Bruce: Created page with ";Mage Information = Practiced Subtleties = The rumor of their deaths has been greatly exaggerated. Oh, sure it’s been said that the Crafts – those Disparate sects tha..."

2017-06-21T01:29:46Z

Created page with ";Mage Information = Practiced Subtleties = The rumor of their deaths has been greatly exaggerated. Oh, sure it’s been said that the Crafts – those Disparate sects tha..."

New page

;[[Mage Information]]
= Practiced Subtleties =
The rumor of their deaths has been greatly exaggerated.

Oh, sure it’s been said that the Crafts – those Disparate sects
that refused to join either the Traditions or Technocracy – have
been more or less exterminated by the turn of the millennium.
That’s the most convenient story for both groups to tell. The
Traditions would like to think that anyone outside their safe
little world is doomed, and the Technocrats have declared
victory over their mystic rivals. Thus, it stands to reason that
those Disparates have all but disappeared, their members either
scattering into the various Traditions or else being hunted to
extinction at Technocratic hands.

That’s the official story. And it’s not even remotely true.

In actuality, many of the best-known groups on the fringes
of the Ascension War are not only alive and well but have been
quietly banding together into their own configuration: a sarcastically
named ''Disparate Alliance'' whose ironic moniker mocks the Council’s
vision of itself as Magekind’s Great White Savior. Although several
Crafts – the uncanny Hem-Ka Sobk and the demon-bound Wu-
Keng among them – ''have'' apparently been obliterated, the larger
groups have not only survived but have, in the shadows, prospered.

How? It’s not hard to understand. “The Subtle Ones” is
literally the name assumed by the Ahl-i-Batin, and other groups
like the Bata’a and Sisters of Hippolyta have spent centuries being
more or less invisible. Coming, as so many Craft mages do, from
dispossessed cultures and so-called “un-people,” the Disparate
groups have lots of practice with disappearing. When witch-hunters
came calling or slave-masters cracked down, these people knew how
to hide their practices and make all the right excuses. Concealing
their power has been second nature for quite some time.
The time for such concealment, though, may be ending soon.

= A Silent Alliance =
In the 1990s, many Disparate representatives began laying
groundwork for an alliance. Like other folks who’d been living
on the fringes until then, they recognized the potential of
global social media, virtual contact, and mutual protection.
Before the Internet, such people had to find physical locations
to meet; however, as the world got wired, the need for safe
physical space faded. By the turn of the millennium, hundreds
of Disparate mages had made contact with each other and
begun to plan. Perhaps an Alliance freed from the baggage of
the Nine Traditions could be a good idea after all...

Five groups provided the foundation for this Alliance:

:• -- The [[Ahl-i-Batin]], now seeking new partners for a fresh path toward Unity;
:• -- The [[Ngoma]], whose work across the so-called dark continent has left them fairly obscure since the Renaissance;
:• -- The [[Bata’a]], perhaps the largest of the sects, whose influence spans from North and South Americas to East and Central Africa;
:• -- The [[Hollow Ones]], disgusted with Tradition bullshit and looking to make something better;
:•....and the [[Children of Knowledge]], who consider themselves the true heirs of that much-(ab)used title, ''[[Solificati]]''.

Conversations cropped up in the global club culture,
where representatives from those five groups maintain a strong
presence, especially throughout Europe, India, and the Middle
East. They sparked in chat rooms and sectors of the Digital
Web. As the Ascension Warrior prepared to invade Horizon,
the various orphans in Heylel’s army started talking to one
another. Sure, the Council was broken and the Technocracy
was worse... but the concept of a Disparate Alliance began to
make sense. When the Technocracy locked its sights on the
various Crafts, the networks established by those meetings
helped those groups survive the purge. Though a few smaller
sects were hunted down, the budding Alliance took the others
underground. And once concealed, those mages crafted a larger,
more secure Alliance.

= Secret Common Ground =
Since that purge, the core groups have made overtures
to other fairly reliable sects around the world. The Kopa Loei
were pretty easy to convince... especially because so few of
the Alliance mages were Caucasian ''ha’oles''. The Taftâni have
been more reticent, given their troubled history with the Ahl-
i-Batin and the solitary nature of the Weavers in general. The
Knights Templar and the Sisters of Hippolyta make very strange
bedfellows, although their customary exclusions of the opposite
sex serve to balance one another out within the greater group.
Perhaps the hardest sell, though, has been the venerable Wu
Lung, whose ancient pedigree and infamous pride have made
them resistant to yet another group of round-eyed cohorts.
Even so, the Alliance has a lot to offer... especially because
several of its members know a secret:

They understand just how corrupt the Technocracy truly is. More importantly, they believe they know ''why''.

