History NightmareFuel / MageTheAscension

* Marauders are mages who, during their Avatar's awakening, saw the whole of reality as it truly is ''and broke like sugar glass''. For most mages, RealityWarpingIsNotAToy... but not Marauders. They can do more or less as they please, so long as it fits the precise details of their Paradigm, ''without Paradox''. Most are fairly harmless, so long as nothing sets them off (notably, one of the few predictable things about a Marauder is that if they see a Nephandi, they ''will'' immediately attack them), but all it takes is one whose worldview entails mass destruction for all Hell to break loose. One more thing: ''being'' one is almost as bad. You see, reality knows who's messing with it, and doesn't like it - so a Marauder who gets powerful enough [[RetGone ceases to exist]].

** ''Technocracy Reloaded'' reveals how the Technocracy upholds the Masquerade in the age of [[{{Reconstruction}} digital media and cameras everywhere]]. They have a ton of bloggers and social media accounts that exist just to push disinformation about the supernatural and the Technocracy's actions. While the idea of a technomage bloggers writing excuses for supernatural events all day is a funny mental image, it also becomes pretty scary when one considers [[FridgeHorror the sheer level of control of information and society]] involved. It also points out how, while it is [[DependingOnTheWriter very arguably]] [[NecessarilyEvil for the best]], the Technocracy are actively misleading Sleepers into thinking magic doesn't exist. Their entire organization is lying to humanity [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans for the greater good.]]

** ''Technocracy Reloaded'' reveals how the Technocracy upholds the Masquerade in the age of [[{{Reconstruction}} digital media and cameras everywhere]]. They have a ton of bloggers and social media accounts that exist just to push disinformation about the supernatural and the Technocracy's actions. While the idea of a technomage bloggers writing excuses for supernatural events all day is a funny mental image, it also becomes pretty scary when one considers [[FridgeHorror the sheer level of control of information and society]] involved. It also points out how, while it is [[DependingOnTheWriter very arguably]] [[NecessaryEvil for the best]], the Technocracy are actively misleading Sleepers into thinking magic doesn't exist. Their entire organization is lying to humanity [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans for the greater good.]]

** On a meta level go over to {{TabletopGame/Mage The Awakening}} and note how the Awakening version of the Nephandi, the Scelesti, TookALevelInKindness. They are no longer [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]] (being actual Nihilists instead) and many of them [[DarkMessiah think the world will be improved by the Abyss eating reality]]. Note how despite this the Scelesti are ''still'' AlwaysChaoticEvil OmnicidalManiac Abyss worshipers. The Nephandi are so bad that being a Lovecraftian doomsday cultist ''is an improvement''.

*** Note that this is their method because the New World Order [[EvenEvilHasStandards made them stop]] what they used to do, which was the [[FinalSolution Pogrom]], in which they just out and out killed every Mage and [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman nonhuman]] they got their hands on.

** The Nephandi's worldview is basically that GodIsEvil (or possibly Evil is God) and they want to be on the winning side. The Nephandi are creepily religious as most of them are genuinely devoted to the being/s they worship, they just worship beings of utter evil (or at least utter destruction) in opposition to every other belief system in existence. Their almost an EvilCounterpart to the entire concept of religious belief (the thing that gives a good chunk of Mages their worldview).

* The Nephandi. Mages who worship evil. ''[[NotHyperbole Literally]]''. They outright worship beings and concepts they consider wrong and evil from their perspective being [[CardCarryingVillain Card Carrying Villains]] played utterly straight. They [[SubvertedTrope aren't]] [[StrawNihilist Nihilists]] because they firmly believe evil exists, they just side with it. Other than the fact that some Nephandi only enter [[BloodyBowelsOfHell the Caul]] due to crossing the DespairEventHorizon there's no other nuance to them. While they can occasionally delve into {{Narm}} due to how over the top they are, their are also plenty of cases where they end up ''genuinely'' disturbing. Also they've infiltrated every other Mage faction in the world. ''And their winning the Ascension War''. [[note]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding They actually lose]] in the official endings except one scenario that notes they can only win if humanity screws up. Of course this was ''before'' the setting was revived. [[/note]]

*** Note that this is their method because the New World Order [[EvenEvilHasStandards made them stop]] what they used to do which was the Pogrom in which they just out and out killed every Mage and [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman nonhuman]] they got their hands on.

** While they don't do it nearly as much as Tradition propaganda implies, one of the Technocracy's tactics is to nab Tradition or Craft Mages, bring them back to a Technocrat facility and forcibly turn them into a Technocrat through brainwashing. The 'nicest' they'll do is lock the victim in a room and bombard them with endless pro-Technocrat propaganda but they will escalate to outright torture if needed. And if the victim doesn't break they have [[PoweredByAForsakenChild their brain extracted]] to be used as a computer system in a cyborg war machine and... are we sure the [[WordOfGod rulebook]] is right when it says the Technocracy isn't evil? Every Technocrat facility has a dedicated brainwashing room.