Sources of Magick - MtA 8 - 16 - 2019 [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

A Guide to Nodes for Mage 20th Anniversary Edition

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Credits

Special Thanks

Written By: Charles Siegel

Terry Robinson for brainstorming help.

Developed By: Charles Siegel

And of course, my best player, my wife.

Edited By: Terry Robinson

© 2018 White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. Vampire: The Masquerade®, World of Darkness®, Storytelling System™, and Storytellers Vault™ are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. For additional information on White Wolf and the World of Darkness, please, visit: www.white-wolf.com, www.worldofdarkness.com and www.storytellersvault.com. 2

Nodes: Sources of Magick

Nodes

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Resonance, Quintessence and Tass 11

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Resonance and Nodes

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Compute Cycles in a Simulation

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The Form of Tass

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Dimensional Intersections

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Alternative Energy

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The Gold Standard

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Holes in Reality

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Quintessence Sources

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Memories of the Land

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Ley Lines

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Natural Resources

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Tass

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Paths to Outsiders

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Resonance

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Preservation of Possibility

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Building a Node

Remnants of the Pure Ones

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Concept

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Resonance Taking Form

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Basic Traits

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Sacred Places of the Earth

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Merits

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Stolen Caerns

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Flaws

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Uncertainty Waves

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The Nature of Nodes

Rotes

Example Nodes

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Many books, comics, films and television shows have a setting that is every bit as much a character as the characters themselves. There’s no reason this can’t be the case for Mage as well. The home Chantry of a cabal can take on this role, but less attention is paid to the Node that sits at the heart of everything. The Node doesn’t just produce Quintessence and Tass for the characters to use. It’s Resonance influences the characters and the Chantry, it exerts a force pulling their personalities and relationships in specific directions. In addition to mages choosing Nodes that fit them, they start to fit the Nodes better as they live on top of them. And of course, a Realm can’t exist in direct opposition to the nature of the Nodes powering it.

Fleshing out Nodes more thoroughly makes a lot of these influences explicit and easier for both the Storyteller and the players to keep track of and take into account. It also has practical impacts: a Technocratic Node that generates Tass in the form of electricity of jet fuel shouldn’t be of much use to the average Verbena, nor should a sacred grove that produces Tass as falling leaves or morning dew be of much use to an Iterator. Below, we will cover many aspects of Nodes, Quintessence and Tass, including: The Nature of Nodes covers Nodes and Ley Lines, as well as a collection of theories of what they are that characters may hold, and how those beliefs might influence their behaviors and attitudes.

On top of how they affect the mages, they’re what usually makes Chantries worth fighting over. Wars are fought over Nodes, including most conflicts with Werewolves.

Resonance, Quintessence and Tass handles the Resonance of Nodes, how this manifests in Quintessence and the many forms of Tass. It closes by discussing alternate sources of Quintessence.

With all of this in mind, Nodes deserve a closer look than they’ve gotten in the past. Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition and The Book of Secrets have expanded Resonance and Synergy from first being a collection of impressions with no mechanics behind them to a statistic in Revised with multiple not-entirely-consistent systems to a coherent system for describing how magick interacts with the world around it.

Rotes covers magick for interacting with Nodes and Resonance. Building a Node discusses what goes into a Node, what considerations should there be, and a point-build system for creating Nodes based loosely on the Chantry creation rules from the Book of Chantries.

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Example Nodes is a collection of fully detailed Nodes that can easily be inserted into any mage chronicle, tailored with a wide variety of Resonance traits and designed for many different Paradigms and Factions.

The Nature of Nodes Young mages often think of Nodes as just a source of power, a place to recharge, and an objective in the Ascension War. For those who live a bit more slowly and start wondering about the nature of things, however, they’re one of the deepest mysteries in the Tellurian. There aren’t many things that mages can agree on about Nodes. That they tend to have strong Resonance, that they can be used to refuel with Quintessence, that Tass can be harvested from them, and that some of them are connected via Ley Lines covers most of that common ground. Even these things aren’t always true. Some Nodes only produce pure Quintessence, others only produce Tass. Ley Lines always have an endpoint at a Node, but most Nodes aren’t on any of them, and some Ley Lines just allow Quintessence to be transported to faraway places, rather than linking Nodes. So, with almost everything about what Nodes really are being mysterious, the Awakened have developed a number of theories. While every mage who asks these questions comes to different answers, most of them fall into one of several categories.

Compute Cycles in a Simulation Reality is a Lie. Mages say this all the time, but it means different things to different mages. Some mean that the apparent stability of the world is an illusion. Others, though, go farther: the Reality that we perceive doesn’t really exist. Instead, they say it’s just a simulation created in some higher, “more real” Reality. Debate rages about whether or not that Reality is actually real or also just a simulation itself, but what matters is that the one we’re in is one. As such, Nodes are pre-allocated. Put there by the programmers who created our reality. Simulations this detailed are always limited by their ability to compute. The mages working on this theory believe that most of the 6

Nodes: Sources of Magick

world is rendered at a lower density, so as to preserve computational resources. Nodes, however, are locations where additional compute cycles (Quintessence) can be applied. Using these spare cycles gives the mage options: Reality is rendered more clearly around them, and they can dictate some of the details more easily. Of course, this comes with risks: whoever programmed this reality may come back, and if they do, they may not welcome the changes that willworkers have made. Who believes this: mages who believe Everything is Data, Virtual Adepts, Iterators

Dimensional Intersections The idea that the Universe is three-dimensional (four if you include time) is a pleasant fiction that the Sleepers tell themselves to believe it’s all under control. Some mages know that the Universe is much, much larger than that, though their descriptions range from four dimensions of space all the way through ten and even farther among some fringe theorists. In most places, it takes special training and understanding to even perceive these extra dimensions. In some places and along some paths, the complex structure of Reality becomes more apparent. Maybe higher dimensional slices of Reality intersect, or maybe the extra dimensions “unroll” but either way, energy from this greater space-time is released, forming Nodes and Ley Lines, where the greater Quintessence that naturally exists in higher dimensions can flow freely into our own. Perhaps this is why certain extra-dimensional beings are so focused on Nodes. This attention has been noted in several alien species, such as the zigg’raugglurr and the Ka Luon. Some theorize that they’re hoping to use these dimensional intersections to go home. Others, however, believe they want to control them so that they can bring others of their kind through, to attack and conquer this reality. Who believes this: Void Engineers, Ethernauts, people who think in terms of dimensions of reality

The Gold Standard Quintessence isn’t a natural resource, it’s value. Though historically, it has been treated as being tied to Nodes and Tass, that’s a more primitive system. But just like gold has been replaced by paper money, a purer representation of value than a shiny rock, Nodes are no longer the best way to generate Quintessence.

That isn’t to say that Nodes aren’t valuable. They’re still stores of value, just like gold mines are still valuable in a post-gold-standard economy. But they’re just one path to value and to Quintessence, and should be looked at as strategic, not essential. People with this viewpoint are more likely to drain a Node they can’t hold, pulling all the value they can out of it and denying that wealth to their enemies. They also won’t commit forces that would cost them more than the Node is worth, determining the exact amount that is worth risking in capturing a Node so that a costly victory will still be profitable. Who believes this: The Syndicate, people with Primal Utility

Holes in Reality Mages commonly liken Reality to a Tapestry, with many threads woven together to make up everything. The threads come in many colors and fibers, and between that and how they tie together, the infinite diversity of the universe is created. Behind the Tapestry, though, there isn’t a wall. Instead, there’s Nothing. Not empty space, but rather a negation of Reality. Everything came from Nothing, and one day, it will all return. But for now, the only way to access the Nothing is through the holes in the Tapestry, or through missing threads. These holes and missing threads are Nodes. The friction between Reality and Nothing creates “heat” in the form of Quintessence, which mages refer to as Nodes. Quintessence, then, aids the altering of Reality by negating it when used, meaning that mages using lots of Quintessence should result in more holes and the creation of new Nodes. This leads proponents of this theory to either hoard or burn Quintessence, depending on their opinion of whether more holes in Reality are a good thing or not. An alternate reading of this theory, however, is that the Tapestry needs to grow. Magick consists of pushing it out of the way and allowing new threads to form, joining the weave. Then, Nodes are interpreted just as holes that continually push the threads of the Tapestry away, continually generating the new threads necessary for magick. Who believes this: Nephandi, some more nihilistic mages Nodes 7

Memories of the Land Everything is at least a little bit Awake. Mages may be the most able to manipulate Reality, but Sleepers do it en masse, Spirits do it to a point, and even the inanimate does it, by existing. Consensual Reality is a great concept, but if there is nothing without a consensus, how does humanity even come into being to provide one? The answer is that the land itself contributes to the consensus. Before humanity, the Earth determined what was and wasn’t real, and decided that humanity should exist, and took on that burden. In the modern era, humanity has done so, and the land has mostly become irrelevant. But a few places remember how to dictate to the universe what is real. In other places, Sleepers have reinforced the desire of the land whether it be inspiring vistas, verdant hollers, or fetid swamps, making these Nodes all the more potent. Those places are Nodes, and they create the world. In a sense, this means that whoever controls the Nodes controls what the world becomes. Nodes are the most important objective of the Ascension War in this view, because other than winning the hearts and minds of the Sleepers, which can’t be done in direct battle, taking a Node is the only way to seize control of the right to dictate Reality. Some would disagree, and believe that using Nodes in this way diminishes them, and could lead to the end of magick in the world. Who believes this: Dreamspeakers and many other animists, Gaia theories and pantheists

Natural Resources There are some places that just happen to have resources. Some places its rare earth metals, some it’s oil…and some it’s Quintessence. Nodes are a renewable resource, like the wind that powers offshore wind farms, the sunlight that powers solar panels, or the heat coming from geothermal vents. It may be overharvested, disrupting whatever it is that makes it useful, but if it is managed carefully and efficiently, it will last for the long haul. Why natural resources are distributed the way they are is a different matter. There’s as many theories of that as there are of mages who believe this theory, and many of them (particularly Etherites) will explain their theories in great detail if given the chance. But in the end, it just happens to be the case that Nodes are where they are. 8

Nodes: Sources of Magick

Whatever is happening, they’re just natural processes that happen to release Quintessence or generate Tass in some form, and no more special than processes that give off light or heat, except that they’re less well understood. Mages who believe that Nodes are natural resources are not likely to overcommit to defense of a Node. Instead, they tend to think strategically about it. They will only commit as much as the Node is worth, and will abandon it when necessary, with hopes of regaining it at some future point. Most won’t drain a Node except in the most desperate circumstances: once the resource is gone, it’s gone forever. Who believes this: Most Technomages

Paths to the Outer Dark There are things outside of Reality. And they want to come back. We can’t know much about them. Some think they want to destroy everything, others think they just want to return and live inside it, though perhaps they’ll insist on ruling. After all, they were here before. They want nothing more than entry to Reality, in any case. That’s what it will take to accomplish their goals. These unformed beings, these never-born beings, aren’t even as solid as the most ephemeral of spirits. They leak. And sometimes, that leakage pokes its way into Reality, allowing a tiny bit of their essence in. These leaks are Nodes. Their essence is the Quintessence, and Tass is essentially tiny pieces of what would be their bodies, if they could fully enter the world. Some think that it is in their interest for mages to fight one another, that the Awakened are the only force in Reality that could stand against their goals. In this version of the theory, they know that their essence can be used to power magick, and they’re actively trying to cause strife and warfare. By keeping Quintessence rare, only letting enough of themselves through to power some mages, they guarantee that those who could oppose them are divided and fighting among themselves. The only real way to defeat them is a united front, and the Ascension War makes that virtually impossible. Who believes this: Nephandi, some Spirit mages

Preservation of Possibility The Universe is built out of pure Potential. However, there is only a certain amount of that Potential available, and much of it has been used up just to create everything. What’s left is distributed through Reality.

But it’s not distributed evenly. Some places hold more Potential than others. And these places are often far away from Sleepers. Some theories say that Sleepers repel Potential, but there are so many Sleepers that it just collects in places far away from them, and as more areas are overrun with Sleepers this potential has to get pushed somewhere. The points of potential repelled by sleepers are Nodes. Few mages who believe this theory are based in cities, and those that are tend to sit on top of powerful city Nodes, that they can explain as basin all the Potential of the area coalescing into a small number of places. Who believes this: mages who see everything through the lens of Entropy, Etherites, mages who use Chaos Magick

Remnants of the Pure Ones The Pure Ones existed in primordial times, the first inhabitants of Reality. At least, that’s the story that some mages believe. At some point, they disappeared, and the theory is that they shattered into millions of pieces. These pieces then embedded themselves into humanity, and went to sleep. These shards are the Avatars that sit inside humanity, largely dormant. And those who can Awaken them gain access to the powers of the Pure Ones and can alter Reality to match their desires. But perhaps not all of the shards landed in humans. If some landed elsewhere, and they became the nuclei of Nodes. These shards want nothing more than to come back together, and they draw mages to them like moths to flames. Ley lines are them connecting to each other again, and who knows what will happen if they do all come back together? In the meantime, there’s only a finite amount of this stuff in the world. And it’s spreading thinner and thinner, as the population grows, and as Nodes spread. Maybe they won’t be able to reconnect without all of them, becoming so dilute that they can’t be found anymore at all. Who believes this: mystics whose theories include the Pure Ones

Resonance Taking Form Everything in the world is determined, to some extent, by its Resonance. If you change the Resonance of Nodes 9

something, the nature of the thing changes. Explanations for anything of real importance needs to tie back to Resonance. And powerful Resonance is well-known to be able to warp Reality itself. So then what is a Node? It’s a place of extremely strong Resonance. So strong that a mage can draw energy from it, and even some of the Resonance crystallizes into a physical form, becoming Tass. Ley Lines connect these places to one another, allowing the dissonant Resonances to mix and turn from one to another. mages who believe this view the Ascension War and the capture of Nodes as a highly symbolic struggle of manipulating Resonance to accomplish their goals. These mages will even sometimes manipulate their opponents into capturing Nodes with Resonance that will give them problems. This willingness to give up Nodes, even only certain ones, can make them less than popular among other mages. Who believes this: Hermetics (particularly Bonisagi), the New World Order (though they would say “memories” and “emotions” rather than Resonance)

Sacred Places of the Earth The Divine is real. Mages who believe have no doubt, even if it can take many forms. It may have retreated from the world a bit, but in the time before, there were places where the Divine touched the world. In these places, mages can still detect the imprint of the Divine. Nodes are located at these points. A mage can meditate at a Node to experience the Divine directly, filling themselves with its power in the form of Quintessence. Tass is the crystallized essence of Divinity. This means that Nodes, Quintessence, and Tass are all sacred. Few mages who believe this will ever give up a Node to someone who doesn’t believe it to be sacred. This is the source of some of the nastiest battles of the Ascension War. And not always against Technocrats, many Tradition mages don’t consider the Nodes to be sufficiently sacred for the approval of others. Who believes this: Choristers, Verbena, Dreamspeakers and other religious mages

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Stolen Caerns Nodes were never meant for mages. They were created by Gaia for her children. They’re intended to be places of peace, where the warriors of Gaia can heal and meet, perform their sacred rituals and plan the battle against those who would harm her. Unfortunately, the various Shapeshifters and their allies have done poorly. They’ve lost more than they’ve won. They’re barely hanging on by a thread, even, with their population constantly declining, with the wild places of the Earth becoming more and more civilized. So they can’t hold all these spaces. And now there’s mages there. The mages are harvesting these places, taking the power that Gaia intended for the Shapeshifters and using it for their own purposes. In some cases, alliances may be possible, but there’s a lot of bad blood from centuries of fighting over resources. Who believes this: Werewolves and some closely aligned mages

Uncertainty Waves Everything in the Universe is probabilistic. There is just no escaping this conclusion of the Quantum Theory. Instead of being governed by a bunch of equations of motion that say how objects move around, it’s defined by a single “wave function” that encodes everything in Reality, including the probability that anything will change into anything else. There are higher order effects this wave function. Among them, is a collection of terms that interact undetectably weakly with Sleepers, but much more strongly with the Awakened. It also has a dependency on time and space. In some places, Nodes, those terms are stronger, and the mage can influence Reality more strongly, but Reality also influences the mage more. Though they can harvest Quintessence from these places, their Resonance is strong, and once a mage touches a Node, that Node is always with them, in some way. Who believes this: Etherites, some Technocrats, mages who incorporate Quantum Mechanics into their practices.

