Attributes
Was it worth it to change the world?
It must’ve seemed to someone men needed the fire. Man, the naked animal, existed in the mercy of a cold, predatory world for which others seemed better suited. Huddling together in caves for protection from cold and beasts, forever skittering and scuttling along the forest floor in a desperate search for transient sources of food. Unable to assert control of even their most immediate environment, a helpless reactor to the universe’s blows.
Then came the fire. With fire, man no longer needed fear darkness. It no longer feared winter’s cold. Man drove the great beasts before it and tamed them to its will, smoked meat and baked bread so it no longer needed to forever scrounge for seeds, and baked bricks to build itself homes. From fire came houses, then temples, then palaces. Fire not only enabled mankind’s survival before the uncaring cosmos: it set it on the course to dominion over the very natural world that once terrorized it.
But then, with the village and houses and temples and nations and plentiful bread, there came war. The same fire which baked the bricks could just as well hone the spearpoints. The torch that kept away the bear could set fire to the enemy. With cities there came polluted rivers, epidemics, and mass starvation on unprecedented scales. With social hierarchies came tyrants; with wealth came crime, with wisdom came the woes of overthinking.
Knowledge is a brightly burning fire: it illuminates the darkness, and, once unleashed, consumes its source to ashes.
The Fire-Thief is the tormented protagonist of one of mankind’s most ubiquitous monomyths. It is a testament to the Archetype’s intrinsicness to the human condition that it is so recognizable despite its great specificity: the Fire-Thief gives mankind something which changes the course of history. To do so, they transgress against the accepted order of nature. They challenge the gods, the accepted theories, the doubts of their conservative peers. They do so with best of intentions – a combination of personal ambition, defiance of the existing dogma, and a desire to create a better world for all humankind. They succeed in doing so. The world forever changes.
Then, for the rest of their lives, they suffer for it. That is, perhaps, more than anything else, the one element that sets apart the Fire-Thief from the Martyr, for whom it can sometimes be confused at first glance. The Martyr’s story ends with their death; the Fire-Thief’s ends with them denied its comfort in their punishment. Unlike the Martyr, the Fire-Thief doesn’t get to smugly, comfortingly end their story right at the climax, safe in the knowledge that they’ve changed the world and unconcerned with further developments. On the contrary: the Fire-Thief’s destiny is to live on to witness the consequences of their actions. Symbolically and psychologically – sometimes even physically or legally – they find themselves tormented by what they’ve wrought. Prometheus is chained to the Caucasus; Raven loses his beautiful plumage; Coyote’s injured tongue forever costs him his speech. For the rest of their existence, the Fire-Thief is tortured by the knowledge that not only they but all mankind has paid, and will further pay, the terrible, overwhelming price of their gift. They are defined by this continued suffering in the shadow of their earthshaking achievement; the burns sustained in unleashing power once saved for the gods.
As far as Avatar paths go, the Fire-Thief’s is a funnily-shaped one. It has a very narrow bottleneck near the beginning, but then begins to slope downwards towards an almost inevitable tumble to its wide endpoint. It is extraordinarily hard to get on the path: for the Statosphere to even begin considering somebody for the role, they have to be well on their way to a world-changing achievement. Once they’ve crossed the threshold, however, staying on course becomes easy to the point that they often couldn’t get off if they wanted to. This means that, at any given point, there are very few Fire-Thief Avatars around, but also that whichever ones exist tend to have very high Avatar Identity levels. It’s almost difficult to be a weakly attuned Fire-Thief: as soon as you’ve changed the world enough and are beginning to regret it enough to count as one, odds are that the Statosphere’s going to launch you ahead, kicking and screaming.
Taboos
The Fire-Thief has a dual Taboo, because its path is clearly divided into two parts.
