ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

The Wandering Mage is probably the oldest mage still around on Earth. He was originally a priest of Marduk in Ur, and reached great power. However, he didn't want to die (the Babylonian concept of the underworld was rather unpleasant and far too realistic). At the moment of his death he used his immense strength of spirit to move his soul into the body of his new-born grandchild. Since then, the mage has passed through countless bodies, learning and studying for millennia.

The way of his immortality is quite simple. When his body dies, he breaks free from the dying shell and his soul is reborn into a new body, replacing the old soul. If he has any suitable mortal descendant, his body is used (the mage prefers to be male). Otherwise he is reborn in an arbitrary baby. For the first years the mage remains dormant, just using his magick subconsciously to keep the child secure and healthy. The personality of the body is merely a mixture between the mage's and the person replaced, carefully designed not to attract attention. Around puberty, the mage awakens. He will remember all his earlier memories beside the new experiences of his body and regain his magickal powers, although it will take some time.

The mage was a conservative person when he lived his first life and that hasn't changed. Through the millennia he has seen how people repeat the same mistakes, not listening to their elders or understanding the old wisdom. He is deeply pessimistic about humans, who somehow manages to become worse and worse all the time. He has several times tried to change things, but failed. He has repeatedly told people about their errors, and they still persist. He is very pessimistic, and usually quite right in his predictions that someone is going to do something stupid.

Due to his extremely long existence, he has naturally acquired great knowledge and experience. He has tried almost everything at least once, and learned a lot more through his periods as an unAwakened. This has made him an expert on practically all subjects and very skilled in most other abilities. He is, in a way, an extreme jack-of-all-trades. However, due to his conservatism he isn't as good at modern skills unless they are essential. He is a fairly good driver and fine marksman, but quite computer-illiterate. He tends to scoff at modern science and technology and prefers tried and tested methods. This makes him quite anachronistic in certain areas, but he won't admit it.

His long existence has earned him many enemies. Most enemies are, of course, simply left behind by his deaths, sometimes (but rarely) by their hands. A few have followed him through the millennia. The Euthanatos regard him as an outstanding candidate for the final Good Death, and many masters tell their pupils to look for him. Several spiritual beings have different causes to dislike or hate him, most notably the Paradox spirits. Several quite powerful Paradox beings and wraiths follow him, trying to catch his soul when he dies. Many of them have followed him for millennia, growing more powerful as time goes on. The mage has good reasons for fearing the demons of the spirit world, which have sought him for a long time.

It is a tribute to Methuselah's skills and wits that he has managed to survive this far with these enemies. They only have to catch him while he is dying to claim his soul. To avoid this, he keeps a very low profile most of the time and is very careful to choose the moment of his death precisely. In most cases he commits ritual suicide to escape them when they have begun to track him down, often timed with the birth of a descendant. He is deeply afraid (more than he dares to admit to himself) to actually die when he isn't ready or when the demons may have a chance to grab him. This is of course what his demons want, so they stealthily pursue him and do their best to kill him before he is ready. Should they close in on him, Methuselah would not hesitate a moment before sacrificing his friends and innocent bystanders to win some time.

One way the mage has to evade the demons is to remain asleep in a body, which makes him much harder to track. They of course search for his relatives and children and kill them, but often he has managed to get some illegitimate children or sent his children away. When he Awakens, he sometimes chooses to go back to sleep and let the person whose body he is in go on with his life, only to re-emerge near the end of it. It's a bit risky, but a very good way of evading the demons when they are in the vicinity. It's also good if the body isn't to his liking or otherwise unsuitable. The people he lives as under these periods of sleep are quite normal people, with unassuming lives and no memorable quirks. His magick prevents them from falling victim to accidents and will awaken him when the demons approach.

His magick was originally classic Babylonian temple magick, but his methods have become more and more streamlined as his skill has developed. Today, he usually doesn't need many foci except when he has time or wants to perform something hard. Then he uses invocations to the ancient gods, the burning of special incense, sacrifices and astrological tables to perform his ceremonies. This is rare. He prefers to use coincidental magick without foci to avoid attracting the attention of the spirits.

One area in which he is a true master is mental camouflage. He has perfected methods to create false personalities to hide beneath, invisible mental shields sending false thoughts and emotions to mental scans and clever tricks to find out beforehand what mages plan to do. One common trick is to create a new personality (almost a full person in itself) and let it run things while he is asleep or bored.

