Author's foreword: This is one of a series of posts intended to show what various mage groups believe, how they think, and why they think the Sleepers ought to prefer their vision of reality. It is not intended as a complete picture of each group, or a 'fair' portrait. It's written as propaganda by each group, but honest propaganda. They won't lie, but they won't list their own flaws in detail either :) Naturally, these posts represent my own idiosyncratic views which I believe to be reasonably compatible with canon, but given my memory is at times rather sieve like, I may forget stuff. If you see a contradiction between this or the appropriate Trad/Conv book, it may or may not be deliberate. If you have suggestions for more questions that should be covered, please let me know. Euthanatos and a bunch o' other stuff is all copyright of White Wolf, of course. You can find the ones done so far at: http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/WW/index.html Enjoy! Ascension 2000 Campaign Pamphlets: Euthanatos (Not so Canonical) [Author's warning: This version deviates from Canon in a variety of ways, but this is how I tend to play the Euthanatos in my campaigns.] Okay, now you guys...you're the necromancers, right? Animating the dead, slapping people around with voodoo, talking to ghosts, and turning people INTO ghosts, right? What gives you the right to judge people and kill them? Isn't hanging around graveyards kinda morbid? And isn't killing people because you don't like them evil? You could call us necromancers, but it neither incorporates all our aspects nor truly represents what we do. While unlike the other traditions, we have accepted death, we do not go around animating corpses, enslaving wraiths, or trying to turn ourselves into immortal undead. We do, however, deal with wraiths in a both a friendly and hostile manner, trying to help them to Transcend if we can and destroying them if we must. Many undead we seek to destroy, especially the Childer of Caine, who violate the Great Cycle and seek to stop it from turning. Nor are we morbid; we do not only think about death. You see, our true concern is with change and transformation. Death is but one of many changes, and our purpose is to remove whatever serves as a barrier to the turning of the Great Cycle, whatever chooses stagnation over growth, immobility over movement, and paralysis over action. This involves both growth and destruction, for the two are intertwined, the two snakes swallowing each other's tails, which together make up the Great Cycle, the Wheel of Time. We do have a certain tendency to favor destruction. Most of this comes from the fact that we prefer to let things do their own growing, with only a little guidance from us, while we remove the obstructions to growth and change, which usually requires the weilding of destruction. Thus it is with the Gardeners of Souls among us...they must use magick to remove obstructions to the growth of human souls far more than when they are able to encourage souls to grow, which gives us this reputation for simply killing people. And no, we do not simply kill people because they have annoyed us. Uh huh. So how do you decide who to kill? There are three categories of people who recieve the Good Death. The first category is those who ask for it. Some people want to die, and we are almost always willing to help them if we cannot enable them to live. That group, however, is fairly small, since we can heal as well as kill. Many people would be perfectly willing to live, though they might crave death at the moment, if the health problem or chemical imbalance driving them to desire death is removed. We support the right-to-die, but also recognize that a person at death's door can often be carried away from it. This practice is most commonly administered among our own ranks, when one of us feels he has done as much as is necessary and is ready to pass on. Because we accept death, we do not cling to life from fear as many do. We know what lies beyond that door. The second category is those who have sunk into stagnation. In this age of Technocracy, this group is very large. Many people gradually dig themselves into a rut from which they cannot get out. Perhaps it is a dead-end job. Perhaps they are mired in hopeless poverty or a drug addiction they cannot overcome. As they sink into stasis, they clog the turning of the Wheel and lose their ability to grow. We try first to break them out of the rut, to force them to escape the trap in which they have caught themselves. If that proves impossible, then we will kill them so that they may be reborn and have another chance to resume growing in the next life. The third category is the wilfully, recklessly destructive. We do not say that destruction is evil in and of itself in all cases. Even the Sleepers agree with us, else they would starve, for every animal must kill other life forms to live. It is pointless destruction which we hate, smashing for the sake of smashing, destruction which cuts off souls that are still growing, and forces them to reincarnate before they have reached their potential in this life. Many of these folk are evil, but some of them might be called good, or at least intend to do good. It is not evil to kill, but it is evil to kill those who can still benefit from being alive. There are many upon this world who kill for the sake of killing, who destroy purely for the love of it, who pervert the Way of Siva for