At first, to even begin accumulating Avatar: the Fire-Thief percentages, one needs to be pursuing a Cosmic-level Objective. It needs to be something that would genuinely change the course of history; not of a city or a nation but of all mankind, for decades to come at the least. This incredibly high bar to entry is the reason why Fire-Thief Avatars are so rare in the first place. Until you get to the 50% point, your Avatar: the Fire Thief Identity can never be higher than your Objective percentage. Once you get there, you can’t keep progressing until you’ve completed your Objective. The Archetype’s greater Channels are exclusive to those who’ve brought mankind the fire and are now living with the consequences. At this stage, your Taboo revolves around complete commitment to your fire-theft: you must dedicate yourself to that one Objective to the exclusion of all others. They can’t waver or hesitate. They can’t pursue their goal by half measures: practically their every waking moment and all their emotional, social and financial resources have to go into the Objective. At the same time, they must also be frank about the potential danger inherent in the Fire they bring: they can’t deny to others – or, god forbid, in public – that they’re dealing with forces capable of causing immense destruction. They walk a thin line: they need to be publicly honest – some might even say they should be vocal – about their Fire’s potential for misuse, yet this must, at the same time, not stop them from stealing it from heaven. Needless to say, any Avatar of the Fire-Thief who abandons their Cosmic Objective before its completion immediately loses their connection to the Archetype. Their flame fizzles out. Perhaps it is for the better.
Once the Fire has been Stolen – once the Objective is finished – the Taboo changes. Past 50%, the path of the Fire-Thief is one of failing to stop their Fire from spreading – symbolically, they must foreverafter bear their scars and suffer their punishment. It’s okay for them to try to stop the burn, it’s just that they can’t succeed. The Archetype thrives on a very specific type of failure. It’s practically par the course for the Archetype to have its Avatars spend the later stages of their lives desperately doing everything in their power to deter mankind from further abusing their gift, to limit or regulate its use, to put the ifrit back in the bottle: but to no avail. If the Fire-Thief succeeds in convincing someone to abandon the use of their fire, to get a government to reconsider its investment in it, to lobby for a law that will ensure it will be used in a safer, saner way – they break Taboo. Crucially, they must also never deny their responsibility for the Fire-Theft: there is no hiding their guilt. A Fire-Thief who tries to make excuses exonerating them from their sin, they break Taboo. Note that it’s still fine for a Fire-Thief to try to make amends for their actions – dedicating the rest of their lives to charity and so on – it’s just that they can’t (successfully) do so by undoing the Fire-Theft.
Symbols
Fire and flame; painfully burning light; chains and bindings; heavy burdens; scars and/or lasting injuries, specifically burn scars
Suspected Avatars in History
J. Robert Oppenheimer was almost without a shred of doubt the Godwalker of the Fire-Thief at his time. His contemporary, Albert Einstein, was probably highly attuned to the Archetype, but not the same extent (some say that he couldn’t become properly attuned because he was attached to different Archetypes at different points of his life). The atomic bomb was the divine fire of the modern era: the unlimited power for both ultimate good and evil, stolen from the cosmos in awe and terror, unleashed upon a humanity that will never be truly ready for it.
Before them, Alfred Nobel gave the world dynamite. He realized at a fairly early stage that what he intended to be a mining explosive could be used as a terrible weapon – so much so, in fact, that he believed it would stop war. Then, he spent the rest of his life living with the guilt of having been the infamous Merchant of Death, whose invention and business allowed for warfare of previously unthinkable destruction. His Nobel Prize institution was a rare, successful attempt at mitigating (or at least making up to the world for) the harm his Fire-Theft caused, but because it wasn’t aimed at literally undoing the Fire-Theft, it didn’t weaken his connection to the Archetype.
Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky brought the Russian people the fire of revolution. Their initial goals were undoubtedly noble; nevertheless, both of them – the latter in particular – spent their latter days witnessing their utopian dream collapsing into a horribly dark regime which legally, symbolically and physically haunted them for the rest of their lives.
Alan Turing is a suspected Avatar of the Fire-Thief. He is, arguably, the father of the information age, having given mankind the modern computer for all the good and harm it did. He also suffered terribly for his actions. However, the fact that he didn’t suffer specifically for his innovations in computations may have limited his potential. A similar argument is made regarding Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the internet. Having witnessed what could’ve democratized the sum of human knowledge and communication bring about all the ills of misinformation, addiction, alienation or cyberwarfare, he now spends his days trying to “re-centralize” it through his Solid project. And, in the way of the Archetype, he’s not succeeding very well.
