{"id":"mage/faction/tradition/the-verbena","type":"faction","system":"tradition","line":"mage","name":"The Verbena","sources":[{"source":"M20","page":163}],"entries":["{@sphere Life|M20} is shit and piss and blood. Pain and pleasure are inevitable birthrights. Our spirits are not some transcendent separate thing but are instead the raw vitality of {@sphere Life|M20} itself. Drawing from among the oldest mystic understandings, the Verbena Tradition views life as a wondrous, implacable cycle – a dance of elements in which a mage calls tunes but cannot herself resist the dance. This view scares the living hell out of most folks, and that’s just how many Verbena like it. If you can’t hang with the truth, they figure, just get the fuck out of the way!","Like the herb for which they’re named, the Verbena (or, more correctly, Verbenae) excel at healing, divination, and purgation. No other Tradition understands {@sphere Life|M20} magicks the way they do. Masters of shape-changing, animal affinities, plant craft, and weather work, Verbenae stay close to Nature in her truest forms… and some of those forms can be bloody indeed. Although it’s rare, the Verbenae have been known to practice animal and human sacrifice. More often, they carve runes in their own skins, endure hideous ordeals, subject themselves to painful deprivations, and perform other acts of self-sacrifice in order to avoid harming other beings. Every Verbena grove has a World Tree, the living symbol of Creation as a whole. These trees have been stained red by the rituals performed in those groves; the darker the red, the more powerful the grove.","Although the Tradition itself formed in the 1400s, Verbena roots run far deeper. Like many mystic societies, these mages trace their origins to primal humanity’s beginnings… and in their case, they’re probably correct. The primordial Wyck, they say, embodied the first fusions of spirit, mind, and flesh. Essentially gods, they soon guided the first human beings toward wisdom and magick. The Old Ways, say these traditionalists, are the inheritance left by those entities, and the Verbenae – and perhaps the Dreamspeakers – are its truest heirs.","These Old Ways are, by most standards, harsh. Blood, sex, passion in its rawest forms – these are the tools most Verbenae prefer. Cold iron, worked wood, fires kindled with your bare hands, natural clothing, organic foods… the simpler it is, the more powerful its effects. Although some Verbenae make concessions to the modern world – cars, guns, perhaps a favorite TV show or two – this Tradition, by and large, remains stubbornly archaic. And though they can be compassionate in their way, Verbenae have no time or patience for weakness. To them, the comforts of a technological world breed sickness and laziness. “Until you spend a month,” they’ll tell you, “in the wild with nothing but the clothes on your back… or better yet, without them… you don’t know jack shit about reality.”","Everything is intertwined. To understand","your tears is to understand the sky.","Stereotypes","The Technocracy: Plain and simple, they’re a disease.","The Disparate: In the new Burning Times, I’m afraid they’ve been consumed.","to work in groups. Women probably outnumber men overall, and they’re granted more respect here than in most other groups. Many female mages gravitate toward this Tradition for that reason. Two leaders (taking priest and priestess roles although both might be male, female, or transgender) govern the larger covens, with a single witch in charge of three-person groups. Covens tend to favor older members over younger ones, and old-school covens can be quite autocratic. Although disputes often get resolved through votes, those votes might involve ordeals, tests, or combat.","This Tradition respects strong bloodlines. And so, whenever possible, Verbena covens follow family lineage. Each coven has a grove, though that grove might be a garden in the leader’s back yard. Large meetings occur eight times a year, during the two equinoxes, the two solstices, and on Imbolc (Feb. 2), Beltane (May 1), Lammas (Aug. 1), and Samhain (Oct. 31). Plenty of Verbenae also gather at Christmas (Dec. 25) and on July 1, especially as shifts of climate and culture blur the distinction between Nature’s seasonal cycles.","Initiation: Verbena newcomers undergo a ritual death and rebirth. An intense period of study, testing, and meditation climaxes in a distressing ordeal – sometimes illusionary, often real. If and when the coven members are satisfied with the initiate’s trustworthiness and dedication, they call the elements as witnesses. As they were during the Burning Times, most Verbenae remain loyal unto death.","To all Verbenae, {@focus_practice Creation Is Innately Divine and Alive|M20}. Because Creation, life, and divinity aren’t particularly nice, other common Verbena paradigms include {@focus_practice A World of Gods and Monsters|M20}, {@focus_practice Might is Right|M20}, Bring Back the Golden Age, and {@focus_practice Everything is Chaos – you only think it makes sense|M20}. {@focus_practice Witchcraft|M20} is the group’s core practice, with certain individuals favoring {@focus_practice Voudoun|M20}, {@focus_practice Dominion|M20|dominion}, {@focus_practice Weird Science|M20|weird science}, {@focus_practice Chaos Magick|M20|chaos magick}, yoga, {@focus_practice Martial Arts|M20|martial arts}, High Ritual, {@focus_practice Cybernetics|M20|cybernetics}, the Art of Desire, {@focus_practice Craftwork|M20|craftwork}, {@focus_practice Medicine Work|M20|medicine-work}, and even organic {@focus_practice Hypertech|M20|hypertech}."],"section_id":"M20-0153","organization":"Covens – often numbering 13, nine, seven, or three – make up this group’s foundation. Solitary Verbenae exist, but most members of this Tradition prefer","mage":{"affinity_spheres":["Life","Forces. Focus: Verbena Arts concentrate on doing a lot with very little. Their tools are practical as well as symbolic","with uses that reach back to antiquity. “Pagan” in every sense of that word","these magicks hold deep ties to Nature. Shape-changing","transformation","healing","injury","divination","purification","growth","withering","natural cycles","the tricky ways of Fate are witch-folk specialties."]},"_qa":{"flags":["no_nickname"],"parser":"section_entries","confidence":0.9,"extracted":"2026-10-12","job":"m20-traditions"},"faction_type":"tradition","_links":{"self":"/api/v1/records/mage/faction/tradition/the-verbena","html":"/records/mage/faction/tradition/the-verbena","parent":null,"children":"/api/v1/records/mage/faction/tradition/the-verbena/children","sources":[{"abbr":"M20","page":163,"folio":163,"title":"Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition"}]},"_db":{"title":"Verbena","props":[],"parent_id":null,"level":null,"category":null,"summary":"Life is shit and piss and blood. Pain and pleasure are inevitable birthrights. Our spirits are not some transcendent separate thing but are instead the raw vitality of Life itself. Drawing from among the oldest mystic","tags":[],"children":[]}}