Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults Chapter Three: House Criamon

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House Criamon

You are already immortal. Time forms a great Circle. Every life is repeated, identical in every breath, each cycle of time. You will live this current life, invariably, forever. Isn’t that horrible? — Criamon, the Founder

House Criamon’s members want all people to escape from time. They believe time is circular, which means every person lives an infinite number of identical lives. Every moment of suffering repeats inevitably forever. They believe Criamon found a refuge outside time, and that he holds the way there open for magi. This does not suffice.

Criamon’s followers do not accept that they are superior to other humans. Abandoning the rest of humanity to infi nite suffering is so immoral as to prevent salvation. Criamon magi want to save everyone from time. Criamon was fond of teaching through posing riddles, and his final question was “How can we all escape the circle of time?” This question is the Enigma, and lies at the center of the thoughts, actions, and identity of Criamon magi.

Criamon’s followers have dedicated themselves to fi nding the answer. They acquire knowledge, to formulate possible answers. They seek wisdom, to discern the quality of the information they have uncovered. The search for the Enigma’s solution may take many centuries. During the interim, Criamon magi live as aptly as they can. They believe that a degraded spirit is unlikely to comprehend the answer.

Key Facts Population: The house has 94 living members, divided into seven groups called clutches. A clutch consists of all the Criamon magi in a Tribunal. In the early years of the Order each clutch lived as a covenant, and followed a unique lifestyle and series of Initiations, called a path. In 1220, each clutch still has strong links to its original path, though all but one have members from other paths. Each clutch still has a covenant that is considered its center, but some of these are no longer House covenants. Some magi are wanderers: they are part of a clutch, but do not live with other Criamon magi. These magi, usually young, live in mixed House covenants and visit their clutches occasionally, to transmit their insights and receive instruction. Two paths have no clutch. Domus Magna: The Cave of Twisting Shadows, in the Greater Alps Tribunal, contains many of the older members of the House. Its resident magi, 12 living and numerous dead, are also called the Central Clutch. Prima: Muscaria, fi lia Demetrius. The Prima’s role is to support her housemates by managing mundane tasks, so that they are not distracted from the quest for the Enigma. She is young, pragmatic, and dislikes obfuscations. Favored Tribunals: The Greater Alps, but clutches are found in six others. Sections of the House are particularly comfortable in Muslim lands. Motto: The World Within is the World Without. If members of the House ever come to a consensus on the motto’s meaning, they will choose a new one. Symbol: The Loop of the Infi nite in the Eye of Time is the current symbol of the House. This abbreviates the older symbol, a chain forming a figure of eight around a pair of hands. These represented the bound wrists of the Greek goddess Ananke. The Greeks never worshiped Ananke, the goddess of inevitability, because she could not choose to grant favors to her worshipers. Some Criamon ghosts have scaly marks on their wrists: these represented the coils of Kronos, the Greek representation of time in serpent form.

The Founder

Criamon destroyed most of the records that described his past, instructing his followers to remember his words, but not his life. Many seekers have tried to discover Criamon’s birthplace or pre-Hermetic lineage. Those ghosts who knew Criamon say that these distractions are precisely what the Founder intended to remove. The Founder was not, however, able to destroy records kept by House Bonisagus. These primarily concern his life in the brief period between his initial meeting with Trianoma and the First Tribunal.

Trianoma describes Criamon as an elderly man, little concerned with vanities. He enjoyed intellectual humor, particularly concerning the Greek philosophers. His followers were pacifists, and had retreated to a regio in the Alps to avoid the chaos that stimulated the creation of the Order. Criamon was a vegetarian. He tattooed his apprentices to spare them from the more painful investitures he had suffered as a boy.

Criamon was the first Founder to pass from the world, a handful of years after the First Tribunal. Many of his descendants left the Cave of Twisting Shadows to create study groups, called clutches, in distant areas. Each returned to the Cave to die or pass into Twilight. Many later Criamon magi follow this pattern.

What the House Believes

Criamon’s beliefs follow those of an ancient Greek magus-philosopher called Empedocles. Empedocles investigated natural and mystical phenomena, and revealed many insights that eventually contributed to Hermetic magic. He was also a pioneer in many mundane fi elds of study, including ethics, medicine, and rhetoric. Most Criamon magi live a version of Empedocles’s lifestyle. Magi from outside House Criamon, however, consider some of Empedocles’s insights to be false.

Empedocles contributions greatly assisted the study of magic in the ancient world. He demonstrated that air was not empty space. He established that the generative juices of parents contain tiny copies of their limbs. He explained how the senses worked. In the process of investigating the mechanics of sight, he discovered that moonlight was reflected sunlight. He also found that light took time to travel. Empedocles’s most signifi cant discovery was that all material objects are made of water, earth, air, and fi re in differing proportions.

Empedocles believed it was vital that magi live morally. The capacity to do magic is not, for Criamon magi, a tool. It is the inevitable result of knowing the truth, and acting aptly. To pollute oneself with sinful action is to damage the soul, which is the part of the self that manipulates mystic forces. Criamon magi do not believe morality is flexible, because they can chart the degree to which spiritual pollution impairs the Gift.

The need to live well forces magi to be concerned for other humans. Galen named Empedocles as the originator of medicine in Italy. Aristotle claimed Empedocles invented rhetoric. Empedocles, for part of his life, wandered as a soothsayer, and invented these fi elds of research to allow him to cure plagues and oppose tyrants. Criamon magi usually lack Empedocles’s Gentle Gift, so they must be much more subtle about their good works.

Most non-Criamon magi think Empedocles was delusional. He played a pivotal role in the development of at least six of the Arts, but two of his other claims are too fantastic to be true. These are that time is circular, and that immortal spirits descend into the material world at the start of each cycle of time.

The Circle of Time

Empedocles believed time continues forever in cycles. He saw this as a guarantee of immortality and ascent to godhood. Criamon magi view circular time as an unguarded prison, from which they should mastermind a jailbreak. Each view assumes that changes in the comparative strength of two opposing forces drive the cycle of time. The forces are harmony, which promotes cohesion, and strife, which promotes separation. The Art of Creo refl ects harmony. The Art of Perdo reflects strife. The Art of Vim, and magic itself, reflects the energy released as harmony yields to strife. Most Criamon magi expect harmony to continue to yield to strife for at least the next few thousand years, and possibly for far longer.

Time is a circle so it has no beginning, but for the sake of explanation, imagine that the universe begins as an enormous sphere of undifferentiated matter. This sphere is bound together by the force of harmony. The House calls this state of the universe the Spharios. Time begins when strife, the force that separates, comes to the Spharios, bringing change. Strife, and change, intensifies over time. The Spharios divides into the four elements. As strife increases, the four elements take thousands of years to mix into increasingly elaborate patterns, creating everything. Simple life then appears as roaming, independent organs. Over time, these organs merge, creating complex organisms. The elaboration of the universe, and the life within it, continues for innumerable thousands of years, until the environment becomes too random to support life, and life forms become too incoherent to remain whole. Life is extinguished. The universe descends into a churning maelstrom of complete strife: the whirl of chaos. Harmony then acts on the whirl. It draws matter into differentiated lumps. Things become increasingly discrete, and life appears as environments become able to support it. Over epochs, each generation is fractionally more simple and pure. Eventually, the environment ceases to be suffi ciently differentiated to support life. All things are absorbed back into the Spharios. After a period of timelessness, strife comes again to the Spharios. This cycle continues forever. Each cycle matches every previous and future cycle identically.

Famous Magi Juliasta, as the successor of the first Founder to pass from office, was the first Prima of any House. She evangelized the House’s beliefs and rounded out its knowledge of the Arts. Vederis wrote The Travels of Fedoso, a classic work of esoteric lore. Abdkypris discovered the links between his House’s beliefs and Sufism.

The Fall of the Immortals and the Need for Apt Action

Empedocles believed that the Spharios had fallen into strife because he, personally, had sinned grievously. During the time of perfect harmony, a race of spiritual beings inhabited the Spharios. One of these immortals, eventually reincarnated as Empedocles, had taken on claws and eaten meat. He had committed murder, and cannibalism.

As a result, the underlying laws of the universe, which the House calls Necessity, forced the immortals into the cycle of time for three eternities. The immortals were reborn in base forms. Through millennia of reincarnation and suffering, each could regain purity. This would end strife, reintegrate the universe, and recreate the Spharios.

Empedocles believed that the process of expatiation would fi nish sooner if the immortals lived in ways that did no further harm. He was a vegetarian, because he believed people regularly eat animals that are reincarnations of their relatives. He refused to engage in sex, because he thought it wrong to create more people, who must suffer. Empedocles was also a pacifi st, and a democrat. Empedocles refused the kingship of his home town, setting up a democratic council that saw to the needs of the people instead.

The Need To Escape and the Enigma

Criamon believed Empedocles’s cosmology, but thought his goal of becoming an immortal again was naive. Empedocles’s contrition and suffering cannot change the cyclical nature of time. In the next cycle of time, Empedocles will not remember his mistakes from this one. When the time of his cannibalism comes around again, he will sin. He does not know not to. This must inevitably split the Spharios and cast the immortals into time. The immortals will live another ninety thousand years in pain, for every cycle of time, for an infi nite number of cycles. There is no way, in Empedocles’s cosmology, for the history of the universe to change.

All that is known of Criamon’s master is that he attempted to improve his student through two decades of torturous rituals. The suffering and degradation Criamon experienced magnifi ed his consciousness and conscience, but made the fi rst part of his life almost unendurably painful. Criamon knew he would be tortured for two decades per cycle, for aninfi nite number of cycles. He decided he wanted to escape, and he wanted to take everyone else with him.

Criamon found a refuge outside the circle of time. His followers call this refuge the Hypostasis. Most other magi call it Twilight, after the process that carries them there. Criamon magi believe that before the Founder discovered his refuge, Warped magi simply died.

Criamon remains partially within time, holding the Twilight road open. This is arduous, and Criamon’s strength must eventually fail. By posing the Enigma, Criamon asked his followers to rescue him from his self-imposed duty. Criamon suffers to allow his followers to escape time, while they work to free him from his labor.

The Hypostasis

The Hypostasis, also called Twilight or the Alam of Repose, is whatever lies outside time. Criamon assured his followers that it is a wonderful place and that he is guaranteeing their ability to find final rest there. Criamon magi believe that those who fall into Final Twilight enter the fringes of Hypostasis. If they have impure spirits, they require lengthy and painful adjustment before they can enter it fully. This is one of the motivators for ethical behavior by Criamon magi. Criamon magi call those who are believed to live in the Hypostasis the “tangential magi.”

Glossary Adulteration: A creature or place created from the psychic detritus of a magus, particularly one who has entered Final Twilight. Aptness: Moral correctness. Avenue: The way a Criamon magus earns a Mystery Virtue is called that Virtue’s avenue. Alam: A mystical state so far separated from normal human life as to be connected to the four realms only in untested ways. Axis Magica: The regio in which the Cave of Twisting Shadows lies. Clutch: Originally, the study group for a path. Now, the Criamon magi of a certain Tribunal. Enigma: Criamon’s fi nal puzzle for his descendants to solve: “How can we all escape the circle of time?” Gorgiastics: Magi who have left House Criamon because they no longer share its beliefs. Harmony: The force that attracts. One of the two great forces of the universe. Hypostasis, The: The place outside the universe that Criamon magi aspire to reach. Loosely called “Twilight” by many other magi. Immortals: In House Criamon’s cosmology, a perfect race that fell into the material world. Magi, or perhaps all people, are reincarnated immortals. Inspirato: The ocean of magical energy that washes over the Earth, permitting spellcasting. Path: A fi eld of study, a set of values, and the lifestyle they create. Each path grants different Mystery Virtues. Repose: What Criamon magi do instead of dying. Varies by path. Spharios: The sphere of perfect harmony. The universe at the extreme of harmony in the Circle of Time. Station: A place of distinctly increased wisdom on a path, represented by the acquisition of a Mystery Virtue. Stigma: A mark on the skin, like a tattoo, that represents a piece of spiritual development. Strife: The force that divides. One of the two great forces of the universe.

The Counter-cyclical Alam

If time is circular, all time exists simultaneously to an observer outside the circle. This means that the current universe, which is sliding toward the whirl of chaos, exists simultaneously with the time of the universe when harmony is increasing. Some Criamon magi claim to have traveled to the counter-cyclical alam. They are not correct, but there is no way to prove that without being outside time.

The majority of characters who claim to have visited the counter-cyclic alam have done so during uncontrolled Twilight experiences. A few other magi claim to have spoken to or combated creatures from the counter-cycle. Those who doubt the existence of a counter-cyclical alam suggest that the travel experiences magi report are Twilight-induced hallucinations, and the creatures that seem countercyclic are adulterations (psychic debris, described below). The mental detritus of older Criamon magi, they suggest, deludes younger Criamon magi.

Criamon magi differ on what the counter-cyclical alam is. Some say it is utterly mundane, lacking the strife necessary for magic. Others suggest that in the counter-cyclical alam, it is easier to create than destroy. They posit that the alam of Forms is the counter-cycle close to the reformation of the Spharios, which makes the Magic realm counter-cyclical. Some suggest Faerie is counter-cyclical. Some suggest that they are in the time of rising harmony already, or that there is but a single universe which oscillates between extremes, which complicates the discussion enormously. The counter-cycle of time should last around 45,000 years, so it may contain many strange environments.

The Realm of Magic

Members of House Criamon believe that magic fl ows about the Earth in an intangible ocean, swirling in a gorgeous tide about the Axis Magica. This ocean, which they call the Inspirato, seeps naturally from the Earth, but eddies under astrological infl uences. Magic pools in places where it has eroded away the mundanity of the Earth, where great magic has been performed, or where creatures that feed from the ocean have dwelt. These are auras. Sometimes the Inspirato concentrates into objects, creating vis.

Empedocles claimed that he, flung from harmony, had laid his allegiance in strife. Magic is the power of strife, channeled to the will of the caster. This is why it is possible to destroy with magic, but not create without consuming vis. Every magical act draws the universe away from harmony and brings the extinction of life closer. Criamon magi plan to leave time before that happens, and take everyone else with them, so they don’t consider using magic to be evil.

The realm of Magic and the Hypostasis, Criamon magi claim, are not the same place. Criamon stated that the Hypostasis is the structure that cradles the universe; it is therefore outside the universe. The Magic realm, as a regulated place interacting with the mundane world, is likely to dissolve in the whirl. Many magi find it easiest to reach the Hypostasis using magic. Some theorists from other Houses claim this is because the two are not truly separate — that the Hypostasis is like the Far Lands of Arcadia, the Highest Heaven, or the Deepest Hell.

Empedocles Was Sometimes Wrong In the standard Ars Magica setting, Empedocles’s disputed conclusions are wrong. Time is not cyclical. There never was a Spharios. There is no race of reincarnating immortals. In general, when the cosmology given in this chapter contradicts that given in other Ars Magica supplements, that is because the Criamon are wrong. Even so, Criamon magi believe Empedocles’s conclusions. Spurred by their logical consequence — that time is a prison — they have sought strange states of magical consciousness in their effort to escape. These researches have yielded mystical abilities unique to their House. The Criamon create a coherent cosmology out of their insights, but use their House’s beliefs as its basis. To an omniscient observer the Criamon are the most enlightened magi, and yet simultaneously the most self-deluded. They do not have the Delusion Flaw because there is no way for their error to be demonstrated within the usual game setting. In your own saga, however, the Criamon magi might be right.

