Hollow Ones

*Ours is a strange and beautiful weirdness.*

A hollow age makes hollow people. In many regards, the 20th century was that age – filled with sound and fury but very little depth below its rather spectacular surface. The term “lost generation” was coined to reflect the wild rush of indulgence and abandon that epitomized the early part of that century, and though the Hollow Ones are anything but lost, that phrase echoes their questing Path. Dismissed as a bunch of shallow club-kids, the Darklings are as old as humanity. Where other mages sought enlightenment, the hollow people explored shadows. The heirs of Lilith and Lucifer, they found power in rebellion, not submission. It’s not surprising, then, that they were, until recently, a rare and haunted breed.

The group’s modern incarnation traces its roots to the Romantic Rebellion of the early 1800s, when artists like Byron, Beethoven, Goya, and the Shelleys spit in the face of that Age of Reason, exposing the tempestuous intersection of nature and humanity. Their inheritors, the Decadents, reveled in debauchery, seeking wisdom in excess. In those days of open-eyed madness, the Hollow Ones found inspiration. Although the group’s familiar name and purpose came together several decades later, that pursuit of clarity through glorious paradox remains a foundation of the sect. “We are,” quoted Darkling icon Neville Sinclair, “the Hollow Men. We have always been here.”

Regardless of the name they’ve chosen, the Hollow Ones specialize in revealing truths that other folks would rather ignore. Their ironic embrace of morbidity is a pose meant to highlight the importance of life. A living memento mori, this group kicks over monuments in order to show the rot underneath… and thus, to also demonstrate the importance of living life well. Art, poetry, dance, imagination… such things are sacraments to the Hollow Ones, not simply because it’s fun but because of the truth embodied in artistry. Art, at its best, distills passions into symbols other people can understand. Real art – not the hollow confections of pop culture but the deeper levels, where truth comes out – is a form of magick. And although other groups employ that focus too, no sect understands this form better than the Hollow Ones.

Though they’ve shared space with other sects for over a century now, the Hollowers rarely get the respect they’ve earned. Most other mages see them as dilettantes, capering around the club-scene like spoiled children while their elders do the heavy lifting. That’s an unfair assessment, though understandable at times. In reality, the Darklings focus on Earthly matters that their oh-so-cosmic peers ignore. Especially since the explosion of subcultures in the post-WWII era, Hollow mages have concentrated on the young people caught out on the fringes of their world: the misfits, the freaks, the left-behinders whose oddness strands them, as Patti Smith put it, “outside of society.”

Other sects might show up at homeless shelters with some gifts and a sermon, but Hollowers speak the language of the streets. Like the cast-off items from which they shape their Arts, these mages reclaim life’s throwaways and make something beautiful from them.

## Organization

Traditionally, the Darklings favor small, familylike cliques; within these groups, social acclaim and stigma keep the members of that group in line. Given the dangerous nature of their world, these cliques prize loyalty and punish betrayal with all the harshness of the streets. The rules within such groups are simple: don’t fuck each other over, respect one another’s autonomy, and remain beautiful in the face of ugliness.

Until recently, the Hollowers were considered the lost Tradition; they had even considered, and been considered for, a 10th seat on the Council of Nine. Those plans fell apart when various catastrophes shook the Council. Hollow elders, disgusted with the constant games of make-nice, decided that the Traditions were a lost cause. Although some Hollow Ones joined the Verbena, Ecstatics, or even the Etherites, the majority decided to ditch their Council aspirations. The talks that seeded the Disparate Alliance proved instrumental in that decision… and now the Darklings – rebel tribes by nature – are adjusting to the idea of being leaders instead of malcontents.

## Factions and Societies

Cliques rule the day among the Hollowers. Instead of forming philosophical factions or Avatar-driven groups, these mages just hang out in small clubs or social groups. Cliques tend to be fiercely competitive and jealous, but they can put aside their differences to work together sometimes. Since Hollow Ones often come from broken homes or dysfunctional families (whether wealthy or poverty-stricken), they indulge in whatever sorts of passive rebellion they can find – and that means hanging out with other people who have survived similar experiences and taken up the same candlestick. There is no hierarchy. There are young Goths and dead Goths, but old Goths are just pretenders.

Hollower cliques are the only real families they know, and they are fiercely protective of them, but without any political vision; they shrug off any attempts at real "organization." About the closest that Hollowers come to any sort of recognition in their ranks is when they choose someone to speak for a clique, or when they compete for pieces of unusual arcane lore or trivia in an attempt to seem spooky or knowledgeable in occult esoterica.

