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“If you love me at all, Conium, immediately close that book
and look no more into its pages !
Do you not recognize the danger,into whose hands you have so willingly placed yourself?By God, man
! I depart at once for Hamburg.I pray that you heed my advice, and that I will nd you there
still hale of mind. But if this book is as you describe,I cannot but fear the worst.” — From the letters of Palatinate, Mysterium scholar
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Fellow Censors —
Please nd a set of photocopies attached. Now that you have read them, allow me to enlighten you as to what you
are reading specically.
The originals of the above material were found approximately six months after some of my agents discovered the
remains of the Cabal of Willow & Bone utterly slaughtered on the outskirts of Chicago. A month before, I’d em -
ployed them to retrieve a number of books from a pylon of Seers of the Throne. Among those books, apparently
was the Ialdabaoth Codex.
One of their members was taken by the Codex, and ed them. They realized what was going on, followed him to
Cairo and tried to free him of the book’s inuence there. Unfortunately, he fought back with lethal force, believing
them to be some kind of Abyssal entity from out of the Egyptian desert, killing one of them and forcing the others
to kill him. I had a message that they were returning to Chicago immediately, and made plans to send people to
pick up the book that evening.
By the time my agents arrived, all members of the Cabal of Willow & Bone were dead, slaughtered by some un-
known entity, and the only one of my agents to try and scry the scene through postcognition was driven insane by
the attempt Their sanctum was declared a threat by the Hierarch of Chicago and sealed off
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Coming Next
for Mage: The Awakening
Credits Written by: Joseph Carriker, Jackie Cassada, Mat-
thew McFarland, Stephen DiPesa, John Newman,
Malcolm Sheppard and John SneadDeveloper: Ethan Skemp
Editor: Scribendi.com
Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Production Manager: Matt Milberger
Art Direction and Layout: Aileen E. Miles
Interior Art: Je Holt, Brian LeBlanc, Vince Locke
Cover Art: David Leri
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™
Table of Contents Prologue 2 Introduction 14 The Ancient Lands Pentalogy 16 The Book of Life 31
The Book of Transformation 38 The Codex of Lies 45 Dark Revolution 52
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Introduction
For the last two decades of his lifeAmos Tuttle had lived in increasing seclusion
among books collected from all parts of the world:old, worm-eaten texts,
with titles that would have frightened away a less hardened man…— August W. Derleth, The Return of Hastur
may run just a touch more to the suspicious in somecases, as there is always a certain level o uncertaintyabout an author’s true intentions; in others, a more
ervent curiosity may take hold. There is just so muchthat can be learned.
How to Use This Book Grimoire o Grimoires is a modular book con-
taining eighteen dierent grimoires o varying orms
It’s a rare and peculiar mage with no interest inbooks. Even Sleepers have produced reams o philoso-phy concerning the power o the word, particularly as
written down. A book preserves the wisdom o thosewho have come beore in ways an oral tradition can-not; a multitude o books contains an entire people’sworth o knowledge. And o the many books avail-able in the World o Darkness, some contain a powerthat goes beyond simple knowledge. Some hide theS l i h i
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wonder to psychological struggle to outright horror;it’s our hope that you will fnd many dierent uses orthe works contained herein.
Researching Grimoires Grimoires don’t appear in a vacuum. Most appear as
books or other repositories o inormation that mightbe o interest to a curious Sleeper. As such, a grimoiremight have been mentioned in various documentsor other books, even mundane ones. It’s difcult totell whether a reerence actually denotes somethingtouched by the Supernal, o course, but you never know
just where the critical clue to a grimoire’s location orhistory might be ound.
The research rules on page 55 o the World oDarkness Rulebook present some basics or per-orming research, but this is generally research o themundane sort. This book makes use o the advancedresearch guidelines that frst appeared in Intruders:Encounters with the Abyss as an alternate means or
players to research the appearances and natures o theworks ound within. This ruleset is quite optional, butmay provide more roleplaying meat or a session i thegroup is interested.
Each entry in this book is accompanied by a sidebarentitled “Researching the [Grimoire Name],” with the
may make only the number o research rolls equal tothe rating o the Library Merit +1 beore needing toseek another source.
Research Time:Normal research rolls are made once
every thirty minutes, but researching the backstoryo a grimoire is rather more difcult. Sleeper sourcesrarely mention the key details that would make onestand out, and some grimoires seem to enjoy a kind oanonymity similar to the Occultation Merit, makingit difcult to identiy them even by magic. This listingindicates the time between such rolls. Most times varybetween an hour and a day per roll. The time listed
is the basic time; the time ater the semi-colon is theresearch time or those mages who are doing researchin a library they themselves own through use o theLibrary Merit.
Appropriate Libraries: Grimoires tend to be reer-enced only in works o a specifc nature. This categorylists the areas o ocus a library must have (see theLibrary Merit,Mage: The Awakening, p. 85, or World
o Darkness: Second Sight, p. 113) in order to allowresearch on that topic there.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, a bit o inormationmay be ound on some maniestations that are usu-ally noticed by mortals. In these cases, a mage mightbegin researching among more mundane sources o
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The Ancient Lands
Pentalogy “Don’t you understand? Magic isn’t yours. It doesn’t belong to you, and you have no right totry and keep it for yourself. It belongs to everyone. Every person that can dream, that canhope, that can feel — magic is the birthright of every person, in every nation of the Ancient Land, and to try and keep it from them makes you worse than any mad god or demon you
claim to be protecting them from.”
— Soter, confronting the Regent in Silver, A Blinding Light
Some grimoires are ancient, changing the history o the
Awakened as mages bargain, cajole and outright steal themrom one another. Such relics o the past grant a glimpse
into the nature not simply o magic itsel, but o
the ways in which magic was prac-
ticed during the time o thegrimoire’s creation.
I this is true, then
many hesitate to think
what mages o the uturewill make o The Ancient
Lands Pentalogy
Each o the novels has hit bestseller lists all over the world,
and ans o the series have ormed something o their ownsubculture within an circles, producing stories, artwork
and many other creative endeavors in-
spired by Soter’s journeys through
the Ancient Lands. Gam-ing and science ction/
antasy conventions run
exhaustive roleplaying
game scenarios using, anddiscussion panels about,
the setting and charac-
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house, he greedily snatches up every magical trinket andtalented young magician to serve the Four Lords.
The Master o Tomes is too much like the archetypal
Mysterium magus, insisting that all tomes o magic and
lore — indeed, all learning at all — become the propertyo his Great Library, the keys to which he guards jealously.
His brother, the Lord o Assassins, governs the tyrannical
secret police o the Ancient Lands, using terror and assas-sination to uphold the regime o the Four Lords, its agents
going about in concealing veils and masks. What the Lord
o Assassins cannot accomplish or the Four Lords, the
Imperial Headsman and his terrible sorcerous armies can,wielding rightening battle-sorceries with impunity.
Into this place o tyranny comes the young hero Soter, whoreuses to allow his talents to be manipulated and controlledby the Four Lords. He is a tinkerer and brilliant public speaker,
and during his time in exile he aids the common olk, who
teach him the little bits o lore they have created or them-
selves and hide him rom the agents o the Four Lords, eventhough doing so costs many o them their lives. In the end,
young Soter is revealed to be the reincarnation o the Great
Emperor, though the Four Lords would rather kill him than
admit the young charismatic rebel who publicly fouts theirauthority is the rightul ruler o the Ancient Lands.
As aggravating as the near-satire o the Atlantean Ordersis, however, there is something else to these books. Certain
copies — those that come rom the original author — contain
more than simply well-written scenes o dialogue and interest-
ing descriptions o magic. Some copies o The Ancient LandsPentalogy actually contain rotes. While the majority o the
rotes in these books are distinctly Free Council rotes, some o
the descriptions o spells are actually rotes o the other Orders
These books are easy to identiy: they contain illustrations.
Each such illustration is surrounded by a border and
depicts a scene rom the book in lavish detail. The strange
border o the page itsel is clearly marked with Atlanteanwriting, and the illustration demonstrates the mudra used
to perorm that rote, although such gestures are oten cun-ningly concealed (in at least one case perormed by a statue
nearby rather than any o the actual characters).
Needless to say, this act not only antagonizes the mem-
bers o those Orders, but has actually negatively impacted
relations between the Free Council and other Orders insome areas where The Ancient Lands Pentalogy grimoires
have passed among members o the Council.
(A Letter, circulated among the Epopts of the Guardians of the Veil}
Please nd enclosed ve softcover novels I advise becoming familiar with the content of these novels as it
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An Ancient Secret Book One o The Ancient Lands Pentalogy
The rst book, An Ancient Secret, details the coming o
age story o young Soter. It starts with the young man hard
at work in his ather’s workshop when disaster happens.Rather than injuring him, however, he reacts magically,preventing harm rom coming to himsel. He cannot prevent
injury to his ather, however, who is badly burned. Shortly
thereater, the Minotaur, the black-clad, veiled secret police
whose symbol is an elaborate labyrinth design, visit hishouse, ollowing divinations that reveal the emergence o
a new magician. Soter insists that they use their magic to
help his ather, but the Minotaur captain arrogantly reuses
to do so, killing Soter’s ather out o spite when the boybecomes too insistent.
This precipitates Soter’s fight rom the Minotaur, aided
by his neighbors. The rest o the book details his continued
attempts to escape the wrath o the Lord o Assassins,evading ever more potent agents o the Minotaur, nally
culminating in an encounter with the Lord o Assassins in
the center o the Labyrinth citadel o the Ancient Lands’
secret police orce. There, Soter meets the Apostate, an old,rebellious wizard imprisoned and tortured or his secrets or
many years by the Lord o Assassins. For days they evade
the Lord o Assassins by hiding in the terriying Labyrinth
itsel, concealing their passage while the Apostate teachesSoter ancient magics.
At th b k’ li th L d A i ll t k
o the Minotaur are given squads o Imperial Archermen,the soldier-mages o the Ancient Lands, in order to try
and nd him.
Led by an unlikely alliance between the Labyrinth-Walk-
er, a Minotaur Captain and the Glass Devil, an importantgure within the Archermen, these squads ollow Soter’s
path, torturing those who have clearly beneted rom his use
o magic. They hound him at every turn, while he travels toold libraries, consults with spirits in the wilderness and seeks
out the ghosts o ancient scholars, unraveling the mystery
o the Great Library. Early in the book, he is joined by a
young peasant girl whose amily aided him but were thenkilled or doing so by the Imperial Archermen.
This girl, Sophia, comes to act as the voice o the commonolk or Soter; in many ways, she holds him responsible orthe harm that came to her amily, though she doesn’t directly
blame him. She encourages him toward subtlety and wisdom
in his use o sorcery, not because overt uses o it anger the
Four Lords, but because he is powerul where other peopleare weak, and he doesn’t have the right to lord it over those
without magic. In act, she oten encourages him to nd ways
to help people without taking credit or doing so.
At the book’s climax, Soter discovers the passage to theGreat Library: the strange doorways that stand in every city,
marked with a specic rune. With the Spell o Seeking,
taught to him by the ghost o one o his own ancestors,
Soter and Sophia journey into the Great Library, whichexists “in the place between night and day.” There they
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A Sorcerous Blade Book Three o The Ancient Lands Pentalogy
The third book, A Sorcerous Blade, begins with an en-
counter between Soter (still accompanied by Sophia) and
the Storm Outlaw, a notorious “levincaster” (magician whowields lightning) who leads an outlaw gang in the wildmountains o the Ancient Lands. Though he and Soter
ght at rst, the Storm Outlaw calls o the ght, claiming
he simply wanted to test the prowess o the young renegade
beore oering him sanctuary.
The rest o the book details the Storm Outlaw teaching
Soter battle magics and tactical knowledge, while the Impe-
rial Headsman seeks him. The Master o Assassins comesto the Imperial Headsman and oers him the spell that
will allow him to track Soter, though he does not indicate
how this works, precisely — it simply utilizes a magical
sword with which the Master o Assassins gits the Impe-
rial Headsman. It is clear the Imperial Headsman doesn’ttrust the Master o Assassins, but he agrees. He gathers a
large army o the Walking, stone golem-like creatures into
which the generals o the Imperial Archermen bind spirits
under their domination to serve as shock troops.The spell to track Soter works, and in the middle o the
novel, the Stone Army nds the band o the Storm Outlaw
and a slaughter ensues. The tactics and use o war-magicsallow the Stone Army to win the day easily, while the Impe-
rial Headsman himsel meets Soter and the Storm Outlaw
i b ttl d b t th il S t d S hi
the Imperial Headsman and a small band o glass soldiersanimated by air elementals arrive or the nal conronta-
tion. The combination o the Storm Outlaw’s experience
and the sheer magical power o Soter prove to be too much
or the Imperial Headsman, who is orced to fee, leavingSoter’s band victorious.
The people o a nearby town watched the battle, and
celebrate Soter as a hero. That night, ater a heady cel-ebration, Soter and Sophia consummate their love, and
he asks her to marry him. She agrees, and the book ends
on a particularly positive note. In the epilogue, however
the Imperial Headsman brings his deeat to the Regentin Silver, apologizing or his ailure. The Regent in Silve
immediately notices the blade the Headsman carries, anddemands it.
Like the two books beore it, A Sorcerous Blade contains
quite a ew rotes rom one o the other Orders: in this case
the Adamantine Arrows. The spells wielded by the Impe
rial Headsman and his mage-generals are almost all roteso this sort — a total o ve rotes throughout the book
The spells o the Storm Outlaw, however, and those taught
to Soter are interesting examples o Free Council magic
where the Storm Outlaw uses magics o thievery, stealthand weather, Soter’s own magical style, drawing together
technological pieces into a sort o “steampunk” eel, begins
to solidiy quite strongly in this book.
A Blinding Light
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marriage, however, Sophia turns to Soter and coldly tellshim she cannot marry him. The young hero is stricken by
this, and Sophia simply turns — still clad in her wedding
gown — and walks out o the city, dropping her veil at its
outer edges.Later that evening, as Soter drinks heavily, members o
his band come to nd him, telling him they saw her get into
a carriage in a clearing about a mile rom Ascension — acarriage marked with the Regent in Silver’s crest. Soter
reacts poorly to this, rushing out the door to the clearing,
where he nds a trio o mage-courtiers o the Regent in
Silver’s court, who deliver an ultimatum to Soter: givehimsel over to arrest, or they will execute Sophia.
The scene shits to the three courtiers leading Soter be-ore the Regent, who sits with Sophia on the step beneathhim. Ater some verbal sparring (in which Soter comes out
ahead), Soter suddenly attacks the Regent, dropping the il-
lusion over the three courtiers, who are revealed to actually
be members o Soter’s band o rebels, Soter having deeatedthe three mage-courtiers and concealed his own men. The
Regent’s magic is impressive, but Soter is quite capable. The
true moment o his deeat comes when Soter, Sophia and
the rebels are feeing the court, only to be surrounded by
Archermen. Beore Soter can ght them, Sophia jabs himwith a poisoned needle, knocking him unconscious.
The middle part o the book touches on Soter’s despair
at Sophia’s betrayal amid the sorcerous experiments and
divinations the Regent perorms, culminating in a startlingrevelation: according to his tests, Soter’s destiny is identical
to that o the Great Emperor. This is the Great Emperor
reborn. He leaves the palace, with orders or Soter to remainimprisoned, to meet with the other Lords to discuss this
revelation, and while he is away, Jhess makes her move.
Her Reaver arranges to ree Soter, telling him Sophia’s
actions are not her own. The Regent has a shard o hersoul within the blade he carries, and uses that to infuence
and dominate her actions.With that knowledge, Soter’s determination to escape
returns, red by the desire to ree Sophia’s soul rom the
Regent’s control. The nal scenes govern a daring breakout,
interrupted by the Reaver’s insistence that they ree Jhess
as well, to which Soter agrees. Ultimately, they fee thepalace, Soter tearully glancing back to see Sophia watch-
ing them rom a tower window, and he swears an Oath to
ree her rom the Regent’s control, the reverberations o
which echo through the world to the attention o the Four
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Lords, who were in the middle o debating the possibilityo his actually being the Great Emperor.
The Oath maniests in their vision as a sudden, power-
ul bright light that nearly blinds them. The power o this
Oath is unlike any other; only the Great Emperor’s Oathsresound across the Ancient Lands in such a ashion. This
last revelation convinces the Four Lords, who realize that i
he ever ascends the Ancient Throne, their lives are oreit.It is at this point the narrative reveals that the Master o
Tomes was not, in act, destroyed in the Great Library,
though he is now an undead abomination trapped in his
own moldering corpse. They make a pact to destroy himwith everything they have at their disposal.
The book closes with Jhess explaining to Soter hisdestiny: the act that he is the Great Emperor reborn, andmust come into his Legacy by nding the Imperial Regalia
and ascending to the Ancient Throne. Soter asks whether
such an attempt will draw out the Regent, and Jhess smiles,
assuring him that such an event will do it as nothing elsewill. Soter agrees, and the book ends with Jhess and her
Reaver joining Soter’s band.
A Blinding Light’s renegade rotes are all rom the Silver
Ladder, presented in places where either the Regent in Silveror his mage-courtiers use magic. There are ve in total,
scattered throughout the text. The Free Council rotes that
eature in this book are a bit subtler than those in previous
books, notably the spells o concealment and illusion Soteruses to hide his band, and Jhess’ oracular magics.
Adamant Stars held there. In the process, Soter rees themany mage-outlaws, absolving them o their ormer crimes
i they will ollow him and aid him in his search. The Impe-
rial Headsman is deeated and orced to fee.
The assassins come ast and quick ater that point, andSoter and his allies ollow them back to the depths o the
Labyrinth and battle the Lord o Assassins. Though Soter
wounds him grievously and plunges his hand into thebloodied belly o the archmagus to retrieve the Supernal
Pentacle hidden there, the Lord o Assassins turns into a
cloud o black greasy mist and escapes.
Following his trail, the band arrives at the Imperial
Palace. There they ace down the Regent in Silver and
his mage-courtiers, deeating them. In the battle, theautomaton-bodied Storm Outlaw tricks the Regent intostabbing him with the soul-blade that holds Sophia’s es-
sence. Crying out in victory, the Storm Outlaw unleashes
a spell that causes his own soul to be imprisoned in the
blade, reeing Sophia rom the Regent’s hold. The StormOutlaw’s Will is too much or the Regent to command,
and he is orced to abandon sword and palace both. Jhess
guides Soter, now reunited with his beloved Sophia, to the
Gardens o the Well, where he nds the Gracious Chaliceat the very bottom o the well there, and draws it up by
commanding the waters o the well to bring it to him.
Drinking deeply o the Chalice, Soter knows where the
last piece o Imperial Regalia lies: in the heart o a treethat stands in the center o the Ancient Lands. The book’
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but normal humans, to nd their way through the worldon the strength o their bodies, minds and spirits alone.
He tells them this is not, in truth, a curse, but a blessing:
now they must learn to be beings dened by their actions,
thoughts and words rather than beings dened simply bythe power they wield. He wishes them long lie and hap-
piness, and sends them rom his sight.
The nal chapter details the Epilogue, the great marriage o
Soter and Sophia in the little town o Ascension. At the moment
o their kiss they disappear in a fash o light. The reader is let
with the impression that they rule or many years thereater,
but do so separated rom the mortal coil in some ashion.
The nal book, A Great Emperor, contains potent magics
o all ve Orders, scattered among the various epic battlesbetween Soter and the Four Lords themselves. All togetherthere are a hal dozen dierent rotes encoded in its text
and images, all o them stolen rom other Orders, as well
as another hal dozen Free Council rotes.
History There are, in actuality, two histories o The Ancient Lands
Pentalogy: the very popular, well known mundane history,and the secret history.
The Phenomenon Sleeper society knows An Ancient Secretwas rst published
in the summer o 2001 and very quickly rose to the top o
them or his ather into his computer, at his grandmother’ssuggestion, as practice using the amily’s word processing
program. Once he had the ull story or An Ancient Secret
composed, Michael Sr.’s mother encouraged him to nd
someone to edit it and perhaps send it to a publisher.Women’s magazines have eatured the story o the soulul
storytelling dad, and Michael Carson has been besieged
with marriage oers rom women all over the world. Hehas also been eatured on various television programs that
ocused not only upon his books, but upon the diculties
he’s gone through as a single ather trying to raise three
boys. Today, Michael T. Carson and his sons, Michael Jr.,Craig and Robert, are all quite comortable, living well o
the proceeds o the book and movie sales, as well as theirshares o the extensive merchandising.
The Truth O course, the Awakened know there is more to this
story than what it seems initially. Guardians o the Veilagents researched the background o everyone involved
quite extensively. Ultimately, they discovered the culprit:
Lenore Carson, Michael Sr.’s mother.
Lenore Awakened in the 1950s to the Watchtower o the Lunargent Thorn and immediately joined the Silver
Ladder, seeking to use her newly discovered talents or the
good o the people around her. Under the Shadow Name
o Amalthea, who bore the cornucopia o legend, Lenoredid her best to make the lives o those Sleepers around
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however, believes it is ar likelier that she never concealedwhat was going on in her lie rom her son, and that he wove
the diculties his mother had with mages rom a variety o
cities into the tales or his sons — perhaps hal out o warning
and hal out o spite or those Orders. However it happened,though, there is no doubt: the original manuscripts o these
books, printed o on the amily word processor, possess
secrets o all the Orders who pursued Lenore.
It is known that at some point during the time ater her
second fight she joined the Free Council. Over the years
she’d put together an interesting collection o grimoires
rom a variety o sources. This still doesn’t account or theincredible number o non-Silver Ladder rotes to be ound in
The Ancient Lands Pentalogy, however. Some mages believeshe undertook a period o inltration ater that, hunting or
the rotes o other Orders during that time. Others believethe answer is ar simpler and less sinister: she simply combed
through the Lorehouses o the Free Council, trading her
own extensive knowledge o Silver Ladder praxis lore or
that o the other Orders.
Pursuit The existence o the grimoire-manuscripts didn’t trulycome to light until ater the second book was published.
A member o the Free Council was seen using a signature
Guardian o the Veil rote. Very quickly, this member o the
Free Council was snatched up by the Guardians and inter-rogated. He revealed that he’d learned it rom a hand-bound
Disturbing Implications There is one other aspect that has come to light among
those who hunt or the grimoire-manuscripts that almost noone seems interested in talking about: the so-called Ancient
Lands Awakenings. The grimoire-manuscripts have oundtheir way into the hands o more than a ew individuals on
the cusp o Awakening, providing the push they neededto complete the Awakening. Each one o these individu-
als undergoes a Mystery Play style Awakening, imagining
themselves undertaking some quest in the Ancient Lands
At the end o their Awakenings, these individuals seemto have a tremendously simple time grasping the nuances
o the rotes in the book that acted as their catalyst, oten
coming back to their senses rom the Mystery Play withmultiple rotes rmly comprehended. Additionally, theirbooks have always disappeared by the time they emerge
rom this Mystery Play.
Merit: Ancient Lands Awakening (••••)
Prerequisites: Charity or Hope Virtue. This
Merit can be taken only at character creation.Effect: Your character underwent an
Awakening spurred on by one of the grimoire-manuscripts of The Ancient Lands Pentalogy .
All your beginning rotes must be chosen fromthe grimoire-manuscript that triggered that
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Contents Unlike many highly sought-ater grimoires, The Ancient
Lands Pentalogy oers only one thing beyond the rotes it
contains: insight into the Free Council’s perspective on not
simply the our Atlantean Orders, but also the responsibili-
ties o the Awakened to Sleepers and one another. The
ollowing is an excerpt rom a report submitted by a Cen-
sor o the Mysterium, ater a detailed study o mass-mediaversions o the books:
I would like to suggest to my esteemed colleagues that they take a deeper look at this series o novels. Certainly, the rote
content o these works is tremendously worrying, but I think there is more going on here than a simple means by which
stolen rotes might be surreptitiously transerred rom one member o the Free Council to the next.
In many ways, these works serve as a codication o the Free Council philosophical and occult praxis. In them, we have the
“common man” origins o the protagonist, a clear reerence to the central belie o the Free Council that magic originates not
with Atlantis (here represented by the bureaucratic remnants o the Great Emperor’s reign), but with the everyday, aver-
age human experience. All throughout the books, the protagonist is assisted by the common people around him, who see
him as a savior-hero. (It should be noted that the name “Soter” itsel is originally a title or the heroized leaders o Hellenistic
dynasties, the center o hero cults generally hailed as “Liberators,” and gained even urther messianic connotations when it
was used as a title or Christ.) Another common theme throughout these books is the squabbling between the Four Lords —
who obviously represent the Atlantean Orders in this symbolic narrative — who work together only to keep magic rom the
grasp o the common man and to preserve their own power base.
In An Ancient Secret , we are introduced to the above concepts initially. Interestingly enough, the ending o this novel
touches on a common practice among members o the Free Council: the suborning o Guardian Labyrinths or their own
purposes. In the narrative, Soter encounters the Apostate, who is old and wise but imprisoned by the Lord o Assassins.
Understanding the history o the Free Council gives us insight into this: the Free Council essentially began as a gathering o
Apostates and mag i who rejected the Atla ntean ur-pra xis.
The Guardians’ use o Labyrinths has long been an established means o disseminating just enough Atlantean lore toSleepers to cause the occasional Awakening. The Free Council believes the occult traditions o human culture are capable, in
and o themselves, o somehow spontaneously “discovering” Supernal connections that have no connection with Atlantis.
In this narrative, the Apostate and Soter actually hide rom the Master o Assassins within his own Labyri nth, while the
Apostate teaches Soter the use o mag ic, a clear reerence to the subversive tendency o t he Free Council to t ake over certain
occult organizations originally established by the Guardians o the Veil and using them to its own ends, such as with Bos-
ton’s branch o the Order o the Golden Dawn in the early years o the Free Council movement
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In A Blinding Light , the Regent in Silver imprisons the peasant seeress Jhess, refecting the Free Council’s propaganda accus-
ing the Silver Ladder o erreting out the best insight o Sleepers and stealing it away or their own use rather than allowing
it to work or the good o humanity as a whole. Perhaps the most interesting bit o symbolism in this novel, however, is the
marriage o Soter and Sophia in the village o Ascension, which is prevented rom occurring by the manipulations o the
Four Lords. This condemnation, presenting the Atlantean Orders as interering infuences that prevent the union o themagician-as-savior with Wisdom and thus rom achieving A scension is staggeringly bold. When Sophia is taken rom him ,
Soter begins to act rashly and harshly, even allowing himsel to become drunk and use magic rivolously, a warning against
working magic without the guidance o Wisdom.
The revelation o Soter as the reincarnation o the Great Emperor is not only an obvious direction or this narrative, sur-
prising no one, but a clumsy symbol o the common man’s magician as Atlantis itsel. I’ve read more than one Free Council
dissertation on the concept o Atlantis as a goal o the uture rather than something o the past, which is, i I might say, a
stunning example o missing the point entirely. The peasant seeress Jhess and her barbarian lover rescuing Soter rom the
clutches o the Four Lords is also an enlightening development: the Free Council is being eectively told to “look to the com-
mon people” or salvation rom the temptations o the Atlantean Orders.
I am also going to take this opportunity to decry one nal detail, although I suspect I am simply preaching to the choir in
this instance. I nd the portrayal o the Master o Tomes as an undead thing to be insulting in the extreme — the suggestion
that the Mysterium might best be symbolized by an abomination that is old, withered and decrepit, kept alive only by the
lore we’ve accumulated rather than as something vibrant and alive is a gross misrepresentation, in my opinion.
Finally, in A Great Emperor, we nd Soter creating a mechanical body or the soulstone o the Storm Outlaw, the very soul o
rebellion housed in a ramework o technology. Has the Free Council’s tendency to use cutting edge scientic advances or its
own subversive ends ever been more clearly symbolized, or more pride apparently taken in the act? More relevant, however,
is the author’s portrayal o the Imperial Regalia: the symbols o magic itsel, and how the Four Lords deend them. In each
case, these symbols are used as criticism against the praxis and traditions o the Atlantean Orders.
The Blade o Adamant Stars, imprisoned in the Diamond Citadel, is an excellent example. The blade has long been symbolic
o the magician’s Will, and yet it is here locked away. The Free Council has never been subtle in its criticism o the Adamantine
Arrows’ pra xis o oaths and h ierarchy, claimi ng it subsumes its own Will in a network o oaths and leader/minion relation-
ships — clearly an aront to the Council’s own democratic praxis. Likewise, the Guardians o the Veil oten attract the Free
Council’s criticism or hiding away Supernal wonders beneath layers o veils and lies, refected by the concealment o the
Supernal Pentacle within the very body o the Lord o Assassins, as though he had consumed it somehow.
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• Shining Aegis: “Armor of the Soul” (Prime •••);Resolve + Crats + Prime; This Free Council rote, taught
to Soter by the Apostate, weaves a protection around the
caster’s very soul, using the Imago o lling one’s soul with
clockwork mechanisms that help “root” it in place anddeend against oensive magics.
• Unholy Thet: “Sever the Sleeping Soul” (Death
•••); Presence + Subteruge + Death; The means by whichthe Lord o Assassins disables the Apostate beore killing
him, this Guardians o the Veil rote is steeped in deceit.
This rote’s magics convince the soul o its target o a most
horrible lie: that the body has passed into death, unmoor-ing the soul rom the target in the process.
•Becoming One with Shadows:“Twilight Shit” (Death••••); Wits + Stealth + Death; Used by the Lord o Assas-sins to escape rom his rst conrontation with Soter, this
old Guardians rote is a simple one: through knowledge o
incredibly potent techniques in hiding onesel, the magician
simply ceases to be present in the physical world at all.
A Forbidden Lore A Forbidden Lore contains rotes rom both the Free
Council and the Mysterium. Free Council rotes are sprinkledliberally throughout its text, while the Mysterium rotes
are all presented in the nal chapter o the book, used
by the Master o Tomes. Several o them are used in the
temptation o Soter.
•Stillthe Plague:“BanishPlague” (Life•••);Intelligence
o the dead, Soter uses this rote to call up the spirits o thedead so that he may learn rom them.
• Spell o Seeking: “Spatial Awareness” (Space •); Wits+ Science + Space; Soter uses the Spell o Seeking to nd
the openings into the Great Library, observing the eectsthat natural spatial distortions have in his surroundings
to divine the locations o the sealed portals.
• Walking Between Worlds: “Follow Through” (Space
••); Stamina + Survival + Space; Soter watches as one o the
Sacred Bibliomancers crosses the threshold into the Great
Library and learns this spell, allowing him to navigate theinstantaneous wasteland o the soul that lies between the
mortal world and the Great Library, which exists between
day and night.• Walls o the Great Library: “Twilight Temple” (Mind
•••••); Intelligence + Occult + Mind; A truly ancient Mys-
terium rote used to construct architecture and traps within
Athenaea that exist only in Twilight, Soter immediately
divines its nature upon crossing into the Great Library.
• The Master’s Temptations: “Trigger the Lizard Brain”
(Life ••••); Manipulation + Survival + Lie; The tempta-
tions the Master o Tomes lays into the natural impulses
o Soter are attributed to this Mysterium rote, capable o causing endorphin rushes, ocused distraction and similar
elements o brainwashing and physiological manipulation
in its targets.
• Blade o Fire: “Inuence Fire” (Forces ••); Presence +
Crats+Forces;During hisbattle with the MasteroTomes
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• Levinspears: “Call Lightning” (Forces •••); Presence
+ Persuasion + Forces; The rst spell used by the Storm
Outlaw is a airly uncommon Free Council rote, used to
literally talk lightning rom the sky.
• Bandit’s Veil: “Personal Invisibility” (Forces •••);Wits + Science + Forces; This Free Council rote — another
used by the Storm Outlaw — requires knowledge o how
light works, and how best to oil its normal all, eectivelyoutwitting the light itsel.
• Steelweave: “Unseen Aegis” (Matter ••); Dexterity
+ Crats + Matter; In his sudden confict with the StormOutlaw, Soter utilizes a spell that reweaves the cloth o his
garments into the weave-patterns o steel.
• Trace Outlaw: “Forge Destiny” (Fate •••••); Presence+ Intimidation + Fate; Used by the Imperial Headsmanto track Soter (though it is later revealed he was actually
tracking Sophia), this Adamantine Arrows spell reweaves
the ate o the target. It has a variety o uses; establishing
the target’s ate as “someone who is constantly ound bythose who pursue her” is only one o many uses.
•Golem-Body Genesis: “Raw Creation” (Matter ••••);Composure + Athletics + Matter; One o the martial spells o
the Adamantine Arrows, this one uses a complex ghtingorm and stern meditational control in order to summon
an object (generally a statue or other human-orm item)
out o nothingness. As the kata progresses, the orm o theimaginary opponent ceases to be imaginary, and once the
orm is completed, the item stands there, perectly real.
o normal necromantic spells, reaching into the depthso the Underworld, as Soter did when he called upon the
Storm Outlaw.
A Blinding Light A Blinding Lightcontains rotes rom both the Free Counci
and the Silver Ladder. Jhess’ oracular magics and Soter’s
spells o concealment and illusion eature prominentlyamong the Free Council examples, while the huge number
o Silver Ladder rotes — used by the Regent in Silver or his
mage-courtiers — lay testament to Lenore Carson’s past
among the théarchs.
• Soul-Reading Divination: “Soul Marks” (Death •)
Wits + Subteruge + Death; This Silver Ladder rote laysbare the deceptions o the fesh to reveal the truths othe soul beneath. The Regent in Silver is depicted using
this spell in order to detect the soul o Sophia within the
Headsman’s blade.
• Vision o Revelation: “Supernal Vision” (Prime • +Mind •); Composure + Wits + Prime; This Free Counci
spell — a rote or the optional casting o “Supernal Vision”
that includes a Mind component in order to read the whole
aura — is used by Jhess, who alls into a trance in order toread the nature o the spirit within the blade.
• Reading the Ripples in the Well: “Divination” (Time
•••); Intelligence + Science + Fate; Understanding that theripples in the well refect the ate o the world, Jhess uses
this Free Council rote once the Regent in Silver leaves to
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target, this Silver Ladder rote is depicted in use during theconfict between the Regent in Silver and Soter.
