Correspondence

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

Correspondence involves the understanding of locations, spatial relativity and the interrelation between people and objects. This Sphere allows you to teleport yourself or others, pull rabbits out of hats, create magickal barriers and fly through the air. Correspondence is also commonly used in conjunction with other Spheres to allow you to work magick on subjects hundreds of miles away. The theory popular among the Virtual Adepts, the most recent masters of Correspondence, is that space is ultimately an illusion. More traditional mages explain Correspondence by the ancient Doctrine of Contagion: "Once together, always together." Objects and individuals maintain a connection with those things to which they are most closely related. Thus, it would be easier to teleport someone to the house they grew up in than an island neither you nor the target have ever seen. Mages who study the Sphere of Correspondence often appear out of touch with the world around them. Their eyes become unfocussed and they seem to respond to events taking place in other locales. Contrary to appearances, you are very much aware of what is going on close to home. You just aren't limiting yourself to that.

 

Basic: Local Perceptions

 

You begin your understanding of Correspondence by opening yourself up to alternate spatial perceptions. You can intuitively estimate distances between objects, find true north (or any other direction) and sense things in your immediate vicinity without using your normal five senses. This new sense also allows you to detect spatial instabilities, warps and wormholes - either natural or those caused by other uses of this Sphere.

 

v Landscape of the Mind: This rote enables you to generate a map of the surrounding area in your mind. You know the location of nearby objects as if you were looking in every direction and from all points of view. In addition, this rote enables you to determine where you are within this map, or relative to any other known location in the world. In conjunction with Basic Spirit, you may also scope out the nearby Penumbra or Shadowlands, while Basic Mind allows awareness of the Astral Plane.

 

Intermediate: Remote Perceptions, Teleport Object

 

You may now extend any of your five senses across intervening space, to any location with which you are familiar. Such magickal perceptions thin the barriers between the two points in space. However, creating a weakness in the Tapestry that may be detected with Basic use of this Sphere. In addition, you are now able reach through space, moving small objects from one location to another. Alternately, as an application of counter-magick, you may strengthen the fabric of space in the local area, rendering it immune to scrying attempts or inhibiting other Correspondence effects.

 

v Drag-n-Drop: By reaching through the space, you may pick up an object and deposit it somewhere else, traversing the intervening distance similar to Telekinesis. Alternately, through conjunct use one of the Pattern Spheres (Forces, Life, Matter), you may choose to teleport an object directly from one location to another. Items affected by this power must be small enough to be held in one hand. The Virtual Adepts came up with this new name for the rote, though some of the more mystic Traditions still refer to it as Apportation.

 

v Scry: By shifting your point of view to an alternate location, you may perceive what is going on as if you were standing in this other place. While perceiving from this alternate location, you are unaware of anything happening locally. This restriction is lifted when you become a Disciple of Correspondence, enabling you to perceive multiple locations at once. Another use of this power is in conjunction with other rotes to enable you to affect objects that are outside your normal area of perception. Locating a person or place that you are not intimately connected with requires a Static Mental Test based upon your familiarity with the target.

 

v Ripples in the Tapestry: A more specific application of Landscape of the Mind, this rote enables you to bypass any effects that render a person or object undetectable by normal perceptions. If the spell test is successful, you may ignore any powers that render a target invisible, such as the Mind effect Somebody Else's Problem Field and the Forces rote Light-Sound Distortion. This use does not negate or cancel such powers - it merely allows you to see through them.

 

Disciple: Expanded Perceptions, Teleport Self

 

As you increase your understanding in this Sphere, your control over spatial perceptions enables you to sense multiple locations at once, perceiving the various scenes as several ghostly landscapes overlapping one another. You may also create larger holes in the fabric of space. By bending space, you may move large objects from one location to another, duplicating the effects of telekinesis or levitation.

 

v Chains of Resonance: At this level, you can forge a relationship between any two objects. By conjunct use of this sphere, you gain a connection with a target, putting you one Trait up on any magickal Challenges using the normal rules for Resonance (see Chapter Six).

 

v Filter All Space: A greater form of scrying, this rote enables you to pinpoint the location of a known object or person anywhere on earth. The amount of time necessary to complete this rote is a function of how familiar you are with your target and whether you are able to narrow down the search area at all. If the subject of your inquiry is local, this rote may only take a few minutes, while a global search might take hours or days.

 

v Seven League Stride: The Order of Hermes developed this rote during the Middle Ages, though other Traditions practice similar effects. This rote allows you to step from one location to another, bringing with you anything you can carry. The hole in space closes immediately behind you so others may not follow you to your destination. Of course, as with any use of this Sphere, such alterations in the Tapestry may be detected and another Disciple of Correspondence may trace you to your final destination.

 

v Tear Space: By warping and twisting space inside a target, you are able to inflict structural damage to people or objects. This application requires a Mental Challenge against your target's Physical Traits. As with other such rotes, the amount of damage inflicted is determined by an Extended Simple Test. While a Disciple of Correspondence may only inflict normal damage, an Adept is capable of causing aggravated wounds.

 

v Ward: By strengthening the fabric of reality in a particular location, you may prevent any attempts at Correspondence use into or out of this area. Once in place, a Ward may only be taken down by Unweaving. If you are also a Disciple of another Sphere, you may create magickal barriers that prevent a particular type of target from passing. The nature of the target being banned will dictate which other Sphere must be used in conjunction. An Extended Static Mental Test is performed to determine the duration of the ward.

 

Adept: Teleport Other, Bend Space

 

As an Adept, you have extended your ability to affect the fabric of space. You may establish stable portals from one location to another or create pockets of reality that render anything within them undetectable to others. In addition, you may now inflict aggravated wounds upon a target by altering the space within and around it.

 

v Sending: Where a Disciple of Correspondence could only teleport herself, you may now transport other beings or objects without having to go along. However, unwilling targets may not be sent to any location you have not already been yourself. In addition, any target may resist being sent anywhere outside immediate vicinity by spending a temporary Willpower Trait. Once you become a Master, this restriction is waived. The rote requires a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits. Unlike the Intermediate effect Drag-n-Drop, this rote does not require conjunct use of other Spheres.

 

v Portal Gate: In addition to being able to teleport targets from place to place, you may also create a window or gateway between one location and another. This may simply allow those on one side to perceive the other or it may allow a living being to step across from one locale to the other. In the latter case, the gate requires conscious intent to traverse - thus, items on one side of the window cannot just fall through to the other. In addition, the portal may be set up for either one or two-way transfer. The duration of this gate is determined using a standard Extended Static Mental Test.

 

v Reality Bubble: By creating ripples in the Tapestry, you may render yourself (or other objects) invisible and/or intangible to those around you. You may still see and hear out of such a pocket, using Correspondence to extend your senses past the bubble's event horizon. When employing this rote, you must stand with your arms crossed to alert other players to the fact that they should ignore you. Any hostile action, fast movement or other direct interaction with the environment will cause a shimmering outline to appear for the remainder of the turn. Other characters may initiate Challenges against you when this happens, though they suffer a two-Trait penalty on any such attempts. Again, this requires an Extended Static Mental Test for its duration.

Master: Shape Space, Overlay Reality

 

As a Master of Correspondence, you ability to distort space is sufficient that you can alter distances and sizes at will, stretching them and shrinking them to fit your needs. While the mass of these objects cannot be changed, their volumes and dimensions are like potter’s clay. You also gain complete control over spatial relations, mapping different locations to one area or permitting an object to appear in multiple places.

 

v Co-Location: The Master of Correspondence may stack multiple locations on top of one another in a bizarre landscape of intersecting forms. If such an overlay would cause multiple items to overlap into the same space, so be it. These objects take no harm from such coexistence, though if they separate they will immediately become solid and tangible to one another. The reverse of this effect allows you to appear in multiple locations at once. Your presence is not disjointed in these separate locations and any actions or effects that you take at one location will be visible in all. To be able to act independently in multiple places requires a conjunct effect with Intermediate Mind.

 

Entropy

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

The practical applications of Entropy are manifold. Initiates learn to quantify probability, which most mages call Fate or fortune. Through observation, you may spot accidents waiting to happen and take advantage of them. Mages who study Entropy understand how all patterns break down, and thus, how they work in the first place. These mages tend to specialize either in sowing chaos and confusion or in reaffirming order and reason, though some follow an enigmatic middle ground. Regardless of specialty, those who advance in this Sphere learn to deal with the darker forces and such knowledge can weigh heavy on the heart.

 

Basic: Sense Probability

 

Students of Entropy learn to examine each thing and discern its strengths and weaknesses: what it is and what it does. Unreliable as it is, such knowledge can make a difference in determining what is significant and what is not. You can pick a lucky horse, sense if a lock has some defect or choose the original between two identical items.

 

v Dim Mak: By applying your awareness of weak spots in combat, you may strike at a particularly vulnerable point. If you win a Static Mental Test against your target's Physical Traits, you may inflict one extra Health Level of damage against that opponent. This bonus applies to any Physical Challenge you initiate for the remainder of the scene.

v Ring of Truth: Some statements contain within them higher truths that form the building blocks of a particular reality. By determining the relation between a person and their words, you may detect whether a statement is objective truth or merely opinions. While this power does not allow you to spot deliberate lies, it does allow you to determine which statements hold fundamental importance for the speaker. This requires a Static Mental Test against the target's Mental or Social Attributes.

