Numina

From turning base materials into decaying messes and then moving them upward toward eventual perfection, the ancient art of alchemy has provided the basis for modern chemistry. Wrapped in elaborate codes, symbols, and metaphors that still remain open to interpretation, this Art depends upon the idea of transformation from lower to higher states of being. The common perception of the Art rests upon its old claim of turning lead into gold; in reality, though, that claim is both metaphor and a way of scamming money to fund alchemical pursuits. Sure, a skilled alchemist might indeed use Matter magick to change lead into gold; on a deeper level, however, the lead is the alchemist and the gold represents self-perfection. 

Although its common name comes from an Arabic practice, alchemy has several different forms: the Taoist Arts of sublime energies, the medieval European “lead into gold” vocation, the Islamic refinement-of-self through the keys left by Allah in the hands of wise men, the roots of those Arts in Classical Greece and Egypt, the early forms of modern chemistry, the complex pharmacopeia of South American mystics, the postmodern psychotropic experiments of transhumanist philosopher chemists, and probably a few more forms as well. A 21st-century alchemist might study several of these disciplines, formulating new variations on ancient principles. Alchemy, after all, focuses on learning-based perfection. The practitioner’s mind and body transform themselves through practicing the Art. 

Aside from its chemical applications (poisons, psychoactives, explosives, and so forth), alchemy isn’t really a fighter’s Art. Its techniques demand patience, time, and a dedicated workspace. As a result, Ascension War alchemists tend to craft Wonders and compounds that come in handy when things get tense. And because it’s not really difficult to turn lead into gold if you know what you’re doing, such mages tend to be quite rich… with all the resources that wealth implies. 

In all its forms, alchemy demands discipline. An alchemist studies principles, experiments with materials, deciphers codes, puzzles over symbols, works in his lab, creates useful goodies, and constantly challenges and refines himself. For him, the practical applications of alchemy – drugs, acids, and other chemical compounds; quick wits; foreign languages; and other techniques of transformation – take a back seat to the self-perfection at the core of this venerable Art.

Associated Abilities: Art, Crafts, Cryptography, Enigmas, Esoterica, Medicine, Science (chemistry)

There’s something magical about our animal kin. The glow of eyes in the dark. The uncanny grace of a cat or stag. The rough power of bears and elephants. Flight, fangs, venom, speed – despite our many human gifts, animals possess abilities that naked humans can’t hope to match without technology, magick, or both. And so, from our earliest origins, human mystics and inventors have cultivated arts that allow us to access such birthrights and use them as our own. 

Technically, the term animalism refers to a philosophical paradigm that says that human beings are just highly advanced animals. (See the paradigm We are Meant to be Wild.) As a catch-all term for an array of related metaphysical practices, animalism connects the essence of the human animal self with the essential selves of non-human animals. Among the earliest forms of magick, this practice includes several different, though related, forms:

* Requesting Aid: A common element of primal magick, this form of animalism calls upon animal spirits and /or totems in order to get aid from the animal in question.

* Invoking the Beast-Self: Invoking the Beast-Self: Recognizing the animal heritage within humanity, this approach taps into a human being’s submerged animal nature and then brings it to the surface. Tarzan is arguably the poster boy for this technique, which calls forth “the beast within” and sets it loose – a dangerous but potentially rewarding technique.

* Invoking the Essence: Sort of a cross between the previous approaches, this form of animalism invokes the essence of a certain sort of animal through spirit-magicks that embody that essence in the person of the mage. African animal-spirit medicine employs this approach, as do shamanic traditions from across the globe.

* Taking the Essence: Some folks just take whatever they want. Not bothering to make deals with animals and spirits, they simply kill a beast and then pull its power out through enchanted remains. A traditional tactic among the “skinwalkers” of Southwest Native American lore, certain forms of European shapechangers, and mystics of other hunting /warrior cultures.

* Radical Mutation: A technological spin on animalism employs scientific theories and instruments (regression therapy, genetic mutation, extensive surgery, hybrid clones, shapechanging serums, brain-switching, grafted implants, cybernetic enhancements, and other tools of science run amuck) in order to “bring out the beast” in human beings or change non-human animals into humanoid forms. Trope-wise, this is the 'Island of Doctor Moreau' approach - a favorite of rogue Progenitors everywhere.

Associated Abilities: Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Crafts, Stealth, Survival

(For an entirely too and too silly treatment of Animalism, refer to Book of Secrets, pg. 197-199) 

Known in the Renaissance as Ars Cupiditae, the Art of Desire focuses upon achieving your desires through finding out what other people desire and then using that knowledge to enact your Will. Like alchemy (and most other forms of magick, art, and science), this discipline involves plenty of self-perfection: athletic exercise, meditation, mental gymnastics, self-reflection, etiquette, and other social graces. Fashionable clothes, subtle yet influential cosmetics, poise and grace, martial arts, seduction, intimidation, and the trappings of wealth and refinement provide essential tools for this practice. Although it’s most readily associated with the Syndicate and its original form as the High Guild, the Art of Desire has adherents throughout the mortal and Awakened worlds. 

Essentially, Ars Cupiditae converts desire to reality. What you want, you make happen. A devotee nurtures her desires and the desires of other people, then uses them to advance her agenda for Reality as a whole. An Art of value, this practice draws connections between people and places, reads emotions and influences thoughts, manipulates the physical and mental states of both the mage and her subjects, and directs probability and material toward a greater goal. As a result, this Art favors the Spheres of Correspondence, Entropy, Life, Matter, Mind, and Prime, using them as parts of a useful, interlocking whole. 

An eminently cultured practice, Ars Cupiditae draws upon a mixture of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern social and philosophical technologies. A practitioner of Desire rarely comes across as a mage at all – she’s more Nikita than Hermione. Although certain Ecstatics and Hermetic wizards favor this approach, and modern Ngoma and Taftani use it to command urban commerce and culture, a devotee of this Art employs social influence, economic wizardry, and sheer personal excellence in order to get what she wants. Such mages rarely use violence themselves, leaving the dirty work to paid enforcers. If and when a practitioner needs to get her hands messy, though, her athletic prowess and advanced technology prove that she’s no corner-office pushover. 

A related practice, hypereconomics, refines the Art of Desire into social and global control. By exploring and exploiting desires and values within a given group, a hypereconomist can sense the Primal Energies of want and need within that group and then turn them to her advantage. An arcane practice understood mostly by Syndicate reps and the occasional Virtual Adept, hypereconomics provides an excellent vehicle for Entropy, Mind, and Prime Effects, channeled through social and mathematical activities so subtle that few people even recognize that their lives are being altered. Almost always coincidental (gross violations of Consensus Reality are considered cheap), hypereconomics remains a closely guarded secret in the 21st-century reality wars. 

Associated Abilities: Academics, Athletics, Diplomacy, Etiquette, Expression, Finance, Forecasting, Intrigue, Leadership, Media, Politics, Seduction, Subterfuge

A bard in the metaphysical sense understands that performance and charisma are part of the process. An audience, after all, is most receptive when you’ve engaged their attention, and artists (magickal and otherwise) to tend be fascinating by default. To a sincere practitioner of sonic magick, though, the key to one’s practice involves connection – connection to the audience, to the material, between intention and execution, flesh and instrument, will and effect, passion and performance. A true bard channels his intentions through vibrations that include sound and yet transcend mere sound. Such a bard understands how to weave poetry, music, passion, the audience’s attention, and the pool of energy that courses through all things. He does not use an instrument; he becomes the instrument, and so his music is an inextricable part of who he is. 

Traditional bards tend to be historians, lorekeepers, storytellers, satirists, agents of news, and founts of inspiration. In the days before literacy, mass media, and recording technology, bards (in all their many names) were the primary sources of art and information. Most performed music, but others told tales, acted out plays, and otherwise engaged their audiences with performances that tapped into something deeper than mere craft. And so, even in our age of pervasive media, a metaphysical bard stands out from the Masses because he works toward a greater, deeper purpose than simple entertainment. He can be a healer, a killer, a lover, and a destroyer, shaping his Arts with mortal skill and metaphysical intent. 

While a traditional bard slings acoustic instruments and his own voice, a twenty-first-century one could employ electrified instruments, recording technology, massive audiences, and other tools that were impossible to imagine a century ago. He must, of course, be very good at what he does; traditionally, bardic training included intensive memory-training, people-skills, political intrigue, and a wary eye for the tenor of an audience. Beyond such skills, however, he also needs to understand the principles of musical technique and their connection to metaphysical forces… 

Associated Abilities: In game terms, the Abilities of Artistry, Expression, and Esoterica (with specialties in musical instruments, singing, and musical metaphysics, at the very least), supplemented with an array of social skills and a keen sense of opportunities to move Creation forward with a song Empathy, Enigmas, Seduction and Technology (for modern instruments) could also be appropriate. 

RESTRICTED: This practice is often appropriate for Awakened mages, yet there are few if any hedge wizards capable of putting such a personal stamp on the effects they work.

It’s not what you think it is. Although the term “chaos magick” tends to be associated with demons and evil, occultists understand chaos magick as a postmodern and often improvisational Art. Like other mystic practices, it emphasizes knowledge, reflection, and other forms of self-improvement. This revolutionary inversion of traditional mystic disciplines, however, depends upon personal intuition and interpretation; individual freedom; a deliberately iconoclastic approach; and an often subversive use of pop-culture symbols, social behaviors, and improvised designs. 

Chaos magic spits in the face of established dogma. Often regarded by outsiders as a Left-Hand Path, it’s a sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll sort of practice, raising and directing personal energy (that is, Quintessence) through extreme experiences. Obviously, this sort of thing appeals to Cultists of Ecstasy, whose more formal practices – Tantra, vision questing, ordeals, and crazy wisdom (see below) – have been integrated into the chaos magick potpourri. Even that diverse culture, however, is too confining for many chaos practitioners, whose embrace of the Chaosphere – the whirling fractal of absolute existence – resists confinement in any form. 

Playful yet serious, each chaos-magick practice draws from the individual practitioner’s experiences and desires. Some folks use toys and Tarot cards, whereas others draw sigils, craft graphic novels, run raves, stage flash mobs, and concoct elaborate pranks on society at large. Each mage, then, is a vortex of potential whose Will spins energy into being. And if this sounds too abstract to be useful, then you’re thinking about it too hard.

Associated Abilities: Artistry, Awareness, Computer, Esoterica, Expression, Meditation, Style, Streetwise, Technology  

There are reasons that Hephaestus is a metalsmith, Jesus is a carpenter, and Ogun is said to be the iron “who always eats first.” It’s no accident that Freemasons remain one of the most respected yet feared societies around – a society responsible, in ways, for the foundation of the United States. Many myths peg humanity’s origins to deities who fashioned us out of clay and then breathed life into their creations. That’s because craftwork– the Art of making miracles out of raw materials – is among the first metaphysical practices. 

Craftwork’s mystique has been largely diminished in the industrial world… so much so that it’s often farmed out to sweatshop labor or performed by machines. Even so, there’s still something a little awe-inspiring about that Geek Squad specialist who can effortlessly fix your errant computer, the tattooed malcontent repairing your car, or that friend who forges swords or crafts costumes for the SCA. The heart of craftwork comes from an apparently supernatural expertise with materials and tools – the ability to take bits of rock or skin or tree and then make lovely, useful objects from them. 

Many mystics bridle at the thought of crediting craftsmanship as a magical practice. After all, the Technocracy began as a bunch of disgruntled Craftmasons who shaped the machines that ended the High Mythic Age, so why should such people be considered mages? And yet, that prejudice ignores the legendary ties between craftwork and the mystic Arts: the legacies of Solomon’s temple and the masons who built it, of the temples whose sacred geometries invited gods to dwell within them, the shapers of iron, gold, and stone who brought humanity out of caves and into cities of their own design. Even the Industrial Era has a sense of magick – the sleek glare of glass towers, the hellish factory glamour, the enchanting pixel dance that comes from computers, TVs, and the Internet… all of which demand craftwork in their creation, maintenance, and eventual dismantling into recycled components. That Art might be taken for granted these days, but it’s still magickal to those who understand it.
 
As a practice, craftsmanship combines the physical and mental skills involved in various crafts (carpentry, metalsmithing, glasswork, plastics, leatherworking, and so forth), then combines them with Pattern Arts in order to make those materials better than they’d been before. Matter presents the obvious Sphere for such disciplines, but Forces (to command fire, air, electricity, gravity, and the like), Prime (to energize and strengthen those creations), and often Life (to work living or organic tissue) and Entropy (to spot, add, or banish flaws) are more-or-less essential too. Old-school crafters employ Spirit to Awaken or placate the spirits within the materials – an important process in ancient craftwork, which depended upon the goodwill of gods and spirits in order to succeed. And although the rituals of creation demand time, materials, and expertise, the results – from glass vessels to armored tanks – can last for centuries… or even, as with the pyramids, millennia. 

A typical crafter-mage seems rough around the edges compared to her more academic peers. Often physically strong and personally abrupt, she can be perceived as boorish and dull. That’s a common but mistaken view. In her chosen craft, this mage is every bit as sharp and knowledgeable as her book-bound contemporaries… most of whom would be lost without her expertise. And although common prejudices view such mages as members of the Technocracy (not without some truth), a crafter is just as likely to be a stonesmith Verbena, an ironworking Ngoma, an artisan Hermetic, or a VA computer tech. Though often forgotten in the catalogs of magic, craftwork is as old as humanity yet as fresh as the laptop at your fingertips.

Associated Abilities: Academics, Artistry, Computers, Crafts, Energy Weapons, Esoterica (sacred geometry, quantum mathematics, etc), Hypertech, Science, Technology 

RESTRICTED: This practice is found among some Awakened Mages, though is rare and somewhat thematically inappropriate for hedge wizards and technosorcerers.

A mage who gets a little bit out of her head when performing magick might use what’s often called the crazy wisdom practice: deliberately irrational activities that supposedly grant wisdom by shattering established concepts of what is and is not possible and real. 

Another sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll approach to magick, crazy wisdom often involves psychoactive entheogens, trance-inducing music, vision quests, risky ordeals, sexual excess, gender inversions, social misrule, mass ecstatic rituals, and solitary isolation in which the practitioner turns her own personal reality inside out and then ponders what that means. Although it’s technically undisciplined by the standards of more rigid forms of magick, such behavior provides a potent tool for enlightenment… assuming it doesn’t kill you first! 

Although its obvious adherents come from the Cult of Ecstasy, crazy wisdom has a long and respected history as part of shamanism, voodoo, witchcraft, and even certain High Ritual practices. The Order of Hermes has its own variation – the Antinomian Praxis – in which a mage smashes taboos, violates her own standards, and breaks through constraints to find what lies beyond them. Drawing strength from its obvious contradictions, crazy wisdom is dangerous, disruptive, often scary, and potentially lethal. That’s kind of the point, though danger isn’t always involved. Mystic contraries and genderqueers, who deliberately invert social expectations about identity and gender, practice a form of crazy wisdom on a social scale, fucking with people’s preconceptions in order to show greater possibilities. 

This is the Trickster’s Path, breaking on through like Jim Morrison in a mosh pit with Patti Smith, Br’er Rabbit, the Cat in the Hat, and several buckets of paint. 

When organic machines get wedded to mechanical machines, the synergy called cybernetics raises the human animal to a whole new level. On a broader plane, cybernetics reaches beyond mere flesh and machine to embrace the technologies of communication, language, electrical impulses, complex systems, and thought itself. Drawn from a Greek phrase meaning “to steer or govern,” cybernetic practices employ complex interactive systems – computers, electronics, prosthetics, mathematical formulae, linguistics, philosophy, even social dynamics – to extend the practitioner’s control… first over his own reality, and then over the reality of other systems and entities. 

Essentially, the cybernetic practice views Creation as a vast machine whose systems can be understood and manipulated with sufficient dedication. For many adherents – like the members of Iteration X – that dedication includes merging their bodies with mechanical components. Other practitioners, though, use cybernetics as a theoretical construct – a model through which calculations, psychology, symbols, and external devices and machines (as opposed to implanted ones) can bend probability (through Entropy), change minds (the Mind Sphere), transform materials (Life and Matter), channel energies (Forces and Prime), and redefine temporal physics… or, in plain English, reroute Time. 

Despite the dated overuse of “cyber” as an adjective, cybernetics remains a bleeding-edge discipline. Rooted in Chinese, Greek, and Arab technologies, this discipline blossomed during the Industrial Revolution and hasn’t stopped blooming yet. In the 21st century, whole nations are composed of cyborgs – smart-phone-using, video-watching, TV-nurtured, socially networked machine-people whose relationships and realities are defined by the 24/7 interface of our Information Era. 

Although the science-fiction landscape of depersonalized drones looks nothing like the world as we know it now, every element of life in our new millennium depends upon a complex interplay of cybernetic forces that very few people truly understand… and that even fewer – aside from certain technomancers – can control.

Social domination might just be the oldest form of magick. At its most basic levels, this practice directs animal instincts and human interactions toward the will (and Will) of the dominant party. Although other practices – notably Ars Cupiditae, shamanism, and High Ritual Magick – draw upon these techniques of domination, a raw assertion of command is the foundation of capital-A Authority… most notably among the New World Order. 

Rarely considered “magick” in the usual sense, the dominion practice employs inner discipline, social control, a cultivated understanding of behavior and governance, significant words and symbols, the trappings of power and authority, and a host of verbal and physical tricks that keep the practitioner on top of a given situation. At its lowest form, it’s the art of the abuser, con-man, and pick-up artist. Its techniques come into play through office and sexual politics and often form part of any strong parent’s arsenal. On a metaphysical level, dominion taps into the primal need for leadership and parenting, then directs that need with a conscious eye toward overwhelming control. Through that control, in turn, you command Reality because you believe you do, and you make other folks believe you do as well. 

A serious practitioner of dominion (that is, a mage) goes beyond crude intimidation, studying the deeper applications of social domination and self-perfection. Like a devotee of desire, he learns how to maximize his personal strengths and minimize his social flaws while taking full advantage of another party’s weaknesses and appealing to their need to be protected and led. Like Ars Cupiditae concentrates upon desire, the discipline of dominion concentrates upon command. The techniques can seem rather arcane, especially when they’re combined with religious and/ or philosophical beliefs; it’s through technology, however, that dominion finds its greatest influence. Queen Victoria was a master of this Art… and though she used technological instruments to get her point across, she exerted such a charismatic mystique that we still use her name to define the age she ruled. 

Skilled dominion practitioners employ eye contact, body language, vocal tactics, peer pressure, social appeal, and resonant symbols (uniforms, weapons, parental behavior, religious iconography) in order to cow their herd. From there, these alphas enact their Will in both a mundane and Awakened sense. Lots of mages use social techniques, but a dominion master takes them to a metaphysical extent, wresting control of Reality itself through mass domination – an Art of Kings that has shaped past history and continues to do so today.

RESTRICTED: Elementalism was once extremely common thousands of years ago. In modern times, it is vanishingly rare. It's also all too easy for mages relying on this practice to shade further into comic book tropes than the urban setting of Liberation's Los Angeles permits. It is included here for completeness reasons.

More of an intuitive bond with material Reality than a practiced discipline of human craft, this connection to the raw stuff of Nature allows a practitioner to channel primal Entropy, Forces, Matter, and Life through the talented Will of a mage. Thus channeled, the elements can be shaped, guided, conjured, transmuted, weaponized, and apparently “destroyed” on a material, if not an energetic, level. Although it requires training and a close study of nature, this mystic vocation is less about theory and more about “practice” in the most active sense of that word. 

This affinity, though, is less about relationships with spirits and gods than it is about the interplay between natural forces, human and animal consciousness, and the brute realities of flesh and bone. That said, it often involves a bond between the spirit of the mage and the spirit of the element in question, as described in the sidebar A Bit of Spirit? in How Do You DO That? p. 16. (The same book also has a section dedicated to element-based magickal Effects – see pps. 26-41.) Perhaps epitomized by the common image of Druidry – which, in fact, has several aspects and interpretations – an elemental practice is less spiritual than practical, with an eye toward immediate results like food, shelter, defense, and survival, in addition to the more sublime elements of spiritual observance and respect. 

Although certain elementalists can bond with more than one element, a mage can spend lifetimes connecting to the deeper subtleties within a single element, and rarely go beyond the one that best suits their personality. In temperament, behavior, and often appearance, an elementalist personifies the element she favors. Mages with an affinity for fire will be hotheaded, flush in complexion, and often warm or outright hot to the touch; water-affiliated mages, in contrast, are cooler, mysterious, and often “deep.” A rough-hewn woodworker and a rugged earthworker would favor the solidity of their elements, while a flighty air-mage flits from task to task, occasionally rousing a storm-like temper.

As the name suggests, elementalism favors a primeval approach to those Arts. Long before wizards used complex diagrams and long-winded chants to bend the spirits to their Will, initiates to the wild Arts used simple tools – blood, sex, bodily remains, effigies and paintings, hand-made weapons, bits of plant and stone, seeds and ashes, and the most primitive sorts of technology – to reshape their environments. In time, these practices inspired the more complicated Arts.

Associated Abilities: Artistry, Athletics, Awareness, Crafts (involving the element in question), Empathy, Meditation, Survival

Through faith, all things are possible. This saying underscores the essence of what might be the most common mystic practice in the world: devotion to a higher source. Drawn from the Latin word fides – “loyalty, trust, belief” – faith provides the foundation for many other practices, yet it stands as a practice in its own right. For although witches, shamans, Voudoun practitioners, and even scientists might be faithful to their higher power, faith itself provides comfort and power for those who believe. 

Often regarded as the core of overtly religious sects like the Celestial Chorus and Ahl-i-Batin, faith can inspire and energize any mage. Even the demonic Nephandi maintain faith in their horrific Absolute or the Infernal entities they adore. Faith, you see, provides the believer with stability and purpose. And although magick is often seen as an egotistical practice, faith ideally removes the ego in favor of that greater Source. The faithful mage says “THY Will be done,” then acts as an instrument for that Divine Will. 

For a mage of faith, the actions she takes and the Arts she pursues all represent the ideals of her higher power. In most cases, those ideals come through a religion – a binding that unites Divinity with the people of the faith. Not all faithful people, though, are religious; strictly speaking, religion is a social institution, whereas faith is a personal connection. Even science – often seen these days as an enemy of faith – can be a devotional practice. The foundations of modern science, historically, were laid by men and women of faith who used their discoveries to delve into, and then to reveal, the glories of their God. 

A faithful magus follows the tenets of her creed, maintains contact with her source through prayer, and acts – as often as possible – as an emissary of her creed’s ideals. “Keeping the faith” means pursuing virtues that supposedly please the higher power, and although the particulars depend upon the specific creed (a Franciscan Catholic, a Shi’a devotee, and an Odinist spá-kona all have very different ideas about virtue!), the mage’s adherence to that creed is essential. “Faith” does, after all, mean loyalty.  

The most practical magick practice is the one that uses whatever you’ve got to work with. Sure, wizards and cyborgs and Enlightened tycoons can afford all the best ritual gear around. What happens, though, when you’re more or less broke? Homeless, maybe? Living in a squat or stuck on the street or getting by as part of the working poor? Well then, you use gutter magick, the craft of making do. 

Composed of odds and ends with symbolic connotations, gutter magick features coins, cards, toys, scraps, bottles, cans, nails, junk, graffiti, and things crafted out of the cast-offs of consumer society. Dead TVs, old magazines, cardboard boxes, gnawed chicken bones, sacrificed rats and alley cats, old clothes repurposed and restyled with feral urban flair… such instruments direct the Will of the truly destitute. On the next rung up the socioeconomic ladder, lower-class mages use cheap tricks, cheesy clothes, New Age books, action figures, and other tokens of postmodern mall-magic. When invested with Awakened intentions, these otherwise useless trinkets provide focus for orphans, Hollowers, and other mystics with more ambition than resources. 

As with many other mystic practices, art forms a potent force in gutter magick. Hip-hop culture, Gothic rock, the various flavors of heavy metal, the blues, neotribal, techno-industrial, and even country/western music styles provide soundtracks for the mystic side of the urban scene. Inside the clubs, dancing and drugs create hypnotic atmospheres in which it often seems like anything could happen. A paranormal survival tactic, gutter magick skulks in the shadows of the alley between respectability and forbidden Arts. Gutter magick proves that you don’t need high wizardry and ancient tomes in order to get attention (if not necessarily respect) from the spirit world. In its darker elements, such magick employs guns, blades, cheap sex and cheaper booze, crimes and punishments, madness and desperation. Though not exactly new in form, it’s a common practice in the new millennium.

RESTRICTED: God-Bonding was once extremely common in ancient times. In modern times, it is vanishingly rare. It's also a bit too easy for mages relying on this practice to shade further into certain Sci-Fi tropes than is considered desirable here on Liberation. An excerpt included here since it might show up on a rare NPC (such as a Marauder or a mage with True Faith, neither of which will be approved for a PC).

Some folks embrace Divinity not as an abstract to be worshipped but as a force within themselves. Tapping into a greater sense of power, these mystics use a god-bond to enact their patron’s Will on Earth. Such people might be priests or saints, devotees of a higher calling… or they might view themselves as children of their gods, avatars of unearthly powers, “cousins” to those greater beings, or perhaps deities in human form. Whatever bond they claim, however, these mystics seem tied to something far beyond humanity. Holy people share a god-bond; so do crazy ones. 

Marauders, in fact, seem to favor this “practice” of magick over most other ones. Essentially, the god-bonded mage employs a Wild Talent (Mage 20, p. 527-528) or some very basic Arts, and then views his actions as extensions of his relationship to the divinity in question.

To achieve excellence, one must have perfection. To work one’s Will, one must have the discipline to master that Will and then direct it with utmost confidence. In an outsider’s perspective, the rigorous devotees of High Ritual Magick (all capitalized) are a pretentious pack of OCD pricks. For those devotees, however, the truth is plain: you must be strong, courageous, disciplined, and wise to unlock Creation’s power. High Ritual Magick demands those qualities. 