• Absence o Regret: “Shifting Sands” (Time •••);Composure + Subteruge + Time; The Regent in Silver isalways depicted as being utterly without regret, or this
Silver Ladder rote allows him to reverse time itsel, to go
back and make decisions that he will not regret.
• Reading the Bloody Paths: “Interconnections” (Fate
•);Intelligence + Medicine + Fate; By spilling the blood o the
target and reading the patterns therein, the caster o this
Silver Ladder rote may understand the nuances o destinythat Fate holds in store or him. The Regent in Silver uses
this spell to sense Soter as the heir o the Great Emperor.
• The Imperial Path: “Portal” (Space •••); Presence +Persuasion + Space; In the Pentalogy, the extra-spatial places o the world are called the “Imperial Demesne.” With this Silver
Ladder rote, the Regent in Silver convinces the pathways o
the Imperial Demesne that he should be granted access to
the means o rapid travel that are the Emperor’s due.
• Convocation o the Four Lords: “Network” (Mind
•••••); Composure + Subteruge + Mind; The Regent in
Silver uses this Silver Ladder rote to contact the minds o
the Four Lords to discuss his ndings, and gather themtogether or convocation.
•Soter’s Great Oath:“Swearing an Oath” (Fate ••);Presence
+ Intimidation + Fate; This rote, unlike so many in these books,
is apparently an entirely new spell created solely or the Pental-
ogy Encoded with Free Council mudras it is used to sanctiy
• Kiss o the Airborne Razor: “Ranged Blow” (Space•••); Strength + Athletics + Space; The martial strength
and surety o the Imperial Headsman’s sword blows are so
potent that even the impediment o distance is no limit
to his ability to kill. The Imperial Headsman uses thisAdamantine Arrows rote during the confict with Soter
in the Diamond Citadel.
• Preternatural Cunning: “Acceleration” (Time •••);Wits + Science + Time; In his battle against the Lord o As-
sassins, Soter uses this rote to outwit not simply the tactics
o the cunning Lord o Assassins, but that o time itsel.
• Flight o Inernal Flame:“Fiery Transormation” (Forces
•••• + Life ••••);Resolve + Stealth + Forces; With this Guard-
ian o the Veil rote, the Lord o Assassins fees his confictwith Soter, transorming into a mass o acrid, black-burningfame that leaves a trail o greasy smoke in its wake.
• The Storm Outlaw’s Gambit: “Soul Jar” (Death ••);
Manipulation + Crats + Death; The Storm Outlaw uses this
Free Council spell — an entirely new rote, apparently — toimprison his own soul within the Regent in Silver’s blade,
orcing Sophia’s soul out o the weapon.
• Rote Name: “Shape Liquid” (Matter ••); Presence
+ Persuasion + Matter; The Great Emperor reborn canconvince even the inattentive waters o the Garden Well
to obey him, using this Free Council rote to draw up the
Gracious Chalice rom its depths.
• Blade o Eternity: “Worlds Collide” (Space •••••);
Intelligence + Occult + Space;This wicked Mysteriumrote is
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Haunted Shell(Death •••• + Matter ••••)
This spell invests an object with a ghostlyentity, allowing the ghost to not only use itsNumina freely, but to move any moveable
parts on the object, effectively animating theitem within its normal physical limits.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Instant and contested; target rollsResistance reexively
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
The targeted ghost enters the object to which it is bound as though the object werean anchor, save that the ghost continues to beaware of its surroundings and capable of us-
ing its Numina. The object Durability becomesthe Resistance of the ghost, if the ghost’s
Resistance is higher than its original Durabil-ity. In objects capable of moving and taking
actions, all rolls use the ghost’s normal attri-butes. The item must in some way contain or
roo o the building in which they stood, leaving only hishand holding the book untouched by rubble.
There is a second enchantment on the book, a simple
permanent Prime magic that conceals the emanationso the rotes within them at a Potency o 15. Only Mage
Sights and similar magics cast at a Potency o 16 or higher
can detect the Resonance o the rotes — to all others the
books are completely mundane in appearance.
Researching The Ancient Lands Pentalogy
Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended – 13 successes
Research Time: 4 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: Pop Culture, Fan-tasy, any Library owned by a member of the
Free Council
Possible Modiers: Status: Free Council,Guardians of the Veil or Mysterium (+1), Us-ing the Library of a member of the Free Coun-cil, Guardians of the Veil or Mysterium (+2)
Successes Information
0–2 Nothing, except mass marketreferences to the successful series
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Dangers The danger that comes o
possessing these books lies not
with the books themselves, but
rom those who seek them. Morethan one Consilium has placeda bounty on the books, and at
least one European caucus o the
Guardians o the Veil has assigned
an agent the responsibility orhunting down the books in order
to protect the lore they contain.
Though no one has admitted
that these orders include thedeath o those who have learned
the rotes therein, given the sheer
number o deaths that tend to sur-
round appearances o the originalPentalogy, it is a air assumption
that — as in any espionage
endeavor — the agents are
more than willing to kill toprotect their secrets.
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The Book of Life
can literally make the dierence between lie and death
As such, many mages have considered it worth killing or
Kollar wrote The Book o Lie when he was 67, supposedly or
his dear riend and ellow mage Jan Tyl, in order to enable
The Book o Lie is a leather-bound grimoire written morethan 400 years ago. It contains a series o rotes all relating
to lie and health, including the rare and powerul rote
“Vital Balance,” which allows or indenite lie extension.
This last spell has rarely been recorded and is dicult tosaely cast as an improvised spell. This book also makes
this spell easier to use.
The Book o Lie appears as a large tome bound in thin
and exquisitely prepared doe hide, dyed orest green andchased with silver. Its age is not at all apparent; the pages are
still fexible, the ink has not aded, the silver is untarnishedand, most impressively, the leather o the cover is resh and
fexible, and almost still eels alive. Mortal scholars and ap-praisers who have studied this book have all pronounced it
to be a product o the late 16 th century, but are somewhat
puzzled by its excellent state o preservation. To both mages
and Sleepers alike, when the book is closed, it appears tobe a mundane, i also large and beautiul leather-bound
book. However, whenever and as long as it is opened, it
seems almost to radiate the warmth and presence o a liv-ing being, instilling a vague sense o peace and joy uponeveryone within a hal dozen yards.
History
(Report led in the Guardians of the Veil Archive, May 17, 1956)
The review of the 1931 murder of the mage Blau
Nacht in his apartment is now believed to be
associated with The Book of Life. The runes that
were burned into his dying body were clearly
designed to prevent him from returning as a
ghost. This, combined with the strong evidence
that the purpose of the break-in was clearly toboth steal some item of great value and kill Blau
Nacht, strongly suggests the book was the reason
for the theft and murder. The identity of his
assailant remains unknown, but we are currently
investigating leads that mages associated with
the Nazi party may have been involved in his
murder, especially because of Blau Nacht’s
outspoken communism.
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to have been a magical attack by an unknown assailant.The book was purchased by Lady Jane Leopold, the wealthy
widow o Cornish mine owner and Mastigos mage Georey
Leopold who was known to have a keen interest in old and
exotic manuscripts.
The time the book spent in Lady Leopold’s possession orms
several o the most mysterious decades o its long history. Lady
Leopold was known to be a Sleeper, but she steadastly reusedto sell the book to any o the several buyers who attempted
to purchase it. In addition, mages rom the Mysterium made
three separate attempts to steal the book, but were always
blocked by an impressive series o coincidences that several o the mages involved ascribed to exceptionally well-concealed
Covert magic. To urther this impression, Lady Leopold isknown to have lived to an age o at least 98. In 1839, her
London townhouse burned down, and she is presumed tohave died in the re, although her body was never ound.
Rumors speak o her having a mysterious companion, who
is widely assumed to be an unknown mage, and who a ew
people identiy as Nicholas Kollar.
The book was ound undamaged in a chest located in the
basement o Lady Leopold’s townhouse. In the auction that
ollowed, a London chapter o the Mysterium purchasedthe book, which it immediately placed in its Athenaeum.
The book remained there or almost 50 years, where it was
careully studied by several dozen mages. This was the only
time that copies o the “Vital Balance” rote were known tohave been made, but all o them soon vanished into vari-
Between 1978 and 1992, the book was owned by theMysterium and stored in its New York headquarters, where
it was regularly used by the leadership o this branch. A
small and exceedingly wealthy cabal known as the Coun-
try Group, located in the wealthy New York suburbs o
Westchester County, stole The Book o Lie and severalother valuable grimoires rom this Athenaeum in 1992.
The thieves managed to do so in a manner that let no
evidence o their identity.
With the increase in the ease o both global communica-
tion and international travel, the members o the Country
Group have also done their best to keep all hints o thebook’s whereabouts a secret, knowing that mages rom all
over the globe are attempting to nd it. Part o this eortinvolved obtaining a 19th century copy o the book and us-
ing it to make a modern copy. Both copies contain all therotes that are ound in The Book o Lie, but provide none
o the other benets o owning the original.
Using these two copies, they attempted to conceal theirownership o the book behind the same sort o complex web
o lies or which the Guardians o the Veil are so well noted.
In 1995, several members o the Country Group leaked a ew
discreet rumors about owning The Book o Lie, and then al-lowed one o the thieves who showed up to attempt to steal
it to discover the location o the heavily guarded 19th century
copy. Thinking this was the actual book, the thie stole it.
Since that time, the owners have kept track o the thie andleaked inormation about the location o the copy she stole to
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The mage can also use this spell to cause all orms o damage to heal more rapidly. Each success allows the mage
to halve the time (round down) it takes to heal bashing,
lethal and aggravated damage. 2 successes allow a mage to
heal 1 lethal wound in 12 hours and 1 aggravated wound
in a little over a day and a hal. To gain this benet, themage must either cast this spell with the required duration
or recast it whenever the duration expires. This healing is
compatible with the Quick Healer Merit. Each success alsoacts as 1 automatic success on all extended and instant rolls
to resist diseases, poisons or drugs. Finally, characters who
spend most o their time (at least 75%) under the infuence
o this spell lengthen their lie spans by 25 years or everydot o the Lie Arcana they possess. Decrease this latter
bonus proportional to the amount o time the character
spends using this spell. By spending 1 Mana, the Duration
o this spell can be made to last or 1 day. Most mages whouse this spell cast it at the beginning o the day, as part o
their morning rituals.
Mysterium Rote: Enduring Body
Dice Pool: Stamina + Occult + Life
One o the greatest and most proound limitations o the
lie o all scholars and experimenters is the unavoidablecombination o ill health and mortality that cuts short
their ability to continue their research. Although no orm
o magic can avert these universal problems, this spell can
certainly postpone them.
B
many mages who regularly use this spell mark themselveswith a small tattoo or scar in the shape o the appropriate
Atlantean runes needed to prolong the spell. I the mage
rolls an Exceptional Success when casting “Vital Balance”
she does not age at all or the duration. There are rumors o
mages many centuries old who manage to regularly managethis level o success with the “Vital Balance” spell.
The slowed aging due to this spell is compatible with theDeath spell “Steal Liespan.” It is also compatible with the
“Body Mastery” spell described above, but the additional
years granted by either o the aorementioned spells are not
aected by the slowed aging provided by the “Vital Balance”spell; they are simply added to the mage’s liespan. In addition
this spell cannot be cast by or on a Tremere Liche; attemptsto do either automatically ail. All other mages can cast this
spell on both themselves and others with equal ease.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Life
Nicholas Kollar was a skilled and brilliant occultist who
was also nominally a member o the Mysterium. As a resulthe designed this rote to make the best use o his prodigious
intellect and his occult studies.
Other Benets Provided by The Book of Life In addition to containing the above rotes, this grimoire
also contains special diagrams that provide the mage with a+2 bonus when casting any of the rotes contained within the
b k h h h l l k h d
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spell will catch up with the caster — unless the caster haseasy access to either a Demesne or this book. Then, the
spell is exceptionally sae and can be repeatedly cast or
decades or centuries without risk o ailure. Many mages
lack Demesnes, and the book itsel also provides other
benets or casting these spells. As a result, many mageswho learn o this book will do almost anything to obtain
and keep a copy o it. As a result, this grimoire has been
stolen at least 22 times during the last our centuries, andis directly responsible or more than 15 murders.
The Country Group The current owners are just as determined to keep this
book as any o its previous owners, and plan to use it to attainliespans measured in centuries instead o decades. In addi-
tion to constructing elaborate ruses to distract seekers romlearning they have the book, the members o the Country
Group have also already killed two mages, one Seer o the
Throne and one member o the Free Council who both
suspected they had the actual book. The Group killed thelibertine Lisa Nguyen through the use o powerul Fate magic;
nobody is even certain the auto accident in which she died
one year ago was actually murder. However, members o theCountry Group attempt to keep track o any later eorts tolook into Lisa’s death. As a result, several members o the
Country Group have become increasingly paranoid and so
are likely to be even less restrained when conronted with
someone else who is inquiring ater The Book o Lie.
possess the book turn up dead, or simply nd that the bookhas vanished or that enemies rom whom they have been
hiding mysteriously nd them. This is especially true o
mages who acquire the book by murder or similarly vio-
lent and underhanded means. While most mages simply
attribute such events to the complex webs o crime andbetrayal that surround this book, a ew claim the book is
protected and watched over by Nicholas Kollar. However,
the true source o these incidents remains unknown to allbut a handul o mages who suspect the truth, but have so
ar kept silent about it.
A number o mages have noticed that the book is otenassociated with ghosts. Most correctly assume it attracts
existing ghosts because o the soothing infuence it hason them. (See below.) However, in addition to this eect,
the “Vital Balance” spell draws upon the powers o bothLie and Death magics and prolonged use does not just
lengthen the mage’s liespan, it also makes any mage who
casts it regularly more likely to return as a ghost ater he
dies. In addition, this ghost will always have The Book o
Lie as one o its anchors. Since the book remains when
many other anchors die or are destroyed, or several o the
ghosts, the book serves as their sole anchor. Today, ourghosts are associated with The Book o Lie. Three werekilled by someone who stole it and one died rom a massive
backlash that occurred when using the “Vital Balance”
spell because she was deprived o the book.
One o the ghosts who use this book as his only anchor
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their interest. The book is as soothing to ghosts as it is toliving beings and many o the more tormented spirits benet
greatly rom its infuence. It even attracts and soothes ghosts
when it is closed. Unortunately, some o these ghosts grow
very used to the book’s infuence and react negatively i it
is moved too ar away. Many ghosts either cannot or preernot to leave a airly small area, and while moving the book
rom one room to another rarely causes them any problems,
trying to take it out o the building in which it is housedcan cause many o these ghosts to become extremely angry.
Unlike the ghosts o mages, who oten attempt to be subtle
to avoid being banished or destroyed by magic, ordinary
ghosts usually have no understanding o the powers andcapabilities o magic; they know only that the book
is a source o comort and that it is being
taken away rom them.
When ghosts become angry at
the book being moved, they typically
react with airly dramatic Numina, like
Animal Control, Telekinesis, Terriy, oroccasionally Compulsion or Possession.
However, many ghosts also react somewhat
slowly to changes in the mundane world,and so do not notice until ater the book hasbeen moved out o range. Once they notice the
book is gone, some o these ghosts react with
urious displays o anger, others howl in despair,
and some do nothing at all because they can
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rotes to all mages, and to make a solid prot while doingso. When the members o the Country Group killed Lisa
Nguyen, they had no idea that she was an important mem-
ber o the Federation o Immortality. Since her death, the
Federation has become larger and more prominent, and it
has redoubled its eorts to acquire both The Book o Lie and at least one complete copy o this grimoire.
The Federation has already obtained several copies o the “Body Mastery” rote. Its next and most important goal
is to acquire copies o the “Vital Balance” rote, and then
The Book o Lie itsel. The leaders envision placing this
book in a large accessible city, in a highly secure acilityguarded by members o their cabal. They would then charge
other mages a moderate yearly ee to gain access to the
book to both learn the rote and to cast it in the vicinity
o the book. Eventually, they also hope to create Demesnescontaining copies o this rote, where it can also be cast
without risk o Paradox.
This cabal is made up o a mixture o idealists who wish tohelp all mages extend their lives and more practical mages who
wish to greatly extend their own lives, but also understand the
inherent diculties in attempting to maintain possession o
a grimoire as much in demand as The Book o Lie. Also, allthese mages see the possibility or making a stable long-term
prot by selling access to it to everyone willing to pay theirrelatively modest price. The rst obstacle to be overcome,
however, is that no one outside the Country Group has seen
The Book o Lie or more than 15 years. Lisa Nguyen was a
high-ranking member o the Federation o Immortality, and
the rest o its members know she died approximately 110miles north o Manhattan. The leaders o the Federation
strongly suspect her death was related to the book and have
redoubled their eorts in this region.
The leaders o the Federation are willing to share the
inormation they have collected about the book with anyone
who seems both competent and willing to work with them.Their knowledge o the book largely consists o details o
its appearance and contents and most o its history up until
it vanished in 1992, as well as a ew acts and suppositions
surrounding Lisa Nguyen’s death. To ensure they will not bebetrayed by mages intent upon keeping the book or them-
selves, the Federation leaders insist that the cabal’s single
Master o Fate be allowed to reely cast a geas o indenite
duration upon everyone wishing to work with them. This geas inficts dire punishments upon anyone who does not
turn over either the book or any signicant inormation
about its location or current owners to the leaders o theFederation. In return, the Federation promises both ree
Researching The Book of Life Capping Ability: Occult
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access and a share o any prots rom dues to see the bookto any individual or group who obtains the book. Although
they are careul to avoid saying so directly, the leaders o
the Federation are aware that committing all manner o
crimes may be necessary to obtain the book and make it
clear they will take the book without asking any uncom-ortable questions about how it was obtained.
Other Seekers There are more than a dozen other mages who have
spent years attempting to acquire the book and will gladly
ally themselves with anyone who seems to have an actuallead about its location and then betray and likely kill the
mage who aided them. I they cannot kill their ormer allyeasily or without raising problematic questions, those mages
capable o doing so will block or alter the ally’s memorieabout the book or as long as possible. Other mages oten
attempt to rame their ormer ally or some serious mundane
or magical crime.
One o the members o the Federation o Immortality is
secretly a member o another rival cabal, hoping to obtain
The Book o Lie and use it as a tool to gain power by allow
ing only his allies to obtain access to the book. Anothermember o the Federation o Immortality is a Mysterium
mage who plagiarized signicant sections o one o her most
prominent articles on magic. Another cabal interested in
acquiring the Book o Lie discovered her plagiarism, and itis currently blackmailing her into revealing all the inorma-
tion the Federation discovers about this book.
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The Book of
TransformationHowever, appearances are most denitely deceiving. This
volume is at least several thousand years old. It changes its
orm, the structure o the text and even the language in
which it is written regularly. Over the centuries, it has hadmany titles and many orms. Periodically, someone learn-
ing its rotes transorms into a Vird, and at the same time
the book transorms into a new orm. Every time a reader
transorms, the book transorms into a well-made book o atype most amiliar to the individual being transormed, and
in this mage’s native tongue. During these transormations,
the details o the plot, setting and characters also change.
Many o these changes seem random and some containunusual and potentially useul inormation. Each new
version o the book also includes a host o minor
details amiliar to the reader who is in the
process o transorming. I the reader has
lived most o her lie in cool temperateorests in small towns and rural
areas, then the book’s set-
ting will be somewhatsimilar, just as, i
the last reader
This volume is one o the ew grimoires that is also an
artiact o a particularly unusual nature — its primary
power, other than inducing transormations in the reader,
is transorming itsel. A “sleeper” grimoire like The Ancient
Lands Pentalogy (see above), the tome is presently written
in the orm o an engaging but somewhat clichéd and trite
antasy novel about an exotic land where humanity lives
alongside two other, semi-human species. Because o varioussimilarities o appearance and capabilities, several Myste-
rium scholars believe one o these species is in some manner
related to the bearers o the Ractain Strain (In-
truders: Encounters Withthe Abyss,
pp. 160-6).
T h e s e
b e i n g s
are onlya minor
part o this
story, whichprimarily con-
cerns interactions
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ound as a handwritten papyrus scroll sealed in an ancient-looking copper cylinder covered with unknown glyphs orrunes. This cylinder was ound foating in the ocean near
Alexandria, where it was picked up by a passing ship. Most
scholars o Mysterium who have studied this work believe
this book is either a relic o Atlantis or rom the mythic
was hunting the group. The Seer was unable to drop thisappearance beore he was recognized by one o Frederick’s
Sleepwalker assistants. By the late 1840s, belie that The
Book o Transormation was corrupt and tied to the Abyss
had largely allen out o avor, and members o the Mysterium
began its more organized and careul study.During the last our decades o the 19th century, Myste-
rium archeologists careully examined the various cryptichints ound in the changing versions o this book. Most
scholars hoped they would eventually be able to “crack”
some secret code hidden within the book’s lurid text and
thus learn the ull meaning o the secrets hidden withinthis volume. Unortunately, like many similarly ambitious
19th century eorts, this one ailed.
There are clearly secrets within The Book o Transorma-tion, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to them
Eorts involving assembling and careully examining all the
various descriptive passages rom the various versions o this
grimoire yielded no urther inormation. In addition, none othe many scholars who devoted decades o study to the work
managed to uncover any reliable methods o determining
which o the many descriptive passages o unique wonders
within the various versions o the book were descriptions oactual wonders that could be ound in similar locations in
the mundane world and which were merely ction.
By the end o the rst decade o the 20th century, eorts to
understand the secret nature o The Book o Transormation
were largely abandoned. The act that the eorts and expec-
(From Argentine’s Notes on the previous titlesof The Book of Transformation, 1927)
1591: Te Romance o the Sun and the Moon
1634: Night and Day: A Romance in the Caves and Mountains o the Mysterious East
1737: A Voyage to the Lost Island o Eternal Night
1831: Dark Romance: Stories o the Magical Burmese Night
1893: Te Gentle Arms o Unsavory Night: A
Horrifc and Inspiring ale o Unnatural Beings,Laden with Great Moral Appositeness and Spiritual
Merit
1904: Te Island o Haunted Night
1921: ales o the Lost Kingdom o Night
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some o the most notable discoveries derived rom The Book
o Transormation, these cave drawings are unique in that
Doctor Patricia Watkins, a mage who works as a geologist,
had explored and photographed these caves in 1992, and
her explorations had revealed neither these drawings nor
even the small cavern they decorated. While some magesmaintain that Dr. Watkins must have overlooked the room
or that some minor geological event must have uncovered
the room in the 13 years between her visit and the discoveryo the cave drawings, Dr. Watkins visited the cave in 2007
and reported there was no way she could have overlooked
the room described in the book.
Current Debate Most mages believe Dr. Watkins’ statement. Current
opinion as to the nature o the change is divided. Onetheory holds that the room was previously hidden by
powerul magic and some magical eect connected to the
most recent transormation o the book revealed the cave
in the mundane world, just as the passage in the bookrevealed the cave to readers. However, some mages believe
the cave literally did not exist beore the book revealed
it, and that the transormation o the book transormedthe mundane world in minor and subtle ways. Naturally,mages who support this latter theory are excited by the
possibility o literally rewriting the world, and The Book
o Transormation is currently a popular topic among some
members o the Free Council.
The Truth AboutThe Book of Transformation
The more eccentric theories about The Book of Transformation are indeed correct. It cre-ates the details described within its pages and
places these details in some location that isknown to (although not necessarily ever vis-
ited by) the person whose transformation wasresponsible for the book’s most recent trans-formation. Just as the book borrows that per-son’s native language and some knowledge
of his world and incorporates both these intoits new version, it also places the changes itmakes in reality or the Astral Realm withinregions known to this reader. Sometimes
the location of the change is something thetransformed person only briey saw a pictureof in a magazine she read in a doctor’s ofceseven years ago or heard about from a gradeschool teacher, and so discovering this last
fact can be exceptionally difcult. However,the fact that the book transforms external
reality as well as its reader can be proven if a mage ever used magic to examine an areabefore it was transformed by the book, andcan thus conclusively say there was nothing
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it sometimes contains hints and cryptic clues related todiscoveries in both the mundane world and the Astral
Realm. Descriptive passages in the book occasionally lead
to discoveries ranging rom nding ancient and mysterious
archeological artiacts to locating a previously unknown
portion o the Astral Realm. The most dicult and alsothe most interesting part o these discoveries is that every
new version o the book is at least somewhat dierent. Every
time the book transorms, major details shit, includingthe proessions and genders o the protagonists, the overall
landscape and climate o the setting and almost everything
except the descriptions o the Vird and the overall structure
o the plot. Some o these changes involve the text mod-ernizing, both in terms o language and details; others are
seemingly random, but also occasionally meaningul.
Within each new version o the book there are otensmall details containing hints about ancient settlements,
strange temples or bizarre ritual sites in locations whose
names or prominent eatures hint at corresponding places
in the mundane world, or on rare occasions in the AstralRealm. Most versions contain at least one such piece o
inormation and a ew have contained as many as a hal
dozen. Unortunately, the book is always quite long andlled with a multitude o details, so determining which o the many details in the book may be hints about possible
discoveries in the mundane world or the Astral Realm
can be exceedingly challenging. The vast majority o the
locations and artiacts described in the book are completely
ability to work both aluminum and platinum, as well asthe ability to carve exceptionally hard stones like jade and
rubies in intricate detail.
The Rotes All the rotes contained withinThe Book o Transormation
involve personal shapeshiting. Regardless o how the plot
and setting details o the book change, it always containsthe ollowing Lie rotes rom Mage: The Awakening:
“Organic Resilience” (p. 183), “Transorm Sel” (p.
187), “Two Faces” (p. 188), “Doppelgänger” (pp. 188-9)“Shapechanging” (p. 190). With the exception o “Organic
Resilience,” all these rotes are normally Vulgar. However
by using versions o these the rotes ound within this booka mage can cast them as Covert magic. The one limitationis that these rotes are Covert only i they are used upon the
mage who learned this rote and i they are not subject to
Disbelie. I used on others or perormed in the presence
o Sleepers, these rotes again become Vulgar. The rotesare only Covert when perormed on the mage who learned
them, away rom the eyes o Sleepers.
Transformations Mages who merely read this grimoire do not necessar-
ily transorm into Vird. This transormation requires the
mage to actually learn at least some o the rotes containedwithin it. Each time the mage learns a spell she must make
a Stamina + Gnosis roll with a 1 penalty for every rote she
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ormations remain ater the mage is awake. While this sorto transormation can occur anytime within the rst two
or three weeks ater a mage learned one o these rotes, it is
especially likely i the mage is awakened unexpectedly.
The most problematic part o these transormations is
that they are especially powerul and persistent. Theseinvoluntary spells always last between 2 and 24 hours (or
between 1 day and 1 week i the mage is powerul enoughto use advanced prolongation or the spell) and have a
Potency equal to the number o dots in Lie possessed by
the Mage.
The Duration of Involuntary Rotes The Storyteller can either choose how long she wishes
the eect to last, or she can roll a single die. A roll o1-5 means the rote lasts 2 hours (or 1 day with advanced
prolongation), a roll o 6-9 means the rote lasts 12 hours
(or 2 days with advanced prolongation), and a roll o 10
means the rote lasts or 2 days (or 1 week with advancedprolongation).
Because the spell was eectively cast by the mage’s un-
conscious, he cannot simply cancel it, but it also does not
count against the number o active spells he can maintainat one time. There are many humorous and a ew terriying
stories o mages who awoke rom a particularly vivid dream
to discover they had transormed into a particularly disturb
ing or problematic shape. Because the mage’s unconsciouscasts this rote, theshapethemageassumesis rarely random
The Vird TransformationIf the character succumbs to the effects
of the book, over the course of the next few
days the character gradually transforms intoa being very like the Vird in the novel. Also,until it is paid off, she must spend all her
saved and future XP to purchase the 2-dot Vird Merit. As a result of this transforma-
tion, all the character’s hair falls out, leavingher utterly hairless, including the loss of alleyelashes and eyebrows. In addition, her
skin becomes slightly paler than normal. This
transformation is sufciently unusual thatit also removes 1 level of the Striking LooksMerit, if the character previously possessedthis Merit. Also, the character can no longer
possess the 4-dot version of the Striking LooksMerit. The character’s teeth become slightlypointed and she now prefers all her meals tocontain moderately large amounts of raw orrare meat that is at least somewhat bloody.
The character must regularly include moder-ate amounts of rare meat in her diet in orderto remain healthy. In addition, she gains a -1penalty to perception rolls involving vision inbright sunlight or similar conditions unless
h d k l
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Researching The Book of Transformation Capping Ability: Occult
Action: Extended (16 successes)
Research Time: 8 hours; 2 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Occult, Cryptids
Bonuses: Mysterium membership (+1),
Penalties: No dots in Occult or Knowledge (-1)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-10 The Book of Transformation is written in the form of a trite-seeming fantasy novel, butcontains several powerful spells of self-transformation. However, studying these rotesrisks permanently transforming the reader into a human-like being that is called a Vird inthe novel.
11-15 The book is very old, and has had a number of forms predating its current guise as afantasy novel. The Vird transformation gives the subject both advantages and
mations can recur years or decades ater reading the book.The recurrences o these dreams are almost always linked
to some sort o encounter with powerul magic, such as
serious Paradox, the character nearly dying because o
a magical attack or accidental exposure to some sort o
powerul and unusual orm o magic, such as the magics
associated with many o the oldest artiacts. Most mageswho have studied this book never experience any dream
transormations more than a month ater learning a rote
rom this book, and almost none have ever had more than
three or our, but they can occur.
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The Codex of Lies(From the private notes of Winter, Epopt of Halifax, circa 1967:)
…It was at this time I realized exactly what it was that had fallen into our hands: The Codex of Lies itself.
To think, Plures’ great work, somehow washed up, more or less, on the shores of Nova Scotia, and delivered,
purely by accident, into the keeping of our Labyrinth. The circumstances were so suspicious as to warrant
deeper investigation, but all magical inquiries into the book led nowhere. It was at that point I began to
suspect, the stories of the Codex being what they are. After consultation with Order authorities in Germany,
where the book was last known to have been, we pieced together a rough chronology of its travels here, which
seem almost too fanciful to be true, and which I shall not record here — or anywhere else, for that matter.
Whatever the case, we are now in possession of what I can only determine to be the genuine Codex and Imean to start the process of unraveling its mysteries. Plures’ magics are legendary in many parts of the Order,
and my mentor spoke to me at length about one such spell. I’m curious to see whether the reality lives up to
the myth. I expect we shall be entertaining visitors soon, if this is truly the text I believe it to be. Of course, if
this really is Plures’ Codex, then I need to get to work quickly. There’s no telling how long it’ll be before the
book decides to disappear on us…
Also known as The Book o the Serpent, The Manacle
o Whispers, and The Wisdom o the Masque, this grimoireis an old treasure o the Guardians o the Veil. The book
has slipped out rom under the watchul Eye o the Dragon
rom time to time, but always manages to nd its way home.While it has no proper title, this tome is most commonly
d t Th C d Li
mystic traps or the unwise and the unwary. One or two
o these “alse Codices” are believed to be imbued withatal enchantments, though this may just be Guardian
propaganda. I there exists a ormula or discerning a alseCodex rom the real thing through cursory examinationthat is a secret closely kept by the Guardians o the Veil,
th h h t d i it i l l
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and perormed deeds that scarred his soul in ways too deepto be purged by any act o penitence, and, at the end o his
days, he resolved to record his awul wisdom or those who
ollowed ater him, so that they might learn something by his
travails. Putting to use his prodigious linguistic knowledge,
Plures drated his text in nine dierent tongues, writing o the sorts o platitudes that even the most banal Sleeper could
quote and call himsel wise: “In alling upon the Path, you
learn the strength to stand,” “The mystery is solved by theknowing o the question that encompasses its own answer,”
“Who turns the journey o ten thousand steps inward has
taken the rst step.” He then modestly illustrated his work,
incorporating the elementary symbolism o various occultellowships into his writing.
And so it was that the cipher was concealed in plain sight,with each image pointing to one o the most basic elementso Guardian training in the matters o the Labyrinth. The
67 visible bricks in the pyramid on page 126, or instance,
dictated which letters should be picked out on a given
page, while the Latin inscription on the Grecian columnindicated that the words to be assembled were understood
by using Latin spelling and Classical Greek grammar. Plures
went through over a score o permutations in the course
o drating his magnum opus, occasionally going back tothe start o a chapter as he realized that a given passage
was too easy — or virtually impossible — to untangle.
At last, however, he had a work worthy o the Eye o the
Dragon, something that would engage the mind even as
At that time, Tycho, a powerul and prominent membero the Adamantine Arrows, called or a conerence with the
leaders o the Guardians o the Veil in and around north-
western France, to return the grimoire, which he said had
been passed onto him by a dying Guardian in Normandy,
with a specic request to return it to the keeping o herOrder. While he could have requested heavy avors rom
the Guardians o the Veil or his largesse, Tycho instead
asked only that the young, nameless Guardian be remem-bered or her courage and her conviction, and that such
a promise was reward enough or him. To the end o his
days, Tycho enjoyed the riendship o many Guardians o
the Veil, and, it is said, in a sanctum somewhere in Rouen,in Upper Normandy, a plaque commemorates the sacrice
o the unnamed woman who gave her lie to see The Codexo Lies home.
Allegedly, the Codex was moved between Epopts or
several decades ater this in an attempt to conound the
unknown eect that occasionally caused even the most
elaborate o protections to ail at some critical moment,allowing the grimoire to slip away. It was also at this time
that the rst “alse Codices” were introduced into the
Awakened world so as to conound the growing (though
still exceedingly small) number o outsiders who knewo its existence and understood enough o its nature to
hunger ater its secrets. Unortunately, the advent o the
“alse Codices” was as much a problem or the Guardians
as it was a boon; occasionally more than one Epopt wouldd
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hard-pressed to spot the ew kernels o truth regardingthe grimoire’s migrations rom among the multitudinous
threads o hearsay, speculation, and outright lies. Further
conounding the situation is the act that, even within the
Order, there exists no “true” version o events; some Laby-
rinths maintain mutually contradictory and yet perectlycredible accounts o the movements o the Codex, with
no “magic ormula” or sorting act rom ction. While
some — perhaps many — o these diering accounts arethe result o deliberately fawed records, many are not, and
simply go to show the diculty inherent in keeping tabs
on the willul grimoire.
