Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 545 Soaking Damage from Magickal Attacks Magickal attacks that unleash physical force – blades, bolts, storms, etc. – can be soaked like any other physical damage. The usual rules, presented in Chapter Nine, apply when soaking damage. All-out Reality-fucking, however, is hard to endure. Vulgar attacks of pure reality-alteration power (curses, transmutations, possession, etc.) cannot be soaked unless the target has countermagick or some other specific protection against the Effect in question. Mental attacks can be resisted, as shown above, but they cannot be soaked except by Willpower. And so, a Mind-based blast of psychic trauma hurts… a LOT. Countermagick Magick-using characters can deploy countermagick to resist reality-warping effects. Essentially, the target dodges the Effect with her Awakened reflexes and her understanding of the Spheres. Countermagick counts as a full action; you can abort a previously planned action to employ countermagick, but you cannot use it if you’ve already acted within the turn. As with a dodge, each success scored on a countermagick roll removes one success from an assailant’s casting roll. True countermagick allows for several different optional rules variations, as shown below. To employ such advanced countermagick, a character has to be an Awakened mage. However, other characters – Night-Folk, hedge magicians and people with the True Faith Merit – can employ a sort of basic countermagick that’s based on their innate capabilities. (See the sidebar nearby.) Either way, countermagick reduces a mage’s ability to harm her target. The story-based techniques differ from character to character, but the rules remain the same. Basic Countermagick • Sphere Knowledge: To oppose another character’s Effect, you need to have at least one dot in at least one of the Spheres that are being used to attack you. You can’t resist a Forces-based assault, for example, if you don’t understand Forces. • The Roll: Assuming you have the essential Sphere(s), make an Arete roll. In Mage 2nd, the difficulty for that roll is 7. (Under the Reckoning metaplot in Mage Revised, it’s 8.) We suggest leaving the difficulty at 7. • Successes: Each success rolled deducts one success from the attacker’s successes. If the incoming Effect’s results were based upon the Magickal Feats chart, then the incoming spell is less effective than it would have been otherwise – see the Degrees of Success chart instead. If that attack depended upon a certain number of successes, the assault fizzles completely. Innate Countermagick Certain characters or materials possess innate countermagick. The Technocratic material Primium, for example, automatically provides a countermagick roll. Characters or machines with innate countermagick don’t have to use an action to deploy the protection – it’s just an intrinsic part of who or what they are. Protective or Offensive Countermagick (Optional) Although countermagick usually deals only with attacks upon the mage in question, a skillful mage can try to intercept an attack that’s aimed at someone else. Such protective or offensive countermagick still requires at least one dot in a Sphere from the attacking Effect, and demands a full action to cast. This type of countermagick, however, also requires at least one dot in the Prime Sphere, too, plus one point of Quintessence. That mystic energy fuels the protective spell. At +1 to the basic countermagick difficulty (see above), the protective mage can try to dispel the assailant’s Effect. At +2 difficulty, he can try to reflect that assault back upon the caster. As usual, each success cancels out one of the attacker’s successes. If the protector tries to reflect the attack and send it back where it came from, each success scored over the caster’s original roll works as a level of success upon the caster. (Four successes scored against a two-success attack, for example, would inflict two successes’ worth of damage or effect of the spell upon the attacker.) Anti-Magick (Optional) A common tactic among Technocrats, the anti-magick technique uses Prime Sphere principles (or Primal Utility) in order to harden Reality against an offending Deviant’s magick. Mystic mages use this approach as well, but not with quite the same enthusiasm as their technomancer peers. Rules-wise, this counts as a full-turn action. The player rolls her Prime Rank as a dice pool; Prime 3, for example, would give you three dice to roll. The difficulty is 8 for that roll, and each success adds +1 to the difficulty of a mage who’s trying to cast an Effect. Every success costs one point of Quintessence from the Quintessence Trait of the mage deploying anti-magick. Essentially, she’s using her own Prime energies to counter another mage’s Arts. Unweaving (Optional) By using the most sophisticated form of countermagick, a mage can unweave another mage’s existing Effects. Curses, gateways, wards, trigger-spells, transformations, and so on can be untangled by a sufficiently successful unweaving endeavor. Story-wise, the unweaver draws upon his understanding of the Spheres, Prime energy, and the methods of enchantment, then begins a ritual that unravels the original caster’s work. Game-wise, the character needs at least one dot in Prime, plus at least one dot in each of the Spheres used in the original spell. Rolling at +1 to the basic countermagick difficulty (again, see above), the player tries to overcome each of the original caster’s successes. How Many Successes Does It Take? If the Effect has been in place for a while – like for a ward, a gateway, a curse-in-progress, or a living construct that has been
546 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Night-Folk Counterspelling Vampires, werewolves, faerie beings, and other paranormal entities have a chance to resist a mage’s Arts… and the mages can often resist Night-Folks’ abilities too. Although such monsters don’t use countermagick in the way that mages do, their innate abilities give them a certain degree of protection. Dice Pools Night-Folk can use the equivalent of basic countermagick. Instead of Arete, such entities use their Wits + Occult as a dice pool. However, that dice pool cannot exceed the Gnosis or Rage (whichever is higher, for werecreatures), Willpower (vampires, spirits, wraiths, demons, hunters, and hedge wizards), Glamour (changelings and other fae), Mystic Shield (Bygones), or True Faith (faithful humans) Trait of the Night-Folk character. Essentially, those Traits reflect the metaphysical capacity of the target character. If a werewolf, for instance, has a Wits + Occult dice pool of six but a Gnosis of 4 and a Rage of 3, then she cannot use more than four dice as countermagick. If the targeted creature does not have a Wits + Occult dice pool, then the Storyteller may rule that the character cannot resist True Magick – see Optional Limits, below. That said, a mage needs certain Spheres in order to harm a member of the Night-Folk. As shown on the Common Magickal Effects chart (p. 508), Life Sphere magick alone cannot affect vampires, werebeasts, ghosts, spirits, or the fae. Difficulties and Limits Whatever dice pool you employ, the difficulty for such rolls is either 7 or the mage’s Arete, whichever is higher. This way, a powerful werewolf or vampire can shrug off the Arts of an amateur mage, but a powerful wizard or Technocrat can wipe the floor with supernatural foes. On a related note, the Night-Folk cannot counter immediate-damage attacks like plasma bolts or Enlightened martial arts, nor can they oppose indirect assaults like weakened floors, fire, typhoons, and so forth. The only way to counter a mage’s attack is to recognize it as a mystic assault. Thaumaturgical counterspells won’t prevent a Virtual Adept from using Enlightened hypertech to hack the vampire prince’s bank account. Mages Countering the Night-Folk When countering the effects of some paranormal critters’ Disciplines, Gifts, Glamour, and so forth, a mage uses her Arete as the dice pool. The Storyteller may rule that the mage needs certain Spheres in order to counter certain abilities – Mind, perhaps, to counter vampiric Dominate; Spirit to counter werewolf Gifts; Entropy and Spirit to counter a wraith’s Arcanoi; Mind and Prime to counter the dreamlike powers of the fae, and so on. After all, it’s not as though mages corner the market on supernatural abilities… and although they certainly appear to be the masters of paranormal arts, mages have a hard time seeing beyond their own perspectives on reality. Optional Limits As an optional rule, the Storyteller may decide that a Night-Folk or mortal character cannot use countermagick at all unless he’s got some sort of magical knowledge. A vampire, for instance, may need the Thaumaturgy Discipline (or some other discipline that reflects mystic study and understanding) in order to resist a mage’s Arts. A hedge sorcerer could counter spells by default, but most other humans could not. Werecreatures, spirits, Bygones, and the fae are magic(k)al by their essential nature, but they might still need at least one dot in Occult or Rituals in order to understand the mage’s spells enough to counter them. Given the vulnerability that fae creatures have to the banality of Technocratic accomplishments, it’s fair to rule that changelings cannot counterspell technomagick at all… or, if they can, to raise the difficulty of doing so to 9 or even 10. For more details about the Night-Folk, see the section of that name in see the Mage 20 sourcebook Gods, Monsters, and Familiar Strangers. put together through magick – unweaving demands at least 10 successes, possibly 20 or more in the case of major creations or Great Works. Certain Effects – Gilgul, instant damage, sensory magicks, and the titanic magicks used to craft Horizon Realms – cannot be unwoven. Others might have precautions woven into them, like the Primium armor used in many Technocratic cyborgs and bio-constructs. In this case, the protection acts as countermagick to the unweaving, subtracting successes from the mage who’s trying to unweave the original creation. The moral: it’s damn near impossible to unweave a HIT Mark. Still, a gateway can be closed, a summoning circle destroyed, or an enchantment broken by successful unweaving. Quintessence Cost For many Effects, unweaving doesn’t require Quintessence, although you can spend a few points to lower the difficulty of such efforts. If the caster employed Quintessence in the original Effect, however, then the unweaver must spend at least an equal number of Quintessence points to undo that Effect… an important consideration when either wrecking Wonders or removing the special properties of Prime-reinforced weapons, armor, and other creations. Failure A failed roll – that is, one that scores fewer successes than it needed in order to activate the Effect – fizzles or fades away.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 547 If you’re using the Degrees of Success chart, the spell might wind up having a diminished result; in most cases, though, the magick just won’t manifest. Botching, Magick, and Paradox The terror of every mage (and Mage player), a botched roll invokes the forces of Paradox. If you roll 1s on your dice without scoring any successes on that roll, then you botch. (See Botching and The Rule of One in Chapter Eight, p. 393.) Story-wise, this represents a disastrous error: fumbled words, a dropped instrument, dancing widdershins when you meant to dance deosil, and so forth. Game-wise, a botch turns magick into a clusterfuck. • If the Effect was coincidental, your mage gets one Paradox point for every dot in the highest Sphere involved with that Effect. A Correspondence 4/ Life 3 spell, for example, would score four Paradox points. • If the Effect was vulgar without Sleeper witnesses, the mage gets one point of Paradox, plus one point for each dot in the highest Sphere. That spell now garners five points of Paradox. • If the Effect was vulgar with Sleeper witnesses, then your mage gets two points of Paradox, plus two more per dot in the highest Sphere. That unfortunate mage racks up 10 Paradox points and may be in for a visit from the Paradox Faerie. • If the mage gains five points of Paradox or more within a single event, the Storyteller may decide to roll for a backlash – see the Paradox Effect section below for details. As mentioned earlier under the section Coincidental vs. Vulgar Magick, a Sleeper witness must be physically present. Cameras do not count as witnesses in the current reality climate. Mages are not Sleeper witnesses, nor are the Night-Folk or their various servitors. For more details, see the entry Witnesses in Part III, Step Two. For obvious reasons, the free botch option mentioned in Chapter Eight does not apply to casting rolls. Given the world-shaking powers that True Magick invokes, the edge of danger remains an essential part of Mage – the final element in the trinity of Pride, Power, and Paradox. Part IV: The Paradox Effect Magick, it’s been said, is a double-bladed instrument. That fine metaphysical scalpel reshapes Reality to a mage’s desires, but it cuts the hand that wields it, too. Paradox is the cost of doing business with Reality – the scourge of Awakened vanity that reminds each mage of his true place in Creation. Poetry aside, Paradox limits a mage’s ability to work her Will without consequences. Storywise, it smacks a proud magus off her throne in various unpleasant ways: burns, prisons, manifestations, entities, and worse. Game-wise, Paradox forces each player to be subtle and imaginative. Vulgar magick is a sure road to the Paradox Effect, and although coincidence can earn a backlash too, your mage is better off playing things safe… or as safe as things can get in this World of Darkness, anyway. Chapter Two presents the metaphysical explanations for Paradox (see pp. 56-57), and Chapter Six lays out the gamesystem effects that Paradox has on your character (see pp. 331-333). In this section, we’ll look at what happens when “Jiminy Cricket with a chainsaw” pops up to take a swipe at you, and the various rules that kick in when he does. Sources of Paradox Clearly, Paradox is bad juju. In the course of the game, however, it’s also inevitable. The question isn’t really WILL I get Paradox? but HOW will I get Paradox, and how MUCH Paradox will I get when I do? Essentially, a character acquires Paradox points in one of three ways: Botching Rolls As we’ve seen several times throughout this chapter, a mage acquires Paradox when her player botches an Arete roll: • If that magickal Effect was coincidental, the Paradox is minimal: one point for each dot in the highest Sphere used in the Effect. • If the Effect was vulgar without witnesses, the amount of Paradox goes up: one point, plus one more point per dot in the highest Sphere. • If the Effect was vulgar with witnesses, the Paradox can be catastrophic: two points, plus two more points for each dot in the highest Sphere. Vulgar Magick Beyond that, though, vulgar magick ALWAYS accumulates Paradox, even when the roll succeeds: • Coincidental magick does not acquire Paradox unless you botch a roll. • Successful vulgar magick earns one point of Paradox. (See the sidebar for rules about post-Revised-edition Paradox, p. 550.) Permanent Paradox Certain magickal or hypertech adjustments to a living Pattern bestow permanent Paradox points on the character in question. In this case, note each point of permanent Paradox on the character sheet; unlike normal Paradox, however, it never
548 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition comes off. A Paradox backlash takes those points into account but does not dispel them. Each time a character with permanent Paradox endures a backlash, those points count again toward the dice pool involved. Permanent Paradox generally comes through the Enhancement Background Trait, described in Chapter Six. Severe backlashes bestow such points as well, and certain alterations to a creature’s Pattern may do so too. Bygones and constructs often suffer from permanent Paradox points – a flaw that keeps certain Technocracy operatives or Nephandi confined to the Otherworlds. (See the HIT Marks in Appendix I and the Gilledians described in Chapter Five.) Essentially, a being with permanent Paradox is a walking reality crime – a violation of Earthly metaphysics whose own body is hazardous to her health. In all three cases, Paradox constitutes a threat to the character involved, and a large Paradox pool reflects the potential for a serious backlash. The Paradox Backlash Generated by acts of magick, Paradox energies build up inside a mage’s Pattern. Eventually, those energies bleed off naturally, manifest in strange Paradox Flaws, or else explode with devastating results. Essentially, Paradox becomes a metaphysical game of Jenga. Each incident that generates Paradox adds points to the character’s Quintessence/ Paradox wheel. (See Chapter Six, p. 331.) Those points add up until the Storyteller decides to check for a Paradox backlash: a sudden release of Paradox energies. At that point, those energies break out and the character’s life becomes hell. Rolling for Backlash At dramatically inconvenient moments – generally at times when a player has earned five points of Paradox or more in a single stroke – the Storyteller can say “Let’s roll for a backlash.” Generally, this comes about when your mage has done something stupid, glorious, or gloriously stupid. The Storyteller picks up one die for every point on the Paradox side of your Quintessence/ Paradox wheel and rolls them against difficulty 6. Each success means that one point of Paradox gets discharged. On the positive side, this discharge dispels those points of Paradox, assuming that they aren’t permanent. (See above.) Paradox points that are not discharged remain on the wheel, to be discharged at some later time. On the negative side, a backlash hurts. Effects of Backlash How badly does it hurt? That depends upon the size of the backlash, the sadistic wit of the Storyteller, the things your mage did to acquire those points of Paradox, and the circumstances your mage happens to be in at the time. As mentioned above, each success discharges one point of Paradox; for other effects, see the Paradox Backlash Roll chart, presented both here and among the Magickal Reference Charts near the front of this chapter.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 549 Staving Off Disaster Generally, a mage can feel a Paradox backlash coming. The built-up energies within her frame tingle beneath her skin, vibrate in her bones, or beat inside her head like an impending migraine headache. When a backlash threatens to cut loose (in game terms, when the Storyteller rolls the dice), that character can “will it not to happen… YET.” The player spends a point of Willpower, the Effect automatically fails, and the backlash hovers until the end of that scene. From that point onward, the mage is on borrowed time. Every additional point of Paradox she gathers adds one die to the coming backlash. The Storyteller could invent some especially poetic horror for the coming punishment, but the mage has an opportunity to put her affairs in order (possibly forever…) as the cataclysmic energies continue to build… and build… and BUILD inside her… A player who decides to put off the backlash will discharge all of her Paradox points, except permanent ones, at the end of that scene. (The permanent ones still count, however, toward the backlash dice pool.) The eventual results of willing the Paradox not to happen might be messy, but that scene – while it lasts – can certainly be dramatic. Nullifying Paradox A rare but precious ability available only to Masters of Prime allows a mage to wipe out Paradox with the energies of Creation. Story-wise, the magus invests some personal Quintessence (possibly adding a bit more energy from external sources too) into a symbol or Periapt keyed to a magickal working or consecrated to his body and personal Resonance. (See the Prime Sphere entry for details about consecration.) When Paradox energies gather around him, he releases that stored up Quintessence, and the Prime Force cancels out the Paradox Energies. Game-wise, the player pools his Quintessence, then uses a Prime 5 Effect to channel that Quintessence and nullify the Paradox on a one-point-for-each-point basis. Any remaining Paradox energies have their usual effect or remain on the mage’s Paradox Wheel until some later event. If the Quintessence dispels all the Paradox, then that Paradox is gone until the mage gains some more… as we all know he will. Shedding Paradox Under normal circumstances, mages tend to generate small amounts of Paradox and then bleed them off simply as a matter of course. If a character manages to keep her Paradox pool below five points at a given time, then those energies simply fade back into the world at large at a rate of one point per week. Assuming that she doesn’t do anything overtly magickal during that time (she might, for instance, activate Rank 1 perceptions but never act on her surroundings in a magickal way), such minor amounts of Paradox cause no difficulties. If your mage wants to “pull a Willow” and go cold turkey on the magick thing, she can withdraw from reality-altering practices entirely. In this case, the Storyteller might – just MIGHT – allow her to shed a Paradox pool of up to 10 points at a rate of one Paradox point per month for the first five points, then one point per week after that. This optional rule runs outside the official systems for Mage Revised, but it can offer a lifeline to a character walking on the edge. After she hits a Paradox pool of 10 or more, however, all bets are off. One way or another, a backlash is inevitable… Backlash Forms When Paradox energies discharge, many strange things can happen. Oddly enough, several of these Paradox manifestations violate the very same Reality Consensus they supposedly protect. After all, when a person suddenly grows horns, explodes, or vanishes into a hole in reality – possibly in the hands of some demonic spirit-creature – those effects seem anything but real to a scientific mindset. So what’s up with that, anyway? Paradox Backlash Roll Successes Effects of Discharge Botch All Paradox points discharge harmlessly. No successes No effects, but no Paradox points discharge. 1-5 One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers one die’s worth of bashing damage per success and acquires a trivial Paradox Flaw. 6-10 One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers a Burn of one die of bashing damage per success or acquires a minor Paradox Flaw. 11-15 Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage or one of the following effects: a significant Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, or a mild Quiet. 16-20 Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage and one point of permanent Paradox or two of the following effects: a severe Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, a moderate Quiet, or banishment to a Paradox Realm. 21+ Usual Paradox discharge plus a Burn of aggravated damage and one of the following effects: two points of permanent Paradox, one drastic Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, a severe Quiet, or banishment to a Paradox Realm. Storyteller rolls one die for each point of Paradox in character’s current Paradox pool, against difficulty 6.
550 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition The Paradox of Paradox? The nature of Paradox itself often seems like a paradox: to enforce Reality, unreal things occur. For that reason, a Storyteller may decide to limit the effects of a Paradox backlash to realistic things like terrible luck or physical backlash. (“Happens all the time. People just explode.”) Other interpretations of Paradox claim that the manifestations of a backlash reflect the fears or personality of the mage on the receiving end of the backlash or represent some terribly ironic parody of the things that mage did to earn the backlash. Under this idea, a backlash becomes a karmic sledgehammer, crossing the eye for an eye of Old Testament justice with the self-inflicted element of Threefold Return. (“That which you do, for good or ill, returns to you threefold.”) The repercussions of Paradox seem even more uncanny when you take into account the Scourge of Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade: an apparently divine affliction that could either help or harm a mage through a capricious sense of justice. If the Paradox Effect began this way, a person could argue, then doesn’t that mean that it is, by default, coming through some sort of conscious, godlike agency? The truth, ultimately, should remain the Storyteller’s secret. The more mysterious and enigmatic such forces seem to be, the more ominous and terrible Paradox becomes in your chronicle. The more notorious effects of a Paradox backlash can be found below. An Onset of Quiet At times, a ‘Dox-ridden mage can slip into the fearsome form of metaphysical delusion known as Quiet, described in the section of that name, below. Instead of rolling for immediate punishment, the Storyteller just starts slipping notes to the player like, “You overhear such-and-such…” or otherwise narrating events that only the afflicted character can perceive. This way, the Quiet slides into the story in a subtle fashion, without the pyrotechnics of other forms of backlash. That subtle drift into insanity suits the name given to such delusions. An onset of Quiet generally strikes mages who’ve accumulated 10 points of Paradox or more. Again, for details, see the section on Quiet, below. Paradox Flaws Manifestations of the “you are what you do” principle, Paradox Flaws twist reality around a reality-twisting mage. In game terms, a Paradox Flaw makes your mage’s life more difficult. Trivial or minor Flaws create small disturbances, whereas the higher degrees of Flaw spawn absurd distortions of reality. Strange as they might be, Paradox Flaws echo the effects of the magick that spawned them: a swaggering fire-wizard finds himself leaving sooty footprints or scorching everything he touches; a time-skewing trickster makes clocks run backwards, scrambles the temporal perceptions of her companions, and could even age in reverse; the mind-shattering Agent of Authority could make people tremble with his mere presence – a useful but ultimately alienating Flaw; and the witch who curses or heals too freely might impose the opposite effect – blessing her enemies and injuring her friends – despite her best intentions. Paradox displays a fine sense of irony of the non-Morissette variety, and we encourage the Storyteller to hone a sense of delicious irony as well. Paradox Flaws increase in severity, from minor inconveniences to gross distortions of body and surroundings. At the higher levels, a mage cannot appear among the Masses without being recognized as some sort of aberration. If the Avatar Storm has faded in your Optional Rule: Paradox in Mage Revised If you’re playing by the Reckoning metaplot rules of the Mage Revised line, Paradox gets even nastier: • A successful vulgar without witnesses Effect acquires one point of Paradox for each dot in the highest Sphere in that effect. A Time 4 Effect – even performed successfully while alone – would gather four points of Paradox. • A successful vulgar with witnesses Effect generates one point of Paradox per dot in the highest Sphere, plus one additional point. For obvious reasons, vulgar magick is significantly more dangerous in the Revised setting than it had been before that. As an optional rule, however, the Storyteller may decide to use this approach to Paradox instead of the one given in the main text. Constant Bleeding Under the Revised rules, Paradox does not accumulate inside a mage and then bleed off with time unless there are fewer than five points in a mage’s Paradox pool. Instead, all Paradox accumulations of five points or more discharge themselves immediately “unless the Storyteller feels really mean.” (Mage Revised, p. 194). Rather than letting Paradox build up in a mage’s Pattern, this system has the Storyteller rolling for backlashes whenever a mage uses vulgar magick and/ or botches an Effect. In practice, this rule turns most mages into reality-warping ‘Dox machines, constantly manifesting weird Flaws and perilous injuries. Although this idea reinforces the tone of desperation within the Reckoning metaplot, it also keeps the average mage in a perpetual state of misery. For the effects of backlashes under either set of rules, see the Paradox Backlash Roll chart.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 551 chronicle (or if it never happened at all), people with such Paradox Flaws probably retreat beyond the Gauntlet for their own safety. If such passage remains barred, then badly ‘Doxed mages remain in near-solitude, their lives warped by the energies within them. Most Paradox Flaws fade in time. Even the supposedly permanent ones ease with the passing of months or years… assuming that the mage does not, in the meantime, acquire more Paradox. Once a given Flaw has latched itself onto a mage’s Pattern, however, it tends to become the focus of her Paradox. Subsequent Paradox energies gravitate toward that Flaw and, rather than spawning new ones, enhance the present Flaw. Horns become larger and more prominent; warm or cold skin becomes too hot or cold to touch; fluctuations of time or space distort the localized reality so badly that the mage travels within a personal vortex of oddity. Game-wise, the initial Flaw would move further up the severity scale, keeping its initial form but becoming even more impairing or grotesque. This severity scale runs as follows: • Trivial Flaws (1-5 point backlashes): Short-lived distortions of body or circumstance haunt the mage for a short time. Hair changes color; skin chills or grows uncomfortably warm; breezes blow or air stills; odd smells – ranging from the pleasant to the nauseating – waft from the mage’s general direction. He might hear or speak words in reverse, like an odd metaphysical dyslexia, or witness minor hallucinations among his various senses. (Some Ecstatic mages speculate that psychoactive delusions might be minor Paradox Flaws in action.) Dull or stabbing pains afflict his joints, or sudden surges of weariness or manic energy take hold. Whatever the Flaw might be, its effects last between several minutes to several hours before fading away… unless, of course, the mage continues to garner Paradox, at which point the Flaw may last longer and become more intense. • Minor Flaws (6-10 point backlashes): Although the effects at this level become more noticeable, the Flaw still presents a minor inconvenience – an uncontrollable sneezing fit, perhaps, or an attack of Tourette Syndrome (which is actually an onslaught of sudden fits and sounds, not the stereotypical avalanche of profanity), maybe a blurring of vision or a dampening of sound for an hour or so. Material things around the mage might be affected too: his clothes might wrinkle, change color, or fall apart; his digital technology might all malfunction at once; or his footprints could smoke or leave scorch marks on a carpet. Lower-level Paradox Flaws could become more acute and last longer if the mage has continued to gather Paradox energies. These Flaws might add +1 to the difficulties of certain of his rolls for a scene or two, and they might even become sources of embarrassment. • Significant Flaws (11-15 point backlashes): Now the mage becomes a walking billboard for reality flux: horns sprout from her head, useless wings jut from her shoulders, or her hands curl into claws or gnarled appendages. She might radiate intense cold or heat, or maybe suffer excruciating migraines or incapacitating nausea. The mage could vomit flies, speak gibberish, or float several inches off the ground. Lower-level Flaws last longer and have more debilitating effects. Certain challenges could raise difficulties for certain types of rolls (social, physical, mental) or penalize the mage’s dice pools by a die or two. Significant Flaws tend to last a while, too – several days, perhaps even a week or more. • Severe Flaws (16-20 point backlashes): Awful Paradox energies now warp the mage’s body and circumstances. His facial features might turn into a smooth, shapeless mass; his arms might transform into tentacles or boneless flaps of skin. He could burn everything he touches or transmute it into some precious or worthless material. (That Midas touch, of course, is rarely as helpful as it might sound…) Perhaps his skin grows stony warts or other projections, or he turns into a shadow or wisp of smoke. Lower-level Flaws intensify, lasting longer and hurting more. By this point, the mage probably suffers reduced dice pools, increased difficulties, or both, and he cannot show himself among the Masses without tragic results. • Drastic Flaws (21+ point backlashes): By this level, the Paradox energies have distorted a mage’s Pattern so badly that she may never recover her old, normal self. She might turn into a tree-like wooden horror or melt into a protoplasmic mass. Lovecraft would need to invent new adjectives for the impression she presents. Flaws from the lower ranks can reach inhuman levels and last for months or even years. Plagued by chronic pain, unusable physique, or both, the mage loses dice from various pools and adds +2 or more to many difficulties. Such Otherworldly abominations exist either beyond the Gauntlet or in the most remote corners of Earth they can find. Physical Backlash, a.k.a. the Burn A simple yet terrible consequence of Paradox energies, the Burn manifests as intense pain at the lower levels, rising to literally explosive levels at the high end of the spectrum. Essentially a searing physical backlash, the Burn manifests as (re)opened wounds, dizzying pains, sudden headaches, brands across the mage’s skin (often in cryptic symbols or glyphs), rashes, scabs, welts, and other agonizing and often debilitating afflictions. At the highest end of the backlash scale, the Burn literally incinerates a mage from the inside out or else detonates him in a screaming flash of discharged Paradox. As shown on the Paradox Backlash Roll chart, the Burn begins as bashing damage at the lower levels, then rises to lethal and finally aggravated damage. A mage can try to soak the bashing damage normally; armor will not help her soak the lethal or aggravated damage, because it comes from inside, not outside, that mage’s Pattern. Other methods, however, could help in that regard – cybernetics, Life Sphere magick, the Cinematic Damage option, and so forth. So long as the protection is a part of the mage’s actual body, not something that can be put on or taken off, it might help her deal with the Burn.