However, despite his fantastic erudition, his magick abilities and long life, he has strayed far from the path of enlightenment. In the beginning, he used his multiple lives to learn the deepest secrets of magick. He even studied some time among the Oracles of Mind. But he became more and more obsessed with magickal power over the world around him, and less and less interested in truly understanding himself, the real secret of enlightenment. He rejected mysticism as useless balderdash and spent his time devising ever more clever ways of evading his pursuers. His Avatar initially tried to make him understand, but became more and more dulled by the eternal progression of new lives and the steadfast rejection of all inner change. Today it is almost as inactive as the Avatar of a Sleeper, despite the great magickal abilities of Methuselah.

Methuselah have some friends. Just like most enemies, most of his friends are left behind by his reincarnations, but some immortals know him. Most of his friends are Kindred, and several of his old acquaintances are now among the most powerful vampires in the world. While he is wary of getting caught in their endless Jyhad (which, in his opinion, shows that not even other immortals learn anything from the past, himself excluded, of course), he feels some kinship to the ancient beings. Despite their personal quirks and rampant paranoia, they are among the few beings who really understand him (and vice versa). From time to time, when they happen to meet, he and the Methuselahs discuss the good old days and what is going on in general. That his name has become the term for the older kindred is a source of some dry amusement among both parts. However, these meetings have a dark undertone of mutual wariness. Methuselah is powerful and knowledgeable enough to hurt them, and the vampires may be secretly in league with the demons.

Methuselah is conservative regarding his appearance. He always has a beard, even when it doesn't suit him. He always dresses conservatively or outright old-fashioned. He is also careful not to appear out of the ordinary. He at least tries to fit in.

Essence: Pattern
Nature: Traditionalist
Demeanor: Curmudgeon

Talents, Skills and Knowledges: Lots, especially common abilities throughout the ages (like riding, melee or languages) and knowledges. Rather weak on specific modern areas, such as advanced science or computers. Unbeatable at history, of course.

Willpower 10, Arete 5

Arcane: 5 (Methuselah is a master of fading away from notice, even without using his considerable magickal powers. During his "sleeping" incarnations he is almost impossible to find).

Avatar: 0 (Once quite powerful, but has lost its power during the millennia. Today it is completely dormant).

Destiny: 5 (He has influenced history more than anyone realizes, although his influence has been largely subtle and hard to discern even for himself. Today, he has largely fulfilled his role, and history more and more wants to be rid of him).

He is a Master of Mind and Spirit, probably very good at most other Spheres. He is definitely able to use the rotes below, and many lesser effects.

Rotes

Escape the Clutches of Death (Corr. 3, Mind 5, Spirit 4)

When Methuselah feels death approaching or has decided to move on to a new body, he ceremonially cleanses himself, draws a circle of flour on the floor, steps into it and stabs himself in the heart with a ceremonial dagger. He wraps the veils of the spirit world around his ethereal body, and speeds off into a new body. During his brief journey through the netherworld he is completely vulnerable and cannot use magick to defend himself. In more desperate cases he can dispense with the ceremonies, as long as he gets killed.

Masque (Mind 5, Prime 2, Spirit 2, Time 4)

Methuselah is a master at designing new personalities, often complete with memories, their own skills and realistic quirks. By overlaying one over his own personality he can hide himself completely from practically all mental scans. By making it react to the presence of his pursuing demons, he can be awakened well before they arrive.

Spirit Barrier (Mind 3, Spirit 4)

This barrier, drawn using flour or salt, will not only prevent any spirits from passing, it will also make whatever is inside invisible and unthinkable to them. They will not think of it, and if confronted directly with the barrier they cannot focus on it, either.

Fool the Seeker (Corr. 3, Entropy 2, Mind 3)

This rote makes people searching for the mage, even by scanning All-space, fail their search by making them overlook him or think he is somewhere else. Usually he performs this by writing ancient symbols and invocations on parchment or in cuneiform letters on clay, and then placing these red herrings all over the world.

Theme

Death versus eternal Stasis, Power. Methuselah is a human vampire. By avoiding death, he has avoided life too and become something inhuman. He sacrifices his children and others to remain in existence, and he no longer seeks Ascension, just perpetual survival.

He is also too powerful for the safety of anyone. He might remain hidden or live a quiet life, but sooner or later his destiny will always catch up with him. When he uses his powers, anyone in the vicinity is at risk of getting killed. The same is true for his pursuers. Normal people and ethics risk getting crushed by the sheer force of him and his existence.

Story Ideas

A friend of the characters is really Methuselah, who Awakens. Suddenly they may have an extremely powerful and conservative contact. How will they react when they realize that the personality of their friend was just a masque, easily thrown away? What if Methuselah turns out to be a loved one or a child of a character? Being a friend of Methuselah is also a mixed blessing. He is, after all, almost godlike in some respects, but all too human in others. What if the demons start to approach? The characters can easily be trapped between the ruthless demons and the equally ruthless mage, who may decide to sacrifice them to gain some advantage or use them as decoys.