At present, the Codex is believed to be out o the hands
o the Guardians o the Veil. Reports on the subject are, as
is to be expected, ew, though a nagging rumor asserts thatthe grimoire has been missing rom the Order’s keeping oras long as a decade now; longer by ar than any previous
absence. Perhaps it is that some outsider has ound a way
to actually keep the Codex? Or, maybe, Plures’ unknowable
enchantments have grown and evolved in response to theGuardians’ comort with the book’s unusual migrations?
Contents The Codex o Lies, when properly translated, is a veritable
treasure-trove o Guardian magic. Among its pages can be
ound the Guardians o the Veil’s Order-specic rote vari-
ants o the ollowing spells (see Mage: The Awakening):
power at the old willworker’s disposal in the years leadingup to his death).
The spells unique to The Codex o Lies are:
Channel Paradox (Life ••• + Prime ••••) Every maniestation o Paradox widens the great gul
o the Abyss, or so the Guardians o the Veil teach their
neophytes. By accepting the hurts o Paradox into one’s own
fesh, however, Plures believed the Abyss could be denied
greater purchase in the Fallen World. This spell enablesjust that, allowing the Guardian to draw Paradox into his
own living pattern, thus preventing the taint o the Abyss
rom urther inecting this world.Practice: Patterning
Action: Refexive
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Upon successully casting this spell — which can be done
reactively in response to any orm o Paradox in the mage’
vicinity, save backlash, so long as he has not yet taken hisaction or the turn — the Guardian draws the orce o aParadox into his own body. He then rolls the Paradox suc
cesses as a Backlash dice pool, suering its eects, i any
as normal. Note that the Guardian may, i he wishes, use
Mana to mitigate the Paradox beore rolling or backlash
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Upon successully casting this spell, the caster regainsa point o Willpower (up to her normal maximum) each
time she suers an attack that results in at least 1 point o
lethal or aggravated damage, has her soul directly targeted
by any kind o hostile eect, or is the subject o any eect
intended to usurp control o her mind or body, whethermagical or otherwise, out to a maximum number o times
equal to the successes accrued in the casting. The caster
regains only a single Willpower point per “attack,” but mayregain Willpower points multiple times in a single turn i
targeted by more than one eect meeting the criteria above.
I the character is already at maximum Willpower when
subjected to a trigger or this spell’s eect, one use o thespell is wasted, without benet.
Guardians o the Veil Rote: Agonies o the Prophet
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Time
Religion, myth, and history alike are lled with examples
o those who knew o torments to come and ound cour-
age in the ace o inevitable suering. Guardians o theVeil who master this magic willingly embrace the path o
martyrdom or the greater good, learning how to recover
a sense o purpose through the many slings and arrows the
Fallen World casts.
Sin Eating (Mind •••••) One o the oremost responsibilities o the Guardians
o the Veil is to take on the burden o sin so that others
need not But when Guardians ail to execute this heavy
actions, so this true longing or redemption is oten easiersaid than done, and usually works better with either those
who are, by nature, intensely virtuous or, conversely, those
who have perceived an overarching pattern o wrongul
behavior in themselves and wish to turn back rom the
path o hubris. Whatever the case, it is only a genuinecommitment to sel-betterment that empowers this spell’s
soul-mending eects.
Second, the spell isn’t a guarantee; merely a chance. The
subject receives the opportunity to re-roll the degeneration
check, automatically subject to a +1 die bonus for sincere
remorse. I this check succeeds, though, the subject regainsthe lost Wisdom without cost and loses any derangement
gained through that particular instance o degeneration. (de-
rangements rom other sources — including other instanceso Wisdom degeneration — remain.)
Third, the Guardian can cast this spell only once on a
given subject between instances o degeneration. (In other
words, no “going back” to the next instance o degenerationand trying to undo that one as well, thus enabling another
willworker to potentially skyrocket in Wisdom.)
Fourth, the Guardian must pay the piper, as it were,
by accepting the burden o sin upon his own soul (andregardless o whether or not the subject actually succeeds
in his “second chance” to eel regret or his prior actions).
In the case o any act at least 2 dots above the Guardian’s
present Wisdom score on the hierarchy o sins (see Mage:The Awakening, p. 79), this entails no degeneration check:
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Further, regular study o the Codex grants a Guardian o the Veil (or any that manage to decipher its many tiers o
hidden meaning) a +2 modier to any rolls to inuence,
inltrate, or otherwise interact with the structures, policies,
and procedures o nearly any Sleeper occult society wholly
or partially o Western European origin, with traditions(whether legitimately handed down, pilered, or acquired by
whatever other means) spanning back to at least the early
18th century. This insight is the result o regular perusaland contemplation o the symbolism integrated into the
text, and so unctions only or one who has reviewed the
grimoire within the past month. This bonus drops to a +1
in dealings with more modern societies deliberately castin the mold o more antiquated ellowships o this sort,
since many o the prominent symbols and ideals o suchorganizations have entered into the common consciousness
and are thus co-opted by such groups.
Dangers The Codex o Lies is a perilous text to pursue, on many
dierent levels. The book is deliberately concealed by what
is arguably the most treacherous and morally expedient o
the Atlantean Orders, a group that uses lies, thet, espio-nage, torture and murder with the same acility — and
long amiliarity — with which its members use magic. This
grimoire is hidden behind levels upon levels o elaborateruses, cruel traps, base deceptions, and agents willing to do
very nearly anything in order to preserve, protect and (in
the not-inrequent case that it is not presently within the
possession o the Guardians o the Veil) recover it. Even
when the Guardians are not in possession o the book,the many-layered security protocols associated with the
grimoire remain as potent and ar-reaching as when it is
saely in the Order’s hands.
No one is rightly sure o why it is that circumstances
occasionally conspire to steal the Codex out rom under
the stewardship o the Guardians o the Veil, though somemembers o the Order speculate that this, too, is the result
o some unknown trick o Plures’ devising, intended to keep
them on their toes. Almost without exception, the eventsleading up to the Guardians’ loss o the Codex are harmlessto any living thing, but nevertheless result in members o
the Order having to track down the grimoire, sometimes
over the course o years. Occasionally, during such times
the tome will eectively all into the lap o a Guardianunaliated with the search (oten, one who does not
know the Codex is missing or, indeed, that it even exists)
leading to urther speculation on the book’s yet-unknown
properties. Some members o the Order believe Plures mighthave concocted a unique Legacy that allowed or these
untraceable manipulations o destiny, while others say he
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Researching The Codex of Lies Capping Skill: Investigation
Action: Extended — 20 successes
Research Time: 3 days; 1 day
Appropriate Libraries: Grimoires, Guardians of the Veil, Mysterious Relics
Possible Modiers: Researcher interviews someone who once owned the Codex (+1), researcher pres-ently has a “false Codex” (+1), researcher presently has a “false Codex” that is also a grimoire (+2)
Successes Information
0-9 Nothing.
may have pacted with powerul gods. None, however, havebeen able to satisactorily explain the reasons behind the
Codex’s movements.
Outsiders who manage to stumble upon theCodexare welladvised to leave it be or, better still, to turn it over to the
Guardians o the Veil, though most Awakened within theOrder know little to nothing o it, let alone non-Guardians.
Thus, the book has, at times, wound up in the libraries o willworkers belonging to other Atlantean Orders, the Free
Council, Apostates and even Seers o the Throne, but the
book always manages to get ree o such hosts, irrespective o
any protections intended to hold it in place. In certain rareinstances the grimoire has ended up in the private collec-
tions o Sleepers, though never or long. While a handul o Awakened outsiders have managed to decipher the magics
contained within The Codex o Lies, events have always
prevented them rom spreading such lore on any wide scale,
and the secrets have died out within a generation or two,
only to return to the proprietary control o the Guardianso the Veil. In some cases (especially as regards Libertines,
Apostates and Seers o the Throne), the circumstances
that took such lore out o the hands o the uninitiated wereunpleasant in the extreme. Again, though, no spell o any
sort has ever been detected as being attached to the grimoire
that would bring about such results.
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Perhaps the most pressing danger or one who wouldseek The Codex o Lies, though, is the existence o the
“alse Codices,” most — perhaps all — o which come with
magical traps o various sorts. Attempting to quantiy all
the myriad perils o these ake grimoires (and, in at least a
handul o cases, lesser grimoires) is utile. The Guardiansoccasionally cycle old “alse Codices” out o circulation, as
enemies learn their tricks and new advances in mystical
counter-espionage are developed. Some such books areintended to conound and conuse, some to injure, and
some ew to kill, with no apparent rhyme or reason as to
which is which. As many Guardians reason it, ear o the
unknown is the most powerul and consistently useulear, so it’s ar better to keep the interlopers and would-be
thieves o Plures’ lore guessing.
Lastly, at any given time at least a ew Guardians o theVeil around the world are devoted to hunting down the
Codex, sowing misinormation about it, pursuing the trails
o outsiders seeking it, putting “alse Codices” where they’l
do the greatest possible harm to enemies o the Order and
otherwise making miserable the lives o those who wouldsteal this knowledge rom its rightul owners, knowingly
or otherwise. Most o these Guardians are trained in the
standard intelligence techniques o the Order, though atleast a ew are somewhat more zealous in the matter o pro-
tecting the grimoire rom outsiders, and have been known
to go considerably urther than might otherwise be called
or, and to injure or kill as necessary (as such operativesdene the word, anyway) to saeguard its secrets.
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Dark Revolutionthing’s a little thicker than a standard LP. The center hasthe album’s title and the phrase: “Awaken and revolt.”
Line notes are sparse. They list the ollowing tracks andplay times:
Side A: Angels o Malice: 13:01, Blade Broken: 8:08
Side B: Bleeding Leviathan: 9:44, Evil/Truth: 10:00,
No Trap: 5:33
The text is red on black. As ar as anything else, the
liner says only the ollowing:
Schattenbahn is Blixa Dark (Guitar), Hellson (Vocals), Lyla
Regeneuer (Keyboards, Vocals), Doktor Kultur (Sampling)and Andy (Bass).
Produced by Schattenbahn.
Contact: [email protected] Awaken and revolt.
That’s it. Interested parties who visit schattenbahn.de
are redirected to Schattenbahn’s an club, The Forbidden
Army. The domain is registered to an entity called SBMusikbased in Hamburg, Germany, but anyone who actually visits
Hamburg will nd a post oce box that nobody remembersanyone ever visiting.
History Schattenbahn gives every appearance o being a black
Schattenbahn is the band. Dark Revolution is the album:a Libertine experiment designed to turn teenagers into
radical occultists. It’s the record undamentalists warnedyou about. It really is designed to teach you magic, get you
to worship Satan and turn you against authority gures.
Dark Revolution came out in 2006. It was released in
two ormats: a CD with a thousand presses in circulation
and a limited edition o 10 vinyl LPs. The vinyl edition is
the grimoire. Schattenbahn hopes that even the ordinaryCDs will inspire Sleepers to study magic and attack what
it calls “slave institutions.”
Despite their style and name, Schattenbahn membersare neither impulsive Satanist wannabes nor German.
The band and the album are calculated eorts to draw
restless young people into the occult and set them up
with a philosophy that will likely put them at odds withany Diamond Order mages they come across. They have
middling popularity — enough to make Dark Revolution a
collectors’ item in any orm.
Dark Revolution’s sleeve or case art is Schattenbahn’s sym-bol: a shattered pentagram with a menacing human shadow
beneath. This has appeared on all the band’s albums. Matte-
nish outlines o Atlantean runes overlay the glossy silvercover. The band isn’t named (a true an can identiy whose
album it is immediately) but the album title appears in very
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battered leather jacket and a bald woman in military atigues.
They describe themselves as “a collective devoted to thedestruction o ignorance and thereore, civilization.”
As a matter o act, they come rom rural Ontario. Four
o them were the teenage hellions o the unortunately-
named town o Dummer: a hunk o armland a stone’sh h d l h kl Wh h
the Schattenbahn (“Shadow Road”) name and aked a Ger
man origin because they knew nobody would take a bandrom hick Ontario seriously, but that their target audiencewould eat up the idea o obscure Satanic anarchists rom
Hamburg. Ater spreading a ew demos around, the band
put up the money to get CDs pressed in Germany, start-
i i h H il App l i 2000 d ll i i h h
devilmusicradio.com
Mini Review by Peter Dis — HH
Dark Revolution has all the trademarks of a Schattenbahn album: hard drivingblack metal/industrial beats, uncompromisingly hostile lyrics and a continuation
of the quasi-operatic “Against Atlantis” storyline. Unlike previous offerings,Revolution features deeply layered arrangements — but they’re not alwayssuccessful. “Evil/Truth’s” strange, abstract backing vocals provide a hauntingcounterpoint to the triphammer rhythm and Hellson’s growling chorus, but thesame effect disrupts “Blade Broken’s” momentum. The rumors were right: velong tracks, spiraling into complex sonic textures. Sometimes this lets the lyricsslip past your conscious mind, but breaks your reverie with startling imagery.Sometimes it’s just boring.
It’s a spotty album with brilliant moments. Nevertheless, the limited runmeans that fans will want it regardless (especially the rumored vinyl version —you heard it here rst!) so consider this review more of an “I told you so!” onceyou pick it up (or for naughty, naughty people, when you grab the tracks from ale sharing service).
C
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Blixa Dark: Gord Latournier grew up copying speed metalngering rom music videos and spending every spare cent on
the “ultimate ax.” His Mystery Play ended in a classic musical
duel at the crossroads. He didn’t beat the Devil, but got a tie.
That won him admission into the Acanthus. Gord’s a natural
musician who sees the band as a musical outt rst. He chaesat Bargeld/Kultur’s control and wants uture albums to eature
his own arrangements. As a matter o act, he wouldn’t mind
i the band put more eort into succeeding musically. Sorceryis cool, but he wants to be a rock star.
Hellson: Dave Macdonald is Gord/Blixa’s cousin. He was
always the most extroverted member o the Dummer gangthanks to his natural, muscular good looks. As Hellson,
he’s less a singer than a screamer, but he’s rened that into
a powerul vocal style that he occasionally enhances withForces magic. When he became an Obrimos he drank thebright tears o Lucier, most beautiul o the angels. When
he perorms he channels that memory into an arrogant yet
seductive stage presence.
Lyla Regeneuer: Lyla Markowic (Regeneuer — “Rain-
re” — is her stage and Shadow Name) was always the
hardest working member o the Dummer crew, supporting
Blixa and Hellson in on again, o again relationships whenthey shacked up with her. Awakening into the Thyrsus
smashed the personality traits that let her tolerate slack-
ers but, ortunately, the boys had stopped being useless
themselves. Her Satan is the embodiment o natural law,merciless yet balanced. Lyla’s keyboard skills started with
Worst Fears Come True The band had toyed with the idea o an instructional
CD ever since the Atlantean Albums, but waited untilits popularity was enough to get a ew rumors into the
mainstream music scene.
Bargeld drew upon his academic background to createthe plan. He studied this history o Satanism in music not
so much or actual connections but or the mythology. He
learned the critical signs, analyzed the rampant conserva-
tive paranoia o the ’80s and turned it all into a blueprintor the archetypal “evil album.” The mere idea o Satanic
music was enough to uel the entire black metal genre.
What would happen when somebody released a record that
ullled those expectations? Parents would panic but theirchildren would buy it, share it online and, best o all, listen
to it as closely as possible. They’d be primed or the occult
lessons within, all taught within a ramework that valued
individuality and readied them to dey anyone who’d lullthem back to Sleep.
Each member contributed a rote to provide a balanced
look at the ve Paths, but Bargeld cast the nishing touch:
an enchantment that would help the album’s students rain
chaos on authority gures both magical and mundane.They decided to press in a smaller volume than usual.
When it came to the CD release, this would infate demandand motivate owners to distribute the album through le
sharing networks. The vinyl version would be an ultra rare
ll t ’ it Thi ld j k th l i b t
h d d h ll h
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The LP is designed this way or two reasons. First o all, this
makes the record act as a sort o rock and roll Rosetta Stone
or aspects o the High Speech. Sleepers will still nd the High
Speech portions to be gibberish (or in some cases, totally silen
— see Mage: The Awakening, p. 84, to read how Sleepers
perceive the High Speech) and can’t identiy correspondencesin each language. Even so, Schattenbahn believes exposing
them to this material might help kick them out o Sleeping
stupor. Secondly, it helps solitary mages learn rudimentary High
Speech orms, but still gives them the option o learning the
rotes through ordinary language. Playing the LP backward is
a matter o style: a calculated homage to urban legends about
Satanic “backmasking.” Not only does this mean owners are
more likely to try and play it backward, but it connects the
record to the myths. I listeners discover the legends are true,they’re more likely to be receptive to the band’s message.
On the CD, reversed versions o the songs can be ound in
hidden tracks 91-95. Tracks 1-5 are the standard play versions
6-90 are silent one-second tracks. Unortunately, the Lie has
corrupted the CD versions o the rote descriptions. Odd staticsounds and recording errors make it impossible to learn these
rotes as one would rom a true grimoire. On the other hand,
any sorcerer can easily understand that these are supposed to
be rotes and can understand most o the High Speech.
Sorcerer’s Retribution (Song: Angels of Malice; Forces •••, Prime ••)
This spell creates a matrix o kinetic and magical energy
Researching Dark Revolution Capping Skill: Expression
Action: Extended — 13 successes
Research Time: 3 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: Modern Music,Free Council, Satanism
Possible Modiers: Musician (+1), Indus-trial or Black Metal fan (+1)
Successes Information
0 Nothing.1-3 A web search turns up the review
at devilmusicradio.com
4-6 Schattenbahn is an industrial/ black metal band from Hamburg.Dark Revolution is its rarestalbum, and its rarest versionis the limited edition vinyl LP.
Only 10 were made.7-9 Schattenbahn is actually from
Canada. It just does businessfrom Germany. Its musicincorporates Atlantean
B di 1 M h k h ll l C N
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By spending 1 Mana, the caster can make the spell last1 day. However, once the spell delivers its counterattack
it is expended, whether the caster spent Mana or not. It
must be cast again.
Free Council Rote: Angels o Malice
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + ForcesHellson designed this rote to strike down sorcerers who
would dare attack him. He visualizes his voice coalescing
into a serpent-shaped coil o energy, lying in wait against
magical assault.
The Metal Dead (Song: Blade Broken;
Death •••, Matter •••) This spell causes a corpse’s bones to fense their way outo the fesh, or they’ve been transmuted into razor sharp
iron and wire: metal servants with a dim spirit capable o
obeying the mage’s commands.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
This acts as the spell “Quicken Corpse,” but it converts the
zombie’s Health into Structure (base points equal to its Size).
It gains no Structure rom its Resistance. The caster may alsospend successes on Durability on a 1 or 1 basis, which increases
its Structure normally (1 per point) and acts as armor. Thezombie can infict lethal damage in close combat but can’t
perorm tasks that require ne motor control. It can carry ordrag large objects, or example, but can’t turn a doorknob. It
has the same intellectual capacity as a normal zombie.
Like any object, anyone trying to damage it barehandedsuers a point o bashing damage per strike.
The “zombies” are actually metal skeletons, lashed together
with alchemically altered, recongured sinews, estooned with
sharp fanges and bits o sticky fesh that didn’t all o whenthe things cut themselves out o their bodies.
Free Council Rote: Blade Broken
Dice Pool: Resolve + Crafts + Death
Andy designed this rote as a work o art. He wouldn’t
dream o using it on a human corpse and usually casts it on
animal corpses. The rest o the band was duly impressed,with Blixa going so ar as to declare it “ucking metal.”
H h P k ( Bl d h h i l Th i i i P i
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Hone the Pack Spirit (Song: Bleeding Leviathan; Spirit •••, Life ••)
The mage summons the spirit o a base lie orm’s pack
or swarm to enhance the abilities o a group. This makes
the pack receptive to more sophisticated commands andespecially skilled at instinctive actions. This spell works onlyon base lie orms with powerul social instincts. It works
on lions, but not leopards; ants, but not housefies.
The pack accepts sophisticated commands because its
ruling spirit is intelligent enough to interpret them, but italways resolves ambiguous instructions in a way that would
allow the pack to act as it would in nature. Additionally,
the mage cannot instruct individual pack members. Instead,
she delivers orders to the pack as a whole. The pack spirituses its own intelligence to carry out commands through
pack members, assigning them individual tasks.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant and contested; targets rolls Stamina
refexively
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 ManaThe mage aects all targets o the same species within
a dened area based on the number o successes scored.
The spell must aect at least 2 targets or a swarm to work
at all.
Successes Targets
anyone to whom the target is close. The victim is PatientZero o a memetic inection that destroys the inhibitions
o people she knows.
Practice: Ruling
Action: Instant and contested; targets roll Resolve +
Gnosis refexively.Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana
Targets who ail to resist the spell must make a refexive
Resolve + Composure roll to avoid acting on their Vice
when an opportunity presents itsel, regardless o whether
it would be ethical or socially appropriate to do so. I the
victim fails the Resolve + Composure roll he must actwithin a ew turns o the opportunity arising. He may use
this time to minimize the possible consequences.
The spell aects not only the initial target, but a num-
ber o people indicated by the spell’s Target actor within
its sympathetic range actor. The spell aects targets in
order o their sympathetic connection. This is based onthe target’s sympathetic bonds, not the caster’s (unless the
caster inficts the spell on himsel).
It is dicult or this spell to provoke truly heinous acts. Iindulging the Vice would orce a Morality (or the equivalentor mages and other supernatural beings) check, the victim
gains bonus dice on the Resolve + Composure roll equal to
hal the dierence between the character’s Morality and the
i i M li i d h k d dd
th pl r r lling th ppr pri t di p l t d t rmin it r nkl ld b m thing h r t li t n t i it
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the player rolling the appropriate dice pools to determine its
outcome, where applicable) in each alternate version. The magecan even try the same basic action in two dierent timelines,
counting on one to provide a better result. He cannot, however,
perorm the same basic action in three or more realities.
The mage experiences the outcome o the turn in eachreality, but no other participant in the scene may change their
actions except in reaction to the mage. Other participants’ dicerolls are constant or the same actions across all realities.
The mage experiences each reality simultaneously; the
player must declare all his actions beore resolving them.He cannot use inormation rom one reality to infuence
his actions in another.
Once the mage experiences all alternate turns, he chooses
one. The outcome o that turn becomes the true outcomeand all participants eel the eects o what happened in
that version o events — no other.
Example: Blixa casts the spell using his Arcana ratings o
Time 4 and Fate 3, opting or the maximum allowed Potency
o 3. He shoots at a Guardian o the Veil in two realities (the
maximum number in which he is allowed to take that action),but opts to run away in his remaining alternate turn. In one
reality he misses his enemy completely, but isn’t injured. Inanother, he hits his enemy but is shot or 4 lethal wounds. In
the last, he manages to run down a fight o stairs, out o theline o re. Blixa chooses to shoot and be shot. That reality’s
events occur during the turn. The rest never happened.
Free Council Rote: No Trap
rankly, would be something o a chore to listen to i it wasaudible. The Doktor draws upon a number o historical
examples to argue that humanity has willingly enslaved
itsel to “religions o passionless compassion.” Healthy
human spirituality is the process o mastering one’s own
passions not out o guilt, but the desire to work one’s Willeectively. Invariably, this sets humanity against orces that
try to contain its passions — the “enslaving doctrines” o
a judgmental God and ocial moral enorcers like judges,priests and politicians. The honed Will destroys anything
that opposes it. It is not cruel, but kind out o a genuine
desire to be so. To Kultur, this opposing orce is Satan; it’s
the duty o every human being to take up his banner andoverthrow the moral enorcers o the world.
Roll 10 dice or the “Psychic Domination” eect atersomeone has listened to the entire LP orward and back-ward. (This need not be in a single sitting.) The magical
components o the perormance change the listener’s
psychic makeup. Each success adds the listed eature and
all those listed beore it.
Successes Eects
1 He despises institutions that claim moral
authority (such as churches, police) andeels compelled to undermine them. He would
burn down a church i he could get away
with it, or mislead police in pursuit o a
criminal (though i he thought the criminalwas immoral he might dispense vigilante
The Electric Grimoire
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The Electric Grimoireterns o electricity that could be discerned using 1-dot
Forces magic proved too dicult given
the limits o late 19th-
centurytechnology, until he
captured a minorelectricity spirit
he ound haunting
an apparatus he
was using to studyelectricity. Graber
imprisoned this spirit
within his leyden jar andmagically imprinted the
grimoire upon it. Then, in
order to render the grimoire
easier to read, he used power-
ul Forces and Spirit magics torender the spirit quiescent.
During the negotiations that
led to the ormation o the Free
Council, Graber showed o thisdevice as an example o modern
magic that he claimed was beyond
the interests and capabilities o the
conservative Diamond Mages. For the
This grimoire is almost unique in that instead o beinga physical object, it consists solely o enchanted data.
It can be stored in any electronic storage devicecapable o holding 50 megabytes and read on
any device with a screen, including everythingrom a cell phone to a media player. However,
it cannot be duplicated like mundane
electronic les. Copying it rom one
device to another, or even one olderto another, automatically deletes it
rom the rst location, and email-
ing it to another source meansit automatically deletes itsel rom its previous location.
In addition, while it
can be uploaded onto
the internet, whichhas happened
several times in
its existence, to
read it, a usermust download
it, which deletes it
rom the internet site.
The only way to create another
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patterns o magnetic data inside a computer. Because o
the limitations o the available hardware, they needed to
magically enhance a rerigerator-sized minicomputer tomake it capable o holding a creation as complex as the
Electric Grimoire. Then, they spent the next year nding a
way to transer the creation rom its static orm in a leyden
jar into a dynamic and interactive program.
without training in the Forces Arcana and once again
served as a symbol o the dreams o the Free Council o
melding unconventional magic and advanced technologyinto a whole greater than the sum o its parts. However,
while successul, the result was also airly limited. The
Electric Grimoire was now a searchable database, but it
was as much a part o the computer as it was data on the
(Transcripts of two emails from Kepler to Digitalman)
Date: July 11, 1996
Merely offering congratulations seems a woefully insufcient response. I had absolutelyno idea that this was even possible, but your new version of the Electric Grimoire arrivedin my email box this morning and it works perfectly on my computer. I had no idea thatsuch an achievement was possible, much less that someone had already managed it. Thisdevelopment could revolutionize grimoires everywhere.
Date: July 13, 1996
Digitalman, I have been studying your grimoire and while it remains an unparalleledachievement, I have also discovered a problem, either with it or at least with my use ofit. I accidentally dropped a small paperweight onto my keyboard while using the grimoire
and the computer immediately turned off and I was not able to turn it back on. Examiningit revealed there was no damage to either the keyboard or the computer. Also, everyoneexcept me can use the computer perfectly well. However, it now powers off immediatelyafter I touch it. I am uncertain as to the nature of the problem and would appreciate anyadvice you might have.
on any computer and that could even be sent over the typically involve paying 2 points o tass or giving the ad-
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on any computer and that could even be sent over theinternet. By this time, both mages were members o the
Transhuman Engineers and perormed this revision o the
Electric Grimoire as proo that this sort o grimoire can be
ar more durable, portable, and useul than an ordinary
physical book. Since their rst success in the late 1970s aew other mages had created digital grimoires, but like the
previous version o the Electric Grimoire all o them were
tied to a specic storage device and could not be copied,because the grimoire was the device itsel. This latest
version o the Electric Grimoire was nothing more or less
than pure data.
They created this version o the Electric Grimoire in
complete secrecy. The two mages shocked and amazed
their ellows in the Free Council by emailing the grimoirerom their Palo Alto-based Sanctum to the New York CityLorehouse. Although a somewhat unwieldy amount o data
by the standards o the time, the ability to email a complete
grimoire earned them both instant acclaim.
The most important incident in the book’s recent history
occurred when a reclusive mage known as 00Rule, who was
also a noted computer hacker, hacked into the computer
the grimoire was currently on and downloaded it to his
computer, thus vividly demonstrating the dangers o thisorm o grimoire. In an eort to avoid similar problems in
the uture, Perez and James worked with several colleagues
to incorporate a orm o magical password protections intothe grimoire so that only its designated owner could saely
typically involve paying 2 points o tass or giving the administrators a minor imbued, and then accessing the le
only at a computer located in one o the Free Council’s
Lorehouses.
Although this grimoire appeals only to a small subset
o mages, it is both well known and popular among mageswith an interest in modern technology. Most members o
both the Transhuman Engineers and the Threnodists haveeither studied this grimoire or plan to do so sometime in
the uture.
Current Researchon the Electric Grimoire
In addition to regular attempts to debug it,currently more than a half dozen mages withan interest in combining magic and technol-ogy are working on ways to easily duplicate
the Electric Grimoire . The most promisingavenue of research involves treating dupli-
cates as imbued items that require both 1 dotof permanent Willpower and at least 1 point
of tass to duplicate. This technique has not yet proved success-
ful, but several mages working with the Elec- tric Grimoire believe, or at least hope they willmanage to eventually duplicate it as a whole
the Attributes and Ability pair that is rolled or the “Trans- believe they are a result o the spirit’s eorts to make the
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the Attributes and Ability pair that is rolled or the Transmission” rote (Mage: The Awakening, p. 167) make sense
and can be used without problem. However, using a pair
o traits like Stamina and Firearms or this rote does not.
In addition to the program not accepting this Attribute
and Ability as a valid pair o variables, attempting to useinvalid variables causes the Electric Grimoire to behave
erratically. (See below.)
The Rotes: The ollowing rotes are in the Electric
Grimoire. These are only those currently in the work.
While rotes put into it are protected against being erased
or changed, anyone with access to this grimoire can writenew rotes into it. As a result, over time many o the rotes
common among the Free Council can nd their way into
this book. Some mages also ear that a mage corrupted bythe Abyss will someday insert one or more rotes that areintrinsically tainted by the Abyss. (SeeThe Tome o Power,
p. 143, or details on tainted rotes.)
One tradition Galvinus started and that has so ar beenrespected is that no Spirit rotes are placed in this grimoire,
despite it containing almost all the other rotes that were
involved in its creation. In addition to Galvinus’ wishing to
downplay the role the Spirit Arcana played in an endeavor
he tried to present as largely technological, some later usersalso worry that placing spirit rotes in this grimoire might
either anger the grimoire, since it is part electricity spirit, or
might in some way be useable by the spirit. No one knowswhether this theory is likely or even possible, but so ar no
believe they are a result o the spirit s eorts to make thecomputer into a better “dwelling.” Once the Electric Gri-
moire has been transerred elsewhere, these eects vanish,
except on computers owned by mages who have treated
the Electric Grimoire especially well. Such mages oten nd
their computer is now blessed by a Permanent version o the “Platonic Mechanism” spell.
Dangers The most obvious dangers are those to anyone who
attempts to hack his way into this grimoire. When thecurrent owner gives this grimoire to someone else, she
must state the new owner’s name and use a sympathetic
connection that counts as at least a Known connection(Mage: The Awakening, pp. 114-5). Then, when the newuser rst opens the le the grimoire is on, the grimoire
displays a prompt asking the user to type his name. The
program can recognize both the name and the identity
o the person typing it though sympathetic resonances.I the name is correct and matches the person typing it,
then the grimoire unctions normally. I the name is not
correct, nothing happens except that the le cannot be
opened and the grimoire displays an error message, askingthe user to retype his name.
I the name is correct, but does not match the person
typing it, the grimoire displays the previous error message
the rst two times it occurs. The third time someone other
almost everyone who has used this grimoire has at least
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y gone story about the grimoire’s various “bugs” and quirks.
Any mage who discovers a way to eliminate some o these
problems would earn signicant praise and status within
the Free Council.
The presence o the grimoire causes the computer itis in to work exceptionally well, but this grimoire reacts
negatively to actions that would normally cause the com-puter problems. The grimoire reacts i the mage using the
computer perorms careless actions like turning o the
antivirus or rewall sotware, accidentally downloading
viruses, attempting to install incompatible hardware orsotware, improperly shutting down the computer, typing
illegal variables into the rotes (see above) or perorming
commands that would normally cause the computer orone o its programs to crash. In response to these actions,the Electric Grimoire produces various annoying but not
particularly harmul eects. Sometimes, simply making
too many typing errors or attempting to open too many
programs beore the computer has completely nishedbooting up can cause similar negative reactions.
The Electric Grimoire responds to minor problems in a
wide variety o ways. It can do everything rom deleting
recently used les to causing the user to experiencepainul but non-damaging static electric discharges
when he touches the computer, or occasionally when
he touches any piece o electronics. These minor shocksimpose a -1 penalty to all rolls involving using electronic
producing problems like the mage’s nerves beginning to
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p g p g g grandomly re, causing distracting and uncomortable muscle
spasms that reduce both her Manipulation and Dexterity
by a –1 or –2 penalty. These penalties last or between
12 hours and 2 days, depending upon the severity o the
problem that caused them.
Examining the Electric Grimoire Any mage examining the object currentlyhousing this grimoire with either Spirit or
Forces magics sees that the computer or stor-age device contains and is surrounded by a
complex and changing structure of magic. If amage simultaneously uses Forces and Spirit toscrutinize the object holding this grimoire, shesees this structure in considerably more detail.It has both the organic and continually chang-ing characteristics of a spirit and the rigid and
formal structure of an enduring rote, as well asthe focused magic of a grimoire. The rst timea mage studies this grimoire in this fashion,
she automatically gains 1 point of ArcaneExperience. However, she must also make aGnosis + Forces roll — failure means she hasangered or disturbed the grimoire and suffers
one of its minor negative effects.
