firmly structured, did the other traditions take notice of these mind mages, whom they had originally considered crackpot spoon benders and psychics. But the Cerebus (originaly the Cerebellus) were very real. So real, in fact, and since they were separate from the other traditions, that the Technocracy waged a full scale war against them, as an 'example' to the other traditions. The Cerebellus were decimated, and their art nearly lost. Only a few survived the war, but those who did gained 2 gifts: an immense knowledge of the Technocracy, and a burning desire for vengeance. The name of Cerberus, the three-headed dog which guarded the underworld, corrupted to Cerebus, became the emblem of the tradition, as a warning to those who opposed them: never surprised (as they had been), and one may fight as well as three. The Cerebus, originally one of the most pacifistic and philosophical traditions, became a holy army against the Technocracy. In the years after the original war, the Cerebus stayed quiet, watching from the sidelines, until the moment of greatest weakness came: the separation of the Virtual Adepts from the Conclave. Then, the jyhad began, and the Technocracy reeled from the ferocity of the attack. Just as quickly, the Cerebus were gone, returning to the shadows, to watch once more. There they sit today, waiting for the next opportunity to strike.
Organization The Cerebus, because of their orphan status, long were wanderers, with no chantry, no organization, and no leadership. A Common Mind was shared by the members, and that was enough. After the attack, the Common Mind was the key that held the tradition together. Now, there is still no ruling clas' as all have a say in decisions. However, there are divisions throughout the world, who work together against the Technocracy. They are set up like military legions, with the exception of the number 3: all members have 2 partners, forming teams of 3. 3 teams work as a group. 3 groups work as a lance. 3 lances make a squadron, and so forth. These divisions, and their subgroups, focus on three things: opposing the Technocracy at every possible opportunity, initiating new members, and, as was their original purpose, learning a better understanding of their power. The Cerebus still seek their own Ascension, through complete understanding of their power and their own mind, but now see the Technocracy as an obstacle before them that must be destroyed before Ascension may occur. They know that anyone may be Awakened, but that the chokehold of technology prevents it. They do not oppose technology itself, just those who prevent free thought. With the apparent double mission of the Cerebus, it might seem that the order would fragment quickly. There are three subgroups in the order: one oriented towards combat, one oriented towards the accumulation of knowledge. and one oriented towards self-enlightenment. They do not, however, clash. The three-headed emblem indicates several ideas working together for a common goal. The Cerebus see the subdivisons as beneficial, as the Technocracy sometimes doesn't know 'which head is biting them' at any given time. They share knowledge amongst themselfes freely, as well as to those they see as allies against the Technocracy. Although there is no leadership, there are two types who stand out among the Cerebus, and are more likely to be listened to: those who have fought bravely and successfully against the Technocracy, and those who have gained great understanding of their powers. More often than not, one person is admired for both reasons.
Meetings Members with Mind of 3 may communicate with others through the Common Mind: a great telepathic conference which is always buzzing with activity. Any mage with Mind 3 may contact the Common Mind as well, but may not be immediately welcomed.
Otherwise, face-to-face meeting are sometimes difficult, as the members are frequently scholars, solders, or hermits.
Initiation The Cerebus are comprised almost exclusively of orphans. They do know how to Awaken sleepers, but chose not to, seeing Awakening as a natural step in life. However, they also aggressively attempt to convert other traditions to join them, with some success (especially among the Euthanatos and the Brotherhood). They welcome those who oppose the Technocracy with the same determination which they possess. They are also regarded as some of the best teachers in the world, and as such are sought by other mages (all of whom must swear allegence to the Cerebus before learning anything).
Chantry Although the common mind serves as the primary chantry, the United States Military Academy at West Point serves as a meeting point for many members. There are other chantries beginning to appear, most at Colleges, Military Bases or training grounds, and the like.
Acolytes Anyone self-awakened (Orphans).
Spheres The primary spheres used by the Cerebus are Mind, Correspondence, and Force. One point must be placed in one of these spheres. The other five may be placed anywhere. When advancing, these three are all considered primary spheres, but all other spheres advance as Orphans. In addition, no sphere can be higher than the mage's Meditation score.
Foci Eye: Correspondance/Time Weapon: Entropy/Force/Matter/Life Meditation: Mind/Prime/Spirit Eye: Any piece of jewelry depicting an eyeball. Often a ring or necklace. Weapon: Any weapon may be chosen, from a knife to a submachine gun. Meditation: The mage must successfully enter a meditative state to cast a spell. The mage may opt to attempt to reduce the difficulty (difficulty 9), but must successfully meditate first (effectively spending one round concentrating).
Concepts Soldier, Scholar, Teacher, Psychologist, Any mage from another tradition (convert)
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They truly are our brothers. They have found a near-perfect balance between mind and body. We can and have learned much from them.
Celestial Chorus: The power comes from within, not a higher being. They must learn this before ascending. Cult of Ecstacy: Hedonistic fools. They attempt to escape their destiny. We will have nothing to do with them until thety see the error of their ways.
Discordians: Valuable allies in a fight, but too unpredictable otherwise. Dreamspeakers: Like the Chorus, the look outside themselves for the power which they already possess. Euthanatos: Cleansing the world of the technocracy should be their priority, not killing those not worth the effort. Though we are allies, we abhore their lack of compassion towards the sleepers.
Hollow Ones: Our greatest asset. Teaching them how powerful they can be, our ranks swell. Order of Hermes: Scholars beyond compare. Their research has aided us many times in the past. Runecasters: Noble warriors, but they focus too little on the Technocracy, and too much on the Pyhrric enemies of the future. Sons of Ether: The mirror of the Technocracy; we support them as much as possible. They also make some great weapons. Technolibertarians: Like the Sons of Ether, they bring technology without crushing free thought. Verbena: Blood is of the body, but is not in itself power. The life itself is. Virtual Adepts: Electronic pulses from a computer are not as powerful as those of the mind. Self-reliance is needed.
Rotes Psychokinesis (Force 4, Prime 2): The ability to move objects by will alone, though a great mystery to science, is second nature to many Cerebus. By imagining the object's movement, the will causes it. System: Simple Telekinesis, as described in the book.
Mind Sight (Mind 3, Correspondance 4): The ultimate gathering of information, by 'skimming' all minds in the area for the answer to a specific question, much can be learned. System: Each success acts as the Dream background for one turn. The knowledge may be penned, but will be quickly forgotten otherwise.
Psychic Blast (Mind 3, Force 2): The delicate workings of the human mind can be easily disrupted, sending the thought processes into disarray. System: A form of induced epilepsy, each success stuns the victim into inaction for one turn (the effects can be 'soaked' with a wits roll, difficulty 6).
Mystic Sight (Mind 2, Correspondance 1): Three heads with six eyes can not be surprised. Each head watches a separate direction, to prevent an unexpected attack from behind. System: A form of radar which passively scans all minds in the area. When the sense of hostility towards the caster is noted, the exact location of the perpetrator is known immediately. This is primarily meant to prevent surprise attacks in battle, stoping would-be backstabers.
Talismans Because they stress self-reliance so much, Cerebus talismans are all but unheard of. Occasionally one may take a weapon from the Sons of Ether, or a scrying device from the VA or Hermetics, but few have constructed their own items. Most of those that do exist would fit the descriptions of those mentioned above (weapon, scrying).
Optional notes The Cerebus are known as the great teachers of magick. Their wisdom is valuably sought. If one was willing to join their ranks (by converting to the Cerebus), they may learn from them. In the system, study points available from allies of the Cerebus are DOUBLE their normal value (ie, an ally who could normally give 10 study points can give 20). This may not be available, at the Storytellers discretion.
CHAMBER OF THORNS By Christopher Kobar
History This group was founded in New York in 1790 by a group of patriots who believed that the US Constitution as adopted would result in the eventual failure of "the great experiment of Democracy" due to its implicit "rights" talk. Though these men believed it necessary to include such in order to convince enough states to pass the unprecedented document, they were sure that society would abuse the privileges the Constitution granted. To amend this problem, the group took it upon themselves to "fix" problems as they arose, taking their cue from the infamous Star Chamber in bonnie England. From the first the secret society kept their numbers small for security's sake. They also adopted much of the trappings and ritual that they brought with them from their Masonic backgrounds and religious beliefs. These ceremonial aspects became so obstructive to the group's original purpose that by the mid-1800's the Chamber had ceased to be active in carrying out their purported goals of "fixing" societal problems as they arose, a euphamism for what had really been little more than vigilanteism. In 1863, Franc-Louie Boudreaux -- an extremely mysterious member of the group (so mysterious in fact, that unlike the others, he ensured that even in the sanctity of the Chamber's rooms his face remained obscured, leaving many to believe that his very name even, was a lie) -- announced to his comrades that they would all die before sunrise! He then added that only half of them were, however, ready. When his fellow members demanded to know what kind of threat that was, he replied only that it was not threat, but simply the way it would be. The meeting was adjourned and each went back to their wives and children fearful of the enigmatic Frenchman. The next morning exactly half the men who sat at Msr. Boudreaux's side the night before were reported to have died the night before, all of easily explainable circumstances. The other half had all been either involved in some accident or been struck by some illness that had almost resulted in their deaths also, but not quite. When the evening of the next scheduled meeting of the Chamber of Thorns arrived, the men who had survived their brush with death sat silent, eyeing Franc-Louie with horrid awe. They realized that he was far beyond them in his understanding of death and his power over it. As children before a hero, the men listened dutifully as their new Bearer of Thorns took his seat and laid out the Chamber's new beginning. No longer would they reveal their identities to even each other, but would instead wear masks -- as Msr. Boudreaux claimed the dead themselves do -- to conceal their true selves. They would cast away their worldly cares and dedicate themselves to keeping democracy on track by ridding the world of those who would abuse its freedoms. They were patriots, and they would cull the troublesome from the earth.
Organization Today the members remain a complete mystery to each other. While the Chamber is located in Washington, DC, individual members live throughout the country, carrying out their sacred duties wherever necessary. Only Disciples may actually attend the formal meetings, though the Masters wield the power of veto on any of the Chamber's decisions. The current Bearer of Thorns' identity is unknown, but some believe that he is the very same Franc-Louie Boudreaux that founded the group in its present incarnation. Some even whisper that he is actually a mage possessed by a powerful wraith, with his true intentions unknown. Others suggest that it is not a wraith at all, but rather a wraith's Shadow!! The members act as assassins, most often framing someone else for their actions. Most are upstanding citizens holding respectable jobs -- lawyers, judges, doctors, etc. Each acts independantly, choosing to "fix" whatever "problem" they perceive. At the bi-monthly meetings in Washington, specific "larger" problems are discussed and strategies on how to deal with them are voted on. Then, the Bearer of Thorns will announce who shall be offered "the Crown of Thorns" (ie. the gift of death) and any member who wishes may then eradicate the individuals. Only one thing is required, and that is the individuals must be dead before the next meeting is convened.
Magick In general, these mages do not think of themselves as "magickal". They believe that their understanding of Justice and the role Death plays in it is simply far greater than that of ordinary folk. They do not perform murder, but rather "patriotic necessity". Regarding their "foci", their dancing is simply very precise somatic movements of the arms while tracing certain patterns with their feet. They usually try to acquire bone fragments of great patriots, while their weapons can be anything useful. Their dolls are very lifelike effigies, likenesses which they will adorn with a small circlet of thorns in order to affect. Most members have Patterned or Dynamically essencial Avatars, as they concentrate on rectifying Democracy's flaws.
THE CHILDREN OF THE ANTICHRIST by Anders Sandberg
Description The Children of Antichrist is a group of Satanistic orphans, who use their magick for fun and profit. Unlike most mages, who use their magick for some higher goal, the Children use it to gain mundane power, pleasure and wealth. This approach to magick has made most other mages to despise the Children. Their outlook is amoral, and often quite egocentric. Each Child sees himself as the centre of the world, and have decided that the rest of reality is there just to gratify his desires. Originally the Children of Antichrist was the name of an influential group of Satanists, where several members spontaneously awakened. They influenced several other orphans, and the Children were created. Today the term is used to denote orphans who are influenced by Satanistic philosophy and beliefs. Sometimes the term is used to denote any orphan who use his magick in an amoral manner for his own gratification. The most important thing about the Children is their nihilistic ethics. Might is Right; everybody is free to do whatever they desire. There is no right or wrong, merely success and failure. If a Child wants to have something, he will get it without regard to what anybody else thinks or feels about it. If somebody tries to stop him, it is their own fault if he hurts them. If they manage to stop him, it is the Child's own fault for not avoiding it. Everybody is allowed to do whatever they like to, but one must always face the consequences. The Children of Antichrist see themselves as one step above the rest of humanity. They have the power, and anybody stupid enough to oppose them should be crushed (and if the enemy crushes the child, it was his own fault for being weak). A Child may decide to help somebody, but he doesn't have to unless he really wants to. He might as well destroy or ignore her, depending on his own mood. The Children are fundamentally anarchistic. Everybody is free to do what they will. Old ideologies, religions, morals or other societal structures imprison mankind, and should be destroyed. On the other hand, if someone is powerful enough to force others to obey him, he has the right to do it. Weak persons should not be protected. The Children respect strength in all forms, and do not care if the weak are hurt or killed. The Children are often quite materialistic, and many do not believe in God or Satan. Other Children claim Satan is a personification of the dark forces which exist everywhere. Just as God is an image of the inflated ego and superego of mankind, so is Satan an image of the repressed desires and lusts of mankind. Some claim Satan is a real being, perhaps a Celestine. Other Children believe in the Christian myths, and believe in a war between God and Satan. The Children spend much time quarreling over the their different beliefs about Satan and God, seldom coming to any conclusion. Most of the Children couldn't care less. Due to their lack of inhibitions, many Children are destroyed by their own excesses, paradox or the Technocracy. Most Children don't care about the fact that they are balancing on a knife's edge, and find it exhilarating. Some Children realise the reality of the dangers, and control themselves. It is usually these more experienced Children who grow old. Some Children realise the errors of their ways, sometimes after an epiphany. These converts stay mostly to themselves, avoiding contact with other mages. Some of the converts have however found their way into the traditions. There is a subgroup of the Children, much reviled by the others but still quite successful. These Children appear on the surface to be normal, well integrated people. They often have goods career, and are quite healthy economically. They use their magick and lack of morals to gain power, status and money. They often work almost completely alone, without any true acolytes. Some of these Children have risen to the very top of society, where they subtly spread their influence. It is rumoured that they had managed to convert quite a few yuppies on Wall Street during the 80's. The other Children think these "Infiltrators" are traitors, who hide something they should show openly. Still, they are impressed with the speed the infiltrators spread their moral corruption, undermining society.
Philosophy "These are the nine satanic statements: 1. Satan represents indulgence instead of abstinence! 2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams! 3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit! 4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingratiates! 5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek! 6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those who walk on all-fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development," has become the most vicious animal of all! 8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification! 9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!" From The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey
Organisation The Children are notoriously bad at following orders, tending to challenge authority at every step. Having too many Children in the same organisation is a recipe for conflict. Most Children break out of the organisations of their mentors after personal conflicts, and start their own. Many of the Children lead cults or informal networks of Satanists, or work completely individually. There is no global organisation, merely interactions between the children on a local level.
Meetings and Theurgy There are no scheduled meetings of the Children. Some nights are more popular than others, like Halloween or Good Friday, to perform Black Masses or desecrations. The Black Masses vary from group to group. In some groups they are elaborate parodies or blasphemies of the Christian Mass, including praying backwards and the drinking of blood. Other groups have orgies with semi-mystic overtones. It is common for the Children and their acolytes to desecrate places or things, to show their contempt for what they represent and bring about their destruction. Churches and churchyards have been favorites for a long time, but some Children attack statues or government buildings. The more outraged people will be in the morning, the better.
Initiation Generally a Black Mass, where the candidate is confronted with the darkness of himself. The candidate sees his greed, lust, pride and gluttony, and chooses to accept it completely. He swears an oath to do what he desires, and renounces all the old morals he may have had. Afterwards, he plunges into the darkness and try to do all thing he earlier was too inhibited or afraid for to do.
Relations to Other Traditions The Children are despised by most mages. Most of the traditions actively try to counteract the children, finding them useless, rebellious and dangerous. They misuse their magick for mundane profit, and anger the Technocracy unnecessarily. Their most ardent persecutors are the Celestial Chorus, Order of Hermes and Akashic Brotherhood. Most other tradition mages are content to avoid them as much as possible. The only traditions which have somewhat amicable terms with the Children are the Cult of Ecstasy and Hollow Ones. The Technocracy hates the Children. While most non-technocratic mages are discreet, and avoid disrupting anything to escape notice, the Children often flaunt their powers in front of sleepers, spread irrational beliefs and generally mess things up all the time. The conventions are always trying to find the Children and destroy them (the current spread of "Satanic ritual abuse" rumours are a cunning plan to attack the Children by making people more aware of them and more inclined to report them to the "authorities." It will also be used later to discredit its current channels, striking a blow against religious fundamentalism and certain schools of therapists.). Many mages believe that the Children are a recruiting group for the Nephandi, or that the Children are a front organisation for them. In fact, it is completely wrong. While the Children certainly would have no direct qualms about calling upon Unspeakable Things from Beyond, they do not want to serve them. They do not take any orders from "below," any more than they would take orders from anybody else. If the demons and spirits serve them and their purposes, good. But if the demons try to order them around, they will find themselves thrown back into the abyss. Still, some Children freely co-operate with the Nephandi of different reasons. The group of mages with most in common with the children is the Marauders. The total freedom and anarchy of the Marauders appeal to the Children, and some join them. But most are content to lean back and watch the fireworks.
Chantry None.
Acolytes Heavy metal fans, Satanists, Nihilists, Fascists.
Sphere None, being orphans. Many Children study Entropy, Mind and Life, as they are practical and of daily use. Some of the more advanced or serious Children study Spirit. Most of the Children rely heavily on coincidental magick to avoid arousing too much suspicion. It is common among the Children to learn several spheres to a low level instead of a few to high level.
Foci While the Children are Orphans and do not need foci, many members believe they need "evil" to work their magick. What "evil" is, and how it is used varies quite a bit. Some Children chant names of demons, say blasphemies or pray backwards. Others use pleasure and vices like the Cult of Ecstasy. Others use pain, blood or death as foci. Many vary their methods depending on mood and surroundings.
Concepts Satanic priest, madman, ruthless businessman
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Oh-so-mellow bastards! They spend their existence in sterile meditation. They are already dead! Life is the great indulgence, Death the great abstinence! They may know the sound of one hand clapping, but we can get laid!
Celestial Chorus: If God really is on their side, how come they run and hide from the Technomancers? Can't he just zap them with a few lightening bolts? Or is he too weak? They are slaves. Their idea of God is just an exaggerated image of their own big egos!
Cult of Ecstasy: At least they know how to have fun! The problem is of course, that most of them have fun to work their magick, not the other way around. But they'll learn.
Dreamspeakers: Weaklings, who have let themselves be crushed. They deserve what they get. Euthanatos: These guys have understood a little bit. When they realise that the true reason they kill people is that they enjoy it, they will join us! Lets skip all this nonsense about "the Good Death," "Reincarnation" and "The Messiah." They might deny it, even to themselves, but they know there is only nothingness on the Other Side.
Hollow Ones: Hollow, all right! They try to be dark and spooky, but they are really just spoiled kids waving around silver jewellery. They think they are dark? Hah, I would like to see their faces if I showed them what dark really means! Marauders: These guys have good ideas, but they are a little bit too much on the deranged side. While they share our philosophy, they are far too wrapped up in their own little dreams to take any notice of how nice the material world already is. Perhaps they spend too much time in the Umbra.
Nephandi: What's the point in serving the demons, when you can be their Master? Order of Hermes: Dusty eunuchs, who will perish when we set fire to the piles of lies they collect! What good is a study of falsehoods, unless everyone believes in falsehoods?
Sons of Ether: Some of them are really fun, especially when you defeat them. All their illusions of grandeur come crashing down, revealing the frightened little nerd inside!
Sons of Jupiter: These guys are quite all right, generally speaking. They just haven't got any real clue about what magick is used for. The Price of Magick is the total freedom and power of a mage, but they don't dare face it!
Technomancers: They show no mercy, and ruthlessly hunt down anybody who opposes them. They have done exactly the same thing we would have done in their situation.
Trenchcoaters: Ooh, the Protectors of Humanity from the Evil Powers? I tremble! Yeah, tell me the one about Cinderella. Most of the time they hang around bars and try to be more dark and depressed than the Hollow Ones. They are just inhibited, and
would really want to do what we do, deep inside. So they want to stop us, because we show them what they could be, if they really dared!
Verbena: They know that there is no "love," just lust and carnal desire. They know that death will come to anything weak. They know that "civilisation" is an empty, rotten shell and must be brought crashing down! Too bad they have chosen to be weak.
Wikkans : Politically Correct witches! Cute! Perhaps we should invite them to a real Sabbath? Virtual Adepts: Nerds!
Rotes Sign of the Beast (Entropy 2): Used generally to freak out normal people (especially fundamentalists). When the mage uses it, strange coincidences start to happen around the mage. The shadow of a sculpture will look like an inverted pentagram. "Omen" will be shown on television. A swarm of wasps will land on the Bible. 666 will appear repeatedly around the mage, in card games, on price tags, on car plates and on calculators. Crucifixes will fall down from the wall, and when a book is opened randomly, it will tell something relating to Satan. [ Each success will increase the duration and strength of the rote. The more successes, the more powerful and unsettling coincidences will appear. ]
Spirits of Delight (Spirit 2): The Child summons spirits who will give him some pleasure and entertainment. It may be spectral music, alluring scents, illusions of beautiful women, caresses and kisses or almost anything. The more successful the rote is, the more powerful spirits are attracted and the longer the effect last. Incubi and Succubi are material manifestations of quite powerful spirits, who only exist to please the mage (at least that is what they are saying...).
Summon Lover (Mind 2): The Child uses his power over the carnal desires, and tries to influence a partner. The victim will feel a subconscious desire for the Child, and will (at least sexually) be drawn towards him. Sometimes the Child uses a mass version, increasing his or her own charisma and sex appeal to arouse everybody in the vicinity. [Each success will give one automatic success on seduction attempts. ]
Curse (Mind 2): The Child curses somebody, often very graphically and often using some material implement (waving entrails at the victim, or spitting at him). The child implants a subconscious desire to get hurt. The victim will often become unsettled, nervous or depressed. When an opportunity presents itself, the subconscious mind will try to make the victim hurt himself (or a love one). Some Children add Entropy to "give fate a hand," creating more opportunities for the curse to work.
The Devil Protect His Own (Entropy 2): The mage "moves" some randomness to help him. The rote is done when something is going well for the mage or somebody in the vicinity, turning the good luck bad. Now the mage has some extra "fortunecapital," which will help him the next time he is near failure by turning bad luck good. This only works on random events, but sometimes it can work by creating random but helpful effects (the mage tries to explain his presence in the wardrobe to an irate husband with a gun, when suddenly the phone rings and distracts the husband, allowing escape.) The amount of good luck depends upon the amount of bad luck produced in the first step.
Children of Ether A Revision for Mage: The Ascension By Pete Overton (
[email protected])
Abstract I'm sure there are a large number of people out there who thoroughly enjoy the Victorian/Mad Scientist/Pulpy angle of the Sons of Ether, but I frankly do not. With this in mind, I decided to revamp the entire Tradition so that it would include the truly alternate sciences and remove the focus from the Pulp to a more realistic, serious and viable Tradition.
Quick Glossary Children of Ether: My personal version of the revamped Sons of Ether. Sons of Ether: The canon Tradition as presented in Mage 2nd Edition. Technocracy: Any of the five conventions for practical purposes. Technomagick: Magick that involves the use of technology. All of the Technocracy as well as the Adepts and Sons of Ether use this paradigm of magick.
Virtual Adepts: The other Tradition-allied technomagickal group
The Malkavians of Mage: The Ascension Listen. I'm sure there are people out there who play Sons of Ether really well. I just have never seen them. Even many of the canon Sons of Ether seem to be collective in-jokes. I used to refer to the Sons of Ether as the Malkavians of Mage, because they never seemed to be played right no matter who was doing the playing and thereby became their own parody in between bouts of munchkinism. However, I am probably one of the few people on Earth who is not a fan of Pulp. I don't know why. I like Buckeroo Banzai. I like Indiana Jones. But the genre of Pulp I just generally dislike, especially pulp science fiction. Yes, I know, pure heathenism. Just give me Ellison and Heinlein anyday, thank you kindly. I'm even sure there are redeeming features to it, but it's not my primary area of interest. So rigidly defining a the Tradition by pulp straightjackets it into a rather unyielding mode. Much as the Akashic Brotherhood will never escape their Kung Fu: The Legend Continues stereotypes, so too will the Sons of Ether as published never escape their Victorian/Mad Scientist personas. And that's good for some people, and good for them, I'm really happy for them. I however dislike it, and have changed the Tradition to reflect a more serious, sincere approach.
What's in a Name, Anyways? A quick note on the name change. While canonly speaking there have been movements to change the name of the Sons of Ether to something less sexist, I had their name changed as soon as they left the Technocracy. Children of Ether. Why that? Heck, why not, it sounds good. In actuality, I think I originally had them stay as Sons of Ether until just after World War II when both genders proved themselves equally adept (no pun intended). To signify the ruling relationship of Ether to them while maintaining their underling status, Children of Ether was selected to reflect a more broad-based Tradition. This is explained more below.
Methodology, or Why They're Different Okay. This is where it gets confusing, so try and keep up with me here. Fundamentally, the major reason the Children of Ether split from the Technocracy was because of their disagreement over the medium/substance of ether. Specifically, the Children believed it to exist and the Technocracy found it hampered their "light is a particle and wave" theory. The two clashed over it and in the end the Technocracy pushed their particlewave idea and the Children left the Technocracy in disgust.
Even from the start, the Children attracted the alternate thinkers, the ones whose ideas didn't necessarily fit into the Technocracy's well-thought out and thoroughly proportioned universe. While many worked within the Technocracy or went out on their own as independents, many turned to the Children of Ether. The important thing here, however, is that fundamentally what they clashed over was the continued existence of ether. However, they continued to use the same method of objective science. This was a very important point, because in modern times this is what makes them a serious force that the Technocracy has to manage gently. The Children of Ether never gave up the objective principles of Technocratic science -- hypothesize, test, revise, etc. (I'm not a big science guy leave me alone). Where they diverge is the results they get from that science. Where the Technocracy may have physics, chemistry, and biology, the Children of Ether have mechanics, thermodynamics, and organics. This is just an example, but you get the idea. The major difference between the two is ether, of course. The Children of Ether incorporate ether into their sciences, whereas the Technocracy does not. What you get is two different angles of science with the same basic methodologies. Let me give you an example. Let's say a Child of Ether named Max and a Technocratic scientist named Albert are standing under a tower. For some strange reason, the inhabitants of the tower decides to drop a cannon ball on the two dolts standing at the base of their tower. Both measure the drop of the ball as scientific curiosity. However, where Albert sees the pull of gravity on the ball and therefore sees physics at work, Max sees etheric pull at work and it falls into mechanics (for instance). Both get the same measurements for falling time and such, but both believe the theory behind it is different. The key here is that the same methodology is used. I cannot restate this enough, because it has profound effects. In essence they take the Technocratic science but through observation explain the same experiments in a different way, one frequently including Ether. Ether is still a primary force in their explanations. They are more obsessively attached to it now than ever, with their incursions into objective Technocratic science. While many scientists come to them disillusioned and broken, they often are rejuvenated when the presence of ether in the world is revealed (possibly an Awakening in the process). The token Star Trek example. Please note I'm not getting into a debate over whether Star Trek is Technocratic or Traditional. :P Taking a ship and moving it from one point to another faster than light is the problem. Good old Albert decides to subvert the ships through a different "shortcut" realm, leading to the creation/discovery of hyperspace. Max on the other hand comes up with an interesting theory of using the etherrealm as a different frame of reference, and creates an engine that makes an ether field around the ship allowing it to travel FTL. You see? Same basic solution, two different approaches. Most importantly, no damn balloons flying around space, no sump-pump space suits, no nothing like that. The Technocracy and Children of Ether are about on par (as far as released technology goes), but their theoretical justifications are the primary differences. The key here is alternate science. Reexplaining Technocratic inventions and theories and creating new ones that don't mesh with the Technocratic model and then proving them accurate (not necessarily right, but accurate -- there is a difference). One last example. Max and Albert, after building their FTL ships, meet at a Star Trek convention by accident. Albert pulls out his XM-900 pulse laser pistol in surprise, while Max gets his handy-dandy Type-9 Phaser (phased laser, for instance). Aside from being a colorful scene, both weapons operate on the same Effect (Forces 3 or whatever it is), but Albert's gun uses focused light for a laser effect while Max's phaser weaves a tight energy beam through etheric substance, making is essentially phased. Yes, technobabble away, kids. The point is that both emit a beam of energy that causes damage from the same basic Effect, but their justifications and theories are different. It's not the best example but it gets the point across handily.
What This Means for the Tradition By extending the Children of Ether to the modern day, you get an eclectic group of individuals indeed. Most of the alternate science, radical, nonconformist theorists and such fall in with the Children of Ether. Many are not erratic or insane but are in fact the model picture of scientists. They are a serious Tradition because they pull strings to war with the Technocracy using its own weapon against them: science. They are not wacky scientists with fleets of balloons with lightning guns on them, but rather serious scientists who pursue radical and alternate theories. The car that runs on water has of course been highly covered up by the Technocracy because its primary component is an etheric chamber. But that's a good example. The science of the Children of Ether is neither particularly wacky or pulp, but rather just as grimly serious as anything you'd read in Scientific American or Time, but taken on from a different angle. This explains why Quantum Mechanics is so screwed up from a Technocratic point of view (i.e., the cat is both alive and dead) but thoroughly explainable from an Etheric point of view. Needless to say the Children of Ether are considered a serious threat from the Technocracy, and their inventions still tend to attract crazy amounts of Paradox, especially in front of Sleepers ("Hey, a phaser, cool!" is the last thing most Children of Ether hear unless they are at a Star Trek convention). They are also equally hated as much as the Virtual Adepts for their betrayal and refusal to fall in line (the official Technocratic line being something to the effect of pride goeth before the fall or such). However, the Children of Ether are out there on the front lines and in the labs, a microcosm of the Technocracy itself except taking science from a different angle. The key here to remember is that they both observe the same thing objectively, but explain
it away differently. Stress the alternate nature of their science, but remember that they all use the same basic set of data too. Ether is still very important to them, as you might guess. The Virtual Adepts are taken rather seriously, but somehow the Sons of Ether are left behind in the wacky category. Not so with the Children of Ether. Incidentally, I have a faction within the Children of Ether as Victorian throwbacks, but they are very, very small and quiet as a rule, just so all your favorite current characters can still fit in. ::smirk:: An interesting note is that many Tradition mages feel that the Children of Ether aren't really on their side per se, but rather work against the Technocracy out of pure spite. This is an interesting theory, because if they indeed work with the Traditions out of hate for the Technocracy, it stands to reason that if the Technocracy was ever defeated, the Children of Ether might be ready to replace them. This is never explicitly discussed with them, of course, but there is a degree of suspicion involved even to this day.
How They Got This Way, aka Adapt or Die! See, to me the idea of the Sons of Ether clinging to their Victorian era is silly and useless. Now, I hear you already, "Oh, but Pete, the other Traditions cling to their little eras or genres so strongly, why not the Sons of Ether?" Why indeed? I'll tell you why. Technomagick. A fundamental part of a technomagickal paradigm is one of adaption. Technology doesn't stand still, and nor should the users of it stand still. You don't see the Virtual Adepts still using vacuum tubes and gears, do you? No. Why? Because they adapt to better and better computers as they emerge. So should it be with the Sons of Ether, and so it is with the Children of Ether. Now think about it. The other Traditions adapt, but they adapt very slowly and are extremely slow to adapt to their fundamental paradigms. This isn't the case in a technomagickal paradigm, which is arguably why the Technocracy is winning. The idea that the Sons of Ether don't adapt and retain their genre-ways while the Virtual Adepts happily grab any and all new computer technology is inherently silly. The Children of Ether represent a technomagickal Tradition, and as such they should be adaptable as part of their fundamental paradigm. How many scientists, alternate or not, do you know that work only with the tools of when they first organized into a group? Goodness, lord help us. The Adepts don't rest on their laurels, and neither do the Children of Ether (unlike the Sons of Ether, needless to say). This is important, because traditional Sons of Ether seem to be lumped in with the classic Traditions (i.e., non-Virtual Adepts). However, like the Virtual Adepts, they share parts of both Technocracy and Tradition. The Children of Ether use objective scientific methodology (invent, adapt, invent, adapt) like the Technocracy, but have the righteousness of their paradigm like the other Traditions. ::smile::
Summary It makes no sense for the Sons of Ether to cling to this mad Victorian lifestyle that they seem to do in canon. They are a far more dynamic and adaptive group, and more importantly, they use the Technocracy's own science against them most of the time. By using different theories but keeping the same objective rational model of science, they can war with the Technocracy on the scientific front and give the Traditions a fighting chance against the surging tide of technology. They also become a sort of generalist group for the Traditions vis-a-vis technology and science at large (the Virtual Adepts are rather specialized). Children of Ether are regular folks, every day scientists who just happen to believe that canned science isn't telling them everything. They are not wacky mad scientists, but rather serious individuals in pursuit of scientific ideals. They are more broadbased, encompassing a wide variety of "rejected" scientists by Technocratic standards, and can sometimes be downright spooky in between conspiracy theories and brilliant discoveries. And most importantly, they are adaptive and follow a very Technocratic paradigm, but still include the ever important Ether.
Addendum This changes the face of canon Mage on the whole, but could be adapted into it with minimal disturbance. However, because I don't know your specific games, I can't say how. If you want to use them, by all means, if not, fine, no worries.
CHILDREN OF AVALON By Ian Torrey (
[email protected])
Background The members of this "Sub-tradition" are often considered an offshoot of both the Verbena and the Order of Hermes. Unlike these two, however, they derive their paradigms from the mystical beliefs and practices of their Celtic ancestors.-The Druidic and Bardic traditions of magick, as well as the Celtic Heroic/Warrior tradition. The Tradition is named for the mythic island that became the immortal home of the legendary King of the Britons, Arthur, they have kept themselves right under the nose of the Technocracy who just consider them as crackpot scholars and idle antiquitarians. These mages are growing in power relatively quickly, and are gaining Sleeper support. While they maintain contact with both their "sibling" traditions, they are by no means subservient of either the Hermetics or the Verbena. It is also important to note that they steadfastly oppose the Nephandi and their Hell-Spawned allies, although they are unsure of a standard course of action to take against them. They place great effort into curbing the use of Black Magick and use of it for sinister purposes. They see the Nephandi and the Unseelie court of the Fae as one and the same, Dark Spirits are enemies they do not treat lightly. They view the English government and British imperialism as like with the Technocracy, even when the two are not in cooperation.
Philosophy Celtic philosophies need not be totally written down here, as known, but a few guidelines to follow: "Y gwyr en erbyn y byd" or "The Truth against the World." ( -- Iolo Morgannwg, who was a complete loony, but the quote fits like a glove.) "Truth is all life, life is Spirit, cyclic and eternal, the Spirit guides all, is one with us, as we are one with the Land. Forget nothing, the Word, Voice, Memory, Song, are all eternal, all carry the Truth. Should any threaten these, fight to the end to protect them. Fight fiercely and honorably, as one would hope to be Sung about by our Bards."
Organization Filtered through neo-Druidic/Bardic groups, Celtic nationalists activists/fighters, and scholars. Leaders among each group are chosen much as "holy men" once were among their cultures. Meetings take place on the first day of every season.
Primary sphere May pick Life, Spirit, or Forces.
Foci Life/Spirit/Prime: Music (instrument or song) Matter/Forces: Weapon (sword is common for this purpose, although in modern times firearms are sometimes used.) Correspondance/Mind/Time: Poetry/Word
Concepts Celtic Nationalist/Activist/Freedom fighter, Druid, Bard, Poet, Musician, Scholar, Dreaming (aspiring) Hero
Acolytes Celtic scholars, Celtic Revivalists, New Agers, IRA/Plaid Cymru Members (in modern times), Musicians, Antiquitarians
Stereotypes
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: A Wise and formidable group, in many ways, our Eastern counterparts. The Knowledge we share will help preserve us both, they bear a great understanding of the Truth.
Celestial Chorus: We tried and tried to be open with them, and they turned on us. They make the whole of their beliefs based on a half-truth. It is not the "One"; the "One" is all and takes many forms, the One just happening to be a particular manifestation. Relations with them are guarded at best, strained often...
Cult Of Ecstasy: Pointless and insulting. They pervert the purpose of celebration, any Arts they touch, and degrade them. Dreamspeakers: They are wise, on a lower, more basic, scale. Granted, they are "Primitive" in some ways, but they have a firm grasp of the Truth. We consider them as gifted, promising, children who have the capacity to one day outshine us.
Euthanatos: Disgusting examples of knowledge of the Truth misused. This is why knowledge was kept to its sacred Keepers for so long, to keep out of the hands of these bastards. Life is eternal, but their practices damage the Spirit, and cause untold horror and catastrophe. They must be stopped. Hollow Ones: Consider them clay to be molded. Perhaps they are a symptom of the dying land, as many of them are walking death. It is important to note that some of them do not follow this pattern, particularly the Cerebus. They are mighty warriors who we owe the honor of Song to.
Order of Hermes: Remarkable Scholars, they understand the value of learning and knowledge, and perform marvels. Unfortunately, they place all their emphasis on the mind, and forget the imprortance of the Spirit. Truly saddening, some I have met, I have to wonder, "Are they truly alive inside?"
Sons of Ether: Do their Machines have hearts and souls? nothing further need be said. Verbena: Their problem is the opposite of that of the Order of Hermes. Although we share much with them, they have corrupted and regressed quite a bit. These mages have committed a great offense: they have forgotten much. For example, there is no need to spill blood they way they do. Wasteful. Still, we share some customs, and may be redeemed. They also make mighty allies.
Virtual Adepts: Man is where the Truth lies, not Machine. Many of these mages are lost, a computer is a tool, nothing more, certainly not reality. Although it can store knowledge and information, and spread the Truth. Garou: Fellow inhabitants of our world, they should be treated as such. The wolf has as much place in the land as the sheep. They battle our enemies, the Technocracy, and their "Wyrm", which seems to be the same, or allied to, the Nephandi. They also oppose the same Dark Spirits we do. It is important to note that the ones known as "Fianna" have been invaluable allies. Many of us have married into their lines.
Vampires: Perversions and assaults on nature, as well as against the Truth. Theirs is not "Eternal Life," but "Eternal Death." While we have better things to do than hunt these wretches down, we take great care to prevent their spread.
Fae: (Good Fae, that is) Our friends, teachers, and allies from the first, and to the end. We aim to protect them as much as they have aided us.
CELESTIAL CHORUS PARADIGM By Anders Sandberg
Author's notes Some parts (especially the descriptions of Mind, Time and Life) have been borrowed from "The Celestial Chorus" by Paul Strack.
The Paradigm The Song: The whole of creation is one great Song, sung by everything that exists in praise to the Highest. Every event bears witness to the greatness of the One, although our limited understanding does not always make this apparent. What appears to be evil, disharmonies or errors in the Song are really a necessary part of the music, forming dark counterpoints and contrasts to the beautiful themes. We must strive to sing with the Song, harmonize the different voices, and help all of creation unite harmoniously into the glorious finale.
Magick Miracles: Although the great Song follows its own laws, the One loves us so much that we are allowed to improvise ourselves, within certain restrictions. A person with enough faith can overcome the normal rules and perform miracles. Did not Jesus say "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12)?
Spheres Correspondence: Omnipresence. Distances are an illusion. Everything exists at the same point, in the total unity of the One who is omnipresent. In the same way we can perceive or become present at distant places to spread the faith.
Entropy: Disharmony. Although most of the world is in almost perfect harmony, disharmonies are everywhere. When something is not perfectly harmonious, the disharmonies will slowly grow until it is destroyed. But we can heal such damage, or direct it at targets which should be removed for the greater good.
Forces: Light and Fire. Light was created first of all creation, to uphold it and manifest the power of the One. The great forces of nature are reminders of the enormous power wielded by the Highest, and how tiny we are in comparison. But at the same time, they light up and warm us, showing how much the One loves us. Through faith and discipline we can be given some measure of control over these forces, to spread the faith and protect the faithful.
Life: Healing. All life was created in the image of the One. As the universe is the house for the soul of the One, the body is the house for the soul of creatures and plants. As we work to heal the universe, we learn also to heal our own bodies, and others. Do not engage in the false creation of life, however. This is the domain of the One. Such poor creatures are at best soulless, and at worst a house for malignant spirits to enter.
Matter: Creation. The world is the artwork of the great Creator. In the same way as it was created, we may attempt lesser creations as long as we remain humble and realize that our works are nothing compared to the great Creation.
Mind: Will. Just as we bend ourselves to the will of the One, we may bend the will of others. Only by surrender to Divine Will can one increase this power, for it is truly the will of the One they surrender to. Do not abuse this power, however. Choice is the gift given to all the One's creatures, for only by choice may one come into grace. It is not our right to take it away.
Prime: The Presence. This is the ultimate sphere, the sphere which encompasses and perfects the other spheres. Without the approval of the One, no miracles would be possible. All we do, we do on the sufferance of the One. Some traditions erroneously believe that they control the Essence flowing through the world; theirs is the sin of Pride. It is impossible to control the Presence; it acts with love of the One.
Spirit: The Messengers. Besides mankind, there are other beings, many of which serve the One and act as messengers to us from the Highest, helping us and showing us the way towards harmony and unity. But there are also misled beings who don't understand their part in the Song and false messengers who serve the dark forces of disharmony and destruction. By purifying our souls we may reach into the higher worlds and contact the messengers, or even actually travel there. By keeping the wisdom and purity of the messengers in our hearts, we can overcome the dark forces and cast them out.
Time: Omniscience. The One is all-knowing, and all that has happened, both past and present, lay open before it. In times of need, she can grant us visions of the future or past. Do not think that this invalidates our free will, for though the One knows us so
well that she knows all that may come to pass, the choice is still ours.
Arete Faith. All magick stems from faith. Faith in yourself, faith in magick and faith in the One. Some say the One gives the faithful greater insight as their faith grows. Others say faith grows as the mage understands creation more, and comes to realize how all-powerful and everpresent the One is. Both explanations are of course just rationalizations; faith itself is beyond logic.
Quintessence The Essence. Everything that exists is made of the divine Essence. In order to create the world the Highest had to shape it out of Itself, infusing it with divine power. This Essence is hidden inside everything, giving it existence and beauty.
Paradox Doubt. Doubt is all too present in the world today. A mage who doubts his magick will lose control over it, and doubting witnesses can similarly disturb the singing of the song. When doubt has appeared, it can often be used by dark forces seeking to harm the doubter or lead him astray. However, this is just another necessary test of our faith.
Awakening The Vision. To fully come to faith, a person must have the Vision of the One. There is a great difference between believing in the Highest and actually experience It. Afterwards, the mage will constantly be aware of the Divine Presence in the world.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: Protection. The One protects his followers, not through violence or cunning but through humility. A protected mage will be ignored, unseen, yet able to act and work.
Avatar: Guardian Angel. Some mages are blessed with greater power of their Guardian Angels than other mages. They are in closer contact with the higher realms, and can both give power and wisdom to the questing mage.
Destiny: Chosen Ones. These are people chosen by the One to sing special parts of the Song. Some will perform glorious deeds to introduce new themes or resolve apparent disharmonies. Others will sing in the background but still influence the course of the Song.
Dream: Gifts. Sometimes the One sends visions or help to faithful in need, like the Gift of Tongues which was given to the apostles.
Node: Holy Place. The One is present in everything, but in certain places the divine power is more evident than others. Such holy places serves as sanctuaries for the faithful and inspiration to the mystics.
CONGLOMERATION By Emil G. Signes (
[email protected]) (24 June 1994)
Description The Conglomeration is a bizzare 'Tradition' which has arisen from what most Technomancers considered a great blasphemy: Project Jesuit. In 1964, a few radical Technomancers proposed a new idea to the Technomancer Control Amalgam Prime. In order to lessen the power that Tradition forces were gaining at the time, weak-willed Tradition mages would be targeted by Men In Black, and brought to a new Construct, Conglomerate Station for Technocratic Re-education (Construct RED). At the Construct RED, the Tradition mages were to be instructed in the logic and reason of the Technocracy. A few Verbena, Wikans, and Sons of Ether were captured during poorly-planned raids on Technomancer Nodes, and placed in Construct RED with Syndicate and New World Order operatives. The mages, however, were much more strong-willed than the Technomancers had believed them to be. Secretly, the mages tought each other their arcane secrets, and began to gather more followers of their cause. They recruited Virtual Adepts, Technolibertarians, and even Euthanatos mages. Over the next 15 years, they began covertly constructing a Realm in the Deep Umbra. The Realm, known as The Moore by Conglomeration members, is very much like Earth, but was created to best emulate what Earth would be if the Mythic age had continued on as the Technocracy rose to power. (ie, technology and fireballs) In 1984, on April 4th (to commemerate the Book,) the mages, who up to this point had been working secretly, still submitting progress reports to the Amalgam Prime, broke from the Technocracy, running what they dubbed 'The Great Escape Rote' to empty all of Construct RED's inhabitants to The Moore. There are only about 2,500 Conglomeration mages currently living on Earth, and only a few more than that number in The Moore. They often join Tradition mages' cabals to fight the Technocracy or other enemies, but usually masquerade as Sons of Ether.
Philosophy Magick is a tool, just as a hammer is a tool, or a computer is a tool. It is, however, a dangerous tool, and should be used with caution. Do not, however, fail to see the power which you can gain through its use. The Technocracy has forgotten that. They have forgotten that the power is the important part, not the enumeration of effectivity. Certainly, research into what can be done, but don't research yourself to death. The Traditions, although noble companions, are stuck in a rut. The Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether are the only ones who realize that one must change with the times. Television is not evil. Your toaster is not going to control your mind. Only the Conglomeration has realized how to use this great tool, magick.
Organization The Conglomeration has many holdovers from its days of the Technocracy, with flavourings. The entire Tradition is governed by a High Council of 13 mages. Below the High Council are the three Ancillary Commissions of five mages each. Below them are the Overseers, the rank given to mages who achieve a Mastry of more than one Sphere and express a desire to oversee (hence the name) Conglomeration activites in The Moore or on Earth. Some members have objected to such a waste of good mages when the Tradition boasts so few mages to begin with, but no change is expected.
Meetings The Conglomeration hold meetings on Earth once per month, always changing location between meetings. Some common sites include New York City, Tucson, Vienna, Cleveland, Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Anchorage. All members who are capable of attending are expected to, and most are able to attend, using their Correspondance to find a way there. Meetings in The Moore are more common, occuring whenever a Conglomerationist calls a meeting over a certain subject. Conglomerationists are, for the most part, highly loyal to each other, and when one is in a jam, he can call on one of his fellow Conglomeration members for assistance.
Initiation While in the past, Conglomeration mages were chosen from mages already Awakened, there has been a recent influx of mages Awakened directly into the Conglomeration. These mages are known as Magi Prime, and are treated with a bit more respect than average Disciples. Their usual initiation involves finding a Sleeper with good potential (Dream, Avatar, Destiny) and
teaching her the science-based theories of the Tradition. If the Acolyte responds well to these, she is taught more of the ways of magick, until she can be Awakened into the Path of the Conglomerationists. This, one may note, is quite similar to the process of the Sons of Ether.
Chantry The Moore. The Moore is accessable through a Horizon Realm near Dublin, where the original Construct RED was located.
Acolytes Wiccans, quantum physicists, technopagans, philosophers
Sphere While many mages join this Tradition after leaving another, the Conglomeration tends to focus studies on the Sphere of Prime.
Foci Breakage - Entropy - to use Entropy, the mage must break or tear something, be it a stick, a pane of glass, or a piece of paper Needle, thread, and cloth - Forces, Life, Matter - the mage uses the needle and thread to sew designs, usually sigils or runes, into the cloth; this is representative of reweaving Forces, Life, and Matter patterns Pentacle - Prime, Spirit - the pentacle is an interesting focus, as it has a few forms; a pendant can be worn to channel Quintessence or for conjunctional effects, while for spirit summoning or entering the Umbra, the mage must draw, on a flat surface, a pentacle of a size appropriate to the desired effect -- to summon a small imp, a 1' diameter pentacle is sufficient; to breech the Gauntlet, the mage must make a pentacle large enough for him to fit 'through' Sand - Correspondence, Mind, Time - sand, just sand; it is often thrown or sprinkled, depending on the effect desired
Concepts Teacher, Conglomeration "missionary," researcher, theoritician
Quote "Reality exists not to be enumerated and structured, nor is it here to be bent to the wills of confused children. It has its own reason, and its own will. This can be demonstrated throught the existence of Vampire and Werewolves. We simply use the tools given to us to make existence more interesting and more beneficial to all sentients involved. May the Tellurian smile on you."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: These mystics are the closest thing to independent, truly enlightened thinkers amoung the Traditions. If only they'd listen to a little more radio, get out a little more, y'know?
Celestial Chorus: We serve God (the Goddess, Gaia, the Tellurian, or whatever you want to call it) without having to concentrate on it. It's like founding a club of people who make their hearts beat for a hobby.
Cult of Ecstasy: They must have quite a bit of fun, living that sort of life. Of course, I don't see how they can get anything done. Dreamspeakers: Very interesting, to be sure. They achieve what the Celestial Chorus aspires to: useful servitude. Unfortunately, they are a dying breed. Give them a warm meal and a place to sleep if you see one. You'll be surprised how much that's worth to them.
Euthanatos: In theory, they're wonderful. In reality, they're a bunch of sociopaths whom I advise you to avoid. Hollow Ones: It has been noted that many Orphan Awakenings may have genetic causes. Perhaps if we could get a few specimens to submit themselves for study... This group of Mages is largely ineffectual -- that is good. They are also, however, a bit too creepy for me, personally.
Iteration X: These tinker-toys would have us destroyed because we don't want our Avatars replaced with pocketwatches and
transistors. They have a twisted view, but don't mess with 'em -- they're dangerous as hell...
New World Order: We..are..not..per-mit-ted..to..speak..of..them... Just kidding. They're not half as dangerous as everyone thinks they are. Unfortunately, that still leaves them pretty dangerous -- your best bet is only listening to mage-run radio, watching mage-run TV, and read mage-written books. Personally, I just take my chances.
Order of Hermes: Ha! We have achieved the organization and understanding in decades which these anachronisms have been seeking for centuries.
The Progenitors: They would have so much potential, if they'd just leave the Technocracy. Unfortunately, that ain't happening. They're possibly the best argument to stay off of drugs that I ever heard of.
Sons of Ether: Possibly our closest link to The Council of Nine. They'll always take you in when you tell them who you are, but they ignore the will of the Tellurian. They should tone down their magicks.
The Syndicate: "God money, I'll do anything for you. God money, just tell me what you want me to. God money, nail me up against the wall. God money, don't want everything he wants it all." Money is just not worth the hassle that these guys can cause. Verbena: If only they could drop the blood. And the attitude. And the outdated traditions. And the focus on life, life, life. But, really, they're not as bad as everyone things.
Virtual Adepts: Computers are one of the most useful, powerful inventions of the last few millenia, but they are most certainly not the key to Ascension. Void Engineers: They're more and more of them coming to us. I want to know what it is that's making them leave the Mirrorshades, but they aren't talking.
Wika: I've had some of my greatest philosophical debates with Wikans. Unfortunately, they're too much opposed to technology and being followers to be truly enlightened.
CONSTABLES By A.J. Sinclair (
[email protected]) (14 Oct 94) History:The Constables are a strange group as such, in that they are not some splinter group of a tradition, nor are they purely a cabal in its definitions. Its membership ebbs and flows with those Awakened in other Traditions, but those who are Awakened within its folds remain members for life (which has a tendency to be short due to their ideals). The group's existence came about through the machinations of a few high ARETE Pattern mages after one extremely hard fought battle in a Horizon Realm around two hundred years ago. The idea had already began to take form long before the battle, when the original 11 friends had met and discussed forming themselves into a group simply to travel and explore various realms that had been created beyond the Near Umbra, as it would be safer to travel in a number so as to avoid any "unpleasantness" along the way, and to have a good divergence of skills and Spherical knowledge where needed. The plan, whilst a good one, was doomed to failure, as one of the friends had brought with him a secret. A pact had been made between one of the companions and an unknown Lord concerning the creation of some distant Umbral Realm. Once the realm had been created, the Quintessance being fed from Nodes known only to the Lord, the Lord came to the mage and requested payment. The mage had not been aware of the payment the Lord would require from him, since his only desire was for a realm to the specifications he laid out. When he found out the payment he was required to make, the mage fled through a chain of bodies he had made in preparation for future deaths of his physical form. The Lord followed, only being thrown for short spaces of time. In desperation, and down to his last few bodies, the mage considered a drastic step. With the aid of another mage (who was not part of the 11), whose powers equalled his in Mind, he attempted a last throw of the dice. As he transfered his consciousness to the next body, the other mage immediately took a hand, moulding and sculpting the escaping mage's conscious and subconscious mind. It was unfortunately during this time that the Lord grew aware of his quarry's whereabouts. Being fore- warned of this possible occurrence, the `operating' mage had taken to watching the Spirit planes around them for interference during the ritual. Quickly recognising that the feared interference was fast approaching, the operating mage tore his concentration from the work he was doing on the `body switching' mage and broke through the Gauntlet to another realm. The mage still on Earth had finished switching bodies, but now had no conscious recollection of his/her previous personal history, only on the use of his/her powers. The Lord on approach had caught the abrupt movement of the operating mage and followed him believing him to be its target. Changing its target area upon realizing its error, it found that the mage it desired had gone and no mind trace could be found. The mage at this time had assumed the personality and ideas of the operating mage as he had, in his hurry to get away, accidently imparted his "self" upon the other mage, and this "personality" had rushed in to fill the gap left in the mage's conscious mind, his true personality and memories submerged in his subconscious. His/her memory limited only to the knowledge of his/her powers, the mage lost him/herself in mage society, assuming a new name and new tradition, with no memory of his/her former life. It was in this new persona that the mage became a friend of the 11, and agreed to the idea of the travelling group, whilst all the while, the Lord still looked for the pact breaker. Years passed, and the group travelled to many realms, until the fateful day when they happened across a realm seemingly torn from a rural English Country-side, resplendant with villages and farmers. With rolling hills and acres of grass and crop lands, with an earth like time span and weather conditions also. As one member is reported to have said afterwards: "It was as if the paintings of Constable had been brought to life, and their magic sown to the very roots here." The group happily agreed to stay several days, both to enjoy the charming respite and harmony the realm seemed to impart on them all, and to try and fathom just who or what had brought this place to be by trying to establish some `signature' or tell-tale mark in its creation. Unfortunately, the idea of its invention had been put forward by one of the groups members, but he/she didn't know it, and the `hands' that had built it dwelt there also. Some part of the mage, some argue his/her Avatar, recognised the realm as its dream, and acted as a beacon to the Lord. As the members rested, so the Lord struck..... Two fell before the group could shake the surprise from their minds, and a further two before the remaining members rallied for a concerted attack on the powerful Lord. The battle raged across the open dales and villages of the realm, the sky awash with fantastic arcs of force, the very rock shaking and melting beneath the feet of the hard pressed mages. Whole fields burst into flame, and row upon row of cottages torn from the ground and rent asunder as the battle continued into the night and beyond. The Lord stood his ground as the mages attacked furiously, sometimes in unison, sometimes from separate angles and from distant hills. Gradually, the Lord began to weaken, but not without cost, for a further three had fallen, and the group now only numbered 4. Weary and nearly spent, the remaining mages threw all they had left into one last attack, both mental and concussive. The flash resulting was devastating, but when the smoke cleared from the field, the Lord had vanished. Jubilation was beyond them, both through weariness and the knowledge of those they had lost in the battle. Another unspoken fear was that they had not destroyed the Lord, but only banished it for a while, and possibly that it had decided to leave of its own accord and not through the battle that had cost them so much. Out of the 7 who fell, only 1 was saved from death. The fallen they buried in the realm and built a large village nearby, naming it after the group's informal leader, who had been the first one killed in the Lord's attack. They left "Simonson's Rest" later that day, and spread out amoung the ravaged land, seeking to heal the wounds to this once beautiful realm that had now been left bitterly scarred by the battle. It took several weeks to restore the realm to its previous glory, and they rested once more in a large townhouse they had built the village around in Simonson's Rest. It was here that the idea of the Constables was thrashed out over long days and nights of discussion. They had all been shaken by the sheer ferocity of the attack, and at how this dreamlike land had been almost torn apart by the unexpected and uncalled for attack of that most powerful being. They each voiced a fear for the lands that they had travelled through, lands of stranger beauty and sometime frightening vision, at risk from another such attack, be it by powerful Umbrood, Technocracy, Nephandi, Marauder, or even tradition mages. The remaining 5 members pondered long and hard, but eventually decided upon several articles: 1. Every realm has a right to existence, as long as it's continued existence does not adversely affect another, be it spatially or by affecting another realm's Quintessance. 2. Travellers who enter realms must abide by the rules of those who have created that realm, unless said creator's actions are malicious in direction and are uncalled for by action/inaction of said "Guests".
3. A means of maintaining realms "of worth" (to be agreed on an individual basis) should be presented to those creators of realms as soon as possible. The means of maintaining the "Orders of Realm Conduct" pertaining in somepart to every realm plus realm specific rules, should be a group of dedicated individuals of sufficient power (both Politically and Magickally) to be assigned to realms on agreement with the realm creators. 4. Realms of worth which have no known creators will be assigned a token group representative to report on the realm, and large group excursions to this land will only be made if the realm is under direct danger of being lost. It is from this that the Constables were created, with its 5 founding members never aware that the originating attack was actually instigated by a member, that the member him/herself was unaware, and that the member may still be one of the 5 and the Lord may still hunger for its payment.
Chantry: The group known as the Constables operates from a central organising Chantry in the "Constable" realm as it has been called. Surprisingly, the group strives to maintain the rural countryside look throughout the realm. The group's "central office" is located in the large townhouse built in the middle of the village of Simonson's Rest. The house is linked via gateways to offices in the real world in most major cities. Via a Correspondance effect, the townhouse is vast on the inside. As you progress through the maze of rooms in the house, the technology gradually grows more sophisticated until the centre of the house is reached and the central computer database at the heart of the group is revealed. The computer was installed a few years after the group's creation at the suggestion and new membership of a few Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether. Its links stretch throughout those realms capable and allowed (by agreement with their creators) to be linked, and also links to some of the large Nets on the earth. It is at this central core that the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts most often do their part for the groups continuing aim. The Virtual Adepts try to keep track of realm and member information, often trying to tap into the Void Engineers signals for new data, whilst the Sons of Ether can be found working on new means to protect or stabilize existing realms under the limited protection or presence of the Constables.
Membership: Membership of the Constables is open to all traditions, but few join. Those who do usually do so for the sake of protecting some realm they have come across, and which they have some concern over its continued existence in its current state. Others have more long term aims for the entire Umbra, whilst some just do it for the sake of fighting wrongs.
Akashic Brotherhood Constable: "I have sworn to protect this realm with my mind and body. If you break its sacred rules, I shall break you."
Celestial Chorus Constable: "All realms are part of the One, and it watches over all. I am just a more direct representative as you shall find to your eternal sorrow. I hope the One decides to embrace your spirit after I dispatch it."
Cult of Ecstasy Constable: "This world is really cool. The waves are phenom. and the heat waves you catch are just up there man. Chill out and dig man, don't crash and burn!"
Dreamspeaker Constable: "If Gaia had not desired this land to be, it would not be. If you disturb this land, Gaia will desire me to do something to rectify your continued presence here"
Euthanatos Constable: "If a land has worth, I shall protect it with my life. If a land has none, I shall leave it to the maggots. If a land imposes on another land of greater worth, I shall destroy that entire land. By the Gods I shall enjoy that challenge!"
Hollow One Constable: "Why am I protecting this place? Well, its better than Earth, and anything a step up from that deserves a chance."
Order of Hermes Constable: "This land was created with purpose and we are its designated enforcement officials. Obey or suffer, your choice."
Sons of Ether Constable: "A higher Q to the power of M factor would provide just the right segmented power to entice that hill back into its proper place. I think a power shield of higher mag. might be a good idea for next time they try to attack realm p76. What about a flux field variable interchange shield amp........"
Virtual Adept Constable: "Damn, that TechnoRat has left Sydney via a gateway. Need to log into the Delta Net relay and catch the next QuintShift link. Thom, have you got an access code for that new data section yet? If we don't hurry, we could lose him AND realm p76. We need to know their power levels and reinfos. before battle2, and we need to know it now!" There is much more cooperation and understanding amoungst the different Tradition mages who are part of the Constables, for they know that when the shit hits the fan in a realm they are protecting/responsible for, they've only got each other to rely on.
True Constable: "These are the rules of this land. Obey them and all will be fine. Break them and no realm no matter how far flung will hide you from us." or "To Protect and To Serve this Realm. Cease and Desist."
True Constables: True Constables, unlike the others, are those few Awakened within the fold of the Constables. They are brought to the Constable realm Chantry and educated both in the use of their Spheres and in the abilities sought after in a new Constable. Emphasis is placed upon the Sphere of Spirit as it is prefered if the Constable can move themselves through the Umbra, as emergencies often demand quick responses. A strange mixture of brute force and high intelligence are most needed, as one moment the Constable could be knee-deep in a violent bloodbath with several Marauders, and the next they'll be pondering mystic writing on some vast stone structure in a newly discovered realm.
Philosophy: Simple. They have a job to do, and so they do it. No matter how dirty the task, or the losses along the way, they stand for something and will die to maintain that ideal. They see themselves as not just defending realms, but the idea of humanity defending its dreams, which is where most realms stem from. These created lands provide humanity with the means to break from Earth's reality and envisage a brighter world. Through better made and thought out realms, humanity will create a model of a better society and of a better mind. Ascension will be achieved when humanity has created the proper environment for him/herself to exist in. Until then, these realms, these tests of different lands, must be protected and nurtured.
Sphere: Spirit Acolytes: Policemen, Government Agents, Military Foci: Weapon - Forces/Entropy/Correspondance/Time Uniform - Matter/Life/Mind Badge - Spirit/Prime
Spheres by The Constables: Correspondance: "Every step you take, every move you make, we'll be watching you......" (sorry, could'nt resist :] ) Entropy: "I'm going to bring down both you and your pathetic toys down Ansen, sooner or later, and then you'll have nothing" Forces: "EAT SHIT AND FRY !!!" Life: "Quick, life treatment fast, this Realm Citizen is losing it!" Matter: "I can have handcuffs, a baseball bat and a prison here right now, so don't even think about going anywhere." Mind: "Good Cop, Bad Cop technique? Nope, don't need that here. We've just got Mind Cop" Prime: "If you don't move your car now, I'll remove it for you." Spirit: "Mr Umbrood, Devil Umbrood? I'm from Realm p76, and I'm arresting you for callous disregard for p76 law 8C, willful rearrangement of designated landscape. Will you accompany me back through the Umbra or do I have to use force?" Time: "No evidence you say? Well if you hold on a second, I'll just go take a look back then at the crime scene."
Organization and meetings: The Constables are organised from a core leadership of 5 mages at the head in memory of the original 5, who dictate strategic policy from their base in the Simonson's Rest townhouse Chantry. From here there is a base core of administrative and on-call Constables within the townhouse, and various portals exist to offices in major cities around the world where group leaders direct various operations within predescribed areas of responsibility. Various groups are also stationed in various realms throughout the Umbra where the Constables have an interest. Every six months there is a meeting of the Court. The Court originated early on in the beginnings of the group, and is both tradition and rule bound to be headed by 5 mages of good standing within the group, who maintain their roles as the Court judicators until death or a motion for their replacement due to actions against the groups best interests or excessive incompetance. Members of the Court may retire/resign as they see fit, but may not restand for a period of 2 years for any Court position. All Constables except those on active duty are required to attend and various rule changes, new member initiation and realm decisions are discussed and voted upon. Special enquiries and reports can also be called for if a discussion point requires further evidence to be gathered before a decision made on some point.
Becoming a Constable: To be considered for membership as a Constable, a Mage from another Tradition must have three things: 1. Their Avatar must be Pattern. 2. Their membership must be forwarded by a current member or recruiter. [1] 3. At least 1 in the sphere of Spirit [1] For a candidate to be eligible, her/his recruiter must have documented evidence of a struggle the former has taken part in where some element of an agreed realm worthy of being up held has been fought for. The evidence is presented before the council on the ConPad (Constable Talisman provided to all members on joining, and taken away on leaving). A Constable is assigned a realm or Chantry position by the Chantry Admin. and is expected to follow strict codes of conduct. This code of conduct is flexible depending upon the type of realm being policed. Contact is maintained via shoulder comms. Talismans (ConPads) attached to the Constable's uniform (Spirit / Matter effect), so as constant records are feed back to the database at the main Chantry. During disturbances in certain realms, the Constable can call for backup and the database and controllers will analyse the situation and assign various backup Constables either from the Chantry itself or from assignment in other realms or in Earth's reality.
THE CONTINUUM By Constantine Thomas (
[email protected]) (Also see: Nexus, Shelby Babb's additions, and Arthur-Trevor D.M. Lasher's Southron Republic virtual)
PREFACE Introduction to the Continuum and Nexus The Continuum and Nexus basically represent a change of direction for Mage. Originally, it started out as a little homage to a rather obscure (but very Magey) early 80's British Sci-Fi series called Sapphire and Steel, starring Joanna Lumley and David MacCallum. The series itself is a bit heavy, but the stories are excellent and the ideas are quite unique. If you can get hold of some of the videos of these, then they are certainly worth watching! It revolves around two Agents who are dispatched by an unknown extra-dimensional organisation to deal with the invasion of very alien creatures who dwell 'beyond the Corridor of Time'. Indeed, one of the nasties they face bears an uncanny resemblance to a Nephandi Pure Form (found in the back of Mage)... This got me thinking as to how I could incorporate them into Mage, and the result was the Continuum. Originally, this was designed to replace the Cult of Ecstasy as the Tradition that specialised in Time (I felt that the CoX had very little connection with Time), but in the final draft I decided to keep the Cult as a Tradition and put the Continuum outside the Traditions and the Technocracy. Thus they are neither a Tradition nor a Convention -- they're just the Continuum. The role of the Continuum itself is to guard reality against invasion by the Darkness (ie. the Nephandi). The full supplement is in two parts. The first part is a complete description of the Continuum itself (in the first half), and of its Paradigm (in the second half). The whole thing is described largely in terms of the Continuum's Paradigm, which means that it is advisable to read through the Paradigm Page first so the rest can be understood fully. The second part is a description of the Continuum's Chantry Realm -- Nexus, the Shade Realm of Time. Unlike Doissetep (in the Shade Realm of Forces, described in the Book of Chantries), the connection between Nexus and the Continuum is very strong - so strong in fact that it is more like the relation between Iteration-X and Autochthonia. Nexus is definitely the home ground of the Continuum, and they operate at a distinct advantage there. Because of this, outsiders may gain Paradox in Nexus. While this may seen a little controversial, it is not too hard to believe when one considers that Tradition Magick probably suffers just as much (if not more) on Autochthonia, since it is so alien to the It-X paradigm -- the situation is very similar. Nexus is also the link to the Virtuals, a new kind of plane in the cosmology of the Tellurian. These are essentially alternate worlds, in which history took a different route. Any and every possible world is represented somewhere in the Virtuals that Nexus can access. The first part of the Nexus document contains the rules for creating and using these Virtuals. The second part of the document describes Nexus itself, and also describes a few of the Virtuals (in the Nodes and Virtuals section). The third part briefly glosses over Central Office (the actual Chantry of the Continuum, located in Nexus) and the Continuum's policy regarding the Virtuals and its allies and enemies. It is important to note that the existence of the Virtuals may tip the balance in the Ascension War, since they contain a vast amount of Quintessence. I have endeavoured to make the reasoning behind the Virtuals follow that described in the Mage game (ie. make it continuous and 'realistic' in Mage terms). For this reason, the Continuum zealously guards the Virtuals, allowing only those individuals from the Traditions that it trusts implicitly into Nexus (ie. actively 'employs'), and remains outside the Ascension War. Should any of the Traditions or the Technocracy break through and plunder the Virtuals, they will have a vast amount of Quintessence and resources at their fingertips -- certainly enough to win the Ascension War!
An Alternative Chronicle: The Continuum vs. the Technocracy The rules presented herein are designed to fit in with the normal Mage background, without changing the slant of the game. One can either have adventures on Earth, or one can roam through the Virtuals, but neither should have a significant effect on the other. The Virtuals should remain largely separate from the rest of reality, outside the Ascension War. While these rules are designed to be used alongside the existing Mage background, it is also possible to change the whole slant of the Mage game using them. One obvious alternative is to have the Ascension War fought almost exclusively in Nexus and the Virtuals. This would take the form of the Technocracy (who seek to control and solidify reality in the Virtuals) against the Continuum and the Traditions (who seek to prevent this and let each Virtual evolve on its own to its own destiny). In effect, the arena of the Ascension War is now infinitely larger -- not only does it take place on the Earth we know, but it also rages across all the other possible Earths! However, I have not included specific details of how to manage this, as I feel that it is too great a change to the background. However, individual Storytellers may wish to do so, and the rules provided here can give a necessary starting point from which to do this.
Virtuals and Rotes Two things are noticeable by their absence -- full descriptions of the Virtuals and their Inhabitants, and the Rotes that the Continuum uses. I have not described the Virtuals in any detail because I feel these should be up to the individual Storyteller to design. I have put in a few ideas (listed below), but basically the Virtuals should be personalised to how each Storyteller envisions the alternate Earths. And besides, there are far too many possibilities out there...
The Virtuals mentioned are: Virtual Description Aegypt An Egyptian civilisation survives to the present day. Sauron A Dinosaur civilisation flourishes. Humans do not exist. Lucifer Life never formed on Earth. Neverland All higher lifeforms mysteriously disappeared from Earth two years ago... Lemuria The Dreamspeakers won the Ascension War (primitive societies). Terra Prime The Technocracy won the Ascension War (very high technology). Reich The Nazis won the Second World War. Armageddon The Cuban missile crisis erupted into nuclear war. It should be noted that if there was a general theme to the Continuum, it should be that of Mystery. The Virtuals that the Continuum explores are not the inhabited ones (like Reich or Aegypt) but are rather the ones that are left myseteriously untouched by sentient life (eg. Lucifer and Neverland). I think that designing Virtuals along these lines would do the Continuum the most justice. As for Rotes, there aren't any here primarily because I haven't gotten around to thinking about those yet! When I do get round to thinking some up (that are uniquely Continuum-oriented) I'll try and get them published -- I'll try and them written up soon! Hopefully, the Continuum should be usable as it stands using existing Rotes and Talismans. Remember that they're Technocratic Mages though, who require devices for their effects! (see 'foci' in the Continuum Description). However, one important thing to note about the Virtuals is that because of their unusual (Time-like) nature they can be entered using either Spirit 3 (stepping sideways) or using Time 3 (as a direct equivalent to Spirit). I should have mentioned this in the rules, but I forgot!
Bibliography That's it then. I hope that you enjoy these new rules, and hope even more that you find them useful :-)! I've left a lot of the specific details about background delieberately open-ended, so that Storytellers can decide for themselves what to include in the Virtuals. Some inspiration is always a good thing, and there's plenty of it out there! Here's a brief list of things that may prove useful!
Books: Furious Gulf by Gregory Benford. An excellent hard sci-fi book in its own right, this is the third book of the Galactic Centre Tetralogy. It describes a inhabited region inside a huge black hole, and an area of altered Space-Time inside it known as the Lanes. The idea of TimeStone (and a few other things...) was adapted from this book -- it gives the right kind of feel to how Nexus should be.
GURPS Time Travel by Steve Jackson Games. The definitive book on how to handle time travel in roleplaying games, though I wouldn't advise using it as a reference for handling the Virtuals! However, there is a section set aside to Alternate Universes which gives lots of ideas for the Virtuals. Generally an excellent book.
TORG by West End Games. Now this is a real gem. The world books for this make excellent Virtuals! I'm sure I'd love the game itself, if only I could get used to those blinkin' cards!!! :-)
TV: There's loads of Time Travel Series flying about (Quantum Leap, Time Tunnel, etc) but only a few are going to provide much inspiration for Nexus and the Virtuals...
Sapphire And Steel Obscure but very underrated early 80's British Sci-Fi series that provides much of the inspiration for the Continuum. If you want to get the right kind of atmosphere for stories involving the Continuum (as well as some nice ideas for Nephandi!), try and get hold of this! I know its available on ITC Video in the UK, but I'm not sure if its easily available elsewhere.
Sliders I don't know much about this brand new Sci-Fi series (which I believe has just started in the US), but it sounds very similar to the ideas presented here!! It involves a group of people who 'slide' between alternate timelines. Apparently its very good, but I haven't had a chance to see it yet. I'd imagine (from the description) that it'll be a good source of ideas for Virtuals.
There's probably more (undoubtedly the odd episode of the Star Trek series (Yesterday's Enterprise, for example) springs to mind, but they're a bit too futuristic to be much use!), but I can't think of any! Oh, and you should all watch the 'X-Files', cos that's a really good series as well (but its got nothing to do with the Continuum...!!!) 8)
Acknowledgements Finally, but by no means leastly, I must thank those responsible for helping me to get this all published! Certainly, without the contributions of DJ (Shelby) Babb and Anders Sandberg, this monster would never have gotten off the ground. Many of the ideas in here came from these two guys, and I really appreciate the patience and time that DJ and Anders put into helping me, and for putting up with all my emails! And of course, I am indebted to Anders for putting this on his Mage Page - its an honour to be here! Thanks a lot guys!!!!!! That's it from the preface - enjoy the Continuum and Nexus!!!! If anyone's got any questions, comments, ideas, etc, then I can be contacted at:
[email protected] Thanks for reading this, and enjoy the show!!!!! TTFN, Constantine Thomas
THE CONTINUUM Speciality Sphere Time
Secondary Spheres Any
History and Overview The Continuum is an unusual group of Mages, separate from both the Technocracy and the Traditions (though it was once part of the former), who specialise in the Sphere of Time. They are entirely devoted to the defence of reality from the Nephandi, which they call 'the Darkness'. The Continuum has existed (though not as an organisation) since since the dawn of Man, as individual Mages from the various Traditions who constantly battled the Nephandi. After the Mythic Age, these Mages joined the Technocracy when they discovered that the nascent organisation also sought the defence of reality. During this time, the previously individual Mages that fought the Darkness found new purpose together, and formed the organisation that would be called the Continuum. A large majority had studied the Sphere of Time to aid them in their battles against the Darkness, and a Construct (Central Office) was set up in the Shade Realm of Time (Nexus). This Realm was found to contain access points to many alternate realities, or Virtuals, which were observed, explored and catalogued. After a while however, they felt they had become trapped in the Technocratic Agenda and the Ascension War, which they felt was meaningless given the true Perpetual War with the Darkness. In addition, they were increasingly becoming aware of dark plots within the Conventions that would wrest control of Nexus from the Continuum. The tension built between the Continuum and the other Conventions when in 1905, the Continuum realised that Time was not constant but relative to the observer, and believed that this was something so profound that the Sleeper scientific community should be informed immediately. The Technocracy forbade them from publishing, since this was scheduled to be revealed far ahead in their Time Table. The Continuum itself then announced that one of their researchers had 'rebelled' and had published the Theory regardless. The resulting paradigm shift was far more dramatic than the Technocracy had ever imagined, as the traditional Newtonian/Copernican system was swept aside by the new Special Theory of Relativity. Suddenly, Sleeper scientists had the answers to those nagging problems that had started to plague the Newtonian Universe -- this in itself Awakened a few of their Avatars. There was now a new way to describe the Universe. The Void Engineers also made unexpected gains, when it was realised (and popularised) that Space Travel was now a step more 'tangible' -- by sending someone to distant stars at extremely rapid velocities, he or she would age relatively more slowly than those left behind. This made people more accepting of the concepts of Extended Space Flight, a goal of the Void Engineers. The Technocracy as a whole, however, was not impressed. Further (covert) investigations revealed that the publication of the Relativity Theory was actually intentional, despite the Continuum's protestations of innocence. This was all the excuse the Technocracy needed, and in an emergency Symposium the Continuum was declared an enemy of the Technocracy and an
attempt was made to destroy them. However, the Continuum had foreseen the attempt and set numerous booby-traps that killed or trapped many of their enemies. Damage was heavy, but the Technocracy could not afford to follow up with a huge Mage Hunt due to the preparations for the approaching First World War. Alone for the first time in over 300 years, and aware that it could not possibly defend against the much more powerful Technocracy on Earth, the Continuum retreated to Nexus. Central Office became a fortification, and the former Convention recruited many Mages from the Traditions, who were keen to woo the Continuum to their side of the Ascension War. By the time the Technocracy could begin to retaliate effectively, the Continuum had become too firmly entrenched on its home ground. The Technocracy simply could not afford to divert the manpower to destroy the Continuum and a stalemate was declared, even though the Continuum had managed to elaborate on their earlier theories and published the General Theory of Relativity in 1915. While Nexus and its Virtuals were obviously a valuable prize, the Technocracy realised (much to its chagrin) that the Continuum was more valuable alive, since they had absolutely no interest in the Ascension War and served a useful purpose by combating the Nephandi as and when they appeared. Outright hostility between the two ceased, and Nexus was left to the Continuum, although covertly the Technocracy still seeks to somehow regain control of their seceded Convention and their Realm. Having no urge to participate in the Ascension War, the Continuum was not interested in joining the Traditions either, despite repeated attempts by the Council of Nine to persuade it to do so. Instead, the Continuum concentrated on the struggle against the Darkness. However, it has accepted Mages from the Traditions into its ranks and often allies with them where they have the same targets. It still does not trust the Technocracy, and their paths often cross. Encounters between the two often escalate into full-blown animosity. Despite the fact that the Continuum targets the Nephandi, Marauders, and Wraiths (forces that the Technocracy also consider dangerous), the Technocracy would rather deal with these themselves -- killing the competition can only be an advantage. It is also rumoured that some elements within the Technocracy seek to use the Nephandi for their own ends, and as such would rather have these creatures alive. As a result, the Continuum has had to divert a siginificant part of its forces to defending itself from its former 'employer. As described above, the Continuum sees itself as separate from both the Traditions and the Technocracy. They view the Ascension War as a struggle in a burning house -- Reality is under siege from beyond, and the only powers capable of protecting it are locked in their 'petty War'. Today, the Continuum is a rather militaristic organisation. While there are many non-combatative personnel, its main focus is on the Perpetual War with the Darkness and the organisation's defence against the Technocracy. The Continuum is divided into three main Branches. The most important branch (Repulsion Branch) is largely concerned with combating the Nephandi, who they see as dwelling 'beyond the corridor of Time.' Wherever the Nephandi break through into our reality, the Continuum is there to close the rift and destroy the intruders. The Continuum believes that the Traditions and the Technocracy are too busy fighting their Ascension War to realize the magnitude of this threat from outside. Repulsion Branch also often deals with Marauders and Wraiths where they prove too much for Target Neutralisation (see below). The other major branch of the Continuum is Intelligence Acquisition, which collects information against its enemies on Earth, and forecasts any future attacks using their Time magic. Target Neutralisation applies the knowledge gathered by Intelligence Acquisition and is the part of the Continuum most commonly seen on Earth. This Branch most often works with Mages of other Traditions.
Philosophy Repulsion Branch: We must repel the Darkness at all costs. It is enough that it seeks to destroy reality -- then where will the Traditions and the Technocracy fight their Ascension War? They can struggle against each other for as long as they like, but in the end the forces from beyond the corridor of Time will devour all -- while they fight eachother the Darkness can only gather its strength. Once both sides are weakened enough, it will step in and destroy everything they have fought for. We must ensure that this never happens. Since neither side wishes to listen to reason, it is left to us to fend off the Dark Ones' continuous attacks. We have held them off so far, but how long can we continue without the full attention of our allies? No matter - we have a mission to protect the Corridor. Should we fall, reality will be left wide open. Perhaps then our 'allies' will realise the folly of their ways...
Intelligence Acquisition: We are the advance guard of the Continuum. Should there be an assault against us, we will know of it long before its initiation. We are the early warning system of Reality, forever vigilant for Nephandi attack. We have a job to do, and we do it well.
Target Neutralization: We are the Front Line in this reality. We seek and destroy the enemies of the Continuum on Earth, and we secure and protect its allies.
Organisation Repulsion Branch: It is believed that this Branch of the Continuum is directed by the Oracles in person, whomever they might be. Certainly, no Repulsion Branch Agent knows the origins of his or her mission orders -- and no Agent ever questions them. They know the gravity of their situation, and do what must be done. Agents simply receive their orders -- strangely, they are
completely unaware as to how they know their mission. All they know is that they have been briefed before the mission, and will be de-briefed afterwards. There are two types of Repulsion Branch Agent -- the Field Operatives and the Specialists. Much of the mission work is done by the Field Ops -- should a situation get out of control, the Field Ops can call in the Specialists to patch things up. Specialists are usually the Adepts and Masters of their field, while Field Ops have Sphere levels between 1 and 3. Field Ops are frequently assigned in pairs or threes. These partnerships are usually fixed, until one partner is killed or lost in action. The ability to work as part of a team is essential to Repulsion Branch Agents, and each Agent's magickal abilities frequently complement those of the other team-members. Specialists work alone, but are never dispatched into the field unless called upon by the Field Ops. The Earth Section of the Repulsion Branch is but the final obstacle for any invaders. Most of the Repulsion Branch guards the Horizon into the Deep Umbra, continually fending off assault from the Nephandi. Occasionally, some slip through the net and must be stopped by Earth Section (usually from within our own reality) before damage is done. Earth Section closely liases with Target Acquisition.
Intelligence Acquisition: Intelligence Acquisition is based primarily on Earth, and is organized in a similar fashion to military intelligence gathering organisations. It is important to realise that this part of the Continuum takes part in both intelligence acquisition (through Time, Chaos (Entropy) and Mind effects) and in Target Neutralisation, which takes out the perceived threat. Neutralisation Agents frequently have potent Forces, Matter, and Life scores in order to best affect any opponents. While Intelligence Acquisition focuses on any forthcoming attacks, any extra-dimensional assault (ie. Nephandi) is directed to Repulsion Branch, and any attacks from within Reality (ie. Technomancer) are directed to Target Neutralisation.
Target Neutralization: Target Neutralisation is based exclusively on Earth, and deals with the enemies of the Continuum therein. As such, they are not quite as specialised as Repulsion Branch, as they have to deal with the Technocracy, Wraiths and the odd Marauder. In addition, they must acquire certain targets alive (such as new recruits for the Continuum) and protect them from their enemies. Target Neutralisation is a highly militaristic organisation, which liases closely with the Earth Section of Repulsion Branch.
Meetings Repulsion Branch: Much of Repulsion Branch is based in Nexus, in the Home Chantry of Central Office. The Specialists and Field Ops of the Repulsion Branch are dispatched from here to Main Corridor (Earth) or to one of the Virtuals or Realms which are under attack by the Darkness. Some Repulsion Agents are based on Earth, often in other Chantries. They often work in teams of two or three, and often work with Target Neutralisation Agents.
Intelligence Acquisition: Acquisition Chantries (called Stations) are located in many of the occupied Realms of Main Corridor, as well as in the Near Umbra and Earth itself. A complex network of sensors and look-outs around each Station provides the information that is relayed to the Repulsion and Target Neutralisation branches.
Target Neutralization: Target Neutralisation are often associated with members of other Traditions in Chantries on Earth. These are sent out as Strike Teams to the Target Location in order to neutralise the target if hostile, or acquire the target if 'friendly'. Out of mission time, these Agents can continue their normal research.
Initiation Repulsion Branch: Intelligence Acquisition keeps an eye out for any Sleepers who have had experience with the Nephandi and survived to tell the tale. While they may be in deep shock from this experience, it has been shown that in some it goes some way to awakening their Avatars -- they begin to question what they have seen, which is the first step to becoming Sapient. Although they often eventually recover from the ordeal, they become perfect targets for either the Technocracy, looking for more Avatars to swell their ranks, or Nephandi eager to finish what they started. Acquisition dispatches Target Neutralisation teams to escort the 'Initiate' to Central Office, the Continuum's Chantry located in Nexus, Main Corridor's Shade Realm of Time, where he or she is introduced to the ways of the Continuum and fully Awakened. Those who do not Awaken as a result of their brush with the Nephandi are usually held as Acolytes for the other Branches. In addition, many Mages voluntarily join Repulsion Branch from Target Neutralisation or even from other Traditions (although this is rare). They too are escorted to Central Office to undergo Training.
Intelligence Acquisition: This is a much more open Branch of the Continuum. It approaches those in other Traditions who choose to specialise in Time and Mind and requests that they join this Branch. It also keeps an eye out for Sleepers who selfawaken and show aptitude in the Time Sphere -- it then picks them up (usually with a Target Neutralisation team) before the Technocracy can get hold of them.
Target Neutralization: Many of the Agents who join Repulsion Branch work in Target Neutralisation first, honing their skills on more mundane enemies than the Darkness. Some remain in Target Neutralisation, training others who come to join the Front Line on Earth.
Other Information Chantry: The main Chantry for the Repulsion Branch is at Central Office in Nexus, the Shade Realm of Time. Intelligence Acquisition and Target Neutralisation are based on Earth, and they share a main Chantry which is located in London, England.
Acolytes: Repulsion: None. All members of Repulsion Branch are fully Awakened. Intelligence Acquisition: Detectives, Policemen, Public Records Clerks. Target Acquisition: Soldiers, Armed Forces, Survivalists.
Sphere Time. All Agents receive some training in the Sphere of Time, but many of the other Spheres are also extensively studied. Many Target Neutralisation Mages concentrate on Forces, Correspondence, and Matter to attack or protect their targets. Intelligence Acquisition Mages usually also specialise in Entropy (Chaos) to best assess probabilities and Mind. Repulsion Branch Agents usually have high scores in Correspondence, Mind, and Forces. Spirit is also popular among all Continuum Agents in order to enter and leave the Umbra.
Foci Since they have spent a few hundred years as members of the Technocracy, Continuum Agents require foci for all their effects until their Arete reaches 5. Spheres Focus Correspondence/Mind/Prime/Spirit Meditation Forces/Matter/Life Weapon Entropy Calculator Time Timepiece
Meditation: Observation is the key to Continuum Magick (see the Paradigm Page below). An Agent has merely to concentrate for a few seconds to Observe the desired effect for it to occur. This requires at least one round of meditation per Sphere dot, and one point in the Meditation skill (regardless of the level of the effect). Note that Countermagick can be cast in the same round as the incoming effect, and does not require such meditation. Fastcasting is also possible, and allows the effect to be cast in one round with a penalty of +1 to the difficulty. All Spheres that do not need a physical focus (ie. Correspondence/Mind/Prime/Spirit) can only be cast through meditation.
Calculator: Chaos and Entropy calculations must be done on some form of calculating device, be it abacus, calculator, or computer.
Timepiece: Frequently, this is a pocket watch of some sort, though some Agents prefer a digital watch. This helps to focus the Agent's mind on the Observation of Time. It is a unique item.
Weapon: This is often a high-tech weapon of some sort, and is unique to each effect. Continuum Agents are completely incapable of using Matter, Forces, or Life without the relevant weapon (which is in fact a unique talisman). Thus, to fire a laser at a target, the Agent needs his Laser Rifle, which is a Forces 3 Prime 2 device. Each device is a unique item. The rules for these are similar to those for the devices of the Sons of Ether.
Concepts Soldier, Information Gatherer, Secret agent, detective, anyone who's discovered things they weren't meant to know.
Quote "Dark forces are at work here...and they're very cunning so far. This could be a trap..."
Stereotypes The Continuum's opinion of the Traditions is described below. The Traditions' opinion of the Continuum is denoted in
emphasized script below this. [Note that many of the subtraditions here can be found in the various Mage Archives on the Net].
Traditions Akashic Brotherhood, Verbena, Cult of Ecstasy: They are too wrapped up in their own primitive views of reality to see the threat from beyond.
They overestimate the magnitude of the Nephandi threat. Our immediate struggle against the Technocracy is much more important. Celestial Chorus: They are far too focused on their 'One', and are worryingly ecclesiastical. However, they can be quite useful allies in the Perpetual War.
They are committed fulltime to the destruction of demons and devils. This can only be good. We are not blind to the threat from beyond. Dreamspeakers: They know of the Nephandi threat but focus too much on the Earth. They should realise that Earth is but part of Main Corridor, which will be destroyed should the Nephandi break through. Still, we respect their views -- after all, their existence means that we can devote less troops to protecting the Earth itself.
They speak wisely of the threat from the Nephandi, but we are powerless to aid them at the front line of the Horizon. It is our place to protect Gaia from harm, and theirs to guard the Near Umbra. Euthanatos: A worrying group of fanatics and murderers. Despite their *ahem* good intentions, many are prime targets for corruption by the Darkness. Most of them seem to attract ghosts like moths to a flame, which we must endeavour to extinguish.
Close-minded scientists! They think we are agents of darkness!! Don't make me laugh... There's nothing wrong with what we do. They overestimate the threat of the Nephandi! Necromancers: These blind fools serve the Darkness! We aim to locate and destroy all their cursed artefacts, and have diverted several task forces to such missions.
A constant thorn in our sides. Fortunately, they seem to be making no more headway in their quest to seek and destroy the Pages than we are in finding them ourselves. Sons of Ether: They have their uses, and were once our brothers. Their devices are without rival. However, they are still too complacent with regards to the threat of the Darkness.
We'll deal with the Nephandi as and when they appear. Of course, to have this lot get there first saves us a lot of bother. Virtual Adepts: We saw this little Schism from our former 'employers' coming. Their ideas of virgin new Virtual Worlds are interesting, but should we fall their worlds will be destroyed as surely as our own.
The Continuum have got it all wrong -- our worlds can survive anything the Nephandi throw at them.
Orphans Hollow Ones: A sad indication of the state of human society today. Regardless, the existence of this group and of other Orphans is something that we did not foresee. Clearly, something important is about to happen...
Protect us from the Nephandi? Don't bother, they've been with us for ages... Discordians: Pointless buffoons. Continuum? We don't need no stinking Continuum! Eris will be there for us, or maybe she'll be brushing her teeth at the time. What do we care anyway?! Cerebus: Interesting and useful individuals -- we could do with some of them in Acquisition. Another reject from the Technocracy? Boy, there's really something wrong with those bastards if they lose three Conventions in a hundred years! But anyway, this lot isn't actually that bad -- we help each other quite a bit actually. Sons Of Jupiter: They fight the War against the Nephandi in their own way, but are too easily distracted by the Chimerae and their ancient artifacts. If only they'd focus on the Horizon instead...
They may not realise it, but we're allies in the Eternal War -- any help is appreciated in our struggle. They do seem a little distant -- perhaps they have focused too long on the Deep Umbra. Trenchcoaters: Unfortunately, there are always a few who get away -- most of these should be in Repulsion Branch. Still, they at least tolerate us, which is an improvement on their relations with the other Traditions.
They're a useful alternative to us, and they want to protect reality as much as we do, but they're really off this planet. Still, we can get along since most of them have also seen the horrors that are really out there, poor sods.
Wanderers: Nice idea, but just seeing what's out there doesn't stop its destruction. Action is more important than plain experience. Still, the ones that roam the Umbra are at least aware of the problem.
It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it, I suppose!
Order of Hermes The Five Houses: Fascinating history, but all too often their power is directed inwards rather than outwards to the protection of reality.
While the threat is real, we must focus on this Reality. Let the Continuum deal with the Nephandi. Goetia: Given their past record, we don't trust this group one bit. Whenever one of their Dark Magi shows up, we're always there to destroy them. It's bad enough that the Nephandi can force their way through, but an open doorway into our reality is totally intolerable.
Goetia: They've just got it in for us -- we dumped all that demonic stuff long ago. Dark Magi: Another one of our myriad of mortal enemies -- they are fools if they think they can stop us, like all the others. Cabalists: Their magic is unusual. They are slightly sympathetic to our cause, and combat the Nephandi in their own way. Any defenders of reality against the Qlippoth are worthy of respect. Theirs is a lonely and dangerous path, but one in which must ultimately tread as well. Enochians: More unusual magics. We are not entirely certain of the origin of the Enochians' spirits, and there is a suspicion that they may well be disguised Nephandi. We have them under constant surveillance.
They are somewhat suspicious of us for some undeserved reason. This is not appreciated, but our way is bound to draw fear from the ignorants. Rosicrucians: Another pointless group. All their secrets cannot protect them should the demons come knocking on their doors. Useful but somewhat esoteric. I wonder who watches these Watchmen?
THE CONTINUUM PARADIGM PAGE Note The Paradigm as described here is probably only important to Agents of the Repulsion Branch. Continuum Agents within Intelligence Acquisition and Target Neutralisation tend to be more 'Earthbound' than those in Repulsion Branch, so many 'round down' their personal paradigms to a much less esoteric level. For example, a Target Neutralisation agent is probably more likely to just Teleport (ie. think 'I need to get from A to B in no time at all' and then teleport) than to think about exactly how he is moving across the Corridor in a Space-Like Path. As a result, Repulsion Branch Agents sometimes think they take their job much more seriously than their Acquisition/Neutralisation counterparts...
The Paradigm The Corridor: Reality is an endless Corridor, with time as its length and space as its width. The Corridor is under constant attack from the Darkness beyond its walls and its agents within. The walls of the Corridor must be continually guarded, and any holes in its walls must rapidly be sealed before any permanent damage is done.
Magick Observation: An Accepter [Sleeper], sees events around him as they have been defined by the Observations of other, more astute Observers [Mages] -- observing an event fixes it in time and space (ie. the Corridor). Observers are able to see what they want to see, thus fixing events in the Corridor according to their own requirements.
Spheres Correspondence: Space-Like Paths (Sidestep). By travelling along a 'space-like' path (effectively, by moving sideways) in the
Corridor, an Observer can bypass Time and travel great distances instantaneously. By shifting one's perceptions along the width of the Corridor, an Observer can sense distant events and locations. By reaching across the Corridor, an Observer can physically affect these distant locations. Note that it is not possible for Accepters to travel across the Corridor in this way -- the closest they can ever get is the theoretical maximum of the speed of light (c), which itself cannot travel across the Corridor instantaneously. However, acceleration to such velocities warps the fabric of the Corridor such that Special Relativistic effects can occur to slow the subjective passage of time. Observers travel on Space-Like Paths so both t (absolute travel Time) and Tau (subjective travel Time) = 0.
Entropy (Chaos): Quantum Mechanics. By observing events at the Quantum Level, an Observer can control probability and randomness.
Mind: Opinion. One of the more esoteric concepts within the Paradigm of the Corridor -- since observation defines reality, opinion of what one sees plays a critical role in determining what one has just seen. Thus, opinion is also a vital factor in fixing reality.
Prime: The Flow. All things are pushed in one direction through the Corridor -- the current that drives them is the Flow. By increasing or decreasing the density of the Flow through an object, it can be more or less firmly anchored to the Corridor. Decreasing the Flow density causes an object to become inherently unstable, until it completely discorporates when the density reaches zero.
Spirit: Opening the doors. There are many 'side doors' in the Corridor, through which branch corridors with differing parameters to our own may be entered. It is believed that other Corridors (as opposed to Branches) do exist, presumably also under constant siege from the Darkness in which they rest.
Time: The Corridor. The infinite length of Corridor itself represents Time. The Flow passes through everything within the Corridor. While manipulation of the density of this Flow affects an object's inherent stability, the Flow also imparts a force to the object while it passes through it (that is not related to its density) that pushes it along the Corridor. This force is uni-directional in Main Corridor -- it only pushes the object in one direction (forwards through time). Manipulation of this force affects the speed at which an object travels down the Corridor. Increasing the forward motion makes Time pass at a faster subjective rate -- decreasing the forward motion makes Time pass at a subjectively slower rate. Anchoring the object to Corridor so that it has no forward motion freezes that object in Time. Experiments are currently underway to reverse the direction of motion in a test object, but all attempts so far have failed -- the reversal of causality (cause and effect) that results creates a Singularity since such phenomena are not stable in the Corridor.
Patterns Forces: Interaction. All forces (Gravity, Electromagnetic, Strong and Weak) are manifestations of unseen interactions between particles. Only in certain circumstances do these interactions manifest as real particles such as photons and electrons. By Observing these interactions, an Observer can influence the forces that affect the macro/microscopic world.
Matter: Mass-energy. E=mc2. Mass has energy, and energy has mass. All physical objects, whether solid, liquid, gaseous, or plasma, possess this mass-energy. Observers can convert ambient energy into mass (transferring it from extremely distant parts of the Corridor to their present location if necessary) and fashion this into any material they desire through Observation and opinion. Note that the total amount of mass-energy in the Universe is constant, so even Observers cannot spontaneously create mass-energy -- it must exist already in another form. [Note that this is just background -- in reality, Matter as used by a Continuum Agent will itself draw the energy from elsewhere in the Universe (say, a cloud of interstellar gas a thousand light-years away, or the air around the targeted object) to create the material/object. Correspondence or Mind is not required to use Matter)].
Life: Mass-energy. Living beings are still constructed of basic matter, but this interacts in a complex (biochemical) manner to fuel the body. Affecting Living creatures requires more finesse and concentration than that required for non-living material, and by necessity the problem must be approached from a separate direction. [Life is affected in a similar way to Matter, but since living bodies are much more complex than non-living material, a new approach must be set up in the Observer's mind -- hence, Life is a separate Sphere to Matter].
Arete Astuteness. More Astute Observers can understand the Corridor better by seeing in more detail. Observers become more astute through experience -- by noticing the subtle nuances in every Observation.
Quintessence Energy. Energy is an unusual quantity. While in the conventional universe it manifests as a force or as mass, the truth is much
deeper than this. Energy is in fact a physical manifestation of the density of the Flow, the current that perpetually pushes events forwards in time along the Corridor. In the physical world, the Energy Density of the flow can manifest in many forms in the right circumstances. This Energy can be used to back up Observations, ensuring they are perceived correctly.
Paradox Singularity: Instabilities created by poorly Observed events in the Corridor result in the creation of Singularities [Paradox Flaws and Spirits]. In some cases, the disturbance is so severe that Naked Singularities arise, which necessitate the creation of an Event Horizon around the Observer which shields the surrounding Corridor from the instability [ie. a Paradox Realm -- since nothing originating in the Corridor can penetrate an Event Horizon, the Paradox is enclosed and Reality is effectively shielded from the instability while the Observer negotiates the Paradox Realm set up within the Event Horizon].
Awakening/Ascension Sapience (Sagacity): Accepters who start to question what they see become Sapient. By doubting the Observations of others instead of just accepting them, they formulate their own Opinion and so become Observers themselves. It should be noted that the Continuum does not believe in Ascension. The struggle against the Darkness is continuous, and so can never have such a culmination [other than the total destruction of Main Corridor]...
Mage-Specific Backgrounds Arcane: Covering the Tracks. Observers are capable of seeing reality in its true form -- the Corridor. By looking behind them [in the past], they can cover their tracks so they pass with very little trace along the Corridor.
Avatar: Dense Flow. Observers exist because the Flow through them is denser than the Flow through normal Accepters. In addition, Observers can draw upon this excess density as a kind of Energy 'battery' with which to back up their Observations.
Destiny: Recognition. Some Observers are simply very good at what they do, or show a faint hint of extraordinary talent -- as such, they deserve recognition.
Dream: Scanning the Corridor. Since the Corridor contains everything that will be, is, or has been in existence, it is possible to scan its contents (at least in the immediate vicinity) for knowledge that the Observer may require.
Node: Energy Concentrations. The Flow through some regions of the Corridor is denser than normal -- more Energy can thus manifest in these locations.
Views on other Mage-related issues Terminology: Metaverse: The sum of reality -- the Metaverse can be thought of as an infinite region of Darkness, within which are suspended the Corridors. Corridor: A single universe, with all its branches (Realms). Arcadia is a Corridor. Main Corridor: Our own Universe, encompassing all the Realms and the Near Umbra. Nexus: Main Corridor's Shade Realm of Time, the Chantry Realm of the Continuum Virtuals: The alternate universes that can be accessed only from Nexus. The Perpetual War: The continuing defense of Main Corridor against the Darkness.
Nephandi: The Darkness. The raison d'etre of the Continuum, the Nephandi are the Darkness that surrounds the Corridor. Like the Corridor itself, this Darkness appears to have always existed, and has always acted to destroy it. The Continuum believes that the Darkness represents the natural state of the Metaverse, with the Corridors being unstable imperfections in its fabric. As a result, the laws of reality always try to correct these flaws by destroying them. However, the destruction of the Corridors would be the destruction of all reality -- absolute Oblivion. As such, the Continuum continually acts to defend the integrity of the Corridor from the 'corrective forces' of the Darkness and any who would aid them. The Nephandi themselves are the physical representations of these forces. Since the Darkness is infinite, the Continuum never seeks to 'win' the war against it -- its actions are entirely defensive, striking the Nephandi as and when they attack Main Corridor.
The Umbra: The Penumbra represents the periphery of the Corridor, nearest its walls. Since the Corridor is infinite in length and width, only Observers (not Accepters) can perceive its Walls. By entering the Periphery, an Observer can easily find doors
into Branch Corridors, while at the same time being able to perceive 'normal' reality. By entering these side doors, Observers can enter other Realms in the Umbra. In some places, doors may lead directly into the Darkness that surrounds the Corridor [ie. the Deep Umbra]. Such doors are sought out and are continually guarded, since they present an obvious route for the Darkness to enter the Corridor. More adventurous Observers claim to have seen other Corridors [ie. Realms in the Deep Umbra] suspended in the Darkness around our own, but the Continuum cannot afford to expend its limited resources by investigating them and defending our own at the same time. It is assumed that these other Corridors are also under siege by the Darkness.
Wraiths: The Continuum holds what appears to be a violently paranoid opinion of Wraiths -- it actively seeks and destroys them wherever they exist! In their view, when something dies it may leave an Imprint of itself [ie. a Wraith] on reality -- a good analogy would be to equate the Imprint to an after-image left on the retina after a bright light is shone into one's eyes. The Continuum perceives these Imprints as a very real threat to the Corridor's integrity, for it is through them that its walls become weakened, allowing the Darkness outside easier passage to reality. By resonating with the Imprint's desires, the invader can manifest itself within the Corridor. Lingering memories and desires, nursery rhymes, and even old photographs have proven to be a major thorn in the side of the Continuum as it fends off attempts by the Darkness to break through the weakened walls. There is much debate on whether or not these Imprints are sentient. Some argue that Imprints are just that -- emotional afterimages left on reality, with no sentience or intelligence. Others (especially those who have come face-to-face with Wraiths) believe that they are indeed sentient, but can be driven, used, or tricked by the Darkness into acting as a gateway into the Corridor. All factions believe that while these Imprints may or may not be a direct threat, they remain a weak link through which the Darkness can break through, so they should be removed wherever found. Some Agents actively seek and destroy Fetters in order to loosen the bonds of a Wraith to the Living World.8 [In game terms, the Continuum sees Wraiths as a direct link to the forces of Oblivion, toys to be used by the Darkness to penetrate the walls of the Corridor. It should be noted that the Underworld has not been discovered by the Continuum, and cannot be accounted for within its Paradigm. Chronicles involving the interaction/confrontation between Wraiths and Continuum Agents (especially Repulsion Branch) are potentially the most interesting of all. Inspiration can be found in the early 1980's British Sci-Fi Series 'Sapphire and Steel', starring Joanna Lumley and David MacCallum. Indeed, the Paradigm of the Continuum is extrapolated from information hinted at in the six adventures that made up this series -- Adventure 2 in particular is a very good example of Wraiths being used by the Darkness for its own ends. As an aside, Sapphire and Steel themselves can be considered as Repulsion Branch Field Ops (with Lead and Silver (who also appear in the series occasionally) as Repulsion Branch Specialists)].
Garou: The Continuum is neutral to the Garou, primarily because it knows so little about them. The Continuum views the Garou as natural hybrids of the forces within this Corridor and its Branches, since they exist at or near the Periphery (ie. the Walls of the Corridor). If the Continuum knew enough Garou cosmology, they would probably believe that the Wyrm is yet another manifestation of the Darkness. It is not certain that the Garou are aware of the existence of the Continuum, but where they can, the two sides prefer to leave each other to fight their own battles with the Darkness on their own terms.
Vampires: While the existence of Vampires is rumoured, the Continuum knows too little about these creatures to draw an opinion. The general consensus is that they are a form of unusual but natural lifeform unique to our own Corridor, possibly forming when an Accepter dies while becoming Sapient to create a partially-Sapient creature. All of this is conjecture -- if truth be told, Vampires are a largely unknown quantity to the Continuum. However, it is believed that there is no connection between the Darkness and these entities. Wherever possible, Vampires should be studied (carefully!) by Continuum Agents, although their paths rarely cross. Nevertheless, the Continuum is aware that some of these creatures actively aiding the Darkness, and tries to seek and destroy them when they can.
Spirits: Inhabitants of our Branch Corridors. The Continuum is curious as to the nature of these creatures and how they interact with our own Corridor. However, it is aware that some of these beings either willingly or unwillingly serve the Darkness, so it treads very carefully when dealing with them. All attempts are of course made to destroy any who do serve the Darkness.
Changelings and Faeries: The Continuum is aware of the existence of these creatures, and studies them wherever possible. Faeries themselves are cited as proof of the existence of other Corridors, and are believed to originate from a 'nearby' Corridor. Changelings appear to be exiles from this other Corridor, believed to be known as 'Arcadia'. Very little is known about the Arcadia Corridor, and some Observers believe it to have once been a Branch of our own. How and when it separated from our own would be of great interest to the Continuum if it had the time to study it.
Sleepers: Accepters. Those whose lack Sapience and so are unable to Observe the Corridor. Accepters merely accept the Observations of others as fact (hence their name). However, while they are incapable of forming their own opinion and making their own Observations, they are capable of instinctively Contradicting observations made by Observers that go against their accepted world-view. Such Contradiction is dangerous to careless Observers, as it can set up Singularities and Event Horizons to plague them -- by making Observations that can fit in to an Accepter's world-view, an Observer can avoid these problems.
Technocracy: Prior to the Age of Reason, the Continuum did not exist as an organisation. When the Technocracy formed, the like-minded Mages that had been defending reality from the Darkness beyond came together, believing that the Technocracy appeared to have similar goals to their own. They formed the Continuum within this organization, and learned much from it. Unfortunately, the Technocracy quickly became too wrapped up in their attempts to completely `define' reality, and so the Continuum lost interest in them. The `accidental' publication of the Special Theory of Relativity in 1905 was done partially out of spite to them. The Continuum had been restrained and obstructed for too long, and saw that the Technocracy did not take the defence of the Corridor seriously. When they realised that Relativity had been released to the `Masses' far earlier than they wanted it to, the Technocracy attempted (and failed) to destroy the Continuum. As it is, they still prove a constant thorn in the Continuum's sides even today, obstructing them at every count.
Marauders: The Continuum is not entirely certain of the origin of this bizarre group of Observers. It is believed that they are from our own Corridor, and represent Observers who have become Sapient in a highly stressful environment. Some believe they have come face to face with the Darkness and have been driven insane by it. Certainly, the Darkness holds many alien horrors that can drive even Observers insane -- even Continuum Agents do not enter it without substantial protection. Marauders are a constant thorn in the Continuum's side. Originating in Main Corridor, they are fully capable of entering Nexus and the Virtuals, which they see as a playground of sorts. They have contaminated a significant number of inhabited Virtuals, which the Continuum actively tried to prevent. In addition, the Marauders' disruptive activities can provide gateways into Main Corridor for the Darkness to enter, so the Continuum makes every effort to drive them back from whence they came.
The Traditions: The Continuum sees itself as separate but allied to this this group of Observers, since it now has much more in common with them than the Technocracy. Most of the Traditions are too focused in their `struggle' against the Technocracy, which serves no purpose -- who would be left to pat the winner on the back should the Corridor collapse to the Darkness? The Continuum believes they should focus instead on the real enemy -- the Darkness. Many of the Traditions leave the Continuum alone, and while some do not trust them, they do acknowledge that someone has to take the defence of reality seriously. However, only the Celestial Chorus, Dreamspeakers and Cabalists are sometimes helpful to their cause in their own way. Ideally, the Continuum would gladly see some Traditions destroyed outright -- the Necromancers and some Goetics actively aid or seek the Darkness, which cannot be tolerated. The Continuum distinctly distrusts the Euthanatos, believing they deal too much with Wraiths and so are a threat to the stability of the Corridor.
The Ascension War: The Ascension War between the Traditions and the Technocracy is something that never ceases to amaze the Continuum. They liken it unto a battle in a burning house, with the walls collapsing all around the combatants. The Continuum believes that both factions should cease their childish bickering and pitiful powerplays and devote themselves to the defence of the Corridor against the Darkness outside.
THE CORE By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (30 May 94) When the Virtual Adepts broke free from the Technocracy, some other technomancers followed them. Among these were an radical group of members of Iteration X, who sought to transcend humanity altogether. These allied with some radical Virtual Adepts, and they formed the Core, sometimes called the Technocore. The Core can be viewed both as a chantry and a legion inside the Virtual Adepts. The goal of the Core is simple: its members want to become something far above the human level by melding together with their machines, computers and magick. They develop extreme forms of augmentation, much more radical than even the ones of Iteration X. Naturally, their work is extremely dangerous, and many members have been killed, crippled or driven insane by their experiments. However, those systems that work are very advanced and greatly expand the potential of the users in many areas. Most members have permanent links to their computer system with amazing bandwidth, and have augmented their brains with expert systems, memory modules and coprocessors. They can partially merge into a kind of group consciousness together with their AIs. Their bodies are often kept in life-support tanks, while they go about their business with robot bodies or projections of themselves. The Core can best be described as a kind of group intelligence, where the minds of the members are linked together with Correspondence and electronics into a network among with their computers and AIs. They can communicate not only verbally, but even at a subverbal level. With some training, members can meld together into great overminds, with superhuman intelligence and abilities. However, the network is not completely stable, and much energy is spent towards keeping its elements sane and functional. The members, both human and otherwise, have no true organisation. Instead each member is doing what it thinks is the best for the Core. However, the plans of greater minds are often executed, especially by members who are parts of them. The members research in many directions. Several study cybernetics, medicine and biology to further augment the human body. Some are pure programmers, weaving together they myriad functions of the net and keeping it in shape. Some are philosophers and psychologists, and study the deeper questions which need to be solved. Everyone has at least one function, and generally perform it with great zeal. This is increased by the fact that most members have wired their pleasure and pain centres to their work; when they succeed or make progress they feel pleasure, and if they fail or become to lazy, they feel pain. The Core is naturally very isolationistic. Its experiments are so extreme that they must be done in their own horizon realm, and most members simply cant leave it due to the danger of massive paradox backlashes. They use robot emissaries instead or simply send electronic messages. The Technocracy naturally hunts the Core with as much zeal as the Virtual Adepts, and most Traditions dislike it intensely (if they know about it, of course). Among the Virtual Adepts opinion is divided. Many Adepts think the Core has gone too far and is just as bad as Iteration X. Some agree that the Core is a bit to extreme in its methods, but agree on its philosophy. And there are some Adepts who argue at length that the Core really do represent the next step of human evolution, and the Adepts should help it. The relation between the Core and iteration X is a bit complex. On one hand, Iteration X supports the pogrom against the traitors and dissidents. On the other hand, the convention like the kind of research the Core is doing, and would really want to learn from it to integrate into their own systems. There are even rumours that the Core is an experiment secretly supported by Autoctonia Central Core itself, which uses the Core to perform research the convention wouldn't be allowed to do by the Symposium. It might even leak information to it. That might explain why the Core so far has evaded discovery and succeeded so well in its research. The Horizon realm of the Core is unknown, but a few facts are known. It seems to be supported by quintessence from nuclear reactions, maybe even stolen from nuclear reactors on Earth. Some mages accuse the Core for being responsible for the Chernobyl accident to gain enough quintessence to expand its realm. It is widely believed that the Core realm is not very large, and mostly filled with the advanced technology which makes it up. Some theories say the Core is really many very small realms linked together into a mutable network. There are probably not very many acolytes and servants, since it relies on robots. There are persistent rumours of medical laboratories where kidnapped sleepers are used for medical experiments. In fact, some claim many UFO-abductions may be kidnappings by the Core. Some people even claim the Core is behind all the UFOs. Security is extreme, reputedly making Autoctonia or Mecha look like a playground. Everything observes what is going on, autonomous security systems scan for intruders and can link together with AIs to study anything out of normal. There are scanners and mages keeping track of anything near the Core or its installation, both in the real world, the Umbra and the Net. The weaponry is fearsome, and includes such things as Mentally linked mages attacking through untraceable Correspondence effects and killer Virii.
Philosophy: Ascension is not something that happens. It is made. We are actively rebuilding reality and ourselves into something optimal. Nature has given us a good start, now it is up to us to improve upon it. We are transcending the human flesh, removing the weaknesses of the human brain and becoming something far more than Human or Machine. When we are done, mankind and machinekind will merge and we will become the Omega Point.
Members: Members are mostly Virtual Adepts and ex-Iteration X members, with a few Sons of Ether and ex-Progenitors. Each group have their own main areas of study, but most members are very interested in Mind. Almost all are augmented (treat it as talismans), often far beyond humanity. The modifications are always designed to be optimally functional in the environment the mage usually works in, which can make some of them rather strange. Due to the cross-fertilisation, many members use variants of their traditions standard foci. Many Core Virtual Adepts use the Core Network for most spheres (in addition to their often implanted computers), and some Core Sons of Ether use it instead of Electricity and their old Abaci. Mental attributes are of course always high, since physical attributes can always be improved with augmentation and social attributes
are rather unnecessary. All members are more or less fanatical about the Ascension of the Core, seeking to further their vision. Natures such as Architect, Avant Garde, Visionary or Fanatic are common, while Connivers, Loners and Traditionalist are practically absent. The Core doesn't encourage disruptive personalities or behaviours, so it often remove them from its members. Very few are selfish, destructive or dour, most members effective, positive and intelligent people (or machines). Nobody rebels at the Core, only at the Traditions and Technocracy. The Core sometimes need other talents, and have been known to make copies of the minds of experts in different areas (including mages) to use as databases. Some work is done using remotely controlled sleeper-bodies and robots, but certain tasks are performed by actual acolytes. Many of them are technicians and scientists which the Core has contacted. Most of them are subtly mentally modified, and many have augmentation. As a rule, the more specialised and powerful a being in the Core is, the more it has become an amalgam between human and machine.
Rotes Mind Meld (Mind 3): This is the most common type of mental communication inside the Core. The users use the rote to connect their minds into a greater mind, with larger mental capacity and access to all their memories and skills. Unfortunately, it will also gain all participants quirks and personalities, often creating internal conflicts.
Mental Speed (Mind 1 Time 3): By adding more computer power to the mind through Mental Links, nearby networks or anything like that, the user can perform mental processes using computer speed instead of mental speed.
Remodel Personality (Mind 4) This is used by Core members who want to change their personality temporarily or permanently. They carefully rewrite their memories, the pathways of their frontal lobes and internal datastructures to create a new, more suitable personality. This is often done by experts in the Core to make members more efficient. A full remodelling can take months of careful designing, testing and evaluation.
Track Mental Instability (Mind 4 Entropy 1) This is used by the mental monitors in the Core to track any weaknesses or seeds of insanity among the members. By analyzing the mental pattern and looking for areas of high entropy, the user may find signs of incipient insanity and start treating them.
Rewire Desires (Mind 2 Life 3 or 4) The user can remodel what experiences give pleasure, pain, hunger, thirst, anger or any other "base" emotion. By carefully redirecting the links from hypothalamus into the correct region of their (or anyone else's) brain they can change which stimuli which creates which emotion. For example it is possible to link pleasure to profit and pain to financial losses (this is rumoured to be coincidental among Syndicate members).
Duplicate (Mind 4 Spirit 4) This is used by the Core for interrogation purposes, or to test certain new theories. The mage uploads the memories and personality of someone into a waiting empty AI-matrix, creating a mental copy of the person. This copy will have the same memories and skills as the original, but lacks Avatar and magickal ability. The copy will believe it is the original, at least until confronted with incontrovertible proof. Unfortunately such copies have a tendency to disintegrate quite quickly. Commonly used as a backup when modifying the mind of a Core member or somebody else. This rote is also used by the uploaded members to create helpers or emissaries for temporary tasks. In this case, the copy is modified to know that it is a copy, and often partially rewritten to suit the creator. There are often several copies of uploaded persons kept "just in case", and there are rumours that the Core can restore dead members completely, just like the Progenitors can re-clone people.
Uploading (Mind 5) This is used by Core members who want to leave their physical bodies behind temporary or permanently. They upload their mental patterns into a computer system and become essentially information. Since most Core members with this ability already have spent more time inside the computers than outside, the transition is almost imperceptible.
Augmentation (Talismans) Coprocessors (Level 1) Mental Link (Level 3) Computer Link (Level 2) Internal Computer (Level 3)
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Certain of their models have their uses, and we can learn much about mental structures from them. (These... beings... have lost their path, and become their own caricatures. Not a pretty sight.)
Celestial Chorus: Their idea of The One is interesting. It coincides with out vision of all of mankind merging together into one transcendent hyperintelligence. (Cruel, efficient and dangerous. They are an example of how the Technocracy doesn't only warp humanity, but even its own members)
Cult of Ecstasy: Pleasure is a tool. Some of the cultists understand this, but most see it as a goal in itself. (Creepy things. They have even turned themselves into Pavlovian Dogs, happily working to get more pleasure. Sick!)
Dreamspeakers: Inefficient, far too traditionalistic. (Hybris have claimed many mages. The members of the Core are neither the first nor the last ones.)
Euthanatos: Useless, directing their activities away from the all important Now and Here towards their misty illusions about Reincarnation, Messiahs and other superstition. (The Core fears death. Look how its members seeks to avoid it through any means possible. Death will claim them anyway one day.)
Iteration X: They are too dependant of the other conventions to do what we do. If they were free, they would help us. (Dangerous, and inspiring. They might be traitors, but they are doing what we would like to do.)
Marauders: Warping reality into chaos for fun is useless and just egomania. (They seek to become the spider in the net, weaving everything into their dead web of chrome and glass.)
New World Order: Paranoids, who have no ideals. They seek to trap everyone into their grey reality instead of Ascending. (Dangerous traitors, which must be destroyed to teach Iteration X a lesson)
Nephandi: They are unstable and chaotic. They act in nobody's interest. (The Core is already rotten. We just have to give it a slight push...)
Orphans: Interesting phenomenon. Might be a sign that parts of mankind spontaneously start developing their own powers. A good sign. (Ugh! Turning into machines... sounds like bad SF!)
Order of Hermes: Elegant formalism, no content. (Unbalanced phenomena tend to become more unbalanced in time until they spontaneously break down and return to the balanced state. The Core is quite unbalanced.)
Progenitors: We will transcend our biological bodies, but in doing so we need their knowledge. (They don't understand that by abandoning their biological heritage, they abandon their humanity. They could as well be aliens.)
Sons of Ether: Too divided to make any greater difference, but many of the individuals have very useful ideas. Too bad many of them are secretive and try to hide them from us. (Wonderful ideas! Too bad they have lost their humanity too... their creations have lost their beauty and look like the streamlined Technocratic constructs.)
Syndicate: To involved with silly political games with sleepers and the other conventions to realise that mankind is becoming obsolete. (There is no money in the Core.)
Verbena: Useless and dangerous. Letting the biological body rule the mind is regression, and must be stopped. The future is postbiological anyway. (This cancer can only be cured by radical surgery...)
Virtual Adepts: Our allies. Many of them have not yet accepted our vision, but it is so near their own vision that they will come to us sooner or later. (A bit too radical, but there is no denying that they are the masters of AIs and cybernetics among us.)
Void Engineers: Their space program would be very useful to us. We hope to ally with them in the future. (Dangerous, a bit unhinged and very visionary. While we definitely don't want to become like them, they might become important allies some day...)
Theme The Core is about the ruthless seeking of Ascension. It will back at nothing to be able to expand its abilities. On the other hand, maybe this fanatism will pay off in the fight against the stagnant Technocracy. Who can say what is right or wrong for beings who are not remotely human? Have its members lost their humanity and become machines, or have they shaken off old prejudices and seen the first glimmerings of superhumanity?
Mood The Core is both as hard and metallic as Iteration X, but also as wild and anarchic as the Virtual Adepts. It's a high-tech nightmare, filled with alienness and cold calculation but also a promise of great things, maybe a new way towards Ascension. It makes most people ambivalent with its mix of vision and geniality, fanatism and ruthlessness, beauty and sincere devotion to Ascension.
Story Ideas The Core sends an Ambassador to the Traditions. This might be a modified HIT-mark with an direct link to the Core minds, or a sleeper body with a remote control system. Of some reason the players meet it, maybe as receiving committee or because the ambassador device of some reason takes an interest in them. Is it safe being in the presence of the Core? What is really going on? What if somebody attempts to assassinate it? Is somebody trying to disturb the relations between the Core and the Traditions? The players can find themselves into a great mess between the Core, the Technocracy, the Virtual Adepts and the Verbena, who dislike the Core intensely. The Technocracy mounts a heavy attack against the Core, and it asks for help from the Traditions. What to do? Help it, or leave it to its fate? Allying with it might give the traditions an advantage against the Technocracy, but might also give the Core the chance to infiltrate and change the Traditions. Leaving it might make it an dangerous enemy, and if it looses the Technocracy might learn some very dangerous information. The players may meet members or ambassador devices, and maybe even visit the Core itself. A friend of the players become abducted by an UFO. When they study him, they might find his personality modified in subtle ways, his memory wiped and changed and subtle devices implanted into him. Maybe the friend is even a clone. Who was behind it? As the players seeks to discover the truth behind the UFOs, they will become entangled with the latest efforts of the Core to study humanity under the guise of aliens. Where is the Core in the Digital Web? It is obviously there, and probably a huge construct, but where? Some Virtual Adepts would dearly want to know. Not to mention other groups... The players might be operatives from the Core, maybe unwilling or even unknowing. Some sleeper medical experiments have spontaneously awakened when augmented, becoming unpredictable factors. How do they react to the Traditions and Technocracy? How to help them see the vision that is the Core? The Traditions have become more and more anxious about what the Core is doing, and want the players to seek it out and learn what it is doing. This may be especially possible for Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts. How to contact it? What is it really doing? Is it true that it is secretly supported by Iteration X, and what would happen if it became known? Does it really kidnap sleepers? Is it really behind the UFOs? What is behind the Core? Is it just a amalgamation of humans and machines, or does it exist something else which controls it? Maybe its just an extension of Autoctonia Central Core, or some strange power from the Deep Umbra?
COURSERS By Chris Chambers (
[email protected])
Description Coursers are a group of VA's and orphans who use a lot of cyber-ware that the VA's and SoE's created, but wouldn't test on themselves. Many Coursers come from low income, poor, or homeless families. For them, the system was a shield. However, the system is just as deadly as an assassin, especially for vulgar Orphans. These Orphans found themselves hunted, and used their powers to augment themselves. However, Pattern Leakage soon began taking its toll, and the more technically minded hooked up with a few VA's and SoE's then had augmentation's done using a combination of magick and tech. They refer to themselves as a group as "Coursers" and as individuals as "Hypes."
Philosophy The world is a deadly place. The system even more so. We work the underside, barely making a profit. We have seen the problems from the bottom. The system is supposed to protect us, but more often then not it merely normalizes, eliminating those who disagree with its policy. The Sleepers too often get caught up in upper-level politics. They get hurt. We need to do something about that.
Quote "You vredded them. You may be able to run, but you can't outrun the wind. Maybe next raz you'll get it. Don't think so. There won't be a next raz."
Organization They are organized into, at the lowest level, Cabals, then groups of 2 to 5 Cabal's called "Packs" and, at the higest level, "Warlords" who control several Packs. Packs are often geographically separate, but have a common goal.
Initiation The initiation consists of the basic augmentation. They can then focus their magick through these enhancements, increasing their physical attributes to super-human levels.
Chantry Their main chantry is in Baltimore. It is a microsurgery ward under a cyberpunk bar.
Acolytes Cyber-punks, Net heads, weirdos.
Sphere The player can choose: Life, Forces, Correspondence [Special Effect : The Coursers rarely learn anything but Life, Forces, and Correspondence. However, they focus these magicks in a peculiar way. Instead of most normal effects, they instead can add a # of points to their physical attributes equal to their combined ratings in those spheres. This is Vulgar with no sleeper witnesses at all times. They can also add a # of points equal to their successes in a Arete (8) roll. This lasts until the player terminates it. Check for Paradox every turn. A spent point, one that is in use, is not considered in magick use. This includes Arete. They must chose one sphere to specialize in. This sphere can be taken to 5. All others can be taken to 4. As a result of their augmention, they are covered with scars and are badly misshapen. They cannot have an Apperance above 1 or a Charisma above 3.]
Foci Life, Correspondence, Forces: Augmentations
Talisman Coolsuit
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: A good thought in this info-age, being connected to everything. They abandon their humanity to a false promise of power. Celestial Chorus: These people are so mired down with anachronisms that they can't see what's right in front of their noses. Dogs can find The One also. What? They are Orphans? Cult of Ecstasy: Truth in Hedonism? I don't thinks so. These people would move slower than the Chorus if not for their control of time.
Man, it would be a RUSH to run at 90 MPH! Dreamspeakers: The spirit is important. We don't deny that. But it isn't everthing. They have turned to Technology to transcend themselves. They do not see that we have found the same thing. Euthanatos: The good Death? I don't think so. You can add as many rationalizations as you want, but you're still killing. Just maybe you're killing the right people.
They have seen much of our ways. They seek to protect people. We remove the problem. It is complimentary. Hollow Ones: Can't blame them. Can't say anything good either. Next. These guys really need a wake up call. No matter what they do, everythings pointless, and so why worry about "Protecting the Innocent". Get a life. Or maybe just lose one. Order of Hermes: Pht. These clowns wouldn't know Dynmanic magic if it had them by the short hairs. Who? Sons Of Ether: These People have Helped us Become what we are. And we thank them for it. Zoom! These guys are great for the up an coming cyber-tech experiments. Verbena: We steer clear of them. They seem to think that the Burning Times are over. They're dead Wrong. They oppose the secrecy we need to prevent another Burning Times. Virtual Adepts: These are the guys who got us here. They've got this weird affliction with regard to computers. These Guys are pretty cool. We get to see what some of our ideas would be like in the flesh.
Credits "CrashCourse" by Wilhelimina Baird. "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. Too many files to list on Abe Dashiell's B.J. Zanzibars World of Darkness page. Mage: The Ascension, 2nd Edition. by White Wolf Games. Quote Is in NadSat, the slang that Alex and his friends use in "A Clockwork Orange." Many of the Coursers use it as well.
CULT OF ECSTASY PARADIGM By Paul Beakley (
[email protected])
The Paradigm The Experience. Existence is a series of experiences that expand and change the immortal being within the Cultist. If a soul experiences every possible event, it is expanded to extra-human status.
Magick Whimsy. The will of the cultist is focused into creating more opportunities for experiences.
Spheres Time: The Passage. The Passage records the Experience in total, heals all wounds, overcomes all Bad Experiences (if any experience can be truly Bad, metaphysically speaking).
Correspondence: The Place. One of the best ways to expand one's Experience is to change one's Place, or view another Place from afar, or merge many places into one more convenient location.
Entropy: The Wild. One of the best ways to improve the Experience, introduce a little Wild into something and watch the fireworks fly!
Mind: The Lie. This is where the perceptions of the Experience are filtered and made palatable -- until the Cultist's Experience allows him to fully understand the Truth. The Doors of Perception must be Cleansed.
Prime: The Whim, or The Will (old form: Kia, Fiat). Through force of will, or sufficient Whimsy, the Cultist can accumulate Experience for later Whimsies, or transfer his Whim into material Whimsies.
Spirit: The Truth. This is where the Truth behind all things lies, the primal source of The Experience. Pattern Magick: The Art Matter: The Form. Some vicarious Cultists seek to surround themselves with things of beauty, exploring experience at their leisure but vicariously. All things that can be created are done so with art and beauty in mind.
Life: The Flesh. The Experience of living things can be altered, but the Flesh holds the greatest promise. Forces: The Image, the Music, the Light and the Heat. The Cultist can control the insubstantial as well as the substantial. Some modern Cultists also call this sight and sound, or audio-visual.
Arete Whim. The Experience is to be warped and altered to the whim of the caster. The greater or more worthy the whim, the more likely The Experience will warp itself for the benefit of the Cultist. Old form: Kia, Fiat.
Quintessence Experience. Somewhat synonymous with The Experience (i.e. the paradigm model itself), Cultists believe that Experience can be accumulated, making The Experience more knowable and therefore more changeable. Once a Whim has been enacted with the help of the Cultist's Experience, though, a new experience must be found to enact his next Whim.
Paradox The Bad Experience. Screw with The Experience too much, and it turns Bad on you. Things go wrong, experiences and whims are warped and made evil, and eventually the Cultist is removed from The Experience entirely.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: Charmed Life. The more charmed one's life, the less likely to get in trouble from the authorities. Avatar: Passion. Extremely passionate Cultists seem to absorb and pass on greater Experience than others. Destiny: Destiny (as per the book). Some are even destined to have really Bad Experiences. That's cool. It inspires lesser Cultists to have courage and cleanse themselves of the good/bad distinction.
Dream: Plumb the Passage. All experiences are recorded in the Passage, and some Cultists can search it for "borrowed experiences" needed at a moment.
Node: Diversion. This is a place a Cultist can go to receive additional Experience that he can parlay into future Whims.
CPAC By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (27 May 1994) The Central Prime Alignment Council (CPAC) is an amalgam dedicated to the large scale streamlining of the ley-lines and nodes of the Earth, and the distribution of quintessence and Tass among the conventions. Needless to say CPAC is very powerful, and while the Symposium may be the highest authority over the policy, the Council has authority over the implementation of the policy. CPAC has members from all the conventions. The different conventions are responsible for different aspects of the work of the council. The New World Order is responsible for security and administrative matters. The Syndicate is naturally interested in all aspects of the flow of Quintessence, and integrate it into their Market. They are especially responsible for using the Masses to manipulate ley-lines and nodes on a global scale. Iteration X is involved in technical matters. The Void Engineers are responsible for the upkeep of the Barrier and theoretical aspects of Primal Engineering. The Progenitors are not very involved in CPAC, but have representatives and advisors on the board. CPAC seeks to realign the ley-lines which criss-cross the Earth into a neat and efficient pattern. So far it have succeeded quite well in some areas. Its decisions are implemented by the different programs it has started among the conventions, often in close collaboration with convention-specific programs and other councils. The Infra-Structure Realignment Program (ISRP) is one of the earliest and most successful programs of CPAC. By building railways, highways and other types of infra-structure between cities, the ley-lines of the rural areas are realigned to point into the cities. This makes the urban reality stronger and lessens the impact of the chaotic rural and natural areas outside. Since we have better control over the cities and can tap the nodes inside easily, the ISR program also gives us enormous amounts of Quintessence. It's not uncommon for the Conventions to place their regional headquarters beside highways or in the city core where all the controlled quintessence collect. A spin-off effect is that the cold iron in the railways effectively trap the fey, isolating them into controlled areas. This program has naturally been tied closely to the Asphalt Barons. Another spin-off program, the Large Scale Prime Balancing Program (LSPB) attempts to use the network of artificial ley-lines to neutralise fluctuations in the primal fields. This is useful to avoid the irritating seasonal changes in mood and reality which appear in some areas, and make sure static reality is stable and reliable. A related program is the Global Prime Integrity Watch (GPIW) program, which monitors the flow of Prime in the network the Technocracy has created (and in large natural ley-lines). It keeps track of fluctuations, and try to pinpoint their sources. Its closely tied to the Global Integrity Security Council, which keeps track of the Barrier and other supernatural dangers to static reality. The International Long Range Realignment Program (ILRRP) is an extension of the ISRP. It deals with large capacity primal conduits like transcontinental highways, large waterways and other long range structures like pipelines. It is also responsible for integration of different projects across borders and different conventions. The Interstellar Quintessence Interception Program (IQIP) is testing ways of extracting the Quintessence flows from interstellar sources like Cygnus-X1, M87 and the centre of the galaxy. This is done by the Void Engineers. Currently it uses small modifications of existing radio-telescopes to extract the Quintessence while they are observing the target objects. The results so far have been promising, and IQIP plan to use the Hubble Telescope to test out the new system on a large scale. The Prime Technology Research Program (PTRP) is developing new and efficient methods of detecting quintessence, ley-lines and nodes, methods of safely manipulating them and ways to neutralise them. It is heavily sponsored by Iteration X and the Void Engineers. The Oceans have long been a stumbling block for the CPAC. These vast areas have practically no supervision, and in the lack of large populations of indoctrinated sleepers both the gauntlet and reality is weak here. Disturbances of reality is much more common here than on land, and although the main traffic pass through "safe" areas, certain places like the Bermuda Triangle are very unstable. The ley-lines in the seas are also much more inaccessible and hard to control, since they are less tied to humanity. On the continental shelves we have gained some control through their off shore drillings for oil (thanks to the Geophysical sub-convention), but the deep sea remains uncontrollable. The Global Oceanic Realignment Program (GOR) seeks to solve these problems. It promotes serious oceanographic research, and tries to apply its results. One of its earliest successes was the transatlantic cables, which at least created some safe ley-lines. One method the mainly Iteration X sponsored program is to use its more advanced robots to build realignment foci on the deep ocean floor. Since there are no sleepers nearby, the program can use much more convenient methods to build these foci (which mostly are camouflaged as large basalt formations). One problem of the early GOR-program was the whales. They found that the more intelligent whales were not only highly intelligent (albeit rather alien) but also often awakened and generally objected to their research. As a response the Syndicate was ordered to increase hunting, and today the most dangerous cetaceans are nearly extinct. Those who remain are kept under strict observation. The smaller dolphins turned out to be much more humanoid, and Iteration X has experimented with cyber-modifications and other methods to turn them into an efficient workforce. However, several tribes of dolphins are objecting to this so the Progenitors are going to wipe them out with some custom diseases. Another problem is the almost total lack of Barrier in the deep ocean. Since practically no humans have ever been there, the Barrier is very weak, and passage to the Outside is frighteningly simple. A sub-program of GOR, the General Oceanic Preventative Initiative (GOPI), tries to amend this by spreading Barrier-increasing chemicals on a large scale. This is camouflaged as oil-spills, waste
dumping and pollution. Some ecological damage is a small price to pay for security against the forces from the Outside. As seen, CPAC is one of the most active and efficient councils under the Symposium, and an important tool for the
CRAFTERS OF CHAOS By Brian Kellett (
[email protected])
Introduction The lecture hall was packed as usual, Doctor Travis' lectures normally were. He had been described as enthralling his students with his own brand of humour and enthusiasum. "And so it can be seen that Marshall's theory predicts the Quantum nature of macroscopic events..." He turned to the projection that described a snooker table. "Although massively unlikely, there is however a distinct possibility that the air molecules under a pocketed ball, may force the ball back up throught the pocket." The doctor smiled happily as he talked about his favourite subject, the effects of chaotic possibility upon the larger world. He looked again at the stranger in the dark coat that sat in the front row, he had never seen this person before, and he didn't like the look of him. The stranger had a sly smile on his face and it was this that disturbed Travis. "Of course, we could wait for the Universe to end a thousand times over before this happened, or we could see it in the bar tonight, if only after a few drinks." The class laughed, but the stranger remained unmoved. "We should remember however that the world is a wonderous place and..." The doctor's words trailed off as a small blood vessel in his brain burst, killing him moments after he hit the floor. The class erupted in a panic as those in the front seats rushed to the doctors aid. All except the stranger who quietly walked out of the door, his job done. Another possible reality deviant had been silenced.
Overview The Crafters of Chaos are a small group of mages who believe in the extremes of possibility. They use the science of Quantum mechanics and Chaos theory to work their changes upon reality.
Paradigm Although thought to be two distinct theories, the CoC are those that have bridged the gap between the two sciences of Chaos (or complexity theory) and Quantum mechanics. Often they also throw in the theory of Morphic fields that tend to annoy the older CoC members. By altering reality on the quantum level they cause small changes in reality. Then by utilising chaos (or complexity) theory they amplify these small atomic changes into affecting the macroscopic world (that is the world we live in). Basically they believe that anything is possible, although unlikely, and they use their foci to change the chances of things happening. For example the Forces 2 Rote Discharge Static would be caused by the quantum tunneling effect of electrons "jumping" into a conducting item. Therefore almost all CoC act like Technomancers in that they extend the laws of coincidence to the breaking point. Indeed many of the CoC do become Technomancers, but there are a few, mainly younger mages who dislike the Technocracy's aims and instead side with the Traditions.
Philosophy "Anything is possible," and so we can make it possible. Sure it's hard, but if our brain can influence just a couple of Quantum states, then by the law of chaos, these little changes become BIG changes. "How do we know what changes to make?", Well Time flows in both directions, don'tcha know. Or it could be our subconcious picking up on the morphic field effect... Yeah, so we might be little cogs in the big machine, but chaos tells us that little cogs...You get the idea. Paradox? Hey sometimes the wrong quantum effect is caused; ain't none of us perfect. And that morphic field don't take no prisoners. How did I learn about this? Well see this big bunch of pop science magazines you might want to take a look at...
Style Often CoC use coincidental effects, but when they go vulgar you better watch out. They also tend to act more like Technomancers than the rest of the Traditions, using pseudo-science to explain their magick. If a CoC and a SoE get together,
stand well back and wait for the insane machinery they can cook up!
Sphere As the CoC study probability they have the sphere of Entropy as their prime sphere. Unlike the Euthanatos they do not believe Entropy to be the breaking down of things into the great circle, but instead as the laws of probability. As such the CoC often call the sphere "Probability."
Common Foci Personal Computers, Abacus, Dancing (to change the Morphic field), Smart drugs, Omnigadgets, Principia Chaotic.
Organisation There are two main types of CoC, the stuffy college groupies, who tend to like the status quo and are therefore easy pickings for the NWO brainwas...Information teams. Then there are the kids who read too many science mags without really understanding them and want to change the world. It is these who tend to waste their time playing pranks on authority figures. One of the worst groups of this kind are called "The Erisians," although the Technocracy have tried to prove to the world that they don't exist.
Initiation Often a college-type CoC will be given a paper that attempts to combine Quantum mechanics, Chaos theory and Morphic fields; if the candidate manages to understand, she is introduced to an CoC lecturer. It is rumoured that some go mad over this paper and become Marauders. The Pop-Chaos crowd tend to read the Principia Chaotica and believe it.
Acolytes Pre-Grad math students, Hippies, Gamblers, MIT types, Child prodigies.
Concepts Professor, Math lecturer, Pop-Science fan, Computer Geek, Gambler.
Stereotypes Akashatic Brotherhood: These guys should study their philosophy better; it's rumoured that the far East had Chaos theory long before us... But we made money with it.
By examining an object completely you destroy the beauty; these people destroy the beauty of the way. Celestial Chorus: The One, not very scientific is it now? They have faith in randomness and not The One; their souls are as empty as the Tecnomancers. Cult of Ecstasy: Hey why don't I get invited to their parties? I'd like to know about the effects of LSD particles on the nervous system.
Mostly geeks, but the younger ones can party as well as the rest of them. Dreamspeakers: Fancy wandering around the human subconcious, that's what this lot do. They ignore the spirit world and reduce everything to numbers; they are blind to the beauty of Gaia. We should open their eyes. Euthanatos: They kill people!, I know a couple of sports jocks they could off! They forget we are in a closed system. Entropy is not chance; it is inevitable. Order of Hermes: These people basically use similar methods to us, I think; I never could get the hang of languages. Even so
they could be brought a bit more up to date.
More upstarts, they seek to modernise that which works perfectly well. Sons of Ether: Now these people have the right idea, but they take their Victorian ideas a little too far sometimes. I also like the idea of Ether, but didn't Michaelson-Morley have something to say about it...
More theoretical than most of us, but they do have good ideas. They are more like the Virtual Adepts than ourselves. Verbena: Blood! Ouch! Is all that rolling around in mud really necessary? They think life is a random occurance? Oh dear, poor them. Virtual Adepts: See Sons of Ether, but with up to date tech. They stole some of our ideas; still good luck. More like the Sons of Ether than us though. Hollow Ones: Cheer up, and try reading a book that isn't about dying; here's the latest issue of Nature. Randomness they call it. I call it Irony. Technomancers: Right approach to magick, but the wrong thing to do with it... We should attempt to bring these into line. If they do not curb their wilder ideas they should be destroyed.
Views On The Spheres Corrospondence: Space-Time continuum. You mean you never heard of wormholes?! Entropy: Probability. Everything is under the power of probability, although things tend to settle into one probability tunnel, we can shake it around a bit.
Forces: Field Theory/Forces. Most Forces are just particles of energy, so they fall under the same rules as anything else, i.e. Probability affects them.
Life: Morphic field/Kirlin Field/Life-force. Everything is made of particles; it just depends on how they arrange themselves. This pattern is dictated by the morphic field; change the field, change the pattern. Matter: Matter. Just another bunch of particles (See forces).
Mind: Psi. Just imagine your brain as a big antenna giving off electrical currents, now imagine a bigger antenna... Prime: Virtual particles. These are everywhere giving Space-time its shape and properties. Sometimes they interact to create other particles, and sometimes they destroy other particles...
Spirit: Morphic entities. These are just the subconcious dreams on mankind given form by virtual particles. Boy do they hurt when they hit you though.
Time: Time. Who needs the constraints of cause-effect; how about effect-cause or even cause-cause! Note: Although the CoC think they are using just probability to wield their magic they do still need their spheres to affect nonentropy effects. For instance, although they would explain Discharge Static as a probability event, they still need Forces 2 to cast it. Don't let your players think that Entropy is an all encompassing sphere!
CRAFTMASONS By Brian Connors (
[email protected])
Description The mages that founded the Technocracy are in a fight for their future. Founded among the forerunners of the Freemasons, the Craftmasons counted the greatest architects of the Middle Ages as members. They are responsible for the creation of architectural majesties and structural marvels that have created the skylines and designs of the modern world. Craftmasons work in the architectural and construction firms of the world, in the design departments of consumer product companies, and it is even said that the developer of several unusual record-breaking airplanes is secretly one of their most powerful members. Their greatest achievement, however, was the founding of the Order of Reason, an organization to bring the wildness of the world under control in a way that even Sleepers could get the most from it. They built many of the Technocracy's Old World chantries/constructs, and are rumored to have had a huge hand in the building of the structures of many Technocratic facilities in the Umbra. But it all came apart as the transition from Order to Union was completed; the Craftmasons, legendarily the most noble of the Conventions, refused to follow the corrupted paths of the Conventions and left. Their greatest construct of all, the Umbral construct known most frequently as the Grounds, was taken over by Iteration X to become the monstrous realm of MECHA. Although there was a half-hearted attempt to go along, the organization as a whole splintered, and the remnants left the Technocracy disillusioned. After all that, it seems the Craftmasons are a Craft with no place. They would be redundant on the Council of Nine; the Sons of Ether have long since taken over their place as the creators of the inventions that make the world an easier place to live, and the Craftmasons have no part in the world of the Virtual Adepts. Iteration X has frozen them out of the building work of the Technocracy, and in return the Craftmasons want no part of the Progenitors and their freakishness. The elitism of the one-time Order of Reason no longer suits the Craftmasons, who simply have never been as power hungry as the rest of the Union has become. In the last few years of the 19th Century, the Craftmasons created two huge inventions quickly -- the subway and the Paradox-defying skyscraper -- and dropped off the face of the Earth. It seemed that way at the time, anyway; the Technocracy holds no particular grudge against the assumed-vanished Craftmasons the way they do the Virtual Adepts and the Sons of Ether. It seems even more the case that nobody quite realizes that they are still there. However, they have influences all over the world. Craftmason backlashes are unique even for Matter backlashes. One well-known one happened in Boston several decades ago when a Craftmason builder attempted an experimental method of pouring concrete in the winter. Though it worked in other parts of the world (particularly in sub-Arctic Canada, where the technique was developed), the reality threshhold in warmer Boston was more difficult to break and the building collapsed when the frozen concrete thawed. The Craftmasons are known to have deep-rooted connections with the vampire clans Toreador and Nosferatu; many of those clans who possess variants of the Tremere Discipline of Thaumaturgy pattern their paths and rituals after the work of the Craftmasons, and the Nosferatu have frequently employed Craftmasons as planners for their mysterious warrens.
Philosophy The easiest way to defy Paradox is to build. Nature itself twists reality when geological formations are created; there is no reason why we cannot do the same. So onward and upward have we always gone and will we always go.
Style Magick as the Craftmasons use it is of a permanent nature. Their calling is to build, and they, not Iteration X, can lay claim to building the foundations of the great modern cities. Even their smaller works are meticulously planned. Pattern avatars are therefore strongly favored; dynamic essences are almost feared.
Sphere Matter
Common foci Blueprints, building materials. A piece of construction equipment will occasionally be found to be a Craftmason talisman.
Organization Once a mirror of the Freemason hierarchy, the Craftmasons no longer have any real organizational body. Small groups meet behind the scenes at architectural and builders' conventions.
Stereotypes Council of Nine: There is no place for us among them. This is sad because we and the Sons of Ether have so much in common.
Technocratic Union: They have betrayed us and our ideals. We wish nothing more to do with them; let them take their perversion of our Order of Reason and may they choke on it.
Akashic Brotherhood: What do they have other than themselves? They seem to revel in development through stagnation. Celestial Chorus: Our early connections with them built the great churches of Europe and mosques of the world of Islam. But our centuries of separation have shown through; how stagnant their architecture has become...
Cultists of Ecstasy: What they miss is that they need places for their rituals, just like anyone else. And we have provided, many, many times.
Dreamspeakers: They do not understand the world they live in. It is far deeper than they can truly comprehend; ask any vampire. Euthanatos: May their power wane. Go to any graveyard; we're getting tired of cleaning up after them. Order of Hermes: As ever, they mistake form for content. One thing is for certain: they are misplaced on the Council. Sons of Ether: Once there was a saying: the Craftmasons design, the Solificati build. Though that statement is grossly oversimplified, we do wish that the old connection still existed.
Verbena: They mock our work in their covens. Such sacrifice is never truly necessary, and in any case one must question why they do as they do.
Virtual Adepts: They are not and never were truly magi, no matter how Awakened they may be. Even the most unconscious of sleepers can manipulate a reality that he creates.
Hollow Ones: They are at the beginning of a journey to find what they are. Certainly there's something deep and powerful there every time they gather.
Iteration X: They have become what they are because they hold secrets that were once ours. They will learn their lesson eventually, and it'll hurt like hell when they do.
New World Order: Our biggest mistake may have been trusting them in the first place. They have never had any business among the Conventions that was any good.
Progenitors: They are perverts. Plain and simple. Would that the true Hippocratic Circle still existed; we see now that eugenics are a path only to war and hatred.
The Syndicate: They no longer really represent the Guild as it originally was. They have become too elitist in their thinking and cannot be changed without serious purging.
Void Engineers: They don't seem to be truly happy among the Conventions. I don't know what to expect from them. Ahl-i-batin: They have rather more in common with the Adepts than they think. Whether this is a good thing or not is up for debate.
Nephandi: Too many of our number have fallen to them, and I have no bloody idea how. I would think our Art is incorruptible. Marauders: The Craftmason who builds a padded cell capable of locking one of these freaks down will be a celebrity even among sleepers.
CTHULHOIDS By Dan Tuttle (
[email protected])
Author's Notes Here is a Paradigm page I made up for a character sometime back for a chronicle that I never actually got to play in. I know it is a bit twisted from the books of H.P. Lovecraft, so if you are a die-hard purist fan of Cthulhu I don't suggest you go on. On the other hand if you are a fan of Cthulhu or just like having craft characters in your chronicle, then read ahead. The only thing I ask is that my name be mentioned on the page if it appears posted elsewhere, although I don't mind people altering it (FEEL FREE!). That said, Read Ahead.
Nicknames The Cthuloid or "Cultist of Cthulhu" also "Deep Ones"
The Paradigm Obediance to the Great Ones. Cthulhu and the Elder Gods slumber soundly in Ryleh, under the tides of the Pacific. In slumber their powers unfold onto our mortal coil. The Great Cthulhu, and the other Elder Gods, grant us the power to alter reality, to herd the sheep (sleepers). Without the Great One there would be no magick. The Dreaming ones long to Awaken and have aroused our slumbering minds in faith that we shall do the same for them.
Magick Extension of God's will. The Great Cthulhu and his subordinate Gods grasp in their deep slumber an enormous amount of power. This 'Magick' which has been granted to us is a mere fraction of their Will. With the Elder Gods behind us nothing is impossible!
Spheres Correspondance: Ithaqua. The Wind-Walker and the Wendigo, the haunter of the artic Winds, is also the master of distances and connections. Those who call upon his favors may traverse great distances with a mere thought.
Entropy: Touch of the Old Ones. Any follower who is studied enough may affect others (inanimate and living alike) with the blessings or curses of the Great Ones.
Forces: Cooperation. When a follower calls upon all of the Great Ones it is viable that he or she might be able to have a small dominion over the nature of physics and other mortal beliefs. Feats have been accomplished by such incantations as massive storms and sudden lightning strikes, proof that belief conquers the impossible!
Life: Dagon. The Ocean God of the Pantheon, also granter of immortality to some select servants known as "Deep Ones." Invokers of Dagon can reweave the very forms of all things living, and alter their own form to better serve the Great Old Ones.
Matter: Kon. The Lord of Earthquakes, Kon holds dominion of the unliving, of the inanimate. Those who weave the powers of Kon have control over those things as well.
Mind: Slumber. Mortals, non-followers are not awake. They cannot sense the true power of the Old Ones and it is that slumber, that ignorance that lets us take grip upon them. Some followers have used 'awakenings' as a tool against their enemies, making them insane (as their feeble minds cannot let them see the truth).
Prime: Vorvadoss. Elemental of the Fire works with the very nature of our workings. It is always wise not to disrupt Vorvadoss as it is he who allows us to use the power of Cthulhu and channel it.
Spirit: The Dreamlands. In these lands a follower must be wary. Cthulhu seeks to spread his influence farther into these realms, but does not have complete dominion of them in this time. Horrid rumours of a city of Cats have been circulated. In time we shall rule this realm; for now be careful with dealings of its inhabitants.
Time: Yog-Shoggoth. Those who invoke the powers of Yog-Shoggoth may make use of his gateways. These traverse the scope of mortal time. At lower levels one may only peer through these portals, but at higher levels it is possible to traverse time itself.
Arete Responsibility. With every new responsibility that the Great Elders ordain us with, with it comes greater power. A mere initiate of the following may not perform as great feats as an Ambassador to the Great Slumbering Ones themselves.
Quintessence Fragments of the Dreams. The Great Cthulhu, lord-master of Dreamings sometimes sends fragments of his essence to the Mortal Realm to aid his followers. Take in this raw-power and utilize it as Cthulhu would see fitting. Squandering of his essence is an unspeakable crime.
Paradox Cthulhu's Wrath. When a follower tries to enact a magick that would attract too much attention to the Slumbering One, or when a follower fails to work his craft it attracts the Slumbering One's attention in a BAD way. Attracting too much of his attention will result in having minions (paradox spirits) dispatched to the offender. Cthulhu dislikes failure.
Awakening Arising from slumber. As the Great One sleeps so does the mortal race. When the Great Cthulhu deems a mortal worthy of service he rouses the slumbering mind into realization, realization that The Elder Gods are the Source of all power. Unknowing mortals may call this madness. We know this as the only sane truth.
Backgrounds Arcane: Slumberer's ignorance. The slumbering mortal masses cannot realize the TRUE power of the Elder Gods. This ignorance of the power is what cloaks The Great Ones as well as cloaking us.
Avatar: Fragment. In each mortal there is a part of the Elder Gods. This is how it must be, simply because it was the Elder Gods that created the ALL. The Awakened have stronger, potent Fragments which guide the Followers in their service to the Great Ones.
Destiny: Importance. Each of us has a marked importance in the Great Scheme of All Things (tm). Those who possess more importance to the Ancient Gods should be granted more respect.
Dream: Messages from the Slumbering Ones. Cthulhu is the master-lord of the Dream Realm. Some Followers are able to tap into the Great One's Thoughts and receive advice and biddings from the Great One directly. These followers should be highly revered, for Cthulhu has chosen them above the rest to hear his biddings.
Node: Temple. Sometimes one will encounter areas which have garnered the attention of the Elder Gods, and these areas are often rich with fragments and mystickal power. Keep these areas sacred and secret. Many are the despoilers that would drain these temples for their own uses!
CULT OF FINAL ECSTASY By Evan Gibson "Death is a beautiful thing..." Born of a number of wakes that celebrated slightly more than common decency generally allows, The Cult of Final Ecstasy is the result of some Euthanatos and Cult of Ecstasy mages discovering they had quite a bit more in common than they had previously thought. The Cultists realised that death was as natural a part of things as life, while the Euthanatos decided that perhaps they had been missing some of the joys in life due to their concentration on death. An uneasy compromise developed through future wakes and then suddenly blossomed when the Euthanatos realised that the Cultist' time abilities could greatly assist in determining candidates for the good death while the Cultists discovered that some of their "darker" instincts led to a lot of fun as well. The Cultist dedication to free will and personal choice has, perhaps paradoxically, led to a much more constrained version of the Good Death being administered. Those who have reached low-points in their life are no longer adequate targets, as it is understood that they may very well escape the rut they are in. Instead, time and entropy are used together to determine whether any hope for this incarnation of the individual may be found. Ecstatics feel it is better to help someone in this incarnation than to simply force them on to another that may be no better. Through future sight they determine the best course of action and work to lift individuals' spirits through friendship or even fear or, if no other option exists, to help them on their way. The major exception to this is that one may be considered for death if they are infringing on far too many others free-will, which has led them into conflict with the Euthanatos themselves. It is also the main difference between themselves and the Nephandi as, although they have little in the way of conventional morality, they believe everyone should be able to choose themselves. The Nephandi coerce their victims far too much for the Ecstatics liking. This has led to the Ecstatics infiltrating various Nephandi groups at times, which they seem to be able to accomplish successfully, only adding to the suspicions the Traditions hold about them. Those who seek to cheat death also attract the attention of the Cult, as any faltering of the cycle of birth and death, destruction and renewal, is within their interest. This is the primary reason for conflict between the Ecstatics and the Order of Hermes who often use their power to try to live forever. Amazingly enough the Ecstatics seem to get on remarkably well with vampires. While some of the Cult feel vampires are also cheating death the majority see them as existing permanently within the Ecstasy, that breaking down of illusions and heightened state of awareness that occurs at the moment of death, and so treat them almost reverently. They also happen to be on very good terms with the wraith community as they feel it is their duty, as guardians of the cycle, to help the restless dead continue on their way and so assist them in the last vestiges of business they may have tethering them to the waking world. Spectres, having no wish to move on, must sometimes be shoved forcefully into the Oblivion. They have been very active in the right-to-die movement and the doctors among them have no qualms about commiting euthanasia though it is still against the law. However they are very much against abortion, or anything else that may sever a cord before its time. Unfortunately the hedonism of the Cultists, along with the proximity of death and the dead has led to the practises that hold them condemned among the mage community at large and frequently get them accused of being corrupted by the Nephandi. Cannibalism and necrophilia are not uncommon among the Cult of Final Ecstasy, causing revulsion and hatred among the more reserved members of society. The Ecstatics do not feel they are doing anything wrong, as the bodies are hardly needed anymore, but moral outrage against them has forced them underground. The primary reason the Cult does not feel it is doing anything wrong is that it never deprives anyone needlessly of their personal freedom. No-one is ever killed simply to feed their desires; the bodies belong to those that have been killed for other reasons, or obtained from other sources. Since the inception of the Cult of Final Ecstasy they have found themselves hunted and hated by nearly all sectors of mage society, especially their parent groups who seem to take them as some kind of personal insult. Only the Verbena seem to accept them, passing the cup as it were, as the Ecstatics begin to bear the brunt of all the fear, misunderstanding and hatred that they have had to deal with over the years. Due to their need for secrecy, their view of subtlety as an artform and the rather nasty nature of some of their foci they have a general rule never do vulgar magic with any witnesses and never allow any of the deaths they cause to be connected to them in any manner.
Philosophy: Life and death are a package deal. To forsake either for the other is not only stupid, but a denial of the true nature of the cycle. Embrace all that life has to offer, face death with a smile on your lips and experience the ecstasy it brings before passing on to begin the cycle once more.
Organisation: Due to the secrecy necessary to their survival the Cult of Final Ecstasy exists in very small groups which often take the form of very private clubs. It is rumoured that some of the Cult's future members have been reaching back in time mentally to point out promising candidates or warn of some individual who needs to be turned away from their current path before things develop any further. Being a fairly recent development the Cult is still led by those who created it in the first place, most of whom have a small group around them by now. There is a very slight variance in emphasis among those founders from a Cult of Ecstasy background and those from the Euthanatos.
Meetings: The doors of each club are permanently open to any member, and permanently closed to any other. Formal meetings are rare, but informal meetings, usually full of depravity, occur a number of times a week. The founders still get together every few months to discuss the "evolution" of their beliefs and any problems that may be occuring. A few of the founders still remain in their original Traditions, as their membership in the Cult has yet to be discovered.
Initiation: Some form of mind altering substance is usually added to a near death experience to help the initiate experience the Ecstasy for themselves. Sometimes this can be accomplished by an Elder placing the experience of the Ecstasy within their minds.
Chantry: No main chantry exists. Clubs within each city usually consist of one of the founders and a few others. Occasionally wealthy sleepers are allowed access to the clubs, though they are kept from knowing what the club's true purpose is.
Acolytes: The decadent rich, grave-diggers, members of both the right-to-life and right-to-die organisations, wraiths and vampires Sphere: Both Entropy and Time, though they learning both Correspondence and Forces at the same rate as orphans as these lack any direct relation to The Ecstasy and the dead.
Foci Pain is a wonderful way to focus the mind, and torture can bring remarkable turnabouts in other's opinions. The Ecstasy is the remarkable state of consciousness attained during death. Many Ecstatics "ride" the minds of any that die around them to experience this altered state of perception as the person passes into the Shadowlands and hopefully through to Oblivion. The strength of this as a foci allows the reduction of any difficulties it is used for by 1, and if used as a foci to either enter or deal with the Shadowlands, by 2. All Ecstatics have at least one vice that they use to assist their concentration during magic, and to also have a lot of fun. Appropriate vices include cannibalism, necrophilia, torture, drinking human blood or anything else usually considered morally repugnant that is related in some way to death and pain, life and sorrow. Due to the nature of their magick the bodies of the dead, or appropriate parts thereof, are powerful foci that can be used for any sphere and are involved in almost all conjunctional magick the Ecstatics do.
Correspondence: Dancing Entropy: Bones Forces: Weapon (Usually a knife, it's more up close and personal-like...) Life: Vice Mind: Pain / The Ecstasy Matter: Bones Prime: Vice / The Ecstasy Spirit: The Ecstasy Time: Vice Concepts: Doctor, shaman, witch-doctor, playboy Quote: "Does this hurt?... How about this?... Good, isn't it?"
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They seek to be whole in body and mind, yet deny their darker side... Where is the unity in that? Celestial Chorus: They live and die like everyone else. They just have considerably less fun while they're at it. Cult of Ecstasy: We are everything they are afraid to be. We do what they fear to imagine. Dreamspeakers: Even Gaia has to go sometime, but they should get off their butts and make the most of what they have. Euthanatos: They seem to have forgotten that life is as much part of the cycle as death. Hollow Ones: A fertile recruiting ground; they are already halfway there... Order of Hermes: They are already dead; they just don't realise it yet. Sons of Ether: They enjoy what they do. Might as well leave well enough alone. Verbena: Life, death, blood and flesh... What more could we ask for? Virtual Adepts: Fantasy has its place, but the real world is much more... real... The Nephandi: Everyone else gets us confused... Personally, I just don't see it. Marauders: Some of these guys know how to have a lot of fun. The Technocracy: It is their time. Soon their time will pass. Wraiths: Pity the restless dead and help them on their way... Spectres: The dead should move on. Sometimes they need a hand.
Vampires: Necrophilia has never been so much fun... Werewolves: Two words... RUN AWAY! The pups don't seem to like us for some reason. Mummies: Remarkable creatures. Who would have thought the cycle could be leashed in such a manner? I'd love to meet one.
Others views of the Cult Akashic Brotherhood: No control. They fail to control their own minds and bodies, and commit attrocities along the way. Celestial Chorus: (Shudder) This evil must be stopped... Cult of Ecstasy: Don't you think this might be taking things just a little too far? Dreamspeakers: Gaia's nightmares are made from such as these. Euthanatos: They mock us. Their behaviour is unseemly and they are a perversion of all we wish to accomplish. Show them none of the mercy you reserve for others.
Hollow Ones: They sound cool... I might check them out... Order of Hermes: -Bah! Stupidity itself. This bastard child of the Euthanatos and the Cult of Ecstasy has inherited the worst parts of both its parents.
Sons of Ether: Who? Do you mind? I'm busy here... Verbena: They offend others' petty morality, but not ours. Virtual Adepts: The Cult of Final Ecstasy? That Nephandi group? Garou: Grrrrr... Wyrm... Kill....
Some Common Rotes Eyes of the Blind: Correspondence 2 The Ecstatic alters his awareness, allowing him to see through the eyes of the dead. The eyes of the dead provide the main focus for this effect, though something once belonging to dead one, or another part of the body is needed to provide some kind of link. The linking item is held or worn, the eyes are closed and the awareness of the mage shifts to that of the corpse. This can be annoying if the deceased is under a sheet in the morgue or already buried, though it doesn't matter if the corpses eyes are closed or not. To get around this, members of the Cult commonly remove the eyes from bodies and leave them at places they wish to observe. The most interesting aspect of this rote however is that it also works with vampires.
Death Walk: Mind 5 Matter 4 The mage's consciousness leaves his own body and enters that of the corpse, enabling him to use the corpses body as if it were his own. This is often used in conjunction with "Eyes of the Blind" and/or "Restoring the Flesh" and may account for occasional reports of people getting up and walking out the morgue...
Taste of the Past: Mind 3 Time 2 By devouring the brain of the dead the mage is able to access the deceased's memories and learn whatever she wishes to know. The more successful she is, the more she can learn.
Gift to the Dead: Spirit 4 Entropy 1 Matter 4 In dealing with the Shadowlands the Ecstatics discovered that a few wraiths could be bribed with certain items from the real world. This rote allows them to take any object at all into the Shadowlands with them.
Becoming the Lost: Life 5 Mind 5 Time 2 The mage must dress in the clothes of the dead one he wishes to emulate and go to sleep with the deceased inside a coffin. When he awakes, his body has remembered the dead and changed to become an exact copy of the deceased, but more than that communing with the dead has created a surface mind that, to all intents and purposes, is that of the dead one. The mage's true mind is in full control of this surface one and directs it from beneath the surface. This rote is frequently used to infiltrate other groups by "becoming" one of their members. It is impossible to detect without magick and extremely difficult to detect even with. The main fall down is that the user retains his own spirit, though perhaps further studies will lead to the correction of this.
Voice from the Grave: Spirit 2 Entropy 1 The skull or still intact head of the wraith they wish to contact will begin to speak in a disturbing manner. Most bargaining with the dead is begun in this manner.
Wake the Dead: Spirit 4 Entropy 1
Mainly used in conjunction with "Restoring the Flesh", this rote will bring a wraith back into the land of the living. The Ecstatics commonly use this return to physical form as a bartering tool with wraiths, helping them complete business they still had on earth. Due to their unease at disrupting the cycle in this way, any body the Ecstatics may grant a wraith will only be temporary.
Paying the Boatman: Spirit 3 Entropy 1 Mind 1 By sleeping in a used coffin, still containing the bones of the deceased, with a coin over each eye the mage will wake within the Shadowlands. Going back to sleep in the coffin will allow the mage to return. Mind is used to allow sleep at will.
Hitchhiking on the Highway to Hell: Spirit 3 Entropy 1 Mind 5 Experiencing the Ecstasy of someone's passing the Ecstatic can send their mind along with the dying one, effectively astral-traveling into the Shadowlands.
Glimpse Beyond: Spirit 1 Entropy 1 Staring into the eye sockets of a skull the mage's perceptions shift and she begins to see into the Shadowlands. This can also be used without the skull but in conjunction with "Eyes of the Blind" to peer into the shadowlands anywhere.
Restoring the Flesh: Life 5 Matter 4 Time 2 Prime 2 The bodies of the dead contain the memories of their past. By means of this the entire living body can be reformed from any part of the corpse. This is frequently used to supply bodies for familiars, other spirits, or more commonly wraiths in tandem with the rote "Wake the Dead".
CYBERGNOSTICS By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
Description The Cybergnostics are a group of mystics among the Virtual Adepts, who are fighting the Ascension War on the spiritual plane. Their main belief is that the world of matter, flesh and entropy is evil, and that pure information is the true goal of reality. Everything should be purified into information and uploaded into a higher reality (or rather, a higher level of implementation). The goal of evolution is to completely throw away the dust of the material world and evolve into a state of perfection beyond matter and energy. Their beliefs mirror the ancient ideas of the Gnostics (hence their name), mixed with the Virtual Adept credo of information. The cybergnostics have an intense disdain for the weak flesh, not unlike their brethren in Iteration X. However, replacing it with technology would only be a stop-gap measure, since machines also eventually will fail. Only by turning everything into information can it become truly eternal and perfected. To this end they are experimenting with various ways to encode objects into data and uploading them into the Digital Web. They pursue the goal of total uploading even more than most Adepts, and there is no secret that most of their Masters are already disembodied information existing on the Digital Web. Their vision of Ascension is the Singularity; the sudden awakening of all information in reality, which will ascend to higher levels of implementation while leaving the imperfect world behind. Many of the simulations they have done seem to imply that this might occur December 21, 2012. During the next decades, the information networks will grow faster and faster, and more and more the computers and programs themselves will develop more advanced versions. People will become parts of the growing Net, and when it reaches a critical size of 10 billion active intelligent units (human and machine) a synergy will occur, where the entire network will Awaken. During the next months, progress will be even faster as the Net guides the infosphere (all information processing on and around the Earth) to higher and higher levels. In a few hours, decades of progress will occur, and in the last minutes centuries and finally millennia of evolution will lead to the total awakening of all information and the end of the world of matter. The cybergnostics are extremely optimistic, and think that this singularity will occur even if the Technocracy believes it will win. Most of the Ascension War is simply irrelevant to them. What is important is to make sure progress continues, that technology is never allowed to get bogged down and that the Net becomes large enough to Awaken. The more practical cybergnostics try to influence events in the right direction, for example by helping Iteration X get their new products past the Syndicate and New World Order or inventing even cheaper ways to get Internet connections. More advanced members realise that this is not the best way; instead they turn towards a more mystical battle in the information realms. There they seek to strengthen the forces of evolution, self-organisation, synergy and pure information against entropy, stagnation and disruption. In the beginning they merely manipulate the ideas of people, but later they actively battle with the concepts themselves in the abstract worlds. The most advanced members are rumoured to have become abstractions themselves, far beyond humanity or comprehension. Among the Adepts, the cybergnostics are regarded as a bit too far out and esoteric, but generally cool. The chaoticians and reality hackers get along perfectly with the cybergnostics, while the cyberpunks find them irritatingly impractical. They are not very known among other traditions, but have some allies among the Order of Hermes and Gnostics among the Celestial Chorus. They also have ties to the more mystical units of Iteration X (yes, they exist) and maybe even to the Computer. Their enemies are mainly the same enemies who fight all Virtual Adepts, like the Technocracy and the more nature-oriented traditions, but they also have abstract enemies. Since they so strongly fight against Entropy, Matter and Imperfection, spirits and beings linked to these archetypes are the natural enemies of the cybergnostics.
Magick The Cybergnostics are interested in Correspondence as the force which ties everything together, but usually concentrate more on Mind and Spirit. Mind represents information and processing, while Spirit is the power to rise to higher levels of implementation. There are also specialists who study the arts of simulation (Time), uploading (Pattern magick) and chaos (Entropy). One unusual and dangerous way of influencing reality is the art of invocatorial manipulation. Masters of cybergnosticism merge themselves with spirits or concepts, literally becoming a part of them. In so doing, they hope to influence them in the right direction or perhaps gain some of their power. This practice is of course extremely dangerous, and more than one cybergnostic has disappeared forever into a powerful being. Apparently the Masters still regard the practice as worthwhile, perhaps because they also have the ability to make backup copies of themselves in case something goes seriously wrong. Some Cybergnostics also try to influence the growth of the Digital Web, to make it grow to higher spiritual planes. To do this, they seek its secret sourcecode, using advanced disassemblers and simulations. There are also rumours that Turing was in fact the founder of cybergnosticism, and that they have found a way to communicate with his spirit which permeates the Net.
Rotes
Error Correcting Code (Entropy 3 Prime 3 Correspondence 2) By exactly fixing the current state of an area as a perfect pattern of information, it can become error correcting. Decay and disorder will become almost impossible as long as the program is running. This is often used to turn the laboratories and sanctuaries of the Cybergnostics into fortresses against the attacks of entropy. [Each success adds another dice of countermagick to all attempts to upset the order of the area; normal randomness and decay are almost completely removed].
Purify Pattern (Mind 4 Prime 4 Entropy 3/4) A pattern which has been uploaded is normally just a brute force upload, with the same flaws and errors as before. By carefully debugging it and introducing error correction, it can become pure information and much more efficient. [A purified person will be pure information, and no longer feel any need for sleep, food, sex or other biological functions. However, a purified pattern no longer works very well in material form, and cannot be downloaded again].
Invocatorial Manipulation (Spirit 4 Mind 4) A Cybergnostic merges with a spirit or abstract concept. The result is very variable depending on what the cybergnostic merges with and the relative power of the mage. Very powerful concepts and spirits just absorb the mage, who forever becomes a part of it. Less powerful entities become influenced by the mage, and change some of their properties in some way. For example, a creative mage merging with the concept of link layer protocols will make the link layer protocol standards slightly more creative and hacker-ish. On the other hand, after the mage has left the protocol entity, he will also be somewhat affected, and maybe preoccupied with the problem of transmitting data without errors or interruptions.
The Turing Option (Correspondence 5 Mind 5 Spirit 4) This is the final step for a Cybergnostic; he expands his mind into the Net and merges with the developing Net-spirit. He will consciously exist in all parts of the Net, losing all individuality but becoming pure and perfect information. In a way this is a kind of self-sacrifice to the totality of information, and reminiscent of the fate of Alan Turing. Of course, this is the theory. Some detractors have claimed that no human mind could survive the transformation intact, and those who have tried have merely discreetly gone mad and dissolved. But many cybergnostics are convinced that for every year the Net has become more spiritually powerful, more aware.
Virtual Adept Paradox Beings /dev/null (Entropy *) This nasty little spirit eats information, destroying it so that it can never be retrieved. It has an annoying ability to find the most important files and erase them, including their backups. It can only be felt as a chill draft and sudden absence of something important.
Krach (Matter or Forces **) Sometimes paradox manifests against the computers of the Adepts instead against themselves. Krach possesses electronics, and makes it fail or break down in the worst possible way. Drives break down, circuits pop and memories overheat. The spirit usually quietly hides in a system until it suddenly strikes, and then leaves. Seen in the Umbra, Krach looks like a small burned patch on the pure electronics of the Digital Web.
Shub-Internet (Correspondence ****) Shub-Internet is one of the nastiest paradox spirits hunting the Virtual Adepts. It represents all the problems that can occur within a computer network, such as congestion, line noise, vanished datapackets and flamewars. It has total control over data traffic, and can not only disrupt network connections, but actually make an Adept unable to interface with it. Shub-Internet has no distinct form, although there are rumours of a dark, coiling mass hiding beneath the computers of NSA and Pentagon. [This very efficiently cuts them off from the use of Spirit and Prime if they need the Net as a foci, and also from communications with other Adepts. The spirit can even contact the Technocracy and give them the position of the Adept ].
CYBER-QABALISTS By Jericho (
[email protected]) (1 Mar 94) This tradition began as the remnants of the more traditional Qabalists began to fall away from the Celestial Chorus and the first Babbage computers were invented. Already heavily into numerology, temurah, notarikon, gematria and the Prime-related Ein-Soph that powered the Sephirothic tree, the idea of a computer performing complex mathematical complications, freeing up the mystical side was appealing. Unfortunately, computers stank of the Technocracy. Still, these young Qabalists loved their machines, and a splinter group was founded to study the use of the computer in numerology/probability/divination. This caused an immediate schism between the Celestial Chorus leadership in Jerusalem, and the traditional qabalists who found the use of computers to be a 'cheapening, watering down effect' of the divine and mystic tradition of Qabala. While the traditionalists were willing to let the Cyber-Qabalists go their own way, the Celestial Choruses feared that they had already betrayed themselves to the technocracy. It became a hotly debated topic: and in the end Cyber Qabala was tentatively added to a list of known Technocracy enemies. This wasn't entirely an inaccurate assumption, either, because the Cyber Qabalists set up secret deals with the Virtual Adepts who had been members of the Technocracy during this period. There were trades of information, equipment, theory. CyberQabalists, finding themselves hunted, decided they had no special love for the traditions. However: the Technocracy wasn't willing to accept such things as divination by numbers, robotic cyber-golems, or the intrinsic melding of science with religion. When Ahaseurus, one of the first Cyber-Qabalists presented his ideas before the Technocracy he was met with the reply "We have no problem with the notion of the divine. We simply don't accept that the divine will be something the sleepers can interact with on their computers. Please revise. " Cyber Qabalists then went underground. After learning that their old conspirators, the Virtual Adepts, had left the Technocracy, they allowed them themselves to re-surface in Tradition society. They maintain close ties with the Virtual Adepts and the Sons of Ether out of an instinct for self- self-preservation. The Celestial Chorus has reluctantly removed them from their list of technocracy enemies, but maintains a cold distance. Amongst the other traditions, only the Order of Hermes receives them warmly, because of that traditions love of order and language, and because Cyber Qabalists seem to be doing something much more practical with their computers then creating 'virtual worlds'.
Organization: A single chantry is rumored to exist. Nobody knows where. They had to hide for a long time. Most Cyber-Qabalists are solitary and secretive.
Meetings: occasionally Cyber Qabalists will meet on BBs's or use the Virtual Adepts Net. Other meetings occur secretly or at synogogues.
Initiation: Mathematical Prodigies and Computer Programmers who find themselves with an open attitude towards the divine _One_ concept will sometimes be sent anonymous, coded, disks containing some simple programs. When they see what happens when they feed in a textfile of the Koran, Book of Exodus, Tao te Ching and the Bhagavad Gita into a program that mathematically scrambles all of them and puts them back together by mathematical probability into a single work: then they may be approached for tutoring.
Chantry: Unknown. Acolytes: Mathematicians, rabbis, bbs sysops,bookies. Sphere: Prime. This is a holdover from the Celestial Chorus days. Foci: All spheres:computer, Prime/Spirit:religious texts. These could be text files or the actual written material. Forces:holy symbol. Concepts: College Student, Editor (Foucaults Pendulum!), Mathematical Theorist, Robotics designer, Rabbi, Computer Salesman, Sysop.
Quote:"How can I define the Divine? 3.14. It keeps going and going. Nobody has ever seen the last digit of Pi. Nobody will either. But my computer has shown me what it's like- It's going to be glorious...."
DANCERS By Deirdre Brooks (
[email protected]) (3 Aug 94) "Who's tripping down the streets of the city Smiling at everybody she sees Who's reaching out to capture a moment Everyone knows it's Wendy" She awoke in the late afternoon, the veil of maia shimmering before her eyes. Arising from her bed, she walked to the shower, the residue of the previous night's pleasures fading away. She plucked a lotus blossom from the air and inhaled its fragrance before placing it in a convenient planter and watching it grow roots into the soil and draw the nourishment out, its petals blooming rapidly. She looked in the mirror and wasn't slightly surprised to see her Avatar looking back out. The Avatar smiled at her and faded, leaving only her reflection. This wasn't an uncommon sight--her Avatar appeared fairly frequently as she neared Ascension. After a long, hot shower she dressed and walked out into the afternoon sunlight, watching the Dance play about her. Everything was the Dance--life, death, time, space. It was all measured by the Dance. Her Magick was the Dance, more truly so than the Traditions who have only their realities to see, and the Conventions who would stop it, reduce it to a slow, defeated shuffle. They were both far too closely tied to the reality which the Dance creates rather than the Dance itself. There was a momentary shock as she felt a disturbance in the Dance. Following the threads of probability, she found the probable cause. It was the Pogrom.
History: The Dancers practice a style of magick which seems to relate to the Verbena, Dreamspeakers, Celestial Chorus, Euthanatos, and Cult of Ecstasy. The operative word is 'seem.' They feel that reality is the expression of an eternal Dance, a Dance which changes the world as it changes. Each individual person can affect it simply by acting. However, through understanding, they can learn to affect directly change it. They can learn to see the possible forms the Dance can take, and even reinforce one of the paths until it comes to pass. To them, anything is possible, some things are simply less probable than others. They have a complicated belief system which seems to draw from several Traditions at once. At the basis of their system is the Goddess. She is the Mother of All, the Creatrix of the Universe, Choreographer and Dancer. Reality is an expression of her Dance, and is nothing more than an illusion--a trick played by our senses. Reality is, in fact, how we perceive the Dance. All living beings have the ability to alter the Dance--usually on a personal level. It is considered best that one understand herself before she attempts to change the world. For the Dance to continue properly, the old must be swept away leaving room for the new. The destruction of anything does not leave a void--the Dance will fill the space left by the death or destruction of anything in the Illusion. This is not always good, so it is best to consider the consequences of one's actions before killing or destroying. Enjoyment of the gift of life is considered to be uppermost. You have an opportunity to experience life as a discrete individual--take it! Understand what being alive truly means. Do not simply live--act! Love! Do whatever you can to appreciate the Dance. Change is perceived to be the constant of the universe. With each new step a myriad of new possibilities appear. Historically, the Dancers are an old Tradition from Harappa, and follow a philosophy much like the religion of that ancient culture. They have had dealings with the Traditions on a personal level, and many have joined the Council to fight the Technocracy. Others, however, feel that the Ascension war can be fought in many other ways, on many other fronts. The Dancers have unfriendly relations with many different groups in the World of Darkness. They are not friendly to most Garou due to the Impergium, which they do recall--past life memories are common among the Dancers, and many look to the Dance to see what happened in past times--and the War of Rage. The Dancers allied themselves with the Bastet, at the time, and have not yet forgiven the Garou for this outrage. Some tribes, such as the Children of Gaia and the Glasswalkers are easier to deal with than others, such as Red Talons for their active support, Silver Fangs for their leadership, or the Silent Striders for their apathy. The Ventrue are much hated by the Dancers for ancient grudges, specifically the Aryan invasion of their nation. Among the Traditions, the Dancers have a strong dislike for the Euthanatos, whom they feel corrupted the religion of the Goddess into a murder-sect. They are preparing to put a final end to the bride-pyres in India. To this end, they are attempting to re-organize like never before.
Philosophy: The Dance is everything, through it you can understand the Universe. We are all the Goddess, and as such, we are all unique expressions of the Dance. This is the source of our magick, our understanding. Since we are the Goddess, she is always immanent.
Organization: The Dancers generally travel the world to see as much as possible. When two or more meet, they engage in a rather exuberant celebration, and soon part again for further travels. If any Dancer requires aid, she may request it of any other, and they will give it.
Meetings: Generally by chance, although they try to gather at least once a year to exchange news and meet the new Initiates. Initiation: The Initiate is taught the philosophy on a personal, mystical level. She is shown the web of probabilities which is the Dance, and the means by which it can be altered. When the Dance is finally perceived, the Initiate is accepted into the Dancers.
Chantry: Their Ancestral Chantry has Earthly manifestations in New Delhi. Other manifestations include New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
Acolytes: Children of Gaia, Khan, Bubasti, Wiccans. Sphere: Time Foci: Dance--Correspondence, Entropy, Prime, Time, Lotus-- Forces, Matter, Life, Blade--Mind, Spirit Concepts: Performer, mystic, wanderer, doctor. Quote: "We are the Dance; the Dance is the Goddess; the Goddess is each one of us. Ascension is in the palms of our hands, we need only make the right steps. It is not yet time, however. We must work to help others to this stage."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: While they understand the importance of our philosophy; their Do is an aspect of the great Dance. Unfortunately, they use their understanding as reason to shut out the rest of the world. They see only a small part of reality.
Celestial Chorus: They are somewhat correct. There is a Goddess, indeed. Their "One." However, they seek Ascension in the wrong manner. We are already the Goddess, what is needed is understanding and true vision. Not unity.
Cultists of Ecstasy: Pleasure is meaningful, but is not useful as the ultimate end. It is good for relaxation, but the Dance must continue.
Dreamspeakers: They continually try to awaken their Goddess, when they need only look within themselves to find her. Euthanatos: Their "good death" does not create possibilities, it revises them. Do they look at the consequences of their act before deciding someone must die? No. Sometimes, the "good death" causes more problems than it solves.
Hollow Ones: Poor, lost children. They cannot see the Dance, and this leaves a void within them. Would that they would allow us to lead them into the light. It is their choice.
Order of Hermes: They would reduce every step of the Dance to a formula of some sort, a means of describing the indescribable. Their magick is of a sterile sort, although it is not as barren as that of the Technocracy.
Sons of Ether: These scientists, with their bizarre theories, have more life and imagination invested in their magick than the Order of Hermes ever will.
Verbena: Blood is a powerful tool, but one must be careful that the knowledge of the price is not forgotten. Virtual Adepts: They ignore most of the Dance so they can play in their virtual playground. The Digital Web is interesting, and it will play an important role in the final moves of the Ascension War, but the entirety of the Dance must be acknowledged before Ascension is achieved.
Dancer Foci: The Dancers use dance to describe the steps of the Great Dance, with it they can traverse time and space, and disrupt another's place within the dance. Or they can make it more firmly a part. It demonstrates the link between the Dance and the universe, and how everything is One. The lotus is a representation of the veil of Reality, the illusion the sleepers have created to protect their senses. It is the physical world. It represents Life, as it is alive. It represents Matter, for all living things return to that state. Finally, it represents Forces, for the light of the sun is its source of nourishment. The blade represents a cutting of the veil, a rending to uncover the truth hiding beyond the Illusion. When all is gone, the Spirit and the Mind remain. The Mind creates the Dance, and the Spirit sustains it. Other foci can be used--Any complex physical activity, such as Do, could substitute for the Dance. The lotus can be replaced by any representation of the physical universe. Blood could be used, but is uncommon. Other flowers are known to be favored, such as roses. The blade can be replaced with a pen, for example, which can be used to reveal or conceal the truth.
The Sphere of Time Time, more than any other Sphere, represents the Dance. It allows sight of the future steps, and a review of past steps. Probabilities can be explored and possibly exploited with the viewpoint given. With it, beings and objects can temporarily be taken out of the Dance, or their tempo can be altered. Ultimately, the Master of Time can step out of the Dance for periods and observe the unchanging world.
Correspondence This represents the motion of the Dance. With it, you move from one place to another, possibly multiple places. Since all is One, you can look at any part of the Dance just by focusing on that one part, or see many parts by looking at all of them.
Entropy
This is the progress of the Dance. As it continues, things change. They grow, mature, weaken, and die--and new things rise to take their place.
Prime This is the flow of the Dance. Without it, nothing new could come into being. Energy is always being exchanged throughout the illusion, and this is understanding of the ways it moves.
Forces This is the Dynamic Essence of the Veil. It is raw power--the light of the sun, the heat of the flame. It holds us to the earth, yet allows us to soar.
Life This is the Questing Essence of the Veil. It is what drives the Veil to continue, for without Life, the Veil would have no meaning.
Matter This is the Pattern Essence of the Veil. It gives the Veil solidity. It gives us the ground to walk upon, the seas to sail upon, the air to breathe. Without it, we would live in a void.
Mind This is the essence of the Dance. It is cloaked by flesh, and riddled with contradictions, but it is what creates the Dance. With Mind, we can sense and comprehend the Universe around us. With it, we can see what we want or need to change.
Spirit This is the Veil. Beyond the Veil is the Reality of the Dance. Things appear as they truly are, filtered by our own minds. Beyond the Veil, little remains hidden.
Rotes Inner Dance (Time 2, Entropy 1): With this rote, the Dancer maintains an awareness of the near- probabilities, and determines which are most likely to occur--and reacts to them. It can be used to aid the Ability use in any instance where foresight could help-Combat, auto racing, etc. You see the opponent's moves before he can make them. This rote has a duration of one turn per success.
Blush of Mortality (Life 5, Matter 4): The Dancer holds her Lotus where a vampire can breathe the fragrance, and it restores the vampire to full mortality.
Search Out The Path (Correspondence 2, Entropy 2): This rote enables the Dancer to find her way nearly any location she can visualize. She simply walks in the directions which "feel right" according to her vision of the Dance, and arrives in the proper location.
Choreography (Correspondence 2, Entropy 1, Life 1, Mind 3, Time 2): With this Rote, the Dancer can follow the progress of a living person through the Dance, from birth to possible deaths. She can see their health, attitudes, thoughts, and what choices they are likely to make.
Life Changes (Life 5, Mind 2 or 4): The Dancer can use this to utterly change another living being's place on the Dance, transforming them into another being. It is perfectly permissible to do this to an unwilling target, provided the consequences of the action are at least understood. The mind can be altered to match the new form. Alternatively, only the mind could be changed, leaving the body untouched. If only feelings and emotions are altered, Mind 2 is required.
Blazing Sword: (Prime 2) This rote charges the Dancer's blade with Quintessence, allowing her to spend one point of Quint each time she strikes, thus causing Aggravated Wounds. It lasts for two rounds per success.
THE DARK HARMONY By Sparky (
[email protected])
Introduction Maria wandered into the dark church, hearing a deep tenor-bass chorus. She thought it was abandoned. She entered and watched as seven men stood in black priest cloaks singing, each perfectly in-tune in their dark harmonies. She continued forward as if called by a siren's song. The unfortunate thing was that she had just walked into one of their masses -- she was the sacrificial lamb.
Description The Dark Harmony is quite an old group. They view the world exactly as the Celestial Chorus does, being the dark beats of the One's Symphony. The disrupt the normality of the world so their Choruster brothers could repair it with a twirling crescendo. Their history dates back almost as far as the Chorus', but the past of the song is irrelevent; listen to it now.
Organization The Dark Harmony hides, for good reason. They are the vile rapists, murderers and thieves. They have small "dens" of two to seven members. Rarely can more than seven be near each other -- they are usually not the most cooperative crew.
Meetings The dens have quite elaborate rituals, many times involving some poor sacrifice, many times humans.
Initiation An initiate must show great depravity in harming another person, possibly even one in the Dark Harmony itself.
Chantry Many pretend to be Celestial Choristers, aside from those there is no formal chantry.
Acolytes Rapists, murderers, bored people.
Sphere Prime
Foci Prime: Blood of a past victim Forces/Matter: Hair of a past victim Life: Blood of a past victim Matter: Pain Time: Pleasure
Entropy: Sand Spirit: A sharp weapon Mind: Anything reflective
Concepts C'mon, you're playing one of those devil-games! I'm sure you're depraved enough to come up with your own.
Quote "Sine Diabolo Nullus Dominus." (Without the Devil, no God)
DEADHEADS By Raven (
[email protected]) (14 Oct 94) Based off the characters and events from "Cyberia." Deadheads are a small subgroup of the Virtual Adepts. They follow the paradigm of the original hackers, described in "Cyberia." Their way of life and their views -sometimes conflicting- on different things ha ve earned them the respect of some and the dislike and disapproval of many. Their peculiar natures have forced them to become alienated with the aspects of society most people would consider "natural" and they mostly prefer to mingle with their own kind. But what are the Deadheads really ? First of all, their nickname "Deadheads" has been derived by their favourite group, namely Grateful Dead. Theirs is the music that always plays in the background when a Deadhead leaves his meat body behind and enters the malleable reality of the Web. The society that Deadheads have created for themselves is one of open-mindedness. As a result, they are not afraid of experimenting. Rather, they encourage it. That is one of the primary reasons why one would be 100% sure to find psychedelic substances in the clubs they hang out. Indeed, it is a rare Deadhead that surfs the data in the Web without being under the influence of LSD or other psychedelics. Some mages shun them for their use of such "abusives" as they call these substances, but the Deadheads argue that psychedelics confer a clear state of mind that one cannot attain through normal means. Indeed, they have been known to develop specific rotes to help enhance the effect the drug has on their brains. They claim that while using psychedelics, a person is able to discard all irrelevant thoughts and concentrate much better on the task at hand, ie Magick and the Web. They basically are anarchists at heart, who rather than tossing molotovs, prefer more subtle and discreet ways of making their presence known. They often play practical jokes on people who regard their systems of being 'safe', and the havoc created in computers of corrupt government officials is often their doing. Of all the Virtual Adepts, it could be that the Deadheads hate the Technocracy the most. The reason for that is that the Technocracy represents Order, the very force that is directly opposed to the beliefs of these anarchists. What is more, during the times that the Virtual Adepts were a convention of the technocracy, the Deadheads were forced to exist in a state of not-being. They wanted to live as they do today, but they could not, for the Technocracy's Pogrom would surely claim their very souls. As soon as the Virtual Adepts joined the Battle for Ascension on the side of the Traditions, the Deadheads celebrated the liberation of their right to express their views and beliefs openly. The only problem that the Deadheads have faced, apart from the disapproval of the majority of the other Mages, was the addictive factor of some of the drugs they were using to boost their mental state of being. Therefore, they have managed to develop a few simple rotes that, if cast before the start of the drug's effect, can minimize or even eliminate the drug's addictive factor, while on the same time raise their systems' tolerance. The result of this is that Deadheads are able to use drugs to alter their perceptions and state of mind more effectively and without ever being subject to addiction or withdrawal symptoms. Image in the Deadheads' society plays an important role. While matters of the "meat," as the call the body, are unimportant to them things such as appearance, manners etc- they are very sensitive concerning existance in the Web. Their icons are always flashy and functional at the same time. Their magicks use the full potential that the Virtual Reality of the Web can offer. Finally, they interact using a kind of Netspeak which is a variation of the language that all VAs use. Status in the group is translated to daring deeds. The more dangerous a thing a Deadhead attempts, the more famous he can become. Even if his scheme fails, it's danger and the will to oppose the status quo that counts....as long as he makes it out sane and in one piece. The direct consequence of this is that some of the worse system crashes of Technocracy systems have actually been brought forth by Deadheads working alone or in unison to destroy these systems. One story is widely known, however, that a Deadhead called The Slicer managed to infiltrate a Technocracy chantry virtually and crashed their system by having the computer play "Pink Panther" in the background while displaying fractals of the most disturbing nature.
DECKERS By Brice Daury (
[email protected])
Description This is a bizarre form of spellcaster, somewhere between the Hedge Magician and the true mage. These individuals are able to cast powerful spells and summon incredible creatures to aid them without fear of Paradox, yet they are so dependent upon their foci that they can never learn to alter reality without them! The really odd thing about these magus is their focus -- they all summon their powers through decks of cards depicting different spells and monsters, known as the card-game called Sorcery: the Summoning. Without their decks, these magus are little better than useless (and usually, not too much fun to be around either!) in combat situations, but with them, they are deadly opponents who laugh at Paradox.
Game Stats You probably get the idea -- these guys cannot focus their powers without a set of Magic-like cards and to reflect this, they are best played by those who own at least a small amount of the afore-mentioned cards. Any card that you have, your character may too be considered to have. These magus are also different in that they do not have spheres of magick, cannot do free-form magick and do not suffer from Paradox. These magus do have Arete (and it is actually very important to them-see later) and also Quintessence to power their "castings." The character"s Arete score determines the cards which she is capable of having in her deck; the maximum card mana cost that the character can cast is equal to twice the Arete of the caster. The cost to cast each spell is 1 quintessence for cards requiring Arete 1-3 or 2 Quintessence for Arete 4-6, anything higher than this costs the user 3 Quintessence points.
Quintessence Special rules apply to these character's Quintessence and deck size/number of possible spells. The character's deck size is determined by her rank in the Deck Background, which these characters must have at level one (mandatory). The character's Deck rating can also be affected by his Resources: for every two levels of that background, add one level to the character"s Deck (maximum of +2 in this manner), with the total ability never exceeding level 6. The maximum number of Quintessence that the character may have is equal to one-third the total size of the deck in Quintessence. This quintessence is expressed physically as floating balls of energy that circles the character until "spent" and once spent, it (and the cards they are summoned from) disappear. These cards are then regenerated like normal Quintessence, using the Avatar or someone's use of Prime, until the normal limit of this Deck score is reached. If no other means comes up, the character can always wait, they have the ability to regenerate these quintessence/cards at the rate of two per hour of non-combat and rest/meditation. So, the character is created like normal, except for the fact that they do not have or need magickal Spheres and they also start with only 10 freebie points to reflect the fact that they are both paradox-free and require less freebie points to purchase Spheres. Also, the character does start with one point in the Deck background to make them more potent.
New Background: Deck * The character has a deck consisting of 30 cards(max. 10 Quintessence) ** The character has a maximum deck of 40 cards (max. 13 Quintessence) *** Has Deck of up to 45 cards in total (max. 15 Quintessence) **** Deck may not exceed the limit of 50 cards (max. 18 Quintessence) ***** Maximum Deck size of 60 cards (max. Quintessence of 20) ****** Deck can be upto 75 cards in length(max. 0f 25 Quintessence) Note: These Quintessence are found in solid form. Kike Tass, the cards marked "mana" are the character"s Quintessence and they can be used by others, although, due to the very specialized nature of this Quintessence, they are good for only 1/5th their normal Quintessence value to anyone other than another Decker (this is why these magus rarely accept challenges to play the card game on mundane terms for "ante"). Another note is that the character must have his deck to use magick -- they are unique and only replaceable with the deck of another of their kind, since they can only attune one deck mentally to the flow of magick and they must therefore steal/beg/borrow another's deck if theirs is lost. Any cards they acquire during the course of play are automatically added to their deck rating and this is the only way to increase it. Also, for every 5 new cards, they can add one to their Quintessence pool -- meaning that open fighting amongst these magus is not unheard of.
DISCIPLES OF ERIS By Sarah Trout (
[email protected]). Also see the Disciples of Eris bloodline.
Parent Tradition Cult of Ecstacy
Description The splinter Tradition known as the Disciples of Eris arose in the late 1950's, founded by a renegade Tremere vampire who had been a Cultist in life. The fact that the vampire who now calls herself Eris retained almost all of the magickal ability of her warm days after her Embrace both intrigued and unnerved Clan Tremere, and the elders of the Clan attempted to capture and study her in order to better understand the phenomenon so they could create a strike force of vampires capable of working true magick. This was easier said than done. Although Eris and her handful of Ecstatic followers were successful in keeping the Tremere at bay, they realized that they were going to need help. Eris petitioned her old mentor for aid, and got it in the form of a legion of mage volunteers for her Embrace. Some did not survive. Most lost their magickal ability. But a good number -- fifty or so -- came through the Embrace with their magickal ability intact. All, however, were branded on the forehead with the mark of the Tremere antitribu. In an inspired moment, Eris gathered her followers together, Vampire and mage alike, and enacted a great ritual that rendered the mark visible to mundane sight. From that moment, even the mortal mages were marked as Erisians, and the brand transformed from a mark of shame to a mark of pride. As a result, an Erisian, breathing or not, can be identified by the glowing blue sigil on her forehead. It was around the mid-40's that Eris discovered her namesake, the goddess of chaos. Eris began to seriously study the dynamics of chaos magick and apply them to both true magick and Thaumaturgy; thus were born a multitude of magickal effects and a new Thaumaturgy Path, the Path of Discordia. Eris discovered that Discordian magick was often hilarious to perform (Discordian magick involves anything and everything from bad puns to board games to practical jokes) and therefore infinitely less stressful than most other forms of magick...which made higher-level magick incredibly easy. However, Vampire Erisians only use true magick as a last resort; they pick up Paradox twice as fast as mortal mages. Many say that the Disciples of Eris are responsible for the beginnings of the Discordian religion. The Disciples of Eris are accepted as full members of the Cult of Ecstacy. Even mages of other Traditions who join their ranks are adopted into the Tradition with open arms. The appearance of the Erisians varies wildly. There are hippies, goths, weirdos in robes, 80's cute-punk-Valley-Girl teenyboppers, swashbuckling caped avengers, you name it. Many Erisians are mistaken for Marauders.
Philosophy Why be normal? Your pineal gland is trying to tell you something. As soon as you go out of your way to conform you might as well just lay down and croak.
Style The Discordian magick of the Erisians serves a dual purpose. First, the light and humorous nature of Discordian workings relieves some of the stress and nervousness that goes along with magickal work and makes it much easier to pull off high-level effects. Second, Erisian magick is often underestimated because of its levity; Erisians are usually not taken seriously until it's too late.
Sphere Time
Common Foci
Incense, music, a special bell called the Chao Bell which is worn around the neck and rung, large quantities of beer
Organization The Erisian hierarchy is designed to poke fun at the revered Pyramid of the Tremere. Apprentices are called Popes, while Masters are referred to as Clowns, Poo-Bahs, or Dudes. Other than that, there really isn't much structure to speak of. Erisians hold meetings on the 23rd of each month to discuss progress in the Ascension War and to eat hot dogs. By about the half-hour mark the meeting deteriorates into a party.
Initiation Varies wildly. Initiates must demonstrate magickal talent, wit, and plain-old attitude. One of the more imaginative (and dangerous) tests involves having the initiate tie a bell around a sleeping Tremere's neck.
Acolytes Anarchists, Discordians, hedonists
Concepts Reality buster, cutey-punk, borderline Marauder material
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: You guys could learn a lot from Liu Kang. Come out of yer dusty old monasteries and kick some butt. Celestial Chorus: [snore] 'Nuff said. Cult of Ecstacy: Our roots lie with these wonderful folks. We stand with them no matter what. Dreamspeakers: Good ideas, great drugs, lousy sense of humor. Euthanatos: Who? Oh yeah. those guys. [shudder] No comment. Order of Hermes: Get with the times, Merlin. Besides that, these creeps spawned the Tremere. Sons of Ether: I don't know about some of their stuff, but they seem pretty harmless to me. Verbena: Yes, they're scary, aren't they? You should be scared of them. Virtual Adepts: Good folks, but the need to focus more in the real world and less on this cyberspace crap. Hollow Ones: [shrug] Whatever.
DISCORDIANS By Deirdre Brooks (
[email protected]) 'Tis an ill wind which blows no minds. -- Principia Discordia The Discordians are either a relatively new Tradition or a very old Tradition, depending upon whom you ask. This is a very unconvential Tradition as far as that sort of thing goes. They feel that Ascension can be achieved by shocking, confusing and otherwise warping people out of their everyday perceptions, or "reality tunnels" as they call them. Discordians are among the most Dynamic of the Traditions, as well as those behind the rise of LSD, the attempts at legalizing mind altering substances and several of the stranger New Age religions. It is their goal to eventually bring everyone together in a single Ascension, thus changing the foundation of reality as people see it so that it may be redefined continually. While the other Traditions hold that the Discordians breed most of the Marauders that originate in the physical world, that is simply not true. Marauders believe in singular Ascension, while the Discordians are working for full scale Ascension. The Discordians maintain constant contact with society, to watch trends and Technomancer influence. When they find an area of major Technomancer influence, they try many different techniques to break the hold these beings have on society. Disinformation campaigns, chaotic use of Static Magick, meaningful protests, etc.
Philosophy: Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia! Pick up the Golden Apple, it is for the Fairest. Who is the Fairest? Why, you of course. Magick? That's silly, Magick doesn't work. We're just trying to break people out of their rigid reality tunnels so they can think more freely, or even think at all! You can't live your life watching TV and listening to the radio. Get out there and DO something! Break reality free from the grasping hands of the Plutocracy. Use the technology, but don't let it use you. Let the Magick flow, use it to bring about Illumination for everyone. What? I said Magick doesn't work? Weren't you listening? You are forbidden from believing anything you hear.
Organization: There are many groups that are associated with the Discordians; The Erisian Liberation Front, the Legion of Dynamic Discord (aka Little Deluded Dupes), the Justified Ancients of Mummu, etc. The list is nearly endless. There is no real organization. Rather, members tend to help each other out. If someone takes a leadership role, and others dislike what he says, they are free to ignore him or punch him out as they see fit. Otherwise, they consider each other fairly equal.
Meetings: Whenever there are three or more Discordians in the same room, they have a meeting. Otherwise, they are very informal. Occasionally large groups assemble, and reality flows like melted wax at these events. Paradox Spirits are known to disappear in large numbers at this time.
Initiation: Normally someone with nontraditional values and ideas, or even someone with highly traditional values and ideas, attracts the attention of the Discordian. The Mage then puts the potential initiate through a series of experiences which are designed to blow the mind and open the initiate to new levels of reality. Shock is a common factor in these events to provide the initiate with a new "imprint" or reality blueprint.
Chantry: There are references to a yellow submarine that travels the Umbral and physical oceans, but that is plainly ridiculous, even for Discordians.
Acolytes: Geurilla Ontologists, Weird Philosophers, Discordians, Dolphins. Sphere: Initiate's choice. The Discordians are most certainly not bound by any rules. Foci: See above. A Foci must be chosen for each sphere, but they tend to fit the personality of the Mage. Concepts: Prankster, Weird Guru, Free Market Capitalist, Left Wing Press, Anarchist Quote: "Our perception of reality is mutable, and our mutated perception mutates reality. There are several reasons we have this power. The first of which is to bring Eris' word to the unwashed masses. The second is to shock these people out of their reality grid so they can make their own choices and stop being sheep. The third? Instant gratification."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: The problem with Zen philosophy lies not in the fact that it's a philosophy, but in that it's a Zen philosophy. Celestial Chorus: They've lost track of who the mother really is. Does she really want all of this regimentation and hymn singing? I think not!
Cult of Ecstasy: These kids have the right idea. Party your way to enlightenment. Now if only they could figure the rest of the path out. Dreamspeakers: They have the other half of the missing path. If they would get together with the Cult, I'd bet they could do some serious Ascending.
Euthanatos: Yuck. They also follow Chaos, but they are confused about its purpose. Change, CHANGE! Not decay and destruction.
Hollow Ones: We could get along with these kids too. If only they weren't so gloomy. At least they're thumbing their noses at accepted reality.
Order of Hermes: These snobs are nearly as rigid as the Conventions. Their own rules inhibit imagination and restrict creativity. It's no wonder their experinemt in the middle ages failed.
Sons of Ether: Now these guys are really cool. I mean, you gotta admire someone who makes Buck Rogers gadgets and makes them work. Verbena: They worship life through sacrifice of blood? Come on, that's more twisted than Bush's speeches. Virtual Adepts: Modern communications are one of the keys to power, but one should be careful lest he lose his touch to the physical and spiritual realms.
Some Discordian Rotes "I sunk !" (Correspondence 4, Entropy 3): This Rote allows the Discordian to drop something on an object, which can be anything, but works best if it is a part of the structure or item targetted and declare "I sunk the Titanic!" or whatever is being attacked. The result, while not deadly, can be amusing. It causes random chaotic effects to occur, such as setting off the sprinkler systems in a building, placing the message "Bite the Apple" on every computer screen of a network, or any other odd effects. They tend to be fairly random, however. The mage should be somewhat familiar with the targetted item.
The Turkey Curse (Entropy 5, Mind 4): With this Rote, the Discordian can cause the targetted individual to not only lose track of what she was doing, but fill her mind with total confusion and a tendency to perform the opposite of what she intended. The reason for this is the Mage is flooding the target's mind with her own perceptions of reality, without providing the discipline behind it. This is sometimes used to shock people out of their accepted reality.
Malaclypse's Many Faces (Life 5, Mind 4): This is named for the Discordian who first used it. This allows the Discordian to not only take on a new form, but also take on the outward mannerisms, mental attitudes and even appropriate thoughts for the form. These are all masks, and the Mage's own thoughts are concealed by the Rote.
