QUOTE
“然而，每个帝国都会对自己和世界说，它与其他所有帝国都不同。它的使命不是掠夺与支配，而是教育和解放。”
——爱德华·W.赛义德
维多利亚时代（1837-1901）是全世界法师的一个转折点。此前，理性之子的法师已经在西欧大部分地区传播了他们的统一范式，但在其他地方只取得了微小的进展。然而，如今正是许多西欧国家大殖民征服和美国西进运动的时期。理性之子鼓励这些征服并从中受益，因为他们的范式将能藉此向大多数的殖民地国家与人民传播。此外，至少有许多天国颂歌和赫尔墨斯秘会的成员也被动地支持了这些帝国主义征服运动。
这也是传统宗派成员和遍布全球的无数工坊首次意识到理性之子及其范式的莫大威胁的时代。越来越多反对殖民统治或理性之子范式的法师看到了与其他法师合作的价值，再后来，则是保护他们自身自由与生命的绝对必要性。大多数传统宗派和工坊于内于外都保持相对的松散的形式，但在维多利亚时代末期，它们中的一些开始合作，以对抗理性之子不断增长的力量。
对于许多传统宗派与工坊，以及在殖民战争中被征服侵略的大多数人来说，这个时代是一个巨大的悲剧。尽管进行了英勇的抵抗，帝国主义军队仍然将诸如塔斯马尼亚人民的一些民族几乎完全灭绝，并成功地摧毁了其全部文化、语言和技术。欧洲殖民者逼迫其他人以暴烈的方式改变自身，以此求得在严苛的新世界中继续生存下去，而这世界正是由理性之子帮助创造的。此外，像暹罗这样成功避免被征服的国家，通常也不得不以激烈的方式改变他们的文化，以显得更欧洲化——从而更加“文明”——以迎合西欧精英。
随着帝国主义征服的继续，理性之子的成员向殖民地总督、传教士和强盗们建议，必须对那些“危险的迷信”加以打击，同时竭力杀死或污名化他们遇到的土著法师。这些后日我们所说的法师当中，有些人减缓甚至阻止了殖民军的进攻。而其他人学会了将先进的西方技术纳为己用，拒绝了理性之子的错误主张，即技术进步必须服从技术官僚联盟的管制。
一些国家甚至摆脱了殖民压迫。在维多利亚时代开始的几十年前，海地的奴隶赶走了曾经奴役他们的法国地主。在这个时代的早期，阿富汗士兵在第一次英阿战争中几乎彻底消灭了英国军队。在这两种情况下，当地的法师帮助取得了这些胜利，并设法暂时阻止了殖民压迫和理性之子范式在他们土地上的推进。
对于大多数反对帝国主义并努力阻止理性之子的推进的传统宗派法师来说，完全或长久的胜利几无可能。大多数大规模的公开抵抗努力都失败了，比如中国的义和团运动。然而，法师经常赢得一些小的胜利，为他们自己和他们所属的文化赢得了时间来适应这个不断变化的世界。仅仅阻止征服者和压迫者，即便再久也可能无法完全阻止理性之子范式的传播，但它可以为未来的存续争取一个可贵的机会。
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The Victorian era (1837-1901) was a turning point for magi around the world. Previously, the Order of Reason’s magi had spread their unified paradigm across most of western Europe, but they had made no more than minor inroads elsewhere. However, this was a time of massive colonial conquests by many western European nations and the westward expansion of the United States. The Order of Reason encouraged and benefited from these conquests as their paradigm spread to most of the colonized nations and peoples. In addition, many members of both the Chorus Celestial and the Order of Hermes at least passively supported these imperialist conquests.
This was also the era when members of the Traditions, and countless Crafts scattered across the world, first understood the magnitude of the threat posed by the Order of Reason and their paradigm. A growing number of magi opposed to colonial conquests or the Order of Reason’s paradigm saw the value and, later, the absolute necessity of joining forces with other magi in an attempt to preserve their freedom and often their lives. Most Traditions and Crafts remained relatively disorganized, both internally and externally, but near the end of the Victorian Age, some began working together to combat the Order of Reason’s encroaching strength.
For many Traditions and Crafts, and most people conquered in colonial wars, this era was a time of great tragedy. Despite valiant attempts at resistance, the armies of imperialist governments almost completely exterminated entire peoples, like the inhabitants of Tasmania, and successfully destroyed whole cultures, languages, and Crafts. European colonizers forced others to change in drastic ways to survive in the new and rigidly limited world the Order of Reason helped to create. In addition, nations like Siam that successfully avoided conquest often had to change their culture in drastic ways to appear more European — and thus more “civilized” — to western European elites.
As imperialist conquests continued, Order of Reason members advised colonial governors, missionaries, and robber-barons about the necessity of combating “dangerous superstitions,” while also doing their best to either kill or discredit the indigenous magi they encountered. Some of these latter magi slowed or even stopped the advance of the colonizing forces. Others learned to adapt advanced western technology to their uses, rejecting the Order of Reason’s false claim that technological progress required submission to the Technocratic Union’s control.
A few nations even threw off the yoke of colonial oppression. Several decades before the start of the Victorian Era, Haitian slaves drove out the French landowners that had previously enslaved them. Early in this era, Afghani soldiers almost completely wiped out the British forces during the First Anglo-Afghan War. In both cases, local magi helped in these victories and managed to temporarily halt the advance of both colonial oppression and the Order of Reason’s paradigm across their lands.
For most Tradition magi opposing imperialism and working to halt the Order of Reason’s advance, complete or lasting triumphs were rarely possible. Most large-scale efforts at open resistance failed badly, like the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. However, magi often won small victories that gained time for themselves and the cultures they were part of to adapt to the changing world. Fending off conquerors and oppressors for long enough might not halt the spread of the Order’s paradigm outright, but it could offer a chance at survival.
