By Anders Sandberg
This is a small fringe group of the Tantric sect of Cult of Ecstasy. They believe that the soul is purified by pleasure, and that godhood and eventual Ascension is possible by intense, prolonged ecstasy. To this purpose they seek out sleepers with strong Avatars, and give them total ecstasy in the hope of Ascending them.
The Children is careful about the people they choose to ascend into ecstasy. They have to be strong in spirit, healthy and most importantly judged suitable by the seers of the group. Sometimes they choose people without knowing why they are suitable or even against their will. When they have chosen an ascendee, they start out slowly. They begin by letting their acolytes seduce him, and bring him to their temple. There he is given more and more pleasure, until he is in total ecstasy. Its then the real magickal work begins, in continuing the rapture and making it ever stronger.
To give pleasure is not simple, and the Children have turned it both into an art and a religion. They start out with the simple and mundane methods of sex, drugs, music and physical stimulation. As the ecstasy continues, they start to use magick to prolong it and strengthen it. New pleasures are added constantly, becoming ever more refined and complex. At the same time magick is used to give the ascendee the ability to both discern and understand them. Finally the most powerful members of the group step in to use magick to bring the bliss to ever increasing heights and prevent the ascendee from dying of exertion. The exact way pleasures are applied is extremely important, and the Children often train themselves to give pleasure in various ways. The ecstasy must never become boring or static, it must constantly evolve. To this end they apply it in almost musical fashion, weaving artful patterns out of various delights like an ever more complex composition.
The final stages of the process requires the supervision of the most powerful mages of the group. Simpler tasks such as ensuring the health of the ascendee, keeping him under control and fully conscious of his pleasures and inducing delight magickally is left the lesser mages. The Masters place great enchantments upon the ascendee, hoping to turn him into the vehicle of his own pleasure. Many ascendees have already Awakened at this stage, and while some choose to leave the rapture to join the Children and work in the world, others continue upwards. The Masters seek to turn the entire organism of the ascendee into a talisman bringing pleasure to him, both body, mind and soul. When they are finished, the ascendee will be in a permanent state of ever increasing ecstasy, kept alive by powerful Life magicks.
The Temple of the Children is a place of translucent veils, Indian music, heavy perfumes, exotic incenses and sensual movements. In the centrum of the Temple the eternal ascendees are placed within the Inner Sanctum, a small but powerful node fueling their enchantments. Here their souls slowly are purified and deified by the rapture, until they one day will break free and Ascend. It is a quiet place, where the ascendees lie in infinite bliss surrounded by a palpable aura of ecstasy.
The Children are not completely sure about what happens when a person is Ascended by ecstasy. That ecstasy can awaken and empower people is obvious, but exactly how long it takes for a soul to become so purified that it Ascends is not known. Some claim it may take millennia. Others claim that the ascendees who suddenly dies in their ecstasy have ascended or at least transcended to godhood. All are however united in the belief that it is possible, and that by ascending people they serve Ascension.
The Children are not very well organized, but doesn't have to since they are so few. They are led by the Masters, who give orders to the lower mages. These in turns instruct the acolytes. When they are not busy bringing ascendees into pleasure (the process usually takes about a week until the ascendee is either eternally blissful or dead) they research the nature of pleasure and seek for new ascendees. Most members are ascendees who have chosen to work to help others to Ascension for some time before they enter the total ecstasy too.
The Children are not particularly interested in other magickal groups, and have minimal contact with them. They regard the Ascension War as a ridiculous concept, claiming that Ascension exists within everyone, regarding of the surrounding reality. One group which the Children have had some contact with are the Euthanatos. The Euthanatos are a bit divided over the Children. One group feel that the Children are needlessly leading souls astray from the Great Wheel, and their ascendees should be given the Good Death. Another group feel that all types of experience are useful, and that the eternal ascendees will die sooner or later anyway, an experience richer. As long as they have not reached a consensus, they generally leave the children alone. The Children do not completely understand the Euthanatos, but respect them, since they feel there is a strong link between them.
Rotes and magick:
The Children prefer a more artistic approach to giving and sustaining pleasure using magick than fixed rotes, but many useful tricks have been recorded. They use Mind to affect the mind and emotions of the ascendee, and to focus his ecstasy. Time is used to coordinate the work, to find the best ways to do it and to prolong and eventually permanent the pleasure. Life is used to keep the body alive and to induce new pleasures through it. However, all other spheres can be used too to bring pleasure, it just requires some thought and creativity.
