[Mage: The Awakening 2e] The Black Tapes: The Unsound

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

The Black Tapes: The Unsound

The following is shamelessly taken from The Black Tapes Podcast, specifically Episode 103 (Season 1, Episode 3) by the same name.  I am establishing this as continuity in Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition, in our Chronicle.  The characters would only know about this if they started searching around the internet for similar phenomena.  It's reminiscent of memetic viruses such as the Nemesis Continuum.

Sources:
1. The Black Tapes Podcast for the Unsound and Strand Institute.
2. The Dresden Files books/games for the Paranet
3. Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Ed for Network Zero
4. Adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
5. Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening for the Nemesis Continuum.

The following is scraped from the Dark Web, on a compromised occult online forum used by Network Zero (several members maintain Podcasts on there)... part of the Paranet.  The Black Tapes are a collection of unsolved paranormal investigations conducted by The Strand Institute.

Subject: How would you describe the Unsound?

Princesstelephony: 

Working on some transcriptions regarding the Unsound and I always have such a hard time describing it! Anyone with a better musical vocabulary than me want to take a stab at it?

MechaSanders: 

Hmmm....I think something that references other sounds might be less than useful for people who've never heard anything.. but of course you don't want to listen to the whole thing. I'd call it something like a sound that's a bit like walking into a dark room. At first you don't notice anything, but as your eyes adjust, you start to pick out things that seem out of place, discordant things that don't make sense, even if the room is familiar. You continue to look around, seeing more and more that doesn't make sense, your sense of uneasiness growing till you turn on the lights, banishing the darkness, but still leaving you with a slight feeling of unease.

Elaine: 
If you are set on describing it I thought it sounded like a mix of whales calling, discordant guitar screeching and squealing metal-on-metal.

Unintelligiblaha:
WOOOOM WOM WOOOOOOOOM

PhantomV8: 
I have to go the Lovecraft route; don't describe it. I'd describe it as indescribable. Except, a lot wordier than that.  Aren't you worried your going to die in a year?

Theleadchipmunk: 

Yup, this. Just do something like: (FILE REMOVED)

Princesstelephony: 
Hm, I like this a lot in theory! Lovecraft. I guess I am hesitant because with transcribing, you try to not leave out any information that someone who can hear has that someone who cannot wouldn't have.  No, I am not worried about dying.

Kailisalad3:
That uncanny feeling of when two surfaces/textures that shouldn't interact brush against each other.

Jabajub0: 
It sounds like someone turning on an industrial air compressor in the basement of an aquarium filled with several possibly evil whales who have just eaten a heaping helping of squid gone bad.

Obsesswoe:
When I was trying to describe it to my friend, I used the term, if Dory was possessed and was speaking demonic whale!

MrSaxophone09: 
The enunciation of (evil, unsettling, raw sin) It's nature of to provide discomfort to the listener. If it really is a voice like (sound guy's name I can't remember), then that voice commands such raw power that we all should run and hide.  Do with that what you will.

Please excuse the typos, i'm on mobile. 😃

Hypatiakat: 
I think trying to type with a stylus on a tablet is going to be the cause of my death by stress-induced stroke, some day.

Hare-boxer2:
I like it: Unsound in text for the hearing impaired!  Lucky them.

Hypatiakat: 

Eerie, discordant sounds. :) Or weird screeching.

Princesstelephony: 

I love you guys's interesting descriptions! I guess I was more asking to describe the sound itself in terms of what you are technically hearing when it plays. I'd love some more technical descriptions of the actual sound too.

Transcript on the Unsound:
Posted by Princesstelephony, posted 23-Sept-2016

Last week I outlined some information our research team dug up regarding Dr. Strand. It concerned his wife, who went missing under mysterious circumstances during 1997. I’ll have an update on this part later in this but in the meantime... Last week, Dr. Strand left me a very intriguing message.

"Hello, Alex? It’s Richard Strand. I’d like to apologize for the other day. I’ll be up in Seattle next week and (sighs) if you’re interested, I’m bringing along another case from my collection. From the section, I believe you refer to as, “The Black Tapes.” I think you’ll find this one very interesting. Anyway I, I hope you’re well. I’ll leave my information with your producers. Take care."

Strand was right. I did find it very interesting, so I agreed to meet up.

STRAND: "I’m going to play something for you."

At this point, Strand pulled up a YouTube video on his laptop. The first voice is Dirk Abruzzi, the second Emily Dumont, two of the ghost hunting experts you’ll remember from before.

DIRK: "I had just been hired as an associate professor at Penn State Paranormal, and during our entire move from Michigan, I had a dark entity hovering above me. More than six people visually confirmed this fact. It followed me for weeks later."

EMILY: "You’ve got to be skeptical about stuff like this. Demons, really? Do you have any idea how rare a demonic incident is? It’s like .0001%. It’s very rare. We need voices of reason here."

STRAND: "In the world of paranormal investigations, these people are considered skeptics. These are the so-called “voices of reason.” There’s no room for scientific method. There’s no difference between any of these people and the ghost hunters on reality television. You are a respected journalist from one of the most respected radio programs in the world, working with you I have a national platform to renew skepticism. I think ghost stories are a lot of fun. But the problem is when people start treating the paranormal as reality, it waters down the culture, infantilizes it. At some point in the future, if religious wars don’t destroy the planet, nobody is ever going to believe society took issue with same-sex marriage or looked at the Bible as anything other than fiction. When you lose the skeptical spirit, it sets us back. Socially. And culturally."

Strand went on like this for a while. His point was clear. He wants to be the voice of reason. Or at the very least a voice for reason in a world he feels is in desperate need of such a voice. He wants to help. And he wants to use the show as a platform to provide a viewpoint counter to the majority. Counter to the believers. I think that’s a fair trade. I get to explore the Black Tapes and Strand gets his platform.

Let’s turn our attention to another kind of tape for a moment. The demo tape. When you’re a journalist in Seattle, you come across hundreds of small bands. Seattle is, after all, the birthplace of 90’s grunge rock and the home of seminal indie music label, Sub Pop. But when Richard Strand called to let me know he got a call from infamous Seattle underground rock band, Hastur Rising, it came as a bit of a surprise.

KEITH: "Hi, this is for Dr. Strand. My name is Keith Dabic. I’m the guitarist and songwriter in a band out of Seattle. You may have heard of us. Hastur Rising? Our lead singer, Jeff, died recently. I just heard you on Alex Reagan’s podcast and I was just wondering if I could speak with you about something. It’s something I think you’ll want to hear. A recording. You probably already know about it. You know, because of what you do? I think they call it… the Unsound?"

Keith Dabic. Lead guitarist and principal songwriter for popular underground hard rock band, Hastur Rising. If you’re from Seattle, you’ve heard of them. If you’re not, you may have heard of the lead singer’s violent suicide a couple of weeks ago. He hammered a knife into chest with a polo mallet. Hastur Rising was often in the news because of their ongoing conflict with the religious right. Local church groups have picketed their concerts, claiming they promote Satanism. Somebody burned down their rehearsal space in 2008, but nobody was arrested. There were reports of a live animal sacrifice at one of their concerts. But YouTube clips showed at least one incident was definitely fake. Here’s the lead singer, Jeff Wendt from an interview last year addressing that controversy.

​JEFF: "People see what they wanna see. We’re just trying to put on a show. It’s entertainment. For (bleeped)."

INTERVIEWER: "So was that a real cat you killed on stage?"

JEFF: "Killing cats is illegal and subject to prosecution in the state of Washington."

INTERVIEWER: "So that’s a no?"

JEFF: "What do you think?"

INTERVIEWER: "I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. You don’t think that having satanic images and symbols on your album covers might be encouraging people to view your band through that lens?"

JEFF: "I’m just glad that people are looking at the album covers."

