Editing Mage: The Awakening (section)

==Factions==
===The Pentacle Orders===
Originally starting as the Diamond Order, which descended from the four dominant philosophies among the Awakened during the time of Alexander the Great's Empire, the first four factions were joined by the Free Council, then Nameless Orders that united under the banner of Sleeper culture, at the turn of the 20th century after the Seers asked them to join forces against the Diamond Order. While the Free Council is still a bit distant from their peers, the Diamond Order has now become the Pentacle Order. The five factions are:

*'''The Adamantine Arrow:''' ''Challenge is Magical.'' The Mage army. They teach magical kung-fu and shit. ZAP MUTHAFUCKA! They believe existence is war, which leads to infighting for dominance or just practice, with themselves or with other factions. They actually get along great with the other Orders, because 90% of their schtick is protecting other mages. Honaraburu.
*'''The Guardians of the Veil:''' ''Magic is Fragile.'' They're the Mage secret service. They keep shit that should stay hidden, hidden. Particularly from Sleepers - they believe that whenever they witness magic and allow Quiescence to take hold, a little bit more of the Abyss escapes into the Fallen World. They oppose the Mysterium, because they think magic should be hidden and the unworthy should be prohibited from becoming mages, which is far too much like the Seers than they'd like (the main difference is that if the Guardians see you Awakening despite them, they presume you are worthy until shown otherwise). They're one of the few Orders that think there should be strong ethical guidelines for magic, even taking upon themselves the burden of doing evil and losing Wisdom so others can remain unstained. They oppose the Free Council and Silver Ladder for their recklessness, and the Mysterium for keeping secrets from them. The other Pentacle Orders don't like them, but they don't like themselves either considering their work to be disgusting but sadly necessary. They also secretly believe Mage Jesus will one day come and fix everything, and despite not coming from the Guardians he/she will pass judgment on the crimes they have committed to keep the Pentacle safe.
*'''The Mysterium:''' ''Magic is Alive.'' The Mage equivalent of Indiana Jones or wise old sages (sometimes both!). They collect and study magical mysteries, keeping secrets from other mages unless they are worthy or have another mystery to trade with, which leads to other factions trying to steal their lucky charms. Tied with the Ladder for "Pentacle Order most like the Seers".
*'''The Silver Ladder:''' ''Magic is Humanity's birthright.'' The leadership caste of Mage society. They play politics and think Mages are superior to mortals. A combination of revolutionaries, apocalypse cultist, and priesthood (of HUMANITY FUCK YEAH). They consider it the divine right of mankind to wield magic, but there are different tiers of enlightenment before and after you become a mage (hence ladder) and believe that even if you don't Awaken you can find a rung best suited for you - basically a meritocratic caste system. Even though both are mankind-loving rebels, they dislike the Free Council because of their views on hierarchies and the Guardians of the Veil because when you have one organization that considers hubris a Mage's greatest enemy and another that has the saying "Hubris is a coward's word", of course they're not going to get along well.
*'''The Free Council:''' ''Humanity is Magical.'' The "Ordinary Humanity, Fuck Yeah!" faction. They believe that the Fallen World isn't quite as worthy of dismissal as the other Orders believe it to be, and that Mages can learn a lot from things like mortal technology. They push for democracy in Awakened society, as opposed to the meritocracy that the Ladder usually sets up. They oppose the Silver Ladder, because they think magic should be for everyone (which is arguably something they have in common but the mage superiority angle the Silver Ladder has rubs them the wrong way), The Guardians for hiding magic from sleepers (sometimes - older members of both orders tend to see their roles as complimentary), the Mysterium for being too fixated on Atlantis, and the Seers for being like the Guardians but worse (they work for the Exarchs and aren't at all complimentary).