In High Ritual Magick, everything has significance: the alignment of planets, the tone of words, the calculations necessary to discover the correct number of times to repeat certain phrases, the formalities of address, and the measure or angle of materials aligned just so for maximum effect. That precision has a dual purpose: in one regard, the relationship of those many elements is crucial for success. In the other regard, the precision tests and challenges the magician, forcing him to overcome his flaws and become the superior person whom such intricacies demand. This practice is both an Art and a Science whose expertise has withstood the tests of time. You cannot be weak or sloppy or stupid, goes the reasoning, if you wish to work your Will upon Creation. Only the smartest, the bravest, the most refined people are capable of True High Magick, and so the rituals and their elaborate preparations discourage everyone who lacks the excellence to succeed. 

(This mindset also explains the condescending attitude for which High Ritual Magicians are so infamous. Although they don’t all feel this way, many such wizards believe that other practitioners have not earned the right to work True Magick. Lesser mages, to them, are like drunken kids speeding down dark mountain roads with Daddy’s car, an expired learner’s permit, and the wizard strapped in the back seat, unable to avoid the coming crash.) 

Though often associated with medieval Europe, High Ritual Magick has many forms, all of them refined by civilized urban cultures. China’s ritual magick boasts Confucian complexity, and rites from Egypt and Mesopotamia provide the centerpiece for the Western occult traditions of Greece, Rome, Persia, Israel, and Arabia. Nubia’s ritual Arts remain a closely guarded secret, held by the Ngoma as a timeless inheritance. Tibet, India, and Japan all have sublime ritual practices, whereas North American occultism blends Old World sophistication with New World eclecticism. The rites of South and Central America have largely been lost, thanks to Spanish conquerors… and yet, in secret corners of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Peru, sects preserve those Aztec, Maya, and Incan practices. 

In all forms, High Ritual Magick demands preparation, discipline, and the finest materials a magician can acquire. Such practices connect the mage with greater powers – gods, angels, demons, elementals, and the faceless forces of the universe – and those powers demand respect. The wizard, too, must earn respect; such powers do not answer to fools. In practical terms, High Ritual Magick is slow and precise. The wizard might call upon the results of his prior work in the heat of the moment, but those results – enchanted wands, crafted staves, precious amulets, mystic scrolls, imprisoned demons, angelic favors, priceless statues, carved jade pendants, Otherworldly gates, fine robes, imposing tomes – must be prepared well in advance. 

Despite all those trappings, an accomplished Ritual Magus understands that it is his Will that commands those elements. He does not hope or beg – he commands. Spirits can be bargained with, dragons might be conjured, God Himself might slip the mage a favor, but in the end all of those parties respect the High Magus because, ultimately, he has shaped himself into the true instrument of Will.

A catch-all term for the hundreds of methods used to unite advanced technology with visionary ideas, hypertech represents a dynamic approach to science. Despite the rumblings of disgruntled old-school mystics, this approach has transformed the world we live in. Computers, obviously, reflect the most obvious aspects of this Art and Science, but the brute force of metallurgy, the explosive powers of internal combustion, the harnessed lightning of electronic technologies, and the heady physics behind it all drive hypertech and humanity to new and exciting frontiers. “Oh, THAT’S not magick,” sniff the critics… but actually, it is. It’s not Hermetic wizardry, after all, that gave us cars, phones, computers, and electronic power… all those things, and more, began as hypertech. 

The hypertech practice reflects the genius of the human condition – that restless striving to perfect and understand. In earlier forms (like those employed by the Order of Reason), such “godless” Arts were reflections of deep reverence. Men and women of God sought the keys to His Creations, seeing divine glory in every twig or flower. The technologies of China, Greece, and Persia reflected mystic aspirations too. It’s no accident that so many scientific names come from old gods and Classical mythologies, and although modern science emphasizes proof over faith, there’s still plenty of room for wonder in this world. 

At the core of this practice – in its many applications, from cloning and biotech to astrophysics, mechanical engineering, chemistry, theoretical physics, and far more – hypertech is about potential… finding it, recognizing it, expanding upon it to create something even better than what we had before. A scientist understands that she doesn’t have all the answers and so constantly seeks them out. She’ll spend endless hours in the lab or reading journals – not so that she can turn humanity into drones, but so that she can bring something better into being. Despite its apparent sterility, hypertech retains a visionary optimism. 

Although the scientist might believe in some Creator, she’s not shackled to blind faith. Instead, she employs rigorous tests, complicated data, consistent verification, and an Art founded not on chance or outside whims but upon tested principles and concrete achievements. She’s the Progenitor, the Adept, the technomancer whose tools reflect the precision of her Arts. Unlike her deluded counterparts who practice their weird science, this visionary employs solid protocols for dependable results. In a way, she’s the High Ritual Magus of our age, making wonders with vigorous Science.

RESTRICTED: Awakened Mages (especially those who lean into Grant Morrison-esque themes in certain chronicles) can make this practice work. However, it isn't thematically suitable for hedge wizards or technosorcerers on Liberation.

The human mind and body (and perhaps spirit as well, if you believe in that sort of thing… which most, but not all, mages do) are capable of feats far beyond what we believe we can do. Through vigorous training, however – perhaps helped along by an accident, procedure, or chemical that somehow manages to not kill us in the process – we can unlock that capability, essentially becoming superhuman when we do so. Ancient techniques supposedly allow us to do such things by accessing our forgotten potential; the Akashic Art of Do claims to be one such method, and obscure forms of yoga, Tantra, Taoism, and related disciplines make the same assertion. It is science, though, that provides the most commonly imagined forms of invigoration: a metaphysical practice that unlocks the vast capacity of the human being. 

Mages who pursue this practice endure intense regimens of physical and mental exercises that drive them beyond average human capacity, often supplementing such disciplines with strange diets, herbal concoctions, surgical modifications, gene therapy, alien technology, baths in odd chemicals or cosmic rays, and other things that test Nietzsche’s dictum about things that make you stronger. Meditation, too, is essential to such techniques, unblocking the mental barriers to ultimate capability. Invigoration means “to fill with life and energy,” and so practitioners of this approach channel astounding energies into legendary lives. 

As a practice, invigoration is rarely considered to be “magic.” Nevertheless, it allows a practitioner to accomplish miraculous feats. Strength, endurance, healing, telepathy, mastery of other living things, adaptation to environments and situations that would kill a lesser human… whether or not such things are “magical” depends on who you ask.

Certain magicks are deliberately cruel. Cast with malicious intentions, they’re intended to cause harm and distress. Medieval law called such Arts maleficia – “evil-doing” – and that’s appropriate. For though most conceptions of witchcraft are mistaken, there are people who use bad magick for bad ends. 

When folks think of black magic, they’re referring to this deliberately obscene practice… although any form of magick can be hurtful, maleficia is intentionally crafted toward malignant aims. Curses; possessions; damnations; invocations to malevolent powers; infernal pacts, inhuman abilities; violations of body, mind, and spirit… such is the realm of maleficia. Other forms of corruption, too, can be invoked through this form of magick: wealth spells, sexual enchantments, techniques of social dominance, and all manner of metaphysical abuses can be conjured with help from sinister powers. These practices have no set form but range from the petty desecrations of teenage devilheads to the arcane ceremonies of ancient Infernal cults. 

Although the Nephandi seem to be the obvious offenders in this regard, anyone with a sufficiently bent motivation can employ a form of maleficia. The evangelist who calls upon his congregation to pray for the death of some hated figure is invoking maleficia; the forbidden Hermetic rites for summoning demons employ it too. The Black Masses present pretty obvious examples; as are the 'Amatory Masses' said to be performed by renegade Catholic Priests on the streets of pre-Revolution Paris to compel unwanted affections for the benefits of their decadent patrons. Just as any mystic practice can inflict harm, so too can any mystic practice become twisted into maleficia. 

As a practice, maleficia features deliberate cruelty and perversion. Sex, for example, is a sacrament in certain traditions, but malefic practices use sex in its most tortured and nonconsensual forms. Sacrifices become as brutal and horrific as possible; prayers are spoken backwards; sacred symbols and objects are deliberately defiled through acts of defiant malevolence. Technology might play a part as well, as an instrument of torture, a method of access, or a channel for disruptive acts and energies. Music concerts, computer hacking, media broadcasts, machines… all could be employed as instruments of black magic. 

For obvious reasons, maleficia tends to leave nasty Resonance behind. That combination of sick deeds and ugly intentions poisons everything it touches. Rooms, tools, and people feel tainted after a malefic rite; even Sleepers can sense that something’s not right about such things. The mage can clean up every physical trace of the crime, but a metaphysical essence lingers… often attracting corrupt entities that pick up where the malefactor left off… 

The human machine is a miracle whose vast potential is hampered by undisciplined habits and acquired behaviors. Martial arts expand upon that potential, unlocking the deeper physical and metaphysical abilities of body, mind, and spirit. Although such arts, at the basic levels, simply help a person strike or move more effectively in a fight, the higher reaches of martial-arts discipline go far beyond physical combat, into the realm of mental focus and spiritual refinement. 

Although the obvious example of self-perfection through martial arts is kung fu (roughly translated as “hard work” or “auspicious effort art”), most martial arts have esoteric elements. Renaissance fencing features philosophy, psychology, and mathematics as well as physical skill; Greek pankration emphasizes being “all powerful” in all respects; capoeira relies upon the essence of freedom as well as on the acrobatic maneuvers for which it’s famous. Advanced martial arts, therefore, nurture the spirit, hone the mind, and turn the body into a focus for the powers of each. 

At their most metaphysical levels, advanced martial arts attune a practitioner into the Quintessential life force, channel it through refined motions, and grant incredible – some would say inhuman – powers through the focus of an art. The Akashic practice Do is probably the most obvious example of this practice on a metaphysical level, but any martial art – even dirty fighting – can become a magickal practice with the proper mindset and devotion. 

Essentially, the artist manifests her will through clarity, energy, and activity. In game terms, she uses that art as a mystic focus. Beyond their mystic elements, martial arts are also technologies: refinements of knowledge that can be studied, repeated, and employed with practical effect. Thus, Technocrats and other technomancers can employ martial arts as a focus too. 

Regarding all that mystic nonsense as metaphors and mental techniques, a technomancer can divorce her martial arts training from mysticism and still retain its metaphysical potency. With such powers, she can direct Forces, alter Life, rearrange Matter, perceive Entropy, channel Prime, enhance Time, and – perhaps most of all – refine her Mind to sublime capacity. Although she couldn’t fly through the air or skip along tree branches by manipulating chi (“That’s just mythology!”), she can still rework conventional physics and biology through her understanding of the fighting arts.

Next to parenting, healing might be the highest human vocation. Many mages – mystics and technomancers alike – view their Enlightenment as an obligation to heal. To heal the planet, heal the people, heal the spirits, heal the Earth… perhaps all of them at once, if that’s at all possible. And so one of the oldest and most sacred Paths an Awakened person can pursue involves the practice of medicine work. 

Simply put, a medicine-person directs his skills and energies toward a healing practice. He might be the Progenitor physician, the Verbena root-witch, the Bata’a houngan, the Templar medic… it’s not the group that matters, or even the medical practice, when it comes to the abilities of a skillful mage. A shaman with Life 3 can fix a broken leg as well as a Progenitor with the same level of Spheres. For the purposes of magickal practice, the term medicine work refers to the intent to heal and the choice of techniques that enhance healing, not to the specific method a mage uses when healing injuries or disease. 

Human medicine is an ever-evolving technology. Things we take for granted as medical facts were unknown half a century ago, whereas certain proven truths of conventional Western medicine ignore equally proven truths of alternative, non-industrialized medicines. A well-rounded healer in today’s world would probably understand Western technological medicine; Tibetan So Rig techniques; faith-based spiritual methods; Indian Ayurveda (“the science of life”); Japanese reiki and Swedish massage; the vast synergy of modern Chinese medicine; the Persian, Greek, and Arab roots of conventional medicine; current holistic theories; experimental machine technology, and other techniques besides. Few healers, of course, have the time or access to study such a broad range of disciplines – many of which clash with one another on a philosophical level. Instead, the healer picks a specific approach and then directs his attentions… and intentions… toward the path that works best for him. 

Thanks to magick (especially the Life, Entropy, Mind, and Prime Spheres), any form of medicine can work for an Awakened healer who employs that medicine as a focus, so long as that mage BELIEVES in that form of medicine. An Iroquois member of the Society of Faces would feel as lost in a Progenitor biotech facility as a Progenitor would feel when hefting a medicine mask. Both techniques work in the hands of a mage who understands and trusts those techniques, but few healers trust both of those techniques with equal faith. And so, when choosing medicine work as a magickal practice, the player needs to define what sort of medicine his character employs. (We encourage players to research actual medical practices from different cultures.) 

It’s worth mentioning that traditional Native American and African mages often abhor the idea of using magic. In many cultures, “magick” is either trickery or the influence of malignant spirits. Medicine is a more accurate and respectful term for what such people do than magick is… hence, the phrase medicine man. Many “shamans” actually consider themselves to be medicine men or women, using their Arts to nurture and restore the world, not to make it dance to their whims. 

For certain people, “magic” means the ability to focus outside spirit-powers. It’s less a matter of Will than it is the distinctly mixed blessing of being an “open channel” for Otherworldly forces. Several mystic practices – most obviously the Spiritualism of the late 1800s and early 1900s; “voodoo”; and the popular, though potentially insulting, “gypsy fortune-teller” approach – focus upon opening one’s self to the Spirit World and then employing its powers for your gain. In such practices, the “mage” is actually a medium, acting as a passage between flesh and spirit. And although such people can be quite accomplished, a medium credits the spirits, not himself, for the power he commands. 

As a practice, it concentrates on attaining a trance-state and then directing spiritual energies through physical bodies and conscious intentions. Certain mediums simply open themselves to the spirits and then surrender to the experience; others choose who they’ll interact with, how they’ll interact, and what they’ll get out of the bargain personally. Awakened mages, generally, fall into that second category, while un-Awakened “spirit-horses” let themselves be driven by the spirits within. (For examples of such dealings from a rules point of view, see the entries for Necromancy, Summoning, Bargaining, Binding, and Warding, and Uncanny Influence in the sourcebook How Do You DO That?) 

Although mediumship tends to be spiritually oriented by default, certain “alternative” approaches to science consider this to be an advanced form of mental and /or alien technology instead. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s brand of Theosophy is often considered an esoteric technology, and many New Age “channelers” claim to be telepathically communicating with alien intelligences, not “spirits” as such. Of course, the lines between such things tend to blur into nonexistence in Mage’s world. Still, certain mediums vehemently resist the idea that they practice “magic” in any form, even as the things they do fit that definition far more than they resemble conventional scientific applications. 

Those spirits don’t have to be human spirits either; many shape-changing practices involve channeling the essence of an animal, like the owl-witch who transforms through her affinity with the Owl totem. Mediumship has a postmodernist element too: the channeling of “departed souls,” “past lives,” “alien intelligences,” “Ascended Masters,” and even “demons,” all of whom offer advice, power, and inspiration of a potentially dubious nature. 

The problem with mediumship is that you don’t really know who and what you’re dealing with. A smart medium studies cosmology and his preferred class of patron, but there’s still a chance that someone else is using him as a pawn for their own agenda. The Atlantean scribe who speaks through a medium might actually be a trickster or infernal entity; “Dear Aunt Sophie” could be a different ghost entirely, and that wise philosopher from the Crab Nebula is more likely to be an Otherworldly prankster… possibly even another mage. Even so, the Art of channeling aliens and angels has dedicated practitioners all over the world, many of whom demonstrate obvious powers beyond scientific paradigms. 

Associated Abilites: Awareness, Cosmology, Empathy, Enigmas, Esoterica (channeling), Expression, Intimidation, Investigation, Meditation, Occult (theosophy).

Restricted: Psionics as a practice is possible for some Awakened mages and technocrats (although, the latter is rare and considered on the edge of becoming unmutual in the Technocracy), it is not appropriate for mortal hedge wizards or technosorcerers. Such practices is for them, entirely covered by the separate Numina category of 'Psychic Phenomena'.

Every element of “reality” as we understand it comes through the psyche – that “sense of self” composed of consciousness, through which we process and influence our existence. And so, it stands to reason (which, again, suggests that it is true because we think it should be true) that the psyche is the ultimate wellspring of reality, at least as far as we humans understand what’s “real.” By extension, then, the ultimate form of magick should be that which flows from, and is focused through, the practice of psychic disciplines – a practice commonly known as psionics (or 'psychotronics' as some insist is the correct nomenclature). 

Both ancient lore and horizon-edge science posit that consciousness (human or otherwise) is either the most potent force in Reality as we know it, or may even be the entirety of Reality as we know it. Thus, psionic disciplines cultivate that consciousness and expand its awareness of, and effects upon, a practitioner’s reality. Essentially, the practitioner – who may not consider themselves to be any sort of “mage” at all – applies consciousness as the ultimate tool. Depending upon that practitioner’s paradigm, their psychic talents could range from subtle psi-power manifestations (telepathy, pre- and postcognition, psychic influence and perception, astral projection, telekinesis, 
mind-based illusions, and so forth) to staggering displays of apparently impossible power (elemental psycho-manifestations, mass levitation, psi-mutation, psychic healing or annihilation, manipulation of time and space, and other miraculous feats). 

Theoretically, the limits of psychic power are set only by what the practitioner believes they can do. And if “reality” is indeed an illusion or projection that consciousness can control, such belief could potentially move mountains and fold supposedly solid objects into dazzling puzzles of nothingness. 

As a practice, psionics combines rigorous mental and often physical discipline with a handful of external tools that help the practitioner focus that person’s concentration. Mantras, songs, dances, chants, prayers, and movement-based forms (gestures, head-clasping, mudra hand-postures, dervish-style spinning, martial-arts katas, t’ai chi and yoga postures, and the like) are traditional tools for mental discipline, along with geometric designs either complex (yantras, sigils, Hermetic seals, etc.) or simple. Drugs, both legal and otherwise, open Huxley’s “doors of perception,” and symbol-laden props like Tarot cards, dice, and even toys help the practitioner overcome mental blocks and nagging distractions. Meditation, though, is the key to all psyche-based operations. Only by spending long periods cultivating internal focus and disassociation can a devotee of the psychic Arts transcend delusions and expand into a greater sense of consciousness. 

RESTRICTED: This practice makes sense for Awakened mages yet is thematically inappropriate for hedge wizards and technosorcerers.

Imaginative people can do imaginative things with supposedly static structures. Hacking them apart to reconfigure those structures, these people use various tools – technology, philosophy, art, politics, and, occasionally, magick – to remake what was into what can be. With the correct gear and the right ideas, you don’t even need to be a mage in order to hack the dominant paradigm… just ask Osama bin Laden’s ghost. When you are a mage, however, you can employ those tools to remake Reality on a grand scale. 

Typically associated with the Virtual Adepts (and, to a lesser extent, the Cult of Ecstasy), the reality-hacking practice can be used by any mage with the proper mindset and expertise. The core idea – reality is flexible – seems familiar enough these days. As a practice, reality hacking uses an array of technologies to rework the systems that govern our world: its commerce, politics, media, memes, connections, faiths, physics, and so forth. By concentrating on specific systems and ideas, the mage can start remixing expectations into some new and interesting shape. 

Sound like anarchy? Sometimes it is. Many of this practice’s oldest adherents and principles, however, come from the Order of Reason and Technocratic Order. After all, it was early Technocrats who hacked the human concepts of the universe, God, governments, and other technologies. Technocrats shaped fencing (a sword-fighting hack), the physical sciences (an elemental hack), exploration (a geographic hack), mass media (a consciousness hack), and the space program (a planetary hack). It’s no accident that the Virtual Adepts and Society of Ether began as Technocratic Conventions. And despite their unruly applications of technology, they’re just keeping that old hacker ethic alive. 

The postmodern reality hacker tends to employ information technologies – not simply computers, but also memes, media, and other forms of mass intellectual access. As demonstrated by 9/11, she doesn’t have to be a computer nerd – simply a visionary who notes the weakness of a structure and the method that exploits it. The transhumanist idea of reality as information – epitomized by the Data and Primal Utility Spheres (see pp. 524-527) – provides leverage for a reality hacker mage. Channeling her ideas and energies through computer code, social media, videos, slogans, pranks, guerilla theatre, movies and videos, graphic novels, music, fashions, Internet memes, and the clever manipulation of vibrant symbols (masks, puppets, iconography, remixed media, and so forth), that mage can re-contextualize reality as the Masses understand it, then take advantage of those new perceptions. It’s not as quick or 
gratifying as a thunderbolt, but it tends to be a hell of a lot more powerful… and more coincidental, too. 

Like cybernetics, dominion, and the Art of Desire (all related practices), reality hacking aims more toward influence than raw force. The reality hacker strives to modify the system to her advantage, rather than blast it apart. Even so, certain tools – like terrorism and atrocity – can be incredibly violent in both implementation and results. Even then, however, that violence serves as an extension and instrument of the hack; the power of terrorism, for example, comes more from the atmosphere of dread and fury than from the casualties themselves. Sphere-wise, reality hacking favors Correspondence (for drawing and exploiting connections), Entropy (for spotting flaws and arranging probabilities), Forces (directing or destroying electrical systems), Mind (influencing ideas and the folks who have them), Life (rewiring the human animal), Prime (drawing, raising, and directing energy), and Time (re-contextualizing the perceptions of time), and uses instruments that express and subvert those principles in the modern world. 

We occupy a living world whose essence is greater and more intelligent than we recognize. Whereas common people stumble through material illusions, a shaman transcends both humanity and illusion. Moving through a world of layers and traps, he exists outside the everyday realm. And yet, through his guidance, the Sleeping People slumber more comfortably and the Awakened Ones remain more aware. 

Perhaps the most abused word in magic, shamanism technically refers to a specific type of Siberian spirit-worker. Over time, however, it’s come to define anyone who employs old-culture traditions to walk between the sublime world and its often ridiculous material counterpart. Dying – sometimes literally – to the life he led before he felt Called by the spirits, the shaman is reborn in a half-outcast state… mad by the standards of his previous society, yet aware of (if not always clear about) the true nature of Reality. 

Because the shaman traditionally lives between the worlds of flesh and spirit, human and animal, matter and essence, sanity and dementia, conventionality and chaos, he embodies a living crossroads in which those qualities intersect. In many cases, he suffers from physical and/or psychological ailments, a wounded healer whose infirmities render him more sympathetic to other wounded souls. A shaman often depends upon other people and spiritual allies whose aid and guidance help him survive his strange existence. In return, he grants his allies healing, insight, action in realms they might not be able to reach unaided, and a powerful intercessor with parties they may not address alone. A soul guide, a prophet, a medicine bringer and spirit warrior, our shaman walks a sacred… if often unpleasant… Path. 

Thanks to noble-savage nonsense, shamanism has a trippy popular image that’s deeply at odds with the earthy and often bizarre nature of the shaman himself. In reality, shamanism is a gritty, anti-orthodox vocation, filled with deliberate contradictions and slippery concepts of sanity. A shaman often inverts ideas of propriety; cross-dressing, speaking in riddles, or acting in deliberately crude or obnoxious ways in order to shake up or demolish preconceptions. These tools – as well as the usual masks, dances, and trappings one expects from a shaman – form the instruments of shamanic Arts. Folks who expect the dewy-eyed dreamer of New Age romanticism are in for a shock when they meet true shamans… and that shock, too, is part of the shaman’s toolkit. 

Although shamanism favors a naturalistic viewpoint, technoshamanic practices exist in the current era. Connecting with urbanized spirits (city-souls, electronic entities, machine-spirits, and so on) – frequently through computers, fast-food offerings, consumerism cast-offs, and other postmodernist talismans – the technoshaman blends ancient awareness with current technology, acting as a vessel to distill the essence of eternity into the power of today. 

If “shamanism” is the most abused word in magick, then Voudoun might be the most abused practice. Drawn from a fusion of Central African faiths, Native American practices, European iconography, and the humid atrocity of American slave culture, the collection of “voodoo” creeds – Macumba, Obeah, Candomblé, Voudoun, Santería, Delta and Lower Appalachian Hoodoo, the various flavors of Urban-American Voodoo, and their many offshoots – continues to command uncanny fascination in the modern world. Distorted by a combination of secrecy, poverty, racism, psychological warfare, cultural marginalization, and certain unnerving elements that actually do exist within those practices, the popular image of Voudoun magick reflects its distinctly American character. 

Essentially, a Voudoun mage’s practice revolves around finding and revering allies in a treacherous world. Arriving in chains for lives of forced labor after a hellish passage in seaborne underworlds, the Africans who were transported to the Americas had little to draw upon except faith, courage, and rage. Ripped away from their families, many of them lacked even a common language. From the bits and pieces of their new lives, these people crafted creeds that reflected the hopes and horrors of that world, peopled with new families to replace the ones they had lost. In that world, the worst thing that could happen was slavery beyond death… so the curses and creatures of Voudoun lore focused on imprisonment, servitude, crossings, hunger, defiance, and escape. Old gods, new spirits, and tales of elevated mortals attained the identities of Loa: the god-spirit kin of Voudoun practitioners. That synergistic survivor creed remains a vital methodology into the modern nights, where there can be found any manner of unjust force (supernatural or otherwise) that might seek to enslave or chain a mage in some fashion or another. 

Characterized by prayers, offerings, shrines, designs, blessings and maledictions, physical prowess, psychic awareness, bright colors, and sudden violence, Voudoun practices reflect their eclectic origins. Whereas elaborate Arts like High Ritual Magick favor wealth and perfection, Voudoun remains eminently practical. Sure, certain devotees are rich, especially these days; the practice itself, however, employs whatever resources a person has to work with. Faith and trust outweigh arcane rituals and ostentatious displays. Loyalty means more than titles or gold. Rewards and punishments come swiftly… often with quirks of sardonic humor attached… and newcomers get tested with fierce irony and ominous threats. In many regards, the intentionally eerie nature of Voudoun presents a giant KEEP OUT sign to outsiders… most especially white ones. For obvious reasons, a practitioner wears many masks and keeps many secrets. 