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历史与改变 History & Change
本书描述了维多利亚时代的历史与宗派、公约和工坊。尽管这段历史构成了《法师：超凡入圣 20th》的过往，但并没有理由说你的特定团活动历史必须就要以相同的方式发展。
而虽然假定历史会正常发展是有其意义的，但角色也可能会以某种方式改变它。也许当中一个工坊，例如巴塔，最终成为了九宗议会的第九名成员，或者也许非洲的部分地区从未遭受到殖民统治。顽强而幸运的角色甚至可能对维多利亚时代的理性之子造成重大挫折。
这种变化有些只会影响法师；而其他的改变，诸如阻止一个或多个国家的殖民统治，则可能对世界历史产生重大影响。重大的改变应当相对难以完成，但一群团结一心、矢志不移的法师可以创造奇迹。重要的是要记住，角色始终是他们故事的主角，当以正确的方式推动编年史，他们将有可能改变整个世界。
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History & Change
This book describes the history of the Victorian Era and the various Traditions, Conventions, and Crafts. While this history forms the past of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, there is no reason your particular campaign’s history must progress in the same fashion.
While it makes sense to assume that history progresses normally, the characters may somehow change it. Perhaps one of the Crafts, like the Bata’a, ends up becoming the ninth member of the Council of Nine, or perhaps portions of Africa never suffering colonization. Exceptionally determined and lucky characters might even deal a major setback for the Order of Reason in the Victorian era.
Some such changes will only affect magi; others, like preventing the colonial conquest of one or more nations, could have a dramatic effect on world history. Major changes should be relatively difficult to accomplish, but a group of determined magi can work wonders. It’s always important to remember that the characters are the protagonists of their story, and in the right sort of campaign, they should be able to change the world.
在西欧，理性之子正在巩固其对沉睡者范式、希望和想象的支配。其结果是建立在帝国主义征服所窃取的大量自然资源上的自增长系统。理性之子开发和复制了蒸汽机、火帽、电灯和外科麻醉等发明。这些技术的推广，虽然让许多沉睡者感到震撼与激动，却也让他们对未来改变范式的新发明变得更加开放，从而形成了一个正反馈循环。法师有史以来第一次得以以足够的速度和足够大的范围改变范式，以至于沉睡者开始在十或二十年内看到技术发生实质性的进步，而不是几代或几个世纪。理性之子与帝国主义政府的联系使他们能够迅速地在全球范围内引入新的发明。
在这段时间里，大多数科技法师都诚挚地相信自己的使命。一些理性之子成员试图改善沉睡者的生活，让整个世界变得更好。然而，他们仍然受到偏见的束缚，他们创造的进步与他们需要直接或间接负责的暴行并存。贪婪和狂妄的沉睡者使用马克沁机枪屠杀了成千上万抵抗殖民征服的人，而蒸汽轮船比以前更快、更多地运送殖民军队。尽管这些行动的后果让理性之子的一些成员于心有愧，但大多数人则将其视作伟大事业那微不足道的代价，并继续开发更致命的武器。最终，除了少数理性之子成员外，所有人都更关心这些征服对在全球范围传播他们的范式的帮助，而非这些征服所带来的恐怖。
而即便置身于这重重苦难之中，理性之子范式的支持者也会指出，新技术也造就了奇迹。新的医疗技术帮助无数沉睡者在疾病、受伤或难产等过去会让他们送命的事件中幸存下来。其他创新技术则使得书籍的印刷和推广，并让数百万父母和祖父母完全不识字的人脱离文盲的处境。
然而，这些奇迹的分布的不均匀，与范式的不断变化，不可避免地导致了城市化程度的提高——越来越多的沉睡者不得不离开农村地区进入城市工厂工作，满足这些工厂对工人的需求。在这个时代的前半段，城市是疾病和污染的温床，其居民比那些生活在低人口密度地区的人要来的更加艰难，寿命也明显更短。与此同时，在远离西欧的农村地区与国家，大部分奇妙的新技术要么尚不存在，要么只存在于不愿分享这些新技术所带来的好处的富有精英阶层手中。
在这个时代，理性之子采纳科学种族主义，并对其传播推波助澜，他们将所有人类按照一个等级划分，西欧白人男性则位居顶端。一些理性之子的成员真心信奉这一点，但所有人都能意识到这实质上是对非欧洲国家帝国主义剥削的方便借口。然而，尽管他们付出了努力，技术官僚联盟却永远无法将科学种族主义纳入范式本身。这些主张的目标，即那些被认定在某种程度上较为低等的人，深深地明白他们在头脑或身体上并不天生比那些想要窃取他们土地和劳动力的帝国主义杂碎劣等。他们的生活经历，甚至他们的存在本身，都成为了防止现实模型发生这种恶性变化的屏障。
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The Cost of Technological Progress
In Western Europe, the Order of Reason is solidifying its hold on both the paradigm and the hopes and imaginations of Sleepers. The result is a self-reinforcing system built on vast amounts of natural resources stolen via imperialist conquest. The Order of Reason develops or copies inventions like steam engines, percussion caps, electric light, and surgical anesthesia. Popularizing these technologies, while astounding and exciting many Sleepers, makes them more open to future paradigm-altering inventions in what becomes a feedback loop. For the first time in human history, magi can alter the paradigm with both sufficient speed and over a large enough area that Sleepers began to see technology advance in substantial ways within a decade or two, rather than over generations or centuries. The Order of Reason’s connections to imperialist governments allows them to swiftly introduce new inventions across the globe.
During this time, most technomancers sincerely believed in their mission. Some members of the Order of Reason sought to improve the lives of Sleepers and uplift the entire world. However, still bound by their prejudices, the advances they create occur alongside atrocities for which they are directly or indirectly responsible. Greedy and power-mad Sleepers use Maxim guns to slaughter tens of thousands of people resisting colonial conquest, and steamships transport colonizing armies faster and in greater numbers than previously possible. As troubling as the consequences of their actions may be for some members of the Order of Reason, most considered it a small price to pay for their grand endeavor, and continue to develop ever more deadly weapons. Ultimately, all but a handful of the Order of Reason care more about the fact that these conquests helped to spread their paradigm across the world than the horrors these conquests caused.
