AUTORIDAD REGULADORA DE LOS SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS
DE LA EMISIÓN Y USO DE LA TARJETA
to associate with
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and to play - the most::::Ipowerful Awakened beings in the chronicle. This is feasible in Horizon, although it's best handled as a change of pace from the usual chronicle rather than as a full- fledged game. Before the story begins, Storytellers may want to briefly coach the players about the nature of archmagery
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possibly the hard way. (See Appendix.)In Winter Chantries such as Doissetep, the most pow- erful Masters are centuries old and quite insane. Their heightened awareness removes them from any practical human perspective: illumination without enlightenment. They may have lived to see empires crumble and may command the hurricane winds themselves, but such Masters are, in some respects, nearly inhuman.
In contrast, Horizon's new generation of leaders is generally young - under a century old. Most have an enlightened view of life that's authentically sane, compas- sionate and practical. Though not without eccentricities, and not free of the politics they inherit from their predeces- sors, these archmages represent the best culmination of the willworker's quest for Arete. They are (as the Dalai Lama
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put it) "flashes of lightning in the darkness." For player mages oflesser strength, they represent genuine role models. What are the characteristics of such beings? Througlll sharp insight and diligent practice, Masters have achieved spiritual maturity. "To mature spiritually is to let go ofrigid and idealistic ways of being and discover a flexibility andjoy in our life," writes Jack Kornfield in his excellent bookA
Path With Heart (Bantam, 1993). Kornfield identifies 10 qualities of this maturity: non idealism, kindness, patience, immediacy (allowing the Divine to shine through every action), a personal sense of the sacred, questioning, flexibil. ity, a capacity to embrace opposites, a willing and compassionate relationship to all things and "ordinariness"
(a simple presence in and gratitude for the moment). Horizon's Masters exemplify these qualities. Not every archmage embodies them all, but each excels in one ormore of them - though, as humans, the mages still have interest. ing flaws. The noteworthy trait all these people share istheir unusual tolerance for different Traditions. Judging fromthe stereotypes presented in the Mage rulebook, the "typical" mage misunderstands all of the other Traditions. The archmages in Horizon, however, are atypical. They're far more enlightened than the usual run of magi. Through their greater understanding, these sorcerers might yet produce the "ambassador" program described at the end of Chapter One.
Still, these folks aren't perfect - by any means. Ina crisis, when the future of the Traditions is on the line, count on the Masters to do the right thing. During less intense
though, the Stotytelle< may o"""ionally give a Master'senhanced vision a skewed perspective. Visiting Los Angeleswith the player mages, the Euthanatos Master passivelywatches an old woman get run down on the street. "Itwasall for the best," the archmage tells the astonished mysticks."The woman had no relatives, cancer was eating herpancreasand she's not going to the Shadowlands." In theseraremoments, the players can provide a useful correc- tiveviewthat "re-grounds" the Master in the mortal world.
Moster PI()y
Ironically,players who look forward to wielding world- shakingmagickas archmages may find that they roll fewer dice andcastfewer Effects than they did as Disciples. In the first place,a Master's skill is such that the Storyteller can assume mostEffectswork flawlessly; she might call fora roll just to check forParadox,but otherwise assume that minor Effects work /lawlessly,especially within Horizon's magickal framework. In addition,archmages usually have formidable reputations and entireentourages of Adepts and consors. If you were a typical Technocrator Nephandus, would you attack an archmage?
The most effective stories that feature archmages are notabout Really Big Magick. They're not standard Mage chronicleswith all the knobs turned up, but something qualitativelydifferent. Levitating mountains, fighting hand- to-tentacle with Outsider Things, carving out pocket universes- these tasks suit a 30th-level magic-user, not an enlightenedand dynamic Tradition Master.
The Masters chronicle instead focuses on the culmina- lionofeach character's Essence. At this rank, the Dynamic magenowintroduces new ideas across society, with the aim ofreshapingthe T ellurian. Chorus member Fatima Alzarahni worksfor religious reform and women's rights in Saudi Arabia.Dreamspeaker T oshiro Saito helps lead a Sleeper movementto set aside tracts of Hokkaido wilderness as parks.Dante, working through a political front group, un- dercutsthe Internet Decency Act. To win success, each Mastermust overcome the subtlest efforts of the T echnoc- racy- and the Sleepers.
