[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Magic & Conditions in the Abyss (Abyss part 1)

Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 3: The 6th Watchtower
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Eye of the Void: 

Secrets of the Dark Ones

Travel in the Abyss & Abyssal Magic

Part 1

Guidelines for Mage: The Awakening Storytellers, by Jerad Sayler

Other Chapters:

Chapter One - Travel in the Dark

Chapter Two - The Outer Dark

Chapter Three - The Inner Dark

Chapter Four - Denizens of the Abyss

Chapter Five - Abyssal Magic

Disclaimer: Secret & Corruptive Knowledge

The systems and material below expands upon concepts and ideas from many different books involving the Abyss.  On the whole it is an addendum to supplement the horror of the Abyss and bring existing game mechanics to an Archmaster level.  At greater power levels such as Archmastery it becomes possible to travel into the Abyss with the tiny hope of survival.  It isn't that non-advanced templates are unable to enter the Abyss, it's just less likely they escape without severe physical and psychic trauma that tends to make the characters unplayable.

All the information and knowledge contained herein is as dangerous and infectious as the Abyss itself.  Only master Scelesti and ancient Left-Handed texts may contains some of the rudimentary understandings of the concepts and mechanics presented in this addendum.  All of the Pentacle Orders and most of all the other mage factions (Seers, Banishers, Apostates, and even some Nefrandi) do everything in their power to destroy this information.  Once they notice the material for what it is pentacle mages acting as Censors don't read the material further before it gets locked up in a Guardian Vault or the deepest layers of a Mysterium Athenaeum.  Elder mages may recognize the lore for what it is and smite young mages who go around spouting innocent sounding theories tied to extinct Scelesti Legacies.  Outside of connections to well established Shadow Cults, it is virtually impossible for a lone cabal of Scelesti to get information that connects the dots like the secrets laid bare within.  Cults of the Left-Handed never last long and usually have to start from scratch or from shattered notes.  Very few mages with a peek at this dark knowledge can trace their magical traditions back more than 50 years.  As a result of this information sanitation and the chaotic nature of the Abyss itself, even to those who worship the void all the material can be seen as heretical, paradoxical, and contradictory.  Nobody but the some of the Aswadim have put all the pieces together.

The only known ways to find out how the Abyss tends to behave and the secrets of the realm, threats and hidden magical uses is by trial and error.  For a character in a Chronicle to learn such things they would need to cross reference multiple Abyssal sources of knowledge.  To put the whole pie together, one would need multiple Daimonomikons of Scelesti Legacies, many Abyssal texts and items.  They would need to have spoken with many Gulmoth and Acamoth, practiced the arts of the Baalim, tried lesser forms of Abyssal magics and encountered many and varied Abyssal Intrusions.  It is easy to see why the Aswadim and very knowledgeable Baalim are the only ones who scratch the surface.

Similarly, the material below represents its own cross-reference and inferences from multiple Mage sourcebooks, such as:
1. Mage: The Awakening corebook (Basic rules on Paradox, Acamoth, and a Scelesti Legacy)
2. Tome of the Mysteries (contains section on Abyssal magic and abyssal entities)
3. Summoners (contains a section on many Abyssal entities and how to summon them)
4. Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss (The whole book is chalk full of ideas on how the Abyss invades)
5. Night Horrors: The Unbidden (Has a scattering of Abyssal entities)
6. Imperial Mysteries (Covers the Aswadim, travel in the Abyss, and the Qlippoth)
7. Left-Handed Path (Covers details information on Scelesti and many secrets, referencing other books)
8. And many many more, Abyssal material liters many books, including the Legacy specific books

Within our Chronicle: The Dethroned Queen

The characters of Mage II: The Dethroned Queen and future Chronicles are most likely going to come across such information from three sources that have been encountered so far: The remaining Denarians, the Scholomance and the Black Zodiac.

The Scholomance

At $10,000 cash (not magically created) per book, for a week long rental, the Scholomance will happily provide and spread all the Abyssal tomes they posses.  You would need to have enough of them (say a 5+) to call it a one dot Library (Abyssal).  Each additional 5 books adds another dot and the subjects would need to represent the breath of available knowledge.  Then the characters would need to do research with these books, performing extended actions each a day per roll and over time accumulate 20-30 successes for each of the little factoids about the nature of the Abyss and advanced Supernal magic.  Storytellers are discouraged from actually revealing the mechanics of the systems presented below until they are actually happening to the characters.  If the ST wants to add more mystery, just state the effect and not how the mechanic works at all... this plays on the fear of the players, the fear of the unknown for the characters too, and generally makes the Abyss way more scary.

