World of Darkness - Mage the Awakening - Grimoire of Grimoires

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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























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



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

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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



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



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



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-



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



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



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



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



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’



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



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



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



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.



• 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



• 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



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



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



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.



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.



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



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



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



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



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



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.



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



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



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



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





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



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)


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.



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



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



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



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:



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



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)


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.



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.



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



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



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



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



Appropriate Libraries: Modern Music,Free Council, Satanism

Possible Modiers: Musician (+1), Indus-trial or Black Metal fan (+1)


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



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


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



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


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



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



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



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-



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



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



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



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



Appropriate Libraries: Software data-bases, Electronic security

Bonuses: Free Council membership (+1)

Penalties: No dots in Computer (-1)


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



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



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



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



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


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



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



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


Aspect: Vulgar

C t NThe Earth Scrolls (Chi no Maki)



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



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


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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Dangers Th d h Hild b d R di b d

(Screaming, lasting approximately31 seconds )



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



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)


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



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



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:)



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



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



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


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



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



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,”



,

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-



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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




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)


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



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



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



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



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



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.”



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



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





Appropriate Libraries: Archaeology, Ancient History, Myth, Occult, Travel

Possible Modiers: Exploration or Orienteering Survival Specialty (+1), Contacts in Ancient History,Occult or Archaeology (+2)


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



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



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



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.


Action: Extended (target number = Merit dots)

D ti L ti



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



, 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



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



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


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)


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



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



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




Appropriate Libraries: History or Be-havioral Science Academics Specialties (+1),Contacts in Rare Book Dealers or Mysterium

Archivists (+1)


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



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



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



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



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



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



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-



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.


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



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.


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.



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.



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




Research Time: 30 minutes

Appropriate Libraries: Occult, History

Bonuses: Mysterium membership (+1),

Penalties: No dots in Occult (-1)


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



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?



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



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



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



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.



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.


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


Action: Extended – 15 successes


Appropriate Libraries: Greek Mythology, Awakened History, Death & Afterlife, Tragic

RomancesPossible Modiers: Language Merit:

Greek (+1)


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.



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



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



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





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.


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)


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.



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


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



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.


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



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.)


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


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



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



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



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



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



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.



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



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



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



A i t Lib i O lt Th Ab



Appropriate Libraries: Occult, The AbyssBonuses: Guardians of the Veil membership (+1), Left-Handed Legacy (+1)


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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Appropriate Libraries: Atlantean Mythol-



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)


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











Documents

World of Darkness - Mage the Awakening - Grimoire of Grimoires