Mage the Ascension Lore: The Order of Hermes

A video on the lore of the Order of Hermes, from the tabletop roleplaying game, Mage: the Ascension. The Order of Hermes are the archetypal wizards, masters of mystic language, sacred geometry, and high ritual. They consider themselves first among the Traditions, and not without some merit. But their legendary hubris may be their doom.
00:53 Overview
12:29 History of the Order of Hermes
38:05 The Ars Hermetici: Building the Pyramid of Power
40:06 Apprenticeship: Magic School Days
44:57 Initiation: Earning Your Name
47:33 Further Advancement: Avoiding Quicksand
50:33 Certámen: The Art of the Duel
52:08 The Code of Hermes: Crime and Punishment
Roster of the Houses of Hermes
58:46 House Bonisagus: Cultivating the Tree of Knowledge
01:00:09 House Ex Miscellanea: From Many, One
01:05:04 House Flambeau: Holy Fire and Righteous Fury
01:08:28 House Fortunae: Don't Play the Odds, Make the Odds
01:11:46 House Quaesitor: The Scales of Justice
01:16:20 House Shaea: Keepers of the Word
01:19:08 House Tytalus: Survival of the Fittest
01:22:18 House Thig: Reject Tradition. Embrace Modernity
01:26:16 House Veriditius: A Founding House Reborn
01:28:27 House Solificati: The Alchemists
Roster of Houses Lost and Fallen
01:30:47 House Janissary: Who Watches the Watchers?
01:35:50 Other Houses
01:39:05 Conclusion

[@SkullCowboy333]

Many keep the four laws of knowing, daring, willing and keeping silent but most forget the fifth i.e. to endure. Your video shows a lot

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks.

[@count4045]

Holy fucking shit ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES!!! time to improve my lore about mages I guess... btw, watched nearly all of your videos, awesome work man. you're the best World of Darkness youtuber out there in my opinion.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

I Appreciate it.

[@cyrillbears2266]

@@lazarofstygia2241 Well, second best. But the best one is Russian so doesn't count.

[@RyanTheScar]

Oh my god! I was looking for this for ages! Old WoD is such an amazing setting

[@cBake0]

@@popcornperspectives7 I dunno, I'm in love with V5 personally. The changes to the system is great with the shift in focus away from numbers mechanics and towards narrative impact. I also appreciate how it continues on past Gehenna, at least as we knew it, and opens out into the challenges of the modern world for kindred. The resurgence of the inquisition, and the shift in the sabbat are some of my favorite bits. But I guess everyone has their favorites.

[@TheLionheartArts]

@@cBake0 Cant wait for V5 Mage

[@Michael-bn1oi]

@@cBake0 really dumb that they removed signature disciplines. And the new lore is (except some Sabbat stuff) is so much less interesting across the board. Game lost its soul

[@shay212]

I love your videos’ documentary style! They’re easy to get into and follow and I love your side comments too that highlight different things. Great work!

[@simonbrake5072]

This is super useful! Trying to read all this information off the page is really dry, especially when it requires piecing together pieces from many many sources, but hearing it consisely articulated really helps bring it to life. So thank you for doing all the hard work! This one was particularly interesting for me, because I'm toying with doing a Dark Ages: Mages/Ars Magica mash-up.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

There's never a bad time to play Ars Magica.

[@mathiasandersson4153]

Interesting how WOD hs changed the story of Triamor and Bonisagius from the way it is written in Ars Magica

[@mephistophelesthesilentchi3446]

Another excellent lore video in these trying times. Thanks!

[@lazarofstygia2241]

You're welcome!

[@adamlee6467]

Well done. I hope to see more Mage the Ascension on your amazing channel!

[@vampiroledesma2447]

Awesome videos you upload. It would be nice to have a Technocracy one. Especially Void Engineers.

[@PaulArena75]

Great video. Wow..... More on the individual Tradition lore please!!

[@TomasMosca]

This video covers so much. It is great!

[@Demolitiondude]

Also known as why there's no homecoming in wizard schools.

[@danielrockstrom707]

Nice!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THUS... I work as a welder and liten to thees and some DND lore. Also I am a GM for mage the awakening. But I like Mage The ascension aswell. ^^* Ceep on the good work.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks again. Glad you enjoy it.

[@maperche2]

Good job boss

[@beatnikthanos1079]

Yo, great video!

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Thanks!

