The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to:

The TrADitions

A Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions for

Mage 20th Anniversary Edition
 Credits Special Thanks to:
Written and developed by: Robbie Soussan Leah Mellors
Art works by: Saskia Rijk
Killji_q, Cover Art, @instagram/killjo_q Christy Hounshel
Volkniv, Kitori, https://www.deviantart.com/volkniv, used Damien Ley
with permission of Damien Ley. Duncan Gledhill
Andrea Payne, Chloe, instagram.com/andrealeora, used Ahmetchan Demirci
with permission of Christy Hounshel.
Georg Heinke
“Stels”, by kirill777, CC: https://opengameart.org/con-
Comrade Yui
tent/stels
Gavin Trask
Stéphane Wootha Richard, various, CC, https://archive.
org/details/Wootha_Public_Domain I Jaye Sunsurn
“Starship Pilot”, by Justin Nichol, CC, https://open-
gameart.org/content/starship-pilot
Volkniv , https://www.deviantart.com/volkniv
Andrea Payne, https://www.instagram.com/andrealeora.
art/

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Mage the Ascension visit The Hermetic Hipster on YouTube.

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2 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

 Table of
Contents
Introduction 4 Order of Hermes 44
Family Matters 45
Akashic Brotherhood 8 Hermetic Houses 48
Hermetic Rank 49
Cooking Lesson 9
Merits and Flaws 50
Do 11
Merits and Flaws 12
Society of Ether 52
Celestial Chorus 14 Istanbul Cafe 53
Scientific Method 55
Finding God 15
Merits and Flaws 56
Faith 17
Merits and Flaws 18
Verbena 58
Cult of Ecstasy 20 Rooftop Garden 59
Heirs of the Wyck 61
Chasing Dragons 21
Merits and Flaws 62
Ananda 24
Merits and Flaws 26
Virtual Adepts 64
Dreamspeakers 28 Adventurer/Programmer 65
Elite 68
City Living 29
Merits and Flaws
Spirit Favour 32

Realm Walkers 32
Merits and Flaws 34 Final Word 72

Euthanatoi 36
Missing Person Report 37
Dharmic Duty 40
Merits and Flaws 42

Table of Contents 3
...i t ’ s a k in d o f
Ma g i k . . .
He woke up late, groggily groping for his phone on the
bedside table, then flinched as the bright screen activated,
glaring a time much later than most of his disciplined Order
would greet the day. Moaning after seeing the time, as if late
for some event, he still began scrolling through various apps
and social media updates, letting the last memories of sleep
evaporate in the harsh light of a news feed.

With a groan he got up, lurched out of bed, and went

hunting for caffeine. On his way to the kitchen he tapped
the ON button on his laptop, before angrily glaring out at
the midday sunshine as the device hummed into activation.
After the imported energy drink he had taken from the fridge
washed away the last remnants of the night, he stood in
front of a mirror, running his hands though unruly hair and
unkempt beard, before pulling on a shirt that some of the more
ancient masters of his Order might appreciate as trendy. Last
touches were affixing a symbol of House Thig to his lapel,
grabbing last night’s pizza for breakfast, and slumping down
in a messy home office chair.

A few moments of composure, preparing for the final

part of the grand ritual he had been working on for months.
Each recording, SEO optimisation, layout edit, Wikipedia hole,
re-design, YouTube tutorial, and Adobe update a small step
that had led to this.

Red button blinking, mic recording, script open in another

tab;

“Hello, this is the Hermetic Hipster,

and welcome to my channel...”
4 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
 The Nine
Mystic
Traditions
“Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently
absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have
calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine
times out of ten.”
– Terry Pratchett

Magus (mā-gəs) noun

Plural: magi (mā-​ˌjī)
Definition of Magus
Mage tar
ot
1: a: a member of a hereditary priestly class among the
ancient Medes and Persians

card
b: often capitalized: one of the traditionally three wise
men from the East paying homage to the infant Jesus
2: archaic, literary: Magician, Sorcerer
3: a member of The Nine Mystic Traditions;
a secret society formed in 1466 by like-minded mystic template
will-workers to combat the rise of a scientific
concensus among humanity, to preserve and protect
mystic practices from being overwhelmed by their
many enemies, and defend magic itself in the face of
a world trying to destroy it.

Intro 5
 What is in this book?
In this community-created book you will find rules and stories about the most
iconic of the awakened mages from the World of Darkness; The Nine Mystic
Traditions. New backgrounds and knowledges, fictions, and faction-specific merits
and flaws, will add flavour and personality to your Mage the Ascension campaign.
Thank you for picking
up The Hermetic Hipster’s
Guide to The Nine Mystic
Traditions. The book is a player
focused book that gives flavour
and extra options to Mage the
Ascension games. This book was
created with input from players
from around the world, with
fictions and artwork inspired
by members of the Mage com-
munity.
What is a
community created
project?
I wrote this book (mostly),
but a lot of the artwork and
fictions are of, and about,
real Mage player’s characters. Some artwork was kindly
donated by people supporting the project, and some were
commissioned especially for the book. The fictions were created to
immortalise those characters and were a collaborative creation
between myself and members of the Mage community. I am
eternally grateful to everyone who has supported the project,
and it literally would not exist without them.
The Hermetic Hipster? Where do I
know that name?
You likely didn’t until I asked myself this question on your
behalf. I am a Mage the Ascension player and Storyteller, and
I have a YouTube channel where you can watch videos and art
animations I make about Mage the Ascension (The Hermetic
Hipster on YouTube).
Where are the rules for Technocracy
or Disparate Alliance characters?
Hold your horses, let’s see how well this one does first…
6 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
Wait? The Traditions? Mage the
Ascension? Who?
If you have just picked up this book and are finding
it all very confusing, I recommend buying a book called
Mage the Ascension, 20th Anniversary Edition, or M20 for short.
This book is a supplement for that game, and I recommend
you start there. Or if you like your exposition in video form,
follow the link in the credits to my YouTube channel.
Why do the Traditions exist?
The Nine Mystic Traditions were founded as a response
by powerful awakened organisations to aggression from the
Order of Reason, who seek to destroy mystic societies and groups
who oppose their rational and scientific view of the world.
Who are in the Traditions?
There are nine traditions, made up of very varied
magical groups from around the world, from tribal shamans
and esoteric wizards, to hacktavists and death cultists. Within
these groups, there are many smaller groups and factions, and
ultimately each individual Tradition mage is as unique as their
viewpoint and outlook.
What do they stand for?
Each Tradition has a different and disparate ideology, but
they are unified in their goal of survival against their many
enemies and preserving their practices and philosophy in a world
in which they are becoming increasingly irrelevant. In the face
of this reality, the Traditions stand for freedom, and strive for
a world where different viewpoints can co-oexist and thrive.
Why should I want to play a Tradition
mage?
The Traditions represent a huge variety of potential
character types and are subversive, hopeful, extravagant and
non-conformist. Traditions characters are exciting and push
the boundaries of the World of Darkness. The Traditions are
the poster children of Mage the Ascension, and despite other
groups becoming much more playable as Mage has aged, they
remain the core of the game.
6
 How to use this book
In the next few chapters, you will find sections dedicated to Additionally, for storytellers, consider allowing your players
each of the Nine Mystic Traditions. Each one has a short story extra freebies, or expanding the freebie cap at character creation
inspired by supporters of this project. These stories really show if you want to use these unique skills and backgrounds without
the breadth of Mage fandom, and range from action-packed them competing for points with the core books’ abilities.
stories of cyborgs fighting evil Nephandi, to contemplative
descriptions of a rooftop garden.
Merits and flaws marked
After that, there are additional rules and abilities for you with an asterisk (*)
to use on your Tradition characters and NPCs. Each faction has a list of merits and flaws to help
enhance their playstyle, and highlight the unique qualities
and quirks of each faction. Although many of these should be
Each faction has at least one new option to support their
unique and only apply to the Tradition they fall in, some are
particular style and reflect their own practices and abilities
interchangeable and will be marked with an asterisk * to show
in the game’s lore. These come in either the form of a new
that other Traditions might consider them as well if appropriate.
background, merit, or special knowledges and ability. Each rule
has its use explained within its own text, so don’t worry about
fitting them into your game; it all works seamlessly.
Disclaimer
This book has attempted to be as reader accessible as
Many of these new abilities will cost you background
possible. However, certain sections do cover heavy subjects or
points at character creation, or as you purchase them in-game.
have potentially upsetting imagery depicted. The Euthanitos
It should always be remembered that with ALL purchases and
and Celestial Chorus us introduction stories deal with loss and
experience spends, you should justify it with in-world reasons,
death, the Verbena story has described imagery of blood loss
but with these powerful and unique abilities this rule is even
and potential sensitivity for self-harm, and others have fantasy
more important. This should give the players and storytellers
depictions of violence, and the Cult of Ecstasy fiction contains
new rules to play with and new plot hooks to explore, and
description of drug use.. Specific merits and flaws also referance
sessions can be entirely devoted to players building up to and
sensitive issues for some players, so as always, communicate with
gaining these unique abilities.
your players about what they may or may not wish to explore
at your gaming table or online platform.

Intro 7
 There’s nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men.
True nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
The oils sizzled as the chef added
fresh prawns to the pan, and again a few
moments later when he tossed in the sliced
mushrooms. He moved swiftly, perfectly
timing each of the half dozen dishes on
the hobs of the small kitchen. He chopped
vegetables with keen but simple blades and
elegantly poured streams of sauce and oils
into pots and frying pans. His movements
were smooth and graceful, with no flair
or showmanship, just the most efficient
movements needed as each dish called
his attention.
Behind him, a younger woman leaned against the low
kitchen door, looking bored, her muscular arms crossed
across her body in a sulk as she fidgeted with the hem of her
hoodie. Her arms and neck that showed above the hoodie were
heavily tattooed, traditional Thai ink, a mixture of Theravada
Buddhist and folk art designs, with stylised animals and
warriors surrounded by Sanskrit and Old Khmer prayers and
incantations. She was clearly waiting for the chef to notice her,
and small facial movements betrayed her growing frustration.
On her calf, a water buffalo tattoo stomped and flared its
nostrils, mirroring her annoyance.
“Pii Tong.” She eventually blurted out, catching the
The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to the Nine Mystic Traditions
chef’s attention. “You said you had a lesson for me today. I
had hoped you would help me work on my Muai Thai, or
swordmanship, or...”
The chef lunged at her unexpectedly, a silver flash of steel
striking towards her face. Tisana, caught off guard, instinctively
lurched backwards, knocking her shoulder on the door frame,
making her half lose her balance, and she instinctively grabbed
the countertop next to her for support. The strike stopped short
of her face by a few inches.
“First lesson, apprentice, do not interrupt me while I am
cooking unless you want to eat burnt noodles tonight. Try the
soup; tell me what you think.”
Tisana looked at the metal cooking spoon in front of
her face and saw the dark broth of soup her master had been
cooking; not a drop had been spilt in the fake attack. Her anger
flared up and she stepped back away from the offered food.
“I was sent to you, master, to learn the inner secrets, not
to critique your cooking. I am a warrior not a cook.”
Tong chuckled. “You can learn The Way behind a stove as
much as on the battlefield, Tisana. You should have patience
and…”
“So this is some Karate Kid bullshit? Wax on, wax off?
If I master chopping vegetables then suddenly, I’m a master
swords-woman? Give me a break.” The tiger tattoo on her
Akashic Brotherhood 9
forearm glowed faintly and barred its fangs.
“No apprentice, that is not the lesson, though you do
tend to chop mushrooms too thinly.” He turned away from
her and gently stirred the soup he had offered her. There was
no admonishment in his voice for her outburst.
“The lesson is that The Way is a path to complete and
perfect yourself. Focusing on only a few aspects of Do will
lead you away from the path of balance and true self-mastery
and down the road of narrow-minded obsession. It takes great
discipline to devote yourself fully to mundane tasks when your
passions would drag you away and life’s events would push you
to focus on seemingly useful skills. But each of the eight limbs
is as important as the martial practices for becoming the best
10 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
version of yourself.” He lifted the spoon to his mouth and
gently blew on it to cool the broth.
Tisana lowered her head in a small bow, her anger turned
to shame at her loss of control, however slight. “I am sorry for
doubting you, master. You are of course right. I will strive to…”
“Pff don’t be so sincere all the time. There will be lots of
time for training, but we should do so on a full stomach, and
once we have taken this to the community kitchen.”
Tisana lent over the soup and inhaled deeply. Under her
hoodie on her upper back, a tattoo of a golden carp leapt from
a stylised river. “This does smell good...”
“Of course it smells good; I made it. If you like, I could
teach you...”
 New Background - Do
Do is The Way. Often seen by other Traditions as the Akashic’s signature martial art, for most within the Brotherhood, it
is much more than that; a path of self discipline that moulds and guides them towards enlightenment. It has eight limbs,
each one as crucial to The Way as the others. The Way also teaches to reject worldly and unimportant distractions and
to broaden one’s world view, and only by embracing this difficult philosophy can an Akashic truly achieve perfection
of their vessel and strive for true enlightenment.

Akashic characters may purchase Do as a new skill at character creation, or as they learn it in-game.

When choosing Do you must also designate eight other talents, skills, or knowledges to represent your chosen avenues
of the eight paths of Do. Make a note next to these stats, but feel free to change and alter them as you learn your
character better or they grow as the game progresses. You can choose any abilities for any limb of Do, but it should
make sense for your PC and be justified to your storyteller. For example, the limb of Shastamargat may be practised
through swordsmanship by one Akashic, but may equally be expressed by pottery, or car mechanics by another.
Follow the rough guidelines below for descriptions of each limb.

Your Do skill may never be more than one dot higher than the lowest of these abilities. You may also add your skill
in Do to any of these abilities, representing universal truths you have achieved through this practice. Do allows an
Akashic to reach levels of skill with the tasks and disciplines they devote themselves to, but also they must never over-
extend to just a single path and maintain a balance that is conducive to enlightenment.

You may also use Do as an instrument in itself, and when using one of your limbs of Do you may also add your Do
score to any practice roll.

• Dhyana: The limb of meditation and awareness.

• Prajna: The limb of ethics and compassion.
• Karma: The limb of attentiveness and devotion.
• Sunyakaya: The limb of the “Empty Body”, of silence and listening.
• Dharmamukti: The limb of the “Clasped Hands”, of physical confrontation and evasion.
• Shastamargat: The limb of weapons, of precision and tools.
• Tricanmarga: The limb of “Inner Struggle”, of balance within the self and knowledge of one’s place in the cosmos.
• Jivahasta: The limb of the “Healing Hand”, of medicine and healing.

Example: Tisana, a Thai Akashic; street defender concept.

• Dhyana: Meditation (Buddist Prayer).
• Prajna: Streetwise (living among poor and needy).
• Karma: Perform (guitar).
• Sunyakaya: Alertness (being aware of her surroundings).
• Dharmamukti: Brawl (Mai-Thai)
• Shastamargat: Technology (motorbikes)
• Tricanmarga: Politics (class politics)
• Jivahasta: Craft (cooking Thai food. Just getting started!)

Note: This is an alternative mechanical application of Do, and you can find a version of this in M20 (page 426). This
version treats The Way as less of a martial art, removing the focus on combat manoeuvres and making it a braoder
application of The Way. We recommend reading both and choosing a version that fits your chronicle best (even if
that means a blend of both).

Akashic Brotherhood 11
 Merits and Flaws
Merits
Balanced (3 pt.)
You find comfort and control in balance, never pursuing
one limb of Do too far before focusing on another. As long as
all your limbs of Do are at least within one dot of each other
(not including Do itself), then you may add one dice to all
mundane uses of those abilities. This dice does not count for
practice rolls.
Warrior of the Way (5 pt.)
Akashayana find balance in all things, and although they
are master of many non-combat arts, Do has served them well
over the millennia. You may add your Do rating to initiative
rolls. Additionally, the difficulty of all combat manoeuvres
that would take the difficulty of an attack over 8 are made at
difficulty 8 as long as you are using one of your limbs of Do to
make the attack. This counts for targeted shots, and shooting
an opponent in cover or at extreme range, or even attacking
an opponent with mystical defences that increase the difficulty
to strike them.

Child of Meru (2 pt.)

You are counted as an ally by spirits of eastern pantheons
and mythology aside from those who are truly evil. These
spirits will treat with you fairly and look to you for assistance
if they need it. Additionally, in the Umbra and other spirit
realms, you appear to bear aspects of your spiritual ancestory,
such as having a tail like Sun Wukong or the great stature of
Guan Yu. The Akashic teachings have spread far and wide for
millennia so this allies to any and all spirit pantheons your
Storyteller chooses.

Soul of Stone (4 pt.)

Your vessel is your castle. Through your teachings, you
have made your body and mind bastions of defence against
outside influences. You may add your Do rating to any roll
to resist magical mental influences and to resist any drugs or
poisons. You may also soak damage from these sources with
your Do rating.

Peacemaker* (2 pt.)
Despite their warlike past, the Akashics have learned the
value of seeking peace over violence if possible. These skills
have served them well in the Council of Nine, and they often
mediate between the younger, hotter tempered Traditions.
If you attempt to mediate a conflict (even if you are on one
the side of the mediation), you gain -2 difficulty of all rolls to
persuade and encourage peace. Additionally, all rolls by the
other parties involved in the mediation are at -1 difficulty to
find peaceful solutions and resist being goaded into anger, and
+1 difficulty to any rolls to provoke or cause offence.

