D.V. Agina: Modern Rage Mages

“An angry man no can stand/have idle/empty hands,”

That is the rough translation of the proverb tattooed in ancient symbols on Dante’s forearm. Dante’s hands felt empty even though they held the slim 30 year old tome that is his grade school annual. With calloused experienced meaty fingers he opened to the worn and rippled images of page 42. Dante’s eyes ignored the rows and rows of postage stamp pictures and found only the by-line image of an 8 year-old boy bobbing for apples. The caption read “Alexzander Ivanovich celebrates the harvest.” A thin stream of air whistled out of Dante’s nostrils and he mouthed the words “Alexzander Ivanovich”. He turned the name over and over in his mind while he kept his eyes locked on the old grainy image. “It was a common error Alexzander, IT WAS A COMMON ERROR, AND STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!” and with that he hurled the slim annual against a bookshelf disturbing the room’s only other occupant. The ghost of Carlos Sepleture, exited the bookshelf and his translucent form crossed the room passing through Dante’s desk knocking an ash tray on to the floor and freezing the contents of Dante’s coffee mug. Dante spat a stream of profanity at the ghost as it reclined on a leather couch and disappeared. Still cursing the damned, Dante pulled out his straight back wooden desk chair and sat down in front of his computer to look up Alexzander Ivanovich’s current address. He was greeted by progress bar which had been indicated that his digital slide show was 68% downloaded and would be completed downloading in 17….no 18…..no 32 minutes. “DAMN IT” he yelled placing his fists on the marble desk.

Dante Valdimorich Agina was on the 36^th floor of Sepleture Tower in the ancient city of Corban. The Sepleture was the only modern high rise in Corban and was universally hated by everyone that loved Corban for retaining its post-imperial architecture. The city had looked just as it had from the time of the post-Belligerus reconstruction until Sepleture build this steel and glass monster on the site of the old coliseum. Dante had hated the tower also that is why he killed Sepleture and married Sepleture’s daughter. He had intended to tear it down, but now that he owned the tower, he found that he really didn’t care any more.

Mr. Agina is one of the Rage Mages and president of the Column Party. The Column Party is a political action group/self help program that teaches men how to harness their anger as means of self-empowerment. The party had grown to over 4 million members, with 100,000 in Corban alone. Of course most these members were not Rage Mages, but rather just angry men. Dante Agina was the founder of the party, principle owner of all its intellectual property and its highest paid employee. Selling Rage Mage philosophy to the masses had made Dante rich.

Dante turned away from his desk and walked over to the floor to ceiling windows of his large office. He placed his sweaty warm palms on the cool panes of glass and looked out at the lights of the ancient city. It was few minutes before dawn, and the sky had begun to lighten exposing the shapes of the old stone building. The city was colorless in the predawn light except for the break lights of various self propelled carriages moving the drones to work. He closed his eyes, thought of his wife’s comments regarding his personal hygiene and cast a spell. He used the energy behind his rage to push his consciousness down to the 5^th floor-meeting hall. There his audience waited, and had been waiting for over half an hour. He could feel their anger, their blossoming hate and most of all, their helplessness. They were ready to hear what he had to say, and he looked around the room to prepare himself. The computer said 68.1% complete, the contents of his ashtray was all over his carpet, his coffee was frozen and he wanted cigarette badly. It was good day to stop smoking again. He looked at the clock; it was 6:33 am. He smiled broadly, “Best go without slides,” he said to the possessed sofa along the wall. He took a moment to harness his wonderful anger, smiled briefly, blew up the computer with a combustion spell and walked to his private elevator. “See you in a few hours Carlos” Dante said as the elevator doors closed.

