Tradition Politics

TRADITION POLITICS

Life is like high school, only with money.

-Frank Zappa

Many young mages assume that enlightenment will bring about tolerance, understanding and an end to the kind of petty politics that runs rampant in the mundane world. Unfortunately, such isn’t usually the case. Mages are as famous for their egos as their abilities, and feuds can last decades or even centuries as one group of mages tries to assert its dominance or its paradigm over another. Even within a Tradition, various cliques and factions vie for recognition and control of resources. Mages who don’t mind what they say or who they say it to can quickly find themselves outcasts.

THE COUNCIL OF THE NINE

Once, the Traditions had a dream of unity, in which all mages would work together to achieve Ascension and restore the Mythic Ages to humanity. At the pinnacle of this dream stood the Council of Nine, a collection of the wisest and most powerful mages of each Tradition who would oversee everyone’s efforts and provide a neutral ground for the exchange of ideas and settling of grievances. Sheltered in a Realm known simply as Horizon, the Council met for several centuries, weathering the worst times on Earth and encouraging the bursts of creativity and invention that kept magic alive as the Technocratic Union spread across the globe. As the Hermetics and their numerologists well know, nine is a number that represents the highest synthesis of power.

Destiny can be cruel, however,for a combination of political infighting and a crippling invasion have recently brought the Council crashing down. Nothing has been heard from Horizon since the Avatar Storm began and the Gauntlet strengthened. Even many Masters on Earth disappeared or fled to seek refuge from a world that balked at their magical presence.

As a result, the Traditions are left without much of their senior leadership, and the mages of Earth have begun adjusting to the reality of those changes. Some hotheads have responded by pointing fingers and laying blame, which has only increased the tension between Traditions. Other mages are searching desperately for some way of contacting the surviving Councilors. Many of those mages who remain have simply given up in disgust or despair, thinking that this is just one more sign that the Technocracy has finally triumphed after all.

Many, but not all.

A few dedicated souls still strive to keep the Council’sdream of unity alive. They work in ways large and small to foster fellowship and cooperation between the Traditions and to douse the divisive flames that threaten to consume what remains of the grand design. Theirs is perhaps the most difficult and least certain path of all those that lie before the Awakened, but those who follow it draw from a deep well of strength indeed. Sometimes it seems that they alone remember what the Traditions ultimately stand for:

Hope.

FACTIONS

As individualistic as many mages are, it’s no surprise that different camps and cliques within each Tradition have long struggled to establish their own interpretation of how to uphold the Tradition’s goals. What’s more, the modern age of division and isolation has opened many of these old wounds once again and created more than a few new schisms.

An Apprentice who follows one mentor may find himself snubbed by others of his Tradition, and he not have the slightest clue as to why until much later on in his training. Likewise, those who fail to espouse the “correct”doctrine may find themselves unable to gain access to Chantries, Nodes, mentors, libraries or other Tradition resources, depending on who controls these assets and how they feel about a character’s metaphysical viewpoint. Some Traditions are more lenient than others when it comes to tolerating members of other factions, but !, most mages have an opinion on the matter of factional alliance, even if they don’t choose to act on it. As some seasoned faction players say, choosing not to be on a team is really a team of its own, and no one gets to just sit on the sidelines.

Storytelling disputes between factions is perhaps the ultimate exploration of delicate alliances, double entendres and the well-timed snub. Since outright battle is strictly frowned upon by all Traditions (although it does still happen occasionally), and harsh penalties follow those who shed the blood of fellow Tradition members, mages of differing factions must wage their wars subtly and kill each other with a thousand tiny cuts. Since most Tradition members appear to embrace the same philosophies on the surface, the slightest difference in metaphysical phrasing can carry immense political and social consequences. A rejected invitation can become a declaration of war, and a remark that was meant as merely a passing comment can earn a character powerful allies... or lasting enemies. Turn the paranoia factor up, make the characters feel they must look into the motives of their fellow Tradition members at every turn, and make all contact with others of their kind seem significant

CHANTRIES

Chantries serve as strongholds of magic, whether they are baroque hillside manors or the back of a beat-up station wagon, and control of these places of power IS one of the oldest conflicts in Awakened society. Even members of the Technocratic Union sometimes have to step in to break up fights between Conventions over a particularly powerful Node.

