The Spheres

## **Correspondence**

**Specialties: Conjuration, Scrying, Warding, Teleportation**

By manipulating the ties between places, objects, and people, the Correspondence Sphere allows a mage to sidestep distances, sense things that would normally be out of range, pull objects out of thin air, levitate or fly, or connect an Effect to some other place or character. Some mages proclaim this Sphere is proof that distance is an illusion, whereas others view it as the Art of pulling strings between different places and people.

Because this Sphere deals with space and relationships, its Effects use a special Correspondence Sphere Ranges chart, found on (p. 504). Most Effects require touch or close contact, but Correspondence lets the mage reach across distances and affect hidden or faraway targets. When adding Correspondence to an Effect, use that Correspondence Sphere Ranges chart to find the connection and then exploit it. Tenuous connections require several successes, but spanning close connections is easy for a mage who understands this Art.

On its own, Correspondence allows the mage to reach across distances, even to places she cannot see or touch. At Rank 2 or higher, she can grasp items and work with them from a distance. To manipulate other objects or beings in ways other than physical contact, however, that mage must combine Correspondence with another Sphere – typically a Pattern Sphere (Forces, Life, or Matter).

When combining Correspondence with other Spheres, however, the Effect is limited – in game terms – to the mage’s Rank in the Correspondence Sphere, not to the Rank of the other Spheres involved. A mage, for instance, who has only Correspondence 2 tries to use a Forces 3/ Correspondence 2/ Prime 2 Effect to try to start fires at a distance… except that she is limited to Forces 2, a Rank that’s too low to conjure fire. In order to boost that effect, she’d need to raise her Correspondence to at least 3.

Despite its ability to warp space and distance, Correspondence deals only with whole Patterns, unless a target has been altered by another Pattern Sphere; Correspondence alone, for example, cannot teleport someone’s head off – the mage would need to use Life magick to separate the head from its body. A gun, on the other hand, could be snatched away by Correspondence alone.

Mages who specialize in Correspondence tend to have a faraway look. To them, the separations of space and form are meaningless illusions that disappear when you understand how the universe truly fits together. For an optional Technocratic approach to Correspondence, see Data, (pp. 524-525).

### **• Immediate Spatial Perceptions / Landscape of the Mind**

Basic spatial understanding allows a mage to sense things in her immediate vicinity even if she can’t perceive them with her normal senses. Using that perception, she can estimate the distances between objects; intuitively find a direction (North, South, East, West); notice hidden objects or characters; and spot spatial instabilities – warps, anomalies, wormholes, etc. – especially the ones caused by other Correspondence Effects.

### *••* **Sense, Touch, Thicken & Reach Through Space / Correspondence Sensing**

That mage can now extend her senses across intervening space, sensing things in other locations. Such extensions, however, leave minor ripples in space… the kind noticed by Rank 1 Correspondence. Fortunately, she can also thicken space to cover her tracks; each success used in doing so deducts one success from the roll of a character who’s trying to spy on her or notice her sensory Effects.

By adding Life or Matter to Rank 2 Correspondence, the mage can grasp small items or organisms (housecat-sized or smaller) and then pull them through tiny holes in space. This lets her snatch business cards, guns, rabbits, and such from another location, apparently pulling them out of nowhere.

### **••• Pierce space / Open or Close Gates / Co-locality Perception**

Now the mage can tear holes in space, large enough for her to step through. These minor gates are small and temporary, but they allow that character to step from one place to another, so long as she’s alone and lightly encumbered. (Teleporting large items, or while carrying heavy loads, demands Correspondence 4.) Scoping out the new location is a good idea, of course. A close, familiar destination requires fewer successes than a distant, unfamiliar one.

Using the Co-locality Perceptions Effect, the mage can also perceive several places at once. Those locations all appear as ghosts overlapping each other, as if they’d been layered on top of the closest location.

Also, by combining Correspondence 3 with Forces, Life, or Matter, the mage can move things around from a distance, levitating, manipulating or teleporting them without physical contact.

Teleportation Locations
 Two
 Three
 Four
 Five
 Six+

### **•••• Rend Space / Ward / Co-locate Self**

Creating larger holes in space, the mage can now open permanent gates between locations (10 or more successes); isolate forces, spaces, objects, or people into their own tiny realms (by combining Correspondence 4 with Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter); and ward certain locations against specific Patterns (again, combining Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter with Correspondence) or Resonance energies (combining this Sphere with Prime 4). This warding effect can impede or even block the forbidden elements from crossing into, or out of, the protected space. (For extensive details about wards, see the sourcebook How Do You DO That?)

Using the Co-location Effect, that mage can also appear in several different places at once. To function, however, she must add Mind 1 to that Effect. Each self mirrors the original’s actions unless she also adds Life 2 to that Effect, granting independence to every self.

### **••••• Spatial Mutation /** **Co-location**

Distance and dimensions become child’s play to a mage at this Rank. She can distort space; alter sizes and stretch or compress objects (Matter), bodies (Life), or forces (Forces); connect different Patterns to one another across intervening space; or even superimpose places or objects on top of one another (extremely vulgar). Combining this Rank with Life 3, the mage may also expand her senses to perceive many different places at once.

Correspondence Sphere Ranges
 Two
 Three
 Four
 Five
 Six+

## **Entropy**

**Specialties: Fate, Fortune, Order, Chaos**

Everything is mortal. Objects, people, even concepts decay over time. When you truly understand that principle – and more, when you can influence it yourself – such knowledge brings with it a sense of liberation… a bit of sadness, of course, but also the comfort of letting go.

