Editing Euthanatos

{{Topquote|"We say that flowers return every spring, but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested. The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid. And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us."|Daniel Abraham, ''The Price of Spring''}}

Death is a cycle with life, and when people begin fucking with that, it's these guys job to remove them from it. The '''Euthanatos''' [[Mage:_The_Ascension|mages]], called the '''Chakravanti''' or '''Nyamavanti''' in ''20th Anniversary'', have what they do in their name: When someone or something dark or evil is around, then they begin to poison and despoil the people around them. And thus, the Euthanatos dispatch them.

== History ==
The Euthenatos believe in a great amalgamation of stories about who they are; that they are the successors of the first beings to interact with the great wheel of life and death, who made the Great Sacrifice to get the wheel turning in the first place, taking the painful but bold step to introduce this cycle into life on earth. These Death Mages then trace their history back to the priests Indus River Valley, and followed the natural flow of humanity throughout the world; settling in places like India, helping form major elements of understanding and accepting death and it's consequences. Then they met the [[Akashic Brotherhood]] on the other side of the Ganges River, when things got '''hairy.'''

The Akashi and the Proto-Euthanotoi initially had quite a lot in common; a belief in cyclical life, a strong belief in justice being cosmically ordained...but that's pretty quickly where things came to a stop. The Akashi could appreciate things for as they were in nature/society as a beautiful harmony, but the Euthanatoi would only see things from the perspective of how it impacted the wheel. Further, the Euthanatoic cults were deeply concerned with how the Akashi used Life magic and how it could give people the wrong impression of how things were supposed to work. The Akashi meanwhile saw what some of these cults were doing and were ''deeply'' disturbed by their supposed "duty" involving purposeful murder. Those arguments went from misunderstandings, to misgivings, to active war, centered primarily in Nepal and spanning nearly 600 years. It's within these Himalayan Wars that the Euthanatoi truly form, first as the ''Chakravanti''. The word ''Chakravanti'' means "''People of the Wheel''", as in the cyclic ''Wheel of Ages'' fueled by [[Dynamicism]], [[Stasis]], and [[Entropy]].  The Chakravanti then adopted like-minded [[Mage:_The_Ascension|mages]] from around the world under their banner, and this collective adopted the name ''Euthanatos'', meaning "''Good Death''". Oh and they won the Himalayan Wars, more or less, forcing the Akashi into seclusion.

By the time the Grand Convocation happened, the Euthanatoi were already a powerful and long-lived tradition that basically just needed the sign-off from everyone else, though understandably the Akashics and the Choir weren't super cool with the whole "I decide when people die" thing, but the Great Betrayal ended up allowing them an opportunity to prove their worth, and they've been there ever since, fighting the Technocracy's machinations to sever the Sleeping world from the Wheel as much as they can.

== Serving the Good Death ==
The Euthanatos paradigm is understood primarily through the concept of The Great Wheel of Karma and their devotion to it. Transitions from life to death, from fire to ash, from day to night, all come from the Wheel and it's connection to all living and unliving things tied inextricably to their immortal, reincarnating Atman (soul), and their sacred Dharma (Duty). It is for this reason that the Euthanatoi work to keep the Great Wheel's many cogs turning, and to keep those who have swayed from their Dharma from fucking things up and slay them if they become an active problem; making them premiere assassins of the world of Mage. These "Death Mages" also have a long-standing difficult concern with Necromancy; they are exceptionally adept at it, but try only use this in extremely specific situations, for they fear the taint of Jhor.

Jhor is the price ultimately paid by many Euthanatoi. See, fucking around with death magic and wantonly sending souls to the Umbra attracts the resonance of the Underworld, which can end up creating it's own unique and extremely dangerous Quiet that turns them from careful adjudicators to serial killers. As such, much of their learning comes from not just the cycle of life and death, but from all cycles of life and how to appreciate them, and the Euthanatoi are hypervigilant towards any taint of it and will quickly mete out cleansing rotes (be they spiritual or "bones explode") to right the ship. 

This grim duty of keeping the Wheel of Life moving is why a great many of the other Traditions have a great deal of trouble understanding or even working with them; most of the other traditions actively plan on preserving life however possible, and simply cannot understand or accept what they understand as monumental arrogance or callousness. The reality couldn't be further from the truth; if there are those who can be saved, then the Euthanatoi have a personal duty to save them; it's only the hopeless cases that get the metaphorical axe. But the fact that they are deciding that at all is what gets the other traditions' goats. While they don't care for it, they also recognize that it's quite useful to have a dedicated tradition that's willing to do indiscriminate murder, and so begrudgingly put up with them.

