Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension

Revised Edition cover
Designers	Stewart Wieck, Christopher Earley, Stephan Wieck, Bill Bridges, Sam Chupp, Andrew Greenberg
Publishers	White Wolf Publishing
Publication	19 August 1993 (ed. 1) December 1995 (ed. 2) March 2000 (Revised Edition) 23 September 2015 (20th Anniversary Edition)
Genres	Modern Mysticism
Systems	Storyteller System

Mage: The Ascension is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game, which was first published by White Wolf Publishing on August 19th 1993. Set in the World of Darkness, it was influenced by the mechanics of another game from the same publisher, Ars Magica.

History

Following the success of Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage: The Ascension was released as the second of four games within White Wolf's shared universe. The inaugural edition was launched by White Wolf Publishing at the Gen Con Gaming Convention on 19th August 1993, marking the first chapter of the Mage series. A second edition followed in December 1995, with a revised edition released in March 2000. In 2005 White Wolf Publishing merged with CCP Games, and following company layoffs in October 2011, White Wolf's Creative Director, Richard Thomas, founded Onyx Path Publishing to continue publishing tabletop role-playing games. Onyx Path Publishing later introduced the 20th Anniversary Edition of Mage: The Ascension in September 2015, representing the the game's fourth iteration.

Game setting

Mage: The Ascension is set in the fictional Gothic-Punk World of Darkness, a reflection of contemporary Earth with the inclusion of magical abilities.

History

Early times

The story begins with descriptions and fables of the original powerful mages meeting in Kemet. This period of historical uncertainty also saw the Nephandi and the Marauders rise in the Near East.

The mages had varying success until the Late Middle Ages, where mages belonging to the Order of Hermes and the Messianic Voices attained a significant influence over European society. Absorbed by their pursuit of occult power and esoteric knowledge, they often neglected and abused humanity. They were at odds with mainstream religions, envied by noble authorities, and cursed by ordinary folk.

The Order of Reason

Mages who believed in protoscientific theories banded together under the banner of the Order of Reason, declaring their aim to create a safe world with man as its ruler. They won support by developing the useful arts of manufacturing, economics, wayfaring, and medicine. They also championed many of the values we associate with the Renaissance. Masses of sleepers (normal humans who have yet to "awaken" their potential and inner magic) embraced the gifts of early technology and the science that accompanied them. As the beliefs of the masses shifted, the consensus amongst the populace changed, and wizards began to lose their position as their influence waned.

The Order of Reason thought a safe world would be one devoid of heretical beliefs, ungodly practices, and supernatural creatures preying upon humanity. 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 primary magical paths gathered.

Rise of the Technocracy

After the turn of the 17th century, the goals of the Order of Reason began to change. They decided that the mystical beliefs of ordinary people were not only backward but dangerous; they should be replaced by measurable and predictable physical laws and respect for human genius. They replaced long-held theologies, pantheons, and mystical traditions with "rational thought" and the scientific method.

However, the Order of Reason became less focused on improving the daily lives of sleepers and more concerned with eliminating any resistance. Following a reorganization under Queen Victoria in the late 1800s, the Order of Reason began referring to themselves as the Technocracy, or the Technocratic Union.

Contemporary setting

The Technocratic Union maintains an authoritarian rule over the sleepers' beliefs, suppressing the Council of Nine's attempts to reintroduce magic.

Between 1997 and 2000, a series of metaplot events 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. Chief among these signs was the creation of a barrier between the physical and spiritual worlds.

These changes were introduced in supplements for the game's second edition and became core material in the third edition.

Later plot and finale

Aside from the common changes introduced by the World of Darkness metaplot, mages dealt with renewed conflict when the hidden Rogue Council and the Technocracy's control encouraged the Traditions and Technocracy to struggle once again. The Rogue Council only made itself known through coded messages, while the surveillance created by the leaders of the Technocracy was to counter it.

This struggle eventually led to the point on the timeline occupied by the book called Ascension. Ascension provided multiple possible endings, with none of them being definitive.

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 as a covert, violent war directly between factions and as an effort to sway the imaginations and beliefs of sleepers.

Council of Nine Mystic Traditions.

The Traditions (formally called the Nine Mystic Traditions) are an alliance of secret societies in Mage. The Traditions exist to unify users of magic under a common banner to protect reality (particularly those parts of reality that are magical) against the growing disbelief of the modern world, the spreading dominance of the Technocracy, and the predations of unstable mages such as Marauders and Nephandi. Each of the Traditions is a largely independent organization unified by a broadly accepted paradigm for practicing magic. Though unified in their desire to keep magic alive, the magic practiced by different Traditions is often wildly different and entirely incompatible.

