Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
The Lie means it’s rotten to be Awakened. It means it’s rotten to be Asleep. It means that it’s rotten in those cases when the Awakened accidentally, or purposefully, bother those who Sleep but cannot wake.
Curse of Quiescence
The Supernal makes up parts of the Fallen World, and those parts show up as messages and symbols direct from the source. But those messages come through the Abyss and are tainted by it. Sleepers, us — most of us anyway, every Joe, Joji, and Amina on the planet — see these warped messages instead of the Truth.
A Sleeper’s soul is given a choice, therefore, between a Truth that cannot be understood and a terrible, impossible alternative as offered by the Abyss. Her choice is a non-choice, and so she Sleeps. That non-choice is the Curse.
Obvious magic
(Previously known as Vulgar or Improbable)
The Curse strikes a Sleeper when she sees obvious magic, either during the spell’s casting or encountering its effects later. So what’s obvious? "The spell must be clearly, openly supernatural in effect, and the Sleeper must be both conscious and cognizant of the magic’s impossibility." Spells that are not obvious at the moment they are cast escape the Paradox die bonus, but may be subject to Dissonance if they are obvious when a Sleeper later encounters them.
The Curse Hurts
There’s no right answer for the Sleeper when she is confronted with Supernal forces. Any time she is faced with this painful non-choice, as her mind and soul wrestle with conflicting and impossible messages, it hurts her deep inside. Some part of her breaks under the strain of wrestling with the impossible, and recovery from that may be an uphill struggle or frankly, never happen. Sleepers witnessing an obvious manifestation of the Supernal or Abyssal always experience a breaking point against Integrity.
Before Curse, Comes Hubris
It is possible, depending on whom you ask, that the existence of the Curse is itself caused by hubris, a conscious and targeted desire to keep the masses ignorant. To believe the Diamond stories of the Exarchs entering the Supernal and closing the way behind them is to believe that the Curse comes from arrogance and pride itself. So it’s no wonder that any time a mage afflicts the Curse’s painful manifestation on a Sleeper, it violates his Wisdom as well as the Sleeper’s Integrity. Causing a Sleeper to risk losing Integrity because of your magic is an Act of Hubris for Enlightened and Understanding Wisdom characters.
The Curse Feeds Paradox
Exposing a Sleeper to the Supernal means she must give thought to the twisted symbols from the Abyss, even if the symbol is pure and perfect (and therefore risks little or no Paradox on its own). By her inability to separate what the Supernal says from the alternate Lie the Abyss suggests, she brings a part of the Abyss with her, corrupting what the Awakened hope to do. Any Sleeper witnesses to an obvious spell increase Paradox risk by a die. This may cause a spell that would otherwise not risk Paradox to do so.
Social Creatures
Human beings are social by nature, and we function best in groups. In the Fallen World, humanity shares the suffering of the Lie, and though Sleepers do not realize it and cannot discuss it, they share the burden soul to soul, and in the collective unconscious. This is how the Abyss is as strong as it is. Human interconnectedness powers, strengthens, and complicates the Lie. Without the ability to spread the burden around, though, the Lie would likely crush humanity one individual at a time.
Multiple Sleeper witnesses to obvious spells apply a dice trick to the Paradox roll rather than adding cumulative dice. A handful of people makes it 9-Again, urban foot traffic 8-Again, and a crowd gives it the rote action quality.
Dissonance Made Manifest
When a Sleeper struggles with the non-choice she’s been given by reality, it creates internal conflict, and that cycles back into the system. This conflict, this discord between what can and can’t be real, degrades not just her own soul and mind, but also symbols of the Supernal when she is exposed to them. The Awakened call it Dissonance, and it is the brutal aftereffect of the Curse on the magics they attempt to create. Dissonance does not only affect the spells of mages, but any exposure to the Supernal. Worse, it makes Abyssal entities stronger.
At the end of a scene in which a Sleeper witnesses obvious Supernal magic, roll her Integrity as a dice pool, Withstood by the spell’s dots, the Rank of a Supernal entity, or a number set by the Storyteller for other magical phenomena. Dissonance against Demesnes is Withstood by the number of soul stones creating the Demesne. Multiple Sleepers do not roll more than once, but apply a dice trick to the roll in the same way as Paradox rolls.
Dissonance Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected, and Sleeper suffers (an additional) breaking point against Integrity.
Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected.
Success: If the roll achieves successes beyond the phenomenon’s Withstand rating:
• Spells: Each success reduces one spell factor by a level, primary factor last, to a minimum of the lowest level of each factor table. If all factors have been reduced to minimum, any further success destroys the spell.
• Supernal Entities: The entity suffers lethal damage equal to successes.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is suppressed, ceasing to function until no Sleepers have been present for the roll’s successes in weeks.
Exceptional Success: As above, and also;
• Spells: One Reach effect incorporated into the spell is removed.
• Supernal Entities: The damage inflicted is aggravated.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is permanently destroyed. This does not affect the soul stones, which can be used to build a new Demesne.
Legacy Attainments and Emanation Realms are immune to Dissonance. Treat Abyssal beings as Supernal for the dice roll, but they do not Withstand successes and Dissonance heals the roll’s successes in Corpus as well as giving the Abyssal entity successes in points of Essence.
Integrity & Breaking Points
Instead of Wisdom, Sleepers, Sleepwalkers, and Proximi use an Advantage called Integrity which represents the health of their souls and senses of self. Instead of Acts of Hubris, Sleepers risk breaking points when they suffer psychological stress. Witnessing magic is always a breaking point, as is killing another human being; but the Storyteller and players should work together to define a few situations that would constitute a breaking point for each character.
Roll: Characters using Integrity roll Resolve + Composure when they reach a breaking point, with modifiers for high or low Integrity (8–10 gives +2 dice, 7–6 is +1, 3–2 is –1 and 1 is –2) or situational modifiers decided by the Storyteller.
Success/Failure: Whether the character succeeds or fails, reaching a breaking point applies a Condition such as Guilty, Shaken, or Spooked. Failing the roll means the character loses a dot of Integrity.
Dramatic Failure: grants a Beat and changes the Condition to a worse one like Broken, Fugue, or Madness.
It is as harrowing in memory is it is in reality; the conflict brought on by the Curse is that powerful. Quiescence, like Dissonance, is not limited to the spells of mages; Sleepers’ memories are also clouded by the interior of ruins of the Time Before, the presence of the Mad, Emanation Realms, and sighting Supernal
Sleeper Merits
The following Merits are meant to facilitate play for Sleeper characters in a Mage game. While many of these Merits might seem designed to pit character against character, recall that mages tend to be a clever bunch. And while a Sleeper who makes Paradox around her worse could be a problem for the Awakened characters, it could be a worse problem for their enemies, if the Sleeper were utilized in the right ways. When using these Merits, always lean toward out of character agreement and cooperation for better stories.
The following merits are approved for immediate play:
Merit: Actively Oblivious (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
You’ve lived a hard life, and long ago learned that sometimes the only way to survive realities that are just too hard to face is to not notice them in the first place. That’s why you can smile while you patch up the hole in the kitchen wall and describe your dad as “strict” rather than abusive. Little do you know, this ability of yours allows you to ignore the greater magical truths of the world as well as the domestic ones.
Effect: By spending a Willpower point during an incident that might cause you to suffer a breaking point, you can actively ignore the event and not have to make the roll. This requires concentration. This active oblivious state also protects you from “seeing” events that relate to the Supernal. As a result, should you be successfully and actively oblivious, you do not count as a witness to Supernal magics and cannot be a part of a Paradox risk. (Though you do create Dissonance and suffer Quiescence as this cannot be kept up indefinitely.)
Drawback: Whenever you successfully ignore a potential breaking point, you suffer the Strained Condition.
Merit: Communal Sleeper (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only, Empathy ••+
You are many. When surrounded by people just like you, you have a presence of personality and self that radiates beyond just yourself and those with whom you share time. You’re a sort of crowd yourself, so long as there’s anyone there to see you be boisterous and approachable.
Effect: When the character is leading, guiding, or otherwise protecting at least one other Sleeper, the dice trick applied to the Paradox dice pool is one step worse (so two or three Sleepers including the character use 8-Again, and light foot traffic uses the rote action quality).
Merit: Detail Oriented (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
A Detail Oriented character can pick up clues and details often missed by those characters who think big or are otherwise caught up in the Supernal.
Effect: Any time an Awakened or Sleepwalker character misses an Investigation- or Perception-based roll, if you attempt it, you get an exceptional success on three successes rather than five.
