The Awakened

Document Status

This is Version 1.1 as of 2020-03-01.

Notably absent is some of the fluff text, (almost) all of the spell examples for various practices for each Arcanum, and the entirety of the Creative Thaumaturgy chapter.

TODO:

1. Move Soul stuff from Death to Spirit. With the lack of a distinction between ghosts and spirits, it really just seems like Death is stepping on Spirits toes and Spirit is already pretty bare. Look into 4e Shaman to flesh out Spirit more.
2. Example spells!
3. In CT, talk about spell design with base cost and dynamic costs.

Text Credits

This class is an attempt to bring some of the feeling of Mage: The Awakening and the creative spirit it inspires to D&D. As such, some of the text in this class is from MtAw because I couldn't say it better myself. The following sections either directly or heavily draw from the MtAw book:

• Awakened Paths, excluding descriptions of associated realms and Custom Paths
• Supernal Practices

And, of course, this class, like many others, is formatted like the common class format from the Players Handbook.

Art Credits

• Cover Art - Mage: The Awakening 2e, pg. 10
• Path Symbols (Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, Obrimos, Thrysus) - 1d4chan
• Arcanum Symbols (all) - 1d4chan
• Custom Path Image - Eric Barlow by sunamori
• Harry Dresden Shielding (in Supernal Practices) - Unknown Title by Dos San Tos
• Fate Arcanum Gif - Amphiaraus Accepts His Fate in Hercules (2014)
• Force Arcanum Image - Wizard by Czazimi
• Life Arcanum Image - Regeneration (MtG Card) by WotC
• Matter Arcanum Image - Golem Master by flyinghand
• Mind Arcanum Image - illustrated by JB Casacop, Fantasy Flight Games
• Prime Arcanum Image - Seal of Exile by 000Fesbra000
• Space Arcanum Image - Genius Pathmage by Bethesda Games Elder Scrolls TCG
• Spirit Arcanum Image - Phantom Warrior by Anna Podedworna
• Time Arcanum Image - Chronomancer by the Arcane Forge

The Awakened

The Seers of the Truth

TODO

Magic or Truth?

TODO

Creating an Awakened Mage

An Awakened Mage is one who as been enlightened to the Supernal, the Platonic realm underlying our reality. They are fundamentally curious, inquisitive creatures. Their brush with this fundemental truth drives them to understand it. They do this by seeking out Mysteries, unexplained phenomena whose answers may yield insight into the greater mystery that is all of reality.

What event awakened your mage to the Supernal? How do they react to the inability for others to see what they so plainly see? How does their intense curiosity drive them forward and affect their personality? Do they seek to understand things for themselves or do they have some greater question that understanding reality will allow them to answer? How do they see other magic users and react to their general dismissal of Awakened practices?

Quick Build

You can make an Awakened Mage quickly by following these suggestions: First, Intelligence should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity or Constitution. Second, choose the Sage background. For your Path, choose Obrimos. For your first dot in an Arcanum, choose Forces, one of the Ruling Arcanum for Obrimos. For your Rotes and Praxes, choose two each from Absorb Elements, Control Flames, Darkness, Fire Bolt, Ice Knife, Invisibility, Light, Mage Hand, Shield, or Thunderclap.

Arcana vs. Arcanum

This class, being a port from Mage: The Awakening, refers to the spheres of magic as Arcanum. This class also makes use of Arcana ability checks. I will always use Arcanum to refer to the category of magic. I have also tried to ensure the difference is clear from context

Class Features

As an Awakened Mage, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

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• Hit Dice: 1d8 per level
• Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + Constitution modifier
• Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier

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Proficiencies

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• Armor: Light Armor
• Weapons: Simple weapons, light crossbow
• Languages: Celestial (referred to as High Speech, among Awakened Mages)
• Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
• Skills: Choose three from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Religion, and Perception

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Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a Quarterstaff or (b) a Dagger
• (a) a Shortbow or (b) a Sling (either with 30 pieces of ammunition)
• (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) a scholar's pack
• Leather armor

Multiclassing

Awakened can come from all walks of life. There are no multiclassing restrictions. However, this class is incompatible with traditional magical theory. That is, Mana from this class does not stack with traditional spell points, sorcery points, or spell slots in any way.

Arcane Path

When Mages awaken, they typically awaken with affinities towards certain aspects of the Supernal. These affinities and distastes for certain aspects of the Supernal are called Paths with the aspects themselves called Arcanum.

You choose a Path at level 1 from Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, Obrimos, or Thyrsus. See Awakened Paths for full descriptions and benefits - in particular, the Ruling Arcanum, Inferior Arcanum, and Attainments will help you understand what your strengths and weaknesses will be.

Each level you gain as an Awakened Mage, you earn one dot to invest to further your understanding of a given Arcanum. It is recommended your first investment be in one of your Path's two Ruling Arcanum.

