User:Vivian/Mage Primer

NOTE: This is still a work in progress...

Introduction

Mage is a wonderful game which allows for unbridled creativity on behalf of its players. However, that same openness can lead to a lot of confusion to folks new to Mage on exactly how it works. Through this page, I'll try and condense the fundamental concepts of Mage down to a more easy-to-understand package suitable for new Mage players.

I am assuming that a reader does have basic knowledge of the game already, including common slang and lexicon. This guide is not for complete newbies, but rather for those who are having trouble really groking the concepts that they've already read about in the main Mage: the Ascension rulebook.

What is a Mage?

Fundamentally, a Mage is just a normal human who has come to the realization that Reality can be reshaped according to their will. At first, this realization is limited to just sensing the baseline of the Tellurian, but pretty soon they expand their horizons to manipulating those baselines and eventually to full-on acts of creation.

But here's the thing about Wielding the Powers Cosmic: it's hard. If you think wrapping your mind around Mage as a game is difficult, just think about what your character is going through! It's one thing to know that you can change reality by sheer force of will, it's another to understand that fact. And still another to really believe it.

Think about the first time you saw quadratic equations. You could follow the steps and arrive at a solution, but did you really understand how that procedure led to this solution? If you got the wrong answer, could you pinpoint where the mistake was without going through it step-by-step again? It probably took you a while before things really crystallized and you could begin applying those steps to new and unique problems. And it probably took you even longer before you completely trusted that any application of your new knowledge got the right answer.

So that's why Mages have a Paradigm. It provides a structure from which they can understand how their willworking operates. In the same way as Mage: the Ascension has game rules that define how Magick works (as loose as they might be), a Mage has a Paradigm that defines how they wield their Art.

Paradigm is Everything

What a lot of beginning Mage players struggle with is how they do things and what the limits of it are. After all, there are no specifically defined, discrete powers like in the other gamelines. The key concept to understand here is Paradigm: it defines not only how a Mage accomplishes a Magickal Effect, but also provides the limits to those effects. If a Mage believes they can't do something, they can't regardless of what their +sheet may say. Similarly, if they do believe they can do something a certain way, they can (as long as the ST agrees, of course). Let's go with an example.

Let's say a Mage wants to split water into its component atoms using the Technocratic Paradigm. This would be Matter, right? You're taking two atomic elements and separating them. But water is a molecule as well and what are molecules except covalent bonds between the electron shells of atoms? So you can use Forces as well. But what are covalent bonds but the quantum effects of subatomic particles? So you can use Entropy as well; weird things happen on the Quantum realm all the time, including spontaneous release of bonds, it's just really unlikely. Correspondence? Just lengthen the distance between the two atoms until they are not longer bonded.

Let's go weirder: Mind. A telekinetic of sufficient skill and power can physically separate atoms. Weirder still? Dimensional Science: by manipulating the subdimensional holographic plates that make up the fabric of reality, you can change things sufficiently in a localized area so that covalent bonds /can't/ form. Then you just let reality go back to 'normal' and you have separated water.

Now, under the Technocratic Paradigm some of these are easier than others. This is where the limits of the Paradigm begin to show. The Forces and Matter are straightforward: hell, we have materials and electrolyzers right now in real life that can do these things. Mind would require that the Mage in question both believes they have psychic powers AND that they can use them at that fine a level -- probably impossible without a lot of training and maybe some kind of technological assistance (a scanning electron microscope so they can see what they're manipulating, for instance). Entropy would probably require specialized equipment. The DimSci one? Specialized AND incredibly expensive/rarefied equipment, probably in a specially prepared space.

See how this Theoretical Technocrat is able to use many means to accomplish a task, but the specifics are bound and limited by their Paradigm? Regardless of their +sheet, using Dimensional Science to split water takes a lot of resources and equipment compared to using Matter or Forces. The end result is the same, but Foci and procedure is very different.