12 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
Ascetic* (2 pt.)
Your teachings and philosophy require you to embrace
extreme poverty and the rejection of the material. You may
never have more than 1 dot in resources and own very few
material possessions. This should be role-played in other
aspects of your character as well.

Unbalanced (0 pt.)
You favour one aspect of Do over the others, giving you
great talent, but find embracing balance difficult. Choose a
Limb of Do; this limb’s corresponding ability costs half exp
and freebies to buy at character creation and during play.
Then choose another limb of Do; this limb’s corresponding
stat costs double exp and freebies to buy at character creation
or during play.

Disconnected* (2 pt.)
Your mind is steeped in philosophy and mantras, finding
relating to the mundane world challenging. Any empathy rolls
not directly tied to philosophy or magical matters are at +2
difficulty. This should also be represented in gameplay by an
aloof detachment from those around you, and a profound
lack of concern over matters beneath your notice.

Hidebound* (4 pt.)
The Akashic Tradition is ancient and it’s practices have
served the Brotherhood well. Modern contrivances and
compromises are distractions to enlightenment and should be
shunned to better stay on the path. While you have this flaw,
you may never integrate new instruments into your practice,
nor may you put aside instruments as you gain ranks of Arete.

Himalayan Veteran (4 pt.)

Your avatar in a previous life, or a previous
incarnation of your soul, fought the thanatotic cultists in the great
Himalayan War, a conflict that still scars you. When dealing
with Chakravanti or their Euthanatoi allies, you are at +2
difficulty for any social rolls outside of intimidation and
should role-play your hatred of your supposed Tradition allies.
This does not mean you attack them on sight, but you may
challenge Chakravanti mages you meet, or otherwise ignore
them altogether, and will take insult at the most banal
comments.

Akashic Brotherhood 13
 God must be a painter. Why else would we have so many colours?
Alicia - A Beautiful Mind
Georg entered the bar, pushing the
door open with his elbow, keeping his
hands in his pockets against the cold rain.
It took a moment to adjust before his eyes
accustomed themselves to the relatively
bright lights of the bar. Unlike in the film
noir he enjoyed watching, no one looked up
at him as he entered, no local tough eyed
him up, and he slipped in easily among
the other patrons. The “Ponyhof” was the
kind of place no one who was looking for
attention would go, its ironic name from
the phrase “Leben ist kein Ponyhof” meaning ‘life isn’t easy’, was
the kind of dark joke the residents of Leipzig liked.
He entered one of the many empty booths, took off his
drenched coat, and sat down, placing his coat next to him and
giving the seat the nearest thing it had had to a wash for a few
weeks. He sat still for a moment, and the woman collecting
the glasses walked past him.
“No table service grandpa, if you are too drunk to stand at
the bar, you’d better go home.” As she spoke, she recognised him.
“Oh, hello Rabbi. What can I get for you?”
Georg had caught his breath. “No need, I can go to the
bar like everyone else. But I may sit for a moment longer if
it’s all the same.”
“Fine.”
“When I do go, I see there is a lovely bottle of Schnapps
on the third shelf up next to the mirror, and I will order that.”
“…Right.” She lingered for a moment longer, before
walking away.
“I would like the whole bottle, my dear. If it is not any
trouble.”
She turned to glance back, rolled her eyes, and went to
get him his drink.
“You really do have a way with people Georg, nothing has
changed.” An elegant woman dressed in timeless fashion was
standing at the side of the alcove Georg had chosen for himself.
“Still impressing on people that you’re a real Rabbi, I see.”
“I did no such thing; she made that assumption herself.”
“Yeah, and your get up had nothing to do with that, did it?”
Georg shrugged.
“Won’t you sit? You are making me anxious hovering
there like that.”
“Well, I do prefer to be invited, Rabbi.” The woman said
mockingly, and she took a seat next to him. “You look like shit.”
“Charming.”
“I say that as a friend.”
“We are not friends, daemon.”
“Oh, no? Isn’t that who you spend your evenings with
when you have no one else? Friends?”
Celestial Chorus 15
 Georg did not reply. He was one of you, wasn’t He? Sorry, old habits. Look I will
“Well, you have sought me out for something I presume, help, but I must have something in return, you know the rules.”
Rabbi. You know you have something I want.” “Sure, I do. How about I buy you a drink?”
“Not that, daemon, never that.” …
The glass collector returned with the bottle of Schnapps Later that night, as the last other patron filed out of the
he had asked for. “Your tab I assume, Rabbi?” She did not Ponyhof, the glass collector walked by the old teacher’s booth.
notice the woman with him. “Time to go home, Rabbi, wake up and I will call you a taxi.”
“Please, my dear, you are very thoughtful.” He did not move. He was laying on the table, still, an
Another eye roll as she left. empty bottle of Schnapps by his elbow, and two glasses next
“Well, dear Rabbi, what is it you want? As far as I can tell to it. A look of contentment on his face.
you do not have much left in your life for a trade anymore. Outside in the pouring rain, a fashionably dressed woman
Estranged family, poor health, no material wealth, not even a observed the panicked glass collector shaking the old man,
temple to teach in.” trying in vain to wake him up. She pulled up her coat collar
“I only need one more thing, you know how close I am, against the rain that seemed to somehow miss her, and turned
daemon, you know what I have sacrificed to find it.” away from the bar.
“I know, poor me, poor me, pour me another drink.” She “Baruch dayan emet. I hope you find the answers you want
glanced at him cruelly, then pouted when her jibe did not get old man. He really doesn’t deserve people like you.”
any reaction. “Fine, what is it then, and what do I get? If you
won’t barter your ragged soul, then what?”
“Just help me take the last step so I can meet him face
to face and get the answers I need.” She looked at him for a
moment, not in shock or surprise, but with an uncharacteristic
look of pity.
“You really have thrown it all away haven’t you? Everything
that made your life worth living, everything that gave you even
the slightest meaning, on this pointless quest. You know it
won’t mean anything once you find it, there isn’t some grand
moment of victory, he won’t be pleased with you, you know, he
won’t be happy you have thrown your life away to find it out.”
“Shhhh daemon, I’m not buying your lecture.”
She rolled her eyes just like the glass collector. “Look I
won’t do this, I’m a daemon, but I’m not a monster… and
besides, what if it doesn’t help?”
“As you said, I don’t have much to lose.”
“…Fuck.”
“Don’t worry, it will be easy. See, I am helping you”, he
said, as he poured another glass of the strong-smelling liquid.
“You faithful… not a lot of you left you know. Time was
my job was a challenge, faithful by the bundle died on fires
before denying him. Now… well, you been to a temple recently?
Or a church or mosque? Empty. Fucking iPhones and Twitter
are putting us out of business.”
“Heh, good old times, daemon. And now all you have
left are failed teachers, with no family or possessions to prey
on. Well, for a little while longer at least.” He examined the
half empty bottle.
“You think it will give you the answer you need, teacher?”
Her tone was not mocking now.
“Yes, I have faith it will.”
“Jesus Christ.” He gave her an annoyed glance. “What?
16 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
 New Background - Faith
The core paradigm of the Celestial Chorus is their Faith in The One. Their belief in the many faces of The One fuels
their magical powers and gives them a fearsome reputation among the “evil doers” of the World of Darkness.
Throughout history, awakened believers have performed amazing miracles and endured terrible hardships with
only their belief in the divine to sustain them. This is true even in increasingly secular modern times, where faithful
Choristers find their belief a warming bastion against the cold onslaught of sterile secular disbelief.
This faith is often part of a religious mage’s foci, but some mages have such a deep faith that it can fuel their effects
directly and give them a significant advantage when dealing with the unholy.
Faith is a special stat but can be noted down in backgrounds. It may be bought at character creation, but if it is
done so it may not be bought above 2, and must be increased in game play. If bought with exp or freebies at any
time this stat costs double the normal amount of either. This is an alternative to using the True Faith merit, found
on page 644 of Mage 20th Anniversary Edition, which gives more strata to the ability and represents faith as a
growing and changing part of a religious mage’s life.

Faith grants you the abilities below:

• Each dot of Faith you may add an equivalent bonus to the character’s willpower when resisting mind altering
effects from “abominable” creatures, such as vampiric disciplins, Garou gifts, or Mind effects from a Nephandus.
• Faith may substitute for awareness when attempting to detect “abominable” supernatural forces.
• Faith may be called on once a session to fuel a magical effect that directly targets, resists, or influences an
abomination group, or has a positive or protective effect on an ally in dire need. Add your faith to a single
Arete roll as you might the Cult background to represent an outpouring of zeal in the face of a dire situation.
Faith may not be used to fuel any inconsequential effect, as decided by the storyteller, and should be used for
dramatic moments. This might be during an epic combat or to heal a badly wounded sleeper who might die
otherwise. This is at the storyteller’s discretion and should be used dramatically to represent the reserves of faith
and spiritual power the Chorister can call on. This boost may be as part of a ritual or extended roll but will only
last for a single dice roll.

For the purpose of this power, the storyteller has ultimate discrecion over what exactly an “abominable” group is, but
as a rough guide Nephandi, evil spirits, demons, wyrm tainted people and animals, all undead, all but the most pure
garou, and all but the most seelie changelings would count for the purposes of this power. Additonally, awakened,
who are directly opposed to the mage’s paradigm, could potentially count for the purposes of this power.

Celestial Chorus 17
 Merits and Flaws
Merits
Patron (3 pt.)
You are an embodiment of, or favoured by, a religious spirit
and receive guidance from them. This may be Islamic Saints
(Wali), Catholic angels or patron saints, or Hindu minor gods.
You may take the totem background to represent this favour,
using it as written, despite not being a shamanistic character,
but you must choose a spirit linked to your religion.

Ecumenist (2 pt.)
You have a working knowledge of other religions and
sects within the Celestial Chorus, and take an open-minded
approach to doctrine. You count as having a similar set of foci
to all other religious mages, and can create co-ordinated effects
with them without penalty.

Angelic Voice* (2 pt.)

Many Choristers sing, the clue is in the name, and you are
particularly adept at this practice. You can invoke truly divine
feeling in those who hear your singing, and your effects that
are focused through your voice are magnificent to behold. All
Performance rolls to sing are at –2 difficulty, and your voice
counts as a unique instrument for your effects.

Slayer (5 pt.)
You believe you have been chosen by The One to hunt
down and slay the evil creatures of the World of Darkness. You
may add your dots in Faith to a single attack roll per session
against an abominable opponent. You may or may not have
an excellent theme song.

Humble (1 pt.)
Your mage doesn’t have much of an ego, or at least is good
at hiding it. They rarely grab the limelight or place themselves
centre stage, instead downplaying their own abilities and
accomplishments. This lets you better observe and understand
the actions of others. You get -1 difficulty on all Empathy rolls,
but lose this bonus if you brag, seek praise, make an issue
or situation about yourself, or otherwise act in a proud or
conceited manner. You will get the bonus back after being
humble again for a week.

18 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
1, you are at -2 for all social rolls among fellow Choristers and
you will be the first port of call when something suspicious
occurs and the authorities want answers. If you take this flaw,
you should create a paradigm and practice that is extreme and
Dogmatic (2 pt.) worthy of the title of heretical.
You do not play well with others. You may not
collaborate on effects with other mages, even if they have a religious
paradigm, unless they are of the same faith as you. Exactly how Strict Adherent (2 pt.)
broad the Church your character follows is up to you. Your religion or sect has a religious code, such as Keeping
Haram/Kosher, observing the Sabbath, or holding certain
creatures sacred. For you these are more than observations and
Faithless (5 pt.) your must keep these practices even in the face of adversity. If
you perform any act your religious code of conduct would ban,
You have lost your faith in The One. More than agnosticism
you must atone in a manner particular to your faith. For every
or atheism, you once held your belief in your god as central
full 24 hours you go without an act of atonement you will lose
to your identity, maybe even magic, and you have had some
one Willpower as the knowledge of your transgression eats away
shattering of your belief that has left you questioning your faith.
at you. The exact nature of a transgression and atonement is
You may not use any benefits from or buy more dots in the Faith
up to you to work out with your storyteller.
background. You also struggle to use your magic based around
faith and may not use any tools directly tied to your faith. This
ends once you confront your spiritual dilemma and buy off
this flaw. Seekings are a perfect time to do this for awakened
characters. Alternatively, you may remove this flaw without
spending exp if you have a significant change in your paradigm
and practice, casting off your faith and finding enlightenment
in some new philosophy. This should be a significant story for
your character and can not happen overnight.

Hermit (3 pt.)
You prefer solitude to better hear the song of creation and
find crowds and company a distraction. You follow the example
of the early desert fathers and other solitary holy people from
history and find The One in the world’s quiet places. While
among company you are at +1 difficulty to social interactions
and Arete rolls. This is increased to +2 if you are in a crowded
area such as an inner city street, or at a sports stadium. An
exception to this is a small group of personal companions, who
will not count as a distraction as long as they are quiet and
unobtrusive for the effect’s duration. On the plus side, when
truly alone, such as in the wilderness or secluded in your own
personal estate, your effects are coincidental as long as they do
not affect any other living beings or break your solitude (close
companions are not an exception for this bonus).

Heretic (2 pt.)
The Choristers have shed a lot of blood and sweat to tie
together the Tradition’s varying faiths, but your particular beliefs
are so extreme that you have drawn the ire of the Tradition at
large and may even be outright banned. Even historical heretical
groups such as Cathars, Sufis, and Isma’ili look at your practices
with suspicion. Your status within the Traditions is capped at