Controlling the energies of probability and decay, an Entropy-schooled mage can manipulate random factors, observe and influence flaws within a system, tap into the energies of the Low Umbra, induce or remove corruption, and otherwise exert his Will through the inexorable process of mortality.

This is no easy discipline. The Entropic mage assumes some of the Resonance of decay within his own Pattern, and bears the weight of mortality within his mind and soul. Still, the powers of this Sphere – though less obviously destructive than those of other Arts – give that mage subtle but pervasive control over Creation as a whole.

Unlike most other Spheres, Entropy spells don’t inflict damage until Rank 4; after that, such damage is aggravated, as it breaks down the very Patterns of existence. Up until that point, Entropy helps a mage exploit or defer the effects of decay and probability… a gift that helps him use an opponent’s surroundings against her even when he doesn’t attack directly.

For obvious reasons, Entropy-schooled mages tend to be fatalistic, disassociated, or uncannily cheerful. To them, the saying “all things must pass” is no simple sentiment but an intrinsic fact of life.

### *•* **Sense Flaws, Fate & Fortune / Ring of Truth**

Basic Entropic understanding allows a mage to see the currents of probability, spot flaws in Patterns, and note the subtle yet telling details in a person’s speech and behavior that suggest whether or not she’s telling what she believes to be the truth. Although he cannot yet control such phenomena, the mage can predict dice throws, card draws, and other apparently random events; spot weak spots in objects, people, or arguments; and use those imperfect yet profound insights to his advantage.

### **•• Control Probability**

Now the mage can control the factors he could only sense before. Pulling the strings of apparently random events, he can influence activities and results – directing the fall of dice or cards, repeatedly hitting weak spots, and directing people and things toward a conclusion of his choice. Of course, it’s easier to control small events (the winner of a horse race) than large ones (causing a six-car pileup). In game terms, large alterations demand more successes than small ones do.

### **••• Affect Predictable Patterns**

Things eventually break down. At this Rank, the mage can control the speed at which material objects fail or decay. That’s easier to do with complex machines (cars, computers) than it is with simple ones (walls, stones) – after all, more things can go wrong with complicated things.

At this Rank, the mage can also start controlling the fate and fortune of objects and people, giving them good or bad luck by controlling the probability of events around them. Again, large feats demand more successes than smaller ones.

### **•••• Affect Living Beings**

At this Rank, the mage assumes the awesome power of blessing, cursing, and conferring outright health or decay. By influencing the flow of entropy within a living body, that mage can grant outstanding vitality to, or inflict sudden disease upon, his subject. Such influence, as noted above, inflicts or heals aggravated damage and may grant long-term luck or misfortune. (Storyteller’s option as to how this manifests.)

### **••••• Affect Thought**

The most esoteric applications of Entropy allow the mage to alter ideas, strengthening or breaking down concepts. Although he does not affect the actual workings of consciousness, he can cause synapses to misfire (thus confusing perceptions and mental processing, inflicting penalties on an enemy’s dice rolls), bind someone to an oath, or degrade the patterns of thought. By doing so, that Entropic Master can craft, perpetrate, reinforce, and undermine arguments, beliefs, and even memories.

To do such things, the Master merely speaks to, or glances at, the subject of his attention. Chaos Masters can scramble someone’s perceptions with a few weird utterances, and Masters of Order can present arguments with apparently perfect logic. By offering compelling statements, the Master can create or destroy memes (see p. 594), thus influencing whole patterns of belief. An oath, meanwhile, ties the subject’s fate to her loyalty; if she breaks the oath, then her luck goes really, really bad.

In game terms, such feats demand a certain number of successes. Inspiring a whim requires only one or two successes, sparking a fancy takes three, setting or undermining a conviction takes four or five successes, and setting up obsessions demands five successes or more. Such activities are usually coincidental and are typically rolled against a difficulty of the subject’s Willpower, with a minimum difficulty of 4.

## **Forces**

**Specialties: Elements (any or all), Technology, Physics, Weather**

Although modern physics disputes the old lines between matter and energy, the venerable study of Forces transcends human politics. This Sphere commands the energies of Creation, and its specialists are among the most powerful mages alive.

On a metaphysical level, the Forces Sphere commands energetic Patterns: fire, air, momentum, gravity, radiation, light, sound, and radio waves… the kinetic elements that shape and channel Earthly forces. Quintessence flows within such Patterns, so a mage can conjure new forces simply by adding some Quintessence to “empty space.” Different practices view such powers differently. Are they elemental spirits? Gods? Particles? Waves? Every Master has his or her own pet theory. In practical terms, however, this Sphere controls the Patterns of such forces – directing, transmuting, enhancing, or banishing their effects upon this world.

In game terms, Forces-based attacks inflict an additional success of damage. The nature of that damage depends upon the energies in question – see the Magickal Damage or Duration chart. Simple manifestations and manipulations are limited to the lower Sphere Ranks, whereas large-scale Effects demand higher levels of expertise. Most large Effects also demand plenty of successes and can become Paradox magnets for careless mages. Masters of Forces tend to carry a palpable aura of energetic command, with a Resonance that often alters their environments in uncanny, elemental ways.

### **• Perceive Forces**

Unlocking basic perceptions of the elements, a Forces savvy mage can sense the flow of forces in her environment. She can boost her perceptions into the infrared or ultraviolet spectrums, notice electrons, see in the dark, view X-rays, discern the flow of sound or radio waves, spot kinetic energies, and hear frequencies beyond the normal human range.

