How did you learn to run or play Mage?

[aramis erak]

Um, no.

The architects of Modernity are the Technocracy, which the Sons of Ether left because they were so stodgy they voted to erase the luminiferous ether from consensus reality.

The Sons of Ether, overall, are mad scientists. They are generally far more interested in making cool stuff than in controlling anyone.

The cool stuff should have allowed them to dominate the Technocracy... which is part of the WTF? element for me.

 

[Staffan]

The cool stuff should have allowed them to dominate the Technocracy... which is part of the WTF? element for me.

Thing is, the Technocracy doesn't want cool stuff. They want safe, useful, and boring stuff. The Technocracy doesn't want flying cars, they want cars that get half an MPG more. They don't want a world with free exchange of ideas, they want a world where propaganda makes everyone believe the same thing.

 

[Umbran]

The cool stuff should have allowed them to dominate the Technocracy... which is part of the WTF? element for me.

The rest of the Technocracy has cool and scary stuff, though.

Underlying the split was a philosophical difference - the Sons of Ether mostly just want to play with their very neat toys and figure out cool new stuff. The rest of the Technocracy are the ones who want to dominate minds and existence. Ergo the Sons of Ether weren't going to dominate anyone, because domination really isn't what they want to do.

 

[Voadam]

I also got the sense that a lot of sons of ether were fairly individualistic on their scientific paradigms. One's death ray might work on different principles than another's leading to less consensus on how to collectively influence the dominant paradigm of the principles of reality.

 

[Voadam]

What Tradition was hardest to grok? Why? [/B]

Euthanatos followed by the Cult of Ecstasy.

Death mages I just was not clear on their reality paradigm as a cosmology and how that fit into clear archetypes. There was a little about reincarnation but nothing that clearly jumped out at me.

Ecstasy did not seem to be that big a paradigm either, more just hedonism and sensation to transcendental enlightenment, again not a lot to hook into as a world or magic archetype, hippies, druggies, sex cultists, club scenes.

 

[Seramus]

Thing is, the Technocracy doesn't want cool stuff. They want safe, useful, and boring stuff. The Technocracy doesn't want flying cars, they want cars that get half an MPG more. They don't want a world with free exchange of ideas, they want a world where propaganda makes everyone believe the same thing.

The Technocracy got up to some crazy stuff. They took over entire deep Horizon Realms and transformed them into factory dimensions, waged wars against local Horizon Realms to clear them out of undesirable ideas and then modify them to bleed influence into the subconscious of mankind. They had backlogs of experimental HIT Marks too advanced for consensus, just in case other branches of the Technocracy voted to advance tech a little further. Etc.

Honestly, the Week of Nightmares was tame compared to factory dimensions.