Wiki Showcase: the Path of the Mystical Tyrant Revisited

The last of the original Paths of Dark Communion that I created was the Path of Mystical Tyrant.  This is likely the most famous Path of Dark Communion, perhaps the most famous Path of all of Communion, given that it serves as the basis of the setting's "Sith," the culists of the Mystical Tyrant.  You can see the revised version here.

Walking the Path of the Tyrant

As with most of the original paths, this one draws its inspiration from "the Magic of Stories" by Kelly Pedersen, in Pyramid #3/13, in this case, the Dark Sorcerer archetype.  The entire path has powerful, occult connotations, but I introduced the idea of governance as a key component.

The archetype is obviously "evil" for the same reasons that the "Dark Sorceror" is "evil:" the archetype turns on making use of powers that violate the "natural order" to achieve some great ambition.  If the sin of the Beautiful Fool is lust, and the sin of the Rebellious Beast is wrath, then the sin of the Mystical Tyrant is Pride: he arrogantly believes he can defy the natural order and impose his own order.  This is what makes him a tyrant.  He is not just some wizard who wants to experiment with chaos and risks the cosmic order in so doing, he intends to rewrite the cosmic order.  He wishes to be God.

I think we can see this archetype repeated throughout stories and history.  The dark sorcerer doesn't just play with magic for the fun of it, nor does Lex Luthor mess with mad science because he's curious, though they likely enjoy doing such.  They do so to advance their ambitions.  And those ambitions typically involve a sweeping re-ordering of the world.  This makes this also the path of the radical political activist, whether it's a communist who has become disenchanted with capitalistic economics and seeks to rewrite the "natural order" of economics, or the republican who seeks to overthrow the monarchical order and rewrite what we understand government to be.  I gave them the epithet "the Futurist" for a reason, and they're a pretty good example of how, maybe, Dark Communion isn't evil: yes, you must have a certain arrogance to believe that you can rewrite the natural order, and most people who believe this are fools who wreak terrible destruction, but sometimes they are right and the world is better for their vision.

This explains the "tyrant" part of their name, but let us return to their mysticism.  This naturally has to do with their "unnatural powers," their magic and their strange sciences with which they rewrite the nature of the world. But I was also inspired by fragments of a book I read, which I'd very much like to get in total at some point, which discussed "spirit possession" as a tool our ancestors would often use.  GURPS Low Tech Companion 1 touches on this a bit with the Technicians of the Sacred.  The theory goes that "God Kings" of the ancient past weren't entirely metaphorical, nor attempts to justify their power by co-opting religion.  Instead, it suggests, just as oracles or holy men sought to enter an altered mental state to achieve a sort of transcendent judgment, so too did the "God Kings" of various Bronze Age states: with the help of their priests, they "got high" and used this higher mental state when passing judgments upon people. "Mysticism" is the pursuit of the transcendent via altered mental states, and thus the Mystical Tyrant is this sort of God-King: someone who uses their connection to Communion to rule over society.

I should note that the name keeps changing.  "Mystic" is properly a noun, which means it should really be hyphenated if I keep using it that way: the Path of the Mystic-Tyrant or Tyrant-Mystic.  But usually I've gone with "The Path of the Adjective Noun," so it should properly be Mystical Tyrant.  Let's see if I can stick to it without changing my mind.

The Path has rather few unique miracles, and this is intentional.  Most of the powers of the Mystical Tyrant tend to be fairly flexible, and the idea is that he seeks to collect strange powers and to use others.  Those who follow the Path of the Mystical Tyrant usually end up tapping into the Cult itself, where they begin to explore Transcendent Principles, which perhaps is something I should discuss in the Path itself, but it's possible that someone would follow the path without exploring the principles. In any case, these principles represent the "imposed new reality" concept of the Mystical Tyrant.

Most of the milestones and symbolism of the Mystical Tyrant derives from the typical story of super-villains and usurpers, which tend to remain the same throughout history.  We've always been a little worried and excited by the radicalist who infiltrates our halls of power and then, after acruing sufficient power, begins to law down edicts as though he believes himself to be God.  Sometimes, we topple these arrogant god-kings, but sometimes they usher in a new age.

I don't always talk about gender and naming because I expect by now you understand that just because I use a particular pronoun for a path that it doesn't mean that someone from a different gender can't use it, but the Mystical Tyrant, in particular, cares naught for your labels.  They transcend norms, so while the Cult of the Mystical Tyrant might be a bit patriarchal, those who follow the Path often discard whatever traditions they don't agree with. Thus, not only might a woman who seeks to cast down patriarchy follow the Path of the Mystical Tyrant, so might a Mystical Hermaphrodite who seeks to overthrow the very concepts of gender and how it relates to society.  The Path is an excellent place for those who reject the labels placed upon them by society and seek to rewrite those labels and the social contracts imposed by tradition.