Beyond those masks and secrets, our Voudoun practitioner nurtures passionate connection. Priestesses become “Mama,” and priests become “Papa.” Far from being distant, sublime godheads, his Loa patrons are powerful yet accessible cousins whose touch is a prayer or offering away. Anyone who needs a favor can come asking for it… and although the price of that favor might not be as pleasant or easy as he might have wished, it does tend to be granted in one form or another…

Despite its shared roots with faith, shamanism and witchcraft, Voudoun has a distinct culture whose methods and doctrines don’t always play well with others. The Loa and related spirits certainly manifest through their human devotees, but those relationships are more familial than the ones often shared (and endured) between shamans and their spirit allies. That element of family is an essential, and typically neglected, element of the Voudoun mage’s Arts. Given that the practice originated with family-oriented people who were severed from everything and everyone they’d known before, it’s not surprising that blood – figurative and otherwise – holds such a vital place in Voudoun lore and practice.

Folks who think that “science is boring” know nothing about science. Underneath the lab coats and brain-cracking equations run currents of curious wonder. And though cold-eyed Technocrats favor a controlled approach to the Scientific Arts, certain visionaries refuse to be so confined. Would you call them mad? Perhaps… but their dedication keeps the hope of Science alive! 

Unlike most other technomagickal Arts, weird science isn’t based upon repeatable results. Oh, sure, the mad scientist wants to be able to craft armies of robotic servitors or fleets of dirigible warships… and he may well be able to create them too, once a favorable prototype has emerged from his laboratory. However, that Inspired Scientist (don’t call him a “mage” – that’s ridiculous!) is more engaged by the spirit of inquiry and potential than by the devotion to repeatable craftsmanship. As a consequence, his creations often feature glaring flaws and Paradoxes that will be smoothed out, of course, in later iterations… if he ever gets around to making them, that is. 

Weird science, by definition, defies the bounds of possibility. Its crazy ideas fuel crazy creativity. Theories that no rational scientist would entertain guide the creation of devices and creatures whose very existence violates the Consensus: jetpacks, death rays, quirky robots, outlandish vehicles, Atlantean sonic technologies, spacecraft, mechanical appendages, psychic enhancement gear, lab-grown allies, devastating war machines, and whatever other strange gadgetry a mad scientist can imagine. And yet, this isn’t some sort of “magic” – heavens, no! Every piece of odd technology depends upon theories so unconventional yet sublime that they MUST be true, if only for the sake of an imaginative universe. 

As with other tech-based practices, weird science requires serious work in the lab before working results appear. An Enlightened Scientist might spend months or years honing his creation before revealing it to the world. Yet once that innovation has been achieved, he can often replicate it quickly, often with the help of skilled (if dispirited) minions. Weird science also allows the Scientist to alter tech with sudden bursts of inspiration, MacGyvering rickety inventions that last just long enough to accomplish a single task. And so – because he’s no sort of wizard, you imbecile! – the mad scientist needs tools and materials close at hand in order to work his wonders. True Science is indeed miraculous, but it’s not some kind of magic. No, not at all… 

Witch. One of the more venomous words in the English language, the label “witch” can send a person to a hideous death. Even now, when the Burning Times seem more like myth than history, the popular imagination equates witches with warty evil hags cackling over poisonous, foul-smelling brews. Why would anyone, then, want to use something as quaintly horrific as “witchcraft”? Because those who understand it know that it works… not only as a magickal practice but also as a form of reverence for the natural world. 

The equally loaded term “witchcraft” covers a lot of ground, from the diabolical maledictions of medieval legend to the reclamationist neopaganism of the modern era. As a Mage practice, however, the term refers to a nature-oriented, practical craft, as opposed to the scholastic abstractions of High Ritual Magick, alchemy, and so on. Traditional witchcraft is a folk-oriented low magick practiced by common people who need discernible results: healing, fertility, divination, luck or misfortune, prosperity, clarity, physical prowess, and intercessions between the people and their gods that are far more intimate than what can be found at the local temple. The disputed origin of the term witch is “wisdom,” although other possibilities include words meaning “twist,” “knot,” or “knowledge.” And so, witches throughout time have been said to know things… often things that proper people could not or should not know.

Today’s witchcraft features a postmodernist brew of traditional European wise-craft; 19th-century literary occultism and 20th-century mystic fusions; pre-Christian elements from Greek, Norse, Celtic, Hindu, Slavic, Roman, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures (with prodigious cultural appropriations from Native American, African, Romani, and occasionally Asian cultures); repurposed Christian and Jewish practices (especially Catholicism and the Kabbalah); postmodernist philosophy, and New Age takes on quantum physics; mass-media iconography; and tons of pure invention wrapped up in a bright bow of fantasy media, political activism, and technological polyculture. This high-eclectic synergy often incorporates computers, the Internet, pop psychology, chaos theory, and other elements that would be entirely unrecognizable to old-school wise-crafters. Nevertheless, it speaks to people on an elemental level… and yes, as a mystic practice, it’s as effective as any other tool on a mage’s workbench. 

In all its forms, witchcraft has an outlaw mystique – due both to constant persecution and a defiantly sinister stance. Today’s witch might practice holistic medicine and nonviolent politics, but she still exists outside of mainstream respectability… often with a Fuck You attitude. Whatever style of witchcraft she prefers, that Art/Craft incorporates potent symbols – Old Gods, nature spirits, blades, circles, wands, robes, very dark or bright colors, occult iconography, seasons, shadows, chalices, ashes, the four Classical elements, and so on – that reach into the subconscious territory beyond a mainstream comfort zone. 

Our 21st-century American or Western European witch might favor dark clothes, body art, and a swaggering subculture image, or cloak her Arts in a middle-class façade that conceals her elemental devotions. She could follow a strict Witch’s Rule or proclaim herself a mystic anarchist. Tonight's Awakened, self-identifying 'witch' is more likely to revere Nature and diversity than other mystics, while perceiving what she does as channeling her Will through harmony with light and shadow, death and life. Though epitomized by the Verbena Tradition, she isn’t necessarily Pagan and doesn’t always wear her Art on her sleeve, so to speak. 

Regardless of her tools or devotions, though, modern witchcraft retains a core of practicality, focused on everyday utility and addressing the most fundamental of human needs, insecurities and emotions. As such, a witch is far more likely to identify and integrate herself with her local community (whether they fully accept her or not), rather than seclude herself in the ivory tower of a High Ritual magician. A witch is always interested far more in the people around her than in dusty tomes or research labs.

Beneath the popular exercise trend rests a potent metaphysical practice. Named from a Sanskrit word that means union, balance, joining, and (by extension) yoke, yoga employs mental, physical, and spiritual disciplines to refine a higher state of being. Through advanced levels of yoga, a practitioner unlocks the greatest human abilities, eventually transcending his human limits and achieving enlightenment… first temporary, and then perpetual. Dedication to yoga strips away the illusions of physical existence. In communion with Absolute Reality, the True Self – the center of consciousness (Atman or Purusha) – comes to comprehend the Unity of All. 

Although its historical origins may be disputed, yoga derives from a collection of practices rooted in the Indus-Sarasvati cultures of ancient India. Collected into the Vedas – books of knowledge – these practices and observations refined several forms of ritual, meditation, vocalization, and physical exercise, all dedicated to mending the fractured state of human existence. In the Classical Yoga period, those practices mingled with the Upanishads: scriptures of dynamic unity. By 1900, Western occult traditions had begun to incorporate yogic disciplines into their own practices. (The Council of Nine, of course, understood such practices long ago.) Through mastery of those disciplines, an experienced yogi or yogini(male or female practitioner) can see the essential state of Reality… and can work with it as well. Yoga, therefore, isn’t simply a state of meditation but also a practice of conscious activity. The practitioner doesn’t just contemplate her navel; with deep awareness and conscious devotion, she commits herself to action.

Details about yoga could fill their own book. In a practical sense, though, a yoga practitioner pursues intense physical, mental, and spiritual study; combines learned wisdom with personal epiphanies; supersedes old limitations; and transforms herself into an instrument of transcendence. Through such refinement, she can attain superhuman abilities, project her consciousness outside of her body, and reveal the illusions of material reality as tricks of the mind… and, by extension, master earthly forces like gravity, time, matter, and the elements – in game terms, all of the Nine Spheres. 

(A related tradition of practices that often incorporate yogic disciplines is known collectively as Tantra: “weaving,” “loom,” “activity,” or “essence.” Although many devotees of one still practice the other, however, yoga and Tantra are not the same things. Both share a heritage, a dedication to transcendence of physical and mental limitations, and a view of the Whole beyond the illusions of separation. Generally, though, yoga unifies apparently separate elements into a conscious, transcendent whole, whereas Tantra accesses transcendent energies through sublimating physical reality. For obvious reasons, various mages incorporate elements of both traditions into their practices.) 

Often described as “the science of body, breath, mind, soul, and universe,” yoga can be considered a metaphysical technology. If nothing else, the physical and mental disciplines involved in yoga have proven benefits to the human organism. Thus, technomancers and even Technocrats can pursue a yoga practice, although its more esoteric levels defy pure materialism. By the early 21st century, the Technocracy has accepted the useful elements of yoga and incorporated certain aspects of yoga into its training programs. And so, although you won’t see Black Suits defying gravity and throwing bolts of pure Kundalini energy because of their mastery of yoga, the techniques of breathing, strength, and flexibility influence the new-millennium Technocrat’s pursuit of Life, Mind, and Prime Procedures. For traditional mystics (like Chakravanti and Sahajiya), such use of yogic discipline is anathema; for the devotees of Westernized yoga, however, that acceptance provides the punch line for a wondrous joke at the Technocracy’s expense. 

Despite the utility of books, scriptures, designs, and various medical and sometimes psychoactive concoctions, yoga is a largely self-contained practice. The physical body becomes a vessel for the transcendent Self. A devotee tends toward extraordinary good health and vitality, incisive perceptions, and a big-picture perspective on things. She might be capable of apparently impossible physical feats of endurance and flexibility, and she can – at advanced levels – sidestep little things like physics. The foundation of her practice, however, involves correct breathing, centered consciousness, and reaching past apparent limitations. As the guru Bikram advised his students: This is going to hurt. Don’t be afraid.

*      A single target

**     Three feet or so

***    A few square yards

****   Ten square feet (they can be arranged in any reasonable shape)

*****  Twenty square feet

For each level of this Aspect, up to two dice of lethal damage can be healed or caused. An additional two successes spent on this Aspect converts the damage healed or caused to aggravated. 

These ranges are guidelines for populated regions. For less populated ones in a hedge master's home environment, and with an appropriate affiliation and practice (such as an indigenous 'rain dancer') the numbers may be doubled or even tripled at the Storyteller's discretion.

*      Only a few feet

**     Up to around 20 feet

***    Up to 100 feet

****   Up to half a mile (they can be arranged in any reasonable shape)

*****  Up to five miles

*      A few minutes

**     One scene

***    A day or two

****   A couple weeks

*****  Several months

*      A single target

**     Two targets

***    Up to 10 targets

****   Up to 50 targets (they can be arranged in any reasonable shape)

*****  Potentially hundreds of targets

*      Simple creatures such as small, unintelligent animals and minor    Gafflings

**     larger creatures such as bears or wolves, more powerful Gafflings, ghosts that have begun to learn to navigate their existence but have no experience

***    Humans and truly intelligent beings, like most Jagglings, ghosts who can navigate the underworld effectively, servitor demons and elementals

****   Enhanced humans like ghouls, kinfolk, and other sorcerers, as well as greater Jagglings, Umbrood Preceptors, and infernal tempters

*****  Powerful beings such as the truly supernatural (vampires, werewolves, Awakened mages, fae, etc.), Incarnae and the very barons of hell

*      Yourself, but no clothing or equipment

**     Yourself, your clothing, and a small amount of stuff

***    Yourself and one extra person or equivalent weight in stuff

****   Two passengers

*****  Three passengers

*      Touch only (requires a successful Brawl attack if the target is unwilling)

**     Less than 10 feet

***    Less than 25 feet

****   About 50 feet

*****  Within 150 feet

*      Direct physical contact

**     True Name

***    Body part, including blood, nail clippings, etc

****   Treasured keepsake or an item they personally created

*****  Any possession

*      About three times faster than on foot

**     Roughly as fast as your driving speed while commuting to work

***    Roughly as fast as a Formula One race car going around the track

****   Roughly as fast as a fighter jet; miles are covered in seconds

*****  Near instantaneous travel

*      Less than an ounce

**     A few pounds

***    Up to 100 pounds

****   Up to 1000 pounds

*****  Large objects such as cars, boulders or the occasional elephant can be moved

Sometimes the most important thing for a hedge magician isn’t to cast their own spell, but to stop or unmake someone else’s. For that, there’s countermagic. 

Countermagic comes in two varieties: instant countermagic and unweaving. 

Instant Countermagic: When they find themselves the target of some sort of magic, the magician may roll the dice pool of their Affinity Path at difficulty 8 to subtract successes from the caster’s roll. If they reduce the incoming magic to zero successes, then the magic is canceled. The hedge wizard’s arcane foundation need not have anything in common with the caster at all; defending oneself from unwanted magic is as instinctual as ducking a baseball thrown at your head. And like dodging a baseball, this countermagic requires an Instant Action.
 
Unweaving: Unweaving applies when a magician finds an existing spell they want to remove from something or someone. Here, they need to have the same Path as the original caster for spells created through hedge magic or else a Path relevant to the sort of magic being unwoven. After choosing a relevant Path, roll the hedge wizard’s dice pool for the appropriate Path at difficulty 8. The hedge magician needs more successes than the original caster to unweave the spell. Unweaving can be done as an extended action.

By default, a hedge magician can use either sort of countermagic against other hedge magicians and against Awakened magick, but nothing else. For other sources of magic, they must have a relevant Esoterica/RD Data Knowledge specialization. Some examples include vampiric magic (Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, etc.), spirit Gifts and Charms (including those given to shapeshifters), Fae Cantrips, the powers of the dead, and psychic phenomena, among others.

With how slow hedge magic can be, many magicians prefer to prepare their magic in advance. Powerful hedge magicians may use a ritual to imbue a spell into an item (see 'Storing Spells' below), and Alchemists and Enchanters can both prepare objects for later use, but every hedge mage can attempt to hang a spell. Hanging a spell consists of the hedge magician doing everything they need to in order to cast the spell, but then stopping right before its completion. They then internalize the unfinished spell, holding it within awaiting rapid release at some point in the future.

* Hanging a spell requires the hedge magician to spend a point of Willpower and at least one point of Quintessence or dram of suitable Tass. 

* They then the spell’s dice pool and note down details such as Aspects and their number of successes. 

* Later, they can release the spell with only a single turn’s effort, making these prepared spells much more useful in a tight situation. 

* The downside is that these spells take up a lot of mental space. For every two spells the hedge magician hangs, they add +1 difficulty to all Mental and Social rolls.

Every hedge wizard who is capable and powerful enough to reach the fifth rank in one of their Paths, may acquire the following ritual:

Store Spell (*****)
   With this ritual, the magician may store a single spell (not ritual) in an object for later use. This spell doesn't count against the limits in Hanging Spells (as given above). However, each object can only store a single spell at a time. If Store Spell is cast on an object before a previous spell is released from the object, the old spell is lost. This ritual must be separately for each path.
   Not all objects are equally suitable for all spells. It must be appropriate for your practice and for the scale of the effect you wish to store within it - as determined in collaboration with your storyteller.

Hedge magic is easiest to accomplish far from prying eyes. Obvious spells and rituals generally fail when performed in public, preventing, for example, a hedge magician with the Path of Conjuration from throwing a city bus at someone in the middle of a crowded intersection. 

It’s possible to overcome this effect, but the larger the number of witnesses to a spell, the more challenging it is to manifest the magic. For the purposes of this chart, witnesses include anyone considered a Sleeper (essentially normal humans). 

Number of Witnesses     Successes Removed
1                       1
2-5                     2
6-10                    3
20-100                  4
100+                    5

Like the Awakened, hedge magicians can use Quintessence to make their magic easier. However, they are less efficient than those with an Awakened Avatar (which allows mages to 'absorb' Quintessence). 

* To reduce the difficulty of a spell or ritual by 1 requires a hedge magician spend two points of Quintessence. 

* Even this is impossible for many magicians, as they require the Path of Quintessence Manipulation to use Quintessence at all. Otherwise, it needs to be in the form of Tass (which is usually found near Nodes).

MAGE LORE: Quintessence is the 'Fifth Essence' that fuels the latticework of all Creation, gathering along the knots and wells of reality that are often referred to as holy places or Nodes. Sometimes - usually in the vicinity of a Node - manifests in material forms called Tass. Think of Tass as ice formed from watery Quintessence: what flows as one becomes solid in the other. If Tass were an apple, then Quintessence would be the apple's unseen, yet very real nourishing and nutritional properties. Tass can take a multitude of forms – water, roses, blood, food – that can be held, carried, and broken down into the raw Quintessence energy that sustains an Awakened Mage's Avatar and enhances their Arts.

Quintessence is liminal. That means it exists at the threshold of what people call reality. It’s like a flow of spirit-water, except that even that description can’t capture what it truly is. You’ll hear many different definitions or descriptions of Quintessence because every human definition falls short. It exists in the realm of poetry and metaphor, a shiny spark of liquid God. Outside the physical elements of the periodic table, this energy is essentially the world’s life force. It’s one of those things people can feel but not quite measure unless their measurement methods reach outside materialistic science. It’s as real as gasoline, but its properties transcend understanding. Quintessence is literally as real as you believe it is, and each person experiences it differently.
 

Sometimes, one turn per level of the spell being cast is just too slow. A magician may need to use Conveyance urgently to escape a charging werewolf, or Hellfire to fight off a vampire. 

* When time is of the essence, the magician may attempt to fast cast. 

* Fast casting increases the difficulty by one for each turn being shaved off the casting time for the spell. 

* For example: A Conveyance 3 spell to escape a dangerous situation has a +2 difficulty penalty to cast in a single turn, whereas using Hellfire 5 to incinerate a vampire has a +4 difficulty, making it nigh impossible.

If instead of trying to hurry, the hedge magician takes their time to get things right, spells can be cast as extended actions. 

Spell extended actions are handled quite simply:

1. Declare the spell effect that you're trying to pull off and roll as normal. This will depend on your chosen Path, your level in that Path, your casting Attribute and your Path Ability. The number of successes that you need will be decided by which Aspects you enhance it with. (This is all described in the Core Rules section).

2. As normal, it will require as many turns to prepare as the highest level of the Path that you're calling upon.

3. If your rolled successes are less than the successes required, your spell would ordinarily fail. However, when taking an extended action, you can roll again and add your successes - after the required number of turns have already passed. This makes it much less likely that you'll fail, but at the cost of requiring more time.

4. Hence, extended actions allow a hedge wizard to be a little more ambitious with their spells, and worry less about reaching the required success threshold, provided they're willing to take the extra time (one extra turn per extra roll).

5. A hedge wizard can only roll as additional times when casting a spell with an extended action, as they have ranks in that Path.

To recap extended general actions from Mage 20th Edition, page 389:

* When your character embarks upon a long and complex process, you employ an extended action: a series of dice rolls that reflects a time-consuming activity. Research, repair, memorization, performance, rituals – these tasks, and others like them, involve extended actions. 

* At the beginning of the task, the Storyteller picks a certain number of successes that you need to reach before the task is completed. If you need 15 successes to repair an engine, for instance, then you roll until you get 15 successes. Each roll of the dice represents a passage of time – 10 minutes, an hour, six hours, whatever seems appropriate. Quick tasks would use shorter intervals – say, 10 minutes or so – whereas complicated ones would use longer intervals, like an hour or more.

* How many rolls do you get? That depends on the circumstances. Under relaxed circumstances, you could take however long you need (or at least until you botch), with each roll reflecting one hour, six hours, a day, or some other fitting interval. Because adventures typically involve a race against time, however, you’ll usually have a set number of rolls with which to succeed or fail.


* The longer you spend on an activity, the more chance you have of screwing it up. A failed roll simply means that you make no progress that time around. A botch, however, means that the entire effort fails – probably in spectacular fashion.

* It’s often a good idea, then, to spend Willpower during an extended roll in which the stakes are fairly high. That way, you reflect the character’s intense concentration and give yourself a higher chance of success. 

For spells and rituals of great scope, the number of successes needed can be prohibitive. One hedge magician, even with an extended action, may not be able to manage it. This is especially true at higher difficulties. Many hedge magicians solve this problem by working together, creating more impressive spells and rituals than they could accomplish alone.

This sort of teamwork divides the hedge magicians into three groups: 

1. The first consists of the leader, who must have the appropriate Path at a high enough rank to be able to attempt the spell on their own. 

2. The second group consists of the assistants who have the Path — possibly at a lower level — and either share the leader’s practice for it or their Path Ability. 

3. The third and final group are hedge magicians who follow instructions but cannot contribute their own magic to the group.

* Each hedge magician other than the leader and the first assistant increases the casting time by one turn for a spell and 10 minutes for a ritual. 

* The assistants in the second group, who can apply their mystical knowledge and skills, each make a Path roll. For each successful roll, the difficulty of the spell or ritual decreases by one, and for each botch it increases by two. Anyone involved can spend Willpower to help each assistant gain successes on their roll.

* Once the spell or ritual is complete, the leader makes their Path roll, with the difficulty modified by their assistants. If the roll succeeds, the spell or ritual goes off as expected. However, on a botch, everyone involved in the casting suffers the consequences.

In addition to the usual methods of teamwork, clever and determined hedge magicians can use and develop Greater Rituals. 

* Greater Rituals are the only way for multiple Paths to be combined to achieve a single effect, and always require multiple magicians to work in concert. 

* Each magician must contribute the appropriate level of one Path, and each Path requires a distinct magician to cast it. 

* Additionally, all of the normal teamwork requirements for working together (see above) must be satisfied by the group: There must be a leader, and all members must share a practice or the Ability they roll with them.

* Once preparations are complete, the magicians must spend the required 10 minutes/level of a ritual along with 10 minutes for each caster beyond the first. Each of the magicians must roll their dice pool at the appropriate difficulty number for the level of the Path they are contributing. 

* If all the casters succeed, the Greater Ritual goes off, and the combined effect occurs.

(NOTE: The creation of a new Path is the quest of a lifetime, requiring decades to complete. As such, it isn't appropriate for Liberation's narrative.)

Hedge magic may be a static discipline, but it doesn’t stay the same. Paths fall out of favor and are lost, while clever hedge wizards develop new approaches over time. Most new Paths disappear relatively quickly, not spreading beyond the creator or their immediate circle. But some end up lodging themselves into the Tapestry, spreading beyond their creators as other practitioners independently work out their own methods for realizing identical outcomes. 

* Rituals are much simpler. They don’t truly open new ground, being new configurations of powers hedge wizards already have. They also spread over time, as one magician teaches another, and just as commonly disappear when they stop being useful enough to transmit.

* The magician needs their Path rating to be higher than the rating of the ritual they are creating. A magician with Oneiromancy 4 could make a rank 3 ritual. Creating rank 5 rituals requires mystical acumen usually relegated to myth and legend. 

* Hunting down a lost ritual is usually easier than creating a new one, as is finding someone to teach a particularly obscure ritual.

* Once their Path rating is high enough to create the ritual, the magician needs to spend a month per level doing research and experimentation before they can attempt it. They then perform a single roll of their Path’s casting Attribute + Ability dice pool at difficulty 9.

* On a botch, the ritual backfires (see individual Path write-ups for details) and the magician must start the process over from the beginning. A failure means they can try again the next month, as does rolling only one or two successes. 

* However, if the magician manages to achieve three successes on their roll, the ritual is created and can be used and taught normally from there on out.

• All of your Paths must utilize the same ‘practice’.
• All of your Paths must have different Abilities associated with them.
• You cannot have a greater number of Paths than your casting Attribute’s rating.
  

Artifacts are items that are inherently supernatural with a power of their own. This Trait allows you to begin play with an artifact, whether it was a family heirloom, a gift from a Mentor, or a discovery that someone has not taken from you.

Each dot in this Background indicates an increasingly powerful Artifact.

This Background is currently restricted.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 307), except that it costs double for sorcerers.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 308). Check with your Director before investing in this.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 310).

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 310-311), except sorcerers pay double for it and their Affinity Path must be Oneiromancy.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 312).

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 312-313), except technosorcerers (like everyone else) pay double for it and it is extremely unlikely to be approved outside of the Technocracy Affiliation.

This Background functions as you would expect from Mage 20th Core (pg 319). However, it is not allowed for hedge wizards or technosorcerers to start with access to a personal node out of chargen. It might be possible to find (or take) one during the course of play, though.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 320).

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 321). It is only available to technosorcerers affiliated with the Technocracy who are in good standing with the Order.

This Background works as it is described in Mage 20th Core (pg 326-328). However, it costs double and is only available to hedge wizards whose Affinity Path is that of Ephemera and who adhere to the practice of Mediumship, Shamanism or Voudoun.

You understand the natural flow of energy through the human body, taught through a form of martial arts. This energy is represented as Quintessence but may be called a variety of things: chi, ki, and others, depending on your martial arts style.

• Prerequisite: Your casting Attribute must be a Physical Attribute.
• You can make a Stamina + Meditation roll vs 8 once per chapter, to represent engaging in the ritual study and discipline of your chosen practice.
  • This difficulty cannot be further modified except by one factor: If you have access to a Node, the difficulty is reduced by one.
  • You may spend a point of Willpower on the roll for at least one automatic success.

You can take as many actions with your Affinity Path that chapter as successes rolled, without needing to spend Willpower for them.

You can retain information, sharpen your senses and speed your thoughts, allowing you to connect the dots between disparate clues while following complex mental formulae.

• Prerequisite: Your casting Attribute must be a Mental Attribute.
• You can make an Intelligence + Meditation roll vs 8 once per chapter, to represent engaging in the ritual study and discipline of your chosen practice.
  • This difficulty cannot be further modified except by one factor: If you have access to a Node, the difficulty is reduced by one.
  • You may spend a point of Willpower on the roll for at least one automatic success.

You can take as many actions with your Affinity Path that chapter as successes rolled, without needing to spend Willpower for them.

The light of your soul is evident to those around you. You may physically glow, appear divinely beautiful, or perhaps your voice resonates with the music of the spheres.

• Prerequisite: Your casting Attribute must be a Social Attribute.
• You can make an Appearance + Meditation roll vs 8 once per chapter, to represent engaging in the ritual study and discipline of your chosen practice.
  • This difficulty cannot be further modified except by one factor: If you have access to a Node, the difficulty is reduced by one.
  • You may spend a point of Willpower on the roll for at least one automatic success.