Thaumaturgy

The core ability granted by Awakening is the ability to perceive and manipulate the fundamental reality of the world. The smallest unit of change a mage can impart is called a spell. In order to cast these spells, the mage must imagine each part of the spell in their mind before releasing it with Mana. The mental image formed in their mind is called the Imago of the spell.

Please see the Creative Thaumaturgy section for details and advice on spell creation.

Rotes

Rotes are the Awakened equivalent to cantrips. Spells they have either practised or taken too so easily as to be second nature. Rotes primary benefit is that they offer substantially reduced Mana cost.

At 1st level, you know 2 rotes of your choice appropriate to your chosen Arcanum. You will learn additional rotes over time as shown in the Awakened Mage table. Each level, you may choose on of the rotes you know and replace it with another that you are able to cast.

Praxes

Much as a Sorcerer learns certain manipulations of magic or a Wizard prepares their spells each day, a Praxis is the Awakened equivalent of a formalized spell that they have learned, memorized, or copied into their spell book.

While Awakened institutions and formalizations are rare, Praxes often represent those spells that mages have decided to spend the time to formalize the Imago because they recognize that they use it often enough to refine it. Though, sometimes Awakened do manage to find each other and are eager to share their Praxes and collaborate in their research with a kindred mind -- to a point.

At 1st level, you know 2 praxes of your choice appropriate to your chosen Arcanum. You will learn additional praxes over time as shown in the Awakened Mage table. Each level, you may choose on of the praxes you know and replace it with another that you are able to cast.

Spell Cost

Dot Rating	Rote	Praxis/Freeform	DC
1	0	4	16
2	2	8	17
3	5	12	18
4	9	16	19
5	14	20	20

Improvised Spells

The distinctive feature of the Awakened Mage is their ability to take what they know of their Arcanum and construct the Imago for spells on the fly. Casting a spell without a Rote or Praxis to guide you costs the same mana as a Praxis, you merely must suffer the difficulty -- and danger -- of forming the Imago from scratch.

When casting a freeform spell, you pay the normal mana cost as if it were a Praxis, then you must make an Arcana check to determine whether your Imago is free of defect. If the highest dot arcanum of the spell is one of your Ruling Arcanum, roll with advantage. If the spell involves any dots of your Inferior Arcanum, roll with disadvantage.

Spells involving multiple Arcanum are slightly more difficult than normal improvised spells. Calculate the DC normally using the highest dot Arcanum of the spell, then add one for each other Arcanum involved.

If you fail to meet or exceed the DC, you suffer the effects of the malformed Imago. A sort of magical backlash occurs which you can either release or contain. If you contain it, you gain one level of exhaustion. If you release it, your magic is unpredictably corrupted. This may take the form of your spell going off with it's parameters slightly changed (heightened, lowered, expanded, shrunk, etc) or spawning entirely new magic. For example, your DM might roll on the Wild Magic table or come up with other similar expressions of Wild Magic.

Exhaustion caused by spell backlash may not be healed by magic short of a 9th level spell or 5th dot effect, and must be removed one level at a time.

Spells that combine multiple arcanum cost the full mana of the highest dot arcanum in the Imago and half of the cost of each other arcanum.

For example, a spell with 3 dots of Force and 2 dots of Death is 16 mana (12 from 3 dots of Force and half of the 8 mana the 2 dots of Death brings).

Spellcasting Ability

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for the Awakened Mage, as your magic draws upon investigation and exploration of understanding of the universe. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell or effect refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for one of your effects and when making an attack roll with magic.

Spellsave DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Improvised Spell Difficulty

The DCs for improvised spells are designed to have between 75-85% chance of success on Ruling Arcanum spells, 50% chance for other spells, and 25-35% chance for spells involving your Inferior Arcanum.

With bounded accuracy, we aren't left with much wiggle room in the system to modify this without either making it too easy or too hard. If you'd like to make it more difficult, I recommend simply omitting the advantage and disadvantage aspects. A ~50% chance of exhaustion is a fairly hefty price.

Note: If your player attempts to use Expertise, Portent, Lucky, or anything else to improve their Improvised Spell successes, find the nearest PHB or DMG and throw it at their head.

Mage Sight

Treat as if casting the Detect Magic spell at-will, but the mage may also spend an action to learn which Arcanum are involved in a magical effect. By spending a minute concentrating on an effect, they learn the exact dot rating of each Arcanum involved in the effect that they also have dots in.

Attainments

Beginning at 2nd level, and at other levels specified in the Awakened Mage table, you become eligible for innate abilities granted to you by your mastery over various Arcanum.

Once you become eligible for that tier of attainment, 1st Order and 2nd Order Attainments are granted for every Arcanum you have enough dots invested.

You only receive one attainment each of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Order, chosen when you become eligible according to the Awakened Mage table. You may change one choice of attainment you are eligible for every time you gain a level.

For example, an 11th level Awakened Mage can have up to 3 Arcanum with 3 dots. They would choose only one of those Arcanum to gain its 3rd Order Attainment.

