lategaming

For the last few months we’ve been playing in Michael’s RuneQuest game and tomorrow night is the first chapter of Graham’s new Delta Green scenario.

In terms of my own reading, I’ve been concentrating on Humanydyne. I just want a simple game to tide me over and the post-modern ‘post-human’ ghettos of San Sepulchro really inspire me.

For those who haven’t been paying attention - Humanydyne is a near future RPG set in a world where there are superhumans, where Baja California has been annexed into a superhuman nation and where some sort of superhuman-precipitated disaster broke up the moon (with horrifying but strangely not apocalyptic results).

As the game is in French, my progress has been really slow and I’ve considered both asking a friend and hiring folk to help me translate it - not just for my own uses - but for the wider possibility of publishing a translation (don’t tell him but Jared would be perfect for this). It’s meant to be published by his friends in Cubicle 7 but from what I can see, they’re insanely busy already.

So, at the moment, I’m reading it at my own speed…

[Fake Scotty accent]

We had a database crash here. We’re still pickin up the pieces down here…

[\fake Scotty accent]

In the beginning
Each culture has its own mythology, a tale of their creation. Some believe mankind came about through the spilled seed of a mighty god, whilst others believe that their maker fashioned them from the clay of the earth. Perhaps the universe was fashioned from the corpse of a great monster or from a vast pool of chemicals which coalesced into planets, mountains and man.

The dawn of Magic
In early times, man could not explain the coming of rain and winds, while lightening flashed from the sky, why some were struck down by disease and others were not. These mysteries caused man to fear as they could not control or predict it. However, some men of greater insight could recognise the coming of these events and, once they could could be recognised, they could be predicted. However, these men were still bound by their fear of the unknown. They interpreted these signs as portents from unknown, supernatural agents and when they saw no signs, they would appeal to these agents, placating them with prayers, sacrifices and complex ritual. This practise of magic in its most primitive form as a component of hysterical supersition formed the basis of early religion. Gods were fashioned from the sun and the rain, and through religion man began to construct his first great civilisations.

Customs and rituals developed over time from priest-magicians, descendants of those men of wisdom, who were charged with placating and diving the future from the gods. Their tradition was recorded through the generations from father to son and mother to daughter. The few that were written down survived many centuries and gave those who could decpiher their dead language an inestimable headstart in the mastery of magic.

Ancient cults
A cult was essentially a group of individuals who united under a common purpose with similar methods and a core belief system. Man found he could not blindly believe in a shapeless and faceless deity and therefore added features to their gods so that they might better identify them. In those primitive times it was enough to follow a totem animal, a god likened to a particular beast for familiarity and in the hope that the cult members would gain part of their god’s strength or cunning.

The great intuitive leaps occured when man finally began to apply human features to his invisible gods. The traditions and rituals, as well as the facets of these totem animals, were preserved and lived on in these anthropomorphic deities.

During the dyasties of Egypt, the priest-magicians were at their height. They had drunk deeply of science and mathematics, slaked their thirst with magic and ritual, and created a religious oligarchy that would ensure that their chosen Pharoah, often merely a child, would prosper and permit them to guide and advise him. In return for permitting them to shape the nation, the Pharoah was promised immortality. Only a fraction made it quite that far and their remains are scattered around the world on show to the masses.

The later civilisations maintained their pantheons of gods and imagined thir interactions in legends and tales of great deeds. Most still carried a vestige of their primitive past with Gods of Thunder and Rain, Goddesses of Hunting and, of couse, the mighty all-father who sired an entire race of Gods. Gods at this time were petty creatures, much like their subjects, mostly concerned with appearances, lust, greed and dominance.

The more advanced cults adopted the gods of earlier religions into their mythology, renaming them for their own uses and to ensure acceptance with their own people. The Eqyptian Thoth is possibly the most famous of these. By the Romans, he was known as Mercury but more importantly he was known to the Greeks as Hermes.