 

Intermediate: Control Probability

 

Now that the threads of Fate have been identified, the touch of Fortune may be pushed. This gives you amazing, yet subtle control over hundreds of small effects. You may decide the outcome of any minor event that would normally be random, such as the roll of a die or turn of a card. Even more so than other Spheres, Entropy is subject to the limitations of the domino effect: Coincidence can strike only so many times in one place.

 

v Beginner's Luck: Through awareness of the subtle influences to an event, you can determine the best moment to attempt something. This grants you a retest on any Physical feat or on any Static Test where luck comes into play, such as picking a lock.

 

Disciple: Affect Inanimate Patterns

 

Machines are especially susceptible to Entropy. Clocks wind down, engines break and all things matter and energy eventually decay. As a Disciple of Entropy, you can affect this deterioration, preventing it in some cases while enhancing it in others. In most cases, breaking down solid patterns takes a significant amount of time, while energy is more easily affected. Simplest of all are the more elaborate mechanical or electronic devices, for as an item grows in complexity, subtle flaws can have more drastic effects. In conjunction with Intermediate Time, you may steer a longer course, affecting things slowly over their entire existence. Similarly, conjunct use with the Sphere of Correspondence enables you to control events at a distance, allowing them to build as they approach.

 

v Fortune's Blessing: Subtle applications of this Sphere allow you to grant someone extreme luck. While under the effects of this blessing, the subject will win all ties during any Challenges, regardless of which side has more Traits. Alternately, you may reverse this power. By winning a Mental Challenge, you may curse an opponent to lose all ties for a period of time. The duration of this rote is determined by a standard Extended Static Mental Test, though the effects may last no more than a day before becoming vulgar.

 

v Murphy's Law: Some argue that the Orphan mage known only as Murphy was in fact a Marauder, though coincidentally no proof remains of whether this is the case. Regardless of his origins, the varied rules and sayings attributed to this scholar of Entropy have worked their way into the common beliefs of most Sleepers. By application of this rote, you may cause any minor mishap to come into play. Machines cease functioning, material objects break down and fall apart, computers lose or scramble their data and electrical systems short circuit. Conversely, you may apply this affect in reverse, protecting or strengthening an object against such influences.

 

v Sense Deeper Patterns: By carefully examining the amount and type of entropy present in a person, you may determine if a target is living, dead or undead. In addition, you may even be able to detect unstable patterns common to werewolves and other shapechangers, or the abnormal rigidity found in the patterns of mummies or changelings. In conjunction with Spirit, you may identify whether a particular being has been corrupted by entropic forces. A Static Mental Test will determine if a particular mage is Nephandi or Marauder, or if a spirit is (as the Garou would say) of the Wyrm.

 

v Remove Curse: This rote allows you to untangle the threads of Fate, freeing a subject from any Basic or Intermediate curse in a manner similar to Unweaving. Adepts of Entropy may also free a subject from a Disciple's (or Advanced Hedge Magic) curse.

 

Adept: Affect Living Patterns

 

Adepts of Entropy study how life forms begin, mature, wither, and die. Through this, you may influence the random factors of life, damaging or sustaining them. By direct application of Entropy, you may inflict or prevent wounds to a living being. Mages of Entropy who follow the more mystic Traditions use this power to bless or curse a target. With effort (and perhaps conjunct use of Time) you may affect his descendants as well. While this power may be made more potent in conjunction with one or more other Spheres, Entropy alone is usually enough to cause these effects through probability.

 

v Blight of Aging: By directly infusing raw entropy into the patterns of living beings or spirits, you may weaken or injure such creatures. Subtle applications of this rote enable you to bestow Negative Physical Traits upon your opponent, typically the Traits: Decrepit, Delicate, Clumsy or Lame. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may assign any two of these Negative Traits which remain for the duration of the scene. Alternately, you may directly attack the vital systems of your target, inflicting one Health Level of damage for each successive test. Once you have attained the rank of Master, this damage may be considered aggravated. Either application of this rote requires you to defeat your opponent in a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits.

 

v Hand of Fate: While the Disciple of Entropy can only nudge destiny in a particular direction, you have more direct control over such results. This rote allows you to automatically succeed at three specific actions (tests) during the current scene. Alternately, by defeating an opponent in a Mental Challenge, you may cause your foe to fail at three specific tests. The effect may not be cast upon any individual more than once during a scene, for once disturbed, the strands of fate must be restudied before they may again be altered.

 

 

Master: Affect Mind, Destroy Patterns

 

Masters of Entropy expand their control over reality by studying the ways in which ideas change over time. Thoughts, they point out, can be molded, shaped and influenced just like other patterns. This is accomplished merely by pointing things out that will strike a person a particular way and then letting his thoughts follow the natural progression to those possibilities. This may lead to changes of heart, spur of the moment decisions or even temporary insanity.

 

v Call Oblivion: While an Adept of Entropy is limited to affecting material forms, you are capable of breaking down the ephemeral patterns of spiritual beings, including wraiths. For each success on an Extended Static Mental Test, you are able to inflict one permanent wound.

 

v Destroy Thought: By applying the principles of entropy to a target's mind, you may cause beliefs to break down or decisions to reverse. By winning a Mental Challenge, you may bestow upon your opponent any two of the following Negative Social or Mental Traits: Inarticulate, Nervous, Submissive, Confused, Distracted or Indecisive. These Traits last for the remainder of the scene. You may immediately follow this rote up with a non-magickal Mental or Social Challenge to persuade your target to abandon any given action or intent.

 

v Erode Pattern: As a Master, you are able to quickly unravel the patterns of creatures and objects. While these changes were possible at lower ranks of Entropy, such breakdowns often took a significant amount of time. You are under no such limitation. Liquids can be made to evaporate, flames to fade away, clouds of gas may suddenly disperse or the engine of a truck may rust and fall apart in a matter of minutes. When applied to living beings, this rote inflicts aggravated damage. For obvious reasons, most applications of this effect are considered vulgar.

 

Forces

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

Forces is the most intangible of the Pattern Spheres. It governs the manifestations of light and sound, the natural energies of fire and gravity, and ultimately the hidden forces that exist in the nuclear world. While the more Technocratic paradigms define many things as the absence of energy - darkness, silence, cold - older Traditions view these as forces in and of themselves. Mages who want to cause serious damage often study Forces, for no other Sphere is as capable of such sheer destructive power. On the other hand, even friends tend to give Forces mages some distance, as the latter are notoriously Paradox-prone.

 

Basic: Perceive Forces

 

Even as an Initiate, you can perceive all types of energy flow, sensing wavelengths far beyond the limited range of visible light and sonic frequencies upon which normal mortals rely. You may gauge the amount of energy present in a system, translating it into any terms or units of measurement with which you are familiar. This would enable you to determine a room's exact temperature or realize with a touch that a battery needs recharging.

 

v Heightened Senses: The simplest application of this Sphere allows you to extend your perceptions, enabling you to see in the dark or hear sounds otherwise too faint to pick up. The duration of this effect is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test. The senses of taste and smell are not applicable to this rote.

 

Intermediate: Control Elemental Forces

 

Elemental forces are any that can be easily perceived or understood: sound, light, electricity, heat, kinetic motion and gravity. While you cannot yet fundamentally change the properties of these energies, you are able to exercise some degree of control over their ebb and flow. Sound and silence may be sent in different directions, light and darkness may be bent. They may even be focused and diffused to change apparent colors, to displace or even hide a mage’s image. By redirecting other forces around you, you may move small objects with telekinesis or even inflict normal damage through any of a number of means. Unfortunately, the amount of energy that can be controlled at this rank is limited. You could light a torch, but not set a city block on fire.

 

v Affect Kinetic Energy: By enhancing or dispersing the kinetic energy associated with an attack, you may increase or decrease the damage done by that object or blow. Normally this rote is used during a Physical Challenge to increase the damage inflicted or better enable a target to shrug off the injury. However, you may also initiate a Mental Challenge against an opponent's Physical Traits to hurl an object using telekinesis or deflect an incoming projectile by bidding a Mental Trait in defense. For any of these applications, you may add or subtract one Health Level for each success on an Extended Simple Test.

 

v Holographic Illusion: While this name comes from the Virtual Adepts, similar effects are common to other Traditions. By altering the ambient light and sound in an area, you may create a multi-sensory illusion. Close observation (or contact) will enable others to identify the illusion for what it is, but to casual perception the phantasm will appear real. Disciples of Forces take this one step further, establishing energy fields that mimic the physical presence of the illusionary object. Such creations are tangible and capable of inflicting real damage, though any attack by such a phantasm would require you to make a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits.

 

v Light-Sound Distortion Field: By bending light and sound around a target, you may render yourself (or some other object) invisible and inaudible. While this rote prevents you from being seen or heard, it does not protect you from injury or other physical contact. This includes the effects of people bumping into you because they do not know you are there. When employing this effect, you must stand with his arms crossed to alert others to the fact that they should ignore you. Any hostile action, fast movement or other direct interaction with the environment will cause a shimmering outline to appear for the remainder of the turn. Other characters may initiate Challenges against such a partially revealed character, though they suffer a two-Trait penalty on any such attempts. The duration of this effect is determined by a standard Extended Static Mental Test.