552 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition That said, the larger Burns radiate outward like explosions, inflicting damage upon the mage’s surroundings and companions. A physical backlash (of any type) that involves 10 points of Paradox or more becomes an explosion, dealing out damage in a radius around the mage, as per the Explosions rules in Chapter Nine. Such backlashes seem especially common among tech-based mages, whose machines detonate with Paradox energies when things go poorly. Paradox Spirits As fearsome as the Burn can be, Paradox Spirits – a.k.a. Paradox Manifestations or Entities – may be the most horrific backlash effects. Ranging from near-mindless phenomena to legendary figures, these reality police become judges, juries, and occasional executioners for errant willworkers and their aberrant ways. These entities rarely manifest for minor violations of the Consensus. A backlash of over 10 points, however, might draw the attention of such a creature. The smaller ones seem to manifest and then disperse on a per-offense basis. Larger backlashes (over 15 points) tend to summon more formidable spirits – self-willed beings whose appearance and behavior have become infamous enough to echo through Awakened myths: Farandwee. Wrinkle. The Man. Known long ago as Scourgelings, such entities are immune to Spirit Sphere magicks lower than Rank 5, unless those magicks inflict damage… and even then, the nastier Paradox Manifestations have an uncanny talent for shrugging off such attacks… Appendix I features several Paradox Spirits and offers inspiration for more original creations. Because such spirits are sometimes thought to manifest a mage’s conscious or subconscious, an inventive Storyteller can create her own Paradox Spirits, based upon the characters in her game. Regardless of their origins, such entities tend to have individual calling cards: certain types of magick that draw their attention, certain punishments they inflict, and certain behaviors they follow when they appear. Some dish out nasty, Flaw-like impediments, others attack the offending mage in combat, and many pull the offender into a Paradox Realm tailored to suit that Spirit’s personality. In the old days (that is, in Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade), such beings were even known to aid a mage in need. The modern variety, however, seem as ruthless and unforgiving as the forces of nature that spawn them. Realms Like any other kind of tapestry, the Tapestry of Earthly Creation occasionally tears. When it does, those rips in Reality become Paradox Realms: pocket worlds where the normal laws of Earth and the Otherworlds no longer apply. According to some sources, such Realms occupy a parallel existence with Earth’s Penumbra, vibrating at a different metaphysical frequency. Other sources plant Paradox Realms far beyond the Horizon, floating like weird little soap bubbles through Etherspace. As with so many other manifestations of Paradox, a Storyteller should decide the truth for himself, then keep it secret from the players. In story terms, Paradox Realms present an eternal mystery that still intrudes with disturbing frequency into the adventures of a mage. Game-wise, a Paradox Realm could be a solitary hole in existence, a prison managed by a Paradox Spirit, or a Realm that’s expansive enough to accommodate dozens or even hundreds of characters. The shape and form of each given Realm are unique and often echo the principles of a particular Sphere. Even this tendency, though, is not a hard-and-fast rule. If you want to craft a Paradox Realm in which the mage meets, or becomes, every person she has ever harmed, then let that Realm become her prison. Why Paradox? It’s a common question: Why do we need Paradox? Why can’t my mage just sling fireballs down Main Street, like in D&D? Actually, your character can sling fireballs down Main Street. It’s just gonna cost him dearly. Seriously, though, it’s because Mage isn’t D&D. If mages could just fling fireballs down the street without consequences, then Mage’s setting would look nothing like our world. For all of its obvious exaggerations and fantasy elements, Mage is set in a satirical version of the world we know. And a world where people throw fire from their fingertips on a whim would have developed in radically different ways than our world has. Sure, if your Storyteller wants to run Mage in a high-fantasy style, she can disregard Paradox and let mages do whatever they want. Thing is, that world is going to change in some serious ways if things like that start happening… and if they’ve happened like that all along, the world of Mage wouldn’t be anything that seems familiar to us. (Although it might look a lot like Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade…) On a more serious level, magic(k), as it is understood in the real world, outside the realm of high-fantasy media, does not operate without consequences. D&D is a war game wrapped up in Tolkien drag. It’s fun, but it’s nothing like real magic at all. If you look at real-life metaphysical practices, however, you’ll see that all of them place major limitations on the things magic can accomplish… and that all of them have consequences for using it. Discarding that element would also involve discarding an essential element of authenticity. And although Mage is a game set in a fictional cosmos, we strive to keep the essence of its magic authentic, even though the practices and practitioners have been heavily fictionalized. Beyond all of those factors, you also have several core themes of Mage: courage, imagination, hope, struggle, sacrifice, progress, consequences, and interconnectedness. None of those themes would be supported – and most, if not all, of them would be undercut – if magick were a quick and easy thing that every hero could just DO. The theme of Paradox enhances the other elements of Mage. If that doesn’t work for you, then you’re probably playing the wrong game.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 553 That said, each Realm should also have an escape; if one of your players, after all, gets his mage dropped into an inescapable Paradox Realm, that character would wind up scrapped unless you and the player wanted to stage an entire solo chronicle within the Realm. Escaping a Realm, then, should be possible, but not easy… and that escape should be measured not by mystic might but by solving problems without the use of magick. Reality Among the Realms A trip to a Paradox Realm can become an Otherworldly adventure in which the usual rules of reality become puzzles fit for a wizard or philosopher. Chapter Nine’s section about Magick in the Otherworlds contains suggestions for the odd, reality-warping effects a Paradox Realm might have on the usual rules. (See pp. 483-485.) As general guidelines, however, a Storyteller might decide to use the following tendencies for the set of reality within a particular type of Paradox Realm: • Correspondence-based Realms tend to skew perspective and distance. It’s almost impossible to judge spatial relationships in such places; an object that seems far away might be close enough to stub your toe against, but a person who appears to be within reach actually stands a fair distance away. • Entropy Realms either accelerate decay to horrific extremes, or hold the pristine quality of CGI illusions. Folks tend to associate Entropy with death, but a Realm based on such principles might instead seem incredibly random or painfully predestined. • Forces Realms throw around the elemental energies associated with this Sphere. Storms abound; shadows and light move in capricious ways; Earthly physics run in reverse – water flows uphill or objects fall up unless otherwise restrained. Forces-based magick either causes great upheavals or has exactly the opposite of its intended effect. • Life-based Paradox Realms feature biological fluctuations or endless levels of mutation and genesis. Living things might self-generate in midair, out of nothing, or dissolve into new and shocking forms. The mage himself could be turned into a chaotic biomass, growing limbs, shifting in size and shape, or otherwise being rendered helpless in the endless flow of life. • Matter Realms jumble the apparent solidity of material forms into endless fluctuations or unpredictable altered states. Solids become liquids; liquids condense into solids; both become vapors. Colors and mass become irrelevant or else attain such stability that no force imaginable can change them. • Mind Paradoxes trap a mage in her own mind, alone with her worst fears, memories, confusions, and neuroses. The Realm becomes a form of Seeking (as described in Chapter Seven, pp. 367-369), based not around the advance of magick but rather upon the avoidance of it. • Prime-based Paradox Realms pulse with the essence of pure, unfiltered energy. Ultimately indescribable in words, such regions become endurance tests of overwhelming sensations and vitality. • Spirit Realms are, essentially, miniscule Dream Realms into which the mage is cast and then sealed away. • Time Paradoxes confront the visitor with temporal loops, recursive events, dilated time flows, split-screen realities, and Groundhog Day-type scenarios in which the mage must either reenact previous sins or deal with a timeline in which she never existed, amidst otherwise familiar locations and circumstances. In short, the Storyteller is encouraged to let her creativity off the chain when dealing with a Paradox Realm. That said, she’s also advised to construct such Realms in advance, then drop them into a story at an appropriate time, rather than try to make them up off the top of her head. A Paradox Realm works best when it suits the overall flavor of the tale and the characters within it. Unbelief: The Shit Factor Perhaps the most devastating form of Paradox doesn’t strike mages down at all. Instead, it degrades the things they hold sacred: the creations they shape with their Arts, the beasts that embody wonder, the magnificent technologies they strive so hard to perfect. Unbelief is the crushing weight of the Consensus, squeezing the life out of miracles and denying the products of a better world. Although mystic mages feel the effects of Unbelief most keenly, Technocrats suffer from those effects as well. It’s Unbelief, after all, that causes bodies to reject cybernetics, restricts flight to the most awkward sorts of contraptions, and forbids the full enjoyment of economic ideals. Certain willworkers refer to Unbelief as “the Shit Factor” – the idea that the Masses cannot accept anything unless it’s shitty. When Agent Smith in The Matrix described the flaw-ridden world created by the machines, he was referring to Unbelief. Normal people, supposedly, cannot accept a reality filled with wonders. It has to be a mess in order for them to accept it as real. And so, dragons and clones and HIT Marks must be disguised or hidden when they appear within Earthly reality. Otherwise, they soon die from the effects of Unbelief. The Shit Factor seems to work most powerfully in cities… and might, in fact, be the primary reason why the ideal of cities keeps crashing and burning in the realities of urban decay. Rural areas and open wilderness appear to have less weight and more potential for marvelous things. Even so, Unbelief stifles the uncanny marvels of bygone legendry, literally dissolving things that “cannot be” soon after they appear. Perhaps the Mythic Threads sustain certain creatures – vampires, ghosts, and the like – but dragons and aliens quickly disappear without a trace. Ultimately, Unbelief is the damning expression of the mortal status quo: that which should not exist cannot exist.
554 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Part V: Quiet Mages depend upon clear minds in order to do what they do. And yet – in another layer of paradox – they also inhabit a state of metaphysical insanity in which they choose to deny the reality that everyone else accepts. The Awakening is a sort of madness in which a person can no longer see or accept what passes for reality among most other people. And so, a mage occasionally loses track of reality altogether, drifting or plunging into the state often known as Quiet. Essentially a state of disassociation and disconnection, Quiet sets a mage adrift from any reality except her own. At its lower levels, this leads to irrational actions and momentary delusions. At the higher end of the spectrum, this Wizard’s Twilight manifests those delusions in forms that other people can see, or else it drops the mage into a prison of her own mind’s making. At the extreme end of such disconnection, the mage becomes a Marauder, essentially oblivious to the world outside her head. As with Resonance (see pp. 550-551), Quiet often depends upon a mage’s actions. A stiff-necked, intolerant character is more likely to gravitate toward Denial, whereas a libertine drifts into Madness and a hot-tempered killer falls to Morbidity. People often view Quiet as a single sort of malady; as the Types of Quiet section shows, however, metaphysical un-sanity follows the choices made while sane. Like magick, Quiet is an extension of the mage. From the chronicle’s standpoint, then, your character will probably get the breakdown she deserves. Baseline Reality What is crazy by a mage’s standards, anyway? After all, when your entire existence is based around denying and remaking the reality that other people take for granted, aren’t you crazy by default? Yes and no… which is why Quiet is so dangerous for the Awakened. Psychologists and philosophers often refer to baseline reality – that is, the level of reality that’s generally acceptable to a person or society. The Consensus, for example, presents a massive baseline reality. Around that baseline reality, though, everyone’s got a bit of wiggle room: one person may believe in angels, another in the Old Gods, and a third in nothing at all. All three people, however, accept a baseline reality in which objects fall down, the sun rises in the east, and certain temperatures freeze or boil things. Mages use their beliefs and practices to alter baseline reality. Even then, however, they still maintain their own frame of reference. A Hermetic wizard might invoke angels to cause a typhoon, but he accepts that his friends are his friends, that his sword is a sword, and that there isn’t a fat little naked version of himself sitting on his shoulder belching Macc Lads songs in his ear. However, if he does start seeing that fat little naked version of himself, or believing that his friends are conspiring against him, or perceiving his rune-encrusted sword as a singing waffle iron, then that wizard is beginning to go crazy. His baseline reality has shifted into the Twilight Zone. For all that talk about crazy wisdom, a smart mage keeps an eye on his sanity. The power of flexibility carries the price of vigilance. Each practitioner of mystic or Enlightened Arts has a responsibility the world at large: don’t make your practice, goes one saying, everybody else’s problem. Such vigilance also explains why so many mages gather into groups – allies can provide sanity checks – and why solitary mages often go batshit insane. In game and story terms, Quiet occurs when the mage’s normal perspective and perceptions about what is and is not real shift toward irrational levels. Even by the standards of his sect and paradigm, that person’s baseline reality enters hazardous terrain. As many real-life mystics see it, madness is that place where your perceptions and behavior make you a danger to yourself and everyone around you. Each mage has a different baseline reality… and some of them get pretty eccentric. When eccentricity becomes delusion and potential violence, however, most Awakened folks would agree that that a person’s going insane. And for beings with the power to mold Reality, insanity’s a truly awful thing… Storytelling Quiet Game-wise, an episode of Quiet is best handled as a story arc within the ongoing chronicle: • The Storyteller makes some plans, based around a particular character’s personality and actions, and decides how this particular case of Quiet will manifest. • Selecting from among the types and symptoms of Quiet described below, he determines the early effects of the Quiet insanity. • When the character reaches a particular goal (say, 10 Paradox points), or endures a certain challenge to her sanity (reading a blasphemous tome, perhaps), the Storyteller begins slipping notes to the player, describing the delusions or suggesting irrational acts. • Instead of, or in addition to, the notes, the Storyteller might start introducing weird objects or characters (the hobgoblins) into the story, as if they’re perfectly normal parts of the tale. • If/ when the player resists the idea that her mage is going crazy, the Storyteller can have her start spending Willpower points or making rolls that may or may not succeed in driving the madness away. • And, of course, if the mage gains more Paradox, the Quiet grows deeper and more irrational… possibly removing the mage from the player’s control if that player refuses to go along with the madness or lets it go too far. Most players enjoy a chance to go crazy and will probably take an episode of Quiet and run with it to delightfully demented
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 555 extremes. Just remember: insanity is not cute or fun. We can’t emphasize that enough. Quiet should be an unnerving and potentially ruinous experience. As a result, we suggest that removing the character from the player’s control – either through catatonic withdrawal or total Marauderdom – be a very real option when a mage goes into Quiet. Otherwise, there’s no real incentive to fear the madness or escape its influence. Effects of Quiet The onset of insanity can be gradual or sudden, depending on the circumstances of the afflicted person. Most often, though, it begins with subtle quirks of perception and behavior, rising (or falling) steadily into a deeper sense of dislocation from the reality shared by everybody else. In game terms, Quiet follows six levels, starting with the sort of minor quirks that anyone could have, but then progressing… or regressing… toward dangerous irrationality. Falling Into Quiet Generally, this metaphysical insanity comes about as a result of accumulated Paradox. The mage becomes so comfortable in her removal from reality that she starts to lose touch with it. Other forces, though, can also inspire such madness: • Paradox Backlash: Strong Paradox backlashes (10 points or more) can knock a mage straight into Quiet. The degree of insanity depends upon the number of Paradox points discharged during the backlash – see the Levels of Quiet chart for details. • Trauma: Severe mental and psychological shocks can jolt the character’s connection to reality. Botched Mind Sphere rolls (on Effects of Rank 3 or higher); extended torture or Social Conditioning; sanity-cracking experiences; devastating loss; massive Mind Sphere attacks (that take the character to Incapacitated or worse); or physical brain damage (five health levels or more to the head) can all provoke an onset of Quiet. In such cases, a successful Willpower roll (psychological attacks) or Stamina roll (physical damage) – made with the mage’s current Paradox Pool as the difficulty – might keep the insanity at bay. (See also Things Man Was Not Meant to Know in Chapter Nine p. 407 and Social Conditioning and Reprogramming in this chapter pp. 605-607.) • Resonance or Synergy (optional rule): Mages connecting with the far reaches of Resonance or Synergy can lose track of reality as a result. In this case, the Storyteller might call for an Arete roll, difficulty 8, when the player reaches five dots in a Resonance or Synergy Trait. If the roll succeeds, the mage’s excellence overcomes the heady effects of Resonance or Synergy; if not, she succumbs to those forces and enters Quiet. (For details, see Resonance and Synergy, below.) In all three cases, the level of Quiet depends upon the character’s current Paradox Pool. The more paradoxical her
556 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Levels of Quiet Level Paradox Discharged Delusions or Disassociation 1 1-3 Minor quirks or occasional delusions; mage begins to manifest odd behavior and minor disassociation from his baseline reality. 2 4-6 Delusions and disconnection become more severe; mage perceives things that no one else can see, starts denying the experiences of other people, and begins to behave irrationally even by Awakened standards. 3 7-10 Mage’s senses backfire, creating blindness (real or conceptual), vivid hallucinations, and erratic – perhaps dangerous – behavior. Hobgoblins might appear, manifesting the mage’s delusions in ways that other people can perceive. 4 11-15 Mage either gets trapped in a mindscape of his own design or else behaves so irrationally that he becomes a danger to himself and everyone nearby. 5 16-20 Mage either drops into total catatonia or takes on many of the characteristics of a Marauder but without immunity to Paradox. 6 21+ Mage goes Marauder and becomes a Storyteller character. Types of Quiet Level Denial Madness Morbidity 1 Stubbornness, minor projection Minor hallucinations Attraction to death and decay 2 Selective perceptions, hypocritical behavior Frequent delusions, mood swings Fixation with mortality 3 Irrational behavior, literal blindness to denied subjects Wild hallucinations, sensory overload Bloodlust and macabre behavior 4 Deadly fanaticism Mindscape or constant hobgoblins Violent sociopathy 5 Fanatical drone Catatonia or dementia Sadistic killer 6 Marauder Marauder Marauder relationship with reality becomes, the more severe her case of Quiet will be. See the Levels of Quiet chart for the practical results of disconnection. Levels of Quiet The crazier you get, the crazier you act. In game terms, Quiet ranges from minor afflictions (Level 1) to total dementia (Level 5). At the extreme level of that scale (Level 6), the character goes irrevocably insane and becomes one of the Marauders – a permanent convert to the reality in her head. (See Chapter Five, Part ?*!: The Mad.) For reasons explained in Chapter Five, a player character who goes Marauder should be essentially dead to the player, reverting to the Storyteller as a supporting character in the ongoing chronicle. Although a Storyteller might choose to allow Marauder player-characters, such characters can easily destroy a game. Rising Out of Quiet A character who’s aware of her declining mental state can try to shake off the delusions or irrational behavior. In game terms, this means spending a Willpower point, taking at least one turn to do nothing except resist the effects of Quiet, and then scoring at least three successes on a Willpower roll. Under the usual Mage rules, the difficulty for this roll is 7; as an optional rule, the Storyteller might decide to make that difficulty the character’s Quiet level + 5, thus making it harder to shake off higher degrees of Quiet. (Shaking off a Quiet level of 3, for example, would be difficulty 8.) With those three successes, the mage manages to assert her will over the delusions during the current scene. Although the madness isn’t gone, she keeps a clear head and gets through the rest of the scene intact. Game-wise, the player removes one point of Paradox from the mage’s pool, which might lower the Quiet level. That roll, however, is an all or nothing affair; the player must score three successes, or more, with a single roll – not an extended action. One or two successes just make the delusion seem more real, and failure leaves the mage where she was before. A botch causes the delusion to manifest as a hobgoblin (see below). Either way, the Willpower point is gone. Curing Quiet? Some Dramatic Options With a lot of effort and Willpower, it’s possible for a mage to will herself sane. In practical terms, the player spends Willpower points and roleplays out the process of asserting her character’s sanity. This can become a dramatic story element, especially if the character’s in the middle of some existential
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 557 This sort of shadow-projection is less a matter of hypocrisy than of delusion – the insane person literally does not see what he’s doing. Such delusions are bad enough when Sleepers have them. Backed up by the metaphysical power of a mage, though, they can have fearsome effects on that person’s world. Denial Quiet robs a mage of clear perceptions. She won’t see things that are there, all the while insisting upon things that are not. Often associated with the Technocracy (who don’t use magick – oh no, perish the thought!), this form of Quiet can strike any type of mage. A Celestial Chorister could hate people in the name of love; a Weaver could command demons in the name of Allah; an Akashic could become a harmonious monster. When Nephandi tempters cast their webs, they love to inspire Denial-type Quiets… and, because Denial blocks out what the mage doesn’t want to see, such weapons become their most effective shields as well. (“Nope, no Nephandi here – not one! Believe me, if there were, I’d know…”) Effects of Denial • Levels 1-2: At the lower end of the spectrum, Denial manifests as a stubborn refusal to perceive stuff that’s obvious to everybody else. No, there is NOT a dragon sitting in the middle of Main Street; no, Islam is NOT a real religion; no, magick does NOT exist – that’s just a bunch of Superstitionist nonsense propagated by Reality Deviants, and the sooner we purge it from the Earth, the happier everyone will be. • Levels 3-4: As Denial grows stronger, it begins to manifest as literal blindness or deafness to circumstances… or worse, blindness/ deafness to anything but a twisted version of them: why did you call me a fat pig?; no, you never told me that Master Porthos is dead; I HEARD you planning to kill me and sell my body off for spare parts. Delusions block out or pervert the reality experienced by everyone around the mage, and things that were once annoying quirks of behavior can become frightening and dangerous. • Levels 5-6: At the highest levels of Quiet, Denial can reshape the world in that mage’s immediate vicinity. People might lose their voices in her presence, blurt out things they would never have said under their own power, or even disappear until the mage leaves the room. This explains the weird reality warps that often follow a Marauder attack: blanked hard drives, fuzzy photos or videos, people who swear that nothing odd just happened even as the fire trucks arrive at the scene of mass destruction. The mage’s delusion becomes part of localized reality, externalizing her refusal to accept certain things into the temporary disappearance of those things from the reality around her. Madness The most infamous and common form of Quiet, Madness showers the afflicted mage with mood swings and delusions. Often associated with the Marauders and other clearly Mindscape Rolls For details, see p. 559 Attempted Task Dice Pool Meditate into mindscape Perception + Meditation Meditate into Demesne Perception + Demesne Reduce time in mindscape Wits + Enigmas or Perception + Demesne Communicate to outside Willpower Difficulty for all is Quiet Level + 3 or external crisis that forces her to sort her shit out fast before ongoing events make things worse. Other characters can try to help a mage recover from Quiet; doing so, however, typically involves some powerful roleplaying, a few social or Knowledge-based rolls, and an extended roll in which the healing character uses Mind 4/ Prime 4 to drive out the Paradox within the suffering mage’s mind. As a base guideline, assume that the healer must invest his own personal Quintessence and replace each point of Paradox in the Quietridden mage’s pool with two or three points of the healer’s own Quintessence. The particulars of such curing efforts are left to the individual players and Storytellers. Whatever it takes, however, the cure should NOT be easy. After all, if fixing Quiet were easy, no mage would fear this madness… and yet, all sensible mages do. Types of Quiet Although generally considered a side effect of Paradox, Quiet is, in many ways, its own beast – a symptom of dissociation from the Consensus to which any mage, regardless of affiliation, remains vulnerable. It’s the flipside of that godlike power to rework reality, the place where no reality exists except the one you perceive. And despite the old stereotypes (and old game systems) that present Quiet as either babbling dementia or catatonic withdrawal, new-millennium mages recognize several different types of insanity: Denial Mistakenly known as Clarity in Mage Revised (there’s nothing clear-headed about it), Denial shuts out things the mage does not want to recognize. A common malady among Sleepers as well as the Awakened, this delusion categorically denies things, people, or circumstances that a person refuses to accept. Essentially, you don’t believe in it, therefore it cannot possibly exist. Denial has another awful feature too: a person – mage or otherwise – in a state of denial often acts out the things she denies. The jealous lover cheats on her spouse; the bully-hater bullies people; the religious fanatic murders innocents because they weren’t holy enough. “What you repress,” the saying goes, “you express.” As a result, a Black Suit who denies the existence of witchcraft might find himself practicing witchcraft as a joke… or worse, doing so without even recognizing the things he’s doing as witchcraft (“That’s ridiculous – YOU’RE the one who’s crazy…”).
