Banor och legat

Banor

Acanthus

The Acanthus, often referred to as the Enchanters, are those mages who have Awakened to the Supernal Realm of Arcadia, the abode of fae and realm of illusion, enchantment, and constant change. They are characterised, at least by their fellow Awakened, as flighty, reckless, and irresponsible. This is, to a large extent, true. The precognitive abilities of the Acanthus allow them to sidestep the setbacks and hardships that other mages and especially Sleepers must endure or overcome. They tend to rely very much on themselves and their uncanny luck and timing. Since theirs is the mastery of the two Arcana of foresight and fortune, this happy-go-lucky attitude serves them in better stead than it does most, but they are marked by impatience and a lack of proper planning ability, and as such are often led into strife by their refusal to plan ahead.

The Enchanters, upon Awakening, have their minds opened to the endless possibilities of destiny and the myriad pathways of the time stream. This may go far to explain why the Acanthus seem so hesitant to commit themselves to anything or to focus on one thing for any length of time; the innumerable opportunities they catch a glimpse of make it seem as though nothing is impossible and as though no mistake cannot be reversed. This is what the other Awakened suggest, at any rate, and it may shed light on the behaviour of the typical Acanthus. The Enchanters are renowned amongst the other Paths as diviners and oracles of incredible skill, but this has done little to alleviate the popular stereotype of Acanthus as flighty, irresponsible, and generally unconcerned with the world around them. This is, to an extent, true.

Acanthus mages are often rather mercurial, governed more by their own emotions than by any logic or sense of duty. This stems from their fey, otherworldly nature, picked up in Arcadia. Combined with their natural curiosity and the fact that they tend to bore easily, this passion makes it difficult for them to commit to a task they find dull or meaningless. But this flightiness brings a lighter side, one rather less common amongst the grim Mastigos, the sombre Moros, the uptight Obrimos and the intense Thyrsus; the Acanthus know how to have fun. In a world beset by monsters and demons, the jocular manner and amusing antics of the Enchanters provide a much-needed source of levity for the Awakened. The sense that anything is possible surrounds the Enchanters, and serves as a powerful source of hope to other mages.

The Acanthus specialise in the Arcana of Fate and Time, and suffer penalties when trying to learn the Arcanum of Forces.

Legat

• Architects of the Future – Diviners who use covert methods to manifest in the Fallen World the will of the Exarchs. They orchestrate grandiose and byzantine plans and motions in service to their secret masters.
• Awakening Gambit – A Legacy who seek to shunt people into situations where they are forced to Awaken in an attempt to create more mages. Their methods are not always successful, and can be quite dangerous (although the Gambit mages do their best to ensure that no lasting harm can befall their target), but the number of successes they do get indicate that their idea is a sound one.
• Blank Badges – Dedicated idealists and revolutionaries against the whole of the Awakened establishment (including the Free Council), the Blank Badges are direct heirs to the Nameless traditions of the pre-Free Council era. They’re magical anarchists and rebels, striking the Seers for preference but also any traitor who tries to stay their hand or parlay with the Throne.
• Daoine – Acanthus who attempt to emulate Fae justice. They punish those who have violated their obscure codes and reward those who have acted virtuously. These mages are masters of the hex and curse, using their powers to perform their duties against violators of their own codes or the scruples of whoever hires them.
• House of Ariadne – Geomancers devoted to urbanity. They are attracted to everything about city life, good and bad, for it is from the city that they gain the power to see into past and future. They walk the paths of the ley lines and the lesser lines they call Ariadne's threads crisscrossing the city, and use the symbols they see along the way to interpret the future.
• Morphean Continuity – A Legacy of Astral adepts seeking expansion of their consciousnesses to better receive and assimilate information. They do this by continuously fracturing and reforming their minds. However, the truth about their attainments is a very dark secret.
• People of the Hour – Dwellers in the moment who seek to experience every second for what it's worth. Their abilities allow them to manipulate Time and luck to greatly enhance this experience.
• Princes of the Many Masks – Consummate actors and impersonators who use their perfected shapeshifting arts in service of their hedonistic desires as well as the Throne.
• Pygmalian Society – The Pygmalians believes that art – true Art, that is – is a link to the Supernal, given its quality to provoke and inspire people, and it is a link that even Sleepers can use. The Society thus seeks to inspire artistic emotions in the Sleepers it interacts with, in the hopes of Awakening them from Sleep via a great induced moment of creative epiphany.
• Roses of Eden – Disheartened by the pettiness and hypocrisy of the Atlantean societal structure, they advocate reforming it. This is their way of pruning the garden that is Awakened society of its many imperfections in order for it to become as perfect as a thornless rose.
• Singers in Silence – Having an almost instinctive understanding of Death and its hold on those around them, theirs is the power to summon and create ghosts, and to read the strands of Fate and Death to see those who are marked and fated to die soon. This knowledge cannot be suppressed or easily ignored, and as a result of their connection to death the Singers are warped in mind, body and soul.
• Sisterhood of the Blessed – An up-until-recently exclusive to high-class women group whose networking and attainments are focused on helping members avoid the social prejudice levied against them. They are skilled in subtle Fate and Mind magics to assist their endeavours and keep themselves from accruing too much unwanted attention stemming from their power.
• Skalds – Heirs to a truly ancient practice known across the world; that of the singing storyteller and songwriter. They are superlative musicians and writers, and use these skills to move audiences of Sleeper and mage to joy, sorrow, anger, or any other emotion the bard cares to conjure.
• Storm Keepers – Guardians of humanity against the forces of nature unchecked since centuries past. They have an almost intuitive ability to comprehend the weather systems of the world. Their powers give them control over storms and any collateral effects of storms, as well as the ability to predict the effects their abilities will have once employed, the better to be fully warned of the consequences of their meteorological meddling.
• Tamers of Winds – This Elemental Legacy specializes in the element of Air. The Tamers of Winds seek and dispense truth and good judgement, serving as judges and counselors to Sleepers and the Awakened. They can read truths on the wind and delve into the minds of others.
• Walkers in Mists – Wandering druidic mages who draw their wisdom and power from the natural world around them, rather than the tomes and scrolls so beloved of their fellow Awakened. They’re masters of manipulating the continuum of nature they call the Mists to gaze upon and travel to places far removed from their own selves in the blink of an eye.
• Carnival Melancholy (left-handed) – Awakened charlatans and conmen, the mages of the Carnival Melancholy harvest the souls of the Sleepers they dupe and use them to bolster their own chances of success. Their philosophy stems from the Depression and sees the Awakened as a nation of fugitives, doing what they can to survive and attain the Imperium Mysteriorum on the backs of the Sleepers.