INTERVIEWER: "Even your name, Hastur Rising. Isn’t Hastur himself a Lovecraftian myth? One of the ancient ones? Also called The Unspeakable One?"

JEFF: "You’re not supposed to say his name."

INTERVIEWER: "Why is that?"

JEFF: "You’ll see."

He was charming, controversial, and talented. And last month Jeff Wendt was found dead in the garage in the house he grew up in. He was only 27.

ALEX: "So I’m guessing you have some idea of that thing he referenced? He called it The Unsound?"

STRAND: "I’ve heard of it. It’s similar to The Hum but there’s more of a mythology surrounding The Unsound."

ALEX: "I read something about The Hum on The Guardian last month. This Unsound is different?"

STRAND: "There are several sources of The Hum. All of them manmade. The Unsound however is more interesting. I first heard about it back in 2005. My assistant at the time, Travis, brought it to my attention. He would often troll the back channels of the deep web forums. He was really into conspiracy theories, which is why he joined the institute."

ALEX: "So how is The Unsound different from The Hum?"

STRAND: "It’s quite different. Experts who have studied the limited samples we have claim that the unsound is neither natural nor artificial."

ALEX: "So that rules out... What, everything?"

STRAND: "Unidentifiable. My guess is that it’s synthetic. But I can’t be sure until someone develops a more precise instrument to parse it."

ALEX: "You have no idea what it is?"

STRAND: "And this is why it’s one of, what you’re calling, the Black Tapes cases.

ALEX: "This Unsound was of special interest to your assistant?"

STRAND: "He was… obsessed really. You see the unsound comes with quite a compelling narrative. There are a number of myths that have developed around it over time. It has different names. Um, diabolica lyricasis, The Devil’s Note."

ALEX: "Can you tell us about some of these myths?"

STRAND: "Well, the most common myth is that the unsound summons or invites a demon into the world."

ALEX: "A demon?"

STRAND: "An archdemon, if I remember correctly. The Unsound is his voice, gently asking the listener to invite him into his world."

ALEX: "An archdemon with a gentle voice? That doesn’t sound all that scary."

STRAND: "Oh, there’s more."

ALEX: "Okay."

STRAND: "Everyone who hears The Unsound dies within one year of their initial exposure."

ALEX: "Now that’s scary."

STRAND: "There is an additional supporting myth from one of the Gnostic Gospels rejected by the church. In fact there are actually two oblique references to a similar sound in the Dead Sea Scrolls."

ALEX: "What’s the story?"

STRAND: "Before the time of creation, Lucifer was the angel of song, of music. Lucifer led a revolt against God and lost. You’re familiar with this mythology."

ALEX: "I’m with you so far."

STRAND: "So God banished Lucifer to hell. But on his way out of heaven, Lucifer, now referred to as Satan in this particular gospel, created some kind of musical back door as he fell into the inferno. Something sonic that would allow Satan and his minions back into the world without God knowing. This mysterious note is apparently a sound that God can’t hear. The Unsound."

ALEX: "That sounds a little… Dungeons and Dragons."

STRAND: (laughs) "So does most of the Old Testament."

ALEX: (laughs) "Okay. So, there’s this unsound that God can’t hear floating around the deep web and a bunch of audio geeks getting heavily into the Old Testament because of it? So where does the sound come from?"

STRAND: "There’s a lot of noise surrounding the Unsound’s history. There were rumors of it being a creation of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, some thought it was the Freemasons, most claim some affiliation with Aleister Crowley himself. There’s a mound of mythology tacked on to this. But well over a year of research led me to a scientific outpost in Antarctica in 1962."

ALEX: "That’s not very Illuminati, is it?"

STRAND: (laughs) "This team of scientists were there to study what later turned out to be a weakening of the Ozone layer over the Antarctic. They were recording and cataloging electromagnetic waves, their frequencies. In the process one of their instruments picked up this strange audio wave pattern. At first they thought it was a whale stranded under the ice, or the wind, or electromagnetic waves themselves, or more likely a combination of the three."

ALEX: "Did they find out?"

STRAND: (pause) "No. And they never got a chance to further their research because they all died."

ALEX: "You’re not going to tell me that they all died within a year."

STRAND: (pause) "One of them died on the base due to a Staph infection, the other four died in a mountain climbing expedition, six months after their contract ended."

ALEX: "But was this within a year of them hearing the Unsound?"

STRAND: "This isn’t demonology, it’s just bad luck and bad weather. There was a whole article in the New York Times about that horrendous mountain gearing expedition."

ALEX: "So they all died within one year of hearing the Unsound? Just like the story says? You don’t think that’s at least interesting?"

STRAND: "Not really. Every myth has its origin and Antarctica in 1962 is where the dying within a year story was born."

He got me. I was just about to tell Strand how I thought that he wasn’t open to hearing both sides. Of course a myth has to have an origin. Strand was right. His new Black Tape was very interesting and it was happening in Seattle, my own back yard.

Dr. Strand’s black tape number three contains a lot of research on the Unsound and, of course, a sample of the sound itself. I’m going to play it for you in a moment. But first, my producers have informed me that I have to read the following disclaimer: If you listen to the sound, you’re listening at your own risk. Now, I’ve heard the sound numerous times and so far I haven’t seen a single demon, but if you’re afraid or superstitious, please skip ahead ten seconds. You might want to put on headphones for this.

(Unsound Plays)

It’s interesting isn’t it? I feel like I’m hearing a different version of this thing each time that I listen. I think the closest thing that describes it is (pause) it’s the audio equivalent to seeing shapes in the clouds. Maybe everybody hears something different. Something unique to their own experience. I wanted to learn more about the possible sources of this Unsound so I went to one of the premier acoustics experts in the Pacific Northwest, Dr. Michael Pullman. Technically, he is what’s called a structural acoustician.

ALEX: "Okay, so, what am I looking at here?"

PULLMAN: "So this line measures compressional waves, this one follows shear waves."

ALEX: "That’s Dr. Pullman in his lab at the University of Washington where he teaches in the physics department."

PULLMAN: "This one follows the deformation of the wave speed."

ALEX: "Yeah, totally."

(Both laugh)

PULLMAN: "Yeah. Yeah, we’re all acoustic nerds here."

ALEX: "I sent Dr. Pullman a file with the Unsound on it to see if he could explain why it’s caused so much interest. Why there’s so much mystery generated around it."

PULLMAN: "Well, it’s an interesting sound, that’s for sure."

ALEX: "And what are you looking for?"

PULLMAN: "I’m trying to gauge a possible source. I looked at everything from structural wave radiation to flexural wave patterning, to whether it fits a vessel function for uniformity given that we know there were engines in the area where it was first recorded."

ALEX: "Okay. Let’s pretend all of that went way over my head."

PULLMAN: "All right, sorry. Um, in simple terms, what you call the Unsound behaves very much like a low frequency wave. We’re not supposed to be able to hear these frequencies, yet here it is, emitting an audible sound."

ALEX: "Hmm, Interesting."

PULLMAN: "Super interesting! What’s even more interesting is in the patterning of these waves, I’ve plotted them out here."

(Sound of typing)

PULLMAN: "So, notice these points?"

ALEX: "Yeah, they... it’s like they get smaller and then larger, over and over again."

PULLMAN: "Exactly! Like a machine. In fact, it’s so precise, it could be an engine."

ALEX: "So it’s from a generator? Or something?"

PULLMAN: "Here’s the thing. I, I believe it’s a voice."

ALEX: (pause) "A human voice?"

PULLMAN: "Maybe, I dunno for sure. But I think it’s probably organic. It behaves like a compression wave with very precise patterning."

ALEX: "Well, could it be a synthesizer?"

PULLMAN: "I think that’s highly unlikely."

ALEX: "And you’re aware of the urban legend surrounding this Unsound?"

