Akashic Brotherhood

"It is the power of the Mind to be unconquerable."

– Seneca the Younger

To strengthen your mind, you must first strengthen your body. Thought to originate near China, the Akashic Brotherhood are zen Buddhist Warrior Mages from Mage: The Ascension that seek harmony in a world of chaos. They naturally do this by strengthening their bodies (and by extension, minds), as harmony demands conflict. The Buddha himself was apparently one of them. Some of them are petitioning to increase their influence, but they're a very small minority.

Origins

The Akashics creation myth comes from the idea that a mass Ascension occured before an ending of the world, and those people became the Meru'ai. The Meru'ai were in good with the spirit realm, and learned how to live truly, absolutely harmonious lives, governed by the Wheel of Life. They only had one real law: nobody gets in, and nobody gets out, under pain of death. Eventually, an exile managed to escape, and returned years later on three consecutive days, basically showing that they'd effectively played themselves into thinking they had truly ascended and couldn't remain hidden from the world anymore, and just to prove his point; slashed himself to pieces and then came back together just to prove how much of an illusion they lived under. This madlad was the first Akashic. From there, the Meru'Ai descended into indolence and madness, and were eventually spread throughout the world; though principally they found themselves concentrated in Asia. Though they were far from their brethren, always they felt a deep connection that reminded them of the world they once knew.

They became masters of both war and medicine, and travelled throughout the east doing both medicine and war in equal measure, until they came into a major discovery on the other side of the Ganges River; similar walkers of the Wheel of Age's priesthood in who would become the Euthanatoi. Initially they were chums with the Death Mages, as they both shared a sense of justice with their newfound abilities and understood reality to be an illusion under the strict control of the Wheel, but that's where their similarities ended. The Akashics took umbrage to the monumental hubris of getting to decide who lived and who died, while the Euthanatoi were appalled at how wantonly the Brotherhood were willing to cause disruption to the Wheel using their magic. It all came to a head when a plague ravaged the indian subcontinent, which quickly went from a series of philosophical arguments to the Himalayan Wars; which started well for the Akashics as they were far more experienced in open-combat, but quickly lost ground as it quickly sank into becoming a quagmire and ended with the Akashics roundly defeated, and forced into seclusion in China. The conflict is nominally a thing of the past since the foundation of the Tradition Council, but occasionally you'll get some reincarnated soul who didn't get the memo and starts cleaving a path of bloody vengeance through their ostensible allies.

The Akashics found China in a terrible state; as it was currently under the control of a Kuei-Jin shadow empire that preyed upon the sleeping populace. A number of different supernatural factions rise up to meet this horror, and successfully ousted them. Their victory was shortlived, as the Sleeping community eventually was so fucking fed up of being effectively cannon fodder that they began expelling most of the supernatural elements of their lands by force, and the Akashics faded into the background, proliferating their martial arts and shacking up with the old nobility that wasn't vampire bait, and trying to carefully guide them into doing right. They managed to be semi-successful at this (the Ming Dynasty has them to thank for quite a bit) before Sh'Zar shows up and suggests that it's time that all mystic traditions come together as one. They're a bit put off by this weird glowing hedonist, but they eventually agree to join, are briefly caught off guard by The Great Betrayal, but ultimately become a Tradition; returning to Asia with the Eastern world as their oyster...right up until the Qing Dynasty's Technocrats decided to run them all the way up to the Shaolin Temple and sold their ass out to pretty much all supernatural creatures; namely ones they'd been in direct conflict with, and a mass slaughter occurs. What few survivors there were had to go off the grid for years until the Boxer Rebellion, where they both begin mass-recruitment drives from outside their traditional ranks (read: white people get to learn Kung-Fu) and massively update their strategies; focusing all their attention on combating the Technocracy.

Since Hiroshima, they've been working overtime to make sure that the Technocracy never gains the decisive upper hand on them ever again.

The 36 Chambers of Dao

The Akashic Paradigm is among the most demanding of all the Traditions, being rooted in the concept of The Way. To the Akashi, all of what you are is written in the Akashic Record (the Tapestry for other traditions), and if you manage to break your mind away from these things, you can begin to synergize mind, body, and soul all into one formless being; where the powers of the Three Ministers (anthropomorphized Entropy, Stasis, and Dynamism) can flow through you, and you become one with the universe and effectively "edit" the Record. All of that is accomplished by seeking The Way; the correct method of doing pretty much everything. There's a moral bent to do the most good possible without being egoistic about it, and a desire to keep the body and mind in the highest working order, and as such self-mastery is a major part of their understanding of magic. It is for this reason that they hold the Sphere of Mind; unlocking the secrets of how the Mind holds back the body and spirit will allow them to become the truly perfect, formless being. To this end, most Akashics practice a martial art called "Dao" (Chinese for "the Way"), supposedly the Ur-martial art from which all others are descended. Despite this seeming unity, rivalries and disputes based on technique aren't uncommon.

