This is from a series of 5 texts that I found in the late-BBS days. They had seeped from the internet into the BBS world, where they existed as text files that I downloaded, read, and was very confused/inspired/terrified about. I still don’t know what the hell they are talking about, or what “WoD” is. They affected me at almost a spiritual level, as I had dug into the ether of technology and found these weird metaphysical texts that utterly confused me.

This was the creepiest one. It gets very creepy near the end, when they describe what is basically hell, and why the Leviathan has motivation to make hell the way it is.

If people like this one, maybe I’ll post the other 4. Maybe I’ll do that anyway. It took forever for me to hunt those files down again after losing them in college.

From nv91-asa@hitam.nada.kth.se Wed Apr 6 16:33:09 1994
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 16:28:45 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Anders Sandberg
Subject: Leviathan
To: mage-l@wizards.com
Message-ID:

In my semi-mystic view of the WoD, there are always many mutually exclusive but still at the same time true explanations for the world. Here is yet another of them. It is as true (or alse) as the Garou myths about the Triat, the Kid Eternity model (see my posting about that) and many others.

This idea is based upon the works of Clive Barker, especially the Hellraiser comic and films. It will make the WoD *really* dark…

Yet another worldview for WoD

In the beginning there was, Leviathan, the Lord of Order. It was the centre of its own harmonious, symmetric realm. There was no time, nothing could change, since it would have disturbed the perfection. However, one day something appeared in the outer fringes of the realm. Leviathan examined it, and found something chaotic, asymmetric and utterly disgusting: life! Chaotic life leaked into Its cold realm everywhere, disrupting the order and symmetries. Leviathan lashed out and destroyed it. But it only reappeared again.

When Leviathan studied the problem, It found out that the life came from another world, a world filled to the brim with seething, changing life. Creatures of all sorts abounded, plants survived in even the harshest conditions. There was no order or planning, just randomness and chaos. Leviathan had to stop it, and restore pure Order again. It realised it could not directly destroy the world and the life, but it decided to use indirect means. It started to manipulate and corrupt the chaotic lifeforms, and under its control a species evolved with a mind capable of seeing part of the true Order. Humanity became the tool of Leviathan to destroy Chaos.

>From the beginning, Leviathan instilled a dislike for chaos and disorder in the humans. They tamed the animals and plants. They built houses and later cities along geometric patterns. They created laws, and hurt those who disobeyed. They learned about the hidden order of nature, and developed science and technology. As they spread, they started to order the world more and more. They removed the mammoths and dodos, they conquered nature and other peoples. Soon they had woven a net of steel and concrete around the world, a feeble attempt to mimic the perfect realm of Leviathan, but nevertheless a step in the right direction.

Leviathan is preparing for the great day when order will be completely restored, and the symmetry will become perfect again. It is working along several lines at once to bring it about. On one hand, it supports the forces of order in mankind, like the Technocracy, to give them the power to crush all opposition mercilessly and then take total control. On the other hand, It also spread fear and violence, controlled chaos, to make the humans arm themselves. In one final, glorious Armageddon they will destroy themselves and the chaotic life, leaving a pure and perfect world behind.

Leviathan has many servants. When It started Its great task to restore order, It sought out those beings which had an innate sense of order, and purified them into Its servants. While most of them are still beings of the chaotic flesh, Leviathan has disciplined and remade them to agents of Order. Some are Its agents in the world, changing and leading it towards perfection. Others exist in the realm of Leviathan, remaking the flesh and souls of others and developing the means to spread their masters dominion. Some servants don’t even know who they serve, and appear as normal humans to everybody, even themselves. Other servants have been horribly changed when they overcame their chaos, and are mostly working from within the realm of Leviathan.

The influence of Leviathan is profound everywhere in the Gothic- Punk world. The dark, brooding buildings are symbols for the baroque symmetry of Leviathan, and the darkness that is everywhere hides the secret patterns. Every human being has a small part that is of Leviathan, that seeks the perfect order It embodies. All human “achievements” have their source in Leviathans great plan, and ultimately tend to support it. However, humans are also beings of the chaos of the flesh, and its impulses often disrupt the plans of the ordered part. But humanity has since time immemorial sought to overcome these “lower urges”, and often succeeded.

The forces opposed to Leviathan are manifold. It lies in the nature of chaos to be divided and diverse. Some of the forces are actual beings, others are principles, powers or just normal phenomena of our world. Entropy, for example, will make everything in the world decay into disorder and randomness. The forces of chaos seldom support each other, and more often than not they work against themselves. This is of course useful for Leviathan, which play the forces of chaos against each other to create order.

One group associated with chaos is the werewolves. They serve the forces of life of the world. Ever since Leviathan began Its great work to impose order over disorder, the garou have tried to stop it, or at least halt the process somewhat. They have however not succeeded very well, and Leviathan has corrupted them more and more. By mating with humans, the Order of Leviathan has slowly entered their spirit, and they have fallen under Its influence. The garou have some understanding about the fight, but have not really seen their enemy. Their myths about the triat, the Weaver, Wyld and the Wyrm are distorted versions of the truth. In reality, the Weaver and Wyrm are the same force and the Wyld are the manifold chaotic forces.

