Why the Ascension War is still Cold

Why the Ascension War is Still a Cold War

Most everyone knows about how the Cold War ran, between 1945 and the late 1980s. THere were periods of conflict and confrontation, with large amounts of covert operations, psychological warfare, etc. Both sides, while technically "good guys" to their own people, committed atrocities against their own people and those who lived i the embattled, marginal regions where the two superpowers fought their battles.

What kept the Cold War from growing into a Hot War? Simple. The doctrine of Mututally Assured Destruction was in operation the whole time. If one power acted too openly or too hostilely, the other would retalliate with a strike that would assure, not victory, but a counterstrike of proportions that would eventually destroy the entire world in a ball of nuclear flame.

This same principle applies in spades to the Ascension War. The battle is at the core for the minds of the Sleepers, so anything that destroys all the Sleepers is unacceptible. And since most Sleepers are as human as magi, anything that tried to attack magi directly would also hurt the Sleeper population, and make the Ascension War revolve around more prominent, specific targets. Most of whom would die in the conflict for their own minds.

The Powers in the War

There are really three major factions in the Ascension War, each of them splintered into several smaller groups that have their own agendas, and act subtlely against even their "allies".

The Traditions

The Traditions are what the players of the game are the most familiar with, the "downtrodden magi" of old that have been displaced by an increasingly ordered universe. THey have the power of (sorry for the pun) tradition and history behind them, and many of their oldest magi are the most powerful by far. They can almost be equated to the NATO powers of the Cold War.

The Technocracy

The original" bad guys," the Technocracy has engineered the current structuring of the Tellurian, and have been ascendant for the last 300 years or so. They are rife with corruption and power-lust, however, the luxuries of the victorious, though they have not yet won. They are analogous (in history as well as current situation) to the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations.

The Nephandi

The stereotypical "bad guys", they run in the shadows, with their own agenda. They are the "alien power" that is feared by all those in the "established order", and every effort is made to root them out at all levels. They have no real analogue to a power in the Cold War, but could be considerd to be analogous to international crime syndicates, or illuminati-like secret societies.

The Marauders

Every war has those elements which act to do nothing but sow chaos throughout the battlefield. This is the place of the Marauders the ultimate anarchists in the Ascesion War. They have no discernable goal, simply a broad collection of individuals under a convenient handle. If they worked together, given their advantages, they would be a formidable force indeed.

So, what keeps them in check?

Magical Analogues to the Nuclear Bomb

The big thing that kept the Cold War in check was the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. This doctrine kept the Cold War from erupting into a long-term state of madness and bloodshed. There are several forces that can be brought to bear by each side that would be analogous to the strike and counterstrike of nuclear weapons.

The Traditions' Bomb: Dynamic Magic

Fallout: Paradox Storm, Sleeper Backlash

The Traditions have the awesome powers of dynamic magic at their disposal. Creating fire-breathing dragons, great firey explosions, and even reversing the flow of time is nothing to the great powers within the Traditions. Were they capable of acting with a united front, however, this would surely be the weapon of choice.

The drawback, of course, is the danger of Paradox. Such incredible displays of dynamicism would at first be met by huge backlashes of Paradox, the sort that has not been seen in ages. These paradox storms would lash out, consuming the ofending mage and everything around them, tearing through the Tellurian and detroying or changing everything in its path.

Also, with the return of true magic, the Sleepers would in general react in fear (the Pogrom has done its job well), afraid of these new super-men. They would rise up, and the Traditions, deprived of many of their most potent members, would be smashed by the wrath of the Sleeping masses.

The Technocracy's Bomb: The Pogrom

Fallout: Sealing of the Gauntlet, Sleeper Backlash

The power of the Technocracy has lain in its almost iron grip on the modern paradigm. Their control has been slipping slightly, but it is still quite strong. It would take littl efor them to exert their combined force and escalate the Pogrom, consuming all the Tradition mages, and changing the paradigm enough to slam shut the Gauntlet, untethering Gaia from the Tellurian.

The problem with this, however, is that there would be no more Quint. Their own magics would fail, and eventually the world would stagnate, patterns slowly decaying as Quint bleeds off into the environment, through the small magical acts of the near-Awakened. The end of the world in this case would be a series of crystaline crypts containing consciousnesses with no capability for thought.

The Sleepers would see this assault on religious and spiritual laders, and eventually rise up against those that oppress them. The mobs would be like nothing seen before, as there would be an Inquisition launched spontaneously against the creators of technology, the controllers of the masses. And with no supernatural force to guide them, they would run roughshod over the world.

The Nephandi's Bomb: Physical Manifestation/Summoning

Fallout: Consumption

The dread weaponof the Nephandi is the physical presence of their dark Lords in this Realm. Such creatures of darkness would consume everything in their path, destroying all, leaving nothing, not even entropy, in their wake. Their enemies would be destroyed, yes... But in their wake there would be nothing. Gaia would be cast screaming into the Void.

Any one group has within it the power to end the Ascension War... But they cannot use this power. Only once they can weaken the power of the other two factions enough to assert themselves slowly over the paradigm, they can do nothing but skulk i the shadows, relying on propoganda, surgical strikes, and decade-long actions and campaigns to slowly shift and twist the Sleepers to believe in the way they wish, to begin to favor one faction over the others. Then and only then could one player push an overt bid for power. The problem would be the that the factions within that player would splinter out, and instead of one player, there would be a large number more, who would fight until they too settled into a "cold war" of their own.

The danger, however, comes from the other powers, the Jyhad of the undead, the apparent mad assault by the Garou, the reality-shattering abilities of the Marauders, the almost untouchable influence of the dead, and the capricious, unpredictable nature of the Fae. Actions by those powers will keep the Ascension War on the edge of a thaw, time held constantly at the point two minutes to the archetypical midnight, the last bit of the 11th hour.

And no, running a Chronicle with this kind of assertion is NOT easy.... But when its done. it can be an INCREDIBLE amount of fun, and a very involving storyline... It's like plucking at a strand of a spider's web... You never know when you're going to pull the thread that gets you bit.

So, comments! :)

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