by Bjørn T. Bøe (Mage: The Ascension | Paradigm Shift | Columns)
Belief, Power and Paradox
Mage offers a panorama of possibilities, endeavors and fantasies. The belief that shapes reality also controls and limits it. Both psychoanalysis and physicists of various degrees offer floods of theoretical possibilities as to what should be determined and defined while regarding and discussing " what is real". Nevertheless, there is no set explanation that can recount for everything needed to know in order to fully understand reality, nor in Mage, where it is essential to master the Arts, so to speak, to manipulate reality itself. Mages inhabit the essence of change, the nature of command and the understanding of the bona fide. What is tangible in regards to the universe’s structure and substance? Is there a number that can define reality like the Iteration X believes? Like the motion picture "p” blatantly speculated in? Needless to say, there are not two mages in the world who share the same understanding of how the world is made up. Belief is a currency, and mages are stinking rich. Think of magic as the possibility to buy everything you want. You wield your credit card to fill in the gaps around you, to correct the flaws in your existence as defined by yourself. You see the universe for what it is, and this understanding ¾ your understanding ¾ makes it real. To you.
It may not be real to everyone, since this understanding is unique and individual in nature, varying from mage to mage. It’s like taste. No one has the same taste. The same way Rachel Black of the Black Cabal may enjoy chicken wings, her partner, Michael Black, may not enjoy it at all. In fact, he may be repulsed by the sheer thought of chicken. In much the same way magic is the truth for one person, yet possibly complete and utter impossibility to another. This is creates Paradox, because of, to put it bluntly, the fact that what is real to some is false to others. It is "does not compute." Two different understandings that contradict each other, one the more powerful, will win. Which one depends on if the will and belief of the mage is stronger than the consensus, as described in Part One. This will also be further examined below. Mages are generally more "open-minded" than Sleepers, though. Mages believe in magic, and most understand the notion of different paradigms.
That is what arete is all about, really. It’s primarily about understanding the workings of the universe; seeing things for what they really are, and being able to comprehend how the universe is "composed". Even though mages’ individual belief in this vary, and they all see things differently there is often a shared understanding. It’s an ability to reason what is happening in one’s own definitions, terms, and justifications. However, not always. If the paradigms contradict each other too radically, as those of a dreadfully stereotypical Verbena blood mage, who cuts herself with a knife to work her magic, and Bob the Technocrat, who has built a device to do exactly the same effect, though on different principles. This is an incongruity in itself. The two lack understanding of the other’s workings, and disbelieve in them. This can cause Paradox, but again, it may not. It heavily depends on the surrounding consensual paradigm. What determines this, then? That is one of the hardest definitions there is in relation to Mage. What determines the consensual paradigm of a location? Generally speaking, ST discretion and straightforward reasoning is the way to go. The Black Forest of Germany being a mythical and "magical" place. It would most definitely support a Traditional, or Mystical, paradigm. NASA or Pentagon, being both rigid, bureaucratic and modern, would certainly support a Technologic paradigm for sure. As stated, this boils down to discretion and reasoning.
Paradox can occur for more reasons than being vulgar. As stated in Part One, Paradox will also affect Coincidental magic should changes in the reality pattern be made (i.e. the mage tries to adjust the existing reality into a new one, speaking broadly) too fast for this to not cause notice. Think of it as sliding into water, as opposed to barge in. If done with ease and care, things may pass unnoticed. If a lot of noise and fuzz is caused, someone, something, is bound to notice. When Paradox is caused, it is really only reality that "heals itself again, though it often causes infections in the wound." Imagine that you have a sore on your finger. It goes all funny, itchy and agonizing if you don’t leave it alone. That’s how Paradox is, too.
