Nameless Echoes
🧙♂️ Nameless Echoes (Mage 1985)
A Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Chronicle Set in Madison, Wisconsin
🌀 Overview
Nameless Echoes is a three-part Mage: The Ascension chronicle unfolding in February 1985, set in the neon-lit, Cold War-shadowed city of Madison, Wisconsin. It explores the first cracks in consensus reality that will eventually lead to the digital haunting of Digi-8, the fall of New Avalon, and the emergence of the Nameless.
This chronicle serves as a prequel to Nameless Echoes Radio and is played using the Mage 20th Anniversary ruleset, with emphasis on Arete-only magick, paradox as metaphysical instability, and identity-driven storytelling.
📅 Act Structure
🧩 Act I: The Council of the Erased
- Date: February 9, 1985
- Event: The Vampire Prince (Tori Redford) and the Garou Elder (William Burke) are found murdered.
- Mission: Tradition mages investigate the breach in the Capitol Node before the supernatural factions go to war.
- Themes: Glitches, déjà vu, strange numbers, reflections that lie.
🌀 Act II: The Kronovore Stirs
- Setting: New Eden, a Digital Web outpost linked to Abel Washington’s experiments.
- Event: The players board a ghost ship with no history—and find their names on the manifest.
- Echo Link: Reality recurses. Digi-8 begins to evolve.
☄️ Act III: The Nameless Breathes
- Setting: New Avalon fractures. Madison begins to forget itself.
- Crisis: Sacrifice or ascend. Destroy the seal, preserve the dream, or break the cycle.
- Outcome: The future of reality—and the truth of who the players really are—is decided.
🧠 Themes & Mechanics
- Paradox as Identity Glitch Memory loops, mirror selves, false timelines. Paradox doesn’t just backlash—it rearranges who you are.
- Echo Glitches Characters may temporarily “swap” with alternate selves. These glitches alter stats, paradigms, and relationships for a scene.
- Flashback Tokens Used to “remember” events that haven’t happened yet. You can spend one to access a power, bypass Paradox, or reframe a moment.
- The Magick Number 1.36791013192342 — This number repeats everywhere: receipts, clocks, signs, dreams. It means something. Or everything.
🔑 Core Locations
- Capitol Node – Site of the original seal on the Nameless. Beneath Madison’s Capitol building.
- New Avalon – A Horizon Realm tied to Madison's architecture. Jay Dee’s sanctuary. Now glitching.
- New Eden – A Digital Web construct housing Digi-8’s origin code.
- Peace Park Caern – Sacred Garou ground where Burke was killed.
- The Wreck – Anarch vampire bar filled with corrupted data and half-erased dreams.
- Bascom Hill – Hermetic research site where gravity and memory sometimes disagree.
🎭 Playable Characters
- Jay Dee – The Reality Architect
- Aadhira Hebbar – The Karmic Executioner
- Abel Washington – The Digital Prophet
- Ann Johnston – The Disciplined Guardian
- Evan Adams – The Etheric Architect
- And more...
(See Pre_Generated_Characters for the full list.)
🎲 Game System
- System: Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition
- Mechanics Emphasized:
- Arete-only magick rolls
- Paradox as metaphysical instability
- Memory recursion and self-erasure
- Magick as expression of flawed paradigm