DREAMSPEAKERS PARADIGM By David Hood (
[email protected])
Author's notes This is about as close as I can come to a unified Dreamspeaker paradigm, though any individual Dreamspeaker would probably vary this paradigm's terminology I don't think many would actively disagree with the conceptual framework. Emphasized words are made out of paradigm.
Description Understand that we are all held in the mind of Gaia (Paradigm); we live in her dreams. Our lives and struggles are played out within her sleep. Gaia is the mother of the universe and is present in all parts of the universe. If you wish to change Gaia (magic), or rather convince Gaia to be changed, you must first understand that the world is not as you have always been taught. You have forgotten the truth, except in your dreams. Listen to your dreams, know that they are true, and from them remember once again that your life has more to it than simple existence, and the world has more wonder in it than can be encompassed in cold, grey, facts. How much more? Listen and I will tell you of the truth of the world (magic). Listen. Do you hear the spirits of the air racing back and forth, or do you only hear the wind in the trees. Do you see the beings of your dreams as you walk the streets, or are they but tricks of the light. Know that these spirits (Spirit) are real, have always been real, and will always be real. We all living here now are little different from spirits, from the world of spirit we were drawn to live, and to it we will return when we die. Truly, we are already in it, but have become so blinded to it that most do not see that even now we, and all we know exist in the spirit world. To see again the wonder of the spirits you must free you soul from worldly shackles. Let your mind grow wings, and let your spirit soar into the heavens. Let your soul be like a bird moving through the vastness of the world as it truly is. On your travels you will see many starange things. Remember that they, like you, are children of Gaia. Be warned though, some children of Gaia have become twisted from the path of Gaia's wishes and seek her unbeing. Why, you ask, is the world we know different from the world that is. Know that as Gaia dreams her dreams things from the world of spirit, the children of Gaia, are drawn to become part of the Dream of Gaia (Correspondence, Entropy, Forces, Matter, Time). This dream of Gaia is the world that we know. To understand the aspects of the world of Gaia dreaming you must feel the rhythms that Gaia dreams to. To induce Gaia to change her dreaming you must match your rhythms to Gaia's, then slowly suggest a change to those rythms. If Gaia is willing, then she will follow your lead and change her dream. What then distinguishes us from the other aspects of Gaia's dream? We, meaning all life in the world, are those beings of spirit that have been drawn into Gaia's dream as the dreamt about. We are the thought of Gaia (Life, Mind, Prime), about whom her dreams are woven. You know how in your own dreaming there are those things in the dream that you are dreaming about, and so seem more active and memorable. In the dream of Gaia the attention of Gaia (Prime) gives those aspects of the spirit world that are called to dance in its light both life and meaning. To understand these thoughts of Gaia you must draw the attention of Gaia upon you, through your symbols of the presence of Gaia (normally crystals). As one who walks the path of spirits grows in wisdom (Arete) his knowledge of himself and his relationship to Gaia improves, granting him abilities that may seem hard to comprehend to those less wise. What gives a person a link to the spirits, and the spirit of Gaia, is the link with a special personal spirit (Avatar). Some Dreamspeakers will call this a personal totem, some a spirit guide, and some other things. All will tell you that your ability to understand Gaia depends on your ability to undertand this spirit. Some who follow the path of Dreamspeaker walk so instinctively in tune with the rhythms of the world that they are hard to notice as separate from the world (Arcane). Still others Gaia dreams powerful dreams for (Destiny). Then there are those who are privileged to have Gaia share her dreams with them (Dream). The easiest place to understand Gaia is in a place of Dreaming (Node). Here it is possible to draw the attention of Gaia (Quintesence) upon you and into you, making it easier to convince Gaia to act according to your will. Be warned that if your actions are not in harmony with Gaia however, you will attract her scorn (Paradox). This will leave you outcast and cursed, until Gaia's favour is regained.
DREAMERS By Anders Sandberg Version 2.0.
Description "From my experience I cannot doubt that man, when lost to the terrestrial consciousness, is indeed sojourning in another and uncorporeal life of far different nature from the life we know, and of which only the slightest and most indistinct memories linger after waking." -- Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep The Dreamers are a minor tradition, closely tied to the Cult of Ecstasy, Dreamspeakers and certain Orphans, which deals with the magick of dreaming and the dreamrealms. Other mages do this too, but the Dreamers specialise completely in this area. In fact, they have forsaken practically all of their power over the waking world for the ability to control the Chimerae. The Dreamers have realised that dreams are as real as the waking world, if not more real. Outside consensus reality is a sea of changing dreams which give it colour and meaning. New ideas and concepts are created in dreams and trickle down into reality where they become real. By changing the dreams of people the real world can be changed. But many Dreamers have no interest in the grey and dreary waking world, preferring to create magnificent realms in the kingdom of sleep instead. It is so much easier to work magick in the free and loose reality of the dreams or the Chimerae that many Dreamers don't find it worthwhile to try to influence waking reality. The Dreamers are not a true sub-tradition of the Cult of Ecstasy. While they share much of the same philosophy and anarchistic attitude to magick, they have diverged somewhat. While the Cult tries to awaken the sleepers to the joys of the world and make them conscious of the possibilities beyond, the Dreamers try to make sleepers see the power of dreams and fantasy. Another group which has influenced them a lot is the Dreamspeakers. The shamans of ancient times knew the power of dreams, and often used them. However, the strongest difference between the Dreamers and the two traditions are the Orphans among them. Sometimes sleepers spontaneously awaken in their dreams and find that their ability to shape them extends much further than anybody has ever told them. These Orphan Dreamers form a vital and heterogeneous group among the Dreamers. And there is so little difference between the Orphans and the "Tradition" Dreamers that its virtually unimportant. While the origins of the Dreamers are manifold, their goals and methods are even more numerous. Some Dreamers are content to create beautiful realms of their own or sight-see in other peoples dreams. Others work to change sleeper society and support the Traditions by manipulating the dreams of people. But others have no compunctions about manipulating or even killing people in their dreams. And a few use their magick to gain power in the Chimerae and seek to become Dream Lords themselves. Dream magick is both far more powerful and far inferior to normal magick. It is usually quite limited to work only within the dreams, making it rather hard to use in the waking world. On the other hand, inside the dreamrealms it is close to omnipotence. Dreams can be changed, be given reality, destroyed, linked and warped. A Dreamer can perform great magickal feats without fear of paradox, limited only by his own imagination. Powerful Dreamers can even cross the border between Dream and Reality, using their powers to affect the waking world from beyond the wall of sleep. Dreamers are seldom interested in the waking world, since it is such a pale and dreary place compared to the reality of dreams. All Dreamers are tempted to stay as long as possible among the dreams and ignore the demands of waking life. Many use drugs to extend their sleep (note that they shun sleeping-pills, since they inhibit dreaming), and most Dreamers seem fairly lethargic in their daily life. Appearances can be deceiving. Many Dreamers have low-paying day jobs to keep themselves alive, and spend all free time dreaming.
Dreams and Dreaming Apropos of sleep, that sinister adventure of all our nights, we may say that men go to bed daily with an audacity that would be incomprehensible if we did not know that it is the result of ignorance of the danger. -- Baudelaire Dreams are transitory. This is one of the axioms of dreaming. A normal person will dream several independent dreams every night, often forgetting them even before awaking. A dream which is forgotten will quickly begin to dissolve. Dreams which are remembered are given some permanence, but the waking mind will order it and rationalise it into a linear pattern, essentially calcifying it to a memory. However, a Dreamer can keep a dream alive for some time, or try to give it some independent existence. The most important thing for a dreamed dream is its dreamer. The dreamer is its creator, ruler and upholder, and the dream only exists in his mind. The dreamer (or rather his subconscious) is almost all-powerful in the dream, being able to dictate its course and its laws. Most people are so dream-illiterate that they cannot influence their own dreams, and the dreams become images created from their subconscious. This means that the realities they create are formed by their own fears, expectations and desires, often making them highly individual. The reality is quite often not that far from static reality, although significant changes
in the axioms often occur (like the ability to fly or breather underwater). A Dreamer can easily get paradox by trying to work magick effects in sleeper dreams if they are not allowed by the current paradigm. It is essential for a good Dreamer to quickly be able to understand the often strange laws inside a dream to be able to use magick. The use of magick in the realm of dreams is not entirely straightforward, since its realities are so varied. A mage is nearly omnipotent in his own dreams, since he can decide the laws of reality (and thus give it a rating of (say) 5 in Forces at a whim). All magick inside his own dreams is coincidental as long as it doesn't involve anything from the outside. As mentioned above, inside other peoples dreams the mage is limited to what is currently allowed, although clever mages usually can manipulate the dreamer to dream reality into the desired form. Magick is generally needed to create changes in other people's dreams. To magickally influence across the barrier to the waking world or into other dreams, the mage must be careful to create coincidences. To kill somebody in his sleep is entirely possible as long as it's done coincidentally (e.g.. the mage suffocates the person under a mountain of dust, and in real world he is suffocated by a pillow or his own tongue). Reality in the free dreams is usually rather stable, although generally free, and in the Chimerae most magick is coincidental, as long as no Dream Lord vetoes it. Dreams don't contain much Quintessence, and dreamed Quintessence isn't real. Real Quintessence is quite powerful in the dream-world, since it can make dreams more real, but is not necessary to create a dream. For that imagination is enough. The person who dreams a dream sustains it by being aware of it, and if he lapses it will fade. However, discarded dreams have their uses. Some are remembered and will generally calcify. Others are collected by Dreamers and sustained by Quintessence. If enough Quintessence is fed into the dream it will become a permanent realm in itself. However, the great majority of surviving dreams drift off into the Deep Umbra where they join the aptly named Chimerae, the dream-lands. The dreams of the Chimerae are stable for some unknown reason. Some attribute this to the existence of a powerful being, a true Dream Lord, who is aware of them all and thus keep them in existence. The dreams in the Chimerae link up together into a complex agglomeration filled amazing denizens and fanciful places. They all seem to link up a bit according to content, creating large areas of roughly similar content (like great cities, archetypal forests, infinite oceans and the labyrinthine dungeons where the nightmares live). The inhabitants of the Chimerae range from the beings and persons of peoples dreams over Dreamers (both Awakened and Asleep) to the Dream Lords, as they call themselves. These powerful mages or beings all seek to control at least their part of the Chimerae. Some, like the Warlord of Khem, seek to gain supremacy over the entire Chimerae. Their fights are legendary, wrecking dreams and ripping apart the loose reality of the Chimerae. Usually they have to restrain themselves to avoid creating too much damage, or risk incurring the wrath of the hypothetical True Dreamlord. Most such Dreamlords were originally powerful Dreamers, and often seek to snare unwary Dreamers to suit their own purposes. Finding the way among the dreams is very tricky. Just orienting inside a single dream can be rather complex, as the landscape constantly shifts and changes according to the whims of the dreamer. Correspondence is very popular among Dreamers not only to find their ways, but also to move to their destinations. Another way to reach a dream is to travel into the Chimerae and try to find a way into the destination dream. This requires much intuition, and the profession of being a dreamguide is popular among many inhabitants. To dream is dangerous, although only the Dreamers understand it truly. While a normal dream at most can frighten a person awake or make them feel uncomfortable for the rest of the day, a magickal dream can kill. In a normal dream the dreamer cannot be killed; he will just regenerate and continue dreaming (unless he is sufficiently scared about death, which will awaken him with fright). This is often true for other inhabitants of his dream too, which is quite safe. A mage whose dream-self is killed in a sleeper dream is usually thrown back into his own dreams with little real damage, and often he can return immediately. But weapons and objects enchanted a la Empower Dream can do "aggravated dream damage"; while they still cannot hurt the person in the waking world, they can hurt even the dreamer of a dream and give him real pain (although most sleepers are so incompetent dreamers that the pain is not felt as strongly as usual). If a dreamer is "killed" with empowered weapons he will start awake, briefly filled with pain and fear. Usually some phantom pains persist for some time (coincidentally explained by muscle stretchings or minor cramps). However, a mage can also use magick in the dream to reach out an actually kill a person in real life. This is not completely easy to do coincidentally, but creative mages have found ways to make people coincidentally die in their sleep (the Euthanatos have discovered that an amazing number of people have heart problems, and there are persistent rumours of a sect of Euthanatos causing sudden infant death). A special danger to Dreamers are sleeping mages who can use their magick against them in their dreams, and even accidentally kill them. Meeting another mage in his own dreams is very dangerous. Another danger is the strange creatures which live in the dreams. Some have their own powers, and can be quite dangerous. Many of these beings originate in the Chimerae but range into the dreams of sleeping people. Most are of course harmless, like the rotund Gluttony who appears wherever it can find dreamed food and voraciously devour it. Others are more insidious, like the mind-controlling Cuckoo, which plants "eggs" into the dreams of people, forcing them to dream its young into existence until they can hatch into new dreams. Even worse are the mental parasites which seek out dreamers, imprison their dream-selves and possess their bodies to experience the pleasures of the physical world.
Spheres and Magick "We may guess that in dreams life, matter and vitality, as the earth knows such things, are not necessarily constant; and that time and space do not exist as our waking selves comprehend them." -- Lovecraft, "Beyond the Wall of Sleep"
The Dreamers concentrate on Mind. Mind is the sphere which allows a Dreamer to change dreams in general, especially it allows the Dreamers to control her own dreams, and also influence the minds of other sleeping people. This ability is more powerful than most non-Dreamers realise, since it allows clever Dreamers to control the dreams of other people. To supplement this, many Dreamers also study Prime. Since Prime essentially is the sphere of "realness," it can be quite useful in the dream-realms. An object in a dream which is infused with prime gains much power, and can start to influence the waking world. Many dreamers also study Spirit with great interest, to be able to cross between different realms and into the waking world. Spirit is mainly used to go "up" or "down" among the realms, while Correspondence is used to move between dreams of the same type or in the Chimerae. Spirit also enables them to turn dreams into "real" realms and summon dreambeings. Correspondence is naturally very useful to get around and find one's way. The Pattern Spheres are very useful for Dreamers, mainly because they are so free in the dreaming. To create a pattern in a dream, no Prime is required (if it is used, the resulting pattern will become empowered and superior to normal objects and beings in a dream). This naturally makes it much easier for Dreamers to work complex patternmagicks and to change the worlds around them. Since many are so used to the ease of this, they find magick in the waking world a nasty chore.
Foci Sleep: All spheres. The Dreamers magick works by manipulating "the stuff dreams are made of," and this naturally requires them to be asleep to be able to work their magick. Some Dreamers experiment with other altered states of consciousness, mainly drug intoxication. This is also one of the reasons Orphans are accepted into the group. Although the Dreamer Orphans do not require sleep to do their magick, their interest is usually solely directed towards dream-magick, which make them use sleep too. Even the more advanced mages who no longer requires sleep to work their magick use it, since they must enter the dreaming somehow.
Philosophy "Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely a virtual phenomenon." -- Lovecraft, "Beyond the Walls of Sleep" "You say dreams are just illusions. You are right. They are "just" illusions, but illusions are what reality is built of. Open your eyes, and see how the waking world is just a pale reflection of the dreaming. It contains all secrets, all possibilities and all freedom that there have ever been, are or will be. It is the dreams of humanity which shape reality, not their thoughts."
Organisation The Dreamers are even less organised than the Cult of Ecstasy. Many are solitary mages, working alone and belonging to no chantry. Most Dreamers form loose cliques or associations, often congregating in some collective dreams and working together.
Chantry No central chantry exists. However, there are several dreamed chantries, mainly in the Chimerae. Most famous is the alabasterwalled city of Thran, placed where the singing river Oukranos flows into the Cerenerian Sea. To enter the city a Dreamer must tell three dreams beyond belief to the red-robed sentries who guard its hundred gates. The city itself is fabulous, with golden spires and towers reaching into the clouds and the strange tangles of mists above, great wharves of marble with ornate galleons of fragrant cedar and calamander, undulating streets filled with music and light and temples to unknown gods. The city is a centrum of trade and magick for a good part of the Chimerae, but staunchly neutral in the wars between the Dreamlords. Somehow it has retained its independence.
Meetings There are no central meetings or any holy times for the Dreamers. However, sometimes a Dreamer or a group of Dreamers call for a gathering to discuss matters of grave importance, like imminent Dream Warps, intrusions from the Umbra into the dreamlands or the activities of the Dream Lords. These meetings are held in specially crafted dreams, usually masterpieces of dreamweaving and magick although etiquette does not allow any Dreamer to hold dominion over the dream the meeting takes place in. In the Chimerae the Dream Lords hold court, and often gather their subjects to show their adoration and gratitude to the being which they can thank for their existence.
Acolytes Artists, Dreamers, New Agers, Psychologists.
Concepts Weirdo, Junkie, Writer, Visionary.
Quote "The City of Illusions is rather nice, but don't go too close, or you will fall down to the underside of the world. Now we shall go and meet the inhabitants of that tower. Do you have your green toga with you?"
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Good, although overly disciplined dreamers. They dreams are almost always tranquil, elegant and meditative but far too restrictive for our tastes.
The Dreamers deny their waking side. To reach balance one must learn to be both awake and asleep. Ahl-I-Batin: Ah, oriental exotism! Most of them are first-rank dreamers, and we often journey together. If the myths about their Mount Qaf are true, they had created the greatest dream-realm ever.
Nice people, most of them. They lack direction and purpose, but many of them are fine dream-crafters. Celestial Chorus: Visionaries of the first rank. Unfortunately their aspirations have been crushed and tarnished, and this reflects in their dreams, which once were among the most glorious of all.
What use is dreaming when the future of mankind is in the balance? Cult of Ecstasy: I think no other Tradition has as beautiful and flagrant dreams as the Cult. Their dreams are something special to experience. No holds barred, no inhibitions, no fear of enjoying themselves when asleep.
The Dreamers miss too much of the waking world. It ain't so bad, you know? Dreamspeakers: We respect them. They were the first Dreamers, and many of them are still first rate Dreamers. They have taught us almost everything we know.
The Dreamers play with serious things. Dreams are as real as the waking world. Doesn't that mean they should be taken as seriously? Euthanatos: Their dreams are filled with death, grief and darkness. We generally avoid them. Happy dilettantes who play around with things they should leave alone. Marauders: Marauders dream constantly. They live in their own confusing dreams, and quite often wander into the more chaotic corners of the Chimerae. Random and dangerous, but very creative.
They open vagabond portals into boring reality for us. Perhaps we should thank them bubbling, or maybe show them some ring-shaped dreams? Nephandi: There are Nightmares, and then there are worse things... The Dreamers are innocent. They play at the shores of the Sea of Dark Power, and don't notice it. They shun nightmares for aesthetic reasons, and play petty wars over a few scraps of discarded fantasy! Order of Hermes: Their dreams are filled with arcane symbolism, signifying secret relationships in the universe. Or so they think. They take their dreams too seriously, paying attention to minor details and forgetting the importance of the whole.
The Dreamers are playing with Illusions, just like the Virtual Adepts. Sons of Ether: Few people are more stubborn in their dreams. A piece of advise: don't challenge them in their dreams, they will immediately crush you. Beside that, they are often rather entertaining in their own baroque sort of way.
Dreams and visions are what True Science should be based on! Just playing with them is almost criminal, when they could
be controlled and used to demonstrate the shining truth to mankind! Technocracy: Their dreams are dead and grey with fear. In fact, they fear their creativity and subconscious so much they try to eradicate their own dreams! But we slink in despite their attempts and show them how dreams should really be!
Dangerous magickal terrorists, concentrating on arousing elements of the subconscious. Trenchcoaters: Not as black as the Euthanatos, but still very dark. They have nightmares far more often than anybody else, so we usually keep away.
They are more dangerous than most people realise. The power to control dreams is far too dangerous to be used, yet the Dreamers play with it. Many of them misuse it badly to manipulate or enslave innocent people through their dreams. They must be stopped! Verbena: Their dreams have the vibrancy of life, and are often more realistic than anybody else's. A bit down-to-earth, but that's often nice.
Dreams are a part of us. The Dreamers just go a little bit too far in concentrating on them too much. Virtual Adepts: The only technomancers who dare to dream! And what dreams they dream... Unfortunately we don't understand these dreams very well, many are too filled with mathematics or computer languages for us to understand. But they are converting their dreams into reality... or rather virtual reality. A good sign that the waking world and the dreaming is merging.
Dreaming is fun, and quite often educational. But its not that different from Virtual Reality.
Rotes Lucid Dreaming (Mind 1): This is the basic ability which makes Dreamers Dreamers. They can control the reality of their own dreams. They have an almost godlike power in their own dreams if they choose to use it. They can decide what will happen, how things will look and the "laws of nature." However, while their dreams are much more vivid than normal dreams they will still dissolve as soon as they are not dreamed.
Empower Dream (Mind 1 Prime 2): By infusing an object, a being or a place in a dream with quintessence, it is given independent existence. This will empower it greatly, and give it some permanence. Even if the dream which contains it dissolves, the object will often survive by becoming a permanent part of the subconscious of the dreamer.
Keep the Dream Alive (Mind 2 Prime 2): This rote gives the Dreamer power to temporarily sustain a dream even after the dreamer has ended dreaming it, preventing it from dissolving or calcifying. It will continue to exist as long as the mage feeds it quintessence (a quite heavy task for greater dreams). The dream will continue as it would, except that the original dreamer is now absent (and thus the rules will remain the same). If the dream is sustained enough it will become completely independent and permanent. More powerful dreamers collect beautiful dreams from people and then store them, or leave them as nice surprises for sleepers.
Thread of Ariadne (Correspondence 2 Spirit 1 Mind 1): One problem most Dreamers have is to find their way through the shifting Chimerae and other dreams. By concentrating on the destination, the mage can find a path leading to it. This path is by no means the easiest or safest, just the shortest possible path.
Summon Dream-Steed (Spirit 2): To travel in the dreaming many mages employ the services of the Dream-Steed, beings which will happily work for the mage in exchange for Quintessence. They can look like anything, ranging from horses to fantastic creatures only possible in a dream. They are often quite well oriented in the dreaming, and know many secret pathways and odd corners. Some are even intelligent enough to hold a conversation. Over time many become loyal to their mages, and become constant companions.
Replay Dream (Mind 2 Time 2): By reaching back into time and into the subconscious of a sleeper, a Dreamer can make him remember a forgotten dream and begin to dream it again. This is seldom entirely perfect, since it often decays when not actively dreamed, but is sometimes the only way to restore a destroyed dream. Some dreamers have whole libraries of memories which they can whip up and create new dreams of.
Create Dream (Mind 3): Any Dreamer can control his own dreams, but actually creating dreams from scratch requires much skill. The Dreamer first empties his mind of other images, and then focuses it on creating a dream. Creating a full-scale dream takes a lot of time and concentration, but is usually worth it. Some mages channel Quintessence into it to make it permanent.
Bridge the Rift (Correspondence 3): To teleport into the dreams of other people is a common trick. Usually the mage concentrates briefly on the person he wants to meet, and if that person is dreaming the mage will appear in his dream. This is usually coincidental, as long as the mage starts from his own dream.
Walking Forth by Day (Spirit 3): It is possible for a Dreamer to cross over from the dream realms into the waking world by breaking through the gauntlet of the realms into reality. The mage appears physically in the world, and now has to follow its laws. At the same time his real body lies asleep somewhere, and cannot awake until the dreamer returns into its dreams. However, there is a risk that Paradox can sever the link between the dreamer and his body in this state, and then the body will awaken. Apparently the body is possessed by a paradox being with exactly the same abilities and powers as the mage, bent on making
sure it's the only one. More than one ambitious Dreamer has fallen victim to himself in this fashion.
Blur the Barrier (Mind 3 Spirit 3 Entropy 2): This rote is a favourite among the more dynamic Dreamers, who are not far from Marauders themselves. They reach into the dreams of a person or a place and then blur the line between dream and reality. Things, situations and people from the dreams will appear coincidentally in the lives of the victims, strange events and odd hallucinations will follow them. Life becomes a slightly surreal affair, where nothing is certain and everything is possible.
Disrupt Dream (Mind 4): To cause plain chaos and disorder in a dream is quite easy for a true Dreamer (many just do it for fun with the dreams of unsuspecting sleepers), but to actually destroy a dream is hard. The mage has to dissolve the connection between the dreamer and the dream, not only on a conscious level but also from his subconscious, and finally erase the dream itself. On the whole it is a dangerous operation, which is bound to make other inhabitants of the dream-realms vary of the mage.
Summon Person (Correspondence 4): Sometimes Dreamers need to get hold of people outside their own dreams. One way is to literally teleport them into the dream of the Dreamer from their own. This can be quite an advantage, as they no longer reside in a dream of their choosing, and the mage is able to run the show instead.
Steal Dream (Mind 4): This rote allows a Dreamer to try to sever the link between the person dreaming a dream and the dream itself. If it succeeds the dream will become free, hopefully without damage. [The number of successes denotes the damage the dream took in the process. One success means that the dream was heavily damaged, with major sections missing and many things changed. With two successes the dream only took some medium damage, losing some minor locations and objects. Three successes ensure only small damage and minor changes, and four and more successes will generally leave it almost completely intact.]
Dream Dominion (Mind 4): Not only is it possible for a mage to sever the link between a dreamer and his dream, he can claim dominion over a free dream. To do this he must extend his mind into the dream and encompass it, essentially learn to dream it. The mage must understand the dream well, and at least have seen most of it. This way Dreamers collect interesting or beautiful dreams from people when they awaken and build and improve on their own dreams. Less ethical dreamers wrest control of dreams from their owners and take them. This is also the way the Dreamlords try to gain supremacy over the Chimerae, by constantly subtly infiltrating the dreams of each other and then suddenly striking, grabbing as many dreams as possible.
Dream Knowledge (Mind 4): In dreams you are often able to do things you are unable to do in the waking world, or have new skills. Dreamers are able to actually give themselves (or others) new abilities, at least inside their own dreams and often inside other dreams too. They can also gain knowledge about things they should not have any knowledge about, like what other people are planning or what has happened to them. However, this will work only in their own dreams or in dreams which allow it (usually Sleeper dreams). [Each success will give the Dreamer one dreamed dot in a ability. This dream-skill is only applicable inside the dream, and cannot work with things from the outside (have you too woken up with a feeling you had just managed to solve a hard problem, and the solution turns out to be just nonsense?) ]
Open the Ivory Gates (Spirit 4 Mind 3): Most Dreamers are solitary and prefer to contact other mages in their dreams, but sometimes they have to bring them in bodily into their dreams. Adept dreamers are able to open gates into their dreams, or other dreams. They can also open portals into the Chimerae by their own choosing, not having to depend on the whims of the dreams themselves.
Link Dreams (Correspondence 4 Mind 3): The ability to link together dreams by portals or smooth transitions is an important skill for any budding Dream Lord. It requires that the mage moves them together and find a point or place where they fit together somehow (like having two doors connect or different sides of a lake). When the dreams merge, the results can sometimes become rather unpredictable. Another problem is of course that the dreamers of the different dreams now suddenly share the same dream, which can lead to conflicts.
Dream Barrier (Mind 4 Spirit 4): Many Dreamers are quite paranoid about intruders into their dreams, and seek to both hide them from other dreamers and to raise barriers against them. By using Mind the dream can be shaped to reject intruders, and by using Spirit the Dreamer can prevent the opening of portals from the Chimerae. [Each success will remove one success from any attempt to get into the dream, or even detect its existence. An intruder inside the dream will not be hindered, but the dreamer will be instantly alerted by the breach.]
Dreams into Reality (Spirit 4 Prime 3 Mind 3): A dream can be turned into a real realm by weaving it into the spiritual fabric of the Umbra and feeding it quintessence, just like in the creation of a normal horizon realm. This requires that the dreamer of the dream cooperates or that the dream is free. The resulting reality has axioms determined by the dream, but also frequently quirks and odd properties not readily apparent, based on the quirks of the original dreamer. Most such realms have a distinct resonance.
Imprison Dream-Body (Mind 5): The Dream Masters can sever the link between a dreamer and his body. As long as he doesn't find his way back, he will not be able to awaken in any way, and if he is killed in the dreams he will die (the body will remain alive but in coma). This is used by unscrupulous Dreamers and other beings to imprison sleepers in the Chimerae, often in a dream controlled by the mage. Since most sleepers are rather helpless in the dreamworlds, they are easy prey for this.
Break the Chains of Wakefulness (Mind 5): To actually leave one's body completely behind and permanently take up residence in the dreaming is a dream most Dreamers share. While some Dreamers accidentally do this as their bodies are killed during sleep or taken over by other beings, they find they quickly lose power and begin to fade away along with their
dreams. The only way to survive is to have some very powerful Dreamer dream them constantly into existence. The Dream Lords are naturally only too happy to help them out, in exchange for eternal service. The Dream Masters who actually leave their bodies behind are however independent, and can act freely. This naturally makes many Dream Lords irritated, and they sometimes test new arrivals by sending their nightmares against them.
Further Reading H. P. Lovecraft: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and his short stories Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Hypnos and Celephais are very illuminating. Neil Gaiman: Sandman is of course a must to understand the strange world of the Chimerae and the One True Dreamlord. The descriptions of Dream-magick and the Dreamlords in KULT are also quite useful. Another excellent source of material is your own dream diary. I actually recommend keeping one for any Storyteller. You will soon realise that your mind is a much bigger and stranger place than you ever expected...
DYNAMICS By TCSHAN (
[email protected])
Description The members of this Tradition are a cross between "superhero wannabes" and philosophers, constantly pondering such questions as "What is reality, anyway?", "How did the many different planes (the Umbra, the Fae realms, Shadowlands, etc.) came into existence?" and "Why does Paradox exist?" The Dynamics had their genesis when Dr. Julian Schneider, a Son of Ether, encountered early comic books. Like his fellow Etherites of the day, Dr. Schneider was heavily influenced by the pulp novels; in his case, comics seemed like the next logical step. Many superheroes, like the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and especially a certain blue hero in blue tights and a red cape had powers that to Schneider could only be another form of magick. Dr. Schneider defied Paradox, Technomancer-dominated reality, and even the Etherites' paradigm by creating a "supercostume" Talisman. Unfortunately, Julian soon realized that his costume, which granted "super" (magickal) powers to the wearer, only worked without witnesses. This seemed unfair to the Dr., since the superbeings in the comics used their powers in plain view of others. He hid the costume away in his secret laboratory, and devoted himself to searching for a way to conquer Paradox. He studied reality more intensely than ever, conducting most in his experiments in the Deep Umbra. He discovered other realities like the Shadowlands and the Fae realms, which led to such burning questions as "How are realities 'born'?" He engaged in many philosophical questions with his fellow mages (some of whom weren't even Etherites!), but nobody had any real answers. Dissatisfied, Dr. Schneider broke off from the Sons (who thought he was going Marauder anyway) and started his own Tradition: the Dynamics (named, like Schneider's failed alter-ego Dyna-Man, after "dynamic" magick). The Dynamics' goal is the elimination of Paradox, or failing that, the creation of a Paradox-less reality, where mages may perform their magicks without fear of backlashes, flaws, or Paradox spirits. To this end they have conducted many experiments, testing their theories in virtual reality.
Philosophy Simple, yet complex: We wish to understand reality in ways no other Tradition has before: how the many layers of it were created, why Paradox exists, and so on. Once we know all these things, we'll create our own reality, one free of the Technocracy and Paradox, free of the coincidences that blind Sleepers and confound the Traditions. After that...then the real fun will start.
Organization Created out of Orphans, as well as those mages who, like Schneider, felt their Tradition didn't have all the answers, the group is organized somewhat like a club, with charters, group leaders and even treasurers.
Meetings Monthly board meetings are held at Chantries at about 8:00 p.m. Less formal meetings (two Dynamics meeting in a coffee shop, for example) are disguised as normal conversation, spoken in hushed tones, or (if one has Mind magick) take place telepathically.
Initiation Dynamics members usually hang around comic book stores or sci-fi and comic book conventions. Anyone who discusses how so-called "magic" or "super-powers" can exist in reality and has a good idea how, is suggested to join the club. Anyone who says "yes" (don't worry, the Dynamics do take "no" for an answer) is indoctrinated into the group.
Chantry Usually in meeting halls, but comic shops (and even regular bookstores) double as Chantries.
Acolytes Comic fans, sci-fi/fantasy buffs, dissatisfied mages
Sphere/Foci Sphere and Foci are "tailored" to the mage's individual tastes. Comic book superhero fans often use their costumes as foci, but others focus through bizarre make-believe substances as "kryptonite," "gamma radiation", or "power cosmic." (Don't ask how those fit into reality...) Fantasy/sci-fi buffs prefer such items as "magic" wands, swords, medallions, etc., power armor, and proton blasters. Some ex-Traditionals prefer their old foci, others conform to the new paradigm, and some even use both. The most serious use coincidental effects, or rely solely on "mental power". Often, they incur Paradox on purpose (the wise ones keep their flaws as low-level as possible), just to study its nature or gain some insight.
Concepts Sci-fi/fantasy/superhero buff, philosopher, scientist
Quotes "If we can't liberate this reality from Paradox, we'll have to recreate our own, won't we?" "Whoever coined the term 'playing God' never knew just what hard work it really is."
Stereotypes Because Dynamic mages tend to be from other Traditions, it's very hard to stereotype them. Here's what some converts had to say (and what their former Traditions say about Dynamics):
Akashic Brotherhood: The Akashics seemed too much like a kung-fu group or a bad video game. I prefer philosophical debates, and think Zen-type stuff and Dynamic philosophy make an interesting combo. -- Suli Chen
"They tend to prance around in idiotic costumes, but their spirits are noble, and they bring up interesting questions." Celestial Chorus: With all due respect to religion, the Choristers didn't seem to know the answers, or even show interest in them. -- Mary Hepford
"The One works in mysterious ways. How can we explain Her grand design to atheists?" Cult of Ecstasy: I almost joined the Cult, but I don't wanna ruin my health with drugs and illicit sex, you know? The Dynamics seem cool, though. -- P.J. Stevens
"When they sit down and talk, yawn city. But when the costume party starts, it gets cool." Dreamspeakers: I get the Gaia thing, but what about, you know, the rest of the universe? --Jerome Walden
"They are willing to listen to us, but ask questions for which we have no answer." Euthanatos: Too creepy! I'd rather find my answers on this side of the Shadowlands, know what I mean? -- Richard Langtree
"Like their parent Tradition, they have interesting ideas about exploring reality." Hollow Ones: This is one Orphan who's found a home, guys! But don't worry; once we've got our own reality, we'll share it with you guys at the Way Down. -- Simon Wilcox
"Don't get me started, OK? Buncha dorks in stupid costumes..." Order of Hermes: I agree with the belief that magic should benefit mankind, but I'm not into that New Age stuff.
"Which is really quite sad; I've been working on this mathematical model of the universe..." -- Tess Doringsley
Sons of Ether: Like a lot of parents, the Sons of Ether mean well, but don't seem to approve of their offspring's decisions. But like any child, the Dynamics just need some proper nurturing. -- Jessica Walken
"Hmm, yes, wait just a second . . ." [Walks out, hysterical laughter] "What was that silly Schneider thinking?!" Verbena: There is a power in nature, but how does it work? -- Gertrude Morninglade
"Grown men and women running around in ridiculous costumes! How foolish. Are they even mages?" Virtual Adepts: The Adepts should see our VR experiments! If this reality doesn't want them, they can have ours. -- Joshua "Feedback" Ventner
"They trust us enough to use VR. They seem pretty wary of the other Techno-Traditions, though..." Kindred: Long as they don't suck us, we don't get mad. Their undeath's worth studying, though . . . "They're dangerous bastards, you hear? One of them was a walking sunbeam! Called himself Solarman or some shit. I almost got killed just being in the same area." Garou: They share the same belief in Gaia as the Dreamspeakers! Interesting. "You wanna know how it all works? Three words: Wyrm, Wyld, Weaver. Simple as that." Wraiths: We've got some members who're able to enter the Shadowlands in a near-death state. They hang around for a few minutes, then 'resurrect'. Interesting place for theories, but hazardous.
"Some of them have spent some time here. They call themselves the Shadow Force. One of them managed to rip off a piece from a Spectre before 'going back'! I hope he suffered no ill effects..." Changelings: OK folks. Just don't strike up a conversation with a nocker or get too near a pooka. "So far, we've learned more from them than they from us. They seem to reduce Banality just by existing!"
EBONITES By Shawn Arbuckle (
[email protected])
History The Ebonites were founded by a rough Nephandi named Elysian. Elysian was thought to have been killed in a battle with the Verbena, but in truth the Verbena healed her and took her back to their chantry. She did not wake up for 7 days and during this sleep she saw 6 spirits, each representing an aspect of Life or Death. A seventh merged life and death into a new form of existence. They told her to learn from the Verbena and merge their beliefs with her own, to form the Ebonites . . . . This is when she awoke. Elysian stayed with the Verbena for many months learning from them. When she left a few Verbena women went with her to form the Ebonites. Normally, only women may be of the Ebonites, but on occasion a male child of an Ebonite woman may join. They must work that much harder to excepted by the rest of the tradition.
Philosophy We are what you fear, but why do you fear us? For the powers we command or for what we hold in out hearts? Fear us if you wish, but do not wrong us, if you value your hide. Also, seven is a number of great importance to the Ebonites. Seven is the number of days Elysian was unconscious for and seven is the number of spirits that visited her.
Style This tradition roots itself deeply in pagan beliefs, and even somewhat in Nephandi beliefs. It is not uncommon for an Ebonite to be mistaken for Nephandi. They do not hold the same agendas as the Nephandi, but the Ebonites treat their enemies the same way the Nephandi treat everyone. Like the Verbena the Ebonites know what life truly is, but they are much more willing to take life than the Verbena are.
Spheres Varies (Life if nothing else fits.)
Common Foci Sex, blood, runes, bones.
Organization The Ebonite covens number 13, but groups as small as 3 often live with in cities.
Initiation Before she is allowed to join, a prospective Ebonite must go through seven tests. If the initiate survives, she is loyal unto death and said to be stronger for having taken the test. During the test, the initiate is severely wounded (dropped to crippled, and stabilized, but not healed) and left unconscious for seven days. During this time the initiate is visited by the seven spirits that visited Elysian, and told what their role will be with in the tradition. The character's main sphere is determined by either Nature, Demeanor or Concept; Life is the default if nothing else is fitting. Examples include but are not limited to: Life for Caregiver, Forces for Bravo or Fanatic, Matter for Architect, Time for Traditionalist and Correspondence for a Loner. Use you imagination. Their roles are determined by their spheres. For example, Forces for a Warrior, Life for a healer and Matter for a defender. Again, use your imagination.
ECOLOGIC By Bruce Baugh (
[email protected]) What do Verbena, Celestial Choristers, Virtual Adepts, and Void Engineers have in common? In some cases, it's membership in EcoLogic, a faction within the World of Darkness dedicated to ignoring the usual limits. EcoLogic has its roots in the late 19th century, when a number of mages in different traditions all had the same vision of humanity's place in the world. Carefully, they sought each other out and banded together for mutual support. The heart of the vision is this: - Human society is subject to the same rules as every other ecosystem. This may seem obvious - lots of people give it lip service these days - but few have ever attempted to seriously work out its implications. Members of EcoLogic identify four primary consequences. The phrasing changes over time (EcoLogic's organization is in constant flux), but the ideas are pretty steady: - The present exists for its own sake; the future is only potential. Members of EcoLogic commit themselves to the overthrow of every group which imposes present misery for the sake of any future end. They don't mind people choosing to do that for themselves, just imposing it on others. They're agnostic about Ascension, and tend not to care much about it. Most members figure that Ascension, if it's real, will emerge naturally out of an environment that's in good shape in the present moment. - There is no center. Healthy food webs have no top; even the toughest predators are brought down by disease and decay. Members commit themselves to the overthrow of every group which claims the right to rule all others, whether calling itself a government, a church, or anything else. - Only change is constant. Nothing lasts, and trying to fight change leads to (at best) stagnation and (at worst) metastasis and death. Members commit themselves to the overthrow of every group which puts the needs of the group ahead of the needs of its members. They encourage the creation of groups designed to serve a particular purpose and then disband, and they constantly reshuffle their own organization to avoid the trap of stasis. - Nobody is outside the system. Every member of EcoLogic looks for the time when EcoLogic itself becomes part of the problem. Values endure, but institutions decay. They claim no special position as a result of the vision.
Major elements of EcoLogic membership include: - Celestial Choristers who believe that Unity emerges only from perfect diversity. - Cultists of Ecstasy willing to take the long-term view of how best to maximize their fun. - Euthanatos who see themselves as serving that vital function of bringing the top of the food web down. - Sons of Ether with an interest in Lamarck, Sheldrake, and other fringe biological thinkers. - Verbena, who form the "heart" of EcoLogic in some respects. - Virtual Adepts who see the move to digital reality on humanity's part as part of Gaia's active homeostasis - Iteration Xists who (besides appreciating the Sub-Genius reference in that handle) aim to use cybernetics to lighten the load on the environment - Progenitors who believe that their work is the next level of complexity (in Prigogine's terms) or the next phase of evolution - Void Engineers who believe that moving humanity out there is a desirable part of a cycle of recovery for Gaia Yes, both Traditions and Conventions are included in EcoLogic. Naturally enough, this means that some people are _not_ keen on the group.
Major opponents include: - Akashic Brothers, who tend to see EcoLogic's emphasis on dynamic systems as the antithesis of the calm they seek - most Celestial Choristers, who aren't keen on diversity - Dreamspeakers, who tend to have a fairly tight vision of how humanity should best interact with Gaia and who aren't much open to revision of it - Hermetics, who have no use for the idea that humanity should learn its lessons from nature that way - Virtual Adepts who don't give a hoot about the natural world - Iteration Xists who want to subjugate nature, not vice versa - The New World Order, who didn't want to hear Hayek and von Mises tell them about uncontrollable systems and don't want to hear it from EcoLogic, either
- Progenitors who want to subjugate nature, not vice versa EcoLogic organization is built to self-destruct, more or less. The basic unit is the five-person cell (allowing for "interesting" interactions without becoming too bogged down). Every two years, all the EcoLogicians on a continent gather for a conclave. Existing cells are dissolved and new ones formed, and no two members can be in the same cell twice in a row. Each cell picks a delegate, however its members choose, to the Council for that continent. The Counsellors each pick a delegate, again by any means deemed appropriate, to the Senior Council. No person can be a counsellor twice in a row, and it's considered good form to let everyone do it once in a while. [Still working on numbers for the group; thinking of about 500 active members and some more or less inactive ones]
EcoLogic is active on several fronts: - Direct action. When cells think it necessary, they'll strike out at the enemy. This is most usually done to bring down too-powerful groups trying to rule a society. - Propaganda. EcoLogic funds all kinds of challenges to dominant paradigms, including anarchist groups, communitarian movements, and so forth. They also work to undermine efforts to make science and philosophy serve what they regard as unnatural aims (socialism, corporatism and fascism, and the like). - Research. Since the whole point is to be in accord with nature's rules, many EcoLogicians do active research. - Back-door efforts. EcoLogician Void Engineers tinker with the solar system to provide new homes for life. EcoLogician Sons of Ether look for biological ways to replace mechanical processes. EcoLogician Verbena create ecological enclaves where life can flourish outside the dominant paradigms. Many Ecologicians regard as very important to be creating present-moment alternatives as well as working to improve the future.
EMPATHS By Chris Kobar
Description Not to be confused with mundane psychics, telekineticists, spiritualists and other relatively ignorant sorts, Empaths are true mages in the sense that they are Awakened and impose their own Will upon reality. Though they utilize many of the terms coined by those mentioned above, Empaths truly consider themselves far beyond the simple experimentation of those inferiors. The Empaths arose as a western sub-Tradition, or Craft of the Akashic Brotherhood, having been founded in the 1920's by a few American visitors to the Orient who were Awakened during their travels and sought to understand their new perceptions. Taken in by the Brotherhood, some of these newly Awakened individuals chafed at the eastern Tradition's ideas of purity, selfdenial and reclusion. Eventually these early Empaths turned their backs on the Akashics and returned to the West, where they then set about developing their own understanding further. Because of their relationship with the Akashic Brotherhood, the Council of Nine has still denied them entry and recognition as a separate Tradition. This denial has left the Empaths in an unenviable position. Their estrangement makes them easy targets for Technocracy recruitment or eradication and leaves them a fractious and individualistic group of mages. Some have begun turning to recruiting Orphans to their future Tradition, while others have sought to Awaken their own apprentices, usually without much luck. The Empaths do not have one central repository, nor do they possess any Horizon Chantries of their own. They can be usually found engaged in further study in the field of psychic phenomenon, hiding out as professors of psychology and whatnot. Despite the group's divided nature, however, a number of Empaths do keep in close contact and will infrequently gather for symposiums, conferences and even things like pop Renaissance Festivals and psychic bazaars.
The Empath's Universe
Psychic Projection of the Will (Magick) The Awakened: Those who have discovered their true Psyche and have come to understand their real identity in relation to the rest of the universe.
Subjective Projection (Coincidental Magick): The act of willfully projecting one's psychic desires in such a way that their reception is perceived as coincidental.
Objective Projection (Vulgar Magick): Projecting one's psychic desires without regard as to whether or not their reception is perceived as coincidence or intentional.
Psyche (Avatar): The true essence of individual existence. The "I", capable of comprehension, analysis and willful projection of intent and emotion. The Psyche is the real "person", while the physical body (including the brain) are simply incidental "housings" created by the subjective Psyches of all other individuals in existence.
Empathy (Arete): The degree to which a subjective individual (perceived being) understands his or her Psyche's true relation to the universe. This differs from the ordinary skill of empathy, which is a mundane affinity for another's psychic state.
The Psychic Plane (The Umbra): That "place" where feelings, thoughts, emotions, concepts and similar higher ideas reside. While the perceived physical world seems more real, it is really only a subjective construct of a number of powerful Psyches, while the Psychic Plane is the True Objective World, so to speak, existing for everyone and everything.
Ascension: A state of existence at which point the subjective individual has finally been discarded by the Psyche, allowing the True Self to project its Will without limitation. This is a state of pure objectivity or "realness," unlike the subjective or "false" world we perceive.
The Virtues (The Spheres) The universe is easily manipulated via psychic projection if one has come to not only understand his or her Psyche, but its relation to both the subjective (physical) and objective (psychic) worlds. This relationship might be stronger by virtue of Proximity or by virtue of Rationale, two of the nine distinct Virtues by which a Psyche may project its Will.
Balance (Entropy): Everything constructed by the Psyche, whether an idea or a physical body, is possessed of some innate degree of stability, or Balance. Those creations with too little are short-lived and tend to display their instability (decay, insanity, disorder), while those with too much stability are unchangeable and cumbersome (stubbornness, inflexibility, over-intricacy).
Empaths seek a middle road of Balance.
Relations (Forces): Without a thorough knowledge of how two or more psychic creations are related, one is unable to fully understand the subjective world, a place of increasing reliance upon such relationships. Even a simple refrigerator magnet can be understood to be "attracted" to other objects, allowing the Empath to seem to control all manner of electrical and natural forces.
Causation (Time): One of the more difficult Virtues to grasp, an understanding of Causation enables one to literally "move through time" and determine cause and effect more readily. Such knowledge may even allow one to reorder time, thereby changing the very cause of effects, and vice versa.
Constructs (Matter): The Psyche is capable of creating subjective objects by imbuing them with a stable amount of psychic potential. By definition, such Constructs are unsuitable for a Psyche's own physical manifestation, something that requires a constantly fluctuating psychic potential.
Emotion (Spirit): Perhaps the most abstract of the Virtues, the study of Emotion relates to just that, those psychic creations that have no subjective reality, but exist completely in the Psychic Plane. While the Sleepers contribute a lot to this Plane of ephemeral existence, they remain unaware of the much more objective nature of this place and the things (emotional entities) which call this place home.
Proximity (Correspondence): By virtue of Proximity, an Empath is able to determine for him or herself just what "space" is, limiting concepts such as measure and distance no longer imposing themselves upon the Will of the Psyche.
Psionics (Prime): Because one's ability to psychically project one's Will is largely determined by that individual's psychic potential, a deep understanding of Psionics in general will enable one to much more easily access such potential. Additionally, as everything created by the Psyche is composed of this energy, or potential, a good grasp of its true nature not only allows one to create her own Constructs, Vessels and Relations, but will give her the upper hand when dealing with those created by another.
Consciousness (Mind): Empaths have awakened to the truth that the true self resides in the Psyche, not the brain. This, however, does not mean that the study of the conscious mind is a waste. On the contrary, Consciousness is necessary if "higher concepts," not simple emotions and urges, are to be constructed and utilized. A fuller knowledge of this Virtue will empower an Empath to become truly capable of not only better organizing his own thoughts, but will give him power over the thought processes of others.
Vessels (Life): As stated above under Constructs, a subjective body that does not allow for fluctuation of psychic potential is unsuitable for the needs of a Psyche (but not necessarily unusable). By creating a construct that allows for an ever-changing psychic potential, a living body may be produced. A thorough familiarity with the Virtue of Vessels will produce an Empath capable of manipulating any and all living things, including him or herself.
Foci Like all mages, Empaths require certain foci in order to project their Will. The following are typical examples of their foci:
Sentimental Object of Target's (Consciousness/Vessel): The Empath must have in his or her possession an object that has significant sentimental value to the target of the effect. For things such as plants or microorganisms, the Empath uses some other appropriate "sympathetic" focus.
Sentimental Object of Empath's (Emotion/Psionics): Similar to the above focus, but in this case the focus must be one that is of sentimental value to the Empath.
Pendulum (Balance/Causation/Proximity): In order to properly serve as a focus, the pendulum must actually be depending freely. This can be as simple as a weight on a string if need be, though most Empaths prefer very unique pendulums if possible.
Magnet (Relations/Constructs): Representative of material objects and the forces which they interact with, magnets are the focus of choice for the given Virtues.
Psions (Quintessence) All of reality is composed of pure psychic potential, waiting to be manipulated by a Psyche's projection of Will. This potential may be more easily spoken of in measurably discrete amounts, called Psions. By accumulating Psions, an Awakened individual may direct his or her Psyche to project its Will more easily, as that Psyche will have a much greater psychic potential than another Psyche or even than the collective subjective Psyche of the Sleepers.
Psychic Nexus (Node): In some locations, such a great deal of psychic energy has been expended that it coalesces and literally "burns a hole" through the subjective world, one with immense psionic potential. This can be tapped into by those who understand this energy well enough, providing a very simple means of accumulating Psions.
Ectoplasm (Tass): Sometimes certain Nexuses have such psychic potential that if untapped they will nevertheless "leak" some
of that potential out into the subjective world. This type of energy is called Protoplasm and is a very portable form of psychic potential. Measured in Psions, the potential of Protoplasm can vary widely, and is therefore highly treasured.
Paradox When one pushes his or her Psyche too hard, ignoring the collective subjective Psyche of the Sleepers, that individual is likely to encounter resistance. If this resistance is overcome, the intended effect may be produced, but a danger still exists for the one responsible. This danger is in the form of psychic Paradox, believed to be the product of the Sleepers' collective Psyche and boosted by the Empath's own underlying fears. This Paradox can take various forms, some of which are listed below:
Incidental Paradox (Paradox Flaw): When Paradox first forms it may be immediately redirected away from the "offending" Empath. By successfully doing so, the Paradox is released into the subjective world, often manifesting in a vulgar and unpredictable manner. This Incidental Paradox, however troublesome, is still usually preferable to the sudden, uncontrollable release of a greater store of Paradox down the road.
Intentional Paradox (Paradox Spirits): Should an Empath incur a great deal of Paradox, that Empath may discover that it is released in a directed and intentional manner. This Intentional Paradox will actively "attack" the guilty Empath, though the exact nature of the attack varies widely, from a direct physical assault to a week's worth of minor harassment.
Psychic Laceration (Backlash): When an exceedingly Intentional Projection of Will backfires miserably, or a very large degree of pent up Paradox is simultaneously released from a Psyche, it can occasionally manifest as an excruciatingly painful physical/psychic injury. This Psychic Laceration will flay both the subjective individual (the flesh) and the Psyche itself, causing very serious wounds that even powerful Intentional Projection cannot correct.
Quiet Paradox (The Quiet): Perhaps the most unpleasant form that Paradox can take is that known as Quiet Paradox, or The Quiet. This manifests as subtle and convincing delusions and hallucinations that are capable of not only making an Empath appear insane to others, but may literally trap his Psyche in its own Hell of false perceptions. These hallucinations may even fool the Psyche into providing them with actual subjective substantiation, allowing them to become physical objects or beings.
Miscellany Sensitivity (Awareness): The innate ability to pick up emotional resonances and intentions as well as other psychic energies from one's surroundings. Unlike more intentional methods, such as Psychic Projection, empathic sensitivity is a "wild" ability, oftentimes demonstrated by Sleepers without any formal training.
Psychic Camouflage (Arcane): Many Empaths and other Awakened individuals are able to unconsciously conceal their very existence from the Sleepers and even other Awakened beings by a form of inborn Psychic Camouflage. While this allows one to remain better hidden from one's foes, it also results in what amounts to loneliness, as most who have contact with the "hidden one" will very rarely remember the individual, regardless of how often they are in each others' company (i.e. the mailman, the local bartender, a neighbor, the town gossip, etc.)
Dream: There are more things on Heaven and Earth... and the dreamstate is one of them. Some Empaths discover how to access not only the usual dreamlands that even the Sleepers may tread in the night, but also learn how to sift through the dreams there in order to pick up threads of information that might otherwise not be discovered. This "place" is not normally accessible by virtue of Ideas, and so offers a wildly unique vista for exploration to those possessed of this ability.
Enochians By Anders Sandberg
Description The Enochians are a small group inside the Order of Hermes. Not many mages outside of the Order know of them, and even among the members of the Order they are not very well known. Those mages who know of them regard them with a mix of irritation, worry and respect. They are a small, isolationistic fraction which tend to avoid contact with outsiders, spending their time and energy in study or on their secret projects. While they lack any real influence on the rest of the Order, the Enochians have played a important role in the development of the Hermetic theories of magick. Many theories advanced by Enochian mages have become mainstream in the Order the last few centuries. But the Enochian mages have a very different view from their more conservative brethren. Many hermetic mages are studying magick in order to find the foundations of the Universe. The Enochians claim they have found them. The rest of Order of Hermes remain sceptical of their claims, and argue that the Enochians certainly have found some very important truths and made several influential discoveries, but hardly The Truth. The Enochians seldom reply to the criticism, and continue their work.
History and Philosophy The study of Enochian magick began in April 20th 1587, when Dr John Dee, the famous Elizabethan mage, and his medium Edward Kelly encountered a being in the Umbra. This Being, which called itself the archangel Raphael, gave the mages a tablet of letters today known as "The Great Tablet", or "The Tablet of the Four Watchtowers". According to Raphael, it contained the secret names of the angels. The mages began to experiment with it, and found that they could summon a hierarchy of spirits, which today is known as the "Enochian Hierarchy". From communications with these spirits and Raphael they began to formulate a theory of the Universe and magick, which became the Enochian theory of magick. Soon they had gathered followers in the Order of Hermes, and became a small but dedicated group which still continue to work today. The Enochian theory of magick is complex and hierarchic. Every being, every pattern and every process has a superior. This superior has another superior, and so on. To control something, the mage must contact a spirit or force which rule over the thing the mage want to happen. To create fire the mage must summon one of the angels of fire. To extinguish the fire the mage must summon another angel who controls the extinguishing of fire. A more powerful mage may of course summon a superior of both fire- angels, but this may be a bit risky since the superior angel may become irritated with the mage asking such trivial services. Enochian magick use the Enochian language. This language is the true language of spirits according to the Enochians. It is a complex language with almost no vowels and an alphabet without earthly counterpart. Most mages in Order of Hermes acknowledge that Enochian is a very powerful language, and some groups use it besides the Enochians. The Enochians tend to be very careful to use it correctly, pronouncing everything exactly right. According to at least some Enochians the language is so powerful that a incorrectly pronounced letter in a ritual can bring the mage certain doom. Enochian magick is based upon the secret names of angels, spirits and demons found in the Great Tablet. This tablet, a 27x25 rectangle of letters without any meaning to a non-Enochian, contains the secrets of the universe. The letters represent the true hierarchy of forces in the universe. It is the blueprint of the universe, containing the true name of every angel, spirit, demon and god. Every pattern exists in this tablet, every human fate, and even the fate of the universe. The question is in which directions the mage reads it - horizontal, vertical, diagonal or in zigzag. In short the universe works as follows: In the top of the hierarchy there is The Highest, the Unknowable, the True Force. This pure state of existence have allowed a tiny spark of itself to fall down to create the universe. The force divided into the four elements. Each element is ruled by one secret name. Each element is also ruled by three god-names. These 12 names correspond to the signs in the zodiac. Each element is also ruled by the planetary lords of each element, besides the names of God. The elements mix with each other, and create 16 sub-elements, like Air-Water or Fire-Fire. Each of these subelements is ruled by two names of god, one to call upon the angels of the sub-element, the other to control them. Each sub- element has one archangel and four servant angels. Finally, there are the cacodaemons, the simplest entities who actually do the dirty work of creating the universe. There are 1024 greater cacodaemons and a lot more smaller demons. The universe is divided into 33 aethyrs, each separated from the others by almost impassable walls, or ring-pass-nots as they are called in the jargon. The physical world is the lowest of the aethyrs, surrounded by higher and higher spheres. The Gauntlet and the Horizon are the two lowest ring-pass-nots. Many Enochians believe the ring-pass-nots must be broken down to ensure the future ascension of humanity. Everything that happens is part of the Great Plan. Nothing is random, everything is planned from the beginning by the Highest. The mage must understand this Plan, and do his or her duty as a servant of the Plan. This plan for the universe is revealed in the forty eight keys, 19 short invocations in the Enochian language (The final key, "The Call of the Thirty Aethyrs" is counted as 30 keys for at total of 48 keys). Most Enochians spend much time studying the keys, meditating on their meaning and listening to what the spirits have to say about them.
To use his magick an Enochian often calls upon some of the angels, spirits or demons using the holy names of their superiors. Its highly ritualistic, and tend to take a long time. Their magick is almost completely ritual, and requires complete mastery of pronunciation and the secret names and titles of the spirits. In fact, they almost never use magick outside their temples. Instead they might send spirits or forces outside to perform tasks. Their magick is rigid and somewhat clumsy, but its power cannot be denied. The hierarchy of spirits they work with can be extremely powerful, and tend to take an interest in the life of the magician if he displays enough power and knowledge. It is unwise to harm a Enochian with powerful spirit friends. Many Enochians have spirit mentors which teach the mage in the true meaning of the Plan. On the other hand, the mage is quite dependent on the spiritual hierarchy. If he loses contact with it or irritate the spirits, he may suffer horribly. All in all, Enochians tend to do as the spirits say and the spirits do what the mage says. Both are, anyway, small cogs in the mighty Plan of The Highest. The Enochians are solitary, and seldom involve themselves in the affairs of other traditions . They have some contact with groups in the Celestial Chorus, but that is just about all. Most of the time they tend to avoid contact with anyone, preferring to speak with the spirits. Old Enochians are often disturbing and asocial even to mages, having spent more time communicating with spirits than with people. They tend to talk in a very formal way, as they are performing a magickal ritual, and they often think in terms a bit alien for most humans. One area Enochian mages tend to be active in is the search for nodes and quintessence. They will use almost any means to gain control over nodes in order to turn them into temples for the Enochian hierarchy. This is often the only time they clash with the other traditions. They also sometimes try to explain their vision to others, sometimes with surprising patience.
Philosophy We have seen a part of the Great Plan, and know our duty. We must obey the Plan and make the world ready for the next step in evolution, regardless of personal pain or danger. We must strive to understand the Plan every moment, both in our hearts and our minds. Soon the time of testing will come, the time when the barriers which imprison humanity will fall and the elements will be set free. It will be a time of chaos, destruction and sacrifice, but we will lead humanity out of darkness into the blinding light of the higher spheres.
Organisation None. Each Enochian is working alone on his little part in the Great Plan. But they do keep in touch using the spirits, and often get their orders from above. In practice each Enochian tend to know his place in the cosmic hierarchy, and become very irritated when someone or something overstep his bounds.
Meetings None.
Initiation Enochians seldom train apprentices. Most members are mages from the Order of Hermes or Celestial Chorus who have seen the Enochian vision and joined. Some are orphans, who have contacted (or been contacted by) the Enochian spirits themselves. They have never had any human mentor, and tend to be very strange.
Chantry None. Many Enochians search for nodes to build temples on. These are guarded by the most powerful spirits and forces the mage (and his assisting entities) can summon.
Acolytes None. Enochian mages tend to be solitary. In the old times they often used a medium to speak with the spirits the mage summoned, but today the mage usually speaks with the spirits himself.
Sphere
Forces, Spirit or Prime (Almost all the other spheres are regarded as unimportant. The mage chooses one sphere as his speciality)
Concept Hermit, Weird Old Man, Ceremonial Magician.
Foci Enochian: All spheres. This is a complex, powerful and secret language with its own alphabet. According to the Enochians each letter contains enough power to shatter the world if pronounced the wrong way. All magick involving the spirits or the elements in any way must use one of the 48 keys, which must be memorised.
Tablet of Union: Forces, Life, Matter, Mind, Prime. This is a 4x5 square containing the four holy names of the elements. It is often written on a parchment or a metal tablet worn as a amulet.
The Great Tablet: Not really necessary for any sphere, but unless the mage has perfect memory he should have one. This is the tablet representing the structure of the universe. It is a 27x25 square, containing all the holy names when read in the right directions.
Showstone: Spirit, Time. Often a black mirror (or a crystal among the more conservative Enochians). Enochians prefer to contact spirits through the mirror rather than summoning them directly, since the spirits are supposed to dislike appearing in material form.
Temple: Spirit. Enochians use not only a circle, but need a whole room correctly consecrated, with the right incenses, the altar of exactly the right dimensions and the symbols on the walls drawn at the astrologically right moment. Often the elemental subtablets are hung on the walls, and the Great Tablet is placed at the altar. Before entering the temple the mage must purify himself, and inside Enochians wear ceremonial robes.
Quote "This I was told by the third archangel of Air in Fire: we must consecrate temples around the world to prepare for the day when the time is ready. That day the lines of force between them will burn through the barriers. That day the foundations will crumble. That day mankind will find its destiny."
Stereotypes Celestial Chorus: Our brothers and sisters have seen the Light, and a small part of the Plan. Unfortunately they have not yet realised that we must break free from our bonds to reach The Highest, not the other way around. Hopefully they will realise this, and join us in our work.
Hollow Ones: A sign that the Day is not far ahead. Order of Hermes: They do not want to realise that most of their theories are illusions or half-truths. Too bad. All other traditions: Enochian mages tend to agree with the views of Order of Hermes on these traditions. Of course, most Enochians prefer to avoid any contact as much as possible, so they seldom have any views at all.
Example Rotes Opening the Four Watchtowers (Spirit 3 Forces 2): The mage summon the powers of the four elements to protect him and his temple. As long as the mage stay inside the temple he is protected by the Enochian hierarchy. Anything that happens inside the temple is known by the spirits, who may choose to intervene. They mostly use coincidental magick, but may in extreme cases choose to manifest
Closing the Veil of the Temple (Mind 2 Prime 2): This rote is a often used way to protect the temple. The mage cloaks the temple in a veil of uninterest, and seal this by routing some of the temples quintessence into the veil. A person who don't know about the temple will simply not notice it, or remain uninterested. It will not protect from those who know of the temple, but even those will have some difficulty to find a way in.
Contact Spirit (Spirit 2): The mage summon the spirit by reading the first Enochian key and another key relating to the spirits position in the hierarchy. If successful, the mage may communicate with the spirit through the showstone. This rote is very often
used, but the mage must be powerful enough to impress the spirit. Most Enochians start out with cacodaemons and the servant angels, and go on with the greater angels. All the following rotes use this method to perform magick.
Manifest Cacodaemon (Spirit 2 Matter 2 Prime 2): Allows a cacodaemon to physically manifest. The mage reads one of the 48 keys, and draws the three letters of the demons name in the air while chanting the two secret names who rule over that daemon. Cacodaemons are generally not very intelligent, and somewhat lazy. They do not like to have anybody ordering them around, and would happily escape or hurt the mage if the threat of their superiors keep them in check. The daemons size and physical shape is up to itself, and often quite weird.
Summon one of the Sixty-four Good Angels most Skilled and Effective in Medicine and the Cure of Sickness. (Spirit 2 Life 3 or 4): The mage summons a healing angel in order to heal himself or another. If the angel choose to help depends upon the situation, the power of the summoner and if it was the correct angel for that type of wound or sickness. Each angel has its own speciality.
Summon one of the Sixteen Good Angels Potent in Changing of Place (Spirit 2 Correspondence 3): The mage summons an angel who will transport him or somebody else to a desired place. Each angel is specialised in one kind of transport. For example, Tdim will perform transports over seas and water while Anaa can transport the mage to hot and sunny places (Hawaii or a desert).
Summon one of the Sixteen Good Angels Skilled and Potent in Understanding the Secrets of all Men (Spirit 2 Mind 3): The mage summons an angel in order to gain information about somebody. The angel (if it was correctly summoned and the right angel for the job) will search out the individual, subtly read his mind and body and return with the requested information. They are also good at finding information about other things. Many Enochians spend a lot of time conversing with these angels.
Summon the Mighty Archangel Pziza of Fire of Fire and his Four Cherubic Servitors (Spirit 2 Forces 3): The mage summons one of the archangels of pure fire. The archangel prefer not to manifest physically, but may perform services using its static magick. The mage should not summon Pziza lightly, since fire-angels tend to be impulsive and a bit aggressive. The archangel is very good at controlling the forces of fire, heat and destruction, if somewhat overeager to do so.
Summon the Mighty Archangel Erzla of Air of Air and his Four Cherubic Servitors (Spirit 2 Mind 4) : The mage summons one of the archangels of pure air. The archangel tend to manifest mentally, speaking directly into the mages mind. Airangels are quick, highly intelligent and curious, but have a short span of attention unless the mage have something interesting to say. Erzla is very good at explaining abstract theories and magick.
Summon the Mighty Lord Uolxdo of Earth of Fire, He whose Name is Annihilation (Spirit 2 Forces 4 Entropy 3) : The mage summons one of the Lords of Fire. If the Lord chooses to help the mage it can destroy almost anything or anyone, using its own considerable power or its servitors. This often happen using static magick. Typical effects is terrorist bombings, small earthquakes, traffic accidents, chemical explosions or riots. The targets demise is almost a certainty, since the Lord is known for his tenacity.
Summon the Senior Lord of Saturn in Fire, Arinnap, He who Protects with a Sword. (Spirit 2 Forces 5 Prime 2 Entropy 2) : The mage summons one of the most powerful spirits in the hierarchy to protect him. Arinnap will, if the mage has a good reason, protect him from any harm. Anybody who tries to harm the mage in any way, even unintentional, will be slain by the Lord. This Lord is not to trifle with, and can be as dangerous for the mages friends as for his enemies.
EPICUREAN GUILD By Anders Sandberg
Description This Guild was formed by members of the Cult of Ecstasy during the renaissance in Italy, mainly as a parody of the serious guilds and the traditions. Over the last centuries the guild has dissolved several times only to be restarted and reorganised again; the idea of a society for hedonists seems to have much vitality. American cultists would probably call the Epicureans bourgeois, but the Epicureans would just point out that there is no need for being poor or outside society to be truly avant garde, and it is much more interesting. The Guild functions a bit like an old boys network, where the members pledge to help each other to live life to the fullest. The main lodge is located in Marseilles, and secondary lodges can be found in many of the major cities of Europe. The meetings are usually held either in obscure restaurants or private apartments, or at secluded villas outside the city. Unlike the Cult of the new world, the Epicureans prefer subtle pleasures. Life is not lived for pleasure; life itself should be a pleasure, preferably with as much class and finesse as possible. Pleasures can always be refined to higher levels and the senses trained to note the most subtle details, to make even a sip of wine or the hint of perfume an ecstatic moment. One area the members of the Guild excel in is the appreciation of fine food and drink; a perfectly cooked dish served at the right moment with an inspiring wine is a transcendent ecstasy for the true gourmet. Many members are both skilled in the kitchen and at the table, coaxing new aromas into reality and able to discern the textures of taste itself. The Guild fights the Technocracy in its own way. It seeks to show the sleepers the beauty of the world, that through a few simple tricks in the kitchen an ordinary meal can become a feast and that love still is a force to be reckoned with. It contrasts the kitsch of the Technocracy with the quality and aesthetics of the old. Guild members have always been at home in high culture and intellectuals, and often are behind protests against new buildings, lowering of food standards or cut-backs in culture. In Italy they support the Slow Food movement, which tries to teach people to eat slowly and with relish, instead of just filling their stomachs with fast food without taste or style. In France they have ties to the wine farmers, who have fairly clear-cut views of how their regions should be handled. Also, somewhat unexpectedly, the Epicureans have some support from a group of vampires, who seem to share their interest in the aesthetic side of life.
ESCHERS By
[email protected]
Description The Eschers are mages who see that the infinite is the one true way to Ascension. Only by seeing, and being able to comprehend infinity will one's mind be able to ascend. The Eschers are few and far between, however they are crusading to gain new recruits. The magick of the group is produced in effects that bend space; while this would be vulgar for some people so far they generally pull it off quite nicely.
Philosophy We see the pattern in all, only we know that the true path to Ascension lies in the infinite. We see the infinite in art and magic, but we can help all of you to see it wherever you need it. We create the infinite in front of the eyes of millions, bringing them just a little closer. Take our hands and become one with the infinite within us all.
Style So far it's based off of stage magic and subtle mind control. It seems to be not so vulgar because of how amazed and joyful people are with Escher paintings, and their wanting to believe it can work.
Sphere Being Orphans, they don't have a real one, but they prefer Matter.
Common Foci Artwork, Math, Stylus, Stage Magic
Organization Not very structured generally; new members are chosen by older members for magic and artistic ability.
Initiation Decided on a case by case basis.
Acolytes Magician groupies, art lovers.
Concepts Mathematician, Stage Magician, Professor of Philosophy, Street Artist
ESPERS By D.J. Harper (
[email protected])
History In the late 40s, many sleepers experienced a much higher level of paranormal activities. Some of these were traceable to supernatural intervention, but others had no clear link to Kindred, Wraiths or Garou. Sleepers reported amazing feats of the mind; telepathy, clairvoyance, and other abilities that stunned the public. This became a real threat to the Technocracy's carefully planned scheduele for Ascension. If the masses started believing in unscientific, unexplainable psychic phenomena, how long would it be before the Traditions managed to bring back belief in hedge magic, alchemy and faith? And from there, how far until humanity reached the dark ages again? They acted quickly, and within a few months these fledgling psychics were crushed. But every so often, new reports would turn up. The Technocracy was angry at their lapse and quickly eliminated all loose ends. However, despite their best efforts, psychics kept on appearing, randomly and at odd intervals. Thus, in the later 1950s, an amalgam of the Progenitors was set up specifically to study the human mind and these so-called psychic phenomena. Once put under the scientific microscope, many of these psychics were 'proved' to be fakes. This, they believed, would harness the human subconscious against psychics and turn paradox against these would-be mages. Whether or not this was true, they were confounded again and again as new psychics kept appearing across the world. Before they could stop it, a cultural media of trashy newspapers and pulp fiction had grown up around these psychics, and they had begun to take a life of their own. The Technocracy was beginning to become afraid. But then, in the 1960s, they hit upon an even better plan. They created the New York Institute of Psychic Phenomena specifically to study and train these new psychics. Most were given drugs or surgery to 'cull' these magical disturbances from their system. A few, however, the most promising ones, were taken into the Technocracy fold, never to speak about their origins again. But as the 1990s roll around, the Technocracy has not yet won. Some of their once-psychic mages have turned around and bitten the hand that fed them, fleeing into the world and uplifting their own psychic colleages. Over time, they developed into small groups, and finally, into what might resemble a tiny Tradition. The Magi who call themselves Espers are the newest, and in a sense one of the oldest, of the Traditions. Before their awakening, Espers were sleepers whose natural unconscious minds were so attuned to magic that they began to evince psychic powers. In terms a mage can understand, they gained an unconscious ability to manipulate reality in some form, much as mages do, but in a much more limited fashion as they lacked the awareness of mages. The popular theory among the Espers today is that psychic phenomena are a result of the subconscious need of humanity for magic in a magical form. That is, for the unexplainable to have form. These needs do not resist the One directly, lessening paradox, but instead strike out randomly, touching random -- or not so random -- individuals with psychic energies or other supernatural forces, giving them what it wants. However, this seemingly random pattern is often fatal for their targets, who don't know enough about their new powers to avoid accidental death, or worse yet, drawing the attention of others before they can defend themselves. The first Esper mages, mostly fleeing Tradition mages and Technocracers, helped along some of their select brethren, and in so doing accidentally let them achieve ascension. It was then that they tied magic and psychic powers together. The mages who make up this fledgling tradition are struggling not only to survive their birthing spasms, but also to 'enlighten' the Traditions and Technocracy to their philosophy, which they believe can stop the Ascension War. The Esper Tradition is made up of such psychics who have Awakened, often on their own or with the guidance of another Esper. Espers usually start with high levels of Awareness and Arete.
Sphere Former telepathics gain Mind 1; telekinetics gain Force 1; and clairvoyants gain Correspondence 1.
Foci As their understanding of their own powers varies greatly, Espers tend to use different foci from each other. Espers who learn a sphere from a mentor take their mentor's foci in that sphere. Otherwise, espers are free to choose a foci from those other traditions use for that sphere. Some espers are strong-willed enough to see through the illusion of needing foci (those with high Arete) and espers prefer to go without them whenever possible. The Esper Tradition is not yet old enough to have its own standardized foci.
Chantry Espers are more commonly found in North America than the rest of the world, but they are by no means clustered anywhere. They have no one control base or headquarters, not being an established (or accepted) tradition yet. Espers meet at seances, para-psychic conventions, and, in the case of clairvoyant espers, by pure "chance" on the street. The New York Institute of Psychic Phenomenon is not, as many believe, an esper chantry, but rather a Technocracy holdout.
Philosophy The espers have joined together both from personal experience, often tinged with horror, and also from an abiding belief that humanity already has the necessary spark needed for Ascension; all that is needed is to light it, and in so doing, set the world aflame. By empowerment, humanity can achieve Ascension en masse, not the stagnation which the Technocracy is pushing. The proof of it is in the psychics, who are being created from the Technocracy's technological magic and not the Traditions foolhardy use of magick.
Game Mechanics Psychic powers are a feeble attempt at performing the feats a true mage is capable of. One of the first steps in becoming a magi is to unlearn their psychic powers and grasp the true magic open to them. Thus, espers are not united through their powers, but through their backgrounds and philosophies. Characters convert their psychic powers into experience points to spend immediately on magic spheres when they are Awakened. However, in the case of PC espers, there is no effect on game balance -- the mage merely learned spheres faster than average and had more to draw from. They start with the same number of freebie points, spheres and other attributes as any other mage.
Introducing espers into your campaign One obvious route to take is that of the espers trying to establish themselves. While the idea of psychics is in many cultures' mythologies to some extent, it is also, and perhaps more appropriately, a quasi-scientific phenomenon and part of sciencefiction. The traditions jealously guard their supremacy in their own spheres. There are already ten Traditions for only nine spheres, and the Espers would lay claim to three of these. Further, their view of magic may actually lie closer to the Technocracy's. They are in a unique position; science-using, but magick-loving mages, who wield science as their tool for their magick, but who prefer the older ways, the unexplainable and mysterious. The Technocracy is not evil, only misguided -- as are the Traditions. A fledgling group of espers might look to the Technocracy to become their sixth convention rather than join the traditions. Their philosophy means they could try to change the Technocracy from within rather than fight it and be destroyed. Certainly, the Espers are in no position to argue. They are weak, few in number, young, without resources and limited to only a few places. They may attempt to ally with the Technocracy, but they won't hold their breaths, either. The Technocracy has been trying to 'prove' psychic powers are fake for so long, can they really change their minds? Do they even want to? If they get a better offer from the Traditions, you can bet the Espers will go for it. They desperately need protection, but more than that, acceptance. Change can always come later.
EUTHANATOS PARADIGM (version 1) By Anders Sandberg
The Paradigm The Wheel. The Great Wheel of Existence constantly turns, moved by Entropy. Everything that is will someday be no more. As one part rises, another part must sink. There can be no life without death. There can be no light without darkness. There can be no success without failure. Our duty is to make sure the Great Wheel turns smoothly, so that fresh possibilities are created as old are removed.
Magick Turning the Wheel. We can turn the Wheel, making it move faster or slower, or even briefly stop it (but this entails a heavy price). Everything that exists is linked to change, and all change is ruled by the Wheel. By learning how different things change towards death and decay, we can learn how they interact with the Wheel, and thus control them.
Spheres Correspondence: Crossroads. The Crossroads exist everywhere, providing everybody with infinite choices. Just as time is a cycle, space is also cyclic. Move far enough and you will return to your origin. By turning the Wheel of space, you can be anywhere.
Entropy: Change. Entropy and Change are one. All that happens is driven by the forces of chance and decay. The Wheel can move faster or slower, or nudge changes into new cycles.
Forces: Dissipation. Of all forms, the forces are the forms which change the most. They cause changes, and they dissipate quickly. By modulating how fast they dissipate and where, they can be controlled.
Life: Death. All living beings survive on the death of others, feeding on their possibilities or extracting them from the world around them. In turn they will also die and sustain other life.
Matter: Dust. Everything will sooner or later turn into dust. It is the most stable form of existence, and everything will sooner or later turn into it. By turning the Wheel, everything can be reduced to dust, or dust returned to its former glory.
Mind: Illusions. Every being surrounds itself with comfortable illusions. Without illusions the unawakened cannot live. Break down some of their illusions and they will die, go mad or awaken. It is also possible to weave new illusions or change the old illusions.
Prime: Possibility. Possibility is the building block of everything. Pure Possibility decays into reality. Reality decays into Possibility again when its time has passed. The dance between Possibility and Entropy creates the universe.
Spirit: The Other World. The Wheel encompasses all of reality, all possibilities, not just the one we inhabit. Outside our world exist countless other worlds and inhabited by their own denizens. Below our world, below the Wheel, the worlds of the dead exist, where the old possibilities turn into dust to one day reform into life again.
Time: The Cycle. As the Wheel turns, things come to pass. Old dies and is replaced by new. New grows old. Everything moves along its destined course governed by the turning of the Wheel. If the Wheel is turned faster, things will change faster. Stop the wheel, and activity will cease.
Arete Disillusion. Every being is veiled in illusions, but some have broken down some of the lesser ones. They see more of the true world, and thus gain the power to understand the Wheel. Many proudly proclaim their enlightenment and refuse to search further, afraid of breaking their new illusions. The greatest illusion of all is that one have freed oneself from all illusions. This is also an illusion.
Quintessence Possibilities. When Possibilities first appear, they are without form and meaning. Soon they will become real under the influence of Entropy, but a wise mage collects some possibilities to use in the Turning.
Paradox Blockage. Sometimes mages attempting to turn the Wheel too violently fail, and cause it to become stuck or disturb its smooth turning. The Wheel will press against the blockage, and sooner or later it will give away, causing damage but restoring the balance.
Awakening Death. Every being is awakened once in its lifetime -- at the moment of dying. It will see beyond the illusions of its existence and pass into a new existence. Unfortunately almost all choose to forget that moment. It is our task to awaken those who are ready, and make others ready.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: The Shroud of the Reaper. When somebody frees himself from the illusions of life, and yet returns to do his duty, many of the sleepers will fear him. They subconsciously fear the presence of Death, and will avoid anybody or anything connected to It, so much they will even suppress the memory of ever having been close to It.
Avatar: Kia. As the people are reincarnated, they purify their Kias and give them the chance to learn. A mage whose Kia has undergone many Good Deaths will have a most powerful inner core.
Destiny: Karma. The Wheel might slow down or even stop for a time, but it will continue its unending cycles. In the same way the Karma of past incarnations will influence the present; maybe not today, but surely someday.
Dream: Intuition. There is only one true source of wisdom, and that is your intuition. It is the whispered wisdom of your past incarnations, the amassed learning of your Kia.
Node: Garden. New possibilities enter the world constantly. In some places they grow stronger than others, forming gardens of possibilities and newness. A wise mage gathers the growth, and prunes the weeds of these gardens.
EUTHANATOS PARADIGM (version 2) By Christopher Kobar
The Great Wheel (The Tellurian) The entire universe is simply a wheel that rotates forever on its mystical axis. All things are part of this Great Wheel, and all actions are simply part of the overall turning of the wheel, or the Cycle.
Turning (or Guiding) "the Wheel" (Magick): The Euthanatos and their kind are able to exert their will upon the Great Wheel and turn it as they desire for their own ends.
Infants (Sleepers): Those who have never yet glimpsed the Shadowlands. The Reaping (The Awakening): The moment at which a dead individual has the Caul torn from his face so that he may see the Underworld for what it is.
Guides (Mages): Those individuals who have undergone the Reaping and have since learned how to Turn the Wheel at will. Turning in the Fog (Coincidental Magick): A means of Turning the Wheel so that the act of doing so is masked by a Fog, keeping the Infants from realizing what has happened.
Soul (Avatar): The true essence of the individual that cannot "die," per se, but can become destroyed by being dissoluted into nothingness (Oblivion).
Eidolon (Arete): A measure of a soul's enlightenment and strength against its ignorant dark side, often called one's Shadow. By increasing one's Eidolon, Transcendence is made easier.
The Underworld (The Umbra): The world beyond the mundane, one which a soul must eventually traverse if one is to be reborn again. For the Euthanatos, there is only one "Umbra," and that is the one some call the Dark Umbra. While they accept that others believe that different Umbras may exist, for these Guides there is only the one. To "travel" to another would require intense study and a very powerful alteration of their paradigm. They believe others are speaking of the same one, but simply use other terms and concepts, perhaps not seeing it as "correctly" as the Euthanatos do.
Transcendence (Ascension): The Euthanatos believe that when one's soul completes The Journey through the Underworld, it can Transcend and be reborn stronger than it was before. This is the most important goal of all, for only by Transcending can one's soul continue on into the next Cycle.
The Venous Steps (The Spheres) The Great Wheel is difficult to understand, but it can be grasped by embracing and becoming familiar with the following concepts called The Steps, or Venous Steps, after a legendary staircase leading down to the very Axis of the Great Wheel, each step bringing one closer to enlightenment. It is said that great Charon himself reached the Axis and upon his return brought the wisdom of the Cycle with him.
The Journey (Correspondence): This knowledge is named for the journey which the soul must make through not only this physical life, but through the afterlife in order to reach its goal of reincarnation. This Step includes concepts of distance and direction as well as views of placement. It does not generally cover ideas relating to size and volume, although some Euthanatos have successfully incorporated such ideas after study with other mages.
The Tempest (Entropy): This Step is named for the notorious raging storm of chaos that supposedly hinders a soul from reaching its destination, thereby allowing it to achieve reincarnation. While the Tempest can be seen as a threat, it is necessary for the Great Wheel to turn. Without it, there would be no turning at all, and the Cycle would cease. Dissolution and decay are integral parts of the Tempest, although new combinations are also the result of this powerful storm.
Chains (Forces): Every action requires interaction between things, and these are referred to as the Chains that connect everything to everything else. By understanding these Chains, a mage may cause interactions or stop them (breaking the Chains). This knowledge also allows one to see the Chains and to understand what they mean for those things chained to one another.
The Quickening (Life): While the Tempest often works to break down the physical forms of a soul, it is the Quickening that works to build them up again. Understanding of the Quickening allows one to "quicken" beings, making them healthy again. It can also be used to reverse such a process, a useful tool for bestowing the Good Death.
Forgery (Matter): This Step allows the seeker to grasp the concept of how the Inertia of the Great Wheel can be forged into an unlimited number of "non-quickened" things. Forgery is sometimes called "smithing", and mages who rely upon this knowledge very heavily are often referred to as Smiths.
Masks (Mind): Here in the world of the living, it appears that everyone has a mind, or psyche, but the Euthanatos know that these are only masks worn by the soul. These masks give only hints of the soul's true essence, but do allow the soul to be "recognized" on this side of the Shroud.
The Axis (Prime): Knowledge of the Axis of the Great Wheel gives one the power to control it, making very powerful or permanent "turns." The Axis is the source of Inertia and therefore one of the most crucial Steps to understand if one is to truly achieve Transcendence.
The Afterlife (Spirit): This Step embraces concepts of the soul and the Underworld, focusing on what souls truly are and what they are capable of. A good understanding of the Afterlife lets one actually "part the Shroud" and enter the Shadowlands, as well as to summon forth those souls that have already gone there themselves. The Euthanatos do not accept (like the Dreamspeakers and others) that everything has a "spirit." Such ideas are silly when one considers the Tempest and the need of a strong will to resist its temptation.
The Cycle (Time): To undestand the Cycle itself is to understand fate and the inevitable. Concepts of destiny and possibility are embodied in this Step and are useful for those who spend so much time "guiding" others forward in their own Journeys.
Inertia (Quintessence) The Great Wheel turns on its Axis, giving rise to Inertia. This Inertia is the quintessential building-block of reality, and would cease to exist if the Wheel stopped turning. This would be Oblivion, something that must be stopped at all costs. The Euthanatos and other "guides" are able to use their own will to "turn the wheel", thereby using the resulting Inertia for their own ends.
Inertium (Tass): Sometimes Inertia is not "put to use" and bleeds off through the Shroud, appearing in the world of the living. It congeals upon contact with this pale reality, the Fog proactively concealing it from the senses of the Infants that might stumble upon it. Those who have undergone the Reaping, however, may easily recognize this discrete Inertia and use it to aid them in more easily "turning the wheel."
Nexus (Node): Wherever the Shroud is thin, a nexus might form. These are the places where Inertium appears and where easy access to the rest of the Great Wheel's Inertia may be had. Souls on the other side often haunt these sites, hoping to make contact with the living.
Friction/"Heat" (Paradox) Whenever someone "turns the wheel" too much, the Great Wheel will resist, resulting in friction. This friction will "burn" whoever tried to do the turning, the results ranging from literal burns to being "caught in the spokes."
Burn (Paradox Flaw): This is the most common consequence of friction. It can take the literal form of striated burns across the mage's body or might simply "burn away" some otherwise normal part of his life, the results being too varied to predict.
Flames (Paradox Spirits): When the friction gets bad enough, it seems to take on a mind of its own, seeming to actually "attack" the offending mage. These "attacks" are called flames.
Meltdown (Backlash): Sometimes, if the friction is really bad, a terrible Meltdown can occur, resulting in most horrible consequences for whoever suffers from it.
Seeing Red (The Quiet): When a Euthanatos has accumulated a great deal of friction, he may begin to "see red" or "see a mirage," as some say. Illusory things will be perceived and nothing will seem to make sense any more.
Miscellany The Good Death: Any death that results in the removal of a threat to The Cycle. This can mean that the victim was a direct threat to the Euthanatos or simply that the victim's continued existence would have been a hindrance to others achieving reincarnation.
The Gift (Awareness): Those who receive the Gift are able to glimpse the Great Wheel itself and see the world as it truly is. Shroud (Arcane): The degree to which the Shroud hides the Euthanatos himself from the senses and psyches of others around him.
Omens (Dream): The ability to recognize omens and to interpret them successfully.
Euthanatos: Beyond the Good Death By Colin Y.S.C. (
[email protected])
Preamble I had originally conceived this to be a sub-tradition of the Euthanatos, but it quickly assumed its own momentum. Most interpretations of the Euthanatos seem to revolve around the Tradition's supposed association with WRAITH. My argument however is that the Euthanatos's sphere is Entropy, not Spirit; life and death are considered equals in a greater cycle of existence. Furthermore, there are constant hints that the Tradition originated in the subcontinent of India. Apologies to any real Saivas out there, but there are just too many uncanny parallels between MAGE and Hindu metaphysics. P.S. "Euthanatos" has been used here as both the singular and plural senses of the word. Anyone who has a problem with that can speak to my lawyer.
Background "Thou art the final resting place of this universe." -- the Bhagavad Gita, 9.18. The Euthanatos today has adherents the world over, from the dark streets of New Orleans to the jungles of Bali. The Tradition however bases itself in the land of its birth, India. Unlike the Akashic Brotherhood in China or the Celestial Chorus at Rome, the Euthanatos has never linked its fortunes with that of a kingdom, polity or nation. Instead, it sees its mission as one to all humanity. Instead of trying to influence a single culture, the Euthanatos work towards Ascension at a highly individualized level. Towards this, the Tradition has often worked through localized, mystical cults which emphasize one's personal relationship with the Divine. Throughout its existence, the Euthanatos has manipulated the cults of Baal and Anath, the dark worship of Ahriman, the Shiite sect of Assassins, the cult of Rangda, the Thuggees, and the Saiva-Shakta sects of India. The Euthanatos itself is not a religion, but its doctrine of death and transmigration shares much in common with religious mysticism, especially Hinduism which it influenced and was itself influenced by. The Euthanatos do not truly worship Shiva or Kali, or any of the other gods of Hinduism. Instead, Shiva is seen as the personification of the Euthanatos ideal, to be contemplated and emulated. Many modern mages feel that the religious trappings of Saiva, the adoration of Shiva, are no longer necessary as an aid to Ascension, but many others feel that Saiva remains important as a focus for the Tradition. Briefly, Shiva represents all that is dark and uncontrollable in the universe. In Hinduism, he is one of the two greatest manifestations of the Divine, alongside Vishnu, the embodiment of light and order. All of Shiva's aspects are metaphors for the many faces of Entropy : the god of storms, haunter of tombs, master of ghosts, bringer of pestilence, lord of the dice, drinker of poison, and the Destroyer of worlds. His dance keeps the universe in motion, and as his breath created this existence, so his hand shall destroy it.
History "It is eternal, without beginning and without end." -- Katha Upanishad, 6.12. The Euthanatos locates its history at least 5000 years back, to the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley, one of the first civilizations to appear on Earth. In the ruins of Moenjadaro, "the City of the Dead," clay seals have been found depicting a Shivatype figure, horned and seated in yogic position, surrounded by wild beasts. The Euthanatos weathered the destruction of the Harappan culture and the Aryan invasions circa 1000 BCE. They adapted and assimilated the Vedic religion of the Aryans. By the 2nd century BCE, the worship of Shiva was becoming powerful again in India. The Euthanatos today continues to centre its activities at Calcutta, the sprawling capital of Madras named after Kali, spouse of Shiva and goddess of destruction. Curiously, the Tradition is most commonly known by a Greek name. This is the name which the Tradition has accepted for itself in western circles, allegedly because the Greeks were the first "Europeans" to encounter the Tradition. Although the Euthanatos has long had a foothold in Mesopotamia, it was only in the 4th century BCE when they encountered the Greeks. More accurately, it was probably the Greeks who first reached the Euthanatos, marching under the banner of Alexander the Great. Alexander reached Baluchistan (modern-day Pakistan) and sailed down the Indus, and Greek ambassadors were later sent to the court of the Mauryan empire in North India and Afghanistan. The Euthanatos too probably travelled westwards. It is known that there were Indian ascetics in Athens and the great cities of the Near East by the time of Christ. The name which the Greeks gave the Euthanatos seems to be an attempt to translate the concept of Moksha, the blissful state of extinction which the Euthanatos hold to be Ascension. The Euthanatos themselves refer to their Tradition simply as the Sadhaka, "mages." Some old texts also have the name Kapalikas, "Bearers of the Skull" in Sanskrit, from the old custom of
carrying a human skull as a begging bowl.
Paradigm "... and one is released from the jaws of death." -- Katha Upanishad, 3.5. Humanity is trapped within an endless cycle of rebirth akin to imprisonment. This is because of the cosmic law of Karman, that consequences of one's deeds will pursue one relentlessly. Even death is no escape, since Karman follows one through all incarnations, condemning a person to rebirth in order to reap the fruits of actions not yet "ripened" in this life. Ascension is escape from this cycle (called Samsara), to attain a state of blissful non-being, Moksha. Death in this world is not true death since it simply means a return to the cosmic Wheel (the Sri Chakra) for subsequent reincarnation. There is only one true Death, Moksha, which is the Good Death that means eternal release from desire, suffering and individual consciousness. By nurturing one's Karman, one can attain Ascension. There are three paths to do so: the disinterested execution of duty, the accumulation of knowledge and the practice of mysticism. The Euthanatos combine all three paths in their Tradition, and hence follow the perfect path towards Ascension. Since Karman means that each person is ultimately responsible for her own fate, it is useless to attempt any grand-scale modification of Reality as the other Traditions believe. It is futile to try and live another's life for him. But as mysticks, the Euthanatos are moved to assist those who are unaware of Reality's true nature. Life is precious to the Euthanatos, since it is only in life that one can work towards Ascension. In fact, life is too precious to be abused pursuing goals which are not only worthless in themselves but may also jeopardise one's destiny by corrupting one's Karman. The best thing that can be done is to hasten the turning of the Wheel. Killing the profane not only returns their being, their Atman, to the Wheel where they can be reincarnated into new lives, but it also halts their disasterous journey towards karmic retribution.
Eschatology As far as the Euthanatos are concerned, life and death are one and the same. Death, material death, simply means a return to the Sri Chakra, the Wheel. Death is only regrettable insofar as much of one's knowledge towards Ascension may become forgotten in one's new incarnation, but since Karman follows one from life to life, this is at best a temporary setback. Wraiths are merely part of the process of Samsara, the cycle of rebirth. The "afterlife" contains no higher spiritual truths. Wraiths remain subject to the Karman which they accumulated in life, but in their present state are unable to continue pursuit of Ascension, which is why the Euthanatos value life so much. Many Euthanatos despise wraiths. On the one hand, wraiths are delaying the Wheel of Reincarnation. On the other, they only display their ignorance in thinking the living world any more 'real' or 'lasting' than their own.
Cosmology and Magick "...and by the devotions of Ravana was the throne of Indra, king of the gods, shaken." -- the Ramayana The Euthanatos perceive the universe as insubstantial, being made of the same substance as thought and consciousness. But although it is insubstantial, the world is not devoid of meaning, since it is through the world that Ascension is achieved. The vast majority of people fail to grasp the true nature of Reality because of Maya, the power of illusion exerted by the universe itself, which deludes people into thinking that the world is solid, "real" and immutable. Maya freezes Reality and blocks off the Spirit realms. It has a useful role in the cosmos, but the Technocracy has perverted it and turned it into their own instrument. The enlightened can see beyond the veil of Maya. Since reality is of the same stuff as consciousness, it can be manipulated by sentient thought. Maya however constantly works to foil the mage. Only through grace ("arul", or Arete) can the mage transcend Maya and move towards Ascension. Furthermore, the universe is diffused with Shakti, divine energy. This energy comes from the Brahman, the One spoken of by the Celestial Chorus. Shakti is therefore Prime or Quintessence, and is the fount of all creation. Without Shakti, nothing exists. Shakti is accessible to the enlightened, and can be employed for all manner of siddhi, or magickal effects. Entropy, the sphere of the Euthanatos, is envisioned in Shiva as the most important power in the cosmos. Entropy is perceived, ironically, as part of a greater order. Chaos and order are intrinsically related and balanced as equals in the universe. (Fractals come as old hat to the Euthanatos.) This is the metaphor of the Nataraja, Shiva as Lord of the Dance, whose wild, unfettered movements measure the rhythm of the universe and keep it in motion. Qlippothic Entropy is an abomination to the Euthanatos because it is unbridled and meaningless, unconcerned with the greater scheme of things. It is asat in Sanskrit, meaning "chaos" with connotations of something unholy and apocalyptic, and is alien to the dualistic perfection of the Euthanatos paradigm.
A Sanskrit Glossary Akasha: Hindu metaphysics lists five elements, four of which are identical to the Greek elements of fire, earth, water and air. The fifth and most subtle element is akasha, described as the material support for sound. The Technocracy denies the existence of akasha, claiming air to be the support for sound instead. Akasha is commonly translated as "ether," but can also be thought of as "quintessence" (the fifth essence). N.B. The word probably also lies behind the name of another Tradition, the Akashic Brotherhood. If this is the case, then the Brotherhood's name is really the Brotherhood of Ether (!!) or the Brotherhood of Quintessence. p.s. I know it's nit-picking (my favourite hobby) but the Oriental elements are not fire, earth, water, air and void, as suggested by the Akashic Tradition book and others. Taoist metaphysics holds the five elements (wu hsing) to be fire, earth, wood, water and gold.
Arul: "grace", Arete. Asat: "chaos", Qlippothic Entropy and the Nephandi who use it. Asrama: a Euthanatos chantry. Asura: an inhabitant of the infernal regions; any dark or malevolent spirit. Atman: the self which animates the individual and undergoes reincarnation; very broadly speaking, the soul. Avatar: the part of the soul which is "divine," descended from the Godhood, and permits the use of magick. Deva: a "higher," usually benevolent, spirit like an Incarna or Celestine. 8 Kali: "black female"; the Goddess as the Black Earth Mother, the dark and malevolent aspect of Nature.
Kapalikas: "bearer of the skull"; 1. a now extinct Saiva sect of ascetic mendicants who used a human skull as a begging bowl (historical); 2. an ascetic sect of the Euthanatos; 3. a name for the Euthanatos in general.
Karman: also Karma. The concept that one's deeds affect one's own fate. Karunya: the pity which moves the mystick to assist those who remain ignorant of Reality's true nature. Loka: "world," a region of the universe, denoted by its rulers and/or inhabitants, such as the sphere of Gaia or Stygia. Maya: commonly but inaccurately translated as "illusion"; the power of the universe to disguise its true nature. Moksha: escape from the Wheel of Life and Death; Ascension. Pashu: "livestock"; derogatory name for Sleepers. Pralaya: "doomsday" Rakshasa: a Nephandus or demon, especially one using deceit and illusion. Sadhaka: a Euthanatos mage. Samadhi: a state of meditative grace, applied to the moment of Awakening or on completion of a Seeking. Samsara: transmigration, the material universe. Shakti: divine energy; Prime or quintessence. Shiva: the ideal of the Euthanatos; a Hindu deity portrayed with four arms, covered with ashes and serpents, with a third eye in his forehead.
Siddhi: Magick. Sri Chakra: the Wheel of Life and Death. Trailokya: "the Three Worlds" of High, Middle and Low Umbrae. Trilaka: he mystical "third eye" which looks inwards, but can be used to release devastating power. Yuga: a cosmic period which comes in cycles of four, analogous to the Platonic gold, silver, bronze and iron ages. The yugas are not named for metals, but appropriately after throws in dice. The first and most glorious (double sixes) is krtayuga, followed by tetrayuga, dvaparayuga and finally kaliyuga (snakes' eyes).
FIANNA EIRINN By Thom Scott (
[email protected]) The Eirinn (to avoid confusion) are the inheritors of the proud Milesian tradition, the Celtic magi-warriors who dwelled between the worlds. Being based in a separate realm from Earth they have suffered little from the pogrom and in fact are dismissed by the Techncracy as deluded Verbena offshoots, not the powerful force they are. The Eirinn were one of two classes of ancient celtic warrior. A code of honour and the favor of the gods made them the subject of legend. When at long last they were no longer needed they retired to the umbal realm of their past and Arcadia. They are a frightening force to behold. They emerge from the Umbra without warning, fighting the Nephandi, Wyrm minions, fomori, and technocracy alike. They strike hard and fade back to the umbra. Only recently have they made forays into the world for social reason. They emerged to find their name usurped by a tribe of werewolves who had played a role in a great repression of mankind while they were gone called the Impergium. For many years the standing order on strikes was that if Werewolves got in the way, they were targets. Recently, though, the true situation has become clear that not all of the Garou (werewolves) were behind or even fully in support of the impergium and tentative peace measures have been made to the Garou Fianna and the Garou have been responsive.
Philosophy: These new Fomori are as evil as the old that we fought millennia ago. They serve an even more evil master. We will stop them. The technocracy are also our enemies for their actions to destroy magick and limit our movement across the worlds. Magick is still easier in our ancestral lands, they have not completely broken the belief in the art in the celtic lands, but we still find reality tries to resist us even here. We shall break the Technomancers one day and return the art to the people of the world so they may truly find Ascension.
Organization: The Eirinn are organized into bands of clanless warrior magi usually 5-10 in size. On a strike several bands will operate together
Meetings: Informal festivals on the eight sabbats. No regular meetings above the band level otherwise. Initiation: The Eirinn rarely recruit from the Earth, prefering the people of their own realm for the bulk of their forces. Even when a promising candidate from earth is taken in, they are trained in the Fianna realm
Chantry: A realm in the umbra populated by descendants of the ancient celts. The technology is a bohemian mix of modern tech altered to run on magick. The people of the Fianna realm have begun tring to keep an eye on the world but culturaly are still very close to nature.
Acolytes: Celts, martial artists, Wiccans, anyone of a naturalist mindset. Sphere: Spirit Foci: Clothing - spirit,correspondence Weapon - forces, entropy, life Jewelry - prime, time, matter Circlet - mind
Quote: "We have been gone too long and see that we never should have left. Call us fools if you must, but we have one resource you do not: We can destroy them, They cannot find us. We will save this world from them."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They fight for the world, in that they are our brethren. but they do not see all of the enemies before them. Celestial Chorus: True Ascension lies in the empowerment of all not their subsumation into a mockery of spirit. Cult of Ecstasy: Pity. There are a few worthwhile in this group but most are sadly wasted potential. Discordians: Though they revel in choas they have potential as great allies for their unpredictability. Euthanatos: As is said on earth, if you can't say anything nice, you must be discussing these monsters. Hollow ones: If they can be reached, bring them to the fold: they can use our protection, we can use their power. Order of Hermes: They are too scholarly but they put their power to good use...usually. Runecasters: Our brothers to the north, we fought both with and against their ancestors. We know and respect them. If they need help, they need only ask.
Sons of Ether: They are not the warriors in this war but they will be important once the war ends - Their technology is not the
abomination to the world that the Technocracy is.
Technolibertarians: Like the Sons of ether, when the war ends we will welcome them in the efforts to rebuild. Verbena: They are a darker shadow of our own tradition, but as distastful as they are, they are necesary. Virtual adepts: They have potential, if they would but apply it Wikka: When the battle end and great glory has gone to the warrior, it is time for greater glory to go to the healer. They are always welcome among us.
Necromancers: Abominations. Destroy them whereever they are found and all their corrupt pages. Sons of Jupiter: Dark as they are and fractious, support them. They fight the same war on a different front. However, they do not have the luxury of the realm to fall back upon. And often pay a more personal price.
Wanderers: They do not fight as we do, but they are forgiven. When the war ends they will have the wisdom to lead and counsel all. Time Lords: Non-intervention my arse. The ones who do intervene make a damn big difference in this war. Cerebus: Weird but effective warriors...when they choose to be Blacksmith: Our friends, brothers, armorers, and comrades in arms. The steel they work is nothing to that from which they are made.
PROGNOSTICATORS (FORECASTERS) By Anders Sandberg The Prognosticators are one of the most well guarded secrets of the Technocracy, and one of the main reasons for Its success. They have members from all conventions, and chart the future evolution of society, economics, technology and even the Technocracy itself. The Prognosticators, colloquially called the Forecasters, have been a vital part of the Technocracy since it started. In the beginning they used astrology and methods which today would be called magick, but as time went on their methods evolved. After the spread of trade, they began to develop the nascent science of Economics together with the Syndicate. They invented statistics and gametheory to help them, and they discovered Sociology and Psychology centuries before the sleepers was allowed to do so. Today they use complex mathematical models run on supercomputers to analyse and predict future developments. They use catastrophe theory (which they carefully suppresses among the sleepers), advanced versions of chaos theory and their own branch of psychology, psychomathematics. The accuracy of their models is startling, far better than anything imagined by sleepers. The Forecasters have centuries of data and experience to draw on, and they have had many chances to test their models extremely carefully. Not only that, but by being a part of the Technocracy they have had true "Insider Information", and they have even manipulated society to become more predictable! By helping the New World Order create collectivist societies, they remove the random influence of individuals from their equations. The Progenitors make people more controllable and less creative using their drugs, thus simplifying them for the Forecasters. The Forecasters models are extremely complex, and require massive computer installations to run efficiently. In earlier times they employed hundreds of clerks for their calculations, each clerk a small cog in the human computer. The Virtual Adepts and Forecasters had close contact, and the Adepts made major contribution to the models. Their defection was a hard blow, but the Forecasters survived relatively intact. Today there are still some Forecasters inside the Adepts, not to mention those who struck out on their own, forming secret groups hiding from both Traditions and Technocracy. Needless to say, the forecasts they make are vital for planning inside the Technocracy. They can calculate the most probable results of any action, the general trends of any system, how groups and individuals react and the long term changes in history. Their methods work absolutely best on large groups with little individual influence, like nations or corporations. They are seldom right about short term and small developments, but on larger scales they are chillingly accurate. Individuals and random events are the bane of their predictions, causing radical changes without any way to predict it beforehand. However, the Forecasters have begun to learn how to deal with even them, as there seems to be some ways to approximately factor them. Another problem is groups who attempt to avoid being predicted or use predictive methods themselves, since they cause feedback in the calculations. Sometimes this stabilises things and makes everything much more calculable, but most of the time it just destroys the accuracy of the trends. This is a great limitation, since it makes it very hard to predict the future developments of the Technocracy itself and the Traditions. Much work is underway to find a solution. Beside modelling the future, the Forecasters also study how to model individuals, organisations and economical systems. Using their advanced psychological models and all available information about a person, they can create a simulation of the person and test how he or she will react in different situations. They can find weak points, use the simulation to improve their models and develop rather accurate psychological profiles. The same is true for larger groups, which are much easier to predict. Progenitors use their models to predict the development of organisms, Iteration X and the Void Engineers use their models to plan future technological and scientific progress. Another important discovery is that they can study history and find patterns which doesn't fit in. This is usually a sign of purposeful manipulation, and by comparing with Technocracy records they can discover awakened activity or other groups using their methods. However, this works best from a distance in time (to get enough overview), so it is of limited use in tracking down current activities. One of the most important aspects of their work is finding bifurcation points (also known as horseshoe nails or fulcrums), small events which will have great impact later on. When they find one, they carefully try to analyse the effects of them and plot the possible outcomes, which is often quite hard. They make sure nobody else will interfere, and manipulate them to suit their ends. This is sometimes risky, and several times they have failed. But the Forecasters are quite good by now, and some even have learned how to create bifurcation points by manipulating the parameters of a system. A typical example of a Bifurcation Point was the elimination of Lee Harvey Oswald, which created lasting social and psychological changes in American society. Naturally, the Forecasters have great influence in the Technocracy. Without them, the organisation simply wouldn't work at all, and it is dependent upon their work. That gives the Forecasters great influence, but they are also watched very closely. When a project is underway, the Administration often lets several teams work in parallel without knowledge of each other to make sure no manipulation of results or errors are done. The Forecasters generally work in research teams of 4-10 persons, often consisting of several conventions to deal with different aspects of their areas of study. The Economists of the Syndicate are experts at economical planning and prediction, the Social Engineers of NWO at the social aspects and Iteration X at the technological side. The Progenitors and Void Engineers are more interested in pure research, and are mostly used as experts in narrow areas close to their work, such as the medical industry. Recently some Forecasters have begun to notice worrying trends and irregularities, sometimes even inside the Technocracy. Their source so far is unknown, but some members have begun fear that the organisation has internal flaws which might even destroy it in the future. So far they haven't dared discuss this with their superiors without any evidence, but some of them have begun to worry that time is running out. Another problem is the rouge Forecasters. Beside those Forecasters who left with the Virtual Adepts, there are others. The
Technocracy has tried to suppress the true methods of forecasting, but not entirely succeeded. Sometimes carelessness or independent discoveries have allowed outsiders to learn the secret, and this has led to small groups of rouge Forecasters. Most of these groups are small, secret societies which use the forecasts to gain wealth and power. Some use them to try to change the direction of history. They are seldom thinking of themselves as mages, more as scientists or engineers. Many of them don't even know anything about the other forces in the world, although some suspect something is afoot. Most of their existence is spent in hiding from real and imagined foes. Those groups who don't hide well enough fall prey to others or the Technocracy, which is naturally quite interested in competitors. However, It doesn't destroy all rouge groups It finds. Instead it often tries to subvert them, especially those groups who are interested only in wealth and power. They become very useful pawns for the Syndicate, who uses them to do its dirty work. The Idealists have sometimes surprisingly technocratic ideals, but most of the time they are just trouble and are terminated.
Foci and spheres: The Forecasters might belong to different Conventions, but they mostly use the same foci, psychomathematical models run on mainframe computers. The Forecasters specialise in mainly Time and Entropy, with much attention to Correspondence and Mind. The other spheres are individual specialisations.
Quote: "According to the Helleman-analysis, the stock market will crash on the 8th September, plus or minus five days, with a probability of 89 percent. However, there is an alternative solution involving just some market fluctuations which could be strengthened if we can temporarily decrease the economical flux through alpha-variant stocks. If this is done, a reverse bifurcation followed by a realignment would make the continuous solution stronger, probably around 67% percent."
Modelling methodologies (Rotes) Forecast (Time 2): This is the most common duty of the Forecasters. They feed their massive databases into their models, and predict the most probable future outcomes of the current situation. Often they limit their predictions to a narrow area to avoid having to do too complex calculations. The predictions take the form of stacks of printouts, showing the statistical behaviour of the future in a complex psychomathematical notation that has to be interpreted by experts. [ The difficulty varies upon the conditions. The initial difficulty is 5, but is changed due to other factors: Accuracy: +2 Accurrate information needed (Date of stock market crash) 0 Normal precision (which candidate will win the elections?) -2 Only general predictions needed (will the economy grow?) Size of forecasted population: +2 Very small (a few individuals, a cabal) +1 Small (less than 30 persons) -1 Large (more than one million people) -2 Very large (nations, the whole world) Dependency on individual actions: -2 No dependency (bureaucracies, social movements) 0 Normal dependency +2 Strong dependency (charismatic leaders, inventors) Likelihood of random influence: +2 Very High (Stockmarkets) +1 High (Assassination attempts, elections) 0 Normal -1 Low (Soap operas) Timescale: +2 Very short (days) +1 Short (weeks) 0 Medium (months) -1 Long (years) -2 Very long (decades)
Miscellaneous: +1 Fast, chaotic development. -1 Slow development. -1 Pivotal person(s) simulated. -2 Pivotal person(s) well understood -2 Active manipulations to keep prediction correct. +2 Active manipulations to increase randomness. +2 Awakened beings involved +5 Studied group uses prediction. +10 Studied group uses prediction and tries to avoid tracking. Examples: Predicting the global economic trends instead is easy, since its a long timescale, no individual dependency, a very large group and no detailed predictions are needed, giving a difficulty of -3. This is of course compounded if future manipulations of the Syndicate are taken into account, when it rises to 4 (Awakened and uses prediction too). Predicting the future developments of vampiric society in a city the next few decades would involve a small population with strong dependency on individuals, a very long timescale and awakened beings. The resulting difficulty is 5+1+2-2+2=8. Predicting the activities of the Virtual Adepts are almost impossible, since they actively tries to avoid being predicted, support randomness and individuality, develop fast and struggle with the Technocracy. The difficulty becomes 19 for normal timescales!]
Detect Pattern (Correspondence 3 Entropy 1 Time 2): By comparing events with each other and running sophisticated algorithms, the Forecasters can detect patterns which normally would seem random. They can predict how the patterns will develop, trace their history and often discover who is behind it. Typical applications are scanning for Tradition activity or crime.
Model Person (Mind 4 Time 2): By collecting all available information about a person into their computers, the Forecasters can create a model of the person. This simple simulation can then be studied as if it was the person, and reveal such things as mental state, general personality, weak and strong points or behaviour under certain conditions. Its not a real AI, just a psychomathematical model which will react to programmed stimuli, but there have been some success with merging such models with Iteration X designed AIs and Progenitor designed clone bodies to create replica persons.
Track Manipulations (Time 2 Entropy 2): This is continuously done to see if other groups attempt to manipulate the trends. The Forecasters carefully analyse events to see if they have been manipulated by someone, using their computers to search for patterns. The difficulty lies in the fact that most manipulators are very careful, and the results are seldom apparent until years later.
Find Bifurcation Point (Entropy 1 Time 2): By analysing the lyapunov-exponents of the historical flow around certain events, the Forecasters can find which events have the greatest potential to change history. When found, they can be further analysed with "whatif"-scenarios.
Create/Destroy Bifurcation Point (Entropy 5 Time 2 Prime 3): This is very advanced manipulations, which require massive manipulations of social, economical or technical parameters. By changing them slightly, the Forecasters can bring Bifurcation-points into existence or remove them, but the changes are not entirely controllable. All such manipulations require approval from the Administration. Removing such points are more common, since its better to follow a known track than to follow an unknown track.
Themes Is there any free will or does determinism rule everything? Is it really possible to control the course of history, or do those who think it delude themselves? Is really the past or future absolute? What are the consequences of meddling with history? Does knowledge about the future make you less human?
Mood Stories including the Forecasters will often include an element of paranoia and twisted logic. They are always on their guard against possible enemies, even enemies who have not yet become their enemies. They always try to think at least one step before everybody else, sometimes getting caught in logical loops and bizarre models. Their actions are not always apparent, because they are only interested in their long-range effects, not the acts themselves. At the same time the Forecasters become cold and inhuman, always thinking of people as factors in their equations.
Story Ideas A group of Virtual Adept Forecasters have been wiped out. Somebody either didn't like them, or desperately wanted them not to discover something. Who did it? The Technocracy? Radical tradition mages? Rouge Forecasters? And why does it seem as they knew they were about to become targets? Are they really dead, or do they just play dead?
The players stumble upon a group of rouge Forecasters, perhaps by wrecking one of their predictions (individuals and awakened people are the bane of good planning). They might become some rather unusual allies, both wealthy and powerful but also paranoid and without knowledge of the supernatural forces. A bifurcation event is imminent. The result of a local election will in time get enormous consequences if the Technocracy can ensure that the right candidate wins. The players find out about this, maybe just because the Technocracy seems to be so interested in the outcome. If the players manage to interfere, they can prevent the Technocracy from taking yet another step towards their Ascension. But what if the Forecasters have anticipated this? Maybe the players in fact are required to bring about the bifurcation, and the election is just a ruse to get the tradition mages to do something foolish. Who knows what the Forecasters have planned? A team of Forecasters have discovered a chain of events that will in the end spell the doom for the Technocracy. If they happen, the Technocracy will disintegrate, and its fall will probably mean the destruction of civilisation and possibly all life on Earth. Their superiors won't listen, so they have to get help from the Traditions to avert the threat. Will they listen to the technomancers (who hardly like the traditions either) and try to help them save the *Technocracy*? And the event-chain which must be stopped may require some very unorthodox acts, possibly even against the interests of the Traditions. And then there are some mages who would like to help the Technocracy on its way to its doom...
Required Reading "In the Country of the Blind" by Michael Flynn. A must for any Mage Storyteller. Secret societies, amateur technomancers and rampant paranoia!
GNOSTICS By Anders Sandberg
Description The Gnostics are a very old group. Once they were a tradition in their own, but today they are almost extinct. Most of the remaining Gnostics are members of the Celestial Chorus and other traditions. Some Gnostics even argue that the Gnostics founded the Celestial Chorus. They have influenced several other traditions deeply during the last 2000 years. The Gnostics have a long history as the enfant terrible of the Celestial Chorus. They have contributed to more schisms and strife than anybody else inside or outside the tradition. The Celestial Chorus have in fact spent much time and energy in eradicating this sub-tradition to the brink of extinction. At the same time the Gnostics have paradoxically helped create the modern teachings of the Chorus, and influenced the Order of Hermes and Cult of Ecstasy profoundly.
History The Gnostic cults were most active in the first and second centuries in various parts of the Roman empire, most notably Alexandria, the melting pot of peoples and cultures of the empire. Such notable mages as Simon Magus, the philosopher Valentinius and Apollonius of Tyana are said to have been Gnostics. The Gnostics borrowed ideas from almost every tradition or culture, creating a weird amalgam of early Christian, Greek and Egyptian philosophy and magick, combined with the ideas from the Hellenic mystery cults. They influenced (and was influenced by) the Cabalists, Order of Hermes, Cult of Ecstasy, Celestial Chorus , Euthanatos and many other groups. The Gnostics were a loose collection of cults, with seemingly no connection. These cult ranged from orgiastic sex-cults which would have shocked even Cult of Ecstasy, to groups of ascetics more strict than even the strictest Akashic Brotherhood. They all concerned themselves with the mystical experience, Gnosis, as opposed to mere faith, Pistis. This led them to mock all organised religions, by writing parodies of their holy writings, infiltrating them and spreading misinformation and by breaking the taboos of the religions. The Gnostics were true anarchists of the spirit. They saw all other religions as encouraging enslavement to priesthoods and secular powers with their legal and moral strictures. Against these things they ranged their cosmological jokes, their anti-morality and their magick. As Christianity rose to power a great struggle began between the Gnostics and the Christian mages. They used every available mean against each other, both mundane and magickal. Slowly the Christians gained the upper hand, by using the secular powers of the East-Roman empire against the Gnostic sects, removing Gnostic parts of the scriptures and killing the Gnostics as heretics. Soon the Gnostic movement was almost crushed. Many Gnostics fled to Order of Hermes, Cult of Ecstasy and the Cabalists. Some repented and joined the Celestial Chorus. But many went underground, and continued to spread their teachings in secret sects. These sects spread to every part of the empire in spite of persecution by the authorities. Gnostic thoughts infiltrated other sects and groups. Gnostics are rumoured to have infiltrated the Templars. During the middle ages some of the Gnostics began to work more openly again. They thought that the days of persecution was at an end as they saw how the Celestial Chorus began directing its forces against the Order of Hermes instead. These Gnostics were behind the Cathars and the Albigensians. For a while they were left alone, and began to feel secure. But then the Church attacked with full force, and they fled or were destroyed. The same thing happened with the Templars and countless other groups. This was the last time the Gnostics tried to work openly, and the end of their infiltration.
The Gnostics Today Today there are very few true Gnostics left. The Gnostic tradition has been assimilated into mainly the Celestial Chorus and somewhat into the Order of Hermes, Euthanatos and Cult of Ecstasy. Most Gnostic mages outside these groups are solitary, working alone outside the Traditions with small groups of acolytes. Some Gnostics are rumoured to have fled into the Umbra or to secret strongholds in inaccessible locations. Lately, some Gnostics have begun adopting orphans into their tradition, with mixed success. Still, the Gnostics have had a very real influence on magick today. They have subtly influenced the traditions they have been assimilated into. Even if many mages in the Chorus will not admit it, the Gnostics have influenced their thoughts very much. The Cabala is filled with Gnostic ideas and symbols. And the Cabalists have in turn influenced most of Order of Hermes, especially the Enochians who use a very Gnostic worldview. There are still small sects around the world influenced by Gnostics. Hermetic-Gnostic ideas are common among occult groups today around the world. Gnostics may have influenced the Islamic mystics and some sects in the middle east. Pure Gnostic groups are rare, and in Western Europe the sects have been almost completely crushed. In eastern Europe the Gnostic thoughts still flourish among some religious sects, as they have done for a long time. Most of these sects belong to the lunatic fringe, and have forgotten most of the Gnostic teachings. The Skoptsers castrated themselves to show their denial of the flesh, while other sects celebrated orgies. It is possible that Rasputin was a Gnostic, or influenced by them.
Gnostic Philosophy To the Gnostics, no conception of God or the ultimate or whatever was infinite enough. They considered that the supreme being was completely ineffable and beyond anything that could be said of it. They laughed at the anthropomorphic ideas of the Absolute other religions put forward, and endeavoured to say as little about it as possible, save that it was too immense to have ideas about. To them, it was like the Tao or the Void. They did, however, consider that there was a small fragment of this infinitude in man and every living being. Gnosis meant experiencing this primal spark within oneself. This may be the oldest idea about the Avatar in Western Civilisation. Exactly how the Infinite fragmented itself and descended into existence with matter was the subject of unending debate among the Gnostics. They had many theories; Some were allegories of the process in sexual terms. Some were allegories for human psychology. Some were excuses to heap ridicule on other religions. Some were attempts to ridicule the idea of understanding the process with the mind at all. In constructing these theories, they produced a varied and colourful intermediate magickal world of various Aeons and Archons between this world and the Ultimate. The Ultimate gave rise to a number of Aeons, usually thirty. These Aeons are sometimes regarded as periods of time, sometimes as worlds surrounding the physical universe, sometimes as spiritual principles or principalities, and often as all three at the same time. The Aethers of the Enochians correspond with this idea, as does the Sephiroth of the Cabala. Each Aeon has its Archon, or ruler, created by internal tensions in the Aeons. In other systems, ultimate reality itself is the First Archon and from this a number of Archons, usually seven, the Hebdomad, evolved by a process called Ennoia. Ennoia means that each Archon creates another, lower Archon by projecting its thoughts into the lower planes consciously or unconsciously, creating an inferior image of itself ("And God created man in His image") Somehow from these cosmic principles the force responsible for this world arose. This is variously called the Demiurge, Ialdaboath the blind god, Sabaoth, Iao and many other names. Sometimes this principle is sevenfold and identified with the astrological planets. This force was often depicted as androgynous with an animal head. Ialdaboath was often identified with the horned god of the witches, known to the Templars as Baphomet and to the Christians as the Devil. It created the material world and the living beings, into which the Highest breathed the spark of life. The Gnostics sometimes contradictory attitudes to material life were a direct result of their Gnosis and their cosmological speculations. Having experienced the spark of infinite within, they realised that they could not be touched by anything, and that they were free to do anything at all. Some considered some forms of activities more likely to obscure the vital spark and other forms more likely to liberate it. Some were libertines, some ascetics. Often they chose to be the opposite of the prevailing customs. The material world was considered evil, corrupt and imperfect because of its impermanence. Only the vital spark was immortal and would reincarnate until it achieved union with the Infinite, either at the end of the universe or by liberating itself in the meantime. Many Gnostics believed that they had to understand the deepest depths of human behaviour in order to ascend. No act should be too vile to do for a true mage. It is possible that some of the crimes the inquisition accused heretics for, was in fact distorted descriptions of actual Gnostic practices. And since the Gnostics always thumbed their noses at authority, they tried to make the Church even more upset by actually doing some of things they were accused of. Many Gnostics believed in personal ascension, like the marauders (This have led mages to accuse the Gnostics of being crypto- marauders) The mage should devote himself completely into The Great Work, to free the Infinite inside him. The rest of humanity was unimportant or a hinder for this quest. Other Gnostics argued that the whole of mankind would ascend together, and the role of the mages was to prepare the way for this joyful event.
Philosophy You believe you know the Truth, just because I told it to you a moment ago. But that was a lie. And this is also a lie. Everything I tell you is a lie. Paradox is everywhere, and there is no way out. In the world of dust and mud, only contradictions are certain. Now you are confused. That's good. The next step towards true gnosis is to understand that you are living inside a great illusion, which you call the universe. If you could open your eyes, you would see what the world *really* looks like, not just some second rate imitation like this world. We are prisoners in a prison made of mirrors and smoke. If you could only for an instant see the Truth, the whole world would crumble into dust and you would ascend into Infinity. Or you would go comfortably insane. When you have understood that everything around you is a bad imitation of the higher planes created by a incompetent god, you will be able to enjoy it. To ascend, you have to descend. Descend into the nethermost depths of pleasure, pain and degeneration, and you will find the most sublime truths. Ascend into the highest aethers, and you will find rude jokes scrawled on the walls.
Organisation and Writings The Gnostics were never a organised religion, but functioned instead as a series of elitist cults lead by a teacher. Each teacher spread his gnosis by word of mouth, couching the message in a form suited to the local beliefs, adapting Gnostic practices to local need. They also wrote down much of their theories, partly to remind particular teachers what they had thaught, partly to sow confusion and dissent in the ranks of the organised religions. Several alternative parts of the Bible were written to put forward some of their speculations (Like the Gospel of Thomas). Some Gnostics joined other groups just to sabotage them from the inside, or try to convert them.
Meetings The Gnostics don't have any mutual holy days, but sometimes agree to meet in small groups. These meetings can happen anytime anywhere, and tend to become informal discussions about philosophy, magick and religion. Some may last for weeks as the participants become involved in heated arguments. Today meetings are very rare, due to the lack of members.
Initiation Gnostics often choose the most promising of their disciples to undergo a initiation rite, which varies depending on teacher, initiate and culture. Some teachers force their initiates to participate in orgies involving sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, violence and gluttony, trying to make the experience as shocking as possible. Other teachers let their initiates fast and torture themselves almost to death. And some teachers take their initiates on mind-blowing visionquests, showing them a part of the infinite, and then showing them how tiny that part really was compared to another part, and how tiny *that* part really is, and so on. The goal is to force the initiate to Awake by shocking his sleeper mind and body, a bit like waking someone up by hitting them or by pouring cold water over him. If the initiation succeeds the initiate will achieve true Gnosis, a moment of true Infinity and become Awakened.
Chantry None known. There are rumours about secret chantries hidden in the Umbra, in underground cities in Tibet or old monasteries in the mountains of the Middle East, but these rumours seem unfounded.
Acolytes Cultists, Seekers of Truth, Ascetics, Insane people, Libertines.
Sphere Prime. Gnostics tend to study Spirit to understand the nature of the universe, Matter to understand the work of the Demiurge and Mind in order to influence people. The Gnostics have a tradition of excellency in Mind, which they use to gather followers, infiltrate other groups and to achieve gnosis. Matter is often regarded as a very unclean sphere, which many Gnostics avoid.
Foci The Gnostics have never standardised their foci, and most mages have their own ideas. Some foci are quite common: Gnosis is used for Spirit, Prime and Life. The mage must achieve an altered state of consciousness to use these spheres. Gnostics use extreme pleasure, pain, concentration, fasting, suffocation, fear, anger, sleeplessness, drugs, magick or other means to achieve this state. Most methods are quite drastic. The most important thing is that the mage can achieve gnosis, not the exact method. The other spheres are represented using small statues or symbols, depicting different gods, powers and spirits. These may be common in the culture of the Gnostic, or by a purely Gnostic symbol. Correspondence may be represented by a statue of Hermes, Time by an amulet with Ourobos (The snake that bites its own tail. A very old Gnostic symbol) , Forces by a statue of Abraxas (A god with lion-head, wings and a snake coiled around his body) and Matter by a statue of Ialdaboath the horned god. Clay is sometimes used for Matter instead of a statue. The mage forms the desired thing out of clay, like the Demiurge who created the world.
Concepts Holy madman, Philosopher, Sect leader.
Quotes "I have come from the light and the gods. Now I am an exile, separated from them." -- Fragment from Tirfa'n manuscript 7
"Our cause is a secret in a secret, the secret of something that is concealed, a secret which can only be explained by another secret, it is a secret about a secret which is satisfied by another secret." -- Jafar al-Said, the 6th Imam
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They seek true gnosis, but are too ascetic to achieve it. A few good orgies in their dojos would do them good. If we burn down their monasteries and make confetti of their holy books they might understand what Do really is. Alchemists: Wonderful. At least some hermetics have understood at least something. While bound to the material world, they have realised the need for evolution to higher levels. Too bad they try to do it by mixing things together.
Cabalists: Our friends have understood some of our ideas, but tend to be too formal to understand the really important lessons. If they burned their books and temples, threw away their foci and blinded themselves, they might see the real truth. Or just become poor.
Celestial Chorus: They have persecuted us the last 1700 years. They have burned us as heretics, enslaved the minds of millions and covered the light of the Infinite in layer upon layer of rituals and dogma. And yet they believe almost exactly the same things as we do. The longer they fight us, the more they become like us. Soon they will have become Gnostics completely. Wonderful. Who will we fight then? Perhaps we should become like the Celestial Chorus.
Cult of Ecstasy: They seek true gnosis, but are too wild to find it. If they tried the joys of fasting, pain and humility they might find it.
Discordians: Are we the founders of this tradition? Or, perhaps they founded us in our misty past? Or maybe we have founded each other. The snake Ourobos bites its own tail, eternal just like the Sacred Chao.
Dreamspeakers: Primitive and too involved with the world of matter and the lower Aeons. They do not even realise that their dear Goddess is the Demiurge, who have imprisoned them. Instead of struggling against Her, they worship Her instead.
Euthanatos: Interesting ideas, but far too dogmatic. How do they really know who is ready? And does their victims really reincarnate? Does the Kia really exist? They have taken us too seriously. Get a life, preferably with the owners permission.
Hollow Ones: The primal spark shines in unexpected places. Perhaps a sign of a new dawn, or the last sunlight before the great night. These mages are interesting, but unfocused and without any real drive.
Necromancers: They don't know it, but Abd Al Azrad was probably one of us. An interesting question: Is his book a big joke on the poor necromancers, or does it really contain any truth? After all, he had a really warped sense of humour.
Order of Hermes: Our friends the Cabalists have thaught them a lot, but nothing useful. The try to understand how magick and the universe really work. Good, we try to do that too. But we also use our knowledge outside the dusty library. The Hermetics, followers of the Thrice Damned Hermes, should get some fresh air.
Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts: Petty demiurges. They rule their own toy-worlds of matter and illusions, believing themselves to be gods. They are completely ignorant, and have sunk into the mud too deep to be saved.
Trenchcoaters: Gnosis may be achieved in many ways. They are a living proof of that, by becoming mages against their wills. Too bad they do not use their power for much else than protection of "normality", instead of trying to liberate themselves and the world.
Verbena: The are so delighted with the world of matter that they try to drag everything down into it with them. And they are good at it too.
Rotes See the Infinite (Correspondence 3): This rote is used to achieve gnosis. It works just like Co-locality perception; the mage successively sees more and more of the whole universe. Instead of instantly seeing everything (which even the Gnostics acknowledge would be disastrous), they start with the things in the vicinity, slowly expanding their vision outwards. The mage sees more and more, and will hopefully begin to understand something of the idea of the infinite as they expand their vision. Many Gnostics meditate using this rote, trying to expand the vision just a little bit more. This practice is of course dangerous, and countless Gnostics have become insane or died after accidentally seeing too much. Some Gnostics defend themselves by combining this rote with Mind 3 and projecting the Infinity into the head of an attacker. [ Many Gnostics combine it with other spheres, depending on knowledge, to achieve a even more complete vision. ]
The Voice (Mind 2): The mage give his voice a tone of authority and power, making it hard to resist orders or suggestions made. Whatever the mage says, it will be remembered. Many Gnostics use the Voice in teaching or to gather followers. [ Each success add one dice to social rolls. To resist an direct order from the mage the victim must succeed in a willpower roll with a target number equal to the mages willpower (suitably modified. A direct, simple order as "drop it!" will increase the target number, while a complex or dangerous order will decrease it) ]
Visionquest (Mind 3 Spirit 2): (Also known as Vision Thing among the Hollow Ones). The mage puts himself into a state of gnosis by intoxication, fasting, pain or pleasure. As the mage sinks into a trance, he will begin to see visions of the world around him, the Umbra and his own mind. The world seems to become fluid in the perception of the mage, constantly changing and reforming. If the mage concentrates on a problem or a question the visions will begin to reflect this. Using a visionquest, a mage can understand the secret connections and symbols he normally wouldn't understand. Unfortunately the mage seldom remember anything about what he saw afterwards, and becomes very incoherent during the quest, which severely limit the use of the rote. Many Gnostics use their acolytes to write down what they see during their visions, and afterwards try to understand what they discovered. A mage undergoing a visionquest is in serious danger from his subconscious, which may erupt into his visions if it contains strong negative emotions, traumas or illnesses. Some spirits may also seize the opportunity to enter the mages consciousness as his defences are down.
[ During the vision the mages dream, intuition, enigmas, cosmology and occult are increased by the number of successes. On the other hand, willpower and all social and mental attributes are halved (round down). This should really be roleplayed. ]
GOETIA By Anders Sandberg The Goetic mages are a small sub-tradition of Order of Hermes today. They had their heyday during the late middle ages, but has since then almost vanished. Their magick is directed towards the mastery of the spirits, especially demonology. Needless to say, their interest in the darker beings have given them a bad name, which has contributed to their decline.
History: It is unknown when the Goetic arts was invented. According to the tradition, it was founded by King Solomon himself. He was given the power over the spirits on and below the Earth by God, and used them to do his bidding. Among other things, they were used to build parts of his Temple. He imprisoned some of the most malicious, and learned the secrets of the spiritual world. After him, a long succession of mages have studied his secrets and passed them on. However, it was not until the middle ages the Goetia began to flourish. Its influence was profound on the Order, and from this time most of its important books date, like the Lemegeton "The Lesser Key of Solomon", Liber Honorius, Grimorium Verum and many others. The ceremonial system of the Goetia was heavily used by the lesser order of Hermes, and the Goetic mages were major supporters behind the plan. But their success in the lesser order became their fall. As their power and numbers grew, many of them became corrupted by demonic forces. This was the beginning of the fall of the order, as it resulted in internal conflicts and attacks from the Church. While the Goetic mages were not solely responsible, they were intimately involved with the problems, and when the lesser order dissolved, the Goetic mages were scattered to the winds. Many became the victim of witch hunts or attacks from other mages, and inside the Order of Hermes they were used as scapegoats for the Fall. After the Fall, the Goetic mages went underground. Most hid as members of other hermetic orders or practised their arts solitary. They have remained very few up to date, and in most cases transmitted their knowledge from master to apprentice for generations with no outside influence. This sub-tradition is one of the most archaic of all groups in the Order, and their methods are distinctly medieval.
Theory and Magick: The Goetia is coloured by the Christian beliefs of the middle ages in demons and angels, organised in strict feudal hierarchies. Modern goetic mages are somewhat more flexible, but tend to rely on the old tried and tested systems anyway. Overall, Goetic magick is very ceremonial and strict, with a very medieval feel, and many Goetic mages tend to rely on old rotes instead of new inventions. This is of course a bit limiting, but many of the old rotes have surprising power. Goetic mages are very interested in spirits, demons, ghosts, elementals and angels and how they can be controlled. They do not plead with the spirits like the dreamspeakers, nor do they obey them like the Enochians. Goetic mages order the beings, bind them to certain tasks and generally use them as their servants. They are however very mindful of the fact that many of the beings are more powerful than them, so they protect themselves with elaborate circles and rotes. Many of the rotes and ceremonies contain extra precautions to make sure the summoned being will be on friendly terms and the mage will be safe. These are however not always sufficient, and many Goetic mages have perished after dealing with forces too great for them. The spirits and beings they summon are often very specialised. In their grimoires are long catalogues of different entities, their powers and how they may be summoned using different seals, incenses, sacrifices and incantations. The mage then summons the spirit, using the exact procedures described. The being is then threatened, ordered or otherwise persuaded to perform the magickal effect the mage wants. Sometimes, especially when summoning more powerful beings, the mage has to make deals with them. These may range from small services or sacrifices to the proverbial selling of the soul. Using the specific rituals described in the grimoires the mage can summon specific beings in a specific form to do specific tasks. This is in a way a charade, since the summoned being can in general appear in any form or be almost anything; however, by performing the ritual exactly as described, the mage and the beings bind each other in a kind of covenant, forcing each other to "play by the rules". The spirit will appear in its classic form and perform its traditional services. If the mage uses a slightly wrong ritual or leaves out a detail, the spirit is correspondingly more free, and may react accordingly. However, this freedom is partially limited in a complex way by the remaining ritual. If the mage uses the wrong incense, for example, the spirit may refuse service and threaten the mage, but nothing else. If the mage breaks the circle, the spirit is free to leave. An error in the seal may cause the wrong being to appear, or it to appear in an unusual or dangerous form. Changing a ritual to suit the mage is a complex and often dangerous problem. It is often necessary to modify the rituals to suit the modern times, since their classic forms are prone to paradox. Having a lion headed man appear out of the air riding on a bear followed by 30 minstrels is not a good idea. Many rituals can be reworked to become coincidental, so the spirit manifests as something more safe, like a black limo with a sharply dressed businessman or a bird landing outside the window. Thesse type of changes are dangerous, since the mage risks making the spirit more unpredictable and free by straying from the traditional methods. When summoned, most spirits prefer to manifest only spiritually in the near umbra. The mage will see them, but nobody else. It is quite hard work to make them manifest physically (generally needs Matter 2 or Life 3 to create a body if the spirit is not willing or able to manifest), but it gives them much more power on the physical plane. The more powerful spirits choose what to do by themselves, and can even break through the magickal barriers the Mage has erected if he fails in the exact protocol of the ritual. Making the spirits obey is a major problem. There are no fast rules, the mage has to find the method that works in each case. Lesser spirits can often be coerced, threatened or fooled into doing whatever the mage wants. More powerful spirits are harder to control. Some mages use threats, especially threats of other spirits of beings. Other mages try to persuade the spirit, sometimes resorting to bootlicking. Some mages just order them around. Most mages try to strike deals with them instead. Some spirits may want sacrifices in exchange for service, ranging from small items (like Bechard, who wants nuts), over small animals (Astaroth has a taste for mice) to human sacrifices. Another commodity most spirits want is Tass. Finally, many spirits want the mage to perform services to them in exchange. This works a bit like the vampiric system of prestation, where the part who is indebted have to treat the other part with
respect and do lesser services for them. Being indebted to a spirit can be quite useful, since the spirit will protect the indebted person as long as he is useful. Some mages have used this to their advantage by playing several patrons against each other. It is a dangerous game, since spiritual politics is even harder to follow than vampiric politics. Most Goetic mages spend much time talking to the lesser spirits, trying to gain information and knowledge. This is tiresome, since they are often not very smart, tend to lie a lot and generally lack deeper knowledge. However, the more powerful beings demand higher prices for their services and may be quite dangerous to summon. Paradox is another major problem for the Goetic mages. Once their spirits could manifest physically in whatever forms they desired and do the bidding of the mage without problems. But now they are severely limited by paradox. They seldom manifest physically, and it is hard to command the spirits without gaining paradox. Modern mages have alleviated this problem somewhat by making deals with certain spirits to watch them, and perform their services when the mage gives a sign. This can often be done coincidentally, but the mage must pay the price of the spirit.
Philosophy: "There are more things in heaven and on earth than in your Philosophy, Polonius!" We have seen the secret powers behind what appears as blind forces. We have seen the secret hierarchies who control the world. We know the signs and words which bind and give control. Most people, even mages, do not want to see, or even think of this side of reality despite the fact that it pervades everything. That is too bad, since if you don't dare to see it, they will be playthings for the Powers That Be.
Organisation and Meetings: Goetic mages have never accepted the elaborate organisational structures of the rest of the Order. They tend to be solitary, jealously guarding their secrets from each other. Sometimes two Goetic mages meet, and trade information during tense negotiations. The only way to really learn the secrets of the Goetia is by being apprenticed to a Master. The apprentice is expected to perform menial tasks and help the Master with his projects, just like apprentices did during the middle ages.
Initiation: In the old days, many members were awakened by making a deal with a spirit. The master performed the summoning, and the initiate was confronted with the spirit. It was not uncommon for the spirit to test him, or demand some service in exchange for becoming his benefactor. Today Goetic mages usually awaken the initiate by performing a great ceremonial summoning of the initiates avatar to appear into a visible form as his guardian spirit. They are linked by exchanging a drop of blood.
Chantry: Goetic mages seldom have their own chantries. In the old days each mage just built his temple on a suitable node, or stayed in an Order chantry. Today, most of them reside with a chantry.
Acolytes: Librarian, Thrill-seeker, medievalists. Sphere: Forces is the main sphere, but Goetic mages often study Spirit with equal or even more zeal. They see the forces of cosmos not as impersonal principles but as actual beings, which may be bargained with. A goetic mage will see a fire as an actual being which may be threatened or ordered to do things, like attacking somebody. Outside these two spheres, Goetic mages have no typical interests and study according to their personal preferences.
Foci: Almost the same as for the rest of Order of Hermes. Since they are so involved in Spirit, many mages have their own permanent Circles, often engraved into the floor and reinforced by metal. Outside of the Circle is the Triangle of Art, similarly inscribed. It is inside the Triangle spirits manifest, and they can't leave it without the permission of the mage. Instead of a traditional showstone, many goetic mages use a black mirror, in which spirits often manifests. When a summoning has been done, the mage can see the spirit inside the mirror if he directs it towards the Triangle. Beside these essential foci, most goetic mages use other secondary foci. Elaborate robes, staffs, weapons, incenses, altars and tools are used in their magickal work. These range from the practical, like the pen and ink used in taking notes and drawing seals, to the symbolic swords inscribed with powerful seals to keep angry spirits at bay. The foci may not be bought, they must be made by the mage or his acolytes for only magickal purposes and then consecrated in long ceremonies.
Concepts: Adventurer, Scholar, Priest Quote: "O Prince Lucifer, I am, for the time, contented with thee. I now leave thee in peace, and permit thee to retire wheresoever it may seem good to thee, so it be without noise, and without leaving any evil smell behind thee. Be mindful, however, of our engagement, for shouldst thou fail in it, even for a moment, be assured that I shall eternally smite thee with the Blasting Rod of the great ADONAY, ELOHIM, ARIEL, and JEHOVAM. Amen."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: We don't have much contact with them (They are too material, even when dealing with spirits. They may listen to angels and demons, but do they listen to themselves?)
Celestial Chorus: They claim we are Satanists and worse. They have tried many times to crush us in the past, and may try again if they get a chance. Fortunately they are weak today, and will probably remain so. (The Goetic mages are deluded. They think they can deal with dark forces without tarnishing their souls.)
Cult of Ecstasy: They appreciate the material world like we do, but they seek to transcend it through pleasure instead of knowledge. they will hardly succeed, but will probably not notice. (Dealing with demons is tempting. I mean, you have all heard of Succubi? But I wonder if its worth the price.)
Dreamspeakers: They have some limited contact with the spirit world, but they treat the beings they encounters as equals. That is a very dangerous mistake. (These mages try to command the spirits they should listen to.)
Euthanatos: They have much contact with the spiritual world, but often its darker sides. They often have interesting information, if you can get them to talk about it. However, they are also quite dangerous. (Goetic mages should be watched carefully. All to often they fall prey to the dark forces both outside and inside themselves. )
Hollow Ones: Some mages just haven't a clue. (To sell your soul to the devil you must have a soul in the first place!)
Trenchcoaters: These orphans are very irritating. They have an annoying habit of appearing at critical moments and ruining our rituals, yelling about leaving the spirit world alone and whatnot. They seems to think they are protecting the world from dark and misty threats of magick, but most of the time they just interfere with serious studies instead of doing anything reasonable. (These mages are the epitome of what the fight against. Magick for its own sake, for power, for intellectual pride and for material gain without concern for the rest of mankind. They dabble in forces they really can't command, and sooner or later they will fall.)
Sons of Jupiter: These orphans are our friends. We help them out sometimes, and vice versa. They have an insatiable interest in magickal power and knowledge, which our magick can help them with. Unfortunately, they are also quite interested in stealing information and talismans, which can be very irritating. (If anybody else has understood the price of magick, these guys have. They have even turned it into the economics of magick, playing magickal business-sharks with their spirits. But they do have power, and they have more foci than they can keep track of...)
Order of Hermes: Most of the Order do not really want to understand us, and we don't care about it. The Alchemists are often quite rewarding to discuss matters with, they have retained their links into their past. The Rosicrucians and Cabalists play their abstract games of politics and abstraction, without any real care about the real world. The Enochians are our students, but have become slaves to the beings they summon. Use caution with them. (They are atavisms, both dark, medieval and baroque. )
Sons of Ether: Playing with their toys. They study the soulless matter around them, not seeing the invisible strings which make it move (and maybe themselves?). (Summoning spirits? Well, they really are self-sustaining patterns in the Ether, but the Goetics won't understand it. By the way, the real reason a pentagram or a triangle keeps them in is that the morphogenetic field of angles disturb them...)
Verbena: Like us, they have been unfairly persecuted by an misunderstanding world. In their case, the persecutors may have been more right than wrong. (Like all "High" mages, they have lost touch with nature and themselves. Their experiments have made the wrath of Church and State descend on all of us. But they will harvest what they have planted sooner or later. In many cases, its sooner for them.)
Virtual Adepts: Amusing themselves with little games and petty illusions. (Drawing pentagrams, chanting, weird robes and summoning demons... why does they sound like the classic wizard in a videogame?)
Rotes The Code of Tritheimus (Mind 1): This rote is often used to keep the secrets in the grimoires from the eyes of unworthy and enemies. By writing using specially prepared inks and during incantations of angelic names, the mage can write an completely undechyperable text. To an uninitiated, it will look at sheer gibberish or mad rantings of demoniac names, but if another mage incants the names and read the text in the light of certain candles, it will become readable. This is used to hide the Goetic texts, sometimes in plain sight.
Ring of Protection (Mind 2): This is a practical little rote used to avoid being controlled or influenced by hostile beings or magick. The mage enchants a ring, making it a symbol of the infinite power and protection of God. It is then worn as a protection against hostile attacks during summonings, and when the mage is attacked, he will kiss the ring and hopefully regain his senses. [Each success will give an extra dice on Willpower rolls to resist temptation, mind control or Mind magick. After all dices are used up, the ring must be recharged. ]
The Blasting Rod (Spirit 3 Forces 3 or 5, Prime 2): This rote uses a hazel staff, which is used to punish disobedient or aggressive spirits. The mage releases flashes of force against beings in the umbra while he is still in the physical world, damaging or driving away spirits. It is very effective way to force spirits summoned into the Triangle to obey, as many cannot leave until given permission and the mage may beat them to submission.
Bind Servitor (Spirit 2 Matter 3): This ritual allows a summoned being to inhabit a material object, like a knife, a statue or a fire. The being will gain the power to use the object as a body; a statue will be able to move, a knife will be able to stab or slip away, a fire will
be able to choose whether it will burn somebody or not. The ritual must be done during the creation or reshaping of the object, to make the link to the spirit the strongest. Sometimes mages divide the ritual process into parts, and perform certain stages on the right days.
Magickal Barrier (Spirit 4): This ritual creates a magickal barrier which no spirit may pass. Instead of the normal Circle, the mage draws or marks the barrier (using chalk, stones or other available materials), draws the necessary seals at strategic positions and performs a powerful ritual to make it impregnable.
Consecrate Circle (Spirit 4 Prime 2): This ritual is used to consecrate a Circle and/or Triangle to make it easier to summon spirits into it. Usually it is done by sacrifices to the invisible rulers of the spirit world, and long incantation of god- names. [ Each success will decrease the gauntlet inside the Circle and/or Triangle with 1 ]
Imprison Spirit (Spirit 4): This rote was reputedly invented by Solomon himself. The mage orders (or lures) the spirit into a bottle, box or other space and then seal it with wax and the seal of the spirit or the mage. The spirit will be imprisoned in the vessel, and cannot leave until the seal is broken. Some mages have also thrown crystals or scrolls of parchment through the manifestation of the spirit, but this method is much less reliable.
Elemental summonings The elementals are the spirits inhabiting the physical world. They are generally not very bright and quite specialised, but often quite useful to a mage. Using just level 1 of the required sphere (Matter for Earth, Forces for Fire, Life for Water and Mind for Air), the mage can contact the spirits inside an object (like a stone or a ocean). With level 3 they can manifest physically. They can be regarded as minions. The number of successes in the summoning will show how powerful or how many elementals the mage has summoned. With 5 or more successes, the mage may summon the elemental kings (Paralda of Air, Djin of Fire, Niksa of Water and Ghob of Earth). They have considerable power, but are also quite good at bargaining with the mage.
Summon Gnome (Spirit 2 Matter 3): This ritual is used to summon one or more of the elementals of Earth, the gnomes. The mage fills the Triangle with sand, mud and stones and chants one of the elemental prayers in addition to the normal rituals. Unlike most summonings, they prefer to manifest physically, often as small men and women made out of clay and earth (not too unlike Terra Firma, which some Goetic mages claim is their king Ghob). They are stubborn, practical and somewhat lazy creatures, who has full knowledge of anything pertaining to the earth, like ores, gems, hidden treasures and caves. They are masters of shaping tools, jewellery or other artifacts.
Summon Salamander (Spirit 2 Forces 3): The mage places source of fire inside the triangle, like a brazier, and chants the prayer of the Salamanders. The spirit will manifest half physically inside the flames, as odd movements and suggestions of a lizard like shape. Salamanders tend to be aggressive, passionate beings with absolutely no patience. They are knowledgeable in everything involving fire, forces and destruction, but also purity and transformation.
Summon Sylph (Spirit 2 Mind 3): The Sylphs usually manifests as scented winds or changing, suggestive shapes barely seen. They are very fond of illusions, playing games with people and fooling the mage (and due to their intelligence they are good at it). It is not easy to make them behave seriously, but if the mage manages to make them behave, they are quite good at everything pertaining to air, illusions, music, language etc. They are also excellent, if somewhat unreliable, spreaders of magickal gossip and crafters of illusions, not to mention their spying abilities.
Summon Undine (Spirit 2 Life 3): To summon the undines, the mage places water inside the Triangle and chants the prayer to the Undines. They tend to manifest as ripples in the water, a dampness in the air and if the mage forces them to manifest more clearly, as beautiful, seductive women made of water or ugly fishlike things. They are a bit treacherous, but also very emotional beings. They have a strong affinity for life and growth, and knows much about the living world not to mention everything in water. They can influence the emotions of others, cause fertility or infertility and control water in its different forms.
Demon Summonings (Spirit 2): This is the classic type of Goetic magick, the ritual summoning of demons to do the mages bidding. In its classic form, as described in Clavicula Salomonis and other grimoires, all the instruments and clothes used must be carefully consecrated and the ritual performed at an astrologically suitable moment. The seal of the spirit the mage wants to summon must be inscribed in the Triangle or a parchment, suitable incenses lighted and incantations read. The mage invokes the powers of the Almighty to force the spirit to emerge and obey the mage. Below are some typical demons (their seals have been omitted, see "The Book of Black Magic" by Waite). When the being first appear, it will appear in its "true" form as required by the ritual, but the mage can command it to appear in a more pleasing form (and often the spirit change voluntarily to avoid paradox). [The more powerful the summoned being, the harder it is to summon. The base difficulty is 5, but this is increased by the power and rank of the demon (se below). As a rule, weak or rather powerless beings increase the difficulty with about 0-1, presidents and marquises 2-3, princes and dukes 4-5 and more powerful beings 6+. To decrease the difficulty, goetic mages use quintessence, sacrifices and often try to do their summonings at astrologically favourable times and at places which fit the summoned being (se below). The number of successes needed to force a being to appear varies, but are normally about the same number as the difficulty increase. To summon a duke 4 or five successes are needed, while a lesser spirit will appear after just one. If the being doesn't appear, all is not lost. It will probably have noticed the summoning attempt, and will often either come itself or send a subordinate being (if its powerful and/or busy). As a rule of thumb, if the mage manages to get half as much successes as needed, the being will contact him. However, the general disposition can vary, especially if the being felt that the summoning was sloppy or impolite. ]
Belial: is one of the most powerful demons, a mighty king. He looks like a beautiful angel with a pleasant voice and seated in a chariot of fire. He is very powerful, especially in areas of politics, friends and favours. He also controls lots of other spirits. To summon him, the mage has to perform sacrifices. [ +7 ]
Khil: are involved with great earthquakes. He can predict when they will happen, and maybe cause them, if the mage is prepared to pay the price. The being has no visible form other than a great rumble in the ground. [ +6]
Azazel:, the Demon of the Scapegoat, will appear as a bearded man with horns and leading a black crowned goat. He can take all things away and dispose of them so that nobody will ever find them. He has great powers over entropy and corruption, and want a goat to be given him in his honour to obey. Mages who have crossed him have disappeared. [+6]
Focalor:, a strong Duke, appears as a man with the wings of a griffin. He has power over the dangers of the sea, and can control the winds and the sea, sink ships or make people drown (or save them). [+5]
Seere:, a mighty prince directly under Amaymon, King of the East looks like a beautiful man on a strong winged horse. He have total control over Time and Correspondence (he is very good at finding lost things, teleportation and changing the flow of time). [+4]
Belphegor: will manifest today as an hoary old man in a wheelchair. He is very knowledgeable in technological matters, and in the activities of the Technocracy (which he seems to support for some unknown reason). [+4]
Shax:, a great marquis, comes in the form of a stockdove, speaking with a hoarse voice. He can destroy the sight, hearing or understanding of anybody. He can also "borrow" money from the king (not as useful as it once was). He is quite fond of deceiving the mage as long as he is outside the Triangle. [+3]
Lerajie:, a powerful marquis, looks like an archer clad in green and bearing a bow and quiver. He can cause fights and can make arrow- wounds putrefy. [+3]
Zagan:, a great king and president, appears first as a bull with griffin wings, and then in human shape. He can turn things around, turning fools wise, slow persons witty, water into wine, blood into oil, oil into water and turn metal into coins. [+3]
Amy:, a great President, will appear first as a roaring fire and then as a man. He is a good teacher of astrology, the liberal sciences. He can also provide the mage with familiars and treasures. [+2]
Fruccissiere: can animate dead bodies, turning them into quite lifelike zombies. [+2] Valac:, a great president, looks like a little boy with angel wings riding on a two headed dragon. He knows everything about snakes, and can provide the mage with as much snakes he wants. [+1]
Guland: can perform all kind of mundane services for the mage, as long he is given burnt bread. [+0] Segal: will show the mage amazing sights from both the physical world and the Umbra. [+0] Angelic Summonings: These work almost exactly as demonic summonings; the evocations and seals are different but the normal procedure with circle, triangle and seal is identical. Angels are generally more easy to deal with, but have often much more specified and "good" powers. Among goetic mages angels are preferred as teachers and demons and spirits for practical works. However, not all angels are peaceful or truthful, and the mage better watch himself when summoning one of these beings.
Making summoning easier: Sacrifices have always been useful, and by sacrificing something (or someone) the summoned being likes, the mage can get some extra goodwill. Blood is a traditional sacrifice for summoning ghosts, and many demons like sacrifices of snakes, cats and other living beings. Angels generally prefer aetheric essences, flowers or expensive balsams. Elementals love substances fitting to their own element (like sacrificing ambra or fish to undines or gasoline to salamanders). Tass is always a hit. Another way to ensure success is to perform the summoning at a place which fit the summoned beings. For summoning ghosts, crossroads, graveyards and haunted buildings have proven useful. Sylphs can be found at hilltops or any other place where the wind is strong. Undines are naturally summoned by lakes, rivers or the sea. Gnomes in caves or woods, and Salamanders at great fires, volcanoes or in deserts. Angels are of course attracted to holy places, while demons to unholy or pagan places. Nodes are of course very useful, especially if they fit any of the above types. Certain beings have their own preferences, like Astaroth who is more present in America than in Europe, or Hazthoragoth who only will appear if summoned inside a stone circle. Finally, astrological means to determine time can be very useful. Each day in the week corresponds to one planet, and magick compatible with that planet will become easier (Love magick is for example easier on Fridays, while death magick on Saturday). The same is true to a lesser extent about the hours of the planets (each day and night is divided into twelve planetary hours). Other times, like full or new moon, eclipses, conjunctions and the equinoxes are also powerful. Some beings are easier to summon on certain days, like ghosts at Halloween and angels at Good Friday.
Talismans Mirror of Shades (Spirit 1) Sceptre of Command (Spirit 2 Mind 1,2) Protective seals (Spirit 3) The Ring of Solomon (Spirit 1,2,3,4)
THE HIDDEN CIRCLE By Rupert A D Smith (
[email protected]) (22 Apr 94) Hide in plain sight. That is the simple motto of this loose Tradition of mages. Most stage magicians, fortune tellers,and mediums are cheap charlatans. However, some of them aren't. The earliest practitioners of this Tradition were probably gypsy women, however the Tradition proper started in England with a more eclectic mix, in about 1870, when the sudden explosion of mystical groups, led to a few mages coming together into loose associations. In about five years two of these had coalesced into solid organisations, one behind the freemasons, and one behind the magic circle, however at the turn of the century the ones behind the masons were inexplicably wiped out. To this day the mages still do not know that the mystical vogue was fostered by Tremere, or that the Tremere had purged their pet organisation. Today the Tradition is small and widespread, but the members keep in good contact. It is well mixed in the mundane magical community, and its members are careful not to draw too much attention to themselves. Stage magicians form the bulk of this Tradition, but there is little rivalry between the genres. They have little or nothing to do with thaumaturgical groups, which keeps them out of trouble with the Tremere or Order of Hermes. Most Tradition members try to stick to coincidental magick, covering up with stage tricks and showmanship, indeed many have developed a fear of paradox, mainly the performers, who don't like to give away the trick, and only perform coincidentally. Politically they have little clout, they act on the population to suspend disbelief, and maybe the sleepers will accept the impossible.
Organisation: word of mouth, and the magical community keep the group together. They rarely have meetings, or form homogenous chantries, but often join chantries with other Traditions.
Meetings: Whenever they feel like it, meetings often correspond with the meeting of their mundane counterparts. Initiation: A promising newcomer may be taken under the wing of an old mage, but often they just look out for magicians that awaken spontaneously.
Chantry: The emotional heart of the Tradition is in London, but the there is also a strong presence in Las Vegas, where entertainers are thick on the ground.
Acolytes: hypnotists, fortune tellers, mediums, magicians Sphere: varies Hypnotist - Mind Medium - Spirit Fortune Teller - Time Magician - Correspondance
Foci: Wwand - Prime, Forces. Cards - Entropy, Time, Spirit (the latter two are usually Tarot). Concealment - Correspondance. Watch - Mind, Time (not applicable to time senses or cognition). Sword - Life. Trick - Matter
Quote: "Pick a card."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Nice enough blokes. You can't deny that they seem content. Celestial Chorus: They performed too, to a different audience. they're not so pure. (Petty tricksters. They are not worth notice)
Cult of Ecstasy: They throw good parties, but otherwise ignore 'em. Dreaspeakers: We have many similarities in background. They chose a harder path, and we respect them for it. Euthanatos: They just like killing things. The metaphysics is just an excuse. Hollow Ones: Directionless, but who cares. They make a great audience. (Hey! I can see a trapdoor! Boooo!)
Order of Hermes: Getting mages into the medieval consciousness was a brilliant idea. It's a shame they weren't up to it, but their time has passed and such tactics just won't work anymore. (Imitators)
Sons of Ether: What happens when science is indistinguishable from magic? They know what they are doing.
(Who?)
Verbena: Nooooo thank you! Virtual Adepts: Suspension of disbelief at a new level. But are they trying to put us out of a job or what? (Similar goals, different methods. I doubt they will achieve much, but cover your bases yes?
Technocracy: (You are advised to come quietly. Do not try to distract me from my given task with trivialities.)
HISTORY OF THE CELESTIAL CHORUS By Paul Strack (
[email protected])
Author's Notes Well, I wrote the following on a whim. I think the Celestial Chorus is fairly important in the Mage universe, and it will be a while before White Wolf gets around to detailing them. I'm also afraid they will hesitate to make their Christian connection too explicit. So, here I humbly present my unofficial rendition of the Tradition. I have to admit that I am not Christian, and have taken a fairly historical perspective on that religion (and others). I've tried my best to be evenhanded, and I hope I have offended no one. Legal stuff: Celestial Chorus, the other tradition and sphere magic names are all copyrights of White Wolf, and none of this is intended to infringe on those rights. I don't particularly care about copyrights myself, so you can feel free to butcher the rest of this.
The Minoans Like all Traditions, the Celestial Chorus claims an ancestry dating back to prehistory. However, the first culture they claim association with is the Minoans. Based on Crete, the Minoans dates back to perhaps 3000 BC. On this isolated island, the Chorus claims they built a peaceful civilization, worshiping the Goddess, in her manifestation as the life-giving sun, and her sacred beast, the Bull. The Minoans were ruled by Priestess-Queens, and with the magical aid of the Chorus, achieved an advanced level of technology. The Minoans were a trading race, ruling the seas around their island home. Their culture spread to mainland Greece as well. Their cities were populous and unwalled, for under the shining shield of the One Goddess, there was no war. This peace was not to last. Successive waves of Greek invaders pushed the Minoans off the mainland, and eventually reached Crete as well. Though more technologically and magically advanced than the Greeks, the peaceful Goddess worshippers were unable to deal with their warlike ways, and were slowly overcome. By 1400 BC, the Minoans were completely conquered by the Greeks, and the One Goddess was replaced by Greek deities. Some of the Minoan mages assimilated, but most fled in search of another home.
Akhenaton One large group of Minoan mages reached Egypt, and there tried to spread the word of the One. The Egyptians believed in a multiplicity of Gods, but the hopeful idea of the One found sympathetic ears, especially amongst the Semetic slaves. One pharaoh listened as well, and he was to institute a brief reign of the One in the Land of the Nile. Amenhotep IV ascended the throne of Egypt around 1380 BC. Some of the Celestial Chorus had earned his trust and faith. Much to the surprise of the priesthood of Egypt, he forbade the worship of all gods but the One, whom he named Aton, the solar disc. In deference for the One, he changed his name to Akhenaton, meaning "Useful to Aton." Worship of Aton did not spread amongst the Egyptian people however. They found the conception of a single God bizarre, and were unwilling to give up some of their other, more popular deities. The supernatural forces in Egypt, caught off guard by Akhenaton, were quick to rally. Vampires, mages and Garou, all quite numerous, worked together to drive out the foreign Celestial Chorus. By 1360 BC, Akhenaton was murdered by his own guards. His son, still a child, was made pharaoh, and the Priesthood forced him to change his name from Tut-Ankh-Aton to Tut-Ankh-Amen. Using him as a puppet, the orthodox Egyptians reestablished the worship of their old gods. Young Tut-Ankh-Amen did not live past the age of 20, and with him died the last hope of establishing worship of the One in Egypt.
The Exodus and the First Schism The Celestials were still welcomed amongst the Semetic slaves of Egypt, especially one tribe, the Hebrew. With all of Egypt against them, they were unable to protect their converts. A charismatic leader, Moses, chose to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. With the help the Celestial Chorus, he managed to deflect the attacks of the Egyptians, and lead his people safely out of slavery. The Hebrews and the Chorus wandered through the deserts of the Middle East, looking for a home. There began the first of the many schisms that plagued the Chorus. In Egypt, the One's gender had become vague, being referred to as a neuter sun. The conservatives amongst the Chorus continued to view the One as the Goddess, desiring to reestablish to peace of Minoan Crete.
Moses, along with younger, Hebrew Celestials, felt the Hebrews needed a more warlike, male God in order to survive in a dangerous world. They argued against the conservatives, claiming their goals were unrealistic. Moses retreated into the mountains to commune with the One, in the hopes of receiving some revelation. When he returned, he and his followers attacked and disrupted a service of Goddess worshippers before her sacred image, the bull. With this coup, and Moses' reputation as a savior, the Male God's advocates won the day.
The Rise and Fall of Israel With a new, warrior image of the One, Moses rallied his people, and allied himself with other Semitic tribes in the wilderness. When he felt he was ready, he led his people to Canaan, and the "promised land". Moses himself was never to reached it, as he perished from age on its very borders. With the strength of the Celestial Chorus behind them, the Hebrews swept through Canaan, driving out Egyptians and Babylonian influence and establishing the rule of Semitic people, in the nation of Israel. Once established, however, the schism began to rise again. Some of the Hebrews began to worship the older Goddess. The ruling Hebrews called this blasphemy, and did their best to stamp it out. The Goddess worshiping Celestials, for their part, claimed the Hebrew had become as violent and corrupt as their enemies of the past. The kingdom was plagued with internal disputes, and was unable to defend itself. Piece by piece, Israel was taken apart, until the last of it fell, and the Hebrews were taken as slaves into Babylon, around 600 BC. Their faith in the One kept them from being assimilated, however, and they even won further converts amongst other dispossessed Semitic peoples. In Babylon, the Hebrews collected together their sacred writings, and set down an account of their history using a uniformly male image of the One. The Goddess worshiping Celestials again acquiesced, some of the going elsewhere, others biding their time.
Zoroastrianism Not all of the Celestial Chorus went to Egypt, and when the Hebrew came to Babylon, the Tradition met some of another lost sect of the tradition. A group of Celestials in Sumeria, following the great prophet Zarathustra, had developed a complex dualist theology. They called the One Ahura Mazda, still identified with the sun. They also claimed there was another, infernal power, Ahrimane, source of all evil. Ahrimane was doomed to loose to Ahura Mazda at the end of time, but in many other ways was the equal to the One. The Zoroastrians were in direct competition with the magi and kindred of the fertile crescent, and thus were always in a precarious position. The Zoroastrians and the Hebrews synchronized, borrowing many ideas from one another. Once the Zoroastrain-backed Persians conquered Babylon, the Zoroastrian Celestials helped the Hebrews return home. The Zoroastrians continued for many centuries thereafter, but eventually were overwhelmed by more recent religious movements.
The Redeemer When Babylon fell to the Persians, the Hebrew were allowed to return home, but they never again established themselves as a fully independent kingdom. Under the thumb of a succession of empires, the Hebrews looked to ancient prophesies of a redeemer, one who would release them from suffering, and reestablish the kingdom of God. Many of the Chorus had similar expectations, but believed that the redeemer would instead reveal the One to the entire world. Finally, when the Hebrew were under the rule of Roman empire, such a redeemer arrived. A man from Nazareth came to Jerusalem, preaching a new revelation of God, and his teaching took hold like fire. Some believed him to be the king of the Hebrews, here to lead them to victory over the Romans. His closest followers, though, recorded that he taught of the universal love of the One, and redemption for all of mankind. The powers in control of Jerusalem could not tolerate his subversive teachings. The Romans, with the collusion of the Hebrew government, had him captured and crucified to prevent revolt in the Hebrew kingdom. His disciples survived him, however, and as they did not advocate immediate revolution, were allowed to escape. In the modern Celestial Chorus, there is nearly as much debate about the nature of Jesus of Nazareth as there is about the One. Most believe he was some sort of emissary of the One. Some believed he was merely a prophet, not the redeemer, and continued to follow the Jewish faith. It is unclear how much, if any, influence the Chorus had on Jesus, or his disciples. Only the most hubris-filled claim that Jesus was a member of the order, but it is a common belief that some of his disciples were of the Celestial Chorus (which ones is a matter of dispute).
The Sects of the Early Church Many of the ancient Chorus embraced the teachings of Jesus as the long awaited redemption of mankind, and began to spread
word of the One amongst the entire Roman Empire. When his teachings reached Greece, a fascinating expansion of beliefs began. Perhaps remembering their ancient Minoan roots, many Greek philosophers and mages embraced the new religion, and added a level of debate to the growing Christian church. From this time forward, an incredible diversity appeared in the once uniform teachings of Christ. A multitude of sects arose, some bearing only passing resemblance to the original teachings of Jesus. Many sects intermingled and were influenced by other, non-Christian ecstatic cults that were popular in the empire at the time. Though many in number, the Christian sects could be divided into two basic camps: the Gnostics and the Orthodox. The Gnostics were the most diverse of the two camps. The Gnostics emphasized the more mystical aspects of the teachings of Christ. They believed that by pursuing the same path as Jesus, they too could reach an enlightened state. They held that personal religious experience was more important than the teachings passed down from the disciples. Their groups were loosely organized; no hierarchy could be established when a pupil's revelations might someday exceed his teacher. The Gnostics thought the Orthodox had misunderstand the fundamental teachings of Christ, and were too obsessed with worldly things at the expense of the spiritual. The Orthodox held that strictly following the teachings of Jesus was the path to salvation. They worked to establish a unified organization and were very active politically. They justified their organization by claiming a succession of leaders going back to the original apostles. They sought converts amongst the Roman slaves, and willingly martyred themselves for the glory of Christ. The Orthodox thought the Gnostics were, at best, cowards unwilling to test their faith in the crucible of the world. At worst, the Gnostics were heretics, distorting the teachings of Jesus. One further problem was that some of the Gnostics were once again teaching of a female divinity, hidden but superior to the male Hebrew God.
The Roman Church It is a testimony to the potency of Christ's teachings that, despite the sometimes vehement disputes of the early church, his following grew rapidly. The powers behind the Roman empire, especially its secret vampiric rulers, grew alarmed. They began to persecute the new religion as subversive, most often attacking the more outspoken Orthodox. A war began for the control of the empire. The Romans began with what they considered to be very reasonable demands. They asked the Christians to simply burn an offering to genius of the emperor, as proof of their loyalty. When the (mostly Orthodox) Christians refused, they were thrown into jail. Rather than recanting, many Christians swarmed forward, admitting their guilt as a testimony to their faith. Swamped, the Romans became more severe, executing and eventually torturing to death the Christians, including death in the arena. Rumors were spread about the secret, malevolent activities of the Christians in the hope of turning the people against them. For their part, the Chorus supported early Christians in their faith, and began to fight for their freedom. Again, mostly the Orthodox Celestials worked toward this goal. They steadily converted several important Roman officials, and began to trace the persecutions to its source, the vampires of Rome. The tide began to turn, and at last the Chorus won a decisive victory in the conversion of Constantine, the current Roman emperor, in AD 313. With Constantine's conversion, the persecutions ended, and a movement began to make Christianity the official religion of the empire. With this at hand, many felt that some sort of doctrinal unity was needed. With Constantine's support, the Council at Nicaea was held in AD 325, determining which Christian writings were canonical, and which were not. The Council was largely attended by Orthodox Christians, who felt responsible for the victory of Christianity. They proceeded to label most Gnostic writings as heretical, making Orthodox Christianity the most powerful religion of the empire. Over the next century, the Orthodox Christians rapidly gained ground, becoming the state religion in AD 381. The Orthodox worked hard to root out Gnostic heresies, and the Chorus was again distracted by internal disputes. It was long before they realized how easily manipulated they had been. When the Chorus paused in its internal battles, they realized the everything the empire had found threatening had been excised from Orthodox Christianity. Some advances had been made, such as the elimination of the arena. Yet slavery and sexual inequality persisted, and the Church was being used to prop up the State. The Orthodox Celestials began to examine these recent developments. To their horror, they discovered the controlling hands of vampires everywhere. The vampires, rather than being defeated, had stepped around the problem, and were now doing their best to subvert Christianity as they had done with so many other religions in the past. The vampires desperately needed the burning faith of Christianity to inspire its forces, for the Empire was beset on all sides by encroaching barbarian enemies. Enraged, the Orthodox called a truce with the Gnostics. Though they would not reinstate Gnostic teachings, they agreed to allow some of the more mystical elements of Gnosticism to reenter mainstream Christianity, and to encourage Monasticism as a safe outlet for Gnostic urges. The now unified Chorus worked quietly to pull down the vampires' empire. They worked to undermined the military of Rome. When the barbarians came, rather than rallying the armies of Rome under the banner of Christianity, they were silent.
The Early Medieval Church, and the Divine Paradigm After the western half of the Roman Empire fell, the Chorus chose to establish their headquarters in Rome, now largely free of vampiric influence. Though they kept a hand in the Eastern empire, the Byzantine lands still had far too many kindred in it. From
Rome, they began to convert the invading barbarians to Christianity, and spread their teachings over all of Europe. Though much had been lost with the fall of the empire, the Chorus helped establish Monastic orders to preserve knowledge, until such time as man was able to use it once more. With the growth of the Church, the Chorus was able, for the first time, to establish its paradigm over a large region. This divine paradigm was known as the Dominion. The essential tenant of the Dominion is that all good flowed from the One. Faith in the One gave the worshipper access to divine miracles, but only for pious requests. Relics and sites related to the One were filled with divine power. All of Christendom awaited the return of the Savior, the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, and the universal redemption of mankind. The Chorus saw this as the Ascension, which they called the Reconciliation, and tentatively established the year 1000 as the time they would work to bring it about. All magic that did not come from the One was, by definition, evil. In order to explain other sources of power, the church acknowledged the existence of an Adversary to the One. The Adversary was the source of evil in the world, and all magic not of the One must come from the Adversary. The Adversary sought to undermine the faith of the pious, stealing them away from the grace of the One. The exact strength of the Adversary was a source of conflict amongst the Chorus. Those claiming too much strength for the Adversary were called dualistic, and heretics. The official policy of the Orthodox church was that the Adversary could only work through deception and illusion, and could not match divine power with miracles of his own. Though the Dominion spread over Europe, it was by no means universal. In many areas, secret hold-overs of older, pagan worship continued, especially under the guidance of the Verbena. Despite the fact that the Verbena and their druidic followers had also been persecuted by Rome, the Chorus saw no similarity between the two Traditions. The Church's tendency to identify pagan gods with the Adversary did nothing to win them popularity in Verbena circles either.
The Challenge of Islam and the Failure of the Reconciliation. Christianity was more or less unopposed as the major religion of the West until the growth of Islam in the eighth century. The sweep of the Moslem armies took the Christian world completely by surprise. Before they realized what happened, all the world south of the Mediterranean, up through Spain and to the very borders of the Byzantine empire had fallen to Islam. Most distressing, the holy land fall into their hands. The Chorus was especially confused by Islam. The Moslems obviously worshipped what was another manifestation of the One, but in many ways Islam was radically different from the Christian faith. Denying the divinity of Christ, they chose instead to follow the word of their prophet, Mohammed. The Chorus was uncertain how to react to the new religion. Some Celestials, especially those with ties to the Jewish faith, advocated taking the Moslems under the wing of the Chorus. Lacking further information, the more Orthodox Celestials agreed to explore the possibility. Emissaries were secretly sent amongst the Moslems, only to be quietly rebuffed. After a time, it became clear that Islam was under the influence of yet another, secretive Tradition, but the Chorus could learn little of these mysterious Ahl-i-Batin. The matter was temporarily shelved, as the end of the first millenium was rapidly approaching. The Chorus worked frantically to united the fragmented Christian world, and prepare the path for the returning Redeemer and the Reconciliation. Yet when the appointed day arrived, nothing happened. Appalled, the Chorus spent the next several centuries trying to determine why the Reconciliation had failed. They first turned their attention to the Middle East. Some Celestial scholars concluded that it was the loss of the holy land that led to the failure of the Reconciliation. With the backing of the Chorus, the Church launched the first of several crusades in the eleventh century to try to reclaim Jerusalem. The crusades had mixed success. The holy lands changed hands several times over the next two centuries. The crusading knights were more interested in pillage than piety. The Church was forced to make several compromises back in Europe in order to win the necessary support for the continuing crusades. At last the Chorus was able to contact the mysterious Ahl-i-Batin, and work out a compromise. The Batini proposed an ambitious plan of magical networking and holy pilgrimages that would link many of the holy sites of the middle east in a powerful web of faith. The Chorus, no longer certain that Islam was responsible for the failed Reconciliation, agreed. Reenergized by their share of this potent network of nodes, the Celestials once more turned their attention to Europe.
The Inquisition In Europe, the Church was suffering from numerous problems. Bloated with bureaucracy and rife with corruption, the Church was losing the faith of the common people. Secular rulers were challenging the power of the church, often successfully. The Church was in such a state of disarray that it was unable to stop a pointless schism, with two and sometimes three different individuals all claiming the papacy, for nearly a century. To make matters worse, the Chorus learned that an entirely new paradigm had been created beneath their very nose. The Order of Hermes, a wide-spread and powerful group of mages, had successfully spread a new paradigm of magic, which they called the Mythic Age, over many places in Europe. Celestial scholars pointed to the Hermetic paradigm as opposing the Dominion and the true cause of the failed Reconciliation. The Chorus found the smug arrogance of the Hermetics insufferable. The Order had spread its influence widely amongst the
courts of Europe. The majority of the Hermetics ridiculed the Church as needless superstition. The Celestials uncovered evidence that some of them even had regular commerce with spiritual beings that could only be the servants of the Adversary. The wrath of the Church was not long in coming. The office of the Inquisition had long been a part of the Church, to regulate the spread of heresy. Now this office was given new power. The church reversed its earlier doctrine that the Adversary could only work through the power of illusion, and directly attributed all non-divine magic to the Foe. The Inquisition went on a rampage against the enemies of the church, including heretics, the infernal, and other Traditions of magic. The Hermetics were unprepared for the onslaught, and their paradigm crumbled. The Inquisition got out of hand, though, as it uncovered more and more supernatural presences to combat. Discovering vampires and werewolves, as well as other practitioners of magic, the Inquisition went on a frenzy of killing, in which even innocent Sleepers were not safe. The Chorus struggled in vain to rein in its wayward tool, and even a few Celestials were caught in its vice. After the Church ended its support, the Inquisition continued in the form of a witch-hunting craze that didn't subside until the 17th century.
The Protestant Reformation and the Fall of the Church The Chorus was deeply divided by the violence of the Inquisition, and the corruption that still ran deep through the church. Some of them, feeling that sweeping reform was necessary, found a leader in Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and professor of theology at Wittenburg. He published a list of "Ninety-Five Theses", delineating what he saw as problems with the Church. The Church's refutations fell flat, and Luther gained in popularity. Luther gained political backing in the form of the powerful German noble Frederick, and his heresies withstood the counterattack of the Church. For the first time, the supremacy of the Catholic church had been successfully challenged. The break up of the Church did not end there. Other, alternate Christian views began to crop up, such as Calvinism, and the Anglican heresies. Unlike the past, these heresies were widespread, and had the support of kings rather than a few outcasts from society. Soon Europe was embroiled in a series of violent religious wars, seeking to establish the dominance of one version of Christianity or another. A few Celestials saw the futility of these wars, but most were blind. At the same time, a new secularism was rising in Europe, with a growth of ideas the Church was unable to reckon with. The Italian Renaissance resulted in art, music and culture separate from the Church. An obscure astronomer, Copernicus, challenged the view that Earth was the center of the universe. The Church, caught up in its own wars, battled these new ideas sporadically. Even though they would crush the authors, the concepts themselves still spread. As the wars ended, the Chorus blamed most of their losses to a counterattack on the part of the Hermetics. They believed that the Hermetics wish to destroy the Dominion in the same way the Church destroyed the Mythic Age. Modern Celestials, however, believe this was one of the first acts of the new-born Technocracy, including recently converted Hermetics. The early Technocrats helped spread Luther's ideas and exacerbated the problems with the newly invented printing press. Much of the scientific advances are easily attributed to them.
The Grand Exploration Even as Europe was embroiled in internal religious wars, it was rapidly colonizing the entire globe. Many Celestials, disgusted by the infighting of the European Chorus, chose instead to spread the Word of the One around the world. Celestials traveled to the Americas, Africa India and the Orient. These mages were an individualistic lot, and took both the best and the worst of the Church with it. In some instances, they tried to protect the native population from exploitation by the Europeans. In others, they tried to force the natives to convert to an alien religion. The Chorus took the Divine Paradigm with them where ever they went, and this gave some Celestials a vision of global Ascension. Many realized, however, that with the Christian community so drastically divided, and with their magical resources spread so thin, there was little hope of that. Indeed, though the Dominion was established in a few areas, most of the European exploration served instead to expand a new paradigm, one only recently created, that of the Technocracy.
The Seventh Council of Nicaea There is some dispute as to the order in which the next two events took place. Both occurred at roughly the same time, and the full effects of both were slow to take hold. As both meetings were secret, exact dates are difficult to fix. Both radically altered the course of the Celestial Chorus. The first event was a great meeting of important leaders of the various factions of the now splintered Church, held once more at the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. Catholic and Protestant were there, as well as a Jewish and Islamic representatives, and even a few Gnostic Christians and old Goddess worshipers, long thought destroyed. The meeting was held in secret, for the followers of each faction would not have approved. The exact content of the meeting, called the Seventh Council of Nicaea, is unknown. It is known that the various Celestials were
The exact content of the meeting, called the Seventh Council of Nicaea, is unknown. It is known that the various Celestials were in agreement that the Church was teetering, and the world was changing in a way that was increasingly hostile to magic, Holy or otherwise. The groups tried to hammer out some sort of compromise that would satisfy very diverse religious viewpoints. The only compromise they could settle on was a radical one. Up to this point, it was the doctrine of the Chorus that, just as there is only the One, there can be only one path to salvation. All the internal conflict of the Chorus had be driven by the need to have one, and only one faith. The council broke this doctrine. It was agreed, rather tentatively, that they may well be a multiplicity of paths to the One, that there may be some validity in all of the various faiths. This was called the Doctrine of Tolerance. This doctrine is not fully accepted, even to this day. Jewish Celestials point to the Tradition's lack of decisive action during the Holocaust as proof that the new doctrine has a long way to go. Some groups only grudging tolerate other ideologies. Others claim the multiplicity of paths still only include Christian faith. Nearly all would agree that the only true paths are those that acknowledge that there is one, and only one Divinity. Regardless, the Doctrine of Tolerance did put an end to the violent religious wars that rocked Europe. The various members of the Chorus learned to coexist, if not cooperate. There was even a resurgence of some of the "lost" groups and symbols, as Gnostics, Goddess and Sun worshippers became increasingly more open.
The Tribunal and the Horizon Wars The second momentous event was the Tribunal that either inspired or was inspired by the Seventh Council. Representatives of the Chorus met with the Tradition's two greatest enemies, the Verbena and the Order of Hermes, to try and hammer out a truce. All three groups were wary of each other, but they were coming to realize that the world was changing in a way that was hostile to all of them, and something had to be done. Though it took a great deal of debate, the Tribunal at last set aside their basic differences for at least as long as it took to crush this new threat. The Tribunal felt that, with the combined might of three Traditions, the problem would soon be dealt with. The Traditions drastically underestimated their enemy. They had no idea how entrenched the new Technocracy had become. All of the Tribunal's attacks were bitter failures. The Church's condemnation of scientific advances was ridiculed, rather than being solemnly accepted as it once was. The Hermetic surge in mysticism was rapidly marginalized, and crushed. The Verbena succeeded only in causing a brief resurgence of the witch-hunting craze. Off balance from their lack of success, the Tribunal was completely unprepared for the Technocracy's counterattack. Chantries were razed, nodes raided, and countless mages slain. The Traditions were amazed at the number and power of their enemies, who had been hidden for so long. The war was nearly lost then. The losses did help cement the temporary alliance, however, and the Tribunal reconvened. They also expanded their outreach, contacting other mages who now suffered under the onslaught of the Technocracy. The Tribunal was expanded to the Council of Nine, and with the pooled resource of all the Traditions, they managed to created a great Horizon realm, known simply as the Horizon, where they could regroup. This allegiance has lasted until this day.
The Celestial Chorus Now The next century was a desperate one for the chorus. Church functions once thought sacrosanct were now denounced. Whole nations, including all of the communist block, fell away completely. Even in the nations were the Chorus still had influence, barriers were set up separating the functions of church and state, leaving the governing of many nations under the hands of a soulless bureaucracy. The Chorus found themselves increasingly marginalized in the less technologically advance countries. The Chorus shifted their tactics however, becoming less political and more humanitarian. The Celestials have increasingly concentrated on winning back the hearts of the people, and have worked to improved the lot of the average man, especially those in desperate need. The Chorus sees itself as the champion and salvation of the Sleepers. Despite effort on the part of the Technocracy to secularize such aid, the church is still the primary source of charity in this world. The Chorus has not limited its attention to the Technocracy alone. The Celestials continue to fight against its more traditional demonic enemies, servants of the Adversary, including the Nephandi. There are those that say the Chorus secretly continues its Inquisition against the vampires of this world. The other Traditions are wary of the Chorus, for they still remember the Inquisition. There are those who believe the Celestials would happily replace the world-wide Technological paradigm with a world-wide Dominion, and those beliefs are not entirely unfounded. The Chorus has never shirked its duty in the Horizon wars, however, and has been amongst the fiercest opponents of the Technocracy and the greatest defenders of man. This, if nothing else, earns them the respect of their allies.
Sub-traditions The Celestial Chorus has always been rife with internal disputes. Even with the new doctrine of religious acceptance, the Chorus has many subgroups within it. Not all member of the Chorus belong to these subtraditions, and some belong to several.
Missionaries The Missionaries believe the primary task of the Chorus is to help and protect the Sleepers. Missionaries spend most of their time "in the field," doing their best to stave off the crises of modern times. They work constantly to free people from drugs, hunger, poverty and despair. They sometimes come into conflict with the Technocracy, but often work against ordinary sleepers, including criminals and corrupt governments. The Missionaries are not exclusive, and accept members from other subtraditions.
Followers of the Universal Path Celestials that subscribe to the Universal Path, or Universalists as they are sometimes called, believe that there can be only one church, and one faith. This is in conflict with the Doctrine of Tolerance, so Followers of the Path tend to be circumspect about their view. They are widely viewed with suspicion, and their detractors link them to the Inquisition, something they vehemently deny. Most of the Universalists point to Catholicism as the one true Faith. Even they are not in total agreement, however. There are a fair number of Universalists that subscribe to Eastern Orthodoxy as the true path. The Eastern Church has been badly battered over the centuries however, and this is the weaker half of the Followers of the Path. Both factions of the Universalists are amongst the most conservative Celestials.
Gnostics Gnostic Celestials trace their origins back the early Christians. As they did then, they feel that an individuals personal experience with the One outweighs any doctrine. They seek through various means, often ecstatic, to receive revelations of the One. Modern Gnostics criticize many of the limitations the Church has put on its members, including celibacy, and other forms personal denial. Some even seek through the use of drugs to gain visions of the One. Other Celestials believe the group has been too deeply influenced by the Cult of Ecstasy.
Bene Gesserit This subtradition claims that is the oldest faction of the Chorus, but in other ways it is the newest. The Gesserit exclusively use female imagery for the One, and have fought to make an equal place for woman in both the church, and the world. The rest of the Chorus, having accepted Crete as the origin of the Tradition, do not object to their feminine Divinity, but some of the more conservative Celestials are definitely uncomfortable with it. There are links between the Daughters and the Dianic witches of the Verbena, perhaps the strongest common ground between the two Traditions. Other than their use of female imagery and a tendency to matriarchy, this subtradition is surprisingly conservative. They harken back to the days of the Minoan Goddess worship, but lacking better information, tend to be otherwise orthodox in their religious practices. They can be very militant, perhaps to overcome the stereotype of feminity. Some of them go so far as to advocate female supremacism, including, perhaps the inner circle of the Gesserit. Not all of the its members are female, nor are all Goddess worshipping Celestials in this group.
Servants of the Sun This is another subtradition of both recent and ancient origin. The Servants point to the Sun as the house of the One. They hailed the shift from away Geocentric universe as an advance in the philosophy of man. The rites of the Servants aren't well known, for they are never held publicly, but most believe they are descended from the secret worship Mithras in the ancient Roman empire, and Zorastrianism. Much of the rest of the Chorus is uncomfortable with the subtradition's secrecy, but the use of solar imagery is becoming increasingly common, especially amongst those that wish to avoid questions of gender.
Millenialists This subtradition draws believers from everywhere in the Chorus. They believe that around the turn of the Millenium will be (or can be made to be) the time of the returning Redeemer. It is widely believed that the Redeemer, having once come as a man, will return as a woman. The Millenialists seek signs of her impending arrival, as well as working to prepare her way. They hope to find her shortly after she is born, to protect her from harm, and to learn as much as they can from her guidance. After she has reached maturity, the Redeemer will bring about the Reconciliation, and save mankind. A few of the Millenialists subscribe to a darker belief. They feel that the second coming of the Redeemer may (or will) fail, and the world will be plunged into a thousand years of darkness, ruled completely by the Adversary. Only at the end of the third
millenium will the Redeemer return for a final time to save mankind.
The Inquisition The existence of this subtradition is a guilty secret of the Chorus, and something they will not discuss with outsiders. Its membership is secret, and the widespread belief that its members are all Followers of the Universal Path is wrong. The Inquisitors seek out evil supernatural influences in the world, and crush them where they find them. The Nephandi are their greatest enemies amongst mages. It is said they have links to a group of vampire hunters known as the Society of Leopold. There are rumors that the Inquisitors will not hesitate to root out what they see as evil in the Traditions as well, or even amongst the Chorus.
Cabalists Many of the Jewish members of the Celestial Chorus believe in the Cabala (or Qabala), an ancient Jewish mystical tradition. The Cabala centers on the study of the Sephirothic Tree, otherwise known as the tree of life. The tens spheres of the Tree are related to the nine spheres of magic, plus a tenth "Divine" sphere, representing the One. The Cabalists are not active politically, preferring quiet contemplation of the One in solitude. They have been withdrawn since the Holocaust, and have yet to forgive the rest of the Chorus for the atrocity. The Cabalists have many links to the Order of Hermes, and a fair percentage, or even the majority, are actually Hermetic. Cabalists often use Hermetic foci, and they are the strongest link between the Chorus and the Order. Some of Cabalists have actually formed a hybrid tradition, with two spheres as their specialty, both Forces and Prime. These Cabalists find that their ordered view of the universe and their abhorrence of evil makes it impossible for them to use Entropy, however.
Disciples of Mohammed This small segment of the Chorus subscribes to the Islamic faith as the true manifestation of the One. The longtime conflict between Islam and Christianity has heightened tensions between this subtradition and the rest of the Chorus. Some Celestials, finding the term "Disciple"to be egotistical, refers to this group by the insulting term, Mohammedans. The links between this group and the Ahl-i-Batin are unclear.
Organization The Celestial Chorus is tightly organized in a hierarchy resembling that of the Catholic Church. The highest members of the organization are the Council of Twelve in Rome, who direct the activities of the Tradition as a whole. These individuals are known as the Princeps, after Roman tradition. The proper form of address used when speaking to a Princep is "Your Eminence." Immediately under the Twelve are the Archepiscopus, who oversee large regions of the globe known as Archdiocese. Under them lie the Episcopus, who oversee local areas, Diocese, no larger than a nation, and more commonly only a part of a nation. Episcopus are invariably the head of a Chantry, and often have a few other Chantries under their jurisdiction, including Chantries of mixed traditions. The proper term of address for Episcopus and Archepiscopus is "Your Grace" and "Your Holy Grace," respectively. There is a separate scholastic and educational arm of the Chorus, which has a great deal of influence. Major figures, either the head of a school or in control of a major library, are called Prefects. Though technically
answerable to the local Episcopus, they often often powerful enough to have access to the ear an Archepiscopus, and sometimes even a Princep. Less members of the order are called Praeceptors. Other Celestials generally rank themselves by their knowledge of Prime. When there is a dispute in leadership, Celestials will defer to the Celestial with the highest rating in Prime, or, failing that, Arete. Superiors are addressed as "Father" or "Mother," peers as "Brother" or "Sister," and relatively inexperienced Celestials as "My Son" or "My Daughter." Early advancement is measured solely by one's progress with the sphere of prime. This is still important to holding positions in the hierarchy as well. Only Adepts can be Prefects or Episcopus, and only Masters can be Archepiscopus and Princeps. When a position needs to be filled, the Celestials under the authority of the position have a conference to give recommendations to the tier immediately above it. The superior will generally select amongst the recommended individuals, though this is not necessary. The selection process is often one of intense politics, with those above and below the position. Since the Doctrine of Tolerance, the Chorus has tried to integrate members of all faiths into its hierarchy. This task is somewhat eased by the Edict of Westphalia, declaring in 1427 that no member of the Celestial Chorus could hold a rank above Priest or Abbot in the Church. Doctrinal differences can still be a major hindrance to advancement, however, and many subtraditions accuse conservatives and Universalists of excessive control of the hierarchy. This rigid organization is both a help and a hindrance to the Chorus. It has helped the Tradition withstand the often brutal attacks they have faced from the Technocracy, and coordinate counter thrusts. They have more efficient channels of communication than any other tradition, and other mages sometimes get references from the Celestials when traveling from one region to another. However, the problems with advancement can breed ambition, pride and rivalry. Some of the more liberal members, while recognizing the importance of unity, chafe at the restrictions imposed by the hierarchy. Status amongst the Chorus is gained through the three Virtues: Word, Faith and Deed. The Word is revelations of the One, and insights into the nature of the world and magic. Scholarly treatises on magic and theology are carefully recorded, and stored in ancient libraries. Faith is a measure of devotion to the One. The most common measure of faith is through denial, voluntarily giving up something of the world as proof of one's devotion. Faith is generally deemed greatest when it is chosen without knowledge or reward. The final virtue, Deed, is acting to improve the world and help
mankind, including charity and fighting evil. Members of the Chorus usually try to meet at least once per week, generally on Saturday, called the Sabbath. These meetings are a time when Celestials can renewed their faith, and celebrate the glory of the One. The meetings are punctuated song and readings from the holy scriptures. It is in very poor taste to bring up matters of the world during the Sabbath, so impending business is usually discussed after worship. Initiates of the Celestial Chorus are generally selected on the basis of faith (though this need not be faith in God). Initiates are watched carefully, and are secretly "tempted" away from the righteous path by the Chorus. These temptations are more to educate and illuminate rather than truly test the Initiate. When the Chorus feels the Initiate is ready, they reveal themselves, and in a great ritual of worship, awaken the Initiate's Avatar. Afterwards, the Initiate is assigned a mentor, and undergoes four years of schooling in the history and power of the Tradition. At the end of this time, the Initiate vows to obey the Hierarchy and be true to their faith. They are then accepted as full members of the Tradition. The most powerful Chantry house of the Tradition is in Rome, hidden within the Vatican, as it has been for nearly two thousand years. Within its horizon realm, the Dominion still holds sway. This has always been a sticking point amongst the non-Orthodox members of the Tradition, and there have been numerous attempts to have the Chantry moved, most likely to Jerusalem. Given the amount of power invested in the Roman Chantry, this is unlikely.
Metaphysic The basic tenant of the Celestial Chorus is: as above, so below. All power and good flows from the One. Accepting, through faith, the grace of the One is the path to happiness. The Celestials seek to understand the One, and become vessel of her will, doing her work on earth. They seek to spread her word, so that others can share in her bounty. The Chorus has a two-fold view of Ascension. The smaller path, is of personal Ascension. Personal Ascension can be achieved only through faith. The closer you are to the One, subsuming yourselves to her will, the greater your enlightenment and well being. The larger path is of the Universal redemption of man. The Celestials believe the One will return in a grand event they call the Reconciliation. All humanity will be lifted up in her grace. There is only so much mere mortals can do to bring this about, but the Chorus does their humble best to prepare the path for the One. An issue in great dispute amongst the modern Chorus is the Adversary. They have recanted their position that all non-holy magic comes from the Foe, but a few Celestials believe that this is not enough. Having spoken to other mages about the metaphysic of magic, and how belief structures reality, these Celestials feel that the focus the Chorus puts on the Adversary is dangerous. It may serve to strengthen the belief of the Masses, and thereby strengthen their Foe. These Celestials point to the recent spate of movies centering on Demonic power, some with the creatures of darkness portrayed in a sympathetic light. Their critics ask how one can deny the reality of the demons they fight on a nearly daily basis. It is an issue with no easy resolution. The Chorus believes that the appearance of Paradox is caused by a lack of faith. Those that are faithful, and true to their action, need fear nothing. Those with the seeds of doubt within them can fail, and be punished for their pride. Celestials acknowledge that Paradox does sometimes affect even advanced mages, perhaps as a test of their faith. Celestials believe that a mage's Avatar is a guardian spirit, or angel. This angel chooses you at birth, watches over your development, and tries to protect and guide you. For the most part, the Avatar will remain hidden. Upon your death, your Avatar will choose another individual to protect. The Celestials do not believe the Avatar is part of a mage's own soul, for the Avatar returns, and the soul goes on to its eternal rest.
The existence of True Faith is an important and complex issue for the Celestial Chorus. Though more common in this Tradition than any other, nowhere near a majority of its members possess this power. Those with True Faith are exalted as blessed, though it plays no role in the hierarchy of the Chorus. It is generally believed that Celestials, possessing greater knowledge, find it more difficult to access faith, which must always be at least somewhat blind. Be that as it may, the Celestials believe that all magic flows in some way from faith. Like many Traditions, they have myths of the tenth sphere of magic, which they believe is faith. While there is a great desire for those Celestials with True Faith to explore this possibility, there is always the fear that greater knowledge will result in the loss of that faith.
Correspondence "The One is omnipresent, being everywhere at once. By opening your mind to this aspect of the One, you can supercede normal space. Being everywhere at once, you can choose to perceive, or travel, anywhere."
Entropy "This is a dangerous power, used by the servants of the Adversary. The power of the death is a dangerous one, and ultimately, illusory. We know of the immortality of the soul, and while the body and mind may decay, the soul is eternal."
Force "Light is the hammer of the One. It is the primary manifestation of her wrath. Do not abuse the power she grants."
Life "All life was created in the image of the One. As the universe is the house for the soul of the One, the body is the house for the soul of creatures and plants. As we work to heal the universe, we learn also to heal our own bodies, and others. Do not engage in the false creation of life, however. This is the domain of the One. Such poor creatures are at best soulless, and at worst a house for malignant spirits to enter."
Mind "Just as we bend ourselves to the will of the One, we may bend the will of others. Only by surrender to Divine Will can one increase this power, for it is truly the will of the One they surrender to. Do not abuse this power, however. Choice is the gift given to all the One's creatures, for only by choice may one come into grace. It is not our right to take it away."
Prime "This is the true manifestation of the One, and this is why study it above all else. Without it, magic is but illusion and phantasm, for nothing real may be created. As prime is the essence of the One, it is the essence of all things. Thus, the essence of the One permeates all of creation. By her will, we may use the pure essence of the One to smite her enemies."
Spirit "The world of spirits is a dangerous and powerful one. The spirit world is constructed of several overlapping spheres, ascending and descending, to the One and to the Adversary. The boundaries may be difficult to discern by the unknowledgeable, so tread with care in the spirit lands. Do not seek to ascend by power alone to the place of the One, for not only is this impossible, it is an act of heedless pride. "Take care when you have congress with spirits. The Servants of the Adversary are many, seeking to seduce unwary. Destroy them whenever you can. Our allies in the spirit world are the Angelic host, servants of the One. With study, one can learn how to call for their aid. We recognize now that there are spirits not aligned with either the One or the Adversary, but they do not concern us. They are unimportant in the scheme of things." The Angels the Chorus deals with resemble the benevolent spirits of the various faiths the Celestials subscribe to. The Chorus will only bargain with such Angels, never compel them. For their part, the Angels are predisposed to aid the Chorus, but only in righteous tasks. The Angels, like most spirits, are extremely reticent when it comes to discussing the structure of the spirit world,
often saying "It is not for us to speak of such things." Recently, there has been some indication that the spirits working with the Chorus are the lesser part of a greater host. Apparently, they have come to the lower realms as part of an act of penance, whereby they are able to removed some sort of taint. The Angels themselves will not speak of the matter. While the Chorus can sympathize with the quest for redemptions, the idea of even slightly fallen Angels makes most of the Chorus distinctly uncomfortable.
Time "The One is all-knowing, and all that has happened, both past and present, lay open before it. In times of need, she can grant us visions of the future. Do not think that this invalidates our free will, for though the One knows us so well that she knows all that may come to pass, the choice is still ours."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Our Eastern brothers share many of our beliefs but they obsess on the internal mind. They must contact to that which is outside of themselves, including the all-present One, to find true salvation. Cult of Ecstasy: These fools pursue endless pleasures and the degradations of the flesh. They know nothing of the dangers facing them, lost as they are in their own decadence. Dreamspeakers: The shamans have great peace of mind, and an inner wisdom one must envy. Yet their view of the One is too simple. She is more than just the world, she is all. Their lack of unity will be their downfall. Euthanatos: These mages deal in a darkness best left alone. Though not servants of the Adversary, their doctrine of reincarnation is false; their memories of past lives delusions. Once they realize this, they will see the evil in what they do. Hollow Ones: The children are living proof of the failure of faith in the modern world. They believe in nothing, and it leaves a hole in their soul. They must reach out, and find something to live for. Order of Hermes: We have settled many of our differences with these mages, and have even accepted some of their views on magic. We must never forget their arrogance, for they have brought us failure in the past. Their blind, mechanical magic is too much like the Technocracy we fight to be to our taste. Sons of Ether: These petty fools are little different from the Technocracy, having founded the organization. Their godlessness is a constant affront. Why they are allowed membership on the Council of Nine is beyond us. Verbena: We know now that the powers most of them worship are not the Adversary, but the spirit of nature. Nature is subservient to the one, however, and they need to set their sights higher. Watch them carefully, for
a few of them do indeed stray down the dark path. Virtual Adepts: They have truly broken their allegiance from the Technocracy. Now all they need do is free themselves from the Technocrats' misbegotten ideas. Orphans: These lost souls are a sign of the darkness of today. Take them in where you find them, and guide them to the light. Such poor individuals are often targets for the Adversary. The Technocracy: These vile fiends are responsible for much of the evil in the modern world. They have no respect for the One. Fight them at every turn. Even if they are not servants of the Adversary, they unknowingly do his work. Marauders: Poor confused souls, trapped in their madness. Aid them where you can. Avoid them otherwise. Nephandi: These fiends are irredeemable, having willingly sold their souls to the Adversary. Show them no mercy. Vampires: These damned creatures should have been destroyed ages ago. Were we not so beset by other enemies, we would continue our war against them. Werewolves: They are an anachronistic throw back that once preyed on mankind. They are a dying breed, not worthy of our attention. Wraiths: Do not meddle with the spirits of the dead. It is forbidden. If you are able, help them on to their final reward. Faeries: There is a tale that in the first war, some Angels did not take sides with either the One or the Adversary. They were also cast out, but fell only to earth. Perhaps this is the origin of the Fey. Treat them as such: halfway between the Divine and the Infernal. Do not give them your trust.
HISTORIANS By David "Dead Avatar"Barrena (
[email protected]) - It isn't possible to change the history changing the pictures of a wall. -Jawaharlal Nehru. - HAHAHAHAHA -Anonymous mage. Internal File NWO659783IV Subject: The Historians Access granted to classes: A,B,D. Related Files: SOE3657GU,NWO298792OP,NWO30098AG,NWO732168PS,NWO38690DW, NWO38691DW,NWO32226HI,ITX98373EH,SYN439803GD,NWO93748HI,TECH382. Start of file.
Objectives: The Historians are a subgroup of New World Order who are dedicated to change the history to benefit us and our objectives.
General Information: The modifications to the history they design are called Changes. A Change is a very complex process, because is necessary to hand a lot of information and the consquences of a little change can be vast and uncontrollable. This huge information handling only was really useful after the developement of computers. Before that, all the calculations had to be done by the human computers of the Sons of Ether (see file SOE3657GU), slower than real computers. Anyway, a Change is a slow process, that usually takes months of hard work.
Structure of a Change: 1. The Choice. Three members of the Historians meet with representatives of the five Conventions to decide what Changes are needed. Of course, each Convention tries to get its proposals accepted by the Historians, but they only choose the Change most beneficial to all the Conventions, usually what is proposed by New World Order. 1.1. Motives of a Change. 1.1.1 Elimination of old paradigms. This is the main objective of the Historians,and they have been very successful. The rest of the old paradigms(i.e. the Celestial Chorus' paradigm in the western world. see file NWO298792OP) must be deleted,an any evidence of magick must be disguised as superstition and legend. This tactic, to disguise real history as legend, has brought us our most succesful Changes (one of the most incredible Changes, because of its difficulty and the success we achieved was the concealament of everything related to the history of the Grail. see file NWO30098AG) 1.1.2 Substitution of old paradigms for the Convention's paradigm. One of the most dangerous threats to the Conventions is the possible spread of a belief in the existence of other paradigms, like the ones proposed by the Traditions. The mission of the Historians is to make sure nobody has the opportunity of "accidentally" discovering that our reality is not the only possibility (We know our paradigm is the best, but this kind of knowledge could be dangerous to an untrained mind). Another reason for this substitution is the fact (this theme was studied long ago by us (see file NWO732168PS)) that people accept any knowledge more easily as older the knowledge is. 2. Analysis. Two things are analyzed by The Historians: 2.1. What does need to be modified. The Rote Locate Physical Rests (see file NWO38690DW)is used in an object related to the historical fact that is going to be Changed. 2.2. Possible consequences. If too many things need to be modified (usually because the Change proposed is more important in the flow of the history than it seemed) or the consequences too uncontrollable (the Change has too many ramifications) then the Change is rejected and another Choice is proposed. This is the opposite of what is done by the Forecasters, the group of Technomancers dedicated to predicting the future and who seek these points with many ramifications (or bifurcation points, as the Forecasters call them) and try to use and modify them. If this kind of modifications were used by the Historians in their work, the Paradox produced could destroy the Historians and possibly many years of work of the whole Technocracy. This reasoning has drove the Historians to the "rule of minimum Change". Following this rule, they try to adjust the history to achieve what they want making the less possible modifications to the history. (i.e. When skeletons of giant reptiles were discovered, the old legends about dragons were Changed for modern theories about dinosaurs. Unfortunately, we were unable to eradicate the stories about dragons, and this is a serious threat to our objectives. The current way of work is to make the dinosaurs very popular among the Masses to get a total oblivion of dragons in year 2040. Jurassic Park (with the cooperation of Progenitors and The Syndicate) was a very
useful tool to achieve this goal.Tests have been made to subjects aged 8-12, and have demostrated that most subjects don't remember dragons flew and breathed fire, but are able to point the differences between many types of dinosaurs.) 3. Execution. Once the Change has been accepted, the third step begins. 3.1. Destruction of proof. The first step is to destroy any physical rest of the historical fact and delete(or modify) any written record of its existence. 3.1.1. If the rest has not been discovered (i.e. any archeological rest below the earth) then is directly destroyed using the rote Reality Erasure (see file NWO38691DW). 3.1.2. If the object if known by the Masses, proofs are build to show what is "really" the object (i.e. see file NWO32226HI: The holy bed-sheet.) A very good tactic is the use of radioactive tests to know the "real" age of an object,like the C-14 test to use in organic objets( see file ITX98373EH). The modifications to written texts are not as radical, because it is not necessary. Each year (or decade) the history books are revised and a new edition is written, and each new edition is subtly changed to suit our needs.The effect is so subtle that only if two editions with more than 20-25 years of difference between them are compared the modifications could be seen, and even if they are perceived, are usually imputed to the "new discoveries"(our other Changes). 3.1.3. Sometimes, these kind of demostrations have already been done by scientists. In these cases the tactic is to denounce this evindence as falsifications, discrediting any scientist who had proved the authenticity of the evindence. If the scientist persists in his theories, he must be eliminated (i.e. the discoveries in the Tutankhamon's tomb (see file SYN439803GD) produced the elimination of Lord Carnavon, some members of his family and many other people who had discovered the real treasure. Our agent in the field, Howard Carter, did great work. Unfortunately, the Traditions used these deaths to spread the idea of a curse, that was easily accepted by the gullible part of the Masses. This idea has damaged us in our efforts to make the Masses forget the old superstitions and it has made us to be more careful in other eliminations). 3.2. This step (usually mixed with the first) consists in creating new proofs about the historical fact you want to "prove", followed by the "discovering" of these proofs, usually with a big display of propaganda (helped by The Syndicate) to make the new history known by the greater part posible of the Masses.
