Mana

==MANA==
Mana Mana is the fluid form of Prime, the prima materia, Supernal energy filtered down into the Fallen World. Some of it is residual energy left trapped when the Abyss formed, recycled over the millennia into a thousand forms, but some of it is fresh, brought into the world by a mysterious form of grace from on high.
Mana is an Advantage trait for mages. A mage can hold up to 10 points of Mana in his Pattern, and he can hold even more with increasing dots of Gnosis, as illustrated on the “Effects of Gnosis” chart, p. 76.
Mana itself is normally invisible and intangible, undetectable to those without Mage Sight. Any mage standing in a Hallow can sense its ambient Mana with a successful Wits + Occult roll. Mages perceive Mana in many different ways. It is most often described as a fiery, fluid energy, either pure white or prismatic, containing all the colors of the spectrum. Some mages perceive Mana as another sort of power or force, in accordance with their own Path. The particular Arcanum a mage uses for his Mage Sight often colors the experience. Mages study the Prime Arcanum to better understand Mana and learn how to manipulate and use it in their magic. To some degree, all mages wield the power of Mana, but someare better at storing and using it than others.
The Mana Advantage is rated in points rather than dots. Mana points measure the Mana resources currently available to a mage. Players spend points of Mana to allow mages to perform various feats of magic, including the following:
*Improvised Magic: Casting an improvised spell requires the expenditure of a point of Mana, unless the primary Arcanum used is one of the mage’s Path Arcana. See “Improvised Casting,” p. 111.
*Sympathetic Spells: Casting a spell upon a target beyond sensory range requires the expenditure of a point of Mana. See “Sympathetic Magic,” pp. 114-115.
*Aggravated Damage: Mages must spend a point of Mana for a spell to inflict aggravated damage. The mage must first have the prerequisite Arcana dots to cast an aggravated effect, as described in the spell descriptions.
*Power: Certain spells that significantly alter the laws of nature or physics might require the expenditure of Mana, as described in the spell descriptions.
*Pattern Restoration: Mages can infuse Mana into their physical Patterns to heal wounds. The cost is three Mana points per one bashing or lethal wound. This is an instant action. Those mages unable to spend more than three Mana per turn can take as many consecutive turns performing this action as they need, until they’ve spent all three points. (It will take at least three turns for a mage with Gnosis 1, two turns with Gnosis 2, and one turn with Gnosis 3 or higher.) This is a reverse effect to Pattern scouring (see below). The number of times a mage can spend Mana to restore his Pattern within the same 24-hour period depends on his Gnosis. At Gnosis 1-4, he can do so only once. With Gnosis 5-6, he can perform two Pattern restorations per day. With Gnosis 7-9, he can do three, and Gnosis 10 allows him to perform up to four restorations per day.
===Qualities===
Mana is rarely neutral. It is most often stamped with the tenor or character of a particular type of resonance — its quality. The place where the Mana is found or wells up usually determines its quality, but some Mana might be so strongly stamped that it continues to bear its quality even amidst conflicting aspects. Mages can attempt to change the resonance of a place and so change the quality of Mana that wells up there. See “Resonance,” pp. 277-280. A character’s own Mana takes on the quality of his nimbus, colored by his Path. See “Nimbus,” pp. 90-91.
===Spending Mana===
A mage’s ability to spend stored Mana is measured by his Gnosis: one point per turn per Gnosis dot that he has. A mage with Gnosis 1 may spend one point of Mana per turn. Therefore, the mage may cast an improvised spell, but it cannot be a sympathetic spell or one that delivers aggravated damage. All those additions would exceed the amount of Mana that can be spent in the casting.
Mages who reach their spending limit cannot spend any further points of Mana that turn. Any actions requiringMana spending are then impossible.
===Regaining Mana===
The majority of Mana in the world is bound up in existing Patterns. “Free” Mana is rare. It is found in Hallows, places that collect it like dew. This makes Hallows extremely valuable to the Awakened. Mages have fought wars for control of various Hallows, and still struggle to control the precious Mana they offer.
Mages who perform an oblation (a ritual function associated with Path) at a Hallow can gain Mana points. Doing so requires an hour of uninterrupted ceremony and a Gnosis + Composure roll. Each success provides one Mana. Mages cannot gain more Mana per day, however, than the Hallow’s rating. (See the “Hallow” Merit, pp. 83-84, for information on Hallow ratings.) The ceremony should express the symbology of the Path, such as a ritual to recognize the solstices and equinoxes for Acanthus, or a rite of remembrance for the ancestors for Moros. See “Occult Correspondences,” p. 35, for ideas on culturally specific myths or religions upon which a mage could base his oblation.
Mages can scour their own Patterns to free up Mana. A mage elects to degrade one of his Physical Attributes by one dot in return for three Mana points. The lost Attribute dot is restored one day (24 hours) later. He might burn muscle mass (Strength), transform nerve impulses (Dexterity), or convert adrenaline (Stamina). It takes a full turn to perform a Pattern scouring, during which time the mage can do nothing but move his Speed.