their own pleasure. For them, there is only the law of an eye for an eye. As they have done, so it shall be done unto them. The Sword of Karma deals with such folk who have given themselves to destruction. But how do you know? You can't just look at someone and tell if they need to die. To those who serve the Wheel, all things can be known, and nothing can be hidden, for everything that is, is part of the Wheel. Through its power, we can gaze upon a soul and tell its most likely destinies through a combination of Time, Spirit, and Entropy. The future is not yet fixed, but we can tell the most likely destiny of a soul and the chance of it walking a given road. We also use Correspondence (and our own eyes) to observe a person for a time in order to confirm our initial judgement and to determine the best way to help them resume their journey to Ascension if that is possible, or if they should be given the Good Death. It may take months for a Gardener of the Soul to decide how best to help a person climb out of their rut and then execute their plan. For them, pruning is always a last choice. When dealing with the corrupt fools who serve only destruction, we are much swifter. A few can be saved, but in most cases, the damage they would cause in the interval outweighs their value. They must be stopped and stopped quickly before they can cause further heedless destruction. The Sword of Karma typically disposes of them as quickly as possible. I will not pretend our methods are perfect. Some of us become impatient and kill too easily. Others are too easily frustrated with the often slow work of nurturing the human soul, for most people don't want to leave their rut, even when it's slowly choking the life from them. And sometimes there are mistakes made, moments of confusion where the wrong person is slain. Worst of all, some of us fall prey to the Nephandi and become barabbi, and abuse our powers to fuel Oblivion instead of turning the Wheel. But some people like leading stable, comfortable lives. Why should they be FORCED to grow? And what's the difference between you people killing someone and someone else killing people? What's different between you wreaking destruction and other people doing it? Some people like drinking enough alcohol to destroy their liver, taking enough drugs to fry their brain, and then lying in a puddle of their own vomit. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea. Still, if by living stagnant little lives, people didn't hurt anyone, we might simply leave them to rot. The problem, however, is that by failing to grow, they DO hurt others. This happens in several ways. First of all, stasis is, and must be contagious. One cannot maintain one's rut if the world around one does not remain stable. Thus, those who sink into stasis must drag others down into stasis with them, or they will be forced out of it, like it or not. Secondly, because the will of the Sleepers creates the dominant paradigm, the more Sleepers sink into a state of stasis, the more the universe sinks into stasis. A static universe hurts those who do not wish to stagnate, but want to grow. But more importantly, making the universe stagnant is the prelude to its utter destruction, a destruction from which there would be no returning. The problem is that the existence of the universe is dependent on a dynamic balance between creation and destruction. Destruction, however, is not a reduction to non-being. Rather, it is the breaking down of the old in order for the new to be built from it. Nothing ceases to exist, rather, it is broken down to its components and rebuilt. One could almost imagine the universe as a giant Lego set. You make a castle, play with it for a while, then rebuild it as a fort for a game of cowboys and indians. A cycle of creation to destruction to creation. Stasis, however, precludes creation or destruction. It seeks to stop the turning of the Wheel of Time. The problem, however, is that the Wheel cannot be stopped and continue to exist. Stasis is but an illusion, for destruction can only be denied through new creation. That new creation, however, can only be made by destroying something else. Thus, those who would create stasis where they are, cause destruction elsewhere, usually indiscriminate destruction. Unmerited and unfair destruction. Ultimately, all those who seek to create stasis are selfish. They seek to take from the universe without giving back to it. They try to leave the Wheel of Time, to stop it in its course. If enough beings did this, they could fatally unbalance the Wheel. Either of two things would happen. Either the Wheel would cease to spin, and then it would remain trapped, frozen in Amber for ever. Or worse, it would experience the opposite of growth, which flows from the union of creation and destruction. It would experience degeneration, which is what takes place when creation and destruction negate each other rather than form a dynamic union. Degeneration is the road of the Nephandi, the road of Oblivion. Because the universe entirely consists of creation and destruction, negating them would negate the Universe. Oblivion is not destruction, for destruction is simply a change of state. Oblivion is the transition from being into not-being at all, rather than simply being different. I'm not quite getting this. What's the difference between destruction and oblivion? Doesn't something destroyed cease to exist? A thing destroyed by destruction is simply reduced