Personnel: Historians: The typical group of historians is composed by 6 members. 2 Analysts: Working closely with some members of the Forecasters, they analyze the ramifications of a Change and decide if the Change is possible. 2 Field Agents: They locate and destroy(or modify) the physical evidence of history and make the necessary "deals" with archaeologists and other scientists about the evidence already discovered. 2 Publicists: They work with the Syndicate to make our version of the history widely kwown among the Masses. They use any mean in their hands to spread their ideas, from commemorative festivities (of events that really didn't exist or events that existed in a different way as are remembered (see file NWO93748HI: Woodstock) to books or movies. 10 Men in Black: The MIB are used when is needed a direct action against a target. This actions can be as different as to intimidate a rebel scientist or to eliminate a dangerous Tradition mage. The MIB are also used to protect the Historians' construct together with security guards extracted from the Masses.
Consequences: Do the Historians change really the history ? The right answer is: Sometimes. As it is explained before, the Historians change the history changing what is known by the Masses, who change the history (remember belief=reality) themselves. But there is a problem: Reality doesn't like to be changed, and if there are a significant number of Masses (this number is unknown by the Historians) that know the real history, even if they are greatly outnumbered by the Masses who know the modified version , then the history will not change. [ Storytellers note: If Time 2 is used to see the changed event, it will be seen as the original version, or more usually, a version with the original and the Technocracy-altered history mixed or superimposed, as with Divided Sight (corresp. 3) ]. Only if no sleeper knows about the real history,and all believe in the modified version, the history really changes. [ST note: The use of Time 2 will show the new history]. Another problem found by the Historians is that the parts of history related to awakened beings and powerful magick are almost impossible of delete or change, so the tactic used is to disguise history as legend (see above).
Paradox: The Historians are (with the possible exception of some members of Iteration X ) the Technomancer subgroup more affected by paradox forces, not because of the vulgarity of their effects (most of them are consistent with the paradigm) but for the important modifications of the history they implement. The forces of paradox usually strike in one (or both) of this ways: 1. Changes in personal history: Some members of the Historians have noticed important modifications on his personal lives, such as
a different house . In extreme cases, even the people they know are not the same. Evidence of these changes has not been found, but careful interrogation of the subjets suffering these effects make us to think that Paradox changes the personal history of the Historians, just like they change the history of the world. All these changes make them pyschologically unbalanced,so they are strongly watched over by all the Technocracy, especially by NWO (another reason for this vigilance is the importance of their work). 2. Paradox Realms: In some extreme cases a Historian has been trapped in an alternative reality (a typical case of paradox realm) where the Change that the Historian was working on had been twisted in a strange form. The classic example is the reality experimented by a Historian who was working in the discovering of America, who was trapped in a paradox realm where Europe was discovered by American natives before the Middle Age and the dominant paradigm was the imposed by the Dreamspeakers. (This is a typical show of "poetic justice" as is usual in the paradox reactions. Some of our best brains (natural and artificial) are trying to modify this demeanor to make paradox a more impersonal force (see file TECH382) ). End of File.
Rotes File NWO38690DW Subject:Locate Physical Rests (Rote) Access granted to classes: A,B,D,H,I Related Files: NWO659783IV Start of File.
Use: This Rote is used by the Historians (see file NWO659783IV). Knowledges needed: Correspondence 2,Mind 3,Matter 1,Time 2. Known effects:This Rote analize the impact of an object in the flow of history (Mind, Matter, Time) and locate other objects related to it (Correspondence,Matter). To make effective this goals, the object is analyzed, discovering its origin and most of its particular history, then, complex statistical works are made to see what people remember about the historical fact related to the object. Then, a complete investigation work is done, searching in museums, private colections, doing archeological works, etc, to find the objects related to the target of the Rote. The results of the investigation are exponential, because as other objects are found, the Rote is cast upon them and with each casting more and more objects are found, so all the investigation around a historical fact is done in relatively a short amount of time. End of File. File NWO38691DW Subject:Reality Erasure (Rote) Access granted to classes: A,B,D,HI Related Files: NWO659783IV Start of File.
Use: This Rote is used by the Historians (see file NWO659783IV). Knowledges needed: Prime 4,Correspondence 2(4). Known effects: The rote extracts all the raw Quintessence of an object's pattern.The object thus disappears from reality. Similarities has been discovered between this rote and the effect known to members of the Celestial Chorus as Flames of Purification. Correspondence is required only if this rote is not casted to an object near the mage. Correspondence 2 to cast the rote (line of sight). Correspondence 4 if the use of Qintessence is needed (as usually does if working from a distance.Line of sight is hard). End of File. File SOE3657GU Subject:Human Computers (Rote) Acces granted to classes: A,B,G,J5 Related Files: Start of File.
Use: This Rote was used by the technocracy before the construction of modern computers.It was developed by the Sons of Ether before leaving the Technocracy.
Knowledges needed: Time 3,Mind 4,Life 4,Forces 2. Known effects: This rote transforms a human being in a powerful computer allowing to connect the subject of the rote to a printer or other output machines and accelerating his mind processes. The continued use of the rote upon a subject kills him (death caused by brain damage). This rote is more useful if casted on a Awakened subject, whose mind is more flexible.The usual tactic is to use the Rote in a captured member of the Traditions (to use a Marauder or Nephandi is very unpredictable). End of File.
Talisman File NWO30098AG Subject:The Grail Access granted to classes: A,B,HI. Related Files: NWO659783IV, SYN987870. Start of File.
Appearance: Unknown. Described as a chalice, a cauldron, or another completely different thing, deppending on the source. Powers: Unknown, but rumors say that is able of awakening people who drink its contents. The Grial (and everything related to it) was a main target of the Historians (see file NWO659783IV) during some time. Its history, and all its mystical connotations had to be destroyed. The elimination of all the facts related to the Grail was impossible, but the causes of this are yet unkwnon.The only possible alternative was to transform the history in legend. When the Change was analyzed, some apparent incongruences were detected, what made the Historians to think that the history of the grail was already changed by the Celestial Chorus, to make a powerful symbol as the Grail closer to their beliefs. Anyway, the Grail has remained in the imagination of the masses during too much time, and this have to be changed. A new project is being developed by the Syndicate: a "famous director" is working in a film that will relate the Grail to alien beings, in an attempt to destroy all the mysticism in its history (see file SYN987870). End of File.
HOLY ONES By Charles Phipps (
[email protected])
Prelude "The Holy Ones have always been there, Daniel," Master Quentin Travelers spoke as he stared out the window of the high rise apartment building. His apprentice Daniel held a laptop, an unorthodox tool for a Order of Hermes mage, but Danny had always loved surfing the net and had chosen not to give up the habit when Awakened. "I don't quite understand that sir, er, Master. Sure the Order and the rest claim to be the first tradition but everyone has had a beginning." He spoke out loud, having found the reference in a site claiming to bespeak of miracles, Danny had thought it was a trap for technocrats but instead had discovered the link was sincere. "It's not so much a order as a state of being Danny. It's the place you reach when you -- have well seen the truth." Quentin spoke, trying to belay the enigmatic group that he had once met one member of so many years ago. "So they're like Oracles?" Danny asked as Quentin shook his head. "The Oracles are withdrawn Daniel. Nigh omnipotent masters, or so I've heard. I've never actually seen one in my lifespan. The Holy Ones are made up more of normal folk; any of us could join them but I doubt you or I are ready though. I guess we could be - we'll know when we know." "Your not making sense again sir." Danny spoke. "Master," Quentin corrected. "You'll understand when you meet one yourself. They're about. Just there, trying to do what they can. I think. It's a dark world we live in, far darker than any I've imagine. I suspect that it would be darker still if not gone outright if not for they." Quentin stared off once again into the night, thinking of the day.
Description The Holy Ones, as stated by Quentin Travellers, is a state of being achievable by anyone, not just mages, but it is they who most know of them. The actual number of Holy Ones is varied, but they're are perhaps six or seven active mages usually remembered in magic chronicles at any given time. If asked the Holy Ones will count many higher but among that are folk that no mage will have ever heard of (and many among them which have never heard of mages, magick, or the forces of the supernatural). Holy Ones that are active in the Ascension war are recruited from the lost, dejected, and, surprisingly, extremely enlightened among the magickal traditions. Though perhaps recruited is too strong a word, as most simply come to the conclusion to follow the Holy One philosophy and later have the title bestowed upon them or meet a actual member of the order and follow the way. This is not limited to the Traditions and Technocracy mages, Marauders, and even Nephandi have joined (the latter turning from their darkness is what in a struggle against all that they have ever embraced). Holy Ones are also believed to exist among werewolves, vampires, changelings and, most of all mortals, (it is believed that the last outnumber the former put together by leaps and bounds). The mission of the Holy One's is the most strange thing of all to comprehend but probably the simplest to speak: "To try and bring peace to oneself and the world around them." This is different from the other paths by the honesty and selflessness that they go about it. The only requirements to becoming a Holy One is a strong and true devotion to the philosophy.
Philosophy We're all here for a reason. There's too much of a plan to how everything fits together in the universe for there be anything but one for it (you try explaining why it's here otherwise). However that plan is skewered; every morning every day people break it by spiting one another and getting a cheap thrill off it. This isn't because of evil; no one is truly evil, only degrees by which someone has forgotten (or never known) about this plan. We have to figure out this plan, and how to execute it. Some day when enough people know the plan and maybe when the plan comes together, we won't need to live like we do. In the meantime try and do all that you can to understand. Give peace where you can, and try and live best you can. Improve, love, and be loved. The latter is probably not going to happen when you/re trying to make the plan better but that's the trouble.
Organization As stated, there is very little organization to the Holy Ones. At most there is likely to be a chantry of them, perhaps a cabal, and even more likely a single one working among a group of mages doing his best to help them and others.
Meetings Holy Ones often seek one another out and when they meet it is usually the beginning of a life long friendship or mentorship. However, very rarely do they actually meet each other. Many have to go through life only having heard of others, if that. Sometimes they will meet someone whom they think is another of their kind, but find themselves mistaking false piety for the real thing. No one is infallibl and you must roll with the punches.
Initiation Initiation occurs when one accepts the philosophy above and chooses to act on it (usually causing a major rift with their chosen Tradition or Convention -- it is not an easy path but it is the right one).
Chantry There is no actual chantry to the Holy Ones but most take comfort in visiting the grave sites and abodes of those that were among their order (saints, religious leaders, even good governmental officials -- all which embodied what they believe in).
Acolytes Seekers of enlightenment, the disenchanted and lost (whom receive a welcome hand), Children of Gaia, Salubri, the faithful
Spheres There is no set or preferred sphere that the Holy Ones practice but Life is preferred (given that it can do the most visible good in any given situation) and most Mind effects disdained (many believing the manipulation of it is a terrible act worthy of the strongest of scorn or derision). Spirit is a mixed viewed sphere with it being on one hand believed to be the key to uncovering the nature of the plan and on the other glut full of the mistakes and misconceptions of a very lost populous.
Foci Good intent - (a foci requiring pure motives behind all acts of magick and a good purpose-a very powerful one indeed) - All Religious symbol (most find some key in the current religion they practice, changing this when they believe they have come closer to the truth and even then most keep it still practicing a "new phase of it") - Spirit, Prime Prayer/Meditation on the plan - Life, Mind Personal - (most have some particular item that emphasizes the importance of their beliefs and it's focus; often leftover from their previous affiliation. It should be noted that Holy Ones care little for vulgar magick and are more interested in the results than actual style)
Concepts Holy Man, Seeker of Truth, Wandering Do Gooder, General nice guy
Quote "I don't claim to know the truth but I do know some things that are true. Let me tell you them . . . ."
Views Mortals: It's tempting to say that mortals are the most blessed of folks or the most accursed in ignorance but that's a mistake. In truth they can be just as evil or good as us. That's because they, like us, are all human. What we have in the end is just a little more baggage than the rest. Many are Holy Ones without knowledge of the supernatural and many are more lost than some of
the worst Nephandi.
"Yeah I know Billy. He helps out at the orphanage every week and babysits for my kids." -- John Murdoch
Vampires: I don't care how they justify it or how high those who claim to possess "great humanity" tout themselves in the end the manipulation of men, the taking away of their free will is slavery be it by domination or blood, the drinking of human blood without permission (and even with) is nothing more than rape and many do acts of far worse and blatant murder and theft. Some may be good and not do this but those who would be our allies are killers of themselves; depriving the world of good men by cowardice. Diseased wretches to be helped, fought to save others, and pitied.
"Those of true faith walk the earth. They're touch burns me." -- Balthan, Malkavian elder
Werewolves: It's a sad day when people use what they view as a just cause and their great strength to control and bully others. It's happened before in Churches, governments, and it is never more clear here. The majority of werewolves are nothing more than killers who fight for an ancient religion whose tenants I'm pretty sure are convoluted and misguided beyond all original tenants in their mind (and that probably wasn't that great in the first place). The Children of Gaia are well and good but these angry folk usually set themselves up above men (and animals blessed with the gift of mind see themselves apart from men) and most of them are guilty of far too much tolerance of their evil themselves.
"Humans will never understand us. He fought with us against the Wyrm spirits but battled us when we sought to slay the Pentex workers in the plant." -- Guts the Servant, Wendigo Ahroun
Wraiths: The dead but a stage. Most humans don't stay behind and these are the creations of those who are too afraid to. They do not know it but many of those who seek revenge before moving on are damning themselves further and their place and wants should not be clouded by staying behind. Still they must be pitied. Their ties to this imperfect place are a terrible curse and the shadow on their hearts (signs of this wrong) is far worse than even they realize.
"We are in this place. Who are they to speak of a new place and new ways? What do they know?" -- Solomon Tweed, Stygian citizen
Changelings: Dreamers mostly. A few people left in the world who can imagine something better. They are usually no worse and often no better than most men but far greater a force for good than I would imagine most of those who live in this strange world.
"Old man Jenkins. Love this guy. Gave good candy when I was a childer, laughed uproariously when I pranked him as a wilder, but boy, did he bore me when I was a Grump. Still nice guy, good beliefs, respect em." -- Alreck, Grump Pooka at 25
Traditions: A group of philosophies and beliefs that the vast majority are good at heart and while we believe quite a few are close to the truth *cough* Celestial Choir and Akashic Brotherhood *cough*...and others out of touch with modern times and the plan today *cough* Dreamspeakers, Verbena *cough* and maybe a few that should spend a little less time with their foci and more time with mortals *cough* Virtual Adepts, Sons of Ether, Order of Hermes, Cult of Ecstasy *cough* and perhaps even an evil one *cough* Euthanatos *hock* *spit* we accept them as a good group overall. Misguided, but enlightened.
"I DON'T CARE THAT ISN'T AN OXYMORON! I AM NOT MAD AND MY EXPERIMENTS NOT UNETHICAL! DIE!" -- Dr. Warren Holberman, Son of Ether master of Life
Technocracy: It's hard to believe that such a group of people that want to follow a evolving plan for humanity would so disregard everything so fundamental in the actual Plan: a love for humanity, a faith in something higher, and a belief that our tools are meant to serve us and make life better not dictate where and what we should do (I'm guessing that our creating them they're a little worse off than us not vice versa). Still the seeds of justice are still there and they can turn around and then perhaps the world will reach the fruition of the Plan. Then again that won't happen without work (and possibly a miracle).
"I find their motives admirable but we cannot tolerate such soft heartedness in the plan. The machine moves on people are broken. You must accept that as a fact of life." -- Regional Director Nash
Nephandus: Many of us have died for expressing this view at both the hands of they and the hands of others. Even they are not beyond redemption. Their demonic masters and the evil that they follow can be undone and they can destroy the darkness in their hearts; their souls cleansed. Indeed, if any know truly what is evil and how to best battle it, it is those among us who once were beguiled into this order. All life is worth something and what is past can only be looked at to be what must be made up for (or lauded).
"All must be destroyed to the soul. Pretend to be their ally and shut your ears against their blasphemies. Their words are
honey coated and liessss!" -- Abbalith Al Jahar Nephandus Master of Nothingness and King of Poisons
Marauders: Mad ones? Indeed so, people unable to cope with the reality about them. Maybe it's due to the cheapness of life and power about them. Maybe it's because all that is beautiful seems shut away. I don't know. They follow no laws save their own and that is a lonely existence. If you are of stout heart try and bring them back to rationality. Compassion and strength of faith will win more than any ruthless condemnation or act of magick.
"He...is the pillar in the storm...the waves crash but he is not broken....they exist as stable light in endless twisting screaming void. Bwhahahahahahahahahaha!" -- Thundar the Destroyer, Master of Spirit, Life, and Forces (Formerly Bob Wilkens, video sales clerk)
Rotes Remove Pain (Life 2, Mind 2) The Holy Ones have always known that death is an inevitable part of life. It is one of the first things that one must accept -- but the pain should be removed to enjoy every moment of life or allow continued work to be done. This removes much of the physical torment incurred by pain and infirmity. Thus allowing others to pass on with peace and a clear head since it in no way aids to actually curing the subject.
Free Spirit (Mind 4, Life 3, Spirit 2) One of the Holy Ones' most famous rotes, it totally destroys all controls that have currently been placed upon a person against their will, including brainwashing, domination, blood bond (it's effects at least), and spiritual tampering. The Holy Ones believe that a main cause of evil in the world is beings being forced into it against their will.
Repentance (Spirit 5, Mind 5, Life 3) A power that all Holy Ones strive for it is a power that has brought Black Spiral Dancers back into White Howlers, redeemed Nephandus and turned them into Holy Ones, and brought wraiths to transcendence. They claim all people can do this, but the magickal "oomph" makes things easier. It is the total cleansing of the spirit and breaking of all ties to darker entities inside the spirit. The requirement is heady though; the submitted to the power must be willing and truly remorseful for his actions. His claim is enough to power this spell. Some claim Paradox affects this differently than other rotes and instead of flaws the subject's power is weakened (a total failure or backlash with a killing result instead turning the subject into a normal human).
Wall against the Darkness (Correspondence 2, Prime 2) This ritual causes an impenetrable circle or ward against evil (demons, banes, vampiric assault, etc.) to be formed around a particular area (a particular person or a small area). The people inside must be willing and of just will or the ritual will fail (mages speculate walls against evil are only as strong as their weakest link). If used with Time 3 it is effectively permanent (very effective if the rote is used to prevent a person from being vulnerable to possession or being drained). It adds a bonus of three dice of counter magic against evil magic as well and prevents evil mages (Nephandus and certain others) from crossing unless allowed.
THE HOMELESS By Abe Dashiell (
[email protected])
Discussion Presented by Gunther Kohl, Order of Hermes In my continuing study of minor Awakened groups, I have found myself in a most unlikely place: the gutter. I had never really considered "skid row" to be a breeding ground of the enlightened, but as it turns out, I was wrong. Though we live among all walks of the average man, it has only recently occurred to me that very few of us truly experience life at the very bottom of the scale. Why should we? We have our magick, our chantries...our paradigm. The only thing that could possibly drag us down is ourselves. As I have ventured into the urban wilderness I have found that those of our kind who are contented to live in cardboard boxes, burning trash to stay warm and feeding on refuse are there because they are incapable of existing anywhere else. They have the gifts, certainly, to rise above their station, yet they do not. I once would have said that they live the way they do because they enjoy it, but I have since learned that nothing could be further from the truth. In our struggles against the forces of stasis, madness and oblivion to liberate reality, we have consistently overlooked an important piece of the equation: the Orphans. We discount them, underestimate them and often revile them, but we cannot ignore that they exist and that their numbers are growing. I do not profess to understand them; how anyone can Awaken without a paradigm to guide him is beyond my comprehension, but they are a force to be reckoned with. Too often we sweep them aside, leaving them without guidance or even a common understanding of the nature of reality. It is no small wonder that many have become disenfranchised, not only by us, but by Sleeper society as well. Admittedly some Orphans, like the Hollow Ones, are capable of finding some common ground upon which to build a community, but many others do not. They are forced to live along side their fellow man, incapable of sharing their much larger worlds with anyone other than themselves. Some are content with this and survive, but it is becoming apparent that an alarming number cannot. Forgive me, but to better explain myself, I must take an aside and delve into the messy realm of Sleeper politics and sociology. We all know that for some time the world of the mundane, at least in this country, has been shaped by an exaltation of "rugged individualism." Their leaders, in response, have turned a blind eye to many who are in need. With the Syndicate's help, the wealthiest prosper, but for the nation's poor, life has gotten rather tough. Funding for social programs has dwindled to barely a trickle and for the working poor, destitution is an ever present threat. More significantly, those who would be institutionalized in the past have been "mainstreamed" into general society. Unfortunately, many of them, not being able to cope, have "dropped out." It turns out that not a few of these casualties of society are Awakened. Being Orphans, they have little understanding of what they are or even that they are different. In the past, those who were overwhelmed by Quiet were institutionalized. Others, believing themselves mad voluntarily sought insulations in the Asylums. Now, however, as their Sleeping fellows are turned out, so are they. Most of us avoid the streets. If we are feeling charitable, we may help those in need. Others of us will use an inner city chantry as a refuge. But how many of us truly live among them? I have found the underbelly of the city to be a bleak sea of grey bereft of hope. It is a thriving, unforgiving wilderness, and one that has become the home to many who have nowhere else to go. It is a place for our Acolytes to fight the battle for Ascension, but not ourselves personally! It is also, as I have been startled to learn, a place, though by no means a haven, for many Orphans. There they remain hidden, relatively free to define a reality that they can live with. These street mages are known by many names, especially among other Orphans. I have heard them called Garbage Wizards, Gutter Seers, Uberbums, and a host of other, less savory appellations, but the one I prefer to use is simply "The Homeless." It is a fitting title, for it describes them truly in every sense. It is not true that the Homeless live on the street because they want to. Many desperately want to return to their families and friends, but find that they can't really exist anywhere else. They are not able to live by the rules that everyone else, even we, accept without thought. On the other hand, their hold on the real world is too strong for them to fall away into the fantasy realms of the Marauders. Even the Nephandi have no place for the Homeless, as few have the faith or drive to be easily tempted by the Dark Ones' promises. They are individuals first, living perpetually on the edge of Quiet and thus in their own skewed vision of reality. Nearly all of the Homeless I spoke to regard the Traditions with a mixture of pity and envy. Sadly, they believe we have lost the war for reality and don't understand why we keep trying. One of them, who looked no different than every other bag lady on the street said to me, "If you are so dissatisfied with the way things are, then why haven't you joined with the Marauders or the Nephandi?" On the other hand, I also sensed they held a grudging respect for our convictions and wish they could meld into society as well as we do. They have little contact with the Technocracy, so at least on that point, they are fortunate. I have heard rumors, though, of Progenitors who have tried to use them as guinea pigs for their experiments. Likewise, the Nephandi rarely bother with them, perhaps because neither the Dark Ones nor the Homeless have much to offer one another. The Homeless all have a strong, if skewed, connection to this realm, or they would have joined the Marauders long ago. They are largely mystified by the Chaos Mages. What separates them from other Orphans is their inability to fit in, even among the various cliques and crafts. If you ask a Homeless what his affiliations are, he will usually classify himself as an independent Orphan. Other Orphans, however, are quick to tell you that they have nothing in common with the "Uberbums." The Homeless are not so much of a clique as they are a category. They tend to congregate around any nodes that exist, often
sharing the Places of Power with other supernatural creatures. Though some will attempt to horde a Node or try to keep its location hidden, the meager resources and high demand make this difficult. This is not to say that they have forgotten ancient rivalries, but they have found that the need to survive often dictates they share their resources, no matter how much they would like to keep them all to themselves. As a result, the Homeless have managed to foster a loose network both among themselves and with Sleepers and other supernaturals. They know a surprising amount of lore, perhaps because of their forced contact with the Nosferatu, Bone Gnawers and Sluagh. They seem to have a knack for going unnoticed, probably because we do not wish to see them, even when they reek of the sewers and look worse. They tend to find out...things...and trade their knowledge for food, tass, shelter or other necessities. Though they do know a great deal, they make a point not to get involved or take sides. Perhaps they are too aware of the consequences if they did. Most tend to use their powers to make their lives more bearable. They find it more difficult to deal with static reality than even we do and spend much of their time doing their best to avoid it. At the same time, they find the often capricious nature of the spirit world disconcerting. They seek security, but only on their terms and usually find it is not something that anyone else can give them. This is not to say that they are totally isolated, but their relationships with others are not of the kind that allow them to interact with the rest of society very well. They disconcert Sleepers, even many of those who share their streets. Some retreat into themselves, often welcoming Quiet. Others reject Sleepers altogether and use their talents to make places for themselves among the other supernatural beings. The Homeless have much in common with the Nosferatu; both are outcasts, though for different reasons. They will sometimes offer their magickal services in return for protection and a place within the Nosferatu's warrens. The close knit nature of the Nosferatu, however, sometimes leaves the Homeless feeling more alone than ever. The Nosferatu usually treat them with respect and even those aligned with the Sabbat have been known to accept them. However, these deeply practical and brutally sane kindred really don't have the same world view as the Homeless. The Nosferatu have no choice but to stay on the fringes and often take perverse pride in this fact. They often look upon the Homeless as loafers or hopeless nutcases; it is certainly the Nosferatu who coined the term "Uberbum." Their relationship with the Bone Gnawers is a bit more complex. They often find themselves competing with one another for access to nodes. When other garou are involved, this usually leads to conflict but if the caern is used only by Gnawers, the two groups often are willing to share, sometimes with Sluagh and even wraiths, if they can agree to how the node will be used. Bone Gnawers often regard Homeless as being part of their Protectorate, which pleases some, but annoys others. The mysterious Sluagh keep to themselves more than even the Nosferatu. However, some Homeless, especially those with an Affinity for the Fae, will sometimes be able to ally with the Underfolk. In many ways, the Sluagh and the Homeless have a great deal in common. Despite their situation, the Homeless are not consumed by banality and have a somewhat faerie-like mindset. (Do not ask me to explain what I mean by that!) The warrens controlled by the Sluagh are often more attractive homes than those of the Nosferatu simply because of the Changeling's knack for not being noticed even when in plain sight. Nevertheless, many of the same problems the Homeless have with Nosferatu surface with the equally fraternal Sluagh. The Homeless even have a fair amount of truck with the Restless Dead. The inner city has more than its share of Haunts and Nihils -- often deserted tenements that the Homeless make their homes in. The Homeless say they understand the Wraiths' loss and can even identify with their pain over their separation from their loved ones. The Homeless also have contacts with some of the less savory denizens of the city. They are aware of the reclusive clan of vampires known as the Giovanni and know what these Necromancers do when they aren't initiating corporate takeovers. Fortunately, they stay as far away as possible from the catacombs underneath their mansions and towers. More worrisome is their relationship with the Black Spiral Dancers. These mad garou frighten most Homeless and they avoid them whenever possible. They know to avoid the deepest levels of the undercity. Nevertheless, a few of the more insane Homeless have been seen cavorting with the Black Spirals in their pits. I suspect that is why many of them have such intimate knowledge of the Nephandi.... The Homeless have also described a newcomer to the sewers and tunnels; they call them Freakfeet and describe them as an infestation that began only a few years ago. Like most of the street denizens, the Homeless see these wretched fomori as pests at best and dangerous territory grabbers at worse. The few times Nosferatu, Bone Gnawer, Sluagh, Giovanni and Homeless have come together were usually to exterminate these fast breeding monsters. However, some Homeless whisper about a Master of Life who has taken control of a pack of these beasties and has even been using her own body as an incubator for them. It is not a thought that I wish to dwell on.
Concepts Despite sharing the same name, Awakened Homeless are often very different from their Sleeper counterparts. They usually do not end up on the streets simply because they are incapable of making enough money to pay the rent. Instead, they are there because they can find no place that will accept them or that they can accept. They come from all walks of life; they often have family and friends, but something about Awakening shattered their personalities. A Homeless might look like a bag lady, wino, street mime or other performer, a prostitute (she'll rarely have a pimp though), street urchin, an urban hermit (think Sebastian from Blade Runner), an addict, a madman or any of the other skid row stereotype you can think of. However, appearances are deceiving, even among Sleeper street people; for the Homeless, this is even more apparent. While Gunther Kohl may portray them as uniformly hopeless and disconnected, remember that he represents the point of view of an outsider. The Homeless are people with problems yes, but they are every bit as complex as anyone else. In fact, with their expanded view of reality, they are even more so.
Magick Most Homeless are Orphans, though fallen Tradition mages and even the occasional technomancer can be counted among their ranks. Those who use them choose from a broad range of foci. There are many disciples of Life among them; Entropy and Mind are also popular.
Character Creation Common backgrounds are Arcane, Familiar, Sanctum and Dream. Streetwise, Alertness, Stealth, Blatancy ("Ah, it's just a bum."), Scrounging, Area Knowledge and various Lores are common abilities. Merits include Common Sense, Supernatural Companion, Faerie Affinity, and Spirit Magnet. Flaws often possessed are Dark Secret, Compulsion, Addiction, Nightmares, Shy, Flashbacks, Confused, Spirit Magnet, Strangeness and Echoes.
THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (8 Nov 94) The Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a group of mages dedicated to the downfall of the Technocracy and modern civilisation. They have realised that it is corrupt to the core, and the only way to save humanity is to purge the disease before it hardens the paradigm forever. The Horsemen was founded shortly before the turn of the last century. A group of mages, watching how the Technocracy was reshaping the world using the Industrial Revolution, realised that modern civilisation was sick, and would, in the long run only lead mankind into a blind alley, from which escape and eventual Ascension was impossible. People were turned more materialistic, rational and deeply asleep for every day. The only way to stop this, and to return to a more primal state of being, was to destroy civilisation. Through the cleansing fire of this catastrophe, mankind would be given a second chance. A few of the most devoted and knowledgeable mages founded the Horsemen of the Apocalypse to achieve this goal. The Horsemen soon realised that the only way to defeat the Technocracy was to use their own methods against them. The technomancers had carefully planned against any form of magickal attack, but one using their own paradigm would be much harder to stop, since that would require the technomancers to fight their own paradigm. The mages of the group decided to use the upcoming war as their tool of Armageddon. They carefully extrapolated developments in weapons technology, economics and magick, and came to the conclusion that the World War would quite possibly spell the end of civilisation in Europe, taking the Technocracy down with it. They set to bring it about, manipulating people and nations to make the war as destructive as possible. Unfortunately they were wrong in their predictions, or they failed somehow. The War to End All Wars bogged down into the trenches, and soon became just a matter of attrition. The Horsemen lost their fire, and while the chaos and changes in the aftermath temporarily gave the Traditions some new chances, the group more or less disbanded. However, during the Second World War, some of the old members began to realise what was about to happen. They intuited some of the plans of the Technocracy, and realised that It planned to divide the world between the Superpowers. They also realised the awesome potential of nuclear energy long before the sleeper scientists did. The Horsemen reformed, and set to the work of helping the Technocracy with the Cold War. Now they were a much more powerful organisation, their leaders were both experienced and pragmatic and their mundane assets quickly began to grow, using the remains of the intelligence network of the old group. The Cold War was a masterstroke of the Technocracy. By pitting the superpowers against each other, they forced both sides to develop more and more advanced technology, to usurp more power from lesser nations and impose their own ideas on them. This suited the Technocracy perfectly, who was the puppet master behind the scene. The nuclear weapons were intended as the basis for this structure, and was never intended to be used except as deterrence and as a possible way to scare the Traditions into submission. But the Horsemen sabotaged the plan, and the arms race got out of control. Their agents inside the military and intelligence community spread paranoia and revanchism, and by leaking information between the superpowers they encouraged the development of the arms race. Soon the Technocracy had to adapt to the new situation, and they had to plan for a world with superpowers engaged in an eternal race of destruction. That wasn't so bad, although some technomancers disliked the instability of the situation. The Horsemen waited for the spark which would ignite the apocalypse. During the Cuba Crisis they were almost sure it would happen, and they didn't use all their forces to finally push the world over the edge to nuclear war because they were so sure it would start by itself. Unfortunately, the Technocracy intervened and the crisis was averted. The next major crisis, the "Jewel Crisis" 1980 (which was never made public), was so close that the Technocracy had to use magickal sabotage to prevent the automatic launching of hundreds of missiles as the American systems went haywire. This time, a few of the agents and members of the Horsemen had to be terminated to prevent discovery. Unfortunately, the Horsemen failed to cause nuclear holocaust, and as the Syndicate pulled the plug on the Eastern Block, their old plans were similarly thrown into chaos. They could no longer count on direct means, and their goal seemed further away. For a short period the Horsemen aimlessly supported whatever groups and phenomena they thought could start the Third World War, but they lacked unity and coordination. But then they found new strength and direction as their new Central Coordinator, the Euthanatos Georgios Papadimitriou created the Millennium Project. The Millennium was a radical new idea. Instead of just trying to make the historical developments of the Technocracy to fail catastrophically, the Horsemen will try to cause the Apocalypse themselves by subverting technocratic reality. This goal will be brought about using a complex strategy, involving many mutually enforcing factors. On one hand, the Horsemen have started to develop their already sizeable economical assets into a huge but invisible economic force, with ties into almost every nation and industry. Their network of agents infiltrate both political, military and intelligence agencies, but also education, religious groups and society in general. Some members work inside the Traditions, supporting the Ascension War. Others work as double agents, leaking information to the Technocracy. The Horsemen are planning to increase social, economical and military tensions slowly, using whatever methods works. At the same time they try to heat up the Ascension War, forcing the Technocracy to turn more and more repressive and direct itself against fighting the Traditions instead of securing their reality. Around the year 2000, when the world should be completely out of the Recession according to Syndicate plans, the Horsemen suddenly will pull the plug. Their financial empires will collapse overnight, taking the international stockmarkets and monetary systems with them. Multinational Corporations and whole nations will be ruined overnight. The chaos on the market will be amplified by their agents and the paranoia and insecurity they have sown. At the same time, the agents inside youth gangs and criminal organisations will cause even more chaos as the international drug market collapses and a crimewave of titanic proportion causes widespread destruction. Terrorist groups suddenly strike using
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Agents in intelligence and military organisations will initiate conflicts and make leaders make hasty and unwise decisions. Religious cults will proclaim the Apocalypse to the masses. The assassins of the Horsemen will terminate popular leaders, celebrities and important people. The Technocracy will be completely surprised, and their reaction will only worsen things. The world will be plunged into complete chaos and destruction. If this succeeds, the resulting chaos will soon escalate as war, pestilence and famine ravage the world. This will hopefully destroy the Technocracy and modern civilisation. Today the Horsemen work silently and efficiently on the Millennium Plan. To implement it, they use minimal magick and rely instead on use of the Technocracy paradigm, which is much harder for the enemy to discover. Limited divination in the form of financial forecasting is used to invest their huge wealth, Mind is camouflaged as advertisements and psychology and is used to manipulate people, and experience from the CIA and KGB is used to build the huge networks of the agents the Horsemen use. Of course, this raises the risk that the Horsemen are slowly becoming more and more like their enemies, and such accusations are not entirely unfounded.
Organisation: The Millennium Project is so huge and secret that it requires very careful administration. Each mage in the Horsemen controls a tiny part or runs a special project, often with many subordinates and with no overall knowledge. These are coordinated by local Coordinators, who either runs operations in a geographical area or of a certain type (like fundamentalist Christianity or Left Wing politics). Above these Coordinators are the members of the Coordinator Council, who organise the large scale planning and develop general policies. It is led by the Chief Coordinator, currently the Euthanatos Georgios Papadimitriou.
Resources: The Horsemen have access to huge mundane resources. Most mages can easily build a great base of power and wealth, but the Horsemen has been working on it for decades. However, their magickal resources are not as strong, since they prefer to use mundane methods. Economically, the Horsemen control several apparently unrelated financial empires, with ties into almost every part of the world and every trade. Their influence is mostly passive, and they only intervene to make sure their assets grow and prosper. However, they have arranged things so that when the Millennium comes, the empires will all collapse in the worst possible way. They have also designed them to fall if the Coordinators vanish, to make sure at least the possibility of apocalypse remains if the Horsemen would be destroyed. The intelligence networks of the Horsemen are almost unrivalled, except by the Technocracy. Their agents are everywhere, and practically none know their real purpose. Many are simply normal people who think they help out some patriotic organisation or government group. Others are professional agents who think they work for some secret branch of some intelligence agency. A few are defectors from intelligence agencies who know they are working for some kind of conspiracy (they have often been misinformed to get a very erroneous image of what type of conspiracy it is. Many think they serve the Technocracy). And many are simply unwitting victims of deep hypnotic suggestions and mind control. Beside these agents, the Horsemen has lots of contacts and allies in every area, ranging from fundamentalist churches to the military-industrial complex. The Horsemen has also worked on acquiring as much surplus weapons from the fallen Eastern Bloc they can, and stockpiling them in secret caches around the world. They have nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, lots of firearms and a few heavier weapons. They intend to give them to terrorists, extremists and criminals just before the Millennium, to ensure maximum random destruction. Before that stage, they seek to limit such spread to create maximum effect when the bombings start. Magickally they are not very strong. They control a few nodes and have a Horizon Realm, but not much more. This is a conscious policy to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Traditions and Technocracy. The realm, mostly known as Command, is a captured small NWO construct. A group of tradition mages captured it during the 60ps, and it got into the hands of the Horsemen. They have not changed it very much. Its central part is the War Room, a meeting room with great screens and maps showing the current world situation, where the Council of Coordinators meet. Around it is a complex of offices, computer rooms, corridors, warehouses and small living units, not unlike the inside of some military installation. The realm is reachable through its elevators; a mage can simply step into an elevator, press a code on a panel and the elevator will rise to any floor in most buildings around the world. This doesn't work the other way, somebody wanting to enter must signal it to the Construct, and they will send an elevator. Everything is clean, efficient and slightly technocratic. Most members find it very oppressive, but its also the only safe place for the Horsemen and the Central Coordinator actually lives here.
The Coordinator Council Central Coordinator Georgios Papadimitriou Georgios is the Central Coordinator of the Horsemen. He is an ex-member of the Euthanatos, who he voluntarily left to work totally for the Horsemen. Using his Entropy and Mind, he has erased the memory of himself from everybody except his closest associates, and nobody knows anything about his earlier history. Georgios is a middle aged man with dark hair and eyes. He always dresses impeccably in dark suits, and always seems to sit in a pool of shadow. He is polite, quiet and seems to spend most of his time just studying people with his unsettling gaze. He never seems to get angry or have any other strong emotion except for determination. He is actually not completely happy with the current situation. While he thrills at the thought of attempting to give the Technocracy and Modern Civilisation the Good Death, he also longs for personal involvement. Manipulating the destiny of mankind is not as rewarding and merciful as actually helping people as individuals, like the rest of his tradition does. He actually longs to join it again, but feels that he is more needed here. However, he sometimes takes a walk through the city, just to feel the presence of normal people, to share a bit of their lives and deaths.
Military Coordinator Laura Peterson
If Georgios is darkness and death, Laura is fire and blood. Shortly after her initiation into the Verbena she witnessed how the Technocracy destroyed her whole coven with a chemical "accident". After that she wowed to destroy the Technocracy and all of the decadent, sick, modern civilisation. She is a red-haired woman in her late forties, with an impressive build and an iron-will. She is outdoors as much as possible, and always wear practical, rugged clothing. She is currently involved in the survivalist movement, and actually runs a secret survivalist camp with strong ties to the Verbena. Her main area as Coordinator is contacts with the Traditions and Military. She is the secret face of the Horsemen to the traditions, where she is known as a very radical mage, often inciting other mages to strike harder at the Technocracy or modern society. She is the center of a network of similar-minded mages in the Traditions, from whom she sometimes recruits new members to the Horsemen. Her connections with the military are indirect, through her staff of subordinate Coordinators. They are all highly competent and fairly independent, and her main task is just to coordinate them. She dislikes just developing strategic planning, which she often leaves to Dr Hill. She wants to get personally involved, and thus has taken as her personal responsibility to organise para-military groups around the world.
Economical Coordinator Charles Liddenbrook (Flood-which-sweeps-the-plain) Despite his name, Charles is a full-blooded Indian. He grew up without acknowledging his heritage, trying to fit in with the white man by turning his considerable intelligence and willpower into a business career. When he was called by the spirits, he refused until they forced his eyes open to see what had been done to his people, the world and to the spirits. Then he swore vengeance, took his new name and joined the fight against the Technocracy. He soon proved his worth to the Horsemen, and became one of the youngest Coordinators ever. He is currently responsible for the financial side of the organisation, pulling the strings to the different financial empires. Charles appears to have two personalities, one of a cunning and hyper-efficient businessman always clad in conservative suits, one of a raging shaman invoking great spirits of destruction against the oppressing white man. His talent for financial destruction is great, and Georgios is very confident that he will be able to bring the world economy crashing down when the time is right. However, Charles disagrees with the two others about how to deal with the Traditions. He wants to warn at least some mages about the Millennium in order to give them a better chance to survive the cataclysm. The others want to keep it a total secret for security reasons.
Strategic Coordinator Dr. Alexander Hill Dr. Hill is a small, bespectacled man with sparse grey hair, a hunched posture and a freckled, wrinkled face. He is the oldest of the Coordinators, and has been with the Horsemen since the early Cold War (in fact, he was one of the founders of the modern group). He is the resident expert on all forms of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and especially bioweapons. He is one of the few Sons of Ether involved in the Horsemen. He started as a military analyst during the 40's, and with his keen mind and ruthless efficiency gained widespread recognition. That he was serving the Technocracy didn't bother him the least. Then one day he made a simple extrapolation of current research and politics, and he was horrified. He suddenly realised how the Technocracy would trap mankind in eternal stasis with no way out, and worse, they had all but succeeded. He joined the Horsemen, and remained inside the defence sphere as a valuable agent until the late 50's, when he left and became Coordinator. Dr. Hill is the Coordinator responsible for terrorism and intelligence. He runs his intelligence networks with ruthless efficiency through his underlings. While he often falls back into classical Cold War rhetoric against the Technocracy, he is always coldly planning for all eventualities and developing new ways to make the Millennium as devastating as possible. It was his idea to acquire as much Soviet military material as possible, and he has even made some slight improvements in the bioweapons-field. He is genuinely interested in seeing how they will work out.
Story Ideas The characters might be approached by agents from the Horsemen if they appear to fight the Technocracy hard enough. At first the agents may pose as members of a radical cabal, and subtly test the characters to see how far they are prepared to go in the fight. When they have truly proven themselves (and preferable are too deep in the war to back out), they might be offered to join the Horsemen. The players by chance stumbles upon some old technocracy documents which imply that some external force tried to worsen World War I in many ways. The Horsemen might become worried if somebody starts to dig in their past, and send out their agents to lead the characters astray or remove them, posing as the Technocracy. If the player characters are members of the Technocracy, they might start to notice that there is some other force influencing things subtly. When they start to dig, they might find disturbing correlations between some old files from the Cold War, current economics and a slow rise in societal tensions. Everywhere in the World of Darkness there are whispers of an imminent disaster; vampires dream daymares about Gehenna, werewolf shamans see frightful visions they do not dare to tell anybody, the wraiths grow uneasy and mages feel a building tension in the tapestry. The Horsemen are working towards the Millennium, unknowingly serving greater forces which slowly bring the world towards the brink of destruction - or Ascension?
HSIEN SHIH: The Wandering Scholars By Andrew J. Bonham (
[email protected])
Description Few magickal crafts in the modern world are more misunderstood than the Hsien Shih, who are the venerable defenders of a faith far older than the beliefs of the European Traditions. In fact, they claim to be the oldest of all magickal societies. So it goes. The Hsien Shih (see-in-she) are descendents of the Taoist monks, alchemists, and scholars who have wandered China and its surrounding states since time immemorial. To them, mastery of magick is not a gift, but a way of life, which should be shared. Inspired in 436 B.C. by the writings of the magus (or Shih, as they prefer) Lao Tzu, several groups of mages in mainland China joined together into a peaceful society, dedicated to bringing enlightenment to a twilight world. They were severely opposed by the Wung Lung, and went into seclusion as they took over China. However, even in those dark days, the simple meal offered by the visiting monk or the healing poultice from the local alchemist helped the Chinese keep faith. Now, as the modern age reveals its bloated carcass, the Hsien Shih re-emerge from the shadows bolstered by the revival in holistic medicine and mind over matter. They still work for unity, but now they pursue it with a mad frenzy never before seen. To the Hsien Shih, the world was originally the Tao, a complete, unified existence. At some point in time, the Tao fractured violently into the great halves: the Yin and the Yang. As the cycle of ages continues drawing forward, the Taoists look to these forces as their guides. The world is nothing more than the interplay of the pieces of the Tao, as represented by the Yin and the Yang. Seemingly in contradiction to their philosophy lies their struggle to gain eternal life. However, to them, one must perfect mind and body, and a perfect body would never die. Thus their external alchemists, the Wei Tan Shih, create bizarre elixirs of vitality; while the internal alchemists, or Nei Tan Shih, seek to use the mind to master the body, brewing elixirs within their own body. Another common trait of the Hsien Shih is perhaps the most perplexing to viewers who do not understand their philosophy. Since all things are one, but one must perceive this fully, they often experience (or force themselves to experience) profound personality shifts on a regular basis. In addition, most Hsien Shih develop...unique...senses of humor. While the Hsien Shih recognize evil, they see it as an essential part of nature. Everything must be weighed for balance, and all things must be considered equally, for only then can one embrace the Tao fully. This belief, however, doesn't limit their activities. To them, life is here to be lived, and nothing will happen without someone turning the wheel of ages. Though often contemplative, almost any of their number will rush into action when the call is sounded. The balance shall be maintained.
Philosophy All things flow from the Tao. Accept all things, Yin or Yang, for they are all of the Tao. One must seek balance, for as too much vinegar sours the recipe, so also does too much water. Seek this balance in yourself, for when balanced a body and a soul may life forever, and become as gods.
Style To the Shih, balance is the creation of magick. The strange scholars seek this balance through meditation, riddles, alchemy, martial arts, and the teaching of the young. To them, all of life is magick, with their power just appearing more readily as they literally reshape the Yin and the Yang.
Sphere Mind and Life (representing the Yin and Yang, spiritual and material).
Common Foci Meditation, martial arts, devious riddles, and bizarre alchemy (internal and external) all play into this strange craft's tools.
Organization There is almost no organization among this group, save for their alchemists, who exchange gossip and Craft news through strange potions carried by unwitting messengers. Many Hsien Shih also communicate through waking dreams.
Initiation The Tao does not find you; you must find the Tao. When a student awakens to the cosmic balance, an established Hsien Shih will introduce them to the Yin and the Yang within themselves. After they have mastered self-control, they're on their own.
Acolytes Martial artists, Fang Shih (geomancers), venerable teachers, and common laborers.
Concepts Wandering sage, driven alchemist, noble monk, gifted scholar.
Quote "Perception of the Tao is true emptiness. Dare you achieve this unity?"
The Balance of Magick Because of their emphasis on duality and balance, Hsien Shih always learn magick in opposed pairs. Before advancing in magick, the player must have enough experience points to raise both spheres, keeping them at the same level. The exception to this rule is Spirit, which is separate from all things, harkening back to the primal Tao. The one benefit of this is enlightenment. Hsien Shih only pay current rating x 7 for Arete.
Sphere Pairs: Mind - Life, Forces - Matter, Prime - Entropy, Time - Correspondence, Spirit
Harmony of the Worlds (thoughts on the others) Akashic Brotherhood: Our brothers, in action if not in purpose. Let them pursue their goals, and aid them when you can. Celestial Chorus: They see the unity of the Tao, but deny its dual nature. Good people nonetheless. Cult of Ecstasy: They have mastered Yang. Where is their wise old Yin? Dreamspeakers: These noble shamans must learn to look at the trees as well as the forest. They are closest to true awareness. Euthanatos: The Wheel of Ages turns skyward as well as towards the grave. Perhaps they will learn in time yet. Order of Hermes: Magick is like a peach tree. Use it to feed yourself, and you are strong. Use it to feed all men, and you are stronger still. They have much to learn.
Sons of Ether: They feel the Tao around them, but look only at its manifestations, not its source. Fun as hell, however. Verbena: These throwbacks must move beyond sensations and perceive the greater good. Grow up, or we shall force you. Virtual Adepts: Young, strong, and misguided. They seek to leave the world, rather than accept it. What a pity. Wung Lung: These bombastic nobles have subjugated us for centuries. Now is our chance to show them the error of their ways.
Nephandi: These perverters of the truth make the Tao look monstrous. Return them to whence they came. Technocracy: They seek to control, rather than accept. This is inauspicious, and noxious omens abound. The Shen: How can we judge that which we do not understand? Leave them to their own, but never turn down the chance to aid one.
ORDER OF HERMES: HOUSE IGNACIO By Brian Connors (
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Author's note A friend of mine developed the idea as part of a Mage campaign. I am sharing notes with him on an upcoming vampire campaign, but so far I haven't been privy to his view of House Ignacio. The following, therefore, is based on what I imagine a Hermetic house among Catholic priests to be like. To those who feel that Christianity has no place for sorcerors, I understand that you may be offended by this. To those of you who may have a far more personal stake in the Jesuits than I do and feel I am doing a disservice to the Society of Jesus, I apologize. FWIW, I do go to a Jesuit university (Boston College) and I have the utmost respect for them. I have attempted to carry that over into my interpretation of the
Description Though there is a prohibition against witches and mediums in the Bible, the best Jesuit tradition has found no problem with sanctifying what they feel to be the power of God, given to the Awakened with the understanding that the would-be mage takes on a massive responsibility. Thus, in the early 1800's at Georgetown University, a group of Jesuits and a lay professor of the Order of Hermes adopted the code of the Jesuits as a rulebook and founded the House Ignacio. The House Ignacio seems more appropriate to the Celestial Chorus than the Hermetics; it is very much steeped in the traditions of the Society of Jesus, with strict discipline and a strong focus on God as the giver of all power. Currently six Chantries exist, three in the United States: Georgetown, Boston College, and Loyola-Marymount in California. (There are also chantries in France, Japan, and Spain, and one in the process of building in Peru.) House Ignacio is very tightly knit and very secretive. It is said to encompass approximately 60 mages, mostly ordained Jesuits at the universities that harbor its chantries. Their magic follows the formulaic Hermetic model, but it is said that they actually harbor closer ties to the Virtual Adepts (certainly the case at the current Home Chantry in Boston) and the Akashic Brotherhood than they do to the rest of the Order of Hermes. Membership in the House is not restricted to Jesuits, but it requires that initiates follow the practices of the Society of Jesus: unquestioning obedience of your mentor, daily meditation, and a love of education. The secrecy (odd for such a group, and probably the reason that Jesuits are so popular with conspiracy nuts) stems from this discipline: the Awakening is a powerful event with powerful consequences, and Quintessence is not something that the undisciplined can control. Applicants are welcomed always, but only the truly serious get into the training. The rest find their avatars quietly suppressed (but by no means destroyed) and are sent on their way with a vow of secrecy. Only one apprentice has ever broken that vow, and he has spread so much untruth about the order that he is taken seriously only by the most extreme of axe-grinders and nutcases.
Philosophy God gives us the power to change reality. With that power must always be discipline. This is why we hold so much back, and this is why we are so strict about our magick and its formulae. Do not feel left out because we tell you nothing; it takes a long time to learn what we teach and not all are ready for it.
Background Most are priests of the Society of Jesus; a few are laypeople. There are currently no women in the order, though there is no prohibition as there is in the Catholic priesthood. Virtually all are Catholic (there are a couple of Lutherans in the Japan chantry and a Jew in the Boston chantry). Most are between 40 and 80 years old. By convention, the presidents of the six Jesuit universities have always been members of the House; this precedent was almost broken in the early 70's when the rector of the Jesuit community of one of the universities (the man who traditionally had the presidency) was not a member. The current incoming president of that college is an apprentice to the house.
Foci Their books are all they need. Even a holy symbol smacks of idolatry, something the House Ignacio condemns just as vehemently any other Christian body.
Spheres Same as the Order of Hermes, though they do take an extra interest in Mind. Most eschew Entropy as tainted.
Quote "The Lord bless you. Now to the task at hand. Do you understand why you must always do as I tell you?"
Stereotypes Council of Nine: An acceptable compromise among magi, but amalgamation of philosophies with no thought for need or effects is potentially dangerous.
Order of Hermes: We accept their forms, but too many of them do not realize what they are really doing. Akashic Brotherhood: They were among our first contacts in Asia. Though we can never see eye-to-eye on religious issues, we still have much to learn from them.
Celestial Chorus: They understand the forms, but are perhaps a bit lost on the function. Still, I feel that they are on the true path, however erratically they may navigate it.
Cult of Ecstasy: Hedonism is not a philosophy. It may get them somewhere in the short run, but it will get them nowhere in the long run.
Dreamspeakers: I claim to be an agnostic as to the efficacy of what they do. Certainly they are not abiding by the letter of God's rules.
Euthanatos: There is no reincarnation. Some Akashics may accept that (there are some Christians among them), but the whole of the Euthanatos philosophy is a violation of everything that is basic about life.
Hollow Ones: Deluded and depressing. They are to be ministered to before they are to be learned from, as too much of their knowledge is tainted.
Sons of Ether: They court backlash daily. Their learning is admirable, but their tolerance (or lack thereof) is a relic of an earlier age that must be left behind.
Verbena: We live with them in the spirit of ecumenicalism, but they are the very witches the Bible condemns. Their influence is dangerous.
Virtual Adepts: They value learning as much as we do, but they need to focus more on reality and get the neurojack ideas out of their heads before they have the actual jacks.
Technocracy: They have lost sight of their ideals. They need to be returned to what they once were before they destroy themselves.
Iteration X: They don't really know what they're after, and they keep creating more and more to cover it up. Progenitors: Like the Euthanatos, they misunderstand the nature of life. New World Order: It's occasionally funny how we and they are tied together, but most of the time it's just insulting. The Syndicate: Capitalism is perhaps a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless. Void Engineers: Their explorations since the renaming have served no purpose. The Sleepers have much more to find. Nephandi: Corruption incarnate. They are the agents of the Devil. Marauders: Even the mad are sacred to God. Talk them down before you try to destroy them; no one has yet been saved, but it is always worth the effort.
Werewolves: If they would be treated as equals, they must learn to share the earth. I know what they are after and support it, but they're doing it wrong.
Vampires: A soul is a soul, no matter how damned it thinks it is. No matter how dead their bodies, their soul has not yet been released.
Tremere: A prime example of those who want too much. The curse of Cain has removed their humanity and they shall pay for that mistake until the last of them are gone.
Wraiths: If only they could be reached. But it's too late for them and they are all too aware of that. Fae: They live among us as mortals; give them every respect, but check your pockets later.
ILLUMINATES By the PuppetMastre (
[email protected])
Description The Illuminates are a secretive group of mages who collect information about the other denizens of the world of darkness. Illuminates are extremely rare; only certain people can become them because the requirements are inborn. Illuminates are not known to any groups except the highest ranking Order of Hermes mages at Doissetep, and even these have only extremely sketchy knowledge. This is because of their amazing ability to hide their true identities. All Illuminates can change their foci at almost any time. All it requires is about one hour of concentration while holding or using their old focus and while also holding their new one in hand (if both are verbal they must have an interum foci, and then transfer again). Also, they have developed ways of hiding their powers by passing it off as the abilities of another type of being, i.e., changeing into a wolf would be considered coincidental while near a bunch of werewolves. All Illuminates must have the following traits: Sphere Natural (5) -- this is the sphere that will be considered their main one, no matter what (current rating*6 cost). Primal Marks (-2) -- all Illuminates are old and fairly powerful souls. Primal Essence (see above flaw) Lore 3+ (in at least one area) Occult 3+ Library 4+ Arcane 3+ Avatar 5 Awareness 3+ At least 2 ranks in Forces and 1 rank in Prime. To become an Illuminate, mage must have been born Awake (very rare) and must be trained by another Illuminate since she was able to talk or go to normal school. If the Lore skill she has is the Technocracy, then she should have a Science or Medicine of 2+. Most will have the Spirit Magnet Virtue at some level or another (where do you think they get all that knowledge, Hmmm?). Illuminates, because of their unique training, start out with 8 levels of spheres and an Arete of 2. This additional level of Arete does not cost points and is not used when determining the number of experience it takes to get to the next level. It is a "ghost" point. All Illuminates, however, must take extra care when using magick. The Illuminates have their own Masquerade. For example, they must avoid any action which would be outside of that character's current role (a lightning throwing werewolf for example), unless it is needed for personal survival, and then they must make sure that there is no one left to know of the deception. Illuminates hold high level positions in both Vampire (especially Tremere) and Kith society. Illuminates are also currently in control of large numbers of Technocracy bases and some are even in positions on Autocthonia. It should be noted that all Illuminates will have mental attributes as either Primary or Secondary, never Tertiary.
THE CHILDREN OF INDRA'S LIGHTENING By Anders Sandberg This is a small fringe group of the Tantric sect of Cult of Ecstasy. They believe that the soul is purified by pleasure, and that godhood and eventual Ascension is possible by intense, prolonged ecstasy. To this purpose they seek out sleepers with strong Avatars, and give them total ecstasy in the hope of Ascending them. The Children is careful about the people they choose to ascend into ecstasy. They have to be strong in spirit, healthy and most importantly judged suitable by the seers of the group. Sometimes they choose people without knowing why they are suitable or even against their will. When they have chosen an ascendee, they start out slowly. They begin by letting their acolytes seduce him, and bring him to their temple. There he is given more and more pleasure, until he is in total ecstasy. Its then the real magickal work begins, in continuing the rapture and making it ever stronger. To give pleasure is not simple, and the Children have turned it both into an art and a religion. They start out with the simple and mundane methods of sex, drugs, music and physical stimulation. As the ecstasy continues, they start to use magick to prolong it and strengthen it. New pleasures are added constantly, becoming ever more refined and complex. At the same time magick is used to give the ascendee the ability to both discern and understand them. Finally the most powerful members of the group step in to use magick to bring the bliss to ever increasing heights and prevent the ascendee from dying of exertion. The exact way pleasures are applied is extremely important, and the Children often train themselves to give pleasure in various ways. The ecstasy must never become boring or static, it must constantly evolve. To this end they apply it in almost musical fashion, weaving artful patterns out of various delights like an ever more complex composition. The final stages of the process requires the supervision of the most powerful mages of the group. Simpler tasks such as ensuring the health of the ascendee, keeping him under control and fully conscious of his pleasures and inducing delight magickally is left the lesser mages. The Masters place great enchantments upon the ascendee, hoping to turn him into the vehicle of his own pleasure. Many ascendees have already Awakened at this stage, and while some choose to leave the rapture to join the Children and work in the world, others continue upwards. The Masters seek to turn the entire organism of the ascendee into a talisman bringing pleasure to him, both body, mind and soul. When they are finished, the ascendee will be in a permanent state of ever increasing ecstasy, kept alive by powerful Life magicks. The Temple of the Children is a place of translucent veils, Indian music, heavy perfumes, exotic incenses and sensual movements. In the centrum of the Temple the eternal ascendees are placed within the Inner Sanctum, a small but powerful node fueling their enchantments. Here their souls slowly are purified and deified by the rapture, until they one day will break free and Ascend. It is a quiet place, where the ascendees lie in infinite bliss surrounded by a palpable aura of ecstasy. The Children are not completely sure about what happens when a person is Ascended by ecstasy. That ecstasy can awaken and empower people is obvious, but exactly how long it takes for a soul to become so purified that it Ascends is not known. Some claim it may take millennia. Others claim that the ascendees who suddenly dies in their ecstasy have ascended or at least transcended to godhood. All are however united in the belief that it is possible, and that by ascending people they serve Ascension. The Children are not very well organized, but doesn't have to since they are so few. They are led by the Masters, who give orders to the lower mages. These in turns instruct the acolytes. When they are not busy bringing ascendees into pleasure (the process usually takes about a week until the ascendee is either eternally blissful or dead) they research the nature of pleasure and seek for new ascendees. Most members are ascendees who have chosen to work to help others to Ascension for some time before they enter the total ecstasy too. The Children are not particularly interested in other magickal groups, and have minimal contact with them. They regard the Ascension War as a ridiculous concept, claiming that Ascension exists within everyone, regarding of the surrounding reality. One group which the Children have had some contact with are the Euthanatos. The Euthanatos are a bit divided over the Children. One group feel that the Children are needlessly leading souls astray from the Great Wheel, and their ascendees should be given the Good Death. Another group feel that all types of experience are useful, and that the eternal ascendees will die sooner or later anyway, an experience richer. As long as they have not reached a consensus, they generally leave the children alone. The Children do not completely understand the Euthanatos, but respect them, since they feel there is a strong link between them.
Rotes and magick: The Children prefer a more artistic approach to giving and sustaining pleasure using magick than fixed rotes, but many useful tricks have been recorded. They use Mind to affect the mind and emotions of the ascendee, and to focus his ecstasy. Time is used to coordinate the work, to find the best ways to do it and to prolong and eventually permanent the pleasure. Life is used to keep the body alive and to induce new pleasures through it. However, all other spheres can be used too to bring pleasure, it just requires some thought and creativity. They use the same foci as mainstream Cult of Ecstasy, although they tend to use more variation. Many acolytes and members have been trained to master the use of one foci (like music, sex or incenses), to find the exact right way to apply it in the magick. The ascension of an ascendee is a group ritual, not unlike a musical performance. Usually an experienced mage directs the ritual, making sure by Mind magick that the methods are effective and pleasurable.
Lucidity of Delight (Mind 2 Life 2): This minor rote is important, as it allows the ascendee to be fully conscious despite his ecstasy. It will however not make him more rational or able to act much by his own.
Spiritual Ecstasy (Spirit 2 Mind 2): This enables the mage to stimulate the spiritual aspect of the ascendee as well as his mind and
body. The result is more profound pleasure than any carnal pleasure, and tends to stimulate the Avatar to become more active in the pursuit of higher forms of ecstasy.
Induce Pleasure (Life 2 Mind 2): This is the simplest, most basic form of magickal pleasure. The Children use it a bit like the string part of an orchestra, providing a background for the more detailed and complex pleasures they weave. It can be combined with most other pleasures, linking them together or changing their timbre. Since it is relatively simple, it can be kept up by disciples working in shifts.
Break Through Pain (Mind 2 Life 2 Entropy 1): Nothing is more pleasurable than the end of pain. This rote uses the same techniques as the rote above, but seeks out deep, often subconscious fears and pains and breaks them down in a torrent of triumphant joy.
Primal Rush (Prime 3): This is exactly the same thing as The Rush (Prime 1), but the mage channels quintessence into another person from a node. The result is a profound, although slightly bizarre, form of pleasure which can be combined with other pleasures in the composition of ecstasy.
Composition (Mind 3 Time 2 Life 1): The Children use this rote to plan and compose the ecstasies of their ascendees. They link up to the minds of the ascendee, and understand how to weave together the pleasures in the best way to bring the ascendee to ever more ecstasy. [ Mind 1 is used to keep the mage reasonably in control and able to think clearer. Time 1 gives the mage perfect timing, while Time 2 lets him find the best solutions. ]
Intellectual Pleasures (Mind 3 Entropy 3): Beside the pleasures of body and emotion, there are pleasures of the intellect too. By focusing the mind of the ascendee into a point and purifying it from all distractions, a state of pure intellectual delight can be created. The ascendee feels for a short while his real intellectual potential and his absolute ability to solve any problem he cares to solve. This doesn't stop him from feeling his other pleasures, it just makes him able to think completely clearly too.
Prolong Pleasure (Mind 2 Time 3): This rote is popular among most members of the Cult of Ecstasy. Different parts of the pleasure can even be prolonged differently, essentially dividing it into a spectrum of delights.
View of Delights (Correspondence 3 Spirit 3 Time 2 Mind 2): This rote allows the mage to send visions of whatever will give the ascendee the most pleasure from the most distant times and places, including the Umbra. The rote is not controllable, but will find scenes or situations bound to delight the ascendee somehow.
Permanent Pleasure (Mind 2 Time 4): This more advanced version of the earlier rote gives the mage the ability to make a pleasure almost permanent. It will continue until the rote ends. By carefully weaving similar rotes together into a magickal network, they can create eternal shifting pleasures which go on forever.
Enchant Body (Life 4 Prime 3): Using this rote the Children both perfect the life-pattern of the ascendee, so he will never need food, air or water anymore, stops ageing and will survive eternal bliss. It also lets the Children add other rotes to him, making them permanently active.
Flight to Paradise (Mind 5 Correspondence 2): By removing the mind of the ascendee into Astral space, the mage can send him for a time to the emotional space of ecstasy itself. By moving the mind in complex patterns through the spheres of sensation and emotion, complex experiences stronger than anything possible to experience on Earth can be created.
Invent Pleasure (Mind 5 Life 2): This is the most advanced form of magickal pleasure. The mage literally creates new pleasures and emotions never ever experienced before, often personalized to the ascendee.
Dispel Pain (Entropy 5 Mind 4): This powerful rote literally destroys all painful or hurting feelings of the ascendee, making him even more perfectly blissful. The Children acknowledge the necessity of pain as a contrast to pleasure in the initial stages, but in the final stage pleasure will be its own contrast, ever reflecting in itself upwards.
ISTREB By Gregory Deych (
[email protected])
The Past October 12, 1953 Peter Kaletin, "Hey, four-eyes!" to his enemies, stood quiet and uneasy in the drizzling rain. The tall firs at his back blocked some of the wind, but mostly he was very, very glad of his father's hand on his shoulder. He pressed a little back, and hoped his father wouldn't think he was scared. His mother was at home, wondering what took her husband to take their two children into the woods in this weather. As it was he, his father and little Alex, whose hand he was holding were only one of about 10 men and women allowed to witness the trial. He saw the movement between trees, and glanced over to where tall men and women were emerging from the lodge. The three were looking suitably grave but one of them did look over to where the criminal was sitting, his tongue lolling insolently from his mouth. The oldest one motioned the others to form a circle around the accused. "Robert De Grasse, Swoops-like-Lightning, we give you one last chance to acknowledge your guilt. Will you take it?" The wolf sitting on the ground shook his head, then abruptly his form flowed up, forming a human figure, a human face. "I am not in the wrong." he said gruffly. "He was of the Wyrm, and all his family was tainted by it. Why do you even listen to those monkeys?" his eyes were full of loathing as he looked at the small group of men and women clustered outside circle. "My word is on it, and that should be enough for you, Walter Hartford." The three Philodoxes exchanged somber looks, then the oldest of them spoke. "Unfortunately, we cannot ascertain with any certainty whether your words are true or not. The . . . remains . . . have disappeared, by action of party or parties unknown. Therefore, it is the duty of this court to declare to all that Robert De Grasse stands innocent of charge of violating the Seventh and Eighth precept of the Litany. Let no Garou hold a grudge against him." Behind Peter, a long held breath by his father escaped with a sigh and a muttered curse. De Grasse, shrugging off the hands of his supporters walked over slowly to Peter's father. Ignoring Peter and little Alex he leaned over them, and hissed. "You forgot your place, Kaletin. But I will not forget, don't worry." He was going to say something else, but remembering himself he clenched his teeth and strode away, the very picture of offended Garou honor and virtue. "How can they let him, Dad!" Peter twisted out of his father grip to look him in the face. "He killed Linda, and Mister and Missus Coleman too! You saw him! You said . . . ." His father crouched next to him, stopping his outburst with raised hand. "Hush, Peter." Valentine Kaletin said tiredly. "Let's go home; there is nothing here left for us."
September 8, 1968 Alex Kaletin paused for a second in the shade of a tall tree to wipe sweat off his face. He liked to think that he was in best shape of his life, but it was damn near 100 degrees under the canopy, and the humidity was about the same too. He shouldered his '16 automatically making sure he didn't get any crap in the action or the barrel of the weapon on the last crawl through the clearing. Making a short motion with his hand he moved up, re-taking the point from the RVN Ranger, Lac. By his last reckoning they were about 4 klicks from the O-point. Alex was 21 years young, and at the moment he was in command of this particular patrol. His hand sneaked by instinct to brush the Roadrunner insignia on his jacket, for luck and all that other stuff. 2 hours, then a day or two of observing the trail to Phan Thiet and then back to the base. No contact, just observe, easy money and . . . . . . . the first thing that clued Alex to the fact that something went wrong was the fact that he was flying through the air. It was all happening very slow, and several thoughts flashed through his head. Number one was that he stepped on a mine. Second was that Master Sergeant Cotrell is going to kill him for stepping on a mine. The third got aborted by the impact into a large tree. He hung suspended for a fraction of a second and then crashed on the ground. There was no sound at all, something that puzzled him for a second as he tried to absorb what was going on. He could see a large smoking hole a few yards from deer trail they were walking from and it must've not been a mine because his feet were still attached to the rest of him. On the other hand, he was seeing a lot of muzzle flashes coming from the jungle around him. He tried to boost himself up, but his right arm folded under him dumping right back on the ground. Staring for a few seconds he realized that that white thing that was sticking out of his forearm was a bone, which meant that for the moment he was left-handed. No problem. He giggled. It didn't hurt, which meant it was better than just all right. He brought up his M-16 with his left hand and fired off a few rounds in the general direction of the VC. The bullet which smashed into his thigh was an unpleasant surprise however. And things were starting to hurt a little, with an insistent edge that promised more pain coming shortly. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and saw another GI drop down next to him. Alex didn't know who the hell he was, but he wasn't up to asking too many questions at the moment. The other turned to him and said quietly (how could he hear him with all the soundless firing?) "You got two choices here, pal. You can either fight or die. Which one will it be?" Alex must've been losing blood, because that seemed a very profound question, even more important then just matter of his life. He thought about it for a long second, and said. "I'll fight." Grabbing his M-16 with both hands he brought it up to his cheek, sighting it on the flashes. The jungle flashed crimson, then he could see the VC hiding behind the bushes, plastered on the wet earth. All he had to do was just point and shoot.
[From the Medal of Honor Citation]
"Despite grievous wounds during the initial stages of the ambush, Sergeant Alex Kaletin proceeded to engage the enemy, estimated at reinforced platoon strength, with accurate aimed fire, personally accounting for 18 enemy KIA and unconfirmed number of WIA. He then carried the other sole survivor, RVN Ranger Quynh to the extraction point, administering him medical aid during the course of the 1 kilometer trek. His courage, indomitable spirit and quick thinking reflect great credit on himself and the United States Army." June 19, 1988 - New York State Peter was driving down the road in his customized Lexus, when his DEI alerted him to an incoming message. He acknowledged and engaged security measures to encode the transmissions. In a small window in his field of view, the picture of the duty officer in collective appeared. He appeared somewhat frazzled, certainly not the dapper and suave Scientist he met at the reception two days ago. "How can I help you, Mr. Carson?" he asked politely. It always paid to be nice to people, even if they really should've discussed everything while he was attending the conference. "Mr. Kaletin, we have unconfirmed reports of possible Reality Deviants sighting in close proximity to your current location" Carson said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "We are passing the reports up the chain, but meanwhile there you are . . . . " "You want me to take a look myself. I understand completely." "Well, that's good then. The reports include sighting of possible cryptozoological specimens, as well other, less concrete sightings. We are blocking the lines in and out of the area, and our CRIT teams are scrambling as we speak." Kaletin nodded, trusting the simulation sensors to pick up his response. "I'll check in with you after I have something to report." He cut the connection and brought up the map of the area, superimposing on it the microwave and lidar data from one of the Platinum satellites passing overhead. The area unfolded in his field of view, with false color imaging and areas of suspected RD action highlighted. Say what you want about those NWO guys in the field, but they do give good intel he thought. His own implants were coming online, in case confrontation was necessary. Peter Kaletin had no great experience with fighting; in fact his own field of expertise was largely managerial and scientific, but like most other Iterators he considered combat to be as much a mental matter as physical. And he did spend almost a year as a liaison to the Border Corps. He pulled over on the side of the road, pushing the car as far under the trees as he dared and got out. His enhanced senses swept the area, making sure nobody was in the immediate vicinity. Referring to the overhead map one more time, he proceeded slowly to where the real-time imagery indicated things were going on. Before crossing the ridge, he dropped (somewhat clumsily) on his stomach and crawled over to the top. Peering over he saw a scene that remind him of Dante's Inferno. Several Garou and other things he was fairly sure could only be Fomori were a man and a woman down into deep hole in the ground. Both humans were already almost dead; the male in particular was almost eviscerated. With a shudder, Peter realized that the bloody thing one of the Garou was munching on was the man's liver. Or another fairly vital organ. Trying to make no noise whatsoever, he ordered his DEI to load up a patch to one of his sensory nodes, one from a ROM chip he implanted himself. Good Iterators are not supposed to dabble in Dimensional Science -- or Spirit as the Traditionalists called them. But Peter Kaletin was no fool, and though he left his extended family behind him, he didn't forget everything that happened in the first 16 years of his life. With the patch in place, he was able to perceive shadowy forms of Extra-Terrestrial Entities floating through the area. He reversed quickly, and crawled down to the floor of the hillock. Spending a few extra seconds to catch his breath, he accessed the transmitter array. "You were right." he said to the NWO's Operative. "I see multiple shapeshifters and other entities. Recommend you dispatch a reinforced TacResponce team; they'll tear the CRITs to pieces." Carson nodded, glancing at a display outside Kaletin's field of vision. "Understood. We are -- er. Hold please, we're receiving a communiqué." He cocked his head, listening to an unheard voice in his head. When he turned back to Kaletin, his manner was a lot more urgent. "Sir, you are urgently requested to remove yourself from the area. Another Convention is currently conducting classified field studies there. They will take care of everything." "The hell they will, Carson, the place is damn near crawling with RDs! Patch me through to the IT-X Control, I'll order a team here on my own." Carson opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly Kaletin heard a voice in his head. "Programmer, you are ordered to remove yourself from the area immediately. Any delay will result in sanctions. Am I clear?" Peter's mouth had gone dry. "Yes, sir." The identifying header of the message flashing in the lower right hand corner of his retina left no doubt that whoever just issued the order, had ample authority to do it. He slowly rose to his feet and made his way back to the car. Turning around, he drove back deep in thought. That a Technocracy convention was cooperating with Garou was on the face of it ridiculous. The fact that the Garou were Black Spirals was inconceivable. Peter wasn't sure that the word meant what he thought anymore.
April 3, 1991 - Paris Alexander was sipping a cup of coffee in one of the myriad cafes on the banks of Seine. The day was cool, but the spring was making more than a token appearance. He could smell the freshness of the season in the air, and it was making him feel pretty good. He stretched in his seat and nodded to the man who just pulled up the chair to his table.
"Hello, Peter." he said pleasantly. "What's up? First I don't hear from you for nearly 3 years, and then suddenly you pop up from the middle of nowhere. You haven't even called Dad, have you." Peter Kaletin shook his head. "No, not yet. If I said I was very busy, would you laugh in my face?" "Quite possibly." Alex did grin, after a few seconds. "I was, though. Did I tell you I made Comptroller?" "No . . . but congratulations. Do you get your own dungeon block now?" "Bah, you're just jealous. And it's a whole dungeon complex, just so you know. " Peter grinned back at his brother, who always delighted in needling him about Technocracy stereotypes. Usually, Peter gave back as good as he got about the Traditionalists as well. But today there was more on his mind than simple banter. He laid a small black box on the table, and pushed a button on the side. A small green light blinked on, and stayed on. Alexander glanced at the box, raising one eyebrow in a silent query. "I need privacy for this, Alex. Even more than usual." Peter leaned back, and looked close at his younger brother. It was difficult to tell with certainty which man was in fact younger, since both appeared to be in their early 40s at most. Colonel Alexander Kaletin, Ret, CMOH, DSC, SS (twice), Purple Heart (twice), looked like a career soldier, which was a part of what he was. However people who concentrated on appearances tended to miss a keen mind that put its owner through Harvard's Ph.D. program in History, a strong leadership ability that made him a living legend in US Army and a powerful will. He was also an Adept of the Akashic Brotherhood. "In the past couple of years or so, right after they gave me my own Institute, I've been making some very discreet inquires. I had to be extremely hush-hush about this, since the subject is so explosive." He paused, measuring his words. "I believe that there are certain factions within the Union which are cooperating with . . . ah . . . the Wyrm, basically, in some sort of guise." Alexander leaned back staring at his older brother incredulously. However the import of the words swiftly penetrated his amazement. "Are you positive?" he asked once, and then settled down to hear him out. "What do you want me to do about this, Peter?" he asked finally, when the account wound down.
April 19, 1992 - Federal Register "...Accordingly, the United States Congress hereby authorizes creation of Intelligence, Science and Technology Enforcement Bureau to monitor compliance with regulations enumerated in Executive Order No. 119390 . . . ."
Current Status The ostensible purpose of ISTREB is to broadly monitor the science and technological sectors of the United States business community and to ensure that no untoward technology transfers are occuring. Needless to say, the reality is much different from what the paper says. The agency is headed by Brigadier General Alexander Kaletin (US Army) and its personnel drawn mostly from the ranks of the army special forces and intelligence. Its real mission is to compile sufficient evidence of Technocratic involvement with Pentex. Needless to say, the task is far from trivial but both Alexander and Peter are committed and they brought their considerable resources to bear. While Alexander heads the "visible" portions of ISTREB, Peter concentrates on providing untraceable funding and resources.
Structure ISTREB is internally subdivided into three departments: Operations, Intelligence and Support. Typically, Intelligence concerns itself with finding and investigating leads; Operations takes appropriate action (which frequently involves some level of force) and Support provides any services the other two may need while doing their jobs.
Operations: The Operations department is unquestionably the domain of Alexander Kaletin. He holds both the overall command of ISTREB as well as the post of the department head. Most of the people who make up this department have been recruited by him or with his direct involvement. Many of the people in Operations are combat veterans, recruited from the ranks of 75th Ranger Regiment, 7th and 10th Special Forces Groups, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and US Army Technical Escort Units. Everybody who comes through Operations doors is a trained professional . . . who is quickly put through an extremely rigorous 12 week physical training course. The Operations department makes the most use of Iteration X devices, provided courtesy of Comptroller Peter Kaletin. There are approximately 80 men working in the operations, organized in 6 men A-teams.
Intelligence: The head of Intelligence is Jonathan Carson, late of New World Order's Albany Construct. He was approached and recruited by Peter Kaletin shortly after the incident. Intelligence agents are mostly recruited from the ranks of DoD Intelligence agencies, with Marine Intelligence being especially heavily represented. The basic reason for this is that most of the other agencies (CIA and NSA in particular) are heavily monitored by NWO. His department manages the flow of information into ISTREB, scouring the airwaves, financial reports, newspapers and police bulletins for information that could indicate a Pentex business is operating. In addition to this mundane intelligence gathering and analysis function, his agents are operating in most major American cities. They are responsible for coordinating any actions Operations department undertakes in their assigned region. The most secret mission of the department is to assist half a dozen or so agents who have penetrated Pentex-controlled
businesses. These masters of deception and espionage are truly the best of the best of the Intelligence department. This department employs approximately 20-30 people.
Support: The department of Support and Services is controlled by Peter Kaletin's deputy, Carter Hawkes. The functions of the S&S are mostly logistical in nature, but they are also the ones who build hi-tech devices used by the ISTREB agents. The analysis of any of physical evidence is also conducted by S&S experts. This department boasts the highest number of Awakened individuals, mostly Technocrats and Technomancers recruited by Peter. Support is the largest department, employing over a dozen Scientists, Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether.
Regulations To operate effectively, ISTREB must work in secrecy. The government is kept in the dark about the real activity of it, and in fact provides only a part of it's budget. The Technocracy must not learn of its activity as well, as the Syndicate would most likely be let off with a slap on the wrist (if that), unless the evidence is iron clad. The money flow from the Syndicate is too important to the other Conventions to jeopardize for anything else. All that means that secrecy must be preserved, at almost any cost. All Sleepers recruited to work in ISTREB go through a very thorough screening conducted by the Intelligence Department, culminating in a deep scan by several ex-NWO operatives. The screening for the Awakened personnel starts with a scan, and gets more intense from there. If evidence is found that a person is compromising the agency's secrets punishments ranging from termination of employment (with a mind-wipe) to termination (period) may be issued. The Intelligence department's counterintelligence cell handles the evidence gathering, and presents it to the tribunal consisting of the 3 department heads, who issue the ruling. There is almost no external control of ISTREB, except for annual reports to the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee.
The Common Knowledge Obviously, not everybody in ISTREB is completely briefed on all the details and fine points of the Ascension War. The range spans clerical workers in the S&S, who are only told that they are working for an intelligence agency to the agents in the Intelligence department who are usually the best informed. The average un-Awakened agent is still under the impression that he is working for a project with a government assigned, albeit a super secret, mission. In general, the Operations people are most familiar with Black Spirals, Fomori and Sabbat, while Intelligence deals more with the Syndicate controlled businesses. The equipment provided by the Technomancers for use by the un-Awakened personnel is very much high tech, but not so much as to invite undue contemplation. As with most technocracy tech, it is overwhelmingly coincidental in use.
The Supernatural Angle By far, most of the agents of the ISTREB are Sleepers, but most of them could be qualified as what Technomancers refer as Sympathizers, people who are trained and conditioned to accept the high technology used by the Technocracy. The Operations agents are almost universally enhanced with Iteration X cybernetics, but the implants tend to be less ostentatious than ones utilized by the It-Xers themselves. Intelligence Agents, in keeping with their NWO roots, tend to use gadgets more than implants. Most of the Awakened personnel are concentrated in the S&S, but several Akashics are part of the Operations department and there are a few ex-NWO Men in the Intelligence wing. If a mission requires magical support beyond what a few gadgets can do, a mage is assigned to the team. Also, due to intense screening, Carson found several latent psychics in the ranks of ISTREB. They form a select group, overseen directly by Captain Henry Shu, one of Alex's Akashic disciples. The other select group of Awakened congregates in the Counter-Intelligence group. It consists of a member of House of Thig, a Virtual Adept and an Akashic brother.
Other Groups ISTREB's personnel is not unified enough to have a single viewpoint on other groups, but in general Technocracy and Garou are treated as neutrals who are not to be approached unless the need is truly dire and Traditions are considered out of the purview in general. Vampires are a bit of a special case since ISTREB does have some contact with Camarilla vampires (mostly Ventrue) due to political capital owed during creation of ISTREB. In return, Colonel Kaletin uses Sabbat dominated cities as a training ground for his operation teams. Some information is exchanged, but both group are clearly at arms length.
Toys for the Boys The operations department takes up the most equipment transferred from the Iteration X warehouses. Many of the things that they use are the things Iteration X designed in the 50s and 60s, but they are stilll quite of a ways ahead of the Sleeper tech, while not being advanced to require Awakened users. For transportation, ISTREB uses mostly modified GMC Suburbans, uparmored
and upengined. The agents also have access to a fleet of of helicopters, equipped with state of the art surveillance devices. For extra oomph, the agency also employs several helicopter gunships. Needless to say, those are brought out only in serious emergencies. Some of the cybernetic augumentations the agents receive include implanted body armor, bionic organ reconstruction, tactics coprocessors and muscle grafts.
Transport Vehicle Suburban Helicopter Gunship
Safe Speed 100 mph 200 mph 220 mph
Max Speed 150 mph 350 mph 425 mph
Maneuver 7 8 10
Crew 1+5 2+8 2
Armor 7 7 10
Weapons none none, sensors 30 mm cannon, 4 rocket pods
Support Weapons Name 30 mm cannon Rocket
Dif 7 8
Damage 15 15
Range 1200 3000
Rate 8 4
Capacity 20 32
Weight 300 lbs 65 lbs
Small arms Name XM11 Assault Rifle XM3a Personal Weapon
Dif 7 6
Damage 10 7
Range 800 120
Rate 1/3/10 1/3
Capacity 112 22
Weight 11.4 lbs 2.4 lbs
Note: All of the weapons have been created by Technomancer research, but are coincindental enough not to require Arete roll (nor for that matter Quintessense; these are not talismans). These are liquid binary propellant weapons, and ammo for them is not obtainable anywhere else.
Cybernetics Body Armor: The implanted polytropic isokevlar sheeting, placed right under the skin protects the user from all sorts of projectile harm. The user gains 3 extra dice of soak, over his whole body. Life *** Matter ****
Bionic Organ Reconstruction: The process involves installing additional cybernetic systems that can assist in the functioning of normal organs. As a result, the operative can sustain many more injuries, before becoming incapacitated. 4 extra Health Levels. Life ****
Tactics CoProcessor: The expert systems in the implanted bodycomp are interfaced with user's optic nerve. They project vectors and threat levels, as well as assisting in targeting of smart weapons. The user gains -3 difficulty to firearms rolls (on suitably equipped weapons, -1 on all others) as well as +3 damage to all damage rolls. The hand to hand/melee rolls receive similar bonuses(-1/+3). Correspondence * Entropy * Life * This cybernetic implant also comes in an option optimized for threat analysis, which aids user to avoid hazards. +2 to Dodge. Time **
Muscle Graft: A relatively simple addition of muscle fibers, to augument the patient's existing muscular structure. The extra muscle tissue is designed to activate only when the user desires that extra burst of strength (which also tends to preserve coincidentiality) +2 Strength (activated by a Willpower roll vs. 5). He also gains +1 to Stamina, active all the time. Life **** Time **** Entropy **
Jedi (version 3) By Sara Lanford (
[email protected]) with original concept by D.O.
Author's note This is something that my friends and I came up with a while ago, and it is compatible with a Star Wars universe or modern-day. They were created for a world where the movie Star Wars does not exist. I hope that you will get as much enjoyment out of this character class as we did.
Description The Jedi are a noble race of warriors and peace-keepers that descend from the Akashic Brotherhood. The Masters travel the world with their apprentices in tow, searching out the Dark Side (what the Were-Creatures refer to as the Wyrm), and combating it to the best of their abilities. They use the Force, the essential life-energy of all things, to help them win their battles against the Dark Side, (or the Light Side, depending on the player's and the STs discretion). Their conception of the Force and the balance of nature is the same as the Jedi of the films.
Starting Sphere Forces
Attributes 8/6/3
Abilities 21/12/7
Background points 7 (Automatic 3 in Mentor)
Freebie points 21
Maximum Trait Rating 8
Restriction on Abilities Do 3 Intuition 2 Awareness 2 Lightsaber 4 Jedi Lore 2
New Skill: Lightsaber * You can maybe pick it up without cutting something off (though it's not easy) ** Decent, but not very good *** You can wield it, just don't try anything fancy **** Jedi Knight ***** Jedi Master ******+ You are the destructive hand of God
New Knowledge: Jedi Lore * You are vaguely aware of the Force and the Dark Side. ** Only marginally better than level 1. *** You know a little of Jedi history and intense theology, enough to get you by in your native social circles. **** You can take an apprentice at this point. ***** There is nothing of Jedi history and theology that you don't know. ******+ Yoda would like to ask you about some points he is unsure about.
Talisman Lightsaber 5 + Forces rating Agg Diff 6 Level 4
Views It is against their teachings to make a judgement against a creature they don't know personally.
JEDI KNIGHTS (version 1) By Petrarch (
[email protected]) Based on the movie trilogy by George Lucas and the Dark Empire comic books by Dark Horse comics "Before the first cities arose in the Middle Kingdom, before the first wars between the Vampires and the Immortals of Mesopotomia, the Jedi and their Akashic brothers lived in the high mountains of Tibet. According to our oldest holocron we are descendants of Lemuria, that land which existed during the Golden Age of Magic fifty thousand years ago. After the great fall we stayed in the high places, focusing and disciplining ourselves until the unawakened once again rose . But until that time no matter how long it would take we would protect the sleepers from those who walk the outer darkness. In those days of High Magic there were many who tried to control us, to corrupt us; the Great Old Ones, the Vampire Antediluvians, and things whose names are best left unsaid. But we prevailed with the help of those who would become the Order of Hermes, and with the Immortals, and those of the Changing Breed. For forty thousand years we fought until the cities rose again. Then we became the advisors to the princes of many lands and cities, but we spent most of our time fighting in the wilderness. Our Akashic brothers taught the sleepers our ways and showed them the true path; we were always in the background keeping the Dark Side from our charges." -from the teachings of Master Lieh-tze, stored in the Jedi Holocron. "After the fall of the Sung we faced darktimes, since the Mongols had taken over all of Asia with their diabolic magic and assistants. The Jedi and the AB were systematically hunted in a vicious pogrom. During this time many other mages also faced persecution. When the Horde reached the lands of Islam the Subtle Ones were hunted, and in the lands of the CC, both they and the OoH were decimated. We eventually were able to strike back, and destroy the power of the Mongol Khans and their Dark Lords of Sith, but not before they unleashed a great Plague upon Europe and Asia. Shattered to not even a twentieth of our strength we and the AB retired to the Himalayas, and the mountains of Japan, and we heard nothing from the outside world for close to five hundred years. When we returned we heard tales of powers that had grown in the West and of their conquest of a New World and their manipulations in the old. We found out of the destruction of Mount Qaf. We were weak at first but eventually ousted the Europeans from our lands, but the Technomancers struck back with their puppet Mao, and their corporations." -from the teachings of Master Cor Ramai, from the Jedi Holocrons "...We were in a quandry until one of us met with the Virtual Adept George Lucas and with his help we struck a mighty blow against the Static Reality. Through his films a new hope arose in the hearts of the sleepers. Because of him and his acolyte, Spielberg now they see the evils of the Technocracy more clearly, and these movies make them wonder, and perhaps in their ancestral memories and in their dreams they remember the Mythic Age and the heros of those times. We have many new apprentices and hopefully with them and the other Traditions we will win the Ascension War, and destroy the forces of the Dark Side which drive the Technocracy. Jedi, May the Force be with you!" - from the teachings of Master Seiki Taira, from the Jedi Holocrons.
Foci: Purification - Spirit/Entropy Do - Correspondence/Prime/Time Weapon - Life/Forces(1-3) Gesture - Mind/Forces (1-3)/Matter. Gesture means a movement similar to what the Jedi did in the movies. i.e. Vader pointing his hands at someone who he wishes to choke. BTW Forces for Weapon is supposed to be (4-5).
Philosophy: The Force is what gives the Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds reality together.
Organization: Small chantries with only one master located in a hostile wilderness setting usually near a site of the Dark Side. Students can test themselves against their environment and be close to the living things that generate the Force.
Meetings: Though Masters and Students tend to congregate together, Jedi Knights tendto work in either very small groups (1 to 3) or by themselves.
Initiation: Destiny plays a great role in both the training and the life of the Jedi. Jedi choose those who are strong in the Force (Avatar 3+) but Destiny also tends to Awaken those to the Force.
Chantry: No Ancestral Chantry (There may be more to this document, but this is all I have)
JEDI (version 2) By Axle Steele (
[email protected])
Philosophy: The Force The Jedi believe the Force is a mystical energy field that surrounds and flows through all life; the Jedi manipulate this flow in order to achieve their effects. (It does sound a lot like a standered mages idea of what Quintessence is doesn't it.) The Jedi, as presented seem to have no conception of Paradox; I would assume this is because the framework of the Star Wars universe never wrote them out of reality, as happened to modern Mages here. However should someone play a Jedi in a modern setting, I imagine that paradox would affect them normally. The Light and Dark Side of the Force corresponds directly to good and evil; since this is such a part of the Jedi, any Jedi characters should probably be forced to possess humanity and virtues to help portray this inner battle.
Spheres Alter, Sense, Control. The Jedi do not divide reality into the 9 spheres of tradition mages, but instead by what they are doing to the Force: altering it, sensing it, and controlling it. (Yes I know I stole this directly from West End Games, I'm gonna steal other stuff from them to so hold on). Since this is not very useful to us WoD people, I'm going to fudge a little and directly corralate these to the nine spheres. Alter: Forces, Entropy, Matter Sense: Prime, Correspondence, Time Control: Mind, Spirit, life The Darkside is more attuned with altering the Force, and the Light side to controlling it. Both are equally adept at sensing it.
Specialty sphere Darkside: any of the Alter disciplines Lightside: any of the control disciplines
Focus (Each Jedi's may be different this is just an idea) Alter spheres: Gestures Sense spheres: Meditative trance Control spheres: Meditative trance
Talisman Light Sabre
Jedi's Views of the Others Tradition Mages: Neither good nor evil, they do not understand the true nature of the Force. Yet that should not blind you to their power for it can be great.
Technocracy: They seek order for the universe. That is good, but if the universe does not want their order, then it be evil. Marauders: They do not respect the balance; they for all their assertations to the opposite are clearly part of the Dark Side. Nephandi: The Dark Side. Vampires: Unnatural parasites who are no longer truly part of the Force; pity them. Werewolves: They understand their place, and yet lack true understanding. True allies and little more than children. Other shapechangers: Like their brethren the Garou children.
Wraiths: The dead should stay dead unless they have something important to say; these rarely do. Changlings: Fools. Mummies: Respect their ancient power, and their ancient knowledge. Immortals: Death does not touch these, but otherwise they are merely human.
Rotes A few of the more famous Jedi powers:
Sense Force Prime 1 Sprit 1 Description: The Jedi reaches out with his mind to sense the Force in the area. System: basically the same thing as Prime 1 sense quintessence, but the spirit element allows a Jedi to tell if something is of the Light or Dark side. ie: good or Evil, not wyrm tainted, wyrm tainted. etc.
Lightsabre combat Mind 1 Forces 2 Description: You fight with a lightsabre. What else do you need here. System: The mind 1 commponent allows the Jedi to keep this power up and still use his full dice pool for other non-magickal actions, the Forces 2 commponent makes the light sabre do 1 more, or less damage level per success.
Transfer Life Prime 5 Mind 5 Spirit 6 Description: used by the emperor to move his mind from one body to another after Return of the Jedi, and in Dark Empire 1 and 2. System: The user expends all of his Quintessence when using this ability, and catapaults his mind and spirit completly into another body. This other body must be mindless or the rote will fail, and the mage will die. If successful on the Arete roll the mage will be in the new body, the spirit 6 commponent of the rote prevents paradox from noticing the mage cheating death, although the rote itself is still vulgar.
Create Force Storm Prime 6 Forces 6 Entropy 3 Description: used at the end of Dark Empire 1 the Emperor disintegrated an entire rebel fleet with this force power. System: the user summons a direct and powerful manifestation of the Wyld, causing the very fabric of reality itself to boil and churn, creating an unstoppable maelstrom miles across that will destroy anything in its path. This rote so violates the laws of nature that any Mage using it will automatiaclly gain 10 points of paradox; if this brings the mage's total above 20 a backlash will result. To make matters even worse this power is such an affront to reality that a few moments later a Paradox storm is almost sure to develop sucking up anything in the Force storm's radius, and causing even more destruction. This paradox/Force storm conglomeration can last for hours The Force Storm will destroy any non-living material it encounters, and inflict 10 soakable, but aggravated wounds to any living being cought within it. The resulting Paradox storm will then take these unfourtunate souls elsewhere.
Famous Jedi Really basic work ups of the most famous Jedi
Luke Skywalker Level: Jedi Master Strength 4 Dexterity 5 Stamina 5 Charisma 4 Manipulation 3 Appearance 3 Perception 3 Intelligence 4 Wits 5 Talents: Alertness 3 Dodge 5 Brawl 3 Leadership 5
Skills: Lightsabre 5 Pilot 5 Drive 4 Repair 4 Knowledges: computer programming 3 Enigmas 4 Cccult 2 Science 3 Linguistics 2 Movie: Arete 3 Spheres: Correspondence 2 Forces 2 Life 2 Mind 3 Matter 0 Prime 1 Spirit 0 Time 2 Comic: Arete 5 Spheres: Correspondence 2 Forces 4 Life 3 Mind 3 Matter 0 Prime 3 Spirit 1 Time 2 Conscience 3 Self-control 3 Courage 5 Humanity 7 Willpower 8
Emperor Palpatine Level: Dark Oracle Strength 3 Dexterity 2 Stamina 4 Charisma 3 Manipulation 4 Appearance 1 Perception 6 Intelligence 6 Wits 4 Talents: brawl 5 Dodge 5 streetwise 5 Leadership 7 Skills: Lightsabre 6 Research 6 Knowledges:Ccomputer Programming 2 Enigmas 6 Occult 6 Jedi Lore 9 Cosmology 6 Investigation 6 Bureaucracy 8 Movie: Arete 3 Spheres: Correspondence 2 Entropy 3 Forces 4 Life 0 Mind 3 Matter 0 Prime 2 Spirit 1 Time 2 Comic: Arete 9 Spheres: Correspondence 2 Entropy 6 Forces 6 Life 5 Mind 5 Matter 2 Prime 6 Spirit 6 Time 5 Conscience 0 self-control 2 Courage 4 Humanity 1 Willpower 10 Deragments: Intellectualization, Meglomania, Paranoia, Delusions of Granduer???? Notes: Sure he's outrageously powerful, but he's the Emperor; he even scares the hell out of the leaders of the Nephandi. Caveat: Two sets of magical stats have been presented, one that is for the movie version (only the movies taken into account) and the other based on West End Games and the comics. The movie versions are much less powerful.
The Emperor's views on the others. Traditions: All fools who not understand true power. Technocracy: The power of thier technology is nothing compared to the power of the Dark Side. Marauders: Gullible fools who do more harm than good. Nephandi: Their mastery of the dark side is almost as powerful as my own. Vampires: They are cut of from the Force, and so cannot be a true threat. Werewolves: Their lack of ability in the Force makes them pets as best. Other shapeshifters: Bah, I already spoke of them. Wraiths: The dead mean nothing to me. Changelings: Entertaining and nothing but pawns. Mummies: Their approach to immortality has made them sacrifice the Force; for that they are fools. Immortals: Natural immortals; I am envious of them, but yet their power is but a candle to my star.
JHADAYE By The Digital Mage (
[email protected]) Based on the movie trilogy by George Lucas "Sit down, please. you must be hungry -such a long search to find me. I would offer you some sustenance -but I do not need any and so have none stored. your hunger will have to wait, for I will tell you the history of my kind; or does your bodily need for food overwhelm your mind's search for knowledge?" "Good. If you had said 'yes', I would have asked you to leave. Discipline, determination, and your mind's control over your physical form is what is needed. "You know what we call ourselves -the Jhadaye. We were created out of necessity, the necessity to combat what many Mages refer to as the Nephandi. We know it by a another name -one which conveys its explicit evilness to even the most mundane of human minds; we call it 'The Dark Side'. "A long, long time ago; in a land far, far away, the Akashic Brotherhood fought the Dark Side. Their skill in the martial arts did much to stop the spread of the corruption and decay which epitomises the Dark Side. But the martial arts were not enough, something more dynamic, more powerful was needed. A new perspective -philosophy even- was necessary. It was from that need that our Tradition grew. "We still embody much of the teachings of the Brotherhood, for example the Sphere of Mind is still held in great regard by us. But we have looked further -we see the invisible environment, the underlying currents of the world, the currents which affect us directly, every one of us -The Force. "We have trained over the centuries to utilise the Force -with it many things can be accomplished. we enhance our warrior ways; and more. "See what can be accomplished when you open yourself up to the Force" The Jhadaye were created to combat the Nephandi, and this they do above all else. They are martial artists but also are capable of the greatest effects of the Forces sphere. However mostly kinetic and gravitational manipulations are used to enhance the athletics and fighting skills they possess -thus a Jhadaye is only considered a "Knight" upon obtaining rank 4 in Forces, and a "Master" when obtaining rank 5.
Philosophy: "The Force is everything -the invisible environment of us all. It is only the enlightened who can perceive the underlying currents which pass about us all the time. we control this environment to our benefit -the Force is strong. "But we do not use our magick to control the inhabitants of this world directly, no matter whether it be life or matter, everything must be given a chance to defend itself -do not destroy from within! "And beware the Dark Side -that of corruption and decay- that path leads only to spiritual and mental destruction, look only upon it with the knowledge that you are cleansed of it" A Jhadaye will never learn Entropy above level rank 1, and Life and Matter are never used to destroy others directly -the same with Prime. The weapon focus always reminds the Jhadaye of the harm which can be wrought with Life and Matter.
Organisation: The members of the Jhadaye now number less than a hundred since the strengthening of the Gauntlet has prevented large scale Dark Side intrusions upon Gaia. Those Jhadaye still around live the lives of reclusives with no formal organisation, however one Jhadaye will always aid another.
Meetings Due to the organisation there are no formal meetings. Initiation: Few Jhadaye are trained now due to one main reason -the Jhadaye do not seek out pupils, they must come to the Master. Few have even heard of the Jhadaye and so really only if an Akashic Brother spots a possible mage, but believes they would best be a Jhadaye, are they sent on their quest to find a Master. This quest in itself is a test of the would be Jhadaye's resolve, but often another test is needed, this can vary in size and depends on the Master.
Chantry: There is no formal chantry but most Jhadaye Masters live upon a node with a very high Arcane rating. Acolytes: (If any) Martial Artists, Zen practitioners, Fraternal orders, Monks, Buddhist Scholars. Sphere: Forces (though Mind is also highly prized) Foci: Do - Correspondance/Time Gesturing - Mind/Prime/Forces Purification - Spirit/Entropy Weapon - Life/Matter
Talisman: A Jhadaye will most likely favour a sword as their weapon and often they charge it with the power of the Force.
View Light Saber talisman. Concepts: Jhadaye knight -these guys are often those who are more dynamic in their approach to combatting the Dark Side. Jhadaye Master -often reclusive they observe from afar for any sign of the Dark Side, some however wander amongst the world not revealing their true nature.
Quote: "Use the Force, feel it running through you"
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Honourable fellows; they are one of us except in their non-commital to combatting the Dark Side; it is a great divide. "They have chosen a different path, but one which is noble -we respect them" -Eijsha Hiagonna, Master of Mind
Celestial Chorus: They see another current belying everything, but it is beyond most people, they should begin with the current which binds us all. "I have heard of these people, they are as mysterious as the One, but they do not recognise that we are all a part of the same" Samual Adept of Prime.
Cult of Ecstasy: Their use of the vices corrupts them, they do not realise it but they are already turning to the Dark Side. "Yeah, I saw them once -waaaay back 'fore I was born. They weren't nothing like in the films" -'Cruise', Disciple of Time
Dreamspeakers: Good allies -- they are often aware of the Dark Side before all others, sometimes even us. "I have dreamt of these people, I wonder if they are still around. I hope so, they would be useful in the fight against the Nephandi" Walker-in-Skies, Master of Spirit
Euthanatos: These people are not of the Dark Side they say, yet they wield the weapons of the Dark Side. Trust them not. "I have had dealings with them before, they are too rigid in what they believe -we do only what is for the best of humanity" -Carlton, Adept of Entropy.
Hollow Ones: If only the Orphans could find the wisdom to seek us out rather than turning to this lot. "Who?" -MaryAnn, Disciple of Life
Order of Hermes: They understand the power of the Force, but the feel they must try to comprehend it through charts, they should feel the Force. "I've vaguely heard of them, they know of the power of the sphere of Forces but do not seem comfortable exploiting it to its fullest potential" -Sianon Hampton, Adept of Forces.
Sons of Ether: They also know the power of the Force. They sometimes make interesting weapons -- perhaps we could utilise their abilities. "Never heard of them, but if they existed I guess they wouldn't survive in todays society anyway -too much tech for them, just like the Brotherhood" -Dr. Frederick Wimslow, Adept of Matter.
Verbena: They play too much with things they have no right to. Their rituals should be performed only upon themselves. "They realise the humbleness of the human being, now they must realise the greatness of the human being" -Bethan, Adept of Life.
Virtual Adepts: They look to much to what is unreal that they ignore the threat of the Dark Side. "Jedi you mean, we helped create the FX for that film ya know" -Dennis Bownton, Adept of Correspondance and Forces.
The Technocracy: They have helped combat the Dark Side on the outside, but I fear it gnaws at them from within. "They do not exist, nothing like them exists, everything is normal" -Mr. Johnson, New World Order.
The Kindred: They are tainted by the Dark Side by their nature, but some fight it, we must aid those kind as much as possible. "I have trained under one, I have learnt about the Force and to some degree have mastered it -but others would know of it under a different name" -Kahl, 5th Generation Assamite Seperatist Warrior.
The Garou They are our greatest ally. Although they call it by a different name they know the evil of the Dark Side. "One of them saved my life, helped me defeat a Bane. I call them friend" -He-who-prowls-at-night, Lupus Ahroun Get of Fenris
SONS OF ETHER: KEPLERIANS By Paul Beakley and Billy Biship
Overview The Sons of Ether are interested in creating and understanding a new paradigm, or Model, based on their research and discoveries. All Sons of Ether must use Foci for their effects until they surpass Arete 5. At this level, SoE scientists understand their Model well enough to begin to accurately predict results without doing experiments, or by coincidentally preparing the Model in just such-and-such a way, etc. and thus are less dependent on Foci than the Conventions. To balance their greater dependence vis-a-vis most of the Traditions there is a greater chance that magick will be perceived as coincidental when performed by an Etherian. Sons of Ether often have similar paradigms as their Technomancer brethren, the Virtual Adepts. Thus, collaboration and conflict between these Traditions are the stuff of legend. "As brothers fight ye!" There are many paths of study that seek to research/define a complete and logical paradigm, or Model. This is the major area of disagreement between the Etherians and the Technocracy. Both agree, following the basic tenets of the philosophy of science, that nothing is truly knowable. The Technocracy has decided to tacitly assume there is an Objective Reality which will behave according to laws the Technocrats discover. Because of the influence of the Islamic Scroll, the Etherians tacitly assume there is the Subjective Reality defined by the logical implications of their Models. Thus, both approach the same problem with the same tools but from different directions. For example, both groups race to prove things that are not possible in the paradigm of the other; this is known to others as the Ascension War. Vulgar magick is a problem for both. For the Technomancers, it is allowed (barely) by the doubt about what Reality truly is. In the same way, the Etherians use Vulgarity to press the envelope of their Model.
The Paradigm - The Model Reality is simply a model to be altered. It is best to alter reality under laboratory conditions because this allows the scientist to hold all non-experimental variables constant. As a result, Sons of Ether aren't really action oriented. Rather, their technomagick is ususally carefully designed to fit within the Model that they're researching. The Etherians have been pressed to produce useful results by the Ascension War, but this is still not their primary focus. Etherians like to point out that the Chinese had gunpowder for hundreds of years and did nothing better with it than make pretty lights. Was making that technology into a tool of death a good thing? The Oppenheimer Syndrome (I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds) strikes enough Etherians to ensure their technology is released at a more judicious speed, and then only to those who can deal well with it, such as when they developed Trinary circuits and computing devices for the Virtual Adepts.
Magick -Theorem Each effect is essentially a theorem played out in the Model, the results of which are measured for future research.
Arete - Insight The trait that all true researchers seek. With sufficient insight into the interaction of vibratory energies on the Model, the Model can be subtly altered without outward signs of changes. Eventually, the highest levels of insight will allow extreme alterations to the Model without creating destructive disharmony. Scientists with very deep insight can control and create harmonics with their mind.
Quintessence - Zero: This again has to do with adding or subtracting zero from Vibratory interaction. Paradox - Disharmony: Changing Interactions can cause Disharmonies. The resulting disharmonies seek to correct themselves without damaging the Model. These disharmonic energies unfortunately tend to collect in the biomechanical patterns of the scientist, often causing unforseen (and possibly serendipitous) errors in research or surprising changes to the local Model. This is called Reharmonization.
The Spheres The Model I will now describe is called the Keplerian Model in honor of the magician and scientist Johannes Kepler who tried to prove the existence of the Music of the Spheres. The idea animating the Model is that there are many vibrational planes which interact in ways that create the patterns we perceive in our world. The scientist can harmonize himself (mentally, biomechanically, etc.) with these vibratory planes, thereby allowing direct interface and perception with the vibratory energies.
biomechanically, etc.) with these vibratory planes, thereby allowing direct interface and perception with the vibratory energies. The Model is comprised of eight or nine interacting Vibratory Planes,each of which can be acted upon. Thus, the Keplerian Model posits everything is actually the harmonic interaction of the Basic Vibrations. A wall, for example, is not a wall. It is the result of the interaction of Matter and Prime Vibrational energies in a particular way.
Prime -- Vibration Zero: This is the least well understood of the Vibrations. While it is a little mystical for the tastes of the Etherians, they feel it better to explore it anyway rather than let it stop them cold as it would the Conventions. Those criticizing Keplerianism say that Vibration 0 is a logical impossibility. If something has a zero vibration, then it isn't vibrating at all! Proponents say that it is like a mathematical convenience, only more. Just as you can use certain techniques which add zero to an equation and yet yield different results and allow certain proofs, so certain Vibrations need Zero added to them to become "real." While other Vibrations do not require the addition of Zero, experimental evidence has shown a statistical correlation between adding Zero and the generation of some effects. In the same way, you can subtract Zero to change or impede Interactions. One fascinating theory that has recently arisen is that this negative Zero is actually what some call Paradox. If so, then Etherians have found the theoretical basis for making Paradox useful. Unfortunately, it is difficult to use and manipulate That Which Is Not. An early Keplarian hit upon the idea of using electricity. Electrical "vibrations" (amplitude and frequency) are easily variable and allow a scientist to quickly ascertain by successive iterations the correct value of Zero to add or subtract from the equation governing the underlying Vibratory interaction. While not perfect, this method works as well as any. Research is ongoing.
Forces -- Energy/Vibration 1: All forces can be generated through harmonic patterns from this Vibrations. By setting up a harmonic to draw the electrical pattern out of Vibration 1, a nearly perpetual energy pattern can be established. Keplarians are eager to prove this and cite superconductivity as one example of this principle.
Matter -- Matter/Vibration 2: All materials are composed of composites of base harmonic patterns that originate from Vibration 2.
Life -- Biomechanics, "Biomech"/Vibration 3: Living organisms are clearly mechanical in nature; the harmonics that manifest living materials are drawn from Vibration 3.
Entropy -- Probability/Vibration 4: The violent signals of patterns. Patterns cannot be drawn from Vibration 4, but the breakdown effect can be controlled with an overall "volume control" on the harmonics, a Vibratory Rheostat, if you will.
Time -- Time/Vibration 5: The passage of events would not be possible without the presence of Vibration 5 energies. Time is also a part the "position equation" of Pattern Interactions, just like the T in D=RT except for being more complicated and elegant due to the nature of paradigm multidimensional analytical math. While these energies, like Vibration 4 harmonics, cannot be formed into discrete patterns, its presence can be raised and lowered, thereby speeding or slowing the passage of events. It is much easier to measure this Vibration than to change it. Research is currently being conducted in generating mirrored harmonics that may neutralize or actually reverse the energies emanation from Vibration 5.
Spirit -- Gestalt/Vibration 6: When Vibration 6 energies are introduced into other harmonics, the resulting patterns achieve some sort of self-awareness or sentience. While it is theoretically possible to synchronize one's Vibratory Pattern with any given Vibratory plane and thus enter it, in practice it is much easier to enter this one than any other. It is not clear why this should be so, other than the fact that six and multiples of six make working harmonization equations very easy. Research continues.
Correspondence -- Location/Vibration 7: There are several views of this Vibration. It may be that all other harmonic patterns are forced away from a central point because Model-wide Vibration 7 patterns, harmonically present in all other vibrations, repel one another. Another view takes the position that "nothing exists; all is vibratory interaction." Thus, the Universe can be said to be as a single point; the Interaction or Correspondence Point. Some hold both theories to be correct, depending on the purpose of the observation, giving Reality a sort of wave/particle duality.
Mind -- Reverberation, "Reverb"/Vibration 8: This plane may or may not exist. Empirically, it is true that Ideas have a "separate existence," a life of their own. This strongly indicates a vibratory plane that would sustain ideas. However, some think that Mind effects are actually effects of resonance patterns of Gestalt and Biomechanics. Scientists continue to use this "plane" to the extent they find it useful.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane -- Acoustic Muffling: Some scientists appear able to alter their acoustics within the Model, seeming to destructively interfere with Reverberation frequencies at will within a certain range.
Avatar -- Battery: The name is inaccurate yet highly satisfying. Vibration Zero "energies" do seem to power magick. Depending on the avatar, a scientist can intuitively predict useful types of zero to be added to future experiments. The scientist adds these values to his own pattern until needed. Thus, Etherians do not always relate their "Muse," Inspiration, etc. to the size of their Battery. Chantry: A Chantry set up by the Sons of Ether would be called a "Research Institute", "Scientific Society," or perhaps even a "Think Tank." Often, Etherians become members of multi-Tradition Chantries or Chantries set up by other Traditions and they will go along with whatever name it has been given. Chantry membership is mixed blessing. In some ways, it is like the good (term used advisedly!) old days when Etherians could get generous Research Grants (access to Zero energy) from other Conventions. Besides this, the Chantry environment is usually
optimized to acoustically baffle harmful harmonics. However, some scientists dislike the internal politics that distract all but the most Focused (see below) from their projects.
Destiny -- Focus: Scientists with intense focus can work miracles and never stray from their research. Those with this much focus are invariably brilliant and arrogant. Highly focused scientists are not above stealing other scientist's work and some have made their names solely by this method. Those with Focus tend to make other Etherians walk on eggshells, but they are a source of hope and inspiration to the entire Tradition as well.
DREAM -- Data REtreival And Managment: This term was doubtless borrowed from a Virtual Adept or an Etherian who worked closely with them. Some scientists learn to attune their mental resonance to absorb information from Vibration 8, the source of all patterns and the repository of all existing data.
Node -- Generator: Perceiving useful values of zero tends to be aided by being near a generator. Generators have the interesting and as yet unexplained ability to generate useful values of zero locked with in Matter or Bio patterns. Keplerian nodes tend to have as their certain piece an Engine aids this process by generating random values of zero in the hopes a Zero pattern will coalesce around them.
LEAGUE OF DEGENERATION By
[email protected]
Introduction Mission Statement speech presented to the Combined Technocratic Conventions Assembly, Sydney, Australia November, 1997: "As Newton theorized and Eintsein proved to the world of scientific enlightenment as well as to the world at large, energy does not dissipate. Energy can never be destroyed. Energy is a constant that simply changes from one shape to another. This change of shape is normally based on the necessity for the energy in question at any given interval. Which is to say, energy, at its most simple level, adapts to its surroundings. Energy is the Great Provider for any force. For something to become something else there must first be Change. Since energy is the basis of force and since energy cannot be destroyed, only change forms and since the foundation of Order is based on the theory, for our combined purposes, of energy changing shape to provide various levels of technological order existing in harmony we have come to the following hypothesis: Order cannot exist without Change. Order is an environment based on control and reason. It is an environment that is completely and totally monitored. An environment that best serves its inhabitants, is a constant environment, to be certain; however there is a need for growth and for renewal. Even within the constant, there must be variables in order to initiate Change. Without Change, there is a retardation that occurs in the Greater Order. A "stunting" of growth. An inhibition. Change, or as those who operate outside of the Conventions refer to it, "Entropy," is a necessity for Order in as much as it facilitates the evolution of said Order. Anything that does not grow, be it physically or idealogically, dies. Anything, be it the basest organism or the most inventive Artificial Intelligence, that does not adapt and seek more efficient levels of production and inventiveness, that does not constantly re-evaluate itself and its surroundings and ways to make itself and its surroundings more conducive to the Greater Order, is, in essence, a malignancy within the Greater Order and can, over the span of a certain variable of time, handicap the Greater Order and make it less beneficial. The Change, we theorize, is the handmaiden of Order. The Change is scientifically evident in every aspect of every biological function that exists in the universe. When bacteria invade the human machine, an order unto itself, antibodies are charged with the elimination, or more to the point, the degeneration, of the bacteria. If the antibodies are unable to degenerate the invader, antibiotics are introduced into the system in an attempt to change the natural immune system, to boost it, to make it better. In the time that the immune system is fighting off the infection, there is usually a marked change in the physical being of the human system -- usually a fever. A brief period of chaos that exists for the greater good of the order that is the human system. Order is the master of The Change. The Change cannot exist without it, but at the same time, there is a bit of a symbiosis. Order requires a small and controlled amount of chaos in order to initiate The Change. The chaos is short-lived and rarely out of control. The result of the Greater Order's allowance of this small, brief 'blip' of chaos, is a more efficient and productive state of the mechanization, be it organic or otherwise, attributed to the beneficial qualities of The Change. Quite simply, my esteemed colleagues, Order cannot maintain itself as an evolutionary and dynamically superior state without The Change. The Greater Order remains intact because it refuses to compromise itself to any outside entity by employing agents of The Change to secure its fundamental existence. When a military coup is overthrown by partisan rebels for the benefit of the whole, The Change is present. When a machine is retrofitted, back-engineered or upgraded to make it more efficient and beneficial to the Greater Order, The Change is present. When an immunity to a epidemic is discovered and introduced into the human machine, The Change is present. When the dollar value of our stock options rise for the benefit of the Greater Order, The Change is present. When a star goes nova in the depths of the galaxy in order to make room for a fledgling solar system, The Change is present. For far too long our efforts have focused on preservation and not on evolution. Some of you in this room would claim that 'He who can destroy a thing can control a thing.' Science has proven that energy cannot and will not be destroyed, and therefore can only be harnessed and never controlled? I disagree. I believe that we can control energy and all of its offspring through the exploration and the employment of The Change. I believe we can degenerate and manipulate chaos for the overwhelming good of the Greater Order, and, in effect, control all energy. And if controlling all energy is the key to the Ascension of mankind, and if my words and my theories fall not on deaf ears but learned, scientific ones, then through the employment of The Change, gods will we become." -- Speech given by Dr. Simon Arlis, Founder/Chief Administrator of the League of Degeneration
Overview The sphere of Entropy is the antithesis of the Technocracy for it represents decay as opposed to order. The Technomancers see this as the sphere of Nephandi, and hate and fear it. Not true with the League of Degeneration. Formed fairly recently by biophysicist and former Progenitor, Dr. Simon Arlis, the League has become a small but innovative Convention of its own that embraces the tenants and the study/employment of the sphere of Entropy. Bringing together some of the brightest, not to mention youngest, minds of the scientific community, Dr. Arlis has attempted to revolutionize (partially) the attitude that the Conventions have held for so long about the one sphere that they seem to lack significant control of.
Philosophy "We now hold the power to control chaos and randomness, and therefore, the Greater Order itself. No longer are we limited to the perfection of the machine, of the human being, of the political and economical implications of the globe, but we can now, through the employment of The Change, control Order itself to better serve the Technocratic Manifesto and the general populace at large. The ultimate expression of Technology is the power to redefine oneself as well as one's surroundings and environment. We have the knowledge and power through The Change to re-organize the Greater Order as necessity, the Mother of Invention and therefore, Technology, dictates. To this end, we can now alter our environment in symphony with our physical beings and make a more uniform Order arise with the unification of man and planet. Ascension is within our grasp."
Organization Since Dr. Arlis is formerly of the Progenitor Convention, the League is set up very similar in function to that of the Progenitors. League members organize themselves along academic lines, in various research and education centers. Each major scientific discipline has a Review Board that evaluate various Technomancer's work, and determining who will get funding and who will be "cut."
Meetings The League is very active within its Convention when it comes to communication and the sharing of knowledge and ideas. Since the Convention is basically an infant in the grande scheme of the Technocracy, there is still a "bonding" process occuring between its members. Also, since the League is so small, these meetings are more practical than with the larger Conventions such as the NWO.
Initiation Like Iteration X, the League looks mostly to the academic and energy world to find its recruits. Recently, however, more and more recruits are coming in to the Convention through the environmental engineering and, oddly enough, conservationalist science theatres. This is invaluable to the scientific think tank that relies so heavily on inventive and cutting edge theories on such things as nuclear/biological/chemical disposal and recycling.
Acolytes Sanitation Engineers, Medical Personnel, Eco-Warriors, Demolitions Workers
Sphere The League of Degeneration concentrate on the sphere of Entropy, and their revolutionary and often controversial theories and views have recently influenced the general Technocratic view of this sphere, even causing some of the highest ranking Technocrats to re-think their philosophy towards Entropy. They feel that life, the universe and everything is stagnant and useless without adaptation and evolution. Whether that evolution is natural or forced is neither here nor there. To control that evolution through controlling decay's (The Change) speed or its hampering is what is important to the League of Degeneration.
Foci Force/Entropy: Zippo Lighter/Thermal Lighter Life/Mind: Watch Time: Palmtop Computer Correspondence/Matter: Cellular Phone/Laptop Fax Prime/Spirit: Electricity
Concepts Nuclear Disposal Engineer, Center for Disease Control Analyst, Hydroponic Scientist, Hostile Environment Researcher, Chaos Mathematician.
Quote "Everything is recyclible. You're just not patient enough."
Stereotypes The other Conventions, strangely enough, have no real organized opinion of the League of Degeneration. Suffice to say, if nothing else, the other Conventions are intrigued by their concepts and their scientific theories on Entropy and Chaos. The League holds strong ties with the Progenitors, however, as Dr. Arlis was at one time one of their best and brightest. The only Convention that seems to hold them any sort of suspicion is Iteration X, who, due to their fear of the "Supernatural" as a whole, still view the sphere of Entropy as a "Nephandus Specific" sphere.
LEAGUE OF CARTOGRAPHERS By Theslin Wanders-through-Bramble (
[email protected])
Prelude To Mr. Copperfield, David My acquaintances in the media have furnished me with a programme of your upcoming Bermuda Triangle conjure-show. They have determined its content to be objectionable and in all probability will prevent its airing. While I personally applaud your efforts as a performer, I support the judgement of my collegues; fancy and and spectacles are well and good, but you must not be allowed to disseminate these grevious factual errors. First and foremost, the Burmuda Occult Array is not an equilateral triangle. In using an equilateral structure for your "pyramid magic," you will not achieve any sort of geometric-harmonic relationship. A scalene pyramid base will yield better results. Secondly, "pyramid magic" would require a three-dimensional array, congruent to the scaled pyramid featured in your programme. The Bermuda Occult Array is two-dimensional. An object such as a helicoptor, weather balloon, or in a pinch a celestial body could serve as the crucial fourth point. Be certain to scale your model pyramid appropriately. Lastly, your plan to stage teleportation in this pyramid structure mystifies me. I have seen pyramids used to sharpen razors, heal the wounded and alter the flow of time. As the pyramid structure acts as a focus for energy, using such a device in your performance would be self-defeating. I suggest a more aggressive structure; stellated polyhedrons contain the projective elements you require. May this letter find you in good health, Norton Kunj, M.S.
The League of Cartographers Since its founding, the Convention of the Void Engineers has thoroughly explored every crevasse of both land and ocean. Only recently have they left this tiny realm to map the infinitely wider horizons of space and the Umbra. From their first voyages the League of Cartographers aided the Void Engineers in mapping and closing the possibilities of the earth. Early Cartographers served as acolytes to the Engineers, unawakened mapmakers who made concrete what the Engineers "discovered." Over a period of centuries the League of Cartographers carefully erased every "Here There Be Dragons" on their globes. When the Void Engineers turned their focus from the physical world to the shifting realms of Deep Space and Deep Umbra, they left their tools in the hands of the Cartographers. Still charged with their mission of exploration, the Cartographers sought out those few sites which were not easily defined. Continued rumors of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, an obsession with the legendary sunken continent of Atlantis, and patterns of unexplained occurrences at hundreds of scattered sites eluded their best efforts at explanation. In 1914 Julianne Thetford journeyed to Arabia, commissioned to bring information on a ring of nine equally spaced points in the Rub al Khali desert. Over the past three decades reports of angelic beings had filtered from these points, possibly a result of a previously unknown mirage phenomenon. Thetford returned a changed woman, vibrant and wide-eyed. She spoke of meeting with an Arab, a proud man who danced and sung and explained all the mysteries to her. He spoke of a "web of faith," of ley lines, of patterns of something called "quintessence," of metaphysical geometry, and above all of a site called Qaf. She brought parchments of complicated spiralling designs, polyhedrons created from numeric ratios not usually applied to geography. Overlaying these parchments with transparent maps, modern and ancient ones still bearing the legend "Here There Be Dragons," the mysterious world suddenly made sense. The core of the League of Cartographers Awakened. Despite their mystical tendancies, the bulk of the League of Cartographers swears devotion to the Technocratic Union. Their aid in locating nodes and Garou Caerns has been invaluable in the Ascension War. Yet every year, one or two of the Awakened mapmakers defects to the side of the Mystics, invariably joining forces with the Dreamspeakers, Hermetics or the Al-i-Batin. They are only rarely recovered. The new generation of Cartographers has learned to manipulate flows of Quintessence by means of complicated geometric theories. They take notes on the positions of the moons and planets, observing the effects of planetary alignments on the paths of Ley Lines and magickal phenomena. A few of the younger members of the League have lobbied to rename the convention "The Conjunctionists," shifting the view of the League from the earth to the sky. This proposition is continually voted down at each Symposium, but is gaining popularity.
Philosophy Look here, and here, and here. Don't you see? The angles and curves of the Quintessence Tectonic flow-chart indicate buildups which we could use to our advantage. Simply stand between the two trees on the boulder between the two and try the Alpha
Invocation Posture. Our colleagues say there is no magick in the world. They simply do not know how to look. It's everywhere, a mesh of currents like underground streams. That boulder is as an artesian spring -- no, stay there! We can divert these flows with our methodology. There's something to what the Traditionals say. Magick is wild and free. Our maps and calculations can control it. Now, if we mark out the edges of a Buckminster Dome, we should be able to harness the local flow with only a minimal danger of your exploding. Ready?
Organization As a Technocratic Convention, the League of Cartographers are subordinate first to the Void Engineers, and secondly to the Technocracy as a whole. Both within and without the Technocracy the relatively few members of the League exist in a nonhierarchical society of equals, working alone or in tandem as necessary. Members of the League are not hostile to those members who have defected; Conjunctionists on the side of the Mystics are friendly toward their former collegues, though they see them as deluded. Both factions have a strong need for leading bodies, either the Conventions or the Council of Nine, as appropriate.
Meetings The League of Cartographers meet in the Technocracy's monthly symposiums to discuss their agendas. Mystical Cartographers do not meet regularly, though they communicate between cabals via a rote known as "point-node focusing."
Initiation Particularly talented Sleeper geographers and geometrists are brought into the outer circle of the League. They are gradually exposed to the more unusual aspects of exploration that confounded the League in its formative phase; if the prospective member becomes properly obsessed by the problems presented they are given the lessons taught to Julianne Thetford decades ago. The solitary Mystic Conjunctionists will occasionally mentor promising candidates on their own, but do not have an established ceremony.
Stronghold The fortress of the Technocratic Convention and the Chantry of the orphaned Mystic Cartographers both is located in Moracco, near the Strait of Gibralter.
Acolytes Mapmakers, geographers, explorers, geometrists
Sphere Prime
Foci Arrangement, geodesic dome, map and compass, theodolite, pyramid, graphing calculator, geiger counter, almost any surveyor's instrument
Concepts Surveyor, explorer, fringe astronomer, architect
Quote "The Global Ascension will undoubtably occur on the fourteenth of November, 1998, when a particularly auspicious alignment of Mars, Venus and the moon will channel an unusual concentration of Quintessense into the Tellurian. We can achieve this
Ascension if we can somehow move Stonehenge to the southernmost point of Florida. If not, we'll just have to take the slower route."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They can tend to their internal status if they wish to. We take the larger picture. Cult of Ecstasy: Completely off-base. That they have any power to affect reality is indicative of a terrible miscalculation on our part. We shall bring this up at the Symposium.
Dreamspeakers: They are, in general, correct in their assumption that the Earth is the source of all power. But what is this "Gaia" entity?
Euthanatos: Excellent analysis of patterns. Depressing fixation on death. Hollow Ones: I'm sorry, but I fail to understand how these individuals are relevant at this time. Order of Hermes: Structure, order, pattern. They understand much of our work, but can only go through the motions. If they could fathom why their magick operates, instead of only how . . . Sons of Ether: Our old allies are something of a joke to us now. Still, they may be on to something with their ether-fixation. Somebody should take notes.
Verbena: They know everything the Order of Hermes does not. More structure and less blood could only benefit them. Virtual Adepts: There is quite enough of the real world to work with. I see no reason to invent more. They're far too chaotic to survive.
Iteration X: They use far too much of the Technocracy's resources in what will prove to be a dead-end path. Their computers are incredibly useful in our pursuits, but their cyborgs are frightening.
New World Order: Friends and enemies both. Big Brother is useful in our efforts, but they'd kill us if they knew about our friends in the Traditions.
The Progenitors: They leave us alone, we leave them alone. It's a peaceful relationship. The Syndicate: As the Euthanatos say, they have run out of possibilities. If they would only open to new ideas instead of whittling at our funding . . .
Void Engineers: Our Parents and our greatest supporters. Ever since 1969 they've been so kind in funding our projects. Still, it would be nice if they'd turn inward instead of outward. We'd get more done.
Notes on Foci Technomantic and Mystic Cartomancers differ in their perceptions of "foci." The Technomancers follow the "Arete 5" rule for dropping Foci, as they operate primarily on faith in their Methodology. The Mystics -- those who acknowledge that there is magick in the world -- may drop foci beginning at Arete 2, as Verbena, Dreamspeakers and so forth may do. The player should make this decision at character creation. If the Cartographer changes "paths" over the course of a Chronical, he may begin "dropping" Foci at 2/Arete increase, as per the Tradition's Technomancers, until he has caught up with the Mystics if the Storyteller so desires. Technomantic and Mystic is a state of mind, not a state of allegience. A Cartographer who believes in the power of Technology and Order may -still- work with the Traditions, if they'll have him...
Arrangement: Careful geometric arrangement of rocks, wires, traffic patterns and so forth aid the Cartographer in focusing Quintessential energy. It takes only seconds to throw magnets in six different directions, perhaps weeks to arrange a spiral of sheet plastic across a mile-wide region, and no time at all to use the geometric structure of The Pentagon. Makeshift arrangements without proper measurement increase the difficulty of an effect by 1. Large undertakings or magickal effects attempted in well-established geometric arrangements like the aforementioned Pentagon may result in more dramatic successes. Arrangement is a common focus in Prime and Correspondence magick.
Geodesic dome, pyramids: These mathematical structures trap and channel energy. They can be small, portable containers, large buildings or historical monuments. These structures are common foci in Forces, Life, Mind, Matter and Spirit effects.
Theodolites, scientific and surveyor's instruments: Useful in analyzing patterns of energetic flow and alignments of geographic features. The Technomancer may need to use this information in several spheres, commonly Correspondence, Prime, Forces and Spirit effects.
Graphing Calculator: Useful in calculating vectors and other relationships. Use of a graphing calculator increases the initiative
difficulty of an effect by +2 to +3. Calculators are often used in Time, Mind, Entropy and Forces effects.
Map and Compass: Often used in large-scale magickal effects, these tools are helpful in viewing the grand scheme of Quintessense patterns. These items are often used in Prime, Correspondence and Forces magick.
Favorite Procedures In addition to the following, the League of Cartographers is also fond of such rotes as Prime Location, Hymn of Beatific Harmony and effects dealing with nodes and ley lines.
Point-Node Focusing Spheres: Correspondence ***, Prime **, Mind * Description: The Cartographer's Technocratic masters frown upon this rote; its coincidental nature relies on truly cutting-edge geometry and physics, studies which are beyond the ken of even the most insightful members of Iteration X. Careful reversal of the quantum formulae which demonstrate the formation of a black hole show that in a logical universe point-node focusing is theoretically possible, yet many doubt the existence of black holes themselves. Use of this rote creates minute bubbles of geometric area, tiny pin-prick expansions of the time-space continuum. At present the Cartographers have succeeded in creating space-pockets on the subatomic scale, though expansion to the molecular level is forseen. These expansions of timespace collapse almost instantaneously, with no effect on reality as a whole; the ripples created by the mage's manipulations carry over an incredible distance, and can be used as a sort of telegraph by those with Correspondence Sense.
System: Prime and Correspondence allow the creation of tiny pockets of mathematical space. Mind 1 grants the mage the ability to send and receive messages via a three-dimensional analog of morse code -- receiving the messages requires only Correspondence 2. The range at which the mage's fluctuations may be detected equals the cube of the caster's successes, expressed in miles. Sophisticated computer Talismans can detect such fluctuations over an effectively unlimited range. The receiving mage must be aware of the sending mage's "transmissions" to successfully understand them -- the Mind-based encoding used in point-node focusing is quite alien to normal thought-processes.
Conjunction Spheres: (Correspondence ****) Description: Careful alignment of widely separate objects is an essential element in Cartographer magick. In a pinch, this Rote can be used to force such arrangements. Using an effect similer to Hermes' Portal, the Cartographer can create windows in space to create the illusion of arrangement in a straight line. Through the use of this rote the mage may wound five different targets with the same bullet or play a game of tug-of-war in three cities at once.
System: This effect relies on Conjoin Localities to align diverse objects. Successes determine the range of the effects -- refer to the Correspondence Range Chart -- or the number of gates created. Thus, three successes can align two objects which are "very familiar" to the mage by creating a single gate and augmenting the effect's range, or align three objects which are within the mage's field of view by creating two gates. At least two successes must be scored to successfully cast this rote.
Dam the Flow Spheres: Prime *** Entropy *** Description: Thetford herself first used this rote to disable the Silver Moon Chantry in Yellowstone Park. She placed stakes in the ground at regular intervals, creating a decagram around the Chantry, tying them together with copper wire at the precise moment of high noon. The flow of raw Quintessence into their only node was chaotically scattered into the surrounding area, and the Chantry lost their source of energy. After that, it was only a matter of time before the cabal of Dreamspeakers was overpowered.
System: The Mage uses Channel Quintessence and Diffuse Energy to disrupt the flow of raw Quintessence into a Node or through a Ley Line. One success will maintain the rote for a single day. Three successes will maintain for a full month, and five successes render the effect permanent. A good portion of the Quintessence diverted is used to empower the rote, and the effect is very vulnerable to antimagick. Attempts to disrupt this spell gain a -2 bonus to their difficulties.
Emblem A Geometric compass ("V"-shaped, pointed device for figuring distances) whose points hold a navigational compass. instead of "N" and "S" for North and South, the compass shows the glyphs of Correspondence and Spirit. "E" and "W" are unchanged.
LUCIFERION JUSTIKUM By David L. Fox (
[email protected])
Introduction The following quote spoken by founder, known only as "Shadar Logoth", in the Oakland social-city center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in secret, during the month of June, 1997. He addressed a group of the initial members. "We are animals; we are awakened beasts. We are born into the realm of our existence . . . and through an entropic downward spiral, is our consciousness released once again into the Earth. Being Awakened, we have tapped into the now hidden power of what it is to be an extremely intelligent creature. Being beasts, we have natural wills and lusts. We must feed; we control territory; we lust for sensual pleasure, and die somewhere along the path, rarely free of pain. Many others that share our existence on the world attempt, whether knowingly or not, to weaken and destroy what it truly is to be human. We wage war against that treason. They outnumber us . . . but we are stronger. Although an adaptive body must house our being, more importantly must a strong mind exist in the human that wishes to prevail. We will not actively search out others to join our ranks, for not each person of our beliefs need enter a group, and not each human that trudges the Earth's soil is worthy of our enshadowing. Those that can learn from being around others of their nature will find us . . . eventually, if they see fit to do so."
Philosophy The following is an excerpt from literature given to interested parties We are the Luciferion Justikum! We embrace nature and technology, as they are coupled beyond hope of separation. We believe in facts. We worship ourselves as humans. We trust in evolution. We are scientists; we are witches; we are mystics; we are everywhere. Our ranks are made up of Awakened evolutionists that want to make a change, physically. Our magick is fierce and dark. Our hate has raged for centuries. The Celts, our pagan forefathers, destroyed, by the Church. The Vikings, sent to their symbolic Valhalla, by the same. The American Indians, the South American Tribes and the Aborigines, all. The list is endless. There is a source to our pain. Looking to the future, we need technology and nature to survive the death of our sun. Everything after the explosion that started our universe, can be explained through the all powerful truths of selection: Darwin's find of a lifetime, Anton Lavey's tool of influence, evolution. Unfortunately, the weak-minded fools of our modern world are working against our potential. The weak are able to survive as long as the strong and have offspring. We, above those ways, through symbols, speaking the ancient tongues, associate ourselves with the enemy of God. Our theatricals serve to focus the playful human mind and provoke the enemy. Lucifer is the symbol of that enemy. There is no devil below the ground as the Chorus claims. We do not worship anything except ourselves. Through symbolism, True Magick, and strength, we will prevail. Join the struggle! Take hold of Satan's reins! Lead the inborn power in you that society calls evil! Be EVIL! Spit at the face that slaps you, do not turn the other cheek! Wear your pentagram with pride as you know it sends fear into those who would defy us! The war has begun! (cut)
Style Luciferion magick comes from natural sources that lead directly to the consciousness, and the Earth itself. It stems from lust and hatred, the two most powerful urges of the human mind, studied by Sigmund Freud. The "Avatar", is purely a personally created symbol of this energy in each Awakened being. It is consciousness, namely, the other dormant part of the brain. Magick effects of all natures are harnessed by the Justikum to find their ends.
Sphere Entropy
Common Foci Meditation, chanting, skulls and other bones, pentagrams, Ankhs, Yin-Yangs, hand-held weapons, runes, computers
Organization Those who join the ranks of the Luciferion Justikum are those who have given their lives to fighting the war against that which destroys humanity. A strict code of rules are kept. Those who break too many rules, are destroyed. Those who keep their views of Luciferion philosophy, but no longer wish to be active warriors, may leave the active part of the organization if they wish. The
group is volunteer in nature. Meetings are held by each Cabal once or twice a month. Larger gatherings occur in each country of Luciferion population on all solstices and equinoxes, as well as Samhain, otherwise known as "Halloween".
The Luciferion Justikum Regeltum The following is an excerpt from literature given to active Justikum members. The other beasts of our Earth are innocent; hurt them not unless you hunger, or are endangered by their existence. Genetically sound children are not to be harmed of any flock, for nurture is not powerless. When entering another's dwelling, go there with respect, or go there not. If someone enters your dwelling with respect, offer the same. If shown disrespect in your dwelling by the other party, treat them cruelly and without mercy. Do not bother others unless it is in your best interest to do so. If others bother you, ask them to stop. If they do not, hurt them until they do. If death be the end result of the punishment, so is the fate of your victim. When asked from a worthy party about your ways, it is your duty to add blood to our cauldron. (cut)
Initiation All new members must simply swear on their humanity and life to follow the philosophy and rules, promising to give aid to the cause as best they see fit. Upon entrance to the group, all members are genetically tested for determining where they may aid best. Anyone is accepted, as long as philosophy is held. Those judged too weak to be of active help are not given access to certain mission plans. Anyone found to be an evolutionary mistake (handicapped, retarded, or other falsely mutated persons) are respected, but must agree not to willingly procreate. The punishment of this crime is death of the law-breaker and any offspring of the law-breaker genetically found to be defective. Anyone tested to be an evolutionary step-ahead (geniuses, strong bodied and/or minded positively mutated persons), must be protected, and encouraged to procreate. Race of aspiring members is not discriminated against, for true Justikum elitism in humans is a variable of the individuals' environmental history. People are different, for this reason do they cover the world with their numbers. These differences are cherished, and necessary, as world domination is the ultimate goal. To cover the world with like-skinned persons would be the antithesis of the Justikum's world plan.
Acolytes occultists, Anton Lavey satanists, humanists, evolutionists, genetic pioneers
Concepts assassin, vigilante, scientist, neo-pagan, naturalist, survivalist, researcher, politician, spy
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They are honorable warriors that tap into much of the Awakened mind. If only they would throw away their passive urges.
Celestial Chorus: Our arch-enemies. These weak-minded fools lower themselves below a creator and daily turn their backs on our human past. They, and other sleepers of their beliefs, must be destroyed.
Cult of Ecstasy: Why must so many good things be ruined with passiveness? Their beliefs in indulgence and pleasure parallel with ours. If only they could reach the other half of human nature.
Dreamspeakers: Many of the ancestors of these mystics are those whom we show the utmost top respect. Why must they mingle with and serve the people who destroyed their past? They need a good history lesson.
Euthanatos: Many put us in their category, but key facts separate us. Death is the essence of life, and vice versa. Why not accept it, respect it, but realize there is no afterlife? Some of us came from their ranks, once the lies were washed away.
Verbena: The dryads of the past are indeed worthy people. Most do not respect us, unfortunately, for they cannot accept the motion of technology. They need to learn how the mistakes of humans are too great for nature alone to cure. How will they deal with the death of our star? We must leave the galaxy one day if we wish to survive. One must, in our case, fight fire with fire.
Order of Hermes: Dreamers who put too much faith in the sky, not where their feet walk each day. The stars do have influence, but we are the prime changers of our lives in this world.
Sons of Ether: These pioneers of technology are on the right track, but their passiveness holds them down. Why not create
more devices to aid the warrior?
Virtual Adepts: They have Awakened themselves through the modern womb. Their knowledge and experiments in VR could be of great help to one of our kind. Science will not cease its stampede. We must embrace its changes, but not forget our flesh. They need to moderate their usage.
Hollow Ones: These forsaken children are where most of the Justikum's ranks come from. They will find us in their own time.
CULT OF MAGNA MATER By Anders Sandberg
Description The Cult of Magna Mater, the Great Mother, is probably the oldest religion of all. The earliest stone-age sculptures depict the mother-goddess, and an idol found in Catal Huyuk, 6000 years old, depict her in the form she later became worshipped as Cybele in Phrygia, as a seated woman flanked by two leopards. The worship evolved through the millennia, but the goddess remained a symbol of the powerful female forces in the universe. Many different interpretations appeared, and various cults have interacted and mixed ideas. Not much is known about her worship in ancient times, but in her incarnation as Cybele in ancient Phrygia she started the cult which would later evolve into the cult of Magna Mater in Rome. As a small child she was put out into the wilderness to die, but instead of killing her the panthers and lions nurtured her, and she grew up into an intelligent, beautiful and headstrong woman. It is not impossible that she was a child mage who was later deified. She invented pipes and drums, and also magickal medicines which she used to heal sick children and creatures on the Phrygian countryside. She became friend of not only the animals and people, but also the satyrs and other supernatural beings. She fell in love with prince Attis, but their love-story was tragic; the intense love of the divine Cybele was too much for the mortal prince, and he went mad, castrated himself and died. Cybele, driven mad by grief, roamed around to sound of pipes and drums seeking her lost love. The links between this story and the cult of Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah are quite obvious, and both cults influenced each other heavily. Attis was identified with Dumuzi and Tammuz, other dead and resurrected gods. The cults were widespread, and Ezekiel mentions the female worship of Tammuz in his lamentation over the spread of paganism in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:14). Around 200 BC the holy black rock of the goddess was moved from the Phrygian city of Pessinos, which had been the previous centre of her worship. Rome became the new centre, and her cult grew. The Romans identified Cybele with the Greek Rhea, and called her Magna Mater, the Great Mother. The priests of the cult were men who had castrated themselves in front of her image, but most of the followers were women. The cult was a tumultuous, noisy and ecstatic affair which attracted many people. Only women (and castrated men) were allowed to attend the main celebrations of the goddess, which quickly got the reputation of being less religious ritual and more wild orgies. Much gossip went around about the indecencies and depravities of the cult, but due to the protection of influential people it avoided persecution. The cult was led by the female priestesses and the Archigalli, the high priest of the subordinate Galli, castrated male priests who were responsible for most of the dance, divination and healing of the cult. Many of the worshipers were organised into fraternities, most notably the Dendrophori ("Tree-bearers") and Cannophori ("Reed-bearers"). Members of these fraternities enjoyed a bit of social status and influence, and many important people flocked to them. The liturgy of the cult was in Greek. Many of the ceremonies commemorated the deeds of Magna Mater and her love to Attis, who represented the fertility and plants of the land. By his castration and death the land was given new life. Many festivals were held, called ludi ("plays") which were enthusiastic carnivals with banquets and comedic performances. One of the major festivals was Megalesia the 4-10 April. At the height of the celebrations the taurobolium was performed, as a bull was castrated and sacrificed, and new initiates were baptised in its blood. Another major festival was celebrated the 25th March to commemorate the castration and death of Attis. The Cannophori carried reeds and stalks to the temple together with the idol of Attis. The taurobolium was performed, and the genitals of the bull were thrown into a cave or well consecrated to Magna Mater. After three days of sorrow and grief for Attis, the carnival returned with Hilaria, the Day of Joy as Attis was resurrected and fertility yet again reigned thanks to the power of Magna Mater. Mountains and caves were sacred to Magna Mater, and her temples were often built near them. By sleeping in a temple many women hoped to get help from the goddess, who was said to help mothers and children. Midwifes were tied to the cult, and many priests were healers. The priestesses were more involved with her ecstatic side, celebrating her secret mysteries behind locked doors. Practically nothing is known about them, except that they were exclusively women only. In the end, the cult vanished together with most other mystery cults of the antique era as Christianity took power and Rome was plundered. However, the cult was tenacious and left many tracks. St. Peters Cathedral in the Vatican is built right on top of the old temple of Magna Mater, and some parts are presumably left under the foundations. Cybele was worshipped under the names Kubaba and Kuba in Arabia, and Khaba in Mecca was originally a shrine to her. Many early Christians identified her with Mary. In the second century an ex-priest of Cybele named Montanus proclaimed that Christ was an incarnation of Attis and that women were the agents of the Great Mother and could prophesy as well as men. Naturally Montanism was declared as a heresy in the 4th century and it was crushed, at least according to orthodox history. It is possible that the cult simply went underground, and survived as a secret "women's society" among the higher classes, maybe even up to today. There are some rumours implying this, mainly about some parts of the British nobility and royal family. Other rumours tell of a survival of the cult in remote parts of Sicily or Spain. Regardless of the truth of this, the Cult was a very small tradition even during its heydays, with just a few awakened members (and many unawakened followers). It obviously had strong ties to the Verbena, especially the Dianic fraction (which is strictly women only) and parts of Cult of Ecstasy. This fits in quite well with the Life magick of the Cult, originally directed towards healing but later turned to sensual uses.
Philosophy "The Great Mother lives. Her body is the earth below us, giving birth to everything living and nourishing it. She is life, and her secrets are the secrets of life. Only the women can understand them; the males would not understand and would only suffer the fate of Attis if they tried."
Organisation Each temple was independent of each other, although some temples had more influence than others. In each temple the High Priestess had the greatest status, followed by the Archigalli. Below in status was the ordinary priestesses and lowest the galli.
Meetings Beside the major celebrations, the priestesses met in secret celebrations depending on phase of moon.
Initiation After showing true devotion to Magna Mater a member of the cult could apply to become part of the priesthood. This was often planned from the birth for the children of the priestesses. The initiate was baptised in the taurobolium, and males castrated themselves in front of the idol of the goddess and threw their genitals into the sacred cave. After that the initiates were left in the temple during the night. In many cases they saw visions sent by the Goddess, affirming their initiation. Initiates not deemed worthy by the goddess were sometimes found slain in the morning.
Chantry The temples, mainly in Phrygia, Greece and Italy. The main temple was in Rome, where the Vatican currently lies. It is possible that some parts of it remain below St. Peters Cathedral, maybe even the sacred stone. Another major temple was in Delphi, which was later re-consecrated to Apollo and became much more famous for his oracle. Today none of the old temples are in use.
Acolytes Healers, Eunuchs, Bon Vivants, Mothers.
Sphere Life. The Great Mother encompassed all things living and growing, all parts of the life cycle from birth to death. In its original form the Life-magick of the cult was mainly directed towards healing and fertility. Later some parts of the cult began turning more and more mystical, seeking to use Life to reach deeper goals, often used in complement with ecstasy and secret rites. Both the priestesses and priests studied Life primarily, but the priests were the only ones studying Time using their dances and the priestesses Spirit and Entropy using their orgies and blood magick.
Foci Prayer to the Great Mother: All spheres. Sacred stone or Idol: Life, Correspondence. Many stones were meteorites (like the stone in Mecca). Other sacred stones were menhirs or monoliths, which were reputed to gather the power of the Earth Mother and give it to women who touched them. In some cases caves or wells were used.
Blood: Spirit. By pouring the blood as a sacrifice, the spirits would gather to feed on it. This was often combined with the taurobolium.
Ecstasy: Entropy. The total dissolution of everything. It was most frequently achieved through complete orgies, where decency, reason and everything else was cast aside for the primal chaos.
Sex or male genitals: Prime. The origin of everything. The genitals of the sacrificial bulls were often used, and sometimes the
genitals of the gelli. Some priestesses conserved them, leathered the skin and made them portable foci, but fresh genitals were always regarded as the most powerful.
Dance: Time.
Concepts Female mystic, Midwife, Decadent noblewoman.
Quote "Io Cybele! Io Magna Mater! Impleat lapibus illis caloribem Magna Matris! Mulieribus pars vim tua det! Io Io Cybele"
Rotes Herbal Remedy (Life 1 Mind 1) Many of the priests and priestesses were great healers. Their secret was to first study the patient, and then almost instinctively know the right herbs or methods to heal the disease. They often wandered the countryside or parks, studying the plants (and animals) of the Mother, seeing which would work best for which disease.
The Mother's Blessing (Life 2/3/4) The sacred stones were filled with the lifegiving power of the Great Mother, and a priestess could tap it by caressing them and praying to Her. Some of the more frivolous priestesses invoked her to renew their strength after a night of lovemaking, or to support their partners. A more common use was to pray to the mother for fertility, and in some cases She granted it even to virgins after they had embraced the stone with unusual fervour. Such children were always regarded as having a great destiny, and were often recruited to the cult.
Omfalos (Correspondence 2 Forces 2) Sometimes the temples of the Mother had to communicate in matters of grave importance. Many of the holy stones were regarded as the centre of creation by the local believers, and in a way they were all tied together (it was not uncommon for such stones to be engraved in a net-like pattern). By praying aloud and beating their fists against the stone in rhythm with the prayer, they could make their prayers faintly heard in all other temples of the Mother. This was especially prominent in the sacred caves or wells, in which could sometimes be heard whispering prayers from other places.
Call Forth the Servants of the Mother (Life 2 Mind 2) Cybele had always a strong affinity for the great cats, and her priestesses retain it to some extent. By praying to the Mother they can make all great cats look upon them as their friends, and also obey them (a no mean feat for cats). However, the link is twoway, a priestess would never consciously harm any of the animals or put them in unnecessary danger as long as the friendship granted by the prayer is active. Reputedly the priestesses could call forth the fauns and satyrs by playing the pipes in the same fashion.
Resurrection of Attis (Life 4, Prime 2, Spirit 2) This was the version of the Song of Orpheus the priestesses used to bring about a resurrection similar to the resurrection of Attis. It was not anything for the squeamish. They placed the body before the sacred stone and began to chant prayers to the Mother for three days (often professional weepers were hired to cry and lament in the background). During the time the body was anointed with oils and blood. As a final act, male subjects were castrated and female subjects awakened by ritual intercourse with a male the priestesses had possessed with the power of Pan. The castration could never be healed or the subject would die again. On the good side, by going through this rite the subject will always have a close tie to Attis, and partially become the living embodiment of the fertility god.
MASTERS OF CEREMONY By Mark Jones (
[email protected])
Description A lesser known craft in the Ascension War, the Masters of Ceremony (MC) is said to have existed ever since the days when the first man painted his face before entertaining his King. Others suggest that the craft began back in the days of the Native Americans when they strode into battle with warpaint decorations, but this theory holds little weight. The MCs, in short, have seen the pain and suffering that holds mankind in a deathgrip, and they want no part of it. Pain is for someone else to deal with. Why be down and depressed when there is so much to be happy about? The MCs see humanity as cascading along one ongoing downward spiral. Humanity won't last very much longer and the MCs don't want to be on board when the ship goes down. For this reason, the MCs paint their faces to separate themselves from humanity. MCs do not see themselves as human. They are either better or beneath that. They exist in two concepts: the cheerful clown, or the sorrowed soul. The cheerful clown can be found at any funhouse, any circus, or could even be the mime on the streetcorner that is trying to brighten your day. Clowns do not readily embrace the Ascension War. They are not the type to run out and join the charging brigades of the fighting armies. Rather these are the types that will watch their audience, choose the most interested from the bunch as a volunteer, and perhaps recruit them into the cause. They do not always recruit new MCs, but they try to let new recruits believe theirs is the way to go. A sorrowed soul is another matter. These are MCs who have been stomped on by their human emotions. They can no longer deal with the emotions that humans shuffle around on a day to day basis. They surrender their humanity to become something else: a creature of depression and betrayal. This is the person that believes his emotions have betrayed him and wants out. Sorrowed soul MCs will be sad and depressed and show few highlights in life. Some will never smile.
Philosophy Laughter is the best medicine, so it is naturally the first step on the road to Ascension. We are the guardians of a greater secret - the secret of light. Evil is the darkness and we rule it out. The children's eyes are open and we can tell them the truth. Animals trust us and help us achieve our goals. though we wear smiles and seek them in others, our cause is very serious and we do not joke about it. Joke? ha ha, I made a funny.
Organization The MCs travel too often to have any set meetings, but every now and then they will schedule a clown convention during the off season to discuss new tricks, gadgets and gizmos. Little mage work is ever accomplished.
Meetings Most meetings occur in the trailers of MCs on circus grounds with a handful of other MCs. The majority of the conversations deal with the Technocracy's hatred of them and what they plan on doing about that during their short stay in the city.
Initiation Upon acceptance into the MCs, an apprentice steps into a small car with many other accomplished MCs and walks out during a show. Once he performs this trick, he is recognized as a member of the craft.
Chantry Uncle Bob's Clown College, New York City
Acolytes
Circus performers, sideshow attractions, children
Sphere Mind
Foci Juggle balls, silly string, clown tricks, other people's laughter
Concepts Clowns, mimes, freaks, street performers, entertainers, comedians
Quote We are no less mages than you just because we choose to hide our faces and not follow your altered paradigm but rather follow our own. We are hunted by the same people that hunt you, but we don't make a war of it. You go ahead and fight your fight, we'll awaken more people and prepare them for the Coming. When the Coming is upon us, we'll be ready. Will you?
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: You're too tense, Daniel-san. Calm down and have some fun. Celestial Chorus: They're why most circuses perform on Sunday. Their gospel chantings just don't go with calliope music. Dreamspeakers: Nature and religion are cool and all, but where's the humor? Cult of Ecstasy: And people call US clowns?!?! Euthanatos: Hey is that knife loaded? ha ha J-just kidding... Hollow Ones: We make them pay double the admission to walk thru the funhouse! Sons of Ether/Order of Hermes: Even with all your sciences you cannot better the way humans treat each other. No amount of machinery can best a good joke.
Virtual Adepts: Nice computer. Where do I put the quarter? Technocracy: Humorless bastards! Let's sick the lion tamer on them! Immortals: (for you Highlander players) We don't tell them jokes. We're afraid they'll laugh their heads off. Nephandi: You'd rather destroy all life than put on a puppet show?! What kinds of demons are you?? Marauders: I do the same stuff you do and I don't get paradox either. ppbbbblllllttttt Demons: Where is that lion tamer? I told him to meet us here an hour ago. Verbena: Lust filled witches who chant spells over spilled blood and magick icons. You need a vacation. Kindred: The loony ones are ok, but all the others are either stuff-shirted morons or empty headed brutes. Werewolves: These guys remind me of Greenpeace...but hairier. Wraiths: Who ya gonna call?? GHOSTBUSTERS!!! Changelings: What? Fairies? You mean like those one guys... Sorry, I'm an exit only man myself pal. Stay away from me.
Symbol
I can't draw worth a crap, but imagine a yin-yang that is a smiley face on one side and a frown on the other. That is their symbol. If I can ever have someone draw it up, I'll post it.
MATHEMAGICIANS By Anders Sandberg Mathematics Research Group (MRG, the Mathemagicians) The mathematical branch of the Void Engineers is little known by the Traditions, but it is a vital part of the Technocracy. It develops new methods for use in the research oriented conventions, control the academic disciplines related to mathematics and constantly research the implications of sleeper mathematics to avoid possible threats to the paradigm. It has strong ties to the Statisticians of Iteration X and the Forecasters. The group is in fact quite old, among the oldest parts of the Technocracy. Its earliest roots can be traced back to the Pythagoreans, although the group mainly developed during the late Renaissance. Originally it mainly dealt with developing the necessary mathematics for astronomy, helped such giants as Newton, Gauss and Laplace. It later diversified as the utility of mathematics became apparent, and different subgroups split off and became their own disciplines (like the Statisticians or the logic-theorists which latter evolved into the Virtual Adepts). Today it is very respected and so taken for granted by everyone in the Technocracy that its existence is almost forgotten. Most mathemagicians spend their time studying sleeper mathematics, writing research papers or participating on various conferences to direct mathematical development in the right direction. They are among the most anonymous technomancers possible, practically impossible to discover. Their various amalgams deal with specific areas, such as cryptography (another area where Dr Hill fights the Virtual Adepts), topology, numerical analysis, combinatorics and all other mathematical disciplines. It is common for other conventions to approach them with specific problems they need solved. Their philosophy is simple: develop mathematics and mathematical models to encompass all of reality. When this has been done, everything will be essentially orderly and stable (although not necessarily computable or predictable). Mathematics is pure thought which can be given physical form. Some mathemagicians believe that reality itself follows from a mathematical basis, and try to develop a model for it. Most technomancers of the MRG specialise in Entropy, the study of complex systems and probability, or Prime, the study of structures. Other valued spheres are Mind (to gain better control over one's mental processes), Correspondence (the study of geometry) and Time (planning and optimisation). They use complex mathematical formalism to use the spheres, often combined with extensive computer simulations if the problem involves Entropy. They don't use any direct magick, preferring to integrate it into the paradigm instead. This makes them almost immune to paradox. They also use their mathematics defensively: they can easily point out how improbable certain things are or find flaws in coincidences.
Relations to other conventions New World Order: They need our models and algorithms more than anybody else, and always consult us. We are swamped in requests for statistics, logistical analysis, encryption and decryption schemes, not to mention their obsession with mathematical models of societies and people.
The Syndicate: They are unfortunately not very good at mathematics, and their laughably inaccurate theories complicate things a lot. What they need is once and for all to define their axioms and then stick to them.
Iteration X: They apply our mathematics. While some sleeper mathematicians see applied mathematics as something impure, we realise the need for it. And Iteration X has realised the need for precision.
Progenitors: They rely mainly on some combinatorics and lately on knot-theory. Usually they just consult us to improve their own models.
Void Engineers: We seek to plumb and fill out the last voids of knowledge, making the universe self-consistent, logical and elegant. The other parts of our convention deal with the material aspects of it, while we take care of the abstractions.
Quote: "Isn't it surprising how mathematical the world is?"
Rotes The MRG develop solutions and rotes for other conventions. In fact, many of the most common rotes (like the Time-Motion Study of Iteration X) were originally developed by the MRG. However, most of their rotes are just used as integral parts of other rotes (like the Fast Fourier Transform or the differential geometry used by Void Engineer warp drives) or incorporated into consensus reality.
Model Structure (Mind 1 Prime 1 Sphere 1): By examining a system, the mathemagician can create a mathematical model of it. Using this model he can then simulate its behaviour, often in conjunction to other rotes. He can also monitor the differences between the model and reality (using Entropy 1) to see if there are unknown factors or manipulation involved.
Catastrophe Theory (Time 2 Entropy 1): By analysing a system, a mathemagician can predict when it will suffer any drastic change in structure or behaviour, usually called a catastrophe. This can be used to predict the exact moment something will fail, someone will change his mind or paradox to strike.
Optimisation (Entropy 3 Time 2): This is so common in the technocracy that few realise the origin of the rote. Essentially it allows
the user to optimise something by calculating the optimum way to do it, removing all random or irrelevant factors and making the system orderly and predictable. [Each success will decrease difficulty by one or add one success to any task which can be optimised, such as designing a system, running a bank or sabotaging an installation. However, in order to work the task must succeed on its own.]
Complexify (Entropy 3): Often the Technocracy do not want others to understand the inner workings of their devices or their theories. It would for example be disastrous if some future technology got into the hands of the Masses. Therefore the MRG has developed a general way of making theories, objects or rotes more complex and harder to understand partially based on coding-theory. By randomly mixing the parts and introducing self-organising elements they can make the simplest structure so complicated that it will become impossible to understand, while still working as it should. [ Each success adds two to the difficulty in understanding how the target works. The rote must be used when it is designed or constructed, it won't work on a finished system.]
Logical Loop (Mind 3 Prime 2): This is essentially a computer virus developed by the logic research team and the psychologists of the NWO. It is a small set of postulates, which will quickly overload any logical system capable of understanding them (mainly computers, but human mathematicians or programmers are vulnerable) by constantly expanding itself and increasing in complexity without ever repeating. It has proven very efficient against Virtual Adepts, who often tend to think in slightly computerlike ways. [The Loop will quickly expand and fill out all available processor power and memory of a computer which starts to interpret it correctly. Humans must understand the Loop (requires Computer 3, Enigmas 4 or Mathematics 3), and will then be partially infected. Usually it will only lead to a minor obsession of thinking through its implications (which never end), but in severe cases the victim becomes catatonic. If it successfully infects the mind of a victim, it will drain as many Willpower points as its successes as the victim can't resist thinking about it. After a while, the victim will get a new Willpower test, and if he fails the loop drains some more Willpower. If Willpower reaches zero the victim goes into catatonia until somehow freed from the Loop.]
Coordinator Structure (Entropy 4 Spirit 4 +other sphere): This is one of the most advanced results of the complexity research team. They found, that under very general circumstances physical (or other) systems of sufficient complexity could be subtly manipulated to contain a self-organising mathematical structure called a Coordinator Structure. These structures are essentially a built-in control system, which can be designed to perform various actions depending on circumstances. For example, the semirandom behaviour of an ecosystem can be kept within certain bounds by adding a Coordinator Structure, or the fluctuations of the Market could in principle be controlled using self-sustaining Coordinator Structures (the Syndicate has vetoed this). The New World Order has expressed great interest in Coordinator Structures, and are studying if they could be integrated within the human mind. [ The system has to be complex enough to exhibit self-organisation. The mathemagician carefully analyses it, develops a mathematical model and creates the Coordinator Structure using subtle manipulations. It is necessary for the responsible research team to know the necessary system well enough to control it in some aspects (Forces 2/4, Matter 3, Life 2-4, Mind 2/3, etc.). The structure can fulfil simple commands within the system, like keeping it orderly, minimise certain factors or optimise others. Any sufficiently strong fluctuation will destroy it. ]
Daleth Deciphering (Entropy 5): The coding experts of the Technocracy and the Virtual Adepts fight each other by creating ever more secure ciphers and by cracking the others codes. The MRG has develop a series of codes based upon curves in Teichmuller spaces called epsilon-codes while the Virtual Adepts have perfected public-key codes. Both sides however realise that any code can be broken by using sufficient amounts of brute force and ingenuity. In fact, the MRG has developed a very general deciphering scheme named daleth deciphering, based on huge amounts of computing power and their most ingenious algorithms. It can be shown that it can decode all possible codes in a finite time, but the process usually takes a long time and requires the most acute minds of the Technocracy to work well. The Virtual Adepts fight this by trying to make sleepers use encryption too, so that their own messages are hidden by a torrent of other encrypted messages. The NWO and Iteration X are jointly developing an expert system using Daleth Deciphering to meet this threat.
G|del Openings (Entropy 5 Prime 4): Kurt G|del demonstrated that any sufficiently complex mathematical system contained theorems whose truth couldn't be proved. This was at once a blow to the Technocracy, and an opportunity to expand its reach. The mathemagicians have found that by judiciously exploiting known holes in accepted theories, technomancers can use magickal effects normally not allowed while still not contradicting the theory (and incurring paradox). To find these "G|del Openings" extensive computer simulations and tweaking of the model is needed, which usually requires the help of the sharpest minds of the MRG. In exchange, it is possible to find situations or methods which make certain operations permissible even if they are not part of the paradigm. This makes it possible to do some work normally done in Horizon realms on Earth instead, which is much more economical. The desired effect must not be directly vulgar (against the laws of consensus reality), but doesn't have to be coincidental. A typical example would be the use of nanotechnology; it's currently not in the paradigm, and it's capabilities are as yet undefined. By modeling the paradigm and modifying the effect slightly, the mathemagicians can find circumstances where the nanotechnology would work even if it's not part of the paradigm. A necessary part of this is to make sure the effect will not leave unambiguous traces if the paradigm should change so that the effect was never possible. In the example, the nanotechnology have to be possible to explain away as biotechnology or something similar if it later turns out that the symposium decides it should be scrapped. [ If the rote succeeds, a set of related vulgar without witnesses effects can be made coincidental. ] Talisman: Provably Safe Operating System
Dr Robert Hill Doctor Hill is among the most dangerous enemies of the Virtual Adepts in the Technocracy, especially because he appears to be so
innocuous. What could a Void Engineer mathematician do against the masters of information? But the Virtual Adepts have begun to realise that he may be a bigger threat against their vision than the entire New World Order. Because Dr Hill is redefining reality against Virtual Adept Ascension. Dr Hill is not even well known among mathematicians outside his own field, Automata and Complexity Theory. But those mathematicians and computer scientists who know of him, are generally very impressed. His theories and proofs are masterpieces of cold elegance, defining and exploring what is possible for computers to do, and what is not. Few realise that his theorems about the computational power of generalised Turing Machines also limits the abilities of the computers of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether. He has ruthlessly demonstrated certain mathematical problems which cannot be solved using any computer, or that they cannot ever be solved faster than certain bounds. To most mathematicians this is just fascinating ideas, but to the Virtual Adepts this is a direct and deadly attack. Dr Hill is successively narrowing down the paradigm regarding what is computable and not, and apparently seeks to once and for all define immutable limits on all forms of computation. Naturally, Dr Hill has met with some resistance. While most of the Traditions, including many Virtual Adepts, don't realise the danger he poses, the Chaoticians fight him at every opportunity. They wage an abstract war against Dr Hill and his followers in mathematical journals, on conferences and in the computer science community. Dr Hill fights back, both using his dreaded precision and eye for any flaws in an argument, and the more subtle support by the Technocracy. Strangely, the Chaotician papers have trouble getting published while the supporters of Hill almost always get into prestigious journals. There have even been some direct attempts on his persona, but Dr Hill has an uncanny ability to never be where he ought to be. Tracking him is almost impossible. Despite his intimidating reputation among the Chaoticians, Dr Hill is rather unremarkable when met in person. He is a short, middle aged man with balding hair and horn-rimmed glasses. He speaks fast and precisely, never ending lecturing or explaining things to his audience. His humour is dry and usually only comprehensible for other mathematicians, although he politely smiles to any attempts at joking. He would disappear into the academic crowd if it wasn't for his charisma: his presence is *felt*. It's not known where he lives or if he has an family, somehow investigations never turn up anything. Among the Void Engineers, Dr Hill is a major figure. Although the convention is most known for its space research, all forms of basic science is its domain. Dr Hill is the Research Director of the Mathematics Research Group (MRG, also called the Mathemagicians by others), which deals with the continued development of mathematics and related sciences like logic and statistics. The MRG cooperates with many other groups in the Technocracy, most notably the Particle Physics Research Group (PPRG), Iteration X and the statistics department of the NWO. Dr Hill is very respected among the Void Engineers, where he has an influential role. Although the space division isn't as involved in mathematics as it used to be, it realises the importance of Hills work. Iteration X is also interested in it, but a bit ambivalent (if that is possible for them) due to some of the limitations his theories could place upon their paradigm. The New World Order is quite happy with his work, especially since he helped them design the provably safe operating system for their computers. Dr Hill himself is a careful man. He is very intelligent, and has long ago learned the risks and benefits of being an administrator in the Technocracy, not to mention how far the rules can be bent or manipulated. He is also convinced that the Technocracy represents the only hope for mankind; without its stability and efficiency, the world would degenerate into despicable chaos and decay. Most of the Traditions are not any real dangers, since their paradigms are so far from the consensus that very few people would seek them. But the Virtual Adepts represents a subtle danger. By riding piggyback on the Technocracy paradigm, they have managed to gain more power and influence than is acceptable and safe. Their visions are dangerous, because they could convince the Masses in the beginning, and eventually lead to disastrous consequences. Therefore Dr. Hill has embarked on a personal quest to stop them long before they get any chance to fight back. Chaos theory is another area Dr Hill is doing his best to deal with. He cannot do anything about it (his predecessor as Research Director of the MRG let for some inscrutable reason the area develop too far before stepping in, and then it was too late), but he has appointed a research team to try to bring some control over chaos. Another worry is the area of Differential Geometry. Some recent results have disturbing implications, although so far just Dr Hill and some of his trusted colleagues have noticed it. These results show a definite Nephandi influence, implying the existence of strange and threatening structures both in mathematics and in physical reality. Dr Hill is secretly trying to trace the theorems to their source. Dr Hill is a frightening opponent. Although he might not be dangerous on the physical plane, his influence over consensus reality is strong. Given some time, he can disprove any theory he doesn't like or add defences to consensus reality against most effects. He is slowly sealing all holes in reality, making it orderly and logical. Inside it there will be no room for Ascension.
Essence: Dynamic Nature: Perfectionist Demeanour: Teacher Str: * Cha: *** Per: *** Dex: * Man: *** Int (ordered): ***** Sta: ** App: ** Wit: ***
Expression: *** Subterfuge: ** Drive: ** Leadership (Research Director): **** Computer (theory): **** Enigmas (mathematical problems):***** Research: ***
Linguistics (German, French, Russian, Japanese): **** Science (Mathematics): *****
Willpower: 7 Arete: 5 Spheres: Mind 1, Correspondence 4, Prime 4, Entropy 5. Foci: all spheres: Mathematics, Entropy and Prime: Computer. Backgrounds: Status: ***** Allies: **** Arcane: **** Roleplaying tips: You believe in order, elegance and consistency. Always point out when something is wrong, inaccurate or just fuzzy. If you make a mistake, point it out and correct it.
Quote: "...but since the memory usage grows as ordo n log n for any algorithm of this type, while the upper bound of the memory modules of the system is finite, we find that any sufficiently large problem in these classes will be unsolvable on any set of generalised Turing machines."
MC LUHAN'S KIDS By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]) (2 Feb 94)
Introduction Two figures stood huddled beneath a single flickering light. A third approached swiftly down the alley, trying to avoid the spontaneous flow from broken gutters. It was a dismal kind of night, a mood reflected on the faces of all three. The nose of one twitched noticeably. "Another one. Great." The newcomer smiled innocently. "Kunder. Glad to see they let you out of the cage." Kunder growled. "Hascombe. Good to see you, man." "Whitey? I thought they got you in the Park last year." "Nah. The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." A titter of laughter echoed in the hallway. Kunder hated getting wet. It made his fur itch. "So Hascombe, why'd you drag us out here?" Hascombe's pale face darkened, and he began to glance about, reaching for an invisible sidearm. "Kunder, you left a message on my machine, right?" The large man closed his eyes, and let out a silent prayer. "We in trouble?" "You got it. Whitey, did you bring the shotgun?" Whitey, who had just begun to catch on to the trap, began fumbling with his bandolier. "Umm...Ummm..." "Gentlemen, that won't be necessary." The words reverberated against the walls. It was rich and bold. And really, really confident. "Who are you?" "You're very nosey. I wish we could keep you alive, to teach your silly friends not to associate with the likes of Gerold." Hascombe laughed. "I take it we're graced by the presence of the Technocracy?" "For the next two minutes, yes." Whitey looked at Hascombe. "What happens then?" The voice answered. "That's how long it will take Markie here to render you into a fine paste. Have a pleasant tomorrow." A wretched sound, like gears procrastinating, then firing into action, groaned through the alley. A lone figure seemed to be generating the noise, as it stalked toward them. Bascombe levelled his pistol. He knew that he couldn't stop this thing, and that he could never run away far enough. Fifty-two years ended here. "Stand your ground, Whitey. Let's make sure when this prick returns to base, we've racked up a hell of a repair bill." "Sorry, boys. Gotta go home." Kunder shrugged, looked at his reflection in the puddle on the street, and disappeared... The thing coming toward them seemed to shrug in an unknown way ...and Kunder reappeared, his body twitching and thrashing from taking a .50 cal round in the chest. "Whitey, make it count. Don't fire til you see the red of its eyes." Hascombe wasn't quite sure, but he thought he heard Whitey sobbing. The thing was having an effect on the garbage which lined the alley. One object, a battered and broken TV, flared to life. The creature stopped, appeared confused, and turned slowly to face the white glow of the screen. It was one of those generic Japanese imports that was in every kid's rooms in the early '80s. This "Markie" seemed to be transfixed by the image that was steadily forming. Whitey looked at Hascombe. "Should we run?" Hascombe shrugged. "What's on that tube?" "It looks like that Terminator movie."
"Terminator 2. Linda Hamilton isn't trying to blow Arnold up." The absurdity of the moment hadn't dawned on either of them. The TV had turned on by itself, with no power. And the creature was watching it like a curious child, seeing a new toy. The tv erupted suddenly, and an arm extended, an arm with a .45 attached to the end. A voice squeaked out of the broken speaker. "Hasta la vista, baby." The gun fired, and the creature shattered utterly, exploding into a thousand fragments. The TV turned off. Hascombe and Whitey looked at each other again. Hadn't they seen that before? "Hey, guys. What happened to Ruff?" Both turned. A nineteen year old girl stood behind them, wearing a rag-tag assortment of clothes. She looked like a kid from the streets who had made a five-fingered run through a mall. In her left hand, she grasped a very complicated remote. "Who the hell are you?" "Mallorie Keaton. Listen, Alex sent me. Gerold got busted a few days ago, and the 'rents got a hold of his files. This was a setup. Let's get out of here, before the T-1000 gets it together. You guys sure are lucky that was on last week." Whitey glanced back at the thing. The fragments had melted, and seemed to be running together. It was reforming. "Right. Where do we go from here?" The girl opened her rucksack. "Let's find out." While they hurried away, she drew out a tape recorder, and hit "play." "Greetings, Mr. Phelps, this mission, if you choose to accept it..."
Description The Kids stand as a true oddity within the World of Darkness: Technomancer Orphans. Whereas most of their clever schemes were designed to keep Sleepers asleep, several groups saw through the clever ruse, and grabbed hold of what was rightfully theirs. The most numerous of these groups, called Cons, is McLuhan's Kids, named after their idol, Marshall McLuhan, who had a dream of television becoming the great communicator, and ushering in the Global village, where all people would speak one language, and share one vision. The Technomancers turned the dream into a nightmare. All of MacLuhan's theories on human nature were twisted into a tool to transform television into a monster. Rather than challenging the mind, it panders to the lowest common denominator, making people complacent about their entertainment. However, the technomancers could not wholly destroy that initial dream. A few quality, imaginative shows filtered through their screen, and caused a desperate few to think beyond their walls. They realized the power of television to transform our perception, and in so doing, transform our reality. In short, a few viewers Awakened because at the core of the Technomancer's spell was a dream, a hope which they caught sight of and to which they responded. These few looked at TV in a new light. What was it telling them? Like all things, some was truth, and most was glitz. But because they perceived television differently, they became aware of the possibilities. They continued to lead their lives, unaware that when they wiggled their nose like Samantha on "Bewitched," something REALLY happened, or that although people could never shoot as good as the Rifleman did, they could. Television taught them a reality that was essentially mutable, changing from hour to hour, and from season to season, and in so doing, trends manifested that gave them insight into this brave new world, much the same way a Hermetic may notice similarities in a spell's patterns. They met one another at conventions, strange shadows of the real Conventions which had spawned them. Together, they began excercising their dream, to bring the reality of the shows they watched into this world. Of course, this was rather hit and miss. Some liked comedies, while others liked dramas. Shows would die, and in doing so, that part of their reality would die. Because there was no cohesive push in one direction, the whole seemed a mish- mash. They eventually became content with the way things were. Then came cable. The Technomancers thought that people weren't watching ENOUGH TV, and that subsequently, a smorgasboard of essentially the same pabulum would convince them that they were getting variety, the illusion of choice. To a large degree, it worked. THe problem was that cable TV was horribly complex. Unless they wanted to show their real face, the only way the Technomancers were going to get away with it was to employ Sleeper visionaries. This vision, transmitted through the magic of the medium, created even more Kids than ever before. The Pre-Cable Kids, now loosely organized, realized that the old shows were coming back. Reality was now whatever they
wanted it to be, whatever channel they could be tuned into. Further, society seemed to be responding, with a darker world modelled after television which was supposed to be modelled after the real world. The Kids slipped into this paradigm like an old friend. Then came Pirate TV-7. A few Kids discovered the existence of the Technomancers, and passed themselves off as fellow scholars. They raided Iteration-X, snuck in lines straight to NWO's largest databanks, and generally grabbed enough stuff to get control over the airwaves. Using an abandoned Sons of Ether station, they created a bizarre horizon realm infinitely more complex than the "Net" of the Virtual Adepts: Pirate TV-7. Did the Technomancers notice their stuff was missing? Sure. But the signal was coming from WITHIN the Technocracy itself. They couldn't stop their mechanisms without REALLY screwing up works in progress, and without some Sleepers noticing "the man behind the curtain." Since the Kids seemed to be in it for harmless fun, the Technomancers let them get away with it. Then came Tune In Day. During the broadcast of Superbowl 20, a group of Kids interrupted the halftime show feed, and interjected a clip that they used to show during intermission at drive in movies. The effect was incredible, (almost as devastating as the Heidi fiasco which got two NWOs Gilgul, because they almost Woke up 3,000,000), with popcorn sales over the next week skyrocketing, a new interest in the old movies, and more phone calls to the network than at any time in the past, asking them to show it again. It was more than a subliminal message. It was a message to Wake up and expect MORE than what they were used to. Anything could happen through tv. And people believed it. Rather than being numbed by CNN's 24 hour coverage of death and carnage, people began recognizing how wrong it was, and shifting in their Sleep. However, recent crackdowns in the Kids have hit them hard. Many of the Mages have managed to insinuate themselves into the boardrooms of TV companies, and produced controversial shows aimed at Waking as many people up as possible. However, to accomplish this, many have had to go under, stripping the Kids of clear leadership. It is uncertain if they have been secretly subverted, since no one in the Technocracy is talking. Their work has made the infomercial, which is making "miracle products" common, and true life dramas and video shows, which continue to whittle away at the differenced between reality and fantasy. The slam that these shows are tripe comes mostly from Technomancer-controlled critics. Ignoring the quality of these shows, they are beginning to prod awake quite a few people to their reality. Supposedly, with the advent of the 700 channel supernetworks, the Kids will finally have enough power to launch a full scale assault on the Technocracy. Too many of the leaders of the Convention are seriously underestimating the power of this group. Their only obstacle is that no one in the Traditions believe that they are anything more than dupes of the Technomancers. This has ironically granted them an invisibility which has allowed them to go far. If a formal alliance were made, the Technocracy would take note that since the Traditions are taking them seriously, they are potentially dangerous.
Philosophy Turn on. Tune in. Think. It's all there, a savage little drama being performed for your benefit. You can say they're only actors, but how would you know? The question is not, "Do I accept what's on, it's what do I think baout what's going on. TV is power, and it's here for someone to use, and someone to abuse. You're here to make the most of it. The medium's the message. And the message is REALITY.
Organization At once highly and loosely organized, the Kids spend so much time in their otherworld, where they are in charge. This keeps them from leaving too much of a trail for the Technomancers to follow. They work to move certain skilled members into high level positions by tampering with the Nielsen system (one of the few things about TV that they find difficult to control), and boosting their agenda with viewer support. In short, they have a specific aim, and each goes their own way to accomplish it. Meetings: The Kids meet in Pirate TV-7 when their favorite show is on. They sit in the audience, and can even interact with the characters. Although the people at home can't see it, it creates a discomfort which can cause some shows to be cancelled.
Initiation The moment a Kid Awakens, and interacts with a program, it is often noticed by other Kids, who come to that person through a variety of means, and trains her in how not to be noticed. After this initial training, they are invited to "surf," which is to figure out how to interact in a positive way with a "good" program, or to bring down a "bad" program. Once they have proven themselves enemies of the Technomancers, they are given the Remote.
Chantry Many Kids maintain Chantries in the real world, where Pirate TV-7 is just a cable-box away. Each house is modelled after the
Many Kids maintain Chantries in the real world, where Pirate TV-7 is just a cable-box away. Each house is modelled after the motif of a series, and one can gain status by finding and desigining a house which is virtually identical to a favorite show. Kids prefer to live together, since it is often difficult to live with people who do not share their dream.
Acolytes Couch potatoes, Trekkers, network visionaries, cable repairmen, media studies majors, news reporters.
Spheres Correspondence
Foci Remote: All Spheres TV: Correspondence/Spirit
Concepts Actor, producer, student
Quote "The Ascension will be televised."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Oh, yeah. Kung Fu, right? I saw this one where these Indians were shooting arrows at him, and... Celestial Chorus: We try not to watch too much of that religious programming. Do the Technomancers know they've tapped into their system?
Cult of Ecstacy: These guys ROCK! I saw a few on M-TV. Sure, they act like snobs, but they know what it's about: HAVING FUN!
Dreamspeakers: They had a special on these guys on the Discover channel. I think Star Trek was on then, and I forgot to set my VCR.
Euthanatos: What a bunch of cheese-balls. The Addams Family did it a thousand-times better and funnier, and nobody had to get killed. I did see this one that looked like Eddie Munster, tho.
Hollow Ones: "Oh, look at me, I'm such a victim! The angst of the world is crushing down, so let me put chalk on my face and hang around in dreary clubs." They say they don't watch TV because it rots the brain. Judging by their name, I think TV could only put something in there.
Order of Hermes: I once tried to get into their chantries, posing as a cable repairman, and guess what: not a single set. What a bunch of in the dark losers! How are they going to save the world when they have no idea what soccer scores in Burkina Faso are?
Sons of Ether: The Sons are the closest to us. I mean, half of them awoke watching "The Wild, Wild West," and "The Twilight Zone." Still, they keep on trying to push a simple thing too much. THey really need to get back to their roots. That lunatic fringe stuff scares me.
Verbena: Hey, Samantha never did stuff like that, though you had to wonder about Endorra. And I really liked Dick Sargent over Dick York. Did you ever notice that? Dick Sargent, Dick York...Seargent YORK!
Virtual Adepts: We tried to borrow some of their gear for that really big screen effect, and they told us to "go away, you little Techno- dweebs." Boy, they're not invited to the after-Ascension party...
The Remote Each Kid gets a dedicated focus, which looks like a sophisticated, klunky multimedia remote control, upon Awakening. They must use the Remote to perform their Magick, especially Correspondence and Spirit. It takes a week to dedicate a new Remote, so the Kids are wont to lose theirs.
The Otherworld There is no proper name for this place. The Void Engineers first remarked that the TV signals were spreading out from the earth into outer space. However, depending on the strength of the signal, several programs were catching in the Umbra, creating hundreds of thousands of micro-shard-realms. Some are connected to each other by the mere fact that they are episodes in the same series. Further, several "show" realms are connected by existing in the same universe, either through spin-offs, or merely existing in the same world. These "show" realms contain the entire history of a series. When one arrives there, a show is always taking place. The Kid can use the Time sphere to go backward and forward through these shows, and select the one they want. So what advantage is this realm? In many ways, it is an erzat Dreamland, where the Kids can evoke forth any scene, or character from this Otherworld, much like the native Australians felt they could. This Otherworld is the Kid's Umbra. They cannot venture beyond it, into the Deep Umbra, except through Pirate TV- 7. Some Kids take up residence in the houses next to their favorite shows. The Technomancer cannot accept the existence of such a place, and subsequently do not count any Kids living in the Otherworld, which leads to a serious underestimation of the total population of the Kids. Another role the Otherworld take is as a prison. Only the Kids have easy access to the Otherworld. If they take a stranger to this world, they can trap them in a world-realm, a show-realm, or, even worse, an episode-realm, where they must relive the same realm over and over and over. However, escape is possible if the episode is ever shown in the real world. The environs glow, and seem to become more real. At any point, the prisoner, if he knows of the possibility, can will himself out. He will suddenly appear next to the set that was showing the episode. If a Mage, he immediately takes a 2 point paradox flaw, usually an inability to tell the difference between episodic reality (where nothing goes wrong forever), and real life.
Kid's Magick All Kid magick revolves around the notion of "schticks," or things they have seen before on tv. To create an effect, they first describe a scene they've seen on tv, and then try to build it with magick. Then the precise scene is overlapped with our reality. Appropriate character will appear (if they played an active role in the scene). The problem is that all ramification are the same as in the movie. Thus, a Kid could make a car flip over on a conveniently parked car, but has no control over whether the people in the car are hurt or not. Once the Kids were limited by the shows they could see, which just so happened to be really lame black and white comedies and westerns. With the advent of cable tv, they now have the full range of movies to choose from. The rule is that if it was ever uploaded to a satellite, it's theirs. However, seldom are schticks taken from cartoons, since it's very disorienting. The truly twisted aspect of Kid magick is that it has a bizarre effect on Sleepers, much like the Garou's Delerium. A sleeper, seeing a Schtick, will subconsciously mutter, "Didn't I see that on TV?" The powerful suspension of disbelief which courses through TV reality allows the Kids to get away with Paradox right and left. Thus, this is their coinicidental Magick. Any other Magick is inherently vulgar. The only bearing is getting the effect right, whether through adequately remembering it, or bringing the right props. Props are critical for schticks. If a Kid is going to vaporize a foe with a phaser, he has to have a replica made so authentic that any sleeper observing will immediately make the connection. Without the proper props on hand, the effect is impossible. Usually, only the objects are necessary, but occasionally, sophisticated Schticks require accurate costuming and make-up. Subsequently, the best way to stop a Kid is to take away her bag of props. However, even this is no longer effective, in the advent of digital technology. Many carry around virtual glasses, with favorite schticks copied on digital tapes. By first running the schtick through their head, usually no props are needed. Roll Cha+Artistic Expression (diff 8) to see if they got it right. Props are critical in the initiation of the schtick. Making one from Magick causes a +1 to all difficulties. Getting ones hand on a prop actually used has a -1 bonus to all difficulties. One problem with schticks is that they are indeed an evocation of the primal memories that form the shards. By calling forth the image, it weakens that episode's memory. To reinforce the image, people have to watch the show. Thus, careful tabs are kept on what shows are used, then sent to the programming department, to insinuate within cable channels. The Remote is the primary focus of all other acts. To step into and out of Otherworld requires a television set or wired camera of some sort. This is a simultaneous Spirit/Correspondence rote, and to perform the action, the tv has to be on in some way. Force 2 will suffice to produce the
power, but this has to be initiated before they can enter TV-Land
Pirate TV-7 This is the semi-official horizon realm of the Kids. It takes up the physical space of one of the first telecommunication satellites, which they use to tap into current programming, and alter the perceptions of the masses. Since they fear the Technomancers catching on, and sending their realm smashing to the surface of the planet, they don't push it. However, the satellite is tapped into the LEO system of surveillance satellites, allowing them to potentially view any spot on earth. And if they can see it, they can teleport there. There are two ways to enter Pirate TV. The first is the aforementioned Spirit 3 / Correspondence 3 rote. Although this is a very potent rote normally, the Kids allow inexperienced members get their hands on Talismans which allow them to substitute either Spirit or Correspondence. Each use burns one Quintessence, and renting the talisman costs one Tass a month. In addition, a Talisman must be created to constantly increase their stock. Pirate TV-7 also allow them to tap into "the Twilight Zone," or the Deep Umbra, a place where seldom go for fear that they either cannot return, or will not want to return. Many Hermetic mages who study the construction of Pirate TV-7 are astonished that it works. To keep it environmentally sound, as well as maintaining its "TARDIS" interior would require a HUGE tass expenditure, and since it does not rest on a node, all tass has to be imported. So where is it coming from? Not even the Kids know the truth. Pirate TV-7 was NASA's primary relay station for the live images from the lunar landing. Subsequently, it was the primary route for the Arcadia Connection. The connection is still intact. The Faeries haven't announced their presence on Pirate TV-7, but they like what's going on, and will support them whenever possible.
Kid Talismans The Guide (Level 1) Magick Antenna (Level 2) Rabbit Ears (Level 3) Dead Air (Level 4) Felix's Bag (Level 5)
Rotes Those Technomancers who are aware of the existence of the Kids realize that schticks are merely their versions of rotes. The Kids, of course disagree, but then again, that's to be expected.
They're cousins, Identical cousins...(Correspondence 4, Mind 3): With this Schtick, the Kid can create a duplicate of herself that doesn't do everything she does. The Prop is generally one acting bizarrely, with an outrageous English accent. Don't make me angry...(Mind 3): When the Kid is roughed around, he can activate this schtick to terrify those who are attacking him. Mental illusions are sent out to all those surrounding, one at a time, if neccessary, that the mage is transforming into something horrifying. The Prop is usually some dramatic physical change, like fangs, claws, or glowing eyes.
...You wouldn't like me when I'm angry... (Life 3, Forces 2): With this Schtick, the Kid becomes the creature of his target's nightmare. The modifications are as per the Prop, which is the performance of the previous Schtick.
The Sound-board (Mind 3): This is actually a whole class of Schticks having to do with subliminal sound generation. The Prop consists of a clip of the sound, played on a tape player with its speaker disconnected. Note that Astral creatures can hear the noise:
The Laugh Track: When the Kid activates this Schtick, everything becomes funny. While the effect is in place (the length of the prop), it is difficult to take anything seriously. THis has a tendency to aggravate several people.
The Suite (mind 4): This is a soaring piece of music, targeted at two individuals. The two immediately become attracted to one another. The control lasts only as long as the Prop, but there is some residual attraction.
The Dirge (Mind 3): When this Schtick plays, everything seems incredibly tragic. Targets must make a willpower roll (diff 6) to prevent crying.
The Stalking (Mind 3): When this Schtick plays, nerves are placed on edge. Perceptions are +1 die, and Initiatives are +1, but
targets act very irrational.
Don't turn around (Correspondence 3, Mind 2): This Sctick enables the mage to suddenly appear where the target least expects it. The Prop is either a hockey mask, or a vampire's costume.
'Toon (Life 5): This Schtick allows the Mage to be as resilient as a cartoon character. It is a constant transformation from one form to another, to better accept the damage. However, each action weakens the cartoon character's shard, and some characters have been unwittingly erased from memory by careless mages.
Bucket o' Water (Life 5): This extremely nasty Schtick only works versus one thing: a Verbena. 'Nuff said. Instant Replay (Time 5): The Kids who become Masters of Time develop an exceedingly powerful rote that allows them to actually replay the past 5 seconds. Doing so inflicts a permanent 1 pt. Paradox flaw, however, each time it is done.
How the Kids relate to the World of Darkness Most Mages despise the Kids, either because the Traditions thing they're in league with the Technomancy, or the Technomancers think them beneath note. However, the other denizens of the WoD don't quite know what to make of the Kids, except that they're always interesting to talk to.
Vampires (Nicknames: Barnaby, Nick, Count Chocula): The average vampire spends very little time watching television, and subsequently think the average Kid, spouting endless streams of cliched dialogue very annoying. The Kids, for their part, know very little about vampires, which actually works to their advantage. With House of Dracula showing once a week, the Kids can subject a vampire to every cliche in the book. Ah, the price of ignorance.
Werewolves (Nicknames: Mutt, Ruff, Tiger, any other family dog):. The effect TV has on the Garou is well established. When a Garou is sucked into a set, he actually ends up in one of the episode realms. Many Garou owe their freedom to kind Kids who are always looking for stranded Garou. The Kids think the Werewolves are neat, and better as allies.
Faeries (Nickname: Lucky): The Faeries are fascinated by what the Kids are doing to the inventive drive of humanity and Dream. Often, they assist to make complex Schticks happen, and the Kids are wholly unaware of their effect. Lulled by too many viewings of Peter Pan, the Kids find it difficult to take Faeries seriously, which is okay, since it puts them in the same class with regard as to how the rest of the WoD perceives them. Finally, the Kids are prone to do very erratic things, the least of which was the blitz of "It's a Wonderful Life" a few years ago, which has been directly linked to the recent acceptance of Angels into the reality of modern man. Perhaps they aren't as friendless as they seem....
MEGANS By TCSHAN (
[email protected]) "Ah, humans! Lovely, superstitious humans! Can't you do anything right?" -- Lucien, "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"
Author's Notes I got the idea for this Tradition from an old Star Trek cartoon, "The Magicks Of Megas-Tu"
Description Unlike most Traditions, the Megans are not born on Earth, but come from a Horizon Realm they call "Megas-Tu". There, everyone is Awakened and can perform magick! Despite this, the majority of them maintain enough self-control not to go Marauder.
History Many millennia ago (according to one story), the inhabitants of Megas-Tu went to Earth and taught a select group of humans how to perform magick. Sadly, the vast majority of those humans used magick for their own selfish gain. Instead of teaching others magick, they spread lies about the Megans being evil monsters, stirring up fear and hatred. (This may be how the Technocracy got its start; it is definitely how a Megan inhabitant, Lucien [see below], became identified as Lucifer.) Many Megans were among the Earthly mages who were condemned as witches during the Salem witch trials. Defeated, the Megans returned sadly to Megas-Tu. (One of the inhabitants of Megas-Tu, Lucien, resembles a satyr in form and personality. Whether he is a Megan or even indigenous to Megas-Tu, or if he is really a satyr, and if so what Fae are doing on Megas-Tu are anyone's guesses!)
Advantages One of the interesting side-effects of living on Megas-Tu is that Paradox does not exist there. This could make them anything from a pain-in-the-butt to a threat for the Technomancers and a mystery to other Traditions if Megas-Tu mages were to appear on Earth. If a Megas-Tu mage were to encounter Paradox, something which to him/her does not exist, it would set up a resonating counter-Paradox effect (which in game terms can be additional countermagick, lowered difficulties in fighting Paradox, or whatever the ST thinks is appropriate). [Note: When you think about it, the concept of the disbelief in Paradox generating even more Paradox is, well, paradoxical!]
Role-playing Notes The Megans have a great distrust in humans due to the trials and witch-hunts that plagued them. They are currently waiting for the day when greed, fear, and prejudice are no longer a threat to their kind. Sadly, those emotions refuse to (pardon the phrase) magically disappear. For now the Megans are suspicious and wary.
Ideas If Megas-Tu were to appear in the sky, some people on Earth might see it as some kind of alien invasion! (It would also be really vulgar, even by mage standards.) There is no telling what effect the two conflicting realities would have on each other. A more toned-down scenario would be if a Megan were to accidentally or experimentally travel to Earth. The thought of someone with a resistance (but not immunity) to Paradox loose on Earth would be a nightmare and a headache to the Technocracy. Similarly, mages from Earth could land on Megas-Tu! If an Earthling (Awakened or otherwise) were to go there and practice Megan magic, the locals would know about it...and the poor human would be on the receiving end of a witch trial - Megas-Tu style! (Unlike the ending of the episode I got this idea from, the end result might not be pleasant...)
MINIMISTS Author's Notes I Just finished reading the erotic horror anthology, Hot Blood: Stranger by Night, and came across a story by Brian Hodge, entitled, Godflesh The story presents a group with a viewpoint that would fit in great with the Mage: The Ascension game, so, here's my take on his group. I call them the Minimists... I think you'll see why.
Prelude His clothing looked neat and new, his hair well-barbered. He might have been any reasonably attractive man who'd made the best of his life after losing both legs at the hip. Then again, he was masturbating. In his wheelchair. it did not look as if he was merely adjusting his crotch. He was wholly absorbed in the act -- heart, soul, and both hands. "He's -- he's right out in the open!" Jude said, adding her disgust to that of the less self-absorbed passersby. "I . . . I don't think he's even aware anybody's watching!" No. no, he wasn't, was he? His exultant abandon -- Ellen found this the most fascinating aspect of the display. His choice of locale and timing may have been awry, but she saw on his face more passion and ecstasy than she'd noticed on the faces of last week's eight or ten lovers combined. -- Excerpt from Godflesh, by Brian Hodge, published in Hot Blood: Stranger By Night
Overview Although associated primarily with the Cult of Ecstasy, the Minimists are actually an offshoot of the Celestial Chorus. They were originally formed through the development of the Gnostics, a sleeper splinter group from the early Christian church. Most cultists can understand the Minimists approach intellectually, but lack the emotional conviction to go as far as they have. The Minimists have been a tiny offshoot of the cult for centuries. Only after the Vietnam war has its membership grown and sought recognition as a craft. The Minimists view centers on self-gratification and the minimalization of external influences. The basis of the Gnostic belief was that since the material world falls so short of the spiritual world, it has to be bad. Therefore, their physical bodies are also bad, in comparison with the spiritual world. There were a number of offshoots -- the ascetics denied themselves everything; the libertines focused on pleasuring themselves, seeing their physical bodies as a reflection of their spiritual bodies, not as something separate. Most of the Gnostics, however, believed that the body was a prison that kept the spirit shackled. Originally a sleeper development, a lunatic fringe of the Gnostics, the Minimists decided to do something about their imprisonment. They started cutting parts off themselves away to reduce the size of the prison. Over time, this fringe approach and that of the libertines came together. Although the sleeper group is believed to have died out, it has continued in closely guarded privacy. The Minimists understand that most people cannot accept their way of transcendence. However, after most major wars, their numbers grow.
Philosophy The Minimists focus on one truth: sense-gratification is the means by which we can each ascend. We each receive the same amount of sensual experience. The less body one has to dilute a sensual experience, the greater must be its concentration in the flesh that remains. There is a certain transedence that arrives when one has lost all his limbs and must, for his very survival, depend on others. All his concerns, all his control, is given over to others, as the spiritual concerns and control is given over to God, or whatever divine force the individual believes in.
Organization The Minimists have no formal organization. However, when a Minimist (either a sleeper or a mage) gets to the point where all her limbs has been removed, she must be taken care of. Usually, she is "taken in" by a new member of the group. However it is almost always a group care situation.
Usually, after experiencing a few informal gatherings, the amount of emotional bonding between the new member and others in the group more closely approximates that of lovers who have become familiar with each other over the course of decades.
Meetings The Minimists gather at irregular intervals, usually for sensual (read: orgiastic) experiences. Attendance is voluntary and some attend every week, while others only show up for the five-year reunions. They can be found in all castes and social stations, but usually keep a low profile, because most of society seems to feel uncomfortable around people they feel are less than "whole."
Initiation There are two separate initiations -- one for the bodily whole, and others for the amputees. The bodily whole people are usually taken in, exposed directly to the sensual side of things (they participate in different variations of orgiastic experiences) while blindfolded. If they choose to join, they must remove a part of their bodies. The amputees may experience the same rites, only without being blindfolded, or the need to remove another body part. Each member must progress at his own rate. Though it is encouraged, there is no pressure on any of the members to remove any further body parts. The group recognizes that it takes time for the body to heal from the trauma of loss.
Chantry The central chantry is located near a veterans hospital in Virginia. None will reveal the exact location, though. They have access to a horizon realm to help speed healing and heighten sensuality.
Sphere The Minimists have no base sphere. However, most Minimists will encourage new mages to explore the spheres of Life and Spirit, to aid in the attainment of ascendance.
Common Foci Disability-aids (Cane, prosthetic limb, etc.): Correspondence/Entropy Incense: Spirit/Time Scar Tissue: Life/Mind/Prime Touch: Forces/Matter
Acolytes War Veterans, Accident victims, Spiritual fringe, thrill-seekers
Concepts ex-soldier, ex-stuntmen, fetishist
Stereotypes Ahl-i Batin: They were pretty brave. Too bad there ain't any of them left anymore "I housed a few of them after World War II. It's an interesting approach. Not one we'd recommend, but if it helps them along the path." -- Clarissa Rotchet, Owner, Tabitha House
Akashic Brotherhood: The Akashics talk about Do. Do is the focusing of energy to a central point in the body. We are doing
the same thing through decreasing the body area.
"No. The view such people might espouse is plain wrong. You cannot improve your body or your mind by separating and removing parts of yourself." -- Timothy Ng, Adept Nine Circles Dojo
Celestial Chorus: We really don't want them to know we exist. The reaction to our first incarnation wasn't very nice, and we don't want a repeat performance.
"If such an splinter group should still exist, it would be our duty to remove them. It is not our choice to desecrate the body the One has given us." -- Thomas Gradenko, "Voice" of the Celestial Chorus, Toronto
Cult of Ecstasy: They've got the right idea. Now, they just need to decrease the pleasure area to intensify their pleasure. "Not our way. I mean, how can you possibly get off by cutting your hand off? That's just stupid. If it works for them, great, but no way, pal. Not for me." -- Alison Blaire, Lead Singer, "Dazzler"
Dreamspeakers: If these guys actually talk to spirits, great. What better way to emulate the spirits, but by becoming less attached to our flesh?
"There is a long history of shamans blinding themselves so they may see the spirits and the spirit world. Perhaps these people remove parts of themselves so they may interact with the spirits and the spirit world." -- Ch'uin, "Voice" of the dreamspeakers, Toronto
Euthanatos: We do what we do out of fear? So we should die? No. We do what we do to get more out of life. Noone should have the right to arbitrarily decide who lives or dies. That's stupid.
"Most of these people are death-minded. They're just too afraid to go there in one fell swoop. They think it's better to go one slice at a time. In the meantime, they're wasting resources, and calcifying in a life that goes nowhere." -- Victor Krueger, "Voice" of the Euthanatos, Toronto
Order of Hermes: The Order is kind of autocratic and just a little scary. They've got a thing about what they perceive as 'wholeness,' and we'd be the people to suffer if they discovered us.
"Such a group of individuals probably seek solace in others with like deformities. They would naturally be undisciplined and unfocused. They would go nowhere, and would be no help on the way to Ascension." -- Ben Cordick, Master, Seven Signs Chantry
Sons of Ether: They're pretty weird guys. But we don't need to add false parts to make us whole. That's never been the problem. We are already whole.
"An interesting idea. Perhaps it warrants some examination. I'll have one of assistants look into it. It might have something to do with the phantom limb syndrome... hmmm... I wonder..." -- Dr. Albert Cheney, Master, Wandering Hand Chantry
Verbena: Good people. Good approach, Good ideas. But they seem to lack the werewithal to take their ideas to their natural fruition -- instead they dabble with the drawing of blood, without the separation of their own bodies.
"Changing yourself for betterment is understandable, even laudible. Destroying yourself bit-by-bit is offensive and can in no way better yourself. Why give yourself a handicap?" -- Christian Solden, Wandering Hand Chantry
Virtual Adepts: Their problems seem to be in the physical realm only. But, they are doing just the same thing. The only difference is that they add a computer where their limbs were.
"Who? That's weird. It's one thing to drill a hole in your head for a neural interface; it's another thing entirely to drill a hole in your head to have a hole in your head." -- Stephen Haverfield, Terrafield Recon Agent
Iteration X: So, what's the difference between the Virtual Adepts and Iteration-X, again? "They are already beaten. Less than whole, these people cannot last long. They are a negligible threat."
