Mage the Ascension Lore: The History of the Awakened

This video is an overview of the history of mages in general within the World of Darkness and the game Mage the Ascension.

[@VallornDeathblade]

It's surprising just how much of WoD's history can be summarized by "Everything was going well, and then Tremere..."

[@DTux5249]

"Those two were Titulus, and Tremere... He'll be important later" Me, A Vampire Player: PFT

[@ShadowNetWeaver1]

So THEY were the ones who killed Zapathasura! Nice! Here I thought for the longest time that the "Four Suns" satellites belonged to the Second Inquisition, one of the greater vampire clans, or something else. Dope! These mages just instantly elevated themselves in my eyes...Ascended, if you will lmao

[@lazarofstygia2241]

The Technocrats don't fuck around when pushed.

[@cutlerwalton7313]

I’d say RIP to Daddy Ravnos, but.... Plot Device level illusion powers. With that Chimerstry 10, there’s absolutely no reason that his entire rampage wasn’t just a reality warping illusion, and we now have an Antediluvian wandering about with everyone thinking it’s dead. Another great video, keep up the great work!

[@lazarofstygia2241]

The official line is that Zapathasura is cooked and dead. My headcanon is that he used Chimerstry 10 to split himself from his Beast. While Kuei-jin and Technocrats played with that, the Antediluvian snuck off somewhere tropical.

[@gadgetronking4255]

Yeah I agree supernatural beings within the WOD, especially mages, seem to write off all but the most powerful of Kindred and even they think they would probably still try but an antediluvian is something completely different than kindred, they are god like beings in their own right and many have tried and failed to kill one including other antediluvians and their own childer and so far in WOD history none has ever succeeded, hell some of the most powerful mages, Thot and Isis, couldn't kill Set. The week of nightmares was just an event used to get rid of the Ravnos clan which where probably the least popular and the clan no one had any idea what to do with but with the already pre-existing lore which is still canon so far there is no reason for Zaphatsura to be dead. And frankly most modern lore within WOD is kept intentionally vague for a reason as this is intended to be a roleplaying game and each game will incorporate different elements as the ST sees fit so if in your game Zaphatsura played the biggest prank on the technocracy and the world by having everyone believe they managed to kill an antediluvian and is still walking around more power to you.

[@gypsyg9612]

@@gadgetronking4255 Wasnt it a combined effort from like a bunch of Kuei Jin known as the "Boddhivatta" or something like that.. From a Kuei Jin perspective those are a few thousand year old third/second generation kindred that reached the pinacle of Kuei Jin powers.. Those that have the powers to ascent beyond the cycle of life and death pretty much at will at any time but decided not to in order to guide the younger Kuei Jin.. Combine that with substantial support from the Technocracy? From a cainite perspective it would be like if Gangrel, Lasombra and Toreador supported by the Order of Hermes all ganged up on the Ventrue Antedeluvian And that all the while being supported by the entire technocracy and its unlimited resources.. It wasnt just a few mages that did it, but a notable army of them and like I said supported or atleast fighting alongside multiple of what is the equevalent of a Antedeluvian Kuei Jin.. Kuei Jin elder attacks deal mostly aggrevated damage and they stack rapidly dealing with 1 Kuei jin metsulah is a problem for everyone but the most powerful cainites, dealing with a bunch of them is like suicide Same as dont underestimate the Technocracy.. They might be one of the most powerful organisation in the WOD universe BY FAR. And they used some of the most advanced weapons on the guy from Nuclear Weapons up to extremely powerful experimental weapons The kind of weapons and firepower he was subjected to is unseen in cainite history like ever.. You cant compare that to whatever ISIS and Horus tried doing.. I imagine under normal circumstances those Antedeluvians are impossible to take down individually.. These were not normal circumstances however

[@gadgetronking4255]