You can take as many actions with your Affinity Path that chapter as successes rolled, without needing to spend Willpower for them.

You were raised within a reclusive environment and have had little contact with the “mundane” world. This could mean you were the home-schooled child of a traveling Arcanum scholar or grew up in an Akashic monastery.

You have a limited understanding of how the “normal” world works. Whenever you are outside the boundaries of your childhood Affiliation, you have a -1 die penalty to all social rolls.

You have a difficult time picking up new Paths. This could be due to a curse, lack of training, a mental block or simply approaching it with an excessively cautious (or inflexible) philosophy.

You pay (new rating x 8) for raising all Paths besides your Affinity Path. You pay one more experience point for all non-Affinity Path rituals as well.

You are naturally gifted to one Path of power. This could be tied to your mundane skills that translate easily to magic, a heritage that calls to certain power, or you have made a deal with otherworldly beings to open yourself to greater power.

The difficulty for casting spells or carrying out rituals (i.e., your ‘Path roll) related to your Affinity Path is always one difficulty less than it would be ordinarily.

Magic doesn’t happen at the snap of a finger.

You are unable to manifest any instant magical effects (i.e., spells) and are thus limited to performing rituals. If the rules of your Affinity Path already require magic through only ritual, you may not take this Flaw. You’re also considered a Sleeper if you witness any non-ritual magical effect.

SPECIAL RULE: Taking this Flaw increases your character’s allowed Merit dots from the usual supernatural PC limit of 10, to a new limit of 15. In addition, it does not count against your 7 Flaw points limit for purposes of receiving extra freebie points in chargen.

Your character knows that magic is real – they practice magic themselves, after all. You view the methods of any other magician (Awakened or otherwise) as deeply implausible.

Anytime you see magic that fits your Affiliation and practice (e.g., an Akashic student of Martial Arts), things proceed as they should. However, when you are witness to magic outside of that style (e.g., Weird Science), you are treated as a Sleeper.

This is not a Flaw because it more often disrupts the magic of your opponents and not your own. It is an excellent companion to the Isolated Upbringing Flaw, however.

The study of transformation and purification, Alchemy is an ancient art and science. Practitioners draw from disparate practices, both magical and scientific, to understand the hidden properties of matter and the soul. The most traditional goal of alchemy is not the more famous transformation of base matter into more “noble” counterparts — such as lead into gold — but rather the perfection of the alchemist.

As a Path, Alchemy creates one-use magic items and transformations. Many of the things it produces are meant to be ingested, though few are made with taste or even the health and wellness of the consumer in mind. Alchemy also produces coatings that may be applied to the skin or objects, and reagents that catalyze transmutations of base elements into other matter.

Though often studied as a means of perfecting the soul, this pursuit is very much bound up with actual Alchemical practice.

In all cases, the Path of Alchemy is expensive. For most versions of the Path, it requires a well-equipped laboratory and strange ingredients. The most powerful applications require increasingly exotic components and extremely specialized Tass. Though the Herbalism variant tends to be cheaper in terms of money, it requires more time and effort, with plants and fungi collected under strict conditions.

Many applications of this Path have passed into legend. Few alchemists are known to have actually completed the so-called “Great Work,” the creation of a Philosopher’s Stone, or any other product conducive to immortality, but most masters of the Path make an attempt.

This Path has no spells. It does everything through rituals called recipes.

Modifiers: Once the magician successfully follows a recipe three times, the difficulty is reduced by one.

Time: Alchemy takes longer to obtain results than most Paths. Recipes require one day per level to prepare, but this can be shortened if the Path Ability exceeds the recipe level. Each dot of the Ability higher than the ritual level reduces the total time spent by one day. If this would reduce preparation time below one day, instead assume several hours of work.

Duration: Effects last for a single scene unless otherwise noted.

Effects: Alchemy doesn’t have Aspects; instead, each dot increases the practitioner’s power and control. Except for the most potent recipes, they only require a single success to make. Additional successes are split between providing additional doses and keeping those doses potent for one day per success spent.

• Distillations at this level do not appear magical in any way. These recipes are simply more advanced versions of extant chemicals and concoctions, producing more potent painkillers, poisons, glues, solvents, etc., and increasing the Toxin Rating of the chemical by one (as per Mage 20 p. 442). Higher Path levels can further alter the Toxin Rating, increasing or decreasing the rating by one per dot.

•• Now the substances created let the imbiber exceed their usual physical limits. Any one Attribute can be increased by one dot, up to a maximum of five, for the scene. Special preparations can expand one’s mystical awareness, mostly through induced dreams or hallucinations. These visions are left to the Storyteller’s discretion and should remain cryptic and uncertain. Visions attained at this level lack the power of a system benefit and are included as a narrative device.

••• Not only can the alchemist now enhance their targets beyond the normal capabilities of humans, but they can also grant low-level psychic abilities (see Chapter Two) for an hour at a time. These psychic abilities begin at a single dot, but every additional two successes provides an additional dot, to a maximum of the alchemist’s Path rating.

•••• Alchemists can bring about truly potent improvements to living beings. They can increase a single Attribute or Ability by two or two Attributes or Abilities each by one, and the normal human limit of five no longer applies.

••••• The alchemist can now craft recipes that repro- duce up to three dots worth of supernatural powers. Each dot reproduced this way mimics a single effect — chosen when the recipe is crafted — even if the replicated power offers multiple effects. These are some of the hardest potions to produce and require exotic components, such as pieces of the supernatural being in question.

Price of Failure: Working with volatile compounds is dangerous in and of itself. Even mere failure results in broken equipment and ruined reagents, requiring expensive replacements. In the best-case scenario with an actual botch, the alchemical product explodes, potentially damaging the magician (as well as their neighbors). More commonly, though, the botched recipe appears to come together perfectly, but produces undesirable, and possibly harmful, effects. Even an unexpected but benign effect can be catastrophic at the wrong time.

• A powder that enhances alcohol. The drinker must roll Stamina (difficulty 8) or spend a point of Willpower or else fall asleep immediately. They must try again (at a difficulty of one less than the prior roll) each turn until they fail, or the difficulty drops below 3. Those affected sleep for (10 – Stamina) hours. Vampires are resistant, rolling at –2 difficulty and rolling Stamina + Fortitude. Even if they fail, they sleep for only ten minutes, minus one for each dot of Stamina or Fortitude they possess. Werewolves in their natural form, however, are more susceptible (difficulty +1).
• A cure for the common cold or flu, at least for 24 hours. It can also halve the recovery time for the illness.
• A drug that lets the user ignore wound penalties up to the Injured level until wounded again.
• A tonic that instantly sobers the drinker up, no matter how drunk they are.
• A mirror that is nigh impossible to chip or break.
•• An enhanced form of LSD that lets the taker either see a vision of the future or discover connections between disparate elements within the story. These relationships always appear in symbolic form, making the visions difficult to interpret.
•• A potion that doubles the running speed of anyone who takes it. At the end of the scene, the user rolls Stamina (difficulty 6) or feels out of breath for the next hour, suffering a +2 difficulty on all physical rolls.
•• An energy drink that lets the user go an entire week sleeping one hour per night.
••• An extremely strong, light, and easy to work with metal alloy. It can retain an edge forever; melee weapons made from it do an extra die of damage and have –1 difficulty to hit. Armor made with it soaks an extra die of bashing and lethal damage.
••• A dust that reveals invisible objects or creatures and disrupts illusions.
•••• A metabolic accelerator that raises Strength and Stamina by one each. Anyone who takes it will be hungry during the time to fuel the change. This may increase Attributes above 5.
•••• A regimen of drugs or potions that slows aging. For each year of life on this regimen, the user only ages one month. If they ever go off of it, however, their age catches up at a rate of one month per day until they die or resume the regimen.
•••• A salve that can be applied to the eyes to allow the user to see through the Shroud for one night.
•••• A bullet that bursts into flames on impact. It does an additional two dice of fire damage and ignites anything it hits.
•••• A powder that, when inhaled by mouth, gives an extra dot of Manipulation and Expression.
••••• A pungent chemical that drives back werewolves (and most humans, simply due to the smell). When worn, any sort of shapeshifter cannot approach within ten feet of the user. Of course, this only protects against melee combat, they can still throw things, as some alchemists learn when they start taunting. Similar recipes exist for other Night-Folk.
••••• A potion that mimics the physical prowess of a vampire. The user gains an extra action, an automatic success on Strength rolls, and an extra soak die for the scene. They also have quite a temper and thirst for blood. Resisting provocation or the opportunity to feed on an open wound requires a Willpower roll (difficulty 8).
••••• More directly, an elixir can be made using at least five points of vampire blood to simulate three dots of Potence for three hours. It leaves the user desperately hungry and suffering from bloodlust as above.
••••• A powder that allows the consumer to heal bashing and lethal damage at a rate of one level every other turn for the duration of a story. This requires some werewolf fur and causes the user to sweat heavily and smell like an animal in a cage, giving +1 difficulty to all social rolls.

The herbalist, or natural healer, has long occupied a place in folklore and in the culture of pre- or non-technological societies. In later history, the snake-oil salesman exploited for their own ends the trust many people once placed in non-traditional healers. Many herbalists — and many herbal con-artists — merely relied on recipes handed down through generations or conjured whole from their imagination to produce potions, ointments, tinctures, possets, and other herbal concoctions. These mixtures or brews sometimes worked, when the herbs and other ingredients contained viable substances. Otherwise, they were just so much “snake oil.”

The Way of hedge magic known as “herbalism” or “brewing” enables the practitioner to imbue natural ingredients with real power so that their natural healing (or poisoning) abilities achieve greater results. At the highest level of knowledge, these substances produce effects that border on the miraculous. The Garou treasure and protect these Kinfolk, valuing them for their ability to effect cures when normal means fail.

Kinfolk who study this herbal magic Numen must first have at least one dot in one of the following Knowledges: Herbalism, Medicine, or Science (botany). Naturally, the more dots in the appropriate Knowledge, the greater the probability of success. Using this Path requires time and effort, as the practitioner must find and gather, or grow, the proper herbs, flowers, roots, or mosses. In addition, preparing potions or other herbal concoctions takes time involved in boiling, steeping, crushing, or otherwise transforming the ingredients into the required mixture.

The strength and effectiveness of the mixture depends on the herbalist’s successes (Intelligence + Herbalism). One success produces something that marginally works but may look foul and taste bitter, or worse. With four or more successes, the concoction not only succeeds but does so with twice as much effectiveness — and tastes delicious, to boot!

Of course, herbalism also allows for the concoction of poisons. Those who ingest such poisons or mixtures with harmful effects may attempt a Stamina roll against the herbalist’s successes to resist or survive the effects.

Players and Storyteller should devise their own rituals for making the herbal mixtures depending on the herbalist character’s cultural background or the needs of the chronicle.

Roll: Intelligence + Herbalism

Cost: none

• The poultices or brews made at this level can cure minor aches or rashes, induce or prevent sleep, preserve foods longer than their normal freshness, relieve symptoms of non-chronic illnesses, and produce other effects that would not fall under the category of “magic.”

•• At this level, the herbalist’s products quickly cure minor illnesses or pains, avert or enable pregnancy (100% certainty), alter a person’s mood, attract or deter insects or animals, cure intoxication, and produce other effects that seem miraculous, but not necessarily supernatural.

••• The substances made at this level can put people to sleep with just a pinch, cure moderate pains and illnesses, cut healing time in half for open wounds and broken bones (more for Garou), put partakers in light trances or elevate the libido, and cause other effects that may raise eyebrows due to their speed and effectiveness.

•••• This level of mastery enables the herbalist’s concoctions to clear up an infection in minutes, cure life-threatening illnesses, neutralize poisons, temporarily increase someone’s physical traits (one or two dots to Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina for one scene), and other equivalent effects. Cultural expectations and Storyteller judgment play a part in the effects, which are neither sudden, flashy, nor permanent.

••••• At this level, the herbalist produces truly spectacular potions, brews, balms, and the like. Love potions, sleeping concoctions, healing balms, deadly poisons, oils of flying, and other seemingly impossible mixtures enable the user to alter her reality for at least a little while, or, in the case of poisons and healing medicines, permanently. The truth of the matter should remain open to discussion and have a plausible explanation behind it. Extreme effects, such as changing forms, should not occur instantly, but should take effect subtly or over time.

Conjuration is the quintessential Path of stage magicians: pulling rabbits from hats and cards from an audience member’s pocket are common examples of its most basic applications. Sorcerers who wish to make a living from their studies often learn Conjuration. Because of this inextricable association with stage magic, Sleepers tend to rationalize Conjuration as simply expert sleight-of-hand.

The path of Conjuration is the ability to move or summon an object or being. While a novice might only perform parlor tricks like coin spinning, an advanced Conjuration sorcerer can hang a spell on their companion before entering a dangerous situation, letting them pull their friend from the (perhaps literal) jaws of death if need be.

Nearly as important as what Conjuration is is what Conjuration is not. Conjuration is very similar to the path of Conveyance mechanically, to the point that there’s often confusion between the two paths — especially among Awakened Mages who can achieve results common to both Paths with the Correspondence Sphere. Conjuration can’t move the sorcerer wielding it, whereas Conveyance can. A sorcerer also may not use this path to “summon” elemental attacks — that’s the domain of Hellfire.
Conjuration can summon a bucket of sand but cannot create a sandstorm.

Modifiers: For any application that can be played off as — or described similarly enough to — stage magic, keep one success that would’ve otherwise been removed by witnesses. Even rational consensus is primed by pop culture to believe conjuring an elephant from nowhere is possible with clever visual trickery. Note that actions causing obvious physical harm can’t be explained in this manner.

Using Conjuration on an object in the grasp of some- one actively resisting incurs a +1 difficulty. Attempting Conjuration to move a resisting target incurs a +2 difficulty. Apply a –1 difficulty for an object well-known to the sorcerer (see also Object Permanence below).

Aspects: Conjuration uses the Aspects of Distance, Number of Targets, and Weight. Conjuration notably doesn’t use Speed. The summoned target appears instantaneously on the successful completion of a spell or ritual. The sorcerer may also choose to buy the following effects with additional successes:

• 1 success to be able to use Conjuration to clumsily attack without touching the weapon (–1 die penalty to attack).
• 2 successes to attack as above but without penalty, or to give fine motor control to any object conjured, such as using a set of lock picks from a distance.
• 1 success for each additional round the sorcerer wishes to maintain the effect. The Sorcerer can’t drastically change the effect, such as throwing a puppet to strike someone after making the puppet dance, without rolling Conjuration again.

Price of Failure: While simple failure means no item is transported, a Conjuration botch runs the gamut from highly inconvenient to gruesome. A sorcerer might send an object to the wrong place, such as sending an item further out of reach or conjuring a prepared weapon directly to their own hand. Sometimes the sorcerer summons the wrong object entirely. Alternatively, a sorcerer might only conjure part of the intended item, and one only needs to imagine the horror of botching the Conjuration of a living being.

Object Permanence (••)
Hedge magicians naturally have an easier time summoning targets they have a strong connection to, such as a beloved pet or the ritual knife their mentor gifted them. With Object Permanence, the hedge magician forces a supernatural connection to objects for future summoning. This treats the target as “well-known to the sorcerer,” even if the sorcerer found it in a dumpster an hour ago. The sorcerer meditates within 10 feet of the target and spends a point of Willpower. Every success represents a day the target maintains the supernatural connection to the sorcerer. A hedge magician may have a maximum number of targets bound this way at once as they have dots in Conjuration.

Always Armed (•••)
The sorcerer doesn’t have to appear armed to have a weapon at the ready. Due to the nature of this ritual, it’s nearly always hung before the sorcerer enters a potentially dangerous situation. If they need to access the weapon, the sorcerer completes the ritual by reaching into their trenchcoat or a convenient shadow to summon it. Traditionally, sorcerers used this ritual to conjure swords, but in modern times it’s most common for a sorcerer to summon a shotgun or rifle. The summoned weapon can’t be larger than a shotgun or long sword.

Shitstorm (•••)
The hedge magician surrounds themselves and their companions within 25 feet of them with a swirling shell of small inanimate objects. This adds +1 difficulty to hit anyone covered by the effect with a ranged attack for every 2 activation successes. Additionally, anyone attempting close combat against those affected by the ritual must soak [activation successes] in damage. This is usually bashing, unless the sorcerer was in a room filled with broken glass, small knives, or other sharp objects, in which case the damage is lethal. The sorcerer doesn’t have to target any enemy in particular for this to occur. Anyone, friend or foe, who gets too close to the flying debris is hit and must soak the damage.

Extraction (••••)
Another ritual commonly hung “just in case”, Extraction allows the sorcerer to take fallen or overwhelmed companions out of battle and to safety. The sorcerer first moves out of range of combat, typically behind cover, and pulls their companions out of a shadow. There isn’t a difficulty increase or success penalty if the companions aren’t resisting and aren’t immediately being targeted — the chaos of combat can hide this ritual’s use. Once the sorcerer and their companions are out of range, they aren’t counted as being in combat unless a combatant finds them and attacks. This powerful ritual can work on up to 10 companions, who the sorcerer must define when initially performing the ritual.

Whether dreaming of teleportation or flying broomsticks, people have always wanted to travel quickly from place to place. No matter how quickly they can manage it, it’s never fast enough, and many turn to magic and strange sciences to get where they’re going that much sooner. To hedge magicians, these feats may not be routine, but few of them worry about being booked to a middle seat on an airline.

Until they reach the pinnacles of Path mastery, a hedge magician using the Path of Conveyance requires some sort of vehicle, which is prepared for a single journey by the magician. Mystics tend to favor seven-league boots, flying carpets and brooms, and stranger things like chariots drawn by divine cats, while the more scientific magicians use jet packs, transforming cars, and the like.

Powerful wielders of this Path, however, can cover distance without crossing the intervening space. Teleportation need not be instantaneous, but it tends not to need a vehicle; usually a ritual or device at the point of origin will suffice to send the magician wherever they want to go.

Modifiers: +2 difficulty for each unwilling target, –1 difficulty for well-known locations.

Aspects: In addition to the Aspects of Distance, Travel Speed, and Passengers, the following each increase the number of successes needed:

• 1 success to travel to a location the magician has never been to.
• 2 successes to teleport, even if not instantaneous This is required to attempt to use Conveyance offensively.
• Each barrier crossed costs one success. Barriers must be possible to bypass. This Path can’t penetrate hermetically sealed chambers.

Price of Failure: Mishaps with the Path of Conveyance can be extremely dangerous. Failures are innocuous enough, as simply nothing happens. Botches, however, tend to be specific to the method of transportation used and tend to impact the conjurer (pun intended) part way through the trip. Flying broomsticks fall out of the sky, seven-league boots leave you stranded leagues from your destination, and entire bodies of science-fiction discuss what happens when teleportation goes badly.

Sprint (•)
Sometimes, a magician needs to travel a short distance quickly. Though preparations vary, mostly by practice and Ability, this Ritual always concludes by lacing up a pair of blue sneakers. Once they are on, the magician can run faster than any mundane human, so long as no one sees them do so. Each success on the ritual doubles the running speed and grants one minute of running. At the end, the ritual leaves the magician exhausted, and they must rest for five minutes.

Teleport Ward (••)
Hedge magicians studying the Path of Conveyance quickly learn to defend themselves from it. By marking out a room or building in an appropriate way — a chalk circle, sigils on the walls, or anti-teleportation field projectors, etc. — they can make it harder for other hedge magicians to use the Path to enter the area. After the ritual is set, each success must be overcome by a caster trying to enter the bounded area. This protection degrades at a rate of one success per month, but a single success on another ritual roll restores it.

Get Me the Heck Outta Here! (•••)
One of the most useful tools a magician can have in their pocket is an escape route for when things go badly. This ritual instantly brings the magician back to a pre-prepared home location within 50 miles of them. It requires at least four successes to cast, though additional successes 20 miles apiece to the ritual’s range. An addi- tional roll when casting the ritual allows the magician to return to a secondary location if their dedicated home is too far away. This ritual is almost always cast as a hanging ritual.

Information Superhighway (••••)
For technology-based magicians, there’s an unusual means of transportation often overlooked by mystics. It’s harder to access than others but can sometimes reach places Conveyance normally can’t. This ritual allows the caster to travel from any electrical outlet to any other, by converting the magician into electricity. The range is limited to 5 miles per success. This travel takes one minute per 5 miles. However, the archetypical sealed room Conveyance can’t access is usually not sealed off from electricity: If an outlet exists, then the magician can get to it.

Teleportal (•••••)
Masters of the Path of Conveyance can do more than simply transport themselves and others from place to place. They can create stable gateways between two locations. First, the magician must prepare both sites for the portal to be created. This takes three days of preparation at each site using trappings and materials appropriate to the caster’s Path Ability. Once the appropriate preparations are complete, the magician makes an extended roll, with one roll per hour. It requires at least one success per 10 miles between the portals. Each extra success adds five uses of the portal or a condition at one or both ends, such as a restriction on who can use it or making the portal one way. Creating this portal costs one permanent Willpower point, which is not refunded if the portal dissipates. Teleportal is a complex ritual, best accomplished with assistants.

Reading tea leaves, casting rune stones or bones, studying the night sky — all these are examples of traditional practices of Divination, variations of which span a multitude of cultures. As long as there’s been the concept of a future, there’ve been people wanting to know what it held for them. Some of the newest, though more difficult, practices involve using advanced computer programming based on extraordinary sciences and hypermath.

A hedge magician performing acts of Divination attempts to predict the future. However, the future’s an ever-changing and muddied mess. A sorcerer may use Divination to find clues to the most likely outcomes, but the wise seer knows the value of accurately interpreting the imprecise and dream-like symbolism to judge likely probability changes.

Rarely is anything about the future set in stone. Mortals die, but the where, when, and how are determined by infinite variables: choices of action and inaction alike. The mere decision to scry the future and tell anyone about it could drastically change outcomes.

Because of the constantly shifting nature of the future, a sorcerer can’t develop or take any rituals for Divination. Divination rarely qualifies as vulgar magic, and many hedge magicians skilled in this art find it profitable to perform in the open. However, some practices such as Haruspicy (predicting the future by studying the entrails of a sacrifice) run the risk of legal consequences if discovered. Most Diviners choose one practice, but it’s not unheard of for sorcerers to have a few practices they use depending on the situation or client, especially if a favored practice is illegal or subject to being thwarted by the weather, such as with astrology.

All uses of Divination are treated as spells, although with a casting time of ten minutes per Path Level called upon, rather than one turn.

Modifiers: +1 difficulty if using Extraordinary Science, but this Practice gives more precise probabilities. –1 difficulty when under the influence of mind-altering substances. Visions and signs may come easier and more vibrant in altered states but remain up to interpretation.

Aspects: Divination uses the following unique Aspects:

Time Period
• one day
•• one week
••• one month
•••• one year
••••• 10 years

Accuracy
• Visions and signs are incredibly vague and difficult to interpret with any certainty
•• Typically accurate but deeply buried in symbolism
••• Accurate but vague and open to misinterpretation
•••• The truth’s there under layers of symbolism, but not terribly difficult to interpret
••••• Accurate and often easy to understand, though still subject to human error

Query
• A simple question that could be answered yes or no if you were talking to a person rather than stars or entrails
•• A specific question that can be answered with a short and simple explanation. For example, “Which road ahead is safest?” but not “What’s our enemy’s plan?”
••• The question could be researched and answered with public source knowledge if only you had the hours to put in.
•••• The question may be detailed and require hidden information, but the information could be uncovered given enough time and know-how.
••••• A very detailed query that would normally require lost, destroyed, or deliberately hidden information to answer.

Price of Failure: In the best-case scenario, the sorcerer simply receives no visions or intuition due to failure. A botch, however, can give patently false or dangerously misleading readings. The hedge magician may divine that there’s no security at the location their coven is planning on breaking into, when the place uses enough security to rival Fort Knox. Alternatively, the sorcerer might correctly divine that a door’s lock is broken but fail to understand that the owner knows this and placed armed guards to watch it. The Storyteller should vary approaches to Divination botches lest they become predictable in and out of character.

The tools used to focus Divination are many, but they all work equally well and according to the same principles, opening a conduit of sorts for the Magician to peer through and see the essence of destiny itself. A Magician might use cards, carved fetishes, coins, tea leaves at the bottom of a cup, or the entrails of a recently slain animal. She might peer into a crystal ball, a mirror, or a pool of water. She might pray with a saint, walk in the woods, or simply watch for omens. Whichever option the player chooses for the character says something about the cultural origin of her Divination ability, as well.

There are countless methods within the Path of Divination, and every Diviner puts something of themself into their practice. A cartomancer might have a favorite tarot deck or spread, and a bibliomancer might swear their divination is only accurate when they use works by the Brontë sisters. Players are encouraged to research divination methods and find one or more practices that best suit their character and chronicle.

Some magicians — those focusing on the Path of Summoning — command spirits. Those who follow the Path of Ephemera seek a relationship of greater familiarity with them. To magicians who use the Path of Ephemera, their relationship to spirits is more like family and friends than master and servant. When they call for a spirit, it’s an invitation, not a subpoena.

The core of the Path of Ephemera is a kind of ritualized, respectful negotiation. This process, called chiminage by Garou and Dreamspeakers, is a give-and-take. Each spirit wants something different, related to their nature. The spirit’s request depends on the power of the spirit and the size of the task involved.

Asking an Incarna to undertake a difficult and long-term task requires a lot from the magician, perhaps something only possible with a difficult quest of their own. Asking a Gaffling to do something simple that ties directly into their nature (e.g., asking a fire spirit to light a candle) would, conversely, require almost nothing of the magician, perhaps only the opportunity to do it.

This process, naturally, has a steep learning curve. Most magicians find themselves on the worse end of a deal or two before they get a sense of it.

This Path almost always focuses on the Middle Umbra and, more rarely, on the Low Umbra. Rumors of versions that work with the High Umbra are persistent but remain nothing more than hearsay.

All uses of this Path past the first level (sensing and getting the attention of nearby spirits) are cast as rituals requiring specific circumstances, targets and desires, rather than as spells.

Modifiers: –2 to +2 difficulty depending on the spirit’s opinion of the magician.