Resonance, Quintessence and Tass Resonance has a complicated history in Mage. It was first given formal mechanics and a trait in Mage: the Ascension Revised (though those rules were really fleshed out, oddly, in Fallen Tower: Las Vegas) and before that, it had been intended more as an atmospheric thing for the ST to use to add depth to magick. The system from Revised is expanded and clarified in Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition and its companion book The Book of Secrets. As of The Book of Secrets, there are two pieces of Resonance: Resonance and Synergy. They are mechanically similar, but thematically opposites. Resonance is all about the fundamental nature of the mage, whereas Synergy is how the mage connects to outside forces. As an example, a mage who is quick to anger may have a Fiery Resonance, but their magick won’t have a Fiery Synergy unless they are accessing some external source of that sort of energy. Resonance and Synergy traits come on a scale of 1-5, with higher levels causing a greater impact. Resonance comes in four types: Devotional (related to a cause, belief, society or ethic), Elemental (related to the forces of nature, creatures, and spirits), Stabilizing (related to structure, calmness and control), and Temperamental (related to emotional states). Synergy, however, comes in three types: Dynamic, Static and Entropic, related to the three forces that form Reality. In the World of Darkness, everything has some sort of Resonance. Mundane things will have weak Resonance, topping out at a single dot. Supernatural things tend to sit in the 1-3 range. Only the most powerful things have Resonance 4 or 5, and this level of Resonance is capable of warping Reality around it and will almost always come with strange side effects. Resonance also acts as a fingerprint: something with Resonance can be identified through a Perception + Awareness roll. This roll is made at difficulty 10 – the Resonance trait, and each trait requires a separate roll. This means that anything with a diverse set of Resonance traits has a sort of mystic fingerprint that can be identified, whereas things with only a single weak Resonance trait are harder to identify, because they blend in with so many other things.

Resonance and Nodes Resonance is particularly important for Nodes. As objects of pure magick, Nodes tend to have more and stronger Resonance traits. The most powerful Nodes will have more Resonance than even powerful Archmages, and possibly in combinations that would make life almost impossible for a human being. For mages, Resonance says a lot about who they are, but in the end, they’re still people. They have their consciousness and their ability to make their own choices, and so Resonance colors them, but doesn’t completely define them. Nodes, on the other hand, are defined by their Resonance. It is essentially impossible to have a Fiery Node underwater, at least, not without some very obviously magickal things going on! And (continuing with underwater) just knowing that one Node has Drowning Resonance while another has Quenching is enough to know that they’ll be radically different in nature. When creating a Node, the very first decision that should be made is the Resonance of the Node. Whether it is simple or complex, relatively strong or weak, and of what sorts. From these, almost everything else will follow.

The Form of Tass Tass can appear in virtually any form imaginable. Most mages think of it as a material that condenses near Nodes, but that’s only a small fraction of what’s possible. The impression of a nebulous substance does Tass a disservice, as it doesn’t have to be a physical substance at all. In fact, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition makes a passing reference to nightmares as a form of Tass, under certain circumstances. So, Tass can be literally anything. Thematically, it makes an excellent choice for a realization of abstract and ephemeral ingredients needed for rituals, such as an ounce of starlight, the blackness of night or truth in a bottle. Although in most cases, Prime 3 suffices to access the Quintessence within Tass (see Rotes ), some of the more abstract varieties may require additional Spheres (generally at 1) to interact with.

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Sometimes, Tass can only be harvested under certain conditions, regardless of how stable or physical it may be. Mushrooms in a Verbena grove may only be of value if harvested under the full moon, or the light of distant stars may only be captured during a noontime eclipse (and such things can be quite rare and hard to arrange, so such Nodes tend to release a lot of Tass at once). The more powerful the Resonance of the Node, the more likely that there will be conditions on when the Tass can be harvested, though these cases have become rarer and rarer in the modern world.

Correspondence When a Node is attuned to Correspondence, space itself gets twisted around it. The Tass that such a Node generates creates strange, but weak connections to random things. When a lot of this Tass is all in one place, however, the effects get stranger. Space twists itself into knots around it. Over time, unharvested Correspondence-attuned Tass can form a maze of warped space around the Node that can’t even be fully comprehended or mapped in a mere three dimensions. Objects will constantly go lost and reveal themselves in odd places and distance sounds and sights may be visible, near such a Node. A powerful Correspondence Node may even seem too large to fit into the space it sits inside.

Entropy Crystallized fate, decay given form and good luck charms are all Entropy-attuned Tass. This Tass can range from the wildly abstract that only an Entropy mage could even perceive, to completely solid object that are just charged with the ability to change probability, patterns of decay, and the like. There is, of course, a dark side. Entropy-attuned Tass is particularly potent in some of the nastiest rituals on Earth. The Nephandi particularly prize Entropy-attuned Nodes, and the Tass generated by them can take the forms of bones, skin, blood and other remnants of formerly living things. Though some non-Fallen mages can make use of these Nodes with their unpleasant Resonance, most mages who find them will attempt to cleanse the Node. In these areas, chance may stop working with coins always coming up heads or dice always yielding the same values. Around particularly powerful Entropy Nodes, causality itself my break down, with effect preceding 12

Nodes: Sources of Magick

cause or simple machines running forever until removed from the area.

Forces Tass that is attuned to Forces come in two fundamental varieties. The first is pure energy fluctuations. These are insubstantial and identifiable patterns: a particularly potent example could manifest as ball lightning. The area near a Node producing this sort of Tass often ends up being quite dangerous, and if the Tass isn’t drained regularly, it can (at the Storyteller’s discretion) cause damage to anyone who comes in unshielded. Forcesaligned Nodes may recharge dead cellphones, a dropped coffee cup may pack enough force to break a toe, and ammunition fired in the area may be particularly potent. The other sort is high energy-density materials. The most famous of these is Abundanti’s Oil from the Dark Fantastick era’s Order of Reason, which they use to power many fantastic devices including Skyriggers. In the modern world, this can manifest as the Node producing high-octane fuel or low enriched uranium. Some forms of this Tass are dangerous (don’t go near enriched uranium without shielding!) but most are inert until used. These potent materials may cause film to expose or characters to become sunburnt.

Life Living Tass is a dangerous and powerful thing. Some scholarly mages debate the ethics of using living Tass endlessly, but mages of action tend to make the issue moot by doing what they need to for power. Fortunately, the most common form that living tass takes is plant-based: flow petals, nuts, berries, as well as fungi (glowing moss seems particularly common). Things get a bit more difficult when the Tass takes an animal form: generally insects, mice and other simple animals. Some mages view extracting the Quintessence from this sort of Tass to be the same as a Sacrifice, but others think it’s considerably less, that Tass cannot be truly alive. It remains controversial, and likely will for the foreseeable future. Life Nodes are notoriously hard to clean as mold sprouts everywhere and entire ecosystems can seemingly live in a soap tray. Woe unto housekeeping or medical staff.

Matter Matter-attuned Tass is more solid than other Tass, which is one of the most fragile substances in the world. Often associated with Resonances like Solid and Weighty. Other than this, though, it is very similar to unattuned Tass, more-so than any other Sphere, and many mages aren’t even aware when they find it, because they don’t stress test Tass to determine how durable it is. Matter Nodes often feature unusually un-worn stones, clean floors from how little debris is loosened by everyday wear and tear, and silver that seemingly never tarnishes.

Mind There are many possibilities for Tass attuned to the Mind Sphere. As mentioned above, reference was made to nightmares, but of course more pleasant dreams can be a form of Tass as well: which one you get would depend on the Resonance of the Node generating them. Another common sort of Mind-attuned Tass is inspiration. Some argue that in a lot of cases, Technocrats sanitize Nodes for their use and the Tass emerges as

ideas and inspiration for their inventions, models and businesses. Mind-based Tass can be quite difficult to capture, and almost always requires at least the first rank of Mind. It also tends to be situational: dreams and nightmares can only be harvested while someone is sleeping near the Node, inspiration can be even trickier, either being used by the inspired person or else having to claim the Tass before they do so. These Nodes can either be silent or cacophonous with mages being alternatively in a constant flow state or being perpetually distracted. The senses may seem keener and problems easier to understand and a kind of latent empathy is magnified.

Prime The most common and simplest form of Tass, Tass that is attuned to Prime can appear as anything physical, but has very little physical substance. It is most commonly fragile and light things, but that’s not always true, just often.

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Some Nodes attuned simply to Prime will produce more Quintessence than Tass, rather than the most common 50-50 split. These Nodes are considered particularly valuable, as Tass is harder to work with, requiring Prime to access, compared to pure, raw Quintessence. Prime nodes have a feeling of vitality to them as tired patterns are renewed but can often inspire anxiety. With so much potential, who’s to say what will happen next? Prime tends to reinforce patterns with minor cuts healing quickly and smalls holes in garments being fixed. Dead pixels in screens disappear.

Spirit Spirit-attuned Tass is essentially purified ephemera, what those who interact a lot with spirits might call Essence. This sort of Tass only tends to accumulate around Nodes that sit on top of Shallowings, and often attract spirits, who are particularly interested in claiming and consuming it. It will appear on both sides of the Gauntlet, though it will be easily accessed through the Shallowing. Often, it will manifest as bits of protoplasm that a Spirit mage (or Dimensional Scientist) can refine, though the shape it takes is more influenced by Resonance than anything else, though it is made of spirit-stuff. Spirit nodes may bring out the latent desire in all things to fulfill their role. A key here may work on multiple locks or a knife may cut very keenly as the spirit of those normally silent objects cry forth.

Time Even for Tass, Time-attuned Tass is strange. Some mages describe it as like a million little Wellsprings. Very rarely does Time-attuned Tass have a physical form. Instead, it manifests as tiny “snags” in the timeline. Around a Node that produces it, time flows in an erratic way. If Time is a river, then this Tass are the eddies and counter-currents of that river. The space around the Node will warp with barely existent temporal anomalies, individually short lived enough that nothing ever actually goes through or is damaged, but enough to seriously disorient any mage not versed in the Sphere of Time. Time nodes often inspire spontaneous synchronicity. People may talk all at once after a silence or everyone in a conversation may speak exactly every five seconds. 14

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Alternative Energy Nodes aren’t quite the only way to obtain Quintessence. In fact, several other options exist, and the Technocracy in particular is hard at work, researching alternative energy sources. And though the Traditions have begun to work along similar lines, this is one area that the Technocracy is considerably more advanced.

Wellsprings Not technically Nodes, Wellsprings are a very similar class of phenomena. Instead of existing in one place for a long period of time, Wellsprings pop in and out of existence. They’re concentrations of Quintessence that exist because of an event, rather than location. This event usually has something to do with the activities of living creatures: a Wellspring with Thunderous Resonance could occur during a stampede of bison. The most powerful Wellsprings can even become permanent Nodes. The New York Stock Exchange began as a Wellspring, and is now one of the most powerful Nodes that the Syndicate holds, similarly with London’s and Tokyo’s Stock Exchanges. Tiananmen Square became a Wellspring at the protests there in 1989, but the sustained interest and fame cemented the power in place.

Conjunctions Like a Wellspring, a Conjunction is similar to a Node that only exists for a brief period of time. However, a Wellspring is usually a transient event, the bison herd above, for example. A Conjunction, then, is a regular occurrence, a Node that exists cyclically in time, rather than at a specific location. One of the most famous Conjunctions is Halloween. It occurs annually, and can be tapped by mages with an appropriate focus for Haunting Resonance. Similarly, Verbena tune into many Conjunctions throughout the year, not the least of which are the Equinoxes and the Solstices. Different factions of mages can keep very complex calendars of the different Conjunctions that they use. Often, these coincide with holidays, either publicly celebrated or observed by the group. It is often unclear whether the Conjunction or the holiday began first.

Sacrifice One technique that almost every mage knows for obtaining more Quintessence is sacrifice. Quintessence resides in the flesh of everything alive, and can generally be obtained one-for-one for Health Levels. The simplest thing to do is to sacrifice of yourself. A mage with Prime 1 can extract Quintessence directly from their own Pattern in exchange for Aggravated damage. Most ethical mages won’t go any farther than this, they will use themselves for power, but that’s it. Unethical mages, on the other hand, see sacrifice as a route to power, and the sky is the limit. The most portable sacrifice, of course, is still the mage themself. However, if they can arrange things right, animals can be sacrificed, and even other people. Other mages are the best, with the right ritual, they can be sacrificed for more Quintessence than they had Health Levels. Though there aren’t many experiments, many believe that other Night Folk could be sacrificed effectively, but it’s difficult to make a Vampire hold still. On the other hand, the power for Tremere’s ritual had to come from somewhere. The Quintessence that comes from a mage sacrificing their own Health can have a wide variety of Resonances, especially if the mage is sacrificing themself for a cause. The Quintessence from sacrificing others, however, tends to come with some of the nastiest Resonance in the world. And just like a Wellspring can become permanent, a location where many sacrifices occur can also become a Node, with Resonance reflecting the nature of the sacrifices (meaning that it will almost always be one of the nastiest Nodes that a mage will ever encounter).

Primal Ventures

The Technocracy’s masters of Prime (or rather, Primal Utility), the Syndicate have moved beyond a dependency on Nodes for drawing Quintessence. Now, thanks to their invention of the Primal Utility sphere and the theory of Primal Value, they can draw it directly from their investments in humanity. When a Syndicate member identifies an organization that somehow embodies innovation and human potential in an exceptional way, they can classify it as a Primal Venture. They make some sort of contact (a greater degree of contact is needed for bigger Ventures) as an investment, and in the future, they can draw on that investment to generate Quintessence, without any Tass. By focusing on the organization and its status in a meditative state after renewing their contact, the mage can treat it as a Node, drawing Quintessence directly. However, just like a Node can only provide a certain amount of Quintessence per week, a Primal Venture has limits, too. If all of the week’s Quintessence is drawn, the organization suffers. The leadership becomes lethargic, lackluster, and there are all sorts of setbacks through the week. Worst of all, if the mage draws beyond that, as though draining a Node, the Venture collapses. Other Technocrats trained in Primal Utility can also take advantage of Primal Ventures, and they need not be purely economic. Governmental organizations, for instance, can act as Primal Ventures to the rare New World Order agents who learn Primal Utility, and cutting edge research groups can do so for Progenitors, Iterators and Void Engineers. There are even rumors of some developments towards a more mystic Primal Utility, that could allow Tradition mages to gain access to some of these benefits. But for now, those are only rumors, like a priest who can draw Quintessence from

Primal Ventures Equivalent Node • •• ••• •••• •••••

Scale Successful local business, street gang, large farm or small factory City-wide business, larger factory or farm, common resource extraction (such as oil or iron) Regional business or organized crime council, rare resource extraction (gold, diamonds, uranium) National business or criminal organization, ultra-rare resource extraction (iridium, tellurium) International business or syndicate

Required Connection Visiting the Venture’s location, patronizing it Entry-level job, attending a stockholder meeting Lower management or supervisory position Middle management or consultant Executive, consigliere or board member Nodes 15

their congregation, or an Akashic who can draw from a particularly appropriate monastery. The chart below describes the equivalent Node and how strong a connection is required for any given Primal Venture. The minimal required connection can be decreased: the mage’s Primal Utility -1 gives a number of levels that the required connection can be decreased. At any level, an investment of the equivalent amount of Resources will suffice. Although mostly used by Technocrats (and even then, mostly the Syndicate), similar techniques can be used by more mystically minded mages. With an altered understanding of Prime (sometimes called Primal Community), a mage can draw energy from other organizations that embody some aspect of human potential. Stories abound of Choristers drawing power from their congregations, for example, and Etherites may draw power from makerspaces, Virtual Adepts from hacker groups, etc., if they have a communal understanding of Prime rather than an individual one.