### Factions

#### Councilors

**Councilors** are the **Hollow Ones** who, despite the fact that life sucks and the world is going to end, still manage to care. All Hollowers tend to agree the **Technocracy** sucks and most, with a few exceptions, feel the same about the **Marauders** and the **Nephandi**. Councilors consider the **Council of Nine Mystic Traditions** as the least offensive of the evils of the magical world. They believe that if the snooty Traditionalists would accept that they have something other to offer then magic, which isn't ending but changing, could head toward a new era. These Hollow Ones tend to see themselves as heroes on the frontier of magic, redefining what is and what is possible. They want to work with the Council and share that vision. They may even be right.

#### Revolutionaries

The worldview of a Hollow **Revolutionary** is pretty easy to grasp: they see the world with all its rust and acid rain, greed and hate, unchecked capitalism, nefarious media, and societal propaganda and say "the **Technocracy** sucks!" They see the the negative impact of religious beliefs and the wars they cause and decide equally "the **Traditions** suck, too!" The **Marauders** and **Nephandi** are even worse. All that's left is to scream "you all suck and you're screwing up reality," and opt out. Revolutionaries tend to abhor the company of non-Hollow One mages and prefer the company of ghosts, faeries, and vampires, and they tend to resent any "guidance" a Council mage may try to offer.

### Cliques

Hollow Ones tend to follow different fads; trying new ways of thinking until they find one or a handful that make sense to them and their own personal story. These fads tend to develop into cliques filling in their own niches in the world.

#### Elementals

Elemental cliques tend to be made up of five members and focus on group rituals. Each member of the clique takes on the attributes and responsibilities of one of the traditional elements from either the Western tradition (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Spirit) or the Eastern tradition (Earth, Fire, Metal, Water, Wood). Dynamic Avatars are common and clique members will switch up their elements from time to time to prevent anyone from being trapped in a role too long. Each group may interpret the metaphysics and elemental responsibilities differently but the idea is that members will develop their magical skills around their elemental role. The role of Fire would learn Forces while Wood may focus on Life. The style is particularly adept at fostering group ritual practices and the groups can often have a pack mentality.

#### Pantheistics

If it's true that Dynamic Avatars among the **Hollow Ones** are drawn at times to Elemental Cliques, one could say that Primordial Avatars are occasionally drawn to each other and become Pantheistic Cliques. Looking a little like a Voudoun "Horse and Rider" style, these groups believe that, in certain ritual circumstances, their Avatars actually take control of their minds, wills, and bodies. This is often referred to as "Hollow becoming filled." If the whole clique does this simultaneously, what you get is several ancient, primordial beings that have known each other for eons working through fragments of themselves: the mages in question. Whether this technique is legitimate possession or simply a sort of shared Quiet, it creates strong bonds among the mages and in a group ritual they can often read each other perfectly, know each others' roles, and know exactly what to expect from each other, and so can act with great efficacy.

The drawback to this is that the mages tend to become amazing specialists instead of well-rounded will-workers and need each other to shore up their weaknesses. The benefit is that any Paradox gained is shared among all members of the clique.

#### Incognitos

The **Incognitos** are the true revolutionaries among the **Hollow Ones** and wage a purely tactical war against the **Technocratic Union**. They try to put cracks in the Technocracy's vaunted "unity," realizing that it really is just a façade. With contacts among the **Moles** and the **Railroad Riders**, the Incognitos are revolutionary think tanks. Rarely, if ever, seeing the field, they sit in Hollow One-controlled coffee shops and cafes all over the world, hopped up on caffeine, absinthe, or what-have-you, and brainstorm how to turn the Conventions against each other. Their theories, often involving revealing the dirty secrets of the Conventions to the **NWO**, are then sent out along the Hollow Railroad to other Hollow cliques as tactical information. Fortunately, as far as is known, there are no Incognito groups that exist to work against the Traditions.

Workers in, and Seers of, conspiracy theories, they sow chaos and anarchy within the enemy. The downside is that they often become more and more paranoid and they are watched closely by their comrades out of fear they will fall into Quiet as their sanity deteriorates under the pressure of juggling the Ascension War's fallout.

#### Voudoun Gangstas

A clique that established itself in the southern United States during Prohibition, the Voudoun Gangstas tend to be of African American heritage, though not necessarily so. Originally running bootleg alcohol out of New Orleans, their goal wasn't addiction or money, but to simply stand up when someone told them they couldn't. To this day, they embody the romantic heroism of the mythological gangsters: Capone, Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde to give examples. Though they were initially practitioners of Voudoun, they have grown to accommodate many tribal African myths, ceremonies, and rites. Today they appeal to spirits from Baron Samedi to Anansi the Spider.

