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| Essence proceeds existence. Yet existence grants essence its form. A paradox. Substance begets form, but without form, substance is nothingness. A paradox. Sanity is enlightenment, a realization of the true nature of reality. Yet as every mage knows, to become truly enlightened, one must deny the reality forced upon oneself and create one's own. Enlightenment, then, is madness. A dynamic psychosis. |
| There are no easy answers for a mage. I am change, says the mage. I am growth, form and chaos and my will defines the universe. With but a thought, a revelation, I can change the laws of nature, shift the paths of stars, reshape reality to my will. Nature comes howling back, knocks the mage sprawling, spits in his face and screams Bullshit!!! The mage dusts himself off and starts again. Some of those elemental howls are pretty loud. This book is full of them. |
| excerpt from the Introduction to The Book of Madness (Mage Sourcebook) |
And yet behind the scenes is a tortured web of influences and threats. Some threads are hidden from mortal eyes by disbelief, others by ruthless pruning of witnesses. Vampires pull the strings of society, mages pull the strings of belief. Werewolves fight the pollution of the earth, the fae struggle against the weight of disbelief. Wraiths cling on to their mortal passions, and passionless academics strive to catalogue the occult for reasons of their own.
Most of the time, the various factions keep to themselves -the World of Darkness is one ruled by perceptions and prejudices - but occasionally a mage will make a deal with a vampire, or a werewolf will encounter a member of the fae and they will find at least a temporary common cause. These are the exceptions rather than the rule, however.