Celestial Chorus 19
 A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”
- Frank Zappa
Naomi gasped in pleasure as the feeling
radiated through her, forcing her hands
to twist into claws, raking at her own hair
before stretching, arching back, reaching
upwards. As her gasp escalated into a
primal scream, her eyes snapped open,
staring into the beautiful empty moment. It
held for only seconds, but in that moment
she was on top of a mountain. Her life
was scattered beneath her, her desires and
needs, fears and hates, her very identity
and self, shards of Naomi Cross. Above her, just the empty
sky. She looked up.
Down in the valleys of her soul, deep in the darkest
cave, golden eyes glowed and brimstone breath shimmered as
something stirred.
The feeling vanished. She was back now, in the valley,
familiar and claustrophobic.
Naomi slid off the bed, pulling the clothes discarded twenty
minutes before, stomping out of her room. As she opened the
door, the sound flooded through. Stepping out and leaning on
the rickety balcony, Naomi gazed down, the flashing strobes
and flailing glowsticks revealing the beautiful, undulating mass
of revellers below.
When she found this place, it was an abandoned
warehouse being used as a hideout by those attacking her cabal.
Now, it was their domain, their home, their Oblivion. Setting
up an underground rave in this part of town had proven easy
enough, a few favours called in and plenty of up and coming
DJs looking to play a set. Converting the old office spaces into
improvised bedrooms had proven more challenging.
So many bodies together made the air on the dancefloor
hot and sticky, the choking effect not helped by the cheap
dry ice machine wafting smoke across the room. It did not
matter, the bass was loud, a battering ram looking to break
down any inhibitions in its path. The flickering multi-coloured
lights reflected off the body paint of the dancers, producing a
flickering kaleidoscope through the haze.
The feelings she had chased away were growing again,
shadows creeping back into her consciousness. Below her, the
dancers appeared as a single writhing creature, its scaled coils
glowing neon, thrashing tail lashing sweat and elation across
the crowd, its thousands of golden eyes beckoning Naomi,
promising her the next mountain top.
Embracing the relentless beat, the suffocating air, the
chaotic light, Naomi danced for hours amongst the crowd.
Sometimes she was alone. Sometimes with another individ-
ual, momentarily becoming the most important thing in
each other’s lives before discarding one another for the next
partner. She sometimes laughed with a group, dancing in a
primal circle or jumping as one in time to the throb of their
collective experience. Someone told her they loved her, total
Cult of Ecstasy 21
strangers embraced her, barriers that existed out there in the
world rusted away to dust: for these small moments, they were
just dancers and nothing else.
All the while, she was breathless and exhausted, but
ever deeper she dived into the sound, the smell, the energy.
Her shoulders felt the fatigue first, then her lower legs. Every
muscle steadily announced its presence, beginning to fight
against the music. Suddenly she found herself bored, no longer
in the trance of the music, but pushing her body through the
motions. She stopped, and turned away from the person she
had been dancing with, drawing out a moment of heartbreak
and rejection that seared across their face, before they turned
again into the dancefloor and enslaved themselves to the music
and movement.
Naomi walked through the club, ignoring the regulars who
signalled to her to join them at the tables, offering her drinks
or bags of powder and pills. Members of her own cabal, an
eccentric collection of fellow awakened who she counted as her
adopted family, tried to distract her recognising her expression,
but they didn’t exist for her right now. She pushed past the
crowd at the entrance to the warehouse, shouldering open the
heavy door. The cold air sobered her up slightly, the icy wind
shrieking off the Hudson wiping her sweat-drenched hair into
her face. She imagined the mountain top, it was cold there too.
One of the doormen tried to get her attention, asking if she
wanted his coat. Nice guy, genuinely cared about people. Not
like most of them back in there. Not like her.
Turning right and wrapping her inadequate clothes around
herself, she walked past the supplementary smokers who seemed
to appear like barnacles outside every nightlife venue in the city.
A stream of exhaled smoke curled into a golden wyrm caught
in the streetlights and wind. She wanted a smoke.
“Give me a cigarette.” She barked at one of the huddled
addicts. They looked taken aback.
“Um, no. I only have, like, two left for the night.” She
looked back at her friends who laughed. Naomi really wanted
that cigarette.
“I’ll give you…” she rummaged through her pockets. “…
this.” She pulled out the clump of objects her hand had found
in her jeans. The girl’s eyes widened.
“Um, sure, take the pack.” Naomi took the already lit
cigarette from her cocked hand.
“I only want one.”
As she stalked off, sucking down the smoke into her lungs,
she heard the friends exclaiming about the hundreds of dollars
she just handed over. Worth it. She walked for a while, letting
the cold keep her awake, the rhythmic movement of her pace
slowing her thoughts down.
Naomi was pretty much on top of the world. She owned
her own nightclub. A successful nightclub. A space where the
self-destructive junkies of the city could indulge every pleasure
that would bring them to an early grave, and have the time of
22 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
their lives doing it.
She had friends. Real friends, people who really cared about
her and who she really loved. There were sycophants as well,
her cabal attracted a fair few edgelord dicks trying to imitate
her. The kind of assholes who make sure every disaster and
carefully manufactured breakdown ends up on their Instagram
feed. But she had good people in her life.
She was Pleasure Mistress of New York City, a title won for
taking charge when the other lost awakened either squabbled
or started shitting themselves when the Technocracy came after
them. Mages from here to London knew her name.
And all she wanted to do was burn it all down.
Her friends were wrong about her. The club was boring.
The cringy old losers who addressed her by her full title at
posturing Tradition events were the worst for making her act
like one of them.
She leaned against the railing next to the river, and looked
down at the long dead cigarette. She flicked it callously into
the water. It was too far down but she imagined she could see
it sink into the dark depths. Dark, cold, empty, numb. Like
the mountaintop.
“Looking for something?” A friendly voice dragged her
back from the edge. Naomi turned to see a short figure with a
concerned look on their face.
“No. Yes.” Why was she stammering? “Aren’t we all?” Great
job Naomi, cliché philosophy to the rescue. The figure had a
disarming openness to them.
“Well dear, if you are looking for the meaning of life, the
bottom of the Hudson is as good a place as any.” They smiled
wider.
“Look, thank you for making sure, but I am ok. You
don’t ha…”
“Nonsense, I know a lost soul when I see one.” They also
leaned on the railing. “Down there, where you were looking.”
They nodded at the river. “It’s all shit and worms. Sewage
plants up-river pumping raw crap into the river for decades,
maybe a bit less now, but it’s all still there. It’s all crap if you
go deep enough.”
“What kind of life message is that?”
“My dear, it’s all crap at the end of the day. So why worry?”
They extended a hand from beneath their shawl. “Nice to meet
you on this thought-freezing night.”
Naomi felt something was up. This was not a normal
conversation, like some scripted conceit from a cheap movie.
“Naomi.”
“Hello Naomi, so what’s your take?
“On what?”
“Life. All crap, or a wonderful gift we should cherish?”
“How the fuck should I know? Doesn’t seem there is an
meaning of life to me.”
 “Quite right, my dear. You are at the stage of: Nothing really
matters.” They imitated a grumpy teenage persona. “When you
should be: nothing really matters.” This time wearing a smile
and sounding elated at the idea. Naomi laughed.
“See, you are getting there.”
“So who are you, oh strange wise person, offering life
coaching to random people in the night?”
“My name is Myca, and you are hardly a random person,
Naomi Cross.”
“…right.”
“I have a confession, Naomi. I know exactly who you are.
Top-rated club, always got a gaggle of cronies around you, life
of the party. Expression like you just licked piss off a nettle?
Sound right?” Naomi couldn’t help but smile again.
“Well this is creepy? You want a DJ set or something?”
“Nope. I just wanted to meet you. See if my thoughts
about you were correct.”
“And are they?”
“Yup. You are doing pretty well by all outside measures. All
the drugs and friends and casual acquaintances you could ever
want. A perfectly maintained persona of cool and aloof that
just makes all your followers scream out for more. And all of
it leaving you completely unfulfilled. I recognise self-loathing,
Naomi, I am very, very familiar with it.”
“Fuck this. I’m cold, and you are preachy.”
Myca just smiled, and the wind blew their hair across their
face. They reached up to brush it away. A glint of gold from
their earring, a coiled serpentine form.
“Look, sorry I just...”
“No need, dear, I don’t mean to be preachy, but I did
want to give you that message.” Myca reached out and placed
their hand on Naomi’s shoulder. Their shawl sleeve dropped
away from their arm revealing a constellation of track marks.
They formed a familiar shape. “We don’t have to look up to
the heavens for meaning, Naomi, sometimes what we need is
right beneath us. Down in the shit with the worms.”
Cult of Ecstasy 23
 New Background - Ananda
Ananda is the Ecstatic’s concept of enlightenment, opening yourself up to the universal bliss to achieve ascension. It
is most often referred to in the Code of Ananda, a guide for achieving this state of perfect joy, but also a code that
places limits on the Tradition who are by their nature prone to excess and boundary breaking. The Ecstatics are a
Tradition that rejects strict discipline and rigorous practices of other Traditions instead pushing themselves to open their
hearts and minds to creation. Many other awakened and even sleepers describe being in the presence of one of the
Cult of Ecstasy as being in some smaller way exposed to their inner light, often a soothing and calming experience,
but depending on the cultist, perhaps exciting, uplifting, or even scary. This is part of the effect of Ecstatics opening
themselves up to experience and feeling, as there tends to be some overflow, and their resonance often very strongly
reflects this, not being tampered down by their practices but purposefully expressing their enlightenment to the world.
This background is closely tied to Resonance thematically, but can be used without it by simply following the rules
presented here. If you are also using the rules for Resonance, then this background’s emotions should be reflected
in that as much as possible.

Ananda is a background that you may buy at character creation or during game play as normal, and should be
marked on your character sheet. For each dot you buy, choose an emotion or feeling that is linked to their outlook
from those listed below in the Nine Sacred Passions. You will notice there are 18 listed emotions, with each passion
having a positive and negative, or creative and destructive element to them. For this background just choose one per
dot but bear in mind the link between the two.
When acting upon that emotion your character receives a -2 difficulty to the appropriate roll, letting yourself more
easily open up to the universe and act upon the Nine Sacred Passions. An artist who is embracing the loss of a loved
one may get the bonus when using that passion to create a work of art, an extreme athlete might have it on their
willpower roll to fearlessly skydive as it evokes the passion of excitement, and a street protester might get the bonus
on a leadership roll to inspire those who follow them with the passion of rage. Additionally, anyone around them
acting on that emotion will have -1 difficulty to any rolls where they act on that emotion in the same way.
The bonus should come in to play when you are invoking and giving in to a passion, but not to any roll you make while
experiencing that emotion. You may sometimes receive this bonus on combat rolls, maybe desperately defending
yourself or dodging and giving in to fear, or a frenzied assault as you fall to rage and hate. All these should be worked
out with your storyteller and are there to incentivise playing a passionate and emotional character.

The Nine Sacred Passions:

• Wonder/Capriciousness
• Love/Obsession
• Empathy/Guilt
• Desire/Lust
• Grief/Despair
• Caution/Fear
• Admiration/Jealousy
• Conviction/Hate
• Excitement/Rage

Cultists of Ecstacy can be very influential, and even the most good-hearted are capable of influencing those around
them to embrace feelings and passions they may have otherwise shied away from. How your character uses this
emotional resonance is up to them.

24 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Cult of Ecstasy 25
 Merits and Flaws
Merits
Adherent of Ananda (2 pt.)
Most Ecstatics follow the code of Ananda, and it is a great
mantra for limiting the worst of the excesses of the Cult. You,
however, follow the code to the letter, and it guides you in
your every action. Although you indulge your emotions and
sensations as much as any Cultist, you know your limits and are
conscientious to never delve too deep into the darker passions
that would violate the code if left to burn without restraint.
You may only choose positive emotions when choosing one of
the sacred passions for your Ananda background, but such is
your familiarity and control with them, other beings around
you get -2 to appropriate rolls as your positive resonance feeds
the positivity around you.
Dissident to Ananda (3 pt.)
You reject the Code of Ananda entirely, maybe being
part of a dissident faction or because of personal philosophy
or experience. You may only choose negative emotions from
the Ananda background, but get -3 to embrace those emotions
yourself as giving in and indulging yourself is your personal
journey, and to Hell with anyone else. Dissidents to Ananda
tend to be pretty extreme people, indulging in dark desires and
putting no limit on self-exploration. Remember to always check
the room when role-playing, and while your character may wish
to push boundaries, make sure everyone around your gaming
table (or zoom call) is comfortable with it as well.
supernatural way with people, being effortlessly enchanting,
perfectly navigating social situations. Your social stats are
capped at 6, and you may only take this merit if you have at
least 4 in one of them. Furthermore, if you ever roll to make
a good first impression, you may do so at -2 difficulty, with
each success endearing you to the new acquaintance before
you even interact.
Loyal Following* (3 pt.)
There are many things that would ensure the loyalty of
your followers; money, a share of your power, benefiting from
your “miracles”, but your followers don’t need any of that,
they love you. Any dots you have in backup, retainers, or cult
are extra resistant to the meddling of others, as your followers
are not so easily swayed from your cause. The difficulty to
manipulate, extract information from, or otherwise use those
backgrounds against you increases by 2. In addition, those
groups who normally have a fairly specific role or task can be
expected to go above and beyond for you, with cult and backup
being more directly under your influence than other mages and
your retainers being positively fanatical in their devotion to you.

Shameless* (2 pt.)
You have no shame and petty etiquette, social norms, or
taboo phases do not constrain you. You might be a bolshy
thug, a fearless harlot, or a dedicated decadent, but either
way, embarrassing you is extremely difficult. Anyone seeking
to humiliate you will automatically fail, as you easily brush
the insult or accusation off, accepting your shame, or at least
society’s petty version of it, and wear it as a badge of honour.
Additionally, if someone does attempt to shame you in a scene,
you receive a +3 dice bonus to return the favour one time until
the end of the scene. This should be ideally accompanied by
a real-life witty retort if possible.

Blessing of Lakshmi (4 pt.)

Cultists of Ecstasy are seen as a highly social group, an
oddity in the often reclusive Traditions. You have an almost
26 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
Flaws: cover up your mess and want to ensure you don’t do it again,
or maybe some angry sleepers get a mob together to deal with
you (pitchforks optional). Either way, next time you mess up,
there may not be a next time.
Sensation Addict (2 pt.)
You are an addict, not to a substance but to sensation Ego* (1 pt.)
itself. Choose a form of sensual stimulation, such as music, It is not that you think you are better than other people,
sex, scarification, tattooing, spicy food. You live to indulge but you kinda are… at least in your own mind. Maybe it is
that sensation and use the rules for addiction but replace the arrogance of awakening, or just part of your personality, but
substance with your particular sensation stimulation. you are extremely impressed with yourself, and overplaying
your own achievements and qualities and downplaying those
Out of Time* (2 pt.) of others. While some may respect this as confidence, most
The Cult of Ecstasy hold the Seat of Time on the people find it annoying and obnoxious. Whenever you fail a
Council of Nine and was previously known by some as the charisma-based check, you botch instead.
Seer of Chronos, with the Tradition having a great affinity with
time-based magics. Your mage is proficient in time magic, but
due to some overindulgence or accident, your understanding
of time is so far past the linear flow that you struggle to keep
track of the mundane. Not only are you unable to reliably tell
the time without a device or person telling it to you, but you
will also often be late or far too early to events. When you need
to be somewhere or do something at a certain time, roll your
wits+enigmas at difficulty 6. For each degree of failure, you
turn up/do the thing half an hour late or early. If you botch,
you miss the right time by a day.

Dulled (2-4 pt.)

You have burned out one of your senses, leaving it
dulled, maybe from over-stimulation or maybe an unfortunate
accident. Choose a sense or one of the emotions listed in the
Ananda background for each this flaw (you may take this merit
multiple times), and you receive a +2 difficulty on tests that rely
on it. Additionally, if you take the higher level of the flaw, you
over-compensate to stimulate this sense, feeling a need to push
yourself to feel something. You may listen to extremely loud or
discordant music, daub yourself in clashing and eye-watering
scents, or expose yourself to situations that evoke extreme
emotional reactions to others just to feel that sensation again,
joining riots to feed off the anger of others, taking emotionally
manipulative drugs, or even binding spirits of pure feeling to
yourself. This flaw can lead down a dark path for many mages,
so choose it wisely.

Obvious* (3 pt.)
Mages of the Traditions follow the Rule of Shade, a law
that compels mages to keep their powers hidden from the main
body of humanity. You have failed to uphold this law. Although
the public at large do not think you have magical powers,
some people have taken notice of your unusual abilities and
rumours are being heard by all the wrong ears. Next time you
break the Rule of Shade, something bad will happen. Maybe a
hunter gets wind of your cabal, maybe the Technocrats have to

Cult of Ecstasy 27
 “Traveler, there are no paths. Paths are made by walking.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb
David had lived in New York his
whole life, and still found himself with
capacity to be surprised by the place. He
had been late for his shift at his family’s
business, a small Chinese restaurant, and
had found some lady fishing refuse sacks
out of their dumpster. That was not too
strange in itself, it’s a big city and there
were a lot of people who fell between the
cracks, but there was something about her
David could not put his finger on that
pulled on his attention. He knew he really
should not follow her, the city had some strange people in it
and better to leave them to their own business. But something
was pulling him to follow her...
*******
She had been walking for almost two miles, and had been
surprisingly hard to follow, considering the smell. He just
caught up enough to see her dip through a damaged chain link
fence and into a waste lot near an overpass. The lot had weeds
pushing through the fence, and large aggressive padlocks on
the gate. David followed at a distance, keeping to the alley’s
early evening shadows before slipping through the fence behind
her. He knows this was too much, and he was putting himself
at risk of pissing off what was likely some junkie looking for
scraps in their garbage, but there was something in the air he
couldn’t describe, something was pulling him to follow her
into the abandoned space.
The woman was ahead of him now in a hastily cleared
space among the debris and overgrowth, and was occupied
with reopening the trash bags. David knelt down behind an
old, rusted car, and peered over the hood to observe her.
“Crap!” He muttered under his breath, only just keeping
his voice low, as the largest rat he had ever seen casually walked
over his foot. He jolted back, only to see another one of the
creatures taking a moment to look at him curiously before
scurrying towards the woman. The trash bags were open now,
some of the garbage arranged in strange patterns on the ground
around the woman.
The two rats were not the only ones. Dozens of them
seemed to have appeared, spawning from every direction and
congregating around the women in a loose circle, with the small
brown animals perching on the overgrown cars and furniture
surrounding the space she made. More and more arrived, until
a swarm of black eyes and twitching noses surrounded the
woman. She reached down to the pile of trash and took out
a takeaway cardboard noodle box, sniffed it once, and then
began eating the contents with her hands. The fact that the
food must have been days old and half rotten didn’t matter
to the woman, and the swarm of vermin moved forward as if
given some command, and as if a single entity, began feasting
Dreamspeakers 29
on the trash offering. David stood up and stepped out into shift. The last couple of weeks had been weird; good weird,
the open space... but weird. He had been having some odd dreams, about rats
and a couple of people or something. And then the gangsters
that had been extorting his parents had been arrested, some
*******
anonymous tip with new evidence apparently had given the
Lina ate the stale noodles, trying to ignore the taste, and police what they needed to arrest them.
the rats moved forward to consume her chiminage to the city
“Hey David.” His sister entered the kitchen. David looked
spirits. A young man stood up to her right, and moved into
up, his arms elbow deep in soapy water.
the ritual space.
“Some lady out there just left a tip of $12,000, and won’t
“Resident. Your offering is received with all due honour.
take it back. She’s just left but said it’s for the kid doing the
What can we do for ya.” The man that had followed her from
washing up for being such a good sport the other night.” She
The Bronx was in his early 20s, but superimposed over his body
looked at him suspiciously.
was a shimmering, ethereal appearance drawn from the Spirit
of New York, a middle-aged thin man wearing a very expensive, “12 grand?! ...I have no idea what you are talking about
but worn, suit and a trilby. The spirit stooped down into the Amy. Really! What else she say?!”
mass of rats and drew out an untouched apple, and took a bite. “Something about what goes around comes around. I
He looked vaguely like Frank Sinatra if you squinted. know this is exactly how much Mum and Dad lost to those
“City father, thank you for accepting my offering… The mob guys. David, what did you do?”
um, sleeper you have possessed, he’s going to be OK right?” “Honestly, sis, nothing. You think I would be here washing
“Who David? Sure. He’s lived here his whole life, and us up if I could get that kind of money?”
New Yorkers look after our own. Memory might be a bit foggy, “You need to stop getting involved with strange people
but no lasting effects.” David.” Amy glared at him one last time, turned, and left.
The spirit was a relatively new one by Kha’vadi standards, David turned back to the sink and started. A massive rat
but well known to the urban spiritualists. It took on different was leering at him through the window to the street. It stared
personas over the years, now presenting itself as a nostalgic for a moment, seemed to slowly wink, then jumped down from
boom or bust crooner. the windowsill and scurried off down the alley.
“Whelp, glad you liked the offering, but this is for business “Yea, Strange people.”
not pleasure, I need help find someone hiding in your city.”
“Is this person a resident?”
“No, I think they arrived a few weeks ago.”
“Ah, a tourist.” The spirit spat.
“They are a powerful marauder and have left a trail of death
in their path, I’ve followed them from Boston. I have this that
belonged to them if that will help you find them.” She pulled
out a torn piece of material. The rats nearby started sniffing
at the material and squeaking angrily.
“I understand, and I can help. Give me until the markets
close, and my messenger will meet you exactly halfway across
the Brooklyn Bridge with their location. I have a small tax for
you Lina, for my help.”
“This fresh trash not enough?”
“This man I am inhabiting, David, His family are having
trouble at their restaurant. I want ya to take care of it. Some guys
trying to push them around, real wise guys. I would appreciate
it if you looked out for them. The Chu’s are good people.”
“You got it boss. Local hero saves business from thugs.”
Lina imitated a 1950s news reader. “Dealing with thugs is my
speciality.”