The demons pursuing Methuselah have found his trail and are seeking him in the area. The characters are approached by one of them. It has realized that Methuselah will probably notice if it or its brethren approach him, but a few friendly human mages may be overlooked, and could perhaps backstab him at the right moment. If the players doesn't feel inclined to help it voluntarily, it has methods of persuading them... Would it be nice if their souls were ripped into pieces and eaten by barghests? Or perhaps their families and friends?

A promising Euthanatos (quite possibly a player character) is given the demanding task of giving Methuselah the Good Death. This may be the payment for his education, set by a bit too optimistic Mentor. The mage has to get all the help he can to succeed, and may end up with both strange allies and enemies.

The Avatar of Methuselah has briefly Awakened again, and desperately seeks to bring him back onto the path of Ascension. It knows it cannot persuade Methuselah, but when it reaches out it finds a fellow Avatar, once a shard of itself but now independent. This belongs to a player character, whose next epiphany will be different. As a part of the Questing, his Avatar (in company with another, silent figure) demands that he seeks out Methuselah and bring him onto the path of Ascension again. This is especially suitable for players with a Dynamic essence. Who said the Seeking should be simple?

The Seven Spirits of Destruction

These beings were known as the maskim, the world-demons of the Babylonians. Other names are the Children of Vengeance, the Wind of Destruction or the Bringers of Suffering. Once they were widely feared, and many of the rituals of the Babylonian priests were done to keep them away. As Babylon fell to the Assyrians, the old beliefs died out or changed. The Seven Spirits remained, but lost much of their power. However, the priest Methuselah went on living to their chagrin, a last symbol of the gods and priests they hated and the order they wanted to break down. He was, of course, an extremely dangerous target, since he knew the old magickal words which could command them, but if they struck during his short periods of incorporeality, they would get him. So they began to hunt him.

Through the millennia, they have hunted Methuselah. Their whole existence has become aimed on the single goal of finding him, killing him and rending his soul into tiny pieces. While most other beings from the Babylonian pantheon has faded due to lack of belief, the spirits focus and Methuselah's fear give them strength. In fact, without him they couldn't exist, something neither party would acknowledge. Several times they have been close to succeeding, but Methuselah has always managed to evade them.

The Seven Spirits have many forms, but their preferred form in the Umbra is seven great pillars of fire, burning and desecrating everything they touch. They are surrounded by storming winds and gloomy weather (a sure sign of their approach is heavy smog or sunsets with unusual or disgusting colors). This is naturally extremely Paradox-prone if used in static reality, and they have to take human shape to search for Methuselah in the physical world. Usually they look like seven powerfully built males of Mid-Eastern descent, wearing leather, knives, dark glasses and generally behaving not too unlike a modern motorcycle gang. They have always had a strong affinity for wanton destruction and often indulge in a bit of vandalism when bored or frustrated. When they talk to each other they do it in old Babylonian, often referring to forgotten gods and their old lord Nin-Kigal (they sometimes draw graffiti containing ancient invocations in cuneiform).

There is no doubt that the Seven Spirits are extremely dangerous. In human form they are limited to coincidental magick, but even that can be rather nasty. Most of the time they search for Methuselah from the Umbra, but manifest on Earth when they feel he is near, often appearing as a mundane gang. Their relations to other pursuing beings is a bit strained, since everyone wants to be the one who gets the prize. They are especially angry at an unnamed wraith lord who seeks to send Methuselah into Oblivion for some unknown reason. This being has several times interfered when they have been close enough to the mage to be able to attack him.

Essence: Questing
Nature: Bravo
Demeanor: Bravo

Willpower 7, Arete 5

Powers

Forces 4 Entropy 3: As pillars of flame, they can burn everything into piles of poisonous ash and slag. As humans, they are expert arsonists, capable of setting fire to almost anything (or anyone). They can also control fire, fanning even the tiniest flames into conflagrations or passing through fire unharmed themselves.

Forces 3 Matter 3: They have control over winds and the weather, being able to summon storms, lightening or smog.

Mind 2 Entropy 1: They always seems to know weak points and hidden fears of people, and are experts at intimidation.

Forces 1 Matter 1: They are completely unimpeded by any form of darkness, fog, glare or other obstructions to their vision.

Beside these powers, each spirit had its own individual powers in ancient times. They have waned over time, but in extreme situations or when they are close to their goal these powers may resurge.