### **•• Manipulate Forces / Elemental Touch**

Although she cannot conjure energies just yet, the mage may now alter the flow of existing forces. Sound can be muted or amplified; shadows can be gathered, shaped, or dispelled. The mage can warp light to make things invisible, change their colors by altering the spectrum of localized light, or render them silent by bending sound waves in their vicinity. With a wave of her hand, she can disrupt electrical currents; flare flames; or direct the course of winds, momentum, or gravity.

Combining this Rank with other Spheres, that mage could also make an object (Matter) or organism (Life) attract or repel forces. Thus, she could weave minor protection spells or force-fields… or, conversely, turn that target into a magnet (perhaps literally) for the forces in question.

Despite its powers, this Rank is limited in scale. Assume that the mage can command energies around a single humanized character or within a small area (20’ or less). To affect a larger area, you need a higher Rank in Forces.

### **••• Transmute Minor Forces / Telekinesis / The Dragon's Touch**

Now the mage can alter and invoke the energies she could only touch before. By adding Prime 2, she may conjure winds, fire, electricity, gravitational wells, and so forth. Combining this Rank with Life or Matter, she can transform people into electricity (Life 5/ Forces 3); change water into air (Forces 3/ Matter 3), or attach elemental force to material forms – making them fly, pinning them to the ground, and having other, similar effects (generally with Life or Matter 3). And by adding an ephemeral Sphere to this Rank, she might erode or enhance energies (Entropy 3); manifest thoughts into energies (Mind 3); transmute spirit-stuff into physical energies (Spirit 3); or set triggers for energy fluctuations at some later interval (Time 4).

At this Rank, the scale of effect grows larger, now encompassing several dozen yards or a handful of characters.

### **•••• Control Major Forces / Gift of Zeus / Weather-Witching**

Larger Effects become possible. Our mage may now use the lower-Rank Effects over larger areas – a mile or more – to change weather patterns; conjure darkness; drop or raise temperatures; protect locations… or destroy them; and otherwise employ the previous levels on a much greater scale. For obvious reasons, such Effects tend to be vulgar and demand many successes to achieve.

### **•••••****Transmute Major Forces**

With godlike power, a Forces Master works her Will upon vast areas. She can conjure tornados on a clear day, calm tides, and ignite the very air into a firestorm. Such mages earn the title “Nuke,” though few of them survive long enough to enjoy it. It’s easier to invoke such forces under the right conditions, of course – a cold snap comes more easily in winter than in summer – and such radical alterations have repercussions that often outlast the original Effect. In game terms, massive Forces spells should disrupt the weather and leave massive Resonance echoes behind.

## **Life**

**Specialties: Shapeshifting, Disease, Healing, Improvement, Cloning, Creation**

Life grows, transforming over time until some final incident renders it into inert matter. Mages who specialize in Life, therefore, master the complex principles of organic transformation. Beginning with the simplest Patterns, he evolves his understanding toward godlike ends. A true Master, therefore, may end life, but he may also create it from pure energy (that is, from Quintessence) or turn it, literally, to dust.

Whereas other Spheres grapple with abstract theories, Life focuses on literally bone-deep facts. As a Life mage knows, however, those facts remain susceptible to change. In conjunction with other Pattern Spheres (Forces, Matter), lifeforms can be changed into elements, turned to stone or metal, or else created from such substances. Even without additional Spheres, however, Life allows a mage to transmute those lifeforms in startling, even apparently impossible ways.

As a whole, this Sphere embraces everything that has living cells within itself, even if that object is technically dead. As a general rule, assume that anything that’s still alive enough to transplant, preserve, or cultivate is governed by Life Arts. If it’s inert enough to be irrevocably dead, then it’s governed by Matter. Thus, preserved blood and organs, still-living plants, live-culture cheese, and so forth contain Life, but corpses, cotton fibers, withered organs, or cut wood become Matter.

When used to inflict or repair damage, Life deals out aggravated damage because it works directly upon the Patterns of living things. As a result, an organism that has been radically altered by Life magick (given new limbs or other characteristics that are not part of the creature’s original Pattern) suffers Pattern bleeding: an inexorable Quintessence leak that inflicts one level of lethal damage per day. Unless the caster uses Prime magick to refill that Pattern with fresh energy, or alters that Pattern permanently, the damage continues until the subject dies.

Given their ability to heal illness, age, and harm, Life-skilled mages enjoy great health and vibrant beauty. Truly accomplished ones understand the mutable potential of organic existence and work to correct – or exploit – its ever-changing states.

### **• Sense Life**

Basic Life knowledge allows a person to read the presence and health of nearby life-forms. With such knowledge, the mage can discern a living being’s age, sex, and overall health. By combining those perceptions with other Spheres, he can also sense distant organisms (Correspondence 2), guess their potential for sickness or misfortune (Entropy 1), perceive them through past or future states (Time 2), or read the streams of Quintessence that bind them to the universe (Prime 1).

### *••* **Alter Simple Life-Forms / Heal Self**

Simple organisms – viruses, mollusks, insects, plants, etc. – become clay in the mage’s hands. He learns to adjust their Patterns (giving a crab wings, for example), and heal or kill them. Although he can’t yet transmute them into other states of being, he can cause flowers to bloom or wither, help trees bear fruit, and so on. Focusing on his own Pattern, he can also heal himself or perform small alterations (hair color, skin tone, height, weight, and so on) to his basic form.

### **••*•* Transform Simple Life-Forms / Alter Self / Heal Others**

Advanced understanding allows the mage to radically alter simple organisms (turning a tree inside-out); transform one into another (changing fruit into insects); or – with Prime 2 – conjure them from raw energy. Working with his own Pattern, that mage can work substantial alterations on himself, growing gills, claws, armor and so forth. He remains essentially human, but begins to master the definition of “human.” Meanwhile, he also gains the ability to heal damage to other complex organisms, put them to sleep, or inflict harm upon their living Pattern forms.

