Quendalon/Ascendedv1
The Ascended (version 1)
On rare occasions, those touched by the Wyld come away with a new sensitivity to, and power over, the Essence that comprises the world. Such people become shamans and sorcerers of a magnitude unparalleled by other mortal occultists. It was inevitable that those with the knowledge and the will would eventually learn to replicate such fortunate accidents. Some two hundred years after the Contagion, a mortal occultist named Silver Dawn devised the Nine-fold Path by which mere mortals could learn to channel Essence. Now a little god, she has spent half a millennium refining the process and shepherding others along the path to Ascension.
The Nine-fold Path comprises a series of meditative disciplines and occult rituals meant to harmonize the flows of Essence through the initiate’s body, mind and spirit. A mortal occultist treading the Nine-fold Path performs a pilgrimage to untamed Demesnes of every aspect, opening herself to the raw elemental energies of each. Successful attunement to each of the nine elemental and celestial aspects transforms the occultist on a spiritual level, granting her all of the benefits of the Essence Channeler blight.
Attuning to a Demesne’s aspect takes six weeks of meditation, minus one week per level of the Demesne, and requires a Stamina + Occult roll with a difficulty equal to the level of the Demesne. Ignore the normal rules for mutation in an untamed Demesne while the occultist is involved in the ritual. On a successful roll, the occultist gains the desired attunement; if she scores five or more successes, she also gains a minor pox related to the Demesne’s aspect. Failure inflicts a minor defect related to the Demesne’s aspect, while a botch inflicts an unsoakable aggravated wound and one or more related defects, debilities or deformities, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Silver Dawn recorded the disciplines of the Nine-Fold Path in a number of books that have made their way into the hands of many mortal sorcerers over the years. Today, dozens of Ascended sorcerers practice their craft in hidden places throughout the Threshold. While some correspond with one another in pursuit of further knowledge, they do not constitute an organization of any sort. The eldest and most skilled of the Ascended have transcended the mortal coil entirely, shedding the flesh and becoming wholly spiritual, as do the most fortunate of the God-Blooded. What role such self-made entities can play in the hierarchy of Heaven, we cannot say.
