Victorian Age Mage

Mage Information

Introduction

The relative importance of the Victorian Age to Mage society (particularly to the Technocrats) should not be understated. However, the period has remained thus far unexamined in any real detail. It begs to be covered in with as much attention to detail and as much respect for source material as Vampire has. So that's what we're doing.

Our target date range, like VA:Vampire, is 1880 to 1897. VA:V uses the same reason as we will: the foundation of the Order of the Golden Dawn. But while VA:V uses the publication of Dracula as their explanation for 1897, we're going to place the formation of the modern Technocracy at that point.

Theme & Mood

The primary theme for Victorian Age: Mage is rather similar to that of the new World of Darkness: the closer you look into shadows, the darker they become. Stated more simply, the more answers you find, the more questions they in turn beget. Reality is an unending mystery, and in some cases, you really don't want to know those answers.

But that doesn't stop people from looking.

Our splats are an extension of this: Traditions have faded into the background. While some mages know of them (usually via a friend of a friend), most newer recruits have never heard of them. The Traditions are, in this era, more monolithic structures, tall figures who stride the earth and fight their battles in the heavens, away from mortal comprehension. The classic fighting over the Jovian moons is very appropriate in this sense, since it's a great sort of story for what those Big Mages are up to.

Think of it sort of like the different houses in Harry Potter. Aside from the "teams" in Gryffindor, there's really no sort of evidence of them in the mortal world (or, really, in the wizard world). Anyone who represents one of these houses likely keeps their allegiance secret in order to work their subtle wars.

This is also the last time where magic and mysticism receive anything close to wide-ranging support among the populace. As the century turns, reason and science gain more of the popular mentality. Perhaps this is the Technocracy's doing, or maybe it's just how things were going to go anyhow. Regardless, it's the excuse the Traditions need to come back from contemplating their navels and re-engage themselves in the goings-on of the world around them.

This is a clash of multiple competing ideologies, even among those people would be considered brothers-in-arms in any other era. Every organization delves into hoary mysteries, hoping to get the edge on everyone else, hoping to get the "true magic" to trump all others, or simply hoping to gain wide recognition among the Masses. Unfortunately, they often cast aside all caution in their rush toward the unknown, which is not always such a fantastic idea.

Brief other stuff that obviously plays a role: the hubris of delving into unknown power, the thrill of possessing such power, the sense of creeping dread when that tomb you just opened wasn't hiding a lost manuscript, but locking away some unspeakable horror.... all the good stuff.

Mood probably doesn't need much coverage here if you're at all familiar with the gothic milieu.

Tone & Style

To borrow from the outline for VA:V:

Be lurid! Be florid! Be overwrought! Don't bog down your point completely, but affected speech is to be expected. Indulge a bit of your inner drama queen. Vampires don't feed in the Victorian era, they ravish. Every love is the one that means the end of the world if it doesn't work out; every sexual affair is tawdry.

Note that I'm not giving you license to be an adolescent twit - we do have to have content, and hiding it beneath an impenetrable veneer of bad poetry won't do. What I do want you to do is invoke the feel of the period through literary device and presentation of your prose. A vampire disappearing down a murky alley with a flourish of his cloak - kick ass! A woeful paean to the Eternal hunger and Oh, How My Soul is Damned - too much. If certain characters are like this, fine, but don't you be like that.

So do that, but for Mage, although we're going more for the "Things Man Was Not Meant To Know" angle.

Fundamental Principles

These aren't going to be laid out explicitly, but keep them in mind while writing. Get the point across implicitly.

The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire

This is the same as in VA:V: Rather than an American context, we're looking at this from a British context.

• Forget the Traditions, or at least push them into the background. We're focusing on several of the Traditions' factions and calling them Lodges. Some of the Lodges will be modern factions, some will be modern Disparate organizations, and some of them are modern Technocratic Conventions.

• Lodges are grouped into similar societies. These larger groupings are the closest the period really comes to having groups like the Traditions Council. Lodges within each society can work together for similar aims, or they might fight all the more harshly with each other over limited resources.

• Lodges, due to their separation with the parent Traditions, have fallen into a more diverse magical style: they use a combination of the Nine Spheres and several Minor Spheres (see the Mage ST Handbook). They're very powerful and flexible within their focus, but otherwise very general. Although we're using the Minor Spheres, I'd like to see some echoes from Dark Ages: Mage's system of Pillars here.

• Secret societies are everywhere. See VA: Vampire for more. Mortals are doing this sort of thing all the time: they're in vogue. Vampire have infiltrated some (maybe even the Lodges!), mages have infiltrated others. I'd like to see the Lodges reflected in this trend. They're sort of secret societies to the secret societies. Their degree of publicity depends per Lodge, as the Rule of Shade still applies for the most part, but enforcement of has been rather lax during this period.