Even amid all the suffering, proponents of the Order’s paradigm would point to how new technology also produced wonders. New medical techniques helped countless Sleepers survive illnesses, injuries, or events like difficult childbirth that would previously have killed them. Other innovative technologies allowed for the printing and distribution of books and the spread of literacy to millions whose parents and grandparents were completely illiterate.
However, the exceptionally uneven distribution of these wonders and the changing paradigm had the unavoidable consequence of increased urbanization, as growing numbers of Sleepers left rural areas to work in urban factories and provide for the needs of these factory workers. For the first half of this era, cities were cesspits of disease and pollution, where residents lived harder and significantly shorter lives than people living in less crowded regions. Meanwhile, in rural areas and nations far from western Europe, most of the wondrous new technologies were either absent or only found in the hands of wealthy elites not inclined to share the benefits these new technologies provided.
In this era, the Order of Reason adopted and helped promulgate scientific racism, which ranked all of humanity on a scale with white western European men at the top. Some Order members sincerely believed in it, but all of them found it to be a convenient justification for imperialist exploitation of non-European nations. However, despite their efforts, the Technocratic Union could never bring scientific racism into the paradigm itself. The targets of these claims, those it established as somehow lesser, firmly knew they were not innately inferior in mind or body to the imperialists wanting to steal their land and their labor. Their living experience, and indeed their very existence, served as a bulwark against such a malignant change to the model of reality.
对征服和压迫的反抗是这个时代的中心主题之一。在全球范围内，帝国主义势力征服和压迫土著人民，而这些人则在努力维护他们的自由和生活方式。然而，压迫和抵抗并不仅仅仅限于殖民地人民。维多利亚时代的大部分时间都在反映少数异常富有的西欧人从其他人那里攫取大量财富的历史。在西欧，收入的不平等在维多利亚时代急剧增大，直到19世纪80年代，欧洲穷人和工人阶级的生活相比这个时代的开端也并没有什么改善。
理性之子是这种日益加剧的不平等的推动者之一。这是消费资本主义到来前的一个时代，理性之子主要由受过教育的富有精英组成，他们更关心在全球扩展他们的范式，增加他们的权力，而非改善沉睡者的生活。尽管在他们协助下诞生的一些新技术帮助了大量的一般群众，但大多数都主要或完全利于富人。像机器这样的创新，使他们能够在雇佣更少工人的同时赚取更大的利润，或是采用新的农业技术，以把穷人赶出他们祖先的土地。无论是在西欧还是在海外，下层阶级对工业化的反对都变得极为普遍，偶尔还会出现暴力冲突。
作为其结果，非技术工人和半熟练工们聚集到了一起，组建了第一个现代工会，并实行了包括1889年伦敦码头工人罢工在内的一系列行动，近10万罢工者赢得了更高的工资，并在全英国范围内提高了工会的支持率。而在全球各殖民地国家，也爆发了对欧洲帝国主义的抗议甚至直接反抗，如1857年印度叛乱和1899年义和团运动。
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Resistance
Resistance to conquest and oppression is one of the central themes of this era. Across the globe, imperialist forces conquer and oppress indigenous people, while these same people struggle to preserve their freedom and their way of life. However, oppression and resistance are not limited solely to colonized peoples. Much of the Victorian era reflects the history of a relatively small number of exceptionally wealthy western European men extracting vast sums of wealth from everyone else. In western Europe, income inequality soared during the Victorian era, and until the 1880s, the lives of the European poor and the working class were, at best, no better than they had been at the beginning of this era.
The Order of Reason was one of the driving forces of this growing inequality. This was a time before consumer capitalism when the Order of Reason largely consisted of members of the educated, wealthy elite, who cared far more about extending their paradigm across the globe and increasing their power than about improving the lives of Sleepers. While some new technologies they helped create aided large numbers of people, most primarily or exclusively aided the wealthy. Innovations like machines that enabled them to employ fewer workers while making ever greater profits or new farming techniques that drove the poor from their ancestral lands. Both within western Europe and abroad, objections to industrialization among the lower classes became common and occasionally violent.
As a result, unskilled and semi-skilled workers came together to create the first modern labor unions and to perform actions like the London dockworkers strike of 1889, where almost 100,000 strikers won better pay and also helped raise support for unions across Great Britain. Protests and even outright rebellions against European imperialism, like the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Chinese Boxer rebellion of 1899, also ignited in colonized nations across the globe.
