Everything

Sworn oaths are powerful things, especially when magick is involved. And yet, you have broken your vow – not a simple promise, but an oath of serious significance. “I’m sorry” won’t cut it here; you need serious atonement in order to make things right, and until that point, anyone who can read auras or listen to gossip within the proper circles will know you for the faithless swine you are.

A story-based Flaw, Oathbreaker marks your character out as someone who is not to be trusted. People who place great value in honor will shun her, and others will exploit what they consider her generally dishonorable nature. Beyond that, other characters may be hunting her, with the intention of exacting penance or revenge… maybe both! Resonance, Paradox, Seek­ ings, and Quiet will reflect the metaphysical dimensions of this

broken vow. Your Seekings may involve literal guilt-trips in which you’re confronted with the potential (or real) consequences of your violated promise; your Resonance remains tainted by the presence of dishonor; Paradox will assume appropriately ironic forms, like visitations from the entity called Judgment in Mage 20, Appendix I; and should you fall into Quiet, there’ll be no place to hide from the transgression you’ve committed. In short, then, you’re screwed for reasons that are very likely your own fault.

(Tragic stories, of course, revolve around people who broke vows without meaning to do so, or who were put into no-win situations regarding promises that could not possibly have been kept. The universe, however, can be implacable and uncaring in such matters. “Fair,” among Awakened folk, is not a common word!)

Some sort of penance should be available to an oath-break­ ing character. She might not know what that atonement is, though, and the quest for such rectification could be the seed for powerful stories (cf. the tragedy of Oedipus Rex). Atonement is rarely a pleasant matter (again, see Oedipus), but the successful performance of such rituals should erase this Flaw… at least until you make and break another promise, that is.

For a related Flaw, see Faithless, below. To see potential consequences of oath-breaking, check out the genre entry for

Tragedy in Chapter Five’s section Genre, Storytelling, and Mage, pp. 285-286.