STAR Units The Stellar Tass Augmentation Refinery (STAR) Unit is quite possibly the most valuable invention that the Void Engineers have produced (only the Tass-Powered Propulsion Unit (TPU) compares). These Devices are so important to the Void Engineers that they don’t permit members of the other Conventions to come near them, under any circumstances. On top of that, they’re shielded from every sort of scanning that the Union is capable of detecting, often going so far as to encase them in Primium, despite the extreme expense. Designed for Deep Universe travel, where Voidships need a steady stream of Quintessence to maintain life support and thrust, the STAR Unit scoops up the thin matter (and ephemera) between worlds and breaks it down into solid Tass (in the form of rocket fuel, with High-Octane Resonance) that is then used by other ship systems, such as the TPU and life support. Different sized STAR Units gather Tass at different rates, acting as Nodes of varying size. Small ships might have the equivalent of a one-point Node, perhaps two for redundancy. On the other hand, the Copernicus Research Center is powered by six of the largest STAR Units ever built, each of which would be an epically large Node by itself, and cannot be brought back to Earth safely. 16

Nodes: Sources of Magick

A warning that many Void Engineers neglect to take to heart: STAR Units are constantly active devices. This can draw quite a lot of attention out in the Deep Universe, not just because of the constant Enlightened Science, but also the concentration of Primal Energy can attract some of the strange inhabitants of the Void.

Primal Nets The Progenitors have their own unique method of generating Quintessence. It is, however, a much less wholesome than what the Syndicate and Void Engineers do. In fact, their techniques have a lot more in common with sacrifice, albeit done through a technological lens. Justified by claiming that the ends are worth it, patients who are hopeless (or nearly so) are artificially kept alive, but in a vegetative state. The Progenitors then give them a Primal Infusion (Life 3, Prime 3) to cause their body to start drawing in ambient Quintessence, producing a point of Quintessence per week. This goes for each patient, allowing the Progenitors to draw a truly massive (some would even say obscene) amount of Quintessence. It takes six months of treatments to perform the Primal Infusion, breaking down various protective barriers inside the body, and virtually ensuring that the patient will never recover. Specifically, each point of Quintessence they hold (up to one per dot of Stamina) causes them to lose one Health Level, and if they have any Quintessence in their system, rolls to resist disease have their difficulty increased by two. Though even more ethically suspect than performing a Primal Infusion on a coma patient, the Procedure will work on anyone, though it leaves them vulnerable in a way that may require permanent hospitalization. In fact, many Progenitor run hospitals have several patients who have undergone Primal Infusion. Harvesting all the energy that they produce is done with a Primal Net (Life 2, Matter 2, Prime 2). This is a network throughout the hospital that extracts small amounts of Quintessence from patients who are in persistent vegetative states, and can extract any Quintessence that has built up in the systems of those who’ve been given Primal Infusions.

MECHA

While there are many debates about the ethics of the Progenitors’ Primal Nets, Iteration X has developed a technique for extracting Quintessence that is far, far worse. Some would go so far as to say that they’re converting atrocities directly into Tass. The Iterators at MECHA have discovered that they can siphon Quintessence and Tass out of mages that they enslave and torture, breaking their wills as they do so and making them much easier to control. MECHA has been so successful for the Technocracy that back in the 1990s, there were plans to build a second one, as the Quintessence output of the place was capable of supporting many other Constructs and their associated Realms. Unfortunately for the Union, but fortunately for everyone else, MECHA was lost during the Avatar Storm, and has not been heard from since. Without it, Iteration X has had to revert to a technique pioneered at Autochthonia. There, rather than horrific slavery, Quintessence is generated through having workers perform repetitive, otherwise-pointless production of garbage.

While it may be far less lucrative, it is also much more palatable to idealists: after all, how is this different from so many other jobs in the modern economy?

Repetitive Effort Another technique for extracting Quintessence from humanity is through its labor. Useful labor, though, produces goods and services. Only truly useless, tedious and repetitive labor is capable of generating Quintessence, by drawing on the energy expended non-constructively by the workers. In some Constructs, Iteration X has created makework factories. In them, one set of workers assembles a machine and another set disassemble it. Either machines or a third set restore the pieces to the pool for construction, so that the cycle can continue indefinitely. This does not generate the amounts of Quintessence that some of the other methods do, but it can create a small amount, capable of sustaining a small Amalgam or even a Construct when done at a sufficiently large scale.

Rotes The ability to manipulate the forces of magick themselves are essential for mange mages. The most valuable Sphere in this area is, of course, Prime, but others are also useful. On top of that, magick just doesn’t work quite the same way as it does when away from a Node. Nodes make it substantially easier.

Awareness roll, with difficulty 10 minus the higher of the caster’s Prime and Resonance ratings. The difficulty reduction is twice that if the person detecting it is familiar with the user. When being actively hidden with Prime magick, the user can make the difficulty 5 + Prime instead.

As of Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, any Resonance involved in the magick (whether personal, from instruments or rituals, or from Tass and Quintessence) can change the difficulty of the effect by 1 point per dot, reducing difficulty if appropriate and increasing it if opposed. For example, a Hermetic mage with 3 dots of Fiery Resonance will get -3 difficulty for lighting a fire, but +3 for putting one out, or for freezing someone.

Quintessence Sources

Just being a near a Node is enough to give a difficulty reduction on magick, up to the standard maximum reduction of -3. This depends on the Node, with larger and more powerful Nodes tending to give a better difficulty reduction. Another consideration when using magick of this sort is that the Prime Sphere leaves a distinctly strong mark of the user’s Resonance (at least for effects using Prime 3 or above). It can be detected on a simple Perception +

Awaken the Sleeping Earth Book of Chantries page 149 ••• Prime, ••• Matter When a mage finds a Node that is dormant, they can tap it. This rote opens a channel into the Node and allows the Quintessence to flow from it into some vessel.

Bond of Blood Mage: The Ascension First Edition page 211 Mage: The Ascension Second Edition page 215 Mage: The Ascension Revised page 183 ••• Prime A Disciple of Prime can pull Quintessence directly out of a Node, out of a willing target, or can reverse Nodes 17

these, placing Quintessence in the Node or gifting Quintessence to an ally.

Create/Destroy New Node •••• or ••••• Prime A Master of Prime can create a Node, though the ritual is difficult and requires a large number of successes (10 per level of Node Background). With only four ranks, though, a Node can be drained out of existence.

Employ Periapt •• Prime, optional •• Correspondence Though Prime 3 is needed to recharge it or draw the Quintessence into their Pattern, with Prime 2 a mage can make use of a Periapt to power their effects.

Focus Lock ••••• Prime By reshaping the Node in a fundamental way, some Paradigm, Practice or Instrument is locked into it. From then on, no one who isn’t using that Focus is able to access the quintessence of the Node, nor use the Tass it generates.

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Nodes: Sources of Magick

This fundamental alteration changes everything about the Node except for how powerful it is: essentially rebuilding the Node from scratch to fit closely into the Focus that is being imposed.

Fount of Paradise Mage: The Ascension Revised page 185 ••••• Prime With Master of Prime, a Mage can draw Quintessence from the Universe at large, not needing to be in any special place to obtain it.

Node Raider Technocracy: Void Engineers page 45 (as Tap Node) Guide to the Traditions page 280 ••• Prime This rote allows the mage to pull Quintessence out of a Node roughly, in a way that can damage the Node. Usually used either in desperation or as an attack on an enemy’s resources, this rote gives the mage one point of Quintessence per success, which can be redirected into a Periapt if the mage has one. The Node, however, gives

no Quintessence or Tass for a number of days equal to the number of successes. For every ten successes, the Node loses one level of power permanently, and if it drops to zero, it is destroyed.

Primal Infusion Technocracy: Progenitors page 44 (as Create Primessence Drug)

Share/Exchange Quintessence ••• Prime The mage can move Quintessence from place to place, using Tass, exchanging it with others, and placing it into a Periapt.

Tap Wellspring •••• Prime

Convention Book: Progenitors (Revised) page 74 ••• Life 3, ••• Prime The recipient of this effect is treated for three to six months with specialized drugs and chemicals. The result is that every week they generate a point of Prime Energy, which causes one health level of damage that cannot be healed while the Prime Energy is held. They can hold a one point of Prime Energy per dot of Stamina. Furthermore, any roll to resist disease has a difficulty increase of two, as this procedure weakens the body significantly.

Primal Net Technocracy: Progenitors page 46 (as Quintessence Net) Convention Book: Progenitors (Revised) page 74 •• Life, •• Matter, •• Prime This procedure is performed at the level of an entire hospital and siphons off a small amount of Prime Energy from people in persistent vegetative states or long-term intensive care. It slightly decreases the recovery rate for coma patients. This works distressingly well when paired with Primal Infusion.

Sense Node Technocracy: New World Order 48 Book of Shadows 145 (As Prime Location) • Prime, • or •• or ••• Correspondence A prepared mage can determine if there is a Node in a given area. With Correspondence 1, they can check a building to determine if there is a Node inside, but with Correspondence 2, they can check a wider area, such as a city block. At Correspondence 3, unwarded Nodes throughout a wide area can be found. This technique is especially popular within the Technocracy, and has uncovered many Tradition, Disparate and Orphan Nodes that were insufficiently warded over the years.

A Wellspring is a temporary Node, generating Quintessence from some event with a strong Resonance, and with this Effect, a mage can take advantage of one.

Ley Lines Find Ley Line • Prime, ••• Correspondence Even among Mages who study them, Ley Lines are esoteric things. They’re hard to find at best, and nearly invisible at worst. Actually, at worst, they’re false, many Mage has found themselves in a bad spot because they’d guessed a Ley Line would be in one place and it wasn’t. This is why it is so important to just be able to accurately find the things, which this effect allows a Mage to do.

Leying of the Line Book of Chantries page 149 ••• Prime, ••• Matter The mage can use this rote to create roughly a mile of ley line per success. The line transfers Quintessence from a Node to whatever is at the end of the line, usually a Chantry. Of course, Quintessence can be drawn from the Node itself, cutting off the supply.

Tap Ley Line ••• Prime, ••• Correspondence Though not all Nodes are connected to Ley Lines, every Ley Line contains more than one Node, and some Quintessence flows along it between the Nodes. Normally, it is roughly an even exchange, so the owners of the Nodes don’t need to worry about it. However, with this effect, a Mage who can find a Ley Line can draw Quintessence out of it, removing it from some Node on the Line. If they know the Resonance of the Node they are targeting (or one they want to avoid) they

Nodes 19

can be careful about which Quintessence they draw, but otherwise, it is essentially random.

Trace Ley Line • Prime, •• Correspondence Mages well-practiced in geomancy (in any of its forms, including Fung Shui, traditional geomancy and more scientific techniques) can trace Ley Lines. This can let them find the connections between Nodes, and even discover where there are likely to be Nodes that they are unaware of. The most skilled can determine how far and in what direction, but most are restricted to the direction.

Tass Refine Tass •••• Prime This effect allows the mage to distill Quintessence from a Node or Wellspring into Tass.

Spinning Thread Lost Paths: Ahl-i-Batin and Taftani page 91 ••• Forces or ••• Matter, •• Prime, •• Spirit This Rote is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Taftani. It allows them to directly convert matter and energy into Tass. (There is rumored to be a Life based version, but Allows the Weaver to pull esoteric things, such as “the shriek of a thrice cursed ifrit” and convert it into a physical form, Tass.

Resonance Absorb Energy •••• Prime Using Prime 4, a Mage can draw Quintessence directly from any place of strong Resonance. The total Resonance of the location must be at least 4, and of course, this Quintessence will have the Resonance of the place it is drawn from.

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Nodes: Sources of Magick

Alter Resonance •••• Prime (Matter or Forces) ••••• Prime (Life) While at lower levels of Prime, Resonance could be created or transferred, with Prime 4 (or 5 for living Patterns) it can be directly altered. To change a Resonance trait from Fiery to Icy would have required enough Icy Resonance be created to cancel out the Fiery and then more would have to be needed. Now, it can be transformed directly, and no oppositional Resonance needs to be found.

Attune Node •••• Prime, ••• Sphere By altering the Resonance of a Node in drastic ways and tying it to a new Sphere, the Node can be attuned to a specific Sphere. This will not only alter the Resonance to fit with the Sphere, but also may result in changes to the appearance of the Node. The Tass it generates will change to fit the new Sphere attunement as well.

Cleanse Resonance •••• Prime Some mages really need to hide their Resonance signature. With this Rote, they can clean it out, reducing the effective Resonance signature by one dot per success (so a character with four dots of Resonance requires four successes to hide, but three will make their Resonance much harder to detect.) For Resonance traits of at most 3, this is coincidental, but hiding Resonance of 4 or 5 is always vulgar, due to the depth of the groove in Reality being smoothed out. However, regardless of the Prime rank of the mage, a full success wipes out all traces of the Resonance. This Rote is exceptionally common among Nephandi, for the obvious reason that they tend to attract noticeable and disconcerting Resonance, and also among spies who need to hide their identity.

Create or Strengthen Resonance •• Prime (Matter or Forces) ••• Prime (Life) The mage can enhance existing Resonance or create brand new Resonance for an object. If permanent, this may change the nature of the object over time, either making it more of what it is, or adding a new dimension to its existence. Prime 2 suffices for static (Forces and

Matter) Patterns, whereas Prime 3 is needed for living things.

Expel Resonance •••• Prime (Matter or Forces) ••••• Prime (Life) Finally, with Prime 4 (5 for living Patterns) it is possible to remove Resonance from a Pattern permanently. Until this point, Resonance could increase, or it could be transferred, but now it can be destroyed. This is especially useful for particularly negative Resonance (such as Jhor) which a mage may not want to leave lying around on a random rock. All things have Resonance, so a Pattern with all of its Resonance removed will end up with a single point of Empty or Hollow or a similar sort of Resonance instead of none at all. A variant developed by the Void Engineers is called Terminal Sanitization, which expels the Resonance from a Node that has been corrupted by Nephandi or Marauders, cleaning it so that it can be safely used. It requires Prime 5, and has spread beyond the Void Engineers, and in fact is actively shared, because everyone benefits when the Nephandi are denied Nodes.

Node Spike Guide to the Traditions page 281 ••• Prime, •• Mind or ••• Mind By performing a symbolically painful or poisonous act at a Node, the mage can turn that concentrated pain or hate into a Resonance for the Node that makes it much more difficult to use. Successes are split between duration and strength, with the strength acting as an empathic attack, causing anyone trying to use the mode to feel intense pain, nausea and disorientation if they fail a Willpower roll. With Mind 3, it becomes an actual mental attack, causing damage to anyone trying to use the Node.

Transfer Resonance ••• Prime (Matter or Forces) •••• Prime (Life) The Resonance of one Pattern may be transferred to another. This creates an extremely strong Correspondence link between the two Patterns, which can be used to track one using the other, but can also hide one by directing searches towards the other. This requires

Nodes 21

Prime 3 if both Patterns are static, but Life 4 is either is living. This process has been known to work both ways. For example, if Energizing Resonance is transferred from a cup of coffee to a book, some of the book’s Knowledge

Resonance may end up in the coffee. This prevents the possibility of transferring all Resonance away from something (to do that, Expel Resonance must be used instead).

Building a Node Here, we present a system for building complex Nodes. It is loosely based on the system in Book of Chantries (pages 170-181). To begin, the characters may combine their Node backgrounds if they so choose, with the total number of points used to build the Node. For each background point invested into a given Node, that Node has 3 points towards building it.

Concept Before allocating the building points for the Node, there are a few general aspects that need to be determined, which will make it much clearer how the rest of the Node creation process should proceed. A solid concept makes the rest much simpler, just with character creation. The best things to think about at this point are: How well does the Node fit the cabal? Who makes up the cabal? Is the Node particularly important? How well connected, both socially and mystically, is the Node?

