Paradigm Summary: Euthanatos

Paradigm Basics: There is power in transitions. Day to night, water to ice, spring to summer, life to death, and so many other changes each release power. Thermodynamics says that there is no way to create perpetual motion because each turn of the wheel or change of state releases energy. The Euthanatoi have known this for aeons.

The actual practice of unleashing this energy borrows much from the Sahajiya and followers of Akasha that the Euthanatoi have worked and fought with for ages. Like the former, the Euthanatoi place great importance on expanding perceptions enough to see the released energy and predict its effects. This can generally be accomplished through mind-expanding chemicals, purification, or meditation. Like the latter, the Euthanatoi practice directing the flow of energy through their chakras, enabling them to use the flow of personal energy to catch and direct the energy released in change, as well as to aid an inadequate flow of power. This is usually accomplished with will alone, but is aided by physical motion to better convince mind and body to work as one.

Change itself is important, and the paradigm insists that any person or state that persists too long without changing builds up an immense charge of stifled potential energy. Like a tumor this buildup can horribly injure the soul or spirit in question. Thus, Euthanatoi tend to promote constant, gradual change, sometimes for the worse if better is impossible.

A philosophical extension of the paradigm, shared by many in the Tradition, is the Wheel of Karma and the Good Death. Followers believe that the energy of changes not accessed by magick is eventually redistributed fairly evenly throughout the cosmos. However, the energy released in changes caused by selfish individuals, or those serving the forces of corruption, is siphoned towards Oblivion, calcified, or fed to these dark powers. The world is becoming a worse and worse place to live because not enough energy re-enters the system after every change - the scientific definition of the decline of entropy. These Euthanatoi believe that by delivering the Good Death - destroying corrupted individuals and institutions and using the released energy for unselfish magicks - some of this deterioration can be ameliorated and balance partially restored to the universe. Further, the soul released to reincarnate may have a chance to lead an uncorrupted life without the pressures of the current life weighing it down.

As a correlation of this belief, as well as their skill with the magicks of fate and decay, many Euthanatoi study wraiths intently. While it is uncertain whether the Oblivion of wraiths is a true destruction, or merely re-entry into the cycle of rebirth, the capacity of wraiths to reach Transcendence is very interesting to the tradition. Most practitioners of the Good Death believe that Transcendence is proof that redeemed selfish individuals can not only return all of their energy to the cosmos, but actually add to it. Thus the Euthanatoi have long fostered this process amongst the wraiths they contact.

The Euthanatos paradigm distinguishes only slightly between mages and sorcerers. Linear mages have less range and variety of results that they can produce, but are also free from the Paradox of karma's disagreement with how mages re-use the energy of the cosmos. As such, sorcerers can achieve rank indistinguishable from mages in the Tradition.

Paradigm Casting: As noted, the capacity for an Euthanatos to work magick is based on the amount of energy being released nearby. In an area where massive or multiple changes are taking place of an appropriate sort to the effect in question, the mage can create a spontaneous effect in a matter of seconds. Rotes, also, can generally be pulled off quickly with less changes in evidence, as the mage is used to directing her energy flow for that particular effect. In an area where the changes are smaller or more limited magick may take several minutes as the mage alters her mental state to supplement the energy flow from her own body. In a very static area, or when the Euthanatos is physically or mentally exhausted, spontaneous effects can sometimes take upwards of an hour. Ritualized effects have similar constraints as spontaneous effects. Rituals timed for festivals of change, sunset, sunrise, or midnight, and involving massive changes (either physical, personal, or Good Death) can be completed in a much shorter time than those of other Traditions. However, without enough of these factors the time stretches towards becoming longer than that of any other Traditions. Generally rituals involve involved katas, chanting, purification, and other ritualized acts incorporated in the creation of change.

Paradigm Benefits: Euthanatoi specialize in incorporating predictable changes into their magick. Any Euthanatos who knows the time can usually predict such events as sunrise or sunset, new years festivals, or similar events, due to intense attention to such things.

Euthanatoi are trained in psychological techniques for eliminating guilt for destruction and death. An Euthanatos who can convince herself that such an event was justified can undergo a night's ritual of penance in order to overcome any negative mental and emotional side effects that would otherwise accrue from such an action. Even, in games where the mental impact of killing is not overly enforced, Euthanatoi should be less worried than members of other Traditions about the psychological ramifications of their actions so long as these are actually justified within the paradigm.

Finally, as noted above, Euthanatoi can pull off un-roted magickal effects faster than most other mages when in an area that is experiencing a lot of change. This is generally true of most combats, where each shot, explosion, wound, and death is generally enough to fuel an effect.

Paradigm Limits: Euthanatoi use magick to create destruction and change an awful lot. As such, they tend to pick up more resonance than other Traditions in the Dynamic and Entropic category. Further, an Euthanatos that kills too often with magick and skips her purification rituals is a very good candidate for picking up Jhor taint.

As listed above, the time that Euthanatoi take to create effects is directly tied to the number of changes in an area. In static areas with no more changes than small things being broken or other natural processes of life the Euthanatos is completely dependent on her personal reserves to initiate magick. While Quintessence or Willpower can be spent to produce this energy in a reasonable period (the normal time that most Traditions produce spontaneous effects) an Euthanatos that chooses to forego this expenditure may take quite a while to build up the necessary magickal force.