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Mage (WOD)

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Mages, also calling themselves the Awakened, are one of the seven supernatural races in the Classic World of Darkness and the principle characters of Mage: The Ascension. In the World of Darkness, every human being has a single spark of supernatural potential. Most people, known as Sleepers, don't know they have this, don't care and want to get on with their lives as if it didn't exist. Some people though, figure out what that spark is. That spark is very important, because sometimes that potential activates and the normal everyday, average mortal Awakens.

The Awakening[]

What does this Awakening mean? Well, it can mean a lot of things. It might mean a conversation with God, the finding of the perfect bit of blotter acid, or the realization of a theory that had been bothering the Awakened for years.

In short, you come to a realization. Your belief shapes your world around you. What happens when you force yourself to change your belief?

The world changes.

Most mages don't come to the full realization of this power. Few to none can handle that awesome power with any certainty or clarity. Most cloak this newfound potential in a familiar form, using tools to help themselves along. Some believe that they affect the world through prayer, and that god (or the shard of God, the piece of their creator that is the potential in them) changes the world for them. Others see their potential through with chants and ritual, science and experimentation, or even through martial arts. Still others view their perceptions as the true determiner of their reality, and alter those perceptions with drugs, alcohol, sex, or even a really good meal.

Mages are these individuals with the power to warp reality, who know the power they possess and use it to the best of their ability.

The problem is, of course, that everyone has that ability. And there are seven billion people in the world.

You can change reality to suit your whims. So can they. You want to fly. They don't believe you can.

This conflict in belief between you and everyone else is called Paradox, and the consensus (the unconscious beliefs of the rest of mankind) metes out punishment through Paradox.

Paradox can cause your magic to go haywire, cause physical damage to you and the area around you, or even manifest as a sentient entity, intent on making you pay for breaking the Laws of the Consensus.

Mage: The Ascension has The Council of Nine Traditions, a collection of groups of like-minded mages who work together against common foes, the Technocracy (a group founded on making the world rational, safe, and free of as much of the supernatural as possible), the Nephandi and the Marauders.

Mage: The Ascension divides magic into nine Spheres, or areas of influence: Time, Mind, Prime, Forces, Matter, Life, Spirit, Entropy and Correspondence. A mage's ability to manipulate the world around them is called his Arete, which goes on a scale of one to ten (although rarely exceeds 5).

Relationships[]

Humans[]

All mages are human. However, their Avatars or souls are Awakened to their supernatural potential and to the existence of magick whereas the majority of humanity remains ignorant of the truth of the world and of themselves. Mages refer to non-mage humans as Sleepers.

Humanity's ignorance stems from their being under the influence of the Technocracy. The Technocrats believe that order is the only way for them to achieve Ascension. To achieve this, they have used their magick to perpetrate the banality and dystopia of life, the dominance of technology and the infallibility of science and rationality, creating a static reality.

Because of this, most of humanity believe the supernatural to be non-existent, with the exception of religion. As a consequence of this, any human who exhibits true belief in the supernatural are looked at with stigma and scorn and often perceived as immature or insane.

Vampires[]

Vampires rarely know anything of the Awakened. Though many Elders may have come into contact with a mage at some point, it is rare that a vampire recognizes such a person. Those few who know of the Awakened likely view them as a potentially useful ghoul at best. Some vampires believe that mages are the disciples of Lilith and that it’s possible that the ancient feud between the followers of Caine and the followers of Lilith may have been passed on to the vampires and the mages.

The founder of the Tremere clan, Tremere, was a mage and a founding member of the Order of Hermes.

Werewolves[]

The Garou normally come into conflict with mages while protecting caerns, and thus tend to dislike and distrust them. This attitude is reflected in the name most Garou have for these humans: Namebreakers, who twist Gaia's order to suit their own flawed images. While the common assumption of most werewolves is that mages are out to twist various sites of power, the two groups sometimes work together, especially when confronting problems in the Umbra.

Bastet[]

Bastet see their association with mages as educational. They believe they have the divine right to know everything and unearth all secrets, while revealing little of what they know to non-Bastet. While it is extremely rare for werecats to be companions to mages, so it is a fortunate mage indeed who has a Bastet as a consor. Watchful and curious, the Bastet are ever fascinated by the inventiveness of humanity. Their inquisitiveness and love of diversion are their main reasons for associating with mages.

Wraiths[]

Wraiths rarely have contact with mages. Sometimes, they are contacted by death-mages and spirit-talkers of a global council of mystics, while at other times, they witness technomancers that try to catalogue the Underworld. Most Wraiths are content to let these people be, as long as they do not disturb them.

The Hierarchy's official policy is to have little to do with Mages as possible. Some say that the Dictum Mortuum came about largely because of widespread trafficking between mages and wraiths. The Skeletal Legion treat mages as ignorable threats while the Grim Legion find mages moderately appalling. The Grim have a special loathing for the Euthanatos. The Hollow Ones, however, are considered friends of the Legion.

The Renegades find mages untrustworthy or don't care. The Renegades aware of the Technocracy liken them to the Hierarchy and they get along well with the Hollow Ones.

The Artificers who visit the Digital Web are aware of the Virtual Adepts, and enjoy how out of depth the Adepts are when dealing with wraiths. The Artificers also avoid the Society of Ether, as the Etherites trap wraiths in their devices.

The Haunters are envious of the capabilities of True Magic and wished they possessed it themselves. The Haunters often work with Marauders to create nightmares that even the most rational person can't explain away.

The Masquers are nervous of Mages. While both groups recognize lore and secrets as the ultimate commodities, Mages like experimenting on anything they find interesting.

