Okay, so, “the Fallen World” won by a landslide.
As most of you have noticed, the Chronicle Books are all named after the story catalyst in their respective games. Not necessarily the antagonist, but the thing that upsets the apple cart, disrupts the lives of the characters and causes a Story. The Strix throw the All Night Society off kilter and into chaos, the Idigam are an Outside Context problem the tribes aren’t properly equipped to fight. The God-Machine sends angels to do its inscrutable bidding, no matter who tries to get in its way.
When this book was not-exactly announced, but we’d made it known that Werewolf and Mage had both had proposals, the old forum saw a lot of speculation as to what the Chronicle Book would be. The Exarch Chronicle. The Seer Chronicle. The Lower Depths Chronicle. The Tremere Chronicle. The Bound Chronicle.
From the day I proposed it two years ago, it’s always been The Fallen World Chronicle. Here’s why.
We imagine that the world we can touch and see is real – more real than pure concepts. The abstract only exists to define the concrete.
It’s a Lie.
Everything in the universe is loaded with meaning, abstract properties, and magical symbolism, which modern metaphysics calls Universals and Plato called Forms, but which Mage just calls ‘symbols’. Two cats share the symbol of “cat”, the symbol of “animal”, the symbol of “furred” and so on. One might be “black” and another “white”. Both might be “male”. That’s a physical, real creature with just a few of its’ symbols. In the World of Darkness, some symbols are less well recognized – cats “see the unseen”.
Plato talked about concrete phenomena being impure reflections of the Forms they embodied. Modern mathematicians work with imaginary numbers, and concede that while you can recognize something as triangular, and even conceive of a triangle, nothing in the physical world is a perfect triangle – there’s always a tiny flaw if you look closely enough. Human beings are all “human”, but everyone’s different; no one person embodies the complete idea of “human.”
Plato, riffing on how smart he was, led his students on an extended metaphor about people chained up in a cave mistaking the shadows cast on a wall for reality, and how one might break free, interact with the objects casting those shadows, and maybe even take a trip outside to look at the sun before returning back, trying to educate his fellows and being seen as a madman. He was not-very-subtly pointing out that philosophers were much smarter than everyone else, and if people react badly to their wisdom it’s just because they’re still consumed by regard for the world of the senses. He didn’t mean it literally – although he thought that the realm of pure ideas was more “real” than the physical, you can’t see symbols.
Mages can. They call them “The Supernal World,” and the concrete universe around them “Fallen.” They exist in a liminal state, aware that the World of Darkness is a corrupted image cast by the Supernal’s near-infinite layers of magical symbolism and occult meaning, warped by the Abyss into a Lie. They only have to concentrate to see the Supernal World – every symbol relating to their Awakened Path revealed in the surroundings. If they concentrate their magical awareness even further, the world seems on the brink of turning into a Supernal Realm – Obrimos see the energy barely contained within everything, Acanthus see Time and the push/pull of Destiny – and even glimpse the inhabitants of the Supernal out of the corners of their eyes. Despite their Gnosis, however, mages are trapped in the Fallen Word. They can look at the Supernal, but not touch, and the mind-blowing vistas of Supernal glory some mages Awaken to remain frustratingly out of reach. They can see how the symbols of the Supernal inform the Fallen World, but they can’t become those symbols themselves, and experience the universe as pure magic. Not without Ascending.
Trapped halfway between Supernal transcendence and comforting, ignorant, Sleep, mages often feel like their lives are journeys – they can’t go back, so they must go forward. They call the symbols they have affinity with their “Paths”, and describe the Mysteries with imagery of labyrinths and prisons. By meditating on imaginary journeys, mages can shut the physical World of Darkness out and shift their consciousness inward, exploring Astral landscapes made of the human soul. Even the Astral Realms are Fallen, though – the Supernal remains past the limits of astral exploration.
One hard rule of magic: it can’t be fully learned without being experienced. Magic leaves the practitioner transformed, and the journey of encountering the mysterious and exploring it is as important to a mage’s development as whatever rush they feel at the end of the trail when something’s been pinned down and understood. Old, European magical societies started calling what a mage experiences when chasing magic a “Mystery Play” – a story with a symbolic moral at the end. Every Mystery solved is a miniature reminder of the Awakening, when the mage first saw through the Lie.
And the World of Darkness is teeming with Mysteries.
Mages can’t shut their Gnosis off. Once your soul is opened to the insights of a Path, it’s always there. Every supernatural event, from the least ghost using its Influences to the greatest cosmic Mysteries, stands out to a mage without trying. They feel an itch, or a faint aura, or a sense of someone walking over their grave.
Constantly.