Researching the Electric Grimoire Capping Ability: Computer
Action: Extended (5 successes)
Research Time: 5 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: Software data-bases, Electronic security
Bonuses: Free Council membership (+1)
Penalties: No dots in Computer (-1)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-10 The Electric Grimoire is a fullydigital grimoire that exists onlyas information in some formof electronic storage. Only onecopy of it can exist at a time andit contains various passwordprotections preventing unauthorized
users from gaining access to it. This grimoire once had the formof a leyden jar containing agrimoire that could be read onlyby Forces magic. Its history alsoparallels that of the Free Council
Ban: The spirit is permanently melded with the book something it considers a threat, this entity is both angry
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and cannot exist outside it. It must go wherever the book
goes and cannot move unassisted.
Even in the Shadow Realm, it remains a simple-mindedand temperamental entity. However, it enjoys tass, and eed-
ing it 1 Mana point o tass in the Shadow Realm causes itto cease reacting to any minor problems like poor typing.
Feeding it additional Mana points worth o tass renders itquiescent or 1 hour per point. In this state, it will ignore
minor problems, although it will react normally to hacking
attempts, physical damage, or similar serious problems. As a
result, mages with signicant stores o tass can saely studythis work. Unortunately, the process o eeding the grimoire
in the Shadow Realm can be risky because signicant
amounts o tass attract other hungry spirits.I the mage causes a more serious problem, such as spilling
a small amount o water on the keyboard, the mage can
attempt to use tass to calm the grimoire. However, doing
so is considerably more dicult. When it is reacting to
and scared. Simply tossing a bit o tass at the spirit usually
results in the spirit ignoring it. Instead, the mage must
dangle it beore the spirit, tempting it, in much the same
way a snake owner tempts a snake to strike at a dead mouse
Doing this requires the mage to make a Manipulation +Occult roll with a penalty equal to 5 minus the number o
points o tass present. So, the roll to attempt to cause the
spirit to devour 3 points o tass is made at a -2 penalty.
Saely eeding this entity when it is angry is both expensive
and dangerous. Failure on this roll means the spirit grows
restless. It will strike at the mage and then all penalties onrolls or the next 3 hours are doubled. A Dramatic Failure
results in the spirit attacking the mage both physically
and with a major magical attack. I the mage is hit by thespirit’s physical attack, then it is able to use its magicalattack with great eect, and the mage cannot resist the
eect in any ashion.
Hiden Gogyo Bujutsu
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Hiden Gogyo Bujutsutechniques that do apply, its contents have proven to bequite potent. Its ecacy can be as dangerous to the owner
as to her enemies. Not only have Arrows and renegadesalike killed to possess its secrets, but the grimoire itsel
seems to put its students on a glorious, bloody path, lledwith legendary victories and sudden doom.
The Gogyo is a collection o six scrolls made
o thin yellowed paper. There used to be 10 —
one or each Arcana — but the most completeset known to still exist is missing our o them.
Each scroll comes with its own labeled tube made
o layered eel skin with steel rings to maintainits shape. A black lacquered cabinet was built o r the scrolls; it has 10 tted shelves. The
cabinet is an austere, beautiul
work o art itsel but it’s suered
through the ages. It now sportsscorch marks, dents and thick
gouges that are testaments to
the mages who’ve dueled
over its contents.The scrolls are
written in dark
purple ink. Read-ers see what appear to
The Adamantine Arrows created many grimoires aboutsupernatural martial arts. Most o them are written in clear,
matter o act language. They’re constantly updated to in-clude notes on eectiveness, eld studies and inormal tips.
Some are undamen-tal textbooks or
a particular
sect, laying
out its ap-proach to tactics,
hand to hand
combat or spiri-tual battle. TheOrder keeps its
secrets well, but
it also believes
that an inormed,trained cadre is
a strong one. To
learn the Order’s
most popularrotes, an Arrow
in good stand-
ing need only ask
or the correct
Sun Bin discovered in the ruins o a ortress built by thel d ll l
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legendary Yellow Emperor — or an outpost o Atlantis,
depending upon the teller’s point o view. An accomplished
Arrow, Sun Bin copied the material rom 108 thaumium
columns. He rewrote it with an eye toward applying its
secrets to the primitive methods available to the state oWei. This new text was called the Wuxing Bing Fa (“Five
Elements Art o War”) to indicate that it drew upon the
secrets o the ve Supernal Realms. The results were highlyeective, but came at a steep price. Sun Bin was mutilated
his kneecaps removed when courtiers trumped up charges
against him.
It’s dicult to tell what happened ater that. Despite a
disability that would normally cause him to be shunned
by society, Sun Bin was employed as a military strategistuntil he retired into a hermitage, indicating that his in-complete knowledge was still more than sucient to the
task o deending an ancient kingdom. The Wuxing Bing
Fadisappeared or a century. The Arrows says rst emperor
Qin Shihuangdi had a copy — even that he burned booksand buried scholars to keep anyone rom using it against
him. While a more sober analysis would certainly detect
some hyperbole here, the story is several centuries old
demonstrating the high regard warrior-scholars held orthe Wuxing Bing Fa. Other legends say the manual orged
empires and broke them, even that owning it was a physi
cal sign o the Mandate o Heaven. The grimoire gained a
reputation or bringing ruin to anyone who studied it ully
Historical ContextRest assured we know that China and
Japan are two different countries. There’s
always been a robust cultural exchangebetween them, even during times of war.Japanese kanji was adapted from the Chinese writing system. In some cases, people uentin one language can still read the other, eventhough the spoken languages have far lessin common. During the period in which theGogyo was transmitted, the writing systems
had more similarities, but the writing systems
have changed and diverged since then. The Hiden Gogyo Bujutsu is based on
the real-world legendary origins of manyJapanese martial arts texts. Scrolls for oldJapanese martial traditions (called koryu —literally “old ow”) often mention a Chineseorigin. In some cases, entire texts were taken wholesale from Chinese sources. Many of
these martial arts and strategy manuals were,like the Art of War, standard texts in bothcultures. Others were edited from multiple
source texts, altered by the compiler and keptsecret within different traditions. While not
strictly Japanese the Bubishi is an example
o the Wuxing Bing Fa. Wudang monasteries (specically,h h i d i hi h ) d h b k R hi th
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the mages who practiced within them) used the book to
great eect, pioneering neijia or “internal” martial arts.
Nobody knows exactly how the book got to Japan.One story says the Mongols acquired the book when they
conquered China. They used its secrets in their attemptedinvasion o Japan, but the kamikaze destroying most o their
ships was a sign that they’d outlived the apex o glory. Acopy washed to shore, where an order o warrior monks
spirited it into the mountains. Another theory says the
book appeared in Korea rst and that acquiring it was the
true treasure Toyotomi Hideyoshi sought when he invadedthe peninsula.
Whatever the cause, the surviving edition took the
Gogyo name and characteristics. It supposedly passed intothe hands o the Yagyu clan long enough or it to ound a
school o supposedly-invincible military strategy called the
Yagyu Shinkage Ryu. The clan supported the Tokugawa
shogunate and in victory (and a generation ater its lastsurviving mage died) lost any real need or the book. The
Gogyo became a meaningless antique, lost within the am-
ily’s collection o heirlooms. But mages remembered it still,
and by the 19th century the book had vanished.
The grimoire’s resuraced on several occasions since.Mages who’ve studied it tend to be remarkably successul
in one or more martial endeavors. Then they disappear or
die in obscure circumstances. A wandering English Arrownamed Ajax was the last known mage to credibly study
Researching theHiden Gogyo Bujutsu
Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended — 16 successesResearch Time: 6 hours; 2 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Martial Arts,Japanese Occult, Chinese Occult
Possible Modiers: Language Merit:Japanese (+1), Mandarin/Putonghua (+1),
Adamantine Arrows member (+1)
Successes Information0-1 Nothing.
2-4 One of the Adamantine Arrows’great lost grimoires is a martialarts text that migrated fromChina to Japan over the course of centuries. It is called the Hiden Gogyo Bujutsu.
5-9 An Arrow named Ajax usedmagic from the grimoire tobecome an unbeatable warrior.He died under mysteriouscircumstances, but left behindhi i i (Sh th
content includes an assortment o common AdamantineA S h d b l b
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Merit: Tetsujin Undo Hyoho (••••)Prerequisites: Awakened, knows the
rotes “Cleanse the Body,” “Body Control,”“Self-Healing,” and “Self-Purging” as taught
by the Gogyo .
Benets: The mage constantly benetsfrom the equivalent of the rote “Organic
Resilience,” except that it adds armor basedupon the lower of the character’s Strength orStamina. It is not a magical effect; it doesn’tcount toward the mage’s spell tolerance or
as a spell for the purposes of stacking magi-
cal effects with the exception of Life Shield-ing spells.
Drawbacks: The mage can never againbenet from “Organic Resilience” or other
Life spells that bestow armor. Furthermore,his internal energies run “hot.” His body
consumes a point of Mana every sunrise. If the mage doesn’t have any Mana on hand
his body automatically scours itself of apoint of Stamina.
Arrows rotes. Some o these used to be less common, but
the age and ame o the Gogyo has ensured they’re airly
well known. The grimoire’s valuable secrets are the Shinden
Hyoho (“True Strategies”): Merits that provide permanentadvantages to dedicated students.
The Yagyu amily’s copy is the best preserved version,
but its Metal and Water scrolls are missing. The Fire Scrollsare severely damaged and have no Shinden Hyoho. The
others are in surprisingly poor condition considering that
they’re made o magically reinorced parchment. Fragments
o other copies make the rounds, but most o these includeonly a handul o now-common spells that were part o one
scroll or another. These excerpts are relatively common;
they’re used to teach Adamantine Arrows apprenticesbasic magical techniques, but are unexceptional grimoiresby themselves. Ironically, the surviving Yagyu scrolls are
actually quite resilient, as some nameless mage used magic
to make them dicult to burn, cut, tear or smudge.
The Wood Scrolls The rst o the Wood Scrolls (Ki no Maki) delves into
the nature o living things. Ki — “breath” fows through
everything and is the basic energy o lie. Remarkably, thescroll integrates this magical belie with an almost modern
understanding o biology. Various terms allude to cellular
anatomy and even genetics, though these might be chari-table interpretations o dicult to translate words. This is “Greater Spirit Summons,” “Numinous Shield” and “Liv-
Ryutora means “Tiger and Dragon,” or colloquially, “twop r l ri l ” Th Gogyo l ll th r t b thi n m
The surviving material contains little inormation aboutth Prim Ar n m r th g n r l prin ipl M n It
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powerul rivals.” The Gogyo also calls the rote by this name
to evoke the principles o eng shui. The mage uses ritual-
ized threats and orders to array hal-slumbering spirits in
service to his cause. Trees, stones, clouds, insects — all o them hinder oes and help allies.
The Fire Scrolls The Fire Scrolls (Ka no Maki) hold orth on “Heaven,”
dened here as the overarching structure o Creation. A
long discourse on astrology and weather lore ollows, with an
emphasis on how to predict weather patterns and currents o Supernal energies to help a general win the battleeld. It oers
practical advice on how to conduct surprise attacks during a
storm, how to rally troops on muddy ground and even how touse positioning to blind an enemy with bright sunlight.
The second Fire Scroll is burnt; several articles about ren-
ing ki in the orm o Mana appear to have been destroyed.
the Prime Arcanum or the general principles o Mana. It
discusses the metaphysics o violent natural orces like re,
lightning and wind using the microcosmic/macrocosmic
principles o Daoism to explore the role o these energiesin the human body. Illustrated instructions teach a set o
54 postures designed to channel ambient natural energy.
This teaches practitioners rotes or “Kinetic Blow,” “Kinetic
Shield,” as well as rotes or “Floating Step” and “OptimizeKinetic Attack,” below.
Floating Step (Forces •••) This spell manipulates wind currents and kinetic energy
around the mage to improve her balance and jumping abil-
ity, all while reducing her eective weight.Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
C t NThe Earth Scrolls (Chi no Maki)
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Cost: None
Once cast, the spell provides the 8 again advantage toDexterity + Athletics rolls to maintain balance, making
it easy or a well-trained mage to run across tightropes or
jump rom one narrow post to another. The mage also addsher Forces dots in eet or every success scored whenevershe succeeds at a Strength + Athletics roll. For example, if
she scores 4 successes to make a standing broad jump and
has Forces 3, she jumps 20 feet (2 per success as usual, + 3
per success using the spell).
Adamantine Arrows Rote: Karumijutsu
Dice Pool: Resolve + Athletics + Forces
The “body lightening art” gives practitioners the abil-
ity to leap incredible distances and balance on the mostprecarious suraces.
Optimize Kinetic Attack (Forces •••) This spell channels wasted kinetic energy rom a mage’s
movements into the speed and orce o an attack.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
Divide successes between the number o uture attacks
this spell benets and its primary eect adding dice to any
The Earth Scrolls are dominated by a discourse on the
Mandate o Heaven. The scrolls describe the signs o aoreordained ruler and the omens that say when even an
emperor’s time has passed. Fate’s mandate also overturns
generals, captains and even individuals when they ail toadapt to new conditions. This sometimes happens becausethe victim turns immoral, but just as oten they’ve become
set in their ways while the world, battleeld or even an
individual opponent changes.
Heaven has a ormal order that must be respected. Gods
o the hearth and land gather inormation or the great
powers: the sages and Okami who dwell in the Superna
Realms. On the other hand, a clever mage can bribe lesser
gods (here described as embodied principles, not spirits perse) by entering into special contracts — or using bribes
They outline a course o rituals that “gag” the watchers o
Heaven. This allows anyone who ollows these instructionsto purchase the Tendogakure Hyoho (“Hidden Divine
Providence Strategy”) Merit.
Merit: Tendogakure Hyoho (•••)Prerequisite: Awakened, studied theGogyo Hiden Bujutsu
Effect: The mage’s destiny is shieldedfrom others as if he is constantly affected by
h ll
These scrolls have suered smudging and shredding.Some sections are illegible Others mention spells that are
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The Missing Scrolls The Metal and Water Scrolls are lost.
There are a few fragments in circulation thatteach unexceptional spells. They do provide
hints about the lost scrolls, however. TheMetal Scroll deals with ancestor worshipand logistics. It was supposed to give its
students the ability to create weapons that“cut down the gods” by infusing smiths withthe skills of dead smiths. The Water Scroll
was a treatise on the sword as a symbol andpractical weapon. Students were capable of
winning duels and coordinating armies usingthe same techniques.
Nobody knows what happened to theremaining Yagyu scrolls. Most mages
believe they’ve been destroyed, but somesay the legendary Yagyu Jubei scattered
them to prevent anyone else from studyingthem in depth and taking on the burdensthey impose. Whatever the truth, Arrows
mages still look for them. A few seek out the Atlantean ruin that supposedly contains theinscriptions upon which the Gogyo is based. There is a legend that says the grimoire will
be collected only in a complete form when
Some sections are illegible. Others mention spells that are
presumably described in the destroyed portions. Only two
spells remain: “Strike in the Perect Moment” and “Sense
Strength and Weakness.”
Strike in the Perfect Moment (Time •••) This spell gives the mage a supernatural sense o ghting
rhythm. She can sense moments when her opponent isn’t
prepared to deend against an attack.
Practice: Perecting
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None during casting; 1 Mana per use ater casting.
I she spends a point o Mana while attacking with aweapon or unarmed strike during the duration o the spell,
reduce her opponent’s Deense by her Time dots. This
benet does not aect the benets o armor or Shielding
Practice spells except or Time-based protection. It does reduce the deensive benets o supernatural powers that
provide increased speed or raw agility, but not those that
protect the user by virtue o increased toughness, mentalmisdirection or any other means.
This spell doesn’t benet ranged attacks.
Adamantine Arrows Rote: Shikake
Dice Pool: Composure + Weaponry + Time
This spell can be combined with another to specicallytarget the best or worst member o a group For example
highest rating o the two. This Destiny Merit has a banelike any other tailored to the mage’s ate
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target the best or worst member o a group. For example,
it could be combined with “Call Lightning” to direct the
spell at the target most likely to survive electrocution, or
the one least likely to successully counter the spell.
This listing describes the instant version o the spell,
but in ages past, mages cast extended ritual versions to
nd the weak and strong points in entire Consilii andbattle ormations.
Adamantine Arrows Rote: Tenshin Heiho
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Investigation + Fate
Adamantine Arrows who’ve studied theGogyodeeply use
this rote to help plan an attack against a group o enemies.
The mage studies subtle omens and the enemy’s habits to
expose weakness and avoid meeting strength head on. Heis said to have the quality or which the rote is named:
“divinely inspired strategy.”
Danger — and Glory The most amous aspect o the Gogyo isn’t a spell or
Shinden Hyoho Merit. It’s the grimoire’s association withpowerul destinies — its reputation as a symbol o the
Mandate o Heaven. The grimoire’s been credited witheverything rom the rise o the Ming Dynasty to the all o
the Tokugawa shogunate. None o this can be traced backto a specic spell or easily-dened power. Instead, studying
the scrolls seems to impose a special ate commensurate
like any other, tailored to the mage s ate.
The mage’s destiny is always a violent one. He’s ated to
train a Consilium to conquer its rivals, ght a series o duelsthat culminates in a battle with an Abyssal demon or even
overthrow a Sleeper government. His new Merit dots can be
used only to urther that destiny, not his general interests
It’s part o the nature o the grimoire to push the studenttoward his ate. He meets mysterious strangers, picks up
bizarre artiacts — anything to get him on the path. The
Gogyo doesn’t have any way o directly inorming a mage
about his destiny, but “The Sibyl’s Sight” other propheticmagic or equivalent powers might uncover it. Even clever
mundane observation can go a long way, as the new destiny
strongly aects the mage’s lie.Unortunately, the Gogyo’s mandate is ckle. I the
mage ever ulls his destiny or irrevocably ails to do so
the mage suers bane penalties (-1 die per Destiny dot) to
almost every nontrivial action, including but not limited tocombat, spellcasting in risky situations and other dangerous
memorable situations. He won’t get into odd car accidents
(or suffer Dexterity + Drive penalties) when he’s driving
home his groceries but he might wipe out during a high
speed chase, or i he’s driving to the Hierarch’s oce withan important message. Like the Mandate o Heaven, the
mage’s heroic ortune lasts only or so long, and those who
rise the highest, all the hardest.
The mage can divest himsel o the Destiny Merit (and
The Hildebrand
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The HildebrandRecording
A Different PerspectiveBecause of its unique nature and the sort
of company it seems to “prefer” to keep (seebelow), the Hildebrand Recording can make
for an interesting challenge for a group of ordinary mortals who travel in the occult,
criminal, or even law enforcement or intel-ligence communities. While such characterscannot actually make use of the grimoire’s
spells, that’s not really the point of the exer-cise; rather, such a chronicle focuses moreupon the nature of the recording as a hor-
ric unknown, a sort of “Devil’s Bible” of themodern paranormal.
This sort of chronicle likely follows the
globetrotting exploits of the characters as theypursue legends of the Hildebrand Recording
and start to discern the forces, both mundaneand supernatural, aligned against their search.Occult scholars may be expecting this sort of
...As you suspected, it was inmy possession. For just about aweek, actually. That’s right; Ihad it, if only briey. You mustunderstand, however, why it isthat I chose not to share it with you as I promised, Josephine.
It’s…unhealthy. Dark. The soundsare not words, though they arelanguage. I can’t explain. Ishouldn’t even try, except tosay that it’s not meant for thisworld. Whoever William Hildebrand was, I pity him. He was therefor it all, and I shudder tothink of what it did to him atthe end. You should have heard his screams. I’m glad you didn’thave to. You can feel free not toforgive me for that, but I’ll goto my grave feeling justied in
Moros likened it to “staring at something that died so longago it’s orgotten that it isn’t alive anymore.” Some speculate
as staining the disc, the accounts oten liken the eeling(and, perhaps, the unconscious association) to that o drying
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g g y p
that the recording itsel has a consciousness o one sort or
another — a malevolent and alien consciousness, to be sure,
but a consciousness, nevertheless. No known at-tempt to communicate with the
recording (or the
thing
heardon the
record-
i n g ) ,
however,ha s e v e r
been suc-
cessul.S o m e o
t h o s e w h o
have come into
proximity withld b d
( ,p p , ) y g
blood, pus, phlegm or bile. A ormer owner o the
recording, now deceased — a retired
crime scene investigator in New YorkCity — said o the sensation that
it reminded him o the time he
got some o the “necrotic soup
rom a badly decomposedhuman corpse” inside
one o his gloves; “not
just the sickeningly
sticky eeling, butalso that refex-
ive sense thatdays later
you weres o m e
how stil
‘dirty.’”
(Approximately 22 seconds of
move on. (Those who have researched the matter, interest-ingly enough, report that all three o these events occurred
no questions asked. O course, rumors have already begunto circulate throughout Europe’s underworld as to the ate
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g y g p
within 48 hours o one another in Edinburgh, though the
killing o Frater Dis never made the mainstream media, and
his true identity remains unknown to this day.)
Three months later, the Hildebrand Recording resuraced
in Barcelona, Spain, and it was at this time that the rst
countereits began to circulate through the occult com-munity, as well as what are believed to be two or three
unsuccessul attempts to copy the disc, at least one o
them incomplete by our or ve minutes. It is a matter o
record that it was Enrique Vargas, a wealthy entrepreneurwith a keen interest in the paranormal, who acquired the
recording ater it came to Spain. Vargas kept theHildebrand
Recording or only three days beore shipping it to an oldcollege riend (and much more knowledgeable occultist) inPerth, Australia. The package never arrived, however, and
the recording disappeared or nearly a year. As to his time
in possession o the Hildebrand Recording , Vargas will say
nothing, and he reuses all inquiries into the matter.
In late March o 2005, the Hildebrand Recording resur-
aced in or around Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States.
By this time, at least nine distinct countereit recordings
were in circulation, each one o which had been copied atleast once and some o them up to a dozen times. Current
research indicates that the disc ended up in the possession
o one Allison Lees, a wealthy recluse with a chronic im-munodeciency. I the story o Geraldo DeJesus, a security
g p
o three young men who tried to pawn a ake o on the
ruthless criminal; ater three weeks o starvation they were
simply thankul or a meal and never thought to ask whathad been done with their limbs ater they were sawed o.
Allegedly, at least one o them is still alive, now nothing
more than a head and torso, in a hospital in either Germany
or the Netherlands — accounts disagree as to which.
Since disappearing rom Asløg Madsen’s keeping, the
Hildebrand Recording has suraced here and there throughout
the world. Most o its owners manage to hold onto it or amatter o only days or, at most, weeks, beore they either
willingly part with it or else lose it through various sorts
o unortunate circumstances. Occasionally evidence willpoint to someone keeping the recording or up to a month ortwo, but these accounts are rare and, oten, suspect. Widely
considered to be the only truly believable such claimant,
Dorian Wheeler o Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,
a small-time dealer in paranormal artiacts, alleges that,ater 39 days in the house, the disc drove his wie to murder
their two children with a carving knie, to attack him, and
then — when he fed, badly wounded, and locked himsel
in the bathroom — to eviscerate hersel in the parlor.While Wheeler was (barely) cleared o any suspicion in the
murder-suicide, the recording could not be ound anywhere
among his possessions aterward.
As to the Hildebrand Recording ’s present location, none
A Bit Nonstandard
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A Bit NonstandardNeedless to say, the Hildebrand Recording is unlike most other grimoires out there. First of all, it
doesn’t take the form of a series of written symbols, but, rather, an audio recording. This is a signicantdistinction unto itself. Some mages wonder how it is that the Hildebrand Recording can be a grimoire at
all , given its unusual medium. Second, none of the few Awakened who’ve ever set eyes on the recordingcan determine exactly how it was that the disc became a grimoire. Since experimentation with the Prime Arcanum spell used to craft grimoires doesn’t seem to be able to create this sort of effect with respectto recorded sounds, the strongest remaining possibility is that the entity communicating with Hildeb-
rand — which, it is generally agreed-upon by the recording’s Awakened self-proclaimed scholars, couldnot have been a willworker — somehow did so, whether intentionally or otherwise. Attempts to record
the disc’s contents to another storage medium always fail, as the garbled noises made by the entity aresomehow completely lost in the process (though all other sounds, including William Hildebrand’s hor-ric screams of agony and terror, transfer perfectly). No amount of magical or mundane manipulationcan overcome this limitation, and so the grimoire, like others of its kind, remains unique. Third, one or
two willworkers out there claim to have destroyed the Hildebrand Recording , only for it to pop up againsomewhere else in the occult underground. No spell can be detected on the recording that would allowfor this regeneration and spontaneous transport, and many reexively doubt the word of any who’veclaimed to have destroyed the disc, though others wonder whether there are deeper mysteries still at
work in this matter. Fourth, and perhaps most interestingly, the Hildebrand Recording has moved almostexclusively through the hands of Sleepers during its time in this world. While the Awakened have some-times managed to hold onto it for a eeting instant here and there, the disc somehow seems to want tobe in the possession of ordinary people — for a little while, anyway, before moving on to the next owner
(or host, or victim).
Whatever the case, all these facts, rumors and suppositions only go to prove that magic is not a thingthat can be readily conned to simple categorizations; some detail hanging raggedly from the edge of theknown and quantiable always manages to elude the boundaries of “established lore.” Ultimately, the
Even when Abyssal phenomena are not at hand, light seemsa little cold and thin through the lens o this magic; everything Shadow Person
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looks a little more rundown, the eyes o living things are fat
and unrefective, wind seems a bit too still, while normal noises
sound mufed and whispers are a bit too loud. Any mage whouses this spell on too regular a basis will almost certainly nd
that all sense o reality begins to wear thin, as an expectation o Abyssal intrusion takes hold o her. Eventually, she might
become araid not to have this magic active — who knowswhen the Abyss will come calling, ater all?
Rote: Gazing into the Abyss
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Prime
Pain and ear such as the human mind cannot ken await
those who look long into the Abyss. Still, to some Awakened,
the power to know the presence o that which must not beis worth the cost, or, at least, so they believe.
Call Shadow Person (Death ••• + Mind ••• + Spirit •••)
“Shadow People,” as they are known by the Sleeper oc-
cult community, are, allegedly, entities rom another layer
o reality. It is uncertain whether they are demons, ghosts,
spirits, astral beings or something else. Oten connected tothe sites o particularly potent hauntings (not necessarily
ghostly in origin), these beings are usually accompanied
by eelings o dread and are sometimes reported as chasingor even harming people.
Shadow PersonShadow People (also known as Shadow
Men, Shadow Folk, and by other such titles)are often-malevolent entities originating in
another layer of reality, quite possibly one“near” (or even within) the Underworld,
the Abyss, the Astral Realm, or somewherebetween the three. These beings tend to bedrawn toward sites saturated with negativeresonance: pain, fear, madness, violation,
and the like. Sometimes, they simply observehuman beings and, sometimes, they frighten,chase, or even attempt to hurt them. These
intelligences usually conceal themselves fromthe scrutiny of corporeal creatures, how-
ever, revealing themselves only according tothe dictates of their inhuman logic. Shadow
People do not verbally or telepathically com-municate — not even with magics that allow
(or compel) communication; it seems to be aninherent limitation of their “species.”
Shadow People register as “inconclusive” tothe “Abyssal Perception” spell, above, thoughthey are clearly spiritual entities of dark andunwholesome purpose. They may be Abys-sal in origin, and they may not; that is up to
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Dangers Th d h Hild b d R di b d
(Screaming, lasting approximately31 seconds )
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gThe dangers o the Hildebrand Recording are abundant,
and not all o them are best expressed in terms o systems
and dots. I the supposed history o the grimoire is to be
believed, it is perilous merely to possess, let alone to actu-
ally use, and largely on account o phenomena not easilyinterpreted by ordinary investigation or even magical senses.
No discernible curse clings to the recording, but many o
its alleged owners, nevertheless, die horribly or otherwise
suer terribly relatively shortly ater acquiring it. Some o those who come into contact with the Hildebrand Recording
develop an unhealthy preoccupation with it, and no ew
have gone mad, seemingly by way o nothing more than
mere proximity to it. Those that have resisted the tempta-
Researching the Hildebrand Recording Capping Skill: Occult
Action: Extended — 12 successes
Research Time: 12 hours; 4 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Grimoires, Occult Crimes
Possible Modiers: Researcher interviews one or more individuals connected to the Hildebrand Re- cording (+1), researcher visits one or more of the sites at which the Hildebrand Recording was known to
have been held (+1), researcher is in possession of an actual copy of the Hildebrand Recording (+2)
Successes Information
31 seconds.)
“...I’m so sorry. I d-didn’tmean. Not for me. Not for me.”
(Garbled sounds move fromleft speaker to right speaker.Hildebrand’s voice falls to awhimper.)
“I don’t want to see. Please,I beg of you. I don’t want tosee. Not again...”
(Screaming resumes.)
tion to play the recording and those with the wisdom (and,perhaps, the willpower) necessary to part with it have ound
h h l i i b
erworldly intelligence. Perhaps it was impressed with asliver o consciousness by the unathomable entity heard
h di b hi d h
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that they can, apparently, escape its siren song, but even
they are, i only in some small way, almost always scarred
by their time with it.
Shadow People (see above) occasionally maniest where
and when the true recording is replayed, though these in-
cidents are rare. Other similarly dark powers, however, arealso sometimes drawn to the Hildebrand Recording , and it
seems to act like something o a magnet or the worst hu-
man (and inhuman) impulses in the Fallen World. Tremere,
Scelesti, acamoth, and who knows what else can easily beattracted by the raried siren song o the disc, whether or
not it has recently been played. While such beings cannot
manage to long possess the recording, they may well infict
many atrocities in the pursuit o it.
O course, some o the dangers inherent in theHildebrand
Recording are entirely more mundane, but no less urgent:
Asløg Madsen, or instance, longs or the recording witha passion that borders on madness, and is ready, willing
and able to do very nearly anything to anyone who stands
in the way o his quest to reacquire the disc. While still
a Sleeper, Madsen has allegedly come to own a gemstone
Imbued Item with which he has replaced his missing righteye and which grants to him one or more persistent mystical
sights. He may well be beginning to penetrate the Veil in the
course o his obsessive quest or the Hildebrand Recording ,though he likely has no idea just how much inormation
on the recording, or maybe something seeped out o the
portal that it and William Hildebrand collectively opened
between two realities and into plastic and metal oil? Noone is sure, but the disc is certainly an unclean thing and
many o those who are near it, let alone those who play itcome to suer or its closeness. Certainly this could simply
be coincidence, but the pattern o calamity that ollowsin the recording’s wake would seem to indicate that some
other, darker orce is at work. Some o those Awakened who
know o its existence believe the Hildebrand Recording is an
Abyssal intruder o one sort or another, or perhaps some-thing dredged up rom the Underworld or some similarly
alien plane o existence.
(Mostly incoherent mumbling.)
“I dun... I...”
(Crying. Garbled soundsintensify.)
“No. No m-more...”
(Garbled sounds suddenlycrescendo. Screaming resumes,punctuated by sobs, for thenext 2:13 of the recording,accompanied by the garbled
d til th l t 12 d
The Ialdabaoth
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CodexKnow that within these Pages are found Horrors unheard of by Mortal men,
and this is the Right and Proper way of things.For it is our Holiest of Endeavours— our Most Sacred of Causes —
to Shield Away the Mortal world from the Deepest Abysses,and those Pneuma that are Touched by It.
To peruse these Pages is to Take Up this Sacred Duty, unto your Mortal End.
— Translation of the opening pages of The Ialdabaoth Codex,translated in 1730 by a Mysterium magus permitted to peruse the work
in the possession of the Hierarch of Innsbruck.
The bibliomancers, arcanarchivists and grimoire-scholars
o the Mysterium have long kept a list o valuable books
and tomes, works sought out or a variety o reasons. The
Ialdabaoth Codex is one o these books, one o the seven
tomes on the so-called Innsbruck List, a list o precious andunique books known to have passed through the Innsbruck
Athenaeum between the years 1467 and 1800. Every book onthat List has proven
to be dicult to
the libraries o the Awakened. The Codex is divided intothree sections: “Pleromaic Outcasts,” a section on Abyssal
intrusions and maniestations into the Fallen World, “Sak-
lastic Archons,” a section on acamoths and other Astral
phenomena tainted by the Abyss, and “Ptahilistic Unquiet,”the smallest section o the book,
which deals with ghosts
tainted by Abyssal
emanations and
have been attached to these rings, allowing the book to becarried bandolier-style across the chest, or hung rom a bel
or saddle or easy transport and quick access
(From Levindale Rare Books AuctionInventory circa 1911 Washington DC:)
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or saddle or easy transport and quick access.
The name Ialdabaoth Codexdoes not appear anywhere onor in the book, it should be noted. This is simply the name
given it by Mysterium scholars through the years.
Resonance of The Ialdabaoth Codex
The book itself radiates absolutely nomagic, or anything out of the ordinary to mostMage Sight spells. It seems to be simply an
old book, although normal sensory mag-ics also seem to fail when used to peruse it:Matter magics don’t tell what it is made of,and Time magics are useless when trying to
determine its age.
Only when a Mage Sight spell of at leastPotency 12 is used will the magics of the book
be revealed. Even then, all that is revealedis the presence of various rotes scattered
throughout the text. Its other magics and thefact that it imprisons entities of the Abyss areto date impossible to ascertain through anymethods modern Awakened have available
to them
Inventory, circa 1911, Washington, DC:)
Lot 124: Untitled Book. A medieval
bestiary written inscholastic Latin; mostlikely dating from theTwelfth Century, A.D., based on paper quality,ink type and binding techniques. Bound incopper or brass plates, with
thick black stitching at the spine that showssigns of weathering, but not of wearing, weakening or fraying.Clearly written by multipleauthors, with different
handwriting styles.Illustrated and illuminated in painstaking detail, mostof which is in excellentshape and well preserved
Perect Brotherhood, a cabal o Mysterium and Guardians o theVeil personally interested in the Supernal Truths to be ound
withinEgypto-SyrianGnosticism The Brotherhood used its
and acamoth oten returned, as very little could actuallydestroy them permanently. One o the Brotherhood, a
Thyrsus named Qasah sought the means to imprison
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within Egypto-Syrian Gnosticism. The Brotherhood used its
revelations to protect the Mysteries, establishing several small
heretical cells dedicated to the study and practice o Gnosticthought, despite the presence o Frankish overlords who ruled
the so-called Principality o Antioch.The Brotherhood ound itsel oten orced into confict
with a variety o strange, twisted creatures, eventually
discovering these entities served a covey o Scelesti who
called themselves the Ialdabaoth Concord. Though the
Brotherhood oten dispersed the entities sent againstthem by the Concord, the myriad tainted spirits, horrors
Thyrsus named Qasah, sought the means to imprison
those horrors orever.