The Solificati, Templars, and Wu Lung have long, ugly
histories with the Technocratic Union. At one time or another,
all three groups either belonged to the Order of Reason or
allied themselves with it. And all three have been betrayed
by those associations. They’ve seen the heart of corruption
within that group... and in the case of the Templars, it almost
destroyed them. And so, for them, there’s a personal stake in
taking down the Union. It is, quite literally, the Great Beast
devouring the world.

The Bata’a, Kopa Loei, Ngoma, and Sisters have
bones to pick with the Union too. After all, it was Queen
Isabella’s Triangle Trade that savaged both Africa and
the Americas, and Explorator ships gutted Polynesia.
The Bata’a were forged by 500 years of genocide,
slavery, and hate, whereas the Sisters have dodged
the shadow of patriarchy (Technocratic and
otherwise) since their inception roughly three
millennia ago. And then you’ve got the
Taftâni, whose Arts have been fouled with
Paradox and whose people have been
burnt by technological fires. So yes – it is personal for them all.
The Technocratic Pogrom just solidified the Alliance’s resolve.

Meanwhile, the Batini have an equally rough history with
the Nephandi. As the shadow of the Subtle Ones, the Fallen
share certain traits with the Batini. Both groups are subtle,
persuasive, the masters of misdirection and deceit. The Batini
pursue Unity, but Nephandi encourage disintegration. Both
groups hold ancient grudges against one another... and so,
once the Templars, Solificati, and Wu Lung claimed to have
discovered Fallen puppet masters within the Technocracy, the
course of action became clear.

In many ways, the Nephandi truly forged the core of this
unlikely Alliance. Whether by their infiltration of the already-hated
Technocracy; the bloody ties between these Devil-Kings and the
Weavers and Batini who drove them from the Middle East; their
horrific crimes again the Sisters, Kopa Loei, Hollow Ones, and
Bata’a; or simply their Satanic nature – which puts them straight
in the Templars’ sights – the Fallen have made many dedicated
enemies. So then, it stands to reason that those enemies would
find common cause, despite their many differences, in the despised
Technocracy and the Nephandi they believe are behind it.

The Alliance can’t attack the Technocracy head on.
That’s not just suicide – it’s bad tactics and terrible PR. As
the Traditions have shown, direct assaults tend to kill the
wrong people. Instead, the Alliance has started doing what
oppressed people often do: wearing the master down from the
inside out, launching subtle campaigns of sabotage, subversion,
misdirection, and exposure.

So what ''about'' the Traditions? According to the official
story, survivors from the Crafts joined various groups within
the Council. To a degree, that’s true; some refugees ''did'' find
new homes among the Council mages. Most of them simply
hold a second allegiance to the Disparate Alliance too. After
all, the Technocracy’s not the ''only'' master who deserves to be
taken down a few pegs...

= Organization =
At least for now, the Disparate Alliance is a loose
confederation of independent states, lacking the protocols,
centralized leadership, common titles, Ascension ideals, and
other complexities of the Council and Technocracy. Each Ally
is a self-governing unit that cooperates voluntarily with the
group as a whole. Given the abuses each group has suffered
in the past and the logistical impossibilities of, say, having the
either the Templars or the Sisters taking orders from (or giving orders to) each other, that’s probably how things will stay, at
least for a while. This informality presents both a strength and
a weakness for the Alliance as a whole.

Currently, the Alliance functions on a lot of promises
and very little else. Out of necessity, this must change if the
Disparates are to become less... disparate. In order to take on
an enemy as powerful and established as the Technocratic
Union (or, for that matter, the Council of Traditions), the
Alliance needs more stability than it currently enjoys. It’s easy
to maintain cohesion when you’re essentially invisible, but if
your alliance plans to survive the first major clash with a rival,
it’s going to need more than a common hatred for that enemy.

