Mage Information

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All of mankind is born with the ability to Awaken to the Avatar inside themselves and alter the fundamental fabric of reality. Those who Awaken are collectively known as Mages, the rest of humanity are known as sleepers. Like all other supernaturals there are many ways of subdividing Mages. The battle for reality and "saving" humanity is known as the Ascension War. Below you will find the links to the pieces of the various factions that vie for control of humanities belief of what is Real. Magick as it is known is divided into Spheres to represent which piece of reality it can alter.

Definitions

Disambiguation

Just to keep things clear...
• The word you can apply to both the player and the character.

• The word mage hereby applies to all characters who employ Sphere-based magick, regardless of their practices or affiliation.

• The word magick hereby applies to making things happen by using the Spheres. Certain characters don’t consider what they’re doing to be magick, but for clarity’s sake we’ll use that word throughout this chapter.

Helpful Terms

(Capitalization as presented below.)

• Arete: The Trait rolled to cast an Effect. Enlightenment is the same Trait by a different name.

• Sphere: One of the nine Traits that define what a mage can do with magick.

• Magick: Freeform reality alteration; done with Spheres and Arete.

• Effect: Game term for the effect you have on reality when you use magick to make things happen.

• working: Another name for an Effect; also, spell.

• rote: A pre-prepared Effect; called an Adjustment or Procedure by the Technocracy. {Its a home-cooked recipe.}

• focus: Game term that summarizes the belief, practice, and tools that a Mage character uses in order to craft Effects.

• Paradox: The reality backlash associated with Sphere-based magick.

• Pattern: A material substance, filled with Quintessence energy.

• Pattern Arts: The Spheres of Forces, Life, and Matter, which can create, adjust, and alter physical Patterns. Spirit is an “unofficial” Pattern Art which does not deal in physical materials or elements.

• Quintessence: The energy that creates and fuels all things.

• conjunctional Effect: An Effect that uses two or more Spheres, combining their powers in order to do something that neither Sphere can accomplish on its own.

• coincidental magick: An Effect that an average person would consider possible within the prevailing beliefs. Examples: Using a GPS to find something, making a lucky guess about something you shouldn’t be able to know, employing karate to bust a hole in a wall, etc.

• vulgar magick: An Effect that the average person would consider impossible by the prevailing beliefs. Examples: Turning into a housecat, stepping out of thin air, snapping your fingers to make someone’s bones snap too, etc.



The Act of Magick

The key to Mage’s magick system is this: every mage does as he or she Wills. Although World of Darkness mages do use spells, tools, Procedures, rotes, and rituals, the things they do with those instruments change reality in accordance with the individual mage’s desires. That’s why we put that contentious (some say pretentious) “k” at the end of the word: because each mage changes the world in his or her own way, and that’s a bit more significant than simple “magic.”

From a gaming standpoint, Mage’s magick system is free-form, based upon what your character knows, needs, and believes about herself. The Spheres provide a blueprint, and focus provides the toolkit, but each character – and each player – is ultimately an architect, building things to suit individual desires and abilities.

That’s true even for the simplest Rank 1 perception Effects. You could have three Virtual Adepts using the same Effect in three different ways: one might activate a scanning app on his cell phone; the second could close her eyes, do some three- part yoga breathing, and extend her senses outward; and the third takes a few hits off a joint, open his eyes and sees deeper than the usual levels of human perception. In game terms, all three mages belong to the same group and yet perform the same Effect in their own way – the rules are the same but the role-playing is unique. The ways in which you make your character’s magick happen depend on the way you want to play that character and the ways in which you see that person meeting their immediate needs.



Casting A Spell - The Basics

Okay, so how, in game terms, do I cast a spell?

  • Step One – Effect: Based on your character’s abilities and needs, decide what you want to do and how you want to do it. This is called the Effect: the thing you want to accomplish with your magick.
  • Step Two – Ability: Based on your mage’s focus and Spheres, figure out if you can create the Effect you want to create... and if so, how your character will make it happen in story terms.
  • Step Three – Roll: Roll one die for every dot in your Arete Trait. The difficulty depends upon the Effect you’re trying to use; whether it’s vulgar or coincidental; and whether or not someone’s watching you.
  • Step Four – Results: The number of successes that you roll determines whether or not you succeed. If you fall short of your goal, you may roll again on subsequent turns in order to get more successes. (See Rituals, Rolls,and Extended Successes, pp. 538-542.) If you fail, the Effect fizzles out. And if you botch, bad things happen.



Questioning Coincidence

For those times when you’re not sure whether a given spell – in game terms, an Effect – is coincidental or vulgar, ask yourself the following questions:

• Obviousness: Is the mage’s spell essentially invisible, or can people sense it without using some sort of specialized perceptions?

• Paradigm: Is the mage using a type of magick that’s appropriate for that mage and focus? For example, a martial artist catching arrows or healing herself through intense discipline fits that mage and focus; the same mage using a laptop to infect a person with rabies would not fit her at all.

