((In Character (IC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Chronicles of Darkness - Mage: The Awakening (Fallen World Chronicle)
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Borrowed & Edited from Original Posting in 2014 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path Publishing.))
((Out of Character (OOC) material in (())s ))
((Out of Character (OOC) material in (())s ))
Oh the Places You’ll Go… Part III
From: The Earth-Rim Runner by Daduchos Duelmaster Gabrielle
Inward Travel: The Astral Realms
Mages
can turn their gnosis in on itself, meditating to experience the myriad worlds
within the human soul. The Astral Realms are not the dream-walking of entering
someone’s dreams is a simple Mind spell or wandering the material world as a
mental projection in the state of Twilight, but rather the realms within the
soul. Mages entering the Astral encounter truths they didn’t consciously know,
confront spiritual wounds, and explore the collective soul of humanity and the
Fallen World itself.
((In
the current edition, entering the Astral required a 5-dot Hallow or Demesne,
plus one Mana. We’re changing that to any Hallow or Demesne, costing six minus
the Hallow’s rating Mana, one Mana for a Demesne of a different Path or free for
a Demense of the correct Path for the traveler))
Mages
appear in the Astral as their soul’s self-image, influenced by their shadow
lives if they’re particularly devoted to a Shadow Name. Mages often change
apparent age or fitness on entering the Astral, and some change gender. Mages
with Shadow names deeply associated with a particular people (that they aren’t
descended from in the material world) might even change race.
Astral Paths
Entering
the Astral requires deep, extended meditation and visualization to reach and
travel the Astral Path – an imaginary journey the mage creates, picturing
themselves traveling around or down a landscape of their own choosing. As they
progress, the Path takes on the aspects of their Path sights, hence the name
“Path”; many mages believe they are literally following their connection to
their Supernal Watchtower, traces the line of sympathetic association.
Goetia & Goetic Demons: the inhabitants of the Astral Realms.
Goetia have no native Manifestations (they don’t need them in the Astral) and
have Influence over the concept they embody. Goetia summoned out into the
material world with Mind magic exist in the “mental” Twilight of projectors, but can be granted ephemeral bodies and Manifestations
using Spirit or Death magic.
The Oneiros
The
first layer of the Astral is the realm of the individual soul. The Oneiros
contains memories, vices, virtues, and vistas showing what the mage believes
about subjects. Most mages meditate to their own Oneiros, but Mind spells can
link two souls together to allow group exploration or the invasion of a
victim’s soul. Mages enter the Oneiros to gain self-knowledge, literally
confront their fears, consult with their Daimons (the goetia representing each
soul’s drive to self-improvement) or even edit out traumatic memories. The
first realm entered is the soul’s concept of “arrival”, and travel is a matter
of emotional association and attempting to focus on the desired destination. From there they follow the paths of
associations to dream scenes which they can witness, interact, study and
resolve.
The Temenos
Aliases: The Universal Subconscious,
The
next layer of the Astral for mages is the shared soul of the human race. Every
concept shared between more than one person exists as a realm somewhere within
the Temenos, but may be difficult to find if especially rare. Mages are no
exception – the Orders and Legacies all have representative realms in the
Astral, and some astrally-oriented Legacies use their own realms as bases and
staging areas for soul-voyages. Travel in the Temenos begins at the
concept-world matching the Astral Path’s scenery, and proceeds as a game of
free-association, finding conceptual links between scenes or seeking out a
concept of “transport” or “travel”. Mages enter the Temenos to learn secrets,
gather information, and influence Sleeper society – great changes to the
Temenos representation of a concept alter how everyone in the material world regards that
concept, although the vox populi has a habit of bouncing back hard following
attempted subversion.
This
place also includes things dreamt of or believed, everything conception man has
had, past present and future. There are
realms of certain mental illnesses, prisons mad of dreams, and things more
remote than man would believe exists.
Anima Mundi
Aliases: The World Soul,
The
final layer of the Astral accessible to mages, the Anima Mundi is the shared
soul of the whole Fallen World. Travelers always arrived at the Boundary Stone,
which is both the gateway to the Anima Mundi and the Temenos realm of “High Speech,”
the thing that separates humanity from the world. This realm is called the
Omphalos. Travel in the Anima Mundi isn’t the freeform web of emotions or
concepts – when in the world’s soul, mages have to bow to how insignificant
they are, and follow the prescribed paths. From the Boundary Stone, travelers
enter either the realm of humanity’s devastating impact on the world or the
broken, shattered world Axis Mundi, the spine of creation. In the Axis Mundi
they see the Spire Perilous and the Swath. From there, they enter the Dreaming
Earth, the shared soul of everything in the material world, and finally to the
Sidereal Wastes (or Sidereal Redoubts) and the souls of the far planets and
stars called the Whorl. Outside the soul of humanity, though, the Astral Realms
constantly threaten to consume a traveler – Astral Winds (also called the
Ecstatic Winds) pull travelers apart to fatal communion with the universe and
one must quickly learn to veil themselves in an armor of their Nimbi, called
the Amnion.
The Far Shore
At
the very end of the Anima Mundi, in the Sidereal Wastes, explorers find a
desolate beach on the shore of a jet-black ocean that only moves when they
don’t look at it. The Ocean Oroboros is the Astral reflection of the Abyss, and
mages can go no further. Around the ocean, the goetia representing the most
fundamental concepts – the Arcana and Paradox – await travelers in citadels
that might once have been bridges between the soul and the Supernal Realms.
Travelers come to petition for knowledge and make deals with these “Aeons.”
The Abyss
The most terrifying realm of all, the Abyss is an
entity as much as a place. It is a vast
and infinite void populated by beings beyond the edges of creation, creatures
beyond your darkest nightmares, strange aeons that live but where never alive,
dead but never died, anti-reality incarnate.
A hideous and infected wound of unreality the Abyss
was created with the Fall of Atlantis and the destruction of the Supernal
Ladder. While the Abyss and its
Intruders save most of their ire for the Awakened and Supernal Magic, it hates
all that exists, and in its twisted vision sees everything in the world as
being inherently WRONG. It seeks only
the corruption and entropy of all matter and life in the universe. Not all believe that the Abyss was created by
man’s hubris but was let in from outside of existence.
The Supernal Realms
Long ago, in a time that no longer exists, the higher
reality of the Supernal and the lower world were connected. Everything changes when the Dragonblooded
tried to build a Ladder to the Heavens. The Exarchs betrayed Atlantis, and
reality was rent asunder. Now the Realms
Supernal are separated from the Fallen realms by the Abyss. Are they still connected, deep through the emanations
or through travel to inner and outer realms?
Who can say for sure. No one who
has ever made it so deep has ever returned with the tale. If you make it back to the Supernal, you
become part of The Ideal and are absorbed into the one true Source of All
Souls. You will never have existed.
Putting it all together…
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