Merit: Liar (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
Unfortunately, your very being strengthens the Lie. Your soul has been twisted by the Abyss and your presence warps the Supernal.
Effect: A character with this Merit increases Paradox risk around her by two dice instead of one, and adds two dice to Dissonance rolls.
Drawback: The character has the Open Condition against Abyssal entities, and suffers a -1 penalty on breaking point rolls caused by the Abyss.
Merit: Strained (••)
Prerequisite: Integrity 5 or lower, Sleeper Only
You’ve managed to shrug off the mind-bending Truth of the world many times, and for now, you’re holding it together. But you’ve weakened, and may be finding it harder to push things off.
Effect: When faced with an Integrity breaking point based on Supernal or Abyssal effects, you can instead take the Strained Condition.
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
Sleepers: Quiescence & Dissonance
"Flesh is a trap... that's what he used to say... flesh is a trap, and magic sets us free."
- Lord of Illusions (1995)
My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle.
Sources: The following text, as written in grey, is straight out of the advanced "beta" version of Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition. Additional materials edited from Original Posting in 2015 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path Publishing as part of Mage 2nd Ed Open Development.
The Lie means it’s rotten to be Awakened. It means it’s rotten to be Asleep. It means that it’s rotten in those cases when the Awakened accidentally, or purposefully, bother those who Sleep but cannot wake.
The Supernal makes up parts of the Fallen World, and those parts show up as messages and symbols direct from the source. But those messages come through the Abyss and are tainted by it. Sleepers, us — most of us anyway, every Joe, Joji, and Amina on the planet — see these warped messages instead of the Truth.
A Sleeper’s soul is given a choice, therefore, between a Truth that cannot be understood and a terrible, impossible alternative as offered by the Abyss. Her choice is a non-choice, and so she Sleeps. That non-choice is the Curse.
Obvious magic
(Previously known as Vulgar or Improbable)
The Curse strikes a Sleeper when she sees obvious magic, either during the spell’s casting or encountering its effects later. So what’s obvious? "The spell must be clearly, openly supernatural in effect, and the Sleeper must be both conscious and cognizant of the magic’s impossibility." Spells that are not obvious at the moment they are cast escape the Paradox die bonus, but may be subject to Dissonance if they are obvious when a Sleeper later encounters them.
The Curse Hurts
There’s no right answer for the Sleeper when she is confronted with Supernal forces. Any time she is faced with this painful non-choice, as her mind and soul wrestle with conflicting and impossible messages, it hurts her deep inside. Some part of her breaks under the strain of wrestling with the impossible, and recovery from that may be an uphill struggle or frankly, never happen. Sleepers witnessing an obvious manifestation of the Supernal or Abyssal always experience a breaking point against Integrity.
Before Curse, Comes Hubris
It is possible, depending on whom you ask, that the existence of the Curse is itself caused by hubris, a conscious and targeted desire to keep the masses ignorant. To believe the Diamond stories of the Exarchs entering the Supernal and closing the way behind them is to believe that the Curse comes from arrogance and pride itself. So it’s no wonder that any time a mage afflicts the Curse’s painful manifestation on a Sleeper, it violates his Wisdom as well as the Sleeper’s Integrity. Causing a Sleeper to risk losing Integrity because of your magic is an Act of Hubris for Enlightened and Understanding Wisdom characters.
The Curse Feeds Paradox
Exposing a Sleeper to the Supernal means she must give thought to the twisted symbols from the Abyss, even if the symbol is pure and perfect (and therefore risks little or no Paradox on its own). By her inability to separate what the Supernal says from the alternate Lie the Abyss suggests, she brings a part of the Abyss with her, corrupting what the Awakened hope to do. Any Sleeper witnesses to an obvious spell increase Paradox risk by a die. This may cause a spell that would otherwise not risk Paradox to do so.
Social Creatures
Human beings are social by nature, and we function best in groups. In the Fallen World, humanity shares the suffering of the Lie, and though Sleepers do not realize it and cannot discuss it, they share the burden soul to soul, and in the collective unconscious. This is how the Abyss is as strong as it is. Human interconnectedness powers, strengthens, and complicates the Lie. Without the ability to spread the burden around, though, the Lie would likely crush humanity one individual at a time.