to its components. All the pieces of it simply exist, they merely take on a new form. Let's take death as an example. If you die of old age, does your body evaporate into nothing? Does your soul evaporate? No. The body does decay eventually, though. Yes, but that's because creatures are eating it to sustain their life and create new life. Death is simply a change which enables new life to be created from the old. What about the soul? It will be born in a new body. I will speak more of this later; it is important to understand how we can justify administering the Good Death, but first I need to establish why we fear the quest for Stasis will obliterate everything. You see, death does not actually cause anything to cease to exist. Rather, it causes the dead person to pass on to new states of existence. His or her body becomes the seedbed of new life, while his soul ideally passes on to be reborn in a new body. Similarly, true destruction, rather than obliteration, does not annhilate anything, but rather transforms it into something from which new things can rise. Obliteration IS a change, but it is a change from which nothing can return. And so we fear Oblivion. We fear the Void. We fear Degeneration, the road into the Void. This is why we hate the Nephandi, for they seek Obliteration, to shove all of reality into the Void and wipe it out. Yeah, that's what the Chorister told me, that the Nephandi want to destroy all of reality because they've given themselves to the Lords of the Fallen, who serve the Void. I agree that's seriously bad. But how does Stasis lead to this? Stasis is unnatural. Everything is either growing or dying, being created or being destroyed. Even something like a rock, which seems to be static, is actually either very slowly being worn away by the environment, or very slowly built up by the accretion of new material. The closest the world comes naturally to stasis is when changes come slowly. Obliteration is unnatural as well. The laws of conservation of matter and energy are true, as long as one purely considers the material world. By purely material means, nothing can be created or destroyed, only changed to new forms. But the material world is NOT all that exists. Souls exist, and souls can violate conservation of matter and energy. Souls can create ex nihilo, and they can Obliterate as well. The joint will of humanity could will the universe out of existence because they have souls, and souls have the power to transcend material law. Souls have the power of Magick. Those who seek to bring about stasis have this power as well. While stasis could be brought about by perfectly balancing creation and destruction, resulting in a frozen universe, this is now how it works in practice. Remember what the Son of Ether told you about what happened to the Ether inside the Horizon? The Technocracy convinced everyone the Ether didn't exist, and so it...it was Obliterated. So what happens when a piece of the universe is Obliterated? What remains gets smaller. The Technocracy wants to create order by trimming Reality down and Obliterating whatever doesn't fit its vision. They want humanity to will things out of existence. At the same time, the Technocracy denies the possibility of creating new things from nothing. They deny the spirit, the soul, the part of every living being which enables new creation to replace what has been Obliterated, while they go around Obliterating things. If they merely destroyed to build using the rubble, we could accept that. If they hunted down and slew the supernaturals in order to use them to create new things as part of the natural cycle, we could accept that. All things pass in time, and if their actions were simply a new variation on the cycle of creation and destruction that preserves the Wheel in existence, we would not oppose them. Instead, they are feeding the Void. So, you're saying that people who try to resist change have to obliterate whatever threatens the order they've imposed on themselves and reality, but they fail to replace what they've obliterated. And whenever that happens, reality shrinks. If it happened enough, everything would be destroyed. Yes. Are you saying that trying to create order is evil? That we should just run around acting randomly? No, no, no. We do not advocate chaos as a way of life. We say that to live properly, you have to accept change. Nothing can be fixed in stone, and if you try, you'll either go mad or become a force of Obliteration that feeds the void in your efforts to prevent anything effecting you. Our ideal is growth, the dynamic union of creation and destruction. In the material world, life itself is the model of this. Your body replaces everything in itself every seven years. And yet it has continuity and is recognizably the same, though in truth, everything in it has changed. And while it is the same body, it is not really the same. You at seven and you at fourteen were the same person, yet very different, correct? Right. The key thing is that change does not have to be random. Change can be directed towards a goal. Change directed towards a goal is growth. The purpose of living things is to grow and reproduce. The same applies to souls. It is very important for souls, for their growth and reproduction is the way in which the effects of Obliteration is countered. And the world provides the situation in which souls can grow. Matter needs spirit to enable it to grow, while spirit needs matter because