Nekose 39 points 1 year ago
be prepared to not understand it at all, at least at first.
Here's a crash course in some common subjects to ease you into it:
Mage is probably the single most complex system I've ever used. The complexity doesn't lie in the system, it comes from the application of the spheres of magic. By using or combining them, you can produce LITERALLY any effect you can think of. Explaining how your character performs that with his/her paradigm is a different story.
Basically, mages are given incredible cosmic power, but they don't understand how it works. Like any human, they began to rationalize different rules that govern it, even if they dont realize they are doing it. This forms your paradigm. If you spent your life practicing martial arts, then suddenly have the power to throw a semi truck down the street, you'll probably believe you have stumbled on a way to master your own Chi.
Conversely, if you are a world renowned scientist, and you suddenly find a way to magically transmute lead to gold, you'll probably think it was the nanomachines you built that are doing the work.
The point is, these things work because a mage BELIEVES it will work. They believe it harder then anything we have ever believed in their lifes. If the martial arts master were to become a parapalegic, he would think he has lost the ability to control forces around him. If hte scientist doesnt have his equipment, he will believe it is impossible to transmute matter. These limitation flavor your character, and also serve as the challenges you try to overcome.
the flip side of magic is that everyone has been doing it from the beginning of time without realizing. Every mom and pop who magically communicates across the global with a "cell phone" believes it isn't magic anymore. The age of science has set into the "subconscious consensus" a universal paradigm for most of the modern world. 747's levitate through the sky, nuclear fuel creates energy from nothing, and modern science has allowed us to create life from scratch. All of these are magic. The difference is, so many people believe its normal, reality has accepted it.
Awakened mages get to deal with what happens when reality doesn't accept what you believe. If you lose control of your belief, reality might just notice the paradox you are performing. eventually, this can cause reality to reflexively lash out at you, leading to all kinds of horribleness. Witnessing Sleepers, people who haven't awakened, make this problem even worse.
So the trick is to do magic coincidentally. Sure you could make gold bars by using sufficient amounts of the matter sphere, but this will be very difficult and very vulgar (a term used to describe magic that reality disagrees with)
Instead, magic is better used coincidentally. Using the sphere of entropy you can control randomness to win the state lottery. Its a 1 in a million chance, but it COULD happen. Reality is none the wiser.
Im starting to ramble, i may submit more if you are interested.

Another major topic is the Technocracy, or as they used to be called, the Order of Reason.
You see, in older days the traditions spent most of their time arguing with each other about whos interpretation of magic was correct, or at least the most practical. The order of Hermes spent absurd amounts of time cataloging the nature of magic, while the original members of the Cult of Ecstasy were busy hanging out with Dionysus in giant orgies that got so out of control they ended with everyone eating each other (cool story actually, read up on Dionysus if you're curious about his original festivals.)
The point is, all of the major mages were busy intellectually masturbating and had completely forgotten about the rest of humanity. All the poor bastards who hadn't awakened were at the mercy of a world full of people who still believed in monsters, and when the whole world thinks they are real, it makes them real.
Along comes a group of people who decide to do some good for the world. They called themselves the "Order of Reason". They would defend the common man, and provide tools that laymen could use without magic. They decided that all of the different approaches to magic did nothing but muddle the waters for the average person. If all styles of magic are equally correct, why not just pick one and stick with it? Once you've done that, you can even eventually teach everyone to believe in it!
Thus began the world as we know it. The Order of Reason began with the best of intentions, the world became safer. No more dragons stealing princesses. No more fairies kidnapping your children out of their cribs at night. John and Jane Doe's quality of life vastly increased.
But with this progress came sacrifice. The Order of Reason had to convince the world that the old ways were wrong. Thus began the witch hunts, the crusades, and the destroying of countless books and teachers of the older forms of magic. The traditional mages, to caught up in their own infighting, realized what was happening far to late. The order of reason had sculpted the way the world worked, and the subconscious consensus believed it.
The Renaissance came, and with the Order's backing ushered in the age of Science and Progress that everyone had dreamed of. Soon after that the industrial revolution set the gears in motion with so much inertia the machine wouldn't be able to stop even to this day. The world is now safe from the unknown, by virtue of the masses denying it's very existence.
But the traditions still exist. They've changed their strategies, and now actually have an agenda. They exist to wake up the sleepers, to convince the world that their is much more to life then reality TV and microwave meals. They work behind the scenes one step at a time to reawaken belief. Belief that life as you've known it is only a tenth of what it could be.
But the Order of Reason has set the world deep in its trenches. Nowadays they're known as the "Technocracy". They are the men in black, the G-man, and every other government cover up conspiracy you've ever heard of. Their goal is to maintain the status quo. Life is good enough how it is, and they'll fight to defend what they've created.
and that's the setting you're smack in the middle of.