• Possibility: Do the spell, focus, and results fit into the local reality zone? That is, would normal people in that place expect this sort of thing to be possible? A cyborg firing rockets from his arm in New York City might seem possible, but a shaman turning into a wolf would not. In the primal wilderness of Romania, however, the reverse could be true.

• Practice: Is the mage using his usual practice in the usual way (a martial artist using kung fu, a cyborg using rockets), as opposed to making shit up on the fly (either mage using mind power to make trees fall down)?

• Resources: Is the mage working with things that are already present (summoning a taxi that’s just down the street), as opposed to conjuring up things that had not existed there before (making a cab and driver out of thin air)?

• Upheaval: Does the spell take the subtle form of least resistance, like a falling cinderblock, as opposed to causing massive changes of state and form (turning someone into soap bubbles), and/ or violating obvious physical laws (disintegrating a house)?

• Drama: Does the spell make dramatic sense within your story (an angry martial artist kicking a tree down), as opposed to seeming absurd (that same martial artist kicking the moon out of orbit)?

You don’t need to answer every question each time somebody casts a spell. In most cases, the answers will be obvious. If you need a tie-breaker, though, err on the side of drama. Mage is, after all, a storytelling game about magick. Whenever possible, let it be magical.

Pulling on Mythic Threads

Strands of legendry and lore, the Mythic Threads (see Chapter Two, p. 61) tie into the Collective Unconscious and reinforce the iconic power of certain mystic and technological symbols. Especially in the current era, symbolic figures like witches, wizards, cops, and superheroes exert a literally fantastic pull on the Consensus. Although folks like to claim that “magic is dead,” the Masses have not yet received that particular memo.

In game terms, a mage of any faction can manipulate Mythic Threads in order to reduce the difficulty of an Effect by -1. Essentially, he employs potent symbology as part of his focus, drawing on the power of iconic figures and ideas. Black robes or leather, religious symbols, arcane glyphs and designs, elemental phenomena (fire, thunder, fog, etc.) – used cleverly, such trappings invoke the suspension of disbelief and prime the Masses to accept things that, under other circumstances, they might consider irrational. Ideally, such tactics could even make certain Effects coincidental that would be considered vulgar otherwise.

For more details about using Mythic Threads, see the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart and the sidebar Optional Rule: Significant Instruments, (p. 588).



Paradox: The Price of Magick

Even if you succeed, you might still get Paradox: the consequence that comes about when you impose your view of reality upon the reality that already exists. Although mages dispute what Paradox means and why it works the way it works, in game terms, Paradox is simple: it’s what happens when you push reality too far.

We’ll go into the various effects of Paradox later in this chapter. For right now, just remember that every time you use magick to rearrange reality, you risk having reality rearrange your character’s face. That’s the cost of magick in the World of Darkness. Your mage has incredible potential, but he must be cautious about what he does with it.

In Mage, Paradox can strike when your character does something flashy, big, and sudden. Essentially, he pushes too hard against established reality, so reality pushes back. For that reason, you can get Paradox even when your Arete roll succeeds. And so, when you decide upon an Effect in Step One , remember the potential for Paradox. Be subtle and clever when you can... and when you have to go for the big, flashy Effect, accept the fact that you’ll be paying for it later.

The following charts and tables show you what you need to know when you’re using magick in your game. For explanations of the various elements of magick and their associated rules, see the sections following these charts.

Magickal Reference Charts

Common Magickal Effects

Entries reflect whichever Spheres apply to the feat in question. Transforming an object into air or fire would be Forces 3/ Matter 2, whereas liquefying it would simply be Matter 2. Many Sphere listings feature two Sphere levels. The first lets a mage work on herself, and the second (in parentheses) allows her to work on others. Changing your own shape, for example, requires Life 4, but changing someone else’s shape demands (Life 5). Other workings begin small but then escalate their effects with higher Sphere levels; these workings have been marked with a “+.” Entries with [brackets] have several possibilities, which depend upon the Sphere used in the Effect. For example, [appropriate elemental Sphere] could mean Forces, Life, or Matter, depending upon the element the mage is working with. Given the flexibility of the Spheres, there may be several options when performing a particular feat. The methods listed below are simply the easiest ways to cast a spell, not necessarily the only ways to do it. Common alternatives for the same task are separated by semi-colons.



Awakened History

The Triumph of Steam and Steel

The purge began with an Industrial Revolution; it picked up speed with the revolts in America, Haiti, France, and elsewhere. It spun through the conquests of Napoleon – a technocrat in method if not Enlightenment, who refined technologies of war and government – and ascended a throne in the form of Queen Victoria: another technocrat whose influence defined an age.

Both the Traditions and Technocracy considered Victoria a Daedalean Master. Mortal histories presented her as a melancholy moralist with devastating civil acumen. Under her governance, England became the most powerful nation on Earth – rarely rivaled on the battlefield and commanding respect in every sphere of human achievement. Victoria’s England spanned the globe, nurturing factories, armies, and international corporations that every other nation emulated. This was not, of course, the pinnacle of civilization – it was a filthy, polluted realm of horrific poverty and seething oppression. Victoria’s age, though, defined a new prosperity: a triumph of steam and steel.

