Spiritual Hierarchy of the Ascended Masters on the Storypath Nexus!

[Second Chances]

From the same team who brought you Mantles of Washington and the Cortes Divinas, come check out the Ascended Masters! Unlock your Psionic powers and join the Spiritual Hierarchy as you journey into the the Seven Planes and commune with the Universal Cosmic Mind!

Also, the art we got for this book is sick!

Link

[Astromancer]

Sounds fun. And it could likely be a workable model for other "new" pantheons. Example, a sci fi pantheon built out of the Scions of several pantheons coming together to guide and protect a colony deep in interstellar space.

[Dataweaver]

I downloaded it and started reading it, but then got distracted when a package arrived. I've got to get back to reading it.

[wyrdhamster]

Second Chances, can you write more about this product, especially inspirations?
Cause it seems a bit doubius to me to just throw cash equivalent of very good meal in Poland. 😕 But I may be interested in it...

[Dataweaver]

It's basically the Mythology origins of Psionics: Theosophy and its various offshoots such as the New Age movement.

[Aristarkos]

So it's basically "what if New Age was a legit thing?" but in the world of Scion?

[Dataweaver]

Basically, yes.

[Astromancer]

So it's basically "what if New Age was a legit thing?" but in the world of Scion?

If it's the New Age movement then it isn't just its manifestations in 1890s London, 1920s and 50s Greenwich Village or California 1930 to the present that count. Arthur de Gobineau (founder of modern racism) the Thule Gesselcraft, and Julius Evola that count too. I think I've found the Titans.

[Dataweaver]

The book already includes a Titan. And a Primordial. It also addresses the racism issue, generally in the form of “the Gods of this Pantheon don't approve of it, but some of their followers went down a dark path.”

(For what it's worth, I lost the bet. I predicted that references to the racism in Theosophy would show up in this thread by the fourth post. It took eight.)

[Astromancer]

Poimandries, a gnostic spirit of initiation, would make a good primordial too.

Hey, is Los Angeles a major holy site for this pantheon? It has been the world center of the occult and the New Age (separate phenomena) since 1930.

It would make sense.

[glamourweaver]

So it's basically "what if New Age was a legit thing?" but in the world of Scion?

I mean... why wouldn’t it be? All the myths are true. A religion being young shouldn’t make a difference.

[Leliel]

I'm putting more life in this thread, because besides liking these people and their cosmic pulpy weirdness, I want to integrate Dragons into here (serpent-people from before time!).

I can see Dragons, given the Thesophical theming of the Masters, as being "evolution through atavism"; rather than try to improve their humanity as it is, an Heir is trying to connect to the part of their souls that was once a prehuman sentient being, a dragon-or perhaps a reptilian being from a distant planet. The fact that Reincarnated Heirs often become their resurrected ancestors does nothing to dissuade them. They think of this attitude as, well, a bit self-destructive. They want people to stride boldly into the new era, not turn back the clock on evolution to reclaim some lost golden age warped by nostalgia. Their Dragons shoot back that for one, assuming that everyone wants the same thing is naive at best, and for another, who's to sake they're regressing humanity? More like creating an objective truth to even properly start from. They don't hate each other, but they both regard the other as woefully backwards.

I would also point out it wasn't always this way. Thevetat (the primary Ascended Dragon in my view; a Joka who consumes spiritual ignorance and cultic behavior, and who resents being cast as the embodiment of bad dogma in Theosophy) developed a major problem with the late New Age, especially the fascist infiltration of neopagans and sexual abuse in the name of liberation. Thing was, he didn't always restrict his hungers, and not realizing he was drawn by a major problem, the Masters warned their faiths about the "serpent-men" who despised them and to not trust people with eyes like wyverns. This mutated into the whole "reptoid conspiracy" nonsense, and used as an engine of that same fascist infiltration of neopagans. Both sides have realized that was a mistake they share responsibility for, but much to his fury, Thevetat finds himself actually creating Heirs whose entire purpose is to cult-bust the very same people who think reptilian aliens are coming to cult-bust them. Please don't make a joke about irony, he came up with them himself.

[Leliel]

In fact, thinking on it, and revising a bit...