Edward Snowden defied the very government he worked for in order to bring a horrible truth to the nation he felt a duty to – and it ushered in a new era eroded public trust, paranoia, and an ongoing information arms race where governments and the public increasingly see each other as enemies. For that, he is now living in exile, despised by many of those he thought he was helping.
The film “The Social Network” tried to paint Mark Zuckerberg as a Fire-Thief – ushering humanity in a new era of communication and consciousness with all its good and evil, tormented along the way and ultimately condemned for his hubris to live in loneliness, heartbreak and bitterness. The actual man, however, has repeatedly denied that this was the case, and there’s every indication that he is, in fact, very pleased with himself and his achievements (Elon Musk has attempted to paint himself a modern Prometheus, now punished by society for trying to usurp the old social order with revolutionary technologies for the benefit of mankind. Skeptics, however, point that he doesn’t seem to be suffering enough to be a true Fire-Thief; this is, generally speaking, not an easy Archetype to deliberately follow).
Mary Curie is another borderline case. She certainly changed the world with her discovery of radioactivity (which is, symbolically, very much like a sort of divine fire to be stolen for mankind’s benefit), and did so in defiance not only of the prevalent scientific theories at the time but of the social order that supposed a woman can’t be a revolutionary chemist. She also, obviously, suffered for it – the radioactive Fire she Stole from the gods physically “burned” and scarred her with cancer. Her biggest problem (ironically) is that she died before she could see her discovery misused. Some in the Occult Underground believe that this either stopped her from embodying the Fire-Thief at all, or at least limited her potential. A similar case is made for Rosalind Franklin, whose discovery of DNA was initially stolen from her by men because of her comparatively limited social status, and who also died of cancer gotten in the course of her research. She didn’t live long enough to see mankind tearing itself apart over genetic engineering and its implications.
Masks
Prometheus (Classical mythology); Raven (many North American mythologies); Coyote (many other North American mythologies); Rabbit or Hare (yet other North American mythologies); Crow (Wurundjeri mythology); Māui (Polynesian mythology); Mantis (San mythology); Eve (feminist interpretations of Judeo-Christian mythology); Lucifer (Romantic interpretations of Judeo-Christian mythology); Victor Frankenstein (early modern literature); Many mad scientists to follow (science fiction)
Channels
1%-50%: A Fire-Thief cannot even begin to fully fulfill their grim destiny until they’re stolen fire. Once the Archetype has acknowledged that someone is beginning to walk the path, it will begin to work to ensure that they will make it to the midpoint – and the greater its share of attention, the harder it will do so. Firstly, to ensure that they’re not deterred from their world-changing project, Avatars get to Flip-Flop any check result lower than their Avatar: the Fire-Thief Identity that results from their pursuit of their Cosmic Objective might attempt to sway them from it. Pushing away their friends and colleagues? The Avatar can endure the Isolation. Doubt gnawing their hearts? Their Self is strengthened. The authorities are pulling the plug on the operation? Helplessness won’t shake their resolve. Even once they’ve crossed the threshold, this Channel continues to work: Oppenheimer saw the pictures of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and knew that it was his fault, but the Violence didn’t make him Freak Out. His spirit hardened, he bore his torment with grim stoicism.
Second, whenever they reach a Milestone in their pursuit of their Objective, Fire-Thieves add an extra 5% to it beyond what they’d normally get (1d10+5% for a minor or 2d10+10% for a major one). The Archetype is eager for their true test to begin.