Finding out such information from Tessa and the remaining active Knights of the Blackened Denarius would most likely occur in highly volatile situations.  Most likely the characters would learn something about the nature of the Abyss from trying to discover and thwart the plans of the Denarians and their minions.

Don't touch them FYI

After the Horsemens’ first encounter with the Denarians, Prodigy tracked down a pack of Baelhounds being led by a Denarian simply called “The Old Crone.”  He became trapped in the Black Hills   In order to help him sabotage the ritual and make good an escape, he contacted Casstiel needing to find out enough about Abyssal magic to break the ritual.  What followed was a choice that would haunt them both.  Casstiel ignored the Cabal Charter on needed unanimous vote before contacting or dealing with Infernal or Abyssal influences and had the Scholomance rush him a book on Abyssal rituals outside of Rapid City, SD.

What Casstiel received was a nameless and horrid book with the cover made from human skin.  Its binding was made from hair and sinew and you could clearly see a navel in the center of the front page. It was entreat about the practices of corrupting magic and abyssal thaumaturgy written by a Scelestus philospher named Lynden C.  Worse yet Cassstiel had to find sections that would be useful and support Prodigy.  Casstiel didn’t react well to the book and was more or less forced to hand it to Prodigy via an aportation spell.  This was Prodigy’s first taste of the Abyss and the start of his fall.  It gave the Obrimos the ability to befoul his magic enough to gain an edge to bring the coinholders’ plan to an abrupt stop.

From there Prodigy learned the false-truth and euphoria that comes from corrupting his spells, making them twisted and vicious.  Ever since he saw Nicodemus ignore and inflict Paradox Backlash on other people he knew he needed to learn how to counter that.  To fight fire with fire.

The 13 Black Zodiac

When he returned he managed to lift the card with the Scholomance’s contact information out of Casstiel's things, he placed an order and received a very inexpensive (recruitment-driven perhaps) but important book simply called “From the Endless Dark.”  It was written by a series of unknown authors in fine Baskerville font and only the sigil of the Abyss on the inside cover to give its contents away.  It was a book on summoning Abyssal entities, specifically Gulmoth by means of corrupting a supernal summoning circle.  Now that he had started dreaming of his Watchtower wreathed in unholy light needed to learn more… to fight the Lies with anti-truths.  And to save the world after all… many of the Horsemen compromised their morals for an edge to stop the Denarian’s next plot.  Prodigy became a Autark...

Later, when Jack and Chimera were attending the Pentacle Academy in San Diego they came across a small shop run by a mage Fulbax called the Black Zodiac which peddles in Abyssal Knowledge for the purpose of unbiased study and combating the Abyss (not with censorship but knowledge)...

Chapter One - Travel in the Dark

Imperial Mysteries and the Abyss

Any Seeker may enter the Abyss through the Golden Road. Other methods also exist, and some Abyssal entities teach them to interested mages. While every mage vaults through the Void during Awakening, the unique nature of the event shields them from its full force. After Awakening, lesser mages possess no protection from the un-realms. Anything can happen and the Traveler has little say in the matter.

Similarly, the Golden Road protects Seekers, but only on its narrow route across the Void. They cannot encounter much beyond their own Paradoxes (though they do not suffer their effects after the Abyssal Trial). A Seeker may step off the Golden Road into the greater Abyss at considerable risk.
All spells cast in the wider Abyss are vulgar and Paradoxes are more intense; add three to all Paradox dice pools. Archmasters may travel without being overwhelmed by the Abyss as Travelers are, but only for a number of chapters equal to their players’ successes on a Wisdom roll. When time runs out, the Abyss might consume them immediately or imprison them within an Abyssal domain.
The Abyss can’t be mapped or measured. It sometimes appears as a shifting land, filled with warped, broken versions of places, people and objects the archmaster recognizes, but might manifest as anything else: an endless plain of black glass, perhaps, or a field of shifting stars, filled with floating,
rune-covered wreckage.

Mundane natural laws don’t operate consistently; a thrown rock might endlessly accelerate or just hover in place, sucking heat out of the area. During the “grace period” represented by the player’s Wisdom roll, the archmage’s soul guards her from immediately lethal or soul-destroying changes, but if a spark lights a fire made of venomous worms, they might still poison him if he gets too close.
Acamoth and other lesser entities approach the Seeker to offer services as guides in exchange for Wisdom-destroying acts. Within the Abyss, powerful beings create domains with self-contained laws and ecosystems. These are predictable and somewhat easier to survive in, but ultimately exhibit the Abyss’ anti-reality. Orgasms cause deformities, or past events may enter the present when spoken of.
The Abyss destroys reason, hope and being — but it encompasses all of existence. Every mote of Supernal power passes through the Abyss, which assembles it into infinite configurations. As a lawless place, it is unbound by consistency.