Appearance It’s easy to default to a Node as a structure that has a vaguely defined “energy” to it and abstract the entire thing as well as Quintessence and Tass. Instead, think about what the Node really is. When a mage uses the Node, what does that look like? Does every type of meditation work, or must they meditate on something specific that ties into the Resonance? Is the Node large or small?

Resonance Along with appearance, the details of the Resonance of the Node determines the most about it. For each background point invested in the Node, it has one point of Resonance. These may be split among any number of Resonance traits, though each trait has the usual maximum of five and they must not contradict each other (i.e., no Fiery and Icy on the same Node without an explanation for why they wouldn’t cancel out). 22

Nodes: Sources of Magick

Remember that the Node’s Resonance will be felt even by Sleepers who come close enough to it, even if they don’t know what it is they’re feeling. Positive Resonance will inspire them to greater heights, but not all Resonance is pleasant. If the Node has unpleasant Resonance, the area around it will change to match it: a Murderous Node will increase the homicide rate in the area around it, and with a strong enough trait, could inspire serial and spree killers. If the default Resonance of a Node isn’t enough, building points may be spent one-for-one to increase Resonance traits or to add new ones to the Node.

Tass With the appearance of the Node itself and the Resonance of the Node determined, the next thing to decide is the form that the Tass takes. If the Node will be Sphere-Attuned, choose Tass that reflects the principles of that Sphere, in addition to the general concept of the Node and its Resonance. If the Node is not Sphere-Attuned, then the Tass should be at least somewhat solid, only Sphere-Attuned Tass can be truly ephemeral. Keep in mind that the Tass must be potentially used by the mages with access to the Node, and so there should be some apparent way to use the Tass, though it might not be obvious at first glance.

Basic Traits In this section, the building points from the pooled Node background determine the mechanical traits of the Node (other than Resonance, which is covered during the Concept stage).

Amount of Quintessence The Storyteller must determine how many Quintessence points are generated per point invested in the amount of Quintessence trait. By default, in a modern setting, one point per week per point is standard. In a higher magick game, it might be as high as three or even five Quintessence per week per point. In a setting where

magick is dying, each point might be worth one Quintessence per month, or else multiple points might need to be spent to get a single point per week. In general, this is where the majority of points will go, and a minimum of one point must be spent. After all, the purpose of a Node is to provide Quintessence to the mages who hold it.

Ratio of Quintessence A standard Node provides roughly equal amounts of Quintessence and Tass, slightly balanced towards more Tass (so the amount in free Quintessence is half of the Quintessence Trait rounded down, and Tass is rounded up). Some Nodes, however, generate a higher or lower proportion of Free Quintessence versus Tass. At a cost of building points, it can be increased to either ¾ free Quintessence of even 100% free Quintessence. If it produces less, though, building points are gained: 1 if it produces 75% Tass, and 2 for 100%. This is summarized in the table: Quintessence to Tass Ratio Change Cost

Cost 2

100% Free Quintessence

1

75% Free Quintessence

-1

75% Tass

-2

100% Tass

Size Not all Nodes are the same size. The smallest Nodes would, if they were mobile, fit easily inside a backpack. Meanwhile, the largest are entire buildings, caves, or groves. The average Node, however, fits comfortably in a reasonably sized room. The following table shows the costs if making the Node a size other than approximately room-sized. Node Size Costs

Cost 2

The size of a large building

1

The size of a small building

0

An average sized-room

-1

A small room, a piece of furniture

-2

The size of a household object

Merits With whatever building points are leftover from establishing the basic properties, merits and flaws can be purchased. As with player characters, there is a maximum of seven points of Flaws and seven points of Merits allowed.

Cyclic Node 1-2 pt. Merit Some Nodes are tied to natural cycles. When the cycle is at a “peak,” the Node is more powerful, producing as much as twice as much Quintessence and Tass as usual. The frequency of the cycle determines the point value: 1 point for an annual cycle, where Quintessence production is increased for a month centered around a specific day, and for 2 points it is a monthly cycle, generally tied to a moon phase, with production increased for a week each month. To take advantage of this extra Quintessence, a mage must in some way use the cycle in their meditation or the magick they use to access the Node.

Famous Node 1-5 pt. Merit The Node has a reputation among mages. If combined with Former Caern/Freehold/Haunt or Functioning Caern/Freehold/Haunt then it may even have a reputation among other Night Folk. This acts identically to the Fame background for characters, though it applies to the Node. Only under extreme circumstances should the Node ever have a Famous Node background higher than the Node’s rating.

Focus Locked 1-3 pt. Merit Through a combination of extremely specific Resonance, customized form and either extraordinary luck or careful crafting, this Node can only be accessed by mages who work within a certain Focus. This could be a restriction on Paradigms (3 pt.), Practices (2 pt.) or even Instruments (1 pt.). Any mage who doesn’t use the Nodes 23

appropriate Focus simply cannot draw Quintessence from the Node and cannot use the Tass it generates. This is extremely rare in nature or at mystical locations: very few Nodes are modified so that Hermetics can use them but Choristers cannot. However, the Technocracy has been known to make sure their most powerful Nodes are locked like this. If a Node is Focus Locked, every aspect of the Node should be built around the Focus that it is tied to.

Functioning Caern 2 pt. Merit The Node is capable (and may in fact actively be) acting as a Caern for werewolves and other shapeshifters. If the politics of the situation can be negotiated, it can be a shared resource belonging to both mages and werewolves equally. If the Node is attuned to any Sphere, it must be to Spirit, and should generally have somewhat natural Resonance, though if the werewolves can be brought on board with other Resonance, it can be ok (most likely with Glass Walkers). Of course, if no werewolves are currently present, they are likely to come around…

Functioning Freehold 2 pt. Merit The Node is capable (and may in fact actively be) acting as a Freehold for changelings. If the politics of the situation can be negotiated, it can be a shared resource belonging to both mages and changelings equally. The Node MUST be attuned to Mind and provide a Resonance palatable to the changelings, such as inspiration. Of course, if no changelings are currently present, they are likely to come around…

Functioning Haunt 2 pt. Merit The Node is capable (and may in fact actively be) acting as a Haunt for wraiths. This results in a complicated situation, but if the mages can find a way to get along with the restless dead, they can make effective spies and guardians. The Node will have appropriate Resonance, likely haunted, creepy, macabre, or similar. If the Node is attuned to Entropy, the wraiths attracted will be spectres (see Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition page 418’s heading “Entropy Does Bad Things to Ghosts.”) 24

Nodes: Sources of Magick

Manifestation 1-5 pt. Merit Some Nodes are stranger than others. While most Nodes confine their strangeness to the Tass that they generate or the Resonance they hold if it is high, this Node goes beyond this. Manifestations are small magickal effects that occur around the Node. Though they are never major things (Sphere rating maximum is 2) though they are always noticeable and vulgar things. At the lowest levels, the manifestations are subtle, but as they get stronger they become more obvious: sounds, lights, minor transmutations of objects that spend too much time near it. The effects are noticeable on a Perception + Alertness roll at difficulty 10 – the manifestation’s rating.

Shallowing 2 pt. Merit or 2 pt. Flaw The Node has a Shallowing, that is, the Gauntlet thins out at the Node leaving a passageway between the physical world and the Umbra. Not only can mage freely walk through the Shallowing, but spirits can drift in and even Sleepers can use it to enter or exit the Umbra. The Shallowing is a Merit if the Umbral reflection of the area around the Node is inclined towards the owners of the Node and a flaw if it is inclined against them. In either case, an unwarded Shallowing is a massive security risk, and is especially dangerous for Former and Functioning Caerns and Haunts.

Sphere Attuned 2 pt. Merit The Node is attuned to the magicks of a single Sphere. The Tass reflects this immediately, and Resonance traits tend to be more closely related to the Sphere than they otherwise would be. The Node gains one point of a Resonance trait associated with the Sphere. Some examples are (and of course, some traits could fit several Spheres): Correspondence: Twisting, Spacious, Disorienting Entropy: Lucky, Rotting, Fated Forces: Fiery, Bright, Radioactive Life: Breathing, Sensual, Growing Matter: Solid, Tough, Mechanical

Prime: Energetic, Pure, Ethereal Spirit: Ephemeral, Transcendent, Otherworldly Time: Clockwork, Quick, Slow

Spirit Guardian 1-5 pt. Merit The Node has some sort of spirit guardian bound to it. These guardians are almost always willing, and generally come at the expense of some of the Node’s generated Quintessence (should the spirit guardian ever be destroyed or dismissed, the Node’s Quintessence/Tass production increases by the rating of this merit.) The more points invested, the more powerful the spirit guardian, but also the stricter the ban that must be obeyed by the owners of the Node, else the spirit will become angry and need to be calmed or it will leave. These spirits, in fact, follow many of the same rules as Totems, and are often referred to as Chantry or Nodal Totems by mages who would use that language. Generally, the Guardian will have Essence roughly 10 Essence per point, their Rage + Gnosis + Willpower will total 10 plus three times the rating, up to two charms per point, and increasingly strict bans: a 1 pt. merit should have a hard to break ban and the spirit should be fairly forgiving up to a 5 pt. Guardian whose ban is easy to break and who isn’t forgiving at all.

Flaws Corrupted 4 pt. Flaw At some point in the past a particularly unsavory group had control of the Node and warped it. Most commonly this group is assumed to be Nephandi or Marauders. However, Jhor-tainted Euthanatoi, sadistic and unethical Etherites and Syndicate members of the Special Projects Division can all result in a Corrupted Node. The Node gains a Resonance trait Corrupted at 2 points, and whatever Tass is created by the Node is in some way twisted by this corruption: organic Tass rots, materials break down, and dreams become nightmares. Furthermore, mages who are aware that the Node is corrupted will assume that anyone who uses it without sanitizing it is themselves the source of the corruption.

Mind: Fanatical, Joyous, Cowardly Nodes 25

Dangerous Energies 3 pt. Flaw The Node emits energies that can cause harm in humans. Proper protections can be established using Prime 3 for an individual or Prime 3 and Correspondence 4 for an area, which will allow safe interaction. However, any unshielded interaction causes one die of aggravated damage per turn, and an additional one for each point of Quintessence drawn or Tass accessed from the Node. This will often be accompanied by appropriate Resonance, such as Toxic or Radioactive.

Enemy 1-5 pt. Flaw The Node has some sort of enemy. This is particularly common for Nodes that are Former Caerns/Freeholds/Haunts, in which case the enemy is usually whichever sort of Night Folk once held the Node. The enemy is more dangerous and more devoted to the destruction of the Node (or whoever holds it) as this flaw gets stronger. At a single point, the enemy is someone weaker than the current holders of the Node or who would take it if the opportunity arises but not put in any special effort. At five points, however, someone on the level of Master wants the Node and is willing to devote a significant fraction of their energy to claiming it.

Former Caern/Freehold/Haunt

have an enemy group of shapeshifters, changelings or wraiths.

Infamous Node 1-5 pt. Flaw The Node has a negative reputation among mages. If it is either a Functioning or Former Caern/Freehold/Haunt then its negative reputation may carry over to other Night Folk. In fact, Former sites associated with other groups almost always have a bit of infamy among that group. This generally functions similarly to the Flaw Infamy for characters. Only under extreme circumstances should the Node ever have an Infamous Node background higher than the Node’s rating.

Isolated Node 2 pt. Flaw Most Nodes are connected to a complex network of Ley Lines. They channel Quintessence and Resonance between Nodes, power Realms and allow Chantries to exist in more convenient places, despite the fact that Nodes don’t generally exist anywhere convenient. This one, on the other hand, has no Ley Lines connected to it at all, and it’s exceedingly difficult to lay new ones. This means anything that uses the Quintessence from the Node must be right there: a mage must meditate directly at the Node, a Realm must be right on top of it, as must be a Chantry.

2 pt. Flaw This Node was once a Caern a Freehold or a Haunt. The fact that it isn’t means that the Mages who hold it

Example Nodes In this section we provide a wide variety of sample Nodes for easy inclusion in your game. Though they are specific enough to have locations they’re tied to, most of them can be reworked to fit a wide variety of places. Also, though each describes a faction that currently holds it, any Node can change hands at any point, and a newly captured Node might be just the thing to center a story around.

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Ancient Sites The Cave of Service The Wu Lung can make a claim to be one of the oldest fellowships of mages in the world, continuously operating and using their current approach. Representing the Celestial Bureaucracy and gaining power from that legitimacy, many of their sites of power are related to the mundane bureaucracy of China. One of the things they are proud of in the historical record for China is that, under many dynasties, the system was (technically) a meritocracy.

The greatest means of social mobility was for a peasant to join the civil service. The was rare and extremely difficult, but it was rendered possible by one of their great innovations: the civil service exam. Though tutors gave a strong advantage to the wealthy, anyone who could score highly enough on the exam was capable of becoming a member of the civil service and rising out of the peasantry. The exam involved writing essays on topics of Confucian law and philosophy (thus, testing literacy alongside these things, in a world where even many noblemen could neither read nor write) and was often conducted by sealing the student in a cave for several days while they wrote and contemplated their answers. Over the centuries, the continued use of these caves has turned one of them into a Node, and one that the Wu Lung hold, have held and intend to continue to hold in the future. This particular cave is outside Nanjing, China, and though it has been held by the Wu Lung, has suffered from incursions by not only the Akashayana, but the Five Elemental Dragons and even the Beast Courts. At

least with the latter, the keepers of the Celestial Bureaucracy have been able to assert their dominance by right rather than by force, but they will use force when necessary. Systems: The Cave is, despite how harshly defended it is, only a 3-point Node. It produces 4 quintessence and 4 Tass in the form of writing on the walls in ancient Chinese dialects (the dominant ones of past eras) that analyze Confucius and other ancient thinkers and how they should relate to the government. Resonance: The Cave has Studious Resonance 2, Hopeful Resonance 1 and Thoughtful Resonance 1

The Delphic Oracle One of the most contested Nodes on the planet lies in Greece, at Delphi. It has passed through the hands of dozens of factions over the roughly three millennia that it has been active, including back and forth between various Traditions and the Technocracy, only now to be a shared Tradition Node, and one that is in the process of being fortified against another Technocratic, or even Nephandic, incursion. Nodes 27

Originally, it hadn’t even attracted mages. The first group to find the Node was a cult of Sleepers who worshipped Apollo. They found that if they inhaled the fumes from a natural vent, that they would have visions of the future. So, they built a temple to their god and through them, he became associated with prophecy. Over time, early Greek mages, among them some of the forerunners of the Order of Hermes and the Artificers, moved in and slowly took over. They helped the Sleepers construct elaborate vent systems to control when the fumes would be released, giving them the control to make one of the Sleeper priestesses into the now famous Oracle of Delphi. Between 600 BC and 300 BC, there were four “Sacred Wars” which raged across Greece, and the Oracle changed hands several times, with the early Hermetic, Daedalean, Thanatoic and other organizations fought for the power behind it. The Third Sacred War, which began with the sacking of Delphi, ended with the rise of Philip of Macedon (the Fourth Sacred War cemented his rule of Greece), and then his son, Alexander, conquered much of the world. The Oracle became relatively independent again at the collapse of Alexander’s empire, until the Roman conquest in 191 BC. By then, Hermeticism was beginning to come together more formally, and they managed Delphi, growing strong and using the Empire to spread throughout Europe. And then Christianity arrived in the Roman Empire, and Constantine converted. This lead to another struggle, between the Greek pagan Hermetics and the Christian Messianic Voices. Eventually, the Messianic Voices won, and one of the last prophecies spoken at Delphi amounted to a pronouncement that paganism’s day was over, that Rome would end them. Delphi had been destroyed, and was uninhabited for centuries. The Node was periodically tended by various groups, but the environment was unpleasant enough that no group held the Node for long until the Ahl-iBatin uncovered it in the early 15th century, under the Ottoman Empire. A Node this useful for uncovering the future, especially for a Tradition that was incapable of reading Fate, was invaluable, and they held onto it tightly. They were unable to keep the Node’s rediscovery a secret. First, they shared it with their allies, the Seers of 28

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Chronos. They barely begrudged it of them: the ties between the two Traditions go deep, and they could live and work together at the site of the Oracle. Word of the rediscovery eventually leaked beyond the Empire, though. The Order of Reason, founded by the intellectual descendants of the Daedaleans who helped build the vents for Delphi, started to show up to investigate the site. The Daedaleans and the Cosians in particular were interested in taking it over and seeing what knowledge of ancient Greece they could uncover. After several centuries of violent conflict between the Order of Reason and the Ahl-i-Batin and the (now) Cult of Ecstasy, where the Node changed hands dozens of times, the Order of Reason became the Technocratic Union, and then the Ahl-i-Batin withdrew from the Traditions, leaving the Node solely in the hands of the Cult of Ecstasy. Under constant Technocratic assault, the Cult opened the Node up to the other Traditions, though they take most of the leadership roles around it out of Tradition. Positions that have access to Delphi are sought out by members of all the Traditions, from the Society of Ether’s Chrononauts to Euthanatoi who keep the old ways of the Olympians. Systems: Delphi is one of the most powerful Nodes on the planet, a virtually unmatched 10-point Node. Reality around Delphi is warped by the strength of the Node, its resonance, and its collected Tass. Naturally, the Node is attuned to the Time Sphere (2 pt.) and extremely famous (5 pt.). The Technocracy functions as an Enemy (3 pt.) who regularly make attempts to take the Node away from the Traditions. Around the Node are Manifestations (3 pt.) that cause anyone nearby to have uncontrolled glimpses of possible futures. Despite its intense power, the Node is only the size of a single building, the Temple (1 pt.). The Node generates a full 12 points of Quintessence and 12 points of Tass per week, with the Tass in the form of the vapors inhaled by the Oracle to give prophecy. Resonance: The Oracle has Prophetic Resonance 5, Timeless Resonance 3 and Insightful Resonance 2.