Cosmology for Criamon Magi Criamon magi do not all agree on a single cosmology, but the view presented in this chapter is typical. Magi from other Houses, it should be noted, do not agree with Criamon beliefs. The House’s view on how the universe really works colors the reactions of its members to the representatives of the realms that they encounter during stories. Criamon magi have encountered many strange states of being, and conjectured the existence of many more. They use the term alam for mystical states that are so divorced from the mundane world that their alignment to the four realms is debatable. Two alams, the Hypostasis and counter-cyclical alam, play fundamental roles in Criamon cosmology.

The Realm of Faerie

Some Criamon magi believe that Faerie is a refl ection of the mortal world, others believe it is the counter-cyclical alam. If it refl ects the mundane world, then it might not be worth investigating, since whatever it contains is already in the mortal world. Other Criamon think Faerie is not a refl ection, or that a simplifi ed derivative might express fundamental principles more clearly, so they study it.

Hell

Some Criamon magi worry that they caused Hell, and others that they are its residents. Superfi cially, Hell is full of little, evil demigods who want to keep people inside time. Criamon magi believe they reincarnate eternally, so if the House cannot leave time prior to the chaotic churning of matter just before the extinction of life, then they must take on forms that can live in that environment. Demons might, therefore, be future lives of magi. Perhaps only the most enlightened will escape time in this cycle, and Hell, forming as the whirl approaches, fi lls with the spirits that could not be saved this iteration. They might strike out against magi in envy, or to seek vengeance for being abandoned.

Heaven

Criamon magi are divided in their opinion of Jesus. Some are Muslims or Christians, and accept him as a prophet or as the son of the creator of the universe who has come with a way to step outside time. Others feel he is a tangential immortal that can take his followers to the time of the Spharios, but not permanently. The Christian holy book says that the Devil must be loosed again, thousands of years after the coming of the new Earth (Revelation 20:3). A third possibility is that Jesus was a master of harmony, and that the Dominion is an active expression of the force that lies opposed to strife and thus magic. Some Criamon seek to serve this force. The rest of the House know this will extend the life of the universe, which they favor.

Practices & Beliefs

For centuries, the House has continued the task set for it by Criamon: seeking a better way to escape the cycle of time. Criamon magi examine the universe, because they need to understand how the prison of time is constructed and what tools are available to aid escape. They probe the mystical potential of humans, and develop their own abilities, in the hope of discovering hidden aptitudes that will make escape easier. They also consider the nature of the bonds that hold humans within time and investigate places and mental states where the mundane constraints do not apply. A body of proven techniques based on House Criamon’s understanding of these underlying facts, collectively called “Enigmatic Wisdom,” guides the acquisition of further information.

Apt Action

Criamon magi believe that the universe will fall into chaos less quickly if magi live aptly. Most Criamon magi follow Criamon and Empedocles in their interpretation of what lifestyle is apt. They believe that:

• Magi are not a superior class of human. All suffering is the fault of Empedocles, and the other immortals who did not restrain him. If the peasants are also of the immortal race, then they were, and will be, peers in the perfect alam. Every magus has spent a thousand lives in the oyster bed, the leaf litter, and the soil: how can peasants be contemptible?

• Time is circular, and magi have a duty to assist others to escape. Most young magi do this by assisting older magi to complete their research.

• Worship is fruitless. Many magi believe they were pagan gods in previous lives and, having lived correctly, were reborn as magi. The pagan gods are trapped in the circle of time, they simply share a more comfortable estate of victimhood with beetles and shellfi sh. This is why the goddess whom Criamon use for their symbols is the one unable to assist humans. The Divine is a contentious issue among Criamon magi.

• The pursuit of wealth, pleasure, and power are distractions or temptations to corruption. It is wrong to steal, which means that the feudal system is wrong.

• It is wrong to cause suffering, and wrong to seek it for yourself. Violence is only permissible in self-defense, and even then trickery and entrapment are preferable to wounding.

Most Criamon magi fi nd their powers diminished if they fail to live aptly. This is detailed in the paths section, at the end of the chapter.

Riddles

At the beginning of her apprenticeship, each Criamon apprentice is given fi fteen riddles, and their obvious solutions. The apprentice ponders them, while acquiring other skills, during her fi fteen years of study. The magus develops a deep understanding of how each riddle is linked to its answer, and how the riddles and answers resonate with each other. This allows the magus to develop the House’s mindset. This mindset, called Enigmatic Wisdom, allows the magus to participate in the search for the answer to the Enigma.

Most riddles have a shallow answer, which can be encapsulated in a brief sentence or word. The shallow answer is sometimes humorous, but need not be. The point of studying a riddle is to go beyond that simple answer, and illuminate the many deep connections that make the shallow answer true. After this examination of the riddle is complete, the magus integrates it with the other riddles she has solved, into a worldview fi lled with subtle connections between apparently unrelated objects, events, and symbols.

The word “riddle” has a second meaning that illuminates the function of Criamon puzzle sayings. A riddle is, literally, a sieve: to riddle is to shake things so that they separate into valuable and useless elements. Criamon riddles help magi learn to enter a mental state that allows them to sift experiences and fi nd those which illuminate the Enigma. Enigmatic Wisdom is life, riddled.

An apprentice who is ready to become a magus is asked the Riddle of the Magus. The Riddle of the Magus varies between teachers, but usually asks the apprentice to identify the correct path, for her, going forward. Examples include “What is apt?” “What lies before your feet?” or “What must you leave behind?” Superficially, the apprentice cannot fail, because any answer is acceptable. This is because Criamon magi do not ask this Riddle of those unready for life as a magus. Even in this case, there are shallow and deep answers. The shallow answer is whatever the new magus says, the deep one is whatever she does, for the rest of her life.

Some shallow answers to the Riddle of the Magus indicate a desire to follow one of the traditions of mystical study within the House. These traditions are called the paths, and a few are described in detail at the end of this chapter. Any character with a score of one in Enigmatic Wisdom can name the paths, describe what their adherents believe, and explain how they aid the quest for the answer to the Enigma. Some apprentices delay their choice of path indefi nitely, and while indecisive, engage in practices they will later discard as inapt.

The House’s strange method for acknowledging new magi — which the pacifi stic Criamon do not call a Gauntlet, as other Houses do — is a formality. It comforts the other Houses, who often prefer a sharp division between those protected by the Code, and those owned by magi. All who have suffi cient wisdom to aid the House are welcome to do so, and have the same status. Those who fi nd their wisdom insuffi cient for the challenges they face may resume study with a master, and this causes no embarrassment.

Rolls for Riddles

Players not wishing to roleplay composing or answering riddles can simulate these activities with Ability rolls. (Though such players might also prefer to play magi from other Houses, instead.) They roll Intelligence + Enigmatic Wisdom, against an Ease Factor that varies between three and 25, depending on the complexity of the riddle. If composing a riddle, the magus knows the text immediately, taking a few moments to convert his idea into expressible form. If answering a riddle, the magus knows the shallow answer immediately, and grasps the deep meaning of the Riddle after about a year of occasional consideration.

A magus who has completed his apprenticeship is given a riddle by his master, which he ponders while continuing along his path. When the magus feels that he has exhausted the usefulness of the riddle, represented by gaining a Mystery Virtue (called a station by this House) or an increase in Enigmatic Wisdom score, the magus returns to his clutch and is given a new riddle. If the answer he has found is novel, it is sent to the Central Clutch.

Over the centuries, answers accrue. This lowers the Ease Factor of Enigmatic Wisdom rolls. No character will live long enough to notice this effect, unless the House makes a major advance in the quest for the answer, but magi consulting books of ancient riddles will fi nd them interesting, but not particularly illuminating. This is one of the reasons that Criamon magi do not venerate age: the wisdom of the past is imperfect, or the answer would be known.

Enigmatic Wisdom For Magi From Other Houses Magi from outside the House may study for a year with a magus, or one of the ghosts at the Cave of Twisting Shadows, and gain the Enigmatic Wisdom Ability, with a score of one. The Primus may offer those who complete such a course of study membership in House Criamon, if they desire it. The House has occasionally offered membership to those unfairly ejected from other Houses, regardless of their degree of Enigmatic Wisdom, to protect them from the death penalty that usually follows living a year without a House. The descendants of these magi eventually develop Enigmatic Wisdom, but a few current Criamon magi lack tattoos and do not understand the riddles. Muscaria uses them as informal ambassadors and investigators.

Riddles Predict Conflict

Many Criamon magi face difficult situations that suit their riddles perfectly. Criamon magi believe this providential luck refl ects the guidance of tangential magi who dwell outside time. An argumentative Tytalus magus once put the counter case succinctly: “If you spend all of your time thinking about beer, then everything reminds you of beer.” He was annoyed when “What reminds you of beer?” became a Criamon teaching riddle.

Stigmata

The House’s view of the human body is complex. The body is the vehicle for the mind. The body is the medium that expresses The Gift. The body represents the universe. The skin, where the magus and the universe touch, is an avenue of expression for the accord between the world within and the world without. Marks on the body are more than decoration, because the body is more than meat.

Criamon magi have intricate skin markings that represent their progress toward enlightenment. Each design, called a stigma, represents the magus having understood a vital element of the Enigma, or his role in the search for the answer. The fi rst stigma usually appears when he answers the Riddle of the Magus. The magus does not choose the appearance of his marks, although the player does.

New stigmata appear, and older ones move and become more complex, as the magus absorbs transformative ideas (or, in game terms, increases his Enigmatic Wisdom score), or completes tasks that draw him along his mystery path. This includes learning the Inner Mysteries of any group, beginning or completing the training of an apprentice, seeking or binding a familiar, or producing a great work of the Art. A magus’s stigmata represent the character’s history and true nature. Stigmata are inevitably honest, but only other Criamon magi can interpret them accurately.

A Criamon magus’s stigmata have no mechanical cause and cannot be removed, even by magic. If a magus loses a stigma, for example by suffering burns that destroy that patch of skin, the stigma regenerate, or migrate so that the burn forms part of their pattern. On rare occasions, a magus’s stigmata have migrated to a familiar, talisman, or apprentice. Magi shifted into other shapes retain their stigmata in the new shape.

Certain symbols repeat across the bodies of the House’s members: the most common is the loop of the infi nite. This represents the prison of cyclical time. It appears on the forehead of each Primus. Criamon magi who have entered Twilight often develop loop marks on their wrists. This shows that they have broken their manacles, if only for a moment. Each path has stigmatic symbols, which are described in detail in their sections.

Other forms of body modification fi nd temporary popularity in the House, but most members think Criamon’s teachings forbid them. Criamon was branded repeatedly by his teacher, and suffered other physical mutilations. Criamon magi still know how to do these things, but have been told that these external interventions offer only power, not wisdom, and so they are a distraction that should not be pursued. A few Criamon magi do not heed this prohibition, because the House does not enforce it. Their apprentices are more disfi gured, and psychologically damaged, than usual for a Criamon magus. One example is the current Prima, whose child-like appearance came about through a form of magical body modifi cation.

Examples of Criamon Apprentice Riddles The deep answer to a Criamon riddle reflects a spiritual state that has blossomed in the magus, not the quickness of his mind or the eloquence of his speech. There are many correct, shallow answers to any riddle, but answers illuminate truths; they are more than an opinion. The following answers are, therefore, not definitive, but illuminate the simplest of the House’s beliefs. Abdkypris was traveling with his apprentice, and they stopped for the night in an ancient churchyard. Abdkypris found the child weeping at the grave of a married couple, long dead. Their grog asked “Why is he crying with joy?” What did Abdkypris answer? “Anticipation.” Time is circular: the boy had recognized one of the lives he had lived in the past, and so must live again in the future. He was overjoyed to know that he had met his lover, lived with her for decades, and must again, an infi nite number of times. An apprentice broke an egg in a faerie glade and used the vis within it to heal a damaged tree. The egg’s mother came to him and said “Heal my egg, as you did the tree!” He said he could not heal all of her eggs. She asked “Why?” “Water flows down hill.” The eggs were the only vis source available, so it would have been necessary to break another egg to heal the fi rst. The universe is falling into disorder. In the time of rising harmony, the opposite will be true. Criamon and Jerbiton were having a meal during the First Tribunal, and discussing theology. Criamon passed Jerbiton a bowl of wheat porridge and a glass of beer. “Have some of your angels and demons, Jerbiton!” he said. “Why are you laughing?” asked Flambeau. “Time.” Angels and demons differ because, following the Creation, some angels fell into moral decay. Demons are like fermented angels. Jerbiton wanted to have demons identifi ed as an enemy of the Order, in the Code of Hermes. Criamon agreed. Tytalus said “Angels too!” Criamon agreed. Flambeau proposed that Islamic wizards be included, and Criamon said “Ah, no. The two things are not the same at all.” Two,” asked Flambeau “not three?” “Two.” Angels and demons lead circular lives, that end and begin together in the moments of absolute strife and harmony. Islamic magi might persist outside time as immortals. Trianoma wanted Criamon to join her new Order, but he thought she would never understand him. She convinced him by sending a fl ower, and a message, every day for a year. When he agreed, she told Bonisagus what she had done. He asked “What message did you send with each flower?” “Happy birthday.” Trianoma’s flowers were a demonstration of respect for Criamon’s belief that he had been reborn innumerable times. A merchant came to the magician Demetrius and said, “If I knew the future, I could make a great deal of money. What happens after today?” Demetrius was lost for words, but his apprentice looked solemn and said “What did we tell you last time?” “Everything: even today.”

Body Modification Rules

Magi from many Houses understand these techniques, but Criamon magi are those most likely to use them to modify themselves and their apprentices.

Tattoos

Magi use the term stigma for both tattoos and the mystical markings of the Criamon magi, but understand that they are different classes of thing. Criamon stigmata cannot be enchanted items, but any magus can have ink tattoos that perform magic.

Tattoos do not have wide favor in Mythic Europe. The Book of Leviticus states that having tattoos is a sin, and the Romans used them to mark slaves and criminals. Pilgrims, however, are beginning to popularize tattoos. A cross inside the wrist, made by the Coptic priests of Jerusalem, is seen as proof that a pilgrim completed his journey.

The typical Criamon magus, covered in designs, is thought to be a sinner deformed by his own acts. A single visible tattoo is suffi cient to earn the Disfi gured fl aw, being more ugly than a scar to most medieval people, since it cannot be an accident. Some young Criamon magi are not Disfi gured, though, because their marks have appeared in locations usually concealed by clothing.

Other Modifications

Head binding causes the most common disfi gurement in the House, excluding stigmata. A tight bandage is tied around the head of a child, to warp his developing skull. A magus whose skull has been altered during infancy has an aptitude for a single path symbolically linked to that particular skull shape. This acts as a +3 bonus for his Initiation Script for the fi rst station (Mystery Virtue) of that path. The commonest skull shapes, the cone and double-lobed, suit the Path of Seeming and the Path of the Body respectively. The paths are described in detail at the end of this chapter. Other rituals of modifi cation, for example castrations, breaking of bones, and severing patterns of fi nger and toe joints, have similar effects. Most Criamon fi nd these modifi cationsdistasteful.

