Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
Lore: The Nativity
Sources:
1. The Nativity as seen in Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss sourcebook for MtA 1ed
2. Anne Singleton was originally taken from the nWoD SAS: Bad Night at Blackmoon Farm
3. Kirsten, Troy, and Lovers taken from Keys to the Supernal Tarot sourcebook for MtA 1ed
4. Abyssal Resonance Merit is taken from the Banishers sourcebook for MtA 1ed
5. Purification ritual inspired by Hellblazer issue #1 regarding the binding of the demon Mnemoth
6. Artwork taken from The Secret World and Secret World Legends video games
7. All adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Researching the Nativity
Action: Extended - Intelligence + Mental Skill (capped at size of the roll for a given topic)
Research Time: 1 day without a good library, 3 hours will an appropriate library.
Appropriate Libraries: Genetics, Fate, Possession, Satanism, Mage Order Lore, (Occult specs of the previous topics)
Successes = Facts 0 The numbers are the progression of facts as the characters accumulate successes from various sources.
False/not related information is in Red and is pure speculation, myth, rumor, urban legend, but don't help with the situation at hand.
Blue information is on-the-nose for what they are looking for.
Information found through Google-Fu:
1. Ever seen movies with evil children?
2. Ever seen “The Omen”?
3. Through history, there have occasionally been children who seem to be at the center of ill fortune.
4. See: Fetches and Changelings for replaced children…. family curses
5. Rumors of indiscretion surrounding conception or result of rape or being a gypsy
6. Always bastard children where they are not sure who the father is, or the father disputes the child being his
7. Rumors of bestiality being involved… (father was the devil or a jackal, a beast)
8. Related to Black Eyed Kids?
Occult Sources:
1. Those children are in nearly every case said to have been immaculately conceived
2. Immaculate Conception tied to messiahs and god manifestations, the virgin birth — in which a child is conceived outside of man with the power of the divine — is considered to be the province of myth and religion. The most recognized example is, of course, the conception of Jesus. The child fostered within Mary’s womb was not given to her by a biological father, but instead born of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. That is by no means the only example of such conception in myth, however. Various theologies offer gods born of mortal women with no human fathers (Mithras, for instance). Still, all of this is the domain of legend alone, right?
3. Virgin Birth ambiguous, could mean simply no conception from intercourse. Supernatural conception is the only requirement.
4. The offspring, son or daughter, suffers from an elevated number of childhood ailments, but such a thing isn’t particularly abnormal. Colic, asthma, eczema: such diseases are seen as unfortunate, but not out of the ordinary. The child likely appears a little pale and frail, but not every kid is going to be a ballerina or a football star. Wise onlookers notice that such frailties are not the extent of the strangeness surrounding such a child.
5. Some may notice that strange things happen around the child. Not to him, precisely, but bad things happen in his presence. Potential repeat childhood trauma of major accidents in proximity to the child.
6. Even more bizarre happenstance: animals and birds will spontaneously die, illness and electronic disruption within close proximity to the child but never happen TO the child. Computer malfunctions when the child tries to use them.
7. People feel uncomfortable around him. Some sense how misfortune swirls about him know to stay far, far away.
8. The mother is fiercely protective of her baby. At first, such protection seems normal, but her overprotective nature can become downright vicious
9. Mortal Response – will be subtle, no direct connection to investigations on the part of mortal authorities. Unofficially they will wildly suspect and ostracize the child over time and incidents for suspected powers not confirmed. Psychological breakdowns are common and communities may tear themselves apart as a result.
10. The child may be innocent and completely unaware of its influences on the world.
11. This is an Abyssal incursion, only real means of exile is the death of the born child
12. Intrusion cannot be exiled during pregnancy without also killing the mother, the only real and permanent means of banishment.
Event Indicators of Nativity
1. Localized events usually bizarre and not long term (within miles/city limits)
2. Rain of blood occurred
3. Flock of crows ran into building
4. Strange events and deaths at hospital
5. Power surges, powerful storms
6. Natil star or astrological alignments or phenomena
7. Flock of birds damaging aircraft or property
Order-Only Info:
1. When they are negative/evil Seer and Diamond Orders alike call this The/a Nativity, or Children of the Nativity or Nativity Children.
2. Theories hold that they are tainted, rather than by other supernatural means, when supernal resonance is involved there is Abyssal taint involved…
3. The souls of children spawned by the Nativity are strange and tattered, providing some mages who study them glimpses into what is assumed to be the Abyss.
4. Strange relationship with magic - Such children are Paradox magnets and abyssal batteries drawing the attention of the Abyss quite strongly.
5. Children of the Nativity are conceived by a mote of the Abyss taking root in the womb.
6. Some Guardians believe that there is a method, using the Death Arcanum, to “operate” on the soul of the child.
7. Where there is one there may be more, gathered together or spawn by the long-term presence of one.
8. Most instances of Nativity children coming to the awareness of the Awakened result in the death of the child. Worse yet, their effects can accumulate and the bad luck and paradox can be amplified. Some Scelesti are rumored to cultivate groups of Nativity children for Abyssal Yantras.
9. Death Arcanum can also be used to manipulate the soul of the Acursed. (Scelestus?)
10. Speculation that many “chosen ones” have come before but are dealt with before they can reach their full potential. These souls will continue to try to be resurrected until successful and their continual recycling between the supernal and the fallen world increases the chances of Abyssal corruption.