Other supernatural inhabitants of the World of Darkness can pretend that the world’s still “normal” despite their now being a vampire, or Changing. Mages know that the supernatural is nearly omnipresent. Even if they try to live a normal life, they’d soon be provoked by their own sense for the uncanny.
A rare minority can’t take it. They become Banishers. Most are made of sterner stuff – if they didn’t have a need to know they wouldn’t have Awakened in the first place. Their Paths call them to face the unknown, to understand it, and grow closer to the Supernal. With increasing insight, their powers grow, allowing them to reach for more difficult Mysteries, despite the very real risks.
A typical Vampire story includes feeding, and asks what you’ll do to make it to tomorrow.
A typical Werewolf story involves hunting a threat to the Pack’s territory.
A typical Mage story starts with the characters sensing something. Everything else – the obsession, the hubris, the conflict between rival Orders, the danger of whatever they’re investigating – builds on that. A mage, using her magic to follow a Mystery, risking her sanity and the safety of others in exchange for power.
Mage isn’t about the Exarchs, the Oracles, Atlantis, or even the Supernal World. Mages have one true obstacle in the way of their ambitions, and it’s the way magic is hidden in the world. The way they’re forced to hunt for power rather than simply grasping it. The way the world isn’t the Supernal Realms, but a material, Shadow, Astral, and Underworld that’s vast, complicated, infuriating, and the only world they’ll ever inhabit bar Ascension. A world they explore and encounter even as they try to find a way out. The common element linking every Mystery, catalyst to Awakening stories.
The Fallen World.
Next Week, let’s look at one of two topics that follow on from this: Mage Sight, or The Lie?
Comments
135 responses to “Falling Down”
Oh my goodness, that was awesome.
I wanna hear about Mage Sight next.
Personally, I’d like a bit of info on “Mage Sight”.
This is neat. Lets expand on it a little, my vote’s for Mage Sight.
Dear Dave, that was Awesome! Now, channel that awesomeness again and walk me thru how to convey that feeling to a table full of guies that see Mage more as a low powered supers game. Sadly, I think I am just trying to play Mage with the wrong group of friends. Sadly my players think “kill them and take their stuff” is pretty much the golden rule for rpgs, and while I am sure I can do that with Mage it seems kinda like putting lipstick on a pig…
Crazy thought, would you guies consider using the starter adventure for Fallen World as kind of a bridge from “murderhobo -> what you wrote above?”
Look foreward to spending even more $ on Ks for Fallen World Deluxe when it is ready!
Vote: mage sight
….Since when is Mage a “Low Powered” supers game?
That said, yeah, more help on how to do this in play plz.
Also, vote for Mage Sight.
It’s been said before that the Chronicle books won’t get kickstarters – they don’t need the added draw that oWoD books need, because they’ve not been sitting waiting for a decade. Also, anniversary editions are by design large and encompassing – great for stretch goals. Chronicle books are, by design, tight and focused.
The Lie; I don’t feel like I’ve really grokked how this whole thing comes to the table yet.
Hear hear. $’s for the kickstarter have already been put aside 😛
Same on the pig thing; mage is a great game, but requires a specific kind of people (for me) to fully enjoy as a GM.
Mage Sight, of course! I want to see how they chase those Mysteries.
Mage Sight.
The Lie.
Very thought provoking stuff. Makes me wonder exactly how the fallen world in it’s entirety is a lie. Are all things an imperfect reflection of symbols? Then what of individuals? Are individuals lies? I vote for the Lie. I feel like I need a better understand of precisely what it is, and how deeply it permeates the world.
Wow. Holy crap, that is fantastic. Gotta go with Mage Sight because you’ve got me so curious.
Amazing!!!
My vote is for The Lie.
This was such a good post, I read this aloud to my spouse.
I vote for the Lie.
Make mine Mage Sight!
Tough choice, but… The Lie.
Looks great! I feel like the tone you’ve set within this post makes the idea of reading the final product even more exciting–it sounds like it’ll be a compelling and refreshing look at the original core material.
For next week, I cast my vote for Mage Sight–It’s how mages feel out the various problems in the Fallen World, and an invaluable tool in any mage’s arsenal.
Mage Sight!
Keep this train going. Tell us about the Lie.
The Lie.
I’ll say The Lie – its constant capitalization makes it too hard to ignore.
The Lie please.
The Lie!
Let’s hear about the Lie.
I vote Lie.
So – can a (non-delusional) Mage be an existentialist, or is essentialism just too blatant an objective truth for that? Could it be a popular view in the Free Council for example, that Symbols reflect the Phenomenal (instead of Fallen) rather than the other way around?
