OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Optional boss plot coupons for a scheme to challenge the prince via Diablerie?
White Wolf's World of Darkness
Optional boss plot coupons for a scheme to challenge the prince via Diablerie?
The Many Directions--The Court of the East, With New Contracts
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Directional Court--The Court of the East (The Serpent Court, the Trident, the Court of Wealth)
Description: Every Durance is different, but the lack of control is something definite about most of them. Leaving was a choice, but one that requires great effort. One left a miserable situation, or an undesired one, to return to life.
And some of these Changelings find themselves into the East Court, whose founding ethos is wealth: wealth, which can grant the Changeling the power and security that he lacked, the control that she so desperately wanted. The Court of Wealth uses its money to bankroll Freeholds, buy off True Fae, and make their own lives as pleasant as possible.
But too, they use wealth as a measure of everything: those who are most powerful have the most wealth, and are most able to make the world one in which all things they desire fall into their laps.
This is not a court of peerless, fearless people without vice: but neither is it a court of fools, unaware of the nature of want, the nature of the drive for more, more more that pushes one onward.
Envy them, and they will envy you back. The Court and its Emperors are not sentimental, they are practical, and those who join them learn to use all that they have to protect all that they value.
Courtiers: Not all who join the court are rich. For every wealthy miser, there is an up-and-coming shoe salesman, a prostitute who knows that at the end of the day, it's money that can lead her out of her rut. Anyone who has that envy, that desire to acquire more wealth, and the willingness to do whatever it will take, might join the Court.
Wealth isn't required… but those who join the court tend to start accumulating it in great amounts. Courtiers are rarely inclined to refuse to use their magic to gain money, and their magic is very, very good at getting them wealth, if their own get-rich-quicker attitude didn't already help their cause.
Courtiers compete with each other, and in many Freeholds, the East Court resembles any number of less than savory schemes. The traditional way for courtiers to interact with each other is in a pyramid scheme: a new courtier can only be inducted at the behest of an older courtier, who then is owed monetary compensation, and often obedience and loyalty. In theory this goes all the way up to the Emperor, who owns the loyalty (and a share of the wealth) of everyone.
In practice, some East Courts have devolved into warring 'parties' of bribesters, owing only nominal loyalty to the puppet at the top, competing corporations of the supernatural world that view and treat each other as bitter foes.
The East Court also practices ancestor veneration, and celebrates a variety of holidays to give wealth to the dead, for just as the new Courtier owes his wealth to the older one, so too does even the most powerful courtier owe celebration and gifts to the dead: or to those who are the beneficiaries of the dead. Friends, family, loved ones designated so.
Yet for all of this veneration of those above… they also envy those who are higher-ranked than them, and as much as loyalty can win greater plaudits, so can a greedy grasping for advantage and power: at most it is unseemly in the eyes of most Serpents, not immoral.
Mantle and Crown:
The Mantle of the serpent Court is all about power and envy. The courtiers appear larger than life even at a low Mantle, and as they grow more powerful, there is a look of… superiority. Intellectual, moral, in every sense they seem to almost excude the allure of wealth, which excuses vices and failings that in those less wealthy might be castigated. At the very highest Mantles, they often seem to be made of money quite literally, moving with the odd clink of money or ding of a cash register, teeth of diamond, and a slight perfume of fresh money… these are signs of the truly powerful East Courtier.
Mantle 1, Gain an extra dice on all socialize rolls.
Mantle 2, May purchase the Obscene Wealth Merit (**) dots.
Mantle 3, Gain a bonus die on all rolls involving subterfuge to stir envy or cut a deal.
Mantle 4, May purchase the Obscene Wealth (*****) Merit. Only one Changeling in a Freehold's East Court can possess this much wealth.
Mantle 5, the Changeling may add his or her full Resources score (excepting Obscene Wealth) to any social roll once per day.
Eastern Crown: "Once per session, the character may gain Resources equal to the character's Mantle. These resources come seemingly by fate, appearing when needed, and are without strings. The resources vanish at the end of the session--whether there is a hole in the bottom of the Changeling's pants, or the gold bar he found suddenly turns out to be fools' gold--and cannot be used for any long-term purchase. The resources are compared to the Resource number of the object the Changeling wants to buy, and the latter is subtracted from the former. By spending one willpower, the Changeling may grant this boon to another."
New Merit:
Obscene Wealth (** or *****)
Pre-req: Can only be obtained with Resources 5 already purchased. A Changeling cannot normally purchase this.
Effect: The 2-dot version grants one, effectively, Resources 6, which in this case means two things. First, Resource 4 purchases can now be made as often as one likes. Second, one gains a social bonus of 9-again among those who are shallow enough to be impressed by conspicuous consumption and wealth, as long as this money is openly known (such as a Fame 1 among "Rich Assholes" or some other group that indicates the monied sets). The five-dot version gives one Resources 7, meaning that even Availability 5 purchases can be made easily, and certain purchases now become possible. This represents the kind of obscene wealth that most people can only dream of. Hundreds of millions is the very start of this level of wealth. With a Fame of 2 or more, gain 8-again in social interactions with, again, those liable to be impressed more by wealth than virtue… which in this world is quite a few people.
Drawbacks: The two dot version automatically gains the drawback of Fame 1, The five-dot version the drawback of Fame 3. Additionally, this money comes with obligations. In order to maintain it, one must be devoted to wealth on a level that leaves little time for other things. The Status, the Retainers, the tools it brings are all chains that make it very hard for a Changeling to escape. He cannot go to ground and hide if the True Fae come, not without losing this Merit, and if lost once, while the dots are refunded by the Sanctity of Merits, they cannot be regained easily. This wealth is a big target, and it should be used by the ST as such.
Emotion: Envy is more than greed: it's wanting what you don't have, it's needing it, too much. What Changeling hasn't felt it? What human? And to be the source of envy… how many people desire the limelight for just that purpose? By dressing up and strutting around, a courtier can harvest the Envy, and feel better about themselves. Envy is cheap and universal: each person envying something else, something more than they have.
They whisper into the ears of people, if they are not the target of envy, they can be the source, carefully manipulating people into envying another, only to reap the rewards.
In the world as it is, there is no end to the envy, to the desire for more. There are no limits... and certainly none that an East Courtier would want to encourage.
Contract of the Serpent's Whisper
Envy is an emotion that coils around the heart, that drives the rich, the poor, and all in-between. It is a complex, vicious emotion, drawing on greed and lust, hope and compassion, all of it in equal measures. Courtiers who learn this Contract start by seeing things in terms of the simple valuation of resources: they approach it with a novice's understanding of the emotion to mean nothing more than money.
But as they grow in understanding of their court's ethos, they begin to see that desire is subjective, that greed can take many forms, and that envy is a universal weapon, one that they can deploy to devastating effects.
(*) Everything's Cost
Value is something that can be determined, and exploited. There is no such thing as an object without value, or a person without worth… but that worth may not be very great at all. With the first clause of the Serpent's Whisper, they gain the ability to tell this value, often to the cent.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 1, Court Goodwill (East) 1
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice-Pool:Investigation+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is in a situation in which he has the authority to declare the value of an object or person (an art appraiser, an interviewer, or other such positions)
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling believes the object or person to be without value, leading to them underestimating its value in-character (to potentially disastrous effects), or creating tension and rude treatment that means that the Changeling takes -2 to all social rolls involving the character until they see something that alters their valuation.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: The Changeling can tell the market-price of any non-supernatural item they see, down to an exact Resource cost for the player. As well, they can get an understanding of two other things. First, they can ask the Storyteller what it would cost to make the target do something, if this is possible in a monetary or direct sense. What would it cost for them to slip a little pork into that legislation, for instance? Second, they can ask about the general 'worth' of a person, that is to say their Resources as it currently stands.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling can tell even more subjective or personal value, such as whether one person would die for another, how good of an ally another person views them as, and so on. It can also sniff out social 'costs' for a person to do something.
Modifiers: +1 (The objects value is well known and almost everyone would value it as such (eg: a famous painting, a gold bracelet)), -1 (The object has value only among rare circles, such as a signed painting among aficionados of the artist)
(**) False Valuation
As a courtier grows in understanding envy and want, they understand just how subjective it is. A woman envies the woman married to such a famous man: while that woman envies those who live without abuse… a man buys a knockoff painting, and yet treasures it in his heart the way he would a real one, none the wiser. What value is, truly, can be manipulated, and what people want can be similarly toyed with.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 3
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Manipulation+Wyrd vs Intelligence+Wyrd
Action: Contested
Catch: The object whose value is being measured has been killed for in the past.
Dramatic Failure: The target finds the object either more valuable or less valuable… the opposite of whatever the Changeling wants to happen.
Failure: The person's perception of the object's value is unchanged.
Success: For the next scene, a person's valuation of an object is increased or decreased by one per each success, to a maximum of three times (or 1/3rd) the actual value. Thus, an object worth 1 Resource, may be valued as being essentially worthless, or as being quite valuable (3 Resources). Only objects that are worth 1 Resource can be reduced to zero, essentially making them seem worthless to the target, but nobody else.
Exceptional Success: The effect instead lasts one full day, and the effect can be spread memetically to anyone present in the scene, rather than a single target, provided they fail the check against it as well.