Aspects: Metaphysical Weight and the unique Aspect of Spiritual Reach.

Spiritual Reach
• The magician can sense spirits and get their attention but can do little else.
•• The magician is restricted to calling upon a general type of spirit
••• Now specific spirits can be called through tailor-made rituals, and almost always show up unless the magician has offended them in some way.
•••• Spirits begin to approach the magician un-prompted. The magician can see into the Penumbra, which increases the numbers and types of spirit they can interact with. The magician can also fight back against spirits if they need to, though most try to avoid it.
••••• The magician can now go to the spirits instead of needing them to come to the physical world. Though physical travel into the Umbra is still impossible, the magician can astrally project there, using Wits for Dexterity, Manipulation for Strength, Intelligence as Stamina, and Willpower as Health Levels. They are connected to their body by a silver thread, and if they run out of Willpower, it snaps, severing their connection and leaving them stranded.

Price of Failure: Dealings with spirits can be dangerous, especially at the early stages when all a magician can do is get the attention of whatever is nearby. Even at the higher levels, the most dangerous thing possible on a botch is to call the wrong spirit, with banes being particularly common.

All uses of this Path past the first level (sensing and getting the attention of nearby spirits) are cast as rituals requiring specific circumstances, targets and desires, rather than as spells.

This Way enables a hedge mage to create a bond between herself and a chosen type of plant or animal. Those who practice this Way believe, not unlike the Garou, that every living thing possesses a soul or animating spirit.

A spirit chaser uses her bond to watch and learn from her chosen animal or plant. Unlike the process of learning Gifts, no bargain exists between animal/plant teacher and student. The practitioner starts by contacting the spirit and simply watching it. Next, she asks questions of the spirit and tries to mimic its natural abilities. After this, the spirit chaser devises a private ritual in which she pleads with the spirit, requesting it to appear. When this happens (and it can take a very long time), the spirit chaser explains that she would like to learn its ways. For example, a spirit chaser choosing a bear spirit would ask to learn the ways of bears. The spirit might require some kind of proof of sincerity or a quest undertaken to prove the spirit chaser’s worth, but if it agrees, it allows the spirit chaser to learn the basics of living like the chosen creature.

As learning progresses, the hedge mage learns to focus her senses to see as her animal does. She might even learn special activities, such as a bear’s ability to hibernate or a lion’s ability to use claws. This Way is unique to every practitioner. Note that this Numen does not provide the ability to see, hear, touch, or summon spirits. It does provide a degree of intuitive communication with a chosen spirit type, such that queries might be answered by a gentle breeze, the snap of a twig, or even the brief appearance of the spirit’s type of animal or plant, and the spirit chaser intuitively understands the meaning of such responses. Others would easily interpret it as being all in the spirit chaser’s imagination, but she knows better. At higher levels of awareness, it’s even possible that a spirit might like the spirit chaser enough to materialize before her now and then, or use other Charms that signal its direct presence.

Roll: Manipulation + Occult

Willpower cost: 1 point

• The mystic learns to “eat” the food of the chosen spirit. The proper food needs to be available (water and sun for plants; pasturage for herbivores such as cows or deer; grubs, honey, berries, etc. for bears; raw meat for wolves or other predators). She receives full nutrition from this food as if she were her chosen animal. Rituals might involve cud chewing, squirreling food away to eat later, burying food, and so forth.

•• The spirit chaser can match his own sensory levels to his animal. For example, a lynx might allow the spirit chaser to see in the dark or sniff out predators or prey. Scenting humans, sniffing out a trail, finding food, or “reading” the air are some of the rituals that might accompany this level.

••• Animals and plants know how to survive and what to do when they need healing. Plants “heal” by means of photosynthetic energy, while some animals lick their wounds, or fall into a healing sleep. The vibrational rate of a feline’s purr seems to have some healing properties as well. Each year, for some part of the winter, some creatures hibernate; temperatures are cold and food is scarce, so hibernation is a type of self-induced coma to insure survival. At this level, a spirit chaser may fall into a healing sleep which heals one Health Level for each success rolled on Spirit Chasing. With three successes, the spirit chaser could heal three levels after 12 hours of sleep. Rituals include hiding, healing, cleansing & purging venomous or poisonous wounds, and childbirth.

•••• At this level, the spirit chaser received the inner wisdom of the chosen animal or plant spirit. Based on the level of success on a roll to use this level of power, the Storyteller decides how much and what sort of information provided to the spirit chaser. An oak spirit might give the spirit chaser insight into an event that happened when the oak was a sapling. A wolf spirit might give the caster knowledge of something affecting the survival of wolves in a particular part of the world. The Storyteller can make use of this power to give story hooks to the characters. Rituals might include seeking visions, detecting lies or making intuitive leaps.

••••• The most committed and dedicated spirit chasers may attain this advanced level of mastery. Here, the spirit chaser receives the ability to practice some aspect unique to its bonded animal or plant spirit. She might, if bonded to a deer, be able to run especially quickly or leap high fences. A practitioner bonded to a bear might call on great strength; one bonded to a lion might grow claws for battle. Certain plants might give the caster skin that could be poisonous to the touch. At least three successes are necessary to invoke this ability, which is the closest a Kinfolk may come to experiencing the Garou’s shapechanging ability. Possible rituals may involve shielding, through growing a thick coat of hair or tree bark; offensive powers, such as growing sharp, strong fingernails; scaling a vertical surface as a spider might; and other abilities.

Via Geniorum is one of the Ways that is most distrusted by Theurgy’s critics; Theurgists who practice this Via deal with the realm of spirits and the demonic. They argue that all creatures are ultimately under the call of heaven, including spirits and demons. These Theurgists believe that there is an entire spectrum of Spirits who allied neither with Heaven nor Hell, yet can be commanded by the power of Heaven. This Way grants the practitioner power over non-human spiritual entities (demons, elementals, etc.).

Knowledge of a spirit’s true name grants one power over it. A true name is not the title that the spirit commonly goes by, but a more complex, primal invocation. The world warps and flutters when true names are spoken. They are jealously guarded secrets, requiring extended research rolls, Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 9), and a good occult library to decipher. Every success grants a “syllable” of the name. The simplest of spirits might have a single syllable true name, but more powerful demons will have many more (up to the discretion of the Storyteller). A Theurgist may try and trick a spirit into divulging its true name. True name syllables are often a form of currency amongst spirits and occultists, who tend to hoard them.

Roll: Varies (see below)

Modifiers: -2 difficulty if the Theurgist knows the spirit’s true name

Cost: 1 Willpower

Duration: Varies (see below)

• Ritual of Revelation: The Theurgist does not peer into the spirit world so much as command nearby supernal beings to reveal themselves. On a successful Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8), the Theurgist can see all spirits in the immediate area (including those possessing physical bodies).

•• Ritual of Protection: On a successful Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7), the Theurgist may draw protective sigils into handheld objects or in a small circle around her. Extended ritual rolls can make larger circles or more completely protected locations, with 10 successes being enough to protect a small house. Spirits cannot harass or enter a person or location, thus protected, without succeeding in a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). Protection lasts for one month or until the sigil is disturbed (a carved sigil is much harder to disrupt than one drawn in chalk).

••• Ritual of Dismissal: The Theurgist can send a spirit back to its native realm. This via requires a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 9). The number of success needed, in an extended ritual, vary widely based on the power of the spirit (and left to the Storyteller’s judgment).

•••• Ritual of Summoning: The Theurgist can now summon spirit entities. This via requires a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 9). The number of success needed, in an extended ritual, vary widely based on the power of the spirit (and left to the Storyteller’s judgment). A summoned spirit must remain in the Theurgist’s presence for a scene or until it has answered three questions (it cannot be made to reveal its true name in this manner). Further interaction relies on Social rolls, sacrifices, or other powers. A botched roll summons an enraged spirit who likely attacks the unlucky Theurgist.

••••• Ritual of Binding: The Theurgist can now force a spirit into servitude. This via requires a Manipulation + Occult roll (Difficulty 9). The number of success needed, in an extended ritual, vary widely based on the power of the spirit (and left to the Storyteller’s judgment). A bound spirit may be asked to do a specific action (“Attack that vampire!”) or an ongoing action (“Watch over me.”) lasting until the next sunrise or sunset.

The Path of Enchantment rewards patience and forethought more than any other Path. There are no spells in this Path, only rituals, including the long and difficult rituals creating magical objects called Artifacts. Each of these Artifacts must be carefully crafted by the Enchanter. The first step is to create the mundane base item. Usually these are hand-crafted by the Enchanter, pushing their mundane skills to their limits to make just the right vessel for their magic.

Sometimes, however, the right vessel can be found in the form of a rare or ancient object. Once the vessel has been made or found, the Enchanter can get to the process of infusing the object with magical energy to be used later. The first stage is usually accomplished through Crafts rolls (or, for technosorcerers, Technology or Hypertech rolls), while the latter is a Path roll.

The Artifacts created through Enchantment differ in several key ways from the recipes of Alchemy. Artifacts are usually persistent, or at least can be used many times. Some may be permanent, or nearly so, while others can be used a fixed number of times before their magic dissipates. Additionally, they tend to be weaker than the Wonders created by mages, and more focused. An Artifact can only have a single power, a restriction Wonders don’t have.

Enchanters tend to spend a lot of time and effort on their workshops. Whatever sort of crafting they do to make their Artifacts defines them. They often see themselves as blacksmiths, jewelers, electronics engineers, or woodworkers first, and the magic they can do comes later. This leads Enchanters to pursue high levels of the Resources Background, as well as others representing a safe and secure space to do their work and the ability to acquire high quality and often exotic raw materials.

Modifiers: Creating a Talisman without spending a permanent dot of Willpower to empower it (which may be purchased back right away) is done at +3 difficulty.

Time: Crafting time for the object, plus (one week per level of the enchantment) multiplied by (the level of the enchantment minus one) with a minimum time of one week.

Effects: Enchantment doesn’t have Aspects, instead it has the following Effects:

• The Enchanter can create minor items that are rarely noticeably magical to those who aren’t already aware of their powers. This can add one (or, for restricted circumstances, two) dice to an Attribute or Ability roll or decrease the difficulty by 1 for an attack or skill. Other small boons are also possible.

•• More powerful versions of already possible Artifacts offer two additional dice or a –2 difficulty on a task. Some of the objects created at this level can change reality in a subtle way, being more magical than previously possible.

••• Obviously magical items are now possible, though they’ll still seem merely “very weird” to the magically unaware. These include items that offer two additional dice on up to three different Attribute or Ability rolls, and those that confer supernatural perceptions to the user by replicating supernatural powers of no greater than a single dot.

•••• Objects of truly superhuman power. These can raise Attributes above 5, duplicate powers (up to the second dot) of other supernatural beings, and otherwise warp reality in significant ways.

••••• Extremely powerful items often bordering on the mythic. Minor miracles are possible, and often these powers are quite blatant. Items created at this level can reproduce up to three dots worth of supernatural powers. Each dot reproduced this way mimics a single effect — chosen when the item is crafted — even if the replicated power offers multiple effects.

Price of Failure: Failure usually means the magician has wasted days or weeks of their time, possibly ruining the item they were trying to enchant, but nothing worse. Botches tend to be more varied. They can result in explosions that destroy the workshop. Worse, though, they can result in objects that seem to work, but have some sort of unanticipated side effect. These cursed items tend to be hard to destroy or get rid of, often lingering long after the Enchanter is gone and even finding their way into Sleeper hands.

• Army surplus jacket granting two dots of Arcane when worn.
• A custom handgun subtracting one from the difficulty of all aimed shots.
• A stuffed animal guaranteeing restful sleep to anyone sleeping in the same bed as it.
• A silver chain bearing a hawk’s eye medallion with a chrysoprase in that can, once per day, add 2 dice to a long-distance sight-based Perception roll.
• A silver toe-ring that, when worn on otherwise bare feet, protects from projectiles, adding 2 dice to all attempts to dodge them.
• A colored candle that, when burned, grants two dots of a Background for the purposes of a one-time favor.
• An oak frame that preserves anything placed in it for as long as it remains intact. It can only hold flat things, like documents and photo- graphs, and must be sealed with almond oil and sprinkled with pure water.
•• A pocket flask that attracts bullets when carried in a breast pocket. It can only take one impact, but it provides three dice of lethal soak before being destroyed. This enchantment is very popular among soldiers heading onto a battlefield and may have originated during World War II.
•• Enhanced bullets dealing 2 additional dice of damage on hits. Each success on the Enchantment roll creates one bullet.
•• A silver dancer’s anklet adding to dice to rolls involving dance when worn and visible.
•• An iron nail that, when driven into someone’s footprint, causes them to painfully stub their toe.
•• A small golden charm alerting the wearer when a single person it is attuned to is in danger. It must be reset each time by sprinkling it with wine. The charm works once per success on the Enchantment roll.
•• A rowan ring which counteracts fae magic used on the wearer. This cancels one instance of fae magic per success on the Enchantment roll.
••• Running shoes doubling the speed of the wearer when trying to outrun pursuit.
••• An amulet warding against sorcery. Three times a day it subtracts dice equal to the successes on the Enchantment roll from spells targeting the wearer. It must be kept in a special jewelry box carved from a single crystal when not worn, or it loses one success permanently per night until it stops working.
••• A sword for ghost-slaying. It has a core of liquid mercury and does aggravated damage to the Risen and lethal damage to wraiths. It must be blessed by a priest every fortnight or the magic ends.
••• A salve that heals three non-aggravated health levels in minutes. It must be applied under the light of the moon by someone who loves the wounded. Each success on the Enchantment roll creates one application.
••• A bull torque made of pure obsidian. When smeared with blood it grants three dots of Strength to the wearer for one scene per success on the Enchantment roll.
••• A handkerchief which can clean any mundane spill or stain. It requires the user to hum while
mopping with it and works once per success on the Enchantment roll.
•••• Heartseeker, a stiletto which unerringly aims for the heart when wielded in rage. It deals Strength + 5 dice of lethal damage. It must be bathed in the blood of each kill it makes or else it loses its potency.
•••• The skull of a dead wizard allowing the user to contact them for assistance. The user “donates” a pint of blood to the skull and can ask one question per success on the Enchantment roll. These questions need not be yes/no, and follow-ups (as determined by the Storyteller) do not count as additional questions. It may only be used during the new moon and requires a Willpower roll at difficulty equal to 4 plus the number of times the skull has been used. The skull crumbles to dust after the last question if the Willpower roll fails. Recently, rumors have begun to surface suggesting the skull of Porthos Fitz-Empress was recovered and enchanted in this way, though everyone has heard it from a friend of a friend.
•••• A silver torc granting superhuman Strength. The wearer has Strength 5 when using it, and once per day for each success on the Enchantment roll, may gain 3 automatic successes on a task involving Strength. When not worn, it must be kept exposed to the moon whenever the moon is visible.
•••• A silvered mail tunic that automatically con- verts up to 4 dice of lethal damage per turn to bashing. Upon each use, a few links fall out, and eventually it falls apart (after one use per success on the Enchantment roll). If any attempt at cleaning or repair is made, the magic is lost.
•••• A book that will, once per success on the Enchantment roll, translate anything written in it into the reader’s native language. To activate it, the page must be sprinkled with paper ash. When set down, the writing reverts to the original language.
••••• A money pouch that never quite empties. So long as at least one quarter (or other medium denomination coin for other currencies) remains in it, up to four times a day it will contain about five dollars (or equivalent) in quarters. If ever used a fifth time in one day, the magic is lost forever.
••••• An amulet of protection from physical harm. When worn, it grants five dice of soak against all damage, including aggravated. However, each use subtracts one year from the user’s life, visible on their organs, but not on the outside.
••••• An amulet hiding the user from magical detection. When worn, it adds 4 successes to the total required to find the wearer with any sort of supernatural power. Each use requires the wearer to solve a new riddle, puzzle, or enigma, activating it for one week per success on the Enchantment roll.
••••• A cloak that hides the movements of the user. It allows them to move silently and undetected
even across squeaky floors. Legends say it was developed to defeat the Nightingale floors of Nijo Castle. The wearer is perfectly silent until they speak aloud. When created, one silver thread per success on the Enchantment roll is woven into the cloak, and each use breaks one of those threads. When the last one breaks, the magic is lost forever.
••••• A piano anyone can play like a master once they give a prayer to the nine Muses (by name).
••••• An animated servant, such as a homunculus or robot. It has 10 dots of Attributes and 7 dots of Abilities, with human senses and Health levels (though no wound penalties). It doesn’t need to eat or sleep, though most robots require some sort of recharging.

Eldritch Mark (•)
By inscribing a symbol or mark onto an object or the forehead of a person, the magicians marks them as theirs. The mark is invisible to the naked eye, but obvious to anyone with magically enhanced perceptions of any sort. The mark informs anyone looking at it of the name of the magician who created the mark. This ritual takes five minutes to cast and has no Willpower cost. The mark lasts until the next new moon.

Enhance Craftsmanship (••)
Sometimes, instead of a magic item, what a magician needs is an otherwise normal but perfectly crafted object. This ritual creates unbreakable blades, sweaters that don’t unravel, and similar objects whose only enhancement is in the extreme quality of their crafting. These objects cannot be enchanted further, however. Enhanced items are not magical, but an Enchanter or Alchemist can roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 6) to recognize that they were created in this manner. This ritual must be cast during the creation of the object, or takes 15-20 minutes after the fact, and costs only a temporary Willpower point.

Stories of the enthralling sorcerer or the beguiling magician are found in folktales across the world. Devious enchanters bring the innocent under their sway, and deals struck for power entrap the hearts and minds of those so foolish as to sign away their souls to such bargains. The kernel of truth to this old trope is solid as diamond. Unscrupulous magicians bending the minds of others to their will have practiced this Path as long as anyone has wished another would just act or think in an agreeable manner.

The methods vary, but the result is the same: Break the subject’s will and enthrall them. A sorcerer employ- ing a mystical practice may apply makeup that makes their eyes sparkle with entrancing radiance. They may spritz themselves with an alluring fragrance, drawing the attention of anyone within wafting distance. Others may simply hone their confidence into a razor’s edge, impossible to resist. Extraordinary Citizens carry tested and approved harmonic resonators that emit a subsonic frequency that rebalances neurotransmitters to facilitate compliance.

Those with mind-altering powers already can resist with powers of their own if they are the specific target of a power. This goes both ways, as a student of this Path may recognize other uses of mind-altering effects and prepare themselves to resist or overcome them.

Modifiers: +1 difficulty for being disliked by the target, +2 difficulty for being hated by the target

Aspects: In addition to the Aspects of Number of Targets, Range, and Sympathetic Connection, Fascination uses the unique Allure and Willbending Aspects:

Allure
• Add 1 die to social die pools
•• Add 2 dice to social die pools
••• Add 3 dice to social die pools
•••• Add 4 dice to social die pools
••••• Add 5 dice to social die pools

Willbending
• Intriguing: You draw attention even in a crowd, and individuals find you interesting in one-on-one conversation. You may make mild suggestions that align with the target’s personality and situation such as getting another drunk if they are at a bar.

•• Alluring: Almost everyone at the gathering knows you were there, and individuals will try to find a way to see you again. You may make strong suggestions that align with the target’s personality and situation, such as heading home with the hedge wizard after a fun night.

••• Beguiling: Everyone assumes that you had a hand in setting up the party, and individuals around you will vie for your attention. You may make suggestions that don’t necessarily align with the target’s personality and situation, such as suggesting they break up with their long-term partner to give the caster of the spell a one-off chance.

•••• Entrancing: Invitations or not, the party is held for you by everyone’s estimation. Individuals no longer just want your attention, they crave your approval, possibly making fools of themselves in the process. You may make strong suggestions that don’t align with the target’s personality or interests, such as suggesting that the target fight another to defend the magician’s honor.

••••• Enthralling: If you started throwing things, this place would become a full-scale riot; those present find themselves hard-pressed to resist your requests, doing almost anything you might request. Hell, they may even kill for you or put their life on the line for you if you ask the right way. You may make strong suggestions that wildly defy the target’s character and circumstances, such as suggesting that the spell’s victim burns down a bar for daring to announce last call.

Price of Failure: The consequences of failure when manipulating hearts and minds tend to be based on the context of the situation. A simple failure at a party may go largely unnoticed after a moment of minor embarrassment, such as a spilled drink during an attempt at a grand flourish or stepping on others’ toes while making tracks across the dance floor. A botch, however, inevitably leads to humiliation, or worse. This can be represented by reversing any bonus into a penalty for the duration. The target of enchantment becomes a sworn enemy instead of a paramour or may lose the ability to feel emotions at all. The subject of the latter effect becomes numb to all forms of empathy and sympathy and requires great lengths or the passage of time to return to normal. The converse may see the victim become unhinged, transforming into a violently jealous abuser that will harm anyone they perceive as encroaching upon their claim.

Belle/Beau of the Ball (•••)
With knowledge of an upcoming social event and proper preparation, a sorcerer can make themselves quite the sensation. With an invitation in hand, whether intended for them or not, the magician infuses their presence into the upcoming gathering. For the duration of the specified party, they receive VIP treatment from all attendees and hired staff. The organizers give their blessing and offer a hearty “have a great night” without second-guessing their guest list.

Love Potion Number 9 (••••)
Regardless of its classic and iconic nature, usage of the “love potion” has fallen out of fashion for obvious reasons. As Western societies have become more insistent on the importance of consent, sorcerers have had less call to take the time and resources required to perform this ritual. Those that are still willing to make the potent mixture of love and loyalty do so with hesitancy and charge a premium price. A lock of hair, a dram of blood, or a sentimental personal effect is required to create the right connection to the heart in question.

When performed for an individual other than the sorcerer themselves, some part of the client is usually required as well. The ritual takes the form of the traditional potion in some practices; in others it is a sort of ritualized binding with a knotted cord. In all cases, the victim is tied to the anchor point of the sorcerer or their client. Once performed, the victim finds themselves uneasy and sick to their stomach. The lingering nausea vanishes when the anchor is near, or when they are performing a task that they know would please the anchor.

Fate is fickle, even before accounting for the manipulations of magicians. The Path of Fortune allows them to wield luck like a weapon, cutting down their enemies with curses or fortifying their allies with blessings. While methods and explanations may vary, from the Evil Eye, to the Hand of God, to probability manipulation, the Path of Fortune never makes the truly impossible happen, only the exceedingly unlikely. It’s also one of the least precise Paths: While the hedge magician sets Fortune in motion and controls the magnitude and general range of potential outcomes, the effects of this Path often surprise them or disappear into the noise of daily life.

The curse is one of the most ancient and potent forms of Hedge Magic. It can take many forms, from the “evil eye” of the Mediterranean and the Middle East to the “jinx” of hoodoo to the “hex” of Eastern European folklore. Curses have been known to cause grave misfortune in a variety of forms: accidents, illnesses, and even death. At the core of any curse is maleficent intent directed toward an enemy. The Hedge Magician focuses her will, her directed hatred, toward her target and releases that intent in the form of harmful energy. The curse quickly afflicts its victim’s life and slowly fades as the hateful energy dissipates.

Night-Folk are harder to curse with this Path than Sleepers are. They make a Willpower roll against 4 + the magician’s Path rating, and effects without an Aspect at 5 require only a single success to negate. Those extremely powerful curses can be ignored with only two successes, though the difficulty will be 9, making it quite challenging. To resist, the victim must be aware of the magician’s curse and actively attempt to resist it. Discovering an unannounced curse can be difficult, but is possible through supernatural perceptions, such as aura reading. Mages with Prime or Entropy might notice it, and magicians with the Path of

Fortune can usually recognize the work of one of their own. The Arcane/Cloaking Background provides an additional layer of protection against curses. Targeting anyone with that Background without their explicit permission subtracts a success from the roll for each dot of Arcane they have.

Modifiers: –1 difficulty with a weak sympathetic connection (object owned by the target), –2 difficulty for a strong sympathetic connection (prized possession of target, piece of the target such as hair or nail clippings)

Aspects: Fortune uses the Duration Aspect, but treats all durations as one higher, with Duration 5 consisting of spells lasting for several years. Additionally, it uses the Number of Targets Aspect, but all targets must be related (members of a family, the population of a small town, etc.). The Fortune Path also uses an unique Aspect called Severity, as follows:

Severity
• A minor blessing or curse, generally something simple, such as a Freudian slip or managing to just barely catch a bus the target needs.

•• A lasting but non-permanent inconvenience, injury, or small benefit. Sprains, non-life-threatening illness, and broken objects are standard bad luck, whereas good luck might be as simple as avoiding the flu for a season, a minor combat advantage, or the resolution of a minor obstacle.

••• A major setback or bonus. Temporary but grave illnesses and serious social faux pas are the most common curses, while finding helpful bureau- crats, success with gambling or relationships, or an additional die to combat pools are the most common blessings.

•••• Now the blessings and curses can have serious and permanent effects. Debilitating injuries, bankruptcy, a social tragedy that leaves the target a pariah, winning the lottery, surviving almost certain death, or just a chance encounter that changes the target’s social standing are all possible.

••••• Curses at this level almost always result in a painful and unusual death. Targets get decapitated, suffer incurable wasting illnesses, experience horrific car accidents, and more. Blessings are similarly dramatic, such as being rescued from state execution by a call from the governor. Other last-minute saves from certain death are possible, but also victories far rarer than one in a million: An enemy in combat may trip and break their neck, the beneficiary might find a lost tome in a used bookstore bargain bin, or they could win political office with no name recognition.

Price of Failure: Some failed Fortune spells are undetectable. The target is either lucky or unlucky naturally, resulting in the appearance of a success. Botches are a more serious matter. A twisted blessing or curse still results. Blessings first appear beneficial but every time it helps the target there are horrible consequences. Curses likewise appear to be harmful but turn out to benefit the target of the magician’s ire. This is especially dangerous for a magician who attempts to use the Path of Fortune on themself. Instead of twisted blessings, the full force of a more powerful curse, often the most powerful the magician can cause, targets them. Worst of all, the magician cannot unweave the spell they botched on themself, though they can on others.