*******
David washed up the plates at the end of the evening

30 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Dreamspeakers 31
 New Background
Spirit Favour
Dreamspeakers do not usually entrap or bind spirits, instead approaching them as equals and often assisting them
selflessly, serving the spirit realm rather than exploiting it for their own gains. The Spirit Favour background may be
purchased by Dreamspeakers and is a representation of the long traditions of spirit calling and cultural affinities
of the Kha’vadi. It represents a general baseline of good will towards the user from spirits, due to their familiarity
with the cultural practices of the user, and reputation of the Dreamspeakers Tradition as a whole.
Spirit Favour applies to any spirit brood the mage might consider “friendly”. Although hostile spirits may still know
the mage by reputation, it will not change their general attitude towards the mage.
You may not buy more than 2 dots of Spirit Favour at Character creation. Not all spirit broods will act in the same
way towards the Kha’vadi with this background, but storytellers are recommended to use it as a guide.

Spirit Favour has the following effects:

• Spirit favour adds bonus social dice equal to the mages dots in it when interacting with all spirits and gives the
below benefits depending on the rank. This does not apply to spirits who are kill on sight enemies of the mage
including most banes, daemons, weaver entities or other such aggressive spirits.

Use the below table as a guide for how spirits view the Dreamspeaker, and how the character’s reputation will
benefit them with unbrood creatures. Feel free not to be constrained by the guide, spirit broods will not all act
exactly the same.
1. Many spirits know the mage, and although they may not offer help, they will acknowledge them as citizens of
the spirit world and allow the user to approach and treat with them.
2. Spirits will be friendly with the mage, and although they will not offer things for free, they will enter deals and
conversation openly.
3. Spirits are friendly and happy to see the mage, and minor spirits even do small favours for them without chiminage
or an offering.
4. Spirits pay their respects to the mage when approached and may fight to defend him from aggressors. Even
powerful spirit entities will enter deals on an equal footing. Minor spirits will perform favours for the mage simply
to bask in their presence.
5. The mage is a figure of renown in the spirit world, hostile spirits fear them, and friendly spirits honour them. Many
spirits will help you based on this favour and even major entities may help or offer concessions when treating
with the mage.

Realm Walkers
In addition to this new background, as an optional rule, any mage with training as a Dreamspeaker (they do not
share their secrets easily) may lower the Gauntlet to 0 (usully minimum 3) using Spirit 2 instead of Spirit 3, in a
comparable manner to Technocrats with Dimensional Science. This represents their close affinity with the spirit
realms beyond the other Traditions.

32 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Dreamspeakers 33
 Merits and Flaws
of tarmac and skyscrapers replace nature and animal spirits,
club drugs replace natural psychedelics, House and Grime
Merits music replace drums and wind instruments, and you move
among the people of the city as a wise woman might among
the steppe tribes. You are at –2 difficulty for urban Survival
Spirit Heritage (1-5 pt.) rolls, and +2 difficulty for wilderness ones. You also have +1
Spirit Favour with urban spirits that are not naturally hostile to
Your soul is part spirit and this is reflected when you awakened mages. However, your type of shaman still has issue
cross over to the spirit worlds. Choose a particular brood of with acceptance from many of the Dreamspeakers, and you are
spirits when buying this merit. When in the spirit world your at +1 difficulty for social rolls with these groups.
appearance is changed depending on your spirit heritage, and
you resemble the brood of spirits you are favoured by, such
as wooden skin and leaves for hair if you have a forest or tree
spirit as your heritage, or resembling a particular spirit, such Community Elder* (3 pt.)
as Sun Wukong. The higher your affinity to the spirit, the You are closely tied to your people, and not only
more you resemble them in the spirit world. You also count as attend to their spiritual needs, but are looked to for guidance on
having spirit favour equal to your level of spirit heritage with many matters affecting the community. Any rolls you make for
that brood in particular. backgrounds that are linked to the community you administer
are at -2 difficulty. This could be your contacts, influences,
backup etc. You have a certain amount of responsibility for
Oral Historian* (1 pt.) this community however, and the storyteller should represent
that within your chronicle.
You hold the history of your tradition, culture, and
people in your mind, telling these histories through ritualised
storytelling. An incredible feat of memory and performance,
these oral histories not only keep your culture’s legends and
history alive, but also have made you an expert in the skills
of memory needed to maintain the tradition. You are at –2
difficulty to storytelling Performance rolls, and can memorise
vast amounts of information normally considered impossible.
This may be a dossier, a song, or even an overheard conversation
you can repeat verbatim. If you choose this merit, also consider
using storytelling in your practice, and if you do choose it as
a tool, you have a –1 difficulty modifier on Stamina rolls to
continue long rituals, and on Willpower rolls to avoid broken
concentration.

Spirit Healer (5 pt.)

You know that to heal the body, you must heal the spirit.
Practices like Rakki, faith healing, and many forms of traditional
medicine attribute physical woes to spiritual causes. You may
heal yourself and others with equivalent levels of the spirit
sphere as if it were life, 2 for yourself, and 3 for others. This
healing is always vulgar, unless in a sanctum, and the effects
base difficulty is equivalent to the local gauntlet.

Urban Shaman (2 pt.)

You are part of the new breed of Urban Shamans, who
have adapted old practices to new city environments. Spirits

34 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
Tied to the Land (1 pt.)
You have a strong connection with a particular area, and
struggle to operate outside of it. This may be vague, such as
rainforest or desert, but may also be specific such as Ireland,
The Sahara Desert, or Shanghai. When not in this favoured
land you are at +2 difficulty on all Survival rolls, and should role-
play your character’s unfamiliarity with these unknown areas.
Nomad* (2 pt.)
You come from a culture of nomads, or otherwise have
become accustomed to a life on the move. In addition to
your normal ways to regain willpower from your nature and
demeanour, you may regain a willpower if you spend at least
3 full days travelling. However, due to your nomadic lifestyle
you feel deeply uncomfortable if you stay in the same place
for a long time. If you stay longer than a week in a single city,
town, or local area, you may only gain willpower for every other
action that would gain you it normally, with the others being
spent on suppressing your wanderlust.

Spiritual Duty (3 pt.)

You have been entrusted with some great task by your
spirit allies. This can be determined through game play, or as
an inherited quest on character creation. It may be to make
up for some past failing, or as part of a chiminage to a brood
for some old favour. Either way you must pursue your quest
and failing to do so will lead to the spirits knowing you as a
cheat. The storyteller will determine the value of this flaw
depending on the task you are burdened with. You do not have
to be totally single-minded as you strive to complete the duty,
but if you leave it too long without any progress the spirits may
have questions...

Away with the Fairies* (4

pt.)
You spend so much time interacting with spirits that you
are losing your connection to your fellow humans. Umbrood
etiquette and mannerisms have become normal for you, and
people seem capricious and unpredictable. You are at +3
difficulty to Social rolls with unawakened people, and even
other mages might find you disconnected and weird. You
should also try to incorporate this strange behaviour into your
role playing, for example ceremonially offering your hosts at
a fancy dinner party bottles of Red Fanta to honour them, or
refusing to enter buildings in case the sun goddess can’t see
you and gets worried.

Oppressed Group* (2 pt.)

Many Dreamspeakers come from marginalised or oppressed
cultural groups, and your mage is one of them. This might be a
society or ethnic group, or a social movement. With either the
society at large, or your group’s specific oppressors, you are at
+2 difficulty when dealing with authority such as police, judicial
officials, or other forms of bureaucracy. This flaw should be
treated carefully, and with the consent of all players involved.

Dreamspeakers 35
 Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with the scars
- Elton John, Circle of Life, The Lion King.

Theo sipped his coffee and willed
himself to stay awake.
He had been sitting in this car, on
this street, observing this house, for
seven hours now. The Fates did not usually
steer him wrong, but their answers were
often… challenging to interpret. That was
how Theo saw himself, as an interpreter
of fate, but more often than not, he felt
like he was reaching out in the dark, only
half aware of what he might find.
This time had been particularly opaque though, something
about a broken mirror and blood?
“The broken mirror needs blood. The reflection feeds it. The beast
is not the true monster. Heed the eye of the eagle. Those who follow
the will of the Gods are never wicked.”
That was the problem with the older pantheons; they
had personalities. Once you worked out that divine beings
were petty, selfish and, in this case, deliberately vague for their
own amusement, it became less frustrating. Still frustrating,
but less so.
Theo sipped his coffee again. It had been cold for a while
now, but he wanted the caffeine in his body despite the awful
taste. The street lights flicked on as the daylight faded.
His job, or duty, as he had always been taught by his
master, was to untangle the strands of fate when they got
caught up and knotted, or more accurately, cut the strands
that needed cutting so the rest could get back to normal. His
Chakravanti colleagues called ‘unclogging the Wheel of Fate’,
but it was all the same no matter what symbology you attached
to it. Reality got messy but when things got too messy, people
suffered, and his job was to snip a strand of fate to let the rest
untangle itself. It was a precise calling, requiring a great deal
of study and analysis to make sure you had the correct target
and an even greater amount of commitment once you knew
the right strand to snip. Although more often than not some
real bastards had been the target of Theo’s lethal calling, fate
was not compassionate and… well… no one said this job was
supposed to be easy.
Theo hoped today would not be one of those days.
Most likely, today was about to be a wash anyway. It was
getting dark, and there had been no signs from within the
property his less mystical research had led him to. Hours of
studying police reports, bribing morgue workers to obtain
autopsy files, and pattern analysis on the locations of the killings.

Euthanatos 37
 He pulled out the most recent file he had got as a
backhander from his pocket-cop. Victim was early 30s, down
on their luck, probably an addict. Whoever was doing the
killings certainly knew how to pick targets that would get the least
media attention. MO seemed to be abduction, missing for
a few days, then dump the body after dismembering it. Not
that the papers particularly cared about serial killers anymore
outside of Netflix series; not very fashionable and more of a
curiosity than something to be really scared of. Some lunatic
who gruesomely killed five people over the course of a year
seemed positively quaint compared to a 17-year-old shooting
up 23 of their classmates during morning recess.
Theo dropped the empty coffee cup into the passenger
seat’s footwell. Had he always been so cynical? Or was this
his Tradition-mates rubbing off on him. He would feel better
after some sleep and a meal that didn’t come in a cardboard
box. He put the engine into gear and started to pull out of
his parking space.
Just as he did, a light flicked on in the house he had
been watching. Front room. Theo cursed the Fate’s sense of
melodrama. A hot meal would have to wait.
He stopped the car and reached over into the backseat for
his gym bag. He pulled out and checked a set of pistols. Both
are standard, the kind you could buy over the counter, aside
from the intricate symbols along the barrel. He checked the
clip out of habit, and a single bullet etched with four stylised
thunderbolts peeked out of the top. He muttered a small
prayer to Zeus and put both guns into the hidden holsters
inside his jacket.
Theo stepped out of the car and looked up and down the
suburban street. It was quiet. Good.
He crossed over the road and started walking towards the
house. It was dark now, street lights giving everything a yellow
hue that warped colours. Theo turned up the garden path.
If this was the right house, it was fairly well maintained. Cut
grass, no newspaper over the window. He started to have that
feeling that he was barking up the wrong tree. No. He hoped
he was barking up the wrong tree. Because he knew if he had
the right one, something horrible was about to happen. He
approached the door.
He knocked quickly and stepped back, hands held in front
of him disarmingly but also near to his pistols. No answer. He
leaned to his left and peeked through the window, and quickly
straightened as he saw a large man come up from a cellar door
in the kitchen. For Hades’ sake.
The door opened abruptly.
“What?”
“Hello Sir, Detective McPerson, city homicide.” Theo
flashed a fast food loyalty card he had scrawled a sigil of Dolos
on for the man to see. The man glanced at it and then back to
Theo. He didn’t seem to register anything unusual.
“We are doing some routine door to door enquiries.
38 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
Someone local called in that they heard screaming, and we
are just checking if other residents heard anything too.” A lie.
He was a large man. Beard. Slightly overweight in a way that
made him more intimidating than less. Theo noticed his eyes.
He had seen eyes like that before. Bdelyrós, this was the place!
“Um. No. I don’t think so. Maybe. Kids goofing around?”
He was distracted. He wanted Theo gone.
“πάροδος.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Can I come in?”
“Oh… yea.” He had a hazy look over his face now, not
quite sure what had just happened.
Theo slid past him into the hallway. The house was a
mess inside, and it smelled awful. Not ‘forgot to take the trash
out’ awful, but ‘dead body in the basement’ awful. He moved
quickly, his charm to render the man pliable was not powerful
and he was likely already shaking off the effects.
As Theo moved to the kitchen, towards the entrance to
the basement, he noticed something on the fridge. A takeaway
menu for a Chinese restaurant downtown was pinned to it with
a local sports team fridge magnet. It was an eagle mascot. The
eye was a magnifying glass, just a piece of merchandise you could
pick up in half the tourist shops in the city. The magnifying
lens of the mascot’s eye was enhancing a single word on the
takeaway menu below. “..g Duck r..” Theo ducked.
The shot shattered the mascot fridge magnet half a second
after he had thrown himself to the floor. Theo already had his
gun in hand and was tucked in tight to the counter he was
using as cover. Another shot zipped above his head.
“I don’t know how you found me, asshole, but you gotta
listen. I have seen the news, and this isn’t what you think it is.”
Theo didn’t respond. The counter he had cover behind
wasn’t big, but he didn’t want to give his position away. He
whispered a quick incantation to Zeus, channelling his will into
the lightning-bolt carved bullets in his firearm. Theo lurched
up above the counter and fired.
Theo was a good shot by any standard. He trained at least
two or three times a week, and was familiar with his weapons.
These shots, however, were something else. He didn’t even aim,
simply slashing his gun through the air and pulling the trigger.
Two shots. Both found their target. Bolts of Olympus. One took
out the man’s kneecap, dropping him and preventing return
fire, the other went into his hand where he held the revolver
he had been concealing on his person. Both were non-lethal.
He needed some answers before cutting this thread.
Theo moved over to the man, still covering him. He needn’t
have bothered; the gun was on the ground next to him.
“Where is your latest victim? Still alive?” The man was
clenching his teeth in pain as he looked up at Theo.
“It isn’t what you think. I didn’t have a choice. Please.”
“Voices in your head? I’m not really a cop, that shit doesn’t
fly with me.”
“No, please, you don’t understand. I know I have done
bad things but…”
“I don’t wanna hear your…” There was a noise. Muffled
shouting. He hadn’t heard it at first over the blood pumping
through his ears and the ringing from close proximity gun fire,
but he could hear it now. A muffled voice crying out. Coming
from the basement. Theo looked towards the door.
“NO. Listen, you gotta listen. Do not go down there.
Please.” Theo shot him in the other kneecap without looking
back at him.
As the man screamed, Theo moved towards the basement
door. There could be traps, better be careful. He moved the
door open with his boot, it wasn’t locked and swung open
easily. The smell was horrific. Glancing back at the man to
make sure he wasn’t going anywhere, he moved down the stairs.
Strangely mundane objects hung on the wall as he
descended the stairs; a broom, carrier bags, a kitchen apron
that read: “Daddy’s Cookin”, not the kind of stuff you expect
to see in a serial killer’s lair. There was a light on down there,
and Theo moved faster leading the way with his pistol.
The basement was not as bad as he had feared. Still
appalling, with a smell that made him want to vomit, but
reasonably normal looking aside from the two bodies. Sorry.
One body and one victim. Alive. Thank the Gods.
The woman was terrified and chained to the floor with
thick steel chains that were attached to a shackle around her
waist. She was so pale, under the blood, as pale as the corpse
next to her. That body matched the description of the missing
persons report. Mid 30s, male. Theo edged towards her, gun
down, his other hand raised up.
“It’s OK. I’m here to help. You’re safe now. It’s OK.” She
looked at him with a scared expression.
“Is my father OK? You haven’t hurt him, have you?”
Hades.
“Everything is fine. Let’s get you out of these chains and
get you out of here.” She seemed to be comforted by that idea.
“Yes please let me out. Father wouldn’t let me go outside.”
Theo looked at the chains. They were thick, overkill in his
opinion, but he wasn’t about to worry about that now.
“Close your eyes OK. This won’t take a moment.” She
didn’t move and just kept looking at him. She looked so, so pale.
“Suit yourself.” Theo grabbed a hammer from the tool
bench on the opposite wall to where the woman was tied up
and lent down over the chain’s length.
“Oh, Hephaestus of many devices, renowned artificer,
and coppersmith; break these chains and I offer you a votive
sacrifice of fine metals, fruit, and grain.”
As Theo incanted, the chain began to glow red, as if warmed
by a blacksmith’s fire. He struck down with the hammer. The
sparks were blinding, but his strike was true, and Hephaestus
was as reliable as ever. The chain had shattered. Theo glanced
at the woman. Quite a Rule of Shade breach, but she was likely
not much of a witness. Something to deal with later.
The woman pulled on the chain and stood groggily.
“Come on, let’s go. We can take the chain off later, once
you’re safe.”
“I was safe here. Father made sure of that. He’s been
very good to me. Bringing me lots of things to eat.” Theo was
unnerved now. This poor woman was raving. He couldn’t
begin to imagine the horror she had been through. She didn’t
seem to want to budge right now though, best to keep the
conversation going.
“Where are you from? Do you know where I can take you?”
“I’m from here. This is my home. Father is upstairs. You
didn’t hurt him, did you?”
“Whoever that man is to you, he can’t hurt you anymore.
I’m here to help and stop the killings he’s been committing.”
“Killings? Father? He hasn’t done any killings. He just
brings them down here, and takes them away when I’m not
hungry anymore.” She smiled as she spoke. Theo saw the fangs.
Shit.
The woman lunged at him as he fired. Two rounds, one
missed and one went right through her mid-section. She seemed
to barely notice it. She grabbed his wrist like a child might fight
a sibling, simply latching on to the nearest thing; clumsy and
instinctive. But she was strong.
Theo trained in martial arts regularly. His masters in the
Euthanitos insisted on it, and he was an expert in several forms
and styles. All that training didn’t mean a thing here. This
thing was strong. He might as well try to flip a pickup truck.
She threw him across the room and he clattered into the
tool rack. He heard a rib break and something in his shoulder
gave way as he landed.
“Father found me after I was attacked. Horrible eyes in
the night. He looked after me, he thought I was dead. But I
wasn’t. He tried so hard to help me, but I was hungry. He knew
what he had to do. Bought them to me. He didn’t like it but
he did. Again and again. I was hungry a lot. I hear the other
voices speaking to me, calling out, crying for me to join them
in their midnight dances. You will not stop me going to my
family. We are the night, and you are just prey”
Theo had propped himself up while the creature had
been raving. Thank the Gods for the egos of these creatures.
He raised his gun.
“That won’t hurt me. I’m already dead. Any last words?”
So wonderfully predictable.
“Two sheep and a chicken.” She looked very puzzled, the
raving wide-eyed mania cut short for a moment.
“What? What do you mean?”
Euthanatos 39
 “My offering to Apollo if he comes through for me.”
“Appo..?”
The gun blasted pure daylight. It seared even Theo’s eyes,
and ripped through the creature, its body flashing away in a
burst of embers. It screamed for a moment before slumping
to the ground. The body quickly began to decompose and
took on the appearance of a weeks’ old corpse in a matter of
seconds. Theo’s firing arm dropped to his side. He took a few
deep breaths. Ash from the monster settled on his face and he
flinched and wiped it away with his sleeve.
Theo had never come face to face with a vampire. He
assumed that’s what this was, based on his masters’ teachings
and, well, everyone in the world knowing what a vampire is.
Sunlight had done the trick it seems, though that blast would
have hurt just about anything. He shakily stood up, using the
tool bench to support himself.
He looked around the room; the dead body of the creature,
the other corpse of the victim he had originally been looking
for, the blood, the ash.
A noise from upstairs roused him slightly. He took a deep
breath. The thread was cut, and it could not snag up other fates
into this horror anymore. Well, nearly.
Theo checked his clip and went up the stairs towards the
sounds of pain coming from the wounded man, the creatures
father.
No one said this job was supposed to be easy.