Modifiers: The Changeling themselves values the object differently than what it's worth, in accordance with the changes of the clause (such as a broke Changeling pawning a precious heirloom that to them is worth Resources 4, and using this Clause to get their money's worth) (+2), The object has sentimental value to the target (-1).
(***) Poisoned Tongue
Envy is easy to spread. Once you understand what value is, and how to manipulate it, envy is easy to see even without magic. This man values the lover on his rival's arm, that man wants said rival's gold watch… and if they don't want it, they can be made to want it, with the right bit of magic.
Prerequisite: Mantle (South) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 4
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Persuasion+Wyrd+Mantle vs. Composure+Wyrd
Action: Contested
Catch: The target regards the Changeling as a friend, as well as the person that the Changeling is trying to make them envy.
Dramatic Failure: Far from envying them… they admire the person that the Changeling wants the target to dislike. As well, they realize that the Changeling is poisoning the well with lies.
Failure: It fails. Depending on how it is enacted, the target might realize an attempt was made, and might react accordingly.
Success: The target, provided they feel envious of anyone at all, can have this envy redirected and shifted to another target. By talking to them, the Changeling makes their victim envy some aspect of another person, though the nature of this envy is down to the ST's fiat, and the Changeling cannot decide the exact reasons/form of the envy, merely the person or thing envied, and the aspect of it envied (IE, "You envy his love life" but not, "You really wish you were fucking his boyfriend"). This effect lasts for one day for every three Wyrd that the Changeling possesses. This envy can be used as a target for social manipulation, doubling as a Vice for all social effects, as well as a desire/aspiration/etc. ((Specifically, I have ideas for how I'd slot it into the 2e social system, but I'm slightly fuzzier on the 1e, but I hope this is enough to go off of.))
Exceptional Success: The target's envy does not fade with time, though after the time of the contract slipping, it may naturally go away. The target also doesn't remember the source of the envy, forgetting that the Changeling whispered the poison in their ear in the first place.
Modifiers:
(****) Envy's Scales
Those who envy you are weak, their words pathetic, the result of nothing more than their own pathetic desires. The Changeling may armor themselves socially, shrugging off the social pressures of others, aware that their attention is not worth your time, and their blandishments are meaningless.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 3, Court Goodwill (East) 5
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Resolve+Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is naturally the envy of at least five people currently present in the room.
Dramatic Failure: Every barbed word hurts, every envious gaze makes the Changeling feel the odd, and to an East Courtier almost heretical, desire to please others so that they might envy them less. Others gain +2 on all social rolls related to them, or improve impression by two degrees, if interacting with the 2e Impression system.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: For the next scene, the Changeling becomes inured to the blandishments of anyone the ST deems envies them, including those that have been made to envy the Changeling. They cannot spend willpower on social rolls against the Changeling, and they take a penalty of -2 to all social interactions with them. The Changeling knows that their harshest words, or most honeyed compliments, are merely the idle prattle of those envious of their success.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling's armor is stronger than even they know. Any rolls to use any magical power that influences the user's mind automatically take a -2, and if they are not contested (few enough), they become contested, rolling against the Changeling's Composure+Wyrd.
Modifiers: The Changeling is dressed in a way, or possesses something, of great value to all in the room (+1), The Changeling is pathetic or in other ways not the subject of much natural envy (-1).
(*****) Donning the Green-Eyed Coronet
Sometimes one must play the villain… or make themselves the dark hero of the tale. By this Clause, a Changeling can make himself the envy of all around him, the one they plot against, the star of the show. Hated and loved, this clause is often used in conjunction with the weaker, earlier clauses, for it is in combination that it is truly terrifying.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 4
Cost: 5 Glamour, one Willpower
Dice-Pool: Presence+Wyrd+Mantle vs. Presence+Wyrd
Action: Extended (3 turns)
Catch: The Changeling allows envy to overtake them, their Vice being changed to envy, and they are unable to spend willpower, and suffer a -2 to social interactions with anyone they envy (which is to say everyone.)
Dramatic Failure: Instead of being the envy of all… he is the object of contempt and pity, disliked and rejected.
Failure: It doesn't work.
Success: The Changeling flaunts around, making an extended show lasting at least three turns, and then completes it with a public statement indicating their superiority. All those within the room, up to a total of Wyrdx10 people begin to envy them with a gnawing hunger that in some might make them far more willing to please (a bonus to social interactions), and in other cases might make them bitter… which can be just as easily manipulated, either by the Changeling themselves… or any carefully planted associates. This envy lasts the rest of the scene, and feels natural and understandable, thus making it very difficult to notice. Only those with a powerful will (Willpower 7 or more) will be able to notice… at least at the time. This envy can be somewhat directed if the Changeling knows their particular targets, but is otherwise determined by the ST. This envy can be used as the Vice for any attempt to persuade someone else, and is often combined with other Clauses.
Exceptional Success: This Envy instead lasts in all participants a total of Wyrdx8 hours.
Modifiers: +1 (At least half of the people in the room would count the Changeling as an enemy before this Contract is used.)
Contract of the Eastern Trident
Money makes the world go around: it is power, it can be love, it drives friendships… or tears them apart. The East Court is devoted, like the dragon whose fractured mythology (sharing much with western stories, and yet having its own twists) they embody, to accumulating more and more wealth and power.
This is a weapon, and this is a defense: those who do not know it cannot truly master the clauses, and this requires an understanding of the East Court and its ways.
(*) Exchanging Properties
Some people would say that value is merely the subjective whims of people, that there is no absolute truth: gold is valuable because people value it, simple as that. And these people aren't wrong… but in a supernatural sense, neither are they right. With this Contract, a Changeling may exchange and create value within objects.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Craft+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Object being transferred from has sentimental value to the Changeling.
Dramatic Failure: Both objects instead degrade in value, losing one Resource in value or usefulness.
Failure: The transfer doesn't go through.
Success: The Changeling may transfer up to successes dots of Resource value from one object into one or more other objects. No object changed this way can have its Resources value more than doubled, and the limit is, as normal, five. A Changeling can take an expensive watch, and by this strange power turn it into a valueless, cheapo, disposable watch in exchange for making a shabby suit finer, and a pair of glasses sharper. The objects increased in value do not functionally (except for the social function that a fine suit or valuable item might have) become better: a gun subject to this might become gold-plated if need be (or made of cherry wood, or anything else required), but it will not become another, better version of the same gun.
Exceptional Success: Any object can have its value increased up to five.
Modifiers: The objects being used in the transfer are both similar (a dress for a suit, a sword for a gun) (+1)
(**) Friendship's Rewards
Your friends are your strength? Well, my friends are my wealth. So says the cunning serpent. One's contacts can be a source of wealth, as well as a source of conviviality.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 3
Cost: 2 Glamour, 2 Willpower
Dice-Pool: Wits+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling sacrifices one dot of an Ally (or similar) Merit permanently.
Dramatic Failure: They instead lose a dot of Resources.
Failure: Nothing happens
Success: Once per month, the Changeling may gain one pip of temporary Resources per dot of Social Merit they possess, up to a limit of Mantle x 2. A temporary resource can be spent as if it is money, to match the value or cost of the item that the Changeling wishes to purchase, and is tracked separately. This money comes by happenstance: a dropped wallet with nobody asking where it came from, a diamond found lying on the beach. This money also disappears by happenstance after one week if it is not spent, and thus many Changelings follow a very predictable buying spree, going from feast to slow periods, and then back to feasts.
Exceptional Success: There is no limit. They may gain as many 'pips' as they want, equal to the Social Merit dots they have.
Modifiers: The Changeling has more than 15 dots of Social Merits (+1), The Changeling has neglected any of their social duties in any way within the last month (-3.)
(***) Friend-Buying Technique
The person who has the money, and buys the drinks, is everyone's friend. By using the power of their wealth… and yet also abandoning it, at least for a time, a user of this Clause can gain useful contacts that might prove as useful as money… or more importantly, might prove able to grant the user money, especially those who have further mastered the Contract.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 3, Court Goodwill (East) 4
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Presence+Wyrd+Mantle
Action: Instant
Catch: At least one dot is given up permanently.
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling temporarily loses their dots of Resources… but gains absolutely nothing in return.
Failure: Nothing happens either way.
Success: The Changeling may temporarily sacrifice one dot of the Resources Merit for twenty four hours: if they do so, they may gain two dots of certain Social Merits, temporarily, for the rest of the scene. People misremember knowing them, and thus are willing to act as a Contact to give information, they think the Changeling is a Mentor… or everyone might briefly mistake them for someone famous. The following Merits can be temporarily purchased with these dots: Ally, Contact, Retainer, Fame, Striking Looks, and Status. Characters may make a Composure+Wyrd roll against the successes gained by the technique to realize these emotions are false: they wake up as if from a spell to any delusions at the end of the scene, either way. The Changeling can only sacrifice a number of dots equal to their successes per use of this Contract, and cannot regain the Merit dots lost before the end of the twenty-four hours.
Exceptional Success: While extra successes can be their own reward, the Changeling may also purchase the Mentor merit with the temporary dots
Modifiers: The Changeling already has strong social ties among the group he's talking to (+1), the group he's trying to get into, or ally with, seriously and legitimately hates him (-3).
((Worries: I fear that it's too similar to the South Court technique, but at the same time it feels thematically resonant?))