 

v Static Discharge: You may cause ambient static electricity to discharge into a target, effectively stunning them. This requires a Mental or Physical Challenge against the target's Physical Traits and inflicts one Health Level of stun damage for each success on an Extended Simple Test.

 

Disciple: Transmute Elemental Forces

 

As a Disciple of Forces, you may now change one elemental force into another. This allows you to summon or dissipate these energies as you like, even flipping positive into negative. You may also direct concentrated energies that inflict aggravated damage against your opponents. In addition, your control over gravity is sufficient to allow you to lift large objects through a greater form of telekinesis.

 

v Create Energy: This rote enables you to create energy patterns as desired or (through conjunct use of Matter or Life) to transform a target object or being into an elemental force. If you wish to summon energy of this type where nothing yet exists, you must use Intermediate Prime to fuel this newly created pattern. Alternately, you may take the ambient energy within or around a target and change it to some more hostile form. Thus the kinetic motion of a bullet may be turned into flame when impacting a target or the gravity holding an opponent down changed into an electrical discharge that sends him flying. While Intermediate applications of this Sphere could only cause normal damage, you are now capable of inflicting aggravated wounds.

 

v Levitation: By controlling and directing gravity in relation to a target, you may enable yourself (or another object) to float into the air. While you are still limited in the maximum speed you can achieve (about equivalent to a slow walk), an Adept can move at about twice normal running speed. According to some rumors, Verbena using this rote often employ a broom as a focus. However, even this would not render such an effect coincidental, except perhaps on Halloween.

 

Adept: Control Subtle Forces, Destroy Elemental Forces

 

As an Adept, you may bypass the limitations that have previously affected you, controlling any amount of elemental energy. You may focus the light of the sun into a laser beam or change what direction gravity pulls in order to stand on the ceiling. Any elemental force may be dissipated completely and harmlessly. In addition, you may begin to affect the subtle forces that have found names in the scientific paradigms: radiation, tectonic stress and the nuclear forces that hold molecules together. However, you may only redirect or manipulate these subtle forces, you may not yet create them.

 

v Rumble in the Bronx: It was a Hollow One who first employed this rote, when caught in an urban brawl. By intensifying the gravity in an area and releasing it as tectonic shifts, you may cause a minor earthquake to occur. Buildings will shake, fragile structures collapse and people fall helplessly to the ground. These effects will continue for the duration of the scene and any damage is determined on an individual basis using an Extended Simple Test.

 

v Weather Control: Verbena often employ this rote to send away storms that interfere with their ritual celebrations. Any existing weather pattern may be dispersed or send elsewhere, though how quickly this occurs will often determine whether the effect is vulgar or coincidental. By employing a conjunct effect with Intermediate Matter, you may also create weather systems where none existed before.

 

Master: Transmute Subtle Forces

 

With Mastery of this Sphere, the scope of what you may affect is limited only by your paradigm. Elemental forces may be created without the need for Prime, though the creation of subtle forces is still a conjunct effect. However, some effects are beyond even a Master's reach, though rumors abound of one Marauder who is still trying to lock the sun in place over his favorite beach.

 

v Energy Burst: While lesser effects in this Sphere can cause normal or aggravated damage, the scope of such injures is still contained. However, a Master of Forces is capable of causing much more significant damage. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may inflict three normal or two aggravated wounds against an opponent. This effect is otherwise the same as the rotes: Affect Kinetic Energy, Static Discharge or Create Energy.

 

Life

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

Another of the Pattern Spheres, Life covers the more dynamic systems found in living beings. There is great debate over exactly where to draw the line between the Spheres of Life and Matter. In general, this Sphere governs items still containing living cells, even if the item is technically dead. If something is alive enough to be planted in the ground to sprout or still viable for tissue cultures, the Sphere of Life may affect it. Other unprocessed organic items, such as wood or straw (or dead bodies) may fall into this category or under the Sphere of Matter, depending upon your specific paradigm.

 

Those who work in the Sphere of Life must deal with one side effect that does not limit mages who work with the other Pattern Spheres (Forces or Matter). This phenomenon is known as pattern leakage. Living patterns have the ability to repair themselves, which causes them to reject drastic changes. If a creature's pattern is altered beyond what is normal for its species, it begins to suffer damage as its nature fights against the magick affecting it. For each day a life form remains drastically altered, it suffers one aggravated wound. In addition, this damage cannot be healed magically. Only time will restore these wounds, once the target's pattern returns to normal.

 

Basic: Identify Life

 

By reading a creature's pattern, you can learn a lot about your subject: its age, gender, state of health, even its species. Of course, you may also determine if someone is dead or (in the case of vampires) undead. In combination with Basic Correspondence, you may immediately detect the presence of living beings in an area or even keep track of their movements.

 

v Scent of the True Form: A Verbena trying to pass herself off as a werewolf developed this rote to keep pace with her pack-mates. By making a Static Mental Test, you are able to determine if a particular target is a supernatural being and if so, what type. This will not detect ephemeral beings such as wraiths nor determine whether the target is Awakened, though conjunct use of Basic Spirit or Prime will get around this limitation.

 

Intermediate: Control Primitive Organisms, Affect Self

 

At this rank, a mage can affect the structure of basic life forms, from microscopic bacteria to creatures such as insects and shellfish, as well as any plant. You can heal or damage these simple creatures, or even alter their basic patterns. You may cause crabs to sprout extra legs, vines to bear fruit or bees to release the pheromone that signals a swarm. While many changes are possible here, the creatures remain what essentially what they are. You can mutate them, but you cannot transform them into something different. In addition, you have begun to experiment with more complex patterns, starting with your own. While drastic modifications are still beyond your reach, you may make subtle alterations to your body. In addition, you may heal your own wounds, though only one such attempt may be made per injury.

 

v Fatigue Banishing: Popular among Virtual Adepts who like to pull all-nighters, this rote enables you to catch up on lost sleep. By passing a Static Physical Test, you may eliminate fatigue, refresh your body's systems and generally feel as if you have gotten a full night's rest. Your mind will still suffer from the lack of sleep, though conjunct use of Intermediate Mind will take care of that. The difficulty of the test increases by one for every four hours since you actually slept. While useful in the short term, this sort of thing will eventually catch up with the user.

 

v Cosmetic Changes: Popular among the Hollow Ones, this rote enables you to make minor cosmetic alterations in your appearance. While drastic modifications are not yet possible, changes in facial features, skin tone, eye or hair color are all within your reach. Once you become a Disciple, you may carry these changes over to others. However, you must first defeat such a target in a Mental Challenge against your opponent's Physical Traits.

 

Disciple: Transform Primitive Organisms, Mutate Self,

Affect Complex Beings

 

Disciples of Life are invaluable to a Chantry, with the power to heal fallen cabal-mates. However, while this Sphere may also inflict damage as well, a mage who understands Life need not always kill. In addition, you have enough control over your own pattern to make improvements and variations as you did with simple life forms at Intermediate rank. You may also transform one life form into another or change other patterns into living forms through conjunct effects with Matter or Forces. In conjunction with Intermediate Prime, you may even create simple creatures, tailoring form and appearance to your desires.

 

v Better Body: While you still may not substantially change what you are (human), you are able to make significant changes in your own pattern. You may alter your gender or extend your pattern to grow claws or gills. You may even increase your Physical or Social (Appearance) Traits, gaining two traits for each success on an Extended Arete Test. If this increases your total number of Traits above human norm, the effect is vulgar. Alternately, you may remove Negative Physical or Social (Appearance) Traits from yourself, freeing yourself of such limitations. If these changes remain in effect for more than a day, you will suffer damage from pattern leakage. On the other hand, substituting one Trait for another does not cause pattern damage.

 

v Rip the Man Body: Disciples of Life are not only healers. Combat applications of this Sphere can cause significant injury. This requires a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits. If successful, you may inflict two Health Levels of stun damage or one normal wound for each success on an Extended Simple Test. Once you have reached the rank of Adept, you also have the option of causing aggravated damage.

 

Adept: Control Complex Beings, Transform Self

 

As an Adept of Life, you can change the structure of any complex life patterns, including those of other sentient beings. In addition, the damage that you may inflict upon opponents is now considered aggravated. Finally, you may drastically alter your own form, leaving your humanity behind. You may now change your pattern to duplicate that of any living being of approximately the same size and mass, gaining the normal (non-magical) abilities of that creature. In addition, you must take care not to remain too long in the new form or you will begin to take damage from your altered pattern. If you are also a Disciple of Matter or Forces, conjunct effects may even transform you into inanimate objects or patterns of pure energy.

 

v Mutate Form: The changes possible to simple life forms at Intermediate rank may now be performed on any living pattern. In addition to the effects possible using the Better Body rote, you may also remove Physical or Social Traits from your opponents. This requires a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical or Social Traits. Each success on an Extended Static Mental Test allows you to subtract two such Traits or bestow two Negative Traits upon your opponent. Duration is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

v Physiological Emotional Control: Mages with a more systematic view of living beings see behavior as much a function of biological response as any mental activity. By winning a Mental Challenge, you may control a target's physiological responses, causing your opponent to feel any desired emotion. This effect normally lasts for one scene, but may be sustained for longer through an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

Master: Transform Complex Beings

 

As a Master of Life, you can alter others in the same ways you transformed yourself as an Adept. In addition, changes accomplished at this level no longer suffer the dangers of pattern leakage. However, a higher life form changed into a lower one tends to trade intelligence for survival instincts, while a more primitive being changed into a more complex one has similar problems. If you are also a Disciple of Matter or Forces, you may perform conjunct effects that transform a target into an inanimate object or even a stream of pure energy. Over time, a creature transformed into a form drastically different from its base existence will start to lose track of who and what it is.