Death Curse (•)
One of the most extreme rituals a magician can perform, the Death Curse always results in their death, and usually the destruction of their enemies. The magician spends all of their permanent Willpower, gaining a pool of successes equal to their value for the final spell. This ritual allows them to increase the level of Aspects to 2 higher than their Path rating, allowing relatively powerful magicians to sacrifice themselves for legendary curses (or, more rarely, blessings).

Curses that resound for generations with fates worse than death for entire towns aren’t unheard of for the most powerful of magicians who find themselves willing to make the sacrifice. They make their Path roll at a difficulty determined by the Aspects as usual, but with that additional pool of automatic successes. Upon completing the ritual, the magician collapses, having spent their life in the casting; they’re often dead before they even hit the floor.

Step on a Crack (••)
A common rhyme among children says, “If you step on a crack, you break your mother’s back.” It’s just a childish version of an ancient belief that touching cracks brings misfortune. This belief is made manifest in this ritual. Unlike most curses, the magician must inform their target of the curse for it to take effect, and the curse doesn’t automatically occur. Instead, the victim can at- tempt to evade the curse by not touching cracks. This, of course, inevitably proves to be impossible, triggering a curse bringing some non-life-threatening but potentially permanent harm to the victim or to their loved ones. If they can Unweave this curse before stepping on a crack, it is done at –2 difficulty. However, once the curse is triggered, any attempt to rid the victim of it is at +2 difficulty instead, as their actions were the direct cause of their misfortune, unfair as that may be.

Bashert (•••)
Though this ritual existed in ancient times in one form or another, it has been popularized in its current form by Anne Richard and Judith Marquette. Fate may be fickle, but some matches are almost impossible to keep apart. With even a single success, the target of this ritual is nearly guaranteed to meet a perfect match, someone with the potential to be their True Love (as per the Merit on Book of Secrets p. 59), within the next year. Each additional success divides the time: two successes brings them together within six months, three decreases the wait to four months, and so on.

Freudian Slip (••••)
Speaking your thoughts at the wrong time can be social suicide. It can end friendships, destroy careers, and create lifelong hatreds with other consequences down the line. Magicians who study the Path of Fortune have refined this this ritual to take advantage of this knowledge. Freudian Slip curses its victim to say the worst possible thing they actually believe at their next important social event or encounter. This can include political speeches, job interviews, dates, family events, and more. Whatever the context, the next time they are trying to conceal their true feelings in a situation where revealing them would cause significant and lasting harm, they must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to avoid simply blurting them out. If they avoid significant social events for a year and a day, the curse dies off, leaving them safe.

Generational Wealth (•••••)
There are only so many ways to become wealthy enough to last for generations. Other than simple luck, all of them require a substantial sacrifice. For most, this sacrifice is borne by others, through exploitative labor practices or criminal enterprise. In fact, due to the fickle nature of luck, exploitation has always been the easier and more reliable path to wealth. This ritual allows luck to be tamed and guaranteed. It still requires a sacrifice; after all, nothing comes for free. But rather than sacrificing others, taking advantage of their desperation, the parent who seeks security for their family voluntarily sacrifices themself.

Though the sacrifice must be willing, few magicians are willing to perform this ritual. Those who are willing must perform the sacrifice in some way appropriate to their practice. The beneficiaries of the sacrifice find themselves suddenly extremely lucky, able to win enough money gambling so they, their children, and their children’s children, will never have to work another day in their lives. Even if they somehow manage to throw away this vast wealth, the next generation will be just as lucky and regain it. The blessing lasts for seven generations, after which the descendants are on their own.

Wherever humanity thrives, there’s a need for healing. Since the dawn of civilization, healers sprung up out of empathy and community need. Long before science knew what germ theory was, healers learned how to serve their people from tradition, communing with spirits, trial and error, and a host of other ways. Now, even when science can prevent and cure horrifying dis- eases, many remain without access to such techniques. In medical deserts and communities who have historically been wronged by the medical establishment, there’s still need. People still desperately seek healers. They may not fully believe in magic or miracles, but between the choice of assured agony and a sliver of hope, many take the chance.

Hedge magic can achieve miraculous results. A master healer can cure cancers and speed up the healing of grievous injury beyond what should be possible, but they don’t advertise this. Even when so many are ignored and failed by the medical establishment, it’s illegal to practice medicine without a license. Beyond that, fame can be a heavy burden to carry. Many eager and empathetic hedge magicians begin learning the path of Healing, but few master it — they often burn out early from the cold and thankless world, switching to other Arts if they continue practicing magic at all.

Though not always required by their Practice, many hedge magician Healers do learn some form of medicine. Those who don’t rely on extraordinary science often learn forms of healing not based on modern medicine. At the very least, in instances they do learn the basics of modern medical science, their approach to treatment can be wildly different in philosophy and technique.

A healer might heal mild to moderate congenital illnesses or deformities, but more extreme examples such as regenerating limbs or raising the recently dead are the realm of legend.

Modifiers: Fast casting may only be used to stabilize lethal or aggravated damage or reduce wound penalties. All other uses must use regular spells, extended roll spells, or rituals.
• 1 additional success to fix a badly healed wound
• +1 difficulty to heal an uncooperative patient

Aspects: This path uses the Damage/Healing Aspect. Bashing damage can be healed with one success per damage level. Additionally, each success can reduce a toxin, disease, or wound penalty (caused by pain rather than a missing limb, for example) by one level. See Mage 20 p. 406 for information on wound penalties and p. 442 for the toxin and disease chart.

Price of Failure: A failure simply means the magic didn’t work; the damage was beyond the sorcerer’s ability to heal. A botch can turn horrific quickly. A Healer might make the person more susceptible to the toxin they’re trying to fight off, increasing the effective Toxin Rating. They might outright cause damage or heal something incorrectly, such as fusing eyelids shut or setting a bone crooked, so that it needs to be re-broken later. The healer might also infect themself with the disease they were trying to heal.

Healing Slumber (•)
The healer treats a willing (or unconscious) patient and sends them into a deep, energizing sleep. On success, the patient remains asleep for 9 hours; when they awake, all bashing damage is healed, and the patient regains a point of Willpower. For every success above one, sub- tract one hour from the required sleep time. The healer cannot treat lethal or aggravated wounds in this way.

Jolt (••)
The sorcerer spends a point of Willpower and magically awakens a person who is sleeping, unconscious, or comatose. This normally requires one success but requires the toxin’s rating in successes to wake someone who is drugged, and four successes to wake the comatose. Reversing a magickal effect requires successes equal to the original effect +1 to reverse it. This power doesn’t heal the underlying illness, injury, or poisoning, and the patient falls unconscious again at the end of the scene if the healer doesn’t resolve the underlying issue. This can be used to help identify the patient and gather information about who or what put them in that state.

Mike’s Cure-All (•••)
While similar rituals were performed for centuries, or longer, this version was first recorded in Chicago during Prohibition and was based on Victorian era Cure-Alls. The healer can force a patient’s body to purge all drugs and toxins through any, and sometimes all, possible exits. This includes vomiting, sweat, tears, diarrhea, etc. The process is incredibly unpleasant but can save a poisoning victim or someone who’s overdosed. The sorcerer must get at least as many successes as the Toxin Rating for the most potent toxin in the patient’s system. No damage is healed, but the patient suffers no further ill effects. This can purge magical potions as well.

Humor Alignment (••••)
This is an old ritual for curing chronic and congenital conditions. It dates back to the Middle Ages when Humorism was in vogue. The healer bleeds the patient with leeches, a ritual knife, or another tool suited to their practice, which deals one level of lethal damage. The healer spends a point of Willpower and must roll at least 5 successes. The healer may perform this ritual as an extended action. The patient rests for three days, after which the lethal damage and the condition are healed. This rest needn’t be solely sleep. The patient may move minimally to perform basic bodily functions but otherwise should be laying down. If the patient is too active during the three days, the ritual fails automatically. The ritual will also fail if the patient suffers significant mental or emotional stress, such as trying to work from bed or having a heated argument.

Thought by many to be at least tainted by darkness, if not outright of evil origins, the Path of Hellfire taps into the deepest, most primal, and destructive of forces. Legends ascribe the beginnings of this power to the infernal realms, pacts with malevolent elemental spirits, and bargains with beings better left alone.

The Path of Hellfire remains one of the most popular Paths of hedge magic, despite the bad reputation associated with it. For most people, the allure of throwing elemental power around and destroying your enemies outweighs the belief it may somehow be tainted by evil, if not outright infernal. Despite these sentiments, many hedge magicians specialize in the pyrotechnics this Path makes available to them, being one of the more dramatic Paths of hedge magic.

Even beginning students of Hellfire are often accorded respect, and not a small amount of fear, by their fellows. They learn early that they can summon lightning and fire, cause earthquakes, and drown their enemies should they so choose, even if they don’t personally know how. Apprentices are also given one essential warning: They are not immune to their own powers. This vulnerability is not limited to botched attempts at magic (see the Price of Failure below). Practitioners must be careful not to be within the areas they target, and fire, once unleashed, can be difficult to control.

Aspects: Damage, Range, Area, and the following Special Effects can be added:

• Decay: Instead of damaging living targets, the spell breaks down anything they are wearing or carrying. For each point of damage it would inflict, it can turn three pounds of material to junk.

• Dust Storm: The spell summons a storm of dust, scouring the area (which must have at least three dots) and, in addition to damage, causing blindness in the area for one turn per health level inflicted.

• Sleet: A stream of ice and freezing water causes brief blindness and leaves the ground slippery. This cannot be made aggravated.

• Smoke: The caster emits a cloud of poisonous smoke that envelops the area (which must be at least three dots in the Area Aspect). Everyone within the cloud takes one level of damage per turn unless protected. A normal gas mask pro- vides two turns of protection before becoming useless. Beings that do not need to breathe are immune to this damage. Vision, even if enhanced, is completely obscured while in the cloud.

•• Earthquake: the spell causes the ground to split open and engulf, then crush, the target. They can roll Strength at difficulty 6 to try to dig free. They need as many successes as health levels of damage they suffered. This cannot be made aggravated.

•• Lightning: Instead of fire, the spell fires a bolt of electricity. Anyone in contact with the target through a conductive material takes the same damage as the target.

•• Tanglewood: Plants flail and attack the target, throwing thorns, splinters, and other bits of wood at it. With extreme luck (at least three successes beyond the spell’s requirement) this can stake a vampire, but a magician who counts on it will likely be badly disappointed. If the target is standing in dense undergrowth, they are captured by the plants. A creature restrained in this fashion cannot move until they accumulate as many successes on a Strength roll (difficulty 7) as damage dealt by the spell. This cannot be made aggravated.

•••• Drowning Tide: This requires an Olympic sized swimming pool or larger body of water. The target is pulled underwater by a sudden wave or undertow, causing them to start drowning (see M20 page 440-441). Escape from the water requires an extended Strength roll, difficulty 8, with at least two successes necessary, often more. This only does drowning damage.

The Special Effects above must be purchased with Freebie or Experience Points at a cost of the dot rating + 1.

Price of Failure: When you play with fire sometimes you get burned. Botching when using the Path of Hellfire typically results in the spell rebounding on the caster. They take whatever damage they were attempting to inflict on their target.

Fire’s Weal (••)
Fire is one of the most dangerous hazards in the World of Darkness; even natural flames can easily cause permanent damage to powerful supernatural beings. With this ritual, the magician can give protection against fire of all sorts. With two successes, the ritual allows the target to soak fire damage, even supernatural flame, as though it were bashing, regardless of what damage it causes. Successes in excess of two reduce the difficulty on soak rolls against fire (to a maximum modifier of –3), so four total successes result in soaking fire damage at –2 difficulty.

Hellblade (••)
A flashy ritual, Hellblade attunes a weapon, traditionally a sword, to the Path of Hellfire. Once attuned, the magician can spend one Willpower to engulf the weapon in flame. The flame causes the weapon to inflict two additional dice of damage and converts its damage to aggravated. This lasts for a scene, though the ritual ends if the weapon leaves the caster’s hand. This ritual requires a minimum of two successes.

Purification of the Inferno (•••)
After an unfortunate encounter with a vampire, Charles Moran developed this ritual to protect himself in the future. Unfortunately, this ritual does not discriminate friend from foe, making it an extremely risky ritual to cast when the magician might be in close quarters with others, such as in an elevator. Purification of the Inferno acts as a defensive failsafe. The first person to touch the magician after the ritual immediately bursts into flames, suffering four dice of aggravated damage. The flames then become entirely mundane, dealing three lethal damage per turn, which can be soaked at difficulty 8 until they are put out. The ritual requires three successes on casting.

Smoldering Ruin (•••••)
The most common target of the Hellfire Path is an individual enemy. It’s directly offensive magic, and magicians know it and use it as such. Sometimes, tar- geting individuals and even groups is too small scale. Sometimes a magician really wants to just cut loose, and hedge magic doesn’t offer very many outlets to do so. Masters of Hellfire, however, developed this ritual in order to do just that: cut loose and cause damage to their enemies all at once. Smoldering Ruin requires a full three hours to cast, and in all its forms a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) must be made just to complete the exhausting ritual.

Once completed, the magician spends 3 points of Willpower and must achieve at least 5 successes. Despite the difficulty, success is worth the effort: The ritual lights a building on fire, burning it to the ground. No mundane efforts can extinguish this fire, fueled by the caster’s desire for destruction, though supernatural means are capable of doing so. It can even burn buildings made out of normally fire-resistant and fireproof materials. Notably, the caster must perform the ritual while inside the building, and then hope they can escape before becoming trapped inside.

One of the most fundamental magics is the power to deceive others into believing what the magician wants. The Path of Illusion confounds the senses, making its targets perceive things that aren’t there or altering their perception of what is there. Most people trust their senses. “Seeing is believing,” but when an illusionist is nearby, this old adage can kill you.

The Path of Illusion is much less direct in most of its applications than some of the other Paths. Illusionists tend to be clever manipulators, at the least in order to choose just the right false vision for whatever task must be completed. This often requires strange patterns of thought and lateral thinking, leading illusionists to become eccentric over time.

When targeted with the Path of Illusion, avoiding the deception is always a possibility. A Perception + Alertness roll at difficulty (4 + Realism Aspect) for spells, and difficulty (4 + Rank) for rituals reveals the slight imperfections in the illusion. This requires one success for each sense covered by the illusion, though in cases where an essential sense, as determined by the Storyteller, is left out, the number of successes required may decrease. Anyone who makes this roll can tell that what they are perceiving isn’t real, though they perceive both it and the truth. If they alert others to this fact, they can reroll once.

Modifiers: –1 to –3 difficulty if using a base similar to the goal (making a table appear differently is easier than making a table appear from nothing)

Aspects: Duration, Number of Targets, and the following:

Senses
• Affects one sense
•• Affects two senses
••• Affects three senses
•••• Affects four senses
••••• Full sensory range

Realism
• Completely immobile and fixed; if visual, flat
•• Changes with perspective so the viewer moving doesn’t disrupt it immediately
••• Illusions can have moving parts, but only large ones
•••• Smaller motions and variations are possible, but there are still subtle tells
••••• Fully immersive, this level completely fools all targeted senses

Price of Failure: Naive magicians think botching an illusion must be no big deal. The spell did nothing real, so nothing real should happen when it goes awry. On the contrary, the caster’s perceptions are altered. Worse, most of the alterations are subtle and easily missed. For larger spells, though, there will eventually be a substantial change, likely when most dangerous for the caster to be caught unaware.

Cruel Whispers (••)
Illusionists must often be masters of psychological warfare. They can’t create anything truly real, so they play on the fears and anxieties of their targets to control them. One of the key rituals for this is Cruel Whispers. A purely auditory illusion, Cruel Whispers follows its target around for twenty-four hours. Though the magician may never know what the whispers are saying, the victim hears voices, just barely audible, pointing out every flaw, every insecurity, and ever misstep they make during the day. This distracts them, giving them+1 difficulty on all rolls for the day, and whenever they botch they must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) or else suffer the effects of the Chronic Depression Flaw for one week.

Hard-Light Constructs (•••)
A popular ritual among technosorcerers, Hard-Light Constructs are illusions everyone involved knows are fake. This creates scenery, furniture, etc., that looks and feels real, though putting your weight onto it wouldn’t be the best idea. It’s often used to simulate visuals where every single detail isn’t needed, but which have moving parts. It creates the illusion for all onlookers, rather than a fixed set of targets.

Instant Feast (••••)
Illusory food is deceptively hard to create. Taste, smell, image, and texture all need to be just right to fool someone into thinking they’re eating a real meal. The target rolls Perception + Alertness (difficulty 7). On failure, they believe they are eating real food for the duration of the meal, whatever food the magician can imagine. However, they’re still hungry. This provides no sustenance (unless the illusion is covering up some other food), though if six or more successes are rolled on the casting, hunger cues are suppressed for a number of hours equal to the target’s Stamina, before they feel hungry again. This can’t alleviate the effects of starvation.

Oubliette (•••••)
One of the most terrifying rituals of the Path of Illusion, Oubliette has broken some of the strongest people in the world. The magician must be within a few feet of their target for the entirety of a three-hour ritual, which requires at least 5 successes. If they can accomplish this, then the ritual removes all five senses from the victim. They are trapped in a world without any sensation until either the magician releases them or they accumulate 5 successes on Perception rolls at difficulty 9, making one every hour. The victim must start over on a botch. Often, the victims of this ritual are being punished for heinous crimes, and have it cast on them before they are thrown into a hole and forgotten, left to starve without even knowing they are starving.

Discovered by accident, the Path of Maelstroms was originally an attempt to rediscover Weather Control. Traditionally referred to as “Whistle” (as in, “whistling up a storm”), the magicians using it sought to conjure intense gales of wind and rain in the world of the living. It took until the 19th century to discover that these tempests were stolen from the Shadowlands.

Maelstrom pulls the energy to create its storms from two sources. The first is the caster’s force of will. Spells and rituals of this Path cost one Willpower point per level rather than the usual flat one point for most Paths. The other source of power is the Shadowlands itself, pulling its energy out and rendering ghosts in the area calm or forcibly driving the dead from the area depending on the size of the storm.

The most common instrument for this Path is, by far, music. Most users say that from the moment they learned it, they could hear music in their head, and some believe it grows louder when the storms they can draw from are stronger. For these people, their Alertness is capped at 3, due to the distraction of the music. Others, however, don’t experience this effect and suffer no penalty.

Aspects: Area, Duration, and the unique Aspect of Intensity

Intensity
• Drawing a breeze and fog from the underworld into the world of the living pacifies the local Shadowlands. Ghosts in the area are calmed. They’ll defend themselves, but otherwise they won’t attack anyone in the area for the duration without succeeding on a Willpower roll (difficulty 6).

•• A rainstorm is summoned, and it drains so much energy from the underworld that ghosts are frozen in place unless they make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). They’re made just corporeal enough that the magician can physically move them. Usually, they remove the ghosts from an area where they are unwelcome.

••• Calling a full-scale thunderstorm does even more to quiet the Shadowlands. This drains the power of Oblivion from the area. Ghosts are sedated as in the first rank, but those under control of their Shadows are restored to reason. Results vary with Spectres, but legends exist of hedge magicians with this Path pulling a Spectre away from Oblivion.

•••• Powerful storms in the world of the living, with gale-force winds, hail, and plenty of property damage can truly sap the power of Oblivion in the Shadowlands. Spectres and other deeply malicious ghosts who fail a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) disappear within the barrage of wind and hail. No hedge magician knows for sure what happens to these spirits, but they are never seen in the location where the power was evoked for a year and a day.

••••• A massive storm draining all energy from the corresponding region of the Shadowlands. Both the area and its reflection in the Shadowlands becomes utterly uninhabitable for ghosts. The Restless Dead must flee the area, or else suffer five dice of damage per round until they do so.

Price of Failure: The magician’s control over these storms is tenuous at best. On a failure, the Willpower is still expended but nothing happens. Botches, how- ever, result in storms that go out of control, both in the world of the living and the Shadowlands. When a hedge magician loses control of the energies of this Path, they call forth a piece of the Tempest. This causes normal ghosts to become disoriented and have difficulty moving around. Spectres, on the other hand, thrive in this environment. These most malicious of spirits ride the Tempest directly up to the Shadowlands and have an easier time manifesting in the area for the duration the spell would have had.

Rest in Peace (••)
By summoning a thunderstorm from the underworld, the magician can place nearby ghosts into a state of Slumber. Slumber is similar in many ways to sleep for the living. It is restorative for the ghost’s ephemeral form and restful for their minds and personalities. While in Slumber, the ghost loses awareness of their surroundings, instead experiencing vivid dreams. Usually those dreams are lively and colorful, focused on the ghost’s passions, but with a darkness overlaying them due to the Shadow.

The Slumber created by this ritual brings better, more peaceful dreams. The Shadow’s influence over them is diminished to nothing, and even Spectres find themselves having positive dreams for the first time since they fell to their Shadows. A single success always puts a willing target into Slumber, but unwilling targets (like most Spectres) roll Willpower (difficulty 6) and must achieve more successes than the ritual in order to stay awake.

Calm Above, Hell Below (•••)
Spells for the Path of Maelstroms generally bring Tempest energy from the Underworld into the physical world. This creates the storms above and calms the be- low. This Ritual reverses that. It can only be performed during a storm, and when complete, any normal storm in the area dies down. Extreme weather events are largely unaffected and can be used to perform this ritual several times, even decreasing the difficulty by one. However, it is rarely a good idea to sit outside in a hurricane for several hours.

The storm’s energy enrages the ghosts in the area. On a single success, they must make Willpower rolls (difficulty 6), or they begin lashing out, attacking each other and even the living if they have the power to do so. If the caster achieves five or more successes, this additionally creates a Maelstrom, causing most ghosts to attempt to flee the area, before being attacked by the Spectres such disturbances inevitably attract.

Shelter for the Dead (•••••)
A powerful but only situationally useful ritual, Shelter for the Dead can only be performed with the largest storms from the Underworld: The Great Maelstroms. No one knows how or when it was developed, but it was first used to protect the ghosts of Constantinople during the Great Maelstrom caused by the Black Death. The ritual is passed down by those few who know it to their students, hoping that it will never be necessary but knowing how valuable it can be if the worst happens.

At the cost of risking an extreme storm battering the lands of the living, Shelter for the Dead creates a region, no more than the size of a modern city block, where the Maelstrom cannot enter. Rather, if the pieces of the Great Maelstrom do enter, they immediately are transformed into brutal storms, with extreme wind, hailstones the size of fists, and other strange things, regardless of the usual weather in the area. The ritual requires ten successes, almost always necessitating a group, and lasts for one day, plus one for each additional success beyond the minimal ten.

The Whistle Numina are older Numina that have their roots in folklore and hedge magic, tricks that supposedly originated with kitchen witches residing in the birch forests of Russia, or with Jewish midwives according to other accounts. These wise folks would “whistle up” a storm, mostly to just water their gardens or give cleansing energy to the world around them.

The ability to Whistle has some strange effects on the person that possesses this power. All Whistlers constantly hear music in their heads and love to hum along or sing to themselves. Because of this they can never have an Alertness score above 3 dots. There are stories of other people or creatures that supposedly have had this “blessing” of music placed upon them, but no record has ever been found to prove it.

To actively use these Numina one must be able to whistle. They cannot be used in a place where your character cannot whistle. This includes under water and any situation in which your character cannot push air out of their lungs. Also, this ability is draining for the caster; they must spend a number of Willpower points equal to the level of the power being used. So, a level 3 storm would cost 3 Willpower.

Roll: Wits + Performance (difficulty 7).

Modifiers: N/A

Cost: 1 Willpower per level.

Duration: One scene or hour.

• Concentration: A stiff breeze will bring in fog or mist that causes all ghosts to become docile within a 20-foot radius around the caster. These ghosts will still defend themselves if any offensive action is taken against them, but they will not actively attack the user of the Numina or any other living being within that area as they are suppressed by the spiritual barometric pressure.

•• Consolidation: The storm grows to a steady rain. Ghosts continue to be frozen in place but now can be physically moved by mortal hands. This cannot be used in any way to hurt the spirits, but one may guide the ghosts out and away from a location, as though pushing curtains.

••• Conspectus: The storm becomes a thunderstorm. This expands the area of effect around the caster to a 40-foot radius, and the storm can “cleanse” ghosts that are violent. This storm suppresses the negative “Shadow” of a ghost, causing it to immediately stop any combat with the caster and helping bring it back to reason. The ghost may still be angry, but will not lash out till the end of the scene or one hour.

•••• Compression: The storm becomes a gale with hail and high winds. This storm is devastating to the Restless Dead. Any ghost that is of purely malicious intent and completely consumed by their Shadow will be erased by the hail that rains down upon them. Casters do not know what hap- pens to these Spectres, but according to legend they will not be able to return to the location upon which this storm is invoked for a year and a day.

••••• Compendium: A storm of monumental proportions, this power causes the purge of all residual Shadowlands energy within 100 feet of the caster. All Restless Dead must leave that space or be ripped apart by the spiritual winds. Lighter shades will just be blown outside the 100-foot radius by this power, but heavier ones will be annihilated. This storm is violent and can cause collateral damage in the real world

Some things should stay buried. Chief among them: the dead. But those who follow the Path of Mortal Necromancy see things a bit differently. Like Hellfire, Mortal Necromancy has a reputation for being foul, practiced only by the worst of the worst. Unlike Hellfire, this reputation is rather deserved. Even the simplest of Mortal Necromancy spells involve forcibly bending the dead to the magician’s will, and the most powerful of them can manipulate the powers of the Shadowlands to affect the living as well.

Though methods vary wildly with practice, Mortal Necromancy always requires that the magician’s first instruments include the preserved piece of the corpse of someone they cared for, almost always a family member. This creates the link between the magician and the under- world, allowing them to become a conduit for the energies of death itself. While for mystical magicians, crafting such an instrument often feels natural, technomagicians tend to find themselves with unique, grisly objects, like key- boards with keys made of bone or computer chips with brain neurons embedded in the circuitry.

Using this Path is difficult. Not in the sense of technique — it is no more complex to use than any other Path. Rather, it takes an emotional toll on the magician. The living are not meant to channel the energies of death so directly. They feel the grief of their ancestors, back for centuries, perhaps millennia. This overwhelming despair at the loss of countless generations leads to complications, particularly for magicians who are low on Willpower. Finally, those energies cause harm to the user, and each spell or ritual causes the caster to take one level of bashing damage per level of the power being invoked, unless otherwise mentioned in the description.