Brilliance and Betrayal

Three new technocratic sects defined this era: from within the Voltarian group came a wild hybrid of Hermetic mysteries, Muslim scholarship, European ingenuity, and defiant hubris called the Electrodyne Engineers; a quiet but visionary association of mathematical malcontents begat the Difference Engineers; and a globe-trotting pack of rowdy aristocrats who called themselves the Skeleton Keys joined the nascent Ivory Tower faction. Between the three of them, these fellowships embodied the spirit of wild invention, calculating foresight, and righteous fisticuffs. Compared to them, the grumbling Gabrielites and indignant Craftmasons felt like embarrassing throwbacks from a less-Enlightened age.

Even as it pushed its mystic rivals toward the edge of insignificance, the Order of Reason was showing its age. The reigning Masters were centuries old – aberrations to their own sense of logical propriety. The religious zealots had become tiresome, and the blood they’d spilled over the last six or seven centuries seemed, at best, counterproductive to the cause of Reason. Money and trade appeared to be the true measures of reality in this expanding world – truer than God, more productive than dogma, able to build empires in the image of Man, building over the bones of supposedly more primitive cultures.

The Order of Reason was done with quaint superstitions and divisive religious nonsense. It had had enough of rival empires and technologies. The last few centuries had shown that unity could be imposed through force... and so, in the shadows of Victoria’s influence, the Order of Reason became the Technocratic Union.

A series of meetings and alliances linked the European Order, the Chinese Dragons, and rising technocratic sects in the new- formed United States. The Ottomans were invited to the table as well, but a schism between secular Muslim technocrats and pious Muslim artisans cracked the Court of Sacred Sciences... which, of course, was exactly what the European Guildsmen intended. As this effort came together, the Proctor House Coalition led the revolution. Wielding a potent form of the Art of Desire, these money men made secret deals for the Order’s future: global wealth, global influence, global power... and an end to those annoying religious zealots who’d held back progress for so long.

All the records of the meetings wound up “lost” or “revised.” All the parties involved were soon dead or deeply hidden. But in a series of quick strokes, the Craftmasons, Gabrielites, and other “superstitionists” were deposed. Outside historians called this the Lightning Purge: a quick, brutal war between technocratic factions. As the 20 th century began, the Lightning Purge illuminated a New World Order. Science, not faith, determined its path from then on.

In place of the old Daedalean Conventions, a new array of groups took up the Technocratic mantle: Iteration X, a computerized refinement of the Mechanicians; the Progenitors, who melded the Cosian explorations in biological life with the potential for advanced evolution; the Void Engineers, who forged the old Explorators and Celestial Masters into a single pioneering entity; the New World Order that consolidated apparent leadership under Reason and Control; the Electrodyne and Difference Engineers; and the Syndicate – the syndics (“ones who represent”) of these new Technocratic interests — who, behind a screen of money and indulgence, formed the new Order’s true leadership. The Ivory Tower replaced the sinister, outmoded Ksirafai. That last group disappeared, its apparent purpose finally fulfilled.

How did it all happen so quickly? How were the Craftmasons and Gabrielites virtually exterminated? When did the Cabal of Pure Thought – a group dedicated to religious orthodoxy – drive God out of the Machine? And how, folks wondered, did a group of atheistic European upstarts turn Muslim, Taoist, and Confucian Masters to their cause?

Such radical transitions could almost be considered... magical.

End of an Age

As industrial empires ground the common people between the gears, flickers of defiance ignited a new fascination with occult pursuits. Mystic orders suddenly seemed to be everywhere. Could this have been the Order of Hermes playing a long game throughout the various secret societies? They’ll certainly take credit for doing so. Ecstatic artists danced through the bohemian bacchanals of Europe’s fin de siécle (“end of the century”), or else fought on the edges of the American frontier as Los Sabios Locos (“the Crazy Wise Ones”). The sickening pollution and crushing despair of this industrial victory fed Thanatoic fervor... especially once the Great War and the Great Influenza Epidemic initiated the monumental death tolls of the budding century. The Akashayana found a new sense of purpose in a Boxer Rebellion that recalled their Red Turban victories, and the Celestial Chorus recruited new devotees in North and South America. The Verbena, too, thrived in the occult revival and artistic rebellions of the time, as the term neo-pagan – originally an insult – became a mark of honor. Appalled by the destructions of African and Native American cultures, the Dreamspeakers adopted a quietly evangelical defiance; though many folks – their allies included – took this pose as some form of “noble savage” serenity, it masked a powerful, subversive Will. Only the Batini seemed to give up hope; disgusted with the Council’s divisive stagnation, that Tradition walked out shortly after the turn of the century. By then, however, another group had joined the ranks.

The Electrodyne Engineers played a vital role in the Lightning Purge, their machines crushing Gabrielite resistance and Craftmason Arts. Soon afterward, though, the Technocratic Inner Circle tried to rein in the proud inventors. Announcing that the Ether – a foundation element to Electrodyne High Science – did not actually exist, the Inner Circle used new mass-communication technology to put the Etherites in their place. As a result, the Engineers quit the new Technocratic Union in 1904 and joined the Traditions under their old nickname, the Sons of Ether.

