alternate universes where each of the different Traditions Paradigms become dominant?

[Konradleijon]

In the Mage Storytellers guide theirs one called the The Biscocchian Coprosperity Sphere.

Where some random mage had Gutenberg print a copy of Kitab al-Alacir, which lead to Either ideas spreading like wildfire.

Reddit user mathemagics15 discusses what would happen in a OOH world Now I'm imagining an entire planet ruled by wizard-lords, where Hermetic Magic has essentially overtaken the role technology has in our own world.

Students in schools are not shown the periodic table when learning about Physics, but instead study things like the four (or five) elements, alchemy, the anatomy of the soul (avatars, chakras, you name it) and so on.

Due to the nature of the Hermetic dominance, so much conventional magic has become hardcoded in consensus that most ordinary mortals can become sorcerers and perform linear magic as readily as people today can operate machines and computers. Alchemy, summoning rituals to interact with spirits and demons, the trapping of genies in bottles and lamps, the crafting of wards, fetishes and other magical items using rare and potently magical ingredients or creating them at a ley line / under a full moon... all of that doesn't actually take Awakened Will to do.

Nations are led by councils of powerful willworkers, and wars are fought by summoning mythic beasts and nuking cities with magical artillery (Hermetics are experts of the Forces after all). Each nation has a Dragon air force or something similar, and international shipping still occurs by sail. Greatly sped up, however, by having water mystics calm the waves and storm mages calibrate the wind.
The world is still divided culturally, and religion probably still exists, but divisions of culture and religion are intimately tied to differences in how each culture views magic. Say, the soul might be a point of contention.

Natural disasters and big arcane accidents are pretty common with all the elemental magic being worked, and the population is inclined to believe that a Hermetic with enough power, knowledge, preparation and magical paraphernalia can do nearly anything.

Which leads to a sad affair where the majority of the human population is controlled by conclaves of mega-powerful sorcerers and possibly even spirits, and resistance is difficult without, say, making pacts with demons or wyrm spirits or whatever to cause revolution by entropy.

I don't think I would want to live under Hermetic rule

[Guest]

I wouldn’t either, but it’s a cool campaign setting.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I don't think I would want to live under Hermetic rule

Neither would I, but I also would not want to live in a world run by the Verbena, the Euthanatos, or the Chorus. A Sahajiya world would probably have little pleasure to it, and an Etherite world would still wallow in phrenology and eugenics. Not that that Brotherhood, the Dreamspeakers [edit] would be much better[edit], and the Adepts would be smacking people in the face with ban hammers in the real world. Really, any of the worlds they are all after would be misery, unless you had a lot of power and were a part of the system/establishment.

[No One of Consequence]

A Dreamspeaker one would be ... interesting. Basically a world in which the concept of animism is a universally accepted objective fact and every object, location, animal, and even concepts are recognized as having a spiritual aspect which may or may not be fully awakened (in the normal sense of the word) and aware. This would require a lot of social rules and rituals of proper spiritual etiquette and methods of negotiation, appeasement and offerings. And it doesn't necessarily result in a preindustrial technology level either. Technological and economic development would involve taking into account the spiritual impact of development, as would warfare, exploration, and colonization. The modern world would probably be very Asian in certain ways, with certain aspects of Shintoism or the use of Feng Shui as two examples being prevalent around the world, but taking into account cultural lenses such as the angelic hosts, djinn, ancestor spirits, and the like. Naturally, some spirits are inherently hostile to human beings, and will need to be reigned in and guarded agents by some sort of elite force. There's probably a number of anime series and other East Asian media one could draw on for inspiration.

[kalinara]

There's a fantasy book series, the Legend of Eli Monpress, that strikes me as a pretty cool example of what a Dreamspeaker based setting might look like. It did a lot of interesting things with the idea of everything having a spirit that can be perceived and interacted with, by a select group of people. It's not a setting I'd particularly want to live in, but it would definitely make for a fun game.

[Alucard]

It's more interesting if the world is dominated by the traditions, but not by a tradition. So that the paradigm noticably shifts depending on where you are. You have countries in Europe where the Hermetics rule, but there are others where the Celestial Chorus or the Verbana rule. While in the East you countries ruled by Dreamspeakers or Akashic Brotherhood and so on.