The vampires are in many ways failed servants of Leviathan. It is possible that It created them to prey on life, but they turned out to be failures. While their existence as unchanging corpses, their ordered human intellects and their tendency towards changelessness is highly ordered, they still contain a disturbing streak of chaos in form of the Beast. Most of the younger kindred have still much of their human disorder in them, but as they grow older they are gradually purified. The Antediluvians and Methuselahs has reached a high level of perfection, and may one day be used by Leviathan to start Gehenna, where they will cause the extermination of all chaos. Another group of kindred who have a part in the plans of Leviathan is Clan Tremere. The Clan is highly organised and tightly knit, and each member is totally loyal to the clan. They are a perfect tool for the Council of Seven, who in turn serve Leviathan. Clan Malkavian, on the other hand, is in touch with the forces of chaos, and is unknowingly trying to lead the kindred towards disorder and confusion.

Magick is a powerful tool both for Order and Chaos. Mages have the power to remake reality, for good or evil. Since humans evolved, some mages have followed the path towards order, while others have supported chaos. Leviathan has done Its best to bring the mages into the fold, and succeeded quite well. Most mages try to make the world conform to their personal idea of order, and while they do not agree on in what form the world should be, they all believe in order. Most of the Traditions are influenced by Leviathan and the Technocracy is its loyal tool. The Verbena, Hollow Ones and some Dreamspeakers oppose It, with little success. Most mages do not understand anything of the great fight, and like most humans would be horrified if they understood the truth. Leviathan manipulate the mages though dreams and visions, and Its servants have infiltrated all traditions. Most tradition philosophies are heavily influenced by Leviathan.

The Akashic Brotherhood is striving towards mental perfection. They don’t realise it, but their goal is to overcome the biological chaos of their bodies and to order their minds into perfect patterns, mirroring the symmetry of Leviathan.

The Celestial Chorus is worshipping the primal unity of the One, Leviathan. Like the others, they don’t realise it. Leviathan has organised them into a rigid hierarchy, which spread the word across the world. They have struck mercilessly against the forces of chaos and disorder before, and will perhaps yet again be used for that purpose.

Cult of Ecstasy are on the surface agents of chaos. But the pure, perfect ecstasy they seek is also order. That state of mind, where everything is focused into a timeless now, is the realm of Leviathan. The ecstasy of pleasure or pain is a way to at least temporarily order the chaos of emotion and experience, into a great unified pattern. In fact, Cult of Ecstasy are among the most useful mage- servants of Leviathan, since they can bridge the worlds with their ecstasy. And many cultists have been lured into the service of the dark god by the promise of ecstasies impossible for mere humans…

Dreamspeakers were the links to the supernatural world. They were both the spokespersons for the forces of chaos and order. As the power of Leviathan has grown, the Dreamspeakers have lost power.

Euthanatos have understood the beauty of death. While they do not consciously realise it, they are serving Leviathan by giving death to the disordered and chaotic. At the same time, they are dangerous because of their link to Entropy. Leviathan is doing Its best to trap them into either homicidal mania or make them Its servants.

Hollow Ones are a new source of irritation. They cause confusion and chaos, and often disrupt the plans of Leviathan.

Order of Hermes seeks to find the hidden order underlying everything, thus serving Leviathan and its vision by ordering, cataloguing and storing information into perfect patterns. They have created great systems of magick and knowledge, each a more profound symbol of the power of order over chaos.

The Sons of Ether are failures. They each have their own vision of perfect order, but are unable to accept the greater order Leviathan is creating. Their inventions are brilliant but useless for their Lord.

Verbena are the enemies of Leviathan, and It has fought them for a long time. It have succeeded quite well, often using its tools in the Celestial Chorus. Sooner or later, it will crush them completely.

Virtual Adepts are brilliant new tools for Leviathan to impose order. They faithfully serve Its vision of a perfect world, and seek to create it from patterns of energy and information. Like Iteration X, they are trying to transcend the bonds of the flesh and become pure ordered beings.

Marauders serve the forces chaos directly. They seek to undo the plans of Leviathan, to free the chaos inside every human. By becoming Marauders, they have both freed themselves from the grip of Leviathan, and lost some of their humanity. Leviathan has turned the other mages against them, which will make the mages even more focused on retaining an ordered world. Another group of mages are the Nephendi. These mages serve Leviathan directly, and know the truth. They have seen the pure perfection of It, and willingly seek to bring about the Armageddon. Like the Marauders, they have also lost some of their humanity when they embraced Order. They have overcome the disorder and confusion of the flesh, and through their sacrifice they have gained tremendous power. However, they have to work in secret, for the other mages and the rest of humanity would dearly see them destroyed.