===Seers of the Throne===
The Seers of the Throne want to be the [[Imperium]] in a world where Chaos and real '''''[[HERESY]]''''' as they define it does not exist (i.e. the only thing to them is cartoonishly evil wannabe Nazis played straight). If you play those guys as actual heroes rather than your secret supervillain fantasies, you are doing it wrong. And we're not talking the Doctor Horrible "lashing out against everyone who mocked your scientific genius and making the world a better place if you won no seriously you aren't kidding or deluded" secret supervillain fantasy (that would be the Technocracy, or to use an example from the actual game, the factions of the Pentacle at their nastiest). No, you want Seers for the "grind the world beneath your heel while you anally rape it using your magic-empowered dick and take photos to show off to your fellow global anal rapists before going off to eat puppies grilled on the infernos of a burning oil slick sea and washing them down with the tears of abused orphans" supervillain fantasy. Seriously, [[grimdark]] is a ''feature'' of the world they want, even more so than the current fucking World of Darkness!

The Seers came into being proper sometime in the mid-15th century, before that they were just a loose group of Exarch-aligned Nameless Orders, when The Hegemonic Ministry came into being and organized the other orders after their own ministry. They are a bureaucratic fuckfest of backstabbing, infighting, and bureaucratic power-jockeying between a bunch of "ministries," even more so than the Pentacle. While some Seers might go on about trying to "protect humanity from magic's dangers," that's either lip service or self-delusion. If they really wanted to protect sleepers, they'd join the less-crazy of the Banishers (which is itself an oxymoron, for reasons described below). To them, ''Magic is Payment'', something generously allowed to them by the Exarchs in exchange for their service in upholding the Lie. 

There are four big ministries, divided into how they want to make the world miserable as shit, as well as a few minor ministries (every major Exarch has at least one ministry). The big four are:

*'''The Praetorians:''' ''The Weak Fear the Strong.'' The ministry that governs violence. The Praetorians like cold-blooded strategy just as much as burning rage, and war just as much as serial killing. These ensure that humanity remains a pack of mewling whelps too paralyzed by fear for their lives to even consider obtaining enlightenment, while controlling their violence so they do not destroy themselves and leave the Exarchs without subjects to rule over. They serve the General, Exarch of Forces.
*'''The Panopticon:''' ''Vision is Power.'' You don't need to literally enslave people to enslave them; if you make people believe they are being watched they will chain themselves for you. The Panopticon is based on this philosophy: to them paranoia is sacred, and their ideal is a world without privacy, where Sleepers will not do anything that makes them stand out from the crowd because everyone else is watching. They serve the Eye, Exarch of Space. 
*'''The Hegemony:''' ''The State is the Soul.'' Utopia is attainable. Sleepers must never be allowed to know it is possible, must never be allowed to achieve it, and above all, must never be allowed to find out that it used to exist. The Hegemony carry a contradicting duty, to divide humanity by uniting them under different banners and ideologies, erasing individuality yet creating opposition to ensure that Sleepers cannot set aside their differences long enough to Awaken. The Hegemony's power is waning, with corporate greed supplanting nationalism as the lesser Ministry of Mammon works to undermine them. They serve the Unity, Exarch of Mind.
*'''The Paternoster:''' ''Faith is an Unbreakable Chain.'' It takes faith to manufacture faith, and devotion to deceive the devoted. The Paternoster, unlike the other ministries, buys into their own hype, all of it. They truly believe if no-one Awakens and all Supernal truth is gone from this world then it would become paradise, and so they expunge the hints of the Supernal from mortal religions and replace them with holy lies and cults too busy squabbling over irrelevant doctrine to approach the Truth. They serve the Father, Exarch of Prime.

These are just the big ministries - there's always four of them (and always those four, even if another Ministry usurps a spot), but while the other ones are much weaker they're just as dedicated in grinding down the world and backstabbing each other for more power. The ones that have been more described (besides their names and allegiance) are:

*'''The Dolusian:''' The Father's other ministry. They spread misinformation.
*'''The Geryon:''' ''Faceless Powers Rule Unopposed.'' Crushing trust and letting fear rule was their bread and butter. They encouraged people with power and privilege to hide their identity and oppress those below them with no restraint. In modern times, the Ministry no longer exists, having been destroyed by Scelesti. They served the Nemesis, Exarch of Spirit.
*'''The Herodian''': The General's other ministry. They seek to foster violent paranoia and pre-emptive action.
*'''The Horologian:''' ''Routine is the True Opiate of the Masses.'' Through regimentation and having all actions be dictated by, accountable to, and accounted for one person, they crush creativity and independent thought. The 9-to-5 grind in schools and factories ensnares people in the Lie as they become unable to imagine that there might be more to life than the same old routines. They serve the Prophet, Exarch of Time.
*'''The Kyrian:''' The ministry of anti-social mobility. They seek to enforce that a person's class and prospects are decided at birth and they can do nothing about it, mainly by enforcing caste systems and wealth disparity. They serve the Prophet and the Ruin, Exarch of Fate.
*'''The Mammon:''' Not much is written about them. They are close to supplanting The Hegemony because corporate greed is supplanting nationalism as a force in the world, and serve the Chancellor, Exarch of Matter. Their motto is unknown, but it is said that they operate by encouraging materialism and greed so everyone and everything is reduced to commodities fit only to be bought and sold. 
*'''The Orphean:''' Named after the effect of Orpheus's music, namely putting people to Sleep. They also serve the Nemesis.
*'''The Peirasmon:''' Ministry of temptation, specifically, tempting role models into their downfall. They serve the Ruin.
*'''The Rhadamanthian:''' Named after one of the Greek judges of the dead. They serve the Psychopomp, Exarch of Death. 
*'''The Sycorian:''' Named after the monstrous mother of Caliban. They serve the Raptor, Exarch of Life.

===Legacies===
While the Orders all give general guidelines on how to use magic, the Legacies provide more specific teachings. Ranging from millennium-old philosophies to newer but still powerful worldviews, Legacies offer a network of contacts to like-minded mages and provide access to Attainments- instinctive powers that reshape the user's soul and can be used without the need to cast spells.

The most infamous Legacies are sometimes referred to as the "left-handed" Legacies. These are Legacies that have been banned for one reason or another; this may be because they qualify as Scelesti, steal or abuse the souls of other beings (such Legacies are sometimes known as "Reapers"), or are otherwise dangerous to the rest of mage society.

===Others===
'''Banishers''' are mages that have turned against magic- to them, ''Magic is Immoral.'' They come in three general categories: the Harrowed are those who awakened "wrong" (e.g. they became Awakened but didn't swap out their Integrity for Wisdom, so now they perceive all magic including their own as pain and fear and their Integrity is likely at extremely low levels), and developed an instinctive hatred of magic as a result. Their awakening was traumatic and not at all empowering, so they wreak havoc on other mages with fear and flame, creating their own Mage-style paradigms in the process. The Ideologues started out as regular mages, but turned against magic after investigating the wrong Mystery, discovering some secret truth too horrible to bear, or getting an up-close look at how dangerous magic can be.  Finally, the Hungry follow Legacies that allow them to consume or destroy magic for power, but they frequently become dependent on doing so to survive.

Banishers usually work alone, but sometimes organize into various cults, from wildman cannibals, religious nuts, performance artists, alien abductees, pyromaniac cathars, thinly-veiled Scientologist knockoffs, and more.

Banishers also have legacies, but these are fairly rare and seem to be most common among the Hungry. Some of the known ones are:
*'''The Flood:''' Banishers who learn how to suppress and "cleanse" locations of supernatural power, like Hallows and Loci, and draw power from those places they've suppressed.
*'''Logophages:''' Banishers who seek magical knowledge, destroying it so only they know it and gaining power from the act.
*'''Timori:''' Banishers who steal Mana and Gnosis from other awakened to extend their lifespans. This leads them to become addicted to stolen Gnosis and dislodges the Life Arcanum from their bodies, causing them to start crystallizing.

'''Liches''' are mages who seek to use magic to make them immortal. Mind you, this isn't as simple as using Life or Death spells to stave off the inevitable, since those can still be dispelled. Instead, most liches steal the bodies of other beings or transform themselves into ghosts, spirits, or Morpheans (basically dream-mages). 
*'''The [[Tremere]]:''' ''Magic Hungers.'' The most infamous group of liches and reapers, they started off as a Legacy that claimed to find a way to alter their souls through a "Seventh Watchtower" unifying all the Subtle Arcana, granting them eternal life so long as they consumed the souls of other beings and gave up their own souls to the Watchtower's hunger. They have since grown large enough to function as an Order encompassing many smaller Legacies (or "Houses", as they're called by the Tremere) they've twisted to fit their ends, and many Tremere liches develop an alarming similarity to vampires. Instead of Gnosis, they have Hollow, which behaves similarly for the most part but grants several soul-related abilities at the expense of forcing the Tremere to feed on stolen souls to survive while causing them to lose their Path. These drawbacks are of no concern to them; in their eyes, their hunger for souls ties them to the cosmic oversoul's own hunger and the Paths are nothing more than constraints on the soul's true potential. 

