In honor of Ascension Thursday, and the thread on the Celestial Chorus now rapidly vanishing from memory, I present some real Christian Mages. This group is based on a supplement for the formerly White Wolf-owned game Ars Magica. If one was to take them as given, they would apparently be an offshoot of the shadow Order of Hermes; however, since they had the ability to break the limits of Hermetic magic I'm not sure that they can justifiably be called hedge wizards. I have altered them substantially from the original, to conform to the standard Mage magic system.
For purposes of this post I've taken the Received Version of the Chorus as truth. The Neriusites, at least, are completely convinced that the Chorus only gained full control over the Church at a relatively late point in its history, and they probably have documents to back up their claim. (The Chorus probably has contrary documents.)
I'm not sure the Order is a good source for PCs: they may not join Chantries, as will be seen, and there are so many restrictions on their behavior that playing one would be a frustrating experience. It's not inconceivable that one could associate himself with a group of Tradition mages, but I really think of them more as a feature of the background.
I've tried my best to fit this bunch to the tone of the World of Darkness without betraying their inner nature. One of the chief reasons for their existence is to testify that Darkness is not, after all, the final reality. But under current conditions, they have to be so quiet about it that it's not surprising that so few people have heard the good news....
The Order of St. Nerius
"The light shines on in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." --John 1:5 (KJV)
Background: The Order of St. Nerius was founded by a member of the Order of Hermes in the 10th century of the Christian Era. They are an order of Christian lay religious who have no longer have any known connection with any organized church. Nor do they have any connection to the Order of Hermes -- indeed, according to some reports Nerius was a member of the shadow Order who Awakened to full power.
The Order is a small group, numbering probably between one and two dozen members at any given time. They firmly believe in the truth of Christianity, with some unusual consequences for their magical powers. They claim that they have never had any connection to the Celestial Chorus, whom they assuredly view as heretics who have infiltrated the body of the church.
The Order considers themselves to be outsiders to the Ascension War. They do not think much more highly of the Traditions than they do of the Technocracy. A member may occasionally find himself on the same side as either faction, perhaps in opposition to a Marauder or a Nephandus. In general, the Neriusites go about the world performing tiny acts of charity and practicing virtue on a very small scale -- a glimmer of light in a World of Darkness, but a glimmer that is never quite extinguished.
The Strictures: The Order of St. Nerius was a quiet but visible force in the shadow Order of Hermes and medieval society as a whole down to the end of the Middle Ages. Around the 15th century, however - -- the same time as the rise of the Technocracy and the fall of the shadow Order of Hermes -- something happened to them. Even they themselves do not appear to be certain what it was.
According to their teachings, they were visited by an angel, as had occasionally happened to them throughout their existence. This time, the Archangel Gabriel himself came, bringing them an unwelcome message. He told them that they had displeased Heaven grievously, and that in response they were permitted to continue in existence only on the condition of accepting certain Strictures on their behavior. These Strictures were continue in effect until another messenger of Heaven came and told them they had been removed. So far, this has not happened.
The members of the modern Order of St. Nerius do not appear to know themselves precisely what failure of their predecessor brought on the Strictures, although they say the head of the Order, who is certainly an Oracle, maintains the knowledge. (See Appendix for a few of my suggestions.)
Whatever the cause, the Strictures themselves are clear. If a member disobeys them, other Neriusites will invariably appear and punish him or her with gilgul. Unlike the Traditions, the Order appears to rate this punishment as less severe than death.
The Strictures
The Order views this ability as being a result of their power's orientation toward the Highest, who is of course beyond the reach of human belief, no matter what wrongheaded Metaphysic other mages may accept. Other mages tend to consider it merely an effect of keying into a paradigm, (miracle working by holy individuals) which is after all accepted as true by a very large proportion of humanity. It is true that Neriusites work almost exclusively among Christians.
In addition, the Order -- all of them being ordained as exorcists -- are particularly skilled at casting spirits out of the world. There are stories that this ability applies to Paradox spirits as well as the more usual Nephandus-allied victims. When a Neriusite is casting a spell that has the effect of sending away a spirit, add half of his current Faith point total to the dice pool. If he takes the time to perform a full exocism ritual with bell, book, and candle, add the entire Faith score to the pool.
There are whole classes of spells that Neriusites are forbidden to cast as being against the will of the Highest. They do not ever use Mind spells to override human free choice, for instance. They go to great lengths to avoid using lethal force.
Philosophy: Magick is what remains of the power that was given by the Highest to the First of our kind, to be master and steward of the earth. Fallen humanity retains only shattered fragments of the gift, and are far too easily corrupted by them.
Ascension is the mages' way of groping toward union with the Divine. It is a great sin of Pride for them to think that they can ever attain the true light by their own efforts. Can a shadow could tear itself off a wall? But all things are possible with God.
Organization: All the members of the Order take vows of obedience. In practice, however, the Neriusites seem to be left to follow their own consciences as long as they obey the rules of the Order. Due to the Stricture of Separation, Nerians cannot become members of non-Order chantries. There are no reliable external reports of meetings with the head of the Order, though all the Nerians swear he exists.