The Spooks keeps an eye two groups in the Mage world: The Euthanatos and the Nephandi. The Euthanatos send people to untimely demises, and when they become a wraith, they cross over with a lot of unfinished business. The Spooks believe that wraiths like these can make a good client or even a possible Defender. The second group is the Nephandi, who the Spooks loathe due to their associate with Oblivion. The Shroudbreakers and Gray Gangsters watch their activities, but the Shroud gets in the way of any meaningful action.

The Pardoners pass their knowledge of Castigate to Dreamspeakers, hoping to lessen the Shadow's power in the world of the Living. In general, however, Pardoners stay clear of other mages - particularly those who seem interested in gaining power over wraiths.

The Sandmen have little to do with Mages most times, but there are some exceptions. A Circle of Sandmen became involved with the Progenitors. As incredible as it sounds, these mages had the ability to create soulless physical bodies with a slavelike obedience to the wills of their Progenitor masters. The Sandmen involved struck a pact with the Progenitors in which they would steal souls from sleeping mortals (leaving comatose bodies in their wake) and insert them into the Progenitors' soulless corpses. In exchange, the mages permitted these Sandmen to study their own dreaming souls. When rumors of this practice began to leak beyond their Circle, both the Hierarchy and the Dream Union took an interest, resulting in quick activity to break the Circle and discorporate its leaders for inhumane activities. The Circle was soon broken, but one of its leaders escaped. To discourage a reprise of such crimes, the Stygian Hierarchy offers a reward of 100 oboli to anyone capturing the leader, one Lili Charriere, and a reward of 20 oboli for information leading to her arrest. The Dreamspeakers have on occasion held gatherings honoring death's role in the cycle of Gaia, or the Earth Mother. Sandmen enjoy appearing at these festivities to share tales of Somnus with the Dreamspeakers, who seem interested in his connection with the Earth Mother. In the past, Sandmen - as well as many other wraiths - have also attended the Great Festival, held annually by the arcane and mystical group known as the Orphic Circle. Usually invited by the Circle's secretive death mages, these Sandmen perform as boukoloi (dancers) during the orgiastic rites dedicated to the Orphic god Euboouleus. Sometimes master Actors use Phantasmagoria to appear before celebrants as the god Eubouleus himself.

The Mnemoi, seeing themselves as preservers of the past, dislike Mages for wanting to change the world to suit their own ideals.

The Risen are usually hunted by the Euthanatos and try to avoid other Mages as best they can.

Note: Any sort of mage can become a wraith upon death, though they won't bring their Avatar across the Shroud.

Changelings[]

Changelings tell that the Tuatha de Danaan once discovered four mortal children with the ability to Dream true. The dreams of the first were like flames and the Fae named him Té, the Mad. The dreams of the second were like winds and breezes and the Fae named her Li, the Shadow. The dreams of the third were like stones and iron, and the Fae feared him and called him Ihenn, the Ironmaker. The dreams of the last were like a dark whirlpool, and the fae named her Chla, the Unbound.

All mages carry a part of either Té, Li, Ihenn or Chla within them. Changelings recognize this and the potency of their dreams and try to avoid angering them when possible. In modern times, a group of mages called the Technocracy has done much to spread Banality throughout the world, making the existence of Changelings in their proximity dangerous.

Kuei-jin[]

In the Middle Kingdom, mages are referred to as the Chi'n Ta, the Lightning People. Regarded as imperial princes or eunuchs with the ear of the August Personage of Jade, the Chi'n Ta occupy a higher rank in the Celestial Bureaucracy than the erroneous Wan Kuei. This makes most Kuei-jin jealous of a mage's privileges in the world, although they tolerate those whose beliefs are based in the Middle Kingdom.

Technomancers are instead referred to as Stone People.

Hunters[]

code for Witch

Imbued code for Witch

Hunters don't know much about the nature of Mages, and don't encounter them as much as they encounter other supernatural beings. The hunter's opinion of Mages varies from creed to creed. The Hunters who encounter Mages typically refer to them as witches, warlocks or manipulators. Most Hunters are completely ignorant of Mages' powers, perceiving them simply as uncanny luck, circumstances plausibly or implausibly contorting to the witch's benefit. The few Hunters who recognize that Mages' powers fall into different Spheres only recognize seven, viewing Forces and Matter as a single sphere called Elements and Correspondence and Time as one dubbed Spacetime. This is due to the fact that the visible aura evoked by these Spheres look identical to the Innocent's Edge Illuminate.

Mage society's ability to keep itself under wraps and out of the harmful eyes of sleepers means that, more so than any other type of supernatural creature, the mages encountered by Hunters are typically the runoffs and dregs of their kind: Nephandi resorting to petty corruption, Marauders whose spheres of influence fail to insulate them from mortal scrutiny, and Orphans feebly attempting to stay afloat as their failures to avoid vulgar magic build up around them. Many of the latter, most notably Gunshop, become 'reverse hunters', doing battle with those who seek to eliminate the most ostensibly human of the major types of quarry.

Demons[]

The Earthbound were summoned to earth by priests, shamans, sorcerers and mages. Modern fallen who have encountered mages are divided. For one thing, mages are exemplars of the humanity they once wanted to form during the Time of Babel. On the other hand, mages seek to usurp the position once held by Angels as the movers of the cosmos and shepherds of humanity's destiny. Both parties clash in the pursuit of Faith, the mages to stabilize their paradigms against the Consensus, the Fallen to stave off their Torment.

Mummies[]

Mummies often remember the times when mages were more populous and powerful. Several mummies had been magicians themselves during their First Life and lost the ability to work it when they underwent the Spell of Life. As such, most Mummies are sympathetic to mages whose paradigm aligns with that of their country of origin.

Gallery[]

References[]

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