To that end, he shaped his soul into the rst o the
Gaolers o Ialdabaoth, and created The Ialdabaoth Codex.
When his cabal battled these spiritual entities, he usedhis spells – and eventually attainments – to trap the hor-rors within the very pages o the Codex itsel, where the
beast’s secrets and weaknesses were laid bare or any o the
Brotherhood to read.
Within 20 years, the Thunder-Perect Brotherhood had
dissolved, its members separating to pursue their own inter-
The Great Vault of the Wise BrethrenSomewhere, deep in the Temenos, is the Great Vault of the Wise Brethren. Its walls are crafted of
lead, and Atlantean sigils are melted, as though from great brands, into its surface. The edges of thesesymbols bubble and smoke, the lead seemingly still hot and newly seared. Each room in this great
three-chamber Vault is decorated with ten thousand of these symbols, and the only feature in each of the chambers is a single seat with no back, allowing a visitor to sit and contemplate them. The few magi who have discovered this place by sheerest accident can wrest no understanding from its walls. They
are not those for whom its secrets are intended, however.
Those who have read The Ialdabaoth Codex and fallen prey to its wicked inuence (see “Dangers,”below) can begin to understand the sigils, the pattern by which the symbols are read playing across theinner lid of his mind’s eye. By simply sitting and contemplating, such a magician may unlock the true
secrets of the Gaolers of Ialdabaoth, or the Wise Brotherhood, as they called themselves.
ests in the wake o the Ialdabaoth Concord’s destruction.By that time, however, Qasah had initiated a handul o
apprentices in the Legacy and his Sanctum became theResearchingl
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apprentices in the Legacy, and his Sanctum became the
prison-library. Calling his Legacy the Wise Brotherhood,
Qasah led his initiates in the capture and study o entitiestouched by the Abyss, rom ghosts and spirits tainted by
its presence to ull-on Abyssal incursions.The Wise Brotherhood continued Qasah’s work into
the early 1500s. It is suspected that the Wise Brotherhood’s
sanctum was invaded by witch-hunters. Deadly battle broke
out in the Vault o the Codex, and the Wise Brotherhood
ell to a man. By the time the hunters had the chance tolook around, however, The Ialdabaoth Codex was gone,
spirited away by one o their own. By the time they caught
up with the man, his mind was utterly broken, and theCodex nowhere to be ound.
The Codex Throughout History The Codex has resuraced multiple times throughout his-
tory, each instance invariably heralded by the appearance
o odd creatures or phenomena, and ending in tragedy. The
best-known o these appearances is the so-called Innsbruck
Incident, where the tome came into the hands o the
Hierarch o Innsbruck in the 1700s. The book’s denizensdrove the Hierarch and his advisors to nearly destroy the
city — it was only by the intervention o two cabals that the
city was saved. These heroes, a cabal o three Claviculariusnamed or the three Wise Magi rom the Christ story, and
The Ialdabaoth Codex Capping Skill: Occult
Action: Extended – 13 successesResearch Time: 2 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: Abyssal Lore, Ancient Legacies
Possible Modiers: None
Successes Information
0–4 Nothing.
5–9 Vague references of such abook come up in various book-sellers’ logs and library inven-tories throughout multiplecenturies (such as the LevindaleRare Books Auction Inventoryexcerpt, p. 83).
10–12 References in Mysterium jour-nals and correspondence to abook by the name of The Ialdabaoth Codex , thought to bea bestiary.
such intrusions happen, but how they can be prevented andhow such horrors can be banished rom the world.
Everyentrybeginswithadescriptionoknownsuchintru-
Twilight or Shadow. This actually changes the orm intospiritual essence. At Life •••••, this spell can be used on
other physical creatures by touch, and was most oten used
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Every entry begins with a description o known such intru-
sions, detailing as much about the events as possible. Mostentries detail multiple such events and historical occurrences,
ollowed by as much as is known about each such event. A ew
such entries even detail spells used to either detect, imprisonor banish such intrusions, presented as rotes. Some o theentities within this section include the ollowing:
• The Archon Anaro: A strange creature o orgetul-
ness that comes to relieve troublesome memories at rst,these archon-spirits eventually consume all the memories
o those they prey upon, driving them mad. The Archon
Anaro can be reed only on the grounds o an old Coptic
monastery where the mad were cared or hundreds o yearsago, and releasing it requires the destruction o a relic o
Coptic Christianity.
• The Sanguine Scourge: A disease o some kind, the
Sanguine Scourge causes horric nightmares in mages, ableeding o the gums and tears and saliva to become slightly
tinged with blood. Moreover, the illness draws other Abyssal
entities who sense the power o the Abyss in the one thus
inected. The Sanguine Scourge can be reed only in the
city o Jerusalem, and it can be released only on the Fridaybeore Easter, an act that inficts terrible stigmata on the
one who liberates it.
• The Black Shepherd: An intrusion without body
physical or spiritual, the Black Shepherd causes strange
other physical creatures by touch, and was most oten used
by Gaolers to transorm Abyssal intrusions with physical
bodies into spiritual entities in order to imprison themwithin the Codex.
• Mortal Veil: “Transform Aura,” (Prime •• + Mind ••);Wits + Occult + Prime; This quick ritual, which involvesthe donning o a veil and the smearing o ash on each o
the wrists, disguises the Awakened soul rom the perusal
o Abyssal entities.
• Humble the False Leviathan: “Eneeblement,” (Lie
••••); Intelligence + Academics + Lie; By reciting Gnostic
verses abjuring creatures o the demiurge, the Gaolers used
this spell to weaken the physical bodies that some Abyssalentities created or themselves.
Saklastic Archons A magician unlearned in the ways o the Abyss or the
Astral Realms will nd this section dicult to understand.
It seems to detail a variety o dierent individual creatures
rather than types o creatures the way the “Pleromaic
Outcasts” section does. Each o these creatures is ascribed
a personality, motivation, weaknesses and strengths. Inevery instance, they are avatars o sin and despair, clearly
dedicated to bringing the horrors o the Abyss into the
Fallen World one psyche at a time.
Modern magi who are amiliar with the dangers o the
one not o his own choosing. The wise magus chooses the time
and the place o his all to temptation, choosing the most good
or the least harm.
and fees i they deeat him. I he deeats them, he does notkill them, but instead oers to make them better warriors
oten oering the Regeneration and Attribute Enhancement
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The “Saklastic Archons” section contains the ollow-ing rotes:
• Vision of the Wise: “Exorcist’s Eye,” (Spirit •); Wits+ Occult + Spirit; The Wise Brethren knew that SaklasticArchons requently visited mages in their dreams, and could
use this spell to detect such visitations, as well as the pres-
ence o unclean pneuma hiding within hapless mortals.
• Devil Scourge: “Harm Spirit,” (Spirit •••); Strength +
Weaponry + Spirit; Spirits who knew o the Gaolers knew
to ear the mendicant’s staves they carried with them, or
with this spell they could infict terrible agonies on the
twisted entities they battled.• Embodiment of Evil:“Materialize Spirit,” (Spirit •••••);
Presence + Intimidation + Spirit; The Gaolers used this spell
to orce the Saklastic Archons into physical maniestationin order to enable others to help deal with them.
Then, the book describes more than 20 individual
acamoth, most taking up between three and our pagesapiece. Some o the noteworthy examples ollow.
• Suzamil, the Bloodier of Warriors:An acamoth with
a blood-spattered visage and the armored body o a Romangladiatorial warrior, Suzamil comes only to those magi whoancy themselves warriors. He challenges them to battle,
g g
(Strength, Dexterity or Stamina) Investments. He creates
dreams o terrible bloodshed and battleeld atrocities whenhe shapes the dreamscape o the mage he haunts. Suzamil
can be reed only on an ancient Mesopotamian battleeldin modern-day Iraq, and his sacrice requires the rape o
a war widow.
• Vahooshan, the Scourge of Sages: An acamoth that
appears as an ancient, white-bearded sage clad in vaguely
ecclesial robes, Vahooshan comes to old mages who havebegun to eel the years catch up with them, and their minds
losing the tight grip on knowledge due to age. He oers them
his Respite rom Aging, Skill Lore or Uncanny Knowledge
Investments, and the dreams he crats involve strange, suddenbursts o unclean insight and glimpses into the accumulated
lore the Abyss has consumed through the ages. Vahooshan
can be reed only in a monastery in central France that once
housed a massive library. Freeing Vahooshan requires thesacrice o ignorance, revealing a terrible secret to someone
who would have been happier in ignorance.
• Fandruil, the Unholy:This acamoth has the appearance
o a terrible angel, with great white wings the tips o which aredipped in blood, and with burning eyes that cast its ace into
terrible brilliance. Fandruil comes to mages o a delitous bent
particularly those who adhere to one o the three Abrahamicaiths. To these magi, it oers Break An Addiction, Skill Lore
and Mana Investments, and in return crats terrible visions o
this potent spell, the marks on such scarred souls standout clearly.
• Deny the Spectral Panoply: “Destroy Ephemera,”
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,
aith gone wrong: anatics torturing heretics, men committing
atrocities in the name o their God and the other wounds thatpoorly-placed aith might infict.
Finally, it should be noted that some o the pages o thissection - entire groups o pages, three to twelve at a time- are completely and utterly blank, with no trace o any
markings having ever been on them whatsoever.
Ptahilistic Unquiet The last sort o entity described in The Ialdabaoth Codex
are the Ptahilistic Unquiet: spirits o the dead tainted by
contact with the spiritually corrosive powers o the Abyss.These ghosts become maddened things whose ghostly
desires are twisted into wretched horror. This section, like
“Saklastic Archons,” begins with a short essay describing
the phenomenon. It notes one o the great ironies o thistransormation: that where most ghosts can be called aware
only in the rarest o instances, the Ptahilistic Unquiet are
actively malevolent and vicious, bringing to bear a low cun-
ning in the ulllment o their twisted goals. It is rare that
normal ghosts transorm into these things. Far more oten,however, ghost mages give in to the siren call o the Abyss,
becoming twisted things o nearly unprecedented evil.
The section ollowing this essay presents a handul o examplecreatures.LiketheSaklasticArchons,thePtahilis-
Deny the Spectral Panoply: Destroy Ephemera,
(Death •••); Composure + Crats + Death; Many o thePtahilistic Unquiet seek out the treasures o grave goods
and other ghosts, arming themselves with the strange
weaponry o the Underworld. With this spell, the Gaolersdenied their prey such armaments.
• Unquiet Arch: “Ghost Gate,” (Death •••); Resolve
+ Occult + Death; With this spell, any archway serves as a
passage into Twilight, that the dead may be dealt with onmore equal ooting. When the passage opens, there is no
visible show save a light mist that swirls into existence in
the archway, but a horrible howling shriek suddenly echoes
through the area where the portal stands.
• Inquisition of Shades: “Quicken Ghost,” (Death
•••••); Presence + Persuasion + Death; Sometimes the
most valuable inormants when hunting the Ptahilistic
Unquiet are other ghosts. This spell enables the Gaoler toimbue the mindless dead with the understanding to relate
the things they have seen or heard.
Dangers There are a number o dangers attributed to The Ialda-
baoth Codex. Most commonly, it is agreed that possessiono the book is dangerous in the way possessing any book o
tremendously useul and potent lore is — others will want
o these infuences have a variety o theories why onlyone such entity exerts such control at a time; the most
prevalent o these theories postulates that only a given
These writings are passages rom The Ialdabaoth Codex
itsel, generally random pieces o inormation and blocks
o text. I the target is writing by hand, the script is dis-
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entity is capable o controlling the magics o the book at a
time, and that only the strongest in the book is capable o doing so. Others think that control over the book can be
achieved only through the combined eort o the book’sentities, which explains why they act only in situations
where success seems assured.
Inuence of the Codex The infuence exerted by the prisoners o the Codex is
subtle, overcoming their victims in distinct stages meant
to ensure the victim retains possession o the book long
enough to potentially ree one o its denizens.Stage One: Automatic Writing
The Ialdabaoth Codex attempts to infuence those with
whom it comes into contact. The Storyteller should roll 8
dice or the Codex, in an opposed roll against the target’sComposure + Gnosis. Not only is this roll completely
refexive, but it is so subtle the target is not aware o the
attempted inuence. Those with Mind • or other mental
powers must make an exceptional success on a Wits + Com-
posure roll to even be aware o the attempted infuence, andeven then it is so subtle that they become aware o it only
on a subconscious level. This awareness usually maniests
as dreams o strange creatures lurking in the darkness justbeyondvision,and occasionalwaking hallucinationswhere
tinctively not the target’s own. The intent behind this is
simple: to motivate the target to handle the book urtherand read its content. The text always comes rom one o the
three sections o the book, generally relating to the entityseeking reedom rom its pages. Thus, i the target is being
infuenced by an acamoth imprisoned in the Codex, theautomatic writing quotes sections rom “Saklastic Archons,”
while one o the ghosts imprisoned in the book infuences
the target to write passages rom “Ptahilistic Unquiet.”
Stage Two: Possessiveness
Once the target receives a number o automatic writing
messages equal to his Composure and has ound thosepassages within the book (either one at a time, or all at
once), he enters this stage o interaction with the Codex
The Codex instills in him a possessiveness o the book
that seems entirely natural — ater all, he’s been receivingmessages rom the book, and there is clearly something
going on. The target quickly begins to justiy any ears or
concerns he or others may have about the book using the
best o his social and reasoning skills.
At this stage, the target is treated as though he has theParanoia derangement based around the book. He will go
to extensive eort to dissuade others rom taking an inter
est in the book, and will make sure to take steps to keepthe Codex sae rom others. How he does this is entirely
This is as ar as Sleepers and Sleepwalkers advance underthe infuence o the Codex. While Awakened at this stage
are infuenced to protect the book and study it urther,
entity was originally imprisoned within the book. Because o the original location o the Wise Brotherhood, this is most
oten in the areas o the Middle East, Eastern Europe and
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Sleepers and Sleepwalkers eel a compulsion to seek out
someone who can better understand the book, who canaccess its secrets, and to protect them while they do so. The
only known instance o the Codex infuencing multipletargets at a time is when it gives a Sleeper or Sleepwalker
a compulsion to seek out one o the Awakened; the Codex will cease actively infuencing the Sleeper as it attempts
to infuence the mage, though the compulsion to protect
the book (and now, the mage) remains in the mind and
soul o the original target.
Stage Three: Delusion
This stage, reached only by Awakened targets, involvesobsessive tendencies and fat-out delusions. The target’s
paranoia becomes nearly consuming and constant, and
he sees enemies everywhere. The target begins to despise
those around him, suspecting them o plotting against him,and his aection or riends and amily is replaced by ear
and suspicious resentment.
At this stage, the Codex makes the target aware o the
Holy Communion o the Syzygos Bythos. The target un-
derstands this ritual to be a means o gaining the wisdomo the Codex, o coming into his own and ullling the
destiny that lies beore him. He understands the ritual as
a means o achieving what is most important to the mage:power or the power-hungry, repentance or the guilty, occult
northern Arica. However, the Brethren magically ollowed
their prey wherever they attempted to fee, and these sitescould conceivably be anywhere in the world.
•Sacrice:There is always some kind o sacrice involved.Many instances o the Holy Communion involve nothingmore than being in the proper place and the perormance
o some orm o sacrice. These sacrices are always ap-
propriate to the nature o the entity infuencing the target,
and vary widely rom the burning o unique incenses tothe destruction o precious works o art or archaeological
signicance to the murder o one’s riends, amily or persons
symbolic o the entity’s power.
• Time: Some Holy Communions must be perormed
at a specic time. Most oten, this is a day in the year
that corresponds to the time o year when the entity was
imprisoned. Other examples include the day o death orone o the Saklastic Archons, or a specic occult timerame
“programmed” into that entity’s imprisonment by the magi
who sealed it away within the Codex.
Once all these conditions are met, the target may per-
form the Holy Communion. This is a Gnosis + Occultroll, and he must have the book with him to perorm it.
This is an extended roll with a target number o 20, with
each roll taking the same amount o time it takes or themage to make an extended spellcasting roll, as determined
Using Intruders: Encounters with the AbyssThe entities imprisoned within the pages of the “Pleromaic Outcasts” section are an excellent example
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The entities imprisoned within the pages of the Pleromaic Outcasts section are an excellent exampleof the sort of horrors detailed in the Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss sourcebook. If the Storyteller
has access to that book, he may use the following entities from that resource as creatures within the
pages of the “Pleromaic Outcasts” section.• The Lethean: The Archon Anaro immediately ees the scene, although it quickly nds someone in
need of its dubious mercy to whom to attach itself.
• Red Worms: The Sanguine Scourge, when released from the book, immediately infest the one whofreed them, though the victim has no knowledge of this.
• The Swarmer: The Black Shepherd immediately alters something in its environs, establishing the Abyssal geomancy necessary for it to manifest.
• Umbragos: Zahak-Favartin , should it be released from the Codex , immediately ees into Shadow,and travels as far from its site of release as possible.
The Key of Brassn Fl m
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and Flame (From Zoroaster’s Otherworldly Esoterica , 1889 ed.)
…though the so-called “Key of Brass and Flame,” also known as “The Book of the Inmost Temple” and “The Scrolls of the Seventy-Third,” is purported to reside at the center of a fortified monastery, concealed within the astral plane. Those who have studied thesupposed history of this legendary work allege that contained within are secrets of daemonic sorcery unknown to the modern world;penned, perhaps, by the very hand of Solomon himself.
As to whether this grimoire truly exists, however, none can say with certainty. My own research bore me to distant shores of western Europa, to a sanatorium the name of which I shall not here recount. Contained within was a lunatic of singular distinction, watched over in secret and his magics rendered impotent by the Dragon’s Eye, and who claimed to have beheld theKey “resting upona pedestal of gleaming iron.” A member of several Oriental societies and a dabbler in the poppy’s seductive smoke, his incoherentramblings were readily dismissed as the gibbering of an opium-fiend and would-be mystic by his physicians and attendants, though Idiscerned in them a kernel of deeper truth and resolved to hear more.
I departed from that fateful encounter shaken — not merely by the deranged willworker’s shabby and degenerate state, but alsoby the manner in which his chaotic account hinted at connections between the sparse tales of the Key , deranged murmurs that drew
faint lines from one possibility to the next. I am no closer to that book than I was before undertaking that journey, though I remainconvinced of its existence, nonetheless.
Among the practitioners o the esoteric (and danger- unknown and unable to be translated even by magic, in
pretation o the researcher. As an astral construct soughtater passionately, even i only by a handul, however, it
is certain that The Key o Brass and Flame has spawned
i i i i hi h A l R l f i h
the text “in the ery connes o the Temple Invisible” andto have successully deciphered its unique magic. Thereater
she alleges to being accompanied by an imp or other such
b l l i i d h h i
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imitations within the Astral Realm, refections o the
consuming desire o its seekers.
History Certain overzealous and, perhaps, gullible Awakened
historians attribute the creation o The Key o Brass and
Flame to the Biblical —
and, according to some,Awakened — King Solo-
mon, though more serious
modern scholars dismiss
such unounded sen-sationalism
in avor
o more
baleul spirit, drawn up rom the connes o her inmost
sel, her darkest impulses and most abhorrent desires. Thiscreature, Sophia claimed, acted as helpmeet and amiliar, in
the same manner in which other Awakened were known tobind spirits o Shadow to service. While inclined to temp
her toward the indulgence o sin, the being neverthelesscomplied with Sophia’s commands and worked to the best
o its abilities to please its mistress. Interestingly, despite it
unnatural shape, this strange amiliar was cast inherently
in terrestrial orm, unlike the more bizarre etches intrinsi-cally conned to the Twilight.
Ater this singular mention, all lore
o The Key o Brass and Flame in theWest alls out
o circulation
or centuries
no doubt dueto the rising
infuence o
both Chris-
tianity andIslam. Scat-
tered accounts
however, crop
up in other
critical analysis. That
said, the Key is indisput-
bl ld d bl
rom Judaic traditions, while others maintain that manymore accounts o the tome are almost certainly yet lost
and undiscovered, given that many o the records ound
i t i ibl l ti I ith h
o being such, and treated accordingly. Rumors o diabol-ism ran rampant wherever such willworkers wandered and
some o the cells and cabals seeking the magics contained
ithi Th K B d Fl b lik lt i
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are in remote, inaccessible locations. In either case, much
o the history o the Key centers upon the Near and MiddleEast, as well as Europe and, later — to a much lesser extent
— North America, though enterprising seekers may welluncover unknown lore o the Key by ollowing its trail into
other lands and other cultures.
The next veriable mention o The Key o Brass and
Flame in the worlds o Christianity and Islam is in the
city-state o Acre, during the period between the Crusaderconquest o 1104 and Salah al-Din’s re-conquest o the city
in 1187. Many o the experts on the subject o the grimoire
place the account somewhere around 1140, though the
records detailing such are a treasured possession o thelocal Mysterium Athenaeum and gaining access to those
writings is a dicult prospect or even the most respected
Awakened scholar. The account, written by one al-Ramadi
(“the Gray”), describes the Key in what has become itsmost amiliar orm and placement, and is considered to be
the template or the overwhelming majority o subsequent
mentions o the grimoire in the Western world. Somewhat
less certain, however, is the persistent rumor that al-Ramadiconcealed within his narrative specic directions that, i
properly interpreted, lead to The Key o Brass and Flame
in a manner somewhat more direct than the customary
near-aimless wanderings most pilgrims to the Astral Realms
within The Key o Brass and Flame became like cults in
their ervor and their intellectual and spiritual isolationrom established Atlantean mystical practices. Many o
the worst images o Medieval Satanism came to cling tothese pilgrims and no ew o them ell rom the narrow
road o Wisdom, stumbling into the ways o the Scelestiin truth rather than merely in the supposition o suspicious
neighbors and cabalmates. Others grew strong by the tests
o the spirit they endured, though only a ew ever discovered
the book itsel. By the onset o the Renaissance in Europe,spreading rom the Mediterranean to the north and west, a
ascination with the works o ancient cultures — especially
works o a magical or spiritual nature — had establishedenough o a oothold on the outer ringes o the culture o the Atlantean Orders to ensure the pursuit o the grimoire
would survive as a pastime or some willworkers, a driving
goal or others, and a lielong obsession or still others.
While those who hunted or the text were (and remain)
ew, those ew began to exchange correspondence, haltingly
at rst, but then with greater conviction and condence.
Slowly, the body o legendry surrounding The Key o Brass
and Flame began to coalesce. Myths and rumors that might
have otherwise been lost were traded between pilgrims and
were thus preserved rom the ravages o time and the vicis-
situdes o ate. Diering perspectives on the nature o the
Reprogramming” (Mage: The Awakening, p. 218) and“Shape Spirit” (Mage: The Awakening, p. 255). For the
purposes o the two goetic spells above, merely being in
the presence o the grimoire allows the mage to cast such
Dangers As would be expected or any work o Awakened go-
etia especially unique and bizarre goetia The Key o
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the presence o the grimoire allows the mage to cast such
magics as though her Wisdom were 3 dots lower (thus po-tentially allowing her to avoid outright the degeneration
check or the hubris inherent in spells that tamper withone’s inner demons). O course, these spells, while useul,
are not the true allure o the text. The reason or whichmages have hunted and searched, orsaken years o their
lives, and even gone mad and died, is the secret o binding
one’s own demon into the orm o a amiliar.
As it is an astral construct, The Key o Brass and Flame
coners no known additional benets upon willworkers, as
no one has managed to extract it rom its hiding place, thus
assuming “ownership” o the text. Were some willworker toprove capable o seizing the tome and drawing it into the
physical plane (see below or speculation on how such a
thing might be accomplished), the Key might bestow some
other, yet-unknown blessing (or curse) upon its possessor.
Goetic Manifestation
(Mind ••••• + Spirit •••••) This spell withdraws an aspect o the willworker’s demon,the personication o her Vice, out o her mind and spirit
and maniests it in a physical shape, ettering it to service
as a amiliar.
P ti M ki /U ki
etia — especially unique and bizarre goetia — The Key o
Brass and Flame is a perilous read, dangerous to a mage’s
adherence to the path o Wisdom, i nothing else. Those
who pursue the book oten stray rom the narrow road oWisdom simply in the hunt or the elusive text, accepting
more and more deplorable methods in the search or its
powerul lore. Others, more psychologically and spiritually
stable, perhaps, hold to their principles in the pursuit o thegrimoire, only (i rumors and legends are to be believed) to
all rom grace ater nding the subject o their long quest
Some ew, o course, manage to hold to their principles and
some even emerge stronger in their ethical convictions than
when they began the search, but it is certain that all aretested, in one way or another, by the quest.
O course, as it is concealed somewhere within AstralSpace, the Key is dangerous to seek or reasons beyond the
purely moral and ethical. Strange guardians are sometimes
attributed to the Key. Though these accounts are incon-
sistent at best, some Awakened are said to nd its restingplace only ater besting beings o mind-shattering power
and horror. Even the mere process o seeking out The Key
o Brass and Flame is perilous, as the realms o the mind
— o the dreams and imaginings o things terrestrial, oth-erworldly, and in deance o all such categorization — are
oten wild and unpredictable. Just as one might come to
h h ll l d h l
Merit: Goetic Familiar (•••• or •••••)P q i it A k d f l ti g f th G ti M if t ti ll
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Prerequisite: Awakened; successful casting of the Goetic Manifestation spell
Effect: Your character has a bond with a spirit drawn, in part, from within his own consciousness;
specically, from within the part of himself driven by wickedness and iniquity. This familiar, like anordinary familiar, may exist in either Twilight (for 4 Merit dots, making it a goetic fetch) or in the physicalplane (for 5 Merit dots, making it an embodied goetic familiar).
Except as noted below, the demonic familiar is created using the base familiar creation rules given onp. 83 of Mage: The Awakening, and the caster may build her demon in any way she likes (Attributes,
Skills, Numina, etc.), save for the entity’s Inuence, which is automatically set to correspond to the char-acter’s Vice, and its Ban, which is never to pass up any opportunity to guide the mage (and anyone else
it can) toward indulging in the willworker’s particular Vice.
Because some part of the character’s baser nature is drawn out of him and incarnated in an externalform, the mage benets from a +2 modier to all rolls to shrug off mundane or supernatural manipu-lation through appeals to his Vice. If a power used to attack the character through his Vice is resistedrather than contested, then the +2 bonus to contesting the effect instead becomes a -2 penalty to the
aggressor’s dice pool to use said power against the character.
Note that, unlike other familiars of its type, an embodied goetic familiar may take on a wholly humanshape or one only subtly different from human. No self-proclaimed scholar of the Key knows why thisis, but speculation is that the small quantity of human spiritual essence within the familiar grants it theability to incarnate in a human shape. Small deviations tend to be archetypically “demonic” in nature:red (or otherwise abnormally-colored) eyes, nubs of horns upon the brow, too-sharp canine teeth, red-dish or slightly metallic skin tone, the faint smell of brimstone or burning incense, etc. A familiar marked
with these characteristics is (at any time other than Halloween or a costume party, anyway), naturally, athreat to the Veil, unless disguised through other means.
Can The Key o Brass and Flame be destroyed? Certainlythere exist willworkers who would see this legendary work
obliterated and its magics orevermore erased rom the
Fallen World but the question persists as to whether a
Into the Real Given that The Key o Brass and Flame exists in the
Astral Realm, some mages doubtless wonder whether it is
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Fallen World, but the question persists as to whether a
work concealed within the Astral Realms can ever truly beunmade. (Indeed, some Awakened scholars speculate that
the resiliency o ideas — and the commensurate dicultyinherent to truly destroying anything in Astral Space — is
the very reason the Keywas placed there.) Those who refectupon the possibility o annihilating the grimoire generally
agree that extreme measures are required. While no two
supposed authorities agree on the exact steps to be taken,
the theories range rom the destruction o every mentiono the Key in the material realm (and, perhaps, every shred
o knowledge regarding the text), to the location o an
artiact or other sort o enchanted item (sources disagree)specically designed to unmake the book, to the use o aspell intended to collapse the temple in which the Key is
housed in upon itsel. Unortunately, all these speculations
are just that, and i there exists one who might speak with
genuine knowledge upon the matter o the Key’s destruc-tion, she isn’t talking.
even possible or the text to be drawn into the materia
sphere and given terrestrial substance. These willworkers
a handul o them driven to the point o mania through
such speculation, occasionally develop elaborate theorieson how such a deed might be accomplished. O course
so ar as any o the grimoire’s seekers can tell, no one has
yet achieved this eat o surpassed mystic artice. This
however, is unsurprising when one takes into account howew mages have (allegedly) managed to locate the Key in
the rst place.
Perhaps it is — as the majority o the scholars o the
Key postulate — truly impossible to bring the book intothis world, and those who dream o doing so waste years
and untold eort in pursuit o a ool’s errand. But, then,
perhaps it can be done, through the use o magics not yetcontemplated (or, ailing that, at least not yet attempted).
Likely, such willwork would be, at best, extremely unsae
Researching The Key of Brass and Flame Capping Skill: Occult
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Action: Extended — 20 successes
Research Time: 3 days; 1 day
Appropriate Libraries: The Astral Realm, Goetia, Grimoires
Possible Modiers: Researcher is a practitioner of goetia (+1), researcher interviews one or moreastral entities regarding the Key (+1), researcher extensively traverses Astral Space in search of clues
regarding the Key (+2)
Successes Information
0-9 Nothing.
10-13 The Key of Brass and Flame is, allegedly, a grimoire detailing powerful secrets of goeticmagic, including at least one spell completely unknown to even the most powerful andstudious goeticists.
14-15 The Key exists only in the Astral Realm, and it is reported to have taken on many shapesthroughout time, though it is most commonly described as a book of re bound in brass,iron and other metals. Accounts of the book — or, at least, a very similar tome — date back centuries, and perhaps even millennia.
16-17 The Key of Brass and Flame can be used to create a demonic familiar, similar but some
how unlike that incarnated by more familiar Spirit Arcanum magics. The source of thisdemon familiar, however, is uncertain.
18-19 The unique spell contained within the Key , conjuring up a demonic familiar, uses esotericprinciples of goetia to do so, drawing up the spirit from within the darker impulses of
Lark Demonde'sTravels
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Travelsor, A Survey and Chronicle With Detailed Maps of the Various Reaches and DomainsVisited by the Archmagus Lark Demonde as Inscribed by His Apprentice Calentrinius
would no longer exist. The journal known amiliarly as Lark
Demonde’s Travels contains his discoveries and his ailures
as well as the secrets o his methods o travel.
Packaged for Travel: The Physical Book Lark Demonde’s Travels appears as a collection o maps
an oversized bundle o pages bound together within a
olded piece o green leather, though both the words
“green” and “leather” only come close to describing
the outer cover o the book. The color denitelybelongs within the spectrum o pigments and
hues classied as green, though the precise
shade is dicult to pinpoint. At least this
seems to be the cover o the origina
manuscript; the copies that havebeen ound seem to be bound in
plain leather, either black or
brown in hue. The textureo the original’s cover
The lore o the Awakened suggests that the world was a
very dierent place beore Atlantis ell crashing into the
sea, orever mingling its magic with the waters o the earth,with the aether or higher air and spilling its power into the
dark places that surround the Fallen World. Strange lands
existed then, places with names like Lemuria and Mu and
Xanathala. Races not quitehuman or , perhaps,
a bit more than
human also ex-
isted in thesenow orgotten
lands, leaving
only rumors o
mo ns te r s a nd
airy olk. Legendso underwater cit-
ies and cloud castles
became mixed with
Master Plautorian,
After much research, I can present you with the following transcript from a portablerecording device recovered by Council Master Chronos (See below ) The voice appears
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recording device recovered by Council Master Chronos. (See below.) The voice appears to be that of Alis Bliss, missing since 2005:
The transcript begins at this point with a female voice, a rich contraltomatching the vocal patterns of Magistra Bliss:
“Truly, this land that lies beyond the carpet of stone matches thedescription in Lark’s Travels exactly. The sky appears unreal, or perhapssurreal, since nothing of its clarity and luminosity has been seen since before factories spouted their fumes into the air. Once past the stony
expanse, I can almost feel a difference in the weight of the air, as ifentering another dimension, one purged of…what is it purged of, Trenton?”
[Here the voice changes to a masculine tenor, presumably that of Bliss’shusband and traveling companion; though not himself Awakened, he served hiswife as a Sleepwalker bodyguard and sounding board.]
“…mmm, corruptive inuences, m’love? Abyssal fumes? “
[Alis] “Perhaps just excessive materialism.”
[Trenton] “You are the expert, Alis.”
[Alis] “At any rate, this land reeks of the Supernal.”
[Trenton] “Leave the baggage behind, we might just make it—”
[Alis] “It’s useless, Trenton. I’m going to send this device back to theC ( A
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Council. (Background noises are heard, Alis’s voice incanting some sortof rote. From here on in her speech is garbled until it stops altogether,
presumably when she is separated from her recording device.)
Here the transcript ends.
Shortly thereafter, Council Member Chronos notes in his journal of the sudden appearance of Alis’ personal recorder in his ofce. The device was cracked and coldas if it had been in a very cold clime and had to be magically repaired and warmedbefore the above transcript could be extracted from it. Magical enhancements havebeen used on it to hear past the silences and gaps in the recording. Rumors persist that those who have carefully studied the enhanced reconstruction of the recorder haveheard sounds that give them nightmares and have, in at least one case, resulted in amagical technician’s sudden and overpowering fear of airborne objects.
