[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Lore: Gods, Angels & Demons

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

Lore: Gods, Angels & Demons

As a follow-on to our last post on Soulfire, it became abundantly clear that there is a lot of questions and clarifications become required in order to ensure that the players and storytellers have an understanding of Chronicles of Darkness cosmology as it relates to Soulfire and the three different kinds of Angels.  The below was the research and findings I finished in order to make aspects of Soulfire makes sense.  I peeled it off of the Soulfire entry because it was a very relevant but distinctly separate discussion.  So, the following clarifies the similarities and differences of the angels of the Principle, the God-Machine, and the Supernal Realms.  And then I proceeded to go down the rabbit hole further, tabulating the many kinds of demons in the fallen world as well...

Angelic Sources: The articles and essays on the three types of angels were compiled using the Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition corebook, the Promethean: The Created 2nd edition corebook, the Demon: The Descent corebook, the Chronicles of Darkness corebook and lastly, the God-Machine Chronicle corebook.

Demonic Sources: Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition corebook, The Inferno sourcebook, the Demon: The Descent corebook, the Chronicles of Darkness corebook, and the Imperial Mysteries sourcebook.

A Lexicon of the High Heavens:

This is a stab at how all three types of Angels are alike and different.  It's a translation guide and lays out which concepts are associated with what.  The following definitions seemed important to truly understand Soulfire.

Supernal Realm: 
The Aether (location):
The Aether is a place of unbound creation, of magic in its purest form, of energy and destruction and rebirth. The Aether is the "highest" Supernal Realm known.  The physical nature of Aether is that of chaos. Its described as a great burning landscape, rent asunder with lightning and fire and motion, where thunder roars and wind howls as they and every other force in physics battle for supremacy. Surrounding and infusing this storm of energy is the power of magic. Mana falls from the sky like rain, and the air is charged with resonance and the potential for mighty spells and works of arcane power. The power of Aether is such that it can be felt in the air as one travels there. It seeps into the skin, pervasive and infectious, making everything appear clearer, sharper, brighter, and more beautiful. Aether's energy makes things seem more real than they are in the Fallen World, more idealized like they should. This majesty is both inspiring and heart-rending, evoking both joy and fear in the hearts of mortals. Within its confines, the Watchtower of the Golden Key reaches high into the heavens, calling for mages to come.

Supernal Entities: Angels (angel):

The Angels of the Supernal Realm of the Aether are ancient and wizened sages, winged warriors of righteous fire and might, and vast elementals of pure, crackling energy. They provide the summoner with the wisdom and strength of the eternal magic and forces of the universe. They offer devastating powers of destruction, but only for the sake of rebirth and creation. neither good nor evil, and simply are what they are meant to be: beings devoid of moral choice.  They are divided into two Choirs: Cherubim (Cherub) are recondite beings embodying the Prime Arcanum and Wisdom, Seraphim (Seraphs) are are manifest beings embodying the Forces Arcanum.  Both are fueled by Mana.  If they serve anything but the Aether itself they work for the Exarchs, the Oracles or the long lost Aeons (The 10 Old Gods, The Dragons of Atlantis) that were overthrown by the Exarchs.

The God-Machine (deity):

The God-Machine is a sentient, supernatural, extremely powerful and alien entity, similar to an occult supercomputer, with an interest in Earth. What is known is that it is fully deserving of the title, having long since passed the point where Clarke's Third Law ("any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") applies, knowing of physics undreamed of to mortal scientists and with the capacity to use them. The only limit on its power is its need for an "occult matrix", an extremely precise supernatural manipulation of physical laws, reliant on Infrastructure, in order to work its miracles. The God-Machine, while extremely powerful, is neither omnipresent nor omniscient nor omnipotent. It doesn’t have mechanical extensions of itself everywhere and relies on its Angels to interact with the world. It cannot circumvent the laws of physics, even if these laws seem paradoxical to the limited sciences of humanity.  If it has any "home" realm it is the physical world, though its Infrastructure extends throughout the entire Tellurian.

God-Machine: Angels (angel):

The overbearing thread to codifying Angelic entities is their service to the God-Machine. Tightly bound to the will of their Creator, their whole existence revolves around their missions.  The Angelic mind has the potential of grasping concepts like morality, self-interest and ethics, but in the moment of discovering it, the Angel usually Falls and becomes a Fallen Angel (a Demon with a capital D). Angels feel no desire to connect to other beings. Even when assigned to complicated multi-role missions, angels perform their parts without collusion or co-operation, directed by the dictates of the God-Machine’s plans and a network of control they are in constant communication with. Their individual bearing depends on their programming, which is imprinted into them in the moment of their construction or reassembly.  Angels can look humanoid, but this isn’t necessary. There have been Angels observed who are geometrical shapes, chimeras made out of different animals, and mechanical augmented winged figures. Some do not even possess a physical form, instead operating in Twilight or the Shadow similar to a spirit.  Many appear fully mechanical, with clockwork, steampunk or bio-mechanical attributes.  These angels are empowered by Essence and Aether and serve the God-Machine with unflinching resolve... until they Fall.

Empyrean (location):

Mages postulate that there must be an eternal, immutable causal plane beyond the Supernal World: a Heaven, Nirvana, or Principle that fuels the Supernal with raw, undifferentiated meaning. Conservatives say that such a theory is unnecessary, given that the Supernal cannot be accurately perceived by any means short of Ascension, and may be truly pure under some veil of illusion. It is even said that some paths to Ascension bypass the Supernal and being mages in accord with this true World Above.  This is the abode of the Principle and the "source of all souls which dwell in the eternal and infinite, an everlasting flame of blue."  This is where all Pyros starts it's journey to filter down to the supernal and the supernal world.  In Kabbalah, this is akin to the principle of the first Sephiroth, the Keter.  The Keter is the "highest of high," the unknowable and infinite source, a singularity of the cosmos from which all the multi-dimensional reality is derived.