That’s a substantial minority view in the Free Council, yes.
Apparently it’s just me, but … that’s how I view Mage already. It sounds like you are quantifying how mages explore Mysteries, but that’s all I got. Maybe I should be less worried that you might change the wrong things, and more concerned that I won’t feel I need to buy this since I have all the previous books. I felt that way in the lead up to the release of The Strix Chronicle: there was too much Danse Macabre material directly taken into Strix.
I vote for Mage Sight. After explaining why mages look for mysteries, I want to know the how.
I’d be very surprised if the changes to the setting were so different that more than a tiny number of them significantly changed the more interesting interpretations of what already exists… but the mechanics and rules are going to be very much overhauled going by what’s already been revealed on the forums.
Strix wasn’t much different. Even though there were things from Danse Macabre, they completely redid all of the disciplines (and man, they are so much better now), how the curses worked, coils and scales of the dragon, etc. And that’s before getting into the Strix or City chapters.
That’s how these are all going to play out I think; setting gets punched up a bit, but not too dramatically changed, we get more prefab setting bits, hooks, and tools to play with, and a complete top to bottom mechanical revision. I’d say that’s worth having.
We have made significant setting and system changes, all with the goal of better fitting Mage onto its core themes – some of them are even referenced in this blog!
If the last vote had gone the other way, you’d not be thinking that.
You could say it was Destiny, right? 🙂
Is it just me, or am I seeing Mage having a touch of Dresden Files and Kult in it?
And if it is, then I am all the more excited!
The Lie.
Dresden Files… now there is a series people should watch before playing mage. Such a great setter 😛
Oh, and I vote for the Lie. Paradox info here we go!
Try reading all 13, or is it 14, books. they blow the TV show out of the water.
Mage sight!
Ahhh now I have Duran Duran going through my head as I read this. I have to vote for the Lie. After all a gnostic game you gotta go for that first!
Okay this has given me a lot more confidence in the new Mage game. I didn’t really like the original Mage Awakening because the core book didn’t feel like it had a strong theme tied with the setting and mechanics like other WoD games. This seems like a much more grounded book, less concerned with the lore of the mages and more with their actual struggles and place in the world of darkness. I have high hopes for this game, but low expectations.
I vote for The Lie.
Mage Sight please!
So the Fallen World is the distorted image of Supernal Truths interacting like lenses in a kaleidoscope, and filtered through the greasy film of the Abyss. Does this mean that The Lie is what makes it the Fallen World, or is it that the World is Fallen that results in The Lie?
…in other words, “The Lie”, please.
Another interesting read, thanks Dave !
I vote for The Lie.
I really like this intro, and the way it’s put. I think a lot of it was always there in Mage but not as clear as it needed to be, and even this blog post helps make it that much easier to grap.
Vote: Mage sight! I’m really excited to see how both the mage sight and the ‘peripheral’ are improved. I’ve always felt that the current system never made it very clear exactly what you could learn outside of blatant magic, and was a bit static, so I’m really looking forward to that. Can I vote for it twice?
> I really like this intro, and the way it’s put. I think a lot of it was always there in Mage but not as clear as it needed to be, and even this blog post helps make it that much easier to grap.
I think they focused too much on Atlantis, and not enough on what Being a Mage entails.
The Lie. I’ve already got a fairly good idea of what Mage Sight will be like; but the Lie is something that needs more elaboration.
Yeeeeessss!
As much as I want to know more specifics of Mage Sight, I *need* to know about The Lie!
The Mage Sight, please.
I’m interesting in seeing how you have tweaked Mage Sight mechanically as well as in setting.
It’s amazing how refreshing this is to read. You spend too much time at the far end of the spectrum of Mage, and you lose sight of a lot. This very neatly brought me back to the first time I read Mage, and it’s just as sublime as the other side.
I’ve been excited as hell for Mage Sight since you teased it in the forums, but I gotta follow the immeadiate path and ask about The Lie and everything that entails.
The Lie. I vote for the Lie.
And that’s no lie.
More setting please: the Lie!
My favourite game is getting so much love by such talented people. I’m feeling pretty good about this 🙂
“The Lie” is my vote. Although I want to hear both!!! xD
Great work keep it up.
Lie to me please.
Lie to us! I mean the Lie! That’s what I meant!
Mage Sight
I’ll vote for mage sight
I also vote for Mage Sight.
Mage Sight.
We’ve got mysteries to explore, let’s see what tools we have to do that with! Once we have wielded our tools then we can piece together the evidence and realise that it’s all a lie…
The Lie The Lie
I think a greater understanding of the accursed veil of ignorance that permeates the Fallen World is the best place to start.