Multiple Sleeper witnesses to obvious spells apply a dice trick to the Paradox roll rather than adding cumulative dice. A handful of people makes it 9-Again, urban foot traffic 8-Again, and a crowd gives it the rote action quality.
Dissonance Made ManifestWhen a Sleeper struggles with the non-choice she’s been given by reality, it creates internal conflict, and that cycles back into the system. This conflict, this discord between what can and can’t be real, degrades not just her own soul and mind, but also symbols of the Supernal when she is exposed to them. The Awakened call it Dissonance, and it is the brutal aftereffect of the Curse on the magics they attempt to create. Dissonance does not only affect the spells of mages, but any exposure to the Supernal. Worse, it makes Abyssal entities stronger.
At the end of a scene in which a Sleeper witnesses obvious Supernal magic, roll her Integrity as a dice pool, Withstood by the spell’s dots, the Rank of a Supernal entity, or a number set by the Storyteller for other magical phenomena. Dissonance against Demesnes is Withstood by the number of soul stones creating the Demesne. Multiple Sleepers do not roll more than once, but apply a dice trick to the roll in the same way as Paradox rolls.
Dissonance Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected, and Sleeper suffers (an additional) breaking point against Integrity.
Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected.
Success: If the roll achieves successes beyond the phenomenon’s Withstand rating:
• Spells: Each success reduces one spell factor by a level, primary factor last, to a minimum of the lowest level of each factor table. If all factors have been reduced to minimum, any further success destroys the spell.
• Supernal Entities: The entity suffers lethal damage equal to successes.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is suppressed, ceasing to function until no Sleepers have been present for the roll’s successes in weeks.
Exceptional Success: As above, and also;
• Spells: One Reach effect incorporated into the spell is removed.
• Supernal Entities: The damage inflicted is aggravated.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is permanently destroyed. This does not affect the soul stones, which can be used to build a new Demesne.
Legacy Attainments and Emanation Realms are immune to Dissonance. Treat Abyssal beings as Supernal for the dice roll, but they do not Withstand successes and Dissonance heals the roll’s successes in Corpus as well as giving the Abyssal entity successes in points of Essence.
Integrity & Breaking Points
Instead of Wisdom, Sleepers, Sleepwalkers, and Proximi use an Advantage called Integrity which represents the health of their souls and senses of self. Instead of Acts of Hubris, Sleepers risk breaking points when they suffer psychological stress. Witnessing magic is always a breaking point, as is killing another human being; but the Storyteller and players should work together to define a few situations that would constitute a breaking point for each character.
Roll: Characters using Integrity roll Resolve + Composure when they reach a breaking point, with modifiers for high or low Integrity (8–10 gives +2 dice, 7–6 is +1, 3–2 is –1 and 1 is –2) or situational modifiers decided by the Storyteller.
Success/Failure: Whether the character succeeds or fails, reaching a breaking point applies a Condition such as Guilty, Shaken, or Spooked. Failing the roll means the character loses a dot of Integrity.
Dramatic Failure: grants a Beat and changes the Condition to a worse one like Broken, Fugue, or Madness.
Exceptional Success: escapes a negative Condition; the character regains a point of Willpower and takes a Beat instead. Characters at Integrity 1 continue to suffer breaking points but cannot go to Integrity 0. Integrity may be raised after a protracted period of rest (and, potentially, counseling) for 3 Experiences per dot.
Letting Go
Simply put, a Sleeper cannot remember witnessing the Supernal and Abyssal after the fact. If there is grace written into the Curse of Quiescence, it’s here. The mercy of forgetting is bittersweet. It means that the Sleeper protects the Lie and even feeds into it, preventing her own ability to Awaken. The alternative is too awful, though. If she could remember the event, she would be confronted with her conflict and suffer it all over again. This would mean each time she thought about the day, the people, the time, those symbols too painful to understand would cause her to break all over again. Forgetting entirely, or more commonly, self-editing the memories to remove Supernal and Abyssal influence, saves the Sleeper a quick trip to total mental collapse. Those mages who work closely with Sleepers sometimes argue that this forgetting is not a part of the Curse, but the resilient human mind finding a way to survive it.
In the scene directly following exposure to the Supernal or Abyssal, a Sleeper forgets what she saw, or else changes how she remembers it toward the mundane. Any serious attempt to prod at those false memories, bring them into question, or correct them with magic triggers a breaking point as if she were witnessing the traumatic event again for the first time, followed by the memory being removed again.