only by interacting with a world of matter can souls grow. And only growth can stave off Oblivion. Growth toward higher being or Degeneration towards Oblivion are the only choices. Both roads offer power to a soul, but the more the power of degeneration is embraced, the closer it brings that soul to Oblivion, to ceasing to exist. Only by walking the road of Ascension can a soul avoid falling into Oblivion. Matter goes round naturally in the cycle of creation and destruction, the Great Wheel. Spirit must choose the path to walk. And it must choose. There is no middle ground, no true stasis for souls either. A soul must either climb the path to Ascension or Descend. Any middle existence is only a fluctuation between paths, and inherently unstable. Souls are part of the Great Wheel, but their cycle is both different from and similar to that of the material world. They begin as raw material, then gradually shape themselves through their life decisions. They grow, experiencing the spiritual equivalent of creation, until some point in their lives where they cease to grow, and decay sets in. However, before they can crumble all the way to back to where they started, they typically die. Death clears away the rubble which has built up and lets them start over, but they get to retain some of the growth they have experienced into their new life. And the less they have decayed spiritually before they die, the more of it they retain. This is how souls spiritually progress over a succession of lives despite forgetting everything. They have to forget it all consciously in order to make new choices, in order to change and grow. But they do not return to the completely blank state of the beginning of their very first life. Instead, they retain some characteristics from their state at the end of their previous life. If they lead a series of lives of growth, they can Ascend to higher and higher states of being. How they lived their life also influences what sort of situation they are born into in their next life: this is called Karma, the force of cosmic justice. It can also be seen as the result of the principle of contagion. Like calls to like. Corrupted souls are drawn to other corrupted souls and born into bad situations, while growing souls are drawn to ones which are growing, and are born into good situations. Yet, because some of a soul's corruption is also removed by the process of death and rebirth, it is best to die before one becomes too corrupt. Now you can see why we administer the Good Death to those who are mindlessly destructive. These people are feeding the Void by cutting short the spiritual growth of others before they are done growing, and by driving themselves down the path of Obliteration, the path of destruction which is not the clearing of ground for new creation. Better that they die before they Obliterate themselves, for some of their corruption will be lost when they are reborn, and they will have another chance. Death does not kill the soul, so we are not condemning them to hell, but rather giving them a chance to redeem themselves in a new life, free of the built up garbage they've accomulated in this one. And you can see why we administer the Good Death to those who seek stasis, for spiritual stasis is impossible. If they do not grow and walk the path of Ascension, they will begin to slide down the path of Descension. Best we save them from that fate. Caught early, before the Void eats much of their soul, we can either enable them to begin to grow once more, or we can send them on to their next life in which whatever of the taint of the Void may have been building up will be purged and they will be able to retain some of the fruits of their present life, before they can fritter those away. The Wheel of Reincarnation, and the Great Cycle of all flesh are linked, both needing each other to continue to turn. In truth, they are one wheel seen from two different angles of vision. We must preserve both in order to preserve either. Death is but a necessary change on both wheels, which must continue to turn, or else everything will cease to exist. Is that clear? I sort of get that. But what kind of growth do you encourage? How does a Soul grow? There are many forms of growth. The most important is to grow in enlightenment, wisdom and virtue, for this is the form of growth which is best retained into the next life. This is the growth which reshapes your soul. Growth in mind and body is also important, but you lose almost all of that between lives, so it must take a secondary role. Similarly, for ourselves, growth in Magick is important, but we recognize we will forget it all in the next life. If our soul grows, however, that we will retain. There is quite a bit of debate about what constitutes wisdom among us. There are only a handful of principles on which we all agree. Never kill unnecessarily. Do not destroy anything in such a way that nothing can be built from the rubble, for total destruction is the road to Oblivion. Respect others. Never judge in haste unless one has no other choice. Haste leads to poor choices, and choices cannot be taken back. Do not fear death, for it is only another change. Do not fear change, embrace it and ride it where it takes you. Recognize that nothing lasts forever; everything crumbles. But at the same time, remember that night does not last forever, it is always followed by dawn, so do not despair. Fear and despair are the mindkillers, avoid them. And