This Disparate Alliance combines some ''very'' different groups
– sects whose practices and philosophies can be diametrically
opposed. A stable group requires a certain power of authority, and
although the individual sects have internal authorities, no one has
yet figured out how to resolve things if the sects themselves come
to blows. Considering that the Templars are patriarchal Christian
millennialists, the Taftâni are Arab-Persian spirit-masters, the
Sisters are Pagan feminists, and the Wu Lung are Confucian
aristocrats, the Alliance faces some vast ideological challenges.
Still, so long as an atmosphere of mutual respect prevails, the
Alliance could be a literal game-changer in the world of '''Mage'''.

Each Disparate group is a collection of survivors from a
proud, respectable lineage – a bunch of folks whose cultures
and practices withstand constant attack from the outside world.
As such, they’re insular and often paranoid, balancing trust
and goodwill with treacherous history. When playing them,
therefore, keep an eye on the shadows, puzzle your alliances
out carefully, and recall that the path from past pain to future
prosperity might be determined by the people you trust and
the extent to which you trust them. This Alliance, then, is a
delicate test of faith.

But then again, aren’t they ''all...?''

= Potential Recruits =
Beyond the five core members of the Alliance and its
current associates, the Disparate Alliance has ties to other sects
who might play a part in the faction’s future plans:

:• -- The ''[[Balamob]]'', a group of Mayan jaguar-priests.
:• -- The ''[[Thunder Society]]'', a confederation of mystics from North American Native nations that want little or nothing to do with the Dreamspeaker Tradition.
:• -- The ''[[Uzoma]]'', Yoruban intercessors with the sacred spirits, whose Arts inspired the Bata’a.
:• -- ''[[Navalon]]'', a breakaway group of idealistic Technocrats who revere the example of King Arthur and despise the corruption of their previous Union.
:• -- The ''[[Mirainohmen]]'', or simply Nohmen, a sect of young Japanese technomystical tricksters who use psychic bonds with technological spirits in order to rearrange identities and undermine social preconceptions.
:• -- The ''[[Red Thorn Dedicants]]'', a sect of Lilithian mages whose practices make the Verbena and Cult of Ecstasy look tame.
:• -- The ''[[Itz’at]]'', a long-hidden sect of Mayan time-seers who mysteriously escaped notice for over 500 years.
:• -- The ''[[Go Kamisori Gama]]'', a clan of hypertech ninjas who have their own reasons for wanting to topple the Technocracy.

Although it’s unlikely that all of these groups would join the
alliance (or that certain Allies would ever endure their presence
– especially in the case of the Red Thorn and Navalon), these
sects, and others like them, have entered the Disparate orbit.
They might not become full-fledged Allies, but there could be
a roster of affiliates to call upon once the Disparate Alliance
finally tips its hand to the other factions.

= Secrecy: The Heart of the Alliance =
Drawn as they are from specific cultures and subcultures,
Disparate mages represent people who’re typically ignored in
the industrialized world. The foundation of the Allies and their
people, then, comes from each group’s particular culture, beliefs,
agenda, and mystic practices. A Ngoma banker, for example,
won’t have much in common with a Hollower street kid beyond
their new and potentially temporary Alliance. Each person will
have individual needs, wants, and practices that depend more
upon the person’s Craft than upon the Alliance as a whole.
For obvious reasons, this encourages them to be secretive,
subtle, and elusive with regards to their existence and identity.

Survival might be the most important goal of all... which
leads, by extension, to secrecy. The Alliance, remember, is a
SECRET, its survival and prosperity linked to keeping that
secret safe. A Hollow One might hang around her club of
choice and probably admits to being a Darkling to those who
know what such terms mean. (Assuming, of course, that the
Hollow Ones didn’t betray the Nine Traditions; if that did
happen, then she’s not even going to cop to that affiliation.)
Still, she won’t go bragging about her Allies among the Bata’a
and so forth – that’d be a potential death sentence for those
Allies and very probably for her as well. If the Technocracy has
been gunning for Craft mages, the Alliance and its people will
be keeping very low profiles, probably declaring themselves as
members of other sects rather than their own.

And so, for the present at least, the Disparate Alliance
remains a closely-guarded secret whose purpose might involve
war against the Technocracy, Traditions, or both. The fractious
nature of this Alliance, the essential secrecy of its existence, and
the religious devotion inherent in several of its current Allies
could make this a potentially explosive player in the hidden
politics of the 21 st -century world.

The Disparate Alliance - Revision history

Bruce: Created page with ";Mage Information = Practiced Subtleties = The rumor of their deaths has been greatly exaggerated. Oh, sure it’s been said that the Crafts – those Disparate sects tha..."