Conditional Magic (1 to 6 point Merit or Flaw)
there is one thing in the world that is a great boon, or bane, to your character's magic. Perhaps her spells work particularly well against men, on on Tuesdays, or just after a storm, or on people dressed all in black. Maybe she's powerless to affect those who are or who bear that certain thing, such as her magic being unable to affect Christiams or those who carry a piece of rowan and red thread. It may be that a certain individual gave her power over them, or perhaps it is utterly proof against her magic due to an oath she swore or spells placed on her.
The conditions that affect your magic may be common, uncommon to rare, and the value of this Merit or Flaw depends on the rarity of the condition. The base costs listed here assume that you have a difficulty modifier of three on all Arete rolls under the given conditions. You may ajdust the difficulty by one for every point more or less that you devote to the Trait.
- 1 pt - Unique: The Sword of Roland, The Matriarch of the MECHA construct, Leap Year
- 2 Pt - Scarse as hen's teeth: Current or former members of the Council of Nine, your former Mentors, once in a blue moon
- 3 pt - Rare, but not unheard of: toadstones, Swedish royalty, werefolves, rowan and red thread, the holy days of the archangel
- 4 pt - Special order: virgins, middle eastern eye-bead charms, any member of Iteration X, during a thunderstorm
- 5 pt - Available without much trouble: cold iron, silver, Christians, any member of the Traditions, a windy day, holy ground
- 6 pt - Common as dirt: men, anyone who's ever been baptized, the color purple, under cloud cover, Tuesdays
Green Thumb (1 pt Merit)
Flowers spring up in your footsteps and trees burst into bloom at your touch. Your hands are as warm as sunlight ot stone from a cherry hearth. A common Merit among Verbena.
Parlor Trick (1 pt Merit)
Your character has a natural ability to perform some small, pretty or useful bit of magic at will. this trick is nothing that can cause much damage, or even serious annoyance; it's just enough to perform some small basic task or give your mage a little flair. Your mage may be adapt at the old wizard's trick of conjuring an orb of witchlight to hand or a flame to her finger. She might be a cyborg who had the bright idea of installing a light bulb or pilot light in her head for the same purpose. If your mage uses a magical sense like night-vision often, you might have the added perk that he can make his eyes glow like a vampire's, allowing him to see even in total darkness. If your character is of the scientific bent, he may be able to emit enough x-rays to use with his x-ray vision, or he could have a laser pointer installed in his index finger just for fun. You don't have to roll or spend anything to make this parlor trick work.
Storytellers should note that this Merit is provided to add color and reason to the game, not to give min-maxers a loophole to create engines of death. With this Merit, mages can light pipes without a lighter, conjur roses or martinis, have mood music play in the background or pop a penknift or a single claw out of a fingertip. yes, you could put an eye out with one of those things, but the combat difference between a penknife, a single tiger claw, and a press-on fingernail is inconsequential.
Circumspect Avatar (2 pt Merit)
What Avatar? Your mage has never seen her Avatar. In fact, no one's ever seen her Avatar, unless it was her reflection in the mirror, or her shadow, or something that everyone and their dog has.
Your mage does have an Avatar, but it isn't inclined to put on a show. At most, her Avatar is simply her subconscious, and it's just nudges and pushed her into finding her own Awakening.
Having a circumspect Avatar doesn't mean that your mage doesn't have Seekings and Epiphanies. Such events just tend to be rooted in reality. The mage may well find that a series of unusual events in the physical world leads her to greater enlightenment, without ever entering a dreamscape. Who needs to go rooting around in dreams and bizarre mindscapes to find out who they are?
Unaging (2 pt Merit)
Your mage does not age, ever. Perhaps she drank an elixir in the Mythic Ages, or she tasted the Peach of Immortality, or she ate the Apples of the Hesperides, or she dined on the forbidden savor of mermaid's flesh. Perhaps she was injected with the perfect Iterator nanotech or Progenitor symbiote. Perhaps her body is composed of timeless stone or metal. Perhaps the cause os a complete mystery. Regardless, she remains unchanged as the years pass by, save for scars and accumulated knowledge.
Oracular Ability (3 pt Merit)
No, your mage is not one of the mystic Master mages living in an ivory tower in the Deep Umbra. Neither is she a software company. What she is, is an ordinary mage with a flair for divination and glimpses into the past, present and future.
Whenever the Storyteller feels you are in a position to see a sign or portent, you may make a Perception + Awareness roll, with the difficulty relative to how well the omen is concealed. If successcul, you may roll Intelligence + Occult to intrepret what you have seen, the difficulty relative to the complexity of what you have seen. Your difficulty for all divination with magic (generally with Time) reduces by two.