Now let's consider what a Dreamspeaker would do in the scenario I outlined above: splitting water into Oxygen and Hydrogen. Well, for a Dreamspeaker, using Spirit might actually be the easiest solution. Just light a ceremonial fire, take some hallucinogenic drugs, beat a drum for a while, then summon a Water Spirit and ask it politely if it would please split this water in two. At most, it might request an offering or boon for its service, though whatever that might be is likely to be fairly minor; certainly nothing like the ridiculously expensive setup a Technocrat might need to split water using DimSci.

But that's if the Dreamspeaker even accepts the idea of atomic structures in the first place. Most classical ones do not; it's Technocratic fiction to them. To these Dreamspeakers, the result is pure nonsense -- you can't split water, because water (and its associated Spirits) is a fundamental element of the Universe! So a classical Dreamspeaker simply could not spit water because they don't believe atoms even exist.

Paradigm is Everything not just because it determines how a Mage can wield the powers cosmic, but also how they think about the cosmos. It limits their Effects just as much as it allows.

The point is, you can basically use any Sphere to do any Effect as long as you can justify it Paradigmically and sell it as such to your Storyteller (or Staff). Similarly, if the methodology of some Effect is incompatible with your view of How Reality Works, then you can't do it, period.

Defining a Paradigm and its abilities and limits is one of the most fun things about Mage in my opinion!

What Does Each Sphere Level Mean?

Now that we know just how important Paradigm is to willworking, let's talk about Sphere levels overall. Sphere levels are the mechanical crunch -- the structure -- that the game is built on. The rules are somewhat fuzzy due to the nature of Mage, but hopefully the listing below gives a more condensed (or at least more understandable) overview than the main Mage book.

Sphere Level 1 - Sensory information. Perception. You can sense reality at a fundamental level. Everything from turning radio waves into speech to encoding digital data or describing the swing of an arc. Get precise information on the quality and components of an alloy with Matter, sense the Gauntlet or see ghosts with Spirit, get precise timings down with Time. It's also the way you build Antimagick. Wanna make that fireball that some deranged Hermetic throws at you fizzle? Forces 1 has you covered. Mind shields? Mind 1. Life unweaving protection? Life 1. Prevent a vampire from getting any Blood Points when feeding off you? Prime 1. Don't underestimate a Sphere at 1.

Sphere Level 2 - Manipulation of the Universe. Turn steel into putty, lightening into electrical power, or punch a ghost. Spheres at these level can also add a little kick to your shielding; Mind shields become deceptive (you can make the aggressor -think- they've hornswaggled you or implant false information to a mind scan), any Spirit attacking you through a Spirit 2 shield will take damage, and that Forces 2 shield can send the fireball right on back to the caster. You can also extend that protection to others with Correspondence. Subtly influence (though not command) others through Mind -- this is the realm of subliminal messaging, emotional manipulation, and hypnosis. Time allows you to see the immediate future or past. Win the jackpot on a one-armed bandit with Entropy. Heal yourself instantly with Life.

Sphere Level 3 - Transmutation. While before you could change what was already there in the Universe, now you get to set the rules by which it works. Want to change your body, make yourself faster, stronger, more beautiful, or change your gender entirely? Life 3. Want to turn paper into diamond? Matter 3. Want to rewrite an Umbra spirit so it's more agreeable to you? Spirit 3. Mind control? Mind 3. The only restriction here is that the spheres need higher levels to directly influence specific people.

Sphere Level 4 - Commanding the Fundament. At this point you're dealing with the base building blocks of reality -- the ASM on bare hardware compared to the C++ through drivers you were using before. Time 4 is putting everything in stasis. Forces 4 is conjuring nuclear fire. You're completely defining the rules now; you can live backwards or shut down gravity or make Primium. The Gauntlet is yours to command, either to strengthen or to weaken or obliterate entirely. Want to mix the Dreaming into the Real World? Spirit 4 will do that.