'''Nameless''' are those who aren't a part of the Pentacle Orders or the Seers, either because they awakened somewhere with very few or no other mages at all, or they simply haven't been noticed by them. Those that join either one but then leave, get kicked out, or decline the invitation are called '''Apostates'''. The two sometimes are part of the '''Nameless Orders''', the various minor orders that lack the influence and resources of the Pentacle and the Seers.

Some of the known Nameless Orders are:
*'''Bay City Marshals:''' ''Justice is Magical.'' A hybrid Nameless Order and [[Changeling: The Lost|Changeling Court]] that existed during the Gold Rush. They sought to punish criminals for their crimes and hunted down the Gentry, Seers, and their servants in equal measure.
*'''Company of the Codex:''' ''Freedom is Magical.'' An order of [[Awesome|pirate mages]] devoted to common goals and freedom from overarching authority. They were the main Awakened power in the [[Wikipedia:Republic of Pirates|Pirate Republic of Nassau]], but were destroyed by co-operation of the Seers and the Silver Ladder.
*'''New York Nameless Order:''' Apostates from New York and Jersey who refused to separate from their Sleeper friends and family. They act as proxies for each other to avoid the Pentacle Orders and the Seers from tracking them and their close ones down.
*'''Order of the Rose:''' Originally a part of the Labyrinth that was destroyed during an awakened conflict, the Order of the Rose has become dominant local Awakened power in Ripton County. They seek the metaphysical perfection of body and soul, along with mapping and exploring other realms.
*'''Tucson's Nameless Orders:''' Whenever supernatural problems arise in Tucson, the local Nameless and Apostates, who make the majority of Awakened in the city, form a temporary Order to deal with the problem and then disband.

'''The Rapt''' (also known as The Mad) are the Marauders of the setting. When a mage's Wisdom hits 0, they become absolutely obsessed with something even by mage standards and their souls crack open and start leaking magic everywhere, making Sleepers forget their existence completely due to Quiescence. Their Faults force them to pursue an obsession to the point of monomania, ranging from casting a certain spell over and over, to trying to solve unsolvable Mysteries, to full-on magic-fuelled murder sprees. The force of their Fault amplifies the magic they wield in pursuit of it, making them far more dangerous than they might seem. 

Those that neglect their Faults spawn Tulpas, sentient spell effects that seek to draw the Rapt back to their obsession. Some especially unlucky Rapt lose all their Wisdom during the Awakening itself, leaving them trapped in their own Oneiros until they can manifest a Tulpa for their consciousnesses to possess. 

'''Scelesti''' (sing. Scelestus) are the Nephandi of the setting. They're banned Legacies who either seek to control over Paradox or simply seek power, which they gain through the Abyss. The least powerful of them "only" deliberately infect their spells with Paradox, granting them power at the risk of staining their souls. More advanced Scelesti enter the Dur-Abzu, the twisted Abyssal reflections of the Supernal Realms, and twist their paths to gain control over Paradox with the aid of the anti-Watchtowers, the Ziggurats; they also frequently make pacts with Abyssal beings. This latter type of Sclestus often embody the opposite of what their Watchtower stereotype is - Acanthus who view oaths as meaningless and spread chaos wherever they go because destiny isn't real to them, Mastigos who isolate and judge all as unworthy sinners whose selves aren't worth trying to perfect, materialistic Moros who reject the alchemy of transformation and rebirth in favor of a continual decay unbound by any concept of "ending", hardcore atheist/nihilist Obrimos that subvert the very concept of sublimity and elevate themselves as gods in the place of an absent Divine, and Thyrsus who have become captains of industry that subjugate nature and spirits alike in the name of human supremacy.

They replace their Wisdom with Joining, which represents their growing attunement to the Abyss- an attunement that will utterly destroy them when their souls become completely lost to the Abyss. 