Cyclic Magic (3 pt Merit)
Your character's magic is tied to some regular and repeating cycle - night and day, the moon, the sun, the tides, the wheel of the year, or even such things as the stock market or the price of tea in China (very important for a syndicate commodities broker). As such, your difficulties with magic fluctuate from the standard by a maximum of three, depending on what part of the cycle you set as your personal high point. You maybe tied to the dark of the moon, the full moon, the Bull cycle or the Bear cycle. Regardless, while the cyclic nature of your magic i problematic, it is quite useful in some circumstances, allowing your character to schedule rituals for their times of greatest power.
Natural Channel (3 pt Merit)
Your mage is a natural weak point in the Gauntlet between worlds. The difficulty to use magic to pierce it is one less, and spirits react a bit more favorably to the mage. If your mage finds an especially weak point in the Gauntles (with Awareness or Spirit 1), he can step between worlds without magic.
Spirit Magnet (3-7 pt Merit or 2-6 pt Flaw)
Spirits congregate at a location in the Umbra that parallels your position in the Realm. You do not know of their presence unless you possess the first Rank of the Spirit Sphere or have been alerted by others that do. Spiritis are there because they like being aruond the Quintessence that forms your physical body's Pattern or your Avatar. These spirits often fight amongst themselves for various reasons - the spirits are enemies, they all want to be around the character's heart or brain, they want to protect the character, they want to kill the character, etc.
Some of these spirits might remain within the Spirit Realms in areas that correlate with the physical space that makes up a mage's Pattern in the physical world. (Some areas in the Spirit Realms correlate to physical locations.) These spirits affect the behavior and appearance of the character. If there are evil spirits within the character's "spirit" form, the character will slowly be twisted nto doing evil acts unless the proper procedures are taken to remove these blights from the character's Avatar. If good spirits possess the "spirit" form, they will be likely to help the character out in appropriate situations. Also note that there is a distinction between spirits and wraiths.
- If the Spirit Magnet is a Merit, benign spirits will flock about the Umbra in area (of the Penumbra) that correlates to the character's physical location. they will do what they can to alert the character to dangers within the umbra. If the character is about to unknowingly performan act that is "evil," the spirits will do their best to alert the character of that fact. If these spirits are destroyed, others will soon arrive to take their place.
- If the Spirit Magnet is a Flaw, malignant spirits battle over the same location. They seek to taint the character with evil thoughts and pollute the Umbra about the location. Evil spirits will often taunt character and try to annoy the mage at the worst of times. Other mages will notice this, and no amount of magicks will keep these spirits away for long.
The number of freebie points spent or gained affectrs the level of spirit involvement with the character and other spirits within the Umbra. For more information on the Umbra, see Book Three of this tome,
Umbra: The Velvet Shadow or
Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Second Edition.Cursed (1 - 5 pt Flaw)
You have been cursed by someone or something with supernatural or magical powers. This curse is specific and detailed. It cannot be dispelled without extreme effort, and it can be life-threatening. Some examples follow:
- 1 pt - If you pass on a secret that was told to you, your betrayal will later harm you in some way.
- 2 pt - You stutter uncontrollably when you try to describe what you have seen or heard.
- 3 pt - Tools often break or malfunction when you attempt to use them.
- 4 pt - You are doomed to make enemies of those to whom you become most attached (so whatever you do, don't get too close to the other characters!).
- 5 pt - Every one of your accomplishments or achievements will eventually, inevitably, become soiled and fail in some way.
Stormwarden (3 or 5 pt Merit)
For some reason, the Avatar Storm that rages across the Gauntlet has no effect upon your mage. When your mage reaches across the Gauntlet, he never suffers any injury from the storm.
For five points, your mage also protects everyone that he touches (including through Correspondence touching) and deliberately desires to shield.
Either version of this Merit is quite rare, and a whole cabal might be built around the power of one individual to travel across the Gauntlet unhindered. there's no apparent pattern to who manifests this boon - some mages who've never studied Spirit magic before suddenly discover this talent when dragged across the Umbra, while other Masters of Spirit still can't simulate it.
Unbondable (3 pt Merit)
Vampire blood cannot enslave your mage's will. No matter how much of it she consumes, the dreaded blood bond won't take hold. For that matter, she is immune to the eternal infatuation of the incubus' kisses and enslavement to ancient Artifacts created with soul-binding powers. This Merit can be powerful - a little too powerful for some chrnicles - if combined with the Ghoul Merit. Therefore, if a character wants to be a free-willed ghoul, bear a soul-binding ring sagely or be in any other situation where he gets the favors of the king without having to sewar fealty, the p[layer has to pay double the usual amount.
On the flip side, your mage should no go around drinking vampire blood at random. The stolen power of undead creatures cursed by God certainly has nasty Resonance.
Fae Blood (4 pt Merit)
Although your character is not a changeling, she's got their heritage running through her veins - literally. Faerie blood allows her to walk in the Dreaming as if she were fae herself. While doing so exposes her to chimerical attack, it also opens her to a new and wondrous world.