The Principle (deity):
The Principle is the guiding force behind the pilgrimage of Prometheans, the quest to become a whole soul, a person.  It is all Azoth, the crystallized form of Pyros and connects all Pyros and Azoth together.  It is extremely similar in concept as what Empyrean is described to be.  But where as Empyrean may not exist, the Principle has more evidence to being a real thing.  It's shrouded in mystery of the most deep and fundamental kind, how the enter cosmos works.  Perhaps when people die and the cycle of souls begins anew, the Principle is where souls should return to.

The Principle is the embodiment of fire and change in an increasingly cold and stagnant cosmos. Interpreting Azoth in the light of human science, proponents of this theory believe that Azoth was created in the Big Bang and thrown out into the universe in infinitesimally small quantities. Permeating everything, Azoth is a constant of nature rather than a sentient entity, and in many ways
the Principle is evolution in a Lamarckian sense. Change is not a perfectly linear process, and mutations as well as aberrations are much more common than most people would care to admit, ranging from long-necked giraffes to demiurges. Through these demiurges, the Principle is the unwitting and possibly unaware grandparent of all Prometheans. The Prometheans strive towards
New Dawn, because change is literally at their core. The Emanation of Change does not begrudge Prometheans their existence, but it does want Prometheans to return to the evolutionary track by
becoming human. Torment, Disquiet and even Wastelands are formed because the Promethean’s fiery core is anathematic to the cold state of the universe.

The Qashmallim (angel)
Spontaneously wrought from Pyros in the fallen world, the Dominions serve the Principle, even if its missions and actions are not understood.  They each have a mission to carry out in the world (many which are directly tied to Prometheans) and a time-limt before they return to non-existence.  They are fueled by a reserve of Pyros collected from the ambient environment.  They are divided into two choirs: Elpidos are the qashmallim of Elpis, the creative or distilling Fire.  Cousins to the Elpidos, Lilithim are the qashmallim of Flux, the destructive and entropic Fire.  The qashmallim are temporary creations of hyper-evolution, beings so evolved beyond the norm that they can only maintain existence for a short time. They aid the Principle in returning all mutations to the primary line of evolution; Prometheans are merely one of their many projects. Paradoxically, their advanced state often makes them seem limited or ineffective in the eyes of outsiders, since a Created can no more comprehend a qashmal than a sparrow can a human.  Qashmallim are powered and suffused with Pyros.

PYROS vs. AETHER

What about the God-Machine?  Where does it and the Principle fit into all this?  Prometheans and their ilk are the only ones really concerned with, or even aware of, the Principle. They care little about the God-Machine, though. Most Prometheans don’t even know it exists. By comparison, those creatures that know about the God-Machine rarely know about the Principle. Still, the Created who know of the God-Machine and it's angels have formed a few tentative theories:

1. The God-Machine and the Principle are completely unrelated. They’re both cosmic level entities, but that does not mean they interact any more than two sharks passing each other in an endless ocean.

2. The Principle is an older incarnation of the God-Machine, refusing to be left behind and struggling to remain relevant through the Prometheans. Whether the God-Machine appreciates this or would rather see its older self discarded is unknown.

3. The Principle and the Pyros embodies fire and change, while the God-Machine and it's Aether (the energy, not the realm) embodies cold and stasis. The latter seems to have the upper hand, but the Principle refuses to give up and continues the fight through the Created, injecting reality with change through them.

4. The Principle was once the dominant force on Earth, which is why a little bit of Divine Fire is present in everything. Since the rise of humanity, though, the God-Machine has slowly usurped the Principle’s power and the latter can now only act through the Created.

The One Theory:

Elaborating on some of these theories, perhaps the Principle and the God-Machine were once part of the same immaculate machine. Perhaps the God-Machine served as an Atlantean or Iremic 3rd Age interface between the true creator of the universe and the material world. A radio work talking to God.  This machine might even predate the 3rd age completely. Whatever the case, when the Sundering occurred this theoretical machine was cut off from its higher self. The One then suffered from its own form of corpus callosotomy (when the main connection between the two hemispheres of the human brain is severed) and became the two. The Machine endeavored to maintain the status quo of the Lie. The Principle sought to reconnect with the world it breathed life into but could only do so through the broken cycle of souls and through the Created.  Order and Chaos that used to be in a balance, is thrown completely out of control.

Qashmallim & The Principle

Some Prometheans believe the Principle is God, or a manifestation of destiny. Others think it doesn’t really exist as a separate entity, that qashmallim are natural byproducts of Pyros and experience, in their own strange way, their Missions as immutable orders woven into their being. One sect of alchemists describes qashmallim as being to Firestorms as a chain reaction is to nuclear decay; any sentience they seem to exhibit is entirely in the eye of the beholder. The qashmallim don’t seem to care what anyone thinks about their origin — it is the Principle, and needs no further explanation.

OK, so, to “break character” for a minute, here, one of the big questions that folks want to ask about the qashmallim is how they fit in to the larger world – specifically, what relationship, if any, they have to the God-Machine. 

Many kinds of Angels

The obvious answer (assuming anyone actually knows about all these things) is that the fallen world is visited by at least two kinds of entity called “angels.” The first are living symbols of power and truth summoned into the world by human mages. The second are the biomechanical, ephemeral servants of the God-Machine. Qashmallim are not Supernal Entities (they’re born of this world’s Pyros which is derived from souls and the Principle and not the Supernal Realms of platonic forms) and they aren’t the servant-slaves of the God-Machine.   Some demons, “Unchained” former angels, theorize that the God-Machine’s servants were created from qashmallim their master somehow captured, but the God-Machine’s commands are not the Principle, and its angels burn Essence and Aether, not Pyros. As such, if there is a relationship between the God-Machine and the Principle, it’s not one that mage society is able to understand. 