To say that this didn’t go over well is an understatement.

For decades, the industrial powers and their associated Technocrats had tested their deadliest devices on people they called primitive savages and rebellious country boys. Every so often, an army would toss some new innovation at a rival’s troops to see what it might do. No one, however, was ready for what happened when two Union-backed superpowers hauled out their biggest guns. It started when a newly-industrialized Japan crossed guns with Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese prelude to the coming horror show. A few years later, Victoria’s house of cards collapsed in the grind of the First World War. By the time it ended... and that influenza pandemic racked up another 20 million dead... the true scope of Technocratic atrocity had been revealed.

The Sorcerers Crusade had been wild. The Lighting Purge had been incredible. The various plagues and wars and collapsing empires and civil wars brought their share of misery. No one, however, had seen anything like the mechanized genocide surrounding the Great War: tanks, planes, poison gas, machine guns, cannons that could pound a city from an entire county away, and a generation of men and women whose minds and bodies had been shattered even when their bodies had not quite died. It seems as though some epic, awful magic had taken hold of humanity. And the worst was still to come...

Roar

In the wake of global war and plague, the so-called Lost Generation dove into the occult revival. Spiritualism, secret orders, radical art movements, Pagan reclamation, and militant atheism all provided willing initiates for cults both Awakened and otherwise. The Technocracy shook itself off and sorted through the carnage, often missing the rising power of Hermetics, Choristers, Ecstatics, Thanatoics, and even Akashics. There were, after all, plenty of distractions in this “roaring” era, most obviously the Russian Revolution, the collapse of Imperial China, the rapid rise of Imperial Japan, and the anti-German backlash in Europe... a backlash that inspired the horrors to come.

As Technocratic experiments in Italy, the United States and Russia took hold, growing numbers of Hollow Ones swelled the ranks of the Awakened. Forsaking all forms of old wisdom, these people slipped between the cracks of both Traditions and Technocracy. Although they would be seen in later years as bored Goth kids, the orphaned Hollowers were a true 20 th -century mystic tradition... a fact the Council would ignore at great cost later. Disdained by lofty mystics as “self-Awakened rabble,” the Hollowers found themselves treated as recruiting stock and cannon fodder. The treatment didn’t sit well with them.



The Traditions

CouncilofNine.png

A Tradition is a group of mystically-oriented mages allied with the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions. That is, they believe in magic and understand that they manipulate magic to create desired effects. This contrasts with scientifically-oriented mages, who believe that they use Enlightened Science rather than magic, and this Science is manipulated to create desired effects.

To date, eleven organizations have been counted as Traditions. The following list only counts their membership within the Council of Nine, not as seperate organizations.



The Technocracy

LogoFactionTechnocracy.png

The Precepts of Damian

Article 1: Bring stasis and order to the Universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Ascension shall be won.

Article 2: Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of Rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.

Article 3: Preserve the Gauntlet and Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the stability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces such as the Nephandi access to our world. This must never happen.

Article 4: Define the nature of the Universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelope all. The elemental forces of the Universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.

Article 5: Destroy reality deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Ascension.

Article 6: Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.

Marauders

SectMarauder.png

Marauders are insane mages whose Avatars have been warped by their mental instability, and who exist in a state of permanent Quiet. While any mage who favors Dynamism may experience a form of madness in their Quiet, Marauders embody Dynamism; the real world is translated into their fractured version by a constant, subconscious use of vulgar magic.

Nephandi

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Orphans

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Disparates & The Disparate Alliance




Sorcerers

  • -- Aybek -- Dark shaman of the Spirit Talker faction from Khazaria. {Deceased: 969 A.D.}



Mage: Character Traits

As we mentioned earlier, the various Traits reflect the game systems side of your character’s abilities. Through a collection of dice, represented by dots, you determine the mage’s success or failure, as well as his overall strengths and weakness with certain kinds of tasks. Although certain types of Traits, specifically the Essences and Archetypes, don’t have dots or dice pools, all the following characteristics deal with the gaming side of your mage.

Avatar Essences

As we’ve seen earlier, the Essence reflects the personality of your mage’s Avatar. By extension, it also influences the mage himself. In many regards, the Essence gives you a general script for your character’s behavior. His goals, his habits, the way he approaches life and all its mysteries – all may be guided by the mage’s Essence.

The Awakened themselves disagree about the role, nature, and purpose of an Essence. Reincarnationists view such tendencies as the legacies of past lives, whereas big-picture metaphysicians point toward the Metaphysic Trinity and the spaces between its forces. Technocrats dismiss such mystic rubbish, seeing instead the psychological profiles of Enlightened personalities. There are folks who see Essence as directives from Almighty God, and others who speak of Pure Ones who continually reincarnate their cosmic identities in Earthly vessels. As with magick itself, the truth about your mage’s Essence will depend – at least in that character’s eyes – on the beliefs he holds about his place in Creation.