 

v Breath of Life: Masters of Life have access to a power many consider divine. By weaving a new pattern, you are able to grant form to any type of life. As with all such creations, this is usually a conjunct effect with Intermediate Prime, Forces or Matter. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, the new life form may be given three Physical or Social (Appearance) Traits. Such a creation may also take additional Negative Physical Traits or Physical Flaws to purchase other Traits. This new life form has no mind or soul beyond base instincts, although Masters of Mind or Adepts of Spirit have their own solutions to this problem. In addition, creatures which (because their nature) contradict static reality will suffer the effects of Paradox and Unbelief over time.

 

v Metamorphosis: The limitations of simple Self Transformation no longer plague a Master of Life. Whatever you become, that form is as natural as the one in which you were born. In addition, the effects of such a transformation are permanent, allowing you to remain in the new form indefinitely, returning to your original shape at will. Shape-shifting at this rank also allows you to retain your consciousness and Spheres. You may even create the subtle variations within your new form that allow you to speak normally. This rote may also be used as a conjunct effect by a Disciple of Matter or Forces to take on a non-living form. In this case, however, at least Basic rank in the Sphere of Mind must also be employed to hold your sentience together in this alien state of existence.

 

Matter

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

The last of the Pattern Spheres, Matter governs the tangible forms found in inanimate objects. The precise line between this Sphere and the Sphere of Life varies from Tradition to Tradition. Obviously, a subject that contains living cells (including blood) falls under Life, while inorganic substances are considered Matter. Unprocessed organic items such as wood or straw may fall into this category or under the Sphere of Life, depending upon your specific paradigm. Alchemists of old used this Sphere to create wondrous items or transform base materials into precious commodities. Modern practitioners tend to use Matter to work with technology, inventing new contraptions and developing alloys and other substances with impressive properties.

 

Basic: Identify Matter

 

You begin your studies in this Sphere by recognizing the various patterns of Matter, including the underlying structures that give objects their shapes and physical properties. You can calculate an object's mass and density or determine of what substances a particular item is composed. In conjunction with Basic Correspondence, you may detect the presence of specific substances in an area, a technique known among the more mystic Traditions as dowsing.

 

v Inner Vision: By focusing on the interwoven patterns of an object, you may discern structures hidden within other forms. Material borders no longer hinder your perceptions. By making a Static Mental Test, you may determine the exact internal layout of an item. This rote is particularly useful in combination with the Repair or Technology Abilities when figuring out how to operate a mechanical device or to determine what is wrong with a broken one.

 

Intermediate: Transmute/Create Simple Objects

 

As you progress in your studies, you learn to substitute patterns within an object, changing one substance into another. In addition, you may alter the basic shape of an object, bending or sculpting it into another shape, even seamlessly repairing broken items. However, the intrinsic properties of an object, including its mass and volume, remain constant. As a conjunct effect with Intermediate Prime, you are able to create any simple item composed of one common substance. The definition of "one substance" will vary with your paradigm. Scientists will concern themselves with homogenous elements and simple compounds, while more traditional mages work with observable materials and forms. Once created, these objects exist the same as any other and are subject to the normal effects of their environment. Thus a stone conjured at this rank would remain until destroyed, while an ice cube created using the same rote would eventually melt if left at room temperature.

 

v Lesser Alchemy: You may change one substance into another, without affecting its mass or basic state (solid, liquid, gas). Members of the mystic Traditions can change water into wine or lead into gold, while Technomancers change oil to acid or carbon into silicon. You may also use conjunct effects involving other Pattern Spheres to transform items governed by Life or Forces into basic patterns of Matter, including changing living beings into stone or spinning moonlight into straw.

 

Disciple: Alter/Destroy Simple Objects

 

As a Disciple of Matter, you can change the intrinsic properties of inanimate objects, making a substance softer or harder, or temporarily altering its basic state (solid, liquid, gas). By breaking down the pattern of an object, you may destroy simple structures, dissolving material objects or erasing them from existence. Like equivalent applications of Entropy, how quickly an object breaks down will determine if the effect is coincidental or vulgar. This rank of Matter is also used in conjunction with Intermediate Forces to change the magnetic properties of a substance or with Correspondence or Prime to create wards against any material object.

 

v Sculpture: With this rote you are able to make drastic changes to an object's shape, beyond those achievable at Intermediate rank. Any change in shape or structure is possible, limited only by your creativity and artistic ability. You may even change the size of an item, increasing or decreasing its volume with a corresponding change in density.

 

Adept: Transmute/Create Intricate Objects

 

Adepts of Matter may now perform radical changes to physical material and craft complex items involving several substances. Any type of regular matter may be changed into any other, turning pumpkins into gilded coaches or trashcans into tanks. In conjunction with Life or Forces, other targets may be transformed into inanimate matter. In addition, any form may be created out of pure Quintessence using Intermediate Prime.

 

v True Changes: While the effects possible for an Adept of Matter are not significantly different from those possible for a Disciple, the scope and duration of those changes are much vaster. In addition to the fact that you may now affect more intricate structures, any changes made to simple substances are now permanent.

 

Master: Alter/Destroy Intricate Objects, Affect Properties

 

As you reach the rank of Master, conjunct use of Prime is no longer required for you to create any of the lesser forms of Matter. You may also make changes in the state of an object, solid to liquid to gas, without heating or cooling it. You simply alter the temperature at which it changes state. In addition, you can even render one object immaterial to another, allowing it to pass through untouched. If you are also a Disciple of Life or Forces, targets governed by these other Spheres may be similarly affected.

 

v Greater Alchemy: Masters of Matter may create substances that do not exist in nature. By taking existing materials and altering their physical properties, you can create glass with the tensile strength of steel or bricks as light as feathers. The rare substances of Technomantic science, such as unique radioactive isotopes, adamantium or Primium, are also reserved for this rank. These alterations or creations affect the inherent pattern of the object and are considered permanent.

 

v Virtual Design: Technomancers of all sorts employ this Sphere to create unique devices by combining the properties of other tools. Thus you can create a rocket launcher that has the form of a handgun and make it look like a plastic toy. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, one additional mechanical device may be merged into the creation. While this process often takes a while to enact, any devices created using this rote will remain in their new form, subject to the effects of their environment.

 

Mind

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

For those who believe that reality is governed by perception and intent, the mind is the first and last frontier to be explored. Students of this Sphere learn the workings of their own thought processes in order to gain control over the memories and emotions of others.

 

Basic: Enhance Self, Read Emotions

 

You begin your studies by learning to sense the thoughts and emotions around you, reading the psychic signature commonly referred to as a person's aura. Detailed examination of the aura of a target will often reveal what type of being (vampire, werewolf, changeling) you are dealing with, though more information may be gained through conjunct use of Basic Life or Spirit. As you start to explore the working of your own mind, you learn how to concentrate on multiple things at once. The Virtual Adepts refer to this skill as multi-tasking. In conjunction with Basic Time or Correspondence, this ability enables you to keep continual track of when or where you are.

v Empathy: The simplest application of this Sphere is to read the emotional aura of a target. You may determine what someone is feeling, though not the cause of those emotions. In conjunction with Basic Matter or Intermediate Time, you may also pick up impressions left on objects. Conjunct use of Basic Correspondence also allows you to locate any minds in the nearby area, tracking their movements and emotional states.

 

v Echoes of Thought: By sensing the thought patterns around you and monitoring your own perceptions, even an Initiate of Mind is able to detect when someone is using mental illusions or invisibility effects. Use of this rote enables you to ignore such passive effects (including the Disciple rote Somebody Else's Problem Field) if you pass a Static Mental Test with a difficulty equal to the target's number of Mental Traits. You must think to use this power, though characters with the Awareness Ability may make an additional Simple Mental Test to notice that something is afoot.

 

v Multi-Tasking: The first thing you learn when working with your own mind is how to maintain different trains of thought at the same time. This is most important when you are sustaining multiple spell effects once. For each rank in this Sphere, you are able to subconsciously process information or perceptions resulting from one other Sphere. This applies to rotes that have a standard duration as well as those spells which are continual effects (assuming that optional rule is used). For each spell beyond this number that you are maintaining, you suffer a one Trait penalty. As with the Basic Prime rote Extend Pool, this effect is considered to be automatic.

 

Intermediate: Control Emotions, Read Surface Thoughts

 

As your skill increases, you learn how to read and interpret the surface thoughts of those nearby. You can also leave psychic impressions on objects and places or project them directly at a target. Complex commands may not be transmitted this way, but single words or emotional impulses can. This level also allows you to forge more elaborate mental shields, creating a false layer of surface thoughts over yourself and others. With preparation, you can even change your aura or shield your emotions from casual observation.

 

v Be Cool: Originally developed by the Hollow Ones, variants of this rote have found their way to other Traditions. You are able to read the subtle signals given during conversation and may tailor your responses to those which will best influence your audience. This enables you to add your rank in this Sphere to your Trait totals during any non-magickal Social Challenges. The effects of this rote last for one scene and may not be extended.