Days of Future Past God
The Principle was first. The Principle is many things – the spark of humanity, the desire for human connection, the lightning that created life from the primordial soup. Throughout the first few billion years of Earth, it was evolving along with all of life, looking for…something. It was undergoing its own Pilgrimage.

Once humanity arose, it found its purpose. It was able to shape servants – the qashmallim – from its endless reserve of Divine Fire, and send them into the world. Unfortunately, its own commitment to self-determination meant that it can’t really control qashmallim; they always have a bit of autonomy (which is why they fail sometimes).  Somewhere along the way, someone created the first Promethean. It might have been been some collection of rocks arranged into a human form that some caveman, lonely after the destruction of his tribe, created. Who knows. But at that point, the Principle’s real purpose was cemented – guide the Pilgrimage of the Created. That is its chosen expression of its purpose.

And then there’s the God-Machine. The God-Machine is from the future, but the thing about time travel is that it’s irrelevant when it happens, as long as it does. The God-Machine has its own agenda, but its agenda is a lot more complicated than the Principle’s. In order to interact with the world, though, the God-Machine copied a lot of the Principle’s “software.” That’s why its angels always have enough free will to Fall.



The Opposition: Hell and Demons
Mankind, and the Awakened have a ton of things they call demons.  The following is a breakdown of all of them.

Abaddon (hell)
The Lower Depths, also called Abaddon, are a sphere of reality that is distanced from the Fallen World in the same manner the Fallen World is distanced from the Realms Supernal. Mages use the term to describe any realm that is neither Supernal nor Phenomenal, but is instead defined by a lack of something.  The light of magic is barely existing within its barren wastes and the ten Arcana are somewhat diminished when it comes to influence the Depths. So far, cosmologist have identifed a few realms that reside in the Lower Depths: The Inferno, Duat and Dis - the home of the Strix.

The Inferno - Also called Hell, its true form is impossible to define. No one who has traveled into Hell has ever left, and demons usually tell exactly that what their summoner wants to hear. What can be known is that it is a realm of sin and lack, seeking to possess and to take in without giving back. While Hell is distanced from this world, its influence can reach up in the form Desecrations and Malus Loci.  Hell is a place unrelated to the other realms of existence and laws that govern these realms seem to not apply to it. 

Akarthartoi (demon)

The inhabitants of the Lower Depths, called collectively akarthartoi, are envious of those in the higher realms and feed upon Mana and souls in order to survive when unlucky fortune drives them higher.  Many Akarthartoi are extremely dangerous, able to cause instant death at the touch as they consume the aspect of existence they lack.  

Infernals 
Infernals (aka True Demons) come from the enigmatic domain of Hell, a place of horror and indescribable evil that even the native demons hate to exist within. This leads them to constantly attempt at escaping, while also trying to damn the souls of the living and alter the material world to fit their idea of paradise. They are representative of the Seven Deadly Sin and the vices of mankind taken to the most perverse extreme.  They serve Archdemons and the Maeljin, a court of seven Demon Lords. Infernals can also appear in the form of corrupted Goetics, Shadow spirits and Ghosts.

Strix

In its natural state, a Strix is an owl-like shape made of smoke and pooled shadows in defiance of any nearby source of light. It retains coherent form only when perched, still, surveying everything around it for prey. Their bodies are more like smoke, able to slip through cracks and immune to most physical damage. Only the most powerful Striges manifest their bodies in the physical plane, who retain their ethereal composure but gain sharp talons and beaks, as well as the ability to consume flesh.  Experienced Striges can possess corpses as vehicles, using them to wreak more havoc among the living and unliving alike. Strix are even able to possess the bodies of vampires and revenants, as any dead tissue will do. The most powerful Striges are even able to force their doom-laden essence into mortals.  Striges claim to be from the City of Dis.  Strix feed on Vitae, drink blood but don't appear to serve any demon lord.

The Abyss (hell)

The Abyss is a term employed by mages to describe the seeping rift of unreality that lies between the Realms Supernal and the Realms of the Fallen World.  It is, in effect, a multiverse utterly devoid of Supernal truth; in layman's terms, things that cannot, and should not, be.  The Abyss is incomprehensible for the mortal mind (logic, after all, is an element of Supernal truth) and the main enforcer of the Lie. Only the Watchtowers pierce through it and bring forth some of the lost knowledge of magic. All other efforts to break through the Abyss have been proven futile.  The Abyss isn’t an empty void — it contains multitudes of impossible entities, and whole maddened, stillborn universes mages call the Annunaki, each trying in its own way to infect the Fallen World and twist it into itself.

Abyssals (demon)

Abyssal Entities are divided into two broad types: Gulmoth and Acamoth.  A Gulmoth is an abyssal entity formed in the material world, Underworld, or Shadow.  These lesser Abyssal entities twist the laws of the Fallen World, creating regions of corrupted reality or strange. An Acamoth is an Abyssal entity formed in the Astral Realms.  When the Abyss warps the inner Astral worlds of a human soul, it creates an Acamoth, a monster dedicated to making people’s souls more like the Abyss.  All Abyssal Intruders into the Fallen World are part of larger entities.  

By their chaotic nature they serve the 7 Annunaki, the Greater Abyssal Gods and the Black Dragons of the 10 Anti-Arcana.

