Sunday, November 27, 2016

[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Ed] San Diego: Apostates, Heretics & Nameless

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

                     San Diego: 
Apostates, Heretics & Nameless
                                  Written and designed by Lucas Powell


Ahijados de la Santisma Muerte

"God Children of the Holy Death"

The Ahijados de la Santism Muerte (Children of the Holy Death) a claim to have always been and they simply arrived in San Diego when an influx of Mexicans during the 1920s arrived in San Diego. They are a very peculiar order, deeply connected to their own culture and unwilling to maintain any kind of separation between their lives as mages and their human communities.

Each member of the Order must maintain a shrine dedicated to the dead in their personal homes. Most are curanderos or brujas, and many act as sin eaters.

Members of the Order are bound together by the benevolence of Santisma Muerte. Many street vendors, taxi drivers, vendors of pirated merchandise, street people, prostitutes, pickpockets, petty drug traffickers and gang members. They also protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Mexicans, as they are outcasts.

Home Shrine to Saint Death

The Ahijados are a large body, it’s assumed, considering the relatively few Mexican Awakened who join the Pentacle. The majority of Ahijados avoid the Pentacle preferring to tend to their local families and communities. Those who run up against the Pentacle tend to be those with strong criminal inclinations, those who are attempting to accrue temporal power or use magic openly. For every criminal Ahijado that the Pentacle interacts with there are a dozen more in the shadows.

Ahijados are not necessarily loyal to each other. There are cabals and organizations within the Ahijados, just like the major Orders.

Known to associate with Left-Handed Legacies: Fangs of Mara, Dreamers of the Black Sun, Devourers of the Flesh
Padre Juan Maria de la Cruz


Legacies: a version of the Daoine, Orphans of Proteus, Stewards of the Celestial Orrery, Scions of God, Liberatores, Keepers of the Covenant.

The Ahijados de las Santisma Muerte are spread throughout Northern Mexico and the Southwest United States, particularly in border towns like San Diego and El Paso but they also have significant presences in places like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Houston, Austin, and Chicago.

Merit: Ahijados de la Santisma Muerte Status (Nameless Order) (• to •••••)

•              The Ahijado gains the Brujeria specialty in either Occult or Medicine, reflecting either their role as a curandero or brujo.
••           The Ahijados speak an Enlightened Nahual to practice their magic, they gain High Speech (•).
•••         The Ahijados are singularly devoted to the Santisma Muerte and may purchase her as a Totem spirit (dots are pooled between all Ahijados de la Santisma Muerte). Because of their deep cultural connections to Chicanismo and Mexican immigrant community they may purchase Allies.
••••       The Ahijado is more practiced with their art, they gain a +1 to either Occult or Medicine depending on their calling.
•••••    Truly blessed by La Flaca, the Ahijado gains the Medium (•••) merit.

La Palilla, The Toothpick

Known Ahijados of San Diego

Dueña Rebeca - Mexican crime boss.
Don Alfonso - Enforcer for Dueña Rebeca.
Izel Miccahuatzin - Murderess and cop killer. Necromancer.
La Palilla - The Toothpick. Drug runner and human trafficker.
Padre Juan Maria de la Cruz - Confessor to other Ahijados.


AjA Autosuficiencia Juntada con Apoyo

The AjA (pronounced Aha) is an order comprised of Apostates who have chosen to leave the Pentacle. Most of the members of AjA are refugees from Vietnam, Ethiopia, Iraq, Burma, and Somalia, places where the Pentacle was an oppressive force or failed to prevent atrocity.
AjA are very focused on guarding their ethnic communities. They tend to be found in City Heights (East African Refugees settled here in a district call “Little Mogadishu”), and Kearny Mesa (where many Vietnam War era refugees settled), El Cajon (Iraqi Chaldeans), Burmese (City Heights).

Members of AjA tend to be older, by and large, and refugees themselves. Children of AjA or of refugees upon Awakening tend to join a Pentacle Order.