This is a reverse effect to Pattern restoration (see above). The number of times a mage can scour his Pattern within the same 24-hour period depends on his Gnosis. At Gnosis 1 to 4, he can do so only once. With Gnosis 5 to 6, he can perform two Pattern scourings per day. With Gnosis 7 to 9, he can do three, and Gnosis 10 allows him to perform up to four scourings per day.
A mage can elect to instead scour his Health. He suffers one lethal wound of Resistant Damage and gains three Mana points. Magic cannot protect against this Resistant Damage, and it cannot be healed by Pattern restoration or any known supernatural power, although it does heal naturally at the normal rate (see “Healing,” p. 175, in the World of Darkness Rulebook). See “Resistant Damage,” p. 124, for details about how to mark such damage on the character sheet.
Unlike the scouring of Attributes, there is no limit to the number of Health scourings a mage can perform in the same day. The mage can even kill himself by scouring, inflicting a lethal wound on his last Health box, although he can’t use the Mana he gains unless he has some means of staying conscious while he spends the next minutes dying (marking his wounds as aggravated until he is dead; see “Incapacitation,” pp. 173–174, of the World of Darkness Rulebook).
Mages don’t like to talk about it, but there is an unsavory practice that can also yield up Mana to a mage: the blood sacrifice of a living creature. Animals of cat-size or larger (Size 2 or more) provide one Mana each, although only one such killing per day provides Mana. A human provides one Mana per Health point (an already-wounded victim has less Mana to yield than a healthy one), but the victim must die; he cannot be bled until he is close to death. The mage must inflict the killing blow to gain the Mana — he cannot stumble across a freshly killed body and claim it as a sacrifice. Nor can he claim Mana from an accidental death (such as if he witnesses a fatal car wreck). Only the mage who delivers the killing blow gains the Mana; other mages who participate in wounding the victim gain nothing. The killing mage gains the Mana in the subsequent turn, but it requires an instant action during which he can move only up to his Speed as he soaks in the escaping energies (he also loses his Defense). If he does not perform this action, he does not gain the Mana and it is lost.
This practice is sure to cause a Wisdom degeneration roll. While a mage can go on a killing spree to reap Mana, he can only reap a total amount of blood-sacrifice Mana points per day equal to twice his Gnosis dots (Gnosis x2).
Example: Angrboda, with Gnosis 5, can gain a maximum amount of 10 Mana points per day through blood sacrifice. Since the average human has Health 7 (yielding one Mana per point), he’d have to kill at least two people to gain his maximum amount. Even though the second victim might have Health 7, Angrboda would gain only three Mana from that murder, since he can gain a maximum of 10 Mana per day in this manner. The victims cannot be bled for partial Mana. They must each be killed, and Angrboda must be the one to deliver the killing blow.
Mages with dots in the Prime Arcanum have some additional options for regaining and tapping into Mana. See the description of the Prime Arcanum on pp. 219-232 for more information.
===Tass===
On occasion, Mana congeals or crystallizes into material form, known as tass, from the Arabic word for “cup” or “goblet.” Tass has no set form. Its shape is dictated by the nature of where it forms and other unknown currents in reality. Tass nearly always forms in or around a Hallow, although sometimes tass is the remains of a Hallow gone dry and vanished from reality.
Tass might be found in mushrooms growing at the edges of a magical glen, in the fruit of plants in the midst of a Hallow, in crystals, or soil, or water from a sacred spring — any of an endless array of forms. Whatever its apparent shape, all tass is fundamentally the same: Prime made manifest in solid form, convertible to Mana and usable by those who understand how.
Edible or drinkable forms of tass are the most prized, for a mage can convert them to personal Mana points simply by ingesting them. (It generally takes one hour after ingesting solid tass before the points are available, or 10 minutes after drinking liquid tass.) Some mages cultivate gardens near Hallows or tass-prone spots to take advantage of their fruit or vegetable yields, or they regularly collect the suffused spring water in jars for later drinking. Like all growing things, however, these manifestations of tass vary in potency. Some are large and full of Mana, while others might be stunted or bruised, lacking vital essence. The Storyteller judges how much Mana any particular mushroom, apple or draught of water yields. A general guideline is one Mana point per pound of tass food or for every 16 ounces of tass drink.
Tass that can be ingested may be stored for later use, although fruit must be dried and water sealed or else it rots like normal fruit or becomes stagnant if left in the open. This bounty does not last forever, though. It loses its potency at a rate of one Mana per week after the first week of storage.
The ability to utilize tass in non-edible sources (such as tass congealed into rocks or tree bark) comes from the Prime Arcanum. A mage with Prime 2 can draw the Mana bound up in tass for personal use, either replenishing his Mana points or using the tass’s Mana directly for magic. Unlike organic tass, object tass doesn’t lose its potency over time and can be stored indefinitely until its Mana is tapped.
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