到19世纪下半叶，即使是使用完全凡庸的技术的沉睡者，理论上也可以在不到三个月的时间里环游世界，这使得与遥远、迥异的异文化接触的旅行成为可能，而在以前，除了那些强大的法师之外任何人都无法做到。旅行速度的极大提高与以及随之而来的跨文化交流的潜力，本可以开启一个充满智慧和理解的新时代。然而，理性之子，以及足令人担忧的一大批沉睡者，对与遥远文化和平接触毫无兴趣。相反，帝国主义是维多利亚时代的显著标志之一。
第一次殖民征服运动，其在规模上相对有限，始于16世纪早期西班牙对美洲的殖民，以及17世纪荷兰对印度的殖民。糟糕的运气、武器上的劣势与掠夺战略的结合使美洲居民极易受到欧洲疾病的侵害，让少数侵略者得以征服一大片地区。同样，在印度，荷兰人与有权势的当地领导人达成了贸易协议，并迅速而残酷地利用当地战争造成的不稳定局面。
然而，理性之子和少数富有而强大的欧洲商人、政治家的努力，极大地增加了随后殖民扩张的规模。殖民军派遣大量部队，在理性之子最具破坏性的魔法的秘密帮助下，完全瓦解或征服了那些尚未因流行病或内战而崩溃的国家。到维多利亚时代的黎明，殖民主义开始转变为帝国主义。越来越多的西欧国家开始征服和统治整个国家，而不仅仅是建立殖民地并使用军事力量夺取自然资源或确保有利的贸易协定。
欧洲日益增长的民族主义在一定程度上推动了这种转变。西欧国家试图通过征服更多的领土来证明自己的优越性，同时也通过抢先征服和控制它们渴望的地区来努力减少其竞争对手的权力和财富。与民族主义相伴的是赤裸裸的贪婪。对于少数富裕的西欧人来说，帝国主义提供了一个从本国政府获得资金和支持的机会。如果他们的努力成功了，他们就可以从他们征服和统治的国家中获得更多的财富，既有最初侵略的战利品，也是他们对殖民地人民征收的大量苛捐杂税。虽然理性之子认可将帝国主义作为将其范式强加于地球上越加广大的地区的一种方法，但从被征服国家的居民中获得海量财富和世俗权力的机会，也吸引了公约的领导人。
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Imperialism
By the second half of the 19th century, even Sleepers using completely mundane technologies could, in theory, completely circumnavigate the world in less than three months, permitting a level of travel and contact with distant and radically different cultures never before possible for anyone except powerful magi. The vastly increased speed of travel and the potential for cross-cultural contact that came with it could have ushered in a new era of wisdom and understanding. However, the Order of Reason, and a disturbingly large number of Sleepers, had little interest in peaceful contact with distant cultures. Instead, imperialism was one of the hallmarks of the Victorian era.
The first colonial conquests, both relatively limited in scale, began with the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the early 16th century, and the Dutch colonization of India in the 17th century. A combination of bad luck, inferior weapons, and rapacious tactics made the inhabitants of the Americas exceedingly vulnerable to European diseases and allowed a small number of invaders to conquer a large region. Similarly, in India, the Dutch made trade deals with powerful local leaders, and swiftly and brutally exploited instabilities caused by local wars.
However, the efforts of the Order of Reason and a small number of wealthy and powerful European merchants and politicians vastly increased the scale of colonial expansion that followed. Using large numbers of troops, and covertly aided by the Order of Reason’s most destructive magicks, colonial forces destabilized or conquered entire nations that were not already crumbling due to epidemics or civil war. By the dawn of the Victorian era, colonialism began transforming into imperialism. Rather than just settling colonies and using military force to seize natural resources or ensure favorable trade arrangements, a growing number of western European nations began conquering and ruling entire nations.
Europe’s growing nationalism in part motivated this transformation. Western European nations try to prove their superiority by conquering ever more territory, while also working to reduce the power and wealth of their rivals by preemptively conquering and holding regions of interest to these nations. Alongside nationalism came raw greed. For small numbers of wealthy western Europeans, imperialism offered an opportunity to obtain funding and support from their nations’ governments. If their efforts succeeded, they could then extract vastly more wealth from the nations they conquered and ruled, both in the form of booty from an initial conquest and from the vast array of taxes, fees, and tariffs they imposed on colonized peoples. While the Order of Reason endorsed imperialism as a method of imposing their paradigm on increasingly large sections of the planet, the chance to gain a truly vast amount of wealth and mundane power, extracted both from the inhabitants of the conquered nations, appealed to the Conventions’ leaders.
维多利亚时代法师的基调是煤气灯下的神秘：照亮黑暗的工业技术的融合，以及即使这样的人造光也不能完全揭示其形状的秘密事物。
你可以用几种方式来表达这种煤气灯元素：作为维多利亚惊悚小说的传统氛围；将一个被元素之火照亮的世界变成一个由人造技术照亮的世界的变革；使建筑与巷道被幽幽毒雾笼罩，一种朦胧而时常有毒的光源；甚至作为当施虐者操纵他的目标进入他所设计的虚假“现实”时所发生的隐喻性“煤气灯效应”——这个术语实际上来自一部名为《煤气灯》的维多利亚音乐剧。从历史上看，在让位于更明亮的人造电灯之前，以煤为燃料的煤气灯标志着早期殖民时代经济的结束和工业时代的崛起。虽然你不会在北美大平原或撒哈拉沙漠找到这样的煤气灯街道，但它在伦敦雾中发光的景观仍然是维多利亚时代冒险的典型特征。
与此同时，神秘与启蒙相呼应。它的希腊词根，mystery，指的是入门和秘密，那些被安静封存并保密的事物。一种变体，mysterion，指对技能和知识的掌握，这两种词源都适于法师的神秘智慧。它天然带着神秘的要因，觉醒者的秘密友谊与夜晚笼罩着煤气灯下城市的那盘桓不去的薄雾的结合，完美地唤起了维多利亚时代法师的氛围。
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Tone: A Gaslit Mystery
The tone of Victorian Mage is Gaslit Mystery: a merging of industrial technology that illuminates the darkness, and of the secret things the shape of which even such artificial light cannot fully reveal.
You could express this gaslit element in several ways: as the traditional atmosphere for Victoriana thrillers; as the innovation that transformed a world lit by elemental fire into one illuminated by man-made technology; as a hazy and often toxic light source that blackened walls and filled buildings with poisonous fumes; even as the metaphorical “gaslighting” that occurs when an abuser manipulates his quarry into a false “reality” of his design — a term that comes, in fact, from a Victorian-set melodrama called Gas Light. Historically, the coal-fueled gaslight marks the end of the earlier colonial era and the rise of the industrial one, before giving way to the even brighter artificial light of electricity. Although you won’t find such gaslit streets in the Great Plains or the Sahara Desert, the image of gaslights glowing amid London fog is still an archetypal feature of Victorian adventures.
Meanwhile, mystery supplies the counterpoint to illumination. Its Greek root, mysterion, refers to initiation and secrecy, of things shut away quietly and held in confidence. A variation, maistrie, refers to the mastery of skills and knowledge, and both roots suit the enigmatic wisdom of a magus. By nature mysterious to begin with, the combination of the Awakened’s secret fellowships and the swirling mist that cloaks gaslit cities at night perfectly evokes the atmosphere of Victorian Mage.
