[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Ed] Legacy: The Fangs of Mara v3.0

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

Legacy Conversion: Chimera's Fangs of Mara

The following is a conversion by our very talented Hannah Nyland of the original Legacy: The Fangs of Mara to a version for use in Mage: The Awakening Second Edition for her Character Chimera.  Now it has had it's Attainments tweaked to be more in line with the powers of the Acamoth dreams which the Fangs draw upon. It also focuses more on combating the Abyss, whereas the original focuses more on inflicting insanity.

“Fear is the chain that binds all souls together: men, beasts, spirits and gods alike. Nothing that lives is free from fear.”

From Legacies the Sublime pg 138: The Fangs of Mara are, if the Legacy’s adherents are to be believed, practitioners of an old Legacy. Some Awakened scholars believe that its philosophy has always existed, in one form or another. Such allegations can neither be confirmed nor denied, however, and only a scant few facts exist to corroborate the claims of the Fangs, or of the mages who condemn them.

What is known is that the Fangs derive some measure of their power from the acamoth and their Abyss-bound kin, stealing away some of the very same Investments Acamoth typically grant their petitioners, though without paying the same horrible price. In the eyes of most other willworkers, this offense makes the Fangs as bad as the Scelesti. After all, how much difference can there really be between bending knee to the Devil, and making use of his tools?

In truth, the Fangs of Mara make use of the darkest of magics, though not in the same manner as the Scelesti. Rather, the Fangs wrest their attainments from the restless dreams and hideous imaginings of the demon-gods, nightmares literally beyond any human comprehension. But why? Though known to but a handful of living willworkers outside of the Legacy, the Fangs aspire to the goal of using their knowledge and abilities to destroy those elder monstrosities and, perhaps, bridging the unfathomable gulf between the Fallen World and the Supernal.

Parent Path: Mastigos

Nickname: Nightmares

Suggested Oblations: Writing in a journal of one’s nightmares (or carefully scrutinizing and analyzing previous entries), indulging or confronting one’s own fears, inducing fear or nightmares in another, engaging in a deep and meaningful discussion on the subject of fear, methodically researching the fears of another.

New in 2.0:
Yantras: Comfort objects or self-soothing behaviors (+1), Succeeding on a fear-related Empathy or Intimidation check (+2), Suffering or inflicting emotional torment (+1), Destroying a representation of an Abyssal such as a sketch or drawing (+1), Fixating on objects of phobia (+1), Symbols of nightmare imagery (+1), Casting on the site of an Abyssal verge or manifestation (+2), Casting in an area heavily infused with the resonance of suffering and mental anguish (+2).

Parentage: Mastigos, Left-Handed, Nameless.

Ruling Arcana: Mind.

Related Skill Specs: Intimidation – Any. Empathy – Fear, Find Weak Points, Trauma. Occult – Acamoth, Nightmares, Abyss, Dreams.

Requirements: Gnosis 2, Intimidation 2, Empathy 2, a skill specialty from the Related Skill Specs list, the Deadpan or Air of Menace merit, and having had at least one major experience involving either experiencing or inflicting traumatic fear. Initiation involves a trip into the dreams of an Acamoth.



Investments:
All the investments here are adapted from the Summoners book (nWoD Mage: The Awakening First Edition). The names for each Attainment are borrowed from the Seeking Mr. Eaten’s name quest from the browser game (and delightful cosmic horror story) Fallen London.

*Inverted Agony - The Fang’s dice pool penalties for her last three dots of Health

are inverted; when functioning on her last three points of Health she gains a bonus equal to her dots in Gnosis for all activities for which she would normally be penalized. During this time, the mage experiences pain as pleasure, growing more intense as her body sustains more damage.

*Paradox Sense - The willworker can discern the presence, type (Backlash or Bedlam, for instance), and general strength (weak, moderate, or overwhelming, for example) of Paradox and Abyssal resonance within sensory range by succeeding on a reflexive Wits + Composure roll. The mage must consciously attempt to use this sense. The Paradox may be up to one day old per point of Gnosis possessed by the mage using this Investment, and can be detected in people, places, and things, as appropriate.

*Abyssal Invisibility – As an Instant action, the Fang can make herself undetectable to all senses of Abyssal entities and practitioners (concentrated and deliberate attempts to find them using supernatural capabilities get a Clash of Wills) for 24 hours. Attacking said Abyssal entities does not break the invisibility.

*Redouble Resolve – Once per story, the Fang may choose to recuperate all Willpower as a reflexive action.

*Fortitude - The willworker receives a +2 bonus to all Resistance Attributes for the

purposes of all resisted or contested effects (magical or otherwise) directed at her. Characters that have enhanced any or all of their Resistance Attributes through other means may still benefit from the Investment’s effects.

                                                                                           

*Feed on Pain - Whenever a living thing (including themselves) takes damage within sensory range, the Fang of Mara can choose to reflexively spend a Willpower to instantly regain health or mana equal to their dots in Mind. 

*Uncanny Knowledge - The mage gains knowledge of something that is well beyond his ability to know, or is permitted to witness a distant scene that currently takes place, has taken place (anytime within history) or that will take place (within the next day). The scope of what can be learned through this attainment is broad and the information can be extremely obscure, archaic, Abyssal, or otherwise extremely difficult to dredge up, but the mage immediately takes a Wisdom check at their current Wisdom level and the Nightmares condition for the rest of the chapter, even if they pass the Wisdom check.