558 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition demented willworkers, such hallucinatory perceptions and volatile behaviors start out as little quirks but then swell to sanity-rupturing proportions. Sometimes known as Dementia, Madness turns you into a prisoner of your own mind. Senses feed you incorrect perceptions; things and people who are not there appear as solid as you are; surges of emotion or calm drag you along emotional roller coasters, with often inappropriate results (making fart jokes at a funeral, grabbing your teenage son’s crotch). And while the dotty old wizard might seem amusing in theory, the maniac who has the power to turn people inside out without even realizing what he’s done is a terrifying figure indeed. Although it can manifest in subtle ways – sounds or scents without a source, strange fluctuations of color or proportion – madness has ultimately unsubtle consequences. The mage can try to keep things together for a while, and he may even successfully wave off or ignore the early manifestations of delusion. When the hallucinations become too strong, however… or, still worse, start running around as self-willed hobgoblins… that’s when the Quiet becomes too powerful to ignore. The mage himself might still think he’s sane, but his version of sanity looks pretty cracked to everybody else. Effects of Madness • Levels 1-2: Madness often starts as tiny ripples of unreality or distortion. Did I just hear the phone ring? Did someone call my name? Who’s smoking in here – I thought I was alone? In many cases, the symptoms begin as extensions of the mage’s tools and practice: great ‘shrooms, man… hey, when do they wear OFF? Hmmmm… I thought I had dispelled that ghost… Beyond that, Madness might set in as sudden mood swings or implacable obsessions, unquenchable urges or hyperfocused monomania. And because such things aren’t uncommon among the Awakened, Madness only gets worse from there… • Levels 3-4: By the time Dementia becomes obvious, the mage has already hit a downward slide. Obsessions, aberrant behavior, hair-trigger passions, and vivid hallucinations take hold. Objects, impressions, or images manifest: graffiti, phantom phone calls, floating spiders in the air. At Level 3, only the mage can see them; by Level 4, other folks start to see them too. Meanwhile, the afflicted character behaves erratically, reacting to things from a deluded impression of reality. • Levels 5-6: Madness attains its most frightening degree: wild visions, violent behavior, hazardous fixations, or total catatonia. The mage might suffer from metaphysical autism, withdrawing from her surroundings even while apparently awake. She’ll chant nonsense, shit her drawers, and tangle Reality in the strands of her personal insanity. At the highest degree, the mage either detaches herself from baseline reality and falls into a mindscape, or else becomes a raving lunatic with the powers of a god. Either way, she might easily be lost for good. Morbidity Drawn from the word morbus – “disease” – Morbidity reflects an obsession with death, corruption, and pain. The Archmage Voormas may be the poster child for this particular insanity. From early fixations with mortality and ruin, a Morbid willworker careens toward sadistic pleasures and ultimate extinction. Although referred to as Jhor in Mage Revised, Morbid Quiet is a soul-sickness… not the Resonance of Death, but a fascination with Oblivion. One could say that all Nephandi suffer from Morbidity. That accusation gets dropped on Thanatoics, Goths, and Black Suits too. As with all forms of Quiet, though, any mage can grow Morbid in this sense: the priest obsessed with crucifixion, the sadistic lover, the callous scientist. As a form of delusion, Morbidity is less about death than it is about gore, disease, and torment… and whereas some folks glory in vicarious thrills through fictional horror, the Morbidity-afflicted mage becomes an instrument of real-life cruelty. Along with the usual delusions of Quiet – delusions that, in this case, involve decay and suffering – a Morbid mage attains a corpse-like pallor or leprous corruption. His thoughts and activities focus on mortality. Unlike the dark or sardonic humor of the Hollow Ones, his mood is often deadly serious, so to speak – nihilistic in temperament and vicious by design. As insanity digs in further, he’ll be driven to unhealthy extremes. By the time he lurches toward suicide or homicide, the Morbid willworker has become an avatar of decay. Effects of Morbidity • Levels 1-2: Despite the stereotype of Morbid Gothlings, Morbid Quiet often sets in with people who don’t share a casual relationship with darkness. Most often, in fact, it tends to strike people who deny their dark sides and are paragons of righteousness within their own minds: the pious preacher, the haughty shaman, the valiant hunter of Reality Deviants. Provocative delusions lead to flashes of anger and despair: Why’d you betray me? You broke my heart. God HATES you! Violence soon seems not only reasonable but necessary. And with those surges of dark emotion and subtle hallucination, the doors open toward insanity… • Levels 3-4: As Morbidity takes hold, the mage begins to reflect his unhealthy obsessions. His behavior grows callous or deliberately cruel; his thoughts reflect constant violence and hate; he rages, seethes, or settles into cold deliberation. The law of the jungle consumes his thoughts… featuring himself, of course, as the alpha predator. In some cases, he might gravitate with Poe-like fascination toward excess, grit, and horror; in others, he might force himself through a sardonic kind of cheer – the bright-lights grin of an American Psycho. • Levels 5-6: By this point, the mage has the look of a wolf, the soul of a virus, and the mind of a demon on PCP. Honestly, this is one fucked-up character, and the Storyteller might want to take it over on general
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 559 principle. A mage at this stage of Morbidity is a Pol Pot or Dr. Mengele, but he has inhuman powers and the will to use them in the most sadistic way possible. If he’s not already entering the Nephandic Cauls by this point, it’s only because he’s either nursing a massive case of denial or else feeling like he could be a dark god himself. Marauders of this type are the worst of their kind – reality cyclones that should be killed on sight. Quiet Manifestations Mages remake reality to suit their desires… and so, when those mages go insane, their insanity affects Reality as well. Beyond the behavior changes and internal delusions that characterize a Quiet, the following manifestations change the world around a demented mage, reflecting often-subconscious applications of magick. Hobgoblins Little minds aren’t the only kind of minds that suffer from hobgoblins. That term also refers to the self-willed hallucinations that take shape and direction from the mind of an insane mage. Rooted in the fears, conflicts, and memories of an afflicted willworker, a hobgoblin embodies things that the mage in question would rather deny. Game-wise, a hobgoblin comes into play when a player either botches a roll to wish away the madness, or reaches a level of Quiet where that character’s delusions attain recognizable form. A hobgoblin could actually be anything: a smear of paint, a cry of pain, a religious tract that shows up tucked inside every book on the mage’s shelf, the vision of an old enemy or lover, a TV broadcast no one else can see, a song that plays over and over in her head, a stranger shouting on the corner, a car that speeds toward the mage in traffic… The possibilities are limited only by the mage’s backstory and the Storyteller’s imagination. A typical hobgoblin lasts for one day for each point in the offending mage’s Arete, though some can last much longer than that; if the hobgoblin becomes a character, it has health levels and abilities to match the mage’s own Traits. Many hobgoblins manifest as doppelgangers: evil twins (or perhaps good ones) whose deeds embarrass the mage in question. Others appear as lost children, crusading reporters, tearful relatives, or other personifications of guilt or irritation. And although the Storyteller could create one manifestation for each point in the mage’s Arete, there’s really no upper limit to the number of hobgoblins that might appear… Environmental Alteration A truly powerful Quiet can spread outward from the mage’s mind to alter the landscape and living beings nearby. As noted earlier in this section, things can shift without conscious effort on the mage’s part: weather patterns could manifest, the ground might tremble, music might play, and people could be rendered silent. A crowd of people could turn, temporarily, into zombies or birds. Packs of rats, dogs, or naked toddlers might manifest out of thin air to chase the mage down the street. Such alterations come only from mages with great powers and potent madness. When they appear, however, these manifestations can be pretty fucking weird. In game terms, large-scale alterations are the Storyteller’s prerogative. The player has no control over such things whatsoever, and the manifestations can twist reality as much as the Storyteller wants it twisted. Essentially, these alterations become the reality-warping special effects that follow Marauders around, as described in Chapter Five, Part ?*!: The Mad. If your mage begins to manifest such Fortean phenomena, then she’s halfway to Maraudertown on a greased-tracks bullet train. Mindscapes The polar opposite of environmental alternation, a mindscape pulls the mage’s consciousness into its own little world and then locks the door behind her. Within that mindscape, the mage struggles through her insanity, finding the keys she needs to unlock the Paradoxes of her consciousness. To the rest of the world, the mage enters the catatonic state that gives Quiet its name. For the mage, that journey becomes a Seeking through which she might make herself sane again. Voluntary and Involuntary Mindscapes Depending upon the nature of the Quiet and the efforts of the mage, a mindscape can be either voluntary or involuntary. For a voluntary mindscape, the mage meditates herself into a mental sanctuary where she can sort things out, probably by making a few successful Perception + Meditation rolls. (Difficulty is the Quiet level + 3.) If that character has the Demesne Background Trait, she might be able to retreat to that mental domain through a Willpower roll of difficulty 9. (See Chapter Six, p. 311, for details.) Once in her private space, the mage undergoes a symbolic quest to recapture her equilibrium. For an involuntary mindscape, the mage winds up stuck in a realm of the Storyteller’s design, fighting to regain her sanity again. Either way, when she emerges, her entire Paradox pool is clear, unless she’s got some permanent Paradox that cannot be resolved. Time Passing Generally, Quiet mindscapes last for one day for each point of Paradox in the pool. Mindscapes that involve a Paradox pool larger than 10 points, however, can last one week per point, and though a few rolls of Wits + Enigmas or Perception + Demesne (difficulty, again, is the Quiet level + 3) might speed up the journey toward sanity by one day per success, we recommend roleplaying through the struggle as a miniature story. Messages from Within and Outside Assistance While inside the mindscape, a mad mage can try to contact the world outside her head. Three successes with a Willpower roll (once again, difficulty is the Quiet level + 3) allow her to send a clear message; fewer successes than that send a garbled message to whomever might be listening. Meanwhile, an adventurous friend can try to reach into the mindscape and retrieve the lost mage. A few successes with a Mind 3 dreamwalk or Mind 4/ Mind 5 astral projection can send that ally into the Quiet mindscape if the Storyteller
560 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Optional Rule: Resonance and Synergy The metaphysical reflection of a mage’s deeds, Resonance holds a vital yet ambiguous role within Mage: The Ascension. Originally defined as story-based, metaphysical echoes, Resonance eventually reflected the mage’s deeds through energetic physics of consequence. Because of the different (and often conflicting) treatments of resonance throughout the Mage series, Mage 20 treats Resonance as an optional rule. And although the full treatment of that option is too large to include in this chapter or rulebook, a brief treatment of that option appears below. Certain Mage sourcebooks used a very different definition for Resonance. In those sourcebooks, Resonance became a type of energy that links a mage to cosmic principles. Although that definition is essentially the flipside of the same coin, a connection to universal energies would be more properly called Synergy. Your Mage group can decide to use both Resonance and Synergy to reflect different phenomena: Resonance to echo outward from the mage’s actions, Synergy to reflect cosmic principles working inward through the mage. Both energies follow the same rules, but they come from opposing sources with opposing results. Depending upon your group’s preferences, you might use only Resonance, only Synergy, both, or neither in your game. What is Resonance? Essentially, Resonance provides an energetic residue from a mage’s effects upon reality; the more dramatic the effects, the more powerful the Resonance. A subtle, temperate mage who moves through life with very little fuss doesn’t generate much Resonance, whereas a flashy drama-queen with a penchant for vulgar spells becomes a walking Resonance factory. Story-wise, Resonance shapes the energy in and around the mage. His personality generates it, his spells reflect it, his aura pulses with it, and his home echoes it. At low levels, such energies are hard to spot, but at higher degrees they become almost impossible to miss. In game terms, Resonance takes a one-word description (the signature), measures it between one and five dots (the degree), affects the story (the manifestations), and follows one of four categories (the flavors) that reflect the type of energy involved. This signature flavors that mage’s Effects and Quintessence; colors or shapes his aura; influences the sorts of Abilities and Backgrounds he has; and inspires the types of Seekings, Quiets, and Paradox backlashes he endures. Example Signatures Degrees of Resonance and Synergy Level Degree Expressions 0 Indistinct None. 1 Faint Vague signature. 2 Subtle Discernable flavor. 3 Noticeable Odd manifestations. 4 Strong Obvious echoes. 5 Overwhelming Unmistakable energies Alluring Calming Decaying Feral Furious Gloomy Nurturing Parasitic Rigid Stormy Graceful Warlike Manifestations of Resonance and Synergy X Indistinct: No discernable signature. No bonuses. • Faint: Slight traces (minor ripples, vague feelings). •• Subtle: Minor but telling characteristics (environmental quirks, energetic taste). ••• Noticeable: Recognizable signs (environmental oddities, distinct flavor). •••• Strong: Obvious energies (weird phenomena, potent energies). ••••• Overwhelming: Recognizable signature (personalized and identifiable phenomena affecting environment, actions, people, and locations).
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 561 chooses to allow it. Once there, however, that friend becomes vulnerable to the mindscape and all its potential terrors. Characters who suffer damage in a Quiet mindscape take bashing damage; if that damage kills someone, that person might either die for real or fall into a coma at the Storyteller’s discretion. As mentioned earlier, the mindscape becomes a Seeking through which the mad willworker – and perhaps her friends – must find a path toward sanity. And like any other Seeking, such journeys should not be guided by dice alone. (See Chapter Seven for more advice about Seekings.) Wisdom From Insanity There’s a reason people speak of crazy wisdom. For although insanity presents a hazard to everyone involved, a person who manages to puzzle through that madness might emerge with deeper insights into life, magick, and the universe. In story terms, a character who emerges from Quiet with his sanity intact might resolve certain issues; change his Demeanor or even his Nature; gain dots – by the Storyteller’s choice only! – in certain Traits like Awareness, Cosmology, Enigmas, or Occult; and resolve all the Paradox in his pool, save the ones that have become permanent. A Quiet, of course, might never be truly resolved; Porthos Fitz-Empress faced his own Quiet in the final moments of his life, and such madness blasted Doissetep to its foundations in the Ascension Warrior saga. Marauders lose the people they once were in the dementia they now embrace. And so, Quiet may play a vital role in your saga as a whole… shaping and perhaps transforming the chronicle through a solitary, but expansive, madness. Part VI: Examples in Play Rules, rules, rules… so many rules. What do they play out like when the dice hit the table? The following examples ought to give you some ideas about the practical applications of the previously described systems and the ways in which they mix with narration and roleplaying over the course of your chronicle. Coincidental Mystic Effect Hungry Jinx wants to score some food. Panhandling on the Ave, she sets up her sign and decides to hedge her bets with a bit of magick. And so, Jinx takes out her playing cards and begins to deal them out in apparently random patterns while whispering a prayer to her goddess, Risk. As far as anyone else is concerned, Jinx is simply some weird street-kid playing solitaire and talking to herself. Jinx’s player Camille, however, knows what Jinx is really up to. “I’m throwing out an intention,” she says, “that someone will either take Jinx to lunch, or else give her enough money to buy a meal or two.” As she shuffles and draws the cards, Jinx keeps glancing up at passersby, giving them the puppy-dog-eyes treatment. Flavors of Resonance Devotional Reflection of dedication to a cause, belief, society, or ethic. Elemental Reflection of affinity for creatures, spirits, or forces of nature. Stabilizing Reflection of calmness, structure, control, and integrity. Temperamental Reflections of dominant emotional state. Flavors of Synergy Dynamic Affinity for active, vibrant, chaotic energies. Entropic Affinity for destructive, random, disintegrative energies. Static Affinity for stable, controlling, preserving energies. Optional Rule: Resonance and Synergy (Continued) A Storyteller can choose to keep Resonance as a narrative and roleplaying device; that way, there are no rules attached to Resonance – it simply appears as various special effects throughout the chronicle. At higher levels, it could manifest as the Echoes Flaw (see Appendix II, pp. 646-647), sending weird ripples into the world around the mage. Lower degrees of Resonance have very little effect, but the higher ones can reveal all sorts of things about a given mage. Alternately, the Storyteller might decide to run Resonance (and perhaps Synergy) as full-fledged Traits, with significant effects on gameplay and characters. In this case, a character begins play with a single dot in a Resonance Trait and earns or loses dots through roleplaying and events during the chronicle. Full rules for this option can be found in The Book of Secrets, a storehouse of arcana from Mage 20th Anniversary Edition.
562 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition “Entropy 2 to manipulate probability,” Camille says, “plus Life 2 to note hungry bystanders who’d be likely to help a cute girl get a meal, and Spirit 1 to read auras so she can figure out who’s most likely to feed her without expecting anything else in return.” Using Entropy 2/ Life 2/ Spirit 1, Camille rolls two dice for Jinx’s Arete. Jinx’s battered cards count as a personalized instrument (-1 difficulty), and the Effect is coincidental because she’s not doing anything that obviously defies reality or otherwise looks like magick. The roll’s difficulty, therefore, is a base of 5 (highest Sphere + 3), -1 for the cards, for a total of 4. Camille rolls the dice and gets one success. In the story, Jinx spots a college girl not much older than Jinx herself. That girl’s got store-bought distressed jeans, a Washington State sweatshirt, and a blue-green aura, suggesting trust and generosity, tinged with a bit of hunger. Jinx’s spell tilts the odds in her favor, and the girl looks over to Jinx and smiles. “Hey,” she says, holding out a hand. “I’m kinda hungry too. You wanna go catch some lunch? My treat…” Abilities Enhancing an Effect Let’s say that Jinx’s attempt didn’t succeed. Camille’s rolled a couple of times, and folks just keep passing by because Camille hasn’t rolled any successes. “Okay,” says Camille, “Jinx is seriously turning on the charm.” In the game, Camille rolls Jinx’s Charisma of 4, plus her Etiquette of 1, for a total of five dice. In the story, Jinx goes into a spiel along the lines of “Pick a card, any card, the first one to draw the Jack of Diamonds gets to have lunch with a beautiful girl!” Because this is a fairly presumptuous stunt, the Storyteller allows Camille to use Jinx’s “Dare you!” specialty in order to count any 10s Camille rolls as two successes. The Storyteller sets the difficulty at 7 (a stranger trying to convince folks to buy her food), and Camille scores two successes. Those successes, in turn, lower Camille’s difficulty for the casting roll by -2; with a total difficulty of 3 (4 - 2 = 2, but the minimum difficulty is 3), Jinx scores lunch in no time. Technomagickal Effect Dr. Hans von Roth leads cops on a merry chase. Laughing behind the wheel of his reengineered Aston Martin Vanquish (its copper-silver chassis blurred into an eye-watering streak), he shifts into 7th gear, activating the Trans-Temporal Warp Drive… Meanwhile, at the game table, Paul tallies up the five dice he needs to roll an Effect with Dr. von Roth’s most excellent five dots in Arete. Because that Effect – a Correspondence 4/ Time 3/ Forces 2/ Matter 2 Effect – is focused through the hypercharged sports car, the Storyteller rules that Paul’s high-speed getaway is coincidental: “BARELY coincidental, but I’ll allow it this time.” The Spheres involved break down like this: Correspondence to skip the car from one place to another through intervening distances in order to avoid hitting other vehicles, Time to accelerate the car beyond its normal capabilities, Forces to handle the gravitational physics involved, and Matter to keep the car from flying apart under stresses it’s not designed to endure. Because Dr. von Roth
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 563 has been engineering such capabilities into the car, it functions as a unique, personalized instrument; and because those capabilities work only for Dr. Roth, the car is a focus instrument, not a Wonder. And so, Paul rolls the dice. The base difficulty is 7 (coincidental = highest Sphere +3), reduced by -2 for the unique, personalized instrument. Paul throws a point of Quintessence into it as well (“special fuel”), so the difficulty drops to 4. Paul rolls his five dice and scores three successes… Seconds later, the cops are left shaking their heads, wondering what kind of car can manage to zip out of sight right before their eyes… Targeted Damage Effect Bruce Foster sights, aims, and shoots. A .44 Magnum slug tears into the raging man-beast that’s been rampaging through the office complex. The monster sneers – Bullets? How pathetic – and then howls in realization that the special Technocratic ammo in Bruce’s gun, combined with Bruce’s Enlightened marksmanship, has unexpected, deadly consequences. “Thanks to our special ammo,” says Bruce’s player, Bill, “I’m using the gun to throw a coincidental Forces/ Prime Effect into that lycanthropic bastard: Forces 2 for velocity and damage, and Prime 2 to energize my bullets so they do aggravated damage.” Because this is a coincidental Effect, the difficulty is 5. (2 + 3 = 5) Bill rolls Bruce’s Enlightenment of 4 to trigger the desired Effect. Four dice hit the table, scoring two successes. To see whether or not the gunshot hits, Bill rolls with Bruce’s Dexterity + Firearms dice pool. Three successes. Bruce’s gun can fire up to three shots per turn; because a player can make only one Arete/ Enlightenment roll per turn, however, the Effect roll applies the damage as the result of all three shots. Checking the Base Damage or Duration chart, Bill discovers that his two successes, plus one additional success for the Forces Sphere, equal six health levels’ worth of damage. Because the Prime 2 addition enhanced that damage, the arrogant lupine who figured he could shake off that pistol shot suddenly takes a six health-level aggravated damage attack. Sure, the werewolf can try to soak that damage, but still – six agg in a single turn? That shit’s gonna hurt. Suddenly, Wolfie’s not quite as spry as he was a moment ago… Extended Roll Ritual Nix decides to ward zir home, shielding it from outside observation and setting up silent alerts in case someone breaks in anyway. Gathering up a collection of black candles, a paintbrush, appropriate herbs, a bowl of Nix’s own blood, an iron bell, chalk, and other instruments, Nix begins the long process of lighting the candles, burning the herbs, painting the corners with daubs of blood, inscribing chaos-magick glyphs in chalk on various surfaces, and murmuring invocations of safety and threats while going from room to room with the blood, the bell, and a candle. Nix’s player, Koe, hashes out the necessary Spheres: Correspondence 2 to thicken the space against long-distance observation, Matter 2 to bind the Effect to the materials of that place, Mind 2 to disperse a subtle yet steady Go away impulse to anyone who comes near, and an additional Correspondence 2/ Mind 2 component that sends Nix a mental alarm if the place gets breached. Because Nix is trying to affect a large area, reduce a would-be intruder’s successes, and do so more or less permanently, Koe’s Storyteller checks the Rite, Ceremony, and Great Work section, then decides that Koe needs seven successes – in ritual terms, a ceremony – in order to complete the desired Effect. Thanks to its subtle nature, the warding Effect is coincidental; if those wards were to burst into flame or do something else obvious, the Effect would be vulgar instead. The base difficulty is only 5 (Sphere 2 + 3 for coincidental magick), and Koe spends two Quintessence (in the form of Nix’s blood) to lower it to the minimum difficulty of 3. Still, Nix has an Arete of 3, so it’ll take a few rolls to complete the ritual. In the story, Nix goes from room to room, chanting, painting, and ringing the bell. At the gaming table, Koe rolls three dice and gets one success for the first hour; two successes in the second hour; and one more success in the third. Nix has four dots in Stamina, so Koe rolls a fourth time to reflect the fourth hour of work; this time, though, it’s a failure – no successes at all. The dice are not on Koe’s side this evening. Nix decides to take a break and finish up after a bit of rest. Following a short break, Nix resumes the ritual. The next roll garners two successes, for a total of six successes. One more success needed. The final hour’s work nets two successes, wrapping up the ceremony with eight successes. So now, after six hours and change, the ritual wards Nix’s home, deducting eight successes from anyone who tries to spy upon it with Correspondence, broadcasting a fairly strong KEEP OUT impulse to would-be trespassers, and sending Nix the desired mental warning across a pretty significant distance. Sure, it took some work, but the wards are essentially permanent until Nix takes them down. The Hollow One settles in to sleep as dawn breaks, confident that the protections will hold… Divided Successes Option Over the last several weeks, Malcolm Jamal Leonard has amassed quite a bit of dirt on a collection of public figures. With it, he could demolish their credibility, undermine their influence, alienate their sponsors, and remove them from the larger game of power politics. That dirt, however, must be revealed the right way. Handing it over to the proper authorities would mean nothing. No, his targets must disgrace themselves. Moyo kizungu – “speaking the heart.” It’s an old honesty spell. Combining tech-based data with an ancient ritual, Malcolm prepares a public spectacle of self-inflicted ruin. Around the table, Steve lays out his plan: “With my new dots in the Correspondence Sphere, I’m going to work up a Mind/ Entropy/ Correspondence spell that’ll get the targets to reveal the things they least want to be public knowledge.” Because the long-distance spell is limited by Malcolm’s two dots in Correspondence (rather than to the three dots he has in Mind), the Effect Steve decides upon is a Correspondence 2/ Mind 2/ Entropy 1 enchantment that sends a truth-speaking impulse to Malcolm’s targets, getting them to inadvertently spill their guts at the worst possible times.
