Mage: the Awakening: Twenty-Five Lighters

Twenty-Five Lighters

A Storytelling Campaign of Ambition and Passion set in Houston, Texas

Run by Martys on the RPGnet Forums

Thread Info

• Recruitment
• OOC
• IC

The Setting

Overview and Recent History

Now boasting a population of 2.6 million in the city proper and nearly 7 million throughout the greater metro area, the City of Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States and the largest city in the South. Historically the nation's primary hub for the oil and gas industry, the city suffered an economic slump in the wake of the 80s-era oil bust, but soon rebounded after successfully diversifying its economy. Previously ignored by most mages for the first hundred years of its existence in favor of such cities as New Orleans and Miami, after the one-two punches of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike, Houston has now overtaken New Orleans in the number of mages that base themselves in the city.

There are between forty and fifty mages known to inhabit the Greater Houston Area (as a general rule of thumb, this includes the entire area within a fifteen-mile radius of downtown Houston). The Diamond Orders have thrived in the region since the Second World War, with their first wave of migration beginning with the wartime mobilization, the second wave following the general 60s-era Sun Belt migration and the third wave coinciding with the late 80s tech and financial services booms. The Mysterium and Guardians of the Veil are the dominant Orders, having long since concentrated themselves within such Sleeper institutions as academia, the aerospace industry, law enforcement, public services, and the health care industry. The Silver Ladder and Free Council both maintain visibly active presences in the region, with their cabals working together in a shifting web of alliances and mutual partnerships. Most new self-Awakened mages tend to get scooped up by one of those two Orders, though the Silver Ladder is happy to find another home for those mages who don't fit its ideology. The Free Council boasts a larger number of mages and has thoroughly worked its way into the local telecom and energy industries. The Silver Ladder claims the greater number of cabals and has gained a stranglehold over the region's occult communities; its influence over the local religious activists and social justice organizers is no less pervasive. The Adamantine Arrows keep the lowest profile, apparently having suffered a crippling blow in September 2008 during Hurricane Ike. The Arrows are currently composed of two cabals which concentrate on their own projects and rarely ask assistance from or communicate with the other Orders. The remaining unaligned mages number a little less than a third of the total population and either remain completely aloof from the larger mage community, or maintain loose affiliations with the Free Council.

Places of Interest

Consilium

NPCs of Interest

Diamond Orders

Adamantine Arrows

Guardians of the Veil

Mysterium

Silver Ladder