 

v Mindspeak: This rote allows you to communicate mind to mind with another sentient being. Range is limited to line of sight, and the communication cannot normally be overhead except by other students of Mind. Pictures and complex concepts may not be sent and all conversations must take place in a common language. Once you are a disciple, these limitations are waived. You may send messages to an unwilling target by defeating him in a Mental Challenge, though the subject is under no obligation to reply.

 

v Peace of Buddha: By defeating a target in a Mental Challenge, you may instill a sense of serenity upon an opponent, calming even the most violent temper. If the subject is in frenzy, this rote will restore him to normal. If the individual is not in such a state of rampant violence, this rote will pacify him, bestowing the Negative Traits: Docile and Submissive for the remainder of the scene. Unlike most continuing effects, the duration of this rote cannot be increased until you have attained the rank of Disciple.

 

v Subliminal Command: By sending a single word, feeling or image directly into the subconscious mind, you are able to cause a target to act a certain way. Complex messages or directives are beyond the scope of this power, nor may you control the interpretation of the command. For example, if you invoked fear in your opponent, he may choose to run away, freeze in place or even cower in a corner. In any case, the specific action chosen must be appropriate to the command and your target's Nature and Demeanor. To complete this rote, you must defeat your opponent in a Mental or Social Challenge.

 

v Surface Scan: This rote enables you to read the surface thoughts of a subject. In combat, this rote allows you to anticipate an opponent's actions, granting your a free retest as long as the scan is in effect. Another application is to determine if a target is lying, though the truth behind the words will sometimes be too deep within your target's mind for you to read. If you do not wish your target to know that he is being scanned, you may bid a second Trait and employ a Static Mental Test rather than a Mental Challenge.

 

Disciple: Control Surface Thoughts, Read Inner Mind

 

You can now establish a clear link between your mind and the consciousness of others. You can use this link for telepathic communications or invasions. Once inside the mind of your target, you may probe deep into his subconscious memories and perceptions, reading deeply buried thoughts or journeying into dreams. The intrusions possible at this rank may take other forms, such as projecting believable illusions into a subject's perception stream. In addition, you may enhance your own mind, increasing your ability to store and process information or making your more effective when interacting with others.

 

v Enhance Mind: This rote allows you to alter the workings of your mind, granting yourself additional Mental or Social Traits or offsetting the effects of Negative Traits. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may add two positive Traits or remove two Negative ones. This rote uses a standard Extended Static Mental Test to determine how long these modifications remain in effect. Such changes are not without risk, however, and extensive use of this rote will cause insanity and eventually death. If you want these changes to be safe and permanent, such increases must be paid for with Experience.

 

v Illusionary Command: By subtly changing a target's perceptions and consciousness stream, you may force him to perform actions that he normally would not. Such commands must be framed in a way that causes the target to believe he is acting in his own best interests. By winning a Mental Challenge, you may project images and emotions that give the target a false sense of what is really going on. Note, however, that the specific actions taken by a target are not yet within your control, only the sensory perceptions that would hopefully cause those reactions.

 

v Insert Memory: Memories are little more than records of perceptions and thoughts and you can implant artificial ones into a target's mind. This requires a Mental Challenge, but once inserted the memories are as permanent and natural as any legitimate ones. Done repeatedly, such alterations could even change someone's Demeanor. In addition, you may attempt to restore memories that have been blocked through other efforts. However, even if your subject is willing, this requires a Static Mental Test to see if things are put back correctly.

 

v Neural Shock: A Disciple of Mind is able to project not only emotions and images. By winning a Mental Challenge, you may also send waves of raw mental energy directly into someone's mind. If successful, you may inflict one Health Level of stun damage for each success on an Extended Simple Test.

 

v Probe Thoughts: By winning a Mental Challenge, you are able to enter the inner regions of a target's mind, sifting through memories, thoughts and beliefs. A second Trait may be bid to enable you to slip quietly into your target's mind. Otherwise, the subject will be aware of your probe.

 

v Sensory Deprivation: Originally used by the Akashics for self-training, this rote has devastating combat applications. By blocking the sensory input a target receives, you may render him deaf and blind, unable even to feel his surroundings. The only sense that cannot be negated is smell. This rote requires you to defeat your target in a Mental Challenge, and employs the standard Extended Static Mental Test for duration. Some Marauders employ a variant of this rote that replaces the normal sensory information with an alternate stream of perceptions, making a target believe that he is somewhere else entirely.

 

v Somebody Else's Problem: Unlike the more directed forms of mental illusion, this passive rote allows you to shield your presence from the perceptions of those nearby. This effect relies upon a person's natural instinct to ignore things that do not concern him. Those with exceptional sensory abilities (such as Heightened Senses) might be able to detect your hidden presence via a Static Mental Test. When employing this effect, you must stand with your arms crossed, indicating to others that they do not notice you. Any hostile action or other direct interaction with your environment will cause you to again become visible. Since this rote prevents you from most other activities, this spell normally remains active as long as you concentrate on it. However, if you wish to sleep or perform other passive rotes while using this power, you may employ a standard Extended Static Mental Test to determine its duration. Because this is a mental illusion, cameras and other technological monitoring devices are not fooled by this effect. However, while such devices may show the presence of the hidden mage if the recordings are viewed at a later time, anyone watching these images locally (within line of sight of you) will not register your presence for the duration of the effect.

 

v Telepathy: This rote allows more elaborate communication than Mindspeak, though the effects are similar. Detailed images may now be sent and all conversations take place independent of any language. By enacting this rote multiple times in succession, you may even link a group of minds into a telepathic network. Targets of this power must initially be close to you, though once a connection is established, it may be maintained over many miles. Of course, conjunct use of Correspondence will negate any distance limitations.

 

Adept: Control Inner Mind

 

While a Disciple of Mind is limited to changing a target's perceptions, you are capable of taking direct control over another person’s thought processes. Once this mental invasion has begun, you may control your victim's actions, cure or cause insanity, change his memories or set up post-hypnotic suggestions. You may even enter the dreams of others, altering them at will. The side effects of such severe manipulations can last quite a long time. While the victim may eventually recover as the subconscious mind reasserts true memories and beliefs, the subject’s Demeanor is usually irrevocably altered.

 

v Alter Mind: The changes possible for a Disciple using Enhance Mind may now be applied to others. In addition, you may reverse the effects, removing Mental or Social (Personality) Traits or implanting Negative Traits in an opponent. Each success on an Extended Simple Test allows you to add or remove two such Traits from a target. The changes remain in effect for the duration determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

v Manipulate Memory: By defeating your opponent in a Mental Challenge, the target's memories, beliefs and opinions may be edited, removed or replaced. Once enacted, the effects of this rote are permanent. Alternately, you may attempt to undo such changes. Even if the subject is willing, this application still requires a Static Mental Test to see if everything is put back correctly.

 

v Neural Overload: By overloading the brain's ability to process input, you may cause it to start to break down, inflicting physical (normal) damage upon a target. This requires defeating your opponent in a Mental Challenge and employs an Extended Simple Test to determine how much damage is inflicted.

 

v Possession: You are not limited to simply altering the conscious and memories of your targets, you may even seize direct control of an opponent's mind, orchestrating his every action. Use of this rote requires you to defeat the target in a Mental Challenge. A second Trait may be bid in the Challenge if you wish to blur your subject's awareness of this effect. In the latter case, victims of this rote will believe all actions taken to be of their own volition, causing some to wonder afterwards if they have gone insane.

 

v Walk Among Dreams: By projecting your consciousness into the dreams of a subject, you may become an active participant in this mental landscape. Alternately, you may send your consciousness into the Astral Plane, the Periphery of the High Umbra. Because of the intensity of the connection, any injury your projection suffers will carry over to your physical body as stun damage. Hermetics employ a variant of this rote in conjunction with Basic Spirit that enables them to project their consciousness into any layer of the Umbra with equivalent effects.

 

Master: Create/Destroy Inner Mind

 

A Master of Mind rules not only his own mind, but other minds as well. You may completely rewrite someone’s personality until his thoughts, Demeanor and Nature bear no resemblance to anything that existed before. You may also divorce your psyche from your body, switch minds between subjects and copy or transfer the entire sum of a person’s memories and knowledge from one host to another. The changes possible for the Adept may now be made permanent. The greatest power of a Master of Mind, however, is the ability to create true conscious thought.

 

v Artificial Intelligence: Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts both view technology as a perfect framework for the creation of intellect. By forging a consciousness where none existed before, you may create a rational thinking mind, granting it intelligence and designing its personality however you like. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may grant your creation up to three Mental or Social (Personality) Traits. In addition, the creation may take additional Negative Traits or Psychological Flaws to purchase additional Traits or Merits. In conjunction with Adept rank Matter or Life, this fledgling mind may even be given a body to inhabit, though the Physical Traits would be determined separately. Once created, this mind exists as an independent entity, with its own goals and ideals, desires and fears.

 

v Untether: Complete astral travel becomes possible for you. You may project your consciousness into the Astral Plane or the various realms of the High Umbra, leaving your body for hours or even days. While you are separated from your mortal shell, you are unaware of anything that transpires on that end. If your body dies while you are absent, the silver cord connecting your soul is severed. If that happens, you become a disembodied spirit (equivalent to a wraith), though residing in the High Umbra.

