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'''Mage: The Ascension''' is a [[Role-playing game]] based in the [[World of Darkness]], and |
'''Mage: The Ascension''' is a [[Role-playing game]] based in the [[World of Darkness]], and was published by [[White Wolf Game Studio]]. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as '''mages''', and are capable of feats of magic. (However, the idea of magic in ''Mage'' is broadly inclusive of diverse ideas about mystical practices as well as other belief systems, such as science and religion, so that some mages do not resemble typical fantasy wizards.) In 1996, ''Mage: The Ascension'' won the [[Origins Award]] for ''Best Roleplaying Rules 1995''. In 2005, White Wolf released a new game marketed under the same name (Mage) for the new World of Darkness series, [[Mage: The Awakening]], with some of the same game mechanics but with substantially different premises and setting. |
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== Metaphysics == |
== Metaphysics == |
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Revision as of 01:47, 28 January 2006
| Publishers | White Wolf Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Publication | 1995 |
| Systems | Storyteller System |
Mage: The Ascension is a Role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic. (However, the idea of magic in Mage is broadly inclusive of diverse ideas about mystical practices as well as other belief systems, such as science and religion, so that some mages do not resemble typical fantasy wizards.) In 1996, Mage: The Ascension won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules 1995. In 2005, White Wolf released a new game marketed under the same name (Mage) for the new World of Darkness series, Mage: The Awakening, with some of the same game mechanics but with substantially different premises and setting.
Metaphysics
The basic premise of Mage: The Ascension is that reality is the way people believe it is, thus everyone has the capacity, at some level, to shape reality. In most people, known as sleepers, this capacity is dormant. The capacity itself is personified as a mysterious alter-ego called the Avatar, which is said to be sleeping. In a Mage, the Avatar is said to be Awakened, (many Mages have had encounters with their Avatars). With an awakened Avatar, a Mage can consciously seek to change reality via willpower, beliefs, and specific magical techniques.
The beliefs and techniques of Mages vary enormously, and the ability to alter reality can only exist in the context of a coherent system of belief and technique, called a paradigm. Such a paradigm organizes the way a Mage understands reality, how the universe works, and what things mean. It also provides the Mage with an understanding of how to change reality, through specific magical techniques. For example, an alchemical paradigm might describe the act of wood burning as the wood "releasing its essence of elemental Fire," while modern science would describe fire as "combustion resulting from a complex chemical reaction." Paradigms tend to be nuanced per the individual Mage, but the vast majority belong to broad categories of paradigm, e.g., Shamanism, Medieval Sorcery, religious miracle working, and superscience.
In the Mage setting, everyday reality is governed by commonsense rules derived from the collective beliefs of sleepers. This is called the consensus. The majority of Mages' paradigms differ substantially from the consensus. When a mage performs an act of magic that does not seriously violate this commonsense version of reality, in game terms this is called coincidental magic. Magic that deviates wildly from consensus is called vulgar magic. When it is performed ineptly, or is vulgar, and especially if it is vulgar and witnessed by sleepers, magic can cause Paradox, a phenomenon in which reality tries to resolve the apparent contradiction. Paradox is difficult to predict and almost always bad for the mage. The most common consequences of paradox include physical damage directly to the Mage's body, and paradox flaws, magic-like effects which can for example turn the mage's hair green, make him mute, make him incapable of leaving a certain location, and so on. In more extreme cases paradox can cause Quiet (forms of madness that afflicts mages and may leak into reality), Paradox Spirits (nebulous, often powerful beings which purposively set about resolving the contradiction, usually by direclty punishing the mage), or even the removal of the Mage to a paradox realm, a pocket dimension from which it may be difficult to escape.
In Mage, there is an underlying framework to reality called the Tapestry. The Tapestry is naturally divided into various sections, including the physical realm and various levels of the spirit world, or Umbra. At the most basic level, the Tapestry is composed of something called Quintessence, the essence of magic and what is real, in game terms. Quintessence can have distinctive character, called resonance, including but not limited to dynamic, static, entropic, and other kinds of resonance.
In order to understand the metaphysics of the Mage setting, it is important to remember that many of the terms used to describe magic and Mages e.g., Avatar, Quintessence, the Umbra, and Paradox, Resonance, as well as the award-winning game mechanics a player uses to describe the areas of magic in which his character is proficient-- the Spheres, look, mean, and are understood very differently depending on the paradigm of the Mage in question, even though they are often described from particular paradigmatic points-of-view. In-character, only a Mage's Paradigm can explain what each of these things is, what it means, and why it's the way it is. And Mages, especially where paradigms differ, are more likely to disagree than to agree.
Game Setting
History
In the game, Mages have always existed, though there are legends of the Pure Ones who were shards of the original, divine One. Early mages cultivated their magical beliefs alone or in small groups, generally conforming to and influencing the belief systems of their societies. Obscure myths suggest that the precursors of the modern organizations of mages originally gathered in ancient Egypt. This period of historical uncertainty also saw the rise of the Nephandi in the Near East. This set the stage for what the game's history calls the Mythic Ages.
Until the late Middle Ages, mages' fortunes waxed and waned along with their native societies. Eventually, though, mages belonging to the Order of Hermes and the Messianic Voices attained great influence over European society. However, absorbed by their pursuit of occult power and esoteric knowledge, they often neglected and even abused humanity. Frequently, they were at odds with mainstream religions, envied by noble authorities and cursed by common folk.