Different Chantries in an area may do battle with each other over local magical and mundane resources, or even to determine who will get the first pick of particularly talented Awakened students. Sometimes members of a squatter Chantry -one without a Node -will even try to oust mages from an existing Chantry to gain control of its power reservoir. Battles of this sort are typically brutal and quick, and the winners take all. Within a Chantry itself, clique feuds erupt all too frequently as different groups argue over issues such as leadership of the Chantry and who will have access to specific Chantry features. Sometimes these cliques form along Tradition lines, sometimes they center around cabals, and sometimes they simply represent social or political groups.

Chantry-versus-Chantry conflicts form some of the easiest stories to frame in Laws of Ascension. Unlike faction feuding, Chantry conflicts can easily flare up into exchanges of magical or mundane violence, and little quarter is typically i given on either side, especially when vital resources such as Nodes are at stake. These story types are fairly straightforward, and they can be the most powerful ii ones as well, depending on whether the players want a want to create a shadow war of double agents and secret meetings or a very real war that actually bums Quintessence and spills blood on the streets. It's usually just a question of how much the Storyteller wishes to emphasize politics or violence in the game.

When building stories about rivalries within the Chantry, a Storyteller has a few immediate options. He can stress open and entrenched feuds, in which different cliques don't hesitate to how their disdain for each other and do their best to alternately ignore and persecute members of other cliques. In this type of story, only dire issues such as the defense of the Chantry itself can rouse any collective response.New mages are not certainly immune to being sucked into these conflicts, whether they like it or not. Characters in those situations must choose their allies carefully and be careful to not appear too sympathetic to members of another clique, even by accident.

CABALS

A mage’s cabal is often the only real family she has left. The people in her cabal are the only ones who understand her new life, face her problems with her, and who she can count on to back her up when she needs it most. Even if the cabal formed out of a more pragmatic concern-such as mutual protection or advancing some collective interest -and not due to any particular ties of friendship, the members of a cabal know that they can trust and depend on each other.

Cabals used to be composed of members of one Tradition, but this trend broke down in the last century. Faced with the Avatar Storm and the end of the Ascension War, most modem mages are glad for any company they can find. Of course, even the tightest cabals can still fall victim to the same problems that groups of friends or associates do in everyday life. Jealousy, ambition, romantic fallout, petty feuds, buried grudges or even simple differences of opinion can all stir up divisive conflict within a particular cabal.

Since they tend to form these groups on their own, the basic interactions of the players naturally generate many cabal-oriented plot lines, as different cabals come into conflict and members’ attitudes change over time. Those players or Storytellers looking for additional motivation or ways to approach stories about cabal conflicts should think about that original battleground of personal association: high school. Remember how the different cliques used to butt heads, often over the smallest and stupidest things?Think about how your own circle of friends always seems to have some crisis or another going on, be it a love triangle, two people who aren’t speaking to one another or some other interpersonal turmoil. Keep that social dynamic in mind and extrapolate from it the behaviors of cosmically enlightened folks with gigantic egos who are waging a largely one-sided and desperate battle against the ultimate symbol of authority. From that perspective, it’s not hard to see how conflicts can arise between or within cabals.

RANK AND REPUTATION

When the Council of Nine formed, one of the first initiatives that the Order of Hermes took on was to establish a standard system of ranks and titles, so that mages would have a universal means of recognizing magical accomplishment. Mages tend to be rather highly competitive by nature, so keeping up a strong public image is a point of both pride and necessity for many wizards.

Reputation is the game measure of a mage’s standing among others of her kind, and it is measured in Traits. It usually stems from a proven level of magical accomplishment, although it can also be a function of holding some official position in the magical community, such as a Chantry head or faction leader. A t mage may also gain Reputation Traits by being influential in a city’s business I community, pulling off impressive magical feats, foiling the plots of rival groups or by simply catching the right eyes at the right time.

Anyone taken into a Tradition immediately receives the Trait: Accepted. , Those without this Trait cannot be subject to Tradition justice save for the most serious crimes, but they also cannot expect aid, shelter or even civil treatment from proper Tradition mages either. Different Traits are bestowed at each rank, as shown in the following chart.

RANKS AND REPUTATIONS

Rank	Reputation Trait
Apprentice	Accepted
Initiate	Devoted
Disciple	Promising
Adept	Respected
Master	Visionary
Archmage	Enlightened