如何使用本书 本书是《法师：超凡入圣 20周年纪念版》的补充资料，其内容您可能会需要使用。《维多利亚法师》提供了关于维多利亚时代的法师及其组织与魔法的详尽内容。本书同时包含对这一理性之子范式尚未笼罩全球的时代的讨论与具体规则。本书同样也提供了关于在维多利亚时代进行游戏所需的常规信息，以及关于可以在其他各个国家和地区发现的文化与魔法的概述。
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How to Use This Book
This book is a supplement for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, which you need to use this book. Victorian Mage provides detailed information on magi and their organizations and magick during the Victorian era. It also includes both discussions of and rules dealing with the fact that in this era the Order of Reason’s paradigm had not yet fully encompassed the Earth. This book also provides general information about gaming in the Victorian era, and an overview of the cultures and magicks found in various nations and regions.
- 第一章：影之社会对维多利亚时代法师的整体社会进行了考察，内容涵盖彼时欧洲大城市（如伦敦或巴黎）的法师社会及其规则，以及关于受控殖民地国家与其他尚处于自由状态的非欧洲地区法师略有不同的规则。此外，本章节还着重介绍了维多利亚时代法师的礼仪，以及这个时代普遍存在的虚伪和偏见又是如何于法师们的社会当中存在。
- 第二章：秘学九宗讨论了传统宗派在这一时代的定位，以及他们对理性之子、殖民侵略与彼此的看法，这是一个分裂的时代，这种分裂既存在于宗派之间，亦存在于其内部。自15世纪智冕会的轰然崩塌以来，只有八个主要宗派尚且存世。本章详细讨论了这八个存世的宗派，以及关于新的第九宗派的可能选项。
- 第三章：理性之子对这一时代各个公约组织的复杂事态进行了探讨。随着它们的范式在全球范围的扩散，理性之子正在发生剧变，尽管此时它们还尚未成为其现代形式。彼时它们由大致分为五个集团的十余个独立公约组成，每个集团都专注于一种特定类型的魔法实践，如探索、科技或政治权利。本章将介绍这些集团与相对较为重要的10个公约组织。
- 第四章：工坊则提供了那些与法师相关的较小规模组织的信息，当中包含以欧洲地区为根基的虚无党，以及许多非欧洲地区工坊，如巴塔和巫龙。此外，本章还提供了一些全新工坊的信息，包括基于本土魔法的，也包括基于非西方科学技术的。
- 第五章：剧中人包括创建维多利亚时代法师角色的所有必要规则。本章讨论了那些适合维多利亚时代法师的原型、能力、技能、背景以及优势和缺陷。
- 第六章：维多利亚魔法包含了使用魔法的新规则，包括在不同地区使用魔法具体有那些不同，在这一理性之子的范式尚未传播到全世界的时期，这会取决于当地沉睡者的观念与信仰。
- 第七章：讲述维多利亚奇幻为在维多利亚时代展开游戏和创造情景提供了一些建议与帮助，包括如何引入维多利亚时代流行小说当中的点子与套路，从西部小说到儒勒·凡尔纳或者H·G·威尔斯的早期科幻小说，再到那些遥远地域的离奇故事。
- 第八章：须知险恶包括大量有关反派或其他说书人角色的信息，其中包括劫夺者、灭世者与其他各种丑恶腐败的秘密结社。本章还对法师将可能遭遇的其他超自然生物的世界进行了探讨，当中既有古老的吸血鬼贵族，亦有愤怒的工人阶级狼人。最后，它还对从放荡的贵族到牛仔和废奴主义者在内的多种多样的沉睡者角色进行了一些简要的介绍。
- 第九章：世界各地包含了对这一时代的世界的描述，包括角色的旅行日志和其他更广泛的设定信息。这一章节的意义是对这一时代角色可能会造访的许多不同地点提供一些信息。
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Chapters
Chapter One: Societies of Shadow examines the overall society of magi in the Victorian era, covering the society and social rules of magi in the vast European cities like London or Paris, as well as the somewhat different rules governing magi in colonized nations and in the non-European lands that are still free. With a focus on Victorian etiquette for magi, it also covers how the hypocrisies and prejudices common in this era are also present in the societies of magi themselves.
Chapter Two: The Council of Nine discusses the place of the Traditions in this era, and what they think about the Order of Reason, colonial conquest, and each other in this era of disunity, both between Traditions and within them. Since the fall of the Solificati in the 15th century, only eight official Traditions remain. This chapter discusses each of the eight surviving Traditions in detail, as well as possible options for a new ninth Tradition.
Chapter Three: The Order of Reason explores the complex dynamics of the various Conventions in this era. As they ever spread their paradigm across the globe, the Order of Reason is rapidly changing, and it has not yet reached its modern form. Consisting of more than a dozen separate Conventions split into five blocs, each focuses on a particular type of magickal endeavor, like exploration, technology, or political power. This chapter looks at both the blocs and 10 of the more important Conventions.
Chapter Four: The Crafts provides information about the smaller organizations of magi, including the European-based Hollow Ones, and a multitude of non-European Crafts, like the Bata’a and the Wulong. In addition, this chapter provides information on several entirely new Crafts, including ones based around indigenous magick and non-western technomancy.
Chapter Five: Dramatis Personae includes all the necessary rules for creating Victorian magi. This chapter discusses Archetypes, Abilities, Skills, Backgrounds, and Merits and Flaws appropriate for Victorian magi.
Chapter Six: Victorian Magick contains new rules for using magick, including how the use of magick is different in different locations, depending upon local Sleepers’ attitudes and beliefs, where the Order of Reason’s paradigm has not yet spread across the globe.
Chapter Seven: Storytelling the Victorian Fantastic provides suggestions and assistance for running campaigns and creating scenarios in the Victorian era, including incorporating a wealth of ideas and tropes from popular Victorian fiction, ranging from Westerns to early science fiction by Jules Verne or H. G. Wells, to strange tales of distant locales.