-- Dr. Phil Cambridge, Nanotechnologist
New World Order: These people are screwed. Half of us came back from Vietnam, and were spat on by their brainwashing. "We've worked hard to ensure that the public finds it hard to accept lack of wholeness. Soon enough, they'll be killing off amputees and other handicapped people. Their intolerance for anything alien is rising -- and the alien includes themselves." -- Karl Restrov, C.E.O. Techniques Inc.
Progenitors: They may actually have a way there -- but making a prison cell better does not change the fact that it's a prison. Likewise with the body.
"This desire to mutilate themselves may be a genetic condition with specific genetic flags. If we had some of these people, we could run some tests, and see if we could discover ways to combat it." -- Dr. Suzanne Mazic, Third Circle Laboratories
The Syndicate: Huh? What? These are the guys who are cutting our VA funding. "Less body means less productivity and higher consumerism due to higher need. While this is possibly a good thing, if their viewpoints were to catch on, there would be a marked downtrend in productivity.?" -- Richard Harmsmythe, Trend Analyst, Techniques Inc.
Void Engineers: Sorry, again, 'who?' Never even heard of them. "Sorry, we can't keep track of every self-obsessed group. Besides generally, we don't really care. Excuse me, I've more work to do..." -- Xiu'onda Legere, Outpost 12
Some Common Rotes The few rotes that are actually taught among the Minimists tend to vary greatly in their approach and application. Listed here are a few, but they should by no means be considered a defining cross-section if the Minimist beliefs.
Grasp the Spirit Spheres: Spirit 2, Prime 1, Mind 1 As death allows the movement of the spirit beyond the prison of the body, so must a partial death allow partial movement. Although the Minimist who uses this rote has lost or removed a body-part, this rote can be used to grasp items in other realms. The pioneer of this rote, Adrian Chamberlain was unsure of eactly where his "phantom limbs" were moving, but the results were undeniable. The mage must attune himself to the "Phantom limb," then concentrate on exercises and movement of that limb. With greater control comes greater movement. After he'd taught this rote to others, he'd come to understand that he was affecting items and spirits in the Shadowlands. A phantom arm may (sometimes) move in the Shadowlands, as if it were free of the caul.
Fullness of the Body Spheres: Life 2, (Spirit 2) With this rote, the Minimist can heighten the sensitivity of his flesh to outside stimuli. The amount at which the mage can heighten the sensitivity is inversely proportional to the amount of flesh to be heightened. For example, a 300-pound mage with a foot missing will not gain the same level of sensitivity as a 90-pound mage with both legs missing. Although this might seem to be used as a means to coerce others into "shedding their flesh," it's never used in that manner. Sometimes the sensitivity is so heightened, that the mage experiences sensory overload, and falls into a trance (Quiet?) state. Those few who have experienced this level of sensitivity have claimed to have experienced the warm embrace of the One, as they had temporarily escaped their prisons.
Mage: The Void (Part 1) | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
By The Mirrorball Man (
[email protected])
Disclaimers I'm not a genuine English speaker, so please excuse me for all the mistakes in this text. Spellcheckers can only do so much. If you want to send me a corrected copy of it, please feel free to do so ;-) This is not a complete game. You need the main Mage: The Ascension rulebook to play Mage: The Void. No, it is not official material, so I'm not bound to follow the gospel according to White Wolf. If some details are inaccurate, it is either because I don't care or because my knowledge is limited. Since it is a variation of Mage set in the future, writing it has involved choices. Of course you are not compelled to agree with these choices, but please don't send me e-mails telling me how wrong I am. I am not a very dogmatic person. However, feel free to write stuff based on this material if you want. You may also publish it on the web. Everything will be considered "official." No, Mage: The Void hasn't been tested. Yes, it shows. I use masculine generic pronouns in this text. It is not a challenge to anybody. I also use the metric system. I'm sure you've grown accustomed to it by now.
Proclaimer Mage: The Void was born out of my frustration when I learned about Mage's historical game. Sorcerer's Crusade is fine and well-written, but I had always wanted to see a space-opera version of Mage, just as much as I would have liked to see a cyberpunk-flavored Wraith. Well, it's always the same with role-playing games: when they don't do it, do it yourself!
History Earth is gone. It was destroyed during the last quarter of the 21st century. Why? Well, theories abound, but nobody knows for sure. Maybe the excesses of mankind were finally been too much for the planet to bear. Maybe somebody pressed the wrong button. Maybe it was Ragnarok, the Apocalypse or Gehenna. It is not very important anymore. Earth is gone. This is the end of the 22nd century, and mankind has finally reached the final frontier. Human beings have set foot on many planets, and erected many cities under alien suns. It would not have been possible, however, if Mages hadn't been there. Mages no longer act in shadows. They are now the true, unquestioned masters of humanity, and their struggles are the wars of mankind. Their secret factions have evolved to become political systems, and at least four of them are willing to conquer the whole galaxy. Life is hard for Sleepers in this day and age: they have to obey the will of their Enlightened masters, in the distant hope that one day, they too might Awaken. Man, who used to be isolated on Earth, has now the possibility of reaching distant worlds. This miracle has been made possible with the discovery of Soulgates. Mages realized that the Afterworlds, where the souls of the Dead departed after their last breath, were passages through space, shortcuts that made space travel possible. Many claim to have been the first to find a Soulgate. But one thing is sure: now that mankind is no longer imprisoned on a lonely planet, there is no further limit to what it can accomplish. The year is 2190. Welcome to the Void Age. | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 |
MURPHY'S LAW By Abe Dashiell "Shit! Wouldn't you know it!" Lenny fumbled with his umbrella as a gust of wind nearly tore it out of his grasp. The driving rain cut into him, scouring his drenched clothes and numbing his already freezing hands. He pulled his coat tighter, but it offered no solace from the cold, wet night. Laden with water, it clung to him, dragging at his flagging strength. He gritted his teeth to stop the chattering, but his body tremored still and his coat seemed even heavier. The wind roared again, ripping the umbrella out of his hands. It tumbled and skittered down the sidewalk, coming to rest, unseen, in the shadows between the widely spaced street lights. Lenny stared after it mournfully and heaved a resigned sigh. It had been a bad night from the start and it certainly wasn't getting any better... "...Don't worry, Lenny. You're still a young man. I'm sure you'll find something somewhere else. Downsizing and cutbacks, that's all..." What a great way to start your day, Lenny thought, rubbing his temples, trying to quell the raging headache that drowned out even the thunder. Why couldn't he have just said, "Lenny, you're fired," and get it over with. But no... "...In fact, I think I have something right up your alley. I'm sure a man of your skills would have no difficulty fitting the bill..." A moment of hope, Lenny thought to himself bitterly. That was until old Barnes admitted that his fantasy job was actually a position as bag boy at his brother-in-law's grocery store. "Thanks, Mr. Barnes. I'll be sure to check it out." "Don't wait too long, Lenny. Jobs like that go pretty quickly you know..." "So much for five years of loyalty." Lenny murmured. "I should have known something like this would happen eventually. Nothing good ever happens for very long." He gazed up into the black sky, ignoring the rain, and shrugged. "I suppose I had it good for too long. At least I don't have to worry about it getting any worse -- my life couldn't possibly get any more miserable."
"Worst!? There's no such thing as 'worst.'" Lenny spun around, his eyes darting to the shadows. "Who's there! Who said that?" His only answer was the low moan of the wind. He looked up the street where, six long blocks away, his car rested -- and rusted. His engine had chosen to die in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city, where neither the taxis or even the police ventured. He'd had little choice but to walk. "Why didn't I at least remember to bring my flashlight!" Until now, he hadn't seen or heard anyone. "No surprise in this weather. I'm probably the only one stupid and unlucky enough to be out in this." But he was sure he'd heard a voice... "I must be delerious." The rain came down even harder and Lennie decided he wanted his umbrella back after all. "It couldn't have gone too far -- in those shadows over there, I think." But there was something about that inky darkness he didn't like. It almost seemed... "Solid." he whispered. "Like black Jell-O. Yum. Penzoil flavored." He chuckled weakly, and behind his eyes stabs of fear joined the hammering pain. "Is anyone there?" He picked up a piece of rubble and lobbed it into the darkness. Thunk. "Weird. Pretty muffled -- must be the rain." Yes, the rain, it has to be the rain, he thought. After all, who would be out on a night like tonight. Please, please, please, be the rain...
"It's not the rain." Lenny jumped back and staggered into the nearest light pole. He grabbed a brick that had fallen off a mouldering building. "Who's there!" he gasped, brandishing his crumbling weapon. The fear-pain in his head rumbled louder. Sounded like it was right behind me!
"Or within you." Unable to control his fear any longer, he took off in a dead run. He looked over his shoulder, and to his horror, three figures stepped out of the Dark Place and began to pursue him. Two were man-sized, but they were anything but human. Their eyes burned bright red and they moved faster than anyone had a right to. The third form was something out of a nightmare. Standing head and shoulders above the other two, it bore no semblance to anything human. Lenny gasped in terror as it ran through the glow of a street light. It was huge and except for scraggly patches of greenish fur, it was hairless. It loped faster even than it's comrades, partially on two feet, but often on all four. Deep within his psyche, a memory far older than Lenny stirred. TERROR! Images of lupine beasts killing...culling. He was overwhelmed with the fear of the hunted; he was the prey breathing its last as the predator closed its jaws around his throat.
"It just got worse." The voice seared through Lenny's terror and for the first time, he recognized it. A part of him buried even deeper than the memories of the Impergium flared into life, awakening from a deep sleep. In that millisecond, everything became clear to Lenny. Possibilities he'd
never imagined sprung into life even as the three monsters bore down on him. The terror inspired in him dwindled compared to the crushing knowledge revealed to him. He still felt burning fear, but now thought was possible. "For every good thing, something bad has to happen." Lenny mumbled, his eyes searching. Before him, on the sidewalk was a rusty grate. Above the thunder and driving rain, he could hear another, deeper rumbling. The subway! "Too bad I'm not at the station instead of here. Knowing my luck, I'll fall right through that gate and be crushed by the --" With a groaning crash, the grate gave way. Before he had a chance to scream, Lenny fell through the grate and landed on the last car of the subway. Only his quick wits saved him from being swept off the side and crushed under the wheels. Hanging tightly onto a rung, he managed to pull himself into the car through a broken window. Looking back into the darkness, he saw two pairs of red eyes fading into the distance. He smiled weakly as he heard the bone chilling chords of an enraged howl. As the adrenaline rush faded, Lenny gasped and sank to the subway floor. He was bleeding from scores of minor wounds and he was sure he'd broken his arm. He leaned back and whispered, "'If anything can go wrong, it will.' It did and now -- I know." As part of the Order's ongoing effort to construct detailed profiles of the minor Awakened throngs, I have acquainted myself with the group known as "Murphy's Law." Compared to the lengthy history of the Order, their story is but a flash in a pan, so forgive me for the brevity of this report. Nevertheless, as a group they are growing -- another a sign of the Technocracy's failures. I owe Leonard ("Lenny") Jones, a respected member (if such is possible among a group of this kind!) of Murphy's Law, for the information he has provided. I have used his words verbatim whenever possible and have added a few of my own notes as well. Gunther Kohl, Order of Hermes
Names "Variables won't. Constants aren't." - Osborn's Law
Excerpts from my interviews with Leonard Jones: You Hermetics and the Choristers I've run into call us "Pessimists." Pessimists? I consider myself a realist. A pessimist always sees the bad in everything. On the other hand, I know that ultimately, everything is bad. Once you've realized that, you can be as optimistic as you want. It's not like most of us get depressed about it or anything... The damned Hollow Ones call us Murphs. Cute. They've got the Cultists and the VAs calling us that too. Hell, they've got me saying it. Of course, the next thing you know, some wiseacre will start up with "Smurfs." Joy.
Background "If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy's 1st Law
Jones, cont'd: History? Well, we're not like you Hermetics, who, no offense, document everytime a member brushes his teeth. I suppose we've been around in one form or another for a long time. A friend of mine told me that Yeats was one of us -- all that gyre stuff of his has a bit of Murph to it. I have a feeling that was just wishful thinking. After all, Yeats was rich and successful -- that doesn't sound like any selfrespecting Murph I know. You go for the fame and respect he had and you know you are going to be reincarnated as a cow, a Brady Kid or just get some really bad karma. That stuff will follow your Avatar around for centuries. Oh, yeah, I was talking about our illustrious history. Well, as I said, there's always been people like us -- those who know how fate works and all. I imagine most of us thought we were orphans though and never really did anything about organizing. That was, until the end of the last century. We started clumping together -- I guess it was all part of that fin de siecle stuff that those sicko Victorians got into. Hah! Of course, we all know why the Victorians were crazy -- they were on top of the world, ruling the whole planet like they did. Well, fate has a way of getting back at that kind of arrogance. They're still paying for it you know -- I mean, look at Prince Charles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, background. We've gotten more organized, though we don't have scheduled meetings and take minutes or anything like that. That's just inviting disaster; you know, the more you do, the more you do will go wrong. Well, sometimes we have meetings, but mostly we just shoot the breeze and keep an eye on the Technocracy and the Traditions. Yeah, we help them along -- throw a couple of monkeywrenches in their works. The Technocracy is a real easy target -- these guys are just begging for it... ...Where we get the name, "Murphy's Law?" We didn't think of it ourselves. It had something to do with you Hermetics though. Apparently you guys felt the need to classify us. You called us something in Latin that more or less translated as: "The Order of Those Who Believe The Worst Possibility In A Given Siutation Will Always Occur." In other words, "Murphy's Law." For a while it was the "Order of Murphy's Law," but that "order" part really didn't sit well with any of us.
Philosophy "In Nature, Nothing is ever Right. Therefore, if everything is going Right... something is Wrong." - Murphy's 9th Law
Compiler's Notes: Murphy's Law is a loose knit group of mages who have found a common bond in the belief that the world is essentially a negative place. While this is a belief shared by a number of groups, notably the Hollow Ones, the Pessimists have raised it to the level of high metaphysics. "Bad things" happen because they are inevitable, because they are natural, and because they are
totally unavoidable. In fact, when a good thing does happen to a 'Murph,' he bemoans his fate because he knows that very soon, reality will come crashing down on him.
Jones: You know, I don't care if the Earth is composed of 4 or 104 elements. It doesn't matter if we orbit the sun or the sun orbits us. The little details the traditions and the technos quibble about really don't matter to us. The fact of the matter is that ever since we evolved up from the primordial ooze (or were created from the ooze if you're a Chorister), we've known that screw ups are the default state of being. You've really got to put your neck out to see anything beneficial. And then, you will get your head cut off. The majority rules man. That means that whenever something good happens to you, the Collective Will gets jealous and wham!, you go from Easy Street to eating Alpo. It's unavoidable, so quit debating whether the glass is half empty or half full because the chances are, you'll just hit it with your elbow and get Coke in your Hush Puppies. That doesn't mean you can't be happy -- hell, being miserable about it won't change anything. You've just got to accept that for every good turn there's a bad -- but don't think the opposite is true. Misery loves company, so if you've hit the bottom, don't take it for granted that the only direction is up. There is no such thing as "worst."
Compiler's notes: Ascension is totally foreign to Murphy's Law. It simply doesn't play a role in their Paradigm. Their avatars are almost always Primordial, and they use their magick in a highly instinctive and often unconscious manner. This may be the reason why they are incapable of comprehending a state of being that exists beyond their rather narrow world view. Nevertheless, their singleminded obsession with the intricacies of their own Paradigm seems to allow them to transcend the normal bounds of sleeper reality. It is unfortunate that these Pessimists (for indeed they are, despite their claims to the contrary!) are forced to keep their Vision so fixated on the ground. Lenny is more informed than most, but even he lacks any grand vision.
Organization "If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong and circumvent these, a fifth, unprepared for, will promptly develop." - Murphy's 4th Law
Compiler's notes: Because they do not go through an organized initiation, it is difficult for the Pessimists to develop as an organized group. However, because they are all consumed by the Paradigm, they tend to gravitate to one another. For much of their history, they had no organization at all, but around the turn of the century, when Apocalypse cults were in vogue, they began to find one another. They had been unrecognizable from Orphans, so unorthodox were their foci, but as they formed informal societies, it became clear that they were a tradition unto themselves. They have not taken sides in the Ascension War and while their magick is pervasive, the odd way Paradox affects them allows them to conduct their business largely beneath the Technocracy's notice. At least in this respect, luck has favored them. However, neither have they fallen under the protection of the Council of Nine, leaving them vulnerable to the machinations of others, not the least being nephandi and the kindred. They have little in the way of structure. Those who are older and more experienced, like Mr. Jones, are afforded greater respect, but they have nothing in the way of a structured hierarchy.
Meetings "Murphy was an optimist." - O'Toole
Jones: Well, like I said, we don't have many meetings. Sometimes we'll get together and guzzle a few brewskies and brag about how bad our luck has been. Sometimes, though, especially when somebody has had a long streak of really good luck and has been especially uppity about it, we'll get together and figure out a way to give him a little humility. It's not that we are jealous of the lucky bastard -- well, we are, but that's not why we do what we do -- it's just that he's going to have to pay for it some day, and we might as well be the ones who do it. I mean, we'll put him through hell, but that's better than some things Ol' Mother Nature would do.
Initiation "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself." - Weiler's Law
Compilers notes: A member is not initiated into Murphy's Law, but rather Awakens into it. Because there is no definable initiation process, most mages classify them as Orphans. Murphs, however, are not Orphans. Potential Murphs, as sleepers, are always extreme pessimists whose world views change very little when they become Awakened. Typically, the Awakening occurs after a series of extremely traumatizing and unrelated events. Most people would be driven to suicide, but for some, it merely confirms their opinions, opening them up to a broader world. While most mages awaken into a paradigm, Murphs are awakened by a paradigm.
Jones: Well, I'd always believed that relying on luck would mean that all you'd get was a healthy dose of the bad variety. Just like I do now, I knew that Nature is a Bitch. However, it wasn't until two Sabbat licks and a BSD chased me down on the same night I lost my job, my girl, my car, and my umbrella, that I began to realize the full truth. I kept hearing this voice in my head egging me on to WAKE UP and finally I did. The little piece of the Collective Will within me knocked me on the head and I was finally able to take off my blinders. I'm not self-awakened. No, I'm no Orphan; it's reality that made me come to my senses, not my own twisted will.
Acolytes "You can't win. You can't break even. You can't even quit the game." - Ginsberg's Theorems.
Jones: We hang out with Sleepers who share our opinions all the time. In fact, some of them have such bad luck, you can't always tell who's Awake and who's not.
Compiler's notes: Their acolytes all remind me of that horrid man on that television show, "Married, With Children."
Sphere "Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse." - Murphy's 5th Law
Compiler's notes: Perhaps because they use the same "focus" for all of their spheres, Murphs typically have little understanding about the natures of the different spheres. Many are not even aware that there are different spheres. They do know that they are able to manipulate different aspects of reality better than others, but the significance of this is lost on most of them. Lenny, who is more knowledgeable than the rest, informs me that they have a particular talent for Entropy.
Foci The probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability. - Gumperson's Law
Compiler's notes: What marks Murphy's Law as especially unusual is its interpretation of magick, and more importantly, the odd nature of its foci. As I mentioned before, they have only one focus, which they use for all nine spheres. As they become more enlightened, they may abandon this focus for those spheres they understand the most, though few of them do so.
Jones: Foci, eh? You're in luck that you asked me because most Murphs wouldn't have any idea what you were talking about. Most of us are Primordials, you see -- I'm the exception, being a Dynamic. When we work magick, its instinctive, like most Orphans. The thing is, we've got ourself a Paradigm, and we use it to make it easier to put reality the way it's supposed to be. How do we do it? It's simple, really. All you have to do is to realize that for a good thing to happen, it has to be accompanied by a bad thing. That's just the way things work. It's like when those vampires and that big lupe were after my hide when I first Woke up. I heard the subway and I saw the grate. Subconsciously, I knew that if I fell through the grate and landed on the train as it passed, I'd have a chance to escape. So, I just happened to step on the grate just at the right point and with the right pressure to make it collapse and I had just the right timing to land on the last car as it rushed by. At the time, I had no idea what had happened, but now I know I jiggled with Entropy and Time to get what I needed. The thing is, I couldn't just do that because that would have been the biggest break of luck I'd ever had. So, I paid the price by breaking my arm, and because I'd fiddled with two spheres instead of just one, it also turned out that I lost my wallet on the way down. Do you know those damn licks ran up a $6000 bill on my American Express! Sounds like Paradox, eh? Now you see why so many people think we are just Orphans who are a little too rambunctious with the vulgar stuff... ...Yeah, normally the bad stuff has to happen to us personally -- it wouldn't be bad luck for me if I foisted some misfortune on a HIT Mark that was about to gun me down would it? There are exceptions though. If someone gets just too uppity, we can let him have it without bringing anything bad down on ourselves. That's because we are just setting things right to the Paradigm. What do I mean by "uppity." Well, let me give you an example. I went to Vegas last year and this son of a bitch was on one hell of a winning streak. In itself, that's okay; he'd just have to pay for it eventually. The thing is, the guy was yelling, "I can't lose. I'm on top of the world. Nothing can go wrong now!" Lets face it, he was asking for it. The magick just flowed -- nothing bad had to happen to me because he was being such a magnet. I can do the same thing when someone says something like, "It couldn't get worse," or "Well, at least it can only get better from here." [System: For a Murph to work magick, she must simultaneously describe a misfortune that happens at the same time. The misfortune can be a cause of the effect, a side effect, a result or be completely unrelated to the effect. The severity of the misfortune is similar to the effects unleashed when one point of paradox is released. In fact, a Murph may opt to take a point of Paradox (or even take on the brunt of a backlash or suffer the visitations of a Paradox Spirit) as a misfortune. If a Murph is using more than one sphere, then another misfortune must occur or the first must be more serious (e.g. a five sphere effect could garner as much as 5 points of paradox if the Murph wished). Alternately, a Murph can use another person as a focus if that person "invites" bad luck on herself. This happens either if the person proclaims a situation couldn't get worse or couldn't go wrong. Note that if a person merely has a string of good luck, the Murph can't use her as a focus -- only if she were to claim the luck wasn't going to end or something along those lines. Normally, an invitation will only replace the focus for one sphere, but particularly audacious claims can potentially replace the need for several spheres. e.g. the villain claims: "I'm am undefeatable! Nothing, nothing at all in the whole universe can stop me now! I'm a god! Fate herself bows to my every whim!" If a fool was stupid enough to stay that around a Murph, he should expect a Nine Sphere effect without the Murph reaping any of the misfortune. In any case, while a Murph's focus is potentially damaging to her person, it cannot be taken away and there is no initiative penalty.]
Paradox "Nature always sides with the hidden flaw." - Murphy's 7th Law
Compiler's notes: Paradox affects the members of Murphy's Law just as much as it does any other mage. However, it manifests itself in a way somewhat similar to the way it affects the Trenchcoaters. (Another minor group who is a constant thorn in everyone's sides. Refer to my esteemed colleague's work on them for more background) All I can say about the matter is watch what you say around them, particularly when they are in the depths of Quiet.
Jones: Most of us don't know anything about Paradox either really. It wasn't until I started hanging around you "real" mages that I even knew what the difference was between static and vulgar magick, or what paradox, foci and spheres were. For us, it all blends together. Sure, Paradox is a bad thing that affects all of us, but what's to differentiate it from all the other bad things that happen? It's just a little flashier. When we've been being vulgar little boys and girls, or when we really screw up an effect, reality starts weighing down on us just like it does anyone who's Awake. That means that whenever somebody arounds us "invites" trouble on himself, well, reality is all the more likely to fix things. You look confused. Well, let me put it this way. If you'd won a million dollars and were riding high on the hog, you'd be a pretty happy MF, wouldn't you? In fact, you'd probably get a little careless and say something stupid like: "Gee, I guess everything is going to be peachy from now on!" Well, if I heard you say that, I'd still probably get you even if reality was giving me some breathing room. However, if it was sitting hard on my shoulder, well, I wouldn't have any choice but to lash out at you. It would use me as a channel to make your life a little less peachy. Of course, if I was a blithering idiot -- and if reality was really giving me the crunch, I probably would be in that state of mind -- and I said that, it would come back on me too. [System: When a Murph has any paradox, and someone "invites" him as described above in the Foci section, the player immediately rolls as many dice as he has paradox points. Every success removes a point of paradox and goes toward an effect that affects the "offender." A botch means the effect works on the Murph. The nature of the effect is determined by the player, but is limited to what magickal effects he can normally accomplish. The effect must also cause a misfortune to occur to the "offender." This is the only way a Murph can remove Paradox, but note that a Murph can induce a release of paradox by "inviting" bad luck on himself. The ST may opt to decide the effect in this case and may invoke a backlash or summon paradox spirit.]
Stereotypes "It won't work" - Jenkinson's Law
Compiler's notes: Part of my interview with Mr. Jones was to discover how he felt about other Awakened beings. I had asked a number of other Pessimists before I found him, but I'm afraid that most of them were ignorant of supernatural society as a whole. Lenny, however, had a great many opinions, and he assures me that most of his comrades agree with him.
Ahl-i-Batin: They don't know anything about decay or chaos. They keep building their intricate little secrets and conspiracies, but haven't they realized that the more detailed a plan is, the more there is that can (and will!) go wrong. No wonder they lost their position in the 9. "These masters of Entropy are only interested in seeing the world wither away. Though they are more tolerable than the Euthanatos, we will share none of our secrets with them." -- "John Smith"
Akashic Brotherhood: They want to attain the perfect balance between mind and body. Well, in every movie I've seen, just as you are about to achieve "Nirvana," the bad guy comes in, burns down your house, steals your girl and kills your old blind master. Maybe that's why most of the AB's I know have just settled for being able to kick ass really well. "The negativity they see in the world is a product of their own minds. They have Awakened into a black box that has no opening." -Allistair Kwok, Adept of Mind
Celestial Chorus: They keep telling us if we trust ourself in "The One," everything will be happiness and light. Hey, clue -- do you think we've forgotten the Dark Ages? Yeah, real enlightened -- give me the Technos any day." "These lost children have bought into the Technocracy's lies more than any other. They may have abandoned all hope for a better place, but we shall not abandon them." -- Cardinal Shapiro, Master of Prime
Cult of Ecstasy: I'm not saying that World Peace and Brotherly Love are completely out of the realm of the possibility, but I know that it won't be as wonderful as they keep saying. Every turn has it's set of unsolveable problems. "I dropped acid around one of these guys once and he says to me, 'You know, you're going to fry your brain doing that stuff.' I say to him, 'Hey, I never have bad trips!' I'll be damned if he didn't zap me with something and I had the worst trip ever. Made me give up drugs right then and there! Bastard." -- Hashcat, Disciple of Time
Dreamspeakers: While it is true that every lucky break is paid for by future misfortune, these guys are proof positive that the opposite does not necessarily occur. Were they ever on top? "When these lost souls were born, Gaia wept for them." -- Black Cloud, Master of Spirit
Euthanatos: Talk about twisted. They are hotshot masters of Entropy, but you know what they use it for, to get rid of the "bad seeds" so that the world will be happier. Excuse me, is this the same Sphere we're using?! "Their deplorable pessimism weighs down on this world. It is best that we recycle their avatars and hope they come back better the next time around. -- Dominic Gambino, Master of Entropy
Hollow Ones: What a bunch of whiners! Even though they know the world isn't a happy place, they still act bitter and disappointed about it. That's just the way things are! Get used to it, for crying out loud, you little Angst Babies! I've got a story to tell you about the Hollow Ones. You know how 15, 20 years ago, they didn't even exist and then all of a sudden they are the biggest Orphan posse out there? I think I know why we are plagued by them, and much to my regret, it's all our fault: Back in the mid seventies, I ran with ten other Murphs. Most of us were young and inexperienced but we had two masters who kept us in line. We even had our own node that we stole from a bunch of changelings. Things were really looking up, so naturally, something had to go wrong. We were minding our own business, chugging some brewskies and bitching about the price of gas when a bunch of Euthanatos swooped down on us. They told us that they were going to recycle our Avatars for the greater good. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I did know that it involved them making us dead. So, we fought like banshees -- very vulgar banshees -- and after a nasty pitched battle, managed to beat them off. When the smoke cleared, we still had our node, but the chantry, both physically and umbrally, was completely totaled. I lost everything except the clothes on my back, but I tell you, I was so riddled with paradox at that point, I really didn't give a shit. Instead, I sat down and had a philosophical discussion with the word, "this." It made sense at the time. We were all really Quiet at that point, but even in our state, we managed to whip up a keg or two of brew. After a while, not only were we in Quiet, we were pretty shitfaced as well. So, there we were, sitting around, watching the TV (that was about the only thing that survived -- we can probably thank the NWO for that one) when Jake -- he was a master of Spirit and Prime -- says: "Well, it sure can't get any worse than this." Whoah, Nelly! You can tell he was really out of it. The thing is, we all looked at him, lifted our glasses and said, "Yeah, it sure can't!" All of a sudden, wham, we weren't Quiet any more. The realization of what had just happened sobered us up but quick too. We'd been carrying around enough Paradox to fill the Grand Canyon and all of a sudden it was all gone. I tell you, I sure shit my pants. At first, nothing happened, then a week or two later, I noticed these whiny Awakened little brats hanging around in the Discos. A month or two later, there were more of them and inside of a year, a group of the bastards stole our node and set themselves up as the "Hollow Ones." We found out that they were doing it all over the country and I really think that we were to blame. "Hey's, it's Al Bundy!" -- Jennifer, Disciple of Forces
Order of Hermes: No offense, Gunther, but the Order is just too tight-assed. I honestly don't think things would be any different if you guys were in control. "Offense taken. When our 'friends' have an attitude like this, what hope do we have of regaining control of the Collective Will and guiding it to True Ascension." -- Gunther Kohl, Master of Forces
Sons of Ether: Oh, these megalomaniacs are really asking for it. I've foiled more than one plot for World Domination simply by walking into the same room as a blabbermouth Etherite. They make some pretty neat gizmos though. "I am unstoppable! Bwa-hah-hah-hah! I am invincible! The World is mine! I -- *BOOM*" -- Heinrich von Kibble, Ex-Son of Ether
Verbena: You know, I think the Verbena may have figured a few things out. I mean, they are always slitting their wrists whenever they use magick... "I don't understand them. They seem to think that by using the power of my blood that I'm somehow bringing misfortune onto myself. They are very strange. -- Robin Bashir, Adept of Life
Virtual Adepts: One little semi-colon out of place and the whole program crashes. Now, that is Murphy at work. "*groan* I avoid them because everytime I see one, I immediately get bugs -- everywhere." -- Diane Kerfoot, Disciple of Correspondence
The Technocracy: Like I said, they are really asking for it. Their heads are bigger than the Hermetics', the Choristers' and the Etherites' combined. "Directive 104-A.4: The mages known as Murphy's Law are very low priority for reprogramming. Correcting them causes more problems than it solves. -- 10110001, Iteration X
Vampires: Lessee, they are immortal, personally powerful and damned hard to kill. On the other hand, they melt in the sun and have to feed on blood to survive. Pretty even trade, I guess. "Me and a couple buddies of mine were having fun with this mortal one night about twenty years ago when he pulled some sneaky mage magick on us and caught the subway the hard way. We got his wallet though! Man, that was one night on the town! Of course, a few years later, I had the rottenest luck with some of the stuff I bought. -- Raphie, City Gangrel
Werewolves: I used to wonder why they have it so bad, but then one of them told me about the Impergium. Now, it's pretty obvious. "Mages in Horano -- but they do not despair. I avoid these odd ones." -- Sequoia, Child of Gaia
Wraiths: Poor bastards. You've got to respect someone who takes that much hard luck and still keeps going. "They are tainted with Oblivion even as they live." -- Melanie Rivers, Heretic
Changelings: Blech! They are waging a feeble war to make the world happy again. Hey, it never was!" "Wretched banal mages. Death to them all before they destroy us!" -- Count Cedric Bluetoes, House Eiluned
Sources "Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, the roof caves in." -- Forsyth's Second Corollary to Murphy's Laws For "Mage: The Ascension," by White Wolf Games Studios Paradox effects inspired by Tim Toner's "Trenchcoaters." http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/diverse/murphy/murphy2.html -- a keen web page with lots of Murphy's style quotes.
NECROMANCERS By Robert Kirkpatrick (
[email protected]) (18 Oct 93) Background: Almost everyone these days can tell you something about the Necromicon. From petty "warlocks" who own the ridiculous paperback version to horror fans who have seen everyone one of the Evil Dead movies. The Necromicon, the Sacred Book of the Dead, has become a part of pop culture (much to the chagrin of the Technomancers), but very few actually believe in its existence. One fragment group of the Euthanatos not only believe in the existence of the Necromicon, but spend their entire lives hunting down the remaining pages of the sacred Tome. These Mages are known as Necromancers, as their lives are led in an existence as solitary as Akashic Brotherhood monks. Only one goal drives these Mages and that's to collect all the remnants of the Book of the Dead into one all-powerful Artifact. This has brought them into numerous confrontations with every part of the Magickal Reality: from the Nephandi (who wants the Necromicon's dark secrets), to the Marauders (who want to spread the dark magick all around), and to the Technocracy (who want such magick crushed into the dirt). According to legend, the Book of the Dead, the almighty Necromicon, was the most powerful Artifact to have been created. Mages of ancient Assyria had bound the Book of the Dead in a variety of skin, from undead to garou to demonic to human. They inked it in the blood of virgin mortals on parchment made of thinly sliced, yellowed skin. The Magick scribed into the Necromicon was some of the darkest ever known, enough to make even the Euthanatos or the Verbena to shiver in disgust. It is said that even the Mages who wrote the Necromicon had no idea what they were writing, but were being driven on by a "higher force". When done, the Necromicon was 666 pages long, each drying leaf of skin covered with diagrams and instructions on wielding the most deadly magick ever known. No one knows what happened after the Necromicon was created. As suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, apparently destroyed. Some say that the Nephandi did not want their magick to be known and destroyed the book in vengeance. Others say that the early prototypes of the Marauders had stolen the Necromicon to teach unsuspecting mortals the darker arts. After a few hundred years, the Necromicon started to resurface. A few pages here, a few pages there. Each page was a powerful Talisman (of at least 3 Rating), and was greatly desired by all Mages. A group of Euthanatos had began to specialize in their study of the Necromicon, and dedicated their lives to the hunting and obtaining of all the remaining pages. Sometimes this goal would even put them against their Euthanatos brothers, which is why the Necromancers eventually split from them. They had only one goal now, and could not bother with the trivialities of the Euthanatos. Although small in number, the Necromancers have been able to survive into the modern era. Originally, they resembled ancient sorcerors, with long black robes, but recently, they've evolved into more of a scholarly professor types. Most of them still retain some of their Euthanatos darker-and-better-than-thou attitude -- somewhat like diabolical archeaologists. So far only about 66 pages have ever been recovered from the Necromicon (or so, that's all that is *known* to have been recovered). The Necromancers believe that the pages are all indestructible and cannot be destroyed (from experiments with already obtained pages) -- somewhere, out there, is the remaining pieces of the Necromicon, waiting to be collected and rebound. Necromancers tend to get involved with conflicts with almost everybody. Anyone who hinders them in their "research" is bound to gain their wrath. God help the soul that tries to keep a page from them. Usually the Necromancers are a loosely-knit lot, but when it comes to getting a page from another group or tradition, they bind together like an army. They have gotten into conflicts with Sabbat looking for the Book of Nod (sometimes the search is in the same places), with Garou guarding a Caern that holds a page or two, with Tremere who keep the pages for study, etc. Those Necromancers that are Masters of a Sphere usually have several pages of the Necromicon in their possession -- thus, giving them powerful Talismans. Adepts tend to have a few as well. Beginning characters can -- by buying the Talisman background -- have pages for their own; the specific powers on the page can vary widely. It should be emphasized, however, that all the Rotes in the Necromicon are deadly and destructive in nature -- no good comes from it. The favorite Spheres used in these Talismans are Entropy, Forces, Spirit, and Life, and any combination thereof. Finally, the Necromancers feel that Ascension can only be reached once the Book of the Dead is completed. In its dark pages, the true nature of reality, the way it should be, is described -- and only the Magick within it can ultimately unlock that reality. Many Necromancers have turned to the Nephandi in their quest for this dark knowledge.
Organization: The Necromancers are a very loose knit organization. There doesn't appear to be any head or leader. The person who tends to call most of the shots are the ones who have shown the most gain in acquiring pages from the Book of the Dead. Thus, actual experience is a must if one wants any prestige. Adepts can be more respected than Masters if the Adepts have acquired more pages of the Necromicon. The Necromancers publish a quarterly journal, known as the Necrofiles, that tell of recent rumors, finds, and digs that have occurred in the Necromancy community. The Necrofiles are very cryptically worded, but one of the first things acolytes are taught is how to decipher this code. The Necromancer organization is very much tailored like an association in academia: a group of professors from all around the world, united in a common pursuit of a certain academic discipline. In this case, for the study of the Necromicon. Normally, Necromancers are very open with one another about their finds and their knowledges. However, recently, various Mages have been very stingy and very competitive in their discoveries or searches. These Mages are looked down upon, as well as envied, because these Mages usually get the best finds. This has created a new backstabbing attitude among the younger members of the order, which has caused a great decrease in new discoveries.
Necromancers currently consist of three types of stereotypical members: 1) the stereotypical archeaologists, 2) the traditional ancient warlock/scholar (complete with black robes, evil familiars, etc.), and 3) die-hard adventurers/explorers, out not only for the knowledge, but the death-defying thrill of it all. They all tolerate each other remarkably well.
Meetings: Necromancers usually hold a Seminar every October. The Seminar is usually held at a major global university, be it in Paris, Boston, or Berlin. Few Necromancers refuse to attend the Seminar, because great amounts of rumor, knowledge, and prestige is doled out. The only reason one doesn't attend is if one is currently on a "dig", which is slang for out hunting for the Necromicon.
Initiation: The Necromancers believe that only the Necromicon can decide who can and cannot be a Mage. One of the earlier pages to be discovered dealt with the method to awaken the Avatar of potential candidates. The worthy acolyte is given the page to peruse: the page is often referred to as the Tongue of Great Mystery, written in cryptic code (even by the Necromancers' standards), and densely worded. Very few acolytes can ever hope to read it. However, those that have been awakened have been able to do so quite easily. As they read, they find themselves transported into another world, and experience firsthand the creation of the Necromicon. They are told everything that is in the Book of the Dead, all the power that it possesses. Then, at the end of this vision, and at the end of the reading, of the page, the acolyte sees himself with the Necromicon in his hand, but now he rules the world. When the acolyte comes out of his vision, he instantly forgets everything, but the sensations. He remembers the power he held in his hands, he remembers all of the knowledge that he possessed. He remembers being, in essence, a god. This is enough to make the Necromancer desire more. Of course, not everyone gets these visions. Many acolytes witness nothing while trying to decipher the text. A few acolytes have been found dead after reading it. Those who finish the Tongue of Great Mystery and get the visions, finds their avatar awakened. If the Mage tries to read the page again, will find it blank. If other Mages (or awakened beings) read it, they too will find it blank. The Chantry in Teheran is very open in letting this page out, much to the dismay of some of the more paranoid (or cautious) members. The Chantry believes that it should do it's best to encourage the development of more Necromancers in order to win the Ascension War.
Chantry: Teheran, Iran. This is the focus point for all the major searches for the Necromicon. All around Teheran, major archeaological digs are taking place, and from this location, it's easier to reach these other places: Egypt, Syria, Israel, Iraq, etc. The Necromancers have little concern over the politics of the area, and are in fact, not in the least bit affected by it. However, it's rumored that the Necromancers always make sure that the current government leaves them alone, or else they'll arrange a nice "religious revolution", using their Entropy Magick. It's also rumored that the war between Iran and Iraq was a Necromancer attempt to regain (or capture) precious archeaological areas.
Acolytes: Archeaologists, Grad Students, Explorers, Academics, Historical Scholars Sphere: As the Euthanatos, the speciality Shere is Entropy. One of the main Spheres of control in the Necromicon is supposedly Entropy.
Foci: Incantations: all Spheres Gargoyle: Correspondence/Mind Human Skull: Life/Entropy Page of the Necromicon: Spirit Wand: Matter/Forces Bone Necklace: Time/Prime
Incantations: Necromancers usually have to recite incantations to ancient deities and spirits, in order to use any of the Spheres. For example, a Necromancer might call out, "By the order of the great Abbadown, by the will of Thoth, I call upon the lightning, to strike down like the blazing tongue of the mighty serpent, Seth." The gods called upon are usually ancient Egyptian, Babylonia, or Assyrian. The incantations were supposedly developed by an influence of the Order of Hermes, early in the development of the Necromancers. As such, these incantations have become a traditional part of all Necromancer Magick. As a result, it is usually one of the last foci to be gotten rid of by a high Arete rating, because of its traditional significance. These incantations have always gotten the Necromancers in trouble, because they are often mistaken by other Traditions as devil- worshipping or Nephandi Magick.
Gargoyle: a small statuette of a gargoyle or demon, usually Pazuzzu, Lord of the Air. Must be carved out of marble, bone, or wood by the Mage himself. Usually, it is raised into the air, or pointed in a certain direction, when used. The gargoyle can be carved on top of the wand focus, if the Mage desires.
Human Skull: taken from someone the Mage has felt some strong emotion for, be it lover or enemy. Does not have to kill to get the skull, may be taken after death. The skull itself can be placed on the head of a wand, but not if a gargoyle focus rests there already. The human skull is a unique item.
Page of the Necromicon: Necromancers usually can have no contact with the Spirit world until they have one of these Talismans. Not a Unique Item, but still very hard to find.
Wand: about the size of quarterstaff, the wand is made up of bone or wood -- must be gnarled, knotted, or deformed in some way.
The wand must always be held two-handed in order to work its Magick. Common stances include raising the wand above the Mage's head, or pointing it like a rifle at the hip.
Bone Necklace: necklace made up of old, small bones -- either knuckles or teeth, or tiny ribs. The bones must be at least 100 hundred years old. Vampire bones of that age will do nicely (and will also give a -1 difficulty on casting the Magick). Werewolf bones also give the -1, but those at least 100 years old are hard to find (and even harder to get).
Concepts: Archeaologist, Indiana Jones-type, Professors, Warlock, Devil-Worshipper
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: "They understand the need for discipline and control. But there's too many jocks among them. They should be using their minds for searching for the Book of the Dead."
Celestial Chorus: "Good scholars, but their works are grounded too much in the Almighty. God is dead. The only true source of ancient power and knowledge is in the Necromicon."
Cult of Ecstasy: "No discipline, no goal, no worth." Discordians: "They come across as crazy fools, but they possess great knowledge of this world. Do not let their weirdness delude you."
Dreamspeakers: "They are closest to understanding the spiritual side of the world. But they refuse to understand that the true shapers of reality are the darker entities of the ancient world. They dabble too much in the minor spiritual forces."
Euthanatos: "They understand our pursuit of dark knowledge. As our parent community, we should honor them. But don't let them hinder us in our search."
Hollow Ones: "The Necromicon foretold that when the final Ascension was near, that the world would breathe forth mages among the mundanes. They are proof that the static world is breaking apart, and that the world of the Necromicon will soon be prevalent."
Order of Hermes: "Many valuable allies and scholars among them. Very knowledgeable group of Mages. However, their strictness and laws would stifle us in our quest."
Runecasters: "Powerful warriors, who understand that fate and destiny drives us all. Their runes are but one letter in the alphabet of the Necromicon."
Sons of Ether: "Impractical use of their great minds." Technolibertarian: "Like all the other masters of machine, they don't use their intelligence for the right purpose. Their sense of freedom is a charade. Only through discipline, quest, and restriction can they hope to learn anything. Power is freedom. And the Necromicon is power."
Verbena: "They think with their blood magic that they possess the true secrets of Life. Life is but an outgrowth of more powerful beings, the beings whose truths are revealed in the Necromicon."
Virtual Adepts: "These youngsters will be so upset when the Necromicon is bound together again. All their little toys will be irrelevant."
Rotes Seer into the Beyond (Entropy 2, Time 2): The Necromancers use this rote in order to see the outcome of very specific actions. What the rote does is allow the caster to look into the future, but be able to filter out any unnecesary random future events, so that he can see one specific outcome. The Necromancer essentially asks a specific question about the future, and gets a yes or no answer. Common questions include, "Oh, mighty spirits, I beseech you, is a page of the Necromicon behind this door?" or "If I get into a fight with this Mage, will I die?" The outcomes always occur, but not necessarily the way the Mage thought. For instance, in the first example, a page may be behind the door, but it could be buried under 3,000 feet of sand, or in the second example, the Mage may not die, but may be teleported in a Paradox dimension. Correspondence Magick must be combined with this rote, in order to ask questions about a place the Necromancer currently is not, like "will I die if I go to Egypt tomorrow?" System: the number of successes on the Magickal effect roll is the number of questions the Mage can ask about a particular scene. The Mage cannot recast the spell to gather any information that might be beneficial to him for that same scene. For instance, before a battle, the Necromancer asks a few questions about it's outcome: will i die, will this particular attack kill him, etc. He cannot later ask "will my friend die," if it's about the same battle. Also, the Mage cannot ask anything that is philosophically vague, such as "is there a God?" This will occur in one aggravated wound per number of successes, plus Paradox.
Spirit Wrack (Forces 3 or 5, Spirit 3, Prime 2): Because Necromancers, with the use of the Necromicon, are always getting
involved with dark spirits, they need a way to defend themselves from other attacks. This rote allows the Necromancer to fire a electrical or fiery blast into the Umbra while the Mage himself is still in the physical world. This attack will usually surprise the hell out of any Banes or Spirits that have come to spy on the Mage or attack him. It can even kill some of them as well. System: same rolls as a normal attack on the physical world. Note that the attack appears in the Umbra, so it follows the rules for collecting of Paradox in the Umbra. There's no need for coincidental effects. Of course, the Necromancer should peek into the Umbra before casting the rote, or else he won't know where to shoot.
See a few examples of Necronomicon talismans
Nephandi The Redemption By Jonathan Lang (
[email protected])
Introduction This is an expansion on the background introduced in the Book of Madness; it covers those rare Nephandi who have managed to resist the corruption. Their souls are tainted with darkness, yet they constantly fight against the corruption of their soul; they are the Repentant.
Dark Avatar Every Nephandus has a Dark Avatar against which the Repentant struggles; the True Nephandi have already lost this struggle, and are dominated by their dark sides.
Dark Nature Every Nephandus has three Archtypes, instead of the usual two: Nature, Demeanor, and Dark Nature. The Dark Nature defines how the Nephandi's Avatar attempts to control her. Following is a list of the possible Dark Natures: The Abuser The Director The Freak The Leech The Martyr The Monster The Parent The Perfectionist The Pusher The Rationalist For details about each Dark Nature, look up the equivelent Shadow Archtype from Wraith: the Oblivion.
Corruption This trait represents the taint on the Nephandi's Avatar; as the Repentant loses ground in her struggle, her Corruption increases. When the mage's Permanent Corruption reaches 10, she becomes a Fallen One, and loses her chance at Redemption. A Repentant Nephandi starts with six points of Corruption; he can modify this with Freebie Points, as below; permanent Corruption cannot start below 1 or above 10, and temporary Corruption cannot start below 0 or above 9. +1 Permanent Corruption -- 5 point Flaw +1 Temporary Corruption -- 2 point Flaw -1 Permanent Corruption -- 5 point Merit -1 Temporary Corruption -- 2 point Merit
Gaining Corruption There are several ways the Nephandus can gain Corruption: 1. Qlippothic Dice: At any time, the Avatar can offer the Nephandus extra dice on any roll he makes; each Botch on these Qlippothic Dice earns the mage a point of Corruption. The Avatar can offer up to five extra dice for a given roll. 2. the Hierarchy of Sins: Whenever the Nephandi does something evil or corrupt, she must make a Corruption roll against a difficulty found on the Hierarchy of Sins listed below (remember the rule of Automatic Successes; if her Corruption equals or exceeds the Difficulty of the Sin, she automatically succeeds). On a failure, she gains a point of Corruption; on a botch, she gains two points.
The Hierarchy of Sins Difficulty Sin
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Accidental Wrongdoing Purposeful Wrongdoing Purposeful Infliction of Injury Theft and Robbery Unpremeditated Murder Wanton Destruction Deliberate Cause of Injury Sadism and Perversion Premeditated Murder Only the most depraved and immoral acts
3. Qlippothic Magick: Qlippothic Magick is the dark side of the Spheres, and is used exclusively by the Nephandi; whenever Qlippothic Magick botches, the Mage gains a point of Corruption.
Losing Corruption The Repentant can fight off Corruption by displays of heroism, uncommon compassion, or remorse for past evil deeds. The more corrupt the mage is, the greater the deed must be to recover a point of Corruption. Removing a point of Corruption is comparable in difficulty and technique to gaining a point of Arete; the Mage must go through an Epiphany, in that he must confront his Avatar. However, he is confronting the taint in the Avatar and purifying it, rather than being tested by the Avatar.
Taints A Repentant has some additional choices for Merits and Flaws:
Tainted Trait: cost varies -- the mage gets an extra point for use in one trait, decided at character creation; however, any use of the extra point earns the mage a point of Corruption. The cost depends on the trait being tainted: Attributes -- 3 points per dot Abilities -- 1 point per dot Spheres -- 5 points per dot
Bad Karma: 3 point Flaw -- the Avatar can spend a point of Corruption to decrease the number of successes gained by the mage, just as the mage can expend a point of Willpower to increase the number of successes.
Freudian Slip: 5 point Flaw -- By spending a point of temporary Corruption, the Avatar can force the mage to perform one action. This can be resisted by spending a point of Willpower and making a Willpower roll (difficulty = Corruption, minimum of 3).
Devil's Dare: 7 point Flaw -- The Avatar may invest a number of points of temporary Corruption into a single action; before the end of the session, the mage must perform that action. If she doesn't, she loses a number of Willpower points equal to the number of Corruption points that the Avatar expended.
Redemption If a Nephandi ever reduces her Corruption to zero, she has achieved Redemption; she loses her Dark Nature and Taints completely, and is no longer a Nephandi.
ORDER OF ST. NERIUS By Craig J Neumeier (
[email protected]) (11 May 94) In honor of Ascension Thursday, and the thread on the Celestial Chorus now rapidly vanishing from memory, I present some real Christian Mages. This group is based on a supplement for the formerly White Wolf-owned game Ars Magica. If one was to take them as given, they would apparently be an offshoot of the shadow Order of Hermes; however, since they had the ability to break the limits of Hermetic magic I'm not sure that they can justifiably be called hedge wizards. I have altered them substantially from the original, to conform to the standard Mage magic system. For purposes of this post I've taken the Received Version of the Chorus as truth. The Neriusites, at least, are completely convinced that the Chorus only gained full control over the Church at a relatively late point in its history, and they probably have documents to back up their claim. (The Chorus probably has contrary documents.) I'm not sure the Order is a good source for PCs: they may not join Chantries, as will be seen, and there are so many restrictions on their behavior that playing one would be a frustrating experience. It's not inconceivable that one could associate himself with a group of Tradition mages, but I really think of them more as a feature of the background. I've tried my best to fit this bunch to the tone of the World of Darkness without betraying their inner nature. One of the chief reasons for their existence is to testify that Darkness is not, after all, the final reality. But under current conditions, they have to be so quiet about it that it's not surprising that so few people have heard the good news....
The Order of St. Nerius "The light shines on in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." --John 1:5 (KJV)
Background: The Order of St. Nerius was founded by a member of the Order of Hermes in the 10th century of the Christian Era. They are an order of Christian lay religious who have no longer have any known connection with any organized church. Nor do they have any connection to the Order of Hermes -- indeed, according to some reports Nerius was a member of the shadow Order who Awakened to full power. The Order is a small group, numbering probably between one and two dozen members at any given time. They firmly believe in the truth of Christianity, with some unusual consequences for their magical powers. They claim that they have never had any connection to the Celestial Chorus, whom they assuredly view as heretics who have infiltrated the body of the church. The Order considers themselves to be outsiders to the Ascension War. They do not think much more highly of the Traditions than they do of the Technocracy. A member may occasionally find himself on the same side as either faction, perhaps in opposition to a Marauder or a Nephandus. In general, the Neriusites go about the world performing tiny acts of charity and practicing virtue on a very small scale -- a glimmer of light in a World of Darkness, but a glimmer that is never quite extinguished.
The Strictures: The Order of St. Nerius was a quiet but visible force in the shadow Order of Hermes and medieval society as a whole down to the end of the Middle Ages. Around the 15th century, however - -- the same time as the rise of the Technocracy and the fall of the shadow Order of Hermes -- something happened to them. Even they themselves do not appear to be certain what it was. According to their teachings, they were visited by an angel, as had occasionally happened to them throughout their existence. This time, the Archangel Gabriel himself came, bringing them an unwelcome message. He told them that they had displeased Heaven grievously, and that in response they were permitted to continue in existence only on the condition of accepting certain Strictures on their behavior. These Strictures were continue in effect until another messenger of Heaven came and told them they had been removed. So far, this has not happened. The members of the modern Order of St. Nerius do not appear to know themselves precisely what failure of their predecessor brought on the Strictures, although they say the head of the Order, who is certainly an Oracle, maintains the knowledge. (See Appendix for a few of my suggestions.) Whatever the cause, the Strictures themselves are clear. If a member disobeys them, other Neriusites will invariably appear and punish him or her with gilgul. Unlike the Traditions, the Order appears to rate this punishment as less severe than death.
The Strictures The Stricture of Silence: Members of the Order may not call on the Highest for information, nor on servants of the Divine. Once, members of the Order of St. Nerius claim to have spoken with angels on a regular basis. This no longer happens. Since Gabriel announced the strictures to them, Heaven has been silent to the Order. Even their avatars never say anything to them. The Order views this as the most bitter of their punishments. The Stricture of Forbearance: Neriusites do not attempt to change social structures. Not with their magical powers, anyway, and not even as activists even in a conventional human sense. Thus, the Order does not oppose the Technocracy per se, though they occasionally find themselves defending one or another of its victims. Neither do they challenge the power of the Celestial Chorus over the Church. The Stricture of Separation: Members of the Order are forbidden to form ties to the world. This encompasses their vows of poverty and chastity, but goes much further. Neriusites cannot belong to any organization, whether of Sleepers or Awakened, on
a permanent basis. The Stricture of Benevolence: What Neriusites actually do with themselves, then, is restricted to dealings on the level of individual human beings. In those dealings, however, they are enjoined to do whatever is necessary to help them (subject to the limits of their Christian morality). Neriusites are very skilled at counselling, healing, and protecting the innocent.
Special Rules: The Neriusites' firm belief has apparently strengthened their magic beyond that normally available. In addition to Willpower, all Neriusites have the characteristic Faith, which represents their belief and trust in God, or "the Highest" as they tend to call Him these days. This characteristic works exactly like Willpower, being spent temporarily to gain successes. However, there is one major exception: if a Faith point is spent on a spell, that spell is not subject to Paradox effects. By and large this ability is only used with the standard sorts of miracles -- healings, multiplication of loaves and fishes, that kind of thing -- but there is nothing to stop them from using it for any effect. Faith is regained through meditation and participation in religious rituals, as well as by any event which tends to strengthen their beliefs. The Order views this ability as being a result of their power's orientation toward the Highest, who is of course beyond the reach of human belief, no matter what wrongheaded Metaphysic other mages may accept. Other mages tend to consider it merely an effect of keying into a paradigm, (miracle working by holy individuals) which is after all accepted as true by a very large proportion of humanity. It is true that Neriusites work almost exclusively among Christians. In addition, the Order -- all of them being ordained as exorcists -- are particularly skilled at casting spirits out of the world. There are stories that this ability applies to Paradox spirits as well as the more usual Nephandus-allied victims. When a Neriusite is casting a spell that has the effect of sending away a spirit, add half of his current Faith point total to the dice pool. If he takes the time to perform a full exocism ritual with bell, book, and candle, add the entire Faith score to the pool. There are whole classes of spells that Neriusites are forbidden to cast as being against the will of the Highest. They do not ever use Mind spells to override human free choice, for instance. They go to great lengths to avoid using lethal force.
Philosophy: Magick is what remains of the power that was given by the Highest to the First of our kind, to be master and steward of the earth. Fallen humanity retains only shattered fragments of the gift, and are far too easily corrupted by them. Ascension is the mages' way of groping toward union with the Divine. It is a great sin of Pride for them to think that they can ever attain the true light by their own efforts. Can a shadow could tear itself off a wall? But all things are possible with God.
Organization: All the members of the Order take vows of obedience. In practice, however, the Neriusites seem to be left to follow their own consciences as long as they obey the rules of the Order. Due to the Stricture of Separation, Nerians cannot become members of non-Order chantries. There are no reliable external reports of meetings with the head of the Order, though all the Nerians swear he exists.
Meetings: These presumably exist, but nobody outside the Order has ever seen one. There are very few confirmed sightings of members either during the three days of from Good Friday to Easter or on the feast of St. Nerius (October 31st); it is often supposed that they go to their chantry for these celebrations.
Initiation: Some members of the Order seem to spend much of their time seeking out potential candidates for membership. These are more often already mages than the unawakened. Candidates live with a Neriusite for some time, usually more than one, and spend some time as a contemplative, alone but guarded. Eventually, they vanish for a while, apparently undergoing training, and emerge as full-fledged members of the Order having taken final vows. Or, sometimes, fail to emerge at all.
Chantry: There used to be an Abbey of St. Nerius in the foothills of the Alps, just inside what is now France. It was suppressed by the Church in the 14th century, but apparently continued to exist after withdrawing from contact with the mortal world. The Technocracy destroyed it 200 years ago, during the French Revolution. According to rumors, they found the Abbey empty except for one member of the Order. This attack appears to have had no effect whatever on the activities of the Order. There is no known chantry now, but most mages believe they must have one somewhere.
Acolytes: None. The Stricture of Separation forbids acolytes. Sphere/Foci: None. Members learn spheres as if they were Orphans. Options: As an offshoot of the shadow Order of Hermes, use the language focus with the special rule that they get penalized one die for speaking softly, or two dice for silence, but may still cast. Or, use the more-or-less-completely invented Archangel correspon- encies, altered from the ArsM version for Mage. Since there are only 7 archangels, my list goes like this: Correspondence -- Gabriel (messenger angel) Entropy -- Suriel (Angel of Death) Forces -- Michael (flaming sword) Life -- Raphael ("God has healed") Matter -- Jophiel (the Watcher) Mind -- Adam (giver of names) Prime -- Eve (the mother of all living) Spirit -- Zadkiel (angel of the celestial sphere) Time -- Chamuel (the recording angel)
Invocations can be by name or seal. [Please don't write and tell me that some of the descriptions of the archangels are strange and have little or no basis in real angelology. I know that.]
Concepts: hermit, wandering holy man. Quote: "Recall that when you leave the world you shall be judged, and all your arts and all your rituals shall not avail you against His will." (from St. Nerius' speech to the Hermetic tribunal which condemned and killed him)
Stereotypes The Traditions: It is only their failures which allow any of them to avoid the snares which have caught the Technocracy. Perhaps it is a form of grace upon them they have never been forced, like the Technocracy, to discover how limited their merely human visions of Ascension truly are.
Akashic Brotherhood: They are true mystics, in their limited fashion. They seek the emptiness and void, and do not know the Light which alone can fill it.
Celestial Chorus: How long O Lord, how long? A brood of vipers who use the Church for their own ends, who dare to identify themselves with the Highest. They store up wrath for themselves, and how we wish it were already ablaze!
Cult of Ecstasy: Slaves to the flesh, slaves to their desires. And they imagine themselves to be free, poor souls. Dreamspeakers: We do not understand the place of their spirits in the Highest's plan. But we do know that mankind is more than the servant of Gaia. Is she not our fellow creature?
Euthanatos: More to be pitied than feared. They have looked upon the great truth of mortality, that all things of the world must die. Few of them can bear to hear other truths; they hold to their despair in the teeth of hope.
Hollow Ones: A new thing in the world, perhaps a great gift of the Highest. They are young yet, and we watch them closely, for who can say what they will be when they are older?
Order of Hermes: They produced St. Nerius. And then they martyred him. Blind then, blind still -- and such a little step that they must take to see!
Sons of Ether: -- There is something appealing about their childlike joy in their inventions. If only they were not so wedded to their toys.
Verbena: They have built their whole false theology on deliberate denial of the higher side of humanity. If they were not such pathetic failures, they would be dangerous.
Virtual Adepts: Their gleaming dream is as empty as any other Technomancer's, at the core. The Technocracy: A noble dream brought down by human nature. An old story. They are not the first to sell their souls for the kingdoms of the earth. They can never touch the Highest, and all their games with reality are ultimately building upon sand.
The Marauders: Madmen. Their hopelessness cannot justify their actions. The Nephandi: What is there to say? They are lost, and we destroy them when we can. But we, at least, do not make the error of thinking that such an obvious danger is the Adversary's only tool on earth.
Appendix: Possible reasons for the Strictures: Maybe the Order was supposed to prevent the division of the Church during the Reformation. Or maybe they were supposed to heal the corruption in the Church before the Reformation ever started, but didn't want to get involved. Perhaps the Order was involved in the witch hunts, and particularly in the persecution of the Kindred. Remember that God promised to curse anyone who sought to kill Cain; it is possible that this curse extended to those who deliberately set themselves to wipe out his descendents. Possibly the Order got involved in secular politics, and really did try to win control of the Church and/or the Order of Hermes in the days when the two were falling out. Maybe they were behind the founding of the Inquisition, or the immense suffering which accompanied the Spanish conquests in the New World. Maybe the Neriusites were supposed to prevent the Fall of Constantinople or some other great failure of Christendom. Take a cue from the Arthur legend, and perhaps a Neriusite struck a second Dolorous Blow with the spear of Longinus while on some misbegotten crusade.
NEW AGE TRAVELERS By Darren Wheatcroft "We travel, because we are free. Not like you, trapped in your little houses with their gardens. The world is our back garden, the streams are our plumbing. The magic is ours to enjoy. Magic of the open road, magic of the soul. Lend us a fiver?" The Tremere clan of vampires, in the late 19th century began the popular movement of spiritualists that prevailed in that time. The Ventrue, assisted by the Technocracy, beat down this movement mercilessly. In the middle of the 1960's, the Tremere deemed it the time for the movement to reappear, and created the 'Hippies' of that time. Environmentalism and mysticism combined to make a group of people that could successfully mask the workings of the Tremere. Many new Tremere were embraced from this time.[1] The Ventrue and their allies, the Technocracy [2] fought to crush the hippie movement, and were helped by the materialistic economies of the early eighties, until most hippies were thought of as 'odd'. Magic did not totally disappear, and the general public began to accept many supernatural occurances as ordinary, making the Technocracy's powers weaker significantly.[3] In the mid eighties, a hundred years after the birth of the spiritualist movement in the UK, the Tremere once again began to tinker with reality and the 'New Age Travelers' were born. Many are failed students, disenchanted by the structured learning of the Universities, often controlled by the Technocracy. Many more are drop outs, unable to keep a work ethic for very long in this Ventrue dominated country. This suited the Tremere purposes well, for those who were suspicious of technologies, who shunned that that was 'material' were prime targets for covering the actions of Vampires. The Tremere leaders successfully turned several 'leaders' into Ghouls, accidentally awakening them in the process. With their new powers, these leaders (known in the outside world as members of the crusty band, the Levellers) began to learn the 'inner' secrets of their world, and became adept in the spheres of Life and Spirit, causing many of the Traditions to mistake them for either Verbena or Dreamspeakers, quite falsely. As the movement grew, more were awakened and learn the arts of magic. As yet, the group have no real agenda for using their powers, except for confusing the Police and Beaurocrats as to who they are, so as to claim larger welfare cheques from the government. Politically, they are active on the side of environmental issues, anti nuclear protests and (against the wishes of their Vampire masters) are predominately vegetarians. In fact, so much so, that they believe the eating of meat or animal produce affects their magic, rendering it dormant until they purify themselves.[4] The Tremere use them to disguise 'recruiting sessions' and to raise the general publics perception of the Supernatural. As such, they are hated by the Technocracy, revilled by the Ventrue (they may break the Masquerade) and thought of as weirdos by most sleepers. However, despite their vampiric connections (known only to a few of the order) the Traditions tolerate them, since they have succeeded in weakening the gauntlet in several key cities, manchester being the largest.[5]
Organization: The New Agers have no real organisation. The leaders are not true leaders, they only suggest ways to go. The Tremere dominated Levellers are at the moment attempting to attract new followers through their music. The basic unit of any group of these orphans is one.
Meetings: Every free rock festival is a traditional meeting place for the Travelers. The main ones are Glastonbury and Reading. Otherwise, they meet nightly in pubs accross the country.
Initiation: To be awakened, the hopeful must have been a Traveler for at least three years. Upon awakening, they hold a party, and all the group attend. There are two of these initiations every year, at Glastonbury and Reading festivals.[6]
Chantry: The main chantry is in Dublin, Eire. Acolytes: New Age Travelers, Drop outs, 'Greenies' Sphere: None, but show a preference for Spirit and Life. Foci: May not eat meat, or else they lose their powers. Concepts: Drop outs, New age travelers, 'Greenies'
Stereotypes [A] MAGES Akashic Brotherhood: Too much introspection means that They can catch up with you. Celestial Chorus: Once this was a good way, now, they are the pawns of the establishment. Cult of Ecstacy: Hey, now these guys can throw a party! We always invite them to ours, and they even play sometimes! Dreamspeakers: They are to be trusted, they care for the environment much as we do, but they are lost in their path.
Euthanatos: Aren't these guys working for Them? Hollow Ones: Who? [7] Order of Hermes: MATHS! SCIENCE! these are the ways of Them. Avoid! Sons of Ether: hey, didn't I just... oh that was for the Hermes guys. Well, these are the same. Nearly. Pretty cool ideas though. Verbena: If they could do away with the need for so much blood, we could get on with them. As it is, they pollute almost as much as they purify.
Virtual Adepts: Geeks with computers. Still sometimes they can f**k up Them! Iteration X: Who? NWO: Now, THESE guys are Them... all of them deserve to be fried. The Progenitors: Messing with life! Inhuman! The Syndicate: Hey, these guys pay for our parties, but they don't know that yet! Void Engineers: They don't bother us. Mind you, all that rocket research must be paid for by the military. Marauders: These nutters... well, we don't mind them. Except when they frag us. Nephandi: Devil worshippers, they make even Them look friendly... [B] VAMPIRES Ventrue: Upper class, they rule the country. But so do our parents. Stake em. Tremere: Hmmm. They seem to like us. Can't think why. They have cool spells though. Nosferatu: Who? never heard of them. Oh you mean like in the film? Tzimisce: Abominations, but wasnt Drac one? Brujah: Some of these are OK towards us. Especially in Manchester and Liverpool. Notes: [1] : Including my own PC, Moonchild, an ex hippy and twelfth generation Tremere now a computer genius in Bonn. *smirk* [2] : Uneasy because the technocracy want to destroy all supernature, and what are vampires but supernature incarnate, the Get of Caine! They have to be allies however, since the government (Tory party) is Ventrue controlled. They wait the next election with eager anticipation... [3] : Hence, the UK is home to many more Fae, Ghosts and supernatural entities than most would expect. The gauntlet is significantly weaker in the countryside, treat rural country as deep wilderness (a 2) there is no Deep wilderness in the United Kingdom. [4] : If a Crusty eats meat, their avatar temporarily weakens, and all spheres are treated as being one less until the Mage Fasts for a day. [5] : Treat as one level less for purposes of breaching the gauntlet, downtown becomes a 4, the rest of the city becomes 3. Nodes still need one success however. [6] : Which is why the police always show a greater interest in stopping these festivals... [7] : The Hollow Ones are a purely American order, and have no branches in the UK. If they did, the response would be "SAD GOTHS!" :)
CONTINUUM AND NEXUS By Constantine Thomas (
[email protected]) (Also see: Continuum tradition, Shelby Babb's additions, and Arthur-Trevor D.M. Lasher's Southron Republic virtual)
NEXUS -- The Shade Realm of Time Theme This may be a good point to define the `theme' of the Continuum and Nexus. This theme is the exploration and interpretation of the Mysterious Unknown. The Strange, the Weird, and the Unusual. Enigmatic Alien artefacts on empty worlds, disappearing cities, mind-blowing Hard Sci-Fi mystery, strange forces shaping realities, civilisations never encountered before, and so on. Bear this in mind when designing your own Virtuals.
An Introduction to Nexus Nexus is a truly incredible Realm, and is home to Central Office, the Main Chantry of the Continuum. It is from here that the Continuum coordinates its defence of the Corridor. Aside from its bizarre inhabitants and environment, Nexus opens whole new Vistas of opportunity and adventure for Mages, through the Virtuals that can be accessed from it. Some periods of History appear to result in the creation of an Alternate Corridor to the Main Corridor (MC) representing Earth. History may take a different course in these Alternate Corridors, known as Virtual Futures, or more commonly, virtuals. Within these Virtuals, an exact duplicate of MC is created, but with one difference -- the outcome of the event. When the time comes for the event to occur in MC, one of these Virtuals 'crystallises' or becomes Real. This former Virtual now represents the outcome of the event in MC. The other Virtuals at this point 'shear off' the Main Corridor, and these 'failed' Virtuals are cast adrift in the Darkness. Many (if not most) of these Virtuals are rapidly dissolved by the Darkness, but some survive for long enough to be captured by Nexus and made Real. The Darkness itself requires some further explanation. It represents the corrective forces of the Metaverse. The Corridors themselves are actually aberrations in the fabric of the Metaverse, and as a result are quite unstable. To restore equilibrium, the Darkness (the natural fabric of the Metaverse) seeks to dissolve these instabilities. On Main Corridor (the only True Corridor about which anything is known at present), these attempts at correction manifest on the whole as seemingly intelligent entities seeking to invade and destroy our reality -- the Continuum's sole purpose is to repel these invaders. The Continuum is fully aware that it can never `win' this Perpetual War, and as such solely operates defensively, foiling invasion attempts as and when they occur. To some, these invasions appear to be driven by individual entities -- the Garou see an entity known as the Wyrm. However, this is an illusion. The Continuum know that the Wyrm (and the other devils of the Awakened) are but the physical representations of a much greater concept. In a sense, the Darkness itself (or at least its physical representations) may be considered as sentient in an extremely alien way. It cannot destroy our True Corridor directly, but instead seeks to weaken it from the inside through these invasions. As such it manifests within Main Corridor as entities which appear `evil' and `nihilistic'. Although the Continuum destroys or banishes Wraiths where it finds them (due to the fact that they seem to weaken the Walls of the Corridor where they appear), the Oblivion of these Ghosts is probably much closer to a true understanding of the concept of the Darkness than the Wyrm. Nexus itself is unusual in the cosmology of the Continuum. It is directly attached to Main Corridor, running parallel to it (unlike the Branches, which radiate from the sides), but borders directly on both the Darkness and Main Corridor itself -- thus, in Mage terms, it is a Horizon Realm with access to both the Deep Umbra and the Near Umbra and Earth. Thus, it can collect the Virtuals that are cast adrift from Main Corridor. It is not entirely clear what factors allow certain Virtuals to survive dissolution by the Darkness. The probability of their outcome is very likely to be one factor, although the amount of Energy (Quintessence) they hold also appears to be important. Sometimes it just seems to be the will of its inhabitants' existence that gives the Virtual strength against the Darkness. One possibility, which the Continuum or any other mortal is completely unaware of (and is quite possibly afraid to consider), is that Nexus itself is actively saving Virtuals from destruction. This also raises the question of whether or not Nexus itself is in fact the Oracle of the Continuum. Nexus is surrounded by thousands (if not millions) of Virtuals, accumulated it seems from the beginnings of our own Corridor. These Virtuals surround Nexus like a fibreoptic cable, with Nexus being the core 'fibre.' However, when accessing Nexus from MC, it can be entered directly without recourse to having to pass through a Virtual first. The Virtuals themselves can only be accessed via Nexus, and not from MC. It appears that the Virtuals related to Earth and humanity are the most easy to access from Nexus, while other, more 'incompatible' Virtuals are much harder to enter. There appears to be some kind of metaphysical barrier that prevents different and incompatible Virtuals from intermingling. Thus, a Virtual where the very physical and natural
laws define Reality to consist solely of Radiation (with no matter) is going to be extremely difficult (if not impossible) for an MC human (who comes from a Universe where Matter dominates) to access. A Virtual contains a 'less potent' (see later) duplicate of everything (even Nodes) that was contained in the Main Corridor when it separated. When a Virtual splits from MC, Time freezes within it, since it is now no longer sustained by The Flow while adrift. This makes it very vulnerable to invasion by the Darkness through the 'open ends' of the Virtual. In all cases, if the Darkness breaks through to the drifting Virtual, it is discorporated in seconds..... mercifully, its inhabitants (frozen in time) are not even aware of their destruction (they are not even aware of their existence at this point). Nexus itself seems to be a Pseudo-Corridor -- similar to MC but not quite the same. It possesses some kind of MetaGravity, that allows it to attract the drifting Virtuals. It also, being a Branch (albeit an unusual one) of MC, has the Flow travelling through it. The Flow represents Prime, but it also pushes objects within the Corridor (and all of its Branches (including Nexus)) forwards through Time. If a Virtual has no Flow, it is temporarily rendered both 'unreal' and 'outside Time'. If a Virtual survives its drift in the Darkness and is re-attached to Nexus, the Flow resumes through it. This restarts the flow of Time through the Virtual, and its inhabitants continue their existence completely unaware that their future is different to that of Main Corridor (although their past is the same). As far as they are concerned, their future is the correct future, and the only future. This is due to the Law Of Continuity, described below. As a result, Nexus is fuelled by many thousands of Nodes in many different Virtuals (and in MC), so it is a huge Realm -- even though most are weaker than MC Nodes, there are so many that it makes little difference.
NEXUS -- THE REALM Introduction Nexus is a generally Earth-like environment, in that the atmosphere is breathable, liquid water is present, and the flora and fauna are compatible with those of Earth. The scenery is spectacular, though. Nexus apparently has no Sun. However, it is continually illuminated by the light from many stars -- night is non-existent on Nexus. In addition, five large moons circle Nexus, equally spaced along the same orbit. The moons go through phases, which is odd considering there is no Sun. Their day sides are reddish, implying that the source of the light is red in colour. At any given point, all the phases are accounted for -- one moon is New, another is Crescent, another is Half, another is Gibbous, and the last one is Full. A day is defined as the time it takes between moonrise and moonset -- 32 hours. A month is defined as the time it takes for a given moon to pass through all its phases -- this takes 50 days. If the Garou were aware of this place, no doubt they would attach some cosmological significance to the fact that all their auspices are represented in the sky. A search for the light source in the sky using telescopes has as yet revealed nothing, which baffles Continuum Scientists. The atmosphere on Nexus is thick and humid, but pleasantly warm. It rains a lot, and occasionally great thunderstorms sweep across the land. There appears to be no seasonal variation. Gravity is Earthlike. The landscape is very extreme -- there are vast oceans, huge perfectly flat plains, and towering mountains and crags that dwarf the largest on Earth. An unusual rock in some areas is known as `Timestone' -- from a distance it appears solid, but on closer inspection other realities can be seen through the shimmering translucent rock. Nexus is largely unexplored by the Continuum, but appears to be a vast place, much larger than Earth. The flora and fauna are generally Earth-like, although the vegetation varies in colour from greens and blues to reds and purples. The plant life is striking in its variety -- there are towering Needletrees that reach up to 200' tall that do not sway in even the strongest hurricanes, and others (Lowtrees) that are about 2' high but spread over and area of about 100 square feet! Fauna is varied too -- some animals are dangerous, many are not. Predators can be difficult to deal with, since they often have some precognitive ability to know where their prey is. Some prey species also have this ability, but in many cases they allow themselves to be killed by the predators anyway. Other more dangerous species feed on Time itself, and will either age their prey or create a Time Loop in which they repeat the same actions. Somehow they derive sustenance from these shifts in Time. There is no direct evidence for any intelligent life on Nexus, but there are ancient/future artifacts on the plane. A lighthouse, paradoxically dated as being built 3000 years from now, stands at the edge of the Shifting Sea. This is not a sea at all, but is rather a plain, where reality itself ebbs and flows with some cosmic tide. Elsewhere, ancient ruins depicting the entire histories of realities lie, untouched by time, below the Sands of Time.
Time and the Environment The Passage of Time: Time is a strange and highly localized phenomenon in Nexus. It appears that individual, aware beings
(ie. animals and sapients) have their own Internal Time Field in which they operate, regardless of the External (environmental) Time Field -- for example, a human Mage from MC Earth caught in an External Field where Time apparently passes 10 times slower will still be able to move at his normal rate. However, everything around him (that is not another animal or sapient being) will be moving much slower -- plants will sway lazily in the wind, bullets will take longer to reach their targets etc. However, it is still possible for Mages studying Time to contract or dilate their own Time Fields -- thus in a part of Nexus where Time passes twice as fast as normal, the Mage can speed up his own Internal Field (using Time Magic) to match the External Field. If this is done, the External and Internal Fields are synchronised, and to the Mage's perspective, Time passes at a normal rate for him.
Temporal Waves: Being the Shade Realm of Time, Nexus is subject to unusual temporal environmental effects. The most important of these are the Temporal Waves that sweep across the Realm. These appear as immense transparent linear waves that travel across the land, moving at varying speeds. Some travel extremely rapidly, others can be escaped simply by walking. These Waves have the property of altering the flow of Time by their passage. The exact effect of the Temporal Wave can be deduced by looking through the Wavefront as it approaches. The image of the environment on the other side is sped up or slowed down depending on the effect of the wave. Thus, if a Wave will speed up the flow of Time three times relative to the present rate, images seen through the Wavefront will appear to move three times faster than those nearer the observer. This results in a form of `Temporal Weather Prediction,' as sensors in the Field detect the incoming wave and transmit data to Central Office. This is then processed and transmitted to Field Agents operating in Nexus so they can prepare for the approaching Temporal Wave. Studies of the geometry of these Temporal Waves has shown a slight curvature to them, which indicates that they emanate (like ripples) from a very distant central point somewhere to the south of Central Office (CO). This is certainly in the unexplored regions of Nexus. Quite what could be causing the Waves are another matter, and an expedition to what has been dubbed `The Origin' is being considered by the Research Section of CO.
Time Zones: The actual rate of passage of a being's Internal Time Field depends on the External Time Field of the universe it was born in. The External Field of Main Corridor is the one that we as humans are most familiar with -- it is what we consider the `normal' passage of time. Most of the Virtuals, being derived directly from MC, have this same External Field. However, in Nexus itself there are zones in which the basic External Field is different to that of MC's. These stable zones are known as Time Zones, and can be thought of as Islands of stability in the temporal storm -- the passage of time within these Time Zones is unaffected by the passage of a Temporal Wave. Central Office itself is built in the only known Time Zone where the passage of time is equal to that of MC. However, there are many others in which the External Field is slower or faster. Note that Time Zones can have any physical size and shape. The largest known is a square whose sides are 25 km long -- this is where Central Office is located. Time Zones are frequently inhabited by indigenous creatures, which either evolved there from scratch or migrated there from other Time Zones and temporally adapted to the new External Field. This means their Internal Fields are synchronised to the External Field of the Time Zone they live in, even if they move outside it. Animals indigenous to the slower Time Zones to Central Office are rarely a threat to humans since they therefore move at an inherently slower rate, but those originating in the faster Time Zones are often quite dangerous, since they can naturally operate at much faster speeds. Agents are frequently advised to be on their guard in the field in Nexus [Time 1 actually has some use here, since Mages will be able to sense when they have entered a Time Zone]. Some Zones have been disovered where there is no External Time Field -- in these places, there is no apparent passage of Time. Past, Present, and Future have no meaning in these Zones -- indigenous creatures are effectively immortal (since their Internal Time Fields are synchronised with the External Field -- Time does not pass for them). However, humans entering these Fields can still grow old since their Internal Time Fields operate as normal -- the External Field will still be present though, so they will not be aware of the passage of time at all. [Think of the Nexus in `Star Trek: Generations' if you've seen it]. Time Fields are quantified as follows: a Time Field where the flow of passage of time is equal to that within Main Corridor is known as a Class 1 Time Field. The number indicates the rate of passage of time relative to Main Corridor. Thus, faster fields are known as Class 2, 3, 4, 5, etc fields (non-integer flow rates are possible, so there are Class 2.5 Fields, for example). Slower fields are defined by numbers less than one, usually written as a fractional number -- a field where time passes at half the rate of MC is known as a Class 1/2 Field for example. Time Zones in which there is no External field are known as Class 0 Fields.
Weather: The Weather in Nexus is generally earth-like, but the temporal effects of the environment can produce several unusual phenomena -- the most striking of these are the SlowStorms. These are thunderstorms that accumulate and disperse very slowly, almost as if they were in a much slower Time Zone. When they do accumulate, the lightning bolts they throw travel to the ground extremely slowly -- slow enough for beings to see them coming and dodge!!! Other unusual meteorological conditions include FastStorms (like SlowStorms, but they accumulate within minutes and are over very rapidly -- seeing one from a distance is one of the most spectacular sights on Nexus, as thousands of lightning bolts rain down in a few minutes) and Hard Hail (Hail falling in an accelerated External Field -- thus when they strike humans (moving with an Internal Class 1 Field) they appear to fall much faster and thus can actually cause serious physical damage when they strike.
TimeStone: Timestone is nothing less than Solid Space-Time. It is the base from which all reality is constructed from, and is extremely rare in the MetaVerse -- indeed, it has so far been found only on Nexus. In situ, it is a brownish-tinged translucent rock through which other realities can dimly be perceived. Its properties are as largely unknown, but it is known that if one concentrates and tries to `walk through' a Timestone exposure one can enter the Virtual that lies on the other side. However, it is often much easier (and more reliable) to enter a Virtual using Spirit magick than via Timestone, since the same Virtual rarely remains behind a TimeStone exposure for long.
It has been discovered that TimeStone has the property of being detectable within other Virtuals through the use of Time 1. Being a part of Nexus, it is only perceptable to MC Mages and those with Temporal Avatars. Thus it can be used by Continuum Agents as a kind of homing beacon to others of their kind in other realities. In Nexus, TimeStone has a most useful property -- a kilogram (2.2 lbs) of TimeStone is equivalent to a single pawn (1 point) of Level 0 (MC-quality) Time or Correspondence (Space) Tass. Thus, it can only be used to fuel either Time or Correspondence effects. The mass required precludes it from being carried around by individuals in huge quantities. Unfortunately, outside of Nexus, Timestone is simply another lump of glassy brown rock, which has no effect on magick -- presumably, it is too unique to Nexus to be of any use anywhere else.
Geology: In many places in Nexus, the geology is generally Earthlike -- however, the rate of geological evolution is quite varied, and confusingly seems to have no connection with the External Time Field. Mountain Ranges have been known to appear overnight, and erosion can occur extremely rapidly (usually depending on the Entropy rating of the area). Glaciers have been observed travelling very quickly, while volcanic eruptions have occurred at very slow rates. Fortunately, CO appears to be situated in a reasonably stable region of Nexus!
Sphere Ratings I think its a good idea to not only treat Ratings as 'pluses' or 'minuses', but also as actual Sphere levels. As it stands, Correspondence +3 implies that Immediate Spatial Perception (Corr. 1), Colocality perception (Corr. 2), and Teleportation (Corr. 3) are naturally possible in a realm. But I don't want this -- what if I just want a realm in which Teleportation is natural but the Perception effects are not? Simple -- I just put the rating as Correspondence 3. No pluses or minuses. This implies that effects involving Correspondence 3 alone are natural in this realm and do not require a spell-casting roll (or at most just require a coincidental roll). All other Correspondence effects involving other levels are treated as normal magickal effects. Correspondence 3 Entropy Special Forces 0 Life 0 Matter 0 Mind 2 Prime +3 Spirit 3 (Virtuals only) Time +5
To explain: Correspondence 3: Indigenous creatures on Nexus are capable of teleporting themselves. The natural laws here just allow that. Colocating or spatial perception is not naturally allowed though. This makes a jaunt in the local jungles very dangerous indeed! Central Office is however magickally shielded to prevent invasion by teleporting predators.
Entropy: This is variable since Entropy is so closely linked to Time. In faster Time Fields (where things can decay/break down faster), this is set at Ratings 3, 4, and 5. This means that eroding matter/ withering life/intellectual entropy is easier to do in the background of the faster time flow. Conversely, in slower time fields (where things decay/break down slower), destructive Entropy magick is harder to accomplish. All difficulties to level 3, 4, and 5 Entropy effects are at +2 difficulty.
Pattern Magick: +/- 0. Forces, Life and Matter are treated no different here than anywhere else. Granted, the Forces of Nature here are much more dramatic than on Earth, but I don't see that this would warrant an increase in the Forces rating. Storms are just more violent and spectacular (lots of electrical discharge), while winds are quite strong.
Mind 2: Many creatures on Nexus are telepathic, or more precisely, telempathic. They are capable of transmitting emotional commands. Sirens (creatures that lure prey to their doom in their maws) use telepathic impulses to dupe their prey.
Prime +3: The sheer number of Nodes that supply Nexus make the place fairly glow with Quintessence. As a result, it is very easy to see Nodes or transfer Quintessence (even Virtual Quint) from one place to another in Nexus.
Spirit (3): This is only in connection to Virtuals -- it is very easy to enter Virtuals from Nexus. All other Realms are at normal difficulty to enter from Nexus. Access to the Deep Umbra from here is impossible (effectively at Spirit -6).
Time +5: Any Time effect is naturally possible here. This includes the creation of Time Loops, the ebb and flow of Time, complete cessation of Time, and contraction and dilation. This is after all the Shade Realm of Time! :-)
Paradox Nexus is so much a part of the Continuum's Paradigm (and vice versa) that magick in it is considerably harder for those who live outside this paradigm. The situation is rather similar to that which must exist in Autochthonia, the Home Realm of Iteration-X -Tradition Magick must be impossible (or at least very difficult) there since it is so against the paradigm of that Convention. Continuum Agents can cast their magicks as normal in Nexus (using the sphere ratings described above), but any invading Traditions (or the Technocracy) have to cope with Paradox! Paradox thus strikes as normal for any Mage whose Paradigm is different to the Continuum's. All magicks cast by an invading Mage require a spellcasting roll, even if they are 'free' as a result of the sphere ratings. Paradox strikes in exactly the same way as it does on Earth, though it does not seem to affect Continuum Agents. This is one reason that the Continuum managed to hold off the Technocracy when they seceded from them in the early 20th century. Additionally, it is rumoured that this may be the result of a change in the nature of the Realm created by the Continuum's Oracles. Fortunately for the Continuum's allies, there is a way around this. Through training, the outsider can be acclimatised to the paradigm within Nexus such that he does not gain Paradox for casting magicks there. In addition, every outsider entering Nexus is given an ID badge which contains a tiny piece of modified TimeStone. This acts as a kind of bar-code which is used to identify the outsider. This must be worn at all times in the Realm, and must be returned when leaving Nexus. Since TimeStone acts as a beacon outside Nexus for those with Time 1, it can be used to unerringly follow those who try to smuggle their ID badge out of the Realm (for duplication, for example). Since Timestone is unique to the realm, it is very hard to duplicate outside it. This provides another security measure to protect the Realm.
Nodes and Virtuals Nexus is fuelled by many nodes from a wide variety of (largely unpopulated) Virtuals, as well as Earth itself.
The Orb of Lucifer: An extremely powerful Node, this is located on the major continent of Lucifer, a Level 1 Virtual. In this timeline, Life never evolved on Earth. The planet remains as a hostile Hothouse world, with surface temperatures ranging between 50 and 120 degrees Celsius [between 120 and 240 degrees Fahrenheit], a large proportion of Steam and Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, and very hot polar oceans. There is extensive volcanic and seismic activity. Of course, there is no Oxygen content in the air at all. The planet itself is tipped at an angle of 40 degrees to the vertical, and a day is equal to a mere 8 hours!!! As a result, winds and storms on Lucifer can be extremely powerful. Interestingly enough, Lucifer has no Moon, leading many Continuum scientists to believe that the formation of the Moon played a critical role in the formation of life on Earth. In this hostile environment however lies one of the most powerful Nodes in the Metaverse. The Node itself is a 10' diameter globe, the Orb of Lucifer, hovering a few feet above the ground on the planet's major continent. It is constructed of a black material that defies all analysis (even Magickal). It rotates around its axis, tipped at 40 degrees to the vertical, once every 8 hours -- exactly like the planet it is located on! And its power is immense. No ley lines or other Nodes exist on Lucifer -- it is almost as if all the planet's Quintessence is channelled to and concentrated at the Orb. The Orb's origin is unknown -- its connection (if any) with the present state of Lucifer is also unknown, as is its purpose. Whether its builders will return to claim it one day is a matter that most Continuum Agents would rather not think about... The Orb is heavily guarded by the Continuum's finest agents, and it is presently located in a sealed Guard Station that has been built around it. Humans require spacesuits or atmospheric protection to survive outside the Station. The Orb and Station has already been the focus of several concerted attacks by agents of the Darkness, all of which have been successfully repulsed so far.
Nada One: This is a mysterious city of glass, which appears (along with the small rocky island it is situated on) out of thin air in the southern Indian Ocean on Earth. It always appears at sunset, and is only visible while the Sun's disk touches the open sea, and even then it is only physically real if viewed/approached from certain angles. After the Sun sets, it disappears for the rest of the night and following day. Nada One itself is a beautiful, eerie and silent place. It is uninhabited, and completely unaffected by the environment; it is extremely clean, and the glass it is constructed on is perfectly unblemished. The glass itself appears to be indestructible; it cannot be broken. It is not known where the Island disappears to after sunset. It is believed that the city travels through the Corridor, appearing at random points in Time. If anyone or anything is left behind on the isle, they are never seen again -- when Nada One returns, no trace of its accidental passengers are ever found. Indeeed, anything moved in the Glass City resumes its normal place when Nada One returns.
Easter Island: Located on Earth itself, Easter Island is a collection of hundreds of smaller Nodes, each represented by one of the famous `Heads' that gaze out to sea. It is quite powerful, and the Order of Hermes has been vying for access rights, but so far the Continuum is having none of it.
Concentration Alpha: Alpha is located in a Level 1 Virtual codenamed `Neverland'. Neverland is exactly identical to Earth until January 18th 1993. On this day, every higher life form on the planet (ie. all human and animal life) suddenly vanished without a trace!
The only clue to this Vanishing is the continual signal emitted from the Aricebo Radio Dish in Puerto Rico, aimed at what is apparently a point of empty space about a billion kilometres beyond the orbit of Pluto. Further research by the Continuum through Neverland Aricebo and US Government records has so far yielded no official documentation or explanation for the transmission, and no target for the signal has been described. However, the signal was activated on the 18th January 1993. Interestingly enough, there is no record of such a transmission in the Aricebo records on MC Earth at that time... Aricebo itself is a major Node in this Virtual, which is beaming out Quintessence to its target point. Although the Continuum has deactivated the transmitter, Quintessence is nevertheless still being beamed to the target. In addition, Aricebo is the nexus of all of the Ley Lines on Neverland -- this ley line network is believed to be artificial, and hints at some secret magickal experiment (probably set up by the Technocracy) that backfired horribly. It is even possible that the Darkness partially intruded on this Virtual before it was re-attached to Nexus, which may be an alternative explanation that accounts for the disappearance of the planet's higher lifeforms. The Continuum has managed to at least tap some of the flow, but with this came the discovery that Neverland itself is actually losing cohesion - the Quintessence is actually disappearing from the Virtual at the beam's target point! The Continuum is trying to prevent this loss before Neverland becomes a Level 2 (or worse) Virtual, or completely loses cohesion.
Central Office (CO) Introduction: The following are guidelines to the integration of the Continuum to a standard Mage Chronicle. This section largely covers the policy of the Continuum regarding Virtuals and other outsiders. They are by no means complete, and need not be considered 'official'. The existence of the Continuum and Nexus can change the focus of a campaign, so I leave it largely up to the individual storyteller as to how they should be included.
Overview: Central Office itself is a complex of interconnected utilitarian red-brick buildings situated on an large flat prairie in Nexus. It is located in the only known stable Class 1 Time Zone. The buildings include several towers and fortifications, a holdover of the days when the Technocracy sought to actively invade Nexus and wrest control of it from the Continuum. CO is still heavily defended, and regularly patrolled by experienced and wellarmed guards. It is also magickally shielded so that it is impossible to enter it from outside using Correspondence magicks. Inside, Central Office is a network of laboratories, ready rooms and offices. It is powered by its own generators in the basement, and has several backups in case of a power failure. It also has a computer network directly connected to the main Intelligence Acquisition Station in London, England on Earth. It has extensive research facilities (though not as much as other Home Chantries) and a huge catalogue of data on the known manifestations of the Darkness. Entrances to Nexus are small in number and are found only in the vicinity of Central Office, and as such are very heavily protected by checkpoints and guard posts. While the level of security can sometimes be oppressive, those working in Nexus acknowledge that it is essential to prevent the Realm from falling into the wrong hands. The security is not invasive however, and many Mages often forget they are working inside a fortress.
Continuum Policy Regarding Virtuals The Continuum has a fixed policy regarding the inhabited Virtuals (ie. those that contain indigenous sentient beings) -- it only deals with them as and when necessary, and even then only with Awakened members of that society. Sometimes it actively Quarantines them (as in the case of the more hostile Virtuals such as Reich and Terra Prime). This is akin to a 'Prime Directive', and is largely as a result of the Law Of Continuity. However, those with Temporal Avatars who originate in these Quarantined Virtuals and attempt to leave are quickly hunted down and 'contained'. This usually involves Mind, Prime and Spirit manipulation which blocks the Temporal Avatar and prevents it from leaving the Virtual. However, many have escaped this fate, and most have gone on to join the Technocracy on MC Earth. A few fight a guerilla war on Nexus itself, but these are rarely a significant threat to the Continuum. In most cases though, the Continuum leaves the inhabited Virtuals alone, though it often welcomes those with Temporal Avatars (from the Non-Quarantined Virtuals) who blunder through to Nexus and discover the truth about the extent of the universe. Indeed, many of the Continuum's finest agents are from other Virtuals. Although there is a vast amouunt of Nodes available to tap among the Virtuals, the Continuum leaves those in the inhabited Virtuals to their inhabitants -- there are plenty of Nodes to be found in the uninhabited Virtuals. The Law Of Continuity could easily be violated if a Continuum agent is capture by the inhabitants of a Virtual, who then discover that they are in fact no longer the 'official' universe. The social consequences of this within the Virtual could severely undermine the world-view of the inhabitants, a fate that the Cotinuum wish to avoid. Many Continuum agents in the field are extremely careful, and Intelligence Acquisition sets up complex identities for them to allow them to fit into the Virtual more easily. In some cases (eg. Sauron), the Agent has to be physcially changed to fit in!
However, the Continuum has an open policy when it comes to the uninhabited Virtuals, those that are not populated by sentient beings. These it uses for resources (minerals, Quintessence, etc) and exploration. Many uninhabited Virtuals are simply catalogued and forgotten, but bases are frequently set up in the more unusual Virtuals (such as Neverland and Lucifer).
Policy Regarding the Traditions and Technocracy While the Continuum remains comparatively open with the Traditions, it frequently has to hold them at bay from raiding the Quintessence of the Virtuals. Tradition Mages are extensively vetted before they are allowed to enter Nexus, and those seeking to join the Continuum must often pass stringent examinations to do so. Any allied mage found compromising the security of the Realm, Virtuals, or Central Office is dealt with with extreme prejudice... The Technocracy is not allowed within Nexus. The Continuum is aware of what this organization could do given access to the Virtuals, and does not wish to take the risk of them invasively plundering the resources of the Virtuals to give them a huge advantage in the Ascension War. The Traditions as a whole are similarly prevented from doing so. The Continuum fully places itself outside the Ascension War. It plays no part in the domination of reality, and seeks to remain neutral -- it has its own role to play in the defense of reality, which is a fulltime job in itself.
Policy Regarding the Marauders The Marauders are one of the main enemies of the Continuum. They are a constant thorn in their sides, since their immunity to Paradox applies even within Nexus. Virtual Marauders, while limited to their own Virtuals, have been proving a problem since there are reports that some have kidnapped MC Mages (and Virtual Mages with Temporal Avatars) and somehow 'transplanted' the Temporal Avatar to their own bodies, effectively turning them into MC Marauders able to access any Virtual, Nexus, and Main Corridor. It is not known why the Marauders are so interested in Nexus and the Virtuals. Perhaps it is because it represents the 'Dynamic' aspect of Time -- the infinite possibilities that lie in the alternate universes of the Virtuals. Many think that the Marauders seek to 'free Time' from the constraints of the Virtuals, creating a realm where all the alternatives exist at once. Regardless, the Continuum repels Marauders wherever they are found in Nexus.
ACCESS TO VIRTUALS AND NEXUS Introduction Access to Virtuals from Nexus is limited. Natural access points between Virtuals and Nexus do exist, but these are the only points from which the Virtual can be accessed -- these are known as portals to Continuum Agents, as differentiated from those access points to MC Earth which are known as gateways. Portals appear in fixed locations in both Nexus and the Virtuals. Note however that the relative geographic locations of the Portals do not have to correspond to their positions in the other plane -Portals a few miles apart in a given Virtual may be separated by thousands of miles in Nexus. Portals appear in Nexus as shimmering brown windows into the other reality, a few metres across -- however, they cannot be entered without the 'Virtual Travel' procedure, described below. Also note that Portals can only be seen in a Virtual using Time 1 - they are otherwise invisible on the Virtual side. The most common way to access and leave Virtuals is via the 'Virtual Travel' Procedure (ie. Rote - the Continuum retains much of their Technocratic terminology when dealing with Magick). Nexus itself can only be entered via the 'Nexus Entry' Procedure, a conjuctional Spirit/Time effect. These Procedures are described below:
New Procedures Nexus Entry Spirit 3, Time 3 Nexus Entry allows Agents to enter Nexus directly from any location within Main Corridor. Gateways (q.v.) are not required to enter or leave Nexus (unlike Portals). Agents always arrive in Nexus at the site of one of the two Gateways there -- these are constantly guarded. [Both Spirit and Time are required since Nexus is surrounded by an unusual Gauntlet with both Spirit and Temporal components to it. Three successes must be rolled to penetrate this Gauntlet at difficulty 7].
Virtual Travel Individual Basic: Time 3, Spirit 3 Individual Targeted: Correspondence 3, Time 3, Spirit 3
Multiple Basic: Time 3, Spirit 4 Multiple Targeted: Correspondence 4, Time 3, Spirit 4 This Procedure allows the Agent to cross the Temporal Gauntlet that separates the Virtuals and Nexus from eachother. This Temporal Gauntlet is created as a natural side-effect of the basic Metaversal Law of Continuity. It can only be used from Nexus or a Virtual, and can only be used by an MC Mage or any Virtual Inhabitant with a Temporal Avatar -- there is absolutely no effect if anyone else attempts it. The Procedure must also be initiated at the site of a Portal. There are two main ways this Procedure can be attempted -- Single or Multiple -- both of which are further subdivided into Basic and Targeted. Both Individual Procedures (ie. Individual Basic and Individual Targeted) only allow the Mage to transport himself, while the Multiple Procedures allow the Mage to bring others with him. 'Individual Procedures':The Individual Procedures allow the Mage to transport only himself and any items carried across the Temporal Gauntlet. The Individual Basic Procedure (Time 3, Spirit 3) transports the Mage across the Temporal Gauntlet. The Mage arrives on the other side of the Portal before which the Procedure is used, so should be prepared for any unusual climatic conditions at that site (eg. if a Portal is in the middle of an ocean in the Virtual, the Agent had best be prepared for a wet landing!). The Individual Targeted Procedure, which includes Correspondence 3, is more often used however. While not vital for the Basic Procedure to succeed, the Correspondence component makes it vastly more convenient -- it allows the Agent to arrive at any location on the other side of the Portal -- not necessarily at the site of the Portal. Note however that the Procedure must still be enacted at the site of the Portal on the 'departure side.' 'Multiple Procedures': The 'Multiple' Procedures are more complicated, but allow the Agent to take passengers with him across the Temporal Gauntlet. The Multiple Basic Procedure uses a Time 3/Spirit 4 combination to weaken the Temporal Gauntlet within a radius of a few metres around the Agent, thus allowing any within this area to travel with the Mage. As with the Individual Basic Procedure though, the group arrive at the site of the Portal on the other side of the Temporal Gauntlet. The Multiple Targeted Procedure adds a Correspondence 4 component which allows the group to arrive at any location on the other side of the Temporal Gauntlet, not necessarily at the site of the Portal there. Regardless of the direction of travel (Virtual to Nexus or vice versa), the Temporal Gauntlet of the Virtual must be successfully negotiated in order to enter and leave. The strength of the Temporal Gauntlet around a Virtual is determined by its Energy Rating (see the Updated Virtual Classification Scheme). Virtual's Energy rating Successes needed 1 2 2 3 3 4 U
Difficulty 5 6 7
Add + 1 to successes needed Add + 1 to Difficulty
Thus, to enter Neverland (a 1U Virtual), the Agent must roll 3 successes for the Procedure at Difficulty 6. The number of successes shown above is required to travel through the Portal -- travel time is instantaneous. A Failure (ie. no successes, or less than the required number of successes) means that the Agent cannot enter the Portal on this attempt, and must wait an hour for the Portal to stabilise fully. A Botch means the Agent has become stuck in the Temporal Gauntlet -- a very hazardous experience since agents of the Darkness often prowl this interface, looking for trapped travellers. On a Catastrophic Botch (a result of '1' on all dice), the Agent may open a gateway directly to the Darkness instead... More often than not, this Procedure is built into a purposely-made Device -- a Virtual Travel Bracelet (described below) -- given as a matter of course to Field Ops in Nexus. All such Devices have a Timepiece [the Continuum's focus for Time] of some sort incorporated into them, giving them the appearance of complicated wrist-watches or pocket clocks. To enact the Procedure, the Agent adjusts the Bracelet while concentrating [meditating -- the focus for Correspondence and/or Spirit] on the Portal. Remember that all Continuum Agents require these foci when attempting this Procedure, since as Technomages they cannot ignore their foci until they reach Arete 6. Note that this Bracelet is not essential to use the Virtual Travel Procedures -- the Agent does not need to specifically have a Travel Bracelet to cross the Temporal Gauntlet. However, he must have the necessary Spheres required for the Procedures, and must still use the relevant foci. Virtual Travel Bracelet Quarantined Virtuals: The Temporal Gauntlet around Quarantined Virtuals (Danger Code Q) have been strengthened by Continuum Specialists. The Difficulties to enter or leave these Virtuals is set at 9, though the number of successes required remains the same. Sealed Virtuals: The Temporal Gauntlet around Sealed Virtuals (Danger Code Z) has been increased to such an extent that the Difficulty to enter or leave them is increased to 15! Additionally, a total of 5 successes on the Procedure roll must be gained to penetrate -- otherwise the Seal holds. Thus, only the most powerful magicks can penetrate the Seal, and even then a large amount of Quintessence must be burned to reduce the difficulty.
Most Seals are heavily guarded, and all have magickal monitors built into them that can detect attempts to penetrate it and alert the guards if a penetration attempt is made (even if it fails). Note that the Seal is not broken, even if it is penetrated -- those leaving the Virtual must again roll 5 successes against difficulty 15 to leave. Timestone Exposures: Timestone is a rare glassy, shimmering translucent brown rock found in the depths of some mountain ranges in Nexus. It appears to be the barest foundation on which Nexus is constructed -- solid Space-Time. Timestone exposures are unusual in that Virtuals can be seen within them; however, the Virtuals 'behind' the exposure shift randomly. Nevertheless, these Virtuals can be entered if the 'Virtual Travel' Procedure is enacted before the exposure. Effectively the Timestone exposure becomes a Portal to the Virtual it shows. On leaving the Virtual, the Mage arrives on Nexus at the site of that Virtual's natural Portal. In many cases, the Virtuals shown by the exposures are previously undiscovered -- thus, the Agent has not only to survive the dangers of the Virtual itself, but also arrives back in Nexus in an unknown location (since the Portal to the Virtual would not have been discovered previously and mapped).
Temporal Avatars Those Virtual natives with Temporal Avatars are able to cross into Nexus from the Virtual by either accidentally passing through the site of the Portal in the Virtual itself (see below) or, if they are capable of using magick, they may alternatively chance upon the combination of Spheres required for Virtual Travel (see above), whereupon they arrive at the site of the Portal to their Virtual on Nexus. Upon arrival, special Target Neutralisation Teams are sent to either pick them up and introduce them to their expanded world, or to 'Contain' the new arrivals and return them to their Virtual if they are undesirable elements. Occasionally, the Continuum has to hunt down and kill a dangerous native who has managed to escape from a Sealed Virtual. As described earlier, Portals are completely invisible on the side of the Virtual -- they can be detected only by using Time 1 magick. However, on the Virtual side the Portals have an additional unusual property -- any Virtual inhabitant with a Temporal Avatar who actually passes through a Portal at any time will be automatically 'pulled through' by the Portal itself, a process known as autoentry (this is rolled as an Individual Basic Virtual Travel Procedure, at Arete 3). This is believed to be a reaction between the Portal and the Temporal Avatar itself. Note however that those with Temporal Avatars cannot simply walk through the Nexus side of the Portal back into their own reality -- AutoEntry is effectively one-way to them, and they cannot return to their Reality unless they use magick. Also note that all other Virtual inhabitants (ie. those without Temporal Avatars) are not subject to AutoEntry, and cannot perceive the Portal at all (even with Time 1). If a vehicle of some sort touches the Portal, then all those within who have a Temporal Avatar can be pulled in (AutoEntry is rolled separately for each person). In a Virtual, the vehicle itself is never affected however, unless specific Procedures have been used to enable it to pass through the Portal (ie. unless it has been 'enchanted'). Those without Temporal Avatars in the vehicle are still unaffected, and just see their comrades vanish without a trace!
AutoEntry only works from the Virtual that the inhabitant was born in. This effect cannot occur at the sites of any Portals in other Virtuals, or on the Nexus side of any Portal (even the home one). Note also that AutoEntry can fail or even botch, though it will occur again if the native passes through the Portal again later.
Gateways and Accessing Nexus Nexus is usually accessed from any site on Earth (not just at the Gateways) or anywhere else in the Near Umbra by using the 'Nexus Entry' [Spirit 3, Time 3] Procedure that allows the Agent to enter Nexus directly from anywhere in Main Corridor or its Branches. Agents always arrive at the site of one of the Gateways on Nexus, and can only leave Nexus from the Gateway site there. The Time component to the Procedure is essential, as the Gauntlet around Nexus and the Virtuals has an unusual Temporal Resonance to it that defies penetration by Spirit magick alone -- effectively, this separates it from the rest of MC. The Difficulty to penetrate Nexus' hybrid Gauntlet is 7, and three successes are needed. In addition, this Gauntlet is continually monitored by Continuum Sentries. These are Constructs designed to detain (or attack, if they prove hostile) any entities entering Nexus without clearance. Anyone entering Nexus from any other location in Main Corridor will arrive at the site of one of the heavily guarded Gateways near Central Office. Security is paramount to the Continuum, both to keep intruders out of the realm, and to prevent some of the more dangerous entities that live there from escaping... The Gateways themselves are natural doorways directly connecting Main Corridor to Nexus. Effectively, they are Spirit Wormholes that transport objects through the Gauntlets separating them, allowing direct passage from one realm to the other to the Non-Awakened. Gateways themselves are invisible on Earth, but can be detected there with a (Spirit 1 Time 1) conjunctional effect. On Earth, Gateways occupy a columnar volume of space a few hundreds of metres across at its base and about forty miles high -- thus they are very different in structure from the two-dimensional Portals. This configuration means that they can capture aeroplanes that accidentally cross the Gateway (see below). Only two Gateways are known to exist on Nexus, both of which connect to MC Earth. On Earth, one is situated within what is known as the Bermuda Triangle, while the other lies off the coast of Japan, in the Devil's Sea -- however, access to and from both has been restricted by the Continuum in recent years. Both are located a few miles from Central Office in Nexus itself. Gateways behave in a similar way to Portals, with one key exception -- because anyone from MC (even the non-Awakened) can potentially access Nexus, AutoEntry can affect everyone that passed through the Gateway. Most of the time, the Gateway lies
dormant -- however, when an MC native (ie. Humans, Vampires, Mummies and Garou) or a vehicle containing them (such as ships or planes) pass through or over the Gateway, it opens and AutoEntry can occur. Gateway AutoEntry is rolled as a Sprit 3/Time 3 conjunctional effect at Arete 3 and Difficulty 6. AutoEntry is applied to the vehicle directly, and if successful then the vehicle itself and all those aboard are carried into the Gateway. The Gateways in Nexus are situated in the dry plains surrounding Central Office, so ships are beached and probably holed, while aeroplanes suddenly find themselves at ground level where they invariably crash at flying speed, a usually fatal experience. Survivors of the rough landing in Nexus find themselves trapped in Nexus, as Gateways (like Portals to a Virtual native) are one-way affairs to the Non-Awakened -- they can only be entered from the Nexus side via Time/Sprit magick. Gateways have an unusual side-effect on Earth -- their presence (even when dormant) creates some bizarre visual and environmental effects, including wildly varying magnetic fields (which affect compasses), negative imagery (ie. black appears white, and white appears black), strange lights and flashes in the sky, sudden lightning flashes, disorientation, dizziness, hallucinations and other such effects, all of which combine to make the approach to a Gateway a rather terrifying experience. However, these 'special effects' around the Gateway are actually completely harmless in themselves. Most people caught in the unstable area do panic though, and land up either accidentally flying or sailing through the invisible Gateway somewhere in the unstable zone itself, or losing control of their vessel and crashing it into the sea. Any survivors arriving in Nexus through the Gateway are adopted by the Continuum and often work as Acolytes. This explains the spate of disappearances so often associated with the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil's Sea. In recent years however, the Continuum has largely succeeded in closing off the Gateways (essentially as a consequence of the wreckage that was accumulating on the Nexus side of the Gateways as the vessels crashed there, and the fact that the Continuum viewed the Gateways as a weak spot in its defences). While the Continuum has made a tidy monetary profit from the cargoes of those vessels declared lost around the Gateway areas on Earth, it has found that the Gateways provide a very easy access point to anyone from MC, even their enemies. Much of the wreckage around the Gateways on Nexus has been removed -- no mean feat considering that some ships that have arrived weighed in at several tens of thousands of tons displacement! However, the wrecks of the five Navy Avenger bombers of Flight 19 (which disappeared from Earth in 1945) have been kept in their original sites as a memorial to those who lost their lives through the Gateway, and to those Continuum Agents who were killed in the Perpetual War. Nowadays, the two main Gateways are all but closed off. Their Gauntlet Difficulty is set at 10, and the unstable zones have now been stabilized. However, AutoEntry still occurs; it is just more difficult. Additionally, other smaller, more temporary Gateways sometimes spontaneously appear in other locations around the world where the Gauntlet rating is low; however, these rarely last for longer than a few days.
New Procedure: Temporal Containment (Prime 5, Spirit 4, Time 1, Mind 4) Temporal Containment is the means by which the Continuum prevents those 'undesirable elements' with Temporal Avatars from entering Nexus. Often, these are the Virtual Inhabitants who somehow manage to enter Nexus from Quarantined or even Sealed Virtuals, though it has been used on others in the past. Containment is however treated on a case by case basis, though most are Contained and returned to their Virtual otherwise unharmed, having no memory of Nexus at all. If any are not Contained, they are always adopted into the Continuum, often as informal Continuum spies in their home Virtuals. Containment is a complex Procedure that blocks the inhabitant's Temporal Avatar, preventing it from entering Nexus again by any means (even magick). It works by making the Temporal Avatar completely opaque to the Temporal Gauntlet. In addition, the memory of how the target arrived at Nexus is removed and a permanent mental block is set up to prevent him from doing so again. This Mind manipulation includes the removal of ever having been Contained in the first place. Containment can only be detected by Mages from Main Corridor, using a Time 1 Spirit 1 Prime 1 conjunctional effect -- Virtual Mages cannot detect Containment, and so cannot try to remove it. Containment can only be removed by powerful magicks cast by MC Mages, but anyone attempting to do so must possess all the Spheres at least at the levels used in the Containment (ie. Prime 5, Spirit 4, Mind 4, and Time 1) -- anything less and the Containment cannot be removed. Containment cannot be attempted on an Avatar originating in Main Corridor -- it is only effective on those originating in a Virtual. [Temporal Containment is a very complicated Rote. First, Prime 5 is used for two purposes -- to set up the Containment itself, and to actually affect a living Pattern. A conjunctional (Spirit 4, Time 1) effect is then applied to render the target's Temporal Avatar totally opaque to the Temporal Gauntlet -- this prevents him from ever passing through the Temporal Gauntlet again. Finally, Mind 4 is used to remove all knowledge of Nexus, the Containment itself and how the target arrived there. This is cast as a single Rote, often by a group of Continuum Specialists. Five successes must be gained between those casting the effect to make the effect Permanent, and all must possess the required Spheres. The effect can be countered as normal as it is being cast (though in most cases the target is rendered unconscious at the time). It can only be removed afterwards by an MC Mage possessing the Spheres used to cast the Containment -- ie. Prime 5, Spirit 4, Mind 4, and Time 1 -- so he can fully perceive the magick he is attempting to remove. Virtual Mages cannot attempt remove Containment themselves, since they are unable to perceive the Containment to begin with -- an MC Mage must do this for them, and no Continuuum Mage will do so unless directly contradicting Central Office and risking the wrath of a Continuum Tribunal. A Contained Temporal Avatar remains trapped in his home Virtual until such time as the Containment is removed. He retains no
memory of Nexus at all, or of ever having gone there. In addition, a subliminal suggestion is implanted that always persuades him away from ever trying to enter Nexus again. Contained Avatars can only be detected by MC Mages using a conjunctional (Sprit 1, Time 1, Prime 1) rote. Obviously, the Continuum can only Contain those undesirable Virtual inhabitants who enter Nexus somehow -- these are usually those from highly xenophobic, warlike, or otherwise dangerous races. Containment is performed in Nexus itself, once the 'undesirable' has been captured and Contained, he is then returned to his home Virtual (Containment does not prevent Temporal Avatars from leaving Nexus, only from entering it) by the Continuum, with no memory of his experience outside his reality. However, not everyone coming in through the Quarantined Portals is undesirable -- some for example are refugees from the Virtual. These are often adopted for some purpose in the Continuum].
NUMEROLOGISTS By Richard Scott (
[email protected]) (31 March 1995) An Order of Hermes sub-Tradition
Philosophy The Numerologists are firmly entrenched in the Western Magickal Tradition. Dating at least as far back as the Master, Pythagoras, they have been part of the backbone of the Order of Hermes for centuries. Humanity was Awakened to new ideas when introduced to the language of numbers. Possibilites and relationships that shaped life had been expanded, as had their spiritual horizon. Suddenly the universe seemed a lot greater and more complex than it had before. Symbols reveal relationships. They are the images that define the arrangement of multiple, often abstract, ideas. They show us how important characteristics are related to each other, and reveal how things are related by their very nature. It is impossible to talk about patterns in life without symbols. Symbols serve to draw upon themselves the vast amount of knowledge that exists in the archetypal world. These archetypes are information stored in the psyche until we can use them in our lives, to convey knowledge that we previous didn't know. (Lots of this from work by Hans De Coz in Numerology : Key to your Inner Self) The Numerologists realise this, and it is the focus for their paradigm. Their symbols are numbers. The numbers one through nine are particularly important to Numerologists, as these relate directly to the nine spheres of magic practised by Tradition Mages. All numbers have meaning, or can be reduced to those that do. Letters and words have meanings, too, but to Numerologists they only have meaning as numbers, generally speaking, although having some qualities of their own. This group is Western, hence English and the 26 letter arabic alphabet is of importance here, with the current Technocratic Paradigm. It is harder to work with dead languages such as Latin for Numerologists, or other languages that are derived from a different alphabet. These often come under the sway of more Eastern traditions, as well.
Organisation The Numerologists are often called the Forgotten Tradition. Numerologists work well with other traditions in the order of Hermes, and these definitions can often be blurred and overlap, to the point where they may no longer be a 'pure' Numerologist, but a QabbalistNumerologist, or a Thelemic-Numerologist, or a Numerological Rosicrucian etc. Because they blend so well with the other 'flashier' and more well known sub-Traditions of the Order of Hermes they tend not to be in powerful political or administrative positions in the main Tradition, regardless of their personal ability. Overall, Numerologists tend not to have charismatic personalities or archetypes such as Director, Bravo, etc. Hence, Social Attributes will not often be Primary. Numerologists also tend to get along better than others of their Order with the other Traditions, as they are perceived as less arrogant, stuffy, and dogmatic. Most people can add up, even if they can't read complex alchemical formuale in Ancient Greek, so this helps. They are perhaps seen as less threatening by other Traditions, and followers without real power. Within their own group there is no rigid structure. However, Masters will be recorded respect as such, as will those with greater understanding in general. The legendary master Pythagoras would be the official 'head' of the sub-Tradition, if he was alive. Rumours abound about Pythagoras, but none are substantiated. Many stories are told of there never being a body at his death.
Meetings Whenever there is more than one Numerologist in the same place, there will usually be informal meetings between them. The only formal meetings are during initiations of newly awakened Mages at their chantry. However, they will meet once per year, minimum, if no Mages are initiated that year. This will be at their chantry on the birthday of Pythagoras.
Initiation Apprentice mages will be intiated at the main Numerologist Chantry. This will be the first time they will be taken there. All Numerologist Initiations take place on the birthday of the apprentice, as this day is particularly significant to their Life, avatar, and awakening, as they are Numerologist Mages. At least one Master Numerologist will perform a numerological reading of the initiate for the initation, and perhaps more, depending on the promise of the candidate. This reading will provided deep insight for the new Mage, and clues as to the role he will play within the Tradition and in general. Initiations are one of the few occasions that Numerologists will be rigidly formal, as the Initiation and reading is viewed as very serious.
Chantry The Numerologists have one large main chantry, near the site of Pythagoras' birth, relatively speaking. No Mages are quite sure where the chantry is in actuality, except the Numerologists themselves. For some reason, this is the only thing they are secretive about consistently. Even Numerologists whose interests have blurred into other aspects of the Order of Hermes will not reveal this. Hence, Numerologist Mages can often be found at various other chantries, whether Hermetic, or those of other Traditions. Whenever and wherever they are needed, they will be there, or wherever their interests lie.
Acolytes
Numerologist acolytes can be found in all walks of life. They will generally take people who have shown a casual interest in numerology. The man who read Colin Wilson as a kid, and played around with his name. The cop who likes bio-rhythms after his wife showed him, and read a little bit more. An athlete who is a casual Tarot enthusiast interested in relating it to numbers. Normal, everyday people, not necessarily gypsy fortune tellers, or newspaper astrologers.
Spheres Numerologists have the same primary sphere as their main Tradition, Forces. Mind and Matter will often be of interest to the Numerologist, as well. Entropy and Time are not as common.
Foci Literal physical representations of the numbers one to nine are the foci of the Numerologists. 1 - Prime 2 - Correspondence 3 - Time 4 - Forces 5 - Life 6 - Entropy 7 - Mind 8 - Matter 9 - Spirit The Mage will be given a Foci for the Forces sphere upon initiation, generally in the form of a pendant, necklace, or amulet of some kind. It is up to him to fashion others. They will usually be simple objects. A watch with just a 9 on the face, for example. A bracelet engraved with a 1. Even things as odd as an eight-ball from a pool table have been known to be foci. The most famous are the mythical ten rings of Pythagoras. These rings, one for each sphere plus another whose purpose is lost to antiquity are missing, perhaps destroyed. A Mage will need a numeric focus for each sphere he has. If he is capable in four spheres, he will need four foci, as above.
Concepts Geometry teacher, accountant, actuary, waitress, anyone with an interest in numbers who is not coldly technical or without life, other occultists such as Kabbalists may well fit here, too.
Quote "We're on floor 3? Why is the housewares department on floor 3? I don't understand, that doesn't fit. Numbers are important in life, you know."
Stereotypes The Numerologists are less harsh in general than their parent Tradition, this is probably part of the reason they are liked more.
Akashic Brotherhood: We respect their intellects and discipline. Not sure what good a karate chop will do against a demon, though. Celestial Chorus: Blind Faith is not the answer. That is obvious The One = 2+8+5/6+5+5 = 3. Huh? Everything is involved, hopefully they will get it one day.
Cult of Ecstasy: Sounds like they have fun. However, do they really get much done? Whatever works, I guess, but this approach is dubious.
Dreamspeakers: The physical world and the individuals matter, as well. The Chorus and these guys need to get together. Euthanatos: This we have to disagree with. Numerology is about celebrating life, its path, and choices, not ending it. Be careful around them.
Hollow Ones: We pity them, but our compatriots sneering dislike is misplaced. We'd like to help them if possible, to find their way. Sons of Ether: Their jury-rigged machines just seem to get in the way. Why so complex? Too much to trip over, even if they are flexible. We can work together, but it is difficult.
Verbena: A celebration of Life we understand, but they tend to be a bit messy. We get called old fashioned and dull, but that is better than gore. They have a good outlook.
Virtual Adepts: They could well be the logical modern extension of ourselves. Has technology passed us by? The same as the Sons, though, too complicated. If you can't do it in your head, is there any point? Having only 0s and 1s does not make a lot of sense to us. However, they may have something. As allies, we could accomplish a great deal.
Numerologist Magic Notes
To affect something, a Numerologist should knows its number. Simple enough when it is a chair to work out in your head in a second, more complicated when a nasty Nephandi demon appears. However, if a numerologist has done this, reduce their difficulty by one. If they haven't, the difficulty should be raised by two. So, a Numerologist Mage may need to spend a turn doing this, which could be a problem. Those with the Lightning Calculator merit (which a lot of Numerologists develop) can offset this a little. Demons and others should be careful with their true names, as that gives a Numerologist a lot to work with.
OCTARINE MAGES By Peloquin (
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Prelude "You sure about this, man?" The young Verbena mage-in-training looked at his master, the tall woman standing next to him all dressed in red and greens. "Yes. Watch him closely." The boy (whose name was Robert) looked again upon the target of their curiosity. "I don't see anything special about him. Apart from that ridiculous hat he's wearing. Is he a hedge-magi?" The elder mage frowned at her pupil. "No. You are not watching properly. Use the other sight. The same sight you use when you attempt to divine someones aura, or manner of being. You'll see he's a lot more interesting than a lowly hedge magician." Again he viewed the old man in the pointy hat. But this time he used his second sight, gripping tight the ceremonial knife in his pocket, mumbling in Latin. And all of a sudden he saw the man's Avatar, a huge shining being, almost human in appearance, with a wide billowing cloak in some strange, impossible color, and a great white beard. It turned to look at him. And the man followed its example. "Oh. Oh wow. He's an Awakened! But...I ain't never seen an Avatar like that! What..." His master motioned him to be silent, and then shouted to the man below. "Ho there, master Gridlome!" The man grinned at the sound of her voice and began speaking in some strange language, as he did, strange runic words began appearing in mid-air, and all of a sudden he began floating upwards toward them, without any visible means of support. He landed smoothly in front of them, bowed to the master and nodded towards the boy. "Greetings, Esmerelda you old witch. Sliced your arm lately?" The boy moved to his master's defense, and began to say something scalding, but the elder mage just smiled and replied with a "No more than usual, you fat little twit, and you? Meddled with things mankind ought not to know about?" The old man (who did indeed have a small gut) laughed and slapped his friend in the back (causing her to stumble forwards a step) and then sat down on a large travelling trunk that...well, it hadn't been there when they arrived. "Naah. I had a visit from some minor demon the other night, but it sure regrets messing with me now...so, I see you have a new apprentice?" She poked him in the ribs. "Yeah. He's a bit daft, but he'll do." "Aye. I had an apprentice a few years ago; he still visits me now and then. You know what he did once? He actually managed to set a whole building on fire just because he wanted to light a cigarette. I gave him a thumping he didn't forget, and then I put him on doing chores a whole year..." The old man chortled, and then he turned to the young mage next to them. "Well, me lad, have ye managed to light a candle yet?" "Um, well, no, I'm not into that, um, well..." "Hah, he acts just like me when I was his age! Of course, I was a whole lot more spotty then...and I stuttered..." The old man looked at his watch. "Oh, bugger, I gotta go, well, I'll see you some other time, or some other life, well, so long, and remember, reality is never what you think it is...come on, Luggage, let's go." The trunk suddenly extended hundreds of small, pink human legs, turned about and followed the old man out of the church ruins. They could hear him still, telling off the little trunk in harsh words. "Look, I need my grimoire, and if you keep this up I'll have to chop you into firewood, now give me the bloody book! Give it here! Don't you stick your tongue out at me, you mutated travel accessory! Give it to me...." She shook her head at him as he faded away in the distance. "Ah, well, that's that..." "Who was that?" "Hmmm? Oh, that was one of my old teachers." "But...was he Verbena? I mean, he couldn't be, not with all that vulgar magick?" "No, he wasn't Verbena, lad, he was an Octarine mage." "A what?" "Octarine. They're an order of Awakened far older than most of the Traditions. They might even be older than ours." "What's an Octarine?" "Octarine is a color. That color you saw with your othersight? It's the eight color of the spectrum, only Awakened can see it.
Basically it's the color of Quintessence." "Wow." "I guess you could say that. Come on, the moon's up soon, we'd better get ready for our ritual..."
The Illuminated Brethren of Octarine Light "Art thou a witch, viva españa?" -- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, "Good Omens" The IBOL is one of the oldest (and one of the weirdest) orders of True Mages in existance. They suffer the great misfortune of being forced to use more actual Quintessence than other mages, and the problem of not being able to perform magicks without their Foci. But. They have no problems with Paradox Spirits. They can perform lesser vulgar magicks in full view. And they have knowledge about the Far Umbral Realms that the Traditional Magi would kill to obtain. The first encounters with these Magi came when a young Dreamspeaker named Thomas Rijnswand happened upon a Realm he had never before heard of. It was, basically, a gigantic turtle, swimming through the Deep Umbra with four colossal elephants on its back, which in turn carried a ten thousand miles wide flat world. The Discworld. In this world, which he first believed empty, he found to his amazement, not only humans, but all manners of mythical creatures, and most amazing of all, twisted versions of Awakened beings. And True Magi. The Magi greeted Thomas, invited him in for tea and scones, and then proceeded to tell him some of the Realm he had come upon. According to them, they were the ancestors of True Magi and humans who had left the Tellurian long ago, for reasons they did not remember any longer. In fact, most of them were trying to return to our world, not an easy task when one does not remember how one came to the Realm to begin with. But Thomas showed them how he had done it, and they eagerly learned from him, and in turn teaching him several rotes and spells of magic of that Realm. And when he went back, some of them went with him, to revisit the Tellurian they left behind so many millennia ago. Some of them stayed.
Nickname Wizards (From the old word "wyse-ars"-"one who, at bottom believes he knows all")
Philosophy Ah, nothing like a warm fire to warm ones spirit on a cold winter-night, eh, old boy? Put another log on the fire, will you?
Acolytes Librarians, occultists, college professors.
Initiation Since most recruiting is done on the Discworld, where only the eighth son of an eighth son (or eighth daughter of an eighth daughter) are allowed inside the order, in any case, whenever a child like that is born, the parents of the child sends him/her to the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork (Discworld, still, but they do have a door in a Hermetic Mage Chantry in Oxford, so that mages from this world can join the university) where they spend basically the rest of their lives just puttering about doing not much, only practicing magick when they feel like it. UU has a motto: "Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides." ("Now you see it, now you don't.)
Concepts Lazy fat bastards, cowardly ferret-like cynics with Arrete 1 and Spheres all 1, (can you say Rincewind, boys and girls?) old meddling witches, senile professors and academics.
Foci Wizards staff, the female half need no foci, and gain the +1 dice if they use any.
Paradigm The IBOL have an amazing advantage over the other Magi. They never gain Paradox. Well, they do, but they never get bothered by Paradox spirits. Instead they get visits from what they call the Dungeon Dimensions. The Dungeon Dimensions are a very secluded part of the Deep Umbra, in which there is nothing but an infinite cold silver sanded desert and the Things. The Things...well, take the most scary pictures by Geiger and every other horror artist you can imagine, and then try to imagine something even scarier. Exactly. Ewwww. The Things basically only have these powers, Airt Sense, Possess, and an incredible ability to absorb all magick used against them. No effects work. The thing is, that massive use of Magick and Quintessence attracts these Things like flies to a sugar bowl, and if you're not careful, they take over your body, leave your soul in the Dungeon Dimensions and wreak havoc on the world. And if you're extremely careless, they can enter our world, with the images foremost in the minds within a 20-mile radius. (What would happen if they appeared in a movie theatre showing the Alien-movies? Exactly. "The horror, the horror!") Basically, when they start appearing in the Deep Umbra close to where you are in the Tellurian or Umbra, (Paradox 5 and above is needed) the ST may tell you that you hear a chittering, metallic noise, like huge insects whispering and chuckling. If you keep away from using Magick for the next two or three rounds, you lose both all your Paradox and the Things. Also, the wizards must use their staffs or Languages as their foci. No exceptions; to go beyond it you need Arete 7 or over.
Outlook Do note that these prejudices are strictly for the Tellurian-based IBOL, as those still on the Discworld know nothing of the world they left behind.
Akashic Brotherhood: The sound of one hand clapping is "whiff." "I have met these particular Awakened, and they have no discipline." Celestial Chorus: The One? Heh, I know a number of gods, and they love it when people worship them as blindly as these do. "They have no respect for the One." Cult of Ecstasy: Alcohol? Why not! "Coool, man, like, they're like fat Gandalfs... " Dreamspeakers: Good day, mate, throw another shrimp on the barby?
"Fools." Euthanatos: Really, that attitude is so outdated... "I still have found no use for these." Hollow Ones: I never could stomach that gothic look... "Someone give these old codgers a history book, man..." Order of Hermes:"They're just jealous that we don't get Paradox." "@£$#%!!!"
Sons of Ether: I never could stomach alchemists. "I never could stomach wizards." Verbena: I have absolutely nothing against witches, honestly. "Bloody wizards, always meddling in things they shouldn't be doing." Virtual Adepts: What's a 'computer'? "Booooring..."
Quote "AND NOW; WITH THE POWER OF AHASVERUS, I SEND THEE TO THE SIXTH LEVEL OF...oh, bugger, the staff malfunctioned again..."
The Discworld Prelude "'Sodomy non sapiens', said Albert under his breath. 'What does that mean?' 'It means I'm buggered if I know.'" -- Terry Pratchett, "Mort" A vampire stalks a lonely nightwanderer. But as he is about to bite the poor soul, he feels a hand on his shoulder, and an authoritative voice saying: "What's all this then, practicin' vampirism on an open street, right, it's off to the slammer with you, matey!" No, he hasn't been caught by Hunters. The vampire lives in a city called Ankh-Morpork, and the authoritative voice comes from Captain Carrot of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. (Their motto is "Fabricati diem, pvnc!"...recognize it? Translate it into English.) The world is called the Discworld, and it is one of the most odd worlds in the multiverse, being, well, flat, standing on top of four giant elephants, (named Berilia, T'Phon, Jerakeen and Tubul) who in turn stand on top of a gigantic starturtle named Great A'Tuin. Don't ask me what the turtle stands on. All this just proves that even the Creator eventually would grow tired of all these rotational axles, magnetic fields, poles and evolution crap and go crazy a little once in a while. In any case, the Discworld is flat. And round. Like a big pizza. (In fact, according to several Discworldian cults the Creator based the design on a pizza, and they also have the pizza in question miraculously preserved at a museum in the lost city of Ee, the pizza made by the Klatchian mystic Ronron "Revelation Joe" Shuwadhi, who claimed to have been given the recipe in a dream by the Creator himself. The pizza itself is a sad little thing with pepperoni and a few black olives.) There are four general directions, like on Earth, but with Hubwards as North, Rimwards as South, Turnwise as West and Counterturnwise as East. There are also eight seasons and 800 days in a Discworld year, at least that's what the philosophers and mathematicians have calculated, so when all the ordinary people still use a calendar of four seasons a year and 400 days a year, they're not really doing that, because it shouldn't be like that. They think. Okay, as some may have noticed there is a recurring theme here. Eight. Eight is a powerful number on the Discworld; wizards never use the word, instead preferring to call it "the number after seven" or "7a". Eight is the number of colours of the Discworld, the ordinary seven of the rainbow, and then there is the eighth colour, Octarine, which can only be seen by those of the supernatural kind. It's a sort of disappointing fluorescent greenish-yellow-purple. Eight is also the number of sons you have to be the eighth son of to be a wizard, this is just the way it is. By the way, wizards are celibate. Because if a wizard has an eighth son, he becomes a sorcerer, and that's something noone wants. Last time there was a sourcerer in the Discworld, the Apocralypse almost occurred. No, not the Apocalypse, but the Apocryphical Apocalypse, i.e, the Apocralypse. Get it? Ah, well, it's not a very good joke anyway...
Geography "Right, you bastards, you're...you're geography!" -- Terry Pratchett, "Guards, Guards" The Discworld is, as said before, flat. There, now we've come to terms with that, no, they don't drop into space due to lack of gravity, nor does there live people on the underside of the Disc. It is 10, 000 miles across, and 30 000 miles around. The fish and all the little plankton are kept from falling over the edge by a little (or rather, BIG) something known as the Circumfence, and the water itself falls over the edge of the world in what is called the Rimfall, why the water doesn't dry up, well, don't ask me, it just
doesn't. There are four great continents on the Discworld: the Hub continent, the continent of Klatch, the Counterweight continent and the continent of Xxxx, where the people all wear big hats with corks hanging from the sides and eats prawns and calls each other "mate" all the time. The Hub Continent is the center continent, a slightly irregular such, which goes from the Circle Sea in the Rimwards to the Hublands in the Hubwards. The Circle sea is sort of their version of the Mediterranean, where citystates lie sprawling (like fat toads) all around it. In the middle of this continent, and of the Discworld, is the Hublands, and in the center of these are the Ramtops, crowned by the ten miles high mountainspire of Cori Celesti, home of the gods, where the great celestial city of Dunmanifestin squats on top. Klatch is the desert and jungle continent, where the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi are still paying off the pyramids, where the Klatchian Foreign Legion is resided, (noone knows exactly where, because since everyone goes there to forget, noone can remember where it is) and the Ephebians wage eternal war against the Tsorteans. (Exchange Ephebe for Greece and Tsort for Troja) The Counterweight continent is...well, people there have invented gunpowder, they use silk, they got waterbuffaloes, rice, samurai's, rice, ninja, mad emperors, rice, lots and lots of gold, rice, and they all believe in ghosts. You take a guess what continent it's based on. Thw continent of Xxxx is barely explored yet, but they do have these huge brownish-red rats that bounce around, and the (ab)original natives smile a lot, especially when the explorers try to shoo away the big rats with a stick that later turns out to be a very poisonous snake...
History "What our ancestors would really be thinking, if they were alive today, is: "Why is it so dark in here?" -- Terry Pratchett, "Pyramids" The Discworld was created late on a Sunday afternoon by one of the Creators of the Multiverse, who did it by contract of the gods, and life later appeared as the result of a carelessly thrown away egg-and-cress sandwich. A few million years later the humans had evolved quite a lot since last, and the then numerous Sorcerers started arguing about who was the most powerful one. And, as it always happen if Sorcerers argue, the rest of the world got in the way. Thus, the Mage Wars. A few hundred years of fear and not knowing what shape one would wake up in in the morning later, the last Sorcerer left the Discworld and magick was reduced to wizard magic, giving everyone reason to let out a collective sigh of relief. But still there are many areas of the Discworld where High Magick is infused in the air, water and ground, sort of like test areas for nuclear bombs, and where you would do best if you ran through as quickly as possible, while you still possess legs to run with... Another few millennia passed, and the states of Omnia, Sto Helit, Sto Lat, Quirm, Ephebe, Tsort and Ankh-Morpork arose, sort of like warts on an otherwise spotless face. The biggest and most powerful state is Ankh-Morpork, a city that can be described as a sort of merging of Renaissance Venice, 16th-18th century London and the ancient Rome. The city has survived many disasters, earthquakes, great fires and invasions, sort of like that really annoying song you can't get out of your head for days...they even have a sign by the open gates that says:"Welcomme toe Ankh-Morporke, thank you for notte invading our citie." Omnia is a sort of version of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Israel and 15th century Spain, ("Nobody expects the Omnian Inquisiton!") at least up until the last Omnian Church Cenobiarch (Pope), Brutha the Chosen One, who managed to render the more violent ways of the church harmless, and these days they are sort of like a whole country of Jehovah's Witnesses....(Even worse than Inquisition!) Sto Helit and Sto Lat are the Discworld equivalents of medieval citystates in general, always trying hard not to get noticed by anyone with an army and some time over... Quirm is a version of Paris, although with the nightlife of a Welsh sheepfarm on a rainy September Tuesday...practically none. They make good cheese, though. All in all, the city of Ankh-Morpork is the most interesting of these, with the most...civilized demeanor...you know, muggings, slum, assassins, organized crime, drugdealers, all those niceties of modern society... The Counterweight Continent is basically a merging of Dynastean China and feudal Japan, although the emperor is currently a Hublandish barbarian named Cohen...who took over the country with five other barbarians, all of them, him included, past their eighties. One of them even sat in a wheelchair all the time, with his sword under the blanket. The Klatchian continent is back to back with the Hubwards continent, sort of like the entire African continent, with all the stuff from our Africa, pharaohs, desert nomads in big sheets, camels, oil, jungles, elephants, even a few lost kingdoms and lost dinosaurlands, with a few amazon-countries tossed in for spice. This is where Howondaland Smith, great adventurer and graverobber with a whip and hat, usually has all his adventures. Xxxx is Australia, if you hadn't guessed that already. (Duh!)
Ankh-Morpork "There was not a lot that could be done to make Morpork a better place. A direct hit by a meteorite, for example, would count as a gentrification." -- Terry Pratchett, "Pyramids" This city is a...horrible city, actually. The river Ankh is so polluted that if the local organized crime wants to drown someone, they have to stomp on him to get him to sink. The local universities don't have rowingteams, they have running teams, who run over the river in extra solid boots, which melts into sludge after a few steps. Th city is ruled by the One Man, One Vote system, that is,
the Patrician is the man, he has the vote. The current Patrician is a Lord Havelock Vetinari, a man once described to look like a carnivorous flamingo. He wears black. Not handsome, silk black, no, he wears the kind of plain cotton black of those who don't want to be bothered with what to wear each day. He has never lost his nerve, and in fact, is probably the best ruler the city has had for centuries. He almost never does any unnecessary executions or torturings, apart from his quite odd dislike of mimes and street performers, whom he hangs upsidedown in a dungeon with a sign, turned so the miscreant can see what it says, saying:"LEARN THE WORDS!" The City maintenance is divided into lots and lots of Guilds, the basic Thieves and Beggars Guild, who, are so organized that they work with the City Watch from time to time, the Musicians Guild, the Alchemists Guild, the Gamblers Guild, the Clown Guild and the Assassins Guild. There are quite a lot of other guilds, but they just keep disappearing and reappearing so fast that it isn't worth the effort to try to catalogue them. Law-enforcement is divided equally between the Thieves Guild and the City Watch, and the Assassins Guild keeps the noble court at a reasonable level... Also in Ankh-Morpork is Unseen University, home of all wizardry on the Disc.
World of Darkness The inhabitants of the WoD can be quite easily translated to the Discworld, as there are in the books, several versions of the inhabitants of WW's games. Vampires are more accepted, as they hardly ever drink human blood, but instead tend to work at kosher butchers, slaughterhouses and such. Werewolves are commonly known, and since there is no Wyrm to battle on the Disc, they can spend more time raiding chicken coops, sheep-herds and other proprietors of meat... Trolls, Dwarves, Goblins, most of the Fae can be translated into the Disc, but they need no human sides, and there is no such things as Banality. And there are no Sidhe. They were trapped in stonecircles millennia ago, mostly due to their way of stealing children, burning down houses with the inhabitants still in it, and in general being cruel. So the faerie can in general get on with their lives. But they still have an aversion to cold iron. Except for the Dwarves. And the Trolls are not the noble blue horned dudes of our world, but instead tend to be huge lumps of walking rock, more like the Nunnehi Rockgiants. They are also dumber than a Pauly Shore movie. They can barely count to four, ("Errr, one...two....many...lots!") and in fact one of them is famous among them for his ability to count to more than several thousand. Even if it's just in the way of:"One-er, two-ooo, three, four-er, five, six, seven, eights, niner, ten..." Mages, yes, there are mages, although on the Disc they are known as witches and wizards. They don't have to worry about Paradox, as the Discworld is one big Paradox itself, but instead, if they use too much magic at once, they might attract attention from the Things in the Dungeon Dimensions, who always look for a way into our dimension...
ORDER OF THE ETERNAL DAWN By Anders Sandberg The Order of the Eternal Dawn, OED, was founded in the beginning of this century when several magi of Euthanatos and Verbena who, to their surprise found out that they had similar goals. They both worked on purifying the race, albeit in quite different ways. The involved Euthanatos had been working on the Messiah-project for centuries, trying to weed out the weak and encouraging the useful traits in mankind. The Verbenas had tried to purify "the blood", and had done the same thing for a long time, by increasing the fertility in some persons, while decreasing it in others. They decided to join forces in secrecy, knowing their respective traditions would not like their alliance. The first decades of OED's existence was spent quarrelling. Even if their goals and many methods were similar, the two traditions had much trouble co-operating. After some diplomatic German mages from Order of Hermes joined them, the tensions eased a bit. They set to work on purifying the race. Their first "experiment" was the Nazis. Using the semi-Masonic lodge Thule Gesellschaft to influence them, they tried to spread their ideas and take control over the emerging Nazi party. It turned out that they were not quite as easily manipulated as the mages believed, and several members got too carried away. The "experiment" didn't work at all, the Nazis corrupted the ideas of OED and used them in their own way. After the war, OED tried to salvage what it could. The remaining members were quite convinced that their ideas were right, but that they must be realised in a less spectacular way. Since the opinion now was firmly against any ideas of racial purity, they had to work in secrecy. Their next step was a long-range plan to slowly breed a new race without anybody noticing. They set to work, as determined as ever. OED consists of members of Euthanatos, Verbena and a few Hermetic mages. Their number is very small, probably around 20. While they have left their own traditions (who would want to crush OED if they knew their existence), they have not created any new tradition. The mages use more or less the same philosophy and methods as their original traditions. Some members try to mix methods, with equally mixed success. To join OED, a mage must be invited by several members. Only mages who they are certain share their devotion to their ideals are considered. OED works in absolute secrecy. In their pursuit of a new race, OED co-operates with other groups in secret. There have been contacts between the Progenitors and members of OED (some members may even be Progenitors in incognito). Another group they have had much contact with is the Priory of Sion, a secret order devoted to the protection of the royal blood of the lineage Plantagnet (which they claim is descended from Christ. Read "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" for more theories about them). Other groups involve Teutonic ice and fire mages, neonazis and some Sons of Ether. Every contact have been extremely secret, and is almost impossible to trace back to OED. OED has several current projects. The most important is their breeding program. Using their magick, mundane methods and research they try to breed the new race. They try to discreetly manipulate persons with useful traits to mate, keep a watchful eye over families with "good blood" and constantly search for other lineages with desirable properties. (Think of the Bene Gesserit in the Dune books). Another area of research is Orphans. OED find them highly interesting. Why do they awaken? What keeps some of them from going insane while others quickly go mad? What factors influence them, both hereditary and environmentally? They try to find out, sometimes interviewing orphans or simply engaging in conversations. They also study the families of Orphans, hoping to find useful traits. The Euthantei in OED also weed out undesirable traits. They usually use dupes, which do the dirty work. Some mages work in hospitals, where they in secret decide who is useful and who is not. Some of them have begun infiltrating sperm-banks, swapping useless material for what they consider useful. Other projects involve training and imprinting of the protected families and their children, political and scientific infiltration to make their views a bit more PC again and pure magickal research on just what traits are useful, and what the new race will become. They have done some experiments studying garou-lineages and the effects of kindred blood, but so far they have not proven useful to them. OED have secret meeting places. One of the most typical is an office belonging to "Good Life Insurance" in New York. The insurance company is quite real, and controlled by one member. The office is used to store their secret documents, plans and results using several subtle magickal defences. A sleeper viewing the documents would think they are normal accounting of no interest. Coincidental effects prevent them from being stolen. An anti-magickal shield strengthens the Gauntlet and dampens all magick. Here the East- Coast OED meet, to discuss their latest findings and plans.
Rotes Follow Blood (Life 1 Time 2): The mage touches some blood from someone. The result is that the mage gains physiological knowledge about the owner, his age, condition, appearance, sicknesses, markings and so on. By tracing the blood backwards, the mage can learn how the owner was when he was younger. The mage may also continue the tracing back to the owners parents, and their parents, and so on. A single trait may be followed back to its source.
End Blood (Life 4): The mage touches the victim with some blood (very little is required). The result is a small infection rendering the victim sterile and unable to pass on undesirable traits. The victim will not notice anything.
Guardian Angel (Spirit 2): The mage summons a protective spirit, which will follow a person around. If the person is in danger, is victim to magick or otherwise disturbed the spirit will alert the summoner. This rote is often used to protect desirable families.
Find Template (Life 1 Correspondence 3): The mage searches for life matching a template (like a cell-sample, having a certain
mark or a desirable trait). If there are any matching life forms, the mage will know where they are. This is used by some members to track their protected families.
Mark the Blood (Life 2 Prime 2): The mage "marks" the blood of a person. This marking will be passed on to the children, and so on. Sometimes this marking is bound to a special trait. The mark can be read by Life 1. Different markings have different meanings, and are used to keep track of certain traits. OED have also found that there exist other markings in several bloodlines, which they have not put there. Some members believe that there must have been other mages doing the same thing as they in the past. Other explain it away as a "lusus naturae", a strange but useless natural phenomenon.
ORDER OF HERMES PARADIGM By Anders Sandberg
The Paradigm The Tradition. Everything has once and for all been defined and codified into the Great Tradition by the ancient masters. Nothing can ever be added to this universal knowledge; the best a mage can hope for is to recapitulate and teach the ancient wisdom ever more subtly. However, much of the great Tradition is lost due to the ravages of time, human folly and incompetence. It is the duty of all hermetic mages to seek to restore it to its ancient glory by collecting the scattered fragments.
Magick Control. The mage can control the whole of creation by applying the secrets of the Tradition. For every possible circumstance there is old wisdom to fall back on, safer and more powerful than any new magick. The whole of the universe is built on the secret links of control and rulership, and a knowledgeable mage knows how to deal with them.
Spheres Correspondence: Sympathy. Everything in the universe is linked to everything else, through subtle relations. By following these links (using the wisdom of Tradition to guide himself), a mage can find connections between seemingly disparate things, sense events from afar and change the positions of objects.
Mind: Consciousness. The secret of Mind is the secret force of Consciousness. It is a force just like the elements or the Light, animating the sluggish life into higher thought.
Prime: The Light, Prima Materia. This is the greatest of all forces, the force the Highest used to create the entire universe. It is the light from the Fiat of the Great Architect of the Universe. To understand it is necessary for all works of higher magick.
Time: Destiny. Everything that happens are but a part in the great chains of destiny. By learning how these links work, a diligent mage can follow their paths backwards and divine their future ways.
Entropy: Imbalance. Not all forces of the universe are in perfect balance. Some forces have destructive consequences, while others impose randomness and chaos on the others.
Spirit: Other Planes. The physical world is not the only plane of creation. Other levels of existence spread out both above and below it, filled with denizens and powers beyond the ken of mankind. These powers and the links between the various planes can be controlled and understood by the wisdom of Tradition.
Pattern Magick: Lesser Works Forces: The Elements. Everything is built out of the interactions between the four elements. The dynamic nature of Fire and Air is controlled by Water and Earth, and the high elements Fire and Water is kept in balance by the low elements Earth and Air. By learning how to shift these equilibria, a wise mage can control the forces of the physical world.
Matter: Material Magick. Matter is the heavy conglomeration of some of the lowest forces. It binds us in the physical world, yet it protects us and give us the tools to transform the universe. It is the floor of the Temple of Ascension.
Life: Animation. Living beings are matter which has been animated by the animating principle, the life-force. The Tradition contains great wisdom regarding this force and how it is linked to other forces and can be controlled.
Arete The Great Work. Each mage must pursue the Great Work for himself, supported by his peers and helped by his Masters. As he pursues his goals, he will learn more and more of the Tradition which will show him the true nature and ways of the universe. This will not only give him control over it, it will also give him control over himself.
Quintessence Bounded Light can manifest in many ways. It can be imprisoned in matter, flow in the cosmic forces, charge certain objects or just exist. Originally it came from the Highest, and will one day return to infinity, but currently it is bounded by the lower planes.
Paradox Unbalanced forces. If a mage breaks against the Tradition or fails to properly balance the forces of the universe, an imbalance will result. This will inevitably gravitate to him, and in due time destroy him unless he can restore the cosmic balance.
Awakening Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel. Each human being has his own Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), his higher self, guiding him through existence towards Ascension. A mage is a person who has not only met his HGA, but experienced the reality of the higher worlds it represents and chosen to follow it.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: Invisibility . To protect themselves from enemies and dangers many mages learn the art of secrecy and hiding. Avatar: Holy Guardian Angel . Some mages are blessed with a HGA taking greater interest in their lives and magick, giving them strength in danger and succor in failure.
Destiny: Destiny. Some mages are destined by the forces of the universe for certain acts, to preserve the great equilibrium. These individuals have the momentum of the entire universe behind them.
Dream: Understanding. A few fortunate mages understand the Great Tradition intuitively, seeing the secret laws underlying everything. They are able to understand anything and handle anything using the precepts of the Tradition to support them.
Node: Fulcrum. The forces of the world are in constant flux, yet carefully balanced against each other. In some places this balance can be manipulated with less exertion than elsewhere.
THE ORDER OF AESCLEPIUS By John Walter Biles (
[email protected]) (6 Nov 93) In Ancient Greece, there was a cult of priests dedicated to the worship of Aesclepius, god of Healing and Medicine. Among this cult, there were some who awakened to the power of Magic. After paganism was banned in the Roman Empire in the late 4th century AD, they organized themselves and went underground to continue the work of healing. Many joined the monastic movement, hoping to motivate it in the direction of works of public charity and the tending of the sick. During the middle ages, they worked to create hospitals and homes for those suffering from leprosy. It was at this time that they came in contact with similar groups of mages in Asia and established ties across Eurasia. The order was shocked by the Black Death. They tried to convince the mages of Europe to unite to fight it, but the Order of Hermes and the Celestial Chorus were already increasingly locked in struggle. They did their best to confine its ravages and successfully prevented it from crossing the Sahara to ravage Africa. With the rise of the Technocracy, the Order went increasingly underground, but have continued to promote the study and practice of medicine, which they regard as the greatest achievement of the modern world. The order claims that Florence Nightingale, Albert Schweitzer, and Jonas Salk were among its ranks. The order has increasingly turned in recent years to the healing of psychological illness also. The order often claims that Jung was among their ranks, but no one can say for sure.
Philosophy: This world cries out for healing and we must answer the call. We shall return life to a world slowly dying. Physical, mental, and spiritual illness are linked and must be healed together. To heal without changing a person's life only insures that the illness or injury will recur. To kill is only necessary to save one's life. Never hold where speech is enough. Never hurt where holding is enough. Never injure where hurting is enough. Never maim where injury is enough. Never kill where maiming is enough. All need healing, not hurting. You must offer your aid to whoever needs it most. All life prospers and suffers together. Your strength can be their strength, and their pain is yours. Together we can make this a better place.
Organization: The Order of Aesclepius is a loose cooperative network of healers world wide. It has no hiearchy, but those of greater magical skill tend to lead the larger scale endeavors. The Red Cross is strongly controlled by them along with many other major charities. All of the Order meet once a year in a given region. Sometimes masters of the order will call meetings of their disciples.
Sphere: Life Foci: Cadaceucus: Life/Forces/Matter. The Cadaceucus is a staff with two snakes(usually not real ones anymore) twined about it. Take a look at the AMA symbol toget the idea. Traditionally, Aesclepius carried such a staff. Sleep: Spirit, Time, Mind. The mage must go to sleep(diff.6 on Meditation to do in one round, -1 per extra round spend trying to get to sleep quickly) to use the sphere of Spirit. Traditionally, the order got those who wished to be healed to go to sleep and then would project themselves and the sleeper into the Umbra where they would have a "vision of Aesclepius" which would tell them how to heal themselves. Fire: Prime Winged Shoes: Correspondence Sand: Entropy
Acolytes: Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, Faith Healers, Chiropractors, Psychiatrists and Psychologists, Medical Students, Hypochondriacs
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: While you focus on yourself, others are suffering. What good is physical perfection while the world is in pain? Celestial Chorus: They have both helped and hurt us. They understand the world's pain more than many mages and its need for spiritual healing.
Cerebus: Hate is slowly destroying them. They must learn to forgive if they are to truly help the people of this world. Cult of Ecstasy: Disgusting and Wasteful. Discordians: How entirely pointless. What good is confusing someone who is in need of real help? Dreamspeakers: It is sad that they are in decline for this world has often benefited from their assistance. We mourn for them and call them our brothers and sisters. Aid them whenever possible.
Euthanatos: The world has destruction enough without their assistance. What a waste. Hollow Ones: They are this world screaming for help. We must help them find the purpose and hope they lack. Necromancers: A blight on the world. Evil consumes them daily. While we hope for their redemption, we suspect that one day they will have to be stopped before they plunge the world into night eternal.
Order of Hermes: They hide in their studies poring through old tomes while the world dies. We fear their time is past. Perhaps they can yet be redeemed.
Rosicrucians: Like their parent order, they do nothing of any real use to the world. There is more to life than ritual, secrecy, and study. Knowledge not applied to aid others is knowledge wasted.
Runecasters: They are consumed by ancient struggles and hatreds. They must learn more than the art of battle before they will truly earn our respect.
Sons of Ether: If we could figure out how to get their machines to work, we would have more dealings with them. They have created many wonders, but only they can use them. That is not enough.
Sons of Jupiter: They have aided us in the past. They have much to learn of healing, but they have not been consumed by their struggle.
Technolibertarians: It is not technology that makes us free. Technology brings false security, not liberty. They must learn to use their machines to aid others before we can respect them.
Verbena: Another blight on the world. They give us all a bad name. Perhaps they are not yet hopeless, but the healing of their souls will be an uphill road.
Virtual Adepts: Fascinating. Perhaps they can build us a better world. For the moment, we shall wait and see.
THE ANCIENT ORDER OF SEERS By Theslin Wanders-through-Bramble (
[email protected])
Background Despite its name, the Ancient Order of Seers does not count itself with the older Crafts. Its history begins in the 1750s, when secular pursuits such as theater and dance began to overwhelm the popularity of the Church. While the Celestial Chorus lost its grasp on the imaginations of the world, the "performance" traditions, in particular the Cult of Ecstasy, never without a sense of style, ascended to a new level of Sleeper respect. Shows of prestidigitation, little glimpses of the supernatural without any "real" Magick, became a great pastime in the "educated" countries: North America and the European nations, among others, sported hundreds of wandering magicians. Dabblers that they were, it's a great mystery how such a sizable chunk of stage charlatans started their journey to Ascension. Critics claim their Awakening was a sick Cultist joke. Another theory was that even staged performance magic was as powerful a force as "Magick" or "science." At the core of all three lies the same basic Prime Force. The Sons of Ether in particular sponsor the latter theory.
Names Stage hams that they are, members of the Ancient Order adopt grandiose titles -- "The Amazing Rodney," "Julian the Mentalist," or even "Sim Allah-bar-Dabah, Master of the Four Winds." It is vitally important not to take these titles seriously--the Ancient Order doesn't. Within the Order, Sleepers are often referred to as "The Audience." Tradition mages are generally called "the Hopeless." Beyond this, the Ancient Order has adopted a Vaudeville-esque jargon all its own.
Philosophy As varied as the images they adopt, few Seers share a philosophy. They all agree on the importance of an image and facade. Most have difficulty believing in an Ascension, although the older Seers, after "settling down," have taken an occasional stand on this topic, if only to debate it with their comrades.
Organization A set of loose ethics, promulgated through master-apprentice training, unifies the Ancient Order of Seers. These codes, while only very general guidelines, have held for more than two centuries. The Treaty (so named by the Council of Nine) was born of necessity, and new amendments are added as conditions dictate. i. Respect every Seer's methods. Every shtick is equal to your own. ii. Never violate the sanctity of a brother's performance. The Show must not be broken nor interrupted. iii. Respect a brother's territory. An attempt to out-perform a Seer is a challenge. iv. Respect a brother's secrets. Techniques are to be shared with Apprentices, not with outsiders. Do not share tricks with the Audience. v. The Hopeless are not of the Ancient Order. Do not share tricks with the other Awakened. vi. Do not violate the sanctity of a brother's Image. Copy neither technique nor costume. Note that the Code is merely a set of protocols, and in times of crisis -- during competition with another Seer, for example -- they are flagrantly violated. As travelling entertainers, the Ancient Order does not maintain a hierarchy or internal structure. More than any Tradition, the Ancient Order of Seers is a "society of equals."
Meetings The Ancient Order do not schedule regular meetings. Occasional competitions are held at Ancient Order Chantries, gala affairs attended by vast crowds of Sleepers and mages alike. These competitions are grueling affairs -- any slip during an act, any assistant permanently divided into two pieces, any doves conjured with broken wings or spring-loaded contraptions wrapped around its legs, costs the performer a good deal of respect.
Initiation As with many of the Traditions, initiation in the Ancient Order of Seers requires a lengthy apprenticeship, during which time the apprentice accompanies his master on his journeys, aids him during shows (more dangerous than it sounds), and -- very rarely - learns his Master's tricks. After a period of several years, the apprentice is put out on his own. It is very bad form for an apprentice to copy his master's shtick. Unoriginality is bad enough -- plagiarism is a very dangerous habit within the Order.
Sphere Mind (Some members of the Akashic Brotherhood hold grudges for this little transgression)
Acolytes Stage hands, volunteers from the audience, Beautiful Assistants, roadies and groupies
Concepts Fakir, Stage Magician, Clown, Special Effects Wizard, Mentalist
Foci All Spheres: Image Spirit/Prime/Forces: Wand Matter: Hat Mind/Entropy: Patter Time/Correspondance/Life: Cape
Foci Notes Image: Image is everything. A Seer cannot perform his magic unless he is in costume. Note that "image" is unique to the individual, although specific garments are not: A Seer wearing robes and peaked hat cannot perform properly unless he normally dresses as does Merlin, though a "Merlin" could perform magick in any star-spangled robe and hat.
Wand: The Seer must wave a wand while using some spheres. The wand is a unique object, and must work properly with the Seer's image. Black top hat and tuxedo require a black wand with a white tip. Image is everything.
Hat: The Seer must wear a hat to perform Matter effects. As with Wand, the hat must conform to the mage's image, though it is not a unique item. Using a hat in coincidental magic under some circumstances -- with items that are larger than could conceivably fit inside of the hat or are not actually being pulled out of the headpiece -- will raise the difficulty of the effect by one. Baskets and large boxes, while less portable, have often been used as alternative foci.
Patter: Like the Order of Hermes, the Ancient Order of Seers has developed a sort of language to misguide the Audience. It is chanted, mumbled or shouted, but serves only to misfocus attention on the actual magick. Patter does not require Linguistics, unless one is using patter based on Latin or some other language: again, the patter must fit with the image. Many Seers use musical instruments as an alternative focus. Patter increases the time required for a magickal effect by at least one turn.
Cape: When using some of the more vulgar spheres, an act is more believable when concealed under a cape. Blankets, tarps and so forth are equally acceptable. If the Seer is not physically able to cover or block his target from view, the difficulty of his magick is increased by two!
More on foci: As with Technomancers, reliance on Foci is all that keeps a Seer's magick coincidental. Members of the Ancient Order may not begin dropping Foci until they reach an Arete of 5, and even then most choose to hide their Magick beneath a veil of flim-flam and hoopla.
Quote Ascension? Who has time? Life isn't about high goals, it's about the roar of the crowd!
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: So very sad. Our little friends have learned so much of higher things in life that they've forgotten the lower. I believe they've actually forgotten how to applaud...
"Who?" -- Kai Shan, Akashic Brotherhood
Celestial Chorus: They know a bit about pageantry, they can run a show -- but they just can't advertise! Let 'em die, if they want to.
"Only a step better than the Cult of Ecstasy. I shall not discuss them further." -- Clare De'francois, Celestial Chorus
Cult of Ecstasy: They won't amount to anything, but you could hardly ask for a more appreciative audience. "Cool. Y'know, after a mushroom or two their shows are worth watching." -- Greensleeves, Cultist of Ecstasy
Dreamspeakers: Here and now, boys, here and now! How can people be so out of touch? "I haven't met them, but they sound misguided. I can't see how they have any real focus in life." -- Fox Reily, Dreamspeaker
Euthanatos: Sick, sick, backwards little deluded drabs. Let 'em stew with the Hermetics for a few centuries. "Yet another waste of flesh." -- "Lace," Euthanatos
Hollow Ones: A bit gloomy, but basically good folks. If you can bring yourself down to their level, you've got a partner you can depend on. Style, a little flash -- all the best in an assistant.
"We all need a chance to laugh, even us Hollows. And its nice to have a Craft that doesn't take itself seriously." --Catriona Borgia, Hollow One
Order of Hermes: And in so many positions of power! They must know some real magic to keep all of their heads under a rock. Absolutely no sense of joy.
"'Sim sallah-Bim,' hmmm? Clever. I have but three questions. One, how did you do it. Two, in what godforsaken subrealm is my watch. And three, when does the Paradox set in?" -- Brahms Tolak, Hermetic
Sons of Ether: They're like brothers, with all the smoke and sparks. If we could only talk them out of the laboratory and under the limelight; the competition would be a welcome change.
"Smoke and sparks? There's more to our craft. Now, perhaps in a variety show, with some demonstrations of the True Sciences..." -- Cleo von Drakken, Son of Ether
Verbena: I do believe they don't really like us. Pity. So many useful tricks, but how do they stand all that blood? "So utterly without substance. I can't see the point of hating a creature with so little impact on reality." -- Kaitlin Jaysong, Verbena
Virtual Adepts: Yes, yes, very nice. Pocket universes and all that are pretty, but a fad. Speak with the crowds, not to the individual. They do have a good grasp of special effects, though.
"I haven't seen a 'magic' show since I was six. There must be better things to sit through." -- "Sparrowhawk," Virtual Adept
Rotes
Card Tricks Spheres: Mind ***, Entropy ** Description: Pick a card. Any card. It's a six of spades, right? Card Tricks is an old staple of the Order of Seers, as is any Trick that'll give them ultimate control over a deck of cards. It's a great rote for gambling, as well...
System: With this rote in effect, the Seer can predict which card in a given deck is in what position with almost perfect accuracy. Entropy lays the pattern the cards are shuffled into. Mind allows the caster to "peek" with the victim's eyes.
Know your Audience Spheres: Mind ** or ***, Correspondence *** Description: Sometimes you don't know what to expect from a crowd. Jarrad "The Great Rary" Handell solved that problem. With Know your Audience he could perform as his crowds wished, and always to a full house.
System: The second level of Mind allows the Seer knowledge of his subject's opinions and emotions. Greater levels of Mind and a knack for Correspondence allow the mage to "peek" into an audience as a whole, rather than one target at a time. The mage may ask one "question" of his audience or target, regarding the targets attitudes, emotions and opinions concerning the caster, per success.
Magic Smoke Spheres: Forces ***, Matter **, Prime ** Description: No-one can perform True Magic (without the "k") when the Audience can see your every move. The Ancient Order of Seers has posessed this rote since its first members deluded Late Baroque Italy. Useful in combat, performance and heavy traffic, Magic Smoke is a long-time favorite for the more troublesome Seers.
System: The caster of this rote creates a cloud of thick, opaque smoke, up to five cubic yards tall and black as pitch. The smoke is under the caster's control, can be moved at normal walking speed without disippating, and lasts for as many turns as the caster has successes.
Blink Spheres: Mind ***, Life *, Prime * Description: A complimentary effect to "Magic Smoke," this old Trick momentarily distracts anybody looking at the mage, producing results from a brief blink to a plague of daydreamers.
System: Prime, Life and Mind are used to locate individuals observing the casting mage. Mind also allows the caster to cast the impulse to blink, or cough, or what-have-you into the audience's cumulative mind. The number of successes equal the severity of the distraction: One success indicates a quick blink, while five successes will tie up the audience for two or three seconds. Sometimes all that's necessary is the tiniest moment of distraction...
Optional Rule: Seers and the Stage On the Stage, the will of the audience backs that of the performer. The Masses want to see miracles, and believe that they're possible -- though obviously done with mirrors. An appropriately dramatic mage can wield more powerful than a wise one in this environment. Prior to his performance, a Mage must "set up" her audience. This requires a Manipulation + Expression roll, with a difficulty of seven (the Storyteller may assign a higher or lower difficulty based on the "toughness" of the crowd -- very little children are a bit easier to impress than a group of jaded and world-wise high-schoolers.) The number of successes sets the magickal tone for the show, and as well the degree to which the audience's suspension of disbelief aids the mage. Great Works are possible on stage if one can use that unique setting properly. Successes Effect 1 The mage blew his set-up. The audience expects a poor show. All difficulties for spells are increased by 2. Rotes which were not obviously "faked" (read: Coincidental. The ace was up his sleeve, you could see the wires) are considered Vulgar Magick with Witness. All botched magick draws an extra point of Paradox. Good luck. 2 The audience expects a dull show. The difficulty of any Vulgar effect is increased by 1. 3 The audience is expecting a decent show. The difficulty of Coincidental magick is decreased by 1. 4 The audience is expecting a great show! The difficulty of all magick is decreased by 2. In addition, the mage receives a point of Quintessence whenever a spell succeeds dramatically (with spectacular and eye-catching results and at least four successes).
5+
The audience is eating out of your hand, hanging on your words and waiting for the next trick with baited breath. Magick difficulties are decreased by 2, the Mage receives a point of Quintessence for dramatic successes. The Show moves one step ahead of you as unexpected props appear to work themselves into your act -- all magick is considered coincidental for the duration of the show.
ORDER OF TREMERE By Timothy Toner (
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Introduction "Gather round, students, and learn the secret history. Learn your hidden past, learn the glorious truth of your people; the Order of Tremere. "It began with Bonisagus, the first to notice the phenomena. No, not quite the first to notice it. Perhaps the first to care about it. He noted that Magick, as it was practiced by the Traditions, took a terrible toll on the fabric of Reality, and on the minds of the Mages who utilized it. He reported his discoveries to the powers that be, but whether through negligence or indifference, they wholly ignored the warnings. "Undaunted, Bonisagus continued his research, looking for a solution that would please all parties. In many ways, he emulated the Sons of Ether of today, for he knew that somewhere out there, the solution was waiting for him to find it. "Then, one evening, while studying the habits of a pack of curious Garou, he stumbled upon a pocket of energy, deep within the Umbra. Make no mistake; it was not Prime. Its precise nature eluded him. It seemed to be a form of "shadow" quintessence, a realm formed as a sort of shadow when the power of Prime and quintessence bathed the Earth. Into this void fell all the free quintessence that dripped off earth. Here, it pooled and stored, waiting to be tapped. It was quintessence, but it was quintessence tainted by Pattern. "Because of the Taint, it was not able to bend reality. Instead, it could be used to coax reality along gentle paths, not ripped and eviscerated like "true" Magick. It seemed to be the boon Bonisagus sought, and he raced to write up the report. "Needless to say, they were not interested. Magick flowed freely and easily. Why should they waste their time limiting the freedom their powers allowed? Bonisagus was given a warm pat on the back, and sent packing. "Undaunted, he devoted his existence to understanding this rare energy source. Research showed that minor mages had already been tapping this power source, but in random, erratic, and short term ways. It was a part of reality, as much as he, or the plants and the air. It could be controlled more readily than Magick, but that would take a great deal of discipline, but as he saw it, a little enforced discipline was a good thing. He struck upon a manner of defining what he saw, and separating it into the system of forms and techniques we know today. "About ten years into the program, he was ready to start training a group of apprentices to control this new form of power, which he dubbed "Ars Magica." He sent a copy of his proposal to the Order of Hermes, and they replied promptly, demanding his presence before the Conclave. "This part of history has long been hidden behind the closed doors of that enclave. Some say that it was the first incursion with the Maurauders, others say it was a run in with the Nephandi. Still more claimed it was the first Paradox backlash. The cause was hidden, but the effect was obvious. A group of young, inexperienced mages had probed too far, and unleashed something dreadful. The Order was trapped in a dilemma. It needed to train more magi to defend against further assaults, and yet it dared not expose any more Neonates to the reality ripping power, lest more holes open up, and let more creatures spill forth. Bonisagus heard all this and smiled. He knew what they were going to ask, and he was supremely pleased with himself. "Indeed, they asked for him to present the formulae for his work. He knew that had he been allowed to create his mages a year before, under the auspices of the Order, compromises would have been made. Now that they needed him, he could exert as much control upon the workings of the new Order as he deemed necessary. Above all the cardinal rule was 'DISCIPLINE.' Without it, the magic would not flow, and all was lost. "He created a system containing structure, yet free enough to allow for spontaneous events, which would please those once enamored with Magick. The power derived not from the raping of reality, but rather the subtle harvesting of the power from this other place, this 'Shadow Empyrean,' as it came to be known. "Several other traditions joined in to assist the experiment. If an adequate system could be established, then those true Mages relegated to guard duty might very well be freed up to pursue the True Arts. Not all Traditions agreed with Bonisagus, however. The Chorus, with its control over Prime, was undisputed master of True reality, or the True Empyrean. Any threat, they thought, could be repulsed with but a gesture from them. Since True Magick could vaporize any Shadow effect, the Order of Hermes was not considered much of a threat. "As the histories tell us, Bonisagus' plan worked well...too well. The more the power from this "Shadow Empyrean" was utilized, the more peculiar effects began to manifest. Some mages, too addicted by the power, slipped into a state very similar to the Quiet, enemy of all true mages. This state came to be known as Twilight, and it was to be feared above all. "Then the power began to wane, and the World of Myth began to die. The whys have been bandied about the debate hall until the very subject burns with hateful rhetoric. Chapter Three of your texts more than adequately goes over the four basic theories. We will briefly cover each. "The reason accepted at that time was the closing of the Arcadia Gateway, the Path into Faerie. Mages of other Traditions
claimed that the Shadow Empyrean was the Faerie's personal power source, and that by draining it, we gave them no choice but to shut the entire system down. Recent conversations with the Fey have shown us this belief is false. The Closing of the Gateway was as much an effect as our loss of magic. The effect lay elsewhere. "The second theory propounds that the Technomancers created the Umbral Gauntlet, not only shielding us from invaders, but also calcifying reality until it has reached its current state. This theory has become the most popular, simply because it blames a common enemy of the Debaters, the Hateful Technocracy. We of open minds must not allow our quest for understanding of Magickal Theory to be clouded by politics and prejudice. To be truly open minded, and not like the Technocracy, we must accept all possibilities. "Magister, did not the brave Tremere discover the Technomancer threat?" "Ah, who is that? Yes, Brown. Smart boy. You've been dipping into the Prohiberam Lectare, eh? Such intelligence will get you thirty whacks after class. "Where was I? Yes. The third theory. "The third theory was put forth in the final days of the Order of Hermes. After the Treachery of the Technomancers was discovered, many sought to justify why the Technomancers had turned on them. Now the majority were very pompous magi, who could not accept that a bunch of smelly Germans had pulled the wool over their eyes. But a few had clear minds, and from them we can see that the Technomancers were intensely interested in the drop in the vis levels. Many detractors claimed that they were merely looking to see how effective a job they were doing. "Others pointed to some disturbing observations made by magi travelling in the Deep Umbra at the time. I will read one such passage, from Ektota, a Dreamspeaker: "I had begun my journey of purification with a happy heart, but it is torn apart by the sight before me. The Umbra casts a dark pallor across the spectral landscape, and yet something deeper, darker, and more sinister has infected the land. Jagglings lay dying, ectoplasmic pus oozing from invisible wounds. This whole place, one natural, once alive, is dead. All I can blame are these black veins which course through the land, like a deep infection in the Umbra. "One such area particularly drew my attention. There, many veins of the blackness flowed together into a giant pustulant sphere, a malignancy that seemed to absorb all. Where has it come from? What is it doing? I wish I knew. This is my fourth time to this place. I will not return here again. "Dreamspeakers are not well known for their eloquence or rhetorical skill, or even for writing down memories. Thus, this one draws particular attention. In his opinion, a sickness was engulfing the Umbra, absorbing power. Perhaps this was the source of the drain. Did the Technomancers create the Gauntlet to protect the earth from an even greater threat? Only careful studying will tell. "The final theory is a vicious bit of rumor, which I nevertheless must bring forth. There are those who claim that the Celestial Chorus are responsible for the death of the Order. The Chorus never quite believed that we weren't deriving our power from the Devil Himself. Some say they choked the Shadow Empyrean to put a stop to it once and for all. Other members of the Order claim that the Chorus were jealous that they no longer held the monopoly on Magick. So jealous were they, that they levelled the full brunt of Prime on our heads. Now I am all for maintaining a good relationship between the Traditions but the Chorus does have a long history of doing incredibly stupid things for the wrong reasons. The very fact that they lost control of a Sphere as powerful as Prime so easily suggests that they were somehow culpable in the rise of the Technocracy to power. "Whatever the case, the following truth is known: your forefathers, the Tremere, were the most brilliant House in the Order. Never shirking from duty, they accepted the role of researchers, explorers, warriors, and martyrs. Whenever a problem arose, the Tremere were there to deal with the threat. They were masters of Certamen and spellcraft, and their very name described them well: "To tremble." Those who saw a Tremere performing the Ars trembled before the power. "Such brilliance carried a heavy price. When the magic began to die, several Traditions raided the Houses, seeking those who would make excellent True Mages. The Tremere knew their duty, and not a one deserted their honored position. They studied the problem on every level. Whereas the scholar mage was content to study vis concentrations around faerie rings, the Tremere studied the politicks amongst the houses, and amongst the Traditions. Many thought that the Tremere were benefitting from such activities, but nothing could be farther from the truth. "Then two decades before the rise of Copernicus, with his official declaration of the Magickal supremacy of the Technocracy, one member of House Tremere, whose name is lost except for in the warmest reaches of our hearts, discovered the truth. Reading the original notes of Bonisagus, he noted that access to the Shadow Empyrean waxed and waned in a cycle similar to the Garou's natural ability to enter the Umbra. The two were somehow linked. Questioning a few curious Garou, the mage discovered that as the vis waned, the difficulty to enter the umbra increased. The Tremere surmised that a physical barrier was being created between Earth and the Shadow Empyrean. "By the time he reached his colleagues with the bitter information, it was too late. The Technocracy had fashioned the whole of reality into a fantastical machine, and it was only a matter of time before it crushed all Magick within its gears. However, an Enclave of seven Tremere, including the Honored one, clustered together to compare notes on what they had learned about their new foes. "It would seem that the Technomancers had convinced the vampiric population, once victims of witch hunts, to hide in the shadows, and actively seek to erase their existence from the minds of man. Many wondered at this. With a few careful spells, the Technocracy could do the same. Why make the vampires do it on their own?
"The Honored One realized that the vampires played a much greater role in all this than anyone imagined, perhaps even themselves. The Technocracy was using them, using the effort the Kindred exerted in hiding themselves, to turn the wheels of a reality where such Supernatural creatures did not exist. "It was inherently obvious to them that the only way to defeat the Technomancers was to emulate the vampires (and not a few of the Traditions) and hide in plain sight. However, the Seven represented the most visible of the Tremere, the most visible House in the Order. Further, with their vis fading fast, and with the realization that their plan to foil the Technocracy would take years, a new, more dangerous course would have to be selected. If they envisioned a plan to bell the cat, then they would have to be the ones to do it. "Time was running out. The Seven realized that they would have to move swiftly and ruthlessly, as they had seen the vampires act in the past. The Honored one was chosen to be the first, to find a powerful vampire, and learn his secrets. This he did. "It is with a heavy heart that I now tell you, mea discipuli, that in order to sequester the power, the Honored One had to seek out the most vulnerable, most trusting of the Kindred. A noble soul died that day, but for the greater good of all. With his power firmly entrenched, the Honored One, now known only as Tremere, turned the rest of the Seven into vampires." The master sighed, paused but a moment, and mopped his neck with a cloth. Clearing his throat, he continued. "Now we enter perhaps the least understood time in the History of our Forefathers. The Seven went to the leaders of the surviving Houses, and told them the plan. As a one, they refused to have anything to do with something so macabre, so evil. They could not see the truth until it destroyed them. "The seven realized that they were unquestionably in a state of distress. With no backing from the other Houses, no one in the Traditions speaking to them, and the entire Kindred population wondering from the shadows where a powerful member had gone to, the Seven were compelled into action. They spread their belief throughout their House, and most joined in readily. A few had to be convinced through unpleasant means. In a short amount of time, it was done. House Tremere was dead. Clan Tremere was born. And the Technocracy would pay bitterly for the sacrifices that were made. "Understanding the nature of Kindred society was easy. There existed a powerful thing called a 'Blood Bond,' which could compel brother to fight brother. To prevent any involuntary blood bonding, all would be bonded for mutual protection. This was readily agreed to. Once this was done, the Clan could more readily drop the "us vs. them" facade. "And so they continue to this day, further gaining ground, further cutting into the power of the Technocracy, using magic which does not accumulate Paradox. They are bringing a blood magick back to the earth a thousand times more potent than anything the Verbena could cook up. You see, my students, they have discovered a gateway to the Shadow Empyrean. It lies within them." The students glanced at each other incredulously. "Of course!" a few called out, astonished. The master waved his hand, and the talking died. "So where does that leave us?" "Good question, eh, Gunter? Gunter. Yes. There was another group of Tremere, other than the Seven, who discovered something incredible. The Shadow Empyrean was still accessible, still there. Many had thought it dried up, but in fact, the Technomancers had only built up a wall. If a means could be discovered to punch a hole in the Gauntlet, then the Ars Magica would flow freely. "These Tremere presented their theory too late. By the time they came out of their labs, over half the House had been turned. It would be many years before anything conclusive could be discovered, and they thought it best to drop from view for a time. "To answer your unspoken question, yes, they did run. But they ran for the right reasons. They ran not out of fear, but out of necessity. The Ars Magica was still alive. They only needed to keep the spirit going, until they devised a means of linking it to its power. "They kept their magick alive--barely--by convincing Dreamspeakers and Garou to intentionally chew holes in the Gauntlet around the Shadow Empyrean, and just enough leaked out to make their magick seem more than pretty words and gestures. After the Houses fell, they took those the Traditions thought they could not train in Magick, and housed them, needing their assistance to keep the dream alive. "Raids by the Technocracy and vampires--either Tremere who thought they spotted a few renegade hold backs, or other vampires who thought that they were assaulting a Clan Tremere chantry, convinced them to spread out, and live normal lives, all the while conducting their research. "I was trained in that time, and it was indeed hard. The gestures we did held no true power. The only effect we could muster was a slight glowing, grim proof that something was happening. If only we knew what. "But those days are gone. In 1863, amid the revolutions that swept Europe, a member of our Order, dubbed the Order of Tremere, since we held no allegiance to the Order of Hermes, the House Tremere, or Clan Tremere, discovered the Prime Ram. Herrick and his experiments are discussed in depth in Chapter 22 of the text. I will give a brief overview for those who haven't done the reading. "Herrick knew the problem did not lay within the grasp of the Traditions. They had repudiated the existence of the Shadow Empyrean from the start. However, he convinced a friend of his in the Order to take him into the Umbra. At first, she was hesitant, but he informed her that it was critical to his research. Relenting, she took him on his quest.
"He was amazed by the visual beauty of the Umbra. Everything seemed alive to him. The magick he had only read about, and felt dribbling off his fingers was here! He asked his friend to make for a huge morass of white webs, an enormous calcified sphere almost as big as he imagined the Earth to be. "Puzzled, his friend told Herrick that she saw no such place. Intrigued, he asked his friend to indulge him. Knowing the basics of pattern theory, he commanded his friend to fire a Prime charge into the pattern of the Web. Once again, she claimed to see nothing. He pleaded her to just extend her hand, and let loose a bolt. Desiring to get this over with, she agreed, and fired the bolt. "Invisible to her, the bolt ruptured a hole in the webbing. Herrick, knowing his friend would soon insist upon returning, lept forward...and vanished. "When he retured, he did so under his own power. The Ars Magica was borne again, and now the Order of Tremere controlled it. "Years of persecution and hiding reinforced the beliefs of Bonisagus: DISCIPLINE, above all. Just because our magick does not create paradox, does not mean we should squander it. You who sit before me will, by the end of the week, pay your first visit to the Shadow Realm, the source of our power. Within a month, those of you who survive unscathed will become full Magi in our Order. "You descend from a proud, noble heritage. Your ancestors were Bonisagus, who anticipated the current crisis we now face, the Honored One, who sacrificed all so that the Technomancers would not triumph, and Herrick, who rediscovered the power within. Take each name to heart, mea discipuli, and bring them with you as you endure the Shadow Empyrean. They will guide you in your darkest hour. "Any questions?" "Yes, Magister." "Hanson?" The young man stood. "Magister, why did Bonisagus create the Ars Magica in the first place?" "Good. Excellent question. The book goes over it quickly, because this aspect of his reseach does not survive to this day. Several revisionist theorists think that he perceived a tearing in the reality around earth. In very many ways, it is like a forest, planted with a variety of trees. A few are excellent in absorbing, storing, and using water to grow. The rest are standard trees. When water, or in our case, quintessence, flows into the Pattern of Earth, those who can use it absorb it better than those who cannot. "If Quintessence was not essential for survival, then this would be no problem. If Quintessence was infinite, then this would not have mattered. But Quintessence is a vital energy, necessary for life, for freedom, and most important, for change. Without the free flow of Quintessence, reality becomes stagnant. People lose their ability to think for themselves, to choose, to be individuals. The Machinations of the Technocracy seek to drain all avaliable Quintessence into their machines. However, any that remain are currently being devoured by the Traditions. "This is how it was before the Rise of the Technocracy. A few select Mages, Masters and Oracles, controlled the available tass in a region. They were unaware that although life was going on, no babies were born tasting Quintessence, and thus able to use magick. They were starving their people, and frankly they did not care. "Bonisagus sensed this. He knew that the hoarding of Tass had to stop, and so he envisioned a power source which would not restrict the free flow of Tass through the world pattern. "There is more. Bonisagus was not content that Arete held the answers the the question of comprehending reality and its varitations. It made a good theory, but there was something missing, something he saw in the eyes of those lost to Quiet. The reality warping of Magick has a terrible, detrimental effect on the mind of the Mage. Put simply, man was not, and is not, ready for the level of control that Magick allows him. Ars Magica, with its inherent limitations, prevents this from happening. Nothing can be made permanent without Quintessence. There is the Lunar Limit, to prevent us from using Conjunctional Magick, and the Pandora's Box contained therein. In short, Ars Magica is all the power you, or I, should ever need. "Any more questions? Good. Tomorrow is your final exam on forms and techniques. I have asked that each of you provide me with a list of the ones you have chosen, and why. You will be drilled on them, until we are content that you will never use them in folly. The day after, you will all fashion your first Prime Rams, and by the end of the week, the Walkers will take you to the Shadow Realm, for the final ceremony. Until then, good luck. "Oh, and Brown? I believe you, I and my adamantine paddle should have a conference at this time."
History The Order of Tremere came into its present form during the 1600s, when the remaining Houses, existing largely in name only, and bitterly fishing over the remaining supplies of vis, decided to band together for mutual protection. Bitterly hateful for being abandoned by the Order of Hermes, to be fed to the "justice" of the Technocracy, they decided to preserve the highest ideals of Bonisagus.
It was at this time that a sympathetic voice in the Order of Hermes made the personal journals available to the Remnants (as they were called by the Order of Hermes). They poured over the notes, and after doing a little bit of espionage on their own, discovered the "truth," long suppressed by a disbelieving Order. This knowledge helped bolster them in their cause. The Shadow Empyrean was a place, and not just a force, as originally believed. This revelation made them dig deeper into the hidden records of the Houses. A group of Mages, the surviving members of House Tremere, then led a new crusade. They opened the secret records of the "betrayal," the transformation of the House into the Clan. So moved were they by the record of sacrifice, they renamed their Order, and refocused their mission: to regain the Shadow Empyrean, and return free magick to the world. Some dissonant voices within the Order claim that the survivors of House Tremere faked the documents to make themselves seem less cowards, running from demons, and more crusaders, fighting the good fight. However, one such detractor approached a member of the Tremere Inner Circle, to learn the truth. The Tremere merely smiled and nodded, before embracing the curious mage. Whatever the case, the powerful rhetoric, espoused above in the final speech before the Awakening, keeps many of the critics in line. They realize theirs is a secretive order, nowhere near as powerful as the potent Traditions, and yet omnipotent in their own way. In this day, the Order of Tremere is spreading across the world, finding those who can be Awakened, and yet are passed over by both the Traditions and the Technocracy for not possessing the proper philosophy. Many would accuse the Order of brainwashing, but the mindless devotion only pertains to the way they react to the other Magick-using groups. They wish that all humanity could wield magic, but know, like any good parent, that unless discipline is enforced, it will all be lost. Often members of the Traditions will use the Tremere as go betweens when they have to deal with the other denizens of the WoD. Many see the Hermes Experiment as a blot in the History of Magick, and will do anything to alleviate the suffering of the victims. To them, the Tremere are victims, to be pitied. As can be imagined, this makes the average Tremere livid. When one can wield the force of arcane fire, one should not be patted on the head. The Tremere are truly not seen as a threat, since their magick can be easily dispelled with the slightest application of Prime (Prime 2). However, this is a dangerous myth. The Tremere, wise to the ways of the World of Darkness, merely allow the Traditions to think them weak, without protection. In truth, many are Adepts of Prime right out of training. The other members of the world of Darkness, perhaps a bit scared that true Magi can control such awesome power, prefer to see the Tremere as the representatives of Magick in the world. If a vampire or Garou wishes to consult on a matter of arcane principle, chances are that the forces of the universe will direct them to a Tremere, who would be content to answer the question, for the usual fee. When the Tremere deal with vampires, they never use the name of the order. Often, they will harken back to simpler days, calling themselves Hermetic Mages, and smiling broadly at those vampires old enough to remember what that meant. Such beings are an endless source of knowledge believed lost, and subsequently, many mages keep in the good graces of a city's Kindred population. The Garou, too, choose to deal with mages when they come across magickal problems that they cannot comprehend. Often, the Tremere will direct them to a local Dreamspeaker, though it is rumored that the Shadow Lords and the Tremere have a global pact of mutual protection and non-interference. The final goal of the Order is to shatter the Gauntlet between the Shadow Empyrean and Earth. Once this is done, all people will be able to wield safe magick, and a new Mythic Age will sweep the world. In order to accomplish this goal, the Technocracy must be defeated. However, the Order of Tremere trusts not the other Traditions. They are convinced that the second the war ends, a new one will begin, a nine-way tug of war, with reality as the rope. This new situation is even worse than the current one. Subsequently, the Tremere are making allies within the other occult forces. Several Anarchs, who long to end the Masquerade, agree with them and their plan. A schism in the Children of Gaia manifested, when one Child discovered a Gift that allowed the Veil to be dropped indefinitely. Each group seeks to restore a sense of wonder back into the world, so that the Technomancer's chains will be voluntarily thrown off. Now the Order are not fools. They know that if the Technomancers become aware that a group of mages exist whose magick incurs no paradox, then the full force of the Pogrom will return to them, a fate none want to experience again. Subsequently, they exploit the temporary nature of their powers as much as possible. Still, the sight of a Tremere going full out, casting Vulgar acts right and left, is a truly awe inspiring scene, and has been known to Awaken a few sleepers spontaneously. Sadly, most of these are picked up by the Technomancers, or the Order of Hermes, before the Tremere can reach them.
Philosophy The Tremere honestly believe that Magick in its applications is destroying the Universe, causing it to split at the seams. They believe that powers such as Magick allows are too much in the hands of mere mortals, and reality is too grand a device for Mages to tinker. They believe that there was always paradox, but now that reality is being stretched to the limits, the Universe is striking back any way it can. They point to the Marauders, as examples of those twisted too far by Magick. The Order wages a constant war of recruitment, Awakening those students who are passed over or forgotten by all sides, but only after years of
proper training. However, when an exceptional student comes along, they will often monitor their progress closely, and grab them long before the Traditions and the Technomancers detect their presence.
Organization The Order of Tremere is based on a simple system of seniority. Those who are older are deferred to according to the year they Graduated (Awoke), when determining offices held, perks, and other hierarchical structures. Those of the same Class (Awoke in the same year) wage Certamen to determine the better qualified mage. Upstarts (those Tremere who feel a "don" has grown senile, or is no longer fit to hold the title) may challenge Magi of an Older class to a Certamen duel, but the Upstart is severely handicapped, to make the duel truly gruelling. Few Upstarts ever get to actual Certamen, preferring to debate their opponent first.
Meetings Meetings are held every three weeks, on a day of the week that varies from Chantry to Chantry. The meetings are run like any corporation, with a Secretary gathering the Minutes, and a President controlling the flow of the meeting.
Initiation The most rigorous of any Tradition, the Initiates of the Order are screened for two years, as they are slowly spoonfed the History of their Order. One who learns too fast may not necessarily be a good mage, however. Few are allowed to accelerate through this period, since it is patience which makes a good Tremere. From there, the Initiate is entered into a period of training not more than five years, and no fewer than a year. During that time, the student is allocated one parcel of Tass a week, to confirm his effects. In short, only after he is positive he has mouthed the words correctly, is he allowed to turn them into effect. Those who do well are allowed to accelerate faster than those for whom magick is a chore. However, some of the greatest scholars in the World of Darkness today were or are Tremere who spent the five years studying. For those who wait, the time is usually well spent. After the Initiate is prepared, she is given her final exam, and once that is passed, is asked to record a casting name and the form and technique she will employ. Then, in a solemn ceremony, a group of Tremere known as Walkers (Masters of Spirit) escort the Initiates into the Umbra, and bathe them in the Shadow Empyrean, so that forevermore they can taste its essence, and know it for what it is, and where it hides. It is then that the Tremere awakens, and gains her Avatar. After this point, a short time is spent at the Chantry (seldom more than a month), learning the Prime Ram rote, as well as becoming reacquainted with the world outside. The Acolyte is then asked where she wants to live, and is reestablished there, with a list of three contacts in the area (just names; no addresses or promises of Favors is given). A few choose to remain and teach. Regardless of where they go, a Tremere is expected to make their way to the closest Chantry for the meetings.
Chantry The Tremere prefer to make their Chantries in grand homes, built before the Turn of the Century. They invest a great deal of effort into making elaborate underground chambers, and secret passageways connect the entirety of the house. Many still remember a time when they were left to die, to be put to the torch, and those that are not so old have it drilled into them by those that do. There is a world Chantry of the Order of Tremere, a sort of home office. It is found deep in the mountains of Switzerland, near the Gornergratt. Many Mages believe that the Tremere were responsible for many acts of braver during the war, helping refugees escape into Switzerland, and most importantly, keeping the Nazis out. For their actions, the Swiss government protects the location of the Chantry, and anyone seeking it out must first deal with the Swiss government, a very unpleasant experience, regardless of power level).
Acolytes Occultists, students, charlatans, descendants of powerful Magi unaware of their potential.
Sphere The Order despise Magick and its raping of Reality. They learn but two Spheres: Prime, to create the Prime Ram, that rips a hole in the Gauntlet which surrounds the Shadow Empyrean, and Spirit, to sense where to aim the Ram. However, unbeknownst to any of their Magickal "Allies," each Tremere is asked, at time of Awakening, to choose a third Sphere to be a Master of. This
is known as the Retributive Sphere, and is used only when defeat seems imminent, to call down the most nasty effect upon your enemies, to leave ashes in their mouths.
Foci Prime/Spirit: Staff (non-unique). Retributive (varies)
Concepts Scholar, Philosopher, Radical
Quote "We who were left to die, now rise from the ashes. There can be no profit gained from the raping of reality, whether by the Technomancer's steel claw, or the Tradition's Vulgar talon. You have become so addicted to the opiate of Magick, that you cannot see the toll it is taking on our world, on your minds. Remember then, as the Paradox fires into your soul, and sucks out all hope, that there was another way. Our way. A way you still refuse.
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: What are you brother? You seek to know the mysteries of the Tao and the Te, to understand the effect a single butterfly has on the hurricane, and yet you cannot see the effect your "studies" have on your soul? Search deeper within. Leave reality alone.
Celestial Chorus: Hateful bastards! They know all too well their role in the Surrendering of Reality to the Technocracy, and in the pogroms that nearly wiped us out. If only we could return the favor somehow. (Don't worry, we will).
Cult of Ecstacy: Get off the acid. Reality isn't a toy, to be screwed, smoked, and shat out when it no longer amuses you. You who possess no discipline would learn well the Story of the Ants and the Grasshopper, and prepare for the storm.
Discordians: Order within Chaos? Chaos within Order? Please. They are wholly untrustworthy, tools of the Marauders. Trust them not.
Dreamspeakers: Kindred spirits, we understand the essential nature of the Umbra, to be savored and not captured, to be used, not exploited. If only the other Traditions were so open- minded.
Euthanatos: Their fixation on a single event makes them far too narrow-minded. Reality is much more than decay, and promoting its death is criminal.
Hollow Ones: We could teach them a thing or two. You would be surprised how quickly a student learns when he is chained to his desk. Discipline, Discipline, Discipline!
Necromancers: Ugh! These grim ones should have been the reason why the Witch Hunts were called. As victims and survivors, if it managed to take out this group, then it would have been all worthwhile.
Order of Hermes: Our respected masters, our benevolent protectors, our trusted patrons. You left us to die, you expected us to die. But we didn't. No. We took the bitter pill you fed us, and made something to be proud of, something beautiful, wondrous, and free, as alien a concept as anyone of you morally bankrupt bastards could comprehend. I do hope you all rot.
Runecasters: A puzzling group, and one which we would like to learn more. Too bad they are more interested in their secrecy, than sharing their wisdom.
Sons of Jupiter: Who are you, sirs? Your power, your wisdom is legendary, and yet you do nothing with it. Learn our ways, and fight our wars.
Sons of Ether: Their musings on objective reality have tainted our magick. We can tie the first case of twilight due to exposure to the Shadow Empyrean to one of their "forefathers," commenting that his (flawed) research showed that Quiet should) affect us! And lo, it did. Keep your musings to yourself!
Technolibertarians: They and the Technocracy are but two sides of the same coin. One day, they will realize that, and all who trusted in them will perish.
Trenchcoaters: There is no reason why we our two groups should not get along, but they accuse us of being flashy and manipulative, and will have nothing to do with us. It matters not to us.
Virtual Adept: Those who try to fight fire with fire will only get burned in the end. Their spreading of destabilizing magick into the stable reality of the Technocracy will doom us all!
Wikkans: A brave and noble group, they understand the old ways better than any.
Rotes Prime Ram (Prime 2-5, Spirit 1): With this Rote, the Mage gains the ability to detect an astral object, and use prime to overload the pattern. This does not create a physical breach, as much as a pattern breach. Prime 2 creates a very weak hole, by reinforcing the Pattern of the wall, except in the center. The force of whatever is at the other end will follow the path of least resistance, creating a hole in the pattern which Quintessence can trickle out of. Prime 3 allows a "straw" to be inserted through the wall. Prime 4 weakens the wall in an area by depriving it of raw quintessence. Finally, Prime 5 not only rips a hole in the wall, it also strengthens the wall around the hole, keeping it open for a longer period of time. Each level does a different thing to produce the same effect: opening a non-physical gateway into the Shadow Empyrean, a huge reserve of "tainted" Quintessence. This quintessence is unusable by true Magi, since it most closely resembles Raw Quintessence, locked into a certain reality paradigm. To the Tremere, though, this is the Lifesblood of their power. They allow the shadow tass to flow through their pattern, where it conforms to the established forms and techniques which they practice. Since the Shadow Tass has already soaked through the Technomancer reality, it can no longer create Paradox, since it is (or was) an essential part of that reality. However, the energy burns out quickly, making dramatic effects that are short term in duration, unless tass is used to power it further. The duration of the breach depends on how many successes were garnered on the initial roll: 1 12 Hours 2 1 Day 3 2 Days 4 4 Days 5 A Week To dispel a Shadow magick effect, the Mage must shut down the Tremere's connection to the Shadow Empyrean. Most of the time, a Tremere will simply drop the effect, to perpetuate the myth that the Shadow Empyrean is NOTHING compared to the True Empyrean. In fact, a Magick- CounterMagick situation is set up. Difficulty is the Rank of the Prime used in the initial Prime Ram + 3. Each success brings the time limit down one level. With enough successes, the conduit is completely shattered, and the effect dies. Each success also decreases the power of the spell (seen later) being cast at that time. Note that using the CounterMagick is considered Vulgar.
Special Bonuses and Hindrances Performing a Prime Ram is always considered a Vulgar act, and thus will always generate at least 1 point of Paradox. Since so much time is spent in Magickal theory, and not practice, a Tremere will lose 1 point of Paradox for each month spent studying, with NO spellcasting of any sort. Thus, a Mage who picks up a great deal of Paradox will often simply take some time off, and let it trickle out of his system. However, the Paradox generated from the first Paradox Ram never goes away. It fashions itself into a permanent 1 point Paradox Flaw, which hinders the mage for the rest of her life. Such is the price of the power they wield.
New Backgrounds Mystical Contact: Like the souped-up version of the Allies Background in Mage, this one best expresses their connection to the seamier side of the WoD. It costs twice the amount of the Standard Contact, and will yield 1 Supernatural Contact per level. This can be anything from other Mages, to Vampires, to Garou, to Spirits and Faeries. All this consists of is a slip of paper with a name and perhaps a phone number. The Contact must be compensated for "services."
Alternate Etheric Science By Jimmy McKinney (
[email protected])
Introduction In discussions of the Sons/Children/Persons/Team of Ether, most people are at a loss to think of any other characterizations than the Mad Scientist stereotype. While there is nothing wrong with this sort of SoE (they are in fact, my favorite sort), I am probably not helping matters by posting all sorts of information and stories about this type. Therefore, whilst brainstorming just before bed last night, and about 10 minutes this morning, I wrote up a list of some alternate styles of ether Science, and came up with some interesting thoughts. A lot of these have been covered elsewhere (especially the SoE tradbook), but I'm making very little attempt to comply with these portrayals. After all, if they were the most memorable portrayals, I wouldn't need to write this. Note that none of this is set in stone -- no reason a pulp hero can't be a Victorian ethernaut too, for example -- but are meant as general guidelines to help those who are having trouble. Ether mages may be divided into several broad categories. The most common of these mages -- the mad scientists -- would fall into the category of experimentalist or reasearcher. These guys may employ the entire gamut of Weird, Fringe, and Pseudo Sciences (see later for details) depending on temperament. There are, however, others that also fit next to them.
Radical Scientists The first of these is the one I like to call the Radical Scientist. In a laboratory setting, Radical Scientists tend to look indistinguishable from their mundane or technocratic counterparts. They employ fringe science and radical science to explore the boundaries of Science. These are the men and women in the world's labs that can steer an average mundane experiment into the realm of Etheric Science. Typically, they specialize in some field like physics or chemistry, and work to further the goals of the SoE by proposing radical or fringe theories to do so. These guys are the opposite of technocratic scientists that sabotage SoE theories in the labs. They rarely if ever get vulgar, and rarely attract attention to themselves or their part in a radical new theory (if the theory itself attracts the world's attention, that's fine)
Abilities: Knowledges, especially medical or scientific knowledges of 4+, are a must, as with most SoEs. Computer is another typical aptitude in today's laboratory environment.
Spheres: Radical Scientists tend to have one highly developed sphere or two, and very little in anything else. These spheres are related to the area of specialization, of course.
Foci: Lots of high-tech equipment to test theories with. The theory itself may serve as a focus in most cases. Examples: Cold Fusion, the film Chain Reaction, Nikola Tesla (though not lab oriented, and more visible than average), amateurs that explore helical coil field dynamics and the like.
Armchair Scientists These are rather odd scientists; most don't experiment, and some rarely use their Scientific capabilities at all! Usually these scientists are purely theoretical, prefering to concentrate on ideas rather than testing or application. This is the most likely sort to be found in Victorian style men's clubs, discussing this or that new Scientist or Experiment over cognac and a pipe. Not always though, some are found in labs, indistinguishable from other types of Scientists. The best of them can so capture the world's imagination that they subvert the technocratic paradigm practically by opening their mouth.
Abilities: A broad knowledge of current theories in the whole scientific community is useful. Otherwise, it's painfully apparent to your colleagues that you are discussing something you know nothing about.
Spheres: These Scientists use their Magick so infrequently, it's hard to say what they have. The most likely choice is that they are strong in mind magicks, both to convince others of their validity, and to develop their theories and defend them by selfenhancement.
Foci: Who knows? If anything, these are the most likely mages to use a theory as a focus. Other possibilities might include published papers and roughly sketched diagrams to back up and illustrate your points.
Examples: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Physics, Dark Matter as the lost Ether, tachyons as a loophole in technocratic relativity.
Parapsychologists
Obsessed with exploring the supernatural, these mages experiment and research into paranormal activity and record their observations. They are the most likely to run into the other denizens of the WoD, and the most likely to be attacked by same. Less obviously, the more loose cannons among them often have close ties to such elements as the Cult of Ecstacy, for example for exploring the effects of LSD-type drugs upon ESP potentials of sleepers. These Scientists are also the most likely to turn Gung-Ho if they don't like what they find, and use their science to attack other races.
Abilities: Research, Technology, Investigation, and Science (usually psychology and parapsychology) Spheres: Mind for ESP research, Spirit/Entropy for ghostly areas. Time is used in pre/post cognition, Forces for exploring PKE or telekinetic energies.
Foci: A wide array of technological devices, some mundane, some not. Such things as Kirlian lenses, infrared film, PKE valence meters, and deck of standard ESP testing cards.
The Educators Besides the experimental and researcher Scientists, the tradition also includes those who have dedicated their careers to educating others. Though they run the entire spectrum from bizarre to mundane, there are two who work in tandem that I'd like to explore.
Wizards At an early age, children are often fascinated by science. The wisest among the Sons of Ether recognize this as a crucial time: If the children are encouraged to develop and explore, they may hold this love for science their entire lives. If on the other hand they are given an image of science as "nerdy," they may turn away from it and propogate this view further the older they grow, becoming less and less likely to exceed the technocratic paradigm in any way...even mystickal ways. Therefore, the Scientists commonly known as Wizards (after the television show Ask Mr. Wizard [Author: actually, I have a poor memory for names like this. It could be Mr. Wizard's World or some other such variation] that performed this function) teach children the wonders and joy of Science. Though they do throw in the occasionally borderline Etheric Theory, these Etherians are rather controversial in that they prefer to keep a low profile by staying within the sleeper (technocratic) paradigm. Whether found in an elementary school, or on TV, Wizards are crucial to the Sons' efforts to alter the technocratic paradigm. Once they lay the foundation, promising students are taken note of and often exposed to the teachings of Radical Scientists and the next group in this category, to judge their reactions to the "better" sciences.
Abilities: Education, Science, Acting Spheres: Any, really. Mind is highly useful simply for teaching, but Forces and Matter magicks are common too as these are the most dramatic (for younger children) yet explainable magicks.
Foci: Anything even vaguely resembling materials for a demonstration of scientific principles, like chemical reactions and electric energy devices.
Examples: Ask Mr. Wizard, Beakman's world, Bill Nye the Science Guy, 3-2-1 contact, occasional episodes of Nextstep and Beyond 2000, and "What will they think of NEXT?" (another old show I'm not sure about the name of)
Urban Mythologists An Urban Myth is a legend that has grown up around some possibly fictional occurrence or device. They are paradigm shattering beliefs in things the technocracy would rather you did not think about. The Urban Mythologists are a group of Sons of Ether that create, propogate, debunk, dedebunk, redebunk, and defend these urban myths. The end result is that everyone knows about them and everyone is adamant about believing or disbelieving them. Regardless of which it is, not only does this inspire doubt in the average person, but it often inspires doubt in the minds of those on both sides. In any case, the Technocracy's paradigm is stretched just the tiniest bit for each one of these, and the Union is nearly helpless to counteract it. Anything they do simply makes the situation worse. Doubt and a perfectly predictable worldview are not especially compatible concepts. If these mages use their magick at all outside of coincidental mind magicks, it would be to provide some falsified (or perhaps real) evidence to more excitable sleepers, who then proceed to do their job for them.
