Yet Another Alternate Mage Paradigm (C) 1995 R.C. Hardin Paradox, Paradox, Paradox -- within the _Mage_ system, Paradox is certainly what causes the most grief, both to characters and their players. The basic idea seems to be that when a mage superimposes his own view of reality over the existing consensus reality, he creates a paradox -- something happens that, according to consensus reality, can't happen. The main difficulty I have with _Mage_ is what happens to mages who continually fly in the face of consnesus reality. The mage acquires "Paradox Points," and too great an accumulation of points will either cause a Backlash, which is a generally harmful explosion of weirdness, or catch the attention of something called a Paradox Spirit, which will come and do unpleasant things. Of course, the mage can get rid of her Paradox Points, by using them to "buy" Paradox Flaws -- in essense, dissipating the Paradox energy into her surrounding environment, causing personal or localized disturbances of reality (water running uphill, etc.). The problem is that Paradox Flaws, Backlashes, and even Paradox Spirits are all large-scale violations of consensus reality. All these ococurences should incur still more Paradox, which in turn would up the ante again, and so on into entropy. It's a huge glitch in the rules system, and any hedging along the lines of "Oh, well, there are exceptions" undermines the whole concept of consensus reality as it exists as the foundation of the system. So what to do? Somehow the paradigm informing the working of magick has to re-interpreted. The following is one such attempt at a new interpretation. I had no particular work of philosophy in mind when forming this paradigm; conversely, I'm sure that much of what I've read in the past has informed my thinking on the subject. In general, I'd include Carlos Castaneda, Bertrand Russell, Robert Pirsig, Madeline L'Engle, Roger Zelazny, and probably a legion of other authors as my influences. As a starting place, I chose the idea that when performing "magick," mages are attempting to enforce their view of reality over the prevailing consensus view. Now, I believe that by and large one's perceptions _are_ one's reality - no two people perceive things the exact same way, and so their individual realities are different. To make social life possible, however, groups of humans agree to share "identical" views about certain concepts: for example, that when all physical processes in a living body have stopped, that body is "dead." We can all agree that a cold, stiff body with no vital signs is "dead," and this agreement helps us get along in life. Imagine the confusion amongst medical professionals if there was a wide range of beliefs conerning the definition of the word "dead!" However, even within such seemingly "obvious" concepts, individual interpretation comes into effect. Each person really forms their own reality, intersecting and diverging from common or consensus reality at different points. My idea is that these realities are as "real" as the "real world" that everyone supposedly inhabits. What a mage really does then, is not so much altering a One True Reality, but instead acts as a gateway between realities, causing another part of his Personal Reality to intersect with the "Shared Domain." Oddly, the mage acts as both gate and gatekeeper between the domains, and this paradox can be the source of a lot of good character exploration. When I use the term "Shared Domain," what I'm really talking about is the dominant static reality of a particular location. This reality differs from location to location, and will vary depending on how you define the word "location." The consensus reality of Chicago will not be the same as that of London. Spiraling inward, the Shared Domain of the South Side will be different from that of the Gold Coast. Finally, particular blocks or buildings (for example haunted houses) may have a separate "bubble" of reality which is substantially different from the surrounding Shared Domain. It is imperative that the Storyteller know in advance something of the static reality of a place his players are going to visit. Let me further explain this paradigm by addressing the various features of the "official" Mage WoD. Paradox: When a mage opens the door between the Shared Domain and her own reality, she risks not being able to close it completely again. Why? I believe it has to do with the workings of the human mind -- after all, wouldn't it be nice if we could have things the way we wanted them to be, all the time? Mages are much closer to realizing that state than other beings -- sometimes dangerously close. A mage has to keep in mind that living in a human society means making compromises between the way he wants things and the way other people in that society want them. The temptation of the ego is always there, however, and even a Mind Master doesn't always know her own mind completely... Paradoxically, this open-door situation also means that the mage has a foot in the door of her own reality (and sometimes much more than a foot), in a metaphysical as well as conceptual sense. Paradox Points represent the degree to which that situation exists -- how far the door is open, in other words. Paradox Flaws: When a mage realizes that his "door" is starting to be a little further open than is comfortable (see Quiet), he can bleed off