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Paradox

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Perhaps the greatest danger faced by a mage is Paradox. Paradox, in effect, is the resilience of the Consensus- it’s a slap in the face (or worse) from the combined belief of 6,000,000,000 people who know that what you just did is just plain impossible. This is why you don’t see mages on the Tonight Show turning people into jars of Cheese Whiz- the risk is just too high.

As long as a mage keeps her effects subtle and doesn’t overtly violate reality, she’s safe. Such effects are known as coincidental- because it can be explained away as coincidence, luck, happenstance, or similar effects. Good examples of coincidental magick are using Life to heal a broken bone (“I guess it was just a sprain!”) or a Mind effect disguised as a persuasive speech. Creative magicians can do quite a lot without openly flaunting their Power- and smart mages are careful about such things. Coincidental magicks have very little risk of Paradox.

An obviously magical effect is vulgar. Vulgar magicks include throwing fireballs, flying through the air, turning people into frogs, and other big-time magick like that. Generally, a magick is considered vulgar if a casual bystander would say “That’s impossible!” Vulgar magick can lead to heaps of Paradox building up around your mage. Still, if you’re careful and don’t do vulgar magick too often, you’re safe. Usually. For the most part.

Most risky of all is a mage performing vulgar magick when Sleepers are watching. (Other magicians and supernatural creatures like vampires or werewolves don’t count as Sleepers, of course.) Not only are you violating the Consensus, but also you’re doing so in the presence of those who help define the Consensus. Their collective belief clashes with your belief, and Reality swells and crashes like a storm-tossed sea. At this point, your mage is pretty much guaranteed to pick up at least one point of Paradox- often much more. And your magick is likely to fail altogether. Of course, you still get to keep the Paradox even if you magick goes completely kaput.

What are the drawbacks of Paradox? First and foremost, accumulated Paradox reduces your ability to use further magical affects or store magical energy. Well, if your mage has built up a little Paradox, reality is slightly wrinkled around her. Uncontrolled magical energy crackles and swirls around her and will sometimes cause minor uncontrolled effects. You might discover that your car keys have somehow teleported into the storm gutters, or every fuse in your house might suddenly burn out. Paradox backlashes are often related to whatever magical effect caused the Paradox in the first place. Fortunately, a mage with only a little Paradox can “get clean” by going “cold turkey”- for each week you spend without using any magick or supernatural effect, a point of Paradox dissipates as the tangled Consensus around you slowly unwinds.

If your mage has a moderate amount of Paradox, she’s going to find a couple of severely weird things happening in her life. Things might go badly wrong at very inconvenient times. She might even enter a period of Quiet, a temporary state of insanity in which a mage loses touch with the Consensual reality. Worse still, a mage who reaches this state can no longer reduce her Paradox level by abstaining from magick; the Tapestry around you is too snarled to straighten out without some kind of backlash. Also, other mages can sense your built-up Paradox and are likely to be disturbed. After all, the universe owes you some payback, and they don’t want to be around when (when, not if) it comes knocking on the door to settle the debt.

If you’ve got a lot of Paradox built up, you’re in trouble. Reality is not merely bent around you- it’s twisted and warped so badly that even ordinary Sleepers can sense it on a gut level. At this point, almost anything can happen. You might attract the attention of truly alien entities- things that shouldn’t exist within the Consensus but were somehow drawn in by your reckless tearing of reality. You might find that your home is no longer there when you come home from work, and nobody even remembers that you used to live in the area. Extended periods of Quiet are likely, and even permanent insanity isn’t out of the question. You are literally a ticking time bomb of mangled reality- an accident waiting to happen. Those who build up truly huge Paradox levels often explode, disintegrate, self-immolate, or somehow exit this reality in a truly spectacular fashion. Don’t stand too close.

Paradox Rules

Paradox is accumulated depending on the vulgarity of the magical effect and the result of the test. Note that 'Sphere rating' is the highest sphere level involved in casting the magical effect. (IE Apprentice = 1, Initiate = 2, Disciple = 3, Adept = 4, Master = 5). Note that successfully casting a vulgar magical effect always results in the mage accumulating at least one point of paradox.

Vulgarity

Success

Failure

Botch

Static or Coincidental

none

Sphere Rating

Vulgar, no witnesses

Sphere Rating + 1

Vulgar, with witnesses

Sphere Rating x2 + 1

If the mage accumulates 6 or more paradox on one magical effect, OR accumulates a total of 10 or more paradox total, they will induce a paradox backlash (Explained later).