New Background - Dharmic Duty

The sacred duty of all Euthanatoi is to free the great wheel of fate from debris that prevents it from turning. In real
terms they take very seriously that obligation to karma, and search out souls that have become so tainted and
sinful that it is best for them to simply start over again. By offering this good death, the Euthanatoi frees souls to
start again on the cycle of life, and prevent its corruption from effecting the fate of others. This solemn task is not
undertaken lightly, and although some may think the Euthanatoi’s methods callous and evil, they know the great
burden they must bear and do not shirk from the cost it extracts from them.
This background should be checked every time a Euthanatoi kills a being (meaning any sentient creature, so not
animals, but supernaturals with sentience do count) on purpose and with intent. Roll your Dharmic duty as a dice
pool at the difficulty below. If you succeed you have helped a lost soul find their way back onto the correct path,
freeing it from this mortal incarnation’s sin. A success also means that you are moving along your own road of
enlightenment by becoming the hand of fate, and you will gain an instance of “good karma” that should be noted
down as a background, up to a maximum of 5. Each dot of good karma may be spent to reroll a single dice roll,
rolling all the dice in a roll again and accepting the second result even if it is worse than the original.
A failure means that you did not succeed in your duty this time, and killing the target did not help the Wheel turn.
A botch means that you gain a dot of Jhor, feeling extreme guilt over the killing and having the act taint your own
karma.
Astute players will notice that as you gain ranks of Dharmic Duty you get a better chance of administering a
good death, but your chances of gaining Jhor also increase, especially on high difficulty targets. Taking your duty
seriously at high ranks of duty, and knowing when to be merciful is important lest you sink into nililistic madness.

When administering the good death use the table below to determine the difficulty:

• Those starting the path: Difficulty 10. A child, seelie Changeling, true innocent, or recently awakened.
• Those travelling the path: Difficulty 8. A regular person who has committed no major act of evil. An average
awakened. A spiritual or peacful Garou.
• Those who have strayed from the path: Difficulty 5. A career criminal, dictator, or person who has committed
life-defining evil acts. A bloodthirsty or evil awakened. Unseelie Changeling or average Garou. Marauders.
Ghouls.
• Those lost to the path: Difficulty 3. Nephandi, vampires and other undead. Daemons. HIIT Marks.

40 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Euthanatos 41
 Merits And Flaws
Merits
Last Rites (1 pt.)
You are trained in the performance of last rites for the dead
and dying. In addition to offering cultural catharsis and ritual,
your magic eases the soul’s transition to the land of the dead.
When you perform a cultural death ceremony within 24 hours
before or after the subject’s death, you may spend a point of
quintessence. If the point is spent, the subject cannot return as
a zombie, ghost, or any other form of undead. Vampires must
make a successful Generation roll at difficulty 9 in order to
embrace the subject.
Warrior of Fate (5 pt.)
The Euthanitoi are renowned warriors, being some of
the deadliest awakened to fight in the Ascension War… or
any war for that matter. Your relationship with fate means that
you may move through a battlefield unharmed, chance arrows
and explosions missing you entirely until you have completed
your task. Fate however will not be cheated for long, and
you are sure to eventually pay back your dues to the Wheel.
During a combat, and only combat, you may gain a paradox
to add an automatic success to any roll in the same way you
would a willpower point. However, once the combat ends, you
automatically suffer a paradox backlash themed around the
fight, as a dying enemy gets in one last strike, or you finally
succumb to the poison you had been resisting. This should be
suitably cinematic.

Reincarnated* (2 pt.)
The Euthanatos, and especially the Chakravanti,
practice reincarnation and are deeply connected to their former
existences. When rolling on the Past Lives background, you
may roll at difficulty 6.

Mercy of the Wheel (3 pt.)

The ego is an illusion, life is fleeting and only part of the
great cycle. You know your own life is just one step on the
eternal journey, but that belief also applies to others, meaning
you find little guilt in killing, even innocents. You must have
at least 1 dot in Dharmic duty to buy this merit. When you
deliberately kill an innocent, as per the Dharmic Duty chart,
and you roll a botch, the roll counts as a simple failure.

Necromancer (6 pt.)
You practice the dark arts of necromancy; not just speaking
to the dead, but also raising corpses and commanding the dead
to do your bidding. Death has always had a strong link to the
sphere of Entropy, and your training in death magic extends
the sphere’s reach beyond most Mages. When performing an
effect with specific links to the undead that would typically not
require Entropy, you may substitute Entropy for the spheres
of life, mind, matter, or spirit. For example, you may animate
skeletons in a graveyard across the city, using correspondence
and matter usually, but your character may use Entropy and
correspondence. Or you may use Entropy to summon ghosts
in lieu of Spirit. This is always done at Storyteller’s discretion.

42 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws Stained Soul (3 pt.)
Your avatar participated in the Himalayan Wars and was
forever stained by that bloody conflict. You start with a single
level of Jhor at character creation and when getting more dots
Horrific Avatar* (1-2 pt.) of Quiet it will always be Jhor while you have this flaw.
Your avatar is not a voice of comfort or companionship,
but a horror. While still offering assistance and help along the
path of enlightenment, this advice is often as dark as the duty
of the Euhanitos themselves, with messages and lessons full
of terrifying truth. Additionally the avatar’s appearance, if it
appears to the awakened, is very unpleasant; a corpse of a former
lover, a disembodied skull (Morte?), or a blood-soaked sword.
This flaw is worth 1 more point if taken with Manifest Avatar.

Bad Luck* (2 pts)

Your meddling in fate and fortune has made an enemy of
Lady Luck, and her displeasure manifests at the most awkward
times. At the start of each game session the Storyteller should
roll a d10 secretly. If they roll a 1, they will choose a moment
during the session where you will automatically botch a roll
of their choosing, the more annoying and hilarious the better.
Lady Luck will enjoy your misfortune.

Compassionate Soul (2 pt.)

You must have at least 2 Dharmic Duty to take this flaw.
You have your duty, but you don’t have to like it. When rolling
your Dharmic Duty after administering the good death, if you
roll any doubles you are overcome with grief from your burden
and may not roll your Dharmic duty until you have made
serious amends in your own way, such as confession, fasting,
getting wasted on a 24 hour bender, or ritual flagellation.
Remember to read your game table when touching on
sensitive subjects: what might be cathartic to you may be
genuinely upsetting to others.

Outcast* (4 pt.)
You are forced to live on the fringes of society. This is
because of your vocation, actions, or reputation rather than your
cultural background, though there can be cross-over between
the two. This may be because of your work as an executioner,
grave digger, plague doctor or some other undesirable job,
or you have a reputation for dabbling in the underworld.
Among “upstanding” members of the community you are at +2
difficulty for all social rolls, and will be treated with automatic
suspicion by figures representing societal authorities. This
does not apply to the lower runs of society who likely see you
as one of their own.

Euthanatos 43
 “It doesn’t stop being magic just because you know how it works.”
– Terry Pratchett
Aydin sat in the waiting room and
resisted fidgeting with his starched collar.
Outwardly he maintained a well-practiced
relaxation that made him look effortlessly
at ease, but inside he was nervous. He could
not let it show outwardly though, that
simply would not do. Servants offered him
refreshments and copies of international
newspapers at intervals, but he declined
them all, inwardly reciting mantras to keep
down any rising temper at being left waiting
like a school child outside the headmaster’s office.
He was dressed in the height of Hermetic fashion, and
yes, such a thing existed. A subtle blend of the ancient and
modern, with each aspect of his appearance conveying some
message or meaning to those who knew what to look for. His
long coat, now hung up behind him, was a stylised 19th-century
trend, with the inner lining bearing subtle symbols and mystic
marks among the leafy patterns. These marks were entirely
practical and held no small amount of power to reflect attack
and safeguard its wearer. This was a subtle challenge to any
who wished to take aggression against him.
His suit was expensive, single-breasted and a small pocket
square was the deep rouge of his House, next to his heart. The
suit’s waistcoat was three-buttoned, with only the middle one
fastened following the important rule of “Sometimes, Always,
Never.” The top button being undone signalled that he did not
feel threatened. To those who understood the subtle symbolism
of such things, they would recognize that the left side of the
suit folding over the right at the front, and the asymmetrical
tailoring in the arms gave his right arm much more freedom
and easy access to his left hip, where he would traditionally
wear a dueling sword. In this case his wand was held in a
specially-designed front-opening inner pocket of his waistcoat.
The aggressive symbolism of that was relatively obvious, and
would become positively a threat if Aydin were to rest his right
hand partly within the waistcoat. The material was expensive,
and interwoven with Phoenix feather vanes, giving the black
fabric a deep red sheen in the light that seemed to flicker like
flames when you were not looking directly at it. The inner
lining was made of Mulberry silk, and bears Hittite and
Phrygian glyphs, the ancient peoples whose rulers his family
claimed to descend from. His shirt was Cervelt and was worn
open to three buttons, indicating that as far as he was concerned
this was a social call, and not a formal matter. It also allowed
the amulet around his neck to be glimpsed, a reminder of the
power and wealth of his family and House Questor. His shoes
were Amedeo Testoni, with platinum fibres etched into the sole
with Hermetic symbols that would focus powerful speed and
flight spells. Aydin wore sunglasses in the most recent fashion,
that when closely inspected had lenses crafted from crystals
formed in the upper reaches of the astral plain by the tears of
weeping angels. His haircut was stylish and modern, because
Order of Hermes 45
no one was going to tell him how to cut his damn hair who
didn’t own a $800 dollar an hour salon.
Aydin sensed some movement from the room he was
waiting in front of, and heard footsteps heading towards the
door. He quickly grabbed the attention of one of the servants.
“Scotch would be wonderful, thank you. Balvenie if you
have it. Three fingers, neat. Oh and you would not have any
of those wonderful little crackers with thet delightful topping
would you?
“The caviar master?”
“Yes that’s the stuff. Tell you what, why don’t you bring
me a few portions of it and I wont need to bother you again.
Good man.”
Halfway through Aydin’s order a figure had opened the
door, clearly expecting to speak directly to Aydin, only to find
themselves interrupting, and having to stand there awkwardly
for a moment. ‘Taste you own medicine’, Aydin thought.
Without leaving room to interject after speaking to the servant,
he turned to the figure in the doorway.
“Nessar, pleasure to see you. I am quite sure your man
here won’t be a moment bringing me some refreshments and
then I will be in to join you.” The man looked annoyed for
the smallest fraction of a moment, before composing himself.
“I am quite sure Luka can bring your refreshments to my
office.” He nodded at Luka. “Hurry up.” The servant bowed
and left.
“First name terms with old Luka, I see, Nessar, what an
egalitarian household you run.” Aydin moved to enter the office
before being invited in, causing another flicker of annoyance
on Nessar’s wrinkled face. This was all going quite well so far,
Aydin thought to himself. He moved in to the office, a large
space with bookshelves lining the walls, a dark wood desk and
thick carpet. You might easily be fooled into thinking it was
the study in any number of old houses around the world, but
then you noticed the oddities.
On the desk was a ebony plinth with a gyrating and
oscillating metallic shape hovering a couple of inches above
in patterns that an unawakened mind would have difficulty
comprehending, and even Aydin had trouble focusing on it.
In the umbrella stand by the door, there were several staves
and swords of various styles and periods with at least one
weapon seeming to shiver with agitation as Aydin entered. The
chandelier above their heads was a miniaturised replica of their
solar system, with precise scaled-down gravity systems keeping
all the miniature planets, comets and other solar bodies in
exactly the correct order, simply smaller and hugely sped up.
Aydin was sure it was a simple replica for effect, but part of
him wondered if in that tiny galaxy, on the tiny earth, there
was a microscopic office that was an exact copy of the one he
had just entered. The shape of the room itself was also not
quite Newtonian, and appeared slightly different depending
on where you were standing, with the dimensions extending
46 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
and contracting when you were not looking. Aydin thought it
was typical of the Bonisagus to alter space-time just to fit more
bloody books on their shelves.
He plucked one of the books from a shelf, nonchalantly
opening a page. He didn’t read it, it was all part of the effort
to put his host off kilter and get under his skin.
“Please have a seat, young man, and do be careful with
that. It is quite irreplaceable.”
“Oh nonsense, Nassar, you have thousands of the damn
things.” Aydin gestured around the room with the book, drawing
a tightening of the lips from the other Mage.
“Still. Please take a seat.” Aydin shrugged and placed the
book back, a few spaces down from where he had originally
taken it from. He walked over to the table, five paces, when
it looked like only four from where he had been standing.
He took out his handkerchief from his pocket, made a show
of flicking some non-existent dirt from the seat and plonked
himself down into it.
“Lovely weather you have in this part of the world, it’s
currently raining in Ankara.”
“Quite. Adeptus Maior Aydin Demirci, bani Questor
et Ordo Hermeticum, Sol Invictus, Avenging Charioteer. I,
Magister Scholae Nassar Demirci, bani Boesangius et Ordo
Hermeticum, Eye of Ptah, Primus Curator, invoke my right of
degree and blood to compel you to honour the Pax Hermetica
to aide, abet, and assist my rightful and lawful endeavors to
combat the enemies of ascension.” There was a loaded pause.
“You want my help with Grandfather.” Aydin translated.
Nasser deflated slightly. “…Yes.”
“It got that bad then. I knew the old bastard was off the
rails, but this amounts to an official censor.”
“It is worse than that Aydin; there is a tribunal being formed,
he has been accused by some other Traditions of infernalism
and diabolism, and the evidence is damning.”
“Fine. I am Questori, I will serve on the tribunal.”
“That is not what I am calling you here for, boy. There
are other Traditions involved, other families, this is a scandal.
Our family cannot bear the disgrace.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“I am suggesting nothing, honour demands we find him,
and kill him before our name is dragged through the tribunal.
We clean up our own mess.”
Aydin was suprised, but didn’t show it. The old man had
some spirit after all.
He played it off like it was of little consequence to him.
“I mean, he is my grandfather, but he’s your father. I
have other pressing matters that require mine and my cabal’s
attention. Marauder manifestations are on the rise, Taftani
fools are encroaching in to…”
“What do you want?”
 “Me? Want? I am not some merchant looking for a good
price, Uncle. I am simply informing you that I am very, very
preoccupied.”
“I will put you forward for the eighth degree. You will have
to pass the trials yourself, but my influence can cut through a
lot of the initial red tape. I predict the council will be especially
amenable towards someone who not only recently helped defeat
a potential Nephandus, and saved the Order a lot of face with
the other Traditions.”
“Well, I suppose I could…”
“Please Aydin, just say yes and let us move on to more
important matters.”
“Yes.” Aydin smiled.
“Good. Your cabal has a reputation for… tactical
competence.”
“You mean I have several Flambaou in my entourage.”
“Precisely.”
Aydin laughed and stood up.
“Well, Uncle, always a pleasure. I shall return to
Ankara and make preparations. I have been tracking
Grandfather for some time, and already made preparations for his
assassination, but it will be much easier with your resources
and help.”
“You… you already planned on moving against him?!”
“Of course, Uncle, as you said; we clean up our own mess.
But it greatly pleases me that you would put your name behind
my ascension to the eighth degree, I truly appreciate it. Nearly
as much as the scotch that I will take to go”
For a moment Nassar looked angry, then a smile broke
out over his face.
“Always a pleasure doing business with family.”
Order of Hermes 47
 Houses of Hermes
One of the Order of Hermes’
greatest strengths is the many specialised
Houses that make up its ranks, each one
having a unique purview that makes the
Order greater than the sum of its parts.
These advanced merits may be
taken at your Storyteller’s discretion, and
represent special training you have
undertaken as part of the Hermetic
House you have joined. You may never
have more than one of these merits at
a time.
House Fortunae (4 pt.)
The masters of fate and fortune, House Fortunae adepts
train to understand probability and seek meaning in numbers
and raw data. They also act as the mundane front and bank
of the Tradition, and as such, they may use Primal Utility as
an alternate sphere to Prime. Although it is not used in the
same manner as the Syndicate, often being more theoretical
and less exploitative, this gives the House a powerful tool for
grounding the Tradition in the mundane world.
House Flambeau (3 pt.)
The “Tac-nukes” of House Flambeau are the most renowned
warriors of the Hermetic Order, and perhaps the Traditions as
a whole. This merit means that any Flambeau mage may count
weapons or manoeuvres specified in any of their Melee, Firearms
or Brawl specialisations as a unique instrument.
House Quastor (2 pt.)
Your House Quastor training gives you the effect of +1
Status or Hermetic Status if you have it, as long as you are
trying to both enforce, and act within, the code of The Order
of Hermes and The Protocols.
House Tytalus (5 pt.)
When a House Tytalus mage spends a Willpower point,
they may choose to keep the point. If you do this however,
you must fulfil the character’s nature requirement to regain
the Willpower within 24 hours, without gaining a new point,
but instead pay off your willpower “debt”, or suffer a paradox
backlash. You may only have one pending Willpower point
spent at a time.
House Jannisary (1 pt.)
House Jannisary mages get -1 difficulty on any roll to
assess or divine if someone is hiding a dark secret or has secret
allegiance to the enemies of ascension (define loosely as the
Nephandi, Marauders or Technocracy but this is open to the
Storyteller’s interpretation). However, upon taking this merit
your character must also take the Dark Secret flaw, either as
an inherited obligation from their master, or one made of
their own sins.
House Bosangius. (3 pt.)
Due to House Bosangius’ training in the discipline of
Parma Magica and magical theory you get -1 difficulty to
all countermagic attempts. You may also “soak” paradox
backlashes with your Arete, removing one success for each
success on your roll.
House Shea (2 pts)
As House Shea you get -1 difficulty on all Research rolls
while having access to a library or other information source.
Additionally, you may call on on your houses resources to be
allowed to get a piece of pertinent information of any subject
of your choosing once per story, as long as you are in contact
with your House. This works at Storyteller discretion and should
be used to advance and enhance a story, not undermine it.
House Thig (3 pt.)
You must buy the Techno-mystic merit for free (as part
of this merit’s cost). However, you must always strive to have
roughly equal technomantic and mystic instruments, with the
player choosing any ties (for a 3 to 4 split at character creation).
You gain -1 paradox, to a minimum of 1, from all effects as
you attempt to work within the concensus more than your
fellow mystic allies.
House Verditus (4 pt.)
House Verditus are masters of crafting and inventing
magical objects and your Arete rolls to craft wonders and talens
are -1 difficulty. It also takes half as long (for rituals each roll
takes half an hour). This should allow you double the number
of rolls before rolling Stamina in rituals, and to only roll for
Stamina every two rolls after that.
House Miscellanea (2 pt.)
As a House Miscellanea member, your Status and Hermetic
Rank are capped at 3, even if you have the requirements to
advance further. However, choose a single Knowledge and get
-1 difficulty to all rolls with it, to represent your specialised
understanding of your minor House. This should roughly apply
to whatever the speciality your minor House is famous for.
New Background - Hermetic Rank
Hermetic mages, more than any other Tradition, place great value in hierarchy and rank. This rank comes with certain
perks, but also responsibilities and requirements. Hermetic mages can formally call on the structures and organisations
of the Order for assistance or information much more easily than other Traditions, who may have more personal
relationships with their Tradition mates. This also gives Hermetics a tangible advantage in the field, knowing that the
Order has their back, at least to a certain extent.
Hermetic Rank cost double exp to buy at character creation and in-game, and replaces the Status background for
Hermetic characters.
For each dot of Hermetic Rank you may:
• Add one dice to social interactions with all Tradition mages, and other groups who may be influenced by such
displays of authority. When rolling social skills with other Hermetics that you outrank, you may instead count
each dot as an automatic success, as long as rank has any bearing on the situation at all.
• You may also use your rank to request favours, items, information and other assistance from the Order. As long
as you are not undergoing investigation for a crime, and have maintained good standing with the Order, you
may use your Hermetic Rank in a similar way to the Requisition’s background from M20 (pg.321). You can roll
your Hermetic Rank as a dice-pool at difficulty 6, and each success gives you three temporary background
dots you may use in Resources (for a one-time cash payment from the Order’s coffers), Library (for information
from House Shae or another information source), Influence or Contacts (to have the Order pull some strings
for you), Cult (to have some apprentice mages show up to lend you a hand with a ritual), or Wonder (to have
temporary use of an object of power from the treasure vaults of the Order). This roll may be made once per story,
and all results are at Storyteller discretion. You may roll a second time at difficulty 8 if you really want to push
your luck. In the case of a botch, you temporarily lose favour with the Order and may not use the background
until you atone for your insult or overreliance on the Order’s resources.

