Category:Mage: The Awakening

In the mists of prehistory, drawn by visions and dreams of great dragons, sorcerers from the four corners of the Earth gathered together to build a great Society of the Wise. These sorcerers had touched the Supernal Realms in waking dreams, opening their eyes to the secrets of true magic and becoming virtual demigods. For a time, this nation of the Awakened thrived as the mages within codified and refined their potent secrets, gaining renown for its terrible and beautiful power, knowledge and beauty. Unfortunately, some of these mages succumbed to hubris and erected a Celestial Ladder to what they called the Supernal Realms, intent on claiming the power of the gods for themselves.

The ensuing War in Heaven shattered reality--forming a nearly impenetrable barrier between the material world and spirit realms--though not before the Exarchs claimed victory and trapped the rest of humanity inside the Lie: a wounding of the human soul itself, creating a world where the utility of magic is a tale told only by the fool, the fanatic or charlatan. The defeated Awakened mages left the ruins of their nation behind and scattered themselves far and wide over the world, leaving them with the barest scraps of their once-great lore and artifacts and hoping to one day evict the Exarchs from their throne. Over the millenia, they banded into the four Diamond Orders, each descending from an earlier portfolio in the society of the lost Awakened Nation: the warrior-mages of the Adamantine Arrows, the spies and inquisitors of the Guardians of the Veil, the librarians and crypto-archaeologists of the Mysterium, and the advisers and power-brokers of the Silver Ladder.

In modern times, the Diamond Orders have formed a shaky alliance with the Free Council, who violently rejected an offer to ally with the Seer of the Throne and serve the Exarchs. The Four Council largely rejects the Diamond Orders' penchant for looking backward to the time of "Atlantis"--the classical name of the Awakened Nation--and seeks new directions and inspiration for magical practices within Sleeper humanity instead.

Now you too have cast off the Lie and Awakened into a larger world--a world that is still a prison. What will you do with the power you now wield? What will you sacrifice to gain more? And can you avoid the fate of so many before you whose reach exceeded their grasp?