ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

There have been a lot of attempts to reconcile Mage cosmology with Werewolf and vice versa. I think this is the wrong approach. There are a lot of mutually exclusive cosmologies which may explain all or parts of the World of Darkness. What the metaphysics of magick says is that they can all be true, to different observers. Perhaps the oracles have even realized that the metaphysics is subject to belief too.

Here is yet another cosmology, to really confuse things. It is based upon the idea in Kid Eternity, which in turn is partly based on Gnosticism:

In the beginning there was the Fall. Some parts of the original Unity fell, was pushed or chose to descend into manifestation. Some parts remained unified, and chose to retain themselves. Some fragmented further, resulting in a cascade of spiritual descent. When some of the entities in the Fall tried to return to the Unity, they found the way barred by impenetrable barriers, the ring-pass-nots. They were trapped. Spirit became trapped in the matter it had (perhaps unwittingly) created, subject to reincarnation and imperfection.

Most of the fallen sparks of divinity quickly forgot their origin as they struggled in the ceaseless wheel of reincarnation. Some retained a weak memory of the Fall. Some beings thought they were thrown down here as a punishment and decided to try to destroy or at least disturb the Creation of the Highest. These became known as demons or evil spirits. Some beings thought that they could make the Highest remove the ring-pass-nots and let them return if they pleased It. Of these beings, some believed that they had been sent down here to protect and repair the Creation of the Highest. They did their best to keep the Creation as it was and tried to suppress any change. The leaders of these beings became known as the Lords of Order. Another group of beings thought that if they remade Creation into a gift ("Of course the Highest doesn't need the gift but it is the thought that matters." to quote one of them.) the Highest would be pleased. These beings planted seeds of discord and revolution, trying to hasten the evolution of the World until it became the beautiful gift they had planned. These beings became known as the Lords of Chaos, and the Lords of Order hated them.

Other beings didn't care, and decided to make the best of the situation. Some retired to comfortable realms to satisfy their own pleasures. Others played around, on different scales. The fey play around happily, having mostly forgotten their true origin. Other beings wanted to be worshipped, and became gods or demons. Still other beings manipulated the world in different ways, to suit their own often incomprehensible needs and desires. Some beings couldn't stand the weight of knowledge, and choose to fragment into myriad shards to escape into the merciful sleep of eternal reincarnation. Perhaps Humanity and the Kindred were created in this way.

Today the world is still torn between the different factions of beings which try to influence it. The Lords of Chaos started early using humanity to fulfill their plan. They have systematically tried to make it evolve towards higher levels, to gain knowledge of the Truth. Mages are those humans who have reached the highest and started to shape the world on their own. Since the Lords believe in chaos and restless creativity, they encourage different traditions to compete with each other. The Lords of Order saw the threat, and are trying to use the Technocracy to halt evolution, and create a static, perfect world like a diamond. The Lords want to put every mage back to sleep. Other beings are also working behind the scenes, perhaps less powerful and united, but nevertheless important. The forces of destruction and perversion are doing their best and have found that the struggle between the Lords suits them just fine. Strange beings are still trying to rule their corners of reality.

The goal of a mage (but he doesn't know it at first) is to truly Awaken, to reclaim his lost heritage as a shard of the Unity. As his Arete increases, he will slowly awaken through the great sleep. The Lords of Chaos will try to guide him towards them, while other factions also want him, or will try to stop him. When Arete reaches 10, he will Awaken fully and become what he once was, a pure shard of the Unity (or rather, as pure as anything down here can ever become). The true Ascension will be when the ring-pass-nots are destroyed somehow and the whole of Creation will joyfully return into the Unity. The Avatar background is a measure of how big a shard of the unity his Avatar is.