@@gypsyg9612 Well it was a combined effort of a lot of different factions, i believe the Garou where the first to try anything but they where immediately slaughtered and never stood a chance. I didn't get much into the week of nightmares in my last reply but yes as you say it was the combined effort of powerful Kuei Jin and the technocracy that canonically killed the antediluvian though I believe it was the technocracy that had dealt the final blow with a some kind of "sun cannon," the Kuei Jin where mostly responsible for weaking the antediluvian. I admit I am not as familiar with Kuei Jin lore as other parts of the WOD, as far as I know the Kuei Jin where about on par with a 4th Gen Methuselah which though powerful is no unheard of as many Methuselahs have attempted to kill their sires, that is kindred nature after all, you might say that the nature of a Kuei Jin is probably very different to that of a kindred which you would be right in saying but the Ravnos of India had been fighting the Kuei Jin for centuries at that point, and it is rumored that the Antediluvians can see through the eyes of their bloodline (or something along those lines) and even if not the antediluvian was probably fat off of Ravnos blood at that point anyway so it's fair to assume the antediluvian had some idea on how to deal with the Kuei Jin. As for the Technocracy sun magic is not unheard of even with traditional mages and again both the technocracy and the Kuei Jin had probably not never encountered a kindred as powerful as an antediluvian since most had been in torpor for a very long time which was my original point. In fact pretty sure none of the Kuei Jin survived the week of nightmares and the killing blow completely decimated the technocracy's resources. That being said after all that I am not disagreeing with you. You could be 100% right and all that may have been too much and finally did an antediluvian in, the main reason I had made the comment in the first place was just to say that there are reasonable scenarios where both outcomes are plausible and if in you game or head cannon the antediluvian is actually dead well then more power to you, until white wolf comes out with a book that tells us what actually happened (which I don't is very likely as of yet) you're free to come to any conclusion you want when making your world.

[@gypsyg9612]

@@gadgetronking4255 Ofcourse, its always storytellers discretion.. Some have it that it was Ravnos his childer Romona or something.. I read a little of the book and the immense amount of violence is just redicilous.. Do like the theory of Stygia that it was the beast of Ravnos that they were fighting that he projected outward somehow.. In one of the Gehenna stories Beckett meets Enoch in some deep hole inside of Egypt and he has perfect clarity as well even though he was staked and buried under the sand for like 5000 years because he in a similiar way he transported his own beast inside of Tzimisce as a punishment for putting him down there in that hole.. So in theory it could even be possible.. Atleast if anyone could it would most likely be Ravnos

[@smoore6461]

I always loved Mage of all the World of Darkness, i remember a campaign once made up of mages and werewolves. We set out to destroy a tribe of black spiral dancers and Nefandi. It was a long story, but we had a lot of fun, and i fell in love with playing a mage after years of playing vampire.

[@ZelphTheWebmancer]

This is a great overview. Gonna say that Mage has some interesting lore but there is a lot less about it online than the other two of The Big Three. Great video nonetheless.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks.

[@ryanrizzo4869]

I've always struggled with Mage lore and their history. It never really roped me in, but this video was very informative AND interesting. Thank you. :)

[@lazarofstygia2241]

You're welcome.

[@anthonygorman94]

I've always loved the sons of eather, and love the Arthur C Clark quote.

[@Markis2bi4]

Mage: The Ascension is the one game setting in WoD that makes me ask the question of “Is being an actual mage even worth the headaches?” I must say my answer would be “No, it is not worth those aforementioned headaches”.

[@marcm5207]

It is for me 🤗

[@mrmackie-qp6lr]

I have listened to this probably over a dozen times by now and it is definitely without question one of your best works

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks.

[@mrmackie-qp6lr]

@@lazarofstygia2241 and I mean it

[@kingloads]

Just randomly commenting that your videos are so good. Like putting these on while I do other stuff like paint, do dishes, play games, clean, etc.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks.

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

Thank you for covering the Virtual Adepts and Alan Turing in particular. I remember playing Mage in the mid-late 90s. At the time Turing and all discussion of same sex attraction was banned in schools due to a law called Section 28. But seeing him in a role play game, not as the comic relief, the butt of the joke, or some sort of hypersexualised monster was really reassuring. Seeing him as an Archmage and one of the most powerful ones of his time was so great. This is why I don't understand the pushback around comic books, film franchises and even Doctor Who giving people who are less well represented (except in an often stereotypical way), the opportunity to see themselves in the lead character of the story. True, WoD is a dark, grungy, dystopian mirror to our world. But I think that it shows a little bit of how dark our world can be for too many when it's more uplifting than the real world! TTRP is often pooh-poohed as a silly game, but it can be so much more than that. ❤️

[@lloydgush]

What nerds would paint turing as a hypersexual monster? Actually, who'd paint him as hypersexual at all? Considering how hard he worked, it's a wonder he found any time for sex at all. The fun thing here is him "killing himself" by diving too much into his work, which would be completely believable, if the reality wasn't severely grimmer.