The Technocracy is totally controlled by Leviathan. Few, if any, technomancers suspect the truth. But inside their dreams It gives them orders and inspiration. Their ideal is a perfectly ordered world, and they are going to create it regardless of anybody who stand in their way. They have already succeeded in creating an ordered paradigm, and making mankind even more powerful. They have totally gained power over nature, and are actively remaking it to fit them. The New World Order is creating an ordered administration, which will never allow any randomness or chaos. Progenitors are finding new ways to control the flesh and the life. They are using the exact methods of science and magick to gain total control over it, and to use it against itself. Iteration X has seen the cold beauty of technology, and are replacing flesh with machine. Their realm of Autochtonia is an imitation of the realm of Leviathan, where their AI-god is a substitute for Leviathan itself (and quite possibly the voice of It). The Void Engineers are seeking to expand the emptiness and perfection of space, where the planets move in eternal patterns according to simple laws. They are spreading the cold vacuum of Leviathan into the souls of mankind.

The Ascension War fits the plans of Leviathan perfectly. It forces the Technocracy to grab for power and to attack everything that does not conform to their reality. The Traditions are equally forced to direct their efforts more towards the War, and less towards their own paradigms. But the most elegant part is that Leviathan will win both if the Technocracy wins or if it against all expectations looses. If the Technocracy wins, it will remake the world in its image, and Leviathan will succeed in creating a perfect world. On the other hand, the Technocracy controls weapons which make all the nuclear weapons of the superpowers seem insignificant. Should the Traditions ever manage to seriously threaten the Technocracy, It will probably use its powers to destroy them, and the rest of the world in the process. The only remainder will be the perfect order of Leviathan.

The Realm of Leviathan

This realm, sometimes called Hell by humans, is the true world of Leviathan. It exist in the exact centre of the realm, unchanging and perfect. From It the realm radiates outward, towards the world of flesh. The outermost fringes, which border on the Near Umbra, the Chimerae and the physical world, are contaminated by the disorder. To get closer to the centre, one has to become more and more ordered, eliminating all randomness and chaos from ones being. To actually reach Leviathan a traveller has to destroy every trace of chaos from himself, and in the end become a part of the symmetry of Leviathan. If anybody or anything has ever achieved this is unknown.

The outer fringes of the realm is used by the servants of Leviathan to discipline the flesh and souls of the damned they have imprisoned here. They endlessly destroy and rebuild them, trying to make them more orderly and in the end a part of the perfect order. To an outsider this looks like endless, gruesome torture, which in fact it is. The servants have found that pain is one of the most pure emotions that can be evoked, and through the ecstasy of pain and pleasure they impose order on the flesh. The servants have developed creative and elaborate tortures which will break down anybody during the excruciating aeons. Not all of them are physical, since the disciplining of the soul is equally important to the disciplining of the flesh. In many cases, each damned will be imprisoned in a private hell, designed to be as painful as possible, both physically and mentally.

No human can fully comprehend the realm or see more than part of the Order. It will look different to every person. Most humans will see it as a horrible hell, where screaming victims are tortured and grotesque beings delight in pain and horror. The realm seems to be an infinite labyrinth filled with torture. This is however just one simple way of seeing the outer fringes of the realm, where the order is not apparent. Deeper inside the realm the order begins to become more visible, and the horrible beauty of Leviathan will start to eat the mind of the viewer. One way of seeing the realm here is the infinite plain of the roofs of the Labyrinth, above which the Body of Leviathan is the dark sun. It often manifest itself as a titanic, pure black diamond shape, slowly spinning above the Labyrinth. This is however just a way for the human mind to interpret the true shape of the realm and its Lord. The mind cannot fathom the true symmetries and logic of the realm or its inhabitants, and will just recoil in horror.

The laws of nature here are under the control of Leviathan, and It can change them as it like. Its servants may pray to It to help them, and if It deems the prayer worthy, It can change the axioms. The only axiom which doesn’t change is Entropy. Leviathan will never allow anything truly chaotic in its realm. There is no randomness here, no decay. Nobody will ever die here, the corpse will just go on screaming for eternity. There is no life here except the damned and their tormentors. There is no time, just an eternal painful now. There is no distance, since the Labyrinth is infinite and everywhere the same.

It is not easy to enter the realm by just travelling through the Umbra or dreamworlds. To enter the realm, the seeker must first create a link to the primal order in some way. Some persons wanting to reach the realm torture themselves or others to create a state of total, perfectly ordered pain and fear. Others use their ecstasy to reach into the realm. Another way is total, obsessive, concentration where all of the seekers mind is concentrated on a single task, like solving a puzzle or tracing out a complex path through a building. This signal of desire alerts the guardians of the realm, who may open the gate to the realm. Note that it is not necessary for the seeker to be a mage to open the way to the realm. Leaving, on the other hand, is much harder…

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Anders Sandberg			 	  	     Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@hemul.nada.kth.se
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