Stigmata for Outsiders Players interested in religious matters may be aware that the term “stigmata” is also used for the miraculous appearance of the wounds of Christ upon the bodies of the faithful. This has yet to occur in Mythic Europe: the fi rst documented case will be in 1222 in England, if your saga follows real world history. The fi rst famous case, Saint Francis of Assisi, develops in 1224. His wounds are unusual, in that they are lumps of fl esh on his hands that take the shape of nail heads on one side of the hand, and sharp nail points on the other. Later, bleeding wounds become the usual form of stigmata. Unlike Criamon stigmata, these hurt and often smell like jasmine. Magical stigmata, like those possessed by House Criamon’s members, sometimes appear on magi from other Houses. Each stigma usually represents a single, terrible incident that infl uences the magus for the remainder of his life. Rarely, Gifted children develop stigmata before the Order discovers them. One form, blotches that look like bruising, sometimes appears in newborns. The House prizes these children as apprentices.

Enchanting Tattoos The rules given here are for simple tattoos used as enchanted items. The Mysteries Revised Edition gives an alternative system using a Minor Virtue called Inscription on the Soul, which is too lengthy for repetition. It allows magi to craft their own bodies into talismans. Members of the House may learn Inscription on the Soul from other Criamon magi, or from the ghosts at the Cave of Twisting Shadows. It is common only among House members following the Path of the Body, described later. A tattoo has a base material score of 2, multiplied by a size modifi er. A tiny tattoo has a multiplier of one. A tattoo the size of the magus’s palm or forehead has a multiplier of two. A tattoo that entirely covers a limb, or the scalp, has a multiplier of three. A tattoo that entirely covers the back or front of the torso has a multiplier of four. A tattoo is designed as personal magic, so it does not cause Warping. Tattoos may gain material bonuses by use of unusual inks, or by depictions of mystically resonant subjects. With minor modifi cations, these rules also describe the effects of mystical branding.

Life as a Criamon Magus

Individual Criamon magi have many goals. These include:

• Living an apt life. This can lead magi into stories that require them to solve personal problems.

• Meddling with mundane events so that their outcomes are apt. Criamon magi are democrats and believe people should help each other, but are also pacifi sts. Warriors rule Mythic Europe, and monsters infest it, so Criamon magi must act delicately to aid others while remaining inconspicuous.

• Supporting other members of the House. Criamon magi maintain close connections to the other members of the House in their Tribunal, and to their masters. They aid these people, or their friends, when trouble comes.

• Training an apprentice and taking a familiar. Criamon magi believe in reincarnation, so they see these acts as helping other immortals edge closer to magushood.

• Hunting adulterations. Magi generate these embodiments of confusion, and Criamon magi destroy them. They are described in greater detail later in the chapter.

• Developing the capacity to engage in research, through magical study or other training. Magi developing themselves act much like other magi, acquiring resources and using them, but have a different motive from their sodales in other Houses.

• Exploring strange places, investigating unusual magical effects, and studying odd mystical creatures. Criamon magi know that the House has already investigated many sites. Dangerous and weird places, newly discovered, offer the promise of novel insights that could aid the House.

• Following a path to gain its wisdom and Mystery Virtues. The paths are detailed at the end of the chapter.

• Passing on wisdom acquired. This is called transmission.

The Gorgiastics

Those magi who can no longer support the philosophy of the House cease to be members. It is obvious when a magus ceases to support the quest for the answer: their stigmata refl ect that rejection, and they vanish entirely in many cases. Criamon magi call those who have rejected the Enigma Gorgiastics. They are named for a student of Empedocles who, turning against his master’s teaching, posited that nothing existed, and even if something did exist, you could not understand it, and even if you could understand it, you could not communicate about it.

Criamon magi are generally nonviolent, and believe the House’s secrets are self-occluding, so those who wish to leave the House are treated civilly. Under Hermetic law the punishment for a year of orbushood – the crime of not having a House – is usually death, so the House avoids renouncing magi until they have arranged adoption into another House. Criamon magi have sometimes introduced young magi who wish to leave the House to others who have already left, who may act as mentors and sponsors.

There is no structured group of exCriamon magi, although many have informal contacts with each other, and the House. Most Gorgiastics are found in Houses Ex Miscellanea and Jerbiton. A Gorgiastic magus may return to House Criamon at any time, if he regains his desire to grapple with the Enigma. The stigmata of such characters return, changed by their unusual and diffi cult experiences.

Final Transmission

Transmission is the process through which a magus passes what he has learned on to other members of the House. Some Criamon magi report what they have found to their clutchmates. Others train skilled apprentices, or write books on their specialties. Some members of the House choose not to rest in death so that they can ensure the perfection of their transmission. Of these options, spectral tending of the House is considered most laudable, but many magi are unable to resist the reward that awaits them in the Hypostasis.

Some magi, fading into their path’s repose, have perfect transmissions. In this instant, the magus’s wisdom is encapsulated into a place or object, from which other Criamon magi may study, by contemplation. The covenants built in these Magical auras seem destined to play out tales that are allegories to the insights of the magus. Places of perfect transmission can be designed using rules given in Covenants Chapter 7: Libraries. As a simple alternative, treat the place as if it were an excellent book the magus wrote in the instant of entering Twilight, which a student reads by spending time meditating in its presence.

Perfect Transmission Site Example

One site, particularly popular in the House, was created by the transmission of the Maga Niobe, who longed to be Prima but was never selected by the communal vision. As she faded into Twilight, a small pond appeared around her feet. A magus with Enigmatic Wisdom who meditates at this spring for a season can study from it. Use the rules for studying a pawn of vis in a standard laboratory. The magus may study any Art in which he lacks the knowledge to train an apprentice (a score of 5). Several magi may use the pool simultaneously, but all must study the same Art in a given season. The area about the pool has a Magical aura of 1.

Repose: House Criamon’s Alternative to Death Every path of Initiation into the House’s Mysteries ends at a place where the magus ceases to strive. This is a point of blessedness and bliss. A conundrum recognized by many Criamon magi is this: to become so wise as to deserve repose, a magus must develop such compassion for other people that he cannot leave them to suffer. Most magi hold off repose so that they may aid others in the quest for the answer. The different paths that members of the House follow end in different paradisaical states. The repose of each path is described at the end of that path’s section, as are the powers granted to those who stand at the threshold of repose, choosing to abstain from bliss. These powers are simple but sweeping. Troupes desiring more limited and detailed powers may prefer those found for immortal magi in The Mysteries Revised Edition.

Adulterations: Lingering Problems

Adulterations are impurities from the minds of magi, made solid and real by mystical forces. Criamon magi believe these creatures are usually created when magi fade into Final Twilight. They also attribute adulterations to poor Twilight experiences, magical trauma, the death of apprentices, and the loss of familiars. Whatever a specifi c adulteration’s cause, each refl ects an unresolved psychological issue, and is best destroyed by resolving that issue.

Members of House Criamon believe that when magi ascend into Final Twilight, they have moments of self-realization and defi nition. They shed all of those parts of themselves that they do not wish to carry into eternity. These pieces � usually fears or aspirations — fall back into the mortal world. These unwanted thoughts take material form, becoming adulterations, which allows other magi to deal with them.

A second source of adulterations is uncontrolled Twilight experiences. These adulterations are manifestations of thoughts dredged from magi by the stress of Twilight. This potential Twilight consequence should be considered an addition to the list of bad Twilight effects on ArM5, page 89. These adulterations are drawn to the magus who created them. If he resolves the adulteration, the magus is freed from the burden that it represents. In exceptional cases, a magus resolving a major adulteration gains a benefi t from the list of positive Twilight outcomes that suits his recent experiences. Other forms of magical trauma, for example laboratory accidents, also sometimes create adulterations.

The death of an apprentice, Criamon magi believe, is particularly tragic. Apprentices cannot enter the Hypostasis, but nevertheless have powerful, active magical potential. This often becomes an adulteration, which seeks out the former apprentice’s master. It is said that one of the malignancies, which are the greatest adulterations, is an apprentice of Criamon’s who died. It haunts the Order, killing other apprentices so that they, too, spawn adulterations.

Life on the Threshold of Repose To the unwise, characters on the threshold of repose seem to neglect their powers. They ignore problems well within their capabilities, instead advising and mentoring their juniors in resolving them. But to the wise, guided by allies outside time, life follows obvious patterns. Criamon elders act as mentors because waiting for the younger person, and then guiding his destiny, is the better strategy for the House. In addition to seeing problems solved — eventually — it trains and enlightens the next generation. This method also recognizes that the wisdom of the House is imperfect, and the novel insights of the young draw it closer to fl awlessness. There are some tasks, however, that fall to elders because their protégés cannot complete them. These include the following. Aiding magi facing insurmountable problems. Conducting campaigns against malignant spirits, major demons, and troublesome followers of the Divine. Contacting magical groups outside of Mythic Europe. Dealing with major catastrophes such as Europe-wide plagues, the invasion of the Huns, and the like. Exploring the realms and alams. Founding clutches. Researching new paths, avenues, and stations. Resolving complex situational adulterations. Seeking ancient Mysteries.

The Carnal Wolf

The adulteration the House’s members know best is caged within the Cave of Twisting Shadows. Apprentices are shown it to introduce the consequences of spiritual impurity. It takes the shape of a great wolf, with teeth so large that it cannot close its jaws. The creature embodies the carnal urges of Demetrius, the current Prima’s teacher. Prior to its capture it terrorized a village by worrying livestock and possessing drunkards, whom it drove to despicable acts.

The Carnal Wolf’s form could be destroyed by magic, but the adulteration would reform in some other place. It will instead resolve when confronted by the descendants of its creator, the Prima, for example. The Wolf represents the drive to feed, mate, and reproduce that Demetrius channeled into training Hermetic offspring. Any of Demetrius’s descendants could soothe the adulteration into non-existence or familiarhood, but he has asked that it be used as a teaching aid until he enters repose.

Most Criamon magi believe that their housemates spawn fewer adulterations than other magi due to their greater capacity for self-refl ection. This is false. The ability to shed spiritual burdens into the mundane world is an effect of Enigmatic Wisdom. Other magi expiate their spiritual impurities in the Hypostasis.

The spectral Primus Cato, who was a Bonisagus magus before joining House Criamon, has always believed Criamon magi create the majority of all adulterations. He pursues this idea among his other hobbies and sometimes, as a favor to him, his descendants study the lives of young, violent magi from other Houses, to determine if a narrative of transgression and expiation is discernable.

Designing Adulterations Adulterations vary in severity. The weakest adulterations are minor events and beings, spawned by a magus in Twilight, that draw the magus’s attention to personal weaknesses. Severe adulterations include terrible monsters and deathtraps born of evil acts or deep, personal recrimination. The adulterations left behind by the tangential have no single magus on which to focus, so they become problematic for all. Some adulterations amalgamate. The House’s members tell stories of the malignancies, incarnations of spiritual pollutions that have stalked the Earth since the time of Criamon, growing more powerful as more and more magi pass into Twilight in a state of spiritual transgression. Magi who resolve these amalgamations draw the House closer to the Enigma. Adulterations can be considered in two classes: creatures and places. Adulterous creatures have certain common features. Each has a Magical Might score that ranges from 10, for minor adulterations, to 45, for the malignancies. Most have magical abilities that parallel or mock the dominant Arts of their creators. An adulterous creature is, mystically, part of its creator, and so may pass an Aegis of the Hearth cast by its creator without invitation. Adulterations do not activate wards that ignore the adulteration’s creator. Adulterations always know where their creator is. Creatures tend to force confrontation. Subconsciously, this is so that the magus may not simply ignore them. Adulterous places are usually in regiones. Some adulterous regiones may be entered and resolved by anyone, but a few will not open save to their creator. Once a magus has created an adulterous place, she is fated to return to it, over and again, until she resolves the issue that lies at its heart. After resolution, the regio usually vanishes. This either draws the contents of the regio back into the ambient magical energy of the world, or deposits them in the mundane world. Situational adulterations drawn from Final Twilight sometimes create permanent regiones or auras after resolution.

Example: Introducing an Adulteration Antigone of Criamon suffers a Twilight incident and fails her control roll. The storyguide considers the options given for bad Twilight effects in the core rulebook, but decides that an adulteration might suit the saga better. While some troupes groups prefer the storyguide not foreshadow upcoming stories, as this detracts from the surprise, other troupes enjoy discussing, in broad terms, where they see their saga going. The storyguide seeks input from Antigone’s player, as this is usual for this particular troupe. The storyguide tells Antiogone’s player that the negative Twilight effect is an adulteration, and asks for broad guidance concerning what sorts of spiritual flaws the character needs to expiate. The player may nominate any broad issue; players seeking inspiration might consider unwanted Personality Traits and Reputations. They might also consider grievous mistakes the character has made in previous stories. Antigone’s player suggests her character’s violent temper and Angry Personality Trait as the underlying issue to be embodied. The storyguide considers the players input, and the adulteration then becomes a character or setting in an upcoming story. This provides the player with the opportunity to roleplay the character’s spiritual development. The adulteration should not dominate the story, and need not be resolved immediately. Unresolved adulterations do not appear in every story, but they do become recurring settings or characters. A resolved adulteration represents a turning point for the character, with regard to the issue that the adulteration embodies. A single story does not, usually, resolve the matter entirely, however. The storyguide arranges for Antigone to confront her aggression embodied as a dragon attacking a village. When Antigone drowns the dragon in milk, she does not suddenly lose the trait it represented. She does lose one point from her Angry Personality Trait, and is assumed, through roleplaying in future stories, to be continuing to reduce her score.

The Cave of Twisting Shadows

The Cave of Twisting Shadows is a regio that leads from the mortal world to the refuge Criamon discovered outside time. The covenant’s inhabitants do not live in the mortal world at the base of the regio, nor in its highest level, the Hypostasis. Criamon magi call this regio the Axis Magica. It is, they say, the great pole around which the world’s tides of magical energy circle. It is their domus magna.

Hundreds of dead covenfolk and magi haunt the Cave of Twisting Shadows. These ghosts do not have the monomaniacal personalities often noticed in the unquiet dead. The covenant’s ghosts form extended families governed by their living members. These spirits believe that, once the answer is known, they will be able to enter the refuge outside time, as Hermetic magi can now. Many hundreds rest in their ashes, kept in urns within each family home, waiting for the call of the answer.

The Central Clutch

The Central Clutch is the custodian of the House’s store of wisdom. Its primary task is to support the other parts of the House, whose specialists continue to research the answer. The Central Clutch trains most of the apprentices, engages in Hermetic politics, and assists the senior members of the other clutches, when they require it. The Prima leads this clutch.

The Prima

The Prima of the House has many duties. She leads the council, of magi and elected covenfolk, which rules the Cave of Twisting Shadows. She coordinates the House’s activities, and is its spokesperson to the other Houses. Most Primi also engage in research. The Prima ascends to the role through a complicated ritual, during which many Criamon magi enter a communal vision.

Killing the Prima

When the Prima feels close to Final Twilight, the members of House Criamon gather at the Cave of Twisting Shadows to kill her. A procession wends to the ninth level of the regio, where a non-Criamon ceremonially murders her. Her ghost then fl oats free and announces its intention not to pass through the gate into the Hypostasis. It chooses instead to stay in the mortal world to tend the House until the Enigma is answered.

Those magi present who have an Enigmatic Wisdom score of 3 or more then enter into a communal trace fi lled with incomprehensible images. When one believes the images indicate that he should accept the role of Primus, he stands and announces this to be so. The magus is acclaimed by his sodales. The only other formality of investiture is sending letters to Criamon magi unable to attend the ritual, and to the Primi of the other Houses.