564 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (In game terms, Correspondence sets up the connections, Mind sends the impulse, and Entropy finds and exploits the psychological weak points of the men and women in question.) As in the previous example, this Effect calls for an extended ritual, with a large number of successes to be spread out over the targets. Using the Magickal Feats and Optional Dividing Successes Rule charts, Steve and his Storyteller set the Base Successes at four successes (influencing someone’s mind); select six targets (six more successes, total); establish a Duration of one story for that Effect (three more successes) so that those targets spread their revelations out over a period of time; and then determine – using the Correspondence Sphere Ranges chart – that it will take five more successes (described location) to reach the targets through the personal information Malcolm has compiled. Thankfully, this is a coincidental Mind Effect; no one will see Malcolm working, and everyone knows that public figures say stupid things when you shove cameras and microphones in their faces. Therefore, Malcolm’s ritual requires 17 successes (a Great Work, according to the Rite, Ceremony, and Great Work entry), with a base difficulty of 5. Tools and time can reduce that difficulty to 3, but it’s still a hell of a ritual to pull off. The process is exhausting; Malcolm needs to take several breaks, and Steve has a lot of die-rolling to do. Thankfully, he doesn’t botch any of those rolls, and within a few days the press and Internet are buzzing about the sudden attacks of vocal diarrhea that have taken down several noted pundits and politicians. In his penthouse, Malcolm smiles at a job well done. Vulgar Magic Effect/ Spending Quintessence and Willpower No time for subtlety! When Aria finds two assholes beating a guy half to death with a baseball bat, she reaches out to her understanding of the time stream. Taking a few seconds to focus her concentration, Aria blinks rapidly as the baseball bat rises and falls, battering the victim’s arms and ribs. Aria takes a deep breath, concentrating on the stench of garbage, the tang of blood, the glass-strewn pavement under her bare feet, the dull thud of wood against muscle, skin, and bone, the miraculous arc of pain and mortality on this chilly city night. At the gaming table, Cedar picks up six dice to represent Aria’s Arete of 6. “Focusing on her affinity for senses, places, and time,” Cedar says, “Aria’s going to stop those bastards, grab the dude, and get him out of there.” That’s a tall order. The Effect would be extremely vulgar – with Sleeper witnesses, no less! Checking the Feats of Time Magick chart, Cedar finds that she would need at least five successes to create a time-bubble around the three men. Because that Effect involves Time 4, the difficulty would be 9 (Time 4 + 5 for a vulgar with witnesses Effect. Six dice, five successes, difficulty 9? The odds kinda suck. “I can’t stand by and do nothing,” Cedar says. “I’m gonna throw three points of Quintessence behind this, too.” Given Aria’s Avatar of 5, that’s easy. This brings the difficulty down, from 9 to 6. Cedar also spends a point of Willpower, giving Aria one automatic success. Now she needs to roll only four successes at difficulty 6. It’s still rough odds with only six dice, but it’s do-able… Paradox: Success, Failure, Botching, and Backlash Cedar rolls the dice for Aria’s vulgar with witnesses Effect: • Success: The dice fly. Five successes, plus one automatic one from the Willpower! In the story, Aria reaches out her hands and time stops. The men with bats freeze in place, as does their victim. Aria rushes over to him, pulls him up, and drags him out of the way. “Are they still frozen?” Cedar asks the Storyteller. “You got six successes out of five. So the guys are frozen for…” he checks the Optional Dividing Successes Rule chart… “the rest of the scene, because you got one success more than you needed in order to complete the Effect.” Watching to make sure that no one else can see her, Aria wrestles the baseball bat out of one attacker’s hands, beats the living crap out of both men with it, and hauls the still-frozen victim away. That victory, though, has a price. Even though she succeeded, Aria takes one point of Paradox. (Cedar’s troupe isn’t using the Reckoning metaplot rules. If they were playing in the post-Reckoning Mage world, then Aria would get five points of Paradox: one point + one point for every dot in the highest Sphere used.) • Failure: The dice fly, but Cedar scores only three successes, not four. Temporal energies shift, but nothing happens. One of the attackers looks up and spots Aria behind them. “HEY!” he yells, pointing at the mage. The other man turns as well. Some nights, it just doesn’t pay to be a Good Samaritan… • Botching: The dice fly. No successes, but two ones. Botch! Temporal energies seethe, coil, and then crackle into a burst of sudden paralyzing pain. “Oh, crap,” says Cedar, as Aria gets 10 points of Paradox (two points + two per dot in the highest Sphere). “So, Cedar,” the Storyteller asks, “How many points of Paradox did Aria already have?” “Um…” Cedar replies, glancing at her character sheet. “Dammit. Six.” “That makes sixteen Paradox?” The Storyteller shakes his head. “This is probably going to be ugly…” Paradox Backlash The Storyteller picks up sixteen dice, one for each point in Aria’s Paradox pool. Rolling them against difficulty 6, he gets ten successes. Checking the Paradox Backlash chart, he narrates Aria’s fate: “The pain locks all your muscles into place.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 565 Aria screams as cascades of time and possibility whip through her body and mind. Over what seems like an eternity, she slowly falls to the pavement, dropping into the black void of unconsciousness. Mark off ten points of Paradox and...” (he rolls ten dice) “...ouch! Seven health of damage.” “Bashing or lethal?” “Um…” the Storyteller checks the Paradox Backlash Roll chart… “bashing.” Cedar sighs. “That’ll probably kill me.” “Maybe not,” says the Storyteller, choosing another option. “So what happens next?” “That,” says the Storyteller, “is the question, isn’t it?” From this point on, the Storyteller gets to make the call. Will Aria be blown to bits? Sucked into a Paradox Realm? Visited by Old Man Wrinkle, the guardian of time? Cedar has no idea, which is why it’s not often wise to play too freely with titanic forces of space and time. Even when you’ve got the power to do so, things can still go so terribly wrong… Quiet It happens even to the best of mages. And when you’ve been around for centuries, as Jodi Blake has been, then you’re no stranger to a little less-than-peaceful Quiet. Blake has spanned the spectrum of Denial, Madness, and Morbidity during her time on Earth. This time, she’s in Denial… unaware that she’s even a mage, much less a mage from the infamous Nephandi. How did she get here, then, and what happens now that she is? In game terms, Jodi’s player Jim had been piling up some Paradox. Rather than bringing the hammer down, Jim’s Storyteller has decided to spice up the chronicle by giving Jodi a special kind of madness. For a Nephandic Master, innocence is dementia. And so, when a bit of vulgar magick sends Jodi’s Paradox wheel past the 10-point mark, the Storyteller begins her Quiet campaign. “Jodi,” says the Storyteller, “when you wake up the next morning, you find yourself in a beautiful bedroom, the sun streaming through billowing white curtains. Your pink pajamas feature little smiley faces, and you can smell your mother making French toast downstairs. It’s a wonderful day to be alive.” “Um…” says Jim. “Say WHAT?!?” In game terms, Jodi’s new 13 points of Paradox have put her in a Level 4 mindscape of Denial. Although the Nephandic sorceress is actually naked in her richly appointed, black and red bedchamber some time after dusk, her newfound Quiet resists her true identity. As far as she herself can tell, Jodi’s now a 12-year-old innocent on a bright Saturday morning. As it turns out, the Storyteller has been planning this out for a while. She has a name and personality picked out for Jodi’s mom (in a cruel quirk of memory, it’s the 21st-century version of Jodi’s real, medieval French mother, now very long gone), and a detailed description of Jodi’s new life. Meanwhile, Jodi’s sorcerous acquaintances gradually realize that Ms. Blake is not herself… that she has, in fact, retreated from the beautiful monster she normally is and slipped into a delusion of being a modern preteen girl who has neither memories nor knowledge about things like magick. Will Jim shake off the effects of this Quiet by spending Willpower points and making a successful Willpower roll against difficulty 9? For now, Jim seems content to play along with the mindscape and see where it leads. For a mage like Jodi Blake, however, innocence can never last for long… Part VII: Focus and the Arts Belief makes the mage. Belief in something – gods, science, spirits, technology, one’s own place in the universe, perhaps simply the conviction that one’s Will is enough to move the world – is utterly essential if you want to change reality. Faithless folks cannot use True Magick, for such Arts and Sciences depend upon belief. That belief provides the core of focus: that lens through which a mage does what he does. Chapters One, Two, and Six have already covered the importance of focus and of the three components – paradigm, practice, and instruments – that comprise it. In previous Mage editions, that term – and its awkward plural, foci – had been used to describe the tools through which a mage works. Practice had been called style, and paradigm was simply left for the player to determine. Really, though, all three pieces are connected. The tools, after all, are just extensions of the practice, and that practice draws upon belief. Belief inspires, practice directs, and instruments put that practice into action. And so, all three elements provide a focus for your mage’s Will. Practice, Instruments, and Growing Beyond Them As detailed in Chapter Six (see p. 259 and p. 329), each Mage character begins play with a focus made up of a paradigm, a practice, and at least seven instruments that channel that belief through that practice. As he or she progresses through the game, your character can choose to alter or discard instruments, change practices, modify one practice to accommodate another one, and perhaps even eventually recognize that she doesn’t need the tools at all. Even then, however, your character believes in something. Without that conviction, she’s just another Sleepwalker, going through motions she doesn’t truly understand. Certain mages never manage to separate the instruments from those convictions. It takes a certain kind of worldview, especially in our era, to realize that you don’t need technology
566 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Common Paradigms, Practices, and Instruments How Focus Works What does the mage believe? = paradigm How does the mage turn belief into action? = practice What does the mage use in that practice? = instruments All combined = focus Paradigms (pp. 568-571) A Mechanistic Cosmos A World of Gods and Monsters Bring Back the Golden Age! Creation’s Divine and Alive Divine Order and Earthly Chaos Everything is Chaos Everything is Data Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake It’s All Good – Have Faith! Might is Right One-Way Trip to Oblivion Tech Holds All Answers Practices (pp. 573-586) Alchemy Art of Desire/ Hypereconomics Chaos Magick Craftwork Crazy Wisdom Cybernetics Dominion Faith Gutter Magick High Ritual Magick Hypertech Maleficia Martial Arts Medicine-Work Reality Hacking Shamanism Voudoun Weird Science Witchcraft Yoga Instruments (pp. 588-600) Armor Artwork Blessings and curses Blood and fluids Bodywork Bones and remains Books and periodicals Brain/ computer interface Brews and concoctions Cards and instruments of chance Celestial alignments Circles and designs Computer gear Crossroads and crossing-days Cups and vessels Dances and movement Devices and machines Drugs and poisons Elements Energy Eye contact Fashion Food and drink Formulae and math Gadgets and inventions Gems and stones Group rites Herbs and plants Household tools Knots and ropes Labs and gear Languages Management and HR Mass media Meditation Money and wealth Music Nanotech Numbers and numerology Offerings and sacrifices Ordeals and exertions Prayers and invocations Sacred iconography Sex and sensuality Social domination Symbols Thought-forms Toys Tricks and illusions True Names Vehicles Voice and vocalizations Wands and staves Weapons Writings, inscriptions and runes to accomplish miracles. When a mage’s belief in technology provides the Path to Enlightenment, that belief is almost impossible to shake… and most folks wouldn’t want to shake it, even if they could. There’s comfort in technology, after all, even if that technology involves books and bones, not computers and cars. Working Without Focus Because mages are vessels of Will, they can sometimes will things to happen without using tools or a practice. Working through determination alone, a mage can surpass her focus and conjure Effects without channeling belief through practice or tools.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 567 Working this way doesn’t happen without cost. Gamewise, the player spends one Willpower point and suffers a +3 difficulty to his roll. Essentially, that mage throws every ounce of self-conviction he has into the spell, using Will alone to focus his intents. Because of their reliance upon scientific methods and tools, technomancers cannot perform this trick at all unless and until they completely transcend the need for instruments. A Virtual Adept might believe he’s got the will to hack Reality without gear, but until he accepts that concept as an integral part of his reality, he just can’t manage it. (See Focus, Belief, and the One-Inch Punch in the sidebar nearby.) In all cases, the modifier for using an instrument cannot bring the total difficulty above +3 or below -3. Reality has a certain degree of flexibility, yes, but it cannot be stretched too far. Working With Unfamiliar Instruments Every so often, a mage finds herself working outside the paradigm. Maybe she’s learning a new practice or adding new tools to the practice she already employs – working with joss sticks and hell-money, for example, if her shamanic Path began in Kenya or Arizona. She might be using someone else’s laboratory or workshop, adopting desperate measures (like grabbing a Black Suit’s weapon during a firefight), or using instruments and rituals that she hasn’t had time to familiarize herself with just yet. (“The drums don’t really speak to me until we’ve spent some quality time getting attuned to each other’s vibrations.”) In such situations, your mage is working with an unfamiliar instrument or practice… which is often better than using nothing at all, but it’s not as effective as your established bag of tricks. In game terms, this unfamiliarity manifests as an increase to your difficulty until you’ve had some time to adjust to the instruments or rituals in question. At the earlier stages, a totally unfamiliar instrument (like a jetpack ganked from some crazy Etherite) or ritual (like joining a Lakota fancy-dance when you normally focus through the Five Rhythms movement practice) adds +2 to your difficulty. Later, when you’ve had some experience with the tools or practice in question (you’ve spent some time on the gun range with that blaster pistol or learned how to call the corners in your new Wiccan community) but have not yet fully adopted that practice, the modifier drops to +1. Both modifiers appear on the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart. Changing Tools and Practices Story-wise, a character can modify or alter his practice and its associated tools by going through a major change of life. It’s fairly easy to modify your existing practice – to, for example, go from being a primitivist Pagan to adding computers and modifying the Old Ways into a technopagan practice. Radical conversions – say, going from Pagan witchcraft to Sunni Islam – are more difficult, demanding intense roleplaying and deep story arcs. As described in Chapter Six under Changing Focus and Allegiance, (p. 339), such monumental paradigm shifts have various game and story complications. Although a character does not lose Arete, he must return to at least seven instruments (several of which may combine his old practice with his new one). For several in-game months, he’ll be working at half of his previous Sphere levels too… after all, he’s learning an entirely new way of dealing with those principles, even if he does still understand them. Chapter Six covers the details about that mage’s return to his previous levels of accomplishment; for now, just remember that your character is reorienting his deepest-held beliefs. Growing Beyond the Tools When it comes to moving beyond the tools of a given practice, mystic mages have a major advantage over tech-based ones. Despite the occasionally cumbersome nature of cauldrons and rites, a mystic worldview is generally more flexible than a scientific one. The mystic may eventually recognize that magick flows from his Will and a connection to the universe at large; a scientist, however – even a crazy one – still remains convinced that her tools and theories provide the bridge between Will and Effect. (See the sidebar SCIENCE!!! in Chapter Six, p. 290.) Overcoming that conviction is sometimes possible, but it’s difficult to do. In game terms, a mystic character can begin discarding the instruments of her practice when she reaches Arete 3. From that point onward, she may discard one instrument per point of Arete beyond the third – two at Arete 4, three at Arete 5, and so forth. By Arete 9, she can use tools but no longer needs to do so – see Arete, Focus, and Instruments in Chapter Six, (p. 329). Technomancers, by definition, find it difficult to do that – they do, after all, see “via technology.” A mystically oriented technomancer cannot discard instruments until Arete 6. From then on, however, she realizes that her understanding transcends her need for technology, and she can set aside two tools per dot in Arete instead of one. Technocrats receive so much indoctrination that they never break through their preconceptions that way. Unless he leaves the Technocracy to pursue a different Path, a Technocrat remains convinced that his faction’s perception of reality is the only one that truly works… and that perspective demands instruments of science, even if those instruments aren’t always obvious. At Arete 10, a Technocrat becomes part of the Machine – a focus for the Will of technology instead of the other way around. Belief: The Core of Focus Without or without instruments, belief forms the core of a mage’s focus. Often referred to as paradigm, that belief reflects the way your mage thinks about the world, her place in it, and the things she does in order to spin that world to suit her purposes. Beliefs and paradigms aren’t quite the same thing, but they’re closely related to one another, especially with regards to a mage’s focus. Belief tends to be a personal faith or creed, whereas paradigm tends to reflect an intellectual framework for understanding such things. Each depends upon the other.
568 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition It can be said fairly that paradigm represents how you think the world works, and belief represents why you think it works that way. The varieties of human belief are almost limitless. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every living person (and possibly every thinking entity) holds different beliefs. The things we believe come from so many factors – culture, experiences, memories, perceptions, meditations upon those other factors, and far more besides – that although we can make general statements about a belief, we can never truly know what another person believes, nor can anyone else truly share our unique paradigm. We can come close in many respects, but except in the rare cases where a mage shares a lasting, total mind-body-soul connection to another entity, our beliefs still occupy different worlds. Common Mage Paradigms The P-word catches lots of flack in Mage. Really, though, paradigm is a pretty simple idea. A paradigm is a model that reflects the way something works. Mage paradigms represent the various belief systems that Awakened and unAwakened people use to understand the world they share. The most common belief systems you’ll find in Mage: The Ascension include: A Mechanistic Cosmos Creation is essentially a machine. By understanding it, we can elevate ourselves to a superior state. All things possess an intrinsic sense of order, and chaos is an illusion that conceals a deeper form of symmetry. Although it’s most obviously identified with the Technocracy, this paradigm goes back at least as far as Classical Greece. The “divine watchmaker” concept from Enlightenment Deism, certain forms of Gnosticism, and the postmodern concept of reality hacking all stem from this image of a systematic and comprehensible cosmos. To the mechanistic viewpoint, enlightenment includes a clear-eyed view of the cosmic machine. Through it might be perceived through lenses of godhead, those divinities are still part of the system. Magick, therefore, is an Enlightened Science through which a person tweaks the gears. Metaphysical practices are simply toolkits for the people who know how to tinker with reality. A World of Gods and Monsters In this view, Creation is fundamentally irrational, dangerous, and filled with powerful forces, most of which are hostile. Nothing makes sense for very long, and apparent safety can give way at any moment and plunge us into chaos. Magick, science, and faith are tools we use, like fire and steel, to keep the threats at bay; those tools give us a leg up on our ancestors, but in the end we’re all utterly fucked. Under this view, magick is a cosmic weapon, and using it makes you a monster too. Those gods and monsters hold the keys to magick, and if they like you (or if you kick their ass), they might share those powers with you… so long as your sanity holds out. The dark side of existential philosophy, this model insists that everything is meaningless. Paradoxically, it’s both a very primitive viewpoint and a completely modern one. In the World of Darkness, it’s literally true – there really are vampires and evil spirits all over the place. Human beings are prey for beings that are essentially gods, and mages frequently become those godly monsters themselves. Although it often comes across as the mordant creed of Hollow Ones and other orphans, this model finds its way into the supposedly refined beliefs of many Tradition, Technocracy, and Disparate mages… and, of course, into the delusions of Marauders and the malicious truths of the Nephandi, for whom its reality becomes one of their greatest philosophical weapons. After all, when the werewolf’s at your door, the world seems pretty fucking irrational – and very obviously monstrous. Bring Back the Golden Age! Once upon a time, goes this paradigm, everything was perfect. God or the Gods reigned in glory, and people held a valued, though submissive, place in this Earthly paradise. And then something broke it. Maybe that catastrophe involved disobedient human beings, rebellious gods or angels, Focus, Belief, and the One-Inch Punch Despite some misconceptions suggested by Mage’s first edition, a mage doesn’t use her focus to fool witnesses while picking Reality’s pocket. Focus is an intrinsic element of every mage, and although an individual might eventually recognize that she herself is the true focus of her Arts, few mages ever reach the level where they can depend upon nothing except themselves. Ultimately, of course, the mage is the true focus – the living instrument of practice and belief. That’s an easy concept to think about, but it’s almost impossible to grasp on a soul-deep level. True, a mage might intellectually realize that she’s just moving things around in order to direct her intentions toward a desired purpose. Understanding that on a level that allows her to rearrange reality on a whim, however, is like breaking a board with a one-inch punch. Sure, you might recognize that it’s possible; you could watch Bruce Lee do it on YouTube, and maybe even train well enough in martial arts that you can smash planks with a powerful punch or kick. Mastering the one-inch punch, however, takes dedicated practice with lesser applications of those arts. Few martial artists can break thick wooden boards with that punch, and even Bruce Lee himself had to punch the board. Now try breaking that board simply by thinking about doing so. Right. That’s why it’s so hard to grow beyond a focus even when you understand that it’s theoretically possible to do so.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 569 an invasion of savage horse nomads, or some other upheaval that signaled an end to the Golden Age and the beginning of an era of misery. It’s an archetypal story that echoes from monotheistic scriptures to neopagan lore. We had a good thing once, it goes, and we lost it – so it’s up to us to win it back! Magick or Enlightenment, in this system, comes from your connection to that Golden Age, its ideals, its ancient wisdom, and the power it once had and will have again. This belief finds its way into the Tradition stories about life before Technocratic rule… and also into the ideals of New Avalon, which are held by certain Technocrats. It provides the foundation for the Akashic Arts, which recall a lost sense of human perfection. In a warped sort of way, it even shapes a Nephandic point of view, wherein Primal Chaos was usurped by Light and so everything must be returned to the Dark before the proper order is restored. Creation is Innately Divine and Alive The world, perhaps even the universe, is a living entity. That entity is either part of Divinity or else is Divinity itself. Gods and monsters exist, as do pain, horror, and death; that’s cool, though, because in the end good things come from all the suffering. Death sustains life, life gives way to death, and the whole thing is a cycle that perpetrates itself in an ultimately beneficial way. Magick flows from an understanding of that cycle and your place in it as an agent of change. Everything, perhaps, has the potential of magick, but most beings never realize it. Best recognized as a common perspective among Verbena, Dreamspeakers, Euthanatoi, Ecstatics, and other grimly affirmative mages, this model stresses pragmatic acceptance mixed with wild joy. Certain takes on Kabbalism gravitate in this direction too, with Creation as the infinite embodiment of ineffable God. Minus the god part, this paradigm has a scientific analog in the Gaia hypothesis, which insists that Earth is a living, vaguely sentient biomass. Certain Progenitors embrace this idea, especially in the 21st century, when that biomass appears to be fighting its human infection. Unlike the Gods and Monsters paradigm, this belief system essentially says that there is a point to the madness if you look at the Big Picture and accept that what we perceive as pain and horror are merely ripples across a larger spectrum of life. Divine Order and Earthly Chaos According to the most prevalent belief system on earth these days, the material world is an imperfect reflection or creation of sublime Celestial Order. This paradigm covers the world’s three dominant religious creeds (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) as well as many strains of Confucianism, Hinduism, and other philosophies. Some believers see a cosmic Adversary opposing the Divine Order’s God or Gods, and others consider our miserable slab of mortal muck to be a corruption of godly Will or abstract Platonic ideals. (See Gnosticism in Chapter One, p. 39.) Magick, in this perspective, comes from observance of and obedience to heavenly perfection, or else from the forces