Seeing their chance, mages who believed in proto-scientific theories banded together under the banner of the Order of Reason, declaring their aim was to create a safe world with Man as its ruler. They won the support of Sleepers by developing the useful arts of manufacturing, economy, wayfaring and medicine. They also championed many the values that we now associate with the Renaissance. Masses of Sleepers embraced the gifts of early Technology and the Science that accompanied them. Thus Masses' beliefs shifted, the Consensus was redefined and wizards began to lose their position as their powers and influence waned.
This was intentional. The Order of Reason perceived a safe world as the one devoid of heretical beliefs, ungodly practices and supernatural creatures preying upon humanity. As defenders of common folk they intended to replace the dominant magical groups with a society of philosopher-scientists as shepherds protecting and guiding humanity. In response, non-scientific mages banded together to form the Council of Nine Traditions where mages of all the major magical paths gathered. They fought on battlefield and in universities trying to undermine as many discoveries as they could but to no avail - technology made the march of Science unstoppable. The Traditions' power bases were crippled, their believers mainly converted, their beliefs ridiculed all around the world. Their final counteroffensives against the Order of Reason were foiled by internal dissent and treachery in their midst.
However, from the turn of 17th century on, the goals of the Order of Reason began to change. As their scientific paradigm unfolded, they decided that the mystical beliefs of the common people were not only backward, but dangerous, and that they should be replaced by cold, measurable and predictable laws of nature and respect for human genius. They replaced long-held theologies, pantheons, and mystical traditions with ideas like rational thought and the scientific method. As more and more sleepers began to use the Order's discoveries in their everyday lives, Reason and rationality came to govern their beliefs, and the old ways came to be regarded as misguided superstition. However, The Order of Reason became less and less focused on improving the daily lives of sleepers and more concerned with eliminating any resistance to their chokehold on the minds of humanity. Ever since a reorganization performed under Queen Victoria in the late 1800s, they call themselves The Technocracy.
Contemporary Setting
The Order of Reason renamed itself the Technocracy and espoused an authoritarian rule over Sleepers' beliefs, while suppressing the Council of Nine's attempts to reintroduce magic. The Traditions replenished their numbers (which had been diminished by the withdrawal of two Traditions, the secretive Ahl-i-Batin, and the Solificati, alchemists plagued by scandal) with former Technocrats from the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts factions, vying for the beliefs of sleepers and with the Technocracy, and perpetually wary of the Nephandi (mages who consciously embrace evil and service to a demonic or alien master) and the Marauders (mages who resist Paradox with a magical form of madness). While the Technocracy's propaganda campaigns were effective in turning the Consensus against mystic and heterodox science, the Traditions maintained various resources, including magical nodes, hidden schools and fortresses called Chantries, and various realms outside of the Consensus in the Umbra.
Finally, from 1997-2000, a series of events (described in the game's metaplot shortly before the release of its third, or 'Revised,' edition) destroyed the Council of Nine's Umbral steadings, killing many of their most powerful members. This also cut the Technocracy off from their leadership. Both sides called a truce in their struggle to assess their new situation, especially since these events implied that Armageddon was soon at hand. Chief among these signs was creation of barrier called the Avatar Storm which was a result of a battle in India on the so-called "Week of Nightmares". The storm restricted travel between the Umbra and real world.
The summation of these changes were introduced in the final supplements for the second edition of the game under the editorial attention of the intended developer for the revised, third edition of the game, and became core material in that edition.
Later Plot and Finale
Aside from common changes introduced by the World of Darkness metaplot, mages dealt with renewed conflict when the hidden Rogue Council and the Technocracy's Panopticon encouraged the Traditions and Technocracy to struggle once again. The Rogue Council only made itself known through coded missives, while Panopticon was apparently created by the leaders of the Technocracy to counter it.
This struggle eventually led to the point on the timeline occupied by the book called Ascension. While the entire metaplot has always been meant to be altered as each play group sees fit, Ascension provided multiple possible endings, with none of them being definitive (though one was meant to resolve the metaplot). Thus, there is no definitive canonical ending. Since the game is meant to be adapted to a group's tastes, the importance of this and the preceding storyline is largely a matter of personal preference.
Factions
The metaplot of the game involves a four-way struggle between the technological and authoritarian Technocracy, the insane Marauders, the cosmically evil Nephandi and the nine mystical Traditions (that tread the middle path), to which the player characters are assumed to belong. (This struggle has in every edition of the game been characterized both as primarily a covert, violent war directly between factions, and primarily as an effort to sway the imaginations and beliefs of sleepers.)
Council of Nine Mystic Traditions
Mages divide themselves according to their cultures, beliefs and even historical accidents or arbitrary alliances. The primary groups include:
The Technocratic Union
Others
Out of game details
The core rules of the game are the same as those in other World of Darkness games; see Storyteller System for an explanation.
Like other storytelling games Mage emphasizes that players have more freedom in comparison with many other role-playing games, in that the game's powers and traits should be used to tell a satisfying story. One of Mage's highlights is it's award-winning system for describing magic, based on spheres, a relatively open-ended 'toolkit' approach to using game mechanics to define the bounds of a given character's magical ability. The open-endedness of this system is discomforting to some players and gamemasters accustomed to relying on game systems that (seem to) have workable, hard-and-fast rules.
Mage's freeform rule system, esoteric subject and potentially complex message sometimes makes it a daunting game for novice roleplayers. The third revision of the rules, Mage: The Ascension Revised, made significant changes to the rules and setting. Most of these were made to bring the game in line with continuity that had been added in supplements to the game's prior edition. Some fans preferred the second edition without the changes that had been made by subsequent supplements. Like other World of Darkness games, Mage uses a continuing storyline across all of its books.