Disparates is a collective name for Crafts and orphans, not necessarily indicating membership in the Disparate Alliance.
The term was originally used disparagingly among the Traditions for those willworkers not affiliated with one of the four major factions of the Ascension War (the Traditions themselves, the Technocracy, the Nephandi or the Marauders). It did not distinguish between members of Crafts with long histories and stubborn identities who refused to subsume themselves in the Council, those who refused to join a Craft or Tradition, and those who self-Awakened and have no training at all.
Disparates tend to have their own "turf," as large as a cultural homeland or as small as their backyard, but they lack the resources of the larger factions. After the Reckoning, the Technocracy stepped up its Pogrom and targeted Disparates for elimination; some were wiped out, some fled into the arms of the Traditions, while others went underground for their own protection.
References[]
- MTAs/cMET: Laws of Ascension Companion, p. 101-115
- MTAs: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 24, 41, 120, 127, 141