570 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition of adversity that oppose the Will of Heaven. Some believers, who may view the gods as archetypes that represent that Order, view this heavenly plan as the interplay of impersonal cosmic forces that are perfect in their own right; most, however, see Earth and its surrounding Realms as a titanic chessboard, with mages playing the role of valuable but ultimately expendable pieces in the game. The obvious creed of monotheistic mages like the Celestial Chorus and the Ahl-i-Batin, this order and chaos model extends to polytheists (the Wu Lung), agnostic mystics (many Akashayana), and groups that straddle and blur the lines between mono- and poly-theism (the Bata’a, many Dreamspeakers). Even certain professed atheists, most notably among the Technocracy, accept a godless version of this idea, which merges the Order/ Chaos concept with the Tech Holds All Answers paradigm below. With or without divinities, the core of the paradigm is that perfection exists, and although Earthly life falls far short of it, such grace remains attainable. Ascension, in this case, involves transcending our vale of tears and joining, if only as a servant, the grand Celestial Order. Everything is Chaos – You Only Think it Makes Sense The core of existential philosophy, this paradigm insists that Creation is indifferent and possibly meaningless until and unless we choose to impose meaning on our small part of it. Magick comes from wrangling whatever cosmic mysteries or principles you believe in and realizing that your belief is the thing that gives them power. Ultimately, then, magick comes from within. The Universe is an Etch-a-Sketch, and mages learn how to twiddle the knobs. At its extreme, this view maintains that nothing means anything… and that, perhaps, everything exists only in a mage’s head. Who’s to say this view is wrong? After all, the Universe might simply be a game played out in some mad god’s mind… Everything is Data It’s all code. That’s the theory, anyway. What we call reality is actually a simulation, a Matrix, a holographic projection that can be manipulated by anyone who knows the Reality Code. Variations on this idea include the concept of a God code that allows the Enlightened Elite to find cheats; a code interwoven into holy texts like the Bible, Qur’an, or Torah, or in divinatory systems like the I Ching or Tarot; a computerized take on the Mechanistic Cosmos paradigm; or the theory that everything is composed of waves and frequencies that can be adjusted with music or other methods. Regardless of the nature of that information, the paradigm remains the same: everything is data, and smart folks can work with that data. For those who embrace this paradigm, the Digital Web is the ultimate smoking gun. Composed of living (or at least adjustable) data, the Web embodies this belief. The material world, of course, is far more complex, with eons’ worth of bugs and twists of code. Even so, a reality hacker knows how to scan that code, rewrite it, and tweak physical, social, and mental realities through a sophisticated understanding of essential data and the methods that command it. Everything is an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake A dour yet prevalent view among mages is that Creation as we know it is a big fucking lie. It was created as a prison, a joke, or a project by malignant entities (Matrix-style Gnosticism); it’s a cosmic accident that only seems significant (a common view among Marauders, Virtual Adepts, and many Technocrats); or it’s an illusion obscuring a deeper Cosmic Truth that’s essentially benevolent or, at worst, indifferent (an idea often affiliated with strains of Buddhism, Hinduism, weird science, and existential philosophy). In this perspective, magick comes from transcending the illusion and learning how to work the strings that bind up everyone else. Knowledge and understanding provide the ultimate Ascension from this painful shadow of Cosmic Truth. The flipside, of course, involves making pacts with the powers behind the throne. Many Nephandi view their Path this way. The entire world is a grotesque joke, goes their reasoning, so you might as well enjoy some perks along the way. It’s All Good – Have Faith! This New-Age Gnostic conceit insists that Creation is ultimately benevolent. We suffer because we believe we’ll suffer; if and when we adjust our attitude, the world spills out its blessings upon us. Magick comes from refusing to be bound by common expectations. Energy is essentially a positive force, and a positive attitude can literally do wonders with it. Although it’s easy to make fun of such a paradigm, such beliefs are remarkably effective in the World of Darkness. There really does appear to be a correlation between good fortune and an optimistic viewpoint. Maybe it’s simply the defiance involved – spitting in the face of hell, as it were. For whatever reason, this transcendent Pollyanna lends power to Ecstatics, Dreamspeakers, and other mystics (even the occasional technomancer!) who treat Creation more like a party than a funeral. Might is Right The Law of the Jungle rules a dog-eat-dog world. As we’re hurled through an indifferent cosmos, nothing matters beyond an individual’s ability to impose his Will. The truly superior man or woman excels because that person will accept nothing less than excellence. Anyone who cannot meet exacting standards is essentially agreeing to be fodder for the elite. A ruthlessly popular paradigm, Might is Right takes its name and ethos from the book of that name by the pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard. Commonly called “social Darwinism,” it actually corrupts Darwin’s assertion that the most adaptable organisms survive. Ayn Rand and Anton LaVay cribbed this philosophy from a simplified version of Nietzsche’s übermensch ideal, and their adherents maintain that perspective through business, politics, and popular debate. Under this paradigm, truth is a useful illusion, fabricated and manipulated by society and those who govern or transcend it. “Right” refers less to a moral correctness (morality is for weaker beings!) than to the act of seizing your rights through superior might.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 571 For mages, this paradigm heralds the triumph of the Will, rewarding Awakened Ones with a superior state of existence. Ascension, therefore, is an individual goal, with social Ascension being the ability to get lots of people to accept your dominion. Some versions of this paradigm acknowledge implacable gods; others forsake any form of godhood other than personal perfection. Ultimately, Might is Right challenges a person to transcend the herd and achieve excellence at the expense of inferior beings. Reality, to this perspective, is just one more bitch to be slapped around when necessary. One-Way Trip to Oblivion A distressingly common belief attached to many of the other paradigms is that everything is doomed. Someday, probably soon, the whole house of cards will collapse, God will call us to account, and the heat-death of the universe will wipe away everything we ever valued, accomplished, or believed. For religious people, this End Times scenario means the extinction of this world and the beginning of a new one… preferably one where they’re in charge. Among agnostics and atheists, nothing fucking matters because it’s all dying anyhow. All that’s important is getting what you can, while you can, and enjoying the show before the lights go off for good. Every faction has this belief among its ranks. The ticking clock that seems to define the World of Darkness reinforces a pessimistic view. If you embrace the Reckoning metaplot described in Chapters Three, Four, and Five, it’s an accurate belief – the End Times really are upon us! To these believers, magick involves taking whatever a mage can grab, from whatever source appears to work, and rattling those metaphysical keys in all the doors you can find, hoping to open a few. Time’s short, after all, so any tactic becomes fair game. For obvious reasons, this is the ultimate Nephandic line. It encourages every sort of excess, from religious extremism to Randian selfishness. However, it also inspires the greatest acts of heroism. If Creation’s on a ticking clock, after all, then the greatest heroes may be the ones who can stop time, turn back the hands, or change the outcome when everything seems lost. Tech Holds All Answers Technology is not a modern secular invention; really, it’s the other way around. The sciences we know of in the modern world are descendants of alchemy, sacred geometry, and other forms of refined knowledge with repeatable results. Most elements of modern science were once thought to be keys to God’s Creation, given to selected men (and occasionally to women) to enact God’s plans on Earth. Atheistic rationalism, therefore, comes out of inquiries made possible by knowledge once thought to come from the gods. According to the dominant paradigm in the industrialized world, the universe is innately rational and understandable. Every question has an answer, and technology provides the tools by which we can understand them. Magick is simply science that hasn’t yet been accepted by the average person and may always be too advanced for most folks to understand. Although this is the default Technocratic worldview, the Technocracy isn’t the only faction that embraces it. Most Etherites, Virtual Adepts, Children of Knowledge, and even many Hermetic mages accept this belief. High Ritual Magick, after all, is just another form of technology, even if ritual magicians hate to think of it that way. These paradigms aren’t exclusive, nor are they the only systems of belief among Awakened folks. Most of them cross over into one another, mingling End Times theology with Golden Age ideals and a Divine Order cosmology behind them both. When you decide what a mage believes, whatever she believes, you’ve got a good idea about what her faith, focus, affiliations, and goals will be. And considering how vital belief is in this magickal world, that’s a major – if often underrated – element of any Mage chronicle. Creating Other Paradigms Most belief-philosophies can be modeled off some variation or combination of the entries above. If you want to create a new paradigm, or reflect one that doesn’t seem to fit those entries, remember the following points when you’re summing up that paradigm: • Belief Follows Need: People create and accept new belief systems because those beliefs suit their needs. If you’re a hungry person in a war-torn land, for instance, then you need something that helps you understand your circumstances, either accepting them as temporary (“Things will be better in heaven”) or improving them (“I can fight for my right to be free”). In Mage’s history, the Masses didn’t accept technology because Men in Black beat them up. Folks accepted tech because it improved their lives. • Worthless Beliefs Get Rejected: By the same token, people toss out ideas that get in the way. When Victorian ideals met the meat grinder of World War I, those ideals gave way to existentialism, nihilism, and postmodernism. A paradigm may work for a while, but if it no longer gets the job done, folks will latch onto an idea that does. • Magickal Paradigms Demand Strength: Mages use their paradigms as levers that move the world. A weak lever – say, belief that Mickey Mouse is God – will break under that kind of stress. As a player, then, avoid facile or ridiculous paradigms. Your mage lives and dies by his beliefs, so those beliefs – and the people who accept them – must be strong enough to hold up under pressure. Sure, you can argue the fine points of Pastafarianism and the exact commandments of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but will they help you survive a civil war? Probably not. • Evidence Substantiates Belief: Strong paradigms need firm foundations. As a result, the people who propagate beliefs submit evidence that backs up those beliefs. That’s why religious people testify about faith and miracles, why scientists provide peer review, why philosophers argue their contentions. Paradigms without substance quickly
572 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition fall apart. Ones with substance endure. And although force makes compelling short-term arguments (“Obey God or die”), such belief systems crumble when a better one inspires revolution. If you want to craft paradigms beyond the ones listed above, look into real-world philosophies, creeds, and metaphysics. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Philosophy or other, similar books can help inform and inspire your ideas. You don’t need a master’s degree in comparative religions in order to play Mage, of course, but if you want new models of belief, you should examine the existing ones first. As always, your Storyteller always has final approval over that new system of belief. If she says, “No, you can’t base your magick practice off of Monty Python quotes,” then her judgment stands. You might be able to change her mind using your knowledge of real-world philosophies, but if she says NO, respect that and move on. Moral Absolutes or Relativity? It’s one of the biggest hot-topic debates among mages, Mage players, and even Mage creators: are there absolute moral forces in the universe? Is everything morally relative – that is, do morals and ethics depend on who, where, and when you are? Or are there cosmic moral forces that make certain things always right or wrong? We can’t answer that question for you. Certain mages – especially Choristers, Templars, and other devoutly religious folks – assert absolute moral forces even when their own actions become morally relative. Others aren’t so sure about that, or they claim that everything – including time, space, and morality – is relative. In the end, the answer to such questions is up to the Storyteller behind each individual chronicle… which, by extension, does leave the entire issue relative. Your characters might exist in a dualistic cosmos, a moral void, or a righteous universe in which the Creator will eventually set everything to rights. Mage leaves the ultimate answer – if one even exists – up to you. Practice: The Shape of Focus Practice means “to make” or “to do.” And so, a mage – guided by her beliefs – does her magick through a practice. As the name suggests, a practice is also practical, turning abstract ideas into useful activities. When your character makes things happen, she employs a practice that serves her needs and beliefs. One mage might petition her gods, whereas another dons her business suit, applies subtle cosmetics, and goes off to work her Will at the shareholders’ meeting. In game terms, every mage has a practice; in story terms, that practice comes from that character’s culture, beliefs, and circumstances. An appropriate practice can also spell the difference between coincidental magick and vulgar magick. That said, Mage characters don’t choose their practices based on in-game benefits. In Mage, as in real life, people often choose to believe inconvenient things and follow inconvenient practices. Sure, that High Ritual magician knows he’s an anachronism in the postmodern world, channeling his Will through cumbersome rituals and theatrical instruments. It’d be quicker and easier for him to simply use a computer like everybody else. For him, though, his practice is a matter of pride. He’s not like everybody else, so his beliefs, practices, and instruments set him apart, defining him as extraordinary even when they seem somewhat inconvenient. Below, we’ve presented a range of common practices within Mage’s world. Each entry is exceedingly generalized, encompassing dozens – sometimes hundreds – of loosely related disciplines, different in many specifics though linked by several common elements and intentions. Each one, though, offers an overview of a practice that you can choose for your character. If you like (and with the Storyteller’s okay), you might create your own practice to suit your character. Just remember: every practice meets a need. People craft new arts, sciences, and religions when the old ones don’t accomplish the things they needed to accomplish. If and when you come up with something new, ask yourself this: how does this practice meet my character’s needs, beyond the ability to cast Effects? How does it turn his beliefs into actions? And what sorts of instruments aim those actions toward a desirable goal? Mixing Practices Although every Mage character needs at least one practice, you’re not restricted to only one practice. Most 21st-century mages blend two or three traditional practices into a single personal practice. Lee Ann, for example, crosses crazy wisdom with a bit of shamanism and martial arts; Jennifer Rollins melds craftwork with witchcraft, and Jinx mixes gutter magick with a fair amount of chaos. You can blend up to three of the practices below into a single practice, or even invent your own, so long as the practices in question fit a coherent belief system. Sure, a blend of shamanism, hypertech, and alchemy is possible… but only if your character believes that such a practice could help him change his world. Practice and Coincidence The world’s a big place, with lots of cracks in its apparent Consensus. Even so, certain practices tend to be coincidental in the 21st-century World of Darkness, whereas others tend to seem vulgar. For an overview of these practices and the way they come across throughout the world, see Reality Zones, (pp. 611-617).
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 573 In the spirit of such activities, each of the following entries features a few Associated Paradigms, Associated Abilities, and Common Instruments. This way, you’ve got some guidelines for the things your mage knows, does, and uses in order to pursue her practice of choice. Those Abilities can be found in Chapter Six, and the instruments are detailed in the section after this one. Alchemy From turning base materials into decaying messes and then moving them upward toward eventual perfection, the ancient art of alchemy has provided the basis for modern chemistry. Wrapped in elaborate codes, symbols, and metaphors that still remain open to interpretation, this Art depends upon the idea of transformation from lower to higher states of being. The common perception of the Art rests upon its old claim of turning lead into gold; in reality, though, that claim is both metaphor and a way of scamming money to fund alchemical pursuits. Sure, a skilled alchemist might indeed use Matter magick to change lead into gold; on a deeper level, however, the lead is the alchemist and the gold represents self-perfection. Although its common name comes from an Arabic practice, alchemy has several different forms: the Taoist Arts of sublime energies, the medieval European “lead into gold” vocation, the Islamic refinement-of-self through the keys left by Allah in the hands of wise men, the roots of those Arts in Classical Greece and Egypt, the early forms of modern chemistry, the complex pharmacopeia of South American mystics, the postmodern psychotropic experiments of transhumanist philosopherchemists, and probably a few more forms as well. A 21st-century alchemist might study several of these disciplines, formulating new variations on ancient principles. Alchemy, after all, focuses on learning-based perfection. The practitioner’s mind and body transform themselves through practicing the Art. Aside from its chemical applications (poisons, psychoactives, explosives, and so forth), alchemy isn’t really a fighter’s Art. Its techniques demand patience, time, and a dedicated workspace. As a result, Ascension War alchemists tend to craft Wonders and compounds that come in handy when things get tense. And because it’s not really difficult to turn lead into gold if you know what you’re doing, such mages tend to be quite rich… with all the resources that wealth implies. In all its forms, alchemy demands discipline. An alchemist studies principles, experiments with materials, deciphers codes, puzzles over symbols, works in his lab, creates useful goodies, and constantly challenges and refines himself. For him, the practical applications of alchemy – drugs, acids, and other chemical compounds; quick wits; foreign languages; and other techniques of transformation – take a back seat to the self-perfection at the core of this venerable Art. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Data; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Art, Crafts, Cryptography, Enigmas, Esoterica, Medicine, Pharmacopeia, Science (chemistry) Common Instruments: Books, brews and potions, designs, devices, drugs, formulas, laboratories The Art of Desire/ Hypereconomics Known in the Renaissance as Ars Cupiditae, the Art of Desire focuses upon achieving your desires through finding out what other people desire and then using that knowledge to enact your Will. Like alchemy (and most other forms of magick, art, and science), this discipline involves plenty of self-perfection: athletic exercise, meditation, mental gymnastics, self-reflection, etiquette, and other social graces. Fashionable clothes, subtle yet influential cosmetics, poise and grace, martial arts, seduction, intimidation, and the trappings of wealth and refinement provide essential tools for this practice. Although it’s most readily associated with the Syndicate and its original form as the High Guild, the Art of Desire has adherents throughout the mortal and Awakened worlds. Essentially, Ars Cupiditae converts desire to reality. What you want, you make happen. A devotee nurtures her desires and the desires of other people, then uses them to advance her agenda for Reality as a whole. An Art of value, this practice draws connections between people and places, reads emotions and influences thoughts, manipulates the physical and mental states of both the mage and her subjects, and directs probability and material toward a greater goal. As a result, this Art favors the Spheres of Correspondence, Entropy, Life, Matter, Mind, and Prime, using them as parts of a useful, interlocking whole. An eminently cultured practice, Ars Cupiditae draws upon a mixture of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern social and philosophical technologies. A practitioner of Desire rarely comes across as a mage at all – she’s more Nikita than Hermione. Although certain Ecstatics and Hermetic wizards favor this approach, and modern Ngoma and Taftani use it to command urban commerce and culture, a devotee of this Art employs social influence, economic wizardry, and sheer personal excellence in order to get what she wants. Such mages rarely use violence themselves, leaving the dirty work to paid enforcers. If and when a practitioner needs to get her hands messy, though, her athletic prowess and advanced technology prove that she’s no corner-office pushover. A related practice, hypereconomics, refines the Art of Desire into social and global control. By exploring and exploiting desires and values within a given group, a hypereconomist can sense the Primal Energies of want and need within that group and then turn them to her advantage. An arcane practice understood mostly by Syndicate reps and the occasional Virtual Adept, hypereconomics provides an excellent vehicle for Entropy, Mind, and Prime Effects, channeled through social and mathematical activities so subtle that few people even recognize that their lives are being altered. Almost always coincidental (gross violations of Consensus Reality are considered cheap), hypereconomics remains a closely guarded secret in the 21st-century reality wars. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; Bring Back the Golden Age; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything is Data; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion; Tech Holds All Answers
574 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Associated Abilities: Academics (culture, philosophy, psychology), Athletics, Awareness, Carousing, Etiquette, Expression, Finance, Intimidation, Leadership, Martial Arts, Media, Politics, Seduction, Subterfuge Common Instruments: Cards and dice, cosmetics, (very refined) dance and gestures, eye contact, fashion, gadgets, mass media, money and wealth, sex, social domination, vehicles, voice, weapons Chaos Magick It’s not what you think it is. Although the term “chaos magic” tends to be associated with demons and evil, occultists understand chaos magick as a postmodern and often improvisational Art. Like other mystic practices, it emphasizes knowledge, reflection, and other forms of self-improvement. This revolutionary inversion of traditional mystic disciplines, however, depends upon personal intuition and interpretation; individual freedom; a deliberately iconoclastic approach; and an often subversive use of pop-culture symbols, social behaviors, and improvised designs. Chaos magick spits in the face of established dogma. Often regarded by outsiders as a Left-Hand Path, it’s a sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll sort of practice, raising and directing personal energy (that is, Quintessence) through extreme experiences. Obviously, this sort of thing appeals to Cultists of Ecstasy, whose more formal practices – Tantra, vision questing, ordeals, and crazy wisdom (see below) – have been integrated into the chaosmagick potpourri. Even that diverse culture, however, is too confining for many chaos practitioners, whose embrace of the Chaosphere – the whirling fractal of absolute existence – resists confinement in any form. Playful yet serious, each chaos-magick practice draws from the individual practitioner’s experiences and desires. Depending upon the individual practitioner, it can integrate formalized ritual or involve spontaneous improvisation… or both, or neither. Flexibility and personal investment are innate elements of the practice as a whole, often connected to psychic thought forms called egregores: concepts given reality through extensive investment of psychic energy. (See the Instruments entry for Thought Forms, pp. 598-599.) Some folks use toys and Tarot cards, whereas others draw sigils, craft graphic novels, run raves, stage flash mobs, and concoct elaborate pranks on society at large. Eris, Bob, the Flying Spaghetti Monster… these deities supplant the classic divinities in a chaotic pantheon whose figureheads are less concerned with worship than with inversion. Each mage, then, is a vortex of potential whose Will spins energy into being. And if this sounds too abstract to be useful, then you’re thinking about it too hard. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Art, Awareness, Carousing, Computer, Esoterica, Expression, Lucid Dreaming, Meditation, Pharmacopeia, Streetwise, Technology Common Instruments: Whatever works, so long as none of it becomes too stable or confining. Craftwork There are reasons that Hephaestus is a metalsmith, Jesus is a carpenter, and Ogun is said to be the iron “who always eats first.” It’s no accident that Freemasons remain one of the most respected yet feared societies around – a society responsible, in ways, for the foundation of the United States. Many myths peg humanity’s origins to deities who fashioned us out of clay and then breathed life into their creations. That’s because craftwork – the Art of making miracles out of raw materials – is among the first metaphysical practices. Craftwork’s mystique has been largely diminished in the industrial world… so much so that it’s often farmed out to sweatshop labor or performed by machines (which hold their own ominous metaphysical connotations – witness the Terminator and Matrix sagas). Even so, there’s something magical about that Geek Squad specialist who can fix your errant computer, the tattooed malcontent repairing your car, or that friend who forges swords or crafts costumes for the SCA. The heart of craftwork comes from an apparently Left- and Right-Hand Paths Originally named by Europeans trying to differentiate between separate approaches to Tantric practices, the terms LeftHand Path and Right-Hand Path have come to reflect an outlaw approach to mysticism and a reverent approach to it, respectively. Supposedly, Left-Hand mystics favor sensuality, hedonism, intoxication, and other forms of disreputable bliss, whereas Right-Hand adherents prefer asceticism, reverence, denial, and other forms of disciplined devotion. In truth, mystic practices (especially Tantra) are more complex than that simplified (and westernized) division between so-called bad and good behaviors. Even so, the distinction between Left- and Right-Hand approaches crops up a lot when people talk about crazy wisdom, witchcraft, chaos magick, and other practices that include socially questionable activities alongside socially approved ones. Certainly, some activities are more destructive than others, and magick does have consequences, like Resonance, that reach further than the moment of that act. Still, the division of Left- and Right-Hand magick tends to drop a Christianized gloss on practices that might be far older than Christianity and lack its simplistic bad/ good moral polarity. Some modern mages employ that term as shorthand for their approach, but others avoid its easy answers to complicated questions.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 575 supernatural expertise with materials and tools – the ability to take bits of rock or skin or tree and then make lovely, useful objects from them. Many mystics bridle at the thought of crediting craftsmanship as a magical practice. After all, the Technocracy began as a bunch of disgruntled Craftmasons who shaped the machines that ended the High Mythic Age, so why should such people be considered mages? And yet, that prejudice ignores the legendary ties between craftwork and the mystic Arts: the legacies of Solomon’s temple and the masons who built it, of the temples whose sacred geometries invited gods to dwell within them, the shapers of iron, gold, and stone who brought humanity out of caves and into cities of their own design. Even the Industrial Era has a sense of magick – the sleek glare of glass towers, the hellish factory glamour, the enchanting pixel dance that comes from computers, TVs, and the Internet… all of which demand craftwork in their creation, maintenance, and eventual dismantling into recycled components. That Art might be taken for granted these days, but it’s still magickal to those who understand it. As a practice, craftsmanship combines the physical and mental skills involved in various crafts (carpentry, metalsmithing, glasswork, plastics, leatherworking, and so forth), then combines them with Pattern Arts in order to make those materials better than they’d been before. Matter presents the obvious Sphere for such disciplines, but Forces (to command fire, air, electricity, gravity, and the like), Prime (to energize and strengthen those creations), and often Life (to work living or organic tissue) and Entropy (to spot, add, or banish flaws) are more-or-less essential too. Old-school crafters employ Spirit to Awaken or placate the spirits within the materials – an important process in ancient craftwork, which depended upon the goodwill of gods and spirits in order to succeed. And although the rituals of creation demand time, materials, and expertise, the results – from glass vessels to armored tanks – can last for centuries… or even, as with the pyramids, millennia. A typical crafter-mage seems rough around the edges compared to her more academic peers. Often physically strong and personally abrupt, she can be perceived as boorish and dull. That’s a common but mistaken view. In her chosen craft, this mage is every bit as sharp and knowledgeable as her book-bound contemporaries… most of whom would be lost without her expertise. And although common prejudices view such mages as members of the Technocracy (not without some truth), a crafter is just as likely to be a stonesmith Verbena, an ironworking Ngoma, an artisan Hermetic, or a VA computer tech. The Taftâni weavers earned that name from