most importantly, one turns the wheel with creation as well as destruction. It is not our role to be mournful and solemn over what we do, for the turning of the wheel brings joy as well as despair. Humor is our weapon as much as guns, knives, poison, or magick. Humor? I hate to think of what a Euthanatos would find funny. We serve change, and many changes are funny. We are tricksters as well as gardeners, judges, and executioners. Indeed, the careful use of humor and pranks is often the best way to shake someone out out of a rut and induce them to begin to grow again. The Gardeners of the Soul make use of humor in their works, and so do our Tricksters, the wanderers who circle the world finding places where the Wheel is sticking and jarring it loose with a well-placed prank or joke. Our humor is rarely bleak, for we are not miserable, though it can at times, conform to the idea that 'humor is when something bad happens to someone else'. It is, however, usually intended to teach, to shock people out of their pre-concieved, static notions, and force them to face something they would rather hide from. For example, a friend of mine discovered that a Hermetic of his acquaintance had been dabbling in demon summoning. Knowing that the Hermetic would ignore a direct confrontation, he arranged instead to forge a book of lore, which then found its way into the Hermetic's hands. When the Hermetic attempted to use it, he discovered its protective circles offered no protection against 'Ghul-Bovin, Tormentor of Red Talons', who proceeded to beat up the Hermetic and level his laboratory. Ghul-Bovin was in fact a spirit ally (a bull spirit, in fact) of my friend (few of us have much dealings with the spirits of nature and ideas, but he was one of the rareties among us who traffic with the spirits of nature), who had agreed to impersonate a demon as part of the prank. The Hermetic abandoned his experiments. While we should not be seen as a group of Entropy-wielding comedians, we do find humor and pranks to be a useful teaching tool. In addition, humor refreshes the soul, and given the amount to which we must often wallow in corrupt surroundings to do our work, we are oft in need of refreshment. I'd imagine. I'd think all that killing would tend to dehumanize you. It's easy to exaggerate the amount of killing we do. We don't have a quota to meet each month, and many of us go weeks or even months without killing if we are deep in the throes of a particular project or redemption. But yes, some of us do become dehumanized. This is how the House of Helekar fell to its doom, and this is why we created the Freedom Razor. We often fear and hate it, but we need it. Their job is to watch all of us for dehumanization, infernalism, abuse of our powers for petty gain, and worst of all, Nephandic taint. It is easy for us to forget the difference between Destruction and Obliteration, easy to forget to call upon the healing powers of creation as well as our capacity for destruction. We also sometimes make errors of judgement, judging too hastily, or being confused by inaccurate information. It helps that one of the very first things we learn is how to discern if someone believes themselves to be telling the truth; unfortunately, it doesn't necessarily tell us if they are RIGHT. Thus, unless we are defending ourselves, we are very careful to be absolutely certain it is time for someone to die before we slay. So what are souls growing towards? Divinity. Every living being has the potential to one day become a god; that's where they came from. Every soul or spirit can be placed on a continuum from the weakest, tiniest glimmer to the Celestines themselves. Wisdom carries power with it, and as one grows in wisdom, in gnosis, one grows in power as well, for it increases one's unity with the Wheel, the source of all power that does not lead to Oblivion. This is Ascension, the rising of souls towards ultimate enlightenment. What that enlightenment consists of, whether it be escape from the cycle or total mastery of it, remains debated among us. Well, okay, I think I understand your philosophy, although the whole killing thing still bothers me. So how do you actually DO magick? Our magick flows from union with the Great Cycle. By uniting ourselves with it, we can adjust its turning and call upon the Twin Serpents of Creation and Destruction. All our powers flow from accelerating or slowing change. Since everything changes over time, this gives us power over all things. We achieve this union through various rites. We surround ourselves with things which remind us of the Great Cycle and of change, such as dice, coins (for use with the I Ching), bones, and broken or freshly made objects. We frequent locations which evoke change and chance, such as casinos, graveyards, and boundaries between things, such as fences, archways, doors, windows, and the like. We call upon the gods of change, of creation and destruction, who embody the Great Cycle, in prayer, and dance, and song. Once we empty ourselves and join with the Cycle, we merely ask it to do our will, and it does, for by serving us, it enables us to serve it. As we grow in Wisdom, it becomes easier to achieve Union with the Great Cycle, and we begin to discard the unnecessary rites and props that previously were required to achieve Union with the Wheel, for we become more and more able to truly believe we are already at one with the Wheel. So how would you cure my...actually, I