Mage The Ascension (WoD1.0) - Whose up for it?

[LadyTevar]

Psshaw. It's just another Marauder. Not a problem, unless he brings a Bygone through the Gauntlet.

Depending on the Bygone, I might not help you get rid of it.

[Cynical Cat]

Psshaw. It's just another Marauder. Not a problem, unless he brings a Bygone through the Gauntlet.

Depending on the Bygone, I might not help you get rid of it.

I think you will. It wouldn't be pretty to watch it die of starvation.

[LadyTevar]

Psshaw. It's just another Marauder. Not a problem, unless he brings a Bygone through the Gauntlet.

Depending on the Bygone, I might not help you get rid of it.

I think you will. It wouldn't be pretty to watch it die of starvation.

Depending on the Bygone, I could take it home with me... Plenty of room in the DenRealm....

[Cynical Cat]

That would be helping. Thanks T.

[LadyTevar]

That would be helping. Thanks T.

Note: This depends on what the Bygone is. Some Bygones need to stay gone.

If it's canine or lupine, it's dead.

[Dark Silver]

Ok, something I should have asked before.


Paradigms.

I need to know how your character views magickal workings. This will hold ALOT on the major rote stuff you'll be doing, it has to fit with your Paradigm, or it will have a increased difficulty.

So, come up with your characters Paradigm, be as detailed as you can, and post it below so I can add it to your character sheets.

I really should have had this on your main sheets before I started the game, but just realized I forgot it.

everyone must have super happy fun Paradigm time....please do not taunt super happy fun Paradigm, Super Happy Fun Paradigm is not a toy. Super Happy Fun Paradigm is not made of anything found on Earth. Super Happy Fun Paradigm has been shown to cause cancer in lab rats. Super Happy Fun Paradigm is illegal in California.

[Comrade Tortoise]

RUssell's paradigm:

Russell derives his paradigm from the hermetic tradition of using symbols, words, shapes, and math in order to work their will upon the world. He believes that magic is a function of symbols, and it is the meaning of these symbols and their relevance within the mind that allows a mage to work magic. These symbols are build around cognitive archetypes, the type of magic (sphere) determining how the mage conceptualizes them.

As a mage gains mastery, they learn that these symbols are but a crutch, and can be discarded in favor of the sheer force of will of an awakened mage.

I hope that made sense...

[LadyTevar]

The Nyota Jamaa showed me the way, and if worthy, I will show these magi.

[Cynical Cat]

The universe responds to the Awakened Will. Words and symbols are the earliest tools wielded by the mind and the one the mind has the greatest master over. With these tools the Awakened to wield magic to the second greatest extent. The highest mastery is that of the naked will, needing no words or tools to reshape reality.

To be a mage is a fourfold journey. To acquire the knowledge of how to work magic, to acquire the ability to master magic, to acquire the wisdom to know how to utilize magic, and the quest to find the mage's true path in universe as both protector and knowledge-giver.

[B4UTRUST]

Overview
----------

Reality, the great network. Reality connects an untold number of systems, of smaller networks and clusters, and binds them together. Inside the connecting network the systems lie. Great and small, hardware is pleantiful and the operating systems are as varied as it can get.

Most of the hardware and OSes operating at a very low level, never doing more then sending or recieving data to the network, little more then a ping, really. However, Awakened individuals (Hackers) have learned how to actively change the systems. Physical Reality itself (known as 'the system') is the representation of the network node we're in. Hackers can change parts of the system to affect the network.

What we perceive as physical objects are actually types of hardware. Once you learn how to modify the hardware's parameters, you can alter the entire way it behaves, its physical properties, composition, motion, etc. Hacking is best done on a computer - they are a great help in modelling the neccessary changes for you. To move yourself or an object, you simply change its location in the network by moving network ID tags from one point to another. By changing the programming language you can move objects between the spirit and physical worlds, and so forth.

Each reality has its own system, written in its own unique language. This makes the rules of that reality. The minds of its inhabitants are constantly making changes to the system, though the Technocracy is presently making low-level changes which are being retained and incorporated into the system itself. It is possible to bypass the usual system interface and mess with it yourself, but among the Technocracy's changes were a lot of Error codes (Paradox) designed to prevent this. Physical reality has a lot of error codes, but they can be kept at bay by deviating from the system's normal actions as subtly as possible. By masking your actions as an approved one, it is possible to prevent Error codes for a long time. One of our goals is to completely revamp the system, and ultimately change the way the whole network runs. This iwll require the co-operation of the sleepers.

Paradigm
----------

The system. There are many nodes (Realms), each running within the network (The metaverse) - the earth is but one node. The Near Umbra and the Realms within are different systems running the same code as our own, while Other Realms of the Deep Umbra might as well be running a whole other OS for all the similarities there. The Physical Reality experianced within each node and system by its inhabitants is created as the system runs.

Magick
---------

Hacking - Adepts know how the system works, and can use their skills to hack parts of it. Hacking is carried out in the runtime of the program.