Anyone or anything can be found in one domain or another: working geocentric universes, lost grimoires and old friends long gone — but in each case, they thrive because in some sense they are not supposed to exist. As innocent as they appear, the inherent paradoxes of their being reveal
themselves in physical or magical corruption.

Baseline Effects of Travel in the Abyss

According to the rules laid out in the Imperial Mysteries and The Left-Handed Path source books travel in the Abyss is the same as being on the physical plane mechanically.  Except for a +3 to starting paradox.  What? That's it?!  The Abyss is about the scariest thing in the world to a Mage; its corruption near absolute.  Sure the book talks about what the inside might/could look like: nightmarish landscape full of Abyssal entities, a twisted version of the real or Supernal, but that doesn't really do much for most that want more.  So here we go...

A brief Caress: Abyssal Conditions

Sometimes a mage just gets a brief brush with the pure anti-reality of the Abyss.  This is usually the result of any of the Points of Ingress mentioned in the later chapters where the mage does not actually enter the Abyss completely.  Storytellers are discouraged from stacking the following conditions "on top" of the badness that travelers have to deal with when they enter the outer but coming back with some of the more useful and terrifying conditions may help the characters achieve their goals. Now, things in the Abyss may have specific abilities to inflict the Conditions below but those usually last no longer than a scene.  Refer back to Paradox rules for how these work.  I highly recommend you use the conditions from this document as well for other creative uses to represent the corruption of the Abyss. Refer back to Paradox rules for how these work.  I highly recommend you use the conditions from this document as well for other creative uses to represent the corruption of the Abyss.

The Paradox Conditions Appendix works great for this as well.  How about a table to roll for it?
1. Condition/Tilt: Abyssal Affliction - could stretch this out to a Scene for a Condition
- 1.1 Attribute Drain
- 1.2 Infected Nimbus
- 1.3 Pattern Corruption
- 1.4 Arcana Infection
2. Condition: Abyssal Nimbus
3. Condition: Abyssal Imago
4. Condition: Abyssal Backlash
5. Condition/Tilt: Mana Bleed
6. Condition: Corrupted Mana
7. Condition: Manaless
8. Condition: Bedlam
9. Condition: Branding- go to sub-table
- 9.1 Corrupted Aura
- 9.2 Black Mark
- 9.3 Disfigurement
- 9.4 Inhuman Feature
- 9.5 Hoar
- 9.6 Ill Touch
- 9.7 Scarred World
- 9.8 Hell's Choir
10. Abyssal Exposure
11. Void Scourged
12. Abyssally Shunned
13. Void-Touched
14. Abyssal Consumption

New Condition: Abyssal Exposure

Each level of intensity adds +1 to every paradox increase due to each Reach made instead of the Gnosis based paradox dice alone. Resolution: This effect remains for a day or until the afflicted gains one Mana from an Oblation inside a Demense and Hallow.

New Condition: Void Scourged

This condition has a Minor and Severe rating. The Minor version simply inflicts a number of resistant Lethal Damage equal to the magnitude of the direct the exposure to the abyss.  The wounds manifest as radiation sickness, destroyed cell membranes, phantom burns.  If it wraps into aggravated damage it manifests as damaged DNA and cancer.  The Severe version of this does Resistant aggravated damage. Resolution: The wounds heal over a normal time period.

New Condition: Abysally Shunned
You have done something to reject the power of the Abyss when it offered you power in some way.  For a set amount of time, based on how powerful the gift rejected, the caster has a starting paradox pool of +1 that of whatever the ambient paradox is.  Resolution: This usually lasts a year and a day.  A mage cannot Befoul their magic or use any Abyssal based powers while this is in effect.

New Condition: Void Touched 

Vector: Usually occurs from touching the Abyss as part or proximity to an Abyssal Summoning.  It makes the victim sensitive to the wrongness that surrounds Abyssal entities in the fallen world like a cloying miasma.  This is one of the few Abyssal conditions that may have a positive outcome, minus the damage to the soul and psyche.  Effect: Basically a temporary version of the four dot merit: Void-Scourged. Grants +2 to summon or interact with Abyssal Spirits. Detect abyssal within 10 yards/Gnosis with Wits + Composure + Spirit Rank.  Drawback: This ability does not work in the Abyss itself; there is too much interference.  It leaves the person numb and insensate.  They have a very hard time perceiving the Abyss and what lies in it.  This is represented as an additional -3 to all perception rolls.  Resolution: Condition is resolved at the end of the current story or when the player purchases the merit Void-Scourged to solidify what happened to his pattern.  Example: Seraph rejected his first Watchtower and forced his way to the tower of his choosing, not a Mastigos, not a Thyrsus, but an Obrimos.  However, traversing the distance exposed him to the Outer Dark in the Astral gaps between the realm’s edges.  As a result whenever an Intruder lurks near he can feel it as a cold numbness in his skin and limbs.