Definitely The Lie.
Great start. Concise, to the point and very flavourful, I’m loving this already.
I don’t have much hope in it being in the second blog post proper after a cursory count of votes but…
I vote for Mage Sight.
That was pretty awesome. Thanks!
Both are tempting, but I really want this to follow up with
Mage Sight
The Lie
And, exactly as with Vampire and Werewolf, I’m very impressed with everything I read. Mage was always a game that sort of fell behind in my gaming group. Not for a particular reason (well, ok, I’m a Vampire fan first and foremost so that might be a reason), but it just kind of happened that most of the other WoD games, both old and new, saw a lot more use. I really wanted to fix that and the Fallen World Chronicle seems to be the perfect tool for talking the rest of the group into playing more Mage. Yay.
I want to hear what the Fallen World looks like to a mage. I also want more hints of how the snooping for clues mechanic works in this gnostic detective game.
I vote Mage Sight.
My vote is for Mage Sight! Seeing and learning is after all what the core of Mage is about.
Interesting choices… for the next topic I want Mage Sight, the main tool to unveil the mysteries of the fallen world.
An excellent start…
The Lie, please.
A wonderful refocusing on the basic/core theme.
I vote for The Lie
Awesome introduction.
Supernal World seems now much more… close. Feels like the mirror’s other side. You can peer, but you can’t play. It must be incredibly frustrating. The Obsesion to Be there. Anyway, i’m thirsty for seeing it.
So please, show me how to look. Teach us the Mage Sight.
But hey, I get that Chronicle books are not necessarily about ‘the/an antagonist’ but there will be some sort of focus on an antagonist, right? I mean, lots of cool discussion on the themes of supernal magic and its interaction with the fallen world is all very cool, but a dynamic chronicle needs an equally dynamic antagonist to give it that inherent motion. A sort of ‘dialectical’ motor to get the story going. ‘Form’ and archetypes are quite static – change requires opposition and the possibility of negation and synthesis.
The Strix chron was cool because of this new dynamism, and I think the reason why lots of people were going on the speculation train about whether it would be a ‘Tremere Chronicle’ or a Seer Chronicle was due to the fact that all stories need a great villain(s)/opposing force. It was makes storyteller a bit more easy to have one too – important for novice players/new Mage GMs.
The Dresden Files are a good example. Lots of mystery there, but also a good range of antagonists make the themes of the Dresden universe into good stories. Mage has plenty of good themes, but it needs to get turned into good stories. Previously, GMs have been left to do that of their own to some extent – hence the often retorts “It’s a good game, but I just couldn’t get into it” or “I’m just not sure how to run a story”.
I’m curious who you imagine the “great villain” was in The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird. Jay Gatsby and Scout Finch both make pretty good Mage protagonists, so who would be their villain?
I vote Mage Sight!
With these new chronicles I can almost feel the games gravitating to their themes. The Lie, please, it’s something I feel I don’t fully understand.
Love it, love it, love it!
Mage Sight, please.
Just awesome!
and The Lie, please!
That was a delight to read. For next week, I vote The Lie.
Mage sight! Let’s unveil the truth!
Since this entry has been leading up to it, The Lie.
Mage Sights. I want to see how this can be more central to the mage existence, more than a mere spell.
I’m torn between these two but I really need to know what you have to say about The Lie.
Wow, what great choices to vote for after the Fallen World entry. Do I vote for Mage Sight, to see how Mages are drawn to the Mysteries of the World, or do I vote for the Lie, showing me how…what? Symbols are distorted or something?
I guess I’ll vote for the Lie since I understand it the least
Great stuff!
Mage Sight. Always been the primary focus of both the story and confusion at my table.
Mage Sight. Of course!
As a Guardian I’m just here to make sure nothing falls into the wrong hands. 😉
I vote for the Lie..what better way to help bring the mass into the Labrynth.
Mage Sight! I have been waiting for it!
The Lie.
Brilliant. My vote is for Mage Sight next!
Mage Sight, please!
They both make interesting follow-ups to the Fallen World, but I’m throwing my vote in for Mage Sight.
Great introduction for the game!
Tough decision for the next week, but i’ll vote for The Lie.
I would like to know a little more about “THE LIE” because it will directly affect my character
srrsly and why we can `t have both
Hi, Dave Brookshaw
I would like to know a little more about “THE LIE” because it will directly affect my character
srrsly and why we can `t have both
I’m going to vote for The Lie, let’s get the new flavour out of the way before diving into the mechanics.
Awesome!
I vote for the Lie.
The Lie!
I’m going to vote Mage Sight because it is, after all, the next step after sensing the supernatural around.
