History Characters / MageTheAscension

* BalefulPolymorph: They have great facility with Life magic and can easily pull the whole Frog Prince routine if the mood strikes them.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: They are the least cohesive Tradition of the lot, thanks to being an aggregate of completely unrelated and geographically separated cultures. Subsequent editions of the game tried to rectify the UnfortunateImplications of lumping so many different EthnicMagician tropes together by stating that this was an in-universe political move that the Dreamspeakers themselves largely resent. Ironically, this would actually lead to gradual unity over time as they ended up bonding over this resentment.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Not exactly a good representation of any faith, particularly in how they work off the claim that all faiths are effectively the same. Unitarian Universalism is probably the closest, but the Chorus has its own unique flavor of monotheistic universalism.

* TheMissingFaction: The Null version of the Void Engineers is suspiciously absent. Given what the Engineers are, it's likely their extreme version just wandered off to explore the universe.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Naturally, their status as [[HeroAntagonist "evil"]] is up to interpretation, but even at their worst, the modern incarnation of the Union is established to absolutely ''hate'' the idea of discrimination based on sex or ethnicity. They weren't always like this, especially in the 1800's, but it's one area where they genuinely have improved with time.

** The New World Order once only needed Mind to keep the Consensus in check, but have alsk come to appreciate the informational advantage Data provides.

** The New World Order only needs Mind to keep the Consensus in check.

--> Sphere: Data and Mind

* DoubleReverseTripleAgent: The original Solificati were very briefly part of the Order of Reason, then almost immediately defected to the Traditions, then betrayed ''them''.

* TheSociopath: The ''Book of the Fallen'' makes a distinction between someone suffering from antisocial personality disorder and "sociopathy chic". The difference is defined by choice: someone with ASPD is suffering from a personality disorder they have no control over, while "sociopathy chic" means someone who can fully understand the emotional consequences of their actions but simply chooses not to care, or learns to take pleasure in the harm they're inflicting. A Nephandus may or may not suffer from ASPD before they enter the caul, but a Nephandus almost by definition elevates sociopathic behavior to an ideal.

* TheSociopath: The ''Book of the Fallen'' makes a distinction between someone suffering from antisocial personality disorder and "sociopathy chic". The difference is defined by choice: someone with ASPD is suffering from a neurological disorder they have no control over, while "sociopathy chic" means someone who can fully understand the emotional consequences of their actions but simply chooses not to care, or learns to take pleasure in the harm they're inflicting. A Nephandus may or may not suffer from ASPD before they enter the caul, but a Nephandus almost by definition elevates sociopathic behavior to an ideal.

* TheSociopath: The Book of the Fallen makes a distinction between someone suffering from antisocial personality disorder and "sociopathy chic". The difference is defined by choice: someone with ASPD is suffering from a neurological disorder they have no control over, while "sociopathy chic" means someone who can fully understand the emotional consequences of their actions but simply chooses not to care, or learns to take pleasure in the harm they're inflicting. A Nephandus may or may not suffer from ASPD before they enter the caul, but a Nephandus almost by definition elevates sociopathic behavior to an ideal.

* TheSociopath: Deliberately invoked. Becoming Nephandus means inverting everything good about yourself.

* ChummyCommies: The Etherites (particularly among the Utopian faction) tend to favor communist ideals as policy and have a number of ex-Bolshevik Scientists among their ranks.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Iteration X has had a surprisingly messy relatively with Artificial General Intelligence. As far as leadership is concerned, they've achieved it exactly once, and the result was the Computer that ran the Convention prior to the Dimensional Anomaly. However, [[spoiler: it's implied they actually achieved AGI several times over, but refuse to recognize it as such because that would mean acknowledging that the Computer is [[DeusEstMachina something]] [[OurGodsAreDifferent else]] [[MechanicalAbomination entirely]].]]

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: The Technician to the Etherites' Performer. Iterators typically have more resources, more efficient facilities and better coordinated personnel. Thus, they excel at mass producing {{Magitek}} to an extent that completely eclipses even other technomancer groups. But their [[FlatEarthAtheist ultra-materialist]] Paradigm also prevented them from learning [[AnotherDimension Dimensional]][[ClarkesThirdLaw Science]] and generally hamstrung their attempts to keep up as [[ScienceMarchesOn Sleeper science got weirder]].

! The Technocracy

** Modern books mention that Technocrats don't technically *have* to be atheists, they just can't allow their belief in a higher power to come before their duty to the Time Table. Essentially, they still don't oppose the ''existence'' of religion, but [[ReligionIsMagic Religion is]] [[InvertedTrope NOT]] [[ReligionIsMagic Magic]].

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: {{Inverted}}. Any hypertech the Union uses, if all goes according to plan, will be widely available to [[{{Muggles}} the Masses]] in a couple decades. In fact, the Order of Reason was partially founded in opposition to the idea that super-science was meant to be shared rather than hoarded.

* MechanicalAbomination: [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial They definitely ''aren't'' run by one of these]].

** Modern books mention that Technocrats don't technically *have* to be atheists, they just can't allow their belief in a higher power to come before their duty to the Time Table. Essentially, they still don't oppose the *existence* of religion, but [[ReligionIsMagic Religion is]] [[InvertedTrope NOT]] [[ReligionIsMagic Magic]].