New Condition: Abyssal Consumption
Vector: Usually occurs from being thrown into or drowned in an Abyssal sea.  Effect: Same as Void-Scourged except while someone suffering from Abyssal Consumption can detect and react to Abyss, they do not know where the corruption is specifically. Proximity or exposure to high levels of pooled paradox of abyssal magic or beings causes negative reactions such as nose bleeds, bloodshot eyes, massive headaches, muscle cramps.  Each level of intensity can also inflict Resistant Bashing Damage.  Drawback: As soon as the character enters the Abyss they take the Condition: Abyssal Exposure at a +3 to the starting paradox pool and the effect lasts for the entire time the consumptive is inside the Abyss.  Resolution: This condition may be Persistent or may go away in a matter of days or months or even years.  Example: Ever since the Vulgar Duel Arcane with the Denarians, Casstiel gets terrible headaches and nosebleeds when Abyssal resonance is particularly strong.

Supernal Magic in the Abyss

There are no guarantees that a spell or Arcana will be compatible enough with the anti-nothing to slip through.  We know the Abyss is permeable with magic, as every spell cast in the fallen world must be pulled through it.  Supernal magic is the purest form of ultimate truth and therefore causes the Abyss to reflect the brightest back, to respond to this stimuli.  It refracts this light through its infinite and vile facets.  Just like with using magic in the Tenemos, there are no solid or permanent rules, Storytellers can use all of the guidelines provided or pick and choose what makes sense for the Abyssal Realms they are visiting.

Baselining Magic: Some hard and fast rules for magic usage follow based on the whims of the Storyteller. Various Abyssal realms tend to increase Personal starting Paradox for all or certain Arcana +1.  As discussed the ambient Paradox is usually at a +3 right off the bat.  Sometimes certain or all Arcana always risk paradox.  Lastly sometimes if the place is strange enough that it favors an Arcana the environment can be used as a Yantra (+2).

Summoning Gulmoth: The realm grants a +5 bonus to rituals and spells to Summon Abyssal Entities (other than Supernal Summonings).

Abyssal Incursions: The Storyteller's Abyssal Incursion roll during a Supernal Summonings is a Rote action.  The Supernal Summoning rolls take a -5 penalty as well.

1. Prime

The Abyss isn’t just some form of anti-magic, a natural and direct opposite of the truth.  An opposite would be its own truth.  It is instead a shadow cast that ripped in from outside.  It is something so alien and foreign to all forms of existence.  It interacts with the higher realms in such a way that it attempts to mimic what it can perceive, sometimes as if it is some kind of conscious or semi-conscious entity.  It can only be defined in terms of what it is not and the mercurial ways it can conform (for a time) to certain constraints that allow it ingress into the Fallen World.  This simultaneously provides it with the means of subsisting on an alien diet or spreading throughout the lower world.  A reoccurring aspect of Abyssal Intrusions are their tendency to be Thaumavoires.  The void itself greedily lets in these pure sources of magic be called down by the Prime Arcanum.

Prime is simultaneously the most reliable and most dangerous to use during travel in the Abyss.  Celestial Fire and Holy fire are perhaps two of the few things that can reliably harm Abyssal entities, burning them away and purifying that which it blackens.  But the Abyss has a greater chance to twist this raw, unfiltered source of all souls, and when it is welded against Abyssal entities it tends to attract the attention of other things.  Certain entities will actually subsist on Primal spells, consuming them to better define their parameters.  Mana Eaters.

Pros:

• Aetherial Winds (Prime 3), Celestial Fire (Prime 4) and Holy Fire and other attack spells using Prime magic almost universally act as Banes against entities in the Abyss and typically do aggravated or resistant aggravated damage to such entities.
• Spells designed to allow weapons to harm ephemeral entities or pierce protective barriers by increasing the truth and symbolic nature of the weapon can be attuned to cut through the protections and abilities of Abyssal entities.
• Prime magic can overwhelm Abyssal entities and influences, sometimes providing a means to force back the corruptive natures of the void.  Wards and barriers can be used to force back the darkness (Wards and Signs, Words of Truth, 

Cons:

• Using Prime magic has a higher change of being twisted when called directly into the Abyss (-3 to Integrity rolls to internalize a Paradox).
• Paradox caused using Prime magic tend to create anti-magic field anomalies or dispell nearby spells.  Internalized Paradoxes cause infected Mana, Mana bleed or Manaless conditions
• Standing spells such as illusions, constructs and temporary Hallows ate subject to being devoured by entities and can cause such entities to become immune to that mage’s magic for the duration of the visit.
•  While creating Hallows provide vital sources of recouping Mana for a traveling mage, it also provides the Abyss with the means to drain away magical energy.
• When used against entities directly to do damage or harm the magical resonance can be detected up to the casters dots in Gnosis x “miles” by other beings, effectively providing them with a perception roll with a bonus to detect the spell equal to that spell’s potency.
• There are few to no sources of Mana in the Abyss from which to subsist from. Anything Prime magic or conventional means would normally yield Mana will only inflict an Abyssal Condition (outlined earlier) or the ManaBleed condition.The only Mana you will find is what you bring with you.  Mana cannot be drawn out of objects or beings native to the Abyss, at most you get nothing, at worst you corrupt your mana supply.
• It is also very unlikely that the mage will encounter much he can manipulate using Prime magic, this place is not a place of magical constructs. Prime magic can be used to correct, patch, and aid with active spells brought with into the Abyss, including spells on other party members.
• Prime constructs tends to backfire in the Abyss. Entities have a nasty propensity to use these “shells” as means to define their existence, possessing or replacing them which can cause a Havoc Paradox in the spell itself.

2. Forces
The laws of nature are severely skewed or not present in the Abyss.  Like using many of the Arcana in the Abyss, you just don’t know if what you are attempting to act your Arcana against is going to submit to the truth you are inflicting.

Pros:

• Fire represents a purifying force both in the Supernal and Phemoral world. While it doesn’t always hold true Fire has a better chance of affecting and harming Abyssal entities over other Arcana for the purposes of blatant attack spells.
• Can provide physical separation from the realms traveled in, can also create air tight bubbles around people to protect them from the vacuum of space, extreme heat or cold, deadly radiation, and a means of propulsion.
• The Abyss is generally a “dark” and “murky” place.  While creating light doesn’t always help pierce the sea on anti-truth that fogs the perceptions and shrouds the environment, Forces can also create the Supernal Truths represented by Light and Sunlight.  This can harm, stun, or drive off Abyssal entities.
• Forces can be used to sense the environment by doing a very broad cross-spectrum analysis of all the various energies at work in the environment around the caster.  For purposes of navigation this reduces the penalties to survival rolls to get one’s bearing and navigate to where they are going (provided they know where) or where they are.

Cons:

• Outside of a nearby Nightmare Abyssal Realm (such as those found within a Qlippoth) there doesn’t tend to be a lot of ambient energy within the purview of this Arcana. Usually any encountered aspect of the Arcana (Wind kinetics, heat, cold, radiation, light) is only what is produced by entities to act upon the party members or emanate from what the party brought with them. Masters able to create new sources of the Arcana are generally better off unless they can exploit the aspects they brought with.
• Uncontrolled forces that leak out (light pollution) or wind where there was none, can attract unwanted attention from a Diadem as if these foreign sources of energy were a beacon.  Sources of energy in the Abyss are valued by all.
• Paradox Anomalies usually result in powerful and strange weather environmental Tilts instead of Havocs or Manifestations.

3.  Fate
There isn’t a lot of good luck in the Abyss which is a shame because that is exactly what you need to hope to escape with your mind and sanity.

Pros:

• Fate magic works fantastic upon the patterns of the character, his or her party members, and anything they brought with them. It is just what the doctor ordered.
• Fate magic can help the party from getting separated by binding everyone’s fates together. The downswing to that is that if one of the party meets a horrible fate the party tends to all get sucked into the same fate.

Cons:

• Ambient Fate in the environment is always false and impossible to read... well more like “extremely untrustworthy.” Any insight gleaned points to the ultimate destiny of entropy or worse things. Making its utility to understand correspondences and associations between things visited in the Abyss all but useless.
• Fate magic cannot be used to help navigate, it usually gets you more lost…
• Powerful Fate spells such as Forge Doom, Evil Eye, or Greater Curse cast upon entities in the Abyss can easily reflect back upon the caster like a mirror (roll potency of the spell vs the entities rank).
• Fate spells against Abyssal entities are a mixed bag as their reality and destiny are quite varied and subjective.