The Lie.
And what happened with Supernatural Saturday, that name is to awsome to not use it
Both sound good, but if I gotsta pick, I pick the Lie.
Mage Sight please good sir.
Tell me Lies, tell me sweet big fat Lies…
That was most excellent.
And I vote for the Lie.
Great post!
Another vote for the Lie.
I will probably end controversial, but with this blog post I’m a bit… dissapointed? Don’t get me wrong, it was things needed to be re-stated in Mage, but the title of FWC is meaning only “it’s more of Mage”. In contrast, God Machine, Strix and Idigam Chronicle titles mean the add of not explored before element of original setting, casting new light on it, and making big “outside of box” problem. Like you, Dave, stated in the blog post itself:
‘A typical Vampire story includes feeding, and asks what you’ll do to make it to tomorrow.
A typical Werewolf story involves hunting a threat to the Pack’s territory.
A typical Mage story starts with the characters sensing something.’
Mortals get incomprehensible alien god, vampires are clashing with spirit-demons contrasted they nature, werewolves are in conflict with once sense gods, now thrown away. And they classical story are putted againts with those “new” setting focus. But for mages, we get more of the same – Mage was game about seeking Mysteries from day one, and it’s looks like the setting don’t get a new focus.
And I don’t know if I like it – Mage is great game, my favorite to be honest, but I was hoping a bit large setting change to make things “new” in context, like Strix for Vampire or Idigam’s are for Werewolf. Thinking more about it, I was hoping for something like Atlantis Chronicle, in that new take on myth and First City’s events would impact the game. And now we are getting a more like “more of the same” kind of feel.
Don’t get me wrong – from small spoilers on forum I know I will love the all new changes to the game. But the “Fallen World Chronicle” is to me a bit disappointment as title highlighting focus of changes on setting as it is. Because we got “more of the same” vibe from it.
But here is mine hope – maybe reading more about Lie in context of Fallen World will change my view on this matter. So tell me more on Lie, please. 🙂
An excellent beginning! I’d like to read about The Lie next, please.
The Lie!!
Make mine Mage Sight!
Well am more excited now than I was. Going to have to vote Mage Sight.
This was a really interesting post. I remember it being stated that before, Mage was mechanics in search of a setting to people who started at the Core Book and left it at that. Unlike many splats, Mage is ever so much more than its core.
Tell me A Lie.
Distilling the purpose of Mages to being a “hunt for power” seems very interesting.
I also vote for the Lie. I would like to know how it changed due to the inclusion of the God-Machine in the World of Darkness.
Mage sight please.
Perhaps it’s just me, but reading this makes me feel somewhat… dense. To me, it seemed this blog post used a great many words, to not say a very great deal in an extraordinarily opaque way. Am I the only one who walked away more confused on what Mage is about than when I went in?
Tell us the Lie, tell us sweet little lies….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2KRrGoZ8s
A great read Dave! Excitement builds up…
One more vote for The Lie.
I vote for the Lie.
Are mages driven by anything more than the desire for power? Plato’s analogy of the cave may have been meant to glorify philosophers, but they were expected to return to the cave and teach their fellows.
That would be where the Orders come in.
Ahh, so Mage Sight is Neo’s code vision thingy?
I guess it always was, in a way, but it seemed more along the lines of an Arcanum-detector. I never really made that connection before.
Anyway, definitely voting for The Lie.
I think we already have a pretty good idea of new!Mage Sight for now … although it’s never enough!
Tell me more about the Lie so i can destroy it,s followers.
Mage Sight please 🙂
The Lie
Mage Sight.
Cool stuff. I vote for Mage Sight.
Mage Sight.
I vote for “Mage Sight”, since I believe that the Lie would be easier to understand when our primary means of perceiving it are more accessible.
I’m voting for Mage Sight. The Mage Sight descriptions in Broken Diamond/Soul Cage/Man Comes Around are interesting, and I’d like to see more in that vein.
The Lie. We need to know what Mages are seeing past before we can “get” Mage Sight.
I’d like to hear the Lie, please.
I’ve held out for a few days, but its, not its’.
I go for Mage sight!
The Lie.
The Lie
This looks fantastic. I want, nay, need more. Thus I vote- The Lie.
The Lie
Looks great!
The Lie please
The Lie!!! Pretty please! 🙂
The Lie
Mage Sight
Current vote stands at
Mage Sight 49
The Lie 70
Make that 71 for the Lie.
Really looking forward to this. Awakening was my first WoD game.
It got meinto the rest. Heck, I didn’t even give my parent’s copy of Masquerade a second glance til after I picked up M:tAW…
Then I got the Blue Book X)