Mages - Hackers. Those capable of the hack are (not surprisingly) known as Hackers.

Awakening: Upgrading. Upgrading yourself within the System allows you to become a Hacker. Sleepers have lower-end 'ware than Hackers.

The Spheres
--------------

Correspondence - Space in Physical Reality is merely the identifiers used by the Node and Network to locate and keep track of everything. Everything has a Network ID (denoted by a set of four-dimensional co-ordinates within the Node, indicating its current spatial location). Hackers can alter the location and spatial parameters of objects by directly changing the appropriate part of the identifer. Some less-enlightened Hackers refer to this hack as 'shifting through the Correspondence Point.' By hacking the relation between the ID and the Node's tracking code, Hackers can create multiple copies of an object in the System, or can percieve distant locations by scanning through tags.

Entrophy - The System itself has several self-diagnosis and self-modifying algorithms built into it. Old and Obsolete pieces of code and hardware are replaced by newer, better ones, which themselves eventually become out-of-date and are replaced. This constantly causes the System to evolve and upgrade itself. Hackers can encourage this and so cause parts of the System to decay and devolve so they can be replaced by new ones.
Chaos: Randomness. One of the Systems natural self-modifying algorithms governs probability. Random self-modification is one of the most important way in which the System can evolve. Randomness occurs within limits set by the System, though Hackers can vary these limits to make events more or less likely on their own terms.

Life - Hardware. What holds the OSes. The Hardware comes in many different forms and styles, creating a near infinite variety of combinations. Changing the hardware can be done in multiple ways. One of the easiest is an update to the Firmware. By changing the Firmware, you change the fundamental way the Hardware acts and reacts to I/O. Another method is by modding the Hardware itself. Changing the physical nature of the Hardware guarantees results, but also makes your Hack more prone to Error codes.

Forces - Power. Certain types of sub-systems require different types of power input. Some types of sub-systems are completely vulnerable to other types of power input. Adjusting the power inputs of a sub-system or creating new inputs can give you a lot of mixed results.

Matter - Materials. The Materials used to create the Hardware determine the end type of sub-system being built. Strengthening, weakening or changing the Materials can have a serious impact on the stability, survivability and structural integrity of the Hardware it's being used for. Creating new types of Materials is possible as well, with enough understanding of the Manufacturing Process, but it's difficult, time consuming, and prone to problems (Errors).

Mind - The Software. The Wetware. The OS. Without the code to tell the Hardware what to do, it's useless. By the same token, without the hardware to run it, all the Software in the world can't do a thing for you. The two are bound together. Upgrading and Modifying the Software can make the Hardware run better, or run worse. You can also write new Software and whole new OSes with enough understanding and knowledge.

Prime: Code. Code is the machine language of the System itself. Be changing the Code of the System, or a Sub-system, a Hacker can directly affect it, instead of the Data it represents, and so have great control over Physical Reality. This can range from altering the paramaters of a sub-system to allow it to hold more Data (Quintessence), creating new sub-systems (ie. Patterns), removing Data from a sub-system to remove some of its Physical properties, or transferring Data from one part of the System to another.

Spirit: Phasmatis ex Machina (Ghost in the Machine). If Hardware is your life and the Software is your mind, Spirit is the binding force between the two. Something outside of the physical, the essential spark that it represents is make a system unique. Every rig has its own personality, its own quirks, things that simple Hardware and Software cannot account for. Sometimes these personalities become stronger then the physical ties that bind them. When the hardware becomes obsolete and run down, and the software becomes too buggy and error prone, sometimes the Spirit lives on in other forms, intangible, a phantom, a Ghost of the Machine.

Time: Clock rate. Systems and subsystems are governed at speeds limited to the amount of data it can process in any given time. With certain procedures, a Hacker can Overclock a system to make it run faster then it otherwise normally would. By a similar process a Hacker can underclock a system to run slower then it normally would. A Hacker, in some cases, can even underclock a system to the point where it freezes up completely, refusing to process any data in or out.

Other Characteristics
---------------------

Arete: Eliteness.

Ascension: Uploading

Quintessence: Data

Paradox: Error Codes

[frigidmagi]

Let me finish the Heremtic book you gave me and I'll get back to you. Also my home connection is down, so it's back to the school connection for me.

[frigidmagi]

Damn me but that book was interesting DS, thank you most kindly. I'm gonna to modify my Foci if that's okay with you?

To Begin:

In the Beginning all was Void and dark but a Will emerged from darkness, that Will give birth to a Thought and that Thought midwifed a Word.

"I AM."

That Word ripped the Void, and prompted the Will to more Thought thus birthing more Words.

"LET THERE BE LIGHT."

Thus did the Divine begin existence. Thus does the magi trace the path of God with Will, Thought and Word.

On the Elements:
The Will: Passion, Emotion, Drive, Desire. The fire of a magi and the source of power. Without the Will the magi has no desire to act or shape the universe around him, leading to ennui and apathy.