Combining modern weapons with magic, contemporary Gangstas tend to feel a call to protect underprivileged people from exploitation, usually embodied by the **Technocracy**, and often target **Progenitor** drug distribution rings.

#### Soundwave Masters

Wherever there is a Hollow nightclub gathering, you can be assured that a Soundwave Master is in the sound booth orchestrating it all. They are the techno and trance masters of sound, and an integral part of the Hollow Railroad. Specializing in Mind and Forces techniques, they convert and combine sound, thoughts, and emotions together and into each other, and send their Tass-filled mixtapes along the Railroad to share information across the Tradition. It is widely known that these Hollowers have Council of Nine sympathies and often share their techniques with drugs and digital sound with the **Cult of Ecstasy** and the **Virtual Adepts**.

Running raves and nightclub parties, a SW Master can use Mind techniques to surf and sift the thoughts of the crowd for rumors, information, memories, and stories for anything relevant to the cause. They can then convert that information to music, saturated with his or her own psychic essence, and anyone hearing it receives those impressions as well. The process of making these mixtapes is integral to the success of the Hollow Railroad.

#### Railroad Riders

Founded by a British goth named Telegram Sam, the Riders entered the club scene in the late 1970s. Practitioners of Correspondence, these travel junkies sacrifice themselves to massive amounts of Paradox to travel the Hollow Railroad and keep the various Hollow Cliques communicating by carrying the Tass tapes and CDs of the **Soundwave Masters** from one group to another. Sometimes they even have dream letters stored in their heads that the narcoleptics (dream specialists) of the Tradition can access. It's a thankless job but they tend to feel a romantic sense of duty such as was supposedly possessed by the Pony Express in the Old West.

They are the quintessential drifters, teleporting from chantry to chantry, always the guest and never the host. They tend to have extensive webs of contacts and allies.

They have created most of the survival rotes known by the Hollow Ones and are more likely to run than fight, as they consider their duty as messengers to be of paramount importance and not to be compromised by pointless shows of bravery.

#### Social Terrorist Punks

If the Hollow Ones have a "warrior caste" then the Punks fill that niche. No other clique makes as much noise or draws as much trouble as these "cells" do. For them, anarchy is a religion and nonconformity is a sacrament, so don't try to tell them the war with the **Technocratic Union** is over. While most Hollowers are cool and brainy, the Punks prefer muscle and action and tend to focus on the spheres of Entropy, Forces, and Life for their ability to cause destruction. Time is also a favorite for delivering damage quickly. Few of these mages survive to become elders because "die with your boots on" is a mantra of the group. They can go toe to toe with HIT Marks or the warriors of any other Tradition, and they implode with Paradox more than any other type of Hollow One. Others tend to avoid them because of the troubles they unavoidably draw.

#### Moles

Perhaps the biggest loners and introverts among the Hollow Ones, the Moles are not a type of Clique so much as individuals attached to many Cliques and an integral part of the Hollow Railroad. Unlike their more...noticeably-dressed associates, they tend to look conservative, even unnoticeable. This helps them in their role of getting as close to **Technocracy** operations as possible. They have desk and laboratory jobs, masquerade as sleepers, and play dumb at work. They infiltrate the mail rooms of **Syndicate** companies, pose as janitors in the academic offices of the **NWO**, do piecework in **It X** factories, or work as nurses and candy-stripers in **Progenitor** run hospitals. They show only a plain face and conformist attitude, at least while spying, and must have exceedingly strong wills to be so immersed in the Technocratic paradigm and still remain hollow.

#### Outsiders

The **Outsiders** is a catchall name for various Cliques of the Hollow Ones

Mostly Revolutionaries, Outsiders prefer to socialize with the other denizens of the World of Darkness over other non-Hollow One mages. This lifestyle tends to be hazardous to any Awakened being's health, as the problems of these groups tend to catch up to the Hollower, and some of the other creatures of the night have little problem in sucking the "tragic goth kid" dry, physically, emotionally, or magically.

Depending on the group the Hollow One hangs out with, there is a name (mostly derogatory) for him or her.

