[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.