"Magic is something everybody dreams of but nobody seems to possess. The power to conjure something from nothing, to change a man into a toad, to curse one’s enemies, to call down lightning from the sky — all powers from legends and fantasy tales. We are drawn to these stories, but not just because of the power displayed in them. Wizards present a different kind of allure: the desire for power tempered with wisdom. Mages have the power of knowing when and how to use power. While this can be a limitation, it is a self-imposed one, displaying a discipline rare in this world."

"Mind’s Eye Theatre: The Awakening is a game about these kinds of mages, and the trials and temptations they face on the path of discipline and enlightenment. A mage is someone who has Awakened, whose soul has been freed of an ancient curse afflicting mortals. Most people’s souls are asleep, unaware of the raw power they can tap to remake their world. The truth has been hidden from them for many lifetimes; all they know is a Lie. Mages can see through the Lie and enact humanity’s birthright: magic."

Mages. They call themselves the Awakened, differentiating themselves from the Sleepers who stumble blindly through the world believing everything they see. Mages often aren't what people would expect they might be; they aren't necessarily versed in Voodoo, Heremetic mysticism, shamanistic practices, although these and other mystic traditions can lead to glimpses of the truth. They have seen past the Lie that is the sleeping world and found higher(or at least more fundemental) truths, forging a connection between their souls and the Supernal Realms.

Myths and legends of the first Awakened

There is no small amount of legendary surrounding Mages. A common thread is that of the First City, called Atlantis, Enoch, Shambhala and an hundred other names. It is there that the first seekers came, lead by dreams of dragons, metaphorical or otherwise. In that place they dreamed great dreams and visited the realms beyond the material in astral journies, and when they awakened from their dreams they were Awake - they comprehended the world and saw the underlying principled of reality in a way no others had before. Their knowledge gave them great power, and they worked to build a great city and to free themselves from the inhuman things that had often held sway in the dark corners of the world.

They built a shining city and grew mighty, and these first Mages swelled with pride. No longer content to merely journey into higher truth in dreams and astral journies, some sought to build a Celestial Ladder so they could walk the Supernal Realms in their own bodies. They would storm the heavens and sit in the thrones of the gods themselves. But pride and power turned to hubris and treachery, and those first Awakened fought a mighty war over that prize. In the end, the Celestial Ladder was shattered, and the higher realms and material reality were torn assunder. Where once magic infused the world, there was only the Lie, and where once the Supernal Realms beckoned to humanity there was only the vast darkness of the Abyss...

It is said in the last moments of the Fall, some few of the greatest of the Awakened secured themselves in the Realms Supernal before the ladder shattered. Some of these were the Exarchs, who sought to rule creation from beyond. Fewer still were the Oracles, who forged the Watchtowers in the Supernal Realms, providing a glimmering thread that might lead some across the Abyss to Awaken still...

"Awakening presents a vision of magic different from that portrayed in most fantastical literature, although Awakening incorporates many occult elements. Awakening hearkens to stories of high magic, mythic tales of wizardly might and terrifying hubris, but set in the here and now, not in some distant neverland. Instead of assuming a character is a practitioner of voodoo, Cabalism, Hermeticism, Taoist exorcism or any number of other magical forms, Awakening imagines a mortal who performs magic by connecting to an invisible world. All the magical practices mentioned above hint at the existence of this higher realm, but none fully prepares a magician to encounter it. For that, he must walk down paths of sheer mystery. He must enter a reality unknown to mundane occult traditions, but that completes and realizes their fragmentary knowledge."

"Characters in Awakening are not solitary men and women living in distant, crum-bling towers. Mages form cabals, for few of the Awakened can master all the Mysteries of the Arcana. A group can pool its magical resources and lore to achieve what one mage working alone would need decades to accomplish. But working together isn’t easy — each mage has personal ideas on how things should work. Mages are used togetting their own way with reality and find it difficult to adjust to the expectations ofothers, often leading to a contentious existence in which everyone jealously hides thefruits of his labors and research from one another until it becomes absolutely necessary to reveal them. There’s good reason for this paranoia, though, since mages havediscovered that secrets must be earned, not given away freely. Learning magic requiresone to solve riddles and answer inscrutable questions. In the World of Darkness,knowledge really is power."

Myths and legends aside, even today people still heed the call of the Watchtowers and Awaken...