(****) Serpent's Scales
Wealth is its own protection: from the misery of the world, from the nightmarish experience of many Changeling's Durances… it's the foundation of the Eastern Court, and when they say that wealth is what allows them to survive, they don't merely mean it in some metaphorical sense. When the True Fae come calling, it is this clause that allows even the often less-than-martial East Courtiers to stand up against them.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 4, Court Goodwill (East) 5
Cost: 4 Glamour, 1 Willpower
Dice-Pool:Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is wearing a piece of clothing that provides absolutely no protection, but is incredibly expensive, as in, of a value of Resources 5.
Dramatic Failure:
Failure: The armor fails to materialize.
Success: For the rest of the scene, the Changeling who uses this Contract has Armor equal to their Resource Merit dots, with the Obscene Wealth Merit counting as two additional points of armor. The Changeling may only have armor equal to their successes x2. This armor is effective against all kinds of damage, but can be bypassed with pure iron, as well as any weapon whose base cost, without any clauses used upon it, is Resources 5. On the Changeling, this manifests as a blue-green glow, and a subtle pattern of scales on their skin.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling also gains slow regeneration, as long as they possess their great wealth, during the scene that this is active. They heal one bashing damage every five turns, and may spend Willpower on a one-per-one basis to turn Lethal damage taken into Bashing damage. (? Not sure!)
Modifiers: The Changeling is fighting someone who is notably poor, uncouth, or inferior (+1), the Changeling is fighting a superior, or someone who acts in a lordly and disdainful manner (-1).
(*****) Wrath of the Dragon
The fury of one who is stolen from or crossed is great. Money is power, and so is the wrath of the envious courtier who is crossed. While they are not rated great warriors like many in both North and West Court, with this clause they can hold their own, the power of their money, and their terror, warding off hordes of enemies, and
Cost: 5 Glamour and 1 Willpower dot.
Dice-Pool: Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Contract is being used to hunt or attack someone who has stolen an object (or person) of value to the Changeling.
Dramatic Failure:
Failure:
Success: The Changeling transforms, both in nature and in features. Most often he takes on slight draconic tells. Warm skin, dark red eyes, breath that is oddly hot, but more pressingly, his very Mien itself is terrifying. Those who are not Changelings (or other supernatural beings) cannot attack the Changeling except in self-defense, and must spend one Willpower per turn they combat the Changeling, rather than fleeing before their wrath. Changelings must spend one Willpower per scene that they either attack or directly bar the way of the Changeling. The Changeling takes one lethal damage, resistant to any magic and unable to be healed by magic, for each scene they maintain this form, which increases their Strength or Presence by half of the Resources merit (round up) plus successes, and grants them a 0L armed attack. All attacks made are 8-again.
Exceptional Success: Reduce the Armor of any target by two, and the durability of anything that gets in the way by three. All attacks are Rote. May also increase the Dexterity of the Changeling, and the maximum Strength, Presence, or Dexterity of the Changeling for the purpose of this clause is six.
Modifiers: The Changeling has the Obscene Wealth Merit (+1), The Changeling did not use this by activating the Catch (-1).
******
A/N: The New Merit is something that needs work, and I think at least some of these clauses could really use work, or are vague. But I've been sitting on top of this for weeks now, working at it, so I want to release it.
Please give feedback. If you're willing to debate five-rounds with Paulie about Personal Horror, it shouldn't be hard to give feedback on homebrew?
Description: Every Durance is different, but the lack of control is something definite about most of them. Leaving was a choice, but one that requires great effort. One left a miserable situation, or an undesired one, to return to life.
And some of these Changelings find themselves into the East Court, whose founding ethos is wealth: wealth, which can grant the Changeling the power and security that he lacked, the control that she so desperately wanted. The Court of Wealth uses its money to bankroll Freeholds, buy off True Fae, and make their own lives as pleasant as possible.
But too, they use wealth as a measure of everything: those who are most powerful have the most wealth, and are most able to make the world one in which all things they desire fall into their laps.
This is not a court of peerless, fearless people without vice: but neither is it a court of fools, unaware of the nature of want, the nature of the drive for more, more more that pushes one onward.
Envy them, and they will envy you back. The Court and its Emperors are not sentimental, they are practical, and those who join them learn to use all that they have to protect all that they value.
Courtiers: Not all who join the court are rich. For every wealthy miser, there is an up-and-coming shoe salesman, a prostitute who knows that at the end of the day, it's money that can lead her out of her rut. Anyone who has that envy, that desire to acquire more wealth, and the willingness to do whatever it will take, might join the Court.
Wealth isn't required… but those who join the court tend to start accumulating it in great amounts. Courtiers are rarely inclined to refuse to use their magic to gain money, and their magic is very, very good at getting them wealth, if their own get-rich-quicker attitude didn't already help their cause.
Courtiers compete with each other, and in many Freeholds, the East Court resembles any number of less than savory schemes. The traditional way for courtiers to interact with each other is in a pyramid scheme: a new courtier can only be inducted at the behest of an older courtier, who then is owed monetary compensation, and often obedience and loyalty. In theory this goes all the way up to the Emperor, who owns the loyalty (and a share of the wealth) of everyone.
In practice, some East Courts have devolved into warring 'parties' of bribesters, owing only nominal loyalty to the puppet at the top, competing corporations of the supernatural world that view and treat each other as bitter foes.
The East Court also practices ancestor veneration, and celebrates a variety of holidays to give wealth to the dead, for just as the new Courtier owes his wealth to the older one, so too does even the most powerful courtier owe celebration and gifts to the dead: or to those who are the beneficiaries of the dead. Friends, family, loved ones designated so.
Yet for all of this veneration of those above… they also envy those who are higher-ranked than them, and as much as loyalty can win greater plaudits, so can a greedy grasping for advantage and power: at most it is unseemly in the eyes of most Serpents, not immoral.
Mantle and Crown:
The Mantle of the serpent Court is all about power and envy. The courtiers appear larger than life even at a low Mantle, and as they grow more powerful, there is a look of… superiority. Intellectual, moral, in every sense they seem to almost excude the allure of wealth, which excuses vices and failings that in those less wealthy might be castigated. At the very highest Mantles, they often seem to be made of money quite literally, moving with the odd clink of money or ding of a cash register, teeth of diamond, and a slight perfume of fresh money… these are signs of the truly powerful East Courtier.
Mantle 1, Gain an extra dice on all socialize rolls.
Mantle 2, May purchase the Obscene Wealth Merit (**) dots.
Mantle 3, Gain a bonus die on all rolls involving subterfuge to stir envy or cut a deal.
Mantle 4, May purchase the Obscene Wealth (*****) Merit. Only one Changeling in a Freehold's East Court can possess this much wealth.
Mantle 5, the Changeling may add his or her full Resources score (excepting Obscene Wealth) to any social roll once per day.
Eastern Crown: "Once per session, the character may gain Resources equal to the character's Mantle. These resources come seemingly by fate, appearing when needed, and are without strings. The resources vanish at the end of the session--whether there is a hole in the bottom of the Changeling's pants, or the gold bar he found suddenly turns out to be fools' gold--and cannot be used for any long-term purchase. The resources are compared to the Resource number of the object the Changeling wants to buy, and the latter is subtracted from the former. By spending one willpower, the Changeling may grant this boon to another."
New Merit:
Obscene Wealth (** or *****)
Pre-req: Can only be obtained with Resources 5 already purchased. A Changeling cannot normally purchase this.
Effect: The 2-dot version grants one, effectively, Resources 6, which in this case means two things. First, Resource 4 purchases can now be made as often as one likes. Second, one gains a social bonus of 9-again among those who are shallow enough to be impressed by conspicuous consumption and wealth, as long as this money is openly known (such as a Fame 1 among "Rich Assholes" or some other group that indicates the monied sets). The five-dot version gives one Resources 7, meaning that even Availability 5 purchases can be made easily, and certain purchases now become possible. This represents the kind of obscene wealth that most people can only dream of. Hundreds of millions is the very start of this level of wealth. With a Fame of 2 or more, gain 8-again in social interactions with, again, those liable to be impressed more by wealth than virtue… which in this world is quite a few people.
Drawbacks: The two dot version automatically gains the drawback of Fame 1, The five-dot version the drawback of Fame 3. Additionally, this money comes with obligations. In order to maintain it, one must be devoted to wealth on a level that leaves little time for other things. The Status, the Retainers, the tools it brings are all chains that make it very hard for a Changeling to escape. He cannot go to ground and hide if the True Fae come, not without losing this Merit, and if lost once, while the dots are refunded by the Sanctity of Merits, they cannot be regained easily. This wealth is a big target, and it should be used by the ST as such.
Emotion: Envy is more than greed: it's wanting what you don't have, it's needing it, too much. What Changeling hasn't felt it? What human? And to be the source of envy… how many people desire the limelight for just that purpose? By dressing up and strutting around, a courtier can harvest the Envy, and feel better about themselves. Envy is cheap and universal: each person envying something else, something more than they have.
They whisper into the ears of people, if they are not the target of envy, they can be the source, carefully manipulating people into envying another, only to reap the rewards.
In the world as it is, there is no end to the envy, to the desire for more. There are no limits... and certainly none that an East Courtier would want to encourage.
Contract of the Serpent's Whisper
Envy is an emotion that coils around the heart, that drives the rich, the poor, and all in-between. It is a complex, vicious emotion, drawing on greed and lust, hope and compassion, all of it in equal measures. Courtiers who learn this Contract start by seeing things in terms of the simple valuation of resources: they approach it with a novice's understanding of the emotion to mean nothing more than money.