### **•••• Alter Complex Life-Forms / Transform Self**

At this Rank, the mage may enact radical changes on any complex organism – people, dogs, horses, and so forth. He can uplift other species with new limbs, opposable thumbs, increased brain capacity, etc., so long as he doesn’t change their intrinsic nature.

Working with his own Pattern, that mage can transform himself into other life-forms of similar size and mass; he could become a Great Dane, for example, but not a hummingbird. Special abilities of that form (flight, water breathing, and the like) do not carry over, however, unless he builds them into that new form with additional Life Effects, and the new body might require an adjustment period before the mind and reflexes reflect the new form.

### ••••• **Transform & Create Complex Life-Forms / Perfect Metamorphosis**

Now the Master of Life may adopt any form he wishes to achieve and may transform other complex organisms the same way. His expertise allows him to make permanent changes to life-Patterns, create complex life-forms from energy (with Prime 2), give them consciousness (with Mind 5), transmute them into other elements (Forces or Matter 3) or raw energy (Prime 5), radically age or de-age them (Entropy 4 or Time 3), or instill them with spirits (Spirit 3 or 5). Without such measures, however, his creations remain mindless, soulless sacks of life – alive, but nothing more.

## **Matter**

**Specialties: Transmutation, Shaping, Conjuration, Complex Patterns**

To a mystic, nothing is truly inert. Still, the Sphere of Matter deals with substances that possess no active agency of their own – materials, not life-forms or energies. The third aspect of the Pattern Trinity, Matter works best when combined with other Spheres. Prime and Matter create solid forms from energy; Correspondence and Matter connect objects across space; Entropy erodes or reinforces Matter; Forces transmutes inert elements into active ones. Life plus Matter bridges the gap between living and dead materials – an essential combination when dealing with vampires – and Spirit plus Matter renders ephemera into matter or matter into ephemera. Time alters the temporal state of Matter, and high-Rank Mind Effects (Rank 5) imbue inanimate materials with consciousness. Although Forces, Prime, and Spirit reflect primal energies and Life addresses organic animation, Matter represents the base of the physical world.

Matter-wise mages tend to share a literally hands-on approach to their Art. Solid workers of their practice, they favor practical results with even the most theoretical applications. Sometimes regarded as dull and simple by more esoteric peers, these artisans merge quality and integrity with surprising levels of ingenuity.

### **• Matter Perceptions**

A Primary understanding of Matter allows the initiate to perceive the intrinsic properties of base materials – their underlying structure, innate properties, and integral stability or lack thereof. With that knowledge, she can view the material composition of an object, note its less-obvious structures, find its hidden layers or – when combining this perception with Entropy – spot its weak points. Combined with Life, this Sphere detects implants, enhancements, and other integrations of living tissue and inert materials.

### **•• Basic Transmutation**

With advanced knowledge, the mage can transmute one substance into another, so long as she doesn’t alter its essential shape, temperature, or basic state (gas, liquid, solid). Depending upon that mage’s practice, she might reshape lead into gold through alchemy, wood into stone through a hyperpetrification process, or water into wine (and, with Life 3, wine into blood) through a sacred miracle. Rare and/ or complex materials are more difficult to fabricate than simple ones; it’s easier to turn stone into iron, for example, than into gold. To reflect that challenge, such refinement requires a greater number of successes than a transmutation into a common material.

(On a related note, the mage cannot yet fabricate radioactive materials. Such elements merge their essence into the Sphere of Forces, and thus demand a greater level of expertise.)

When combined with other Spheres, this basic level of understanding allows a mage to conjure base materials from energy or dissolve them into Quintessence (Prime 2), transmute matter into living tissue (Life 4 or higher), move an object through space (Correspondence 2 or higher) or time (Time 3 or higher), change ephemera into matter and matter into ephemera, or awaken the slumbering spirit within material objects (Spirit 3 or higher). In all cases, Matter 2 allows the mage to work with simple, homogenous, non-living substances. Complex mixtures of various elements usually require Rank 3 or higher, although simple combinations (like those found in bread, milk, paper, or gunpowder) are possible if the player rolls plenty of successes.

### **••• Alter Form**

At this Rank, the mage can alter the shape of materials in whatever ways she desires, and she can temporarily transform their essential state into a different one – steel, for example, into fog or water into glass. (Permanent changes require Matter 5.) That crafter may change an item’s density, fuse broken pieces together, or rip solid ones apart.

By mixing Matter 3 with other Spheres, the mage can join inert matter with living tissue, disintegrate it into dust, shift objects with the power of thought, or otherwise perform amazing transformations upon apparently solid materials.

### **•••• Complex Transmutation**

Complex and radical transformations now become possible, especially with the addition of other Spheres. Pumpkins can be changed into carriages (Life 2), people into thrones (Life 5), cars into robots (combinations of Forces and Prime), or thin air into banquets, so long as the mage doesn’t mind racking up a little (or a lot…) of Paradox. Different principles can be combined in complicated ways, creating cybernetic machines or electrified gold. Complicated devices (guns, cars, computers) may be conjured out of empty space if the mage understands the principles behind such things (in game terms, possesses the proper Abilities). As usual, though, complicated creations demand extended rituals and many successes.

### **••••• Alter Properties**

With Mastery, the crafter can create substances that transcend the limitations of scientific possibility, conjure materials unknown to Earthly reality, or share the deadly legacies of radioactive matter. Such Masters can shape armor out of air (with Prime 2), turn vampires into lawn furniture (Life 5), or melt steel with a thought (Mind 3). Again, such deeds remain incredibly vulgar, but they recall the godlike feats of legendry.

