Análisis del cumplimiento del objeto contractual pactado

members of the Mysterium delight in the intricacy and art of their magical craft. Mudras do not simply serve to accentuate a spell; these motions demonstrate deep internalized awareness of that spell’s structure through wordless symbolic representation. More vainly, these motions afford an opportunity to show off a bit of the eccentric panache for which the order borders on infamy, not to mention providing a framework of secret signs through which members may recognize those of equal or lesser status in the organization. Most impressively, the Mysterium records record a unique hand gesture for every single Atlantean rune, making the totality of the order’s mudras into an occult sign language capable of conveying the subtlest nuances of magical theory. If any mages know sufficient iconic mudras to fluently communicate Atlantean precepts, those mages certainly aren’t telling anyone outside the innermost circle of the order’s leadership, if that.

What follows are the dominant kinesthetic metaphors that have endured the test of time; less common practices exist in parallel to these as part of an extraordinarily diverse set of rituals, so players and Storytellers alike should take the following sug- gestions and guidelines as just that.

189 Chapter Five: Spells and Artifacts

Death

Mysterium mages employ rotes drawn from such diverse inspirations as ancient funerary customs, the obscure rites of cults to chthonic things and the unnatural gliding motions of ghosts and stranger be- ings. Death holds mysteries even to the Mysterium, and so many of the order’s mudras pay homage to the depths of that secret with closed or covered eyes, a bowed nod of respect or even a blessing of sorts for someone about to suffer horribly via this Arcanum. Irony and macabre humor is surprisingly common, taking innocuous gestures entirely out of context to pantomime the absurdities of life.

Examples: Making a wistful sign of the cross to someone

(before severing her soul). Pressing palms into the eyes past the point of pain until the mage sees spots (that quickly spread and resolve across her field of vision to show the presence of ghosts).

Fate

The prevailing model of destiny taught within the Mysterium is that of a tangled cobweb, rather than

the organized and patterned threads of a well-kept spider’s home: in short, hopelessly knotted, with many threads trailing nowhere or dangling to fall between random elements of possibility. It’s a simple model and not wholly accurate, but contains sufficient truth to work with in designing Fate mudras. Mysterium mages tear out handfuls of invisible strands from the air to impose curses, similar to brushing webbing from out of their path. For blessings, mystagogues pluck and arrange these strands more deftly and artfully, as if sewing fictitious imperial garments or practicing the finer points of embroidery. Still others prefer a verbal touch, scribing an ordained Fate directly into the wind by imagined stylus or calligrapher’s brush so that the magic can spread and overwrite what was to pass.

Examples: Disguising a woven blessing for a child

by placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair into deliberate tangles. Chewing on the tips of long bangs to sever the future hopes of a curse victim.

Forces

In Mysterium doctrine, the principle and manifesta- tion of energy matter more than its scope. A smoldering ember is no different from a bonfire, and a spark of static electricity isn’t dissimilar to a lightning bolt, but for rela- tive point of view. Thus, the actions associated to create minor manifestations may evoke grander permuta- tions. By striking a match or scraping flint on steel — or even mimicking these gestures — a mage can cre- ate heat. By bringing hands together slowly, as if to resist a growing repulsion between them, a mage can invoke or modulate magnetic fields.

Examples: Cupping hands

around an unlit cigarette as if to protect its flame from the wind (thereby causing the cigarette to light in accordance with symmetry of sympathetic plausibility). Throwing hands out to either side with flattened palms in emulation of wings (to permit flight).

190

tracing the slit of the closed third eye (to cast the spell of the same name). Grabbing at one’s own hair and raking fingernails through the scalp in a frenzied motion of half- crazed duress (to inflict a psychic assault).

Prime

Despite the order’s reputation for hoarding and seeking answers, the Mysterium exists foremost to explore the great unknowns of the universe. Where every other Arcanum devotes itself to a principle or facet of the natural world, whether permutations of form or energy or the interstices of dimensions and continuity, Prime alone expresses a purer and stranger truth that flows out of the Supernal world. The mudras developed around this power show a peculiar nonchalance, with shrugs and noncommittal nods that convey simple permutations of “I do not understand.” Such is the order’s tribute to the Arca- num, that even ritual gestures proclaim the magic of magic an enigma.