Mastigos

Moros

The Moros are a magical path whose ruling Arcana are Death and Matter. They are also known as the Necromancers on the Path of Doom, Scions of the Watchtower of the Lead Coin in the Realm of Stygia, Kingdom of Crypts and Abode of Shades. Their theme and Tarot card is Death, their mood Respect and Contemplation.

The first thing being a Moros teaches you is there is no good or evil in death. In this universe a good man will die as soon as a wicked man. It rains upon the head of a wicked man, the same as a good man. Death is the great leveller, as the song says 'You may be a king or just a street sweeper, sooner or later you'll dance with the Reaper.' The Moros specialise in the Arcana of Death and Matter, and suffer penalties when trying to learn the Arcanum of Spirit.

Legat

• Bokor – These mages are unusual amongst the Moros in that, unlike most members of their path, they see death not a serene, calm experience, but as a violent and painful process. The see the bodies of the dead as being mere shells, and so have no qualms about using them as servants or soldiers. Interesting to note is that their ethics are tightened when it comes to dabbling in souls; the Bokor philosophy does not allow that to imprison or sever souls, though they can be used to create revenants.
• Formgivare (Forge Master) – Awakened artisans and craftsmen beyond parallel, the Forge Masters are the supreme alchemists, item crafters and Imbuers of the Awakened world. Even the mundane items they make are of exceptional quality and the greatest among them can use their own souls as forges to conjure items from thin air.
• Stone Scribe – The Stone Scribes are a Legacy devoted to finding and recording the Final Names of the dead and the dying, in the hope that someday they will be able to work backwards from all the names of power they have collected to reconstruct the names of dead Atlantean archmages and conjure up their shades, seeking genuine Atlantean magic from these ghosts.
• Tamer of Stone – This Elemental Legacy specialises in the element of Earth. The Tamers of Stone are builders, masons, and architects, who lay out Supernal symmetry in their designs and who remain steadfastly on the ground with the common people, despite their Awakened condition.
• Thread Cutter – The Thread Cutters are the self-appointed guardians of destiny. They read the fates of others, and groom or destroy them in accordance with what they find to be their subject's proper role in the tapestry of fate. They serve beings embodying fate, which they call the Three, who weave a person's thread of fate, measure it to the appropriate length, and sever it once it has reached its end.
• Uncrowned King – The Uncrowned Kings are alchemists, though their studies transcend the vulgar work of other Awakened alchemists. Theirs is alchemy of the soul, designed to refine the purest essence of the soul out of the dross of sorrow and pain.
• Votary of the Ordained – The Votaries of the Ordained are mages who devote everything they are to protecting an important item, person or place from supernatural interference, although their stewardship over each item only lasts until that item has fulfilled its worldly significance.
• Wraith of Epochs – The Wraiths are mages who reject the modern world and eschew its technologies as distractions from the power and true ways of the Supernal and the Awakened. They have incredible power to look into and draw upon the past but lose their ability to wield the tools of the present to best effect.
• Cultist of Doomsday Clock (left-handed) –
• Tremere Lich (left-handed) – The Tremere Liches are mages who have been infected with the power of a presumed-extinct bloodline of vampires called the Tremere. They are gifted with immortality, but only as long as they consume the souls of mortals to sustain it.

Obrimos

The Obrimos are a magical path whose ruling Arcana are Forces and Prime. They are also known as the Theurgists on the Path of the Mighty, Scions of the Watchtower of the Golden Key in the Realm of the Aether, Kingdom of the Celestial Spheres and Abode of Angels. Their theme and Tarot card is Strength, their mood is Hope. The Obrimos specialise in the Arcana of Forces and Prime, and suffer penalties when studying the Arcanum of Death.

