>Hey, the street sam I've been working with has been bugging me about something he read in that "Threats" download a while back. He's terrified of Scotland, churches and nearly all mages except me because he read that this "Black Lodge" teleported their victim from one place to another. I've tried telling him that magic just doesn't work that way, but hey, I'm a street mage so maybe some of you bookworms know something I don't. Can anyone help me?
>[email protected]

>Just manabolt the dolt.
>EDN

>That's helpful. You're right Roland, magic doesn't work that way. At least not how we understand how magic works in the Sixth World. Thing is, we just didn't suddenly invent all these rituals *poof* in 2011 when the magic came back.

Some places, or rather, some organizations, have been practicing rituals that are hundreds, maybe even thousands of years old. These rituals may not have ever done anything before the Awakening, but some of them seem to be doing something now. This could allow for a number of strange things I've seen or heard about over the years. Just maybe.
>[email protected]

>Come on. If that was the case, then how come some of the Wiccans and pagans, who claim to have rituals thousands of years old, can't do weird things like supposedly the Black Lodge or the Triads can?
>[email protected].

>In some cases they do have information that dates as far back as they claim. Problem is, 99% of all the "old" rituals you hear about are really mixes or alterations of rituals. Modern elemental summoning, for example, is a mix of a number of hermetic traditions. It isn't as "pure" a ritual.

I also hasten to add that not every ritual has magical power. Most of them don't seem to in fact. But there seem to be a few out there that just shows how little we really know about the Awakened world.
>[email protected]

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(game info) Ancient Rituals

While magic has only recently become easily possible with the Awakening, magic and the belief in magic is as old as mankind itself. While scholars debate whether or not pre-Awakening magicians were actually manipulating mana, the fact remains that some of those rituals have survived unchanged for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

These rituals are closely guarded secrets, controlled by such secretive organizations as the Black Lodge, the Priory of Sion and even some of the Chinese Triads. The magics of Amazonia and the two Tirs may fall into this category as well. These organizations demand total obedience, thus preventing any shadowrunner from ever becoming a member. No one betrays these sort of groups. Or at least no one that lives to tell about it.

So what can these ancient rituals do? They can be anything from a lower drain formula version of a commonly known spell to rituals that allow theoretically impossible effects like teleportation, depending on what the GM decides is appropriate for the power level in his own campaign. Essentially, these "ancient magics" should be used as a plot device by the GM, or to unsettle old pro's that think they know everything about magic. Never should these powerful rituals be used to destroy players, nor should they fall into the hands of enterprising players.

It should also be noted that these are rituals, requiring a much greater time to cast the spell than is normal for the Sixth World. These rituals could be as simple as reading aloud several pages of incantations perfectly from a massive tome to days long rituals requiring thousands of nuyen in materials.

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