Abraxas, the Princeps of the 365 Spheres

Aliases: Abrasax, Thevetat, Los, Great Archon, the Serpent of Eden

Affiliation: Joka

Blessed and cursed be your name, Abraxas, killer of innocence and midwife of knowledge, whose kindness destroyed paradise and saved enlightenment. It was you as Thevetat, counsel of Devadetta, who came to the ancient city of times past, alarmed and upset by the invention of armies, and gave the secrets of awakening the genetic memories of your long-vanished people and gave its abused classes strength beyond that which was codified and restricted. It was you who, in your hubris, did not care who else would learn, and so gave rise to the sorcerer-kings of the Lords of the Dark Face, and gave those armies generals, with their incarnations in the modern day still having memories of savage pride. And it was you, who, in your guilt, drew the greatest aside to your Lair to show the true effects of his ambition, and Master Morya left. Help us understand our flaws and know that we are all disasters and all worthy of love just as we are, as we ward ourselves against your meddling and reckless desire to inform whether we asked it or not. The resident Gnostic among the Joka, Abraxas considers himself the ultimate scholar-rebel. He believes that the strange nature of overlapping Fates and realities imply that there must be a deeper one, one that even Dragons did not know before Fate showed them the mutability of existence. His goal has been, and will always be, to reveal that truth, by understanding all myths and legends. The reason he does this is not for himself - Abraxas has always despised the concept of dogma, how spiritual Truth becomes rote ritual and a tool of oppression in the hands of greedy men, and how it destroys the self in the name of another. As he joined with his Flight, this has transmuted from a mere hatred into an actual physical need; his hunger is for false knowledge and self-destructive beliefs, especially that which is born in basal instinct and a desire to feel wise without being wise. He has been advisor and teacher to many a sorcerer and doctor, from Crowley to Jung, preaching the doctrine of individuation over all. That this has often led to profound arrogance and a hubristic sorcerer is something he is all too aware of, as it did with how the Basilideans' own knowledge led them to a rabid antisemitism that became a core of their identity, and the belief that all things suffered in this life are deserved for actions in previous lives, the exact opposite of individuation. But he cannot, and will not, stop teaching - just as the chick must destroy the world of the egg to be born, so must all destroy their limits to find themselves, and it is his nature to crack the shell. It is for this reason he is still a Dragon and not a God; by resetting the world to its pre-Fate state, he believes, the Truth will be most easily found, free of distortion.

The Serpent of Eden is regarded as somewhat cowardly for a Joka by those who do not know him well - he hides in the Astral Plane, and those who seek audience with their Handlers must come to him. Those who do will discover that while this is a level of complexity driven by fear, it is not for himself; any Reincarnation of his might need to become him if he needs to live again, and he has no desire to devour the self of another for his own sake. While he is often called a demon, this has more to do with the fact that Gnostics were originally regarded as heretics than anything else, and they lost the doctrinal struggle - that being said, he often does nothing to dissuade the association. He revels in antinomian magic and the use of darker thematics to take pride in being a mystical outsider, so long as it does not steal the selfhood of others. Ironically, major religions have little to fear from him - he is fine with the concept of faith as a shoring of self, but when faith becomes fanaticism, and truth becomes an extension of the leader's words, his belly rumbles and fangs show. He is an enemy of cults and conspiracy theorists of all sorts - which has led to his personal love-hate relationship with the Ascended Masters. As the true work and task of enlightenment became clear, much of the New Age Movement became infiltrated by toxic ideas, ones that admittedly had their origin in venerable Theosophy - racism and spiritual hubris, especially. In time, many neopagan groups became little more than skins for extreme right-wing politics, and even the ones that didn't frequently developed a contempt for the idea of consent as "repression." Abraxas, hungry and wrathful, directed his Heirs to correct this, but didn't exactly give them a more nuanced understanding of things. The Ascended Masters, seeing the massive crackdown on their followers by draconic forces, warned them not to trust the people with the hungry eyes of serpents... which was then completely (and deliberately) mangled by the very same people that had drawn Abraxas' wrath in the first place, creating the "Great Reptoid Conspiracy" as a concept. Which, notably, always seems to finger powerful ethnic minorities and leaders who dislike right-wing terrorism as reptoids, driving the flock further into the embrace of extremism. Tempers have cooled, but Abraxas has never stopped being frustrated with how he must send his Heirs to clean up the mess of the Ascended Masters, and trying to somehow avoid supporting the hateful con visited upon his "little siblings'" cults with his plans.

As part of his dedication to individuation and finding one's own truth, Abraxas has always tried to extend power beyond his bloodline - he's no hypocrite. To that end, he's learned how to form "living Reincarnations"; by forming memories of understanding identical to his own, Abraxas can make that memory become his, turning a person into the Reincarnated form of a living Dragon - the problem is that this is not very efficient, requiring years of training and teaching as a general rule, for no guarantee they will develop the exact same perspective as he does. Whatever the case is, Abraxas treasures them, as his most eager students - in contrast to many Handlers, Abraxas wants very badly to be involved and friends with his Heirs, but his refuge in the Astral Plane often prevents that, both because of distance and because the Guardian of the Threshold regularly interferes with his work - spies are all too prone to their own obsessions, and if they were to operate freely, they might break the King of Evil's hold over conspiracy theorists. That still means he is far more careful and generous with his agents than many Dragons, however, and this feeds into his Heirs' senses of both responsibility and pride. The heirs of the Princeps are almost invariably intense and introspective people with a profound love of humanity and a profound hatred of the lies it tells itself to excuse its abuses of the Earth and each other. They are radical environmentalists, idealistic and determined politicians, mystical anarchists, and dauntless psychologists all dedicated to universal liberation of the self - a fact which fascinates and terrifies the Gods who learn of them.

Callings: Judge, Mystic, Watcher

Memory: The rage and sorrow of realizing a person's ideology has become more valuable to them than their own loved ones, the excitement and joy of watching one you have taught understand, the temptation of forbidden knowledge, realizing something new about the self, anticipation for an experiment, the feel of old books filled with secrets and long-lost lore.

Dragon Magic: Decay, Fear, Illusion, Luck, Transformation, Understanding