51%-70% Foresight is an extension of the curse of the Fire-Thief. It’s the literal meaning of Prometheus’ name, after all. Having completed their Cosmic Objective, by cruel irony, the Fire-Thief attains a terrible clarity of the full extent of the consequences of their actions, in all their awful detail. They may roll this Channel and use a successful result as a Hunch for any check related to their continued involvement with the subject of their Fire-Theft. Interestingly, some in the Occult Underground believe that unwitting Fire-Thieves – the majority of them – use this Channel unconsciously to ensure their failure in attempts to fix the harm they’ve caused. Somehow, when it’s time to appear before the Senate subcommittee, to convince the masses, to escape the gods’ judgment, they, as if by cruel predetermination, fail. That said, they could just as easily use their foresight to give an extraordinarily successful lecture on the topic, write a bestselling autobiography, convince someone to support their cause, avoid a bullet from someone who’d lethally punish them for their deeds (after all, they must live on longer to suffer for them). Most notably, this Channel absolutely works and can help them in further developing whatever goal consisted their Fire-Theft, or similar ones. If you’ve built a weapon you now regret, the cosmos will facilitate your work on making an even worse one.
71%-90%: A dreadful, cosmic gravity exists about those whom the world knows are carrying the burden of having changed history. Other people instinctively give them a wide berth, lowering their heads when they enter the room and speaking softly to them in person. Their stigmata, even if invisible, cannot be denied. Trying to contradict a Fire-Thief on a topic related to their Fire-Theft is a level 5 Self check trigger. So is any attempt to physically harm them. It is evident, in a universal, occult way, that they must go on bearing their cross, and it would be inappropriate to end their punishment too soon.
90%-99%: No matter how much he might wish it, Prometheus simply can’t die. His titanic nature means that the wounds caused by the vultures tormenting him will always heal as soon as they’re made. Whenever they naturally heal by resting, the Fire-Thief recovers from an extra number of wounds equal to the sum of an Avatar: the Fire-Thief dice roll. This doesn’t normally result in injuries physically disappearing (though it might, maybe, for the Godwalker) but rather from them simply turning out to have been less badly injured than they seemed; uncover hidden reserves of willpower; had great luck, etc. Any Fitness tests to avoid harm from starvation, resisting an illness or surviving poison are Flip-Flopped if they’re under the Avatar: the Fire-Thief Identity, as are Dodge tests to avoid an oncoming car. This isn’t optional: at this point, the Avatar is no longer in control of their destiny. The Archetype itself is pulling the strings to ensure their survival.
What You Hear
A reclusive tech genius living somewhere in the US is a rising star within the very, very, very, very small community of self-aware Fire-Thieves. While likely unaware of his cosmic role, he’s been a key figure behind the scenes of modern AI development. Whatever it was that he’s accomplished, it enabled the current era of artificial intelligence, and he’s already regretting it so much he’s living off the grid, wishing to have nothing to do with the industry anymore. But the Fire-Thief must suffer for their hubris, and the Archetype is showing his peers visions of his whereabouts. If nothing else, they want to eliminate him as potential competition.
There’s debate within the Occult Underground on whether Marie Curie was a Fire-Thief and, if so, how powerful – but if she was, there’s no doubt that some of her mortal remains have by now decayed into powerful Artifacts. Specifically, a certain Fire-Thief believes that her original radium standard – the radium chloride-filled glass ampule she used to measure radioactivity – is a wellspring of Archetypal power. It is kept in a lead-lined vault in the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in Sèvres, France, from which it is only moved very rarely, and under close supervision, for scientific comparisons. It almost goes without saying that it is hideously, lethally radioactive and that the nature of the Archetype means that to gain any benefit from it one would probably need to get cancer, but it hasn’t thus far deterred the Avatar and his Cabal, who are planning a heist for the glowing bauble any day now.
Derek Jackson, a.k.a “Superconductor”, former leader of Mak Attax, may have been at one point a budding Avatar of the Fire-Thief in addition to a mechanomancer. The Ritual of Light he orchestrated has literally brought about a new version of the world – one where the occult is more democratized and powerful, old cabals like the New Inquisition and the Sleepers are no longer ruling from behind the scenes. It also lead to the Whisper War tearing its way through the Occult Underground and turning it into a magickal wild west all over again, and it might’ve turned the previously enigmatic but mostly unconfrontational Comte de Saint Germain into the omnicidal Granny Apocalypse. The guilt has destroyed him, but the universe won’t let him rest.