The Obrimos often called Theurgists, are the of the awakened who draw theit power from the Realm of Aether, the realm of angels, gods, and magic unbound. The Obrimos are mostly thought in terms of arrogant, self-absorbed zealously moralistic. Indeed, a great many of those who walk the Path of the Mighty live up to this stereotype perfectly. Many, however are of a far more pleasant bent. They can be virtuous paladins, stalwart defenders of mankind, simply people who wish to do the right thing by other people. yet more are as morally indefinable as anybody else. Though they don't all believe in the same god or gods, and many don't believe in such entities at all, the Obrimos path as a whole is devoted to making the will of the Divine manifest on Earth. They believe, for the most part, in various and sometimes misguided ideals of justice, virtue and honour, all directed towards making what they perceive as a better world. The main personality trait that unites all the disparate philosophies of the Obrimos is their convictions. Theurgists are usually extremely self-assured and secure in their power, and their righteousness. This attitude makes them rather less susceptible to self-doubt than others, but also makes them both arrogant and at times over-confident. They hold the nigh-on-unshakable certainty that their ideals are the right ones for the world, despite what anyone else (even another Obrimos) has to say. They can usually be trusted to live up to these ideals, making them reliable and honest, but also rigidly moral and predictable to a fault. Many are outspokenly religious, from whence the title of Theurgists originates, and often the 'Divine' ideals they ear would seem repugnant to everyday people. Its this fanaticism and devotion to even the most flawed of ideals that lead a large number of Obrimos to become Banishers. Walkers on the Path of the Mighty are known to the less tolerant members of other Paths as haughty, hypocritical, and holier-than-thou. But like all stereotypes, this view only reflects the very worst examples of Obrimos fervour, passion, and morality. Though they possess their flaws, the ranks of the Obrimos are filled with as many noble idealists as pushy preachers. The supposedly divine connection of the Obrimos makes them extremely assured and confident, and this can lead to their trademark but just often leads to a charitable, and truly noble soul. The Obrimos in turn (or at least the more egotistical amongst them) perceive other Paths as either barbarians or morally bankrupt. The Obrimos specialise in the Arcana of Forces and Prime, and suffer penalties when trying to learn the Arcanum of Death.

Legat

• Ascended Adept – Ascended Adepts are mages who hold the mind as far superior to the body, and practise a path that, through training, meditation, and discipline, allows them to leave their bodies temporarily and exist for a while as energy.
• Daksha – The Daksha believe in two things; the magical evolution of humanity, and that Atlantis can be rebuilt by the Awakened. They seek to transform themselves into these higher humans, believing that when enough Daksha have evolved, humanity will be set back on a natural cycle of ascension to the Supernal Realms.
• Eye of Ain Soph – The Eyes of Ain Soph are scholar-mages who seek to understand why magic is the way it is, devoting their efforts to understanding the nature of magic in all its manifestations. Their ultimate goal is the complete understanding of magic in all its facets.
• Perfected Adept – These mages practise intense mental and physical discipline as a path to enlightenment. They are formidable martial artists and fighters, and gain the power to alter their own body functions and chi flow, making them yet more powerful.
• Pure Sovereign – The Pure Sovereigns are mages who hone their bodies and minds to incredible perfection, following the idea that a suitable ruler must be a mental and physical prodigy. Truly the Sovereigns have succeeded, as many are capable of over a hundred years beyond a normal human lifespan. In the process they gain near-total control over their bodily functions and mental processes.
• Steward of the Celestial Orrery – The Stewards are the oracles and diviners of the Silver Ladder. They claim to follow the “ineffable will of the Oracles” ferociously and to the letter, a dedication which sparks admiration amongst their fellow Théarchs. Unlike many prophets, the Stewards do not merely passively read the future for others; they act on their own visions in an effort to sculpt the destinies they foresee.
• Eldtämjare (Tamer of Fire) – This Elemental Legacy specialises in the element of Fire. Tamers of Fire are mighty heroes, champion warriors who defend the weak and lead armies into battle. They gain considerable power over fire and heat using their words.
• Thrice-Great – The Thrice-Great are a Legacy of Ptolemaic astrologer-priests, who believe that by appeasing the spirit courts of the Ptolemaic celestial bodies, they can gain spiritual enlightenment. They regard modern astronomical ideas as heresy.
• Transhuman Engineer – The Transhuman Engineers are a techgnostic Legacy who believe in a sort of mechanical ascension. They believe that human technological advancement is progressing forward at an ever-faster rate, and that it won’t be too long before this rate becomes so fast that everything about humanity will change in the blink of an eyelid. Through this technological advancement, the Engineers seek to transcend their mortal selves, becoming enlightened through the power of science.
• Echo Walker (left-handed) – The Echo Walkers believe that the Most High of Aether are in fact the mystical “Ones Before”, a proto-human race possessed of incredible magical powers. They gain the power to emulate the traits of these creatures, and to gaze upon them in Aether. But to do so, the mage must see through another person’s soul, an act which knocks said soul out of alignment.

Thyrsus