Although Alis’ copy of the book is presumed lost, along with her and her husband,
some half dozen copies reputedly remain in existence, though not within ready graspof anyone. Three are held with the Mysterium in their innermost libraries, or so theyclaim.
One is reputedly in the Vatican Library’s restricted books section though the Vatican
men around the world in search o new places or new routesto old places. A talented member o the Mysterium and a
ollower o the Path o Ecstasy, Lark never elt at home in
the crowded, reeking cities o pre-industrial Europe. Feeling
or pieces o ar-fung Atlantis, which supposedly sank intothe ocean that bears its name.
All extant copies o the grimoire begin thusly, with a
page describing Demonde’s rst discovery o the island
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the call o the wild lands that had been described by someo the earliest explorers, Lark set o on his own travels in
search o lost places.The year was 1766, 10 years beore the start o the
American Revolution. Empires were still expanding, new
routes were sought to distant places now separated not only
by miles but by religious and national dierences. Much o
the world had been mapped, its main continents and landmasses delineated, at least insoar as their shorelines. Much
o the interior places had yet to be lled in. Settlements
hugged the coasts o the Americas and Australia, yet the
center o these vast land bodies had yet to be described,much less seen by agents o the world’s political powers.
Mages were particularly keen on exploring some o these
unmapped regions beore the humdrum observations o Sleepers could “describe away” any true magic. I traces o
the Supernal world or even portals to other places lay in
areas o the earth as yet unexplored, they hovered in a ragile
state o Twilight, easily visible to those with magical sightyet just as easily destroyed by the clumsy observations o
Sleeper explorers whose crude senses o discernment would
only map some o these places out o existence.
It was with this mission rmly in mind that Lark De-monde and his companion/pupil Calentrinius set out to
p g g ywithin the Sargasso Sea. Lark named the island Shard,
or his belie that it was an actual remnant o Atlantis. A
careully drawn map ollows the description.Those who have tried to ollow its directions, however,
have encountered only a wistul sigh o ading magic.
Indeed, Lark Demonde warned that his discoveries might
be thought o as eulogies to what was lost rather than a seto directions to what could still be ound.
Nevertheless, Lark continued to travel or the next 34
years, ollowing leads his precursors had let and discover-
ing his own ephemeral places. The Pacic Ocean between
the languid isles o Hawai’i and the coast o China was thesource o several other discoveries he reerred to as Lemuria
and Mu, in honor o those ancient places and despite the
act that he did not know or certain he had stumbled uponthose very places.
Not all his discoveries were made at sea. The heart o the
Amazon gave him the gateway to a jungle land he called“Ixatlan,” and here he seemed to nd a vital yet hidden
civilization o thinkers, artists and builders — their ma-terials, the jungle canopy, their work hidden to all except
those with magic sight. Some disagreement, reported by theaithul Calentrinius, resulted in their premature departure
and only a partial map. It seems that the wise woman who
o inormation about two lands that politics and hostileenvironments have made practically inaccessible.
Another map depicts an island in the Caribbean where
no such land orm exists in today’s topographical and
Concealing the Dragon’s Paths (Prime •••••)
This spell enables the mage to hide ley lines rom the
i h h i h h i b bl h
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geographical renderings. The so-called Bermuda Triangle
(though it did not then bear that name) is hinted at as a
place o “old land masses,” though Demonde never managedto make his way there and no map exists o that section o supposedly open sea.
The nal maps depict Lark’s trips to the world’s extremi-
ties, the Arctic and Antarctic poles. Both Lark and hisoriginal grimoire disappear rom history shortly beore his
second Antarctic trip, on the rst day o the year 1800. Since
that time, various Orders have sent expeditions in search o
the original grimoire. At best, they have returned with air
copies; at worst, they have disappeared rom the world.It is known that a ew copies were made o this grimoire
and that those copies lacked the ull potential o the original.
They served as guides or mages wishing to recreate Lark’stravels as well as study the rotes contained within.
Contents This grimoire contains inormation describing a number
o rotes concerning travel and exploration, primarily rom
the Fate, Prime, Space and Time Arcana. In addition, Larkadded a ew rotes that constituted unique contributions to
his Order and his Path.
view o another who might otherwise be able to see them
This may be used as a way o protecting valuable sources
o power rom rivals or to preserve a path o power or thecaster’s use.
Practice: Unmaking
Action: Extended
Duration: Lasting (permanent)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
The mage must rst know where the particular ley line
or node o ley lines is. The spell itsel puts up a powerul
masking barrier that only a caster with greater power orwho possesses the ability to see through strong illusions
can penetrate. The ley lines, or dragon lines as they are
sometimes called, are said to lead back to Atlantis, i one
knows the proper sequence o paths to take. The spell canthereore, be used to protect what’s let o proud Atlantis
rom prying eyes and nosy Sleepers. It can also be used to
cover one’s path once a mage has traversed the lines to
their destination.Mysterium Rote: Vigilant Saeguard
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Survival + Prime
The Mysterium uses this rote to make precious and rare
l i bj “di ” h i h Sl
unlocked, untied, etc., until it is locked or tied again (oruntil the door is shut, etc.).
Mysterium Rote: Unbind the Twisted Tress
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny + Life or Matter
Stranger No More (•••••) Eects: No society or civilization is too strange or you;
within a matter o minutes you can adjust to your surround-ings so that you cannot be distinguished rom a “native.”
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In their constant search or lost magic and due to their
tendency to come up against odd combinations o materials
that do not always respond to magic rom a single Arcana,the Mysterium has devised this rote or handling objects
that blend together unusual materials, such as living plant
matter with monolament wire, etc.
Merits The original copy o the grimoire also coners upon the
book’s user the ollowing Merits, which provide both secu-
rity and condence to one who desire to see the world(s)and avoid many o the pitalls involved in traveling to new
places. These Merits are gained upon taking possession o
the original copy o the grimoire, but are lost immediatelyater spending at least an hour more than ve eet away
rom the grimoire, or upon losing possession o the grimoire
(such as i giving it to a riend so that he might benet
rom its auspices).
Homeward Bound (•••) Eects: You have an unerring sense o how to get “home”rom any place on earth or in any other dimension. While
this Merit coners pinpoint accuracy, whether the character
h h G l
ings so that you cannot be distinguished rom a native.
The language comes fuently to you or as long as you remain
within the society, though your acility with the language
is only average; in an environment where the majority o people are illiterate, this Merit provides no literacy. This
Merit also grants no retention o language; the ability to
understand a language ades as soon as you leave an area
where that language is spoken by the majority o people.The Merit also coners some instinctive mimicry o cloth-
ing, mannerisms and demeanor o those around you; you
may not understand the reasoning behind a particular
local gesture or be able to explain it to a riend, but youuse it refexively when it would be expected. This provides
distinct advantages when trying to hide rom someone by
blending in with the local culture or when visiting a place
where the “natives” are hostile to outsiders.
Dangers The original grimoire is protected by a number o wards
that make its location dicult to track down, since itnever appears to be in the same place to any two people.
The grimoire seems to read “intent” and allows itsel to beound only by those who wish to continue the mission o
Lark Demonde.
Creature Discomforts When a character is wandering around in a strange
environment, such as on an island that was once parto a greater ancient civilization, she runs the risk o
Destroying Lark Demonde’s Travels
Th i L k’ i i b d t d i h
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a g a a a ,
drawing down the attention o the local auna — and
in some cases, the local fora. Some o the dangers here
are hal-shadows, savage beasts or degenerate humansthat have faded somehow over the years, becoming less
fesh and more shade. Some are all too solid, but still
without amiliarity or even reason. Mythical man-eating
plants or fesh-eating vines or trees are among the tam-est o dangerous vegetation in some worlds. Storytellers
whose players seek out these atavistic realms have all
manner o options available to create the wonders and
horrors o places that no longer eel sympathy or themortal world.
The copies o Lark’s grimoire can be destroyed in much
the same way as any mildly protected magical book can be
destroyed. Fire and magic in combination usually wreakhavoc on paper products.
The original grimoire, however, does not readily respond to
such physical attempts to destroy it. Still, it is not indestruc-tible. Massive assaults with the energy o Prime magic will
unmake the book. Separating its components — the various
maps — and delivering them to dierent times and/or places
will at least keep the grimoire rom being eective until thepieces manage to bring themselves together again.
The single most eective way to destroy the grimoire isto unmake the maps, using magic and chemicals to erase
the pages. O course, doing so carries the danger o likewiseerasing the places portrayed on the maps, to the detriment
o all the Atlantean mages. As above, so below.
Researching Lark Demonde’s Travels Capping Skill: Survival
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Action: Extended — 17 successes
Research Time: 5 hours; 2 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Archaeology, Ancient History, Myth, Occult, Travel
Possible Modiers: Exploration or Orienteering Survival Specialty (+1), Contacts in Ancient History,Occult or Archaeology (+2)
Successes Information
0-3 No Information.
4-8 Mention in Mysterium-owned journal of myths of the last journey of Alis and Trevor Bliss,
leading to the transcript mentioned above.
9-12 Series of letters from Lark Demonde to his mentor, referred to only as Master J. The lettersdescribe some of Lark’s early voyages and his discovery that his theory of slowlydiminishing places is true. He expresses his sense of urgency in nding and mappingthese lands before they disappear entirely.
13-16 Reference in an archaeological journal to a “curio” discovered by Professor FinneusLangstadter in his travels to the Ivory Coast of a very strange folio of maps in thepossession of a book dealer in the bazaar in Abidjan. No matter how hard he tries, he
cannot purchase the book for any price. Attempts to acquire the book by less than honestmeans fail. Inquiries by a third party indicate the book has been sold.
17+ Obscure notice in a newspaper from Abidjan about an auction at the Museum of Civilizations in order to raise money for more accessible cultural artifacts One of the
Last Daysof Atlantis
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of Atlantis(From Bellerophon’s Mysterium Omnibus, 2001 ed.:)
…Victoria Sharpe’s Last Days of Atlantis is entertaining speculative ction, but it is by no means a scholarly
work. The author makes many leaps o logic regarding the liestyle and customs o the Atlanteans, and more
on the specic subject o the battle between the Oracles and the Exarchs. For example, Sharpe’s analysis o
the Atlantean “pantheon” (i the body o idealized godorms that she claims were consulted, studied and
refected upon — though never worshipped — by the people o Atlantis could be called such) is, at best, a work
o Jungian oversimplication and, at worst, the product o pseudo-scientic hoodoo.
When conronted or evidence on such topics as the specic names o Atlanteans, the titles o boroughsin the capital city, and the use o words o the High Speech unrecorded in other known sources, Sharpe
claimed to have no proo beyond what her spells revealed to her. O course, none save the most unschooled
o neophytes require any elaboration upon the unknown and insurmountable saeguards set against any
work o magic intended to breach the veil o mystery that shrouds the truth o Atlantis. Certainly, Ms. Sharpe
does not expect us to take on aith the outrageous notion that she has somehow blundered upon the esoteric
ormula that has eluded the most puissant o willworkers or millennia?
I only we Mystagogues had been quicker to embrace the notion that truth is revealed simply by wishing
harder!
I urge all rational scholars o the Mysterium — and in other Awakened circles — to reject this slapdash
“research” and to instead seek the knowledge o our lost civilization through more established and reputable
channels Shame on you Ms Sharpe or encouraging sloppy scholarship in apprentices already ar too much
History Begun in the late 1980s as a scholarly inquiry into the
actual “nal age” o the lost empire o the Awakened, the
three-volumesetnowknown as Last Days o Atlantis gradu-
In the meanwhile, Victoria Sharpe turned one set over
to a seemingly riendly théarch, who promptly brought the
volumes to riends in his own Order and allies among the
Guardians o the Veil to study the text or “heresy.” Feelingbetrayed and exasperated thatno one would just believe her
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three-volume set now known as Last Days o Atlantis gradu-
ally grew into something other than its intended purpose.
Even as its author, a Mystagogue archaeologist, sociologistand historian, worked to assemble scant acts on the subject,
her mystic inquiries met at rst with the expected resistance
and then, suddenly, with ease unprecedented in the Fallen
World. To this day, Victoria Sharpe, the writer o Last
Days o Atlantis, cannot think o any reason why it is that
she, o all the willworkers who have ever pursued magical
solutions to the problem o unraveling Atlantis’ murky
history, should have chanced upon some subtle, overlooked
possibility that enabled her spells to uncover genuine actsabout the allen empire. But she knows, beyond a shadow
o a doubt, that the revelations she experienced are real.
Despite the utter annihilation o her scholarly reputation,she stood by that knowledge, until, at last, she had no more
esteem to lend to her stance.
Sharpe began to experience scathing criticism or herwork well beore its completion. Much o it was valid skepti-
cism regarding her inexplicable claim to have ound ways
to employ known spells to accomplish an end no magebeore her had quantiably been known to manage: theexploration o Atlantis as a living, breathing nation-state.
O course, just as much o the resistance was the product o
h l l l f d
betrayed and exasperated that no one would just believe her,
Sharpe hid the last original set in her sanctum, determined
not to part with it. Naturally, several copies o the threebooks were made, and ended up in the private collections o Awakened Atlantis enthusiasts who were long on eagerness
and short on scholarship, as well as Pentacle conspiracy nuts,
historical ction bus and the like, leaving the author to
wonder why it was that she was now being lumped in with
the crackpot malcontents o Awakened academia. Facedwith strong pressure rom many quarters o the Mysterium,
Victoria Sharpe simply shut down and went into seclusion,
cutting hersel o rom contact with all save the most trustedo her contacts in the Awakened community.
The books moved hither and yon in the months that
ollowed. At least one original set was broken up between
members o a cabal and another may have been destroyed— or at least badly damaged — by a perectly mundane
electrical re in a sanctum library. Eventually the brutal
criticism began to relent; Victoria Sharpe, a vanquished
oe o “reputable scholarship,” was soon reerenced only
by those who sought to gain a little recognition by strik-ing at an easy and socially acceptable target. Those who
supported Sharpe’s theories were long since silenced, and
had returned to their theories on “Atlantean aliens,” and
Shortly thereater, a oreign cadre o Guardians o theVeil took custody o the three books o Last Days o At-
lantis in New Zealand, using tactics that could politely be
described as “bullying” and sparking a serious diplomatic
incident with a number o Censors and Curators o the
peruse the entire series. Furthermore, it is only by way osincere belie — or the use o exceptionally powerul magic
to penetrate the Prime cloak concealing the spells rom
unbelievers — that these secrets are revealed.
Ownership o a complete set o the Sharpe edition o
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incident with a number o Censors and Curators o theMysterium that persists to this day. Around this time, the
complete set in Amsterdam was stolen, likely out o earo urther intererence rom outsiders. Several members o
the Silver Ladder declared the matter to be one o theirOrder’s purview, while the ew Arrows mages who knew
o the matter scratched their heads in wonderment at the
entire mess and a scant handul o Libertines elt smugly
vindicated at this display o the so-called unity o the At-lantean Diamond. In the end, the row within certain loty
circles o the Mysterium and the Silver Ladder, as well as
particularly vigorous proponents o Atlantean orthodoxywithin the Guardians o the Veil, was considerable, butthe hubbub died down, and the matter was, by mid 2007,
eectively swept under the Pentacle’s collective rug.
Hidebound and respectable Mystagogues still lookaskance at those who inquire ater the original Sharpe
editions o Last Days o Atlantis, shaking their heads at
the naiveté o children too eager to believe. Some make
trouble or these “mavericks,” stymieing their advancement
within the Order and otherwise punishing them or inter-est in Sharpe’s work. Victoria Sharpe hersel continues to
shun all contact with other mages, especially those who ask
ater what was supposed to be the crowning achievement
Ownership o a complete set o the Sharpe edition o
Last Days o Atlantis conveys one other, small benet to
its possessor: when in the presence o all three books (notnecessary in-hand; being in the same room is easily su-cient, or example, or anywhere within one’s sanctum, so
long as the books are also presently there), a willworker
gains 1 additional point o Mana rom meditating at a
Hallow or perorming either a normal oblation or one associated with a Legacy.
The spells concealed with Last Days o Atlantis are:
Activate Spirit (Prime •••• + Spirit ••••) There is a story o Jascei, a holy man who gained wisdom
by studying the motions o the stars rom atop the highest
mountain on the island o Atlantis. This sage oten had
cause to call upon the small gods o the world in the pursuit
o his sacred task. On occasion, he would borrow theirmiraculous abilities directly rather than trusting in such
beings to interpret the will o a man o Atlantis. While hisability to direct the powers o the otherworldly could not
save him rom the Fall, it is said that he called upon manyspirits at the end, even as his temple ell down around him
t tt hi d d il d l t th
direct another o the powers concealed behind the realityknown to Sleepers. Oten more narrow in ocus than the
Ten Arcana, these powers sometimes sacrice fexibility or
raw power or utility in a single sort o endeavor.
her, the lore o the Cenacle o Sighs continued to grow andthrive, even unto the ending o Atlantis.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Extended (target number = Merit dots)
D ti L ti
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Deathless Oath (Death •••• + Fate ••) Last Days o Atlantis tells o Khadarmas, a valiant warrior
o the Dragon’s Talon, who even unto the very crumbling
o the high towers o Atlantis, reused to relent in the
pursuit o his sworn duty. He escorted many people tothe shores, to an awaiting crat that erried the reugees
to saety. It was the potter, Seddu, who rst noticed the
shard o stone, clearly rom the shattered remains o the
ziggurat upon which rested the Ladder to Heaven itsel,embedded in Khadarmas’ side, and the trail o blood that
had long since stopped fowing rom the wound. So great
was the soldier’s devotion to his people, however, that even
his death could not prevent him rom saving lives, until atlast, Khadarmas, too, was swallowed by the waves, bidden
a tearul arewell by those he had given his lie to rescue
rom Atlantis’ doom.
Practice: Ruling
Action: InstantDuration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana
Duration: Lasting
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 ManaUpon the completion o this spell, the willworker may
invest in dots o the Library Merit specically tied to theshades o the dead who serve as the storage medium or
the inormation in question. These ghosts must actu-
ally be experts on the inormation to be bestowed, unless
the mage wants knowledge o ghosts, hauntings or thelike — in which case, any ghost will do — meaning the
mage may need to do some hunting around to nd restless
shades possessed o the appropriate knowledge (a dicult
proposition, at best, i one wants to archive the lore o, say,Atlantis or the Abyss). The account given in Last Days o
Atlantis indicates that such ghosts were typically bound to
their own mortal remains, though one could, presumably,
anchor them to any physical object.
In the event that the mage already possesses dots in a
“conventional” Library, these dots stack on top o those (to
the customary limit o 5 dots), and cost the normal amounto Experience or raising the Library Merit. Typically, the
shades in such a “ghost library” should be built as rank 1
spirits, but substituting the supernatural powers o ghosts
or those o spirits and s bject to the normal restrictions
pursuit o the original volumes as tantamount to agreemenwith Victoria Sharpe’s “wild theories” and react accordingly
Athenaeums may close their doors to such a willworker
audiences with important members o the Order may be
reused, and research grants may be revoked.
Atlantean “History”So, the big question is: does Victoria
Sharpe’s Last Days of Atlantis contain factual
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, a a g a ay
The most pressing concern, though, by ar, is the ananke
attached to the ve Sharpe edition copies o the Last Dayswhich desires, above all else, that the truth o the all oAtlantis be known. O course, given the descent o the
years, the metaphysical ruin inficted upon the Fallen World
and the restrictions that may or may not have been put in
place by the Oracles, the Exarchs, or both, the spirit cannow only hint its way around “truths” that may or may not
now be anything o the sort. Also, as it grows increasingly
rustrated with its ragmented and uncertain memories, the
metaphysical hurdles put in place to thwart its purpose andthe ear and skepticism o the Awakened, there is no telling
to what lengths the ananke will eventually go.
The Voice of the Dragon Quote: “I come to you bearing the Word o lost Atlantis
hearken and take heart, Dragon-child. The time o revela
tion is at hand.”
Background: This ananke’s master raged against the
dying o the light o Atlantean civilization, aware o the
writing on the wall. Though she did not know what man-
ner o doom the island nation would meet, she was keenlyaware that one manner o looming destruction or another
Sharpe s Last Days of Atlantis contain factualinformation regarding the end of the empire of
magic, the shattering of the Celestial Ladder,the sundering of the world and the descentinto Fallen ages?
Maybe.
Ultimately, that answer is up to you , as aStoryteller, to determine for yourself. Given
the difculty inherent in saying anything“true” about Atlantis (due to magical interfer-
ence, as well as the metaphysical and logicalParadoxes that were reconcilable in the priorincarnation of the cosmos — using omnipo-
tence to create stones so heavy they couldn’tbe lifted, any the like — and the ways in
which these Paradoxes now invariably clashin the Fallen World), any of the passages, in
any of the three books may be simultaneouslycorrect and false.
Did a sherman named Karsai, for in-stance, truly eke out a meager living on the
northern shores of Atlantis only to nd acache of black pearls in the latter days of his
to heart the writings in Last Days o Atlantis and knowthem or what they are: perected truth, ree o the deg-
radation o a much-diminished age. Because o its nature
and its purpose, the ananke can easily ollow those who
pursue the Last Days grimoires (provided they don’t take
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p y g (p yextraordinary measures to dissuade the attentions and
thwart the Numina and Infuences o spirits), though it willappear to them only to guide and inspire, and then only
i it must; i the mages keep on the “correct” path withoutany outside intererence, then so much the better. The
ananke has already maniested once or twice, though its
appearance incited ar more ear than trust and the spirit
was unable to successully convey its desired message.Still, it will continue to try: the truth must be known
no matter the cost.
Description: The Voice o the Dragon is regal,imposing and even a little bit rightul. It stands an
impressive seven eet in height, and is garbed in elaborate,
richly-hued layered robes and ligreed metal breastplate
that are, presumably, Atlantean in style. A diadem o precious (and unearthly) metals rests upon the Voice’s
head, the eatures o which are intimidatingly striking
and sharply masculine. At its hip rests a sword both
remarkable in its cratsmanship and surpassingly plain
in design, and, in its right hand is a scepter crowned withseven stars that orbit slowly above the blazing, golden-
white gemstone that caps the tip o the rod.
Storytelling Hints: This spirit o destiny knows
Countermagic (dice pool 22). The ananke can use this Numen as refexive countermagic against Fate and Spirit
magic (including Covert spells) targeted on it or used to
interfere with its mission. 1 Essence is spent and Power +
Finesse is rolled. I its successes equal to exceed the spell’s,
its appointed task. Now the spirit must engage — whethersubtly or overtly — any Awakened audience that will or
might prove receptive to its objective o revealing the “true
history o the end o Atlantis.” While the ananke may choose
to act through Covert means, it may not shrink rom any
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the spell is countered.
Ban: This spirit is now intrinsically tied to Last Days o Atlantis, the vehicle through which it has chosen to advance
opportunity to illuminate the truth (as it understands such
anyway) to willworkers, irrespective o the consequences
to itsel (or any other) or doing so.
Researching Last Days of Atlantis Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended — 8 successes
Research Time: 12 hours; 4 hours Appropriate Libraries: Atlantis, Grimoires, The Mysterium
Possible Modiers: Researcher is a member of the Mysterium (+1), researcher is a Mysterium Cen-sor or Curator (+2; not cumulative with the previous bonus), researcher has visited one or more alleg-
edly Atlantean ruins or Atlantean Diaspora sites (+2)
Successes Information
0-2 Nothing.
3-4 Last Days of Atlantis is the work of a Mystagogue named Victoria Sharpe, once arenowned historian of her Order and now something of a pariah in the Mysterium’ssocial circles. Her exile from the halls of Awakened academia is largely the result of herthree-volume chronicle of the Fall, which she once vehemently alleged was revealed
Le Livre Rouge History Le Livre Rouge is a notorious work that allows read-
ers to see past the static o their everyday
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s yLe Livre Rouge is credited to the pen o one Stèphane
D’Aoust, a man thought to be an acquaintance o the notorious Donatien de Sade. The scant in-ormation ound about D’Aoust in mundane
histories paints him as an eete artiste, a
lazy intellectual and a sometimes pre-
tender to nobility. In a letter to hiswie, the Marquis de La Fayette
describes D’Aoust as, “... a
terrible waste o ambition
and privilege. This man,D’Aoust, surrounds
h imse l w i th
companions
that display
the very worstin human mo-
t i v a t i o n s .
His claims
o riendshipwith the lunatic
de Sade urther
serve to illustrate
h h h ”
p y y
lives and social expectations to
understand the heart o their desires. By
s t r i p p i n g
away thevalues o
society, Le
Livre Rouge
removes allquestion o
morality rom aproblem, allowing
readers to ocus solelyupon the truth o the
matter. The book also
reveals individual truths
that are hard or most peopleto stomach. When aced with
their true nature, most readers
are driven insane by the horror o seeing their darkest desires and mostbrutish impulses under the unrelenting
light o clarity. Only those readers with
It was during my travels in France, in the year 18—, that I rst became acquainted with the name —— of
Chantilly. —— was said to have the most extraordinary collection of original texts and manuscripts of works
that have, in the main, been lost to the ravages of time and the perditions of man. Since I was traveling in the
general vicinity of Chantilly, I thought to impose myself on the hospitality of — and thereby discern for myself
h b f hi ll i
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the substance of this collection.
Bypassing that aberration of architecture that dares to call itself the Château de Chantilly, I made my wayto the house of a fellow scholar, a Moros named Bullant, with whom I had frequently corresponded on various
shared topics of interest. I hoped to receive, from Bullant, a letter of introduction to —— and also to question
Bullant as to the source of his regrettable lapse in judgment in not earlier referring me to the man, ——.
I was received with great courtesy and admirable enthusiasm by Bullant and, after we had dined on an
admirable pair of capons, we retired to his study to fortify ourselves with brandy and scholarly debate. After a
seemly interval of discourse I brought up the subject of —— and his aforementioned collection.
“Ah. As to that,” said Bullant. “I had not thought to trouble you with ideas that could have no happy
resolution.”“No happy resolution?” said I.
“Indeed,” said Bullant. “The man, ——, is widely known for his eccentric behavior and his reticence to allow
any hand but his own to attend to his possessions. It is even whispered,” and, indeed, Bullant leaned toward me
and lowered his tone. “That he possesses the original manuscript of Stèphane D’Aoust.”
“ Le Livre Rouge?” I cried out.
“The very same,” said Bullant.
“But the thing is cursed,” said I. “Surely if —— were to own such a work the evidence of said possessionwould be obviously manifest in his manner and environs.”
“My dear fellow,” said Bullant. “Have I not already described the man as an eccentric? You, above all, should
know I don’t bandy such words without cause.”
Researching Le Livre Rouge Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended - 15 successes
With this knowledge in hand, the Consilium began acity-wide sweep or the book, destroying every copy it could
nd. A ew mages disobeyed the direct order to destroy the
book and attempted to study it. Most went insane, but the
ew who did not reported they gained insight and power by h h h d h L L R
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Research Time: 4 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: History or Be-havioral Science Academics Specialties (+1),Contacts in Rare Book Dealers or Mysterium
Archivists (+1)
Successes Information
0-3 Nothing.
4-8 Mention of an untitled, red leather-
bound book being stolen in aninsurance claim led after abrief spate of riots in Boston. Theclaim was led by a rare book dealer named Tom Fletcher.
9-12 Copies of a journal entry (seemain text) with accompanyingfootnotes, noting historical
correspondences between the journal entry and local Chantillyrecords of an inferno that rippedthrough the wealthy part of h d h l
siting through the mad genius o the grimoire.Le Livre Rouge
stripped away all pretension rom the mages who resisted its
power, allowing them understand their true motivations and
goals and helping them to ocus upon those goals.
When the work o collecting or burning the books
in Paris was nished, the Consilium wasted no time in
tracking D’Aoust back to his chateau on the outskirts o the city. When the mages arrived they discovered D’Aoust
had become one o the Mad. Babbling about reedom rom
the chains o society, D’Aoust attacked the minds o his
assailants with rotes o his own devising and, ater a ercestruggle, D’Aoust was killed.
Regardless o the eorts o the Parisian mages, a very
ew copies o Le Livre Rouge survived the purge and beganto circulate around the world. Most o these copies have
been destroyed over the years, but there are still rumors o
surviving copies and, even more disturbing, the possibility
that the original manuscript escaped destruction.
The history o the grimoire ater Paris becomes less clear.
Because o the nature o the thing to infict chaos andruin on the people around it, tracking the movements o
the book is problematic at best. A determined researchermight be able to tie common symptoms associated with the
chapter. I the reader’s Vice matches the chapter studied,or the next 24 hours the character regains 2 points o
Willpower or engaging in his Vice. I the character has a
dierent Vice, he may choose to immediately change his
Vice to the matching Vice o the chapter studied. Charactersi h Vi i hi h d
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana
The mage must cast this spell while touching his targetIn combat situations this requires a successful Strength +
Brawl roll. Once the mage has achieved physical contact he
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may not switch Vices in this way more than once a day,
but by giving themselves over to dierent sensations, the
reader gains urther insight into his true sel. When the
reader completes his study o the book (successully readingall seven chapters) he may select any Vice to serve as his
specic sin o choice.
I a character manages to complete his study o Le Livre
Rougewithout going insane (see below) he rolls Intelligence
+ Occult + Gnosis to see how well he was able to interpret
the philosophical, psychological and metaphysical ravings
o D’Aoust’s “masterpiece.” Once this roll has been made,successul or not, the character can gain no more useul
insight rom the grimoire and it becomes nothing more
than a mildly useul (yet dangerous) research text to be
added to an occult library.
Suggested Modifers: -1 die or each derangement (even
temporary derangements) gained during study, -1 die i Area
Morality has dropped to 3 (see below), -2 dice or each dotof Wisdom lost during study, +1 die for every change in
Vice that led to a meaningul experience (i.e. Willpowergain), +2 dice if study of the grimoire was completed in 7
days or less
R R
may cast the spell as an instant action in the ollowing turn
With Mind 4 this spell may be cast at sensory range.I the casting roll is successul, or the next 24 hours the
target may not regain Willpower rom ullling a Virtue
The target may still regain Willpower through other meanssuch as sleeping or ullling a Vice.
Abuse o this spell may be considered an act o hubris
(at Storyteller discretion) requiring a degeneration roll ormages o Wisdom 7 or higher (roll 4 dice).
Le Livre Rouge Rote
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Mind
Goetic Doppelgänger (Spirit ••••+ Mind ••••)
Once a mage has accepted the dark side o his own
nature he gains an understanding o how to release the
inner demons o his enemies. For a mind untempered by
exposure to Le Livre Rouge, acing one’s oulest desires and
inner corruption is unsettling at best.Practice: Patterning
Action: Extended (target number = target’s Wisdom)
Duration: Prolonged (one hour)
I the demon succeeds in anchoring itsel to a etter itbegins to Materialize as a near-clone o the target. Close
associates o the target may realize the demon isn’t who it
is mimicking with a single success on a Wits + Empathy
roll. While materialized, the demon attempts to cause ash h ibl ( i i l tt ti t it
Use o this rote (or voluntary participation as the target)is an act o hubris that requires a degeneration roll or mages
o Wisdom 3 or higher (roll 2 dice).
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Mind
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much havoc as possible (paying special attention to its
target’s Vice), beore retreating to the area o its etter. The
target o the spell then has to deal with the consequences
o the demon’s actions, which can range rom annoyingto deadly serious.
Demons can maintain themselves indenitely in Twilight
(long ater the duration o the original spell has lapsed) aterthey succeed at creating a etter. As a result, the only sure
way to be rid o the demon is to destroy its etter. When
the etter is destroyed, the demon is unraveled just as i
it had ailed to etter itsel during the initial duration o the spell. I attacked, demons reorm ater being violently
discorporated in the same way as normal spirits. (See p.
320 o Mage: The Awakening.)
Le Livre Rouge Rote
Dice Pool: Resolve + Empathy + Mind
Casual Brutality (Mind •••••) Behavioral science studies suggest that the ways in which
people interact with one another, with regard to morality,
are based equally on societal notions o propriety andpersonal ideals. I either part o the equation is removed,
either societal perception or personal values the morality
Dangers A Study in Red One o the reasons Le Livre Rouge is so very dangerous
to read is a result o the psychoactive nature o the book.The grimoire refects the emotions, thoughts and nature
o the individual reading it. The result o this refection
is a highly personal experience that can lead to a greater
understanding o the sel. Not only is such an experience
perilous in its own right (naked truths are hard to bear), butit can also orm a sort o eedback loop in which the reader
stares too long into the abyss and begins to empathize with
what he sees staring back.
Whenever the total number o Research rolls made
to comprehend a chapter exceeds the reader’s Resolve +
Composure ratings combined, the reader must check or
degeneration on 3 dice. I this roll is ailed, the reader au-
tomatically gains the Obsessive Compulsion derangement
(see p. 98 o World o Darkness) with Le Livre Rouge asthe ocus o his obsession.
Failing the degeneration roll also grants the reader a mo-
ment o mad genius For the brieest o seconds the reader
Infectious Insanity Simply being near the grimoire can also be a hazard. Le
Livre Rouge draws spirits o ear, vice and pain to it likemoths to a candle fame. These spirits enhance the power
o the book to corrupt and infuence people nearby. I the
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p p p y
book stays in one place or too long, its area o infuence
begins to spread in an eect called Area Morality. Peopleinside the area o infuence have their Morality rating slowly
reduced until it equals that o the Area Morality.
To determine Area Morality and the eects o the gri-moire on its surroundings, rst decide what sort o morality
is most common in the book’s current location. Suggested
starting Area Morality ratings are listed below. Obviously
not all places are the same and Storytellers are encouragedto modiy the starting Area Morality as they see t. (Note,
too, that this is not a measure o the average citizen’s moralcompass in a given area: Area Morality speaks more o the
requency o violence and violation, which naturally tendsto be higher in more thickly populated areas.)