576 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition their physical skills as well as their mystical ones, and the Ngoma preserve the practical skills as well as the magical rites from their Egyptian/ Nubian origins. Even Akashayana employ craft Arts in their martial practices – see the film The Man With the Iron Fists for several examples. Though often forgotten in the catalogs of magic, craftwork is as old as humanity yet as fresh as the laptop at your fingertips. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics, Arts, Computers, Crafts, Energy Weapons, Esoterica (sacred geometry, quantum mathematics, elemental pacts, stone and metal lore), Hypertech, Research, Science, Technology Common Instruments: Artwork, blood, books, computers and IT gear, devices and machines, elements, gadgets, household and crafting tools, laboratories and workshops, symbols, weapons (hammers, blades, sickles, guns, etc.) Crazy Wisdom A mage who gets a little bit out of her head when performing magick might use what’s often called the crazy wisdom practice: deliberately irrational activities that supposedly grant wisdom by shattering established concepts of what is and is not possible and real. Another sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll approach to magick, crazy wisdom often involves psychoactive entheogens, tranceinducing music, vision quests, risky ordeals, sexual excess, gender inversions, social misrule, mass ecstatic rituals, and solitary isolation in which the practitioner turns her own personal reality inside out and then ponders what that means. Although it’s technically undisciplined by the standards of more rigid forms of magick, such behavior provides a potent tool for enlightenment… assuming it doesn’t kill you first! Although its obvious adherents come from the Cult of Ecstasy, crazy wisdom has a long and respected history as part of shamanism, voodoo, witchcraft, and even certain High Ritual practices. The Order of Hermes has its own variation – the Antinomian Praxis – in which a mage smashes taboos, violates her own standards, and breaks through constraints to find what lies beyond them. Drawing strength from its obvious contradictions, crazy wisdom is dangerous, disruptive, often scary, and potentially lethal. That’s kind of the point, though danger isn’t always involved. Mystic contraries and genderqueers, who deliberately invert social expectations about identity and gender, practice a form of crazy wisdom on a social scale, fucking with people’s preconceptions in order to show greater possibilities. This is the Trickster’s Path, breaking on through like Jim Morrison in a mosh pit with Patti Smith, Br’er Rabbit, the Cat in the Hat, and several buckets of paint. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Art, Athletics, Carousing, Esoterica, Lucid Dreaming, Meditation, Pharmacopeia, Survival Common Instruments: Blood and body fluids, bones and remains, brain/ computer interface, dance, drugs, music, ordeals, sex and sensuality, social domination, thought forms, toys, tricks and illusions, voice Cybernetics When organic machines get wedded to mechanical machines, the synergy called cybernetics raises the human animal to a whole new level. On a broader plane, cybernetics reaches beyond mere flesh and machine to embrace the technologies of communication, language, electrical impulses, complex systems, and thought itself. Drawn from a Greek phrase meaning “to steer or govern,” cybernetic practices employ complex interactive systems – computers, electronics, prosthetics, mathematical formulae, linguistics, philosophy, even social dynamics – to extend the practitioner’s control… first over his own reality, and then over the reality of other systems and entities. Essentially, the cybernetic practice views Creation as a vast machine whose systems can be understood and manipulated with sufficient dedication. For many adherents – like the members of Iteration X – that dedication includes merging their bodies with mechanical components. Other practitioners, though, use cybernetics as a theoretical construct – a model through which calculations, psychology, symbols, and external devices and machines (as opposed to implanted ones) can bend probability (through Entropy), change minds (the Mind Sphere), transform materials (Life and Matter), channel energies (Forces and Prime), and redefine temporal physics… or, in plain English, reroute Time. Despite the dated overuse of “cyber” as an adjective, cybernetics remains a bleeding-edge discipline. Rooted in Chinese, Greek, and Arab technologies, this discipline blossomed during the Industrial Revolution and hasn’t stopped blooming yet. In the 21st century, whole nations are composed of cyborgs – smart-phone-using, video-watching, TV-nurtured, socially networked machine-people whose relationships and realities are defined by the 24/7 interface of our Information Era. And although the science-fiction landscape of depersonalized drones looks nothing like the world as we know it now, every element of life in our new millennium depends upon a complex interplay of cybernetic forces that very few people truly understand… and that even fewer – aside from certain technomancers – can control. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; Everything is Data; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics, Biotech, Computer, Crafts, Energy Weapons, Hypertech, Media, Politics, Science, Technology Common Instruments: Books, brain/ computer interface, computers and IT gear, devices and machines, gadgets, inventions, laboratories, languages, mass media, nanotech, numbers and numerology, weapons, writing and inscriptions
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 577 Dominion Social domination might just be the oldest form of magick. At its most basic levels, this practice directs animal instincts and human interactions toward the will (and Will) of the dominant party. Although other practices – notably Ars Cupiditae, shamanism, and High Ritual Magick – draw upon these techniques of domination, a raw assertion of command is the foundation of capital-A Authority… most notably among the New World Order. Rarely considered “magick” in the usual sense, the dominion practice employs inner discipline, social control, a cultivated understanding of behavior and governance, significant words and symbols, the trappings of power and authority, and a host of verbal and physical tricks that keep the practitioner on top of a given situation. At its lowest form, it’s the art of the abuser, con-man, and pick-up artist. Its techniques come into play through office and sexual politics and often form part of any strong parent’s arsenal. On a metaphysical level, dominion taps into the primal need for leadership and parenting, then directs that need with a conscious eye toward overwhelming control. Through that control, in turn, you command Reality because you believe you do, and you make other folks believe you do as well. A serious practitioner of dominion (that is, a mage) goes beyond crude intimidation, studying the deeper applications of social domination and self-perfection. Like a devotee of desire, he learns how to maximize his personal strengths and minimize his social flaws while taking full advantage of another party’s weaknesses and appealing to their need to be protected and led. Like Ars Cupiditae concentrates upon desire, the discipline of dominion concentrates upon command. The techniques can seem rather arcane, especially when they’re combined with religious and/ or philosophical beliefs; it’s through technology, however, that dominion finds its greatest influence. Queen Victoria was a master of this Art… and though she used technological instruments to get her point across, she exerted such a charismatic mystique that we still use her name to define the age she ruled. Skilled dominion practitioners employ eye contact, body language, vocal tactics, peer pressure, social appeal, and resonant symbols (uniforms, weapons, parental behavior, religious iconography) in order to cow their herd. From there, these alphas enact their Will in both a mundane and Awakened sense. Lots of mages use social techniques, but a dominion master takes them to a metaphysical extent, wresting control of Reality itself through mass domination – an Art of Kings that has shaped past history and continues to do so today. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics (history, psychology), Art, Belief Systems, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Media, Politics, Seduction, Technology Common Instruments: Art, brain/ computer interface, eye contact, fashion, group rites, languages, mass media, music, social domination, symbols, thought forms, tricks and illusions, voice Faith Through faith, all things are possible. This saying underscores the essence of what might be the most common mystic practice in the world: devotion to a higher source. Drawn from the Latin word fides – “loyalty, trust, belief” – faith provides the foundation for many other practices, yet it stands as a practice in its own right. For although witches, shamans, Voudoun practitioners, and even scientists might be faithful to their higher power, faith itself provides comfort and power for those who believe. Often regarded as the core of overtly religious sects like the Celestial Chorus and Ahl-i-Batin, faith can inspire and energize any mage. Even the demonic Nephandi maintain faith in their horrific Absolute or the Infernal entities they adore. Faith, you see, provides the believer with stability and purpose. And although magick is often seen as an egotistical practice, faith ideally removes the ego in favor of that greater Source. The faithful mage says “THY Will be done,” then acts as an instrument for that Divine Will. For a mage of faith, the actions she takes and the Arts she pursues all represent the ideals of her higher power. In most cases, those ideals come through a religion – a binding that unites Divinity with the people of the faith. Not all faithful people, though, are religious; strictly speaking, religion is a social institution, whereas faith is a personal connection. Even science – often seen these days as an enemy of faith – can be a devotional practice. The foundations of modern science, historically, were laid by men and women of faith who used their discoveries to delve into, and then to reveal, the glories of their God. A faithful magus follows the tenets of her creed, maintains contact with her source through prayer, and acts – as often as possible – as an emissary of her creed’s ideals. “Keeping the faith” means pursuing virtues that supposedly please the higher power, and although the particulars depend upon the specific creed (a Franciscan Catholic, a Shi’a devotee, and an Odinist spá-kona all have very different ideas about virtue!), the mage’s adherence to that creed is essential. “Faith” does, after all, mean loyalty. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith! Associated Abilities: Academics (tenets of faith), Awareness, Belief Systems, Cosmology, Empathy, Enigmas, Esoterica, Expression, Medicine Common Instruments: Blessings and curses, books (scriptures), cups and vessels, energy, food and drink, group rites, music, offerings and sacrifice, ordeals and exertions, prayers and invocations, sacred iconography, symbols, thought forms, voice, writings and inscriptions
578 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Gutter Magick The most practical magick practice is the one that uses whatever you’ve got to work with. Sure, wizards and cyborgs and Enlightened tycoons can afford all the best ritual gear around. What happens, though, when you’re more or less broke? Homeless, maybe? Living in a squat or stuck on the street or getting by as part of the working poor? Well then, you use gutter magick, the craft of making do. Composed of odds and ends with symbolic connotations, gutter magick features coins, cards, toys, scraps, bottles, cans, nails, junk, graffiti, and things crafted out of the cast-offs of consumer society. Dead TVs, old magazines, cardboard boxes, gnawed chicken bones, sacrificed rats and alley cats, old clothes repurposed and restyled with feral urban flair… such instruments direct the Will of the truly destitute. On the next rung up the socioeconomic ladder, lower-class mages use cheap tricks, cheesy clothes, New Age books, action figures, and other tokens of postmodern mall-magic. When invested with Awakened intentions, these otherwise useless trinkets provide focus for orphans, Hollowers, and other mystics with more ambition than resources. As with many other mystic practices, art forms a potent force in gutter magick. Hip-hop culture, Gothic rock, the various flavors of heavy metal, the blues, neotribal, technoindustrial, and even country/ western music styles provide soundtracks for the mystic side of the urban scene. Inside the clubs, dancing and drugs create hypnotic atmospheres in which it often seems like anything could happen. A paranormal survival tactic, gutter magick skulks in the shadows of the alley between respectability and forbidden Arts. Gutter magick proves that you don’t need high wizardry and ancient tomes in order to get attention (if not necessarily respect) from the spirit world. In its darker elements, such magick employs guns, blades, cheap sex and cheaper booze, crimes and punishments, madness and desperation. Though not exactly new in form, it’s a common practice in the new millennium. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Animal Kinship (rats, cats, crows, etc.), Area Knowledge, Art, Crafts, Expression, Firearms, Intimidation, Pharmacopeia, Streetwise, Survival (urban), Technology Common Instruments: Artwork, blood and fluids, bones and remains, cards and dice, dance, drugs and poisons, eye contact, fashion, herbs and plants, household tools, music, offerings and sacrifice, sex, social domination, symbols, thought forms, toys, tricks and illusions, weapons, vehicles High Ritual Magick To achieve excellence, one must have perfection. To work one’s Will, one must have the discipline to master that Will and then direct it with utmost confidence. In an outsider’s perspective, the rigorous devotees of High Ritual Magick (all capitalized) are a pretentious pack of OCD pricks. For those devotees, however, the truth is plain: you must be strong, courageous, disciplined, and wise to unlock Creation’s power. High Ritual Magick demands those qualities. In High Ritual Magick, everything has significance: the alignment of planets, the tone of words, the calculations necessary to discover the correct number of times to repeat certain phrases, the formalities of address, and the measure or angle of materials aligned just so for maximum effect. That precision has a dual purpose: in one regard, the relationship of those many elements is crucial for success. In the other regard, the precision tests and challenges the magician, forcing him to overcome his flaws and become the superior person whom such intricacies demand. This practice is both an Art and a Science whose expertise has withstood the tests of time. You cannot be weak or sloppy or stupid, goes the reasoning, if you wish to work your Will upon Creation. Only the smartest, the bravest, the most refined people are capable of True High Magick, and so the rituals and their elaborate preparations discourage everyone who lacks the excellence to succeed. (This mindset also explains the condescending attitude for which High Ritual Magicians are so infamous. Although they don’t all feel this way, many such wizards believe that other practitioners have not earned the right to work True Magick. Lesser mages, to them, are like drunken kids speeding down dark mountain roads with Daddy’s car, an expired learner’s permit, and the wizard strapped in the back seat, unable to avoid the coming crash.) Though often associated with medieval Europe, High Ritual Magick has many forms, all of them refined by civilized urban cultures. China’s ritual magick boasts Confucian complexity, and rites from Egypt and Mesopotamia provide the centerpiece for the Western occult traditions of Greece, Rome, Persia, Israel, and Arabia. Nubia’s ritual Arts remain a closely guarded secret, held by the Ngoma as a timeless inheritance. Tibet, India, and Japan all have sublime ritual practices, whereas North American occultism blends Old World sophistication with New World eclecticism. The rites of South and Central America have largely been lost, thanks to Spanish conquerors… and yet, in secret corners of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Peru, sects preserve those Aztec, Maya, and Incan practices. In all forms, High Ritual Magick demands preparation, discipline, and the finest materials a magician can acquire. Such practices connect the mage with greater powers – gods, angels, demons, elementals, and the faceless forces of the universe – and those powers demand respect. The wizard, too, must earn respect; such powers do not answer to fools. In practical terms, High Ritual Magick is slow and precise. The wizard might call upon the results of his prior work in the heat of the moment, but those results – enchanted wands, crafted staves, precious amulets, mystic scrolls, imprisoned demons, angelic favors, priceless statues, carved jade pendants, Otherworldly gates, fine robes, imposing tomes – must be prepared well in advance. Despite all those trappings, an accomplished Ritual Magus understands that it is his Will that commands those elements. He
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 579 does not hope or beg – he commands. Spirits can be bargained with, dragons might be conjured, God Himself might slip the mage a favor, but in the end all of those parties respect the High Magus because, ultimately, he has shaped himself into the true instrument of Will. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Data; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics, Belief Systems, Cosmology, Crafts, Expression, Esoterica, Investigation, Leadership, Meditation, Occult, Research Common Instruments: Books, celestial alignments, circles and designs, computers (for modern wizards), cups and vessels, elements, eye contact, fashion, gems, gestures, languages (Latin, Sanskrit, Mandarin, Greek, etc.), meditation, numbers and numerology, offerings and sacrifices, prayer and invocations, social domination, symbols, thought forms, True Names, wands and staves, weapons (swords and knives), writing and inscriptions Hypertech A catch-all term for the hundreds of methods used to unite advanced technology with visionary ideas, hypertech represents a dynamic approach to science. Despite the rumblings of disgruntled old-school mystics, this approach has transformed the world we live in. Computers, obviously, reflect the most obvious aspects of this Art and Science, but the brute force of metallurgy, the explosive powers of internal combustion, the harnessed lightning of electronic technologies, and the heady physics behind it all drive hypertech and humanity to new and exciting frontiers. “Oh, THAT’S not magick,” sniff the critics… but actually, it is. It’s not Hermetic wizardry, after all, that gave us cars, phones, computers, and electronic power… all those things, and more, began as hypertech. The hypertech practice reflects the genius of the human condition – that restless striving to perfect and understand. In earlier forms (like those employed by the Order of Reason), such “godless” Arts were reflections of deep reverence. Men and women of God sought the keys to His Creations, seeing divine glory in every twig or flower. The technologies of China, Greece, and Persia reflected mystic aspirations too. It’s no accident that so many scientific names come from old gods and Classical mythologies, and although modern science emphasizes proof over faith, there’s still plenty of room for wonder in this world. At the core of this practice – in its many applications, from cloning and biotech to astrophysics, mechanical engineering, chemistry, theoretical physics, and far more – hypertech is about potential… finding it, recognizing it, expanding upon it to create something even better than what we had before. A scientist understands that she doesn’t have all the answers and so constantly seeks them out. She’ll spend endless hours in the lab or reading journals – not so that she can turn humanity into drones, but so that she can bring something better into being. Despite its apparent sterility, hypertech retains a visionary optimism. Although the scientist might believe in some Creator, she’s not shackled to blind faith. Instead, she employs rigorous tests, complicated data, consistent verification, and an Art founded not on chance or outside whims but upon tested principles and concrete achievements. She’s the Progenitor, the Adept, the technomancer whose tools reflect the precision of her Arts. Unlike her deluded counterparts who practice their weird science, this visionary employs solid protocols for dependable results. In a way, she’s the High Ritual Magus of our age, making wonders with vigorous Science. (For more about the range of hypertech potential, see the Science Trait and the SCIENCE!!! sidebar in Chapter Six.) Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything is Data; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics, Computer, Crafts, Hypertech, Investigation, Medicine, Research, Science, Technology Common Instruments: Books, brain/ computer interface, computers, devices and machines, household tools, inventions, laboratories, nanotech, writing, and the many tools of technological achievement Maleficia Certain magicks are deliberately cruel. Cast with malicious intentions, they’re intended to cause harm and distress. Medieval law called such Arts maleficia – “evil-doing” – and that’s appropriate. For though most conceptions of witchcraft are mistaken, there are people who use bad magick for bad ends. When folks think of black magic, they’re referring to this deliberately obscene practice… although any form of magick can be hurtful, maleficia is intentionally crafted toward malignant aims. Curses; possessions; damnations; invocations to malevolent powers; infernal pacts, inhuman abilities; violations of body, mind, and spirit… such is the realm of maleficia. Other forms of corruption, too, can be invoked through this form of magick: wealth spells, sexual enchantments, techniques of social dominance, and all manner of metaphysical abuses can be conjured with help from sinister powers. These practices have no set form but range from the petty desecrations of teenage devilheads to the arcane ceremonies of ancient Infernal cults. Although the Nephandi seem to be the obvious offenders in this regard, anyone with a sufficiently bent motivation can employ a form of maleficia. The evangelist who calls upon his congregation to pray for the death of some hated figure is invoking maleficia; the forbidden Hermetic rites for summing demons employ it too. The Black Masses present pretty obvious examples; what’s less obvious, though, is that the Catholic Church itself has a history of Requiem Masses, performed to kill living people, and Amatory Masses, intended to compel affections upon unwilling people. The Grimoire of Honorius – attributed to a Pope – features Masses to be performed for evil purposes. Just as any mystic practice can inflict harm, so too can any mystic practice become twisted into maleficia.
580 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition As a practice, maleficia features deliberate cruelty and perversion. Sex, for example, is a sacrament in certain traditions, but malefic practices use sex in its most tortured and nonconsensual forms. Sacrifices become as brutal and horrific as possible; prayers are spoken backwards; sacred symbols and objects are deliberately defiled through acts of defiant malevolence. Technology might play a part as well, as an instrument of torture, a method of access, or a channel for disruptive acts and energies. Music concerts, computer hacking, media broadcasts, machines… all could be employed as instruments of black magic. For obvious reasons, maleficia tends to leave nasty Resonance behind. That combination of sick deeds and ugly intentions poisons everything it touches. Rooms, tools, and people feel tainted after a malefic rite; even Sleepers can sense that something’s not right about such things. The mage can clean up every physical trace of the crime, but a metaphysical essence lingers… often attracting corrupt entities that pick up where the malefactor left off… Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Cosmology, Enigmas, Esoterica, Expression, Intimidation, Melee, Occult, Pharmacopeia, Seduction, Torture Common Instruments: Artwork, blood and fluids, bodywork, bones and remains (often fresh), circles and designs, cups and vessels, curses, elements, eye contact, drugs and poisons, gems and valuables, group rites, music, offerings and sacrifice, prayers and invocations, sex (typically nonconsensual), voice, weapons Martial Arts The human machine is a miracle whose vast potential is hampered by undisciplined habits and acquired behaviors. Martial arts expand upon that potential, unlocking the deeper physical and metaphysical abilities of body, mind, and spirit. Although such arts, at the basic levels, simply help a person strike or move more effectively in a fight, the higher reaches of martial-arts discipline go far beyond physical combat, into the realm of mental focus and spiritual refinement. Although the obvious example of self-perfection through martial arts is kung fu (roughly translated as “hard work” or “auspicious effort art”), most martial arts have esoteric elements. Renaissance fencing features philosophy, psychology, and mathematics as well as physical skill; Greek pankration emphasizes being “all powerful” in all respects; capoeira relies upon the essence of freedom as well as on the acrobatic maneuvers for which it’s famous. Advanced martial arts, therefore, nurture the spirit, hone the mind, and turn the body into a focus for the powers of each. At their most metaphysical levels, advanced martial arts attune a practitioner into the Quintessential life force, channel it through refined motions, and grant incredible – some would say inhuman – powers through the focus of an art. The Akashic practice Do is probably the most obvious example of this practice on a metaphysical level, but any martial art – even dirty fighting – can become a magickal practice with the proper mindset and devotion. (See Chapter Nine’s sections dealing with Martial Arts and Do.) Essentially, the artist manifests her will through clarity, energy, and activity. In game terms, she uses that art as a mystic focus. Beyond their mystic elements, martial arts are also technologies: refinements of knowledge that can be studied, repeated, and employed with practical effect. Thus, Technocrats and other technomancers can employ martial arts as a focus too.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 581 Regarding all that mystic nonsense as metaphors and mental techniques, a technomancer can divorce her martial arts training from mysticism and still retain its metaphysical potency. With such powers, she can direct Forces, alter Life, rearrange Matter, perceive Entropy, channel Prime, enhance Time, and – perhaps most of all – refine her Mind to sublime capacity. Although she couldn’t fly through the air or skip along tree branches by manipulating chi (“That’s just mythology!”), she can still rework conventional physics and biology through her understanding of the fighting arts. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Acrobatics, Alertness, Athletics, Awareness, Esoterica, Etiquette, Intimidation, Martial Arts, Medicine, Meditation, Melee Common Instruments: Bodywork, dance and movement, energy, herbs, meditation, ordeals and exertions, symbols, wands and staves, weapons, voice Medicine Work Next to parenting, healing might be the highest human vocation. Many mages – mystics and technomancers alike – view their Enlightenment as an obligation to heal. To heal the planet, heal the people, heal the spirits, heal the Earth… perhaps all of them at once, if that’s at all possible. And so one of the oldest and most sacred Paths an Awakened person can pursue involves the practice of medicine work. Simply put, a medicine-person directs his skills and energies toward a healing practice. He might be the Progenitor physician, the Verbena root-witch, the Bata’a houngan, the Templar medic… it’s not the group that matters, or even the medical practice, when it comes to the abilities of a skillful mage. A shaman with Life 3 can fix a broken leg as well as a Progenitor with the same level of Spheres. For the purposes of magickal practice, the term medicine work refers to the intent to heal and the choice of techniques that enhance healing, not to the specific method a mage uses when healing injuries or disease. Human medicine is an ever-evolving technology. Things we take for granted as medical facts were unknown half a century ago, whereas certain proven truths of conventional Western medicine ignore equally proven truths of alternative, nonindustrialized medicines. A well-rounded healer in today’s world would probably understand Western technological medicine; Tibetan So Rig techniques; faith-based spiritual methods; Indian Ayurveda (“the science of life”); Japanese reiki and Swedish massage; the vast synergy of modern Chinese medicine; the Persian, Greek, and Arab roots of conventional medicine; current holistic theories; experimental machine technology, and other techniques besides. Few healers, of course, have the time or access to study such a broad range of disciplines – many of which clash with one another on a philosophical level. Instead, the healer picks a specific approach and then directs his attentions… and intentions… toward the path that works best for him. Thanks to magick (especially the Life, Entropy, Mind, and Prime Spheres), any form of medicine can work for an Awakened healer who employs that medicine as a focus, so long as that mage BELIEVES in that form of medicine. An Iroquois member of the Society of Faces would feel as lost in a Progenitor biotech facility as a Progenitor would feel when hefting a medicine mask. Both techniques work in the hands of a mage who understands and trusts those techniques, but few healers trust both of those techniques with equal faith. And so, when choosing medicine work as a magickal practice, the player needs to define what sort of medicine his character employs. (We encourage players to research actual medical practices from different cultures. The facts are as fascinating as any constructed fantasy!) It’s worth mentioning that traditional Native American and African mages often abhor the idea of using magic. In many cultures, “magick” is either trickery or the influence of malignant spirits. Medicine is a more accurate and respectful term for what such people do than magick is… hence, the phrase medicine man. Many “shamans” actually consider themselves to be medicine people, using their Arts to nurture and restore the world, not to make it dance to their whims. For the practical effects of Sphere-based healing, see Health and Injury in Chapter Nine, (pp. 406-409). Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics (healing practices), Art (masks, dance, music, etc.), Awareness, Empathy, Esoterica (herbalism, energy work, bodywork, healing and meditative practices), Medicine, Meditation, Pharmacopeia, Science, Technology Common Instruments: Artwork, blessings and curses, blood and fluids, bodywork, bones and remains, books, brews and concoctions, computers, cups and vessels, dance and movement, devices and machines, drugs and poisons, group rites (operations), herbs, laboratories, languages (Latin, jargon, and that weird script doctors use when writing prescriptions), meditation, music, offerings and sacrifices, prayers and invocations, social domination, voice, weapons (surgical instruments) Reality Hacking Imaginative people can do imaginative things with supposedly static structures. Hacking them apart to reconfigure those structures, these people use various tools – technology, philosophy, art, politics, and, occasionally, magick – to remake what was into what can be. With the correct gear and the right ideas, you don’t even need to be a mage in order to hack the dominant paradigm… just ask Osama bin Laden’s ghost. When you are a mage, however, you can employ those tools to remake Reality on a grand scale.