11. Of course, one could always exile the child to a place where he can do no harm to the magic of mages. Crafty and cruel mages, however, recognize that they can harm their enemies by “relocating” the child into the territory of those who oppose the mages.
Indicators & Risk factors of Nativity Child Conception:
1. Victim of serial killer or violent (suspected but unconfirmed rape) victim recovers.
2. Violent supernatural exposure with prolonged hospital visit where soul/sanity damage resonates suffering with the Abyss which impregnates victim
3. Mother killed someone by passion, accident, or design in a violent manner
4. Woman suffers from wasting disease or illness, passes the brink of death, and miraculously recovers. Sudden pregnancy follows (perhaps a cost or concentration of that negative energy). Cancer victims specifically risky. Cancer goes into remission, viruses are only found as dead microscopic husks, dangerous bacteria are gone.
5. The previous conception events combined with a very very easy pregnancy. Little to no morning sickness or discomfort or pain.
6. Previous conception events combined with pregnancy with strange cravings for toxins, drugs, stimulants, or chemicals not compatible with human life.
7. Nothing short of full-abortion procedures nothing natural or external will harm the pregnancy. The Abyss repels negative influences.
8. Previous indicators tied to a birth event (Fate/Destiny)
9. Ovulating sleeper witnesses vulgar spell with minor or no paradox occurs. Sleeper witness usually completely forgets the spell witnessed (Casstiel, Nanashi, and Persephone cast magic in front of Anne but she was already pregnant).
10. Not impossible that an already pregnant victim in which fetus or embryo becomes corrupted by similar incidents.
11. Mother killed someone by passion, accident, or design in a violent manner, pregnancy usually assumed to be result of incest or abuse. Violent death resonance pulls upon aberration/killing family members/entropy resonates with Abyss and corrupts womb.
12. Speculation that the small souls passing through the Abyss from the Supernal (normal cycle of souls) catches a small bit of exposure or taint. Similar to why childhood cancer is a force in the world.
13. Sometimes the spark of the Supernal in the womb is what attracts abyssal interference. It is speculated that children who would have an important destiny, could be the support of the Oracles, the coming of a mage messiah, could be snuffed out before it is allowed to mature by the forces of the Exarchs or the power of the Abyss to continue the subjugation of the Fallen World.
14. Attempts to abort the fetus fail, or may appear successful and the woman immediately conceive again (as if the abyssal mote can transpose onto a new embryo). Those involved with the procedure could experience negative fate-driven consequences.
15. Innocence - While the Abyss patches his tattered soul, this does not necessarily engender the child toward horrible actions. It is enough that he is surrounded by awfulness, with bad luck and Paradox bleeding off of him in imperceptible waves. Assume that the child is like anybody else. He can be good, he can be bad. If he’s raised poorly, perhaps he becomes selfish and even cruel. If he’s raised well — or is just plain good of heart — perhaps he’s downright altruistic. The Abyss is not what makes the child bad, or even good. While the Abyss waits within him, it exists in a null state, non-sentient, simply allowing the child to force an awful effect on the surrounding world.
Fixing a Nativity:
1. Adepts and Masters of Spirit or Death may be able to make some magic that at least mitigates the child’s negative effect on the world (though, of course, doing so may very well invoke a Paradox as per the child’s persistent Abyssal infection). Such magic must deal with the child’s ragged soul. Of course, this is never simple. The child can have his soul severed. Doing so only disengages the soul, but the Paradox Generator effect is still in place around the unmoored soul. (Worse, the child then begins to endure the effects of soullessness.)
2. Surgery effects: The disentangled soul must then be handled. Placing it in a Soul Jar negates the effects of the Paradox Generator — though, if the soul is released, the effects begin anew.
3. Spells cast to recover a lost soul don't work on the child, because his soul isn’t empty, it’s just frayed.
4. Soul Binding can merge the unmoored soul with the Abyssal “blank spots” in the child’s current soul, but doing so can be disastrous for the boy: yes, this removes the “taint” (as well as the Paradox Generator and Bad Luck Battery effects), but it also gives the boy a severe condition or derangement (either Schizophrenia or Multiple Personality Disorder) as a result of two warring souls within.
5. It is possible to completely sever the child’s original soul and moor in a new one, but this brings about the difficulty of actually finding such a soul. At least one Mysterium history of Abyssal Nativity suggests that such a soul was acquired from the child’s mother, in her last eerily nurturing act. Of course, in such instances, the mother was usually on the verge of death already.
6. A few mages, particularly those within the Guardians of the Veil, have ways of “operating” upon the soul, in a kind of spiritual surgery. Doing so is by no means simple. First, every child born of an Abyssal Nativity is different, and no old roadmap works when it comes to extricating oblivion from a tattered soul in an effort to repair it. Second, the time to perform the ritual is double what it would normally be per a mage’s Gnosis Finally, as the spell is performed, the child’s effect remains active, and magic is harder to work, with the mage courting Paradox all the while. Only a Death Adept is capable of performing this kind of magic, and even that is more a “rumor” than something that is easily proven or true. Legends suggest that such spells require great sacrifice on the part of the caster and of the target — anything from blood to loved ones to replacing one curse with another
7. Creation of a new Soul – requires mastery of the five subtle Arcana: Fate, Prime, Spirit, Death, Mind and is completely theoretical.