PULLMAN: "Only what you’ve told me. I suppose now we have a year left to live?"

ALEX: "Yep."

PULLMAN: "I’m gonna stop eating kale."

ALEX: (laughs) "That’s, that’s what you’re going to stop eating?"

PULLMAN: "I hate it. (Both laugh) It’s gross! You have to put so much stuff on it…"

So that was a scientific take on the Unsound, but I wanted to hear from someone who actually believes this stuff.

DREISER: "The motif of a portal to hell goes back to the early days of the church. If you think of the universe as God’s creation, it becomes problematic when you try to locate Hell. The Book of Ephesians talks about the separation of a dark world and evil forces in the heavenly realms. We know from Ezekiel and Revelations that Satan and his agents are able to access our earthly realm. How does he get here? Why does God allow that? The problem finds something of a solution by positing a portal, a gateway between earth and Hell."

That’s Francis Dreiser. He’s what those in the field of biblical theology call a demonologist. I went to see him at Pacific Christian Academy in Southeast Washington State. He says he doesn’t actually deal with demons per se, only with the theology and history of demons in the ancient texts.

ALEX: "They didn’t teach portals to Hell in Sunday school."

DREISER: "No, they sure didn’t. But we know that there are demons who enter people’s lives, sometimes possessing their bodies. Where do these demons come from but a portal?"

ALEX: "Are these portals always open? Do you know where they are?"

DREISER: "They don’t work like doors. It’s not permanent. They’re temporal, opening for a moment and closing just as quickly. And they require a medium."

ALEX: "Like, a psychic?"

DREISER: "No. A middle man, someone to invite them into our world. Um, a believer."

ALEX: "Why would anyone do that?"

DREISER: "For centuries people have partaken in ceremonies inviting Satan and his minions into their lives. According to Revelations Chapter 12, Verse 4, Satan took one third of the angels with him from heaven. Now that’s basically an army of fallen angels. And they all want access to this world. A portal."

ALEX: "A portal? Something like the Unsound?"

DREISER: "Yes. In theory, I suppose."


ALEX: "Do you believe the Unsound is one of these portals?"

DREISER: "The unsound doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but a myth from a much-maligned translation of the Apocrypha."

ALEX: "Well, I have a recording of it."

DREISER: "Of the Unsound?"

ALEX: "Yes."

DREISER: (scoffs) "Ah, yes, that thing floating around the internet? You have a year to live after hearing it. Good fun."

ALEX: "So you don’t believe it’s possible? At all?"

DREISER: "I’ve seen too much of Satan’s power at work in the real world. I can’t see why he would have to kill you within a certain time frame. Things like this Unsound are just fuel for horror films, I’m afraid."

The irony wasn’t lost on me. A bible professor laughing at the possibility of an Unsound while talking about Satan like he was unarguably real.  

Next I spoke with Keith Dabic, the guitarist of Hastur Rising. We were at his apartment talking about the circumstances leading up to Jeff Wendt’s suicide.

ALEX: "So how did you hear about Jeff’s death?"

KEITH: "His sister. She lives in Portland."

ALEX: "Must have been hard. Your band has been together for a long time."

KEITH: "He was my best friend. It was one of the biggest shocks of my life. And yet…"

ALEX: "And yet?"

KEITH: (sighs) "Maybe it wasn’t that big of a surprise, you know? Like with all of the shit he was into?"

ALEX: "Drugs?"

KEITH: "Drugs, booze, sure. Yes, but I’m talking about the occult stuff. Black magic."

ALEX: "Weren’t you all into that stuff?"

KEITH: "Mike and Rory were into it. If Jeff said we were into it."

ALEX: "Mike and Rory, the drummer and the bassist?"

KEITH: "Yeah, but you know those guys were just tourists when it came to that stuff. Jeff was… he was serious."

ALEX: "And you?"

KEITH: "I got into that stuff early on. Crowley and the Golden Dawn. I was the one who went to the deep web and found it."

ALEX: "The Unsound?"

KEITH: "The Unsound."

ALEX: "Hastur Rising has been a part of the Seattle rock scene for almost a decade now. As I said earlier in the show, they’re a somewhat experimental hard rock band who’ve courted controversy over the years for their supposedly satanic live shows. But the way Keith tells it, it’s all just part of marketing their music. Well, for most of the band, anyway."

KEITH: "The occult stuff was a way to get ourselves out there, you know? To stand out. Like, good tunes can only take you so far with so many bands out there. You gotta find a way to break, you know? Like Maiden or Ozzy or GWAR?"

ALEX: "So the black magic was a way to brand yourselves?"

KEITH: "We do look good in black. (Both laugh) And it’s cool too! And it was interesting. Like I said, I was really into it in the beginning. And I didn’t really believe this stuff about the Devil and all that. But I was into the history and the imagery: darkness, chaos, rebellion."

ALEX: "So it was you who introduced the occult to your band mates?"

KEITH: "Yeah. They thought it was too derivative at first, but they were thinking more KISS than Sabbath. But Jeff really took to it, it was like a religious awakening to him. It was hard to treat it like a shtick when your lead singer is so... Well, thought I was into that stuff. But Jeff, Jeff took it to a whole ‘nother level."

ALEX: "So it was you who brought the Unsound to the group?"

KEITH: "Kind of, but not exactly. So about nine months ago, this dude comes up to me after a show down in Tacoma. Killer show. Dude buys me a beer and we get to talking. He’s one of those guys that reads really deep into every single lyric. Like (laughs) reading stuff that I didn’t even see in them, and I wrote half the lyrics!"

ALEX: "Well, what kind of things?"

KEITH: "Uh. Like our song Moonrider, he made some connection between the drumming cadence and the lunar calendar. It was weird. I didn’t get it but if he’s going to buy me beers, I’m going to let him keep talking."

ALEX: "And the Unsound?"

KEITH: "Dude starts telling me about this sound that Lucifer created, a sound that even God can’t hear, like it’s a secret code for Satan’s demons to coordinate themselves or something. And then he tells me about the deep web and all this crazy (bleeped) you can find. Tells me to download a Tor browser and writes down a web address. I listened to the sound when I got home."

ALEX: "And you played it for the others?"

KEITH: "Yeah, they got a real kick out of the story. I didn’t think anything of it, but like a week later, Jeff tells me I gotta come over, that he wants me to hear something."

(sounds of Keith moving around the room)

KEITH: "He played me this."

(Silence)

ALEX: "I don’t hear anything"

KEITH: "Exactly. There was nothing there. He told me that I had to try harder to hear it. He said he was experimenting with The Unsound, trying to figure out the message. He was really tweaked out, and hadn’t been sleeping at all. We were excited about our new record but Jeff had stopped everything to focus on this… sound. He was a mess."

ALEX: "Sounds like he was trying to bring the occult into the music directly."


KEITH: "He was! And it was cool at first! We thought it added a dimension to the band, but when your best friend hammers a butter knife through his chest with a polo mallet, you kind of gain a new perspective."

ALEX: "That’s when you called Dr. Strand?"

KEITH: "Right around then, yeah. We just wanted to be the next Mudhoney or Soundgarden. Maybe even Nirvana with some luck. Now I don’t know if I’m going to make it to Christmas."

ALEX: "What do you mean?"

KEITH: "(sigh) I heard the sound nine months ago. I probably only have three months left. At the most."

There’s that rumor again. You hear the sound, you die within a year. Keith sounded genuinely frightened about dying. And I have to admit. I did find this whole Unsound thing a little unnerving. It’s easy to get superstitious, I think, when presented with such a visceral sonic experience. It’s not just your imagination at this point. It’s your imagination plus one really dark, creepy, scary sound. We tried to get the other two members of Hastur Rising, Mike and Rory, to speak on the record but they politely declined. They’ve both apparently left the music industry and neither plan to return to writing or recording music anytime soon.