582 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Typically associated with the Virtual Adepts (and, to a lesser extent, the Cult of Ecstasy), the reality-hacking practice can be used by any mage with the proper mindset and expertise. The core idea – reality is flexible – seems familiar enough these days. As a practice, reality hacking uses an array of technologies to rework the systems that govern our world: its commerce, politics, media, memes, connections, faiths, physics, and so forth. By concentrating on specific systems and ideas, the mage can start remixing expectations into some new and interesting shape. Sound like anarchy? Sometimes it is. Many of this practice’s oldest adherents and principles, however, come from the Order of Reason and Technocratic Order. After all, it was early Technocrats who hacked the human concepts of the universe, God, governments, and other technologies. Technocrats shaped fencing (a sword-fighting hack), the physical sciences (an elemental hack), exploration (a geographic hack), mass media (a consciousness hack), and the space program (a planetary hack). It’s no accident that the Virtual Adepts and Society of Ether began as Technocratic Conventions. And despite their unruly applications of technology, they’re just keeping that old hacker ethic alive. (Ironically, one could argue that the Order of Reason hacked the Traditions by replacing the High Mythic Ages with our industrial era. That idea would make a Black Suit chuckle, but he wouldn’t disagree.) The postmodern reality hacker tends to employ information technologies – not simply computers, but also memes, media, and other forms of mass intellectual access. As demonstrated by 9/11, she doesn’t have to be a computer nerd – simply a visionary who notes the weakness of a structure and the method that exploits it. The transhumanist idea of reality as information – epitomized by the Data and Primal Utility Spheres(see pp. 524-527) – provides leverage for a reality hacker mage. Channeling her ideas and energies through computer code, social media, videos, slogans, pranks, guerilla theatre, movies and videos, graphic novels, music, fashions, Internet memes, and the clever manipulation of vibrant symbols (masks, puppets, iconography, remixed media, and so forth), that mage can re-contextualize reality as the Masses understand it, then take advantage of those new perceptions. It’s not as quick or gratifying as a thunderbolt, but it tends to be a hell of a lot more powerful… and more coincidental, too. Like cybernetics, dominion, and the Art of Desire (all related practices), reality hacking aims more toward influence than raw force. The reality hacker strives to modify the system to her advantage, rather than blast it apart. Even so, certain tools – like terrorism and atrocity – can be incredibly violent in both implementation and results. Even then, however, that violence serves as an extension and instrument of the hack; the power of terrorism, for example, comes more from the atmosphere of dread and fury than from the casualties themselves. Spherewise, reality hacking favors Correspondence (for drawing and exploiting connections), Entropy (for spotting flaws and arranging probabilities), Forces (directing or destroying electrical systems), Mind (influencing ideas and the folks who have them), Life (rewiring the human animal), Prime (drawing, raising, and directing energy), and Time (re-contextualizing the perceptions of time), and uses instruments that express and subvert those principles in the modern world. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything is Data; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics (history, philosophy, social sciences), Art, Belief Systems, Computer, Expression, Government, Media, Politics, Science (psychology as well as physical sciences), Subterfuge, Technology Common Instruments: Artwork, books, brain/ computer interface, computers and IT gear, devices and machines, drugs, eye contact, group rites, language, mass media, money and wealth, music, nanotech, sex, social domination, symbols, thought forms, tricks and illusions, voice, weapons Shamanism We occupy a living world whose essence is greater and more intelligent than we recognize. Whereas common people stumble through material illusions, a shaman transcends both humanity and illusion. Moving through a world of layers and traps, he exists outside the everyday realm. And yet, through his guidance, the Sleeping People slumber more comfortably and the Awakened Ones remain more aware. Perhaps the most abused word in magic, shamanism technically refers to a specific type of Siberian spirit-worker. Over time, however, it’s come to define anyone who employs old-culture traditions to walk between the sublime world and its often ridiculous material counterpart. Dying – sometimes literally – to the life he led before he felt Called by the spirits, the shaman is reborn in a half-outcast state… mad by the standards of his previous society, yet aware of (if not always clear about) the true nature of Reality. Because the shaman traditionally lives between the worlds of flesh and spirit, human and animal, matter and essence, sanity and dementia, conventionality and chaos, he embodies a living crossroads in which those qualities intersect. In many cases, he suffers from physical and/ or psychological ailments, a wounded healer whose infirmities render him more sympathetic to other wounded souls. A shaman often depends upon other people and spiritual allies whose aid and guidance help him survive his strange existence. In return, he grants his allies healing, insight, action in realms they might not be able to reach unaided, and a powerful intercessor with parties they may not address alone. A soul guide, a prophet, a medicine bringer and spirit warrior, our shaman walks a sacred… if often unpleasant… Path. Thanks to noble-savage nonsense, shamanism has a trippy popular image that’s deeply at odds with the earthy and often bizarre nature of the shaman himself. In reality, shamanism is a gritty, anti-orthodox vocation, filled with deliberate contradictions and slippery concepts of sanity. A shaman often inverts ideas of propriety; cross-dressing, speaking in riddles,
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 583 or acting in deliberately crude or obnoxious ways in order to shake up or demolish preconceptions. These tools – as well as the usual masks, dances, and trappings one expects from a shaman – form the instruments of shamanic Arts. Folks who expect the dewy-eyed dreamer of New Age romanticism are in for a shock when they meet true shamans… and that shock, too, is part of the shaman’s toolkit. Although shamanism favors a naturalistic viewpoint, technoshamanic practices exist in the current era. Connecting with urbanized spirits (city-souls, electronic entities, machinespirits, and so on) – frequently through computers, fast-food offerings, consumerism cast-offs, and other postmodernist talismans – the technoshaman blends ancient awareness with current technology, acting as a vessel to distill the essence of eternity into the power of today. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith! Associated Abilities: Alertness, Art, Cosmology, Enigmas, Esoterica, Expression, Lucid Dreaming, Medicine, Pharmacopeia, Streetwise, Survival Common Instruments: Blood and fluids, bones and remains, computers, dance, drugs and concoctions, elements, herbs, household tools, offerings and sacrifice, ordeals, sex and sensuality, thought forms, toys, True Names, voice, weapons Voudoun If “shamanism” is the most abused word in magick, then Voudoun might be the most abused practice. Drawn from a fusion of Central African faiths, Native American practices, European iconography, and the humid atrocity of American slave culture, the collection of “voodoo” creeds – Macumba, Obeah, Candomblé, Voudoun, Santería, Delta and Lower Appalachian Hoodoo, the various flavors of Urban-American Voodoo, and their many offshoots – continues to command uncanny fascination in the modern world. Distorted by a combination of secrecy, poverty, racism, psychological warfare, cultural marginalization, and certain unnerving elements that actually do exist within those practices, the popular image of Voudoun magick reflects its distinctly American character. Essentially, a Voudoun mage’s practice revolves around finding and revering allies in a treacherous world. Arriving in chains for lives of forced labor after a hellish passage in seaborne underworlds, the Africans who were transported to the Americas had little to draw upon except faith, courage, and rage. Ripped away from their families, many of them lacked even a common language. From the bits and pieces of their new lives, these people crafted creeds that reflected the hopes and horrors of that world, peopled with new families to replace the ones they had lost. In that world, the worst thing that could happen was slavery beyond death… so the curses and creatures of Voudoun lore focused on imprisonment, servitude, crossings, hunger, defiance, and escape. Old gods, new spirits, and tales of elevated mortals attained the identities of Loa: the god-spirit kin of Voudoun practitioners. And so, even though slavery has been “officially” banished from the Americas (many folks, of course, know better…), that synergistic survivor creed remains a vital methodology throughout these lands. Characterized by prayers, offerings, shrines, designs, blessings and maledictions, physical prowess, psychic awareness, bright colors, and sudden violence, Voudoun practices reflect their eclectic origins. Whereas elaborate Arts like High Ritual Magick favor wealth and perfection, Voudoun remains eminently practical. Sure, certain devotees are rich, especially these days; the practice itself, however, employs whatever resources a person has to work with. Faith and trust outweigh arcane rituals and ostentatious displays. Loyalty means more than titles or gold. Rewards and punishments come swiftly… often with quirks of sardonic humor attached… and newcomers get tested with fierce irony and ominous threats. In many regards, the intentionally eerie nature of Voudoun presents a giant KEEP OUT sign to outsiders… most especially white ones. For obvious reasons, a practitioner wears many masks and keeps many secrets. Beyond those masks and secrets, our Voudoun practitioner nurtures passionate connection. Priestesses become “Mama,” and priests become “Papa.” Far from being distant, sublime godheads, his Loa patrons are powerful yet accessible cousins whose touch is a prayer or offering away. Anyone who needs a favor can come asking for it… and although the price of that favor might not be as pleasant or easy as he might have wished, it does tend to be granted in one form or another… Despite its shared roots with faith, shamanism and witchcraft, Voudoun has a distinct culture whose methods and doctrines don’t always play well with others. The Loa and related spirits certainly manifest through their human devotees, but those relationships are more familial than the ones often shared (and endured) between shamans and their spirit allies. That element of family is an essential, and typically neglected, element of the Voudoun mage’s Arts. Given that the practice originated with family-oriented people who were severed from everything and everyone they’d known before, it’s not surprising that blood – figurative and otherwise – holds such a vital place in Voudoun lore and practice. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Art, Athletics, Awareness, Belief Systems, Carousing, Crafts, Empathy, Intimidation, Lucid Dreaming, Medicine, Meditation, Streetwise Common Instruments: Artwork (vévés), blessings and curses, blood, bones and remains, cards and dice, cups and vessels, crossroads, dance and movement, drugs and poisons, elements, eye contact, fashion, group rites, herbs, household tools, knots and rope, languages, meditation, music, offerings and sacrifices, prayers and invocations, sex and sensuality, symbols, True Names, voice, wands and staves, weapons, writing
584 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Weird Science Folks who think that “science is boring” know nothing about science. Underneath the lab coats and brain-cracking equations run currents of curious wonder. And though cold-eyed Technocrats favor a controlled approach to the Scientific Arts, certain visionaries refuse to be so confined. Would you call them mad? Perhaps… but their dedication keeps the hope of Science alive! Unlike most other technomagickal Arts, weird science isn’t based upon repeatable results. Oh, sure, the mad scientist wants to be able to craft armies of robotic servitors or fleets of dirigible warships… and he may well be able to create them too, once a favorable prototype has emerged from his laboratory. However, that Inspired Scientist (don’t call him a “mage” – that’s ridiculous!) is more engaged by the spirit of inquiry and potential than by the devotion to repeatable craftsmanship. As a consequence, his creations often feature glaring flaws and Paradoxes that will be smoothed out, of course, in later iterations… if he ever gets around to making them, that is. Weird science, by definition, defies the bounds of possibility. Its crazy ideas fuel crazy creativity. Theories that no rational scientist would entertain guide the creation of devices and creatures whose very existence violates the Consensus: jetpacks, death rays, quirky robots, outlandish vehicles, Atlantean sonic technologies, spacecraft, mechanical appendages, psychic enhancement gear, lab-grown allies, devastating war machines, and whatever other strange gadgetry a mad scientist can imagine. And yet, this isn’t some sort of “magic” – heavens, no! Every piece of odd technology depends upon theories so unconventional yet sublime that they MUST be true, if only for the sake of an imaginative universe. As with other tech-based practices, weird science requires serious work in the lab before working results appear. An Enlightened Scientist might spend months or years honing his creation before revealing it to the world. Yet once that innovation has been achieved, he can often replicate it quickly, often with the help of skilled (if dispirited) minions. Weird science also allows the Scientist to alter tech with sudden bursts of inspiration, MacGyvering rickety inventions that last just long enough to accomplish a single task. And so – because he’s no sort of wizard, you imbecile! – the mad scientist needs tools and materials close at hand in order to work his wonders. True Science is indeed miraculous, but it’s not some kind of magic. No, not at all… Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; Bring Back the Golden Age; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Data; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Academics, Crafts, Esoterica (various so-called disproven scientific theories), Energy Weapons, Hypertech, Research, Science, Technology Common Instruments: Armor, books, bones and remains, brain/ computer interface, celestial alignments, computers and IT gear, devices and machines, elements, gadgets, inventions, laboratories, languages, numbers and numerology, toys, vehicles, weapons, writing and inscriptions Witchcraft Witch. One of the more venomous words in the English language, the label “witch” can send a person to a hideous death. Even now, when the Burning Times seem more like myth than history, the popular imagination equates witches with warty evil hags cackling over poisonous, foul-smelling brews. Why would anyone, then, want to use something as quaintly horrific as “witchcraft”? Because those who understand it know that it works… not only as a magickal practice but also as a form of reverence for the natural world. The equally loaded term “witchcraft” covers a lot of ground, from the diabolical maledictions of medieval legend to the reclamationist neopaganism of the modern era. As a Mage practice, however, the term refers to a nature-oriented, practical craft, as opposed to the scholastic abstractions of High Ritual Magick, alchemy, and so on. Traditional witchcraft is a folk-oriented low magick practiced by common people who need discernible results: healing, fertility, divination, luck or misfortune, prosperity, clarity, physical prowess, and intercessions between the people and their gods that are far more intimate than what can be found at the local temple. The disputed origin of the term witch is “wisdom,” although other possibilities include words meaning “twist,” “knot,” or “knowledge.” And so, witches throughout time have been said to know things… often things that proper people could not or should not know. Today’s witchcraft features a postmodernist brew of traditional European wise-craft; 19th-century literary occultism and 20-century mystic fusions; pre-Christian elements from Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, Slavic, Roman, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures (with prodigious cultural appropriations from Native American, African, Romani, and occasionally Asian cultures); repurposed Christian and Jewish practices (especially Catholicism and the Kabbalah); postmodernist philosophy, and New Age takes on quantum physics; mass-media iconography; and tons of pure invention wrapped up in a bright bow of fantasy media, political activism, and technological polyculture. This high-eclectic synergy often incorporates computers, the Internet, pop psychology, chaos theory, and other elements that would be entirely unrecognizable to old-school wise-crafters. Nevertheless, it speaks to people on an elemental level… and yes, as a mystic practice, it’s as effective as any other tool on a mage’s workbench. In all its forms, witchcraft has an outlaw mystique – due both to constant persecution and a defiantly sinister stance. Today’s witch might practice holistic medicine and nonviolent politics, but she still exists outside of mainstream respectability… often with a Fuck You attitude. Whatever style of witchcraft she prefers, that Art/ Craft incorporates potent symbols – Old Gods, nature spirits, blades, circles, wands, robes, very dark or bright colors, occult iconography, seasons, shadows, chalices, ashes, the four Classical elements, and so on – that reach into the subconscious territory beyond a mainstream comfort zone. Our 21st-century witch might favor dark clothes, body art, and a swaggering subculture image, or cloak her Arts in a middle-class façade that conceals her elemental devotions. She could follow a strict Witch’s Rule or proclaim herself a mystic anarchist. In more or less all cases, she reveres Nature
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 585 and diversity, channeling her Will through harmony with light and shadow, death and life. Though epitomized by the Verbena Tradition, she isn’t necessarily Pagan and doesn’t always wear her Art on her sleeve, so to speak. Regardless of her tools or devotions, though, her witchcraft remains eminently practical, focused on everyday miracles and visionary craft. Associated Paradigms: A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything is Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Might is Right; One-Way Trip to Oblivion Associated Abilities: Academics, Animal Kinship, Art, Awareness, Crafts, Medicine, Meditation, Occult, Pharmacopeia Common Instruments: Artwork, blessings and curses, blood and fluids, bodywork, bones and remains, books, brews, cards, celestial alignments, circles, crossroads, cups and vessels, dance, drugs and poisons, elements, eye contact, group rites, household tools, knots and ropes, music, offerings, sex and sensuality, social domination, symbols, True Names, wands and staves, weapons, writing and inscriptions Yoga Beneath the popular exercise trend rests a potent metaphysical practice. Named from a Sanskrit word that means union, balance, joining, and (by extension) yoke, yoga employs mental, physical, and spiritual disciplines to refine a higher state of being. Through advanced levels of yoga, a practitioner unlocks the greatest human abilities, eventually transcending his human limits and achieving enlightenment… first temporary, and then perpetual. Dedication to yoga strips away the illusions of physical existence. In communion with Absolute Reality, the True Self – the center of consciousness (Atman or Purusha) – comes to comprehend the Unity of All. Although its historical origins may be disputed, yoga derives from a collection of practices rooted in the Indus-Sarasvati cultures of ancient India. Collected into the Vedas – books of knowledge – these practices and observations refined several forms of ritual, meditation, vocalization, and physical exercise, all dedicated to mending the fractured state of human existence. In the Classical Yoga period, those practices mingled with the Upanishads: scriptures of dynamic unity. By 1900, Western occult traditions had begun to incorporate yogic disciplines into their own practices. (The Council of Nine, of course, understood such practices long ago.) Through mastery of those disciplines, an experienced yogi or yogini (male or female practitioner) can see the essential state of Reality… and can work with it as well. Yoga, therefore, isn’t simply a state of meditation but also a practice of conscious activity. The practitioner doesn’t just contemplate her navel; with deep awareness and conscious devotion, she commits herself to action. Details about yoga could fill their own book. In a practical sense, though, a yoga practitioner pursues intense physical, mental, and spiritual study; combines learned wisdom with personal epiphanies; supersedes old limitations; and transforms herself into an instrument of transcendence. Through such refinement, she can attain superhuman abilities, project her consciousness outside of her body, and reveal the illusions of material reality as tricks of the mind… and, by extension, master earthly forces like gravity, time, matter, and the elements – in game terms, all of the Nine Spheres.
586 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition (A related tradition of practices that often incorporate yogic disciplines is known collectively as Tantra: “weaving,” “loom,” “activity,” or “essence.” Although many devotees of one still practice the other, however, yoga and Tantra are not the same things. Both share a heritage, a dedication to transcendence of physical and mental limitations, and a view of the Whole beyond the illusions of separation. Generally, though, yoga unifies apparently separate elements into a conscious, transcendent whole, whereas Tantra accesses transcendent energies through sublimating physical reality. For obvious reasons, various mages incorporate elements of both traditions into their practices. For an example, see Lee Ann’s activities in the Prelude.) Often described as “the science of body, breath, mind, soul, and universe,” yoga can be considered a metaphysical technology. If nothing else, the physical and mental disciplines involved in yoga have proven benefits to the human organism. Thus, technomancers and even Technocrats can pursue a yoga practice, although its more esoteric levels defy pure materialism. By the early 21st century, the Technocracy has accepted the useful elements of yoga and incorporated certain aspects of yoga into its training programs. (Again, see John Courage’s remarks in the Prelude.) And so, although you won’t see Black Suits defying gravity and throwing bolts of pure Kundalini energy because of their mastery of yoga, the techniques of breathing, strength, and flexibility influence the new-millennium Technocrat’s pursuit of Life, Mind, and Prime Procedures. For traditional mystics (like Chakravanti and Sahajiya), such use of yogic discipline is anathema; for the devotees of Westernized yoga, however, that acceptance provides the punch line for a wondrous joke at the Technocracy’s expense. Despite the utility of books, scriptures, designs, and various medical and sometimes psychoactive concoctions, yoga is a largely self-contained practice. The physical body becomes a vessel for the transcendent Self. A devotee tends toward extraordinary good health and vitality, incisive perceptions, and a big-picture perspective on things. She might be capable of apparently impossible physical feats of endurance and flexibility, and she can – at advanced levels – sidestep little things like physics. The foundation of her practice, however, involves correct breathing, centered consciousness, and reaching past apparent limitations. As the guru Bikram advised his students: This is going to hurt. Don’t be afraid. Associated Paradigms: A Mechanistic Cosmos; A World of Gods and Monsters; Bring Back the Golden Age; Creation’s Divine and Alive; Divine Order and Earthly Chaos; Everything’s an Illusion, Prison, or Mistake; It’s All Good – Have Faith; Might is Right; Tech Holds All Answers Associated Abilities: Athletics, Awareness, Enigmas, Esoterica, Expression, Medicine, Meditation, Survival Common Instruments: Bodywork, circles and designs, dances and movement, energy, languages (Sanskrit), meditation, music, ordeals, prayers, sex and sensuality, symbols, thought forms, voice (mantras, the Om), writings and inscriptions Instruments: The Tools of Focus Belief envisions, practice inspires, and tools perform. All three elements allow a mage to focus Will and knowledge into Effects. And although any human activity can provide a tool for an imaginative mage – so long as that instrument fits the mage’s beliefs and practices – certain tools hold honored and popular places in magickal practices of all kinds. As suggested by its root word instruere (“to prepare”), an instrument is a tool or set of tools that prepares an act of magick or hypertech. That instrument doesn’t have to be a physical object – it could be a dance, a song, a prayer or invocation, an intense glance, a scent, a formula, a gesture or word or handful of ash. The potential variations among such tools are more or less infinite. If an object or activity can be used to capture an intention and bring it into being, then that object or activity can be used as an instrument. Symbolic Power of the Instruments Many tools carry symbolic weight, granting them significance beyond their practical utilities. Sure, a sword can kill you, but the mystique of certain swords can cut deeper than the blade itself. There’s a huge symbolic difference between a katana and a butcher’s knife, and that difference often influences a person’s choice of instruments. In game terms, such tools tug at Mythic Threads, adding their symbolic presence to the raw Will-power of the mage. By extension of that symbolism, certain instruments define certain groups: Etherites have their goggles; witches have their wands; agents of authority have their dark suits and mirrorshades, and all those trappings create a sense of group identity. For many people, this sense of identity bonds them to the group. Symbolic instruments, then, can be like gang colors, offering a shout-out to your sect of choice. Tools and Time As mentioned elsewhere throughout this chapter, instruments demand time and effort… and certain tools demand more time and/ or effort than others. A person who dances to focus his intentions can’t cast a spell in a three-second turn; one who employs intense rituals may need an hour or longer, and an artisan-magus could prepare his Effects for days or weeks before the magick manifests. That’s why so many practices depend upon creating Wonders (as per the Background of that name) or else employ quick-use tools: amulets, guns, enchanted blades, and the like. It takes time and effort to focus Will into magick. If you rush the process, things go poorly… resulting in Paradox, fast-casting modifiers, and other obstacles. In game terms, then, your mage might need several turns in order to cast his Effect, with the amount of time based upon the tools in question. For that reason, your mage might want a wide selection of instruments to choose from. Maybe he doesn’t have time to perform an elaborate hoop-dance right now… but that pouch of tobacco will serve as a quick offering for his totem spirit until he’s got the time to set things right.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 587 Remember, too, that mages don’t choose their tools based on convenience, but rather upon what they believe they need to do in order to alter reality. A mad scientist toils in her laboratory to create a portable transmutation ray, then carries that ray around with her, aims it, and turns it on before the Effect starts changing things. It would be more convenient, in game terms, for her to simply glare at an enemy and turn him into a newt. Even if she has Life 5 on her character sheet, however, she wouldn’t do things that way because she’s a scientist, not a witch. Sure, she probably accepts that witches have power; that kind of power isn’t her style, though… and thus, it does not work for her. Eventually, certain mages learn to BE the focus rather than to NEED the focus. And at that point, they’re able to discard tools, as described earlier in this section. Still, as we explained in the sidebar about the one-inch punch, you can’t ditch your instruments just because you think it’s possible to do so. Magick is an extension of the mage, and tools direct that mage’s beliefs and bring his magick into being. Standard Instruments Despite the march of science, certain symbols have become so deeply ingrained in the Consensus that they could be called standard instruments. Such tools provide the default focus for mystic or hypertech training and practices. The Common Practices listed in the group entries in Chapter Five represent the practices and instruments that members of those groups employ. The various factions and mentors teach their students with such tools, and most mages use them for a lifetime. In game terms, a standard tool offers no bonus or penalty. You might incur a penalty if you work without one, or receive a bonus if you use one in an especially significant manner (see p. 588). For the most part, though, these instruments simply provide the appropriate toolkit for a mage’s practice. Personalized Instruments Certain mages employ personalized or unique tools – a lucky baseball, rowan wand, hand-built guitar, and so forth. Such personalized instruments resonate with the mage who employs them. There is, perhaps, a touch of Resonance between such symbols and an individual character. In game terms, a personal tool reflects that character’s connection to a Sphere – a bridge between artist and Art. For your character’s affinity Sphere (as described in Chapter Six), choose one personal instrument that fits his practice and that Sphere. A Progenitor Genegineer might connect to Life through a mutagenic cocktail of chemicals, whereas a Bata’a houngan unites himself with that same Sphere through a gift of whiskey, three cigars, and a virgin rooster for Baron Samedi. The personal tool represents your mage’s original training and connection with the Sphere in question. In return for sticking close to your roots, you can reduce by -1 the difficulty of a roll that employs that Sphere. After all, that instrument is significant to your mage, so he employs it as if it were a significant tool.
588 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition That Sphere is tied to the instrument in question; if your magick fiddle, for instance, is attuned to the Time Sphere, then only Effects that use the Time Sphere will benefit from that bonus. If that tool is both personal and unique (or significant and unique), then it reduces the difficulty by -2. Only your mage can use that instrument in such a way. That fiddle might sound great, but it truly sings in your mage’s hands alone. If your character loses that unique instrument or finds herself working without it, then she’s essentially Working Without Focus, as described on (pp. 566-567). If it gets destroyed, then the bonus is gone for good. From that point onward, she’s working without focus until she can transcend the need for at least one tool by raising her Arete by one more dot. Common Instruments When picking out the instruments that suit your mage, check out the following entries. People, after all, do not select their most important tools without good reasons for using them. Most instruments have symbolic and cultural significance as well as practical applications. Once you start to recognize such factors, you realize how deep a mage’s toolkit really goes… Common instruments include: Armor: Protective devices can shield a mage and her allies from harm. Such instruments range from self-powered exo-suits and enchanted plate armor, hypertech fabrics, or specially reinforced clothing, to the bulletproof “ghost shirts” or woad body-paint designs intended to protect warriors in battle. As a tool for Awakened focus, the armor in question must be created or modified by the Spheres to provide additional levels of protection. One point of Quintessence, invested into the armor with Prime 2 or better, can make that armor resistant to aggravated damage. For details about armor, see the Combat section in Chapter Nine. Artwork: Drawings, paintings, CGI, sculptures, graffiti, and so forth allow a mage to capture his intentions in a visual medium. One of the oldest mystic tools (as shown in prehistoric cave-paintings and goddess figurines), artwork often draws upon the principle of connection: by depicting your subject, you attach your intentions and desires to it through the art. Artwork also influences the human condition by appealing to people (or disturbing them) when they recognize the symbolic energy of a piece. Blessings and Curses: Bestowing favor or inflicting bad luck – especially through the power of gods or spirits – remains a potent form of magick. And so, when people see witches, clergy, gamblers, and hoodoo-folk call upon God, Fate, and Fortune, they’re inclined to believe in the results. In game terms, blessings and curses tend to be coincidental. After all, superstition and religious awe are universal, even in these supposedly civilized times. Blood and Other Fluids: Sweat, tears, blood, semen, saliva, pus, urine, bile, marrow, sap… through such fluids flow the essence of life. Sure, they seem disgusting to most folks, but mages – especially ones who practice medicine work, biotech, or primal magick – recognize their power. DNA, viruses, life Optional Rule: Significant Instruments Earlier in this chapter, Step Two describes Pulling Mythic Threads – that is, manipulating symbols with powerful significance. As an optional rule, an especially significant instrument – ornate Tarot cards, a Latin prayer – tugs on the fibers of the Tapestry. In game terms, such an instrument could reduce the Arete roll difficulty by -1 or might make an otherwise vulgar Effect coincidental under the proper circumstances. After all, many people – Sleeper and otherwise – invest belief into things like Tarot cards or prayers and will readily accept a miracle that follows seven Hail Marys and a heartfelt genuflection. The same tool, however, cannot be used for both purposes; either it reduces the difficulty or else it makes something that would normally be considered vulgar into something that could be considered coincidental. Significant instruments must be used in significant ways. In game terms, your mage needs to impress the power of that symbol upon her audience. A mere Tarot reading doesn’t really count as a significant focus – the cards alone are standard instruments for occult practices (see previous page). In order to receive the -1 difficulty bonus, both the player and the character need to work the Mythic Threads attached to the instrument in question. A prayer should be spoken with great faith and clarity among the faithful; a gun must be large, scary, and presented with a memorable soliloquy. (Quoting Dirty Harry, though, would probably spoil the Effect.) An ordeal would have to be impressively vicious, a dance impressively performed, a curse impressively vile, in order to count as a significant focus for your Will and the Consensus’ belief. As for rendering vulgar Effects into coincidental ones, the instrument MUST still provide a believable rationale under the local belief system. A glowing magic wand at a Harry Potter film festival would be acceptable as some weird special effect, but if that wand starts firing lightning bolts or levitating cars, then all bets are off. Miraculous healing thanks to some holy water and a really great prayer? Possible. Making a tank vanish in the middle of a fight? No tool can make that feat seem possible, although an impressive tech-based weapon could certainly blow one up without violating the modern paradigm. Unique Instruments In the place closest to a mage’s heart, you might find a unique instrument. This tool really is one of a kind, and if the mage loses it, he also loses a vital connection to his Arts. Unlike other kinds of tools, a unique instrument must be something your mage can lose: a fiddle crafted by your dead grandfather, a locket with your mentor’s last portrait, a shirt given to you by a now-lost lover, and so forth. Game-wise, a unique instrument reduces the difficulty of your Arete roll by -1 when you work with a particular Sphere.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 589 force, the generative capacities of living things – all manifest in such organic fluids, so many practices employ those liquid instruments… possibly distilling them down to Quintessential Tass, painting with them, drinking them, drawing them out of the body, releasing them in acts of gory sacrifice, or otherwise opening an organic vessel and letting the magick flow. (See also Brews, Food, Offerings, and Sex.) Bodywork: Massage, energy-sharing, chiropractic medicine, acupuncture and acupressure, yoga, and other disciplines of body manipulation allow a person to influence mental and physical health, stimulate organic functions, establish or reinforce intimate bonds between the practitioner and his subject, and simply help people feel better about themselves. As a result, bodywork forms a centerpiece for several mystic practices, especially ones that – like martial arts, shamanism, witchcraft, yoga, and certain types of medicine work – favor vitality over external tools. Bones, Skins, Organs, and Other Remains: Like bodily fluids, the physical pieces of a living (or once-living) thing contain potent magickal significance. After all, such remains facilitate life, and so they also focus the life of a spell. As a result, they often get converted into ritual instruments of many different kinds. Books might be written on flayed skin; dusts can be ground from powdered bone; items could be crafted out of organs or skeletal remains. It’s gruesome, sure – but it’s also quite traditional. Creepy mystics aren’t the only folks who do this sort of thing, either… are they, Dr. Frankenstein? The literal structures of life play important roles in magick, science, and religion, no matter how macabre that role might seem. Books, Scrolls, and Periodicals: Is print obsolete? Not even close. Although e-books and PDFs comprise a wider range of texts now than they did even a decade ago, the printed word retains a mystic significance that those digital media have yet to achieve. In older days, books were like magickal items: rare, expensive, exclusive to a certain class of people (those who could read), and able to transmit arcane lore through an apparently supernatural method. Mages, then, were an elite class simply because so many of them had, and could employ, books. Since the advent of mass publication in the late 1700s and mass literacy in the 1800s, most of the glamour has faded. And yet, when people seek deeper truths and fictions, they still turn to da Vinci codes, boy wizards. and Middle Earth. Even the rougher voices on the socio-political fringe publish books in order to seem more respectable. Talk is cheap; writing is respected. 21st-century mage periodicals range from e-books of shadows to SF/ fantasy lit, computer manuals, magazines and e-zines, occult tomes, aged grimoires, ancient scrolls, downloadable PDFs, print-on-demand texts, graphic novels, and even game books like this one. Many feature the occult lore of ages, whereas others present pop philosophy, subversive concepts, historical information, cataloged facts, and any other subject that can be presented in written form. Within the last 30 years, incredibly rare arcane texts have popped up on big-box bookstore shelves all around the world, so any mage who takes herself seriously has a library of some kind. (See the Library Background in Chapter Six for more details.) Brain/ Computer Interface: An emerging technology among the Masses, BCI is a common tool among certain Awakened factions, especially the Virtual Adepts, Iteration X, the Syndicate, and the NWO. Microtechnology – usually a bush of carbon nanotube bundles spread throughout the brain – transmits electrical signals from the brain, interprets them through a computerized interface, and allows for physical manipulations or virtual functions through brain power alone. Enlightened BCI lets the user tap into computerized systems through mere thoughts, manipulate cybernetic gear, access wireless Internet networks, and record or transmit impressions into or out of the brain. Essentially a technological synthesis of telekinesis and telepathy, BCI requires specialized equipment and training to employ. Electrical surges can damage or even destroy it; neurotoxins disrupt its functions; and radio transmissions can hack into the interface, cause it to go haywire, or override the primary user’s commands. As an instrument, it’s invisible to the human eye but discernible to electronic monitoring gear. And although it allows for a hands-free approach, its limitations become pretty obvious when the user tries to employ it in areas without advanced tech, regions with tech-hostile realities, or places without net access. Because it literally messes with your brain, many mages consider BCI anathema. Even among allies, the debate about such technologies can get pretty heated. Does BCI turn its user into a tech-addled posthuman, or is it simply another step in human progress, like language, printing, or the Internet? Regardless of such objections, brain/ computer interface is a viable tool for the 21st-century technomancer – borderline coincidental so long as it’s used invisibly, and potentially gamechanging for the future of humanity. Brews, Potions, Powders, and Other Concoctions: Blending various ingredients into potent concoctions, the archetypal witch’s brew and its many permutations – goofer dust, corpse-powder, dragon’s blood, beer, wine, love philters, mystic potions, and the diverse medicines, foods, and beverages found across the world – present an obvious tool of magickal intent. Regardless of the purposes or composition involved in a given concoction, the process of turning many things into one thing reflects a sort of magic. For that reason, mythology often credits gods and wise-folk with the creation of beers, foods, and medicines. In game terms, any sort of mage can use such refreshments. Holy water, love potions, hypermeds – they’re all refinements of the same basic idea: mix it up, drink it down, and watch things change! Cards, Dice, and Other Instruments of Chance: Probability holds a sense of wonder, even for the Masters of Entropy whose Arts direct it, to a certain degree. The fickle hand of chance represents the randomness principles of the universe, so its talismans – dice, tokens, thrown bones, drawn straws, divination sticks, and, of course, the symbol-flashing cards – reflect command of destiny. Fate appears to speak through these instruments, and they become potent tools of omen and prophecy.