The House tries to limit the time between the death and ascension of Primi. They believe the Hypostasis is inaccessible when there is no living Primus. Thus, they believe that magi who have fallen into temporary Twilight cannot return while the offi ce is vacant, and that magi whose circumstances would usually force them into Final Twilight cannot shelter there during such periods; they simply die.

Famous Primi

The Primi who followed Criamon were younger and less mystical than outsiders usually expect. The personality and aptitudes of the Primi appear to predict the crises the House faces during their custodianship. During the Schism War, for example, a militant Primus from the Path of Strife drew the House back to the Cave of Twisting Shadows. He offered sanctuary to members of non-combatant Houses, some of who joined the House afterward, creating unusual Criamon lineages. Three past Primi have left particularly signifi cant legacies for the House.

Before becoming Criamon’s successor, Juliasta fi lia Criamon was the fi rst follower of the Winding Path. These magi do not live in the House’s covenants, and some wander Europe seeking subjects for study. Juliasta also lived, for a time, in several non-Criamon covenants. She shared much of the House’s knowledge with outsiders, learning useful arcana in exchange. This rounded out the capacities of Criamon magi, making their Arts comparable to their sodales in other Houses. Juliasta prepared the House for its journey.

The third Primus, Verderis, wrote an epic poem called The Travels of Fedoso, which many apprentices use to learn Latin. Fedoso is a young man who travels through a strange landscape facing mystical obstacles, fi gurative enemies, and perplexing situations. He fi nds allies and companions, but ends his journey alone at the peak of a mountain.

Many Criamon magi claim that The Travels of Fedoso is a map for the future of the House. Those versed in the text claim that it predicted the Corruption of House Tytalus and the Schism War. A few magi refuse to allow their students to read this book. They believe it causes the calamities it predicts.

The ghost of Verderis does not reside in the Cave of Twisting Shadows, one of only three Primi who are absent from the succession. He predicted that he would die away from the Cave of Twisting Shadows, and that his spirit would be lost for a time. He said he would be found, literally “netted in,” as a harbinger of the coming answer. Many Criamon sought him in the early years of the House, interpreting sections of The Travels of Fedoso as clues to his whereabouts, but this is a less popular practice in 1220.

Abdkypris was the most exciting Primus in recent times. He traveled through Muslim Iberia, North Africa, and the Levant to speak to the greatest thinkers of the Islamic world. His infusion of Islamic ideas, particularly Sufi wisdom, has enlivened debate in the House. Continued contact with Muslim thinkers has led the House into greater political activity. Many Criamon magi advocate peace in the Levant and Iberia.

False and Unusual Claimants

Many factors prevent the selection of a magus claiming Primacy out of a desire for glory or power. The Prima does not rule the House, she simply coordinates it. She has little authority beyond her capacity to convince. She offers to forsake a place in the Hypostasis until the House answers the Enigma. The Prima is often not the wisest, or the most learned maga, she is simply the maga of her generation willing to delay paradise to tend the House.

On five occasions, a person present for a reason other than participation in the deliberations claimed the Primacy. Three served the house admirably. The first was a researcher named Cato of Bonisagus. He was skilled in the Enigma and a great popularizer of Criamon’s insights. The second, Diana of Merinita, was present to slay the previous Primus. Her acceptance caused a furor of cosmological speculation, since Criamon magi assumed that the murderer was forever in a state of spiritual pollution. She also served the House well, and her ghost continues to teach those Criamon interested in Faerie Lore. Primus Johannes, the third, was not a magus; he was a notary acting for a Quaesitor who was present at the deliberation. The rest of his House eventually accepted his Primacy. Johannes appointed a magus to communicate with outsiders and attend the Grand Tribunal on his behalf. That Tribunal ratifi ed the Privileges of Criamon, the ruling that allows for House customs like the slaying of a willing Primus. Johannes’s ghost persists, and is the House expert in Hermetic legal precedent.

The two “false claimants” fared worse. Victor of Tytalus was a diabolist trying to hide his soul in the Hypostasis. Immediately after he was acclaimed as Primus, he flung himself into the Hypostasis and was reduced to adulterations. Sagitar of Tremere discovered that the role of Primus is a form of voluntary mystical slavery, a non-retractable offer to serve the House. His brief Primacy was fi lled with tragic coincidences that, dealt with, favored the House. His ghost haunts the Cave of Twisted Shadows, contrite and far wiser for his ordeal.

The Current Prima

The current Prima, Muscaria, did not expect to take the role. She did not understand that it is not Enigmatic Wisdom, but the desire to sacrifi ce wisdom for the service of others, that marks a potential Primus. Soon after becoming a maga, Muscaria concluded that she would never fi nd the answer herself, so she instead developed the mushroom farms that allow the covenant to grow its own food. Muscaria is forty-one, which is young for a Criamon Prima, although she looks even younger.

Muscaria’s master, Demetrius, is an alchemist. He believes that all of humanity will be saved by a solution, in the chemical sense. The solution must create a lifting joy in the spirit that breaks the bonds of time. Demetrius wanted his fi li to have the best chance of using this elixir, and noted that alchemical potions are more effective on immature bodies. He gave Muscaria a longevity potion when she reached the age of adulthood: fourteen.

Muscaria espouses no particular theory concerning the answer, except that it will be diffi cult to fi nd, so it is best to begin looking immediately. She still loves her teacher, despite thinking him blissfully mad. The longevity enchantment was a gift of paternal affection, and in honor of him, Muscaria has not allowed her body to enter adulthood, a form of mystical body modifi cation. She appears to be an energetic adolescent who knows far too much.

The Spectral Primi

The spirits of the past Primi of the House remain in the Cave of Twisting Shadows. Their care of the House now usually takes the form of teaching. They serve in lieu of a library for the covenant, and answer questions sent to them, usually by magi who have encountered inexplicable things. The Primi have different beliefs about how the quest for the Enigma will end. They agree that they will eventually enter the Hypostasis.

Story Seeds for The Travels of Fedoso Verderis has the Premonitions Virtue, and withheld passages of The Travels of Fedoso. The Redcaps deliver an ancient letter, scribed by him, that offers a paragraph to the player characters. Verderis foresees they are the people best suited to deal with the calamity it predicts. A final page of the book, which describes what Fedoso sees from the mountain, begins to circulate. It is a forgery, but who has created it, and why? A young maga writes a sequel to The Travels of Fedoso. She vanishes, but characters reading the original now fi nd that she has become character, aware she is trapped within a book. Can the characters save her, and how long do they wait before they intervene? If she changes the story is this necessarily a bad thing? The player characters are lost in a faerie wood, and are assisted by the Spider, a character from the book. Do they believe his claims that he is a spirit, or is he a faerie? If the Spider helps the characters escape, may he live in their covenant? Some scholars think the Spider predicted the depredations of an evil magus during the early period following the Order’s founding. Can his precursor be trusted? Can he be used to ensure that the evil wizard really did die, many years ago? A magus claims to have found Fedoso’s mountain. Who is the dead boy atop it, and why did he die?

All Primi follow the Path of the Mirror. It is not described in detail in this chapter, because it is suited only for characters intending to remain, almost exclusively, within the Cave of Twisting Shadows. Initiates of the Path of the Mirror are instructed by the received wisdom of the House, as embodied in the spectral magi, so they develop abilities quickly. While within the regio the Prima can hear the thoughts of the covenant’s ghosts, can sense and distort magical tides and currents, and can bind spirits to places or objects.

Members of the House also believe that a living Primus can draw the Axis Magica inside his own body and walk with it to another place. When the Primus enters Twilight, they believe, the Axis is re-established and the entire pattern of auras in Mythic Europe moves. This ability has either never been used, or perhaps was used by Criamon when he founded the covenant. While a magus incarnates the Axis Magica, they further believe, no other magus may return from Twilight. Those attempting to shelter there from magical harm cannot; they die instead.

The Secret of the Axis Magica, and What Lies Beyond

Most Hermetic magi know that House Criamon claims that their Founder waits for the answer to the Enigma so that he can, in good conscience, surrender the burden of keeping open the Twilight Road. Experienced Criamon magi understand the mechanics of the task: the Axis Magica is Criamon himself, transformed into a living bridge between this world and the sanctuary he discovered. Most think that Criamon is waiting for the House to fi nd an alternative road. Some deduce that he is waiting for a messianic fi gure to take his place. A handful of magi suspect it is more complicated than that, and they are right.

The Primi in the Cave of Twisting Shadows are not ghosts, they are a single spirit of place. The Primi feel that they are individuals, but on a mystical level they are a single being, deceiving itself. The spirit learns and grows as new magi join it. Few magi understand that the genius locus of which the Primi are part once a tortured child, who refuses to be reborn to suffer, ever again. Still fewer suspect that the Primi are, perhaps, building their own messiah. The answer might integrate the genius locus into a single mind.

In the Hypostasis, the Primi claim, dwell the tangential magi. These are magi who have faded peacefully into Final Twilight, or those whose traumatic Final Twilight episodes have been soothed. The tangential have plans for the House that mortals cannot understand since they lack suffi cient Enigmatic Wisdom. The tangential send visions through the Axis to their mortal successors. Some of the creatures that rose with the tangential, familiars for example, can step back into the world and act without risking universal catastrophe. They arrange minor, precise, surreptitious aid for other Criamon magi.

Criamon thinkers claim that the tangential are outside time, so some tangential magi have yet to be born. Others are of races from the counter-cycle of time. These beings, from the time of rising harmony, cause less stress when they enter time than characters born of the time of rising strife. In the ancient history of the world, some acted as guides to magi, and were worshipped as animal-headed gods. Strife has progressed too far for such direct interventions today, but they dispatch servants into time, it make it begin to spiral, rather than circle.

The Paths

Criamon magi have not idled away the time since the Founder. Their inquiries into the nature of the universe have shown them many strange connections, and granted them many abilities not shared by other magi. Their fields of research, called paths, are traditional ways of acquiring wisdom. Each path has a clutch that acts as its center, but most clutches contain members who are not on its usual path. These magi travel to their path’s clutch, or to the Cave of Twisting Shadows, when they require further training or guidance.

All Criamon magi see life as a spiritual journey, and it usually follows one of the paths that have been marked by their predecessors. This chapter does not describe all of the paths of House Criamon. Troupes are encouraged to develop further paths that suit their stories. Those trying to develop their own paths should follow the rules for discovering new Virtues given in The Mysteries Revised Edition.

Some magi, particularly the young, do not attempt to develop themselves spiritually, either by following a path or pioneering one their own. Criamon magi say that those individuals are following the Winding Path. This reflects the idea that all magi are living and acting, so they must be on a path to somewhere. Older magi say that directionlessness is the widest path, because those on it are hardly the first to eschew the dictates of Wisdom. Characters on the Winding Path sometimes stray from apt action concerning pacifism, which includes inappropriate sex and carnivorism. Most magi on the Winding Path eventually find spiritual direction, sometimes with intriguing results.

A magus may follow only one path at a time. A path includes a mental framework that is incompatible with any other worldview. Changing paths is a life-shaking decision, because it means abandoning much that was learned on the previous path. A magus who steps from his path to another begins without the use of any stations upon it, save Enigmatic Wisdom. Magi rejoining a path regain the understanding they had before they left it. The Primi of the House are the single exception. They retain the stations on their previous paths when they step onto the path that only Primi travel, the Path of the Mirror.

Secrets

Most mystery cults enforce secrecy with dreadful oaths and terrible threats, but Criamon magi do not consider this necessary. The things that the House has discovered on the paths to the Enigma are so obscure that a magus not trained in the Criamon way of thinking, through the riddle technique, simply cannot understand them. Those with suffi cient Enigmatic Wisdom to support the House’s mission, conversely, are welcome to know them. Those who try to develop Enigmatic Wisdom outside of the structure of the House’s beliefs and practices inevitably fail — the House has been molded by the Mysteries. This means that House Criamon does not have to hide its secrets; its secrets hide themselves.

Pacing A maga typically follows a given path for much of her life, becoming an Initiate of the highest station only after decades of study. This slow pacing is important to the maga, because it gives her time to integrate and test her understanding with worldly experience. For players, it spreads the Criamon character’s Initiation stories across the length of a saga. This helps troupes to balance the importance of different player characters in the troupe’s saga. Troupes playing sagas in which characters do not age much, because very little time passes, might create skilled followers of a path as beginning characters. The paths are more formal, and restrictive, than the Initiations of virtually any other Mystery Cult. This is because the Criamon cosmology is false: the House is less fl exible because it can only reproduce those odd effects it has discovered. It cannot extrapolate broadly from them. Criamon magi see the formality of the House’s structures as a method of intergenerational nurturance, however, believing that they offer only the best methods of Initiation.

Enigmatic Wisdom and House Criamon Lore

House Criamon’s members have the Enigmatic Wisdom Ability, described in the core rules and elsewhere in this chapter, and House Criamon Lore. The latter Ability quantifi es each magus’s understanding of the House’s task, and its strategy to reach its goal. This strategy encompasses the paths and stations, described below, but also includes the function of each of the clutches, and the roles of senior magi within the House.

Guides

A key fi gure in some Mystery Cults is the Mystagogue. This charismatic person commands a probationer, and grants him Initiation. Criamon magi believe that wisdom itself Initiates, and that the traveler on the path to wisdom does not need a master so much as he needs a guide. The game mechanics governing the roles of guide and Mystagogue involve the same numbers and formulae. The roles differ in how the characters behave in stories. Criamon magi have a non-hierarchical approach to spiritual development. Tasks based on impressing the guide are not usually signifi cant — one cannot impress the Enigma.

Two exceptions are the Paths of the Mirror and Strife, which do have formal Initiation by superiors. The Path of the Mirror, followed only by the living Prima under the instruction of her predecessors, is a series of Initiations for those who choose to serve the worldly House. The Path of Strife transgresses the mores of the House.

Stations

Each path described below divides into fi ve grades of progress, called stations. Stations are psychological states that, because of the wisdom they provide, allow magi to understand profound insights. This, in turn, gives magi supernatural powers, which players use as Mystery Virtues. To Criamon magi, insight is the more important; the powers are mere effects of the process of increased enlightenment.

Psychodrama Some of the avenues below require periods of introspection and meditation. Superfi cially, these times lack story potential: the magus is simply thinking. This underestimates the effort, and potential for failure, involved. Magi pausing to refl ect are engaged in a process of excruciating self-examination that amounts to spiritual combat against the self. Player characters best experience this as an allegorical story that takes place in the mind of the magus. For example, a magus sealed in a glass coffin for a year, in darkness, seems to have perfectly avoided any potential for story involvement. This is not the case: the magus, closed away from the petty distractions of life, has no choice but to confront his own nature and his role in the universe. He is forced to acknowledge, and replay repeatedly, his moments of greatest moral failure. He is constrained to confront the consequences of defects in his character and lifestyle, unflinchingly. He is compelled to explore the universe, his body, and the links between, despite the pain and perversity of the process. Many magi claim to meet ancient spirits in this state — Strife, Uncertainty, Harmony, Surety, Swiftness, and so on. Some magi generate fantastic delusional worlds that assist their minds to deal with such diffi cult concepts, and conventional stories can be played within them, remembering that each character in those stories and worlds is invested with profound allegorical meaning. A magus who fails to complete this ordeal may not progress on his path. Often the magus may attempt the avenue again, assisted by knowledge gained through prior failure. Absolute failure during psychodramatic stories sometimes has terrible effects. The magus is in a mystical mental state, so failure can force checks for Twilight. Magi occasionally die during their meditations, leaving highly troubled ghosts.

