Posted by: 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼 2022-11-19, 00:22
法师是什么? What is a Mage?
简单地说,法师是有能力通过意志之力重塑现实的人。这类人觉醒了自己的潜能,如此强烈地相信他们所做的事情,以至于他们真的改变了他们的世界。但是,伴随这份力量而来的还有压倒性的骄傲、狂热与腐化。这种信念之力往往会推动法师与彼此、与周围环境、与他们自己相对立。他们掌握力量的意愿成为了毁灭自身的力量。
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Put simply, a mage is a person with the power to reshape reality through force of will.Awakened to their potential, such people believe so strongly in what they do that they literally change their world.With that power, though, comes overwhelming pride, fanaticism, and corruption. That same power of belief often pits mages against one another, against their surroundings, and against themselves as well.Their will to power becomes the power to destroy.
在理想状态下,法师们努力追求一个崇高的目标:
升华。问题在于,他们就升华意味着什么有着不同的见解。它应当是个人的超越还是普世的和谐?它看上去像是天堂吗,又或者它要与地狱作斗争?魔法究竟是某些神明赠予的,还是来自于内心深处?什么能让这个世界变得更好,魔法、宗教还是科学?每个人都有答案,但没人知道真相。因此,与宗教信条或政治派别类似,法师为他们的理念而战。出于好意,他们把自己的世界拖向了深渊。
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Ideally, mages strive toward a lofty goal: Ascension. Problem is, they disagree about what Ascension means.Should it be personal transcendence or universal peace?Does it look like heaven or does it strive against hell? Is magick given by some god, or does it come from deep inside? Will it be magic, faith, or science that makes the world a better place?Everyone’s got answers, but no one knows the truth. And so, like religious creeds or political factions, mages fight about their ideals. Out of good intentions, they drag their world toward an abyss.
谁是坏人?谁是好人?尽管
科技联盟——一个由无情的科技法师组成的宏伟派系——特别享有“黑帽与镜影”的绰号,但实际上
所有的法师都是英雄般的怪物。一些人手上沾的血比另一些更多,但他们所有人都内含腐化的种子。通过升华之战,他们把自己的意志强加在彼此身上约有千年之久……世界因此遭受了苦难。这一矛盾——为崇高目标作出的可怖行动——是傲慢与力量的代价。
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Who are the bad guys? Who are the good guys?Although the Technocracy – a monumental faction of ruthless technomancers – gets stuck with the nickname “black hats and mirrorshades,” all mages are heroic monsters. Some have more blood on their hands than others, but every one of them holds the seeds of corruption. Through their Ascension War, they’ve forced their wills upon one another for roughly a thousand years… and as a result, the world has suffered. This paradox – terrible actions for lofty goals – is the price of pride and power.
一场升华之战?An Ascension War?
法师以激烈的冲突为中心。升华之战为此前版本的游戏提供了基础框架。四个派系——传统宗派、科技联盟、劫夺者和灭世者——以各自理念的名义撕裂了他们的世界。尽管科技联盟似乎在这场斗争中占据上风——甚至,在《法师》修订版中,似乎已经取得胜利——但这场战争远未结束。升华之战的核心与魔法看上去像是巫术还是电视剧集无关;它是关于一群空想家如此执着于真理、以至于他们要不惜一切代价令其实现……却在这个过程中制造出了灾难性的混乱。
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At the center of Mage, there’s a bitter conflict.That Ascension War provided the framework for previous editions of the game.Four factions – the Traditions, Technocracy, Marauders, and Nephandi – tore their world apart in the name of their ideals. Though the Technocracy appeared to have the upper hand in that struggle… even, in Mage’s Revised Edition, seemed to win it – this War is far from over.The Ascension War, at its heart, is not about whether magick looks like wizards or TV sets; it’s about groups of visionaries so dedicated to their Truth that they’ll risk everything to bring it about… and who have, in the process, made a catastrophic mess.
那么,这些派系究竟都有哪些呢?- 传统宗派:他们献身于神秘的奇迹,不论是诡异的科学还是血腥的仪式。
- 科技联盟:致力于建立一个处于他们控制之中的有序世界。
- 灭世者:对这些人而言,光明和希望是究极的伪善。
- 以及劫夺者:他们认为混乱才是终极真理。
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Who are these factions, anyway?
• The Traditions, whose devotion to mystic wonder ranges from weird science to bloody rituals.
• The Technocracy, dedicated to an orderly world under their command.
• The Nephandi, to whom light and hope are the ultimate hypocrisy.
• And the Marauders, who see chaos as the ultimate Truth.