don't think I want to know. Let's say my car broke down. How would you fix it? I would tell you to go to a mechanic. You don't need magick to get your car fixed. Let's say I was giving you a ride, and a horde of fifty Nephandi were chasing us on motorcycles, and my engine died, so if we tried to call AAA, we'd be killed. I would get out, open the hood, and mutter a swift prayer, invoking Tvashtri the Artificer, enabling me to see what the problem was. So what is wrong with it? Ummm...the computer in the carburetor died, and now the car can't regulate its gas flow. I think that's what the carburetor does. Ahh, a simple problem. I would invoke Tvashtri again, and draw a knife, cutting a small rune onto my forehead. I would take the resulting blood and smear it on the carburetor (assuming I could reach it. I don't know much about cars myself). This would link my mind to the carburetor. Maintaining my state of Union with the wheel, I would get back in the car, and let the carburetor use my own mind and my Union with the Wheel to enable it to regulate itself, setting the rates of change in fuel flow in harmony with the turning of the Wheel. If I had more time, I would probably summon a spirit and bind it into the carburetor to do the work so I could focus on something else, like keeping the fifty Nephandi from annhilating us. Assuming they didn't catch up to us while you were getting the car back up to speed. A big assumption, I suspect. So what would your ideal world be like? It would be a world free of the fear of death, not because death did not exist, but because it would be accepted as simply another change, a part of life. An end would be made to the unnatural prolongation of life or death. When I say unnatural, I do not mean people should not use medicine and die young, but rather continuing to live beyond the point at which one can only stagnate and sink into decay, rather than still being able to grow. This comes at very different times for different people. Some people may be ready to die by age twenty five, while others are still benefiting from being alive at a hundred years. The important thing would be abandoning clinging to life simply because one fears what comes next. It would be a society that emphasized wisdom first, and perfection of intellect/knowledge and the body second, recognizing that the latter passes away, while wisdom is eternal. This is not to say that we would encourage people to be ignorant and lazy, only to recognize that everything made with the mind and the body crumbles to dust in the end. Everything perishes, but something better can be made from the rubble, if one has not given up on trying from watching it perish. Despair not, for the morning shall come. It might be a technological society, or it might not. Technology and science are not bad in themselves, and can promote change as well as stasis. The important thing is to recognize that they have limits, and that dealing with those limits by killing and obliterating everything that falls outside those limits is not the right way to go about dealing with those limits. Despite what some might say, it would not turn all the world into a giant graveyard. We prefer to see the world as a garden. You nurture the plants, pull up weeds, and sometimes prune the weak plants in order that they might grow strong. And the work of gardening is a joyful thing. We would not make a sombre world, for if one need not fear death, then one need not fear the future. So what do you think about ghosts and vampires? And other undead. Most of us both find vampires fascinating and regard them as abominations which need to be destroyed. They resist change, and we are the bringers of change. The older they get, the more they strive to prevent the turning of the wheel. At the same time, they degenerate, slowly sinking further and further into mindless destruction adn feeding oblivion. Worse yet, they force stasis and degeneration on others without their consent. We stand with the Chorus and the Verbena on this: the childer of Caine must pass from the world. There is some debate on the best way to do this: some of us strive to aid those vampires who seek release from their condition and a return to mortality through Golconda, while others simply stalk and kill them. While many Vampires believe themselves dammned, we know better. If they die before the corruption sets in too deeply, they will return as normal humans in their next life, free of the taint of the Beast. Our view of Ghosts is more mixed. Some of us see them as abominations, beings who are wasting time in a nightmare realm, instead of passing on to a new life, because they fear the changes death brings. They are an excellent example of how clinging to the past can destroy a person, slowly dragged down by the Shadow they can no longer resist. Those who see them as abominations usually seek to destroy them, to force them to move on, and to destroy their fetters so they can no longer tamper with the affairs of the living. Most of us, however, see them as simply pathetic and in need of help. We seek to guide them to Transcendence as best we can, though we know most will fail. We help them to battle their shadows, to gain wisdom, and to resolve their fetters. We do this because we fear that otherwise either of two horrible fates will come to pass. First, many unfortunate wraiths are yanked forcibly from the wheel by being forged into objects in the underworld. We see this as a great