[Konradleijon]

A Dreamspeaker one would be ... interesting. Basically a world in which the concept of animism is a universally accepted objective fact and every object, location, animal, and even concepts are recognized as having a spiritual aspect which may or may not be fully awakened (in the normal sense of the word) and aware. This would require a lot of social rules and rituals of proper spiritual etiquette and methods of negotiation, appeasement and offerings. And it doesn't necessarily result in a preindustrial technology level either. Technological and economic development would involve taking into account the spiritual impact of development, as would warfare, exploration, and colonization. The modern world would probably be very Asian in certain ways, with certain aspects of Shintoism or the use of Feng Shui as two examples being prevalent around the world, but taking into account cultural lenses such as the angelic hosts, djinn, ancestor spirits, and the like. Naturally, some spirits are inherently hostile to human beings, and will need to be reigned in and guarded agents by some sort of elite force. There's probably a number of anime series and other East Asian media one could draw on for inspiration.

I presume that their is less monotheistic faiths?

[Guest]

Neither would I, but I also would not want to live in a world run by the Verbena, the Euthanatos, or the Chorus. A Sahajiya world would probably have little pleasure to it, and an Etherite world would still wallow in phrenology and eugenics. Not that that Brotherhood, the Dreamspeakers, and the Adepts would be smacking people in the face with ban hammers in the real world. Really, any of the worlds they are all after would be misery, unless you had a lot of power and were a part of the system/establishment.

A Sahajiya world would be nothing but pleasure.

[LostLight]

A Sahajiya world would be nothing but pleasure.

Even though we should remmebr that pain has a reason in our world. Too much pain is bad, sure, but imagine a world where everything is pleasure. Did you poisoned yourself? Pleasure. Do you cut pieces of your flesh? Pleasure. Do you kill your loved ones? Pleasure.

Pleasure is terrifying, because it also means an end for empathy and reason. It is a very egoistic world, where everyone exist only for their own sake, while oracles and seers guide the drugged masses towards whatever they are meant to do. I personally don't want to live in an every lasting bacchanal, thank you very much.

[Konradleijon]

Even though we should remmebr that pain has a reason in our world. Too much pain is bad, sure, but imagine a world where everything is pleasure. Did you poisoned yourself? Pleasure. Do you cut pieces of your flesh? Pleasure. Do you kill your loved ones? Pleasure.

Pleasure is terrifying, because it also means an end for empathy and reason. It is a very egoistic world, where everyone exist only for their own sake, while oracles and seers guide the drugged masses towards whatever they are meant to do. I personally don't want to live in an every lasting bacchanal, thank you very much.

So it’s like a slaanshi cult?

[Konradleijon]

I presume that their is less monotheistic faiths?

A Dreamspeaker dominated world seems like it would be nice.

[Muad'Dib]

A Sahajiya world would be nothing but pleasure.

I dunno about this...considering an Ecstatic Mage's Kamamarga can be any activity that they find pleasurable and worthy...You know, I'm not too big on sports (to say the least), and in the CoE Revised book there is this example character called Extreme Athlete. Consider an entire city living under his purview. A day starting with a one hour long hardcore 'warm-up' for everyone seems kind of too much. And there are also the radical Ecstatic groups. The very cover of their Revised Tradition Book has what seems to me a prideful Ecstatic,
It's a point brought up very often in their Revised book, that some Ecstatics think mundane humans should be forced into (rather than eased into) greater extremes of activity and pleasure.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

A Sahajiya world would be nothing but pleasure.

What ever happens to people (sleepers and other mages), pain or pleasure, would be decided entirely by the Sahajiya. And any agency, power, and choice, would be entirely in the hands of the Sahajiya. How many crumbs and table scraps the Sahajiya would give to their dogs and pets is debatable.

[Muad'Dib]

What ever happens to people (sleepers and other mages), pain or pleasure, would be decided entirely by the Sahajiya. And any agency, power, and choice, would be entirely in the hands of the Sahajiya. How many crumbs and table scraps the Sahajiya would give to their dogs and pets is debatable.

In such a scenario, I can see "This is technically legal under the Code of Ananda..." being used a lot by some Ecstatic Mages to justify and enforce whatever would be their outlooks.

[Czernobog]

In such a scenario, I can see "This is technically legal under the Code of Ananda..." being used a lot by some Ecstatic Mages to justify and enforce whatever would be their outlooks.

I mean, even in the canon setting only about half the Cult cares about the Code IIRC.