The Call
You wake up at the Queen Anne Hotel in San Francisco. It's nighttime.You're not sure how you got there. You know that you checked in last night, but after that, everything gets fuzzy. It feels like you just woke up from a particularly restful nap.
You know who you are though; what you are. You're not entirely human. Therefore, you know that reality can be tenuous. These days reality hardly ever makes sense.
You're in San Francisco because there's an unprecedented, unexpected snow storm moving into the city tonight. For mages, there's been suspicion that this snowstorm is an aberration; something that shouldn't be happening, and so chantries have been prepping for it. For other supernatural creatures, they can sense that something isn't quite right about this storm, too. This might be why you decided to check in. After the snowstorm settles in, it'll be a while before you can check out.
More importantly, on the dresser by the TV there's an item. You know that this item means something to you, something big and important, but you're not sure why (make sure it's something that can be easily hidden on your character).
There's a letter next to it. Hopefully, you get up from the bed and you READ IT (TBD, but it'll say something like: "This object is not supposed to be in reality. It's a cosmic error that the (TBD) will not allow. If you don't tell anybody about it, keep it hidden, it will save your life one day. If you tell somebody, or if they see it, you risk your own humanity, and the reality you once knew.")
As soon as you read the last word, the lights go out. The electricity in the whole building, the whole city is pinched shut into darkness.
Mages will remember that last night, a particularly important relic was stolen from an old building that curates objects that don't belong in reality, and that one very important relic is missing, along with an old book of magic. You remember now - you're supposed to be helping your local chantry locate the item. You also remember that this hotel has a group of mages you can form a cabal with for this task, and that tonight you can meet them in the lobby.
Other supernaturals can either know this occurred by association with mages, word on the street, or the distinct feeling that something is very wrong with the city.
In either case, your room is paid for until the end of the week.
And what was stolen is already starting to bend reality.
Mages
Awakening
The awakening process can be random, triggered by a life-changing or perception-changing event, but in any case, it changes a mages entire perception of the world. It can happen at any moment in a humans life. There’s no way to induce an awakening, since mages themselves don’t even understand the mechanisms behind it. Some theorize that its simply fate.When a mage awakens, they realize the world around them is not what it seems. They can see the patterns that make up reality; the forces that drive them. They can see magic.
Mages don’t awaken with an understanding of the spheres of magic, though. They'll see the definite patterns of certain spheres, but without training or study, they can't understand what they mean. Most mages are taken in by other mages; the act of awakening is like ringing a distant bell in the supernatural world. The awakened are found, because mages can feel when one awakes. Other creatures can feel it, too.
Paradigms & Paradox
All mages were once normal, boring human beings, who suddenly one day got a helluva lot more interesting by 'awakening' to spiritual reality. Mages can therefore exert their will on reality, aka, do awesome magic.But a mage's power is limited by their paradigm (a fancy word for their perception of how reality works; more on paradigms later), but it's also limited to their understanding of how their paradigm changes reality. All magic must interact with, and be in line with, what's called the Consensus (consensual, boring, normal reality where magic & supernatural cool stuff doesn't exist).
A Focus (plural Foci) is a magical tool used by a mage to focus their paradigm to achieve a desired effect via Awakened Magic. Foci are thus items, rituals, and practices that mages use to tap into their magical power.
People who are not awakened mages, or otherwise supernatural themselves, are referred to as 'sleepers', because they are asleep to the true nature of reality. Sleepers cannot exert their will on reality, but their reality is what makes up the Consensus. That's why the Consensus must be "followed" - if something fucks with consensual reality(aka, if a sleeper sees a mage use some crazy ass fireball), it's considered vulgar magic and has repercussions to the mage themselves.
If they (the mage) violates the rules of the Consensus dramatically or blatantly – reality snaps back against them, almost like a 'punishment'. This is called paradox (more on that later).
The paradigm is central to a mage’s power. It's how they believe the universe works, and how their magic affects it. It also includes what they believe they need to do in order to do magic.
