Magic is something everybody dreams of but nobody seems to possess. The power to conjure something from nothing, to change a man into a toad, to curse one’s enemies and their progeny, to call down lightning from the sky and lay waste to a city — all powers claimed by wizards in myth, legend and epic fantasy tales. We are drawn to these tales, however, not just because of the power displayed in them. Wizards present a different kind of allure: the desire for power tempered with wisdom. Demons and monsters have powers, but great limitations and curses, too. Mages have the power of knowing when and how to use power. While this can be a limitation, it is a self-imposed one, betokening a discipline rare in this world.

This is a game about these kinds of mages, and the trials and temptations they face on the path of discipline and enlightenment. The allure of power constantly threatens to draw them from the path, away from wisdom. A mage is someone who has Awakened, whose soul has been freed of an ancient curse afflicting mortals. Most people’s souls are asleep, unaware of the raw power they can tap to remake their world. The truth has been hidden from them many lifetimes ago; all they know is a lie. Mages can see through the lie and enact humanity’s birthright: Magic.

We like to believe that we are thinking, rational beings, aware of the world around us to a greater degree than is possible for any animal. We fool ourselves. As mystics from cultures the world over have said from time immemorial, we are only sleeping, dreaming that we are awake. If this is true, then reality is not what we think it is. We see only that part of life that filters through to our dream. There is a greater world out there, full of things unseen and literally undreamt. To know it, we have but to Awaken. That is what a mage does — he Awakens and begins to consciously dream new things into existence.

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Mages live in the here and now, in this world, just down the street. Although their society resembles more the feudal states of the past, broken into balkanized regions that remain largely incommunicado with one another, they still travel and use cell phones and the Internet like most modern people. But they live in a world of secrets, where the hoarding of secrets is a form of currency. Disagreements between mentor and student, master and adept, turn into rifts as apprentices accuse masters of withholding necessary knowledge, and masters declare most apprentices unworthy of it. When a mage can no longer work with his mentor, he leaves and seeks his own sanctum and cabal, a group of mages to whom he can trust his own secrets — or so the theory goes. In practice, cabals can be contentious, backbiting groups fighting over the same old theme: the ownership of secrets.

Mages travel from their sanctums only when necessary, to seek magical power or new mysteries, or to forge the occasional (often temporary) alliance with another mage who has something they need. The entirety of the spiritual realm may be open for their exploration, but mages usually see little of our world beyond their own chosen ground.

Humanity at large is ignorant of this occult underground. Sorcerers and witches live down the street and sometimes shop at the same stores, but the public is ignorant of this amazing truth. Even were the existence of mages to become known, most people wouldn’t believe it, and those who did would see it as cause for alarm and fear rather than wonder and awe. Magic is afoot in the world, but most people resist it.

The sea of time grows murky as one approaches the distant past. Ruins, artifacts, cave paintings — all this evidence of history tells an incomplete tale. Even master mages cannot part the curtains of time so far back to see what truly occurred. The magical orders have a mythology about their beginnings, the legend of a fallen civilization and a war for the throne of reality. The names for that civilization are many, most of them lost over the years, but even the Sleeping know one of them and seek evidence of its truth: Atlantis.

Not alot is known beyond the stories and mysteries known to man, for all of the Archmagi have transcended to another realm, The Horizon, and few know other than them how to get there, for the tapestry has been so disorientated in the workings of the past that only those who are powerful enough to enter the void and deal with the gauntlet, can find themselves among those of legends.

For this story, it takes place in New York City, vast and nearly endless. Its your playground.

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Mages get 1 type to excel in, they can perform the others, but not to the extent of their main type. Unless they get extensive training on the others.
If you want to take more than 1 PM me with a roleplay Sample and ill decide weather or not I will allow it.

Magic Types:

Death deals with Darkness, Decay, Ectoplasm, Enervation, Ghosts, and Soul Stealing.
Death is a gruesome and terrible Arcanum. With it, a mage can exert control over that most primal and frightening of mysteries. Ghosts and dead fall under the purview of this Arcanum, as does the health of the soul.

Fate deals with Blessings, Curses, Destiny, Fortune, Oaths, and Probability.
Understanding the Arcanum of Fate grants its practioner the ability to manipulate the threads of Destiny, Creating good or ill Fortune, binding Oaths, Blessings and Curses.

Forces deal with Electricity, Gravity, Kinetic Energy, Light, Physics, Radiation, Sound, Weather.
This is the Arcanum associated with light, heat, energy and the animation of the universe, the patterns of power that make the worlds to move in their orbits, stars to burn, and the cohesion that binds the cosmos together. It is a primal, powerful Arcanum, well suited to those with assertive overlooks on the world and who are confident of their own preeminent place within it.