*Void Demesne – As an instant action, the mage may designate a space no larger than a single average-sized room which is largely immune to the ravages of Paradox. The effect is permanent until revoked, but they can only have a number of such spaces active at a time equal to their dots in Mind. The area is treated similarly to a False Demesne (See Intruders Encounters with the Abyss pg 100) of the Fang’s Path. The customary “side effects” of a normal Demesne (such as static electricity in an Aetherial Demesne or the deepening of shadows within a Stygian Demesne) are invariably subtly mad, twisted, or otherwise wrong within such a space. If multiple Void Demesnes are overlapped on each other in this way, they may grant the Safe Space merit or similar effects.

Attainments:

1) “Initiate of the Lower Mysteries” 

(Investments of Knowledge) – By virtue of their connection to the Acamoth and their kin, Fangs of Mara have a disturbing way of knowing that which should not be known. Receive Paradox Sense or Uncanny Knowledge as an Investment.

Requirements: Initiation

Optional with Mind 1: Trauma is an open book to a Nightmare. Once per round, they can reflexively study a person or creature and receive answers to a number of the following questions equal to their dots in Mind. The effect is similarly to Know Nature (Mind = Potency vs Composure for Withstood), but the questions are flavored by the nature of the Legacy:

              *What are they most afraid of?
              *What is the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to them?
              *What is the most traumatizing thing that they’ve ever done to someone else?
              *What constitutes a Breaking Point for this character?
              *What Derangements or negative mental Conditions do they suffer from?
              *How do they cope with their fear or trauma? (support networks, rituals, comfort
                objects, etc)

2) “Breathing Darkness” 

(Investments of Protection) – One of the primary tenants of the Fang of Mara is to turn the weapons of the Abyss against it, to fight the devil with his own tools. Protection from corruption is a weapon of its own, even if that armor is forged from darkness. Receive Abyssal Invisibility as an Investment.
Requirements: Another trip into the mind of an Acamoth or comparable experience with the Abyss, Gnosis 2/3, a second skill specialty from the list.

Optional with Mind 2: Their harrowing experience with the Abyss (or as the less charitable would put it, their already loose sanity) gives the Fangs of Mara a layer of insulation against its horrors. The Nightmare is permanently subject to the effect “Abyssal Shield,” which functions similarly to spells like Ephemeral Shield. When targeted by a physical attack, power, or manifestation of an Abyssal denizen, Abyssally tainted mage, or Abyssal phenomenon, they reflexively roll Clash of Wills with their attacker to negate the effect on themselves.

3) “Black as Stars” 

(Investments of Iron Will) – “Out of the night that covers me, / Black as the pit from pole to pole, / I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul.” Receive Redouble Resolve or Fortitude as an Investment.

Requirements: Another trip into the mind of an Acamoth or comparable experience with the Abyss, Gnosis 4/5, Intimidation 3, Empathy 3.

Optional with Mind 3:  The crushing psychological trauma Fangs of Mara expose themselves tends to give them a countenance that’s a bit . . . off. Some fangs develop flat affects and blank, stoic expressions. Others are like looking into a void; all thousand-yard stares and emptiness. Still others become unpredictable, sporting odd facial tics and strange behaviors. Regardless of the exact form it takes, they are inherently unnerving to be around and can easily weaponize their off-putting mannerisms to terrify others. All of their Intimidation rolls are considered Rote.

In addition, when damaged by an attack or supernatural power targeting them, or when subjected to an ability that would cause them intense pain, fear, or madness, the Fang may choose to spend a mana to make a reflexive Presence + Intimidation (Rote) roll vs the target’s Resolve + Composure roll (they may make this roll even when they would not normally get the chance to react, such as an ambush or when damage from an attack knocks them into unconsciousness). If the Fang wins, their frankly unnatural response to their own pain and suffering proves viscerally unsettling to their attacker, and the Fang inflicts the Beaten Down Condition on them. 

4) “Red as Riots” 

(Investments of Pain) - The Fangs of Mara are at their peak in atmospheres of intense pain and terror, whether their own or that of others. While some particularly deplorable Nightmares deal out unnecessary cruelty to others in order to enjoy this effect, others draw strength from their darkest moments and find the will to delve headfirst into the worst of disasters. Gain Inverted Agony or Feed on Pain as an Investment. 

Requirements: Another trip into the mind of an Acamoth or comparable experience with the Abyss, Gnosis 6/7, a third specialty from the list.

Optional with Mind 4 - The Fang learns to project the horrors they have seen onto others. When they successfully apply their Nimbus Tilt, they can choose to inflict the Frightened or Insane Tilt instead of the usual bonuses/penalties. Their Nimbus also starts to take on some of the aesthetic qualities described in the “Abyssal Nimbus” Paradox Condition; while the Fang’s Nimbus does not spread Abyssal corruption in the same way, the similarities may very well alarm other mages.

5) “Dancing with Damnation” 

(Investments of Purification) – The most advanced Fangs become a true bridge between the supernal and the fallen world, their very souls warding against Abyssal intrusions into the world. But what is the price? (There is always a price). Gain Void Demesne as an Investment. 

Requirements: Another trip into the mind of an Acamoth or comparable experience with the Abyss, Gnosis 8/9, Intimidation 4, Empathy 4. 

Optional with Spirit 5 - The mage’s base Paradox is halved (rounded down).