But as they grow in understanding of their court's ethos, they begin to see that desire is subjective, that greed can take many forms, and that envy is a universal weapon, one that they can deploy to devastating effects.
(*) Everything's Cost
Value is something that can be determined, and exploited. There is no such thing as an object without value, or a person without worth… but that worth may not be very great at all. With the first clause of the Serpent's Whisper, they gain the ability to tell this value, often to the cent.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 1, Court Goodwill (East) 1
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice-Pool:Investigation+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is in a situation in which he has the authority to declare the value of an object or person (an art appraiser, an interviewer, or other such positions)
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling believes the object or person to be without value, leading to them underestimating its value in-character (to potentially disastrous effects), or creating tension and rude treatment that means that the Changeling takes -2 to all social rolls involving the character until they see something that alters their valuation.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: The Changeling can tell the market-price of any non-supernatural item they see, down to an exact Resource cost for the player. As well, they can get an understanding of two other things. First, they can ask the Storyteller what it would cost to make the target do something, if this is possible in a monetary or direct sense. What would it cost for them to slip a little pork into that legislation, for instance? Second, they can ask about the general 'worth' of a person, that is to say their Resources as it currently stands.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling can tell even more subjective or personal value, such as whether one person would die for another, how good of an ally another person views them as, and so on. It can also sniff out social 'costs' for a person to do something.
Modifiers: +1 (The objects value is well known and almost everyone would value it as such (eg: a famous painting, a gold bracelet)), -1 (The object has value only among rare circles, such as a signed painting among aficionados of the artist)
(**) False Valuation
As a courtier grows in understanding envy and want, they understand just how subjective it is. A woman envies the woman married to such a famous man: while that woman envies those who live without abuse… a man buys a knockoff painting, and yet treasures it in his heart the way he would a real one, none the wiser. What value is, truly, can be manipulated, and what people want can be similarly toyed with.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 3
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Manipulation+Wyrd vs Intelligence+Wyrd
Action: Contested
Catch: The object whose value is being measured has been killed for in the past.
Dramatic Failure: The target finds the object either more valuable or less valuable… the opposite of whatever the Changeling wants to happen.
Failure: The person's perception of the object's value is unchanged.
Success: For the next scene, a person's valuation of an object is increased or decreased by one per each success, to a maximum of three times (or 1/3rd) the actual value. Thus, an object worth 1 Resource, may be valued as being essentially worthless, or as being quite valuable (3 Resources). Only objects that are worth 1 Resource can be reduced to zero, essentially making them seem worthless to the target, but nobody else.
Exceptional Success: The effect instead lasts one full day, and the effect can be spread memetically to anyone present in the scene, rather than a single target, provided they fail the check against it as well.
Modifiers: The Changeling themselves values the object differently than what it's worth, in accordance with the changes of the clause (such as a broke Changeling pawning a precious heirloom that to them is worth Resources 4, and using this Clause to get their money's worth) (+2), The object has sentimental value to the target (-1).
(***) Poisoned Tongue
Envy is easy to spread. Once you understand what value is, and how to manipulate it, envy is easy to see even without magic. This man values the lover on his rival's arm, that man wants said rival's gold watch… and if they don't want it, they can be made to want it, with the right bit of magic.
Prerequisite: Mantle (South) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 4
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Persuasion+Wyrd+Mantle vs. Composure+Wyrd
Action: Contested
Catch: The target regards the Changeling as a friend, as well as the person that the Changeling is trying to make them envy.
Dramatic Failure: Far from envying them… they admire the person that the Changeling wants the target to dislike. As well, they realize that the Changeling is poisoning the well with lies.
Failure: It fails. Depending on how it is enacted, the target might realize an attempt was made, and might react accordingly.
Success: The target, provided they feel envious of anyone at all, can have this envy redirected and shifted to another target. By talking to them, the Changeling makes their victim envy some aspect of another person, though the nature of this envy is down to the ST's fiat, and the Changeling cannot decide the exact reasons/form of the envy, merely the person or thing envied, and the aspect of it envied (IE, "You envy his love life" but not, "You really wish you were fucking his boyfriend"). This effect lasts for one day for every three Wyrd that the Changeling possesses. This envy can be used as a target for social manipulation, doubling as a Vice for all social effects, as well as a desire/aspiration/etc. ((Specifically, I have ideas for how I'd slot it into the 2e social system, but I'm slightly fuzzier on the 1e, but I hope this is enough to go off of.))
Exceptional Success: The target's envy does not fade with time, though after the time of the contract slipping, it may naturally go away. The target also doesn't remember the source of the envy, forgetting that the Changeling whispered the poison in their ear in the first place.
Modifiers:
(****) Envy's Scales
Those who envy you are weak, their words pathetic, the result of nothing more than their own pathetic desires. The Changeling may armor themselves socially, shrugging off the social pressures of others, aware that their attention is not worth your time, and their blandishments are meaningless.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 3, Court Goodwill (East) 5
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Resolve+Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is naturally the envy of at least five people currently present in the room.
Dramatic Failure: Every barbed word hurts, every envious gaze makes the Changeling feel the odd, and to an East Courtier almost heretical, desire to please others so that they might envy them less. Others gain +2 on all social rolls related to them, or improve impression by two degrees, if interacting with the 2e Impression system.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: For the next scene, the Changeling becomes inured to the blandishments of anyone the ST deems envies them, including those that have been made to envy the Changeling. They cannot spend willpower on social rolls against the Changeling, and they take a penalty of -2 to all social interactions with them. The Changeling knows that their harshest words, or most honeyed compliments, are merely the idle prattle of those envious of their success.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling's armor is stronger than even they know. Any rolls to use any magical power that influences the user's mind automatically take a -2, and if they are not contested (few enough), they become contested, rolling against the Changeling's Composure+Wyrd.
Modifiers: The Changeling is dressed in a way, or possesses something, of great value to all in the room (+1), The Changeling is pathetic or in other ways not the subject of much natural envy (-1).
(*****) Donning the Green-Eyed Coronet
Sometimes one must play the villain… or make themselves the dark hero of the tale. By this Clause, a Changeling can make himself the envy of all around him, the one they plot against, the star of the show. Hated and loved, this clause is often used in conjunction with the weaker, earlier clauses, for it is in combination that it is truly terrifying.
Prerequisite: Mantle (East) 4
Cost: 5 Glamour, one Willpower
Dice-Pool: Presence+Wyrd+Mantle vs. Presence+Wyrd
Action: Extended (3 turns)
Catch: The Changeling allows envy to overtake them, their Vice being changed to envy, and they are unable to spend willpower, and suffer a -2 to social interactions with anyone they envy (which is to say everyone.)
Dramatic Failure: Instead of being the envy of all… he is the object of contempt and pity, disliked and rejected.
Failure: It doesn't work.
Success: The Changeling flaunts around, making an extended show lasting at least three turns, and then completes it with a public statement indicating their superiority. All those within the room, up to a total of Wyrdx10 people begin to envy them with a gnawing hunger that in some might make them far more willing to please (a bonus to social interactions), and in other cases might make them bitter… which can be just as easily manipulated, either by the Changeling themselves… or any carefully planted associates. This envy lasts the rest of the scene, and feels natural and understandable, thus making it very difficult to notice. Only those with a powerful will (Willpower 7 or more) will be able to notice… at least at the time. This envy can be somewhat directed if the Changeling knows their particular targets, but is otherwise determined by the ST. This envy can be used as the Vice for any attempt to persuade someone else, and is often combined with other Clauses.
Exceptional Success: This Envy instead lasts in all participants a total of Wyrdx8 hours.
Modifiers: +1 (At least half of the people in the room would count the Changeling as an enemy before this Contract is used.)
Contract of the Eastern Trident
Money makes the world go around: it is power, it can be love, it drives friendships… or tears them apart. The East Court is devoted, like the dragon whose fractured mythology (sharing much with western stories, and yet having its own twists) they embody, to accumulating more and more wealth and power.
This is a weapon, and this is a defense: those who do not know it cannot truly master the clauses, and this requires an understanding of the East Court and its ways.
(*) Exchanging Properties
Some people would say that value is merely the subjective whims of people, that there is no absolute truth: gold is valuable because people value it, simple as that. And these people aren't wrong… but in a supernatural sense, neither are they right. With this Contract, a Changeling may exchange and create value within objects.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Craft+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Object being transferred from has sentimental value to the Changeling.
Dramatic Failure: Both objects instead degrade in value, losing one Resource in value or usefulness.
Failure: The transfer doesn't go through.
Success: The Changeling may transfer up to successes dots of Resource value from one object into one or more other objects. No object changed this way can have its Resources value more than doubled, and the limit is, as normal, five. A Changeling can take an expensive watch, and by this strange power turn it into a valueless, cheapo, disposable watch in exchange for making a shabby suit finer, and a pair of glasses sharper. The objects increased in value do not functionally (except for the social function that a fine suit or valuable item might have) become better: a gun subject to this might become gold-plated if need be (or made of cherry wood, or anything else required), but it will not become another, better version of the same gun.
Exceptional Success: Any object can have its value increased up to five.
