Product Description

"Since the times of the Exile and dispersion from that great polis have the Awakened formed together in unity and purpose.
These cabals are the cornerstones of our society, the blocks from which shall be built a new city.
Each sanctum is a part of this shining, dispersed city, each Hallow a jewel in its treasury.
Let it be known that no man, spirit or creature shall violate such sanctity.
At the price of death."
- Simon Magnus, Silver Ladder warlock, illuminator of the Lex Magica

Ivory Towers Reaching for the Heavens

The Fallen World resists the efforts of mages to impose higher realities onto the mundane laws of nature. The very disbelief of Sleeper souls can unravel spells, but mages can build strongholds that establish a foothold for their Supernal Realms. In these sacred sites, mages can perform wonders akin to those of their Atlantean ancestors.

A sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening

* A detailed look at mage society and its sectarian politics, from its Hierarch leaders to its Sentinel enforcers.

* Reveals the inner world of mage sanctums and demesnes, anchors between the mundane world and the Supernal Realms.

* Example sanctums for both Atlantean orders and their rivals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #714252 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 158 pages

Customer Reviews

A must Guide to Awakened Society
This book is indispensible in understanding not only the place where Mages dwell (their sancti) but in understanding their political culture and society. It is written well and clearly and concisely to help you understand these two main topics.

Prologue is the obligatory introductory fiction that describes the book. The book is then divided into 4 chapters. One covers Awakened politics; two covers sanctums and defenses for the places that Mages call home; three discusses cults and various antagonists including the Seers of the Throne and the Banishers. Finally chapter four is for storytellers to help them understand how to introduce Mage politics and sample cabals to help players model theirs.

Overall this book is more a tool and reference book for Mage storytellers, its not ideally suited for players (look at Tome of Mysteries and Tome of the Watchtowers for that). However, it is ideal in helping to craft and fleshout a good story or chronicle that is set in awakened society. It is beautifully illustrated and the rules for helping build sancti are well done.

A great book, though a little dry
This supplement for Mage the Awakening is an excellent resource for understanding the dynamics of Concilium politics, the various roles and makeups of cabals, how Banisher cults work/what they do, and how some of the Seers of the Throne are organized.

It gives quite a few suggestions for bonuses for cabal symbols and also suggests how you can decide what your sigil and name will be.

However, you do have to sort of slog through this book. It's not very easy reading- the whole tone is very intellectual and a bit on the dry side, so you do have to sort of try to pay attention. Despite that, though, I highly recommend this book for either players or storytellers.

A LITTLE TOO DRY...
As the previous reviewer noted, SIGIL AND SANCTUM can be pretty dry. It is a supplement for MAGE: THE AWAKENING and deals with the laws and practices of Awakened society. At times it reads as interesting as the corporis jure of most countries. The main sections are on the rights and duties of cabals to Mages in general, Consilia laws, courtly etiquette, sanctum security, etc. It's hard to imagine getting much use out of this unless it's important to the ST to create an illusion that his/her NPC's have an historical, detailed tradition that the PCs must follow in order to fit in. Otherwise, it seems like overly involved information that either will never come up or could be invented on the fly as need arises. It's about as banal as finding out whether Mages prefer Wheaties or Cheerios for breakfast. Of course, some people will need precisely this kind of book for a specific scenario they have in mind. More power to ya, buddy, but it seems like an awfully small niche. Plus, you could choke on the number of specialized, narrow-use merits introduced. There's a merit for sanctum security, with dots distributed between locks, doors, walls, windows, etc.

The most interesting part of the book is on the structure of Seers of the Throne pylons and Banisher cults. Now this is interesting, but it seemed unrelated to the rest of the theme. Very interesting stuff and very useful as potential antagonists. So even if you don't like the first part of the book, maybe you'll like the second.