Setting Morality Rating
Rural, Suburban 7
Urban 6
Inner City, High Crime 5
Battleeld, Active Confict 4In the beginning, the grimoire infuences a small area, but the
longer the book remains in one place the urther its infuence
spreads. This malign infuence spreads exponentially (as more
Stage 1
Le Livre Rouge rst appears in the area and begins to
spread its infuence. At this stage, infuence is minimaland contained within a 100-yard radius o the book. I the
book isn’t moved urther than one mile (outside the area o
infuence) in the span o a month proceed to Stage 2
remains at one mile and Area Morality drops to 3. At AreaMorality 3, crimes o hate and passion (such as rape and
murder) become more common and people are likely to riot.
The Morality o people moving into the area o infuence
drops to 6 in an hour, to 5 ater an additional hal hour, to4 ater two hours then to Morality 3 ater spending a total
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infuence) in the span o a month, proceed to Stage 2.
Stage 2The grimoire begins to draw spirits to it and its infuence
spreads to 500 yards. Area Morality drops to 6, unless it
started at 6 or less, in which case it remains unchanged.At Area Morality 6, petty thet becomes more common
and people are more likely to argue and brawl (st ghts).
People must spend an hour in the area o infuence beore
their Morality is reduced to 6, unless it was already 6 orless. I the book isn’t moved urther than one mile (outside
the area o infuence) in the span o two weeks, proceedto Stage 3.
Stage 3
The grimoire attracts more powerul spirits to it and its
infuence spreads to a hal mile. Area Morality drops to
5, unless it started at 5 or less, in which case it remainsunchanged. At Area Morality 5, burglaries and grand thet
become more common and people are more likely to have
heated disagreements and conrontations that result in
signicant consequences (serious injuries, grudges held).The Morality o people moving into the area o infuence
drops to 6 in an hour, then to 5 ater spending a total o
two hours in the area. I the book isn’t moved urther than
4 ater two hours, then to Morality 3 ater spending a total
o three hours in the area. At this Stage, Le Livre Rouge
also draws protectors to it, which will ght over the book
leaving the strongest and most ruthless individuals in thearea in possession o the grimoire.
I the grimoire is removed rom its location, Area Morality
recovers at a rate o one stage or every week that passes.Characters who travel into the area o infuence o the book
may attempt to resist its Morality draining eects once they
realize what is happening to them. Each time a character
loses a dot of Morality he may roll Intelligence + Occultto guess that something is messing with his head. With
a single success on the roll he may then attempt to resist
the corrosive eects o Le Livre Rouge by rolling Resolve
+ Composure. Each success gained on the roll protectsthe character against the loss o 1 dot o Morality or the
remainder o the scene.
Solutions and Complications The simplest solution to the problem o Le Livre Rouge isto destroy it. The book is just paper and ink and a judicious
use o fame will put an end to its menace. I the desire isto learn rom the book rather than to destroy it, obviously
The LoquaciousGrimoire
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the text either appears in the reader’s native language or asa series o unknown characters rom whom even the most
powerul Mind magics can obtain very little meaning. From
the outside, the book appears in excellent condition and
as i it has been subject to both great careand status as an object o much pride to its
owners. It is bound in the highest
quality reddish brown leather
that appears to be almost 70
years old, but in excellent con-dition. The corners o the cover
are protected by triangles o hard
nely polished low karat gold, andthe end papers are hand marbled
Anyone who knows books or who
examines it using Matter or Time
magics will instantly realize thatthe book has been rebound severa
times and that its current cover hasbeen given additional decoration on
several occasions. Inside, the pagesare made o ne but old paper that is
While there have been many stories o grimoires and otherbooks that contain some trace o their author’s mind or
personality or otherwise seem intelligent, this legendary text
is one o the ew that is widely acknowledged to be an intel-
ligent being capable o communicatingwith its reader. Unortunately, it
is also equally capable o render-
ing itsel completely illegible to
those it does not wish to read it.
This book has a slightly dubiousreputation because many have
spent years and small ortunes
to obtain it and have then oundthemselves completely unable
to make any use o it. It allows
some to read it immediately, it
requires various services romothers, and a ew will never
learn its secrets.Unlike most grimoires,
instead o rotes, this book
contains all the inorma-
both lovingly cared or and also the object o much deco-ration and adornment. The title on the spine appears in
exquisitely ormed gold letters and is Le Chemin Du Livre or
The Path o the Book. However, the book is widely known
as The Loquacious Grimoire, a name that started out as amid 19th-century joke about the volume’s personality, and
attempted to nd meaning in its odd marginalia and in itsmany unusual requests. Unortunately, ater more than 50
years o study, several o the Mysterium’s oremost scholars
announced there was no evidence o hidden meaning within
the book’s prose or poetry. In addition, while some o thebook’s requests seemed to be aimed at making minor but
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mid 19 century joke about the volumes personality, and
which has now become so widespread that when many
mages actually encounter this book they are surprised thisis not its actual title.
History The Loquacious Grimoire was written in the last decade
o the 18th century by Angelique Doran, who was known
to other mages as Juge. She was a prominent French au-
thor, a well known bibliophile, and a devoted ollower o Robespierre. During the French Revolution she worked
closely with the inamous Committee o Public Saety.
Juge was a member o the Silver Ladder, and her diary re-
mains in its archives. In it, she rst records her passionatebelie in the cause o the revolution and then her growing
disillusionment with the events that led up to the Terror.
Despite having provided inormation to the Committee
that resulted in the execution o more than three dozen
individuals whose writing demonstrated supposedly dan-gerous anti-revolutionary sympathies, Juge was denounced
by the Committee in 1794. Mysterium historians believe
her accuser was almost certainly a Banisher who suspectedh B h h b i d b
book s requests seemed to be aimed at making minor but
potentially important changes in the world, these changes
seemed to have nothing to do with Atlantis or the SupernalRealms. However, individuals who studied the book couldnot say what its goals were.
For the second hal o the 19th century and the rst
decade o the 20th, the book gradually aded rom interest,although some suspicious mages maintained that either
the Mysterium scholars who studied the loquacious tome
missed important clues about it or they uncovered great
secrets about it that they reused to share with anyone else.Unortunately, these mages ailed to uncover evidence or
their claims.
This book’s ame then reached a peak in the summer o 1904, when an Adept o the Spirit Arcana named Joseph
McCauley, who was also a noted spiritualist, studied The
Loquacious Grimoire and proclaimed that in addition to
mastering its Legacy, he also had obtained the clues heneeded to become an Archmage o Spirit. Ater making
his announcement beore a group o mages assembled inChicago, he demonstrated a ew eats o Spirit magic that
some mages still believe were evidence o his newoundknowledge and power. Then he opened a doorway into the
As a result, the book’s movements and the people whohave studied it during the 20th century are largely known.
During the years beore WWII, it remained in the United
States, with a ew brie orays into both Canada and Mexico.
In 1952, an American mage took it to Germany when shewent over to help with the rebuilding eorts. For the next
piece o writing or two-dimensional image at which he islooking. By making a successful Wits + Investigation roll
the most complex symbolism, the most intricate code or
the cleverest riddle is immediately obvious. Discovering
any o these hidden truths requires only a ew momentsalthough the most complex computer-generated cryptog-
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p g
39 years, the book was carried urther East and remained
behind the Iron Curtain, until the collapse o the SovietUnion in 1990. There are reports that several Soviet ma-ges worked in the KGB, using their magic to allow them
to perorm eats impossible or other agents. Two o these
mages learned the Legacy o the Book in order to become
even more eective spies, and ater the collapse o theSoviet Union one o them let the KGB and has become
a highly successul reelance intelligence consultant. In
1991 the book again made its way West when a Russian
mage immigrated to the United States. For the past 17years it has mostly been ound in large cities on the East
and West Coasts.
Contents: The Path of the Book This Legacy is open to any mages with the correct Ar-
cana who can also convince The Loquacious Grimoire to
teach it to them.Nickname: Bookworms
Appearance:Both because this path attracts such peopleand because The Loquacious Grimoire is willing to teach
a g p p g a yp g
raphy occasionally requires two or more successes. These
dicult tasks can be solved using an extended task, wherethe character can make 1 roll every turn.
Optional Arcanum: Time 2
The mage is suciently connected to the world o textand symbols that she can gain glimpses o the immediate
uture by looking around any location where there are
signicant amounts o text or two-dimensional images
visible, such as on any even dimly lit city street. In such a
situation, the mage can know the outcome o any actionwith two outcomes, as per the “Flip o the Coin” spell
(Mage: The Awakening, p. 259). The mage can use this
ability no more oten than once per scene.
2 nd : Gift of Tongues Prerequisite: Gnosis 5, Mind 3
The mage can continuously use the “Universal Language”
spell (Mage: The Awakening, p. 213). He can read, write
speak and understand any language as i it were his own,
even prooundly alien languages.
Optional Arcanum: Time 3
Th ’ bili d i h i i h
cess on a mediation roll. He does not need to meditate ata Hallow or spend a point o Mana. Once he succeeds at
the mediation roll, the mage instantly appears in an astral
location closely connected to the work he just read. The
only way the mage can take others with him is using the“Telepathy” spell (Mage: The Awakening, pp. 212-3),
other members o this group. When someone acquires thebook and is having trouble convincing it to teach him, one
or more members o the Friends o the Book may contact
the mage with various suggestions, which typically range
rom useul advice to occasional insults implying that thestudent is unworthy o the book’s attentions. Also, when a
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p y p ( g g, pp ),
and casting it as a prolonged spell. However, each o the
individuals with whom he is in telepathic contact whenhe begins meditating must also roll at least 1 success on ameditation roll or they will not be able to accompany the
mage on his astral journey. In addition, either the bookworm
or the person he is bringing along into the Astral Realm
must spend 1 point o Mana to allow this additional personto enter the Astral Realm. I desired, the mage can spend
the additional Mana himsel and bring non-mages along
into the Astral Realm.
Optional Arcanum: Time 4
The mage can now gain a wealth o inormation about
the immediate uture rom the visual symbols around him.He can now duplicate the eects o the “Present as Past”
spell (Mage: The Awakening, p. 264). However, he can
perorm this ability only once per scene, and only where
he can see at least moderate amounts o text.
Challenges and Dangers In and o itsel, the book is almost never dangerous, but it
can be moderately troublesome to interact with and some o
y ,
mage has mastered this Legacy the other members o the
Friends o the Book are likely to wish to discuss theoriesand opinions about the book and its teachings with her.
The members o the Friends o the Book are highly
protective o this volume, and a ew actually worship or
revere it. I the book reuses to teach someone, but theperson attempts to keep the book, one or more members o
the Friends are likely to contact this mage and attempt to
persuade him to give the book to someone else. Members
o the Friends o the Book are also likely to contact mageswho have studied the book but now reuse to pass it on.
I the mage reuses to relinquish the book, these requests
oten escalate to personal visits and veiled threats, and
occasionally into actions ranging rom careully watchingthe mage in an attempt to nd some bit o inormation
with which they can blackmail him to attempts to steal
the book.
In addition, while most o the book’s ormer students
wish to avoid discussing this act, the book is occasionallywilling to teach students ranging rom Seers o the Throne
to mages who deal with the Abyss or who have at best atenuous grasp on both sanity and morals. Being taught by
the Mind rotes “Emotional Urgings” and “Incognito Pres-ence.” It cannot and will not use these rotes on demand
or to aid its current owner, and many mages believe it is
incapable o consciously using these rotes. Instead, these
are magical eects that simply occur when it is time orthe book to nd a new owner.
and magics, the book is continuously on the move. Someowners have kept it in their libraries or several years by
regularly allowing a wide range o people to study rom it
but eventually even these eorts ail and the book will ask
to be ree to go to another owner.
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The Loquacious Grimoire typically begins using these
eects once it has nished teaching someone its Legacyor i it has reused to teach someone at all. At this point,
a skilled and powerul mage can easily keep it through the
use o more powerul spells or by simply locking it in an
especially secure vault. However, doing this ensures thatthe book will reuse to teach its owner or, in act, anyone
else who does not rst liberate the book rom its current
owner and then promise to allow it to reely depart once
it has nished teaching this person.The owner is ree to give or sell the book to someone
else, and the book will then judge the person on her own
merits. However, i the new owner locks the book awayor uses magic to bind it to her, the book will again
reuse to teach the new owner until she undoes
these magics. As a result o both its personality
Communicating with the Book The book cannot speak, but it is clearly intelligent. Thewords on its pages change as they are read, and it responds
to speech in all languages that anyone has used to try to
communicate with it as well as to any writing that takes
place within a ew yards o it. The book is oten quitechatty and i the mage is so inclined it will talk about
the events o the mage’s lie and may even oer
advice, which is typically no more or less useul than advicehe might receive rom a well meaning colleague. However,
most mages seek this text to learn rom it.
The book is as vulnerable to most magic as any otherobject. However, the unique nature o its consciousness
means it is completely immune to all Mind spells. Mages
the street on a particular day. While sometimes quite easyto perorm, equally oten these requests can be exceedingly
challenging and can involve stealing a seemingly trivial
item like an old souvenir rom the house o someone with
an expensive alarm system or obtaining a specic costumejewelry ring rom a bank’s saety deposit box.
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p y p g
cannot read or even detect the book’s thoughts, nor can
they eectively translate text that it deliberately garbles.
The book loves to show the way to the Legacy contained
within it, but it is also an exceedingly capricious and mercu-
rial teacher. When some mages open it, it immediately takesa liking to them and is eager to teach them all it knows.
Most o these mages are bibliophiles who love both books
and learning, but having all these characteristics does not
guarantee the book will react positively to someone — the
book reacts this well only to a small raction o those whoopen it. To others, oten but ar rom always people who are
rude to it or rough with it, the book shows only gibberish
and reuses to ever teach them. However, the majority o mages who wish to learn rom The Loquacious Grimoire
must work to gain the book’s riendship and eventually its
teaching. This eort always involves being willing to read
and give honest but polite opinions about the odd pieces o poetry and short stories the book shows them. These works
range rom excellent to dreadul to simply eccentric.However, in the vast majority o cases the book also
asks or several more unusual avors. Some involve caringor it. It is a moderately vain being and regularly requests
Because o the book’s inherent connection to the Fate
Arcana, most mages who have studied it assume these re-quests are an eort to cause subtle but meaningul changes
in the world. No one has discovered the purpose behind
its requests, but mages in both the Mysterium and the Free
Council regularly study the records o these requests and theoutcomes produced by them. In general, the book asks most
people who come into possession o it to perorm between
three and ve tasks, which usually consist o a mixture o
the various types mentioned above.
Connections to Previous Students Mages understand that attaining a Legacy permanently
reshapes the student’s soul, but what is ar less widely known
is that learning The Loquacious Grimoire’s Legacy also cre-
ates a lasting bond between the book and every student
who has ever studied it. The book will reveal this bond i asked directly about it, but almost never volunteers the
inormation. To use the book in this ashion, the readermust rst ask it to cause a picture o the desired student
to appear on the page. This picture can be used as a closesympathetic connection to the target, just like a normal
Researching The Loquacious Grimoire Capping Ability: Occult
Action: Extended (16 successes)
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Research Time: 30 minutes
Appropriate Libraries: Occult, History
Bonuses: Mysterium membership (+1),
Penalties: No dots in Occult (-1)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-10 The Loquacious Grimoire contains no spells. Instead it teaches a powerful and uniqueLegacy that can be learned only from the book. The book is also an intelligent being andteaches this Legacy only to those mages it likes or who are willing to do services for it.
11-15 This grimoire immediately likes some readers and teaches them without reservation. Italso dislikes a few and will never teach them. However, most readers must perform various services for it in order to obtain its cooperation. Attempting to read the book without its cooperation is useless. In addition, the book enjoys being read by new readers and will request to be given to someone else once the mage has nished studying it. Previousstudents of the book often keep in touch and are willing to provide suggestions on how
best to deal with it. However, some of these students can become angry at anyone theythink is mistreating the book.
16+ Many of the book’s requests are quite eccentric, as are many of the snippets of writing it
Orpheus' Last Riddle the book contains. The last note he makes in the grimoireindicates he intends to excise the nal third, declaring
Orpheus’ Last Riddle to be “ungodly” and “a temptation
Faith is a sticking point or many mages.
Oh, certainly a mage might claim to have
aith. Obrimos mages, especially, talk about
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to the Wise.” Obviously, however, he did not tear out this
section, or i he tried, he ailed. The nal third o the bookis a long discussion about the soul and its disposition
ater death. Much o this discussion is in poetic orm,
and the style is undeniably Greek (as is the language).
Fortunately, the margins contain enough space ora running English translation, and an
unnamed Mastigos provided this in the
early 16th century. The let sides o the
pages, then, provide a translation insomewhat stilted but understandable
English, while the right margins are
nearly ull o commentary, ideas and
even objections rom readers downthrough the centuries. As more o
the space has been eaten over the
years, the notes have crept into
the earlier parts o the book,
and contributors have taken tosigning their notes with tiny
symbols and ordinals so that
others can ollow their mes-
p y
their experiences in the Aether and about
how those experiences cemented theirbelie, or instilled in them a newound
sense o purpose or righteousness.
Other Paths are not exempt —
any o the Supernal Realmsmight conirm a person’s
religious or spiritual con-
victions, or lead the newly
Awakened person intobelie.
But to draw upon
memory, upon objec-tive experience — is
that truly aith? Faith
must allow or uncer-
tainty, or the possibilitythat one is wrong or
that one’s convictionsare based on nothing,
but believing anyway.Awakened lie has its
From personal correspondence between Rosemary (Acanthus of the Mysterium) and her mentor
Every time I read it, I cry. I can’t help it. Somewhere in those pages is the answer, a way to bring peace to all of the people that I — that we — sing for and remember. It ’s there in the Riddle, locked behind language and old terms, I know it How many of us have to try? How many more theories scratched out in the margins?
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behind him. He could see the gateway to the living world,
but he lost aith and turned to see his bride. And he did…
or one brie moment beore her soul ell back to Hades.
Back in the land o living, Orpheus ell to despair. He
sang, but his songs were so sad that the land itsel wept with
his grie. Eventually he crossed paths with the Maenads,berserker women who called him to join their revelry. When
he would not, they took oense and tore him to pieces.
have died and seen the River Styx but returned unharmed
He met the Awakened rom Crete, Athens and even strange
oreign lands, and when he spoke with Masters o Deathhe recorded their magic in his book.
The Orphic Circle
The power o the Orpheus myth to inspire or symbolize
certain notions (love conquers all, the power o aith, etc.) is
undeniable. Several actions in the World o Darkness take
O h th i b k d th O hi Ci l
know it. How many of us have to try? How many more theories scratched out in the margins?
I think, maybe, that in those pages is Orpheus himself, writing his last testament to the world before he went down into the Underworld to find his beloved. I wonder what he would have written if he’d come back with her, what kind of joyous words we’ d see set down. I wonder if we’ d still be arguing over whether the Gateway is in Asia Minor or Antarctica.
I’ ll return it next week, I promise.
— Rosemary
(and they might include rogue mages, Banishers, hostilespirits and other supernatural beings).
Second, a passage in the Last Riddle mentions “my
children, o my blood and my name,” and warns that theywould “use my words as a key, but in the wrong lock” and
bring “black re and white ash” to the world. Scholars o
h L Riddl h ll h l
Students o the Last Riddle continually argue about howto interpret these lines. The most popular interpretations
are discussed under “Modern Arguments,” below.
Ater Orpheus’ death the book disappeared or manyyears, eventually appearing in Bulgaria in the mid-7th cen-
tury. The grimoire then began its travels, passed rom mage
A h h b k d d d d
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the Last Riddle have occasionally come to the conclusion
that this passage reers to the Circle, and conspire to keepit ar away rom the unsuspecting occultists.
The Grimoire’s Creation The grimoire now known as Orpheus’ Last Riddle (Or-
pheus himsel never gave it a name) began a true grimoire,
a collection o spells. But over his lie, Orpheus stopped
recording “simple” magic and instead mused on the nature
o death itsel and, more importantly, the soul and itsdisposition. He had come to understand that Stygia was
not the Underworld o which he had been taught, and
that humanity had a way o simpliying (or, conversely,overcomplicating) Supernal truth. But then, what was the
ate o the human soul? When it “passed on,” and ascended
(descended?) beyond the reach o the Awakened, where
did it go? Was “where” even an appropriate question? Andalthough the Awakened could not call back a soul rom
this place (state?), might there be beings in the world whocould? Awakened magic was not all-encompassing, ater
all, so was its inability to retrieve a soul a unction o thenature o souls or a merely a limitation on the magic?
to mage. At the time, the book was considered sacred, and
writing in it was taboo. As such, mages who could read itwithout magic were highly prized, but i no one who could
read it was available, a mage with sucient command o
the Mind Arcanum had to be convinced to do so.
This continued or nearly 150 years, ater which the taboo
on writing in the book aded and the Latin translation ap-
peared. At this point the book arrived in Constantinople,
where it remained until the early 13th century. When Con-
stantinople was sacked in 1204, Venetian soldiers took thebook home with them. It wasn’t long ater the grimoire’s
arrival in Venice, though, beore it was in Awakened hands
again. The book then began to travel again, passed betweenConsilii (but usually in the hands o a Moros, in deerence
to its author). This continued or several centuries, until
a Mastigos (who reused to provide even a Shadow Name)
translated the book into English in 1710. Since then, thebook has been to North America, South America, the
Middle East, and back to Europe.
The Tomb of Orpheus
Modern Arguments What was Orpheus truly trying to accomplish by writing
the grimoire? Mages across the centuries have come up withmany, many theories, but they tend to all into one o the
ollowing general groupings:
• Orpheus learned his lesson: Some mages eel that
Spells The ollowing spells rom Mage: The Awakening are
inscribed as rotes into Orpheus’ Last Riddle: “Alter Oath”(p. 154), “Geas” (p. 160), “Ghost Gate” (p. 139), “Ghost
Summons” (p. 137), “Quell the Spark” (p. 145), “Read the
Outmost Eddies” (p. 149), “Soul Marks” (p. 135), “Speak
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p g
ater his long career searching or the “answers” to death,Orpheus learned death doesn’t have an answer. Death
is immutable, and trying to conquer it is hubris o the
highest order. Some proponents o this theory maintainthat Orpheus committed suicide by throwing himsel
to the Maenads (whatever they truly were) in penance.
These mages oten use the Riddle as an example o whatnot to do.
• Orpheus died on the cusp of victory: Orpheus was on
to something big when he died, according to some mages,many o them Moros or Mysterium historians. The last ew
lines in the book were edited, probably by the same party(variously assumed to be an Abyssal creature, the Seers o
the Throne, or even a cabal o Order mages) who killed
Orpheus. But most o the book’s content remains viable,
so Orpheus’ work could be completed. The problem is thatadvocates o this theory can’t agree on what they’re looking
or in the text.
• Orpheus is playing us all for fools: Some Awakenedeel that Orpheus actually came to terms with the loss o
his wie ollowing his journey to Stygia, and although he
i d di t t th t h ’t ith t h Hi
p p p
with the Dead” (p. 135), “Summon the Dead” (p. 146),“Swearing an Oath” (p. 153), “Touch o the Grave” (p
138), “Twilight Shit” (p. 145).
In addition, the grimoire contains three spells createdby Orpheus himsel.
Orpheus’ Lament (Death •••) The mage creates an ambiance o death so proound that
sentient beings are driven to tears (or driven away) by it
The rote as written in the Last Riddle requires the casterto sing or otherwise create music in order to achieve thiseect, and the grimoire even includes lyrics (in Greek
granted) that speak o love lost, light extinguished and
the inevitability o death.
Practice: Perecting
Action: Instant and contested; target rolls Composure
+ Gnosis reexively
Duration: ConcentrationAspect: Covert
Cost: None
Casting this rote as described in the grimoire requires that
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end and each party becomes unable to regain Willpowerby any method while the other lives. This is, o course, a
airly easy situation to remedy…
Orpheus’ Last Riddle Rote
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Fate
gains 5 points o Arcane Experience. This experience canbe applied toward Gnosis, as usual, or toward the Fate
Death or Time Arcana.
And, o course, a mage reading the Last Riddle mightlearn any o the rotes inscribed therein.
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Eternal Object (Time •••• + Matter •) This spell allows the mage to “reeze” an object in time,
preserving it in its current state. Despite the name, though,
the spell isn’t necessarily permanent. Students o the LastRiddle eel that this spell was a precursor to whatevermagic currently enchants the grimoire, since that magic
is considerably more potent than this spell.
Practice: Patterning
Action: Extended
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)Aspect: Covert
Cost: Special (see below)
This spell unctions on any single object up to Size 10.While this spell does unction on machines, it renders
them inoperable or the duration o the spell. (See below.)
The target number o successes is equal to twice the Size
o the object, and the mage must expend Mana equal to
the object’s Structure.When the ritual is complete, the object remains in its
current state or 1 scene. It cannot be altered, damaged,deaced or repaired, though it can be moved. A gun im-
ResearchingOrpheus’ Last Riddle
Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended – 15 successes
Research Time: 6 hours; 2 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Greek Mythology, Awakened History, Death & Afterlife, Tragic
RomancesPossible Modiers: Language Merit:
Greek (+1)
Successes Information
0-3 Nothing.
4-8 A dissertation on the Orpheusmyth as a metaphor for true
love and why it doesn’t exist, written by an extremely nihilisticphilosophy doctoral candidate. The dissertation mentions
Dangers Perhaps the greatest “danger” o Orpheus’ Last Riddle is
that it is extremely dicult to read. The many contributors
have taken up almost every available bit o space over the
years, using numbers and symbols to redirect readers to their
particular “threads” o conversation. Trying to ollowing
their players succeed on a Wits + Occult roll. The book’s
song is aint, and so ambient noise almost always imposes
heavy penalties to this roll. A dramatic ailure on the roll
does not indicate any special eect; the character merelydoes not hear the song. Characters who do hear the book’s
song are at a loss to explain it.
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particular threads o conversation. Trying to ollowing
these threads and make sense out o them, all while readingthe text o the grimoire itsel, is a nightmare.
In order to read and understand the Last Riddle, a reader’splayer needs to accumulate 20 successes on an extended
Intelligence + Academics roll. Each roll requires two hours
o work. I the character reads ancient Greek, this roll re-
ceives a +3 modier. If the character reads Latin, the rollreceives a +2. (These modiers are cumulative.)
Reading and parsing the commentary, however, is much
more difcult. This requires an extended Intelligence +
Investigation roll. Each roll requires 4 hours o work, and 40successes are necessary to gure out the whole book. (A Sto-
ryteller might decide a given “thread” — one contributor’s
notes — constitutes a smaller number o successes, allowing
a character to decipher a portion o the book relevant toan immediate concern without it taking months.)
Another potential danger o the Last Riddle, though,
is that it seems to attract ghosts. The book emits a low,haunting melody at all times, audible to ghosts and anyone
with active Grim Sight. While the book doesn’t empower
ghosts, it oten intrigues them. This isn’t always a problem,
Destroying the Last Riddle Orpheus’ Last Riddle has a powerul enchantment upon it,
similar to the Eternal Object spell (see above), but much more
potent. The book cannot be destroyed by normal means. It
does not age or decay with time. I submerged in water, itremains dry. I cast into a re, it does not burn. The book’s
pages accept ink, but only i the writing doesn’t cover up
existing writing. Some mages have even postulated that
when the current pages are lled, new ones will appear.That isn’t to say that the Last Riddle is indestructible.
Below are three potential methods or destroying the book,
should a cabal nd it necessary to do so:
• Solve the riddle: I a mage ever solves the riddle,
conquering death and learning the true disposition o
souls (without dying himsel), the book crumbles to noth-
ing. This is, o course, an ambitious undertaking, and nota little hubristic.
• Break the contract: Orpheus orged an agreementwith the pages and ink o the Riddle — they were madeeternal in exchange or the songs he sang or them so many
years ago I a mage could nd a way to break that bargain
The Tablets of U'mat He named the consciousness U’mat, which meant mul-
titudinous in his tongue. U’mat spoke to Kiabzu in the
tongue o beast, the slither o serpent and the rustle o vines
Kiabzu ollowed the voice o U’mat to the our Holy Places
The Tablets o U’mat is an ancient grimoire that grants
its owner easy access to the Anima Mundi. For those with
the capability to decipher the script engraved thereon, theTablets is also a guide to rotes ound in places o power
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Kiabzu ollowed the voice o U mat to the our Holy Places
and learned the secrets contained therein. In each o theour Holy Places, the High Priest scribed the secrets he
had learned into living granite, which yielded
to his hand without need or hammer or chiselWhen Kiabzu had scribed the last o his gleaned
wisdom, U’mat instructed him to return to his
people and share his knowledge with them. In
that instant he awoke and ound The Tablets o
U’mat scattered around him.
Ater recovering rom his ordeal, Kiabzu
gathered The Tablets o U’mat and showed itto his people. He called or them to ollow the
teachings o U’mat and promised to lead them
into their new god’s very presence. Some o
the people were moved by the power theyelt within the Tablets and heeded
the words o the High Priest
These so-called Favored Onesset to learning the path to theways o the Multitudinous and
sought visions o the our
Tablets is also a guide to rotes ound in places o power
in the Dreaming Earth. Each o the our rotes outlinedin the Tablets can be learned only by
visiting one o the locations described
therein. These rotes are identiedas the wisdom o U’mat, the name
given by an ancient religion to the
consciousness that seethes under the
surace o the Dreaming Earth. Withany knowledge comes a price and the
price paid by those who descend into
the Dreamtime is one o pain and
terror. Those who attempt to wrestthe power o the rotes rom the
Dreaming Earth risk opening
a portal into the Dream-
ing Earth that allowsits ever-hungering
inhabitants accessto the realms o
fesh.
The Table ts o
into being bearing the words o the old. Again and againthey smashed the Tablets, thereby increasing the words o
U’mat. Finally, the priests o lesser gods told the soldiers
to gather the Tablets.
“I we cannot destroy these abominations, we will bury
them rom sight. Let the name U’mat and the blasphemies
contained on these rocky slabs be hidden rom the eyes o
U’mat in Darkness Filled with the terrible knowledge o the looming ate o
U’mat’s Favored Ones, Kiabzu had sent a third o the cultmembers to hide in the desert. From their hiding places
they wailed and gnashed their teeth as they watched their
loved ones killed, their home destroyed. When the army
l d b th i t l d l t th F d O i
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contained on these rocky slabs be hidden rom the eyes o
man or all time.”So they buried the Tablets deep in a pit and covered it
with the bodies o the Favored Ones and the rubble o the
temple. The soldiers were orced to swear terrible oaths thatthey would never reveal this hiding place. So it was that
the words and wisdom o U’mat were covered in darkness.
But U’mat is patient.
led by the priests o lesser gods let, the Favored Ones inhiding marked well the placed the Tablets had been hid-
den. Then they scattered to the winds to settle new lands
and multiply.
In this they ollowed the words o the High Priest when
he said to them, “Go rom this place with the words o
U’mat in your hearts. Mark you well the resting places o
07/13/07 The museum received an anonymous shipment today consisting of a large wooden crate. There was no return address on the label and the shipping company had no record of where the crate was shipped from. We scanned the crate for signs of explosives or biological agents and, upon finding neither, opened it. Inside were 10 stone tablets, each measuring 1’ x 1’. I didn’t immediately recognize the writing on the tablets, but it reminds me strongly of Sumerian cuneiform.
07/14/07
We have begun work on translating the tablets. My initial impression was correct. The writing on the tablets is a derivative of Sumerian cuneiform. The word U’mat appears with high frequency on the tablets, as well as the words Kiabzu and Favored Ones. Perhaps the tablets are the remnants of some long vanished religion?
07/18/07
the Tablets o U’mat, but do not seek to rescue them! Divideyour numbers and travel to new lands. Recite to each other
the wisdom o U’mat. You will know the day to return has
come when U’mat is lited rom the darkness.”
The Favored Ones did as instructed and, or a time, kept
the words o U’mat alive by speaking them to each other.
As more time passed and the Favored Ones prospered, they
Researching The Tablets of U’mat
Capping Skill: Academics
Action: Extended — 15 successes
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p p p , y
began to orget to speak the words until, eventually, thename U’mat was remembered by only a ew. Still U’mat
waited.
The Darkness Lifted In 1920 a British archaeological team traveling through
southern Turkistan heard rumors rom a local source about
an ancient set o ruins nearby in the desert that had never
been excavated. Although the team was intrigued, planswere already in place or work at a dierent site. The inor-
mation was noted down and nothing more was done until
1922 when Howard Carter’s discovery o Tutankhamun’stomb set the world ablaze with curiosity about the past. A
team was assembled to ascertain the veracity o the rumors
and in early 1923 it began its initial digs.
From the outset, the camp suered a number o calamitiesthat set the local workers to whispering about the place
being cursed. The problems at the site ranged rom simplemisunderstanding about the location o the dig, which re-
sulted in a week-long delay, to several cases o men walkingin their sleep, one o whom died when he ell down a shat.
Research Time: 4 hours; 1 hour
Appropriate Libraries: Nazi OccultPractices, Academics, Archaeology,
Astral Projection
Possible Modiers: Language Merit •••• or higher (+1), Archaeology Academics Spe-cialty (+1), Contacts in British Museums (+2)
Successes Information
0-3 Nothing.
4-8 Declassied British World War IIera document of a set of stonetablets recovered from the vaults of Nazi Germany.Document records measure-ments of the tablets.
9-12 Mention of the name U’matin an old archaeologicalresearch journal published in
British lodged a ormal complaint with local authoritiesthen returned to England to study the etchings they had
made o the tablets beore their thet.
The Favored Ones Unknown to the archaeologists, their camp had been
inltrated and spied upon by descendants o the Favored
o power by the worshippers o U’mat. Each tablet must bestudied individually, requiring 10 successes on an extended
Research action (see p. 40 o World o Darkness) to ully
translate. The Tablets relates the story o the worshippers
o U’mat (called Favored Ones), directs the reader to thelocations o their Holy Places and provides instruction on
the actions required to gain the wisdom rom each place.
