False Awakening

The False Awakening is a curse created in 1933 by a Silver Ladder mage named Portia. Portia tried to use a ritual to awaken her boyfriend, that seemingly had functioned, although her boyfriend awakened to no known Path. In time, her boyfriedn began to see Supernal correspondences in the Fallen World and started a ritual to ascend to the Supernal Realms that costed his life.

The False Awakening induces its victims with abyssal dreams full of twisted symbols and wrong beginnings and empty endings that simulate an Awakening. The victim is able to use the power of an newly awakened mage and, through the growing influence of the False Awakening, gains power on a much higher scale than a normal mage, although several derangements accompain this growth of power. In the end, the victim also tries to use a ritual to ascend to the Realms Supernal, a ritual, that is always deadly for the user. Afterwards, the False Awakening searches a new victim, normally one that has investigated the strange compulsions of its previous bearer.

The only known cure for the False Awakening is a true Awakening that tears down the veil of lies that the False Awakening had laid down. The False Awakening searches for a new victim afterwards.