"Mages are, by nature, strong willed and somewhat dogmatic individuals. Consequently, they don’t always play well with others. The intense focus and study required to learn magic does not foster a great deal of social interaction among the enlightened. At first glance, it seems as though it would be more attractive for a mage to try to go it alone and establish a small sanctum of her own rather than put up with the distraction and competition of interacting with other Awakened individuals. Absent other factors, this would likely be the case, but other factors do play a part. A mage’s chances of survival increase enormously when she puts her solitary inclinations aside and works with at least one other Awakened. Simultaneously, her chances of descending unchecked into the madness that magical power can cause drop significantly as well.

Most mages join a cabal, a group of other mages, usually peers at the same level of magical development. Nonetheless, some mages work alone. They are called “solitaries.” If they once had a cabal that broke up or was destroyed, their reticence to join another gives them a certain amount of respect. Meanwhile, those who never join cabals are distrusted as antisocial freaks.

When working together, an aggregate of mages is known as a “cabal.” In common parlance, the word can refer to any small group of individuals, but it most commonly denotes a group of conspirators. In the highly politicized world of the Awakened, either can apply.

Despite their frequent tendency toward individualism, mages on the whole are intelligent enough to realize that they’re more likely to achieve their goals if they work in tandem. Any given mage has a slew of reasons to work with his fellow willworkers.

Cabals often have a mystical significance, chosen around a theme inherent to a group. Such symbolic cabals might base their theme on their number of members, the quality of their magical practice, their locale or any other factor that members’ orders recognize as a proper magical correspondence. A cabal might be formed along an elemental theme, with one member taking the position of fire, another water, and so on, until all four (or five, depending on the paradigm) elemental roles are filled. Other cabals might use astrological signs or Arcana roles as their symbolic unifier.

Due to their inherent nature as well as the uncanny events that tend to follow them around, mages attract supernatural attention — most of which is unwanted. Many Awakened can see through the disguises and illusions behind which other supernatural creatures hide. Those entities find the ability intensely disturbing, to say the least, and are likely to take whatever steps they deem necessary to maintain their secrecy. In the case of a vampire or savage lycanthrope, that generally means the death of the offending mage. A willworker is in a much better position to survive this attention if he is in a cabal. A vampire might be able to take on one mage or even two, but a whole cabal of practitioners of the arcane arts is a threat that even powerful supernatural entities would rather avoid.

Furthermore, mages might be inclined to set aside their differences if they share a single agenda. The most obvious of these is the defeat of a common foe, but other agendas that might draw a cabal together include exploration of some portion of the Shadow Realm, guarding a shared secret, or creating some great enchanted item. Given the abilities possessed by even a single mage, the tasks that bring a cabal together are often truly daunting.

Simple companionship might be enough to cause a mage to work with others. A lone mage is at great risk of falling prey to madness. As they say, power corrupts. In the case of mages, a Paradox can intensify that tendency by shrouding a sorcerer in various forms of madness. By recognizing the incipient symptoms of Paradox-triggered ailments, peers can intervene before the situation becomes critical. Even if a mage has already fallen prey, a trusted member of her cabal can be all that’s needed to bring her back to sanity. In the World of Darkness, any mage who is not part of a cabal is immediately suspect because of that fact, and seemingly sane behavior is not a defense. A solitary Awakened who does not evince signs of madness is simply assumed to be mad in a deeper, more disturbing way.

Territorial politics among mages have a way of balkanizing the Awakened community. Mages are so focused on establishing and then defending their sanctums that they often neglect to work together for any sort of overarching goal. There is little more communication between mages on different coasts than there is between carpenters or hackers. That said, the Awakened community isn’t that big, and a cabal whose actions are sufficiently noteworthy can gain a reputation.

A reputation can be a double-edged sword. While it might be nice to be recognized, it can also be dangerous. A cabal with a particularly good reputation is at greater risk of succumbing to hubris. One with a reputation for dubious ethics is more likely to attract the notice of those who want the group to engage in shady activities on their behalf.

Once a cabal has made a name for itself in the region in which it’s based, that name spreads, one letter, phone call or mystic sending at a time until members are well known (at least in certain circles). Should that occur, the group needs to be very careful about whom it deals with and what kinds of activities it performs on others’ behalf, keeping in mind that others may think of members primarily as tools for furthering personal agendas.

Although rivalries and enmities certainly occur between cabal-mates, they usually take second stage when the circle’s goals are at stake. In the dark years following the Fall of Atlantis, mage cabals often provided the sole unifying vision for otherwise disparate willworkers. Some goals were even regarded by members as high ideals to uphold, purposes worth dying for. Members put collective needs above their own. Or rather, the needs of the cabal became their own. The group gave a mage a source of identity and roots within a region or community. Solitary mages were often wanderers, forced from a region by local cabals and distrusted or shunned by foreign societies. Despite the more libertine nature of mages in the modern world, cabals today are much as they were in the past: single institutions that serve as sorcerers’ homes and families in one.

Cabals are founded around a “protocol,” the creed of a circle, and some have magical oaths to which members must adhere. A protocol is set in stone as an oath (even if it’s not magically sealed as such), and can be changed only by the agreement of two-thirds of the group’s membership.

Most cabals that follow Atlantean customs adopt a heraldic sign as a symbol of their word and authority, for use in magic and as a means of communicating certain concepts without resorting to words. For example, a wyvern on a crest signifies a cabal prepared to match poison barb for poison barb.

Cabals often engage in trading favors with other groups, both neighboring and foreign. Respective members are enlisted to live up to these favors. If one cabal owes another aid for service rendered in war (against Seers of the Throne or Banishers, perhaps), it is expected to respond when that other calls for help. One or more members are then sent out to render that aid.

Some cabals provide resources, not necessarily in money but in magic and lore, such as a well-stocked library. Allowing outsiders to use one’s library is a good means of gaining favors, so a unique library is an asset not only to the members of the group, but to other mages as well.

Cabals tend to keep good records of who owes them favors and what kind, and also track what they owe to others and how they might least repay such debts. Among mages, debts aren’t just handshakes or even legal contracts — they’re most often magical oaths. There are consequences for refusing to repay a debt when it’s called due. This usually takes the form of a curse, but there might be other repercussions. Demons or other spirits of vengeance might appear, for example. The punishment depends on the degree of magical power woven into the oath, and on the degree of worldly power the debtor can call upon in retribution."