Modifiers: The objects being used in the transfer are both similar (a dress for a suit, a sword for a gun) (+1)
(**) Friendship's Rewards
Your friends are your strength? Well, my friends are my wealth. So says the cunning serpent. One's contacts can be a source of wealth, as well as a source of conviviality.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 2, Court Goodwill (East) 3
Cost: 2 Glamour, 2 Willpower
Dice-Pool: Wits+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling sacrifices one dot of an Ally (or similar) Merit permanently.
Dramatic Failure: They instead lose a dot of Resources.
Failure: Nothing happens
Success: Once per month, the Changeling may gain one pip of temporary Resources per dot of Social Merit they possess, up to a limit of Mantle x 2. A temporary resource can be spent as if it is money, to match the value or cost of the item that the Changeling wishes to purchase, and is tracked separately. This money comes by happenstance: a dropped wallet with nobody asking where it came from, a diamond found lying on the beach. This money also disappears by happenstance after one week if it is not spent, and thus many Changelings follow a very predictable buying spree, going from feast to slow periods, and then back to feasts.
Exceptional Success: There is no limit. They may gain as many 'pips' as they want, equal to the Social Merit dots they have.
Modifiers: The Changeling has more than 15 dots of Social Merits (+1), The Changeling has neglected any of their social duties in any way within the last month (-3.)
(***) Friend-Buying Technique
The person who has the money, and buys the drinks, is everyone's friend. By using the power of their wealth… and yet also abandoning it, at least for a time, a user of this Clause can gain useful contacts that might prove as useful as money… or more importantly, might prove able to grant the user money, especially those who have further mastered the Contract.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 3, Court Goodwill (East) 4
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice-Pool: Presence+Wyrd+Mantle
Action: Instant
Catch: At least one dot is given up permanently.
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling temporarily loses their dots of Resources… but gains absolutely nothing in return.
Failure: Nothing happens either way.
Success: The Changeling may temporarily sacrifice one dot of the Resources Merit for twenty four hours: if they do so, they may gain two dots of certain Social Merits, temporarily, for the rest of the scene. People misremember knowing them, and thus are willing to act as a Contact to give information, they think the Changeling is a Mentor… or everyone might briefly mistake them for someone famous. The following Merits can be temporarily purchased with these dots: Ally, Contact, Retainer, Fame, Striking Looks, and Status. Characters may make a Composure+Wyrd roll against the successes gained by the technique to realize these emotions are false: they wake up as if from a spell to any delusions at the end of the scene, either way. The Changeling can only sacrifice a number of dots equal to their successes per use of this Contract, and cannot regain the Merit dots lost before the end of the twenty-four hours.
Exceptional Success: While extra successes can be their own reward, the Changeling may also purchase the Mentor merit with the temporary dots
Modifiers: The Changeling already has strong social ties among the group he's talking to (+1), the group he's trying to get into, or ally with, seriously and legitimately hates him (-3).
((Worries: I fear that it's too similar to the South Court technique, but at the same time it feels thematically resonant?))
(****) Serpent's Scales
Wealth is its own protection: from the misery of the world, from the nightmarish experience of many Changeling's Durances… it's the foundation of the Eastern Court, and when they say that wealth is what allows them to survive, they don't merely mean it in some metaphorical sense. When the True Fae come calling, it is this clause that allows even the often less-than-martial East Courtiers to stand up against them.
Prerequisites: Mantle (East) 4, Court Goodwill (East) 5
Cost: 4 Glamour, 1 Willpower
Dice-Pool:Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is wearing a piece of clothing that provides absolutely no protection, but is incredibly expensive, as in, of a value of Resources 5.
Dramatic Failure:
Failure: The armor fails to materialize.
Success: For the rest of the scene, the Changeling who uses this Contract has Armor equal to their Resource Merit dots, with the Obscene Wealth Merit counting as two additional points of armor. The Changeling may only have armor equal to their successes x2. This armor is effective against all kinds of damage, but can be bypassed with pure iron, as well as any weapon whose base cost, without any clauses used upon it, is Resources 5. On the Changeling, this manifests as a blue-green glow, and a subtle pattern of scales on their skin.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling also gains slow regeneration, as long as they possess their great wealth, during the scene that this is active. They heal one bashing damage every five turns, and may spend Willpower on a one-per-one basis to turn Lethal damage taken into Bashing damage. (? Not sure!)
Modifiers: The Changeling is fighting someone who is notably poor, uncouth, or inferior (+1), the Changeling is fighting a superior, or someone who acts in a lordly and disdainful manner (-1).
(*****) Wrath of the Dragon
The fury of one who is stolen from or crossed is great. Money is power, and so is the wrath of the envious courtier who is crossed. While they are not rated great warriors like many in both North and West Court, with this clause they can hold their own, the power of their money, and their terror, warding off hordes of enemies, and
Cost: 5 Glamour and 1 Willpower dot.
Dice-Pool: Mantle+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Contract is being used to hunt or attack someone who has stolen an object (or person) of value to the Changeling.
Dramatic Failure:
Failure:
Success: The Changeling transforms, both in nature and in features. Most often he takes on slight draconic tells. Warm skin, dark red eyes, breath that is oddly hot, but more pressingly, his very Mien itself is terrifying. Those who are not Changelings (or other supernatural beings) cannot attack the Changeling except in self-defense, and must spend one Willpower per turn they combat the Changeling, rather than fleeing before their wrath. Changelings must spend one Willpower per scene that they either attack or directly bar the way of the Changeling. The Changeling takes one lethal damage, resistant to any magic and unable to be healed by magic, for each scene they maintain this form, which increases their Strength or Presence by half of the Resources merit (round up) plus successes, and grants them a 0L armed attack. All attacks made are 8-again.
Exceptional Success: Reduce the Armor of any target by two, and the durability of anything that gets in the way by three. All attacks are Rote. May also increase the Dexterity of the Changeling, and the maximum Strength, Presence, or Dexterity of the Changeling for the purpose of this clause is six.
Modifiers: The Changeling has the Obscene Wealth Merit (+1), The Changeling did not use this by activating the Catch (-1).
******
A/N: The New Merit is something that needs work, and I think at least some of these clauses could really use work, or are vague. But I've been sitting on top of this for weeks now, working at it, so I want to release it.
Please give feedback. If you're willing to debate five-rounds with Paulie about Personal Horror, it shouldn't be hard to give feedback on homebrew?
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I'm currently imagining how things would go in a confrontation between a Serpent's Whisper contractee and an idea I've had for a Princess character.
A likely scenario for the confrontation involves her infiltrating a high-society party in disguise in order to gain information on a target, and subsequently gaining the attention of the contractee for any combination of her expensive-looking Phylactery, her burning feelings of envy at all the careless socialites living the high life without ever having known a speck of hardship, her Everything's Cost assessment of Net Worth: Absolutely Nothing despite her rich-looking disguise, or herself and her Striking Looks.
It may or may not end in her using the Tempesta anti-mind-control charm as a last resort and setting the Changeling on fire.
Namely a teenage multi-year veteran Champion of Swords, who ran away from her (modestly wealthy) home in order to protect her family from her one-girl war against the darkness, lives as a destitute street rat, and continually skirts the ragged edge of exhaustion out of a self-sacrificial sense of duty.
Skills are focused on combat, stealth and investigation, and righteous-passion-style presence; Primary invocation is Fuoco, secondaries are Acqua, Tempesta, and Lacrima; virtues and vices include custom entries such as Lone Wolf (triggers when refusing to accept or ask for help in order to avoid endagering others) and Driven (triggers when pursuing a cause to a self-sacrificial degree, such as entering combat with unhealed injuries or dangerously low reserves of Willpower or Wisps).
To give further insight into her character, the following quote:
"[Her] feelings on the Dreamlands are complicated in the way that boils down to mostly negative. On one hand, they represent everything she wants: An easy life, away from the constant battle against the Darkness, away from the pain, the exhaustion, the horrors and nightmares, the aching loneliness, the deprivation and nights of hunger and cold, where she doesn't have to constantly fight and can instead relax and just live, without any obligations. On the other hand, giving into that temptation, running away from her duty and willfully closing her eyes to suffering that she could do something about, choosing the easy path instead of the right one, would be a betrayal of everything she is and believes in. In consequence, she tries to stay away from the Dreamlands as fas as possible."
Her Phylactery comes in the shape of a ruby-and-silver-and-gold pendant, with the attached Embarassing Phylactery Condition representing that it's visibly expensive and desirable to own by whatever means necessary if one is unscrupulous and greedy enough, and that there should be no way for her to actually own it save for having stolen it. She usually hides it under her clothes.
Skills are focused on combat, stealth and investigation, and righteous-passion-style presence; Primary invocation is Fuoco, secondaries are Acqua, Tempesta, and Lacrima; virtues and vices include custom entries such as Lone Wolf (triggers when refusing to accept or ask for help in order to avoid endagering others) and Driven (triggers when pursuing a cause to a self-sacrificial degree, such as entering combat with unhealed injuries or dangerously low reserves of Willpower or Wisps).
To give further insight into her character, the following quote:
"[Her] feelings on the Dreamlands are complicated in the way that boils down to mostly negative. On one hand, they represent everything she wants: An easy life, away from the constant battle against the Darkness, away from the pain, the exhaustion, the horrors and nightmares, the aching loneliness, the deprivation and nights of hunger and cold, where she doesn't have to constantly fight and can instead relax and just live, without any obligations. On the other hand, giving into that temptation, running away from her duty and willfully closing her eyes to suffering that she could do something about, choosing the easy path instead of the right one, would be a betrayal of everything she is and believes in. In consequence, she tries to stay away from the Dreamlands as fas as possible."