All right, this demands further in-depth explanation: Say you hurt your arm, leaving an open wound. This wound will heal, you do know that, and it pretty soon leaves a scab on top. It doesn’t look very nice, and it also itches. Well, imagine now Sarah the Verbena mage being followed by two NWO operatives, who do not intend to invite her to the Prom, so to speak. She runs into an alley, only to find it a one-way street. At the end is a tall wall. The mage turns quickly, to see the operatives just rounding the corner, and take aim with their weapons. As soundless rounds are fired at Sarah, and she makes an executive, yet vulgar, decision, in empowering herself to jump over the wall. She has no time to work her magic, there is no time to (being stereotypical here) carve the Rune of Flight onto her thighs to empower them, so she takes a chance, hoping that she might manage without, and leaps. Phil the Hobo, lying among the rubble along the wall, sees a woman leap 30 feet into the air and over the wall. Now, he has seen some weird shit, but dang! Never anything like that before! He looks at the bottle in his hand, but he hasn’t drunk that much! Operatives Lynch and Simpson arrive too late, and sees a Reality Deviant who certainly has no boosted endoskeleton (surely, the bioscanner would have picked it up), leap over a 30 foot wall. "Whoa, how’d she do that!" "Damn Reality Deviant bitch!" Now, Sarah actually did manage to pull through the effect, yet she did something vulgar (come on, how many women jump over 30 feet walls in a week?), she had witnesses, and she did it in a place where the mystical paradigm would be considered weak (i.e. in a city). This calls for reality’s intervention! The storyteller, Jason, determined the difficulty to be 8 (Sarah used Forces to empower herself, her forces rating is 3, difficulty for Vulgar with Witnesses is highest sphere used rating+5, hence 8). Due to the circumstances, and because she did not have time to employ her foci, Jason decides that successes required will be 3; Difficult Feat. In terms, Sarah, having an Arete score of 3, needs to roll all successes on this roll to pull it off, difficulty meaning she needed to roll 8 or more on all three die, something she actually did. June rejoices as the Men in Black missed their opportunity to splatter her character, Sarah, against the wall. She lands heavily on the other side, and takes off. Now to the fun stuff: Vulgar with Witnesses invokes one automatic point of Paradox, plus two per die rolled, if player botches. She didn’t, so she only gets the one point. However, Sarah’s Paradox has been building up, so Jason decides that it is time to let her pay for it (and he laughs evilly, as Storytellers always do). He has waited for this, and has a neat Paradox flaw for Sarah; she notices how her legs change as she run, taking the form of gazelle’s legs instead of human! (appropriately suited for her anatomy, of course, hehehe). This causes a few problems; it can be hidden with clothing, yet her legs will look funny, for the duration of the flaw (which can vary). She just cut her arm. If she uses magic while the flaw is still present, especially magic related to jumping (being a kind ST, Jason may decide to cut her some slack), it won’t really be favorable if she wants to rid herself of the flaw. Akin to scratching it. See? Reality detected an infection, and sent its variety of blood cells to patch it up, leaving a funny looking scab for a while. A very blatant way of explaining it, but it should hopefully be easy enough to understand. Oh, and did we mention that Paradox Flaws cannot be removed with magic? Only with normal waiting and celibacy from magic.
Paradox often manifests as Paradox Spirits, weird and often inexplicable ephemeral beings on the Umbra. They flock to anomalies in the Tellurian and are applied as Paradox Flaws. They tend to be personifications of Paradox that deal with the Willworker on a more personal level than just gazelle’s legs or flaming eyes. They are quite often "ghosts of the past", lovers or dreams lost, projections of the mage’s inner fears, and so on. Here the ST should have a field day at designing and utilizing personal Paradox Spirits; in truth, they are nearly as fun running as Seekings are, if not more so. Paradox and Paradox Spirits are described in greater detail in Book of Madness (ISBN 1-56504-137-2), chapter written by Sam Inabinet.
The principal idea for a Storyteller to implement Paradox in her chronicle lies not in understanding it, though, it lies in its usage. While the nature, origin and true motivation behind Paradox remains mostly unanswered even to the most scholarly Hermetic master, it still pertains its position as the Universes way of getting even. Ideally, Paradox can be used to limit characters’ over-use of magic, interesting chronicle ideas, and even as a safe-guard against dangerous foes immersed in hubris (power-maddening rush; the mage «realizes» that she is master of all, and holds the world at her command, so to speak. Needless to say, hubris is the bane of many a pretentious Master), and much, much more. If the Storyteller has as much imagination as is expected of her, finding new uses for Paradox should not be a problem! Paradox, the players’ greatest peeve and the characters’ greatest fear. Use it wisely; the universe’s fate is in your hands!
Fit the crime!!!