## **Mind**

**Specialties: Communication, Illusion, Self-Empowerment, Astral Travel**

Human beings perceive reality through complex interplays of consciousness. The Mind-mage, therefore, alters the realities of his fellow beings. Skillfully applied, such Arts can make a sane man mad, soothe demented minds, or even shuck the boundaries of flesh.

Though limited in its physical capacities (Mind Sphere attacks inflict bashing damage unless otherwise noted), Mind is the ultimate coincidental Art. Its Effects remain essentially invisible unless they’re combined with other Spheres. And although Mind Adepts can leave their physical bodies behind, such abilities remain unseen by mortal eyes.

In many cases, offensive Mind effects – that is, ones that read or influence another character’s mental state – base their difficulties on the target’s Willpower Trait rather than against the usual coincidental/ vulgar spectrum. (If the target’s Willpower is less than 4, the base difficulty is 4.) Drastic acts of mind control (suicide, for instance) go against the Willpower +3, as do Mind-based attacks against Night-Folk and other mages. An unwilling character can also try to oppose such Effects with a resisted Willpower roll, using her successes like a mental dodge maneuver. And so, though weak-willed people may be influenced easily, determined folks can shrug aside the influence of all but the most dedicated Will-workers. (For details, see Resisting Psychic Assaults, pp. 544-545.)

For attacks against multiple targets, the difficulty for a Mind-based Effect depends upon the usual coincidental, vulgar, or vulgar with witnesses situations. Such Mind-based Effects are generally coincidental, although especially flamboyant feats might be vulgar instead.

Literally “thought-full,” Mind-savvy mages possess mental clarity and unnerving perceptiveness. Some appear to drift in a sea of distractions, but the majority of them view the world with laser-focus intensity that penetrates illusions to reach their deeper truth.

### **• Sense Thoughts & Emotions / Mind Shield / Empower Self**

With basic mental magick, the mage learns to sense the emotions and surface impulses of other people. Although he cannot read specific thoughts, he’s able to perceive psychic impressions about a person or (with Matter 1) a place or object. Through this perception, he can guess at the nature of weak Resonance signatures and read the stronger ones outright. Even without Resonance, that mage can scan auras, note mood shifts, discern truth from lies, or grasp someone’s overall state of mind by way of a successful Arete roll.

Meanwhile, the mage also learns to shield his own mind from the thoughts and emotions of other people, constructing mental barriers around his aura, emotions, and consciousness. Each success on a coincidental Arete roll removes one success from any other character’s attempt to read those psychic elements.

On a related note, he also learns how to multitask and absorb data with startling acuity. Each success he rolls allows him to either consider an additional subject or speed the processing time that a normal person might require. For a scene or two, he can even raise one of his Mental Traits by one dot per success, thanks to a Mind Empowerment Effect that concentrates his mental faculties.

### **•• Read Surface Thoughts / Empathic Bond / Create Impressions / Mental Impulse**

Now the mage begins to skim the contents of unshielded minds, discern emotional states, read memories that have been left behind on objects or places, and project single words or emotional impulses to other people. The simpler the emotional content, the easier it is to send or read; a flash of rage, for instance, is easy to project or receive, but the complex stew of reflective melancholy presents a challenge to inexperienced Mind-mages. (Game-wise, such complex feats demand more successes than a simple feat does.)

### **••• Mental Link / Project Illusions/ Dreamwalk / Psychic Blast**

With increasing skill, the mage learns to link minds, forge telepathic communications, read or influence another person’s thoughts, craft mental illusions, enter someone’s dreams and explore dream Realms, and blast psychic assaults into an unwilling rival’s consciousness. At this stage, Mind attacks can inflict painful – though rarely fatal – damage. Combined with Correspondence, Forces, Matter, or Life, he is able to employ telekinesis, pyrokinetics, and psychophysical assault, influencing objects, elements, or people with the power of his mind. Unlike most other Effects, this sort of thing is not coincidental, although such talents do have a place within popular culture.

Feats of Illusion
 Two
 Three
 Four
 Five
 Six+

**Notes:**

**Types of Illusions**

• Mental illusions = Mind 2+ (only in target’s mind; usually coincidental)

• “Physical” illusions = Forces 2+/ Prime 2+ (visible to all witnesses; manipulate elemental forces to manifest sensory components)

• Immersive illusions = Forces 4+/ Prime 4+ (“holodeck” level of apparent reality)

**Damage & Duration**

Illusions don’t normally inflict damage unless “damage levels” are purchased as described below. Illusions may indirectly lead witness into dangerous situations, as described under Environmental Hazards.

• Mind = bashing damage

• Mind 3/ Life 3 = aggravated damage

• Forces = bashing or lethal, depending upon elements involved Default Duration is one scene. Additional levels of Duration, or “damage levels” of two levels of damage, may be purchased for one additional success, each level, above the Base. One day + two levels of damage, for example, would require two additional successes.

I disbelieve!
 Believability
 No fucking way!
 Hard to swallow
 Implausible
 Possible
 Probable
 Likely
 Too damned likely!
 To spot flaws in “physical” illusions, roll Perception + Alertness
as described above.

### ***••••*** **Control Conscious Mind / Alter Consciousness / Astral Projection**

The fearsome power of Black Suits and psychic assailants allows the mage to command another person’s actions as well as her thoughts, alter her perceptions or mental state, and project his own mind from his physical form. At this Rank, a mage can change someone’s memories, drive her crazy (or sane), overlay her aura with a desired impression, and set up posthypnotic suggestions and commands. (See Social Conditioning and Reprogramming, pp. 605-607.) And by using internal rather than external powers, he can also project his astral form, as detailed in Chapter Nine, pp. 476-478.