The process of reaching a new station is called following an avenue. Each avenue is a process of spiritual awakening, purifi cation, and testing that is mechanically refl ected by three elements. The magus must have a House Criamon Lore score of at least one more than the station’s position on the path, undergo a trial or ritual investiture, and fi nd insight in a story. This means that to reach the fi nal station on the path, magi require a House Criamon Lore score of 6. This is usually only gained by extensive study at the Cave of Twisting Shadows, through instruction from the spectral embodiments of the House’s collective lore, who guide the House’s strategy.

The Initiation Script calculations given below for each avenue assume the guide’s Presence + House Criamon Lore score equals 6. The House selects guides for young magi, and ensures that satisfactory teaching is always available. The ghostly magi at the Cave of Twisting Shadows also sometimes act as guides. Assume that these have a House Criamon Lore score of 9, and a Presence refl ecting that which they had in life. They prefer to allow the living members of the House to perform Initiations into the lower stations.

A character proceeding on a path may find that she already has a Virtue or Flaw that lies on her route. The player should negotiate with the troupe to substitute another Virtue or Flaw, to balance the paths. It is possible for a magus to learn House Criamon Lore without developing the Flaws that typify the House, but all followers of the paths are eventually Disfi gured, and all have either the Vow or Pious Flaw.

To Do Is To Be. To Be Is To Do

The avenues and stations are not, of themselves, suffi cient to use new Virtues or powers. These benefi ts represent a state of spiritual purifi cation. A magus who lives badly is rejecting that state, and loses the associated powers until purity is restored.

This isreflected by the Vow Flaw found in the fi rst avenue of many paths. The Pious Flaw, similarly, is the deep desire to follow the lifestyle of a path. A magus who has the Pious Flaw and fails to act aptly ceases to advance on her path and, very slowly, loses his path’s mystical abilities.

Enigmatic Wisdom

Enigmatic Wisdom lies at the beginning of each path. Criamon apprentices learn to view events and objects in unusual and intuitive ways, usually by meditating on 15 riddles related to the Arts. This training helps them to find connections between concepts, and place this knowledge into the context of the Enigma. This in turn allows Criamon magi to understand the nature of humans, the universe, and the ties between them in ways incomprehensible to other magi. Once a magus has grasped the foundational elements of wisdom, he may develop deeper understanding by considering the insights of others, which can be transmitted through books, discussion, or mystical experiences.

Symbolic Understanding

A Criamon magus may use his Enigmatic Wisdom score to understand subtle symbols. This allows magi to interpret arcane events, perplexing situations, dreams, and visions.

Criamon magi can understand what kind of life experience lies behind each of another magus’s stigmata with a successful Intelligence + Enigmatic Wisdom roll against an Ease Factor of 6. They can tell whether a character has been Warped, and how severely, with a Perception + Enigmatic Wisdom roll against an Ease Factor six or more, and if they beat an Ease Factor of 12, they understand, in general terms, what sort of life experience caused the Warping.

This Ability also assists with interpreting dreams and visions. It does not grant supernatural visions, but many Criamon also have that — separate — Flaw.

Labyrinth Meditations

Criamon magi may improve their concentration by engaging in labyrinth meditations. A labyrinth meditation is a non-magical ritual during which the magus walks slowly through a maze while contemplating a problem. Many contemplation mazes are simple ribbons, with a single path leading to a center, then out again. Simple contemplative labyrinths can be created with low-level spells.

The magus’s mental state remains focused for an hour after he completes the labyrinth. This allows a bonus on a single roll. This can be used to untangle a single conundrum (an Enigmatic Wisdom roll), recall a single fact (a Lore roll), or perform a single physical action. Physical actions must take no longer than one minute (ten combat rounds). The bonus is equal to half the magus’s Enigmatic Wisdom score.

The magus must have a score of at least one in the required Ability before it can be assisted by labyrinth meditations. Meditations add grace to the magus’s thoughts and actions, but do not grant conscious skill. A magus who does not know how to swim, for example, cannot use the clarity of thought and action provided by the meditation to swim.

Characters with an Enigmatic Wisdom score of three or more don’t need a physical labyrinth; they can walk in a circle for the same effect. Those with a score of six or more don’t even need to walk — they can imagine the circle. Labyrinth rituals take sixteen hours for characters with a score of one in Enigmatic Wisdom. The time required halves for each level they gain. Characters with brief meditation times cannot, however, perform several meditations and save or stack the bonuses.

Twilight

Criamon magi understand Twilight better than other magi, and so navigate it more safely. This is refl ected in the Twilight rules given in ArM5, pages 88–89.

The Path of the Body

The Path of the Body focuses on the human form. Some Criamon magi believe that the human body and the universe refl ect each other structurally, so that knowing the body illuminates the prison of time. Others enhance the body as a tool and as a vehicle for escape from the universe. The Criamon Path of the Body is in many ways the inverse of Hermetic alchemy, which assumes the universe is perfect and a magus who refl ects it perfectly will become immortal. Criamon magi assume that the universe, like each body, is inevitably decaying.

The five usual stations on the Path of the Body, in their most common order, are given below. Some Criamon magi, however, find the Station of Perfect Movement second and the Station of Spiritual Nourishment third. These different branches of this path correspond to the attitude of the magus. Those who see the body as a vessel for the spirit learn Nourishment fi rst, while those who see the body in mechanistic terms learn Movement first. Each type of magus must learn respect for the opposing view before he can understand the Microcosmic Station. If the order is reversed, the Scripts for the two stations change: a Major Flaw (Pious) is always gained in the third avenue.

The followers of the Path of the Body tend toward practical, useful insights. An unusually large proportion of the Primi of the House followed this Path. Primi who have achieved the Microcosmic Station on this path are active administrators under whom the House co-ordinates its ventures effectively.

The Avenue of Subduing the Meat and the Station of the Perfect Tool

Several ritual investitures assist magi to fi nd the fi rst station of the Path of the Body, each of which is descended from a different tradition of mystics adopted into the early House. Those following this avenue develop control over their bodies’ desires and distractions, usually through painful mortifications, or fatiguing exertions, that last a year. A handful of magi have followed this avenue by being transformed into plants for a year. The avenue ends with a guide acting as midwife for a symbolic rebirth.

At the first station of the Path of the Body, the magus realizes that the body is the perfect tool for Hermetic magic because it is adapted for magic, and magic, in turn, is adapted for it. The magus’s close inspection of the body allows the development of Minor Potency in an aspect of the Art of Corpus. Magi who have found this station see the intrinsic links between the body and the magical energies it wields, and so can use their understanding of magical events to minister to the body. They may use Enigmatic Wisdom in place of Chirurgy and Medicine in rolls. They also know, instinctively, if their body is ill, and where, although they may not know the appropriate treatment.

Initiates of this station are bound by the lifestyle of the House (Vow) and fi nd it more diffi cult to use their magic when their body is ill (Deleterious Circumstances). Some illnesses do not block certain mystical effects; the usual example given is that fevers do not restrict Ignem spells because they are caused by a surplus of fi ery humors. Wounds do not prevent magic use, of themselves, but open the body to infections, which may.

The Path of the Body, Expressed Symbolically The Initiation Scripts for the Path of the Body are as follows: The Avenue of Subduing The Meat and the Station of the Perfect Tool Target level 21, as Major Virtue (Minor Potency in an aspect of Corpus, may use Enigmatic Wisdom in lieu of Medicine and Chirurgy) Script Bonus +15: Major Ordeal comprising three minor Flaws (Vow to not pollute the body and to use it aptly, Deleterious Circumstances while ill, Disfi gured by stigmata) +9, sympathetic bonus (a complete year cycle as a plant, or similar) +3, special time and place (symbolic rebirth) +3 The Avenue of Drinking the Winds of Inspiration and the Station of Spiritual Nourishment See the note in the introductory section for this path to determine whether this is gained as the third station and Perfect Movement as the second. Target level 12, as Major Virtue 21 (allows characters in high auras to not eat, drink, or sleep and replaces the longevity ritual), fi rst Initiation after Major Ordeal –9 Script Bonus +6: Psychodramatic visions or confl ict to secure a site (Quest) +3, special time and place +3 The Avenue of the Tiniest Seed And the Station of Perfect Economy of Movement Target level 15, as Major Virtue 21 (perfectly precise movement), second Initiation after Major Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +9: Major Flaw (Pious) replaces Minor Flaw (Vow) +6, Mystagogue’s time +3 The Avenue of the Spherical Mirror and the Station of the Microcosm Target level 15, Major Virtue 21 (Arcane Connections to most things), first Initiation after Intermediate Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +9: Psychodramatic Quest +3, Mystagogue’s time +3, special time and place +3 The Avenue of Repose in the Body and the Threshold of Corporeal Repose Target level 17, Major Virtue 21 (purifi ed of mortal frailties), second Initiation after Intermediate Ordeal –4 Script Bonus +12: Three Quests to legendary places +9, special time and place +3

The Avenue of Drinking the Winds of Inspiration and the Station of Spiritual Nourishment

A process of purification that involves abstinence reveals the second station of the Path of the Body. The magus travels to an area with a Magical aura of at least 7, and secures safe use of the site. Beginning on the fi rst day of the solar sign of Virgo, the magus begins progressively deeper degrees of fasting, avoids spellcasting, and performs labyrinth mediations. During this time, the magus is usually unable to perform other useful work, as he is only half-conscious of the mortal world. His feverish hallucinations, representing his addictions to fl esh and grain, hound him. Magi may leave their trance-like state for emergencies, but then need to begin the process of purifi cation afresh.

Characters Initiated to this station have drawn themselves away from the universe suffi ciently that their bodies are sustained by the fl ux of harmony and strife within the Inspirato. Characters Initiated into this station gain a Warping Point each year, but do not age. While in magical or mundane areas, spiritually nourished characters may eat, drink, and breathe, but they do not need to. They must engage in elaborate, delightful labyrinth meditations that take six hours every day, but do not sleep.

The delightful mental exercises required to feed mystically engage the magus’s mind. The magus is still aware of his surroundings, and can cease meditating if events threaten, but cannot perform other useful work while feeding. Characters do not gain additional seasons of study due to this station.

Magi feeding on the Inspirato’s fl ux require six hours of meditation per day in total, regardless of interruption. Those failing to fi nish their meditations must either eat mortal food or lose weight. Many Criamon magi on this path fast occasionally, by refusing either meditation or food, and often meditate for more than six hours a day if they are recovering from illness.

Spiritual nourishment can fail for a variety of reasons. It cannot be found in places lacking suffi cient magical energy, which includes Faerie or Infernal auras of three or more, or anywhere in the Dominion. It also fails if the character is in an inappropriate spiritual state, having performed inapt actions. Spiritual nourishment is affected badly by venturing into areas under the infl uence of nonmagical realms.

The age-resisting properties of this station are countered by two of the other realms. Characters who venture into Arcadia may retain their longevity effects by eating a pawn of Creo vis from the mortal world, per week, while there, but must also eat, drink, and sleep as normal folk must. They still do not breathe, but aren’t sure why. Characters venturing into the Dominion or Infernal areas fi nd that they begin to age again after (Enigmatic Wisdom + 1) days. They are required to breathe, drink, eat, and sleep in these areas; they gain one need back each day. A character who ages, for any length of time, during a year must make an Aging roll at the end of that year, even if he has regained spiritual nourishment before the winter, which players use as a tallying point for aging. A character whose ceases to be spiritually nourished can regain her previous state with a labyrinth meditation once the reason for failure has been remedied.

The Avenue of the Tiniest Seed and the Station of Perfect Economy of Movement

The third station on the Path of the Body allows the magus to use the mechanical force of his muscles with incredible precision. The investiture requires a season of complicated training in focus and movement from a guide. Magi who develop perfect economy of movement are supernaturally graceful. Given preparation time, they are able to use labyrinth meditations and the Virtues granted by this station to perform one action of perfect precision each day. To those inspired by such things, these movements appear beautiful.

Once per day, following a labyrinth meditation, the character automatically succeeds on single Dexterity-related Ability roll with an Ease Factor of 21 or less. This theoretically includes the use of missile weapons and aimed spells. The Magi on this path often favor the Art of Corpus, and many are skilled in Intellego, Creo or Rego. The other magi on this path note that the body represents the universe, and the universe contains the other Arts, so one may follow the Path of the Body while studying another Art.

The stigmata of this path fi rst appear upon the magus’s back, over the lungs. They rapidly spread to the rest of the body, but remain most dense in their original location, and along the backs of the arms and the tops of the legs. The marks are usually have mirror symmetry, that is, they are a mirror image divided along the spine. The sound of the breath plays an important role in the labyrinth meditations of followers of this path.

Path Symbolism Unlike the other paths, there is no discernible motif in the stigmata of the body. This may be because the body represents itself in the design. It might instead mean that the motif is very simple, and is disguised by multiple, seemingly random, expressions. The oldest magus on this path claims that the stigmata are dozens of randomly superimposed images of the constellation of Virgo, but he cannot prove it to the satisfaction of his sodales. Each mark seems to be made of darker skin, in Caucasian magi, or paler skin, in others. Newly emerged stigmata look pink and raw, but are painless. Followers of this path often have apes or monkeys as familiars. It is considered particularly auspicious to have an Egyptian baboon, because the being known as both Thoth and Hermes took this shape when he descended into time to train the progenitors of human magic.

Criamon lifestyle limits the usefulness of this, since these magi are pacifists.

A magus reaching the third Station of the Path of the Body is certain, in his innermost self, of the correctness of the path. This certainty is represented by the Pious Flaw, which replaces the Vow Flaw gained earlier on the path.

The Avenue of the Spherical Mirror and the Station of the Microcosm

The insight at the heart of the fourth station of the Path of the Body is one of which most magi are, intellectually, aware. The human form and the universe have identical underlying structures: the body is a microcosm. The usual method of awakening the instinctual, reflexive connections between the magus’s body and the universe is deprivation. The magus is encased in quartz or glass then left in darkness, as if dead, for a season. The magus’s ability to feed from the Inspirato provides sustenance, while the magus learns to sense corporeal connections to the universe, isolated from all distractions.

It was usual, in the early history of the House, for magi to undergo this ritual alone. It was discovered in North Africa, and the perfect site for it is a cave complex in Ethiopia. The extreme diffi culty of reaching the complex has made necessary the use of substitute places, with a guide interceding to allow the completion of the ritual. Some of the travelers on the Path of the Body wish to return to the older way, which they believe is more likely to lead to novel insights concerning the Enigma. Others say that the newer ritual, which takes one quarter the time of the original, is itself a wonderful breakthrough.

The microcosmic insight shows the magus that he is connected to all mundane things in the universe. This allows the magus to cast spells as if he held an Arcane Connection to any mundane place he has visited, or any mundane thing he has touched that is currently in a mundane place. People, who are themselves maps of the universe, may not be targeted by spells using this ability. Some Criamon of religious bent insist this is because the soul contains a spark of the Divine and so people are not mundane. This station allows Criamon magi to travel freely about Mythic Europe using Leap of Homecoming.