Examples: Raising one finger as if in preparation of

making a ponderous speech, only to drop the finger qui- etly and passively in rejection of the notion that conflict is relevant (thereby unweaving a spell deemed beneath notice). Tossing an item made of tass lightly into the air as if setting a bird free (releasing its Mana back into the Tapestry).

Space

The most common Space mudras taught in the Mysterium involve a paradigmatic representation of geometric contiguity as an elastic sphere. By vari- ably mapping, rotating, compressing and stretching this imaginary sphere, either with one hand like a transparent stress ball or as a larger globe clutched between both hands, the mage orients and adjusts localized regions of the Fallen World’s continuum. The visual representation of this interactive carto- graphical model actually appears in some especially vulgar order rotes as a kind of holographic construct of Atlantean runes forming a constellation outlines of a luminous orb.

Examples: Cradling the notional sphere in both hands

and poking middle fingers together through the center in a corkscrew motion (connecting two remote points of the sphere to establish a link for scrying or teleporting). Tapping the sphere lightly to “observe” the way the ripples spread and deform along the sphere’s surface (revealing the presence of spatial anomalies).

Life

The forms of life are myriad past cataloguing, though that doesn’t stop the Mysterium from trying. Mudras associated with the Life Arcanum dissect and probe with poking fingers wielded as deftly and nimbly as scalpels to target spells to specific elements of physi- ology or even micro-surgically alter the blueprint of a chromosome by “cutting” and “pasting” genes into new structures.

Examples: Tracing a wound with a reverse motion as

used to create the wound (to undo the damage via heal- ing). Stabbing a forefinger aggressively toward a tumor to lance its ill humors as harmless ephemera (and thereby curing it).

Matter

Much as weaving provides the dominant kinesthetic metaphor for Fate in Mysterium curricula, sculpting provides the primary vocabulary of gestures for Mat- ter. Regardless of state, particles align themselves into fluid lattices of structure wherein solidity is a particularly persistent illusion, but no more real that persistence. Solid objects may be bent and twisted like soft clay, or symbolically pulled open to afford interior manipulations.

Examples: Violently backhanding in the direction

of an object, as if hurling a failed work of pottery from the wheel (to destroy or render something inoperable). Packing air extra solid with pressed thumbs (to create a shielding effect).

Mind

Given the Mysterium predilection for all things cerebral, power over thought itself holds a kind of sacred awe that defines the order’s mudras. Therefore, these rituals are among the most intricate, with each finger crooked and oriented just so. The actual gestures employed rely on sympathy of understanding between the mage and his target. To change another’s thoughts, the mage must first understand those thoughts, which means replicating their structure and coherence as a model within his own mind. With each tap and spiral traced upon his own head, he attempts to isolate the pattern of neurons and burst of insights that might take form in the target, in a manner more sophisticated but not wholly dissimilar to a voodoo doll transmitting pain.

Examples: Pulling the forefingers and middle fingers

191 Chapter Five: Spells and Artifacts

Spirit

In the conventional cosmological model of the Tapestry, the world of matter and its ephemeral shadow exist side-by-side beneath the loftier heights of the Abyss and Supernal Realms. By means of the Spirit Arcanum, the balance of matter and ephemera shifts like weights upon a dangling scale, and so the Mysterium teaches mudras involving open upward palms elevated and lowered relative to one another to perform intuitive calculations. Slight adjustments in the orientation of each hand and the slight angle of each finger joint define a vast syntax of possible modulations.

Examples: In one of the crudest and more powerful

gestures, the mage throws one hand down as the other raises high above his head, precipitously tilting the bal- ance of form and spirit toward the latter and pulling him across into the Shadow Realm. More subtly, one hand may partially close and open gently as the other remains motionless, extending proximate awareness sufficiently to view immaterial spirits.

Time

Mysterium mudras for the Time Arcanum seek to adjust the flow of chronology by invoking established methodologies of demarcating time’s passage. A flip of the wrist can turn an imaginary hourglass, while a shadow cast by the position of a finger relative to a light source may emulate a sundial. More modern examples allow for the path of a clock hand to trace the coil of perpetual rotation, halting or accelerating that motion in accordance with the desired ma- nipulation. Regardless of the mudra’s technological inspiration, the mudras all seek to “set the clock” by the mage’s own sensibility, imposing pattern by means of pattern.

Examples: Pointing an accusatory finger at the source

of calamitous distress, then rotating that finger coun- terclockwise to rewind events by several key seconds, circumnavigating an undesired nexus of causality.