The Questing mystick, by now, has moved well along the Path toward lifelong goals. Eiji (Edge)
Yamakawa's
meditationsin the Brotherhood have long since taught him whyhe killed all those people in his last life, and how he can makeworthy restitution to their heirs. Now he sees how to preventother troubled spirits from succumbing as he once did.His mission will lead him to confront nightmarish Nephandi in the heart of their Labyrinth.
Primordial and Pattern mages now establish environ- mentsthat let them use their insights to the fullest. Scientist AlexisHastings, working through a Nobel Physics laureate forcredibility, reworks the department at Southeastern University to give graduate students freedom of inquiry.
Lady Charlotte Quay, having helped unite Horizon, next
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Story Ideas
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:,torytellers may want to develop Horizon
story ideas around the seeds that follow:
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A Dangerous Valentine: Porthos'ap- prentice falls in love with one of the characters ! I and the old archmagedoesn'tlike it." notonebit.
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Prying Archaeologists: The Council learns of a plan to excavate the park Midan saad Zaghloul under which Horizon's Alexandrian Node rests. The characters are dispatchedto deal with the problem..
Fanged Retrieval: The powerful Transylvanian vam- pire (a Tzimisce) who turned Zvolen Lucenik into aghoulhas stored valuable information in the recesses of the Majordomo's brain. He sends his retainersouttofindhim- carefully.
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Disappearing Wilderness: The Council hearsofthe Technocracy's plans to allow corporate building inAmerica's National Park system and sets the characters to workon thwarting these plans..
Educational Reform: A Council archmage asksthe characters to campaign throughout Horizon and the major ancestral Tradition Chantries for educational reform,de- spite opposition from heavy-hitting Council magesIndran! Taktsang and Julian Spence..
Old Rivals: Doissetep charges the Council ofNine with spying on their cabals, releasing to all ancestral Chantries potentially damaging information abouttheCoun- cil and the Realm's hidden portals. The Council enliststhe characters' diplomatic aid in disproving these chargesand quieting Doissetep.HORIZON: The Stronghold of Hope
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Stalking the Nightmare: Horizon is a wonderful placefor hunting: no game wardens, no limit, exotic crea- turesin abundant numbers. . . Of course, Bygones are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, the hunters are on strangeground and many of the local mages won't appreci- atea bunch of thrill-seekers chasing the wildlife.....
Lonely Guardian: Desidious Mevara is lonely for loving companionship, so the Servitors Principle (acting against Porthos' advice) ask the characters to find him a matein order to boost his morale. Where might they go, and what might they find? And how might they bring it back here?.
The Storm: While on some journey, the characters end up trapped by a wild storm. This could be a blizzard, hurricane, tornado or some magickal phenomena alien to Earth. Imagine being trapped out in the open - no house, no lights - while the worst tempest you can conceive of howls around you. Scary? Hmmm....
Ambassadors to...Jellyfish?: The Council assigns the characters to serve as ambassadors between the T radi- tions and the Juash, highly intelligent undersea creatures fromTriton's Deep that resemble jellyfish. The only prob- lemisthat the entire colony has disappeared without a trace..
Eldritch Allies: The characters are posted as guards to the Labyrinth beneath the Council Chambers, where the rumored faerie portal opens. The fae appear and spirit the characters away to Arcadia Gateway (see Umbra: The Velvet Shadow), where they are asked to renew an old alliance..
Heroes of Deregulation: Congress - under theinfluence of mortal greed and the Technocratic World Advisory Council- has passed a bill to regulate the use of the Internet and to install tapping devices and devices monitoring TV usage in every set. The characters are dispatched to rouse Sleeper interest in fighting the bill. Blowing stuff up is out of the question; the characters must be subtle or else they risk bringing down a modern-day witch-hunt. Certain groups would be quite happy to have proven "occult conspiracies" to boost their ranks....