Sphere Level 5 - Mastery of the Universe. All bets are off. You can do anything. Make all of Reality your bitch. Create entirely new, sapient minds with Mind 5 exactly to your specifications. Create entire continents, entire worlds, or destroy them just as easily. Correspondence can affect the entire planet or entire Umbral Realms. Carve a hole in the Shadowlands that only ghosts of your choosing can go through. New materials as light as feather but as hard and strong as diamond are yours to design. The only thing you have to worry about are smarter Mages.

Sphere Level 6 - Godlike. This is never likely to come up on CoH as I don't think Staff would allow Old Master-level Arete, much less access to ridiculous 6+ Sphere levels (plus, the splat they come from -- Masters of the Art -- is 90% trash), but I'll add it here for completeness. At this level, a Mage can create and change static reality permanently without having to go through the Consensus. You know all those supernatural powers from the other gamelines that don't follow anything like normal reality yet are free from Paradox? You get to make them now and you don't have to care what the rest of humanity thinks about it. Want to make a ritual that summons an Umbrood and requires playing an ABBA song backwards three times in a row at midnight that even Sleepers can use? Spirit 6. Want to create entirely new forces by which the Universe operates? Forces 6. Make the world flat? Corr 6. Define a new mechanism by which lifeforms propagate? Life 6. Create a stable wormhole to the past? Time 6. As far as anyone else can tell, this is the way the Universe works and has always worked since the beginning, even if it contradicts previously known information. Now, willwork at this level is usually hella difficult (30+ successes to make even a simple change) and it can be slowly undone by the grinding effect of belief from the Consensus, but it's still incredibly powerful.

Technically, Masters of the Art defines Sphere levels beyond 6, but it was clear that White Wolf were having a difficult time coming up with unique qualifiers for those levels so a lot tend to just stretch out the ability to reshape static reality into thinner and thinner slices. Masters of the Art was terrible.

Some concrete examples:

Sphere 1 - Use a scanning electron microscope to peer at the building blocks of matter (Matter 1). Roll some bones and examine the pattern to discern where to place explosives to do the most damage to a building (Entropy 1). Write out a seal of Sacred Geometry and pin it to the inside of your jacket to protect yourself from Scrying (Correspondence 1).

Sphere 2 - Make a proton pack to grab a ghost (Spirit 2). Flip a coin inscribed with sigils of Fate to determine if one should go left or right through a maze (Entropy 2). Use advanced electronics to create an electrostatic shield belt that reflects direct attacks back at the attacker (Forces 2).

Sphere 3 - Rewrite the XY chromosomes to change sex (Life 3). Mind Control someone trapped in Room 101 -- is it magic or simple 1984-ish torture (Mind 3)? Invoke the name of the Goddess Ishtar to imbue your fists with righteous power and do Aggravated damage (Prime 3).

Sphere 4 - Create a stasis field using a generator to freeze time in a small area (Time 4). Make a literal Bag of Holding by altering the Data by which the interior is described through a computer program (Corr 4). Pin or crush an opponent to a pulp through commanding invisible spirits with the Ancient Language Enochian (Forces 4).

Sphere 5 - Make a sapient AI through complex programming and Trinary computing (Mind 5). Build a fusion reactor to bring a new Node into existence where none had been before, perfectly aligned to your Resonance (Prime 5). By binding blood to blood, you seal a Fate Pact with another -- if either of you breaks it, misfortune will doom them to the end of their days; their businesses will go under, their plants will wither and die, their loved ones will end up in bizarre accidents, warranties will expire right before needing to be used, etc.(Entropy 5).

Sphere 6 - It's been a long time since I read Masters of the Art, but I vaguely recall the book mentioning that the four fundamental forces of the Standard Model of physics (the atomic strong force, atomic weak force, electromagnetism and gravity) were created by Control utilizing a Forces 6 Effect who then directed the rest of the Union to 'discover' these forces and get them fully accepted by the Consensus (thus making sure that annoying Sleeper belief won't undo the work at some point in the future).