In fae terms, your mage is kinain, a human with some innate glamour who can learn limited cantrips fueled by her own power. (See Changeling; The dreaming and The Enchanted for details. note that a full mage cannot have a Glamour pool.) If your character is a hedge magician, these cantrips are a wondrous adjunct to your Paths; if she's an Awakened mage, they are inherent tricks that are Paradox-free! Her Banality is also quite low (typically two to five) and her presence is often welcome in the courts of the fae. Naturally, this sort of gift carries an obligation to play faerie politics. Nevertheless, it can be a wondrous game.
Shapechanger Kin (4 pt Merit)
By some quirk of fate, your mage is related to a werewolf, -cat, -raven, -bear or perhaps even one of the more mysterious breeds. The changing blood has not stirred in him - at least not in the traditional way - but it has left its mark. He's immune to the Delirium (the madness that claims those who see a werebeast's half-human form), and he has friends among whichever Breed he's related to. Having this Merit doesn't mean that he knows their secrets or that he can wander around their sacred sites without retribution, but he has a certain edge that no normal mortal can match. If your character is a sorcerer, you might be able to learn a few spirit Gifts, and an Awakened mage can use these inherent magical powers as well without threat of Paradox. However, he can never have Gnosis, the innate connection to the spirit world that all shifters share.
You've got a good chance to know some chapechanger lore, and you may share some common contacts and allies. You will probably claim some degree of affection from your relatives' tribe and some animosity from their enemies.
Ghoul (5 pt Merit)
At some point in time, a vampire fed your character some of her potent blood, possibly bonding her into service. Somehow, she broke free, but the blood's force has granted her some of her mistress' power. In addition to a vague knowledge of vampiric society, your character ages slowly, has an automatic success on any Strength roll you make, and she inflicts an extra die of damage with all hand-to-hand attacks as a corollary to that additional strength. If your game integrates Vampire: The Masquerade rules, your character has a blood pool, a dot in Potence and the potential to buy and use some Disciplines, specifically Potence, Fortitude and his Domitor's choice powers.
This power does not come without cost, however. Your mage must continue to feed on vampire blood occasionally. Otherwise, she regains her mortality and craves forever the sweet rush of her former mistress' essence. Should she revert (after going a month or more without the sacred vitae), she loses her supernatural might (and Disciplines) forever. (Unless she is Embraced as a vampire, in which case she get them back at the cost of her life and Avatar.)
Note also that imbibing the cursed blood of the brood of Caine has all sorts of detrimental effects! A mage gains a dot each in Static and Entropic Resonance immediately the first time she becomes a ghoul. The unaging curse causes the mage to have difficulty with Seekings. this penalty comes on at the Storyteller's discretion, but in general, the mage has a tendency to fail in Seekings due to her own static nature and the foibles of the Curse.
Legendary Attribute (5 pt Merit)
Your mage has a superhuman Attribute, something in which he has the potential to be great than human. Although this attribute is not necessarily automatically better, the mage could potentially exceed the bounds of human ability. Such a gift is rare and precious, and many people with this capacity never even manage to fulfill their true potential.
In your character's legendary Attribute, your character has the potential for a rating of six dots. Thus, your mage could have the Strength of Heracles or the Intelligence of Occam. this Merit does not confer such a rating automatically; it still must be purchased with attribute points, freebie points or experience.
In addition to the potential for inhuman power, your character has some miraculous capability tied to that Attribute. A mage with legendary Stamina might have the ability to soak against any form of damage, for instance, while a mage with legendary Wits might be able to shift his initiative category by one place in any given turn automatically. This power is generally automatic, and it is subject to the Storyteller's approval. Its potency varies with the character's actual Attribute rating, so a character with a legendary Stamina of 1 has a weak legendary power that might grow with time and experience.
This Merit obviously has the potential for abuse, and it is not appropriate for all chronicles or characters.
Shattered Avatar (5 pt Merit)
Although not necessarily weak, your character's Avatar has been broken into pieces. Your mage has one splinter - Your Avatar rating, if you have one, purchased at the normal cost for that Background - and the other pieces are scattered elsewhere. However, what has been broken can be put back together, at least in this case. If you can find the other pieces of your mage's Avatar through questing and roleplaying, you may increase your mage's Avatar rating after character creation.
The other pieces of your character's Avatar may be scattered about the cosmos, secreted in extradimensional hidey-holes with sphinxes and other creatures guarding them, or they may be part of a phylactery, of which you have one or more pieces. For instance, perhaps your mage's Avatar is invested in 10 mighty rings, three of which she has (amd a corresponding Avatar raring of 3), but she must go and retrieve the others from those who ahve them. Or perhaps there are other mages who share your character's Avatar, and whenever your mage kills one, her Avatar rating grows by their Avatar rating.