Aspects: Duration along with the unique Aspect of Ghost Binding:

Ghost Binding
• The caster can see, hear, and speak to ghosts in their vicinity, whichever side of the Shroud they are on.

•• The magician can now terrify the restless dead. Filling themself with the necrotic energy of the Shadowlands, the dead can see them as alive but infused with the power of death. This results in a –2 difficulty on all Intimidation and Subterfuge rolls against the dead.

••• The caster forces a ghost to take on a corporeal form, whether they could do so on their own or not. For the duration, the ghost is for all intents and purposes a living person again, including the usual seven Health levels. If killed, however, they don’t simply return to being a ghost. Instead, the experience transforms the ghost into a Spectre, a ghost consumed by and subservient to the powers of Oblivion. And this Spectre has a grudge against the caster.

•••• Any ghost can be summoned to the caster at this level. All the magician needs is the ghost’s True Name and to win a contested Willpower roll. If the necromancer is successful, the ghost must then immediately arrive. Keep in mind that most dead people do not become ghosts, and most ghosts do not appreciate being summoned.

••••• Masters of Mortal Necromancy can compel obedience from the dead. In addition to the Path roll, they must win a contested Willpower roll. If they do so, they can demand the ghost perform one simple task or answer one simple question to the best of their ability. For tasks, the Duration Aspect covers how long the ghost must attempt to accomplish it.

Price of Failure: Failure for most Paths simply results in nothing happening. For Mortal Necromancy, the despair of generations overwhelms them, resulting in a derangement, usually severe depression, for an hour. If they have less than three temporary Willpower points, then the derangement instead lasts a week. Botches are truly dangerous, with not only the derangements lasting longer (a full month) and the near certainty of very angry ghosts, but the magician runs the risk of being pulled out of his body, leaving it apparently comatose while their mind spends the month “living” as one of the restless dead.

Deathsight (•)
Normally, a necromancer can only see the ghosts around them. They can’t see the environment the ghosts call home. This ritual changes that. With it, a magician not only sees the Restless Dead, but can actually peer into the Shadowlands. This effect lasts for one minute per success on the ritual. While under the influence of this ritual, the necromancer cannot perceive the normal world; only the Shadowlands are visible to them.

Wrapped in a Shroud (•••)
The Shroud separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. It can be difficult to cross this barrier, a fact which protects the living and the dead both from each other. Usually, either a necromancer must reach across from the land of the living to the world of the dead, or a ghost must have crossed to accomplish something among the living, in order for them to interact. For one minute per success on this ritual, the necromancer manages to actually stand between worlds, able to interact directly with both without further magic. Both human beings and ghosts can interact freely with the magician, for better or for worse.

Forced Medium (••••)
Some people are naturally easier for ghosts to possess. These mediums may view this as a gift or a curse, but it marks them apart. These are the people who deal with the spirit worlds, and who ghosts will come to in order to either ask them to solve a problem or else take over their body to compel them do so. This ritual gives the target the merit Medium for a week, along with a –2 difficulty on attempts by ghosts to possess them.

Steal Life (•••••)
One of the darkest arts of Mortal Necromancy, masters of the Path can steal the life energy from another living person. The caster first fills themself with death energy but doesn’t shape it directly into a spell. Instead, before it can absorb their own life force, they push it into their victim. This transfer takes with it the most recent five health levels of damage the caster currently suffers from. The caster heals those injuries. Most versions of this ritual involve carving sigils into the victim (or piercing them with electrical wires, or any number of other techniques) causing additional harm. Needless to say, very few survive this process, and those who do often hunt the necromancer until the end of their days.

There isn’t enough drink or drugs in the world to numb the overwhelming anguish one feels when they are awakened to this Path of magic. The Pallio Dolorum, a binding force that imbues the user with the arcane knowledge of necrotic magic, is crushing, connecting a mortal to the grief of all their ancestors before them. For many weaker humans, this manifests in eventual suicide or violent madness. To be able to focus the mind while in direct contact with the pure energy of death takes incredible willpower and grace. One must wear and brandish their negative emotions like armor and weapons without becoming completely consumed by their fury.

Whenever a mortal necromancer fails their roll to activate one of these Numina, they take on a derangement for one hour. If a necromancer fails an activation roll while their temporary Willpower is less than 3, the derangement lasts for one week of in-game time.

When using this Path, the practitioner must physically engrave or write staves of necromantic power onto the surface of whatever object they are trying to imbue.

Roll: Stamina + Occult (difficulty 7, 6 if written in human blood).

Modifiers: The character must be in possession of their magical tool, otherwise they cannot perform this path of hedge magic.

Cost: One level of bashing damage per level of the power unless otherwise stated.

Duration: One scene or hour.

• Fear Stave: When written on an object and thrown at the feet of a ghost, the ghost will cower in fear as it recognizes the void inside of you. You have a –2 difficulty for any Intimidation or Subterfuge rolls against the ghost in question.

•• Prayer Stave: When written on the magician’s body, the caster can see, hear, and speak to any ghost in their vicinity.

••• Corpus Stave: You make a ghost within your sight take on a physical, corporeal form. It will have all the abilities it would have as a living, breathing human. This also means that you can indeed kill the ghost. Doing so will immediately create a violent, raging Spectre obsessed with the destruction of your character, and give any characters the Spectre holds responsible the Haunted Flaw.

•••• Crossroads Stave: After carving, spray painting, or otherwise inscribing the stave into the ground and succeeding on a contested Willpower roll, you can summon any ghost whose true name you possess. This does not mean that the ghost will be happy with their sudden passage. It also bears saying that not every dead person is a ghost, either.

••••• Knitting Stave: A true dark art, this stave when carved into the flesh of another living being heals the caster of five levels of damage. It does not cost the caster anything. The other living creature, besides taking one level of lethal damage from having the stave flayed into them, immediately takes upon themself the five most recent levels of damage currently suffered by the caster. This brutal act gives the caster a black wake in their aura for a month after using this ritual.

The Via Necromantiae is Theurgy designed to contact or banish the dead. This Via resembles in parts those of the Via Geniorum, but it is, nonetheless, distinct.

Roll: Varies (see below)

Modifiers: -1 difficulty if Theurgist has an object important to the ghost in life

Cost: 1 Willpower

Duration: Varies (see below)

• Ritual of Wakening: The Theurgist may command a recently deceased cadaver to awaken. On a successful Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 7), the corpse will sit up and answer the Theurgist’s questions, to the best of its ability, for one minute per success. Every twenty-four hours the cadaver has been dead adds one to the difficulty. A cadaver more than three days dead cannot be wakened.

•• Ritual of Warding: Theurgists may protect an area from ghostly intrusion. With a successful Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7), the Theurgist may block ghosts from entering a room-sized area. Each success indicates one week of successful warding.

••• Ritual of Communication: Theurgists may contact the dead by making a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 10). That difficulty drops, cumulatively, if any of the following criteria are met: Theurgist possesses an object important to the ghost in life (-1), a person important to the ghost is present (-1), the ritual is conducted in the ghost’s former home (-1), the ritual is conducted in a place where the veil between the Underworld and the world of the living is thin (-2). Maintaining contact with the dead is difficult. Each success rolled allows the Theurgist one minute of communication. The time period can be doubled for another point of Willpower.

•••• Ritual of Expulsion: Theurgists may expel a haunting ghost. This requires a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty of the ghost’s Willpower + 3, maximum of 9); this is a sustained roll, requiring a number of successes equal to twice the ghost’s Willpower. Simply initiating the banishing costs 1 Willpower, but no more Willpower is required for the remainder of the struggle.

••••• Ritual of Vivification: The Theurgist can now urge a cadaver to rise. This via requires a Manipulation + Occult roll (difficulty 8). Every success animates the corpse for one week, and that time can be doubled for another point of Willpower. Animated cadavers will not have much in the way of personality or intelligence, but can follow simple directions.

One of the newest Paths, only discovered by ghost hunters in the late 1990s, the Path of Necronics was first studied by “Black Hat” hackers attempting to combine their understanding of electronics with the world of the dead. They use various techniques to manipulate their own bioelectricity, or life energy, to affect the world of the dead in some way. Because living energy is antithetical to the Shadowlands, this tends to result in impeding ghosts’ efforts to manage their hauntings.

As a new Path, there’s a lot not yet understood about Necronics. Almost all current practitioners use electronic devices — usually computers, phones, and tablets — to cast Necronics spells. Though analogues in traditional cultures exist, those Paths may or may not be the same as Necronics, using lower-tech and more traditional methods. Ghost hunters investigating Necronics tend to be fascinated by these practices. They think studying them will provide new techniques they can apply to handle hauntings.

In addition to the consequences of botching noted below, Necronics holds one other great danger for the magician. Because users are manipulating their bioelectricity so strongly, touching them while they are working is dangerous. Even the lightest touch by another living thing throws off the magician’s focus and control of bioelecticity, causing a feedback loop to form. This feedback causes them to take a level of aggravated damage and fail the spell or ritual. The magician needs immediate medical attention to stabilize them and is left weakened (–1 die to all actions) for one week per level of the spell or ritual disrupted.

Aspects: Area, Duration, and the unique Aspect of Impedance:

Impedance
• The magician floods the local underworld with electrical energy, shutting down all active ghostly powers. Ghosts may ignore this, continuing as they were, if they succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8).

•• At this level, instead of merely stopping a haunting, the magician can increase the Shroud rating. This costs one success per rank increased, with the first rank included in the base cost of the spell (so in addition to the regular requirements, 2 successes are needed to increase the Shroud from 6 to 9).

••• Places can be defended from haunting by the simple technique of tricking the ghost into haunting somewhere else. At this rank, the magician can create a trap, a fake realm the ghost can haunt instead of the real location. A ghost can realize they’ve been tricked with a Wits + Enigmas roll (difficulty 8) and can escape with another one.

•••• At this level, the magician may directly use their bioelectricity as an attack against a ghost. When using this rank of Necronics, the Area and Duration Aspects are replaced by Damage and Range.

••••• Masters of this Path are capable of devastating a region of the Shadowlands and its inhabitants. They call it “creating a zero,” and they “format” the space to a default pattern. When successful, there’s nothing left. For the duration of the spell, the region becomes uninhabitable to ghosts, causing the Restless Dead to lose Corpus at a rate of 3 per turn until they can escape the area. If they fail to escape before running out of Corpus levels, they disappear. Magicians generally believe these ghosts have been destroyed completely, rather than the usual consequences of running out of Corpus. As no Necronics expert has ever seen one that survived being “zeroed out,” this seems to be the best guess.

Price of Failure: Because the Necronics magician uses their own bioelectricity to interact with the dead, botches are particularly risky. They aren’t just extending mystical senses, but rather a very real and physical part of themself. On a botch, the intended effect doesn’t happen. Instead, all ghosts in the area gain Pathos and Angst equal to the level of the spell or ritual being performed. They also become acutely aware of the magician trying to control or banish them and can affect the magician directly with their powers as though they were a ghost, rather than having to work through the Shroud or specific powers allowing them to touch the living.

Shroud Bubble (•••)
Sometimes, when all else fails, the best thing a magician can do when faced with a troublesome haunting is to hide and wait it out. The problem being that ghosts have a nasty tendency to walk through walls and most other protective barriers. They also tend to be relentless, often obsessed when their minds are turned to a task. Desperate magicians being haunted by perseverant ghosts invented the concept of the Shroud Bubble to protect themselves, especially when waiting for backup to arrive to handle the ghost more directly.

The ritual requires three successes but increases the Shroud to 10 near the magician. In fact, the Shroud rating increases in a sphere just large enough to contain them. The effect remains stationary, so the magician can’t leave the area without increasing their risk from ghosts and lasts for 8 hours.

Shut It Down (•••)
Hauntings can vary in scale. For ones confined to a room or two, it’s fairly simple to shut down the powers the ghosts are using to interact with the physical world. More often, though, there’s a whole building or larger area being haunted, and if the ghost is denied one room, they’ll just go to another. With Shut It Down, a much larger area than usual can be quieted, such that ghostly powers are impossible to use. The magician must mark the corners of the building or area, which can be as large as a full city block of empty land or a single building. The ritual requires at least 3 successes, and ghosts inside can only use their powers if they succeed on a Willpower roll at difficulty 8.

Doxxing (••••)
By reading the currents generated by a ghost and its movements, the magician can glean information from it. Each piece of information comes with a cost and must be declared and paid for before the casting. Any resources spent in this way are not refunded if the ritual fails. No information is gained if the ritual fails to achieve the number of successes required for the information being sought out:

• Identifying a Passion — One success each. This identifies both the Passion and the emotion it is tied to.
• Nature, Demeanor, and Shadow Archetype — One success and one point of Willpower each.
• Identifying a Fetter — Much more difficult, this requires two successes and a point of Willpower.
• The True Name of the ghost — This requires five successes and two points of Willpower.

Overwrite (•••••)
The ultimate expression of the Path of Necronics, the practitioner concludes that all ghosts are electromagnetic signals trapped in the matrix of a formerly living person’s personality. This explains why they’re so malleable, for good or ill. With this ritual, the magician can rewrite the nature of the ghost on a fundamental level. To do so, they must know the ghost’s True Name and possess one of the ghost’s Fetters. The ritual takes twelve hours and requires two Stamina rolls (at difficulty 6) to complete. For this entire time, the ghost must be held within the same room as the caster, roughly a 10-foot by 10-foot space.

Upon completion of the ritual, significant changes can be made to the ghost, but each has a cost. They last for one lunar cycle by default but become permanent if the costs are doubled. Some of the possible changes are:

• 1 success and 1 Willpower point per level to change Passions, and an extra Willpower to change to a different emotion.
• 2 successes and 1 Health Level — not damage, the Health Level itself disappears for the duration — to add or remove a point of Angst.
• 5 successes and 5 Willpower to overwrite the ghost entirely with another specific personality.

These Hedge Magicians use their own bodies’ electrical impulses as a sort of server that connects into the very fabric of reality. When using this ability the magician cannot be so much as touched without creating dire consequences. It takes incredible concentration and focus for the magician to both code and be a directional conduit for the magic at hand. If a magician’s concentration is ever broken by the physical touch of another living being while this magic is being used, they take one level of aggravated damage as their entire nervous system overloads and shuts down. This can be life-threatening to a mortal, and only immediate medical attention, such as an AED, or some magical healing ability can bring the caster back from the brink.

To use this path a character must have some sort of information-technology tool, such as a phone, tablet, or computer.

Roll: Manipulation + Computer (difficulty 5, unless otherwise noted).

Modifiers: N/A

Cost: 1 Willpower per hack.

Duration: One scene or hour.

• DDoS: By perpetrating a denial of service attack, the hacker overloads a haunting. They cause all magical effects and ghostly apparitions to cease by overloading the space with their own chemical signatures, electronic nerve pulses, and general life energy.

•• Dox: The hacker can now dox the ghost in question, learning how it died, why it stayed around, and its true name.

••• Firewall: The hacker can now generate and maintain a firewall, effectively blocking all haunting activity within a space and locking off physical reality from all ghostly interference.

•••• Phish: The hacker can now defend a location against any ghost that tries to attack it by generating a phishing space within the Shadowlands. This fake hauntable realm will trick spirits into thinking that they are still haunting a space in the Skinlands, while instead trapped away from the humans they may have been harming.

••••• Zero Day: The hacker can now create a zero, hack- ing into the very dust of the Shadowlands. This Hedge Magic creates a malicious code that inverts a reflection of the Shadowlands into our reality, nullifying its energy. Any ghost trapped within the 150-foot radius of effect when this code is activated is immediately “deleted” — that doesn’t necessarily mean the ghost completely disappears, but no hacker has ever seen a ghost come back from this eradication. After an hour, the realities separate, leaving no trace of their conjunction in either realm. This code is a Manipulation + Computer roll with a difficulty of 7 to activate.

The Realm of Dreams is a fluid place that responds to the mood and imagination of the dreamer. Some people, particularly those with a talent for lucid dreaming, can take control of their own dreams, rendering normal bad dreams controllable, good dreams fun experiences, and other dreams possible sources of insight into themselves. Without magic, though, the greater Realm of Dreams is still locked away, with each dreamer confined to their own psyche.

Magicians who learn the Path of Oneiromancy learn to walk into the dreams of others. Once there, they try to take control, and can glean information or alter dreams to the benefit or harm of the dreamer. At the peak of their power, oneiromancers can even bring several people together in a shared dream. According to legend, some can even make dreams real or become capable of physically entering dreams.

Aspects: The Path of Oneiromancy uses Sympathetic Connection and the unique Aspect of Dreamwalking:

Dreamwalking
• Basic Oneiromancy allows the magician to touch the dreams of others, seeing flashes of imagery that could be interpreted to get insights into their target’s nature and history.

•• The oneiromancer can now enter the dreams of others, not merely see them. They become a part of the dream, forced to take on a role appropriate to the dream itself. Once in the dream, changes can be made. The magnitude of the changes determines the difficulty of an additional Oneiromancy roll, with creating small items being difficulty 6 but violating the theme of the dream being difficulty 8, perhaps with a Threshold.

••• Dreamwalkers can now watch dreams from the outside, seeing them clearly but not being pulled into them. They can now truly transform the dreams they encounter. With this rank, they can create terrors mimicking the Nightmares Flaw or soothe a dream to the point of helping the dreamer regain an additional point of temporary Willpower.

•••• Dream Sendings become available to the caster at this level. They can craft specific and detailed dream sequences for their target that repeat once per success. If they repeat more than once or twice per night, the target can become suspicious that their dreams are being manipulated.

••••• Masters of Oneiromancy can create shared dreams, bringing one person into the dream for each success on the casting roll. The environment begins as a mixture of their subconscious influences, but the oneiromancer can manipulate it further using lower levels of the Path.

Price of Failure: Botching on Oneiromancy tends to be psychologically harmful. Many oneiromancers get tossed into a Nightmare Realm, which torments them in a way similar to the Paradox Realms (Mage 20 p. 102-103) feared by mages. At best, they lose control of any dream they’re interacting with. Of course, even if they succeed, interacting with the dreams of someone with the Nightmares Flaw can be its own sort of hell.

Symbol Interpretation (•)
In their rush to control the dreams of others, many oneiromancers forget even the meaning of the name of their Path. Though none forget that oneiros means dream, they think “mancy” simply refers to magic, rather than being derived from manteia, or divination. A growing movement among oneiromancers across Fellowships— spearheaded by Prof. Jeremiah Marquette, who specializes in using dreams to access blocked or forgotten memories — is reviving lost information by gathering aspects of the Path forgotten by many practitioners. He’s popularized a new ritual allowing an oneiromancer to find the answer to any one yes/no question the dreamer has ever known the answer to by reading the symbols of their dreams.

The magician must have something of the target’s in their possession. They then must succeed at a Path roll and spend the night observing their target’s dreams with a specific yes or no question in mind. At the end, they must make an Intelligence + Enigmas or Intelligence + Esoterica (Dream Interpretation) roll. If they succeed, they find the answer to their question in the target’s dreams.

Bedtime Story (••)
The most dangerous moment for an oneiromancer is that first step into a dream. The narrative of the dream is in effect, and they are forcibly adapted to it, sometimes losing themselves to it. Enterprising oneiromancers developed a ritual to take control of the dream as it forms, mitigating the risk that they’ll lose control. This ritual must be completed as the subject goes to sleep and requires the oneiromancer be in the room with them. However, a single success allows the oneiromancer to direct the forming dream, broadly guiding its narrative and themes.

Invade Demesne (•••)
Normally, the space created by the Demesne background is inviolate. Only powerful mages capable of finding them through astral travel can reach them. oneiromancers, however, have tricks few others can reproduce. This ritual lets the oneiromancer enter the Demesne of their target. Once there, they can try to seize control, though this requires a Path roll at difficulty 9, opposed by the Demesne’s owner rolling Wits+ Demesne (difficulty 6). This is highly risky, and only the most well-prepared oneiromancers should try it.

Dream Scream (••••)
While powerful oneiromancers can simply send dreams to people as spells, with this ritual, they can send a message to several people at once through their dreams. The magician chooses a message consisting of a single sentence, fixes it in their mind, and performs the ritual. At completion, they can send the message to one person per success within a 10-mile radius.

Nearly all sorcerers can agree on one fact: There is a flow of power that fuels their works. The name of that power has taken on a multitude of faces and philosophies: mana, qi, gnosis, shakti, sekhem, and many others. Every magician can describe the flow of energy as they work their will on reality. Coursing through them like charge through a powerline, it can be felt, and for some it can be directly harnessed. Through Practices like those of geomancy and feng shui, hedge wizards can sense and redirect the unrefined energy of the universe.

Very few sorcerers consider this to be a Path of its own. Most look to Quintessence Manipulation as a standard exercise and refinement of their already defined craft. Each magician’s personal style already informs them how to achieve manipulations to perform all their other spells. Wands direct the energy, drawn patterns on boxes create traps to hold it, while knives cut and disrupt as they perform all their other works. Yet, those who focus on mastering this fundamental skill on its own find their work is never without a source to draw on, and their mystical surroundings are rarely a mystery.

Modifiers: –1 to –3 difficulty based on distractions in the surrounding area, with –1 representing a loud sound system playing in the same room and –3 representing Time Square at midnight on New Years.

Aspects: Area and Duration as well as the unique Aspect of Flow:

Flow
• Sense Surroundings: Sensing the energies of the area becomes a routine task. With a moment of meditation or invocation, a sorcerer determines if an area or item is charged with power (whether Quintessence, vampire blood, Gnosis, or another mystic source). With three successes, the sorcerer identifies the Resonance of said energy.

•• Focused Awareness: The ability to sense the ebb and flow of energy transcends local surroundings and the inanimate and crosses into the realm of individuals. Now the sorcerer can perceive another individual using subtle magics and allow them to see obstructed meridians or occluded energy flows. This reveals curses left on individuals or blocked Quintessence flow through the body imposed by malicious disruptions. The ability to gauge magical potential in a subject also becomes available. While especially useful in identifying potential threats, the amount of information gleaned in this way lacks detailed nuance to fully define if the subject is a supernatural creature or a normal human with a certain aptitude.

••• Disrupt: No longer held to observing, now the skilled sorcerer can begin to affect the Quintessence around them. Still unable to bend and gracefully manipulate the energy, the practitioner of this path is at least versed enough to cause disruptions to the flow around them. With their invocation or focus, the sorcerer can quell the flow in the local area, causing a Quintessence source to become dormant for a time. Disruption also can mean diverting. A flow of Quintessence may be turned aside and sent along a new path in much the same way. Alternatively, with some effort a practitioner can trap a mote of Quintessence in a simple object for a limited amount of time.

•••• Control: Mere brute force gives way to nuanced control of the flow of Quintessence within themselves, the world around them, and within the pattern of others. The flows of energy through themselves are now flowing rivers with metered channels and locks allowing the practitioner to harness the Quintessence in a place of power. Each success on an effort of this type allows the sorcerer to channel one point of Quintessence per success, up to the limit of that area’s power. Quintessence drawn this way dissipates unless used within the next turn.

An enemy’s flow of energy is now a viable target for disruption at this level of understanding. Stripping the energy from another’s pool destroys one Quintessence for every success rolled. More alien energies of other supernatural creatures are still accessible, but doing so is more taxing. The energy of other supernatural creatures is disrupted by one point for every two successes.

The flow of energy through an individual’s pattern is essential to their health. A sorcerer with this knowledge can cause great harm or provide great help, albeit over an extended period through something akin to a curse or boon. Altering the flow of another’s life energy can promote or deteriorate their health but takes a great deal of time to become evident. They become ill more often, finding it difficult to fight off a mere cold, and take longer to recover from simple injury. If left unchecked they will inevitably fall victim to an environmental carcinogen or a malady that runs in their family history.

On the other hand, benefitting the flow of Quintessence in an individual will see the recipient barely ever falling ill for more than a day, bouncing back from any injury as though it were a mere inconvenience and living to a ripe old age. Through this function the hedge wizard can grant physical Merits or inflict physical Flaws, by spending 2 successes per point of the Merit or Flaw.

••••• Rule: Masters of Quintessence Manipulation have attained a level of understanding that puts the flow of energy at their beck and call, impressing even the Awakened. Now, stored Quintessence can be directly infused into countermagic, adding dice to countermagic pools. Sensing Quintessence being directed, the sorcerer can interrupt the flow of energy, preventing another sorcerer from using Quintessence of their own. Each success blocks a point of Quintessence or Tass from empowering an effect.

Quintessence Infusion (••)
The ability to store and redirect Quintessence is useful on a near daily basis for the sorcerer on the go. Thinking in advance, a sorcerer prepares themselves for situations where they may begin to run dry of available quintessence by infusing drinks or snacks with their own reserves for later use. Classically, this was a potion of great power. In modern nights, the savvy sorcerer may decide the espresso in a can or a protein bar may be just as handy, serving as the perfect inconspicuous consumable. The one drawback to this task is the fueling and the resource of the ritual. For every Quintessence stored, another Quintessence must be channeled to infuse the receptacle.

Shape Quintessence (•••)
Following elaborate diagrams or practices that align with their style, the sorcerer can manipulate the flow of Quintessence within an area. A gambling hall could be made luckier for the house, or a particularly well-respected ER could suffer higher mortality rates despite the best efforts of the staff simply by manipulating the ley lines beneath the surface. The energies will eventually return to their original pattern, as the ritual holds it in an elastic state for only so long. With proper maintenance and continued observation, a location could be made to take on the new aspects permanently.

Power over darkness is a cliché that some sorcerers have no problem clinging to out of ironic giddiness or genuine belief. One wouldn’t be remiss in guessing the Path of Shadows as the source of the concept that dark forces empower the mystic arts, given how often hucksters make the claim. Regardless of its reputation, the Path does carry a foreboding and intimidating air, as it shapes and shifts the substance of instinctual fear — shadows and darkness.

The art of deceit can be an asset to the hedge wizard. Building on the idea that shadows conceal the truth, shadow magicians who have become one with the darkness through which they frequently travel can obscure themselves and others from those looking to give the investigators grief. By accepting the darkness as nothing more than an absence of light, practitioners of this Path can project or bend shadows.