在这些派系之外,其他法师也塑造了他们自己的道途。这些异类法师拒绝加入其中一边,而是选择为个人威能或他们选择的人群的福祉努力奋斗。
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Outside these factions, other mages shape their own paths. these Disparates refuse to join a side and work instead toward personal power or the welfare of their chosen people.
所有法师都会参与这场升华之战吗?并不是全部……但许多法师会,并且即使是那些极力避开这场战争的人也能感受到它的影响。这场冲突把世界塑造成了法师们所知的样子。现实本身既是奖赏也是战场。
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Do all mages fight this Ascension War?
No… but many do, and even those who avoid the War itself feel its effects. That conflict shapes the world as mages know it. Reality itself is both prize and battlefield.
那么,作为一位法师,你的挑战就是在这个世界上断言命运。你可以是一个赛博格、一位巫师、一个街头萨满或一名蒸汽朋克科学家——具体角色取决于你。重点在于你要用它做些什么……以及,再次强调,它又对你产生了什么样的影响。即使各大派系已经在为现实而战,但一名法师就其深层本质而言,其本身就是一股变革之力。而最终的战场,在于内心。
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As a mage, then, your challenge is to claim a destiny in this world. You might be a cyborg, a wizard, a street shaman, or a steampunk scientist – the role is up to you. What’s important is what you do with it… and again, what it does to you. Even though big factions fight a battle for reality, a mage is, by her very nature, a force of change. The ultimate battlefield is within.
你的世界,你的选择 Your World, Your Choice
《法师:超凡入圣》拥有史诗般的元剧情线,并且较之此前的版本有着戏剧性的变化。而它的20周年版则囊括了所有这些元素,外加更多精彩情节。
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Mage: The Ascension has an epic metaplot, with dramatic changes between its previous editions. This 20th Anniversary Edition features elements of all of them, plus more besides.
你一定要受限于这些元情节吗?完全没必要。
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Are you stuck with this metaplot? No.
一位法师没必要非得去打升华之战不可。她也没必要非得去拜访那些异界的界域。她甚至有可能从未听说过“科技联盟”这一字眼。尽管法师有着宏大的虚构世界观,但它与在多赛梯堡的废墟中和迭代者-X战斗无关。它与拯救你的世界相关,不论这个世界在你看来是什么样。
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A mage never has to fight in the Ascension War.She never has to visit otherworldly realms. She may never even hear the word “Technocracy.”Despite its sweeping mythos, Mage isn’t about fighting Iteration X in the ruins of Doissetep. It’s about saving your world, whatever your world looks like to you.
Posted by: 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼 2022-11-19, 00:39
黑暗世界中的恐怖与希望 Horror and Hope in a World of Darkness
《法师:超凡入圣》的编年史以充满英雄主义和暴行的故事为特色。在黑暗世界中,希望是紧俏货。黑暗世界的夜晚似乎比我们这个世界的更为黑暗与凶恶。尖叫声与枪声回荡在街头。哥特教堂塔楼与由玻璃和钢铁铸就的霓虹巴比伦并肩而立。夜总会随着科技舞曲的劲爆音乐摇晃,同时绝望的灵魂在寻求安慰或赦免。毒品战争和宗教暴力以可怕的频率制造流血事件。即使是在这种事情被认为是“不可能”的时代,传说中的怪物仍追杀着它们的猎物。人类蜷缩在电视和电脑跟前,从一个令人麻痹的距离观看种种事件。教堂聚集起狂热的信众,祈祷天国的拯救,但这种拯救总是被人感到过于遥远。在这个世界一切皆有可能,但最有可能的是,一切都是
狗屎。
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A Mage: The Ascension chronicle features tales of heroism and atrocity. In this World of Darkness, hope is in short supply. Nights seem darker and more sinister than our own. Screams and gunshots echo through the streets. Gothic cathedrals tower alongside neon Babylons of glass and steel.Nightclubs shake to techno thunder while desperate souls seek solace or oblivion. Drug wars and religious violence spill blood with awful frequency. Legendary monsters hunt their prey, even when such things are supposedly“impossible.” People cower in front of TVs and computers, watching events from an anesthetized distance. Churches host fanatic congregations who pray for celestial deliverance, but such deliverance feels very far away. Everything seems possible in this world, but the strongest possibility is that everything is shit.