A limitation on this power is that the magus is only able to use his connections to things or places that he distinctly recalls. The Criamon magus’s player makes an Intelligence roll to determine what he distinctly recalls, with the diffi culty increasing as the magus’s contact with a place or thing becomes increasingly tenuous. The troupe may agree that there are certain places the character sees so regularly that the player need not roll, for example the road outside his covenant, the bridge just outside the nearest village, or his childhood home. Similarly, places where the magus has faced death, or performed great acts, may be burned indelibly in the memory, at the troupe’s discretion.

Places that the magus has visited regularly require a roll against an Ease Factor of 6. Places the magus visits yearly require rolls against an Ease Factor of 9. Places the magus visited a long time ago require rolls against an Ease Factor of 12.

Magi may add up to three to their rolls if they have something that evokes their memories of a place, like a souvenir, tattoo, or scar. A botched roll means the magus has recalled the wrong place entirely, but does not know it.

The Avenue of Repose in the Body and the Threshold of Corporeal Repose

A magus prepares for the fi nal station of the Path of the Body, its repose, by making his spirit ready to move from the microcosmic body into its, parallel, macrocosmic form.

The ritual is performed at a place and time where the connection between the body and the universe is strongly apparent. The Axis Magica may serve instead, but the House prefers its members to experience less well-understood connections between the body and the universe.

A popular one, historically, has been the meeting of the White and Blue Nile at the moment of the fl ood, which represents the fi rst division of arteries from the heart.

At the ritual, the magus consumes mystical representations of the four bodily humors. One of these representations is found at the initiatory site. The other three must be obtained through Quests to places that are, themselves, so exceptional as to be suitable as Initiation sites. The ghostly Primi remember the sites used by previous travelers on the path, but encourage magi to fi nd at least one novel site.

Storyguides should ensure that these legendary sites are of interest to other player characters. The representations of the humors contain vis, and can assist original research. They are found in strange locales linked to ancient civilizations. Bizarre monsters that served ancient magicians guard some sites.

Those who have gained this station but choose not to depart from the world do so because they believe that their ability to change the physical structures of the universe is seriously diminished when they enter repose. Magi choose to remain behind to work on projects requiring their physical presence, like training apprentices, resisting tyrannical rulers, fi ghting demons, and penning books.

While they linger, these magi dwell in bodies purifi ed of all mortal frailty. The magus regains any attributes lost to aging and no longer uses the Aging Point system. Any negative physical Characteristics the character has are raised to 0. Short of death, the magus’s body reforms itself if damaged, healing completely at full moonrise. This process causes all of the magus’s mundane disfi gurements to fade away, including his umbilical scar. The magus retains his stigmata and continues to gain Warping Points, however.

Repose in the Body

Magi repose from this path by being reborn as the universe itself. They become one with necessity, and so seek to change it, allowing the cycle of falling and rising harmony to end.

The Path of Seeming

The Path of Seeming draws upon the insight that the secrets of the Enigma are hidden within the distracting details of the world. The path provides tools that permit magi to examine the world. When the magi comprehend the design of their prison, they see where its walls crack. The Path of Seeming searches for weak points in the circle of time.

Many magi on this path study Intellego magic paired with any Form, although Imaginem and Mentem are the most popular choices. Most have some skill in a second Technique, because knowledge must guide action. Some of the path’s Mentem specialists have relegated Intellego to their secondary technique.

The Path of Seeming, Depicted in Digits The Path of Seeming includes the following Initiation Scripts: Avenue of Gruel, Water, and Starlight and the Station of Differentiation of Seeming Target level 21: Package treated as a Major Virtue (Clear Thinker, Common Sense, and Keen Vision) Script Bonus +15: Minor Ordeal: Disfi gurement +3, Mystagogue’s time +3, psychodramatic Quest representing subduing the senses +3, special site and time (a certain cave complex during the dark of the moon) +3, sympathetic bonus (deprivation) +3 Avenue That Assaults the Modesty of the Universe and The Station of True Sight Target level 18, as Major Virtue 21 (may use Enigmatic Wisdom as if it were Magic Sensitivity and Second Sight), first Initiation since Minor Ordeal –3 Script Bonus +12: Ordeal (Vow) +3, Quest of insane wanderings +3, special time and place +3, Mystagogue’s time +3 The Avenue of the Unexpected Pages and the Station of Vivid Memories From Objects Target level 18, as Major Virtue 21 (may read the memories of objects), fi rst Initiation since Minor Ordeal –3 Script Bonus +12: Ordeal (Major Flaw Pious replaces Minor Flaw Vow) +6, special time and place +3 (or possibly Loss of Talisman +3), psychodramatic Quest +3 The Avenue That Is a Crossroad And the Station of Passing Through Seeming Target level 15, as Major Virtue 21 (spirit traveling), fi rst Initiation since Intermediate Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +12: Mystagogue’s time +3, special time and place +3, sympathetic bonus +3, Quest +3 The Avenue That Leads To Transcendence and the Station From Which To Ignore the Real Target level 17, as Major Virtue 21 (may briefl y ignore mundane objects), second Initiation since Intermediate Ordeal –4 Script Bonus +12: Ordeal (Major Flaw Twilight prone) +9, Mystagogue’s time +3

Avenue of Gruel, Water and Starlight and the Station of Differentiation of Seeming

Young magi commencing the Path of Seeming are flooded by sensation. This makes noise cacophonous, light garish, and food fulsomely rich. These magi perform labyrinth mediations while eating the blandest gruel and drinking only water until they undergo a series of investitures that teach them to tune their senses. These trials, under the guidance of teachers, are traditionally performed in a series of caves. Appropriate sites have been established in three Tribunals.

Travelers on this path come to understand, intellectually, the difference between truth and seeming: what is, and what appears to be. Each magus develops the Clear Thinker, Common Sense, and Keen Vision Virtues, although the player may trade Keen Vision for a similar effect in any other sense. Criamon magi on the Path of Seeming are those most able to communicate with outsiders, because they are lucid conversationalists schooled in a fi erce logic. They cannot, however, successfully discuss the magical insights of the House with those lacking the frame of reference that Enigmatic Wisdom provides.

Avenue That Assaults the Modesty of the Universe and the Station of True Sight

Magi seeking this station can sense the underlying structures of the world, but have difficulty understanding these new perceptions. They sometimes develop imaginary friends and enemies, and have odd escapades. These are much like psychodramtic adventures, except they do not occur solely in the mind of the magus. The magus’s companions, and eventually his guide, must defend the traveler on the path from dangers he cannot understand, while he wanders in madness. The magus usually recovers after a season, but requires intervention by, and training from, his guide during the final weeks.

A magus who recollects himself is confi rmed in his faith concerning the path and develops the Vow Flaw. Magi invested in this station learn to instinctively strip the universe of its illusions. They may use their Enigmatic Wisdom score as if it were both the Second Sight and Magic Sensitivity Abilities.

The Avenue of the Unexpected Pages and the Station of Vivid Memories From Objects

Magi who seek this level of Initiation fall into a coma as their minds fl it through the memories of the objects that surround them. The magus takes a role in these narratives, seeking to push them to the point where the magus acquires the object in whose memories he has become lost. The magus needs to recognize the object, then step into one of the roles in its memory, to press the story forward until the magus acquires the object.

The magus, playing the role of another character in the object’s memories, rarely fi nds it simple to deliver the object to himself. These visions are not metaphorical, and the roles magi play tend to be people of low social class, who have little legitimate contact with magi. This process forces the magus to see himself through foreign eyes. This engenders a more accurate sense of self and makes the magus a devotee of the path.

If the magus fails to deliver the object, he becomes lost in a new vision from the memories of another object, and must try again. When the ritual is concluded successfully, the magus must bind the delivered object as his talisman. The object is usually symbolically suitable for the magus, but if it is impractical, the magus may transform it with Hermetic magic before enchantment.

A magus Initiated into this station can handle a mundane object without magic resistance, concentrate, and recall its history as if the object had human senses. A magus handling a silk handkerchief could remember the Byzantine bazaar where it was sold, the Italian merchant who purchased it, the hold of his ship, the lady to whom he sold it, and the servant to whom she gave it, as if the magus had been the handkerchief. This ability cannot read the memories of humans or other self-aware creatures.

A magus seeking a particular memory makes a Perception + Enigmatic Wisdom roll. The Ease Factor is six for details the item encountered daily, nine for details the item encountered every week, 15 for events that happened occasionally in the item’s presence, and 18 for unique events. The item’s memories of an event are particularly vivid if the event altered the spiritual quality of the item. The moments of an object’s creation and breaking are always vivid. Sins, crimes, or charitable acts performed using the item are also recalled vibrantly. Add +3 to the Perception + Enigmatic Wisdom roll for vivid events.

It is possible to recall a city as though touring it with an appropriate object, and some Criamon get very nostalgic for places they have never seen. They warn that there is a lifetime of memory in every cup, stone, and apple, which is why the solution to the Enigma is so diffi cult to find.

Example: Avenue of the Unexpected Pages

Antigone, a follower of this path skilled in Imaginem magic, falls into coma with a silver candlestick between her hands. Within her psychodramtic Quest, she awakens in the body of a swineherd named Tobias, who lives fi ve miles from the covenant. He awakes holding the candlestick and knows he must deliver it to an oblivious Antigone. Antigone-asTobias must complete an arduous trek, face robbers seeking the stick, negotiate with surly guards (who are versions of grog PCs), and deal with a patronizing maga (controlled by another player) to complete the Quest.

The Avenue That Is a Crossroad and the Station of Passing Through Seeming

This avenue allows the magus to approach a station that permits his to send his spirit traveling through the world’s ocean of magical energy. A magus who liberates his spirit in this way finds it drawn, sequentially, to the four Edges of the World. These are regiones corresponding to the four elements and humors. The magus must escape each of these lands, coming eventually back to his body.

Initiates of this station can ignore the world, accepting that much of it is an illusion. They seek a place by swimming through the Inspirato to view it. The part of the magus that travels is that which becomes a ghost after death. The ghostly magus ignores gravity, and so may swim through the air. The magus can see at his destination, and speak audibly, but may not handle mundane objects except in auras of eight or more. He may touch enchanted items and other ghostly beings, because they also have a magical nature.

While the spirit of a magician is absent, the body appears to be a fresh corpse. The magus’s body can starve or die of thirst. Its automatic refl exes allow it to swallow soft foods or water placed in its mouth. Caring for the body is a task often given to an apprentice. Magi traveling spectrally — or “passing through seeming” — have limited ability to cast spells. At their destination, they may cast spells at Arcane Connection range. They cannot sense their body’s surroundings, but if they wish to cast spells ranged Personal, they may do so normally.

Editor's Note: See also the reference to this station in Hedge Magic Revised Edition.

The Avenue That Leads To Transcendence and the Station From Which To Ignore the Real

The Axis Magica, on New Year’s Eve, is the only suitable investiture site for this Mystery, but magi who already dwell at the Cave of Twisting Shadows are required to venture spiritually to the other regio, where the Axis emerges from the other side of the Earth’s sphere. Few magi know what lies in these lands, which they call Hypernestoria. Magi who follow this avenue discover that the mundane world is merely a frame of reference. It becomes diffi cult to differentiate consensual reality from all the other illusions the magus encounters.

A magus who has attained this station may ignore mundane objects, briefl y. With a Stamina + Concentration roll against an Ease Factor of six, and a round of preparation, the magus can act as if a single solid object was spectral for a number of minutes equal to the magus’s Enigmatic Wisdom score. The magus may affect as many objects at once as he can concentrate upon. The Ease Factor increases by one for every object after the fi rst. Groups of objects add three to the Ease Factor. This means that, for example, the droplets of a rainstorm, or the shafts of a hail of arrows, pass through the magus on a roll of nine or more. People cannot be ignored because they have souls, and so are qualitatively different from mundane objects.

Characters who achieve this station do not clearly differentiate the mundane world and the Hypostasis. This makes them more likely to suffer Twilight experiences, as their ability to navigate back to the mortal world is impaired.

Path Symbolism The stigmata of this path first appear on the bridge of the magus’s nose. They rapidly spread to the rest of the body, but are most prevalent on the head and along the spine. The marks are usually have radial symmetry. The sound of the magus’s heartbeat is vital to the labyrinth meditations of followers of this path. The stigmata of this path are more prone to movement than those of any other path. When the magus is concentrating or performing magic, his stigma may swim through mystically signifi cant patterns. Thematically, the stigmata gained on this path are linked to the element of water, and to refl ective things. Followers of this path often have familiars that dwell at the border of two elements. Waterbirds are popular, particularly the sacred ibis. This was the form taken by Thoth, also called Hermes, when he instructed early humans in magic. Beavers, otters, and crocodiles also have surprising prevalence.

No Repose

Magi on this path do not find repose. They simply cease to distinguish between Twilight and reality, and so fade away, like illusions. Some have suggested that these magi have withdrawn into prolonged, temporary Twilight, and will return to the world when they wish, probably to hear the answer when it is discovered, but any of them might, theoretically, return at any time.

Some magi of this path flee death or Twilight by wandering through an infinite number of memories in moments, living untold lifetimes in mere weeks. These magi descend into comas and eventually float into Final Twilight. What happens to the minds of these magi afterward is unclear, but many suggest that they will live in psychodrama until awakened by the answer to the Enigma.

Passing Through Rules

A magus’s Pass Through Seeming Total is a simple die + Intelligence + Enigmatic Wisdom + the magical aura of his destination.

A magus can always find the Cave of Twisting Shadows: it is the center of the world to a spiritual traveler.

A magus may find very familiar places with a total of 6 or more. For example, if the magus’s body has been moved, he requires this total to fi nd it again. Places in the magus’s covenant usually also have this Ease Factor, with possible exceptions such as the sancta of other magi, or the chapel.

If a magus is attempting to return to a place that he has visited before, he must total 12 or more to arrive. Magi who fail this roll wander lost for an hour before either returning to their body, which they can always fi nd provided it hasn’t been moved, or re-rolling with a +1 bonus for each hour wasted.

If the wanderer is attempting to visit a place he does not know, he needs a strong physical connection, emotional connection, or Arcane Connection to it. For this journey, he needs to total 15 or more to arrive successfully. Failure indicates he travels in the wrong direction for up to an hour. The magus may then return to his body, provided it has not been moved, or re-roll gaining a +1 bonus for each failed roll.

Some travelers seek out strange places, like Arcadia. This requires a roll of 18, or more for particularly distant places.

Each journey takes about an hour; this is why magi realize they are lost after around that amount of time. Particularly distant places take longer, at the troupe’s discretion.

Characters in this spectral form may be seen by those with Second Sight, and are hindered by an Aegis of the Hearth as if they were creatures with a Magic Might score of fi ve times their Enigmatic Wisdom. They may be harmed by Mentem spells, and cannot protect themselves with the Parma Magica.

The Path of Strife

The Path of Strife is the path of worldly magic. It transgresses the morality of the House. The House has only a few servants of strife, who, since they know they are incapable of spiritual purity in this lifetime, take upon themselves the tasks that might pollute their housemates. They do not indulge in immoral actions needlessly, but they are prepared to kill, lie, and destroy things if it assists the House. They usually do not tell their housemates what they are doing to avoid causing the moral contamination of being accessories to sin.

The followers of this path see demons as revelers in a kind of strife, creatures from near the end of this half of the cycle of time. By destroying demons, then, they prolong the life of the universe, allowing their sodales more time to solve the Enigma. They fight demons, not because they are evil, but because the servants of strife are not willing to share the remaining harmony in the universe with them. They would waste it, while Criamon magi might instead use it wisely.