The Thought: Reason, Rationality, Logic, Consciousness. The ability to know that gives the magi the ability to use his power in a useful fashion. Without Thought, Will has no guidence becoming nothing more then brute passion without any higher goal or reason

The Word: Action, Effect. The actual shaping of the universe by the magi.
While driven by his Will and formed with his Thought without the Word there is no act making Will and Though meaningless.

On Magic:

If magic is just Will, Thought and Word why are there so many ways of using and creating magic? The answer lies within humanity and it's drive for the Truth. Any truth at times. The divisions exist because Humanity has forgotten the truth of magic, of Will, Thought and Word.

Secrets have been lost, things that should not have been forgotten consigned to the dust. Secrets like the Keys of Solomen. Like the 10th Sphere. By searching in the Past we can find the clues to save the future.


Computer lab closing more tomorrow.

[Charon]

Here's a bit of my own, it will probably be expanded upon as I go.

Jason's Paradigm:

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."

Put simply, the real world isn't. What we live on is the Effect, while the people that live on the Effect, both sleeper and Awakened, are the Affect. Awakened, individually have a fine control over the Effect, able to shape small portions of it temporarily to their will. The real control of the Effect however are the sleepers, who collectively assert reality as a whole for the long term. What is Reality then? Behind the veil, adjusted for our eyes to better understand it, is the mix-mash and strain of bursting ideas, each vying for supremacy in the vast melting pot of reality. Everything on the Effect is an illusion, from the clothes on your back, to the food you ate for breakfast, to time and space, and even Magick. What many mages use is simply the Effect of Magick, though the truly gifted can see past the veil and use Magick as it was meant to be. Lesser mages however, must latch onto the Effect in order to push through into Reality and cause a chain reaction that leaks back into the Effect.

[Cynical Cat]

Fucking Hindus.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Just so you guys know, I am in the process of moving so my game activity is going to be substantially reduced over the course of the next week or so

[Dark Silver]

That's fine, as the game won't be going fast.

[LadyTevar]

That's fine, as the game won't be going fast.

Yeah, I've been waiting for the DM to reply to me since last week

[Dark Silver]

That's fine, as the game won't be going fast.

Yeah, I've been waiting for the DM to reply to me since last week

you were gone all weekend.

Besides, spending time with the s/o before she leaves for the next 4 months trumps a online game.

[LadyTevar]

Besides, spending time with the s/o before she leaves for the next 4 months trumps a online game.

Ok, that's a good excuse, yeah.

Snuggle her well.

[Charon]

IRWriter86: Second dot of Matter just lets me turn one type of solid into another type of solid, etc. right?
DarkSteele: simple stuff
DarkSteele: but yeah
DarkSteele: lets you do basic transmutation
IRWriter86: There are lots of simple stuff. :-D
IRWriter86: *This is the reason I gave my character a dot in Science*
DarkSteele: you can't change shape, temp or anything
DarkSteele: just what it is
DarkSteele: and takes rolls to do it
IRWriter86: Of course.
IRWriter86: *Jason is standing by a pool, he clicks his pen*
*Rowin looks over.* "What did you just do?"
"I wouldn't go into the water. I added an extra oxygen..."
DarkSteele: why would you turn water to sulfuric acid?
DarkSteele: oh wait..hydrogen peroxide
DarkSteele: no
IRWriter86: It's simple!

Never lets me have any fun...


Though I guess I'll put the rest in too.

DarkSteele: only if it's on open wounds/mucus membranes
DarkSteele: otherwise, it doesn't damage
DarkSteele: it annoys like a fuck
IRWriter86: Bullshit it doesn't.
DarkSteele: I can pour a entire bottle of it on my arm and it won't hurt!
DarkSteele: it tickles..
IRWriter86: That's because it's about 5% hydrogen peroxide.
IRWriter86: Maybe.
DarkSteele: true
DarkSteele: still
DarkSteele: that'd take alot of successes to do
DarkSteele: minimum 4
IRWriter86: Get into the 90%+ and it starts turning people into protein milkshakes.
IRWriter86: Oh I'm sure it would. But that's totally Agg. damage.
DarkSteele: uh huh
DarkSteele: and Darek would get upset that someone's ruined his pool..

[Cynical Cat]

Sorry Charon. If you want to affect people with Matter you also need Life 4.

[Charon]

I'd be making the water in the pool H2O2, if they get in that I'm pretty sure that would result in "Oh God I'm melting!" I'm not directly affecting life. Unless magic for some stupid reason would go "Nope you didn't use life so this Hydrogen Peroxide is totally benign".

[Cynical Cat]

Pool water is cool.

*whistles Life 4, Matter 2, Forces 3, Prime 2*

[Dark Silver]

That coroner's report took awhile to write.

You people better frigging appreciate it and the trouble I go through to give you a good game....

[LadyTevar]

It says "10 Autopsy Photos" ... but you only list 5. Where's the others?

j/k. Don't hurt me.

Since I posted Mandalay looking at the photos before he put up all the interesting stuff, I want to make it clear I have the one marked #5. I'm probably the only one who'd recognize the glyphs anyway.