The nine traditions are:

• Akashic Brotherhood: ascetics, martial artists, and monks, largely drawing from Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, and Hinduism. They are masters of the sphere of Mind.
• Celestial Chorus: a collection of many religions that believe in one supreme creator. They are masters of the sphere of Prime, the raw essence that fuels magic itself.
• Cult of Ecstasy: intuitive seers using sensory stimulation, consciousness-expanding techniques, and meditation. They are Masters of the sphere of Time.
• Dreamspeakers: shamanistic emissaries to the spirit world. They are masters of the Spirit World.
• Euthanatos: workers and killers drawing from a legacy of death cults in India, Greece, and the cultures of the Arabs and Celts. They are masters of the sphere of Entropy.
• The Order of Hermes: formalized high ritualists, ceremonial magicians, sorcerers, alchemists, and mystics drawing from classical occult practices. They are masters of the sphere of Forces.
• Sons of Ether: inspiration-oriented scientists dedicated to fringe theories and alternative science. They are masters of the sphere of Matter.
• Verbena: blood shamans, healers, primordial witches, and warlocks. They are masters of the sphere of Life.
• Virtual Adepts: technological experts capable of informational wizardry. They are masters of the sphere of Correspondence, magic dealing with three-dimensional location, space, and communications.

The Technocratic Union

The Technocracy is likewise divided into groups. Unlike the Traditions, however, they share a single paradigm and instead divide themselves based on their methodologies and areas of expertise.

The technocracy groups are:

• Iteration X: experts in the arena of the physical sciences.
• Progenitors: masters of the biological sciences as a whole.
• New World Order: controllers of information and knowledge.
• The Syndicate: controllers of the flow of money and power between disparate groups.
• The Void Engineers: explorers of the unknown.

Marauders

Marauders are chaos mages. Unlike other mages, they appear immune to paradoxical effects and often use vulgar magic to accomplish their insane tasks. Marauders represent the other narrative extreme: the corruption of unrestrained power and unchecked dynamism. They cannot become Archmages, as they lack sufficient insight and are incapable of appreciating truths that do not suit their madness.

In the revised edition, Marauders were made darker and less coherent, in keeping with the more serious treatment of madness used for Malkavians in Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition.

Nephandi

With the Technocracy representing Stasis and the Marauders acting on behalf of Dynamism, the third part of this trifecta is Entropy, as borne by the Nephandi. The Nephandi are morally inverted and spiritually mutilated. A Nephandus retains a clear moral compass and deliberately pursues actions to worsen the world and bring about its end.

The Technocracy and Traditions have been known to set aside the ongoing war for reality in order to temporarily join forces against the Nephandi. Meanwhile, the Marauders are known to attack the Nephandi on sight. All Nephandi have experienced the Rebirth - where they embrace the antithesis of everything they know to be right, are physically and spiritually torn apart, and then reassembled.

The Disparate Alliance

The Disparate Alliance is a newly created network of independent Crafts that have chosen to take the matters of the Ascension War into their own hands. During the Age of Information, small mage societies and groups called crafts began reaching out to each other. With no desire to join the Traditions and a general hatred for the Technocracy, they decided to band together.

The five founding crafts are:

• The Ahl-i-Batin, Arabian mages originally based in the Middle East and North Africa, this group has expanded worldwide. They practice magic with a strong focus on subtlety and seek to bring Unity to the world.

• The Children of Knowledge, LSD and other psychedelic-using alchemists who hope that their drugs could help to open people's minds.

• The Hollow Ones, mages who have either been orphaned by or rejected by the Traditions and has refused to join the Technocracy. They take what they like from every tradition and fuse it. Their magic often uses whatever they have to work with, referred to as gutter magic. They draw members from various subcultures and counterculture groups such as afrofuturists, cosplayers, cybergoths, emos, goths, new agers, skaters, hip hop, and ballroom voguers.

• The Ngoma, proud sub-Saharan African ritualists and knowledge-seekers who strive to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos and the gods.

• The Bata'a, followers of voodoo, vodun, Santería, Candomblé, Obeah, Hoodoo, and other Afro-Caribbean religions.

They were then joined by five other crafts:

• The Kopa Loei, Polynesian mystics who are working to return ancient wisdom and culture to their people and balance to their islands.

• The Knights of the Temple of Solomon, also known as Knights Templar, are dedicated to the Christian God.

• The Sisters of Hippolyta, a feminist and holistic group with roots in the ancient warrior Amazons.

• The Taftâni, Djinn-binding Persian mages who craft bold spells and displays of magic.

• The Wu Lung, Confucian dragon wizards who practice Chinese high ritual magic, alchemy, and a special fighting technique known as Kuei Lung Chuan.