One may think that the Path manipulates the quality of of ambient light, focusing it away from darker areas to make shadows appear deeper and more menacing. This is patently false. Whether it’s a magical implement or a dark matter enhancement field of the more technologically minded, this Path manipulates the very stuff of shadows. The actual nature of this substance is the source of much debate in the magical communities, with a range of theories just as diverse as those concerning the mechanism of Awakening. What practitioners do agree on is that shadowstuff can be used to great effect in a variety of useful ways.

The severity and persistence of the controlled shadows is gauged by one’s Shadowgrip. When a target attempts to resist the Path of Shadows, they make a Willpower test with a difficulty determined by the selected Aspect. Any success ends the effect on the following turn or after one minute.

Aspects: Area, Distance, Duration, and Number of Targets, as well as the unique Aspect of Shadowgrip described below:

Shadowgrip
• Deepening: Bringing shadows deeper into our vision can create a distracting and intimidating atmosphere. Within an area the overall lighting itself may not change per se, but the shadows deepen, and even sounds become slightly smothered at the edges. These shadows can also be cast upon others to confer the Path’s benefits, such as a bonus to Stealth tests in shadowy conditions.

•• Shaping: Taking further mastery of the dark material that comprises shadow, the sorcerer now crafts pattern and intent behind their shadow weaving. Upon a successful casting, the sorcerer adds two dice to any pools involving Intimidation or Stealth as well as any Subterfuge test to hide their identity. Conversely, the shadows can surround an individual and cast doubt and confusion upon the victim’s senses.

At this level of mastery, they are strong enough to cause the target to hesitate or reconsider their actions due to the unidentifiable unease. This causes the target a –1 penalty to rolls made to dodge or that rely on quick reaction time. A Willpower test at difficulty 6 allows the victim to shake the shadows from their eyes and focus on their task at hand.

••• Entrenching: Not content with merely strengthening shadows, the sorcerer now animates the shadowstuff itself, letting it shift and roil about them. Should they take their deepening skills further, light now withers in the target location, and color will desaturate before the shadows. Affecting another is now far more effective.

Shadows shift and distort in their eyes, and unsettling whispers can be heard when the victim gets too close to a pool of gathered shade. Being harried in such a way causes a –1 difficulty on all tests. The effect can be broken with a Willpower test at difficulty 7.

Finally, the caster can cause shadows to flutter or shake creating visual diversions and increasing the difficulty of all ranged attacks made against the beneficiary by one.

•••• Commanding: The shadow’s “willingness” to act has become outright eagerness. The torment the shadowstuff visits upon the sorcerer’s foes is maddening and now causes a +2 difficulty on all tests made by the target. Any attempt to shake free calls for a Willpower test at difficulty 8 and may send some enemies into a frenzy or rage if they fail.

Wreathing a target in benevolent shadows gives a +4 on all Intimidation and Stealth dice pools and any Subterfuge dice pool that is used to mask one’s identity.

••••• Ruling: Shadows know who their master is and immediately act with abandon at the sorcerer’s call. Enemies may be reduced to a gibbering heap on the floor from the horrific maleficent shades. Opponents must succeed at a difficulty 9 Willpower test or be reduced to uselessness, crumpling to the ground. This test can be repeated on each of the target’s turns, but the target may only act normally on a turn in which they gain a success. If the target leaves the affected area, they regain the ability to act normally.

The darkness that engulfs those who wish to remain unseen is nigh impenetrable from without and within, save for the sorcerer themselves, decreasing the difficulty of Stealth tests by one. This darkness carries a weight so palpable, it may damage recording equipment engulfed by its influence.

Lifting Shadows (•)
Shadows and shades hide secrets for those who wish to hide them, but the learned sorcerer may reveal those secrets to those they trust. Smearing ink into a pair of contacts or funneling smoke into tight swimming goggles, the sorcerer brings the sight of the recipient into the realm of shadows. For the next eight hours, night may be as bright as day. Once blessed, the sorcerer or their ally may treat all darkness as daylight when making Alertness tests based on sight.

Grip of Shades (•••)
Within every crevasse hides a little shadow. Within every shadow hides an ally to a sorcerer of the Path of Shadowcasting. It is access to these allies that gives the sorcerer leverage in ways that many would never anticipate. By hardening the shadowstuff within the shadows on their person, the sorcerer may afford themselves a modicum of protection against impacts and benefits from an advantage in hand-to-hand combat. For 24 hours after bathing in coal-infused oils, the sorcerer has rating 2 armor when soaking bashing or lethal damage and adds two to all Brawl and Martial Arts dice pools that involve grappling.

Even among primal magics, the ability to change into an animal stands out as exceptional. Many monsters haunting the night have the power of transformation, including those who are true shapeshifters. Hedge magicians who study the Path of Shapeshifting mimic a certain amount of their power, transforming first pieces of themselves and later their entire body in dramatic ways.

Most think of this Path as turning oneself or others into animals. When shapeshifting magicians choose subtlety, they can be remarkable spies. They can make cosmetic changes to look like a different person, and then supplement their disguise with sharpened senses. They can transform into something more dangerous if their cover is blown.

The biggest risk of this Path is that the human mind is not equipped to change shapes. Every transformation incurs risk, but it’s greatest when making a full shift to an animal form. Then, even without a botch, the magician needs to roll Willpower (difficulty 6) to retain their own mind, rather than losing themself to their animal nature.

Duration: Scene

Aspects: None of the standard Aspects apply to Shapeshifting. Instead, it uses:

Scale
• Cosmetic changes only, such as eye color or growing hair.

•• Small but noticeable changes, such as growing claws or scales.

••• The magician can change a single body part to that of some other creature.

•••• Half-Shift: the magician can either change half of their body to an animal’s or take a form halfway between human and animal.

••••• Full Shifting: The magician can change completely into an animal.

Subject
••• The magician can only affect themselves.

•••• The magician may transform another target.

••••• The magician may affect two subjects at once.

Disparity
••• Only a single animal feature.

•••• The magician can take on two unrelated shifts, such as the head of one animal and the body of another.

••••• Three unrelated shifts are possible.

Price of Failure: When a shapeshifter botches, the best-case scenario consists of an unexpected and unpleasant transformation. They can also lose themselves to their other form, functionally going feral. In a worst- case scenario, they can experience a rampage similar to the Stress Atavism Flaw.

Face Theft (•)
The key ritual for Shapeshifting-based spycraft, Face Theft allows the magician to take on the precise form of another human being. They must have some piece of the person, such as strands of hair or nail clippings. The ritual requires one success for a person broadly similar to the caster, and an additional success each if the form differs in race, sex, or by more than 20 years of age.

Fix the True Form (••••)
Shapeshifters often find themselves in conflict with one another. They also run into stranger things with multiple forms. Fix the True Form was developed by one who claimed descent from werewolves. It forces anyone targeted by it to take on their “true” form if they fail at a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). For magicians, they simply revert to their natural form, as do most other shapeshifters. Ironically, despite being created in part to force werewolves into their human or wolf forms, this ritual forces Garou and Fera to take on their mixed forms instead, often with terrible consequences for an overconfident hedge magician.

Megafauna Transformation (•••••)
The Path of Shapeshifting allows the caster to assume animal forms, including partial transformations. But in the end, the caster can normally only fully transform into a normal animal. This ritual allows them to become a gigantic version of whatever animal they want to transform into. In most cases, this is a full throwback to an extinct version of the animal, such as the megatherium (giant sloth) of the Americas. This requires at least five successes.

There are Paths that go back centuries and then there are some that only arise from the unique environments of the modern night. Urban sprawls gave sorcerers a unique worldview and provided a compass for the lands beyond the Shroud. Peering into the lands of the dead is not a new concept to the magical community, but those who walk the concrete valley started to see a pattern in the stars of the Shadowland skies that matched the lights of their cities. Through study and the broadening of their understanding, the Path known as Starlight was born. Much to the dismay and jealousy of the inhabitants of the Shadowlands, only those gifted in Starlight seem able to see the stars that they use.

Like navigators of the golden age of sail, Starlight practitioners understand the unique sky of the Shadowlands and chart courses to safely travel through the realm of the dead. Simply knowing where they are going is only the start of the power these navigators have. Their minds produce a sort of protection and preservation shield for any mortals traveling with them. This becomes a necessity for travel since the shadowlands have no air and the very ground is anathema to the living. This is no physical shield against all harm, though, and any violent wraith that means them harm can easily indulge that urge. Should the duration of the spell expire, those traveling will be exposed to the lethal environment of the Shadowlands.

It is knowledge of the guiding lights of the Shadowland skies that also allow navigators to open doorways into the Shadowlands directly, completely bypassing the Shroud in the process. Any door can lead to the Shadowlands; it just takes a lot of preparation, and the journey begins. Moving quickly towards the destination is advised, considering few navigators have been able to complete a journey that took longer than one day.

Supposedly, when asked, wraiths say they cannot see these same stars that shine brightly for those who possess this power. Some say it was created by some sort of pact with an ancient, fearsome leader of the Shadowlands. Others say it was made by the love of two mortals that burned so brightly that when they died by each other’s side, it shattered into a million pieces, soaring into the sky as a physical memorial of their love.

Those with the Starlight numina have a bit of a cursed existence though. They struggle with anxiety that stems from their ability. The crushing weight of the night sky weighs heavy on their spirit. They also, in some sort of cruel irony, are wracked with the 2-point Flaw Phobia (of the player’s choosing) and may never benefit from more than two dots of Courage.

Modifiers: Decrease difficulty by –1 if carrying a personal item of the recently deceased

Aspects: The Aspects of Duration, Range, and the unique Aspect of Wending:

Wending
• Key: The threshold is the first obstacle a navigator must master. With focus and will, any doorway can serve as a threshold into the Shadowlands. The door only remains open for the navigator and will allow them and their passengers to pass. Traveling companions benefit from the same life preserving effect as the caster so long as they remain within sight of their navigator.

Anyone attempting to reopen the doorway once closed will find the mundane corresponding threshold. This door collapses after it has been reopened and closed again by the navigator during their return from the Shadowlands, or willfully collapsed by the navigator to close the way behind them.

A different doorway in the Shadowlands can be used to re-enter the Skinlands, but another activation of Starlight must be performed to create the new threshold. There is a drawback to this technique; The destination in the Skinlands is difficult to know without more capabilities as a navigator.

•• Sky: The Shadowlands are more familiar to a navigator of this level. Confidence swells in their chest, and the realm of the dead seems far less frightening. While traveling in the Shadowlands, the navigator benefits from –1 difficulty on all Awareness, Leadership, Survival, and Occult rolls concerning this environment, as well as Willpower rolls to overcome fear and intimidation.

••• Constellation: The navigator has found a point in the Shadowlands that is akin to their own personal North Star. No matter where they are in the Shadowlands, so long as they can see this star, the navigator has a general understanding of where they may exit into the Skinlands when opening a new threshold.

•••• Fury: The familiarity with the Shadowlands is now palpable to any traveling companions the navigator has brought along. Traveling companions of the navigator benefit from a –1 difficulty to Willpower rolls made to overcome fear and intimidation, as well as Awareness and Survival rolls made within the Shadowlands.

••••• Compass: The navigator’s guiding light within the Shadowlands is visible to them even with their eyes closed. No matter how deep they travel or how turned around they may get, the navigator will always be able to find their way to a door back to the Skinlands. Furthermore, they know exactly where their exit from the Shadowlands will lead.

None, yet.

Sorcerers in both fiction and legend are well-known for their ability to summon and control others, both living and ephemeral. With these powers, the magician can summon animals, spirits, ghosts, demons, and other strange beings. They can also defend against these beings, bind them, and compel them to obey the magician. Though overlap exists with the Path of Ephemera, this Path focuses on methods of compulsion, rather than cooperation, with the beings being called and dealt with.

All Summoning, Binding, and Warding magics are rituals, and rituals exist for reaching individual beings or classes of beings. There are separate rituals to sum- mon, bind, and ward each target. This has led many magicians to their doom. Though summoning a being may intrigue it, attempting to bind them tends to incur hostility, and magicians who either don’t know or fail at casting the warding ritual often find themselves in a great deal of trouble.

In addition to the complications of each specific being or type of being the hedge magician intends to work with, there are several versions of this Path which are learned completely separately. Variants exist for summoning material creatures (like animals and people), angels and demons, ghosts, spirits of nature, and other sentient beings. There are even reports of variants focused on inanimate objects and virtual creations, allowing some technosorcerers to ‘ward’ their computers against viruses or the likes.

Every use of this Path, (e.g., summoning, binding or warding a certain class of entity) is essentially a ritual, and is purchased separately as such.

Aspects: The three distinct parts of this Path have separate Aspects, which are typically utilized in the following order:

Warding has Duration and the unique Aspect of Strength, each level of which subtracts one die from all actions the summoned being takes against the magician. For three successes, Warding Strength allows the creation of a Warding Circle, which the being cannot cross without a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) where they achieve more successes than the magician.

Summoning has Duration as an Aspect. Additionally, it has Number of Targets (i.e., summoned beings or swarms) and Metaphysical Weight for the summoned being. The summoned being is compelled to appear before the magician but must still transport themself there. Only the most powerful beings can truly travel instantaneously.

Binding similarly has the aspects of Duration and Metaphysical Weight, as well as the unique Aspect of Binding Intensity. A being may spend a point of Willpower to resist a binding, but the binding can be recast. Some beings, especially those with Metaphysical Weight 5, are powerful enough to require binding rituals with large thresholds in addition to the usual requirements — sometimes as high as 20 or more successes.

Binding Intensity
• The creature cannot directly act against the magician.

•• Any single question must be answered truthfully.

••• All questions for the duration must be answered truthfully, and the being may be compelled to perform one service, though they may interpret the command liberally so long as they literally satisfy it.

•••• A single task is performed as directed, following the orders closely.

••••• The magician may transfer limited control of the binding to another person. The being performs one task for them and answers any questions the summoner asks of it.

Price of Failure: The Path of Summoning, Binding, and Warding has no need for special failure or botch costs. Instead, the consequences of failures and botches are visited upon the magician by the being summoned. The biggest source of these problems is that, on a botch, the magician often ends up under the mistaken impression they they have succeeded.

Every use of this Path, (e.g., summoning, binding or warding a certain class of entity) is essentially a ritual, and is purchased separately as such.

In societies that relied heavily on agriculture or seafaring, those who could control the weather were prized, often being the difference between life and death in their communities. Famines have been prevented or ended, and the most powerful sorcerers have been known to dispel or divert natural disasters.

Weather Control allows sorcerers to do what it says on the package — they can control the weather. While they can’t directly make enormous weather shifts such as El Niños, what they can affect creates ripples through larger areas. No weather pattern happens in a vacuum, and this remains true for magical tampering with the weather. Many weather workers have some dots in Science, to account for being able to discern upcoming weather patterns. Many weather workers also learn at least a small amount of Divination for this purpose, frequently scrying in pools of water and clouds as their practices for such.

Most cultures consider weather-working to be a woman’s art, drawing on the ties between her fertility and the bounty of the land and the elements, but this is far from universal; in some African tribes, weather magic was men’s magic, for example. Technosorcerers make no such distinctions, of course, but then, their mastery of this Path is thought by most to be limited at best. (Whether this is true is a question of some debate.)

Though rarely consulted in the modern era, weather workers still practice in secret. The power they command is dramatic and potentially life-altering. Like healers, weather workers would be constantly pestered to perform miracles if their abilities were commonly known. At the same time, they would have to contend with those claiming out of fear and jealousy that the weather workers gained their powers through evil means.

All uses of this Path are treated as rituals taking both great time and effort. As such, weather workers rarely function alone. The amount of effort required to produce adequate effects often necessitates teamwork. Some form covens around the goal of group weather control.

Modifiers: The large number of successes required to produce effects lends itself to extended rolls and teamwork.

• 1 or more additional successes required to stop a severe thunderstorm or worse once it’s started. Calm weather is easier to stir up than nasty weather is to allay.
• +1 difficulty to cause any effect indoors.

Aspects: Weather Control uses the Aspects Distance (treat the measurement on the chart as the radius of effect), Duration, and the unique Aspect of Weather Intensity:

Weather Intensity
• Small changes only. This includes warm or cold breezes, slight but noticeable changes in temperature, and causing fire to momentarily flicker and flare.

•• The weather worker can cause minor affects that do not cause direct damage. The sorcerer might call up a dense fog that imposes perception penalties (see Mage 20 p. 435), clear a cloudy sky, or create winds in the direction they desire.

••• A sorcerer may form and dispel simple rain- storms. Strong winds can impose a penalty on ranged attacks by blowing the projectile off course and causing difficulties aiming. The weather worker may also change the temperature up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in either direction. Depending on the starting temperature, this may impose or remove penalties from heat illness or hypothermia. Flash floods can also be deadly.

•••• A weather worker’s storm strength increases. They can now command gale-force winds, lightning, hail, and other damaging weather effects. They may now target individuals to take the brunt of the storm, and damaging effects do 4 + successes damage. Lightning causes lethal damage while bashing damage results from hail. Other effects may also cause damage, within reason. Weather effects can cause moderate penalties to those caught in the storms.

••••• The sorcerer can cause extreme effects. Thunderstorms are well within the weather worker’s grasp. Destructive tornadoes and other powerful meteorological activity can tear through a city. The sorcerer may cause 6 + successes bashing or lethal every 15 minutes to those in the storm’s path. Anyone caught in the storm also suffers maximum environmental penalties.

Price of Failure: Even intentional weather control effects often have unintended consequences on the environment both near and far. Weather pattern disruptions are no small matter. A botch, however, unleashes terrible effects depending on the nature of the changes sought. Lightning might directly strike the sorcerer or their allies. An arid climate might be hit with a monsoon the ground can’t accommodate, leading to widespread flooding. The local climate and possibly the surrounding area suffers dramatic, perhaps long-lived, changes. This can cause a crisis for the local fauna, plant life, and people who had no time to prepare and may not know how to cope with the new climate. Death, even if not immediate, is unfortunately a common risk when sorcerers play with the weather.

All uses of this Path are treated as rituals taking both great time and effort. As such, weather workers rarely function alone. The amount of effort required to produce adequate effects often necessitates teamwork. Some form covens around the goal of group weather control.

The rituals themselves often have specific cultural relevance, such as the Native American ‘rain dance’ and countless other such examples.

You are one of the few and ‘fortunate’ psychics who have received secret, lengthy and systematic psionic training from an institution specializing in the research and instruction of Psychic Phenomena, such as the Arcanum, the U.S Government’s classified Project Twilight, the Technocracy or even Pentex’s Project Odyssey.

All of the organizations which offer real instruction in the honing of Psychic Phenomena have very different cultures and methodologies, best explored in sections focusing on the group in question. However, increased discipline and control of ones psychic abilities ultimately leads to the same recognized plateaus (absent death, insanity or washout).

All levels of this Merit allow you to learn the Secondary Knowledge of Esoterica with the Psionics specialization. All further benefits are cumulative.

As a 3-pt Merit, your character is still considered a student, trainee, recruit (willing or otherwise) or apprentice of some kind. Your budding grasp of how to control your ‘gift’ gives you a significant edge over those who rely on raw talent alone:

You can now attempt to activate your Psychic Phenomena without spending Willpower, by rolling your Esoterica: Psionics (minus the Phenomenon level you’re trying to access) vs the usual difficulty (typically the Phenomenon level you’re trying to use + 3).

As a 5-pt Merit, your character is considered a fully trained psychic adept, capable of pushing themselves to their limit – and a little beyond:

You may attempt to use one of your Psychic Phenomena at one level higher than you possess (to a maximum of the fifth level), at the cost of suffering one level of unsoakable lethal damage, usually in the form of a nose bleed. Your Willpower dice pool cannot exceed your Esoterica: Psionics rating when pushing yourself like this without suffering a second level of unsoakable lethal damage.

Alternatively, you can choose to suffer a level of lethal damage instead of spending Willpower when activating your Psychic Phenomena.

As an 8-pt Merit, your character is a master of the mental arts. You have seen and endured more in the honing of your psychic potential than most would believe. As a result, you have considerable experience in both protecting your mind and going on the offensive:

The Mind Shields Phenomenon no longer counts against your allowed Psychic Phenomena limit, allowing you to raise it freely (or learn a new Phenomenon if you already had Mind Shields). In addition, you can now take two Psionic actions per turn – although you are still restricted to spending only one Willpower point per turn.

Restriction: It isn’t possible to acquire or increase the Control Group Merit without specifically belonging to one of the following Affiliations: Arcanum, Pentex (Project Odyssey), U.S Government (Project Twilight) or the Technocracy.

The power of your mind is beyond the anchor of your body. Whether through extreme disassociation, Zen meditation or some other discipline, you can shut out the pangs and suffering of your physical existence.

You do not suffer wound penalties on uses of your psychic powers until you are Incapacitated.

When you are Incapacitated, you may spend a Willpower point to attempt to manifest a psychic power at half the normal die pool (rounded down). You can only try this once per scene, after which you fall unconscious.

Certain psychics, such as those gifted with Astral Projection, Telepathy, Psychic Vampirism or Psychic Shadow find themselves with an unsettling knack for intruding upon the dreams of others.

Prerequisite: The psychic must have either Astral Projection, Telepathy, Psychic Vampire or Psychic Shadow at three dots or higher.

Spend a Willpower and roll your Willpower vs a difficulty determined by the victim’s Willpower + 2. If successful, the psychic enters the victim’s dreams and interacts with the subconscious. He cannot plant or steal memories, but can participate in the dream as an “actor,” remembering what he sees.

Victims usually do not remember (or assign any special meaning) to this dream experience. However, characters with Awareness can roll Perception + Enigmas vs 8 to remember something ‘off’ about their dream. It requires an exceptional success to be absolutely certain that what transpired was unnatural, unless they have some dream-related power themselves.

This ability works on humans, including Mortal+ and Awakened Mages. It does not work on constructs, companions, vampires, shifters or other stranger races.

This power is one of the most intimate of the Psi gifts. To use it, the empath joins his mind and body with that of a mentally ill or suffering person in order to soothe their anguish.

Prerequisite: The psychic must have at least one rank of the Psychic Healing Phenomena.

The 3-point version of this Merit allows the empath to soothe the spirit. You can alleviate grief and depression in your subject by infusing them with your Vitality. This costs 1 Willpower point and the Empath suffers one level of Bashing damage, which will not heal until they get a good night’s sleep. In contrast, the soothed target will regain all their Willpower, provided they immediately fall into a deep slumber, resulting in an at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

The 4-point version of this Merit requires the empath to have mental discipline, courage, and control of her own emotions. The empath prepares herself to absorb the worst forms of mental illness, including Harano, falling into the same state of psychosis as she has just healed in her patient. This costs all of a Psychic’s Willpower points, whereupon they will fall into a deep slumber for a duration equivalent to the severity of the mental illness.

During this time, the psychic fights the equivalent of a mental battle in their own mind (the details of which are decided by the Storyteller). Hopefully, they’ll awake famished and worn before too long. However, a few never wake up – especially when attempting to heal Harano.

You can sense the presence of recent psychic energies within a nearby area.

Roll Perception + Occult vs difficulty 8. How much information you glean and how detailed it is depends on your successes.

A single success might merely confirm that a psychic talent was at work recently, while three or more might allow you to pick up the lingering sensation of a talented psychic who had been here, her strength, mood, and plans at the moment she had passed by. The base radius for this talent is about a 10-foot radius, but you can increase that radius by 10 more feet for every success you allocate to it.

Your psychic power requires something beyond your own mental powers to manifest, whether you need your lucky feather, to ask pretty please, or just pantomime the action you need to happen.

For a 3-point Flaw, you have to gesture or speak an incantation for your Psychic Phenomena to work.

For a 4-point Flaw, you require an additional physical focus to work such as crystals, drugs, tarot cards, candles or a specific partner.

For a 5-point Flaw, you require an extra turn of concentration, in addition to one of the above affectations (such as an especially elaborate series of gestures or needing to meditate on your chakra crystal, etc).

SPECIAL RULE: Taking this Flaw increases your character’s allowed Merit dots from the usual supernatural PC limit of 10, to a new limit of 13-15. In addition, it does not count against your 7 Flaw points limit for purposes of receiving extra freebie points in chargen.

Your psychic powers are a great gift, but they take their toll on you.

As a 1-point Flaw, you experience headaches or disorientation. Roll Stamina + Meditation (difficulty 7). On a failure, the difficulty of all actions increase by two for for one round while the pain overtakes you.

As a 3-point Flaw, you experience more acute pain from the use of Phenomena. Roll Intelligence (difficulty 9) each time you use a power. Failure results in taking a level of bashing damage. A botch is treated as lethal.

SPECIAL RULE: This Flaw does not count against your 7 Flaw points limit for purposes of receiving extra freebie points in chargen.

Your psychic character shares a permanent psychic connection to another psychic, who must also purchase this Merit.

This Merit duplicates the benefit of the Level Two Synergy effect. The linked psychics additionally gain +2 to their Empathy score to determine the other party’s feelings.

As a 6-pt Merit, the bonded characters can purchase the Synergy Psychic Phenomena at (new rating * 3 XP) per dot, and may take it all the way to Level Five regardless of their respective Willpower. Their Synergy only works on their bonded partner.

In order to benefit from the 6-pt version of this Merit, both bonded characters must raise Synergy to the same level.

While many psychics never receive proper training to develop their gifts, you lack even basic control of your powers. However, without the self-imposed limitations that comes with control over your talents, comes the potential for greater power.

Use the following list to determine the costs and effects of this Merit (or Flaw) which cannot exceed 4 points:

• +1 for every extra die you have when calling upon your Psychic Phenomena.
• -1 You must make an additional Willpower roll (Difficulty 7) to use your power.
• -2 You can only consciously use the power defensively (e.g., your precognitive powers warn you of an attack using Danger Sense, or your telekinesis can stop an oncoming car).
• -3 You have no conscious control of the power, but it works more often to your benefit than not. (e.g., your clairvoyance manifests in useful prophetic dreams)
• -4 Your powers activate randomly (a minimum of once per session) and often when you least expect or desire it. (e.g., telekinetically flipping books around a library while attempting to do research).

Restriction: This Flaw or Merit is incompatible with the Control Group Merit.