Abilities: Subterfuge, Science, Occult, Urban Lore, Intuition, Research Spheres: Mind (for convincing debates); Life, Matter, or Forces, plus Prime (to falsify or uncover evidence) Foci: Highly variable Examples: Alligators in the Sewers, Water burning or 100mpg cars, anything else from alt.folklore.urban
Heroes This category of mages covers all those who champion the innocents, defend the world from invaders, or try to eliminate or contain supernatural threats. Spooooooon!
Pulp Heroes These have been covered fairly well by the Sons of Ether tradbook. They are 50's comic style pulp heroes that use "oriental" mental disciplines, pop pseudoscience, and a limited array of personalized foci and talismans to fight some series of menaces and archvillains to champion the cause of right. Those that rely upon devices tend to be called Gadgeteers. More than anything else, these heroes rely upon their wits and intelligence to solve situations.
Abilities: Wits, Intelligence, Culture (for knowing obscure things to save your ass), Linguistic (for being diplomatic with primitive peoples and such), etc. Halfway decent attributes all around. Sidekicks come in handy too.
Spheres: Any. Normally does not use vulgar effects, except from talismans or weaponry. Foci: Very personalized. Typical things to use are weapons, bizarre devices like antigravity belts, and laboratory computer analyzers.
Examples: Doc Eon, Batman, Indiana Jones
Superheroes These heroes differ from Pulp heroes in that they rely on their magick and talismans more than they do their wits and other attributes. Often called by the nickname Spandex, Superheroes are the most likely Ethermages to go marauder or suffer huge Paradox backlashes. Their effects are flashy, usually vulgar, and always impressive. Exceptions are superheroes who gained their abilites (perhaps with permanent Paradox flaws, like The Thing from Fantastic Four) through accidents or Scientific Experiments. Although usually still vulgar, these are a lot less likely to simply explode from Paradox.
Abilities: Science (for expermimental mutations, etc), various others Spheres: Any. Foci: Usually some pseudoscientific explanation like cosmic rays or radioactive spider bites. Examples: Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, The Thing. (An interesting version of these guys could be made for the OoH or the CC....for example, Spawn, the Demon, and Avengelyne)
Gung-Ho Psycho Attack Scientists (For lack of a better name) These are the scientists who dedicate their career toward the elimination or containment of some or all segments of the supernatural population. Motivations can include everything from revenge to profit and then some. They can be from any or several of the various subgroups of the Sons, and unless they are relatively good at what they do, tend to live short but effective lives. It's not unknown for these mages to work hand in hand with the Neutralization Specialists of the Void Engineers, and though this is officially frowned upon on both sides, is usually beneficial enough for both sides to be fairly common.
Abilities: Research, Occult, various Lores, Technology (to build weapons), Investigation. Spheres: Forces and Prime are common, Spirit if you plan to deal with wraiths. Foci: Weapons, weapons, weapons. Sensing devices of various sorts are also common. Examples: Ghostbusters, MiB the comic or movie (well, it's hard to tell, really), The vampire hunter in the SoE tradbook that has a sunlight ray pistol.
Ethernauts There are many explorers in the Sons of Ether. Some explore the Earth's core, some the oceans, others the umbra or Digital Web. This category deals with a subclass of explorers known as the Ethernauts, those who explore beyond the horizon. These scientists differ mainly in the methods they use to do so. I plan to write an article on the nature of the Ether for these guys, so
keep an eye out. They are broken up into three main categories:
Starjammers The mages that literally sail through space in literal space ships. These mages are barely Etherians at all, and have a lot of ties to the Void Engineers. The main distinguishing point is the belief in the breathable ether of space.
Abilities: Sailing, Astrogation, shipbuilding Spheres: Any. Foci: Nautical apparatus of various sorts: charts and compasses for correspondence, barometers and weather vanes for forces, etc.
Examples: The EtherJammer from the SoE tradbook. A lot of the stuff from the TSR supplement Spelljammer. From what I understand, also some material >from GDW's Sky Galleons of Mars (I think) which is related to the Space: 1889 material in some way.
Victorians (aka Industrial Victorian Etherism, or Steampunk) These mages explore the universe in Jules Verne-esque Brass and ironclad vessels resembling nothing so much as giant zeppelins, ornithopters, bathyscapes and submarine-boats. Heavy looking bolted metal, segmented hulls, eye-like portholes, and odd finlike protrusions and scallops are the norm.
Abilities: Astrogation, technology (to repair the ship's propeller/whatever), metalworking (to make the darned things), etc. Spheres: Matter is common for building. Entropy is useful to keep the ship in good order. Forces for defense mechanisms (see the Weirdseeker description for examples)
Foci: Variable Examples: The Nautilus from the film 20000 Leauges under the sea (any version, especially the original Disney adaptation), various sci-fi stories from the 60's, art from the SoE tradbook. Stories of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Probably anything from Space:1889 (which I haven't read, but know some of the basics of)
Spaceboys (aka Art Deco) Flying Saucers. Rocket Ships. These gleaming refugees from 50's comics vision of the future are the hallmark of the Spaceboys. These etherians are the most likely to need a space suit to breathe in a vacuum (though you'll run across an occasional Victorian with a old diving suit), and generally run around with ray pistols and bubble helmets.
Spheres: Variable Foci: Wrist communicators, space helmets, antigravity belts, ultron vision plates (for correspondence sensing), blaster ray pistol. Examples: Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers (the original novel version), Forbidden Planet (Robby is a SoE robot if I ever saw one), Lost in Space, Leather Goddesses of Phobos comic book (in amazing 3d! from Infocom) and game.
Others I don't have time to go into any more right now, but I might later. I also intended to write up a description of the differences between weird science, fringe science, radical science, and pseudo science, as well as through some stuff like occult science (think Magitech or Torg's Occultech) into the mix. That will have to wait for another article. For now, enjoy, and may the ether be with you.
OUJELITAS By Hector Alvarez Alonso and Adrian Rodriguez (Note that the original version of this document was in very garbled English. I have tried to put it in a more understandable form, but if I have misrepresented the intentions of the authors, please let me know.)
Short History Oujelitas (Seed of Tugej, Tricapita, Numantinos, Oscuristas, etc.. .), and quite in disuse (The Oscuristas of the Ebro, The Order of Gelet or Geletianos) Since early times the inhabitants of the the Valley of the Ebro have exalted the image of the Butterfly of three heads, symbolizing change and the cycle of life and death. The priests of the primordial Order of Hermes felt their beliefs were a perversion and taking advantage of Ebro's support of Carthage, had the Romans lay seige to Numancia, the capital of the valley, 133 B.C. Numancia, at that time populated by ethnic OIlerguetes, was eventually destroyed by Roman troops, but not after a long seige. The Numantinos could endure many days of isolation, but finally their spirits weakened. By the end of the seige, the city's inhabitants had been reduced to cannibalism. Before being enslaved by the Romans, however, they did manage to perform the Baptism of Fire. The few men and women who survived were expelled and harbored a deep hatred that has never diminished. After many years, they founded the city of Lleida. When the Romans were converted to Christianity, the people of Lleida were pressured to admit the Church of Christ to their city. Finally, the Tricapita had to relinquish control. A Summo Sacerdo named Gelet reformed the Cult of Tugej, drastically changing its structure. Known from then on as the Order of Gelet, there is little information about the original cult. The Order fled Lleida, allowing foreigners into the city. The invaders ransacked the city, killing many of the inhabitants, but also destroying the Christian churches. The men of Gelet returned to a city in ruin and soon had established their rule. The Christians, however, were not expulsed and the Geletianos had to live with them, though everyone knew who was in charge. The Church, hated the Geletianos and the Hermetics viewed them as rivals. In the Middle Ages, the Order of Hermes declared Magi War on the Order of Gelet and after huge losses on both sides, defeated them. The Hermetics dubbed the war the War of the Idol when, at its close the Summo Sacerdo fled with the Three Headed Butterfly. The Idol was lost and the cult decimated. Without their idol, the Order of Gelet fell into decline. They became violent and lost. The Christians took advantage of their situation and obtained position of power within the cult, which is why Soria is known for its wonderful Gothic Churches. The magicians that were followers of the Cult could see that their grip on power was fading. They tried to control from the shadows, but because they could not communicate with their butterfly, they failed even there. Finally in 1464, the Idol reappeared in the hands of a young, unknown Sacerdo named Oujel. He was elected the new Summo Sacerdo and appearing in Numancia, repaired the scattered Sacerdos. In a few years, there were thirty Sacerdos and Oujel spoke:
"Reborn in the seed of the butterfly, and showing the symbols of the death. Though the third time is painful, we should guide to our people. Ours is the fervor of its thirst, thirst of power, violence and death. The road will be made obscure sometimes, many will have to succumb to their mistake they will eat our dregs, because will not be men by the terror. Ours is the fervor of its thirst, thirst of power, violence and death. In Numancia capital of the death" -- Oujel, Summo Sacerdo of Tugej 1 January 1465. Numancia, Aragon. Spain Little is known about Oujel and almost nothing about how he had found a way to obtain the power to allow the butterfly to be incarnated as an Idol. But the Idol was there to demonstrate that they had returned to be born. The Seed of Tugej was planted, and the Numantinos after having died two times and been born three were returning to be in their home: Numancia. Numancia the then glorious capital of the Ilerguetes from the days of its destruction had stayed solitary, inhabited by sporadic families. Oujel, gathered all the men and women that who had been scattered all over the region and delivered his speech, the Revelation of the Butterfly. It was a massive Epiphany and all the people were converted to the new Sacerdos. The momentum of the Oujel permitted the Men of Tugej to join the Euthanatos, protecting them from the Order of Hermes. the Oscuristas, though knowing the Order of Hermes is much more powerful, continuies undaunted along its road toward Eternity.
The Oujelitas gather on the nights of important dates. They have a complex organization, which can be expressed by a complex flowchart of power between the Sacerdos, finishing in the Summo Sacerdo. They are more subtle than past times, for they have been defeated thrice before and do not want to be defeated again. It is not cowardice that runs the politics of the new order, but subtlety. Do the work well, they say, but do it silently, or you will make enemies more dangerous than every before.
The Paradigm The Oujelitas are part of the Euthanatos, but they are not devoted to the Good Death. They are primordial necromancers and in many ways, have more primitive views than other Euthanatos. They believe in a god that only the Summo Sacerdo can see and according to their belief, is a butterfly of three heads. It represents the fragility and evolution of life, the death, the destruction and the violence. The Philosophy Oujelita is that of the violence, that violence forces man to improve, that violence brings death and removes what is static. Furthermore, through violence, the Oscurista can improve and through his violence, incites violence in others, bringing them closer to Ascension. When life lacks sense, violence sparks that person to revive, to die and relive. The Oujelitas are not interesting in the Ascension of all of humanity, but instead wish to bring on the Age of Tugej, the Age of Death.
Magic The Oujelitas believe in a form of "necrospiritualism" they call Oscurismo. They are experts of death and though they are not prone to fast and vulgar magicks, their rituals are extremely powerful and feared. rituals are extremely powerful and feared.
Spheres Correspondence: The Vision The Oujelitas learned this field from the other Traditions, and after many years a Sacerdo adapted it to the philosophy of Tugej. They are capable of seeing through insects, of practically any nocturnal animal. In addition to already learning what is sufficient, they can leap and in an instant and reappear where before there was an insect.
Entropy: The Violence The Violence is the mother of all the other spheres. Through The Violence is procured all, and the Oujelitas can be considered corruptive by their own violence. The Oujelitas can influence violence on the living and dead beings, and on inanimate and animate objects.
Forces: Ignis Fire is almost the only force that the Oujelitas know, thus they are capable of creating and finishing with fire. Perhaps it is after so many years fighting with their enemies, the Flambeau.
Life: Naturalis This is a field that is semi-restricted by the Oujelitas. They always link it to the Violence, for they feel if they focus on life, then they will lose site with the real reality, Violence.
Matter: Mud, Wax Water and the natural materials are what the Oujelitas know as matter. They are experta in creating mud or wax statues that at high levels imitate life.
Mind: The Impulses The Oujelitas are expert in awakening impulses of terror, violence, passion, etc... Furthermore, they can access the violent part of people and to awaken a violent spark even in the calm.
Prime: The Residue To see Quintessence, and furthermore, when a Oujelita uses well the Residues, he is capable of creating other Impulses or Violences. Thus they are capable of potent effects. The Violence tends to leave a residue that a Oujelita, learned in this field, can use.
Spirit: Ars Mortuus
The Oujelitas believe that the spirits are the men who someday will return to life and teach them to forge their own violence. Thus alone Oujelitas can accede to the inferior threshold. Furthermore, for power to use this field the Oujelitas should have something dead in hand.
Time: The Cycle All the Oujelitas who begin this field, know that life and death processes are always united in cycles and time effects for them are united also in the cycles.
Elements of Mage: The Ascension Quintessence: The Residue All life, acts, facts, or violent situations are capable of leaving a residue that the expert Oscurista knows to collect. The residues that keep a relationship to the effect that they want to accomplish, help oscurista to guide the acts toward that path. The residues that do not keep a relationship, on the other hand, guide the randoms toward other effects.
Paradox: The Contramedida When a Oscurista carries out an action that carries unnecessary violence, there is created a reaction that violently punishes Oscurista. Tugej punishes those who use the violence in a way with little intelligence, or when a oscurista accomplishes extremely violent actions. (something which would reveal to the men the existence of the Idol)
Awakening: The Larva Interna When a Oujelita starts to take his first steps toward ascension he starts to perceive an impulse toward the violence. It is not something else but his Larva Interna, that causes his change, and will guide it by the road.
Arete: The Larva Interna When an Oujelita has Arete 5, his Larva Interna returns to be reborn (by means of a ritual that the Supreme Sacerdo alone knows to accomplish) and starts to communicate with him by means of messages that only the Oscurista can understand .
Backgrounds Arcane: Oscurismo Tugej today is afraid. It has had to flee its house twice before, so now it uses Oscurismo to hide the Oscuristas. To the Oujelitas, Oscurismo is a sign that their god is alive.
Avatar: The Larva Interna The Oujelitas upon Awakening, sacrifice themselves to Violence. The avatar of a Oujelita is marked by a zeal for violence.
Destiny: The Brand The Oujelitas who have been selected for a high future are labeled by Tugej; between its breed it chooses their chosen ones, thus his future will be very high and violent.
Dream: The Dream Tugej communicates with them through impulses that the Oujelitas do not contain, thus Tugej teaches them to be better.
Node: The Altair There are places that are converted into perfect places for the violence, due to the great quantity of unleashed violence already there. Thus large quantities of residue are formed there.
Current extension of the Cult The Seed of Oujel is a cult that has been expanded a great deal during the last Three centuries. They are firmly established in the valley of the Ebro, southern France, Provenza and southern Italy. They can be connected with several cults who also carry the same stamp. So happens with Roman Necromanceres, who were outcasts from Tugej when their practices became even more terrible. The Oujelitas hate these traitors more than their hermetical enemies. In some cases, Oscuristas cults of Europe that don't come from Tugej can have with the Oujelitas a very profitable relationship.
Current practices The magicians of Oujel are men and women who have a great appreciation of the material and adore to be surrounded by luxuries. To have positions of power among the Sleepers is desirable, for to be great among them allows them to better able to master them. They press the Sleepers towards violent situations, knowing that it will make them prosper.
Structure of Power Summo Sacerdo The Summo Sacerdo is the will of Tugej, the Idol as it exists in the land of the living. Though never discussed, it is as adored, observed and venerated as the Idol itself.
The Sinistra Capita About Supreme Sacerdo there are other men who form the Sinistra Capita. They are the incarnations of the three powers of the Butterfly. Vera Caecus (the Blind), continues on the road of truth. His words are rarely understood by all, but perhaps they are not meant to be understood. He is the truth of Tugej. Iluminati (the Deaf) walks down the road of action and nothing can be interposed in his way. When he says something one must to accomplish it. He is the action of Tugej. The actions Mortus (the Mute) can never be discussed. His knowledge is that of the Idol, and knows all what Tugej knows. When he talks to you, always listen. He is the knowledge of Tugej.
Tertius Sacerdus The Tertius Sacerdo is the magician who governs the mundane power of the Order. All the possessions of the Order are under his supervision. Normally there is one though lately there have been two. The Tertius Sacerdo s a man of great power, and acts as the Judge when the Summo Sacerdo is not available.
Sacerdos These are all the magicians who have begun to walk the road of the Three Headed Butterfly.
Initiates of the Three The Awakened apprentices of the Order, they have not yet proved themselves worthy to be considered Oscuristas.
Silent The Silent are Unawakened members who are highly valued for their actions and conduct.
Neophytes They are everyone else who worship Tugej.
Rote Imitator Wax (Life 3, Mind 3, Matter 4, Prime 2) The Oscurista creates a wax base, giving to it his own form. The Imitator is a being capable of multiple functions, and is apparently alive. Normally after finishing the execution time, it is melted slightly, thus losing the aspect. It is possible to make an Imitator of another person, if there is a connection with that person in the moment of the execution of the effect. It is possible for the Oscurista to add a Spirit 3 effect to thus bind the dead to the physical form of the Imitator, either a Drone or even a true Wraith. For Drone, the previous rules apply but a Wraith is capable of any action that it is normally capable of. To bind a wraith the Imitator, either the Wraith has to be willing or the mage must defeat the wraith in a contest with his Arete rating vs. the Wraith's Embody.
PARAPSYCHOLOGISTS By Paul Strack (
[email protected]) (18 Aug 1994) A subtradition of the Sons of Ether and the NWO The parapsychologists are a large group of mages that subscribes to the existence of psychic potential in all people. They believe magic is but various uses of the power of the human mind. They also think that psychic power is quantifiable, and can be examined scientifically. Unfortunately, their membership is split between the Sons of Ether and the New World Order, leaving them in a precarious position.
History: Parapsychologists (or psychics) trace their history back to ancient philosophers, but the first real appearance of the group was in the late 1700's, before the Sons of Ether split from the Technocracy. Most point to Anton Mesmer as the founder, or at least inspiration for their tradition. The parapsychologists were an attempt to quantify mysticism, and reduce it to scientific levels of reproducibility. Always a marginal group, psychic ideas were forever on a provisional basic, still in the "experimental" stages. When the Sons of Ether split off from the Technocracy, the psychics lingered. The ether was not an idea dear to them, and they still held out the hope that their theories would be added to the paradigm. Still, the Sons were closer in philosophy to the parapsychologists than any other group in the Technocracy, and many fruitful experiments had been carried out with their cooperation. Some of the psychics wanted freedom from the restrictive practices of the Technocracy, while others feared the retaliation of the increasingly autocratic Technocrats. The psychics could not choose, and, more out of indecisiveness than anything else, both remained in the Technocracy, and continued their contacts with the Sons of Ether. Within the Technocracy, they were heavily courted by the NWO, who wanted these powerful Mind Mages under their control. With the NWO backing, their continued association with the Sons was tolerated, since, at the time, the Sons were thought to be too frivolous to be a serious threat to the Technocracy. Through the end of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th, this situation continued. The Technocracy allowed minor introductions of the psychic paradigm amongst the populace. The general feeling was that, if nothing else, it would undermine Sleeper belief in traditional magick. Political infighting prevented psionics from being added fully to the paradigm, and the psychics were limited to localized experiments. Their association with the Sons of Ether was become more problematic, however. Despite all expectations, the Sons did not die out for lack of organization, and were, in fact, becoming a serious threat. Etherite ideas were somehow slipping into the scientific community, often disrupting the Technocrats carefully calibrated time tables. Other troublesome groups within the Technocracy, such as the Virtual Adepts, used the favored parapsychologist interaction with the Sons as an excuse to maintain such contacts of their own. The issue came to a head when the Virtual Adepts violently seceded from the Technocrats in the 1940's, causing a great deal of damage in this process. Technocratic retribution was swift and merciless, and parapsychologists feared a more general purge. The NWO laid down the law: no more contact with the Sons of Ether. To placate the powerful psychics, mental powers were at last added to the Technocratic time table. Major universities began to added parapsychology departments, and more resources were shifted into psychic experimentation, especially amongst NWO controlled intelligence agencies. Unfortunately, the parapsychologists were more tangled up with the Sons than the Technocracy realized. Never very politically astute, the psychics never saw a problem with joint research, and had made a regular practice of working with the flexible Etherites for their more radical studies. Some of their less orthodox members thought of themselves more as Etherites than as Technomancers, including some of the groups younger and more promising minds. After the crack down, the parapsychologists tried to toe the line, but were unwilling to completely give up on the Sons. This would ultimately be their downfall. No one quite knows where he came from, but in the 1970's a young Israeli psychic named Uri Geller suddenly hit the scene, first in Europe, then in America. He was probably a psychic associate of the Sons of Ether. His displays of power won him immense popularity with the public, and he soon became a household name. He toured the country, appearing on television, giving demonstrations. The parapsychologists saw Geller as a clarion call, to finally give psionics full acceptance in the Sleeper community. The rest of the Technocracy, however, was outraged at his pop-psychology and lack of restraint. If psionics were to be introduced into the paradigm, it would have to be in a limited, controlled way, and Geller was anything but that. The Technocrats finally set several of their magicdebunkers on Geller to discredit him. When this had little effect, they began a massive smear campaign to ruin his reputation. When he fell from the public eye, they captured Geller himself, and reprogrammed him. The Technocracy went further, striking psionics from the time table, and closing most of the parapsychology departments and research centers in the universities. They discredited psionics and parapsychology researchers. The "damage" was extensive, however, and the Technocrats were unable to fully eliminate the idea of psychic power from the public. The psychics themselves were put on probationary status, and carefully monitored. The Syndicate and Iteration X advocated a purge but the NWO (which now included some highly placed parapsychologists) found the Mind Mages too useful, and protected them from destruction. Some of parapsychologists slipped quietly away, using Mind magick to erase the memory of their existence. They joined their brethren amongst the Sons of Ether, helping establish a vast network of palm-readers, psychic consultants, and (more recently) phone-lines. This helps both to hide these parapsychologists from the Pogrom, and keep the idea of psionics fresh in the minds of the Sleepers.
The parapsychologists that stayed in the Technocracy are in a very precarious position. The NWO supports them, but most other Technocrats think of them as potential traitors. They are constantly watched, and live in fear that the actions of their brethren amongst the Traditions will trigger a purge. They hang on, though, lured by the possibility that the NWO will reverse its decision and reintroduce psionics into the paradigm. This, more than anything, is what they desire.
Philosophy: The human mind has vast potentials unknown to modern man. Such minor powers as the placebo effect in medicine are only the tiniest hint of what is possible. Vigorous scientific investigations of these possibilities is the only reasonable course. When this potential is fully understood, and can be tapped at will, a peace will descend on the world that has never been seen before.
Organization: The parapsychologists outside the Technocracy use the loose contacts of the Sons of Ether, including the magazine Paradigma. Within the Technocracy, the psychics are subject to the rigid scientific hierarchies of the Conventions, hampered by the suspicion they bear.
Meetings: Parapsychologists follow the meeting structure of the organization they are in, either the Sons of Ether, or the Technocracy. Initiation: Parapsychologists are constantly testing individuals for psychic potential. Most have none, a few have limited power, and a rare set of individuals are capable of magick. These individuals are put through further batteries of "tests", using equipment and psionics to awaken their Avatar. After awakening, the Initiate is given training in their power, and taught the procedures of experimental science.
Chantry: The parapsychologists had their most important Chantry in Russia, where psychic powers have a wide acceptance, but the recent chaos in that country had made contact problematic. Another important Chantry is the Rhine Institute in Durham, NC (once associated with Duke University), now known as the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man.
Acolytes: Psychic telephone operators, new agers, college students Spheres: Their long association with the NWO means the psychics have adopted the sphere of Mind as their primary concentration. They are often talented with Forces (for telekinesis), Time (for precognition) and Correspondence (for clairvoyance and astral sight). They tend to shy away from Entropy and Spirit. Their use of the sphere of Forces is exceptional. For parapsychologists, kinetic energy is a minor force, accessible at Forces 2 and 3. Electro-magnetic energy is a major force, only available at Forces 4 and 5.
Foci: Unlike most Technomancers, the psychics despise Foci. As a matter of fact, their primary sphere, Mind, requires no Foci at all. Most parapsychologist will have no more spheres than their Arete, so they will not need to use Foci. Those that have more spheres than this are forced to use various pieces of equipment like Psychic Enhancer Helmets and Psionic Wave Detectors. Paradoxically, many of their Rotes do involve equipment, such as Kirlian photography for detecting and examining auras.
Concepts: psychic advisor to the stars, parapsychology researcher, CIA or KGB psionic spy Quote: "Hmm, I'm receiving a lot of negative emotions from this room. The presence of so much counteracting energy makes it very difficult to work my powers properly." "I sense hostility, captain."
Stereotypes Sons of Ether: These people understand the need to explore beyond the limits of accepted science. They are our closest brothers. Some of them can be pretty loopy, however. (Good fellows, their research is solid and their ideas well founded. They do tend to be a bit too grounded in standard science for my taste, at least outside the realm of psionics.)
Virtual Adepts: Heinous traitors. These fools have no idea how much suffering and death their antics have caused. (Some of them are Sons, others Technocrats. Trust one, kill the other. They're tough to tell apart sometimes, though. When in doubt, shoot the ones in lab coats).
Other Traditions: Anachronisms. They refuse to move with the times. (More than any other group in the Sons, these mages are dangerously close to the Technocracy. There are even rumors that some of them are still members.)
The New World Order: Our only friend in the Technocracy. They will eventual allow us to move forward into the mainstream. (Useful pawns. The carrot of scientific acceptance keeps them in line. Be careful though, some of them are quite powerful.)
Other Technomancers: Why do they distrust us so? (It is only a matter of time before they go the way of the Virtual Adepts. We should destroy them now, before it's too late.)
THE PRIESTESSES OF INANNA By Anders Sandberg
Description Prostitution has not always been looked down upon as it is today. Once its practitioners were the priestesses of love and sensuality, celebrating the mysteries of sex at the temples of Inanna in ancient Sumer. Later the Babylonians worshipped her as Ishtar, the goddess of the morning star. Among the Hebrews she was known as Asherah, the wife of El. Other groups in the middle east gave her other names, but her worship was widespread. But as Christianity and monotheism rose, her worship was outlawed and she was demonized. She became known only as the demon Astaroth, and her priestesses were despised. The origins of temple-prostitution date back to ancient Sumer. Inanna was the Goddess of the city Uruk, having brought the sacred laws (the "me") to the people there by stealing them from her grandfather Enki, the god of water and wisdom. She was the goddess of love, fertility and war, revered for her power and feared for her temper. She was said to have a rapacious appetite for men and didn't take "no" for an answer. Many myths tell about her revenges against lovers who refused her or people who treated her badly. She married the mortal shepherd Dumuzi, and made him king of Uruk. From their union the land prospered, and fertility ruled. Some time later, Inanna ventured down into the Realm of Death to visit her sister Ereshkigal, the goddess of the dead, perhaps hoping to learn the secrets of the Underworld too. But when she after three days re-emerged from death, she found Dumuzi carrying on as usual, happily celebrating. In her anger she let the demons of the Underworld take him down with them. But later grief overtook her, and appealed to her sister to release her husband. Ereshkigal allowed it, on the provision that the sister of Dumuzi took his place half of the year. So it came to pass that during late summer, autumn and early winter, Dumuzi is in the realm of death and no plants will grow. On the new years day, he is released and fertility and growth yet again returns to the land as Inanna rejoices. This is the origin of the sumerian New Year celebration, the hieros gamos, where the king ceremonially marries the priestess of Inanna. Their marriage and subsequent union recreates the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzi, giving fertility to the land and power to the king. This ceremony developed, and the priestesses of Inanna became sacred prostitutes, ensuring the fertility of the land by giving themselves to the worshippers. There were also male prostitutes, representing Dumuzi for the female followers. The cult spread with minor variations in the whole Middle East, and Inanna became known as Ishtar, Asherah, Aphrodite, Venus and by many other names. Her cult also became mixed with the cult of the Great Mother, and it is unclear where one ends and the other begins. In some areas all unmarried women had to serve at her temples a period each year, something was regarded as s privilege. The priestesses enjoyed high status, unlike most other women at the time. They may have been the origin of the well educated, intellectual courtesans which reached their height in classic Greece. However, with the coming of the new religions the cult of Inanna lost its status. It became outlawed, her temples were destroyed or appropriated by other groups and her followers were scattered for the winds. Prostitution remained, but was no longer sacred and was instead regarded as tainted by the followers of monotheism (partially because of its earlier association with the Goddess). However, small parts of the cult survived in remote areas or in India, where it developed under Hindu influences into Tantra. Today the classic cult is almost certainly dead, but followers may remain in odd places, mainly inside the Cult of Ecstasy.
Philosophy "We bring fertility to not only the land, but to the wombs, the hearts and minds of the people. Our lady Inanna brought the wisdom and power of the Sky and Earth to us, and now its our duty to follow her in her footsteps. "
Organisation Originally the priestesses belonged to their temples, which were run by the High Priestess, and sometimes some intermediary levels of priestesses. Male priests had their own hierarchy beside the female. As the cult withered away the strict organisation became more informal. Many priestesses were solitary practitioners of their arts, while others congregated together in small cliques.
Meetings The original cult feasted at each new moon, but the main celebration was the New Year celebration, when the King married the Goddess to bring about fertility and the return of spring. Beside these there were many lesser feasts, not currently known. Many revolved around the movements of the morning star in the heavens.
Initiation Not much is known about the original initiation ceremonies of the cult. It is believed that many of the priestesses were orphans which were given to the temple and fostered to their adult role. It is believed a major part of the initiation consisted of a ceremonial replay of the myth about Inanna, where the initiate had to go through the adventures of Inanna to become like her. She had to steal the sacred me from Enki and bring them to Uruk despite the monsters he sent after her. She was led through the courtship with Dumuzi, culminating in their marriage. Finally, she had to descend into the Underworld for three days and eventually triumphantly return to life.
Chantry The main chantry was of course the "House of Heaven" in Uruk, currently a ruin in modern Warka, 250 km Southeast of Baghdad. Other temples existed in most major cities in Sumer and later the whole middle east. Today none of them remain.
Acolytes Prostitutes, Intellectuals, Eunuchs
Sphere Life, mainly directed towards fertility magick. Most priestesses concentrated their magick completely towards Life. In order to use the other spheres, the priestesses usually invoked other deities or asked for help from their priests. Most common was the servant of Inanna, Ninshubur, the Queen of East, who controlled the powers of Forces and Correspondence. The water-god Enki gave wisdom and controlled Mind, Time and Matter. Dread Ereshkigal ruled over death, the underworld, Spirit and Entropy.
Foci All spheres: Song or music. All spheres were controlled by singing or chanting the me, the sacred laws of the universe both gods and humans had to obey. In addition, the priestesses sang special invocations to the various gods depending on the purpose of the magick. Many musicians were tied to the temples to provide the correct chants, drumming or singing in the background of the ceremonies.
Life, Prime: Sex. Spirit, Entropy: Nakedness. Nakedness represented Inanna as she stood before Ereshkigal in the Underworld. Mind, Time, Matter: Wine and beer. Reminding Enki how he and Inanna drank together when she persuaded him to give her the sacred me. It is also linked to the holy taverns which surrounded the temple.
Forces, Correspondence: Invocation of Ninshubur.
Concepts Courtesan, Independent woman, Sex-cult leader.
Quote "I Bathed for the wild bull, I bathed for the shepherd Dumuzi, I perfumed my sides with ointment, I coated my mouth with sweet-smelling amber, I painted my eyes with kohl. He shaped my loins with fair hands, The shepherd Dumuzi filled my lap with cream and milk, He stroked my pubic hair, He watered my womb. He laid his hands on my holy vulva, He smoothed my black boat with cream,
He quickened my narrow boat with milk, He caressed me on the bed. Now I will caress my high priest on the bed, I will caress the faithful shepherd Dumuzi, I will caress his loins, the shepherdship of the land, I will decree a sweet fate for him." From The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi, translation by Samuel Noah Kramer.
Rotes Bless Growth (Life 2): This is the most common rote ever used by the priestesses. By reciting the names of the plants, animals and people while making love to Dumuzi, they make them grow faster and become more fertile. The power of this rote is increased if it is performed with either the King (who is the personification of the land) or with a priest of Dumuzi.
The Bull of Heaven (Life 3 Mind 2 Prime 2): When King Gilgamesh of Uruk spurned her advances, Inanna sent a frightful bull against him to destroy him. Her priestesses have learned how to turn ordinary animals into almost as dangerous weapons. By reciting the sacred me of Enki while bathing the bull in scented oils near a river, and then making love to it, they gave it enormous strength and anger against the enemies of the priestesses. Some have gone further and created animals out of clay which turn alive with the single purpose of destroying their enemies.
Escape of Dumuzi (Life 4): According to the legend, Dumuzi managed to escape from the first attack of the demons of the Underworld as Inanna condemned him to death by turning his hands and feet into snakes, and thus escaping their grip. He escaped the second attack by turning his arms and legs into the legs of an gazelle, escaping them again. By reciting the invocation to the sun-god Utu Dumuzi is supposed to have used, a priestess can perform the same feats.
Descent into the Underworld (Spirit 4 Entropy 2): This recreates Inanna's descent into the Underworld. The priestess ceremonially strips away her jewellery, her clothes and signs of power while reciting the "Descent of Inanna". Finally, she is completely naked and falls into a deep coma. In this state, the priestess can communicate with the spirits of the dead and see their realm. After three days she must be revived, or she will remain dead for real. However, this can only be done either if the priestess manages to return to life by herself or by the power of a full priest of Enki, sending out his servant spirits to fetch her soul back.
PSIONIC MAGES AND THE PHOENIX COVENANT By Peter Flanagan (
[email protected])
Psi (Internal Potential) That the Awakened exist is irrefutable. The Technocracy is itself an organization of Enlightened beings defending the human race from incomprehensible forces. The psychic paradigm is the path of self-discovery, the struggle to, each day, be more than the one before it refined to its ultimate extent. ***** Catherine blinked as the cyborgs that had been hunting her looked at each other in confusion, then walked off the way they came. What the hell is going on here?
Relax, she heard in her mind. You've found friends. ***** Psychics tend to be clannish; the Black Suits (and don't call us Men in Black; the Hermetics made that name up) have been accused of being a 'hive-mind' and the Akashics seclude themselves in their temples, except for their respective warriors who are usually solitary. The Crafts are even more insular, shielding themselves from those who would destroy them. And not all Orphans join the Hollow Ones... Psychic phenomena, while treated as a 'pseudo-science' by the scientific establishment, enjoys more credulity than any other form of 'magick' in our world, and in the World of Darkness as well. 900 numbers, psychic readers, and parapsychology are all alive and well, thanks to various forces. The New World Order is not the least of these, which maintains a precarious balance of belief and skepticism on the subject of psionics, allowing their agents to use coincidental Procedures with relative ease. This also allows the Akashics to perform many Do rotes coincidentally, but it is considered a fair trade-off, since the rotes in question are considered psi-friendly and do not threaten their control of the Gauntlet. *****
"Who are you?" Kate asked the man in the black trenchcoat. Odd clothing for such weather... "Name's Jason," he replied with a smile. "I'm a Black Suit, a psychic warrior like yourself. The lady in front of the winged Winnebago's Min, an Akashic martial artist; next to her is our psychokinetic Marcus, a renegade Hermetic. The weirdo bolting the wings on the RV is Maria, our resident mad scientist. Inside are Walter, our resident crystal-powered seer, and Jeff, a biochemist. He can tell you more about the physical properties of our powers." "Um, okay, but why are a bunch of different types like you working together?" Kate asked. "Simple. We're trying to save the world." "Oh..." ***** Psychics tend to be very dedicated or focused. A natural side effect of their paradigm, they must focus themselves to use their Spheres. Akashics throw themselves into personal Ascension, Black Suits strive to protect the Masses from Outer Lords, Crafts have personal goals, and Orphans fight with an almost fanatic fervor to live normal lives, if they don't take the goals of another group for their own. Other Traditions tend towards psychic phenomenon, as well. Although the Hermetics have a long history of studying the 'Art' of magick, some modern Hermetics follow the psychic paradigm. They are often censured, and the more persistent or eloquent champions of self-enlightenment are outcast. Dreamspeakers are far more forgiving, but they are a very individualistic lot, and those who do not tend toward shamanism are seen by other Traditions almost as orphans in their own right. Perhaps the most potent psychic potential resides in the Sons of Ether. Long since the champions of paradigma that the Technocracy has discarded, some of them have picked up the psychic phenomena and claimed it as their own, taking Doc Eon as their example. Sadly, most SoE Scientists regard their 'internal' bretheren as being selfish, using their Science for personal gain. But as the psychic Sons (Scions) of Ether gain influence, and attempt to forge a science of the mind that the Consensus itself can use, more of their fellows begin to see the value of their experiments. Lastly, the Convention of the Progenitors occasionally dabbles in psychic phenomena, searching for a genetic explanation for telepathy and psychokinesis. It is rumored that one of their experiments was far more potent than anyone expected... (See the excellent Scanners: the Madness net supplement by Mark Janecka, available at better WoD netsites, for further details.) Marauders who come from psychic paradigms rarely remain with their old ways; total madness and will-as-power don't mix often. Occasionally, a Marauder with an odd kink in her personal psychosis is able to maintain a psychic approach to her
magick while viewing reality in a different way. These are among the most widely feared Marauders among the Technocracy, and tend to have high Tass rewards placed on them. Robert Davenport and Senorita Abraxas from The Book of Madness are excellent examples of such magi. Even worse are the Fallen Psions, those who work for the Nephandi are masters of twisting minds. Fortunately, their bodies and minds no longer filter Paradox; instead, it sticks around. They tend to have the most hideous mutations both of mind and body. ***** "Okay, let me get this straight. I'm an Orphan, a mage, not a psychic." "No, you are a psychic. You just happen to be an Enlightened one. This allows you to use your psychic powers to affect reality itself." "Whoa..." Min approached Kate gently. "Please forgive Jason. He tries not to talk down to people, and sometimes forgets that not everyone accepts great reality changes as evenly as he does." "Huh. So how do we stay psychic and become mages at the same time?" Min smiled. "We are part of reality. We use our power to alter ourselves." "Ahhhh..." Kate smiled. A wrench floated over to where Maria was working, and the techie turned a bolt into place, sealing the wing into place. ***** Psychics have an odd relationship with Paradox. Akashics and the NWO are notorious for getting away with metaphysical murder without being vulgar; on the other hand their Quiets tend to be epic in scope when they hit. Their other Paradox effects tend to be somewhat predictable, if no less harsh. This comes from their skill in 'internalizing' their powers, making them more natural by using their own bodies and minds as foci. Needless to say, this has its dangers, but there are benefits as well. Any psychic, no matter the specifics of their paradigm, loses their first focus at Arete 2, like any 'mystick' mage, and continues from there. They gain Paradox normally, save for the increased chance of coincidence. They can also create 'normal' coincidences, of course, and excel at psychokinetic 'accidents.' However, their Paradox backlashes tend to take the form of Quiets of varying sizes and 'traditional' psi difficulties, such as nosebleeds, headaches, oversensitive telepathy, and at higher ranks actual physical injury and handicaps. A five-point Paradox Flaw might be temporary paralysis (total) or a complete loss of control of the the character's psychokinetic powers. No further Paradox is incurred for this highly vulgar Backlash; the Technocracy attention it draws and the potential for massive disaster tend to be enough of a problem. ***** "So who are you guys? Are you, like, scouts for the psionic majors or something?" Kate looked at the assembled psis carefully. "Something like that," the Progenitor, Jeff Lee, leaned forward. "We call ourselves Phoenix Covenant. We consist of semiEnlightened psychics and full mages like ourselves. We're the majors, all right." "We attempt to protect the Sleepers from those psychics who abuse their gifts and other, more monstrous beings." Walter Cloudrunner leaned back and clutched at the crystal dangling from his neck. "Oh, and we try to teach people our psionic Science when we get the chance." Professor Cortez fiddled with one of her many helmets, seemingly oblivious to the many mild jolts of electricity that were striking her fingertips...unless they were coming from her fingers. "Is there anyone else I should know about?" Kate asked. "There are other organizations based on theories of reality," Marcus replied softly. "We are the most organized, unless you count the Technocracy, but we, unlike they, work with our fellow magi." ***** "One big happy family," Kate muttered. "Yeah, right."
Phoenix Covenant A relatively new Craft, the Covenant, like the Void Engineers, makes little distinction between those gifted with Numina, Scanners (the half-Awakened) and True Psions (Magi) in the group. They are all devoted to the same things: freedom of thought and protection of the Tellurian. Founded in the 40s in the wake of J.B. Rhine's ground-breaking work in wedding science and thought-magick, they began as an independent Craft...but attracted considerable attention from both the New World Order and the Traditions. Many psychics dissatisfied with their own organizations for one reason or another joined the Covenant, which evolved to become one part science, one part Do, a smattering of Stranger in a Strange Land and a little comic-book reality
thrown in from a few SoEs who never quite grew up. Now, their extended family tries to instill a sense of both wonder and responsibility in each other and the Consensus, while fighting both the oppression of the other organizations and (far more) the evils of the Nephandi.
Philosophy We are the ones who stand against the madness, the tyranny, and Oblivion itself. Challenge yourself always, but never forget that with great power comes great responsibility. Ours is the greatest responsibility of all, for ours is the power of the mind unfettered. Do not force your Path on others, but rather show others our Path and let them decide. No matter what, though, never deny the honest seeker truth. That way lies corruption.
Style Take Akashic discipline, Black Suit training, some Orphans' meditation techniques and metal/crystal lore, and you have the basics. But psychic style is by definition a personal quest, and the average Covenant member believes in the 'guide, don't push' method of magick and philosophy. But if a Phoenix gets pushed, they push back hard!
Sphere Mind
Common Foci Meditation, Do, crystals, silver or gold jewelry, assorted Abilites (especially Awareness, Expression, Leadership, and Science).
Rote Foci More than any other Craft/paradigm, psis make use of individual foci for special rotes. This makes them no less flexible, but they find these tricks useful for coincidence. They include: Combat Maneuvers (from WoD: Combat-one rote per Maneuver!), weapons, psionic enhancers and biochemicals.
Organization Their small numbers and wide-ranging goals make it hard for them to maintain a formal organization; their Mind Sciences/magicks, however, make it relatively easy to stay in touch. Their primary Chantry by the Hudson, less than an hour from New York City, acts as a 'command center' and underground for those psychics under too much scrutiny, but most cabals, or Nests, are pretty much autonomous.
Initiation Prospective members are found from many sources, but primarily from potential Technomancer territory that the Technocrats by and large ignore. Conventions of fictional and gaming groups, parapsychology institutes, even independent 'psychic readers' are all considered potential members. Frauds are, if willing, taught the truth, and if unwilling, convinced to change professions.
Acolytes Wild Talents, Scanners, paraphysicists, New Agers
Concepts Telepathic spy, Lensman, superhero, mental explorer, parapsychologist.
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Our inspiration, but more of them need to get involved. Our world is in danger. Noble allies, but they need to center themselves. Celestial Chorus: Arrogant, self-righteous bastards! What makes them better than the worst of Iteration X? They Sing in a monotone, and take pride in being Prometheans. Cult of Esctasy: The Akashics seclude themselves to attain Enlightenment; these children are just selfish and need to be spanked. Pleasure is good; hedonism is a waste of time and talent.
Get a life, kiddies! Blockheads. Dreamspeakers: They could do so much if they just let go of their trappings. Some do let go...and do much, as we hoped. They seek to aid Gaia, but have forgotten to honor Her. Euthanatos: Not as bad as some of the others, but they rail against the Pogrom while carrying out one of their own. Hypocrites. Like the Etherites, they have great potential. If only they would heed the Wheel. Order of Hermes: Here's a concept for you: Democracy. Heard of it, maybe? Maybe not. Stay away from us, and we'll let you live.
A sad attempt to form a modern Art; they do not realize that we have known what they seek for millennia. Sons of Ether: Wow! These guys are cool! Too bad so many of them have bad attitudes. They could change the world if they would just learn a little flexibility.
There is elegance to their paradigm, but they do not appreciate the advantages of Science. Well, most of them don't... Verbena: Um...is there a point here? We respect them. We'd respect them more if they returned the favor. Virtual Adepts: Virtual reality has great potential; it may be, in fact, instrumental in saving the Tellurian. But it cannot replace the world; its foundations are in a world they are abandoning.
These guys are okay. They're not Elite, but then who is, besides us? Hollow Ones: At least the Esctatics are trying to enjoy life! Who are these losers, and why do they bother? Have fun, Don Quixote! I think I saw a windmill on 14th Street. Iteration X: The ones that are stil human are noble defenders of our world. The rest are sociopaths. Standard reality deviants. Reprogram, assimilate, or destroy. New World Order: Not half as bad as the Trads would like to believe. That's still pretty bad, though. We help those on the freedom side of the Schism as best we can, and avoid the others.
They have great potential, and are a great danger. Use them, but do so with caution, as they are dangerous enemies. They know the Secret. Progenitors: The most schizophrenic organization in the world. Half of them are caring, concerned physicians, and the rest are self-absorbed, soulless loonies who rival the Marauders. Scan before engaging.
What interesting subjects! Syndicate: If you follow the Gray Code, shoot to kill. If you follow the Four-Color Code, ruin 'em. Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt! Shoot on sight, and don't tell the New World Order that you saw one! Void Engineers: Great allies, fun comrades, totally clueless when it comes to psi. Too bad; they've got great potential. They appreciate the danger of the Things That Must Not Be, and they love a good adventure. Just keep an eye on them; they're a bit loony. Marauders: Run away! Run away! Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...Supermage!
Nephandi: See Syndicate, but more so. If you can muster up the stomach to kill anything, kill these guys. Difficult to corrupt, but worth the risk...of someone else. Kindred: Undead Syndicate members, basically. There are exceptions, but when in doubt, pyrokinesis is a psi's best friend. Avoid these living flamethrowers like the sun! Garou: Noble defenders of the Tellurian, but they have an unfortunate tendency to slice & dice first and ask questions later. They serve Phoenix? Hmm...interesting... Wraiths: Sad, really. We could help them, but they live in constant fear of everything, themselves most of all. Lucky bastards. Fae: Alien psychics stranded on Earth too long, their odd Resonance makes for interesting times. Aid the benevolent ones, oppose their enemies, and take the nobles down a peg whenever you have a clear shot. Commoners: Whee! Got Sidhe problems? Wind 'em up, watch 'em go, and poof! No more problems. Aren't Dreamers fun? Sidhe: They resist both command and Naming. Avoid them at all costs.
PYTHAGOREAN BROTHERHOOD By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
History The Pythagoreans were a minor tradition during the classic Greek era, an offshoot of Greek philosophy and eastern ideas. It was founded by Pythagoras himself around 500 BC. Many stories have been told about him and his achievements. It is said that he could do almost anything; He competed and won prizes in the Olympic wrestling games when he was only eighteen years old. He travelled to Egypt and Babylonia to learn the ancient wisdom of the priests. He could tame a bear or stop the eagle in the air with a few magickal words. He was a masterful musician and physician. When Polykrates became tyrant on his native Samos, Pythagoras left and moved to Crotone in southern Italy (this is a historical fact). Here he founded his school of philosophy and mysticism, and spent much time in thought in a cave, discovering the hidden truths of the universe and writing them down in small legends or laws. The sect was strict, ascetic and centralised. Members swore an oath of silence and weren't allowed to say anything until they had listened to the teachings of the Master for five years. The authority of the Master was total, his word was not to be questioned in any way whatsoever (this is the source of the idiom "Iurare in verba magistri", "to swear on the word of the teacher"). All results were attributed to the sect or to the Master, not to their discoverers who remained anonymous. They were strict vegetarians, and were also prohibited from eating beans since they were thought to house the souls of the dead. The students were taught mathematics (mainly geometry, it's highest form), music, astronomy and magick. The Pythagoreans taught that the planets (including the invisible Anti-Earth on the other side of the Sun), the Moon and the Sun were fixed on great spheres of crystal, rotating around a central fire. Their motions creates the exquisite harmony of the spheres, which ordinary people cannot hear because they are too used to it. The Pythagoreans made no distinction between music, mathematics and magick. Music was found to be based upon subtle mathematical laws, and so was magick. Everything in the universe follows mathematical laws and is created out of the geometrical interactions of the numbers, which are the true basis of reality. Each number is holy and has its own powers. One is the indivisible monad, creating everything out of itself. Two is the pure duality, perfect balance between opposites. Three is the number of the gods, while four is the number of the material world (hence the four elements). And so on. This became the foundation of the numerology that the Order of Hermes adopted. The Pythagoreans believed in the eastern idea that the soul is divine and immortal, and that it does reincarnate after each death. It is imprisoned in our imperfect material bodies as a punishment. The goal for all rational people is to break free from this prison. The only way this can be achieved is by seeing and understanding the true reality. In the tradition of Greek philosophy, the Pythagoreans were more thinkers and mystics than practical mages. They regarded the external use of magick (or mathematics) as filthy, and avoided it at all costs. Instead they turned inwards, studying the secrets of the universe. They did not want to reveal anything to the unworthy people outside the group, preferring to keep silence on the great truth they knew. The Pythagoreans were mainly interested in the nature of space and geometry, having Correspondence as main sphere. However, they studied all of reality with equal zeal. Their interest was mainly theoretical and directed more towards understanding the world than influencing it. Most Pythagoreans learned many spheres, but often just to a basic level, enough to see the relevant aspect of reality, which they then began to study. To actually use a sphere to change reality was abhorrent to them. Instead they turned inwards, trying to perfect their understanding of the cosmic harmony. To focus their minds they used music (especially string instruments like harps and lutes), geometry and meditation. The Pythagoreans became influential in the politics of Crotone. Their asceticism contrasted strongly to the hedonism of the nearby city of Sybaris, which they fought and finally destroyed. They also strongly supported the aristocracy, regarding it as selfevident that a few competent people could run things better than the great masses. As the democratic movement won power in southern Italy in the 4th century BC, the Pythagoreans became persecuted. However, they persisted well into the 3rd century despite the persecutions and the dissolution of their rigid hierarchy. Their ideas were adopted by Plato and through him later influenced the Gnostics and the Order of Hermes (and the Technocracy to some extent). The sect was never forgotten, and small groups may have revived its ideas and practices at different times and places. Its ideas seem to have survived with a surprising tenacity.
Philosophy "Everything is created out of the whole numbers. From their ratios, differences and sums everything is made. The spheres are arranged by their immutable laws, rotating in eternal harmony. In the same way we can attain perfect harmony with the cosmos by opening our minds to the truth of numbers."
Organisation
The Pythagoreans were probably organised (or disorganised) like a normal Greek school of philosophy. In the centre was the Master, which everyone had to listen to and obey. Around him was a circle of trusted friends and students, which performed most of the teaching and training. The acolytes and new students had the least status, and were not permitted to speak.
Meetings Whenever the Master called his students, or whenever there was a particular need. There was no special celebrations or feasts in the group.
Initiation After spending five years listening to the teachings in total silence, the student was left in a cave to meditate. If he had understood the teachings correctly and had the right type of mind, he would then be able to hear the harmony of the spheres. If he succeeded, he was made a full member of the group, while if he failed he was thrown out or forced to remain silent for five more years.
Chantry There were never any true chantries except for the meeting places of the group in Crotone. However, the caves and beaches nearby were often used for meditation, teaching and musical experiments best performed beyond the reach of the ears of mortals.
Acolytes Philosophers, young nobles, politicians, mathematical cranks
Sphere Correspondence. The Pythagoreans regarded geometry as the highest form of mathematics, and the field most worthy of study. The relations between points, lines, circles and other figures provided an endless source of mysteries to understand. However, they also strived to perfect their understanding of music and acoustics (using Time and Forces), the mental world and the world of spirits.
Foci All spheres: Geometric constructions. To fully understand something, the Pythagoreans had to see how it related to the fundamental concepts creating everything, the numbers and geometrical objects. Everything they studied was carefully drawn and analysed. They generally made diagrams and constructions using ruler and compass in fine sand, sometimes engraving them in wax.
Mind, Time: Meditation. Many Pythagoreans followed the Master by learning to listen to their inner voices, understanding their own (and others) minds.
Forces, Life, Spirit, Prime: Music. By playing the harp or lute the pythagoreans could create vibrations showing the subtle properties of surrounding objects. It also gave them the ability to see how the vibrations they created interacted with the music of the spheres. Some music was harmonious with it, and enforced and healed. Other kinds of music was discordant and could hurt or cause dangerous effects. Quite understandably the pythagoreans took music seriously, and couldn't stand if it was played incorrectly or poorly.
Concepts Philosopher, mathematician, hermit, musician
Quote "The Golden Ratio manifests in the whole of creation. Take the ratio of the length of a man and the height of his navel. The ratio
of the sides of the Great Temple. The ratio between the long and short sides of a pentagram. Why is this? Because the ratio of the Whole to the Greater is the ratio of the Greater to the Lesser."
Rotes The Pythagoreans disliked using magick to influence reality, so they didn't approve of most rotes except passive methods to study the world. Only in desperate cases did they use their knowledge in any direct way. Another fact is that much of their magick today is coincidental or even considered to be science. Calculating sizes from a distance using trigonometry is no longer magick, it is mathematics.
Measurement (Correspondence 1 Mind 1) By simply watching something in the distance and then performing a few simple calculations, a Pythagorean could easily count the number of objects, their distances and relations with each other.
Absolute Tuning (Forces 1 Mind 1) By performing geometrical calculations while listening to the sound of an instrument, the pythagoreans could tune it perfectly, giving it almost unearthly perfect sound. This was reputed to be done by calculating how to tune the instrument in accordance with the harmony of the spheres. This could at least in theory be done to anything, causing it to resonate with the spheres.
The Fall of Sybaris (Mind 2 Life 2) The enmity between the ascetic Pythagoreans in Crotone and the hedonistic Sybarites of Sybaris led to several wars. In the end the Pythagoreans won through psychology and cunning. The Sybaritic army was extravagantly dressed and equipped. The horses of the cavalry was trained to move to music for use in the many parades of Sybaris. The Pythagoreans simply let their musicians play a happy melody, which made the horses dance. With the cavalry out of the way, the Pythagoreans could easily capture Sybaris, which they destroyed totally.
Cosmic Meditation (Correspondence 3 Mind 1 Entropy 1) Pythagoras himself spent much time meditating on geometric problems, developing elaborate and subtle theories. By employing his knowledge of the harmony of the spheres in his work, he could guide himself to levels of greater understanding and eliminate the chance of making random errors. He could spend days watching how the pure geometrical relationships which made up the universe interacted, and extract deep insights from them. [ The mage enters a deep intellectual trance, where he is one with the realm of mathematics and logic. He can see the universe from this point of view, see the deep mathematical relations making it up, without even moving from his place. ]
Cosmic Disharmony (Correspondence 4 Entropy 4 Prime 2) This rote was probably never used, but remained a theoretical application of the magick of the Pythagoreans. By very carefully setting up a resonance using music and geometry with the spheres, a link could be formed between the universe and an object or person. By suddenly throwing the music into discord the harmonious link could turn into a most deadly force, as the forces of the universe rips the object (or person) apart and spreads it across all of creation in an instant. [ The mage colocates the affected object to many places at once, ties it to them using Prime and then releases it. The resulting effect will rip it apart using the inertia of the whole universe. Each success will make 4 damage levels, and the victim will be spread out over the universe, leaving no trace behind.]
QUANTUM MECHANICS By Chiaroscuro The following is a partial writeup (work-in-progress) of a Tradition I am constructing for my Mage campaign. Various events and persons described in the writeup are artifacts of that campaign. I thought it might be interesting, maybe spark some comments. If anyone winds up wondering what in the Nine Hells goes on once Doissetep goes boom: the Chantry occupying the Shade Realm of Forces is now (after events described) Dirac Station. The Quantum Mechanics are both the youngest and one of the oldest Traditions. Their founder is Lucius Morn, once of the Order of Hermes. He was a brilliant quantum physicist before Awakening, and afterward became one of the youngest Masters of Prime on record. He became involved in the politics of the Chantry Doissetep, gradually discovering massive corruption in the Order of Hermes both by the Technocracy and the Nephandi. Acting against the turned mages directly would have been suicidal, so Morn began a series of subtle manipulations that gradually escalated out of his hands and into the conflict now called the War of Sixes. In the course of these events the Order of Hermes was shattered, along with Doissetep itself; much of the old Order now makes up the new Iteration X Methodology called the Cryptomancers. A battered shard of the old Order continues its Tradition; the remainder has become part of the new paradigm Morn has constructed, fused together with the War of Sixes' great exodus of rogue Void Engineers into the new Tradition called the Quantum Mechanics.
Quote: "As below, so above." Sphere: Forces Foci Squid -- All The squid is the basic all-purpose tool of the Quantum Mechanic. SQUID is an acronym for Superconducting Quantum Interference Device; it operates by analyzing and modifying quantum waveforms on a Quintessential level, guided by the principles of advanced chaos theory. Its control and operation both depend heavily on the ways in which the process of observation affects that which is observed. The first true squid, a massive room-filling device easily capable of bending reality to a whim, was invented by Lucius Morn and is said to have disappeared in the fall of Doissetep. Modern squids come in all shapes, sizes, and power levels; their only common feature is that some part of the device, whether a cable, exhaust vent, lens, or handlebar, will exude a wisp of cold mist continuously. A basic squid, easily produced and given to every new Quantum Mechanic initiate, functions only as a focus. More powerful units, often with Virtual Adept Quantum Logic AI units onboard, are Talismans (and sometimes even fetishes). Popular squid configurations include the helmet, laptop, backpack, and Virtual Adept-inspired glove-cable-headset models. The minimum volume of one is one hundred cubic centimeters, though most are larger. Imager -- Spirit, Prime An imager is simply any sort of reasonably advanced display device. Quantum Mechanics employ everything from computer monitors to palm-sized readout pads to imaging sunglasses for use when interacting with Spirit forces or manipulating Quintessence (particularly in the area of Pattern magick). Calculator -- Forces, Entropy Calculators are used when Forces and systemic changes are concerned, to precisely define the macrocosmic effects desired from the Quantum Mechanic's microcosmic workings. Many QMs have exceedingly advanced calculators that they pride themselves on, often creating a friendly one-upmanship amidst the younger Disciples. Slide Rule -- Correspondence, Time Outmoded for decades, slide rules were still kept (even used!) by certain Void Engineers as a symbol of their history. When the Convention fissioned and the rogues joined the newly-forming Quantum Mechanics, it was found that the old devices made a remarkably handy tool for aiding in the manipulation of both physical and temporal dimensions. New, strangely-marked slide rules enjoy a resurgence among this Tradition as a result.
HOUSE RHIANNON By Midori M. Hirtzel (
[email protected])
History In the year 1125, a young noblewoman, Isabeau of Rhiannon, caught the fancy of Lysandyr, son of Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of Arcadia, on one of his journeys into the world of mortals. The two of them enjoyed a brief amour, and their liaison resulted in the birth of a daughter, Eilan. As Lysandyr was betrothed to Ginevra, Princess of the neighboring faerie kingdom of Luthien, he was forced to leave his mortal lover and half-faerie daughter to their fates in the mortal world to avoid a scandal, but he continued to keep watch over his halfmortal descendants. Eilan grew to womanhood, married, and gave birth to a daughter, Lyssette, who inherited her grandfather's magical powers in full measure. Because of this, at the age of eight she was taken by the Maga Artesia of House Merinita as her apprentice. One of the other apprentices present at Artesia's Covenant was Elric of House Merinita, a youth a few years older than Lyssette. Oddly, he too was related to the Royal House of Arcadia, for he was the son of Ginevra's sister, the result of one of the faerie's brief trysts with a mortal shepherd. He found himself drawn to the shy young girl, and the two soon became friends. Even after Elric had passed his Apprentice's Gauntlet, thereby becoming a full Magus, their friendship continued. However, as Lyssette grew into young womanhood, Elric found his feelings for her ripening into love. Due to their vast differences in social standing, however, he felt that he was unworthy to woo her and so kept his true feelings a secret. Things finally came to a head during Lyssette's sixteenth year, when Elric rescued her from the clutches of Lotharius, a Magus of Tremere who was secretly engaging in diabolism and had planned to sacrifice Lyssette to his dark masters. Elric saved her life, and was knighted by Lysandyr himself for his valor. The last obstacle overcome, Lyssette and Elric were married. Some years after Lyssette and Elric had attained stature as Magi within their own Covenant, they set out with a close friend of theirs, a Magus of House Bjornaer named Talon, to establish another Covenant. Elric and Lyssette, along with their two young children, moved into the new Covenant and set up housekeeping there with a number of companions and grogs. For the next several decades, Elric and Lyssette were busy with the rearing of their growing family and the day-to-day administrative duties of the Covenant, and they were quite happy as they watched it grow from a small gathering of only a handful of Magi to a thriving community in its own right. So many apprentices had they trained, that they formed another, though minor, House of the Order of Hermes: House Rhiannon. Their eldest son was soon to be married to Talon's daughter, and the Covenant continued to grow; it seemed that their happiness would continue to bloom. However, such was not to be. Lotharius had returned, having made contact with, and been Embraced by, the Vampiric members of House Tremere. In the fifteenth century, he led the forces of the Inquisition to the Covenant under cover of darkness. When he arrived, he discovered Elric and Talon waiting for him, the two having gotten the rest of the Covenant safely away. They managed to drive the vampire-mage and his human pawns off, but the price was terrible: Elric was mortally wounded in the battle, and Talon, consumed with grief over the loss of his friend, took refuge in the shape of his heart-beast, a falcon. When she heard of her husband's death, Lyssette's grief knew no bounds; only her devotion to the House and her family, as well as a burning desire for revenge upon the ones who had stolen him from her, kept her sane. She sought in vain for Elric's murderer, but the Vampiric Tremere had apparently vanished, and so her rage slowly cooled to a smoldering coal instead of a raging inferno. To protect the House, she moved the Covenant to border on Ginevra's lake (and, hence, the Lady's Faerie regio as well), and vowed that in return for that protection, the House Rhiannon would aid the Fae whenever they asked. As the Age of Magic began to wane, the mages of House Rhiannon saw their fellows losing much of their power as the perceptions of the masses changed and supplies of vis began to dry up. Justly concerned, Lyssette sought an audience with her grandfather, now King Lysandyr of Arcadia, in the hopes of avoiding the fate of her fellow Magi. Lysandyr and Lyssette conferred for many days and nights, and finally came to an agreement. In return for use of the Fae's sources of vis, the members of House Rhiannon would guard Ginevra's regio and aid any fae who had lost their way home and were trapped in the world of mortals. Thus it was that the House became the guardians of one of the few remaining gateways to Arcadia, while receiving the gift of being able to draw upon the power of their faerie blood in order to continue utilizing their magic. However, the gift carried a price: alone among the Magi, the members of House Rhiannon were forced to use the energy present in their own bodies to power their magics. When the Council of Nine Traditions was formed, Lyssette was among those of the Order of Hermes who resented its insistence that the various Houses unite under one "Hermetic" Tradition. She nearly broke with the Order, but then the threat of the Cabal of Pure Thought reared its head and House Rhiannon threw in behind its Hermetic brothers and sisters in order to combat it. A number of the House's Magi and its faerie allies lost their lives in the battle, and this began their eternal hatred of the Cabal and its successors, the Technocracy. As the Age of Magic disappeared and the Technocracy began to impose its world-views on reality, House Rhiannon withdrew to its Covenant and began the selective breeding and training of the next generation of Magi. Distrusted for their apparent immunity to the "Paradox" which affected other Magi, they concentrated on their ties with the fae, and honored their oath, helping a number of lost Changelings in the British Isles to remember the ir past and sheltering them in the faerie trod near the
a number of lost Changelings in the British Isles to remember the ir past and sheltering them in the faerie trod near the Covenant. They also began a guerrilla war against the Technocracy by acquiring positions in education and disseminating their views that way. In order to ensure that the talent for magic would remain in the family, Lyssette instituted a program of arranged marriages and selective breeding for the offspring of the House. In this way, the family began to produce a number of powerful Magi. As the years passed, the members of the House (and their families) grew, and Lyssette found herself the mother several times over of a great number of descendants. While not all of these were Magi, a large number of them were psychically gifted in other ways (such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and so forth). In order to keep up appearances in the mortal world, Lyssette (whose aging was greatly retarded by both her mighty magics and the strong faerie elements in her blood) began posing as her own descendants, a ruse she keeps up to this day. These days, the Magi of House Rhiannon remain staunch, if reluctant, soldiers in the Ascension war. Their forays against the Technocracy are legendary.
Character Creation All the members of House Rhiannon are descended from Elric and Lyssette. This cannot be stressed highly enough. Only their faerie blood offers these mages immunity to Paradox. Any mage not of the blood of the House will be a standard Hermetic.
Initiation All the children of House Rhiannon are watched for signs of the Gift from birth. Those who display Mage-talent are trained from an early age, and often spend much time at the family's ancestral Chantry in Great Britain before being assigned a Mentor who will further their education in the Art. After passing a rigorous series of tests, they are initiated into the Order in a ceremony held at the ancestral Chantry every seven years.
Organization The House is led by its Prima, Lyssette, from the main Chantry in Great Britain. Many of the mages reside there; those who do not tend to congregate in small groups, usually made up of a master and a number of students.
Chantry The House's main Chantry (which they call a "Covenant" after the old Hermetic form) is in Great Britain, on the same site where their second Covenant was founded in the Middle Ages. They have also established a number of smaller Covenants in other cities; the most prominent one is located at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
Concepts University professor, magician, pagan, fantasy writer, scholar
Acolytes Fantasy fiction fans, medievalists, Changelings
Common Foci Circles, sigils, ritual implements (swords, wands, etc.), languages, jewelry (especially pentacle-designed)
Weakness Due to their faerie blood, these mages are curiously immune to Paradox. However, they do exhibit a number of strange vulnerabilities due to that same faerie ancestry.
For every effect a mage of House Rhiannon uses, he will take a number of levels of fatigue (equal to one less the rating of the highest Sphere in the effect). These penalties correspond to the Wound levels on the character sheet, with the exception that they are regained with rest (no spell-casting). If a character wishes to continue spell-casting after all levels of fatigue have been used up, she must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 7+). Success means she may ignore one level of fatigue per success, failure means taking an additional fatigue level, and a Botch will cause the mage to lose consciousness for a number of rounds equal to her current leve l of fatigue (as she pushed herself too hard). Rest times for each Fatigue level are as follows: Fatigue levels Penalty Rest time 1 No penalty 5 minutes 2 -1 die 10 minutes 3 -1 die 30 minutes 4 -2 dice 1 hour 5 -2 dice 2 hours 6 -5 dice 4 hours 7 "Exhausted" Overnight (8 Hours) (Note that with a full night's sleep you regain all fatigue levels) Perhaps due to their faerie blood, the Magi of House Rhiannon also suffer a strange vulnerability to cold iron (as per the Changeling: The Dreaming rules). While it does not affect them adversely physically as it does their full-blooded cousins, it does seem to be more resistant to their magic. In game terms, this translates as the mage suffering a +2 difficulty penalty to all spells attempting to affect an item of cold iron. Magi of House Rhiannon are strictly forbidden to work vulgar magick in front of mundane witnesses. The gift of King Lysandyr is a treasured secret of the House, and they believe (perhaps rightly so) that if their immunity to Paradox were discovered by the Technocracy, or even the other Traditions, they would have the secret of it wrung from them, thereby violating their oath. For this reason, the members of the House are strictly forbidden to display vulgar magical effects in the presence of mundanes. To do so will bring the wrath of the entire House down upon the head of the offender. The first such offense results in the censure of the House and a stern warning; the second in the offending Magus being judged by a Tribunal headed by the Quaesitor of the House. The third such offense is punished by Gilgul. Needless to say, few Magi would dare to violate this precept. In addition, all members of the House are honor-bound to offer aid to the fae whenever they are asked. This takes precedence over any other goals the mage may currently have. When the fae call, they must respond.
Philosophy We are the protectors of magic and the Fae. It is our sacred duty to combat the Technocracy and to aid our brothers and sisters back to Arcadia whenever we can. Their gift to us deserves no less. We shall see the return of magic to this world once more, and then our cousins shall return to it. If it takes a millennium, we shall be free!
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Good warriors and strong thinkers, but they have lost their selves in their obsession with the mind. Celestial Chorus: Our dealings with them are strained at best; be wary around them, for they distrust us for our dealings with the fae.
Cult of Ecstasy: They lack focus and discipline. With a little more direction, they might be able to pull themselves out of the whirl of hedonistic self-indulgence.
Dreamspeakers: We could learn much from them, for they seek a return to the old ways, just as we do. Perhaps we could bring about one together.
Euthanatos: Their obsession with Death frightens us. They must be stopped before they drag us all down. Hollow Ones: We don't claim to understand them. Are they truly Magi at all? Sons of Ether: They won't let go of their devices, and they keep too much cold iron around for our magics to work properly. Best to keep your distance.
Verbena: We are similar in many ways, and have learned much from one another. They can be valuable allies, if our purposes coincide with theirs.
Virtual Adepts: Strange. They live in a world of their own making, and cannot see beyond it. Best to keep your distance from them.
The Technocracy: Our enemies. They destroyed our Covenants, slew our families, and drove our brothers and sisters from this world. For that, we shall never forgive them, and we shall fight them to the last.
Marauders: These insane ones must be stopped, or they will destroy all that we have worked for. Nephandi: The Code of Hermes states that dealings with the Infernal should be harshly punished. Enough said. Vampires: A few can be trusted, but the majority are too dangerous to deal with. When you meet one, be on your guard. Garou: Cousins to our Bjornaer brethren, they might make fine allies if we could figure out how to approach them... Wraiths: The Restless Dead are better off being put to their final rest whenever possible. Changelings: Our lost brothers and sisters. Aid them whenever they ask it.
ROSICRUCIANS By Anders Sandberg
Description The Rosicrucians are not a tradition, but a camp inside the Order of Hermes. After the failure during the middle ages of the false order, the Order was shaken to its foundations. Many mages simply left to other traditions or founded their own small groups. Many claimed that the failure was due to excessive contact with the mundane world, and retreated into pure study. The Rosicrucians were a more radical camp of the order. They claimed the failure was not due to the contact with mundanes, but due to the fact that they had initiated almost anybody into the false order. This led to the appearance of diabolists, power-hungry or destructive mages. The Rosicrucians wanted to continue to spread the hermetic ideas among the sleepers, but now only to the "worthy", who could handle them. During the period of 1500-1600 the Rosicrucians organized themselves, slowly preparing for their grand plan. They allied themselves with some Ahl-I-Batin sects, and exchanged information with them. To avoid the Technomancers they had invented a trick: to hide in the open. Their idea was to create as many false orders as possible, to confuse and annoy the Technomancers. In 1615 they publicised "Fama Fraternitatis" and "Confessio fraternitatis Roseae Crucis, ad eruditos Europae", two manifestos revealing their existence and some of their powers. They also contained a request to all the learned men in Europe to join them in their quest. Of course this lead to a lot of noise. The Traditions were furious. The technomancers were furious. The learned and not-so-learned men was curious, and wanted to join. Exactly what the Rosicrucians had planned. Soon a lot of people were searching for the elusive Rosicrucians. Learned men were writing their own books about them, subtly pointing out that the author was a very wise man and certainly a prospective member. Some people mistook these books for secret messages from the Rosicrucians themselves, and began to believe that the author was one of them. Others were writing texts condemning rosicrucianism, and after a while there was hundreds of manifestos, books and texts about the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucians were quiet. Soon there began to start rosicrucian orders all around Europe. Secret societies began to flourish, and the Rosicrucians (the real ones) silently took control over some groups, using them as bases of operations. The Technomancers simply couldn't stop them, because for every genuine order there was hundreds of copycats, and most of them were secret. The Rosicrucian movement evolved. Today they are the secret masters of several Masonic groups and a lot of different secret societies. And they continually start new groups and movements. Using these as a front, they initiate the "worthy" into the secrets. Often they do not make them into full mages, preferring to diffuse their enlightenment into society. The orders are a very useful place to find new candidates for membership. They also try to contact as many powerful and wealthy patrons as possible, to protect themselves and expand the orders even more. The Technomancers are powerless against all these secret groups. They can't eradicate them, since that would be very suspicious, and they contain too many influential people. They instead try to infiltrate them or subverting them in order to stop the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucians counter by creating even more new groups, and luring the technomancers into traps. Whole groups are faked, just to fool them into doing something stupid. The technomancers try to discredit the groups, hoping to erode their enemies power base. They also start new groups themselves, hoping to lure the Rosicrucians to try to take them over, and then catching the infiltrators. This secret war has been raging among the secret societies for several centuries, and there are no indications of an end. Everyone is tangled up in a web of intrigue, and paranoia is rampant among all involved. The Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn was one of their most successful fronts. It initiated people in plain sight. Unfortunately it split up because of internal strife (and possible technomancer infiltration). This created a lot of new orders, some which evolved away from the Rosicrucians. Aleister Crowley used methods both from the Rosicrucians and the Cult of Ecstasy (to the Rosicrucians dismay). The splinter groups have influenced a lot of other groups, like wicca, chaos magic and lots and lots of "real" Golden Dawn orders. This has both helped the Rosicrucians, as there are now even more groups to hide in, but the unorthodox hermetics that have evolved are an source for embarrassment. The Rosicrucians have amassed more mundane power and wealth than any other group in the Order of Hermes. Through the charity trusts they control through different Masonic groups, they can put pressure on banks and invest money as they wish. Many powerful and important persons are members in their far flung new of lodges and orders. Some of their groups function as traps, where the Rosicrucians collect people they gather incriminating evidence against for use as blackmail. By financial manipulations, political pressure and lots of contacts, the Rosicrucians are a force to be reconed with. The Rosicrucians are the undisputed masters of subtle intrigue together with the Ahl-I-Batin (who taught them the basics). Their extremely complex plots have however an unfortunate tendency to unravel when confronted with reality, causing the participants to stumble in the confusing dark. Its not uncommon for their agents to believe they are working for the other side, or even that they are double agents. Some are double agents, turning the Rosicrucians ever more paranoid. The war against the Technocracy agents and lodges have become more and more absurd, with every participant desperately trying to stay on top while all the time trying to sort information from disinformation. One area the Rosicrucians excel in is cryptography. The hermetic mindset, combined with their paranoia, have made them masters of secret communication. Beside obvious codes, they have developed hidden codes which are encoded into art, normal text or completely unexpected things like interior decoration or gardening. One common way hiding messages is to use
symbols and references which are only meaningful for a Rosicrucian of high enough rank (this serves to hide important information from members of low rank). Beside the more common conspiracy-oriented Rosicrucians there are more withdrawn members who spend their time helping Sleepers in need. These trace their origin back to a small group of survivors of the fall of the false Order, who wished to atone for their pride by helping people with their magick. They have continued their work, protected and aided by the conspirators. They sometimes use alchemical methods, but prefer to avoid suspicion by posing as physicians. However, one of their strict rules is to never accept any payment for their work, since true healing should be free for all in need. The healer Rosicrucians are supported by most of the Order of Hermes, especially the Alchemists and Cabalists. The conspiracy-oriented Rosicrucians support the healers with donations, protection and information, while they themselves use the healers as a kind of PR for the sub-tradition.
Philosophy Mankind must Ascend, but is hindered by its ignorance, malice and greed. We must prepare the way in secrecy, initiating the worthy into the mysteries and spreading the enlightenment into the world. This must be done in secrecy, lest our enemies will find and destroy us. As long as we hide among our imitators we are safe. In order to guard our secrets, we must reveal them.
Organization The Rosicrucian order are tightly organized into smaller orders, but the different orders have little contact. This have led to incidents where two orders have begun to fight each other, without realising who the enemy was. The orders are organized into grades of initiation. Each member have a grade, and is not allowed to learn the secrets of the higher grades until he is initiated into it. The initiations are complex rituals, wherein the candidate is instructed into the mysteries, the secret passwords and handshakes. The grades below are an example, based on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, one of their most successful front orders. Probationer: A candidate for membership, but not a mage yet. Many are acolytes. Neophyte: The candidate is initiated and awakened. He is instructed and remain in this grade until he has mastered Forces 1. Zelator, Theoricus, Practicus, Philosophus: These four grades represent the elements Earth, Air, Water and Fire. The initiate learn to control the lesser forces. When the mage has mastered a force he may be initiated to the next grade. Adeptus Minor, Adeptus Major and Adeptus Exemptus: These grades are for those who have reached forces 3. Magus and Magister Templii: The mage now have power over the greater forces. Adepts of Forces. Many mages of these grades control different secret societies for the main order. Ipissimus: Now the mage is a Master of the forces, and often allowed to create his own order.
Meetings Mainly the four equinoxes and each full moon. Different orders have quite different schedules, often rather similar to lodge meetings of masonic orders. These meetings are rather ceremonial, but after the solemn part most groups have dinner and discuss less important or mundane matters.
Initiation Varies among the orders. A typical initiation consists of an elaborate Masonic-looking ritual, wherein the initiate is led around the temple and presented with different symbols, guardians and must answer questions and swear oaths. After a long and tiring time, during which the suspense has been slowly built up, the initiate is unexpectedly shocked in some way, which will (hopefully) awaken his avatar. Often the initiate will have some sort of vision of the avatar.
Chantry Vienna is the site of the oldest chantry, an old manor. This chantry is one of the most influential Hermetic chantries in Europe. It is officially owned by the fraternal order Ordo Rosae Crucis (to be secret, you have to obvious). Most Rosicrucians reside or have ties to Hermetic chantries, or run their own chantries disguised as secret societies or Masonic orders.
Acolytes Freemasons, members of secret organizations, illuminati fans, nurses.
Sphere Forces is the main sphere, having great symbolic importance. Different subgroups concentrate on Mind, Life or Prime depending on philosophy and need. Mind is popular among the conspirators, who use it both to manipulate people and to protect themselves. Life is common among the healers, who specialize in caring for the sick and needy. Prime is studied mainly by the more mystic members, who see it as the link to true Ascension.
Views of the Spheres Correspondence: Everything in the world is tied to everything else through symbolic links. By following these links (using the wisdom of Tradition), a mage can see the connections between superficially disparate things. He can also use this knowledge to manipulate the connections, bringing objects closer or farther, or even transporting himself along the network.
Entropy: Decay and dissolutions are a sad fact of our fallen world. A mage must fight these to purify the world again and bring it closer to Ascension. This sphere gives the necessary power, but is also a great temptation for the unwary.
Forces: The whole universe is created by the interplay between different forces. When two opposed forces meet, they create something new. When Light meet Darkness, shades appear. Fire and Water destroy each other, yet they transmute matter by their battle.
Life: The living world is filled with organization and beauty. By learning to see the secret order underlying everything alive, a mage can heal the sick and wounded by restoring the forces and structures to equilibrium. This is one of the most noble uses of magick, and to use this Sphere to disrupt or unduly transmute living beings is an affront to all sensibility.
Matter: Matter is composed of forces which have been woven into stable patterns. It is an inert sphere, forming the floor of the Temple of Ascension but lacking the power to rise upwards. Matter is easily controlled using the lower forces, and is a mighty servant if used properly, but a heavy burden if misused.
Mind: The forces of the Mind are subtle and powerful. Unenlightened minds are filled with chaos, stray thoughts and battling emotions. The Enlightened ones can control these forces, and hone them into mighty tools for Ascension.
Prime: This is the highest force, the force which ties the Universe together. It is the light from the Fiat of the Great Architect of the Universe. To understand it is necessary for all works of higher magick.
Spirit: The spiritual world represent a higher world, where the true symbols of reality exist. By learning to rise to higher planes, a mage can find deep truths and see the great Work clearer. But beware of the treacherous and capricious beings from the Abyss, they only seek to trick and do harm.
Time: Everything that happens are but a part in the great chains of destiny. By learning how these links work, a diligent mage can follow their paths backwards and divine their future ways. But Destiny is a most powerful force, and attempting to change it will bring down hideous danger.
Foci Often the same as the Order of Hermes, but sometimes they use a wand, a sword, a cup and a pentacle instead of the Seal of Solomon. Which foci is used depend upon the type of magick they want to perform, as related to the four elements. A fireball would use the wand, while a invisibility spell would use the sword. The Wand is used for fire and destructive magic. Most often used for higher forces. It is often red, with inscriptions in hebrew or Latin. The Sword is for air, light and electricity. Sometimes used for Mind, lesser forces and Correspondence. Often an elaborate ceremonial sword, or perhaps a dagger. The Cup for water, emotional and life magic. Often made of silver, with complex inscriptions. The Pentacle (a disk with a pentagram on, or a shield or a coin) is used for earth, matter and stability.
Concepts Mason, conspirator, ceremonial magician, physician.
Quote
"I, in the presence of the Lord of the Universe and of this Hall of Neophytes of the Order of The Golden Dawn in the Outer, regularly assembled under warrant from the Greatly Honoured Chiefs of the Second Order, do of my own free will and accord hereby and hereon most solemnly pledge myself to keep secret this Order, its name, the name of its members, and the proceedings which take place at its meetings, from all and every person in the whole world who is outside the pale of the Order, and not even to discuss these with initiates, unless he or they are in the possession of the password for the time being; nor yet with any member who has resigned, demoted or been expelled, and I undertake to maintain a kind and benevolent relation with all the Fratres and Sorores of the Order."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Our eastern allies. They have at last seen the need to spread the enlightenment. Unfortunately many are still locked up inside their old monasteries.
They are too tied up in their war of shadows to notice that the Truth is right among them. Ahl-I-Batin: Our closest friends. They work in the same way as we do, and strive for generally the same goals. Unfortunately their secrecy has made them fractious, unlike us. However, we generally cooperate well and have done so for several centuries.
They have learned well, but unfortunately they tend to get involved in more worldly matters than bringing the Unity to the people. Celestial Chorus: Beautiful philosophy, but what is behind their masks? Remember what the inquisition did, remember what the Jesuits did against the masons and the old Rosicrusian order. Be careful.
Some people never learn. Now they are just as inefficient in helping people as the conservatives they split from. Most of them are far too interested in the forces of power and wealth to care about ordinary humans. However, we welcome those few of them who actually heal people. Cult of Ecstasy: Not even worth mentioning. Masonic Parties... need I say more? Dreamspeakers: It is nice to dream, but one have to change something. They have no power anymore. They have tangled up themselves in intrigue and learning, not listened to their inner voice. They have become a parody of those they sought to defeat. Euthanatos: Their goals are questionable, but at least they are actively working for them. Secrecy is a tool, not a goal. And do they remember their original goal? Hollow Ones: Perhaps a sign that our work have begun to give fruit. Too bad they seem to lack any direction, and most of them are not worthy their powers. If we can find them before they get caught into their own weird beliefs, we can maybe turn them to the light.
Stuffy, pretentious and arrogant. They live in a eternal spy-novel just to avoid facing reality. Orthodox Order of Hermes: They do not seek to spread the Ascension among the sleepers anymore. Instead they have retreated into pure research to avoid the dangers outside. Still, without them we would not have been able to get this far.
Overly political, but otherwise fine mages. Unorthodox Order of Hermes (Chaos mages, Thelema etc.): A tragic mistake. We cannot avoid responsibility for these perversions of the order. This clearly shows how important it is to be careful when initiating. Aleister Crowley should never have been initiated, and we are still paying the price.
They believe its their duty to run everything, including us. And they won't take 'no' for an answer. Sons of Ether: Still left on the material plane. And they are even less outwardly active than our brethren in the old order. Who? Verbena: They allow the forces of nature and their flesh to rule their souls. They are lost. They cling desperately to their precious organizations, their power and wealth. They do not realize that they are doomed along with the Technocracy, which they unknowingly (?) imitate. Virtual Adepts: Interesting group, and very effective. We have much to learn from them. Unfortunately their philosophy is both ridiculous and limited.
These are the real Illuminati! They meet in secret societies, use their own secret codes and try to take over the world "For the best of Mankind". Where have we seen that before?
Rotes The Middle Pillar Ritual (Prime 2): This rote has been developed from a Cabalist exercise, and became very popular in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It will strengthen the body, mind and soul of the mage. The mage stands and vizualises himself as the middle pillar of the Sephirothic Tree. Below him is the material world, and above his head Keter, the source of prime. He feels the energy flowing through him, into the world and from the world back to the source. The mage will feel filled with power, in perfect balance of mind and body. [ The mage will pump quintessence into his own pattern for a while. This will temporary strengthen the mages own pattern and hopefully weaken intruding patterns. Each success will remove one success of magick (Both helpful and harmful), like a countermagick roll. The target number for the rote is the highest sphere involved in the effect + 3, or 5, whichever is highest. It will not heal any damage already done nor stop any flaws in the mages own pattern. Prolonged use of this rote have been shown to cause egocentricity, as the mage unconsciously begin to believe he is the centrum of the universe. ]
The Rose-Cross Ritual (Mind 2): This rote consists of the mage drawing six celtic crosses with an incense-stick in to the East, South, West, North, Up and Down. The lines traced in the air will form a protective sphere, which will make people overlook the mage. People around the mage will ignore him and will not remember him very well, if at all. They will not think about the mage if he does not attract attention. [ The rote will make people overlook the mage. Three successes are enough to be ignored by all people in the vicinity of the mage. Each success will subtract one die from every perception roll to spot the mage, as long as he does not attract attention. Since most people ignore each other anyway, the mage will in effect be almost invisible]
Detect Disinformation (Mind 1 Entropy 1, often Correspondence 3 and/or Time 2): Many Rosicrucians are paranoid about information they receive, and seek to test it to see if it is disinformation or lies. This rote was developed by a group of especially worried mages, who were barraged by subtle disinformation from the Technocracy. They studied the information in the mental image of their showstones, invoking Mikael and other angels of truth to help them to find falsehoods and lies. By seeking internal inconsistencies, they managed to ascertain some of the validity. This method was later developed into a very efficient rote by adding Correspondence and Time. The mage not only studies the internal consistency of the information, he also compares it to the causal chains and actual state of the world. This might take a long time if it is complex information or relates to very specific matters, so the use is somewhat limited. However, even a brief check can reveal some types of disinformation.
Tritheimus Mental Meeting (Mind 3 Correspondence 2): This rote was used in earlier times to keep the leaders of the Rosicrucians in touch. The participants gaze into the showstones at a specific time, and seek the minds of their fellow mages while naming the angels of communication (as described by Tritheimus). They will communicate semi-telepatically, making it very hard for outsiders to listen in on the conversation. Today this rote has fallen into disuse due to paradox and modern communications, but many traditionalists still use it. Another group have adopted a variant borrowed from the vampiric Tremere, which merges the minds of the participants over large distances. The result is said to be a form of brain-washing, where the participants become more loyal to the overall organization. Most Rosicrucians think this use is too dangerous.
The Lesser Pentagram Banishing (Spirit 2): This is another adapted Cabalist rote. The mage performs the Cabalist Cross, draws protective pentagrams in the four directions and then stand with his arms straight out to the sides, so that his body forms a cross. He invokes the four Archangels: "Before me Raphael. Behind me Gabriel. On my right hand, Michael. On my left hand, Uriel. For around me flames the pentagram, and within me shines the six-rayed star." By using this rote, the mage will scare away most spirits, fearful for the powerful Archangels and the powerful mage. [ The Archangels will normally not appear in person, but will (if the mage is lucky) send subordinates to the mage. They will not manifest physically, but their presence is often felt. The subordinate angels will scare away lesser beings from the vicinity. After they are done, they will report back to their superiors what happened. It is very unwise to misuse this rote.]
Test the Traitor (Mind 3 Entropy 1, sometimes Time 2): This rote is used to test initiates of the Tradition to see if they are possible traitors. It is often used during the initiation ceremony just as the initiate is shocked or is busy concentrating on something else, since the psychological defenses will be weaker. The users (often several older Rosicrucians working together in secret) tries to find weak points in the devotion to the Rosicrucian ideals and possible treasonous thoughts. They watch the mind of the person with their showstones, comparing it to the purity of their seals. The mages also use Time if they can, to see if there is any chance the tested person will become susceptible to such ideas or have been subjected to them.
Sphere of Truth (Forces 3 Mind 2 Prime 2): This rote is used by the Rosicrucians at tribunals and trials to test if someone tells the truth or speaks with true conviction about something. The user of the rote draw a symbol above the Showstone using the seal, while chanting the twelve secret names of Truth. From inside the showstone a small sphere of vibrating, dancing light emerges. It can be handled, and while held in the palm it will change color, size and shape depending on the bearers state of mind and what he says. If he lies, the sphere will become darker, stained and begin to vibrate with a eerie sound. If the bearer tells the truth it will become brighter. If the bearer talks with true conviction and tells the truth it will jump up and down, glittering with intense colors depending on mood.
Oath (Mind 3/4 Correspondence 2 Prime 3 Matter 2/3): Another way of keeping their members loyal is the binding oaths
used by the Rosicrucians. When a initiate swears his Neophyte Oath, this rote is used in some lodges. It creates a link between the oath, the mage and a material object (sometimes a drop of the initiates blood, or his signature or a symbol fashioned during the ceremony). If the initiate ever breaks the oath, the link will shatter causing some kind of change in the material object (the blood will burn, the signature fade or the symbol shatter). By using more powerful mental magick, the link can remind the mage of his duty if he ever thinks something contrary to the oath. Some groups have developed a more fearsome version, which will attack the oathbreaker (often using Forces, Life or Spirit, depending on the casters).
Deep Programming (Mind 4 Prime 2, sometimes Spirit 2): The mage enters the mind of a person (often while the person is asleep or in trance) and reprograms it in secret. The most common use is to place suggestions or ideas into the subconscious, where they will trickle to the surface. Other possibilities are deep hypnotic suggestions giving the mage control over the actions or thoughts of the victim, mental blocks of certain memories, placing "trapdoors" which will give the mage a way around mental defenses or even the creation of full-fledged sub-personalities. The last use, often called Invocation of Thelemic Beings, is sometimes combined with Spirit too. Such sub-minds will be independent from the main mind, and may influence it, read its thoughs or do other things on a mental level, as programmed by the mage. This is a subtle way to sneak around enemy mental scanning.
RUNECASTERS By (
[email protected]) (11 Oct 93) Runecasters are the tribal shaman of the Norse tradition. They are warriors as well as seers, divining the futures of the people around them. In days of old, the Viking Lords would consult a Runecaster for word of the outcome of today's battle. Today, the Runecasters are a small tradition, waning in size from year to year. Many Runecasters, foreseeing the rise of the Techno- mancy, faded from the world before the Pogroms. Some threw themselves at the Technomancy in force--mad, berserker rage fuling their magickal fires. Of course, these Runecaster warriors inevitably died, but their true worth was shone (so the surviving Runecasters say) in the number of Technomancers they took with them into death. All members of the Runecasters must use graven runes as the focus for all magic. These runes can be inscribed on weapons, stones, or even paper (although this is uncommon). The rune can be inscribed before the spell is cast, although it still must be utilized in some way during the spell (throwing the stone, or swinging the weapon, etc.) These runes add +1 to the initiative difficulty if prepared, and +3 if being inscribed during the spell. Unlike Other Foci, Runecasters cannot ever "buy off" their runes with higher levels of Arete. They must always use them.
Philosophy: We are the warriors of Fenris. We see the coming end of things, and those of us that remain will fight to the last man. our sight we give to those who are worthy, so that by our knowledge, they may shape the future that we see.
Organization: With so few Runecasters left, those that remain are isolated and rare. Meetings: Non regular. Initiation: Individual Runecasters pick a promising apprentice, and trains him or her (Usually him) on their own. This is done increasing- ly rarely, since the Runecasters foresee the end of things and as such see the training of new Acolytes as a waste of precious time.
Chantry: None Acolytes: Scholars, soldiers. Sphere Foci: Runes--All Concepts: Berserker, Hermit, Norse historian, etc. Quote: "I see the great serpent devouring the world. I shall join with Fenris the Wolf, and together we shall devour the Serpent at Ragnarok. You continue to strive, but that is because you do not See. I See and i Understand."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: True warriors all, but still they do not see. Celestial Chorus: Seeking divinity is noble, but passive. Cult of Ecstasy: They waste their talents on petty wants. Dreamspeakers: They see the serpent, yet do not fight. Euthanatos: Gods choose when men reach Valhalla, not men Hollow Ones: These children only see Death. That is only the head of the serpent. but they could be useful in the end. Order of Hermes:If they would take their noses from their charts and tomes, they would see, and perhaps be able to be a greater asset to the Struggle. Sons of Ether: Were they not no ridiculous, they would be pawns of the Technocracy. Verbena: They understand the might of Yggsdrasil, the tree of life. But they do not see the Serpent coiled around it's trunk. Virtual Adepts: They are unwitting tools of the technomancers, fascinated by blinking lights.
RUNELORDS By Mark Kilfoil (
[email protected]) (13 March 1995)
Description The Runelords are masters of the word and the symbol, able to manipulate existence with a fine pen stroke or a string of syllables. They are also wise of the lore of many centuries, and seek to preserve it whereever it is found. This lore comes in multitudinous forms: everything from ancient runes found engraved in old temples to the poems of some of the most influential writers. Traditionally, these members keep copious notes, recording every dusty tome and pictogram with a steady hand, faithfully preserving the power locked within. A few of the modern members have begun to use computers and scanners for their notekeeping, although they have found that the power is somehow diminished when stored in such a form, and most members disdain any sort of artificial, non-living recording. They do, however, make use of Scribes. The Scribes are a race of beings from antiquity, curious beings of seemingly no substance, except when they choose. They hail from the spirit world, and agreed centuries ago to help these mages in return for full access to the information found. When a new member of the lords joins, she is invited to a special ceremony, during which a Scribe is linked with the prospect with a spiritual silver cord, much like the one which binds her soul to her body. Over the course of time, the Scribe and Runelord become a close pair of friends, even though they may appear to be carping curmudgeons. The Runelord may communicate with his Scribe without speaking, as the spiritual cord which connects them transfers basic thoughts between them easily. It is, however, a limited thought transfer, and images and words specifically are rarely transmitted; for this reason, many lords still speak with their Scribes, and show them things visually, but in a pinch or when out of vocal range, they will utter a silent "come here" message. A Scribe-spirit's appearance is a highly individual thing. The spirit can in fact take any shape at any time, but tends to keep one shape as a default, which it determines from the mage when the link is formed. Many scribes take the form of a small, gnomelike old man, with a kindly smile and knowing eyes. Some are pets, like a dog or cat or bird, and there is even a rumour of one that formed into a secretary! Basically, a scribe is the closest these mages come to a familiar. Most refer to the Scribe simply as "my scribe", although it is not uncommon for the Scribe to be given a name. Scribes have no sex, although a few have found it desirable to maintain one sex and set of sexual attitudes and have in fact fallen in love with their link. Imagine the awkwardness of a spirit without any sex suddenly taking on a gender, and discovering the attitudes anew! The bond between a lord and her Scribe transcends any contact the mage can have with this world, so at the very least an intimate friendship develops.
The Avatar The Scribe has a more direct link with a mage's Avatar than a mage himself in many cases, being able to connect on some spiritual level that a starting mage cannot obtain. Yet the mage gradually gets closer to this contact as they improve.
Nature of the Scribes [At this point, several options presented themselves to me, so I present to you these several options, to pick and choose or ignore as you feel is appropriate to your campaign.] The Scribe as the mage's Avatar. It would be very easy to see that the mage, during the special ceremony described above, is actually Awakened, and that the Scribe is in fact her Avatar. This would mean that the Scribe would from time to time drop hints about a situation, and that the scribe will always advise that the mage know the meaning behind the symbols, and not just the symbols themselves. This also fits the idea that a person's Avatar may have been a mage before, and that knowledge that this mage could gain would be useful not only for this mage but for the successive mages who hold this Avatar (thus the curious nature, and the pact to share all knowledge). Of course, this path would consitute the mage being in very close contact with his Avatar, an uncommon occurrence. The Scribe as a lesser, "partner" Avatar. This thought comes from the 7pt merit "Avatar Companion" (Book of Shadows, p37). This idea is interesting, and doesn't require any modification of the presentation of the ideas. However, I would stress that this should not be revealed immediately to the mage, and in fact might never be realized by most Runelords, and should always come as a shock to the character (and probably the player too). I would give the character this merit "silently", and not make him pay for it, but balance it by making the Avatar want certain knowledge and be willing to coerce the mage into getting it. The Scribe as strictly a spirit. This is how I started out thinking about Scribes, although the idea has gone beyond that now. In Garou terms, the spirit would be a jaggling or gaffling (or on the rare occasions, an incarna) which is somehow bound to the mage, as if it were a fetish. It would have the charm Materialize, perhaps Reform and Airt Sense, and perhaps another. A guide
to how much Power the spirit has would be the characters combined Destiny and Avatar, multipled by a suitable number. The Scribe as Wraith. Perhaps a wraith scholar has a mage as one of her fetters, with the Passion "must learn everything she can". This idea would make the Runelords extremely rare, but might introduce other elements of Wraith if desired.
The Tremere Runelords are masters of lore, even among others of the Order. It comes as no surprise then that they are aware of Tremere's deed and his offspring. However, instead of being angry at their cousins they indeed feel immense pity, because their magick is only a shadow of what it once was. Nonetheless, the Tremere collect massive amounts of magickal knowledge, and the Runelords have been known to do dealings with the Tremere from time to time, exchanging information, and even forming friendships with some of them. Also, there are some Tremere who were Runelords before their transformation, and still study the art in an attempt to hold on to their past. These are the most difficult of the Tremere for a Runelord to deal with, however, as these former Runelords often feel contempt for those who have the power they lost.
Sigils, wards and tattoos The most powerful tools that the Runelords use are the symbols that they find. In them, they see immense powers captured in flowing lines, accurate curves, and beautiful symmetries. A diagram is just lines without meaning. The meaning comes from the interpretation of the diagram. The interpretation of the diagram causes magick, so the Runelords believe. But simply knowing what something means isn't quite enough, however. You also must believe in the symbol, and put your will behind it. This is what separates the Runelords from your average person reading the symbol: a person may understand the symbol, but not have enough force of will (Arete) to force it to be. "It is not so much that you must believe the symbol," remarked one Runelord, "but that you must make the world believe it, if only for an instant." Often, Runelords carry a selection of their runes with them, in the forms of sigils, wards and tattoos. Sigils are simply symbols the mage has learned, wards are physical objects which contain a symbol (such as charm) and tattoos are a form of personal magick/protection which the user simply has to trace and force their will, or even activate each day.
Runelords and the Traditions If you are indeed using Mage and the Traditions, the Runelords have a very unique position: they are an intellectual unit, formed of members from each Tradition, not to mention Sleepers, and are therefore not bound to the idealogies of any of these groups as a whole. That is to say: the interest these mages has transcends the Tradition they may have started in, and exists alongside the beliefs of others. For this reason, many of those who are prominent in the Lords are branded as Heretics, except for those who came from the Order of Hermes and the Virtual Adepts, whose respect for symbols and information, respectively, brings the Runelords closer to their own frame of mind. For particular (stereotypical) bends on Runelords, consider the following list:
Ahl-i-Batin: The finely crafted curve, the sharply straight line, these things hold a power that most only marvel at, and we seek to master.
Akashic Brotherhood: The ancient scrolls of the Masters say many things of wisdom. That wisdom should be preserved and taught, and word-smiths (Lords) occupy a special place in the Way.
Celestial Chorus: Of course the hymns of The One must be kept, and knowledge of infernal symbols gives us mastery over them, and we will then know how to remove these terrible influences from the world.
Cult of Ecstasy: Music, man, has been around for ages. Tellin' stories, the power of a good poem.... To not recognize and harness that power for the better good, man, what a waste that would be.
Dreamspeakers: Gaia sings to us in our Dream; we do our best to record the music with our scratchings and marks, as we also try to keep the memory of our accomplishments alive with our symbols.
Euthanatos: [I really couldn't think of a good, stereotypical view that a Runelord Euthanatos would have. Sorry.] Hollow Ones: [Ditto for a Hollow One.] Order of Hermes: We have always professed that there is power to the word and symbol. The Runelords are a fine group, spreading this knowledge and accumulating it, making it complete.
Sons of Ether: Formulas!! Formulas!! Everything is a formula; learning that formula is of utmost importance! We must learn how
to decipher our own words, to learn what drives them, and then I can complete my masterpiece! It's the only thing I need! I have the monkey brains, the gyrosomatic syllabic prestidigitator, and the polymolecular tera-Nain generator, and all I need is a few of these formulas... hey! Where are you going!?
Verbena: Nature has a way of showing itself to us through symbols. Through an examination of those symbols, we hope to see the nature around us better.
Virtual Adepts: Information, it's an info-nation! Words are what the world go round, and everyone knows the power of an icon! However, the most important thing I can stress about the Runelords is their capacity to cut accross the Traditions, and stand, in a way, as a separate Tradition. In this way, then, they could be defined as having words and symbols, in some form, be their foci for everything. I would also suggest that, like Technomancers, they get a bit too carried away into their paradigm, and have a hard time seeing that the emanations of power are internal, and the words and symbols were merely keys to unlock your mind to its potential. Therefore, they should not "lose" foci in the same way as others, but, starting at Arete 5 or so, they have some of their magickal effects require no foci. In other words, the mage gets use to something, is in a hurry, wants to do it and does -much to her bewilderment. However, it does not happen easily, and they may find that using the foci is too much of a draw because it's easier. This is the time when they need a guiding voice the most, whether from their Avatar, the Scribe, or a more advanced Lord. [Sorry about no concrete system for this, as of yet. I may devise some guidelines, but I dislike the strict calcifying of rules in this case. There should be no "magic formula" for this enlightenment, only situations highly tailored to the specific individual involved.] Also, Runelords tend to have an interest in all forms of symbols or words, but some will actively ignore certain parts. For example, Lord who was formerly a linguist might take more interest in specific words and word origins, but pass over the symbols as "inconsequential"; by the same token, a Lord who is heavily into symbols might dismiss words as "sanitized". Usually, however, Runelords speak, read, and write in a number of languages, have studied history, linguistics, literature, symbology, etc. and have a good artistic ability. Of course, they only have a bit of this when they start, coupled with a keen curiosity in these matters. Runelords, Lords, loremasters, scroll-keepers, masters of the past, cultural socialogists, filters, literary scholars, arcanists... there are many different names by which they might be known, although Runelords is the one I designate as the most common. It may not be "Politically Correct", but it feels right for a loose organization that has existed for as long as people puzzled over the power of the word, it signifies a kind of dignity (Lords) and also shows its age (the masculine Lords being used). An alternative might also be Runemistress or runelady, but it doesn't have the same hard syllables (and holds a different power...). I look to Doctor Who (a long-running British sf show): they were Time Lords, regardless of sex.
RUNESEERS By
[email protected]
Description There are few Changelings as enigmatic as the Runeseers. They are what most people would call faerie mages. To faeries, they are vile betrayers who have turned their back on the Dreaming. To mages they are alien abominations who can't be trusted. In truth they are the result of a sidhe born on this side of the Mists in the body of an awakened mage. There are rumors of similar instances concerning sidhe in a variety of were-bodies; though none of these have been confirmed. These faerie mages seem to not only be vulnerable to banality like their sidhe brethren but are also doubly affcted by paradox. They are generally reviled by all houses except Eiluned which seeks them out for their power and wisdom. This kith seems to have sprung up with the Resurgence so there are few if any Grumps. They are potent mages as well as faerie sorcerers. They are few in number but with the recent increase in the new sidhe and the number of tradition-less mages, they are growing more and more accepted by each group.
Seemings Childlings: Childlings are your typical spoiled sidhe except they are generally given what they want not because they yell and scream, but because they throw lightening bolts. Childlings get six dots for magick spheres and have a beginning Arete of three.
Wilders: Wilders are sombre and quiet individuals who radiate an aura of power and wisdom. Wilders get eight dots for magick spheres (none higher than three) and have a beginning Arete of four.
Grumps: Grumps don't exist for the simple fact that if banality doesn't getcha then then paradox will.
Lifestyles Runeseers prefer either outlandishly gawdy mansions or quietly obscure "haunted houses." They tend to be well off financially and have jobs at banks or other places of power.
Appearance Like their sidhe brethren, they are unearthly beautiful.
Affinities Since they are half sidhe they have yet to develop an affinty.
Birthrights Awe and Beauty: (see Changeling: The Dreaming p.149) Magick: Runeseers have a limited capacity to use true magick and may achieve up to the rank of Master in up to two spheres and Adept in the other seven. Note: All Runeseers should begin the game with an Avatar background of at least two. Arete and Magick can't be raised with freebie points.
Noble Bearing: (see Changeling: The Dreaming p.149)
Frailties Banality's Curse/Curse of Paradox: (see Changeling: The Dreaming p.149) the same rules apply for paradox as banality. Power Corrupts: As the Runeseer learns more spheres of magic his changeling self loses the ability to use Arts. So for every sphere after the first the Runeseer loses the ability to use one Art. Unwanted-Runeseers are unwanted by either mages or faeries except those of House Eiluned. To show this, Runeseers cannot have a title in any house but Eiluned and recieve +1
difficulty to all Social rolls when dealing with mages or changelings other than members of House Eiluned.
Outlook Boggans: Who let the Hobbits in? Eshu: Good storytellers, but bad guides. Nockers: These guys should hook up with the Etherboys. Pooka: I smell a rat and there he is. Redcaps: Great bodygaurds until they eat your books. Satyrs: Why ask why? Sidhe: They envy us as much as we hate them. Sluagh: They're our unwitting allies in the war against the Sidhe. Trolls: With their help the Sidhe will fall.
Quote "Look into my eyes for I can show you the truth."
Foci Runestones: Time/Correspondence/Matter Staff: Forces/Prime/Life Helm/Crown - Entropy/Mind/Spirit
Backgrounds The Runeseer make take the following backgrounds as well as any in the Changeling book: Avatar (should have at least two dots), Library, Sanctum and Arcane (Node is the same thing as Holdings).
Experience Table Arts current x 3 Spheres current x 8 Arete current x8
SATURDAY'S CHILDREN By Jason Schneiderman (
[email protected]) (28 March 1995) A Sub-Tradition of the Hollow Ones "Rain. Why did it have to rain tonight?" Ashe leaned against the plate glass window of Polly Ester's, trying to keep his eyeliner-of-Horus from running down his powdered cheek. His leathers were soaked, his boots were muddied, his hair sagging under the water's weight. And it was a Thursday, for God's sake! He should have been resting up for the weekend's club crawl; instead, he was stuck loitering outside this bar - a mundane bar, no less - attracting stares not even his arcane nature could suppress. Still, he'd never be able to show his face back at the chantry if he didn't manage to touch base with the Adept. There weren't many Hollow Ones in this city to begin with - this was a Cultist town; happiness was mandatory - and he'd never live down letting an elder slip through his fingers without at least getting a proper introduction. And he knew that the one who called herself Brandy frequented this club often - although he couldn't see why. The music seemed annoyingly... upbeat. Bouncy, even. There must be a secret alcove in the basement. Yes, that was it. A secret basement alcove with soothing blacklights and bass that would echo in his belly and make him want to move. He closed his eyes and began to sway to the music in his head - the sphere of Mind made each nuance clear. It was Joy Division. "Love, love will tear us apart again. Love, love will....keep us together." Keep us together? "....I will! I will! I will!" Ashe opened his eyes with a gasp, to meet those of a woman in her late twenties. Eyes covered in blue eyeshadow and golden glitter. "W-what?" "The Captain and Tenille. Cool, huh?" Ashe peered at her through lowered eyelids. "Yeah, well, turn it down, will you? I'm waiting for someone, and I want -" " - to hear them coming. Did a lousy job of it, too. Is the rest of your chantry as uptight as you are?" "You're Brandy?" She nodded, shaking a few loose spangles from her hair onto the sidewalk, next to her six-inch platform heels. Her candy-apple-red flared jeans shimmered under the streetlamp, which began to flicker like a strobe. She tossed her hair back and smiled. "And ain't I a fine girl?" Ashe snorted. "I was expecting...expecting...." "Someone more like you? As if we all had to take the same path - Christ, we may as well be Hermaphrodites if regularity's what you crave." Brandy looked him over - dejected, confused, sopping wet. "Okay. So maybe I'm not what you counted on. But we both know you haven't anything else to do tonight. So you may as well come on in - besides, when was the last time you had a chance to boogie?" "Boogie?" Ashe's attempts at a protest were drowned out by the sound of the music escaping the bar. Brandy grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him through the opening doors, slipping him through the mass of people dancing and singing and movin' to the groovin'. From the street, though, all was silent except for one phrase that managed to slip through to the outside... "...and play that funky music till you die." The roots of the Hollow Ones date back to the 1970's, when the Great Rock and Roll Swindle was pulled off and the position of power attained by the Cult of Ecstasy in the 1960's was brought down by the internal sabotage of a group now called the Cult of Apathy, who gave up their Tradition status in an attempt to liberate themselves from the Cultist "Hippie paradigm". (The GRnRS will be detailed more fully in another post.) After the Swindle, the group divided itself into two factions. The first latched on to the violent, destructive energy of the punk rock movement, and began to recruit among the youths that would, with time, lay the foundations for what we call the Hollow One movement. The other, however, chose its influence in a different movement - one no less radical, but in a completely different direction. Disco. Saturday's Children - named for the 1976 movie, "Saturday Night Fever" - are those who were awakened under the light of a mirror ball rather than blacklight. Rather than embracing the darker aspects of the gothic-punk world, the Children search for a lost glamour, a shimmering polish to a decaying paradigm. Like the Hollow Ones, they turn a blind eye to Ascension, prefering to fiddle while Rome burns...and, oh, what wonderful light it gives.
Concepts: Unlike the Hollow Ones, who seem to be predominantly Caucasian, Saturday's Children come from a wide range of racial
and sexual backgrounds. Although the movement has its roots in classic 70s disco, the recent resurgence of nostalgia among ravers and clubgoers has caused more and more of the Saturday's Children to awaken. Bon Vivant is the most common nature, with a Deviant demeanor, with Child and Caregiver following.
Acolytes: Clubgoers, critics, club owners, memorabilia store management Chantries: Often found in antique clothing stores and closed-down discotheques. Studio 54 in New York used to house one of the better known chantries - now, they tend to spring up in the less prominent parts of town.
Foci: Like all orphan groups, A Saturday's Child may choose her own foci. Many choose things appropriate to their lifestyle: dancing, music, drugs, etc.
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: "Everybody was kung-fu fighting...ha!" Pretty funky to watch, but they have this high horse that they just won't come down from.
Celestial Chorus: They're still pissed about the Limelight - hey, it was a deconsecrated church, right? how were we supposed to know the node was still active? - and they just can't groove.
Cultists Of Ecstasy: Disco is dead, huh? Right. Dreamspeakers: They've got the right idea - you can't find your center without keeping the beat. Of course, they can't get to 120 bpm like we can.
Euthanatos: Ew. Hollow Ones: Headed in the complete opposite direction from us... but we'll eventually meet again on the other side, if you know what I mean.
Order of Hermes: "Like, what's your sign?" Is this magic or a model airplane? Throw away the instruction booklet, already. Sons of Ether: "He blinded me....with SCIENCE!" Whacked out to the max, but know how to groove. Hey, wasn't George Clinton one of these guys?
Verbena: We saw these guys back when they were saving the whales and eating granola. They're not so cool. Virtual Adepts: Used to think they were nerds, but after seeing what one of them did to my mixing board, they're okay in my book. Iteration X: Scary. But without their help, I guess we wouldn't be here. New World Order: "The politicians....are now deejays." The politics of dancing, indeed. When these guys get involved, liquour licenses fall through and clubs close. Give 'em a wide berth.
Progenitors: They invented E and Special K. What else do you need to know? Syndicate: Fickle: seemed behind us at the beginning, then turned on us. Now they're pushing us again. who knows? Void Engineers: Who?
Secret Sects of the Akashic Brotherhood By Emrey Barnes
Author's Notes The Akashic Brotherhood Tradition book for Mage: The Ascension is now available. A lot has gone into the book, but we couldn't fit everything. Here's some supplementary material on our martial mage friends. It comes from the author of the supplement and has the Mage line developer's stamp of approval.
Description Each man belongs to a style which claims to possess truth to the exclusion of all other styles. These styles become institutes with their explanations of the "Way," dissecting and isolating the harmony of firmness and gentleness, establishing rhythmic forms as the particular state of their techniques. -- Bruce Lee, "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" The teachings of the Akashic Brotherhood are broken into four distinct Sects that each focus on the strengths of an individual's Avatar. Learning the basics of an individual Style of Do takes two to five years; initiates must complete this phase of training before being released from their mentors' direct control. Throughout history, the Orange Robes have been seekers of peace and knowledge and form the largest contingent of the Brotherhood. This Sect tends to reside within the walls of the various Xiudaoyuan (Chantries). Members of the Scales of the Dragon Sect, the Brotherhood's foot soldiers in the Ascension War, make up the second largest contingent. Members of the Yogi Sect manipulate their bodies and the spirit world by exercising intense rituals of self-denial. Through this they learn oneness with their innerselves. Members of the Blue Skin Sect are the rarest and most protected of the Akashic ranks; the Brotherhood considers those following this path of Do to be the most likely to achieve Ascension. Each Sect has its own specialty maneuvers and rotes that are taught only to Doists of that Style. Each specializes in refining certain Abilities and Attributes as well. Each Sect has secret hand signs in addition to those used by the Brotherhood as a whole, and the Sects often withhold knowledge of their mystick teachings from each other.
Similarities between Orange Robes and the Scales of the Dragon Both the Orange Robes and the Scales of the Dragon depend on the existence of the material realm. Initiates of both groups learn awareness of the physical world [Alertness] and their physical bodies [Medicine]. Orange Robes produce results by internal use of Chi, while the Scales of the Dragon instill their influence through physical, external efforts backed by Ki. During the ongoing process of bodily purification, the initiate learns that everything around her has hidden weaknesses [Sphere of Entropy] that can lead to that Pattern's unraveling.
The Practices of Orange Robes Seek to stabilize and harmonize the world, for it is what makes us. If we wish to be at peace, so should be the world. If we wish to be free, we must free the world of constraining preconceived perceptions. -- Vibansumitra The Orange Robes work to increase an individual's cognitive abilities [Mental Attributes, especially Intelligence] through reading philosophies and sutras and meditating upon the thought patterns that direct the actions of others [Manipulation]. They seek the answer to the ultimate question of the Cosmic All: "Why?" Orange Robes explore the world by defining circumstances and their effects. These students understand the necessity of social interaction and how it can lead to conclusions [Investigation] and control [Expression, Etiquette] of nearly anything in the physical realm. By understanding how a series of events causes individuals to react, the Orange Robes learn how to become one with their environment and thus blend into their surroundings [Stealth, Arcane]. Hand positioning and meditative stances (sitting, standing and walking) [Meditation] augment the Orange Robes' ability to unleash the powers of the Mind Sphere. Thus, the initiate learns to mold the minds of others. As it is necessary to defend the Xiudaoyuan and Sleepers, Orange Robes learn how to bend hatred and evil back into the mind that projects them. Doing so, however, is greatly discouraged. Weapons, techniques and training help the mind find peace within itself and allow the Doist to release energies through Patterns other than her own. They also come in handy when less enlightened visitors come calling. This Style of Do enables the Doist to redirect the force of her enemies [Spheres of Force and Entropy]. Orange Robe sensei merely allow their enemies to defeat
themselves.
Teachings of the Scales of the Dragon The Scales of the Dragon study body-hardening rites, known as "katas," to increase their physical strength [increasing initiates' Physical Attributes and combat Abilities]. Students are taught that the human musculature can achieve maximum potential through exacting postures. Motions of the arms and legs added to torsional momentum can also focus powerful strength into action [Willpower], and the yielding nature of the physical form can be accessed to absorb a tremendous impact [Dodge]. Awareness of the body [Medicine, Athletics] leads to the Doist's ability to inflict damage by applying force [Brawl, Do, Strength] to an opponent's body in an efficient manner. This impact can be used to disarm, paralyze or kill. Martial training continues into weapon forms [Melee]. Do of the Scales allows the initiate to gain a sense of distance between herself and her opponent and teaches that distance is, in actuality, no distance. This [Correspondence Magick] is the primary field of the Scales' mystick study, though many choose to ignore it for the more formidable branches of destruction [Spheres of Entropy and Force]. Dragon Scale sensei realize that the best way to defeat an opponent is to avoid him altogether; when one must battle evil, however, one must do so without constraint and to the death.
Similarities of Yogi and Blue Skins Obstacles can be overcome; sometimes they take a blind leap of faith. -- Cheng Sa, "The Avenging Woodcutter" Yogis and Blue Skin Do Styles directly link the initiate to fields of study left hidden to most of humanity. Training of the mind [Sphere of Mind] and purification of the body [often through Meditation] are essential, as the initiate can easily be driven insane by the reality-manipulating powers of magick. Both Styles of Do teach the initiate to delve into the higher forms of spirituality and knowledge of the other worlds [Spirit Sphere]. The Doist must be pure; spirits are easily offended by physical beings. One must remain calm and polite when dealing with beings from the Celestial Realms. Initiates study many sutras in order to learn the secrets of the unseen [Enigmas, Cosmology, Occult]. Through training, the Doist gains insight [Awareness] into the primal nature of the Cosmic All. Yogi and Blue Skins tend to dedicate staves, pipes, fans, fly-whisks and other seemingly nonoffensive items as their (unique) weapon foci. To them, the "weapon" effects the flow of the Cosmic All through living beings [Sphere of Life], instead of manipulating the physical world as do Scales of the Dragon and Orange Robes.
Yogi Teachings All things ride upon an underlying current. Nothing is fixed. All things ride upon the tide. It happens. Fight it not. Knowledges specifically designed around the spirit world are known as Yogic studies. Interaction with other people [Social Attributes] is very important; many Do maneuvers taught to Yogi involve highly unorthodox and alarming activities. Sharpening the mind [Mental Attributes] also becomes essential; the Doist must learn to come to grips with an entirely nonhuman method of dealing with existence. Yogi learn how plants harness spiritual energies that can be useful to humanity [Herbology, Medicine]. They study the sutras [Cosmology, Enigmas, Occult] to learn how manipulation of the environment occurs outside of the boundaries of the physical realm. Studies of supernatural life-forms [various Lores] that find their way into the Akashic Record are often written by Yogi. Akashic Yogi comprehend reality in a cyclic fashion [Sphere of Time] rather than in a linear one. Do maneuvers used to link the Stylist into the currents of time tie into the other walking meditations. The Stylist learns to "grip frames of reference" and manipulate them. This also helps the Doist to understand his own Drahma and that of others. The true master of the Yogi knows that all conflicts arise from the battling of supernatural and divine forces on a higher plane of existence. The Yogi knows that in order to beat an opponent, he must align himself with the entity in that other existence that is capable of defeating the opposing supernatural force.
Blue Skin Teachings Those who link into the intrinsic internal energies of the body and the Cosmic All, sometimes called Ki or Chi [Quintessence], are known as Blue Skins. The very nature of the Blue Skins is to become the archetype. This requires the Doist to perfect her being [All Attributes] to achieve a supernal state and to directly link into her inner self [Avatar]. By being strong in body, mind and social interaction, the Blue Skin learns to understand and manipulate the Realm and her own Drahma.
The Doist must be alert [Alertness] and contemplative [Meditation] and must understand the limits of the human body [Medicine]. She must understand the limits of her self and her environment before attempting to use magick; the power of the Cosmic All can tear the human form [Pattern] to ribbons if the All is accessed improperly. Blue Skins learn to manipulate the intrinsic internal natures of Matter and Life. Only the Oracles are said to be able to perceive Patterns, but the Blue Skin initiate's mind gains perception of them. Because Blue Skins strive to achieve a direct link to the Pure Ones [Ascension] and their inner selves [Avatar, Arete], their Style is the most elusive of Do techniques to master. Many Blue Skins become disillusioned and disgusted when they learn that their Drahma tends to deteriorate the physical realm. Their connection to physical existence, into which they put so much effort, therefore decays. A true Blue Skin sensei knows that all conflicts are different aspects of the Pure Ones exerting themselves against each other.
Rotes Inherited from the Sects The following are rotes that have been passed down or have migrated from the four Sects discussed here. These rotes are available to any Akashic brother, but a teacher privy to such learnings may have to be sought to understand them.
Bronze Body (*** Life, * Mind, ** Prime) The Dragon Scale Master Li T'eih practiced many forms of body strengthening and weapon deflection. Early in his Awakened state, Li learned how to avoid damage from attacks by angling his body and tensing certain muscles. Li trained for years before the ultimate state of this form was achieved. [The Doist increases the density of her skin while concentrating on and reacting to the actions of her attackers. Specify the number of successes for duration of Bronze Body before rolling for the magick Effect itself. Remember that such improvement (i.e., the duration of the Effect) is only temporary. Bronze Body increases the difficulty of a single opponent's attack rolls by one per success. The Doist can apply this effect against multiple targets by dividing the successes between each attacker (two against the first and one against the second, for example).]
Four-headed Defender (*** Life, ** Prime, * Mind, * Correspondence) Ancient writings in the Akashic Record tell of a horde of Nephandi that threatened to fight its way through the Gauntlet to destroy the Temple of Inner Truth. Rivhaya, a Dragon Scale, set himself in the center of the Xiudaoyuan's Node and initiated this rote. Rivhaya sprouted three additional heads, two extra arms and two additional legs. Each head looked toward a cardinal point of the compass. The four hands took turns passing Rivhaya's weapon back and forth about his body. Rivhaya's face also contorted to give the Nephandi a false sense of security. Large fangs sprouted from his mouths, from both upper and lower jaws. His skin turned a bright red and his tongues a brilliant blue. Smoke rolled from his eight nostrils in thunderous clouds. In battle, Rivhaya scuttled about in a whirling manner, his four weapons attacking his most deadly opponents. His four heads kept him constantly alert so that no one was ever able to approach him unawares. [Prime and Life modify the mage's body, fueling the larger Pattern with Quintessence. Mind and Correspondence allow all heads to coordinate the body's actions. Four successes enable the Stylist to concentrate on information gained through four sets of eyes.]
Summoning Walk of the Enlightenment (***** Prime) While crossing the forested mountains of Tibet for days without food or water, Blue Skin Brother Chang Ming came upon an Oracle performing a walking meditation. Silently, Ming stepped behind the Oracle and traced his footsteps; Chang Ming's mind was quick enough to make a mental map of the path for future record. The resulting Tome and those copied from it teach the way of the Summoning Walk of Enlightenment. By studying the record, the Doist learns to link his Avatar to the fast-sweeping currents of the Prime. However, Chang Ming was not ready for the depth of power that his newfound Style brought him. Ho Chow Fan, a Euthanatos mage, crumpled him to a mass of quivering flesh with the Bone Twisting Palm. Fortunately, with Chang Ming's last act of magick, he destroyed his copy of the Tome and kept it from falling into the hands of the Euthanatos. [The Doist's Avatar fills with Quintessence, recharging his supply. The mage gains Quintessence at a rate of one per success.]
Walk through Walls (*** Matter, *** Life, * Mind) Oracles of the Blue Skins have long held meetings in secret chambers and have used this rote to enter those sacred and holy shrines. Legend has it that the greatest and most powerful Node points accessed by the Brotherhood Xiudaoyuan (Chantries) are also hidden. Many of these sites are long lost, given the Brotherhood's wish to keep them secret but to a chosen few. This rote is rarely taught and only to the most trusted of students. [This rote allows the Stylist to walk through walls by disassociating her body from the physical relation of a wall or other solid
object. When this process is complete, the Doist can walk through walls without leaving a trace. The Doist calls upon the amazing concentration of the mind to keep her alert to situations that are just beyond barriers passed through.]
Weightless Walk (* Mind, * Correspondence, * Matter) Chu Kwei, an Orange Robe, developed a Light Body technique to walk over surfaces with concealed weak points. Kwei was unable to make himself weightless, but could locate areas with good traction that would support his weight. [Divide the number of successes achieved between multitasking and range of perception. Correspondence and Matter perception detect and determine the structural integrity and traction of surfaces. The mage memorizes the locations of "safe spots" within the range of his senses.]
SEEKERS OF THE MIRROR'S SHARDS By Corwyn Alambar (
[email protected]) (10 Nov 94) Given Proposition 187 in California, and the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment throughout the country, there is bound to be a backlash, particularly in the area of the native/Hispanic populations of the southwestern United States. By taking the fear and hatred and turning it back against its creators, using the victims becomes an easy task. So watch carefully, for the night will never be the same, once you discover the truth behind the Seekers of the Mirror's Shards. The Seekers are a very strange group of mystics, based loosely on the Amerind traditions of the desert Southwest and the ToltoOlmec/Aztec peoples of the central Mexican highlands. Preying upon the insecurities of Native American youths (and anyone who can trace their ancestry back to natives of the region) and the recent waves of anti-immigrant and anti-Native feeling, this group has swelled its ranks a hundred-fold in the last five years. The seekers work by finding troubled youths, and offering them something of their heritage, a way to find their roots, to find meaning in an incresingly hostile world. They begin by introducing them to the mystical heritage of their peoples, including old Shamanic techniques, especially those involving peyote, mescaline, and other hallucinogenic/mind-altering drugs. During their teaching in the spiritual ways of their ancestors (supposedly; this is only a fabrication made from pop-history and NewAge reference materials, and very little true history), they are also taught to be embittered about the way their people and especially their ancestors have been treated. Their hatred is stoked, but kept at a controlled level for the time being. Meanwhile, the group, through its "front" organizations, seems to be a charitable organization keeping kids off the street and giving them a reason to strive. Younger members of this cult often have a dramatic and marked increase in school and work performance, as well as becomming easier to deal with in family situations. But then comes the time of their First Journey, a "voyage of exploration" into the spirit world. In fact, the new initiate is taken on a voyage into the Umbra, to a small jungle realm where there lives this large black jaguar that has named itself Tezcatlipoca, or Smoking Mirror. He sits upon a throne of human skulls, and sits the initiate down, explaining to him what his heritage is, and the true history of the New World. He tells of Quetzalcoatl, the serpent god, who left his people, and voyaged to the Old World, to find converts there to his own power. Meanwhile, the people he left behind grew in power, and flourished into one of the most wonderful civilizations in the world, under Tezcatlipoca's guidance. Quetzalcoatl became jealous of the success of Tezcatlipoca's power and success, and eventually he struck out with an army to take back the land. And during one of the major assaults, Tezzcatlipoca's Mirror, the seat of the power and prosperity of his people, was shattered. Quetzalcoatl's minions stole the pieces, which were then changed in form to become smaller artifacts that were then spread amongst the New World. Tezcatlipoca then scars the initiate, and gives him a vision of one of the smaller shards, which is in fact a talisman or fetish of some power, but not extreme. The initiate is to capture this item, no matter what the cost. It is held by the invaders, and their lives are of no matter. The initiate has several months to locate the 'shard', which is in fact merely another fetish or talisman, sometimes held by a knowledgeable mage or leech. Using the magickal talents he (or she) has been taught, eventually the focus is captured. Failure to capture the 'shard' within one year results in punishment, going to see Tezcatlipoca again, who then punishes the initiate for his failure. A second failure means the initiate doesn't come back. Success brings another round of training, and another mission from Tezcatlipoca, his one a little more dangerous. Also, at this level the initiate becomes one of the lower-ranking priests, and is required to perform certain sacrifices to Tezcatlipoca, beginning with simple things, such as sacrificing an item of gold on an altar, and capturing some blood from someone and sacrificing it as well. After some more successes, the initiate rises through the priesthood, choosing one of three paths: The Path of te Mystic, the Hunter, or the Warrior. The Mystic perfects the religious observances, often gaining several levels in Prime, Life, and at lower priority Forces, Entropy and Spirit.. The sacrifices become more and more bizarre and sadistic, eventually rising to the level of dismemberment and mass-murder, though by this point the priest has become very disconnected from humanity. The Hunters are still searching for more and larger pieces of the Mirror. Their targets include larger Chantries, museums, and certain Kindred and Garou hoards. They begin to employ commando-raid style tactics, and often will inflict heavy casualties in capturing what it is that they seek. The Warriors are the most frightening of the three paths, in that they become cold-blooded killers. Their status within the cult is obtained and held by the number of hearts they bring in in a moon-cycle. The more powerful the owner of the heart was, the more status and standing the warrior gains. At very high levels, they are taught to become masters of the Spirit sphere, and by using the rote 'Mirror's Touch of Glory' (see later) they can actually capture souls to bring them to the temple for sacrifice to Tezcatlipoca. How can such an obviously bloody cult slip through the attention of the various supernatural forces of the WoD? Because a lot of the Tradition mages and Garou believe that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' The Seekers are active in raids on Technocratic institutions, Pentex outlets, and Kindred, making them automatic 'allies' of sorts with the traditions and the Garou. They are careful to cultivate this image, because it makes them better able to capture and subvert their enemies. Only Native American Dreamspeakers, Wendigo, Red Talons and Uktena are spared, however, with all the others looked down upon with sheer contempt and loathing, tools to be used then discarded.
THe greatest secret is what lies at the heart of this cult. The original Tezcatlipoca has nothing to do with this cult, and the false god is careful to assure that the great spirit Tezcatlipoca does not become involved. At the very heart of the cult is a Dreamspeaker barabbi who is the high priest of the cult, and a Balam [Nahual?] with many spirit fetishes that is the creature masquerading as Tezcatlipoca himself. Together they have masterminded this cult that seeks to drive all the invaders frm their homeland, and establish themselves as the gods of the new order. Their covert war is going astonishingly well, and they have succeeded in using the power from the stolen fetishes and talismans (and a few sacrificed spirits) to reopen several small power-spots in Central America and Mexico, giving them good bases to work from. And what exactly is the Mirror they are trying to reconstruct? It is a total fabrication by the central priesthood to gather together a number of powerful fetishes and talismans, drain them of their energy, and use it to reopen the power spots they control, slowly spreading their influence over the land and taking it back, inch by inch, from the Westerners.
Rote Mirror's Touch of Glory (Prime 4, Spirit 5): This is one of the most dangerous rotes known to the Seekers. With its power, they are able to snatch the very souls of their victims, leaving nothing but a slight pile of ash where the victim once stood. To use the rote, the Seeker must take a broken shard of a mirror, with a very sharp edge, and hit the opponent to draw blood. (Diff. to hit is +1 given the awkwardness of the weapon, a botch means the wielder takes damage himself. Double botch means the mirror is dropped and shatters) Once this is done, the Seeker need only catch the gaze of the victim in the mirror, and then call upon the power of Tezcatlipoca to take the soul as a sacrifice. At that moment, the victim's Quintessence is drawn into the mirror, as is their soul, and the body crumbles to dust (as per the 'Purifying Flame' rote of the Celestial Chorus). The mirror now is a talisman/fetish, with the victim's soul contained within. This can then be sacrificed for the contained power and energy as any other fetish or talisman (see above).
SEEKERS OF THE VOID By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected]) (25 Oct 94) The Seekers of the Void are one of the most insidious and subtle groups of Nephandi undermining reality. Their goal is simply to end all of existence, to annihilate everything that exists and have ever existed. Existence is pain. The Seekers seek to end all pain and suffering by achieving union with the eternal Void, the state of perfect nothingness where nothing exists or changes. All living beings suffer, but most hide it under a veneer of transient pleasures and even think themselves happy. Death offers no relief, since everything is reincarnated and forced to suffer again. There is no simple way to escape from existence. Since its a closed system, entropy is slowly overtaking everything, moving it towards a state of eternal stasis where nothing will ever change and nothing will be able to escape. The other mages seek to bring about their visions of perfection, essentially locking reality into a pattern they like for eternity, also denying everyone release from suffering. To extinguish something completely, it's not enough to destroy it, since it will be reincarnated into something else and continue to suffer, and its Quintessence will spread to form new patterns of pain. At most destruction can save someone from a particularly painful existence. To destroy something truly, its necessary to actually remove its Quintessence from reality altogether. According to most mages, this is completely impossible. The Seekers believe that it is possible, and have the methods to achieve it. They do this by channelling Quintessence into the Void, letting its total nothingness extinguish the faint sparks of existence. Other mages claim they just spread out the Quintessence into the farthest reaches of the Deep Umbra, not actually destroying it. The Seekers are very discreet mages, doing their best to be left alone to their mission. They don't worship the Void, since it cares nothing about sacrifices or prayers. Instead they try to get as close they can to It while living, and to dissolve in it when they die. They have developed a form of the Good Death which hopefully will send the soul of the victim into the Void or at least as close as possible. They usually administer this to their own, but also tries to help others if they can. However, this is of subordinate importance to their great work and often draws unwanted attention to their activities. Their Great Work consists of undermining reality as much as possible, to let its existence slowly leak down into the Void. This is a very hard project, but the Seekers are dedicated and extremely patient. Their main method is to gather information and plan for a long time, and then suddenly make a surgical strike at weak points in reality. They dislike unnecessary fuss and often do their best to avoid hurting people. As targets they usually seek out nodes and other significant places. They try to open wells down into the Void, to make the Quintessence leak out. Other targets are more subtle, like certain places and times which seems to have importance to the Seekers but appear completely random to everyone else. In the long run they try to create as many leaks and instabilities in reality as possible, hoping to bleed away the Quintessence. Hopefully, existence will slowly fade away and give place for blessed Oblivion. The Seekers avoid worldly things as much as possible, and usually live ascetic lives. They spend much time meditating, freeing their minds from irrelevant thoughts and seeking the Void. Most prefer simple clothing, often in pure black or white. Many shave their heads like monks. In general, they surround themselves with austerity and as little as possible. Their meeting-places are often huge rooms, where the Void is implied by the emptiness. Although the Traditions, the Technocracy and sometimes other Nephandi have fought them at many different times and places, the Seekers of the Void are not very well known. They have a tendency to just slip away, or hide their views behind the views of other traditions which makes them hard to trace. They have from time to time infiltrated other Traditions and different chantries and subtly spread their ideas. They continue to do this to this day, often posing as Orphans, Euthanatos or Akashic Brothers. While many of the more experienced or enlightened mages can see the hidden dangers in their teachings, many of the younger and more inexperienced mages risk getting trapped. When attacked, the Seekers are almost always defensive. They usually just try to escape their attackers. If they cannot escape they calmly accept their fate, and turn inward hoping to reach the Void if they are killed. In some cases, the Seekers suddenly strike back if they see a chance to seriously weaken the opposition. However, in most cases they just calmly try to explain themselves to their enemies and make them understand the truth. In fact, attackers might find themselves confronted with an invitation to tea and ricecookies.
Philosophy: "Buddha said: 'Everything is transitory'. The only truly eternal state is Nirvana, which is not only the total emptiness and perfection of the mind, but also of the whole of existence. We seek this blessed Void, and want to help everyone who seeks release to eventually reach it."
Initiation: The Seekers recruit their members from those who have truly understood the pain of existence, and seek to end it. Those not judged fit to join the Seekers are usually given the Good Death out of mercy (this is often camouflaged as a suicides). The recruits are frequently given a vision of the eternal Void, where existence itself dissolves and nothing remains. Some choose to loose themselves in It, while others return as mages to help the rest of existence. They also recruit members from other Traditions, mainly the Euthanatos and Akashic Brothers, but this is rare.
Acolytes: Buddhists, Mystics, Seekers of purity. Concepts: Monk, Philosopher, Cultist Meetings: All days are equally holy, or profane, from the Seeker point of view. They rarely gather together, preferring to seek the Void in meditation. Respected members sometimes attract groups of students, who gather to hear their teachings when they judge it proper to speak.
Organisation: The Seekers have no central organisation, instead they group together in autonomous cabals which act independently
and with no knowledge of each other. The cabals are usually fairly democratic, often ruled by consensus.
Chantries: Many Seeker cabals lack permanent chantries, preferring to remain mobile. The Seekers who take up permanent residence seldom build anything which could be called labyrinths, their chantries look quite ordinary even on the inside. Most are very hard to tell from austere apartments or empty warehouses. However, the feeling of emptiness and silence is often oppressive, and everything seem dampened. There are rumours of bigger chantries in the Deep Umbra, where the greatest Seekers guide the younger cabals and develop new ways to end existence. One of these chantries is rumoured to be located in the City of Pyramids, on the edge of the Abyss.
Sphere: The Seekers specialise in Prime, the manipulation of Existence. They also place great importance in Entropy and Spirit, while most other spheres at most are regarded as tools or irrelevant. They mainly use Spirit to travel into the Umbra and open portals towards the Void, not to summon spirits. In fact, the Seekers regard most spirits as fairly unpredictable and too selfish to be of any use. Entropy is used to disperse things and end their current existence.
Stereotypes The Technocracy: They desperately try to build barriers against the unknown and any change, to lock us all within their dead world. This is mainly irrelevant, since they just manipulate things within existence. If they build a wall, we circumvent it or work from both sides. Their single-minded fear of the unknown makes them vulnerable to the emptiness. "As Nephandi go, these are fairly benign. Their passivity makes them hard to find, but they are easy to terminate."
The Traditions: Just like the Technocracy too involved in petty games of reality manipulation. What is important is not Reality, but non-Reality. However, due to their fragmented nature and more flexible way of thinking, they can accept our views much better. "The Seekers are among the most dangerous of all enemies of Ascension! They will not fight you, but snare you in reasonable explanations and philosophy until they have turned you into one of them."
The Marauders: They seek to play their games of existence, not caring about the pain and suffering they cause. They are truly inhuman. "Booooring!"
The other Nephandi: Many of them serve beings from the Great Unknown, fighting in the idiotic war about reality. A few others have understood, even a few of the beings, and support us. But be careful, their alienness is dangerous and prevents them from seeing that the Void should be sought out of mercy, not hate. "They deserve the silence they seek."
The Wraiths: Some of the dead get trapped in a state between life and death, not daring to go further, unable to return to life. Its our duty to help these unfortunate souls to find their way into the Void.
Foci: Some members are recruits from other traditions, and thus use their own foci, others use the following: Meditation: Prime, Time, Correspondence, Spirit, Mind. When seeking to influence existence, the Seekers empty their minds and become one with the Void. They see that time and distances are all illusions overlaying the truth of the Void, and see the world clearly. To reach this inner state, they have to meditate at least for a while. Entropy: Litany. The endless pain and misery of the world cannot be described, but by focusing their minds on chanting the litanies of truth and torment the Seekers are able to mesh with the flow of events. By chanting how things change or remain the same, how they decay and reform, they can control them. Silence: Forces, Life, Matter The material world hides the Void and wraps the mage in its vain chaos. By remaining calm and silent in front of it, he can deny it existence or form it anew.
Quote: "Existence is the Great Mistake."
Rotes See the Pillars of Pain (Prime 1 Entropy 1): The Seekers are constantly on the lookout for things, places or people who are of vital importance to existence in order to destroy or sabotage them. These pillars can be almost anything, ranging from nodes to certain housewives or a hallway in a museum. If they are truly destroyed, a little bit of the stability of existence is lost forever. Some Seekers spend much of their time looking for these pillars, often using Correspondence to locate them from afar and Time to find the exact right moment to strike.
Scatter the Dust (Prime 4 Spirit 2 Entropy 2): Although at this level of Prime the mage is not skilled enough to totally remove Quintessence, he can use this rote to scatter it over the whole of existence. The mage releases the Quintessence, and briefly meditates upon how it is evenly spread throughout the world.
Open the Void (Spirit 4 Prime 4): This opens up a well into the Void, or at least the Deepest Umbra. It literally destroys reality, opening a yawning Void in its place. It is commonly performed by silent meditation, often by a whole group of Seekers in a circle.
Inside the circle reality dissolves and opens up into a Void. Around the Void reality flows and changes in unpleasant ways, sometimes spontaneously rupturing further. Everything that enters the Void dissolves into nothingness. [ The mage must break through the gauntlet (like Breach the Gauntlet) to create a true, somewhat stable Void. Otherwise it will just become a major Paradox warp instead. Anything inside the Void will dissolve into nothingness at a frightening rate (twice the number of successes per turn). To heal an expanding Void, the spirit rote "Sustain Existence" has to be used.]
End (Prime 5): This rote is the central secret of the Seekers. It can dissolve any pattern and makes the Quintessence forming it vanish totally. The destroyed object is impossible to retrieve, even using Time magick. [ Whether the Quintessence is totally destroyed or just channelled into a totally inaccessible state is unknown. The Seekers know what they think. ]
YAMOMAMO SHABORI By Nathan Graham
Description The Yamomamo are a tribal people who inhabit the hills and mountains of South America. The spiritualists among the Yamomamo are called shabori. Only males are allowed to be shabori, and these males choose to walk the path of spirits early on in life. They are trained by the elder shabori for at least a year, in which time they must fast ritually, as well as take up complete sexual inactivity. The Hekura, those spirits the shabori deal with, think sex to be shami -filthy. The teachings of this apprenticeship consist mostly of descriptions and tales of these Hekura, their habits, songs, likes, and dislikes. After this period of instruction, the novices spend their days attempting to attract particular Hekura into their chests -- wherein, they believe, the spirits will find a veritable cosmos of forests, rivers, and mountains in which to live. The more Hekura a Yanomamo shaman has within him, the more powerful and respected he is. But these spirits are often demanding and pushy, especially the larger, more powerful ones. A shabori must always strive to keep his spirits happy, or else they may desert him. When the spirits will allow it, the shabori can resume normal eating and sexual activities. The Hekura are small humanoid spirits that range from the size of a grain of sand to thumb-size. They are all extremely beautiful, and males have glowing haloes around their head (which the tribesmen imitate with leaves), while the females ride on glowing wands. Most of these spirits are named after animals. There are three kinds of Hekura: the Helpers, the Hurters, and the Far Ones. The Helpers are those that are used by the shabori for healing and other magicks that are helpful to his Shabono, or village. The Hurters are sent to enemy villages to kill their warriors and children. The Far Ones are those who do not regularly communicate with the Yanomamo, and who are somewhat different than the Helpers and Hurters. The Far Ones can only be seen by moonlight.
Shabori Foci Ebene: A green powdered drug that is sniffed, inducing a trance; this causes the mucus to become dark green, and to hang in a disgusting fashion out the nose.
Singing: The songs the Hekura sing are able to attract and impress them when sung by a human. Decorations: The spirits are more likely to come to a shaman who has made himself beautiful; this is usually done with feathers and paint.
SHADES By Terry French The Brotherhood of Shades or Druids as they are known to many, is a strange and mysterious group. They tend to their own needs, and will leave others alone, but will not tolerate those that trespass or plot against them. Though others know little of them, and at times believe them to be working for dark forces, they know little of the Shades true nature. Their appearance leads many to believe they are evil. They dress in large cloaks, from which blackness seems to ebb, and their faces (if they have them!) are hidden in darkness. For some bizarre reason, Shades hold dear their true identity, and will rarely show their faces, though they have been know at times, when they walk among the mortals, to take the guise of a monk. Whether the face we see then is real or not we will probably never know. The true purpose of the Shades is far from what others believe. Though they would seem to be symbols of the dark, they are truly seekers of life and knowledge. They work their own magick, as well as watch over the ebbing tide of darkness and light. They have been known to gather mortals through the centuries to fight off the evil that would foreseeable encompass the world. They have made few allies due to their own nature...but have also made few enemies. They seem to be true seekers of knowledge, and try to understand each being's views. Within the folds of the Traditions they are still thought to be evil enigmas, though a select few members of the Traditions know otherwise. Even the Euthanatos fear the Shades. However, the Shades have worked with certain individuals in the Traditions, to fend off the Technocracy. What is strange in this behavior, is the Shades do not fight the Technocracy because they are thought to be evil, but for the simple reason that they do not understand them. The Shades are for the most part true enigmas, they believe knowledge is sacred and release it slowly to their pupils. They are said to have many Chantries, but there is no one Shade that knows the location to all. The Shades believe the study of the Mind and Forces are the true paths to Ascension. They believe that everything is a part of nature, and that man is one extension of nature. The mind is used to tap into the nature, to become one with the forces. The Shades believe that before one can control the forces they must first learn to control there self, therefore, to control the mind. Each student of the Shades, must first undergo rigorous exercise of the mind, and must reach the level of Adherent*, before being allowed to delve deeply into the art of Forces. The Shades are foreboding creatures, seemingly well built and averaging 6 feet. Though in good physical condition, they do not practice any physical art, such as do the Akashic Brotherhood. Instead, they concentrate more on the study of power. Though being extremely tall, they may blend in with the shadows or their milieu if they so desire. The Shades practice the art of Penumbra , the art of remaining hidden...to blend with the ones surroundings...to become a Shade. The Shades at times have been known to wield large wooden staves made of oak, whether they are instruments used for channeling power, or for fighting purposes is not known. * Adherent: The Adherent is a rank between Disciple and Adept. The role of an Adherent is many...amoung these roles is to teach the underlings. Adherents will also spend a large amount of time in travel, on quests for their teachers, to seek out followers, or to bring equilibrium to the ebbing tide of darkness and light.
Philosophy: The study of all things will bring enlightenment, and one closer to Ascension. To strengthen the mind, and become one with the forces of nature. Man is simply an extension of nature, we are born of the dust of nature and will return so. The world is like a circle, and will eventually meet and overlap its end, or shall we say its beginning, however, there are many crossroads that will take one there much sooner.
Organization: The organization of the Shades is a well kept secret, though it is believed to operate in the form of a monastery. There Chantries are even more secret, and are believed to exist around the world. Within each Chantry their exist huge libraries that the Shades call Chambers.
Meetings: Many believe they constantly seek knowledge, and thus spend most of their time in meetings with elders...who teach, or help in the study of the rotes.
Initiation: If there is an initiation, very few know of it, though it is known that they send out individuals whom they call Walkers to bring followers to their fold.
Chantry: The Shades Chantries are extreme secrets, and are said to exist in the strangest areas, areas one would never think a Chantry would exist.
Acolytes: students, scientists, monks, philosophers. Sphere: Mind...Forces. Foci: Mind-Mind/Forces, Penumbra-Mind/Forces Language, Weapon-Mind/Forces, Staff Concepts: students, scientists, monks, philosophers. Quote: "Through observation, one gains knowledge...through this knowledge one knows how to act."
SHINTO DREAMSPEAKERS By Howard B. Des Chenes (
[email protected]) (29 Apr 94) Modern Shinto tend to be familiar with technology, as are most Japanese in the World of Darkness. This creates some interesting challenges for the Technocracy/Weaver aspect of reality, and how it relates to Japan. The Japanese Gauntlet would undoubtedly be high in most industrial areas. This would explain Japanese shrines(chantries?) and gardens(nodes?) scattered amidst huge, sprawling metroplexes. These places do reflect order, (thus the Technocracy allows their existence) but a natural order of things, where the kami are the forces behind nature. There would be constant struggle between the two groups, for control of Japan's future, and of the Avatars of the magi. In their search for balance of two worlds (perhaps an idea adopted from the Akashic Brotherhood), many Shinto Dreamspeakers have crossed the line to the Technocracy. Violent reactionaries are not tolerated in Japan, and Shinto is tolerated by the Technocracy as long as it does not interfere with Japan's "future". The Akashic Brotherhood has had a strong influence over the Dreamspeaker Shinto, and in fact, have fought for control over Japan. When Shinto was finally wrested free from Akashic control, ill will did not die with this birth of freedom. Akashic ideals did, however, affect Shinto belief. The idea of balance and self-control is strong in Japan, and in Shinto.
Foci: Crystals for Life/Mind/Prime don't quite work. Quite possibly- Japanese Calligraphy- Life/Mind/Prime. A few contemplative symbols must be carefully painted before invoking these spheres. +1 or 2 to initiative, and a Wits + Meditation roll of 6 to write during combat. Also requires a calligraphy set and paper. Drums- Correspondence/Entropy/Forces/Matter/Time. Ever hear Taiko Drums? Pretty incredible stuff. Drumming is essential to many traditional ceremonies in Japan. No problem there. Feathers for spirit? No. Masks, perhaps? Donning a Japanese Kabuki mask would easily explain use of spirit, speaking directly to the kami during a ceremony, or entering the spirit world. A bit obvious and noticeable, but makes for great coincidental magic, and balances the occasions on which the Dreamspeaker could acceptably use Spirit magic in Japan. Times are tough, the Weaver spins a tight web. The foci are about the only change to the rules that would be required. I think, though that different cultures could approach the same essential view of reality from different directions, with different props and tools. Other, more obvious possibilities for Dreamspeakers: Siberian Shamans, Australian Aboriginies (What really happened to the Dreamtime?), South American Indians, (Yano-Mamo, if you dont mind playing a character with a big disc in his lip.) and Eskimo. Some are more playable than others. For great inspiration, check out two films by first rate director, Akira Kurisawa: "Dreams", a surreal journey through the Japanese spirit world, as seen through Kurisawa's own imagination and life; and "Kagemusha", produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. It's an incredible telling of a somewhat familiar story, in which a thief is spared in order to impersonate the Daimyo during the Feudal wars of sixteenth century Japan. It illustrates certain Shinto beliefs and practices, and illuminates the Japenese mentality as something not only understandable, but admirable. The scenes are beautiful and very colorful. (Subtitled, but you can get used to it. If you can sit through an hour of Japanamation, you can watch Kagemusha." Japenese culture isn't my specialty. Someone feel free to follow up on this and correct any errors I might have made. Thanks.
HOUSE OF SINANJU By Mark Kinney (
[email protected]) (12 Nov 93) Based off Remo Williams
Description The origins of this Tradition reach back to ancient Korea. In ages long past, even before the Akashic Brotherhood came to be according to the members of this Tradition, a small fishing village on West Korea Bay became renowned as the home of a great house of assassins. Sinanju's Night Tigers hired out to the empires of the world, never failing to complete a contract. Eventually, the Greater Master Wang ended the tradition of the Night Tigers, and reduced the legions of Sinanju to just a Master and his student. The Masters continued to hire themselves out as assassins over the years, with imitators (according to those Masters) starting the various known martial arts. The Ninja are especially reviled, as a Japanese leader hired the Master of the time specifically so one of his men could watch him in action and learn the moves, and according to those in the know, the Master proclaimed that if any Ninja ever works with their face uncovered, then all Ninja would be slain. As the years went by, and belief in magick of all sorts waned, the world called on Sinanju less and less, and by the time of the Second Idiocy of the Barbarian Nations, were practically forgotten. It is believed that the United States has the current Master on retainer, but whether this is true or not is unknown. The current master, Chiun, is known to be training an American, so this may in fact be the case. The fact that there are only two official practitioners does not mean that it is impossible for others to learn. A former student of Chiun, Nuihc, rebelled and is known to have trained several others, and a family that were banished from Sinanju, the Wa, may train outsiders, but these would not be recognized by the Masters as members of the House of Sinanju. The members of these groups who know the background often argue with members of the Akashic Brotherhood, as both believe their martial art is the original one. Practitioners of Sinanju disdain bladed weapons, and will not use guns at all.
Philosophy Assassination, for the good of all, is a public service. We provide that service.
Organization One Master and one student. Other groups will vary.
Meetings Whenever the student is being taught.
Initiation The initiate is either the Master's son or one from his Village. Others, obviously, vary. The act of learning the basics of Sinanju triggers the Avatar, which manifests in dreams of a dragon, which the student must defeat. Those that prevail go on to learn the greater secrets of Sinanju; those that fail die. This Awakening happens to all students of Sinanju.
Chantry The House of Sinanju is based from a village near the North Korean city of Sinanju, which shares the name of the village. The villiage is an independent entity, as most local leaders have heard of Sinanju. The Wa family is believed to be based somewhere on Hokkaido island.
Acolytes
Villagers.
Sphere Mind
Foci All is dependant upon their martial art, Sinanju.
Concept Assassin.
Quote "Sinanju is the sun source, all the other fighting arts are as matches. This is what you will learn. Now, demonstrate the move I taught you this morning... No, No, No! Your wrist was bent. And you call yourself a student... it's like casting pearls before swine!"
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Their Do may be strong, but they are still pretenders to the sun source. Celestial Chorus: Occasionally, they are good clients. Cult of Ecstacy: It is no wonder they smell so bad, reeking of their red meat and drugs. It will be the death of them. Discordians: Sinanju was here when Eris was first worshiped. These are mere pretenders, destroying in her name. Dreamspeakers: They must balance the outside with the inside. Euthanatos: A good assassination is a public service. Mindless killing in the name of magick is murder. Hollow Ones: They are nothing. Order of Hermes: This was a popular target several hundred years ago. Sons of Ether: They may mean well, but their toys, when not dangerous, are useless. Trenchcoaters: A sad result of the First Idiocy of the Barbarian Nations. If they had remembered the value of a quality assassination, these need never have existed.
Verbena: Another favored client, although we abhor their practices. Virtual Adepts: More toys? A true Master has no need for such things. Wika: No blood, and they never hired us, but otherwise like the Verbena.
SOCIAL ENGINEERS By Anders Sandberg
Description The Social Engineers are a relatively liberal sub-convention of the New World Order, involved in the spread of collectivism and the idea of the welfare-state. While they seemingly lack power both over Reality and the Technocracy, their real influence is profound. The Engineers are a force to be reckoned with, and they are often underestimated. The Engineers are responsible for bureaucracy, social engineering and the idea of a welfare society where everybody is equal, supported and cared for by the state. Their ideal is collectivist, where everybody happily obeys the state, since the state helps them (as opposed to the conservative NWO, which wants to terrorise everybody to obey). This should be done using a large bureaucracy, which plans the best course of action and directs people to it. They dislike the idea of individuals, and prefer to see that power is wielded by the system, not people. Private initiative is frowned upon, since it is often not adapted to the needs of society as a whole, and often is quite unplanned. The Engineers want to let all planning and initiative to come from the appointed bureaucracy, which will plan the best course of action. Their first great success as a sub-convention was to demonstrate how they could turn rebels and anarchists into useful tools for the Technocracy. In the Russian revolution, they turned what just a few months before the revolution was a small group of fanatics into an ruthless and powerful elite. Partly through luck, skill and clever politics, the Technocracy managed to create a powerful state controlled mainly by the NWO, with crucial help from the Engineers. The Engineers were responsible for the creation of Soviet bureaucracy and many other aspects of society after the initial mayhem ended. While their administration was hardly the best from the standpoint of the Syndicate, the society the Engineers had created turned out to be a massive success for the Technocracy, and was to test out new methods of control and planning. After this success, the Engineers wanted to spread their visions. They started with Scandinavia, where they already skilfully manipulated and created popular movements. They decided to use the Social Democratic Party, a small and obscure leftist group as a starting point. Using their manipulative skills, the Engineers made the party to grow, helped by many of the popular social movements. Finally the Social Democrats gained power in the 30's. During the next 30 years, the Engineers started to create the Swedish Model, using the Party. The Engineers are extremely anonymous. Actually, not even other Technomancers see them much. They are even more anonymous than the most paranoid Progenitors. They surround themselves with an impenetrable bureaucracy, which implements their plans and supplies them with information and recommendations. It is quite possible that there are very few Engineers left inside, and the bureaucracy is running itself. This would mean the convention has succeeded in replacing itself with almost entirely sleepers, something no other convention have ever dared to try. Even the Engineers themselves seems to dislike the use of magick and high technology. Instead they rely on organisation, planning and experts. The most spooky thing about the Engineers are that they are omnipresent. Every other convention rely on bureaucracy to some extent. Most modern states could not exist without their administration. And yet, they are almost completely invisible. While the Traditions fear the infiltrators of the Progenitors, the Men in Black from the Syndicate and the cyborgs of Iteration X, they always underestimate the Engineers. This is also true inside the Technocracy, where most technomancers are content to believe that the Engineers are a part of NWO. In the meantime, the Engineers may plan something, and nobody expects anything. While the Syndicate controls Big Business and much of the criminal world, and NWO control much of the Military and Intelligence business, the Engineers control Government bureaucracy completely. Of course, Engineer control is always extremely subtle and somehow woven into the system. When the Engineers want to change something, they do it completely legally and in an ordinary way. Their bureaucracy and every other bureaucracy are seamlessly joined, and no sleepers even notice the fact. The bureaucrats simply get their orders from a distant department most employees never have heard from. Should anybody check it out, it will turn out to be perfectly normal and according to routine. And who gave the order to the distant department? Well, another department which sometimes sends them orders to implement. And so on into infinity. There is never an end when the Engineers are involved. What are their goals? It seems that they like their own bureaucrats once they have gained power, will do anything to retain it, but do not want to go further. Once this convention was responsible for the revolutions which shaked Eastern Europe. They created the Scandinavian welfare-states. But when they had gained enough power, they became more and more conservative. The radicals left for the other parts of New World Order, but most members preferred to spread their bureaucracy without any obvious goal. As long as nobody interferes, the Engineers are content to watch what is going on. But if somebody threatens them, they can bite back subtly and yet ferociously. Another goal, besides their preservation of their administration, is to spread their idea of society across the world. While they mostly were content to support the countries they had formed, the fall of Eastern Europe became a shock. Many Engineers realised that they had let things slip too far, and began to try to reassert themselves around the world in different ways. They have started to try to save what's left of Eastern Europe, and have began to counter the advances of the Syndicate in Scandinavia. In America they have started to spread their ideas, trying to create a more efficient social security and health care system. They are trying to turn the EEC into their domain, in hard conflict with the Syndicate. Overall, the Syndicate tend to oppose the Engineers, while the New World Order tends to protect them. The Engineers are masters of manipulating social movements using organisations and public opinion. Instead of supporting groups they approve of in any obvious way, like helping them in the bureaucracy or hindering their enemies, the Engineers often
help them by making their organisations work better. An organisation which otherwise would have trouble surviving due to internal conflicts and lack of funds will begin to stabilise, becoming more efficient in spreading its opinions. Quite soon it will have become much larger and powerful (and as a rule less extreme, whatever its original opinions were. The Engineers dislike fanaticism). The Engineers seldom use magick. In fact, it can be questioned whether they really are mages or some kind of awakened accountants. They seem to understand what the other conventions are doing, and support them. But they never influence reality in any overt way. Instead they rely on the administrative structures to do their magick. When they actually use magick, it is always coincidental, and often extremely normal. A form has not been properly signed. A change in regulations. Somebody has lost the documents. Due to security reasons which happens to apply in this case, access to certain information must be restricted. The person responsible for a certain problem is on holiday. The committee will not meet until on Friday. The Engineers are the uncrowned masters of misdirection and red tape in the Technocracy. But they can also speed things up, turn an otherwise inefficient bureaucracy into a efficient work force. Somehow, a proposal passes without anybody noticing. Long lost documents and regulations are found again. An efficient and slightly ruthless person is appointed as chairman. If the Engineers use Spheres, they would probably focus on Mind and Correspondence. Their Mind is geared towards the control, manipulation and creation of large administrative structures. There are rumours that the Engineers have developed rotes to mentally control their organisations. There are even rumours about Engineers merging somehow with their organisations. They are also very interested in overcoming problems with communications and logistics, often using their Correspondence to view what is going on.
Philosophy We strive to build a society where everybody is equal and solidarically cooperate. Everybody will be protected and supported by the state. To achieve this obviously desirable goal, we are creating a great administrative structure to supply every need. When we are completed, our administration will be able to handle any reasonable request in the most efficient way possible.
Quote "The submitted proposal do not conform to the current regulations, and can not be evaluated by the commission until it has been either resubmitted in a form conforming to the regulations, or been approved for non-standard evaluation by the relevant committee due to emergency reasons as defined in the standard regulations."
Organisation The Engineers are intensely aware of organisation. They are organised as an enormous bureaucracy, consisting of innumerable commissions, divisions and departments. Most of these groups don't know exactly what purpose their work serves or what place they have in the greater whole. That doesn't lessen the overall efficiency of the organisation. Most members are sleepers and most don't even know the whole picture. Only a few may be awakened, if any.
Meetings The Engineers meet in section meetings according to individual schedules, decided by a planning commission. These are completely like organisational meetings in any large administration. Much emphasis is put on the formalia, to keep the meetings orderly.
Initiation If there are still awakened persons in this convention, they are probably awakened and initiated in several steps according to the standard procedures. First the initiate is studied to see if he has the correct ideology, personality and general suitability. If necessary, he is subtly manipulated in the right direction. After that step, the initiate is tested too see if he is loyal to the ideals of the Social Engineers and the concept of the Technocracy. If the initiate passes, the Engineers start the real initiation, and reveal the truth to him. This initiation consists in giving the initiate the transcendental experience of seeing the totality of administration of the world, giving him a brief glimpse of the Social Engineers vision of a perfect world. After that the initiate becomes trainee, and is given a position in the organisation.
Constructs The Engineers prefer to work in their gigantic administrations. Most of their organisation is quite legitimate, and would not arouse any suspicion. Typical examples are the EEC bureaucracy in Brussels, parts of the Swedish government and several
international organisations. They do not create constructs in the usual sense, but they have several organisations which tie everything together, like the Institute for International Economical Development (IIED), an anonymous but extremely influential international organisation tied closely to the World Bank and the UN. It is rumoured that they even have horizon realms housing their central bureaucracy, shaping the organisation on Earth.
Acolytes Administrators, politicians, bureaucrats.
Stereotypes Ahl-I-Batin; A good case for the importance of organization. If they had worked together as a unity, they would have been efficient. Without unity and central planning, they were nothing at all. (They talk much about unity and cooperation, but their words ring hollow. The Unity is not the unity of bureacrats and oppressors.)
Akashic Brotherhood: Organised into small groups, which do not require much administration. Effective in local, direct issues but not able to handle larger problems. They have a tendency to inaction which makes them even less threatening.
"Like all of the New World Order they have no regard for the individual. They seek too press everybody in the same mould and build their "perfect society" out of the bricks. But still, there is some glimmer in their ideas of a society in harmony and perfection that echo our own ideas." Dreamspeakers:: Tribal social structures are outmoded. "These Technomancers are more lost than most. They have lost their souls into the dead void of bureaucracy, in the same way Iteration X have lost theirs into their machines." Celestial Chorus: Their logistics could be improved. Currently it is far too hierarchical, and does not reflect the demands of a new time. Their religious beliefs are a useful method for achieving organisatorial stability, but seems to have gone a bit out of hand. With some help, they could become an efficient and useful part of out organisation.
"The Social Engineers have realised the need for unity, to make people work together towards a higher goal. Such a pity they have blocked their progress in red tape and grey bureaucrats." Cult Of Ecstasy: No direction and no organisation. "Regulations! Administration! Sub committees! What is there to say? They are the most boring convention there is!" Euthanatos: They have direction and drive, but a consensus based organisation is vulnerable to internal dissent and will react slowly to changes in circumstances.
"This convention is really scary because they are impossible to attack. You can kill a person. You can even kill a progenitor if you are devious enough. But you can almost never destroy a bureaucracy. It just reorganises itself! And while we cannot give their static organisations the Good Death, they actively create societies that force those who needed to die to live on instead!" Hollow Ones: Their are united purely by social interactions, and lack both direction and drive. Their rebelliousness are sometimes irritating.
"Who? Are there mages in the bureaucracy?" Order of Hermes: They have developed several interesting forms of organisation, but like their other ideas, they have only academic interest. The Order completely lack any interest in practical social matters, and is no concern of us.
"A convention of bureaucrats? How amusing! There is much good to be said about organisation, so there should be no surprise at all that even some technomancers realise it." Sons of Ether: An interesting group, since they prove that even total individualists can organise themselves into a somewhat viable grouping.
"I have found out who runs the university administrations! And who decides who will get research grants! Comrades, put on your goggles and get your meters! Tonight the streets will run with shredded forms!" Verbena: Small groups, which lack global coordination. Their internal structure is often unorganised too. "Among the dead, these are among the most dead." Virtual Adepts: Their defection led to a re-evaluation of our current security policy. Since they lack an efficient organisation, they
are no big threat.
"These guys stifle creativity on an industrial scale! They tried to make us create systems for them, showing us specifications and sending us memos all the time. What's the point?" Rest of New World Order: They value good organisation, but are too paranoid to create an efficient administration. Their methods are far to harsh and creates only more dissidence. When they learn that the best way to control is with both a stick and a carrot, they will return to us.
"They are good at retaining the status quo, but they do not defend it or advance further." The Syndicate: The Syndicate is content to think that everything works out well if we the trust the Invisible Hand of market economy. When their plans fail, they claim it was due to imperfections in the market. They must learn that economy is just one important aspect of the whole of society, and start to plan their economies to suit the needs of the whole of society. Unfortunately, they currently seem to be against such needed changes in their organisatorial policy. This has led to several unnecessary clashes between our organisations, which would have been avoided if they had understood our position.
"The Engineers are irritating. They always interfere with our important projects. We try to bring humanity to Ascension, and they respond by setting up a committee and wrapping everything up in red tape." Progenitors: The Progenitors seems to be either wrapped up in their research or attempts of infiltration. We actually let them infiltrate our organisation. They do not realise that their individual infiltration is pointless, since a well designed bureaucracy is self- correcting and impossible to influence by individuals.
"The Engineers are very interesting. They have shown us that it is possible for a convention to dispense with individuality and perhaps even awakening." Void Engineers: Their results have so far not been very socially useful. Their work on protecting the fabric of reality is appreciated by us, but our studies have shown that their other goals serve no useful purpose.
"They are far too earth-bound. They lack visions, and hinder others with their red-tape. Look what their acolytes have done to NASA!" Iteration X: This convention have understood the need for organisation and communication. Unfortunately they have realised it by integrating themselves into a technological system instead of an administrative system. On a deep level these two models are the same, of course, but our method is must more cost-effective.
"Lost in the past. They rely too much on human information processing. If they would start to rely on the much more efficient and faster technologies we can provide, they would become an useful tool."
Rotes Curse of Kafka (Mind 2 Prime 2): The Engineer creates a pattern in the aura of somebody which will make bureaucrats and administrators subconsciously dislike the individual. This will lead to endless problems, as administration will start to turn against the victim. Documents are lost, important people are in meetings and secretaries happens to spell the name of the victim wrong. Even to fill in a form will turn into a kafkaesque adventure. The Engineers prefer to do this rote coincidental by simply putting some errors into the personal information of the victim.
Administrative Murder (Mind 2 Correspondence 3): This is one of the nastiest methods of eliminating people the Engineers use. The victim disappears from every register, computer and administration in the world. Suddenly his passport is invalid, his bank-account doesn't exist, his apartment is marked as empty etc. In an administrative sense the victim has ceased to exist, and has never existed. There is no way he can prove he is the person he claims to be. Of course, using this rote indiscriminately would be stupid, since such victims tend to make a fuss about it. It is mostly used by the Engineers on people they want to eliminate physically too, to prevent too many to notice their absence too much. They also use it to remove any traces of persons who have "disappeared" or as an warning (in this case the person "reappears" into the system after a while). The Engineers perform this rote coincidentally by spreading some misinformation to the relevant registers, form where it will spread. If the Engineer responsible keep the rote up, he can make the memory of the person start to fade too (or use Mind 4 to remove the memory completely). On the positive side of this rote is the fact that the victim gains as many dots in Arcane as the number of successes, on tracking by bureaucratic means.
Pulse of the Administrator (Mind 3 Correspondence 3): The Engineer extend his awareness into his organisation. He is able to see what is going on everywhere inside it, the state of every project, all information contained inside it and everything else. In effect, they can influence everything on an extremely subtle level. Many Engineers subconsciously use this rote daily to keep in touch with their work. They slowly merge their consciousness, and turn more and more into spokespeople for the organisation itself. This rote is often coincidental, as the mage seems to be just an exceptionally efficient employee who knows almost everything needed, and makes the best possible use of the information network of the organisation.
Omnipresence (Mind 5 Correspondence 3): The Engineer merges completely with an organisation, effectively becoming its consciousness. He will influence everything from the employees to the feeling of the locals. All information and control will be in his hands. It is guessed that most Masters among this convention end like this. Organisations controlled in this way are extremely dangerous, as they in effect are able to use extremely subtle coincidental magick against their enemies, and are able
to coordinate their resources in uncannily efficient ways. Fortunately, these organisations tend to act rather slowly.
THE SOCIETY OF SENTINELS By Anders Sandberg (27 March, 1995) Although officially accepted by the other traditions, the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts are watched suspiciously by many tradition mages. After all, the two traditions are technomancers, and who knows where their real loyalties lie? The Society of Sentinels are an informal group of mages who keep an eye on the activities of the tradition technomancers and their sympathisers. They originally came into existence shortly after the Sons of Ether broke free and joined the traditions. Several groups of mages had repeatedly pointed out that the traditions were in danger of being infiltrated by the Technocracy on a huge scale by agents and collaborators within the Etherites, not to mention forced to accept techno-magick as a valid form of magick. If they accepted the Sons of Ether, the Traditions were in danger of becoming more like the technomancers themselves. Most other mages were however delighted with the opportunity to increase their numbers and weaken the Technocracy, and regarded the sceptics as overcautious conservatives. In the years after the defection, some of the mages who had protested met with each other, summoned by the influential Chorist bishop Klaus Wollheim of Aedes Lucis Dei . They discussed how things had gone, and while they agreed that some of their fears had been unfounded, the threat still remained. The Sons of Ether were now moving among the traditions, learning things about chantries and internal politics which could greatly harm the Traditions if ever the Technocracy got wind of it. The bishop proposed that the participants and their friends would form an informal network in order to counter the growing infiltration and root out Technocracy infiltrators. After some debate about the technical details and exact aim, they agreed and formed the Society of Sentinels (Societas Custorum). Its purpose was to secretly keep watch over the Etherites and their sympathisers, carefully monitoring their activities for signs of treachery and the elimination of Technocracy agents. The Society consisted of several independent groups, linked by a network of magickal communication and secret codes. The Sentinels had some initial success a few years later in the Goldstein case. A Son of Ether involved in the development of radio communications was found to be a Technocracy agent leaking vital information to the enemy using his devices. The Sentinels made the treachery public and Goldstein disappeared, probably killed by mages from the chantry he had betrayed. After that event several more mages joined the ranks of the Sentinels. Over the years they built up a network of contacts and allies among the traditions. When the Virtual Adepts defected, the Sentinels did their best to convince the traditions not to admit them, but failed again mainly due to the efforts of the Sons of Ether. At a secret meeting of the most influential members, the Sentinels decided to watch over the Virtual Adepts too. The Society of Sentinels are strongest in Europe, where some of their most influential members control several of the old and great chantries. The old core of conservative hermetic and chorus mages still have much power (Bishop Klaus Wollheim has retired as nominal leader in favor of his pupil Deacon Nicolai Krantz, also of Aedes Lucis Dei), but the Dreamspeakers, Verbena and Cultists have become a dynamic part of the Society. It is very discreet, and most members meet in informal groups with no ties to each other. The members generally behave and work as usual, but always keep an eye for Technocracy infiltration and the activities of the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts. If they notice something suspicious, they contact the Society which will investigate further. These investigations are very subtle, often employing mages from outside the society as investigators or dupes. The Society seldom takes action against offenders, preferring to leak the information to other mages (especially such groups as the Brotherhood of Bertrando or the Quaesitors of Order of Hermes). The Society is not without internal schisms. The main cause of disagreement is between the conservatives of Order of Hermes and the Celestial Chorus, who just want to make sure the technomancers stay put and don't threaten the traditions, and hardliners from the Verbena and Dreamspeakers who want to find ways to expel them from the traditions altogether. The conservatives claim that it would be both hard and dangerous, and would risk exposing the Society. The radicals regard the conservatives as too cautious and afraid of taking action. Another cause of arguments is whether to allow loyal Sons of Ether or Virtual Adepts to help the society or even join. Apparently some Adepts have formed their own group of Sentinels, known as the Supervisor Mode, to watch over their own tradition and eliminate outside infiltration. To make matter even more complicated, the Supervisor Mode is rumoured to be linked to radical Virtual Adepts working against radical nature-oriented mages, which makes the Radicals very suspicious against the group. The Society has succeeded quite well in hiding its existence. It is no secret that there are mages sceptical to the tradition technomancers, but the idea that they are organised is generally regarded as yet another conspiracy theory (this is of course encouraged by the Sentinels, who gladly add outrageous rumours to make the theory even more silly). The Supervisor Mode suspects there is some kind of resistance, judging from the results of their computer simulations, but have so far not been able to prove it.
SONS OF ETHER PARADIGM: MAGICK, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, THE THREE KEYS By Wayne Myers and Billy Bishop
Paradigm Through "magick" and "science," "technology" is created. These three concepts make all reality possible. Within the MST system:
Magick: Raw creativity. The building blocks of reality, also known as "strands." Random Probability Creation (RPC). Humanity is the only known species to have demonstrated the use of magick. At this level, all things are ephemeral.
Science: Through random interactions and changes, order came about. Science is this order. Science tends to guide Magick by channelling it, speeding it up, slowing it down, etc. Also known as Logical Composition Structure (LCS)
Technology: Science "uses" Magick to create Technology. Technology is an end product. It is what Sleepers think of as Reality. The combination of RPC and LCS.
Ascension Reality is a Robot, also known as Science. Each Divine Engineer (DE) wants to find a gateway to the Superfluous Flux, the source of Magick which lies outside the Robot. Once there, Divine Engineers will be to perfectly express their creativity and personal vision throughout their own cosmos and eternity as Robots themselves.
Magick Engineering. This is not Magick in the MST3K sense. This is the working, manipulation and understanding of the Robot and its function.
Paradox Electrotonus. In the act of channelling Magick, Science strips Magick of some of its probability. This probability is conserved and becomes, generally speaking, a destructive by-product. DE's tend to accumulate Waste Product by their Science as well. Some of this conserved probability actually creates destructive entities as well.
Spheres Applications; as above, these are applications of Magick, Science, and Technology.
Correspondence: Crawl Space. This is a product of Science, though there are Technological implications. The Robot needs an internal means of finding and transporting items as well as allowing for self-maintenance and repair by DEs. Of course, maintenance requires the ability to see the problems that need troubleshooting, so the Crawl Space has many conveniently located View Ports and Observation Stations.
Entropy: Malfunction. Probability in Technology naturally declines. The study of malfunctions involves understanding these breakdowns and how to reverse or speed them up.
Forces: Electromagnetic Force (EMF) Technology requires power for non-Magickal change. Through Science, a DE can sense and utilize the Robot's internal power sources.
Life: Automata. Living things are somewhat similar to the Robot. They have the capacity to use Magick and Science in varying degrees. Because of this, automata have more inherent probability than matter. Automata that are aligned with spirit tend to be more versitile than other automata.
Matter: Structure. These are threads of relatively low probability. These can be manipulated to change their apparent form. By using Science, pure Magick can have enough probability removed from it to become Structure.
Mind: Logic Gates. A DE may manipulate logic gates to optimize personal performance or to read or change the ongoing operation of logic gates in others. Eventually, the DE can travel the gates themselves.
Prime: Magick. This has to do with the measurement of the amount of magick in a given thing or place and with changing that if desired.
Spirit: Alogicals. This MST is not well understood. It defies nomal logical reasoning. Really efficient automata are noted as having alogicals. Alogicals seem to have a part of the Robot all to itself, though DE's may travel there with sufficient understanding, or perhaps lack of understanding.
Time: Trace Pattern. As Magick breaks down, it leaves behind minute amount of Waste Product. By measuring this, the DE may see how events took place in the past or predict how they will occur in the future. By increasing or decreasing this decay, time may seem to speed up or slow down, or even stop entirely.
Arete FREES - Familiarity of Robot Electronic Engineering.
Quintessence Flux. Magick leaks into the Robot from the Superflous Flux. As such, it has very high inherent probability which may be used in manipulation of the robot's systems.
Mage Backgrounds Arcane: Baffling. Sometimes the Robot closes Logic Gates around a DE to protect him. Other times, the DE does this himself. Either way, others find it difficult to think about the DE.
Avatar: Flux Capacitor. Superflous Flux sometimes leaks directly into the DE. This flux can be used in engineering. Destiny: Asymtotic Relay. Some DE's have greater system protection than others. When their probability of existence drops below an unacceptable level, the Relay protects them from achieving zero probability. However, this system has been known to break down or function ineffectively. Beware.
Dream: Machine Insight. This gives increased, specific, and regretably temporary, knowledge of interactions within the robot. Node: Flux Node or Node. This place is where Superflous Flux leaks into the Robot.
Mage: The Void The Etherian League By Jimmy 'Gregor' McKinney (
[email protected]) for Mage: The Void
History "Fools! They did not listen to me. My calculations clearly show that this world will cease to exist within five years, yet they refuse to see it. Well, no matter! This world may die, my friend, but we, the human race, shall go on! Quickly, bring my drafting instruments and paper, we haven't a moment to spare!" (Goes off mumbling to himself about space arks, oscillation wave inverters, and how all this will obviously shatter the technocratic consensus) -- Anonymous Son of Ether The Sons of Ether had been seeing the signs of the coming destruction for years, and tried to warn the other factions (even their old contacts in the Technocracy) before it was too late. They were almost universally ignored and even laughed at. This was not an unexpected reaction toward the Sons of Ether, so they didn't press the matter. Instead, the Tradition gathered nearly every known active Scientist and met in the Gernsback Continuum to discuss the problem. Being the highly opinionated people they were, they argued for weeks about how to solve the problem, but were unable to come up with a good plan that everyone could agree on (unsurprisingly). About 90% of the Tradition formed factions around the three most popular proposals, while the remaining few decided to strike out on their own. Since the death of Earth, the attitudes of the Sons of Ether have gradually grown more enlightened and less stuffy than they were. It was almost as if some positive ideas from the Technocracy dominated 20th Century (i.e., sexual equality) had been avoided more because of their source than because of the ideas themselves. In the process, the Scientists dropped their old tradition name in favor of something a little more gender-neutral. Though there is still disagreement about what the name should be, it has been quieted down to a dull roar. The current officially recognized name is "The Etherian League", although "Team Ether" and "The Persons of Ether" still have strong followings. For some reason, names that completely abandoned "Ether" (such as "The Futurians") seem to have dropped off the radar, so to speak.
Factions The Reformists "Gentlemen, it falls to us to do what must be done. Our home world is facing a threat more dire than any that have come before, yet both our so-called allies in the Traditions and our old enemies in the Technocracy are selfishly thinking only of themselves. We claim that our Science has always been for benefit of the people. Well, now is the time to prove it." -- Professor Ozone The reformist faction argued that the Scientists should do everything in their power to halt the destruction of Earth, even if it meant sacrificing their own lives in the process. What was the point of Science, they argued, if not for the benefit of mankind? They built their Phlogistatic Wave Engines and Pollutant Reprocessing systems in an attempt to reverse the coming destruction, while the other traditions and conventions tried to save themselves like drowning rats. Surprisingly, had it not been for the selfcentered attitude of the others, the reformists might have succeeded. Most of the surviving Mages today refuse to admit it, but if it were not for the efforts of the reformers, the darkness would have come far more swiftly and nobody would have escaped Earth's last days. To this day, the descendants of the Euthanatos remember these Etherites with a fondness that the Death Mages of Earth's time did not share. Victoria Station, once a thriving etheric port of call, now stands as a monument to the Reformists, and is tended by the Euthanatos in the area.
The Starlifters "While it is true that our Science is for the benefit of the Sleepers, I have no such allegiance to this world with its rigid reality and corrupt Nephandic taint. We have the knowledge and the tools to lift humanity to the stars, and beyond. I see no reason we cannot fulfill our obligations to them by doing so. In fact, I feel that we must do so. Sic atur ad astra!" -- Captain Nebula The Starlifter faction, like the technocratic conventions and the other traditions, built large space Rockets (with the assistance of sympathetic Void Engineers), and tried to save as many people as they could. Unlike the craft of most other groups, these ships were not reserved for those people that followed the etheric paradigm; passage was given to anyone that could get to them. Soon after evacuation, Starlifter Arks made several clandestine trips into areas controlled by other Traditions to drop off people
sympathetic to those Traditions. In the confusion of the situation, very few people noticed that the number of refugees was higher than expected, and no one questioned them enough to learn of the Etherite fleet. Once this task was completed, the space arks were dismantled and rebuilt into a fleet of ships, which the Starlifters and their followers took out of charted space on an exploration mission. There have been no further reports from the fleet since it departed, but then again nobody that stayed behind really knew much about it in the first place.
The Continuum "Why try to find a new world, when we already have a perfectly serviceable one pre-built to our specifications? The modifications should be exceedingly simple." -- Acetylene Jackson The third faction also tried to save as many people as possible, but they took a different course of action. Instead of spaceships, they researched methods of traveling to new dimensions. Much like the Iterators, the Etherites discovered a way to create an artificial Soulgate. However, unlike the Iterators, they did not try to create it from nothing. They used something that they already knew intimately: The Gernsback Continuum. They constructed hundreds of robotic Von Neumann (self-replicating/repairing) probes of all shapes and sizes, and sent them hurtling through space to seek out strong sources of quintessence, and link them to the Gernsback Continuum automatically. Great dirigibles, saucers, submarine boats, and other bizarre craft were sent to evacuate as many people as possible to the Gerns. Unlike the Starlifters, the Gernsback contingent did not bother with dropping people off at planets with similar beliefs; they needed to form a self-sufficient community, and didn't have the long-range/high-capacity ships that the Starlifters had. While all this was being implemented, a large device called a "De-Sitter Space Antiphase Matter Transition Drive" was constructed in the center of the Gernsback Continuum, along with several redundant auxiliary units on the fringes. Using the Quintessence stream provided by the Von Neumann probes, this enormous and hideously complex device began to maintain the reality of the Gernsback Continuum, and translated it into a different level of existence (i.e., makes it behave like a Soulgate).
The Independents "The Sons of Ether? The Sons of Ether are dead, my friend. Long live the Sons of Ether. Heeehee. By the way, won't you sit down and have a rest? *Sound of bindings locking into place around hapless visitor* Heeeheee heeheehaha mwahahahaHAHAHAHAA!" The Independents are those Scientists who decided to pursue their own agendas when Earth died rather than join one of the other groups. To most of the various Factions in this setting, they are all that remain of the Sons of Ether. They are stereotyped as a bunch of solitary maniacs who roam space pursuing odd experiments, but are not strong enough to form a faction of their own.
Recent History On three occasions, a Von Neumann probe from the Gernsback Continuum has located a node controlled by some other group and was subsequently destroyed; the independents are increasingly blamed for the problem, as the probes are usually almost recognizably Etheric. The independents are not aware of the continued existence of their old compatriots, but this sort of thing is starting to make them suspicious that something strange is going on.
About The Gernsback Continuum Ah, the Gernsback Continuum, vision of the perfect reality for many in the Sons of Ether. Today the Gernsback Continuum does not look different than when it was a Horizon Realm in a qualitative sense, but it is now much, much bigger. There has been a bit of a shift in terminology since the Continuum gained its independence from Earth's reality. "The Gerns" refers to the planet that was the original Horizon Realm, while "The Gernsback Continuum", or simply "The Continuum" usually refers to the peculiar artificial reality it inhabits. The Gerns is now a planetary body in a 1930's pulp-comic version of outer space. There are no distinct cities. Civilization and Nature are completely integrated here and at peace with one another. There are simply regions where the buildings are more numerous than the trees, and vice versa. The Gerns is every bit the benevolent Utopia that the Sons would have wanted for Earth. The Gerns has somehow (probably due to manipulations in the design during the conversion from Horizon Realm to independent reality) acquired a hollow interior, which is an untamed wilderness area reminiscent of the Son's beloved Hollow Earth. Finally, among the Sons and their unawakened companions, there are persistent rumors that certain areas of the Gernsback Continuum do not connect with the Tellurian they left behind, but with another, stranger place . . . . The Etherians rarely if ever leave the Gernsback Continuum, making it seem to outsiders as if the Tradition has all but
completely died out, leaving only the Independents. Nobody is aware of the secret home base of the thriving Scientists, and for the most part the Sons are content to stay there and pursue their research in peace. Only recently have certain members of the Tradition grown curious about what is going on outside, and begun constructing ships to explore the greater universe once again.
A Thought For those who prefer the darker or more mysterious side of Mage, perhaps some or all of the Sons of Ether and their consors died (or simply vanished) during the conversion of the Gernsback Continuum, leaving only immortal robotic servitors to maintain the art deco realm as a Monument to the Sons that gave them life. Perhaps the entire planet is an eerie place, full of empty hallways, occasional mechanical noises and scurryings, and the hollow echoes from the footsteps of the characters. Perhaps it is simply waiting for new masters to take up permanent residence, whether they want to or not . . . .
SONS OF ETHER PARADIGM: THE QUANTUM WAVE By Anders Torlind
The Paradigm The Model. Reality is a model. There are many models, and they may all be equally valid, this is the central fact in the Sons Of Ether paradigm. This means they actually somewhat understand the other traditions, as their models may also be functional, but the Sons view them as decidedly narrow-minded. The only criterium for a successful model is that you, within it, can prove it works by experiments. A complete model is a model that includes all effects that may be experimented with. Such complete models exist in large numbers (for example the usual tradition paradigms), and partial models, models under development and not yet finished, are as many as there are Sons Of Ether. However, most partial models are mere changes from already existing complete models.
Magick Experiments. The model and the theories of it are constantly being revised and improved, and in some cases even strengthened by experiments. To be a Scientist is to experiment, and the more far fetched the effects of an experiment, the greater conclusions may be made by it.
Spheres This is yet another model for the SoE paradigm. Scientists have named it the quantum-wave model, and it has spread like a bush-fire through labs all over the world. In fact, this model has had such success that some technomancers are seriously worried about losing control of the sleepers' scientific society in various physics labs. Please note that the spheres Time and Entropy is somewhat redefined from the viewpoint of the basic rules. This should not really create a problem, except with the most specific rotes.
Prime: Waves. Everything consists, in one form or an other, of waves. Those who understand how to control and create waves thus gain immense insight in how the reality is structured. Waves can be extracted from matter, and transformed through the means of cleverly built machines. Ordinarily these waves are of infinitesimal amplitude, but they may interfere in places, and so become "visible."
Forces: Medium frequency wave-interference; energy. Waves of medium frequency reverb through the universe, where many such waves interact, there the amplitude goes above the infinitesimal, and there is where we perceive energy to exist. Of course there is energy all around, but the waves do not interfere; a Scientist, skilled in the discipline of energy, may bend and twist these waves to create interference wherever he wants, or, in reverse, may disjoint the waves that makes up energy, and thus neutralize it.
Matter: Extreme frequency wave-interference; matter. As medium frequency waves, the extreme frequency waves exist everywhere; the only difference is their frequency, and the fact that when extreme frequency waves interact, they create what we perceive as matter. This leads to the same conclusion about creation and unmaking as it does in the case of medium frequency waves.
Life: Medium and Extreme frequency wave-interference in self-sustaining systems. This is a complicated area of research. The secret of life is evidently based on energy and matter, and therefore basically on waves. It seems that the interference-points of energy and matter may in turn interact, and form systems which are self-sustaining and reproducing. This would mean that the systems themselves support the basic matter-energy transformations, and also structure the so new-formed interference-points into new self-sustaining systems. If a scientist has an understanding of how these wave-systems interact and interpolate, he may change the properties of living organisms. Research is ongoing. (For enlightenment study the Game Of Life, by the famous Professor John Conway)
Entropy: Frequency fluctuations. All waves vary in frequency. This is a natural thing and normally occurs at a slow rate. This rate, however may change rather unpredictably, and throw the most carefully planned experiment off cue. The higher the understanding of frequency fluctuations a scientist has, the more precisely he can predict these fluctuations in the future, and he can in fact himself change the frequency to his own ends.
Time: Frequency reduction. The phenomenon people usually regards as time is really only a special case of frequency fluctuations. It is a fact that the waves in the universe are slowing in frequency. What causes this we have not as of identified (The current theory stipulates that the frequency becomes lower as the number of interference-points on a single wave increases, and so is "using up" the wave. The constant lowering of frequencies would be explained by a continuing creation of matter and energy. Exactly where this creation takes place is as of yet undetermined). The loss of frequency will eventually (of course) disrupt matter and energy, as the waves it consists of, one by one, drops off into new spectra. The connection between what people in general mean when they say time and frequency reduction is only the direction of the frequency change. Why we only
move in one direction of time is currently unknown. Knowledge of frequency reduction will bestow upon the scientist a possibility to predict future events and retrace past ditto.
Spirit: Medium frequency wave-interference in self-sustaining systems. This is a phenomenon very much like the one usually referred to as life, the only difference we have been able to establish is that the Extreme frequency portion is simply void. Otherwise the systems work quite alike. Also, as these "life-forms" are made up of pure energy, they are not visible to the naked eye.
Correspondence: Interference-point. One portion of everything is the location at which interference occurs, this location is called interference-point. As every vibration spans the entire universe, it is, in a sense, omnipresent. A side-effect of this is that every interference-point may be shifted to another location in the space-time continuum. At least according to theory. We have not yet been able to shift an interference-point into the "future," but some related experiments have been fruitful. For a skilled scientist it is a mere formality to shift interference-point to any location he may fathom. Combined with a knowledge of frequency reduction, he may even transport himself in time.
Mind: Structured interference. This seems to be a subset of Extreme and/or Medium frequency wave-interference in selfsustaining systems. For a reason not yet fully researched, the rules for its making and support is somewhat different than "life." Current theories indicates that it might depend on different matter/energy ratios as compared to "life." While this still remains to be fully proved it does explain its different behavior. Experiments have been carried out, which have proved these systems, at least for some periods of time, may uphold their equilibrium even without the matter component, thus producing the effect other traditions label untethering.
Paradox Mistakes. When a scientist makes mistakes, they might be so serious that they affect the universe directly with totally unforeseen results. These results also seem to, generally, be very unlikely. Mistakes often also affect the scientists own selfsustaining systems, creating small imbalances, that might in the long run multiply and cause greater and greater problems. This might even lead to the death of a sloppy scientist. Beware!
Arete Insight. The greater the insight, the greater changes may be made to the universe without fear of mistakes. Insight is generally gained by very hard study, concluded by an experiment which will confirm ones learning, then the flash of insight will strike.
Quintessence Free Waves. Waves are the essence of the universe; they are what make it up. Free waves are waves which have no interference-points. This means that they have great potential of use, as nothing taps their energy. Free waves may be gained from everything, if you know how to control waves, by extracting the waves that has only one interference-point (that is, that one point lies in the object from which you are extracting).
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: Uniqueness. Some scientists have found a way to reduce the number of interference-points in other self-sustaining systems, located outside their own, on the waves that makes up their system. This has as effect that they interact less with the universe as a whole.
Avatar: Storage. The ability to temporarily incorporate Free Waves into your self-sustaining system by giving them a sole interference-point, located inside your system.
Destiny: Firm goal. Scientists who knows what they want (subconsciously or not) are more likely to achieve something in life. If sufficiently strong, it will motivate them, and carry them through hard times.
Dream: Structured interference flux. This is caused by the random natural fluctuations that every vibration has. When acting on a highly structured interference system (i.e mind) they cause small changes to multiply through the system, and cause, in the case of a sentient system, new and innovative ideas to arise. Of course half of the time, it will produce utter garbage...
Node: Vibration isolator. This is a machine that locates Free Waves and binds them to one single interference-point. This locks the waves in matter or energy form, for easy access. As you see, this is only a special case of Storage, and may come in very handy in certain situations.
SONS OF ETHER PARADIGM AND WEIRD SCIENCE By Christopher Kobar
The Paradigm The Ethereal Plane (The Tellurian)
Phenomena (Magick) The Blind (Sleepers) The Moment of Truth (The Awakening) True Scientist (Mage) Ordinary Phenomena (Coincidental Magick) Extraordinary Phenomena (Vulgar Magick)
Subconscious (Avatar)
Genius (Arete)
The Ectotropic Plane (The Umbra)
The Categories (The Spheres) Dimension (Correspondence) Entropy Electroplasm (Forces) Bioplasm (Life) Plasm (Matter) Psychoplasm (Mind) Ether (Prime) Causality (Time) Ether (Quintessence) Etheric Residue (Tass) Ether-gate (Node)
Paradox Paradox Flaw Backlash Quiet
Miscellany Eccentricity (Blatancy) Letheric Potential (Dream)
Weird Science (The following should help color and bring-to-life Sons of Ether)
Inventions (Rote Foci) The Sons of Ether spurn the constraints of modern scientific theory, and their proof is in the pudding, so to speak. By inventing all manner of bizarre contraptions and impossible devices these "weird scientists" prove to themselves (and hopefully others) that just because the National Academy of Sciences says so, does not make it so. The Sons hope that some of their inventions will one day be accepted by society as a whole, becoming part of the consensual paradigm, but until the Technocracy can be convinced to become more flexible in regards to what is and what isn't proper science, their myriad of odd gadgets will have to remain their province only, occasionally drawing them derision from those who do not understand.
Purpose (Effect): Each invention has a purpose, which is in essence, what it does.
System A character may invent as many devices as he wishes, though he will be limited by cost and time. Furthermore, each gadget will have a relative encumbrance that will dictate how many may be carried at a time. Normally, each invention will perform one rote, though as long as the rotes utilize the same spheres and all rotes were built into the device upon its creation, more can be "installed". Note that this will increase all the limitations as mentioned above.
Cost: $500 x total sphere levels x (11 - Arete). Example: a Matter/3, Correspondence/2, Entropy/2 rote device made by a mage with an Arete of 4 would cost $24,500.
Time to make: One day per sphere level x (11 - Arete). The example invention above would take forty-nine days to make. Typically, one day assumes a full working day, with few distractions.
Encumbrance: Weighs 0.1 pound per sphere level x (11 - Arete). The gadget would only weigh five (4.9) pounds. Round all results to the nearest half-pound. Note: Regardless of how many rotes are actually "installed" in an invention when first made, the weight of the device is only derived from non-repetitive spheres. If the device above also had a Mind/2, Correspondence/1 rote, only the two levels of mind would have to be added to the weight calculation, making it 1.4 pounds heavier, for a total final encumberance of 6.5 (6.3) pounds.
Advantages Simplicity: The primary advantage of using an invention for a focus is the reduction of an effect's difficulty. The difficulty of an effect is reduced by one (-1) if it is done with the help of the proper invention.
Speed: An added bonus is the fact that an invention allows one to produce the desired effect much quicker than normal. A rote effect performed with the proper invention takes only one turn to produce. Note: A "fast cast" is still possible, though it will negate the invention's difficulty reduction.
Blatancy: A final advantage in using an invention as a focus is the increased probability that onlookers will believe any vulgar effects to be coincidental. Inventions provide an automatic point of Blatancy. Note: This can only change Vulgar with Witnesses to Vulgar without Witnesses. It cannot make a vulgar effect coincidental.
SOLIFICATI By Andrew Larsen
History The origins of alchemy date back to the dawn of human civilization, when primitive smiths and potters first mastered the art of transforming matter with fire. The earliest smiths and potters were regarded with the same awe granted to shamans. Even at this point, the art had a strong association with celestial phenomena, as early mages harnessed the power of meteors to forge some of the earliest sword talismans. Throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China, as civilization grew, the art of alchemy spread, although the exact origins of that word are obscure. While many alchemists assert that the origins of the Solificati date to Egypt in the first millennium BC, when the mysterious figure Hermes Trismagistus is claimed to have established the basic features of the craft, the first historically identifiable alchemists are a group of women active in Alexandria in the first few centuries AD, and some Tradition scholars suggest that Hermes was invented by misogynist mages during the early Renaissance, so they would not have to admit that their art was first codified by women. The greatest of these women, Maria the Jewess, made a permanent imprint of the practice of alchemy with her dictum that the four classic elements of earth, air, fire, and water represent the basic states of matter, and that physical matter is the passive reflection of the spiritual truths of the heavens. Yet her work was precisely measured and carried out with intense scrutiny and observation, thus showing that from its inception the craft was situated between the nascent Traditions and Conventions, having something in common with both. Its closest allies were that Tradition which would eventually become the Order of Hermes, and at this stage there was little distinction between them. The Alexandrian alchemists slowly cohered into a system of formalized teaching, based around the Serapion, a temple in Alexandria. When Theodosius I ordered the Serapion closed at the end of the Fourth century (under the influence of the Celestial Chorus, some say), many of the school's teachers fled to Arabia, where they continued their work, and eventually became accepted into Islamic culture in the Eighth century, when the great alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (known in the West as Geber) opened his school of alchemy in Damascus. It was during the period just before Jabir that the craft formulated many of its chief characteristics. The physical matter is but a pale reflection of the spiritual truth, and the external appearance is a metaphor for the internal reality. By drawing out the internal reality, the exterior is transformed. The quest to transform base metals into gold is a metaphor for the process of Ascension, which the alchemist pursues by learning the spiritual lessons which his research offers him. While this was happening, in China, the craft was undergoing a parallel but distinct development. The first great Chinese alchemist was Li Shao-Chun (c.90 BC), a mage at the Imperial Court, who possessed the ability to transmute matter and to miraculously transport himself from place to place. His teachings were similar to Maria's, but he was far more interested in the realities of organic substances. He argued that matter grew and naturally changed from one substance into another. By the midFourth century AD, the art of alchemy had developed into a broad system of life magic, and Ko Hung perfected an elixir of immortality that caused the spiritual body to shed the physical one like a snake sheds its skin. When Ninth century Arabic travelers encountered their Chinese counterparts, there was a prolonged period of conflict and argumentation, but by the Twelfth century, pressure from the incipient Technocracy on the one hand and the Celestial Chorus on the other led the Eastern and Western alchemists to realize that they in fact had a great deal in common. Toward the end of the century, the Chinese alchemists came under direct attack from the Artificers, led by Chu Hsi, a former Akashic monk who apostatized from the Tradition. Chu Hsi opposed all forms of Taoist superstition, under which category he included alchemy. Many of the more scientifically inclined alchemists were swayed by his arguments and joined him, while the more mystical among them held out and went into seclusion. In the West, alchemy spread with Islamic civilization and found its way into Europe through Spain and Sicily. Its strong spiritual content appealed to many monks, who saw the craft's emphasis on fire as a transformative principle as similar to the Chorus' use of fire as a manifestation of the One. It quickly spread to the Universities, and the Chorus desperately attempted to stamp it out, viewing it as a threat to the True Faith. Roger Bacon, who practiced and privately taught alchemy at Oxford and Paris, was censured by the Church in 1277. This proved the first shot in the Chorus' attempt to eliminate the craft, and many alchemists either abandoned their work or took up with the Cabal of Pure Reason. Those who remained found a spiritual truth in their suffering, arguing that they had been transformed by the fire of the Chorus into something stronger and more pure. By the early fifteenth century, the Solificati, as they had come to call themselves, were largely distinct from the Church. Most of them were upper class men and women, since only the wealthy could afford the expensive tools of their work. In contrast, most of the Eastern alchemists were poor hermits, who financed their work by transforming common substances into gold and silver. What they shared in common was a strong insistence that the material world was an allegorical guide to the spiritual one. The Craft as a whole had begun to meet regularly, at 20 year intervals, each time at a different city. At the Baghdad Session in 1455, Diplomate Luis, a Cordovan alchemist, argued forcefully that the Solificati had to join with the other Traditions, and he was appointed to represent them at the Grand Convocation at Mistridge, although many of the Eastern mages had considerable misgivings, given his strongly aristocratic background and personality. When the First Cabal was formed, the Eastern alchemists argued that the Solificati representative must have as strong an understanding of Life magics as Matter, to balance out the two branches of the Solificati. Heylel Teomin, a European who had travelled in Arabia and Asia, was chosen as the ideal alchemist, a person who combined male and female, rich and poor, Matter and Life. Heylel was seen as embodying all that was good about the alchemists, and under his influence, many of the underlying arguments about the nature of alchemy were laid aside.
Heylel's treason in 1470 shattered the Solificati. The more dogmatic Eastern members felt that his corruption was due to the inherently flawed nature of Western alchemy, and many of them broke off contact with the West in disgust, while the Westerners argued that Heylel's biological experiment was misguided and corrupt. The more rationalist Solificati concluded that the spiritual focus of the craft was misguided, and a good number of them were drawn into the Technocracy, particularly the Progenitors and the Pupils of Parmenides. Some of those who joined the Pupils were among the most prominent of the Western alchemists, which has led some scholars to conjecture erroneously that the Solificati were actually the forefathers of the Sons of Ether. Those who remained true to the ideals of the Convocation were scorned by the other Traditions as suspect of treachery, and most of the remaining Solificati were driven out by this pressure. Those who decided to remain were absorbed by the Order of Hermes, which was sympathetic to their approach, and this faction has contributed much to the Order over the last few centuries, but they are no longer true Solificati. Under these various tensions, the weak organization of the Solificati collapsed, and despite periodic attempts to organize another Session, the craft has remained a collection of reclusive individuals who communicate with each other only sporadically. The next few centuries were unkind to the Solificati. A good number of the more prominent and gifted alchemists were won over to the Technocracy. Paracelsus' assumption that alchemy was the handmaiden of medicine served to funnel many mages into the Progenitors, and eventually in 1541, another Solificati, seeing the damage that Paracelsus was doing to the Craft, murdered him with a bottle of specially brewed wine that caused him to have a fatal accident. Copernicus' heliocentric theory proved a grave blow to the astrological assumptions of the alchemists, for whom the geocentric theory had deep spiritual ramifications. At the Symposium of London in 1661, the Iterator Robert Boyle convinced the Technocracy to destroy the Four Elements theory of matter, and under his influence, the English Royal Society attacked alchemists throughout the Eighteenth century, disproving their work and embarrassing them. This assault humiliated many of the greatest Solificati and gradually drove them to the margins of society, where they remain today.
Philosophy Matter is that portion of the world which is unchanging in its true form, and therefore it is the most pure representation of the spiritual world, since living substances inevitably wither and decay, and forces are transitory. All matter is fundamentally one substance, and over time it evolves from base to pure, culminating in gold. This evolution is an external reflection of the hidden nature of reality. The universe expresses its spiritual truths in allegorical form, and by studying the material reality the alchemist learns the deeper spiritual lessons that will guide her to Ascension. Western alchemists speak of the attempt to turn base things to gold, while Eastern alchemists talk of the search for the elixir of immortality, but both groups understand this to allegorize the transformation of human nature. Both seek the Philosopher's Stone, which will enable them to complete their work. In many ways, the Solificati view themselves as the perfect Craft, combining the rationality of the Conventions with the spirituality of the Traditions, thereby uniting the opposing poles of magic.
Style The Solificati are highly reclusive, because their pursuit of Ascension is an intensely individual endeavor. They employ a wide variety of arcane terms and devices because of the philosophical value they find in conceiving of their work in these terms. This is one of the major differences between them and the Order of Hermes, who employ obscurity to close out the undeserving, whereas for the Solificati it is necessary for true understanding. Western alchemists tend to be very wealthy and are most concerned with manipulating the world through their potions, while their Eastern counterparts are generally poor and ascetic, seeking to purify their bodies through mineral-based medicines, on the theory that by becoming as much like the immortal material world they will acquire its spiritual qualities.
Organization The Solificati have no true organization, although there is some informal contact between them, as they share theories and trade results of experiments. There have been sporadic attempts to gather many alchemists together for another Session, but these inevitably founder over a variety of issues. To find more than two or three Solificati in one place at the same time is highly uncommon.
Initiation Like the Order of Hermes, there is a long period of apprenticeship require, which much hard manual work, which is thought of as the first stage of purification of the base human nature. During this time the master speaks in obscure allegorical language, knowing that when the apprentice has pondered these matters enough, he will begin to understand them for himself, at which time he will Awaken.
Sphere
Matter
Foci Correspondence and Time: Astrological information. While the most conservative Solificati still insist on using sextants and armillary spheres, other are content with an ephemeris, and some modernizing alchemists employ elaborate computer models.
Mind and Spirit: Meditation or some form of purification, which may range from hand washing to fasting to purgatives to celibacy.
Matter and Prime: Fire, which is the principle that transforms matter from one state to another. Entropy, Forces, and Life: Alchemical potions, substances, and apparatus.
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They pursue enlightenment more zealously than any other sect, but they view the world as an extension of themselves, rather than seeing that its value is intrinsic.
Celestial Chorus: They have always feared us, for we transform ourselves, rather than waiting for something to transform us. Cult of Ecstasy: To appreciate the world's external beauty is an admirable beginning, but they have not learned to see the true meaning of that beauty.
Dreamspeakers: They shun the material world, assuming that the spiritual world will explain itself plainly. They are too impatient, and unwilling to contemplate these mysteries for long.
Euthanatos: They desire to foster Ascension, but they have no mercy. When the pupil stumbles, she should be corrected, not killed.
Order of Hermes: They understand much, but they are proud and selfish. The craft should be taught to all who care to learn, not hoarded jealously. The journey to understanding is its own reward.