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inltrated and spied upon by descendants o the Favored
Ones who had remained true to the words o U’mat. Whenthey saw the words o their god lited rom the darkness they
knew the time had come to reclaim their heritage.
By this time the numbers o the Favored Ones haddwindled to only a ew amilies that kept in contact with
each other, orming a secret society dedicated to the recovery
o theTablets. When word came to them that archaeologists
were digging in the ruins o their lost temple, the Favored
Ones watched with mounting excitement as the lore thathad been passed by word o mouth over the centuries was
proven to be true. When, at last, all the tablets had been
removed rom the ground, they attacked the camp andtook the set or themselves.
Over the ollowing decade the Favored Ones worked at
translating the words written on the stone slabs at their
motherhouse in western Poland. The language proved to bea variation o Sumerian cuneiorm and the Favored Ones
had just begun to experiment with resurrecting the ancientorms o worship so described when Poland was invaded by
Nazi Germany. Located as they were in western Poland,the motherhouse was attacked by the Germans beore
The grimoire itsel includes only partial explanations onhow to learn and cast the rotes listed below. Only by visit-ing the Dreaming Earth can a mage gain the knowledge
necessary to claim the power o U’mat.
Places of Power Without some idea o a destination it is literally possible
to travel the Dreaming Earth orever. In this place o nature
ascendant, the works o humans are humbled; vine, toothand blood rule all. Without the directions provided by the
Tablets, nding the Holy Places o U’mat would be next
to impossible. Travel to the places o power is also made
easier by the nature o the Tablets to draw the reader tothem. (See Dangers, below.) It is possible to nd the rst
o the Holy Places by means o normal astral travel, but a
traveler might waste days doing so.
The Source The rst o the places o power is called the Source by
Kiabzu. The Source is the epitome o all earthly rivers andit lies on the border o the Dreaming Earth Kiabzu traveled
Paths of Power (Prime ••) This rote allows the mage to see ley lines and to sense
the direction o the nearest.
Practice: Knowing
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Scent of Nature (Life •••) This spell alters the chemical composition o the mage’
scent. To predators, the mage will smell like a stronger
hunter and to prey the caster will smell non-threateninglike a member o its species.
Practice: Weaving
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Aspect: CovertCost: None
With a single success on the casting roll the character seesley lines as streams o bright greenish-blue power fowing
through the earth. I no ley line is within the immediate
line o sight o the mage, he can sense the direction o the
nearest as a refexive action.
Tablets o U’mat Rote
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Prime
Vale of Harmony Kiabzu ollowed the glowing path as commanded by
U’mat. As he traveled he was repeatedly attacked by theever-hungry creatures o the Dreaming Earth. Kiabzu fed
rom these attacks when he could, hid rom them when
he was able and ought when given no other option. At
last he made his way into a peaceul vale where he sat ona stone and tended to his many wounds.
As he rested, Kiabzu noticed the creatures in the vale
behaved in ways similar to his own during his travel to
Action: InstantDuration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: 1 Mana
With a single success on the casting roll the mage simply
becomes part o the background to natural creatures. The
mage’s scent changes depending upon what animal smellsit and discourages it rom attacking or feeing. Animals will
ght in sel-deense, but otherwise take no hostile actiontoward the caster.
Tablets o U’mat Rote
Dice Pool: Wits + Animal Ken + Life
The Verdant Grove The third Holy Place described in the Tablets is named
the Verdant Grove. The story describes how Kiabzu wan-
dered the Dreaming Earth, waiting or the chance to provehimsel to U’mat once more. By this time Kiabzu had spent
several days traveling the Anima Mundi and his earthly
body had begun to suer rom deprivation. Even in his
A h l K b ld l h h
Sustenance (Life ••+ Spirit ••) This spell allows the mage to sustain her physical body
with ood and drink consumed while in the Dreamtime.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Extended
Duration: Lasting
parts o the same mind can she truly understand how tocast the rote.
Multitudinous Form (Life •••••) This spell transorms the body o the mage into a swarm
o insects, all driven by the mind o the caster.
Practice: Making
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Aspect: VulgarCost: 1 Mana
The rote is cast on ood and drink gathered in theDreamtime and will aect enough material to provide the
caster with one meal. Too much time spent in the Anima
Mundi without consuming ood and drink will lead to
deprivation. (See p. 175 o World o Darkness.)
Tablets o U’mat Rote
Dice Pool: Resolve + Survival + the lowest spell poolo either Lie or Spirit
The Great Hive The last place o power visited by Kiabzu is named the
Great Hive. Ater he had eaten his ll at the Verdant Grove,
the voice o U’mat became a buzzing in his mind. Kiabzu
ollowed the sound until he came to a beehive that stood
higher than any tree he had ever seen. The High Priestwatched st-sized bees move in and out o the hive, each
acting in perect accord with the other, as though they
were all controlled by a single mind. Kiabzu knew this idea
b h h h d h
Practice: Making
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: 1 Mana
Like the Lie 5 spell “Greater Shapechanging” (see p. 192o Mage: The Awakening), the caster o this rote changes
orm without the possibility o becoming lost in his new
shape. While in the shape o the swarm, the mass o the
insects must stay within a 10-oot area o each other or thespell will unravel.
In combat situations, the swarm suers little damage
rom conventional weaponry. Against stabbing, shootingor bashing types o attacks, the swarm is considered to have
Armor 10 and any wounds suered (regardless o source)
are considered bashing. Only weapons that deal area dam-
age (grenades, explosives, re) have any chance o causing
signicant damage to the mage-swarm. Weapons o thearea-eect variety deal normal damage or their type. The
swarm has equal Health to that o the caster.
Oensively, attacks by the swarm ignore any mundane
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and his ollowers ater Kiabzu had made a bloody sacriceo himsel to the Dreaming Earth. Mages who study the
grimoire also make sacrices to gain the knowledge con-
tained in the Tablets, but U’mat views them as interlopers
nonetheless.
Each time the reader reaches one o the places o power,
U’mat curses him or his hubris. The curse marks the soul o
to slash the throat o its prey, crushing the windpipe andsevering the jugular.Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 9, Finesse 8, Resistance 7
Willpower: 14
Essence: 20 (20 max)
Initiative: 15
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the mage and draws the creatures o the Dreaming Earth tothe reader. When the mage returns to the material realm,
the creatures cling to the mage, drawing power rom their
Pattern to maniest in the fesh. The vagaries o time and
space that result rom such unusual maniestations meanthe creatures will rarely maniest in the reader’s immedi-
ate vicinity. The creatures are drawn to the soul that led
them to the material realm, but they are easily distracted
by meat.
Nature is red o tooth and claw and the creatures o theDreaming Earth are perpetually hungry. In the material
realm ood is abundant and easily had. Though the purposeo U’mat drives the creatures to hunt the mage who tres-
passed on holy ground, these are pure beings with no ear
o man or his devices. The trail o corpses let in the wake
o these creatures will lead directly to their target, whichmay result in other diculties or the mage involved.
Maniested creatures o the Dreaming Earth can berepresented using the rules or spirits ound on p. 317 o
Mage: The Awakening. The creatures should be the ide-alized orm o specic animals, most likely predators, no
Defense: 9Speed: 22
Size: 6
Corpus: 13
Numina: “Pulse o the Living World” (p. 181 o Mage:
The Awakening); “Honing the Form” (p. 186 o Mage:
The Awakening).
Dangers Without The nal danger that conronts mages who wish to
study The Tablets o U’mat is the group o Favored Ones.Robbed o the Tablets by the Germans in World War II,
the Favored Ones investigate any rumor o the grimoire.
Little is known about the Favored Ones, but circumstantial
evidence suggests the surviving amilies are rich and wellconnected. A mage in possession o the Tablets who comes
to the attention o the Favored Ones will receive polite o-
ers to buy the grimoire, which will be ollowed up by grislythreats and violence. The amilies will stop at nothing toacquire what they consider to be theirs by right.
It i k h th t th F d O
The Tome of Power decades later. Some mages assume this book eventually
repairs itsel and reappears; others believe certain types o
Paradox maniestations spontaneously produce it. No one
knows how many copies o the book there are in existence
The Tome o Power is a book containing a series o rotes
specically designed to destroy their targets. All are quite
powerul, and most are considerably more powerul than
they otherwise should be — they derive the ir power
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at any time, but it can’t be many.Many mages believe there is only one copy o The Tome
o Power in existence at a time. However, other magesworry that accurate copies o this grimoire
are as powerul and dangerous as the
original. I this theory is true, then
the problem with destroying thebook is simply that several corrupt
Abyssal mages have made complete
copies o the work. This theory has
gained some level o acceptance, butno one wishes to test it by becoming
corrupted by the Abyss and then
attempting to copy a work o which
no uncorrupted mage wishes tosee more copies. Mages who study
the history o this work are at least
pleased there are at most a handul
o copies. However, all have a darkand terrible history.
Because it can vanish and reap-
rom the dangerous and orbid-den practice o Abyssal magic.
(See Tome o Mysteries, pp.
181-4.)
The Tome o Power very
much looks the part; it is an
old book bound in perpetuallydusty and slightly aded black
leather that is as large as some
o the largest modern coee
table books and almost threeinches thick, with silver edges
on the pages. On the spine,
in tarnished silver letters,
the title reads The Tome o
Power. The book is printed
in archaic English o the
sort used in the 16th century.
Also, everything except theintroduction is written in a
series o increasingly complex
(Letter from Pale Garden to her superior in the Guardians of the Veil, May 17, 1882)
Once again, I just missed finding this cursed book. The solitary mage whose existence we suspected is now dead, along with his wife, mother, and two of his three children. He
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f f was clearly far gone in his corruption; he killed all but one of his relatives in an elaborate ritual. In his diary, he describes performing the ritual to release “ his glorious mistress”.
I found his seven-year-old daughter hiding in a bedroom closet. At the last minute, he spared her from the blade, cut her
free, and slit his own throat. I can detect no presence of theAbyss in this house, so clearly his last-minute act of humanity spoiled the ritual. However, when he rejected the Abyss, the book vanished. Despite the profound risks, when I find it, I am certainly going to destroy it. In any case, I wiped the daughter’s memory and burned the house to the ground, making certain that no traces of the horrors within remain. The Sleepers don’ t need to learn the truth, and the child does not need to remember it.
nately, one o the mages studying it began to have dreamsinspired by the Abyss and was unable to stop himsel rom
resolutely denying the Abyss. He awoke to nd the book
had vanished. It next suraced our years later, when it was
ound among the eects o a solitary and unaliated magewho killed hersel in remorse or killing her lover and child.
Since 1999 there have been many rumors o the book and
will be completely unable to decipher the later, and otenmore powerul rotes.
Researchers who have studied this book theorize that
the process o solving these puzzles helps align the rotewith the particular details o the mage’s psychology and
learning style. As a result, none o the rotes in this book
have pre-dened Attributes or Abilities. Instead, all are
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one report in 2003 by a mage who admitted to having itand then rejecting the Abyss.
The Guardians o the Veil who are attempting to keep
track o this book believe it is currently in the process o
moving rapidly rom one mage to another. They are careullywatching or any signs that it has ended up in the hands o a
mage who is simultaneously powerul enough to be danger-
ous and ully susceptible to the book’s temptations.
Contents This book contains a useul assortment o powerul
destructive spells that are all specically designed to harmobjects and beings in mundane reality. The rotes in this
grimoire are not subtle, but they are useul or a wide va-
riety o purposes. However, learning them is raught with
risk and using this book can permanently twist and tainta mage who studies it.
The most insidious aspect o The Tome o Power is that
there is nothing to distinguish tainted rom non-taintedrotes. Recognizing the danger that the Abyss beouls every
listed according to the type o Attribute (Power, Finesse, orResistance) and Ability (Mental, Physical, or Social) they
use. In all cases, the mage uses the Attribute or Ability in
which she is most skilled as the pair o traits to cast the rote
For example, the “Celestial Fire” rote is listed as Finesse +Mental, which means the mage learning the rote uses the
highest o her three Finesse Attributes (Dexterity, Wits or
Manipulation) and her highest Mental Ability. The only
limitation on these rotes is that this pair o traits is xed
when the mage learns a particular rote and does not changei the mage later raises any other Attribute or Ability in the
same category higher than the one used or the rote.
Spells in The Tome of Power The rotes appear in this book in the order in which
they are listed, and they must be learned in this order,since solving the puzzles and ciphers necessary to learn a
rote provides essential clues needed to solve the ollowingrote. The rst two rotes and the ourth rote are all perectly
normal, untainted rotes that merely use the mage’s best At-tribute and Ability combination within the three categories
However, using any tainted spell means the mage alsosuers negative consequences. An hour ater casting a
tainted spell, the mage experiences various negative physical
symptoms like nosebleeds, headaches or crushing depres-
sion that subtracts -1 rom all rolls or the next 12 hours.However, casting another tainted spell immediately cancels
this penalty, but only or the next hour. Also, any dam-
vanished when they awaken rom their dream or vision. Inaddition, a mage who has rejected the Abyss can no longer
use any o the tainted rotes he learned rom The Tome o
Power. However, he remembers enough o the rotes that
he can relearn normal versions o these rotes at hal cost.The mage suers this same result i he later renounces the
Abyss ater previously joining with it.
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age the mage takes or the next 12 hours is automaticallyresistant. (See “Resistant Damage,” Mage: The Awaken-ing, p. 124.) Finally, using Abyssal magic is addictive. For
1 week ater casting a tainted spell, the mage must make
a Resolve + Composure roll to resist adding Abyssal taint
to the rst spell o any sort she casts during a scene. Everytime during the week the mage ails this roll, her next roll
suers a cumulative -1 penalty. Spending 12 hours without
using any magic negates -1 worth o penalties.
Death Rotes:“Decay” (Resistance + Social, Mage: The Awakening,
p. 136, not tainted), “Destroy Object” (Resistance + Social,Mage: The Awakening, p. 139, not tainted), “Rotting
Flesh” (Power + Social, Mage: The Awakening, p. 144,
tainted).
Matter Rotes:
“Alter Integrity” (Resistance + Mental, Mage: The
Awakening, p. 198, not tainted), “Annihilate Matter”(Power + Mental, Mage: The Awakening, p. 201, tainted),“Annihilate Extraordinary Matter” (Resistance + Mental,
Mage: The Awakening, p. 203, tainted).
Although any mage who uses spells beouled by theAbyss may have dreams or visions o the Abyssal version
o their Watchtower, such things occur only ater extensive
use. However, any mage who learns and uses the tainted
rotes rom The Tome o Power and has access to this bookexperiences these visions no more than three days ater she
rst uses one o these spells. However, i the mage givesThe
Tome o Power away or disposes o it in some other ashion
that removes her ability to access it, the extra temptations
o the Abyss vanish.Even i the mage continues to use the tainted rotes or to
beoul other spells, he is no more likely to be tempted tojoin with the Abyss than any other mage who has dealings
with it. More importantly, once the mage has relinquished
the book, the Abyss no longer pursues him quite so actively.
I he again dreams o the Abyssal Watchtowers, and doesnot sign his name to them, even i he does not actively deny
them, the visions end and the mage’s ties with the Abyss
(including all ability to beoul spells or use the tainted rotes
he learned rom the grimoire) end.
Merely ceasing to use this book does nothing to prevent
Disposing of the Book Giving the book to someone else, throwing the book away,
or simply leaving it or someone else to nd are potentiallysae ways o reeing onesel rom the book’s infuence, as is
rejecting the Abyss. However, keeping others rom being
tempted by the book is considerably more dicult. The book
vanishes and reappears in a location where another mage is
l k l h h h
with magic is both exceptionally risky and utterly uselessAll magic, both Vulgar and Covert, used against the book
automatically generates 1 point o Paradox or every dot
o Gnosis the caster possesses. In addition, the magic also
aects some nearby target instead o the book. Magic isincapable o harming the book. A wave o Celestial Fire
may destroy the table the book is on, but the book remains
l l h d
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likely to happen upon it i the current owner renounces theAbyss. As a result, the owner cannot simply lock the book
up and reject the Abyss. No amount o magical protections
can keep the book rom vanishing — it disappears into theAbyss, and Supernal Magic has little power over this realm.
Alternately, keeping the book around while not rejecting
the Abyss leads to perpetual temptation, and given sucient
temptation many mages eventually succumb.
Several mages who understood this book cannot be saelykept have attempted to destroy it. Unortunately, this is a
notably dangerous course o action. Attacking the book
completely unharmed.Destroying the book by mundane means is dicult and
very risky, but possible. Despite being exceptionally tough
a determined character with an axe, chainsaw or welding
torch could eventually destroy this book. However, eachindividual attacking the book, regardless o whether or not
he is a mage, suers the eects o Paradox rom attacking
the book. Treat each point o damage done to the book
as 1 success on a Paradox roll (Mage: The Awakening, p
124). As the attack is not an actual spell, characters do nothave the option o either suering backlash or using any
method to mitigate this Paradox.
In addition, the Paradox generated by attacking the bookcan be especially damaging and harmul, since a local
maniestation o the Abyss is literally ghting back against
the attackers. I the attacker already suers a mild derange-
ment, the rst Bedlam produced by the book automaticallyincreases the severity o this derangement. I the attacker
either has no derangements or is already suering a severe
d h h i h d d d
a short time later, the leaders o this Order will not orderany Guardian to attempt to destroy this book.
The Guardians o the Veil are also deeply suspicious o
anyone in possession o this book, assuming (oten correctly)that the owner is corrupted by the Abyss and possibly in
league with either Abyssal beings or other Scelesti. Beore
making contact with the book’s latest owner, both the
G di h V il d h M i h h
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derangement, then the severity o the derangement dependsupon the character’s Gnosis instead o his number o dotsin any Arcanum. Sleepers suer only mild derangements.
The book most oten causes a phobia o or hysteria about
the book or avoidance o or ugue about the entire situation
surrounding the book.
The nature o any Anomalies produced by the book are
utterly random but are also universally destructive. The
magnitude o both Branding and Maniestation is entirely
random. Roll 1 die to determine the severity o the Brand-ing or Maniestation. A roll o 1-2 on this die results in a
Branding or Maniestation equal to that produced by the
Paradox rom a spell using 1 dot o an Arcanum. Similarly,a roll o 3-4 is equivalent to the Paradox rom a 2-dot spell,
a roll o 5-6 is equivalent to the Paradox rom a 3-dot spell,
a roll o 7-8 is equivalent to the Paradox rom a 4-dot spell,
and a roll o 9-10 is equivalent to the horrible Paradoxcaused by a 5-dot spell.
No matter how long it has been between attacks on
the book, each new attack is treated as having a numbero dots o Paradox equal to the total number o points o
Guardians o the Veil and the Mysterium watch the ownerand her close associates in an attempt to uncover any activi-
ties relating to the Scelesti. Meanwhile, the Scelesti may
learn o the book’s locations through their moles in both
organizations, and either attempt to recruit the owner orsteal the book.
Quite apart rom any risks inherent in this grimoire,
owning it attracts a great deal o attention and places theowner in no small amount o danger. O course, since
both the Mysterium and the Guardians o the Veil keepknowledge o this book secret rom all but their most
trusted members, most owners know nothing o this workand simply believe they have ound an unusually useul old
grimoire. In many cases, the Mysterium and the Guardians
o the Veil learn o the book’s current location when the
owner begins asking questions about an unusual grimoirethat matches the book’s description.
One nal danger surrounding The Tome o Power comes
with the continued eorts o Silent Onyx to keep track
o the book and to attempt to recruit anyone who studiesit. Although he still maintains an interest in destroying
Researching The Tome of Power Capping Ability: Occult
Action: Extended (16 successes)
Research Time: 4 hours; 2 hours
A i t Lib i O lt Th Ab
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Appropriate Libraries: Occult, The AbyssBonuses: Guardians of the Veil membership (+1), Left-Handed Legacy (+1)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-10 The Tome of Power contains extremely powerful Death, Matter and Prime spells, mostof which are destructive. The spells are in a difcult code, which is different for everyreader. The only way to learn the spell is to break the code. The book has a bad
reputation and is sought after by the Guardians of the Veil.11-15 All the rotes in The Tome of Power are unusually powerful, but the book is tainted by the
Abyss. The book is also ancient and very difcult to destroy. A few of the spells areperfectly safe and very useful, but most are inherently corrupt and casting them bothcorrupts the mage and draws the attention of the Abyss and its inhabitants.
16+ Renouncing the Abyss causes the book to vanish and the mage to become unable to useany of the book’s corrupted rotes. Continuing to use the book draws the continuedattention of the Abyss. The book cannot be harmed using magic and attempting to destroy
it via mundane means causes the Abyss to strike back against the attacker, as if shesuffered Paradox.
The True Soulto mark the thick, gilt-edged pages. The title is stamped ingold lettering on the ront cover and spine.
The True Soul is a trap: an Atlantean mage’s bid or immor-tality, encoded into a seductive Legacy. This daimonomicon
teaches readers how to alter their souls so that, over time,
they become avatars o the grimoire’s creator.
At t t d t b li th i d bl ithi
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History The lords o Atlantis called Tazanteotl the “Walker
Without End.” The Mastigos wasn’t the most inventive
sorcerer but he was amous or traveling the Realms
Invisible, chronicling strange dimensions no othermage, ancient or modern, could discover. He
was inspired by desperation, because his soul
contained a singular faw.
A mysterious spiritual faw rendered
him immune to lie-extending magic.Even ater mastering Death, Tazan-
teotl ailed to nd any cure orhis condition. Magic kept his
body strong, but he could
eel the threads that
bound it to his soul raywith every passing year.
So he looked or a secret
road that might take himto the Supernal Realms
to be exalted, perected
At rst, students believe the memoirs and parables withinare designed to teach through allegory. The initiate
thinks the sage Tazanteotl is either a ctional
role model or a benign, ancient
teacher. Exercises showher how to think
and act like the
dead archmage, but
she assumes the
imitation is meantto expand her own
Awakened powers. In
act, the book seducesher into believing hersel to
be Tazanteotl so that the old
Atlantean will live again and
again, reproduced in the souls o everyone who adopts his Legacy.
The truth creeps up on them slowly,
thought by thought. She dreams hisdreams, dresses in the deep red he loved
(From the Codex Genii of Potestas, Hierophant of Boston)
Followers of the True Soul: O the 13 Legacies recorded herein I nd the Followers o the rue Soul to be themost problematic rom a scholar’s point o view. Te adherent I interviewed said that the sect was devoted toan “Atlantean saint” but revealed little else. He was vague about the cult’s purpose, describing a rough theory that a mage’s personality — not his soul — must be made immortal, and that the sect teaches members how
to accomplish this It might be compared ith Buddhist doctrines about lie aer death but ith the opposite
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to accomplish this. It might be compared with Buddhist doctrines about lie aer death, but with the oppositegoal — to increase attachments to the mortal world, instead o making peace with them. My inormant madeew moral arguments and seemed to be unaware o the comparisons I’ve noted. Instead, he tried to appeal tomy sel interest and ear o death. Tereore, I can say little about the group except that it is devout, readily accepts new members but in my opinion, ofers little o substance to anyone seeking the higher Mysteries, where wisdom goes hand in hand with power.
Tazanteotl relinquished the spells that kept him youthul
seeming. A bent old man, he strode rom his tower withthe nished grimoire in hand, seeking out students or hisnew Legacy. This was not unusual; Atlantis had a thousand
cults, raternities and lodges crying or new adherents. He
stood out rom the crowd only in that he didn’t ask his
apprentices to live like slaves. It was enough that theylistened and practiced.
Three young mages answered the call and learned The
True Soul’s Legacy. Each attained the highest rank on
the day Tazanteotl died — and each became Tazanteotl.That is, each shared the old man’s memories and believed
themselves to be him. The doctrine o the fame, passing
Contents The True Soul is a daimonomicon: a special grimoire
that can teach Awakened readers a Legacy. The origina
Tazanteotl developed it to create copies o his personality
memories and soul. Whether the result is Tazanteotl ismetaphysically… tricky. The original convinced himsel
that whether or not the soul has some inviolate essence
his memories and personality were what really mattered
This philosophy creates problems in exchange or those it
solves, because it ollows that i experience is all that re-ally makes a person, orcibly altering someone’s attitudes
or memories is a kind o murder. Tazanteotl realized how
by saying, “I’ll swim to a new bend in the River o Agesand return. It will be a moment or me, but your bones
will be dust, your powers orgotten.” Tazanteotl chases the
creature into the chaotic plane some call the Hedge. (See
Changeling: The Lost.) He captures one o the demon’sslaves and learns it was once a man, but has no memory
o its past. Even its body is a thing built o Arcadian pacts.
Tazanteotl comes to the conclusion that even an immortall l l b bl
too capricious a place to preserve a mage’s consciousness.Their demons and gods shape souls like clay.
The Path Lastly, the grimoire reveals the secrets o the Legacy.
Tazanteotl doesn’t give it a name. He says only that by
studying his Chronicle, memorizing his writings and
perorming special meditations an adept can buttress her
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Tazanteotl comes to the conclusion that even an immortalsoul cannot ensure true eternal lie because it is possibleto destroy all its ties with the person it was. He decides to
explore other realms in search o immortality.
The Paths o the Sun and Moon: Tazanteotl journeysacross the world in the Atlantean Age, crossing between
matter and Shadow oten enough that readers aren’t sure
whether the modern Gauntlet even existed. This account
describes strange tribes, shapeshiters and the totems they
worship, describing the names, appearance and propertieso 48 spirits. This section ends when Tazanteotl discovers
the “Chasm o Light,” where the sun resides at nightall.
He discovers that the pit extends to the other side o theworld. The sun never truly ceases its course. Tazanteotl
learns nature is always in motion rom lie to death; it can
be slowed, but never stopped.
The Ocean o Dreams: Tazanteotl explores the Astral
Plane. Astral Realms details its domains in the modern
age, but this account includes places modern mages can’tidentiy. This section also describes a grand city o ghostswho live in an Astral domain by the grace o the pious
perorming special meditations, an adept can buttress herpersonality against unwanted change, even allowing it to
survive without a body ater death. The meditations are
complex visualizations, like mystic imago, that orce the
mage to imagine hersel as Tazanteotl in various scenarios.Most o these put a student in his shoes as he journeys
through the realms mentioned in the Chronicle, but a ew
dey attempts to dene them as symbolic orms o spiritual
growth. One o them tells the mage how to drink a glass o
water as Tazanteotl would. Another instructs her to carrya small stone in her hand and squeeze it whenever she’s
angry — another one o his aectations.
O course, these exercises serve no useul purpose at all
— at least not or the student. They subvert her personal-
ity so that as she progresses through the Legacy she slowly
sheds her ormer identity. Over time, the Legacy inectsevery thought and act. She uses Tazanteotl’s body language,
dresses in the red he preers and takes to wandering, just
as he did.
D
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hiking boots. Senior members dye their hair black. I they
have pale skin, they’ll get a tan to match Tazanteotl’s skin
tone Womenditch the specically eminine clothes in their
Followers have been known to imprison rogues, or more
rarely, ensorcel them to hold their tongues about the Legacy
(a dicult process given how the rst Attainment coners
I the mage also possesses the second rank o Death, hecan subtract his Death dots rom any magic that targets his
soul, such as Death 5 spells that might steal them.
Drawback: The mage’s Vice changes rom whatever itonce was to Pride. She also eels compelled to practice one
o the Legacy’s signature oblations (Tazanteotl’s personal
habits) daily, even i she isn’t anywhere near a Hallow. I
she ails to do so she loses a point o Mana (at 0 Manah h ) d h Sh h
Third Attainment: Soul of Tazanteotl Prerequisites: Gnosis 7, Death 4, Mind 4
The character becomes a complete psychic clone o
Tazanteotl. She retains her ormer memories, but also re-
members traveling through bizarre realms, gazing over the
impossible towers o the Awakened City and bargainingwith gods and demons in his quest or immortality.
Tazanteotl is obsessed with survival and has no patience
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she ails to do so she loses a point o Mana (at 0 Mana,this has no eect) or every day she misses. She has intense
dreams o living another lie, exploring strange places like
those written o within The True Soul.
Second Attainment:Return to the Diamond of Self
Prerequisites: Gnosis 5, Mind 3
The mage’s consciousness tries to reset itsel ater anymajor change. I the mage is subjected to a spell, super-
natural power or mundane condition that would imposea derangement, alter her memories, change her Virtue or
Vice or alter Mental or Social Attributes (Experience ex-
penditure is exempt rom this), she returns to her original
state at the end o the scene i her player succeeds at areexive Mind + Gnosis roll. If the cause is supernatural
in origin, she must score more successes than the power
used to create the condition.Wisdom loss is not aected by this Attainment, but
derangements caused by Wisdom loss can be avoided by
l h
Tazanteotl is obsessed with survival and has no patience
or anything else. He (whatever the mage’s ormer gender,he now considers himsel male) returns to searching or
physical immortality. I possible, he bargains with other
mages to restore his original sex and gaunt, Saturnine
appearance. Unortunately, the transormation inectsthe mage with the same inexplicable faw that prevented
the original Tazanteotl rom conquering age and death.
No orm o magic can extend his liespan. It can makehim appear youthul and keep him strong, but he will age
rapidly and die no later than the age o 80. Tazanteotlnever ound an alternate solution beore the Fall, so i a
supernatural power that might extend his lie exists it must
be exceedingly rare.
Tazanteotl is willing to sacrice his host’s ormer riends
without a second thought or even the slightest chance at
true immortality. He is the Walker Without End once again,
searching the world or lie-extending secrets. Sometimes,Tazanteotl seeks out Atlantean ruins only he remembers,
or stranger corners o the material realm, Shadow or Astral
R h h di d l
Temple or inormation on the Atlantean language.) Re-duce the character’s dots in Computer, Drive, Firearms and
Streetwise and use them to increase Occult and Survival,
up to the dot limits imposed by the character’s Gnosis
or until he runs out o dots to exchange. He also knowsmany things about the world as it was beore the Fall o
Atlantis. The Storyteller should use this to trigger stories
as Tazanteotl searches or eternal lie.T l l D h Mi d d S 1
emulate the doctrines Tazanteotl employed to write The True
Soul.According to these, the nature o the soul is ir relevant
when it comes to discussing identity. All that matters is
continuity o experience: knowledge fowing continuously
rom one moment to the next. It doesn’t matter whetherthere’s continuity inside a single soul or between a hundred
o them, jumping rom one to another. I a mage has Tazan
teotl’s memories, belies and the benets o his experienceshe is the archmage in every way that matters
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as Tazanteotl searches or eternal lie.Tazanteotl learns Death, Mind and Space rotes or 1
Experience point per rote dot, not 2. In most cases, he’s
simply rereshing his knowledge.
Reduced Wisdom: Remove a dot o Wisdom. Tazan-
teotl is a moral degenerate who twists the souls o others
to survive.
Is the mage truly Tazanteotl? It’s hard to know. Orthodoxmagical doctrine says no. Each mage has but a single soul,
distinct in nature, and though magic can damage, twistand at rare times improve it, simply changing it to resemble
another person’s soul doesn’t make any essential qualitytranser rom one to another.
Buddhist philosophers and modern neuroscientists have
both provided alternative explanations: perspectives that
teotl s memories, belies and the benets o his experienceshe is the archmage, in every way that matters.
Rejecting The True Soul Most Followers o The True Soul don’t know they’re be-
ing transormed into spiritual clones o their sage, but i
someone told a senior cultist the truth it’s likely he wouldn’t
care — he’d see that as a glorious ate. Few initiates object
to the slow changes that creep into their habits. Legaciesare designed to change a mage’s innermost being, so new
attitudes are nothing to worry about.
Once a mage joins the Followers o The True Soul it’s hardavoid the process that changes her into Tazanteotl. Legacy
initiation changes her soul in a subtle, pervasive ashion.
Tazanteotl and the Nature of Atlantis This grimoire’s description accepts the reality of Atlantis and implies it was a literal, prehistoric place— something not every mage storyteller wants to present as gospel truth. Compounding this situation is
Simple magic can’t undo the change. Even ater learningthe truth about the Legacy the mage can’t reject it with a
simple act o Will. It changes her instinctive perceptions
o the world, including magic. Her soul’s been structured
in such a way that she understands magic best when shelooks at it the way Tazanteotl would. Her rst, instinctive
reaction is to act as he would. This gets stronger and stronger
as she rises through the Attainments.Th i l t t id b i g T t tl i
Researching The True Soul Capping Skill: Occult
Action: Extended — 15 successes
Research Time: 6 hours; 2 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Atlantean Mythol-
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as she rises through the Attainments.The simplest way to avoid becoming Tazanteotl is
to avoid the Legacy’s Attainments. The sorcerer ends
her occult studies just short o their requirements. She
avoids learning Mind magic, or makes a conscious eortto avoid cultivating inner wisdom, truncating the devel-
opment o Gnosis. This is easier said than done. Legacy
members are Mastigos, and to them, the Mind Arcanum
is undamental magic. And no mage, regardless o Path,
easily turns her back on basic enlightenment. Gnosis isthe spiritual heart’s blood o Awakening: the instinct to
strive higher and perect one’s understanding — even the
road to Supernal Ascension. Finally, the idea that learningmagic would inherently create problems is something ew
mages are willing to admit. There are Abyssal tomes, spells
that call dark entities and so on, but the basic Mysteries
themselves? The very idea calls into question a mage’sright to exist. Consequently, sorcerers caught in the grip
o The True Soul aren’t necessarily willing to do what ittakes to save their souls.
Understandably, ew mages are willing to cripple their
Appropriate Libraries: Atlantean Mythology, Awakened Culture, Awakened Religion
Possible Modiers: Mastigos (+1)
Successes Information
0-3 Nothing.
4-8 The True Soul is the “bible”of an Awakened religious sect.
Its members want converts andare willing to give away rotesand Mana if you can make themthink you might join.
9-12 The True Soul teaches followersa Legacy that helps them resistmagical coercion with methodsinitiates believe will help their
personalities survive deathitself. Followers of The True Soul worship the memory of anAtlantean archmage They
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