Hermes, according to legend, was the author of the Emerald Tablet. This tablet, if it ever existed, was inscribed with thriteen tenets central to the nature and working of magic. The collected works, Corpus Hermeticum, formed the basis of occult learning though it was later thought that many of the works dated to much later than originally suppposed. Despite the proof, many groups, both magical and religious, were inluenced by this work and its effect on their subsequent development cannot be ignored. It has provided a hypthetical link between the gods of ancient times and Classical Occultism.

Hermes was also known as Hermes Trismegistus, ‘The Thrice Great’, his power attaining his threefold blessing from God, according to Gnostic Jewish and Christian legend. That the works resurfaced in the Middle Ages and sparked off an interest in magical Antiquity and a subsequent reaction from the Church indicates their importance, if not their veracity.

The Greeks and Romans documented their religion (and, by inference, their magic) in their art, literature, oral history and widespread travels through the world. Their combined influence formed much of the basis of magical thought in Europe and their traditions are still upheld. There were other influences from the Germanic, Celtic and Norse peoples.

Magic also belonged to the common man in ways that religion could not. While religion and the gods were mainly the province of priests and the higher workings of magic were revealed only by magicians, a common tradition of magic was based on the occult virtues of natural or common things. This magic crossed the boundaries of society and gave simple chrms andblessings to the common people. It was not uncommon to hear part of the Liturgical Word intermingled with pidgin Greek and Latin as a medicinal or spiritual cure administered by ignorant lower clergy.

Even from its humble beginnings, Christianity began to see magic as a competitor. The people would never completely accept the new religion in place of their ancient pagan traditions. To combat this problem, they employed syncretism. They canonised some of the pagan gods, establishing them as saints in the Chirstian hierarchy and attributing their miracles to the power of God. Pagan temples were to be reconsecrated and festivals given a new Christian meaning. Stories of the old gods would still be told, but by the new clergy and where Wotan had once ruled, now a Nazarene took his place in legend.

For the commmon man, Natural magic or Occult virtues presented a viable alternaive to Chritsian prayer. In times of adversity, magic could be relied on to provide a solution where prayers seemed powerless. The Church began to preach against such activities, citing the examples laid down in biblical texts as a warning to those who would consort with demons. They even preached against the use of simple charms and the creration of brews which, though they may not deal directly with demons, were another form of idolatry. Magical practices were used and described by midwives, monks, physicians, priests, folk healers and diviners. Even common men and women who had no formal training or special talnet could harness some of this potential. Before science and medicine became enshrined in universities, it was hard to see how a physician would differ from a lay healer.

The higher echleons of the surviving cults spotted the inevitable outcome. They were greatly outnumbered and even though some of their number were members of the Church, it would not save them from the war to come.

History of the world
Legend has it that in ancient times, gods walked the earth beside Man and waged great wars amongst themselves that shaped the face of the lands and seas. To end all wars, the earth was divided amongst them and great domains became ruled by mighty gods. To some was given the seas, others possessed the air, and to the best of them, control of the land. Great magic was their tool and Man was fearful of it as he was afraid of everything he did not understand.

Man did not know his place in this world and so the world stayed for thousands of years. The secrets of fire, science and eventually magic would be handed down to Man by the gods, but he was ignorant and afraid, and so would not use these gifts for many lifetimes. Eventually gods and giants disappeared from the sight of Man and lived only in tales that he would his children as the sat huddled around a fire. Some men spent a lifetime learning about magic while others described the basic principles of science and philosophy. They used both to explain the state of the world but continued to revere their ancient gods and use their names to explain anything that their limitedgrasp of science could not explain.

After an age of ignorance, Man crept out of the darkness and embraced the world of magic and science. He built grand cities and great works which he dedicated to his ancient gods. The greates of these cities was the legendary Atlantis. The greatest philosophers, scientists and sorcerers exercised the knowledge passed down by the gods and built the most advanced civilisation in the world.

The Fall of Atlantis
After millenia of fortune and prosperity, Atlantis fell. Some say their science and magic brought about a calamity they could not prevent. Others claim they were corrupt and a good and just god destroyed them for their iniquity. It is more likely that they suffered from a natural disaster and had years to leave their island paradise, which would explain how the legend lives on and the effect the Atlantean culture had on mankind.