Gediz Caves There is an ancient cave network in Turkey that remains undiscovered by Sleepers to this day. They are in the Gray Mountains and were essential to an ancient tribe called the Vedrizi. The caves go deep, some of

them starting up high in the mountains and descending below sea level. There are shafts throughout that allow air to circulate, and some of the lowest caves touch the water table, bringing in fish for any inhabitants to eat. The Vedrizi used it for initiatory rites and coming of age ceremonies. These rites and ceremonies involved sex and smoking mind-altering substances. The initiates were known to almost disappear into the rituals, and come out the other end as new people, fully grown or accepted into the tribe. This history has lent the caves a mystical air that has encouraged mages to use them when attempting to trigger Seekings. Though the Cult of Ecstasy has taken stewardship of the Node, and used it to feed the Horizon Chantry, they only rarely actually use the Node. This is because the Vedrizi are still there, blind from cave adaptation, but still fierce warriors and talented artists, who can move silently at a level that requires magick for anyone else to match. The Cult leadership has made arrangements with the Vedrizi, and has a general truce with them, allowing some usage of the caves and the Node, which is itself located deep, deep in the complex, where it can’t be stumbled upon by accident. The Vedrizi are informed before any guests arrive, either to travel to Horizon through the Node or to attempt to trigger a Seeking. The Vedrizi will guide the guest to where they need to be. In the Node chamber are thousands of years of ashes from the burials of the Vedrizi. In the caves, and especially near the Node, time flows in strange ways. It’s not as bad as the tales of Faerie where a person exits decades after (or before!) they enter, but the flow is uneven, warped by the small amount of Tass generated but which has piled up in the Node chamber. Systems: A powerful 8-point Node, and which used to produce more Tass, but was converted to produce Quintessence only (2 pts.) in order to support Horizon, but it is still Time-attuned (2 pts.). It generates a massive 18 points of Quintessence per week, though, and if Horizon exists, it is all siphoned there, but otherwise it is available to anyone who is permitted to reach it. Resonance: The Gediz Caves have Ancient Resonance 5, Dark Resonance 2 and Creative Resonance 3.

The Secret Library Often claimed but rarely held, the Library of Alexandria was a novelty in the ancient world: a powerful Node held by no group of mages other than the librarians, who owed allegiance to no fellowship but themselves. The cabal of mages who ran the Great Library were able to maintain power over it because the Node itself was powerful, but also because the Library gave them access to mystical knowledge from around the world that others couldn’t match. The policy of copying books brought by travelers and giving the travelers the copies allowed them to acquire a massive number of grimoires and primers, while handing back nothing but paper and ink. This trend continued through to the reign of Julius Caesar, who, in 48 BC besieged the city. Over the course of the next two centuries, history reports the destruction of Alexandria (several times) and in particular, the burning of the Library and all the knowledge within it. However, the Librarians were prepared for this, and hid the Library underground, rescuing works from Homer’s lost epic poems to primers dating back to the Pharaohs. This state of affairs remained for centuries, with the Librarians only inducting mages they trusted completely, keeping the continued existence of the Library as one of the most closely held secrets in the world. It only ended when one of the Librarians attended a meeting of mages which eventually became the Council of the Nine Mystic Traditions. After walking among the organized (and organizing) fellowships of mages, the Librarian who attended (whose name has been erased from the histories) proposed that the Librarians formally join a Tradition. Emphasizing both scholarship and secrecy while always acting in the most subtle ways they can, the Librarians decided to join with the Subtle Ones, the Ahl-i-Batin. Until the 16th Century, they were members but kept their own counsel, a single cabal centered in a single Egyptian city. At this point, though, trust between the Librarians and the rest of the Ahl-i-Batin had grown to the point where the Library was opened up to the rest of the Tradition. Ever since, the Library has grown much more quickly, as the Ahl-i-Batin all have an interest in improving it, and the Batini as a whole have been able to benefit from the ancient texts in the Library. Nodes 29

Though the other Traditions may have suspected this, they never knew it for a fact, and so the Library is currently a Batini only Node and Chantry, indirectly supporting the Disparate Alliance and believed to be completely lost by the Traditions and Technocracy alike. Systems: The Library is a 7-point Node. It generates 6 Quintessence and 6 Tass per week, which appears in the form of books and scrolls with what amounts to nonsense writing on it. It’s a large library (2 pt.) and Famous (2 pt.) though believed to be defunct by almost everyone, thanks to the keepers having enough Arcane that they tend to eventually just disappear. Resonance: The Library has Secretive Resonance 4, Knowledgeable Resonance 3, Studious Resonance 2, and Ancient Resonance 3.

Sevastopol Shelter In Sevastopol, Crimea in Russia, there was a church founded almost two thousand years ago by St. Andrew the Apostle. It was a minor site for a minor religion, but one, at least, would grow in stature over time, until Orthodox Christianity became the official religion of the

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entirety of Russia, displacing everything that came before. Crimea has had the misfortune of being the location of quite a few wars, many of which cross from the mundane to the mystical thanks to the mages on both sides. Through the centuries, though, this small church survived. Perhaps due to its sheer unimportance, it survived a rather impressive list of conquerors: The Goths, the Huns, the Bulgars, the Khazars, Kievan Rus and Byzantium, the Mongols, Genoa, an independent Crimea, Tatars, Cossacks, and those are only the highlights before the Crimean War, which saw Ottoman, Russian, British and French troops marching through the region. The church finally fell in 2014, destroyed during the chaos of the Russian annexation of Crimea. There, the mystic history took over: the church was demolished by the Sisters of Hippolyta, who conquered it from the Celestial Chorus. Proud to strike a blow against an organization run by a literal Patriarchy, they made the demolition look like a random act as Russian troops rolled in.

Since 2014, they’ve established a women’s shelter on the ruins of the church. Thanks to the continued irrelevancy of the Node to anyone not on the ground in Sevastopol, they’ve managed to hold it fairly peacefully and do some good work from inside a particularly patriarchal regime.

Systems: The Temple is a 4-point Node, generating 6 quintessence and 6 Tass in the form of an eternal flame. The Node is Forces-Attuned (2 pt.) and emits Dangerous Energies (3 pt.). It’s a larger Node, consisting of the entire small building (1 pt.), and has remained undiscovered due to its isolation (2 pt.).

Systems: The Sevastopol Shelter is only a 1-point Node, and the Node itself is quite small (-1 pt.), originally just the altar itself but now takes the form of a serving table. The Node produces 2 points of quintessence and 2 points of Tass per week, with the Tass taking the form of hot soup.

Resonance: The Temple has Fiery Resonance 3, Consuming Resonance 2 and Deadly Resonance 2.

Resonance: The Shelter has Safe Resonance 1.

The Temple of Eternal Flame Though a bit monotheistic for Taftani taste, their worldview dovetails nicely with Zoroastrianism. Both teach that fire, or atar, and pure water, or aban, are the keys to ritual purity, that there is evil in the universe, and that that evil supports a Lie, or druj. So it is no surprise that several of the ancient Zoroastrian places of power are now in the hands of the Taftani, largely preserved. Near the Iranian/Afghan border, there’s an ancient Temple, dating back to the Parthian era about two thousand years ago. Never a large Temple, it’s hidden in the mountains. From the construction to the Temple to the present day, the sacred flame inside of it has never been allowed to go out. Thus, to modern Weavers, it is known as the Temple of Eternal Flame. The Temple has withstood both mundane and mystic warfare for centuries, and became a stronghold of the Taftani in the mid-3rd century. Since then, it has been secure, despite being along a route for Iranian/Afghan border conflicts, a lightning rod for Technocratic attack, and even a point of conflict between the Weavers and the Subtle Ones. But the fire mages have never given an inch of ground willingly, and a temple devoted to a sacred flame is something they’ll defend all the more strongly. The Temple itself follows the standard layout of a Zoroastrian Temple: plain façade, large room at the entrance for the congregation (now small and only consisting of Taftani), and another room, not visible from the main room, where the sacred flame burns. This, of course, is where the Eternal Flame itself is located, and the center of the Node.

Temple of the Unending Battle Deep in the heart of China, far from any major population center, lies a Buddhist Temple. Inside this Temple, Akashayana come to meditate and to astrally project themselves into the Akashakarma and the Astral Umbra more generally to achieve the greatest sense of peace they possibly can. This is the Temple of the Unending Battle. Of course, to an outsider, the name sounds quite unAkashic and quite at odds with the sense of peace pervading the place. Upon being asked about it, any of the caretakers will simply smile and explain that the only battle with no end is against negative impulses of the self, and this Temple provides a reprieve where those impulses are weaker and easier to resist, that the visitor may attempt to solve underlying problems rather than always fighting the symptoms. Though a minor Node, it is one of the oldest Akashayana sites, having been passed through the Tradition since so far before the Himalaya Wars that the Akashayana of the time thought of it as an ancient Node. It has always been a site of peace and reflection for the Akashayana, with only one period of interruption. Sometime in the early 11th Century, the Temple of the Unending Battle was invaded and conquered by demons who desecrated the Node and prepared to hunt down and destroy its caretakers. It took almost 20 years before the Akashayana were able to actually determine what had happened. One of their own had been attempting to completely annihilate their bloodlust, inherited from a past life that fought too eagerly in the Himalayan Wars. However, they not only failed, but when they returned from the Astral to themselves, their negative impulses took physical form and were able to embody those of the other caretakers. After two decades of attempts to take back the Temple, the Akashayana realized that all they were doing was Nodes 31

giving more impulse-demons to the enemy. They struck upon a novel solution: those who were still alive and whose impulses occupied the Temple were to go in and surrender, complete and utterly, to this impulse that the first of them had attempted to banish completely. A year later, when the other Akashayana arrived at the Temple, they found nothing but the bodies of those who had gone, laid out peacefully as thought they had died satisfied and in their sleep. Since then, things at the Temple have been peaceful. It was never tied to a major Horizon Realm, and has never housed a Cabal focused on the Ascension War. Thanks to that and being a minor Node, it hasn’t drawn the attention of the Technocracy. Systems: The Temple is only a 2-point Node, which is Isolated from Ley Lines (2 pt. flaw) and the size of a small building (1 pt.). It generates 3 points of Quintessence per week, and no Tass (2 pt.). Resonance: The Temple has Peaceful Resonance 4

The Tower of the Stars In the dead city of Great Zimbabwe, there are the ruins of a tower. Once, it was glorious, one of the crown jewels of an advanced city that was the capital of a powerful kingdom. The Tower of the Stars was built for astronomy and to be a high point for surveying, work, and it was everything that the early Ngoma could ask for in a center. When it was built in the 12th Century, it was a very powerful Node, and even the fall of the kingdom and the city that supported it couldn’t reduce it to irrelevancy, only to being average. The Ngoma used it to study the stars and to calculate the best times and places for their rituals, rituals that helped to upkeep the power of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. This Kingdom was shared with other Crafts, and the Ngoma worked peacefully with them, being focused on learning everything they could. This peaceful coexistence lasted for centuries, with everyone involved benefitting from the Ngoma’s formalization and extension of the knowledge of the local crafts, building a coherent ritual theory around them, and centering their library at the Tower of the Stars. Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe entered its decline. Among the many other things, the plague tore through the Kingdom, leading to the local mages turning on each other. From 1420 until nearly the end of 32

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the century, the Ngoma and the Madzimbabwe fought against each other, taking each other’s Nodes, until an informal truce could be agreed to, with the Ngoma staying the in the (rapidly decaying) cities and the Madzimbabwe in the countryside. When the representatives of the Ngoma visited the Grand Convocation in Europe, they met at the Tower to discuss the proposals, and rejected being lumped into the Dreamspeakers, choosing to ignore the Council of Nine. Throughout this, the star of the Ngoma fell, and even further as the Europeans showed up and carved up Africa. In the end, the Tower of the Stars is a ruin, the Node a shadow of its former self, but it still survives, as do the Ngoma. Systems: The Tower is a 3 point Node, generating 4 points of quintessence and 4 points of Tass (in the form of fragments of star charts) per week. Resonance: The Tower has Stellar Resonance 3 and Ephemeral Resonance 1.

Urban Sites The Blood Fountain of the Tremere In the 12th Century, the Clan Tremere’s conversion from mages to vampires was a well-kept secret. This ended abruptly in 1202 when evidence of the Tremere’s infestation with vampirism was brought before the Order as a whole, and the Massasa War began: a pitched conflict that set mages and vampires at each other’s throats, and not for the first time. Though unable to use them as they once had, the Tremere held many Hermetic Nodes, and taking these back was one of the primary goals of the War. In 1254, away from the eyes of Sleepers, the two sides fought a great battle in the city of Prague. One of the largest battles of the Massasa War, and which resulted in both sides starting to back away from the conflict to attend to their own issues, dozens of Hermetics and Tremere died in a very small area. The ground was soaked in Quintessence and Vitae, but the Tremere held the position, just barely. A fountain was built there, as often happens in old European cities. And then the Fountain started to run red with blood. The Tremere quickly hid it, to avoid a Masquerade breach, but also to research it. At this point, they had largely forgotten about Nodes, and were just concerned

with a spontaneously formed source of blood. Best of all, it had many properties in common with Vitae, though it was non-addicting and didn’t result in any sort of Blood Bond. The Tremere rearranged the city in subtle ways in order to build a small townhouse on top of it to serve as a Chantry and just hid it away, studying its properties and trying to discern a way to use it to avoid the downsides of the Curse of Caine while retaining their immortality and blood magic. No secret stays hidden forever, and during the second Massasa War, in 2000, the Fountain was discovered by a group of Hermetics raiding a suspected Tremere Chantry. This time, unlike in 1254, the Order of Hermes was able to capture the location, and unlike the Tremere, they knew exactly what they’d found: a Node. It was viewed suspiciously at first, but after the War ended, experiments suggested that the Node might have a new use: weaning the remnants of House Tytalus off of vampire blood. Now, the Blood Fountain and the Chantry it lies inside of are in the hands of the Order of Hermes, who are continuing the Tremere tradition of experimenting with Tass that is almost identical to Vitae, though with the purpose of figuring out how to fully break Blood Bonds and to help the Tytali with Vitae addictions who are trying to fight it recover and return to their lives. Systems: The Blood Fountain is a 3-point node that fits roughly into a room and produces equal amounts of pure Quintessence and Tass. It has the Infamous Node Flaw (2 pt.) and the Enemy Flaw (2pt.) as it is known to have been a former Tremere site and the Tremere want it back (though not enough for the organization to focus on it, some “rogue” Tremere might try). It produces 4 points of Quintessence and 5 pawns of Tass per week, and the Tass comes in the form of the blood in the Fountain itself. Resonance: The Blood Fountain has Vampiric Resonance 3, Violent Resonance 2 and Studious Resonance 2

The Canberra Office Oceania is the (inhabited) continent where the Technocracy has the least control. Though others are more contested, Oceania has been ignored, with Sleepers and Extraordinary Citizens handling most of the work on the smallest continent. The English did a thorough job of homogenizing the region and driving the Dreamtime

into rarely-used corners, the Technocracy saw little need to intervene. But the Ascension War is a global war, so some Technocrats need to be assigned there. So, a small Node was identified in the city of Canberra, sanitized, and set to support a single amalgam, just barely. And so, the Canberra Office of the New World Order opened. Their job is to keep an eye on the government of Australia, which they do, along with acting as a communication hub for Technocratic operations in Oceania, as the “benign” neglect given to the area comes to an end. Systems: The Office is a 1-point Node, generating only a single point of Quintessence and one of Tass per week, in the form of incoherently filled out paperwork. Resonance: The Office has Bureaucratic Resonance 2.