[@alejandrorivas4585]

The reality is many people are still unfortunately bigots, and any representation is seen as legitimizing people they feel should not exist in society.

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

@@lloydgush Sorry Lloyd, I missed your reply. My description of "comic relief, butt of the joke, hypersexualised monster" was a description of the general approach to LGBTQ representation in the real world. Although I have a feeling that you've probably played TTRPs with some hypersexualised people - the one who always opts to seduce every NPC and PC at every turn for example. My point was that in a time when so much of the world was telling me that my feelings were wrong and bad, WoD was there with the reassurance of someone I could look up to. 😉

[@EthanKristopherHartley]

@@alejandrorivas4585 *nods emphatically* But thankfully we have a mute button! 😁

[@lloydgush]

@@EthanKristopherHartley I'm still trying to understand it.. Also, I played WoD as well, not mage, no one could DM it.

[@caioteixeira1541]

Thanks for this videos man. Hope you make more of these. Unfortunately there aren't much of mage on the internet :/

[@lloydgush]

My head cannon is that the traditions though the aboriginal shamans were moon people. "the fuck are you and the fuck are you doing here?" "I had a dream."

[@BlueberrySmith]

Heated arguments, fistfights and magic duels is what I like my parliament for

[@pghurd3340]

Needs to be a graphic novel. I'd watch this if it were a show. Preferably as an animated one, so that the magick would look good onscreen. Good call using the tarot in this video @LazarofStygia .👍

[@gabrielaubry1334]

Kevin: "DUDE! I AM A 27 YEAR OLD ACCOUNTANT TURNED WIZARD! I DO NOT KNOW YE OLDE FUN FACTES!" Big D: "But surely you know-" Kevin: "I KNOW NOT WHO OR WHAT A MASSASA IS! The internet is not a right, you know! Wikipedia costs money to see!"

[@johnstratton8678]

In a BallBox All sides are equal and all angles are equal and all curved surfaces equally round and equal distance from the centre...is that an Oracle?!?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Yes....yes it is

[@cxxx6674]

Well done as always :) may i ask the tarot used in the video? It's very pretty

[@ZelphTheWebmancer]

It's the Mage the Ascension's tarot. I think you can find it in the DriveThruRPG, or similar sites.

[@Crizzly122]

Could you do videos where you explain WHAT things are rather than the history of the people/beings related to said things? Like what is magic? How are people able to use magic? Why doesn't the average person know magic exists? How does magic affect the world (In a broader sense, I don't mean like 'William thought about eating that burrito he had in the fridge all day at work, but when he finally got home he saw that Johnny had eaten it. William was so angry, he created the 7 artifacts of anger, which are never mentioned again after this')?

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

He did describe what magic "is" in the video though.

[@jackp492]

I think you have to form a bridge so that you bring your understanding of magic to the story, otherwise your just appealing to consensus which is banality

[@orkface234]

And now I think Ive watched every video of yours. Neat.

[@trevor7861]

I really like the music. What’s the name of the song?

[@jackp492]

Just had a thought about the whirling dervishes, I was spinning with our daughter yesterday and we got dizzy, when your dizzy your almost the most detached from your body/vessel, your mind is still coherent but your body acts on its own Kind of like how getting drunk on spirits leads you to do things you don’t necessarily like or even blackout while your body acts on it’s own

[@raffess1]

Amazing infos!

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks

[@zionleach3001]

Could the Awakened and Hunters work together? Or is that NOT how the World Of Darkness works?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Depends on who or what they were working together against.

[@zionleach3001]

@@lazarofstygia2241 Thanks. I've only played the first Hunter The Reckoning game on Xbox one. I know in the 3rd game the Hunters team up with the Garou. I know the WOD has a lot of factions. I've always wondered if the "good guys" whether human or supernatural could work together or would they be too prejudiced.

[@aleksanderk99]

But... Not mages nor hunters are good guys, humanity isnt even one. Hermetics sometimes give some info to Arcanum hunters, Crusaders sometimes work with religious Hunters and thats propably all. Most of the hunters hunt down mages like any other nightfolk (for good reason, these guys are fucking reality benders). Orpheus group has some ties to Technocracy, just like every gouverment Hunter group, even if they arent aware of it. Ones with angelic patronage sometimes work with Orcheasters

[@zionleach3001]

@@aleksanderk99 Sorry I only know a little bit about the World of Darkness. I've played the Hunter the Reckoning video game and aside from vampires,ghosts,and werewolves it didn't really explain much.

