[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.

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

Out of Character (OOC):

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

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Lore: Gods, Angels & Demons

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

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

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

A Lexicon of the High Heavens:

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

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

Supernal Entities: Angels (angel):

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

The God-Machine (deity):

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

God-Machine: Angels (angel):

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

Empyrean (location):

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

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

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

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

PYROS vs. AETHER

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

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

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

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

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

The One Theory:

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

Qashmallim & The Principle

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

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

Many kinds of Angels

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Akarthartoi (demon)

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

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

Strix

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

The Abyss (hell)

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

Abyssals (demon)

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

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

Hell on Earth (hell)

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

The Unchained (demon):

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

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


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


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

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