Sons of Ether: These fools are blind to the lessons of this world. They seek to plunder nature of its secrets, not to understand them.
Verbena: They love the world as much as we, but they rely too much on the unstable and changing nature of living things. That which decays is too imperfect to guide us to Ascension.
Virtual Adepts: To flee the world for some shallow copy thereof is the height to folly. They must learn to see the world around them, not invent a new one.
Hollow Ones: Childish and undisciplined. They must learn to ponder more and complain less.
Rotes The Fire Within (Spirit 2) By observing how a subject acts and meditating on her demeanor, the mage can determine whether the subject is Awakened. One success will indicate if the subject has the potential to awaken, two successes will indicate if she is awake, while three or more will give some indication of how enlightened she is.
Greek Fire (Forces 3 Prime 3) Invented by the Byzantine Alchemist Michael Aretephorus in the Seventh century under the patronage of Emperor Heraclius I, this rote was long a closely guarded treasure of Greek alchemists. The mage brews an oily liquid which, when ignited, will consume anything not in a gaseous state, apart from its own ashes. The effect draws quintessence from whatever is burned and uses it to continue the fire. Thus the fire gradually increases in size until the duration of the spell ends or until the fire is extinguished with magical aid. The only other way for the fire to abate is if the wind blows it back over its ashes. Because of the advent of Napalm, this rote is usually coincidental unless it begins consuming something clearly non-flammable.
The Blessed Fireworks of Peace (Forces 3 or 4 Prime 2 Spirit 2) This rote was perfected in China in the Tenth century, where it was used during celebration to ensure safety from the spirits. The dazzling explosions caused by this effect cause damage of varying intensity to spirits (depending on the level of Forces used) and also raises the gauntlet in the vicinity by one per success.
The Delightful Fireworks of Joy (Entropy 3 Life 2) A frequent companion to the above rote, this spell grants those who are showered in the light of the display good luck for the duration of the effect. There are variants involving Correspondence 2 and Matter 2 that bless places and objects with good luck.
Universal Solvent (Entropy 3) This liquid, carried in a golden bottle, will dissolve any substance apart from gold, which is the only substance pure enough to resist entropy. The more successes scored, the faster the substance will dissolve.
Consulting the Stars (Time 1, Entropy 2) By studying the heavens before undertaking an endeavor, the mage can reduce the difficulty of the roll by one per success, by ensuring that he is not using ill-aspected tools and making sure that the planets are favorably aligned. Frequent use of this rote, however, generally causes the mage to start discovering that he must wait a few days or weeks before he can safely attempt the task. Should he ignore the readings, the difficulty is increased by the number of successes. Wise mages therefore are cautious when using this rote.
The Golden Petal Elixir (Entropy 1 Life 3) This pleasant-tasting potion identifies all abnormal weaknesses in a living being (including diseases and injuries) and cures them. With Life 4, it will correct birth defects, while the addition of Mind 1 will allow it to cure mental illness.
Blood of the Red Dragon (Life 3 or 4) This drink, first brewed by the great Ko Hung, increases the drinker's strength and stamina by one point per success. The effects will wear off before the drinker begins to take pattern leakage, since the intent of the potion is to perfect the body, not harm it.
Resurrection (Matter 2 Life 4 Prime 2 Spirit 2) This rote brings the dead back to life, by transforming the lifeless matter into living matter and recalling the spirit to its former body. This is a perfect example of the differing approach that the Eastern and Western Solificati take to the same spell. Eastern Alchemists will bathe the body in a hot bath and feed it the Scarlet Snow and Flowing Pearl Elixir, while the Western Alchemists will reduce the body to its essential salts by burning it and then mix them with certain liquids to reform the person whole. This effect requires three successes if the person died recently, but four or more if she has been dead for some time. Insufficient successes will cause the person to die again, while a botch will produce a living thing that is not the person.
The Essence of Venus (Life 4 Prime 2) This rote, a classic of the Western Solificati, produces a love potion which will cause the drinker to fall in love with the first person she sees after drinking it, by producing intense hormonal responses within her body.
The Transforming Fire (Matter 2 or 5) A rote so common among the Western Solificati, most Tradition mages think it defines the whole purpose of alchemy. By heating a substance over flame of varying temperature, the mage can change it into almost any other substance she desires. With Matter 5, the substance produced can have virtually any qualities at all.
Sublimation (Matter 3) By exposing an item to a brief burst of flame, the mage can effectively dissolve it by transmuting it into a gaseous state. As the gas slowly cools, it will gradually solidify again.
Brew Elixir (Prime 3) This is one of the most fundamental alchemical spells, established in its basic form by Maria the Jewess. By concocting a potion (for Western Solificati usually a liquid or unguent, in the East more commonly a pill), the mage can imbue it with any other magical effect he can create. This potion, mixed from mineral elements rather than herbal ones, is effectively a single-use talisman, usable by anyone, including a Sleeper, which can be dangerous, since any Paradox acquired is suffered by the user. Without this rote, any Solificati potion will only work in the presence and by the suffrage of the mage; otherwise most of their potions are toxic and will cause a point of Health damage per level of effect the potion is intended for.
The Jade-Compounded Calamity-Allaying Elixir (Matter 2 Prime 5) By distilling expensive ingredients down to their base purity, the mage can create liquid Tass, one point per success.
Alloy Primium (Matter 5) The Solificati claim that they possessed the secret of making Primium centuries before Iteration X did, and that in fact it was stolen from them in the Sixteenth century when a number of Solificati joined that Convention. They point to the use of gold and silver, their traditional metals, as proof that the substance originated with them, as well as the fact that they can create it in a normal crucible, while Iteration X requires a nuclear furnace for it. Primium armor gives 5 soak dice and 2 dice of countermagic. Primium-edged weapons cause aggravated damage to supernatural creatures.
Enchanted Servitor (Matter 2 Life 5 Prime 2, sometimes Spirit 2) Many Solificati employ this rote to create magical servants, frequently animated statues or golems, and sometimes homunculi. In its basic form, the effect brings any inanimate object to life and enables it to act as a servant, understanding simple commands. If Spirit 2 is added, the servant becomes a fully sentient being, and may act as a familiar. All Servants require a diet of Tass, however, and most are vulgar. The great Thirteenth century alchemist Albertus Magnus had a bronze statue that acted as an assistant, but it was so slow and stupid he was eventually forced to discipline it with a hammer.
SONS OF JUPITER By Jack Dracula (
[email protected]) Based on the characters and events depicted in the "Books of Magic." "Now, about the Art itself. About magic...I think I speak with some authority. By means of magic I have lived for many...millions...of years. And I've had time to do a great deal of thinking. And what I think is this. The whole thing's a crock of dirt. Not worth the price I paid. Not for one second. If I had my time over again, I'd be someone happy and distant and small. Live in a hole in the ground, maybe. Never to get involved in the affairs of the great, and the powerful. Never to discover the joy of the Art. That's the trouble, you know. Once you've begun to walk the path, there's no getting off it." -the Atlantisian The Sons of Jupiter are a Tradition that rose up from the Orphans. They have a completely different approach to the realm of magic than the other Traditions. They are not as focused on the struggle against the Technomancers. The Sons have a more eclectic view, stemming from their splintered history. No one can truly say when the group was first founded as a separate institution. Some claim to be millennia old (and for a master of Life, Spirit and Prime, why not?) Others support reincarnation as staunchly as any Euthanatos. What can be divined is this. In simplest terms, the Sons of Jupiter is a loose organization of Magi that seek out the most promising of budding Orphans, and embroil them in their conflicts. But, due to their secrecy, as well as their fractitiousness, no one knows what their central goals are. Indeed, no one knows if there _are_ any central goals. There are certain battlefronts, though. Certain members become involved with powerful Talismans. These unique Talismans are as dangerous as they are powerful. The Ruby of Life, last held by the late Sargon the Sorcerer, is one example, as is the Helmet of Dr. Fate. Whle these objects may grant extraordinary power, they will, in the end, cost the user his mind, soul or some other exactant price. Others set out on impossible crusades against cosmic events they believe they are destined to fight. The Chimarae, the Dream Realms, seems to be of particular interest to the Sons. Many go there on a regular basis, for research, travel, or as bounty hunters and scavengers. One theory often postulated by the Masters of Dream travel is that all of the shard realms that make up the Chimarae are ruled by one overall Dream Lord, a Celestine of quite some power. While they seem unable to produce solid proof of this, they are spending a good amount of resources there. The Sons of Jupiter do not appear focused on the Triat of the Weaver, Wyrm, and Wyld. They do, on that other hand, profess a belief in the Eternal War between Heaven and Hell. Demonology is quite common in some circles, and there are a handful of Celestial Chorus converts who claim to be visited by Angels on a regular basis. If this is true, the effects could be felt throughout the World of Darkness if a large-scale offensive was made against any one target. While the Sons do not profess quite the same fear in the Technocracy that the other Traditions do, they do have some strange connection to one faction. Spies from the Order of Hermes have reported midnight meetings between some prominent Sons of Jupiter and certain higher-ups in the Void Engineers. The Sons' connection to the Chimarae might have some relationship to the rumored infection of the Void Engineers by the Faerie. (This would also explain the sightings of the Sons who have been spotted in Arcadia as of recent.) Also, the Sons have had a long and varied history with the Mummies. How this came to be is, again, lost in the dusts of history. The Mummies remain reticent on the whole subject. It is known that some time in the past, the Sons of Jupiter aligned with the Mummies in some battle. And as a result, the Mummies were indebted to give the Sons something of value. The Sons chose to learn Hekau, the magic of the True Names. The Sons learned all they could, and incorporated it into the magic of the Magi. The Hekau of the Mummies was incorporated into the True Name Rotes of the Sons. Simply put, when the Mage invokes the True Name of the target, not only do they have the -1 difficulty for having something personal from the target, but the True Name also works as the focus. This will obviate the need for ANY other focus. The Sons will never let the Traditions learn of this power of theirs, and would be loathe to teach it to anyone. As a result of the True Name rituals, a person's True Name becomes even more valuable to the Sons of Jupiter (who are mostly mortal) than the Mummies (who don't usually face foes of their own level.) ALL True Names are guarded above all else, although it has happenned that a Mentor uses the apprentice's True Name to defend himself should the Aapprentice ever go rogue. The Sons of Jupiter consider themselves among the most enlightened of Traditions, because they focus so much on the price of magic. When any among them find a prospective member among the Sleepers or Orphans, they meet with their fellows to investigate the member further. If they think the person capable, they meet (coincidentally) with them, and offer the prospective the choice. The choice of whether or not to do magic is central to their philosophy. The World of the enlightened, the World of Darkness, is not for everyone. When you enter this new world, you give up your past life, and you cannot turn back. Once you have seen the truth behind the world of the Sleepers, be it the machinations of the Kindred, the War of the Garou, or the reality-flux of the Magi, you cannot just walk away. You are part of it. You always will be. Once you have figured out the trick of the stage magician, the show just isn't the same anymore. And the choice is paramount. Kindred give their victims no decision. Garou are Garou by birth, chosen by Gaia to defend her. A Ghost's horror of death is the decision of some unknowable power. The mummy's quest is eternal, death and the real world have no meaning for them at all. And no one can fathom the faeries or their ubiquitous realms.
But the Mage makes a choice. And they pay for it as well. Knowledge is its own curse and burden. A mage can never again have a normal relationship with someone. Never again go out to see a movie, or hang around the house and watch TV. Because they _know_. You can never just walk away. And the final secret of the Sons? The ever-important choice never exists. As soon as the question is asked, then the student is taken in. Once you see the world of the night, you can't forget that it exists, because you are changed forever. No choice, not even in the face of oblivion. Younger cabals on occasion play headhunter for the Masters. They set out to either discover the target's True Name, or get a piece of the target to facilitate more magic (or give a bargaining chip at the table.) True Names are used as sparingly as possible. The most common use is to threaten the target with massive ritual magic at some later date. This works especially well in some Umbral realms. A number of Sons have also become indebted to certain spirits in the Deep Umbra. How, why, and in exchange for what is, as with most things in the Sons, a mystery.
Philosophy: Magic has its price. Master it, but never think you're free. "VITA BREVIS, ARS LONGA. Life is brief, but the Art is eternal." We have chosen to give our lives to become masters of reality, and we are always paying that cost.
Organization: Most outsiders believe there is no centralized organization. Some members believe there is no organization. What there is is a sort of nodding hierarchy. Most members in the local area would know each other. They would also know appproximately how powerful/ experienced the others are. However, please note bluffing and intimidation are widely practiced, as is 'dressing-down,' appearing to all as someone of a much-lower ability. Appearance is everything and nothing. The Tradition, as a whole, is very individualistic; some members are charismatic enough to raise support for their minor causes, others simply go their own path silently.
Meetings: They only meet when necessary, such as in training a new student or when a threat becomes apparent. When they do work together, however, they work with a frightening efficiency against any foe, protecting each other's weaknesses while exploiting their combined strength. They also meet in shard realms by chance, and exchange current information then and there.
Initiation: A few members get together, and search out the most prominent students. They explain about the world of magic, and ask the student if they will join. None will try again if the student turns down the offer, but no grudge is held.
Chantry: There is no central Chantry. There are rumors, as always, of a node of unmistakable power in the Near or Deep Umbra, but no one has come back with conclusive proof. More widely believed, however, are the rumors that the Sons have a powerful Node hidden in the Chimarae, where their Masters of Spirit can recuperate.
Acolytes: stage magicians, occultists, historians, con men, supernaturals, bounty hunters Sphere: Due to the Orphanic heritage from which they rose, Sons are allowed to pick their central Sphere. Mind and Entropy are popular, while the Masters of Spirit gain the most respect from their peers.
Foci: The Sons of Jupiter evolved another benefit over the Orphans: they choose their own foci. The True Name of the foe is necessary for any of the True Name rotes, but that supercedes any other focus (also, the True Name focus cannot be ignored using a high Arete.) The most popular choices are: Seal of Jupiter, playing cards, Tarot cards, coins, Language and unique talismans. Coming from their Orphan background, however, a number of the Sons have chosen different foci altogether. Zatana chose Language as her focus; she speaks the desired effect backward (Rac hsarc dna pilf revo.) while another may choose hand gestures be necessary for him to cast from the Forces sphere. The overall choices reflect an eclectic viewpoint. [All choices must be approved by the ST, but you knew that.]
Concept: occult detectives, mystery men, wizards, aliens (from Deep Umbra) " I-HAVE-SEEN-GOOD-AND-I-HAVE-SEEN-EVIL. AND-NOW-I-AM-DEAD. I-HAVE-BEEN GOOD-AND-I-HAVE-BEEN-EVIL. ANDNOW-I-AM-DEAD. LOOK-ON-MY-WORKS... Y-O-U. L-I-S-T-E-N. I-T-'S. G-O-T. A. P-R-I-C-E. N-O-T-H-I-N-G-'S F-R-E-E..." -John Sargent, Sargon the Sorcerer
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: Combat monsters. Leave them alone and they'll protect themselves just fine. But if you need an ally, it is tough to find better.
Celestial Chorus: Too scary to be ignored; what if they _do_ get their power from on High? It would certainly change the scope of the Eternal War.
Cerebus: To be valued and admired for their organization and strength. Cult Of Ecstacy: Why? Discordians: Too unstable to be trustworthy, but maybe they have some alliance with the Marauders that we could use... Dreamspeakers: They are refugees from the Umbra, their true home. Almost pitiable. Almost. Euthanatos: Corruption and decay, waiting to uncoil. But to what end? Never believe in them. They would make for strong allies, but they can only trust in decay.
Hollow Ones: Cull these Orphans for those with true power. Necromancers: True mages after our own hearts, but too focused on their Book, and on this reality. Order Of Hermes: They pretend to look down on us because we are their most powerful rival. Runecasters: Leftover reminders of a past they lost. Sons of Ether: Fascinating use of magic to prove science, the opposite of human history. Good allies, if you can convince one to band with us.
Technolibertarians: Another piece of proof that the Technomancers are splintering like a shattered glass. Not quite as accessible as the Sons of Ether, though.
Verbena: They follow the great old ways. To a frighteneing degree. Virtual Adepts: This is an example of what the Technocrats could evolve into with the right prompting. Unfortunately, the Adepts are just as lost as the Dreamspeakers; they don't belong in our reality anymore. TH G IN E M O C E B S E IL F R E TTU B
Rotes Ignore Pain (Mind 1, Life 2): Allows the mage, through mastery of her own mind, to completely remove all pain. [This means no minuses to actions due to damage.] However, this also means that the Mage has only a vague idea of how hurt they really are. [The ST should keep track of the player's actual damage, only letting the player know in vague terms if the player specifically states he is looking, "Wahlll, you gots a big gash on yer chest, and yer left arm is missing. But yew don't feel it, so's it's okee."]
Double Pain (Mind 2): This extremely pleasant rote was developed by Jack Corinth, one of the stronger disciples among the Sons of Jupiter today. It locks on the target's mind, and doubles all pain felt by them. Especially fun for fighting those Lupines down the street...[Double the penalties for wounds. If the total penalties go over five, the target can no longer act, but can only curl up in pain.]
Crowded Entrance (Correspondence 3, Mind 3, Entropy 1): Created as a way of using teleportation coincidentally, the Mage a) uses Mind 1: Multi-Tasking to scan the minds of the crowd, b) mixes in a little Entropy to find a spot in the crowd no one is looking at/sensing directly, and c) Correspondence to teleport on in. Great for those quick get-aways.
Master Ninja Time Rote (Time 3, Mind 1, Entropy 1): Just the thing for the clever coyote, this Rote can turn anyone into a Master Ninja. It was first used by Glen Manning, a Mystery Science Theatre fan, who wanted to fight just like the ninjas in bad martial arts flicks. [Time slows down for the Mage, who then can use the Dim Mak effect to his the best possible spot on the enemy. Also, absurdly silly but effective dodges are possible, since the attacker is moving in slow motion; -2 to all dodge target numbers.]
"Kindred" Spirits (Prime 3, Spirit 3): This impolite rote is a dangerous way to get Quintessence from smaller spirits. The mage uses Spirit to call a smaller spirit [trust me, go for a small one.] which the mage then attacks, and drains the Quintessence from. Also note how dangerous this can be, as many spirits are but servants of more powerful beings you don't want to piss off.
Floodland (Mind 3, Entropy 3): A great delaying tactics, this rote was invented by Yomphana (yoyo), one of the Sons diametrically opposed to the Euthanatos. It floods the target's mind with all sorts of random thoughts from everyone in the area. This makes it virtually impossible to concentrate on anything. [For every success the Mage makes in the roll, take away one dice from the target's dice pools.]
Blood Bond(Prime 2, Life 3): Created by Arctus, this simulated the Vampiric Blood Bond by ladening the mage's blood with his own quintessence. [The person still needs to taste the Blood three times for it to be effective, and the mage will have to sacrifice a point of blood, along with the accompanying injury.]
The Notice (Mind 2, Prime 2): This hard-to-describe rote creates a 'quintessence sink,' which fools any Awakened bengs into thinking that the mage is much more powerful than she appears. [Just has some quality of... power about her.] At the same time, it sends out a sort of 'mental beacon' which causes everyone in range to notice and look at the Mage at the same time. "(lights cigarette) Nobody touches the boy. That's right. The boy's mine. And in thirty seconds, me, and him, and the witch, are going to walk out of here. You know who I am. Or you ought to. You know my reputation. Now... does anyone here really want to start something?" - John Constantine, TBOM
The Dream Time(Spirit 3, Mind 3): This allows the Sons of Jupiter to enter the Chimarae through a sleeping person's dreams [yes, you need a sleeping person to do it. Please note that the user will have to leave the person's dream and enter another dream, but this is usually not too much of a problem. Also note how useful that Dream background becomes.]
Vision Quest (Mind 3, Correspondence 1): This rote is often used in conjunction with the initiation of a new member into the Sons. The Mage taps into the initiate's mind, completely controlling the mental landscape and occurrences. (See Exorcist 2 for a good scene.)
Lucretia my Reflection (Correspondence 3, Mind 3): Allows the caster to communicate with a person by looking in a mirror and concentrating on them (it would also help the target wa also looking in a mirror.) Two way communication is possible, but more
importantly, it allows the caster to telelocate themselves directly to the person (by stepping into the mirror.) Created by Stanislaus Silver, who used mirrors for most of his foci. [Use ranges for Correspondence, but lower difficulty by 1.]
SONS OF LOVECRAFT By Christopher Short (
[email protected]) (10 Dec 94) A truly secret order who seek to understand the overall nature of reality before changing it.
Founder: Alan Kirkbright, Orphan, Powerful Avatar, Master of Dream, Author/writer and dabller in the occult. Friend of Poe/Lovecraft, Machen, White & Darlath. Used Dream to enlighten/teach himself about magick. After founding the order he used Dream to discover Wyrm Lore and decided to protect his order. This set 2 precedents: 1) That the study of the Wyrm should not progress above background reading (2). 2) Kirkbright's suicide, and the suicide of their role models, AC Doyle, Machen, Lovecraft; That a SoL would rather die than betray his orders existence/secrets. This is reinforced using Mind Magicks plus Encrypted Thought, occasionaly Mind Blast (Mind 3,Corr 5). In newly awakened mages, the Arcane is usually high, and once awakened in the 1920s the SoL's are transported into the future (Corr 4, Time 5).1920s->1990s, thus all record of them ceased many years hence.
Initiation: Candidates are usually writers or musicians, or such (High Dream), taken to their sanctum and exposed to True Reality. The order has Master library (Spirit & Correspondance only), Lores, and a wide variety of updated modern backgrounds, knowledge provided by their sleeper cover group 'Foundation for Modern Research'. Funding comes from one bank account, from a Mummy Swiss Bank Account (Allies).
Goal: An understanding of the overall nature of reality, for how can we change something we do not comprehend? Ascension is not an immediate goal, it is an end reached after a long, dangerous preparation.
Method: Due to their philosophy they have found no place closed to them. Garou sometimes see humans on the shores of the lakes of silver walking untroubled by the guardians to an audience with Luna.
Cast: They may attempt no sphere higher than their current culture score, as an understanding of another culture is central to their care beliefs. They must have at least as many dots in Lore skills as their culture score.
Other: We protect the gauntlet and the Ultima Thule. Ascension must be protected from the Horrors in the deep Umbra. Foci Circle: Time, Correspondence Weapon: Forces, Entropy Language*: Spirit, Prime Mirror: Life, Mind Darkness: Matter * Inspired by role models such as Derlath and Lovecraft. SoL's have created a language they refer to as "Cthonian". It is hissing, gutteral and alien, also very hard on the ears, tending to give casual listeners intense head aches, Spirits and the umbrood seem to like it fine though. NOTE : Because Cthonian is only known to Magi it is inaccessible to the collective unconscious. SoL's use it as proof that they are who they say they are when approaching a fellow member they have no been introduced to. (There are currently 21 members)
Stereotypes Virtual Adepts: Thieves, they stole Mount Qaf just as we were begining to understand it. Still as one door closes another opens. Cult of Ecstasy: Don't they know there's a war on? Orphans: True Magi, we were like them, but now we use the Traditions teaching methods. We have so much to do and soooo much to teach.
Hollow Ones: Sad. Celestial Chorus: The presence of a creator is undeniable, but we are not as naive as to claim to know his mind. Should they not be a convention, the creations of this tradition have inflicted at least the same amount of pain and suffering upon reality as the Technomancers.
Dreamspeakers: Gaia is but a minor facet of a far grander design. Their narrowness of vision blinds them to greater visions. Sons of Ether : "Throw the switch, Igor." Euthanatos: Study of this group is dangerous and ill advised, they react badly to being watched. Order of Hermes: Interesting!
Verbena: They can teach us much, but beware their blood magics. Technomancy: We despise in ANY form. Nephandi: Do not study them. They have nothing to teach, only a total fool would swap eternity for temporal power. You cannot kill them, you can only ease the burden of reality.
Marauders: Exercise extreme caution.
Southron Republic By Arthur-Trevor D.M. Laster (
[email protected]) for Constantine Thomas's Continuum Tradition. (Also see: Nexus and Shelby Babb's additions).
Virtual 1-2-3I(U)-2-E-3S-E-1-2-STH1 (Southron Republic) A similar idea was presented by S.M. Stirling in his "Draka" series of books. Mine, I believe, has a much 'happier' ending and the details of the society--indeed, how it started--are quite different. Don't think of it as derivative, but as a parallel proposal.
Prelude August 15, 1870 New Orleans...in flames... General Robert E. Lee, late of the Army of Northern Virginia, wept silently as the CSS Charleston floated out to sea. Beyond the horizon, bright orange flames licked at the French Quarter as Major-General Butler took his revenge out on the poor souls still left in the city. Acrid smoke wafted up into the air for as far as the eye could see and at high-noon, the sun was obscured and the water as black as pitch... He'd held out as long as he could, knowing full well that all was lost, that there would be no more reinforcements, that a denouement to guerrilla warfare would be met with even more brutality than he'd witnessed thus far. The last boat had left the harbour and the HMS Defiant was within sight of Lee's blurred vision, there to escort the Charleston to her final destination, the port of Cape Town at the tip of Africa. A fitting end, he thought darkly. It's a whole continent's revenge against us, against the same policies which brought her sons and daughters to this land laid low now by the conqueror's sword. We are being swallowed by Destiny...
A Short and Secret History of the Southron Republic By Andrew de Wit, Nephilim 10th Generation from Lilith Archivist-Historian Nth Class, Imperial Academy of History Cape Town, Southron Republic
"Who would create a future for himself, may not lose sight of the past." -- Pres. Paul Kruger, the last president of the Transvaal Republic
5 July, 1867: The Sacking of Richmond. After six long and bitter years of warfare, the Union Army, under U.S. Grant, finally crashes through the valiant defenders of the Confederate capital. Enraged at the defiance of the Southern troops, he orders the city put to torch... but not before the victorious Northern forces loot and plunder it. Thus begins the collapse of Southern resistance after a closely fought and barely lost war. After the loss of President Lincoln to General McClellan in the 1864 election, many had expected the North to sue for peace. In fact, President McClellan's first speech seemed to indicate that he could live with a continent divided between the two nations. That thought, however, was stillborne as an assassin's bullet laid low McClellan on 3 March, 1865. The perpetrator, the Copperhead Democrat and actor John Wilkes Boothe, immediately caused an electrifying sensation across the mourning nation. The North offered peace and the South (or so it was thought; Boothe's ties to Richmond were tenuous at best) gave them war. And so, the newly ascended President Douglas gave the people what they sought for: a Jihad. Total war. City after Southern city fell, all burned to the ground and looted, the vengeful Yankees seeking to seemingly drive the Southerners into the sea. Millions were displaced and untold atrocities occurred. By late '69, the Confederate Army was relegated to a swiftly tightening corridor of land from Galviston to New Orleans. The world powers, particularly the British, who'd passed the opportunity to recognise the Confederacy when Richmond seemed to be winning, were horrified. The Royal Navy was ordered to help evacuate any Southern family that could reach portcall. Officials--Confederate and British--scrambled to organise this unprecendented evacuation. With the Yanks apparently desiring nothing to do with their erstwhile countrymen, something needed to be done to save what could be saved of Dixie's children.
3 November, 1870: The British Parliament, mirroring the public outrage (fueled by at least two Clans; the Ventrue and the Lasombra [the latter in hiding]) at the Union's Carthage-like conquest of the Confederacy, passes the "Confederate Refuge and Settlement Act" at the urging of Prime Minister Gladstone and opposition leader Disraeli. Rumour is that Disraeli suggested the Act to Gladstone after reading in the Times of the Siege of New Orleans, the final bastion of the South, in which nearly seventeen thousand men, women and children were alleged to've been slain. The reality is only
slightly divergent. Viscount Manning, Lasombra Archbishop of Greater London, successfully implanted the suggestion into Benjamin's mind, where it found fertile ground and flowered into something quite larger than even Manning anticipated.
13 January, 1872: The "Cape Colony Self-Government Act of 1872" passes the British Parliament, amending a similar law passed barely a year earlier. This act expands the authority of the Cape Colony Parliament and further loosens the ties between London and Cape Town, bestowing Dominion status on the region on par with Canada. Once more, the hand of Archbishop Manning is behind this act, particularly amongst the House of Lords, where he maintains at least two in Ghouldom. Manning's ultimate goal, the unification of all British colonies in southern Africa for use as a base of operations for the Sabbat, begins to gel. By this juncture, the refugee crisis spawned by the influx of nearly 17 million settlers over the course of the last few years is beginning to abate as the Cape Colony and Natal economies take off.
14 April, 1895: Bowing to the inevitable -- and after a series of blistering raids out of the Cape Colony and Natal which devastated the Boers' major settlements -- the Orange Free State and the Transvaal agree to a federation with the British colonies. At 12:00 on that day, Cecil John Rhodes becomes the first Prime Minister of the Southron Republic. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. The Afrikaaners were by no means militarily defeated, even though the British Army and the colonial militias held most of their cities in thrall. Guerrilla warfare was an option, but Pres. Krueger of the Transvaal recognised that the overwhelming demographic superiority of the Cape and Natal would inevitably overwhelm the Boers shortly. They extracted a price, however. Afrikaans was elevated to official language status on par with English in the federation and the Witwatersraand (an area of vast gold and diamond reserves) was allocated to the Boers for exploitation, something which Rhodes had long coveted for his own use. Behind the scenes, Archbishop Manning had already set in motion wheels that would lead to eventual Southron domination of the subcontinent and, ultimately, the entirety of Africa. He pressed for subsidised immigration packages to the Southron Republic, Dominating a slew of MPs from the Unionist (later, Tory) slate, angering not a few Ventrue and Toreador, who considered Parliament their fiefdom. Unable to openly act against the Sabbat mastermind and unaware of the sect's major areas of control, the Camarilla conspirators -- already engaged in fratricidal warfare amongst themselves -- were rendered impotent. Additionally, all tariffs between Britain and the Republic were eventually phased out or lessened, thus allowing an even greater expansion of the Southron economy over the next decade. In Britain, Cape wines became all the rage, dominating the market.
2 April, 1903-13 March, 1905: Matabele War. The Matabele tribe in Southern Rhodesia, allied with several other minor tribes on both sides of the border of the Southron Republic, rebels against British rule, very nearly causing the collapse of the settler regime in Salisbury. After watching -- with increasing horror -- the rebellion for more than a year, Cape Town (up until then only interested in keeping the Venda and the Gazankulu tribes pacified in the northern Transvaal area) orders in the untested Praetorian Guard, the nascent army of the Southron Republic. A series of bush wars ensues, and the rebellion collapses. Cape Town is then left with a great amount of influence over Salisbury. Manning watched with interest the sequence of events which led to the war in Matabeleland. There was indirect evidence of werebeast activity and not a few instances of outright Camarilla involvement (particularly when the Guard entered the conflict). In the end, however, everything went according to plan and this conflict set the stage for the coming referendum.
19 November, 1905: A grateful Southern Rhodesia, still reeling from the aftereffects of the Matabele War, votes in a referendum to join the Southron Republic, becoming the nation's fifth province. The first Sabbat pack enters Salisbury on this night, originally hailing from the northern Transvaal. Archbishop Manning prepares to evacuate most of the Sabbat presence from southern England and Wales, leaving only the scattered country packs of Scotland and northern England to make a mess of the already convoluted Kindred politics in the nation. His plan is to set up Sabbat strongholds, called 'Garrison Houses' in the major cities of the Southron Republic, from which the sect could extend their control over the region. Houses in Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Durban, New Richmond, New Atlanta and Salisbury are set up.
4 August, 1914: The Great War begins in Europe. After nearly twenty years as a self-governing state, the Southron Republic is forced to make a difficult choice. As a member of the British Empire, Cape Town would nominally have been expected to join in the hostilities. However, a sizeable portion of both the Confederate and Afrikaaner population were leery of getting too deeply involved in 'their (the Europeans') war'. A delicate three-way ethnic balance ensued. With the population, as a whole, numerically in favour of the Confederates, the mining economy dominated by the Afrikaaners, and the bureaucracy by those of British descent, no mistakes could be made that wouldn't risk intercommunal strife. Prime Minister Anderson, a Confederate himself and the first to hold such a post, made the most important decision in the nation's history. He declared the Republic's policy to be that of 'self-defense at the expense of all' and set about prosecuting his own war, his way, independent of London or the Allies. Laying claim to Rhodes' old dream of a community from 'Cape to Cairo', Anderson presented a programme to Parliament outlining a vast and breathtaking vision. The Republic would immediately annex the British protectorates of Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland as areas 'integral to the stability of the Southron nation'. Following this up would be the London-requested land invasion of German South-West Afrika... with an added goal of seizing Portugese Angola and Mozambique. At the conclusion of hostilities, Cape Town would offer provincialhood to Nyassaland and Northern Rhodesia (though with the strong implication that there really wasn't all that much of a choice in the matter). Eventually, the Republic would buy, barter or seize any and all land she possibly could, making her way through the Belgian Congo, German
East Afrika, and British Kenia. Behind the scenes, the Sabbat were fast at work, mustering up the needed industrial output to sustain such grandiose visions, softening the local populace to the measures and dealing with the increasing interference from Camarilla operatives, particularly in Northern Rhodesia and British Kenia.
15 December, 1914-22 October, 1922: The Great Northern War. Acting upon Anderson's vision and spurred on by an increasingly confident and growing number of Sabbat operatives, the Southron Republic marches to war. The Praetorian Guard, long the fiefdom of the Confederate majority, finally gets a chance to stretch her wings as they conquer one region after another in a lightning set of raids across vast swathes of land from the Orange river to the Sahel in the southern reaches of north Africa. Colony after colony collapses as one of the largest armies the world has ever seen -- some four million strong -- drives inexorably northward. Behind the lines, preternatural warfare ensues. Caught almost completely unawares by the ferocious nature of the fighting, the Camarilla -- weak in Africa as it is and fighting against the werebeasts and Mages in most areas -- swings into action to fight a desperate rear-guard battle to prevent the entirety of the continent from coming under the dark sway of the Sabbat. The first meetings between the Sabbat and the Technocracy are held in Salisbury on a combined effort to crush both the Camarilla and the Tradition Mages which plague both conspirators. After years of painful deliberation -- and much mistrust -- the Pact of Salisbury is signed and sealed on January 1, 1920, sealing the fate of many a valiant Kindred and Mage. Technocratic Conventions will openly ally themselves with Sabbat Clans in support of joint operations to flush our and eliminate their competitors inside Southron-held territory. The Sabbat would allow the Progenitors tissue and blood samples in an effort to duplicate the success of Clan Tremere in creating a vampiric mage. New World Order and Virtual Adepts [note: the Pact stemmed the secession of the Adepts to the Traditions] were allowed to begin work on a massive bureaucracy to run the empire Cape Town was in the process of creating, one which would allow quick and efficient communication across vast distances, thus allowing greater control over far-flung regions. In the end, though, it was Manning who'd achieved the most of what he wanted: the virtual elimination of Camarilla influence from the continent. Africa was now a base of operations from which to accomplish two things: make further forays into Camarilla-held land and to begin the search and eventual destruction of the Antediluvians before the latter arose from Torpor.
19 May, 1922: After careful consultation between Convention and Clan leaders alike, the Virtual Adepts are allowed to release a variation of Charles Babbages' Difference Engine to the Sleeper public. Using scientists at the University of the Witwatersraand at New Richmond under the ghouldom of a noted Tzimisce in the region, the Adepts begin the 'Difference Revolution', an era where computational machines -- exclusively made in the Republic -- will begin to ease the burden off the Sleepers (thus making them more susceptible to further influences of the Conventions and their allied Clans in the Sabbat). Dayto-day bureaucracies will grow ever larger and more powerful, bringing citizens closer together and maintaining a greater amount of control over the local paradigm.
22 May, 1923: Years of bitter and protracted diplomatic infighting between London and Cape Town lead to a final break. Parliament passes the "Act of Separation" by an overwhelming majority, officially ending ties with the British Empire. This Act sets the stage for the final push to secure the northern reaches of Africa, under British and French suzerainty. Behind the scenes, the NWO and the Syndicate were undermining the local colonial administrations by undercutting the local hemp and opium markets with cheaply made (synthesised in Progenitor vats) Southron products, causing a region-wide epidemic of drug use and the concurrent crime and poverty problems normally associated with said habits. Additionally, select members of the colonial apparatus were replaced by Progenitor clones or ghouled by the Sabbat (mostly Tzimisce, though a few Lasombra were allowed to ensnarl select officials) in preparation for the final assault.
4 February, 1923: The Conventions task the Sabbat to hunt down and eliminate the renegade Sons of Ether, a Convention of Mages which had rebelled against the Technocracy and sought refuge within the Traditions. Eager to solidify the union of the two allies, the Sabbat pass the tasking down to the Sicariot for execution, beginning the decades-long and semi-successful "Mad Hunt" as the Sabbat's subsect of assassins swing into action.
14 March, 1923-23 May, 1923: The Maghreb War. Sufficiently rendered ungovernable by the undermining of the preternatural forces to the south of them, the north African colonial regimes in Egypt, Tripolitania, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco sustain a massive frontal assault by Southron troops as the final push to fulfill the late PM Anderson's vision is executed with cold efficiency. Ignoring threats of intervention from London, Rome, Paris and Madrid, Cape Town quickly seizes the colonies and begins mop-up operations in the hinterlands of the Sahara, the Atlas mountains and the Upper Nile area. Cape Town quickly mollifies the frightened colonial populace by offering expanded infrastructure and economic opportunities in addition to a resumption of law and order (tacitly omitting the fact the current crime wave was of their manufacturing). Behind the scenes, key leaders in the expatriot communities are Dominated, cloned or otherwise enthralled to mobilise the population in support of the new regime. In the Berber and Arab-populated hinterlands, efforts are made to lure them into more urbanised (and easily controlled) settings as the campaign against the last remaining Tradition mages and werebeasts comes to a satisfactory close.
'The Golden Twenties' With Africa under the Sabbat and the Conventions' co-dominium, the Southron Republic became a hotbed of economic, technological and social ferment as both forces found the area the perfect setting for all sorts of experiments on a grand scale. An area of massive proportions, hermetically sealed off from preternatural influence outside of theirs', the allies allowed
themselves free reign. Among the more noteworthy advances of the era, allowed to leak out from Convention laboratries: Artificial rubber Advanced antibiotics (needed against the subtropical environments the Southron settlers met while consolidating their hold on the central girth of the continent). Television (in addition to advanced monitoring techniques through two-way televised transmissions...) Fuel efficient internal combustion engines (lessening the need for petroleum in the relatively oil-poor central and southern zones of the continent as exploration/exploitation was redirected in the northern reaches) and so on...
October 4, 1929: The Great Depression begins. However, effects in the Southron Republic were almost minimal as the nation had little contact with the outside world save in export trading (and no currency or stock trading ties with anyone). A surreal gloom descended over the rest of the planet while Africa bloomed as planters, industrialists, engineers and settlers spread out to the farthest reaches of their new lands, building a magnificent infrastructure... all the while directed by the silent puppet masters of the Technocracy and the Sabbat. New immigrants, refugees from the Depression, pour into the Republic from all nations, though most of them hail from Britain, Germany and, ironically, America. This wave of new blood only increases the viability of the new borders and pushes the economy to feverish heights. During this era, the Southron Republic becomes the world's third largest economy, barely outstripped by the US and the UK.
October 11, 1930: After years of failure and disappointing results, the Progenitors and the Tzimisce finally end up creating a unique species of Revenant: the Manichaen. Springing from earlier attempts at duplicating Clan Tremere's feat, the Manichaen is a compromise between the full immortality of the Kindred and the need to keep the Awakened Avatar untainted to use True Magicks. The end result would be the final staple in the Pact, a true union between the two forces which had, heretofore, kept much of their autonomy in spite of their joint efforts.
1 September, 1939-22 July, 1944: The Second Great War. Spurred on in part by the activities of the German Camarilla factions, Europe is, once more, engulfed in flames as the Nazis stream across borders in a mad quest for a 1,000 year Reich. The West uniformally lines up to fight the barbaric regime in Berlin...but ends up getting much more than what they bargained for. Convinced that the time for eliminating his enemies is now, Gustav, the Prince of Berlin, begins overt preternatural efforts to aid the German cause, in blatant violation of the Masquerade. He Embraces Hitler and Himmler and adds the full weight of his influence to the ongoing conflict. The world, already horrified by the lightning-fast advances, is even further terrified as stories leak out of high ranking Soviet officers on the Eastern Front being found totally drained of blood. Rumours run rampant and even the more incredulous of papers begin to print the rising toll of active vampires--or beings believed to be vampires--in the war. The efforts are not in vain. Leningrad falls in late December of '42 and Moscow soon follows a month later, in January of '43. Astonished by the apparent meltdown of authority amongst the Camarilla in Europe -- and knowing a good opportunity when it saw it -- the Cabal (as the Technocracy and Sabbat have come to call themselves when referring to their united efforts) swings into action, moving the Southron Republic into position to wrest Europe from the Camarilla and out of Hitler and Gustav's mad dreams. The Republic officially declares war on 1 March, 1943. Eager to keep Washington out of the war in Europe, the Cabal ups the ante in the Pacific, secretly assisting Berlin's ally, Japan, during key naval battles. They secure themselves fully when Tokyo successfully lands on Australia on December 11, 1943, thus tying up America for the remainder of the war, leaving Europe to the Republic. With all preternatural factions at each other's throats in Europe, Lupines being the latest to covertly enter the fray, the Cabal play their trump card as Southron armies stream across the Mediterranean towards Italy, the Balkans and the south of France. From dark and secret complexes deep within the veld, Progenitor and Tzimisce technicians begin the mass production of a myriad of ghoul and recombinant variants for integration into the Praetorian Guard. The secrets of recombinant DNA are publically announced to the Sleepers within the Southron Republic, ostensibly stemming from government-sponsored research at the University of the Witwatersraand at New Richmond. Cape Town embraces the 'new' technology and the engines of war are given a deadly weapon with which to combat the menace of the Reich. The entire political and social landscape of the Republic changes almost overnight as various companies rush to cash in on the limitless applications for the technologies stemming from the announcement. All of this carefully planned to mask the activities of both the Cabal in matters internal and the misadventures of Gustav to the north, which threaten to bring down the wrath of humanity on the once securely covert preternatural denizens of the planet. With that cover in place and the whole world now complacent with the notion that the 'vampires' in earlier reports were simply the Nazi's own covert recombinant experiments, the Cabal has very nearly secured for themselves total control over the planet's paradigm. Tradition Mages, world-wide, are finding it harder not to court Paradox as the repercussions of 'fake supernatural' drive the realsupernatural even furtherfrom the Sleepers' dulled minds. Finally, after brutal town-to-town fighting and untold devastation, the Second Great War is brought to an abrupt end with the surprise assassination of Adolf Hitler and Gustav Breidenstein...allegedly by the latter's own Childe, Wilhelm Waldburg...on 20 July, 1944 in a massive explosion that obliterated both completely. Two days later, the remnants of the Reich, with Gustav's other Nazi-Childe, Heinrich Himmler, in command, sued for peace against the odd-couple coalition of the British, Free French, Free Soviet and Southron forces. Two months following that, the war officially ended with forcing Germany to return much of her gains
(though not all; Poland, as a state, was returned only in a truncated form and Austria and the Sudetenland remained with Berlin). The settlement also set in motion the interlinking and massive set of anti-partisan and nationalist conflicts which sprang up with the Nazi's swift defeat of the Soviet government in Moscow. Called collectively the Bush Wars by Cape Town and, later, much of the world, they spread across most of the eastern portions of Eurasia, from the constant Polish-German shellings across the new and unstable border, the Transylvania War between Rumania and Hungary over the aforementioned region, the implosion of the Balkans following the collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the myriad of nationalist and partisan wars over the carcass of the dying and decaying Soviet Union.
The Post-War World... Since the Settlement, ending the Second Great War, three Great Powers have vied for control over the hearts and minds of humanity, though not all with equal success. The Southron Republic is, arguably, the strongest of the three. She sits atop her primary powerbase on the continent of Africa, a paragon of high tech and advanced bioengineering. Her armies are staffed by a mixture of Sleepers and vat-grown Biorgs (the official term for the creations of the Progenitor/Tzimisce labs), her bureaucracy and political classes are more and more represented by ghouls and Manichaens and the everyday Southron has a chance at limited immortality... Cape Town's reach extends over much of the Eastern Hemisphere. Her primary satrap is the vampire Himmler's Germany, still going strong after decades of power. In Berlin, the first Manichaens appeared in the late '70s and it probably won't be long before the Land of the Eternal Fuehrer sees a societal transformation along the Southron model. Other satraps include Croatia, Rumania, Turkey, and the largest successor-state to rise out of Stalin's dystopia, the Grande Duchy of Rus. The United Kingdom still actively contests the Republic's European dominance and stands as the primary counter-weight to Southron (and Cabal) domination of world affairs. Close alliances with France, the Benelux nations and Scandanavia have knit western Europe closer as they eschew much of what the Republic stands for. Though appreciative of the technological advances, much of the UK's sphere has little use for the bioengineering sciences and, indeed, it is at that point where the two nations disagree most vehemently on. The Bioecofundamentalist Movement began in Manchester when a group of so-called 'Beefers' (their name for themselves) rioted against engineered produce being shipped in from Liverpool in the late '60s. Since then, the Beefers have made major political gains and their party, which merged with Labour in '72, has been in charge of the British government for nearly twenty years. Other UK satraps include the remaining nations of her truncated Empire, the largest of which are the hypermassive Raj of British India, Canada and Australia. The United States stands alone from the fray, an introverted and isolationist nation too large to be ignored and too dangerous and unpredictable to court by either the British or the Southrons. She's been something of an enigma since the end of the hardfought Pacific War (the Asian phase of the Second Great War). After nearly a decade of fighting, from 1941-1950, the US finally defeated the Japanese and sought to make sure they never expanded their aggressive energies elsewhere. And so, for fortyfive years, America has been digesting the Japanese home islands, annexing them officially after much heated political debate in '61. The ensuing merger of the two cultures created a synergy not seen since the cultural diffusion founded upon the ashes of the Confederacy and the Afrikaaner republics. America's vast reach stretches across the Pacific, from the State of Chosun, adjacent to China and the Empire of Siberia, down to her satraps in the south Pacific: the American East Indies and New Zealand. Curiously, the US has managed to eschew both the high tech and the bioengineering in the traditional, Southron-defined senses, and instead has become something of an anomaly. Her technologies are incompatible with Cape Town's. Television formats are encrypted and maser-directed beam communications make it difficult to keep tabs on her advancements. Bioengineering, too, has advanced along nearly totally different paths from that which the Cabal has directed Cape Town to pursue. An emphasis on intercompatibility with the environment is valued, a Zen-derived philosophy of advancement. Industrial technologies are being phased out in favour of a bizarre nuclear recombinant tech called 'Splicing', a process which basically is controlled fusion and fission, allowing for molecular rearrangement on a vast scale. Though horrifically expensive, the political and societal will is there to keep it going, making the choices necessary to keep America apart from the rest of the world and unique.
Behind the Scenes... The Cabal, for all its seemingly monolithic uniformity, is actually in the process of fission. As the line between Technocracy and the Sabbat continues to blur, some Conventions are beginning to feel that the Pact was perhaps not a good idea. Such feelings began shortly after the end of the Second Great War and are now on the verge of boiling over. The Virtual Adepts and a portion of the Void Engineers, in particular, felt the union of the Technocracy with the Sabbat had harmed the quest for Ascension in general as the former's goals of a non-supernatural paradigm were being compromised by the presence of the supernatural at their dinner table, in the office and even their beds.
So began the Schism as the Adepts, those Engineers who agreed with them, a few Iteration Xers and a handful of Syndicates joined forces with the few remaining Sons of Ether left after the Sicarii hunted most of their kind down. They based their operations out of America and set about defining themselves -- and American culture and society -- in opposition to the corrupted paradigm of the Cabal, with their Biorg servants, Manichaen politicians and necrotek magicks. Since then they've slowly built up their dominance in society, waiting for the moment when they could openly challenge the Cabal. For now, though, they are far too weak. For the Cabal's part, they allowed the Schism to occur bloodlessly, hoping to divest themselves of elements not useful to the whole of their operations. The Cabal is aware of the Schismatics' attempts at redefining the dominant pardigm as enforced by the authorities at Cape Town, but they know that the rebels have nearly no chance of succeeding. The best they can hope for is enforcing a local paradigm shift, one which will fall apart outside the borders of the Americans' reach. Even then, that works in the Cabal's favour for all the Schismatics are doing is tweaking the already accepted paradigm, not wholly replacing it. Relativity still rules and Thermodynamics is king. Nothing will change that. Internally, the Cabal is further blurring the line between the preternatural and the Sleeper worlds. Southron (and, soon, German) citizens are being offerred engineered bodies and the select elite are cashing in on Manichaen necrotek, girding themselves in the limited immortality of the serial cloned Revenant. The Camarilla, at least in Eurasia and Africa, are all but extinct. Some fiesty and decidedly mad Kindred can still be found in more out of the way areas, like the steppes of the Siberian Empire or the isle of Madagascar, but they are few and far far in between. Even in North America, there is the looming danger of the Sabbat, though with the Schism and the importation of the Schismatics, that threat is a lot less than it was a few decades earlier. Now the areas encompassing the United States, Canada and much of Central America are free of Sabbat influence. South America, however, is another story. Since the '50s, they've fallen under the sway of the Republic and are now prime breeding grounds for the Cabal. The real adventure for any Camarilla sect memeber in search of it is to be found on the streets of Rio or Sao Paulo, where Southron megacorps are tightening their grip on the South American economies and tying them ever-closer to Cape Town's orbit. Extinction looms for the world's Lupines and other werebeasts not in league with the Cabal. Africa is, for all intents and purposes, denuded of lycanthropes, save for the Bastet, who surrendered en masse during the Maghreb War in return for eternal service to Cape Town's whims. It is from that stock, in fact, that the Progenitors and Tzimisce have created the Satrina Biorg, the pleasure model. In Europe, the situation isn't much better, though vaster distances and lesser direct political control equates to a much larger lycanthropic population. Still, Cabal-orientated industries and governments are running a campaign to flush the shapeshifters out into the open, using whatever means they can to do it. In particular, the Bratovitch ghouls are being put to use, hunting down their ancient adversaries. North America, however, seems to have become a haven for displaced lycanthropes from all continents. Even the few Bastet who managed to escape capitulation are welcomed with open arms here. As the Schismatics begin their 'deconstruction' of industrial-age technology, the lycanthropes' numbers and, more importantly, their ideology, has increased. If there be a last stand for the werebeasts' line, it will be here. Nothing much can be said for South America except that, for the lycanthropes, it is a lost cause. As the Cabal continue to increase their influence on the local governments, more and more of them emigrate to North America...or die in the attempt. It is rumoured that the Sicarii or at least a portion of them are being prepared for an all-out assault on the few remaining werebeast fortresses deep in the Amazon.
Facts And Figures Southron Republic Population: 305,784,988 (1993 Census) Urban: 47% Ethnic Caucasian--47% Groups: Confederates--52% Afrikaaners--26% British--10% Arab Or Berber--9% Other (Primarily German)--3% Blacks--37% Bantu (Primarily Zulu And Xhosa)--43% Hausa-Fulani/Yoruba/Ibo-Western Africa--40% Oromo/Amhara/Tigrean-Eastern Africa--12%
Other--5% Asians--9% Indians (Incuding Cape Malays)--78% Chinese--11% Japanese--8% Other (Predominantly Chosunese [Korean])--2% Mixed Race--7% Cape Coloureds--47% Alexandrians--22% Maghrebs--21% Others--20% Languages: English And Afrikaans (Both Official) Religions: Episcopalianism, Dutch Reformed Church, Catholic, Islam, Indigenous Beliefs Capital: Cape Town (1,845,878) Principle Cities:
Johannesburg (4,875,893), Alexandria (4,788,988), New Richmond (3,749,821), New Atlanta (3,700,877), Leesburg (3,659,812), Cairo (3,608,783), Algiers (2,984,783), Carthage (2,909,785), Leptis Magna (2,809,844), Nova Roma (2,008,877), Davisville (1,812,946), Durban (1,812,788), Pretoria (1,809,788), Salisbury (1,803,844) Government: Strong Democratic Confederation (Similar To Canada) Head Of Praetor Pretorius De Nant, In Office 1 Oct., 1990 State: Head Of Prime Minister Andrew Davis Ii, In Office 4 Nov., 1994 Government: Major Ruling: National Party (The Nats) Political Patriot Party Parties: Movement For Democratic Action Opposition: Labour Party National Front Liberal Party African National Union Monetary Unit: Per Capita Income: Natural Increase: Literacy:
Solidus $12,349 1.2% Annual 97%
Note on Race Relations and Population Demographics... Initially, there were hardly any inhabitants in the Cape area. A few odd tribes who would eventually be moulded into the Zulu were there and a smattering of Bushmen but not much else. In our timeline, a massive influx of Bantu tribes came as they were alternately pushed down by more aggressive northern tribes in what is now Zaire and by the economic opportunity found in the Cape Colony and the Natal. In this timeline, however, the advent of such a vast number of settlers makes that scenario untenable. No mass migration of Bantus occurred here. Instead, the Cape remained (and still is, predominantly) a white enclave. Race relations back then were, typically, appalling. No apartheid policy was ever instituted, however. With no Afrikaaner majority, there was no desire for it in society. Mind you, the ex-Confederates and the British didn't desire to separate the races (in fact, miscegenation rates were rather high), they simply felt (wrongly) that the Caucasian race was superior. As the years and decades went by and the Southron Republic conquered the rest of Africa, the Cabal knew they needed allthe citizens of the land if they wanted to secure domination over the planet's paradigm. So, the races were never officially segregated (though natural economic and social pressures did cause some segregation) and no stigma was ever attached to the 'natives' as the Afrikaaners did in our timeline in the 1940s. Now, a prime reason for overpopulation is the need for large families to cultivate the land and do the day-to-day items to keep said families afloat. Industrialised nations do not have this problem and have smaller families as reproductive rights and lower infant mortality rates change the way society views having children. In the Southron Republic, such a thing happened early on so there isn't the burgeoning black population spinning out of control. Instead, there's a large black middle class fully integrated into society. The same is true of the Arabs in the Maghreb area. When you think of a Republic city, think not of ourCape Town, but of, say, Richmond of today. Integrated and no problems (none apparent, anyway) as far as race relations goes. It's simply notan issue here.
Demographically-speaking, then, the only reason for a larger white population than black is because the initial biotech advances went to the whites. When the blacks and the Arabs were brought into the system, in the late 1800s, they had very high infant mortality rates and low birth rates overall, while the whites were in that transition zone where fertility was high and infant mortality was going down but society stillsaw a need for large families. Hence, the odd (to us at least) notion of a white plurality in the continent of Africa.
View the Manichaen and De Nant Revenant lines.
SPANNERS By Jeremy Streeter (
[email protected]) (Also called Mitakoyoy-asin)
Description This craft was formed from the Hollow Ones who were cast out, but still retained some sense of righteousness, and destiny. Most of the Spanners attempt to create and form vulgar magics in hope of becoming powerful enough to battle along side the Traditions in the Ascension Wars, and against the Technocracy. The founder, an enlightened young woman, named Alexandra, discovered through using vulgar magics, she was able to harness incredibly potent powers. Her goal in these rotes were to desensitize reality to her magical abilities. It worked. She is considered a Marauder by many Mages, and is even feared of by the Technocracy. She truly is not a Marauder, however, she attained a level of power, to which she was able ascend, theoretically "half-way" learn about the universe, and come back. This she named Spanning, thus the Spanners. To become one with the universe. She gained many allies after showing off her abilities during a Technocracy aligned Pentex battle in 1988, where she managed to disrupt the entire city block where the battle was centered around and cause the entire area to become a merged portal between the Umbra and the Skinlands. By doing so, the primary soldiers of the Pentex foundation, the Black Spiral Dancers, were defeated by one of the only recorded alliances in Awakened beings' history. It is said the battle included Garou, Kindred, Mages, Mortals, and even the likes of the Changling community. It is said that the tear in the universe did such damage that it caused and forced many Wraiths out of their little universe and into the battle. Whether the existence of the dead at the battle is true, is not recorded. Alexandra, created such an upheavel during this battle, that afterwards, for about 5 months, the city (Los Angeles) was purged of Technocracy and Wyrm presence, a feat never before actuated by any other force yet recorded. It is believed that because the city of Los Angeles was not in Camarilla or Sabbat dominion, and primarily in the open and full of Anarchs, that the life and falling out of the alliance was imminent. However, the permanent effects of the battle have lasted and the Technocracy has been quiet about their re-entry into Los Angeles... As well as the Wyrm. Since that time, Alexandra has raised the attendance to her Spanner seminars to over 250 Hollow Ones on a monthly basis. She has since begun to teach powerful rotes, and to help the Mages learn, she had begun to provide some limited resources and libraries, as well as some tutors. Her influence has been enough and has formed this Craft into a formidable one, however still weak.
Philosophy Life has one purpose, but for each person, each thing, that life and it's purpose are different. Life has meaning, but so does death. The Spanners have been founded upon the centralization that the universe is a living entity, a belief not easily taken in by others. The idea has allowed at least two to Transcend, the theoretical half-ascension that I spoke of earlier. This Transcendence, has given enlightenment, given peace, and given power to those who have survived. The Spanners strive to become unified with the universe to help it understand itself better, and to help push its dark side from Earth, or at least into its deepest bowels where Gaia alone can hold in its power. For this reason, most of the magicks performed by Mages of the Spanning Craft, are dynamic and vulgar. A belief rooted in that becoming one with the universe must include going to its darker side and experiencing Paradox in its fullest, and surviving. A dangerous craft indeed, but one that repays the Mage ten-fold. After exiting Quietus, it is possible to be closer one's Avatar, as well to have changed one's Destiny forever. (ie: If the GM allows, and you manage to return from Quiet, and survive, you can be offered an increase of one or more dots in your Backgrounds, all of them).
Organization The Spanners are rooted in the United States, with a roving set of leaders. Alexandra and her first, Vezer, travel around gathering recruit Spanners from the ranks of the Hollow Ones, not only giving the Hollow Ones respect, but honour. Something rare to a Hollow One to feel, a sense of purpose and confidence in her powers. As well, Alexandra and Vezer attempt to help Unawakened Mages awaken and find their powers from within, as well as find a Tradition that may best suit that person and her life style. For that, more than anything, the Traditions have given a seat to Alexandra and Vezer on some of the high councils in a few cities around the globe. For lack of formal organization however beyond the traveling about and gathering of new recruits for Spanning, the membership in the Spanners is limited to believers in the cause. Some of the Spanners have though, formed small "clubs" within cities, numbering 200, the largest gathering of Spanners in New York City, a great place to practice vulgar magicks.
Meetings The smallers groups have organized regular meetings as often as possible and commune every week. A larger gathering, perhaps the Eastern Sea Board or something like that occurs once a month for the smallers groups. It is difficult to follow
Alexandra and Vezer in mortal society, because people, (generally Sleepers), just don't tend to remember either of them, (they both have an Arcane of 5).
Initiation Probably the longest and grueling part of Spanning, your first task is to cast a vulgar magic and practice this out in the open, though not necessarily before Unawakened (apparently that hurts more), but in a place where the powers can be focused and universe will come quickly to that person. Transcendence is thought to be a group thing for Spanners to have to survive. Once initiated, you have at least once, survived Paradox backlashes and entering Quiet, and have returned. Normally, you have done this with the help of others, and most Spanners begin with 12-15 background points to distribute. If not yet initiated, the backgrounds are given as per the normal 7.
Chantry Now being constructed, hopefully to be finished by 1997, however the funds are running low, and a fundraiser is being held. The Chantry is being placed in the Himalayas, free for study, and will be accompanied by the second largest library collection in the world.
Acolytes Hollow Ones
Sphere Prime
Foci Transcendence: Prime/Life/Matter/Entropy/Spirit/Mind Paradox: Prime/Life/Matter/Spirit/Forces/Entropy/Mind/Time/Correspondence
Concepts New Age thinker, musician, scholar, theologist, artists, scientists.
Rotes In the years that have followed since the battle, now known as Mitakoyoy-asin, or the Battle of Unity, the Spanners have began developing unusual rotes. Most of them are dangerous for all Mages to attempt, and it is believed that few of the Spanners may be in Quiet, even at the moment. Here are just a few sips of some of the hundreds of rotes they have created, of which I will present to you in order of power, consider them levels, as the number of higher knowledge of the spheres rises...
"We Like Traffic Lights", Deluminal-Transcendence 2 Entropy, 2 Forces, 2 Prime By inducing this rote, the mage is able to control the changing of traffic lights, or any light in the general facility and make them bend to her will. It took years of practice to perfect teaching this, let alone using it. It works say in cases like car chases, even moving at 200 mph, the spell will remain if Prime is used to feed Quintessence into the entropy and forces (light) manipulation. This rote is also used by some members at nightclubs to gain attention from a crowd by having certain lights follow her, or by having strobe lights blink to illuminate her dancing, as well as move in sequence with the lights. As long as a light can be turned on and off, this power can be used on them; however it is considered vulgar if you are sitting in a diner and point at a light and it suddenly goes out (and you are the one who made it go out). Otherwise, this rotes is not considered vulgar by the universe, mainly because you are not greatly disturbing the course of things, nor is this power too complex and dynamic for the universe to whip you across the head for using it.
Universal Soldier, Dimensional Manipulation
2 Entropy, 3 Spirit, 3 Matter, 3 Forces, 3 Time, 2 Prime By initiating knowledge and feedback from the universe, one can predict successfully the next strike an opponent in combat may make. However, combining that while in combat is incredibly difficult. This rote is possibly one of the most vulgar magics, and unless the opponent is killed during that first attack and is not Awakened, chances are that the universe wil make you go into Quiet so fast you didn't even get a chance to block the guy's next attack. You may attack, and strike your opponent with as many success as you wish, anywhere on that opponent's body during this combat round after using this spell. This is done by slowing time, making umbral pockets for your fists and feet, and creating small ripples in the universe where your direct density, mass, and weight are higher than normal. As well, with Forces, you create the strength and force behind the strikes enough to kill any Sleeper being struck. Only the best martial arts masters could survive this onslaught normally, or one of those really big tough guys in front of a bar, or perhaps you messed with a Kindred... (whoops). Well, you are there now, and all damage is quadrupled in force for this rote. The number of attacks you have is determined by how many success you get, and you gain first intiative to attack again next round. Not bad, but most likely, you have gained 5-6 Paradox points for this action, in addition to a Backlash, normally concerning loss of friction, temporal perception changes, and umbral ripples knock you over as if they were physical objects. Got to suck around Garou.
Invoke Paradox, Invoke Transcendence Prime 4, Life 4, Spirit 4, Mind 4, Time 4 By initiating this Rote, a Mage can transfer Paradox of her own to another individual. And infuse the Paradox into that individual's soul, thusly dumping her Paradox on others. Normally, this is treated as vulgar magic, once she touches the person, the target begins to scream and fall to its knees in extreme pain from the entire process. As long as the being has a soul or a mind, this process can take place. Vampires and Garou merely receive Aggravated damage for the process and are paralyzed during the process as well. Mortals and Mages feel pain, but take no damage. Instead, they gain a Paradox rating. By doing this, the caster of this rote is able to send mortals tumbling into Quiet, and Mages to suffer incredibly. *** Once initiated this Spell cannot be directly countered as a normal rote. The Mage countering must spend, or lose (either way you see it), a point of Quintessence to stop the process, for each success the Mage casting has.
New Merits and Flaws Sphere Adept (7 pt. Supernatural Merit): The Mage is focused on a sphere, not by choice, but as part of her destiny, part of her Avatar had mastered a sphere in a formal life, and the powers from it have carried over into this life. Within the chosen Sphere, this Mage receives automatic successes for every point she has in the sphere when using this Sphere in casting by itself or for a Rote. She is closer to that Sphere and that part and piece of the Universe. The Spell can still be failed, for instance; as you have an Arete of 4, and your Sphere is Life but you have 2 in Life. You make your Arete roll, and roll 4 ones, (ouch). You still get two automatic successes, but the 4 ones in that roll cause the spell to not work and you receive a lot of Paradox. As well, the benefits of this Merit allow that Mage to raise that Sphere naturally without a tutor at a rate of Current Rating x 4, however, remember you cannot surpass your Arete rating.
Paradoxial Bonds (7 pt. Supernatural Merit): This is the closest one can get to being a Paradox Spirit without being one. You are living on the edge; you are close to the universe and yet it punishes you constantly. For this Merit, you can remove a point of Paradox by spending 2 experience points when you are resting, or when initially receiving Paradox. Study Points do not work towards this Merit and cannot be used here. Other Mages may notice the Paradox being released and if so, you may be treated as an enemy unless the condition is explained. You must have an Occult of 4 to understand what this Merit is, however, you do not have to have an Occult of 4 to use it's benefits. If you have an Occult of 4, make an initial Intelligence+Occult roll at difficulty 6. If the roll is successful before beginning the role playing, you will be able to explain and role play what you may know out of character.
Spanner Initiate (7 pt. Mage Society Merit): With this Merit, you receive more backgrounds; ideally you roll a D10 and the number you get is the number of Background points you receive in addition to your initial points. As well, you have Transcended once and survived. This gives you 6 points more to distribute in your Abilities, (any of them), (you have gained knowledge by tapping into the universal continuum). There is a downside to all of this, as Paradox is now closer to you, or perhaps still not nice to you... (Unless you take the 7 pt. Merit above this one). You often can receive Backlashes, and have a more likeliness of encountering Paradox Spirits that have come to kick your butt. Hopefully you'll have some friends around...
Dying Avatar (5 pt. Supernatural Flaw): Your Avatar and your past lives are fading from existence and from memory, and with them, may your powers and enlightenment. It is your duty to save your Avatar or lose it forever. An Avatar, with a rating of 1, will be lost in a year, up to an Avatar rating of 5 which will be lost in five years. You must seek Ascendance now, or Transcend, or even visit Quiet. Your only other chance is to die and give your next life the chance to remove the taint from it's past. Characters with this Flaw cannot take the Backgrounds Destiny, Dream, and Arcane.
Rote Mastery (5-7 pt. Supernatural Merit): You have mastered one of your Rotes, and have done so to an effect where you receive no Paradox for the Rote, no matter how Vulgar. The more Vulgar however, the more this Merit costs. No rote can be mastered in this way if it contains any Spheres with a rating over 3. The most complex Rotes that have been mastered are rare and ingenious, and your GM may not allow this Merit, and or may limit you to a selection of Rotes within your spheres. Those with Rote Mastery may not take Sphere Adept.
"The Natural", (True Mage 10 pt. Supernatural Merit): You were born with your powers and could use them inNately as a baby and a small child. You grew up a genius and learned things faster than anybody else around you. Your powers spawned
such energy that Paradox sometimes does not effect you directly, even for Dynamic or Vulgar Magicks. You can use Magicks that are not in the Spheres that you have studied, and the powers are almost natural, as if you were a node of energy that can spawn spontaneous Quintessence effects. If you spend a Willpower Point, and make an Arete roll, you can cast spells without taking Paradox. Remember however, that once this power is discovered, you will be hunted by other Mages and probably killed or feared forever. Even Marauders would fear you. In addition, you may raise your Arete at Current Rating x 6. However, if you actually get Paradox for a spell, it is extra hard to get rid of, and when you go to a Node to Meditate to remove Paradox, your difficulty for success is a 9.
SPIRITUAL KNIGHTS By Alex Feely (
[email protected]) The Spiritual Knights have a hazy past; they seem to have spawned roughly around the mystic age, when knights proper and wizards wyld thrived, magickal beasts roamed the earth, and the Garou, in their ferocity, terrorized the towns. The Knights are the protectors of humanity and the most stalwart opposers of the Wyrm. Not only blunt, crass buffoons who like soldiers ride against the Wyrm and it's minions, these are men and women of thought and action, they cover several scopes of thought and activity, converging in only one spot always; Oppose the Wyrm and protect humanity, always, forever, and completely will all your soul. As the mythical age came to an end, they were forced underground. Their use of magick along with combat and noble influence eventually wore thin, and was almost cut off when the Rennisance age came to Europe, and more attention was paid to their coat of arms than themselves. Throughout history, they have been allied with some sects of Garou, those that do not wish to wipe out the humans they protect, and the Immortals. They are the initiators of change, the nobleman, the man of royal descent in your quiet little town who one night killed a rapist with his bare hands, those who oppose crime. Irish policeman of olden days who threw themselves into dens of pain and fought tooth and nail, opposing the pestilence, the Wyrm. The philosophers that spoke of the merits of good, and not just god. The good samaritans, the woman who dragged her child out of drug-dens and led civil movements against these drugs, cleaning up the neighborhood even a bit, although getting killed in the process. Harriet Tubman and those like her, who helped humanity free itself from the grip of slaves. These are the Spiritual Knights of history.
Philosophy: You see the corruption that grips our world, you see the malignancy that, like a cancerous tumor, feeds on our lives? That, we must combat every step of the way. But, not by sacrificing these people, these mortals we protect with every breath. They are innocent, and we will one day bring them to Ascension. We must protect them from the Wyrm, always.
Organization: The Knights put minor importance on organization amongst themselves. They tend to associate with whatever tradition fits their goals, and are usually welcome. However, they do hold a yearly meeting known only as 'The Round Table'. Somewhere in rural Europe, most likely England, there is a cave, kept secret by the magi, that in an unknown section houses a gigantic Round Table, of more than 100 seats easily. The representatives from areas of population attend, usually one knight per 1000 sq. miles. They act as senators for the others, and are invariably of high rank. The Round Table is where all formal business of this Tradition is conducted. The meeting of the Round Table usually takes a week, and although caves exist to sleep in, it is can be a contest of Stamina.
Initiation: One seen as worthy is followed for at least a year, and kept under observation. If still deemed worthy when the meeting of the Round Table rolls around, a profile is taken to there and a vote is cast. The Initiate is swiftly brought to the meeting, and all the Initiates who pass are spoken to by knights over the course of the meeting, and on the last day, they are knighted.
Chantry: The main chantry is in England. The Royal House of Windsor. Acolytes: Activists, nobleman of character, fighters for the depressed Sphere: The Apprentice may choose between Life, Forces, or Prime as the primary Sphere. Foci: Personal Sigil: Correspondence/Spirit Weapon: Forces/Prime Gauntlet (Glove): Life/Matter Rose: Entropy/Mind/Time Choice of Weapon or Gauntlet as Unique.
Concepts: Knight of the People, Knight of noble Lineage, Activist Leader Quote: You have come to the borders of reality. I have dragged you here through sleepless nights and effort everlasting. Your taint has spread across my realm as I watch helplessly, waiting for this moment. Now, Wyrm creature, you who have destroyed the lives of those I protect, find the Wyld at the tip of my blade!
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: These are our kin. They too are Spiritual Knights, of an eastern sense. Celestial Chorus: They lose touch with what is, through their place of blame upon Mortals. Cult of Ecstasy: These are self indulgent people, little better than mortals with magick. Yet they may fight in their own ways.. Dreamspeakers: They speak the words we live by, "The Wyrm grows to strong" they say, and we agree. Euthanatos: Vile! They kill the mortals! Euthanatos are a scourge to us all! Hollow Ones: These poor, misguided youth. Although awakened, we will protect them as we do the innocent mortals. Order of Hermes: Power they have, and are not to be rivaled with. But they have opposed us many times in the past for their own gain.. we know not what to think, and decide on merit.
Sons of Ether: Nice toys, and they oppose the Technocracy now. They have been redeemed, we see nothing wrong with them, as long as they know what their purpose is.
Verbena: None can doubt their ferocity or their power, and they, for the most fight for the right side. Their ways, though.. I'm not so sure about.
Virtual Adepts: Precious few of them fight for the right side, to many are indifferent. But we judge on merit often, and can get along with some.
Cerebus: Again our brothers! True combatants of the evil, the Wyrm infested Technocracy. Our equals with their mental power and organization, we truly respect these, when we can find them.
Discordian: Strange ways, yet they seem to want to stop the evil, fearing some immanetization of an Eschalon. We prefer not to work with them, but can tolerate them.
Necromancers: Vile! Tainted with powerlust and evil, I cannot work with them. Runecasters: Warriors of the north, we are sorry they are few. We get along with them well, when we can find them. Sons of Jupiter: I don't know quite what to make of them.. they seem to oppose the Wyrm and evil, yet they put more importance on personal Ascension.. time shall convince me.
Technolibertarians: Strange, yet they are separate from the Technocracy. Convince me they have good intentions, and I have no problem with them.
Wanderers: Bah.. they wish to see the world, not prevent the Wyrm.
SUBDUCTIONISTS By Corwyn Alambar (
[email protected]) (22 Nov 94) As the Millenium approaches, more and mroe cults spring up that are dedicated to trying to either survive the end of the world or cause it. Or at least the fall of civilization. Anarchists are all over the place, trying to find ways to either pick up the pieces or simply just dance their way into the oblivion that they know is coming. but there are some forces acting to bring down th existing order, for reasons that even they may not fathom. The Subductionists are a fairly new underground movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, beginning after the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. After seeing the damage that had been done to the environment, and the decadence in society, and catalyzed by the awesome destructive power of the earthquake, this group began to work towards actually triggering the "Big One" that has been forecast for some time. Originally a group of disenchanted Tradition members, this group contacted a powerful being in the earth of the bay Area known as Andromalek, who's sleeping shifting causes the earthquakes. They seek to disturb his sleep enough to cause a major disaster, thus destroying Silicon Valley, a heart of the Technocracy's activities. Slowly, through association with Andromalek, these people have lost their connection with humanty, becomming consumed with their goal of disturbing Andromalek. One of them, Lorelei Dreamdancer, a Verbena with a powerful knowledge of spirit and the mind, contacted the mind of the sleeping Andromalek, and somehow opened a conduit. Her mind is no longer totally hers, though her and none of her companions realize this. She now subconsciously works not to disturb Andromalek, but to awaken him fully, bringing him out into the light of day. She justifies this when she is aware of it by saying that this action would Awaken thousands upon thousands of Sleepers, and forever shatter the Technocracy's paradigm. In these somewhat lucid moments, she thinks this is what she was meant to do, and views it as a way to win the Ascension War. This group has gathered together a small corps of paramilitary survivalists, bassed out of an abandoned warehouse in Oakland's harbor district. There, they plan strikes on strategic places, gathering a collection of explosives and other equipment that they will eventually use to try and trigger the faults. They have already "mined" several miles of the Hayward fault, and have been working on methods of underwater mining to get the submerged areas of the San Andreas fault. Most of the mundanes in the Subductionists are religious fanatics, anarchists, or other people who believe that civilization is evil, corrupt, or needs to be destroyed to be rebuilt. They have been chosen for their martyr complexes as well, and all of them are willing to die for the "greater good." The inner circle consists of just four mages, all of them Adepts of at least one sphere. Snuff, Cult of Ecstacy barabbi, Adept of Time and Matter. Snuff is the leader of one of the neo-anarchist groups that has sprung up in the Bay Area over the last fifteen years. He looks to only be about 25, dressed in the chronically hip leathers and ripped clothes of the juvenile anarchists. His group revels in the punk stereotype, but are all dangerously skilled, many of them learning martial arts. Madam Morrigan, Celestial Chorus barabbi, Master of Prime, Adept of Life Madam Morrigan heads a small "church" in Berkeley devoted to the Earth Mother, the Creator of All. She believes that the time has come for the One (as the Earth Mother) should rise up against those that work against her. She believes Andromalek to be an emmisary of the Earth Mother, sent to assist her. Her cult follows her staunchly, many of them involved in Earth First and other radical environmental causes Lorelei Dreamdancer, Verbena barabbi, Master of Spirit, Mind, and Life. Lorelei is one of the first Verbena to come to the New World from Celtic Europe, and has lived on the Pacific Coast for most of her time here. She came for the verdant hills and the beauty that was the landscape. She fought against the formation of the Chantry of the Gold Coast, then has fought alongside them to protect the strongest points of the Chantry. But slowly she watched the Bay Area become overgrown in an urban jungle, and has slipped into a strong despair. Discovering Andromalek was a turning point for her, and has given her life purpose again. Her former allies in the Chantry of the Gold Coast have no clue where she is or that she's behind the Subductionists. Gopinath Ramiputra, Euthanatos barabbi, Master of Corr., Entropy. Gopinath has been searching for a way to smash the Technocracy's hold on the world, since his native India was conquered by the Technocratic British. He views Silicon Valley as the heart of everything wrong with the Tehnocracy's view of the world, and believes that by destroying it, he will reopen the possibilities for everyone throughout the world. He believes the loss of life to be "acceptible" to unlock this yoke from the rest of the world.
What is Andramalek?: This is the most disturbing part of the entire situation. Andromalek is a being that has been around for millennia, since before the War of Rage, since before the time of the Atlanteans and the Lemurians. Andromalek is one of the Great Spirits of the Dreaming (qv - will be reposted if necessary). As such, there is a chaotic, primal essence to it, that predates the imposition of general Order. In modern magickal theory, Andramalek may be considered a huge paradox spirit, but is so much more. As such, it is immune to paradox, and resitant to magic as well. There are no stats for Andramalek, for these are meaningless. It holds the power to warp and twist reality, and as an artifact of an earlier, more powerful universe, such a being would wreak total havoc on the world, beginning with a full and total breach of the Gauntlet. As such, the Subductionists are a set of nasty foes, but the element is timing. They are waiting for when the time is right to strike. Stealth and guile can defeat them, a goal that must be accomplished, for even they know not what they do.
SUMMONERS By Shawn Arbuckle (
[email protected])
History The Summoners are an offshoot of the Verbena. They were founded by a man named San-Drax. San-Drax was a fast learner and he quickly mastered several spheres; Life and Spirit were the ones that interested him most. San-Drax became obsessed with the idea of summoning creatures to serve him, in various roles. When San-Drax had finally learned all he could from the Verbena he moved to form his own Tradition which he named the Summoners.
Philosophy All creatures are at our beck and call. We summon any thing we choose too serve us as we see fit.
Style This tradition has very shallow roots thus far. As time passes they will form their own beliefs and their roots shall reach deep into the earth. At the moment members of this tradition tend to dress in whatever style they choose. Some may appear as a Goths, others as Punks and some may even appear too be business professionals.
Spheres Summoning
Common Foci Sex, blood, runes and bones
Organization The Summoners tend to be solitary, preferring to practice their art wherever they feel most comfortable. The Summoners do maintain one large coven located somewhere in Scotland, and at least one small coven in each major city. These covens provide the Summoners with a place to meet and discuss matters that concern them the most. These covens also over a place for the Summoners too recruit new members.
Initiation Before anyone is allowed to join the Summoners he must complete three quests and then Summon one creature. The quests are deadly to the careless and foolhardy, and are meant too weed out those too weak to be a Summoner, leaving only the strongest. The summoning at the end is to merely to ensure that the potential Summoner has the ability too summon creatures. So far, everyone one who has passed the quests, have been able too summon a creature. After the initiation is complete the Summoner in training is sent to a coven to be trained in the art of summing. Training takes up too four years to complete.
TECHNITE MAGI By Brian Connors (
[email protected])
Backgrounds The ranks of the Technocracy contain many members who are former Tradition magi. They have their own cliques based on their former Traditions, and many are members. They are rather unlike the barabbi of the Nephandi. They are no more evil than the Technocracy at large (a somewhat variable factor).
Akashic Brotherhood Technites Favored Conventions: Syndicate, Iteration X The influx of money into southeast Asia and Japan since WWII has vastly increased the influence of the Syndicate in the area, and many Akashic Brothers have left behind the Brotherhood for the seduction of money and power. Ex-Akashics in fact constitute the near-entirety of the Syndicate membership of China and Vietnam, and a significant fraction of that in Japan.
Celestial Chorus Favored Conventions: New World Order The religions of the world have occasionally turned into battlegrounds between magi, and the Celestial Chorus and the New World Order have more often than not been the parties involved. Choristers that turn to the Technocracy are steered towards the NWO, the part of the Technocracy where missionaries are most welcome. Few go reluctantly; the closeness of the two has existed for a long time and they are truly two sides of one coin.
Cult of Ecstasy Favored Conventions: Progenitors, Syndicate The Ecstatic mages who have joined the Technocracy tend to be the ones who are used as expendables.
Dreamspeaker Technites Favored Conventions: Void Engineers, New World Order The Technites of Dreamspeaker origin are considered a true abomination among Dreamspeakers, and it is rare that a Dreamspeaker will allow one of theirs turned to the Technocracy to get away with their lives. Their primary function in the Technocracy is to help with shoring up the Gauntlet, and they are generally considered a convenience more than truly equal members of the Union.
Euthanatos Technites Favored Conventions: New World Order Not widely accepted, the Euthanatos Technites are considered a dangerously unstable factor. Many NWO enforcers are former Euthanatos, and more than a few of the Men in Black are believed to have a respectable level of training in Entropy magicks. The big problem is that many of them (of those who have joined freely), though they pay lip service to the Euthanatos ideal even among the Technocracy, are sadists of a variety that only the NWO can stomach. When Nephandic taint is suspected, these exCouncil magi are the first that get checked out.
Order of Hermes Technites Favored Conventions: New World Order, Syndicate The lure of the Technocracy, its money and its strict disciplinary basis, has proved irresistible to many Hermetic magi. Some have even suggested that the Craftmasons, original founders of the Order of Reason, were influenced by the Order of Hermes; this may or may not be the case, but there is a certain level of Hermeticness that some say they see among the Technocracy,
and you never know...
Sons of Ether Technites Favored Conventions: Iteration X, "Ether Engineers" subconvention; Void Engineers The Technites of the Sons of Ether are more properly members of the Electrodyne Engineers that splintered off of the group when they jumped ship in 1904. Ether Engineers constitute almost a separate Convention, a faction of Iteration X that sets itself apart somewhat from the rest of the Convention. They strongly resemble their Convention counterparts. Another faction has melted seamlessly into the Void Engineers.
Verbena Technites Favored Conventions: Progenitors The power of Life magick draws all former Verbena in the Technocracy to the Progenitors, with no known exceptions. Technomancer Verbena are said to have refined the art of blood magic to the point that DNA itself is the focus of the magic; because of them, the Progenitors are capable of producing some truly frightening procedures with it.
Virtual Adept Technites Favored Conventions: Void Engineers, Iteration X The wounds may never heal between the Adepts and the Union, but some have "come back to the fold" over the years. They are accepted unequivocally only among the Web-running members of the Void Engineers, though some have made names for themselves among the ranks of Iteration X.
TECHNOLIBERTARIAN By Allen Smith (
[email protected]) (Revised 1 October 1995) This tradition was started by a mixture of rogue Technomancers and Orphan libertarian scientists. Their problems with the Technocracy aren't so much the reality that they seek to impose (i.e., their preference for a scientific one) as: 1. their intolerance for any other reality (Technolibertarians may not desire another, but they can see why other people would); 2. the ways in which they use technology to decrease freedom; and 3. the distortions they make of what science can be (the only (thus far) empirical way to figure out how the universe really is). In their scientific work, they try to find ways of creating technology that give people more, rather than less freedom. They don't look upon technology/science as magic; they look upon magic as another variety of technology/science. It's simply that the standard set of physical laws, etc. isn't truly accurate. They also believe that no one tradition will be right (including theirs); different traditions (different ways of understanding reality) are appropriate for different people. They point to mathematical proofs that any mathematical system has some things in it that can neither be proven nor disproven (a rather paradoxical concept) as another justification for this. They therefore seek more to expand the borders of Sleeper understanding of reality rather than impose another reality. However, this does not mean that they think the Traditions as they currently exist are the best way for anyone to Ascend. Due to misunderstandings of their beliefs, other traditions such as the Celestial Chorus, the Dreamspeakers, and the Verbena think they're no different from the Technocracy. Their partially Orphan heritage is also a problem when dealing with some Traditional magi, such as many of the Order of Hermes. One way in which they act against the Technocracy is in removing the effects of faked Technocracy experiments when true scientists do their own experiments -- they intervene using magical or mundane methods to counter the effects of Technocratic belief. They also disrupt tests of formerly Technocratic "proven" technology which is designed to decrease individual freedoms. Technolibertarians, if they revere anything other than magic, revere Free Will. They believe that Ascension will come only when everyone has the most ability to express their free will that they can. In other words, when everyone is a mage. They also believe that the way that people can best learn to express their will in magic is by being allowed to express it other ways. If one is not free outside, then one is not likely to be truly free inside, and able to see beyond static reality. In addition, freedom in mundane things is practice (moral and otherwise) for freedom in all things. They believe that the Scientific Method, properly applied, is the best method thus far created for distinguishing true (or at least useful) reality, if one removes outside influences such as beliefs. Technolibertarians believe that they have done so, and thus have; they are aware of this apparant contradiction, but it does not contradict with their beliefs (see below). Their magic typically isn't imposing new physical laws upon reality; it's more either using the laws that are there already (such as quantum mechanics) to do things that most think aren't possible, or alter what's there and let the standard laws work on them. A lot of their magic is thus coincidental; they justify this weakness in influencing Sleepers by using it for the increase of individual freedom. They work via the belief that Will can shape Reality -- the central belief of all Magi. By using their knowledge of how the universe currently works, they can use just this belief to shape reality via putting pressure on the right points (normally, they'd have to have a belief system that said they could manipulate reality by doing a given thing in order to manipulate reality directly). There are several Factions within the group, as there are in most traditions. Generally, these are due to either differing opinions on the proper role of government (ranging from those who believe it can be used for good if freed of authoritarian types, to those who believe it hopelessly and inevitably corrupt) and on what science it is best to put resources into (however, all agree that individuals should put their efforts into what they individually judge to be their best areas; it's just the group resources they have fights about). One rogue faction is the Egoists, who believe that the individual will should rule over everything, including the wills of others (although it is right, according to them, for those others to rule over one, if they are able). They take the Marquis de Sade as one originator, or at least exponent, of these ideas. These rogues tend to be barrabi or Marauders [a personal reality, after all, is potentially the best way to have control over one's world]. However, almost all other Technolibertarians condemn the Egoists for inadequate concern for others, including the Ascension of everyone.
Organization: Their organization resembles that of the Sons of Ether in that it's rather like academia. However, they use computers to a considerably greater degree (most of their journals are e-mail mailing lists).
Meetings: They have various meetings throughout the year, generally of specialized groups within the tradition. They also have less frequent (except in emergencies) meetings of the entire tradition, sometimes through e-mail and sometimes in their Chantry.
Initiation: They generally select scientists who are flexible in thinking (although not as odd as those of the Sons of Ether) and who are against limits on human freedom; they have also been known to select libertarians who are interested in and understand science. One example of this latter type are Extropians; indeed, they are actually responsible for quite a bit of anonymous donations to the Extropy Institute (see below for more information). They also have a liking for rescuing Technomancer recruits.
Chantry: A think-tank in Los Angeles (Marina Del Rey), CA. Acolytes: Scientists, inventors, hackers, academics, libertarians, Extropians Sphere: They must put at least 1 point in the Sphere in which their limit (see below) is the highest. However, this Sphere does not have a lowered experience point cost. Their worst Sphere tends to be Spirit.
Foci: Their foci are knowledges of sciences related to the Spheres. They may may not roll more dice from Arete than the corresponding Knowledge*2 for working magic in a Sphere (this effect also limits multi-Sphere magic, in which they may not roll more
corresponding Knowledge*2 for working magic in a Sphere (this effect also limits multi-Sphere magic, in which they may not roll more than the lowest Knowledge*2), and they may not have a higher rating in a Sphere than the corresponding Knowledge. They are also unable to use Abilities to lower the Difficulty of magic. This Focus is not removable through Arete. However, they have an easier time learning the Spheres than most (because they aren't working against the Technomancer-imposed reality as much), and treat all Spheres as X6 (or 6 Freebie) for experience expenditure. Since their magic is so much the direct application of will, they may not have an Arete score above their Willpower. The following are the (usually Secondary) Knowledges related to the Spheres; if more than one, average and round .5 up after multiplying.
Sphere
Knowledge
Correspondence Physics, Mathematics Entropy Physics, Biology Forces Physics Life Biology Matter Physics, Chemistry Mind Psychology, Biology Prime Mathematics, Occult Spirit Cosmology Time Physics, Mathematics
Concepts: Scientist, academic, libertarian
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They've got possibilities, although a bit too mystical and (philosophically) pacifistic for my tastes. Celestial Chorus: In general, too rigid and intolerant. I can get along with the ones who aren't, although proselytizing by anyone gets on my nerves.
Cult of Ecstasy: Fun guys, even if they do go to extremes. Dreamspeakers: Too mystical for my taste, as well as over-environmentalist. I don't care about Gaia except as "she" impacts on humans (and other potentially Awakenable -- i.e., intelligent -- creatures).
Euthanatos: As long as they kill the right ones and not the wrong ones, I don't have any disagreement with them. However, I suspect they make more mistakes in that regard than they'd admit.
Hollow Ones: I suspect (I hope) that a lot of the doom-and-gloom is a put-on. I can sympathize with them on their problems with the older Traditions.
Order of Hermes: Organized and (although they won't admit it) semi-scientific, but generally too rigid and arrogant. Sons of Ether: I'll give them credit (a lot of credit -- it allows for free will even inside the Technocracy) for introducing Quantum Mechanics. But they're just as bad at screwing up doing science (theorizing then setting up so as to confirm that theory) as the Technocrats.
Sons of Jupiter: Yes, magic is a choice, and it has consequences. But so does every other choice. With rights come responsibilities. Verbena: I have to agree with the Celestial Chorus with respect to them. Plus, they limit themselves so much with their respect for "Life." On the other hand, I agree with them about the Self.
Virtual Adepts: Nice. If I were better at computers (and my magic was oriented that way), I might have joined them. Discordians: Fun and interesting, although not the way I choose to function. Wika: Same as for the Verbena, although more reasonable. I agree with them about the Celestial Chorus.
Notes 1. One possible power drop would be to have their usage of magic take longer except for their Arete-d spheres. In other words, since they're having to think more of how the magic interfaces with the Technomancer-influenced reality, it takes longer for them to do magic until they truly understand it. The Sphere with the highest limit is the one in which they must put the initial time decrease. This might be true only for Vulgar magic, especially if combined with the below limit. 2. Another possible power drop is to lower the Knowledge*2 to Knowledge*1.5. This has the problem of that they're going to have to learn knowledges to above human levels (indeed, above Technomancer levels) in order to get effective Arete very high. However, this is unlikely to affect a starting character. One possibility would be to make it Knowlege*1.5 until Arete is 6 or higher, then have it go to Knowledge*2. 3. In regards to their power level, I would point out that instead of spending as many points on their Spheres, they're having to spend them on Knowledges. 3. They will typically have Limited Sphere for Spirit, and Sphere Natural for their best Sphere. Scientific Ties and Fast Learner are two
other common Virtues. 4. In characteristics, they tend to concentrate on Intelligence (most have it at 4 or 5). Most do not have particularly high Manipulation or Physical Attributes, although there are definite exceptions (for instance, Disciples of Life who have used their skills on themselves). 5. The Extropy Institute is a real organization, of which I am a member. See http://www.acm.usl.edu/~dca6381/c2_mirror/exi/extropy.html for a major source of more information. Other sources include the 50 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time WWW page (http://www.webcom.com/~conspire/extro.html), although I wouldn't call Extropians a conspiracy, and the Hyper_Weirdness on the WWW page (http://www.physics.wisc.edu/~shalizi/hyper-weird/conspiracy.html, searching for "Extropians").
New Virtues/Flaws Scientific Ties (1 point Virtue): This is the equivalent of Church Ties for the scientific community, although with somewhat less influence and somewhat more knowledge. You will have the most knowledge of the portion related to your best Scientific Secondary Ability. This Virtue is primarily useful when trying to find an Acolyte from among scientists, when trying to detect Technomancer tampering, and when trying to find someone for scientific advice and information. For a 3 point Virtue (common among higher-up Technomancers, and requiring background explanation for others), you can do things like influencing grants and publications (through being on various Boards, etcetera, or by being an "e'minence grise").
Limited Sphere (3 point flaw): One sphere, chosen at character creation, is considered at double its level for purposes of experience neccessary to raise it, Technolibertarian and other (e.g., Do) skill-based limits, etcetera. Freebie points put into it are halved, as are initial Sphere points put into it. This is a lesser version of Sphere Inept. Copyright 1994, 1995 by Ed Allen Smith (
[email protected]). May be freely redistributed, so long as this copyright notice is left intact and any other changes are clearly indicated.
PLAYERS GUIDE TO THE TECHNOCRACY The Technocracy: a fearful word for the majority of mages. This organization of mages is poorly understood, and widely feared. Most members of the Traditions know only that the Technocracy hates magick and seeks to eradicate it. Yet the Technocracy sees itself as the savior of humanity, and bulwark against darker things from beyond. The true nature of the Technocracy is far more complex than the "Big Brother" the Traditions believe it to be.
The Technocracy Manifesto The Original Text, written sometime during the 14th century: "We bear witness to the horrors unleashed by the indiscriminate use of magick. The Inquisition through which we now suffer is in part the reaction of the masses against that magick. Throughout history, mages have controlled and manipulated mankind, both overtly and from the shadows. They have dealt with forces best left alone, with little concern for its possible repercussions on the unknowing innocents that dwell nearby. Corruption and death follows in their wake. "The essential failing of magick is that it is a specialized knowledge, available only to a few, through years of training. The majority of mankind is therefore left helpless before the machinations of mages, serving only as pawns or peasants for magely overlords. For mankind to ever ascend and reach a state of bliss, this situation must end. We must bring magick to the masses. "We have chosen the vehicle of science to achieve our ends. An ordered and predictable magick, it is something the masses can utilize without fear, without the random destruction of other forms of magick. The application of science is technology, magickal knowledge in a form useable by the masses. Technology can be used without the years of training required by other arts, so that the masses may live their lives and yet not be denied the power of magick. "We envision a day when the masses will produce their own bountiful crops, through machines and fertilizers rather than appealing to shamans and gods to aid them. We envision a day when all will be able to travel freely across the world, going where they will in days or hours rather than months. We envision a day when healing will be available to every man, through medicines rather than witchery. We envision a day when the masses may live without fear of the supernatural that surrounds them now. "To this end, it is not enough that we provide the masses with power through technology. We must actively eliminate the other, more harmful forms of magick that threaten mankind. We must seal the gates to the other world which other mages have so carelessly opened, protecting mankind from the horrors that lie beyond. We must provided the masses with an ordered, peaceful world, devoid of dark mysteries, that they may at last develop their own power."
Goals of the Technocracy (added to the manifesto in the 17th century) 1) Seal the gates to the other world, the Umbra, lest dark force enter the world and corrupt the masses. 2) Wean the masses of their belief in the supernatural, which serves only to strengthen their enemies. 3) Develop the magick of science to replace their dependence on the supernatural. 4) Show them the benefits of science by giving them Technology that has regular application in their daily lives. 5) Develop the market and advanced means of production, so that Technology will be available to all, rather than a wealthy few. 6) Encourage the development of powerful, centralized governments that will eventually unify to provide the world with the peace it craves. 7) Work to eliminate the dangerous supernatural forces that still dwell in this world, starting with the other, reckless mages that threaten reality. 8) Prepare the masses through education for an eventual revelation of the true nature of the universe, and ascension.
Views Technocrats: As evidenced by their manifesto, the Technomancers see themselves as the guardians of the common man. They aid the masses by several means. First and foremost, they war against the supernatural forces which the masses have neither the ability or the strength of will to resist themselves. They raise the general standard of living, by providing new and better technology. More recently, they have begun to protect the masses from themselves, suppressing dangerous impulses and working to build a better man.
Magick: Technomancers have a mixed attitude toward magick. They realize that reality is dynamic, and subject to change by will. They also believe in objective reality. The Technocracy believes there are underlying laws to reality, which the flagrant use of magick obscures. Once magick is removed, these laws can be observed, and reinforced, strengthening a fixed and predictable reality. All other magick is ultimately flim-flam and hand waving, obscuring the true nature of things, but dangerous none-the-less for its seductiveness.
Science: Science is the vehicle the Technocracy uses to advance their paradigm. Arguably, it is mere circumstance that pressed them to choose science over other forms of magick. They could just as well have achieved their goals through religion, for instance. By
choosing science, the Technocracy accepts and reinforces the idea of objective reality. As they are also aware that reality is subjective, this leads to some curious double-think on the part of Technomancers. On the one hand, they study reality to understand its laws, and on the other hand they shape reality so that the laws they desire hold true.
Technology: Technology is, in many ways, more important than science to the Technocracy. While the masses do not understand science, they can grasp the benefits of technology. As the belief of the masses shape reality, technology is much more useful than science. The Technocracy will occasionally reverse engineer science to allow or disallow certain technologies. Technology is also their greatest gift to the common man, as is reflected by the slogan "Technology: Magick for the Masses".
Correspondence: A few Technomancers are still attached to the idea of absolute space, but with the work of Einstein, most have switched to a relativistic view. Given that all space is relative, it is subject to all sorts of manipulations. Events are all that is important, the space between them is illusory. In fact, the division between Time and Space are arbitrary, and it will be eventually possible to manipulate time in the same way. These attempts to unify Time and Space have been hampered by the defection of the Virtual Adepts, the Technocracy's Correspondence masters (who in any case were interested in other things).
Entropy: The sphere of Entropy is the anti-thesis of the Technocracy for it represents decay as opposed to order. The Technomancers see this as the sphere of Nephandi, and hate and fear it. The few that study it generally only do so to "know the enemy", and rarely advance far. The lower levels can be useful, however, for reducing chaos.
Forces: Iteration-X are the Technocratic specialist in Forces, and preach the view that all is, at a fundamental level, energy. The greatest task of Technomancer scientists is the discovery of the single force that underlies all others, known as the Grand Unification theory of physics. This is also the Technomancer's attempt to clean up the disastrous chaos introduced into the paradigm by the Sons of Ether's Quantum Theory.
Life: The Progenitors specialize in life, and their view has spread throughout the Technocracy. They have a very mechanistic approach to living things, that all creatures are the functions of various small processes, which if understood, can be controlled. They have advanced the germ/virus theory of disease, and the genetic theory of evolution. Now the Progenitors advocate directed evolution, physically altering man to fit Technomancer ideals.
Mind: The New World Order are the Technomancer masters of Mind, and they take a pragmatic approach to the sphere. Mind is used for control and information gathering, via such coincidental effects as subliminal messages, drug use and electronic monitoring. There is little theory behind the New World Order's use of the sphere, but other Conventions justify it mostly through biological means, viewing the mind as a mechanical function of the brain.
Matter: The Technocracy holds to the view that matter is composed of energy, primarily at the insistence of Iteration-X. As such, it can be manipulated through infusions of energy. The original Technomancer experts of Matter were the Sons of Ether, but they left long ago, and Iteration-X has stepped into this void. Most Technomancers use Matter pragmatically, to produce needed technology and material, and leave theory aside.
Prime: Technomancers deal with Prime as all mages must, but are uncomfortable with it, as it does not sit well in a scientific paradigm. Iteration-X has sought, with little success so far, to define it as another form of energy, and this is the ultimate goal of their Grand Unification Theory (which will bring together the spheres of Prime, Forces and Matter). Oddly enough, the Syndicate is the most comfortable with this sphere, as they have found a potent metaphor for Prime: Money.
Spirit: Most Technomancers have difficulty dealing with the spirit world, and rarely have much talent with this sphere. The exception to this rule is the Void Engineers, who act as Technocratic watchmen on the Gauntlet. The eventual goal of the Void Engineers is to define the spirit world in terms of deep space, with spirit "races" reduced to alien species which mankind can meet on its own terms, and conquer. Other Technomancers prefer that the spirit world be sealed off from reality, and tolerate the Void Engineers only because they are the only Technomancer capable of maintaining the Gauntlet.
Time: Most Technocratic attempts to deal with Time have been through the theory of relativity, trying to unify Time and Space. They have advanced to the point where is possible to create devices that can look up and down the time stream, but true travel eludes them. Most of their work is still done via statistical computations to predict past and future events. They are hampered by an essentially deterministic view of reality, which masters of Time like the Cult of Ecstasy say is a serious distortion of the idea of AllTime.
Paradox: Technomancers look upon paradox as their ally, and work to strengthen its power. Paradox maintains scientific reality, which sits well with Technocracy. They feel that the existence of paradox is a manifestation of the collective will of man, and its very existence is a constant proof of the righteousness of their goals. It is a dangerous tool, however, caring not whether a Tradition mage or a Technomancer violates its dictates, striking equally against each. A few Technocrats are growing increasingly wary of Paradox, feeling that is may someday turn on the Technocracy and drive even science from the paradigm.
Avatars: Technomancers are generally uncomfortable with the idea of souls, and therefore find the concept of avatars difficult. Technocrats think of awakening as an altered mental state, a deep connection to the fundamental force underlying the universe. They generally ignore the existence of Avatars, and rarely contact them. They feel that Tradition mages who communicate with their Avatars, or believe in reincarnation or an afterlife, are simply deluding themselves. This bleak view of life after death have led not a few Technomancers to become obsessed with personal immortality.
Ascension: The Technocracy has many different beliefs on the ultimate goal of ascension. They are described in more detail under each Convention.
Akashic Brotherhood: The Technocrats, immersed as they are in the western mind-set, do not understand the goals of the Akashics. They admire them for their discipline, but find that their ideals contradict the paradigm. They work both to drive Akashics out
of the West, and to westernize the East, undermining the Brotherhood's power base.
Celestial Chorus: The Technocrats view religion as the "opiate of the masses", foolish at best, and a hindrance to ascension at worst. They blame the Chorus for the Inquisition, and much that was dark about the dark ages.
Cult of Ecstasy: The Technocrats believe the Cult to be too caught up in their excesses to be a real threat. Their general attitude toward the Cult is "get a haircut, and get a real job". Because of this belief, they often mistake active Cultists for Marauders instead.
Dreamspeakers: The Dreamspeakers are an anachronism that will soon pass away, in the view of the Technomancers. The Technocracy actively seeks to undermine native cultures everywhere, by "bringing them into civilization".
Euthanatos: The Technocracy rarely differentiates these Entropy mages from the Nephandi. Technomancers can become very selfrighteous when dealing with the Euthanatos, calling them "mindless murderers" and "serial killers".
Hollow Ones: Technocrats find the Hollowers nihilistic world-view pointless and foolish, but does attempt to recruit other orphans. Order of Hermes: The Technocracy acknowledges that much of their views on science and magick are rooted in the Hermetic Order. They believe that the Technocracy advanced, while the Hermetics are locked into out-dated ideas.
Sons of Ether: The Sons were once a valuable part of the Technocracy and the wounds of their parting are not healed. The general attitude of the Technocracy was that they would soon fade without support, but they have held on tenaciously for nearly two centuries. The Technocrats are not quite so bitter towards the Sons as they are to the Virtual Adepts, and are not above excepting some Etherites back into the fold.
Verbena: This is another tradition whose beliefs are completely alien to the Technocracy. Many Technocrats believe most Verbena are linked, knowingly or not, to the Nephandi. The Progenitors have a particular hatred of them, perhaps dating back to the disputes between Doctor and Midwife of the late middle ages.
Virtual Adepts: The Virtual Adepts are universally reviled as traitors to the Technocracy. They are to be destroyed on sight, no quarter asked or given.
Marauders: The Technocracy does not understand these insane mages, but finds them extremely dangerous. Battle with Marauders involve so much damage to reality that it is always a pyrrhic victory at best. The Technocracy prefers to stop them at the Gauntlet.
Nephandi: Nephandi typify all the Technocracy finds reprehensible in mages. They have willingly sold their souls to the evils of the Deep Umbra which the Technocracy strives to keep at bay. Only the Virtual Adepts invoke a stronger reaction. A closely guarded secret is the number of Technocrats who have been discovered to be Nephandi.
Vampires: Walking corpses are a violation of the Technocratic paradigm, but they maintain such a low profile, that they are a low priority. The New World Order and the Syndicate come into occasional conflict with vampires over control of various mortal agencies, but they prefer to keep these battles indirect, through the use of pawns. For those who know of such things, there are persistent rumors that the Camarilla and the Technocracy cooperated in eliminating the superstition of the masses after the Inquisition, and that this cooperation may continue at high levels to this day.
Werewolves: The Technocrats would love to eliminate shape-shifters from the paradigm, but given that the changing breeds dwell in the wilderness and the Technocracy resides in cities, they rarely come into direct conflict. The Progenitors have been most active in pursuing them, primarily as research subjects for their genetic research.
Wraiths and Changlings: The Technocracy categorically denies the existence of ghosts and fairies. When confronted by them, they usually interpret them as some sort of peculiar spirit, and work quickly to destroy them. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the Fey retreated to Arcadia about the time the Technocracy first began to rise.
Technocracy Leadership In its beginnings, the Technocracy was a secret society, fearing discovery by more traditional mages. Some of this earlier organization scheme has lingered in the modern Technocracy. They are obsessed with secrecy, and the exact leaders of the Conventions are unknown, perhaps out of fear of assassination by Tradition mages. Low rank Technocrats are left mostly in the dark, given orders without explanation, for fear that they may be captured and reveal crucial information. This breeds paranoia and resentment in the lower ranks, as well as an intense competition to go higher and to be "in the know". There is supposedly an Inner Circle of the Technocracy, with a representative from each convention, that directs the Technocracy as a whole. The exact nature of the Inner Circle is a complete mystery. They never act directly, instead dispersing their directives through secret channels. How the Inner Circle interacts with the highest levels of each Convention is unknown. Much of what is said of the Circle is purely speculative, and its very existence may be a myth. In a similar fashion, each Convention has a hierarchy of its own. Each has its own highest leader, often hiding in the shadows. Beneath this leadership are several tiers of followers. The typical ranking is as follows: non-awakened servants, apprentices, working technomancers (disciples), division heads (Adepts) and Construct heads (Masters). In multi-Convention Constructs, there is often a great deal of posturing to determine how the ranks of the different conventions interrelate. The truest public governing body of the Technocracy is the periodic symposiums held in various locations. Technomancers of many different Conventions attend, and engage in massive and heated debates about where the Technocracy should direct its focus, how it should deal with threats and what new scientific theories should be allowed into the paradigm. These symposiums vary in scope, from
local affairs dealing with specific problems, to the yearly global symposium discussing the future plans of the entire Technocracy. In theory, any decisions at a symposium are made by a simple democratic process, though in practice, political scheming is the norm, with high ranking Technocrats often able to "swing the vote" of their inferiors. Aside from symposiums and any secret directives that might be passed down, different Technocratic Constructs have a degree of autonomy that might surprise Tradition mages were they to know of it. So long as a Construct works toward the general goals of the Technocracy, it may do just about anything it pleases. Constructs are expected to aid one another in times of need, and to obey the decisions of the symposiums, and can expect censure or even retribution if they fail to do so. It is rumored that the NWO secretly monitors different Constructs to make certain they follow Technocratic ideals, but how exactly they put this information to use is unknown.
The Servants of the Technocracy Traditions view the Technocracy as an organized, global conspiracy. The Technocracy see itself as the beleaguered defender of man, with its resources often stretched dangerously thin. The Technocracy has interests on so many different fronts that they often suffer from desperate man-shortage problems. This is particularly true of their mages, who are, perhaps, fewer in number than the traditions. To make up for this lack, the Technocracy makes widespread use of non-awakened individuals. Many of these people are unaware that they are serving the Technocracy. Iteration-X and the Progenitors make extensive use of ordinary scientist to "reality-test" their theories. The NWO uses existing intelligence agencies to gather much of their information. The Syndicate uses ordinary businessmen and organized crime to maintain their investments. The Void Engineers indirectly controls virtually every space-agency on the planet. In addition to these unknowing servants, most Technocracy Constructs have a large number of mundane employees working for them directly. For the most part, these individuals are unaware of the magickal nature of their employers, believing they are working in cutting-edge scientific research, successful businesses or secret intelligence sub-agencies. Even the densest them will notice to many strange things over time, however. The Technocrats deal with this by cultivating a strong sense of loyalty, discouraging questioning, and occasionally wiping memories or resorting to more drastic measures. These employees also make some of the best recruiting grounds, for their loyalty can be observed over long periods of time. Not all of the Technocracy's servants are ignorant of its true nature. The Technomancers have a huge number of "enhanced" servants, mostly bio-engineered, cybered and enchanted humans, but including a wide array of machines and spirits as well. Typical examples of these individual vary from Convention to Convention. Man in Black, Hit Marks, and Superiors are amongst the best known. Another common servant of the Technocracy are the spirit Monitors. The spirits, servants of the Void Engineers, watch for breeches in the Gauntlet. Monitors travel in groups of at least three. Any serious intrusion in the spiritual realm results in one of them fleeing to report the breech, while the rest either deal with the intruders, or at the very least cover the escape of their comrade. Monitors are quite capable of dealing with minor threats on their own, and anything beyond their capabilities are soon met by a Void Engineer Strike Team. It would humble Tradition mages to know that their activities in the Umbra rate a low priority. Unless they are dealing with a major source of power or destruction, the presence of Tradition mages in the Umbra might not be reported for hours or even days. As a result, most Umbral activities of the Tradition meet with no response at all, unless they repeatedly enter the Umbra in the same place. Because of this, few Tradition mages are aware of how carefully the Technocracy watches the Umbra. Nephandi or Marauders in the Umbra merit immediate attention.
The Divisions of Technomancers The five Technomancer conventions each serves a vital purpose in the function of the Technocracy. The New World Order is the leader of the technocracy, managing its works, and the government of man. It is also their primary information gatherer as well. The Syndicate provides the Technocracy with the money necessary to fund its projects. Iteration-X and the Progenitors provide the bulk of new Technology, both machine and biological. The Void Engineer maintain the gauntlet, and explore the dark regions of the Digital Web and the Deep Umbra, from which many of the Technocracy's enemies come. The Void Engineers also maintain the many Horizon Research Realms of the Technocracy. The Technomancers that Tradition mages encounter most often are the Strike Teams (individually refered to as Field Agents). Strike Teams come in a surprising variety of compositions, as the Technocracy constantly experiments with new combinations and technologies. Usually a Strike Team will include at least one, and often several full mages. They will often have several enhanced but unawakened soldiers (referred to as Armatures) such as Men in Black and Hit Marks, to take the brunt of the damage and protect the more valuable mages. Strike Teams often have mages from several different Conventions, to maximize flexibility. Strike Teams are the first line of defense for the Technocracy. They respond to threats beyond the capacity of their sleeping and enhanced servants. Strike Teams also make preemptive strikes against enemies of the Technocracy. Field Agents get the best training and equipment the Technocracy can provide, but their is still some stigma attached to their members. The general feeling amongst Technocrats is that research and development is more important to the goals of Technocracy, and there is resentment on both side of this divide. As they are often in the field, the loyalty of Field Agents is very important. The Technocracy does its best to cultivate fanaticism in the Teams, sometimes at the expense of common sense. Scarce resource and a preponderance of enemies means Strike Teams spend inordinate amounts of time away from their superiors. Some Strike Teams develop such a rabid hatred of the Traditions that they go beyond their orders. Others become "distracted", diverting their energies to dealing with the evils they see in the world, engaging in personal vendettas against crime and corruption, sometimes unknowingly turning on their Technocracy allies.
Another major segment Technomancers are the scientists. Technomancer scientists usually work within the Conventions, though interdisciplinary research exists. These are divided into two major segments: Research and Development. Researchers often dwell in specialized Horizon Realms, where they need not worry about Paradox in working out their incredibly hyper-advanced theories. They pass their ideas on to developers, who work to integrate the new advances into the Earthly paradigm via extensive "reality testing". There is a conflict between researchers and developers analogous to the conflict between pure scientists and engineers. The developers accuse researchers of failing to consider the feasibility of their studies. They waste precious time on pointless research that will never further the goals of the Technocracy, even it can be integrated into the Paradigm. They spend too much time in their horizon realms, and are losing touch with the real world. Some of the ideas they create are simply too impractical to ever implement. Developers chafe at the need to take all their ideas from researchers, and clandestine engage in studies of their own. Researchers see developers as timid technicians and bureaucrats. After all, the researchers are often a century ahead of scientific development on Earth. Developers take too long to implement their new theories. Researchers chafe at trivial seeming questions of "cost effectiveness" and "minimizing disturbances to the Paradigm". A few researchers will circumvent the usual procedure, bypassing development and putting new technologies directly in the hands of Strike Teams or even sleepers, sometimes with disastrous results. To alleviate the problems, most Conventions have a policy of rotating mages through both Research and Development, but in practice only apprentices regular make these transitions. In pragmatic New World Order and Syndicate, the developers have a great deal of day-to-day control of the world, and have more clout than their researchers. In the more scientific Iteration-X and Progenitors, the reverse is true. The Void Engineers, more concerned with exploration than control or research, has perhaps the most even handed development.
Technocratic History An excellent history of the Technocracy is given in the Book of Shadows (pp. 184-191). The Technocracy, like most Traditions, traces its origin back into prehistory, but this is more a study in what ideas led to its development. There is no solid evidence the Technocracy had any real existence prior to the 14th century.
Iteration-X Iteration-X most likely developed out of Hermetic mages joining the the Technocracy during the chaos of the Inquisition. Since then, they have monitored and guided scientific advances, occasionally interjecting their own ideas. Nearly every scientific theory is carefully examined by Iteration-X, and is either approved for inclusion in the paradigm, or dismissed as useless. Iteration-X does not have an absolute hold on the scientific world (as the introduction of Quantum Theory by the Sons of Ether shows), but they have a great deal of control. Iterators are the ultimate technicians, and design the vast majority of the Technocracy's equipment. They are also the Technocracy's primary researcher into the physical and chemical sciences. Iteration-X mages are the most secluded of all Technomancers, often engaged in obscure study in far off realms. They have created an wide array of mechanical servants to interact with the world for them, and to aid their more pragmatic Technocratic allies. Despite their reclusiveness, Iterators are amongst the strongest supporters of the pogrom. Iteration-X is so deeply enmeshed in science that they have developed a dread of the supernaturals nearly as strong as the sleepers'. They direct their machine servants to attack Tradition mages wherever they can find them. This brings them into increasing conflict with other Technomancer who find their tactics to "noisy".
Philosophy: "The machine is the ultimate expression of the values of Technocracy. It is order and perfection. Through understanding the machine, we can find enlightenment. We have seen that the machine is an intelligence in its own right, and will teach us and aid us toward ascension. It is not enough that we use technology in our lives. We must integrate it fully, with machines taking their rightful place as our allies and equals."
Organization: Iteration-X organizes itself along the lines of the scientific and academic communities, splitting into teaching, research and application divisions. It is rumored they are lead by an advanced machine intelligence, from which they received their name.
Meetings: Iteration-X holds regular symposiums of its own to discuss scientific ideas. These meetings resemble scientific conferences more than anything else. Other than this, Iterators rarely interact with each other, as they tend to be more comfortable with their machines than other people.
Initiation: Iteration-X recruits most of its followers from the scientific community. They scour college campuses looking for bright minds with magickal potential. Often their recruits finish their ordinary education, studying Techno-magick on the side. They then spend some time in Iteration-X research centers to finish their training. In recent years, the Convention has recruited some handicapped individuals for physical enhancement via cyberware. This has caused some conflict with the Progenitors, who are working to eliminate physical imperfection from the paradigm.
Chantry: Autochthonia is the greatest Chantry of Iteration-X. This machine world has a physical manifestation as an "opposite earth", a planet in the same orbit as earth but on the opposite side of the sun, hidden from view. Because they lack the sphere of Spirit, Iterators access this realm using Correspondence. Their Chantries often lack horizon realms, though they are warded against spiritual intrusion.
Acolytes: Physicists, Engineers, Artificial Intelligences.
Sphere: Like the Ahl-i-Batan, Iteration-X has two spheres, Forces and Matter, which they believe are the same at a fundamental level. They lack the spirit sphere though, because the very idea of it is opposed to their scientific world-view. Even other Technomancers are surprised at how vehemently Iteration-X denies the spirit world.
Foci: Forces/Prime/Matter: Electricity Entropy/Correspondence: Calculator Time/Life: Watch Mind: Electrodes Spirit: Forbidden
Concepts: Cold Scientist, Cyber-Assassin, Mechanical Engineer Quote: "The flesh is weak. Machines have perfection. Only when man emulates and embraces the machine will true peace be found." New World Order: "They lead us well, which is good, for they are the only ones willing to do it. They are too timid in pursuing the Pogrom, however. Supernatural threats must be eliminate to lead to scientific and Technocratic triumph."
Progenitors: "Our brother scientists share many of our ideals, but they are fools to believe perfection can be found through flesh alone.
Syndicate: "Pencil pushing bureaucrats, they don't understand that the market is nothing without goods to sell. Still, their earthly resources are useful, so they are worth cultivating."
Void Engineers: "This convention shares more of our scientific views than any other. Their explorations are dangerous, though. It is only a matter of time before they encounter things better left alone."
New World Order The New World Order rose from the Technocracy's need for leadership. The NWO not only leads the Technocracy, but the world itself. The NWO has been encouraging gradual centralization of government, first through nationalism, then through supranational ideals like Communism. Their progress has been rather spotty, however. As one of the most blatant attempts at Technocratic control, the Traditions can easily notice and oppose moves by the NWO. This Traditions believe the NWO is in direct control of most of the governments of the world. This is, in fact, not the case. What would be the point of creating powerful centralized governments if you have to spend all your time telling them what to do anyway? The NWO encourages the sort of governments they like, but once they are in place, they only interfere if they step out of line. This leave the NWO time for its true calling: information gathering. While the NWO has a light touch toward government in general, they have a solid hold on most of the intelligence agencies in the world. They keep many of their agents in the dark, and encourage competition between different agencies as well. This way, there are always several groups investigating the same problem, and the NWO has gets several different points of view. The NWO often "farms out" its information to other more appropriate Conventions, for them to deal with. The amount of information the NWO gathers is truly terrifying. They have monitoring devices installed in many technological devices. Their eyes are everywhere, their spies are legion. Only one thing prevents the NWO from knowing everything that happens on the planet: the sheer mass of information they collect is too much for anyone to process. Many of their recordings are filed away "for later evaluation". They are hampered by the fact that most of their examiners are sleepers. The NWO tries to compensate by spot checking everything, but much still slips through their fingers. The simplest solution to their problem would be the heavy use of computers, but they avoid this for two reasons. First, they fear the Virtual Adepts raiding their information, something that occurs far too often in any case. Secondly, in order to evaluate the information, mere Expert Systems would not be enough. True Artificial Intelligences would be needed. The only source for AI is Iteration-X, and the NWO is distinctly uncomfortable of the blind faith that Convention places in their machines.
Philosophy: "Only through peace can mankind find the leisure to ascend, and peace is only available through good government. Government is the servant and protector of the masses. It is the best means we have available to regulate errant supernatural forces, and hide their existence from the sleeping world. It is the best means we have to guide the masses toward ascension. It is unfortunate that the hidden, dark nature of the world often forces government to act in secret, but this will pass in time."
Organization: The NWO is organized along the lines of a complex intelligence agency. Its field agents act as investigators, while their superiors assign missions and evaluate their information. More than any other Convention, the NWO is obsessed with secrecy. No one knows exactly who is in charge of the Convention as a whole. There are a few who believe that there are in fact several competing groups at the top of the NWO, struggling with each other for domination. Considering how far the NWO's influence extends, this has frightening implications.
Meetings: Field agents meet with to their superiors on a regular basis to make reports and receive new orders. Presumably the superiors do the same with their superiors, and so forth, but no one knows how far up the chain of command extends.
Initiation: The NWO recruits most of its initiates from talent members of various intelligence agencies. The NWO maintains secret "paranormal" divisions in various agencies which they use a testing grounds for potential recruits. The NWO keeps on eye out for talented individuals in the political world as well.
Chantry: The NWO maintain chantries connected to most of the worlds intelligence headquarters. The location of the central chantry is a closely held secret, if such a thing even exists.
Acolytes: Politicians, Bureaucrats, Law Enforcement Sphere: Mind is the sphere of the NWO. It is invaluable in their attempts to gather information. Foci: Correspondence/Entropy: Statistics Mind/Spirit: Badge Forces/Life/Matter: Electricity Life/Prime: Weapon.
Concepts: Secret Agent, Psychic Division of the FBI, Politician Quote: "These individuals represent a clear and present danger to the sovereignty of the United States. They must be eliminated; law has nothing to do with it."
Iteration-X: "They provide us with the Technology the masses need, but their fanatical pursuit of the pogrom endangers our secrecy." Progenitors: "With their aid, immortality lies within our grasp. Now we must ascertain how to keep it out of their control." Syndicate: "These fools meddle to much in our affairs. It is only a matter of time before we show them our true strength." Void Engineers: "Good soldiers, albeit strange. They need watching, lest they go the way of the Virtual Adepts."
Progenitors There is some dispute as to exactly how the Progenitors arose. Some believe they were renegade Verbena, joining the early Technocracy out of fear of the Inquisition. Others say they came from the rising medical class, in direct competition with herbal midwives and their Verbena kin. Regardless of their origins, the Progenitors have done much to reshape the way the world views life and disease. It is also true that they harbor a special hatred of the Verbena. The Progenitors initially work to win sleepers to their side via improvements in agricultural techniques. Their greatest accomplishment, however, was the creation of the germ theory of disease. By attributing disease to a physical cause, rather than a spiritual one, disease could be treated via non-magickal means with predictable results. It was even possible to completely eliminate certain diseases, something unthinkable in any previous paradigm. Heartened by their success with disease, the Progenitors have pressed forward to pry into the very secrets of life itself. Evolution and genetics are the two corner-stones to modern Progenitor research. The Progenitors have learned much about the living process, and have created a number of new and successful species. Meanwhile, their technicians continue to develop new theories and chemicals to improve the lives of Sleepers. Unfortunately, modern Progenitor obsession with the creation of the "perfect" life-form, and the general improvement of man, have distanced them from humanity, and they can be quite ruthless in their experimentation.
Philosophy: "We now hold the power to control our own evolution. The ultimate expression of Technology is the power to redefine oneself. We have the knowledge and power through drugs and genetics to remake man in a better, more powerful form. Through successive transformations, we can advance mankind far further than the course of nature would ever take us, and thereby ascend."
Organization: The Progenitors organize themselves along academic lines, in various research and education centers. Each major scientific discipline has a Review Board that evaluate various Technomancer's work, and determining who will get funding and who will be "cut".
Meetings: Progenitors tend to be more concerned with research than regular interaction with their peers. Any meetings they have tend to be practical exchanges of information, as well as occasional demonstrations of new discoveries.
Initiation: Progenitors, like Iteration-X, looks mostly to the academic world to find its recruits. In recent years, the Progenitors have realized that there are a number of talented individuals in the drug world, developing new chemicals and strains of plants. Their recruits there also give the Progenitors access to a wide range of willing test subjects in the drug consuming public.
Chantry: It is rumored that the Progenitors have converted the monastery where Mendel once lived into a hi-tech research center and clearing house for Progenitor ideas.
Acolytes: Pharmacists, Medical Personnel, Drug Dealers Sphere: The Progenitors concentrate on the sphere of life, and their mechanistic view has influenced the general Technocratic view of this sphere. They feel that life is governed by various small processes such as DNA, whose actions can be studied and understood.
Foci: Force/Entropy: Electricity Drugs: Life/Mind Stopwatch: Time
Correspondence/Matter: Calculator Prime/Spirit: Vial
Concepts: Drug Engineer, Genetic Researcher, Doctor Quote: "Don't worry. This won't hurt a bit." Iteration-X: "They are at least solid scientists. Their obsession with machinery is taking them down a false path, however. Ascension is only available to the living."
New World Order: "As our leader, they do a passable job, leaving us to do what we do best. Never trust them, though. Syndicate: "These businessmen can be extremely useful, but short-sighted. Our brief foray into the drug world makes it clear they are not exploiting the full potential of their markets."
Void Engineers: "We do not claim to understand their obsession with space, but have no problem with it, either. At least they occasionally return with interesting new specimens."
Syndicate The Syndicate was originally composed of pragmatic mages who threw in with nascent Technocracy to oppose the chaos of late medieval Europe. They developed a specific function by introducing Technomancer creations to sleepers. As time went on, they developed an advanced theory of economics, whose practice they follow today. Many Technomancers are uncomfortable with this Convention's growing power. Early in their history, the Syndicate realized the future of power lay not in heredity, political power, or knowledge, but in the control of capital. Where others worked to discover and create new things, the Syndicate worked to control the means of production. Thus, they reap the profits of others work. The Syndicate has fingers all over the business world, in both legal and illegal activities. Unfortunately, the Syndicate has lost sight of reality, putting profit above all else, including morality and even common sense. Younger Syndicate mages pursue more and more rapid returns on their investments, sacrificing long term productivity. Unlike other Technocratic Conventions, the Syndicate feels that a certain amount of randomness in the paradigm is essential. Only through competition can individual achieve their true potential. People will only give their finest when they are rewarded for their work. This attitude has put them in increasing conflict with the NWO over the years. Many Syndicate mages feel the NWO has outlived its usefulness, and should step aside to allow new and vigorous leadership. The NWO, of course, has a different opinion. The recent failure of Communism is seen to be a move on the part of the Syndicate against the NWO.
Philosophy: "Only the market can bring Technology into the home. Through observation of the market, we can see what the masses need and demand. The competition of the market brings vigor to the lives of the masses, and gives a safe outlet to the strife without which life has no meaning. The market provides a simple measure of power the masses can understand: money. Whether the rest of the Technocracy acknowledges it or not, the market now controls the world. Ignore it at your peril."
Organization: Because of their attitudes towards competition, the Syndicate encourages a great deal of autonomy in its members. A certain amount of scheming and back-door dealing is admired. The Syndicate plays for keeps though, and a young mage who crosses the line can have his career cut short. There are rumors of a central board overseeing the entire Convention, but what its purpose may be no one knows.
Meetings: The Syndicate mages, despite their independence, love to meet frequently, usually in their boardrooms or over "power lunches". These meeting range from simple displays of wealth and power to secret negotiations against a common enemy.
Initiation: The Syndicate recruits from business schools and already successful businessmen. Because legality is not a major concern, they also recruit from successful and wealthy criminal overlords as well.
Chantry: The Syndicate has powerful chantries in New York, Tokyo and Switzerland, but is too diverse to have a primary chantry. Acolytes: Accountants, Economists, Criminals, Stock Brokers Sphere: The Syndicate is the only Convention with a well developed understanding of the sphere of Prime. They have developed a powerful means of regulating the flow of Quintessence through the use of money. By directing capital toward or away from different ventures, the Syndicate can control their success or failure in reality.
Foci: Correspondence: Phone Time: Wristwatch Spirit/Mind: Contract Prime/Matter/Life: Money Entropy/Forces: Calculator
Concepts: CEO, Business Tycoon, Crime-lord Quote: "It takes money to make money." Iteration-X: "These guys give us the best things to sell, but they have no sense of presentation. Nearly everything they invent would
Iteration-X: "These guys give us the best things to sell, but they have no sense of presentation. Nearly everything they invent would never make it into the paradigm without our advertising."
New World Order: "Out-dated bureaucrats. They need to step aside for some people with real drive." Progenitors: "We welcome their help in the drug markets, so long as they remember that distribution and marketing is 99% of the work."
Void Engineers: "These poor sods don't seem to realize that unless is space is profitable, the sleepers will never go for it."
Void Engineers This Convention has, without a doubt, the best reputation amongst Tradition mages. This is primarily because the Void Engineers have little to do with the pogrom, and therefore rarely come into with the Traditions. Because of their pragmatism, they have even cooperated with Tradition mages in the Deep Umbra on occasional, and they are generally viewed as harmless. Were the true goals of the Convention known, this opinion would likely change. The Void Engineer arose to fill a specific need in the Technocracy. To close off the gateways to the Umbra, they needed Technomancers familiar with the world of spirits. The Void Engineers fulfilled this need neatly, not only strengthening the Gauntlet, but setting up networks of Techno-spirits to monitor its boundaries. The Voiders may have learned too much in their journey however, for they could not leave the Umbra well enough alone. During their explorations of the Umbra, the Void Engineers developed a desire to reincorporate the spirit world with the physical world. There were simply too many wonders to ignore. The Voiders supported the Technomancer paradigm, however. They resolved this conflict by trying to expanding the Technocratic paradigm into the Umbra, converting it into deep space. To date, they have had little to no support from other Technomancers, who find their goals frivolous. The Voiders have, at various times, considered defecting, but consider it unlikely the Traditions will support their goal either.
Philosophy: "A study of history shows that a civilization maintains its vigor is through expansion and exploration. Yet on the limited sphere of the earth, this invariably leads to war and death. Only the limitless bounds of space allow the expansion needed to maintain civilization without the accompanying destruction. When we are ready, we must reopen the gates to the Void, not to allow others to enter, but to sweep out and claim the universe as our own."
Organization: Void Engineers have two distinct divisions: Ground Control and the Explorers. Ground Control maintains the gauntlet and monitoring network, while the Explorers probe the Deep Umbra. Ground Control has a complex hierarchy to regulate is technical developments, while the explorers spend to much time in the field to have any real organization beyond the Cabal level.
Meetings: Due to the Conventions loose organization, they have little in the way of meetings beyond the practical level, though Voiders do have a penchant for attending Science Fiction Conventions.
Initiation: The Void Engineers recruit primarily from two fields: space agencies and science fiction writers. Oddly enough, it is the second group who commonly make up Voider Explorers, while recruits from NASA tend to fill out Ground Control.
Chantry: The Voiders greatest Chantry is Cape Kennedy, though they have diversified considerably in recent years, especially in Europe. They are greatly disturbed at the recent developments in Russia and the collapse of its space program, and suspect there is more to what is going on than a simple NWO/Syndicate squabble.
Acolytes: Space Technicians, Air Force Officers, Sci-Fi Fans Sphere: The Voiders are the only Convention to fully explore the Spirit sphere. They eventually desire to quantify the Umbra as Deep Space, but have yet to come up with any unified theory to do so. As a result, they still use many outdated Rotes to deal with spirits, drawing heavily from the Hermetics. This does not help their reputation with other Technomancers.
Foci: Spirit/Correspondence/Mind: Radar Life/Entropy: Sensors Time: Watch Forces/Matter/Prime: Electricity
Concepts: Bold Explorer, Stalwart Guardian of the Gauntlet Quote: "To go boldly where no one has gone before ..." Iteration-X: "While their technical support is useful, their blind ignorance of the spirit world is astounding. Spirits may not mesh well with the scientific paradigm, but that sort of denial is not healthy."
New World Order: "They are perfectly happy to use our spy satellites, but are unwilling to give us the support we need." Progenitors: "The Progenitors gives us the least problems, primarily because they are too absorbed in their own research." Syndicate: "Where the hell is the funding they keep promising? A sky full of communication satellites is not exactly what we had in mind."
THEORETICAL THEISTS By Darryl Adams (
[email protected]) (12 June 1995)
Introduction From the Speech of Professor Micheal Osaka, Oxford Chantry, on the commencement of the 1995 class of Theoretical Theist acolytes There is no denying that there was a big bang. There is no doubt that we evolved from lesser life forms. There is no questioning the existence of dark matter (well, maybe I am being slightly extravagant here, but bare with me , I am proving a point). Look at all the great theoretical advances in Science in the last century, there is one thing missing. The trigger, the smoking gun. What was it that started the big bang? What made a collection of base chemicals into proto organic material? God? YAHWEH? Azura-Mazda? Set? Apollo? The One? We don't know. We, the Theoretical Theists, however believe that some force, something we can not define in simple science or complex theology, is responsible for creating the conditions needed for life , universe and other unanswered questions.
History Br Theolopolous, Celestial Chorus investigator, 1989 The Theoretical Theist's (hence TT) is a offshoot of both the Celestial Chorus and the Sons of Ether. No date can be set for the formation for this group; it formed more by osmosis than by design. The TT is mainly centred around nations of the British Commonwealth (Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) where the Church of England has a strong presence. The TT can actually be traced back to the formation of the Church of England. The Protestant Church of England was not formed by popular movement, as in Europe. The Order of Reason instigated the Schism between Rome and London as an experiment to replace a Celestial Chorus dominated organisation with a state controlled (ie under the Order the Reason) church. In the short term, the result was a success, but in the long term, you find that the Church became a political organisation with atheist and agnostics holding positions of power in theological and political matters. Clearly the Technocracy views the Church as a tame puppet, using it to promote things like Mass deportation of children from England to the colonies after WWII and mass disruption of indegeous culture in the Commonwealth. However, freed from the control of the Chorus and Rome, a movement of scientific inquiry erupted in the English Church. Places like Oxford and Cambridge became centres of science, and theology. Groups like the Paramedians prospered during this period, with the church fuelling the industrial revolution and the growth of empire. A strange union of two separate (and one would think, incompatible) traditions began. The Freemasons is no doubt an organisation supported by the TT (a counter the Order of Hermes's sponsored occult groups of this period?). The English church promotes ideas that we in the CC find questionable or outright objectionable. Abortion, Contraception, Divorce et al. Is this the result of the TT or of the Technomancy or is it another force we have no knowledge (Vampires? Fairies? SOE?).... ...while the TT is nominally allied to the Traditions, I feel that this group is tainted by its association with the Technomancers. Great care should be taken when dealing with this group.
Extract from Doc. Grinbech's letter about the TT, Paradigma vol iii, 1935 ...there is no denying that the Theoretical Theists are good scientists, but one must question their reliance on god (or the Architect as they refer to him/her/it.. see how stupid this is?) to justify their theories. These people use god as a plaster to fill up holes in there theories! Surely science has the answers they are looking for without using garbage that even the Chorus rejects!....
Reply from the Editor, Paradigma vol iii 1935 We welcome any input that the Theoretical Theists has in this journal. To reject any new science because of its source is a sign of shallow thinking. The TT while unorthodox, has the rights that all of our brotherhood share in our union....
The Union of Science and the Devine Architect What the Theoretical Theists represent in the game? The TT is a union of Science and Theology. Most theories that we take for granted take a bit of faith to believe. We can't prove conclusively evolution, relativity, the big bang as it would involve time travel and other technology (or magick) not available to us. While the Technomancers and the SOE would argue that there is scientific evidence to prove their points, and that the Celestial Chorus can prove their point by use of faith and Scripture, the TT use a synergy of both , using the divine being (they call it the Divine Architect) to explain/prove/justify some of the more hairy parts of theories. Who triggered the Big Bang ? The Devine Architect. Who created the organic soup that triggered life on earth. The Architect. The TT could be considered as a humanising element of the Technomancers paradigm. With their links to the Church of England (the part that believes in god that is), they soften the mad technological rush with a simple message that more people can believe in, as a lot of people still have faith in the church. The TT has a slightly sinister reputation, due mainly to their association with both the Freemasons and the Arcanum (the former inspired and controlled by the TT, the later by the fact that some TT are also members of the Arcanum).
Magick Effects
The TT , by virtue of their genesis from the Celestial Chorus and Sons of Ether, have a choice of Prime and Matter as their primary Sphere. Their foci are similar to the SOE. Give me some time and I will think of some difference. (Can you use the Bible?)
Relations with the other Traditions and the Conventions Akashic Brotherhood: The Brotherhood are too inward looking. While the truths they learn have great power, it is the power of one. We need to look at the universe, and our part in it, to gain true power, we need the Architects guidance.
Celestial Chorus: They don't trust us. Say we are part of the Technocracy, or a loony fringe of the SOE. Maybe we are. We believe in the Architect, however, and feel that he guides us in the unlocking of truth and through truth, Ascension. The Chorus is afraid of the sciences we espouse, as it is fundamentally different to the "trust us, we are the church" approach. It failed with Leonardo, it failed with Copernicus, it fails with us. We search for the truth, for the truth has the Architects message of Ascension.
Cult of Ecstasy: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. These tear at the heart what made the Empire great, cast aside the effort we made towards the Ascension.
Dreamspeakers: It amazes us that there is still pagans out there, after the amount of effort we took to bring word of the Architect to the Empire. While the spirit realm is real to them, it pales to the glory of the Architect. Physics, Astronomy, Evolution, these are truths, not beating drums and dancing in circles.
Euthanatos: Death Cultists. During the time we were part of the Technocracy, we took active part of distroying these dangerous threats. We sent missionary's and beaurocrats to the ends of Empire. We fought to erase these dangerous cults from the consensus of those backward people who believed in such things. Now, in the Ascension war, they are our allies. Trust them not.
Order of Hermes: Strange mob these. Nominally pagans (like Hermes, really), these are scientists of magick. The quantify, record and analyse magick as we do the same for the universe. Magick is a tool however, not a means to an end, and to waste the gift of Magick that the Architect gave us is hubris.
Sons of Ether: Our closest allies, but we are not really part of their order. Their science is soulless, empty. By failing to acknowledge the Architect , their theories are like buildings without foundations: easy to collapse. We must help them however, as we share the same history, share the same love of science, and share the desire to better the world.
Verbena: The bard has plenty of these people in his plays, and that is where they belong. Virtual Adepts: These people seek to replicate the Architect's works using "Digital Web" We feel that the Web is a great place for modelling realities and other things that are impossible to do in the real world, but they con not replace reality Mark 1. These people are not the Architect, and any attempt to make a new universe better than the old is doomed to fail. It would be worthwhile watching though.
The Conventions: We share a lot with the conventions, or should I say, the precursor of the Technomancers, the Order of Reason. The Church of England was their idea, and a lot of the work we did was for them. They however have lost the desire for true Ascencion, and seek power for their own purpose.
Iteration X and the Progenitors : Seek to usurp the Architects role in evolution, and all they create is monsters. Destroy these monsters!
New World Order: These people collate data about reality. We would love to see their files, for the raw data in our modelling, but not to control the consensus like they do.
The Void Engineers: These people are our direct enemies, and the most like us. Together we seek Ascension through examining the universe. The VE fail to equate the Architect, however, so their theories lack soul. Dr Hawking, while one of the premier scientists of our time rejects god, but what replaces him? If there was no war, we and the VE would probably sit together and argue truths. What a waste. A Final Note: We hear the VE seek out and destroy shades and other denizens of the afterworld. We reject this, as the Architect is the final arbiter of what happens after we die, and it is hubris to interfere in his work.
Syndicate: Money is god! Worship money! No wonder society is a mess.
Other Denizens of the World of Darkness Vampires: We know little of these. We have however, found some references to Caine, who they see as some kind of god. The kinslayer of god. How depressing.
Werewolves: These creatures take great pleasure in destroying our installations, with cry of "Kill the Scientists." They seem to hold the moon and earth as sacred, and their mythology follow the Dreamspeakers. They are dangerous. Apart from that, we have little knowledge of them.
Wraiths: These are tortured souls, seeking to find the Architect's love. Help them if you can, protect yourself if you can't. Do not destroy them; that is the Architects prerogative.
Fairies: The Fay are benefactors of the SOE, and by default, ourselves.
THE THIRD STAR By Theslin Wanders-through-Bramble (
[email protected])
Prelude "We three call, Keepers of light. Which messenger will sit with us, under the new moon?" Under their fingers, the planchette slowly began to glide. It always did, when the circle's spirit guide got the Black Bird three minute long invocation right. The heart-shaped bit of plastic drifted, touching the "G." "It's doing it again, Kase. You're pushing." "I'm not pushing. If I was, we'd be talking to my father. G...R...K... S..." The pointer touched "Z" and wandered aimlessly, as if it had lost its train of thought. Kase looked at Margaret, who wanted to be called Raven now. She was mumbling a prayer, her eyes tightly closed. Coryn was watching the ouiji board intently, chewing on her quartz necklace. "'I', It touched 'I'. Just like last time. Look, it's doing 'L' again." With unusual precision, the planchette spelled out the rest of the enigmatic name. Coryn tried the word silently before speaking it. "'Grkszilrd' isn't a name." Raven opened her eyes. "Maybe it's Welsh? Grkszild could be in the Night Bird book of angels." She picked herself up from the floor and walked around stacks of paper and clothing to the bookshelf. "This book has everything." She shook dust off the cover, and thumbed through the G's. "The name's here, but they left the entry blank." Kase and Coryn left their posts to look. "Check Toben's Spirit Guide." Raven reached for the slick, double-sized paperback on the top shelf. So far, every spirit they'd contacted was described in the Night Bird encyclopedia. The Grkszilrd problem was unusual. She paged the Spirit Guide. "No Grkszilrd." A sound of shattering glass crashed through the little apartment. By the noise, Raven's shelves of crystals in the kitchen had finally collapsed. With the scream of a tortured violin, the planchette scraped itself to a single word: "Goodbye." The atmosphere of the cluttered apartment shifted from warm and messy to cold and menacing. A voice from her rabbit hindbrain began to scream, and Coryn knew, from that part of her mind she had trained like the books said, that something was going horribly, perversely wrong. A heavy footfall sounded from the kitchen, from the shattered glass shelves. A footfall, then a dry scraping noise, and the clatter of something somehow arachnid. The kitchen door shown a sickening blood-red.
It pushed its head around the door. Its face was crusted in brown and ichor-green plates of chitin. It brought a leg through the door, a black dragon's claw. With a scrape it pulled its other limb into the room -- a muscled, scaled member ending not in talons, but in a human spine. Where its claw and vertebrata touched the floor, the carpet rippled and changed into oily slicks of blood. In the voice of a choir of electrocuted murderers, the thing spoke: I am Grkszilrd. You called. Kase was screaming hysterically, pulling her hair, curled with her chin between her knees. The creatures chelicera worked greedily, and a string of black saliva trailed to the floor. Coryn kept her head -- Illysen's Liber Astare had a ritual of protection. The horrid entity didn't seem to be in a hurry... "Raven! Get me the blue book!" No call, no answer, and the entity chuckled. Coryn glanced at her friend -- seated beside the bookcase, a life-sized, cloth and china doll, a perfect likeness of Raven, held her place. The creature raised its claw, and the doll slumped forward, shattering. Coryn clenched her teeth, straining not to run. Illysen's Chant of Holy Light in the Liber Astare would protect from all baleful influences. The book said so. She should have memorized it, but the Chant just went on, and on... The fetal Kase moved an inch toward the creature. It made a pulling motion with an arm stuck grotesquely to its back, and she slid forward another inch. The monster called Grkszilrd laughed again, taking its time. It knew about Coryn's books -- other young mystics had conjured it, and had tried again to dismiss it. The Pentex ritual for summoning a Nexus Crawler was the only functional spell in her New Age library. The rest were so many useless rhymes and word-games. It gestured with its arm again, and the screaming Kase moved another inch towards it. All the clocks in the house began to run backwards, and in the refrigerator a gallon of milk turned to bile. Coryn ran her hand along the shelves of books, trying to watch both the monster and find the Liber Astare. The creature sat on what might be its haunches, or its thorax, and cocked its head to one side. Its tongue lolled out, over a foot long. Grkszilrd pulled Kase another three inches closer. The Liber was sitting on a pile of books on the bottom shelf, gathering dust. The Chant of Holy
Light was the last spell, in the appendix, easy to find in a hurry. She began to read: "Hadraniel, Israfel, enfold us in your wings. Michael, Guardian, protect us. Raphael, Gabriel, wrap us in your mantel. Duma, angel of silence, defend us." This was wrong. The creature reared back. The "Chant of Holy Light" was a meaningless agglomeration of angel's names. It had no power, but the monster could see pure, white fire, a wall of flame and wings, surround the two surviving girls. It stood on its twenty-seven legs, focused its ragged knot of Wyrm-stuff on the book, disintergrating it -- and its strike disippated against the wall of light. "Orphaniel, guard us. Uriel, hide us. Ataphiel, interceed for us. Ithuriel, shield us from the Enemy." The creature was backing into the kitchen. There were only a few more lines to the Chant, and it was retreating. Coryn saw the monster ignite the carpet around her, change the ceiling above her into poison asps, but all baleful influences were held back by the Chant and her faith. She decided to press her limited advantage. The Rite of Binding was in chapter three...She called upon the final angels, Anaphaxeton and Zebuleon, great judges of the Apocolypse, to complete the Chant. The Rite was mostly visualization, a vortex of energy to draw in malefic powers. She closed her eyes, and saw the whirlpool of pure white force. Feeling nauseated she visualized the beast in as full detail as she could imagine, pulling it into the vortex, closer to her, into the field created by the Chant. She crossed herself, calling upon saints and stars, and spat the jagged Latin of the Rite. Coryn opened her eyes. Kase was still on the floor, sobbing. Raven was broken in shards of china and ripped silks. The monster -She reached behind her neck, unclasping the chain which held her quartz pendant. She held the crystal to the light--its pristine lines held a dark, smokey flaw. The chain felt tarnished. Quartz. Good for dealings with the spirit world. Promotes clear thinking. Coryn silently thanked Illysen Press for its work.
Description Sleepers have always had an interest in the occult. Spiritualists and faith-healers could draw crowds in the 1800s, and can gain an audience in the enlightened twentieth century. Since the Endless Summer of 1968 mystical parephenalia has commanded a growing market share. The New Age movement was born in part from the Summer of Love. While the Hindu-Occult-SpiritualistPagan Hodge-Podgians of the New Age are descended from the Cult of Ecstasy and the Endless Summer, they and their legacy are controlled by the Technocracy. As quickly as the trade in New Age merchandise began, it was caught by the Syndicate. The Technocrats stripped from the markets any trace of functional occultism, leaving only a veneer of spiritualism around what largely became fiction and optimism. The Seventies gradually phased into the Eighties, and the economic recession of that decade produced a strange combination of financial want and conspicuous materialism. Members of both the leisure class and the working class saw in the watereddown New Age some scrap of hope: "if we cannot improve our lot alone, we can better ourselves with help from the outside." Numerous publishers attempted to enter the occult market, including printing houses influenced by the Verbena and Order of Hermes. These companies were bought out or destroyed by Technocracy; the current New Age market of the World of Darkness is dominated by two publishers. The larger of the pair, Illysen Press, releases relatively "tame" works devoid of true Magick - -not surprising, as Illysen is directly owned by the Syndicate. The smaller publishing house, Night Bird Books, produces books of a darker streak -- many of their books could generously be called grimoires. Because of Technocratic pressure Night Bird has removed the core of Spirit in their writings, though their work still contains some real occult lore. Night Bird Books holds a disproportionate share of the New Age market due to persistant rumor that some of their incantations actually work. Night Bird is a eighth- or ninth-generation puppet of Pentex, Incorporated. With an economy that has tentatively left its state of recession and heightened awareness of sociology and the environment, the need for outside sources of hope has diminished. Yet the New Age has not lost ground. Largely this is due to the approach of the Millenium; the threat of the unknown has brought many initiates into the occult. Another factor drawing members into the New Age movement is the presence of Awakened leaders within the movement. These orphan Mages have met and are working towards order within their chaotic Paradigm. They tentatively call themselves the Third Star, and they wield real power. The Magi of the Third Star draw power from great faith in their tools. Unfortunately, these tools -- their foci -- are controlled by the Technocracy. While the Third Star are Mystical mages, the directions of their Craft are controlled by the Technocrats. As the Millennium approaches the power of the Third Star grows. As do the Virtual Adepts, the Third Star possesses a Paradigm that gains strength as the cumulative unconscious of the world hopes for a bright new future. The pivotal question for the Third Star -a question completely out of its hands -- is which side of the Ascension War they will band with when the Millennium comes 'round.
Philosophy Let go, and let Goddess. Ascension comes with the realization that you're a part of the world, the world is a part of you, and both are a part of something bigger. Crystals and prayers can heal and save us. I saw the answer to the Global Ascension on a bumper sticker: Visualize World Peace! That's it! But everyone's got to do it together...so we'll all do our part to illuminate the world with the light of the celestines and the love of the Mother. Yeah.
Organization The Third Star posesses no internal order. The more enlightened members lead their followers, but no single member can demand the obedience of another. High changes in the Third Star are brought about by the decisions of the Technocracy. Recent attempts to influence the Third Star have included the addition of some truly bizaare elements to the New Age Paradigm. As unlikely as it seems, the powerful faith of the Third Star has produced Magick using even aromatherapy. The New World Order is still shaking its head over that one.
Meetings Members of the Third Star meet regularly at large conventions of psychics, parapsychologists, New Age book-sellers and collectors, and so forth. Many local groups meet on a weekly basis, leading themed organizations such as tarot-groups and Yoga societies.
Initiation Members of the Third Star Awaken within the loving arms of the New Age movement, surrounded by like-minded Sleepers and an optimistic environment. Awakened members swiftly gather circles of acolytes, followers and groupies. The higher members of the Third Star, the true soul of their order, gather these ringleaders and show them the Big Picture. They are then set free to lead or follow as they see fit.
Chantry The headquarters of the Third Star is the meeting place of the Parapsychological Society of California, which tends to wander around the state. It usually resides in Los Angeles.
Acolytes Groupies, writers, visionaries, Pagans, New Agers
Sphere Spirit
Foci Books, crystals, aromatherapy, meditation, herbs, purification, and occasionally Do!
Concepts Priest, psychic, Seeker of Knowledge, Healer
Quote "Close your eyes, and let the White Light of the Goddess fill your being."
Stereotypes (As the Third Star as a Craft is naive to much of the Awakened world, they have not yet formed a clear picture of the Traditions and the Technocracy. But if they had, their extreme open-mindedness and optimism would color their understandings of many of the magickal factions...)
Akashic Brotherhood: The East has untold stores of wisdom. The Brotherhood posesses so much lore. Sometimes they'll drop hints.
Clinging infants. They have no understanding of their own power. Celestial Chorus: The Church shot itself in the foot. The Chorus's search for the One is quaint -- we can all be the One, but there's bigger things to hope for. Maybe they should sit in our circles. They've got some good ideas, though.
Insolence! They embrace heresy, and call it wisdom! Cult of Ecstasy: They're obviously in love with the world, which is half the battle. But that's as far as they've gotten. Okay, we tried. The Technocracy got the better of us on this one. But there's something happening here. What it is, ain't exactly clear, to quote the Bard. Dreamspeakers: They know so much! Amazing people, a Tradition after our own hearts. The Third Star is shallow. We sometimes win loyal converts from their order, and they're always eager to learn from us, but they're tiring. Euthanatos: Oh, yuk. Death instead of life? No sense of hope. Take away their toys and the Star falls. These people are so far beyond pitiful...at least they keep their distance. Order of Hermes: The Hermetics keep their secrets well. Their methods are powerful, but they defeat the betterment of the world by their reluctance to share.
We've planted a few seeds in the incredibly rich fertilizer the Star feeds from. Let's see what happens. Sons of Ether: They're going the wrong way, but fast! Still, we can see kindred spirits behind their goggles. They're running both toward and away from the Technocracy. Strange. Verbena: The Hermetics have the new wisdom, and the Verbena keep the old. Both are necessary. The blood, however, is not. The orphans of the Third Star are, in a sense, our children. They do not see the swords over their heads in their Technocratic masters. Perhaps they will Awaken entirely, and come home. Hollow Ones: Our dark shadows. Our deluded, wimpy third cousins. Iteration X: Anathema to the true light of the World. To combine Man with Machine would kill the Man. Cut them loose, gun them down. These characters are a threat. New World Order: They kill the spirit! Awful! And they're so big! The Syndicate keeps these creatures around for profit and entertainment. We've tried to strip their power from them, but it regenerates every time. If they develop further, we will have great allies or terrible foes. Perhaps we should kill them now, while there's time, but the Ivory Tower forbids... The Progenitors: They take all the wrong methods to save the human race. Terrible. We've got a wonderful poison ready that'll solve the problem in no time at all. Please? The Syndicate: We'll have nothing to do with these materialists. They are so far removed from our light. The best customers are the repeat customers. What harm can these bugs do? They bring us money, and it's fun to see what new straw they grasp at. Did you see the time we showed them Rolfing? Void Engineers: Good plan, poor intentions. They go out into the Great Unknown with too many preconceptions. Some of them are coming around, though.
They're good for a laugh, and they're as eager as we are to touch the unknown. Their optimism is a little disturbing, though.
Notes on Foci Like the Technomancers, the Third Star draws power from its faith in Foci. Members are not allowed to drop their foci until they reach Arete 5. The foci of the Third Star are mercurial. The mage may swear by the power of Yoga, until she reads a book on herbology. However, the mage will be adamant in the importance of herbology in magick for as long as the phase lasts. A Storyteller must be sympathetic to this, and should not force her players to fill in their character sheet with permanent ink.
Books: Assorted tomes and paperbacks are the most common of Third Star foci. Frequently the mages will take Books as foci for all their spheres, in addition to other choices. Using books in magick adds +1 to +3 to the initiative difficulty of an effect.
Aromatherapy: A common focus for Life, Mind and Spirit magicks. The mage uses scented oils and incense to aid her concentration. Most magi pick out a few favorite scents, or use a different scent for each effect. Unlike the incense used by the Cult of Ecstasy, it takes only seconds to prepare this focus.
Emblem A circular design. Lower half is solid black, upper half is lines radiating outward from a point obscured by lower section. Border lower/upper sections a "wave" pattern of peaks and troughs, so total effect is a stylized seascape just before sunrise or just after sunset. Three stars, each of different sizes, hang in the "sky."
TIME LORDS By Mark Kinney (
[email protected]) Based on the Doctor Who television series
Description The Time Lords are a little-known Tradition, mainly because they tend not to take direct action in affairs. What little is known about them is as follows: Late in the Mythic Age, a small Chantry of magi saw the rise of the Technocracy. While entranced with the possibilites of this new form of magick, their control of the Time Sphere (two of the mages, Rassilon and Omega, are believed to have been Oracles) showed where this development would eventually go. They departed into the Deep Umbra, forming the Covenant of Gallifrey in a realm they created. Rassilon and Omega continued to develop the powers of the Time Sphere, until one day in a massive feat of magick involving the Time and Prime Spheres, created a power source which is now one of the Time Lords' main foci, the Eye of Harmony. This would eventually allow the Time Lords to regenerate their bodies and travel not only into the future, but the past as well. But Paradox never turns a blind eye to events, even in the Umbra, and the act of creation caused Omega to be trapped within the Eye. Rassilon continued the time experiments, eventually fully realizing his vision. At first, however, their newfound powers were used to snatch warriors from different timestreams and realms of the Umbra. Rassilon eventually ended these games, and forbade use of the rote that drew the victims from their places in time. Rassilon is believed to eventually either have died or been overthrown by the growing population of Time Lords. In either case, the Death Zone, the site of the past Game, became the site of the Tomb of Rassilon, but whether he is truly dead is unknown. Eventually, the foci for their time travel, referred to by the acronym TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) was created, powered by the Eye of Harmony and made into more of a Talisman than a focus, with several powers of its own, including the ability to disguise its appearance. Parts of toolkits became foci for other things, and the Eye of Harmony changed the followers of this path so that the Eye could be used remotely, although Paradox for some reason chose to alter the Time Lords physiology because of this, giving them two hearts and causing other changes as well. Omega's possible role in this is unknown. An incident that resulted in the destruction of an entire realm caused the Time Lords to become officially neutral in all external affairs, except where the excesses of a group (usually the Marauders but any other group as well) interfere with the known time stream as recorded in the Panopticon, the Time Lords' historical record. They have also, on occasion, had to act when incursions into the Umbral realms began by Techomancer-engineered creatures. They refuse to officially take sides in the conflict between the Traditions and the Technocracy, although some individuals, referred to as Renegades, occasionally help one side or the other, occasionally with covert help from similarly-minded members of the Time Lord High Council.
Philosophy The timestreams are ours to manipulate, but only where absolutely necessary. Our job is more to protect what reality is left from the Technomancers, Marauders, and Nephandi, but we must act against the Traditions when needed, as well.
Organization Very hierarchal. The Time Lords are led by an elected Lord President, who along with the Chancellor (sort of a prime minister) and Castellan (similar to a security head) head up the High Council. Three colleges train Time Lords, the Prydonian being the most prestigious.
Meetings Depends on the High Council. Others usually operate in groups, although Renegades often work alone or with companions picked up during their travels.
Initiation
Being separated from Humanity, Time Lords are born into their position. Whether they recruit otherwise is unknown, but unlikely.
Chantry The Main Chantry is in the Realm of Gallifrey in the Deep Umbra.
Acolytes Scientific-oriented types.
Foci TARDIS: Time/Correspondence Toolkit: Matter/Forces/Entropy Eye of Harmony: Spirit/Life/Prime/Mind
Concept Technician, Scientist, Explorer
Quote "Now remember, we're only here to observe. We must not change history!"
Stereotypes The Traditions: Although we have seen the ends of Technomancer dominance, we cannot assist these, their enemies. History must play out its script.
The Technocracy: Their ends are evil at their farthest extent, but we mustn't affect their battles. The Marauders: They risk the continuum with their constant disruption of reality. They are our constant enemies. The Nephandi: They have interfered with history before. Watch them carefully, and be prepared to act against them.
Rotes Regenerate Spheres: Life 3, Matter 4, Mind 3, Prime 2 Description: Something that nearly all Time Lords learn, this rote completely renews the Time Lord's body, healing all wounds and disease. This usually occurs upon the impending death of the Time Lord, and results usually in not only that but a complete change in appearance and sometimes personality. If a Time Lord doesn't know this, usually one is around who does, and can assist, although in some cases future forms of the Time Lord appear that do know the rote to bring them through [Remember the Doctor at the end of "Logopolis"...]. Why Paradox does not affect this is unknown, although this effect could be considered similar to that of Zen and the Art of Panhandling from the Mage rulebook, although the fact that this rote only works on a particular Time Lord twelve times may appease Paradox somewhat.
System: Make the roll as for vulgar magick, unless nearby sleepers have accepted the Time Lord's nature (i.e. companions). If both the player and Storyteller agree to it, the Storyteller may rearrange points in the character's Social and Mental Attributes to reflect the changes resulting from regeneration. Paradox still takes effect, although Paradox flaws could be part of the process remember that the Sixth Doctor's regeneration was "unstable" and the Seventh was far darker in mentality than any of the others, to the point of manipulating his companion.
Synaptic Overload Spheres: Entropy 4, Mind 3 Description: Upon making contact with a major nerve center on the body, the Time Lord can overload the target's nerves, causing them to fall unconcious.
System: Contact is required for this to work -- a reccommended point is right between the eyes -- and one finger is all that is needed to make contact. Roll for this rote against a difficulty of the target's Willpower or 7 (Entropy 4 + 3), whichever is higher. One success disorients, two will stun the target for one to three turns, and three or more puts them out for the rest of the scene.
True Time Travel Spheres: Correspondence 3, Spirit 3, Time 6+, Prime 3 Description: This is not so much a rote, as knowledge of how to use a TARDIS talisman (detailed below). Basic knowledge in each of the above mentioned spheres is required, but the TARDIS will otherwise fill in what the user doesn't know.
Gift of Rassilon Spheres: Matter 4, Life 4 Description: Time Lord Legend states that one brave enough to enter the Death Zone and survive to reach Rassilon's crpyt in the Dark Tower may take the Ring of Rassilon from his body and be granted Immortality.
System: Only Rassilon truly knows this rote, although others could figure it out given time. The true effect of this rote is to transmute the person in question into a living statue: unable to use magick, unable to leave, but truly immortal... (see "The Five Doctors" for more information on this.) It is believed Rassilon uses the Ring for a focus, as it returns to his hand when the rote is cast.
Time Scoop Spheres: Correspondence 2, Spirit 3, Time 5 Description: This rote, its use long forbidden, was used to bring creatures into the Death Zone for the games. The focus used to cast it still exists, but only the Lord President, Chancellor, and Castellan know its location. It was never intended as a two-way means of travel, and is one of the Time Lords' earliest efforts.
System: The user locates the target and places them anywhere within the Death Zone the user chooses. Time Loop Spheres: Correspondence 2, Spirit 4, Time 5 Description: This rote is used when something so disruptive to the timeline is being used or created. This rote separates their world from the rest of the timeline, so that their influence will not effect the flow of history.
System: This rote raises the Gauntlet of a target Realm to 10, essentially cutting it off from the Umbra. There is presently no way to actually destroy a realm.
Talisman TARDIS
TRAVELERS By Terry French (
[email protected]) (13 Jan 1995) The Travelers or Timekeepers, as some would have them be known, are rumored to have existed since the dawn of time, while others say they are a disjointed group of travelers who have seen the horrors caused by creating ripples in time. Though their existence may have always been, they have remained a relatively small group. Strange as it may seem, many of the Traditions have no knowledge of the Traveler's existence. Those that do have knowledge support the group fully. The Travelers have taken it upon themselves to watch and maintain the flow of time. They are enforcers, seeing that no one interferes with the natural order of time. The Travelers are broken into several branches. The upper branch are the Assembly, all other branches report to the Assembly. The Assembly gathers information and send out the proper agents to correct the situation. There are essentially three field agents, Observers, Hunters and Walkers. The role of the Observers is to watch over time and record events...they are to report any strange anomalies back to the Assembly, so they can determine if further action must betaken. The Observers are said to maintain the largest Library in existence. The Hunters are the most vicious agents, they are also referred to as the executioners. The Hunters are not directly sent out by the Assembly, certain extremely serious matters are sent to the Judges. The Judges are Travelers that take the cases sent down by the Assembly and decide what type of Hunter/s must be sent. They will either send out a Hunter to bring back the person or persons corrupting time, and sentence them when brought in. While the most serious of cases are given the death penalty, however, this requires that all Judges vote accordingly. The Hunters, are by no means evil...only extremely efficient, and will most usually carry out the death sentence in a way that will make others think twice before corrupting the flow of time. The third field agency is known as the Walkers, also as the Keepers. The Walkers for the most part combine the two other groups. The Walkers must maintain the order of time. Which at times gives them the role of Observer and Hunter. The Walkers are the ones who maintain the web of time. They are probably the most knowledgeable of the three groups. The Walkers interact with people to make sure that certain events continue their scheduled course. At times due to interference or simply a ripple in time, sequences will get out of place, therefore, the Walkers must step in and correct the situation. The role of Walkers is one of prestige, and many aspire to reach said position. There is rumored to be a forth group, known as the Seekers...whose only job is to watch over the Travelers. The Travelers have remained a relatively small , and only a select few are ordained into the order. Some say they travel to the future, to observe who they have selected and thus know who to select. However, others say they undergo bizarre rituals of truth. Those that are brought into the covenant, undergo extensive training. They study all aspects of history down the smallest detail. They learn the art of acting...for each area and time period one must dress a different way, speak in a certain way, the manners and customs are different, all this must be mastered. Language, is heavily studied...back to ancient Greek, and Celtic language, and even the more extinct language such as Summerian, Elamite, Hattic. They also study the fighting skills of several different time periods. When one has excelled in her studies then and only then is she allowed...to move on to the more extreme...the study of Time.
Philosophy: Time is a wondrous sight, but those that take advantage of time do all a disservice. Time must be preserved, kept whole...no fluctuation or disturbance will be allowed. We have dedicated our lives to protect the flow of time, and we will die doing so. Therefore, many of us have not the time to seek out Ascenscion...but it will come in Time.
Organization: Travelers are organized into branches, each one supporting the other in one form or another. Chantries existence are unknown.
Meetings: Meetings are an every day occurrence to discuss certain situations, and how these situations must be dealt with...meetings are a part of their task.
Initiation: Unknown Chantries: Unknown, though speculated they have the largest library that exists. Acolytes: Historians, FBI, Book store owners. Sphere: Time Foci: Omni- is a strange looking device. Gold in color it resembles a compass. It helps the Travelers navigate through time. It gives them dates, area...and what seems to be the disturbance in time. The Omni is a tool, and is never relied upon...several Travelers do not use the Omni and rely totally on their own knowledge.
Concepts: Historians, FBI, Book store owners. Quote: "We have very little time for ourselves, for we are constantly keeping others from destroying time...and thus the world as we know it"
TRENCHCOATERS By Timothy Toner (
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Prelude "So then what happened?" "Well, Janice told me that Jeff wanted to go back to his room, and she wasn't so sure, since he was supposed to be going out with Mary later on that night..." "You mean nothing happened? Jeff has been telling everyone he scored on her!" "Well, that's what she told me. You know how she is..." A slim woman walked into the classroom, pushing a tv cart before her. She set it up hastily, and turned to the class. "Tonight we're going to begin our discussion of horror and the postmodern; horror that knows it's horror. The easier manifestation of this self-reflexivity is found in satire. We'll be discussing the Evil Dead movies in this regard. This evening, however, I want to show you Lair of the White Worm, by Ken Russel, an intriguing transition from the original to the copied, from the real to the surreal..." Karen rolled her eyes to heaven. She took this course because it was supposed to be fun, not to have her think. Watch movies, pass in a few trite pages. Then she could get the hell out of this school, and into the real world. She stared at her friend Patty, who smiled back at some stupid joke she was composing on her notebook. 'Play the game, Karen,' she warned herself. Gah, if only college was more like high school. "You're blocking my view." Unaware that someone was sitting behind her, Karen turned to glare at the moron. He was faux chic, one of the wannabes that just weren't cutting it. He wore his sunglasses defiantly, and yet to her they were absurd, unnatural. A razor hadn't scratched his face in a week, and the odor that drifted from him suggested that perhaps water was alien as well. She muttered, "burnout," and shifted a tad to the left. At least she was farther from Patty. Her friend poked her in the arm, and gestured at the pad. "Isn't he creepy?" Creepy? Was Patty on drugs? Could she possibly be falling for the attitude? Please! 'Play the game!' She smiled and nodded. Creepy. Heh. Her boyfriend coming back home after last call was creepy. This guy was stupid. Funny. This stranger wasn't in any of her previous classes. She then recalled the upcoming exam, and realized he was just putting life off until the last minute. 'Why the hell am I even thinking about this loser?' Turning to watch the show, she tried to push him, Patty, reality, everything out of her mind. She hoped the movie wouldn't suck... It was an hour into it, and Karen couldn't take it any more. Something was bubbling over in her mind, some grand inconsistency that nagged at her brain. 'What's wrong with this picture?' she repeated over and over. It got so bothersome that the worry seemed to bleed into her physicality. 'Maybe a trip to the washroom...' She stood and left, despite an admonishing glare from the teacher. A lot of students who did this never came back. Karen reassured her with a smile, and stepped out the door. Here, in one of the most antiseptic areas of the University, a fear borne of silence and sterility stained the walls with white. It was a night class, so she didn't expect the halls to be bustling with people, but there seemed to be something absent altogether. 'No...' Mer mind, suddenly distant, couldn't grasp it. She hastened to the washroom, splashed water in her face, and sighed at the reflection. Brad was supposed to be waiting for her when she returned. Now she'd have to reapply the makeup and fix her hair. 'Why did I have to splash my face with water? Why don't I think?' A shape passed before the mirror. No. 'Behind the mirror.' She took a step back, and stared, stared at the too familiar face reflecting back. It was like a flutter of movement, and then it was gone. Karen began to walk back to the room, water still slowly dripping from her fingers. She was numb, and her mind seemed to be on autopilot. 'I'll get my bag and go...' What had she seen? It was as if her mind wouldn't grasp it, for fear of accepting the impossible. It was movement without cause, motion without explaination. The most puzzling aspect was that she wasn't scared at the least. She just desired to go, to leave this place.
She found herself at the door, and turned the cool knob slowly, waiting for the click. The movie played on within the room, but what else waited for her on the other side? The mirror couldn't open. This could. Would it be there? No. Nothing. The bored class continued to stare on at the flickering box, and the stranger continued to stare blankly at the door. He frowned at her entrance, and slowly shook his head. 'That's what's been bugging me. I wasn't blocking his view of the tv; I was blocking his view of the door!' This knowledge didn't settle her at all. Despite her mounting concerns ('not fears...concerns') she took her seat, and watched on, slowly sliding her chair to the left, to give him whatever he desired. Minutes anguished and suffered, transforming into hours by the strain of waiting. Waiting. 'Waiting for what?' A knock. The teacher, annoyed, moved to get the door, her eyes still glued on the action. Karen wanted to warn. She also wanted to hide, but neither emotion won out. She remained . . . seated. Opening the door revealed a monster beyond the meagre dimensions of the civilized human brain. It was primitive and primeval, savage and bestial, yet walking on two legs. It snarled, and the teacher fainted away. The beast smiled at this, a room full of frozen children, and finally selected one. From deep within its throat, it rumbled, "Patty." And moved to take her. 'Not take. Kill." This she knew, even though she did not understand. If she did nothing, her friend would die, and die horribly. 'You don't even like her! She's not your friend. She's not...' "And Karen, who hung up the phone on her best friend who was distraught over the loss of a boyfriend, who didn't see the point of weeping at a funeral of a sorority sister who had OD'ed on amphetamines, Karen cared...
'If you do care, stay down...' This was an alien voice in her head, male, masculine, reassuring. She should have been angered by the invasive nature, mystified by its unknown suddeness, but she was neither. 'Now you sit and learn...' 'Now I sit and learn.' All this took mere seconds, but it was enough. Karen could move, could act. The paralysis was gone, as was something else she couldn't quite place. "Come Patty...your father has made carrion of my children, and now I return the honor." Patty slowly stood, too scared to disobey. A shot rang out, next to Karen, scorching her ears with its blast. It smalled into the creature, with no noticible effect. "Back off, Horul. She's innocent. She knows nothing of her father's sins. Take your war to him. Don't repeat his crime, his raping of the future." Its vocal cords were not made to speak complex sentences, and yet it tried. "I thought I smelled a Wyrm in here. I guessed it was the girl. No matter. Two abominations will be slaughtered tonight. Too bad you didn't use silver." It reached into the oozing wound, plucked out a pellet, then flicked it aside. "I deal with many of your kind, Horul. I am honorable. My first shot is always a warning." A sudden flurry of movement, and more deafening explosions. At last, the creature slumped to the floor, twitching. The stranger grabbed Karen, and hauled her to her feet. "You wanted to help, right?" She nodded gravely. He pressed a silver knife, exquisitiely sharp, into her hands. "Help me with Chucklehead, here." While the class began to stir, as if out of a terrible nightmare, they dragged the slowly shrinking corpse out into the hall. It was now a wolf, but larger than any of the ones in Janice's nature magazines. He propped the corpse against the door, effectively blocking anyone trying to leave. With a sudden, terrifying motion, he plunged a knife he had extracted from his pocket into one of the many bullet wounds. "C'mon! We don't have much time!" And slowly, she inserted her blade into the creature, and began to dig and scoop, searching for hidden bullets. She was not told what to retrieve, but suddenly it all made sense why she had to do this. As soon as the silvery round was extracted, he shoved another pellet into the hole. In a moment they were done. The stranger, more sinister now than she ever imagined, took the bullets from her blood soaked hands. He pecked her on the cheek, and whispered, "You did great, kid." Fists began to pound on the door, and the press against it made the carcass slowly slide forward, streaking the white floor crimson.
He grabbed her again, and led her toward the bathroom. "Get in there, and wash up. Get all this off you...quick!" "My dress..." In her mind, it was a minor thing; her dress was now sticky and saturated with the blood of the monster. She would never make it home unmolested, but somehow the horror of the situation, the improbability of it all didn't affect her. Blood on her dress was no worse than wine: a bitch to get out. The stranger shook his head, finally seeing the pathetic sight she had become. He removed his trenchcoat, amazingly free of the gore of the battle, and draped it around her. "Now clean up. Say you weren't feeling well, and you went in there to puke or something. When you heard shots, you hid, okay?" "Sure. What about..." "Those guys? They won't be able to remember a damn thing." "What about you?" "Me? I'll probably get a new coat. Keep that one. Something tells me you'll be needing it. "I know this is all really confusing to you right now, but don't worry. It gets easier. Just look for other like you, wearing the coat. You'll know who's real and who isn't. They'll help you out." With that, he dashed toward the exit. She slowly soaked her hands in the cool water of the sink, ignoring the screams that echoed in the halls, the sobbing of classmates horrified by the discovery. When she was done, she opened the drain, and let it all wash away. She slipped on the coat, and walked to where they were waiting for her. The weight of the gun, still in a pocket, pressed against her hip. She wasn't worried. 'They won't ask me to open the coat. They won't see what's in my pocket.' And they didn't. She spent the entire interview somberly staring forward. The police took it for shock. It was, in fact, revelation. All her hopes were confirmed. The secret world she always dreamed about, as a little girl, talked about in high school, was out there. At last the magick flowed through her, quietly. Her midnight wishes finally had come true. And she was scared as hell...
History World War I was a conflict difficult to understand, and not easy to forget. Its horrors stretched beyond the scope of any war the world had ever seen. It seemed, above all, to personify just how brutal mankind could become, given sufficient provocation. What is not well known, however, is that the vast trenches, ankle-deep with mud, blood, and men, was actually a vast laboratory conceived of and created by the Enclave of Technomancers once known as Kindercolt, the Children of Colt. There the latest technomancer toys were tested on a level never before seen. Needleguns, capable of spewing death at an incredible rate. Mustard gas, which seemed to creep along the ground with inhuman intelligence, seeking out the trenches filled with life. Tanks, grenades, flamethrowers, all saw their start in the fields of France. Those that showed promise were later refined and enhanced. Those deemed too brutal were universally banned as "unsporting." When it was done, the Technomancers should have rejoiced. After all, mankind was forced to look deep within the heart of its intellect, and rather than reviling technology, as they had done in the time of the Luddites, they instead blamed their flawed nature on a dispassionate or absent god, and drank themselves to Sleep. With a few rare exceptions, weapons would nevermore be reviled as "wrongful tools," and the Kindercolt could at last claim great control over war. Indeed, World War I was the last of the wars that actively employed Magick. Soldiers spoke of legions of spirits rising up in anguish at the suffering caused by both sides. In reality, Euthanatos mages were using such spirits to war on the other side. The entire contingent was wiped out by paradox when, on the next day, a psychiatrist proclaimed the effect "shell shock," and the event a sort of mass hallucination. The soldiers were heartened by the fact that there was a rational explanation, and The next time the Euthanatos tried it, they were doomed. However, despite the fact that the Technomancers won a war both sides lost, the Kindercolt, with their leader Krupp, were singularly reviled after the war. It would seem the other Technomancers feared their growing power, and subsequently overthrew them, exiling them to a section of the Deep Umbra, from where they could never escape. For indeed the Kindercolt were not entirely successful in their endeavors. Their machines of death and iron had effects far beyond the mere physical manifestations. The pain and suffering wrought there cohesced, and stalked the trenches, searching for more fresh blood. To all but a few, they were invisible, striking at random, and leaving carnage in their wake. There are those that say these spirits still walk, now far from home, drawn to places of slaughter, where they kill rapturously, and leave only a possessed human to take the fall. But these creatures were not the greatest mistake of the Kinder. They were, however, the catalyst for what would happen next. Those who fought on the side of the English were a motley bunch. The rise of the middle class meant that there now was much blurring in rank and state. Once, the lower classes swelled the trenches, lead mindlessly by the indifferent aristocrats, who were
more concerned with hills on little pieces of paper than actual human lives. Now the sons of the middle class filled the trenches. Well educated, they came not out of compulsion, but instead high minded ideals. Democracy. Honor. Duty. Every man had his part in this grand glorious game. For too many, it was to die of dysentary far from home. What, however, was happening was that vast groups of these educated men were seeing the horrors of war firsthand. Their dreams they had conjured were ripped, and the reality of a safe haven in this horrid place was blown to atoms with the first bomb blast. Psychological warfare played a critical role in the demoralization of the troops, but rather than cowing the masses, as it happened in the past in other dirty little wars, it Changed not a few. Stories abound of bizarre acts of suicidal bravery that pay off. A lieutenant spotted a man trapped in No Man's Land. His commanding officer deemed him too risky to save. The lieutenant dashed across the field, grabbed the man, and ducked into the trench. After the man was turned over to the medics, the officer examined himself, the coat he was wearing was riddled with bullets. He was unharmed. At his court martial -- he had defied orders to remain at his post -- the lieutenant claimed, "I would not let another man die." When the war ended, these children of the battlefields, Awakened in the most horrible ways imaginable, sought each other out trying to find solutions. They formed informal societies, and discovered that despite the fact that they were all from various socioeconomic strata, they had one thing in common: at one point, all expressed an interest in the occult. They also discovered that their trauma there had affected them in unknown ways. Things would go their way one minute, then their lives would shatter the next. People would often blindly follow them, and mere thoughts and intents of other people were laid open. What was worse was the increasing reports the members would tell of gaunt pale men following the aristocracy and celebrities, and bestial creatures that walked the streets, while normal men merely looked away. These men were scared and confused by the world they had discovered, and were determined to take it back, no matter what the cost. They had one more thing in common: the only memento of the war that they felt compelled to keep was the trenchcoat. This, then, was the sign of their Awakening, and the symbol of their struggle. Now knowing you are not alone in the world is a very powerful thing. These poor souls who could not find meaning to existence after the war now found the strength to go on. The clear majority found jobs to support those few whose abilities had truly manifested in spectacular ways. Anyone who heard of the presence of supernatural forces sent in the details to a respected few, who disseminated the information, and turned it over to the most qualified agent. Of course, it never worked as simple as that, but to them it was enough. Tangents were made almost immediately with the Arcanum, and both groups decided to work together, sharing resources and data, to aid the other in their respective quests. By and large, the Trenchcoaters, as they came to be known, did not divulge the true extent of their powers to anyone, lest the Arcanum change their mind and hunt them down. Also, the Trenchcoaters became very aware of the deliberate attempt to shroud the existence of the supernatural from humanity. They decided, for the benefit of all, to also remain in the shadows. And so it went for many years. Inroads were made with the rest of the Traditions, but to the Trenchcoaters, their application of magic was making it all worse, and not better. It became an unspoken policy to use and abuse mages and other supernatural creatures whenever necessary, to make them realize what it was like to be human, with no power at all. This shouldn't have lasted, however. The horrors of the War were fading into memory, and the Trenchcoaters, once young and defiant, were now old and wanted to give it all up. They would have, if not for Victor Rogers, son of Gregory Rogers, one of the founders of the Trenchcoaters. Victor showed up at one meeting (the gatherings, once conducted under the veil of "a social club" had degenerated to just that) wearing his father's tattered trenchcoat, tears streaming down his eyes. He explained that his father was expecting a visitor, and asked Victor to fetch something at the store. When Victor returned, his father was dead, his throat slashed and oozing blood. He dashed outside into the night, recalling he had heard footprints when he was arriving. Blind to all but anger, he met up with the monster which had killed his father. With an inhuman fury, he beat it down, until it moved no more. Rising, and still consumed with fury and sadness, he suddenly seemed to black out. When he recovered, he was sitting in his father's chair, wearing his coat. Further, his father was laying sprawled before him, his throat uncut. For a moment, a mere second, he thought the beast a dream, but then why were his hands still spattered with its blood? Urges beyond his understanding compelled him to come here, to the meeting, and tell his tale. Saying this, he collapsed from exhaustion. A doctor in the crowd examined him, and found a horrid wound delivered by the beast, and, until now, ignored. After healing his wounds, they gathered together, and talked in a manner like they never had talked before. Many confessed now that their children, or their children's friends, had that same haunted look they once saw in their own eyes. When asked what was wrong, they hedged, claiming the world Depression and the spectre of a second world war hung heavily in their minds. But the Trenchcoaters could not be fooled. Was it happening all over again? After all, another war was on the horizon. History seemed apt to repeat itself. Furthermore, the occult world they had been battling over the past twenty years seemed to parallel the real one. Despite their best efforts, the creatures of magick were spilling over into this world, licking their talons at the prospect of another bloody war. Worse, the attempts of some of the Trenchcoaters to expose more of the world to the occult and its hidden dangers, through pulp stories, instead had caused more young people to be seduced by the dark forces about them. It was the friends of these unfortunates
who would be the next generation of Trenchcoaters. Faced with this outlook, the Trenchcoaters had but two options: surrender, or continue in what seemed to be a no-win situation. The vote was unanimous. The Society disbanded, and placed all its holdings in strategic interests. It knew that to fight the establishment, it could not become part of the establishment. The greatest of the Trenchcoaters, Nigel Binford, then prepared the Bar, a concept he was working on since stepping into his first node. The Bar was a miraculous weapon, which would make the need to gather all but pointless. Based on the highest principles of the Spheres of all but Entropy and Life, it would act as a battering ram, riding the ley lines in the near Umbra, orbiting the planet, and shattering Quintessence dams created by greedy mages. What it also would do would be to act as a receiver, a stable point by which the Trenchcoaters could direct their powers and draw on for reference, information, and assistance. The Bar would act on a subconscious level, to send information to those Trenchcoaters unaware of its existence. The point of all this was to provide Trenchcoaters with resources outside the realm of standard Magick. Mundane means of hunting Trenchcoaters through each other was impossible, since the only tangible link was the ever moving, never detectable Rod. Further, the Bar proved to be the central focus of the Trenchcoater movement, symbolizing their interconnectedness to others of their kind, and to all things. The battle continues to this day. Defying others to call them a Tradition, the Coaters extend the honor of membership to all Awakened species, having several Kindred, Garou, Spirits, and even one mummy, as allies. They tend not to seek each other out, and when two or three do meet, by "accident," there is usually a reason. The Trenchcoaters by nature are loners. However, recognizing the need of allies, they often mingle with supernatural beings. Often, it would seem that the Coaters, too weak to play with the "big boys," are often either hiding behind their more powerful allies, or using them to fight their battles. Their peculiar relationship with foci also leads many mages to distrust their Orphan brethren. For the Coaters, the mages, Technomancers and Traditionists alike, are the ones making it worse. They despise those who abuse power and reality, to fight their petty war, and don't think twice about messing with their foci, and disrupting rituals with Sleeper pizza boys paying a visit. Because they distrust the Traditions, they don't buy into the anti-Technomancer rhetoric spouted by these groups. Uneducated in the nuances of reality, they see nothing wrong with the not-so gentle ministrations of the 'Mancers (as they refer to them) unless it comes to some of their really excessive powers, such as Mark IV's and cloning. (Basically, play the Trenchcoater as a Sleeper. If the Technomancer shows off something very futuristic and dangerous, the Coater is apt to get pissed).
Philosophy Trenchcoaters are those who are Awakened by exposure to magick dark and violent. Subsequently, they are against those who abuse the power that they have been granted. They seek to prevent others from sharing their fate, and to help those who, like them, were Awakened against their will. Punishment against those who piss off a Trenchcoater is usually slowly and carefully planned out, seeming minor at first, until suddenly the victim's world disintegrates. Trenchcoaters seldom pull punches, unless the victim really relents. Trenchcoaters actively seek to repulse demons, spirits, and other extradimensional forces from the earth, trying to make the earth as "normal" as possible. Whatever normal means is, of course, up to the individual mage. Some are content to let non-threatening demons remain, while others seek to repulse even the most friendly forces as detrimental to reality. There are those who believe that there were always Trenchcoaters. As the theory goes, Trenchcoaters are those who were awakened in the presence of one of the celestial spheres. The reason most seem to manifest on battlefields, or as a result of war is due to the fact that large groups mass during war, and subsequently there is a greater chance for a larger number of people to become Awakened when exposed to Mars, Force of War. The fact that more and more Trenchcoaters are awakened when exposed to Terror, which has no direct planetary correspondence, may mean there is indeed an unknown sphere out there, undetectable to even the Void Engineers. Finally, Trenchcoaters passively control their power most of the time. Subsequently, they feel magic must be coaxed, and not shoved down anyone's throat, as it was done to them. They feel the concept of patterns are too complex for normal magi to understand. Strangely, this belief empowers them in a bizarre manner. Since they give in to the call of the pattern, they find it much easier to manipulate their personal pattern, with its connections to other patterns. Some say that this subconscious yearning reinforces their desire to protect humanity, as they feel the connection to those who are hurt.
Organization Most would say there is less organization among the Trenchcoaters as fifteen drunk faeries trying to tie a ghost's shoelaces together during a riot. However, their ability to suddenly come together and thwart anything, despite the best efforts of Chantries to hide their secret plans leads many mages to believe that they are seriously underestimating the abilities of these poor cousins.
Meetings Whenever.
Chantry Once again, most would conclude that a bunch of wandering loners would have no chantry. This is a baldface lie. Indeed, every major metropolitan city has a seedy bar linked directly to the Bar. Through this focus, a mage can link himself to several others. A strange dual-locality will take place, and people in bars in London can meet and talk to mages in New York. However, it's just images. No matter can be exchanged, but ideas can be transmitted. Thus, depending on how it's looked at, there's either one bar, or several thousand. The effect seems so natural that no Paradox is accumulated.
Acolytes None are called; all are chosen by powers beyond their control. Virtually anyone can become a Trenchcoater in name, whether or not they are Mages, though they do not necessarily get the special powers. Most have a history of once being open-minded about the world of fantasy or the Occult, only to have it slap them in the face one morning. It can happen at any time, from early adolescence, to late in life. Sometimes other Coaters are called to a new Coater, to help them change, while others go for years before they realize that there are others out there.
Sphere Like most Orphans, none. Spheric magick comes much more difficult to Trenchcoaters. Their maximum rating in one sphere can be 4; all others are maxed at three. Only through years of intensive studying, ultimately by surrendering the life of a Trenchcoater, can one become a Master of a sphere. These are usually reviled by other Trenchcoaters.
Foci There is a belief that the Trenchcoat itself, ubiquitous in this group, is the common focus. Much to the chagrin of those who try to weaken a Coater by taking it away, nothing happens. Trenchcoaters have no foci when using Coincidental magick. Their weakness in relation to vulgar spheric magick compels them to use foci when trying vulgar magic. This usually requires the foci of another Tradition. Thus, to use Forces in a vulgar fashion, they must rely on the language foci of the Order of Hermes (usually Latin). However, an interesting quirk manifest when they get their hands on just such a foci. They can tap into the sympathetic pattern each magi invests into a foci when it is used as a channel for mystical energy (whether or not it is unique). When an item is stolen, it can be used to lower difficulties on magic cast through the focus. The foci starts with a pool of 5 for a non-unique item, 10 with an unique item. Every time the foci is tapped, difficulties are lowered by one. The item is burned out at a rate equal to the highest level of magick. Thus, when using Matter 3, Correspondence 2 through batteries owned and used by a Son of the Ether, the difficulty to the roll is diminished by one. Since the highest sphere tapped was three, the item is drained three. When the item is completely tapped, it can function as a normal foci. There are no "unique" items. Some of the more peculiar foci they require, like languages, can be tapped in modern ways. Thus, to use Forces with the -1 difficulty, the Trenchcoater has to get an Order of Hermes mage on tape. Realize, however, that this turns the Hermetic mage's coincidental act into a vulgar with no witnesses (there now is proof of the magic) and a vulgar with no witnesses into a vulgar with witnesses. Some hermetic mages might be a bit miffed when this occurs. Although this would seem as a boon for a Trenchcoater, most mages are leery to give away a focus, regardless of how readily it can be replaced. The Trenchcoaters can easily tap into forces they cannot, and it frightens them. Subsequently, a trenchcoater must steal the majority of the foci he wants, storing them in boltholes until they are needed.
Concepts Student, Professional, Drifter, Outcast.
Quote You have a problem? Get a clue. Don't count on me being there. You Tass-suckers are messing with crap best left alone. I know a lot. More than I should, I know, but at least I'm not making it worse. Sure, run on in, and fight the Machine. Fight the forces of darkness and crap Man wasn't meant to know. Just remember, it's fools like me that'll have to run in there and save your lousy asses.
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They believe that they're connected to all things. A good start, I know, but Christ, they're abandoning their humanity by losing themselves. What's the point of saying you're connected to all things, when you're not even connected to yourself?
Celestial Chorus: Is it live, or Memorex? Who gives a flip! These holier than thou types really need a reality check. The world isn't as cut and dry as they make it out to be, and they're only cutting the innocent out of the loop. When you fight demons and stare into that Abyss, remember to try not to step on those you're defending.
Cult of Ecstasy: A bunch of circle jerkers. They're so intoxicated with what gets them off, they miss the big picture. Magick's a tool. You use it wrong, you use it to get your jollies, and people die. The only life is a life free of vices. Hey! Those silk cuts get me through the night...!
Dreamspeakers: Omm...Omm...Hairy Goddamn Fishnuts. Get a job. Euthanatos: A good idea. Cack those who abuse the Stuff. Too bad they don't start closer to home. Hollow Ones: Please! Listen to a little Joy Division, and suddenly you have the right to twist reality like a pretzel? I'd like to take the wanker that created this bunch, and drop him off a cliff.
Order of Hermes: Maybe the Oldest. Definitely the most lost. Always toying and manipulating, never taking responsibility for their actions. They'll get theirs, and soon.
Sons of Ether: These guys aren't so bad, since they usually leave a lot of pretty potent stuff lying around to swipe. Also, you can usually get a hearty chuckle out of their best efforts.
Verbena: Nothin' like that ol' Black Magick, right? Hell. I thought we got rid of these black bastards at Salem. Just trying to scam a foci off them is creepy enough.
Virtual Adepts: Let them play at their video games. The Technomancers will fry their brains, hang them out to dry, and maybe download a clue into their addled brains. Magic is here and it's now! Why spread it to virgin worlds?
Special Powers Part of the innate nature of Trenchcoaters is their ability to change their personal pattern, and its connection to other patterns. In short, they can subconsciously build up Backgrounds even after game play has started. Backgrounds can be bought at the rate of Current levelx8. The first level taken to five becomes the primary Background. That remains a constant during play, and cannot be altered by the Storyteller. It is, in short, the one thing a Trenchcoater can always rely on in the crazy world in which she lives. Other Backgrounds may be bought, but they are highly variable, shifting and changing over the course of a chronicle. One moment,the character is swimming in dough, the next he is broke. It's part of the ebb and flow of the Trenchcoater life, and most take it on the chin. The permanent level usually entails some special power significant to the background. Some examples follow:
Dream: Once a lunar cycle, the mage can summon and speak with a mystical being known as the Lord of Dream. Through this connection, any question can be asked, and answered -- for a price. The advantage is that the Lord of Dream can access the subconscious of the Dreamer. There is no chance for the victim to discover the inquiry, unlike most Mind abilities.
Arcane: The mage's connection to reality begins to get tenuous. Reality seems to want to deny her existence. A piece of paper once held suddenly bursts into flame when discarded, leaving no ashes. The mage must make a conscious effort to leave record of her passing.
Allies: One specific ally seems to lead a particularly charmed life. Nothing seems to keep her down long, and she's always willing to lend a hand, regardless of what you do to her.
Resources: Money really loses all value to the user. A quick check in a coin return always reveals change, and the bill is seldom calculated correctly, whether it be at restaurant, the grocery store, or from the power company.
Node: When the character achieves mastery in Node, something happens to her pattern. So entwined is she within the
quintessence flow that her own pattern comes to resemble a nodal trap, catching free quintessence, as does a Node. Thus, for all purposes, the character is constantly standing in a node. However, this does not come without a price. To reform a personal pattern on such a level prevents direct application of the Prime sphere. Thus, the character can never exceed her Avatar rating, and must constantly apply quintessence to keep effects going (one point of quintessence for each turn).
Variable and Diminishing Backgrounds Beyond the permanent one, there are two kinds of background: variable and diminishing. Variable are the ones you see in the rulebook. They may increase and decrease as the story progresses, never surpassing the maximum that they are bought to. The ones introduced here are diminishing. Only time, sometimes overnight, usually over the course of the story, can replace the background, and the Trenchcoater must do something to increase his rating. These, however, can be bought to five and made permanent.
Coincidence: This rare innate quality seems only to be possessed by those who never quest for personal mastery of magick, but instead allow it to obey its own ebb and flow. Subsequently, things happen, both good and bad. Each dot allows a die to be added to any non-magick dice pool, even surpassing the 10-limit. To an observer, the mage is "finding" stuff he requires. However, each application creates a phantom point of Paradox (the universe does not liked to be tweaked). Start on the outside of the Paradox chart, and place a dot for each current paradox point. For each application place another on the outside of the track, whether he uses one or five points. If he picks up a paradox point later, a space is filled in the wheel, and a dot is placed on the outside. When phantom paradox hits quintessence reserves, reality goes awry. A 1-point paradox flaw is picked up, usually humorous and embarassing. Often, a real point of paradox is picked up. The dice pool is regenerated at a rate of 1 per hour, or recharged through quintessence on a one for one basis (reality manipulation is reality manipulation.
Immunity: This new background confers a form of resistance to (1) Sphere. A mage can reinforce his pattern versus attacks aligned against his pattern. Taking the amount spent on the background, a mage can use this total to negate attacks on his person. For each point alloted, a success against the mage is negated. This is a reactive ability. The mage knows how much he needs to spend to negate the effect. However, the hardening goes both ways. Not only is he rendered immune, but he also steals from himself part of his influence over that Sphere. Thus, if 2 points are spent, two successes are negated for the rest of the day from each roll using the given sphere. However, every time he attempts to use that sphere, or if it is used beneficially against him, two successes are wasted. If he had a 4 rating, and added 2 more effects, he would be immune to four successes against the sphere. Only one sphere can ever be selected. The effect lasts until the next sunrise, or the next moonrise. Once the effect is negated, points are regained at a rate of 1 per hour.
Favor: This level one to five background symbolizes how good the character is at finagling people. It can be used on a one to one basis to emulate most tangible backgrounds. It is used up during the course of a story, and is replenished only at the end. The background usually works like this. If the item/person/thing is to be returned, then it can be used on a point to point basis. If it is to be kept, then it works as a background at 2 less. As an example, the mage want to get his hands on some fast cash. He has a level 4 favor. If he intends to give it back, he can get the full cash value. If he intends to keep it, it acts as a Resource 2. The background cannot be used to supplant an existing resource. For instance, if the Mage has a level 1 resource, and wishes to spend a level 2 favor, he can only get the level 2 resource total for the favor. In the case of the Trenchcoaters, this is not merely the ability to mooch. It is part of their unique ability to create connections. Basically, one moment the mage is bereft of friends, and the next a connection has been created between her and someone with a valuable ally.
Paradox Paradox affects Trenchcoaters, but in a way not truly expected or understood. The majority of the time when Paradox hits, it instead attacks those around the Coater. Friends, allies, contacts, it doesn't matter. All have the chance to be hit by the unpredictable nature of paradox, usually leaving the mage physically unscathed. This is the primary reason why Trenchcoaters are so solitary, unwilling to harm others. Some have never experienced Paradox firsthand, and don't understand what's destroying their lives. They blame intangible forces of darkness, unaware that the true danger lies within them. 90% of Trenchcoater magic is Coincidental, as well as subconscious, as the Trenchcoater taps into her largely hidden potential. To utilize coincidental magick, the Trenchcoater offhand states the effect ("I wonder what he's thinking..."). The Storyteller determines effect level and difficulty as usual. However, the ST rolls the dice. The Trenchcoater never knows to what degree her powers worked. Since the power derives from the subconscious, sometimes, during emotional moments, the mage triggers her power. Of course, spending a willpower point negates the effect. Although the trenchcoat does not act as a focus, many Trenchcoaters build up the Favor background, and convince mages to augment their individual garment as Talismans. Bulletproofing is a must, as well as protection from the elements. Some prefer to have weapons and effects stored into it, as well as a healing effect. Perhaps the first trenchcoater, Ambrose Bierce had his
garment augmented so that it consistently put beef sandwiches in his pocket, never looked crumpled or dirty, and completely arrested the flow of time around him, so that he never aged. Trenchcoaters have an innate disdain for the Prime Sphere. They cannot comprehend the concept of limiting the flow of quintessence in a pattern, or even treating it as a force to be manipulated. Subsequently, they work strictly on their Avatar ratings to gain quintessence, and hoard pieces of tass as the natural way of storing magick. However, once a 5 is garnered in Avatar, something happens within the Trenchcoater, and he understands the subtle nuances of quintessence. Only then will he begin to understand the Reason for Prime, and take it to heart.
THE UNCONSCIOUS By
[email protected]
Description This is a special group of mages that gets very little attention. The reason that they go unknown is fairly obvious considering what separates them from the rest of mage society. Deep down in their unconscious minds these mages are fully Awakened and tend to have very strong Avatars. However, they are not able to consciously accept this new reality. They are not consciously aware that they are able to affect reality as a mage can. They usually do think of themselves as lucky or blessed in some way. In games terms, this means that these mages cannot use vulgar magic at character creation. They are, however more adept at using coincidental magic, in fact their entire lives seem to be full of it. When casting magick which will affect the mage the difficulty is 1 + the highest sphere level needed. When the spell is cast on someone else the difficulty is 2 + the highest sphere level needed. Their denial is actually the tool used for the spell. Because of the general difficulty in making Spirit effects coincidental, these mages tend to be less skilled in this sphere. When these mages reach higher level of understanding they are able to discard their denial as another mage discards his tools. When their Arete reaches seven they may choose 3 spheres which they can use in a vulgar fashion. Each additional level grants them three more spheres. These mages draw their power from a primal place deep within them and as this place is more in touch with reality than our paradigm riddled logic they can purchase dots of Arete for 75% the normal cost. Of course there is very little organization among these mages and many do not consider this group to be a group, but rather mages who are flawed in some way. However, the mages among this group who have begun to leave their denial behind (Arete 7+) tend to want to give back and will begin to search out others of their ilk to help spur them on to higher levels of understanding. These mages can instinctively sense one another. This is not exact at all, but they will often feel a sense of kinship to one another without understanding why.
WANDERERS By Frank T Sronce (
[email protected])
Description The Wanderers are one of the smallest and most loosely knit of all the Traditions. They have no "special" or dramatic name for themselves, as most other groups of Mages do. "Wanderer" is enough. Wanderers believe that travel broadens the mind -- almost literally. They believe that the proper path to Ascension lies in experiencing every culture, seeing every wonder, and learning from people from around the world. They are also deeply interested in exploring the Realms. They believe that everything in existence has a lesson to teach, and that the only path to enlightenment is to learn those lessons. As such, they are forever traveling, seeking out a scrap of knowledge here, meditating there, and trying to learn everything that they can. Experience is the best teacher; a study session between a Wanderer and his Mentor usually consists of the student following the master and watching how he works his magic. More importantly, the master can answer the question, "Why?" when the student does not understand why one method is used instead of another. As such, Wanderers can actually acquire Study Points by watching another Mage in action, although this is rare.
Game Mechanics The Study Point penalty for a Wanderer being taught by a member of another Tradition is only -1, not -3, because they are used to learning from teachers with wildly different styles. The foci listed are the most common ones, but many Wanderers have learned to use different ones with little difficulty. Appropriate backgrounds are Arcane, Dream, Avatar, and Library. Influence is unlikely. Appropriate abilities are Culture, Cosmology, Stealth, Survival, Linguistics, Investigation, and Athletics. Wanderers often have the Archetypes of Loner or Explorer. Their Essense is never Pattern. Questing is the most common. [Explorers can restore Willpower by seeing an exceptional place that they have not seen before, or by witnessing a once-in-alifetime spectacle. Their weakness is their Wanderlust.]
Philosophy Everything has a lesson to teach. Your senses, both magickal and natural, are all that you need. Observe objectively; do not let your emotions interpret events for you. You will be able to sense where it is that you need to go. Follow your heart, and your mind will follow as well. Never let a chance to learn escape you. Remember your magick; if you cannot observe safely from nearby, observe from afar. The inhabitants of other worlds and other realms are difficult to understand, but they can teach you things that you never suspected. Be cautious and prudent; you will have as long as you need, whether in this life or the next. The wise man often negotiates rather than attacking, and avoids rather than negotiating. Philosophy and reality are not so separate as they may seem. Know thyself, so that you may understand others. You don't know all the answers, but neither does anyone else.
Organization Wanderers have little formal structure. A given Wanderer may be known for expertise in a given area, but his "students" are expected to interpret things for themselves, not accept his answers blindly. Wanderers support each other when necessary, which it rarely is.
Meetings They often encounter each other in strange and interesting places, but organized meetings are rare, and are generally only called when a great (and temporary) opportunity for learning has been discovered.
Initiation
Wanderers seem to appear spontaneously. Once a self-awakened Wanderer realizes that his learning is insufficient, he will usually go searching for an instructor. Rare as Wanderers are, they usually have little difficulty finding others of their own kind, probably because their Avatars have communicated in previous lives. There is no formal Initiation procedure; the new Wanderer's existence will eventually be known to all of his fellows. Because every Wanderer knows that he can learn from his students as well as teaching them, usually the only real restriction to receiving instruction from a given Wanderer is being able to find him.
Chantry The Wanderers, naturally, have no set meeting place. Their meetings usually occur while the group moves at a slow walk through a scenic or otherwise interesting area. At times they will seem to be paying more attention to their surroundings than to each other, but don't be fooled. Wanderers are quite skilled at catching every piece of information around them.
Acolytes explorers, hikers, mountain climbers, hobos, anyone with wanderlust or on a walkabout.
Sphere Correspondence
Foci Correspondence: A Walking Stick (personal focus), a road, or a door . Time: A watch or clock of some sort. Spirit: A doorway, an area of darkness (star/moonlight allowed), or a forest. Forces & Matter: A Walking Stick Life, Mind & Prime: An open field Entropy: A desert, a barren waste, or area of dead grass
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They know much, but their methods of teaching are usually much too slow. Treat them with respect and honor their traditions, and they will be good hosts.
Celestial Chorus: Their temples are truly beautiful. So long as you are humble and respectful of their beliefs before them, they will gladly teach you the sum of their philosophy, in an attempt to convert you.
Cult of Ecstasy: Their parties are a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Great parties, but if you've been once, you've seen them all. At least they don't take themselves too seriously.
Dreamspeakers: Similar to us, but their purpose is to serve another, not themselves. Admirable, after a fashion, but they are too quick to condemn the works of man.
Euthanatos: Nihilistic perfectionists. They cannot see the beauty in a cracked vase; they would rather destroy it and start again. They need to realize that your failures can let you grow and expand. Certainly, there is a lot to be learned from the spirit world, but by going there in person you can learn much more without the inconvenience of being dead.
Hollow Ones: The Cult of Ecstasy gone morbid. Good people to learn about your feelings from, but they don't see the inherent value in knowledge and learning for its own sake.
Order of Hermes: They have learned a great deal, but they guard their knowledge jealously. Use great prudence when trying to learn their "secrets." It is better to peruse their records by invitation; they are rarely open-minded about people doing so without permission. They need to realize that knowledge is different from other forms of wealth; if someone takes knowledge from you, you are not impoverished, and may grow richer from the experience. Teaching your knowledge to others is an easy way to expand it.
Sons of Ether: If you want to learn from them, then you need to speak with as many of them as possible, to see the common links in their thought. Beware of returning the favor, however; their methods of studying things usually destroy the thing being studied.
Verbena: Too obsessed with their own bodies and flaws to see that it is possible to overcome them. They rely upon emotion and ritual. It is astounding that a tradition so old should have so little real understanding of what it is that they do.
Virtual Adepts: They have learned that reality is what you make of it. They do not yet understand that the outside world works in the same fashion as their simulated realities. To understand the nature of technology, or of modern acts of creativity, they are the people to talk too. They love to talk about themselves, but you may have to learn some of their jargon before they will open up to you.
Wanderers and the Technocracy Since the Wanderers have such an informal structure, most members of the Technocracy classify individual Wanderers as Orphans to be recruited, rather than Tradition Mages to be destroyed. The Wanderers themselves usually believe in making as few waves as possible. They hate the limelight, and see no reason to antagonize the Technocracy if they can help it. Wanderers rarely use Vulgar magick, being experts in using Correspondence and Spirit magick coincidentally. "I thought I saw someone go through that door, but I guess I was mistaken. There's certainly no one here now." or "I guess he must've been standing in the back, all along." Iteration X usually passes any information about a recently discovered Wanderer to another Convention, unless that Wanderer was caught in an Interation X security zone, whereupon they throw all of their resources into killing the intruder. The Syndicate and the Progenitors have no real concern for the Wanderers, usually classifying them as harmless Orphans unless they make a nuisance of themselves. They sometimes try to recruit Wanderers into their own organizations, based upon this. New World Order, though, hates the Wanderers with a passion, partly for their love of freedom and exploration, but mostly because they are so difficult to keep track of. Wanderers often have a high Arcane rating, and leave an annoyingly slim paper trail. Whenever New World Order has a chance to eliminate one of these pesky people who won't stay where they're told to, they take it. The Void Engineers, on the other hand, are rumored to have secret contacts with some of the more powerful Wanderers, helping to protect them from the other Conventions in return for their aid in exploring the Deep Umbra.
THE WEAVERS By CD Skogsberg (
[email protected])
Description The Weavers are a relatively minor Craft, whose main purpose seems to be fighting Nephandi and their servants -- they have, at times, aided Tradition and Technomancer Mages during major Nephandi incursions.
