The following is essential setting information for the UK Awakening venue, to assist you all with character backgrounds and/or creation. Please read it through carefully, and contact the ANST Awakening and your local STs if you have any questions.

The information shared here is common knowledge to all mages of the UK (often referred to as 'Britannia' within Awakened society) who have or have had contact with the Orders or with any other mages who are a part of Awakened society. Only truly newly-Awakened mages or hermits would not be aware of it.

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IC: Key Information

Awakened society within United Kingdom is in a state of careful restructuring, in the wake of a national disaster known simply as the Cataclysm.

Few know any details about this terrible event, which took place on December 31^st, 1999, as the knowledge has been lost from reality, but stories of what led to it are known to almost all of the country's Awakened.

In the months leading to the turn of the Millennium, a call to meet went out from the eldest and most powerful Free Councillors of the UK to all Order mages within Britannia's shores. Spread from cabal to cabal and demesne to demesne, the invitation - to meet an at ancient Hallow at the country's heart on New Year's Eve - reached almost every mage in the land, carrying within it promise of revealing a great discovery as the Millennium turned.

Many British mages - and a number of their allies from overseas - answered the invitation, whether in curiosity, scorn, or in a wish to be present at the unveiling of a lost mystery. The most powerful and politically active willworkers of the UK, as well as many other mages of all ranks and Orders, gathered to meet on the Millennium Eve; it is rumoured that those present numbered well over two hundred, but none know for sure, for most who went to see the discovery unveiled never returned.

A vast surge of magical energy and a fearsome storm of Paradox are all that can be sensed of the events that unfolded at the country's heart on that fateful night by those who attempt to look back on them, and the ancient hallow there now stands corrupt and reeking of the Abyss.

The few mages who did witness and survive the disaster - which quickly became known as the Cataclysm - have no memory of the night, and many still bear terrible scars to body, mind and soul. As the new millennium began, Britannia was shocked and shaking, left with cabals and Consilii shattered by their losses.

Thus began a terrible year of internal conflict, as power-hungry mages jumped to fill the holes left in the country's political and social structures by the Cataclysm. Chaos and assassination were rife, and few felt safe, even within sanctum or demesne.

In a last attempt to halt the unrest, the Pentacle Caucus was called in June 2001, bringing together the four Consilii of Britannia - Scotland, North, South and the Anglesey Demesne - in an agreement that Awakened society within the country should be conducted as in a time of war, while the Consilii reformed and the cabals regrouped. A decision was made that no challenge for any Consilium position would be tolerated for the following five years; until June, 2006 at the earliest.

The mages of Britannia reluctantly accepted this ruling, aware that the move was made to protect not only the Councillors in their positions but to protect the mages of the country as a whole from worsening anarchy and unrest. With only months left to go of the hiatus declared, though, the political landscape of Britannia is beginning to shift again, as rumour spreads of the incumbent Councillors looking amongst their regions for Provosts; assistants in magical rule.

Many still blame the Free Council for the Cataclysm, while others seek out the truth of what actually happened on the Millennium's eve. The cabals and Consilii of Britannia have reached a degree of stability, but things may change as summer comes…

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OOC: Key Information

This is a key part of the UK Awakening VSS and setting, in line with global settings. Please consider how it affects your character, whether they are UK-based or share a history with UK mages, but don't panic. This aspect of setting exists to add to your role-playing experience, rather that to detract from it.

You may now be asking if you can still have a UK character who has been Awakened and active within magical society since before the Cataclysm. The answer is simple; of course you can.

However, I'd like all players with UK-based or linked PCs to consider the following questions in relation to your character, to add to your involvement with UK chronicle and setting :

• Was your PC Awakened and active in Awakened society at the time of the Cataclysm, or during the turbulent year following it? If so, how did they cope with the upheaval and panic that seized the Awakened community within the UK?
• Was your PC actually present at the Cataclysm? Please talk to the ANST and your local STs if you'd like them to have been. If they were, how did - and does - having survived it, likely just barely, affect them? How do they cope with not remembering the events of that night?
• If your PC was active in Awakened society in the UK at the time and not present at the Cataclysm, why weren't they there? Were they paranoid, suspicious, doubtful, plain disinterested, out of the country, incapacitated...? The reasons are up to you, and any reason can give you an IC viewpoint on the event.
• A great many UK mages were lost to the Cataclysm, and numbers are only just rebuilding now. Did your PC lose anyone close to them? A friend, a mentor, a relative or lover, a cabal member - or whole cabal - or teacher? If so, how did that loss affect them at the time? How does it affect them today?
• How has your PC assisted in helping rebuild Awakened society since the Cataclysm, if at all? Do they have any ambitions of power they hope to fulfil once the political hiatus imposed by the Consilii of Britannia is over?
• No matter how long your PC has been Awakened, they're likely to have heard stories and rumours of the Cataclysm. How do they feel about it - intrigued, confused, fearful, suspicious.. the choice is yours - and have they sought out more information about it?

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So, there you have it; a key part of UK Awakening setting and history, for you to tie into in any way you see fit for your character. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact the ANST, making sure that your local ST chain is copied in.

Please bear in mind that very few mages present at the Cataclysm actually survived, and that survivors have no memories of the night's events, and all paid a high price for their survival. Actual survivors of the Cataclysm should be very rare as characters, as so few made it.