So how about them mages. · 9:23pm Nov 19th, 2012
This is copied from a post I made in the World of Darkness: Equestria group.
So, since I've already crossed over Changeling: The Lost with ponies, I'm thinking about crossing over Mage: The Awakening in another story. Now with the existence of magic, this presents something of a problem, and I was curious if anyone has any ideas about how to go about doing this. 'Cause I've tried three or more times and each time it came out awkward and forced.
Still, if it can be pulled off, Mage is one of my favorite systems besides Changeling: The Lost. It's incredibly complicated, full of dark fantasy and provides plenty of moral questions to puzzle and agonize over. The problem is that Mage assumes that most people are unaware of the existence of magic, and don't believe in it.
So far I have two possibilities that are still semi-existant:
1.) Mages are non-unicorns who discovered ritual magic (like Granny Smith), and they keep their skills on the down-low, because most ponies refuse to believe in any type of magic that isn't cast with a horn. In this idea, the main character would be Applejack, who undergoes an Awakening when the stress of a particularly hard applebucking season pushes her past her mental limit.
Granny Smith, who is already a Mage, keeps an eye on her as best she can, and Applejack eventually Awakens after a terrifying mental journey. From there, she is introduced to the subtle power plays and vicious wars of these non-unicorn magi, which are all kept secret from the rest of ponykind.
2.) Anypony can Awaken, but when a unicorn does, they have a slightly easier time of disguising their new powers as unicorn magic. In this model, the pony who Awakens would be Rarity, who then has to deal with the incredibly traumatizing process of Awakening, then the surprising reality of becoming more powerful than Twilight, through means that the purple unicorn could never touch.
It would then become a story about the social problems of Awakening, and isolation from one's usual groups of friends. The other Mages, in this scenario, would be markedly more arrogant and self-absorbed, to provide more character development for the normally-vain Rarity.
I do want to write this crossover, but I'm agonizing too much over which scenario to do. Any ideas anyone could have would be very welcome and helpful.
Option 1 seems better to me, sounds better (to me).
I'd say go for 1.
Magic A is magic A,
The Platinum Crown has a concept of Old Magic that doesn't follow the rules that normally apply to unicorns and that isn't in general use also explaining artifacts like the elements. Simply have Unicorns/Princesses playing the role analogous to the Technocracy, keeping tabs on what magic is and is not allowed to be and harvest delicious delicious party conflict.
...and of course there's always the AU tag.
1! Do eeet!
I fully support this endeavor. I think scenario 1 is the superior choice here, partially because AJ is best pony and partially because I prefer to read stories about secret wars more than I do about social intrigue.
518745
Mage: The Awakening doesn't have the Technocracy, that's Mage: The Ascension, which I never really understood well.
But the idea of linking the Elements to Mages is definitely a nice twist.
I've said it before, man. You are the biggest nerd.
ALSO I MISS OUR NERD TALKS T_T
go for the first one, I admit that my initial reasoning for voting for that is because I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that Twilight is weaker to anyone other than the princesses, but on further reflection I like the idea of secret wars more as well. In additition, I think the first scenario would best capture what you describe the main conflict of Mage as: "The problem is that Mage assumes that most people are unaware of the existence of magic, and don't believe in it." Rarity wouldn't be hiding very well when matched up against an Applejack who could do magic, and you could still do all the societal things as well
518779
I'm sorry I thought we were talking about the REAL world of darkness (j/k haven't played either, although the Technocracy always sounded cool).
Anyway, the general premise remains the same, the magi have secret societies dedicated towards keeping the muggles unaware of the truth beyond the veil. Telling them magic is just unicorns shooting fireballs is no less disingenuous than say the speed of light being a constant.
Hmm... on the one hand, the idea of this crossover appeals to me and I find it fascinating and sort of want to read such a thing. On the other hand, as protagonists, I can't bring myself to empathize with Rarity or Applejack much at all, and I've never much enjoyed stories featuring either as the protagonist. Also, my lizard-brain hears "more powerful than Twilight Sparkle" and goes "What a load of crap! Noone is better than best pony!"
I suppose I'll read either one, but I can't really think of any way beyond the scenarios you mentioned to bring it about. Good luck with whichever you decide on, and if I had to choose between the two, Applejack as a mage sounds cooler than Rarity having to put up with a bunch of stuck up jerks.
518798 518779 We need to play. We do. We should do a live stream RPG session. One of us DMs each time.
Anyway, I think you can arguably go by the first idea. Zecora could be an awakened Zebra, for example. And Granny Smith makes sense, with all the mumbo-jumbo she does to get the Zap-Jam just right. It also makes sense to keep it hidden from (most) unicorns, since they could be protective about their magic, although it works on different rules. Or... Unicorns = Technocracy.
A copy of my post in the group for those that do not look there:
518813
518808
Well, the stronger than Twilight thing only comes in once Rarity gets to higher levels of ability and not starting right out the gate (unless being an Element of Harmony gives a boost or something else the author comes up with). And it is possible mainly due to how this other magic work: it imposes the rules of another plane of existence upon the one it is cast in. With the issue that bigger spells carry greater risk of causing a paradox and screwing everything up. Like causing a twisted spirit of the Abyss to manifest.