Unfortunately, the other mages who have this Avatar are out to kill her as well...Dual Traditions (7 pt Merit)
Your mage has been educated by two traditions. Most likely, he was an Orphan who studied a bit of this and that, and and found a couple things that made sense to him. Or, perhaps, he was Awakened by a teacher of one Tradition, but then studied under a different Master and experienced a second Epiphany through this new knowledge. For the purposes of spending experience, the specialty Spheres of both Traditions come with the bonus (cheap) multiplier. Your character is more open-minded about foci as well, and he may use those of either Tradition. (The penalties for unique foci still apply.) If your mage loses his Hermetic showstone, for example, he has to go either about getting another one or rely solely on the props of his other Tradition.
Devil's Mark (1 pt Flaw)
Somewhere along the line, your mage made a pact with a demon or devil and it funneled its power into him, leaving a mark in the process. This blemish (known as a witch's nipple) is dark and unwholesome looking, but it is insensitive to pain. in ages past, the "witch prickers" of the Inquisition would test these marks with special pins before they burned infernalists at the stake. In the modern day, the puritanical pricks are far and few between, and most people who see this mark will just think it's a birthmark. Despite the name "nipple," it can grow anywhere on the mage's body.
On the plus side, if you have some demonic familiar, your imp can suck Quintessence directly from your character's third nipple, with the added bonus of it being insensitive to pain - a real perk when you have a cat chewing on your tit.
Geasa (1 to 5 pt Flaw)
Must be attached to another Flaw or Merit
there is something your character must or must not do, and his life, his luck, his magic (and perhaps his very soul) depends on it. It may be something that has always been upon him, a Geas prophesied by druids at his birth, or a curse laid on him by faeries at his christening. It may also be a sacred oath or vow he swore, or a promise or bargain he made, and Someone (with a capital S) witnessed it and is going to hold him to it. If he disobeys, the consequences are dire, if not deadly.
The value of a Geas depends on how easily it is broken and the penalty for violating it. If the penalty is the loss of some Merit or Background, deduct the Geas' rating from the value of the Merit or Background and make that number the value of the Flaw. For example, your character's sword may be a five-point Artifact, but if you have been told "If you ever raise this blade in anger, the angels who gave it to you will take it away." Never raising one's sword in anger is a small sacrifice, so it's worth four points, making a four point Flaw.
When you take a Geas, choose the Flaw(s), Background(s), and/or Merit(s) to which the Geas is attached. Then either lessen the final value of the Flaw(s) or decrease the cost of the Merit(s) and/or Background(s), In the case of Merits that may be taken multiple times, you may take the Geas the sane number of times to decrease the cost. However, your Geas should be at least one point less than the total value of the Merits, Backgrounds and/or Flaws to which it's linked. In other words, you cannot get a Merit or Background for free just by piling on strictures and limitations. Storytellers should examine each Geas to make sure it makes sense in terms of story, rather than just being a pile of bizarre restrictions and commandments that could only be explained by faeries dropping acid at a christening. Storytellers should also blackball any Geas that does not cause actual problems. Losing your soul if you die is a problem, and so is losing a legendary Attribute if you lose your virginity. However, it's to be expected that you'll lose all your attributes, enhanced or otherwise, when you die, so this is not a legitimate problem unless your character also has some way to come back from the dead.
The point value of the Geasa suggested here is only approximate, and it will vary depending on character and circumstances.
- 1 pt - Inevitable circumstance or incredible sacrifice: when you die, if you ever let the sun touch your skin, if you ever allow your feet to touch the earth, if you ever speak another word.
- 2 pts - Almost unavoidable circumstance or significant sacrifice: Remain a virgin, never harm a living creature, never tell a lie
- 3 pts - Everyday circumstance or common sacrifice: Never back down from a fight, never tell a secret, never refuse hospitality, never marry, never have children
- 4 pts - Unlikely circumstance or a small sacrifice: stop and pet every cat you see, never eat any animal product, never harm a certain type of animal or a certain type of person, never raise your sword in anger
- 5 pts - Easily Avoided circumstance or trivial sacrifice: Never break bread with a red-haired man, say your prayers every night, take your vitamins, never harm the king, don't eat ham, keep one small secret
Classic penalties for violating a geas include suffering a dark fate, losing one's Avatar, having luck turn from good to bad (losing the
Lucky Merit), being deserted by one's familiar (especially if the Geas was a pact you made with the beast), losing a totem, losing one's friends and losing one's worldly possessions.
Characters may have several Geasa that may come into conflict. Cuchulainn had the Geasa to "never refuse hospitality" and to "never harm a dog" (his namesake). Three hags then offered him roast dog for dinner and Cuchulainn died soon after. Consequently, most mages try to keep their Geasa secret, lest they be used against them by enemy mages. Unfortunately, Geasa can be divined by a simple Entropy 1 Effect mixed with a little skill in fortune-telling as can one's destiny. Elaborate traps have been devised to force mages to violate all their Geasa in succession, leading to their flamboyant destruction. Perversely, Geasa, curses, holy vows and binding oaths are also marks of great status among certain Traditions, particularly the Akashic Brotherhood, Verbena, and Celestial Chorus, who accord status to mages with such Flaws. Simply put, unimportant peopel don't have Geasa or family curses, and someone who takes a binding oath or makes a sacred vow (and keeps it) is worthy of respect. Most Technomancers, on the other hand, aren't impressed by people who take vows of chastity or silence, and they are similarly blase about those who break them.