That said, mastering the art of Dao is considered the first big part of attaining enlightenment; not the end of it, and a major part of learning their ways comes down to effectively seeing things as they are; they truly are, in order to both do magic and become a true master and Ascend. This makes them one of the more active traditions in any time period, as their teachings are fundamentally against inaction when one could go out and give wisdom to those who need it.

How to learn Kung-Fu

The Akashi are recruited from all walks of life, typically either from Akashic strongholds like Shaolin Temples, Yogi Ashrams, and any other place that happens to find self-mastery and martial arts a major portion of it's existence. Some are even just found walking the streets without clarity of purpose but immense promise. When a recruit shows that they might have talent for what they do, they take them aside and begin special training for this recruit. If the recruit manages to hang in with their wizard boot camp, they will become initiated by the Brotherhood; given a new name and allowed to find themselves in a particular sect. This training can take months or even years, as they are only ever given instruction by a single teacher; the work required to teach even a few of the Akashic's basic tenets and demanding that changing teachers is simply impractical, and the number of Akashics in the world itself that could be called "Masters" are spread far too thin to get people changing majors on them.

From there, they follow The Path, and slowly walk their way up the totem pole of Kung-Fu Wizards:

• Sinai: The Freshly (or not-so-freshly) awakened Student. They are given new names that either exemplify a concept within Dharma or a flaw within oneself, and are generally done to help the student disassociate themselves from a specific identity, as these names are often shared through hundreds of thousands of generations.
• Sihing: Adept level Akashics who typically fulfill the role of Master. Since there are so few who could ever meaningfully take up the title of master, its the Sihing who generally take up the role for the young acolytes, and are the day-to-day runners of the Akashic Chantries.
• Sifu: Due to the sheer stringent nature of the tradition; the title of Master is rarely given out and rarely attained, with each confirmed Chantry of Akashics generally having only one at a time, and in the event of a retirement or death, the Sifu makes the choice on who replaces him; otherwise the Chantry has to come to that decision on their own.
• Sigung: The Arch-Mages. If you thought becoming a Master was tough, imagine what a Grandmaster needs to be like. They're considered the living incarnation of Dharmas and are revered for their wisdom, but also sort of accepted that this is as far as they're gonna go. Most of them don't interact with the physical world anymore, and the one who does is a GIANT asshole.
• Bodhisattva: Welcome to Buddha-hood. It is paradoxically a form of ascension, but one made entirely from the choice not to ascend. It is said that the Bodhisattvas are driven by a compassion that urges them to forgo the final enlightenment and become beacons of enlightenment to others. These are the guys who can level armies with a simple pinky finger, and heal the sick with but a look. They are revered among the Akashics due to their incredible sacrifice, and are seen alongside Siddhartha Guatama and the Taoist Eight Immortals in equal measure.

Organization

The factions of the Akashic Brotherhood are:

• The Dynamicism aligned Jnani, who follow a more traditionally sorcerous path. They are hermits and spiritual gurus with a decidedly transcendental bent. They get along well with the Dreamspeakers and Cult of Ecstasy as a result.
• The Stasis aligned Kannagara are what many picture when they think of the Tradition: ascetics, refining their mind and body to a razor point by denying the pleasures of the flesh. They make excellent mediators, but tend to be dogmatic and slow to act.
• The Entropy aligned Vajrapani are the flipside of the coin: warriors honing their martial prowess to superhuman levels so that the enlightened masters need not dirty their hands and weigh down their hearts with blood.

In addition to the three Trinity aligned factions, there are other groups that have gathered under the Akashic Umbrella:

• The Shi Ren are the inheritors of the Chinese Legalist philosophy and, as such, tend to be much more engaged in the affairs of society at large than their aloof companions, with connections ranging from organized crime to mass media. Their history with the similarly Legalism-adjacent mages of the Wu Lung is fraught and complex, and many more traditional Brothers distrust them because of it.
• The Li Hai are an eclectic collection of wandering folk heroes, foreigners, political reformers, syncretists, and literal crazy people united by their criticism of the dogmas of the Tradition. Many believe the Tradition should take a more active hand in mortal society and interact more with the other Traditions.
• The Wu Lung are sort of a weird mix of advisors and viziers who were previously rivals to the Akashics through the transition from Qing to Ming dynasties...right up until the Technocracy rolled through, and the new emperor designated the Akashi as the keepers of Ancient China's mystic arts, after which they run with their tails between their legs either to the Akashics, the Disparate Alliance, or the Hermetics. Most modern Wu Lung are in Hong Kong fighting shadow wars against the Technocracy.