Cathedral of St. George, Dragonslayer Though it’s called a Cathedral, the Cathedral of St. George in Buenos Aires is not officially on the rolls of the Catholic Church. In fact, some Church officials would be quite unhappy about it. As a center for the Celestial Chorus, quite a few heretical notions are considered mainstream, most notable a certain lip service to religious pluralism (which is honored mostly in theory, being located in a majority Catholic country). The Cathedral has, in some ways, stood longer than Buenos Aires has. According to legend, when the Spanish first arrived, several of the priests who came with them were members of various mystical fellowships, most notably the Cabal of Pure Thought and the Celestial Chorus. In the New World, a strange event occurred: the two groups worked together. The Choristers who had gone were members of the Knights of St. George, dedicated to the dragon slaying saint of England. So when they encountered a monster that could best be described as a dragon, the Cabal and the Choristers cooperated to defeat it. And where it died, a site of mystic power arose. Though they cooperated to take down the monster, the idea of sharing a Node was a bridge too far: the two groups fought, and their and their descendants have been fighting over the Node for over 400 years. For most of that time, the Knights of St. George were dominant, and they were able to build a church on the spot of their

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victory. It has grown over the years to encompass the entire battlefield, which has become a single Node.

the resources to look for specific things, whereas the New World Order can tap into it and see everything.

Buenos Aires grew up around it, enveloping the Cathedral. It has become a refuge from every sort of supernatural threat, the sort of sacred ground that is dangerous for the more malevolent beings of the World of Darkness to ever set foot on. Other than the faith that infuses it, the place has few defenses, but it is a minor, not particularly productive, Node, so the only ones who are currently challenging for control of it are members of the Argentinian branch of the New World Order.

The New World Order even has access to those cameras that are not government operated, and in London there are over half a million CCTV systems, capturing each Londoner hundreds of times per day, and giving the New World Order the thing it desires and can make use of most: data.

Systems: The Cathedral contains a minor, but physically large Node (1 pt.), only 2-points. It generates 2 points of Quintessence per week and no Tass (2 pt.). Resonance: St. George’s has Protective Resonance 2 and Faithful Resonance 1.

Central Surveillance If there’s one thing that the New World Order does well, it’s surveillance. Central Surveillance is a center in London that monitors the absolutely massive surveillance system that the government employs to keep track of what goes on in the City. The government only has

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All of this data passes through the Central Surveillance building, a non-descript, small office in Westminster. Over time, it has become the most politically powerful New World Order Construct in the UK, and possibly in all of Europe. No one deals in the sheer volume of data that they manage, and that gives them the best facial recognition and predictive models of any city in the Union. Central, as it is often called, was established in 2007 as London really started ramping up the number of cameras in the city, both in private and in government hands. It started out as a tiny, barely productive Node being managed by a single Man in Black, and has blossomed into a moderately powerful Node supporting multiple Amalgams of analysts.

They maintain a significant Digital Web presence, powered by the server farm that they use to process all the incoming data. This has lead to some conflicts with a local cabal of Virtual Adepts, and they’re constantly defending their data and the Node from them. Systems: The Central Surveillance servers form a 3 point Node that generates 8 Tass per week, but no pure Quintessence (2 pt.). The Tass takes the form of hard drives holding pieces of the massive amount of data that comes into the center every day.. The Node is Focus Locked (3 pt.) to the Everything is Data paradigm, so that very few people other than the New World Order, the Virtual Adepts and some Iterators can actually use it as it is. Resonance: Central has All-Seeing Resonance 3.

Denver Metropolitan Animal Hospital Denver has a surprising number of occult locations. Most people who think about this immediately think of the Denver Airport, source of many conspiracy theories and location of a bizarre demonic horse statue. Instead, perhaps, they should think of an Animal Hospital in the heart of the city with an uncannily good reputation. That spot wasn’t always an animal hospital, though. Once, a long time ago, it was a Werewolf Caern. But that was long enough in the past that even the bad blood of conquering it has disappeared. The Garou don’t even remember this particular Caern anymore. Mages took the Caern from the Garou, and those who took it hid it from prying shapeshifters effectively enough to make them believe that they were misremembering it or that there were only legends. Most would guess that the Mages who did this were the Technocratic Union, or perhaps their forerunners in the Order of Reason. But no, it was the Verbena. The Verbena used their expertise at hiding their sacred groves, expertise they’d been honing since Rome conquered the British Isles two thousand years ago. They learned how to imbue spaces with Arcane, taking them out of the memory of anyone who wishes to take it from them. Of course, Arcane has limits, and those limits were hit in the early 20th Century, when the Progenitors came knocking. They had worked very hard to discover the Node being used by Denver’s Verbena, and once they found it, they unleashed their creations, as well as their own abilities and slaughtered every Verbena who

tended the grove. Then, they did something the Verbena would have found unthinkable. They chopped it down. Once the trees were gone, they were able to reshape the Node into a pharmaceutical laboratory. Instead of building just another hospital, drug company, or apothecary, though, they decided to make an animal hospital. This suited their research interests better than the other things would, as it allowed them to examine large numbers of mundane animals and add their DNA to a database they built (and it went along with some of the Tass to Research Plantation #4 before it was lost in 1999), from well before Sleepers knew what DNA was. Thanks to their database and extensive Enlightened Research, the Denver Metropolitan Animal Hospital quickly gained fame, and by the mid-20th Century, it was renowned as one of the best animal hospitals on the planet, able to find solutions for the worst health problems that non-human animals could have, not matter how rare the condition or exotic the animal. Now, people send their exotic pets to the Progenitors when they get sick. Zoos all over the world fly animals to Denver when something is wrong, and people with more mundane pets will pay exorbitant fees when nothing else seems to be able to cure their beloved animal companion. And of course, there is the issue of Technocrats with truly exotic pets: no other hospital on the planet is good enough for a dog like Tiberius. Systems: The Animal Hospital is a 6-point Node, generating 5 points of Quintessence and 6 points of Tass each week in the form of ingredients for producing medicines. The Node is Famous (2 pt.) both in the mundane world for exotic animals and among Technocrats for its connection to Research Plantation #4. It is also one of the more secure Technocratic Nodes, being Focus Locked and requiring both Medicine-Work and Tech Holds All the Answers as a practice and paradigm to use (total of 5 pt.) Resonance: The Animal Hospital has Curative Resonance 2, Acquisitive Resonance 2 and Exotic Resonance 2.

The Farm When most people think of the Virtual Adepts, they think of New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, London. Very few think of Nebraska, and they like it that way. Fueling a Chantry of the same name, that's Nodes 35

where one of the most powerful Virtual Adept Nodes on Earth lies, just outside of Omaha. The Farm is an absolutely massive server farm, and thanks to the Node, the Virtual Adepts are able to keep it off the grid and away from easy detection by Iteration X and the New World Order. Once, the Node was wild, as most Nodes are, and had been claimed by the original inhabitants of the region. As America swept west, the original owners were killed and the Node passed from hand to hand until it fell under the control of the Difference Engineers. Originally it was tied to the Correspondence Sphere, and it's one of the sites where the Difference Engineers developed the Sphere of Data that now divides the Virtual Adepts and the New World Order so sharply. As every Convention keeps secrets from the others, the Virtual Adepts never told their fellow Technocrats about this large Node that they had found and had become one of the central locations. This turned out to be for the best during the Virtual Adept defection, as they were able to withdraw equipment to the Farm and keep it hidden from their brand new enemies without having to reveal it to their equally new allies. Now, though, they've kept it a secret partly because the Virtual Adept fear what it might be. Some theorize that it is the collection of servers maintaining the Digital Web as a Realm: during the Great Whiteout, the Node flared and the servers contained in it fried in large numbers. It could be that causality goes in the other direction, but the Virtual Adepts want to take no chances with the Web...though it's always nice to have a possible kill switch in case Iteration X and the New World Order manage to take it over. Systems: The Farm is a 8-point Node consisting of a large building (2 pt.) full of servers, producing 8 quintessence and 8 Tass per week. The Tass takes the form of data which appears on the servers with no explanation and can only be used (without processing) on the Digital Web. It is strongly attuned to the Data Sphere (2 pt.), and even Focus Locked to the Everything is Data Paradigm (3 pt.). Resonance: The Farm has Digital Resonance 4, Analytic Resonance 3 and Reckless Resonance 2

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The Flamel House Though several Traditions and other factions all claim alchemists as their own, none can do so with the confidence of the Children of Knowledge, the true Solificati, despite what the Order of Hermes, particularly the pretenders of House Solificati, may say. So it is no surprise that one of the most valuable Nodes the Children of Knowledge hold is the home of a famous couple of alchemists, the Flamels. Both Nicolas and Perenelle were renowned alchemists and members of the (at the time) Solificati. No one in modern nights knows whether the Flamels found the Node and chose to live there or whether the Node was created by their activities. In fact, little evidence remains in Sleeper hands that the Flamels were actually alchemists, much less Awakened. This is due to a sustained campaign by the Children of Knowledge to cover up their activities, suggesting that they may have achieved the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life, and then attempted to hide the evidence to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Of course, by the 17th Century, stories of their alchemical prowess had leaked out. Almost immediately, the Children of Knowledge worked to discredit these leaks, but there was enough truth in them to draw the attention of other mages. They had to invest huge amounts of effort into siding the Node at the Flamel House, which had become one of their more important ones. Fortunately for them, they succeeded, and the Hermetics investigating Flamel gave up, determining that he never created anything of worth and that his home wouldn’t even be an exceptional Sanctum, much less contained a Node. To this day, Children of Knowledge show up to the Flamel House when they need just the right Tass to complete their Magnum Opus. Systems: The Flamel House is actually only a 3-point Node, and is attuned to the Matter Sphere (2 pt.). Otherwise it is perfectly average, producing 3 points of Quintessence and 4 points of Tass each week, with the Tass taking the form of alchemical mercury. Resonance: The Flamel House simply has Alchemical Resonance 3.

The Great Drydock For longer than there have been Void Engineers, the groups that would one day become them have had a strong presence in Portugal. The nation on the Western coast of Iberia has been at the forefront of exploration out of Europe for centuries. In fact, it gets its name from Portus Cale, now called Porto, founded by the Romans and an active port under the Moorish conquerors and Europeans after the Reconquista. In 868, when the city of Portus Cale was captured from the Moors by Alfonso III, the prime spot was right on the coast, just perfect for the shipping industry. And this is where the Great Drydock was constructed. Used as a minor base of operations and Node by the Void Seekers from the beginning, the Drydock was essential to their goals of improving the technology of ships and preparing for longer and more difficult voyages. In the early years, until about the 12th or 13th Century, the Node was shared with groups of Artificers, who taught the Seekers (primarily pilots and navigators) how to build ships the likes of which the world had never seen. They built bigger and bigger drydocks on top of the Node, using its Quintessence as raw material for the construction of the new Skyriggers they developed and for fuel for them. Their usage, unfortunately, weakened the Node over time, and in the modern era, this once powerful Node is a shadow of its former glory. The ships built at the Great Drydock were the core of the Void Seeker fleet, and Celestial Masters were stationed on all of them to chart the starts and guide them in farther travels on the rarer Skyriggers. Through the 14th and 15th centuries, the majority of all Void Seeker vessels were produced here, setting a pace that would have been impossible without a well-coordinated network of Daedaleans including High Guild financing, Craftmason construction techniques for the docks, and Artificer tools for building the ships themselves. At its peak, almost 4 out of every 5 Void Seeker ships were made here. In addition to shipbuilding, the Great Drydock was the base of many important exploration missions. Even the Sleeper allies of the Void Seekers departed from it: Prince Henry the Navigator mapped the coast of Africa from the Drydock, including in his most famous mission in 1415. Some of the Void Seekers’ first missions to the moons of Jupiter, important battlegrounds in the

later Ascension War, were launched from here after the Chantry officially opened in 1461. Peaking in the early 16th century, the Great Drydock had a long, slow decline. Over the centuries, Portugal became a minor power, it’s fortunes rising and falling largely with Spain and their shared dreams of colonial empire around the world. As the Node began to run dry, other docks became more important for fueling and construction, shifting shipbuilding supremacy to England and the Netherlands. By the 18th century, the Great Drydock was a shadow of its former self, mostly continuing on through inertia and historical significance rather than being of any real significance itself. The final nail in its coffin as a location of power came during the reorganization that converted the Order of Reason into the Technocratic Union. During this era, even Sleeper ships ran on a certain amount of coal and then oil, leaving the fuel generated here of little value compared to more mundane sources of energy. Portugal had fallen to the point of being a minor backwater, and as the Void Engineers focused on Deep Sea and Deep Space, this Node and its accompanying Construct had become simply irrelevant. Systems: Once much more powerful, the Great Drydock is only a 4-point Node now. The full Drydock is a large building (2 pts.) and it generates only a single point of Quintessence and a single point of Tass in the form of oil each week. It’s one of the most Famous (4 pts.) Nodes in the hands of the Technocracy, though, and every Void Engineer has learned about it in history courses. Although not known as a Node, it’s even well known among Sleepers thanks to Henry the Navigator. Resonance: The Great Drydock has Constructive Resonance 3, Exploring Resonance 3 and Energetic Resonance 2

Isla de las Muñecas A recent acquisition by the Hollow Ones, Isla de las Muñecas, the Island of the Dolls, is one of the most famous haunted sites in Mexico City. It’s just south of the center of the city, in the channels of Xochimilco, and from afar it seems nice: covered in trees, a few small buildings, very peaceful. Upon closer inspection, though, it’s overrun with insects and cobwebs, and of course, vast numbers of abandoned dolls. Legend has it that a young woman drowned in the canals surrounding the island and that her body washed Nodes 37

ashore. When a man named Don Julián Santana Barrera bought the island, he started to experience strange situations and attributed them to the woman haunting the island. While many would try to find out what the ghost wanted and try to lay it to rest, Don Julián was not one of those people. His solution: hang dolls from the trees to try to scare the ghost away. He got the idea from a doll he found floating in the water nearby, which he assumed belonged to the dead woman and hung it as a sign of respect, which just caused him to start hearing whispers, footsteps and wails of anguish from the darkness. Over the next fifty years, he hung more and more dolls from the trees, many of them missing body parts, hoping to appease or scare the woman’s ghost. Don Julián died in 2001, and his body was found exactly where the young woman’s had been a half century before. Since then, visitors have brought more and more dolls to the island, and many report hearing the dolls whisper to them and describe the island as the creepiest place on Earth. Well before Don Julián’s death, Isla de las Muñecas had become a Node. The woman’s ghost does, in fact, haunt the island and she’s grown powerful from the reinforcement of her fetters. Unknown to the Don, the Hollow Ones arrived. They struck deals with the ghost (well, by then, ghosts, as the place had become a nice Haunt by then) to help scare Sleepers away from the island in exchange for them to help act as Node guardians. Now, the Hollow Ones hold the island, and keep the fact that it is a Node a closely guarded secret from the other mages of Mexico City, much less the non-mage supernatural beings. Systems: Isla de las Muñecas is a 5-point Node. It generates 4 quintessence and 4 Tass in the form of doll parts strewn about the island. The Node is famous (2 pt.) and acts as a functioning Haunt (2 pt.). The ghosts who inhabit it serve as a pack of spirit guardians (3 pt.) whose ban is that the mages do not interfere with the dolls, which act as their fetters. Resonance: Isla de las Muñecas has Creepy Resonance 5.