[@aleksanderk99]

@@zionleach3001 So pretty much everyone hates, despises, fears or ignores other types of beings, working together only for profit if it is great enough or for survival.

[@Shotta0202]

@Lazar of Stygia If you were a mage which Sphere's would you prioritize? If I'm not mistaken a mage can have one main sphere and 2 side Sphere's

[@Hollowbarista]

Mage video mage chanell? Finally! I'v been runninf MTA 1e 2e and rev campaing from year 2007, so 15 years non stop. Getting to live the week of Nightmares and birth of Avatar Storm was fun. So was timetraveling in Quiet (in memory only) to Himalayan wars. xD

[@jeffbrownstain]

No really. How does anyone actually play this game? How are you not just an actual occult practitioner at this point?

[@Hollowbarista]

Could I have the text version IE the script of this so I could teach my game group of this in-game with my voice. Possibly also translate this into Finnish language. Dear mother that is going to be painfull. xD

[@Hollowbarista]

​@@jeffbrownstain Dude. I was born in Northern part of Finland.

[@TheKagar]

Thank you for Upload :)

[@valkondarvalakev6377]

such a great video, do you GM any games?

[@danielrockstrom707]

What about Aswadim... the Nephandi?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

The Nephandi will have to get a video on their own. Content might not be entirely wholesome.

[@lucidostinato4519]

can you shere title of this music that you used in this video?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Unfortunately I already deleted the file as I need to keep space on my computer.

[@lucidostinato4519]

@@lazarofstygia2241 that's a shame. Great video btw.

[@bjhan73]

well done

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks.

[@mrmackie-qp6lr]

God you really are the best in the game

[@ClockworkEngineer]

The Technocracy are the good guys of OWoD.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

That is one interpretation.

[@zesky6654]

​@@lazarofstygia2241if you're a regular human they are 100% the good guys.

[@aleksanderk99]

Brainwashing, mass killing, supporting totalitsrian regimes, media control and human experiments are not "good guys" tactics i would say. They are also reducing potential of people to Awaken. Not like Traditions are any better for the most part, but there is no "good guys" here, all shades of grey, with Nephandi being black and propably right.

[@madsatyr]

Where did you find your pronunciation of Verbena?

[@Markis2bi4]

Also, are Antediluvian vampires just NOT weak to sunlight?

[@mikem9384]

Insanely high levels of Fortitude.

[@alejandrorivas4585]

Actually the opposite, most ancient vampires are especially sensitive due to their closeness to Caine's curse. For this reason the thinbloods are somewhat resistant, as Caine's blood flows thinly within them. But as Mike said, they also have insanely powerful abilities of the blood, which means they can kinda balance it out or overcome it to a limited capacity

[@malonemalo]

The Pyrenees Alps don't exist. The Pyrenees are the Pyrenees and the Alps are the Alps.

[@Atljeepboy]

This is going in my favorites 😍

[@CSmith-hx2pm]

Hey! Haven’t watched the video yet but I wanted to ask if this lore is basically the same as in Mage: The Awakening and if not will you be making a video on the differences in the future? Sorry if you mention this in the video. I still plan on watching it : ) Thanks for making the content you do!

[@wolfbane7497]

Me hearing the name Tremere Me : " Ah shitzz here we go again

[@perdurabo56]

4:45

[@Lucifer.s.understudy]

Lilith was the first witch/mage

[@MiguelPatatoe-wr6ou]

Oh well

[@Snek42069]

"Degraded into the session of Ukrainian parliament" - ahahah, oh boy, that was a good one Greetings from Ukraine, btw!

[@joshuawilliams9247]

I’m pretty sure the Magi were made when Lucifer tried to make humans into gods and then consequently broke them

[@dukerabbit13]

LS

[@petronilobuan4648]

Now i know now how the Pyramids of Egypt it was built by the guest of the Pharaohs from the East from Tibet the mystics the gurus the Enlightened like the Buddha awareness one with everything! There’s a research in the early 19th century a man who wondered in the Tibetan mountains in search for the mystical city of Shangrila in the Mountains of Kush he witness that the Tibetan monks have these different size of big bells that when they struck it produces different sound waves which makes a big boulder float! K