Dreamspeakers

‘I have a message for you. It is not a message for your ears – your heart must listen, and your spirit will know its truth. Do you wish to hear it?’

Specialty Sphere: Spirit

Associated Abilities: Cosmology, Survival, and Awareness.

Spirit-talkers, animal friends, brothers to wind and sisters to Earth – these Mages walk the boundaries between our physical world and the realm of dreams, gathering wisdom and skill from the spirits that are native to the earth, the sky and the water. Dreamspeakers are often pigeonholed as shamans, and the name fits. They are intermediaries between humanity and Spirit, communicating between the two worlds, maintaining balance and keeping the relationships between the inhabitants of both realms in their proper state of stasis or flux. Of all the Traditions, the Dreamspeakers have the most difficult role and the strongest centering, grounding influence.

Tradition Paradigm: Everything is alive, and imbued with a unique spirit.

Philosophy: There is infinitely more to this world than the things you can touch, and beyond the edges of our vision are being that have existed for eons. The Dreamspeakers honor these spirits, serving as the gatekeepers between the worlds of the spiritual and the physical, and balancing the two. Too many people have forgotten the existence of the spirits of the land, and the Dreamspeakers must always remember.

All Dreamspeakers hear the voice of the world – the invisible pulse of the spirits, the rhythm of nature, and the power of Earth. Some answer to totems, others to spirits of natural places, some even commune with the spirits of technology man has created. Magic comes from the Dream, whatever its given name, and Dreamspeakers can find this Dream in nearly anything.

The Dreamspeakers are not primitive – far from it, they have a strong grasp of the modern world. They stand with one foot in the physical world and the other across the Gauntlet, and must be aware of both to avoid being torn asunder. With the fate of two worlds on their shoulders, the Dreamspeakers know that they must choose carefully.

Failings: The Dreamspeakers come from many spiritual traditions, all lumped together under one banner. Furthermore, shamanism is a very personal and solitary profession, leading to further division. The Tradition suffers from this lack of unity – their force is held in many smaller vessels, rather than becoming the raging river they could be united. With access to the spirit world severely limited by the Avatar Storm, the Dreamspeakers have lost much of their magical strength, and must work hard to retain their connection to the spirits.

Likes

Akashic Brotherhood: We both seek to transcend our bodies – they seek a perfected mind, while we seek a perfected spirit. We feel a kinship to them through our mutual oppression – ‘Oriental’ is as meaningless a word as ‘African’.

Celestial Chorus: Among the Traditions, they alone wish to keep the memories of our lost religions and tribes alive. They call all things One, but they are blind to the value of many. Still, we agree not to preach to them, if they agree not to preach to us.

Dislikes

Cult of Ecstasy: Wisdom stems from purpose. They break their boundaries, but they do so without reason or goal. Their experiences are powerful, but ultimately empty and meaningless.

Euthanatos: Their hands are tainted by dark spirits, but their responsibility is great. They labor under a hard burden without complaint. Their vision of death is not ours, however, and we are often hard-pressed to accept their murders.

Order of Hermes: They bind spirits to their will by force, rather than through negotiation. Soon they will attempt to control something they cannot handle. They think they know the full breadth of the spirit worlds? Impossible.

Verbena: Our brothers and sisters in ritual and shamanism, although they let the flesh command the spirit. Their ceremonies honor the spirits, but they do not control them.

Hollow Ones: They claim to be dead inside, but we can see the rebellious spirit burning within them. Who will be able to harness that latent power?

Hates

Sons of Ether: New technologies have their own spirits, but the Etherites ignore them, casting them aside in favor of something bigger and better. These spirits wither and die, cruelly forgotten before they were even born. No matter how much these technomancers attempt, they will never build a loving heart out of rivets, or a peaceful soul out of wires.

Virtual Adepts: Vile creatures. It is their kind who upturn the earth to lay cables and pipes, who fill the air with radio, television, and telephone signals, who crush the old as they seek the new. They do not think of their past, and they do not think of their future.

Factions

Baruti

These travelers have a mission to keep the past alive, to share and remember all of the tales of lost peoples and vanished places. The Baruti became the last repository of wisdom and knowledge for many hundreds of destroyed tribes, nations, and cultures. Wherever the Baruti meet, they share and expand their knowledge of stories and history. Many Baruti believe that history moves in cycles – the distant past is the distant future.

Faction Paradigm: Only by remembering all the knowledge of the past can humanity attain true wisdom.

Independents

These unique Dreamspeakers were once tribal shamans, Mages who never knew what a Mage was, just that the spirits spoke to them. Many Awakened without mentors, often being driven mad from the experience. With the birth of easier transportation and communication, these shamans have recently been able to meet and organize into a faction, united by surviving through their self-Awakening.

Faction Paradigm: We were chosen for a purpose, and we must fulfill it.

Ghost Wheel Society

These urban shamans deal with the spirits of civilization, working with urban totems and summoning the spirits within bronze, iron, corn, buildings, vehicles, and cities. Now they are expanding into computers and the internet, bypassing passwords by simply asking the spirit of the network to let them in.

Faction Paradigm: Whether a spirit is ‘natural’ or not doesn’t matter, just how the spirit interacts with our lives.

Keepers of the Sacred Flame

Collectors of culture, these Mages are devoted to keeping the traditions of cultures which have been destroyed by outside influences and cultural contamination. They are often the last celebrants of ancient rituals, seeing all cultures – no matter how primitive – as precious and valuable.

Faction Paradigm: Any culture is valuable, and allowing one to be forgotten means its merits will be lost for eternity.

Red Spear Society

Necessity has given rise to these warriors of the Dreamspeakers, forging connections with the primal forces of warfare, then turning them against their foes. The forces of the Red Spears are often the only things standing between the Dreamspeakers and cultural annihilation.

Faction Paradigm: Destruction of enemies is our purpose, but violence is only the most blunt means to that end.

Spirit Smiths

These craftsmen forge items not through hammer and anvil, but by coaxing the spirit of the material to take on a useful form. They seek to re-enchant the world through the creation of magical items, talismans and totems. Many have begun to build advanced electronics, infusing magic into the ways of the future.

Faction Paradigm: By building things with care and empathy, we can gain the assistance of the spirits which inhabit them.

Elite Cabal: Master Spiritkeepers

Master Spiritkeeper was originally the name of high-ranking Spirit Smiths, those who could create items with living spirits within them, and were surrounded by these living objects. Now the title simply refers to an accomplished Dreamspeaker. The ability to create awakened items is a great power, easily abused, so those with the title of Master Spiritkeeper are expected to be capable in all areas of Dreamspeaker practice. The Cabal is open to Dreamspeakers of any Faction, not just the Spirit Smiths, as long as they can pass the Cabal’s strict requirements.

Cabal Paradigm: We are neither master nor slave to spirits, but one part of the cycle of creation. Cooperative understanding of the spirits and cycles around us will remove all barriers.

Requirements: Cosmology 5, Awareness, Survival, and Crafts 4, another Ability at 4. Spirit 3 and Matter 3.

“I walk where the Dream is real. I dance to the heartbeat of the World. I am one with nature – the wolf, the bear, the owl. Your world is blind, your spirit dying. Come with me to the heart of nature. Share our Dreams, and you shall live.”