My soul is an angel bearing Messages from other worlds, and to those worlds shall I return.
Cultures around the world have used masks and costumes to feign divinity, from tribal witch-doctors to the department store Santa. For the Scions of God, however, the fakery isn’t fake. Their eerie and elaborate masks and costumes evoke a divine power that makes them more than human.
All mages know their souls have touched the Supernal World and yearn for that realm as their true home. The human ego, on the other hand, is a creature of the Astral Plane. But what of the Shadow Realm? Mages can visit the spirit plane through magic, but humans are not truly at home there. The Scions of God believe this omission helps lock humans into the Fallen World. Humans can ascend from the material plane more easily, the Scions of God say, if the humans exist in all four worlds at once: physical body, Supernal soul, Astral mind and ephemeral spirit. The Scions of God call this fourth entity the Holy Guardian Angel and try to make it the vehicle for both mind and soul.
The Legacy began during the Age of Exploration, when Europe’s willworkers encountered African, Asian and Native American mages. The natives used masks to become vessels for gods and spirits: the Sleepers only in play-acting, the mages in truth. Even in the tribal dances and superstitious rites of the Sleepers, however, the explorers felt the breath of the Supernal World. They realized that some masks don’t conceal the truth, they reveal it.
When the explorers returned home, a few mages tried using masks and costumes for their own ends. Their experiments gave some Silver Ladder mages new ideas about spirit-dealings and their own souls. The mage who first used masks to craft his own soul used the jargon of Kabbalism, so he called his divine persona his Holy Guardian Angel. His followers took the name of an order of angels, the Bene Elohim. The new Legacy eventually spread beyond Europe and absorbed elements from Hinduism, voodoo and other religions. As the Bene Elohim became more multicultural, members preferred to use its vulgate name, the Sons of God. During the 20th century, the Legacy changed its name to the gender-neutral Scions of God. Not only did the Legacy include as many women as men, but some members that found their Holy Guardian Angels apparently had different genders from themselves.
The Legacy’s goals and methods, how ever, have not changed much. Scions of God conduct rituals of worship in costumes that show how they see their Holy Guardian Angels — the transcendent selves the Scions want to be. Hieratic robes speak of priestly power, though Scions are priests of no Sleeper faith. A mask suggests a more than human essence: priest and god in the same person. Even when a Scion doesn’t wear this costume, her nimbus manifests its appearance whenever she performs vulgar magic. In the Shadow Realm, a Scion always looks like her mask — but real and alive.
Scions of God want to purge themselves of human weakness and become incarnate angels, true spirits of the Supernal World. Some Scions hope that when they die, their fortified and tempered souls can Ascend to the Supernal World, to join the war against the Exarchs. Other Scions seek to become lords among spirits. While living, the Scions serve as gatekeepers between the worlds, expelling unruly spirits but encouraging spirits friendly to humanity. Other mages appreciate the Scions’ power to locate and command spirits.
Like the other members of the Silver Ladder, the Scions want to give Creation a righteous order. For the Masquers, this includes greater contact between mortals and spirits. The Masquers hope that Sleepers who experience the supernatural may become Sleepwalkers, or even Awaken, and come to understand their Supernal birthright. Scions tell the spirits that they, too, are trapped in a Fallen World and denied contact with a greater reality. The Scions dream of building an army of spirits and mortals to storm across the Abyss and throw down the false gods. This may take a thousand years, but it shall be done.
Orders
The Scions of God accept mages of all Paths, so long as they belong to the Silver Ladder.
Attainments
- Angelic Sight
- Divine Command
- Hand of the Elohim