After I left Keith Dabic’s house, I received a call from Strand. He had just landed in Seattle and wanted to see if there were any developments in the story. Also, he spoke with Jeff Wendt’s mother. And I don’t know what I said, but apparently she was now willing to speak with us. He said he had some time tomorrow before the conference. I met him at his hotel for lunch before we were scheduled to meet Jeff Wendt’s mother.

ALEX: "So how did you talk her into an interview?"

STRAND: "Mrs. Wendt is convinced her son was somehow harmed or perhaps possessed by evil spirits. I mentioned this is something that I had a great deal of experience with, told her I’d take a look."

We met with Jeff Wendt’s mother. She’s clearly still in deep mourning. Jeff could have easily afforded his own house, but his mother told us that he liked living here, in the house he grew up in.

MRS. WENDT: "This is where we liked to watch TV. He liked crime dramas mostly."

ALEX: "Are any of your family members here with you?"

MRS. WENDT: "Jeff’s older sister, Alice, moved back down to Portland. They keep inviting me down but there’s just so much to do."

ALEX: "She took us on a quick tour of the main level of the house. She wasn’t comfortable taking us up to his room, but she did show us the garage where Jeff spent most of his time."

MRS. WENDT: "That’s his recording studio. That’s where I found him."

STRAND: "I’m sorry. That must have been awful."

MRS. WENDT: "It was. I’ll be right back."

ALEX: "Okay."

STRAND: "Of course."

She hadn’t stepped foot in the garage since she discovered her son there. Nothing had been touched. It was as if Jeff were still alive and about to walk back into his studio to pick up where he left off. There were a bunch of guitars hanging on the walls, a few keyboards set up next to a small mixing board. The computer he used for recording was still on.

STRAND: "What are you doing?"

ALEX: "He was in the middle of recording something. Do you think it’s weird that the police didn’t take his computer?"

STRAND: "Not really."

ALEX: "I think this is it."

(Rock music play)

STRAND: "This is what passes for music now? What are you doing?"

ALEX: "This is the same program we use in the studio. I’m just gonna mute some of the tracks."

(clicking with keyboard, music quiets. Unsound plays)

STRAND: "Interesting."

ALEX: "By interesting do you mean extremely dramatic and creepy?"

STRAND: "Why would he layer the Unsound underneath everything else?"

ALEX: "I know, you can’t even hear it when it’s mixed in with the rest of the instruments. (pause) Oh, wow!"

STRAND: "What?"

ALEX: "Do you see this?"

STRAND: "What am I looking at?"

ALEX: "I’m guessing you don’t illegally download music or movies."

STRAND: "I pay for music and movies just like everyone else."

ALEX: "Riiiight."

STRAND: "What is it?"

ALEX: It’s a torrent file.

STRAND: "What’s that?"

ALEX: "He’s seeding this song."

STRAND: "Seeding?"

ALEX: "Yeah, he’s, um. He’s made it available for download, for free. Anywhere in the world."

STRAND: "How many people have downloaded it?"

ALEX: "Just over six million."

So was it a demonic summoning? Was there some mystical power in the Unsound that forced Jeff Wendt to commit suicide in such a violent fashion? Did I and the more than six million people who downloaded that song have less than a year to live? Strand seems to think that it’s all easily explained.

​STRAND: Well, it’s obvious isn’t it?

ALEX: "Is it?"

STRAND: "He was a gifted yet troubled young man who didn’t seek medical attention. And it doesn’t help that his mother fed into the whole occultism."

ALEX: "What do you mean?"

STRAND: "Did you get a look upstairs? That entire second floor was a shrine to Jesus. There was some pretty violent crucifixion imagery up there. Not your basic Sunday school material either. Real Raiders of the Lost Ark type stuff."

So it’s all easily explained. The Unsound is natural but not demonic. The suicidal musician is troubled but not possessed. Sure, the Antarctic research team all died within a year in 1962 but that’s where the myth began, rather than proof of its potency. But what about Travis? You remember Travis, Strand’s assistant, obsessed with digging up strange things in the deep web? Travis who successfully tracked down the underground recording of the Unsound? I asked Strand why Travis Collinwood left his team, and Strand told me that his grant ran out. This is true. What Strand didn’t mention however, and what he may not actually know, is that Travis Collinwood died four months after leaving the Strand Institute’s employ. He was hit by a cyclist and thrown into a bus. He died instantly.

[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Magic: Hellfire

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Magic: Hellfire

"Since before the Breaking of the World, the use of balefire has been forbidden. The White Tower forbids us even to learn it. In the War of Power, the Forsaken and the Shadowsworn themselves used it only reluctantly."  — Moiraine Damodred (Wheel of Time)

Mentioned only as flavor text of a Dark Numen and a Vestiment in the World of Darkness: Inferno sourcebook, our Chronicle has been using a version of Hellfire based on the Dresden Files since 2011.  Why?  Because its awesome, that is why!  Since then it hasn't been used much since the defeat of the Denarians (in our case, Possessed Archdemons) when the Horsmen saved the world from the rising of the Hellmenth in 2012.  It has yet to be used in our current Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen!

It's most important use is that it is the only destructive force capable of destroying the coins of the Denarians and annihilating the demons inside them.  It also has the distinguished power of being able to destroy objects created to be indestructible. It can destroy any known patterns of reality but has horrible costs and drawbacks.  Truly, only an insane, possessed or completely desperate mage would try to use this stuff... so of course, its going to get used.

Sources & Inspiration:

1. World of Darkness: The Inferno source book

2. The Denarians and Hellfire from Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files book series and RPG

3. Balefire from the Wheel of Time book series

4. Chronicles of Darkness: The Hurt Locker 

5. All adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.

Musings on Hellfire by LoreKeeper Casstiel

Hellfire is utter destruction and ruin. It is a horrible umaking. But "the will of the Infernal" is required to create Hellfire. So usually only a mage possessed by a demon or some other entity of the Lower depths can create it.  Hellfire draws on the infernal powers of down below. This is the power source that Infernals are only are only too happy to provide to their their hosts, and loyal practitioners. But Infernal demons are a very flexible lot when it comes to offering power—it’s entirely possible sorcerers exist out there that are making use of the power of hellfire simply by way of a standard soul pact. When employed, hellfire (really, hellanything, but “hellwater,” “hellspirit,” etc., don’t sound as good) is especially vicious, inflicting an extra helping of pain whenever possible. Hellfire is especially useful for someone using evocation spells and throwing around a lot of Forces. Hellfire likes to inflict pain and harm, but isn’t particularly concerned about being controlled; making it difficult to maintain in a stable working.   

Hellfire

The Ultimate Destructive Magic.

Nicknames: Baelfire, Fires of the Hellforge, Balefire, Brimstone Fire,

Hellfire is the quintessential entropic power of the Lower Depths, distilled to its most terrible form.  While other Akathartoi are theoretically able to tap into similar powers, beings of the Inferno (Infernals), are the only ones known to use this power in the Fallen World.  The power is sponsored by an entity of the Lower Depths and requires their will to call upon it.

Recap: Lower Depths - also called Abaddon, are a sphere of reality that is distanced from the Fallen World in the same manner the Fallen World is distanced from the Realms Supernal. Mages use the term to describe any realm that is neither Supernal nor Phenomenal, but is instead defined by a lack of something.  The light of magic is barely existing within its barren wastes and the ten Arcana are somewhat diminished when it comes to influence the Depths. The inhabitants of the Lower Depths, called collectively akarthartoi, are envious of those in the higher realms and feed upon Mana and souls in order to survive when unlucky fortune drives them higher.  Many Akarthartoi are extremely dangerous, able to cause instant death at the touch as they instantly consume the aspect of existence they lack.  