Her Phylactery comes in the shape of a ruby-and-silver-and-gold pendant, with the attached Embarassing Phylactery Condition representing that it's visibly expensive and desirable to own by whatever means necessary if one is unscrupulous and greedy enough, and that there should be no way for her to actually own it save for having stolen it. She usually hides it under her clothes.
A likely scenario for the confrontation involves her infiltrating a high-society party in disguise in order to gain information on a target, and subsequently gaining the attention of the contractee for any combination of her expensive-looking Phylactery, her burning feelings of envy at all the careless socialites living the high life without ever having known a speck of hardship, her Everything's Cost assessment of Net Worth: Absolutely Nothing despite her rich-looking disguise, or herself and her Striking Looks.
It may or may not end in her using the Tempesta anti-mind-control charm as a last resort and setting the Changeling on fire.
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- Location
- Quezon City, Philippines
From my point of view, this sounds very ambiguous. Does this mean that the Changeling's Vice changes to Envy? Is he subject to the same penalties (-2 to social, can't spend willpower?)
Hmm... Maybe change it? How about one of the targets is his social superior? Or one of the target can meaningfully harm or threaten him in some manner?
Also... this feels appropriate for some reason.
I was going to comment on the Catches regarding Friendship's Reward and Friend-Buying Technique, saying it was expensive, but then I remembered that you're sacrificing dots of merits. Question though, were there any similar contracts which allowed you to make a permanent loss?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
From my point of view, this sounds very ambiguous. Does this mean that the Changeling's Vice changes to Envy? Is he subject to the same penalties (-2 to social, can't spend willpower?)
Hmm... Maybe change it? How about one of the targets is his social superior? Or one of the target can meaningfully harm or threaten him in some manner?
Also... this feels appropriate for some reason.
I was going to comment on the Catches regarding Friendship's Reward and Friend-Buying Technique, saying it was expensive, but then I remembered that you're sacrificing dots of merits. Question though, were there any similar contracts which allowed you to make a permanent loss?
I clarified the Catch a little bit. What do you think of the overall thrust of the Contracts?
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
I presume the first is about how wealth can be as much a chain as an asset, while the latter is a comment on the limitless greed of man?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Fixed. Sorry about that. I was kinda just wanting to get it out of there, at last.
- Location
- Quezon City, Philippines
Better and clearer. Feels like Ebenezer Scrooge at the start of the novel.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's kinda the East Court. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone, at some point.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'm seeking some more readers and voters to Roaring Age, my Mage: The Awakening Quest. If you've liked some of my homebrewing, you might well find that you like it. In the interests of tempting people, since I know you have basically endless options for reading. I think that my Quest makes good reading, but I know that sometimes you want to jump right into the participation, with a Quest.
So the premise is relatively simple, sort of. It is the 1920s, the Roaring 20s, and it is in Chicago. Miriam Green is a smart, tomboyish African-American[1] preacher's daughter. She has a careless and strange Uncle, she has her strong faith, and she has her ambitions. She's sometimes too curious for her own good, and one day she sees something she shouldn't.
*****
The Roaring Age is a Quest of adventure, exploration and curiosity, whose themes include the power, nature, and effect of beliefs, the influence of history on Mages, and Mages on history, the duality of life as a Mage, both in terms of actions, but also how even the weakest person by Sleeper standards might hold untold power, and of course the vast change that the 1920s was bringing to the world, and its parallels in Mage culture.
If any of this sounds interesting at all, please check it out!
So the premise is relatively simple, sort of. It is the 1920s, the Roaring 20s, and it is in Chicago. Miriam Green is a smart, tomboyish African-American[1] preacher's daughter. She has a careless and strange Uncle, she has her strong faith, and she has her ambitions. She's sometimes too curious for her own good, and one day she sees something she shouldn't.
And she Awakens, outraged and transcendent, as a Mastigos. For God is in all minds, god knows not space.
As it turns out, her Uncle is a Mage as well, her father a Sleepwalker, and he inducts her into Mage society carefully. He teaches her, and tries to give her time and room to grow without being immediately press-ganged into one group or another.
For Chicago is a war-torn place, in which open war with the Seers has only just died down after a nearly four conflict spanning from the Riots of '19 all the way to the winter of '23.
Over the next month or two, Miriam moves fast. She explores the four Diamond Orders, and the three Nameless Orders in Chicago (the Folk, The Uprising, and the Library), she learns more about spirits, the Astral, and magic as a whole.
She discovers that one of her best friends is a Demon-Spawn about to hatch, a type of Astral-human fusion that is based on suppressed desires and feelings. Virginia makes it to become a Demon-Spawn, and provides links that will later mater.
She accidentally discovers another friend is actually a pawn of the Seers, made to like her just so that she would be able to get close to her and steal the Destiny that shrouds her, for their own magical use. She manages to stop this, with the help of the Consilium.
She makes friends and enemies, getting close to the Folk, whose religious aspects and down-to-earth features seem to appeal.
Miriam, Shadow Name Ruth, meets a bitter old Astral Ghost-Mage named Anant, and swears to help fix him.
And most pressingly for the story now, two things have happened in the last few weeks. First, she has joined the Mysterium, and well reach Rank 1 when she finds, "A seed and knowledge of where to plant it." Her love of knowledge and learning, as well as her insatiable curiosity, drew her to it.
Secondly, her friend Virginia teamed up with some other Demon-Spawn against a vicious Demon-Spawn who seemed to be creating wolf-monsters. Seemingly (?) unrelated, she and the Folk discover that there was some sort of man-wolf monster in the slaughterhouse, something that has to do with Mages.
But what can it be? It's not as if 'Werewolves' are real. That would be common knowledge if it were so.
Finally, after a vision from a Supernal Entity, she discovered that somehow Isaac Wolfborne, the Demon-Spawn, was visiting a distant location in the Dreamtime, in which was a forest.
Together with Virginia and her team, Miriam and some of the Folk go out to investigate. Once there, the expert confirms the fears of the Folk, fears that Miriam knew nothing about.
This is a Wending. This is the dead soul of an Archmage, and deep within the forest is a mansion that might hold hints of alternate realities, of the workings of a God among Mage… and untold dangers.
As it turns out, her Uncle is a Mage as well, her father a Sleepwalker, and he inducts her into Mage society carefully. He teaches her, and tries to give her time and room to grow without being immediately press-ganged into one group or another.
For Chicago is a war-torn place, in which open war with the Seers has only just died down after a nearly four conflict spanning from the Riots of '19 all the way to the winter of '23.
Over the next month or two, Miriam moves fast. She explores the four Diamond Orders, and the three Nameless Orders in Chicago (the Folk, The Uprising, and the Library), she learns more about spirits, the Astral, and magic as a whole.
She discovers that one of her best friends is a Demon-Spawn about to hatch, a type of Astral-human fusion that is based on suppressed desires and feelings. Virginia makes it to become a Demon-Spawn, and provides links that will later mater.
She accidentally discovers another friend is actually a pawn of the Seers, made to like her just so that she would be able to get close to her and steal the Destiny that shrouds her, for their own magical use. She manages to stop this, with the help of the Consilium.
She makes friends and enemies, getting close to the Folk, whose religious aspects and down-to-earth features seem to appeal.
Miriam, Shadow Name Ruth, meets a bitter old Astral Ghost-Mage named Anant, and swears to help fix him.
And most pressingly for the story now, two things have happened in the last few weeks. First, she has joined the Mysterium, and well reach Rank 1 when she finds, "A seed and knowledge of where to plant it." Her love of knowledge and learning, as well as her insatiable curiosity, drew her to it.
Secondly, her friend Virginia teamed up with some other Demon-Spawn against a vicious Demon-Spawn who seemed to be creating wolf-monsters. Seemingly (?) unrelated, she and the Folk discover that there was some sort of man-wolf monster in the slaughterhouse, something that has to do with Mages.
But what can it be? It's not as if 'Werewolves' are real. That would be common knowledge if it were so.
Finally, after a vision from a Supernal Entity, she discovered that somehow Isaac Wolfborne, the Demon-Spawn, was visiting a distant location in the Dreamtime, in which was a forest.
Together with Virginia and her team, Miriam and some of the Folk go out to investigate. Once there, the expert confirms the fears of the Folk, fears that Miriam knew nothing about.
This is a Wending. This is the dead soul of an Archmage, and deep within the forest is a mansion that might hold hints of alternate realities, of the workings of a God among Mage… and untold dangers.
*****
The Roaring Age is a Quest of adventure, exploration and curiosity, whose themes include the power, nature, and effect of beliefs, the influence of history on Mages, and Mages on history, the duality of life as a Mage, both in terms of actions, but also how even the weakest person by Sleeper standards might hold untold power, and of course the vast change that the 1920s was bringing to the world, and its parallels in Mage culture.
If any of this sounds interesting at all, please check it out!
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Just a heads up for those interested in VtM (I know more than a few people here prefer Requiem but still), but Beckett's Jyhad Diary has been released on DTRPG.
Basically it's meant to be a comprehensive overview of the VtM metaplot.
Basically it's meant to be a comprehensive overview of the VtM metaplot.