A few moments later he was in front of a crowd: mostly men, many were sweaty, many more scowling and all appeared restless. Dante began to speak with a soft smile and easy pace

“Anger is a feeling of helplessness. This not open to debate because it is a fact, you get angry when you are helpless and that anger gives you power to protect yourself and right wrongs. Herein lies the paradox, if anger is a result of helplessness or powerlessness and anger makes you powerful, how do you stay angry? The answer is simple, you work at it. I know that is strange concept for most of the liberals out in the city, but we here understand that everything worth having must be worked at. At today’s seminar we will provide you all with strategies for feeling helpless and staying angry. Because don’t worry there is always something to be angry about”

Dante paused and used his magic to scry his bank account balance, "The Bishop has deposited the money!" Dante said inwardly

“For example, did you know that today, right now thousands of heathen immigrants are entering our city, taking our jobs and building foreign temples on the our ground!”

D.V. Agina’s Rage-Mage Seminar

6:00-9:00: Opening Talk: STAYING ANGRY by D.V. Angina

5^th floor Lecture Hall

9:00-11:00: Keynote Address: The Path of Belligerus by A.G. Scottsman

5^th Floor Lecture Hall

11:00-12:00: Cigarette and Coffee Break

12:00-13:00: Optional Classes

Complicating Your Life: A guide to making each day into a tortuous affair

5^th Floor Lecture Hall

True Ki Energy: Knowing the difference between true power and an adrenalin rush

6^th Floor Conference Room

Speed Dating: Meet angry women

Ground Floor at the SolarDollar Coffee Shop

Principles of Hand-to-Hand Combat:

Roof

Mobile Telephones

Ground Floor Lobby

People Who Disagree With You: Tactics for communicating your disgust

7^th Floor Conference Room

13:00-17:00 Vendor Exhibits

Ground Floor Lobby

18:00 Using Telepathy to Enjoy the Pain of Others

5^th Floor Lecture Hall: RESTRICTED TO INDUCTED NEOPHYTES AND ABOVE

Overview and GM info:

Born in some now defunct ice locked nation Dante moved to Corban when he was a child. He was picked on in school for his strange name and odd accent. Today D.V. Agina is Ascetic level Rage-Mage, but more than that he is a major political player in the city of Corban. Even though he holds no elected office his Column Party is a very powerful special interest group. In addition to leading the group Dante is also the face of this group. He is a tall handsome man with a slim but impressive physique and the pale features of somebody from cold weather cline stock. Outwardly he is soft spoken and often seems disinterested in other people or their opinion, however in private he unleashes torrents of rage upon everything that mildly annoys him. His wife is s wealthy southlander who does not know that D.V. Agina killed her father (or that her father haunts Dante’s office). She appreciates Dante’s for his wealth and social status.

Dante and his party have many enemies in and around Corban; they are most directly opposed by the Stoics. The Stoics are a very small and elitist philosophical and arcane arts society directly descended from the Mages of the Corbanian Imperium. They champion an unemotional lifestyle and political structure that does not revolve around personality cults or personal emotions. To this end they despise democracy and wish to return a less representative form of government. They also consider themselves to be true Corbanian stock, and they consider Dante to be a threat to their ideals Dante because of his heritage. Dante’s late father-in-law was the legitimate face of the major crime syndicate, this organization goes back centuries and is made up of the descendant of the slave trading dynasties from Belligerus’s time. The syndicate does not know that Dante killed Carlos, but they do feel that by owning The Sepleture and by controlling Carlos’s wealth he has something that is rightfully theirs. They are not even sure of Sepleture’s fate, because they have been unable to make contact with his spirit. Usually this mean somebody is still alive, but in this case Dante has used his magic to imprison Carlos’s spirit in his office. Of course they do business with Dante, but they also constantly looking for an opportunity to topple him. Whatever the syndicate’s eventual action, it will always put business and profit first. Finally Dante is opposed by other Rage-Mages not associated with his party. Most Rage-Mages surveyed will say they cannot stand what he is doing and they hate that he has been successful at selling the Rage-Mage lifestyle to the masses.

Dante’s political weight is for sale and the PCs interaction could revolve around bribe or manipulations on that front. Dante may also make interesting Mr. Johnson for a Shadowrun campaign and of course political leaders are always targets for assassination. It could also be that the ghost in his office is the PC target and Dante and his mages are just an obstacle. I have tried to write Dante as a man on the edge of a downfall.