The Euthanatoi are a spread out Tradition, and generally focus on a very master-student level relationship that takes years to develop. Prospective mages are often taken from those who have a deep understanding of death, such as healers, doctors, or those who have experienced it first-hand through traumatic experience, and must make amends. From there, they are taught on the way of their kind until they experience their ''Dishka'', or a ritualized death. After that, it's off to learn as much as possible about their grim work until they are ready to do this on their own, which can often take years of study and killing.

== Tenders of the Wheel ==
The Euthanatoi are spread out in every direction, and so generally tend to keep their organization by pure experience, by origin point, or by method.

* '''Aided:''' Celtic Pagans who were tasked with tending to the transition of the seasons, symbolically "slaying" the old season in order for the new one to begin. The difference between them and the Verbena is just this; their obsession with the cycles and the role death played in them created an uncloseable rift between them. They are obsessed with the idea of Geasa, or fate, and thus work round the clock to ensure it goes off without a hitch. Once tried a recruitment drive, and that ended in a good number of their own ending up becoming infernalists. Since then, the Aided are more selective on who they bring into the fold.
* '''Chakravanti:''' The Chakravanti are the oldest and remain the largest single faction of Euthanatoi. Most of their history is the early Euthanatoi history in general. Once a much more diverse faction, time has whittled them down into the protective ''Devada'', the revolutionary ''Lakshmists'', and the conversavite ''Netapapas''. All are deep in their belief of Vedic scripture as well as in reincarnation based on the Karma accrued in life, and thus strive to garner as much positive Karma as one can get while balancing out the bad shit.
* '''Hierochthonoi:''' Greek Cthonian pagans who classically are the weavers of fate and the punishers of hubris according to their understanding of Greek Mythology. They donated their own symbol, the Omega, to the Tradition at the Grand Convocation, and are generally extremely chummy with fellow Wheel-turners due to their shared love of keeping the Wheel of Fate turning, though their two largest groups, the Militaristic Knights of Radamanthys and the spiritual and introspective Promegranate Deme, might as well be entirely different factions unto themselves.
* '''MadZimbabwe:''' Shona Witch Doctors from Zimbabwe who have a stupendously long history in southern africa; tending to ancestor spirits and healing the sick while also driving off evil using poisons and diseases. While extremely close to Dreamspeakers, their insistence on the punishing of wicked souls as well as healing place them firmly within the Euthanatoi, though they understand the basics of their tenets from an entirely different avenue. Surprisingly growing in the Euthanatoi in spite of centuries of colonialism thanks to shared practices among the myriad Shona people, and their cool old Archmage named Senex who safeguards much of their wisdom in his own special chantry in the Umbra and occasionally shows up to teach people stuff. 
* '''Vrati:''' Euthanatos special forces. Takes from all of the above traditions and sets them to work doing extremely specific work that the other factions either can't do or would have to go to great pains in order to do. Such duties include specific research on the works of the Tradition in order to see greater threats, Inter-tradition diplomacy (and secret policing if shit gets crazy to the ire of pretty much everyone outside the tradition), and Nephandi hunting.
* '''Yum Camil''': Death mages from Mexico who followed the god Ah Puch. They showed up at the Convocation, announced they wanted to be part of the Euthanatoi, signed up, and then left without elaborating at all. Many Euthanatoi Circles occasionally go looking for them but find absolutely nothing but bugs and cold weather, even if they set up wards against it. The Yum Camil instead usually find the Euthanatoi in order to pass on critical information, or to ensure a ritual is done before they pass through central America. At which point, they disappear again.


The Idran faction of Chakravanti mages formed the [[Tal'mahe'Ra]] alliance with Enochian [[Vampire:_The_Masquerade|vampires]], and a subset of those Idran used their necromantic magick to transform themselves into the [[Nagaraja]] vampires.

Whereas Euthanatoi are moderates who view [[Entropy|death]] in moderation as a necessity for a healthy Wheel of Ages, their extremist analogues are the [[Nephandi]].

{{WoD-Traditions}}