Most often, the Avatar and its Essence reveal themselves as personality quirks, subtle nudges, dreams, hallucinations, déjà vu, and feelings of something or someone being just right or totally wrong to the mage in question. A Dynamic Essence mage feels restless, driven, impassioned, and hyperactive; his Pattern companion might be more settled, reliable, one of those good head on her shoulders types with a solid approach toward life. A Questing vagabond rarely sticks around one place for long, and the enigmatic Primordial soul gazes at her surroundings with eerie calm and an agenda no one else can fathom. Despite broad connections between the four Essences and the Ascension War factions – Dynamic for Marauders, Pattern for Technocrats, Questing for the Traditions, and Primordial for the Nephandi – all four Essences can be found in every faction... including the ones who want no part of that War.

The stronger the Avatar, the greater its influence; one or two dots in Avatar manifest as simple hunches, whereas four- or five- dot ones achieve full-blown identities. An Avatar’s manifestations are often tied to its Essence nature. Although human beings seem more complex – defined more by Nature, Demeanor, and personal choice than by cosmic forces – the Avatars that push mages themselves often display the Essence in obvious ways. Dynamic Avatars take ferocious forms, driving their mortal hosts like children before demonic whips. A Pattern Genius could manifest as that feeling of rightness when a carpenter grabs his hammer and a gazes at a stack of planks. The Questing Avatar might blow through a mage’s hair like an eternal breeze, cooling her skin even in the still desert air, whereas the Primordial Avatar pools deep in a wizard’s subconscious, filling his head with visions that defy definition yet demand answers in the light of day.

During the age of High Magick, the Essences were identified by elements (Dynamic/ Fire, Pattern/ Earth, Questing/ Air, Primordial/ Water) and mythic creatures. Viewed by some mages as diagrams of the soul, these tendencies appeared to be marks of predestination. And although modern mages often assert that “I am no one’s pawn,” there does appear, at times, to be a greater force – or perhaps four or five forces – manipulating mages toward some greater end.

That fifth force, Infinite, remains enigmatic. Sages say that it must exist, but if it does, no one’s actually seen it. In game terms, it’s hard to say what an Infinite Essence might look like. We recommend that player characters probably shouldn’t have such an option, but perhaps a weird Storyteller character could embody that sort of Avatar, staring at the world with eyes and heart that reach past mere human understanding and into realms even mages can’t yet comprehend.

Four Essences

How this essence effects their magic is called Resonance.

Genius Eidolons: The Technocratic Essence

Operatives of the Technocratic Union refuse to accept superstitionist babble about avatars and essences. Such concepts are merely the archaic excuses for perfectly understandable psychiatric phenomena. Still, even the most hardened scientists must accept overwhelming evidence, so the concept of Eidolons – constructs of a person’s Enlightened Genius – remains an open secret among Technocratic personnel.

For all practical purposes, Eidolons and Essences are exactly the same thing. But in the world of Mage, perception and belief are the foundations of reality. Thus, a Technocrat or former Technocrat will utterly deny the existence of a metaphysical soul essence. Reality Deviants may have their silly little soul-faces, but a good Technocrat knows what such things really are: wisps of imagination wrapped around perfectly sensible expressions of Genius!

Even so, Technocrats don’t like to discuss these wisps of imagination. Oh, it’s acceptable to mention one’s dreams upon occasion, but a Technocrat who discusses dreams as if they mean something may soon find himself in hot water. Dreams, then, are where Genius Eidolons run wild. If and when such phantasms manifest in clear view during waking hours, a smart Technocrat will keep such fancies to himself if he knows what’s good for him... which, of course, he does.



Mage Backgrounds

An Introduction to Backgrounds

A measure of resources both internal (Avatar, Arcane, Dream, etc.) and external (Allies, Mentor, Resources, and so on), the Background Trait tells you plenty about a mage’s position in life. A charismatic wizard, for instance, would have Allies, Contacts, Influence, and the like, whereas a solitary hermit would possess a strong Avatar, lots of Arcane, and maybe a Familiar or Node. As with other Traits, Backgrounds come from essential elements of that character’s history and often play significant roles in the chronicle at hand. When you pick your Backgrounds, then, make sure there are good reasons for the things you choose. Who are your Allies, and why do they aid you? Where’s your Node, what’s it like, and how did you acquire such a potent treasure? A high Avatar rating reflects an entity with a strong personality and goals of its own; what, then, is your relationship with that internal spirit, and how does that affect your life? Each Trait should have origins, conditions, and a story of its own... at least in regards to its place in your life.

In certain situations, you can roll your Background rating as a dice pool (or part of one) for certain feats. Charisma + Influence, for example, can help you spread a message quickly, and Manipulation + Arcane might help you pull the old “I’m not the one you’re looking for” trick. Generally, though, your Background ratings reflect things that are available to you, not dice you roll to accomplish the average task.

