Once upon a time, goes this paradigm, everything was perfect. God or the Gods reigned in glory, and people held a valued, though submissive, place in this Earthly paradise.

And then something broke it. Maybe that catastrophe involved disobedient human beings, rebellious gods or angels, an invasion of savage horse nomads, or some other upheaval that signaled an end to the Golden Age and the beginning of an era of misery. It’s an archetypal story that echoes from monotheistic scriptures to neopagan lore. We had a good thing once, it goes, and we lost it – so it’s up to us to win it back!

Magick or Enlightenment, in this system, comes from your connection to that Golden Age, its ideals, its ancient wisdom, and the power it once had and will have again. This belief finds its way into the Tradition stories about life before Technocratic rule… and also into the ideals of New Avalon, which are held by certain Technocrats. It provides the foundation for the Akashic Arts, which recall a lost sense of human perfection. In a warped sort of way, it even shapes a Nephandic point of view, wherein Primal Chaos was usurped by Light and so everything must be returned to the Dark before the proper order is restored.