Chapter Eight: Dangerous to Know includes a wealth of information about antagonists and other Storyteller characters, including Marauders, Nephandi, and various corrupt secret societies. This chapter also explores the worlds of the other supernatural creatures magi are likely to encounter, whether ancient vampire noble or angry working-class werewolf. Finally, it contains brief write-ups of some of the diversity of Sleepers characters might encounter, from dissolute aristocrats to cowboys and abolitionists.
Chapter Nine: Around the World contains descriptions of the world in this era, incorporating in-character travelogues and broader setting information. This section is designed to provide a smattering of information about many of the various locales that characters in this era are likely to visit.
QUOTE
未来命运：变迁之世 Future Fates: A World in Flux
在所有的化身当中，《法师》乃是最为侧重于动态的可能性的游戏。因而，《法师20th》当中描述的“未来命运（Future Fates）”（p.22）的概念同样适用于煤气灯神秘的时代。根据说书人的意愿，在你的维多利亚法师编年史当中，历史事件与其情况可以采取三种路线：
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历史是既定的：事件遵循我们所知的21世纪的历史进程：美国摧毁了剩余的土著民族；第一次世界大战翘首等待着新世纪的到来；俄国革命改变了地缘政治的面貌；理性之子蜕变为科技联盟。在这一背景下的冒险发生在一个历史的整体进程既定而不可改变的背景当中。
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历史是不同的：某些因素可能遵循历史的先例，但其他因素与我们所知的历史不同：美国从一开始就宣布奴隶制非法，因而没有发生内战；鸦片战争开始前，中国就成功驱逐了英国东印度公司；维多利亚甫一登基便授予女性完全公民的法律地位。这种“异历史”的设定会在某些方面让人熟悉，而在其他方面则不完全确定。
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历史是无常的：我们对这一历史时期所自认的一切认知都是错误的。要么背景与现实世界历史截然不同，要么事件和事态在编年史的最开始就会发生重大变化。也许在一个祖鲁人天才的带领之下，以太之子的叛逃提早了几十年，他的蒸汽朋克革命将大英帝国一脚踢出了舞台；也许日本会用一种兼具科学与魔法的力量来迎接佩里上将；甚至可能不会有科技联盟，不会有世界大战，不会有为机器所统治的20世纪。在这一选择中，你的玩家可以随意改变历史的进程。
在现实世界当中，维多利亚时代是一个巨大的悲剧。但在《维多利亚法师》当中，它可以是你和你的玩家想要、想实现的一切。
更多灵感请参阅《法师20th》当中的条目“蒸汽与钢铁的胜利”（p.121-134）和“另类历史”条目，再加上《秘密之书》当中的非洲未来主义侧边栏（p.279-280）。
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Future Fates: A World in Flux
In all incarnations, Mage is a game about dynamic possibilities. Therefore, the Future Fates concept detailed in Mage 20 (p. 22) applies to the Gaslit Mystery era. According to the Storyteller’s wishes, historical events and situations may take one of three paths in the course of your Victorian Mage chronicle:
• History is set: Events follow the course of history as we know it in the 21st century: The United States crushes the remaining indigenous nations; World War I awaits the new century; the Russian Revolution changes the face of geopolitics, and the Order of Reason becomes the Technocratic Union. Adventures in this setting take place against a backdrop in which the overall course of history is established and unchangeable.
• History is different: Certain elements might follow historical precedent, but others differ from history as we know it: The United States outlawed slavery from the outset, and so there’s no Civil War; China expels the British East India Company before the Opium Wars begin; Victoria grants women the legal status of full citizenship when she first ascends the throne. This “alternative history” setting is familiar in some regards but fluid in others.
• History is changeable: Everything we think we know about this era is wrong. Either the setting differs radically from real-world history, or events and situations are open to change as soon as the chronicle begins. Perhaps the Etherites defect a few decades early, led by a Zulu genius whose steampunk innovations kick the legs out from under the British Empire; maybe Japan greets Admiral Perry with a force both technological and magickal; there might be no Technocratic Union, no World Wars, no 20th century ruled by machines. Under this option, your players can change the course of history… and probably will.
In real-world hindsight, the Victorian Era is a grand tragedy. In Victorian Mage, it can be anything you and your players desire it to be.
For additional inspiration, see the Mage 20 entry “The Triumph of Steam and Steel” (pp. 131-134), plus the “Alternative History” entry and the Afrofutrism sidebar in The Book of Secrets (pp. 279-280).
以下内容可以作为深入了解许多或多或少对维多利亚时代进行了准确描述的书籍、电影和电视剧的起点。
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Inspirational Media
The following serves as a starting point to dive into the many books, films, and TV shows that more or sometimes less accurately describe the Victorian era.
这是一部优秀的电影，改编自暹罗国王蒙库特（Mongkut）为他的孩子们雇用英语家教安娜·莱昂诺文斯（Anna Leonowens）的故事，并概括性地讲述了他为避免暹罗被英国或法国征服而进行的斗争。该片由周润发和朱迪·福斯特主演，包含了丰富历史细节，同时也是一部精彩的作品。
火车大劫案 The Great Train Robbery（1978） 一部全明星阵容出演的经典警匪片，讲述了铁路时代初期的一起火车劫案。
悬崖下的野餐 Picnic At Hanging Rock（1975） 这是一部超现实和忧郁风格的电影，讲述了1900年情人节时几名白人女学生和她们的老师在维多利亚州的海茵悬岩野餐时失踪的真实故事。不仅仅是优秀，它也展现了维多利亚时代末期澳大利亚的迷人风光。
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Films
Anna and the King (1999)
This is an excellent film adaptation of the story of King Mongkut of Siam hiring English tutor Anna Leonowens for his children, and more generally about his struggle to avoid having Siam conquered by either the British or the French. Starring Chow Yun Fat and Jodie Foster, it contains a wealth of historical detail, while also being wonderful to watch.