Although your actions affect the power of your Background resources, the Background Trait itself is generally considered to be outside the player’s control. Under the original Storyteller rules, you could not raise a Background Trait with experience points, although the Storyteller might raise it for you, in lieu of experience points, to reflect events in the chronicle. Mage Revised changed this rule, so the final decision depends on your Storyteller’s wishes (see p. 336.) Even then, a changed Background generally reflects a change in circumstances. You can try to recruit more Spies or entice more Allies to join your cause, but the exact number of people who do (or don’t) flock to your banner depend on the needs of the story, not on the points you spend to boost those Traits.

Background Ratings Over Five

When you’ve got the resources of a massive organization behind you, or if you’ve acquired some monumental wealth or influence thanks to your Arts, an inheritance, or some other unusual means, you could exceed the usual Background limits. Such levels of influence are extremely rare, the province of the richest and most influential folks on Earth. Syndicate tycoons, heirs of Hermetic wizardry, hackers who own entire IT firms – these sorts of characters might, if the Storyteller agrees, purchase Background Traits above the usual level.

Only the Backgrounds noted below can go above the five- dot level. These Backgrounds – Allies, Backup, Influence, Library, Node, Resources, Requisitions, and Spies – reflect external resources that other Traits cannot match. The other Background Traits can NOT go above five; you can’t purchase Avatar 6 or Mentor 8.

When listing a Background Trait above 5, simply note the first five dots in the usual place and then either mark the additional dots in the next line under that one, or else write down something like “Resources 7” on your character sheet. As with all other Backgrounds, these high-level Traits are not free. People who own companies, have fortunes, or maintain vast spy networks need to spend a lot of time maintaining those resources... and those who don’t soon wind up losing those fortunes to bad luck and untrustworthy subordinates. On a related note, a character needs a really good justification for such opulence. Backgrounds between 6 and 10 reflect vital elements of a character’s life.

High-level Backgrounds can seriously unbalance a chronicle. The Storyteller may refuse to let players purchase such expansive Traits at all. Even if he allows those upper levels into play, we strongly suggest limiting the nine- and 10-dot ranks to Storyteller characters only. A single character with Resources 10 can buy almost anything or anyone; a mere handful of people on Earth command that kind of wealth, and it’s not wise to allow player-run mages to be among them!



Pooling Backgrounds

Cooperation benefits everyone. A team of Technocratic operatives – or, at the Storyteller’s discretion, a tight circle of like-minded mystics – can pool certain Background Traits and then share them with the group as a whole. In the case of Technocracy ops, that’s a fairly standard procedure; for mystic mages, the group must have a common purpose and a very close connection with one another – say, a witches’ coven, an Etherite lab-group, a hacker society, and so forth.

The following Backgrounds can be shared within a single group: Allies, Backup, Influence, Laboratory, Library, Mentor, Node, Patron, Resources, Requisitions, Spies and Wonder. Other backgrounds are too individual to be shared this way. Although mystic mages can pool their Background points toward a common Chantry, Technocratic agents are specifically prohibited from doing so. When you’re part of that Union, you go where they tell you to go, belong to the group they tell you to belong to, and don’t even think of establishing your own base of control.

In story terms, the members of the group agree to hold certain assets in common. The group’s leader determines who gets what and when, then takes the necessary steps to secure that Background for his group. In game terms: 

The players pool their Background points and then put them into certain Backgrounds that each member of the group can use. 
These Backgrounds are then listed as Group Assets or Shared Resources on the character sheet of each member of that group.

If a member of that group quits, dies, or falls out of favor with the group, her Background points are withdrawn from the group’s total. She, in turn, loses access to the Group Asset Backgrounds, 
assuming she’s alive to use them. The other members either lose those points permanently or replace them with new points of their own.

When the group’s leader requisitions new gear for his team, the chances of success are based on the team’s relationship to its superiors. A hotshot pack of malcontents will have a harder time getting gear than
an efficient strike force. The pool may come from membership in a larger group.

If a specific member of the team tries to “borrow” a Background (see below), that player makes the roll. Failure, however, might affect the team as a whole, which might get the offending agent thrown under the
bus for the sake of the group.

If the group members want to purchase a high-level Background (see Background Ratings Over Five, above), they may do so if the Storyteller agrees. All the points get totaled up, and that 
Background  becomes group property. A team that assembles some really large assets, though, may attract unwanted attention, especially if they belong to the Technocracy. Members of the Union should always remember 
their place in the greater whole, and vast Resources (other than money among Syndicate operatives) might reflect an unmutual attitude.



Membership Has Its Privileges: Technocratic Backgrounds

Certain Backgrounds, marked with an asterisk (*), are available only to members of the Technocratic Union. In order to access them, your character must display loyal and constant devotion to the cause. Erratic or unmutual behavior will also reduce a Technocrat’s external Background Traits (Allies, Influence, Resources, etc.); after all, if you don’t act trustworthy, you can’t expect your superiors to trust you.

Other Background Traits have slightly different forms for Technocratic operatives. Marked with an alternate name on the other side of a slash (like Familiar/ Companion), these Backgrounds function more or less the same way, in game terms, as the mystic option, but are regarded very differently by the characters themselves.