8. Rumors also exist of old purification rituals — available to mage and mortal alike — that might be successful in purging the Abyss from the child’s soul, but few are aware of what cost that may have on the child’s body or psyche (or on the caster of such rituals). Still, some who know of the Nativity seek out such practices.
9. Even the rituals themselves are hard to find: recipes carved into the pipes in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath cities, pages pinned to altars in jungle temples, programmed responses born into the madness of Goetic demons and spirit Countesses.
10. The rituals are long and require a great many “pure” reagents, anything from a drop of water from the world’s five oceans to the blood of one of the few truly innocent men in the world.
The Purification Ritual
Mechanics: One roll, teamworked: Resolve + Occult and -1 for each failed requirement. Ritual is a pass or fail.
Requirements:
1. Magic can help you cheat at these requirements, Persephone could help with this greatly!
2. Need a drop of water from each of the five oceans blessed by a particular type of African Shaman, of the Sangomas tradition
3. Ritual chant in an ancient African tongue from South Africa
4. Symbols need to be carved into flesh (maybe marks can work instead?) but can be healed with magic afterwards
5. Rare hallucinatory plants provide +1-3 bonuses
6. An eyeball must be swapped between the lead ritualist and the child
7. Pint of blood from a truly innocent person
8. Ritual takes 7 hours to complete, dusk to dawn roughly
9. Everyone involved loses a dot of Wisdom or Integrity automatically
((The following are the mechanics we used for our Nativity, not information that can be found via research))
Nativity Abilities:
Impending Danger:
The child wrecks havoc on the Danger Sense Merit, always going off, an ambush is poised to happen. This can look crazy under Fate Sight as well.
Abyssal Antenna:
Abyssal Detection Abilities & Peripheral Mage Sight– Feel cold around the child, hear eerie noises in static, white noise, high-pitched whine, or feel queasy and unsettled spiritually.
Condition: Frailty:
Child has at least till physical or mental illnesses and -1 to all physical rolls
Electronic Disruption:
Electronics mess up in her presence, narrative effect only.
Ill Omens:
Anomalies and bad omens seem to surround her. Narrative effect only, dead birds, dead animals, moths, dead bugs found around places the child has been recently.
Paradox Generator:
Part of the child is oblivion, emptiness, a consumptive and eradicative force, magic is hampered -2 to all spells within a mile. Within half a mile radius the entity generates +4 paradox, and +2 between half a mile and a mile. Also, within the half-mile radius paradox increases by double (+2 instead of +1) for each additional Vulgar spell cast by a given mage in a scene.
Bad Luck Battery
Under Fate Sight tendrils of sudden probability, dark and tenuous, lash out from the child and embrace negatively affected subjects like a frog’s tongue catching flies. The mage may conclude that the child is performing these magical feats of his own will, despite the fact that the youngster seems wholly unaware of it. Stressful actions around the child take a -3. If the child is watching a failure can be turned into a Dramatic Failure.
Locations she has been and immediately around her manifest bad luck by reducing dice tricks: no 10 again, 1s subtract from successes, roll twice and take the lowest, failures are made dramatic failures, exceptional successes only count as regular, stuff like that... progressively get worse over time in an area. Have fun mix and matching the trail of bad.
Animal Agitation:
In the child’s presence dogs howl, birds fly into one another, a swarm of locusts suddenly rises and flies head-on into a wall. Some animals attack: bees might sting, a cat may hiss and swipe. Others may instead simply flee. As a result, the child may never possess any dots in the Animal Ken Skill. Play up dead crows and lots of bugs! Feeds into Ill Omens. Animals suffer -1 to Composure.
Mother Hen Effect
The mother gains Condition: Suspicion when the child reaches 1 and gains Condition: Paranoia when the child reaches the age of 3. Both center around protecting the child.
Supernatural Entities and the Child
Vampires feel as if they’re encountering another of their kind, or some mindless, feral monster: they must roll for Predatory Aura accordingly. Failing that roll indicates that the vampire feels in the presence of something ancient, empty and wretched. Drinking the blood of the child is both nourishing (two Vitae points per Health level consumed) and debilitating (for 12 hours after drinking from the child, the vampire suffers a –2 dice penalty to all rolls).
Werewolves find that their hair stands on end in any form when encountering the child. Worse, if at any point the werewolf must roll to avoid Death Rage while in the presence of the child, that roll is made at a –3 dice penalty.
Ghosts & Spirits flee the presence of the child. Most spirits won’t come within sight of him. Those that remain within 50 yards in both the Shadow and the physical realm suffer a –2 dice penalty to all rolls. This applies to ghosts, as well, who are capable of seeing the child’s soul and its deathlike/entropic stains.
Under Mage Sights
Active Death Sight – stain of death all around the child but not touching the child, like a Sin-Eater only more intense.
Focused Death Sight - shows the tattered soul and the abyss peeking through. Particularly bizarre side effect when used upon the child: the mage gazes for a moment into the Abyss, staring clean through the rotten holes
Fate Sights – The child’s actions or in-actions in tangled in probability and loaded movements of importance
Prime Sights - shows half of the child’s aura is a consumptive black hole — as if she is in fact missing part of his soul (but Prime does not let you see the soul itself)
Life Sights – Child is sickly, frail, but stronger than she looks, weaker in other areas, malformed, imperfect.