Merit: Status (Nameless Order) - AjA (• to •••••)

•              AjA act as guardians of their ethnic communities, helping them integrate into American culture and navigate the byzantine bureaucracy, because of this they all gain a Bureaucracy specialty in Politics.
••           Working on assimilating into American society is hard, all AjA gain the Multilingual (•) Merit, English must be one of their languages. The second language can be Ethiopian, Somali, Arabic, Burmese, Chaldean, or Vietnamese.
•••         Surviving in a foreign land is difficult and many AjA make new alliances, not only for themselves, but for the communities they serve. AjA may purchase Allies and Contacts at reduced cost.
••••       AjA have been called to serve and guide their communities in a foreign land, they all gain the Higher Calling (••) merit.
•••••    The World of Darkness is not kind to anyone, but especially those who outwardly appear to be easy prey, marginalized communities come under attack not by just greedy and corrupt cops, but also hungry ghosts and blood drinking monsters. AjA gain the Blessed Defender (•••) merit.

Merit: Blessed Defender (•••)

You are especially fierce when defending your community and other members of AjA. When defending anyone represented with dots in Allies or Status you receive a bonus die to all attack pools. This Merit does no good against humans who are members of your community or AjA. This blessing also gives you -1 Paradox die while defending your community.


Merit: Favors (• to •••••)

Prerequisite: Favors can never exceed a character’s Nameless Order Status (AjA).

Effect: Favors allows a character to use a network of associates to accomplish tasks that are beyond his normal means. Because he has sowed some effort by working for AjA, he gets to reap.

Favors is not quite the same as Status. Status is an index of respect and esteem. Favors measures how much a character has gotten done, how much she’s perceived as doing for AjA and how much the local communities feels she deserves. Pull goes hand in hand with AjA Status, inasmuch that someone who is useful but despised is going to have as hard a time getting help as someone who is esteemed but hapless.

Once per game month, a character with Favors can apply it to one of the following Merits: Contacts, Sanctum, Allies, or Resources. This represents a fellow AjA offering a favor or someone otherwise connected somehow to AjA offering temporary aid to the character.

The effects of Favors do not last more than one night. Favors can be used to augment a Merit the character already possesses (for example, someone with Contacts •• and Favors • can, once per month, act as if he had Contacts •••), though Merits increased in this fashion can’t go above 5.

The player may also choose to parcel out the benefits. A character with Favors ••• could, say, use it to raise his Resources by two one night and then, a few weeks later, improve his Sanctum by one for a night. Whenever Favors is used, its effective level drops by the amount used for one month.
Ministry of Mammon

Seers of the Throne

First Chosen of the Nazarene

Focused on indoctrination and the utilization of conservative faiths to enact the will of the Exarchs. A minor, mostly non-violent Pylon.

Alcalde Consulting - Alcalde Consulting is a Seer of the Throne front that purchased the America One tower in downtown San Diego. They are currently watching and waiting for the Consilium to show weakness so they can move in and re-establish themselves.

America One Tower

Baldomero Acalde - Baldomero remotely operates from his office in Chicago. He primarily relies on mundane means of communication and performs legitimate real estate and financial business in the city. He rarely uses magic, he is an Obrimos and is a master of Geomancy.

Known Banishers

Fra Chav, the Feared A legendary Banisher is the only known Banisher that hasn't been destroyed by the Concilium.

              


Scelesti

Scholomance - A group of Scelesti and barabbi dedicated to seeding the Abyssal Mysteries throughout society. If any seek them out they will teach them the Black Arts and abyssal secrets, and they claim that they themselves have no secrets.

Kethes, Urban Legend

Enders of All Things - A defunct Cabal defeated at the Battle of the El Cortez in the wake of the destruction of Succoth-Benoth, the Father of All Acamoth.

Kethes - Rumors and sightings of Kethes, one of the infamous mages of the World Enders persist.  Mages and retainers alike claim to have seen Kethes wandering the streets as a homeless man.  Having been cast into the Abyss at the Battle of El Cortez his return could mean either false reporting during the battle or the presence of one who has returned from the Outer Dark.

Kethes has been relegated to the status of an urban legend, used to scare young initiates.  He is described as a living abyssal verge clothed in human flesh. A soulless Reaper possessing only an Anti-Soul. Last surviving member of the Enders and suspected Dweller to the Threshold...





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