Traditionally, there is very little that may be done about Geasa, which are simply facets of one's destiny, and curses are devilishly hard to life (and the Flaw must be brought off if they are). However, with binding oaths, sacred vows, and bans imposed by totem spirits, characters who violate them
accidentally may attempt to atone for their crime. A witch who has vows do never eat any red meat, then suddenly finds ham in her pea soup, might be able to atone for the trespass by fasting and sending checks to PETA. However, if the mage violates an oath willingly and with full knowledge - and survives - he becomes an oathbreaker, one of the most foul epithets among the Traditions. The destiny of an oathbreaker is scarred permanently, and the marks show clearly to the same Entropy 1 magic that reveals a mage's destiny. As such, it is virtually impossible for an oathbreaker to find a tutor or any sort of aid among those Traditions who values one's own word. Some Traditions, notably the Order of Hermes and the Verbena, kill oathbreakers on sight, numbering them among the Nephandi, whose dark paths of power are the only ones left open to them. Ironically, many oathbreakers are young infernalists who foreswore their allegiance to the Dark Masters - and the binding oath they had been given - after realizing the price of that power. Desstiny, however, does not play favorites, and those who break their word to Hell are just as stigmatized as those who lie to Heaven.
Characters who wish to begin as oathbreakers should take
Dark Flaw or some other curse. Occasionally there are good and noble characters who have sworn foolish oaths in the past, then have broken them rather than allow some greater evil to occur. It is impossible to erase the stain from the soul once one is foresworn, but some have friends who will stand by them, even though most mages will spit when they say their names.
Geasa may be taken at the same time as the
Compulsion Flaw, assuming that the
Compulsion does not make the Geas impossible. For example, a witch could be both under a Geas and supernaturally (or just psychologically) compelled to stop and pet every cat she saw, lest she suffer a dark fate.
Crucial Component (2 to 5 pt Flaw)
There is some raw ingredient your mage needs to work his magic, besides magic itself. this component may be something rare or esoteric, like diamonds or ghostly ectoplasm, or perhaps something common or easily obtainable, like anger, alcohol or electricity. Without this crucial component, he cannot work his magic, and if this crucial component cannot be worked into a casting, oh well - you need to find a different Effect.
This Flaw does not merely represent a Technocrat's reliance on scientific devices and scientific principles. A Virtual Adept does not need a computer to work his computations; if he had to, he could use a slide-rule or a pencil and paper, or even do them in his head - it just takes longer. But Dr. Va-Voom! requires diesel fuel to power all his Devices, and they won't work if he tries to attach solar cells or an etheric power pack - or at least they won't work for him. This substance does not have to be direct from the source - moonlight can be charged into moonstones and holy water can be bottled - but it does have to be properly stored, with whatever methods or rituals are appropriate. (Charged moonstones must be kept in a black velvet pouch, away from the light of the sun, while holy water must be kept in a specially blessed flask.)
- 2 pts - sunlight, eggs, motor oil, tea, asprin, electricity, emotion, ectoplasm
- 3 pts - beeswax candles, blood, fresh lavender, grave dirt, holy water, rage, spectral residue
- 4 pts - virgin's blood, hashish, dead humans, gold, platonic love, the fires od Hell
- 5 pts - diamonds, live humans, rare orchids, lightning strikes, transcendent joy, the tears of angels, any variety of Tass regardless of Resonance
Twin Souls (4pt Merit)
Your mage's Avatar has been fragmented, and he has a "soulmate" - equal in power to his own avatar, and similar in Essence, Nature, and Demeanor. A physical twin, a look-alike, another mage or a complete stranger (possibly a Sleeper) might possess this fragment. When in physical contact with this soulmate (or spiritual mate, for actions in the Umbra), the two may share Quintessence and cast spells as one, taking the highest rating in Arete and Spheres, also gaining an additional measure of Quintessence equal to the strength of either individual. The parts are greater than the whole. However, this joint pool must be replenished through meditation in a Bode, the same as a regular pool fo Quintesence. Paradox Points gained from joint spells are not split, however, and each twin gains the same amount of Paradox.
With only one dot in Correspondence, your character will always know where her soulmate is. With one dot in Life, she'll know his state of health, and with one in Mind, she may share his thoughts. If one soulmate die, the player of the other must make a Willpower Roll (difficulty 8) to avoid physical shock. She must wait also until her soulmate's reincarnation before the power may again be shared. Soulmates are not just walking Merits; they must be presented and run as character, *preferably by different players in a group.* also note that a mage does not have to get alone with her soulmate... Twin souls are distinct and separate individuals, not just tag-team powerhouses.