The Avenue of Faith in Strife and the Station of the Eater of Sin

The Prima and other senior mages counsel young magi against seeking this path. If they cannot be dissuaded, they are directed to the Initiation site, which is maintained far from the Cave of Twisting Shadows. There the Keeper of the Path tests them: they must negotiate the Labyrinth of Strife, a tangled structure of tunnels which magi can only escape by performing feats that violate the usual Criamon tenets of apt action. When magi reach the end of the process of degradation, they discover the fi rst station on the path, and are infused with the power of strife.

Magi on this path have aligned themselves with strife. They can sense the increase in strife that occurs when magic is used. They, in turn, are so attuned to strife that they radiate it. They may use their Enigmatic Wisdom as the Magic Sensitivity Ability, but they do not subtract it from their Magic Resistance. They develop the Blatant Gift.

Members of this path perform their labyrinth meditations while armed with weapons. The associated movements — a series of strikes, blocks, and feints performed with exacting slowness — seem graceful and dance-like to those unfamiliar with this path. A magus on this path may use his Enigmatic Wisdom score as if it were a score for a single type of weapon. The magus may change his weapon type when his Enigmatic Wisdom score increases in level. A weapon, in this case, refers to a single-line entry from the tables found on ArM5, pages 176–177, excepting any type of armor or shield.

The Path of Strife, Portrayed With Figures Strife takes many forms, but has these Initiation Scripts: The Avenue of Faith in Strife and The Station of the Eater of Sin Target level 21: Treated as a Major Virtue (may sense magic and use a weapon with Enigmatic Wisdom score) Script Bonus +15: Ordeal (Blatant Gift) +9, special Ppace and time +3, sympathetic bonus (commit transgression by eating meat, having sex, and engaging in other profanities) +3 As an alternative Script, those magi who kill the Primus during the House’s succession ritual are Initiated into the fi rst station of this path. They cannot continue on the path until they study House Criamon Lore and may not know that the House has granted them this gift until their mystical sense begins to manifest. Followers of the second script do not develop the Blatant Gift. In this ritual, the genius of the House acts as Mystagogue (Presence + House Criamon Lore of 15). Script Bonus +6: Special place and time +3, sympathetic bonus (transgression of murdering the Primus) +3 The Avenue That Splinters and the Station of Blood and Bronze Target level 12, as Major Virtue 21 (can destroy things by meditating around them and do extra damage with weapons), fi rst Initiation since Major Ordeal –9 Script Bonus +6: Minor Ordeal (Higher Purpose to eat sin on behalf of the House) +3, special time and place +3. Characters who slew a Primus on the first avenue suffer an additional Ordeal on this avenue, which gives them the Blatant Gift +9 (offsets loss of –9 modifi er in target level for fi rst Initiation since Major Ordeal). Avenue of Charm and Scorn, And the Station That Repels And Attracts Elements Target level 15, as Major Virtue 21 (may attract or repel a single element at a time), second Initiation since Major Ordeal –6. (The latter is –9 for those who slew a Primus, but the House doesn’t take advantage of this. Characters on the path might discover that the special time and place isn’t required for Primus-slayers.) Script Bonus +9: Quest (seek lover) +3, special time and place +3, sympathetic bonus (marriage as metaphor for love and strife) +3 The Avenue of Befriending The Silent and the Station That Charms the Elements Target Level 18, as Major Virtue 21 (speak to elementally-pure objects), -3 third Initiation since a Major Ordeal Script Bonus +15: Ordeal (Major Flaw Pious replaces Minor Flaw Higher Purpose) +6, Ordeal (equivalent of Supernatural Nuisance) +3, Ordeal (Disfi gured) +3, Mystagogue’s time +3 Avenue of Death and the Station of Golden Cider Target level 15, as Major Virtue 21 (make some mystical things mundane), fi rst Initiation since Intermediate Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +12: Ordeal (four pairs of Incompatible Arts) +12

The Avenue That Splinters and the Station of Blood and Bronze

Those seeking the second station on the Path of Strife are attempting to gain the ability to do tremendous damage at will. They are guided only after a representative of the Prima is given a fi nal opportunity to dissuade them from this path. A committed magus is invested at a place saturated with strife, on the anniversary of the greatest number of deaths that strife has caused. The ruins of Herculaneum, destroyed in ancient times along with Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Etna, are traditionally used for this ritual.

A magus who has performed these rituals has committed himself to the Path of Strife, and may take no other path, save the Mirror path restricted to the Primus. He cannot enter Final Twilight. Any situation that would usually result in Final Twilight instead kills the magus, reducing him to a collection of particularly nasty adulterations.

The magus’s ability to sense strife allows him to sense and promote weakness or decay in objects. A labyrinth meditation around an object without Magic Resistance causes it to rot or rust until it is little more than powder. A labyrinth meditation around a space, which can be no wider than 500 feet across per level of Enigmatic Wisdom that the magus possesses, kills every mundane thing within that area, in a way suiting the magus’s sigil. This station cannot harm humans directly, because they possess souls, which protects them.

Strikes with the magus’s meditation weapon precisely exploit tiny flaws in the victim. They have four times the usual Attack Total, and can injure creatures immune to non-magical attacks. This power’s Penetration is (magus’s Enigmatic Wisdom x 5), taking the Form of the weapon’s striking edge. Creatures aligned to the Divine realm never have these flaws that enable such potent attacks, and are immune to this power. Similarly, a creature made up of an undifferentiated mass of matter, like some elemental spirits are, does not have exploitable flaws.

Avenue of Charm and Scorn, and the Station That Repels and Attracts Elements

This avenue is completed by fi nding a lover, whom the magus marries using a mystical rite. The lover must be a perfect symbolic complement to the magus. The lover may represent the element that opposes the magus’s specialty, for example. The marriage must occur at an auspicious place that represents a joining of the two opposing principles expressed in the lovers. The Mystagogue acts as the celebrant to the perpetual joining of the couple. Magi who lose these spouses often develop the Lost Love Flaw.

At this degree of skill, a servant of strife may repel or attract mundane objects using strife and harmony. The magus may only attract or repel a single Form at a time. The magus can employ this ability at will. He may switch objects and Forms once per round, and the ability does not require fatigue or concentration. The magus may affect multiple objects, provided their combined weight does not exceed the magus’s weight multiplied by three. The magus must be aware of given objects to use this ability upon them, but does not need to be able to discern them precisely. It is, for example, possible for the magus to repel the metal heads of a cloud of arrows fi red from cover, through scrub. This power lacks a Penetration score and fails against warded objects.

This skill is often used to make objects fl oat to, or fl y swiftly from, the hand of the magus, but it has other uses. For example, a magus attracting a wall to his hands cannot slip while climbing it, and a magus repelling water fi nds it comfortable to walk through fl ooding rain. Many magi with this ability can levitate; they claim to be repelling the ground. Other magi note that this makes no sense at all.

The Avenue of Befriending the Silent and the Station That Charms the Elements

To begin this avenue, the magus is taught the symbolic language of elemental spirits by the Mystagogue. This allows the magus to speak with, and form friendships with, the animating spirits in all elementally pure objects. These bonds are reciprocal. Magical beasts and faeries act as messengers for many natural features, and they ask the magus for assistance with their problems. Servants of strife are the Criamon magi most likely to preserve the natural world.

A magus of this degree of Initiation can convince the spirits of objects to perform actions, using their ability to attract elements. The magus may speak to any object that is non-organic and elementally pure (that is, of a single Form. He may, for example, speak to a rock, but not a leaf, or a clear lake, but not a turgid one. Objects of human artifi ce can be spoken with if they are of a single elemental Form, physically continuous, and smaller than fi ve feet and eight inches in any dimension. Servants of strife theorize that this was the height of the pioneer of their path. This power has a Penetration score of 0.

A magus using this power does not control the mind of the spirit, and in exceptional cases may fi nd the spirit uncooperative. Although elemental objects think the magus charming, some have sentimental attachments to nearby humans, and these are generally unwilling to do anything that might cause their humans harm. Many other spirits dislike nearby humans, though; many towns have a river into which they pour sewage, and many fi elds have stones that resist the plough.

With a Presence + Charm roll against an Ease Factor of 9 a magus can convince a spirit to give information, or to move in minor, useful ways. The animating spirits of objects do not react negatively to The Gift. Most objects can sense what has occurred near them, and can report it in some fashion to the magus, although their senses are sometimes limited, and their grasp of human time poor.

Objects usually move by a slithering action, but objects that naturally move simply travel as if they have motive power. Most elemental objects are capable of movement at a human rate — they simply choose not to do so under normal conditions. This movement can appear slightly unnatural. For example, a fi re can travel as if being pushed by a wind despite its absence, or a river can push a boat despite the usual absence of a current. The objects cannot, however, perform actions that are deeply supernatural: the fi re cannot burn through stone, the river cannot fl ow noticeably uphill. Acts requiring great effort on the part of the elemental spirit — for example, convincing a river to ignore its usual path and wash through a town on its fl oodplain — require higher Charm rolls.

Magi who have progressed this far on the Path of Strife fi nd themselves, despite many deep spiritual transgressions, in loving relationships, with communities of friends. They usually come to feel that if they were forced to live in such a fashion over and over for eternity, that’d be pleasant. This cheery view is considered weird by other Criamon magi, and makes such magi devotees of the path.

Avenue of Death and the Station of Golden Cider

Magi who choose investiture via the Avenue of Death undergo a ritual, supervised by the most senior magus on this path. They lose the ability to use the Creo Art in conjunction with any Forms save Corpus and Vim. They have drawn themselves so far from harmony that they simply cannot use it any longer. The creation of magical energy channels strife, and concern with the well-being of the bodies of others, particularly the magus’s spouse, is transgressive to this path. The details of this ritual are kept private, and not all supplicants survive it.

This extreme degree of investiture in the power of strife allows magi to draw the capacity to manipulate strife out of objects, creatures, and some people. Magical items become mundane when this power is used upon them. Vis becomes a natural example of whatever shape it has. This power does not affect mundane items that are the targets of spells, so while it can destroy an enchanted sword that burns on command, it cannot harm a normal sword made to burn by a spellcaster. For warded objects, this power has a Penetration score of (Enigmatic Wisdom x 5), with a Form of Corpus.

Some creatures have no mundane equivalent, and these are transformed into symbolic objects. A giant might become a hill that looks vaguely like a sleeping man. A dragon might become a storm, or a ring of standing stones, or a volcanic fi ssure, depending on its type and powers. Powerful demons lose the body they are using to appear in the world rather than being destroyed. Faeries become natural objects, dreams, or memories. Representatives of the Divine realm lack strife, so this power cannot affect them.

Path Symbolism Magi on this path specialize in the Art of Perdo, but temper this with secondary interests. Those who wish to hunt demons also study Vim. Travelers on this path do not study Creo beyond the minimum required to train apprentices. They are aware that the capacity to use it will be severely damaged by their Initiations. The stigmata of this path fi rst appear on the magus’s hands. They rapidly spread up the arms and across the chest before reaching up the neck to the chin. The marks usually have a style of curved edge called rayonny by heralds. There is no sound associated with the meditations of this path’s followers; they are almost eerily silent. The stigmata of this path tend to refl ect fl ame and radiance. Magi engaged in mystical combat often report that their stigmata glow, and sometimes melt together. A few remove the garments from their upper torso before vigorous magic use because the heat from their stigmata ignites the cloth it touches. These magi report that their stigmata are tender, like sunburn, after these incidents.

This power requires a preparatory labyrinth meditation, before combat, and the magus must have an Enigmatic Wisdom score at least one-fi fth of the victim’s Magic Resistance. The magus must touch the victim with bare hands and maintain uninterrupted contact for three minutes. This requires at least part of the victim to remain immobile, which may be accomplished with physical traps, magic, or grappling.

Characters must meditate on their victim’s weaknesses before battle. They must have suffi cient information about the enemy for their meditation to be accurate. They cannot meditate repeatedly to allow multiple attempts in the same battle, and cannot store generic meditations for later use.

This power can destroy many supernatural talents. The Gift itself is tied, in some fashion, to the soul, which links it to harmony. A magus of strife cannot sever The Gift, except with the active, knowing assistance of the Gifted individual. If The Gift is severed, the magical air that causes people to distrust most magi fades.

Repose

Followers of the Path of Strife cannot ascend into Final Twilight. They are so impure that if they attempt to do so, they die and create terrible adulterations. Many choose, near the end of their lives (or as a Twilight experience begins), to use the Golden Cider upon themselves. They relinquish The Gift and choose to die, beginning a new cycle of redemptive reincarnations. Many believe this selfl ess act makes good much of the fault of their lives.

The Path of Walking Backwards

The Path of Walking Backwards is one of the newer paths: it entered the House after Abdkypris spent time among the Sufi . It is not a form of Islam because it does not embrace Mohammed as the Prophet. It is, however, a form of complete surrender to the harmonic force, which draws the magus into spiritual unity with the universe. At that time of complete harmony, a doorway opens through which the magus can fl ee back to the Spahrios. Many such magi often choose not to walk through the doorway for a time, however, so that they may aid others.

The labyrinth meditation of members of the Path of Walking Backwards is often a dancing or spinning technique learned from Sufi Muslims, although the European labyrinth form also persists. Spinners and dancers use Dexterity rather than Intelligence when making Enigmatic Wisdom rolls during Labyrinth meditations — their meditation empties the mind of thought so that the body can act in the correct way, unfettered by distraction. Characters commencing this path choose which method suits them, either the reasoned labyrinth walk or the instinctual, ecstatic dance. They may only change their method after story events that lead to a profound transformation of their philosophy.

One school of Sufi , Abdkypris was surprised to discover, reveres Empedocles as a hierophant. Their interpretation of his teaching, which is different from yet refl ects the House’s understanding, fascinates many Criamon magi. This has led the House into a more active, conciliatory political role in those Tribunals where Islam and Christianity clash. An increasing number of Criamon magi are Muslims, or come from the Muslim lands, which the House has explored with the assistance of its “cousins.”

Members of this path are the Criamon magi most likely to be religious. Some have become monotheists; they accept a creator who embodies harmony. There are many interpretations among them for the existence of the universe, although Islam, Origenism (the belief that the universe exists to allow all things to reconcile to God), and Manichaeanism (the belief that God has been shattered into pieces and every living thing holds a portion of the Divine) are popular. Empedocles believed that the immortals worshiped a goddess called Cypris — a variant of Aphrodite — who incarnates love, and some Criamon claim to have met with her.

The Avenue of Surrender and the Station of Service To Harmony

Magi begin this path by forswearing their destructive past. They purge their aggressive and greedy natures from their souls with meditation, fasting, ritualized flagellation, or other techniques. The magus then goes on pilgrimage to a site that he considers spiritually meaningful, and participates in rites of purifi cation with the aid of a Mystagogue. The younger magus, by accepting the Mystagogue, accepts subordination to her greater wisdom. This path is strongly hierarchical, compared to the others that the House follows.

After purification, the Mystagogue trains the supplicant for a season in lore to aid him in following the path further. In the Islamic variant of the path, this is Muslim theology. Once the magus’s desire to harm and covet has faded entirely, the odor of The Gift leaves his soul.