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Kayode Prosthetics Factory Despite popular conception among the Traditions, the majority of Technocratic projects have nothing to do with them. More of the Technocracy is focused on making the world a safer place, and driving truly dangerous being out of Reality. And another large part is focused on directly improving the lives of the Masses, making things that will make their lives better while bringing them ever more firmly under the Technocracy’s paradigm. One such project is the Kayode Prosthetics Factory in Lagos, Nigeria. The Technocracy has been guilty in the past of neglecting Africa and even encouraging the trends of colonialism and imperialism that have done so much damage there. Now, however, the strategy appears to be economic development, and so the Syndicate has invested heavily in an up-and-coming Iterator, Monifa Chaimaka Kayode. A Biomechanic with close ties to the appropriate Progenitors, Kayode has devoted her career to building better and, even more importantly, cheaper prosthetics. She has refined her process to the point where relatively functional prosthetic hands and feet are affordable to the Masses, even in the developing world, and that the process of creating them could be scaled up. So she decided to build a factory. Of course, many of the humanitarian goals of the Technocracy are tainted with the aftermath of the more militaristic. When Kayode was looking to set up a factory, she was lucky: Iteration X had just acquired a new Node on the outskirts of Lagos that could be configured for her needs. The Convention’s more militant factions had just seized it from local mystics and were in the process of sanitizing the Node, a significant victory in the Ascension War. Kayode does not know that it was seized, rather than found, and would have mixed feelings if she knew. But her work is very important, and once her products hit the market, will improve the lives of thousands, so though she might feel a pang of guilt, she will proceed. Systems: The Kayode Prosthetics Factory is a 3-point Node, generating 3 quintessence and 3 Tass per week in the form of spare parts for the prosthetics being manufactured. It is focus locked (2 pt.) so that only practitioners of Cybernetics can use the Node.

Resonance: The Prosthetics Factory has Renewing Resonance 2 and Useful Resonance 2.

name to the Manhattan Project (Iteration X denies this, of course).

The Manhattan Reactor

By the 1950s, the Node was decommissioned: more stable Nodes had been found and nuclear science had advanced quite a bit in the hands of the Sleepers. The Node had been drained into quiescence so that its danger would be minimized, but Iteration X has never been known to throw a resource away. Several Scientists started to experiment with it clandestinely.

Once connected to the infamous MECHA Construct, the Manhattan Reactor is one of Iteration X’s most powerful and dangerous Nodes. This has led to it being in and out of commission for decades, depending on the Convention’s needs. And somehow, no matter how dangerous the Node may be, there always ends up being a need. Originally found in Downtown Manhattan in the early days of the 20th century, it was quickly claimed by Iteration X and has remained in their hands ever since. Fortunately, they had expertise that Sleepers would only learn the hard way during the Second World War: nuclear engineering. This Node was immediately recognized as something of a monster. Hard to control, dangerous Tass, but extremely powerful. The Manhattan Outpost was first created just for its study, and some speculate that it’s the true source of expertise and materials that gave the

These experiments culminated in 1973 when an accident happened. Two Scientists died in the accident, and, as best anyone can discern, their deaths helped reignite the Manhattan Reactor. Unfortunately, not only was it no more stable than it had been before, but it was considerably stronger, becoming the most powerful Technocratic Node in the Northeastern United States. In the 1980s, the decision was made that a Node that could barely be contained needed to be channeled, and the reactor was tapped to feed energy to one of Iteration X’s newest experimental Realms: MECHA. Though MECHA was intended to provide its own Quintessence internally, at first it needed an external source, and the

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Manhattan Reactor was capable of providing a significant amount. By the early 1990s, however, MECHA was self-sufficient, or else only relied on smaller, more stable Nodes, leaving the Manhattan Reactor in the hands of locals again, and though it was carefully maintained for safety, few were willing to take the risk of using it, instead focusing on containment and attempts to stabilize it, which all failed. And then, in 1999, the world changed. The Technocracy was hit hard, losing almost all their Horizon Realm Constructs as well as many powerful Nodes. In desperation, the former Manhattan Outpost recommissioned the Node and has been living on borrowed time trying to keep it both functional and safe, though many of the Iterators on the ground are concerned that this will end poorly, eventually. Systems: The Manhattan Reactor is a massive 7-point Node, and the containment chamber built to manage it takes up the space of a small house, even if it is contained within a larger, 10-story office building. It is strongly attuned to the Sphere of Forces, and the ForcesAttuned Tass takes the form of radiation and electricity in equal amounts. The Node produces 9 points of Quintessence per week and 9 pawns of Tass, and if more than four pawns of Tass are left in the Reactor room, radiation shielding is necessary to safely enter. The attempts to contain it have resulted in the Node being Focus Locked (2 pt.) so that only those who use Hypertech can even hope to use it. As much as Iteration X attempts to keep the instability under wraps, it is slightly Infamous (1 pt.) within the Technocracy for being difficult to deal with, especially by other Iterators, particularly thanks to the Dangerous Energies (3 pt.) that are only help in check by the containment unit. Resonance: The Manhattan Reactor has Nuclear Resonance 4 and Unstable Resonance 3

Paget Laboratories The Society of Ether has a long history in France. The Great Hall of the Tradition is in Paris, the (discredited by the Technocracy) discovery of N-Rays in Nancy, and many, many other connections. Paget Laboratories is a minor link in this long and storied tradition. Founded in 1967, it would be a stretch to call it even a minor site for the Tradition, though they get visitors thanks to their location. Paget Labs sits just outside of 40

Nodes: Sources of Magick

Nice, on the Côte d'Azur making it a prime destination for Etherites looking to excuse a vacation under the guise of a collaborative project. This has been a great boon to Mélanie Paget, the Etherite who set up the lab. So, the Lab on the Riviera, as it is sometimes called, has become a political center for the Society of Ether, despite the Node being small and the Lab itself having only a very short history. Before the Week of Nightmares and the rise of the Avatar Storm, virtually no one had heard of it. But afterwards, with Horizon, the Gernsback Continuum and every other Horizon Realm lost or badly damaged, the Society needed to find a new meeting place. Post-Reckoning, the Tradition never had a common meeting site, but one of the new centers in Europe was Paget Laboratories. As the Tradition knitted itself back together, most leading Etherites had to make trips to the various meeting sites to gather people together. So now, almost every major Etherite on the planet (and a few who spent little time here) have passed through, giving Mélanie Paget unexpected clout within the Tradition, despite the fact that her Node is one of the smallest around. Systems: The Paget Laboratories Node is only a 1point Node, and there is little remarkable about it. It’s famous, but only among Etherites (1 pt.), and produces a single point of Quintessence and one of Tass, in the form of small clockwork parts that appear at the bottom of a workbench. Resonance: Paget Laboratories has Clockwork Resonance 1.

Wilderness Sites Aoraki Summit The Kopa Loei have had a difficult several centuries. Almost every powerful Node they possess has been taken from them by the Technocratic Union, almost all of their powerful mages and even most of their hedge mages have been killed. But yet, they survive, and are having a bit of a resurgence on the boundaries of their most traditional territories. Usually associated with Northern Polynesia, Tahiti, Hawaii, etc., New Zealand has been somewhat marginal, far from the centers of their power. But the Maori peoples have won several victories that have given the Kopa Loei a new lease on life.

According to legend, Aoraki was a boy, one of four brothers who were children of the Sky Father, Rakinui. They set out on a voyage around the world, and their canoe was stranded on a reef. As it tilted, they tried to climb free, but the South Wind froze them, turning them to stone. The native name for South Island of New Zealand is Te Waka o Aoraki, or Aoraki’s Canoe, and the tallest peak is Aoraki himself. When Europeans came, they renamed the mountain Mount Cook and fought their wars with the Maori whose island it was, doing immense damage to the environment and to the cultures that predated them. What few Kopa Loei were from New Zealand were hunted down. But the Maori won a victory in 1998. It was largely symbolic, but symbolic victories are the sort of thing that keeps crafts alive. Mount Cook was renamed to Aoraki/Mt. Cook, and is one of the only sites with mixed Maori and English names where the Maori name comes first. In principle, the agreement even acknowledges native ownership of the mountain, with the understanding that they will gift it to New Zealand, though neither transfer of ownership has happened. In the meantime, the Node at the peak has been reclaimed, and several kahunas have traveled to Te Waka o Aoraki to establish their claim. It’s currently one of the most powerful Nodes that the Kopa Loei have uncontested control over, and they are using it as a rally point to rebuild after the disastrous two hundred years of European imperialism. Systems: Aoraki is a 4-point Node, generating 5 quintessence and 5 Tass, in the form of small frozen rocks, per week. The Node is cyclic (2 pt.) and follows the moon phase, due to its connections to sailing and to the tides. Resonance: Aoraki has Frozen Resonance 2 and Seafaring Resonance 2.

Blood Lake Blood Lake was easily the nastiest, most unpleasant Node in Poland until the 1940s, when the horrors of the Holocaust ignited several Nodes that put it to shame as a source of horror. Once a pure lake dedicated to pagan gods and used for more savory things. However, in 1453, Tezghul the Insane took it, slaughtering the Node's defenders and gathering the local populace. No one knows the exact details of the ritual he conducted,

but in the aftermath, the local towns had been destroyed, over one thousand people were dead, the crystal clear lake was red with their blood, and it would never run clear again. The corruption of Blood Lake was so great that Tezghul's position was attacked by a small army of the region's werewolves. His army of infernalists, demons and corrupted humans destroyed them utterly, drawing power from the newly tainted Blood Lake. Fortunately for the mages of Europe, he didn't appear to have corrupted any of the werewolves, and soon he moved on from Blood Lake to his eventual fake. Despite Tezghul's departure, Blood Lake never stayed unclaimed for long. A Node that powerful and with Resonance as foul as Blood Lake's never stays fallow for long. The corruption is so strong that it can be sensed for miles around, and anyone who gets too close finds it creeping into their minds, making it easier for them to follow their worst impulses As the various factions of infernalists and other Fallen mages consolidated into the Nephandi, more and more powerful members of the Fallen took control of Blood Lake. No one knows who rules it in the modern nights, anyone who visits to try to determine it is never heard from again, including several high end Technocratic teams intent on cleansing it, once and for all (in fact, the Union has sent a team every 10-15 years since it was the Order of Reason, every time hoping to wipe the blight of Blood Lake off the face of the Earth). The most substantiated rumors, and even then only by indirect divination methods, suggest that Jodi Blake herself currently controls it...or perhaps will control it soon. It's hard to read some of these omens. Systems: Blood Lake is one of the foulest corrupted (4 pt.) Nodes on the planet, ironically beaten recently by other Nodes within less than three hundred miles (as well as a few scattered elsewhere around the world). It has powerful manifestations (4 pt.) that drive those who approach it to give in to their basest, darkest desires. This has resulted in the Node being quite infamous (4 pt.), to the point where nearly every mage is aware of it. The large lake (2 pt. of size) only produces Tass (-2 pt.) in the form of the bloody, foul water. It is a 5-point Node and produces 16 points of Tass every week. Resonance: Blood Lake has Corrupted Resonance 4, Sacrificial Resonance 3, and Perverse Resonance 3 Nodes 41

Bois Caïman On August 14, 1791, a secret meeting took place in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. This meeting set off a brutal war that lasted for a decade and a half, only ending on January 1st, 1804 with a new name for the territory and a new government consisting of former slaves. The peace impoverished the new country to the modern day, but despite that, Haiti has remained independent. The site of the meeting was Bois Caïman, near the Northern end of the island, and is quite remote, to this day. The site has become a powerful symbol of freedom from oppression, being the starting point of the only major successful slave revolt. Just as the people of Haiti have kept their power out of the hands of Europeans, the Bata’a have been resolute in keeping the Technocracy, the Traditions, even most of the other Crafts out of Haiti. Thought they may have to share territory on the mainland and on the other islands, but Western Hispaniola is theirs. The government of Haiti even brought some of the prominent members of the Voudoun community during the 1990s. Throughout, this Node has been one of the centers of Bata’a practice, since being founded in that act of rebellion and powered by the attention of the world. It grew stronger in each slave revolt inspired by the Haitian one, even though none of them have been successful. Systems: Bois Caïman is a 4-point Node, generating 6 quintessence and 6 Tass per week, with the Tass taking the form of pure water arriving through the rain. Resonance: Bois Caïman has Liberating Resonance 4.

Equatorial Site Delta Any physics student can confirm, the best place to launch something into Earth orbit is the equator (the best place to escape from Earth is to start from as high as you can). Unfortunately, a fairly small part of the equator is taken up by land, and not much of that land is very high above sea level. The Void Engineers, however, have found a solution to that problem. Investigating possible launch sites, they discovered the best natural resource they could hope for: a Node with a Shallowing, almost due North of Quito, Ecuador. It had been held by the Dreamspeakers

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for centuries beforehand, but in 1952 the Void Engineers attacked and took the Node away from them. It took over a decade to properly sanitize the Node, fending off attacks from Dreamspeakers and their allies all the while, but finally, in 1965, the Void Engineers had a secure location that they could work from. By then, however, the United States had entered into a Space Race with the Soviet Union, and there wasn’t much need for launch sites outside of the two superpowers. Despite this, the Void Engineers went to work, preparing for a world where one or both weren’t funding space travel openly. Knowing they had a couple of decades before they’d need the site, they spent several years designing before starting their project to create the best possible launch site for missions into Deep Space, as well as for just launching satellites, while the Node provided the fuel needed for the project and to support other Constructs that the Void Engineers needed to maintain. Equatorial Site Delta contains a Space Elevator, built entirely on the other side of the Gauntlet. The Node is now straining, not being a particularly powerful Node, it has become quite important to the Void Engineers due to the Space Elevator. Only the most trusted and skilled Void Engineers are permitted access, and even then, it’s quite limited. Other Conventions are kept completely unaware of the Space Elevator at Equatorial Site Delta, which has been key to keeping Threat Null at bay. Systems: Equatorial Site Delta is a 3-point Node, generating 3 quintessence and 3 Tass, in the form of rocket fuel, per week. As a launch site, it is a Shallowing (2 pt.) used by the Void Engineers to get equipment into the Umbra. Resonance: Equatorial Site Delta has Voyaging Resonance 2 and Frontier Resonance 2.