Simply put, a Sleeper cannot remember witnessing the Supernal and Abyssal after the fact. If there is grace written into the Curse of Quiescence, it’s here. The mercy of forgetting is bittersweet. It means that the Sleeper protects the Lie and even feeds into it, preventing her own ability to Awaken. The alternative is too awful, though. If she could remember the event, she would be confronted with her conflict and suffer it all over again. This would mean each time she thought about the day, the people, the time, those symbols too painful to understand would cause her to break all over again. Forgetting entirely, or more commonly, self-editing the memories to remove Supernal and Abyssal influence, saves the Sleeper a quick trip to total mental collapse. Those mages who work closely with Sleepers sometimes argue that this forgetting is not a part of the Curse, but the resilient human mind finding a way to survive it.
In the scene directly following exposure to the Supernal or Abyssal, a Sleeper forgets what she saw, or else changes how she remembers it toward the mundane. Any serious attempt to prod at those false memories, bring them into question, or correct them with magic triggers a breaking point as if she were witnessing the traumatic event again for the first time, followed by the memory being removed again.
It is as harrowing in memory is it is in reality; the conflict brought on by the Curse is that powerful. Quiescence, like Dissonance, is not limited to the spells of mages; Sleepers’ memories are also clouded by the interior of ruins of the Time Before, the presence of the Mad, Emanation Realms, and sighting SupernalSleeper Merits
The following Merits are meant to facilitate play for Sleeper characters in a Mage game. While many of these Merits might seem designed to pit character against character, recall that mages tend to be a clever bunch. And while a Sleeper who makes Paradox around her worse could be a problem for the Awakened characters, it could be a worse problem for their enemies, if the Sleeper were utilized in the right ways. When using these Merits, always lean toward out of character agreement and cooperation for better stories.
The following merits are approved for immediate play:
Merit: Actively Oblivious (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
You’ve lived a hard life, and long ago learned that sometimes the only way to survive realities that are just too hard to face is to not notice them in the first place. That’s why you can smile while you patch up the hole in the kitchen wall and describe your dad as “strict” rather than abusive. Little do you know, this ability of yours allows you to ignore the greater magical truths of the world as well as the domestic ones.
Effect: By spending a Willpower point during an incident that might cause you to suffer a breaking point, you can actively ignore the event and not have to make the roll. This requires concentration. This active oblivious state also protects you from “seeing” events that relate to the Supernal. As a result, should you be successfully and actively oblivious, you do not count as a witness to Supernal magics and cannot be a part of a Paradox risk. (Though you do create Dissonance and suffer Quiescence as this cannot be kept up indefinitely.)
Drawback: Whenever you successfully ignore a potential breaking point, you suffer the Strained Condition.
Merit: Communal Sleeper (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only, Empathy ••+
You are many. When surrounded by people just like you, you have a presence of personality and self that radiates beyond just yourself and those with whom you share time. You’re a sort of crowd yourself, so long as there’s anyone there to see you be boisterous and approachable.
Effect: When the character is leading, guiding, or otherwise protecting at least one other Sleeper, the dice trick applied to the Paradox dice pool is one step worse (so two or three Sleepers including the character use 8-Again, and light foot traffic uses the rote action quality).
Merit: Detail Oriented (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
A Detail Oriented character can pick up clues and details often missed by those characters who think big or are otherwise caught up in the Supernal.
Effect: Any time an Awakened or Sleepwalker character misses an Investigation- or Perception-based roll, if you attempt it, you get an exceptional success on three successes rather than five.
Merit: Liar (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
Unfortunately, your very being strengthens the Lie. Your soul has been twisted by the Abyss and your presence warps the Supernal.
Effect: A character with this Merit increases Paradox risk around her by two dice instead of one, and adds two dice to Dissonance rolls.
Drawback: The character has the Open Condition against Abyssal entities, and suffers a -1 penalty on breaking point rolls caused by the Abyss.
Merit: Strained (••)
Prerequisite: Integrity 5 or lower, Sleeper Only
You’ve managed to shrug off the mind-bending Truth of the world many times, and for now, you’re holding it together. But you’ve weakened, and may be finding it harder to push things off.
Effect: When faced with an Integrity breaking point based on Supernal or Abyssal effects, you can instead take the Strained Condition.
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