 

Prime

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

The Sphere of Prime is the study of Quintessence, the raw energy of True Magick. Quintessence exists everywhere and all things are composed of it. Most models divide Quintessence into two categories: "free" Quintessence, which flows through all patterns and "raw" Quintessence, which makes up those patterns. While in theory there is no difference between the two types, in practice free Quintessence is much easier to manipulate than the raw form. Most accessible is the crystallized variant known as Tass. This tangible form of free Quintessence takes many shapes and is harvested directly from Nodes.

 

Basic: Sense/Use Quintessence

 

You begin your study of Prime by learning to sense Quintessence, from the Nodes where it collects to the Avatars of the Awakened. Perceptions of Prime vary from one mage to another. Some view Quintessence as a glow or light associated with charged items or places, while others hear it as a background tone or musical effigy. In whatever manner you perceive it, this awareness puts you at a decided advantage when dealing with other Awakened beings.

 

v Extend Pool: Even an initiate of Prime understands the workings of Quintessence better than those who do not study this Sphere. By affecting how magickal energy collects in your body, you may extend the amount of Quintessence you can hold beyond what your Avatar may contain. For each rank in this Sphere, you may retain an addition two Quintessence Traits. Unfortunately, you are not yet skilled enough to fill this increased pool through your own efforts. At this level you may only recharge up to your Avatar rating, though this still takes place much quicker than those unschooled in Prime.

 

v Heart's Blood: In desperate times, you may push beyond the normal limits of your Quintessence reserve, though such efforts cause grievous wounds. For each Health Level of aggravated damage you are willing to suffer, you may draw two additional Quintessence Traits out of your life force, using them for any purpose. As with pattern leakage, this type of damage may not be cured magickally, only through extended rest.

 

Intermediate: Affect Quintessence, Sustain Pattern

 

As your skill in this Sphere increases, you begin to gain some control over this shifting Quintessential energy. In addition, you learn to detect the more subtle aspects of Quintessence, such as is found in the Blood of vampires, the Gnosis of werewolves and the Pathos of wraiths. Umbral beings may be detected as well, for their presence carries with it a tangible ripple of Quintessence. Perhaps the most common use of Intermediate Prime, however, is in conjunction with the Pattern Spheres (Life, Matter, Forces) to create a life form, object or energy pattern where none existed before. See the effects described under these other Spheres for more information.

 

v Enchant Item: The first step in learning how to create magickal Talismans is to master the ability to infuse a material object with Quintessence. While it yet holds no power on the physical plane, you may significantly enhance the object's presence in the Umbra. A leather jacket could become as strong as armor against spirit attacks, though it would have no such strength in the physical world. Weapons charged with Prime do aggravated damage, even crossing the Gauntlet to affect spirits. Alternately, you may forge an object out of pure Quintessence. Such a creation would exist solely in the Periphery and would be detectable only to those with Prime or some means of viewing the spirit world. The effects of this rote last for a duration determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

v Rubbing the Bones: By diverting small amounts Quintessence out of static patterns, you may weaken an object or inflict stun damage to life forms. This requires a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits. Because no physical harm is being done to the target, a victim of this rote may spend a Willpower Trait to ignore the painful effects for one turn.

 

Disciple: Transfer Quintessence, Disrupt Ephemeral Patterns

 

By this point, you have learned to manipulate free Quintessence at will, transferring it from place to place. This also provides a boost to your effective Quintessence pool, providing three temporary Traits per point rather than two.

 

v Channel: While Basic Prime only allows you to draw Quintessence up to your Avatar rating, at this rank you may completely fill your pool from any available source. Alternately, you may act as a conduit between such a source and another mage, allowing you to refill another mage's pool beyond what she could do herself. Conversely, by defeating an opponent in a Mental Challenge, you may attempt to drain Quintessence from a target. Each success on an Extended Simple Test allows you to siphon off one additional Trait of Quintessence (or in conjunction with the appropriate Spheres one Gnosis, Blood, Glamour or Pathos). However, mages may never be drained below their Avatar rating. That reserve is inviolate.

 

v Rend Ephemera: Because of the close association between Quintessence and the Umbra, a Disciple of Prime is capable of injuring those whose patterns are composed of ephemera. This includes spirits and wraiths as well as chimerical beings. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you are able to inflict one Health or Corpus Level to any being native to the Umbra. This does not require conjunct use of Spirit, since you can already sense the presence of such beings.

 

Adept: Disrupt Quintessence, Alter Material Patterns

 

While Disciples of Prime are largely limited to detecting and manipulating free Quintessence, You have learned to channel raw Quintessence. You can pull Quintessence out of existing patterns, destroying objects and energy systems or causing aggravated damage to living beings. In addition, you can use conjunct effects with Matter or Forces to remove specific aspects or properties of these patterns. This allows you to make solid objects insubstantial or cause a magnet to have only one pole. However, the most well known ability of Prime Adepts is their ability to create Talismans, magical tools that intrinsically hold a magical affect. Complete rules for Talismans may be found in Chapter Six.

 

v Flames of Purification: By draining a pattern of its raw Quintessence, you may cause an object to cease to exist. While living beings or spirits may suffer aggravated damage from this rote, patterns that are not self-sustaining (such as those governed by Matter or Forces) are completely destroyed. Living opponents must be defeated in a Mental Challenge against the target's Physical Traits, while inanimate objects require only a Static Mental Test against the number of Health Levels the structure has. Each success on an Extended Simple Test inflicts one additional Health Level against your opponent. Once you have reached the level of Master, this rote may be employed to permanently remove Health Levels from a living being or Umbral creature, slowly eroding its base existence. In this case, however, the Extended Test is Static Mental rather than Simple.

 

v Ward: By erecting a field of pure Quintessence, you may create mystical barriers negating any use of magick across them. Once in place, a Ward may only be taken down by Unweaving. If you are also a Disciple of another Sphere, you may extend the effect of these barriers, preventing a particular type of target from passing. The nature of the target being banned will dictate which other Sphere must be used in conjunction. An Extended Static Mental Test is performed to determine the duration of the ward.

 

Master: Control Quintessence, Destroy Patterns

 

Mastery of this Sphere grants you direct control over the fabric of reality. You may convert raw Quintessence around you into free Quintessence, making it available for any purpose. In addition, you can the base patterns of living beings and spirits, permanently draining an opponent's ability to exist. Masters of Prime can often be detected by their enhanced sense of presence and stand out as beacons in both the spiritual world and among the Awakened.

 

v Counter Paradox: You have sufficient understanding of the relationship between Paradox and Quintessence that you are able to nullify the effects of Paradox directly. Each use of this rote requires you to burn one Quintessence Trait in order to erase a single Paradox Flaw or drain away one Paradox Trait that has you (or others) have accumulated.

 

v Create Sanctum: Similar to the above rote, this application of Prime allows you to alter the parameters of static reality within an area. By shaping truth to a particular paradigm, you are able to insulate a location from the damaging effects of Paradox. Creation of a Sanctum is performed in the same manner as forging a Talisman, though in this case the entire area holds the effect. More information on Sanctums may be found in the Backgrounds section of Chapter Three, while rules for creating Talismans are given in Chapter Six.

 

Spirit

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

This Sphere encompasses skills for traveling through the Umbra, as well as dealing with spirits and the other entities that inhabit it. Some regard the Umbra as the basis of the mortal world, while others consider these realms to be just another frontier. No other Sphere marks the line between mystic and Technomancer as clearly as Spirit. While the mechanics for dealing with this Sphere remain constant, how the Umbra fits into your paradigm - including your choice of rotes and foci - vary greatly between shaman and spirit-tech. This Sphere covers both the Middle Umbra inhabited by nature spirits and the darker realms of the Underworld, home of the Restless Dead. A complete description of the various levels and layers of the Umbra may be found in Chapter Six.

 

Basic: Sense Periphery, Sense Spirit

 

As an Initiate of Spirit, you begin your studies by learning to sense the Penumbra and the Shadowlands, allowing you to interact with ghosts and spirits. You may detect items closely tied to the spirit world, including fetishes and fetters, as well as those in possession of a mortal body. In addition, you are able to perceive the Gauntlet itself, determining its relative strength or detecting local disturbances.

 

v Spirit Sight: By shifting your sight sideways across the Gauntlet, you are able to view what is happening in the Periphery. However, to get more than just a general sense of presence, you must make a Static Mental Test against the rating of the Gauntlet. Communication with spirits is possible, though still subject to the limitations of language. Of course, the spirit is under no obligation to respond. Conjunct with Basic Entropy, this rote allows you to determine if a particular spirit is associated with the Digital Web (what the Garou call Weaver spirits) or is native the Lower Umbra, such as a wraith.

 

Intermediate: Touch Periphery, Touch Spirit, Sense Umbra

 

At this rank, you gain the ability to interact directly with spirits and objects in the Periphery. Although this magick allows only brief contact, it is still enough to push a spirit out of a room or hit one over the head. Conjunct use of Intermediate Spirit also allows rotes that normally affect the physical world to enter the Periphery.

 

v Bring Across: Using your ability to reach across the Gauntlet in conjunction with the Sphere of Matter, you may push an object out of the physical world and into one of the layers of the Periphery. Conjunct use of Basic Entropy is required to reach into the Shadowlands, while Basic Mind allows access to the Astral Plane. Alternately, you may reverse the process to create a material version where only its spiritual counterpart used to exist. Once enacted, this change is permanent, though the item is subject to its new environment.