abomination, and hold no love for the Hiearchy or any other wraithly society which commits this great sin. While such a fate is better than Oblivion, it is such only in the sense that losing nine fingers is better than losing all ten. Worse yet, we fear that the Oblivion of which wraiths speak may indeed truly be Oblivion, and not Destruction. This is a hotly debated topic. Some of us feel that a wraith that falls to Oblivion is simply reborn as they should have been. Others argue that such a wraith is truly Obliterated, removed from the Great Wheel forever by ceasing to exist. If that is true, every wraith who does not eventually Transcend ceases to exist, and the Underworld is slowly devouring the souls of mankind, for the percentage of the fallen who become wraiths has risen in recent centuries, and the time it takes to Transcend seems to be becoming longer. Thus it is that we seek to prevent people needlessly clinging to life and fearing death, for it is those people who are most likely to become wraiths, most likely to fall into the maw of Oblivion in the underworld. That may or may not be true Oblivion, or merely a misnomer, but I for one would rather not take the risk. So what do you think of your fellow mages? The Marauders fascinate us, for they are change made flesh. But they are mindless change, while we are change with purpose. As long as they do not attack us, we let them do their work, for they fight our enemies and in many ways, they are a force of nature. If they attack us, however, we will turn them aside if we can, and destroy them if we must. The Nephandi, on the other hand, are the army of Oblivion. They are the true enemy, far more than the Technocracy, which has been a force for Change as well as for Stasis. While we are careful to make sure we do not judge too hastily (for we have often been accused of their crimes), known Nephandi are killed on sight if practical. Those of us who fall to Nephandic taint are sentenced to Gilgul, then killed. The Cult of Ecstasy and the Verbena are our closest friends within the Traditions. We share certain roots with them, and they are both highly aware of the Great Cycle. While the Cult loses itself in its pleasures, and the Verbena cling too strongly to life for fear of death, we can usually call them friends and find a sympathetic ear among them, especially among their elders. The Dreamspeakers are sometimes our friends, sometimes enemies. They are good hearted and often wise, but they have forgotten the great secret: the Wheel of Time can not be made to turn backwards (though the illusion of such a thing can occur). The days of yore they cling to were not so bright in truth as they are in memory, and regardless, they will not come again. The Order of Hermes has the same problem. They are mired in dreams of their past glory which prevent them creating new glory, and they create rigid systems of thought which then become incapable of adapting to new events. They believe the ancient masters knew all things and they are simply recovering that knowledge. Too bad their knowledge is out of date. Still, watching them spend years trying to pound square pegs into pentagonal holes is often amusing. We like the Sons of Ether, though they often frown upon us for lack of understanding us. They prove that Technology can promote change instead of stasis, and they create new things from the garbage the Technocracy has thrown away, showing an understanding thus of the value of destruction: it is the seedbed of new life, both physical and intellectual. The Virtual Adepts, on the other hand, are fools. Their ideal world would break the Great Cycle, and they fear both the flesh and death. Lost in their delusions, trapped by their desire for comfort, they stagnate instead of growing. The Celestial Chorus are fools, lost in service of a divinity they have made up themselves. If their One exists, he was once just a mortal like themselves. Yet, where they see his power, we see the truth of the Great Cycle. They also object to our efforts to keep it turning, not realizing that we are the oil which keeps it from grinding to a halt, while they, like the Dreamspeakers, are living in the past, and trying to stop the Wheel's turning. However, they too hate the Nephandi, and in that common opposition, we can sometimes act as one. And finally, there is the Akashic Brotherhood. There are many who love them, and others who see them as harmless. We know better. Long ago, they sought to wipe us out, to prevent us doing our work as the world's gardeners, as the guardians of the turning of the wheel. When they finally came to realize their error, they turned their backs on truth and hid in their monasteries, where they linger still, slowly festering, unable to face the truth and grow. Their vaunted mastery of mind and body is but a disguise for their lack of wisdom and fear of death. They seek to stop the wheel in its turning; they shall learn their errors, one way or another. The world stands on the brink of Oblivion, as souls sink into stagnation and plunge into the underworld instead of rising and growing and passing on. Abandon your fear of death, your fear of change, and join us in riding the wave and guiding it. Cling to something, and it turns to dust and ashes in your mouth. Embrace the future, and remember that death is but a change like any other. We battle against Stasis and Oblivion, the great destroyers of life and death. Will you join us in our fight?