Re: the Traditions being bad guys, I always saw the technocrats as having their fingers in a lot more pies than the actual rulebooks let on. For example, the Second Inquisition always felt a bit implausible to me… unless 2I is actually a front for the Technocrats, who are able to use technomagic to crack uncrackable encryption, effortlessly resist mental disciplines, etc. From there, you could easily have the Traditions entering into an uneasy alliance with the Camarilla against their mutual enemies. But, if some radicals went a step further and realized that overturning the Masquerade would crack consensus wide open without paradox backlash - as vampires don’t cause paradox - I could see them going on to make an alliance of convenience with the Sabbat, where the mages hold back the Camarilla, Traditions, 2I and other forces trying to protect people from the Sabbat conditional on them letting enough people get away to undermine consensus. If I wanted to run a campaign where Tradition mages were uncomplicatedly and clearly evil, that’s how I’d do it, have the mages egging on the more horrible aspects of the World of Darkness in order to undercut consensus and therefore expand their own power.
Definitely an awesome take on the Second Inquisition. I still stick with the lore of the SI just being a catchall term for anyone hunting supernaturals, especially the really obvious ones like Vampires and Werewolves. The Technocracy in my campaigns are definitely nudging government organizations in the right directions, giving them some of the newer but just barely consensus breaking tech, and helping secure some of that sweet taxpayer money (the good stuff stuff without all the Syndicate's strings and restrictions on it) through just enough propaganda and sponsored legislation. I also tend to have the Celestial Chorus often inspiring the non-awakened towards True Faith, giving them just a taste of the holy power to fight back against the unsavory creatures of the night. And the Euthanatos definitely aren't keen on people violating natural cycle of life and death.
The thing is with sphere magick is that it is complicated and heavily dependent on how the character, or even the player percieves them. For example Correspondence is a hard nut to crack: it means space, distance, of course, but also means more abstract things like inertial systems, points of correlation, linkedness in similarities, the philosophy of space itself.
I’ve discovered this channel more recently after being invited to play a mage game with some friends and I think that a lot of the in depth info you give on the lore and conceptual parts of mage definitely makes me even more interested. Mage is ironic in that large amounts of info make the game feel more understandable
I think when I said "Can a mage live a normal life" i probably was thinking of an awakened mage, someone who has left the proverbial cave but just choses to go back into it looking at shadows. And now I can totally see magicians doing that, turning their back on Ascencion and Enlightenment and maybe even considering working a 9-5 more "real" than whatever umbral realm they visited. That could be a great character in its own. Though it would be, in my mind, the exception. I feel like once you tasted the power of magik, i don't feel most could go back to a sleeper life. Also on the Verbena and Dreamspeaker question: I think its a general oversaturation in WoD to follow the Vampire formula. Do lasombra and Ventrue need to be 2 different clans? Do Silver Fangs and Shadowmaster really gotta be 2 different tribes etc. And obviously also the culutral bias you mentioned. The Verbena is a great Dreamspeaker archetype, the ancient druid or balck forest witch but i feel that's what they should be - a subfaction of the Dreamspeakers.
I do have to say, that the constant focus of the Verbena as being the same as the Dreamspeakers but racism therefore: is misguided and offensive. The comparison between the Celestial Chorus and The Order of Hermes is rarely (if ever) made, even though they both rely on and have Angelic/Enochian magic as a focus. The Verbena are largely based on early British and Irish (B&I) mythology, historical persecution that was native to B&I at the time and a healthy amount of Druidic references thrown in. They are their own fully fleshed-out group. I do find it interesting that the comparison is never made to the opposite: that the Dreamspeakers are basically Verbena but brown/black. The downplaying of unique Indigenous British & Irish mythology and native cultural context is such a shame. The Verbena core book even makes specific references to the Mabinogion.
