CULT OF ECSTASY PARADIGM

By Paul Beakley (adpyb@acvax.inre.asu.edu)

The Paradigm

The Experience. Existence is a series of experiences that expand and change the immortal being within the Cultist. If a soul experiences every possible event, it is expanded to extra-human status.

Magick

Whimsy. The will of the cultist is focused into creating more opportunities for experiences.

Spheres

Time: The Passage. The Passage records the Experience in total, heals all wounds, overcomes all Bad Experiences (if any experience can be truly Bad, metaphysically speaking).

Correspondence: The Place. One of the best ways to expand one's Experience is to change one's Place, or view another Place from afar, or merge many places into one more convenient location.

Entropy: The Wild. One of the best ways to improve the Experience, introduce a little Wild into something and watch the fireworks fly!

Mind: The Lie. This is where the perceptions of the Experience are filtered and made palatable -- until the Cultist's Experience allows him to fully understand the Truth. The Doors of Perception must be Cleansed.

Prime: The Whim, or The Will (old form: Kia, Fiat). Through force of will, or sufficient Whimsy, the Cultist can accumulate Experience for later Whimsies, or transfer his Whim into material Whimsies.

Spirit: The Truth. This is where the Truth behind all things lies, the primal source of The Experience.

Pattern Magick: The Art

Matter: The Form. Some vicarious Cultists seek to surround themselves with things of beauty, exploring experience at their leisure but vicariously. All things that can be created are done so with art and beauty in mind.

Life: The Flesh. The Experience of living things can be altered, but the Flesh holds the greatest promise.

Forces: The Image, the Music, the Light and the Heat. The Cultist can control the insubstantial as well as the substantial. Some modern Cultists also call this sight and sound, or audio-visual.

Arete

Whim. The Experience is to be warped and altered to the whim of the caster. The greater or more worthy the whim, the more likely The Experience will warp itself for the benefit of the Cultist. Old form: Kia, Fiat.

Quintessence

Experience. Somewhat synonymous with The Experience (i.e. the paradigm model itself), Cultists believe that Experience can be accumulated, making The Experience more knowable and therefore more changeable. Once a Whim has been enacted with the help of the Cultist's Experience, though, a new experience must be found to enact his next Whim.

Paradox

The Bad Experience. Screw with The Experience too much, and it turns Bad on you. Things go wrong, experiences and whims are warped and made evil, and eventually the Cultist is removed from The Experience entirely.

Mage-specific Backgrounds

Arcane: Charmed Life. The more charmed one's life, the less likely to get in trouble from the authorities.

Avatar: Passion. Extremely passionate Cultists seem to absorb and pass on greater Experience than others.

Destiny: Destiny (as per the book). Some are even destined to have really Bad Experiences. That's cool. It inspires lesser Cultists to have courage and cleanse themselves of the good/bad distinction.

Dream: Plumb the Passage. All experiences are recorded in the Passage, and some Cultists can search it for "borrowed experiences" needed at a moment.

Node: Diversion. This is a place a Cultist can go to receive additional Experience that he can parlay into future Whims.