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

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

The Fires of Wrath

Infernal demons of Wrath burns so brightly that they seem to have the greatest affinity with fire (and hellfire). Of course every demon has the theoretical ability to summon up hellfire, but demons of Wrath do so with the greatest ease and verve. Upon taking refuge in a human soul (possession), demons of Wrath slowly extend their influence over the host body, tempering it with rage until the Possessed can withstand the heat of brimstone flames.  With preparation of the host complete, the possessing demon calls out to the Inferno’s flames and draws them to the material realm. The Possessed may then summon and command hellfire. 

The flames can be shaped according to the desires of the Possessed, taking the form of a wall of fire, a wave of rolling flames or handfuls of blazing death. Hellfire burns hotter and fiercer than any regular or naturally occurring fire and its flames are notoriously hard to extinguish.

Hellfire burns with bright greens, dark reds and creates noxious black smoke.  It smells, naturally, 

Requirements & Costs:

• Requires Forces 3 and Death 5, uses the Practice of Unmaking.  Hellfire can be nothing less than the total destruction of the patterns it is used on.  Hellfire can be used without the requisite Arcana, but it can only be drawn by a Infernal and that means that in almost every case you would need to be Possessed and have the Hellfire Vestment.

• This part is tricky.  In order to use Hellfire, you need to expend an Infernal willpower point to invoke sympathy with the Lower Depths.  Infernal Willpower is only used and collected by Infernals and those of the Possessed (by Infernals).  This means you either need to be possessed or you need to have a demon spend the Infernal Willpower Point on your behalf.  Such a thing would require a pact, item or some other form of entanglement with dark forces for it to work.  It may be possible to create acts of such horrid desecration that a mage could harvest Infernal Willpower from the act (requiring a Wisdom/Integrity breaking act and Mind 4).

Does this mean there is Holy Willpower attuned to the seven Heavenly Virtues?

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

• It hurts like hell (heh).  While casting using Hellfire all other actions suffer -3 for the Agony of calling up Hellfire. (This is only for the time you are casting. If you instant cast its just until your next turn. Or as much time as you cast, making extended rituals very powerful)

• The act of wielding Hellfire is the handling of some of the most awful stuff in creation.  It has all the utter vileness of The Inferno, combined with the raw lack of anything natural from the bowels of the Lower Depths.   As such, it is a Wisdom sin for anyone who uses it (at the level of Falling).  After a wisdom loss a mage can become Inured to using Hellfire in the usual way (if you'd want to you already need help)  However, after the mage is Inured, the first time they use Hellfire in a Scene they make an Integrity check at a -5.  On a failure they gain the Rampant or Megalomaniac Condition, to represent the fact they are now okay with wielding the powers of Hell indiscriminately.

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

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

• Using Hellfire, pulling up a material that is actually antithetical to the Supernal Realms and the Fallen World alike, means that it makes big ripples to call down.  Mechanically, using Hellfire always risks Paradox, however the Paradox has special rules that have more to do with pulling power from the Lower Depths than dealing with the attention of the Abyss.  Absorbed Paradox (as Backlash) is instead instead taken as Burnout!

System: Burnout (Edited)

The human body was never designed to hold the kind of power wielded by the demonic entities of the Inferno. Whether humans were created by God or evolution, eventually flesh and blood begins to crumble under the onslaught of Infernal power: this is called Burnout. Rather than the slow and steady corruption of body and soul, Burnout is the direct consequence of pushing  Hellfire too hard or for too long, resulting in pain and obvious signs of demonic influence.  

If Paradox from using Hellfire is absorbed as as Backlash, it instead causes Burnout.  Tapping your pattern directly into that dark well of power is a very different experience than is focusing your will to gather it. It’s the difference between sipping a fine whiskey and chugging raw moonshine.  Eventually there comes a breaking point and his flesh begins to crack like splintered marble. Steaming blood seeps out of the cracks and runs down his body in thin lines as he screams. This causes Resistant Lethal Damage instead of the normal resistant Bashing Damage from regular paradox.

The Infernalist is paying the price in Burnout for pushing the limitations of his mortal shell too far. Most of the time, Burnout affects only the body. It manifests in painful displays flavored by the Vice shared by demon or caster. The skin of the slothful might erupt in rancid sores filled with squirming maggots. The envious might weep a bright green viscous fluid that burns like acid and the lustful might moan with pain and pleasure as unseen whips flay flesh from bone.

Burnout can also affect the will of the Infernalist.  Instead of an outward display, the Infernal power corrupts internally, eating away at the very tenacity that keeps them alive. These wounds are just as deep and painful as physical torments and the mental scars never quite heal. 

Any Paradox not successfully taken as Burnout damage (Resistant Lethal) instead inflicts nasty derangement or deformity Conditions (follow rules for Branding and Bedlam with an Infernal and extreme Vice flavor.  If released, it creates similar Paradox effects as before but flavored by the demonic.  See the risks and costs for more on what bad stuff happens...

Yantras for calling Hellfire: Invoking the Malapraxis on the demon patron providing the Infernal Willpower of the Vice of the Infernalist.  Acts and Yantras associated with Wrath always work as good Yantras for Hellfire.

System: Malapraxis

From the lowliest Whisperer to the greatest Dominion, every demon has at least one Malapraxis: a manifestation of a Vice that is the core of its corrupt being. Demons feed upon human evil, but their own Malapraxes are particular delicacies. Mystics postulate that every action and object in the world has its own secret flavor, a “resonance” that is the food of all

spirit-beings. The object of a Malapraxis is the subtle vibration that cleaves closest to the demon’s true essence. A Malapraxis has two elements: the Vice and the Key.

Vice: Choose one Vice, usually these are aligned to flavors (sub-vices) of the Seven Deadly Sins:  Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth or Wrath.

Key: The Key is an additional condition that mandates how the Vice is expressed. It can be a social situation, a type of object—almost anything a sinner could use, or experience when he acts upon the Vice. Examples: An Element, a chosen social construct, a common material or technology, a natural phenomena, etc.

Benefits:

• Damage: Can hit all entities in Twilight as well as physical beings. It inflicts Aggravated damage to everything.  Everything.  Which means it also ignores Armor and Durability with equal in discrimination.  As with all Aggravated damage, this has the potential to inflict long-term conditions and ailments such as the loss of senses or limbs.

• Bane: Counts as a Bane to Supernal Beings and the Qashmallim

• Infusion: Hellfire, despite its omnipotent ability to destroy, can be used to "supercharge" phenomenon derived from them.  Constructs, spells and beings infused with Hellfire take an a ashen color with the texture of baked clay, with painful cracks.  The potency of the spell applies Resistant Lethal damage to the subject but also provides a dice bonus of the same amount.  With spells this means it reduces the potency of the spell (for dispelling purposes) while boosting its effectiveness (effective potency).  The target can also be made to suffer the Burnout the caster may invoke.

• Thaumaturgy: Hellfire in inherently unstable and using it for extended castings thaumatological workings is extremely difficult and suffer a penalty equal to their targeted potency. 

• The fire counts as a unholy or desecrated  (per The Inferno).  It is supernatural destruction, not Fraying or Unraveling but the obliteration of the Patterns of the things it touches.

Reach Options:

• +1 Reach: On a successful cast/hit it inflicted Condition: If the potency of the spell exceeds the Stamina or Rank of the target, the caster can inflict a number of Personal Tilts equal to the remaining Potency.  Alternatively, the caster can inflict Environmental Tilts on the area such as Extreme Heat and Burning.  With another Reach and a Mana the Personal Tilts become Persistent Conditions (Injuries that never heal right, limbs, eyes and ears that never heal back) as per the Hurt Locker pg 57.  

• +1 Reach: For the cost of an additional Mana, the damage done is Resistant Aggravated, having to be healed naturally.