some of that pressure to have the door open by "buying" Paradox Flaws. In this paradigm, Paradox Flaws become semi-random snippets of the mage's personal reality slipping through the crack before the door closes. In this paradigm there are no such thing as "permanent flaws." The idea that you can create a more powerful magick effect (and isn't having your senses of taste and hearing permanently switched a powerful magickal effect?) through a flaw than through using the Spheres makes no sense to me anyway. Paradox Spirits: Don't get me started. I've eliminated them from my chronicle. To me, they're a cheap and flashy deus ex machina for Storytellers who need to chastise their players for going overboard. I equate them with the old "blue bolts from heaven" concept from the Dungeon Master's Guide, you know what I'm saying? If you really feel the need to have Paradox Spirits, I suppose you could still explain them as the immune system of the Shared Domain. A better explanation might involve elements of the mage's own psyche emerging to protect the unconscious from harm of one sort or another. Quiet: Whenever a mage has her door partway open, random elements can slip through to the Shared Domain. But remember: the mage is both gate and keeper, and the further open her door is, the further she is drawn into her own Personal Reality. The effects of Quiet are the result of the mage being drawn further and further into her Personal Reality. Storytellers should make sure that a mage's Quiet experiences mirror her own past and personality, for it is these things that most influence the mage's unconscious, which is the ultimate source of the mage's personal reality. Static Magick: Mages generally don't want to call attention to the fact that they are capable of feats not normally believed possible in the "real world" -- it's asking for way too much trouble. It's also less of a temptation to the ol' ego to "sneak" effects into the Shared Domain than to blare them out of one's Personal Reality. Game mechanics stay the same. Dynamic Magick: "Vulgar" magick also works the same -- the mechanics are unchanged. The Traditions: My views here won't be of much help to many Storytellers, since I seriously reduce the importance of the Tradition/Technomancy battle in my own chronicle. Generally speaking, though, a mage who joins a particular Tradition receives specific training in how to shape and control his own Personal Reality. It's really just another level of consensus reality tacked on to the Shared Domain the mage already knows -- which is why in my chronicle, the majority of mages don't subscribe to any Traditions, since they represent another layer of limitation... The Technocracy: As above. The mission of my reduced Technocracy is basically unchanged: in order to enforce their own world-view upon everyone, it is necessary to eliminate all other possibilities. The Nephandi: I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help here, either. I didn't like the notion of what we consider to be "demons and devils" being ruled by warped and corrupted human mages, so I've made the Nephandi into a neo-classical hierarchy of the Underworld. As such, they're "creatures of magick," and not subject to the same rules and limitations that mages are. They have their own problems, but that's a story for another time... The Marauders: Some mages (and some players, for that matter) may think, "What's to prevent me from just unleashing my Personal Reality _in toto_ upon the Shared Domain?" Well, some mages do just that, and they're called Marauders. Unfortunately, this involves completely breaking down the barriers between self and world, which results in a few major psychopathic disorders, to say the least. The mind of a Marauder is no longer really human, and that makes it impossible for humans (even mages) to understand their actions. Imagine a complete schizophrenic with the power to inflict her idiosyncratic reality on the rest of the world. Good luck. Ascension: Since all the Traditions and all the Conventions and all the Storytellers who interpret them have their own ideas about Ascension, I'm not even going to touch this one here. Whatever your ideas are, this paradigm should probably not change anything -- but I'm not giving any guarantees. The Tellurian: It's a big place out there. Mage doesn't really address paralell universes (unless they do in one of the countless supplements they crank out, which I lack the income to keep up with), but I would say that given time and expertise, an individual could find her way into someone else's Personal Reality (I suppose you could consider any Personal Reality a "Realm," in the Mage sense). It would be very difficult to maintain her own identity when completley immersed in the unconscious of another being, though, so unless there's a really good reason for going, most mages don't bother trying. There are connections between Personal Realities and Dream Realms, and Dreamspeakers are probably pretty good at finding the portals. They're not the same thing, though, so don't get the two confused. I should wind this up by saying that this, like any idea, is a work in progress, and is certainly not meant to be any kind of Last Word on the subject. It's a possibility among many possibilities; play with it and see what you think. (C) 1995 R.C. Hardin. All rights reserved and all that other legal crap.