Paradox Effects

Paradox will burn itself off, either over time, or as a result of a backlash, or whenever the storyteller is feeling bored. Paradox Backlash normally occurs when the mage gains at six points or more Paradox at one time, or the mage accumulates 10 or more points of Paradox total. The strength of the backlash is determined by one test.

Winning this test makes the strength 1/4 the total paradox of the mage. Tying this test makes the strength 1/2 the total paradox of the mage. Losing this test makes the strength the total paradox pool of the mage.

A number of paradox points equal to the strength of the backlash are expelled as a result of the backlash. If the mage wishes, they may expend a willpower point to escape the paradox backlash, but the paradox is not expended. This may only be attempted ONCE per effect. If the mage re-tries the same effect on the same day, and a backlash results, they may not spend a point of willpower to avoid the backlash.

Paradox will manifest most commonly as Aggravated Damage or as Flaws. It will manifest as Paradox Spirits or Realms only when story-appropriate. The storyteller should generally avoid incurable permanent Flaws, though they could often use curable ones that are otherwise permanent. Paradox backlashes spread over a large area may spread health damage to other characters.

If the mage has less than 4 points of Paradox, it will take effect randomly. If a mage has 5 or more, then it becomes malevolent. In general, the Paradox roll is made any time that the mage gains Paradox, or if the mage attempts to burn out some Paradox (through Meditation). If the mage is low on Paradox, additional freed points will just express. If the mage is high on Paradox, the points will be lost immediately, but nothing will happen. The storyteller should take those points and put them into a pool, to express at an appropriately bad time. It’s not a good idea to maintain high levels of Paradox.

Strength

Physical

Spiritual

Mental

1 - 5

Flaws

Paradox Minion

Quiet

6 - 9

Damage

Paradox Preceptor

Quiet / Realm

10 +

Explosion

Paradox Lord

Realm

Flaws - Paradox cause physical alterations in a mage or the immediate area. The stronger the backlash, the more severe the alteration. For more details on Flaws, click here.

Damage - The mage receives one Health Level of aggravated damage for every 2 points of strength of the Backlash. A backlash this severe can kill the offending mage, especially if she was already wounded. This damage cannot be healed with magick.

Explosion - A massive explosion results, inflicting Health Levels of aggravated damage equal to the strength of the Backlash, divided evenly amongst everyone within 3 paces of the mage. As above, the victims cannot heal the damage magically.

Spirits - A paradox spirit appears and plagues the mage. The level of power of the spirit depends on the strength of the backlash, while the nature of the spirit depends on the sphere of magick the mage was using. Paradox spirits are exceptionally resistant to magick; they may roll their Gnosis/Arete as counter-magick automatically. Usually there is some way a mage can appease a Paradox spirit so that it will leave her be. The mage can also try and destroy the spirit using non-magical means. Failing all else, most paradox spirits will eventually get bored, and wander off to harass some other mage.

Quiet - Quiet can be induced as a backlash. However, the strength of the quiet does not depend on the strength of the backlash. Instead, it depends on the total points of paradox the mage had immediately before the backlash. Quiet can be induced by other means, such as the overuse of perceptual magick, or psychic trauma. The mage may expend a willpower trait to stave off a quiet for one day.

Realms - Truly horrendous backlashes can remove a mage from reality completely. Some mages view this as an advanced form of Quiet, in which the mage is physically locked in a hallucinatory Realm.

If the mage has 10 or fewer points of paradox, and manages to go an entire day without gaining any paradox, one point of paradox drains away with no ill effects.

Paradox Flaws

Paradox Rotes

Mages with a greater knowledge of Prime are able to control the Paradox in their pattern to a small degree, with the following rotes:

Induce Backlash (Initiate Prime)

any mages choose not to wait for Paradox to strike, and deliberately induce a Paradox backlash on themselves, preferably while they are somewhere safe, like their sanctum. The strength of the backlash is still determined randomly. No matter what the circumstances, this Rote always counts as Vulgar, even in the Umbra or in a mage's Sanctum. Thus, the rote always adds at least one point of Paradox to the mage's total pool.

Controlled Backlash (Adept Prime, or Initiate Prime + Initiate Entropy)

A more advanced version of the above rote, the mage has a greater degree of control over how much Paradox energy is released. For each effect result rating beyond the first, the mage can increase or decrease the strength of the backlash by one point. However, the mage still has no control over exactly how the Paradox manifests. This rote is also always Vulgar.