### **•••••****Control Subconscious / Forge Psyche / Untether Consciousness**

A true Mind Master commands not only his own conscious but other minds as well. He may alter someone’s mind forever, raising (or lowering) her Traits, rewriting her personality, changing her Nature Trait, or (with Life 4) switching her mind into another body. He can do the same things to his own mind as well, and he can untether that mind to explore the deeper reaches of astral space for hours or even days at a time. His greatest power, though, is the ability to fabricate entire consciousnesses, creating minds where no mind had been before.

 Deep Wilderness
 Rural Countryside
 Most Urban Areas
 Downtown
 Technology Lab\*\*

#### **Notes**

An area’s Gauntlet Difficulty may vary with time and circumstances; a dark alley on Halloween night might have a Gauntlet of 6, whereas a rigidly cultivated garden at noon could have a Gauntlet of 8.
\* If using the Technocratic victory metaplot, add +1 to the Gauntlet Rating when in industrial-culture zones, whether or not the Avatar Storm is still in force.

\*\* Treat as a Node when using Dimensional Science.

## **Prime**

**Specialties: Resonance, Artifice, Perceptions, Channeling, Creation, Destruction**

By studying the raw energy of Creation, a student of the Prime Sphere learns to understand, manipulate, and absorb the Fifth Essence within all things. Also known as Odyllic Force, Primal Energy, and Quintessence, this baseline energy fuels the Patterns of other forms – Forces, Life, Matter – and flows through the sublime essence of Spirit. A Prime-skilled mage, therefore, can create and destroy things at their essential level, power items of enchanted or Enlightened creation, and sustain her own life essence through her understanding of Primal Force.

Ripe with such energies, a Prime Sphere specialist pulsates with Primal Force. Unless she’s working to suppress it (or has wiped her aura clean with high-Rank magicks), her Resonance bears strong signatures from her deeds. (See Resonance and Synergy, (pp. 560-561). For better and worse, such a person embodies the primal Otherness that most mages possess – the sense of being something more than most people ever dream of being.

For an optional Technocratic approach to Prime, see Primal Utility, (pp. 526-527).

### **• Etheric Senses / Consecration / Infuse Personal Quintessence**

A beginning study of Prime allows the mage to perceive and channel Quintessence from Nodes, Tass, Wonders, and magickal Effects. She may spot energetic ebbs and flows, can sense and at least try to read Resonance and Synergy signatures, and could also absorb Quintessence into her personal Pattern. Mages without at least one dot in Prime cannot absorb Quintessence beyond their Avatar Background rating. A Prime-skilled mage, however, may do so.

When infusing her Quintessence into an object, that mage may also consecrate the object with her personal energy. When she shapeshifts, steps sideways, or otherwise alters her Pattern’s metaphysical nature, that consecrated object will then change with her. In the process, it also picks up her personal Resonance… which, because it both identifies her and becomes essentially connected to her, is not always a good thing.

### **•• Fuel Pattern / Construct Patterns/ Enchant Patterns / Body of Light**

Attaining a degree of control over Prime energies, the mage may divert Quintessence into new or existing forms. Combined with other Spheres, this allows that mage to create new Forces, Life, or Matter Patterns (conjuring them from thin air), and to infuse existing items with Primal Force to strengthen them or enhance their protective or destructive power.

Weapons or attacks infused with Quintessence through Prime 2 Effects may hurt spirits or inflict aggravated damage, and substances infused the same way may protect against such harm. (See Chapter Nine’s Combat section for details.) On a related note, she may also – with Life 2 for simple organisms, or Life 3 for complex ones – consecrate a living thing at this Rank, as if that life-form were an object described above.

Through similar applications of energy, the mage can also conjure a simple Body of Light: an idealized self projected from ephemeral energy. Although this Body of Light has no substance or special properties (unlike the astral form described in Chapter Nine, p. 477), it presents a glowing holograph of the mage herself.

### **••• Channel Quintessence / Enchant Life/ Energy Weapon / Craft Periapts & Temporary Wonders**

By tapping into the flow of Quintessence around her, the Prime-skilled mage can draw both free and raw Quintessence from Nodes, Junctures (special times), and Tass (solidified Quintessence)… and she may also channel that energy into new and existing Patterns as well. With such powers, she could (with Life 3) enchant a living thing so that it could inflict or endure aggravated damage; inflict aggravated damage by shaking up that organism’s life force; pull small amounts of life force from a living sacrifice or (with Matter 2) from inert objects; instill Quintessence into a vessel called a Periapt; or – with other Spheres – craft temporary Talismans or Devices by infusing them with Primal Force. (Permanent enchantments require Prime 4 – see Crafting Wonders on p. 508, and Quintessence Amounts on p. 507.)

In desperate circumstances, a Prime-schooled mage can also create temporary weapons out of pure concentrated energy – blasts of Quintessence or swords of light. Such weapons inflict aggravated damage (as per the Base Damage or Duration chart) and cost one point of Quintessence per use… or, for weapons that last for a length of time, one point per turn. When the mage runs of out Quintessence, the weapon disappears. Unless channeled through energy-guns or conjured as miracles among the faithful, such attacks are inevitably vulgar.