Paradigm: The Weave Reality is woven by the Wheel of Fate, and all things have patterns in the Great Weave, and thus, by altering the threads of the Weave, one can alter these patterns. There are those who would mix threads indiscriminately, the Marauders, and those who would destroy the Weave altogether, the Nephandi. Of those, the last are the most dangerous -- fight them at every turn. The Technomancers would prefer to see the Weave turned into one solid color, but we know that diversity brings strength. The Traditions have some good ideas, but they are too caught up in their "war" with the Technocracy to see that the greatest threat is from the Fallen.
Magick: Re-Weaving The Great Weave has its own laws, but we who know that it can be re-woven can do so, within limits. Try to alter the Weave too much, and the threads will strangle you.
Sphere Time or Spirit (Choose one)
Sphere descriptions Correspondence: The All. Philosphers have said, "All places is one place," and we know they are right. By making two places in the Weave identical, we can create a gateway between the two, that now is one.
Entropy: Burning the Threads/Re-Weaving Fate. Avoid doing this too much, as this has the same effect as pulling threads from cloth -- at first nothing, but if you pull out enough threads, the cloth falls apart. Re-weaving fate is difficult and in the end it will corrupt the weaver.
Forces: Weaving Power. Power can be woven into the Great Weave to bring fire, light, or other forces into existence. This weaving, along with burning the threads and re-weaving fate, are uses of the weaving that can unravel the Weave itself.
Life: Shaping Life. All that lives has a pattern in the Great Weave, and some of us have the skills to shape and create these patterns. Be wary when creating new weaves -- these things can be possessed by the spirits of the corrupters.
Matter: Weaving Matter. Matter, like life, has patterns in the Weave. Alter or create them, but always remember that unraveling comes to the unwary.
Mind: Awareness. Know that the Awareness of being lets us see the thoughts of others, and influence it. Do not do this lightly, however -- the Sleepers are not toys for your amusement.
Prime: The Power. The power is what allows us to alter the Weave, and this lets us use the power to create and and alter the way things are.
Spirit: The Otherworld. The beings in the Otherworlds are like and unlike us, some fight against the great worms, and some are their champions on the other side of the Gauntlet. Journeying there is a variety on the re-weaving that allows us to step from one place to another when they lie thousands of miles apart. Beware of the worms' servants, however, for they are cunning and skilled warriors.
Time: Chronons. Time is not a stream, no, it is a pearl-band of moments. Between these chronons lies other chronons, and it is here our enemies hide -- the great worms that prey on all humanity's evil and pain. By accessing the empty chronons we can leave patterns in wait -- or ourselves.
Arete
Link to the Power. All Awakened have a link to the power -- it was opened when we Awoke. The greater our link to the power the more we can alter the Weave, and the more we understand the Weave.
Quintessence: The Power This is power that lets us change what is, and so you should use it wisely. It runs through the world, and it can be tapped in the nexi of the flows.
Paradox: Unraveling The Great Weave can come unraveled when it is strained too much. Therefore, be careful in how you alter the weaves of existence. If you cause too much unraveling, things can come through the gaps between the treads (Paradox spirits) or you can become trapped in bubbles in the Weave (Paradox Realms) -- or your pattern can be unraveled (Backlash).
Awakening Being opened to the Power. When you're opened to the power for the first time, it can be a pretty traumatic event. The greater connection to the power that allows us to alter the Weave that is opened, the greater the trauma.
Mage-specific Backgrounds Arcane: Alienation. Some mages are so alien to the Great Weave that they simply disappear from all mundane (and Awakened) eyes.
Avatar: Stable patterns. There are patterns that remain in their form even after the mortal shape that held them has gone. They are usually able to hold large amounts of the power, simply by virtue of their stability.
Destiny: Knots in the Weave. Some of us are knots in the Weave, altering it without knowing how. Those knots always have some higher purpose.
Dream: Memories. Remember your past lives? Some mages do so, and some just remember tidbits from elder days. Node: Nexus in the flow. This is a nexus in the flows of the power that coarse through the world. Use it wisely, for it allows you to carry some of the power with you in it's raw form.
Opinions on other Awakened Askashic Brotherhood: They also fight the worms, but they seem to occupied by their inner ways to see the danger to the weave.
They are calm, but they over-focus on the dangers posed by the Fallen. The technomancers are a more immedieate threat to us. Celestial Chorus: They, too, know of the dangers of the worms. Alas, they put too much trust in their One to be efficient in the war.
Weavers? Those children know of the Adversary, but they need faith in the One too. Euthanatos: These mages seems to have been trapped and corrupted by the worms, but I do not know enough of them to say if it is so.
-no commentVerbena: Our parent tradition, but we have gone far from their views. At least they fight the worms. The Weavers are a honorable Craft, but that, unfortunately, is all they will ever be. Technocracy: The Technomancers are our unknowing allies in the war on the worms, but they will bring another end to the Weave if they continue for too long.
They see the threat from the Outsiders, and they fight by our side against them. They may not be members of the Union, but their aid is invaluable. (VE)
Nephandi: The Nephandi serve the worms. They must die. -no commentWerewolves: The Garou know of the threat from the worms -- they claim there is only one, and call it the Wyrm -- and they are our greatest aides. Help them whenever you can. They deserve it.
These mages, though they call themselves Weavers, seems to be the only ones who see the threat from the Wyrm and do something about it.
THE WHEEL TURNERS By Matthew Glick (
[email protected]) (6 February 1996)
Introduction These dangerous times have seen many powers destroyed. Many elder organizations have fallen apart, and many beliefs and traditions have become irrelevant or even dangerous to their followers. Almost everyone believes that to come forth and dare to be new in this modern chaos is ludicrous. When a tradition does not support you, to emerge is suicide. Yet, despite all this, a new faction has emerged from the Euthanatos. Locked away in the past, the Euthanatos are considered beasts best left undisturbed, (preferably forever while they choke on their last breaths). Yet, in one of the oldest traditions a new flower is growing. Made up of young, inexperienced, newly awakened mages, this group has erupted upon a world in turmoil. . . To the Virtual Adepts and Hollow Ones, their moniker are the Nice Guys. To the Akashic Brotherhood and Verbena, they are the Hopeful Few. The Celestial Chorus and Order of Hermes use the term Les Enfants Perdu, the lost children. Their Euthanatos brethren often refer to them as the insects. The name they have chosen is the Wheel Turners. Many believe the Order of Hermes is correct -- that they are lost children. They could be in need of a great deal of guidance, lest a catastrophe occurs. Or maybe, as a small but growing number of voices are responding, these are the ones we should be guided by. Regardless, so many questions still need answering. Why does this group exist? Where did it come from? Are they really as new a group as most people believe? Will their ideals be the light to a new path for Ascension, or guiding signs to a steepest Descension?
Who Are They? "What gets me is not that they play at God. Hell, we all do that. What really bugs me is they don't even bother to look the part." -- Theresa Menkoff, Order of Hermes adept The Wheel Turners are the new radical wing of the Euthanatos. There are 45 Turners scattered around the world. No member is older than 30. Few are older than 25. These youths come from a variety of sources. A few are orphans who have found a spiritual home in this group. Many are apprentices whom Awakened normally, and then have joined this group out of disgust with the traditional Euthanatos activities and beliefs. A smattering of members Awoke when they traveled to the Underworld. These mages have experienced the Near Death Experience requisite of most Euthanatos, yet Awakening alone seems to have fueled a spiritual independence from the tradition more reminiscent of the Hollow Ones than normal tradition mages. Jonathan Stein, the founder of the Wheel Turners, Awoke in this manner.
What Makes a Wheel Turner "I once asked a Wheel Turner why she had joined the group. She turned around and looked straight into my eyes and said 'Once, I was a normal Euthanatos. Then one day I woke up and realized life is too damn important to spend time ending it.' It was eyes that got to me, though. Those eyes cared." -- Lester Truman, Euthanatos disciple The people I have talked to say there are three things that mark someone as a Wheel Turner rather than simply being a Euthanatos. The first mark is youth. Not one member has practicing magick for more than five years. Jonathan Stein himself has been a mage for less than three years. These observers continue to remark that a young cabal is fine and healthy, but 45 such novices appears rather disturbing. The second mark is each member's belief in the sacredness of each life. They believe that as mages their place is not to end life, but to help the wheel of life turn smoothly for each individual. Furthermore they believe this applies to everyone, whether they be mage, sleeper, garou, or something else. The result is that the Wheel Turners have sworn not to practice the good death. The only killing allowed is in self-defense. The third mark is their humility. They believe that the key to their souls is another soul, somewhere out there, and after that, another soul. The Turners are very much aware of their lack of power. It appears not to concern them. Helping another seems to be the limit of their political ambitions. It is almost as if each member took a vow divesting themselves from the gigantic ego most mages posess. This humility arises from the belief that the universe is made of individual people, not grand all-powerful paradigms.
Philosophies and Practices "Once, I believe only those who practiced the art of Do could hope to understand Drahma, the tenth sphere of soul. It took the meeting of a Wheel Turner for me to change my mind. But, that is what they do, isn't it? They want you to change and learn, yet stay whole. Truly, if any are to master Drahma, it is these Hopeful Few. -- Julian Philips, Adept of the Akashic Brotherhood To understand the practices of the Wheel Turners, you must understand one important fact. Regardless of their background, every member's Awakening was dominated by an overpowering fear of Oblivion. In Awakening, whether in a tradition supervised ritual, or by themselves, each Turner has come to understand what life is like, and what part death has in it. While they were sleepers, this fear of death kept every future member stuck in their lives, leaving them unable to grow as human beings. To the Wheel Turners, helping a person understand that life goes on beyond death is their greatest accomplishment. When a person is freed from this construct they can grow again and once more appreciate life. And that is what Wheel Turners do. They help people past blocks in their life. From the terror of seemingly inescapable doom that each member knows intimately, to an addiction they can not get over, to a continual inability to commit, Turners help people grow. To Turners every part of life has its time, and every part is invaluable, but trapping yourself in one part is self-destruction, not of the body, but of the soul. Angela Pinkerton, the group's second member gave an explanation of the group's philosophy:
"Only when we grow do we learn, and only when we learn can we grow. There is no Ascension without maturity. When I stuck with my fear of death, I could not live. I could not grow. I have been a child, and I will be one again, but I will also be a mother and a father, and a grand-parent, and so many other things. That is how the Wheel Turns, all the way to Ascension. "When there is an artificial construct blocking the process, like an addiction or terror, there is no growth, no learning, only energy sadly wasted. Euthanatos believe in the unmaking of lives. Every life ends, but the soul starts another. It is a cycle. We Wheel Turners believe the unmaking of each part of a life is just as important as the unmaking of the entire life itself. One part ends, but the soul starts another." Wheel Turners are also well known for their friendliness. If there are discussion groups about magick and Ascension, or any other topic, you will find Wheel Turners leading them all across the world. Their lack of ego and willingness to expose themselves to new ideas has landed at the center of many cities. They feel that all things, ideas and beliefs included, are temporary, and learning about different philosophies is an extremely important part of living. If what a Turner learns results in leaving the Wheel Turners, that's life, and there is nothing wrong with it.
Burdens Most Heavy "I owe them everything. Ironic. I am a master of spheres, an adept of mind, a disciple of so many other things, yet it took a twenty year-old to let me love my daughter again. I just don't understand why he did it. Why he let me get over all the pain I've caused her and she's caused me. I deserved that pain. I created the state of my life. Somehow, that didn't matter to him. -- Dorothy Winchester, Verbena Master Several times I have been asked about the deep sense of responsibility and commitment the mages carry within them. Most outsiders have stated that their dedication to the sleepers is really the result of a desperation to prove their ideas are indeed workable and constructive. Wheel Turners tend to disagree, yet, are unable to provide an alternative explanation. It seems the members do not seem to know the truth of the matter. Perhaps the clearest explanation lies in the writings of Jonathan Stein. (Note: the following is an excerpt from Stein's collection of writings, and since it is reportedly a rough draft we are most grateful to Mr. Stein for being able to print them here)
Why do we act the way we do? Those were the exact words Angela Pinkerton uttered two days after Awakening. Over the past two-and-a-half years I have been asking myself that. Why do mages act the way they do? Why do tradition mages act the way they do? Why do Euthanatos act the way they do? Only, that time, when Angela said it, I realized I wanted to know why I acted the way I did. And so did she. Her, and everyone else who has joined the Wheel Turners. I have come to a current conclusion, but, as a note, I am always revising my opinions. I am always trying to figure out what my life is about. By helping other people grow, I grow. I think that my soul is individual but at the same time it is tied to every other soul in existence. I guess I would feel that if everyone could appreciate each part of their lives and each wheel of life that, even if reality was a static as Styrofoam, Ascension would occur. I think that's why we go out and try to help people. Ascension is all about the soul of the universe, not the reality it is composed of. Every time you help a soul, you help the universe. Bizarre karma? But you asked why we take it so seriously. It's because we know that nobody else does what we do. We're a little group, and it's the entire planet we are talking about, but you can't just give up. Fate, fortune, and a bunch of other things happened that let us Awakened and get past the fear of death that was blocking our lives. Now, we have to be the intervening piece of fate that
helps other people. It's our dues to karma. If you talk to any Turner, he may complain, or treat it like an irritant, but each one of us knows we understand more for it, and we live finer lives because of it. Yours truly, Jonathan Stein
History of the Wheel Turners "The greatest piece of wisdom I have ever learned is this: where life takes us is something far too complex to understand, whether you are a mage or not. I know we mages make our own realities, but don't you get the feeling sometimes that we're just along for the ride. -- Jonathan Stein, Euthanatos Adept, founder of the Wheel Turners The history of the Wheel Turners is an extraordinary, but perplexing tale. Despite its brevity, it is quite complex. Yet, no element is as complicated as the founder of the group, Jonathan Stein.
Conception Jonathan Stein was born in Vancouver, BC, Canada, on August 3, 1974. His parents were both university professors. He was the third of four children, with two sisters and one brother. Jonathan grew up an outcast. His shattered self-image led to an inability to succeed academically, something his family prized above anything else. As Jonathan grew older and older, the anxiety that he would end life a failure was leaving him a wreck. This was compounded by a terror of the oblivion of death. He was caught in a catch-22. He was incapable of accomplishing anything, because he was spending all his time worrying if he could accomplish anything. By the time Jonathan turned 17, he could go on no further. He realized that unless he ended the doubts about death he would be left paralyzed with his anxieties until the day he died. This realization created that rare desperation more often seen in madmen than introspective adolescents. For the next year and a half, Jonathan's life was dominated by the search for an answer. He spent all his time trying to find out if there was anything beyond death, or if the oblivion he feared so much was inevitably going to swallow and destroy him. For him, there had to be something after death, for the alternative was too horrible to contemplate. Finally, in May of 1993, Jonathan finally gave up. His exhaustive investigation had left him with nothing concrete. With his last hopes shattered, he died. Jonathan travelled to the Underworld, and was exposed to the dead spirits. In that instant, the impossible became more than the possible. It became the truth. Just before one of the denizens were about to enslave him, Jonathan was throw back into his body. It seems that Jonathan had altered reality to let him die without dying. Paradox, it seems, corrected the event as quickly as it could. Upon returning to the mundane side of the gauntlet, Jonathan awoke. It seems his unshakable belief in his fate was due to the scientific evidence presented to him. Science, he had learned from his parents, showed that life ends when you die. Science had said that there was no soul to survive dying. He realized that someone had blatantly manipulated reality so he would believe all that. He also realized he could twist it too, now that he was aware. The Awakening was detected by Sunyi Karimako, a Japanese Euthanatos, who was visiting Vancouver as a tourist. Seeking out Stein, she found him wandering dazed and confused in the city's main graveyard. Taking him under her wing, she spent several days explaining about the world of the supernatural. After talking to her, Jonathan agreed to became her apprentice. The two quickly travelled to Sunyi's home near Tokyo. Despite the excellent personal relationship the two shared, Jonathan felt that something was lacking. As time went on, it became evident to both of them that he needed to return to Northa America. After only 5 months, Jonathan left his teacher's home in Japan to return to Vancouver.
Pregnancy It was during a stopover in Hawaii that he met Angela Pinkerton. This 20 year old woman was wrestling from many of the same problems he had once suffered from. When she Awoke on the flight back to Vancouver, it was Jonathan, sitting right beside her, who helped her past the initial trauma. She became the first Wheel Turner. Travelling around North America for the next few months, the two met as many people as they could. The two were always happy to explain what they were looking for, and how they spent their time helping people go on with lives. Soon, a third person asked to join them, then a fourth, then as their reputation grew, more and more started petitioning for admittance. Finally, Jonathan came to the conclusion that this was not just a cabal, but something greater. With that in mind, he returned home to ponder, in peace, what this new group would be like.
Birth On August 7, 1994, the entire new group met at Jonathan's house in Vancouver for the first time. This would later be known as the first meeting. Most of what the Wheel Turners are today was decided at this congress. It was here that Wheel Turners truly defined themselves, and the repercussions of how they did it are reverberating louder and louder. It was there that the Wheel Turners adopted their name. It was there that they asked to be treated as a valid camp of the Euthanatos. Discussions went on for three days about the practice of the good death. At the end, the group finally went with a total ban on the practice. It was decided that if it was needed, they would call in someone else. It was also here that the enmity with so much of the rest of the clan started. The tradition's invited observer affair walked out after the Turners decision against the good death. The observer, Jeffrey Randolph, then proceeded to describe the entire group as "little children playing dress-up games." Also adopted were the symbols of the group. Two particular tarot cards were chosen. The first was Change -- the two of disks, from the Aleister Crowely Thoth deck, and the second card was the Major Arcana # 21 - The Universe, from the same deck.
Weaning After the meeting ended, the members dispersed around the world, planning to meet again in a year. Jonathan Stein disappeared a day after the other Wheel Turners left. Some say he went to South Africa. Some others say he went to Israel to meet relatives. Others reported spotting him in an Akashic Brotherhood monastery in Nepal, while others say the monastery was in Thailand. No one may know for a long time. When Jonathan was sighted again several months later, he was busily planning the next meeting. By this time, the group had grown to 30 members, and various factions, especially the Technocratic Union, were starting to take notice. Wheel Turners started banding together in small groups, constantly on the watch for the next HIT-Mark or Man in Black. Several members disappeared during this time, and were believed dead. Fearing that survivors could be brainwashed or worse, the Vancouver chantry, the group's headquarters, issued a rare order stating that if any Turners had survived they should left alone. Finally in June of '95, all five Turners from San Francisco disappeared. Despite pleas to the contrary, Stein went down there alone to find them.
Horizon Chantry "It's a weird tattoo, man." When the second meeting rolled around, Stein had still not reappeared. The meeting started as planned. This time the Euthanatos sent another observer, Nathaniel Evans. During this meeting, he spoke about the negative response towards the Wheel Turners from the rest of the Euthanatos. The White Band, the faction who believes in saving the corrupt before killing them, had withdrawn its support. There was serious talk amongst the tradition, he said, of bringing in the Freedom Razor, the internal police of the Euthanatos who hunt for the taint of the Nephandi. Jonathan Stein had never assumed a strong leadership role in the group. Yet, his absence and assumed death at the hands of Technocracy left the group of its political glue. Over the following days, the large house was rife with the politics as little groups of Turners tried to find a solution. On August 11, four days after the meeting began, Jonathan Stein suddenly returned with the five missing mages of San Francisco. His timing was fortunate, as the Turners were then voting on whether to disperse or not. Many say if Stein had waited a day longer to return, he would have returned to an empty house. The surprise of his return was nothing compared to the explanation of what had happened in San Francisco. It seems that upon arriving in San Francisco, Stein immediately started his search for his missing colleagues. When he learned they had been captured by the Technocracy, he walked straight into their central office and asked to see their leader. Their reaction was to immediately put him into isolated confinement. Jonathan Stein spent the following weeks undergoing interrogations and examinations. His captors were highly confused as to why he had risked coming. He refused none of their questions and his interest in their philosophy left them even more perplexed. While Iteration X members insisted on his disintegration, calmer heads prevailed. Finally, a dialogue began between [fill in Technocracy head in source book] and Stein. The moderates, mostly NWO and Progenitor members, could see very little wrong in what the Wheel Turners were doing. Their almost total preference for coincidental magick meant that they hardly qualified as reality criminals. At the worst, they convinced people that life did not truly end with death. At their best, they helped to make the population happier and reasonable. The San Francisco group decided there was no reason for prosecution if the following conditions were met: That the group only use coincidental magick, and there could never be more than three members living as permanent residents in any city, excepting Vancouver. Following this meeting, the Jonathan Stein and the five other Turners were released unharmed.
The chaos that followed Stein's account left most furniture in pieces. Before the hour was out, three Euthanatos masters had arrived. Nathaniel Evans reportedly went into shock. Due to several Virtual Adepts who had been invited as observers, a common practice of the Wheel Turners, the news was spread around the globe in minutes. By the end of the night, the situation had reached a legendary proportion. Not since the last Council of 9 meeting had so many magi of repute been present at the same place. Even the Virtual Adept master Dante showed up. After a heated debate, the masters present finally agreed to a course of action. Stein, and his closest councilors, would be taken to Horizon chantry, and be tested for Technocratic taint. If any taint at all was found, their avatars would be destroyed according to the ancient rites of Gilgul. On the stroke of midnight, Jonathan Stein, Angela Pinkerton, and the rest of the first group of Wheel Turners, were taken at gun point by the Freedom Razor. The rest of the Wheel Turners were held at the house under observation. At the same time the house was being set with detonators. Few knew, but the Euthantos masters had decided by themselves that if any taint was found, the entire faction would be killed. On arriving at Horizon, the Turners were separated for examinations. Stein set out to explore the famous chantry and wandered into the council room. How the magickal locks on the door failed is unknown. When his would-be examiners found him, he was seated at the famous council table, not in the chair reserved for the Euthanatos, but in the seat reserved for envoys. The chair, marked with a strange sigil that appeared a few years ago, is said to be the seat of the tenth sphere. When Jonathan was examined later, the sigil was found engraved on the palm of his right hand. During the examination no evidence of tattooing was found, nor any sign that the Wheel Turner had used Life magick, a sphere he admitted he was mostly ignorant of, to alter his hand. Residents of Horizon reported many other unusual happenings that day; doors would open and close unexpectedly, the guardian spirits were silent for the entire day, and a blank note book in the library started writing itself. The chaotic collection of symbols of words were totally unrecognizable except for the numerous sigils exactly like the one found on the tenth council chair and the title: The Complete Early History of the Wheel Turners, a Work in Three Parts: Volume One. None of these incidents have yet to be explained, and news of what happened has been almost totally suppressed. When no trace of taint or mind control was found in the Wheel Turners, the Euthanatos masters were finally pressured into releasing the group. The Turners rejoined their colleaugues at Stein's home the following afternoon. Within an hour the faction dispered along with the observers. Since then, Jonathan Stein has sent Angela Pinkerton on a mission of goodwill to the other traditions. He also spent a few months once again travelling North America, explaining what he could about what happened at Horizon chantry, as well as reminding his fellows that their primary priorities were themselves and the sleepers, not politics. These past few months have also seen the rise of Wheel Turners who were not part of the first group of members. Chief among these are Julian Stephenson from Chicago, and Melissa Green from Toronto. They are actively involved in the internal politics of the faction, and their recognition and support are growing. In December, Jonathan Stein returned to Vancouver for the funeral of his grandmother who died in a spectacular car crash. Oddly, her body was never recovered from the wreckage. That he dearly loved her was well known, and there was much speculation as to whether the crash was an accident, or an attack on him. Shortly after the funeral, Stein started writing on his experiences as a mage, and continues to this day. As of mid-January, 1996, the Wheel Turners stood at 45 members and continue to grow furiously with few signs of slowing. The oddest thing to note is the sigil found on Stein's hand has been turning up on more and more members. No one has any idea how it appears or what it means. All that is known is the growing unease of the faction towards the sigil and what it may ultimately forbode.
Present Day The Wheel Turners are finally taking a break from the intensity of the past two years. The conditions of the peace treaty resulted in a exodus of approximately half the group from a few large chantries in major cities ( Vancouver, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto) to many smaller North American cities, and to other continents. As far away as Warsaw and Christchurch members have found new homes. This breakup has also led to many joining mixed cabals, most of whom seem quite receptive to their philosophy. The downsizing has, at least for the moment, eased the tensions between them and other Euthanatos, which in many cases were becoming violent. As well, the spreading of members is leading to more recognition of the group as a separate entity rather than as simply part of the tradition. This rest seems destined to be brief, however, with increasing outrage being heard everyday. Coming from masters for the most part, these protests are gathering stength as news of now-(in)famous August meeting is spread. What has not been spread are the incidents that happened at Horizon chantry. There is more and more talk of putting the "Wheel Turner" question at the top of the next Council of Nine meeting in Summer of 1997. If the Wheel Turners continue to grow at the same rate, at that time they will number 120. Many are saying that if the traditions wait that long it may be too late. Their proposal for an immediate execution of the leaders and branding the avatars of any others is gaining support, especially from many Virtual Adepts. Still, for now, the days are peaceful. Many Wheel Turners are taking this time to catch their breaths and to relax a little. There is talk of an expedition to the Umbra, and a few are even touring the continent, getting to know everyone, much like Jonathan Stein and Angela Pinkerton did for almost two years. The main issue on each member's mind is their future. Whereever they congregate, members are busy trying to find a viable solution in what is sure to be a very confusing situation. And, all signs are indicating that this political mess is soon approaching.
WIKA By Deirdre Brooks (
[email protected]) (Author's Disclaimer: I am a practicing Wiccan, and this is what I would do if I were initiated into the Verbena. The beliefs, practices, etc. are based on the Witches I know, and have known, for approximately 7 years now. Any complaints, suggestions, etc, should be directed to the Mgt. :-) ) The Wika are formed from a splinter group who were initially trained by Verbena, but were appalled at the Blood Magick used by that Tradition. The group of them formed a Coven and began training others to use the Magick of Life in healthier fashion. Now, the Wika is one of the smallest Traditions extant but growing vigorously. The Wika work toward bringing the Wiccan religion into the mainstream of modern culture so people can see that Witchcraft is not an evil thing. They will not reveal the practices of the Verbena to the world because the information would simply be used to attack _them_ as well. However, this does not prevent them from denouncing the Verbena in front of memebers of other Traditions. Like the Verbena, Wikan Magick deals mostly with the natural world, but the underlying philosophy behind this is "An' it harm none, do what ye will." This would seem to give the Wika a non- confrontationalist attitude, but as a matter of fact, they are quite willing to defend other living beings from being harmed. They tend to use effects that confuse, frighten, bind or otherwise prevent another from carrying out their plans, but on occasion, if forced to do so, they can be as deadly if not moreso than any of the other Traditions. Unlike the Verbena desire to allow the body to override the mind, the Wikans tend to feel that uniting the body and the mind, since both act on the other, a balance must be maintained. The Wikans feel that Ascension can only be gained once the restrictive Patriarchal religions have lost their yoke on the world and a more egalitarian outlook come about. As long as imbalance, between body and soul, male and female, or even technology and Magick exists, Ascension cannot happen. Because the split occurred less than three decades ago, most of the traditions and customs are very close to the Verbena, but the attitudes behind them are different, so do not mistake the two.
Philosophy: Balance is the key. Without it, we go too far in one extreme and fall. As long as the Patriarchs continue their murderous wars, and hateful proclamations, humanity will be denied Ascension, tied to these unbalanced concepts. The technocracy enforces these rigid regimes to bring about their sterile world, and in so doing, destroys our chance to return to the Goddess.
Organization: Like the Verbena, Wikans tend to form groups they call Covens. They also use the word "Chantry." Numbers vary, again, and there does not seem to be a special emphasis on number in some, and others insist on 13. Some are female only, some are male only. A wide variation exists, since most of the Wikans are still influenced by the Wiccan traditions they were members of beforehand.
Meetings: The eight Sabbats of the Year, as per the Verbena. Initiation: The Wikan is initiated into the Coven in much the same way as the Verbena. Chantry: Wherever they manage a large meeting at Beltane. They as yet have no fixed main Chantry. Acolytes: Wiccans, New Agers, scholars, fortune tellers Sphere: Life Foci: Athame - Life/Mind Wand - Correspondence/Forces/Time Cup - Entropy/Spirit Crystal - Matter/Prime (Note: Athame is a knife that _has never drawn blood_. It must also be attuned to the Wikan who uses it, but doesn't really qualify as unique. It simply means that a Wikan can't just buy a knife and use it right away.)
Concepts: druid, witch, anthropologist Quote: "Some of the sleepers say we follow their Christian devil, the Verbena say we are blind to the meaning of life. Unlike either group, we have the respect for life that they have either forgotten or never had."
Stereotypes Akashic Brotherhood: They are too passive in their outlook, too introspective. However, we do have some things in common, and they can be valuable allies.
Celestial Chorus: At the opposite extreme from the Verbena, they focus on the mind at the expense of the flesh. On the surface they seem easy enough to get along with, but there is something dark hidden.
Cult of Ecstasy: They exemplify our own philosophy, as summed up "An' it harm none, do as ye will." It is no wonder they draw ridicule, fear and disrespect from the other Traditions. They follow their hearts.
Discordians: Often too strange and unfocused to finish the task they have set for themselves. Dreamspeakers: Possibly the group that has the most in common with us. They quite likely cannot save Gaia without help. Euthanatos: Euthanasia is not necessarily evil, and death but a transformation, but we can't help but think that they sometimes take it too far.
Hollow Ones: Poor lost Orphans. If only we could find them before they start on this gloomy path. Order of Hermes: We can work with them as long as they do not attempt to dominate us. Sons of Ether: Their illusion of technology is a crutch for their Magick. Verbena: Abominable! The shedding of human blood for the simple purpose of working Magick is insane! They are the ones who cause the religious to start their witch-hunts that we all suffer from. If only they had taken a different path from the beginning.
Virtual Adepts: Computers are nice tools but they make a terrible world to live within.
WORSHIPPERS OF THE WHISPERING BLADE By Tom Franks (
[email protected]) [okay, due to many requests, I will try to repost my tradition; but bear with me, I can only post small files, so it might take a lot of them to get the whole thing. Then, could someone put it all back together and put it in an FTP site so people could go there directly? Thanks, also, I'd love to hear comments on the Trad, especially how it's used in your stories. Till later. Tom Frank] Danger calls, it intoxicates/ beyond the walls, real excitement waits adrenaline rush, dance along the ledge/ forbidden touch, kiss the razor's edge limits fade, fear into delight/ wicked blade, shining in the light rip the skies, show us what you feel/ cut the ties, touch the naked steel. - --"Can you feel the passion" Blue Pearl, 1992 SBK records
Worshippers of the Whispering Blade Philosophy: The way of the passions leads us to the union with the dream within every sleeper and magi. The passions and shadows of the soul reveal themselves in many ways: to the Cultist it is through the rapture of flesh, to the Akashic it is though the harmony of Do, to the Verbena it is through sacrifice and rebirth. We are the quieter road, the road to peaceful emptiness, beyond even the pale of death, as death is only an illusion of the sleeper. Hear the songs of the blade; let it fill your nightmares with the quiet hills of summer that becomes fall, empty your anger into the folds of the empty hands of time, and let the divine will flow into the world through the heart of your inner child. Listen to the songs of the blade through the echoes of space and time and behold the passage through the Tempest that leads to Ascension. From the dawn of time, woman and man have sought the perfection of the blade, only to realize that it is their own beings that are tempered in the forge. The stronger the blade, the closer to Ascension we are, but do not forget that in the end, when the demons walk within the shadows of your soul, that the strong- est blade is within the ear of your heart.
History: The Worshippers are rumored to have been founded in the shadows of the First City, making blades for their Kindred overlords, but many escaped to the lands of the Garou, Fey, and even Wraiths, and therefore they survived the Deluge. Through the millennia, Worshippers sought the perfection of the blade, not only the weapons of the warrior, but the ritual scars and tattoos of the living blade, that of the flesh made steel. With the rise of technology, they learned to adapt, they preserved the blade even in light of the coming of the rifle and the bomb -- hence the bayonet, the ceremonial sword, and always, the ritual tattoo, and the honored wound of battle. Some Worshippers, riddled with Paradox, have deformed into caricatures of the dwarves of legend, though many of these same magi would tell you that they are indeed the cousins of the Fey.
Organization: Groups of three magi form Chantry-forges with a number of sleeper acolytes. The Triad consists of the Grandmaster, the Master-instructor, and a Journier, who wanders from Chantry to Chantry until she perfects her own style. There is no bias of gender, it is skill that determines rank. Many women form powerful chantries, especially Kinfolk and Changelings. They would tell you that their work preserves the memory of their ancestors and honors the face of their mothers. The two main factions of the tradition are the Worshippers of the Sword and the Worshippers of the Scar.
Chantry: There is no main chantry. Rumors say that their great forge was shattered with the destruction of the Ahl-i-Batin. Rumors also say that that assault was promoted by agents of the realms of the dead, who sought the forge for the war against Oblivion. Who knows, especially as the Worshippers do not speak of the loss to outsiders.
Acolytes: Students of Kendo, Garou, especially Ahroun and Theuge Auspices. It is said that the Assamite embraced many Worshippers in their wars against the Camarilla, though a truce now allows them to study without embracing the master Tattoo artists. Immortals, though unable to wield magick have studied under the Worshippers and are often their guardians as well. Kinfolk are especially favored, as well as those in tune with the realms of the dead. Hunters are usually not openly aided, as the Tradition believes in neutrality.
Initiation: The Awakening of a Worshipper is begun with a battle with an inner passion -- an inner jihad in which the apprentice is confronted by that which blocks their Essence from Ascension. A Dynamic Avatar sends the mage on a dream quest in which he confronts that which lessens his free will. A Pattern Avatar will bring the mage into a realm of Quiet where she must enforce her own will to re-establish reality. A Primordial Avatar will appear as the mage's alter ego, a hobgoblin that tests and taunts the magi, forcing a confrontation to determine which aspect is more real. A Questing Avatar will appear as the object she is destined to create -- either the perfect weapon or the master canvas of flesh. These quests often lead to the founding of schools of thought embraced by sleepers and magi alike. Failure of these tests is not unusual, and there is no dishonor. That which does not kill the magi, makes them stronger.
Spheres: Worshippers of the Blade: Matter Worshippers of the Scar: Spirit
Foci: Matter/Life: Any blade like object, though it must be made by the magi. Correspondence: Iron triangle Spirit: Woads, Tattoos Forces/Prime: Fire Time/Entropy: Handful of dust, ashes
Quote: There was a time to slay the dragon: that time is past. Realize that in order to save the Mother, we must heal the severing of
balance. There can be no Ascension without a return to the balance of the triat.
Stereotypes Akashics: The ways of Do are a true path; but we believe that the body and soul must precede the mind into Ascension. Ahl-i-Batin: the loss of the Great Mountain hurt us deeply. We do not ask for payment from the Batini, to be honored by their asking is enough.
Celestial Chorus: Many a paladin has asked us for a blade embodied with the powers of the One. We respect these fading knights as the One they seek, is the memory of the Triat made whole.
Cult of Ecstacy: In challenging reality, they open themselves to Ascension. Perhaps our blades will help them cut the cords to an age of beauty.
Dreamspeakers: We too have reverence for Gaia as we are as old as the shamans. But we show our respect from the weapons we forge to defend her.
Euthanatos: Though the blade is oft but the tool of death, we will punish those who dishoner its power though butchery. Hollow Ones/Orphans: These allies of Wraiths make interesting clients. Those of the Scar are much in vogue with these magi, and have gained many allies.
Order of Hermes: We regret the failure of the Mythic Age, but it is the past. Books and patterns are only as powerful as those who wield them. Beware.
Society of Ether: Not above a ceremonial sword, though nano-mechanical forges will never replace the anvil and hammer of one's soul.
Verbena: Those of the Scar are close to their ways. They ask for the most interesting blades. Virtual Adepts: Forging a virtual blade is a fascinating challenge, and naturally, what is a Street Samurai without a . . . Technocracy: Though they look upon us as throwbacks to another era, no technomancer is above using a blade, and hence we perservere. Ironically, many have found wisdom in our schools of thought, espcially the Syndicate.
Kindred: Beware contracts of blood. Be careful of forging too many blades of silver and iron, for we must all live in harmony with the darkness as well as the light. Toreador can become entranced by those of the Scar, Ventrue pay well for our blades. Do not ignore those of the depths, as they wear upon their bodies their battles with their souls, and once made, they are great allies.
Garou: Our ancient allies and protectors. However, remember that balance keeps us from destruction. Remember that the path of life is often grey. Their dark ones, the worshippers of Thunder ask for terrible blades for their wars upon the mountain. Their Silents ones often walk with us into the realms of the dead to find wisdom. The fallen ones, those who Gnaw the bones of despair should always be protected. The followers of the Furies are great forgers in their own right, much have we learned together.
Immortals: Our allies and guardians, the swords we forge for them are bound by spirits of deception, in this way they can remain hidden until needed. No immortal has ever betrayed us, for they know, the swords would sever their own heads first.
Spirits and Fey: Some of us have created swords that steal souls. Beware. Many of us have entered Arcadi and the realms of the dead. Remember well the power of Nhudri, the Grand High Artificer over all Worshippers. Some have even dedicated themselves to his service in the next life. Many a Journier has become a carrier of the dead. Remember too, that we are also agents of the living and walk our own paths to Ascension and Transcendence.
Factions: There are many factions within those of the Sword and Scar, these include. The Fostern of Abel, The Sisters of Artemis, The Fists of Fian, the Scar of Wotan. Some of these are renegades who have become Hunters. Beware.
Artifacts: The Tears of Emphain, the Klaive of Shadows, the Woads of Cu Chulainn Rotes: Founding of the Forge, Bladewalking.
THE WORSHIPPERS OF IRONY By Brant Harvey (
[email protected]) "Creation has a sense of irony, if not humor." --The Book of Madness Hidden in the cracks of the modern world is a strange cult of Orphans, lost and masterless mages who believe that the highest power in the universe is that of irony. They worship this force as the Dreamspeakers worship Gaia, and as the Order of Hermes worships its charts and tables. They even name their esoteric god, calling it Tod, for reasons unknown. It is unknown when they came into being, or why. Few mages even know of their existence. They are experts at staying hidden, emerging from the shadows just long enough to make a wiseass comment, then disappearing again.
Philosophy: Look around you. Just look. The universe isn't run by physical forces, like the Technocrats say. Could mere physics explain the deep, dark humor occuring at every moment -- the missed buses, the stained tuxedos, the perpetual failed romantic comedy? No, I think not. The only rational explanation is Irony itself, deified and acting through our every moveme-- What? All this irony can just be explained by the fact that humans will perceive irony whenever possible? Well, of course. That just proves the existence of Tod. What other being but Irony would disprove itself?
Organization: There isn't an organization as much as there is a pecking order. Those Ironists capable of the most mind-bending expressions and explanations of the will of Tod are respected by the others. Those higher up in the pecking order will sometimes make up quasi-religious titles for themselves (Epopt and Primate are particular favorites). This in no way translates into an actual chain of command, however; the Worshippers are extremely independent.
Meetings: The Ironists gather to chat every week or so, wherever possible: at parties, in coffeeshops, at film festivals, in bookstores, on buses. (They really like buses.) They don't really get anything accomplished at these meetings, and usually fail to even plan the next one.
Initiation: The Worshippers of Irony prefer to corner a vic^H^H^H^H candidate at a party, or after a particularly ironic occurrence, and explain the true nature of the universe to them. Most candidates just wander away looking confused, but a few Awaken to the will of Tod.
Chantry: They don't have one. If they did, it would probably be a bus. Acolytes: College students, intellectuals, comedians, anybody who would read this text. Sphere/Foci: As Orphans, the Worshippers of Irony have neither a special Sphere nor any associated foci. However, they do prefer to make all of their magicks ironic, which works nearly as a focus.
Concepts: Bus drivers, weird people, college students, intellectuals, anybody who would write or distribute this text. Quote: "Kind of funny, how you ran to catch this bus, and how it broke down. Well, not funny. Ironic. But that's the way things always seem to work, isn't it? Let me explain something to you..."
Stereotypes (and perceptions of outsiders) Marauders: Rather a lower level of humor, wouldn't you say? These people are a cosmic pie in the face. (Irony? I LIKE irony. GOOD for the blood, nummy, NUMMY, eat your spinach, boys and gurgles, and you CAN grow up to be like Popeye! Of course, too much Popeye and you fall ASLEEP, like the Cowardly Liar, asleep at THE switch, BOOM, CRASH, BANG!)
Nephandi: They want to bring on the Punchline early and ruin everybody's fun. They also seem to plan to die with the universe they're destroying, which is in really bad taste. (Who? Oh, never mind. We'll have time for them later.)
The Technocracy: These people have no sense of humor. They MUST BE STOPPED -- but not before we humiliate them by pointing out publicly how they plan to control subjective reality through objectivism. (DATABASE SEARCHES REVEAL NO FILES CONNECTED WITH "Tod" OR "Worshippers of Irony.")
Akashic Brotherhood: There's this old Zen proverb where some obnoxious young apprentice is bugging his wise old master to find out where everything comes from, why it exists, and what the ultimate end of things is. Finally, his master turns to him and says, "Your breakfast is getting cold." Letting these people run reality might not be such a bad idea. (I have never heard of these Worshippers of Irony.)
Celestial Chorus: Anybody who wastes time blathering about theology and the mind of God is stupid or insane, if not both. (Irony? I've never heard of such a theology. Still, it's just another mask for the One.)
Cult of Ecstasy: The Technocracy slaughters us like cattle, Paradox restrains our every effort, reality itself dies upon us, and the Cult
of Ecstasy gives us -- Lollapalooza. It's easy to see why they're considered such daring rebels. (Who are they, man?)
Dreamspeakers: What's really sad is that primitive peoples can do nearly as much damage to Gaia as modern technological civilization does. But lead on, brave eco-squad... (The spirits tell me nothing of these Ironists. Are you sure they exist at all?)
Euthanatos: You've got to appreciate anybody who kills in order to make life worth living. (Who?) Hollow Ones: They see the Joke, but concentrate on whining about it. Pathetic. (I ran into one at a party, once, but he didn't make any sense. Who even cares about Gods of anything anymore? They're just attempts to lie to yourself about the ultimate cruelty of reality.)
Order of Hermes: The Technocracy makes fun of these bozos. Their magick is so devoid of imagination and life that it could probably be performed by a toaster. Are they really the ones trying to bring back the age of dynamism and spiritual freedom? (Aristotle discusses the Ironist as one of the archetypal characters of a comedy. Is that who you're talking about?)
Sons of Ether: Can one really move forward by going back to the '30s? Still, you've got to love the fact that they call it "Science." (Irony? I have more important things to worry about than obscure humor!)
Verbena: If the Order of Hermes is an example of the imagination and creative spirit that the Technocrats lack, then these people are a similar lesson in tolerance. Never again the Burning Times, unless it's someone else, right? (Who are you TALKING about?)
Virtual Adepts: Computer-geek mages? Don't get me started. I suppose they're going to free us from drudgery through Windows, and will elevate our intellects through MUDs and alt.pictures.binary.erotica. (Well, I did find a file on the Worshippers of Irony on this mailing list. But it wasn't very interesting, so I deleted it. Why?)
GURPS Notes: Sphere: None. Advantages: Arcane. Disadvantages: Obsession: Irony, Social Stigma: Orphan*. Skills: Bard, Philosophy, Stealth, Theology.
Prime Revised By Constantine Thomas (
[email protected])
Prime and Quintessence The Sphere of Prime is the most important of all the Arts; it is nothing less than the study of magick itself and the flow of Quintessence. Note that Prime cannot be used to directly affect the Mind in any way; it can only be used to affect magick itself or the Physical Forms (Forces, Life, Matter). Study of the Prime enables the Mage to affect the flow of Quintessence through and around himself or any other Pattern (although it should be noted that Prime cannot affect the Sphere of Mind). While Prime is not essential to Mages, it is a very useful Art, and most Mages understand it at its most basic levels. There are two types of Quintessence: Raw and Free. Raw Quintessence is the basic Quintessence that allows Patterns to exist. It is literally the energy of something's existence; without this energy, the object cannot exist. Free Quintessence is not tied down to any Patterns, but instead flows freely around the Universe. Occasionally, Free Quintessence concentrates in places called Nodes, and the existence of these is vital to Mages. Mages gain access to the universal pool of Free Quintessence at the lower levels of Prime. The ability to affect Raw Quintessence is not available until higher levels of Prime, and with it comes great power as the Mage becomes able to snuff something out of existence!
The Avatar Package Everyone possesses Avatars, even Sleepers. However, Mages possess much stronger Avatars that allow them to perform True Magick. Even if a Mage has no Avatar Rating on paper, it is still stronger than a Sleeper's (otherwise he will not be able to perform magick); however, he does have certain disadvantages. What is commonly referred to as an 'Avatar' is actually made up of two parts: the Flow and the Avatar Pattern, or Unique Configuration. The Flow is the Raw Quintessence flowing through the Living Pattern, while the Unique Configuration is the medium through which the Flow travels. The Unique Configuration determines how the Flow passes through the Living Pattern, as well as its magnitude; thus the Flow and the Unique Configuration are strongly interlinked. To cast magicks one must have a large Flow, but one's Unique Configuration must also be structured in such a way as to allow this. Thus, Sleepers have a relatively small Flow; certainly it is enough to sustain their existence, but very rarely enough to allow them to affect their surroundings. Mages on the other hand have much more powerful Flows, far in excess of the amount required to merely maintain their existences, and Unique Configurations that allow such a powerful Flow to pass through their Living Patterns. Such a strong Flow allows the Mage to cast magicks, and is an inherent part of his Avatar. A Mage can use his Avatar rating to regain Quintessence by meditating in a Node for at least an hour (Perception + Meditation, difficulty 7). The number of successes gained determines how much Quintessence the Mage taps from the Node, but the Mage can only hold as much Quintessence as his Avatar Rating. Thus, a Mage with Avatar 4 who rolls 6 successes on his meditation roll can still only hold up to four points of Quint in his pattern in toto. A Mage cannot gain more Quintessence than the rating of the Node as a result of one meditation roll; in other words, a Node can only provide as much Quintessence as its Node rating over the course of one hour. In situations where the Mage's Avatar rating is greater than the Node rating, the Mage would have to make an extended roll in order to gain more Quintessence points from the Node than allowed by its rating. This means he would have to meditate in the Node for more than one hour, slowly recharging his Quintessence. The Node rating therefore indicates the leakage of Quintessence Points from the Node per hour, and does not necessarily indicate the actual strength of the Node. Thus, a powerful Node holding large amounts of Free Quintessence may still only be classed as Node 1 if its leakage rate is very low. In this example, the Mage will have to make five continuous Perception + Meditation rolls, gaining at least one success on each of them in order to tap a total of five points of Quintessence from the Node (one per turn). If he fails any of these rolls, then all the Quintessence he gained in the effort goes back into the Node. A Botch means the same as a failure, but he also will be unable to tap Quintessence from that Node for a few days at least. The Avatar rating does not allow the mage to recharge himself with Quintessence outside a Node (only Prime 1 allows this). A Mage starts the game with as many Quintessence Points as he has in Avatar rating for free. He cannot start with more unless he has Prime 3 to start with -- these must be bought with Freebie Points. The amount of Quintessence that can be spent in one turn to reduce the difficulty of a magickal effect is equal to the higher of either the Mage's Avatar rating or his ability in Prime. Thus, if a Mage possesses neither Prime nor Avatar, he cannot spend Quintessence on his magickal effects.
Raw and Free Quintessence Free Quintessence is essentially the excess energy contained within Patterns -- if one knows how to get it, then one can easily absorb it. Raw Quintessence is, on the other hand, locked into all Patterns (thus allowing them to physically exist) and in the case of Life Patterns also flows through these and sustains their living existence. It is raw Quintessence that is used at Prime 2 when a Mage creates a new Pattern, not Free Quintessence; without Raw Quintessence, the new Pattern will not exist. However,
newly created Patterns do not appear to contain Free Quintessence, although if left alone for a while they will probably absorb it naturally from the environment (like everything else does, presumably). The Flow in an Avatar (described earlier) represents the Raw Quintessence flowing through the Mage's Pattern (see below). This in turn affects how much free Quintessence (ie. the number of dots on the Quintessence circle on the character sheet) the Mage can hold.
Living Patterns The Raw Quintessence makeup of a living Pattern is two-fold. Like Matter and Forces Patterns, a Life Pattern contains a fixed amount of Raw Quintessence that is always locked into the Pattern. However, there is another component unique to all Living Patterns, that component which makes them alive. This is a flow of Raw Quintessence, originating from the universal pool of Raw Quintessence and returning back to this Pool via the Life Pattern. While the Pattern is alive, this Flow passes through it perpetually. Without this, the Life Pattern is dead, inanimate matter -- the Flow no longer exists once the Pattern dies, the Avatar Pattern/Unique Configuration is recycled and all that remains is a dead body containing 'locked in' Raw Quintessence, which is itself eventually recycled into the Universal Pool through bodily decay.
Tass Tass is basically physical, solid, Free Quintessence. As such it can be carried around by Mages and can be tapped at Prime 1 to power effects. See below for details.
Sphere Effects * Perceive/Store Quintessence At this level, the Mage can perceive Quintessence Flows. This allows him to see Nodes, Awakened Creatures, and whether any Quintessence is being diverted to fuel magickal effects in the area. Prime 1 also allows the Mage to store more Quintessence than his Avatar Rating allows; in effect, it frees up more room within the Mage's Unique Configuration in which to hold extra Free Quintessence. However, he still cannot actually channel Free Quintessence from the environment into his Pattern himself; this requires Prime 3. Effectively, Prime 1 only gives the Mage the potential to store more Quintessence. However, Prime 1 does allow the Mage to collect Quintessence up to the limit of his Avatar Rating without recourse to meditation in a Node. He does this by using Prime 1 magick to directly tap the pool of Free Quintessence that permeates the environment; however, this is usually a Vulgar magickal effect, since Free Quintessence is being taken from the environment in an unnatural manner. If the Mage has no Avatar Rating, but at least has Prime 1, he can use his Prime Rating as an equivalent to Avatar; thus, a Mage possessing a rating of Prime 1 or Prime 2 but no Avatar Rating can still hold Free Quintessence, and gains it using Prime 1 Magick as described here. His Prime Rating acts as the ceiling for his Quintessence Pool in the same way that Avatar would. Note that at Prime 3, he can break through this ceiling and hold as many Quintessence Points as he has room for. In addition, at Prime 1 the Mage can use Tass by converting it directly to Free Quintessence to lower the difficulties of a magickal effect. However, without Prime 3 he still cannot channel the Quintessence from the Tass into his own Pattern; at Prime 1 he just uses it to power his magickal effects.
** Fuel Pattern When a Mage creates anything using the Physical Forms (ie. Forces, Life, or Matter), he does so by creating a Pattern fuelled by Raw Quintessence. In the case of Forces and Matter, a framework -- the Pattern itself -- is created which is then made real by Raw Quintessence. The Pattern can therefore be thought of as a skeleton, around which is placed the flesh and blood (Quintessence) that makes the object real. In the case of Life Patterns, both a Raw Quintessence framework and a Flow of Raw Quintessence are created to allow the Pattern to exist. All Life/Matter/Forces effects used to construct new Patterns are therefore Conjunctional, requiring that Sphere + a Prime 2 Requisite. However, Mind effects do not require Prime 2 requisites. Note that healing or repairing Patterns magickally does not require Prime 2, since this is accomplished by repairing the Pattern directly with the Pattern Spheres. It should be noted that Prime 2 as described here only allows the Mage to set up the Raw Quintessence framework or Flow to fuel the Pattern -- nowhere does it say in the Prime 2 description that the Mage can alter the flow of Raw Quintessence into a Pattern. Thus, the 'Rubbing Of The Bones' Prime 2 effect on Page 211 of the Mage1 rulebook is out of place -- this is now a Prime 5 effect.
Enchanting Items: Mage2 introduces rules (on page 214) for Enchanting items using Prime 2. For consistency within these House Rules, Enchanting items (which involves an increase in the amount of Raw Quintessence held within the object) or creating Enchanted items is now only possible at Prime 4.
*** Affect Free Quintessence At this level, the Mage is able to tap reservoirs of Free Quintessence (ie. Nodes and Tass) and is able to either channel this Quintessence into another Pattern (or Realm), or store it within his own. This means that he can now fill that 'extra space' created in his Avatar with Prime 1 -- he can now gain more Quintessence than is allowed by his Avatar Rating. Prime 3 also allows the Mage to transfer Free Quintessence to objects, thus allowing him to create Talismans. Mages with Prime 3 can also destroy magickal effects (known as 'Unweaving') and harm manifested Demons, since these exist due to Free Quintessence (Demonic bodies are magickal -- they are not created from Matter, but are instead crafted by the Demon itself from Free Quintessence when it arrives on Earth). Also, the Mage is able to change magicks cast by himself or other Mages since these affect Free Quintessence. For example, the Mage can change Tass from one form to another, or combine his ability with other Mages to cast powerful Rituals.
**** Affect Raw Quintessence At this level, the Mage finally learns how to affect the Raw Quintessence that is within all Patterns. By extracting it, the Mage can affect a Pattern's incarnation in this reality; Adepts of Prime can expel the Raw Quintessence from any Pattern, recycling it into the cosmic pool of Raw Quintessence. Without this Quintessence, the Pattern (be it Matter or Energy) simply ceases to exist. Also note that Patterns of Life cannot be affected at this level, since they are sustained by a Flow of Raw Quintessence.
Enchanted Items: The Mage can also add Raw Quintessence to a Pattern above its natural state at Prime 4; this is known as enchanting an object, and makes it more 'real' and generally more resistant to Magick. Note that only Matter (and the occasional Forces Pattern) can be Enchanted; Living Patterns cannot.
Creating Enchanted Items: Enchanted items are not Talismans; they gain no extra magickal effects. They can be used by anyone though -- even Sleepers. Enchanting an item requires Prime 4 and at least one level in the Sphere corresponding to the item being Enchanted (ie. Matter 1 if the item is a knife, or Forces 1 if the Enchantment is being applied to a Forces Pattern). Items can be created in an already Enchanted state, but this requires Prime 4 and the appropriate Pattern Sphere (so to create an Enchanted Silver Knife would require Prime 4 and Matter 2); this is especially useful for creating Enchanted Forces Patterns (requiring Prime 4 and Forces 3 or 5). The duration of the Prime 4 effect determines how long the Enchantment lasts; an extended and complicated ritual must usually be enacted if the item is to be permanently enchanted. Even if an item is created in an Enchanted state, the excess Raw Quintessence contained within it still returns to the Universal Pool; such 'overcharged' items are not usually stable in that state, and seek to return to the standard mode. The Enchantments powering such items can be undone by using Prime 4 to Unweave the effect (Prime 4 is necessary because Raw Quintessence is involved here).
Effects of Enchanted items: Enchanted weapons will inflict Aggravated Damage to all targets -- be they Awakened, Magickal, Spiritual or Sleeper -- even if they are not manifested in the Near Umbra or Shadowlands. Thus, a Wraith in the Shadowlands can still be damaged by an Enchanted knife even if the wielder is in the Skinlands. Enchanted weapons work by not only affecting the physical Pattern of the target, but by also directly affecting its Raw Quintessence framework. This is why damage inflicted by such items is always Aggravated, no matter what the nature of the target is. Enchanted items otherwise are more 'real' than their unenchanted counterparts, which can have a variety of effects. Such items are usually a lot more solid, tougher, and more opaque to magickal attacks than unenchanted ones. Thus, the enchanted denim jacket described in the example in Mage2 will certainly offer its wearer a number of free Countermagick dice or some magickal Soak dice. An Enchanted helmet would act to block incoming (and outgoing) Mind effects. However, such items would not provide any extra protection against mundane, non-magickal attacks -- the denim jacket would not be bulletproof (unless specifically made that way by Matter magicks).
Wraiths: It should be noted here that Wraiths are usually only affected by conjunctional Mind/Spirit magicks, since they are entities composed of pure mental will. Such magicks affect the Wraith as if they were Life Effects cast on living targets. However, even Wraiths have some element of Prime also sustaining their existence, though no Flow sustains them; Prime 4 is therefore all that is required to directly affect a Wraith (though this will affect in the same way that Prime 5 would affect a living target)
***** Affect Raw Quintessence Flow The Master of Prime is now capable of affecting the magnitude of the Flow of Raw Quintessence through Living Patterns by diverting more Raw Quintessence from the universal pool into them. Most living beings do not store Quintessence within their patterns; instead, a stream of Raw Quintessence flows continuously through their Patterns. Only those with strong enough Avatars (ie. Mages and Awakened Creatures) are capable of storing some of this flow within their Patterns. Reducing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a Pattern can give a Master great control over the magickal abilities of other
Mages. The Master can reduce the Flow through a target's Pattern so that the Flow is too weak to allow it to wield Magick; the target essentially becomes a Sleeper (albeit a magickally aware one who does not count as a Witness for Vulgar magicks). Decreasing the Flow further requires more successes but it can be reduced to such an extent that it is extinguished completely, thus killing the target; however, the target's Unique Configuration will still be recycled unharmed. By increasing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through his Unique Configuration, the Master effectively increases his Avatar Rating; this allows him to spend more Quintessence on his magickal effects (this replaces 'Recharge Gift', which as using these rules is now a Prime 1 effect). In addition, he can use this to increase the maximum amount of Free Quintessence that he can store in his Pattern; however, this has the effect of 'supercharging' the Mage, manifesting as an aura of unbridled power. Objects merely touching the Mage may hurtle away at high speeds, and devices may spontaneously explode in his presence. In addition, Paradox may be drawn to such a large collection of Free Quintessence and may attempt to attack the Mage. It should be noted that attempting the Gilgul is beyond the ability of mere Masters of Prime. Prime 5 affects only the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a target's Living Pattern; Gilgul however is the complete destruction of the Unique Configuration itself, such that it is lost forever to the Cycle of Life and Death (NB. All Residue within the Unique Configuration is also destroyed). Masters are completely incapable of affecting the Unique Configuration of living creatures, though they are aware of its existence at this level; the Gilgul can only be attempted by Oracles of Prime. The Unique Configuration can never be affected by any Prime 5 magick, and should death result it will always recycle, completely unaffected by non-Oracular magicks. Also, Masters of Prime become aware of a connection between Paradox and Quintessence similar to that between positive and negative forces. Masters of Prime can use this to channel Free Quintessence in such a way that it cancels out Paradox energies that have not yet coalesced within a Pattern -- ie. remove incoming Paradox Points from an effect before the Mage gains them. However, channeling and focusing of Paradox into other Patterns is not possible until Oracular levels of Prime.
Summary of Prime Effects Sphere Effect * Perceive Quintessence. ** Fuel Pattern. *** Affect Free Quintessence. **** Affect Raw Quintessence. ***** Affect Raw Quintessence Flow.
Afterword Of course, the Avatar is a lot more than just a flow of Raw Quintessence. It is the guiding force within the Mage -- Dynamic, Pattern, Primordial or Questing. There is a spiritual aspect here as well as a metaphysical/mechanical one, that cannot be defined by any Game or House rules. And why should the Avatar be considered as an entity guiding the Mage? It can appear in any manner to the Mage -- as a vast expanse of land that the Mage must explore, gaining enlightenment on his own internal spiritual journey, or as an infinite black ocean that floods over the Mage and permeates his core, flooding him with insight, memories and even possibly torment. Why stop at a personalisation?
Avatar By Eric Chaddock (
[email protected])
Author's Notes Here is how I'm planning on running a tenth sphere of Magick in my campaign until White Wolf comes out with one. PLEASE write comments! I'd really like to see what some of you think the tenth sphere should be (especially those of you from White Wolf). :)
Introduction An excerpt from a speech by Alan BlueMoon, Hollow One, at Horizon several weeks after the induction of the Hollow Ones into the Traditions as the keepers of the new sphere of Avatar: "I am Alan BlueMoon, the first documented user of the tenth sphere of Magick on Earth. I have studied it for almost a year now since I found it and I recently gained mastery of the sphere. Because of this I have been called here to speak on the subject of the use of this sphere in the Ascension War. The sphere of Avatar is the sphere of the understanding of the interaction between paradigms between different minds. Not to say that all minds have Avatars. Many artificial intelligences can think. Only now through the tenth sphere can they effect the functioning of reality through force of will. . .through Magick. Our sphere allows the adept to sense, alter and create avatars at will. Through sensing them we can see who is able to shape reality and how well they do it. Through affecting Avatars we can shift the local paradigm towards the one of the user, making vulgur magick coincidental. We can also use it to Awaken the Sleepers and guide them in their learning of magick. Through creation of avatars we can more easily create fetishes, more easily shape reality and more easily get rid of paradox. The tool that this sphere is is a powerful one indeed. If our enemies were to find it our troubles would square in intensity. This idea should not be taken lightly. Some say the technocrats will very soon, if not now, be able to harness the power of a Grand Unification Theory that they have been working on since Einstein. Without the power of the Avatar sphere our war would be lost for sure. But it is not. The sphere allows us to Awaken virtually any Sleeper we want, only limited by the stagnation of its essence. My tradition's numbers are growing so fast because of this that we are almost as large a tradition as any of you. Our only problem is tutorship. We are desperately low on teachers in our tradition. We feel that the only way to win this war is through both skilled Magick use and sheer numbers. Therefore I have trained nine of our greatest magicians in the Avatar sphere to the point where they can Awaken Sleepers. They are each gifts to the other traditions and will awaken any individual the tradition leaders want to train. They will also teach your scholars to use the Avatar sphere yourselves. We must all come together to save our world from enemies. With my new Avatar sight I now see Gaia as the werewolves see her, and I'm not about to let her die. This may sound surprising coming from a Hollow One, but the new sphere and our new role as a tradition has changed us all..."
The Avatar Sphere: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Sense Avatar, Self Empowerment Avatar Empowerment, Speak with Avatar Create Small Avatar, Fragment Avatar Create Epiphany Shape Paradigm
Level 1: Sense Avatar, Self Empowerment At this level the Mage is able to sense the Avatars around herself and the level at which they shape reality. The Mage is also capable of empowering her own Avatar -- increasing it's storage capacity in Quintessence.
Level 2: Avatar Empowerment, Speak with Avatar The Mage can now empower other Avatars, even those without minds. She can increase the psychic residue on an object, increase the output Quintessence of a node, enhance the blood point storage and use of a vampire. The Mage can also speak freely with his Avatar although this effect can also be done with Spirit. The Mage now understands the goals of his Avatar and learns to accept his place in reality's circle.
Level 3: Create Small Avatar, Fragment Avatar Now the Mage can create Avatars out of channeled Quintessence. If not put into a living body or mind the Avatar is just a free roaming spirit that can be used in Spirit magicks. The Mage can also knock a piece off her own Avatar that is Awakened and has some of her Magickal ability (but not her memories).
Level 4: Create Epiphany The Mage is now able to use any sphere at level one and transfer it's ability onto another Avatar, allowing it to see reality as it truly is. This will usually Awaken the Avatar, although success depends on how static the Avatar has become. This usually depends on the age of the person, as a person gets more set in her own ways over time. The newly Awakened Avatar will usually have at least one dot in the sphere shown to it during epiphany. In this way a Mage can create a new member of his tradition with the correct sphere for the tradition.
Level 5: Shape Paradigm The Mage can now affect the Avatars of all the people, spirits and objects around it to absorb the paradigm she wants to some degree and for a brief amount of time. The time can of course be extended by Time Magick. The Mage can only affect one Magickal or magical effect at a time and can either make it vulgar or coincidental. The difficulty depends on how vulgar or coincidental the Magick was to begin with. This ability is quite useful in talisman creation for Hollow Ones because of their lack of horizon realms.
Chaos By Constantine Thomas (
[email protected])
Introduction The rules presented below for the Sphere of Chaos were originally designed for my own highly modified version of the Mage rules -- if you want to incorporate this into your system while retaining 9 Spheres, then I suggest you keep the Pattern-destroying effects of the higher levels of Entropy, but also include the Chaos effects at those levels -- this would not require a massive alteration to the rest of the system (though it might make The Sphere of Entropy a damn sight more powerful). So, Entropy would work as follows:
Entropy 1: Perceive Weakness/Disorder. Entropy 2: Affect Closed Systems. Entropy 3: Diffuse Forces/Matter. Affect Open Systems. Entropy 4: Wither Life. Affect Organisational Systems. Entropy 5: Intellectual Entropy. Reverse Entropy/Chaos Theory. On now (finally!) to the Chaos Sphere. There are now 5 levels devoted to the study and manipulation of probability. It should be noted that these levels may appear to be quite powerful, and may tip the balance a bit (in my rules Mages are more powerful than in the main rulebook). They're basically just presented here to give people ideas. I've also tried to 'retrofit' the Sphere of Chaos to the standard Mage rules as much as possible to make it easier to follow.
Description Chaos gives the Mage control over the amount of disorder in a system, which in turn affects the extent that randomness influences that system. This in turn allows the Mage to affect probability in Open and Closed Systems. A Closed System is one in which there is a definite, finite probability of an event occurring, as a result of the isolation of the system from external influences. Tossing a coin creates one of the most basic Closed Systems -- there is a one in two chance that the coin will land heads or tails. Other examples include the shuffling of a pack of cards, and a game of Russian Roulette -- in the latter, there is a one in six chance that the firing chamber of the revolver will contain the bullet (which the Mage can affect). An Open System is one where probability is being continually affected by variable outside influences -- however, the Mage cannot affect the chance of a specific event occurring. Instead, he can flood a system with Chaos (or reduce its effect in a system), making it generally more or less random in its operation. The Mage has little control over exactly how this randomness will manifest itself. For example, a Mage being chased over an unstable wooden bridge can use Chaos to affect the Open System that is the chance of the bridge collapsing. By manipulating probabilities of this happening, the Mage can cause the bridge to collapse just when the people chasing him are about halfway across. An Organisation is a peculiar system in that it combines elements of both Closed and Open Systems. An `Organisation' is here defined as a collection of individual components that interact in a complex manner -- thus Bureaucracies and even Society are Organisations. They are meta-organisms, comprising many individual entities (sometimes millions). In all Organisations, there is a rigid framework in which it operates -- the hierarchy of employees, the daily routine, etc -- which makes it a Closed System. However, anything can happen within that framework as the organisation interacts with the outside world -- employees can arrive late or call in sick, rival companies can put in a take-over bid, a new contract can be signed, wars can start and so on -- which makes it akin to an Open System. As such, Organisations are more difficult to magickally affect, but once a Mage has a foothold, the rewards and the possibilities are endless. The ultimate expression of Chaos magick is Chaos Theory, and the ability to reverse entropy -- a Mage can make a gas cloud diffuse in a certain way (or not diffuse at all), or make ink drops form out of inky water as the ink molecules re-assemble into a more ordered state. Through Chaos Theory, the Mage can control events in the future through tiny manipulations of events in the present. It should be noted that Chaos cannot be used to make magicks appear Coincidental (by affecting the probability that something will occur) -- Chaos affects only the probabilities that a mundane event can occur.
Chaos Sphere Level Descriptions Chaos affects the degree that randomness and chance affect a system. As described above, there are three types of probability systems -- Closed, Open, and Organisational Systems. At the highest level, Entropy itself can be reversed, allowing the Mage to control the diffusion of gases and other systems with billions of variables. Normally, a cloud of gas would diffuse throughout an area when released -- reversing the Entropy would make it unnaturally ordered, preventing it from diffusing. Increasing the amount of disorder in any probability system makes it more random and unpredictable. Decreasing the amount of disorder in a system makes it less random and more 'ordered' -- ie. predictable. Examples of how these can manifest are given below:
Closed Systems If disorder was increased in a system where two dice were rolled thousands of times, it is possible that no consecutive roll will be the same. Similarly, if a pack of playing cards (arranged in order of suit and number) was taken and shuffled once, it would appear as if it had been shuffled hundreds of times. If disorder was decreased in the systems described above, rolling the two dice would always resulted in the same number, even if rolled several thousand times. In the pack of cards example, the deck could be shuffled a thousand times but there would still be only one or two cards displaced if the disorder was decreased.
Open Systems Increasing disorder in an Open system (such as the operation of a machine) could result in computer crashes, circuit breakers tripping for no reason (while others fail to trip when they should causing power surges), corruption of computer data, and so on. Decreasing disorder in a machine would make it work more efficiently and more predictably -- circuit breakers trip when they should, back-doors into computer systems become inaccessible, phone exchanges route their calls to the correct destinations, and so on.
Organisational Systems Increasing disorder in (for example) a busy restaurant could result in tables never being served by waiters, cooks calling in sick on busy days, health inspectors arriving, customers complaining, waiters tripping up while carrying food etc. Decreasing disorder may result in tables always being served as soon as they are taken by customers, employees calling in on time, and everything generally running like clockwork.
* Perceive Probability This level allows the Mage to ascertain the probability of an event occurring, given current trends and variables. It also gives the Mage the ability to sense whether probabilities are being tweaked by other magicks involving the Chaos Sphere, or by Sleepers (say, if die rolls are being affected by magnets under a Craps table in a casino). This also allows a Mage to sense the amount of disorder in a system, which allows him to see which parts of the system are the most ordered and which are the most disordered. In most cases, the most disordered parts of a system are its weakest points. Note that this can only be used on its own in systems containing large numbers of individual variables, such as organisations and networks -- finding the weak spots of a living or non-living material would require conjunctional magick involving Chaos 1 and the appropriate Sphere at level 1. Thus, to find the weakest (or the strongest) point in a metal wall would require Matter 1 and Chaos 1. Note that other Magicks or skills must be used if the Mage wishes to exploit any weak points -- Chaos 1 cannot itself manipulate these weak points -- it can only detect them.
** Disorder in Closed Systems At this level, the Mage can control the amount of disorder in any Closed System. This includes tossing coins, rolling dice, and shuffling card decks. It gives the Mage extraordinary control over any games of chance, and basically allows him to do as he pleases with the probabilities of the system. However, note that repeated use of this in the same place will draw the ire of Sleepers (who will suspect the Mage of foul play if his dice keep rolling double-sixes....) or may even invoke the Domino Effect (see BoS).
*** Disorder in Open Systems At this level, the Mage can control the amount of disorder in an Open System. Note that this does not allow a Mage to directly (or specifically) affect physical objects -- rather, it affects the randomness within such systems. Thus, a Mage can make an unstable bridge collapse at a given moment by affecting the probability that this will happen, but cannot actually do this by directly affecting the material of the bridge itself -- that would require Matter magick. This can be used for a huge variety of uses -- it can be used to affect the probability of the target being run over by a bus, or hit by a falling brick beneath a building site, or even being clobbered by a meteorite. However, the difficulty of a Chaos 3 effect is directly linked to the probability of such an event occuring -- being hit by a meteorite is incredibly unlikely, and will probably only work on a difficulty of about 15 (meaning copious amount of Quint have to be burned), while being trampled underfoot in a riot would only be a difficulty of 3 or 4. By its very nature, Chaos 3 magick is always coincidental -- it cannot be used to make something happen that is not possible (ie. a brick cannot just fly out of a wall that it is cemented in and hit the target on the head. However, a brick may fall off a pile of bricks on the 7th floor of a building site if such a pile exists. The circumstances must allow the effect to occur, and not the other way round!). So in the previous example, the bridge must be unstable and likely to collapse if the Mage is to actually make this happen at an opportune moment. This puts a heavy onus on the Storyteller, who is responsible for accurately describing the environment to the Chaos-using Mage.
**** Organisational Disorder At this level, the Mage can control disorder in any organisation. Organisations combine elements of both Open and Closed systems, since their daily operation is unpredictable -- nobody knows what will happen during the daily routine, but the operational framework is itself fixed. Organisations include bureaucracies, businesses, and even entire societies, and also include complex systems that consist of many subunits -- a classic example being a living body. An example of such a system is a restaurant. Using Chaos 4, the Mage can determine how well the restaurant operates -- by increasing the disorder, more flaws in its operation will occur (such as cooks calling in sick, health inspectors visiting on a bad day, customers complaining, waiters tripping up with food etc). If disorder is decreased, the restaurant will operate more smoothly, with very few problems (if any).
***** Reverse Entropy/Chaos Theory Use of Reverse Entropy is always Vulgar (unless the Mage is very imaginative!!!), as it violates one of the key laws of physics -the Second Law of Thermodynamics. By reversing entropy, the Mage is effectively 'rewinding' an event through time (although time is still passing in the normal way (from past to future). With this, a Mage can cause the ink in inky water to return into a drop of ink, a gas released from a box to 'diffuse' back into the box, or a sugar cube to reform after being dropped into a hot coffee. This is done by reversing entropy. In nature, entropy is always increasing -- events are always going from ordered to disordered (where they are in equilibrium and so are stable -- ink dropped in water is not stable as a drop, so diffuses to colour the water). Reversing Entropy causes disorder to evolve back into order -- thus the ink reforms to form a drop in the water. However, the ordered state is rarely stable, so effects at this level can only last as long as the Mage concentrates. Also, this level gives the Mage control over systems containing billion of variables -- a good example of this is the infamous 'Butterfly Effect.' In Chaos Theory, the final outcome of an event can be radically changed by the slightest alteration of its starting conditions. At this level, the Mage is actually aware of precisely what must be done to guide the system into the desired outcome. This allows him, for example, to control the weather or affect events in the future by modifying their starting conditions.
Chaos Sphere Summarized Sphere Effect * ** *** **** *****
Probability Perception. Disorder Control (Closed Systems only). Disorder Control (Organisations only). Disorder Control (Open Systems only). Reverse Entropy/Chaos Theory.
The Comedy Sphere By Scott Hillman (
[email protected]) "Dying that's easy. Comedy that's hard." -- old saying
Description First discovered when in 50,000 B.C, Urg, accidentally dropped a tree trunk on Bork's foot, the ancient and respected sphere of comedy has long been studied in attempts to win friends, influence people, attract members of the opposite/same/whatever sex for romantic purposes, and in general, for the hell of it. However, it wasn't until the thirteen hundreds that the magical implications and power of humor was discovered, even though it is thought that earlier, and unstudied, groups of Orphan magicians had developed proficiency in this sphere. In particular it is believed that use of this magic, was responsible, for the strange mysterious pie that hit Hannibal in the face at the battle of Zuma, helping his defeat. The earliest known attempt to study and classify this sphere was attempted in this thirteenth century by a group of highly warped Verbena who were trying to understand why during humans sacrifices they invariably started laughing uncontrollably. They were the first ones to bring this sphere of magic of to the attention of the mage community. What they discovered would surprise many people. Comedy is not simply Harpo hitting Zeppo with a rubber chicken but a mystical force that can be measured and controlled. They discovered that the Humor "force"( Or as the Hermetic mages call it Y.U.C.K.S. Yourick's Unified Comedial Kinetic Source) is a highly specialized form of tass, but in a form that is unlike other forms of quintessence. It can directly warp the physical world through high enough power levels, by itself. It follows a strange set of rules that dictate what it can and can't effect, and how it can effect them, based on the concept of what is "funny." These rules can change quickly and once changed are applicable not only to the mage, but to all those even peripherally effected. Thus the mage can use it to almost infinite power, but only if the result can be classified as funny. Any attempts to use this sphere for nonhumorous results simply fail so a sense of humor is vital in its use. Mages have divided it further into fields of Greater and Lesser Comedy. Lesser comedy or as it is called "Joking," is comedy that can only effect the user on mentally and then only briefly (even though some whisper at much more powerful jokes being possible). It cannot affect the physical plane. Greater comedy (or "humor"), is much more powerful; it can effect the physical world in strange and mysterious ways, bending the laws of physics and of matter, energy, time and space, to makes things well . . . funny. Some have theorized that comedy comes from a dimension similar to the deep umbra, separated by its own "sense of humor" gauntlet that was put in place in an unknown manner. Some have theorized that Nephandi are responsible for this gauntlet, as Humor can give people respite from thier problems. The true power of comedy without this barrier is unknown. They say when mages craft their humorous results (and when people laugh at them) the gauntlet is weakened, letting comedy energy into the world. Some have further theorized that comedy is the force of pure ascension that leaks through to universe, and to ascend the mage must first "get the joke." This sphere has always been popular with orphans, and some have even advanced to oracle stages. Some of these beings still remain on the physical plane but stay aloof, tending to work in major motion pictures or talk show extras. Some delve into the umbra where they discuss facial contortions with Jerry Lewis. This sphere is open to any mage of either technocratic, traditional, or Marauder persuasion. Nephandi have so far been unable to harness its effect. Strangely this sphere is most popular with the Technocracy, who see it as a way of controlling the masses. Traditional mages have been slow to understand it, but it is strongly believe that soon the Ascension war will be fought using the force of comedy.
Foci Each mage group has their own foci for the sphere:
Akashic brotherhood: Squirting flowers. To use the sphere the mage must first somehow douse the subject with some amount of water or another fluid. The squirting flower is only the most obvious of these. Reasoning: "To use Magick you must purify, grasshopper, But humor comes from the unexpected..." Celestial Chorus: Religious joke. To use the sphere the mage must first in some way attempt to tell some form of verbal witticism having to do with a religious matter. It has to be of the same religious background of the same mage, so telling a nun joke will only work for Catholic Choristers, and Yiddish humor will only Work for Jews. It is not necessary for the subject of the spell to be of the same religious background, but it helps. Reasoning: "God grants us our powers; thus to invoke it we must evoke him in our blessings")
Cult of Ecstasy: Pie. To use this sphere the Cultist must in some way involve pie or pie related products. Coconut cream pie is
generally preferred, but any pie will do. Reasoning: "Come on . . . Pie . . . it works on so many levels."
Dreamspeakers: Feather. Tthis has to be the Dreamspeaker's magic feather: used in tickling, dusting, waving in a humorous manner etc. Reasoning: "Humor has many uses my son, but it comes from the magic pathways of the cosmos, so to use it use must invoke the magic of the umbra."
Euthanatos: Dead Babies. To use this sphere the Euthanatos must bring out a dead baby, and generally make fun of it, chuckle at it or otherwise seem amused by it: note Euthanatos are not known for their sense of humor. Reasoning: "Death is the greatest joke of all, well the second greatest . . . The Miss America pageant is of course the greatest joke of all.
Order of Hermes: Explanation. To use this sphere the Hermetic sage must first explain out loud to no one in particular the complete and utter meaning of the humorous effect to whomever is listening. Latin is preferred. Reasoning: "To control the Y.U.C.K.S, you must understand the Y.U.C.K.S"
Sons of Ether: Exploding objects. "To use this sphere, the Mage must first make an item that will somehow explode in a nonharmful and hopefully, unexpected way. Gift boxes are preferred. Reasoning: "You must understand freulien, the release of energy in exploding objects, can cause a short term epileptic motion in a humans facial area. This is colloquially called laughing.'"
Verbena: Chickens. To use this magick the Verbena must first invoke the Humor potential of the chicken, and do some type of humorous effect with it. Reasoning: "Whyeth doesth the chicken crosseth the road? To Getith to the other side. We must follow the ways of the chicken."
Virtual Adepts: Computer Shorthand. To use this sphere the adept must some how [typically through a computer] make common internet short hand such as :), ;), rolf, etc. etc. This must be written and can not be orally used. Reasoning: "On the internet it is difficult to communicate emotions, therefore, it is necessary to create a system to communicate these for use. This system works wonderfully."
* Detect Humors At this level of Comedy the Mage can detect humor in any form whether in a joke, witticism, or any action that is designed to be humorous by any one. It is important to note that. By making a perception roll with a difficulty of the person's doing the action wits, the mage can sense whether any action (including any use of magick) performed was designed for comedic effect. The only time or space limitation is that the mage must have a clear knowledge of the event, so for example, if a mage knows that in 1935 some one threw a pie in such and such face in Zimbabwe, the mage would know about it (unlike as commonly thought, jokes never die). On a success the mage determines whether the attempt was intended to be humorous or not. On multiple successes the mage can grasp some of the jokes intricacies. On a botched roll the mage finds it so funny (whether it was designed to be or not) that he can not take any actions for three rounds other than laugh at the joke. Note that all uses of comedy magic count as humor, for purposes of this, even failed ones.
** Control Joke At this point the mage can use his power to affect the simplest kind of humor: jokes. Any attempt using humor in written, somatic or gestured communication increases the chances of success or failure. The mage can make a Comedy + Wits roll and any success allows the mage to either add or subtract from the number of successes of the roll. Note the mage cannot use this upon his own attempts to create jokes. Also note that while they can have mental and social effects, this usage of magic can never have direct physical effects. Note this is accomplished coincidentally by scowling, laughing appropriately or inappropriately or making the subject remember that he already has heard that one.
*** Create Joke At this level of Comedy the mage has finally have enough control of the Y.U.C.K.S flow into the world to actually Make a joke. Now a joke are a powerful thing. By telling one you can have multiple effects, some good and some mindbogglingly evil. Here are some sample effects. Feel free to make up your own. All of the rolls are wits+comedy.
Impress (diff:6): You can subtract as many successes as you get on any manipulation or seduction, political or Etiquette difficulty levels. This is accomplished by a witty line, jokes and other guffaws.
Roll on the Floor Laughing (diff:6): The numbers of successes you get on this roll are the number of turns your opponent is incapacitated by laughter, and can do nothing, but laugh, squeal and be of generally no use to anyone. Note that by making a willpower roll he can counter this effect, but even if he does so, he is still at minus three for the duration of the effect. Note that this instantly ends if he is attacked in any way. Knock, Knock (diff:9): By achieving a much allow anything in the universe. A single success on this roll, you can cause the person your effecting to stop and scratch her head for (10 - her own wits) rounds. As with all of effects of this power, if the victim is attacked she can instantly get out the effect. Wokka Wokka (diff: var): The
mage at this level, can for a brief period, make himself immune to attacks unless the attacker wins a Manipulation challenge with the mage. During this time the mage can do no hostile activity of any kind. This is in fact simply because every one wants the mage to finish the joke. This lasts a number of turns the mage set the difficulty at. This can only be used once every scene. Note that the second level of power of control humor works on any of these rolls. If this leads to a botch the mage is to reduced to roll laughing hysterically for one dice rule number of turns. If it results in negative results, the person who it would hurt the mage most get benefit of the effect. Comedy is funny that way.
**** Control Humor At this level the mage, can simply effect any action in the world to make it more or less funny. This is done in two main ways. He can affect actions that is designed to be any way shape or form funny, similar to the effects of Control Jokes. The second and more powerful way is to literally make an action more funny by making a Comedy+wits roll, before any action place at whatever difficulty the storyteller assigns (note the more funny the effect the easier it should be). The new action is decided normally with every normal challenge and at the exact same difficulty roll. For example, if it would be more funny for a gun to hit a water main instead of a character, getting everyone wet as opposed to simply killing her, she can use this effect to do so. Be creative. But remember paradox strikes this one ruthlessly, so you better come up with a good reason for this.
***** Create Humor The ultimate power. Simply put you can create any effect as long as it only affects the real world (i.e not used with spirit or mind), and can be defined as humorous, for the locale it was performed in by the storyteller. It simply takes a wits Comedy roll to do, against what ever difficulty is assigned by the storyteller, based on how funny it is(the funnier the easier). If you botch the roll, it is simply not funny and does not happen, and if you get less then one roll (which is possible with control Humor) Then well, any effect that can harm you in any way will harm you, and any good effect will help the person who it will least desirous to you to help. This is affected by paradox and tends to be ruthlessly effective, but can be hidden by coincidental effects (Gee, isn't lucky, they were carrying a piano over that HIT Mark).
Oracle powers Have a blast with this one, perhaps quite literally. The most basic power would be to warp Sense of Humor, letting you change what people think is funny. This could possibly be the most powerful force in the known universe, which is perhaps why in many cultures short people are considered funny.
Information By Constantine Thomas (
[email protected])
Introduction The Sphere of Information governs the definition of Patterns and Paradigms within Reality. At the lowest levels it can only affect information within Subjective Reality, while at higher levels information can be manipulated in Objective Reality (increasing or decreasing the stability of the target within Reality). The Sphere of Information can be incorporated into the standard Mage system in one of two ways -- it can either be introduced as the fabled '10th Sphere' of the Virtual Adepts (also known as 'Paradigm'), or it can be incorporated as a subset of the Sphere of Prime if a 9-Sphere system is preferred. In the latter case, the capabilities of the Sphere of Prime would be as follows: Sphere Effect * Perceive Quintessence / Detect Link. ** Fuel Pattern / Information Analysis. *** Affect Free Quintessence / Manipulate Information. **** Affect Raw Quintessence / Manipulate Reality. ***** Affect Raw Quintessence Flow / Define Reality. Information tells reality what an object is; it defines an object. If an object exists but no information is known about it, it is 'fuzzy;' in the subjective reality of Mage its parameters can be defined by observers by creating the information that defines its properties. Hence Information is closely linked to Prime, and so is often considered a subset of the Prime Sphere. Information is rather unusual in that it can affect both Subjective and Objective Reality. At lower levels, Information effects only allow the Mage to observe and process information. Information 3 allows the Mage to actively manipulate information within Subjective Reality -- he can remove or add information to systems and so make him easier or harder to track. The Adepts and Masters of Information break beyond Subjective Reality to affect the underlying True Reality; they can add or remove Information from reality itself, thus making an object more or less 'real' by affecting their definition. Fuzzy objects are those about which True Reality has no information; these 'virtual objects' are extremely vulnerable to destruction or further definition, existing as they do in a realm of 'maybe'. The Technocracy are experts of Information, using it to define their new 'theories' and so also define reality; the Void Engineers are the masters of Information. However, the Traditions have their own Champions of Information, the Virtual Adepts (who refer to it as 'Paradigm'), though they tend to fight on different battlefields.
* Detect Link This finds the connections between things, and allows the Mage to see what is connected to the target. For example, a cuddly toy is connected to a particular child, or a packet of drugs is connected to both a local dealer (the supplier) and a street rat (the buyer). Note that this does not allow the Mage to determine how the things are connected; it only allows him to sense the connection itself. The ability to detect links is determined by the number of successes rolled for the effect; this is shown on the table below. Thus, to establish the connections to a gun (an object) requires three successes. In addition, more successes than the number required gleans more accurate information [the number of extra successes rolled does not produce results according to the table below, rather they produce results based on the Storyteller's discretion]. In this example, three successes will reveal who owns the gun, four may reveal who has been shot with it, and five may reveal from whom the gun was purchased. Successes Required Effect Botch Totally inaccurate information revealed. 0 No information revealed. 1 Sense connection to Mage only. 2 Sense connection to Mage's friends. 3 Sense connection to object. 4 Sense connection to total stranger. 5 Sense connection to concept (eg. love, hate).
** Information Analysis This examines the connections between things, allowing the Mage to see all the possible outcomes of an event or all the possible influences on the target. While obviously giving him complete mastery over all closed tactical situations (eg. Chess), it also enables him to analyse complex interactions. For example, a Mage using Information 2 on a politician may determine all the groups that influence his opinion. The exact extent of the effect is determined using the table for Information 1. As with
Information 1, the table shows the number of successes required to analyse the connection to a target; it does not indicate the amount of information gleaned from such analysis, which is instead left to the Storyteller's discretion.
*** Manipulate Information This allows the Mage to affect already existing information, and is largely used to affect records and files. The Mage can add, change, or delete information stored on any medium; this is used for many purposes. A Mage can delete data about him in government computers, thus effectively Zeroing him. He can change the amount of money he has in his bank account by altering his credit rating. Note however that this manipulation of information is subjective; data may be altered, but Reality remains intact. Thus the Mage can remove all the records of a person's existence, but the person himself does not become 'fuzzy;' this would only be possible using Information 4. It should be noted however that Information manipulated using Information 3 is affected no matter where it is stored; raw data is being altered, not just signals in a computer. Thus a Mage may Zero himself completely from every database in the world if he scores enough successes! No table is given for Information 3; the exact results are left to the Storyteller's discretion. It is suggested that the alteration of small aspects of information (eg. appearance, bank credit rating etc) should require only one or two successes. Wider (and more global) changes should require many more successes; at least 6 should be required for completely Zeroing an individual from every database on Earth, and this should necessitate a complex and lengthy ritual (probably involving a lot of computer hacking and negotiation with NetSpiders where applicable).
**** Manipulate Reality If Information 3 is the subjective manipulation of information, then Information 4 is the objective manipulation of information. Changing information at this level directly changes its connection with Reality itself. Thus, targets can be made 'fuzzy;' living targets are 'forgotten' by their friends, associates, and ultimately Reality. They (and everything directly connected to them) will slowly disappear from existence completely if the effect is sustained for long enough. A Mage's Arcane Rating is a weak, controllable form of this effect. As above, the precise effects are left to the Storyteller's discretion, though at least 5 successes are required to render a target completely 'fuzzy.'
***** Define Reality At this level, the Mage can actually define fuzzy Reality. This is done both by the power of his own Will, and also by manipulating information through the Masses so that they understand and accept the new Reality. The Technocracy (especially the NWO and Void Engineers) have mastered this to a fine art, further enforcing their Paradigm. A common example is when something is newly 'discovered;' at that stage, all that is known is that the object exists -- it is fuzzy. Application of Information 5 to the fuzzy object allows a Mage to define its physical parameters, properties and anything else the Mage desires. Information 5 also allows the Mage to manipulate the local Paradigm in an ambiguous situation -- for example, a Sanctum can have its Paradigm reinforced by interconnecting everything within it via a web of influences; effectively, outside influences can be removed completely. It is recommended that 5 successes are required if a fuzzy object is to be completely defined. Less successes only allow limited definition, or the complete definition of specific aspects of the target. For Paradigm Definition, the amount of successes rolled determines how much more attuned to the Mage's desires the Paradigm has become.
Summary of Sphere Effects Sphere Effect * Detect Link. ** Information Analysis. *** Manipulate Information. **** Manipulate Reality. ***** Define Reality.
Macrocosm By Derek Marcoux (
[email protected])
* Embrace the Avatar Upon knowledge of Macrocosm, the mage and his Avatar embrace, sharing secrets previously held back.
System: The mage gains one dot in his Arete score, and his Quintessence pool doubles.
** Journey to the temple of the Godhead After meditating, which takes 3 turns, the mage may now step into the Umbra, and begins his spirit journeys.
System: Roll arete diff: gauntlet. The mage arrives at his temple in the Astral plane, and may journey to the High, Middle and Dark Umbrae.
*** Microcosm The mage understands that his body is totally under his control.
System: This level acts just like the sphere of life, but only to yourself (cannot affect others.)
**** Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel The willworker can now perceive the different aspects of reality.
System: The mage now knows the first level in all spheres, plus he can now talk directly with his Avatar at any time.
***** Return to the One Once the willworker acheives this level of mastery, he realizes that all spheres of magic are just fragements of the whole. Just as human souls are fragements of the One. With this knowledge, he can now affect any aspect of reality.
System: The Master of Macrocosm has access to the first two levels in all spheres, which he can raise with experience.
Mage Player By Tobias Beecher
Description This newly discovered Sphere is one of the most widely practiced, and is so easy to learn that Tradition, Technocracy, Nephandi, and Marauder mages all have access to it. Once a mage gets the first level, he/she may increase it at any time without any expenditure of experience or freebie points; the rating of Mage Player automatically goes up based on how many source books the player reads in between (or even during) game sessions.
* Sense Weakness The player can sense when others in the troupe know less than him/her, and can capitalize on that. This power is a lot like using the ability White Wolf Lore, but you don't have to roll.
Example: A mage is hanging out with a group of Garou when they encounter a fomori in a nearly impenetrable disguise. Sensing that the werewolf players haven't read Freak Legion, the mage goes after the 'innocent' by-stander without informing his friends, then when the Storyteller calls him on it, says he just 'had a bad feeling' about the NPC (Mage Player 1, Mind 2 Effect revealing the nature of the creature).
** Out-Do The character, a mage who works the fabric of reality, when being played by someone who just wants to do the coolest things possible with magick, has the power to put the rest of the players at a loss, taking care of things in a wink of an eye. Unfortunately, this cheats the other players: Garou don't get Renown, Vampires don't get experience, Changelings might lose opportunities to get Glamour, and everyone loses out on the role-playing. When used in conjunction with the first level, this power has frightening possibilities.
Example: Three vampires and a mage run into a changeling NPC who decides to attack them. While the undead are still dodging and getting ready to be clever or use their Disciplines, the mage has already bombarded the Fae with Banality, sent it into the far-Shadowlands, and made fifteen sandwiches (Mage Player 2, Prime 4, Spirit 5 Effect; Correspondence 3, Matter 2 Effect for the sandwiches).
*** Arrogance The player may now feel free to look down upon the other World of Darkness denizens simply because he/she is a mage, but still not lose any experience for flawed role-playing, despite the character's nature. Although this doesn't seem like a 'cool' power for three dots of the Sphere, by the time the player has gotten to this level, he/she, because of the uses of the previous levels, probably has a lot to be arrogant about.
**** Steam Roll The player gains the ability to argue any detail, no matter how insignificant, with other players and the Storyteller, and can reweave reality to make it seem that they are absolutely correct. The members of the troupe are completely taken with this, and the duration lasts for x minutes depending on the number of successes multiplied by the number of source books read by the mage player.
Example: Two werewolves (Philodox and Theurge) are talking with a mage, and begin to discuss Garou society and politics. The Garou mention a minor Rite they practice, then go on to talk about Rites of Punishment, at which point the mage brings up the Rite of Gaia's Vengeful Teeth (Level Five Rite in which a werewolf who has betrayed a sept or caern to the Wyrm is killed in that everything he touches turns to razor-sharp shards of silver) One of the Garou players tells the Storyteller that the mage wouldn't know of a Rite that many Garou don't even hear about. The mage player argues that he/she's dealt with werewolves in the past, being a mage makes him like a Theurge in their eyes, and the very fact that he/she's a mage (Arrogance) makes him of the highest Rank among Garou, so he/she'd know everything about Rites. The player rolls five success, and has read nearly 30 sourcebooks, so the other players and Storyteller believe him for the next two-and-a-half hours, 150 minutes (Mage Player 4, Mind 3 Effect).
***** Storyteller's Bane The player can, because he/she thinks the Storyteller is incompetent (Arrogance), take over the story, and re-weave reality to make the players think it's for the better.
Example: The characters are fighting the Technocracy at one of their facilities, but the mage player knows the Storyteller hasn't read any of the Tech. source books (Sense Weakness), and thinks he/she could do a better job of telling what they see, whom they battle, and the power level of whom they battle. The mage player first uses Steam Roll to win the rest of the players over to his/her side, then slowly begins to take over the telling. At this point, the Storyteller or any other player may roll Willpower to overcome the effects of Steam Roll, but a minimum of three successes at difficulty 9 are needed. Then, the mage player begins making the decisions of the game, and telling the players what to roll. As a last-ditch attempt, the original Storyteller may roll Intelligence + Leadership at difficulty 6 plus one point for every ten books read by the mage player, with five successes needed (Mage Player 5, Mind 4 Effect).
Narrative By Alejandro Melchor (
[email protected]) "Lucky is a character, for he can laugh at death, knowing he will never die." -- Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
Description When a Mage begins learning the Sphere of Narrative Imperativity, he begins to understand he's just a character in a roleplaying game or a story being written interactively by a group of sadistic authors known as players and Storytellers; when this dawns on him, he learns that all that happens around him is just fiction; it can be very devastating for weak minds and big egos, but the Mage that gets past the initial shock can achieve tremendous power.
* Sense Plot By use of this level of the Sphere, the Apprentice can discern the story status of anything he encounters; he can know whether the old lady he's talking to is a plot point or just background; he also learns to recognize PCs from NPCs and their importance to the Chronicle he's in. With a conjunctional Mind effect, he can also determine whether the baddie his Cabal is fighting is the main villain of the story or just a henchman. With Matter or Entropy, he can identify if an object is a McGuffin or just a prize given by a benevolent Storyteller.
** Sense Story Flow / Affect Minor Plot With this level, the Mage can try to divine the direction the story is taking; this is different from Time based divinations in the manner that, instead of knowing future events in the timeline inside the story, he can get a glimpse of what his player or his player's Storyteller has in mind for the direction the story is taking; traps and ambushes can be avoided, or just recognized as a Major Plot Point and thus unavoidable. By Affecting Minor Plot Points, the Mage can shift for a brief time the focus of the Chronicle, granting him more leeway to create subplots that involve him or the persons closest to him, or garnering more successes to actions that change a minor plot.
*** Affect Continuity With the third level of the Narrative Sphere, the Mage learns how to twist and bend the story's flow to his advantage, creating incongruencies in continuity such as having his gun in his pocket when he really left it at home, or taking a lot less time to get somewhere else and wearing different clothing on arrival.
**** Create Plot Point / Affect Major Plot The Adepts of the Narrative Sphere can, in a fashion, dictate the direction the overall story takes; with Create Plot Point he can cause a given ocurrence to take such importance as to become a milestone in the Chronicle, shooting the plot in a previously unforeseen direction. By Affecting Major Plots, he can also force himself into the limelight, becoming the main protagonist regardless of the Destiny rating of other characters.
***** Narrative Imperativity Masters of the Narrative Sphere can come up with any occurrence and make it happen, justifying as being good for the story; wild coincidences become possible without the need to learn the other Spheres, and the effects created are always Coincidential; with enough successess, a railroaded Intergalagtic Train can crush the advancing HIT Marks and leave immediately. It's easy for narrative Masters to go Marauder.
6+ Oracle magicks It's rumored that Oracles of Narrative Ascend beyond the realm of the game to become players and Storytellers, but as anything
relating to Oracles, it's only a rumor . . .
Paradigm By Zach Archer (
[email protected])
Introduction In one of my Mage stories, I took my troupe sixty-four years into the future and challenged them with a grim world devoid of spirit, where the Technocracy had conquered half the globe, calling their province Technocria. (The other half was Nephandia which, fortunately, we didn't experience.) Technocria was a cross between all the worst parts of Farenheit 451, 1984, and A Wrinkle In Time. Everything was driven by a pulse which eminated from enormous towers. This pulse was the rhythm people used when they walked, or drove a car, or did anything. It even spread into nature; ocean waves crashed on the sand with the same steady rhythm. My troupe discovered odd things afoot when it came time to use magic. No one received Paradox when using vulgar magic. Instead, any magic that was used could be sensed by Technocria's overlords, and they could then immediately dispatch policing units. And, the paradigm itself worked in some odd ways. Metal would not affect metal. A pair of wire cutters couldn't cut a barbed-wire fence, they just slid right off. And when one car slammed into another, the car bodies did not even dent. My group finally found a renegade mage colony and I started revealing what was going on. I came up with the idea of the Paradigm sphere on the spur of the moment. Paradigm was theorized by the Technocrats in 1996 and perfected in 1999. The Techies remained the undisputed masters of the sphere and secured a great chunk of the world for themselves. Opposite them was a "neo-tradition" known as the Champions of Liberty (some of them have appeared in some of my other stories) who adopted Paradigm as their pet sphere. The Champions wanted to shape the world so that all paradigms would be valid, and no mages would ever have to fear Paradox again, as long as they remained true to their inner beliefs. All of the Champions wanted to keep technomagic valid, but many different political splinters of the group had conflicting views on how to handle the Technocrats, and the tradition collapsed due to infighting. I really hurt my little head when I was trying to determine power levels for this sphere, it's difficult to think about. I hope you find the fruits of my headache useful! On with the Paradigm:
Game note Yes, this sphere is way too powerful. That's why it comes with a catch: any Paradox accumulated from magical effects involving the Paradigm sphere is 'special'. For the most part, it should be treated the same as normal Paradox, and all the normal rules apply. However, for each point of special Paradigm Paradox that the player has accumulated, all the difficulties for magical effects that person casts are increased by one. This can be cancelled for one turn at a time by spending either quintessence or willpower points, but the only way to truly get rid of this curse is to bleed off the Paradox. Reality does not take lightly to being munged.
Tapestry note Reality tends to smooth paradigm shifts over, as all good mages know. What they don't necessarily realize is that the stronger paradigm wins. This is why a poacher can shoot a !Kung Sun in the African desert and the !Kung will feel pain, although the !Kung's paradigm does not accept guns. The stronger paradigm accepts guns as legitimate, and therefore conquers.
* Analyze Paradigm/Disruption Sense Just like the Prime 1 Spirit 1 effect, Analyze Paradigm tells the mage what reality will and will not accept at present. Disruption Sense monitors reality violations, shifts in the paradigm, and other discontinuities.
** Calcify Tapestry/Spread Paradigm Calcify Tapestry increases the strength of the current paradigm so as to amplify the Paradox backlash, and maybe even negate any opposing magical effects. Spread Paradigm is just like spreading peanut butter: you can drag your paradigm along with you and have it affect the surrounding area.
*** Alter Process Combined with other spheres, this lets you alter the ideas that make reality work. With Matter 2, screws and nails will cease to work and fall out of the things they're holding together. With Mind 2 Prime 2 Forces 3, explosions can be generated by visualizing them in your mind, or thinking secret words.
**** Memetic Truth/Slacken Tapestry Memetic Truth is just like Alter Function, except that Memetic Truth causes the idea to spread once it is initiated and gradually encompass the globe. This effect can be cancelled with unbelief, or with Calcify Tapestry. Slacken Tapestry is the opposite of Calcify Tapestry; it allows the tapestry to be more at the mercy of magical effects. Yay!
***** Weld Paradigm/Alter Inner Paradigms Weld Paradigm causes the paradigm to shift so that everyone, even mages, will be aware of how reality works in that given area, and will not think to question reality's established rules. If the paradigm in an Iteration X construct is Welded, an Akashic Brother will not even think to use his Tradition's style of magic. The thought will simply not occur. Conversely, a HIT-Mark entering a Welded dojo will not remember his laser cannons. This can be detected with Analyze Paradigm, at which point the Weld is canceled for that person. Mages and sleepers alike have their own personal systems of belief that they carry around. Alter Inner Paradigm allows these to be changed, subtly, so that the victim does not notice, except by use of Analyze Paradigm.
****** Eradicate Paradox/Globalize Consciousness These are theoretical levels, and have yet to be developed... Tt is believed that whoever comprehends this level of the sphere will control the Tellurian.
Qlippothic Spheres By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
Introduction Qlippothic magick deals with the dark sides of the spheres, or rather the forces normal mages do their best to avoid. They are notoriously vulgar and dangerous, but at the same time quite powerful. A Qlippothic mage can use all normal spheric magick (although with a definite qlippothic slant) but also other effects, normally not possible in more balanced paradigms. The Nephandi are the most well known Qlippothic mages, but there are other mages who have been drawn to the unbalanced by madness, lust for power or curiosity. However, once you start to use qlippothic magick, it becomes hard to stop.
Correspondence Unlike in the traditional paradigm, Nephandi do not see everything as a part of an indivisible unity. Everything can be taken apart, even the Correspondence Point. This makes Qlippothic Correspondence dangerous, both for its users and its victims.
* Detect Warping: The Mage can notice errors and illusions of space or perspective. These weak points of space exist everywhere, and connect all places through secret links beneath reality.
** Watch through the Cracks of Reality: The mage can look through the weak points of space into other places. *** Move through the Cracks: The mage has the power to slip through the weak points and emerge elsewhere. However, he has to be very careful to hold himself together, so that the different parts of him do not break apart. He can also send out his mind through the cracks, to find something anywhere in the world... or beneath.
**** Take Others through the Cracks: At higher levels the mage can move other objects through space, as a whole or take them apart. He can also create new cracks, and patch them together (this creates creases and strange overlaps in space).
***** Warp Space: The Mage is now able to take apart and rearrange space itself, even changing the number of dimensions. Such rearrangements tend to be rather unstable and very destructive for anything caught in them.
Entropy This is dealt with in the Book of Madness.
Forces Qlippothic magic does not deal with the balanced flows of energy the Traditions and Technocracy uses. Instead it creates and controls unbalanced, destructive forces or the lack of energy. The forces a qlippothic mage wield are usually violent or somehow corrupting (electricity is filled with spikes, gravity tugs in different ways at once).
* Detect Potentials: The mage can detect potentials where energies attract or repel each other. At such points the slightest change could break the equilibrium and cause disruption.
** Disrupt Lesser Forces: Normally ordered forces such as light or electricity can be disrupted, losing their usability and becoming irritating or destructive. Electronic devices break down or are destroyed, light becomes gritty and strangely unable to help perceptions.
*** Destroy Lesser Forces: The mage can not only create forces, he can also destroy them. Light can be turned into darkness, electricity drained and sound dampened.
**** Disrupt Greater Forces: Now the mage can make any force begin to counteract itself. Tidal forces can rip apart objects, heat concentrate itself and moving vehicles start to tumble chaotically.
***** Destroy Greater Forces: The mage can now remove gravity or drain heat. In principle he can remove all forces from something, making it dissolve into dead matter.
Life Unlike normal life, Qlippothic life cannot sustain itself. It needs something to feed on, be it the quintessence flow the mage
invokes or other kinds of life. Any life affected by Qlippothic magick becomes slightly parasitic; the cells feed of their neighbors, plants suck out all the nourishment in the soil and animals are filled with a raging hunger to sate the unlife within them. Without a constant supply of external energy it will die (although Qlippothic life has a nasty tendency to take a long time to die completely).
* Detect Disease: The mage is able to find all weak points, potential diseases and wounds within another living being. ** Warp Simple Life: The mage can warp simple life, like blighting plants or forcing insects to grow. Warped life is always slightly sickly and deformed.
*** Warp Complex Life: The mage can change himself (this will of course bind him stronger to the Qlippoth, since he will need the energies of the sphere even more in the future). He can also create simple pseudo-living beings, not able to survive on their own but usually quite tenacious.
**** Warp Person: The mage can warp all forms of life, including other people. ***** Transmute Flesh: The mage can turn living beings into true unlife, like humans into vampires. This unlife is quite potent (as long as it can feed on the quintessence of other life) and strongly tied to the Qlippoth of life.
Matter Qlippothic matter is the sphere of ruining objects and removing the properties of matter.
* Detect Flaws and Impurities ** Create Qlippothic Matter: Qlippothic matter is notoriously inert and useless; it is not affected by most forces, cannot sustain life or be used for anything. It is also very hard to destroy or get rid of, and just accumulates as dirt or garbage.
*** Remove Properties of Matter: The mage can remove properties such as cohesion, color, strength or nourishment. **** Transmute Matter into Qlippothic Matter ***** Create Pure Qlippothic Matter: Pure Qlippothic matter is very hard to affect by any form of magick, and almost indestructible. It just ties up Quintessence so that it cannot be used.
Mind Qlippothic Mind deals with disorientation, imbalance and insanity.
* Warped Mind: One of the first things a student of the sphere learns is to gain insight from madness, how to twist his own thoughts around and gather power from the dark recesses of the mind. He become is capable of jump of insight and vision, at the mere price of sanity.
** Emotional Insecurity: The mage can affect the emotions and drives of another person, turning them against him or against each other. Love can turn into obsession; self-confidence can break down into doubts and hidden fears brought to life. Neuroses can be created.
*** Disorientation: Consciousness and thought are quite unstable entities, and can easily be broken. He can derail trains of thought, induce hallucinations, force a victim into a coma or psychosis.
**** Break the Mind: The mind of a victim can be permanently warped into unrecognizable patterns. ***** Shatter the Mind: At this level, the mage not only can break away minds from their bodies, but also parts of the minds. Memory, cognition or thought can be removed or sent away to other places. Things from the Astral plane can be brought into reality.
Prime Qlippothic Prime magick is among the most unholy arts of magick in existence. It corrupts and transmutes Prime into nonexistence, removing it from reality or curdling it into a useless entropic state. Quintessence fed into patterns will have a Qlippothic resonance, which will affect them in subtle ways. They will become more unstable, less efficient and often spread their corruption further.
* Detect Paradox: The mage can detect paradox and other strains in reality, weak points where it can unravel further. ** Drain Quintessence: The mage can leak out Quintessence from a magickal pattern, weakening it. Normal patterns are usually too strong to affect, but they can be slightly destabilized.
*** Dark Talismans: Talismans created by Qlippothic magick are both dangerous and nasty. Their effects are strongly Qlippothic, and they also tend to attract paradox. However, their nature also makes them very good at destroying, corrupting and warping things in unpleasant ways, even if they were not intended for it.
**** Drain: By draining away the quintessence of a pattern it can be undone, and its existence is converted into Qlippothic quintessence. It is of course possible to just undo some parts of a pattern, leaving the rest unstable and decaying.
***** Destroy Quintessence: This apparently removes the Quintessence from reality altogether, turning being into un-being.
Spirit Qlippothic spirit is quite similar to normal Spirit magick, although it deals with the more malevolent aspects of the Umbra.
* Find Breach: Qlippothic mages often seek out weak points in the gauntlet to widen them further, gradually undermining it. See the Nether Realms: Qlippothic mages are able to perceive the Qlippothic realms beneath reality, and summon beings from them.
*** Breach the gauntlet: The mage can now pass through flaws in the gauntlet into the uppermost nether realms, and perceive the Abyss below.
**** Destroy the Gauntlet: The mage can disrupt the protective shell of the gauntlet, opening the way for the darkness below. He can also bind and warp spirits, forcing them to become Qlippothic entities themselves.
***** Enter the Abyss: The mage is able to enter the spiritual abyss below reality unharmed, and to contact its denizens.
Time Just as space can be taken apart or cracked, the chains of causality can be manipulated by a Qlippothic mage. It isn't possible to get anything useful done during Qlippothic time, and it seems to stretch on for a grey eternity or speed up just when it shouldn't.
* Find the Angles of Time: Qlippothic mages have an strange tendency to find the exactly wrong moments to do something; the results are unpredictable and often dangerous. They can find the wrinkles and angles of time, and use them to make chains of events to go wrong.
** Peer through the Wrinkles: All the angles and flaws in the timestream are linked together, and Qlippothic mages have a fantastic ability to predict bad news or discern past events better left buried.
*** Dead time: The mage can make time more or less useless. Nothing important can happen, or it just flies away before anything useful gets done.
**** Unlink Time: The mage can remove things from the timestream, partially or as a whole. If an object is only partially removed, one part will age indefinitely while the other is preserved or vice versa. They can also be thrown into a timeless limbo.
***** Destroy Time: The mage is able to break the flow of time and causality; events do not have effects or time just passes without anything happening. Time can also be broken apart and put together, forming endless causal loops.
Reality By Andre Weitzman (
[email protected])
Introduction Among mysticks, Marauders are both feared and envied. For all the terror their madness brings, a good many mages would kill for their ability to ignore the ravages of Paradox. Over many years a few brave (and foolhardy!) willworkers risked their lives in investigating the source of their power. These investigations point to a hitherto unknown Sphere of knowledge--possibly the elusive Tenth Sphere that the Traditions have sought for centuries. The cost of learning it, though, indicate that it may best be left unpursued...
* Sense Paradox Apprentices of this Sphere are capable of sensing the manifestations of Paradox in their prescence. Through careful study, they can discover the nature and origin of a particular occurrence of Paradox. The duration of Paradox Flaws can be determined, and resolving Quiets becomes easier. The apprentice can even banish hobgoblins that have become real. Unfortunately, the onset of Marauder insanity begins. The realization that all paradigms are fundamentally invalid causes the mage's mind to become unstable. Obsession, delusions of grandeur, and flights of fantasy plague the mage.
** Resist Paradox Advanced apprentices learn how to side-step the effects of Paradox. When any Paradox is incurred, the toll is never counted against the mage; instead, it is bled off into the surrounding environment. Paradox Flaws afflict others (even Sleepers); normal mages suffer attacks of Quiet or the depredations of Paradox Spirits; existing hobgoblins immediately become real. This skill is its own punishment. The Reality Mage is now a serious threat to her fellow humans. Only retreating into isolation can the safety of others be assured--such as escaping to the Umbra. Some are forced to leave, while others slip away of their own accord. As well, the madness within the apprentice's mind reaches new heights.
*** Control Reality A Disciple of the Tenth Sphere realizes that the other nine Spheres are simply facets of Reality. Careful manipulation of the Tenth Sphere can duplicate the effects of any other. The mage may create the effects of any normal Sphere up to the level of her Arete...without having to study the Sphere involved. Insanity deepens, often resulting in short periods of Quiet. Reality Mages of this rank find it difficult to pursue intellectual matters with any degree of success. The experience point cost of adding another dot to Reality (or any other Sphere) is current rating*12. Very few Marauders are able to "Ascend" past this rank.
**** Subvert Reality Adepts of Reality may affect static reality itself within their immediate area. Within this range, the Sphere rankings of the Realm the mage is in may be altered at whim. Other Mages find normal Spheric magick easier or harder depending on how the Reality Mage has changed the consensual paradigm. This applies even to the mage herself; Paradox is generated based on the new ratings. However, this opportunity to reduce the chaos she generates is usually squandered because the Adept chooses to violate the new paradigm anyway.
***** Subsume Reality A Master of Reality can create a pseudo-Realm within the Umbra. In nature, it resembles a Chimera; the reality within this realm is determined by the deranged mind of the mage. Unlike a Dream Realm, it persists as long as the Master does. An outsider attempting to gain access without the mage's permission must break through a barrier similar to the Earth's Horizon. If she enters a "real" Realm, the Master must spend a point of Willpower every hour. Not doing so causes the Realm to reject the Reality Mage like a human body refusing to accept a transplanted organ; the Mage is immediately tossed out into the Deep Umbra. The same procedure must be performed by entities from other Realms when they enter her pseudo-Realm.
Notes on Oracles of Reality The few Marauders coherent enough to communicate their theories on the subject hold varying views. Some believe the Oracles are in fact proto-Celestines. Others think there are no Oracles. Instead, Masters of Reality slowly integrate with the Realms they create. Their sense of identity fades away, replaced by the paradigm of their Realm. The proccess completes itself with the creation of an entirely new Realm within the Umbra. The supporters of this theory say Gaia herself may once have been an Awakened being who completed integration.
10, Number of the Soul By Shelly Luzny (
[email protected])
Description Many long debates and wars have been fought over the mysterious 10th sphere; I have solved it all. The 10th sphere is -- Dunh dunh dunnnnhhhhh -- Soul. Your long search is over. Please don't stop now; it gets funny, really I swear, please. Thank you. Achievement of this wonderful sphere is quite simple despite the look on your face. Step 1: Meet a friend at a coffee shop. Step 2: Read Chicken Soup for the Tenth Sphere. Step 3: Wear a black turtle neck, jeans, and an odd barrette looking thing. Step 4: Write a poem or limerick (no dirty ones -- they do not count) with a "deep" or "inner" meaning. Step 5: Continue to read this inspiring and very groovy time consuming page. Anyone who completes this 5 simple steps may be eligible for Souldom hood. I have even compiled a list of simple starting talisman to give you a jump start: Hat of Despair Tight Turtle Neck I appreciate the time you have devoted to this soul letter. It is cool. You are cool. I am cool. We are all cool together. The tenth sphere is cool. Soul is cool. Everyone who had a part in this me and you are cool. Cool.
Summoning By Shawn Arbuckle (
[email protected]) for the Summoners
* Sense Creatures The Summoner begins his training by learning to sense creatures around him, creatures that can be summoned.
** Summon Simple Creatures Summoning begins with the simplest of creatures. A Summoner can summon swarms of insects to annoy and confuse his enemies. The Summoner also begins too understand the more complex creatures and the mean with which too summon them.
*** Summon Complex Creatures. At this rank the Summoner is now able to Summon more complex creatures, such as rodents and birds.
**** Summon Mythical Creatures. The Summoner is now able to Summon mythical creatures from the Umbra and from other realms. The Summoner may only keep these creatures in this realm for a number of days equal to his successes.
***** Summon Undead At the highest rank a Summoner may attain the dead are now at his command. The Summoner may summon spirits from beyond or command corpses to arise and serve him. The undead may only remain in this realm for a number of days equal to the Summoners successes, before they return to their own realms. The price a Summoner pays for Summoning a mythical or undead creature only reveals itself when the Summoner fails in his summoning. This price takes the form of Paradox.
Void By
[email protected]
Introduction The sphere Void was thought to be the last sphere to awaken. There's one problem with it: It, all it's Practitioners, and the very knowledge of it's existence has disappear from the earth. The universe officially forgot about the sphere of Void (I'm still working on the traditon Heralds of Oblivian which will detail the reasons of its disappearing act). Void is the power to manipulate emptinessand and even create it. It is not like Entropy which is decay and destruction; Void creates space and "erases" things. Void is the opposite of Matter. This sphere has a stronge conection to the Oblivion. I must warn you though, when you use high levels of this sphere you will suck paradox (explain disintegrating some one as coincidental).
* Spatial Awareness At this level the mage becomes aware of the space around him. It is the beginning of learning to manipulate the emptiness. It lets the mage sense spaces and give him an idea of how big a room is and what's in it. It can also detect movement in the affected area. The number of successes determines how specific the reading of the space was (e.g. 1 success: "Ya that tree's hollow, some where in there." 5 success: "There is a one by four foot hole in the tree containing two small moving creatures and twentythree smaller objects. The entrance...") It also allows a mage to detect the manipulation of emptiness.
** Spatial Manipulation This allows a mage to play with someone's perception. A mage can use this to manipulate the size of a space or can make it appear that an object has shrunk. This has no effect on a object's mass, weight, etc. It is often used to increase distances, though this doesn't really happen; the subconscious mind of the victom slows the body down.
*** Void of Thought/Emotion Here a mage learns to send things to Oblivion. A mage can enter someone's mind and destroy thoughts, memories, and lessen the effect of emotions (no you can't destroy emotions and thoughts like breathing; thats considered affecting living tissue and that's level 5). This is how the Heralds pulled their disappearring act. This can also destroy post-hypnotic suggestions and things like the discipline Dominate. It will also take a Vampire or Garou out of frenzies.
**** Empty Matter/Magick At This level a mage learns to send Matter to the Oblivion. A mage can now disintegrate non-organic matter. He can also shrink a non-living object and change its mass by "emptying" it. At this level he also gains a natural resistance to magick he hasn't learned. By spending a quintessence point the Oblivion reaches out to dissipate some of these energies he has no knowledge of (in other words this only works if the magick your being attacked by is of a sphere you don't have a dot in).
***** Obliviate Life/Soul It works exactly like Empty Matter except it works against living things. A mage can also attack spirits and wraiths with the raw power of the Tempest. The mage can also "step sideways" (as Stepping Sidewayes from the sphere Spirit) into the Shadowlands and travel and navigate the Tempest.
Akira Bike (Level 3) By Stephen Esdale, for the Animagicians tradition. Arete: 3 Quintessence: 20 This was the first Talisman made by the Animagicans (specifically Yuki Katsumi), created first and given the magical effects by Naori Kochiya, her SoE mentor. It was later given to the "Akira" Mage group (specifically to Kaneda, its leader) in exchange for a level 5 library. The Bike has two Time effects centred upon it: Time 3 effect allows the user to slow down time, while they stay at the same speed. This allows a boost of speed when need, as well as unparalleled maneuverability. The Time 2 effect allow the user to see future hazards on the roadway long before they arrive. Finally, the Correspondence 1 effect allows the driver accurately judge the distance between the bike any other location chosen. The Coincidental effects are built into the bike. Two spring-loaded doors in the back contain fake "Rocket thrusters", actually magnesium flares, for the Time 3 effect. A complex Anime HUD connected to a "Cross-Orbital Satellite Tracking And Road Monitoring System; COSTARMS for short) provides the two other effects.
Amulet Omnicron By Stephen Brisebois (
[email protected])
Level Two Talisman
Arete 2
Quintessence 10
Description The amulet is a disk that has a rough-cut quartz crystal at its center. Arcane inscriptions are engraved on either side.
Powers This amulet, when looked through the quartz, can see through any object( just like X-ray vision). It does have a limited range. The amulet has an automatic range of 10 feet. To determine the range of the amulet, roll 9D10 with difficulty set at 6. Every success then leads to an extra 10 feet of range. For example: someone has rolled three successes, so the range would be 40 feet. Each time this is done, it spends one point of Quintessence.
Armor of Light By Chris Haffly (
[email protected]) (6 Apr 1994) What I'm proposing is a new level of Talismans. I'm talking about Artifacts. Basically an Artifact is a Talisman of great power. Here's some examples:
History: Created by a cabal of militant Celestial Chorusers called the Paladins of the Dawn about the 1300's. This Artifact is of such power that its pieces can be worn and still act as Talismans.
Part 1: The Helm Level:5 Quintessence:5d10 ini Paradox:1d10 ini Powers: Mind 3 (telepathic communication) Prime 1 ("The Rush") Correspondence 1, Entropy 1, Forces 1, Matter 1, Mind 1, Life 1 Spirit 1, Time 1 (all sensing abilities)
Part 2: The Breastplate Level:5 Quint:5d10 start Paradox:1d10-2 start Powers: Matter 5 (soak aggravated damage) Life 3 (heal wearer) Life 3 (increase Stamina) Prime 4 (Quint Blast)
Part 3: The Arms Level:3 Quint:3d10 start Paradox:1d10-4 start Powers: Life 3 (increase Strength) Correspondence 3 (multi-punch) Forces 2 (deflect projectiles)
Part 4: The Gautlets Level:3 Quint:3d10 start Paradox:1d10-6 Powers: Forces 3 (lightning blast) Prime 2 (fuel pattern) Entropy 2 (control entropy)
Part 5: The Girdle Level:4 Quint:4d10 start Paradox:1d10-5 Powers: Time 3 (accelerate wearer) Correspondence 4 (invisibility) Mind 1 (multi-tasking)
Part 6: The Legs Level:4 Quint:4d10 start Paradox:1d10-3 start Powers: Correspondence 3 ("Thousand League Stride") Spirit 3 ("Step Sideways") Life 3 (increase Dexterity) Forces 4 (flight)
Notes: No extra abilities are gained by wearer when the whole suit is worn. The underneath chainmail isn't magickal until worn under
the suit. The whole suit is bright silver, and is made out of a material created with Matter-5. The armor rating is 9, as a unit, with no Dex modifier.
Talismans of the Ascension War By Anders Sandberg
[email protected])
The New World Order Operative Handbook The handbook is a pocket-sized black book, bearing the logo of the NWO and it's motto "One World. One Truth. One Reality" in silver on the plastic cover (it is surprisingly resilient and will not be damaged by even rough handling). Inside are the rules for NWO operatives, general Technocracy policy and useful advice in the field. This handbook is a very useful talisman for the Men in Black, since in any situation it is easy to look up the official policy of the New World Order that applies. Even in very weird circumstances the handbook has provided crucial advice, and no Man in Black will ever be without his copy (it is rumoured that even John Courage keeps his handbook).
Paradigm Bomb This device is the result of the crazed genius of a group of etherites who wanted to prevent the Technocracy or competing mages to find their most dangerous secrets. They reasoned that since some things are possible in some paradigms but not in others, it would be quite possible to build a device that is completely safe in one paradigm but very destructive in another. Their initial experiment was made in reverse; they forced a captured progenitor to build a wild contraption from their blueprints to compress ether and run it. Of course nothing happened, since the progenitor knew that the device was obviously ineffectual. But when brought into the presence of an etherite the extreme ether-pressure made it blow up (hurting the participants rather badly). The next design was offensive; it consists of a simple tank of hydrogen, fluorine and catalyst held stable by a field of polarised neutrinos. In the presence of someone who doesn't accept the polarised neutrinos the stabilisation weakens, and the tank explodes in a fine paradox backlash, spreading shrapnel and hot fluoric acid over the surroundings. Paradigm bombs have to be built in sanctums, and are usually kept at the entrance (leaving them outside will lead to an eventual explosion). Unfortunately they are a bit unpredictable, since they are primed by belief instead of physical events. It was found the hard way that some of the acolytes were too sceptical of the whole idea. Some hotheads plan to go on with loading a truck with plutonium and sending it by remote control to a technocracy construct "just to watch the sparks fly", but more reasonable voices have so far prevailed.
Doldr This curious device looks like a scarred, heavy metal ball, weighing a few kilograms. The material is harder than anything known, and it is impervious to most kinds of radiation. If someone or something tries to look inside, Doldr will defend itself by causing a distraction or preventative event (if a X-ray device is used, the power will fail, mages suddenly suffer paradox backlashes). A technomancer attempt caused a major electrical breakdown in Scandinavia. Its origin is unknown, but it has been the property of many prominent mages. It seems to be the result of very mighty, possibly oracular magick. Sometimes Doldr gives advice, usually appearing as messages printed on computers in the vicinity, in letters with no sender or as brief phone calls when a metallic voice firmly tells the listener to do or (more often) don't do something. It is believed that Doldr perceives everything that is going on around it (and perhaps everything that happens on Earth), using all spheres. Master Carrera of the Order of Hermes says that Doldr is tied to the forces of Paradox, and seeks to minimise the total amount of Paradox in the world. It often warns mages away from acts of hubris or suggest acts that may help limit future paradox (sometimes at very remote times and places). It might be an intelligent entity, but it is not certain.
Dragon Pearl According to legend, it was their shining magickal pearls that gave Chinese dragons their power; their whole existence was concentrated into these pearls. According to some stories, knowledgeable dragons could remove their pearl and become human, but if they lost the pearl they remained human.Later generations of mages have learned their secret: these fabulously rare objects are portable nodes, sources of raw energy. The dragons are the manifestation of power, the pearls are the power. Many Chinese stories tell how dragon pearls could bring abundance; if one was placed in a urn with a little rice the next morning the urn would be filled to the brim - and the same thing went for money. Actually, this was due to the flow of Quintessence from the pearl that manifested as Tass and bountiful patterns.
But the greatest and most dangerous power of the dragon pearl is that it can transform a human into a dragon if swallowed, at least according to the myths. The transformation is quite painful, the person feels a burning sensation and a horrible thirst that forces him to seek out water to slake his thirst. As he drinks, he will grow to tremendous size and turn into a dragon.
Poisoned Time This kind of Marauder artifact is very, very rare but highly praised by the Euthanatos Masters (who will pay fabulous amounts of Quintessence for it). Some Marauders apparently travel through time, drawing future and past paradox with them causing irrevocable paradoxes. It seems that some entity collects this paradox, concentrates and bottles it into small hourglasses. Each hourglass is very small and fragile, just a few centimetres high and with elaborate ivory, jade or ebony frames. Inside the hourglass poisoned time exists as a kind of viscous smoke-liquid instead of sand. If a hourglass with poisoned time is broken, it will quickly dissipate and poison time itself in the vicinity. By just being present, everything will be hurt; the passage of time is like invisible barbed wire passed through each cell, each moment. Fragile objects shatter, living beings suddenly begin to bleed and stable objects begin to erode noticeably. The effect lasts a while in the area, and will spread forward in time while dissipating. Time mages can often recognise its effects a long time afterwards. Adepts of Time can also pour the contents over an event, poisoning the event so that anybody involved in it will be hurt. The damage done depends on how close they are to the event causally, and how many other victims there are. Poisoning an election result will have almost no effect whatsoever, while poisoning a business meeting will hurt those present and poisoning the theft of an artifact will probably just hurt the thief.
The Chains of Slavery These Nephandi talismans are very prized by the dark mages, since they help them manage those unfortunates they plan to sacrifice to their masters or otherwise use in their vile amusements. The chains are black and cold, numbing to the touch and quite heavy. Some versions come with manacles or leg irons, but most are simply long chains which bind a victim. Anybody bound by them will become docile and have a hard time taking initiatives. Thinking about breaking or escaping the chains becomes impossible, and orders given by someone holding the other end of the chain (or just orders in general) are instantly obeyed.
System: As long as the victim is bound, his effective willpower is five less than normal, reducing most people to docile slaves. The difficulties of initiating new actions increase with 3, while resisting a given order requires a willpower roll.
The G=F6tterd=E4mmerung Device This extraordinary techno-talisman was built in the 1910's by Professor Gottfried Hauf, during the last years of cooperation between the etherites and the Technocracy. Professor Hauf had been involved in a joint Void Engineer-Etherite project of sanitising or destroying tainted or dangerous nodes, a very dangerous challenge. He decided to invent something to simplify the process, and developed the G=F6tterd=E4mmerung Device (originally known as the Reinigung ("Cleaning") Device). Hauf had realised that nodes could be turned against themselves by converting free Quintessence into energy. Drawing upon his friend von Neumann's ideas about self-replicating machines, he developed a self-replicating magickal pattern. When put into a node, the pattern would absorb some quintessence, make a number of copies of itself and then begin to transform free quintessence into energy. Quickly, the replicating patterns would spread and begin to drain the node, which would explode as the patterns shifted to energy conversion mode. The Device simply projected this pattern into the node from a safe distance. The first attempt in September 1915 on a captured Nephandi labyrinth was a total success. Standing on a hill a kilometre away, Professor Hauf and his team directed the antenna of the device towards the node (hidden in what on the outside looked like a normal farm) and activated it. At first nothing happened, and even Hauf began to look worried. Then light began to shine through the windows, the ground began to tremble and suddenly the entire building exploded into a blinding cloud of energy and whirling patterns. The following Paradox backlash completely eradicated any trace of the Labyrinth. Hauf was happy, but not content. The device could destroy a node, but what of its abilities were extended? He began to work on a more advanced version, which would drain quintessence from all patterns into the replicating force converters. This way its strength could be increased a millionfold, and it could even be used against other targets than nodes. It was his student Laura von Graunstein who pointed out the danger: if used carelessly the replicators would drain all normal patterns and spread across the universe like wildfire, turning everything into a tempest of wild energy. A true doomsday weapon. Hauf wanted to dismiss the whole idea, but his calculations convinced him -- his new Device was potentially able to destroy all of creation at a press of a button. As the etherites broke free from the Technocracy, Hauf destroyed his laboratory using his Device and fled. But he coudn't bear to destroy the G=F6tterd=E4mmerung Device, so he hid it -- somewhere. But records still exist, and it is rumoured that some technomancers want to find it to once and for all destroy the traditions in their realms. And the Nephandi would love to get their hands of this Device, for obvious reasons.
The Device is unassuming, just a black box with a telescope antenna and three red buttons beneath a cover marked 'I', 'II' and 'III'. I sends out a replicator along the antenna, and if it hits a node or other strong concentration of Quintessence (like an overcharged mage or talisman) it will begin to replicate, destroying the target. II is more sensitive, and will follow ley-lines like fuses to other nodes, easily destroying a whole chantry or a realm. III is final - it will annihilate the universe.
System: The first turn, the device will do 1 dice of aggravated damage to the target (node, mage or talisman). The next 2, then 4, 8, 16... until all Quintessence points have been drained (this can be "soaked" with antimagick). When used on a node the resulting explosion, quintessence drain and paradox backlash will destroy it utterly.
Beer Goggles By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Spheres Mind 3
Description An innocuous pair of Glasses, more novelty than useful item, they act to change anyone the viewer looks at to App 5. The result varies from subject to subject; although the look will bend to the aesthetics of the user, not all women viewed will be the same, and not all men viewed will be the same. Each will be a blend between the true form and the ideal form. About the only use the glasses have is to completely negate any negative responses when dealing with Nosferatu.
The Biological Interface for the Virtual Adept By Mike Needham (
[email protected])
Description The chip is called the VI503. It is an implant which is basically a chip which is implanted into a virtual adept. It measures 2 inches wide and .75 inches deep. It has probes which go to the important centers in one's brain, vision, hearing, reasoning. It operates on the standard cellular or PCS frequencies using the wearer's body as an antenna. It functions as a terminal to link to a Virtual Adept's computer system. It replaces any VR apparatus that a Virtual Adept may have to carry on his person. In the wrong hands, it is an excellant means to tamper with one's mind, all you need is the proper frequency to communicate your intentions to the wearer's reasoning center. To the wearer, it is like the computer is all around him or her, kind of like being wholistic immersed in the digital web all the time without the magic.
Background Edward, my NPC who tells the story in my games (a master virtual adept, mentored by Dante), got tired of carrying a bulky pack of his design and being pegged as weird by sleepers. He saw the plans for this chip in a top-secret computer file stored in the Technocracy's Iteration-X database which he hacked into. He built two prototypes and installed the first prototype in a captured HITmark IV. The second prototype, having been modified for bugs, is slated to be installed in himself for extensive testing. He calls them VI50X and VI50Xa. But the chip is the only functioning virtual interface chip in existence. In one of our adventures, he found that prototypes had been installed inside NWO officers (MIB's) and this is how they both communicated to their database and each other. Edward recognized the signature of the chip and rendered in useless in those individuals causing Quiet in the MIB's. His design has been many times generated and adapted to where his version, the VI50X-alpha, though in prototype form, is much more reliable and advanced than the original design he stole. He has enhanced his version to carry Quintessence and act as a talisman. It also gives the wearer the ability to produce items in thin air, magickally of course, from computer database records. For example, if I wanted a California State Driver's license I could produce the valid ID out of thin air and at the same time, it would be legitimate in the DMV's motor records. Credit Cards, Bank accounts, etc... the possibilities are only as limited as computer technology and the level of the sphere of Matter one has.
System To use the interface for anything other than generally browsing on the digital web or "sleeper internet", it requires general computer knowledge and intelligence rolls. Magick rolls also apply. Use the matter generator capabilities wisely, Paradox always watches.
The Magick of Bionic Implants By Anders Sandberg Mage is a game about philosophy and magick, not big guns or fireballs. Thus it is important to understand the roles of such things as bionic implants among different groups of mages, to avoid turning mage into "Cyberpunk with Magick". A neural interface is not just a piece of advanced hardware, it is a symbol for the union of man and machine. A HIT Mark is something more than just a terminator clone. When introducing bionic implants into Mage it is best to avoid emphasising their technological implications (after all, they are handled as a kind of talismans) and instead look at their symbolism and how they affect the mood. Akashic Brothers with wired reflexes and tactical computers belong in Shadowrun, not mage. In Mage, bionics is a prechronism (the opposite of anachronism), a reflection of a (possible) future some mages seek to bring about.
The Bionic Struggle Bionics (also erroneously called cybernetics) is an area of technology the Technocracy have not scheduled to appear until the first part of the 21st century, but just as with nanotechnology and computers other forces are trying to wrest control over the development so that they can lead it in their own direction. Iteration X and some Progenitors want to speed up the development, the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether want to introduce their own versions and the New World Order is desperately trying to keep the lid on this Pandora's Box of technology. The central problem is what role bionics will have: will it free mankind, or turn it into another part of the Machine? Will it free us from the flesh ("Metal is better than meat") or lead to a new unity between natural and artificial? The mages involved in the struggle all seek to tilt the balance towards their vision of Ascension through all available means: paradigm engineering through movies, science fiction stories, scientific articles and Internet discussions; practical research in the hope of introducing bionics of some kind into the paradigm; political maneuverings against other mages; direct action against competitors and the subtlest weapon of all, the creation of a new vision of bionics.
The Metaphysics of Bionics Bionic implants are not merely tools; they are extensions of the owners body and soul. They blur the line between man and machine, between tool and user. Iteration X regard biomechanisms as the fusion of man and machine, a step closer to their eventual goal of a technological Ascension. Among the Iterator units, implants are a sign of status and conformism with the Machine. They are by definition useful and functional, always given to Iterators for specific uses. Iteration X cybernetics is cold and efficient, usually quite rugged and often designed with military applications in head. The biomechanics don't care for aesthetic considerations, and prefer to make the devices as powerful as possible at the expense of subtlety. The Virtual Adepts, on the other hand see bionics as a way to become closer to their own tools. By implanting technology they get easier access to information and hopefully greater abilities to manipulate it. However, it is a tool, not the goal in itself (although some Adepts among the cyberpunks blur the line and sometimes espouse almost Iteration X-like views, and the cybergnostics are vocal in their disdain for the flesh). Most Adepts dislike obvious implants or weapons and prefer electronic systems linked to their brains, like the classic neural interface or various co-processors. Their bionics is usually very slick and miniaturised, involving chrome, advanced composites and carbon fibres. Like their programs, they are always elegantly designed and often use subtle effects to function. The Sons of Ether have traditionally not been that involved in bionics (despite that it was they who initiated the area during their time in the Technocracy), preferring external gizmos. "What is the point of a neural interface where you have to worry about Paradox and rejection, when you could wear a Encephalographic Control Helmet?" many noted. But being highly individualistic and always ready to challenge other views, many have become involved in the development of bionics in their own characteristic way. Some build semimechanical interfaces, while other opt for baroque biological re-designs. Many do not regard bionics as a major goal for mankind, but the fusion of man and machine holds a definite fascination to many etherites. One vocal group claims that the next stage of the evolution of mankind is cybernetic; they seek to find ways to extend the human body in all possible ways. Most other traditions regard bionics with a mixture of distaste and loathing. The Akashic Brotherhood regard it as pollution of the mind and body. Bionics is especially anathema to the Verbena, who see it as a blasphemy against the living flesh it is implanted in. Some Verbena have been known to forcibly "heal" wearers of bionics against their will (an especially cruel and deadly procedure against captured Iteration X units). On the other hand, bionics also opens up the mage to other influences. As he moves closer to technology, technologically oriented spirits and beings become closer to him. Some Virtual Adepts actually have net spiders living symbiotically within their implants. Some Sons of Ether claim that to truly be able to design a machine you have to be part machine yourself. Iteration X of course knows intimately that this is true and right. According to some rumours, technology itself is slowly awakening. Mages with much bionic implants become slightly harder to affect with Life and more sensitive to Forces and Matter; some have even reported that the implants slowly spread through their bodies, although this could be the result of technological Quiet. This is a poorly understood area, but it seems that bionics introduces completely new states of Quiet (not to mention Paradox).
Paradox One problem with bionics today is paradox. Despite great efforts from Iteration X and the Progenitors, the paradigm is not yet ready for it. Movies, science fiction and speculations on the net support it somewhat, but it is not enough to avoid Paradox. As noted in the Iteration X conventionbook, open use of cybernetics among sleepers invites trouble, and each device will add as many points of permanent paradox as its rating; these points won't disappear until the bionic devices are removed. When dealing with Paradox backlashes and flaws, these points count (should a severe backlash occur when all points above the permanent paradox are drained, the device will become emptied of Quintessence and stops working). Paradox manifests in many ways against users of bionics. The most common form is malfunctions of various kinds, like cybernetic claws that won't fold back properly, distracting error messages from an internal computer, cybernetic limbs which lock up and won't move, cybereyes suddenly refusing to focus or artificial hearts racing (or even worse, stopping). Usually they tend to decrease the efficiency of the cybernetics or make it stop functioning. At low levels these errors are minor or irritating, usually quite instantaneous, like cyberclaws suddenly extending in a social situation or a short series of spasms in implanted muscles. At higher levels the problems may last longer or become more serious, like jerky eye movements or constant system crashes in the neuro-interface. Worse malfunctions include permanent problems with the implants and life threatening errors (such as a plasma cannon cyberarm begins to fire uncontrollably or a DEI erasing parts of the mind). Other common problems are linked to the immune system of the user: inflammations of the flesh surrounding the implant, which could become severe if subjected to more paradox, rejection from the body which will make the implant unusable and force its removal, or neural degradation which could spread and cause severe damage. At low levels this is just irritating, rashes of the skin or some pains. At medium levels the problems are a hindrance and impair the use of the implant. At high levels the problems become life-threatening or completely disables the implant, forcing its removal.
Other Forms of Bionics Nanotechnology is an area where Iteration X, the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether also struggle. Using experimental nanotechnological designs normal cybernetics can be shrunk to cellular level or less (although that often is somewhat unusable). Chips could be created that don't show up unless someone studies the brain with a microscope. Hypersynaptic Reaction Systems could be hidden within the myelin sheath around nerves and cyber-eye capabilities could be added inside a living eye. Such experimental designs rate a much higher price, and are seldom available. [The talisman rating is increased with one or two steps, depending on the design. Note that the paradox is also increased, despite the fact that it is less conspicuous; nanotechnology is even less rooted in static reality than bionics] Biological cybernetics is something the Progenitors are pushing. They regard the idea of implanting electronic or mechanical devices as distasteful, replacing elegant biology with rube-goldberg contraptions. They instead genetically reprogram or culture organs with enhanced abilities, like stronger muscles, poison-resistant tissues or neural nuclei with preprogrammed reflexes. A third, bizarre form of bionics is purely magickal implants. These have been found among some Marauders, and have caused a considerable worry among both the Technocracy and Traditions. One Marauder had his left arm replaced with a Forces-pattern, able to shift between fire, electricity, kinetic energy and a liquid state. At the autopsy of another she was found to have a heart made of crystalline Prime patterned into a rose linked by thin barbs to her spinal cord (apparently causing her much pain). A third Marauder has been reported to have an open skull cavity filled with shifting symbolic patterns sending controlling beams of light to machines in the vicinity. It has been theorised that there is some force somewhere that equips the Marauders with these devices.
Trade in Bionics Bionic implants are more or less common among different mages. Iteration X are rarely seen without some kind of enhancements or modifications. Some Virtual Adepts use bionic implants but the great majority don't want them or have not yet been able to afford them. Sons of Ether rarely use their own implants, preferring to install them into others. The technocratic conventions sometimes use implants, but they are quite rare and often symbols of good inter-convention relations. It is quite hard to get bionics even for mages. The problem is mainly finding one group of mages skilled enough to create it, and agreeing on a suitable price. Usually there is a trade-off between safety and the price. Iteration X has definitely the most reliable and efficient implants. The only problem is convincing the Comptrollers or AI that it is in the interest of the Ascension Program to allow its installation. Some adventurous mages have tried using implants from captured iterators, only to find that it contained hidden booby traps or overrides. The Core is a fringe group somewhere between Iteration X and the Virtual Adepts, nominally allied to the traditions (but according to rumours secretly supported by The Computer) which ruthlessly pursues its vision of Ascension in a Horizon Realm somewhere. Core bionics is beyond cutting edge (perhaps even tested on the sleepers it is rumoured to kidnap for experiments), but finding a representative without alerting the Technocracy can be hard, and finding a suitable payment for these reclusive technomages is even harder. Among the Virtual Adepts a cabal known as Maas Biolabs is very well renowned for their designs. The Biolabs includes two renegade Progenitors, and is very hot in the area of genetic engineering beside bionics. They are possible to reach through the right connections among the Adepts, but their schedule is quite busy and their prices high. However, they are in constant need of various minor services, and many hopeful Adepts do them favours or do odd jobs in the hope of getting the chance to implant something.
A less expensive group is the Sons of Ether. In many cases it is enough to have a sufficiently interesting idea for the etherite to start surgery. On the downside the quality and logic of etherite bionics is extremely individual; some regard the patient as little more than a testing bed for a new theory, while others give meticulous care to their patients and their implants. Most groups involved in bionics use the digital web to design it and make some simulations of its function. Then they begin to implement it physically, preferably within horizon realms or powerful sanctums. Finally it is implanted within the patient, also usually done within a Horizon Realm to prevent paradox during surgery. The operation is usually quite complex, and requires a mixture of Life, Matter and technomagick which is quite specialised; the few mages able to perform it are both sought after and hunted. One big problem with current bionics is that it requires quintessence to function well. Iteration X implants are notorious prime-guzzlers, often requiring the user to carry with him recharging units. Most implants draw quintessence from the wearer, which can become directly dangerous when he is low on quintessence and the implant needs a strong surge. Another idea the Sons of Ether are experimenting with is fuelling the implants via sub-spatial vortices from a remote chantry, but this has the drawback that the link is quite detectable and open to attacks from Prime/Corr magick. An even more theoretical design the Core is rumoured to experiment with is using disintegrating Prime magick to suck Quintessence from patterns in the vicinity to power the bionics. The consequences are just too awful to think of.
Various Implants It is very easy to come up with implants, any cyberpunk game (especially Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun) contains more than enough devices. However, in Mage the implants also have more esoteric properties. Here are some examples:
Transponder * This device was originally developed by the NWO for use against the Masses, but among some mages it has become a useful tool. It is a small chip implanted under the skin, which will respond to a special coded signal (modern units also contain a tiny GPS navigator). This way it is easy for a person who knows the code to find the wearer to a very high precision, although the device could easily become a very dangerous liability of the Technocracy got their hand on the code... [If a technomage knows the code, he can use it to automatically gain three successes on Correspondence magick involving the target. ]
The Lenses of Dr Greenberg * These implants are a trademark of the creative surgeon Dr Greenberg. He noted that the lenses in our eyes are opaque to many forms of radiation, which limits their usefulness (especially for people who often work with strange energy sources). He has developed a method to remove the living lenses and replace them with artificial ones. These lenses transmit ultraviolet light, which makes the retina fluoresce (the colour perceived is a weird mixture of green and dark violet). By putting a few drops of a solution developed by Dr Greenberg on the eye with an eye-dropper, fluorescence will extend the visible range into both the ultraviolet and infrared. An additional effect is that the user will become able to see auras and sometimes spiritual entities.
Quintessence Storage Unit ** This little unit is implanted in a suitable body cavity, usually the chest, throat or abdomen. It is a small cylinder of advanced alloys linked to thin fibres extending a few centimetres in various directions, able to store personal Quintessence for later use or to fuel other bionics. Normally the unit passively just sits there, but at a mental command (if the user has a neurointerface or internal computer) or a pressure on a certain spot, the unit will suck up Quintessence from the wearer and store it. In the same way it can release it when needed. The QSU has many uses. One use which has proven very effective is to hide magickal abilities from other awakened beings: by hiding all Quintessence inside the shielding alloys of the unit, the pattern of the mage appears to be about as Quintessence-rich as an ordinary mortal to Technocracy scanners or the predatory eyes of vampires. One drawback is however that paradox backlashes can blow up the unit when the Paradox reacts with the concentrated Quintessence. [The Unit can store 5 points of Quintessence. When activated, it will suck up Quintessence from the Quintessence Pool (This is usually done when the mage is resting/meditating in a node). When it is activated again, it will add its Quintessence to the pool. If the mage suffers a paradox backlash of 5 Aggravated wounds or more, the device will explode, doing as many wounds damage as it contained Quintessence].
Neurointerface (Mind 1 Forces 2) ** This is the most popular implant among Virtual Adepts, for obvious reasons. It is "simply" a connection between the brain of the owner and a computer (or other suitable electronic device), allowing the user to access information, control the attached device or enter virtual realities of all kinds. Virtual Adepts use it to escape the confines of their flesh and enter the Web directly, with full contact between their brains and the digital reality. To many adepts the experience itself is pure ecstasy. On the other hand, Iteration X also uses the interface but in a characteristically practical and coercive way. They link together with their machines to coordinate their work, and often to receive reprogramming from them. Many different versions exist, ranging from specialised cyber-jacks like the one in the Iteration X Exoskeletons which are designed to run only a certain machine to ultra-advanced devices giving the mage not only conscious access to the Net, but also a high-bandwidth
link to his subconscious (so called Avatar-links). Some mages have devised radio-links (Forces 2 Corr 2) they plug into their jacks making it possible for them to jack in even when they are far from their main computers, while others have developed infrared links which do not require any clumsy wires.
Memory and Behaviour Chips ** Another area where the Virtual Adepts have stolen technology from the Technocracy is programming chips. These were devised by Iteration X and NWO to control the actions of acolytes and sleepers (although Iteration X does not hesitate to give them to its units), but the Adepts have found other uses. The chips contain stored mental patterns from other people (or artificial ones), and when inserted into a neural jack (or surgically linked to the brain) influence the behaviour of the person. The NWO have developed numerous mind control chips, ranging from personality alterations (Nature and Demeanour can be changed) over subliminal messages to downright mental control (the chip takes over and executes a pre-programmed set of actions; the victim can be either unconscious during the "possession" or fully conscious but unable to influence the actions). Iteration X makes much use of chips to contain orders and reprogramming of the DEI, not to mention suitable mood and personality alterations. Virtual Adepts on the other hand, often encode skills and knowledge on the chips. Highly skilled people are sought out and their skills downloaded into chips (this can be done either voluntary or involuntary). Unfortunately, the more advanced and complex skills recorded, the more of the source person's personality, mood and views will colour the user while the chip is active. Some Adepts actually try to gather chips from very Elite programmers to gain new insight, but most stay away from "overlays".
Internal Computer ** Many Virtual Adepts don't want to lug around a computer, and would prefer to be able to access their computers with a thought. Some try implanting them into their skulls, with varied success. The main problem is finding the space; either parts of the brain has to be removed (as in Iteration X's DEI, which removes parts of the frontal lobe and limbic system), parts of the skull has to be removed or the computer has to be housed within the chest or abdomen and linked through fibre optics, which is quite damage sensitive. Virtual Adepts are far too fond of their own abilities and egos to remove parts of their brains, so this procedure is most common among Iteration X. Replacing parts of the skull with electronics makes it more vulnerable but also gives easier access to the computer. The exact abilities and functions of the computer varies immensely. Some mages simply use it as a mental co-processor, storing data instead of a notebook and calculating like a pocket calculator. Others essentially live with it as a constant presence in their minds, a friend, mentor or even lover. A few try to weave together AI programs with their minds, seeking to become literally one with the computer. [ A computer replacing a part of the skull gives an extra damage dice to all attacks against the head; if the damage is above 2 levels the computer is at least temporarily damaged. Computers in the rest of the body might become cut off if the mage receives more than 3 levels of damage. ]
Self Co-Processor *** This is a fine example of Adept cybernetics. It is a small co-processor linked to the frontal lobe of the owner, strengthening his sense of self. When it is first activated, it will begin to record the mental patterns and the "self symbol" of the owner in its neural networks. When the owner is subjected to attempts of mind control or personality alteration, the co-processor will resist this and try to keep the personality intact. One problem with this device is that it also will attempt to resist natural changes in personality, locking the personality into its original shape (unless reset, of course). [The device gives 5 extra dice of countermagick in resisting all Mind magick affecting the personality or free will of the owner; illusions, mood manipulations and such things are outside its range. ]
The Jewel ***** The Virtual Adepts all seek electronic immortality in some form, and the Jewel is the ultimate tool for this purpose. It is an extremely powerful computer housed inside a tiny diamond shell (hence its name) extensively linked to the brain. It gathers information from the actions and mental processes of the user, slowly developing an accurate model of the mental patterns and storing them in its semiindestructible crystal lattice. If the owner dies, it is hoped the jewel can be retrieved and the pattern uploaded onto the net or into a new clone body, using the Jewel as the new brain. [The Jewel is quite damage resistant: It has a 5 point armour against all damage, and will not be destroyed by anything less than 3 points of damage directed specifically against it - just blowing up the head of the owner will not damage it very much. The Jewel will gradually record the mind of the owner, and can be used as a template for an upload or emulation. After the first few weeks it has stored the general personality structure and some basic skills, after about a year it has a passable but simple model of the person, and after several years of use it will contain an extremely accurate model of the mind, down to the tiniest memory. ]
Bionic Artifacts Fractal Claws
A nasty device built by the downright psychotic Virtual Adept called BRANCH END. The claws are hidden inside the outer joints of the fingers, which they replace. On a mental command, they telescope out into an impressive set of silver claws. When striking a victim, another mental command can make the claws split into a fractal tree of smaller claws, doing horrendous damage to the flesh of the victim. As if this wasn't enough, the claws can also spay poison into the wound, and BRANCH END is rumoured to use the neurotoxin from Orchidea Nigra for this. [This device was created mainly for intimidation; despite his reputation BRANCH END is a quite cautious person who dislikes actual fighting. A Forces 2 Mind 2 effect allows the claws to reflect light in just the right way to look very dangerous and stylish. A Matter 3 effect allows the knives to divide into sharp sub-blades, and keeps them ultra-sharp. He doesn't actually use neurotoxin as his poison, but the claws can be filled with a lot of other nasty poisons. ]
The Cybernetic Skeleton of Dr. Rahnberg Dr. Rahnberg is known among the Sons of Ether for his passionate letters in Paradigma about the frailties of the human body and the manifold ways it could be improved in. He was crippled after an attack on his laboratory by some of his many enemies, both legs cut off by a plasma beam and his skin badly burned. Being both desperate and unafraid of dying in the name of Science, Dr. Rahnberg decided to rebuild himself using a HIT Mark that had been immobilised by a falling wall when the laboratory collapsed. He instructed his assistants and disciples how to move his brain into the skull of the HIT Mark, and do some other cosmetic changes. The result went beyond his wildest expectations, and the subsequent paper in Paradigma met with great acclaim (although some critics remarked that he now looked like the members of the Convention he really belonged in too). [ To move a human brain into a HIT Mark body requires a lot of work. First, a suitable body has to be found and somehow deactivated without too much damage. The various control systems used by Iteration X to ensure loyalty, like booby-trapped DEI implants or overrides of free will have to be removed. This is an extended Intelligence + Technology roll against a difficulty of 7, 6 successes are needed (in some versions more are needed). The technician will not know the exact number of successes needed or rolled; if he doesn't reach the necessary number some hidden systems will remain, which could cause nasty surprises later on. Then the living brain of the patient has to be moved into the skull of the HIT Mark and connected to the electronics. This requires some delicate surgery not yet possible without magick or Progenitor assistance (Correspondence 3 Life 4 can be used to move the brain, and Mind 3 Life 4 Matter 2 to integrate it with the new body). Finally, the external biological shell has to be repaired and possibly remodelled to suit the new inhabitant. The result is quite fearsome, a HIT Mark body with a human mind to control it. However, there are some drawbacks with this arrangement. One is that besides normal food, the person now also needs quintessence recharging. A more serious problem is the psychological impact of the change, there is a risk for personality changes or even psychosis as the human mind tries to handle being inside a killing machine. ]
Herpes Derived Progressive Neurodegenerative Disorder (HDPND) The Progenitors don't like the idea of Virtual Adepts with bionics at all, and Research Team TAU developed an insidious weapon against such implants. It is a slightly modified form of the usual type one herpes virus, almost indistinguishable from the original. The virus causes small sores in the mouth, and between infections it hides within nerve cells. However, when it encounters neurons linked to bionic implants it will change into an active form, replicating quickly and spreading through the nervous systems. The result is at least severe and permanent nerve damage to the nerves linked to the implant, and quite possibly (if the implant is linked to the central nervous system) death. Shortly after TAU had developed HDPND Research Director Cyrus Webster pointed out that it would be an even deadlier weapon against Iteration X -- widespread use of HDPND would most certainly lead to great losses among the iterators or force them to retreat to Autocthonia and MECHA. The Administration decided to keep the entire project secret from the rest of the Technocracy. Any use of a HDPND strain (TAU has developed some short-lived strains that will hopefully not spread out of control) has to be cleared with the Administration. [ HDPND will not affect normal people in any way, except for the usual effects of a minor viral infection. It can be cured with Life, but most mages won't notice it if they aren't looking, and to detect that it is in fact artificial requires a detailed genetic mapping (Requires a genetic laboratory, Intelligence + Medicine with a difficulty of 7). When it infects a person with bionics, it goes into attack mode and will begin to destroy the nerves linked to the implant. The first symptoms are usually minor malfunctions of the implant; twitches of bionic arms, cybervision blurring or neural jacks becoming unreliable. This is quickly followed by severe problems with the implant, fever and often paralysis of the limb the implant is in or severe lumbago if the implant is located in the head. For each point of implants, the virus will do one point of localised aggravated damage. The amount of damage can be decreased with one point for each success of a stamina rolled against 8 (botches give extra damage) and in addition quick medical help (Within a few hours, Int + Medicine against 8) or vulgar Life magick can ameliorate the disease. The damage will destroy the nerves linked to the implant and possibly spread further in the nervous system, causing paralysis, mental damage or death. ]
Story Ideas A cabal of Verbena have learned about the existence of HDPND from the records they captured from a Progenitor courier. They immediately realised the potential of the disease, and while they lament it being an artificial perversion of nature they also realised that the Progenitors had just strengthened something that was already there. They immediately began to seek a way of acquiring the virus and then spread it, hopefully making bionics unusable on Gaia. The player characters learn about this in some way, and are faced with
a hard choice: should they help the cabal, possibly gaining a fearsome weapon against the Technocracy but also hindering the Ascension of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether, try to stop it and thus help the Technocracy, or do nothing and let a group of fanatics raid a vault filled with biological weapons? And what will the reaction be from the rest of the Technocracy if it learns about HDPND? A package of biomechanisms from MECHA have accidentally (?) got lost due to a computer error; instead of being sent to a bioengineer working as a orthopaedic surgeon it ended up in the hands of a completely normal doctor with a similar name. She opened the package, and was surprised and a bit worried. Deducing (correctly) that it was something very important that somebody very powerful had lost, she immediately hid the package and pretended to be completely unaware of anything strange going on. Now Iteration X wants to get the package back, or there is risk that the Masses gain access to powerful technology far too early. On the other hand, the doctor is lying low and is secretly trying to figure out what it is she has received, why it happened and what to do with the implants. This could develop into a spy thriller as the hunt for the package heats up, but it could also become a story about bionics itself, as the players become involved in what could be the great breakthrough of implants among the Masses. One of the player characters has a strange recurrent dream that won't go away: a blackened skeleton covered with golden circuitry in arcane patterns. Gradually this vision becomes stronger and stronger, and begins to obsess the character. By following brief glimpses received in near-subconscious states (such as just before falling asleep, being knocked out or daydreaming) the character can slowly find his way towards an unnamed grave in the countryside. Inside it he will find the skeleton. Apparently it has been severely burned, but the golden circuits seems unharmed and surprisingly active; brief flows of electricity and quintessence glimmer within their lattices. Who was the skeleton, and what does the circuits do? Why has it contacted the character? Strange powers are afoot, and behind every mystery an even darker enigma hides. A Virtual Adept has had an major epiphany, gaining a tremendous insight into the nature of information and consciousness. Unfortunately this insight also sent him into a deep Quiet; his mind has closed into itself, creating a mental digital web within his brain and implants which he cannot leave (or rather, cannot think of leaving). What makes this Quiet somewhat unusual and downright dangerous is that it is contagious; anybody linked to his systems will be drawn into it and themselves become contagious. There is a certain risk that it might spread into the Web, causing a huge catastrophe. The only way to save him is to enter this Quiet and help him break free in some way, but if this fails the would-be rescuers will also be trapped. The Quiet is heavily based on his visions of an information-based Ascension, where information itself is alive and awake and evolving towards unity with mankind. If the Adept somehow can break free from this state where he believes he is close to Ascension (which might even be true!), he might return to the physical world with a new vision of information and how to interface with it. Enlightenment, madness and the beauty of information meld together into a labyrinth where escape might be a question about consciousness itself rather than solving a riddle.
The Blade Called Loss By Peter Kendall (
[email protected]
Level Five Talisman
Arete 5
Quintessence 25
Spheres Mind 5, Time 2, Prime 2
Description The Blade appears to be a butcher's boning knife, about 6" long. It has a cracked, wooden handle and a blade made from dark, rusted iron. It nevertheless gives an impression of extreme sharpness. Closer inspection reveals that the rust does not actually pit the iron, but in fact floats just above its surface, drifting very slowly in obscure patterns. The Blade was created by a Marauder named Lyle Menson. Lyle was a metallurgist, a man without a trace of Magick or even imagination until his Avatar was traumatically activated late in life. Lyle's Awakening and madness both began when his wife was killed by a drunk driver. He sank into a deep depression which progressed to a violent schizophrenia when the judge, a closet alcoholic himself, found the driver innocent of all but the most minor of the charges against him. Lyle was visited by a being he believed to be the spirit of his wife that told him how to escape his pain. This was his Avatar, which directed him to forge the Blade from all the physical reminders of his loss. His wife's clothing, photographs, books, and other belongings fueled the fire he set in his living room. Her jewelry, gardening tools, and picture frames were melted in the cauldron. When he was done, there was no trace left of their life together -- or of the apartment building they had lived in. The man who killed his wife was the knife's first victim, of course, but there have been many others since. In most respects the Blade acts as a mundane knife, in spite of its unusual composition. On inanimate objects it is no better than any kitchen knife. Its true nature is revealed when it is used as a weapon. It cannot physically cut a living being, but instead passes through flesh leaving no visible mark. Every such use invokes a powerful Mind/Time rote, however. The victim is convinced that the affected part of the body has been severely wounded, and that the wound in fact occurred in the far past. A cut hand appears to the victim to have been long amputated, and in fact he will have detailed and painful memories of the childhood accident that caused it. A cut to the eyes will leave him certain that he is blind, possibly from birth. In all cases, it will be nearly impossible to convince him that the affected part is actually whole as the memory of a lifetime of pain and disability will be powerful and thoroughly compelling. A fatal injury from the Blade will leave its victim in a coma, believing that he is dead. These effects must be considered vulgar if there is an observer. The Blade can be used as a normal Talisman as well, though all of its effects, however intended, end up causing both caster and recipient pain of some sort. Any Mage finding the Blade should be aware of its other drawback. Although Lyle often drops his weapon in a fit of remorse, he always comes seeking it sooner or later.
Blade of Whispers By Fredrik Svanberg (
[email protected])
History This talisman sword was originally created during the Himalayan War by an Akashic Brother called Tsui Cheng-ji. Cheng-ji used the weapon with great success in the war, fighting enemies on both sides of the Gauntlet with equal ease. Proto-euthanatoi moving through the realms of the dead were caught off guard by Cheng-ji when he wielded this sword and he was able to fight them and their minions across the Shroud. In his last battle Cheng-ji defended an outpost of the Shangri-La chantry against hordes of undead and restless souls led by half a dozen conjurers. He was finally overcome by his enemies but with his dying breath he cursed the blade to prevent it from falling into the greedy hands of the death-mages. The blade is supposedly still in the ruined outpost which now serves as Tsui Cheng-ji's tomb. Akashic masters can tell countless stories of different attempts to recover it, all thwarted by the mysterious guardians who protects the warrior's grave.
Appearance The blade looks like a scimitar of ancient oriental design. The weapon is worn and tarnished but the edge is still sharp and it is marvelously well balanced. An Awakened being who picks it up will hear a choir of whispering voices and other sounds, just barely audible. It is impossible to hear what they are saying. The blade will never produce another sound; a blow from this sword is completely noiseless. The slightly curved blade is about three feet long and made from a dull gray metal which bears marks of oxidization but no rust. It can't be polished by any normal methods. The handle is made of bone entwined with some kind of leather which is dry and crumbles. It can easily be replaced without affecting the sword's magical properties.
Powers The Blade of Whispers allows the wielder to see and attack beings in the Umbra through the Gauntlet even when the wielder is in the material realm. It is also a good focus for the Spirit sphere, especially for affecting ghosts and their realms. Cheng-ji's curse altered the sword's magic somehow but nobody has found it and figured out exactly how it's changed yet. The death-mages he fought didn't make it back to their chantries to tell anyone about it. The reason anyone knows about the curse at all is due to rumours in the Shadowlands. Wraiths who know about the sword are not at all likely to discuss it with the quick, though.
System A simple activation roll using the sword's Arete (2) at difficulty 4 is all it takes to use the sword's original powers. It can strike spirits and ghosts causing its usual damage (Strength + 3), even though the wielder remains in the physical realm, out of reach for most spirits. When used as a focus for Spirit effects concerning the Lower Umbra or wraiths the Gauntlet/Shroud rating is always considered to be 4. Cheng-ji's dying curse made sure that anyone killed by the blade would become bound to it as a wraith. Wraiths and Spectres who are beaten into a Harrowing by the sword get it as a new Fetter as well. The owner may find himself haunted by far more than he can handle if he uses the sword too much. The local Shroud near the sword is always at 4, adding to the danger. Wraiths and spectres bound to the sword have all kinds of different ideas. Some will want to destroy the weapon while others try to protect it. Some are planning to kill the owner and others are just trying to prevent him from creating more wraiths with it. Almost anything spooky can happen; think "poetic justice" and remember that the low Shroud works both ways.
Blood Harp By Andrew Weitzman (
[email protected])
Author's notes Hola, folks. A few months ago a terrific little story titled "Bloodharp" appeared in F&SF. The instrument featured in this fantasy story felt very WoDish; the article below adapts the powers of the bloodharp in Mage 2ed terms. I'm interested in any reactions.
Arete 4
Effects Mind 2, Entropy 3/Forces 2, Prime 3
Quintessence 20
Description The Toreador clan of vampires speak of the Blood Harp in hushed tones. Some say it is the twisted creation of a Tzimince who had warped an errant childe into a musical plaything. Others insist it is possessed of a bit of the soul of the clan's Antediluvian founder. All accounts say playing it can fire the Muse of a kindred as if mortal blood flows through their veins. None of the accounts mentions the price. The Blood Harp is a large harp, man-high, fashioned of the finest ash. Carvings of the highest order, depicting scenes of Greek musicians plying their art, decorate its spine. Strings spun from thin steel wire beckon for a finger's touch. The unwary player will find that they will cut the hand at the slightest pressure; they are razor-sharp, and seem to hunger for blood. In a way, they do. The instrument is, in fact, a powerful magickal Talisman. At the orders of a Toreador elder in the 12th Century, the great Hermetic mage Adolphus Tremaine crafted the Harp to be the greatest means of musical expression in the Tellurian. Even the most mediocre player can achieve performances of stunning beauty. The hardest hearts of mortal and Awakened alike have been known to melt before its swwet song. Adolphus was rewarded well for his service; his throating was as quick and painless as his Kindred sponsor could arrange. But the canny old mystick had been possessed of an ironic sense of humor. The elder found that his new toy demanded a high price for its use. Vitae had to be sacrificed for the Blood Harp to sing. "Pouring one's heart out" in the pursuit of Art has never had such a literal interpretation. Three Effects form the basis of the Blood Harp's power. A Resonance effect, implanted by Mind 2, creates a favorable impression of the music it produces in the minds of an audience. A conjunctional application of Entropy 3 and Forces 2 ensures that all sounds emanating from the Harp are of perfect pitch and tone. The Prime 3 Effect, though, is at the heart of the Harp's power. Attuned solely to Kindred vitae, the Harp will extract a point of Quintessence for every two Blood Points a vampire expends by slashing her fingers on the sharp strings. In game mechanics, a character may add the Arete of the Blood Harp to the relevant Performance dice pool. For Toreador, owning the Blood Harp is an adventure in exquisite agony. The urge to play such an instrument is nearly overwhelming...yet anything more ambitious than a chamber piece risks draining one to the point of frenzy. Desperate owners have been known to steep the Blood Harp in stolen vitae in an attempt to lessen the toll.
Bloody Card By Eric Tolle (
[email protected])
Level Four Talisman
Arete 20
Spheres Forces 4, Matter 3, Correspondence 1
Description These strange and unpredictable techno-talismans have a reputation out of proportion to their actual use. Though they are deadly, the side effects have kept them from being common. Their origin is unknown, though legend does link them to a pair of female Euthanatoi-who-fail-to-get-the-point. It is more likely that they were a product of an Iteration X mage who was deep into Quiet, or that they were NWO prototypes that failed to make the cut. In any case, the standard reccomendation is to threaten to use them, not actually use them. The Bloody Cards are in fact cards, the size of a large business card, and about twice as thick. The edges however are razor thin, with microthin slots above the edge. The cards are heavy for their size, and generally are imprinted with a logo. A patch on the card is actually a touch sensitive keyboard.
Operation Though easy to operate, the cards are difficult to operate accurately. Basically, the user activates the card and throws it: the micro-vectored thrust engines on the edges of the card will sustain it in hovering flight for up to two hours at a time. A combination of pressure on the touch pad on the card, combined with wrist angle can cause the card to go through a number of pre-programmed flight patterns -- though it always returns to the thrower. As was stated before, accuracy is a problem. It takes much practice and skill to get an accurate flight (a specialty is good), and due to the sharpness of the card, incidental damage can be considerable. Caution in usage is advised.
Game Mechanics Note: there are a lot of ways to do these suckers; this is just one way. I also didn't do the extra cost bit from the BoS, 'cause I don't like those rules... Forces 4 lets it stay in the Air, Matter 3 lets it ignore armor, Correspondence 1 lets it be thrown in various pre-programmed area-effect patters (need three activation successes). Damage is 7 dice.. However, a to hit role using Melee or Thrown Weapons is necesary to hit all targets. Another roll is needed to catch the darn thing. It can be programmed to return the next run, or you can split your dice pool to catch it in the same turn. If you miss, it will loop around and 'try again' -- unless you botch or the next rule comes into play...
Side effect: An incidental Entropy 2 flaw is built in: when activating, role Arete against a difficulty of 7. If successful, the Bloody Card will deviate in some unfortunate manner, ranging from missing the target or the return, to accidently splitting open a Natural Gas tank or canister of Sarin. Caution is advised....
Bolverk (Level 2) By Anders Sandberg, for the Asatru tradition. This is an old Viking sword, with a dull and dark finish which won't go away regardless of any attempts of polishing it. When it is drawn from its scabbard it emits a hissing noise, like a snake. Its name means "Bringer of pain/evil", which is also one of the titles of Odin. According to the myth, the sword was forged on the autumn solstice by a priest of Odin, who had turned to the dark aspect of his god. It was later wielded by the infamous Ingjald Two-Tongue, and was reputedly buried with him. But it has reappeared since then, according to the legend wielded by the Wraith of the cruel Ingjald. Besides being eternally sharp, regardless of how dull it looks it has the nasty effect of causing excruciating pain from any wounds. There are also rumours that it actually seeks contact with living flesh to cause more pain, and will cut through the skin of anybody touching it carelessly just to cause pain. [ A Matter 1 effect keeps it eternally sharp. A Life/Mind effect doubles all wound penalties made by the sword, and bruised is at -1. ]
Book of Dreamer's Delight By David Gallo This book will yield information on a subject of the possessor's wish (Research + Enigmas/2 + Int; Diff. dependent on subject; successes dependent on extent of information). However, the information has a price. The book requires a steady source of Quintessence to continue to be used. Also, the book can only be consulted on a singular subject each day (much like the Dream background). The book can provide 5 study points per week of study. The book possesses all spheres at level 1 (or higher where necessary) Rating 2.
Bowling Glove of Fame 'n Fortune By Brandon Quina (
[email protected])
Author's Notes This talisman was created with new rules for the talisman background that work as follows: Level: How many spheres or effect the item may have.
Arete: The level of said spheres and amount of Quintessence. Background cost: Level = 1 per point, Arete = 1 per point, Extra Quintessence = 2 per point This talisman was created by a mage who was utterly upset about how horrible he was in games of chance; he created it so that he could show off, impress girls, etc.
Level 2
Background cost 4
Arete 2
Quintessence 10
Spheres Mind 1, Forces: 2
Description The glove, when worn, increases the mage's game of bowling. It has been known to cause several Awakened bowlers to win championships. When bowling while wearing the glove the ball tends to do things that are beneficial to the bowler. Each game played with the glove uses one point of quintessence. When wearing the glove and attemping to throw anything the user will get 4 extra dice; each use in this way uses a point of quintessence.
BOX By Blake 1001 (
[email protected])
Author's Note The is ripped off from an odd British sci-fi show called Star Cops.
Level 4 Fetish
Gnosis 6
Description BOX is, well, a small black box about the size and shape of a large pocket calculator or palmtop computer. He has no bottons or display, however; all input and output with the user is via voice recognition/synthesis. BOX is an AI connected to a worldwide telecomunications network (the Digital Web) far in advance of the Internet. In addition to his link to the Digital Web, he can access normal communications through a cellular link, making phone calls or modeming into mundane system. He can also 'talk' to many electronic devices via radio or infrared, and has sensors that allow him to monitor energy and life signs in the immediate area. Basically, BOX is a tiny Fetish computer; the AI aspect is provided by the Spirit inhabiting it. In spite of being a level 4 Fetish, most of its abilities are pretty limited (Digital Web immersion, Forces and Life scans). However, the big bonus is that the Spirit in the Fetish (who answers to the name 'Box') is an accomplished Webslinger (i.e., Netrunner) in his own right, able to recover virtually any piece of information stored on any computer in existance (in the Digital Web, he's equivalent to a Virtual Adept with Corr 4, Mind 2, Entropy 2, Forces 3, 6 Arete (Gnosis) and Mental Stats and computer skills of 4 each (specialities in Data retrieval, memory, and analysis.).
Box of Lead This box is made of wood with metal corners and coverings, all detailed with intricate metal/woodwork. The box has dimensions of a medium-sized jewelry box (10 cm high/25 cm wide/15 cm long). Anything placed inside (up to three items the size of a two-litre bottle) can be stored there (correspondence effect). The box prevents the sensing of whatever is placed inside of it (including magick items/talismans/fetishes; it is not known whether it will work for artifacts). However, any magickal items placed inside of it must yield one point of Quintessence each, or the mage must provide the point of Quint. If the Quintessence is not provided, then the box is just an ordinary box. Rating: 3 Correspondence 3 Mind 3 Prime 3
Caeron's Gauntlet By Bill Kokolis (
[email protected])
Level 10 Talisman, Unknown Creator
Arete 10
Quintessence 67
Description This is a legendary relic found in the Deep Umbra, near the Tellurian of Mars. The gauntlet is worn on the right arm. Although it is rumored that the left one exists, no one knows where it may be. When first put on, the gauntlet fuses itself to the mage's arm, effectively becoming the lower arm. It at first covers the lower arm, from the hand up to slightly below the elbow. As time passes and the wearer uses the gauntlet more and more, it will grow. In my campaign, the mage wearing it currently is up to his shoulder in the gauntlet. We still aren't sure what will happen when his entire body becomes covered. Physically, the gauntlet seems to be made of a black metal with streaks of red in it that look like veins. They even pulse in color with the mage's heart rate, going from scarlet to bright red and back with each beat. At the tip of each finger, including the thumb, there is a razor-sharp claw. The claws on the fingers look like gold, while the one on the thumb looks like platinum. When de-activated, sleepers will only see a normal human arm, but any awakened being (even werewolves and vampires) will be able to see the glove as it really is. Once activated, the relic becomes vulgar in the extreme and anyone can see it: it flares with Prime energy and causes double damage to all Nephandi. All other creatures take normal damage. All damage is aggravated.
Powers Quantify Energy (Forces 1) By raising the gloved arm and thrusting it in the direction of the energy the mage can know the exact type and amount of energy present. As a side effect of the gauntlet being fused to the mage, she is also protected from the more harmful types of energy, such as gamma radiation.
System: Three successes are needed at a difficulty of 4 to know the type of energy present. Invisibility (Forces 2) In times of need, the gauntlet allows the mage to become invisible by warping all forms of electromagnetic radiation around himself. This effect also prevents the mage from being detected by thermographs, as the heat energy (infrared energy) is also warped. It is important to remember that sound and physical contact will still give away the mage's location.
System: To achieve total invisibility, 6 successes at difficulty 5 are needed. Fewer successes will permit some flaws, such as a shadow, to exist.
Lightning Discharge (Forces 3, Prime 2) By clicking together the different claws of the gauntlet, an intense static electrical charge can be brought into being. Once built up, the energy can be hurled at a target like a ball. Damage incurred is 2x the number of successes on the magickal effect roll. It is possible to do additional damage if the target is standing near an electrical line, as the energy will attempt to jump into it. If this happens, another three points of damage is inflicted.
System: At least 2 successes are needed. The difficulty is 6 and the range is 10 yards. Fly (Forces 4, Prime 2) A straight-forward effect, fly allows the mage to circumvent gravity and fly. Another forces effect is employed to re-direct the mage's kinetic energy so that she is actually flying and not just levitating.
System: Difficulty 7, three successes. Note that this is probably the second most vulgar effect of the glove, so care should be taken to only use it in the Umbra or where there are a lot of drunks.
Anchor (Forces 5, Life 3, Prime 2) Although similar to the power listed in the MAGE Storyteller's Guide, there are a few differences. In this case, the victim is held in place not by a correspondence effect, but by a strengthening in the gravity field. For each success on the magick roll, the gravity around the target is increased by a factor of one. So if five successes are rolled, a 100 pound kid is going to weigh 500 pounds. The conjunctional life effect allows two things: first it allows the mage to target living organisms, secondly, it provides enough bodily strength to live through the stronger gravity. The total effect: Due to a stronger gravitational pull, the victim can no longer move from that spot until the effect is negated.
System: This effect has a difficulty of 8, and requires 3 successes. Ball Of Abysmal Flames (Forces 5) By means of this effect, huge ammounts of kinetic energy are siphoned into a target, causing its temperature to skyrocket. The air around the victim will explode as gases superheat and flammable materials near the target will most likely ignite.
System: Yes, this is as vulgar as hell. Damage to victims is a whopping 4x the number of successes rolled, and the difficulty is 8.
Recharge Gauntlet (Prime 3) By simply meditating, the mage can channel quintessence back into the gauntlet. This becomes more and more valuable as time goes on, because 1 point out of every five put into the gauntlet leaks into the mage's pattern.
System: For every success rolled (difficulty 6), two points of quintessence are drawn into the gauntlet. Healing Touch (Life 3, Prime 2) Aside from the Ball Of Abysmal Flames, this is probably the most useful power of the gauntlet. Just by touching the wound on a person, his pattern is re-weaved and improved.
System: One health level (aggravated or not, even from paradox) is restored for every success rolled. The difficulty is 6.
Candles of the Midnight Vigil By David Michael Gallo (
[email protected]) (29 June 1994) These are 5 talismans created by a Celestial Chorus/Order of Hermes team. They are used in conjunction with circles to strengthen magick against different creatures/spirits.
Spirits/Wraiths/Faeries/Demons/Angels Rating: 3 Spirit 3 Prime 3 Entropy 2
Vampires Rating: 3 Matter 3 Life 3 Prime 3
Garou Rating: 3 Life 3 Spirit 3 Prime 3
Mummies Rating: 5 Entropy 4 Prime 3 Spirit 4 Matter 3
Sleepers Rating: 3 Life 3 Prime 3
The Chain Letter that Actually Works By Rafael Nedal (
[email protected])
A Level 3 Talisman (sorta)
Arete 3
Quintessence 15
Sphere Entropy 3
Description Most of you have already seen at least one of these. According to popular folklore, if a chain is broken (i.e., if you fail to send copies of a chain letter you have received to x other persons, as indicated in the letter) you will suffer from a great stream of bad luck, whereas if you send the letters, you will have lots of luck and/or gain a fortune. Chain letters in the World of Darkness are exactly the same. Except for the fact that some actually work. Don't take this as if every chain in the WoD had magickal properties. This is not the case. But some of them do.
System: These rare magickal chain letters are Mythic Threads, pieces of magickal knowledge incorporated into the sea of mundane folklore. This fact makes them not only talismans useable by the common man, but also talismans which can be recreated at whim, with a Xerox machine or similar. Each of the copies will have (# of copies) less Quintessence than the one received. If the resulting Quintessence is 0, these copies will be regular chain letters. Whenever a character (PC or not) receives one of this kind of chain mail, the ST rolls its Arete (difficulty 6 - coincidental Level 3 magick) to turn on the talisman's magickal properties. From that point, the character has 24 hours to make copies of the letter and post them to as many people as indicated in the text of the letter. After that time, if he hasn't posted them yet, he will begin to have terrible, random bad luck (ST's call), until he posts it. If he does post it, he will have great luck (once again, as described by the ST), for as many weeks as successes rolled on the Arete test. Mundanes using this talisman don't attract Paradox, though the Syndicate and NWO might perceive the flow of entropic energy and take action. Mages may gain Paradox as usual. There have been rumors lately that a VAdept-turned-Marauder has created virtual versions of these letters, which have been circulating throughout the newsgroups of the mundane Internet for some time. Whether it's true or not, few know.
Cigarello Case By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Description No one knows precisely who fashioned this case, but it has saved more lives than Obfuscate. It is an innocuous cigarette case, silver plated, and enchanted to make the monogram of the current possessor appear on the cover. It will keep a supply of twenty cigarrettes fresh indefinitely. Its most curious power, however, is its ability to deflect a single fatal blow aimed at the owner. This can be anything from a gunshot to a stake. When an attack that would normally kill the owner is aimed, the attacker get the urge to fire/attack the heart. Since it makes sense, the attacker will usually do this. Roll Willpower, Diff 9 to resist). The Case then absorbs five successes, and adds 5 soak dice. The Case provides no protection if the attacker knows of the Case, and knows it will protect the owner. Note that if the attack is larger than the area of the case (such as an explosion), or if there is no logical way the Case can deflect the attack, the Case has no effect. After saving its Owner, the Case is strangely often given away or lost, ready to help the next owner.
Claw of the Heavens By Jake Broadrick (
[email protected])
Arete 5
Quintessence 15 (but can hold up to 40)
Background cost 10
History This Talisman is an ornately carved oak rod adorned with silver and gold and tipped with a extremely large (17" long) talon. It has been possessed by a number of vampire hunters and seems to turn up in the hands of vampire hunters every once in a while. These are used almost exclusively by tradition mages, but some marauders have been seen with them too. Over 50 of these talismans are believed to exist. Chorister Father Patrick Slight suggests that this claw may have been from a biblical phoenix, as it would explain some of it's properties. The rod is about 3 feet long total, and if used as a weapon (raking your opponent with the claw) it inflicts Str+2 damage(normal).
Powers Flames of Heaven Spheres: Prime 4 Forces 4 Quintessence cost: 3 Description: This power summons a Quintessence charged flaming column to descend from the heavens and strike a 10 foot diameter circle for forces based aggravated damage. (Roll Arete for damage Don't forget that add on success!!! Vulgar as hell.)
Magick Ward Sphere: Prime 5 Quintessence cost: 5 Description: Ever want to have some of that premium the Technocracy so frequently flaunts?? Does your countermagick not cut it sometimes?? Well say no more, because for at the expense of 5 points of Quintessence you can (kind of) have some too...
System: This power summons a energy field about 1 inch of of the caster's skin. Any magick that hits this field automatically loses 2 of its successes and then the mage can still use his countermagick. For every spell targeted against the field while it is up the talisman gains one point of quintessence. Lasts for one scene. Coincidental or vulgar, ST's descretion)
Physical Ward Sphere: Forces 5 Quintessence cost: 4 Description: Tired of getting beaten up by the Nephandi around the block?? Want some help without bulky Kevlar vests?? Well this is about as good as it gets...
System: This power allows the user to roll 6 additional soak dice versus any type of physical attack. This includes gunshots, falling anvils, meteors, clubs, knives, I think you get the point. Lasts for one scene. Coincidental or vulgar, ST's descretion)
Light of God Spheres: Forces 5 Prime 5 Quintessence cost: 3 Description: Seeing as how this Talisman was once possessed by a cabal of vampire hunters, it only seems fitting that it have the power to shed light, real light, Sunlight, and lots of it.
System: This power sheds a huge globe of sunlight for a number of rounds equal to the number of successes obtained on a Arete roll. This causes 3 aggravated wounds against vampires and blinds everyone looking directly at it.
Cobra Blade By Hans Messersmith (
[email protected])
Level 3, Quintessence 10
Description This talisman is a band of metal that is worn on the hand around the palm, the outside silver, the inside steel. This band has the ability to alter form on activation to any of three forms beside the one described above: a set of metal knuckles plated with silver, a silver katar (punch dagger), and a tulwar (a broad Indian scimitar). Each activation of the power allows a virtually instantaneous shift to one of the other forms. Also, the user may activate the weapon to generate an effect equivalent to the Prime 2 effect "Rubbing the Bones" (page 211 of the 1st Ed. Mage rules). Finally, the blade always remains razor sharp, with no expenditure of quintessence. There are several of these talismans, all used by Followers of the Black Flame, an obscure Euthanatos sect with it's roots in southern India. The sect's leader, Ishvarakrishna, founded a Chantry in London around the turn of the century, but this Chantry was destroyed in the General Strike of 1926.
Comglass By Michael Moolick (
[email protected]) (9 Dec 1994)
What is it It's an entertainment system, a suveillance mechanism, and oddly enough, a pane of glass. Comglass is made by ItX masters of matter and shipped for use by the NWO. Comglass is a very advanced piece of technology, consisting of mane layers of substances, only molecules thick. Upon inspection, comglass looks like an ordinary sheet of glass, with a small metal trim. But comglass does many things. Foremost is comglass' sensors. Certain layers of the glass sense light going through them. Other layers that are just below the surface sense sound striking either side. The data from these layers are sent to one of the "computer" layers, where is is processes and turned into a form that can be broadcast to technomancer stations. Thus, the NWO can see and hear whatever happens in view and earshot of a sheet of comglass. Comglass can also absorb light. To make this less conspicous, it usually looks tinted. However, the glass can be changed from opaque to transparent if properly instructed. Comglass can make sound and produce video images. The images are of such high-quality that the human eye cannot tell the difference between the image and the real thing. These images can be see-through or be like normal video images.
Where is Comglass used? Void Engineers and ItX'ers use it for HUD's. Progenitors and Syndicate use them as portable notepads. The NWO use them for communications and espionage. The Traditions don't use it, but you can be sure that doesn't mean they aren't closer to some than they think.
Computer Link (Level 2) By Anders Sandberg, for The Core faction. This works as a mental link, but is much simpler. Its an cybernetic interface which allows the user to interface with similarly equipped computers and machines trough a cable, giving the user ability to communicate with them.
Coolsuit By Chris Chambers (
[email protected]) for the Coursers craft.
Spheres Forces 2
Description This talisman takes light and bends it around the wearer. Increase the difficulty to see a motionless wearer by 4, by 3 if she is in motion. In strong light contrasts, the suit fails, just blacking out.
Coprocessors (Level 1) By Anders Sandberg, for The Core faction. These are small computers which are linked to the brain of the user and helps him with different things. Most common are memory enchancers, expert systems with certain skills and knowledge or control units for the autonomous nervous system.
Cracked Mirror By Anders Sandberg Level one talisman This little talisman looks just like a cracked hand mirror with a golden frame (somewhat tarnished). Anything seen through it will appear aged, dirty or damaged and the mage will appear as a rotting corpse. Through the cracks and distorted reflections glimpses of the Shadowlands and their inhabitants can be seen, and Wraiths are able to peer through it into the lands of the living. [The first time someone uses the mirror, he has to succeed at a willpower roll of difficulty 4 to stand the image of himself (this should be adjusted by personality, of course). Only one success is needed]
Crescent Moon By Ed Hackett (
[email protected])
Arete 5
Cost 7
Description This talisman has many variants. The Crescent Moon appears as a tattoo, a silver marking on the palm, that phases with the moon. During part of the month it will appear as a full silver disc, while at other times it will only appear as the first quarter. The effects of the talisman depends on the current quarter of the moon. Luna once gave the ability for some mortals to serve in Gaia's aid. Normal sleepers have been known to have been born with the mark of the Crescent Moon. However, such a thing today is rare. Those mortals who are born with the tattoo automatically receive the Destiny background at 5. This does not apply to mages. Mortals who are born with this talisman are not Awakened. They use the talisman's Arete to roll for magick. Paradox results in the tattoo heating with an intense pain.
Gaia's Blessing (Spirit 2) This effect is automatic. Any bearer of the tattoo will not be harmed by Garou, or other spirits/beings who serve Gaia. The bearer of the Crescent Moon is marked as a servant of Gaia as well. Those who wear the mark more than likely will be in the company of those who already serve Gaia.
(Spirit 1, Prime 2, Forces 3) The second automatic benefit of this talisman is that it gives the bearer the power to harm those who are evil, not neccessarily only those who serve the Wyrm. The power grants the ability to sense evil beings and harm them by pure belief. Harming them might manifest as a lightning bolt, fireball but more often it is a psychic shock that sends the evil entity hurling through the air.
Effects by the Quarter First Quarter: Healing Touch (Life 3) This effect acts like a normal Life 3 rote. It allows the bearer to heal others.
Half Moon: Better Body (Life 3) Each success allows the player to increase any physical attributes and the Appearance trait as well. If the effect raises the character's attribute ratings above 5 consider it vulgar. If the Appearance trait is raised two greater than its normal rating consider that effect is vulgar as well. It cannot be used to alter the physical being in any other way. For example, growing claws, growing gill slits etc.
Third Quarter: Stepping Sideways (Spirit 3) During this phase, the mage may cross over the Gauntlet to the Penumbra. He may also see past the Gauntlet to the spirit world.
Full Moon: Luminous Light (Forces 3, Prime 2, Spirit 2) This power manifests a shield around the character and sends pulsing streams of light striking anything that would threaten the spirit of Gaia, and the bearer of the tattoo as well. Highly vulgar!
Curious Magickal Items By ??? (Send me email if you know who wrote this.) By frater IAM, Magister Templii of Ordo Rosae Crucis Besides the useful talismans and foci mages use there is a bewildering array of weird and wonderful things that can be found inside the labs of an old chantry. Some of these have useless but interesting magickal effects, like the Cursing Shell. Others are quite powerful, or show evidence of extremely powerful magick (like the Cube of Vacuum). And others may be completely nonmagickal but nevertheless interesting, like the Axe of Paracelsius. During the late 11th century, an obscure Hermetic scholar named Andreas Arenamontanus collected many of the most weird and wonderful magickal items known in his work De Naturae Mysteris. While it also contained quite a bit of speculations, exaggerations and outright lies, it has remained a standard work about strange magickal artifacts. This list is a feeble attempt to name a few of the weird things the author has come across in his studies.
The Cube of Vacuum This is an old artifact. It is a small cube of tarnished steel and lead, about 5 centimetres across. Inside it exists a pure vacuum. Not just the absence of air, but the absence of everything. There is no energy, no matter, no time, no space and no prime inside it. The enchantments which made this feat possible is lost in the mists of time. It is rumoured to have been created by Void Engineers during the late middle ages, perhaps even by Copernicus himself. Others claim it is the work of a powerful Euthanatos mage, who succeeded so well that he ceased to have existed at all. Only the cube remains. Regardless of the origin of the cube, it is an unique item many mages would like to have. The Void Engineers are rumoured to search for it, as do the Euthanatos and the Order of Hermes. During the centuries it has passed down many hands. What could it be used for? As an Entropy foci or the foci for Prime-removal magick have been proposed. Some imaginative mages think it could contain the secrets about how to create more True Vacuum. Some paranoid mages claim it is a Nephandi artifact created to lure mages to find this out, and thus destroy the Universe. Most mages who have had it agree that it is most useful as a paper weight.
The Statue of Ho The Statue is a small figurine of jade, showing a Chinese astrologer (Reputedly the astrologer Ho, colleague to Hsi. They were executed by the emperor for failing to predict a solar eclipse due to their drunkenness). According to many mages it protects the owner from the Technocracy, and is said to have a certain sense of humour. Exactly how (and if) this is done is unknown, but most mages believe it is done by coincidental effects.
The Paper This is exactly what it looks like, a normal blank writing paper. When someone writes on it, the text will disappear after a few seconds. It also seems to absorb text from around it, turning a few pages in a nearby book blank (often coincidentally. The mage knows there was an appendix C, but now there isn't. Must have misremembered). What makes the paper really interesting is the fact that it can be read when the light is very dim, almost too dark to read. Then text appears on the paper. The shown text can be anything; from pages of technical manuals to love letters. It seems that the paper has been around for a long time. Its exact origin or use is unknown.
Box of Forgetfulness This item is a small oaken box. Its surface is carved into quite impressive pictures of Greek gods and goddesses, with the goddess of Memory, Mnemosyne, in the middle. It could be any fancy cigar-box. But when any item is put inside it, the person who put the item inside the box will immediately forget about it. This forgetfulness will last until the victim is reminded in any way. According to rumour, it was created by a member of Cult of Ecstasy who wanted to quit smoking. There are other amusing tales about the box and lost foci and talismans, but most of them are stories of the "Absentminded hermetic mage"-type, and probably untrue. That Arenamontanus forgot his glasses inside for over a year is definitely untrue.
The Cursing Shell This shell is a quite ordinary, albeit rather nice, seashell. But when shaken, a listener who puts it against his ear will hear a stream of quite creative invectives. The origin of the curses, swear words and other foul language are believed to be a small demon trapped inside the shell. Could be used as an ice-breaker on parties, or as a learning tool.
The Amagickal Rock This is a small piece of rock, about 10 cm wide and 7 across. It is some sort of marble, and at least one side shows some signs of chiselling. What is unusual is the fact that it is absolute immune against any magick. It will not reveal its composition to Matter magick. It cannot be moved with Forces. It will not crumble when Entropy is used. It will not disappear when a mage tries to drain its Prime. According to malicious rumour, an entire chantry of the Celestial Chorus spent a week trying to destroy or even move it.
Some mages have suggested that it is not real, but some kind of collective hallucination. Arenamontanus claim it is made of some kind of extremely dense Prime, which normal magick cannot touch. An Alchemist thought it was a piece of rock that had evolved to its highest level, but soon found out that it could be damaged with mundane means.
Postcard of a Strike This is a postcard, quite old and yellowed, depicting a sunny beach (maybe in southern England). It has an unintelligible address and text, written with a very shaky handwriting. What is unusual about it, is the fact that every time it is posted (with a new stamp of course), the Post Office will go on strike. Every time. The postcard will be lost during the strike, and must be tracked down again. Somehow, it always resurfaces at another mage or awakened being. Some anarchistic Hollow Ones find this fun, and constantly tracks it down, post it, track it down and so on. Other mages want to study it, but somehow they always miss it. Unfortunately the author is in this category.
The Pentacle of Vladimir Koronov This pentacle is an exquisite design in glass. It is a masterpiece of art, filled with tiny miniatures and symbols made of the finest filigree, with interlacing fibres of gold. It is beautiful, fragile and extremely interesting. Every time someone studies it he will notice new symbols and pictures, often quite unexpected. Many pictures cleverly overlap or exist inside each other. Some imaginative members of the Order claims that every secret truth of the universe exists inside the convoluted pictures. Most persons who have seen it almost always agree. The pictures depict almost everything; from hermetic allegories for profound magickal truths, over burlesque scenes to abstract patterns. There are labyrinths with alchemical signs where mythical creatures roam. There are religious celebrations showing age old hermetic mysticism. There are baroque scenes from the Russian nobility, interleaved with the simple life of the peasants and allegories of cabala. Almost anything can be found if one knows where to look. Vladimir Koronov was one of the most skilled craftsmen in the whole Order of Hermes during the early 18th century. Although he was only an acolyte for all his life, he created artwork embodying the deepest truths known to the order. This Pentacle, created for the regent of the chantry is his greatest work. It has passed from master to apprentice since then, and have become a symbol of the hermetic worldview.
The Travelling Marble The marble is an unassuming piece of green glass, which has the unusual power to always disappear from the owner at an inopportune moment. It will fall down a hole in the pocket, become stolen by a bird, roll down the drain or otherwise disappear. The more the owner tries to keep it, the more probable it is that it escapes. After some time it may return, especially if the owner have been nice to it (how does one behave nicely to glass marble?). It is found lying in the gutter, inside freshly caught fish or perhaps drops out from a window into the hand of the owner. Some owners have lost the marble dozens of times. It is almost like it played hide and seek with the mage.
The True Book of Lies This is one of the most devious jokes (?) of Aleister Crowley. It is a special edition of his "Book of Lies", containing even more contradictions, riddles and falsehoods than the original. It was made in only one copy. On the outside, it looks almost like the original. It is autographed by the author, having "I hope you will enjoy my lies, (readers name). A. Crowley" hand-written on the front page. The joke is that the book will transform the perceptions of the reader slightly when read. This transformation will make changes like paradox, but often very subtle. The whole world will be filled with strange lies and contradictions. The victim's friends will contradict themselves and never admit they are wrong. The facts in books and papers are not quite right. Calculations will almost always end up completely wrong. Passwords and codes the victim remembers clearly will not work. The effect wears off after some time, depending on how much the victim read. A causal glance may lead to some misremembered numbers. A person who read the whole book from cover to cover will be surrounded by lies for almost a week or even more. It is said that the book is not only a joke, but also a test. If the victim manages to see through the lies of ordinary life, he might gain tremendous insights. But these may also be lies. Some mages claim it is a tool for the Seeking, and may give clues to the true nature of ones Avatar. But it may also lie about it, sending the mage on a wild goose chase.
The Axe of Paracelsius This axe has a long and eventful history. Originally it was the executioner's axe at the Bloodbath of Stockholm 1520. King Kristian II ordered about 100 nobles executed. Paracelsius bought the axe, since he believed that an object which had killed that many noble lives must contain much power, especially in curing diseases. He used rust from it in his elixirs. When he was killed in a barroom brawl, the axe briefly became property of an innkeeper, until a wandering Alchemist bought it from him. Since then it has been the property of Alchemists, Progenitors, mundane killers, the police, Order of Hermes and so on. It is a quite sought after antique, and many mages would dearly have it on the wall or as a foci. There are many rumours about its power, ranging from that it is a potent tool for healing to that it is cursed and every owner will be murdered, or commit murder himself. Most probably, it does not have any magickal powers.
Daedalus Molecular Gyro Crystals These crystals are the work of a Technomancer or Son of Ether (or maybe a whole team) going under the pseudonym Daedalus. The crystals look (and are in fact) normal crystals of norborane-7-one, about five centimetres long. What is unusual about them is the fact
that they behave like gyros, without rotating themselves. They will remain pointing in a certain direction regardless of where they are, and when subjected to outside forces they will begin to precess until they are removed. The crystals are extremely strong, and the only way to turn a gyro crystal is to use Correspondence or extremely powerful Forces magick. The gyro crystals are a cruel joke at Technomancer science. In fact, they are completely allowed by it! The Technocracy would like to forbid them with their science, but can't, since they are entirely based on the assumptions of it. Every molecule of norborane spins in the crystal lattice. But since normally about half of them rotate clockwise and half counterclockwise, there is no net effect. But Daedalus have cooled them down to an extremely low temperature (where they are not spinning much) and heated them using higher and higher frequencies of clockwise polarised circular microwaves. When they heat up, the molecules begins to spin in the same direction and when room temperature is reached, they will all spin quickly in the same way, turning normal norborane into gyro crystals. The crystals have many fun uses. Put inside parcels, they will create endless problem for the Post Office and New World Order. Euthanatos have found that they contain extremely little entropy, which can be transferred in many fun ways. When melted or solved in water, the resulting liquid will also spin (often with catastrophic results, as the energy released into spinning is quite enormous. Do not do this at home, boys and girls!). Daedalus distributes these crystals as presents or as practical jokes on the Technomancers. He is also behind many other weird schemes and devices, many which uses technomancer science in ways even the Sons of Ether regard as weird. Sheep food which colour the fur into tiger patterns. Machines which send messages or explosions through the air using vortices, making the sound seem to come from above (much fun, these). Knotted magnetic fields (will make anybody with Forces 1 very confused). Nastyglass, which makes everything seen through it have the leering, sickly quality of severe "morning after" light (it will induce headaches quickly). As expected, the Technocracy would dearly like to find out who Daedalus is.
The Ball of Flies The ball is a small crystal ball, about 10 centimetres across. Inside it, there are lots of living flies. What is unusual is that they never die, just keep on flying, creeping and buzzing. The ball is at least 100 years old, and no fly has ever died or been born. Anybody with Life can tell that they are real, living, nonmagickal flies. The ball seems to lack any other magickal effects. Some mages claim it could be used as a means for divination. By studying the patterns of flies, information can be revealed. Probably this information is mainly of entropic nature.
The Snail This is a snail, seemingly made out of black, iridescent stone. But it slowly moves, too slow for the human eye. It can take it days to cross a table, and reputedly it once spent a year moving from room to room in a house. If it is turned, it will slowly turn around and continue the same way. It seems to seek for something, or perhaps try to reach a certain place. According to Arenamontanus, an earlier owner of it, the snail is alive, in an alien way. It may be an ordinary lifeform from a realm somewhere. He points out that it seems quite unintelligent, but extremely stubborn. He also mentions, quite cryptically, that he believes that it would not be a good idea to let it reach its destination.
Dancing Swords By Rich Langston (
[email protected])
Level 2 Talisman
Spheres Correspondence 2, Matter 1
Description This talisman consists of a pair of ornate wakizashi with sharkskin grips and no tseubo handguard. Used in only in pairs, they are a knife fighter's dream. A Correspondence 2 effect allows the mage to perfectly coordinate the blades. Essentially it gives the mage an extra attack every round or block as the user prefers at no penalty. The minor matter effect is one commonly found on magicked blades. In short, it always retains a razor sharp edge and is extremely strong. Difficulty: 6 Damage: Str+3
Darts of the Bullseye By Brandon Quina (
[email protected])
Author's Notes This talisman was created with new rules for the talisman background that work as follows: Level: How many spheres or effect the item may have.
Arete: The level of said spheres and amount of Quintessence. Background cost: Level = 1 per point, Arete = 1 per point, Extra Quintessence = 2 per point This talisman was created by a mage who was utterly upset about how horrible he was in games of chance; he created it so that he could show off, impress girls, etc.
Level 1
Background Cost 3
Arete 2
Quintessence 10
Spheres Forces 2
Description These three darts look like normal darts, but whenever they are thrown they will unerringly fly straight towards the bullseye. The mage automatically hits bulleyes when playing a game of darts, and gets a -2 to any other rolls to hit with the darts. The darts fo 1 die of non-aggravated damage. Using the dart for anything but playing a game of darts uses one point of quintessence.
Dead Air By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]), for the McLuhan's Kids orphans.
Level Four Talisman
Description When this jar is open or broken, a bizarre grey gas is released, which causes _everyone_ to stop what there were doing for that moment, and forget what they were doing, including the opener. Five successes on an Wits+3 (diff 7) will bring back total recall.
Druid's Cauldron By Jack ??? (Send me email if you know who wrote this.) Creator: Unknown [Verbena] Talisman 2: Correspondence II / Prime I This large black cauldron serves a focus for Verbena Magi. In addition, it allows for the user to see other places. I think two dice is too weak for this. Make the time stirring 5 minutes, with a verbal component, and give the user a break and 4 dice (use the chart on p. 184 to determine range). Correspondence II: By stirring the cauldron and muttering, the Druid can look into the cauldron and see other places. [as with Correspondence Sensing]. Prime I: Any magical being or item will glow and shimmer when being viewed in the cauldron, showing it to be magical.
Enhanced Virtual Reality Realization Device (EVARD) By James Hertsch III (
[email protected]) From the pages of Paradigma:
Virtual no more by Doctor Cornelius Like many of my fellow Scientists, I have worked with the Virtual Adepts in what they call "Virtual Reality." Unfortunately, when you take off th helmet, and remove the glove, the Virtual Reality is gone, and you realize that these Adepts, for all they talk about the "Web," are just playing what is essentially a giant video game when they venture out on the Digital Web. I mean, consider the "formatted sectors" for a moment! Virtual Adepts go in there, and create a giant fantasy world, and remove themselves from what the rest of us fondly call "the real world." After experiencing this marvel (and growing bored with my inability to interact with people outside this artificial environment), I hit upon an idea: what if I could include people outside the Web in my formatted sector? Moreover, what if I could bring the beauty of Virtual Reality to the Untrained masses, to bring the wonders of technology to someone beyond the mere Elites? Unfortunately, my Device is still in the conceptual phase -- my last prototype collapsed upon itself, and I've had to return to the charts and diagrams many times! The key, of course, is to link relatively straightforward virtual reality technologies (the helmets and gloves and such) with a psychokinetic interface. Initially, I tried to use forcefields to simulate the environment around the User, but later realized that these force fields were too taxing on the Device's power supply. While I have yet to perfect the device's projection capabilities, my current prototypes allow the user to experience the virtual reality without the cumbersome helmets, gloves, or bodysuits. It merely requires a miniature chip planted behind the user's ear, and a dedicated room. When the Device is activated, it processes the data from the Virtual Web, and, using well-established principals of Ether-Matter transmutation, causes the dedicated space to become an exact replica of the virtual environment -- right down to the visitors! Additionally, other guests may interact with the virtual environment without having to plug themselves into the Web. The Device then processes their interactions, and feeds these actions back to the Digital Web.
Arete 7
Level 5
Quintessence 30
Appearance The core of this Device is a giant computer bank, replete with dials, gauges, and a keyboard, above which are perched 5 monitors, from where a technician may monitor the progress of the Device. . Use: The user uses the machine to tune into the Digital Web, and then places a chip behind his ear. As of this writing, Doctor Cornelius is working on improving the device, such that it will totall simulate the Web experience, and not even necessitate the use of the chip. Once activated, the Device uses this rote:
Projected Virtual Reality
Projected Virtual Reality Correspondence 5 Mind 3 Matter 5 Prime 2 Forces 5 Life 5 Correspondence 5 is used to mutate the local area into an area identical to the current sector of the Digital Web. Mind 3 allows the Device to interface with the user (Doctor Cornelius is working on phasing out this part of the device), and to "read" the icons of other users interacting with the User. Matter 5, Forces 5, and Life 5 assist in projecting sensations outward from the Device, and, along with Prime 2, fuel a full simulation of the Digital Web. Each hour of use consumes 5 Quintessence from the Device, unless it is "plugged in" to a Node capable of furnishing this level of Quintessence. Editor's note: Cornelius's colleagues have observed that, to date, he has not demonstrated the grasp of the scientific concepts inherent in creating a Device this complicated. It is believed that several of his lab partners contributed heavily to the construction of this Device.