4. Time

Time is also unreliable, tracking it within the void-worlds cannot be reliable. The Abyss exists in many times, some of which are occurring simultaneously.  It existed before reality came into existence and the clock started ticking.  It never started in the first place and Time holds almost no value as a frame of reference.  The Abyss is also the end of time itself, representing the empty, formless, dead aftermath of all entropy; the Heat Death of the Universe.  Therefore, it can also represent the end times.  Wandering the dark maze of an Abyssal Realm, one might encounter anomaly readings of timelines that never existed or that could have been or might yet be.  In an almost infinite amount of timelines and possibilities, one could find also stumble into post-apocalyptic futures or places the Time doesn’t exist or where causality precedes effect.  The worst of these is where a Time Compression has occurred.  All times are happening, will happen, and have happened simultaneously.

Pros:

• Time magic works fantastic upon the patterns of the character, his or her party members, and anything they brought with them. This can be very helpful indeed.
• The greatest benefit (perhaps) is that Time magic is one of the few things that can lengthen the amount of time between unhealable bashing damage caused by environmental extremes. This allows characters to spend more time in the Abyss so long as they avoid other threats, blunting the harsh effects or delaying them until the travelers can accomplish their goals.
• Time magic can be used to increase the amount of time the characters can spend without sleep, sustenance, or recovery time. It can ward off the constant trauma, reducing the amount of time needed to recover from certain effects.
• In places in the Abyss with strange interpretations of time, Time magic may be the only means to ensure that cause precedes effect or that one can traverse a distance without any time moving by. In the cases of Time Compression Time magic may be the only way to travel, how else can you be simultaneously everywhere you will or have gone with no reference of where you are at a given moment along that path, at least not without breaking something fundamental between your ears.
• Time magic can also ward off places in which time moves much faster or slower than they should. If crossing a room feels or acts as if it took 50 years you definitely have a problem that Time magic might be able to fix.
• Time can also help override certain improbabilities or inevitabilities. Inevitabilities - There are certain Abyssal realms where things and travelers get assigned an inalterable destiny. Improbabilities are placers that resemble anomalies, where nothing goes right or actions may cause completely random results, sometimes random but also either very unlucky or lucky. In a place where you are always on a Chance Die, it’s good to have Time magic to help.
  
  

Cons:

• There may be places in the Abyss where Time magic simple ceases to function at all as part of the strangeness of the place. The place may have such a strong current of Time or weak oncoming end state.
• In places where time runs in reverse the mage must treat his spells that apply effects to the past must be instead counted as if they are acting upon the future, always making them more difficult.
• Ambient Time in the environment is always false and impossible to read... well more like “extremely untrustworthy.” Any insight gleaned points to the ultimate destiny of entropy or worse things. Making its utility to understand correspondences and associations between things visited in the Abyss all but useless. This includes uses of Augry, Prophecy or other divination method to glimpse aspects of the future. It is just as possible that the glimpses you receive about (even) party members may be influenced by the realm and not what is actually going to happen.
• Using Time magic senses to look around can drive a person mad… Integrity check the first time at -3. Temporal Paradox was made for this after all…
• Paradoxes may cause a manifestation of the Prince of 100,000 Leaves or one of his servants.  Paradox Conditions come with knowledge of the Red Prince's realm and the desire to propagate and duplicate his history. 

5. Mind
The Abyss is definitely not the place for sane, rational thinking. The place is built upon literal Lies and constructs that run counter to what the universe would perceive as possible. This makes Mind magic a little tricky.

Pros:

• Mind Magic can be used to strengthen and fortify the mind. Mental Wall and Supreme Augmentation of willpower Attributes can really help with breaking points and psychological trauma.
• What is more, the Abyss readily accepts any order brought into it, it is a sea of chaos simply waiting to be commanded. Where it is appropriate the ST may grant +2 to spell rolls for Mind magic used to solidify some aspect of the Abyss in understandable framework. Spells designed to inflict chaos or madness receive a +3 bonus all the time.
• In the Inner Darkness, sometimes Mind Magic can be attempted to be used in ways that align similarly with dream combat. The mage can attempt to gain some minor semblance over the Abyssal “dream” and change the immediate surroundings or attack with it. This invariably attracts the attention of the Diadem or the God of the realm. If inside a Qlippoth doing so too much will alert a swarm of Abyssal intruders to come looking for the mage. It can be a last resort that saves a mage from certain death but it is unlikely that it will succeed if they are inside one of the more powerful Abyssal gods.