Time Sights – Bad things have happened around the child, bad things are coming. Nothing bad ever happens directly to the child, instead that badness is inflicted and reflected on the people around her.
((Since Magpie was an Awakened Mastigos mage and was turned into a Nativity after her birth she bucks many of the norms of what Awakened mages have seen with this Intruder phenomena. In many ways she is and was special. Since she had magic, and therefore was harming it with her lack of understanding of Paradox, Quiescence, Disbelief, and the proximity of the Abyss, it seemed appropriate that she would also have the Abyssal Resonance Merit. Tweaked for Mage 2.0. Thankfully they never got into a combat or casting situation in front of the child without first understanding all the dangers...))
Merit: Abyssal Resonance (• to •••••)
Effect: All Sleepers have a shard of the Abyss within them, but characters with this Merit resonate strongly with the Abyss. The character has little or no control over this Merit, but any mage around her certainly feels its effects. Dots in this Merit allow access to various effects based on the Abyss’s growing intrusion into the character’s soul. This Merit is progressive, that is, a character can and does find that her Resonance with the Abyss increases the more contact she has with Awakened magic. In game terms, each level of the Merit is a prerequisite for the next. Paradox rules can be found here.
Merit Drawback: So much exposure to the Abyss is dangerous for the character’s sanity. Every time the character increases the rating of this Merit, she must make a Wisdom or Integrity check. Failure may result in derangements or a Paradox Condition. Also, mages with this Merit always have nimbuses that relate to or call to mind the Abyss (shadows darken, objects grow cold to the touch, etc.)
Eyes of the Abyss (•):
The character can automatically sense Paradoxes and even potential Paradoxes. Whenever a mage casts a vulgar spell within 100 feet of the character, she senses it. No roll is required. The character might perceive this information as a scent of saltwater and smoke, or a cold shudder down her spine or the sounds of wailing and screaming as if from a great distance. If the player makes a reflexive Perception (Wits + Composure) roll, the character can pinpoint a direction. If she is in the presence of the mage who cast the spell, this roll allows the character to identify him. This is very similar to Peripheral Mage Sight or the Unseen Sense Merit.
Skin of the Abyss (••):
The Abyss protects the character from attempts to identify or analyze him. Any Unveiling or Knowing spell cast directly on the character is considered vulgar in aspect, as is any other spell designed to gain information about or otherwise analyze the character (including Scrying). Focused Death or Prime Mage Sight causes a Wisdom check at current level.
Beacon of the Abyss (•••):
Merely being in the presence of this character invites Paradox. All mages within the scene (roughly 50-foot radius) with the character increase their Paradox pools whenever any mage casts a vulgar spell as the Locality Pooled Paradox Game Hax. For example, if one member of the cabal casts a vulgar spell (Paradox base dice pool of one), the next mage to do so, no matter who it is, has a Paradox base dice pool of two. If the character with this Merit is a mage, she is not immune to the effect, and neither are any allied mages in the area. The Abyss does not discriminate.
Claws of the Abyss (••••):
Containing a Paradox within one’s own body is often a wise decision, better a few points of bashing damage than insanity or the chaos of an Anomaly. A character with this Merit, though, can worsen the damage thus inflicted. The user expends a Willpower Point when another mage in the scene tries to absorb Paradox as Backlash. Any damage from containing a Paradox upgrades from Resistant Bashing damage to Resistant Lethal Damage.
Abyssal Warden (•••••):
The character unconsciously understands and can manipulate the gateways between the Fallen World and the Abyss. Whenever a mage Releases a Paradox within view of the character with this Merit (that is, the character doesn’t absorb the Paradox within his own body), the character can try to force a Manifestation by spending a Willpower Point. The user rolls a Clash of Wills: Resolve + Gnosis vs the victim mage’s Resolve + Gnosis (resistance is reflexive). If the user succeeds, the Paradox becomes a Manifestation (as if the ST had 5 Reach) regardless of the results of the Released Paradox roll.
1. The Nativity as seen in Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss sourcebook for MtA 1ed
2. Anne Singleton was originally taken from the nWoD SAS: Bad Night at Blackmoon Farm
3. Kirsten, Troy, and Lovers taken from Keys to the Supernal Tarot sourcebook for MtA 1ed
4. Abyssal Resonance Merit is taken from the Banishers sourcebook for MtA 1ed
5. Purification ritual inspired by Hellblazer issue #1 regarding the binding of the demon Mnemoth
6. Artwork taken from The Secret World and Secret World Legends video games
7. All adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
The following is In-Character Research that was accomplished by Chimera (Hannah Nyland), Witness (Korri Smith), Persephone (Keri Sayler) and Panoptes (NPC played by Alex Van Belkum) during the events of the story Cups Runneth in our current Chronicle.
Plot Summary:
During Cups Runneth, this group of Guardians and their allies track down Kirsten Singleton, daughter of Anne Singleton who was conceived by a cult leader, awakened in the womb, past her powers to her mother until her birth and then continued to exhibit amazing magical adeptness. Without any knowledge of the Magi her small fractured family was on the run for over five years while she caused paradox, disbelief and bad luck everywhere she went. They were hunted most fiercely by the Guardians of the Veil and the Seers of the Throne, suspecting she could be a mage messiah to be snuffed out or protected.