When Atlantis fell, it was looted of its treasure and its knwoledge, and both were scattered to the four corners of the earth. Many of their magicians and scientists found their way to Egypt where they helped found a dynasty of kings. Perhaps the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Hermes and the Roman Mercury are all based on these Atlantean survivors, who handed their advanced knowledge to a primitive society and helped them gain ascendancy over their neighbours.

Atlantis survives only in myth if it ever existed. Plato describes Atlantis in some detail, though modern thinkers still believe that Atlantis was no mor than a legend. It may well be a cipher for the origin of all knowledge, in other words the location of Eden. It has been suggested that the Bible relates to myth when it needs to. Perhaps the fall of Atlantis was during the Flood which covered the earth. The same Flood which destroyed a race of giants which walked the earth in those days alongside man.

Despite the lack of proof regarding Atlantis, there have been many people who have claimed that they are the holders of a secret lore which came from the sunken island. Even whn geographical evidence denies the possibility of a vast island-city in the Atlantic, some people still cling to the legend. The proof of Atlantis is as much a question of faith as it is a question of knowledge. If you believe it is there, then there is no need to look for it. If you know where it is, then there is no need to question its existence.

A Carpenter’s Son
During the reign of Herod the Great in a small desert backwater called Judea, a child was born who was to become the inspiration for the largest religious cult in the world a mere two thousand years later. This youth was remarkable in that he possessed knowledge and understanding of Scripture far beyond hismeagre years. During his travels as a mendicant preacher, he gained some notoriety for his skill with magic. People flocked to hear him talk and see his great works. Amongst the crowds were the sorcerers of the day. Their command of magic was considerable but even their greatest could not rival the works of this yougn upstart and thus they plotted against him.

In those days there were many cults who thrived on the ignorance and isolation of their followers and their intention was to usher in a golden age with themselves at the helm. They alone would be enlightened and they alone would control the earth. This upstart disagreed, preferring to spread the word of a universal enlightenment attainable by all. To add injury to insult, his cult was growing at a phenomenal rate and even foreigners, worhsippers of strange alien gods, came to hear him speak. At the height of his popularity, they sent their advocate to bargain with him for regency over the earth, but he refused.

As a result, their agents were sent out across the land, spreading word of how this man would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression and free them all. He knew that he could not combat them at this game. He was but one man and they were numerous. Thus through blackmail and magic, they were able to ahve him arrested and executed at the hands of the Romans. The people were demoralised but rallied behind his surviving followers. The Romans were now involved, but they could not grasp the complexity of the situation. As a result they did their best to quash what they saw as a civil uprising.

When it became clear that the situation was not as simple as they thought, they quickly realised that further action might provoke open hostilities with all sides of the community (as it would around half a century later). Thus they decided to concentrate their attention on the remaining ringleaders, a motley collection of agricultural workers, fishermen and former tax collectors. Their champion was to be Simon Magus, a foreign sorcerer of some skill. However, the resulting magical duel ended in Simon’s death and the cult went underground to avoid Roman retaliation.

During the next few centuries, the cult grew and its followers became well-versed in scripture and magic. The life of its founder and the travels of his understudies were to be documented in a great book which would be distributed across the world. their crowning victory was to come in the fourth century when they were able to capitalise on the misfortunes of the then-declining Roman empire to emerge from the shadows and present a solution to the Roman problems. Whilst the power and knowledge of the cult had grown, so too had its reputation (although at a high price, given the persecutions during Nero and Diocletian’s reigns). It only took a glimpse of this power to convince a Romano-British general, and the Church was established.

The other cults would languish willingly in relative obscurity. With the ascendancy of their former rivals, it was safer to remain obscure than risk extermination. The Middle Ages witnessed between these minor cults and Chrstianity, a war that neither won but which convinced both to strengthen their positions. A treaty saved a few from fighting among themselves but the end of that treaty is coming and all the wealth in the world is for the taking.

And for those cults who have forgotten their faith and their magic? It is expected that they will die out. Those who have magic often forget the power of one sorcerer pales alongside the power of a thousand human beings equipped with sword and flame. Then again, those with long memories and a broad perspective often point to the example of one charismatic individual who, despite humble origins, founded a tradition which has spanned two millennia.