Editing Mage: The Ascension (section)

===Antagonists===
The ''[[Metaphysic Trinity]]'' of ''Dynamicism'', ''Stasis'', and ''Entropy'' was the blueprint for antagonists in the game, with each corner of the triangle representing dangerous extremism.  For ''[[Dynamicism]]'' the extremists are the [[#Marauders|Marauders]], for ''[[Stasis]]'' the extremists are known as [[#Threat_Null|Threat Null]], and for ''[[Entropy]]'' the extremists are the [[Nephandi]].  (As protagonists the [[#The_Nine_Traditions|Traditions]] were intended to occupy the middle-ground of balance.)  The thirds of the Metaphysic Trinity are not inherently extremist though, as Tradition mages can have an Avatar type corresponding to one particular third of the Trinity while still favoring balance over extremism.  

====Marauders====
Insane agents of ''[[Dynamicism]]'' who can somehow avoid Paradox by passing it off to other people. When John the Barbarian gallops through New York on the back of his pet ''T. rex'' Gundar, blasting cars aside with his magic crystal sword and bellowing war-cries as he rides off to fight an imaginary menace (which shall, of course, cease to be "imaginary" when he finds it), it's not ''his'' problem, it's ''society's'' problem. Very powerful due to their Paradox immunity, and while they're tragic figures, they're also dangerous enough that the mages and Technocrats will team up to keep them under control. On the other hand, they drop whatever delusion they were in and attack the Nephandi on sight, ignoring everyone else.  As Marauders are the extremists of ''Dynamicism'', their moderate counterparts are the Lifeweaver faction within the [[Verbena]].

====[[Threat Null]]====
Technocrats trapped in the Umbra during the Avatar Storm succumbed to the extreme ''[[Stasis]]'' of the Umbral machine-planet Autocthonia and were effectively transformed into Drones (flesh/spirit amalgamations) in service to the sentient Computer within Autocthonia.  Threat Null is all of the negative stereotypes of conformity-enforcing soul-crushing xenocidal Technocrats.  As Threat Null are the extremists of ''Stasis'', their moderate counterparts dwell among the Earth-dwelling Technocratic mages (especially the [[Sons of Ether|Society of Ether]], and to a slightly lesser extent the [[Virtual Adepts]]).

Threat Null consists of four major factions: 
* '''Autopolitans:''' corrupt, hive-minded Iteration Xers who've become walking masses of flesh, servos, and nanomachines out to turn all humanity into obedient drones like themselves through extreme cybernetics to serve the Computer. Personality-wise, they're [[Lawful Neutral]] taken to its utmost extreme with a dash of [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Admech]] -- everyone sticks to a precise schedule, security procedures ''will'' be obeyed without question, and failure will not be tolerated. Known to be aligned with Weaver spirits, which they use to defend Autochthonia.
* '''Agents:''' The New World Order, but with all their good intentions stripped away in favour of becoming perfect infiltrators who seep into, corrupt, and destroy any organization they make contact with. These guys can hijack any Technocrat's mental programming to body-jack them like their inspiration from ''The Matrix'', meaning that the Technocracy has to resort to seriously out-of-the-box tactics to fight them, like hiring Tradition Mages. They supposedly answer to a group known as the "Agency", which is presumably Threat Null's version of Control.
* '''Transhumanity:''' Perverse Progenitors and too-good-looking creeps who'll offer to make you physically "perfect" like them. Unfortunately for you, they do so by stripping away your individuality (once again: hive-mind) and turning you into another transhuman through a virus.
* '''Residents:''' Syndicate rogues who make themselves indispensable to various spiritual courts and then drive them to destroy one another through "bush wars"  while siphoning off their magical resources for their own gain. Basically the original Syndies with their cutthroat Gordon Gekko tendencies turned to eleven and applied to the Umbra rather than the material world.
* '''???:''' The Null Void Engineers are conspicuous in their absence; this might be because the stranded Void Engineers were better able to adapt to the situation through their prior experience with the Deep Umbra and were then destroyed by the others or because ''their'' twisted overexaggeration just wandered out to explore the deepest, darkest reaches of the universe after losing all interest in Earth. 

Fortunately, Threat Null are no exception to the "everybody hates the Nephandi" thing; part of the reason they haven't invaded in force to try to breach the Gauntlet is because they're currently waging an open war against the Deep Nephandi. On the one hand, these assholes are fighting one another rather than the nominal good guys; on the other, this is very much an ''Alien vs. Predator'' situation, where being hunted for sport isn't necessarily ''a lot'' better than being used as an incubator for little fanged penises, just marginally better.

====[[Nephandi]]====
The setting's darkest, most depraved characters, amazingly even moreso than the Tzimisce or even most Baali (Most Baali are idiots or tragic villains who NEED to commit atrocities so Malfeans can sleep): Evil agents of ''[[Entropy]]'' who worship either insane demons or most of the things [[Lovecraft]] came up with, they seek to cause not Ascension but Descent, encouraging humanity to give into the darkest excesses of their worst impulses and thus [[Chaos|transform reality itself into a literal Hell, terraforming the universe as a whole into a place their dark masters can exist so that they may take possession of it.]]

They're one of the only threats that will force cooperation between the Traditions, the Technocracy and EVEN the Marauders, most famously in World War II. (Unsurprisingly, many of the Nephandi were [[Nazi]]s.)  They may actually be ''winning'' the Ascension war, since they're actively attempting to infiltrate and subvert all other factions.

The singular form is ''nephandus''; the OoC source of such is most likely the word ''[[wiktionary:nefandous|nefandous]]'', meaning "unspeakable" (as in "unspeakable evils").  Appropriately enough, in a world of grey vs. gray morality, these assholes are far and away the blacker than black. Becoming a Nephandus basically involves fucking up your soul badly enough to corrupt your Avatar (something which will persist even after your death) by confronting one's own personal idea of the worst possible evil, kneeling before it in mingled worship, reverence, and masturbation, and swearing to serve it forever. 

The kicker? This has to done ''willingly'' - a Mage '''cannot''' be forced into turning Nephandi, since the process almost always insta-kills unwilling Mages. [[FATAL|Let that set the tone for how depraved these assholes are.]]

There are Nephandi that are born with an Avatar from a former life, called Widderslainte. Most of these fucks are just a bunch of sociopathic children (until they grow up and become sociopathic assholes) unless they Awaken, and when they do, the "fun" begins. No reliable process to de-corrupt an inverted Avatar has ever been found; the only way to prevent it from polluting others is to obliterate it completely. Since this heavily conflicted with a major theme of the Nephandi (''choosing'' to be evil, rather than being ''forced'' into it), this was gently changed in later editions to be more of an "abusive parent" dynamic, with the corrupted Avatar trying to bully the Widderslainte to into evil, but them still having the choice to say no and resist. 

As Nephandi are the extremists of ''Entropy'', their moderate counterparts are the [[Euthanatos]].