Ascension, Mage 2095

The early years of the 21st century found the Mages of the Traditions on the ropes. The Technocracy's influence was everywhere, force feeding Humanity its view of the Consensus, and Humanity moved along like so many sheep towards that grey future. Pockets of Tradition Mages held out against the rising tide of stagnation, fighting their own guerrilla war against the Union, losing more often than not. The last remaining Chantries were vanishing as Technocratic kill squads and HIT Mark deployments rooted out the hiding places and killed all within.

Then something very curious happened, something no one expected. The Traditions got a boost from the most unlikely of places.

Hell.

The Faustian movements in the Vatican did much more than Lirethiel could have possibly imagined. The renewed faith in God through the devout, brought about a sense of mystery to a declining world. That's all the Traditions needed to regain their balance. The Technocracy no longer focused on them, and this gave them room to breathe, room to work, and room to regroup. The H5N2 virus did not hit them hard at all, in fact other than watching Humanities numbers rapidly decrease, it didn't touch them in the least, something else that was in their benefit. Awakened among the Euthanatos actually welcomed the culling of the mass of Sleepers, and not a single Tradition did anything to curb the destructive rampage of the Mega Flu, how could they? As weakened as they were, it was more a blessing than a curse. The rising of the sea level too had no impact upon the remnants of the Traditions, to them the changing of the map was insignificant to the other changes happening on a Global Scale, changes in outlook, changes in priority, and changes in direction for entire nations.

There were events that greatly impacted them, however. The Avatar storm that had raged across the Gauntlet shattered in 2025. This wasn't immediately felt, except for those that had watched the building pressure. Deep in the wilds, and places hit with man made weapons, such as Nuclear blast sites, saw not only the storm break and unravel, but the very Gauntlet rend. Far from civilizations, where the agents of stagnation and order still reigned, the world of the spirits bled into the mortal world, and they mingled. Creatures not seen on earth in a millennium or more started to reemerge from the depths of the Umbra and return to earth, the Bygone. Later in the 21st century there would be an influx of Mortals showing psychic potential, Sorcerers, Hedge Wizards, and the like. A testament to the growing wonder and imagination returning to the world, a world where the Technocracy was not law, and was not the only consensus to be had.

The Traditions of course paid very close attention to the building conflict between the Fallen and the Technocrats. Not directly interfering, but keeping tabs of moves, watching manipulations, and keeping tabs. Though for all their watching, there was one occurrence that caught them all by surprise. The Technocratic Union, was rapidly changing, and not all of that change was for the better.

It started with a divergence after the shattering of the Avatar Storm, the Void Engineers started to show up in the Penumbra of earth more and more, returning to home base as it were. This was not surprising, considering the happenings with the Gauntlet, what was however, was the lack of action by the Engineers, they did nothing but study and document, not repair. Of course not having glimpse into the inner workings of the Union, those Tradition Mages that were watching could only speculate as to the strife this caused. Surely the higher ups would want these rends fixed as quickly as possible, but the Engineers continued to lag. So a rather impetuous Dream Speaker by the name of Camilla Devons, asked them what they were doing. Most of the conversation was lost, but what did happen, was a nearly decimated Tradition, and a spurned Covenant, came to an agreement. The Void Engineers, nearly to a whole, left the Technocratic Union not long after this conversation, many disembarked for the deep reaches of the Umbra, and have not been seen from since, but many, namely the Engineers that patrolled Earth's borders, stayed, and started to work along side the Dream Speakers to watch the Umbra.

Oh and the Void Engineers went to war with the Technocrats.

To date, the Union has still not recovered its connection to the Umbra, and no one sees that changing. With no access to the Spirit realms, Tradition Mages, and the newly liberated Engineers, were able to set up vast strongholds and start to recollect themselves and reorganize. Though there has yet to be a formal extension of invitation for the Void Engineers to join the Traditions, many, especially the Sons of Ether and the Virtual Adepts, see this day soon coming. The rest do not seem to care, being as the Council of Nine rarely meets and the Traditions themselves are scattered at best.

The Mega Cities were seen as a triumph, not by the Technocracy, but by the Traditions. Humanity moved to these sprawling centers of Technology and Stasis by the hundreds of thousands. However, they left the rest of the world to heal, with so many collected in close packed areas, the more mystical places in the world were left to grow and flourish once more. Of course the Traditions moved into the cities as well, the Technocracy was off balance, and vulnerable from being bombarded from all sides. Now was the time to reclaim some of their lost ground.

The Order of Hermes, weak from its conflicts with the Technocrats and the Vampires of Clan Tremere, fell to the wayside, but were still within the Mega Cities, helping where they could. The Akashics saw a resurgence of mystics and monks as religion started to creep back into the world, as did the Euthanatos, and Celestial Chorus. The Verbena and Dream Speakers, two Traditions hit hard with the last 100 years, began to adapt and evolve to fit this new world.

The Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts, especially the later, did not only flourish, they exploded with numbers, progress, and ability. The Cult of Ecstasy too saw an influx of members, as the world gave more and more chances to experience things in new ways.

The Traditions, beaten, were not broken. Chantries slowly started to pop up here and there, especially just outside the Mega Cities in the surrounding areas. Cabals were reformed, and the Awakened began to nudge and prod the general consensus, showing the Sleepers that the fantastic was still possible.

The Ascension War, was back on.