Dreamspeakers

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The Dreamspeakers are a fictional group of shaman, witch doctors and medicine men. They are a Tradition of mages in Mage: the Ascension, a role-playing game created by the White Wolf game studios. They are masters of Spirit magic, such as summoning or binding spirits, necromancy, creating fetishes and travelling to the Umbra.

The Dreamspeakers were formed at the Grand Convocation. Naioba, an African dream-priestess, and Star-of-Eagles, a Powhatan medicine man, saw the Tradition as a brotherhood for shaman from all lands. To the European magi, the Dream-Speakers were a dumping ground for tribal magi who they didn't want to deal with. Native Americans from North and South America, tribes from Africa's endless savannahs and jungles, Australian Aborigines, and pale shaman from the far North were all lumped together in a single Tradition. This offended many non-western magi who weren't shaman, such as the Ngoma and other Crafts, who left the Convocation in disgust.

Star-of-Eagles and Naioba led the Tradition until Naioba's assassination. However, the Dreamspeakers quickly found themselves ravaged by the eras of Exploration, Colonialism and Imperialism. The Spanish conquest devastated the Aztecs and Inca Empire and spread small pox to the Mound Builders, while the Portuguese slave trade ravaged West Africa. Led by a delegation from the Iroquois Nation, many Dreamspeakers left the Council of Nine in protest.

By the 1800s, the Dreamspeakers found themselves fighting alongside the Lakota Sioux, Congolese, Afghan hill tribes, Haitian voodoo cults, Australian Aborigines, Rhodesians and other indigenous people. Many supported the Ghost Dance and Zulu warriors. Unfortunately, they saw their people's traditional cultures eroded away by Indian boarding schools and the Stolen Generation. European Dreamspeakers, a minority within the Tradition, found themselves bolstered by the interest in Romanticism and spiritism. Most were spiritualists who spoke to ghosts, faeries and elemental-spirits.

Today, the Dreamspeakers are a diverse and divided Tradition. They draw members from many indigenous peoples around the world, and are also very involved in environmentalism and ecology.

[edit] Cultures and Sects

Many Dreamspeakers are of Native American descent - Cherokee, Ojibwa, Inuit, Zuni, Shoshone, Paiute, Navajo, Cheyenne, Hopi, Lenape, Salish, Algonquin, Kwakiutl, Athapascans, Apache, Blackfoot, Seminole, Shuswap, St'at'imc, Wintu, Maidu, Yurok, Maricopa, Yuki and many others. They are the children of Coyote and Raven, who keep alive the traditions of the Sweat lodge, Sun Dance and Vision Quest. They fought alongside Tecumseh, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. From the ruins of the Anasazi to reservations, they fight today to keep alive their way of life. They have had success popularizing the Native American Church and pow-wows.

In Central and South America, Dreamspeakers saw the rise of the Olmec, Maya civilization, Mixtec, Zapotec, Tupinamba, La Venta, Chibcha, Toltec, Carib and other ancient civilizations. The Conquistadors and Simon Bolivar crushed their people, but from the feet of the Brazilian Christ to the Andes they keep the old Aztec, Mayan and Incan ways alive. In the Amazon Rainforest Dreamspeakers draw from the Quechua, Aymara, Yaghan, Taíno, Tapirapé, Yanomami, Manasi and other surviving Indians. Other Dreamspeakers in Latin America draw from Hispanic Curanderos or Brazilian Santo Daime which combines Christianity, Spiritism and Yoruba belief with Indian shamanism and Ayahausca.

Other Dreamspeakers follow the traditions of Africa, such as the Fula people, Igbo people, Dogon people, Himba, Kirdi, Ashanti people, Maasai, San and !Kung bushmen, Tuareg, Dagara people, Malagasy people, Copts, Swazi and others. They come from the Côte d'Ivoire, the Horn of Africa, the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and the veld of southern Africa, and they continue the rites of ancient Egypt, Ife, Great Zimbabwe, Carthage and Ethiopia. In the Americas, descendants of the African diaspora practice religions such as Voudon in Haiti and New Orleans, Santeria in Cuba, Obeah in Jamaica, Candomble in Brazil and Hoodoo in the southern US.

The Tradition also has a strong presence in the South Pacific. Dreamspeakers amongst the Australian Aborigines wander Uluru and the Australian Outback. They are said to be very wise in the secrets of the Dreamtime. Others served as Kahuna to the Hawaiians, Marquesans and Māori of Polynesia, and preserving arts such as the Hei-tiki, Hula and ta moko. The jungles of the Pacific Islands and Indonesia kept them isolated from the modern world. Even today, they contend with missionaries and tourists by turning to their traditional cultures or forming Cargo Cults.