Medium (2pt merit)
Your mage is a natural conduit to the Underworld. Although this Merit does not reduce the difficulty of working Spirit Magic, it does mean that your mage can hear ghosts naturally. The mage might not see wraiths without the right magic, but they do tend to hang out, talk, bug the character and ask her to do things. This talent can be helpful in some cases; wraiths are eager to talk to those who can hear them. However, they often make demands, and they can be difficult to banish if the mage doesn't have enough power with Spirit.
Mages with both this Merit and the Spirit Sphere reduce the difficulties of Spirit magick by two. Combining the Medium Merit with the Spirit Magnet Merit will make your life exceedingly interesting and problematic.
Danger Sense (+2 Merit)
You have a sixth sense that warns you of danger. When you are in danger, the Storyteller should make a secret roll against your Preception + Alertness; the difficulty depends on the remoteness of the danger. If the roll succeeds, the Storyteller tells you that you have a sudden sense of foreboding. Multiple successes may refine the feeling and five an indication of direction, distance or nature. This Merit is more reliable and specific than rank one sensing effects; the two can be combined to create an even more potent warning system.
Manifest Avatar (3pt Merit)
Most people see their Avatars only during Seekings, if at all. Your mage's Avatar drops by every day for tea, if it doesn't hang out 'round the clock. This Avatar is completely invisible to everyone but your character (and those who can read her mind), unless you take this Merit in combination with the Allies Trait, creating a body if a person or familiar for your Avatar. If this is the case, your Avatar becomes your bamf!ing buddy, popping in and out of existence when it feels like it. If it's killed, only the mortal shell dies, not your Avatar - unless you also have the Phylactery Flaw, in chich case your Avatar's form is immune to all physical harm, but it is manifested permanently. If such is the case, it is able to be kidnapped, transformed and so on (and without your Phylactery, you can't perform magic at all!).
Storytellers should note that an Avatar doesn't have to *say* it's an Avatar, and just because an Avatar is invested into a phylactery doesn't mean that everything that Phylactery tells you is a pronouncement from your Avatar. A Virtual Adept may have his laptop as a phylactery, but unless he's also taken Manifest Avatar as a Merit, his laptop's warnings to update his virus software are nothing more significant than that. Likewise you may have invested your Avatar into your best friend, but that doesn't mean that everything (or anything) he says are pronouncements from your personal spirit guide. Such only happens to be the case if you take Manifest Avatar. Even then, why *should* your Avatar tell you he's anyone except your best friend?
A Manifest Avatar can chat with you and other people like the intelligences that show up on the Web to guide Virtual Adepts and converse with their contemporaries. With the right tricks, it can even materialize to harangue you, to fight, to push you around, or just make for a hot date.
Luck (+3 Merit)
You were born lucky: your Avatar guides your steps, or maybe the Devil looks after his own. Either way, at times you can repeat three failed non-magickal rolls per story. Only one repeat attempt may be made on any single roll.
Spark of Life (+5 Merit)
This cannot be taken with the Flaw: Psychic Vampire
The vitality of Life flows within you with preternatural strength. This lifeforce is so strong, in fact, that wounds tend to heal faster than normal. Something that would take a week to heal tends to go away in three days, and bruises disappear in an hour. Using effects with the Life Discipline/Methodology is easier for you than for a normal person. On the downside, your blood is particularly tasty to vampires, being twice as potent than normal, and you regenerate on top of it...
Sphere Natural (+5 Merit)
This cannot be taken with the Flaw: Sphere Inept
Your character is able to use one of the Spheres of magic with a greater degree of ease than other mages. For whatever reason (inborn talent, powerful heritage, past life, supernatural bargain, etc.), he's got an affinity for a certain kind of magic. He picked it up quickly, and he now progresses through it at an unusual rate.
During character creation, select one Sphere. From this point on, you only pay three-quarters of the normal cost (rounded down) when buying levels, rituals and similar improvements of that Sphere alone. The favored sphere must be declared at character creation, and it may be purchased only once.
Guardian Angel (+6 Merit)
Someone or something watches over you and protects you from harm. You have no idea who or what it is, but you have an idea that someone is looking out for you. In times of great need, you may be supernaturally protected. However, one can never count upon a guardian angel. The Storyteller must decide why you are being watched and what is watching you (not necessarily an angel, despite the name).
Avatar Companion (7pt Merit)
Your mage is in a cycle of reincarnation. however, the strange thing about your mage's passages through the life-death-rebitth cycle comes from the fact that his Avatar has another lesser Avatar connected to it. This fragment also enters the reincarnation cycle, follows your Mage's Avatar through each incarnation, and often retains memories of its previous incarnation.
