#import "../templates/interior_template.typ": *
#show: chapter.with(chapter_name: "Paradox")

= Paradox

#show: columns.with(2, gutter: 1em)

Paradox is the collective force of consensual reality fighting back against the enlightened will of the mage.

A useful analogy is to imagine the Tellurian as a huge body of water. Most people move with the currents of reality, floating along on a cushion of their own belief. Some of these sleepers, Hedge magicians or simply the heroically lucky, learn to dip their hands in and alter the flow, but they cannot redirect the river. Vampires and werewolves are predators, fast and agile in the waters of reality, but still confined by the flow of belief. The Mage, however, sees the river for what it is, and can push the water around as they choose.

Paradox is the inertia of 6 million gallons of belief. Mages who change reality with vulgar magic are pushing the river in ways it does not want to go, and risk being drowned by the current. Coincidental magic uses the flow of reality, rather than fighting against it, and can easily avoid Paradox, but even coincidence can risk paradox if it is unbelievable to the local sleepers.

Paradox can take a variety of forms. Backlash, reality directly attacking the offensive mage, can cause temporary, long term, or even permanent wounds, flaws, or oddities. Quiet, a magical form of madness, forces the offending mage to resolve their guilt over disjointing reality. Exceptionally offensive mages can be catapulted into Paradox Realms, or hounded by Paradox spirits.

#block(breakable: false)[
  == Paradox Pool
  Mages accumulate Paradox into a pool from different sources, they are as follows:
]

/ Casting vulgar magick: Whenever a Sleeper witnesses you using Magick in obvious ways, the player adds #spec_c.d6 to the pool and gains a #spec_c.pp.

/ Hitching while casting a spell: Whenever a player rolls a hitch, the Storyteller may add that die to a Paradox pool instead of the Doom pool, paying for it as normal.

/ Special circumstances: Certain special circumstances like encounters with Mad Ones may inflict Paradox in unusual ways too.

#sidebar()[
  #block(breakable: false)[
    === Optional Rule: Harsh Paradox
    If a Storyteller wants the vulgar magick to be more punishing they may decide to add the effect die of the spell to the pool instead of a #spec_c.d6.
  ]
]

The Storyteller is able to use Paradox dice from the pool to cause different effects. The most common uses for Paradox dice are:

/ Burn: Roll the Paradox pool or a part of it to inflict stress of your choice.

/ Paradox Flaw: Spend a die from the Paradox pool and create a Complication attached to the character equal in size to the die spent.

/ Paradox Spirit: Spend a die from the Paradox pool equal to the spirit's highest rated trait, and any number of dice in addition, and drop them into the scene, ready to act when the action order gets to them (which could be right away, if the Storyteller is the one deciding who goes next). All additional dice spent will constitute the Spirit's boss pool.

/ Quiet: Spend any number of dice from the Paradox pool to create a crisis pool of the same dice value representing the character's Quiet.

/ Paradox Realm: Spend a #spec_c.d10 or a #spec_c.d12, and any additional number of dice from the Paradox pool to separate one player into a Paradox realm, every additional die spent will constitute the Realm's crisis pool.