Editing Lineage:Rebellion Lineages (section)

=Order of Siddhartha=

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Positive Stereotype:  Disciplined sage, master of illusions.

Negative Stereotype:  Religious dupe.

Symbol:  Empty circle.

Signature Spell:  Perfect Illusion.  “Refractions of the Mind’s Eye”

Magical Style:  A mishmash of various Indian traditions.

The Order of Siddhartha is dedicated to liberating humanity from this world, the cage of Heaven and Hell, by a process of enlightenment.  They take their inspiration from the Buddha, who they say escaped this reality.  Mages of the Order strive, through meditation, good works and study, to do likewise.  In the meantime, they work to help humanity by passing on their faith and by direct action against the forces of Heaven and Hell, violent action if necessary.  They are found where there are people searching for truth or in desperate need of help, as likely to show up in a temple, a center for the homeless, a university classroom, or urban ganglands.  Apprentice training is designed to help the student to achieve a mystical understanding of the nature of reality.  Magical training focuses on illusions, to help the student understand the illusionary nature of the world.

The Order of Siddhartha was founded in Venice in the 14th century by Italian mages that had turned to Theravada Buddhism.  They have long been persecuted by the great Houses of Italy, including the Flavii, Julii and Medici, and many fled to the new world when it was opened up to the west.  In the United States, the order quickly attracted local Buddhists from the immigrant population and by the late nineteenth century, most order members were of Chinese ancestry.  Today, there is a mix of people of all races and cultures.  Some Order members pursue personal enlightenment, while others work to help mortals to become enlightened.

Mortal Politics:  The order refuses to take stands on political matters, though individual members have many and varied personal opinions.


Cost:  20

Advantages:  Language (Hindi, Broken)

Skills:  Acrobatics, Folklore (India), Judo, Meditation, Occultism, Symbol Drawing (Indian), Thaumatology, Theology (Buddhist).

Spells:
Illusion and Creation:  Complex Illusion, Control Illusion, Dispel Illusion, Know Illusion, Perfect Illusion, Simple Illusion.
Light and Darkness:  Continual Light, Light.
Sound:  Silence, Sound.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  Is it any wonder that they consume human flesh when humanity is nothing but prey to them?

House of Cain:  They glorify in their role of predator, not seeing how much more they could be.

House of Capet:  Empty, fossilized and withering to nothing.  They need to wake up before there is nothing left of them but a dream.

House of Carolus:  They are lost wandering in the past, but the past is an illusion.

House of Flavii:  Calling the Flavii corrupt is like calling water wet.  They didn’t invent dishonesty, but they perfected it.

House of Hapsburg:  American mages underestimate their power.  They have all of Europe in their grasp.

House of Julii:  They hunger for power and for glory and only the whole world will satisfy them.

House of Lancaster:  They don’t love people, they love machines.  So they turn their back on what is real for what isn’t real.

Order of Lilith:  They worship their own desires, calling their prison a palace.  They are unquiet wraiths, crying in the wilderness.

House of Medici:  Money is just the vehicle.  What they really want is respect.  That is a desire that can never be satiated.

House of Romanov:  They can either stay stuck in the past or they can let go of their old self-image.

House of Stuart:  Do they really think that their petty empire will last forever?  Great kings come and great kings go and the world marches on just the same.

House of Trastámara:  So alienated from enlightenment, they would rather be demons than human beings.

House of Ummayad:  Who knows?

House of Warwick:  They hide in darkness because they are so ugly when exposed.

House of York:  They grow more aggressive every day and will either seize power for themselves or be destroyed.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  Rebel, yes, but recognize that the state is the least of your problems.  Human tyranny is awful, but the tyranny of false reality is worse.

Order of Copernicus:  They see everything but themselves.  The world of our perception tells us more about ourselves than the universe as it is.

Order of Darwin:  They understand where we come from.  Now they must understand where we are heading.

Order of Eve:  They want to bring humanity to paradise in the external world and that can never happen.  Paradise is inside us.

Order of Jesus:  Haven’t you learned yet that we must help ourselves?  Your love is inspiring, but you need wisdom too.

Order of Judas:  They are too focused on external enemies to see the enemy within.  How will they transform themselves when they are always shadowing other people?

Order of Solon:  They fight for freedom, but to be free you must stop fighting.  They do not want to enslave others, but they do not know how to free them either.

Order of Spartacus:  When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

Order of Thales:  They are hunting for truth, but have already bound themselves in rules.  What if there is more to truth then their preconceptions allow?

Order of Utnapishtim:  They never change and so they will never improve themselves.  They do not meditate.  They simply wait for nothing in particular.