Each Dot of Hermetic Rank correlates to the following ranks in game (ranks 1-3 are apprentice ranks and have no
benefits of rank, and above rank 8 are legendary figure beyond such mortal achievements).
•1 dot: Fourth Degree: Initiate - full membership to the Order of Hermes.
•2 dots: Fifth Degree: Initiate Exemptus - awarded when you have shown a breadth of learning.
•3 dots: Sixth Degree: Adeptus - You are acknowledged as an adept and gain more say in house decisions, and
usually awarded an apprentice to train.
•4 dots: Seventh Degree: Adeptus Maior - A powerful mage, you may be given a leadership position of a cabal
or chantry.
• 5 dots: Eighth Degree: Magister Scholae - A true master, often achieving mastery in a sphere, you are a force
to be reckoned with in Order politics, maybe leading a House or representing a region.

Shadow Names
Hermetics hold to an ancient tradition where they cast off their old names and adopt new ones more suited to
their new life.
• Craft Name: The new Hermetic’s given name that will replace their old birth name, symbolising their new life in
The Order of Hermes.
• Shadow Name: Stylized honorifics, random words, and sounds of magical significance make up a mage’s shadow
name and are often defended with magical wards.
• True Name: The above combined into a suitably long and complex title, forming a Hermetic’s true name.

Order of Hermes 49
 Merits And Flaws
Merits
Shadow Name (5 pt.)
All Hermetics will go by a Shadow Name, one they adopt
as their new identity when they join the Order. However, many
older and more traditional mages will make their apprentices
undergo a ritual to gain a true Shadow Name, representing
a rebirth into the Order. If you have undergone the shadow
name ritual (each master will do it slightly differently but we
encourage the elaborate) needs at least five successes to create
a correspondence connection unless a caster knows the whole
shadow name (sidebar above).
Power Conduit (2 pt.)
As part of your training, you were taught to focus your
power through a symbolic object, usually a staff or wand, but
sometimes a sword or crystal. This object becomes a unique
instrument for your character. When you use the sphere of
Forces through this instrument, you may channel one additional
point of Quintessence into the effect above what your avatar
rating would normally allow.
It’s not a trick...
It’s an illusion!!! (2 pt.)
magic, with a small m, is a well-known entertainment,
and many an awakened has used this phenomenon to their
advantage. With some flair and showmanship vulgar effects
can be disguised as magic with a small m. Witnesses might
not believe what you did was possible, but they can be made
to assume that there MUST be some sleight of hand or mind
games behind it. “She didn’t really read my mind, she’s just
really good at cold reading people”, or “Wow, you used mirrors
to do that right?!” are music to many a magician’s ears.
When testing for the Blatancy skill, any minor effect, of
one or two successes, that can easily be explained away can be
considered coincidental.

Temperament of Solomon*
(3 pt.)
You have great wisdom and insight and can see the truth
in all things. When confronted by a problem or complex issue,
you may spend Willpower for a “tip” from the Storyteller. These
tips should be helpful but not solve the issue on its own, and
just give you another piece of the puzzle to help you overcome
the obstacles in your way.

Mystic Lineage (2 pt.)

Your family or master-apprentice line stretches back
deep into the Hermetic Tradition’s history, and have links to
great names and noble deeds. Your rolls to gain support from
the Order using Hermetic Rank are at -1 difficulty. Such an
excellent reputation can be a double-edged sword, and the
Order may expect great things from you in return.

50 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
Anachronism* (3 pt.)
You are the remnant of a bygone age, maybe literally, but
definitely culturally. Although your robes and syntax are highly
fashionable in mystic circles, you stand out like a sore thumb
in sleeper society and will also get ridicule from even younger
and better connected Awakened.
You get +2 difficulty on Social rolls with anyone who isn’t
similarly disconnected from society.
Luddite* (2 pt.)
Although the Order of Hermes has a long history of
blending the scientific and mystic, the rise of the Order of
Reason partially from within the Hermetic’s ranks caused
many mages to reject technology altogether as a tool of their
enemies. You may not take ranks in the following abilities
while you have this flaw: Firearms, Technology, Science, Drive,
Medicine (setting appropriate). You also should roleplay this
flaw, as even mundane devices that usually require no skill to
use, such as smartphones, traffic lights, cameras, and debit
cards, are a mystery to you.

Arrogance* (2 pt.)
Your background and training in the mystic arts has left
you with an extreme sense of superiority that even extends
to other Awakened. You accept that other willworker groups
might be powerful, but they lack the finesse and class of your
kind. You must pass a difficulty 7 Willpower test to admit you
are wrong, or let another have the last word in an argument.
If this person is from another Tradition than your own, this
roll is difficulty 8.

Reviled Lineage (2 pt.)

Your ancestors, either by blood or by master-apprentice
line, committed some great sin or failing that has left their
reputation in tatters. You are the most recent recipient of this
malice, and however undeserved, it now falls to you to bear this
prejudice, or fix the mistakes of your ancestors. Your Hermetic
Status background is capped at 2, but you may still advance
in ranks in the Order, just without receiving the mechanical
benefits. You may try and dispel this flaw with some appropriate
great deed or sacrifice that will bring honour back to your line.

Massasa Heritage (4 pt.)

You have a dark secret, one that only comes out at night.
Although House Tremere treachery was officially defeated,
many in the Order still have memories of the power that blood
magic can offer. Somewhere in your blood, or through a rite
performed upon you as part of your initiation into the Order
by your corrupt master, you are tainted, and the Lords of the
Night may have taken notice. Although not a full ghoul, to
a trained eye your aura appears the same as those wretched
blood slaves. It is not common among modern Hermetics to
look for the telltale signs; those under suspicion might find it
highlights them to inquisitors and this flaw lights you up like
a beacon for vampires of all kinds.

Order of Hermes 51
 The temporal surge we detected was caused by an explosion of a microscopic singularity passing through this solar
system. Somehow, the energy emitted by the singularity shifted the chroniton particles in our hull into a high state
of temporal polarisation.
Miles O’Brien - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Anti sipped her tea calmy, the
warm breeze lazily rolling off the
Bosporus and twitching the curtains of
the small cafe she was waiting in. She had
chosen this cafe for its view and the fact
that she had visited it before, over one
hundred years ago. The city had been called
Constantinople then, but was renamed
Istanbul not too long after she had been
sent to the 21st century by her master.
A relatively minor change to the city
compared to the bustling landscape she
now observed through the window she was sat at. She had
become used to changes, and was often more shocked by things
that had stayed the same; like this cafe. It had survived wars,
regime changes, and social upheaval. The tea was a bit different,
and the WiFi was an appreciated addition, but the same tiles
on the floor, same smell of smoked shisha, similar comfortable
patrons, and the same feeling of a haven from the city’s crowds.
A middle-aged man entered the cafe, and looked around
unsubtly, seeing Anti and striding over. He was clean-shaven,
wearing a long coat that marked him out in the hot climate,
compared to Anti’s casual summer dress and old-fashioned
sunhat.
“Sorry I’m late, Anti. Thought I had been seen downtown,
so had to take the scenic route.”
Anti sipped her tea before answering.
“I’m hardly surprised; you seem incapable of blending
into a crowd.” The man bristled.
“Well, I am just a man, not some Exo infiltration unit
with...”
“Keep your voice down, Raoul. You are only supporting
my observation. Besides, Hera isn’t here at all so we might just
have much more pressing concerns.” Raoul looked agitated.
“We need to keep moving. There are all sorts swarming
over this place. The ‘Crats don’t take kindly to losing things of
value to us mystics.” Anti just looked at him blankly.
“I got an update from Alim as well.” Raoul continued. “He
thinks there are worse than Technocrats in the city.”
As if summoned, three men entered the cafe, pushing
through the beaded door curtain. One wore a smart suit and
expensive shades, on his fingers were several jeweled rings, and
his hair was slicked over stylishly. He positively oozed wealth
and privilege. The other two were a stark contrast; they had
long dreadlocks and tie-dye vests, with dirty flipflops and wood-
bead jewelry. Their skin was marked with grime and sores, and
their wicked grins exposed a single full set of teeth between
them. Anti immediately scanned the group, her internal data
banks identifying known Fallen markings of Baphomet mixed
Society of Ether 53
in with the hippie tattoos. the effects of his lure latch onto her, a nauseating but alluring
Goat Kids. Damn. pull to do what he said. She stepped forward towards him
demurely, shaking off Raoul’s grasp.
The suited man looked straight at Raoul and Anti, lowered
his shades and pulled out a stack of cash. “That’s right, that’s right.” His voice was comforting and
titillating, and she felt some primal attraction to it. “Hand us the
“10,000 lira to whoever stabs those freaks in the throat.”
device, I am told it is dangerous, let me take that burdonsome
And threw the money into the air. The other patrons of the
responsibility from you.” The Goat Kids laughed.
cafe looked stunned for a moment before their faces turned
into rapturous looks of greed, their eyes glowing a sickly gold “It is dangerous, sir.” Anti spoke.
as the curse took effect. Before they acted, Raoul reached into “Yes, I know, you want rid of it. Now where is the device,
his jacket and pulled a stun grenade of his own making. little one?”
“RUN.” He yelled. “It’s me.”
As the patrons and Goat Kids launched at the pair, he Anti lifted her right arm, her biometrics coalescing and
dropped the explosive and pulled up his goggles. Anti activated redirecting energy from her power core into the energy emitters
her sense dampening tech, and the device went off, lashing the in her fingertips.
cafe with an explosion of blinding light. Anti and Raoul were “And you can’t have me.”
on their feet and sprinted through the cafe’s kitchen to the
The energy beam exploded from her fingertips, the recoil
backdoor. Behind them, curses and screams followed.
momentarily pushing her stabilizing systems to their limit.
The alley was sheltered with few windows. Crates of goods The Memonite didn’t look shocked or scared as the energy
and debris from old construction projects littered it, and it beam ripped him in two, but his dying expression was of
smelled of old tea and smoke. incredulity. Raoul moved faster than the Goat Kids, drawing
“That will keep the sleepers down for a while, but those his taser and shocking one of them, as Anti charged the other,
Bhaphies will be after us.” Raoul commented. her augmented fists knocking him into the wall, leaving cracks
“We need to get to the Hagia Sophia, Alim will be there, in the bricks. Raoul didn’t look surprised at Anti’s attacks, he
and those monsters won’t follow us onto ground that holy.” had seen it all before.
Anti said as they ran down the alley. As they approached the “We need to go. The ‘Crats are likely tracking those filth,
entrance to the street, the suited man stepped out in front of let them clean up the mess.” He stepped out of the alleyway
them. He was not physically imposing, but carried himself with over the Memonite’s body that was slowly ossifying into a sickly
an aura of supreme confidence and ownership of whatever he golden substance.
looked at. He also smelled of expensive perfumes with a subtle “This one is alive,” Anti observed, looking at the hippie
musky undertone of something primal and primitive. Even at Raoul had stunned. “... we should take him and see if Alim
a short distance the smell was overwhelming and intimidating. can help him.”
“Common muck like yourselves shouldn’t inconvenience “To hell with that Anti! He’s an enemy of ascension!”
your betters.” Both Raoul and Anti stopped dead, and Anti
“So was I Raoul; everyone deserves a second chance.”
glanced behind them where the two hippies were catching up
with them, their movements predatory.
“You kill us and our friends will come after you, they know
we are meeting here.” Raoul spat at the suited figure. He smiled
in a way that reminded Anti of a big cat.
“Ugh, so predictable. Are you going to tell me next to take
you, but to please leave your girlfriend here alone? Do not be
so immature. We know one of you has the device, and those
bureaucrats you stole it from in the Union want it back.” The
two Goat Kids had caught up now, but kept a safe distance,
blocking their retreat, brandishing dirty-looking switchblades.
One of their rank t-shirts displayed the phrase “Live, Laugh,
Love”.
The man in the suit addressed Anti condescendingly.
“Come now, my dear, you look fresh. This loser and his
naive friends have not had your safety at heart. Come with us,
give us the device and we will help you reach your real potential
and not stifle you like those so-called Traditionalists.” Anti felt

54 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

 New Background - Scientific Method
The Society of Ether are an eclectic mix of nostalgic gentlewoman scientist, ex-technocrats, academic adventurers, and
neo futurists, as well as any number of other badly defined collective names for techomancers you can come up with.
What they hold in common however is a pursuit of science not held back by stuffy old reality; pushing the consensus
forwards with scifi-tech, or harnessing long dead scientific disciplines in new and exciting ways.
Scientific Method is bought as a Knowledge by Society of Ether characters, and must have a specialty, such as Cloning,
Steam Theory, Time Travel, Cybernetics etc, that you may add in brackets. You may roll this Knowledge as a practice
roll for any effect that uses this Knowledge, as well as in any way you might use a mundane knowledge about the
area in question, and in doing so it counts as a secondary skill and is rolled at -2 difficulty.
You may start with this knowlage at charicter creation and buy it during the course of play, and it costs double freebies
and experiance points to do so.
Additionally, the theory behind your effects may push the consensus, and even break it, but are grounded in scientific
method, often lessening the effects of paradox and you walk the find line between subtle and vulgar magic. For any
effect where you use this knowledge as part of a practice roll, keep the dice representing Scientific Theory separate,
maybe using different coloured dice, or designating the last in the row of an online dice roller. These dice may then
be used to “soak” Paradox you gained from the effect reducing it by one for each success on these special dice at
difficulty 8. Treat the roll as contained and separate for this purpose, with 1’s removing successes from withing this
dice pool for this purpose. If this dice pool botches however, you suffer an automatic paradox backlash. If the effect
is vulgar but is reduced to 0 paradox gained then it becomes coincidental as reality accepts your shenanigans, and
maybe a sleeper witness just had their reality shifted towards the more outlandish.