518880
Or just exclude the unicorns that are really powerful with 'normal' magic and you get pretty much the same thing. Just without the tribalism.
518880
Pick a system D, I'll try it.
Of course, if you ask me to pick one I'll spend weeks flipping through all my gaming books, my gaming groups send books to my house to die so I've got everything from Legend of the Five Rings (3rd and 4th editions) to half of all the 3.5e DnD books ever, to some of new World of Darkness (aside from Vampire, Werewolf or Promethean that is). I've even got Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, and Dresden Files! I think I've even got Star Wars kicking around somewhere, and I know Pathfinder by heart pretty much.
... I've got too many gaming systems.
But anyways, it looks like Option 1 is the most popular, so far. I'm still not entirely sure about making AJ magical, but I'm getting some ideas now. She's not my favorite pony, but the idea of such a grounded pony going through an Awakening was a thought that simply wouldn't fade. I don't think I'm going to include the Technocracy, because I never really understood them well, but a non-Mage conspiracy has some promise to it.
518779
Or even just have the Mages be looking for a link between their magic (or the higher planes) and the Elements. There does not really need to be much going for a connection as long as there are theories that there might be. Particularly the Element of Magic. That seems like something that would attract their attention unless it has been proven that there is nothing there to find.
518940 We'll discuss this on Skype whenever you're available. I'll see if I can drag the others into it.
518959
Oh hey, that's an idea: Replacing the Watchtowers with the Elements. I know that's not quite what you meant, but it's where my mind jumped. Because all Mages are aware that their power comes from their connection to the Watchtower that they signed their name on, which connects them to the invisible Supernal Realm.
It's been a while since I mucked about with Mage, but that's what it was from what I can remember. I'm going to have to brush up on more of the specifics when I get my claws on the books and I'm not writing piles of term papers.
But yeah, from there it would be easy to connect past owners of the Elements with the current ones. And thinking on it, some of the Watchtowers blend very nicely with the Elements.
519000
I was thinking more like a theory that the Elements act as anchors to the Supernal Realms or some such, but I guess that might work too.
EDIT:
There are five Supernal Realms and six Elements. If there is any belief that the two things are connected then it could lead to some interesting theories about why there is a different number of each.
519053
Actually, Mage allows for different types of Watchtowers and the like (or even entirely different systems), so it'd be quite simple to splice the Elements in as replacement Watchtowers rather than make justifications for the Elements and the Watchtowers working together. Though admittedly I've got ideas for that too. Hmm, it bears more thinking about.
Although a one for one translation of the various WoD factions obviously wouldn't work if you've simply never familiarizing yourself with the Technocracy then I really can't summarize them well enough to make them appealing, although I personally liked them because they're the as varied and arguably have even nobler goals than the splat they're facing off against.
That and Ascension was the only oWoD game that got an ending worthy of MLP. Seriously, it may as well have been an episode.
Suffice it to say that the Technocracy is what happens if you've get a bunch of disgruntled serfs being turned into magpies that decide to one up The Man, but haven't really got a clue as what to do afterwards.
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Am I correct in assuming AJ is heading somewhere that's attuned to the Life Arcana?
I, for one, welcome our apple-bucking theruge.
I, admittedly, prefer the Mage: The Ascension paradigm to the Mage:The Awakened, but I'd definitely read both. As much as I'd love to see a Mage responding to Equestria's Scourage( the precursor to the Paradox), I'd certainly enjoy seeing Granny Smith as an Archmage of Death. You know you want to see that. Anyway, I'd prefer the first idea. I can see it already, Twilight finds out about Applejack's magic, demanding she let her study it FOR SCIENCE!!! Applejack refusing because of Granny's warnings not to tell Sleepers(non-Mages) about her Awakened Magic( let's call it "magecraft"), because, per M:Aw rules, revealing the secrets of magecraft to Sleepers weakens it as a whole, her conflict between the vow Granny Smith probably made her make before training her in magecraft to never reveal her power and her Element, and maybe even needing to use her magecraft to save her friends.... The idea with Mage!Rarity would be fun, but it simply doesn't measure up to that.
519182 you do realize that the Technocratic Union was the bad guys, right? As displayed by their favorite hobbies, which include, but are not limited to, stiffling imagination, killing faeries, brainwashing, etc. The Order of Reason were the ones who wanted to "one up the Man". They died off a long time ago. In fact, the survivors joined the Council of Nine, and ruled as the Virtual Adepts. The Technocracy was born when the Order, stopped being the Order. Their goals changed from protecting the common man to ruling him from the shadows. It was pure luck that they won the Ascension War, and they were slowly dragging humanity further and further into the gutter. The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions were just trying to survive, do you have any idea how many people the Paradox killed? And the Technocraty would have made it worse.
3163392
spoken like a true reality deviant, if you like fairies so much why don't you marry them
3163443 because they have this annoying habit of attempting to regurgitate my face. Which first requires them to eat my face. I happen to like my face just where it is. And thank you for calling me a reality deviant, it's hard to feel like a real mage when not even one of you Filthy Totalitarians has called me one. It took the opening of the literal Gates of Hell to destroy the Council - something the Technocracy had nothing to do with whatsoever. All it took to destroy the Technocratic Union was itself.