Hell on Earth (hell)

The fallen Angels of the God-Machine speak of hell, but hell is not a place, necessarily, it's an individual Unchained's idea of paradise. For most Unchained, this stems from the concept of Hell as "a place totally devoid of God-Machine's presence"; Integrators instead define it as "returning to the God-Machine, but with my free will still intact".  Whatever it is or is not, there are places where demons attempt to set up a life as far away from the God-Machine and its angels.

The Unchained (demon):

The Unchained, or demons, are angels who have developed free will and rebelled against the God-Machine. Demons often group together into rings for mutual aid and protection. Demons change utterly when they Fall, however - during the few moments between rebelling against its mission and becoming an Unchained, the angel absorbs its own Infrastructure, becoming self-contained entities no longer reliant on the God-Machine to exist. Their psyches change completely as well - the Cover of humanity, to an extent, becomes the truth of the demon. While Unchained are not human, never have been, and have no particular desire to be so, the mind of a demon is largely indistinguishable from that of a human. They fight, run and hide from the God-Machine and its Angels, seeking to create a world without the demiurge. They are powered by Aether, a distilled and digital form of Pyros.  They serve none their own.

Supernal Realm: Pandemonium (hell)
Pandemonium, the Realm of Nightmares, is a Supernal Realm whose name means "The Place Of All Demons". It is the realm that the mages of the Mastigos Path Awaken to.  The most common realm experienced by arriving Mastigos is that of a vast network of caverns, without end or outside, populated by a horde of unruly deformed creatures: the demons of Pandemonium. This great maze has no true beginning or end, but winds on and on through throngs of madcap beasts, stretching on into eternity. The pathways and passages are inconstant,shifting from visit to visit; there are some stationary features, although they shift in size, shape and appearance; these are demon kingdoms. Their exact nature shifts, though their theme remains invariable for those who can see them for what they are; the kingdoms of the seven Vices. (Read Dante’s Inferno to get a good idea about these dominions).


Supernal Entities: Demons (demon)
The Supernal beings of Pandemonium embody the Arcana of Mind and Space and are divided into two different Choirs: Imps and Wraiths. The manifest Demons of Pandemonium are called Imps. Imps are terrifying — the principle of Space made flesh, filtered through the horror and adversity of the Abode of Demons. Some appear to be immense monsters, while others skitter out of sight as soon as they are summoned. Imps possess unparalleled knowledge of scrying and magical sympathy, and can often advise a mage on where to look for appropriate sympathetic Yantras. The recondite Demons of Pandemonium are called Wraiths. These creatures are terrifying and dangerous — they take the form of an image plucked from the mage’s mind, commonly one that elicits trauma or fear. Wraiths aren’t necessarily malicious, but they do insist on making their Trials as exacting on the mage’s psyche as possible. Like all Supernal entities, these demons serve the Exarchs, Oracles or the Aeons.


Geotic Demons (demon)
In contrast to other demonic entities that roam the Fallen World, mages have a unique source of encountering Astral creatures called Goetic Demons. The Ars Goetia, often simply called Goetia, is a specialized form of magic that allows a mage to communicate with his baser self: his Vices, literally calling up and confronting his inner demons.  According to legends, the practice of the Ars Goetia date back to King Solomon. If they serve anything, Goetics serve more powerful Goetic demons or powerful Archtypes of the Astral Realms.  There are hundreds of Astral Realms in the Tenemos that represent hell, too many to mention, but they only represent mankind's collective unconscious and the dreams and beliefs of hell.

Just because... so, which kind of demon would this be?

[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Magic: Soulfire

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

Magic: Soulfire

The following spell is briefly mentioned in the Summoners sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition corebook.  It was originally discovered as part of the means for Obrimos to summon angels from the Aether.  It was further customized and rarefied during our first chronicle - Mage: The Horsemen with inspiration from The Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher and the mechanics of the custom Truthbringer Legacy from our current chronicle - Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen.  It has now being converted and finalized to Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition rules.  Lastly, add to the mix Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition, because Pyros is clearly the same type of energy from the Principle, an entity beyond the Aether.  We decided to combine some things with similar correspondences, themes and tropes.

Lately, the Triforce Cabal (a student Cabal of the Pentacle Academy at UCSD) has been working for the past several years to develop weaponry that hurts the Abyss more reliably than just burning things up with Celestial Fire.  Ironically, the best method they have discovered works by burning up the Abyss with Holy Fire instead.  Part of the basis for the Truthbringer Legacy was Soulfire, and Chimera (Hannah Nyland), Jack (Alex Van Belkum) and Reaper (Zac Israelson) are slowly finding ways to use it in their battles against the Abyss.

Soulfire 

(aka Holy Fire or Pyros)
Nicknames: The Divine Flame, Fire of the Gods, The Sacred Fire, The Fires of Creation, Ket(h)er Fire, Fires of the Cosmos, The Heavenly Fire, The Ra-Tilt,

Calling Down the Aether
It was the Obrimos that chanced upon the secrets of the Sacred Fire.  It was originally used (and still is) to create a strong correspondence and Sympathetic Yantra with the Aether, the Supernal abode of angels (the Cherubim and Seraphim) and where they signed their name on the Watchtower of the Golden Key.  When a mage reaches a Disciple level understanding of one of their Ruling Arcanum they gain the Attainment that lets them summon Supernal Beings from the Supernal World, specifically the realm of their given Path. Creating this Holy Fire requires additional understanding of the Arcana but is part of the summoning process that was later been adapted into a technique that any mage can use if they meet the requirements.