Meetings: These presumably exist, but nobody outside the Order has ever seen one. There are very few confirmed sightings of members either during the three days of from Good Friday to Easter or on the feast of St. Nerius (October 31st); it is often supposed that they go to their chantry for these celebrations.
Initiation: Some members of the Order seem to spend much of their time seeking out potential candidates for membership. These are more often already mages than the unawakened. Candidates live with a Neriusite for some time, usually more than one, and spend some time as a contemplative, alone but guarded. Eventually, they vanish for a while, apparently undergoing training, and emerge as full-fledged members of the Order having taken final vows. Or, sometimes, fail to emerge at all.
Chantry: There used to be an Abbey of St. Nerius in the foothills of the Alps, just inside what is now France. It was suppressed by the Church in the 14th century, but apparently continued to exist after withdrawing from contact with the mortal world. The Technocracy destroyed it 200 years ago, during the French Revolution. According to rumors, they found the Abbey empty except for one member of the Order. This attack appears to have had no effect whatever on the activities of the Order.
There is no known chantry now, but most mages believe they must have one somewhere.
Acolytes: None. The Stricture of Separation forbids acolytes.
Sphere/Foci: None. Members learn spheres as if they were Orphans.
Options: As an offshoot of the shadow Order of Hermes, use the language focus with the special rule that they get penalized one die for speaking softly, or two dice for silence, but may still cast.
Or, use the more-or-less-completely invented Archangel correspon- encies, altered from the ArsM version for Mage. Since there are only 7 archangels, my list goes like this:
Invocations can be by name or seal. [Please don't write and tell me that some of the descriptions of the archangels are strange and have little or no basis in real angelology. I know that.]
Concepts: hermit, wandering holy man.
Quote: "Recall that when you leave the world you shall be judged, and all your arts and all your rituals shall not avail you against His will." (from St. Nerius' speech to the Hermetic tribunal which condemned and killed him)
Stereotypes
The Traditions: It is only their failures which allow any of them to avoid the snares which have caught the Technocracy. Perhaps it is a form of grace upon them they have never been forced, like the Technocracy, to discover how limited their merely human visions of Ascension truly are.
Akashic Brotherhood: They are true mystics, in their limited fashion. They seek the emptiness and void, and do not know the Light which alone can fill it.
Celestial Chorus: How long O Lord, how long? A brood of vipers who use the Church for their own ends, who dare to identify themselves with the Highest. They store up wrath for themselves, and how we wish it were already ablaze!
Cult of Ecstasy: Slaves to the flesh, slaves to their desires. And they imagine themselves to be free, poor souls.
Dreamspeakers: We do not understand the place of their spirits in the Highest's plan. But we do know that mankind is more than the servant of Gaia. Is she not our fellow creature?
Euthanatos: More to be pitied than feared. They have looked upon the great truth of mortality, that all things of the world must die. Few of them can bear to hear other truths; they hold to their despair in the teeth of hope.
Hollow Ones: A new thing in the world, perhaps a great gift of the Highest. They are young yet, and we watch them closely, for who can say what they will be when they are older?
Order of Hermes: They produced St. Nerius. And then they martyred him. Blind then, blind still -- and such a little step that they must take to see!
Sons of Ether: -- There is something appealing about their childlike joy in their inventions. If only they were not so wedded to their toys.
Verbena: They have built their whole false theology on deliberate denial of the higher side of humanity. If they were not such pathetic failures, they would be dangerous.
Virtual Adepts: Their gleaming dream is as empty as any other Technomancer's, at the core. The Technocracy: A noble dream brought down by human nature. An old story. They are not the first to sell their souls for the kingdoms of the earth. They can never touch the Highest, and all their games with reality are ultimately building upon sand.
The Marauders: Madmen. Their hopelessness cannot justify their actions.
The Nephandi: What is there to say? They are lost, and we destroy them when we can. But we, at least, do not make the error of thinking that such an obvious danger is the Adversary's only tool on earth.
Appendix: Possible reasons for the Strictures: Maybe the Order was supposed to prevent the division of the Church during the Reformation. Or maybe they were supposed to heal the corruption in the Church before the Reformation ever started, but didn't want to get involved.
Perhaps the Order was involved in the witch hunts, and particularly in the persecution of the Kindred. Remember that God promised to curse anyone who sought to kill Cain; it is possible that this curse extended to those who deliberately set themselves to wipe out his descendents.
Possibly the Order got involved in secular politics, and really did try to win control of the Church and/or the Order of Hermes in the days when the two were falling out. Maybe they were behind the founding of the Inquisition, or the immense suffering which accompanied the Spanish conquests in the New World.
Maybe the Neriusites were supposed to prevent the Fall of Constantinople or some other great failure of Christendom. Take a cue from the Arthur legend, and perhaps a Neriusite struck a second Dolorous Blow with the spear of Longinus while on some misbegotten crusade.