Mastigos

• Their theme is Triumph Over Adversity, their mood is Antagonism, and their Tarot card The Devil.
• Ruling Arcana: Mind and Space
• Inferior: Matter

Active Characters

The Mastigos

The Mastigos, or Warlocks as they are sometimes called, are those Awakened who gain their magical power from the realm of Pandemonium, the realm of demons, nightmares, and punishment. Mastigos have a reputation for being deceptive, manipulative, and evil, and in some cases, this reputation is fully deserved. However, many Warlocks take great pains to remain on the path of virtue and many more are as difficult to categorise as simply good or evil as anyone else. Many Mastigos believe that they function in a Darwinian role, exposing the weaknesses of their fellow mages, that these mages may then improve themselves. This sounds callous to outsiders, but during the quest for ascension, any weaknesses unknown to the mage may be exploited by their enemies, so it is best to expose and remove as many of one's weaknesses as possible.

A great number of Mastigos are characterised, at least in the early stages of their Awakening, by paranoia. Sudden awareness of the many minds surrounding them leads them to wonder what secrets those myriad minds are harbouring, and this in turn leads to the Mastigos spying on or manipulating the people around them, giving each Mastigos a useful set of espionage skills, but also bestowing a reputation as an amoral mind-rapist. The Warlocks are fiercely independent, acknowledging no master save themselves. They throw cultural mores out the window, following only their own personal code of behaviour. Sometimes, this leads to an excruciatingly strict code of conduct more at home with a monk than a Mastigos; at other times, this philosophy is taken by the Mastigos as an excuse to do whatever they want, ignoring the consequences for themselves or others.

The Warlocks are often perceived by the more xenophobic members of other Paths as corrupt, scheming, and extremely ruthless. But this reputation only takes into account the basest applications of their self-sufficient lifestyle. It is true that, for a person already leaning towards destruction and chaos, the path of the Mastigos grants many new tools with which to fully realise this vision of turmoil and ruin. But an Awakened on the Mastigos path with a predisposition towards caring and respect for their fellow man will be just as able to use their powers for good. In turn, the traditional view of the Warlocks perceives members of other Paths as preachy, critical, or simply crude. Each Path resonates with a particular flaw to them; the Acanthus are flighty, the Moros overly dramatic, the Obrimos hypocritical, and the Thyrsus savage.