 

v Spiritual Projection: While you cannot yet bring your body across into the spirit world, you are able to send your consciousness into the Penumbra or (through conjunct use of Basic Entropy) into the Shadowlands. While projected into the Periphery, you may interact freely with the inhabitants there. Though the duration of this effect is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test, you may still only move about in the immediate vicinity of your body.

 

v Spirit Strike: By reaching across the Gauntlet, you are able to initiate a Physical Challenge against a target in any layer of the Periphery. This requires a separate spell test beforehand, unless the Gauntlet is less than your Arete.

v Thinning the Shroud: You may also manipulate the Gauntlet itself, weakening it to allow easier traffic or sealing it tight to prevent spirits from reaching across. Each success on an Extended Static Mental Test reduces the local Gauntlet (or Shroud) rating by two. If the Gauntlet reaches zero, spirits may be seen or heard freely across it, without the use of any special powers. As with other continuing rotes, the duration of this effect is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

v Umbral Vision: Through conjunct use of Intermediate Correspondence, you are now capable of viewing most locations within the Near Umbra. As with the earlier powers, conjunct use Basic Entropy is required to scry into the Underworld. Centering the vision on any known being or site requires a Static Mental Test, while locating an unknown target requires a Disciple of Correspondence.

 

Disciple: Travel Umbra, Compel Spirit

 

As a Disciple of Spirit, you may now travel into the Umbra, taking your body and possessions with you. In addition, you have by now attained some status among the inhabitants of the spirit world and may add your rank in this Sphere to your Trait totals during any non-magickal Social Challenge.

 

v Awaken the Inanimate: Many Sons of Ether claim that the objects they interact with have personalities of their own. Cars like to be treated a certain way and mechanical devices become undependable if abused. The Disciple of Spirit is well aware of this phenomenon, for you are able to rouse these ghosts within the machine. While such an awakening does not create a true fetish, the item in question will be able to affect its own use in minor ways. The older and more cherished an item is, the stronger the presence associated with it. While a kitchen knife from the local department store may have about as much personality and intelligence as an artichoke, the spirit of an athame forged by a Verbena's ancestors would be potent indeed. In addition to their other properties, any object that has had its spirit awakened exists on both the physical and Umbral layers and may affect beings in either realm.

 

v Command Spirit: While Basic Spirit is enough to communicate with spirits and even ask them for their aid, you may command these entities to appear or banish them from your presence. You may undertake either an Extended Mental or Social Challenge when determining the number of services that the spirit must perform or the duration for which the target spirit may be banished. While you are still limited to lesser entities at this rank, an Adept may compel the more powerful and sentient spirits, including wraiths and specters.

 

v Stepping Sideways: By piercing a temporary a hole in the Gauntlet, you may cross through to the other side, stepping into either the Penumbra or the Shadowlands. This requires a Static Mental Test against the local Gauntlet rating. While you may bring your possessions across freely, dragging other beings along requires more effort. For each additional success on an Extended Simple Test, you may take one person into the Umbra with you. From the Periphery, a mage with the Cosmology Ability may journey into the various realms of the Near Umbra and the Underworld. Keep in mind that journeys into the Lower Umbra can be quite hazardous unless you are also versed in the Sphere of Entropy.

 

v Umbral Ward: By focusing upon an area rather than an individual spirit, you may ban spirits from entering a particular region of the Periphery. This rote creates a space around a physical locale that has a separate Gauntlet relative to the rest of the Umbra. Any spirit attempting to cross into this area must first defeat the caster in a Mental or Social Challenge. Alternately, the spirit may spend a Willpower Trait to enter the area for a single scene. The region thus protected can be up to five feet in radius for each Mental Trait you possess, plus any Quintessence or foci bonuses used when casting the rote. As with other continuing effects, duration of this ban is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

Adept: Weave Periphery, Bind Spirit, Sense Outwards

 

While lower ranks are able to influence or bypass the Gauntlet, as an Adept you may rip it asunder or repair breaches which others have made. You may also use the Gauntlet to trap those passing through, keeping them halfway between worlds and subject to attack from either side. In addition, you may now compel stronger spirits, forcing them to appear and serve you or banishing them from the area. Finally, you are able to bind such entities into an object, fashioning the spiritual equivalent of a Talisman, called a Fetish. Complete rules for creating these magickal items may be found in Chapter Six.

 

v Free the Mad Howlers: By binding a hostile spirit inside another being, you may inflict aggravated damage against an opponent. You must win a Mental Challenge against your opponent's Mental or Physical Traits to force the possession. The subject will then suffer one aggravated wound per turn until the spirit is banished or your target is destroyed.

 

v Mend Ephemera: There are other ways than force to gain a spirit's aid and the Adept of Spirit knows many of them. Among the most useful is your ability to repair ephemeral objects, including the Relics of the Restless Dead. In addition, you may heal spirits and wraiths directly, restoring one Health Level or two temporary Corpus Levels for each success on an Extended Simple Test.

 

v Spirit Channel: A brave (or foolish) mage may channel a spirit’s powers internally, in effect making yourself a living fetish. This requires a Social Challenge against the spirit in question. While channeling the spirit, you gains access to all of its Attribute and Ability Traits and may even use any of its powers. However, because of the strain of holding such an entity, you may not employ any Sphere other than Spirit. This power is not without cost, for even a minor spirit will demand recompense for its aid. Greater entities may claim more than you wish to pay for such aid, while those with darker origins have been known to taint a shaman's soul over time.

 

v Far Vision: While physical travel beyond the Tellurian is not yet possible for the Adept, you can still send your consciousness into the realms of the Deep Umbra. The duration of this effect is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test and any knowledge of the realms being explored must come from the Background: Dream.

 

Master: Transform Spirit, Weave Umbra, Travel Outwards

 

A Master of Spirit gains a significant power over the Umbra, establishing Horizon realms and domains or even fashioning permanent holes in the Gauntlet. Your understanding of Umbral travel has also progressed to the point where you may journey beyond the Tellurian into the deeper spirit realms, adapting to survive the alternate environments often found there. In addition, you may now attempt to compel the greater beings found in the spirit realm, calling them or sending them away. Doing so is risky, however, for true control over Totems and Celestines is beyond even a Master's reach and angering such a spirit can be costly indeed.

 

v Create Ephemera: While the older shamanic teachings claim that all spirits are merely summoned from some deep potential within Gaia, more modern beliefs hold that they may be created in the same manner that a Master of Life or Mind may forge such patterns out of pure spirit stuff. Regardless of the truth behind the philosophies, Masters of Spirit have the awesome ability to take raw ephemera and grant it shape and spiritual existence. By forging a spirit where none existed before, you may create a coherent entity, granting it thought and designing its personality and manifestation however you likes. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may grant your creation up to three Attribute Traits. The spirit may also take additional Negative Traits or Flaws to purchase additional Traits or Merits. Once created, this spirit exists as an independent being, with its own goals and ideals, desires and fears. Of course, it will always feel a certain connection to its creator, though how it views you will depend greatly on your initial interactions.

 

v Gilgul: A Master of Spirit has enough understanding of the soul to be able to permanently wound a spirit or even attack another mage's essence, directly damaging his Avatar. After defeating your opponent in a Mental Challenge, each success on an Extended Static Mental Test removes one Avatar Trait or Corpus Level permanently. If all Corpus Levels are drained from a spirit or wraith, it is claimed by Oblivion. Similarly, if a mage's Avatar is reduced to zero, his ability to work magick is forever destroyed. Those who use this dreaded rite must beware, for such an act is never undertaken lightly.

 

Time

Basic Intermediate Disciple Adept Master

 

Time is perhaps the hardest Sphere to comprehend. In early days, native cultures viewed the world as changeable and time as more a function of present and absent than past or future. Later, as societies grew, a more deterministic and linear view of temporal relations came into favor, with clearly defined concepts of when events occurred. Recent studies however, including Einstein's Relativity Theory and modern Quantum Mechanics, have rendered this static perception of time obsolete. Events and reality are once again more a function of the observer than the observed. This cyclic behavior is just one of the many oddities that those who study Time come to accept. Mages who try to fathom the intricacies this Sphere argue theory more than any other - especially the speculations regarding time travel.

 

Basic: Sense Time

 

As with other Spheres, you begin your studies by developing an awareness of your subject. For the Time mage, this enables you to detect time-based phenomena, sensing the approach of such disturbances and feeling where in dimensional space the phenomena will appear. A useful side effect of this enhanced temporal awareness is that you can maintain a precise internal clock, regardless of the time flow in whatever realm you finds yourself.

 

v True Age: One of the more common tricks for an initiate of Time is the ability to guess a person's exact age.

 

Intermediate: Sense Past/Future

 

You can now shift your perceptions forward or backward in time, granting your flashes of pre- or post-cognition. Reading the past tends to be more certain than gazing into the future, for the latter is notoriously subject to change. By working with the Intermediate Correspondence, you may focus on other locations as well, while conjunct effects with the Sphere of Entropy allow you to view several possible futures and determine which are the most probable.

 

v Preemptive Vision: One habit common to students of Time is to warn yourself of upcoming events, usually a few moments before they happen. This allows you to preempt someone else's actions with your own or to give your a few seconds extra preparation. This sort of foreknowledge is often enough to alter your response to a situation and grant you a free retest in any sort of Challenge where such preparation would be helpful. Another application of this rote allows you to call "Fair Escape" in any situation, though you must think to use this power before encountering the event. In conjunction with Basic Mind, this grants you a form of intuitive awareness for problems, equivalent to the Merit: Danger Sense. As with other continuing effects, the duration of this last application is determined by an Extended Static Mental Test.