Other Crafts that have been considered for membership include:

• The Balamob, jaguar-priests from Central America.

• The Thunder Society, North American native shamans that are working to heal their communities and tribes.

• The Uzoma, Yoruba mediums, and spirit intercessors.

• The Navalon, breakaways from the Utopian faction within the Technocracy who revere the ideal of Camelot and King Arthur.

• The Mirainohmen, Japanese techno mystical tricksters who use psychic bonds with technological spirits to rearrange identities and undermine social preconceptions.

• The Red Thorn Dedicants, a cult of magic-using Bahari that revere Lilith.

• The Itz'at, Mesoamerican seers and prophets.

• The Go Kamisori Gama, technomantic ninja assassins with a vendetta against the Technocratic Union.

Rules and continuity

The core rules of the game are similar to those in other World of Darkness games; see Storyteller System for an explanation.

Like other storytelling games, Mage emphasizes personal creativity and that ultimately, the game's powers and traits should be used to tell a satisfying story. One of Mage's highlights is its 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. Different Mages will have differing aptitudes for spheres and a character's magical expertise is described by the allocation of points in the spheres. The various spheres' sigils are, in whole or in part, symbols taken from alchemical texts.

The game organizes magic into nine spheres:

• Correspondence: space and distances, allowing teleportation and seeing into distant areas.
• Entropy: order, chaos, fate, and fortune. A mage can sense where elements of chance influence the world and manipulate them to some degree.
• Forces: energies, natural forces, and their negative opposites; essentially, anything in the material world that can be seen or felt but is not material that can be controlled: electricity, gravity, magnetism, friction, heat, motion, fire, etc.
• Life: understanding and influencing biological systems, material objects with mostly living cells; allows the mage to heal herself or metamorphose simple life forms at lower levels, working up to healing others and controlling more complex life at higher levels.
• Mind: control over one's mind, the reading and influencing of other minds, and a variety of subtler applications such as astral projection and psychometry. At high levels, Mages can create new complete minds or completely rework existing ones.
• Matter: all inanimate material; matter can be reshaped mentally, transmuted into another substance, or given altered properties.
• Prime: deals directly with Quintessence, the raw material of the tapestry, which is the metaphysical structure of reality. It is necessary if the mage ever wants to conjure something out of nothing, as opposed to transforming one pattern into another. Uses of Prime include general magic senses, counter-magic, and making magical effects permanent.
• Spirit: an eclectic mixture of abilities relating to dealings with the spirit world or Umbra. It includes stepping into the Near Umbra right up to traveling through outer space, contacting and controlling spirits, communing with your own or others' avatars, returning a Mage into a sleeper, returning ghosts to life, creating magical fetish items, and so forth.
• Time: dilating, slowing, stopping, or traveling through time; can be used to install delays into spells, view the past or future, and pull people and objects out of linear progression.

One of the plot hooks the second edition books put forth were the persistent rumors of a "tenth sphere." Though there were hints, it was deliberately left vague. The final book in the series, Ascension, implies that the tenth sphere is the sphere of Ascension. As the book presents alternative resolutions for the Mage line, Chapter Two also presents an alternative interpretation that the tenth sphere is "Judgement" or "Telos" and that Anthelios (the red star in the World of Darkness metaplot) is its planet (each sphere has an associated planet and Umbral realm).

Reception

Adam Tinworth of Arcane gave Mage: The Ascension's second edition a score of 8/10, calling it good for those who enjoy involved and challenging games. He noted that while it could be difficult for new players to grasp the game's background, develop their own style of magic, or figure out how the magic worked, the game-play system itself would be easy enough for newcomers to understand.

Mage: The Ascension was ranked 16th in the 1996 reader poll of Arcane magazine which determined the 50 most popular role-playing games of all time. The magazine's editor, Paul Pettengale commented: "Mage is perfect for those of a philosophical bent. It's a hard game to get right, requiring a great deal of thought from players and referees alike, but its underlying theme – the nature of reality – makes it one of the most interesting and mature roleplaying games available."

Awards

• In 1994, Mage: The Ascension was nominated for Casus Belli's awards for the best role-playing game of 1993 and ended up in fifth place.
• Mage: The Ascension, 2nd Edition won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1995.

Reviews

• Dragon No. 202 (February 1994)
• Shadis #27 (May 1996)
• Pyramid for Second Edition Revised
• Rollespilsmagasinet Fønix (Danish) (Issue 12 - Mar/Apr 1996)
• Envoyer (German) (Issue 27 - Jan 1999)

See also

• List of Mage: The Ascension books

External links

• Onyx's Path's Mage Page
• Wayback Machine archive of White Wolf's Official Mage page

• GURPS edition