Society of Ether 55
 Merits And Flaws
Merits Fight Smart* (4 pt.)
When you have to fight, you do so with brains not brawn.
You strike weak points, use your surroundings toyour advantage
Mobile Hideout* (1-5 pt.) and generally try to out think you opponent. When rolling a
Many mages have a special place to call their own; a Melee or Brawl attack you may use your Intelligence rather
wizards tower, secret lab, hidden grove, secluded temple, or than your Strength to do damage. This merit won’t apply if
penthouse office. For you this a mobile vehicle of some kind for some reason you are enraged, compelled by another, or
like an airship, spaceship, modified sports car, time traveling are otherwise not able to take advantage of your mighty mind
police box, or witches hut with chicken legs. The rank in this during the fight.
merit determine the size, and impressiveness of this vehicle. A
single dot will have room for one person to conceivably live,
like a modified Chevrolet Impala, and five dots might be a Mad Scientist (2 pt.)
trans-dimensional space ship with room for dozens of crew, and Sometimes genius and madness are only different sides of
multiple areas of interest. You might also tie any dot you have the same coin. For many mages Quiet is an ever-present threat,
in Sanctum/Laboratory, Library, Retainers, or Backup to this but for you, it helps you see reality just differently enough to
merit representing crew and features of your mobile hideout. expand your understanding of the world. While you have an
active derangement or at least three dots of Quiet you may roll
Scientific Method at difficulty 7.
Transhuman Origin (2 pt.)
You weren’t born a human, or at least not in the
“normal” way. You may be a sentient AI installed in a flesh body,
be a clone, or may have been reborn as something more than
human due to your own experimentation. Either way you are
awakened and are so much more than human, despite what some
backward thinking critics might say. You maximum mental
statistics are raised to 6 instead of 5 as you have moved beyond
human limitations, and you may buy a single Enhancement
at its listed cost despite not being a Technocrat. However your
avatar stat is limited to 3, lending some credit to your detractor’s
insults about you not being quite human…

MacGyver (3 pt.)
You are adept and taking seemingly mundane objects and
tools, and crafting them into something useful. Once per session
you make an Arete roll at difficulty 5, and with a successful
roll you may craft a useful object from seemingly useless parts
and ingredients, with more successes crafting more and more
outlandish objects. There has to be some conforming logic
linking the ingredients and objects created, however loose that
link might be. This allows you to crafts a flashbang from under
the sink cleaning items, listening devices from old radios, and
even powered battle armour from the contents of a junk yard.
Your story teller is still the final arbiter over the possibilities,
and the time needed to do so (we suggest a montage), and are
well within their rights to say no to this power.

56 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
your Storyteller, then check yourself. As always, consult your
gaming group and audience for what they are comfortable
with at their table.

Accident-Prone (2 pt.)
You might be a genius in your field, but you are well known Self-Experimentation (2
for your experiments not being particularly stable and often,
literally, blowing up in your face. When you roll a botch on
pt.)
You follow all proper scientific rigour, but you never feel
your Scientific Method roll, the ensuing backlash counts as
genuinely sure of an effects validity until you have experienced
rolling an additional success for the purpose of determining the
it first hand. Before you codify an effect as a rote, you must
severity of the backlash but not removing an extra Paradox point.
first subject yourself to its effects; drinking the bright purple
shape-changing serum, experiencing the shrink rays effects, or
testing out your new mech suits bulletproof capabilities yourself.
Ex ’Crat (1 pt.) This will make you intimately familiar with your effects and will
Maybe you were once an Electrodine Engineer, or you might eventually lead to something inevitably going wrong. You are
have defected from the Technocractic Union more recently. encouraged to play into his hands-on approach to your magic,
Tradition members to whome you have not proven yourself to and embrace whacky and wonderful ways to self test your rotes.
might see you as little better than a Technocrat and not trust
you with Tradition secrets and responsibilities. You are at +1
difficulty on Social rolls with hardliner Traditionalist, which
is increased to +2 when involved in a situation where your old
loyalties might make you seem more of a risk. This should be
roleplayed out by PCs and NPCs alike.

Curse of Vargo* (4 pt.)

Named after the infamous Tzar Vargo who attempted
to hold the warring states of the world to ransom. This
affliction sees an Awakened mage become so consumed with
their own vision for the world that they blind themselves to
other possible perspectives.Theorised as a symptom of Quiet,
your mage finds other outlooks on reality increasingly unlikely
and eventually downright offensive. When you are confronted
with events that outright counter your view on reality and do
not fit within your paradigm, your mage will either deny the
event’s existence if possible or act violently towards it if forced.
How this manifests is between you and your Storyteller, but
either way, you should play your characters as uncompromising
on theory personal theory of reality.

Privilege* (2 pt.)
You come from a privileged stratum of society, perhaps
the aristocracy, a high caste, or even a dominant ethnic group.
Although you may not endorse and you maybe even push
against the unjust system you were bought up in, you still
have significant difficulty truly understanding the problems
of others. You suffer +2 difficulty on empathy checks towards
those your privileged position deems beneath you concerning
issues that you are not affected by directly. This merit is never
an excuse to play offensive characters, and if you find yourself
using it to justify behavior that has offended other players or

Society of Ether 57
 The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose
English Protest Rhyme, 1700s
The rooftop was quiet. Not much
sound from the city could be heard up there.
The space was unremarkable, an
apartment rooftop like any other. It was
a rectangular space taking up the entire
footprint of the building below, with
a small enclosed staircase at the back,
two fire escape ladders that lead up the
front and back of the building, and a few
outcropping ventilation ducts. The view
wasn’t spectacular, being a relatively low
rooftop compared to most structures in the surrounding area,
and with both buildings immediately on either side giving
slightly crumbling brick walls as neighbours to the rooftop space.
When Grace had first come up here, it had been empty
and neglected. A few old newspaper sheets that had likely been
recently blown up from the streets by dry winds had faded in
puddles, and a can of some soft drink discarded in a corner,
left by some other soul who had sought some rare privacy under
the open sky. Grace had seen the potential. When others saw
the transformation of the space, they would say that she had
created a wonder, but she knew that she had only been the
The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine
space’s guide. She didn’t own the garden and had not created
it. It had made itself, and she had just helped it along.
First, she had spent time in the space as it was, eating
meals up there, relaxing, sleeping occasionally. She started to
understand the space, learning how the echoes of the street
filtered up here, what smells she could expect at different times
of day as restaurants and businesses on the streets below opened
and closed. She would observe the characters of this rooftop
world; the family across the street who ate takeaway pizza every
Thursday, the old pigeon with one foot who would fly up here
to drink from the puddles in the uneven roof surface, and the
unknown occupants of the neighbouring building who listened
to Iron Maiden as they showered in the morning.
Next was the groundwork. Grace cleaned away the muck,
scraping up years of debris from the corners of the roof space
and scrubbing off accumulated grime from decades of rain
out of cracks and guttering. She fixed up some of the worst
brickwork, re-pointing and even replacing bricks if needed,
and painted the door to the stairs. Lastly, she fixed some of
the holes in the roof itself, filling in sealant cracks with filler.
Grace crafted raised beds from recycled lumber and erect-
ed a small greenhouse in the corner of the roof. She put up
Verbena 59
trellises around the brick walls, and part of the roof edge and
placed potted plants in corners and around the stairwell door.
In the centre of the garden, she placed a large stone that
had taken several hours to drag up the stairs on a heavy-duty
hand truck. It was long and wide enough for a person to lie
upon comfortably, and once placed, Grace washed it with fresh
spring water she had collected outside of the city.
Nothing was particularly planned in the proccess, and
Grace allowed inspiration to guide her design of the space.
The roof garden had taken shape, with the beds and
greenhouse interspersed with small paths, all surrounding the
central stone. Seedbeds and flower pots primed with new life,
tools were stored in the small shed, and the earth was rich and
dark from being watered regularly. Wood had been stacked
against the walls for insects to make hives in, boxes were up
high on the brickwork for birds to nest in, and plants in pots
had been moved into the greenhouse.
Grace then spent the first day away from the garden in
weeks. She spent the day shopping downtown, having lunch
at a favourite restaurant with friends, and putting in some
overtime hours at work before calling her family.
That night she returned. Grace entered the garden as the
sun was setting over the artificial horizon, just when day and
night became indistinguishable. She wore the white robes of a
high priestess, her hair braided in sacred knots and interwoven
with mistletoe, her feet bare. In one hand, she carried a silver
bowl, polished to a mirror finish, and in the other a crude stone
blade that had been sharpened by hand. She moved among
the space she had spent so much time in, chanting ancient
words and moving her body in a dance that had its origins in
a time before history.
No observers saw the dance, and no neighbours heard the
chanting: magic this old did not belong to anyone in the city
except the garden and the gardener.
As she moved, she touched the stone knife to her body
and drew blood. There was no violence in her movements, no
anger in her use of the knife, no pain on her face. The blood
ran down her arms and flicked from her fingertips as she
danced. At intervals she would gather some in the mirrored
bowl and then pour it in swirling patterns on the soil, daub
it on walls, and sow it across the beds as one might seeds. As
she danced, half-perceived sounds followed her on the breeze,
the music of a mountain river and hum of the deep wood
glen. A faint breeze carried the smell of old forest mulch and
wildflower meadows around the garden, dispelling the aroma
of car exhausts and overflowing bins.
As she moved and her blood flowed, her steps began to
falter, and movements grew weaker. The blood began to run
less freely, and the words she chanted began to grow quieter
until they were less than a whisper.
As the final words were said, she half-crawled upon the
stone in the centre of the garden, laying on it and placing the
60 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
bowl and knife by her side. Grace lay still on the stone, her skin
pale, barely breathing, and she slipped into a space between
life and death.
But her heart still beat.
The first signs of life were in the soil. New buds reached
out towards the sky, moving in a slow tattoo tied to the beating
heart of the gardener, tiny leaves pulsing as they unfurled in
time to the rhythm of Grace’s lifeforce. Vines curled up the
old brick walls, and roots pushed into the loamy soil. Small
flowers bloomed, and berries swelled on new bushes as insects
crawled and hummed in a dance to the beat of Grace’s heart.
Sprouts turned into saplings over the course of a few hours,
small birds uncommon in the city worked tirelessly building
nests in the ivy and, unseen to any eye, microbes broke down
and purged impurities and pollutants from the roof space.
She lay on the stone for a day, hibernating through the
midday sun as new leaves from saplings only hours old shaded
her face and fieldmice explored her woven hair.
As night fell, she slowly woke up in the middle of the
garden. All around her, small trees housed nesting birds,
wildflowers and fruit bushes spilt over the edge of the beds,
vines and climbing plants grew up the walls thick enough to
block out the brick entirely from sight. Bees and woodlice
moved among the greenery, earthworms squirmed through the
mulch, and a stray cat had made a den in a sunny spot where
it now aloofly basked.
Grace rose from the stone tenderly, taking in all the lush
and alive space around her that had once been so neglected
and forgotten. She knew she had not done this; plants know
how to grow, bees know how to pollinate, and life knows how
to blossom in even the most unexpected places, but she had
helped it along a little, and of that she could be proud.
 New Background - Heirs of the Wyck
Verbena magic has its roots deep in ancient religions and traditions. The magic of the druids, witches, shamans,
and other traditional practices from all around the world hold the natural world in high regard, and the Verbena
tradition is closely tied to the land from where they draw their magic.
For each dot of Heirs of the Wyck you may:
• Draw magic directly from the earth, with each dot giving you a single dice for your dicepool and then rolling
them at the local gauntlet’s difficulty. Each success will give the Verbena a point of Quintessence. This roll may
only be made in natural areas, such as forests and wilderness, city parks, large gardens, or farmland. You may
not roll to extract Quintessence twice within half a day’s walk of any area you have done so previously within
the last lunar month.
• If you are drawing Quintessence at a natural node, such as an isolated forest spring, mountain top, rural henge,
or leyline, you may add this background as extra dice to any Arete roll to withdraw Quintessence.

Heirs of the Wyck is a combination of adherence to Verbana practices, a spiritual closeness to nature, and ties to
the bloodlines that form the core of the Tradition. Although much of the legends of the Wyck are based in Northern
Europe, there are similar legends and myths all over the world, so feel free to adapt the background to be more
culturally appropriate for your character.

Good examples are:

- Child of Tonantzin, the nature mother of the Aztecs.
- Ori Aja (Soul of Aja), Yoruba god of the forest and botany.
- Chosen of Selvans, the Etruscan god of the deep forest and boundaries.

Verbena 61
 Merits And Flaws
Merits
City Slicker (1 pt.)
Unlike most of your Tradition, you are more at home in
urban areas than the wild. This is seen as distasteful by some
Verbena, and even heresy by the extreme hardliners, but
more and more Verbena are adapting to this new landscape.
You may use the Heirs of the Wyck background in cities
and urban areas but not in wilderness areas. Furthermore,
the area restriction is limited not by distance, but instead by
neighborhood, postcode, or local authority area, depending
on how the particular city is run.
Romantic (2/4 pt.)
The Verbena are close with both the Kithain and Garou
Nation, as they share a common culture with many tribes and
kiths, especially those from Northern Europe and the British
Isles. All three groups share a paradigm of a romanticized
pre-industrial ideal of life. For Changelings and Garou you
might not be a friend, but you also don’t experience the
usual distrust that many Awakened receive from these groups.
Mechanically this manifests as +2 dice on social rolls with one of
these groups for the lower point’s cost, and both for the higher.

Hearty* (3 pt.)
Your body is brimming with life, so much so that you
rarely suffer from illness, and wounds seem to heal very fast.
Your physical stats are capped at 6 instead of 5. You do not
suffer from non-magical illness, and all mundane healing times
are halved. Your hair also seems to grow very fast, maybe up
to an inch a day!

Seasonal Bloomer (5 pt.)

All people are affected by the seasons, but you draw strength
and weakness from the seasons far more than any sleeper. If
you are in a part of the world where the seasons are strong,
you receive the following effects depending on the time of year.
• Winter: +1 Stamina, -1 Perception, +1 Survival and
Occult.
• Spring: +1 Charisma, -1 Strength, +1 Alertness and Crafts.
• Summer: +1 Strength, -1 Wits, +1 Leadership and
Intimidation.
• Autumn: +1 Perception, -1 Dexterity, +1 Enigmas and
Awareness.
All positive effects are doubled on the corresponding
equinox or solstice. All negative effects are a minimum of 1.

Leyline Listener (2 pt.)

