The Ascension Warrior is a Technocracy pattern clone claiming to be the reincarnation of Heylel Teomim. He instigated a devastating attack on Horizon, setting off the War in Heaven.
Overview[]
The Ascension Warrior was developed at the Gray Collective Construct in a collaboration between Iteration X and the Progenitors. Dr. Sharon Reed, one of the Progenitors, embedded a "killswitch" in the Warrior's genetic code that would cause him to drop dead when he heard a trigger phrase known only to her. The project was also infiltrated by Nephandi from the beginning.[1]
He is described as muscular and handsome, nearly seven feet tall and lacking genitalia.[2] He was endowed with extremely rapid healing abilities, enhanced mental and physical capacities, and the ability to interface mentally with most computer systems, but the body was intended to be an empty shell without any will or personality.[3] Duplicates of the pattern clone would have housed the minds of powerful Technocrats, creating nearly-unkillable and immortal shock troops to destroy the Traditions.[4]
However, when the Ascension Warrior was brought to consciousness, he already had a fully developed mind and personality.[5] Amid the confusion of multiple betrayals and a Traditions attack, the Ascension Warrior and his shape-shifting accomplice Velma Wade escaped from the Construct to pocket realm called Harmony.[6][7]
The Ascension Warrior addressed the Council of Nine shortly after his escape, through the proxy of another shape-shifter, Jenni Smith. He identified himself as Heylel Teomim, the Master of Harmony, and demanded that the Traditions submit to his leadership, saying it was their only hope of winning the Ascension War. When his offer was rejected, he transformed Getulio Vargas São Cristóvão into solid gold as a display of power.[8] Shortly thereafter, fighting broke out in the Hermetic chantry of Doissetep, resulting in the Conflagration; the Warrior took credit for this also.
Horizon War timeline[]
The Warrior made a similar address to the Technocracy with the assistance of Wade. [9] He also attacked the Progenitor Construct EcoR, transforming the entire structure and everyone in it to solid gold, in an attempt to assassinate Sharon Reed.[10]
In another broadcast, the Warrior condemned the leaders of both factions for getting bogged down in the Ascension War instead of saving the world from itself. He announced his intention to attack Horizon the following day, and asked young mages from both sides to help him overthrow their corrupt elders.[11] In exchange, he promised them immortality and physical perfection through transfusions of his nanobot-enhanced blood.[12]
On the day of the attack, the Ascension Warrior unleashed chaos on Horizon, and occupied the Council Chambers. However, he was faced with a returned Akrites Salonikas, who unleashed a localized Time effect that killed both him and the Ascension Warrior.[13]
Mage Revised Timeline[]
A disclaimer at the end of Horizon War 3: War in Heaven states that events following the destruction of Doissetep are not officially part of the World of Darkness timeline.[14] However, the broad strokes (and at least some of the details) are repeated in multiple Revised Edition books.
The idea that a "long-dead revolutionary" incited a mass attack on Horizon was carried forward.[15] Concordia was effectively destroyed, and many senior mages perished.[16] "The Seer Akrites" played a role in the Warrior's downfall, but killing him did not stop his army, and the stragglers had to be run down over many months.[17]
Identity[]
The Horizon War trilogy leave open the question of whether the Ascension Warrior was actually Heylel Teomim, or possibly a spirit from Malfeas summoned by the shape-shifting Nephandi. The Warrior does not recall a specific incident from Heylel's past when it is brought up by Salonikas, but this might only indicate that his return from Gilgul, however that was accomplished, damaged his memory.
Tradition Book: Order of Hermes refers to the Ascension Warrior as the "false Heylel," though this may just indicate the most common belief among Hermetics.[17]
Malcolm Sheppard, the author of the "Judgment" scenario in Ascension, posted details that were cut from the final draft on his LiveJournal. According to him, the Ascension Warrior was not Heylel reincarnated; rather, it was a construct run by Computer pretending to be Heylel in order to sow maximum chaos.[18]
Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition is metaplot-agnostic, and thus the identity of the Ascension Warrior — or whether he even exists — is up to the judgment of the Storyteller.[19]
References[]
- ↑ MTAs: The Ascension Warrior, p. 308
- ↑ MTAs: The Road to Hell, p. 32
- ↑ MTAs: The Road to Hell, p. 168-169
- ↑ MTAs: The Ascension Warrior, p. 32
- ↑ MTAs: The Road to Hell, p. 365
- ↑ MTAs: The Road to Hell, p. 373
- ↑ MTAs: The Ascension Warrior, p. 360
- ↑ MTAs: The Ascension Warrior, p. 200-212
- ↑ MTAs: The Ascension Warrior, p. 223-225
- ↑ MTAs: War in Heaven, p. 74-85
- ↑ MTAs: War in Heaven, p. 147-152
- ↑ MTAs: War in Heaven, p. 107
- ↑ MTAs: War in Heaven, p. 366-368
- ↑ MTAs: War in Heaven, p. 375
- ↑ MTAs: Mage: The Ascension Revised Edition, p. 31
- ↑ MTAs: Mage Storytellers Companion, p. 14
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 MTAs: Tradition Book: Order of Hermes, p. 33
- ↑ Judgement: Unwritten Secrets of a Dead Mage: The Ascension Metaplot
- ↑ MTAs: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 50