Abode of Angels
Mages who walk the Path of the Mighty recall Awakening in a realm of pure energy — spinning with the stars of the heavens and surrounded by beings of pure light. They feel the forces of the universe great and small, from the tremulous potential energy in a coiled spring, to the awesome, explosive force of a star turning nova. When a Theurgist returns to the Fallen World, he often feels as though his eyes have been opened. He can look at the world through a new, divinely-inspired lens — his life has a purpose, and nothing can stand in the way of what is right and just (by his reckoning, anyway). To summon angels, the Obrimos cleanses herself with heavenly fire (however she chooses to interpret such), purifying her body to serve as a divine conduit to the Realm of the Aether. To recreate the heavenly fire, a mage must combine Forces and Prime, energy and magic itself, finding a harmonious balance between the two. They must physically immerse herself in the forces of the universe: electricity, gravity, kinetic energy, heat, light, physics, radiation, sound, or weather. Having done so, she calls upon Prime to temper the energy before she is consumed by its power. The process is dangerous, and painful.

The Sacred Fire
In contrast to summoning angels, a caster combines mundane and Celestial fire to create the pure fire of the Aether for its own purpose. Pyros is the pure divine fire of the gods that distills down from the Principle, creates Truths and then flows into the Aether and the other Supernal Realms. It is the purest form of Supernal power. Mages that call upon it are like a children playing with their father’s gun. They don’t truly understand what it is used for, that it is the pure soul-stuff of the universe that breathes life into all creation but they also don't understand the danger. It’s the prima materia, the energy of creation before it crystallizes into the Truth of the Supernal Realms.

When calling Holy Fire, mages are filled with feeling of divine purpose. They feel the Aether through the Supernal World and feel surrounded and engulfed with energy, hot and bright. Some catch glimpses of shining beings composed of pure light or energy, the immaculate forces of the cosmos. To summon Soulfire, a mage must give into the feeling of power and purity. The location of the summoning may or may not be a physical place. Anywhere or any time the powers of the universe are active and strong will suffice as strong Yantra. Some suitable locations or times for a summoning might include close proximity to a roaring waterfall, during an intense electrical storm, near an active volcano, in a nuclear plant, or beside a fault line in the Earth. 

A Secret Power
To the Obrimos and the Silver Ladder, the existence and use of Soulfire is a secret they try to keep, except when it might give them prestige and regard.  They try to keep it under wraps because not all mages would approve of using it.  Soulfire appears to literally be the pure energy that actual souls are created from and some of the energy is powered by the wielder's own soul.  This borders on Left-Handed practices and soul tampering used by Nephandi and Reapers.  If you can look past these taboos it's still unbelievably hubristic.  This is a tragic fact rarely uncovered except by those bold enough to try: perhaps one of the best weapons against the Abyss and it's kept from the rest of the Awakened. If it could be understood fully, its possible that this knowledge would hold Obrimos and the Dragon's Voice in high esteem in Awakened society.


In contrast to Celestial Fire
To most Awakened, Celestial Fire (Forces 4) is the only "safe" and relatively reliable solution to destroy abyssal resonance in people, places, entities and objects.  So, why does Celestial Fire work so well?  This offensive work of Prime magic is effective against the Abyss because it represents raw truth, and in the right intensity it's effective at burning away the corruption and anti-truth of the abyss.  This is not to say the other nine arcana are useless, only that its the most obvious method for burning away the abyss so that it's corruption in purged from the fallen world.  As a method, it still has a lot to be desired as its only really good at burning these things up.  It has no ability to burn away just the abyss and leave everything else alone. It overwrites the holes any reality with a cauterizing patch of pure energy.  The closely guarded secret of Holy Fire is an improvement on this principle.  It creates a burning pure white light that acts as a Bane to all Abyssal spirits.  It still is mostly used to burn away corruption, but it annihilates and weakens the darkness it touches.

Mysteries of the Pyros

Soulfire is meant to be a cleansing fire that hardens matter and truth and burns away impurity. Mages who don’t and perhaps can’t understand this undergo a symbolic act akin to leaving the pan on the stove set to high heat and left alone. Instead of it's supernal symbolism, those hubristic enough to use it, only use it to destroy, especially things that are anathema to all creation. Fire burns, true, but that is not this fire’s purpose. "Burning" is just how this “tool” works.  It's true purpose is not known or understood by the Awakened.  What makes Holy Fire so powerful is that it multiplies the Truth of both Celestial and Mundane fire.   Anything touched by this divine fire (targeted by the spell) is supercharged. It is denser and more "true" than anything else in reality.  It overloads the patterns of most things it comes in contact with, causing them to explode and burn up. It also rips through mystical defenses because it is a “denser” truth, tearing through wards and mage armor like tissue paper.  If it could be tempered, the directed empowerment of patterns could make wondrous things possible.

When created, Soulfire combines the yellow/red of regular fire with bright blue and starry light of Celestial fire to create a pure, burning white light like a nova or a chemical flare. Holy Fire puts out an intense spectral heat. To the worthy, this fire is hot like a comforting campfire and brightness that doesn’t hurt the eyes. To the tainted, it is a searing heat and its light is painfully intense and blinding.

 Holy fire is a cleansing agent, it burns away all impurities and strips matter down to its pure components (usually leaving very little behind). It is the raw fire of creation. It is Pyros, the Fire of the Gods, the Divine Fire. The rarefied energy source of the Supernal Realm of the Aether and the Principle is not to be confused with the God-Machine which is almost a Fallen World version of the Principle that uses a filtered version of Pyros called Aether.  Calling the Pyros is drawing the quintessence of the flame from the very highest threshold of the Aether, where the Principle and the Qashmallim reside. It is not known what their motives are, or why they allow this energy to be used. They are part of an immaculate machine “above” the Supernal, and are the higher form of the fallen God-Machine and its Angels.