• +1 Reach: The Hell will also ignite flammable objects in the scene.  Things lit by Hellfire cannot be extinguished through mundane means until the spell's duration expires.  The fire spreads out of control in a short amount of time.

Tip: A common use for this spell is to advance the duration of the spell so that the entity continues to burn and take damage every round.  Hellfire is extremely difficult to extinguish without magical means so the target continues to burn.  Given a little bit of time anything can be reduced to fine powder and black shadows against concrete.

• +1 Reach: The fire also burns up whatever the supernatural fuel source the target uses, destroying the reserve of power equal to the potency of the spell.

• +1 Reach: Hellfire Infusion is used on a subject, the subject is stoked with hatred and fueled by cruelty, Wrath takes on a life of its own, becoming implacable. Rage begins to feed upon itself, creating an unstoppable force that sneers at injury, slowed only by death. While this spell is active, the caster chooses one type of damage (bashing, lethal, aggravated) and becomes immune to that damage type from mundane sources.  The host also never suffers Wound Penalties.

• +1 Reach: The spell also inflicts incredible agony on the Target and they suffer wound penalties equal to the potency of the spell to a maximum of -6.  For another reach, the caster can feed on this pain, restoring Mana for each penalty die inflicted.

• +2 Reach: For a Mana, the Hellfire can be pushed to extremes in order to unmake things that are supposed to be invincible.  Damage inflicted to objects is absolute and use the Structure exceeded with Aggravated damage the item is destroyed absolutely.  What is more, its impossible to repair or recover any part of the item that was unmade. 
Indestructible Artifacts, specifically weapons that were created in the Hellforge of the Inferno like the Shadowfang, can only be destroyed in this way. This also includes the the Denars that that were blacked by Hellfire to infuse them with the Archdemons. The Nameless Order known as the Order of Judas, specifically the Knights of the Blackened Denarius, bear thirty pieces of silver each possessed by these Archdemons. Supposedly these are the same coins that Judas received for betraying Jesus.  Most were lost in the battle in Sheol between the Horsemen Cabal and most of their active membership.

Risks:

• Released Paradox causes Anomalies in the form of Malus Loci, a site of Desecration (see WoD: The Inferno), as part of the Burnout rules described above.

• If Paradox is absorbed by Backlash causes Burnout (as covered above).  What cannot be taken as Resistant Lethal Damage applies a Bedlam or Branding Condition and inflicts the Open Condition on the caster instead of just the subject/target.  Manifestations will summon Infernals (Dominions) instead of Abyssals.

• If used on or witnessed by someone who uses the Integrity advantage, they suffer an immediate Breaking Point with a penalty equal to the potency of the spell.  If someone loses Integrity this is like chum for demons, and they gain the Open Condition for Infernals.

• The area where Hellfire is used and the caster gain the Resonant Condition with Infernal beings.  The target of the spell gains the Open Condition, making them susceptible to attack and possession by Infernal beings. 

• Locations where Hellfire are used are considered a Malus Locus for the rest of the day.  Each time Hellfire is used in the same general area during that time the power increasing by one (they range 1-5 dots) and the duration of the Desecration site doubles.   It is very common for Infernal Whisperers to slip into Twilight from Hell and start searching for nearby hosts.  Ghosts, Spirits and Goetia active in this location are under increased risk of becoming corrupted and becoming Infernal Diaboli themselves, creating Larvals (ghosts), Immundi (shadow spirits) and Deceptors (Geotia).

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

Balefire

By Adding the Temporal Sympathy Attainment to the spell (Time 2), Hellfire is made into a nastier version: Balefire.  Balefire not only destroys the Pattern of a target but also its imprint on the world. When a target is struck with balefire, its thread in the Pattern is destroyed to include its recent history, in an amount proportional to the power of the balefire strike. This translates to both the target's existence, and actions up to a certain point, being retroactively erased.  In addition to the normal rules for Hellfire, anything destroyed by it, any action taken for the spell's duration don't happen and the past is rewritten.  In order for this to work the spell must successfully destroy the target: Agg damage filling all Health or Structure.

[Mage: The Awakening 2e] Lore: The Nemesis Continuum

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Lore: The Nemesis Continuum

Knowledge Requirements: 

The following requires character knowledge gathered from encountering the Nemesis Continuum, and nearly all the characters in our chronicle either have had direct interaction into its investigations or has access to Cabalmates who do.  It is also possible to inquire about this infection, that is becoming increasingly more well known, from the Scholomance or the Black Zodiac.

Light was a mage who's Legacy, known as "The Truthbringers" was based entirely upon surviving and integrating the truths behind the entity.  He later was destroyed by the Continuum.  Chimera, Jack and Reaper hunting down his last whereabouts in a sealed Sceleti lab beneath Dr. Piermont's office in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  From his infected Daimonoptikon they managed to extract the secrets of Holy Fire, wielding the Pyros of the Principle to fight the darkness...

Source: 

The Nemesis Continuum is a memetic Intruder found in the Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition and adapted for Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.

Synopsis 
by Lorekeeper Casstiel

The Nemesis Continuum, also known by the aliases: "The Law of Unreason," "The Laws of the Abyss," and "The Abyssal Meme," is an infectious idea virus.  A mimetic plague.  Part of that abyssal nastiness that falls into the category of "that which man was not meant to know!"  Once it has taken hold of a victim and that victim begins to solve it's proofs, it spreads to any who read and understand its insane mathematics and if used in concentrated areas with cause localized displacement of the laws of physics.

The initial infection, the patient zero, may start from direct abyssal contact of a Paradox that induces Bedlam.  Areas where the Continuum has been researched and studied accumulate localized paradox and manifest anomalies as the fraying of the physical laws continues.  Paradox incurred in these places may worse this decay, eventually creating full on Abyssal Verges.

The Continuum is a corrupter.  An example of the forces of the Abyss that seek to eat away at the Tapestry of reality, "unraveling" the literal fabric of the universe.  The NC is nothing more than a set of physics problems that blatantly contradict the laws of physics as we understand them.  They force themselves into the minds of scientists, causing the, to obsess over the contraction.  These axioms will actually start to make sense, but the understanding and solving of them erodes physical law around those afflicted with its mental enticement.  Worse yet, those who stumble across the written equations that the afflicted are solving can easily become infected with the mimetic disease.

Despite its corruption, the NC is not excessively virulent like other, more dangerous Intruders.  It's only infection vector is from seeing and understanding its proofs.  If a person cannot process the information or doesn't get a good look at what's in front of him, then the Abyssal sympathy invoked by the formation of memory in the human brain is not invoked.  It is possible to use advanced applications of neuromancy to permanently forget the corrupted knowledge, but without care, the knowledge has a tendency to flare up again.

Curiously, scientists and mathematicians suffering from mental disorders and derangement actually have an easier time understanding the insane mathematical proofs of the NC.  Being a sound-minded physicist who strongly believes and understands the laws of physical reality are more resistant because they automatically reject the initial exposure to laws that they automatically know are extreme falsehoods.

Finally, before we get into the gritty details, it should be noted that the Nemesis Continuum is quite similar to another Abyssal Entity and common Intruder in its pathological vector.  There is a being of the void known as Anumerus, an Intruder based in Anti-Numbers and Negative Numerology.  Though I confess that is all I know about this being.

Definition:

An alternate set of physical laws originating within the Abyss, the Nemesis Continuum encompasses the scientific equivalent of the domino effect; the first proof that is realized leads to the second, which, in turn, leads to the third and so forth. As more and more of the laws that comprise the Nemesis Continuum enter into the Fallen World, the weave of the cosmos begins to “thin” in the places where such proofs are discerned. Abyssal physics begin to take root, subtly twisting the natural laws of the universe.