The Relation of the Avatar to the Mage

Your Avatar/Eidolon acts as a cheerleader, taskmaster, and gatekeeper for your Mage. It is always driving you forward, providing an impetus to improve and expand your awareness and understanding of the cosmos. It wants you to climb the next rung on the ladder to Ascension. How vociferously and insistently it does so is related to how many dots you have in it. An Avatar of 1 barely cares about you. It might provide a little insight every so often or prod you occasionally to get your ass in gear, but for the most part it's laid back and lets you achieve at your own pace. Avatar 5 is a constant annoying puppy or younger sibling, always gnawing at your psyche and insisting on attention. ("Sleep? Why are you sleeping?! You can sleep later! Go do Magick now! Oh, wait, I know! Learn Mind and you can go without sleep! Or improve Life so you don't get tired in the first place! C'mon! Do it! Doooo eeeeeit!")

But while your Avatar wants you to Ascend, they're typically not too fussy as to how you go about it. Climb the ladder of Ascension by learning your lessons about the limitations of thinking every problem is a Magickal nail and you have the hammer and achieving wisdom? Great! Your Avatar will wave pom-poms and encourage you on that path. Claw for Ascension by prideful application of and desire for more and more power? Hey, your Avatar is likely going to be cool with that path, too! The latter might be more likely to lead to you being thrust into a Paradox Realm or going Marauder, but as far as your Avatar is concerned, as long as you're making progress to Ascension, however you decide to do that is fine.

While not applicable on CoH, Seekings are how your Avatar gatekeeps the secrets to greater power from you. For all their desire and reckless prodding for you to Get Gud, they still require some minimum of true understanding from you. Just like when you Awakened and suddenly realized the truth of just how malleable Reality is, each dot in Arete/Genius represents some fundamental realization about the nature of yourself, others, or reality that you've made and as a reward the Avatar has given you a little more power.

For instance, a Mage who is too trusting and naive might have a Seeking scenario where she is cast as a detective and has to determine who among a cast is the criminal; this will involve having to doubt and be suspicious of everyone in order to get at the truth. On the other hand, a Mage who is too cynical and keeps others at arms length might end up in a scenario where they are a prisoner, surrounded by apparent villains and corrupt, sadistic jailors; having to learn to trust and get closer to others in a hostile environment meant to prick at the Mage's sense of paranoia. In both cases, the Mage in question learns something about themselves and confronts a flaw that might impede their march to Ascension.

How you interact with your Avatar is a function of both Paradigm and the nature of the Avatar itself. A lot of Technocrats or Mages of a modern bent never interact directly with their Eidolon; instead they get intuitive insights or obsessive compulsions to work on something. Ever play Civilization or another computer game where you promise yourself it's just 'one more turn' and then you look up and suddenly it's early in the morning? It can be like that, but with Magick.

Older school Mages may speak directly to their Avatar on occasion, to get advice or help or even just to be encouraged. The appearance of the Avatar during these exchanges can be anything; an electron cloud rotating across the atomic nucleus of an atom, an angel, a giant crab -- anything. Typically, they will match the Resonance of the Mage: a giant crystalline statue might be great for a Pattern Mage, but would be questionable for a Dynamic one.

Sometimes the Avatar is at odds with the Mage. While normally the Avatar doesn't care how you go about Ascension, there are exceptions. The Flaw Demented Eidolon exemplifies this ("What do you mean you're a Technocrat? No. No you're damn well not, boy. You're going to be CoX and learn all about tantric sex and hard drugs. Don't give me any lip, boy! YOU. ARE. DOING. IT. WRONG!"). Being at odds with your Avatar is like having a nagging spouse constantly peering over your shoulder and niggling at absolutely everything you do. It might even just outright refuse to help you unless you do things it's way.

