Pyramid Review
Banishers (for Mage: The Awakening)
Published by White Wolf Publishing
Written by Jackie Cassada, Matthew McFarland, John Newman, & Malcolm Sheppard
Edited by Scribendi.com
Art & design by Aileen E. Miles, John Bridges, Joel Biske, Vince Locke, Justin Norman, & Eric Williams
160-page black & white hardcover; $27.99
There's no White Wolf character lacking wall-to-wall enemies who have it out for that particular breed of PC, and mages are no different. One of their biggest, if least organized, foes is that group known as Banishers.
"Group" might be a strong word. These tragic figures carry all the weight of an "ordinary" mage but none of their joy. Somewhere along their Awakening, that moment when a person discovers there's a whole other world at work in tandem with this one, a world of magic and mysticism, something goes nightmarishly wrong. Instead of a chance to give oneself over to the wonder of this new viewpoint, the afflicted is rent away from the path, or chooses to turn away. They may suffer pain during the experience, or they may simply return to their old lives with an unsatisfying sense that what they knew is now meaningless. They blame magic for this hollow and desperate separation from their old circumstances, and they see it as evil.
Almost without exception they turn against those mages for whom Awakening was a pleasant and empowering occasion. The world, they think, is endangered by users of these dark arts, and killing or neutralizing those people should . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 25, 2008
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