Paternoster

Overview

Faith is an unbreakable chain[1]. Resplendent in ceremony and encouraged by the soft certitude of cultured piety, those of the Greater Ministry of Paternoster style themselves priests of the Father, Archigenitor Exarch of control through faith and religion and of the Prime Arcanum. Champions of all zealotry, the Seers of the Throne that serve the Paternoster Ministry reinforce dogma and fear while quashing the positive aspects of religion. The Ministries scour Sleeper religions for hints of Supernal insight, that they can be grounded and guttered to promote the pure Exarchal religion.

It takes faith to manufacture faith[2], and devotion to deceive the devoted. Look at any religious scandal and you won’t see cynics at the top. The truly corrupt believe they’re so holy that the rules they preach to the masses don’t apply. Paternoster’s faithful — the hierodules — effectively enforce the Quiescence because their faith is strong enough to conquer moral contradictions. The Father’s elect believe that He mandates one religion for the Awakened, and many, many others for Sleepers. Let each kind keep to its religion and the world will abide in harmony. Sleeper religions are lies, true, but they’re holy lies, designed by the Exarchs to keep their children safe and passive.

The Ministry also uses religion to enforce the Exarchs’ divine will. Sleepers should divide themselves into petty, dogmatic sects. Tolerance is an arrogant disregard for the Father’s will. He wants squabbling cults — it’s the Sleepers’ ordained Path. The masses should learn morality from faith and habit instead of reason and evidence. Reason presumes to truth, but ultimate truth belongs to the Father.

History

Paternoster is unique among the current Ministries in that it had no predecessor. The old cults of the Father died centuries before the Ministry’s rise. As far as anyone knows, the last of them perished in AD 131, in a secret struggle masked by Hadrian’s attempt to bury Jerusalem under the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. If anyone called to Him in the interim, they left no trace. Seers of the Throne did not create Paternoster. Pentacle mages did.

It was the Fourth Crusade. Mages often boast that they’re above Sleepers’ wars, but many European Awakened marched to the Holy Land. Most of these mages were inexperienced Obrimos, filled with fresh visions of the Lord thanks to their recent Awakenings and a culture that inclined them to view spiritual experiences through a Christian lens. They were ready to seize Jerusalem from the Saracens and battle legendary Persian sorcerers. Instead, they followed crusaders to the sack of Constantinople, where Greek Obrimos met them with hate and magical fire. The survivors fled to Rome. After the terrible crusade, the theurge Veritas devoted himself to a life of extreme asceticism. He punished his body, and sent his soul wandering the Astral Plane. He looked for God. He questioned the Temenos’ false angels, but saw through their sweet deceptions. He challenged the terrible Aeons of the Aether, but they cast him from the threshold of heaven. Finally, in the void between worlds, the Father reached out to him and taught him the secret of all religions.

Veritas returned, founded the Paternoster, and guided it to its current power. It accepted the Hegemonic reforms and calls itself a Ministry, but in truth, it’s a priesthood that champions all religions, so that Sleepers won’t offend the Father with their impure souls.

Rituals & Observances

Holy War[3]

It has many names. Crusade is a popular one. Jihad is a close second. Sleepers don’t always apply these to violence. Jihad can be an internal struggle; crusade, any zealous project. The Paternoster isn’t so flexible. To them, these words mean holy war. Pontifexes sound the call; their templars assault Consilii and sometimes whole nations to convert or kill Awakened unbelievers. They’re rare, but devastating, for only a Ministry can call so many mages to war. The last time it happened was in 1917. Mages call it the Battle of the Maritimes. Sleepers call it the Halifax Explosion, and ascribe it to an accident that had the force of three kilotons of TNT.

Pontifical Archives[3]

The Paternoster boasts the best academic occultists in the great Ministries because it’s obsessed with keeping Supernal knowledge out of Sleepers’ hands. Every hierodule pylon sends grimoires and notes to the Pontifical Archive. Hierodules study and sometimes even copy the collection. Some resources require a higher level of trust than others. The pontifex has final authority over what a researcher may examine.

Hollow Ones

Slaves of the Ministry, Hollow Ones are manufactured “blank” human beings; their souls are stable in the state left to them, but without a repeated supply of Mana a Hollow One’s memories and drives drain away to nothingness, leaving a blank canvas for a Seer to write on with spells.

Minister

Only a few tetrarchs know it, but the Apotheosian[4] of the Paternoster is the only great Minister who isn’t in direct communion with his Exarch. This makes him the most humane, comprehensible Minister, but it’s still a shameful secret. By all accounts, the previous Apotheosian was a true avatar of the Father. He vanished, leaving behind the Teraphim. The current Apotheosian uses it to commune with his Exarch. He’s asked every question but one: “Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Prelacy

The Father grants the Crown of Doctrine[5]. The character adds her Prime dots to her Gnosis to determine her Mana pool (every effective dot above 10 grants 10 extra Mana), and may heal resistant damage by Pattern restoration

References

  1. ↑ MTAw: Mage: The Awakening Second Edition, p. 72 Buy it from DriveThruRPG! Now in Print!
  2. ↑ MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 64 Buy it from DriveThruRPG!
  3. 1 2 MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 66 Buy it from DriveThruRPG!
  4. ↑ MTAw: Seers of the Throne, p. 65 Buy it from DriveThruRPG!
  5. ↑ MTAw: Mage: The Awakening Second Edition, p. 103 Buy it from DriveThruRPG! Now in Print!
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