这套设定徘徊在20世纪90年代的世纪末颓废和我们新千年的绝望愤怒之间;如你所愿,它可以是现代,也可以是古典的。它的居民可能拥有自己的iPhones,也可能在被烧毁的社区中搜寻毒品。更有可能两者皆是。黑暗世界既是当下又是永恒——它是对我们这个时代的黑暗讽刺。
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This setting hovers somewhere in between the end-of-anage decadence of the 1990s and the desperate fury of our new millennium;it can be as modern or archaic as you want it to be .Its denizens might own iPhones or scrounge crack in burnt-out neighborhoods. They probably do both.This World of Darkness is both immediate and timeless – a dark satire of our own times.
和其他黑暗世界的游戏类似,
《法师》也拥有占主导地位的主题和基调:
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Like other World of Darkness games, Mage has dominant themes and moods:
主题:希望与变革 Theme: Hope and Transformation
法师与意愿有关,这点远高于其他一切。在其他人无望或满足地接受了他们已被给予的东西时,法师改变了这幅图景。他们对这幅画面看上去应该是什么样作出了异议——往往还是以暴力的形式——但冷漠不是他们的本性。觉醒不会让他们坐以待毙,就这样接受世界的现状。
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Above all other things, Mage is about giving a damn. While other folks are hopeless or content enough to accept what they’ve been given, mages change the picture. They disagree, often violently, about what that picture should look like, but apathy’s not in their nature. The Awakening won’t let them sit still and accept the world as it is.
法师是力量的化身。
其志所向,其事必成。这种力量可以让他们头脑发热,腐化他们,摧毁他们所珍视的一切......但它就在那里。因此,法师的主导主题是希望。事态可能会恶化,甚至发展成悲剧,但改变的可能性从未消逝。
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Mages are power incarnate. What they will, will be. That power can go to their heads, corrupt them, demolish everything they hold dear… but it’s there. Mage’s dominant theme, then, is hope. Things might get bad, even tragic, but the possibility of change never goes away.
这种变革的元素成为了法师的次要主题。没有什么东西是一成不变的。所有东西都在变化。即使是所谓的秘艺宗派也会在压力之下转变为它们自己的新化身。在法师中,静态是敌人;即使是表面维持静态的科技联盟实际上也比该团体以外的人可能认为的活跃许多。特别是在21世纪,法师的一切都与变化有关。毕竟,那些无法面对未来的人注定会消失。
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That element of transformation becomes a second theme in Mage. Nothing is set in stone. Everything changes. So-called traditions of mystic art transform, under pressure, into new incarnations of themselves.Stasis, in Mage, is an enemy; even the ostensibly static Technocracy is far more dynamic than anyone outside that group might believe. Especially in the 21st century, Mage is all about change. Those folks who can’t face the future, after all, are bound to disappear.
气氛:反抗与反思 Mood: Defiance and Reflection
生活真他妈操蛋……那就去修正它!这种反抗构成了
《法师》的又一个主导氛围。不论你扮演的是绝望的街头儿、开明的CEO、功夫英雄或传统的术士,你的世界似乎都有意把你搞垮。敌对宗教、饥渴的精魂、街头帮派、全球变暖都在威胁着你的理想。而在法师中,你手握反击之力。
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Life sucks… so FIX it! That defiance forms another dominant mood in Mage.Whether you’re playing a desperate street kid, an Enlightened CEO, a kung-fu hero, or a classy sorcerer, your world seems intent on fucking you over.Rival cults, hungry spirits, street gangs, and global climate change all threaten your ideals. In Mage, you have the power to fight back.
即使如此,
你也要小心。在反击中,你可能反而成为了你要解决的问题的一部分。
力量是个棘手的宝贝;你拥有的力量越多,你就越是有可能被它腐化。因此,法师往往会成为一种象征性的镜子大厅,将人与物映照到自己身上——并且通常是以扭曲而夸张的形式。这种
映照弥散在法师的基调之中:科技联盟映照了传统宗派,灭世者映照了他们的敌人,狂人的脸上映照出了智慧,而法师则映照了他们周边的世界——而这个世界反过来又映照了他们自己的行为。法师虽说是人类,但也是怪物……而“怪物”的拉丁语词根意味着警告、教导与预兆。
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That said, be careful. In fighting back, you could become part of the problem you fight to solve. Power is a tricky thing: the more you have, the more likely you are to be corrupted by it.As a result, Mage often becomes a symbolic hall of mirrors, reflecting people and things back upon themselves, often in distorted and exaggerated forms.Such reflection permeates the mood of Mage: Technocrats reflect Traditions, Nephandi reflect their rivals, madness mirrors wisdom back into its own face,and mages mirror the world around them – and that world, in turn, mirrors their own deeds. Mages, though human, are monsters too… and the Latin roots of “monster” mean warning, teach, and omen.