### **••••Expel or Infuse Energy / Tap Wellspring / Craft Tass & Permanent Wonders**

The terrible power of draining Quintessence from objects or forces (though not yet from living things) can disintegrate those targets, consume them in Primal flames, or decay them almost instantly. Reversing that flow, the mage can craft objects that cannot be broken, or bond organic and inorganic materials together to create cybernetic implants, nanotech, and other Wonders. At this stage, she is able to enchant items permanently and draw Quintessence from the energetic Wellsprings of exciting events. By infusing her personal Quintessence into a Periapt, the mage might use Matter 4 to craft a Soulgem: a portable vessel that’s filled with her own Resonance and energy.

### **•••••** **Infuse or Withdraw Life Force / Create Node & Soulflower / Nullify Paradox**

A Prime Master can draw Quintessence from anywhere, at any time, and channel it into other vessels as well. A dark, vulgar aspect of that power allows her to obliterate a living being by consuming all of his life force, whereas the reverse of that power infuses him with life force so strong that he’s essentially blessed. Combining that ability with Life 5, she may turn complex organisms into Soulflowers: living Periapts who become walking batteries of boosted Quintessence. Such Mastery also allows the mage to create Nodes in significant places, and to nullify Paradox as described under Nullifying Paradox, p. 549.

## **Spirit**

**Specialties: Umbral Travel, Spirit Dealings, Gauntlet Manipulation, Primal Spirits, Tech Spirits, Celestials, Infernals, Possession**

Reaching into the essence beyond Earthly life and matter, the Spirit mage explores the Otherworlds and deals with creatures beyond mortal understanding. One of the most primal forms of the mystic Arts, Spirit Sphere magick traffics in the hidden side of the natural realm. As a result, its Effects typically use the Gauntlet Ratings chart to determine the difficulty of their associated rolls.

Often affiliated with the shaman, Spirit magick is more eclectic than it often appears. A mage who specializes in this Sphere could be a primal devotee, a sophisticated theologian, a medicine-worker deeply versed in cultural traditions, an eclectic metaphysician, a modern Pagan, or anyone else who comprehends the rich world beyond material physics. Almost inevitably, he’ll look deeper than most modern people do, grasping for the spiritual forces behind apparently mundane events.

For an optional Technocratic approach to Spirit, see Dimensional Science, pp. 525-526.

### **• Spirit Sight / Spirit Sense**

To most of humanity, the spirit world remains invisible. Not to a mage who knows the Spirit Sphere. Although he’ll be most attuned to spirits with Resonance similar to his own, that mage can read the local Gauntlet’s thickness, discern auras, sense spirits of all types, peek into the Penumbra through the Vidare (see Chapters Three and Four), and determine whether or not a material object has a spiritual component (as mystic Fetishes do).

Combined with other Spheres, that mage can spot forces, places, or items with unusual ties to the spirit world, such as Awakened objects, elemental spirits, possessed organisms, Shallowings, Nodes, and so forth.

### **•• Touch Spirit /** **Manipulate Gauntlet**

Perception moves to contact. The Spirit-savvy mage can now reach through the Gauntlet for a turn or two; call across the Gauntlet; speak to spirit entities, or touch them for a brief moment; and thin or thicken the local Gauntlet. In the latter case, each success lowers or raises the Gauntlet rating by +1 for each success rolled. (Four successes would raise or lower it by four levels, for example.) That said, a human mage cannot lower the Gauntlet to less than 4 within the mortal world.

By adding other Spheres, that mage could project thoughts across the barrier (Mind 4 or 5); stir up elemental disturbances within the Otherworlds (Forces 2 or higher); imbue material objects with ephemeral power (Matter 2); drain Essence from a spirit (Prime 3); or help other living creatures sense or contact the spirit realms (Life 2).

### **••• Pierce Gauntlet / Step Sideways / Rouse & Lull Spirit**

Now the mage can cross over, transmuting his living tissue to ephemera. He may carry a few material possessions, although transmuting them as well raises both the difficulty of the roll and the number of successes required for the trip. (Normal clothing and items raise both factors by +1; bulky clothing and items raise them by +2.) That traveler must step sideways on his own; bringing large items or other people across demands a higher Spirit Rank. Meanwhile, a combined Spirit 3/ Mind 2 Effect allows the mage to read Resonance, Synergy, and other spiritual energies (Essence, a spirit’s place within a hierarchy, etc.).

At this Rank, a mortal mage can also harm an Umbral entity as if he was using Life 3 against that entity. While Spirit 2 allows the mage to touch that entity, Spirit 3 lets him actually damage its ephemeral Pattern’s integrity the way that Life 3 damages a physical creature’s form.

By combining this Rank with Matter 3 and Prime 2, the mage can also create short-lived objects from ephemera; such creations must be constructed as if they were material things, and they fade away at the end of the Effect’s duration. Finally, this Rank helps the mage rouse the slumbering spirits within objects or places, or else put active spirits to sleep. (See Awakening Substances in Chapter Nine, p. 443).

### **•••• Rend Gauntlet / Seal Breach / Bind Spirit**

As the mage approaches Mastery, he can tear Gateways in the Gauntlet, allowing groups or large objects to pass through… or close such breaches, too. Both applications, of course, are deeply vulgar.

At this Rank, the mage may also compel spirits to appear, bind them into Fetish objects, or tie them to certain spots or prisons. For obvious reasons, such bondage is risky, especially if the spirit is powerful. A brave or foolish Spirit mage can even turn himself into a temporary Fetish, channeling a spirit entity into his mortal body; in such cases, he loses his ability to use true magick, but he may employ the capabilities of the spirit inside him. On the flipside, he can also exorcise a spirit that has possessed a mortal host. In all cases, the mage enters a series of resisted rolls against the spirit, pitting his Willpower against that spirit’s own.