* **Gaunts --** Romanticism, with its focus on death, has always had a strong influence on Goth culture and Hollow Magic. Because of this, Necromancy is a fairly common skill for Hollowers. Unlike most necromancers, though, these Gaunts make friends and allies of the Restless Dead instead of slaves and indebted servitors. A Gaunt's home is often haunted because they want it to be so. Since the dead spend a lot of time watching the living, they are excellent sources of information for any Hollower who helps them, which makes Gaunts an important part of the Hollow One information network.
* **Mangers --** The shapeshifters of the world are notoriously untrustworthy of outsiders, especially mages who tend to despoil their holy sites, and so a mage who is not kin to them is unlikely to gain their trust. Though they may not understand the nature of Awakened magic, they are protective of their blood relations, and as they have their own ties to the magical and spiritual worlds, they at least have some frame of reference for dealing with their magic-using kin. Because of this, these kinfolk mages, or Mangers, often have mentors or allies with knowledge of cosmology and the occult, and all of them have some competency with the sphere of Spirit. Furthermore, many of their foci are close or indistinguishable from the rites of the Garou and other Changing Breeds.
* **Blood Bags --** As with the Restless Dead, the Undead are fascinating to Hollow Ones, and the Blood Bags who seek out the vampires have to be a mix of insane, suicidal, and adrenaline junky and also have nerves of steel. Rarely ghouls, they tend to be part of the vampire's herd. A surprisingly large number of inexperienced Hollowers learn a few abilities of use to the Kindred, such as sunlight wards or fire control, and then disappear into the night to find a friend. Few return but some actually survive...at least for a little while, becoming the precious pet of some ancient, undead creature.
* **Galmour Whores --** How does one define the relationship between the Fae and the Hollow Ones? The two groups are very much aware of each other, but their relations are mixed. Dream magic is part of many Hollowers' bag of tricks and so the Changelings love them. The difficulty is that most Hollowers are, in fact, escapists. Their trappings are an escape from both sides of the Ascension War. When confronted with the Dreaming, it is everything the Glamour Whore dreams of: heroes, villains, enchantment, darkest darks and brightest lights, nothing dull or mundane...in short everything they want the "real world" to be. Once they have tasted it, they can easily get addicted and not want to return. It slices through their dark masks and calls to their hopes. While disenchanted sleepers forget what they experienced, the Hollow Ones have whole paradigms built on dreams and visions, so the memories last for them. Because of this the return to "normal life" can be painful. Of course, an enchanted clique-mate is of little use to the group, and if they spend too much time away their friends may do whatever is necessary to pull them out of it.

#### Masters

Hollow Masters are paradoxes. They are at once the most powerful and lowest profile members of the "Tradition." While young Hollowers strive to gain a reputation, their elders are only known by wild and often contradictory rumors. While new to the magical world compared to all the other magical organizations out there, the Hollow Ones have a few decades under their belts now and for every youngster who wore black in the '90s there is an elder who grew up in the '70s punk scene, or with the Beatniks, or the flappers of the '20s. Phantom strangers in the night, Hollow Masters show up, pass around some music, deliver a few snide but true statements or bon mots, and then disappear. They often have high Arcane ratings and love to flaunt their mysteriousness.

## Initiation

Though they’re typically associated with the Goth-rock subculture, Hollow Ones gravitate toward any fashion steeped in beautiful revolt. Punk, metal, hip-hop, techno-industrial, and even classical music cultures have adherents among the Hollow Ones. Most recently, the neo-jazz, steampunk, fae-punk, Gothic Lolita, and androgynous visual kei subcultures have rattled the old Bauhaus-style cage. Even so, many Hollowers still enjoy the old-school Goth look, if only because it’s so unfashionable these days.

An element of grace must always be present in Darkling company. When an appropriately graceful member gets noticed, a clique begins to test his fitness to join the club. From a discreet distance, they prod him and watch how he responds. Assuming that he passes their tests, they approach the potential member with offers of friendship. If he seems cool, he’s allowed further and further into the clique until the members judge him fit to join… by which point he’s usually a member by default.

## Focus

Darklings use whatever they’ve got to work with – typically things discarded by society. Broken toys, occult goodies, and symbols and behaviors that so-called respectable people shun make potent tools in the hands of a Hollow mage. Belief-wise, that hollow image is appropriately symbolic: these folks tend to see themselves as vessels of life and death, pouring their Arts out or carrying those cosmic forces from place to place. Magick, then, comes from the proper comprehension and intentional use of the energies that, in most people, are simply wasted. Everything is Chaos, an Illusion, or a Mistake, probably on a One-Way Trip to Oblivion. Some Hollowers insist that It’s All Good, but they’re the minority. Chaos and gutter magick are near-universal among the Hollow Ones. Although such Arts don’t actually nurture chaos, they thrive in the chaos of our age.