Requisitioning, Outsourcing, and Borrowing Backgrounds

Thanks to their involvement with the Technocratic Union, Technocracy operatives enjoy several edges with regards to Background Traits: 

Outfitting: Before an assignment, Technocrats usually get outfitted with the essential equipment for that mission. The
mission supervisor (that is, the Storyteller) determines what the agents will need, and then gives them the appropriate gear. The agents, of course, do not
own this gear – it’s still property of the Technocratic Union and may be withdrawn at any time. Technocrats who get in hot water with their supervisors
often find themselves with crappy gear, inadequate gear, or no gear at all. Outfitting typically supplies a character with mundane equipment: guns, cars, 
communication devices, etc. Complex, advanced, expensive, or illegal gear (military hardware, trucks, office space, etc.) often needs to be requisitioned unless
the supervisor/ Storyteller considers it to be necessary for the assignment.

Requisitioning: As beneficiaries of the Union’s generosity, Technocrats may file a requisition with the appropriate supervisor.
If that request is granted, the operative can have – on a temporary basis – specialized gear and/ or a Background Trait she doesn’t normally possess. In this case,
the character must have the Requisitions Background; the player justifies the request, in character, to the Storyteller, and then rolls her Requisitions rating. The
roll’s default difficulty is 7, but it might be lower or higher if the character’s in really good (or really poor) standing with her supervisors; if the gear is either 
easy to come by; or if it is rare, fragile, expensive, and/ or dangerous. A successful roll nets her that gear, a failed roll gets a simple refusal, and a botched roll
earns her a chewing-out from the offended supervisor.

Outsourcing: Normally, Technocracy agents can requisition gear that’s appropriate to their Convention: a Black Suit gets weapons and 
surveillance gear, a Void Engineer gets Dimensional Science hypertech – that sort of thing. However, a member of the Syndicate (and only a member of the Syndicate) can 
outsource gear from another Technocracy Convention. Again, the roll’s difficulty is 7, modified by the nature of the gear and the standing of the agent requesting it.

Borrowing: A Technocrat with connections can try to get his Ally, Contact, Mentor, or Patron to get the gear for him. In this case, the player
rolls the appropriate Background Trait. Again, the difficulty is 7, adjusted for circumstances. A failed roll equals a refusal (which may also damage that relationship), and a
botched roll means one or both of the partners gets caught (which will certainly damage it). If the borrower succeeds, each success is worth one dot in Requisitions; if he already
has that Trait, it adds one dot to his usual rating.

Asking Nicely: In this case, a borrowing Technocrat works his connection with some social finesse. The player role-plays the request and then either
makes a social roll (a Social Trait + an Ability, with Traits appropriate to the nature of the request: Manipulation + Politics, Appearance + Seduction, etc.); or else rolls a
Social Trait + the appropriate Background Trait (Charisma + Allies, for example). The roll itself depends on what that character’s doing to try to work the connection. Using Enlightened
Procedures (that is, Sphere magick) to get what you want in this sort of bargain is extremely unmutual, with dire consequences to one or both parties if something goes wrong.

Stealing: A stupid and/ or desperate agent might try to “unofficially borrow” gear for the long haul. The Union, though, keeps very good track
of its resources, and an agent who tries stealing some of it is not long for this world.

The following Backgrounds may be requisitioned, outsourced, or borrowed: Backup, Device, Influence, Library, Node, Resources, and Spies. All other Traits imply a personal connection to the Background in question. In no cases do the requested Traits become that character’s property. They need to be returned – in good working order – at the end of a mission.

Although a non-Technocrat might try borrowing a Background Trait from another non-Technocrat (the usual limits apply), no agent of the Union would ever lend Union gear to a Reality Deviant. Beyond the horrific consequences of getting caught doing that, the idea would completely go against a Technocrat’s grain. Sure, that crazy death-mage has his uses as cannon-fodder, but would you really trust such a lunatic with a Consensual Hallucination Generator? Never.

Resource Forfeiture

The downside of these expansive policies is simple: What is given can be taken away. A character or group that acts recklessly, dishonorably, or suspiciously can have its Background Traits rescinded. In this case, the Storyteller takes the Backgrounds away – possibly after a trial, sham or otherwise, maybe not. Aside from personal Backgrounds – Cloaking, Destiny, Genius, and Hypercram – a Technocrat’s Backgrounds ultimately belong to the Union, not to the individual. Wise Technocrats behave themselves... or else.

The following Background Traits can be taken away at the supervisor’s command: Allies, Backup, Enhancement, Influence, Mentor, Patron, Requisitions, Resources, Secret Weapon, Spies, and Wonder. Companions and Contracts can be neutralized (read: kidnapped or killed) as well, and access to a Construct, Laboratory, Library, or Node can be restricted or denied. In short, then, a Technocratic character has both huge advantages and a massive disadvantage; she can request things far above her usual capacity, but those things can removed from her reach if she gets out of line. Thus, both juicy carrots and pointy sticks are used to control a Technocrat’s behavior, assuring compliance, loyalty, and dedicated service.