[@danielmaster911ify]

You cant hide that Chamber of Secrets music. Mmm... childhood

[@astroboy6515]

The bird of hermes is my name Eating my wings to make me tame

[@skeletonking4119]

Excellent job!! Now let’s make spall to kill tremere :) Edit: should we think of it bit of the wizard that in lord of the rings?

[@ilnigromante666]

Al Ashrad? That Al Ashrad?

[@bodricthered]

Yes. That one. Hence why he states in the clan book that his name still carries weight among some willworkers

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Yes, Al Ashrad the Demon Slayer, one if the mightiest war-mages in history.

[@Hollowbarista]

I think book of shadows has rules for certamen. I made a card game out of those rules. :)

[@chrisdurbin3349]

At the beginning of the video, you state that it Predates the World of Darkness ala Ars magika. My question is, in your head-canon is this only in the literary sense or do they truly have origin in a previous unknown age? One Storyteller i gamed with took this perspective, along with Exalted being earlier than that. it never sat right with me.

[@lazarofstygia2241]

@@chrisdurbin3349 Only in terms of publication history. In the High Mythic Age of Ars Magica, the Order of Hermes is the only game in town in Europe. In WOD, the Hermetics were (maybe) the strongest Tradition in Europe, but they shared real estate with the proto-Celestial Chorus, proto-Verbena, and Ahl-i-Batin.

[@mathiasikit]

Yeaaahhhh Laaazaaaarrrrr

[@brandonketabi5429]

🙏

[@____________838]

Wait… Does this infer that Adam, The Adam was a Wonder Worker?

[@chillyavian7718]

One of the greatest

[@DCJMS]

is it foolish that the story of House Veriditius makes me hopefull?

[@lazarofstygia2241]

Hermes' greatest strength is that he dies and is reborn with each change in the world. Likewise Veriditius had to be reborn.

[@lucifermephistophilies6629]

I remember being apart of this orders ways in a few past lives, one of them viewed this heirachial way of life to be folly and a waste of life. It refuses to allow me to rejoin such petty bickering aristocracy

[@orbaboar5165]

Dude what's the name of the song

[@____________838]

Chamber of Secrets?

[@orbaboar5165]

@@____________838 thanks a lot

[@tomtom7734]

Omfg!!! How am I yo remember all this? Oh..it’s a you tube video on my phone. I can have it handy any time..pleas ignore me ;)

[@Cptn_Asstacular]

Why does my brain recognize the music but I can't name where I've heard it?

[@LazlaTheFallen]

its Chamber of Secrets

[@mrmackie-qp6lr]

Your my kinda guy

[@hobo8420]

Bro r u still alive

[@lazarofstygia2241]

More or less.

[@flareinc7413]

Good to hear The TERF Who Shall Not Be Named isn't a Mage. She doesnt deserve it And her opinions are waaay too narrow and old for the organization. Anyways,excellent video. :)

[@AlexisTheDragon]

Dude, mages in MTA aren't god like, they ARE GOD, totally rival him. So I refuse to believe there is some bs called the "avatar storm" that can literally just 1 shot god too. I choose to believe mechanically the avatar storm is just 5-7 agg dmg that also takes ur avatar when u die, and none of these chumps knew life magic. As a 5 dot life mage, with 5 points in the background genetics. (basically character gen) You can fill in almost all ur quintessence dots with perma paradox and do some tricks with life and stamina + sacrificing strength dots to alter yourself, now whenever proc paradox doing this you'll take 18 ROLLED/6 DICE of agg dmg if u proc it. But you'll have *23!* Dice of AGGRAVATED SOAK, soak rolls don't fail on 1's, get specialty on stamina and you'll roll double successes on 10s, and with a merit you can get ur soak roll to a 5, not a normal 6. Lastly you can also spent a quint to roll ur life sphere like fortitude getting 5 auto rolled soak, +1 with using a willpower. I tested this with 100 rolls, and the max dmg I ever took without using the quint or willpower was 3 agg dmg =/ Wtf was wrong with all these mages? I can fully use vulgar magic and laugh off paradox whilst having for more agg soak than an antediluvian, please dude, 99.99% of these mages were chumps.

[@chillyavian7718]

The writers try to make a cool threat, and then they make an annoyance instead. I’m not fully acquainted with the WoD damage system but that sounds more like a tax for travel through it, than a real danger. Maybe something like the storm forcing a paradox roll whenever you do something relating to it, makes sense why the archmages would stay away in that case, they don’t want to implode due to the first time they have had to deal with ‘Dox in decades.