The Gift of most characters on this path becomes Gentle. Those with the Blatant Gift lose that Flaw, and take on the standard penalties for The Gift instead. If the character suffers a Warping experience that would restore the odor of The Gift, or restore the Blatant Gift, select an alternative Warping effect.

The Avenue of Healing and the Station of Rice and Honey

A magus who has walked this far along the backward path may restore damaged things to wholeness without the use of vis. This requires a labyrinth meditation while carrying, or circling, the object. For example, a magus holding a cracked emerald can dance it to wholeness. Items made imperfect by human artifi ce cannot be made whole, so while a gemstone bored into a bead could be restored into an unscratched and unfractured bead, it could not be restored to the state of a whole stone. This power heals animals and plants, except when they have been injured by human tools, but cannot return life to dead things. The object usually cannot be more than ten yards across, but gatherings of those with this Virtue can form dancing circles about proportionately larger objects to repair them. This power has a Penetration score of the magus’s Enigmatic Wisdom multiplied by five.

The special nature of humans, as creatures responsible for their own destinies, makes them diffi cult to manipulate. The magus may not heal humans instantly without vis. By performing labyrinth meditations around a dying person, however, the magus may hold her upon the threshold of death, allowing others time to stabilize her injuries or provide magical healing. A magus may safely continue performing meditations for a number of hours equal to his Enigmatic Wisdom score. This process is exhausting, but not dangerous. The magus can even continue past his Enigmatic Wisdom score in hours for an additional period equal to any positive Stamina score he has, but to do so triggers a Twilight experience.

A character who has become a healer cannot choose to harm; he gains the Noncombatant Flaw. These magi also attract injured, mystically-sensitive creatures. Healing such beings sometimes requires addressing the underlying, mundane problems that their wounds refl ect. For example, a dryad with gnawing cramps in her stomach may be experiencing the pain of part of her forest, invaded by magical termites.

The Avenue of Adulation and Station of Expression

Harmony is beautiful. The splendor of harmony is so great that, for the uninitiated, it is inexpressible. This is why, followers of the path believe, Criamon magi cannot discuss Enigmatic Wisdom with outsiders. This avenue forces magi to learn ways of expressing the beauty of harmony by so filling their lives with magnifi cence that they have no choice but to evolve into fi ner creatures, capable of communicating that beauty, or die in rapture. Each magus travels to a place of unimaginable profoundness, then meets the Mystagogue and attempts to express what he has seen and done. The Mystagogue coaxes him into articulation, often by expressing her own impression of harmony.

Each magus who completes this avenue gains the Virtues Free Expression and Inspirational, and may use Enigmatic Wisdom in lieu of one artistic skill, whichever he uses to express the beauty of harmony. Following Initiation into the station, magi may use their new abilities to communicate complex concepts to others in metaphorical form, through artworks of devastating insight. Poetry and dance are traditional choices, but this is a refl ection of the Muslim infl uence in the School. Other choices are certainly possible; Westerners often choose music or painting, and other members of the path would welcome new media of expression.

Mundane viewers of an artistic expression created by one who has achieved this station grasp, in a way they cannot describe, the message that the magus is attempting to convey. They fi nd it persuasive, but are unable to articulate it in any detail unless they have Enigmatic Wisdom. Those who are artists can communicate it in their own works. Followers of this path who gather can have complicated arguments and consultations without exchanging a word.

The Avenue of a Thousand Beautiful Faces and the Station of Exaltation

A magus who achieves the fourth station on the Path of Walking Backwards may draw objects and things closer to their perfect state. By performing a labyrinth meditation while carrying or circling an object, the magus draws the virtues of its nature to the surface. The magus does not usually know the higher nature of an object, and so cannot be sure which virtues will appear, except with an extremely diffi cult Intelligence + Enigmatic Wisdom roll (Ease Factor 21 or more). The magus cannot select virtues for an object, only draw out those that already exist. This power has a Penetration score of the magus’s Enigmatic Wisdom multiplied by five.

The Path of Walking Backwards, Illustrated Arithmetically The Path of Walking Backwards is constructed from the following Initiation Scripts: The Avenue of Surrender and the Station of Service To Harmony Target level 21, Major Virtue (Gentle Gift) or elimination of Flaw (Blatant Gift) Script Bonus +15: Major Ordeal (Pious) +9, special time and place +3, Mystagogue’s time +3 The Avenue of Healing and the Station of Rice and Honey Target level 12, as Major Virtue 21 (may meditate around mundane objects and restore them to wholeness), fi rst Initiation since Major Ordeal –9 Script Bonus +6: Ordeal (Noncombatant) +3, Ordeal (equivalent to a Vow to help the injured) +3 The Avenue of Adulation And Station of Expression Target level 15, as Major Virtue 21 (Free Expression, Inspirational, may use Enigmatic Wisdom in lieu of one artistic skill), second Initiation since Major Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +9: Mystagogue’s time +3, Quest to a place of unspeakable beauty +3, special time and place +3 The Avenue of a Thousand Beautiful Faces and the Station of Exaltation Target level 18, as Major Virtue 21 (may meditate around objects to give them a single, positive property), third Initiation since Major Ordeal –3 Script bonus +12: Ordeal (4 x Incompatible Arts) +12 Immortal Ascension As Repose Target level 15, Major Virtue 21 (may choose apparent age and gender), second Initiation since Major Ordeal –6 Script Bonus +9: Mystagogue’s time +3, Quests to deal with psychic residue +3, special time and place +3.

A player trying to conceive how this power works should think of it this way: each use of the power adds one plausible, positive adjective to the description of any mundane object. The magus may make a horse swift, or a gemstone beautiful, or a fi eld fertile. These advantages are always positive from the spiritual perspective of the magus, so they can rarely make weapons sharp, or goods valuable. They cannot give new or magical properties to things, only draw out potential hidden within them already.

A magus may not draw virtues out of humans using this process — their souls make their fates a matter of personal determination, and their virtues matters of spiritual choice. Magi can, however, act to allow choice, so an unwelcome demon can be drawn from a person using this technique. A magus who walks this far upon the Path of Walking Backward may never again use the Perdo technique combined with any Form except Vim or Imaginem. The magus sees the harmonic force, or the face of the divinity he reveres, in everything, and is unwilling to use the power of strife to shatter that face. The magus offers up the ability to do so to the harmonic forces of the universe for destruction.

Avenue of Silencing Discordant Whispers and the Threshold of Repose

Characters who come close to the fi nal station on the Path of Walking Backward must contest with a series of spiritual obstacles. These are created — some say — by the last remnants of strife in the magus’s mind, by the striferidden universe, or by a deity who is the incarnation of strife. The obstacles take the form of temptation to seek material power, comfort, sensual experiences, and eternal life.

A magus may gain repose by ascending to rejoin the Spharios, using the great secret of this path. The Spharios is conscious, and remains so throughout its dissolution and recohesion. Magi who do so become one with the mind of the universe, and may carry with them those deserving the same revelation, or evil things to be absorbed and nullifi ed by the sphere. This can include people and creatures, but also the traits of individuals and places. A magus who chooses not to ascend lives as a creature of perfect harmony in a world of strife.

A magus of this station may select his age, gender, and species as often as he wishes, taking only the time of a breath to change. The magus’s human forms appear to be blood relations to each other and there is only one form for each combination of age and sex. Each time the magus chooses, for example, to be a European female in her old age, the magus has the same form. If that magus then chooses to appear as a younger woman, he appears as a younger version of the older form, rather than as a completely different person. Wounds persist regardless of form.

Each magus of this station is permitted to choose the time of his own death. It is impossible for a magus who is proud or afraid of death to reach this state of enlightenment. If the magus does risky things, like engaging in warfare, that is considered a free choice that may lead to death. Magi who achieve this ability usually remain alive for only brief spans required to fi nish symbolic tasks, or else they withdraw to an isolated place and wait — sometimes for centuries — to deliver a particular piece of information or solve a particular problem before ascension. During this delay, they act as teachers.

Some magi dwell on the threshold because they believe their personal role in the great narrative of creation, which the Spharios whispers to itself, is incomplete. Most believe that by acting aptly they can shorten the period of the dissolution, and so cause everything and everyone to have a smaller burden of pain to share through time. These magi believe that their presence in time allows the Spharios to learn to tell its autobiography in a different way than the tale told in the last cycle. The Spharios is learning with each cycle of time, purifying itself, fi nding a way not to fall into strife, and these magi believe their work is vital to that.

Path Symbolism Magi on this path specialize in the Art of Creo. Supplicants on this path do not study Perdo beyond the minimum required to train apprentices. They do not desire to use it, beyond teaching, following their Initiations into the deeper stations of the path. The stigmata of this path fi rst appear on the soles of the magus’s feet. They rapidly spread up the legs and buttocks, before curling up the sternum and throat. The marks are angular, often being comprised of triangles. The sound associated with the meditations of this path’s followers is the footstep at lower degrees of Initiation, and the cry of wonder for those further along the path. The stigmata of this path tend toward hazy, bright colors. The images these stigma form are uplifting, and refl ect the element of air. The followers of this path appear to be followed by a cool breeze as they travel. The magus’s stigmata also have a pleasant scent, which varies between magi. The scent soaks into those things they touch. The familiars of these magi are always herbivores or, occasionally, magical plants.

Twilight and Walking Backwards

The threshold of repose on the Path of Walking Backwards grants no immunity to Twilight. However, magi who abstain from all use of magic and stay out of powerful supernatural auras can avoid entering Twilight by avoiding gaining two or more Warping Points at once.

Islamic magi tend to dwell on the threshold because they believe they have an appointed task to complete. Their Sufi faith is based on the love of God, not on the rewards he offers after death, so they see no hurry to die. They just live on in the simple way approved by their faith, perhaps for centuries, until they complete their assigned task.

Other Paths

The House currently has magi active on nine different paths, including the Winding Path. Each path, except one, motivates the life of a clutch and each clutch is centered in a separate Tribunal. The Path of Beacons lacks a clutch, because it teaches Mysteries that allow each individual magus to create a sanctuary from the strife of the world. Its eldest magus lives in a regio of his own creation on the Isle of Arran. Each clutch, except one, includes magi from paths other than the one that motivates it. The Clutch of Ebony Eggs, which is fi lled with the servants of the Path of Strife, has no followers of other paths. The Cave of Twisting Shadows is the Clutch for the Path of the Mirror, which is followed only by Primi.

There are four paths that no longer have living travelers. Each is represented by at least one spectral Primus, who waits for an appropriate time to revive his tradition.

New Virtues

Dance That Heals

Major, Supernatural

Characters from some Sufi traditions have the ability to dance objects to wholeness, much as magi on the Path of Walking Backward do.

Guest of the House

Minor, General

Magi with this Virtue are, politically, members of House Criamon, but may be created using the rules for any other House. Guests are offered membership, which Criamon see as a political formality, for many reasons. The troupe and player should determine why the character found it necessary to find sanctuary with this House.

Gorgiastic

Minor, General

These magi, or their ancestors, have rejected the teachings of House Criamon. These magi may have Enigmatic Wisdom and House Criamon Lore scores after character creation. The character’s Enigmatic Wisdom Score cannot exceed 4 without the assistance of Criamon magi, or a magical breakthrough. House Criamon attempts to convince Gorgiastic magi to rejoin. Gorgiastic magi do not usually have Criamon stigmata, but develop them if they begin to delve into the causes of things.

Speech With the Silent

Major, Supernatural

The character has the ability to charm elemental objects into assisting him, as magi on the Path of Strife do.

New Flaws

Inscribed Shadow

Minor, Supernatural

The character’s stigmata are refl ected by glowing symbols in the character’s shadow. This causes alarm among non magicians and makes the character’s stigma extremely easy for other Criamon magi to read (+3 on all rolls). The shadow’s glowing symbols do not vanish when there is insuffi cient light to form a shadow, they burn brighter. Characters who use magic to hide their stigmata are not acting aptly.

Stigmatic Catalyst

Minor, Supernatural

The character’s presence causes symbolic marks to appear on the bodies of people without magic resistance nearby. The magus cannot control this process, but may make Intelligence + Enigmatic Wisdom rolls of 6 or more to tell those so affl icted what form or spiritual purifi cation they must undergo for the stigma to disappear. Characters who are stigmatized may react violently toward the magus.

Malignant Magus

Minor, Story, Supernatural

A piece of the magus’s psyche has been broken loose by a Twilight experience, and now manifests physically as an adulteration. This allows the magus to be a pleasant and upstanding person, because his negative impulses do terrible things out of the magus’s sight. Eventually the character’s adulteration must be resolved, but in the interim, his enemies are attacked be a magical monster of mysterious origin, without the magus’s conscious consent or approval.

Predictive Stigmata

Minor, Story, Supernatural

The character’s stigmata predict future challenges in symbolic form. They move unpredictably, and if ignored may flee the magus’s body and become adulterations.

Quindecim

On the path, sing praise

Sing, in the heart, praise to your brother

Final child of the primal shape

silent, grieving, as he fades.

Praise him for his vigor that sustains, that enlightens Laud his example, and yearn for him,

as does every fl ower.

Sing, in the heart, praise for your sister.

Modest, beautiful, fl ightily constant, parasitic, demonstrative, as she waxes.

Praise her for her transience,

that draws and repels, Laud her example, and fear her message,

as does every salmon.

Sing, in the heart, praise for your mother,

vast glass cradle rocked by the stars

Praise her for her constancy. Her fi rmness, Criamon’s hope that lies within her certainties.

Sing in your heart, praise for your father deeper than mountains, the measure of age

Unchanged above tempests Praise him for his implacability

The spur of his insistence that forces upward, into Twilight

Sing, in your heart, praise that you can sing.

That aptness is discernable

That aptness is beautiful

Praise aptness for transparency and for the delight of translucency

and the joy of opacity

On the path, cherish those who travel with you.

Cherish the brute that carries

the weight of expiation

both his, and yours.

Cherish the girl that refreshes

with her laughter

with her kisses

Cherish the girl that whispers,

she embraces you, and fi lls your chest

Cherish the shoes that trudge

Their scuffs and wrinkles

are yours

Cherish the stick that supports

From it suspend your bag of good food, that sustains

Cherish the girl that dances She warms you as you sleep

and she cooks, too.

Cherish the things that adorn.

Don’t be distracted or you will see them again.

Cherish those who cherish you

Destinations need people

Carry those who fall

Cherish the girl that encloses

She bears your weight

Why complain?

Cherish the road,

It hurts your feet but reciprocation is fair.

aise for your sister. flightily constant,

ive, as she waxes.

er transience,

nd repels, d fear her message, y salmon.

se for your mother,

cradle the stars

er constancy. riamon’s hope

er certainties.

aise for your father , the measure of age ove tempests

Cherish the g

she emb and fi lls

Cherish the s

Their scuff

are

Cherish the st

From it sus of good foo

Cherish the She warms y

and she

Cherish the th

Don’t be or you will s

Cherish those

Editor's Note: This text includes Errata.

Attribution

Attribution Based on the material for Ars Magica, ©1993-2024, licensed by Trident, Inc. d/b/a Atlas Games®, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license 4.0 ("CC-BY-SA 4.0"). Ars Magica Open License Logo ©2024 Trident, Inc. The Ars Magica Open License Logo, Ars Magica, and Mythic Europe are trademarks of Trident, Inc., and are used with permission. Order of Hermes, Tremere, Doissetep, and Grimgroth are trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB and are used with permission.