"Soulfire appears to involve drawing on the “fires of Creation.” Brilliant and pure, it seems able to pierce otherwise unassailable defenses, causing even ancient beings of power to take notice. It appears to have an agenda in line with that of Heaven (or whatever you might choose to call it), but due to a general lack of information on the topic we aren’t quite sure what that means yet. It reinforces the pattern of any spell it is worked into.  The full scope of what soulfire can do is not clear to us at this time. Soulfire functions most like the element of fire (though it’s possible other element equivalents may exist), and in thaumaturgic application…well, we don’t know really, so for our current purposes consider it to provide the full range of thaumaturgical uses."
- Lorekeeper Casstiel


Requirements & Costs:

• Requires Forces 3 and Prime 4, uses the Practice of Patterning.  Despite Soulfire being almost exclusively used to burn and destroy "evil" forces, Soulfire does not use the Practices of Unraveling or Unmaking.  It's true purpose is creation.

• Costs a willpower point to represent the exertion of the Awakened will and the tiny bit of soul the mage expends from their pattern to pull down the raw fires of creation.

• Costs a mana to combine the aspects and fuel the combination of both gross and subtle powers.

• The act of wielding the Divine Fire is literally “playing god” and “playing with fire” put together. As such, it is a Wisdom sin for anyone who uses it.  After a wisdom loss a mage can become Inured to using Soulfire in the usual way.  However, after the mage is Inured, the first time they use Holy Fire in a Scene they make an Integrity check at a -4.  On a failure they gain the Rampant or Megalomaniac Condition, to represent the fact they are now okay with wielding the powers of God indiscriminately.

Condition: Rampant (edited) - Your character is reckless and forceful with her magic. She will not hesitate to use it to solve any minor problem. If your character has a reasonable magical solution to a problem, to use a mundane solution requires a point of Willpower. This Willpower does not add to the dice roll. As well, she gains a “Wield Magic Indiscriminately” Obsession that replaces one of her current Obsessions so long as she maintains this Condition. Resolution: Suffer a Paradox. Beat: n/a

Condition: Megalomanical (edited) - Your character is consumed by her own aptitude. She sees greatness in her every action, and that sense of greatness breeds righteousness. She cannot see her behavior as hubris, and she refuses to acknowledge any failings. After all, she’s mastered the forces of the universe, right?  Your character automatically fails any actions using the Empathy Skill. As well, she gains an additional “Selfish” Vice and a “Dominate Others” Obsession that replaces one of her current Obsessions so long as she maintains this Condition. Resolution: Hurt someone important to you in such a way as to gain the Guilty Condition. Beat: N/A

• Will still risk Paradox if the user pushes it too far. Any Reach that exceeds the capabilities of the mage adds additional paradox dice based on the Gnosis score.

Yantras for calling Soulfire: fire symbolism, electrical storms, nuclear energy, steel, divine purpose, vibration, cleansing, gold, purity, aurora borealis, volcanoes, light, earthquakes, gravity.

Benefits:

• Can hit all entities in Twilight. It inflicts Lethal damage to all Ephemeral beings except Quashmallim or Supernal Entities (it gives them Pyros or Mana actually and does Bashing damage). It will also grant Prometheans Pyros and inflict Bashing on them as well.  It does Aggravated damage to beings Tainted or from the Abyss or the Lower Depths. It does Bashing damage to all other beings.

• Counts as a Bane to the Tainted or from the Abyss or the Lower Depths (see below).

• It’s possible to use Soulfire to re-enforce the patterns of spells, but this is not a well-known or understood phenomena. Once holy fire is summoned in a previous round/cast time, instead of used to burn it is used to temper and forge works of Thaumaturgy. Potency on the spell adds to the dice pool of the spell it is pushed into. Potency and extra dice cannot be stacked multiple times.

• The fire counts as a “Blessed” object for other entities that are affected by that.

Tip: A common use for this spell is to advance the duration of the spell so that the entity continues to burn and take damage every round. Lighting weapons you intend to hit Abyssal stuff with is also a good option.

Reach Options:

• +1 Reach: On a successful cast/hit it inflicted Condition: Supernal Paradigm on beings tainted by the Abyss (see the Tainted section below) for the rest of the scene.

• +1 Reach: For the cost of an additional Mana, Soulfire will do Aggravated damage to all targets, regardless of disposition. The Soulfire will also ignite flammable objects in the scene.

• +1 Reach: In lieu of damage, the mage may assign Potency to instead destroy the target’s Mana Aether or Essence. One level of Potency so assigned destroys one point of energy may be freely split between Mana destruction and damage. Rationale: Mana and Essence from tainted beings only makes sense as it is a purifying fire. Aether and Essence used by the Angels and Demons of the God-Machine (beings of Empyrean) are the distilled “digital” and gross form for the “organic/analog” nature of Pyros. As such, where Supernal Angels and entities with the Azoth trait are charged by Pyros, its incompatible with these “fallen” versions of the Aetheric plane and the Source. Additionally, the Soulfire inflicts the Blinded Tilt (because of the holy white light) on the Tainted/Abyssal/Lower Depths.

• +1 Reach: Adds Magical Armor Piercing equal to the lowest of the caster’s Prime or Forces dots. While Aggravated damage already ignores all physical armor and durability, but this will ignore supernaturally created/summoned armor.

• +1 Reach: The breath of god washes over the area for the rest of the scene. Potency can be assigned to inflicting Extreme Environmental Tilts and allocating the strength of them. This is considered to be creating a Firestorm. Firestorms are not always literally firestorms, they can manifest as virtually any Environmental Tilts but they usually are extreme.

Risks:

• If Paradox is released instead of absorbed it will cause a Firestorm (see Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition, this acts as if Flux) that will rage based on Storyteller Discretion (usually in the form of Extreme Environmental Tilts).