Eska Some Nodes are more accessible than others. Most Nodes that mages (of any faction) have tapped lie in cities or in forests, deserts, etc. Some mages, though, think that the vast, overwhelming majority of Nodes lie untapped for one simple reason: mages are almost exclusively looking on land and ignoring the oceans. There’s three times as much ocean as land in the world, so if these mages are right, that’s a vast, largely

untapped potential. For centuries, the only evidence of underwater Nodes was the occasional lake node (such as Blood Lake). And then, in 1453, the Verbena established a Chantry unlike any that had been made previously. They founded Eska, which was also the name they gave the Node, underneath the North Sea, partway between England and Norway. It wouldn’t be until the 20th Century when any other Tradition or Convention would establish undersea Chantries or Constructs on these underwater Nodes, when the Void Engineers would begin exploring building cities underwater. This makes Eska a unique achievement, a seafloor mystic Chantry. This has been a great boon for the Verbena of Eska over the centuries. For one, it was centuries before even the Order of Reason could build submarines good enough to reach Eska, and they had no idea it was even there to search for. Eska has been uniquely protected from Technocratic attack, and even now, with the Void Engineers on the ocean floor, they seem to be following the Deep Umbral rules of engagement: all really human threats are low priority compared to the Other Things that they run into. And Eska has run into its share of Other Things. Over the Centuries, it has been attacked by sea monsters of all sorts, but those attacks were minor, just large, hungry animals looking for a source of food. Worse was during the Second World War, when Eska was under siege by Nephandi for almost six months. Fortunately, a three dimensional siege is extremely hard to maintain, so they could get supplies in and out, but if it hadn’t been for getting a message to Void Engineers, the Fallen would have taken the Node and done horrific things to those who had defended it. Systems: Eska may only be a 3-point Node, but it is extremely important as a first step towards finding potentially massive untapped sources of Quintessence on the ocean floor. This has given it a measure of Fame (1 pt.). Being on the ocean floor, it is affected drastically by the moon, leading to it being a Cyclic Node (2 pt.) on a monthly lunar cycle peaking around the full moon. It is, however, Isolated (2 pt.) thanks to its location, but there is hope that they will find underwater Ley Lines eventually and those will lead to more undersea Nodes, they just need a second one to work with first. The Node produces 4 Quintessence and 4 Tass in the form of shells on the seafloor during a normal week, and double that for the week containing the full moon. Nodes 43

Resonance: Eska has no strong Resonance traits, only Watery Resonance 1, Crushing Depths Resonance 1 and Exploring Resonance 1.

The Great Green Wall When it comes to megastructures, most Technocrats think immediately of The Cop, a Dyson Sphere, or of Autochthonia, an artificial world. The largest terrestrial structures are generally assigned to Iteration X and the Void Engineers as well. This is because they’re short sighted and don’t recognize that that the most magnificent and consequential structures on the planet are alive. Joint projects between the Progenitors, the Verbena and the Dreamspeakers are an extremely rare thing, much less projects that are on a scale that their consequences will be visible from space. The three groups, with some support from individuals of other Traditions and Conventions, and a few crafts (several Ngoma are helping finance this project) are attempting the largest intentional act of geoengineering in the world’s history: pushing back the Sahara. By using modern agricultural knowledge with traditional techniques, they’re improving the soil on the edge of the desert and helping the green push pack the sand, creating a Great Green Wall of trees. The wall is being grown across the continent of Africa, both at the Northern and Southern boundaries of the desert, and should not only reclaim land and rebuild economies, but also sequester carbon, undoing some of the damage from the largest act of geoengineering in human history. What’s more, along the route, Nodes have been springing up, or perhaps being brought back to life after being destroyed by the encroaching desert. They’re weak at the moment, small things producing fairly little Quintessence, but they’re fueling the next stage of the project, and all indications are that they’re growing, both in size and number. Systems: Each Node of the Great Green Wall is only a 1-point Node for now, generating 1 point of Quintessence and 1 point of Tass per week, in the form of fertile topsoil. Resonance: Though the Resonance of these Nodes varies, most of them have Renewing Resonance 1 and Growing Resonance 1.

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Nodes: Sources of Magick

The Grove of Sacred Divorce Few Crafts have had as torturous a history as the Wu Keng. Though their power reached a height around 1100 BC, they were nearly destroyed not long after, and they mortgaged their souls for survival, becoming infernalists bound to the Princes of the Slain, and in the eyes of anyone who learns their secrets, just one step shy of Nephandi, if not among their ranks already. The pact was supposed to last for three thousand years and end with the spirits the Wu Keng bound themselves to restoring their place at the top of the hierarchy of China. In 2000, when this deadline passed, it became clear to some that the Princes would be unable or unwilling to make good on their bargain. On January 23rd, 2001, Chinese New Year’s Eve, a group of the Wu Keng gathered to discuss this issue. Realizing that the Princes of the Slain intended to trick them into eternal enslavement, they enacted a ritual they had been forbidden. Having secretly studied the arts of Spirit, to better understand their mystical husbands (though not Time, which would have revealed all much more easily), the Wu Keng who gathered performed a ritual that can only be described as a sacred divorce. They severed the connections to their Princes, wounding themselves horribly, just short of Gilgul, and shattered the bracelets. The mystical energy released at the destruction and the severance of the bindings created a small Node in the grove, now the center of the Wu Keng resistance against the Princes of the Slain. Unfortunately, this Node cannot be kept a secret. It was created as a declaration of war and a slap across the face, so the Princes of the Slain know precisely where it is, outside the Shang Dynastic capital of Yinxi, near modern Anyang. The Princes are certain that if they can cut off this Node, then they’ll be able to bring their rebellious wives back to heel. So far, though, they’ve been unable to claim it, but are beginning to maneuver Akashics and Wu Lung into attacking the “infernalists” who control the grove. Systems: The Grove’s Node is small, only consisting of a single tree that the broken juk ak’s are buried beneath. It’s only a 2-point Node, though good shepherding may cause it to grow in the future, if it survives. The Node produces 2 points of Quintessence and 3 Tass (1 pt.) in the form of acorns, dropping from the tree that

are oddly shaped, as though like the pieces of the juk aks. Resonance: Despite its small size, the Node has strong resonance: Free Resonance 3 and Recovery Resonance 2.

The Impossible Game Preserve Very little unites Marauders. They are as diverse as their insanities and come from all backgrounds. Similarly, Marauder Nodes. They can look like anything, and most commonly, they look just like the sort of Nodes that the Marauder would have used before falling into permanent Quiet. But some are different, and there are some trends. The Marauders who are far gone tend to be surrounded by Bygones, taking advantage of the different rules within their Quiet than in normal Reality to avoid Disbelief. And some Marauders with vaguely compatible Quiets have even banded together around this, acting as a sort of supernatural eco-terrorist cell. One Marauder like this is Katja De Wit. A South African Afrikaner, she Awakened alone and it didn’t go well. She almost immediately cracked into a Marauder, coming to the conclusion that everything could be real and populating the world around her with powerful and dangerous bygones. Now, Katja has settled down somewhere in the Congo (no one can quite remember where it is once they pass out of her Quiet). Her Quiet extends for approximately a half mile in every direction, and within it, all sorts of creatures exist that can’t survive elsewhere. Some of them are merely extinct in the wider world, more are mythic beasts that she’d read about at some point. And then, there are the creatures that she dreamed up which have never existed anywhere on Earth before, or even in the mythology of civilizations that Katja had heard of. Other Marauders with similar Quiets have begun to show up, though. The Preserve is growing, and this could be trouble for the normal people who live in the area. Systems: The Preserve is a 2-point Node that produces only Quintessence (2 pt.), 4 points of it per week. Resonance: Currently, the Preserve only has Impossible Resonance 2, but this could change rapidly as more power is invested in it, especially if the Umbral Underground shows up.

Nippon no Saiko to Kinzoku, KK Founded in 1901, the Nippon no Saiko to Kinzoku Kabushiki Kaisha (Japanese Mining and Metals Corporation, shortened to NSK) is a mining company in Japan. It’s also a major investment vehicle for the Syndicate. It’s a rare thing, a combination of a Primal Venture and a more traditional Node. Originally holding a single gold mine and then expanding across Japan to become a powerful Zaibatsu before the World Wars. In the 1920s, it acquired an iron mine, making a killing on supplying war materials for the Japanese military during the war…and doing less savory things. Some people want to pretend that immoral behavior is restricted to only small portions of the Syndicate, but NSK was one of the largest corporations under the Convention’s control in Japan. And it took full advantage of the atrocities that Japan committed during the War. Slave labor, mass torture, strip mining the resources of mainland Asia, all of it was done under the purview of NSK. And after the War, there was no reckoning at all. The company survived and even thrived, as new metals were demanded by the growing technology sector that Iteration X has promoted. Eventually, they diversified, covering gold, silver, iron and even a tellurium mine, which happens to contain a fairly powerful Node. NSK always stays at the absolute forefront of human capability when it comes to mining. The best technology and automation that the Technocratic Union can provide is theirs to experiment with. Systems: NSK is a 4-point Primal Venture, which is tapped regularly by Enlightened members of the management team. As a Primal Venture, it only generates Quintessence (2 pts.) and generates as much as 7 points of Quintessence per week for these managers. The NSK Tellurium mine in Shizuka is a 3-point Node attuned to Matter (2 pts.). It produces Tass exclusively (-2 pts.) in the form of a special alloy of tellurium that is useful for Iteration X electronics and Void Engineer dimensional travel engines, a total of 4 points per week. The Node is absolutely massive, taking up a whole mine as it does. Resonance: NSK has Innovative Resonance 3, Polluting Resonance 2 and Wealthy Resonance 2. Nodes 45

The NSK Tellurium Mine has Solid Resonance 2, Inventive Resonance 2 and Conductive Resonance 2.

Roopkund, the Skeleton Lake In the Indian state of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas, there is a very clear lake. It is shallow, maybe two meters are the deepest, and was carved and then filled by a retreating glacier and sits right in between the Trisul peaks, over five kilometers above sea level and with spectacular views of glaciers and the surrounding mountains. And of course, there’s the hundreds of human skeletons lying around and in the lake. In the 9th Century, Raja Jasdhaval, the Kin of Kanauj, a nearby region, made a pilgrimage to the Nanda Devi shrine among the Trisul peaks. Along with him was his pregnant wife and their entourage: servants, dancers, hangers-on, etc. As they passed the lake, a thunderstorm formed and there was no cover to be had. That’s when the hailstones came. The entire entourage died, leaving their skeletons in the lake, broken from the extremely large hailstones, as big as basketballs, that the area is subject to during storms. Since then, many others have died from the sudden and intense hailstorms, contributing their bones to the makeshift ossuary of the lake. Over time, the legends of Roopkund grew and, at the same time, the exact location was forgotten. In the 19th Century, the lake was claimed by the Euthanatos, who had discovered that there had been enough death to form a Node, but it wasn’t the sort of death that the Nephandi favor, leaving them an opportunity to take control. They were able to keep the place a secret until 1942, when it was stumbled upon and then investigated thoroughly out of fear that the skeletons could be Japanese soldiers, indicating a larger force. Once it was determined that they weren’t (the bones were too old), the Euthanatoi were able to keep people away for a while. Now, however, it is a site on the path to the Trisul peaks, and a place of interest to curious Sleepers. Of course, with increased Sleeper interest came interest form the Technocracy. After a century of being a peaceful, secret Node, the Euthanatoi have had to defend it against the Union. They’ve done so, and, conveniently, the Lake is an excellent place to hide an extra few skeletons. Systems: Roopkund is a 3-point Node, producing 2 quintessence and 2 Tass per week, in the form of human 46

Nodes: Sources of Magick

bones at the bottom. It is a somewhat large Node (1 pt.) but not too much so, and could easily act as a Haunt (2 pt.), if an appropriate wraith were to come along. Resonance: Roopkund has Peaceful Resonance 2 and Macabre Resonance 2 and Hidden Resonance 1.

The Silent Sept Before Europeans arrived, Turtle Island was a radically different place. As incomprehensible as it would be to the European Garou and Awakened, it was possible, at times, for cooperation between the two groups in the so-called New World. In what is now North Carolina, a Sept of Garou found itself in a strange position: the Kinfolk seemed determined to Awaken. Many Septs have dealt with Kinfolk becoming hedge mages, but a trend of Awakening was something unique. And they made the best of it: the Garou trained their kinfolk in the service of Gaia and the war against the Wyrm. This resulted in, for practical purposes, a somewhat unusual sect of Dreamspeakers who, when they needed to give themselves a name, just called themselves the Wolf-Kin among other mages, who never even considered that the name might be literal. Though there were always power struggles within the Caern, through the centuries before the Europeans came, the Garou, of the Croatan Tribe, and their mage Kinfolk functioned as a unit, just a family with a very complicated dynamic. Of course, the Wyrmcomers did arrive, and the tragedies that followed devastated the Sept, whose original name is now forgotten. And then the real calamity happened. Eater-of-Souls approached, and the Croatan realized that they had no choice, but to confront it and sacrifice themselves in a giant ritual to banish it deep, deep into the Umbra, and avoid the Apocalypse starting early. They didn’t take the Kinfolk with them. One morning, the mages of the Sept realized that they were alone, their Garou relatives gone and not coming back. But they kept up the ways of the Sept, treating the Caern with respect as befit it, and maintaining the old ways. They renamed it the Silent Sept, as no Garou howls can be heard there anymore, and only Kinfolk remain to care for it. Now, the Node still seems more like a Caern, and if any Garou would be willing to work with the current caretakers, who still consider themselves to be Croatan

Kinfolk, then it could serve as both a Node and a Caern once again. But they haven’t met any such Garou, so they keep it and the old ways, protecting the Node from the influence of the Wyrm, from the Wyrmcomers, and from mages who don’t have a proper connection with it. Systems: This 4-point Node is a Functional Caern (2 pts.). It is attuned to the Spirit sphere (2 pts.) and contains a Shallowing (2 pts. Merit). If generates 2 points of Quintessence and 2 points of Tass every week in the form of Ephemera that goes directly to feeding the spirits that hang around the Shallowing, with the final 2 points going to maintaining a Guardian Spirit. Resonance: The Silent Sept has Natural Resonance 2, Otherworldly Resonance 3.

The Twin Churches The Catholic Church established militant holy orders for the Crusades, with the goal of reclaiming the Holy Land. These Orders often rampaged through Europe, sometimes converting the heathens at home but more often just wreaking havoc. One of those Orders, the Knights Templar, dedicated itself to reclaiming the Temple, and established strongholds on the route from Western Europe to Jerusalem to protect Christian pilgrims. One of the most important stops on that route was Cyprus. The island is in the Eastern Mediterranean, not far from the Levant. It became a perfect place for the Holy Orders to establish bases, which took the form of fortress churches. So, the Templars along with another order, the Hospitallers, established a pair of such fortress churches, both dedicated to St. John, on the Northern end of the island.

The Twin Churches were both built in the 13th Century (the Templar Church was first, the Hospitaller was second), at the height of Templar wealth and power (they briefly owned the entire island of Cyprus). However, by the early 14th Century, Templar luck had changed. King Philip IV of France was able to pressure the Pope into dissolving the Order in 1314, including burning the leadership at the state as heretics. At this time, the Cabal of Pure Thought took over the Churches and the Node that they contained, and they held it for several centuries, through conflicts with both the Celestial Chorus and the Ahl-i-Batin for control of Cyprus. In the 18th Century, the Knights Templar were able to drive out the Cabal of Pure Thought using the Ahl-i-Batin as a weapon, and then took the Node directly from the Ahl-i-Batin, re-establishing themselves as the owners of the Twin Churches. Since then, holding the Churches has been complicated. The Knights value their secrecy, and survive because the Technocracy believes them to have been destroyed long ago. So they must carefully balance acting to defend their territory and to maintain that secrecy, giving the impression that some other group holds the Churches and that it is far, far better defended than it is, to avoid any confrontation. But this is a house of cards, and will topple if the Technocracy were ever to test it. Systems: The Twin Churches form a 5-point Node, generating 10 points of quintessence per week and no Tass (2 pt.). Consisting of both churches, it’s a large Node (2 pt.). Resonance: The Churches have Militant Resonance 3 and Sacred Resonance 3.

Nodes 47

The Pillars of Creation Where mages get the Quintessence that powers their magicks is as important as what they do with that magick. It shapes the mage as they shape Reality. And anything with that much influence deserves a closer look…

The Foundation of Reality This book includes: • • • • • •

13 theories about what Nodes are Suggestions for how to make Nodes more concrete objects Alternatives to Nodes as sources of Quintessence Rotes that manipulate Nodes, Quintessence and Resonance Expanded rules for creating Nodes 32 example Nodes from around the world and controlled by various factions