The phenomenon is an alternate set of physical laws, potentially every bit as real and

inviolate as those with which humanity is familiar. The Law of Unreason’s point of origin

may be another dimension, or it may have moved “opposite” the vector of the Big Bang, occasionally intersecting with this reality through the shared connection of the two universes’

shared genesis.

The laws of this other reality cannot coexist with those of ours; the invasive laws

invariably displace those of this universe. Points at which these axioms intrude upon the

cosmos constitute deformities in the fabric of space/time, and perhaps even points of irreparable

damage. In the past, a scant handful of scientists, always derided as crackpots,

warned of such things, or else celebrated the coming of a “new reality” before their

works and names were swept under the rug of academia.

As with almost any mathematical or physical proof, the existence of one scientific law

must, necessarily, posit and uphold the existence of others. Thus, the realization of one or

more of these axioms constitutes a cascade of laws, in which perception equals reality.

If a sufficiently wide-scale shift in perception could be created through the comprehension

of these seemingly irrational truths, then it is conceivable that an alien reality, wholly

incompatible with this one, might invert and annihilate the universe as humanity knows it.

While the Law of Unreason has, doubtless, manifested before, in the halls of academia, in the secluded laboratories of demented visionaries and in the journals of painfully brilliant and disturbed prodigies, the curve of scientific advancement grows ever steeper. As it does, the

types of learning that contribute to the manifestation of this terrible intruder grow more commonplace. The theoretical sciences that posit the existence of alternate dimensions and the nonbeing of reality as we believe we know it are less and less a matter of speculation and

more and more one of scientific canon. Never before has there been such rampant opportunity for the Nemesis Continuum to infect the Fallen World, and the scientific advancements that loom on the horizon seem to indicate that such will only become more prevalent as humanity peels back the layers of secrecy concealing the hidden workings of the cosmos.

Note: There have been two infections I have encountered in my travels.  While we don't know the original source of either Intrusion, we have traced it back as far as we know.  The first was a folio found wedged between two math books in the Idaho State University library, uncovered by Light in 2006.  The other was a series of writings found in a hidden sub-basement under the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in 2014 by Light, Witness, Seraph and Eris.  The sub-basement was presumed to be left by a former hospital administrator and Scelestus.  It is also believed that this was a direct Intrusion, created by a Bedlam induced in that sub-basement.  The place was sealed in 2014 along with Light's body and then was sanitized by the Browncoats (Triforce Cabal) in 2016.

Where and when these “Abyssal realities” are realized, the Tapestry frays: slightly in the case of one or two minor laws — more in the case of multiple and/or highly significant axioms. Effectively, everything and nothing grow slightly closer to being simultaneously objectively true in such places and times, breeding the sort of chaos that slowly erodes the integrity of the Fallen World. If the atomic weight of hydrogen is no longer a universal constant in one place, what other unvarying constants might cease to be?

Of course, prior intrusions of the Law of Unreason have always been relatively short-lived, confined to the awareness of a disturbed genius, and perhaps an apprentice or two. The state of science in previous ages has simply been insufficient to realize any more significant manifestation of the Nemesis Continuum. While isolated instances of brilliance could lead to the necessary

leaps of cognition, the practice of science as a whole was simply too primitive for most other minds to grasp such axioms. This, necessarily, leads to a most unsettling train of thought, however.

If the most advanced and esteemed scientific disciplines were, as a whole, infected with the awareness encapsulated by the Nemesis Continuum, is it possible that the fabric of the Fallen World could be damaged by the swift insinuation of the “substance” of the Abyss on a scale never before seen? What if one or more of the axioms of the Law of Unreason were to become the accepted scientific practice, rather than the mad theories subscribed to by the easily dismissed crackpots skulking at the edges of the scientific community? Could the Tapestry as a whole come undone, its innumerable threads collapsing under the weight of Abyssal blasphemies not meant to

exist, whether in truth, or merely in perception, within the Fallen World?

Note: This supports theories about abyssal realms and emanations from the Abyss proper.  In the Abyss there appears to be "places," the nightmare worlds of the Great Dreamers.  It is these realities that sometimes attempt to overwrite the Fallen World.  A whole-sale assertion of such a non-place would be utterly apocalyptic.  

Most of the few Awakened scholars who know anything of the Nemesis Continuum think not, but it may well be that their assertions are born more of wishful thinking than of any solid scientific method. Form The Nemesis Continuum has no physical, or even ephemeral, form; it exists as a series of ideas, a chain of insane logic, each part of which eventually — and necessarily— leads to the realization of the next. It is a cascade of Abyssal laws that exist solely to infect the Fallen World old source refers to it as the “Law of Unreason,” and it is as fitting a name as any.

While the Nemesis Continuum may be represented in facts and figures, in numbers and characters that cannot be true and, yet, somehow make terrible and undeniable sense, it is not a thing: it is a constant. It is a collection of rules and laws that cannot coexist with those of our reality, and so it devours and displaces them in those locales in which it descends through the medium of human thought, to the eventual end of supplanting the physical laws of the universe completely, and replacing them with the void. It is debatable as to whether or not the Nemesis Continuum even possesses any kind of consciousness or self-awareness: essentially without

exception, the rare few Awakened that have any kind of knowledge of it at all believe not.

If the Law of Unreason can be said to have any kind of material existence, it would be in the scattered research notes of disturbed and gifted minds, in the texts that they have penned by hand and in files on computers that have been squirreled away in evidence lockers. Facts and scientific laws, though corrupted and untrue — in this reality, as much as in its native Abyss — are its flesh, the stuff of which the Nemesis Continuum consists. Unfortunately, the strain that any true awareness of its nature inflicts upon the minds condemned to such knowledge means that they all invariably break under the strain of knowing that which is not and cannot be, and, yet, is somehow horribly real.

Thus, the Law of Unreason can also be said to take the form of a handful of unfortunate souls languishing in mental institutions, as well as the one or two disciples of its unclean lore who still walk the world freely. And, whenever the body of a deranged former scientist’s old colleague turns up, brutally butchered, irrational equations etched into his flesh and written with a fountain pen in blood and bile on exactly 100 sheets of dog-eared notebook paper, the infection may spread.

The Nemesis Continuum may well take a new form the next time it manifests, however. Who can say when it will be that a human mind might weather contact with the unrealities of the Abyss and remain, more or less, intact? Perhaps it will come to pass that a scientist or willworker may gaze into the depths of this knowledge that cannot be and come away stronger, not weaker, for the connection. If such a mind can exist, then it may well be the first step toward doom, not just for one place or a moment in time, but, indeed, all of the Fallen World, past, present and future.

You can see why Light was eventually be revealed to be an enormous danger.  Even with abilities to fight the Abyss his mind could be the harbinger of a larger doom.  Also unfortunately, his immunity to minor abyssal infections did not extend to the NC, the foundation of his Legacy.

Means of Incursion:

Originators:
The most obvious means of passage for the Nemesis Continuum is for a portion of its substance to be realized by a particularly gifted (and, likely, at least slightly disturbed) scientist. This individual may even be researching such esoteric disciplines for purely altruistic reasons, making the manifestation of the Law of Unreason all the more potentially tragic, given the probably limited range of options for exiling the entity.

Exposure:

Another possibility is for an individual, whether Sleeper or Awakened, to come across a formulary containing equations that, properly deciphered, impart knowledge of one or more of the twisted axioms of the Nemesis Continuum. Perhaps this book falls into the hands of a Mysterium scholar — maybe even a player character — and his curiosity unleashes the nightmares of the Abyss.

Abyssal Traversal:

Yet another potential (and purely speculative) means of intrusion for the Law of Unreason would be during the Awakening of a gifted mathematician or other kind of scientist; as the soul Ascends through the Abyss to the Realms Supernal, the Nemesis Continuum somehow impresses some degree of knowledge about itself on the Awakening spirit. The new willworker returns to the Fallen World now possessed of a terrible understanding, and one that she cannot rid herself of, try as she might. Worse still, her great intellect and powerful creative imagination mean that new realizations regarding the Nemesis Continuum spring into her mind, unbidden, every so often, further damaging the Tapestry of creation.

