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Heritage Ascendancy Effect for Adherents: You have a +TN of 1 in all offense rolls (melee, ranged, and social).

“All within the State. Nothing may remain without. Nothing may stand against.” -Iordanes XII

    The Heritage Ascendancy was formulated just before the Alacrian Golden Age, in reaction to the climate refugee crisis and the disruptive threat of Vanguard Rationalism. According to Vanguardists, the Ascendancy continues to arise whenever the rich and powerful fear a loss of their status; Ascendants themselves persevere in the conviction that their philosophy is the only way to end the constant peril faced by Lur-Asko civilization.

    In contrast even to other orderly philosophies, the Ascendancy does not view its methods as a means of helping or reforming individuals; rather it views individuals as properly subsumed to the State as a supreme end. Ascendants emphasize personal responsibility, but only as a means of making oneself a good citizen who contributes to the State. The claim is that one should never attempt to criticize or reform society until one has brought orderly habits to one's own life; done properly, this should itself result in an acceptance of one's traditional role, effectively rendering the ruling classes immune to criticism. Ascendants reject the "chaos of brutish nature," and look to solve it via a competing natural reality: hierarchy. They believe that a strong, multi-tiered hierarchy is the best means of protecting a society from internal collapse or external assault.

    Ascendants are loathe to alter too many of a society's established traditions and values, unless those are themselves "disordered" by radical ideas. Thus the "Heritage" portion of the philosophy has looked different depending on the culture in which it's found. The original Alacris version of Ascendancy attempted to ally with that species' now-extinct religions. Today, Ascendants tend to reject Rationalism as disordered and latch onto various realms' subcultures. Notably, Cevelky has been the only lasting incarnation of Ascendancy that does not include significant elements of species supremacy. Even more universal is the protection of existing economic realities. This has made the movement a natural ally of wealthy individuals and companies, who are generally incorporated into the state apparatus wherever Ascendancy succeeds.

    Ascendancy dominated Lur-Asko during the reign of the Magi, as well as the later Imperial Era. Currently, it is tremendously unpopular outside of Cevelky and distant Wynthia; although the Knights of Order are largely Ascendant, the tendency of Preamblianism to attract Lur-Asko's wealthy benefactors has cut the movement off from its historical lifeblood. However, the troubling rise of the Opened Hand has actually given Ascendants the hope that Lur-Asko will turn to them once again in fear, and bring about the return of the empires which Heritage once dominated.

Subschools Magi Effect for Adherents: You gain a bonus of 1 to either STR, DEX, CON, SPD or INT. You may move this bonus to a different one of these stats during any 4-hour rest.

“We are nothing but what we do repeatedly. Excellence is not a choice, but a habit.” -Samuel the Purifier

    Before their ultimate destruction at the hands of the Aterr, the elven ruler-arcanists called the Magi promoted a unique and arguably more thoughtful variant of Ascendancy. They emphasized the personal-responsibility and habit-forming aspects of the philosophy, even and especially for those in leadership; it did not escape them that Alacrian Ascendancy had often embraced leaders who saw the philosophy as a tool of control rather than truly adhering to it themselves. Had the Alacrian leaders held themselves to a higher standard instead of a lower one, the Magi believed that Ascendant society could have resisted Eer'Kalla's influence.

    Rejecting the baseline Ascendant belief about the "chaos of brutish nature," Magi believe that all sentients are naturally moral and good; chaos comes from evil or radical influences in their environment and society, creating suffering and disorder. Since sentients are also held to be creatures of habit above all else, the answer is to control one’s environment and pursue a rigorous course of good, moral actions. These actions would eventually return people's thinking to its natural virtuous state. Followers of the Magi ideology pursue a highly regimented life marked by extensive personal rules, as well as disciplines such as meditation and service. Theoretically, this prepares them to justly enforce similar standards on others. The ultimate goal is not a State that stands against nature, but against all that is disorder; while Magi often had a less extreme and hateful aesthetic than other Ascendants, their State was no more averse to war.

    While other legalistic philosophies tend to portray "good" in terms of unchangeable ideals, Magi rulers regularly changed their teachings and disciplines based on empirical research of what was necessary to produce a certain practical behavior in a given population. Even modern adherents may regularly change their methods from season to season. Today's adherents are typically found in their own small communities, and those seen out on their own tend to still be very conscientious about who they accept as traveling partners.

    Critics of Magi philosophy often view it as attempting to bastardize Ascendancy using the worst parts of Third Era Rationalism: painting sentient beings as mere soulless cogs in a machine, then abusing them accordingly. Some critics "voice" their arguments differently, such as the Aterr, who continue directly exterminating Magi sects wherever they can find them. Magi counter their historical defeats by asserting that might does not make right, and against verbal opponents they tend to prefer to let their noble actions speak for themselves.

Cevelkian Replacement Effect: You have a +TN of 1 in social endurance rolls. Your trauma factor is increased by 2.

    The Cevelkian version of Ascendancy is a means of control, inculcated into the population by the Vampire Lords who do not believe a word of it. To conceal this fact from the people, the nobility incorporated a strain of anti-intellectualism exceeding even the normal amount found within Ascendancy. In Cevelky, Ascendancy is not viewed as a philosophy; "philosophy" is a dirty word applied to the beliefs of the rest of Lur-Asko, and the people's own beliefs are simply "the way things really are." Cevelkian Ascendancy empowers the people to fill their roles in an authoritarian society, while also using a bit of imported Nihilism to neutralize any thoughts of changing the world or looking for a greater purpose than their nation.

    Despite the scorn heaped upon the subschool by the rest of the world, Cevelkian Ascendancy has managed to "dragon-proof" the society, at least to some degree. Even the ways of nearby Eer'Kalla still have some greater non-nationalistic purpose in mind, and are therefore rejected by even the impoverished masses. More subtle means of corruption are combated by equally subtle agents of the Vampire Lords, while even speaking kindly of the other ideologies of Lur-Asko is punishable as "sedition." Those Cevelkians who manage to leave their realm generally find their way out of this philosophy, though some who are sufficiently indoctrinated and planning to return manage to "stay strong."