When Task Force MASONPIRANHA catch up with her (the PCs) they find that her powers have been corrupted and her soul tattered by the Abyss. Whatever she was or appeared to be before, she now is a Nativity with Supernal Magic, horribly damaging to magic itself. While Witness leads their pursuers on a merry chase and contemplates having to murder the child, Chimera and Persephone figure out a solution. Through her hidden Archmastery of Death, Persephone is able to repair the threadbare soul of Kirsten, using the Practice of Excision, and restoring her soul to that of an Awakened.
Chimera takes Anne and Kirsten (now Shadowname Magpie "Maggie") under her protection and sets them up in Jamestown, North Dakota. Under the watchful eye of her powerful spirit allies and spy networks she took Magpie on as an Apprentice. Witness is elevated to the rank of Magister within the Guardians of the Veil and Chimera is now considered a Famulus.
Plot Summary:
During Cups Runneth, this group of Guardians and their allies track down Kirsten Singleton, daughter of Anne Singleton who was conceived by a cult leader, awakened in the womb, past her powers to her mother until her birth and then continued to exhibit amazing magical adeptness. Without any knowledge of the Magi her small fractured family was on the run for over five years while she caused paradox, disbelief and bad luck everywhere she went. They were hunted most fiercely by the Guardians of the Veil and the Seers of the Throne, suspecting she could be a mage messiah to be snuffed out or protected.
Chimera takes Anne and Kirsten (now Shadowname Magpie "Maggie") under her protection and sets them up in Jamestown, North Dakota. Under the watchful eye of her powerful spirit allies and spy networks she took Magpie on as an Apprentice. Witness is elevated to the rank of Magister within the Guardians of the Veil and Chimera is now considered a Famulus.
((Disclaimer: The following information is not for the faint of heart. The Nativity is perhaps one of the vilest Abyssal Intrusions there is and one that sticks in the mind forever. It involves the desecration of mothers, babies, fetuses, souls, and poor children who live a cursed life. Thankfully this is all a work of fiction, and one where (in our plot) they actually managed to find a way to solve the problem that led to the happiest conclusion possible. Archmastery for the win, and not an avenue I had considered when I designed the plot because we didn't originally have Persephone directly involved in the plot.))
Researching the Nativity
Action: Extended - Intelligence + Mental Skill (capped at size of the roll for a given topic)
Research Time: 1 day without a good library, 3 hours will an appropriate library.
Appropriate Libraries: Genetics, Fate, Possession, Satanism, Mage Order Lore, (Occult specs of the previous topics)
Successes = Facts 0 The numbers are the progression of facts as the characters accumulate successes from various sources.
False/not related information is in Red and is pure speculation, myth, rumor, urban legend, but don't help with the situation at hand.
Blue information is on-the-nose for what they are looking for.
Information found through Google-Fu:
1. Ever seen movies with evil children?
2. Ever seen “The Omen”?
3. Through history, there have occasionally been children who seem to be at the center of ill fortune.
4. See: Fetches and Changelings for replaced children…. family curses
5. Rumors of indiscretion surrounding conception or result of rape or being a gypsy
6. Always bastard children where they are not sure who the father is, or the father disputes the child being his
7. Rumors of bestiality being involved… (father was the devil or a jackal, a beast)
8. Related to Black Eyed Kids?
Occult Sources:
1. Those children are in nearly every case said to have been immaculately conceived
2. Immaculate Conception tied to messiahs and god manifestations, the virgin birth — in which a child is conceived outside of man with the power of the divine — is considered to be the province of myth and religion. The most recognized example is, of course, the conception of Jesus. The child fostered within Mary’s womb was not given to her by a biological father, but instead born of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. That is by no means the only example of such conception in myth, however. Various theologies offer gods born of mortal women with no human fathers (Mithras, for instance). Still, all of this is the domain of legend alone, right?
3. Virgin Birth ambiguous, could mean simply no conception from intercourse. Supernatural conception is the only requirement.4. The offspring, son or daughter, suffers from an elevated number of childhood ailments, but such a thing isn’t particularly abnormal. Colic, asthma, eczema: such diseases are seen as unfortunate, but not out of the ordinary. The child likely appears a little pale and frail, but not every kid is going to be a ballerina or a football star. Wise onlookers notice that such frailties are not the extent of the strangeness surrounding such a child.
5. Some may notice that strange things happen around the child. Not to him, precisely, but bad things happen in his presence. Potential repeat childhood trauma of major accidents in proximity to the child.
6. Even more bizarre happenstance: animals and birds will spontaneously die, illness and electronic disruption within close proximity to the child but never happen TO the child. Computer malfunctions when the child tries to use them.
7. People feel uncomfortable around him. Some sense how misfortune swirls about him know to stay far, far away.
8. The mother is fiercely protective of her baby. At first, such protection seems normal, but her overprotective nature can become downright vicious
9. Mortal Response – will be subtle, no direct connection to investigations on the part of mortal authorities. Unofficially they will wildly suspect and ostracize the child over time and incidents for suspected powers not confirmed. Psychological breakdowns are common and communities may tear themselves apart as a result.
10. The child may be innocent and completely unaware of its influences on the world.
11. This is an Abyssal incursion, only real means of exile is the death of the born child
12. Intrusion cannot be exiled during pregnancy without also killing the mother, the only real and permanent means of banishment.