Example: A hacker mage's paradigm may view reality as one giant code that is powered by commands. The mage could believe they know the 'code' to make a fireball, so they whip out their laptop, and begin typing away in C++ on crack. The fireball happens. But then, the hackers mom (a sleeper, aka a non-mage) walks in a sees the fireball.
In the real world, a fireball can't just happen. Since that hacker paradigm crack spell disobeyed the rules of consensual reality and some non-mage loser saw it, the effect is regarded as vulgar. The mage will either be hit with paradox now, or later.
Paradox is a force which keeps mages from doing insane shit in consensual reality, in front of any old Joe Shmoe. It keeps consensual reality static, which is why in the past, more powerful mages escaped to other realms where consensual reality doesn’t apply.
A way to avoid this force is to keep the effects within the laws of consensual reality.
Example: A mage wants 100k. They can influence the odds in Russian Roulette through praying to Lhaksmi as part of their paradigm and foci, and win it. This is not considered vulgar, as people cannot know that Lhaksmi changed the odds, and people believe in luck and miracles.
Paradox generally pops up:
Paradox either accumulates around a mage and then it backlashes, or it immediately backlashes. A mage can willfully hold paradox back, but they’ll get hit by it eventually, and it'll usually be worse.
But wtf does paradox do? Where the levels of Paradox are low, it manifests as physical damage. The mage also becomes affected by a very minor, annoying flaw, which reflects the spheres they used to violate the rules of Consensual Reality.
For example, a low level paradox might be something like a mage who used the entropy sphere of magic having their clothes rot off their body.
The higher the level of Paradox, the more severe the consequence.
There are no magical cures for paradox – the best way to fix paradox is to avoid it.
Mind magic and paradox can also affect a mage’s psyche. As their will and intentions are so closely intertwined with their magic, paradox can easily reflect back on to them and influence how they perceive the world around them. When a mage’s mind is affected, mind magic can only act as a ‘temporary fix’. The problem needs to be resolved by the mage themselves.
The Underworld carries its own potent resonance: the energy of death itself. Mages who dabble too much in such studies can be afflicted with Jhor, the Resonance of death energy. Mages who work with Entropy, who dabble in necromancy and death, often accumulate Jhor. The mage's normal moral inhibitions fall away in favor of a desire to associate with and understand death energy. In actuality, the mage becomes fixated on the return to primordialism, but the living mind and body cannot handle this reunification. This is a well known affliction, and most mages who are associated with those who specialize in death energies watch themselves and their friends for the signs & symptoms of it.
Magic & Reality
Magic is driven by manipulations of the Tapestry. This requires the use of Quintessence. Quintessence is the energy that makes up reality.This energy sometimes forms ‘paths’ over reality, and when they cross, they form ‘nodes’. Here, the barrier between worlds thins, and mages are able to absorb as much energy as they can hold through meditation. There's a known node in this game at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Nodes also produce tass – the physical form of quintessence. The appearance of tass depends on the location, or how it's extracted. It's also a rare commodity, so it's used as a form of currency with mages. In order to use tass, a mage must have a good understanding of this raw energy form (knowledge of the Prime sphere of magic). Tass can also be extracted from magical creatures such as faeries and werewolves, etc. Obviously, these creatures aren't happy to sacrifice themselves to benefit the mage - many mages have fucked around and found out.
Spheres are the term for constructs that divide the components that make up reality into tangible, easy-to-understand concepts. Many effects require a combination of different spheres. For example, in order to create a flame from nothing, you need raw energy(prime) to put energy into the flame, and ‘Forces’ to control the flame. Don’t worry about spheres or mixing them properly.
As far as a mages reality, the definition of it varies from mage to mage. Some believe it consists of various strings of matter and anti-matter, while others believe it's a grand tapestry woven by gods, etc etc.
