Only a thicket of lies can fully hide the truth.
Human history records countless individuals who could alter the fates of nations and the hearts of kings with their words. Great orators like Pericles of Athens made speeches that touched the depths of their listeners’ hearts and spirits. However, not all amazing orators were great political leaders; some were inveterate con artists like Cagliostro, or figures of mystery such as the Comte St. Germain. The ability to lie convincingly and to convince others that the speaker is both truthful and worth listening to is not uncommon among Sleepers; truly great orators, however, who can convince people to change long-held opinions or cause those they speak with to trust their own senses less than the speaker’s works are rare indeed.
For many, the attainment of such verbal excellence is too difficult and subtle a path to power. Most people find the more obvious language of violence, threats and bribes to be easier, as well as exceedingly powerful and effective. However, even the most dire threat or the most tempting bribe only serves to control the subject’s actions — in their hearts, they still know and understand that they are being coerced and may someday learn to resist fear or temptation and disobey the person offering the threats or bribes.
Threats of disobedience soon start a vicious cycle, in which the individual who wishes to remain in charge must continually offer ever more extravagant threats or bribes, or sometimes both together, to make certain that their subjects continue to obey them. Realizing the difficulty and the ultimate futility of such endeavors, some would-be rulers seek to find ways to convince their subjects to follow them willingly and to accept the ruler’s pronouncements as the ultimate truth. Long ago, Machiavelli said that it is better to be feared than loved, because love is more ephemeral, but wise rulers, as well as skilled con artists, advertising agents and some mages understand that being trusted and believed is best of all.
Whether Sleeper or mage, the path to gaining a listener’s trust is similar – the speaker must understand the secret language hidden in every person’s unconscious. This language of pupil dilation, posture, stance, vocal tone and many similar cues is exceedingly subtle and difficult to master, but the rewards are correspondingly great. While mortals who master these methods can become great orators and equally impressively liars, mages who pursue this Legacy can become greater still. Legends speak of a Bearer of the Eternal Voice being found at a murder scene clutching a bloody knife in his hand, but who was released solely based upon his account of the events leading up to his discovery with the knife.
In the ancient streets of Atlantis, the Bearers of the Eternal Voice walked among the populace, reassuring them about the wisdom of their rulers and convincing them of the urgent necessity of opposing the enemies of Atlantis. In this longlost era, the Bearers of the Eternal Voice also went in secret to other nations, convincing both leaders and important members of the populace of the folly of opposing Atlantis and of the great benefits that would swiftly follow an alliance with this great power.
Since the Fall, those who study this Legacy are often called Whisperers, because of the hidden and secretive role they must now play. However, the necessity of secrecy has in no way lessened their powers. In the millennia since the Fall, Whisperers have found additional uses for their talents. The most important are being able to reduce Sleepers’ Disbelief and halting the spread of knowledge of magic.
There are far too few Whisperers to talk to every Sleeper who has ever seen evidence of magic, much less the many thousands who have merely heard of such acts. However, Whisperers do their best to convince Sleepers that the most obvious damaging evidence for vulgar magic has some completely natural and reasonable explanation.
Because Whisperers’ abilities can also be used against othermages, especially mages less skilled in the Mind Arcanum, Whisperers are a somewhat secretive and insular group. This tendency is further exacerbated by the fact that their ability to manipulate others gives many Whisperers, particularly those who follow the Mastigos Path, a sense that everyone else is nothing more than will-less pawns whom Whisperers can manipulate as they will. This sense of superiority influences many Whisperers’ dealings with Sleepers and sometimes carries over to their dealings with other mages. This same feeling also produces the intrinsic paradox that all Bearers of the Eternal Voice must find some way to come to terms with. Their Legacy is an intensely social one and to use it they must interact with Sleepers, often with large groups of Sleepers. However, Whisperers are also keenly aware they are manipulating the people they talk to, and some Whisperers regularly manipulate their fellow mages. While many Whisperers genuinely like people and simply have no problem lying to individuals they like, most are highly social misanthropes who do not particularly care for or about others.
While some Legacies are declining in favor as the 21st century marches on, the Whisperers are growing more popular — the growing prevalence of advertising, political spin, online con games and the increasing number of mages who realize the power of the ability to manipulate communication and belief all combine to cause mages to flock to their ranks.
Attainments
- The Perfected Conversation
Prerequisite: Gnosis 3, Mind 2, Life 1, Subterfuge 2
By simultaneously monitoring the mental state of the person the character is talking to and precisely controlling her own verbal and non-verbal communication, a Bearer of the Eternal Voice can become inhumanly convincing when talking to a single individual or to a small group (up to one extra person per dot of the character’s Manipulation) with whom the character can hold a two-way conversation. Whenever Whisperers attempt to lie to such a group, they can reflexively add a number of successes equal to their dots in Mind to the Wits or Manipulation + Subterfuge roll needed to successfully tell the lie. The mage can invoke this power a number of times per scene equal to his Gnosis.
Alternatively, the Voice can convince a Sleeper that an incident of vulgar magic was in fact something perfectly normal, thereby canceling the effects of the Sleeper’s Disbelief for the scene. The Voice spends an instant action talking to the Sleeper, and the player rolls Manipulation + Expression minus the Sleeper’s Composure. Success cancels the effects of that Sleeper’s Disbelief for the rest of the scene, and each success lowers by one the Sleeper’s Willpower for the purposes of consulting the Disbelief chart on p. 274 of Mage: The Awakening (the Sleeper’s actual Willpower is unaffected). This power can only be attempted once per scene against the same Sleeper; if it fails, he cannot try again for the rest of the scene.
Optional Arcanum: Space 2
If the Whisperer also knows Space 2, she can create a sympathetic connection between herself and someone she is communicating with via phone, video conference, Internet chat or some other direct and immediate, two-way media. As a result, she can influence anyone she talks to via any of these methods.
- Gilded Speech
- Spoken Reality