1. Localized events usually bizarre and not long term (within miles/city limits)
2. Rain of blood occurred
3. Flock of crows ran into building
4. Strange events and deaths at hospital
5. Power surges, powerful storms
6. Natil star or astrological alignments or phenomena
7. Flock of birds damaging aircraft or property
Order-Only Info:
1. When they are negative/evil Seer and Diamond Orders alike call this The/a Nativity, or Children of the Nativity or Nativity Children.
2. Theories hold that they are tainted, rather than by other supernatural means, when supernal resonance is involved there is Abyssal taint involved…
3. The souls of children spawned by the Nativity are strange and tattered, providing some mages who study them glimpses into what is assumed to be the Abyss.
4. Strange relationship with magic - Such children are Paradox magnets and abyssal batteries drawing the attention of the Abyss quite strongly.
5. Children of the Nativity are conceived by a mote of the Abyss taking root in the womb.
6. Some Guardians believe that there is a method, using the Death Arcanum, to “operate” on the soul of the child.7. Where there is one there may be more, gathered together or spawn by the long-term presence of one.
8. Most instances of Nativity children coming to the awareness of the Awakened result in the death of the child. Worse yet, their effects can accumulate and the bad luck and paradox can be amplified. Some Scelesti are rumored to cultivate groups of Nativity children for Abyssal Yantras.
9. Death Arcanum can also be used to manipulate the soul of the Acursed. (Scelestus?)
10. Speculation that many “chosen ones” have come before but are dealt with before they can reach their full potential. These souls will continue to try to be resurrected until successful and their continual recycling between the supernal and the fallen world increases the chances of Abyssal corruption.
11. Of course, one could always exile the child to a place where he can do no harm to the magic of mages. Crafty and cruel mages, however, recognize that they can harm their enemies by “relocating” the child into the territory of those who oppose the mages.
Indicators & Risk factors of Nativity Child Conception:
1. Victim of serial killer or violent (suspected but unconfirmed rape) victim recovers.
2. Violent supernatural exposure with prolonged hospital visit where soul/sanity damage resonates suffering with the Abyss which impregnates victim
3. Mother killed someone by passion, accident, or design in a violent manner
4. Woman suffers from wasting disease or illness, passes the brink of death, and miraculously recovers. Sudden pregnancy follows (perhaps a cost or concentration of that negative energy). Cancer victims specifically risky. Cancer goes into remission, viruses are only found as dead microscopic husks, dangerous bacteria are gone.
5. The previous conception events combined with a very very easy pregnancy. Little to no morning sickness or discomfort or pain.
6. Previous conception events combined with pregnancy with strange cravings for toxins, drugs, stimulants, or chemicals not compatible with human life.
7. Nothing short of full-abortion procedures nothing natural or external will harm the pregnancy. The Abyss repels negative influences.
8. Previous indicators tied to a birth event (Fate/Destiny)
9. Ovulating sleeper witnesses vulgar spell with minor or no paradox occurs. Sleeper witness usually completely forgets the spell witnessed (Casstiel, Nanashi, and Persephone cast magic in front of Anne but she was already pregnant).
10. Not impossible that an already pregnant victim in which fetus or embryo becomes corrupted by similar incidents.
11. Mother killed someone by passion, accident, or design in a violent manner, pregnancy usually assumed to be result of incest or abuse. Violent death resonance pulls upon aberration/killing family members/entropy resonates with Abyss and corrupts womb.
12. Speculation that the small souls passing through the Abyss from the Supernal (normal cycle of souls) catches a small bit of exposure or taint. Similar to why childhood cancer is a force in the world.13. Sometimes the spark of the Supernal in the womb is what attracts abyssal interference. It is speculated that children who would have an important destiny, could be the support of the Oracles, the coming of a mage messiah, could be snuffed out before it is allowed to mature by the forces of the Exarchs or the power of the Abyss to continue the subjugation of the Fallen World.
14. Attempts to abort the fetus fail, or may appear successful and the woman immediately conceive again (as if the abyssal mote can transpose onto a new embryo). Those involved with the procedure could experience negative fate-driven consequences.
15. Innocence - While the Abyss patches his tattered soul, this does not necessarily engender the child toward horrible actions. It is enough that he is surrounded by awfulness, with bad luck and Paradox bleeding off of him in imperceptible waves. Assume that the child is like anybody else. He can be good, he can be bad. If he’s raised poorly, perhaps he becomes selfish and even cruel. If he’s raised well — or is just plain good of heart — perhaps he’s downright altruistic. The Abyss is not what makes the child bad, or even good. While the Abyss waits within him, it exists in a null state, non-sentient, simply allowing the child to force an awful effect on the surrounding world.
Fixing a Nativity:
1. Adepts and Masters of Spirit or Death may be able to make some magic that at least mitigates the child’s negative effect on the world (though, of course, doing so may very well invoke a Paradox as per the child’s persistent Abyssal infection). Such magic must deal with the child’s ragged soul. Of course, this is never simple. The child can have his soul severed. Doing so only disengages the soul, but the Paradox Generator effect is still in place around the unmoored soul. (Worse, the child then begins to endure the effects of soullessness.)2. Surgery effects: The disentangled soul must then be handled. Placing it in a Soul Jar negates the effects of the Paradox Generator — though, if the soul is released, the effects begin anew.