All mages seem to agree that reality is comprised of raw energy. Mages generally call this “Quintessence” as mentioned above, while the Technocracy calls it "Primal Force" -- who tf is the Technocracy? Don't worry about them. They won't be a feature in this setting. But your mage will know the Technocratic Union are a group of mages NOT associated with the original council of nine, who use their magic for Enlightened Science. The result is that many of their devices become features of consensual reality, and are usable by Sleepers.
Back to Quintessence, mages can store it within them, though how much they can store depends on their own strength and experience. Quintessence, in a sense, is what drives magic. The nature of reality is shaped by humanity as a whole, and this is referred to as “Consensual Reality."
The whole basis of ‘magic’ is reality being ‘relative’. All mortal humans (or in Mage lingo – ‘Sleepers’) passively shape the nature of reality as a whole, and the overall nature of reality is referred to as the ‘Consensus’ or ‘Consensual Reality’.
Humanity has adopted a “Technocratic” view of reality, where science is able to explain natural phenomena. This doesn’t mean every mortal knows quantum mechanics, this just means something rational – like science - can explain why sunlight makes the plants grow.
The impact of one Sleeper who believes in something different doesn’t affect the Consensus, as their will is insignificant when compared to the collective will of humanity.
But when a considerable number of Sleepers believe in something different they exert a considerable force on the Consensus. This is why creatures such as ghosts and fairies still exist. People still believe in them.
But magic is dying, with the increasing influence of technology.
The 9 Spheres
The links below will bring you to an explanation of the sorts of things each sphere can do. Ignore any bullshit about dice or weirdness. Only pay attention to what the sphere can do, not as a limitation, but as a general idea. Magic doesn't really have any boundaries; it can accomplish anything by mixing these spheres. But keep in mind a mage is only very knowledgeable in one chosen sphere - meaning, although they might have experience in both 'forces' and in the 'matter' spheres, their main sphere would have to be either one of those. Meaning, they're a 'forces' mage or a 'matter' mage, and although they know things from both spheres, if they're a forces mage, they know forces best, and are the most adept at it.Again, the spheres can be mixed. In fact, with mixing magic, the possibilities are endless. Mages can even mix each others magic to get results together.
CORRESPONDENCE (Common Foci:) Is the sphere that deals with range and distance. More effective if the Mages knows its target. This familiarity can come from either personal knowledge of the target, or having something that belongs to or is somehow otherwise connected to the target. To a student of this sphere, distance does not matter: "Area" is what matters, and the thread of the relationships between objects allows the student to affect space as if it were a tangible thing. Beware facing a practitioner of this sphere, for nothing is as it seems and they can affect you without being near.
ENTROPY (Common Foci: dice, coin flipping) This sphere is Luck and Destiny, Chance and Chaos, which can make Entropy difficult and particularly dangerous to tamper with in the first place. Practitioners of Entropy often began with the smallest manifestations; perhaps one will "encourage" a coin to fall a certain way, or maybe a car driven by a bad guy will cease to properly function at a convenient time. Entropy is literally the Sphere of the End, and wielding its powers can hardly be expected to come free of cost. A mage can sense where elements of chance influence the world and manipulate them to some degree. At simple levels machines can be made to fail, plans to go off without a hitch, and games of chance heavily influenced. Advanced mages can craft self-propagating memes or curse entire family lines with blights. The only requirement of the Entropy sphere is that all interventions work within the general flow of natural entropy.
FORCES (Common Foci:) Forces concerns energies and natural forces and their negative opposites (i.e. light and shadow can both be manipulated independently with this Sphere). Essentially, anything in the material world that can be seen or felt, but is not material, can be controlled: electricity, gravity, magnetism, friction, heat, motion, fire, etc. At low levels the mage can control forces on a small scale, changing their direction, converting one energy into another. At high levels, storms and explosions can be conjured. Obviously, this Sphere tends to do the most damage and be the most flashy and vulgar.