In Europe and Asia, the Dreamspeakers once drew from ancient Norse, Germanic, Celtic, Pictish and Slavic shamanism. Today they have been pushed to the periphery by the Order of Hermes, Celestial Chorus and Akashic Brotherhood. Still, they can be found amongst certain tribal minorities such as the Sami people of Scandinavia, the Mongols, Koreans, Rrom Gypsies, native Siberians, Bedouin, the Tatars, the Ainu people of Japan, the Hmong and Mien hill tribes, followers of Wektu Telu in Indonesia, the Jakun and Sakai peoples of Malaya, Semang Negritos, tribal Filipinos and Tibetan Bonpo from the Himalayas. In China, the Dreamspeakers tend to be folk shaman from ethnic minorities like the Yi, Jingpo, Mosuo and Nakhi.

Beyond cultural boundaries, the Dreamspeakers divide themselves into loose affiliations sharing common interests and goals. The major Dreamspeaker factions include:

• Balamob

Shape-shifting Mayan jaguar priests who keep alive the bloody ways of ancient Mesoamerica. They have recently been drawn into the Tradition by fellow Native Americans who came to Mexico to study the rites of the Aztecs and Mayans.

• Baruti

Wandering story-tellers, myth-makers and lore-keepers, the Baruti can be traced by to the West African griot but have since spread out across the world. They use story and song to both teach and entertain, passing on their traditions to the modern world. As collectors of legends and histories from many cultures, the Baruti are well respected by the Tradition.

• Bata'a

A secretive network of Voudon cults based out of Haiti and New Orleans. The Bata'a were once one of the largest Crafts, but have since fallen apart and retreated to several Traditions (including the Dreamspeakers, Euthanatos,Verbena and Cult of Ecstasy), seeing their death as but part of a cycle.

• Contraries

Tricksters and sacred clowns, the Contraries cross-dress, speak in opposites and do things backwards as an obligation to the spirits. Through their acts, they both heal the spirits of others and strengthen their ties to the spirit world.

• Four Winds

Reclusive and eccentric shaman who retreat to the spirit worlds, seeking to eventually become spirits themselves. Although powerful, they are also alien by human standards and often begin to reflect the surroundings of their environment.

• Ghost Wheel Society

Originating with the Ghost Dance of the 19th Century, these techno-shaman have learned to speak with the spirits of the modern world - spirits of electricity, metal and plastic. They are cunning and adaptable masters of technology and the urban environment, and have managed to turn the Technocracy's own tools against it.

• Independents

Lone shaman who were trained by spirits and totems rather than fellow humans, the Independents are a unique and varied lot. Many have strange ideas about magic or are insane, while others are intentionally manipulated by their spirit masters.

• Keepers of the Sacred Flame

Believing that all cultures possess their own links to divinity, the Keepers of the Sacred Flame were born out of friendly contact between Spanish missionaries and Native Americans. Today they seek to help preserve traditional cultures from across the world.

• Kopa Loei

An alliance of Hawaiian chieftains, kahuna and sea-farers who seek to preserve the culture and evnironment of the islands. After the Reckoning and the Technocracy's pogrom against smaller Crafts the Kopa Loei joined fellow Polynesians in the Dreamspeakers hoping to preserve their legacy and ties to the land.

• Red Spears Society

Founded after the Creek Wars, these angry young shaman are Native rights activists and eco-terrorists who seek a return of stolen lands and artifacts, cultural identity and the safety of their people and environment. Many are affiliated with AIM, Hawaiian Sovereignty movements, Zapatista or similar groups.

• Sheikha

Tribal Bedouin wise-women who serve as healers, diviners and mediums to the wandering tribes of the Arabian desert. The Sheikha have become concerned in recent years bySaudi Arabia's efforts to force the nomadic tribes to settle down.

• Solitaries

Reclusive medicine men who retreat to the wilderness, abandonning human concerns in favor of pure nature. They commune with spirits of the forest, sea, fire and beasts, often beginning to blur the line between man and nature. Older Solitaries are both confusing and frightening.

• Spirit Smiths

Ancient cultures believed in a strong linke between smithing and shamanism. Today, these young techno-shaman continue that tradition by forging high-tech devices with spirits of bound into them.

• Uzoma

Babalawos of the Yoruba people in Nigeria, the Uzoma serve as mediums, diviners and priests who serve the will of their patron Orisha. Naioba brought them into the Tradition early on, but they were more occupied by political concerns in West Africa until recently.

• Wu Nung

Rebellious young Chinese Wu, transvestite shaman, who broke away from the infernalist Wu-Keng Craft during the Reckoning. The Wu Nung are true shaman who preserve the ancient spirit arts of China, living largely as refugees in Hong Kong, where they hide from their Wu-Keng rivals.

[edit] Dreamspeaker Paradigm

The Dreamspeaker Paradigm is based strongly on Shamanism and Animism. The Dreamspeakers know that everything in the physical world is imbued with a spirit essence - every rock, tree, river, mountain and animal. By going into trance-states of altered consciousness, the Dreamspeakers can communicate with the spirits. As such, much of their magic is based off affecting the spirit world.

Style and foci tend to vary from culture to culture, but common tools include drumming and chanting, feathers, crystals, bones and animal parts, sacred herbs, sandpainting, ordeals, prayers, amulets, fire, sacred elements, dancing and natural hallucinogens such as peyote, ayahausca or psilocybe mushrooms.