@The Laurent, you still seeking for Mage homebrew ideas? Because your quest brought me into reading Mage, and I just had a weird idea:
I've repeatedly heard that there's some dissatisfaction of the Ascension and especially the Technocracy fans prevalent on SB/SV with Awakening, in particular the loss of a Technocracy that tries to advance humanity, and the aesthetic and thematic of Science Is Awesome, In Every Sense Of The Word.
But. If, just like in Ascension, Awakening's Paradox only triggers if the magic is vulgar, openly against the known laws of nature in the eyes of a sleeper, (Mage p.298, Obvious Magic), and if there's a lot of incentive for Mages to try to circumvent Paradox so they can increase their own power and get a way past the Abyss, then wouldn't it be possible to transplant Ascension's Technocracy into the Awakening paradigm, as a group of mages that want to subvert and coopt the Lie by pushing the boundaries of what the Sleepers can do without any magic at all, and in turn what magic they can get away with by hiding it behind science and technology?
After all, just two centuries ago flight or visiting other worlds or having real-time conversations with people on the other side of the planet would have seemed miracles, and any mage attempting them in view of sleepers would have gotten whacked by the paradox fairy no matter how he did it. Nowadays they're common and completely accepted.
I've repeatedly heard that there's some dissatisfaction of the Ascension and especially the Technocracy fans prevalent on SB/SV with Awakening, in particular the loss of a Technocracy that tries to advance humanity, and the aesthetic and thematic of Science Is Awesome, In Every Sense Of The Word.
But. If, just like in Ascension, Awakening's Paradox only triggers if the magic is vulgar, openly against the known laws of nature in the eyes of a sleeper, (Mage p.298, Obvious Magic), and if there's a lot of incentive for Mages to try to circumvent Paradox so they can increase their own power and get a way past the Abyss, then wouldn't it be possible to transplant Ascension's Technocracy into the Awakening paradigm, as a group of mages that want to subvert and coopt the Lie by pushing the boundaries of what the Sleepers can do without any magic at all, and in turn what magic they can get away with by hiding it behind science and technology?
After all, just two centuries ago flight or visiting other worlds or having real-time conversations with people on the other side of the planet would have seemed miracles, and any mage attempting them in view of sleepers would have gotten whacked by the paradox fairy no matter how he did it. Nowadays they're common and completely accepted.
Likely this would take the form of a Free Council Order, or a custom Legacy, or likely the former making heavy use of the latter. Central benefit of the Legacy would be the use of technological- or Science Fiction-looking Yantras in order to reduce Paradox;
Forces 'Experimental Lasers', Life 'Advanced Surgery and Genetic Engineering', Prime 'EM Goggles and Electromagnetic Field Manipulation', 'Quantum Theory'-based Fate, Mind 'Subliminal Messaging', Spaces 'Satellite Phones', and so on. Mind Magic? No, of course not, just the Psychic Powers that are the perfectly natural next step of human evolution because Technobabble, honest. Spirits and Monsters? Nope, Aliens. Or Robots, or Artificial Lifeforms, or what have you. Astral Planes of Existence? Many-World Theory! Ghosts? Electromagnetic brainwave echoes.
Prerequisites for joining would, naturally, be knowledge of Academics, Craft, and/or Medicine. I'm unsure of the parent path. Acanthus or Mastigos maybe? If you're focusing on the steady progress through many minds coming together angle. Alternatively Obrimos for how they try to alter magic itself by uncovering universal truths, though that may run afoul of their religious thematics. Moros might fit from the Alchemist angle, but might clash with the idea of Progress! (TM).
Ruling Arcanum I'm even less sure about. Possibly it could be anomalous in that it's actually a series of narrowly related legacies, and anyone joining might and must choose a Ruling Arcanum with attached specific attainments depending on just what kind of scientist he is? Life for biologists and doctors, Forces or Matter for engineers, and so on. After all, science as a whole is done by the scientific community as a whole, and no one scientist can ever hope to master more than a fraction of the whole, they must specialize if they want to get anything done.
In terms of Legacy advantages, Tool Yantras would as already mentioned take the form of various technology or scientific theory, and their use would provide at least limited protection against Paradox, depending on just how close to current mundane scientific knowledge the mage keeps; Sufficiently Advanced Technology such as gravity-based Forces manipulators or Space warping unfortunately remains just a bit beyond currently available technology, after all. Yet. Pushing back against that limitation is the main goal of all practitioners, after all.
Another limitation could be that technological tools could need to be quite a bit more specialized than Yantras usually are; A Laser Gun pierces and burns things, it isn't, without modification or built-in multifunctionality at least, useful for communication, or scanning, or projecting holograms.
Other Yantras would be to provide running commentary to explain the scientific theory behind the spell in question to an onlooking sleeper, or to have recently made a scientific experiment or publication on that theory, or the posession of legitimate scientific credentials.
Legacy Oblations would be to engage in and publish non-magical scientific research, and to teach Sleepers about science.
Politically and in terms of the thematic conflicts of this Legacy/Order, you could recreate various aspects of the Ascension War. On one hand, you have open war against forces inimical to all natural order and laws, the Scelesti and the Abyss, as well as against Luddites that want to deny humanity their rightful technological ascension in favor of chaining them in ignorance and superstition, the Seers.
On the other hand you have (somewhat) more benign philosophical disagreements on the merits and differences of Magic and Technology with the Guardians, the Mysterium, and certain more orthodox parts of the Ladder, who feel that this scientific approach to magic is not only misguided and based on a misunderstanding of the glorious mysteries of magic, it is also dangerously reckless for trying to manipulate the relation between magic and paradox.
Additionally, of course, regularly trying to push the bounds of paradox out as far as possible, and the temptation to see humanity as a tool for attaining one's own power if only they would stop holding you back already and embrace the technocratic revolution for the good of everyone, create fertile ground for Wisdom sins and the more negative aspects of Ascension's technocracy, in the process justifying the abovementioned Diamond factions and providing the possibility of more open conflict with them.
Lastly there is also the possibility of Seer offshoots of the Legacy, that want to use (pervert) technomagic and scientific progress as just one more tool for universal surveillance and control and oppression, of reducing humans to mere expendable cogs in and fuel for the industrial machine, and for the horros of industrialized warfare.
On a more positive note, besides being part of the Free Council the Legacy/Order is likely to have fairly good relations with the more open parts of the Ladder that can find shared ground in the advancement of humanity as a whole, even if their methods might differ. In a crossover with Hunter, they are also likely to be backing the Null Mysterii.
Forces 'Experimental Lasers', Life 'Advanced Surgery and Genetic Engineering', Prime 'EM Goggles and Electromagnetic Field Manipulation', 'Quantum Theory'-based Fate, Mind 'Subliminal Messaging', Spaces 'Satellite Phones', and so on. Mind Magic? No, of course not, just the Psychic Powers that are the perfectly natural next step of human evolution because Technobabble, honest. Spirits and Monsters? Nope, Aliens. Or Robots, or Artificial Lifeforms, or what have you. Astral Planes of Existence? Many-World Theory! Ghosts? Electromagnetic brainwave echoes.
Prerequisites for joining would, naturally, be knowledge of Academics, Craft, and/or Medicine. I'm unsure of the parent path. Acanthus or Mastigos maybe? If you're focusing on the steady progress through many minds coming together angle. Alternatively Obrimos for how they try to alter magic itself by uncovering universal truths, though that may run afoul of their religious thematics. Moros might fit from the Alchemist angle, but might clash with the idea of Progress! (TM).
Ruling Arcanum I'm even less sure about. Possibly it could be anomalous in that it's actually a series of narrowly related legacies, and anyone joining might and must choose a Ruling Arcanum with attached specific attainments depending on just what kind of scientist he is? Life for biologists and doctors, Forces or Matter for engineers, and so on. After all, science as a whole is done by the scientific community as a whole, and no one scientist can ever hope to master more than a fraction of the whole, they must specialize if they want to get anything done.
In terms of Legacy advantages, Tool Yantras would as already mentioned take the form of various technology or scientific theory, and their use would provide at least limited protection against Paradox, depending on just how close to current mundane scientific knowledge the mage keeps; Sufficiently Advanced Technology such as gravity-based Forces manipulators or Space warping unfortunately remains just a bit beyond currently available technology, after all. Yet. Pushing back against that limitation is the main goal of all practitioners, after all.
Another limitation could be that technological tools could need to be quite a bit more specialized than Yantras usually are; A Laser Gun pierces and burns things, it isn't, without modification or built-in multifunctionality at least, useful for communication, or scanning, or projecting holograms.
Other Yantras would be to provide running commentary to explain the scientific theory behind the spell in question to an onlooking sleeper, or to have recently made a scientific experiment or publication on that theory, or the posession of legitimate scientific credentials.
Legacy Oblations would be to engage in and publish non-magical scientific research, and to teach Sleepers about science.
Politically and in terms of the thematic conflicts of this Legacy/Order, you could recreate various aspects of the Ascension War. On one hand, you have open war against forces inimical to all natural order and laws, the Scelesti and the Abyss, as well as against Luddites that want to deny humanity their rightful technological ascension in favor of chaining them in ignorance and superstition, the Seers.
On the other hand you have (somewhat) more benign philosophical disagreements on the merits and differences of Magic and Technology with the Guardians, the Mysterium, and certain more orthodox parts of the Ladder, who feel that this scientific approach to magic is not only misguided and based on a misunderstanding of the glorious mysteries of magic, it is also dangerously reckless for trying to manipulate the relation between magic and paradox.