 

Disciple: Affect Time

 

As a Disciple of Time, you have learned to accelerate or slow the flow of time as you desire. Mages often describe these effects as contracting or dilating the time stream. While these moments seem to pass normally to an observer, you see more things happen during that time than would normally be possible. More extensive effects allow you to withdraw into a bubble, allowing reality to move quickly around your while inside time passes slowly. While less certain than actually skipping forward in time, this effect is significantly easier to perform, and to a large extent, less fraught with risk.

 

v Time Echoes: Where Intermediate use of this Sphere allowed you to preempt others with your own endeavors, you can affect the time stream more directly, allowing yourself extra actions during a turn. This rote grants you two additional actions per turn for the remainder of the scene. The only limitation on this rote is that while under its effects, you may not further contract or dilate time, though other uses of this Sphere, including the Intermediate rote Preemptive Vision or the Adept ability to Time Skip, are possible as additional effects.

 

v Rip Van Winkle: Named for the fairy-tale traveler who awoke after a century-long nap, this rote enables you to pass long periods of time with little personal change. For each success on an Extended Static Mental Test, the time flow relative you by a factor of ten. This rote continues functioning as long as you hold the field, for you may not interact with others or engage in any strenuous activity while under its effects. Alternately, a standard Extended Test may be used to set the duration when this rote is cast on someone else. If the recipient of the effect is unwilling, you must first win a Mental Challenge against your opponent. Conjunct use of Intermediate Mind or Life allows you to sleep for the duration of the change, though you would have to be a Disciple of these other spheres to affect someone else. In addition, a Disciple of Time who also holds that rank in Correspondence could produce a conjunct working which carries an entire room forward, sliding quickly through the intervening years. With proper preparation, you may create a field in which a century passes in but a few days, effectively traveling into the future. While this is less dramatic than a Master's efforts, it is also much safer. On the other hand, such a journey is a one-way trip and none can prove the wisdom of following it.

 

Adept: Control Time

 

You can now cause absolute shifts in time, taking a field of time and freezing it. A falling arrow may be stopped mid-flight or a person placed in a state of suspended animation. Doing so for more than a short time is difficult, and usually requires a conjunct effect with the Spheres appropriate to the subject. A more practical application enables you to move faster than moral perceptions, taking several actions in the blink of an eye. In addition, you may tie another magickal effect to the temporal stream, causing it to be triggered at some later time. This powerful effect enables you to create the equivalent of magickal time bombs or (in conjunction with Mind or Entropy) effects that take place dependent upon other events.

 

v Blight of Aging: Equivalent to the Entropy rote of the same name, you are able to produce this effect by artificially speeding up a creature's bodily functions. However, because such changes are not part of the normal pattern of the creature, the effects of this rote eventually wear off. Subtle applications enable you to bestow Negative Traits upon your opponent, either the Physical Traits: Decrepit, Delicate, Lame or the Mental Traits: Confused, Distracted, Forgetful. For each success on an Extended Simple Test, you may assign any two of these Negative Traits to an opponent, which remain for the duration of the scene. However, a Master of Time is able to make this effect permanent. Alternately, you may directly attack the vital systems of your target, inflicting one Health Level of damage for each successive test. Once again, the Master is able to take this effect one step further, inflicting aggravated wounds. Either application of this rote requires you to defeat your opponent in a Mental Challenge against your target's Physical Traits.

 

v Time Skip: By combining the temporal awareness possible at Intermediate rank with the ability to affect the time stream directly, you may skip across unwanted moments, effectively bypassing certain events. Once cast, this rote allows you to ignore three specific events during a single scene. Each such instance can be no longer than a few seconds, for example one attack by a given opponent. How far in advance you may prepare this effect is determined (as per duration) by an Extended Simple Test. Multiple instances of this rote may not be stacked, for once disturbed, you must restudy the time stream before it may again be mapped.

 

Master: Stop/Change Time

 

As a Master of Time, you can shift objects directly from one moment to another, plucking something out of the flow of time and repositioning it at some other point. The new position could be seconds or centuries away from the object's original place in time. Conversely, you can immunize yourself from time, stepping outside the normal flow of events. While in such a state, you perceive the world as a collection of still images that you may manipulate as you please. As a conjunct effect with Life or Matter, you may take other creatures and objects out of time as well, even abandoning them in these moments between. These victims may appear seconds later to normal observation, though their perceptions (and bodies) will have experienced weeks or centuries of isolated existence.

 

v Time Travel: Certainly the most fantastic power attributed to Masters of Time is the ability to journey into the past or future and perhaps even to return to the present. While accounts of mages traveling to some future time abound, no documented evidence exists of such a traveler returning to their point of origin. Nor is there any proof of a mage enacting a successful voyage into the past. There is much debate as to the reasons for this. Some Masters argue that the only successful journeys are the ones never noticed, for Paradox takes a dim view of retroactive changes to reality. Other mages contend that while such expeditions are possible, the very presence of such travelers alters the time stream, so that when they return it is to an alternate future, a reality parallel to the one that they left. A few Masters speak of some sort of temporal authority that polices the time stream, removing those who would tamper with it. Most merely attribute this action to Paradox, while a hushed minority whisper of a ruthless conspiracy dedicated to preventing such journeys. In the end, it is up to the Storyteller to handle any Masters of Time who attempt such travel.

 

The Tenth Sphere

 

Each Tradition believes in a tenth Sphere that encompasses all the others. The Virtual Adepts speak of the Sphere of Information, while Marauders boast of understanding the Sphere of Paradox. The Ahl-i-Batin claim that the Sphere of Paradigm allows direct control over what constitutes Static Reality and the Technocracy continues to seek its Grand Unification Theory. While such debates may be an entertaining way to pass time, Storytellers are advised to grant no mage, not even Narrator characters, access to any sort of tenth Sphere.

 

Non-Magical Arts

 

In addition to the Spheres described above, other powerful skills are available to both mages and un‑Awakened mortals alike. Non-magical Arts cost three Experience or Freebie Traits per Basic power, six for each Intermediate and nine per Advanced. If purchased as a secondary power, add one to all costs.

 

Do

Basic Intermediate Advanced Master

 

The Way as practiced by the Akashic Brotherhood has as its roots the oldest martial arts forms and meditation practices. Followers of this path believe its continued practice helps a person achieve enlightenment. Only members of the Akashic Brotherhood may purchase this art as a primary. All others may only take it as a secondary power. Even then, finding an Akashic who will train someone outside the Brotherhood can be difficult indeed.

 

Basic

 

Danger Sense

The first power developed by practitioners of Do is an increased sense of awareness in what is going on around you. Even without specific use of the Mind or Life Sphere, you have sharpened your senses at a subconscious level. You may never be attacked by surprise. In addition, a Simple Mental Test will reveal any nearby danger. Combined with Intermediate Time, you may also preempt an opponent's action with one of your own.

 

Body Control

Followers of the Way believe in balance. Once you have learned to extend your outward perceptions, the next step is to turn your focus inward, gaining increased awareness and control over your own body. Use of this art gives you greater control over your body's ability to handle injuries. While this does not negate or remove damage, you are able to function more effectively when injured, ignoring all wound penalties.

Intermediate

 

Martial Mastery

While combat is not the primary application for Do, those who know its secrets can be devastating opponents. This level of understanding allows you to bypass the techniques learned through the Ability Traits of Dodge, Brawl or Melee. Instead, you may tap into the inner mastery which practitioners of the Way claim is the heritage and potential of any true seeker. This grants you a free retest during any hand-to-hand combat maneuver (equivalent to the Brawl and Melee Abilities) or when attempting to dodge incoming attacks. You may also now attempt some of the more spectacular tricks, such as knocking arrows out of thin air or redirecting an opponent's attack back against him.

 

Kiai

One of the basic tenets of Akashic philosophy is that breath is life. By gaining mastery over your breath, you gain complete control over yourself. One step in that process involves the use of a deep shout, known as the Kiai, to focus your breath into a single dramatic exhalation. As a preparatory action, you may employ the Kiai to gain three additional Physical or Social (Intimidating) Traits for the duration of a single scene or combat. In addition, this power allows you to channel Quintessence into a barehanded strike, causing extra damage to your opponents. For each Quintessence Trait expended during a Physical Challenge, you cause one additional wound. However, any Traits spent in this manner must be declared before the Challenge is resolved.

 

Advanced

 

Silent Breath

While the powers of life and death are not yet within your reach, still you can simulate them to some extent. This skill allows you to take on the aspect of death, slowing your breathing and heart rate to undetectable levels. You may maintain this state for up to an hour while still moving around normally. Alternately, you may enter a state of deep meditation, putting your body into a state of suspended animation, which can last for weeks if necessary.

 

Master

 

The Final Blow

While the previous level allowed you to appear as a corpse, this power allows you to keep death itself at bay. By spending one permanent Willpower Trait each turn, you are able to ignore all injury you have sustained, even those which would otherwise be fatal. While this does not heal the damage, it does allow you to continue functioning in times of great need. Once all of your Willpower is gone, final death is all but assured.