Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter One: The Cosmos (section)

===Breakthrough:===

Cassandras are born in sorrow. This might be either a personal loss or general sorrow at the state of the world, but most often it is a combination of the two: a terrible loss that the burgeoning genius suffers that sheds light on one of the greater tragedies eating away at the World of Darkness. This loss is sometimes the genius' own fault. It is not often violent―violent tragedy leads more often to the creation of Grimms―but it is often sad, often pointless, a tragedy that reveals the underlying cruelty of the world.

Klagens are in fact slightly rarer than other catalysts, since the quiet contemplation necessary to catalyze as a Klagen matches poorly with the frantic Mania coursing through a new genius' brain. A Klagen's tragedy and her transformation must align just right: an aerospace engineer whose secret love gets dragged screaming into an air intake might instead catalyze as a Grimm (someone else is at fault), a Hoffnung (I can make sure this sort of thing never happens again), a Neid (someone planned this to ruin me), or, in all likelihood, not catalyze at all. The genius' tragedy must occur at the very cusp of a conceptual breakthrough. Perhaps the secret love feared the Klagen's growing obsession with the new technology, and foolishly snuck in to run her own tests. Betrayed, but not vengeful, the aerospace engineer catalyzes in sorrow and regret, but also sudden understanding: a way to perfect the engine, to give the tragedy meaning.