What happens to the nature of reality if the consensus weakens because the majority of humanity dies off since normal Humanity seems to be what keeps reality stable
Re: the Traditions being bad guys, I always saw the technocrats as having their fingers in a lot more pies than the actual rulebooks let on. For example, the Second Inquisition always felt a bit implausible to me… unless 2I is actually a front for the Technocrats, who are able to use technomagic to crack uncrackable encryption, effortlessly resist mental disciplines, etc. From there, you could easily have the Traditions entering into an uneasy alliance with the Camarilla against their mutual enemies. But, if some radicals went a step further and realized that overturning the Masquerade would crack consensus wide open without paradox backlash - as vampires don’t cause paradox - I could see them going on to make an alliance of convenience with the Sabbat, where the mages hold back the Camarilla, Traditions, 2I and other forces trying to protect people from the Sabbat conditional on them letting enough people get away to undermine consensus. If I wanted to run a campaign where Tradition mages were uncomplicatedly and clearly evil, that’s how I’d do it, have the mages egging on the more horrible aspects of the World of Darkness in order to undercut consensus and therefore expand their own power.
Definitely an awesome take on the Second Inquisition. I still stick with the lore of the SI just being a catchall term for anyone hunting supernaturals, especially the really obvious ones like Vampires and Werewolves. The Technocracy in my campaigns are definitely nudging government organizations in the right directions, giving them some of the newer but just barely consensus breaking tech, and helping secure some of that sweet taxpayer money (the good stuff stuff without all the Syndicate's strings and restrictions on it) through just enough propaganda and sponsored legislation. I also tend to have the Celestial Chorus often inspiring the non-awakened towards True Faith, giving them just a taste of the holy power to fight back against the unsavory creatures of the night. And the Euthanatos definitely aren't keen on people violating natural cycle of life and death.
Welcome back sir!
The thing is with sphere magick is that it is complicated and heavily dependent on how the character, or even the player percieves them. For example Correspondence is a hard nut to crack: it means space, distance, of course, but also means more abstract things like inertial systems, points of correlation, linkedness in similarities, the philosophy of space itself.
I’ve discovered this channel more recently after being invited to play a mage game with some friends and I think that a lot of the in depth info you give on the lore and conceptual parts of mage definitely makes me even more interested. Mage is ironic in that large amounts of info make the game feel more understandable
Indeed, welcome back sir.
Curse the algorithm for showing me this so late! Thanks for answering my question!
I think when I said "Can a mage live a normal life" i probably was thinking of an awakened mage, someone who has left the proverbial cave but just choses to go back into it looking at shadows.
And now I can totally see magicians doing that, turning their back on Ascencion and Enlightenment and maybe even considering working a 9-5 more "real" than whatever umbral realm they visited.
That could be a great character in its own. Though it would be, in my mind, the exception. I feel like once you tasted the power of magik, i don't feel most could go back to a sleeper life.
Also on the Verbena and Dreamspeaker question: I think its a general oversaturation in WoD to follow the Vampire formula. Do lasombra and Ventrue need to be 2 different clans? Do Silver Fangs and Shadowmaster really gotta be 2 different tribes etc. And obviously also the culutral bias you mentioned. The Verbena is a great Dreamspeaker archetype, the ancient druid or balck forest witch but i feel that's what they should be - a subfaction of the Dreamspeakers.
Just got started, I've found the channel really interesting
Yes!
I do have to say, that the constant focus of the Verbena as being the same as the Dreamspeakers but racism therefore: is misguided and offensive. The comparison between the Celestial Chorus and The Order of Hermes is rarely (if ever) made, even though they both rely on and have Angelic/Enochian magic as a focus. The Verbena are largely based on early British and Irish (B&I) mythology, historical persecution that was native to B&I at the time and a healthy amount of Druidic references thrown in. They are their own fully fleshed-out group. I do find it interesting that the comparison is never made to the opposite: that the Dreamspeakers are basically Verbena but brown/black. The downplaying of unique Indigenous British & Irish mythology and native cultural context is such a shame. The Verbena core book even makes specific references to the Mabinogion.
: D
What happens to the nature of reality if the consensus weakens because the majority of humanity dies off since normal Humanity seems to be what keeps reality stable