Some of the known Scelesti legacies are:
*'''Cult of the Doomsday Clock:''' Awakened dedicated to destroying the Fallen World and time itself. As the members advance through the ranks, they slowly turn into abyssal beings, culminating in them killing their past selves before awakening and becoming living Paradoxes.
*'''Fangs of Mara:''' Awakened who willingly enter the dreams of abyssal beings so they can better fight them and use the dreams as weapons of fear.
*'''Hand of Destiny:''' Awakened who use Abyssal magic to throw the worries of Sleepers into the abyss. Only its leaders know that they also feed those same Sleepers' hopes and aspirations to a Gulmoth, leaving them bereft of ambition. 
*'''Hunter's Flesh:''' Awakened who believe themselves to be soul-maggots spawned from the corpse of a hunting god, they can take the form of a monstrous beast.
*'''Keepers of the Chrysalis:''' Awakened altered by an Annunaki called the Exile to act as its heralds, who spread a magical plague that imbues Sleepers with new talents but slowly turns them into living glass. 
*'''The Legion:''' Awakened who let abyssal beings consume and take place of their body parts.
*'''Secret Order of the Gate:''' Seers who worship the Gate, Exarch of the Abyss. They believe that the Fallen World must never touch the Supernal Realm, lest existence be choked to death, so they utilize the Abyss to maintain a balance, never allowing the Fallen World to reach the Supernal and not allowing the Abyss to devour the world. Their patron is said to have granted them access to the Place Between, the realm where the Fallen World meets the Abyss. 

'''Proximi''' (sing. Proximus) are best described as not-quite mages. The Proximi are divided into Dynasties, each affiliated with one of the Paths, that they almost always awaken to should they become Awakened, and are able cast a handful of low-to-middle level spells, called Blessings. Every Dynasty also suffers from a curse, making mages speculate that they were intentionally created, though there's also evidence to suggest that they just pop up suddenly.

Some of the known Dynasties are:
*'''Benedetto:''' A Mastigos Dynasty of Italian peasants who are sympathetically linked to something that lies deep in the earth. Their curse is that every night they dream of supernatural threats they must fight. If they are prevented from restful sleep, their visions infect the dreams of Sleepers and cause nightmares.
*'''Essers:''' A Thyrsus Dynasty that appeared in the early 4th century, they work as healers and exorcists. Their curse is that once they lose their soul, they must eat the souls of others to stave off the effects of soul loss and can never recover their soul.
*'''Merovingians:''' An Obrimos Dynasty claiming descent from the old Frankish dynasty of the same name. The Long-Haired Kings used to rule over the Franks before the Silver Ladder kicked their asses and now they spend all their time trying get back at them. Their curse is that they're all sickly and frail.
*'''Myrmidons:''' An Obrimos Dynasty that serves the Praetorian ministry, all them have some sort of insectile features. Their curse is that they must obey any command given in Oath-Tongue, or they lose their soul until forgiven.
*'''Priamids:''' An Acanthus Dynasty claiming descent from the king of Troy and his daughter Cassandra. Though they have prophetic gifts, their curse prevents them from communicating what they have seen. That's often why when one tells a knowing mage to do something, they do it.
*'''Sisters of the Mountain:''' A Thyrsus Dynasty of Appalachian folk magicians that have plants growing under their skin. Their curse is that they must sleep on healthy soil every night to prevent the plants from consuming them.
*'''Veliona's Hand:''' A Moros(?) Dynasty of ancestor worshippers linked to the Keepers of Vedet Legacy. When the Tremere turned the legacy to House Vedmak, they subjugated the dynasty as well.

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<gallery>
File:OrderAdamantineArrow.png|Adamantine Arrow
File:OrderGuardiansoftheVeil.png|Guardians of the Veil
File:OrderMysterium.png|Mysterium
File:OrderSilverLadder.png|Silver Ladder
File:OrderFreeCouncil.png|Council of Free Assemblies
File:OrderSeersoftheThrone.png|Seers of the Throne
File:MageTremere.jpg|Tremere Liches
File:OrderBayCityMarshals.png|Bay City Marshals
File:OrderCompanyoftheCodex.png|Company of the Codex
File:MTA-Banisher.png|Banishers
File:MTA-Scelesti.jpg|Scelesti
</gallery>
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