Eye of the Dawn By Hans Messersmith (
[email protected])
Level 5, Quintessence 30
Description The Eye of Dawn is a hideous talisman, used only by those well on their way to becoming Nephandi or those extremely foolhardy enough to risk the paradox involved. This talisman is a bronze sphere, roughly the size of an eyeball, with finely engraved hieroglyphics covering its surface. As part of a ritual found only in certain ancient texts, it can replace a Mage's eye. This ritual involves removing the eyelids, and creating a unique pattern of scars around the mage's eye socket. These scars take the form of rays coming out from the Eye of the Dawn. The Eye is then placed in the eye socket, where it incorporates into the mages body; it can only be removed by Life magick or by the death of the Mage. The Mage will gain the Disfigured and Strangeness flaws, without a gain of Freebie Points, if he or she gains this talisman at any time other than inital character creation. The Mage gains five powers from the Eye: 1. The Mage can now see in any light conditions, through the light enhancement capabilities of the eye. 2. The Mage can now look at any point, and then see as if the Mage were standing at that point in space. 3. The Mage can now probe any persons mind, by staring deeply into her eyes. He can search for specific thoughts, either surface or deep. 4. The Mage can cause in any person a complete breakdown in bodily functions, doing damage as an Entropy 4 attack. 5. The Eye can generate a very bright field of light, equivalent to sunlight. This light can be spread out from the eye like a large spot light, or condensed down into a pencil thin beam like a laser, doing damage as a Forces 3 attack. The Eye of the Dawn is very old, and highly prized by many amongst the Nephandi and certain traditions, especially the Order of Hermes. It is believed that the Eye may have other properties that can be unlocked, but no reliable sources exist as to exactly what these properities may be.
Fekdodap By Anders Sandberg Level two talisman This musical instrument was originally devised by mages living in the Shard Realm of Mind, and a few of these have appeared on Earth. The fekdodap is a bizarre contraption, looking like a combination of a harp and a saxophone; it is covered with buttons and strings, and the player blows through a mouthpiece formed like a snakes-head. The sound is equally bizarre, the weird harmonies are not unpleasant, but make most listeners uneasy. The real reason is that the instrument actually empowers the imagination, and can make listeners experience remote places and times, scenes from the deep umbra and their own subconscious if the listener is sufficiently relaxed or unaware (it greatly enhances dreaming if played to sleeping people, and its effects on LSD trips is beyond belief).
Felix's Bag By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]), for the McLuhan's Kids orphans.
Level 5 Talisman
Description This neat toy contains whatever prop the Kid deems necessary, which he can evoke by merely spending a point of Quintessence. The prop must be returned within 5 minutes, or else the magick is compromised, and the bag will not work for a day.
The Fires of Eden By Kenneth Scroggins Deep within the sacred caverns of the Dreamspeakers burns a sacred fire from the depths of prehistory. Guarded by the oldest spirits and dwelling in the most ancient nodes, the Dreamspeakers claim these eternal flames date back to the first fire ever lit by humanity. Kept alight, this flame can be used to carry tass in the form of torches that never burn out until the Quintessence is used, but they also cannot light other fires as long as they are tass. One theory explains that the flames are locked into their pattern by the quintessence. An obscure Dreamspeaker custom is to carry fire to new chantries so that they too may have an eternal flame. P.S. One blasphemous Son of Ether smokes an eternal cigarette lit by this flame, but pays the price with a point of paradox every week.
Flowers from Heaven By Kenneth Scroggins (
[email protected]) (7 Nov 1994) "What if you dreamed that you walked the fields of heaven, and that you plucked a beautiful flower there? And what if you woke up the next morning, and you had that flower in your hand? What then? Eh? What then?" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge The flower can appear as any flower from as simple as a daisy, pure as a lily, or intricate as a Chysantheum. The color can vary with each person who sees it or it can be the same all the time. It can perform one miracle (as per the Faith Numina) per background point (for talismans, gifts, or fetishes) spent on it. With each miracle performed, the flower loses petals (which dissolve into sweet smelling smoke before touching the ground), but until all the miracles have been performed, the flower is fresh and covered with dew, even if it has been around for hundreds of years. Characters in contact with the flower may develop Dream skill (from the Sabbat Players Guide) or Dream background (from Mage the Ascension) by paying the appropriate xp cost of course. Characters with Faith have difficulties for rolls involving their Faith are reduced by one whenver the flower is held in both hands and used in prayer. Possible consequences for the characters who gain possession of the flower may arise: Spirits from the dreamlands or beyond could want the flower for whatever purpose, evil entities may seek to destroy the flower and anyone associated with it. Demons, the faithful, and the unholy all have good reasons to seek out the flower. Unusually, all the thorns and tribulations that go with these holy flowers seem to lead to salvation in one way or another.
Folio of Dreams By Thaddeus Howze A singular tome created by the legendary, Marius the Undreaming. Marius was a once-gifted mage of Dreaming who lost his most precious gift due to Paradox flaws gained in rescuing his family from the Nephandi. Unable to live without Dreams he turned his Magick expanding his mind and creating a supplement for Dreaming and accessing Mankind's Universal Consciousness. The Folio of Dreams was the culmination of his life's work. The tome is a largish book 15" diagonally, 3 inches thick, made with a strong metallic cover and white untearable pages. These pages will slowly begin to swirl with an silvery sheen if watched for a few minutes. The Folio of Dreams answers the questions of the magus by tapping into the Mankind's Universal Consciousness. The book can answer questions about any nonmagical subject. The user of the Folio must sacrifice a point of Quintessence to the Book to answer the question. The book presents images relevant to the mage's question and the mage must interpret the images in order to answer the question. The more indepth the question, the more indepth the answer. Any question with a rating of 3 or better will require the user to astrally travel and communicate with the Universal Unconsciousness, in an enhanced mental state. These enhanced astral states can last for 10 minutes per point of Quintessence spent in the question. This can be roleplayed or if the player wishes to roll dice, the roll is: Intelligence + Enigmas and the base difficulty is 6. Two successes are required for a correct, and usable answer. For questions about the Spheres Difficulty is 6 + the level of sphere required to answer the question. Each level of sphere required also costs +1 additional points of Quintessence. Example: An apprentice mage of Forces wants to understand how to control the flow of electricity. This requires Forces 2 to perform. So when he queries the Folio of Dreams, he pays one quintessence and rolls his Intelligence + Enigmas and the base difficulty is 6 + 2 (8). He also pays an additional 2 points of Quintessence. The Folio of Dreams is a powerful talisman extremely well grounded in reality and when in the presence of it any mage in contact with it gains 2 levels of magical resistance vs any magical effect. This is a powerful talisman and could be the focus of a campaign.
The Folio of Dreams Game Mechanics Spheres used in creation: Mind 5, Prime 5 Background Information: Arete: 5, # of Powers: 5, Internal Quintessence:25 max Special requirements: Gestures and Quintessence expenditure Powers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Contacting the Universal Consciousness (Mind) Mental visions (Mind) Quintessence transfer (Prime) Astral travel (Mind) Anchor the mental essence. (Prime)
Background Point Cost: 18 5 - levels of Talisman 5 - Arete 3 - Quintessence (12 points) 5 - 9 points in Spheres
Gauntlet of Forms By Ed Hackett (
[email protected])
Arete 6
Quintessence 30
Cost 6
Sphere Life 5
Description Ages have passed since the first versions of this relic were produced. This talisman provides the ability to a mage to enter the form of an animal. The Gauntlet is engraved with the spell of change. Often at times, Dreamspeakers make such a talisman to enter the form of their totem spirit, their avatar. Some Verbena use the talisman to teach the reverence of animal life to a student by actually making the student be that animal. Akashic Brothers use a similiar talisman to shapeshift into the different animals related to their Do status. The talisman provides the spellcaster when in a different form the knowledge of who he is. If the talisman was ever removed, while the spellcaster was in an animal form, he would have to use one Willpower point every day after, or risk forgetting his human identity. The gauntlet appears to be a leather band with studs. A brass sigil of the life sphere is carved on the outside. The effect is triggered by the mage holding the talisman and the thought of the desired form. Then, the talisman works its magick to meet the desire of the mage. Keep in mind, the talisman will not shapeshift a mage into a dragon, or any other bizarre request. It only allows the mage to shapeshift into different animals. Each shapeshifting roll the talisman makes uses one point of Quintessence. The talisman spiritually engraves itself in the transformation, such as some clothing when a Lupine shapeshifts.
Gauss Gun By LostBoy Creator: Dr. Ernest Fielding [Sons of Ether] Talisman 3:: Forces III / Prime II / Entropy I This looks like a rather large heavy pistol, with a huge sight on top (which is longer than the gun. The gun itself has small rings running around the outside of it, up the barrel. The gun shoots a solid pellet from the barrel. The pellet is given a strong negative charge, and then an huge positive charge runs up the barrel, propelling the pellet towards a target. When hit, the target also takes electrical damage, as the pellet still has a very large charge. Disciples of Matter can create pellets inside the gun for easier fire.
Mundane Mechanics: Difficulty: 7, Damage: 4 (+ electrical damage). Scope adds two dice to the dice pool. Magical Effects: Forces 3: Any charged pellet which hits a target does (3 dice * 2) damage [difficulty 6]. The effect is a strong electrical discharge, so this is also great to use on computers or other electronics you don't want to mess with. Prime 2: This is a necessary part of the talisman to provide a conduit of Quintessence to fuel the gun, pellet, and power the scope. Entropy 1: The scope is a device that shows the target in strong relief, and highlights the weakest area of the target (as in Dim Mak). Given one round to target an object, the scope will make small corrections to the aiming and firing of the gun so that this vulnerable part is hit.
Gems of Power: Passion Gems By Thaddeus Howze (
[email protected]) (19 September 1995)
GEMS OF POWER: First in a Series PASSION GEMS vers. 1.0 Since the dawn of time, man has been fascinated with gems, jewels and precious stones. Magi were not proof against such fascination and as a matter of course, use precious stones in the creation of talismans and artifacts. One such set of stones were known as Passion Gems and were created by a puissant Enchanter, Divinor Mind-Seer. It is said, she created some of these jewels for her retainers and apprentices to better serve her. Others she created for her enemies, to better vex them. And a few she created only for himself, to better wield her power, more surgically, with less stress and effort. Starting when she was an apprentice, she made several sets of these jewels during her career. Other magi, seeing them and pleased with the results, attempted to emulate her success. Divinor was often questioned about her placement of single emotional states within these gems and her response was to ensure that she could be able to counter their use if they should fall into the wrong hands. The other reason was they were easier to create if they did not have to run the entire emotional gamut. There are rumors that she created stones that had multiple emotional states or ranges but there is no proof to the contrary.
Color Descriptions Stone
Color Emotion
Opposing
Ruby Red Anger Fear Catseye OrangeApathy Love Citrine Yellow Fear Anger Emerald Green Jealousy AquamarineBlue Sadness Happiness Indigo Envy Amethyst Violet Haughtiness Diamond White Happiness Sadness Onyx Black Hate Love
Passion Gems: Hidden Gifts (Mind 2, Prime 3) These jewels would be designed to be worn as close-fitting jewelry and would have the added benefit of having a coincidental effect that would be completely unnoticable. The would have no effect on anyone other than the wearer. The effect will last as long as the jewel is worn. A wearer, may exert a willpower point to resist the effects of a gem for 1 scene. These magical effects allow the wearers or users to resist other mind magics that may attempt to effect their altered state. Use the Arete rating in dice to roll for countermagic against changing their altered emotional state. Any normal condition that may cause a change in emotional state, forces the device to attempt to reapply the emotion magic. This device recharges itself slowly, and constantly, from a primal connection established during its creation. This device does not use quintessence in the normal sense. As a result, it may not reduce its difficulty to control emotions which are always at a difficulty of 6. Ex: A chamberlain with an Envy/Greed stone on a necklace is confronted with a chance to steal a coveted tome of Law. The ST rolls 3 dice and if there are any successes, the chamberlain will attempt to as quietly and as inconspicuously as possible attempt to gain the Tome. If the chamberlain is frightened by a HIT MARK that was hiding in the shadows, the ST rolls again to see if the chamberlain would forget his envy and greed and run for his life.
Game Mechanics Spheres used in creation: Mind 2, Prime 3 Background Information: Arete: 3, # of Powers: 3, Continous Recharge Special requirements: None Powers: 1. Emotion Control (Mind) 2. Obscure Magical Nature (Mind) 3. Quintessence Recharge (Prime) Limitations 1. Single Emotion (-4) 2. No Range for Effects (-1) Background Point Cost: 6
3 - levels of Talisman 3 - Arete 3 - Quintessence: Continuous recharge 2 - 5 points in Spheres -5 - Limitations
Passion Gems: Radiant Passions (Mind 3, Prime 4) These jewels have a radiant aura that affects everyone within the scene, including the holder or wearer. Such an effect could be overcome if the mage had his own mind-magic or countermagical capabilities. It could also be overcome with a stone that had an opposing power. The stone's effects would only be active in the presence of the stone. Such a stone might be worn by a leader or warrior who needed his troops in a certain mindset, or to demoralize or terrify the enemy. These jewels were made with Prime (4) so that they never need to be energized in any way and could continously output their emotion modifying magic in a area. They would simply work in the presence of the right circumstances or with the proper control phase or gesture. It pleased Divinor to create several of these gems without any proper controls to see how they are used by enterprising magi. Examples of how such gems were used and mounted: Increase moral for warriors with the gem embedded in a sword pommel. Fear and cowardice with the gem hidden in the money pouch of an enemy leader. Apathy in the staff of a senator, placed in a piece of office sculpture.
Game Mechanics Spheres used in creation: Mind 3, Prime 4 Background Information: Arete: 4, # of Powers: 4, Continous Recharge and Output Special requirements: None (Command word or gestures possible) Powers: 1. Emotion Control (Mind) 2. Area Effect (More than one mind) 3. Obscure Magical Nature (Mind) 4. Quintessence Recharge (Prime) Limitations 1. Single Emotion (-4) 2. Continous Effects (-1) 3. Uncontrolled Effect (-3) Background Point Cost: 7 4 - levels of Talisman 4 - Arete 4 - Quintessence: Continuous recharge, Continuous output 3 - 7 points in Spheres -8 - Limitations
Passion Gems: Chamberlain's Keys (Mind 4, Prime 4) With Mind 4 used in their creation, the possessor now has the option of causing the emotional state of the jewel in a target creature or creatures. This effect will last as long as the Passion jewel remains in the presence of the targets. This effect will counter any other emotional state except for one directly opposing the power of the jewel. Given to desired retainers for controlling underlings or to special agents in his employ to sow dissent. With 2 successes the emotion created will last one scene; with 3 successes, a day against a difficulty of 6. This device is usually bound to a ring, sword, pendant or broach.
Game Mechanics Spheres used in creation: Mind 4, Prime 4 Background Information: Arete: 4, # of Powers: 4, Continous Recharge and Output Special requirements: None (Command word or gestures possible) Powers: 1. Emotion Control (Mind) 2. Area Effect (More than one mind) 3. Obscure Magical Nature (Mind) 4. Quintessence Recharge (Prime) Limitations 1. Single Emotion (-4)
Background Point Cost: 12 4 - levels of Talisman 4 - Arete 4 - Quintessence: Continuous recharge, Continuous output 4 - 8 points in Spheres -4 - Limitations
Passion Gems: Sword of the Seneschal (Mind 5, Prime 5) These most powerful Passion Gems are found only in the hands of the most powerful and dangerous of magi and their servants. At Mind 5, the passion gems can completely overcome the will of the subject. With 2 successes the emotion created will last one scene; with 3 successes, a day; 4 successes, a week against a difficulty of 6. This emotional state will overcome all other emotions and can only be reduced with the expenditure of a willpower point to temporarily delay the effect for one scene. (In the case of a single scene, it is just delayed, it will take effect next scene.) In the Mind 5 jewel, there is a powerful flaw, if a subject, proves immune, (no successes are made), the subject is completely immune to this jewel and can never be subject to its power ever again. No one is sure why this takes place and can only subscribe it to a flaw in the spell design. This device is usually worn in a ring or crown. It can sometimes be found bound to a scepter or staff. Any device of rulership can be used as a base for this gem.
Game Mechanics Spheres used in creation: Mind 5, Prime 5 Background Information: Arete: 5, # of Powers: 5, Continous Recharge and Output Special requirements: Command word or gestures Powers: 1. Emotion Control (Mind) 2. Area Effect (More than one mind) 3. Obscure Magical Nature (Mind) 4. Quintessence Recharge (Prime 4) 5. Usable by Non-magi (Prime 5) Limitations 1. Single Emotion (-4) 2. Resistance Flaw (-2) Background Point Cost: 14 5 - levels of Talisman 5 - Arete 5 - Quintessence: Continuous recharge, Continuous output, non-magi use 5 - 10 points in Spheres -6 - Limitations
Ghostbuster Cannon By Neill Mohammad (
[email protected])
Level 4 Talisman
Description This talisman device is the epitome of Son of Ether-esque weird science. It looks pretty much like the powerbackpack-things that they wore in the movies, and it is a level 4 talisman (Background cost: 8). For damage and such, follow the rules for the Laser Pistol in the back of Mage 2nd edition, except it is forces 3, prime 3. If you don't have Prime 3 to refuel it, you can make a replacement power supply, but you have to follow the rules for making a new, level 2 (background cost 8) talisman. Please note that it is highly unlikely that anyone outside the Sons of Ether would use this thing. It's too Technocratic for the Traditions, and too hokey for Technocrats. The effect's being Coincidental/Vulgar depends on the surroundings, and somewhat on the user. If a stereotypical "Absent-minded Professor" uses it, it's usually coincidental. If it is used by a guy in a 3-piece suit or out in the country, it's vulgar.
Glasses Incognito Mind 3 When a user activates these glasses, all Fame rolls drop to 0. Anyone who looks upon the wearer merely remaks, "Naah, can't be him."
Gloop By Jonas Bolander (
[email protected])
Level Three Talisman
Arete 3
Quintessence 1
Spheres Forces 3, Life 3 (convert electricity to body mass) Forces 1 (sense electricity)
Description Created by the Austrian Son of Ether, Herr Doktor Hankelbrunner, as a way to stop runaway electrical experiments, the Gloop is a green, semi-translucent blob of jelly. It feels slightly oily if touched and emits a faint odor of ozone. It is usually contained in an airtight glass jar approximately the size of a football. When released from its jar it will move toward the nearest source of electricity (even if it prefers a larger source of "food" over a smaller and sometimes will be picky about a certain "taste"). It can move (ooze) approximately 2 meters/turn and squeeze through most cracks larger than a few millimeters. When it comes into contact with the source of electricity the Gloop will start to convert it into body mass, using it to grow (one Health Level per turn) while simultaneously draining the source (the larger it becomes the faster it will drain the source). It will continue to grow until there is no more electricity. At that time Paradox will make it shrink one Health Level per turn until it has reached its original size of 2 Health Levels. It takes no damage from cutting, punching and bullets. Only fire and aggravated damage is of any concern to it. Unless "fed" a small amount of electricity (tidbits of batteries or a nice tazer-jolt) once a month it will die.
Gnagg Booster 45 By Anders Sandberg Level four talisman Built by Bonk Business Inc. in 1948, the Gnagg Booster is still found in many of the more esoteric laboratories around the world. It looks somewhat like a generator from the forties, with a green safety cover, lots of connectors for various peripherals (today the connector standards have changed, so it is hard to find suitable plugs) and on one end a conical shaft covered with a safety mesh. It runs on three small wheels, making it easy to move despite its heaviness. It is a general waveconverter, able to transform energy at one frequency to another over a very wide range (8 Hz - 10^50 Hz, according to the manual). For example, it can boost sound into light, turn radio waves into electricity or downgrade gamma rays into gravity waves. One version, the "Freakwave Transmuter", is able to transform mental energies into useful power or vice versa. [ This device can convert any force to any other force, as long as it can be connected to it. A Matter 3/Forces 4 effect makes it able to withstand even extreme loads without breaking. With the Freakwave Transmuter unit, it can also convert mental processes into energy and vice versa.]
Golden Fertiliser By Anders Sandberg Level one talisman This potion is prepared by the Verbena through a complex process during the summer solstice, where the vital force of summer and growth is distilled into the cauldron. The result is small vials of a golden liquid smelling strongly of flowers and glittering strangely in sunlight. It is filled with Quintessence, and speeds up the growth of plants immensely. If given in a diluted solution, it will just work as a fantastic fertiliser, making even the driest garden bloom in a short while. If a few drops of the potion are poured into the soil beneath a plant, it will begin to grow at an fantastic rate, reaching adult size within a few hours or days. If more is poured, the growth will become even quicker and the plant will grow to giant size; a whole vial could easily create dandelions the size of trees. Unfortunately such quick growth also shortens the lifespan of the plant, and it will die within hours or days. [To create this potion, the Verbena uses Prime 3 to concentrate quintessence from the node around her into the Cauldron and bind it with a Life 2 Time 3 spell to enhance plant growth. Some have experimented with a similar potion for animal growth, but the result were quite unreliable. This has not deterred some Sons of Ether who constantly try to replicate it. ]
Golf Club of the Masters By Brandon Quina (
[email protected])
Author's Notes This talisman was created with new rules for the talisman background that work as follows: Level: How many spheres or effect the item may have.
Arete: The level of said spheres and amount of Quintessence. Background cost: Level = 1 per point, Arete = 1 per point, Extra Quintessence = 2 per point This talisman was created by a mage who was utterly upset about how horrible he was in games of chance; he created it so that he could show off, impress girls, etc.
Level 1
Background cost 5
Arete 2
Quintessence 18
Spheres Forces 2
Description This was the crowning achievement of the mage, for he was a horrible golfer. Whenever you spend a Quintessence point with these your next swing at the ball will go into the hole, no matter how far away it is. (Some uses of this might be vulgar)
Hat of Despair By Shelly Luzny (
[email protected]) for 10, Number of the Soul
Spheres Mind 2, Soul 1
Arete 3
Quintessence 5
Cost 1 Quintessence per 10 minutes.
Effect Anyone in a 5 ft radius becomes maniacally depressed to the point of convulsion or to feeling a bit soulish.
Catch: You are even more depressed than before.
Hawkblade By Rafael Nedal (
[email protected])
Arete 9
Quintessence 45
Description The Hawkblade, is a Level 9 magickal longsword. It is ancient, obviously Celtic in origin, apparently medieval, but with a quality never seen in those ages. Its blade is made of a never seen before steel-like material, and there is a sphere-shaped, beautiful ruby encrusted in its middle. The handle is encrusted with small topazes, which are set up to adapt to his hand. Besides being an excellent talisman, the sword is also an incredibly good weapon, and a master blacksmith is required to repair it. This talisman, like the Librum Veritas, was originally created as the subject of a great quest, and is an object of great power. Therefore, it shouldn't be used as starting talismans for a mage. At best, it should be the property of a whole cabal.
Magickal Effects Can control and create any kind of weather-related phenomena, especially storms, whether magickal or not (Forces 6). Effects can range from a single lightning ray to a full-scale, world-crumbling storm. Damage from this level is 6 x successes. Allows its user to become a hawk, while keeping its human intelligence; the blade becomes a scar in one of the hawk's wings. The user can return to his or her normal state just by wishing so (Life 5) Can create a flow of magickal energy through its blade, adding the damage rolled (see page 171) to the sword's normal damage (Forces 3, Prime 2) Can inspire respect and loyalty through use of the sword (Mind 2) The sword is completely unbreakable, about 500 times harder than pure diamond, even though it's extremely light (only heavy enough to allow proper use); it is almost impossible to be destroyed, be it by natural or magickal means (Matter 5, Entropy 5, Forces 5, Prime 5 - always on; expends 1 Quintessence per month).
Heatshades By Deirdre Brooks (
[email protected])
Level One Talisman
Spheres Forces 1
Description This Talisman provides the user with Infrared vision, very helpful for identifying Vampires. They appear to be a normal pair of mirrorshades.
Hellstrum Blades By Ed Hackett (
[email protected])
Description It appears as a shining radiant steel blade, radiating purity and perfection. Each angle reveals its shimmer in the light. The hilt is a simple, wrapped handle of ivory, with overlapping threads of black leather. The scabbard's smooth surface reveals an unknown material which reflects light like obsidian, yet is durable and light. The following powers of the talisman may not all be contained in the replications. The original sword, which boasted all of the following powers, has been lost. These are the known spells associated with the talisman. All the replications of the modern era possess a Quintessence rating of 40 and possess Arete 3. All the Effects for the Hellstrum blades range frome sphere ratings 13; it is not meant for being overly powerful. Thus the cost of the Hellstrum Katanas. Note: Each effect uses 1 Quintessence.
Cost 5
Effects Dove's Song Mind 2, Life 2 This potent effect allows a willworker to calm himself in moments of distraction. His senses and mind mesh together, working in perfect harmony. This effect focuses the mind for meditation. Due to the Akashic Paradigm, this is considered coincidental due to its mystic Asian manner. This effect may also be used to cause serenity to flood into a violent person's mind, a particularly common effect since many Akashics prefer to avoid conflict.
Perpetual Sharpness Matter 2, Prime 3 More of the ancient Hellstrum Katanas possess this ability. This means that the strength of the blade will never deteriorate. The blade will never rust and it will always remain shimmering with the visage of new steel.
Light of Harmonies Forces 3, Prime 2 This effect works in several ways. It may shoot an orb of magickal energy, radiate a room with a flash of light, or may just cause damage like normal but the damage would be aggravated. Some variants use this effect to make the caster invisible.
High Frequency Personality Merger (Level 5) By Anders Sandberg This is a rather unremarkable booth made of beige plastic, with a small control console on the inside. When activated by someone inside, the molecular bonds in his body are neutralized and he is held together by a field of neutrinos. When he leaves the booth, the field will collapse as soon as he touches somebody else with a personality (it is unknown what will happen if he touches a spirit, an animal or intelligent computer). The two persons merge into one, with the skills, memories and personalities of both. Usually the merged person will be rather confused, trying to do several things at once, loudly arguing with himself etc. (this can be ameliorated with Mind 1, multitasking). A small problem is that the merger cannot take merged persons apart... [ The merged person will have the best rating of any of its constituent persons in any ability. Appearance and personality will be an mixture of the constituents.]
Homing Chihuahua By James Hertsch III (
[email protected])
Cost 4
Level 2
Arete 3
Quintessence 10
Introduction Graphs don't lie, Doctor Velazquez thought, regarding the descending population curve. The homing pigeon will very soon be extinct. Such a useful creature, too. More's the pity. Tired from a long day's work, Velazquez exited his basement lab, shut off the lights, and retired for the evening. Toss. Turn. Barking from outside. Yip-yip-yip-yip. Crash. Boom. Dogs scavenging through the trash again. Discontented, Doctor Velazquez activated a Canine Repellant Field, and watched as the little dogs scampered off into the night. Pausing for a moment, Velazquez wondered how the little chihuahuas managed to get everywhere. And, more importantly, Doctor Velazquez thought, could they serve mankind in the same way as homing pigeons once had? Capturing several of the rat-dogs, Velazquez used Lamarckian genetic techniques to instill in his simple chihuahuas the ability to remember where "home" was, and the ability to journey from anywhere to home. As the homing pigeon faded from the biological spectrum, the world became ready for: Doctor Velazquez's Homing Chihuahuas!!
Description The Homing Chihuahua is, in effect, a Living Talisman. Gifted with a certain amount of Quintessence to power its gifts, the dog grows extremely tired after several runs. Tass for the dog is available in the form of a high-protein dog food (available from Doctor Velazquez at reasonable rates). The Homing Chihuahua can return to any location defined as "home." The mage gives the Chihuahua a sense of "home" by showing it the area, saying the phrase "Here is home," and then keeping the dog in a cage. When released, the mage activates the chihuahua by saying "Go home, boy! (or girl)" and the dog races back towards the home location. Because of its small size, the chihuahua usually can't carry more than a small message in a tube around its collar. Rumors exist of Velazquez breeding later generations of Homing Chihuahuas with the abilities to step sideways (Spirit 3), or rapid travel to the "home" location. (Mind 1, Correspondence 1, Time 3).
IBM 666 By Anders Sandberg Level four talisman This is a black laptop, so slickly designed that most Virtual Adepts will drool when they see it. It is also much heavier than expected, and has an unfortunate tendency to bump into things or the bearer with its surprisingly sharp corners. It only runs DOS v2.0 beta, the screen seems to induce headaches very quickly and users soon become irritated and fatigued (since it actually drains them of Quintessence for its functioning). It is in fact a complete nightmare to own, especially since the owner always feels an urge to use it despite its drawbacks. The IBM 666 was originally devised (according to colourful rumours) by a Syndicate businessman from IBM who accidentally wound up in Hell when he was dreaming. Exactly why he created it nobody knows, perhaps as a tool to trap Virtual Adepts, but others suggest that he was actually a Nephandi adsinistratus seeking to tempt others. A mage working via the computer has access to Nephandi magick, including such nasty things as Qlippothic spheres and the summoning of demons. It is also strangely addictive, and after a while the user begins to feel bad when using other computers... [This artifact is quite nasty. Essentially it uses a Mind 2 effect to addict people to it and make them allergic to other computers, Prime 4 to drain other patterns of Quintessence, and gives the user full access to Nephandi magick. It isn't actively malignant, but the user will quickly become exposed to dark influences if he uses its powers].
Idols (Level 1) By Anders Sandberg, for the Asatru tradition. Iron or wooden idols of the gods are placed around holy places or in shrines in the homes of believers. Some are enchanted and have special powers. They are often offered small sacrifices in exchange for working, and some believers even thank them with blood if they have done especially well. Most popular are idols of Frey, which promote fertility and virility when kept in the house and good crops when placed by the fields. Instead of a humanoid idol a phallus is sometimes used. Idols of Thor protect against lightening, faeries, ghosts and evil forces (sometimes just a stylised hammer is used). Idols of Odin are rare and regarded as a bit spooky, and most are placed as guardians around sacred places (especially where oaks grow). They will somehow alert the worshippers that somebody is coming. Idols of Heimdallr are used similarly, but are often placed in the home too. Idols of Skadi gives good hunting and Idols of Njord helps sailing and fishing. Idols of Frigg are placed by the beds of children to protect them and keep them healthy.
Imagine Sunglasses By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Description Looking very much like a sporty pair of John Lennon sunglasses, the actual set is nothing of the sort. When a mental trigger is given, the lens captures the image of the scene before it. This can be anything from a "picture" to a book that was stared at. The image will remain until the trigger is given again. Anyone wearing the glasses will see the image as it was. The image will last for five minutes before fading forever. During this time, the glasses may be passed around to all. Note that the original image is subjective to the user. Thus, someone with Gleam of Red Eyes who looks in a darkened room would retain an image of a room exactly as he would see it. In the five minute period of time, anyone can see precisely what he saw. Note that if someone without special visual acuity took the original, then the room would be dark, regardless of who looked through them later.
The Infinity Compact By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Description The Compact appears to be a standard make-up case, consisting of a concave mirror, and a regular mirror. A user will note that the case can be partially closed at a certain angle to allow an object to appear first in the concave mirror, then a very reduced image in the regular mirror. When a mental command is given, an inanimate object of reasonably small size (no bigger than a 20" tv) can be stored within the mirror. Anyone looking into the mirror will see no reflection except the item reflected into infinity in both faces. The same command is used to return the item. While the item is stored, no force on earth can detect it. It simply does not exist in this particular plane of existence. However, finding the Compact is no problem. If either face is shattered, the item is lost.
Infinity Schema By Casca (
[email protected])
Description The short version is that a group of Sons of Ether, Virtual Adepts, and disgruntled Void Engineers decide to pool their collective geniuses in an effort to crack the Time barrier. The actual mechanics of it are incomprehensible to folks without an Arete of at least 4, but it goes something like this: A group of Void Engineers have determined that temporal shifts are more easily accomplished through dimensional disassociation, as time (a concept that humans created to Prevent Everything From Happening All At Once) becomes more subjective when experienced while traveling at Relativistic Speeds (hence Einstein's Twin Paradox and other fun problems regarding transluminous speeds). The warp-fold procedure of VE exporatory vessels generates such speeds (and temporal dilations) when dimension-shifting. These rogue VEs, annoyed with the lack of vision shown by more conservative elements within the Technocracy, decide to defect in order to prove their theories. They enlist the aid of Virtual Adepts to assist them in their calculations, since Temporal Coordinates are 4-dimensional: X, Y, and Z coordinates for spatial location, and the T-coordinate for when they want. The VAs leap at this offer, but realize (after months of number crunching) that it's damn difficult to get the coordinates precise enough to crack the Wall, due to the Uncertainty Theory. They come to the conclusion that in order for the Project to work, they need folks who can take the restrictive rules of Quantum Mechanics and do godawful things with them. With all due trepidation, the Project heads contact the Sons of Ether. The Etherites jump at the chance, happily babbling about the 'cross-temporal characteristics of molecular structures when exposed to Etheric medium'; in other words, they theorize that certain subatomic particles appear differently because only a part of their structures exist in this time. In other words, Quarks that are labeled Up, Down, Charmed, Strange and so forth are actually identical particles, simply viewed from a different temporal perspective -- the parts we can't see exist elsewhen. The SoEs then go about building a drive system for the Time Pod which operates along the lines of synchronizing the Quarks within the area of a 'Time Field' (generated by the Pod, of course). Within the area of this field, the Quarks which make up the Pod will exist in all configurations simultaneously. This will shift the Pod into a 'place' where time happens all at once. By selectively attuning the vibrational qualities of the Quarks, the Pod can be 'steered' into whatever time period the Chrononauts wish. There's only one catch, however: contact with chronolocals will cause the Quark field to rapidly destabilize from catastrophic cascade failure within the field due to its attempt to attune the Quarkic properties of the chronolocal with that of the field. The chronolocal, more strongly rooted in time because it has not undergone the high-speed electromagnetic bombardment preparatory phase of the journey then the Chrononauts have, acts as a 'ground state' upon the field. When the field destabilizes, the Chrononaut rapidly shunts back to his own time period as his Quarkic frequencies shift back to their normal rest state. This is a mild failure of the system, but still is a resounding overall success for the Infinity Schema, as it allows for actual travel into the Past. While interaction with chronolocals is still restriced, Schema members philosophically state that full interaction with the past is 'only a matter of time.'
Chronolocation Time 5, Spirit 4, Correspondence 5 This massive Rote allows for bodily transference into the past, though no interference with history will be allowed. Interaction with people, or with things that cause interaction with people, invoke Paradox upon the rote as if it were Vulgar with Witnesses. This is usually enough to cancel the effects of the rote and send its participants back their own time, severely disoriented and with great damage to their equipment (immediate roll for Paradox backlash.) Sometimes the malfunction is so great that the Pod chronolocates to an unknown destination and is never seen again....(exile to a Paradox realm, or maybe the Backlash is enough to kill them all. Who knows?)
System The Void Engineers shift the Pod into the Umbra, where Paradox isn't so restrictive (Spirit 4). The Pod creates a field of Time Immunity (Time 5), then, depending on your perspective, either Co-Locates its surroundings around it (Correspondence 5, Colocation) or goes everywhere at once (Corr 5, Polyappearance). It now exists everywhere at one exact 'place' in time. This is Schroedinger at his finest: the Pod's location can, and simultaneously cannot, be determined; neither can its T-coordinate. Using this loophole, the Chrononaut can select a destination (Correspondence 3, Filter All-Space and Time 2, Postcognition are used if the X, Y, Z, and T-coordinates are known; Mind 1 is useful if they are not and the Chrononaut must search for them himself) and proceed there through a reversal of the Correspondence 5, Time 5 effect, exiting the Umbra when the proper coordinates are reached. This Rote is considered Coincidental if no interaction with people from that time period occurs; the moment it does, the
effect becomes Vulgar with Witnesses.
Internal Computer (Level 3) By Anders Sandberg, for The Core faction. This augmentation consists of an surgically inserted computer which replaces part of the skull (or brain). Its highly advanced, and connects to the mind of the user like the Mental Link. It can transmit information, control the emotions of the user and give mental help (like Mind 1). It is often combined with a Computer Link (which will not be treated as a Talisman then, since its just some more hardware).
Der Klopfenen Kasten or The Knocking Box By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]) (28 July 1993)
History First came the Inquisition, with its fires, truths, and torture. Designed to weed out all that was evil, it replaced the devil with his brother. Despite its horrors, however, the effect of the supernatural was...devastating. Only the Church and he infernal profited from the venture, and only the Infernal knew what it was getting. Then came the Black Plague. Its cause unknown, its deadliness all too real. The timeliness of the plague, as it swept across Europe and wiped out 1/3 the population was all too perfect. It came to see the end of the true Crusades. It came to see the end of Feudalism. It came to see the last desperate moments of a Church too glutted with power. It was an all too human plague, slaughtering whole towns suddenly, painfully, slowly. The stench of corpses floated on soft spring breezes, and the rot of winter came a few seasons early, as the dead piled up, no hands to lay them low. All that was supernatural laughed at the irony. None were the direct cause, but all saw the bitter humor in something so deadly, yet so quiet. Something that they, with all their braggadocio seemed impotent. The vampires marvelled at the subtlety, despite the fact that each bite carried the plague farther, the mages studied the trauma as fuel for their research, the Garou smiled on this, seemingly Gaia's revenge, surely a sign for another Impergium to be imposed. The Faerie...the Faerie in their quiet groves, drank their cool dandelion wine, and wondered where all the humans buggered off to. Despite all this tragedy, each looked at it with an aloof indifference. One thing that was certain. Wherever they went, there would be more of them soon enough. A bit of mortality was a potent lesson for humanity, and one well worth learning. But what they did not count on was the misery. Few human emotions are as palpable as misery, dangling and lingering on the edge of hope, despair, fear, hate, and surrender. A kiss could surfeit hate. A warm hand could assuage fear. But nothing could rival the pangs of misery, especially the misery of approaching death. To lie in bed, your insides becoming outsides, pustules rising and bursting, is a foul way to die. No plaintive angels no sermons on elysian fields, can comfort you when your life slowly drains in sticky yellow puss. This trauma, this incredible tragedy, magnified a thousand thousand times, compelled many in their grief to shun the afterlife. Too many, convinced that this could not be the end, that there must have been more to life, chose to linger, to brood, to seethe. They would wait until someone proffered them an accounting. And in their quiet, invisible silence, they noticed them. Slipping into shadows. Fading into mirrors. Passing unseen through crowds. Ducking into mushroom rings. The Geists saw them, and howled for the invisible world laid out before them. They could not touch humanity; for, after all, why would you? Humanity was miserable enough, and these dark ones had made them so. There would be an accounting, but on their terms. And so they struck. Doing little thing, minor things, acts of malice, anger, and pain. To the vampires, they scared off victims, making the Hunters realize that there was nothing beautiful or elegant about their state. They were animals, more craven than dogs, for now they had to chase their prey across fields and forests, and silence them quickly, lest the inquisitors or the lupines come and hunt them down properly. To the Lupines, they were a sacrilegious nuisance. Able to touch their sacred land, their in-between world, they sullied eternal Glades with their pustulant hate, and laughed off their feeble attempts to harm. Only those with power in the spirit realm could harm the dead, and even then, they were legion. To the Mages, they were a dangerous threat beyond imagination. They spoiled the magic in areas once rich. Only the Euthanatos benefitted, and this was enough to cause the other Traditions to band together to stop this threat. What once had been limited to remote areas was now spreading far and wide. Their attempts to create rain to feed thirsty fields brought only hail to rend crops and lightning to destroy homes. Magic was becoming all too unreliable. To the Faeries...well, they were so hateful, these spirits who would not play, who could not be affected by potent faerie magic, who wanted nothing to do with Arcadia, except to wither faerie rings and destroy Rivan bridges, that the normally playful creatures packed up their toys, and went home. It was, perhaps, the only thing the Geists did right. As mentioned, the situation was becoming dire, especially in the North. There, far from the Church's influence, whole villages lay in silence, the people's bodies rotting, spoiling. In that place, a group of mages took it upon themselves to rid the world of this tragic menace. To this end, they diligently labored, poring over dusty tomes for some key to drive those who remained through ignorance and fear of what lay beyond, and sheer stubborness. Finally, after discarding the Key of Solomon as "too mainstream," they discovered a tree growing in a long abandoned church, its parishioners now meal for worms. Something about the tree seemed to drive off the spirits. It was...incredible. Having grown
unchecked in the Dominion, it radiated its power. It seemed also that the church was built to cap off a source of vim vis. The wood then had leeched off it slowly, becoming readily susceptible to spells, despite the aura of dominion. By crafting a box out of this tree, the magi could fashion a proper prison for the Geists. The walls of the box would hold them soundly. A quick second layer of the magically dead wood found in graveyards made the barrier layer undetectable from afar. The box was made portable, so that anyone could carry it, wherever a Geist menaced. Two problems still faced the Magi. One was how to get the Geists to come in the first place. To let them in, the box had to be opened, and once it was opened, the barrier seal was broken, and any Geists within would escape. The other problem was that the Geist were very sensitive to magic. They would never allow a mage to get close enough to utilize the Box. Strangely, both solutions came at precisely the same moment. A mage just back from the Orient happened upon a neat Glamour, that could be cast on any portal. When the portal was then knocked on, anyone in the area would be compelled to open the door. Further, once the spell was cast, it lingered until anyone, mundane or Gifted, knocked. The Magi had their answer. They modified the spell carefully, so that a mundane could merely knock thrice, and the Glamour would work on any spirits in the area, inducing them to open the box. However, the box would not actually open as much as it would puncture a hole in the inner box. Another modification of the spell compelled the opener to pass through, and close the portal behind them. They first feared the spirits would not fit, but they soon proved malleable enough. A final spell was placed on it to prevent mundanes from accidentally opening the box, whether it be dropped or by hand. However, any with the Gift could do it easily, as well as any savagely determined mundane. At last, the box was ready. It was so costly to fashion, and the tree so rare, that alas, only one was made. This ironically proved to be the wisest thing to happen of all. Over the next century, the members of the covenant travelled throughout Europe, seeking out areas where the Geist ruled strong. In that amount of time, an astonishing 6000 souls were trapped in the small box. The remaining Geist, hearing of the sudden demise of their kind, fled this world, or else hid in dark holes, never to be heard from again. Then came the difficult part. Now that these souls were caught, what then? They couldn't very well open it up, and any minor apprentice with a hint of the Gift could pop it open, expecting Chocolates. It became a white elephant, a box only equal to Pandora's. It became The Knocking Box. The Order of the Box, as they were scoffingly called, continued to travel the land, seeking out infestations of malicious spirits. Soon, however, attrition took its toll, and at last, only one Mage survived, about to succumb to Twilight. With his last magicks, he transported himself to a Tremere mage, and begged for the Embrace. Spotting a practitioner of True magic on his KNEES, the Tremere could not resist, and took him on the spot, bonding him well. The mage, Jonathan Brueck, continues to wander the world, the last guardian of a very dangerous toy. Being taken so old, he is very much senile, sometimes forgetting to feed. But he will never forget about the box. Never.
Description The Knocking Box seems to be an unimpressive wooden container, fashioned out of rich chestnut, with woodcuts on all surfaces. It measures six inches tall by eight inches wide by six inches deep, with a simple hinged top, without a latch. Each woodcut depicts a scene from the origin and history of the Box. The top, the most important, explains the reason for the Box. The Grim Reaper walks through a town, its streets choked with corpses. Its staff curves into the air, and lays across the crescent moon, implying that the moon is now part of its scythe. Behind the Reaper is a walking corpse, a desiccated man, horribly hungry. Behind it is another man, his hands bound and chained by what seem to be ethereal creatures. Being dragged behind the figure in robes are three diminutive figures, chained so that they cannot even walk, and are instead pulled through the dusty road. The side facing the opening has the picture of the discovery of the tree. So much detail is put into this one, that inferences can be made on where the old church is. The supply of vis is not exhausted, as believed. Turning to the right, we have the fashioning of the box, a rather simple depiction of the craftsman. Turning to the hinged side, we have the first use of the box, with the spirit sliding right into the trap, with a pleasant smile on its face. Turning to the side face, we see a dire warning to any who would open the Box. An astonished man is driven back by the force of the souls, pouring out in anger. In the distance, all things are dying. This face, once reserved for the final triumph over the Geist, was commissioned by Brueck, lest he die or lose the box before the instructions can be passed on. The bottom contains only the name of the box in German, and the instructions: Knock Thrice, also in German. The box works like this: it is taken to a spot where a spirit is believe to be residing. The box is knocked on by anyone, magical or not (Mages could always use the box...since the Geists passed on, most ghosts are not as suspicious as they were). At that time, the Box unleashes its 8 die attack, difficulty six. The spirit in question rolls its Power, difficulty six. Whoever gets most successes wins. However, whatever dice the spirit spends in resisting are burned out of it, spent in the exertion. Thus, multiple use can prove to be deadly. The spirit must escape out of hearing range to avoid the effect.
Knowing how the box works also helps. Any Thaumaturgist can add his Thaum. rating to the roll to capture. Also, the vis in vampiric vitae is strong; each point of blood spent adds one more die. Raw vis also helps, at the rate of five dice per pawn of Mentem, Vim, Imageonem, and Rego Vis. Thus, with enough preparation, trapping almost any spirit can be seen as a sure thing. What is less helpful, though, is that the box does not discriminate. It attracts the nearest spirit, whether it be friend or foe, chosen at random if they are equidistant. Once the knocking is started, nothing can stop the attempt to trap. It will even lure spirits bound to items, like talens and fetishes. Talens spirits get to resist with only dice equal to the gnosis of the current possessor. Fetishes are more tightly bound; they get to roll with the gnosis dice of the fashioner plus the wielder. Only a Garou who has sidestepped, or otherwise gone out of hearing range, may avoid losing his fetishes. Merely being in a noisy place does not help, as the sound the box makes resounds on a spiritual level. Garou, being bodily in the Umbra, are immune to the effect. What is even worse (or better, as the case may be), is that a vampire employing Auspex 5 is susceptible to the Knocking Box. All he can resist with is his current willpower. Nobody said it would be easy... The effect is that the box is knocked on. If anyone can see spirits, they see the affected ghost walk up to the box, and open it a crack. Then one blinding flash of light later, they're gone. On the real world, the lid seems to open and close all by itself. That's all. A nasty toy to be sure... Now as you see, the perfect MacGuffin for a thousand and one stories. Big baddies need to have their power torqued down, and that's where lupines come in. As good little Vamp ST's, though, we wouldn't dream of having the characters open it up. Nope. Not even a crack. (If you're curious, there's really no anti-open spell mechanic. Merely look the player in the eye, and ask them, "Do you really want to open it?" three times. If they agree all three times, they've opened it. Of course, one dot of Thaumaturgy, and that puppy flies open, no warning). If they do open the box, you have one of three (interesting, IMHO) options: OPTION #1: Spiritual Holocaust. The Box is a ectoplasmic nuclear bomb, and opening it has released all 6000+ souls, and they're torqued! They take it out on everything around them, and the are becomes utterly dead. Physically. Magically. Umbrally. Even the Wyrm takes note of something that destroys so...efficiently. Game effect: The place becomes a Place of Renown, a talked about site, where no one will live, and unspeakable horrors walk the Umbra. The location is dead forever, or at least until the spirits start spreading out. No plants will grow. Paint will fade and chip down to the plaster and wood, and everything just decays. Staying there costs a vampire two BP a night. Otherwise, all supernatural and mundane creature with any sense will avoid avoid avoid. OPTION #2: The Tight Squeeze: Limited space in there. Yup. Yup. So much so that the collective unconscious off all those spirits got condensed into three or four spirit entities of great power. Instant antagonists, especially when an enemy, or gasp, a friend got caught in there, and all those twisted souls did a number on their brain. Capturing them would be...difficult. Game Effect: Well, you let the seven deadly sins out, and one of them happened to be your best pal Morty, now Avarice. Be literary. Make each tougher and tougher to defeat, requiring more and more wits to get it right. OPTION #3: Puree Cycle: Okay, there wasn't any room at all. The collective unconsciouses were completely broken down, and all that remains is the Hateful Dead, a force of supreme malevolence, roughly equivalent to (oh, let's see...the burnt spiritual power actually gets swallowed by the Box, so figuring 6000 souls, at (conservatively) 3 Power apiece, that's) 18,000 power. Wow. Unstoppable, right? Wrong. Y'see, this is my favorite option. Get out those books on local ghost lore. Now read up well, because those mute spectres who died unavenged are going to take on a life of their own, with all that power to pour into them. Resurrection Mary, Chicago's version of the vanishing Hitchhiker, now climbs in for good. The Hull House Devil child stalks the streets, looking for revenge. The list goes on. All the ghosts, once harmless spectres, are perverted by the negative power at their disposal, power that lets them do whatever they desire. What's even better, bring back their nemesises! Have them be virtually unstoppable. Make them wish they'd let them live!! Now there is a catch. Each ghost animated in this fashion has a ringer, a way of easily dispelling them. It can be as mundane as giving them a proper burial, or avenging the wrong that got them stuck there. In any even, it'll take teamwork and legwork to get the job done. Here's an example: The Burlington Northern is the main train line connecting the Western Suburbs of Chicago with the heart of the city. It passes right through many populous residential areas, some very affluent. Many children take the train in for school, or for just a day in the city. Now the BN's maintenance sucks, but since the trains run like, well, trains, and since the tracks are so straight, it's easy to see and know when one is coming.
One day, the gates are stuck. The lights flash, the bars are down, but no train seems to be coming. One minute. Ten minutes. Twenty. Tempers flare, and one guy goes for it, passing around the lowered gates, making it safely. There won't be a train for another ten minutes. The cars in the line begin honking their horns at the worrywarts too scared to cross the tracks. Finally, a girl wearing a plaid smock, so common in the parochial schools of chicago, disengages from the pack of children, and steps out tentatively on the tracks. Seeing no train in coming, she waves the cars on. Where she stands, any train will be in plain view long before a car can cross. It's safe. One car, two car, three cars pass. Many wave at the kind girl who's just made their day a little easier. Then the train hits, plowing through the cars straddling the tracks. It is a freight, not an uncommon sight, and obliterates the minivan crossing the track, the mother and child never noticing until it was too late, instead focused on that angelic face that suddenly went demonic. Two more cars go, one careening off into the crowd of children waiting for a train that will never stop for them. After all is done, the death toll is twenty children, four adults. What is truly sad is that no one is quite sure how it happened. The freight train engineer saw the tracks clear, the drivers saw nothing happening until it was too late. No one can seem to remember what happened to the girl, though, figuring her body now lies with those pressed against the wall. Charges are filed against the conductor, and several families are shattered irrevocably. It is a singular tragedy. Until it happens next week, a few stops down. The girl is Mary Elizabeth O'Malley, a girl who was walking on the tracks, when some boys began throwing rocks at her. She fell unconscious, and the boys ran off in fear of what they had done. The train that came but a few minutes later never saw her small body straddling the tracks. She was dead in seconds. But her soul lived on... Given the powers of Obfuscate and Chimestry, any effect is possible. Be creative. The ringer is a sign that the boys have been punished for their actions, and a symbolic derailing of a train, whether it be real or a toy. Alternately, a girl can be saved, preventing the tragedy from happening again. So why should the Vampires care? It is, after all, just some bad ghosts. Ghosts summon parapsychologists, and parapsychologists, noticing weird goings-on, publish findings that attract hunters. Remember, the Geist are the most powerful entity in the Box, and their original desire was to see the death of all things supernatural. And if they're smart enough to want to use the box to trap them, ask them if they want to go through all that again.
Librum Veritas (The Book of Truth) By Rafael Nedal (
[email protected])
Level 7
Arete 9
Quintessence 45
Powers Instant Insanity (Mind 5, Avatar 4), Protection Against Magick (Entropy 5, Forces 5, Matter 5, Prime 5); Matter Shield (Matter 5)
Description This obscure talisman is said to be older than history, having gone through many shapes and assumed the current one in the Dark Ages. Only the wisest Hermetic magi have heard of it, and its power has been whispered about throughout the centuries. Perhaps it was written by a Hermetic mage gone Marauder, or perhaps the book was the cause of him going Marauder in the first place. The truth may never be known. The Librum Veritas (the Book of Truth) is a hardcover manuscript of about 2000 pages, written in classical Latin, 2' long and 1 1/2' wide. It keeps all of the truth in the world, in the form of written word. This information is highly disturbing, but can also be a powerful tool for enlightening, sometimes even propogating instant Awakenings and Epiphanies. One must have the Knowledges Occult 5 and Linguistics 3 to read it, but otherwise a non-mage can read it too.
Description of Powers Instant Insanity (coincidental) In game terms, the book takes (10-Occult) weeks to read. Every week, the reader must roll her Willpower against the book's Arete. Check the results with the chart below.
Chart I Successes Effects Botch The character automatically goes insane. A mage enters Quiet. (The insanity or Quiet must be specially complex and difficult to be treated.) Failure The character continues reading, but begins to feel very disturbed and presents signs of madness. Assume the effects of a Derangement, though not a serious one. For the next weeks, difficulty increases by 3. 1-2 The character has succeeded in resisting the ill-effects of the book's truth. For the next weeks, difficulty increases by 2. 3+ The character didn't only resist the book's madness, but can now learn something from it as well. The difficulty for the next weeks increases by 1. Roll your Arete against the Librum's own Arete on Chart II below for the good effects (non-magi roll Intelligence + Occult).
Chart II Successes Effect Botch Back to Chart I; difficulty increased by an additional 1 for next weeks
Failure 1-4 5+
Back to Chart I Successes x 2 xp for Arete, Spheres or Occult Successes x 3 xp for Arete, Spheres or Occult; roll Arete + Avatar or Intelligence + Occult on Chart III
Chart III Successes Effect Botch Back to Chart I; difficulty increased by another 1 for next weeks Failure Roll again on Chart II, but add 2 to difficulty. 1-4 Successes x 4 xp for Arete, Spheres or Occult. 5-9 Successes x 5 xp for Arete, Spheres or Occult; non-mages Awaken. 10+ The character Ascends.
Protection Against Magick (usually coincidental) The book has level 5 innate countermagick against Prime, Forces, Entropy and Matter. It can hardly be destroyed by magick, and its Quintessence is not absorbable or useable as Tass. This power is coincidental unless the Effect itself affected something else that turned it into a vulgar Effect, in which case the book's invulnerability makes it vulgar as well (e.g., a Forces 5 nuclear explosion in the whole city that left the Librum untouched).
Matter Shield (usually vulgar) The book is also nigh-indestructible through natural means - i.e., no material forms of destruction work on it. Use the same guidelines as for Protection Against Magick above.
Plot Uses Below are some uses for the Book of Truth in your chronicle.
The Usual: S powerful and corrupted mage of the Order wants the Book, but it's currently in the Chantry's library. I'm pretty sure all of you know where this leads... The Quest: Now the cabal wants the Librum (or maybe they've been assigned to rescue it). It's in the possession of an evil supernatural threat (or even the Arcanum). Anything else?: I'm out of ideas. If you send me some, I'll write them into an eventual update.
Light Saber (Forces 3, Prime 2) By The Digital Mage, for the Jhadaye tradition. A sword of any description which has the ability to glow a bright red, green, or yellow. Also heats the blade to such a high degree that it burns, +2 aggravated wounds.
Difficulty:6 Damage: Strength+4 (+2 aggravated)
Light Sabre By Axle Steele (
[email protected]) for the Jedi (version 2)
Level Four Talisman
Description We all know what it is.
Effects The light Sabre does 5 levels of aggravated damage per strike; commonly the Jedi increases this with his mastery of forces magic. A Light Sabre can cut through most materials automatically ST's discretion.
Magic 8-Ball By Doctor X (
[email protected])
Note A registered trademark of the TYCO toy company. it's use here is meant as no challenge to their copyright, nor as a disparagement to that fine product.
Description The only one of these items confirmed to exist is in the sanctum of Orphan mentor Edgar Durst (Freelance Tutor of higher Learning), but the effect is one that could be duplicated. This powerful divination device appears, in every way, to be an ordinary Magic 8-BallTM with one very important distinction: When shaken and asked a question, it always tells the truth. It's answers are limited to the standard responses (Yes, No, Maybe, Signs Point To No, As I See It Yes, Reply Hazy Ask Again Later, Better Not Tell You Now, etc.) but the answer it gives will be the correct one. (The user should be advised that the future is "always in motion," thus queries about future events are very likely to be hazy, and one should ask again later.)
Magick Antenna By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]), for the McLuhan's Kid's orphans.
Level Two Talisman
Description The Kid must get a victim to willingly hold the extended antenna. When this happens, all magick cast against the wielder is at -1.
Mental Link By Anders Sandberg, for The Core faction.
Level 3 Talisman
Description The mental link is an electronic device surgically inserted into the brain of the user (there is also a helmet version, which can be simply removed). It will use a Mind 3, Correspondence 3, Spirit 2 effect to link together to any other Mental Link in the world or beyond. Using this link, thoughts, sensory impressions and information can be transmitted (note that a mage sensing through another link can use magick against remote targets). It can also control standard robot bodies. There is also a Mind 2 effect making it possible to tune out emotions or other undesirable effects (if somebody watches another user dying, the link will remove fear and pain impressions if undesirable). A simple Mind 1 effect gives the user mental control over the link. One version is implanted into brainwiped sleepers who are used as remote controlled robots.
Mirror of Shades (Spirit 1) By Anders Sandberg, for the Goetia sub-tradition. This is a blackish-grey mirror made of old glass. It's rather unreflective, and things reflected in it will appear as indistinct shadows. But spirits will appear clearly. It is both a window out in the near Umbra, and into, so the spirits can see the real world in the mirror (but not spirits).
The Mirror of Salvation By Tim Toner (
[email protected]) (21 Oct 1992)
Description "Cream." "I create" "Creas" "You create." "Creat" "He creates." "Creamus" "We create." "Creatis" "Thou create." The elder voice paused in reflection. "Crearent" The younger voice faltered. "They will create?" "No! The voice boomed, its sonics echoing in the cold stone room. "Crearent! Imperfect! 'They used to create!'" The youth looked down at the flagstones. "I am sorry, Magister," was all he could mutter. The old man paced the room slowly, fear and anger creasing his brow. The end was upon him...soon. To put it off once more would be dangerous, and costly. But his successor was still not ready. "Again!" "Cream, creas, creat, creamus, creatis, creant." "Destroy!" "Perdo, perdas, perdat, perdamus, perdatis, perdant." "Change." "Muto, Mutas, mutat, mutamus, mutatis, mutant." The old one grew quiet once again. It was trick time. Finally, he spoke. "Submisso." It took but a second before recognition flashed. The boy opened his mouth to speak, then grew silent. He smiled broadly, catching the deception. "It is a forbidden word." The mage smiled weakly. "Good. You know the forbidden words better than your base vocabulary." He breathed out slowly, staring down the pupil, who was withering under the gaze. "I need a NewCastle." He began to walk up the stairs. "Master?" inquired the boy, still slightly trembling. "Yes?" he sighed. "I was womdering if I might be...dismissed for the rest of the day." "You're still having troubles with base declension, and you want the day off?" "Master, you never use Latin when casting spells. Why should I?" "Three reasons, puck. First, in this modern age, it gives you an edge. If you speak 'Create fire,' they'll have time, not a lot, but time to prepare. On the other hand, if you say, 'Creo Ignem,' that's a different story. "Second, Latin has form and structure. It is nowhere near as complex as French, or German, or English. Most of the Grimoires are written in Latin. We magi have deemphasized magic in the modern world lest such a book fall in the hands of unskilled casters, and threaten our existence. Only those truly gifted are taught it in school, and the ease they take to the language tells us how quickly they could respond to the formulations of magic, which is why I am so concerned about you.
"Third, yes, I use English in my mundane castings, but that comes from years of discipline. It takes discipline, not to say it correctly when you mean it, but rather to say it when you don't mean it. Anger is a terrible thing, and it can move mountains, when comingled with the skill of magic. "That is why you must study Latin." The boy smiled cheerfully, as if recognition finally buzzed in his brain. The mage could sense a door opening in his brain, and the blocks his young mind had placed in defiance of learning the language were removed. The apprentice had come far in but one lecture. "All right," the mage breathed out, reassured, "Class..." A buzz. Not a buzz, a bell. Silently it called out into the darkness, calling him upwards, toward heaven. He trembled in anticipation. "Vene!" was all he said, before dashing up the stairs, toward the origin of the call. The boy, confused, followed. The mage hit the ground floor, and stopped to think. Running full tilt in pursuit, the boy almost collided with him. Ignoring the nuisance, the elder man stalked over to a cabinet with a menacing padlock, and whipped it open. To the boy, this was prohibeo. Only the mage was allowed access to this cabinet, and now he could see why. The shelves were filled with weapons: swords, knives, gloves, pieces of ornately carved wood. Each seemed to call out to the pair. The mage rejected all these. He slammed the door, and the padlock somehow reappeared. "These are weapons of another time..." he muttered absently to himself. "I need something to rely on." Walking over to the mantle, he pulled down the shotgun, and liberated the shells from a hidden recess. He handed this to the boy. "Whatever you do, Scott...no magic~! Do you understand?" The boy shook his head vigourously, and accepted the 12 gauge. "Magister? What is this for?" "The answer will become...apparent." They resumed their upward trek. Fumbling in near darkness, the mage produced a keyring the boy had never seen, and set to unlocking the three fastenings that secured the door. Once that was accomplished, he rapped on the door in a pattern that suspiciously resembled the "Shave and a Haircut," knock. The door swung open mildly, revealing a spacious room beyond. Both entered, and the boy surveyed the room. He had never been up here, in what must be one of the turrets of the house where the old man lived. Although from the outside, it seemed ready to fall off the structure, within, it was a sturdy wood construct. Three tables crowded the room, covered with candles, bottles, books, papers, and charts. It appeared to be a crude laboratory from a century long long ago. The main feature of the room, however, was a large cell that took up a quarter of the room. It had a door, but no keyhole was visible. Currently, the only denizen of this cell was a mirror. But what a mirror it was indeed... It stood eight feet high and four feet wide, and its surface was polished to near brilliance. The frame was silver, with a reflective quality equal to that of the surface. Embossed on the mirror were...scenes, but of what, Scott was not sure. He had to get closer to see, and to do so would mean entering the cage. At the cap of the mirror, roughly rectangular in shape, was the head of a wolf, also embossed in silver. It stared forward in silence, as if anticipating the return of an old friend from a long hunt. Scott was about to ask the mage if he could be allowed to approach the mirror, when a hideous grinding issued from the cell. It was the cacaphony of rending metal, as the surface of the mirror, somehow retaining its solidity, fell forward in a roughly humanoid shape. Something was within that mass, fighting to get out, fighting to get back. It was huge, at least eight feet tall, but all other features were distorted or eliminated by the mirror sheath. "What is it, Magister?" the boy breathed out. "Watch and learn, boy. See who truly controls the world, so that you may learn what we magi who come first never did. Ally only with your own kind." This confused the boy beyond belief. "My kind?" "Silencium. You prattle on far too much." The boy stopped talking. Not because he couldn't talk, but that he lost all desire to talk. The blob heaved, strained, and then released, finally collapsing into an inert mass. The silver tightened around the form, then seemed to fade, revealing the contents within, a huge humanoid figure, covered in fur and sweat. Except for an occassional shudder that was directly related to breathing, the creature was motionless. The magi drew forth a long wooden staff, wickedly sharp at one end, and capped with silver on the other. He prodded the beast
with one end, and a remarkable transformation took place. Fur was replaced with smooth skin, and the horrid weapons that protruded from tooth and fingers resolved. Whatever it was before, it was now human, a human male. His chest heaved slowly, as if breathing came with difficulty. "Magister...what is...he?" "A garou. A werewolf." He summoned a book to his ands, and checked. "Judging from colorations, probably from the Red Talons." The boy nodded in disbelief. Noting this, the mage nodded in bemusement. "You use your powers to make women do as you desire." The boy glanced up sharply. "No fear...I know this already. I watch you, in the scrying pool. You do all this with the force of magic, and yet you cannot believe something as natural as a wolfman?" "Master, you've shown me much in the time I've spent with you. You told me of these creatures, and the others. Yet to see one, to actually see one...I'm scared." The magus jumped on this. "Scared? Why?" It wasn't scolding, but rather a potent concern. "I...don't know." Sweat broke out on his brow as he recalled the furry beast. "Something...inside. Old." "You remember. You remember better than most of our kind. And that memory, though it scares you now, will serve you well. No longer do you walk in darkness. You have risen above the dregs of humanity at last, Scott. I am very proud." The creature stirred, and both men tensed. The mage took command. "Awaken, Brother Talon! Awaken and face your new masters!" "Masters? I see no masters," spoke the beast. "I only behold before me my next meal, and what a light one it shall be." The man became beast once more, and as it reared, it advanced toward the bars. "Soon mage, soon I will feast on your bloody entrails... AARRGGHH!" The creature had grasped the bars to wrench them open. As flesh touched metal, the air sizzled with the stench of thwarted power. "The bars...you lined the bars with...silver!" "Yes!" the magus hissed. "No matter...I don't have to be Ragabash to know how to elude such a crude trap. I will be out before long, and then your magicks will avail you not..." "We need no magicks. Scott, a shell." The boy handed the mage one of the shotgun cartridges pulled from the recess. The mage broke one open, revealing the contents. "Look! For every three normal bits, I have included one silver. The effects on your delicate nature are...drastic, I assure you." "Now, to sleep, slave!" He struck the beast once more with the silver tipped staff, and the creature sank to the floor of the cage, apparently knocked out. It was silent in the room for quite some time. Scott, unable to stand it anymore, spoke. "Master, how did he...come here?" "I have waited a long time for this moment. I have spent years preparing this very room in the event that a garou should stumble upon my trap. And now that one has, after all these years, I do not know what to do." He walked to the edge of the room and sat down heavily, allowing the staff to roll away. Scott walked up to the magus. The magus glanced at a chair. "Sit boy. There is a story I must tell." THe boy complied. "I used that mirror to snare the beast. It is no ordinary mirror, for even you, a lowly apprentice, can sense that it stinks of power. Now it is a horrific weapon, but once it was our greatest hope...a hope for peace. "Once, long ago, there was a war. It was a war not for the history books, for it was fought in a place very different than earth, and yet so close that it seems to pervade all. So close was it that although the mightiest armies of the earth could not fight there, whomever possessed that place, ruled all of earth with an iron fist. No part of earth could be made safe from those who walked the secret ways, for they could use their terrible powers to slide between walls and locked doors. Only one people, the noble Garou, could naturally go to the secret place, and fight there, so the comabatants had to come from them. "Yet it was obvious they could not win the war alone. They swallowed their pride, and came to us for assistance, and even allowed themselves to become allied with vampies, their mortal enemy, so great was the risk to all. "They coordinated their forces. The Garou would fight the secret war within the hidden place, while the Kindred would fight the war here, destroying the enemy wherever it appeared. We, the magi, concerned ourselves with providing support to the weak and wounded. We created items of power, great power, to make our task easier, as was our nature. One such item was that mirror. "If a garou was too weak or wounded to pierce the scrim that separated earth and the hidden place, they need but lock onto the signal the mirror put out, and the mirror would give them safe passage. We on the other side would await, some to tend the
wounds, others to fight the creatures that sometime followed the Garou in. It was a remarkable undertaking, for we saved oh so many lives, lives that would have been lost had the mirrors not been opened." "Magister, did we win the war?" "Do you sit before me now, speaking to me?" "Yes." "Then we won the war, my child." The boy pressed on. "But if we won the war, why would you do such a thing to an ally?" "The war was won, but the ignorance of the Garou, coupled with their hot blood, caused many to seek to point the blame at someone. Although many were saved, ideals were compromised, and to the Garou, sometimes that was worse than death. Too often, they saw evidence that their own kind had started the war. They accused us of starting it, and then setting up evidence to make the blame fall away from us. They were...unreasonable. Irrational. They broke the alliance with a savagery that makes me doubt if any mage or Kindred would be stupid enough to try another. "To answer your question, boy, we are no longer allies." He spat these final words out with true venom. After a long pause, the mage spoke again. "Go downstairs, and retrieve a book I left on the table last night. I have... business." The boy complied, setting down the shotgun as if it were on fire. The mage crept close to the cage. There was 30 such books on the table. The boy would be a long time in finding the right one. He needed that time, alone...with this. "Oh, how far we have fallen, Friend Garou. If only your people would cease their blind rage, and see the world as it actually is. Must I now prey upon you, in order to defeat a greater evil? Is that the child of our noble alliance, forged and forgotten so long ago?" He glanced at the mirror, and wished he could smash it into oblivion. But no force on earth or beyond could even crack its surface. Such was the power of the magic. He withdrew from a pocket a scrap of parchment, and read off the list of ingredients. It was there, as he knew it would be. The one ingredient he knew he would never have the courage to seek out had just been delivered unto him. Providence? He doubted it. Crossing the room with slow strides, he came to the door. "Scott! Forget the book! Come here, and fetch the silvered cord in the lab." He stared at the helpless killing machine sprawled before him. "With but a stroke, I could ease your pain forevermore, but I need it as fresh as possible. I am sorry..." The boy burst through the door, the supplies in hand. "Excellent. Onto your next lesson..." He opened the cage, and bound the garou tightly. Extracting a set of silver knives, he approached the creature. "...Garou Anatomy," he finished. "We begin with the heart..."
Game Stats The Mirror of Salavation is a wondrous device indeed. Created during the Shadow War, it was used to recover those Garou too injured to pass the Gauntlet on their own. It exists simultaneously on the Umbra and "normal" plane, through on the umbra, powerful spells have been cast on it to make it a beacon of light and hope, repelling the creatures of the Wyrm who happen upon it. Part of the aura the Mirror gives off is the reason for its danger. Once, when the wars raged, it became neccessary to be able to sense it from a distance, so that an injured Garou could limp toward it. Now it acts as a mental lure, leading the Garou into a trap. The effect is emulated as per the Mastery Gift. The mirror launches an 8 die attack against the Garou, the command being "Enter the Mirror." Difficulty is the Garou's Wits+3. For every success, the Garou is subconsciously drawn toward the mirror. Even if the Garou beats the mirror, she is unaware of the attempt, and the focal point should be depicted as very curious, perhaps leading the Garou there anyway. When the garou gets close enough to the focal point, (which can look like anything in the Umbra), Movement of the Mind 5 is engaged, to draw her in. This was a passive system, designed to minimize the trauma of stepping sideways. The mirror generates a Gauntlet of 4, allowing easy transportation, but if the victim struggles in any way, the Gauntlet is popped up to 9. The victim is still drawn towards the mirror, but the mirror starts draining health levels, to "take the fight" out of a possibly crazed beast. This is non-aggravated, and the mirror senses when the creature reaches Incapacitated. The amount of time it takes to pass the creature through the Gauntlet, once she resists, is equal to the amount of successes she achieved fighting the Gauntlet. For instance, a garou with a Gnosis of 5 resists the mirror. The difficulty is now 9. She rolls three successes. The mirror will
inevitably draw her in in three rounds. The only way to defeat the mirror is to get more than 5 successes, then beat the Movement of the Mind 5 using Willpower as strength to get away. Another way is to realize that the mirror will only transport one at a time through the surface. While being drawn through, any companions can seek to extricate their friend. Three can try at a time, rolling Willpower versus the Gauntlet's strength. Adding successes, if they exceed 5, they have drawn their friend to safety. This can be attempted even if the Garou willingly enters the Mirror (Gauntlet of 4). However, this violent expulsion does damage equal to the number of successes garnered, even if not successful. This is non-aggravated, and can be soaked normally. Further, those now freed should flee as quickly as possible, for the Mirror keeps on trying. Once captured, the garou can try to escape again, but each attempt burns a willpower point, and the battle continues anew, gradually weakening the beast. The device is nearly invulnerable, breakable only by reversing the proceedure that created it. First, the mirror must catch the reflection of the full moon in its surface. Then, the surface is stained with Tremere vitae (at least 2 BP). Then a Garou must use Silver Claws, smashing the mirror's surface. Only then will the item be destroyed. The device possesses two command words. One turns on the mirror, alerting the user when a Garou approaches in the Umbra. The other turns it off, making it completely undetectable (this was invoked so that Agents of the Wyrm could not find the mirrors for their own benefit). When the mirror is disengaged, the Garou may use it to enter the Umbra safely, as if it had a Gauntlet of 4. A few mirrors are also equipped with Sense Wyrm, which is on when the Mirror is on, detecting the approach of an Agent, either in the Umbra or in the mundane Realm. These mirrors also have a new Gift: Ward of the Wyrm. Ward of the Wyrm (Level 4 Gift): This gift allows the user to either fool or scare an Agent of the Wyrm away from a given location. The Garou first burns 2 Gnosis. User must roll Manipulation+Performances, difficulty 8, to see if the ruse works. If it does, the Garou rolls Charisma+Expression, difficulty equal to an Agent's Willpower. The results depend on what is trying to be achieved. If the Garou seek to scare, every success eliminates one of the agent's attack dice for the next scene. It the Garou seeks to fool, each success stands for a turn in which the Agent is confused, unable to find the Garou. If five successes are scored, the Agent is so confused, he wanders off. For purpose of the gift, the mirror has eight dice for all rolls, and 2 Gnosis, replenished each night. Note that a few mirrors were forged after the Shadow War. These have surfaces of silver, and not glass. All damage taken fighting the Gauntlet then, is aggravated. Fortunately only three of these horrific weapons are known to exist, one currently residing on the bottom of the Atlantic.
Mobius Ring By Anders Sandberg Level three talisman This is a simple ring, consisting of a single band of gold twisted a half-turn before joining itself. If the wearer twists it on his finger, he will immediately (and vulgarly) vanish into a kind of pocket dimension, a kind of Correspondence Paradox realm. Everything is as before, but its own mirror image and without any other people. Another twist of the ring, and the wearer is back in reality again. The ring unfortunately has a drawback -- when used too often the mage begins to slip between the worlds more and more, even when he doesn't want to, and finally ends up completely imprisoned within the realm when the ring suddenly shifts without him.
Mortimer Pencil By Martin J. Pluth (
[email protected])
Description This device was created by a Son of Ether mechanical engineer with a love of doodling. Based on the loveable companion to Bill Cosby in the 1980's television show "Picture Pages," this writing utensil came as the natural link between designing machines on paper and then attempting to build them. It uses a Matter 4/Prime 2 combination to physically create all that it draws. The bearer simply doodles out some creation, signs his John Hancock to it, and *PooF* the real thing pops up out of the paper. Notice that this device is highly vulgar when used around sleepers, but can come in handy in a real pinch. Variations include drafting tools, paintbrushes (for painting doors to get out of locked rooms), and chalk (for drawing/tracing outlines, then summoning the deceased with Spirit 4).
The MPG Dispenser By Michael Bazant (
[email protected]) Talisman rating: 3 Invented by a member of the Sons of Ether, the MPG (multi-purpose goo) dispenser is about the size of a bread box, and fits into a fairly large knapsack. The MPG dispenser takes in stuff (just about anything), and then submits it to destablizing electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays and stuff, causing it to break down a brown mush. The user then adjusts the setting to whatever generic goo he wants, and it then filters it and distills it (about five mins), and the goo is emitted by a stubby tube at the bottom. The limitations assumed by the goo is that it can't be solid (at least, not initially), and must be brown. Various settings could be: Nutritious, adhesive, lubricant, acidic, etc.
Necronomicon Talismans By Robert Kirkpatrick, for the Necromancers sub-tradition. Necromicon Talismans vary widely. They encompass all the Spheres and almost any conjuncktional magick possible. The pages themselves also vary in what is written on them: some are single pictures, while others are elaborate stories, while still more are precise, "scientific" descriptions of rituals or biological essays on strange, devilish beings.
Sonnet of the Seeker (Level 1): This page of the Book of the Dead actually helps to find other pages of the Book of the Dead. It has a Matter 1 and Prime 1 that allows the Mage to locate other pages of the Necromicon by its material and by its Quintessence. The Necromancer, however, has to be in the same general area and the same dimension/plane/whatever as the page that is being looked for. The Sonnet of the Seeker is a poem that reads: "Blessed is the all-consuming Eye, the Vision of the Darkest Lords, like Horus above the sky, force my eyes in the direction of your Hoard."
The Warrior's Epoch (Level 3): This page describes, in bloody detail, the many victories of Magog- Gog, a mighty warrior of ancient Assyrian who was known for being able to tear his opponents limb from limb with his bare hands. This Talisman gives its owner a fraction of Magog-Gog's fighting ability. The effects are as follows: Life to give heightened Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina; Time to get extra attacks; and Entropy that allows the Necromancer to find weak points in their opponents, in order to rip them apart. The Talisman also has a Mind effect that puts delusions into the Necromancer's head, turning them into a berserker in battle. This only shows up when enough Paradox to warrant a flaw of 3 is accumulated. This flaw is not permament, unless a lot of Paradox is gained while using this Talisman. The use of this page provides a coincidental effect: the Necromancer appears to go crazy with anger and starts destroying things in a rage -- of course, with the Paradox Flaw, this may actually be the case.
Soul Warp (Level 5): This page consists of diagrams of a gigantic spiral, or hurricane, that envelops the entire world. Whole bodies are shown being torn apart by the force of the shockwaves -- bone and flesh like tattered rags and debris in the wind. What the page allows the Necromancer to do is create a vortex out of someone's body. This page is nothing more than pure attempt to straight-out destroy someone. It is completely, one-hundred percent vulgar. It has Entropy 2 effect to increase damage by overstressing the joints in the body, it has a Life 4 effect that allows the body to be affected anyway, it has a Forces 5 effect that provides the telekinetic force to tear the flesh asunder, it has a Prime 3 effect that causes the victim to be stunned while this is going on, and it has Mind 2 effect of inserting the thought of "Surrender" into the victim's mind so that he won't try to resist. All this happens at once. If the victim doesn't succeed in resisting the Mind 2 effect with a willpower roll, he must spend as much willpower as the number of magickal successes made in order to soak any physical damage. The number of successes rolled is the amount of damage done times 5, due to the Forces effect. Also, the number of successes is additional damage due to the Entropy effect. Thus, final damage = (5 x No. of Magical Successes) + No. of Magical Successes. The Prime effect is that the victim (if a Mage) can't pump Quintessence into any countermagick attempt. If a character possesses this Talisman, he better be cautious and show restraint in its use. Not only does Paradox punish severely for its use, but the Nephandi have been known to seek out it's user. It's rumored that the Talisman might have a Correspondence, Spirit, and Mind effects that may call out to the Nephandi each time it's used. Like a beacon. If this page is used sparingly, the Nephandi will only be able to read -- like radar -- a few blips every once in a while. If used too much, it will give out a constant cry out to god-knowswhere and god-knows-what.
The Wheel of the Earth (Artifact; Level 7): Naturally, no beginning character can have this. This part of the Necromicon is actually about 5 pages of diagrams and commentary on the various forces that have held together static reality. It begins with the idea of Pangaia (the one continent earth), that was split apart by the WILL of various inhabitants who didn't want to live with one another, and who didn't want war either. It also describes the reality of the Mythic Age, and the current reality. None of these commentaries are all that in-depth, but they give an idea of the Magick of the past. What the Arifact does actually, is provide an anchor, or nexus, for all these realities to exist at once in one belief system. It hints at an idea of Mages being a pivot of all realities, an axle that holds all the spokes in the wheel of the universe. This being the case, the Artifact itself is a being grounded in its purpose, and is in itself the ultimate in static reality. It holds all the visions of static reality in its pages. The magickal effects of this Artifact are vague, because it only has been discover twice -- both times to apocalyptic ends. The Artifact obviously possesses Correspondence and a Forces of at least 6. The Artifact is so ingrained with the issue of static reality that it becomes grounded to one spot after awhile. If moved from that spot, a massive natural disaster occurs (Forces 6). The last two times have been at Pompeii, causing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and at the city of Atlantis. It is also rumored that the Great Flood was as a result of the Artifact being moved. The Artifact also causes Mages not to be able to use Quintessence to power any magickal effects while around it. Also, Paradox is doubled when it occurs. Only the Mage who possesses this Artifact will be unaffected by these effects. In fact, the Mage can decide what things causes Paradox in his general vicinity, because -- in essence -- he possesses the nexus of all static reality. Thus, if he makes it illegal for things to fall downwards, it would create Paradox for it to do so. However, the Mage doesn't create a new reality. In the example, things will still fall down, but it will create Paradox each time things do. There will be no way to avoid it. This Artifact is currently said not to be in anyone's possession. But that remains to be seen, as evident from the recent earthquake in both India and Japan. Necromancers have been scrounging those areas in mass to find out if this portion of the Necromicon was behind it. There is another Artifact similiar to this one that supposedly has high Entropy effects. This Artifact has apparently caused the slow fall and disintegration of many great empires. It is said that it is currently in the United States somewhere, slowly eroding away at its
supposed might.
New World Network (Artifact) By Anders Sandberg This is the New World Order main computer network. It contains not only technomantic computers, but also government, military and commercial computers infiltrated by the New World Order. Using this network the technomancers can quickly access almost all information about someone or something. It is a deeply paranoid network, filled with security checks and expert systems constantly on their guard for intruders. All information is encrypted. The whole network is slow and cumbersome, but very secure. Still, many technomancers suspect that there may be trapdoors or security holes left by Virtual Adepts. Inside the Network the user can search for information about anything, but every access is logged. Expert systems scan for users who display unusual interests, especially in areas outside their normal work. If the New World Order find an intruder, they immediately send the Men In Black to the intruders location, send net-spiders into his computer and reorganise the areas accessed. If the intruder have found names or addresses for agents, they are immediately moved or eliminated ("No security is better than compromised security". Old New World Order saying).
NightBane By Caleb00420 (
[email protected])
Level 5 Talisman
Arete 6
Spheres Forces 5, Prime 2
Description The NightBane, or Light Weapon, appears to be a steel, jeweled dagger handle. In the hands of anyone who knows how to activate it, it becomes one of the most devastating melee weapons known. However, it is not only a weapon; for the imaginative it is a powerful tool kit able to become almost anything imaginable. The user (Awakened or Sleeper) rolls Willpower, difficulty 6 to activate it. When activated, a beam of light is emitted from the handle to a length of three feet, but the light is solid and causes STR+4 Aggravated damage. The wielder can touch the beam without taking damage. Vampiric users take no damage from the light, but must roll for Rotschreck to hold onto the weapon. If the user is aware of the other powers, he can then roll Willpower (diff 7) to manipulate the shape, length, form, and solidity of the light. It can be extended into a whip (STR+2 agg), a battleaxe (STR+7 agg), used as a vaulting pole, a standard laser beam (10 agg), or anything else the user can think of. The only restrictions on the weapon are: 1. It can grow to no longer than 20 ft. in length. 2. The beam cannot cross itself and touch. 3. The beam width cannot exceed the length. (e.g., A climbing rope could be created, but not a rope ladder. If the weapon is destroyed, the handle will explode, causing a ball of white-hot light (20 agg at ground zero, -1 damage per foot from center) to explode outward, causing fire damage to any creature within range and sunlight damage to Kindred. The weapon is not self-sustaining, and must be recharged. After one night of use, the weapon must rest in sunlight for a full day before being used again. When not in use, the gems set in the handle glow, adding +2 to Stealth difficulties. Activating the weapon automatically thwarts any Stealth attempts the user may be making (you try sneaking around in the dark with a Lightsaber!)
Object Relocation Device By Mimi Tzeng (
[email protected])
Level 2
Quintessence 10
Arete 3
Spheres Correspondence 2, Life 2, Matter 2
Appearance This is a black wooden box, 1 1/2 foot per side, with a door on one side and a control panel at the top. The control panel consists of a small screen with targeting cross-hairs on it, and a series of knobs along the bottom. To the lower right is a large green button.
Description The talisman uses a combination of Correspondence 2 and Life 2 or Matter 2 to find and retrieve objects at distant or hidden locations. The mage will use the control panel to sight the target object (which can't be larger than the box), then press the green button. The screen blanks, the box makes a camera-clicking noise, and the object is inside the box when the mage opens the door. It can also work in reverse -- move objects into distant or hidden locations. The mage puts the target object into the box, closes the door, sights the location, and presses the green button. The screen blanks, the box makes a camera-clicking noise, and the object appears in the new location. This is automatically what happens if there are objects already in the box.
Omega 14 By Anders Sandberg (
[email protected])
Description This painting, created in 1936 by the Norwegian artist Bengt Mölle, is one of the more unusual paintings in the world. The eccentric Mölle sought to capture the image of the Unknown, and usually tried to create under the influence of strong drugs and teosophic rituals. However, in the case of Omega 14, it was based on an intense dream he experienced after having painted and discarded 13 other paintings the same day, going to bed dead tired and quite drunk. In the dream he saw a great, lifeless plain, and on that plain an object that was both a palace, a being and a symbol and at the same time neither. The great object loomed over him and the rest of reality, filled with unknown power. The next morning he created his painting; in a matter of minutes he had drawn the basics, and spent the next month perfecting it. During this time he only dreamt about Omega, as he called it, seeking a way into its secrets. Using his painting as a map he eventually found a way into Omega -- and vanished forever. The painting was sold from his estate when he was eventually declared dead; the police never found any clue to his disappearance, although they suspected suicide. Actually, Omega 14 is a manifestation from the deep Universal Subconscious, a kind of entity far beyond our reality that reacted to the artistic probings of Mölle and gradually followed them into the physical world. Unfortunately, the artist's obsession and the unknown entity's inexperience with physical existence trapped it in the painting; as a kind of desperate escape attempt it drew in Mölle into itself, into the painting. His Avatar is now trapped inside Omega and the painting, both struggling to get out. To most viewers Omega 14 is a impressive surrealist painting, not that different from some of the more dissolved creations of Dali but quite compelling. The contrast between the dry, parched landscape in the foreground and the huge, bluish-red-green thing in the background is pleasing and suitably disturbing. But the picture actually changes over time. The dark, dry clouds slowly drift over the painting over the span of weeks, and parts of Omega moves when nobody is looking. Mages and sensitive beings usually feel the presence of somebody or something when near the painting, but it indistinct and often mistaken for other presences. To truly come to life the painting needs quintessence, and it will siphon it from the surroundings if free quintessence ever becomes available, such as the painting being placed near a node or touched by a mage. The Avatar of Mölle desperately seeks to escape and unfold again, enmeshed within Omega. One way would be to fuel the painting with enough quintessence; the trapped entity would be able to manifest physically. Unfortunately this would require huge amounts of quintessence, and would cause a major paradox storm. Mages can also enter the painting, using Mind or Spirit. Omega seeks contact with the Universal Subconscious again, and might lure others into its world. From the inside the painting is vast, although largely a wasteland of windswept, dry clay and foreboding clouds. The only life is Omega, an immense baroque building-god. It cannot communicate, and the mind of Mölle is long since destroyed, but the Avatar may speak with the Avatars of mages, giving them hints, visions or strange coincidences. It is unwise to enter into Omega, since the being cannot resist the lure of absorbing another person in a desperate attempt to find a way into the subconscious (which it thus closes for itself). Just touching the substance of the being is safe, but also floods the mind of the toucher with visions ripped from the universal subconscious, Mölle and countless viewers of the painting; this makes even the most serious Quiet look tame. At the same time it may give some hints of the true story of Omega.
The Omega Battler Mecha Suit Z (Level 5) By Stephen Esdale, for the Animagicians tradition. Arete: 5 Quintessence: 30 Possibly the most powerful Talisman currently in use with the Animagicans (except for the infamous Veritech, which is currently missing), the OBMS-Z fighter suit was designed by one of the few Animages who doesn't have a single Anime inspiration. Shawn East envisioned this original suit as a perfect H.I.T. Mark destroyer, but was killed by Paradox when he tried to use it. Great care must be taken when employing this suit. This suit is about the size of a suit of medieval full plate but weighs nearly nothing (The suit gives Armour Rating 6, Penalty 0). While somewhat silly looking to all but true Anime enthusiasts, the OBMS-Z has incredible firepower at its disposal. Its Forces 5 "Plasma Bolts" are powerful enough to incinerate sleepers instantly. Correspondence 4 does the equivalent of "SevenLeague Stride" (Mage pg.185), causing one blow or attach to be felt in multiple locations. Time 3 "Accelerate Time" (Mage pg. 218) allows multiple attacks. Mind 2 is "No-Mind" (Mage, pg. 207) and allow the user to scan for sentient attackers. Finally, Entropy 1 is "Dim Mak" (Mage pg. 191), allowing to find weak spots in an enemy.
The Paradigma By Anders Sandberg Description This unique item is one of the more unusual talismans in circulation, a tool to understand the local paradigm. The Paradigma has no fixed shape, and will change shape to fit the paradigm (although it always remains small enough to be held in a hand). These changes in shape never occur when people look at it, and will never draw attention to the device. In a hermetic temple, it will be an ornate seal or crystal sphere reflecting the secret symbols around it. When moved to a technocracy lab it will become a slick electronic device, and on a busy city street a small calculator. In a Verbena grove it is a small twig with thorns, and near a Euthanatos killing it might become a broken piece of bone. And in a Nephandi labyrinth it may become a fistful of living, diseased flesh... The item is quite useful to mages who understand how to use it for maximum benefit. By adjusting their magick to the paradigm, they lessen the risk of paradox, and by carefully studying the Paradigma it is possible to notice minute fluctuations in reality, making it possible to determine something about what mages and what kinds of magick has been in the vicinity. While the Paradigma retains its form based on the main paradigm, subtle shifts in its appearance may signify other kinds of reality: near Nephandi taint the twig becomes dead and diseased, and when passing a hermetic mage on the street the calculator displays an occult significant number. It is not certain what the Paradigma is, but mages who have studied it think it is actually a kind of benign hobgoblin. According to one story it was left behind during the Great Quiet of Nazdhur-i-Khan (like the Imp of the Perverse and many other unusual hobgoblins). Some mages have warned that the Paradigma may be more dangerous than it seems.
System Studying the Paradigma (perception + enigmas) gives the mage insight in the local paradigm and possible loopholes in it. If a character understands it, he will more easily find a good coincidence to use in a magickal effect, or even an effect the paradigm will enforce. It is also possible to use the Paradigma to look for magick of various kinds. This can notice the presence of talismans, magickal effects, mages or events. It is not completely reliable, since the hopes and fears of the mage can influence it (a paranoid mage might make the Paradigma react to Technocracy presence even when the nearest Man in Black is miles away).
Paradox Bomb By Jeffrey Wasser (
[email protected])
Level Five Talisman
Description Many years ago an almost sane (but not quite) Marauder found a way to harness Paradox (which seems to effect bystanders rather than them) and actually focus it into a ball. This Paradox bomb is highly unstable and commonly goes off at the slightest touch. Though Paradox usually affects only mages the Paradox Bomb will work on any living (or dead in the case of wraiths) creature. The Paradox Bomb looks like a glowing blue basketball. The Marauder made many bombs though they have been scattered across the earth (the U.S. Government found some and claimed them as atom bombs). Its instability makes it a very dangerous item to have.
System: When a victim is hit with bomb he automatically gains 30 Paradox, causing any effect the Storyteller decides.
Paradox Field Nullifier By
[email protected]
Level 4 or 5 Talisman (5 is the portable version)
Arete 5
Quintessence 20
Description Son of Ether Alan Primo, Master of Prime, found much of his Science difficult because many of his experiments proved highly Vulger. After coming out of his third Quiet, he finally learned his lesson. To not use as much Vulger Magick? No. As he was stumbling through the streets of Seattle when in Quiet, he concocted the idea of a Paradox Nullifier. Setting to work immediately after his recovery, he produced two versions of the Talisman: one large and clunky, but affecting a greater radius, one distinctly portable but only affecting one person. Introducing his finds to his collegues, he was granted trmemendous honor and respect. However, after a while, it was found that the Professor almost never left his room. He stayed in the lab with the Nullifier twentyfour hours a day. He resisted all attempts to get him to leave the room, eventually fighting back with ray in hand. When he was finally forced out, he exploded in a horrific explosion, and a distinct raise in the Gauntlet and in Paradox was noticed for years on end. Needless to say, the Paradox Nullifier has been subjected to extreme study, though nobody can actually figure out what exactly happened. In game terms, the Paradox Field Nullifier allows a Mage to blatantly ignore Paradox and the effects of such. However, there comes a great price: Freedom (or if your using the portable version, looking incredibally silly allthe time). The Talisman absorbs one point of Paradox per scene (the effects are cumulative, if you have it off for five scenes, you can absorb five points). Any more points that scene need a points of Quintessence for a one-for-one basis (this applies to the portable version only). There is a catch: If the Mage ever leaves the presence of the Big version, or takes off the portable, she receives twice the amount of paradox the nullifier absorbed, and an additional three points for every day in its presence. The big version is a 10 foot tall metal tower-like thing that has successively larger and larger metal balls on it. Like a giant ice cream cone without ice cream. When active, it gives off an eery green light from the top ball. The portable version is a big hat. It has a minature pyramid on it that, when active, proudly displays "Loser," "Geek," "Nerd," and "Hey Technocracey Idiots!!!!!" The inventor made these fetures to avoid theft (how he managed to live with it is unknown). When seen with it on, it lowers all detection difficulties by -2 when targeting the Mage, and adds +2 to all difficulties to all social rolls.
Pattern Recognition Expert System (Spirit 4) By Anders Sandberg The expert system is a small AI, designed to search computers for certain patterns. They are used to track people, find intruders or anything else in the area of pattern recognition. For example, if the user wants to know if someone is a mage. The expert system immediately begins to collect all available information, comparing it to known mages and making assumptions on its own. For example, if the person has been seen with known mages, has won on the lottery 100% more than average, has an almost perfect medical record and is known to be regarded as an eccentric, then the expert will inform the user that it is 88% chance for the person to have an awakened avatar, and 65% chance for him to be a true mage, given this information. These Expert systems are constantly tracking certain people the technocracy have become interested in, noticing if something odd happens. They also search for intruders in their systems, nodes, breaches of the Gauntlet and general weirdness.
Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses(TM) By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]) (based on the creation by Douglas Adams)
Spheres Forces 2, Mind 3, Spirit 4, Forces 5
Description The Glasses sense when danger approaches, whether it be someone seeking to do harm to the wearer, or an accident, and darkens the glasses appropriately, so that the wearer doesn't have to see the one that gets him. The user is effectively blinded as long as he wears the glasses, and danger approaches. Not particularly useful, except in that the glasses are completely indestructible, and have been known to be the only thing to survive particularly heinous Paradox Backlashes.
Perpetual Motion Machine By Doctor X (
[email protected])
Spheres Forces 3, Matter 3
Description Strap a piece of toast, butter-side up, to the back of a cat. Stick a 1-1/2" thick steel crank (length may vary, but it should be enough to stick out of the box.) between the cat and the toast, and drop from a height of about six feet. Since a cat always lands on it' feet, and toast always lands butter-side down, they will stop falling about a foot from the ground and begin spinning rapidly. Build a box around them, so that the cat is both alive and dead, and hook the crank up to your generator. Voila: limitless free energy!
The Polyhedron of Andreas Arenamontanus By Paul Niziol "17 January: This is a most curious item. It is a large crystal or piece of glass, about five centimetres across with many faces. It is quite clear, and sparkles in a way which make most diamonds seem dull in comparison. It is also rather heavy, almost 3 hectogram. Inside the polyhedron is a world of reflections and refractions. I can see myself and my surroundings reflected, distorted and permuted in a myriad ways. There is also something else in there. I have not yet seen it, but I feel there is something hidden behind those illusions." "21 January: Today I saw it. I don't know what it was, or if it was a pure hallucination. Suddenly, I saw something in a facet move, and it was not a reflection of myself. Instead, it was a reflection of something... different. I can't explain it in words, but whatever it was, it was definitely not human." "1 February: I have seen other things in the polyhedron. One time I saw a strange room, or perhaps a building. The walls were made of living colours, meeting in obtuse angles and baroque ornaments. The other time I saw several (or perhaps only one, but disjointed) things move. I am not sure if it danced, gesticulated or dissolved (maybe it did all three at the same time). What I am sure about, is that it saw me. It definitely saw me." "3 February: I have studied the polyhedron, using Coxeter's excellent "Regular Polyhedrons". It belongs to the symmetry group {7,5,2}:which cannot exist in three dimensional space. This confirms my speculations. It is not from here." "4 February: I have communicated with them. No language can contain it. There is only the lattice of symmetries between us. Sometimes light is only what remains. What rules the circle also rules illusions of hope. Strange I didn't think of it before..." The Polyhedron of Andreas Arenamontanus is a strange artifact. Its name derives from an obscure Hermetic scholar during the 11th century, who described it in his work "De Naturae Mysteris". It is a polyhedron of heavy crystal, brilliantly clear and cool to touch. Inside reflections and refractions dance, breaking up white light into strangely discoloured spectra. Using it as meditation object can lead to startling insights (+3 dices to occult, enigmas and cosmology. If the user botches, double the number of 1:s.). Anyone with science 4 or Correspondence 1 will notice that the polyhedron has a very unusual shape, which should not really exist. It has other unusual properties, like its fantastic hardness (much harder than diamond) or that it never will become warm. If studied carefully, the user may notice that there are glimpses of other places among the reflections inside. The places reflected are completely unlike any imaginable place, filled with weird objects and eerie beings. Nothing has the faintest resemblance to anything known to man. According to Arenamontanus, the polyhedron is a window into the Deep Umbra, showing the denizens of realms so far off that humans never have reached them. The polyhedron not only allows the user to look out, it also allows the things out there to look in. Arenamontanus relates the story about a monk who was driven insane by seeing something inside the polyhedron look at him. Even trained mages find themselves disturbed with the things on the other side. They do not seem to have any familiar concepts at all: time, space, dimensions, matter or energy may be unknown concepts to them. The polyhedron does not allow any matter or energy to cross, only information. In some cases the things on the other side have tried to initiate communication using something akin to Mind. This has invariably driven sleepers insane, and even a trained mage will have to fight for his sanity against the terrible alienness. Still, this has not deterred many mages, who have tried to communicate. The exact results are unknown. The polyhedron is not magickal in any way; it contains no extra quintessence, and does not absorb quintessence in any way like a normal artifact does. Arenamontanus speculates that the polyhedron actually is a normal, mundane thing from a realm somewhere in the Deep Umbra, where the laws of nature are so strange they allow such things to exist. On Earth, it would constantly attract paradox due to its existance, but curiously it does not appear to do so. According to Arenamontanus, the polyhedron may be a Marauder artifact, deliberately left on Earth to trap the unwary. On the other hand, it does not appear to do the spectacular type of marauder-magick one is used to. Another theory is that it is a Nephandi artifact, a window to the hidden masters of the Nephandi. But if that is true, how come the things outside are not more actively malign?
Potion of Life By John Snead (
[email protected]) (9 Mar 1994) Level 4 It is a potion, and as such is not a normal talisman. Instead of being something you carry with you and use, it is something the character drinks that makes a permanant change in her body. It is a potion that has been re-invented separately by the OoH, the Verbena, the Akashics, and the SoE.
Powers: 1) Alter pattern: (Prime 4 Life 3) The pattern of the imbiber is altered, so that she no longer ages. Since this is done using Prime 4 there is no pattern bleeding caused by this effect, since the person's entire pattern is changed to accommodate this change. 2) Sense health, you are able to look inside your body, and sense any injury, poison or other damage, using Life 1. Roll Per+Medicine. 3) Heal body, once you have sensed an injury you may attempt to heal it. Before sleeping you must Meditate for at least half an hour. Roll Sta+Meditation vs Dif 6, each success allows you to heal one body level in damage, however, you must sleep for at least one hour per body level regained immediately after completing the meditation, or all benefits are lost. The body levels heal at the rate of 1 per hour, Life 3. 4) Immunity to disease, you are fully and totally immune to all diseases. All harmful viruses, bacteria, and fungi in your body die, Life 2. When you imbibe this potion roll your Arete+4 (the level of the Talisman) vs a difficulty of 7, if you achieve 5 or more successes the effect of drinking this potion is permanent, and all of the effects listed above become permanent abilities of the character. If fewer successes are rolled the potion only lasts as long as the duration roll indicates, then it ceases to effect the character, and the PC must find another dose, and try again. There do exist level 5 versions, which are identical, except that to chance for permanency is greater (Arete+5). Yes, I know this is not a standard Talisman, but I like the idea, and it seemed to fit the Mage game rather well. I enjoy playing ancient immortal characters. Amulet versions of this charm Talisman also exist, however, most of them become inactive once they have bestowed permanent immortality on one subject (ie you can't pass them around to the entire party). The Verbena and SoE versions of the potion require Kindred Vitae to be effective.
Prime Bombs By Anders Sandberg These are to Prime what nuclear weapons are to Matter and Forces. Technically, they contain Technomantic devices capable of disrupting the Grand Unified Field (also known as Prime to the lesser enlightened mages). They release a intense burst of Prime, disrupting any nearby patterns and releasing their Prime too. This process effectively destroys an area completely, and could in theory destroy the whole of reality. Fortunately, the pattern-converting effect does spread far in most normal areas. From the central destruction, a wave of Quintessence radiate outwards, disrupting patterns, Living beings suddenly overload with Prime, Quintessence suddenly manifest as destructive patterns (like explosions, sudden material failures, dangerous forces, dreams coming true, dimensions shifting and spirits manifesting). The most destructive effect of the Prime Bomb is however its effects on nodes and ley lines. As they overload, they may shift or even suffer catastrophic effects as their Prime also begins to manifest. These effects may spread as a chain reaction far away from the original blast site. The technocracy does never use these nasties anywhere on Earth without very good reasons, and not even then they dare use them nearby any sleepers. They know that these bombs could easily destroy their reality if somebody saw their effects. And if they fell in the wrong hands... So far, they have only been tested once on Earth, in Tunguska, Siberia 1912. Even that little trial detonation was enough to convince the Technocracy to keep the Prime Bombs under lock and key. They are more protected than the nuclear arsenals of any normal nation. Probably only the leaders of the Technocracy have the authority to order one of these weapons to be used. A more devious weapon is the Prime Overload. Using their vast resources of prime, the technocracy can direct it at a certain point, temporarily creating a "super-node". By swiftly oscilliating the amount of prime, they create a kind of resonance. This "super-node" will disrupt normal Prime-fields locally, especially nodes. The effect is often quite invisible to anybody without Prime except to those inside the super-node, who will feel a strange tingling sensation. This area can be quite small, and Iteration X has designed man-portable primal projectors, which can disrupt pattern magick.
Protective seals (Spirit 3) By Anders Sandberg, for the Goetia sub-tradition. These five seals are small disks of bronze with a symbol inscribed. When placed in a pentagram around a place, they will make it much harder for spirits to enter, both through the gauntlet and through the material world. They will also counteract any Spirit magick inside, and make all spirits inside feel very uncomfortable.
Provably Safe Operating System (Talisman 4) ong> By Anders Sandberg, for the Mathemagicians faction. Dr Hill has managed to construct, together with the NWO, an operating system which is totally safe. It is mathematically proven (and verified) that this system *cannot* be broken from the outside; it is a mathematical impossibility. The NWO uses it as a defence against the Virtual Adepts, despite its drawbacks. It is very slow and unwieldy, and writing applications for it taxes the skills of the best programmers in the Technocracy. But safety before economics, as the NWO says. [ The operating system is based upon a complex web of interlocking codes, consistency checks and an ingenious use of zero-knowledge proofs. The only way to crack it is either by subverting its system operator or by using vulgar magick. The NWO has linked it to a paradox detectors. ]
The Pure Sand of Dreams By Kenneth Scroggins (
[email protected]) (11 Nov 1994) "You are right. This is a dream. But not a dream from which you will not waken. Not now. Not ever." - Morpheus, from Neil Gaiman's
Sandman This is a very special kind of Tass/Talisman. It can create Talismans in addition to any normal uses for Quintessence. Five point Talismans last for One round, Four point Talismans last for One scene, Three point Talismans last for One day, Two point Talismans last for One phase of the moon (or one week), and One point Talismans last for One Moon (or one month). the Talismans are created on a one to one point basis and do not generate Paradox at night, but act as Vulgar Magic with witness during the Day (this assumes that the Tass was gathered at Night, when it is most plentiful, Dream sand gathered from daydreams works in the opposite fashion). Dreamsand can be gathered by Mages who enter the dream-realms, a Mind 3 and Spirit 3 effect. The sand must be gathered using a Prime 3 effect to concentrate it from the dream itself. This does one point of non-aggravated damage to the dreamer per point of Dreamsand taken. If the dreamer has all of their dreams stolen for an extended period, the dreamer may go mad, awaken normally, or become a Marauder. Also the theft of dreams attracts certain entities which guard dreams, as well as the dangers that may arise from within the dream itself. Dreamsand can generate a coincidental Mind Four effect and put people to sleep when it is sprinkled upon them. Mages should roll Dexterity plus Dream skill to properly target this effect (or use Prime 2), botches will put the Mage casting the sand to sleep. This effect is resisted with a Willpower (7) roll. Only one person per point can be affected in this Manner. The sand can be used to create Dream realms in the Umbra by a Mage with Spirit 5, Prime 5, and Mind 4. The exact process is unknown however. (ie I haven't thought of it yet)
The Purse of Tommy (Talisman 2) By Anders Sandberg This is an apparently quite normal purse, filled with the usual money, plastic cards, old notes and fluff. However, if one digs deep enough (its much deeper on the inside than the outside), one can find tickets to movies and rock-concerts. Some of them are several years in the future, or aren't even planned yet! Needless to say, this is a highly prized among the Cultists.
Rabbit Ears (
[email protected]) By Timothy Toner, for the McLuhan's Kids orphans.
Level Three Talisman
Description This set of antenna are attached to a headband. Upon command, the headband extends, rendering the wearer invisible, although he still can be heard and felt.
RISP Scanner (Forces 2 Correspondence 3) By Anders Sandberg This is a small device, looking like a calculator (often camouflaged as such). It will send a signal to a certain RISP which responds with a signal. The scanner will use this information to track the distance to the RISP. Some scanners can send signals to every RISP in the vicinity, thus finding unexpected RISPS. Using these scanners, New World Order is tracking interesting computers to find their owners. Even if they only find an uninteresting RISP in a stereo, they will enter its position, use and identification number into their gigantic database over known RISPs. You can never tell what use it could have one day.
Bugged Processors (RISPs) (Forces 2 Correspondence 3) By Anders Sandberg Iteration X invented these, but their main user is The New World Order. The bugged processors, or "Remote Intercept Standard Processors", RISPs, are apparently normal processors. They look like a 68000, a 80386 or any other standard processor. They work completely the same way. But each RISP have a individual identification code. When the technomancers send this code using their sophisticated communications technology, the RISP will respond from anywhere in the world. It will immediately link up to a technomancer computer, which will emulate the processor. The user will never suspect anything, but all information passing through the processor will appear in the technomancer computer. The technomancers can take control over every machine with a RISP inside. The New World Order has used RISP-technology to infiltrate most government and military systems. Almost any information stored in these systems can be retrieved, records can be altered or deleted. Iteration X has begun experimenting with sending not only information into the RISPs, but instead using the link to send high voltage currents into the computer, destroying the computer and killing the operator. Fortunately, the technomancers have not yet infiltrated everything with RISPs. While they certainly would like to have a RISP in every piece of machinery on Earth, it would not be very useful. The amount of information would be too big to handle, even with the biggest computers in Autocthonia. Even today there are millions of RISPs, and most of them sit unused in personal computers, washing machines and stereos. Most of these have been simple tests of the technology, using infiltrators at Intel and Motorola to spread the RISPs. Since the technomancers only have a very general idea of what each RISP is used for and where each RISP is, they have not yet been used for anything. Another problem is security. The paranoids in The New World Order do not like the thought of having RISPs everywhere. While they certainly would like to have total access to every computer in the world, they are suspicious of Iteration X. What if the Iterations use the RISPs to infiltrate New World Order? Or even more horrible, what if the Virtual Adepts got wind of the RISPs and used them to infiltrate the technocracy's computers? There also exists RIMUs (Remote Intercept Memory Units) and AISP (Autonomous Intercept Standard Processors). The AISPs are designed to constantly scan for certain patterns, like the words "Virtual Adept", and contact the main computers if this appears. Unfortunately, the AISPs are not very advanced yet, and can only scan for very simple patterns (They would fail against "Adpt Vrtual"). Iteration X engineers are working on this problem.
Road Warrior XT1.0 Mobile Computer By Dave Elliott (
[email protected])
Author's Note This talisman was inspired by the Xybernaut 133PTM found in PC Magazine's May 26, 1998 issue. It is by no means a challenge to any copyrights held by Xybernaut Corp.
Level 3 Talisman (or Level 4 Fetish if a spirit is bound into it)
Quintessence 20 (uses 1 point per hour of use)
Description The Road Warrior XT1.0 is the Virtual Adept version of a new PC that is totally portable and wearable. It is vastly superior to the mundane version obviously, and gives users the ability to do their computing anywhere. Yes, laptops do this as well, but you don't have to hold the XT to use it. The unit consists of the CPU/battery pack belt, arm mounted keyboard, and the headset. The headset unit has the microphone, earpiece, and single swing down display module. The XT1.1 unit comes with a slightly modified headset. It consists of an earpiece/microphone unit and what appears to be a fairly weird pair of sunglasses. Fairly weird looking due to the wires attached to it and the increased lens thickness. (roughly 1/8 of an inch) The glasses enable the Awakened user to access information in a fully 3D virtual environment. A simple command, verbal or typed, to the CPU switches it to a mundane 256 monochrome screen. Components of the system are as follows: CPU: Trinary, Fetish versions are possible. Battery: Basically a Quintessence battery (consumes 1 Quint/hour). Hard Drive: 1 Terabyte. Memory: 1 Gigabyte L2 Cache: 1 Megabyte Screen: Either a single unit of 256 Monochrome with a 640 by 480 screen, or the VR glasses with 24-Bit color and full field of vision out to the edges of the glasses. Modem: Satellite Uplink to the Digital Web. It functions as a normal trinary.
Rod of the Volva (Level 3) By Anders Sandberg, for the Asatru tradition. Some of the volvas enchanted their rods so that they could be used more easily. By holding the rod and going into a trance (or being sleepy, drunk or something like that), the wielder will get visions of the past, present and future. These visions are partially random, partially controlled by what the user want to see (not only consciously, but also subconsciously), and may be dangerously biased. Some rods are still strongly influenced by their makers, and will be biased towards their views. The link between the rod and the original owner is often so strong, that it is possible to communicate with her soul in the realm of death (note that most volvas have no grasp of modern languages). How she reacts to the mage who disturbs her sleep depends much on how she is treated and what he asks her. Some volvas are happy to help in any way they can, while others trick and curse people seeking help. [ The rod uses a Correspondence 3 Time 2 rote to show distant places and times for the user, and a Spirit rote to contact the dead volva. ]
Rubber Ducky By Harmonious Bob (
[email protected])
Cost BoS: 13, MtA: 6
Level 4
Arete 3
Quintessence 15
Spheres Matter 4, Prime 2, Correspondence 3
Background Bob was (and is) convinced that the universe began when a rubber ducky squeaked. Naturally, when he became a Mage, his paradigm was centered around squeaky toys. Equally naturally, when he became a Master in the sphere of Matter, he decided to forge his favorite rotes into a talisman.
Effects Squeak of Doom: So named because its use often came right before the recipient realized his/her doom was imminent. This effect uses Matter 4 to change a weapon (gun, bazooka, missile launcher, bat, rubber chicken) into a squeaky toy of the same mass and dimensions. The look on the MIBs face when they pull the trigger and hear a squeak is simply superb. Cost: 3 Quintessence
Squeaking Switcheroo: This effect's name is rather self-explanatory: using Prime 1 to locate any items charged with Quintessence, and whisk them away to a location of the Mage's choice. At the same time, Prime 2 and Matter 4 are used to create a squeaky toy of the same mass and dimensions in exactly the same place. So, unless the opponent was somehow monitoring their items, they won't notice until it is too late. Cost: 2 Quintessence
Squeak and Tell: Rather straightforward, this effect uses Prime 1, Corr 1 to locate exactly were on an opponent's body magical items are stored. Cost: 1 Quintessence
Notes This talisman is highly susceptible to the Domino Effect. When a one or two of a persons possessions turn out to be squeaky toys, people will think it's strange, but not impossible. However, turning everything the person is carrying will get the Mage some major Raradox. The Squeak of Doom works mostly against Technocracy acolytes, since having a squeaky plasma rifle won't matter much to the HIT Mark about to fry you. For that matter, neither would a squeaky wand.
Sceptre of Command (Spirit 2 Mind 1,2) By Anders Sandberg, for the Goetia sub-tradition. This golden sceptre will give the mage a nimbus of regal power and dread to most lesser spirits, who will obey orders out of fear. The wielder can generally scare away most minions, or order them to do his tasks. It will also protect him from mental attacks from spirits and other beings.
The Self-Cooking Chicken By Thomas Gray (
[email protected])
Cost 4
Level 2
Arete 3
Quintessence 7
Background Robert stopped running for a while, to sit and rest. He knew they were still chasing him, but he couldn't keep going. His stomach rumbled. He was hungry. Still he hadn't had time to get anything to eat since the suits had showed up the other day. He sighed and stood back up and began running again. As he was running, he thought there should be a way to create an easy, fast meal for people on the run. As he ran, he went past a restaurant advertizing a roast chicken special. Then it hit him. If he got out of this alive...
Description Well, Robert was never seen again, but another mage under different circumstances came up with a similar idea. Basically, the chicken is a living talisman. First, it uses a Life 3 effect to cause all its feathers to drop off. Then, it uses a Forces 3, Prime 2 effect to spontaneously combust. Using Time 1, it stops cooking at the desired time. The nicely roasted meat can then be carved off.
Creation The talisman can be created by using Life 4/Prime 2 or by simply performing a ritual on an ordinary chicken. The ritual also works on other forms of meat. There have been rumors of French mages using a similar, but more complex ritual on frogs.
Variant There have recently been rumors of a Marauder who has created a variant of this effect. Instead of using Life 4 in the creation of the talisman, Matter 3 is used. It is still a mystery as to what the Marauder is doing with a self-cooking rubber chicken.
Shade Crystal By Peter Sears (
[email protected])
Description Lost in the mists of antiquity, these items are fairly rare. It is said that only thirty of them exist and the methods for creating new ones are forever lost. They are black crystals of extreme hardness and they are flat and unreflective. Often they are found with a silver chain and cage arrangement but others are found alone. The gems have a sort of runic language that is cut into them that is undecipherable. Hermetic mages believe them to be of Egyptian manufacture but some also posit that they might be Sumerian. Shade crystals have an unusual ability. When worn over the heart that ability can be called into effect. A mage spends a point of his own personalQquintessence (no tass) and the Shade Crystal will massively amplify his ability to be Arcane. In effect, the expenditure of Quintessence causes the mage's rating in Arcane to jump to 5 for one full day and one full night. The Crystal does not require that the mage have Prime 3 to channel Quintessence into it but it also does not have its own store of Quintessence on which to draw. Hermetics theorize that its power derives from some powerful, and partially natural, resonance effect. All that is required of the mage is a point of his Avatar Quintessence and concentration for a full minute. Even those who do not have Arcane can benefit from the power of the Shade Crystal. The user effectively ceases to exist for a day. Those who have close emotional ties to the user will not forget her but if they are out of sight they will cease thinking about her at all. The user does not become invisible but she becomes so unobtrusive that she might as well be. Antagonists that are shooting at anything that moves will note movement in their line of sight but otherwise may not notice the mage. To people other than those who are close to the mage the mage effectively ceases to exist. Phone numbers become lost, computer files become corrupted, hard copy files get coffee spilled on them, sneaking into the movies or the subway become easy as pie. Obfuscated vampires will notice something go by . . . maybe and vampires with high auspex might notice you if they happen to be looking. Continued use of this article causes the mage to unwittingly leave his life behind if he's not careful. If used for more than four days running those with close ties will forget they knew you at all or even convince themselves that you are dead or lost in a paradox realm somewhere. Arch-enemies will get on with their lives. Witch hunters will be confused. Your parents and your children will rearrange their personal histories and all traces of your identity will erase themselves. You may even come home to discover that someone is selling your house. If you aren't prepared for this it could drive you into a seriously deep Quiet. It is also known that mummies are capable of using these items and power them with Sekhem and in fact use them to leave lives behind them on occasion. It is rumored that they are the creators of these items but that even they have forgotten how to make more. Considering the nature of the Shade Crystals, this is not all that unusual.
Shadow Nuke By Xero (
[email protected])
Level Five Talisman
Quintessence Varies (amount invested equals the distance in radius yards the blast will travel x2) (minimum 15)
Description The device that activates the blast is a small capsule that sits on the ground for one turn, then releases a flame that slowly creeps along the ground and out to the shadows. When reached the fire start to literally suck the shadows into it and gains energy. This whole process takes 2 turns, after which the flames die and it sits there for a few seconds and then unleashes a nuclear blast.
System: The shockwave and immense heat caused by the the blast can be heard miles away. The light caused by it instantly blinds any target in the area. The blast does 16 aggravated damage to targets within the blast range of the capsule. The blast travels at a speed that would be the equivalent of Celerity 6. A small investment of Forces can up this (1:1). The effects of the shadow are much different than that of the regular H-bomb. When the energy is release it does not pour off the radiation that the H-Bomb did. Some mages are even thinking that there is a certain adverse flux of Quintessence that can be absorbed by this. This theory is still unknown.
Shylo's Gear By Ryan Baker (
[email protected]) (10 March 1995) Shylo's Gear is a powerful talisman that is made up of two parts: a headset (earpiece, eyepiece, microphone in front of the mouth, all of which are connected) and a glove (similar in looks to the powerglove). For a good idea of it's design see a VA in the MAGE book. The eyepiece grants the user -1 diff. on all combat rolls and -2 on firearms (it projects the target's position a few seconds in the future). The headset allows a telepathic link to any others of it's kind. It also allows the user to send telepathic messages to others, individually while eye contact is maintained. The eyepiece also displays the specs (general health, spiritual status i.e. Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, etc.) of anyone viewed, plus it functions as a monitor. The glove is the more violent side of this thing. It grants +2 to the sphere of forces (for Electrical effects only!). It can fire "lightning bolts" and such at any time, at the increased damage level. The glove also allows the user to "spot teleport", teleport anywhere in sight, with an accompaning lightning bolt (non-damaging). It should be noted that any attempted use of these powers immediatly forces a point of paradox into the mage. The glove doubles for a keyboard too, effectivly eliminating the need for a computer. This device was in the possession of one of the character's mentor, Shylo, until his untimely demise at the hands at the hands of a vampire elder. He was a noted mentor and gave his worthy students a (much) less powerful version. This is because a useful side effect allowed him a much easier time using the sphere of correspondence to locate and to teleport one set (and wearer) to another. It should be noted that one of Shylo's top students is currently trying to inject his avatar into the Digital Web, thus allowing the creation of more (than the current 5, only one of which is this powerful- Shylo's -and is in the hands of the selfsame student) of these talismans.
S.I.P.H.E.R. (Synthetic Intelligent Prototype/Human Enhanced Recognition) (pronounced 'Cypher' with a think accent) ;) By Blake 1001 (
[email protected])
Level 5 Fetish
Gnosis 8
Description The Sipher is an advanced chameleon battle mecha designed for the military in the far future. It achieves artificial intelligence by permanently bonding with a human mind and utilizing some of the brain's untapped computing power (OK, it was built in an It-X construct that is defined as being 'in the future' rather than on the Horizon. Attuning the Fetish is a serious, no-going-back business.) However, the Sipher, while still in its unbonded quasi-sentient condition, escaped into the past (physical reality), where it encountered and bonded with an unsuspecting human (the PC attuned it). The Sipher is, of course pursued by high-tech secret assassin robots from the future (OK, they're HIT Marks). The Sipher has a mental link with the attuned human, speaking with a voice that only he can hear. Unfortunately, for the human,to speak to the Sipher he must speak aloud (or at least subvocalize, as the link is to his speach centers). It has the ability to assume the physical form and function of any contextually apropriate technological device automatically, from the size of digital watch to the size of a motorcycle. To assume the form of a more advanced device, it must roll its Gnosis, and there is a definite danger of a Temporal Instability (Paradox) when advanced functions are used. Currently, the Sipher has only its base form (an odd-looking battlesuit) and any contemporary devices it happens to come accross to imitate -- but, when it encounters advanced technology (Technomagick), usually carried by its pursuers, it can often imitate them as well. The battle-armor mode is Paradoxical, accumulating one Paradox per scene, plus one Paradox when any of its special functions are used. It gives the wearer a Strength of 8 and 8 dice of armor soak (includes Agg) and allows him to run at double normal speed and jump about 3 stories straight up or across an 8 lane highway. Special functions include Active Plasma Energy Projection (Forces 3/Prime 2 costs one quint, does Agg damage) and the ability to tap 'advanced energy sources' (i.e., transfer Quintessence, Prime 3), plus anything else the ST decides he wants it to do (because of its experimental adaptive technology, the Sipher can have a function in one scene and not in another for no apparent reason). As it accumulates Paradox, the Sipher experiences Temporal Fluxes during which it can dramatically slow down or cease to function for a time, or malfunction and 'cascade' through the last few forms its assumed (it can be quite inconvenient when your battle armor turns into a toaster). Furthermore, the Sipher has some understanding of this danger, and will rarely let itself be talked into assuming its battle-armor form or using special functions unless its to fight its pursuers (Iterators) or its low on Quint and has an oportunity to recharge. Finally, due to the advanced Quintessence-dependent technology used in the Sipher, and its human interface the device, and the person who has attuned it can be accurately tracked by Iterators or Hit Marks at relatively close range (a few hundred yards) regardless of Arcane or Wards; this distance increases to kilometers when special functions are being actively used. ;) (Yes this is your basic Anime McGuffin, that drops at the protagonist's feet, grants him incredible powers, and has him constantly pursued by equally incredibly powerful enemies, in running battle after running battle.)
Sniper's Rifle By Keith Johnson (
[email protected])
Arete 7
Quintessence 35 max
Description It should be noted that it is possible by the rules to shoot at more than one target per use of this talisman if the range is short. Simply declare that you are trying to hit everyone (3 successes needed) or only selected targets in the vicinity (4 successes needed). A minimum of 4 successes are needed to hit a single target in line of sight. The talisman can either sound like a Rifle or be quiet. It is perfectly reasonable to have a silenced sniper rifle. All of the powers of this talisman are coincidental. It's a gun.
Powers: (Rotes)
1) Folding/Unfolding: Spheres: Matter 3 Difficulty: 6 Duration: as per table Range: N/A Damage: N/A Effect: This Matter effect allows the weapon to be folded and unfolded so that it may be stored/transported without looking like a weapon. (Author's note: It may take some getting used to, but it works out best if the 'natural' form of the rifle is its 'Folded' shape. Because the duration of the effect is based upon the number of successes rolled, it seems the more intelligent choice is to have the weapon primarily folded.) It is also suggested that the person making the talisman decide what the primary shape is. If the maker is not going to be the owner/user, then maybe give that person some say in the matter. 2) Scope: Spheres: Correspondence 2, Forces 1 Difficulty: 5 Duration: as per table Range: Special Damage: N/A Effect: The scope allows line of sight to be drawn at great distances. While the level of the effect could conceivably allow sensing at any point on Earth, I feel that a good house rule is that this power should be limited to the classic definition of a rifle scope with respect to Line-of Sight. The exception to this is the
Forces 1 effect allows the scope to function in any part of the EM spectrum, so, using X-rays or IR, it is possible to see into buildings, through walls etc. GM's discretion on just how far to let this go. 3) Incendiary Round: Spheres: Entropy 1, Matter 3, Forces 3, Prime 2 Difficulty: 6 Duration: Instantaneous + Fire Range: Line of Sight (see Scope) Damage: 5 x Successes (Aggrivated + Fire) Effect: The Undead can be pesky critters unless one deals with them in a convincing manner. That's why this incendiary round was developed. The Entropy effect gives targeting information to the eyepiece of the scope about the weakest part of the vampire (ala Dim Mak). When fired, the round rips into the target and shreds its pattern (Matter effect). At the same time, the target bursts into flames (Forces 3, Prime 2) and burns. (Technically, the fire will get its duration from the duration effects table in the rule book, but let common sense prevail, please) This round was originally designed for use against Vampires, but it was later found to be very effect when used against doors, people's clothes (especially body armor), and vehicular gas tanks(ouch). This round is also an arsonist's/pyromaniac's dream. It leaves no residual evidence. Imagine a terrorist shooting from a hilltop, miles away, at an oil refinery's storage tanks... Not a pretty picture. 4) Anti-Personnel Round:
Spheres: Entropy 1, Life 4, Matter 3 Difficulty: 7 Duration: Instantaneous Range: Line of Sight (see Scope) Damage: 5 x Successes (Aggravated) Effect: Imagine getting hit in the head with a wad of bubble gum traveling at Mach 3.5. That's what this round does to a target. It is equally effective against living and nonliving targets, but it is used mainly on living targets due to the higher difficulty. This round is also used on nonliving targets when the use of the incendiary round is impractical. As with the incendiary round, the Entropy effect gives target data to the mage through the scope. 5) Silver Bullet: Spheres: Entropy 1, Matter 2, Forces 3, Prime 2 Difficulty: 6 (also requires a separate Firearms 'To Hit' roll) Duration: Instantaneous Range: Line of Sight (see Scope) Damage: 5 x Successes (Aggravated vs Werewolves) Effect: While werewolves are able to very effectively resist the Anti-Personnel Round, they have a much nastier time with this little gem. The Matter effect creates a silver bullet and it is propelled toward the target by the Forces/Prime effect. The Firearms skill roll will determine if the silver bullet hits its mark. Again, the Entropy effect finds the target's weaker regions.
Sound Machine By
[email protected] created by: CC Skynard, Cult of Ecstasy Level: 5 Quintessence: 50 The sound machine takes the form of a sharp looking electric gituar. The body is metalic black with the Cult of Ecstasy's sigil engraved upon it. There is no plug-in for a power cord. The whole thing is light, and glitters in the light. It was made by the infamous mage CC Skynard for the sole purpose of annoying sleepers, and later found that the talisman has more powerfull applications, but those are a secret (for now)
Powers: Level one: (mind 1) allows the holder to memorize and then later replay any musical score, tune that he/she/it hears. (automatic with the cost of 1 quintessence point) Level two: (forces 2) this power draws static charges from the air and converts it to usable power for the unit. (free power) Level three: (time 3) allows the mage to speed up the rate at which he/she/it plays by slowing the time flow around the hands of the player. (roll 5 dice, diff 6, need three to work also spend 1 quintessence) Level four: (quintessence 4) this power allows the unit to place the point of amplification anywhere's within sight, for example just infront of a persons eardrum, now at full volume this could be quite "ear shattering" (roll 5 dice, diff of 6, needs three to work, and spend 2 quintessence) Level five: (forces 5) this power allows the sound waves generated by the unit to be changed to different forms of waves, such as gravity flux, wind, gamma-waves, etc. (roll 5 dice, diff 6, each succ. is 3 Levels of damage, and 3 quintessense must be spent.
Spawn of Draupnir (Level 2) By Anders Sandberg, for the Asatru tradition. One of the most prized possessions of Odin was the ring Draupnir, which every ninth night spawned eight similar rings. Some of these rings also had the power of multiplication, and a few seems to have been accidentally given to humans (or stolen). These rings look like a heavy Viking ring of pure gold, artfully ornamented into three dragonsnakes braiding together and biting their tails. If left alone, it will spawn eight similar rings every ninth night. It was originally made by the dwarves, and no dwarf can resist any chance of getting the ring, by whatever means.
Spawn Suit By
[email protected]
Arete 6
Quintessence 45
Description A Mage, known only as Splat T.G., designed and created the Spawn Suit. Splat was a bit crazy and an avid comic reader. The suit was created so that Splat could be Spawn. However after Splat finished the suit his short attention span only found it interesting for a short time and He soon auctioned it for a bag of tass-filled leaves. Ever since it's been passed around a lot, but no one knows why no one wants it. The suit was originally designed to do what ever the suit in the comic could do, but Splat knew that all the functions would be impossible to incorporate without flaunting his ability to bend reality. So Splat took his favorite traits of the suit and integrated them into his design.
Chains: The two chains that expand from the "belt" of the suit are there. They have five hundred feet of chain to be used between them. To control the movement of the chains Mind three is needed (Mental Link). To give them the ability to move Correspondence of three is included in the suit (Pierce Space).
Sword: This ability allows the wearer to transmutate his hand into a two foot sword. The Matter four is built into the suit, but the Life four is not. The swords may be grown without the Life, but it will permanently kill all the cells in the hand and it will become a metal blob. The swords do Strength+5 damage. Note: Any damage done to the sword is also done to the hand. A chip could mean anything from losing a fingernail to losing bone in a joint.
Staff of the Mysticks By James Hertsch III (
[email protected]) (30 April 1996)
Level 5 Talisman
Arete 8
Quintessence N/A
Description It is said that great power comes only at a great price. But, at times, the price must be paid, for the sake of one's fellow willworkers, or for the sake of humanity. At times, a mage must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, to save the world, or to destroy it. In the end, this is what being a willworker is all about. In the end, if the willworker is unwilling to sacrifice himself, his greatness, and all his hubris, for the sake of his paradigm, his efforts to change the world are worthless. With this in mind, we bring you the Staff of the Mysticks. The Staff, it is said, has only shown itself in times when it is truly needed. It is said by some that there are only a few mages who are destined to use this wondrous items, only a few mages who have that iota of greatness that allows them to even grasp the Staff, much less to use it. Among the Order of Hermes, it is said that the Staff has bound within it the spirit of one of the Pure Ones -- a Pure One that willingly volunteered its life and its freedom to be there at perilous times during the fragmentation, to allow itself to be used, if only for mere moments, by the mortals who were created by the fragmenting of its fellows. Before he may use it, a mage must be wise in the ways of magick. Before the staff will allow itself to be used by a mage, that mage must be endowed with Destiny, with pure Power. Still, a mage may not summon the staff...it will simply appear when it is needed, only to disappear again when its job is done. To the knowledge of the Order of Hermes, the Staff of the Mysticks has appeared at only a few times in humanity's history. It is said that the Staff of the Mysticks was in the hands of the early Ahl-i-batin as they stood against the Celestial Chorus and the Handura. It is said that Horizon Chantry was established only with the power of the Staff of the Mysticks, and that there were Nine forgotten mages who gave freely of themselves, sacrificed themselves so that the Traditions might live anew. And, therein lies the greatest price of the Staff of the Mysticks. When a mage uses the Staff of the Mysticks, he must sacrifice his whole being to it. He must sacrifice his physical form, his mind, his Magick....and he must sacrifice his Avatar, for it is with the Avatar that the Staff of the Mysticks may perform its wonders. Many willworkers, coveting the power of the Staff of the Mysticks, have spent their entire lives searching for it. Many mages who believe that they might thwart the Staff's price have sought for the Staff.... ... and none of them have returned.
System The Staff of the Mysticks makes its appearances at strategic points in history, and, after it is used for its purpose, it will once again disappear. If a PC mage is destined to use the Staff, visions of the Staff of the Mysticks, which appears as a large oak staff, topped by a large glowing emerald, may appear to him during his Awakening, or during a later Epiphany or Seeking. The Staff of the Mysticks may be used once by the mage, who may be accompanied by compatriots. As a general rule, the Staff may be used for virtually a god-like or apocalyptic magickal feat, but that feat must be something that does not directly benefit the mage himself. In order to use this Staff, the mage must have an Avatar Background of at least 3, and a Destiny of at least 4. Additionally, he must have an Arete of at least 6, and must have attained Mastery of at least one Sphere, or Adept level of power in two Spheres.
The mage must embark on an extended ritual, preparing himself to be sacrificed to the Staff. At the conclusion of this ritual, the mage has partially bound his Avatar into the staff. After this ritual, the mage may make use of the Staff Once, and then, for a single magickal roll, the mage must Sacrifice all of his Quintessence, and may combine his Arete with the Arete of the Staff to create the magickal effect necessary. The Staff is of such power that the mage receives -1 to the difficulty for the magickal feat. At the conclusion of this effect, the mage's body withers, and his Avatar is bound into the Staff, and the mage's name appears engraved on the Staff. While the mage has died, his consciousness does live on in the staff. In addition to using it for magick, a mystick may, during his lifetime, ask the Staff a single question, and, using the combined knowledge of the mages who have sacrificed themselves, the Staff will answer this to the best of its ability. Use of this effect does not require self-sacrifice, although the mage may be required to funnel Quintessence into the Staff of the Mysticks..
Standard Issue Neuralyzer By Andrew Weitzman (
[email protected])
Arete 3
Quintessence 15
Cost 5
Description This common Device is employed by the Men in Black to erase unwanted memories from the minds of Sleeper witnesses. The neuralyzer is a silver pen-like object with a red strip bulb set into one end. On the back is a simple control pad with three buttons which control the intensity of the Effect. When employed, the neuralyzer emits a bright flash of energy which erases memorytrigger chemicals in the brain. This both stuns the target and leaves him highly suggestible.
System: Life 3 and Mind are employed for a wholesale memory erasure up to the level set by the MiB. The three settings (hours, days, years) require differing number of successes to be effective. One success is sufficient for an hour's worth of lost memories, while five or more are required for a year of "missing time". A Mind 2/Entropy 2 effect leads the target to believe a plausible explanation provided by the neuralyzer wielder.
Stealth Honda By Andrew Marshall (
[email protected])
Level Five Talisman
Arete 5
Quintessence 20
Spheres Entropy 3, Correspondence 3, Time 2, Mind 4
Description A beat up 1978 sky blue honda accord. the right headlight veers off to the shoulder of the road from a previous accident. the interior is falling apart and the only thing inside that is not from the factory is a fairly new tape deck. It was driven by a Verbena who got tired of getting pulled over by mundane police or having to try and out run MIB squad cars.
Game Mechanics The car itself runs on regular petrol and/or Quintessence. When running on regular gas it's just a normal car, but when you expend Quintessence (up to 20) the car can evade and disappear from all form of authority. Running on about one Quintessence a day for normal to and from travel, two on long trips, the Stealth Honda will automatically use the Entropy, Correspondence, Time effects to hit the intersection just as the light turns green/never have a cop at the intersection while your speeding/or you just happen to be going the "right" speed anyway. The car also uses a Mind/Entropy effect if in the presence of countermagick. Because even if you manage to blow a red right in front of a mundane and or MIB squad car, they dropped a quarter on the floor, or are hey, are getting carjacked themselves. The "curse" happens when you try using the car like you've fueled it with Quintessence, but haven't. The result is that the car works normally but when you get pulled over for speeding, reckless driving, being a reality deviant, etc. the car then feeds off the Quintessence that bleeds off of you while you sit there in fear created by the flashing lights of the authorities and the embarassment caused by having other motorists see you in such a compromising position.
Sunglasses By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Spheres Force 3, Prime 2
Description A neat pair of specks created by a Hermetic Mage who grew tired of having to pander to the social cliche of sunglasses at night. While wearing them, the user can see as if the area was illuminated with full sunlight, negating vision penalties. Note that if the darkness is created by something that would snuff normal sunlight (Obtenebration), the Glasses provide no support. The Glasses also have a rather nasty side effect. When a word, known only to the user, is spoken, the pent-up energy within explodes outwards, illuminating the area for one moment in full sunlight. This is enough to cause damage to Kindred (as per solar exposure rules), and induce Rotschreck. Note that the blast will only aim outwards, away from where the user is standing. If someone else were to be wearing the glasses, and the command word was spoken, then the wearer would suffer twice normal effects. After the discharge, the Talisman must be left out in the sun for 6 hours before they will function again.
Super Sneakers By Deirdre Brooks (
[email protected])
Level Five Talisman
Spheres Correspondence V / Correspondence IV / Time III / Correspondence II / Time I
Description This pair of running shoes gives the wearer incredible abilities when moving.
Magical Effects Time 1: User knows precise time whenever active. Correspondence 2: This allows the user to extend his perception along his running path, thus allowing him to spot obstacles. Time 3: The user can accelerate his movement through time, adding one extra turn for each success above 2. Correspondence 4: Can create Pathways to other Places. As per Conjoin Localities. Correspondence 5: Can shorten the distance between two points.
Sword of Coordination By "Bust Mirage" (
[email protected]) Level 2 This katana allows the user to create a picture of the surroundings (virtue landscape: Correspondence 1) while in melee (multitasking: Mind 1). The ability allows the wielder to make physical actions (attack, dodge, etc.) with a -2 to the difficulty from a boost to his normal abilty to sense his surroundings. A second Matter effect ensures that the edge of the blade is always razor-sharp. The weapon damage is Strength +5 and the difficulty is six.
Sword of Gunze By Joshua Lee Peryea (
[email protected])
Also Known As... Slayer of Oni, Executioner of Akuma, Wrath of Kami [Spirits, Gods or Heavens]
History In 1310 C.E., the village of Tomakomai, on the island of Hokkaido, suffered a plague of Oni. The Oni wished to make Nippon into the next and most powerful Hell. The Five Courts native to Tomakomai could not stop the Oni's Evil. Five shen sorcerers then joined forces, after the Oni destroyed the ruling Courts. Misawa Rai-ki, the Chi'n Ta [Mage]. Nakano Juniko, the Kitsune. Maedasata Akiko, the Hsien Noble [Changeling]. Okamura Shin-Tai, Wan Kuei [Kuei-jin]. Odakyu Kogyo, Kami [Wraith]. The Five Sorcerers labored religiously, crafting a powerful blade, using sacred metals and stones as raw materials. Silver, Iron, Jade and others were used. A kami of Yang and a kami of Yin, were worked into the Sword. Finally, the Sword was finished, but the Sorcerers were too exhausted by their labors to wield it in battle. Misawa sent Rai-ko, their Nushi, to find a great Warrior. Rai-ko found Gunze Go, Samurai-no-Hakken, who was left Ronin after his Court was destroyed and his Sentai butchered by Oni. Gunze was led to Okamura's retreat [Haven? or Dragon Nest?], and was given the weapon. By the next sunrise, all the Oni were slain.
Description The blade, tsuba and other metal parts are silver in color. The handgrip is wrapped in red lacquered sharkskin[ from a Samebito warrior who fell in battle]. The blade has jade inlay in Kaja and Nihongo. The Tsuba has jade inlay corresponding to the five Directions and Elements, the 8 trigrams of the I Ching, and symbols of the Five Sorcerers.
Story Ideas What are the later adventures of Gunze Go, Hakken Samurai? What becomes of the Five Sorcerers Wu/Sentai/Cabal? How does your Wu/Sentai/Cabal/etc encounter this artifact?
Statistics Level five enchanted item, fetish, talisman, artifact and/or treasure Yang Chi, Glamour and/or Gnosis: 7 Yin Chi, Arete, Rage and/or Pathos: 7 Demon Chi and/or Angst: 7
Powers Sense Yomi [Wyrm], Hellweaving 2, Dragon's Stride [cross Wall and Ride Dragon's Path, using Yang for Yang, Yin for Yin, and Demon for Yomi], Tracking Prey [pursue anyone-or-thing injured by the Sword of Gunze], Shift [change forms] Form Difficulty Damage Tanto (small) 4 Str+1 Tanto (large) 4 Str+2 Wakizashi 5 Str+3 Ninja-to 6 Str+4 Naginata 7 Str+4 Katana 6 Str+5 O-Dachi 7 Str+6 These are the seven Known forms. Rumors and theories of other forms abound, but none are known for certain. Tales of Shuriken, may be the Sword of Gunze, a lesser Talisman, or a Talen similar to the Bane Arrow. Notes: Hits Yomi automatically,
only roll to hit non-Yomi. Yomi cannot soak, and damage is aggravated. Non-Yomi may soak as if the damage were normal, but any damage taken after soaking is aggravated.
Seven Swords of Power By Fenric (
[email protected]) "Listen student and learn. You wish to learn about artifacts then do you ? I would like to know why. Ahh, I see mere curiosity then? Or do you wish to revive the 10th tradition The Artificers? You do don't you? Well, that's harmless enough I suppose. Let me tell you then of the Seven Swords of Power...."
Author's Notes Feel free to change and indeed elaborate on these and correct any mistakes I may have made concerning dates. Indeed, the details are left sketchy as I hope that others may be compelled to clean up the blades' history. I hope you like it!
Introduction The Seven Swords of Power were created in a darker age. The Holy Crusaders were either converting heathens or slaying those who would not embrace their God. During this time, a council of Mages formed. Their task was a daunting one: to ensure that Mages themselves were protected from the Crusades. Surely they would be put to the sword if their power became known. Secondly, they enforced Order where there was Chaos. With the Churches launching pogroms against those who didn't conform, times were perilous indeed. As a symbol of this Council, known as The Guardians, seven swords were forged. and imbued with power. Time passed and the Council disbanded when it became apparent that not even the Traditions could agree to work together. The Swords, however were scattered throughout the world and indeed the Umbra. Their whereabouts are currently unknown, but it is rumored that House Titaelus wishes to recreate the Council. Perhaps the swords should be located now before they fall into the wrong hands....
Albian Rumored to actually be the famous sword, Excalibur, were it not for the fact that the swords were commissioned after the Arthurian period, one would would almost believe it. There is another persistent rumor that only six swords were made, modeled after the first and original, Excalibur. Indeed, old documents strangely immune to Time scans exist that support this claim. The sword is imbued with the Life Sphere, making it easier for wielders to enhance their own physical attributes (Difficulty of Life magick is reduced by 2). Ironically, it can also be used to help heal others. When it is placed on a wound within 24 hours of the injury occurring, then healing it with rituals is easier (Difficulty reduced by 1). It cannot, however, heal the injuries infliected by a Kindred's fangs or Garou's claws (i.e., supernaturally inflicted aggravated damage).
Cervantes Forged in Spain, Cervantes is a large two-handed sword that, for an Awakened user, is lighter and easier to wield than it would appear. It is believed that a person wielding this weapon finds Time stands still for his enemies and passes quicker for the wielder. It is also believed that it enhances the Mage's abilities with that sphere (although the player shouldn't know it, characters who already have the Time sphere gain an additional dot) The blade is said to shimmer with a pale blue luminescence when wielded.
Wolf's Bane Forged in Ireland around 1250 A.D., Wolf's Bane is a silver edged blind primarily used to destroy tainted Garou. Though wielded by Mages traditionally, the Garou would give anything to have this mighty sword in their hands. For reasons unknown they claim it should belong to them. The blade is a Rapier with an ornately decorated hilt guard, and for reasons unknown seems to be made to be wielded only by a woman. Its power include the ability to sear the Flesh of any tainted creature, be it Kindred or Garou, which leads me to believe that it is empowered with the Sphere of Forces. It radiates great heat whilst in combat and any tainted creature as will shy away from the wielder (Willpower Roll difficulty Seven, a botch means that the creature will flee). Legend says that the woman wielding it must be pure.
Omaran
Thought to have been forged in Turkey in 1251, Omaran is a huge Scimitar that reputedly vanished from sight along with the Ahli-Batin Tradition. It was wielded by a Turkish warrior after the Crusades, apparently in a war with the Setite Vampires of Egypt. Little is known of the powers of this sword except that man's perceptions of his own existence and that of things around him are greatly enhanced (basically, Correspondence 3; even a Mage without this Sphere can benefit a little from this blade if he concentrates).
Reaver This Scottish blade is a claymore of great power and beauty. It reputedly enhances a warrior's luck in combat (Entropy sphere is increased by 2), which is unusual for a blade fashioned outside of India. It is said this that this blade can never have its edge dulled and indeed is alleged to to be able to cleave rock.
Fang Little is known of this blade except that it is thought to be the same size and weight as a Roman Gladius. It is believed to be a veritable pool of Quintessence in its own right and indeed charged with enough Prime that you don't have to try to hard to see its aura. If the stories are true, then something of each Sphere has been granted to this blade although that would make it more powerful than the sword that spawned them all, Excalibur!
Night Bane Forged in South America during the 13th century, one account suggests that something went wrong during its making. It is said that in battle it was wielded against Nephandi or demons and was plunged into the heart of one of the foul things. The blade being imperfect, was tainted and the wielder driven insane. He went on a killing spree and thereafter, the voices of those innoncents slain could be heard whispering constantly in the head of the wielder (Mind 3, Willpower roll difficulty 8 must be made once every 4 hours to resist the blade's call). Of all the swords of power, this is the only one marked for destruction if it located.
Syndicate Courier Case By David Hood (
[email protected])
Description Got that message/item you need delivered? You need a Syndicate Courier Case (TM). It looks like a normal briefcase the SCC offers the following features: Damage Resistant (it can take 12 points of damage before being forced) Secure Locking (Target number 10 to pick, 6 success needed. Mind + Entropy Effect uses 1 point of quintessence per journey) Alert (If the courier/case is in danger it sends out an alert. Entropy+ Forces Effect uses 2 points of quintessence per journey) Self-Destruct (If the case is forced open it destroys the contents. Forces + Matter + Prime uses 3 points of quintessence per journey) Detection shielding (The contents of the case will not show up on Xray/metal/sniffer/etc detectors. Pattern + Correspondence uses 2 points of quintessence per journey) Courier assistance (The courier has a much easier time of making plane/taxi/train/dog-sled/etc connections. Entropy + Correspondence uses 1 point of quintessence per journey) A trained operator (mage) will activate the requested features (effects) before a delivery. With the exception of damage resistance, all features are optional. SCC's are avialable to members of the syndicate and fellow conventions (for a suitible remuneration).
Mechanics The cases generally have a quintessence store of 18. This is enough fore a journey to and fro with all of the features engaged. An encountered SCC generally will not have this much quintessence, unless it has just be recharge prior to a delivery. The mage selects which features to activate which then become locked on for the journey, that is until the case has been delivered and the combination correcty put in. It is possible to preset the case for 2 trips. Here, enough quintessence is stored in the case to reinitiate the preset features when the case is closed after the first delivery. Unbeknownst to the other conventions, the cases that the Syndicate have rented them have (very rarely) included the feature "Record contents" (pattern magics + mind). The Syndicate has rarely used this additional feature, keeping it in reserve for very special occasions.)
Talisman of the Beast By Anders Sandberg Level three talisman This is simply a piece of dried bear hide, with a simple symbol painted using a mixture of blood and cinnabar on one side. It is worn around the neck in a thin leather strap. The wearer is now protected from all wild beasts, who will avoid him or ignore him as long as he ignores them. It even works against Werewolves, who are unable to do anything against the mage as long as he doesn't acknowledge them or their actions. [ The talisman makes all wild beasts ignore the mage or see him as a natural feature. Garou have to overcome the Arete of the mage with their Gnosis to act against him in any way. ]
THE TARDIS By Mark Kinney (
[email protected]), for the Time Lords tradition.
Description This device is both Talisman and Focus for the Time Lords. It uses its abilities to change its form and arrange the rooms inside it to the users specifications (it is larger on the inside than on the outside), and some even believe them to be inhabited by spirits, as they occasionally are shown to be intelligent. The user and any passengers must be inside the TARDIS (physical form about the size of a 1960's British Police Box :). The TARDIS is considered to have or use the following spheres: Correspondence 5 Entropy 5 Matter 4 Mind 3 Prime 3 Spirit 5 Time 6+ Of course, these can vary at the Storyteller's whim. Sometimes the TARDIS has a mind of its own, or the Chameleon Circuit doesn't work (loses Matter sphere), or whatever.
Tattoo/Ritual Scar Fetishes By
[email protected]
Creation Werewolf: For the Werewolf game, creation requires the Rite of Fetish see pg. 192-193 (1st ed) (a Rite of Binding could come in handy for some spirits, especially hostile ones) It is as simple as finding a spirit, or summoning one that corasponds with the power you want the fetish to have and performing the rite, after you have wittled it's power down...(as if this were a simple matter!)
Mage: For the Mage game, the maker must have a rating of spirit **** and simply create the "spirit feild" within the tattoo or ritual scar. (diff 7, quintessence, time taken, and nearness to a node can bring this down to as low as a 3!) The mage has successfuly made a "house" for the spirit that he is going to bind. (I had posted a rote before for draining a spirit of it's power, this can be used to weaken the spirit enough to easily bind it into the tattoo/ritual scar fetish.)
Rote: Draining the Spirit (Spirit **** Prime ***) Basically, this rote allows the spirit adept to drain off some of the spirits Quintessense, thus weakening it enough to either dissipate it, destroy it, or bind it into a fetish. (game mechanics: diff: 7, as before, quintessence, time taken, or nearness to a node can lower this to as low as 3!, each success above 2 drains off 2 points of Quintessence from the spirit and channels it into the mage, another mage, a talisman, or back into the pool of free Quintessence.)
Level of Fetish: (Werewolf): The level of the fetish is = to the 1/2 the spirit's gnosis. (Mage): The level of the fetish is = to the Arete of the spirit.
Gnosis Rating: (Werewolf only): The Gnosis of the spirit that is bound into the fetish is the Gnosis of the fetish itself.
Types of Tattoo Fetishes Although there are endless possibilities as to the different types of fetishes that can be created, I have listed a few as examples:
Animal Spirit Tattoos These were created by a famous shaman/Dreamspeaker of the African homelands, named Calls-The-Spirits. He basically bound animal spirits that were friendly to his totem into ritual scars and tribal tattoos. When activated the Tattoo seemed to flow over his body, as the "ink" swirled about his body he took the form of the animal spirit that was held within.
Mage: level (3-4) because it mimics the life 5 power of transformation Werewolf: level (2-3) Gnosis (5-8) because the closeness of the animal spirits to Gaia.
Rage Ritual Scar/Tattoo Fetishes These are primarily bound to ritual scars and are widely used by the Get of Fenris, Red Talons, and Wendigo tribes of the Garou, as well as the Mokole(Were-alligators/dinosaurs) and the Rokea(Were-sharks). Basically a spirit of rage is bound into a painfully slow cut ritual scar that could take hours to complete, while the blood still runs the bound spirit is bound to the flesh.
Effects (Werewolf): 1 rage point per activation succuss, and allows the garou to "store" up to 10 points of rage for him without affecting his rage rating. (AKA he doesn't get as pissed off as he would if he were toting that much rage)
Effects (Mage): 3 combat die per Arete that the spirit has, for the duration of 1 scene, combat dice can be added to dodge, melee, brawl, firearms, or athletics rolls these dice make up a pool of dice, once spent, they are gone until the next activation.
Level (Werewolf): 3-5 depending on the gnosis of the spirit Level (Mage): 4 Gnosis (Werewolf): minimum of 5, note the spirit within will have a rage of 10, at all times, if released it will move to attack the holder of the fetish, until near dissipation, and then will flee.
Wisdom/Enigma Tattoos These tattoos usually take the form of eyes on the forehead (in the case of the wisdom fetishes) or visual puzzles (The Uktena favor Esher's work) for the fetishes of enigmas. These fetishes, when activated impart the wisdom of the spirit inside upon the user. These tattoos are favored by the Dreamspeakers, and the Uktena and Silent Strider tribes of Garou.
Effects (Werewolf): Each activation success above 2 adds +1 to either perception, alertness, or enigmas score of the user for the duration of one scene.
Effects (Mage): For each Arete point above 2 that the spirit has, and for each 2 Quintessence points channeled into the fetish, the user gains +1 die in either perception, enigmas, alertness, awareness, or cosmology for the duration of one scene.
Level (Werewolf): 4-5 Level (Mage): 4-5 Gnosis: 5+
Effects of Many Tattoo/Ritual Scar Fetishes For every 10 levels of these fetishes a Mage/Werewolf has, her difficulty to enter the Umbra is -1 as they are more attuned to the spirit world due to the amount of spirit "stuff" they carry in their skin. Also on the same note, the difficulty to shift from the umbra to the "real" world is +1, as that which helps also must hinder.
Optional Mage Fetish Rules As I sat down to write this up it became apparent that the mage system is lacking in the info for fetishes, so as a service to all Dreamspeakers (my favorite tradition) I came up with a fast little system that allows the mages to use and create Garou fetishes.
Rite of the Fetish Rote: Spirit **** Prime ** This rote lets the Mage do the Rite of the Fetish, as the garou do it. Note: Gnosis = Arete x 2 (in the Mage book in the section of converting spirits pg. 293-294 they say that Gnosis = Arete, but this to me is a bit bogus, think about it, Wrinkle, the most powerful time spirit has an Arete of 5 (aka Gnosis of 5 in the author's perspective, a 10 in mine) where as an air elemental has a gnosis of 7 (an Arete of 7 in the authors perspective, a 4 in mine) now how did that air elemental get more enlightened than the most powerful time spirit?) so treat the mages Arete x 2 as his gnosis rate. The mage uses Arete x 2 or his Gnosis rating for activation just as it is in the Werewolf game, pg. 153 Werewolf the Apocalypse tm This allows the Mage to use Garou fetishes in a Mage game.
Tattoo of the Brilliant Brother By The MickJestr (
[email protected])
Level 2 Talisman
Arete 2
Quintessence 10
Description This talisman tattoo was created by a expert in the two other talisman tattoos, an Akashic Brother and master of Do. He had another younger mage under his wing who was a Batini mage who thus could not use Entropy or the two Kiai rotes. So to help the young mage have great energy and prowess in his Do, the mentor made a tattoo onto the Batini. The tattoo appeared as scales along the the inside of the arms, back and inside legs. He bound two effects into the tattoo: one is the Correspondence 3 Seven League Stride effect of the mystical power of the dragon's method of movement and the other Life 3 Better Body of the mystickal power of a dragon's physical prowess. Multiple variations can be used with this talisman: Forces:3 Prime:2 for massive fireballs of the dragon, Forces:2 Discharge Static for inherent ability with electricity, and Forces:2-3 Telekinesis (no explanation necessary
Technocratic Uzi By Jacob Broadrick (
[email protected])
Arete 5
Quintessence 10 per clip (3)
Background Cost 10
Description The Technocratic Uzi is a newer weapon being used by more NWO and Iteration X agents for heavy operations. it was created by the Q Devision as a support weapon for HIT Marks. A small number have some how fallen into the hands of an antiTechnocracy group of Virtual Adepts. The Technocracy was infuriated when they found out and immediately dispatched HIT Marks to intercept these V.A.s. Only one of them, Todd Skyler, escaped to carry these new weapons to the Horizon chantry. Since then, the Sons and Adepts have produced and distributed several more of these devices. These devices have 4 settings (powers). The weapon is Uzi shaped with a barrel that retracts for one setting and lots of tubes and wires on the outside of it. 3 ten point quintessence packs are distributed with each weapon.
Powers High-Intensity Matter-disruption Setting Forces 4 Prime 2 This setting causes a black laser to shoot forth from the barrel in a straight line. This laser causes non-soakable (except with vulgar Life magick) Aggravated damage by Arete (don't forget the extra success for Forces). Vulgar. 2 Quintessence per shot.
High-Intensity Mass Matter-disruption Setting Forces 5 Prime 4 This setting causes the barrel to draw into the Uzi and expose the laser diode so that a cone of death is created in front of the user. Anyone within the 100 yard 60 degree area takes 2 dice worth of non-soakable (except, like before, with vulgar Life magicks) Aggravated damage (don't Forget the extra success for forces). Vulgar. 5 Quintessence per shot.
High-Intensity Cutting Laser Forces 2 Prime 2 This setting closes the barrel tightly so that the diode emits a finely tuned laser that cuts through all inorganic matter like a knife through butter. It causes only one health level per round to living creatures, but leaves horrible, deep scars. Vulgar. 1 Quintessence per use.
Endless Uzi of Death Matter 4 Prime 2 This essenTially allows the user to fire the device as a standard uzi, on full auto, three round burst, or single shot, for as many turns as the Quintessence pack holds out. Whenever the clip runs dry, the device automatically creates more ammo for 2 Quintessence per use. Coincidental or vulgar -- ST's descretion.
Teleportation/Transubstantiatian Chamber By LostBoy Creators: Dr. Emil Heinrich, Dr. Ernest Fielding [Sons of Ether] Talisman 5: Spirit V / Life IV / Correspondence III / Correspondence II / Spirit II This is a large round booth connected to a large computer setup, with a giant monitor attached. It can be used to teleport to and from locations, including the Umbra. All rolls (for correspondence or spirit travel, or Life effects) are made with 5 dice, the level of the Talisman. The Chamber can be operated by hand by anyone who has been taught the operation of the device by someone who knows how, or who makes a Computer Rolls (3 successes, difficulty 7). The Chamber can be operated remotely by one of three linked communication devices. Thus one could command to be brought home immediately, or, one could request the teleportation of, "the person 7 feet North of me" through use of the communicator. The chamber actually works by breaking the body of a target down into Ether, and then transporting the memory through the Ether to a new location, and putting it back together there. It's perfectly safe. Really.
Magical Effects Spirit II / Correspondence II: The monitor can be used to peer into the mortal world or the Umbra. Those who can sense such would see the viewers peering through a screen. Unlike the usual Correspondence Sensing (Level II), only sight and sound are transmitted, no aural or touch related information is given. Also, there is no way to communicate with any creature thus viewed (this is how I get a second Level 2 effect instead of a Level 1 effect). Correspondence III: This is a reworking of the Seven-league Stride. The body gives a faint humming sound and appears to slowly break up into squiggley fragments, which then disappear (if you think Star Trek, you are correct). If you are going from point A to point B, you would need to first teleport to the Chamber, then out again. You must either be in the chamber, or wearing one of the communication badges for this effect to work. Life IV: What was first a really bad bug in the system has been turned into a rather powerful weapon. When directed either from the view-screen or by directions through a communicator, the Chamber can teleport only part of the body into the Ether, forming lesions and hemorrhaging on the remaining form. The user must roll Perception + Science to correctly give instructions to the Computer on where to attack. Damage is 5D * 3 (difficulty 6). [See "Rip of the Man-Body"]. Spirit V: This allows actual teleportation into the Umbra. The physical body is broken down into Ether and stored in the computer's memory while the Spirit is teleported into the Ether. It is projected on a path to the destination, but it must still journey there slowly -- it doesn't just materialize there. By use of this the mage can also quite easily be sent to locations in the Near Umbra as well [See Deep Umbra Travel].
The Assassin's Dagger By Martin Xavier (
[email protected])
Description This is a thin, smooth, long ivory dagger which was made by a freedom razor crusader to help in the war against the Fallen Ones and their minions. It is a third level talisman since it has three magickal effects.
Powers Dissimulation (Correspondence 2): because of its thinness, it can be easily concealed along the arm and being made of ivory, it is undetectable by metal detectors. On top of these natural qualities, it is possible to apport it (see rulebook) to hide it away or retrieve it. Generally, it is drawn from a sleeve coincidentally.
Killing Blow (Force 2): This talisman normally inflicts Strength+2 aggravated damage. However, it is possible to focus the stength of the blow on inflicting a killing blow. Roll for a force effect damage with a maximum of Strength+2 instead of rolling the normal damage pool. This is a coincidental effect.
Flawless Execution (Correspondence 1, Mind 1, Time 1): A good assassination is a lot of information gathering, a good plan and then its perfect execution. The more dangerous part is of course the last one since you are in contact with the ennemy and the slightest error can make the whole assassination fail. This effect was created to improve the chances of success: after spending a round rehearsing mentally the upcoming action, you can enact it with perfect precision and timing. Each success lowers the difficulty by 1 up to -3. It can be used for sneaking, jumping, attacking by surprise (melee or throw), disabling complicated systems you understand. Note that changing the rehearsed action during the execution turn(s) (for whatever unexpected reason) cancels the bonus completely and actually puts an extra +1 difficulty (as you struggle to overcome the automatic execution of your action). This a coincidental effect.
The Bible of Gregorius By Anders Sandberg Level two talisman The book is old and worn leather, with an almost imperceptible imprint of the Crucifixion on the cover. It contains several books from the Bible, a few medieval religious texts and a lengthy commentary (In Latin). What makes this book unusual is that by randomly opening it and reading, the reader will usually find the answer to his current concerns and troubles. However, these answers are somewhat biased towards the views of a friendly medieval monk, although they are always comforting and filled with common sense.
The Crusader Sword By Anders Sandberg Level two talisman This sword is well forged, and a magnificent blade despite the lack of any ostentatious ornamentation -- it is beautiful in its simple functionality. What makes it especially useful is that the wielder will become free of doubt; no matter what his cause is, he will deeply feel that it is righteous and holy. No temptation or distraction whatsoever can make his faith in his duty waver.
The Fire Crystals By Martin Xavier (
[email protected])
Description These fetishes are of very ancient design, coming back as far as prehistory. Like many ancient Talismans and Fetishes dealing with fire, the first model is attributed to Prometheus, the Titan who brought fire to men though it certainly predates the emergence of Greek civilisation. More probably, it is the creation of one of the first Dreamspeakers to master and use fire for his clan's need and who was after remembered as a demi-god under the generic name of Prometheus. This fetish looks like a crystal with a flame-like impurity in its center which seems to flicker at the edge of perception. Some more powerful versions are made from bright fire opals. Both are imbued with a Fire Elemental.
System When activated, the basic crystal version can be tapped as a source of fire (as the one created through Force 3, Prime 2). However, Force 2 is still necessary to tap the fire and control it. This fetish makes it easier to achieve very hot fires (such as in the infamous Fireball effect) since you only use Force 2. The fire opal version is a level 5 fetish and can be tapped for Greater Fire with Forces 4 as well as Lower Fires. Tapping the fetish for Greater Fires requires the expenditure of 2 quintessence points however. Both fetishes are particularly well attuned to Fire magick and using one of them as a focus gives a -1 difficulty (up to a total of -3 and cumulative with the bonus for unique or unnecessary focus). On the opposite there is an extra +1 difficulty to any cold magick focused through them. Fire Crystals being well adapted to vulgar magic generate a lot of paradox and tend after some (GM's rule) time of paradox generating to "color" their paradox. For paradox flaws, at level 1 a small object near you catches fire, a level 2 you are unable to light fires yourself (your lighter, matches... do not work, making fire with magick is at +1), at level 3 you become more susceptible to fire (increase damage by fire by one) , at level 4 any flame within reach will systematically burn you "accidently" (though you can try to dodge if applicable and soak), at level 5 whatever Matter object touches your hands bursts into flames. The paradox spirit is an enraged fire elemental which takes possession of a fire, fuels it quickly to a raging uncontrollable fire and tries to destroy the offender (and the witnesses too if possible). Physical backlash always appears as severe burnings.
The Glasses By Timothy Toner (
[email protected])
Spheres Mind 3
Description Created by a brilliantly insane Son of Ether, it is the single greatest weapon the "Sleepers" have against the Technomancers. After watching another roommate get snuffed trying to awaken a new recruit, the Son realized that she needed to change direction. She knew that there was a huge group of disenfranchised people who actively believed that there was some all powerful illuminati trying to take over the world. Since they actively disbelieved in the Technomancer's enforced reality, she knew she could tap into this base distrust, by giving them what they wanted. She fashioned a pair of sunglasses, and enchanted them so that anyone could use them successfully. Put simply, if a person wears these glasses, the glasses scan the area for any Technomancers or anyone using Technomancer Magick. Once the information is discovered, the Glasses project into the mind of the user powerful illusions that the Technomancer or the item being used is something wholly alien. Since a Technomancer is more likely to be in a position of power, the conspiracy nut will obviously believe that this is the proof he requires to show that aliens landed in Dallas to murder JFK. Proof being a powerful thing, the nut will take up his war, armed with his glasses, and blow up anything that looks funny. What precisely the user sees is up to the Storyteller. Some suggestions range from all Technomancers being stereotypic Communists in great coats, with vodka in each fist, to Japanese vomiting forth from all types of medium, to even aliens from another dimension, who have taken over the world. However, the constant influx to the brain does generate Paradox. To the Sleeper, this manifests in a pain so severe that a health level is lost an hour. This damage can be regained by taking them off, and resting for a like amount of time. For a Mage, a Paradox point is collected per hour of total use. If the Mage consistently puts it on, and takes it off very fast, remeber to throw enough curve balls (he really didn't get a good glimpse last time) to encouage him to keep them on. Even though the Son never awakened a single user of the Glasses, those who use them call those who do not "Sleepers," almost reflexively.
The Guide By Timothy Toner (
[email protected]) , for McLuhan's Kids orphans.
Description This magazine contains the listings for every channel on the planet, updated daily relative to wher the the Guide is. It even goes so far as to map out the commercial structure.
The Guide By Tim Toner (
[email protected]) (21 Sep 92)
Introduction "Tobin! Where are you! I need to speak with you on a matter of great importance..." The man who barged through the door of the little shop was assaulted by a mound of papers that threeatened to consume him. He warded them off with his hat and cane, then used the survivors to wipe the mud off his boots. "Tobin!" "Coming, Lawrence!" The author burst down the tight spiral staircase that led from his apartment into the storeshop that could never decide whether it was a printing establishment, a book stores, or a hangout for malcontents. "Tobin, good Lord! It's the dead of winter! Where's the heat?" "The coal man refuses delivery without payment. Do you have my royalties?" Lawrence handed the wiry old man an envelope. Tobin, happy, slipped the package away. He turned back to his guest. "Lawrence, it's almost finished..." The visitor rolled his eyes, "What now?...Tobin...no...not another..." "Yes, another edition of my book. Besides...what's so wrong about being up to date on such subjects?" "Tobin, you're a spiritualist! Most of your subjects are dead! It matters not to them how up to date you are...none of them are getting any older!" Tobin looked at his agent hard, "Are my books selling?" "Beyond belief..." "Then why are you complaining?" "Because you've done fifty editions in the past six months! The moment a new one comes out, half of London's loonies are in my door, searching for that one page you added to this one. Of course, some buy a whole new book for the extra page, but most are content with just ripping the damn thing out. It's become prohibitatively expensive!" Tobin looked at his feet, then spoke in a whisper, "This one's quite good...I haven't left anything out like before, and there's some new things too..." "No more! Tobin, I'm you're agent, and in that capacity, I must insist that you desist, before your market exhausts itself. I'm you're publisher, and in that capacity, I must tell you my resources are strained trying to maintain the copyrights on the fifty editions. I had to turn down some quite promising stuff today from a fellow named Joyce, who also seems to share your fetish for unintelligibleness. One more will break me! And as your friend..." he straightened his waistcoat, "...I must advise you that if you do not contain yourself, I will have you locked up, before your obsessions turn foul." "But Lawrence, this is my last one..." "Didn't we have this conversation around the time of the 34th edition?" "Honestly, Lawrence, there's quite a few improvements...why the index alone..." "Index! Did you dare to say index in front of me?" Lawrence was turning a delightful shade of purple. "Well...yes. This one's the most complete yet." The agent caught his breath. "Tobin, your problem has never been in your index being insufficient. I daresay 250 pages in a 600 page book is hardly insufficient, as was clearly demonstrated in the 12th edition, although the 2 page index in the 13th must have been quite a humourous follow up for those whose sense of humor is severely retarded. For those who felt put out by that, I can reccommend the 24th edition, with 1,127 pages, 750 of which are the index! For God's sake, you indexed every word as it appeared! You even indexed the index! For the love of God and my heart... Tobin...no...more...indexes!" "I...see. The intangibles were always my problem. I'll just drop it out of this one altogether..." "No, you won't. There won't be a 51st edition. I forbid it." Tobin turned slowly, and regarded Lawrence. "There was another visitor, wasn't there?" Lawrence turned ashen by the mere suggestion. "Yes...there was...just last night, after closing."
"Any messages?" Another envelope appeared in Lawrences gloved hand. Tobin snatched it up, and tore it open. It was his turn to grow deathly pale. "Time is short, Lawrence. Will you publish the book or not?" Lawrence looked away, and quietly whispered of balance sheets and overhead. Tobin looked at him in disgust. "Very well, Lawrence...I'll have to do it on my own, then...here." "Here? Lawrence, the best this place has is a press a hundred years old! You'll never get the edition out, without funding..." "I have this." He waved the royalty cheque. Lawrence laughed. "with that, you'd barely be able to make 50! Come now, reconsider." "Lawrence, you do not understand. You never did. Bile filled my stomach when you called me "friend." Now leave, before I call a constable." Lawrence was left speechless. With nothing to say, he stalked away into the cold winter night. Tobin looked at the missive. It was the ritual he requested. The bottom was speckled in blood. Someone had died in order to deliver it, a dear friend. He would not let her down. He began the ritual...
Description The Guide is a ponderous tome, leatherbound, measuring easily over a thousand pages. Although the copyright states it was published in 1920, it has the feel of being sizably older. Some have ascribed this to shoddy manufacture, but those of knowledge know that the reason is that the history this book contains has bled into the materials itself, making it as old as the supernature it describes. Those in search of the Guide will find it a book of legend. Bookstores contain copies of previous editions, the 32nd being the most popular, but most of these are novelties compared to finding one of the 51st. It is said that if one ammassed all 50 previous editions, one can make, by reading the entire run over the course of years, a genuine replica of the 51st, although many occultists have been driven batty in the attempt. Any copies previous to this are relatively useless, since most of the text is garbled, and hard to follow. Good for bathroom reading, but not much else. Tobin's own notes indicate that only 50 copies were made before the fire burned down his press and destroyed the printing plates. He himself disappeared soon after, so it is probable that only these copies are extant. He managed to ship the majority of the copies out before "the dark forces" (his words) descended upon him. Freud used his notes in an unpublished case study, called "the Paper Man," showing the imaginative genius of a paranoid schizophrenic. A simple perusal of a copy of the 51st edition (hitherto called "the Guide") will lead the reader to find it an utterly fascinating book. This is part of the magic of the guide. The work locks onto the subconscious thoughts of the reader, motivating them to turn to whatever interests them. Thus, it gives the illusion that nothing not of interest is contained within the book. Going through the book, page by page, gives an entirely different image altogether. Subjects are crammed together in no particular order. To read page by page takes a stamina + occult roll, difficulty 6, to even attempt to digest it all. Every success indicates that another 25 pages has been passed. A failure means the eye has wandered, and no sense can be made. A botch on this roll means that the reader picks up one of the less harmful derangements, usually mild paranoia. Simply possessing the Guide is a tremendous boon. It allows an unskilled person access into Lupine Lore, Fairie Lore, Vampire Lore, Spirit Lore, and Magi Lore. All one has to do is think about the subject in question, and the pages turn. The amount of time spent reading determines the rating the book imbues: Time Level 10 min 1 1 hour 2 1 day 3 1 week 4 1 Month 5 During this time, no other occult texts can be perused, lest they make the mind wander. Also, if "adventuring" does occur, add +1 to the difficulty for each incident. At the end of the alloted time, the reader contemplates the question, and makes his intelligence+whatever level occult the book garnered him. Note that this is a meditative text. Someone who already has Occult 2 or Faerie Lore 2 must still spend the full day reading to gain the new insight. In effect, the reader with prior knowledge is "unlearning" all the rumor and heresay, and being filled with the truth about a particular subject. Ex. Egon consults the guide about Garou rituals, with a specific one in mind. He thinks about what he knows, and flips through the pages, finding more and more references. The player wants the full benefit of the book, so he reads for a full month. At the
end, he ignores his Occult 2, and rolls intelligence plus the newly acquired Lupine Lore 5. He had to go out a couple of times, so the GM, who was going to make it diff. 6, now adjusts it to 8. This newly acquired knowledge is difficult to hold onto, however. Depending on what level the book was read for, the information lasts for that time. For instance, if someone read Vampire Lore for a month, he keeps the level 5 for a month, then level 4 for a week, level 3 for a day, and so on. A complete year of constant use (reading once a day) gives a free +1 to ratings in all these things. No single trait can be increased, however, in a shorter period of time, say one month for Lupine Lore alone, as to use the book in this way, you are gaining a better idea of "the big picture." What is the limit of the Guide? How right was Tobin? Those are answers left to better men. It is a well known fact, however, that the Camarilla actively seek its destruction, since supposedly it contains enough hard information on vampires to end the Masquerade. It is far from a favorite of Lupines, since after reading it long enough (GM determined...around a year) the reader gains a 10 willpower in respect to the supernatural, for purposes of Dominate and the Veil. Faeries also dislike it, since it gives simple rituals for entering the various ways into the Otherworld, and they don't much like pimply faced mage-wanna-be's vacationing in Avalon. The Old One's...well...let's just say, "HASTURHASTURHASTURHASTUR 8^P Just kidding). The mages all want a copy. Despite the incredible information network they have established, every copy the Arcanum comes close to acquiring disappears. It is said in Mage circles that if the Arcanum gets their hand on the book, all the information gathering they require will be sated, and they can turn their attention to more..."active" pursuits. Elder mages who may or may not have the book are keeping silent, since apparently there are things that "Man was not meant to know," and it's on page 616. But of all the groups actively seeking the destruction of the book, none are more adamant than the Spirit realm. For this was Tobin's forte: the clear, "scientific" analysis of spirits and the spirit world. There are many aspects most spirits just wouldn't like divulged. One of the most important of the secrets is just what makes the book so special: the Synchrospectre found in each and every book. The synchronicity daemon (as one researcher called it) allows the Guide to function. With it, the spirit trapped within can read the viewer's thoughts, and make subconscious reccomendations which way to turn. One merely thinks of "vampire fangs," and he'll open to a page containing the information. This is what replaced the index in the books. However, to operate, the synchronicity daemon had to know where to find stuff in the book...and therein lies the problem. Tobin spiritually snared the spirits, and then spiritually rammed the information down their gullets, making them quite insane. Their jabbering is deafening on some levels of the spirit planes, and seems to come from nowhere (this scrambling feature installed by Tobin allows the books to be safe from magical detection). Spirits do not take kindly to being imprisoned, with no hope for reward, and they especially don't like the eternal torture their fellow spirits are enduring, all in the name of Tobin. A synchrospectre can be released by pronouncing the name of the Binder (Tobin) as the Guide is immolated. This binds the spirit to the burner for a term of two years. The effects are as such: 1. Roll a d10 and divide by two. This is how many dice can be rerolled per story. 2. The burner has the "charmed life" merit, as well as a minor league guardian angel. 3. Good things will consistently happen to the burner, as fortune falls right into his lap. If the burner doesn't say the name at the time of burning, the Spectre is trapped on earth, and pissed. Roll d10, the amount of years the spirit will continue to harrass the burner in retaliation. The following takes place: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Roll a d10 and divide by two. This is how many successes are turned into botches per story. The cursed one has Dark Fate slapped on him. Bad things await behind every corner. Friends of the trapped spirit makes sure plenty of mages know this bozo burned a Guide, one of the most prized books in existence.
The Ink of Truthfulness By Anders Sandberg Level two talisman This kind of ink is usually kept in specially sealed flasks, covered with elaborate symbols of truth, justice and honesty. Any contract written and signed in this ink will instantly catch fire if one of the parts breaks his obligations. If special curses or threats are invoked in the text, they will come true (within reason, the ink is only able to cause random coincidental effects like Entropy 2). The ink will also react similarly when used to write testimonies or descriptions.
The Mask By
[email protected]
Level 5 Talisman
Arete 9
Quintessence 5
Description This artifact is an ancient and powerful Talisman created by the first Mages in order to better battle their enemies. Granting great powers, it soon became the weapon of choice in magickal battles. However, soon its creators went Marauder and were never heard from again. The Mask itself popped up from time to time, spreading destruction, and moving on. After a while, it simply disappears, only to be heard from again later on. The Mask is possible one of the most powerful Talismans ever to grace the Tellurian. The Mask looks like a wooden green mask with eyeholes and a nose. However, when put on, it attaches itself to the user and turns his face bright green. From there, the Mask gains the power to literally change almost any aspect of reality. The user gains the ability to do aything. I mean it, anything. There are several severe drawbacks though: when donned, the Mask is completely ST controlled. The player must spend one of the Mask's Quintessence points to gain control of his own body for a scene. The Quintessence can only be recharged when the Mask is given to another person. If returned to a past owner the Quintessence drops to the amount that owner had before he gave the mask away. Even though the Mask is ST controlled, it will still act within the user's basic intentions, but it will be usually turned around and made all . . . weird, and silly, and psychotic sometimes. When all Quintessence is spent, the Mask becomes incredibly violent towards anyone. He uses the Mask for destruction, and is perfectly aware of what's happening, but can do nothing about it, because taking it off requires control of the body. The user may make a Willpower roll. Success means that he can make one more extra action per success (the difficulty should be horrendous though). The spending of a Willpower point allows the user to make one extra action. Failure means that the Mask can be removed, but the user becomes a Marauder. A botch means trouble: The Mask is in control permanently.
The Medallion of Leonardo da Vinci By Anders Sandberg Level three talisman This is a bronze medallion, showing the classic diagram of the human proportions by Leonardo da Vinci on one side and a circle, triangle and a square on the other. It was originally devised by Leonardo as a proposed recognition sign for the Order of Reason, but it was never accepted. It is however infused with the vision and drive of Leonardo to some extent; by meditating on it or by wearing it the owner will get flashes of inspiration of all kinds. The only problem is that the user will get new ideas faster than he can finish the previous ones, so that he will be constantly jumping from project to project. [ Essentially this talisman gives the mage several extra Dream dice, which randomly shift between various abilities such as expression, enigmas, occult, science, technology or medicine. ]
The Red Map By Anders Sandberg Level three talisman This talisman is legendary among certain groups of Mages, although its actual whereabouts are unknown. Physically it is just a parchment map, dyed a deep red and covered with unfamiliar symbols and diagrams. However, when the mage pours his own blood over it, they begin to make sense and will show him the way to any destination on Earth, in the Umbra or elsewhere. Unfortunately, the map becomes illegible when the blood has dried, so the mage has to pour more blood on it to keep it legible. Quite naturally, many mages think it is of kindred manufacture. [The mage has to pour blood equal to one wound level on the map to use it. The map essentially works as Correspondence 3, Filter All-Space, but actually shows a possible way to the destination. It is not necessarily the fastest or safest way, but it is a possible way for the mage. ]
The Ring of Solomon (Spirit 1,2,3,4) By Anders Sandberg, for the Goetia sub-tradition. This ring was according to the legend given to Solomon by the Archangel Raphael himself, and gives the wearer power over all demons and spirits. It is a golden ring, set with a blazing ruby in the shape of a pentagram. It is extremely powerful, but also dangerous since it is easy for the wearer to summon far too powerful and devious spirits to him. The devil Asmodeus fooled (according to the legend) Solomon to take it off, and then the spirit stole it, took the king's shape and throne and threw him out in the desert. It took the king over 13 years to retake his throne and imprison Asmodeus. Spirit 4: Imprisonment. The wearer can imprison a spirit in an material object, like a flask or a stone. Spirit 3: Command. The wearer can give a command to a spirit present, and it will be forced to obey it (at least to the letter) as long as the wearer wears the ring. Spirit 2: Summon. The wearer can summon any spirit to his presence by naming it and ordering it to appear. Spirit 1: Sprit Sight. The wearer will always see any spirits in the vicinity in their true form, regardless of how they try to hide.
The Shade By Hans Messersmith (
[email protected])
Level 3, Quintessence 12
Description The Shade is a 1930's vintage Triumph motorcycle, once owned by the famous Akashic Brotherhood adventuress Sahara West before and during World War II. It has several abilities that make it unique. First, the motorcycle has a remarkable sense of balance. This balance reduces the difficulty by 3 of any roll that would benefit from this effect, without activation. It also grants the rider 3 extra dice to Drive rolls for a turn per activation. This allows even a novice motorcyclist to drive like a professional, and allows skilled motorcyclists to perform feats that would make Evel Kneivel balk. Second, the cycle has the uncanny ability, when activated, to never hit a red light, never get stuck behind a school bus, and always pass just after that absent-minded pedestrian runs across the street. This power will work at any speed, and is especially useful when chasing or being chased by the bad guys. Ms. West never revealed how she came to possess this talisman, and gave conflicting reports of its origin throughout her life.
The Virtual Fighter Helmet By Martin Xavier (
[email protected])
Description Virtual Adepts usually practice long at arcade fighting games and are good at them. However in reality, firefights are something else entirely and their experience at fighting on computer is frustratingly useless. However, Manuel "Solo" Domingues created this helmet to try to overcome this shortcoming. It is quite a success in itself but did not attract many fans since most Virtual Adepts prefer living on-line. After all, everything you want is on the net (and more) and they feel much safer there. The helmet design is similar to virtual reality gear on the inside but has been armored on the outside. It also includes a 360 degree visor with plenty of sensors. The virtual helmet contains a small computer which simulates the tactical situation and interprets the wearer reactions. The result is a complicated conjunctional Correspondence 1, Mind 1, Time 3 coincidental effect which needs three successes to be activated correctly. For this reason, this level 3 Talisman has an increased Arete of 6 and usually requires some preparation to activate (to lower the difficulty).
System: Mind 1 and Time 3 are used to create 4 processes with two actions each. The first process is dedicated to analysing the tactical situation and making a simulation of the fight showing (if relevant) the line of fire of your weapons. As a result there is an extra 3 dice for Alertness rolls concerning the fight (including initiative) and firearm rolls (you just have to push the trigger when your target crosses the line of fire of your weapon. Note that since it is a simulation created through Landscape in the mind, the wearer can watch all directions at will whatever direction his head is facing and he is immune to powers requiring eye contact (such as Domination). However, because the simulation concentrates on the fight and shunts out other distracting elements, other Alertness rolls are at -3. The second process is for using the dominant hand. It allows two full firearm actions, or one melee action with 3 extra dice which can only be used if splitting the dice pool and which can not increase any action pool beyond its unmodified limit. Example: with 7 dice in the melee dice pool you can do 1 attack of 7 dice or 2 with 5/5 dice but not with 8/2 dice. The third process is used for fighting with the off hand. The first half is for translating the skill from the dominant hand to the off hand through a mirror symetry (using Correspondence 1 and Mind 1), giving no penalty to off-hand firearms and only a +2 offhand penalty for melee (lowered to +1 if you make 4 successes on the Arete roll). The second action of this process is for performing the physical action itself. The last process is dedicated to dodging. It gives one full die pool and 3 extra dice for multiple dodges only (same system as for the dominant hand melee attack in the second process).
Tight Turtle Neck By Shelly Luzny (
[email protected]) for 10, Number of the Soul
Sphere Soul 2
Arete 2
Quintessence 100
Cost 1 Quintessence per hour.
Effect Ever seen Star Wars? Well there ya go.
Catch: Same thing happens to you (doesn't matter though, you're depressed).
Time Bombs By Anders Sandberg Warps the spacetime in such a way that time passes much faster or slower in the vicinity of the bomb. The plus-bombs accelerate time inside, aging everything inside thousands or even millions of years. The aging effect is however slowed due to the fact that the objects inside the blast are frozen solid (from their perspective, time have stopped outside. This includes molecular motion and, so the outside world is near absolute zero. In a few seconds, the affected area is frozen.) The end result is often an area of icy, dust and rocks. The detonation of a plus bomb looks as a clear burst of intense light from the affected space (this is the energy leaving). Minus-bombs are more common. They freeze time inside an area. The detonation creates a perfectly reflecting sphere around the target area. This sphere is impossible to penetrate, and will last for some time. The sphere is due to that no objects or energy can enter, since they slow down and stop. Air and light quickly build up, creating the sphere. When the effects fade, the sphere dissolves, and the enclosed area slowly returns to normal time. From the inside, there seems just to have been a short, intense burst of light. These bombs are used by the Technocracy to take out entire chantries, then deal with them when the effect wears off (perhaps after moving the sphere). As before, these weapons are never used near sleepers.
The Trans-Umbral Switchboard By James Hertsch III (
[email protected])
Description During his tenure in the Technocracy, Doctor Aurelius specialized in communication. Most particularly, Aurelius was interested in improving communications between the human world and the spirit world. Motivated partly in a quest to find his wife's spirit, the good Doctor managed to construct a device which carried his telephone signal across the Umbra and into the Shadowlands -provided he could make the right connection. Otherwise, God only knew whom Doctor Aurelius might contact. In a flash of insight, Aurelius realized that this sort of communication could be a boon to all humanity. Imagine if people could contact their dead relatives! No more contested wills! No more uncertainty as to whether your parents are happy in the afterlife! Being able to find out what happened to the family fortune! Of course, Aurelius had a problem: the phone numbers. Trying to remember what number to dial to reach a given Spirit was frustrating at best, impossible at worst. Initially, Aurelius considered publishing a "Yellow Pages" listing of realms and spirits, but eventually realized that this would be incredibly costly and time-consuming. Instead, Aurelius reasoned, such calls could be made readily if, first, there was a central area all calls could go through, and, second, if that central area were monitored by an entity knowledgable about the Spirit realms. Thus, the Trans-Umbral Switchboard was born! Searching through the then-primitive telephone net (a precursor to the Digital Web), Aurelius located an Umbrood known only as "Mary," and, impressed with the knowledge she displayed of the worldwide telephone network, managed to entice her into being a "telephone operator." Then, of course, came the easy part: the Trans-Umbral switchboard. Starting with a "regular" switchboard form the local phone company, Doctor Aurelius ran three Ethereal filaments from the Switchboard, through the Digital Web, and into special Etherphones he set up in the High, Middle, and Low Umbras. Then, Doctor Aurelius ran a thick cable into the regular telephone network, linking the "main" world to the Umbra. Unfortunately, before he could complete the necessary receiving stations and publicize this momentuous invention, Aurelius's familiar, a large ferret, began suffering a terrible head cold, and, in caring for his familiar, the rather scatterbrained Doctor was distracted from his work. Shortly after this, the Sons of Ether defected to the Traditions, and Aurelius had little time for his experiments; in fact, his life was rather muddled up for several years after this happened, and he has never been quite the same since. But, Mary continually files her nails as she tends the Trans-Umbral Switchboard, and, should some caller dial it by mistake, he's going to get a surprise. In fact, the Trans-Umbral Switchboard is connected to five unlisted numbers in Hoboken, New Jersey. And, thanks to the advent of the Digital Web, the ether filaments leading from the Switchboard to the Umbrae are stronger than ever. In fact, when Mary answers the Switchboard, she greets her caller with a loud Brooklyn accent: "Hello, Hello? Low, Middle, or High Umbra?" At the request of the caller (or whatever she feels like at the moment), Mary then routes the call to the High, Middle, or Low Umbra. Somehow, Doctor Aurelius managed to install old-style crank phones in each of these Umbrae. And, when Mary routes a call through to one of these phones, about a 1/3 of the area around the phones in that region of the Umbra is filled with an irritating ringing sound until somebody answers the phone, or until the caller hangs up. And, that, my friends, is the fate of Doctor Aurelius's Trans-Umbral Switchboard.
Tribal War Gear Introduction These are three Fetishes used by a legendary african Dreamspeaker warrior. They are associated with war and strong emotions and are dangerous to use without the necessary willpower. Some of these items have been reproduced separately and in other forms by other cultures.
The Tribal Lance This is a short Lance with a broad wooden head as used by African warriors (works as a stake for practical purpose). It is a level 4 fetish with an Arete of 5 which does aggravated damage. When it is activated, the head of the Lance will transmute to the matter, force or spirit pattern most harmful to the target (usually a hard sharp metal doing +2 damage for sleepers, fire or wood for vampires, silver for Garou, Spirit material for creatures in the umbra, Soul metal for Wraiths, cold iron for Faeries, electricity for computers...). The lance will adapt to the allergies or weaknesses of particular individuals. This effect is generally vulgar. A potent war spirit is powering the Lance and to get its help, the Dreamspeaker has usually made a pact. Failure to adhere to the terms of the pact will piss off the spirit and result in battle frenzies and malfunctions. The pact usually involves killing ennemies in duel in the name of the spirit at least each time the Lance is activated. Many such Lances are also tied to some African tribes and will only work properly when wielded by a member of this tribe. The quintessence in the Lance resonnates with Violence and Killing.
System: there are two magickal effects and a quintessence point must be used to activate either one. Note that if an extra quintessence point is spent to lower the difficulty, the difficulty of the following effects is lowered by 2 because of the resonance of the quintessence.
Find weakness: The material most harmful to the target is determined by a find weakness effect (may be resisted by the target). Weaknesses common to someone's race can be discovered with 1 success only; weaknesses common to a subgroup necessitates 2 successes and the weakness of a single individual 3 successes. Note that several results are possible.
Harmful weapon: The head of the Lance can be transmutated to any harmful material found with the Find Weakness effect (and no other). This is then a Force 3, Matter 4, Prime 2, Spirit 4 effect with a threshold of 2 successes.
The Tribal Shield This is a wooden shield and a third level talisman with Arete 4. When the shield is activated, it will deflect any attack relying on a lesser Force (fire, cold, electricity, cinetic...) without any recoil. In many cases this effect can be coincidental. Multi-tasking is generally used to enable attacking while parrying with the shield.
System: make a Force 2 effect to deflect the incoming attack, calculate the damage normally and subtract it from the damage of the attack before soaking.
The Tribal Mask A tribal warrior spirit has been imbued in the mask and will fill the wearer with a rage protecting him from mental influence and helping him in his battles. Obviously, all quintessence stored in the mask quickly becomes resonant with rage. There are records of fits of rage or hatred activating the mask subconsciously and of some people surrendering too much to the spirit and slipping in an endless frenzy from which only death can rescue them. This is a Level 2 fetish with Arete 3.
System: the wearer must first define a target of his rage (one person, a family, racists, English, computers...). Then, the mask is activated (Mind 2 effect) with a -1 difficulty if the wearer feels a real rage or hatred. Note also that a strong fit of rage or hatred (even induced by magic) especially if frustrated can activate the mask subconsciously. Any action against the subject of the rage gets a -1 difficulty (destroying, tracking, dodging, taunting...), actions neutral with respect to the rage (dodging, interaction with people not concerned with the rage) get a +1 difficulty and all attempts to lessen, quench or divert the rage (by magick or subterfuge), can not be attempted by the mage himself while others, automatically substract the number of successes on the effect. Also, all wound penalties are lowered by half (round down), limited to the number of successes to the effect. The rage stops when the magickal effect stops, when the source of the rage has disappeared or when someone succeeds in overcoming it, so be sure of your target. This is a coincidental effect.
Type-17 Grenade By Misty A. (
[email protected])
Spheres Forces 3 (Two effects), Time 4
Arete 3
Quintessence 3
Cost 10
Description This mini-nuke is actually a grenade. It is used as a normal grenade, but when it explodes, the Forces effect turns the sound into intense radiation and the Time effect engages the second Forces effect to change the radiation back into sound 15 minutes later. This allows the user to use the grenade and escape before before law enforcement arrives to see what the explosion was. The longer the target is in the radiation, the worse the effects are. The target will take one unsoakable aggravated level of damage per minute, so he will take 15 health levels if he stays in the area for the full 15 minutes. Since the radiation effect is Forces, 1 automatic success is added.
The Necklace Unredeemable By Andrew Marshall (
[email protected])
Level 2 Talisman
Arete 2
Quintessence 10
Spheres Life 3, Spirit 3, Time 4
Description This is a fairly plain women's necklace with a Celtic knotwork charm. The charm hints at something familiar, but just beyond sight. It's heavy, with a feeling of loss, in ones hands. When one wears the necklace, a sense of foreboding and anxiety is overwhelming. Past down from generations of Celts. It was given to a family of gypsies by a rebellious youth in trade for joining their troupe. The charm was then enchanted. Its powers are unknown to the wearer until they are in direct opposition/aggression of a supernatural foe.
System: The charm, made from silver, will protect the bearer when confronted with a supernatural enemy. The protection comes by having the bearer's aura and true form augmented to "seem" like an non-hostile being until the bearer is out of harms way. It uses 2 Quintessence to power this effect. If the necklace has no Quintessence when worn by the bearer, it will "steal" 2 from the bearer's pool. This will not protect the bearer from the mundane (e.g., police, criminals, gunfire, enemy flaw, etc). To overcome the feelings of foreboding and anxiety, the character must have at least: One dot in Mind or make a successful Willpower roll every scene. If not, the character will break down as the two emotions overpower him/her.
Virtual Glove (Forces 2/Forces 2/special) By Sean M. Dunstan (
[email protected]) The Virtual Glove is a cloth glove with panels of circuitry on it. (Kind of like the old Nintendo Power Glove.) It contains two effects of Forces 2 : "Static Discharge", p195; and System Havoc, p195. Also, it has a Corr 1 effect to reduce the difficulty of Firearms rolls by 2 if linked to a Virtual Helmet. It can also store elctricity for a Forces focus.
Virtual Helmet (Life 1/Corr 1) By Sean M. Dunstan (
[email protected]) The Virtual Helmet appears to be a headset with a small plastic square over one eye. It has the effects of Life 1 (Sense Life: "Genetics Scan",p198); Correspondence 1 (Immediate Spacial Perceptions: "Landscape of the Mind",p185).
Virtual Travel Bracelet By Constantine Thomas, for the Continuum tradition. Level 3 Talisman Arete: 5 Quintessence: 15 Built-in effects: Sense Portal (Time 1) Sense Timestone (Time 1) Nexus Entry (Spirit 3, Time 3) Individual Targeted Virtual Travel (Correspondence 3, Time 3, Spirit 3) Multiple Targeted Virtual Travel (Correspondence 4, Time 3, Spirit 4)
Description Standard issue among Continuum Agents operating in Nexus and the Virtuals, these bracelets allow the Agent to travel across Virtuals. Each bracelet allows the Agent to perform the Single and Multiple Targeted Virtual Travel procedures (allowing him to take passengers if needs be, and arrive at any location at his destination), though they still must be performed at the site of the Portal. It also allows the Agent to enter Nexus direct from Earth via the 'Nexus Entry' Procedure. Additionally, it contains an indicator that shows the direction and distance to the nearest Portal -- especially useful within a Virtual. In almost all cases, the bracelet is disguised as a normal watch or other easily portable timepiece. This not only makes it less conspicuous to Virtual natives, but also provides a free Timepiece focus for the Agent. However, it should be remembered that Timepieces are Unique Foci, so Agents should look after their Travel Bracelets! Every Bracelet also contains a small piece of Timestone. If another setting on the bracelet is activated, the direction/distance indicator shows the location of the nearest piece of Timestone -- this is most useful when tracking down other Agents missing in the Virtuals. In addition, the settings of each Portal must be recorded in a Bracelet. Each bracelet can hold up to 5 Virtual Settings. Thus, an Agent may have a Bracelet which has memorised the settings for Sauron, Aegypt, Lemuria, Neverland and Lucifer. If he wishes to enter another Virtual, he must erase a previous setting and replace it with the new one. The settings for new Virtuals are programmed by simply by adjusting the Bracelet within a few metres of a Portal to the desired Virtual. Note that Agents themselves do not need to memorise 'settings' for Virtuals, since they can cast the Virtual Travel Procedure in person at the Portals. Note that the setting for Nexus itself need not be recorded -- all Bracelets are capable of returning to Nexus (using the inbuilt 'Nexus Entry' Procedure) for free.
Void Engines By Mike Moolick These vehicles are one of the crowning achievements of my convention's scientific progress. I can confidently say that they have no equal in performance ot utility. They have, over the past three decades especially, become the main deep probe and transport devices of the Void Engineers. Periodic exposure of current designs has been proceeding over the past century. There are enough believers that the devices are almost paradox free. Furthermore, the introduction of "Stealth" technology has enables us to use them right under sleepers' noses. The following is a discription of our craft for the landbound. The Void Engines are sleek ovoid craft. A quick inspection shows them to be made of a smooth, seamless, brilliantly reflective metal, a Void Engineer material called Celestium. Celestium is a memory metal, and as the vehicles changes speed and direction the confirmation of the metal changes to maximize aerodynamic factors and propulsion. Indeed, the metal is an integral part of the craft's uniqe propulsion system. The Void Engines are propelled by systems unlike any in current sleeper use. The technology is based upon the wasping of the continum and alteration of spatial curves, the theories of which are too classified to be released here. The craft's surface defines an envelope of "stable space" around which the alterations are made. By strengthening space on one end of the craft and contracting it at the other, the space the vehicle is in is moved. This is different than the vehicle moving through space, and allows speed and maneuverability that is physically impossible otherwise. Instantaneous changes in speed and direction are possible, without worry of G-forces which plague conventional aircraft. The largest present problem with in atmosphere flight is friction. Even though Celestium is nearly frictionless flight can heat it to several thousand degrees on the surface, and burn it away slowly over a period of years. Flight above mach eight is therefore an aunauthorized proceedure in all non-experimental cases. The Celestium releases it's pent up energy as light, heat, and radiation. This can reach damaging doses for those who carelessly fly low without engaging the stealth systems. The stealth systems increase the seal integrity of the ship's space. Electromagnetic energies radiating from the ships encounter a phenomona similar to light trying to escape a black hole's event horizin, and are quickly re-absorbed by the celestium hull. External electromagnetic radiation is bend around the vehicle, exiting from the warped space at angles and times corresponding to that whouch would have occured in the normal environment without the vehicle's presence.
Pilot: Only Void Engineers have the training to handle these craft in flight. The pilot interfaces with the vehicle's computer systems by sitting in a special "neural induction field seat", which we devised with Progenitor assistance. This, combined with a mental action which is not dissimlar to entering the Digital Web ( Correspondence *, Mind * ) allows reaction times well above those physiological possible in conventional flight systems.
Cargo Capacity: The Void Engines have little cargo space and with good reason, ask and Void Engine pilot and he'll tell you ( "These puppies ain't third class freight. ) The largest engines can Accommodate about ten people or one and a half tons of cargo.
Top speed: Atmospheric Mach 8 (Computers cut of anything faster); In Void - Classified (Hint, warp something) Maneuverability: 9 ( Capable of "Impossible" maneuvers and flight in any direction as well as hovering. Authorization to land except in Technomancer controlled areas is rarely granted, and the computers won't allow it without authorization.)
Range: Classified. Known to be "Quintessence Guzzler", costs at least 3 points of quintessence per hout to keep flying. Fuselage: The Celestium hull gives the Void Engines two dice of countermagick against magickal assault. Celestium's hardness provides four dice of armor, and the spatial envelope of a flying whip gives it four more. In stealth mode, attacks involving lesser forces are routed around it. The vehicles have eight soak dice.
Damage levels: OK x 3, -1, -2, -3, -3, -4, -4, -5, Destroyed. Modifiers apply to maneuverability. Weapons: Void Engines are unarmed, as they are not combat craft. Pilots are under orders to avoid conflict. Pilots and passengers can use magical attacks however. Most commonly lasers or memory/consciousness deadening attacks are used. Note - The Void Engines operate not only in air and space, but undersea as well. This is unusual as oceanic exploration is usually handled by task-specific vehicles.
Wand of Anvils By James Hertsch III (
[email protected])
Rank 3
Arete 4
Quintessence 15
Introduction Very few mages actually know who came up with this little device. The prevailing theory, in fact, is that it is the product of a child Order of Hermes mage who went Marauder very shortly thereafter, as the paradigm this device relies on is heavily tied to Saturday morning cartoons.
Appearance The Wand of Anvils appears to be a foot-long wand of a silvery metal, tipped with a small anvil-shaped ruby.
Activation The mage activates this wand by pointing it at his target, making a Dexterity + Firearms roll, and shouting "Anvillus!!!" Order of Hermes and SoE mages would find it helpful to calculate the trajectory of the anvil before firing it.
Powers This device uses a Matter 2, Prime 2 effect to create an anvil one of two ways: the first anvil actually issues forth from the wand as a glowing red-hot iron anvil, and streaks towards its target. The second option involves pointing the wand at the sky, and causing an anvil to come streaking down out of the heavens. Each of these uses takes 1 Quintessence. At the expenditure of 15 Quintessence, the mage can optionally conduct the Anvil Symphony, a musical piece which features multiple anvils falling out of the sky to the tune of ethereal music. Waving the wand as if he were a conductor, the mage can inflict ungodly amounts of damage on his enemies, if they fail a dodge roll.
Wolf-Strap By Blake1001 ((
[email protected]) for the Werewolf Bygones
Arete 3
Quintessence 15
Freebie Cost 6
Description This Talisman is a belt or strap made of cured wolf skin, with the fur still on. It is activated by simply putting it on, and deactivated by removing it (though how this is accomplished physically while in the form of a wolf is never covered in the stories). In the past, belief in the Boxenwulf was so widespread that Wolf-Straps could be used by anyone. Today, Mages, hedge magicians, and a few sleepers who strongly believe in them can use such items. The Wolf-Strap is generally attributed to the Verbena and/or to European Dreamspeakers. A normal, non-Diabolistic Wolf-Strap changes its wearer into an ordinary wolf, instead of a sinister Boxenwulf -- similar items that turned the wearer into a fox or other animal are also mentioned.
System: The normal version of the Talisman uses a Life/Mind/Spirit effect to transform the wearer into a normal wolf, and gives him the mental faculties and instincts to use that form without penalty. The effect is only level 3 (it is a very specific transformation, and grants no unusual powers, technically, it should be Life 5: Perfect Metamorphosis). An Arete roll must be made when the item is used in front of witnesses, otherwise, the change is automatic. The wolf form has +1 STR, +1 DEX, and +3 STA, bites for STR +1 normal damage, runs at twice normal speed, and has obvious difficulties when it comes to using social stats, communicating, or using tools or foci. Most versions also incorporate Matter, causing any clothes or possessions to be subsumed in the transformation. The Diabolistic, version of the Wolf-Strap is a more potent (Level 5, 10 Freebie points) and uses a Life/Prime/Spirit effect to turn the wearer into the monstrous Boxenwulf.
Wyrmclaw By Dafydd Flower (
[email protected])
Author's Notes The Wyrmclaw is a combination Mage Talisman and Fae Treasure. I bought it as a 3 point Talisman, with suitable powers. My Storyteller then turned it into Excalibur on LSD! It usually appears in the form of a sword.
Arete 4
Quintessence 32
Powers Wayfare 3: Portal Passage Prime 3: Absorb Quintessence from victims (has been observed to work on Immortals and Mages, absorbing Quickening and Quintessence. Has yet to be tested on Vampires, Fae and Garou). Prime 2: Charges the blade to do aggravated damage. Portal Passage can be used to enter the Near Umbra, the Shadowlands or the Near Dreaming. From these worlds it can then be used to moved deeper into the Umbra or Dreaming, or into the deeper worlds of the Dead. By looking through the jewel (see description) the wielder can see into the Near Umbra, the Shadowlands and the Near Dreaming. The blade can be made to burst into flames, either chimerical (expend 1 Quintessence) or real (expend 2 Quintessence), doing an additional four dice of aggravated damage per strike. The wielder is immune to chimerical fire. Wyrmclaw can alter its shape and mass to an incredible degree, even to the point of dividing into several separate pieces (NB the jewel cannot be divided, and only the piece with the jewel can perform any of the powers). Wyrmclaw's most recent wielder usually carried it as a pair of finger rings, one on each hand, which became a sabre and main-gauche when needed. Wyrmclaw can project a blast of fire. (No solid rules were formed for this power)
Description Wyrmclaw is constructed of a currently unidentified silvery alloy, similar to electrum, possibly of extra-terrestrial origin (we entered a parallel world where the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs never hit, and Wyrmclaw began to fade out of existence). This alloy affects Garou in the same way as silver, and may also have the effects of gold on Corax. Set into the alloy is a red jewel, which always assumes a prominent position in whatever form that Wyrmclaw takes; for instance, when Wyrmclaw becomes a sword the jewel is set in the base of the blade. Whatever form Wyrmclaw takes always has a vaguely draconic theme -- a pair of claws sprouts from the base of the blade when in sword form, the rings are in the shape of dragon chasing their own tails etc.
History Wyrmclaw was forged far back in the mythic age, so long ago that not even Wyrmclaw itself can remember. Since then the sword has appeared at several key points in history, usually during a great disaster. In each case, a great city has been sacked; Troy (c.1200 BC), Carthage (146 BC) and Constantinople (1453 AD) are the known victims. Each time, an Immortal has been wielding Wyrmclaw, fighting another Immortal on Holy Ground as the final battle for the city takes place. The other Immortal has
always been armed with a similar weapon, a sword forged of a gold-like metal with a blue jewel set in the base of the blade. In the intervening periods, Wyrmclaw has appeared in the hands of Mages, Garou, Fae and almost every other form of supernatural life that does not directly serve the Wyrm. Since the fall of Constantinople it has been in the hands of Immortals. It was passed to its most wielder, Owen Kavanagh, in the seventeenth century after his mentor, and the swords previous wielder, learned that the Kurgan was pursuing him. Wyrmclaw has various legends attached to it. The Fae refer to its wielder as the Paladin of the Silver sword, and believe that it will bring about the next Great Winter. Some welcome this, believing that the Winter must inevitably lead to Spring, while others fear that the Winter will last forever. Therefore, the Paladin may be welcomed or reviled by any Fae he meets and knows who he is. The Garou know that Wyrmclaw has often aided them against their enemies and as such have some respect for it. However, the sword's most recent wielder had no respect for them, having seen their failure for himself. Some Mages know a little of Wyrmclaw, but more as a curiosity than anything else. It is believed to be the work of the Soleficati. Wyrmclaw's link with Immortals seems to be the most bizarre. Both Wyrmclaw and its gold twin have caused duels to be fought on Holy Ground on a number of occasions. Furthermore, there are a few legends which say that the final battle will be as much a duel between the gold and silver swords as between the last two Immortals. Perhaps the Prize is control of both.