The Great Train Robbery (1978)
A classic caper film with an all-star cast about a train robbery at the dawn of the era of rail.
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
A surreal and moody film about the real-life disappearance of several white schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria, on Valentine’s Day in 1900. In addition to being excellent, it provides a fascinating look at Australia at the end of the Victorian era.
这部由杰里米·布雷特主演的经典电视剧改编自阿瑟·柯南·道尔爵士所有那些离奇的顾问侦探故事。其关于维多利亚时代伦敦生活的细节颇为细致，同时也是维多利亚时代故事和130年前伦敦风貌的绝佳介绍。
飙风战警/狂野西部 The Wild Wild West（1965-1969） 虽然年代久远，而且相当过时，但这一系列仍是一次古怪的漫游，通常，每周的剧集都有一个由维多利亚时期怪异科学制造的威胁。可能会是一个轻节奏（light-hearted，大概指春游团）西部战役的理想灵感来源。
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Television
Sherlock Holmes (1984-1994)
This television classic starring Jeremy Brett contains adaptations of all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories of his eccentric consulting detective. The details of life in Victorian London are exquisite and it’s also an excellent introduction to Victorian storytelling and what London looked like 130 years ago.
The Wild Wild West (1965-1969)
Although old and quite dated, this series is also a wacky romp, generally featuring a different threat from bizarre Victorian-made science every week. This could be an ideal inspiration for a light-hearted Western campaign.
这部优秀的短书探讨了西方世界旅行者用作他们对萨满教想象基础的这一地区中传统的灵性和宗教实践的实际样貌，以及西方作家是如何将这些不同的实践转化为所谓最古老与最“原始”的泛灵论形式的再创作图景。如果你想要了解不同的生活现实与关于这些生活现实的学术理论，以及思想是如何在殖民活动当中被应用的，那么本书将极具价值。它对于理解这个时代的梦语者来说也是必不可少的。
《东方主义：西方对于东方的观念》（Orientalism:Western Conceptions of the Orient,1978），爱德华·赛义德 一部精彩而掷地有声的作品，探讨了西欧殖民主义者和帝国主义者是如何制造对“东方”的广泛偏见与歧视。这些歧视将充满朝气和进步主义的西方与所谓原始而非理性的“东方”进行了对比，并在维多利亚时代被广泛用作侵略征服“原始”国家并使其西化的借口。
《Everfair》（2016），尼斯·沙维尔 一部精彩而极其温和的蒸汽朋克式架空历史小说，讲述了欧洲改革者和土著社会活动家将恐怖的比利时属刚果的大部分地区改造成一个更加人道和独立的国家的过程。这部小说既展现了比属刚果在维多利亚时代的可怕景象，也描述了一群可敬的法师可能实现的架空历史故事。
《布拉瓦茨基夫人的狒狒：一部将泛灵论带往美国的神秘学家、灵媒和边缘人的历史》（Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America, 1996），彼得·华盛顿 这是一部描写维多利亚时代神秘学家海伦娜·布拉瓦茨基和神智学会的精彩历史书，神智学会是布拉瓦茨基夫人在维多利亚时代晚期发起的一个古怪而规模庞大的灵修组织与运动。这本书对于理解虚无党来说是必不可少的，对于理解当时西欧的灵修运动也非常有价值。
《欧洲与没有历史的人》（Europe and the People Without History, 1982），埃里克·R·沃尔夫 作为殖民主义领域的权威著作之一，该书审视了整个殖民体系，而非专注于某个国家或地区。它对殖民主义对殖民者与被殖民者各自而言都是什么模样提供了一种精彩而极具可读性的介绍。
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Books
Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination, by Ronald Hutton (2001)
This excellent short book examines what traditional spiritual and religious practices were like in the regions that western travelers used as the basis for their ideas about shamanism, and also how western authors transformed these disparate practices into a created vision of the oldest and most “primitive” form of spirituality. If you want to understand how different lived realities and academic theories about these realities can be and how ideas can be made to serve colonial ends, this is an invaluable book. It’s also essential for understanding the Dream-Speakers in this era.
Orientalism, by Edward Said (1978)
A brilliant and powerful work that examines how western European colonialists and imperialists created widespread prejudices about “the East.” These prejudices contrasted the vibrant and progressive West with the allegedly primitive and irrational “Orient,” and in the Victorian era were widely used as an excuse to invade and conquer “primitive” nations to westernize them.
Everfair, by Nisi Shawl (2016)
A wonderful, very mildly steampunk alternate history about European reformers and indigenous activists transforming most of the horrific Belgian Congo into a far more humane and independent nation. This novel provides both a terrifying vision of what the Belgian Congo was like in the Victorian era and the story of an alternate history that a few dedicated magi might be able to accomplish.
Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America, by Peter Washington (1996)
A well-written and engaging history of Victorian mystic, Helena Blavatsky, and the Theosophical Society, an eccentric but quite large spiritual organization and movement that she started in the late Victorian era. This book is essential for understanding the Hollow Ones and very useful for understanding the Western European spiritual movements of the day.
Europe and the People Without History, by Eric R. Wolfe (1982)
As one of the definitive books about colonialism, it examines the entire colonial enterprise rather than focusing on a single nation or region. It provides a brilliant and exceedingly readable introduction to what colonialism was like for both the colonizers and the colonized.
