Mages, despite their awesome powers, tend to go unnoticed among the normal mortal throng. This is unsurprising, since it would be very difficult for anyone except another Mage to recognize that they were not merely normal humans themselves. They may wield powers that warp the very nature of reality itself, but they were once humans and still have all their frailties and insecurities, and are just as vulnerable, when they are not using their magics, to the dangers of the world.

According to Mages, all of humanity have the potential to become like them; every human being contains a spark of magic that, for the grand majority, remains dormant their entire lives and never awakens. Only those few who realize their own potential become Mages, transcending the mere mortal constraints of their former lives. Of course, Mages may simply maintain this myth in order to reinforce their own superiority over the human masses who have no powers.

Mage Organizations

Mages have existed almost as long as humanity has, and they have had plenty of time to sort themselves into complicated, byzantine organizational structures that have to do with their preferred powers, origins and backgrounds, philosophical outlook on magic, and any self-imposed missions they may have invented. Even Mages themselves seldom understand all the intricate workings of every facet of their societies, and outsiders - those few who know about Mages and are not among their number themselves - have no hope of figuring out the finer details.

Magic Traditions

There are nine traditional houses of mages, each practicing their magics in time-honored and specific rituals and each with their own complex philosophies. Each of the Traditions believes that their powers are more or less what can be termed "magic", although their understanding of magic varies considerably, and each trains new Mages to carry on the practices handed down to them.

• The Ahl-i-Batin are philosophical Mages who believe that all things are one and that their practice of magic can eventually allow them to reach the enlightenment needed to see and affect that oneness.
• The Akashic Brotherhood are spiritualists who believe that there is no true difference between mind, body, and spirit, considering that all three can be mastered as one unit by their magical arts.
• The Euthanatoi are death-aligned Mages who believe that their powers are best used to administer and time the natural cycle of death in order for the deceased to be reincarnated afterward.
• The Celestial Chorus are Mages who believe that their powers come from spiritual closeness to a great divine God of the universe, and that they must use them to reach for a closer communion with that awesome force.
• The Dreamspeakers are shamans, using their powers to form a bridge between the spirit world and the world of humanity, and consider maintaining balance between the two worlds to be their special duty.
• The Order of Hermes are secretive occultists who believe that Mages alone have the power to reach for true perfection in their bodies and minds, and seek any hidden knowledges that might help them.
• The Cult of Ecstasy are Mages who act as seers and visionaries, playing the part of hedonists in order to free their perceptions and experience emotions that bolster their powers.
• The Sons of Ether are Mages who consider science to merely be another form of magic, and turn their energies toward creating fantastic machines and blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
• The Verbena are the keepers of ancient arts of magic, known as witches, warlocks, and wizards in times gone by, who draw their power from the natural world and the forces that animate it.

Unsurprisingly, thanks to their strong commitment to their philosophical ideals and often conflicting styles of magic, Mages of different Traditions can have commerce and share ideas, but generally tend to remain with their own kind. Mages can be cast out of their Tradition if they do something very contrary to its principles, although this is not common, or a few may have no Tradition and simply have to figure out their powers on their own, especially if they awoke to their new powers with no one close enough to help them.

Conglomerate Organizations

The ranks of the Mages, while hidden from most of humanity, are still complicated and busy, and many organizations and associations have formed, fallen to pieces, and reformed again over the centuries. One such notable group is the Technocracy, a group of Mages who believe that the world needs the stability of science and reason and would be damaged by the revelation of supernatural creatures or Mages who can reshape reality with a thought; they are dedicated to preventing any humans from discovering the magical world and to allowing humanity to progress at its own pace through scientific research and refinement. They not only attempt to hide magical occurrences from the general public, but also police humanity's own scientific progress, suppressing or gently setting back any leaps forward that they judge the world might not be ready for yet.

The Virtual Adepts are another group, arisen in modern times since about the 1960s, who believe that humanity is in the process of evolving into a higher life form and spend most of their energy studying this process and trying to determine how they might be able to help it along. Virtual Adepts tend to be very technological as well, especially those who believe the path to superhumanity lies through cyborg implants or information streams, but they tend not to get along with the Technocracy, who more often than not are trying to stifle the kinds of progress that they want to push forward.

Although not strictly a formal Tradition or group, the Hollow Ones are a loose organization of Tradition-less Mages, most of them opposed to the domineering and rigid demands of the established Mage coalitions. They tend to lean toward romantic notions of magic as a thing made of classical spells and transcendent wonder, and while they don't usually argue with the Traditions or try to undermine them, they also generally don't go out of their way to try to help them with their troubles, either.

Mage Powers

Unlike most other supernatural creatures, which have specific suites of power at their disposal and cannot step outside them, Mage powers are almost literally limitless. Their purpose is to warp and change reality, and as a result they can technically affect anything that qualifies as "reality", and a few things that often don't.