3. Spells cast to recover a lost soul don't work on the child, because his soul isn’t empty, it’s just frayed.
4. Soul Binding can merge the unmoored soul with the Abyssal “blank spots” in the child’s current soul, but doing so can be disastrous for the boy: yes, this removes the “taint” (as well as the Paradox Generator and Bad Luck Battery effects), but it also gives the boy a severe condition or derangement (either Schizophrenia or Multiple Personality Disorder) as a result of two warring souls within.
5. It is possible to completely sever the child’s original soul and moor in a new one, but this brings about the difficulty of actually finding such a soul. At least one Mysterium history of Abyssal Nativity suggests that such a soul was acquired from the child’s mother, in her last eerily nurturing act. Of course, in such instances, the mother was usually on the verge of death already.
6. A few mages, particularly those within the Guardians of the Veil, have ways of “operating” upon the soul, in a kind of spiritual surgery. Doing so is by no means simple. First, every child born of an Abyssal Nativity is different, and no old roadmap works when it comes to extricating oblivion from a tattered soul in an effort to repair it. Second, the time to perform the ritual is double what it would normally be per a mage’s Gnosis Finally, as the spell is performed, the child’s effect remains active, and magic is harder to work, with the mage courting Paradox all the while. Only a Death Adept is capable of performing this kind of magic, and even that is more a “rumor” than something that is easily proven or true. Legends suggest that such spells require great sacrifice on the part of the caster and of the target — anything from blood to loved ones to replacing one curse with another
7. Creation of a new Soul – requires mastery of the five subtle Arcana: Fate, Prime, Spirit, Death, Mind and is completely theoretical.
8. Rumors also exist of old purification rituals — available to mage and mortal alike — that might be successful in purging the Abyss from the child’s soul, but few are aware of what cost that may have on the child’s body or psyche (or on the caster of such rituals). Still, some who know of the Nativity seek out such practices.
9. Even the rituals themselves are hard to find: recipes carved into the pipes in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath cities, pages pinned to altars in jungle temples, programmed responses born into the madness of Goetic demons and spirit Countesses.
10. The rituals are long and require a great many “pure” reagents, anything from a drop of water from the world’s five oceans to the blood of one of the few truly innocent men in the world.
The Purification Ritual
Mechanics: One roll, teamworked: Resolve + Occult and -1 for each failed requirement. Ritual is a pass or fail.
Requirements:
1. Magic can help you cheat at these requirements, Persephone could help with this greatly!
2. Need a drop of water from each of the five oceans blessed by a particular type of African Shaman, of the Sangomas tradition
3. Ritual chant in an ancient African tongue from South Africa
4. Symbols need to be carved into flesh (maybe marks can work instead?) but can be healed with magic afterwards
5. Rare hallucinatory plants provide +1-3 bonuses
6. An eyeball must be swapped between the lead ritualist and the child
7. Pint of blood from a truly innocent person
8. Ritual takes 7 hours to complete, dusk to dawn roughly
9. Everyone involved loses a dot of Wisdom or Integrity automatically
((The following are the mechanics we used for our Nativity, not information that can be found via research))
Nativity Abilities:
Impending Danger:
The child wrecks havoc on the Danger Sense Merit, always going off, an ambush is poised to happen. This can look crazy under Fate Sight as well.
Abyssal Antenna:
Abyssal Detection Abilities & Peripheral Mage Sight– Feel cold around the child, hear eerie noises in static, white noise, high-pitched whine, or feel queasy and unsettled spiritually.
Condition: Frailty:
Child has at least till physical or mental illnesses and -1 to all physical rolls
Electronic Disruption:
Electronics mess up in her presence, narrative effect only.
Ill Omens:
Anomalies and bad omens seem to surround her. Narrative effect only, dead birds, dead animals, moths, dead bugs found around places the child has been recently.
Paradox Generator:
Part of the child is oblivion, emptiness, a consumptive and eradicative force, magic is hampered -2 to all spells within a mile. Within half a mile radius the entity generates +4 paradox, and +2 between half a mile and a mile. Also, within the half-mile radius paradox increases by double (+2 instead of +1) for each additional Vulgar spell cast by a given mage in a scene.
Bad Luck Battery
Under Fate Sight tendrils of sudden probability, dark and tenuous, lash out from the child and embrace negatively affected subjects like a frog’s tongue catching flies. The mage may conclude that the child is performing these magical feats of his own will, despite the fact that the youngster seems wholly unaware of it. Stressful actions around the child take a -3. If the child is watching a failure can be turned into a Dramatic Failure.
Locations she has been and immediately around her manifest bad luck by reducing dice tricks: no 10 again, 1s subtract from successes, roll twice and take the lowest, failures are made dramatic failures, exceptional successes only count as regular, stuff like that... progressively get worse over time in an area. Have fun mix and matching the trail of bad.
Animal Agitation:
In the child’s presence dogs howl, birds fly into one another, a swarm of locusts suddenly rises and flies head-on into a wall. Some animals attack: bees might sting, a cat may hiss and swipe. Others may instead simply flee. As a result, the child may never possess any dots in the Animal Ken Skill. Play up dead crows and lots of bugs! Feeds into Ill Omens. Animals suffer -1 to Composure.
Mother Hen Effect
The mother gains Condition: Suspicion when the child reaches 1 and gains Condition: Paranoia when the child reaches the age of 3. Both center around protecting the child.