You are attuned to the network of mystical leylines that
weave over the world connecting sites of power. If you are using
a Correspondence effect, such as scrying or “teleportation”, and
your current location and the target of your effect are connected
via a leyline, you count as one degree closer/familiar to the
target. Your Storyteller should decide if you are working along
a leyline, but a good rule of thumb is nodes are connected, as
are other mystical sites of power.
62 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
Flaws Valdaermen (3 pt.)
The Valdaermen were great rune casters and priests of the
Norse before the Verbena even existed and were one of the two
Parasite (2 pt.) major founding groups of the Tradition. The Valdaermen bound
magic into runes, giving Valdaerman magic a solidity that they
When you use the Heirs of the Wyck background, plants
emulated. To the Valdaermen, oaths were sacred and a form of
wither, soil dries up, and fruits go bad around you as you absorb
rune binding of one’s word and duty. You may never break an
their life force. The effects are more extreme closer to where you
oath, welch on a deal, or go against the literal interpretation
used the power and plants will die in your immediate area as
of a contract, and if you do, you suffer an immediate paradox
you draw the life force from them. Further from your location
backlash that will, in addition to the regular effects, silence
the effects lessen. You must have at least 2 dots of Heirs of the
your character for a month and a day, making them unable to
Wyck to buy this flaw.
speak without spending a willpower point. This applies to even
casual agreements, but the enforced silence can be dispelled
early if you make amends to the debted party.
Wyld Appearance (1/3 pt.)
The Verbena are strongly linked to animals by the ways of
life they embody and their spiritual practices. Your closeness to
nature’s creatures has caused you to manifest animalistic traits,
such as snake eyes, a platypus tail, raven feathers in your hair,
or teeth of a jaguar. If the merit is fairly easily concealable,
this flaw costs one point, or three if it is obvious and hard to
hide. Either way, intimate examination will show you up as
something more (or less) than human.

Rule of Three* (5 pt.)

The ancient Rule of Three states that any harm done will
return threefold to those who inflicted it. You are cursed by
this principal, becoming deathly sick if you harm another living
person. Whenever you inflict damage on a living and sentient
person (even nightfolk), you will succumb to sickness, receiving
one health level of bashing damage each day until you have
had three times the amount you inflicted (irregardless of the
damage inflicted). How exactly the illness manifests is up to
your Storyteller. This cannot be healed by magical means or
rest, but medical attention can reduce the damage as normal,
and this damage will become lethal if left untreated.

Soul Companion* (3 pt.)

The witch with a black cat is one of the most enduring
images of a “magic user” in the world today, and you live up
to this trope wonderfully. Your familiar is more than just your
ally or supporter, but your closest companion, friend, and even
soulmate. Instead of taking dots in familiar, you treat your
familiar as a fully fledged NPC and should create them using
the rules for PC companions in “Gods and Monsters”, spending
three background points (if you can get another player to play
them then all the better). However, if this familiar dies in the
course of play, the normal penalties for a familiar dying are
doubled, and you receive three levels of Quiet decided by your
Storyteller, as you are cast into the pits of despair.

Verbena 63
 What is reality? We don’t even know?! For all you know, we could be in a turtle’s dream in outer space!”
-Frank Reynolds
The Adventurer wears light armour under
travelling clothes. They carry a spear and
shield, and upon their breast they wear a red
gem in an amulet.
The Programmer wears comfortable
clothing, sits at his rig in a supportive
chair, and wears a red USB stick
around their neck on a necklace.
The Adventurer visits the nearby town,
questioning off-duty castle guards, local
merchants, and the peasants who feed the
castle about its defences. They learn that the Dark Lord of the
castle is feared by most for his murderous power and evil deeds.
The Programmer integrates themselves into the
company’s social media community, befriending
employees and contractors, as well as learning about
custodial staff of the building they operate out of. They
learn that the company’s CEO exploits workers, violates
environmental protection laws, and lobbies against
workers’ rights.
The Adventurer learns the politics of the area, which local lords
are allies and enemies of the Dark Lord of the castle, and if any
of them hold grudges for past wrongs.
The Programmer studies past financial statements and
trade records, learning who they have worked with in
the past, and who their business rivals are.
The Adventurer spies on castle guards and servants to learn the
secrets of the castle.
The Programmer applies social engineering strategies
to their online interactions to gather information from
employees of the company.
Guards spot the Adventurer spying on castle servants, and chase
him from the town.
The Programmer is reported for suspicious activity
by platform users and their account is banned by
moderators.
The Adventurer sends missives posing as the Dark Lord of the
castle to several of his servants, insisting that there is a spy
attempting to gain entrance to the castle and they must tell his
representative the magic words to gain access to the main gate
to prove they are not the spy.
The Programmer creates phishing emails prompting
the company’s employees to reset their passwords as
their account has been hacked.
The Adventurer discovers that one of the guards is a wanted
bandit in another land, and pressures them to leave a side gate
unlocked so they can enter.
The Programmer discovers that an executive of the
Virtual Adepts 65
 company has a criminal record in another country and
has not revealed it to local authorities. They blackmail
the executive into revealing the company’s security
protocols.
The ex-bandit is discovered by the other guards and is hung dead
from the battlements as a message to not betray the Dark Lord
of the castle.
The compromised employee is discovered attempting
to extract security information and is arrested by
authorities.
The Adventurer buys some wares and a cart, and poses as a
merchant selling items they know the castle guards enjoy, hoping
they will be invited inside.
The Programmer sets up a fake Wifi hotspot with the
company’s name on it, hoping to get some employees to
connect so they can access their devices.
A guard recognizes the Adventurer and chases them from the
castle, nearly capturing them.
Company security recognise the attempt at ARP
spoofing and block any employees from accessing it.
They then monitor visitors to the building but the
Programmer leaves before being identified.
The Dark Lord of the castle now knows that the Adventurer is
determined to break in and steal his treasure, and hires extra
guards and casts more protective wards.
The company’s CEO hires security specialists to
improve their digital defences in the wake of the
Programmer’s attempts to hack systems and devices.
The Adventurer improves their armour and buys a spear,
imbuing both with powerful enchantments.
The Programmer upgrades his machine, installing
cutting-edge scripting software, and updating his open
source operating system.
The Adventurer practices combat against a target dummy,
honing their fighting skills and perfecting their spells against an
unliving target.
The Programmer dry runs his brute force attempts
against a boot2root machine, ironing out potential code
issues and shaving seconds off their cracking time.
The Adventurer prays at a shrine to their gods, hoping for a
blessing in the coming attack.
The Programmer donates to the Linux foundation.
The Adventurer works out their plan of attack, and waits until
nightfall.
The Programmer finalises their plans, and waits until
security services are least responsive.
66 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions
At midnight the Adventurer begins their attack on the castle.
They throw scaling hooks up onto the walls and begin to climb.
The Programmer initiates his brute force hack on the
main operative systems.
The Adventurer mounts the wall, but some guards see them.
The Adventurer defeats them both using his enchanted spear.
Several minutes into the brute force assault,
hunter-seeker programmes identify the attempt and try
to lock the Programmer out. They are neutralised with
the data-phageSPR.exe.
The alarm is raised, and archers shoot at the Adventurer from
the keep. Their shield’s protective spells block the arrows.
Security personnel begin attempting to remove the
Programmer from the system, shutting down their
access. Buffcode aegis.exe decoy attempts are used to
deflect them.
The Adventurer fights their way into the castle’s keep, and the
fighting becomes fierce. The Adventurer uses their spells to clear
a path.
The Programmer accesses the core servers, quickly flash
uploading raider applications to slow security attempts.
The Adventurer approaches the main vault where the treasure is
hidden, only to suddenly be attacked from the shadows.
The Programmer gains access to the central file system
when his own device comes under a hack attempt that
has managed to track them.
The assailant is a shadowy creature whose cloak is made from
billowing black clouds, and whose form changes and flows,
hiding its true form.
The assailant is a bespoke morphic virus that attacks all
operating systems, overwhelming antivirus software.
The creature attacks, daggers made of pure midnight lashing out
at the Adventurer, breaking their enchanted spear, and cracking
the spell-imbued shield.
The virus begins to overwhelm the Programmer’s
systems, accessing their core file locations.
The Dark Lord of the castle emerges, commanding his shadow
beast, and laughing at the Adventurer’s failed attempt to access
the castle’s inner sanctum.
The CEO is given access to the Programmer’s computer
by the anti-hacker, leaving a message mocking them on
the Programmer’s desktop.
The Adventurer is beaten, pinned by the shadow beast, armour
shattered and spirit broken.
The Programmer loses control of his own device.
The Dark Lord of the castle halts the shadow beast, and walks
towards the Adventurer, mocking them. It plucks an amulet
from the Adventurer’s breast.
The CEO roots through the Programmer’s files,
searching for personal information. They see a file
marked PERSONAL_AMLT and open it.
The Dark Lord of the castle laughs at the Adventurer, placing
the amulet around their neck, a final symbol of their victory
over the Adventurer.
The CEO opens PERSONAL_AMLT and copies all the
Programmer’s personal information to his own device
to track them down and ruin their life.
The amulet begins to glow.
/run
The amulet glows brighter, the Dark Lord of the castle screams.
Around them, the castle begins to crumble.
The copied information coalesces into a destructive
dataphage, multiplying and corrupting the company’s
systems from within.
The Dark Lord of the castle rages at the trick, but is powerless
as their own power fuels the amulet’s destruction of their castle
and their dark power.
The dataphage rips through the company’s systems
from within, deleting and corrupting all files and data
it accesses. A select few predetermined files are emailed
out from company addresses to law enforcement and
journalists.
The shadow beast and Dark Lord of the castle are both seared
out of existence by the amulet’s power, and as the castle walls
crumble, the local peasants storm over them, subduing the
guards, and casting down the keep.
The company’s systems are destroyed, its corrupt
trading and dealings are exposed to the public, and its
CEO is arrested.
The Adventurer leaves in the confusion, slipping away in the
darkness.
The Programmer covers their tracks. By the time
authorities are able to track the location of the hack,
there is only an empty seat in an internet café.
An Adventurer walks the open road, a repaired spear and
patched shield on their back and a red amulet at their breast.
On the horizon they see fires, and a village burns. The local
guilder is oppressing the villagers, extracting tax and causing
suffering. The Adventurer walks towards the village, intent on
justice.
In another city, a large corporation is undercutting
trade unions, exploiting workers, pillaging retirement
funds, and causing suffering. A non-descript
Programmer with a red USB necklace enters an
internet café and sits at a machine, intent on justice.
Virtual Adepts 67
 New Background - Elite
A hangover from the days of early online culture, being Elite, or Leet, is a complex concept, like trying to define
‘cool’. Most Virtual Adepts just get it, but trying to explain the concept to a hoary old Verbena or Chorister has
frustrated many a digital native. In reality, it’s a complex combination of reputation among fellow Adepts and the
virtual world at large, and demonstrated ability.
Elite cost double freebies or exp to buy at character creation and in-game, and must be justified to be bought
(see below). You may only buy one dot at character creation.
Each dot of Elite:
• Gives the user a bonus dice on computer-based actions when appropriate, adding to Computer or Technology,
or on Social rolls with other virtual netizens who might know how Elite the mage is.
• It also counts as bonus Arete specifically when working out if you can automatically pass a roll (comparing the
dice pool to the difficulty to determine if you many automatically succeed as explained in M20 page 394).
Normally this may only be used to succeed with only one success, but an Elite mage may succeed with a number
of successes equal to the number of dice their dice-pool is over the difficulty of the roll +1, to a maximum of 5.
For example, if you have Arete 3 and 3 dots of Elite, you may automatically succeed an Arete roll of difficulty
6 or less, and will have 2 successes on difficulty 5 rolls, 3 successes on difficulty 4 rolls. This bonus applies
after modifiers, and only to actions that might be considered coincidental. This usually means “hacker magic”
powers commonly seen in films and TV shows that are not representative of the reality of information technology
but are part of popular conciousness. It also may not be used as part of extended rolls in rituals and rites.
Elite can only be bought after demonstrating your “Eliteness”, usually through a particularly hard, creative, or
hilarious use of computer magic, something that shows your peers just how Elite you are. Things like making the
home page of a Syndicate hedge fund play cat gifs on a loop, deleting records of a despotic nation’s political
prisoners, or exposing the corruption of greedy government officials might all qualify. Elite will often be tied to a
moniker or alter ego if that is how you represent yourself online and has no bearing on people outside of netizen
communities. Higher ranks can only be achieved by becoming a semi-legendary figure in the Virtual Web and
online. You can also lose the effect of being Elite by being “Pwned” (despite being such a modern Tradition, the
Virtual Adepts still have issues with old habits) by another netizen, either being pranked or publicly having your
skills demeaned, and can’t use its effects until you get your own back on your attacker in an appropriate fashion
or perform some great deed to redeem yourself.

68 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Virtual Adepts 69
 Merits And Flaws
Merits
Natural Arithmetist* (1 pt.)
You have a knack for numbers, and even highly
complex algebra, analysis, and differentiation come to you as
quickly as speaking might to another. You can play your game
session with a calculator to simulate your character’s exceptional
skills at mental arithmetic.
Lurker* (3 pt.)
You have a knack for blending in and being ignored.
Any attempts to read your aura, resonance or amount of
Quintessence are at +2 difficulty if you are targeted directly,
and you appear as a regular joe to any large-scale attempts to
detect those things, such as trying to detect a Awakened aura
in a crowd.

Protean Persona* (3 pt.)

You are a posthumanist, and hidebound ideas about gender,
race, or even physical forms seem irrelevant to one who lives
and breathes the Virtual Web. In “meat space” you likely have
very progressive ideas about personal identity, but in virtual
worlds and planes of reality, you can push these ideas as far as
your imagination can take you. While in the Virtual Web, you
can simply take a few moments of concentration and spend
a Willpower point to alter your body shape to anything that
might be considered conceivable human. Blue hair, different
body shapes and genders, or bright red skin are possible, but
wings, huge size or other such extreme modifications still require
Life or maybe Spirit to alter.

Gone Viral (3 pt.)

You recently went viral, basking in the attention and glory
of your newly found fame. But the Consensus’ attention is
fleeting, and not many can make it stick. You gain a temporary
point of Elite, Resources, Backup (fans) and Fame, and when
marking these dots on your sheet make sure to make a note
that they are temporary. They will exist for one story (or month
of in-game time) before disappearing forever. If in this time
you buy those dots with exp, you can keep the dots, but if you
fail to do so, buying those dots will cost 2 extra exp after that
month as lightning never strikes twice.

Social Engineer* (2 pt.)

You just get people, maybe seeing human behaviour as
a programme like any other to be manipulated and exploit-
ed, or maybe you just aren’t as much of a nerd as some of
your Tradition mates (yes you are). You get a -1 difficulty on
Manipulation rolls, as long as the target thinks of you as a friend.

70 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions

Flaws
• 1 point: Occasional and easily explainable. Your hair
may move in a non-existent breeze. You have a mole or
birthmark in binary or HMTL.

• 2 points: Infrequent but bizarre. When you laugh

Information Addict (2 pt.) your voice may drop out of sync with your mouth’s
You are used to a constant stream of content; be that movements. When you wake up in the morning a faint
social media feeds, audio books, stock trends, or binary start-up noise can be heard.
input data. You might have started sleeping with the TV on
or checking your phone every five minutes, but now you have • 3 points: Regular and obvious. When you blink your eyes
to constantly have some kind of input or you begin to feel change colour. Characters on TV or computer games
uneasy, and the idea of being totally offline for a long period seem to react to you. Your voice has a static crackle.
of time is genuinely terrifying to you. This flaw works like the
Addiction flaw, but the addiction in question is either data or
content gained from being online. You are at -1 dicepool for
Perception checks while you are consuming information, but Buffering* (2 pt.)
suffer withdrawal from the data in the same way you would a You often freeze up when under pressure, processing
drug from the Addiction flaw. information when you should be acting upon your instincts.
When you roll for initiative in the first round of a combat,
your roll is at -3. This lasts only a single round before reverting
to regular initiative order.
IRL Inept (5 pt.)
Your magic is mighty in the Virtual Web and online, but
offline… well, you never managed to work that out. Due to
your paradigm, you can only use effects through computers,
information tech, and in digital realms and may not use effects
that impact targets outside of those areas. This does not mean
your actions and effects online may not effect the real world
indirectly, but that those actions themselves must be virtual.

Old School (2 pt.)

You were on the cutting edge of technology, surfing the
information highway on a mission to hack the world… about
20 years ago. You learnt your trade and as times moved on you
saw things like the rise of social media, cryptocurrency, and
whatever the hell a TikTok is as flashes in the pan. You were
wrong. Although you can still use all forms of technology, you
are not up with the current trends, and latest developments,
and your fellow netizens find you out of touch. You may not
benefit from the social bonuses part of the Elite background,
no matter how “Leet” you are.

Glitch (1-3 pt.)

Something went wrong in one of your virtual adventures,
and it has fed back to your pattern, permanently. You and the
Storyteller should work out what the glitch is, and it must be
something that would mark you out as an Awakened to an “in
-the-know” observer, being akin to a modern day devil’s mark.
Even to regular sleepers, it should catch them off guard, and
if observed several times they will know something is up. Use
the below chart for inspiration:

Virtual Adepts 71
 “...this has been th
Hipster, thank you e Hermetic
for listening.”
The red light blinked off.

He yawned and scratched his beard, leaning his head to

either side with a satisfying crack.

Done.

Do I watch the views roll in? Do I

respond to the first few comments?
No, time to get some food. He
stood up from the chair, only now
realising he had been slouching, and
stretched his lower back. Another high
caffeine, zero sugar beverage would
set him right. He walked over to his
Place T
arot
flat’s small kitchen.

An arcane summoning circle in the

Card h
corner of the room glowed. He
had begrudgingly set it up at the
request of his old master so his
ere
fellow Hermetics could contact him
more easily.

“Just send a WhatsApp message.”

He ignored the glowing runes

and sat on the sofa. So what next? He
unlocked his tablet, and set up a speech to text
memo.

“Hello this is the Hermetic Hipster and welcome to my

channel...

r a t e A l l i a n c e . . . ”
...th e D i s p a
72 The Hermetic Hipster’s Guide to The Nine Mystic Traditions