LIFE (Common Foci:) The Life sphere divides all life into 2 divisions - simple life patterns, such as plants, viruses, bacteria, insects, shellfish, anything invertebrate, and complex life patterns, such as cats, rats, dogs, humans, bears, etc. Life deals with understanding and influencing biological systems. Generally speaking, any material object with mostly living cells falls under the influence of this sphere. Thus, being alive protects a thing from direct manipulation by the Matter sphere and vice versa. Simply, this allows the mage to heal themselves or transform simple life-forms at lower levels, working up to healing others and controlling more complex life at higher levels. Usually, seeking to improve a complex life-form beyond natural limits causes the condition of pattern bleeding: the affected life form begins to wither and die over time.
MATTER (Common Foci:) This Sphere encompasses the study of material, inorganic patterns. Everything from simple analysis of chemical composition to the transmutation of base metals into gold is possible using the magic of Matter. Matter deals with all inanimate material. Stone, dead wood, water, gold, and the corpses of once living things are only the beginning. With this Sphere, matter can be reshaped mentally, transmuted into another substance, or given altered properties.
MIND
(Common Foci: Meditation, chanting, weapons.) Mind is the ability to use one's own mind beyond the usual scope. Perceiving thoughts, auras, to entering other people's dreams, and eventually rewriting someone's conscious mind or rendering it non-existent. Dealing with control over one's own mind, the reading and influencing of other minds, and a variety of subtler applications such as Astral Projection and psychometry. At higher levels, this can also be used to avoid or override effects of mind alteration from other creatures, such as vampires. An example would be if a memory was taken with a vampiric discpline (discipline, aka power) it can be retrieved, or the effect can be fought and/or avoided.
PRIME
(Common Foci: Fire, light, song (and rarely, musical instruments), water, oil, holy symbols, touch)
Possible concepts: Nun, priest, theologian, healer.
The Sphere of Prime allows the Mage to control the flow of the raw stuff of Magic - Quintessence - through and around themselves or any other Pattern (although it should be noted that since Mind is not a Pattern, Prime cannot be used to directly affect it.) While Prime is not essential to Mages, it is a very useful Art, and most Mages understand it at its most basic levels. This sphere deals directly with Quintessence, the raw material of the tapestry, which is the metaphysical structure of reality. This sphere allows Quintessence to be channeled and/or funneled in any way at higher levels, and it is necessary if the mage ever wants to conjure something out of thin air (as opposed to transforming one pattern into another). Uses of Prime include general magic senses, counter-magic, and making magical effects permanent.
SPIRIT (Common Foci:) Knowledge of the Umbra(spirit world) and its inhabitants comes from studying this Sphere. The Mage who commands its power may converse with spirits and travel to their realms (albeit with difficulty.) Spirit has many limitations. It cannot affect anything physical on earth – only spirit patterns in the Umbra. The Umbra is a dangerous place, and many of the spirits there think in ways that are completely alien to the human mind. The world is surrounded by the Gauntlet (A veil between our world and it.), which makes it difficult to interact with the spirit world. Contacting and controlling spirits, returning ghosts to life, creating magical fetish items, etc, are all possible with this sphere.
TIME (Common Foci:) This sphere deals with dilating, slowing, stopping or traveling through time. Due to game mechanics, it is simpler to travel forward in time than backwards. Time can be used to install delays into spells, view the past or future, and even pull people and objects out of linear progression.
Mage Hierarchy
The hierarchy in mage society is defined by ability and achievements.MAGICAL SEVERANCE A punishment for mages who have committed horrific crimes against other mages. A mages magic can be severed, and they will not be able to perform magic again, even in other lifetimes. This is an extremely rare punishment.
ENLIGHTENMENT A mage is on a never-ending quest for enlightenment. Everyday is a lesson, and maybe, if they succeed in understanding some concepts, a step closer to Ascension.
ASCENSION Ascension is the goal for many mages. Ascension refers to ‘transcending the rules of reality altogether’ – basically become ‘god’ or as some believe, become one with ‘God’. Yet no one knows what happens, as only a few have reached this goal.