Ascension Lodge
The Ascension Lodge
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RP Hooks
HistoryThe Order has a reputation of being stodgy or boring, but not in L.A. Hermetic chantries have risen and fallen, but none were ever as grand as Ascension Lodge. Founded by Gregory Janus Temple, bani Fortunae, a student of Nonogram Society, his wife Majorie Prince, bani Xaos (formerly Thig), and Etherite Harold Montague, it had designs on being Council’s premiere university chantry. Montague would leave after World War II taking with him one of Los Angele’s most powerful Nodes. The story that he won it off Temple in a card game is an old chestnut mages love to tell. Ascension Lodge was a center of learning, but no one would call it scholastic. In its heyday, the Lodge threw wild parties, publicly hosted sex-magic orgies, experimented with Hermetic magical theory in a variety of progressive (or questionable) ways, and were the enfant terribles of the local Council. Their rogue’s charm attracted them many followers of the Sleeper and Awakened variety. Their influence, while faded, can be seen in the abundance of occult countercultures that proliferated in the West Coast during the mid-twentieth century. They frustrated the Technocracy by enchanting Hollywood’s elite, and sparking off a decades long cinematic fascination with the esoteric and the occult which Tinseltown has yet to entirely shake off. Their powers peaked during the counterculture years of the 1960s, but like that same counterculture, came crashing down in the 1970s. All that aforementioned partying had a point. Through a mix of public ritual and private experimentation the Lodge hoped to realize the ideal Pymander by bringing about a new Aeon. All the ritualizing culminated in a particularly complex summoning of a powerful Praeceptor called the Conquering Child. The ritual was somehow botched or flawed, and Temple went mad and disappeared into the Umbra while the rest of the cabal fell into heavy Quiet or fled. He has yet to return, and local mages would very much like to account for his disappearance. Ascension Lodge’s original mission was quixotic to say the least. They wanted to create a kind of monastic space wherein mages could train their Wills without the distractions of the “base material world.” This would allow them to be prepared to lead humanity when the Council’s dream was finally realized. While the stated mission hasn’t changed per se, Ascension Lodge has long neglected this mission. Marjorie Prince AKA the Red Woman, was censured by the Order for her role in the summoning, and became a scandalous figure within the Order. By the 1990s, neither she nor the Lodge were in a position to make a show of force, and the Conquering Child had not yet appeared. Ascension closed its curtains to wait out the Storm. In the early 2020’s, Ascension Lodge was in desperate need of a reawakening. With Marjorie unable or unwilling to aid in the rebirth, a new Archdeacon was named, to her displeasure. Not long after, she brought back Temple and the two of them attempted to perform a ritual to bring back the Conquering Child. Their plans were thwarted by Tradition mages from both the Lodge and GTC, making a bargain with a powerful spirit of Golden Age Hollywood. Marjorie and her husband were killed, and the Conquering Child vanquished, though the top of the Lodge Tower was blown off in the battle. Since then, the Lodge has had a series of Archdeacons whose tenures ended dismally. During the tenure of Archdeacon Sophia Fairbrook, the membership of the Lodge shifted governance to a Council of Representative leadership. Fairbrook was kept on as Headmaster of the University and overseer of the grounds until her untimely death in a battle to avenge a murdered mage. Holdings
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Members
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Chantry LogsNone yet. |
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