Scelesti Magic:

Because the Nemesis Continuum comprises, and is composed of, the physical laws of the Abyss, it is also possible for magical means (which are as true and untrue within the void as purely scientific laws) to draw it into the Fallen World, though such would likely require an incredibly potent Scelestus. Such a willworker would also probably need ancient texts, powerful mystic relics, and precise configurations of unseen forces. Just as there are those Awakened who believe the immutable scientific laws of the Fallen World to be manifestations of a yet-undiscerned magical order, so, too, might there be Accursed mages who see the Law of Unreason as a purely mystic phenomenon, incorrectly understood by most of the few that know of it through the lens of science.

I shudder to think that perhaps a person could be trained from a young age to accept the axioms as truth, the first version of the laws of physics taught to a child...

Transmission

It may be that a intellectual of great enough intellect and scientific acumen cannot help but comprehend the axioms of the Nemesis Continuum once she comes into proximity with them. Mages of the Free Council (given some of that order’s reliance upon modern scientific principles, especially those that skirt the edge of mundane disciplines) are the likeliest victims of this possibility, though anyone with considerable intelligence and education in the sciences is potentially susceptible.

Exposure seems to cause mental illness, even if the victim isn't fully infected with the intrusion.

Detecting infection might be possible through the detection of subtle signs similar to Paradox, or some other phenomenon that sets them apart, marking them as tainted by unclean knowledge.

The Nemesis Continuum enters into the Fallen World through the realization of one of its proofs by a being native to this reality. In order to come to such a conclusion, the individual in question must be quite brilliant and a master of one or more of the “hard” sciences: mathematics, physics, chemistry and the like. Lesser minds simply cannot grasp the vicissitudes of thought necessary to envision even the barest fragment of the substance of the Law of Unreason. Of course, given that the Nemesis Continuum is formed of Abyssal logic, a certain amount of madness, whether latent or fully manifested, is also requisite. Thus, the cloistered “mad scientist” is probably the likeliest vector through which the Nemesis Continuum might insinuate itself into the Tapestry, but such an individual is by no means the only possibility.

One doesn’t just stumble upon the forbidden sciences of the void, after all. Not usually, anyway. It is possible that a sufficiently deranged or remarkably brilliant scientist could come to perceive such blasphemous truths spontaneously, without any prompting or prior research in such a direction. Such a scientist is likely to come out of a cutting edge discipline, or else a branch of a more established discipline considered fanciful or even faulty by the mainstream scientific community.  Once the idea of the Nemesis Continuum has infected the Fallen World, it becomes considerably easier to transmit. Those of considerable (though not necessarily genius) levels of intelligence, and with a strong background in the sciences, who have a close connection to the individual to initially realize one or more Abyssal laws, can become carriers of the idea. Those whose intellects have been significantly shaped by the person in question are particularly susceptible, as their thought patterns constitute a ready vector of passage from mind to mind.

Effectively, the Nemesis Continuum is easily passed along ties of sympathy, provided that the potential carrier is intelligent enough to grasp the theories of the Law of Unreason after they’ve gained an anchor in the Fallen World. The Law of Unreason is an idea that moves like an illness between acceptable hosts, an Abyssal meme.

This also means, however, that its spread can be traced along lines of sympathy and that the infection might be able to be contained in such a fashion. Remember, though, that the Law of Unreason doesn’t actively try to spread itself; it doesn’t actively try to do anything. At least, no more than the vibration of sound in air or the refraction of light through water is capable of making any kind of conscious effort. Just as such physical laws are what they are, without the capacity for self-awareness or reason, so, too, is the Nemesis Continuum.

Sleeper Response

Any manifestation of the Nemesis Continuum will be confronted by ordinary people on two fronts. The first of these is by those who are actually exposed to the effects of its intrusion. Inimical to life as we know it, the laws of the Abyss will express themselves in various deleterious ways, causing harm, whether subtle or blatant, to those touched by them. People will start to panic when dropped objects fall too slowly, or anything green is scalding hot to the touch, no matter the ambient temperature. If the matter isn’t contained quickly, the intrusion could become the subject of a governmental investigation, though, as is more often the case with such Fortean strangeness, it is likely to be quickly dismissed and quietly shunned.

On the other hand, there are the academics who will be able to read the proofs and equations.

Most, naturally, will be unable to process what they read, and so will dismiss such writings as sloppy scholarship, incomplete experiments or inexplicable flukes. Others will have some degree of understanding, enabling the infection to persist and even to spread. As it does so, most of the scientific community, however, will write off the Law of Unreason as ridiculous pseudo-science and abject nonsense.

Means of Banishment

The Nemesis Continuum is especially insidious, in that it is “summoned” through intellection alone. Every mind that comprehends even the least portion of the formulae that comprise it becomes a carrier of its corruption, capable of realizing yet another proof and so contributing to the spread of the Law of Unreason throughout the Fallen World.

In order to halt the spread of the Nemesis Continuum, there are a few options. One obvious answer, though probably not the most humane, is to kill those who have reasoned out the laws of the Nemesis Continuum, thus preventing the proliferation of its corruption. For the most part, however, the Law of Unreason isn’t something that people seek out; it is an unwelcome revelation, and one that can’t be shut out. To murder those who have had such understanding inflicted upon them is truly a monstrous act.

It is also possible to cut off an individual from her research materials. All save the most transcendentally brilliant of scientists still need to be able to scribble out theories, cross-reference ideas in books and access scientific journals for precedents set in similar or related work. Many of those who realize one or more of the laws comprising the Nemesis Continuum are apt to be terrified by these terrible new insights that they cannot shut out. Odds are that a group of characters offering to protect such an individual could easily get him to agree to forsake any further scientific research.

Willworkers can, of course, also excise the information from the minds of those that have ascertained fragments of the Law of Unreason, but doing so is less a fix than it is a patch. After all, what is to prevent someone from realizing such lore anew? Another option might be to

exile someone infected by knowledge of the Nemesis Continuum into Twilight or even Shadow; perhaps the different laws of those places might prove more resistant to the inverted physics of the Abyss.

Fortunately, as the Nemesis Continuum appears to have no higher consciousness, no sense of itself — being a set of physical laws, and not truly a being of any sort — it cannot put up any kind of resistance against those that attempt to do it harm. If means are found of banishing the Law of

Unreason, it can take no action to defend itself; instead, it simply exists, passed on from mind to mind, infecting higher thought with possibilities that cannot exist and logic that annihilates the truths of the cosmos.

None of this, however, addresses the issue of what to do about those patches of the Tapestry that have been “damaged” by the realization of Abyssal unreality. It is possible, though by no means certain, that careful manipulation of ley energies can gradually set right the physical laws of such places. The passage of time would almost assuredly eventually smooth over all save the most

forceful fraying of the Tapestry. Indeed, if the Nemesis Continuum has intruded upon the Fallen World in the past, no obvious evidence of such exists today.

In places where a number of the laws of the Nemesis Continuum have been realized, semi-permanent spell effects, generally of a physical nature, might start to take root — altered gravity or strange alterations of the material states of inert matter, for example. The most

common effects for the Law of Unreason to replicate are those of the Arcana of Forces, Matter, Space and Time. An Anomaly is probably the most common sort of Paradox that crops up, but all of them are possibilities: dwelling overlong in a place tainted by Abyssal logic might lead to Bedlam, while a creature might worm its way through a gap in the Tapestry, leading to a Manifestation. Even Branding is possible, as Abyssal biology insinuates itself into the Pattern of a living being.