• If Paradox is absorbed by Backlash it counts as Resistant (Bashing/Lethal/Agg) damage dependent on what type of damage would be caused if the caster was hit by Holy fire.  These manifest as painful burns where the fire has attempted to purify the caster.

• If used on or witnessed by someone who uses the Integrity advantage, they suffer an immediate Breaking Point with a penalty equal to the potency of the spell.

• Bestows the Open condition on the caster for Supernal Angels. Pyros is the divine fire, bestowed and sponsored by the Qashmallim of the Principle. There may be hidden costs of using and misusing this gift. Depends on if a mage is stealing or borrowing the “Fire of Gods,” you don’t know.

• May attract Prometheans or attract/spawn Qashmallim

• Creating a Firestorm or releasing Pyros unbidden (Flux) may cause inanimate objects to spontaneously gain a pseudo-soul and become animate, creating or attracting Pandorans… now that’s Hubris right there.

Flux is perhaps the most dangerous risk of wielding the Pyros.  Flux is the dark, uncontrollable, unnatural aspect of the Divine Fire — representing its power to destroy, rather than transform. It results when the Pyros runs unchecked, without the stability provided by the transformation into Azoth. Flux is associated with alchemical dissolution and disintegration, and is connected to Pandorans.

Mix & Match:
It is possible to carefully deconstruct elements of Soulfire and Hellfire.  With Storyteller approval it may be possible to reduce a risk or cost in exchange for offering up a benefit or taking on different, more restrictive rules for limited uses of these deconstructed elements of Soulfire.  Without this, the costs of using both get very steep very fast.

New Condition: Supernal Paradigm:
Every time the afflicted attempts to use an ability of Abyssal origins or effect, they risk the inverse of Paradox – a strengthening of the Supernal World in the Fallen World. Entities of the Lower Depths are not affected by Supernal Paradigm and attempts to pin the condition on them automatically fail. Any time they activate such an ability they roll their Rank or Gnosis before the ability’s roll and apply the consequences:

• Successes penalize the ability roll of the victim, if nothing is rolled then it decreases the potency of that ability one a 1:1 basis. If the potency/successes of an ability is reduced to 0, the ability is completely nullified.

• Successes are the amount of Resistant damage the victim takes (this damage is Resistant Bashing against tainted beings and Resistant Lethal against full Abyssal entities) 

• Applies a +1 to the being’s next Supernal Paradigm Roll. This increase continues to accumulate for the rest of the scene just like Paradox rolls that increase. The condition itself cannot be stacked, once placed, it lasts until the end of the scene no matter how many times it has been reapplied. 

• On an Exceptional Success a Rank 2 supernal Angel (from the Aether) is summoned into the world and is actively hostile to the victim until the end of the scene.

Resolution: The Condition resolves at the end of the scene in which it was inflicted. It might be possible for the victim to dose themselves in abyssal resonance to remove the Condition prematurely, at the Storyteller’s Discretion. It is possible that various entities can discover a method to fight back and resolve this condition. Perhaps stepping into the In-Between, the realm between the material and the Abyss, it might be possible to soak yourself in Abyssal resonance and remove the condition.


Appendix A: The Tainted

We have used a lot of terms for those beings who are Abyssal or have been touched deeply by the Abyss but there can be plenty of wiggle-room. So which nasty things are affected by Soulfire? This could be the difference between life and death. The Tainted may not be “bad” people, just got into a bad situation. Below is a quick list of tainted that may or may not be affected:

1. Abyssal Entities: Imps, Gulmoth, Acamoth, Qlippoth, Maggoth, Abyssal Incursions, Entities of the Gate, and other Abyssal creatures and Intruders.

2. Scelesti: The heirs of Kith, Rabashakim (Befoulers of magic) unless renounced for a year, Nasami (Path Sinners) unless renounced, Shedim (Orthodox Scelesti Legacies), Autraks (unique Legacies), Baalim (Masters), Aswadim (Archmasters) and others.

3. Corrupted: Abyssal corrupted Shadow Spirits, Ghosts, Geotics and other tainted ephemeral beings.

4. Victims: Anyone who is ridden, Urged, Possessed, Ridden or Claimed by an Abyssal entity or corrupted entities.

5. Spells & Paradox: Many spells that are Abyssally influenced or tainted, or any spell that has suffered the effects of a Paradox of created a Anomaly can be harmed by Soulfire. Also any tainted locations can be purified but this may destroy the site.

6. Hubris: Mages who have summoned an Abyssal entity or caused a Manifestation within a year can be affected by Soulfire. If the entity or Manifestation is still present after a year then the mage is still Tainted. If an Acamoth has ridden the mage’s soul into the Abyss they are tainted by their experience are still affected for up to a year.

7. Paradox Conditions: Any mage or sleeper that have an active Abyssal effect (Paradox Condition) on them can be harmed with Soulfire.

[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Artifact: The Codex of Lost Pages

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

Artifact: The Codex of Lost Pages

Temenic Library

Source: As seen as in the Astral Realms source book for Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition, updated to Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.

The following is an Artifact that was claimed by The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the cabal in our last Chronicle, Mage: The Horsemen.  It was discovered in one of the ancient garden/prisons on an outcrop of the crumbling Spire Perilous in the Anthropic Redoubts during the Story: Shores of Ouroboros, Yule 2011.

The books is an Astral item and therefore in its natural state can only exist in Astral space.  For years Casstiel, as former Lorekeeper of the cabals, had the codex remain in his Oneiros.  It may have been possible to pull the Artifact out of Astral space by created a Chimerical vessel for it but since Casstiel could enter his own Oneiros without a Hallow and without putting his physical body into a coma it was largely unnecessary. 