All right, then comes the hard part. How to actually set it into play. So your player committed the «sin» that is Vulgar Magic (as several well-known characters would say, "What, there is something wrong with Vulgar Magic now?!" How do you punish her? The Book of Madness offers several examples and guidelines to do this. But is it enough? After all, you will most likely need a different punishment each time (and believe me there will be many..). A great Paradox flaw is Hobgoblins (see Book of Madness), as these are recyclable. You think you have finally lost it/them, and back they come. The best guideline that can be given is be reflective. What would be appropriate for the circumstances? As the example with Sarah proves, Paradox-flaws are often vulgar in outlook, but they do not give additional paradoxes. Hence, you can have a lot of fun designing your flaws. Has the character attempted to use Mind-magic to lie his way in somewhere he is unwanted, and botches, hence earning Paradox? Great! How is a long nose à la Pinocchio? Especially if the maneuver has been tried/failed time and again... (in which case the universe will make very sure that the Mage knows that what she did was, um, undesirable...). If the Mage earns it, punish harder. However, make sure that the punishment is not so harsh that the mage lays off magic permanently. After all, that would destroy the whole purpose of Mage! The point is, the Mage should learn that there are more than one way to skin a cat. And magic will never be more than a tool; the power lies in you. And with power comes responsibility. Callousness is rewarded by punishment. If used wisely it will grant you the Universe. If used carelessly, it will send your battered soul to Hell. Did Gandalf, despite being one of the most powerful mages in Middle-Earth ever go around ripping people apart with magic? Hell no! He relied on his wits and not on his powers. Instead of smiting every single goblin in the hall, he out-cunned them instead. Display of powers will, certainly, grant respect, but also enemies. People, and especially mages, don’t like potential rivals. So the sword of being flashy has two very sharp edges; one that is Paradox, one that is enemies. Relying on wits is far safer, and hiding one’s tricks as Coincidental will prevent more than just Paradox.
Goals - or: Ascension-what?!
All right, you want to know what’s up with this Ascension-stuff, eh? Most people have heard of Nirvana. No, not the garage band from Seattle, nor the sci-fi movie with Christopher Lambert, but the belief that the human soul will, at the end of the karmic wheel (i.e. when the soul has earned the right through living a righteous/pious/just life, thus being granted a grander existence in the next life, working towards final and total spiritual fulfillment. This is Nirvana, and being made one so to speak, with Creation. Divinity. Fullness. Infinity. Completion. You get the idea. At any rate, that is basically what Ascension is. The Mage attains complete and utter understanding of the Universe. In game terms, Arete 10. In essence divine enlightenment, the Mage becomes one with all; divinity in a lunch box. However, no one really knows if that is what Ascension is. How can one know? As everything else in Mage, firm belief in a matter is enough. It is doubtful that your players will achieve Ascension unless your chronicle has it as a goal. Many contemporary mages, like the now presumed deceased Porthos Fitz-Empress, are many hundred years old, and have still not achieved Ascension. Ultimately, Ascension is the goal every Mage has, knowingly or unknowingly; that road to true power, which must be said to be what being Awakened is all about. The Ascension War, a term that in Mage 2nd Edition is the penultimate theme of the game, has its roots in how the Nine Traditions and the Technocracy battle against each others united paradigms (the Tradition’s paradigm is that of mysticism and spiritual and inner enlightenment, in other words a dynamic paradigm. The Technocracy favors order, reason, technological advancement and a static paradigm. Both factions strive towards an ultimate Ascension, both on a personal scale, and one encompassing all of humanity. Both sides labels the other as terrorists, deviants, power-mad elitists, et al… Though the underlying goal that both strive towards is saving humanity, and mass-Ascension, elevating all of it to this mystical Nirvana. For more information on truly enlightened and powerful magi, see Masters of the Art. For information on the schisms of the Ascension War, see Mage: Sorcerer’s Crusade (ISBN 1-56504-489-4).
This concludes the second part of this introduction to Mage: The Ascension, 2nd Edition (NOT Mage Revised). The next part will detail the Traditions and Conventions that make out the Ascension War, as well as the enigmatic Marauders and infernal Nephandi. See also Children of a Spiteful God, last month’s feature Paradigm Shift article by The Lighthouse Keeper, regarding Nephandi.