590 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Technology form the basis for Consensus Reality in our age. For obvious reasons, then, mages use computers for everything from data storage to social transformation. Not long ago, such machines were toys for a privileged few. Now, almost everyone within the industrialized world has at least access to a computer, and many folks use them on a daily basis. Magickally speaking, computers store and manipulate data like handy household gods. Using arcane calculations and alchemical technologies, they transform every sphere of life they touch. The industrial world depends upon computers nowadays – they run cars, manage banks, link people, and allow for a global community that, within living memory, used to be impossible. These portals of Hermes let tech-savvy mages sidestep physical reality, not only through the Digital Web itself but through common miracles like smart phones, laptops, and streaming media. And so, in our new millennium, a mage can use a computer for damn near anything if she’s good enough at what she does. Connected to the computers themselves, the ever-growing network of clouds, sites, sectors, and connections holds an expanding universe of virtual potential. And though the gleeful prognostications of early cyber-visionaries bear little resemblance to the Internet we know today, that technology is just a few decades old. What might happen when and if the Masses catch up to the Awakened in terms of Internet Enlightenment? That potential, and its practical applications, still seem very much like magic. For game rules dealing with computer technologies, see The Book of Secrets. Crossroads and Crossing-Days: Intersections are powerful. Areas and times in which one element or energy crosses over another one, or even several, herald passages, transitions, and transformations. Clearly, such transitions are magickal – liminal spaces where options and choices multiply. As a result, crossroads and transitional periods – midnight, dawn, New Year’s Eve, certain holidays – provide focus for mystic workings. Rituals often seem most significant when performed in such places or times. Cups, Chalices, Cauldrons, and Other Vessels: Practically and symbolically, the many vessels we create to hold and carry things – especially water, the liquid upon which human life depends – hold potent significance for both mystic and scientific practices. Cups, goblets, chalices, and cauldrons have deep associations with birth and renewal, feminine energy and fluid potential. For examples, look no further than the Holy Grail, the witch’s cauldron, Baba Yaga’s pot, or the singing bowls of Tibet. On the technical end, vats, beakers, crèches, and test tubes contain their own mystique… witness the phrase “testtube baby” or the image of vat-brewed clones. And so, mages of many kinds use vials, bottles, pots, and beakers to work their Arts, often combining those instruments with brews, water, and various concoctions in order to turn one thing into another. Dances, Gestures, Postures, and Other Movement Practices: Movement unites the body, mind, and life force into a flowing whole that breaks physical stasis and opens channels of Traditionally, a caster mixes up the tokens into an apparently random selection, then draws a certain number of them in order to find out what he needs to know. That mage could cheat, of course, removing the random element from the task. Still, instruments of chance present a dramatic focus for intentions – witness the gambling-hall scenes in Run Lola Run or Casino Royale – especially when big things depend upon the turn of a friendly card. Cards, given their visual focus, are especially vivid instruments – particularly the symbolic portents of Tarot or other oracular cards. Even normal playing cards, though, can be incredibly evocative, reflecting cosmic tales of sex, violence, desire, and royalty in a few simple icons that find their way into popular mythology. Celestial Alignments: What’s your sign? Long before books or machines became common tools, mages read, focused, and calculated the schedules for their rituals by the dance of planets and stars. Even now, when modern science has supposedly disproved the old cosmologies – at least on the mortal side of the Gauntlet – the old mystique of horoscopes, the brilliant possibilities of Hubble telescope photos, and the eldritch mysteries of deep space continue to influence mystic and scientific practices, conjuring insights and miracles when the stars are right. Circles, Pentacles, and Other Geometric Designs: As the archetypal symbol of unity, the circle shows up in mystic practices everywhere. Enclosing workspaces, sigils, ritual areas, and other regions in circles, spell casters secure that space within spheres of their intentions. Meanwhile, other circular designs – rings, belts, linked hands, dancing circles, even circular movements and sung rounds – provide similar enclosures that seal an intention with an activity. Other geometric shapes – triangles, squares, hexagrams, pentacles, and so forth – seal different sorts of activities. Symbolically, those shapes (which appear in scientific formulae too) represent cosmic principles by mathematical designs. Squares reflect stability, rectangles present expansive yet secure areas, crosses signify intersecting forces, triangles direct energy, and combinations of those designs – as seen in yantras, mandalas, sand paintings, and other ritual diagrams – combine several forces into unified wholes… wholes often surrounded by a circle. Certain ritual practices, especially in High Ritual Magick, demand elaborate designs that must be traced and crafted to exacting standards. Such designs can take hours or even days to create, and they often become permanent parts of a ritual space. In symbolic architecture, the space itself might be crafted into the design – a common practice among Freemasons and other artists of sacred geometry. Temples, cathedrals, Chantries, and other important buildings become massive works of symbolism… which, when you think about it, says volumes about the mystic dimensions of Washington DC. (See also Artwork and Formulae.) Computers and IT Gear: The essential tech of the 21st century, computers and other elements of Information
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 591 vital energies. Dance – often driven by Music (see below) – sends the body into ecstatic flight. Postures and katas – specifically those taught in yoga, t’ai chi, and various martial practices – program muscle memory into efficient poses while freeing the mind to pursue focus or meditation. Gestures – arm waves, hand signs, mudras, genuflections, and so forth – direct manual dexterity into symbolic displays, as peaceful as the “fear not” mudra or as incendiary as Hitler’s salute. From bowing to ballet, such activities convey deep ritual significance through physical discipline. In especially rigorous forms – advanced yoga, breakdancing, classical ballet, and so forth – those disciplines demand physical vitality and constant practice, channeled through cultural symbolism, aesthetic appeal, and just plain fun. And so, the various styles of dance, gesture, and movement form essential elements of mystic and technological practices, directing a person’s intentions and energies through the instrument of the body itself. Devices and Machines: Humanity’s great gift is our use of tools. It’s clear, then, that such tools – from simple machines like bows and arrows to complex machines like death rays or printing presses – hold symbolic power beyond their practical utility. Humanity’s machines are a form of magick, epitomizing the Will to transcend our limits and transform our world. Technomancers are literally defined by their reliance upon machines, but even the most traditional shaman can use a loom as a creative instrument, directing his intentions through whirring shuttles, levers, and gears. For more details about the uses of technology, see Chapter Nine’s section The Technological World. Drugs and Poisons: Like the Brews and Concoctions described above, various drugs, poisons, venoms, and so forth change one state of being into another. In the case of psychoactive drugs, that state might involve radically altered consciousness. Practices from primal shamanism to psychedelic transhumanism use mind-altering drugs to cleanse the doors of perception and open a mage to new possibilities. Poisons, meanwhile, harm or kill inconvenient people – a nasty but traditional practice among alchemists, witches, and assassins. Such substances make excellent tools for Entropy, Life, and Mind Effects and range from natural toxins to hypertech drugs. Chapter Nine’s section Drugs, Poison, and Disease features in-depth rules for the effects of toxins in your game. Elements: Fire, water, earth, and air – perhaps adding metal, wood, glass, plastic, and electricity, depending on your point of view – all play important roles in almost every sort of practice. From their symbolic meanings (solid as stone, fiery passions, earthy groundedness, etc.) to their practical applications through Forces, Matter, and (for plants) Life Arts, the elements can become a mage’s primary instruments. Depending on her practice, your mage might employ elements through spiritual connection, scientific physics, angelic and demonic control, sympathetic magick, or even a personal tie to the living world. Through her Arts, that character can shape, conjure, alter, manipulate, merge into, or otherwise control the forces that make up our world… a literally elemental talent that in many ways defines the Art of Wizardry. Energy: The life force forms a significant element of mystic focus. Through practices like Tantra, yoga, and other forms of energy work, a person can perceive and manipulate that life force, directing it to his needs. That energy, in turn, fuels martial arts, sexual disciplines, bodywork, and other practices. For mages with the Prime Sphere, this instrument focuses Quintessence-based magick. However, characters without the Prime Sphere can also focus energy as an instrument, so long as that person’s practice includes energy work as a possibility. For more details about working with energy, see the Prime and Primal Utility Spheres. For related instruments, see Bodywork, Dance, Eye Contact, Group Rites, Meditation, Music, Ordeals, Sex, and Social Domination. Eye Contact: By using these windows to the soul, a mage can charm, frighten, seduce, bewitch, curse, intimidate, or otherwise enchant someone else. Folks have feared the Evil Eye for centuries and cultivated an extensive body of lore – banishment gestures, hex signs, spitting on the ground, and so forth – in order to escape its influence. These days, though, people often want you to look them in the eye. And so, flirtatious glances, poisonous glares, dominance-establishing staring contests, puppy-dog eyes, and other optic rituals become potent instruments for magick and technology. Fashion: Clothes can make the mage. From the social grace of a bespoke suit (that is, one that’s tailor-made for the individual) to the fierce warnings of gang gear or the playful flirtations of a pretty dress, fashion plays a subtle yet pervasive part in social interactions. Your mage could craft reinforced clothing into armor; adopt disguises; don ritual gear (robes, skins, body paint, etc.); display a uniform; cosplay familiar or original characters; or simply use high fashion or street wear to invoke a particular effect. Especially when that clothing holds symbolic weight – like priest’s robes, biker jackets, military uniforms, or fetish gear – fashion becomes a potent focus for Mind powers, Spirit rites, and Matter-based protection from a dangerous world. On that note, the lack of clothing – either bared body parts or total nudity – constitutes its own type of fashion. Witches and shamans often go skyclad (naked) in their rites, whereas other mystics take oaths to bare or cover certain parts of their bodies. Veils, burqas, scarves, headdresses, bare feet, naked chests, gis, saris, club fashions, turbans, clothes made from certain materials (silk, fur, even meat)… all of them evoke cultural significance, concealing or displaying certain elements of the wearer’s body while sending signals about the person underneath. Food and Drink: Even mages need to eat. And beyond the good taste and practical nutrition involved with food and drink, those meals have symbolic significance as well. Sharing meals means sharing energy – it’s an intimate communion even in the age of fast food and store-bought chow. Ritual feasts hold places of honor in every culture: Thanksgiving, Passover, potlatches, and holiday dinners combine spiritual significance, good food, and social bonds. Even alone, however, food and
592 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition drink can be important, mingling bodily needs with mystical intent and chemical ingestion. Formulae, Equations, and Sacred or Advanced Mathematics: Math has been called the universal language of the cosmos. Its esoteric applications can seem as arcane as any wizard’s ritual… and many mystic rituals do, in fact, feature complex numerology and brain-shaking mathematics. For Technocrats – especially those from Iteration X and the Syndicate – mathematical models help predict future events (in short, focus Time magick), plot out connections (the Correspondence Sphere), determine esoteric chemistry (Life principles), and employ physics in counterintuitive ways (that is, to use Entropy, Forces, Matter, and Prime). Older mystic practices employ sacred numerology, angelic formulae, and the dizzying principles of non-Euclidian geometry. So if it’s true that mathematics bind the universe together, then it’s easy to understand why math plays such a vital role in so many practices. Gadgets and Inventions: Nothing beats the personal touch. As mentioned earlier, machines provide a vital edge to mages who want to get things done. Machines created by the mage himself, however, embody a bit of that creator’s Enlightenment, manifesting it as a potentially powerful device. Strictly speaking, a gadget is a minor machine that performs a specific function once and then burns out. An invention may be any device that’s been hand-crafted by the inventor himself; a one-of-a-kind machine, it’s probably the experimental prototype for a planned line of similar devices, with all the bugs and quirks that such prototypes display. Unlike the capital-D Devices described later in The Toybox, these creations don’t necessarily have innate technomagick built into them. As focus instruments, they provide mechanical vectors for the creator’s Enlightened Science. Because such devices share a personal connection to their inventor, these tools count as personal and unique instruments (see pp.587-588) when they’re being used by the mage who created them. They count as simply unique instruments in the hands of allied characters, and they probably don’t work at all for characters who don’t share the inventor’s view of reality. In game terms, a mage using his own inventions and gadgets reduces his difficulty by -2, his trusted associates reduce it by -1, and strangers find themselves unable to make heads or tails of the device. Technocrats who enjoy a special relationship with Q Division might wind up with experimental gadgets and inventions – see the Secret Weapons Background in Chapter Six. Etherite allies and other mystic characters could be trusted (or tasked) with a special gadget from a technomancer whose imagination exceeds his courage. Hopefully, that inventor takes the time to explain how the machine’s supposed to work; otherwise, the guinea pig might find herself with a lump of worthless junk in her hands just when she needs it most… Gems, Stones, and Minerals: Diamonds are forever. Gold is good, and jade incarnates Heavenly goodwill. The mystic properties of precious stones, ores, and minerals echo down through legend, slang, and alchemical lore. Mages who know how to tap into these properties employ them in rituals, build them into instruments, wear them as jewelry, and otherwise keep them close at hand. Technology, meanwhile, employs those properties too. Did you think it was an accident that gold is so vital to the world’s economy or that diamonds find their way into so many industrial machines…? Group Rites: Smart mages realize that raising power in groups directs the collective will and imagination of that group toward a specific purpose. Circle-dances, music concerts, plays, protests, prayer meetings, and other gatherings provide focus for mystic rites. Technomancers understand the power of groups too – why else would factories and cubicle farms be so damned effective? Generally, a mage whips her group to an emotional frenzy and then channels their energy into her intended purpose. As that energy reaches a peak, she plays the crowd like an instrument, bringing things to a climax as she casts her Effect. The Allies, Assistants, and Cults section (p. 532) and the Acting in Concert section (pp. 542-543) detail the in-game effects of sympathetic crowds; for certain practices, however, the presence of a group is not just helpful but essential to success. (See also the optional-rule sidebar for Management and Human Resources, p. 595.) Herbs, Roots, Seeds, Flowers, and Plants: Growing things hold power, especially when you want to perform Lifebased magick. Plant-based materials can be essential to other instruments like brews, laboratories, and drugs, and they provide the roots, so to speak, for practices like witchcraft, shamanism, and many forms of medicine work. By gathering, drying, curing, eating, grinding, or otherwise employing these botanical substances, a mage can distill the essence of Creation into her Arts. Beyond its practical properties, each sort of plant holds symbolic importance; in most cases, the different portions of a plant have significance as well. Holly sprigs, elderberries, acorns, mandrake roots… even now, popular culture immortalizes ancient plant lore. A creative player can learn about the properties of different plants and herbs, then bring both the practical and symbolic elements of botanical tools to the gaming table. Household Tools: Especially among the practical Arts, household tools – pitchforks, hammers, nails, brooms, ovens, horseshoes – hold traditional power as magical implements. The same holds true for technological tools, as well… witness the atavistic terror that’s invoked by a chainsaw. Because magick so often depends upon directing energy and intentions toward a goal, household tools have all kinds of uses. Six silver dollars might be hammered into place around your property to keep the cops away; a specially brewed floor wash might cleanse tainted Resonance; a Roomba (with or without a shark-dressed cat) could patrol your Chantry-house. And when the spells are done, those tools serve double duty around the home. A witch, after all, can use her broom to fly to the gathering and then sweep the house clean once she comes home again.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magic 593 Knots and Ropes: There’s a reason the phrase spellbinding exists. Long before Velcro, buttons, or carabiners, people had to tie or weave things together. Because the principle of contagion focuses on connecting spells, subjects, and casters by a single strand, knots and ropes (as well as thongs, strings, threads, and so forth) feature heavily in spells. The metaphorical Tapestry and the concept of string-theory physics both draw upon that connection, and so the acts of binding things together, weaving intentions with materials, and undoing knots to release their energy all serve practical as well as symbolic purposes in magick. And once you understand that fact, you see deeper significance in Celtic knotwork, knitting, the arcane arts of rope bondage, and the pervasive imagery of mystic spiders and Pattern Webs. Laboratories and Lab Gear: Although you can’t usually carry a laboratory around with you (although certain portable labs can be stuck inside a vehicle, trailer, or suitcase), such places of labor provide essential instruments for technological, alchemical, and elaborate ritual practices. Generally, a mage employs his laboratory to refine other tools and spells for his practice, then uses the results of that lab work as his portable instruments. Still, without that lab, he’d be more or less worthless. You can’t grow clones, install cybernetics, or refine base materials into perfection without a good lab. By extension, lab equipment – beakers, crucibles, centrifuges, generators, analyzers, and other sundry (though expensive) tech that procures results – constitutes an essential array of tools for the practicing scientist or technician. Even old-school mystics use labs occasionally, though they might refer to them as dungeons, workrooms, sanctuaries, and so forth. Within such space, a mage can work through difficult puzzles, experiment with methods, and enjoy a fairly secure space where Consensus interference is a bad memory. (An established laboratory space makes an obvious Sanctum, as in the Background Trait of that name. See Chapter Six for details.) Languages: Words are a form of magick; after all, they shape abstract thoughts into reality by communicating them to other beings and thus opening their minds to your own. In a communal form, language shares thoughts and – by extension – broadens the potential of reality for everyone concerned. Words, it is said, opened the gulf between animals, spirits, and human beings… and although animals and spirits clearly have their own forms of language, the flexible precision of human words has certainly marked a major step in our development. But words are bigger than that. According to many legends, the Divine Source (by whatever name you prefer to call it) spoke words in order to bring the universe into being. Certain words and languages echo that divine command and can thus make things happen. Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic, Mandarin, and Latin (among others) supposedly capture the essence of godly speech, whereas other languages like Greek, Urdu, and Hopi encompass sublime concepts that elude other human tongues. Mundane languages can alter reality too, especially when those languages get rearranged, re-contextualized, redefined,
594 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition or otherwise altered in order to change the meaning attached to the words. Hip-hop rapping presents a perfect example of such remixed language, breaking down the expected rhythms, spellings, and context of words in order to invoke an alternative truth. Internet jargon does the same thing, as does legalese. By altering the common tongue, a person (mage or Sleeper) can change the realities it describes, making codes that admit or exclude certain people, seeding new concepts out among the people, or invoking certain states of mind by forcing the audience to accept unusual modes of communication. And then there’s the anti-language of unfamiliar babble that still sounds like it means something important. (See the Voice entry, below.) Spoken words also have a sonic component that literally resonates throughout the world, changing the landscape in accordance with the speaker’s wishes. Words of power – amen, aho, ohm, and the like – convey both their interpreted meaning and the resonant power behind the sound itself. Therefore, language – both spoken and written – forms a vital element of all mystic practices. (Again, see Music, Voice, and Writing, below.) Mass Media: As suggested by the name, media becomes a medium through which ideas and impressions spread from an artist to her audience. The bigger the medium, the larger its audience and the further the reach of that idea. Early on, media consisted of a storyteller and the members of her tribe; later, it expanded to sacred ritual theatres. Each new expansion of technology allowed ideas to go further and reach more people. With the advent of mass printing and distribution, followed by sound- and image-recording technology, radio waves, and rapid international travel, media become the dominant tool for shaping the Consensus. Memes (see the sidebar) can now spread across the world in seconds. And so, for the 21st-century mage, mass media becomes an essential tool when altering reality. As a magickal instrument, mass media can take many forms: music concerts or recordings, TV and radio broadcasts, Internet posts, viral videos, roleplaying games, remixes, mashups, bestselling books, theatrical productions, movies of any scale… if they reach a large audience, then they’re all mass media. Such media provide excellent venues for coincidental Mind Effects – the audience wants to receive a message, and therefore they’re already receptive to it. Such messages can occasionally seed new Mythic Threads too – just Google Harry Potter, Twilight,or Obama. Since the earliest large rituals, mages have used mass media to make things happen. The Syndicate, NWO, Cult of Ecstasy, and Celestial Chorus are the obvious masters of media, but any group or individual can employ it. (Rumors and evidence suggest that the Nephandi might be the greatest media masters of them all.) Given the vast reach provided by the Internet, data files, home-production technology, and the various things you can do with them all, anyone with a computer and Internet access can employ mass media. And though the Internet’s signal-to-noise ratio makes it hard to create large and lasting impressions, a savvy person can use a single cellphone picture to start waves rolling across our world. Meditation: An intrinsic part of almost every mystic practice (and many technological ones as well), meditation involves quiet reflection through which a person screens out everyday distractions in order to connect with her inner self. Through meditation, a mage focuses her intentions, sorts through her circumstances, and often arrives at the next step she needs in order to move forward. Memes A playful pun on gene and memor (Latin for “mindful”), the term meme reflects a “mental gene” of an idea that replicates itself through symbols and beliefs. Memes spread by appealing to wants, needs, aspirations, or fears within a receptive audience. Often paired with visual symbols (especially in the Internet form of meme, which combines an image with an idea), a meme inspires thoughts; thoughts breed activities; activities create change; and that change often spreads the meme. Thus, the concept alters reality to its own benefit. Most memes come and go quickly; others latch onto a moment in time and circumstances, grow there, and then fade away as the moment passes. Greater memes thrive in mass consciousness, seeding changes that can shift the course of history. “Survival of the fittest” is a meme… one misattributed to Charles Darwin even though it contradicts Darwin’s actual ideas. “Give peace a chance” is another meme, and the Golden Rule has survived as a meme for over two thousand years despite the human tendency to do its opposite. Most memes focus on a simple phrase or image (“Do as thou wilt”) that acts as a hook for a much larger idea (Understand that Will is the conscious choice behind your actions, and then act in accordance with your chosen Will so that you might bring the world into accord with your ideals). For obvious reasons, then, many people misinterpret memes, altering them to fit their own way of looking at things. And so, in return, the meme changes as it grows. Mages use memes all the time; hell, Mage itself is a meme wrapped in other memes. Mythic Threads and memes complement one another – the symbol conveying the idea, the idea deepening the significance of the symbol. Mage characters employ meme-tools and practices to focus meme-ideas that spread memes… and yet they can eventually realize that their memes are prisons that they must transcend in order to meet their ultimate meme of Ascension… a meme about which most of them disagree. On many levels, Mage is a game about competing memes, a game that uses memes, undercut by the meme that all memes are intrinsically flawed. We now return to our regularly scheduled game rules. And yeah – that phrase involved a meme or two as well.