Types of Powers

Mages get their powers from nine loose "spheres", as they term them, which are really just umbrella descriptions for ways in which they can affect the world around them:

• Connection, which allows Mages to manipulate space, distance, and transportation.
• Entropy, which allows Mages to affect randomness and chance effects to their advantage.
• Forces, which allows Mages to command the powers of nature and the natural world.
• Life, which allows Mages to interfere with living things and the rules of life, illness, and death.
• Matter, which allows Mages to transform things from one shape or substance into another.
• Mind, which allows Mages to explore and affect thoughts, dreams, and the subconscious.
• Prime, which allows Mages to control the flow of raw energy and power in various forms.
• Spirit, which allows Mages to perceive and interact with creatures far beyond the mortal realm.
• Time, which allows Mages to affect and manipulate the flow of events and timelines.

Each Mage is likely to use such powers slightly differently, based on the spells and traditions they learned, their own personal style, and the effects of disbelief around them that they must overcome.

Paradox

The powers of Mages are mighty, but they all depend upon belief, a capricious force at best. Mages, who have realized that the world is malleable and changeable and who can alter it at will, believe in their own powers and know them to be real; but the rest of the world, which does not believe in magic, believes the exact opposite. This conflict of belief means that a Mage must overcome the combined force of the disbelief of others around them to use any magic, and often they might fail simply because those near them know so strongly that they will. Overcoming the combined power of all of humanity to believe that reality is the way it is can be no small feat for a Mage, regardless of what kind of effect they hope to work on the world around them.

Even more worrisome, if a Mage manages to force powers so outlandish that they offend reality itself to take hold, the combined force of humanity's outraged rejection of magic may create a living entity, a creature fashioned of paradox that tries to remove the Mage to prevent them from doing so again. Such creatures are usually short-lived, but extremely dangerous and interested only in destroying the Mage who accidentally created them.

Mages and Vampires

Mages and vampires seldom interact, and generally have very little knowledge of one another, although some of the more scholarly Mage Traditions may have studied vampires in passing, and some of the more ancient vampire elders may have encountered a spell-caster once or twice in their long lives. Neither group usually has much of an agenda toward the other, apart from some vampires attempting to Embrace or make ghouls of Mages in the hopes of learning their powers, but this is not always successful; Mages can indeed be made into ghouls with all the normal rules that would apply to mortals, but their strange powers make it uncertain that the Blood Bond would hold them for long. Mages who are Embraced become normal vampires, and forever lose the sorcerous powers they once possessed.

Vampires with the Auspex Discipline may see the effects of Mage powers and spells as sparkling aftereffects or strange lights, although if they are not very knowledgeable about the greater supernatural world, they may have little idea what they're looking at. Many vampiric Disciplines can be countered harmlessly by Mage powers, and as a result even the promise of having a servant with magical skills does not always seem worth it to a vampire who would be, by comparison, almost powerless themself.

Clan Tremere

Clan Tremere are the exception to the rule when it comes to vampires and Mages not intermixing; in fact, they are its complete polar opposite. All of the original members of the Tremere were Mages, most of them from a small subsection of the Order of Hermes, who discovered the potent qualities of vampiric blood and decided to take advantage of them in pursuit of immortality. After a great deal of experimentation on captured vampires (mostly Tzimisce, who have never forgiven them), they were able to enact a massive, audacious ritual, during which they killed themselves only to rise again, reborn anew as a brand new clan of vampires. The Tremere intentionally traded the wider scope and range of traditional Mage powers for the increased stability of vampiric ones (which draw from their own blood and thus are not subject to the problems of paradoxes and human belief) and the nice side effect of literally endless time in which to learn more.

Of course, centuries have passed since then, and Clan Tremere has many new members, most of whom were initiated into its ranks from normal humanity who displayed a touch of expertise for the occult. Some of their number are also former Mages, Embraced by the Tremere rather than surviving the ancient ritual. Regardless of their origin, it is not surprising that they all display the powers of Thaumaturgy, which bears a striking resemblance to some spheres of Mage magic, or that they are of all Kindred the most likely to "accidentally" interact with Mages on their own.

Revocation of the Curse

It is whispered, largely only by the oldest and most knowledgeable of the Tremere, that Mages are the only beings in existence with the ability to revoke a vampire's curse, returning them instantly to being a living, breathing human being. Such an act would be incredibly difficult and prone to the problems of paradox, and would require a Mage willing to risk serious effort and danger as well as a vampire with a true yearning to return to life, but it is technically possible (or so those familiar with the Mage's powers say, anyway).

However, there is no record anywhere of a vampire being restored to life by a Mage, so if it is possible, it is either too difficult for anyone to have succeeded at yet, or no such partnership has ever successfully formed to make the attempt.