In game terms, you have a living companion who has an Avatar linked to your own. You may have little memory of your past lives and your companion may not be Awakened, but *she* retains much of the knowledge and experience from your previous incarnations. Thus, your mage's companion can remind him of things or teach him about lessons that he's already learned previously. Think Corum and Jhary-a-Conel.
The Storyteller creates this companion. Unless you also take the Allies Background Trait, your companion has no special capabilities besides being tied to your character's cycle and remembering the past.
True Faith (+7 Merit)
You have a deep-seated faith in and love for God, or whatever name you choose to call the Almighty. This Faith provides you with an inner strength and comfort that continues to support you when all else betrays you. It bolsters any action requiring a check on your Willpower, and even gives the character a measure of innate countermagick.
Past Life (+1-5 Merit)
The character can remember one or more of a past life. This can be as simple as deja vu in places known to his past lives, or as complex as conscious, waking memories of being another person. The Level of this Merit indicates it's strength. One point is something as simple as deja vu, and up to 5 points indicates a clear, but broken thread of memories back to the Mobian Classical Age and beyond...
Strangeness (-1 Flaw)
The Character must be able to use magick in order to use this Flaw.
Reality is slightly stranger for you. Once per game session, the Storyteller will choose one of your Spheres, pick an Effect at random and roll for a bizarre coincidental effect. If the roll succeeds, something unusual involving the Sphere will happen for no apparent reason. For instance, Mind 3 could result in a mage getting a visit from a telepathic dog, picking up Mexican radio stations in his head or hearing stray thoughts from a passing serial killer. If the roll fails, the strangeness passes. If the roll botches, Paradox descends on the mage, pushing him a little closer towards quiet. This Flaw can alter the tone of a campaign; therefore, allowing a character to take it should require the approval of not only the Storyteller, but also the other players in the group.
The Bard's Tongue (-1 Flaw)
You speak the truth, uncannily so. Things you say tend to come true. This Flaw is not a facility for blessing or cursing, or an Effect ruled by any conscious control (use Time 2 instead). However, at least once per story, an uncomfortably truth regarding any current situation will appear in your character's head and come out his mouth. To avoid speaking prophecy, the owner of this "gift" must expend a Willpower point and take a wound of one backing health level from the strain of resisting (especially if he bites a hole in his tongue).
Primal Marks (-2 Flaw)
The character must be able to use magick in order to use this Flaw.
You have an Avatar of the Primordial essence - some totem or god of legend. If the totem spirit is an animal, you strongly resemble what one would like like in human form, so much that people who don't even know you call you "Bear," "Moose," or "Raven." If the Avatar is some well known god or hero, you look just like what people would expect him to, including particular deformities (though you do get extra points for those). You like the part so much that anyone can guess your nature at a glance, and there is some danger in that, especially if your Avatar has some legendary enemies (and most do). Your Avatar will also require you to protect its species if it is an animal, or finish up its unfinished agenda if it is some god or hero.
Your mage might alternately be the descendant of some famous or infamous house: Pendragon, Murasaki, Bacon, Bathory, Borgia, Le Vey, etc. Besides the family name, you've also inhereted the family "look." Students of history can easily picture you banishing the Devil and slaying dragons, or poisoning entire families and bathing in the blood of virgins - especially since they have the illustrations that might give them this idea.
Alternately, your mage may just look the part of her profession too well. Perhaps she has the red hair and green eyes of an Irish witch, the pale eyes and dark skin of an Arabic sorcerer, the grown-together brows and elongated ring-fingers of a born shapeshifter or the intense yellow, violet or emerald eyes of one of the fae. Students of ancient lore recognize these signs, and your mage may easily become the victim or witch-hunters. However, some witches, changelings, shapeshifters and others may accord you more status in their societies if you "look the part."
Haunted (-3 Flaw)
You are actively haunted by a ghost that only you (and Mediums) can see and hear. It actively dislikes you and enjoys making your life miserable by insulting, berating, and distracting you, especially when you need to keep your cool. It also has a number of minor powers it can use against you (once per story for each power): hiding small objects; bringing a "chill" over others, making them very ill at easy with you; causing a loud buzzing in your ear or the ears of others; moving a small object such as a knife or pen; breaking a fragile item such as a bottle or mirror; tripping you; or making eerie noises, such as chains rattling. Yelling at the ghost can sometimes drive it away, but it will confuse those who are around you. The Storyteller will likely personify the ghost in order to make things all the more frustrating for you.
Psychic Vampire (-5 Flaw)
This cannot be taken with the Merit: Spark of Life
The Spark of Life is dying within you and must be continually fed from outside forces. Plants and insects wither or die in your presence, and any person you touch for more than an hour will slowly wither away as well as you siphon away his life. Those already injured will not heal while in your presence. Any magickal effect you create involving the Life Sphere is decidedly more difficult.