Finally, there are the corrupted Avatars of the Nephandi. These are sometimes described as 'inverted' Avatars. They are hollow, broken wreckage of the spiritual shards they used to be. They no longer care about Ascension. They just want oblivion. They might be sullen about it, grudgingly helping the Nephandus unweave Creation. Or they could be sadistically enthusiastic about it. Regardless, they're no longer the cheerleaders and taskmasters they once were. Instead, they're at once prisoners and wardens of their Mage host.

The Consensus

First off, what is the Consensus? Well, you know all those Sleepers? They have Avatars, too, and the same basic ability to rewrite Reality by force of will, but they just don't realize it. Instead, their unconscious belief shapes the Universe. Now, each individual Sleeper only provides a tiny little drop of reality bending... but when magnified by billions of drops, suddenly you have an ocean (or at least a pool). The collective power of that weight of belief crafts the rules by which Reality operates when not being slapped around by a Mage.

The Consensus also regulates what is considered Coincidental or Vulgar magick. If something is plausible according to the weight of belief of humanity, then it's Coincidental. If it isn't, it's Vulgar.

Mages can hack the software of the Universe and make it do the impossible, but each act of willwork is unique and ephemeral. To make real, lasting change you need the Consensus.

Oh sure, Magick rituals can make permanent changes to the Tellurian -- Life 3 enhancements are a good example -- but to take the software analogy further, that is like writing a one-off program to make a change to a file on disk. Once the change is made if you want to make another, you have to start from scratch. Rotes can help with this, certainly, but the final act of crafting the Effect is always just a temporary alteration to the way Reality works.

The Consensus, however, can make the way that Reality operates during a casting permanent. When that happens, the method or foci involved become written in the Universe as The Way Things Work and anyone can do it the same way, repeatably, with no risk of Paradox. Modern electronics are an example; the Technocratic Union created the underlying theory by which they operate, provided real examples, and eventually the rest of humanity believed enough in it that electronics now function without the need for a willworker. You can thank the existence of your TV and computer to all the other people in the world believing they work.

But while the Consensus can make new things work according to proscribed rules, it can also make other things that used to work cease to function. Disease used to be treated by balancing humors or casting out demons with religious paraphernalia; those methods don't work any more unless there's a willworker making them work. This can also affect things found in reality; Changelings and Bygones are under threat because the Consensus doesn't believe very strongly in them any more.

Now, this shift in belief has a bit of a lag time. It takes time for the public to accept that some new tool or process really will do what is advertised in the way it is described. In the same way, the Consensus grinds down things which it no longer accepts, but there will be a stretch of time when those things still operate until finally being snuffed out.

What determines how long that lag is? Well, it's honestly somewhat fuzzy. The short answer is the Storyteller. But there is a correlation to how long something has been believed in to how long it takes to change. If everyone stopped believing in modern electronics all at once, it might take years or decades for your TV to stop functioning and no new ones working either. All of humanity no longer believing that plowing the ground before planting crops increases yield might take centuries or millennia to not work any more. Certain supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves won't go the way of Bygones for maybe tens of millennia, regardless of how much the raft of humanity denies their existence.

On the other hand, look at the rate of change in the world since the Order of Reason was established in the 1500s. The Technocratic Union are sometimes derisively called static mages because they want to freeze everything in stasis, but that's a bit of naked slander. With the possible exception of the First Mages, there has never been a time of more rapid change and dynamism in the Consensus since the Age of Enlightenment. So, clearly changes to the Consensus can also happen surprisingly quickly.

It is also important to note that the Consensus is not uniform across geography. In parts of the deep bayou, for instance, some voodoo rituals can still produce results. Within prestigious universities or laboratories, bleeding-edge technologies that would be magick elsewhere operate without a Mage's hand orchestrating them. This also applies to Coincidental and Vulgar labels; in remote parts of Africa, the shamanistic methods of the Dreamspeakers are still Coincidental while at a sci-fi convention the works of the Sons of Ether might enjoy being Coincidental.

But your TV will still work just about anywhere on Earth. The Technocratic Paradigm still dominates the planet.