Verbena

"This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms."

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In Mage: The Ascension, these guys are some of the closest you'll get to stereotypical Druids... With some bloodier attachments. The Verbena (like the herb they named themselves after) are the best at healing, divination, and other lovely Druidic stuff. They also frequently use Blood Sacrifce, carve shit into their skin, perform depraved acts of self sacrifice, and generally oppose the modern world with all the vehemity that a White Wolf game from the 90's can offer.

History

The Verbena consider themselves the progenitors of some of the most ancient magics known to mankind, inheritors of a truly esoteric art that was perfected by a race of beings referred to as the Wyck. The Wyck were the shapers of the old world of magic and might. While they were all explorers, conquerors, pranksters and medicine people, their common ground was living life as fully and as magically as possible; after which they either fucked off somewhere or ascended, leaving their offspring; the Aeduna, to do that work in their stead. The Aeduna became the nature priests, philosophers, and record keepers of the ancient human world, finding a decent balance between their need to commune with nature and commune with Jocephus from Thebes. Of course, once Rome came through and decided it was time to go a-conquerin' all of the barbarians that were in their way, the Aeduna had to run for the hills. Regrouping in Britain, they set about creating the fall of the Roman Empire, which was eventually hastened along by the proto-Choir, and ultimately gained them their vengeance...which lasted about as long as realizing the Cult of Hermes was now effectively free to do whatever the fuck it wanted, and the Choir thought of them as Heretics to compete for followers, causing them to have to go into hiding again. They tried shacking up with the Hermetics, but that did not go well at all, and most Verbena still hold a grudge about it.

The Inquisition happened, which emboldened several Templar orders to begin a mass purge of all who remained true to the Old Faith; razing any pagan communities they could. The Aeduna tried to raise armies in defense, but the sheer might of the church (and especially all that Cold Iron) made it near impossible to fight back meaningfully, culminating in the destruction of Baerwald; their last major stronghold. It really seemed like that was the end for the Children of the Wyck, right up until a survivor of one of these many purges; a witch named Nightshade, happened upon some glowing stranger named Sh'Zar, who pleaded with her to come meet with the rest of the mystic traditions to broker a peace. She was understandably a bit cautious, but was inevitably convinced, and had to go gather the Aeduna together again in order to gain their agreement. It was there where she met yet another survivor of the Burning Times: William Groth. Groth and Nightshade were instrumental in bringing the tradition together for one big ritual, where they went from the Aeduna, to the Verbena we know today.

Of course, they still had to deal with the rise of the Technocracy, ultimately chosing to disappear from the prying eyes of the Order of Reason for good; becoming a slowly moving, generational Tradition run by families passing down "family recipes" and "grandma's special bible" and all that for generations, allowing them to largely go unnoticed...right up until World War 2, where the hasty grouping of myriad groups back in the middle ages came to rear it's ugly head in the form of the Iron Circle; a group of various scandinavian, britainnic, and germanic rune-crafters who never really agreed with this whole thing and ultimately helped back the rise of Nazi Germany, seeking to take vengeance on all those who had opposed them. This, naturally, caused a lot of issues with the Verbena; creating a massive civil war within the tradition over whether or not they agreed with the Iron Circle. This left a lot of gilgul'd and dead Verbena, and the stain of that never left the few Rune-Crafters who stuck on the allied side.

The modern day has actually been pretty alright to the Verbena, as the 60's were just as good to them as it was the Ecstatics, and allowed them to ultimately network better and become less insular, letting in different culture's interpretations of Verbena ritual to boost their ranks, and seek to continue to build and reclaim the natural world from the overexploitation of the Technocracy. Of course, they know they're on borrowed time, so they work their rituals faster and with greater fervor than before.

Mysteries of the Druids

The Verbena are, as you probably guessed, the most crunchy-granola of all Traditions; with their paradigm being rooted in Nature being the ultimate teacher of all things. Through the Natural world, one can not just minorly influence it in order to gain great secrets and control over the world around you, but exceptional understanding of the way reality works. Most Verbena treat Nature itself as the very spark of divinity that the Hermetics or the Choir believe in, and often use similar terminology to describe it as like a god or gods, things that can be very capricious if it's asked to do too much, but generous when appeased. For this reason, they are the undisputed masters over Life Magic and hold it's seat; which allows them to do all sorts of OP things, like causing all the implants in a Technocrat's body to explode out of them or rapidly heal near-fatal wounds in seconds. Verbena mages are not quite as tuned to the spiritual (being mired with Life) as the Dreamspeakers but are still strong advocates for the Fae and the return of "natural magic." Despite their herb-witch schtick, they care more for results and intent than ancient techniques, unlike some of the more hidebound traditions.

Their bitter enemies amongst the Technocracy are the Progenitors, and they also have a rather large hatedom amongst Ascension players for the same reason that the Progenitors hate them in-universe - namely, their strong association with "alternative medicine" like chakra alignment, crystal healing, herbalism, homeopathy, accupuncture, etc. You may ask why this is; after all, these methods work for the Verbena, and the only reason they don't work like modern medicine is because the Technocracy wrote them out of the Consensus... which, when you think about it, means that the Sons of Ether technically have the right to a Life-wielding faction who represent debunked medical theories and methods.

The problem is, whilst "alternative medicine" can work in the fictitious universe of MtA, in the real world it's complete bullshit sold by the kind of poison-peddling quacks that think bleach enemas cure autism and conmen profiting off other people's fear, desperation, or stupidity; made all the worse by White Wolf's tendency toward sanctimonious, heavy-handed "Science is bad, mmkay?" moral-pushing in its writing. The M20 books try to balance it out by giving the idea that they indirectly helped modern medical science understand patient mental health and the fundamental concept of quality of life and remind people that the Progenitors can be about a half-step up from Haemonculi when it comes to their ethics, but the stereotype and biases still persist.

Circles of the Craft

For each of the portions of the Metaphysic Trinity there is a faction within the Verbena:

• Lifeweavers (Dynamicism, Dynamic Avatars): Focused primarily on shapeshifting, elemental manipulation, and other things you can practice alone in the woods, the Lifeweavers are a solitary lot, pursuing personal enlightenment among the natural forces themselves. They're probably the faction whose members are most likely to be good in an all-out brawl, so they sometimes run espionage or assassinations for the rest of the Tradition and the Council as a whole. The Verbena as a whole value finding and restoring remnants of magic (known as Mythic Threads) from a younger time, but none more so than the Lifeweavers. Where Lifeweavers are moderates of Dynamicism, their extremist analogues are the Marauders.
• Gardeners of the Tree (Stasis, Pattern Avatars): Preoccupied with ritual, bloodline, and pedigree, the Gardeners have rightly earned a reputation as stodgy and narrow minded. That said, they boast peerless skill with rituals and rune magic. For more modern minded magi, they are almost always a real pain in the ass to deal with, but have preserved millennia old lore through generations.
• Twisters of Fate (Entropy, Primordial Avatars): Mystical and circumspect, with a tendency to be reserved and contemplative. They have great facility with curses, Geasa, Haruspecy, and other things dealing with the weave of destiny. Many also talk to ghosts, including what some claim are the mythical Wyck, the founders of the Tradition itself.
• Moonseekers (middleground, Questing Avatars). The free-spirited, open minded faction, the Moonseekers tend to be the face of the Verbena that most other Mages see. They welcome more than just European magical styles into the fold, including prominently Aztec and Voodoo methods. They're also by far the least luddite faction, using modern biological research and the internet alongside ancient rites. As such, the Moonseekers are the largest faction.