Editing Mage: The Awakening (section)

===Supernal===
The Supernal is the metaphorical fire and objects (which we'll call symbols, from now on) that cast the shadows in Plato's cave, with the shadows here being the 'Fallen' World where everyone lives and dies. The reason it's called the Fallen World is because while it and the Supernal used to be connected, there's now a whole (un)realm of (un)reality called the Abyss between the Supernal and the real world that acts as the source of Paradox due to essentially being the anti-Truth. This happened because eleven assholes-turned-symbolic Truth didn't want anyone else to get a share of ''their'' pie. The eleven god-assholes became symbols of Tyranny; the mages call them the Exarchs (Greek for 'ruler from outside'), whom the Seers of the Throne serve because they want to be on the winning side.

Now you're probably asking "What are the Supernal Realms then?" The thing about the Supernal is that if you enter it willy-nilly you get obliterated, as in 'never-existed' obliterated- the pure Truth it embodies simply absorbs the truth of your own existence. The Watchtower you Awaken to filters the Truth, creating a realm in which a person can Awaken without being deleted from reality. In fact this is how Archmasters enter the Supernal, by imposing their own vision into it.

So to make things simple, the Supernal is the source code for reality, with the realms being programming languages, and the Exarchs are hackers that accidentally released a virus called the Abyss that threatens to wreck it all.

Normal humans, or "Sleepers", are not capable of perceiving Awakened magic because they carry shards of the Abyss within their souls; if they witness Supernal magic, they are compelled to forget or rationalize it away since the Abyss's influence in the Fallen World renders the Supernal truth unknowable to non-Awakened. Additionally, the presence of Sleepers increases the risk of Paradox as they unintentionally allow the Abyss to corrupt the Supernal symbols a spell uses, much like the Disbelief of old. Mages debate the exact origins of what they call Quiescence, but most believe it is how the Abyss prevents people from Awakening, or perhaps how the human mind prevents itself from going insane over being confronted with the Lie. 

Some people (including all other supernatural beings) are considered "Sleepwalkers": they are not capable of Awakened magic due to an inability to see the Supernal, but they are still able to see past the Lie well enough to prevent them from triggering the effects of Quiescence.