Life deals with Disease, Evolution, Healing, Metamorphosis, and Vigor.
Life is the Arcanum of vital animation, that elusive spark that seperates biological matter from base materials. It encompasses everything from viruses amd bacteria to the most complex plants and animals. With the power on Life, a mage can cause or cure sickness, mend grievous injuries, and even create life forms from nothing.

Matter deals with Alchemy, Elemental Air, Elemental Earth, Elemental Water, Shaping, and Transmutation.
Matter is an Arcanum concerned with Lifeless material, the building blocks of the world.

Mind deals with Communications, Hallucinations, Mental Projection, Mind Control, and Telepathy.
This is the Arcanum used to connect with the Universal Consciousness shared by all beings possessed of thought; humans, animals, spirits and anything capable of of in any way distinguishing itself and its enviorment.

Prime deals with Hallows, Illusions, Magical Imbuement, Mana, Resonance, and Tass.
Prime is the light that burns without heat, the energy that defies description. It is the power that courses through all things in material existance and which serves as the skeleton on which all willworkers hang their magic.

Space deals with Conjuration, Scrying, Sympathy, Teleportation, and Wards.
Space is the art of connection, of the ties between things, the illusion of distance and the means by which one traverses all of reality with a single step.

Spirit deals with Exorcism, the Shadow Realm, Soul Retrieval, Spirits, and The Gauntlet
By setting out on the path of the Spirit Arcanum, a mage seeks to become an intermediary between Realms.

Time deals with Divination, Prophecy, and Temporal Acceleration / Deceleration.
Time is probably the most complex of the Gross Arcana, since it describes a phenomenon as yet incompletely understood by modern man. With it, a mage can redefine the way in which every other Arcanum interacts with the linear progression of events, and with great mastery can unravel the mysteries of choosing the manner in which things move in that flow.

Mind yourself that these are guidelines on what the types of magic can do, what you actually use it for is completely up to what you can imagine, though it does have to be within the lines of what each type can do.

Adopting a Shadow Name: Mages rarely use their given name among other will-workers. It presents a means of magical sympathy to enemies(its harder to work magic at a range against mages whose names you don't know), and a means for them to track down family or bank records. IF identity theft is a potential problem for most sleepers, its a dire problem for mages. For these reasons, sorcerors adopt a "shadow name", a moniker or call name by which others address them and which they use in their magical work.

Send me a PM of a role play post, before you post in OOC, it will help me clarify if its what I'm looking for or not, I will reply with an answer, and please stick to the rules posted below. yes even in the PM.

Rules, yeah the boring stuff

1. I will have no form of god-modding, this includes but is not limited to
a. Auto-hitting and forcing damage
b. Meta-gaming
c. Ignoring damage

2. Literacy please
3. No one liner posts... At least 500 words, more is acceptable to.
4. Swearing is fine, keep it tasteful though.
5. Romance is fine, anything to explicit take it to the Pm's.
6. I am your GM, I'm fair, any issues bring em to me.
7. Post at least in minimum once every 2 days. If you are going to be gone, let me know. If you are going to drop, tell me.
8. I have the full intention of this being a long term role-play, so when you get bored with things, do something to make it not so boring, but remember there are consequences for breeching certain rules, in game, that is if you break em.
10. I want you to have fun.
11. Post a character in OOC First, then once approved fill out a character sheet under the character tab, once i approve that you are welcome to do something in the IC, after my first post.
12. You may have as many characters as you can handle, AFTER I see what kind of RPer you are.
13. OOC is to stay in the OOC. Don’t interrupt the In Character thread with it.
14. I'd prefer Real photos not anime/drawings, and please no celeb photos, I don't want any well known famous people used for your characters looks. Thanks.

Character Sheets; For OOC posting.

First Name: Your characters first name.
Last Name: Your characters last name.
Shadow name: A nickname in a since that you tell other mages instead of your real name.
Age: How old is your character?
Gender: >.> Well than this should be easy!..Right?
Weaponry: Feel free to be creative! However do try not to go to far over board.
Magic: What type of magic to you excel at?
Appearance: A description and image of your character. A pic also if you can manage it!
Personality: How does your character act within society?
Back story: What has happened to your character in the past? Here you can describe more about your characters reactions and feelings, plus an awesome story. Whatever you want.
Extra: Anything else we need to know.

I am also looking for those who are willing to play as normal humans, and if you want to be awoken into the mystic life, well you can figure it out.