除开对外部敌人显而易见的挑战,法师也事关力量与滥用力量之间的内心挣扎。毕竟,在愤怒地反抗机器和成为机器的一部分之间有着一条界线。所以你是注定要成为一位和恶龙一样的屠龙者,还是能在今日的废墟之上塑造出了一个更好的明天?
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Beyond the obvious defiance of external enemies, Mage also features the internal struggle between power and its abuse. There’s a line, after all, between raging against the machine and becoming part of that machine. So are you doomed to be the new boss, same as the old boss, or can you shape a better tomorrow from the ruins of today?
Posted by: 劳伦斯·塔利斯曼 2022-11-19, 00:48
边栏:现实域 Reality Zones
在我们这个充斥着快餐与电视节目的世界里,人们很容易相信每个人都相信着某个给定的东西。但事实是,这不是真的。世界是一个大舞台,任何想要掌控一个全球信仰系统的人都必须考虑它的所有情况。
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In our world of fast food and television sets, it’s easy to believe that everyone believes a given thing. Fact is, though, that’s not true. The world’s a big place, and anyone who wants to control a global belief system needs to take all of it into account
在
《法师》的初始版本和
修订版中,有许多地方提及科技联盟控制了全球的现实,因为没人相信魔法,所有人都相信科学。然而,这种非常国际化的观念和真实世界几乎没什么联系。
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In Mage’s original and Revised editions, many things were said about the Technocracy controlling global Reality because no one believes in magic and everyone believes in science. That very cosmopolitan idea, however, has little connection to the actual world.
除了生活在没有可靠电力、手机服务或水供应(更别说电视或互联网了)地区的大量人口,宗教信仰也是个问题。
比如说,中东一直都是人道主义的危急地带,因为来自三个不同宗教的大量人口都相信他们的神把这片土地交给了自己……他们愿意终结地球上的生命以证明这点。还有整片整片的地区都存在于也许可被称为魔法文化的氛围之中,神秘学在那里成为了日常生活的基本组成部分。甚至是在所谓的工业化世界,原教旨主义者仍在削减科学基金与教育,同时新时代的玄学家、阴谋论者和基于地球本身的精神信仰的信徒(他们往往也属于上述其他团体)将科学和技术视为敌人,而非真理。
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Beyond the vast numbers of people who live in areas without reliable electricity, phone service, or running water (much less TV or the Internet), there’s also the matter of religious belief. The Middle East, for example, continues to be a flashpoint for humanity because large numbers of people from three different religions believe their God gave it to them… and they’re willing to end life on Earth to prove that point.Whole regions exist in what could be called magical cultures, where mysticism is a fundamental part of everyday life.And even throughout the so-called industrialized world, religious fundamentalists slash science funding and education while New Age metaphysicians, conspiracy theorists, and followers of Earth-based spiritualities (who often belong to those other groups as well) regard science and technology as enemies, not truth.
这就是科技联盟的胜利吗?还差得远呢。
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Is this a Technocratic victory? Not even close.
单一全球范式或信仰系统的概念与我们所知的现实相去甚远。而在黑暗世界,这个信念与超自然力量更为强大的世界,它与现实的差距甚至比我们这边的还要大。科技联盟也许已经宣布取得了胜利,并且工业世界的秘术师们甚至可能已经信了他们的鬼话。但事实上,现实仍有许多可供人争夺的地方。
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The idea of a single global paradigm, or belief system, is very far from realityas we know it. In the World of Darkness, where the forces of faith and the supernatural world are strong, it’s even further from reality than in our own. The Technocracy may have declared victory, and industrial-world mystics may even believe them. In truth, though, capital-R Reality is still very much up for grabs.
因此,
《法师》20周年版沿用了
《法师》第二版和
《巫士圣战》中给出的魔法地理学及其影响的理念。在特定地区,科技是主导力量;而在其他地方,却是宗教与传统占据了上风。法师由此让世界保持变化——也就是在这一方面,它和我们自己的世界非常相似。
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And so, Mage 20 continues the idea of magickal geography and influence given in Mage 2nd Edition and Sorcerers Crusade. In certain zones, technology is the dominant force; in others, religion and tradition hold the upper hand. This way, Mage remains a world in flux – and in that regard as well, it’s very much like our own.
然而,偏爱科技联盟胜利的元剧情线的ST/说书人可以彻底忽视这些地区,以单一的共识场运转整个地球。
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Storytellers who prefer the Technocratic victory metaplot, however, can completely disregard these zones and run the entire Earth by a single Consensus.
现实域的更多细节详见
第十章。
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For details about reality zones, see Chapter Ten.