Dark Fate (-5 Flaw)
Some terrible fate looms over your mage, and worse still, she knows it. She will die in some horrible way, or she may be doomed to suffer for eternity. Maybe she had a vision of her own Gilgul, or of entering the Cauls of the Nephandi. Your character cannot escape this fate, and it will come to haunt her sooner than she thinks. Occasionally, situations may remind your mage of the futility of her existence. You must spend a Willpower point to overcome such lassicude or else lose a die from all rolls for the rest of the day. Only the Storyteller knows the exact nature of this fate, and it's up to him to determine how it will come to pass.
Sphere Inept (- 5 Flaw)
For some reason, your mage sucks at a certain kind of magic. She could be paying off some karmic debt or struggling with some metaphysical concept. May she invested her knowledge in some item in a past life and she hasn't come across it yet in this incarnation.
This flaw acts like Sphere Natural in reverse. Advancement in one particular Sphere (chosen at character creation) costs 1/4 more experience points than normal, rounded up. to take this flaw, choose one sphere that your charcter plans to study. This Flaw can be selected only once, and it must be chosen at character creation.
Phylactery (-7 Flaw)
Historically, a phylactery referred to a special arm wrapping with a prayer box that contained sutras, divine power and a portion of the wearer's soul. Mages refer to a phylactery as a container for the power to perform magic. Your mage's Avatar exists in the physical plane, invested into an object or place, or possibly imbued into some creature or person (such as his familiar or ally) or even a part of his body. On rare occasions, it may be invested into some nebulous concept, like a bloodline, secret society or religion. The good news is that this object or creature is now Correspondence Range 0 in regards to yourself, which means you can sense it wherever it is, unless it's shrouded by warding. Teleporting your phylactery ring off your finger or making you drop your phylactery sword is as difficult a feat as teleporting your finger off your hand or forcing you to chop off your own arm. The bad news is that you must be in actual physical contact with your phylactery in order to work magic - even if that physical contact is lond distance, like a Virtual Adept linked via modem to the mainframe in his bedroom. Moreover, you need to be very obvious about what it is you're using to perform your arts. If your mage's phylactery is his staff, your mage must wave it around grandly during all invocations; if his phylactery is a crown, he must hold his head high and wear the crown everywhere if he intends to do magic.
If your mage's phylactery speaks to hima s his Avatar, you should also take the Manifest Avatar Merit. If the phylactery is an object, you should probably take the item as a unique focus. As with any focus, a phylactery can be repaired or retrieved if it is stolen, damaged or destroyed.
If your mage is separated from his phylactery, you may roll Perception + Awareness to sense the surroundings ot where it is, depending on how the phylactery might perceive such things. If your mage's phylactery is animate (as with a cat or horse or severed-but-still-living hand) it will also do its best to find its way back to you, having the same homing sense.
Similarly, if your mage's Avatar is invested into a place, such as the Royal Forest of Dean, or San Franscisco, transporting him away from it, at least by magical means, is about as difficult as teleporting a city block to Istanbul. If he is removed from his phylactery by physical means, his homing sense will lead him back. In a case where a phylactery is a place, the Avatar fuses with the City Father of that area. That is to say, your Avatar becomes one with the totem spirit of that particular region - Emperor Norton in San Franscisco, Belle in Atlanta, a certain highly trademarked mouse in Disneyland. You should take an Avatar rating in par with the importance of your character's bailiwick. Wild places such as forests, deserts, rivers and even oceans can be linked with the same way, although your character must be in them or on them to work his magic. The Pacific Ocean is huge but if that's your mage's phylactery, his connection to it ends once he sets foot on dry land. Generally speaking, it's not the size of an area that's important so much as the identity. The Queen of Angels may control most of Los Angeles, but there's a different identity to Hollywood and Malibu.
If your character's phylactery is a place, your Storyteller may also allow your character's magic to work in other places somehow linked to it. A mage with Hashberry for her Avatar could probably work her magic in other parts of San Francisco with raised difficulties the further she got from the Haight, and more powerful Avatars could probably work their magic in foreign lands tied to their spirit. Finally, if your mage's phylactery is a concept with a physical or temporal manifestation, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Iteration X, the witch's Sabbath or the season of Christmas, you may work amgic as long as your character is an accepted part of that institution. the symbols and tools representing it can be destroyed, of course, stripping your mage of his magic temporarily, but they can be replaced.
In cases of identity phylacteries, your mage loses his connection to his Avatar if he is disowned, banished, defrocked, excommunicated or otherwise kicked out. As such, members with this Flaw are intensely loyal. If the organization or other concept is destroyed, the Avatar is destroyed, but an organization cannot be destroyed until all members either die or truly renounce their loyalties. When a concept is your mage's Phylactery, his Avatar is the protector or mascot of that concept.
If a mage with a phylactery ever dies, the Avatar may or may not go free, at the Storyteller's option. If it does not go free, the phylactery remains as it is, awaiting the mage to reclaim it in his next incarnation.
Strength - 
Dexterity - 
Stamina - Tireless
Perception - Alert
10:15 PM Jul 24