Additionally, of course, regularly trying to push the bounds of paradox out as far as possible, and the temptation to see humanity as a tool for attaining one's own power if only they would stop holding you back already and embrace the technocratic revolution for the good of everyone, create fertile ground for Wisdom sins and the more negative aspects of Ascension's technocracy, in the process justifying the abovementioned Diamond factions and providing the possibility of more open conflict with them.
Lastly there is also the possibility of Seer offshoots of the Legacy, that want to use (pervert) technomagic and scientific progress as just one more tool for universal surveillance and control and oppression, of reducing humans to mere expendable cogs in and fuel for the industrial machine, and for the horros of industrialized warfare.
On a more positive note, besides being part of the Free Council the Legacy/Order is likely to have fairly good relations with the more open parts of the Ladder that can find shared ground in the advancement of humanity as a whole, even if their methods might differ. In a crossover with Hunter, they are also likely to be backing the Null Mysterii.
From whom?
Most of the SV people who know both Ascension and Awakening in depth like the fact they're completely different games and don't want the antagonists from the "postmodern philosophy arguments with knives" game to get into the "gnostic magic addict occult horror" game.
Not only do I, personally, not want the Technocracy in Awakening; I also don't really want the Free Council because they're the Ascension pandering faction who can't stand on their own two feet.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I saw "Free Council" and closed it again. I have Mage: The Ascension to play the Technocracy, the Seers fit me just perfect in Awakening.
- Location
- New Delhi, India
Besides, there's already a game that combines the two; it's called Unknown Armies, and it fucking rules.
Apparently.
Go play it if you want more details, since I can't get a rulebook or friends who'd want to play it....
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- Location
- Italy
I'm sorry @Gnarker but from the get go I don't get who this idea is meant to appeal to.
If it's for the oMage fans than they already have their game, and your idea doesn't seem to be "let's use the nMage rules to run Ascension" but "let's make Ascension's stuff somehow fit into Awakening's setting".
And if it's for Awakening's fans well, one would have to like both old and new Mage to have any interest in this, which from where I stand is quite an assumption.
If it's for the oMage fans than they already have their game, and your idea doesn't seem to be "let's use the nMage rules to run Ascension" but "let's make Ascension's stuff somehow fit into Awakening's setting".
And if it's for Awakening's fans well, one would have to like both old and new Mage to have any interest in this, which from where I stand is quite an assumption.
Well. I suppose a negative reaction is better than no reaction at all, debatably.
Whatever. It was just a random idea I had to expand on a setting I find interesting with parts of another setting that I find interesting, add another protagonist faction that's nominally allied to but nonetheless philosophically at odds with parts of the Diamond and their traditions. The Free Council and their relation to it is basically the most irrelevant part of the entire proposal, they could be a independent order or a radical splinter group of the Ladder just as well.
But if genuinely no-one's interested in it, I'll drop it, so feel free to calm your pants again.
Whatever. It was just a random idea I had to expand on a setting I find interesting with parts of another setting that I find interesting, add another protagonist faction that's nominally allied to but nonetheless philosophically at odds with parts of the Diamond and their traditions. The Free Council and their relation to it is basically the most irrelevant part of the entire proposal, they could be a independent order or a radical splinter group of the Ladder just as well.
But if genuinely no-one's interested in it, I'll drop it, so feel free to calm your pants again.
UrsaTempest
Don't Panic!
I'm interested. If nothing else, I want to see how they can be implemented on Awakening.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
The problem wasn't that you had an unpopular idea. The problem was that you said that there's a lot of dissatisfaction towards nMage on SV/SB for not having the Technocracy. That statement is, as far as I can tell, completely wrong.
If you hadn't put that bit in the thread would have been much more favorable towards you.
Point of order: 'Some' dissatisfaction. Mostly this is based on random aside comments and discussion subtext that I admittedly may just have misunderstood, that I don't actually recall clearly enough to cite them here, beyond that there was a debate on the differences between the two some time ago sparked by someone asking to be sold on the merits of Awakening over Ascension.
Partially it's propably also me projecting my slight sadness over the apparent lack of 'humanity has some importance in itself beyond being a roadblock for the Mages' and 'Scientific Progress is Awesome, in every sense of that word' in Awakening, even though I'm otherwise liking what I've read of it so far (which is by no means comprehensive).
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
To me, the interesting idea in @Gnarker's proposal is that of Mages who try to subvert, coopt, or otherwise manipulate the Lie towards the end of freeing humanity from the Exarchs' rule.
I'd love to see @EarthScorpion's, @ManusDomine's, or @The Laurent's take on an Awakened conspiracy with that kind of ethos - my first instinct would be something where their endgame is to essentially lock the Exarchs out of the Fallen World, which they see as a more attainable goal than somehow defeating them and reclaiming some vague primordial legacy like the Diamond Orders generally advocate. I'm put in mind of a quote:
"Did you ever try to put a broken piece of glass back together? Even if the pieces fit, you can't make it whole again the way it was. But if you're clever, you can still use the pieces to make other useful things. Maybe even something wonderful, like a mosaic.
Well, the world broke just like glass. And everyone's trying to put it back together like it was, but it'll never come together in the same way."
Again, I think there's legitimate potential in the idea.
While I'm not an expert on either version of Mage, I seem to recall that Awakening does, in fact, have an official "Actual science (and theology, and philosophy) is awesome" stance, for all that some authors might forget / ignore it.
Basically, while we may dwell in the prison of the Exarchs, the souls of Mankind dampened and tainted by the Abyss, the prison walls were still forged with Supernal truth - there's nothing else the Exarchs could have built with. As such, anyone who devotes themself to finding and understanding the truth of the world, the mechanisms of reality, cannot help but to uncover fragments of Supernal Law. And unlike the truths found in Atlantean artifacts or mystical incursions, knowledge found in the jail walls cannot be destroyed by Pancryptia (the way Sleeper attention ways away at magic and proof of thereof). After all, Pancryptia is a control mechanism and a symptom of the fallen world - it can ruin any higher knowledge that descends into reality, but it cannot destroy the House of the Exarchs whose nature it was made to veil.
Of course, sleeper science (and theology, and philosophy) are limited and constrained by both the machinations of the Seers and the limitations of Sleepers. The Seers would keep us ignorant, and will send our best and brightest down endless blind alleys when they're being kind - if they use magic (or secret seer knowledge) to learn something yet unknown, and you create a false but plausible theory that predicts it, their theory will likely be adopted as true when that thing is discovered. If the Seers are feeling cruel, on the other hand, they can just brainwipe you out of knowledge they'd prefer remains unknown, or just arrange an accident. Sleepers, meanwhile, are crippled by the fact that anything more supernal than this fallen world dissolves in their presence, if it doesn't destroy them for witnessing it. They may find fragments of Truth, but the True Things that would inspire them to combine disparate shards into a cohesive whole cannot be witnessed. The Codex of Highest Angels who could teach the relation between the ancient names of God and the patterns made by cosmic rays - too bad its pages would literally crumble when handled by a sleeper.
So basically, Science is, in the long term, something wonderful that opposes the Exarch's goals of human weakness and ignorance. Unfortunately, it's slow, prone to false starts, and mages can at most provide leads, rather than teaching the truth directly. As such, you're not gonna gain tasty tasty Arcane XP for reading scientific papers. Now, if someone with sufficient Forces, Time, Mind, and Science was able to directly observe and truly understand a collision in the heart of the LHC instead of needing the modified outputs, that might be another story...
- Location
- Italy
Unless that's in the 2e corebook, I can't actually find anything that supports that as the line's official stance, although I looked just in the order books.
In particular, unless it's been changed and I haven't noticed, the definition of Pancryptia as the Mysterium book gives it is
In general Sleeper sciences are treated as useful tool by both Pentacle and Seers, but by themselves are neither a threat to the Lie nor a solution or alternative to it (hell the Seer books even mentions how they fund and support scientific research).
In particular, unless it's been changed and I haven't noticed, the definition of Pancryptia as the Mysterium book gives it is
and
The most important thing is that pancryptia is tread as part magic nature's itself. The effect that Sleeper observers have on Artificats and magicl ruins, which is part of Disbelief, is considered part of the phenomena that form the pancryptia, but I can't find any particular focus on it over others.
In general Sleeper sciences are treated as useful tool by both Pentacle and Seers, but by themselves are neither a threat to the Lie nor a solution or alternative to it (hell the Seer books even mentions how they fund and support scientific research).
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Actually, it should be noted that the Mystagogues clearly see some reflection of Truth within the Sleeper sciences and disciplines, because as per the Mysterium Order Book, it seems like most Mystagogues have at least a single non-magical specialty, and they seem to value that knowledge as well, if not as much as magical knowledge.
Of course, this could just be a side-effect of them valuing knowledge in the first place, and scientific/etc knowledge is just part of it and might hold some Supernal Truth buried somewhere, so I'm mostly clarifying what I remember reading?
- Location
- Italy
Good memory.
This passage in particular
It continues essentially with saying that scientific theories are often useful as food for thought, source of teaching analogies and inspiration for theories on magic.
This passage in particular
is probably what you're thinking of.
It continues essentially with saying that scientific theories are often useful as food for thought, source of teaching analogies and inspiration for theories on magic.