What is a Mage?
Mages are Awakened humans who possess the unique capacity to shape and bend the Tapestry of reality itself. Unlike mundane mortals, a mage’s direct perception of the world allows them to impose their will, rewrite the accepted rules of existence, and evoke wonders—at a cost. The World of Darkness is a place where beliefs clash violently and the nature of reality is fragile. Mages walk a razor’s edge between the miraculous and the catastrophic.
"Magic is the art of changing mind and world, of shaping possibility through will."
The Awakening
All mages experience Awakening—a profound and often traumatic realization that their mind and soul are not bound by the Consensus reality most mortals accept. This revelation bestows upon them the ability to wield Magick with a capital 'M'—the art of redefining what is possible.
The Nine Traditions
- Akashic Brotherhood: Masters of mind and body, blending martial arts and spiritual discipline.
- Cult of Ecstasy: Seekers of transcendent experience through sensuality, art, and altered states.
- Dreamspeakers: Mystics attuned to spirits, the Umbra, and the primal forces of nature.
- Euthanatos: Guardians of the Wheel of Fate, guiding souls and enforcing cosmic balance through necessity.
- Order of Hermes: Traditional sorcerers focused on rigorous rituals and mastery of the Spheres.
- Sons of Ether: Mad scientists blending wild invention with a flair for the impossible.
- Verbena: Keepers of blood, life, and nature’s pagan rites.
- Virtual Adepts: Digital sorcerers skilled in hacking the Consensus and the very fabric of information.
- Chakravanti: (Euthanatos in some editions) Agents of transformative death and rebirth.
Other Factions
- Technocratic Union: Ruthless defenders of rationality and control, enforcing a ban on "dangerous superstition."
- Marauders: Mages driven mad by paradox, embodying chaos and unpredictability.
- Nephandi: Corrupted willworkers serving malevolent, destructive forces.
The Art of Magick
Mages wield Magick—the power to shape, bend, or even break reality. Their true strength is Arete, the enlightened will-to-power, manifesting miraculous effects known as magickal rotes through intricate focus.
Magick is mediated through the Nine Spheres, thematic aspects of reality each mage must master:
- Correspondence: Space, connection, and distance.
- Entropy: Decay, chance, fate, and inevitability.
- Forces: Energy in all its forms—heat, light, motion.
- Life: Living beings, healing, transformation.
- Matter: Physical objects and their transformation.
- Mind: Thought, perception, and mental prowess.
- Prime: The raw quintessence powering magic.
- Spirit: The Umbra, ghosts, spirits, and the soul.
- Time: Duration, sequence, and foresight.
Paradox
When a mage’s magick flies in the face of consensual reality—working wonders without subtlety—they invite Paradox: backlash from the universe itself. Paradox warps, injures, and even drives mages into madness, acting as a check upon hubris.
Cosmology: The Tapestry
The universe of Mage: The Ascension is a living, shifting tapestry composed of interconnected realms, anchored in belief and shaped by the will of its inhabitants. The primary realms include:
- Gaia (Physical World): The realm of mundane reality and human consensus.
- Umbra: The spiritual planes, layered and infinite, where spirits dwell and archetypes take form.
- Horizon Realms: Mystic sanctuaries beyond the reach of mundane laws and Paradox.
Mages are uniquely able to cross these boundaries, acting as explorers and sometimes guardians at the fragile borders between worlds.