除上述内容外，还有大量与该时代有关的材料，从各方各面对其进行了研究。
非虚构类书籍《古代治疗：揭开历代健康与治疗之谜》（Ancient Healing: Unlocking the Mysteries of Health & Healing Through the Ages），国际出版有限公司
《秘密符号与象征大百科》（The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols），阿黛尔·诺泽达
《秘密社团大百科》（The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies），约翰·迈克尔·格里尔
《走进维多利亚家庭：维多利亚时代英国家庭生活肖像》（Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England）、《谋杀的发明：维多利亚人如何陶醉于死亡与调查并创造出现代犯罪》（The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime）、《维多利亚城市：日常生活在狄更斯时期的伦敦》（The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London）、《维多利亚时代的住宅：从分娩到临终的家庭生活》（The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed），作者都是朱迪丝·弗兰德斯
《劳工与穷人》（Labour and the Poor）卷一至十，彼得·梅休、安格斯·b·里奇、亚历山大·麦凯、雪莉·布鲁克斯和查尔斯·麦基
《仆人：19世纪至现代的英国下层史》（Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times），露西·莱斯布里奇
《月亮的胜利：现代异教巫术的历史》（The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft），罗纳德·赫顿
《维多利亚时代的黑社会》（The Victorian Underworld），唐纳德·托马斯
《简·奥斯汀吃什么，查尔斯·狄更斯知道什么：从猎狐到惠斯特牌——19世纪英国日常生活的真相》（What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist – the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England），丹尼尔·普尔
小说与图画小说《地狱一季》（A Season in Hell），阿蒂尔·兰波
《血腥杰克》（The Bloody Jack）系列，L.A.梅耶（不过在My Bonny Light Horseman一节就可以停了；后面全是种族主义内容）
切丽·普里斯特的《发条世纪》（The Clockwork Century）和《波登快讯》（Borden Dispatches）系列
《绛红雪白的花瓣》（The Crimson Petal and the White），迈克尔·费伯
《魔鬼西部》（The Devil’s West）系列，劳拉·安妮·吉尔曼
《德古拉》（Dracula），布莱姆·斯托克
《元素大师》（The Elemental Masters）系列，梅赛德斯·莱基
《闪光人别传》（The Flashman Papers）系列，乔治·麦克唐纳·弗莱泽
《来自地狱》（From Hell），阿兰·摩尔和艾迪·坎贝尔
《天才女孩》（Girl Genius），菲尔和卡娅·福格里奥
《大神潘恩》（The Great God Pan）、《白人》（The White People）、《白粉小说》（The Novel of the Whiter Powder），亚瑟·梅琴
《黄衣之王》（The King in Yellow），罗伯特·钱伯斯
《Lá-Bas》，J.-K.于斯曼
《悲惨世界》（Les Misérables），维克多·雨果（这个名字更容易找到同名戏剧和电影）
《凡夫绝爱：一部小说》（Mortal Love: A Novel），伊丽莎白·汉德
《鸦片之门》（The Portals of Opium，法语原版Les Portes de l'opium），马赛尔·施沃布
《Ruse》，CrossGen和漫威漫画
《马尔多罗之歌》（The Songs of Maldoror），洛特雷阿蒙（Compte de Lautréamont）
《圣克罗伊编年史》（The St. Croix Chronicles）系列，卡琳娜·库珀
《女妖的凝视》（The Stress of Her Regard），蒂姆·鲍尔斯
《怪异故事集》（Tales of Mystery and Imagination），爱伦·坡
《呼啸山庄》（Wuthering Heights），艾米莉·勃朗特
电影《危险方法》（A Dangerous Method）
《纯真年代》（The Age of Innocence）
《断锁怒潮》（Amistad）
《情色风暴》（Angels & Insects）
《真爱》（Beloved）
《惊情四百年》（Bram Stoker’s Dracula）
《狼族盟约》（Brotherhood of the Wolf / Le Pacte des Loups）
《魂归伤膝谷》（Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee）
《棋手》（The Chess Players / Shatranj Ke Khiladi）
《猩红山峰》（Crimson Peak）
《绛红雪白的花瓣》（The Crimson Petal and the White (miniseries)）
《与狼共舞》（Dances with Wolves）
《离魂异客》（Dead Man）
《四片羽毛》（The Four Feathers）（谢加·卡普尔执导的2002版）
《弗兰肯斯坦的新娘》（Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein）（詹姆斯·惠尔/博瑞斯·卡洛夫版本），《来自地狱的弗兰肯斯坦》（Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell），《弗兰肯斯坦：真实的故事》（Frankenstein: The True Story），《玛丽·雪莱的弗兰肯斯坦》（Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein）
《来自地狱》（From Hell）
《纽约黑帮》（Gangs of New York）
《煤气灯》（Gaslight）
《杰罗尼莫：美国传奇》（Geronimo: An American Legend）
《黄金三镖客》（The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Gothic）
《泰山王子》（Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes）
《仲夏情狂》（Haunted Summer）
《屋顶上的轻骑兵》（The Horseman on the Roof / Le Hussard sur le Toit）
《巴斯克维尔的猎犬》（The Hound of the Baskervilles）（彼得·库欣1959版或巴兹尔·拉斯伯恩1939版）
《魔术师》（The Illusionist）
《鬼妓回忆录》（Imprint）
《印度罗宾汉》（Kayamkulam Kochunni）
《印度往事》（Lagaan）
《悲惨世界》（1998、2012、2014版）
《铁拳》（The Man with the Iron Fists）
《抗暴英雄》（Mangal Pandey: The Rising）
《黄飞鸿》（Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time in China）系列
《彼得·潘》（Peter Pan）（2003版）
《致命魔术》（The Prestige）
《傲慢与偏见》（Pride and Prejudice）
《傲慢与偏见与僵尸》（Pride and Prejudice and Zombies）
《祖鲁人沙卡》（Shaka Zulu）
《大侦探福尔摩斯：诡影游戏》（Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows）
《蓝衣士兵》（Soldier Blue）
《理发师陶德》（Sweeney Todd）
《夺面解码/大侦探维克多》（Vidocq / Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq）
《呼啸山庄》（Wuthering Heights）（1939、1970、1992、2006版）
《用心棒&椿三十郎》（Yojimbo and its sequel Sanjuro）
《少年福尔摩斯》（Young Sherlock Holmes）
《祖鲁》（Zulu）
《祖鲁黎明》（Zulu Dawn）
[M:tA 20th][Victorian Age] 序章, 维多利亚时代法师拓展，需结合M20核心使用
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