Supernatural Entities and the Child
Vampires feel as if they’re encountering another of their kind, or some mindless, feral monster: they must roll for Predatory Aura accordingly. Failing that roll indicates that the vampire feels in the presence of something ancient, empty and wretched. Drinking the blood of the child is both nourishing (two Vitae points per Health level consumed) and debilitating (for 12 hours after drinking from the child, the vampire suffers a –2 dice penalty to all rolls).
Werewolves find that their hair stands on end in any form when encountering the child. Worse, if at any point the werewolf must roll to avoid Death Rage while in the presence of the child, that roll is made at a –3 dice penalty.
Ghosts & Spirits flee the presence of the child. Most spirits won’t come within sight of him. Those that remain within 50 yards in both the Shadow and the physical realm suffer a –2 dice penalty to all rolls. This applies to ghosts, as well, who are capable of seeing the child’s soul and its deathlike/entropic stains.
Under Mage Sights
Active Death Sight – stain of death all around the child but not touching the child, like a Sin-Eater only more intense.
Focused Death Sight - shows the tattered soul and the abyss peeking through. Particularly bizarre side effect when used upon the child: the mage gazes for a moment into the Abyss, staring clean through the rotten holes
Fate Sights – The child’s actions or in-actions in tangled in probability and loaded movements of importance
Prime Sights - shows half of the child’s aura is a consumptive black hole — as if she is in fact missing part of his soul (but Prime does not let you see the soul itself)
Life Sights – Child is sickly, frail, but stronger than she looks, weaker in other areas, malformed, imperfect.
Time Sights – Bad things have happened around the child, bad things are coming. Nothing bad ever happens directly to the child, instead that badness is inflicted and reflected on the people around her.
((Since Magpie was an Awakened Mastigos mage and was turned into a Nativity after her birth she bucks many of the norms of what Awakened mages have seen with this Intruder phenomena. In many ways she is and was special. Since she had magic, and therefore was harming it with her lack of understanding of Paradox, Quiescence, Disbelief, and the proximity of the Abyss, it seemed appropriate that she would also have the Abyssal Resonance Merit. Tweaked for Mage 2.0. Thankfully they never got into a combat or casting situation in front of the child without first understanding all the dangers...))
Merit: Abyssal Resonance (• to •••••)
Effect: All Sleepers have a shard of the Abyss within them, but characters with this Merit resonate strongly with the Abyss. The character has little or no control over this Merit, but any mage around her certainly feels its effects. Dots in this Merit allow access to various effects based on the Abyss’s growing intrusion into the character’s soul. This Merit is progressive, that is, a character can and does find that her Resonance with the Abyss increases the more contact she has with Awakened magic. In game terms, each level of the Merit is a prerequisite for the next. Paradox rules can be found here.
Merit Drawback: So much exposure to the Abyss is dangerous for the character’s sanity. Every time the character increases the rating of this Merit, she must make a Wisdom or Integrity check. Failure may result in derangements or a Paradox Condition. Also, mages with this Merit always have nimbuses that relate to or call to mind the Abyss (shadows darken, objects grow cold to the touch, etc.)
Eyes of the Abyss (•):
The character can automatically sense Paradoxes and even potential Paradoxes. Whenever a mage casts a vulgar spell within 100 feet of the character, she senses it. No roll is required. The character might perceive this information as a scent of saltwater and smoke, or a cold shudder down her spine or the sounds of wailing and screaming as if from a great distance. If the player makes a reflexive Perception (Wits + Composure) roll, the character can pinpoint a direction. If she is in the presence of the mage who cast the spell, this roll allows the character to identify him. This is very similar to Peripheral Mage Sight or the Unseen Sense Merit.
Skin of the Abyss (••):
The Abyss protects the character from attempts to identify or analyze him. Any Unveiling or Knowing spell cast directly on the character is considered vulgar in aspect, as is any other spell designed to gain information about or otherwise analyze the character (including Scrying). Focused Death or Prime Mage Sight causes a Wisdom check at current level.
Beacon of the Abyss (•••):
Merely being in the presence of this character invites Paradox. All mages within the scene (roughly 50-foot radius) with the character increase their Paradox pools whenever any mage casts a vulgar spell as the Locality Pooled Paradox Game Hax. For example, if one member of the cabal casts a vulgar spell (Paradox base dice pool of one), the next mage to do so, no matter who it is, has a Paradox base dice pool of two. If the character with this Merit is a mage, she is not immune to the effect, and neither are any allied mages in the area. The Abyss does not discriminate.
Claws of the Abyss (••••):
Containing a Paradox within one’s own body is often a wise decision, better a few points of bashing damage than insanity or the chaos of an Anomaly. A character with this Merit, though, can worsen the damage thus inflicted. The user expends a Willpower Point when another mage in the scene tries to absorb Paradox as Backlash. Any damage from containing a Paradox upgrades from Resistant Bashing damage to Resistant Lethal Damage.
Abyssal Warden (•••••):
The character unconsciously understands and can manipulate the gateways between the Fallen World and the Abyss. Whenever a mage Releases a Paradox within view of the character with this Merit (that is, the character doesn’t absorb the Paradox within his own body), the character can try to force a Manifestation by spending a Willpower Point. The user rolls a Clash of Wills: Resolve + Gnosis vs the victim mage’s Resolve + Gnosis (resistance is reflexive). If the user succeeds, the Paradox becomes a Manifestation (as if the ST had 5 Reach) regardless of the results of the Released Paradox roll.
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