They use the same foci as mainstream Cult of Ecstasy, although they tend to use more variation. Many acolytes and members have been trained to master the use of one foci (like music, sex or incenses), to find the exact right way to apply it in the magick. The ascension of an ascendee is a group ritual, not unlike a musical performance. Usually an experienced mage directs the ritual, making sure by Mind magick that the methods are effective and pleasurable.
Lucidity of Delight (Mind 2 Life 2): This minor rote is important, as it allows the ascendee to be fully conscious despite his ecstasy. It will however not make him more rational or able to act much by his own.
Spiritual Ecstasy (Spirit 2 Mind 2): This enables the mage to stimulate the spiritual aspect of the ascendee as well as his mind and body. The result is more profound pleasure than any carnal pleasure, and tends to stimulate the Avatar to become more active in the pursuit of higher forms of ecstasy.
Induce Pleasure (Life 2 Mind 2): This is the simplest, most basic form of magickal pleasure. The Children use it a bit like the string part of an orchestra, providing a background for the more detailed and complex pleasures they weave. It can be combined with most other pleasures, linking them together or changing their timbre. Since it is relatively simple, it can be kept up by disciples working in shifts.
Break Through Pain (Mind 2 Life 2 Entropy 1): Nothing is more pleasurable than the end of pain. This rote uses the same techniques as the rote above, but seeks out deep, often subconscious fears and pains and breaks them down in a torrent of triumphant joy.
Primal Rush (Prime 3): This is exactly the same thing as The Rush (Prime 1), but the mage channels quintessence into another person from a node. The result is a profound, although slightly bizarre, form of pleasure which can be combined with other pleasures in the composition of ecstasy.
Composition (Mind 3 Time 2 Life 1): The Children use this rote to plan and compose the ecstasies of their ascendees. They link up to the minds of the ascendee, and understand how to weave together the pleasures in the best way to bring the ascendee to ever more ecstasy.
[ Mind 1 is used to keep the mage reasonably in control and able to think clearer. Time 1 gives the mage perfect timing, while Time 2 lets him find the best solutions. ]
Intellectual Pleasures (Mind 3 Entropy 3): Beside the pleasures of body and emotion, there are pleasures of the intellect too. By focusing the mind of the ascendee into a point and purifying it from all distractions, a state of pure intellectual delight can be created. The ascendee feels for a short while his real intellectual potential and his absolute ability to solve any problem he cares to solve. This doesn't stop him from feeling his other pleasures, it just makes him able to think completely clearly too.
Prolong Pleasure (Mind 2 Time 3): This rote is popular among most members of the Cult of Ecstasy. Different parts of the pleasure can even be prolonged differently, essentially dividing it into a spectrum of delights.
View of Delights (Correspondence 3 Spirit 3 Time 2 Mind 2): This rote allows the mage to send visions of whatever will give the ascendee the most pleasure from the most distant times and places, including the Umbra. The rote is not controllable, but will find scenes or situations bound to delight the ascendee somehow.
Permanent Pleasure (Mind 2 Time 4): This more advanced version of the earlier rote gives the mage the ability to make a pleasure almost permanent. It will continue until the rote ends. By carefully weaving similar rotes together into a magickal network, they can create eternal shifting pleasures which go on forever.
Enchant Body (Life 4 Prime 3): Using this rote the Children both perfect the life-pattern of the ascendee, so he will never need food, air or water anymore, stops ageing and will survive eternal bliss. It also lets the Children add other rotes to him, making them permanently active.
Flight to Paradise (Mind 5 Correspondence 2): By removing the mind of the ascendee into Astral space, the mage can send him for a time to the emotional space of ecstasy itself. By moving the mind in complex patterns through the spheres of sensation and emotion, complex experiences stronger than anything possible to experience on Earth can be created.
Invent Pleasure (Mind 5 Life 2): This is the most advanced form of magickal pleasure. The mage literally creates new pleasures and emotions never ever experienced before, often personalized to the ascendee.
Dispel Pain (Entropy 5 Mind 4): This powerful rote literally destroys all painful or hurting feelings of the ascendee, making him even more perfectly blissful. The Children acknowledge the necessity of pain as a contrast to pleasure in the initial stages, but in the final stage pleasure will be its own contrast, ever reflecting in itself upwards.