Cons:

• Phrasing seems off, not sure how...Trouble is that the spell comes out distorted.  What is rational becomes impulse, attempts to place concrete memories or magical assistance gets turned into something more emotionally based and mad.  For spells that receive the +2 bonus for framing some kind of logic-based spell or effect a random Havoc can occur, inflicting paradox dice as if the spell were vulgar and the mage unable to absorb backlash. Instead this spell is always turned into a Havoc paradox.
• Attempting to connect your mind to anything in the Abyss is immediately grounds for a breaking point and the Madness Condition for at least a scene.

6.  Space
Like most of the Arcana Space is also dichotomous in the way it can be used effectively. The Abyss reacts most consistently as a null space, an anti-space, the Abyss is nowhere. How can sympathy work when associations may connect to different random things if you’re lucky and to nothing more often. How can you traverse a space that doesn’t exist?  Other places and things have lies of sympathy and locality but can be traversed cautiously. Space bends in ways that make it uncooperative to conventional Space magic usage.

Pros:

• In the Outer Dark this can be used to travel a bit. In the vast reaches the anti-matter of the Abyss that behaves as matter is stretched thin enough that its interference gives way to nearly infinite distances. Space can help act as a means of propulsion, moving when the concept of distance is either too extreme or non-existent. These spells act according to the line-of-sight constraints mentioned below.
• The Inner Dark can behave the same way that Space magic works in the Tenemos of the Astral Realms, travel by following the associations of emotional or symbolism.  The more a realm is close to the surface of the Abyss the more normal Space Magic behaves.  A good example of such is a Qlippoth nightmare realm, a razor thin line of oblivion from reality and total alienation to the normal.  When the symbols are twisted fractals of what you are going for, things can get dicey really quickly however.  These rolls to navigate by association suffer a -3.
• If distance can be perceived using line-of-sight then most of the time you can traverse that space. Space magic generally works normally within line-of-sight.

Cons:

• Sympathy may not work at all or what it connects to may be “lies,” connecting to random horrors that have nothing to do with what was called upon. This may manifest similar to the Havoc rules above (copy in). Instead of teleporting somewhere you may teleport half of your body into the mouth of an Abyssal entity and replace your lower half with a pillar of acidic rose quartz.
• Attempting to use Space magic to Teleport or Portal into or out of the Abyss automatically fail. Only Thuraes, special locations and rituals allow for an explorer to enter the realm or layer of the Abyss.  The Abyss is considered another plane of existence and is resistant to use of Space Magic across realms as if it were the Underworld or the Hedge.
• Using Space magic to teleport or portal to inside destinations within the realm does not work as the realm's space resists folding in any helpful way (unless you have the Parametric Language or have the special Scelesti Attainments).  Using Space magic to help navigate takes a -3 penalty but functions as normal.

7. Spirit

Spirit is one of the more useful Arcana but is still a mixed bag. Most of the Abyss doesn't distinguish between things in Twilight or a functioning Gauntlet or Shadow. More nuanced realms and Abyssal Verges may have a lot more utility for manipulating these states.

Pros:

• Next to Prime, second most effective against entities because many of them assume bodies and forms out of simple ephemera and can be partially susceptible to the Arcanum
• In that same vein, Spirit magic may be partially effective at protecting yourself from Numina, Influences, and attacks of Gulmoth.

Cons:

• As stated, ephemeral beings in Twilight, the Gauntlet itself and Shadow do not tend to exist in most places in the Abyss that have been documented. In places that do you have a whole host of new crazy to deal with. Objects affected by Spirit magic might slip into Twilight, across into the Shadow (if it exists) and even get trapped in the Abyssal version of the Gauntlet!
• Spiritual resonance of objects affected is tainted (lasting)
• Spirits brought into the Abyss have a high chance of becoming infected and converted into a Magath (Whatever their nature plus an Abyssal nature combined)
• Spirits in the Abyss have a much higher chance of becoming Magath or Abyssally tainted the longer they travel in the No Place.

8. Life

Life is both a boon and a curse while traveling in the Abyss. Healing doesn't quite work right, repaired tissue comes back corrupted but perhaps better than it was... for a time. There are stories of repaired organs becoming home to a Flesh Intruder...

Pros:

• Can be used to armor the body against the elements and extreme conditions
• Can be used (Life 3) to suppress some of the effects of Brandings (Physical Paradox Conditions).
• Can be used (Life 4) to undo or suppress serious disfigurements, abyssal diseases and so forth.

Cons:

• Healing comes back tumorous and mutated and has to be cleared up once out of the Abyss
• Life spells used to heal are only somewhat effective
• Can't heal resistant damage
• Failures in spell casting create their own Brandings... using Gnosis/2 for the successes (just like a Nimbus Tilt)

9. Death

One of the strongest symbolic truths of Death magic is its association with entropy. This can be used to affect Abyssal entities directly. Other than that it can be hard to use the Death Arcanum in the Abyss. 

