Sons of Ether
Mage: The Ascension (Revised Edition) cover
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| Designer(s) | Stewart Wieck, Christopher Earley, Stephan Wieck, Bill Bridges, Sam Chupp, Andrew Greenberg |
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| Publisher(s) | White Wolf |
| Publication date | 1993 (1st edition) 1995 (2nd edition) 2000 (Revised edition) 2015 (20th anniversary edition) |
| Genre(s) | Modern Mysticism |
| System(s) | Storyteller System |
Mage: The Ascension is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic. The idea of magic in Mage is broadly inclusive of diverse ideas about mystical practices as well as other belief systems, such as science and religion, so that most mages do not resemble typical fantasy wizards.
In 2005, White Wolf released a new version of the game, marketed as Mage: The Awakening, for the new World of Darkness series. The new game features some of the same game mechanics but uses a substantially different premise and setting.
Following the release of Vampire: The Masquerade, White Wolf put out a new roleplaying game every year, each set in Vampire's World of Darkness and using its Storyteller rule system. The next four games were: Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992), Mage: The Ascension (1993), Wraith: The Oblivion (1994) and Changeling: The Dreaming (1995).Mage was the first World of Darkness game that Mark Rein•Hagen was not explicitly involved with, although it featured the Order of Hermes from his Ars Magica as just a single tradition among many.
The basic premise of Mage: The Ascension is that everyone has the capacity, at some level, to shape reality. This capacity, personified as a mysterious alter-ego called the Avatar, is dormant in most people, who are known as sleepers, whereas Magi (and/or their Avatars) are said to be Awakened. Because they're awakened, Magi can consciously effect changes to reality via willpower, beliefs, and specific magical techniques.
The beliefs and techniques of Magi vary enormously, and the ability to alter reality can only exist in the context of a coherent system of belief and technique, called a paradigm. A paradigm organizes a Mage's understanding of reality, how the universe works, and what things mean. It also provides the Mage with an understanding of how to change reality, through specific magical techniques. For example, an alchemical paradigm might describe the act of wood burning as the wood "releasing its essence of elemental Fire," while modern science would describe fire as "combustion resulting from a complex chemical reaction." Paradigms tend to be idiosyncratic to the individual Mage, but the vast majority belong to broad categories of paradigm, e.g., Shamanism, Medieval Sorcery, religious miracle working, and superscience.
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