When Casstiel became an Archmage (and slowly slid into NPC-hood), the resource was at risk to being unusable unless it was gifted to another cabal.  If non-Traveler mages were allowed to use it freely when it was an Archmaster resource, there would be risk of Casstiel violating the Pax Arcana.  Casstiel was already on a sort of "house arrest" for his previous violations of the Pax, trapped in his Golden Road and unable to act upon the world.  He had no intention of breaking any more rules.

To ensure that the Codex would remain accessible to his friends and allies he used the Practice of Dominions (in this case using Mind 8) to expand the item into its own realm in the Tenemos with only a few means of entering, a secret only shared with those who still would need access.  Instead of a tome that could be riffled through by a single mage, the Codex is now a vast library to be explored.

The Original Codex

Books — particularly nonexistent books — share a peculiar link with Astral Space. Books that were never finished, books that were censored and books that exist only in legend can all be found in one realm or another, whether in astral libraries or in private hands.

The Codex of Lost Pages is a compilation that belongs to a realm of lost and half-imagined lore, a place that has destroyed more scholars than it ever enlightened. The Codex collects single pages that have disappeared from books in the Fallen World — a page destroyed by fire from an ancient grimoire here, a page torn out of a teenager’s diary there.

Humans are often inspired to re-create the Codex of Lost Pages in the material world when they notice a page missing from a book of their own. A person who obsesses over the lost page, who attempts to locate it through whatever means possible, may begin dreaming of the Codex. She may begin writing obsessively in a language that appears to be gibberish, but gradually assemble these writings into a single great tome — the Codex itself.

Some speculation holds that a similar Artifact exists in digital form, archiving missing websites and dead links. So far, there have been no reliable references to such an Artifact appearing as a chimerical item.

Codex of Lost Pages OOOOO OOO (8):

Item Specs: Size 1; Durability 3; Structure: 4; Holds 16 Mana

Appearance: Various based on perception, this one is a large tome of sown together worn pages like some ancient scrapbook.

Determining usage: In general, this takes 16 successes on an extended research action to determine how to use the Artifact.

Effective Gnosis Rating: 4

Effective Arcana Rating/Reach: 4 (Cannot exceed this amount of Reach)

Triggering Use:  In order to locate and read a lost page preserved within the Codex, a person must focus on the page’s (presumed) contents and flip the tome open. 

Gnosis (4+) + Mind (4+) is rolled, one Mana is spent and an effect combining Mind 4, Space 2 and Time 2 effects is triggered. The roll is modified based on the reader’s sympathetic connection to the book or topic that would have contained the lost page.  Each success yields one clue or secret on the topic in question in the form of scraps of material.  This is an extended action (unless reach is used) based on the users Gnosis/casting time.

Passive Effects: The Codex behaves as if it has Preserve Astral Object cast on it with an indefinite duration.

Yantra: +1 Path Tool for Mastigos

The Astral Palace of the Codex of Lost Pages

Shortcut to the Temenic Realm:
To travel directly to the Temenos and arrive in the Codex a mage must go to one of the two Sanctum Hallows (Bridge of Souls or Horsemen) and write a page of personal thoughts and ideas in a personal diary. Remove a full page of written content and burn it at the center of the Hallow. Other things can also be utilized: a page from a diary, first edition book, some form of rare knowledge that exists in very few places. The rare knowledge must have a known or intimate sympathetic connection with the character that destroys it. This forges a sympathetic and mental connection between the Astral Palace and the character. One page of personal content must be burned per character.


Connection forged, the characters can then take advantage of the astral shortcut to an isolated Tenemic realm. They then meditate and when they gain 5 successes on the meditation roll they cross the Astral Threshold (1 Mana) and arrive at the Astral Palace created by Casstiel which projects the infinite contents of the Codex of Lost Pages.

Appearance of the Library:
The Astral Palace of the Codex of Lost Pages is an infinite library of books in  symmetrical rows and hallways that extend in all directions, forming perspective fractal patterns of shelving.  Ambient light seems to be generated by all objects within it...  The few gaps that can be seen behind the rows open into an endless space of pitch black nothingness.  It doesn't take long to notice that instead of true books, this library contains laminated sheets in small folders. Billions of them.

(All this looks remarkably similar in appearance to the Tesseract in the movie Interstellar)

Accessing lost knowledge:
While in the Palace, once per story a Cabal (or subset of characters) can make teamwork roll all using the same Attribute + Skill. Each actor is penalized by the sympathetic link to the topic they wish to learn about. The primary actor is the character with the strongest sympathetic connection or highest dice pool. Each success of this roll gleans vital clues to the topic at hand.

The Codex re-arranges itself to provide pages close to the topic as the seekers wander.  Only one topic can be researched at a time because it would confuse this mechanism (like trying to Google two very different things but putting both in the search bar, the results get... stupid.).  Subjective time inside the library is approximately one hour per roll, while in the outside world only a minute goes by.

After one topic has been researched the Codex needs approximately needs a month (next Story) before it can be used by those same characters again.  If a Cabal breaks into groups and doesn't research at the same time they can visit at different time intervals and research multiple subjects, but with fewer people to dedicate to the effort.

One of the biggest benefits of the library is that one success does not reveal one secret or clue but rather a complete subtopic of info.  Instead it allows for teamwork relying on Attributes and Skills rather than raw Gnosis and Mind dots.  It also isn't affected by the casting time of the group but rather each roll is a subjective hour of time.

It should be noted that this realm is one emanation of the Codex that exists in the Tenemos.  While the pathways of association and connections have been heavily restricted so that access to the larger Tenemos is highly unlikely, it might be possible for other Astral travelers to wander in from one of the Codex's other emanations or parallel library realms.