### **••••• Forge Ephemera / Gilgul / Break the Dreamshell**

The Spirit Master is now able to command ephemera itself, creating, challenging, and destroying spirit matter as he Wills. With such power, he may craft Realms, imbue or drain a spirit of Essence, instill a soul within an empty shell of Life or Matter, and bestow the awful sentence of Gilgul – the destruction of a mage’s Avatar. Such powers are always vulgar and feature devastating consequences even when the mage succeeds.

This power also allows the mage to break the Dreamshell and venture beyond the Horizons, wandering into the Deepest of Umbrae. Such tasks demand at least 10 successes, but a courageous Master can travel as far as his soul wants to go.

## **Time**

**Specialties: Perceptions, Prophecy, Triggers, Time Travel, Temporal Control**

The esoteric Arts of Time demand a flexible mindset. Possibly the most confounding Sphere, Time involves dizzying temporal metaphysics that defy the most apparently determined aspect of reality: time itself. And yet, initiates of this Sphere understand that time is fluid… difficult to manipulate, but not as rigid as it might appear.

In conjunction with other Spheres, Time allows a mage to set triggers on other Effects, stretch out their duration, see into other times and places, or otherwise warp the threads of time. When employing the Time Sphere to look or reach through time, a player checks the Time Sphere Timelines chart; when prolonging an Effect, she could either spend successes on increased Duration (see the Optional Dividing Successes Rule chart), or else add Entropy 3 in order to hold the Effect until a certain circumstance occurs.

It’s been said that time travel is impossible; however, that’s not entirely true… it’s just extremely difficult. Effects that involve going backwards in time add +3 to their difficulty, are always vulgar, and stack the effects of Paradox. A character who rewinds time by turns adds one layer of Paradox per turn; going back three turns, for instance, incurs three times the usual Paradox – three points for each point that might otherwise be earned by an Effect at that Rank. And a mage who travels backward according to the Time Sphere Timelines chart gets two layers of Paradox for each interval on that chart; going back 50 years (or four intervals), for example, nets eight times the usual amount of Paradox – eight points for each point normally earned. No wonder people who go back in time rarely return to speak of it!

As one might expect, a mage who manipulates the Time Sphere tends to appear distant from the moment at hand. Although she might have excellent timing, her sense of the importance of past/ present/ future events seems to be a bit more… fluid than usual for a person living by the clock in today’s world.

### **• Time Sense**

Temporal understanding begins with the mage’s own perceptions of time. At this stage, she develops a precise internal clock and can spot the temporal ripples left behind by (or, in many cases, developing ahead of) Time Effects. Other phenomena, too, leave disturbances in the time-stream, and the mage can notice them as well. Combined with additional Spheres, this Rank allows the mage to detect the influence of the Time Sphere on other spells or Patterns too.

### **•• Past & Future Sight / Thicken the Walls of Time**

Now the mage can look forward or backward through time. Although those impressions are fleeting, hazy, not entirely accurate, and bound by the limitations of that time and place (that is, what a bystander in that specific time and location could sense under the circumstances), they allow the Time-seer to catch glimpses of the past or future.

By itself, this Effect allows the mage to see in her present location only. By combining Past/ Future Sight with other Spheres, however, she could read the probable past or future impressions of objects or places (Matter), living things (Life), and alternate locations (Correspondence). Entropy 2 even allows her to glimpse multiple futures and pick out the one most likely to occur.

Reversing her powers of perception, that same mage can thicken the walls of time, which makes other Time Effects more difficult. Each success she rolls deducts one success from the attempts of other Time-savvy characters.

### **••• Time Contraction or Dilation / “Bullet Time” / Rewind Time**

Speeding or slowing her relationship with time, the mage can now gain multiple actions, slow other characters or phenomena, or rewind small snatches of time. In game terms, every two successes allow the character to take one additional action that does not involve casting magick (only one Arete roll may be made per turn); or else slow another character, object, or even herself down by one increment per success. (Four successes, for example, would slow a person down to a quarter of his normal speed.)

By rewinding time, the mage can also move her immediate surroundings back one turn for every two successes – an Effect that pulls her out of the normal flow of time and allows her to retcon an action or two. (See above.)

Combining this Rank with other Spheres, the mage can affect other Patterns (Forces, Life, or Matter 2), cast Effects across distance and time (Correspondence 3), move back in time while recalling events from the future she just left (Life 3 / Mind 1), or even invoke multiple probabilities (Entropy 3). Again, such attempts are Paradox magnets with awful longterm consequences.

### **•••• Time Determinism / Trigger Effect / Time Bubble / Anchor Point**

Now the mage learns to withdraw herself from the normal flow of time, hold Effects until they get triggered by events, or – by adding in Correspondence, Forces, Life, Matter, and/ or Spirit – capture other beings or phenomena in bubbles of time. Thus, a mighty (vulgar) Time/ Forces/ Entropy Effect could capture a tornado and shunt it off into no-time space until some trigger sets it free. At this level of expertise, the mage can also set a temporal anchor point for herself for when she dares to travel through time at Rank 5.

### **••••• Temporal Travel / Time Immunity**

The “Dr. Who Effect” allows the mage to exist outside of time; immunize people, places or things from time’s passage; or travel forward or backward through time. Such godlike feats… feats that often cause a mage to become forever lost to history… are often best left to the Storyteller’s discretion. Even for Masters, Time travel is a mysterious and maddeningly imprecise art. For extensive details about such things, see the sourcebook How Do You DO That?

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**Note:** Timespan limits apply only to looking or reaching through time, not to the duration of a given Effect