Pros:

• No shortage of shadows to use and they come easily to a Death Mage, just be careful not to give them too much life, or they may become Abyssally tainted and gain a life of their own.
• The nature of Death's entropic nature allows a mage to use certain Death spells of Unraveling and Unmaking to affect Abyssal entities they encounter.  Some can be weakened using these magics, others can be strengthened if their Lie is strongly associated with Entropy the in the first place.
• Sometimes, dead flesh is harder to corrupt than living flesh...

Cons:

• As stated, ephemeral beings in Twilight, the Gauntlet itself and Shadow do not tend to exist in most places in the Abyss that have been documented. In places that do you have a whole host of new crazy to deal with. Objects affected by Death magic might slip in and out of Twilight state.
• The Abyss is a lie. All of the death it has claimed were unmade completely annihilated by the Abyss. Any summoned ghost is a lie if gathered in the Abyss and those fake ghosts can only be found in rare places in the Abyss. This tends to mean that Death Mages who tend to use ghosts (that they didn't bring with them) are handicapped.
• Corporeal undead will decay faster than normal, even if spells were put on them to prevent this.
• Death mages tend to lose control of their undead minions in the Abyss, this has to be managed.

10. Matter

Matter does not exist in the Abyss. As such, one can only manipulate the Matter you bring with without any dependability. The Abyss can be anything from nothing at all (hard vacuum) to atmosphere filled with radiation and carbon monoxide to ephemera or dreamstuff. In many ways, true matter is an antithesis of the void, just as Prime is. The exception is that Matter can not easily be used as a weapon against it as focused truth from the Supernal is.

Pros:

• Can be used to isolate the body and protect you from the extreme elements but these will wear down any armor as quickly as it does flesh with its entropic nature to all things that exists (think a spacesuit or high-pressure hard suit for deep sea diving.
• Matter magic can affect dream ephemeral (if it is behaving as matter at the time) in the Inner Abyss (Abyssal Nightmares and other established locales)
• Gross matter is harder for the Abyss to corrupt, so it turning against you is rarer than other spells and materials

Cons:

• Will not affect most inanimate objects created or found in the Abyss
• Corrodes and decays faster than living things

The Good News: Legacy Attainments

Legacy Attainments do not count as obvious magic to Sleepers, are immune to Dissonance and do not trigger Quiescence or Breaking Points in witnesses.  All Legacies teach special Attainments, built from Praxes the Legacy’s members have internalized. The mage invokes them from her reshaped soul instead of reaching into the Supernal. Since they come from within, these abilities are exempted from the No Reprieve and Saturated Paradox Conditions. Legacy Attainment effects are also exempted from the Perpetual Dissonance Environmental Condition.

Survival Through Magic (Applies to Traveling Inner and Outer Dark alike)

Notes from post-mission analysis after rescue of Chimera from "Kevin Haas" Qlipoth Nightmare Realm

by Casstiel
First off: J4A Spell! always, never deal with the Abyss without it, no matter the realm you are in.

• Cast prep spells beforehand, truths grounded in patterns are harder to corrupt
• Insulate against the Abyss
• Create and wear "spacesuits" to isolate yourself from everything outside (void, heat, parasites, microbe analogs, distorted time, rended space, and so forth...)

• Use Arcana to make wards (for pretty much everything)
• Insulate from physical contact, biological exchange
• Insulate against elements and for “space-travel” suits? Ship? Anti-radiation/energy
• Use magic to "keep bad out and keep good in"
• Mental reinforcement spells to deal with or fail to be harmed by what you see.
• The right combinations of the Arcana (Spirit, Death, Life, Mind, Prime) you can harm and repel the entities you encounter using improvised spellcasting.
• Life Support (Air, water, pressure), heat, cold, and supplies
• Insulate the Mind, Soul, Spirit
• Propulsion – should be self-contained and needs no air or water to operate
• Bring sensors and light sources
• Plan for redundancy and contingency
• It is super hard to be prepared for everything… but that is what is necessary to ensure survival
• Now, what about veils? How do you stay undetected from the things living there? Because you can’t make something strong enough to stop ALL of them
• Abyssals tend to be Thaumavoric or at least attuned to Supernal energies…. Sometimes the more you use the more of a beacon you become
• Magic can be used to mitigate or counteract most aspects of the Abyss
• Environmental Extremes – Time can length the spans between taking damage from weather and hard vacuum. 
• Boosting mental reserves can help prevent insanity and avoid having entities exploit Vice and Virtues.
• Prepare for the fight of your life
• This is still a suicide mission..