Background Traits

As mentioned above, the Technocracy defines certain Traits differently than mystic mages do. And although members of the Traditions share a lot of common terms, mystic mages and technomancers who belong to different groups – or to no group at all – might define their Backgrounds by Technocratic standards (say, a Companion, not a Familiar) rather than by the usual Tradition labels or ideas. As usual, concept guides definition: a Bata’a priestess is more likely to see her Avatar as an aspect of the Loa, whereas a self-Awakened computer geek is liable to see his Enlightened Self as a blazing spark of Genius.



Spheres

A Sphere is one of ten divisions of the Tellurian. The divisions are largely artificial, but are fairly accurate in dividing the known universe into several distinct facets. Although the distinction was originally artificial, it's notable that each Sphere has its own associated Realm within the Umbra, matching up to one of the nine planets within the physical universe.

The Spheres have their origin in the court of Thothmes III and Hatshepsut, when they collected together sacred artisans and mystics from around the world into two organizations: the Reed of Djehuty and the Cupbearers of Aset. He declared nine Cornerstones of Creation, the building blocks of reality.

When the Reed and Cupbearers disbanded, the knowledge of the Cornerstones was lost for a time, with various fellowships utilizing their own Pillars and Ars which were completely incompatible with each other. In the late middle ages/early Renaissance, two separate groups — the Order of Reason and the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions — arose which used these nine Cornerstones, renaming them Spheres.

The Spheres were:

By the modern nights, the Spheres are largely the same — although Connection has been renamed Correspondence.

Technocracy

Although Spheres are properly referred to using the capital S, modern Technocrats use the lower-case s when referring to their "spheres of reality." These spheres are treated as different scientific disciplines, like biology, physics, psychology or astronomy. Additionally, modern Technocrats do not practice Spirit, instead utilizing their own variant they've dubbed Dimensional Science.

Nephandi

Although the Nephandi still practice regular mystic Spheres, they also practice their own twisted versions known as Qlippothic Sphere. Each Sphere has its own associate Qlippoth: while normal Spheres operate by creating, changing and rearranging elements of reality, Qlippothic Spheres operate by reality's destruction. A normal portal might temporarily "sew" together two places in the Tapestry, but a portal created through Qlippothic magic would literally tear a hole in space, negating the space between two locations.

Qlippothic Spheres

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.

Source: http://www.evildrganymede.net/rpg/mage/m-qlippoth.htm

The Nine Qlippothic Boxes

Nine Qlippothic Boxes.jpg



Arcana: A Different Way of Looking At Spheres

An Arcanum (plural Arcana) is one of ten divisions of the Tapestry. Each Arcanum originates from one of five Supernal Realms; each Supernal Realm is the source of two Arcana: the Subtle Arcana, relating to the Supernal Realms, and the Gross Arcana, relating to the Fallen World.

The Arcana are (Subtle/Gross):

  • Aether: Prime and Forces
  • Arcadia: Fate and Time
  • Pandemonium: Mind and Space
  • Primal Wild: Spirit and Life
  • Stygia: Death and Matter



Mystic Spells and Traditional Rotes

In the more traditional applications of the Arts, magick remains unashamed of its reality-bending nature. A mystic practitioner doesn’t have to stage mind games with himself in order to justify what he does – he simply does it. Still, there’s a lot to be learned from those who have done such things before. And so, the various Awakened factions share spells, rotes, and rituals that help a mage accomplish various feats, from growing talons to saving data that appeared to be lost.

Unlike Technocratic Adjustments and Procedures, the following rotes appear to be exactly what they are: acts of magick. Although certain spells are more subtle than others, they tend to be vulgar magick in most regions of the modern world, unless they’re focused through technology or concealed within apparently mundane activities. Still, the mages who employ them remain proud of such legacies. After all, if you’re gonna be a mage, then you might as well indulge yourself and enjoy the magic!



Resonance

Resonance is the constant current of the Awakened soul's desires against the static reality. It furthermore describes the particular style of magic a mage uses. The more powerful a mage gets, the stronger and more pronounced his Resonance gets. Eventually her Resonance cloaks her in an aura of power that is noticeable and almost tangible. Humans often notice something odd, unusual or potent about mages; for the mage with high Resonance, this feeling is much more pronounced.

Resonance afflicts the outcome of the mage's used Effects. The personal, unique nature of each mage causes each form of Resonance to be special, though. Mages who are experienced in sensing Prime threads — or who just have good supernatural instincts — can often tell a mage's specific form of Resonance.

Since a mage's Resonance manifests in his actions, voice, mannerisms and magic, people can sometimes tell that the mage is more than human. In normal social situations, the mage may suffer a penalty in reactions with humans — one point of difficulty for each dot in the highest Resonance Trait. Acolytes and freethinkers often deal with "weird" people as a matter of course.



Terms

  • -- Qlippoth -- A Qlippoth (plural. Qlippothim) is a rejected world that contains a half-made universe inhabited by creatures from before the creation of the modern Tapestry.

Great Web Links

https://philgamer.wordpress.com/category/roleplaying-games/world-of-darkness/mage-the-ascension/page/2/

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Mage:_The_Ascension_books



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