Attainments and Arcanum Practices

Attainments are not perfectly indicative of what you can or cannot do with a given Arcanum at that dot level. While some are standard applications of the Arcanum, some are inappropriate for that dot level, or are even subject to different rules than normal.

For example, Attainments generally cannot be counterspelled or dispelled as they are often internal or constantly applied effects exterted by the mage.

Always consider the list of Practices available at that dot level and the given examples for the Arcanum rather than relying on attainments for examples.

Archmastery

While you are still beholden to the ruthless requirement of the Universe to expend mana to effect your will, you have become incredibly skilled at forming the Imago of Improvised Spells.

Beginning at level 20, you no longer need to make an Arcana check when casting an Improvised Spell, unless it involves your Inferior Arcanum. Even then, any check (including Counterspell) that would have been at disadvantage due to involving your Inferior Arcanum is no longer at disadvantage.

Awakened Paths

Acanthus

Ruling Arcanum

Fate

Acanthus’s Ruling Arcanum are Time and Fate, and Fate is the subtle expression of that pair. Fate describes what should or must happen, but not precisely when or how that result will come about (those are the province of Time). Fate governs blessings, curses, destiny, fortune, oaths, probability, luck, and intent. Those who master it may seem lucky or carefree, but in reality they deal in the inevitable and learn to anticipate it — whether to accept the dictates of destiny or redirect the road they walk.

Time

Time is the obvious Arcanum of the pair, governing the progression of events through the ever-advancing present in a way perpendicular to Fate’s subtlety. Some Acanthus liken Time to a loosed arrow, and Fate to the archer’s aim. Time governs the history and diverse potential futures of the world. All things must pass. Legends rise and fall. Even gods die and fade into obscurity. Nothing is eternal, save perhaps for time itself.

Inferior Arcanum

Forces

Lightning arrives at its appointed time in the tale, not before. To Acanthus, elemental powers are visible manifestations of destiny and Fae passions. Fire isn’t heat alone, but the anger of the Fair Folk or the climax of an apocalyptic myth; it is not to be raised through some mechanistic act of will.

The Feywild

The Fey are creatures of Fate: trickery, blessings, curses and oaths are like breathing to them. And Time in their domain does not always flow as we would expect. Common are the stories of a farmer accidentally entering the Fey and coming back to find his family has grown old.

Acanthus are drawn to the Fey and the Feywilds, learning from them and following the Mysteries there to learn more about Fate.

Mastigos

Ruling Arcanum

Mind

Mind is concerned with the collective consciousness that is formed from all creatures capable of thought. The Arcanum encompasses all mental realms from simple concepts and emotions, to complex communications and higher states of mental awareness. Initiates of the Mind tend to explore social interactions and the core concepts that make up language, communication, and shared experiences.

Space

Space expresses that physical separation is as much a lie as the isolation of the soul. Through this Arcanum, the mage can magnify or collapse the distance between places and objects, conjure things from distant locales, and twist the topography of space into strange and unnatural shapes. Space also allows a mage to manipulate the sympathetic connection between subjects.

Inferior Arcanum

Matter

Matter sticks in the conceptual gullet of the Mastigos. While the Mastigos lives in the world of the abstract, the solidity and unyielding surfaces of Matter confound them.

The Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is the realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach the planes of the divine and demonic. It is a great, silvery sea with swirling wisps of white and gray streaking among motes of light resembling distant stars. Erratic whirlpools of color flicker in midair like spinning coins. Occasional bits of solid matter can be found here, but most of the Astral Plane is an endless, open domain.

Moros

Ruling Arcanum

Death

Death is the Arcanum governing souls, absence, and the cessation of things. Those who study Death find themselves deeply involved in matters of endings, decay, and darkness. This tends to make practitioners seem morbid, though few are. Mages who delve into the mysteries of Death find solace and understanding in the fact that all things come to an end. While such thoughts may look fatalistic on the surface, a mage who sees past the Lie realizes she has the power to not only create these states, but to control, manipulate, and even prevent them. She can bolster a soul or reverse the effects of aging just as well as she can destroy souls or and steal the life from another.

Matter

Matter is a study in contradictions. It is at once the Arcanum of stasis and transformation, creating objects that will last a thousand years and reshaping objects at a whim. Matter’s purview is all the inert, lifeless things of the world: iron and steel, air and water, and all the riches of the earth. Things which were once alive but are no longer, as well as substances derived from life but which are not themselves alive, are also governed by this Arcanum. A Matter spell can rot and warp the boards of a wooden house, or turn a glass of water into wine. Matter is seen as the most base of the Arcanum by many mages, closest to the profane Lie, but the Moros Masters know that the crude Matter of the world is but an echo of the Supernal.

Inferior Arcanum

Spirit

Moros know that despite out ward appearances, inert things dance with activity. Moros know that spirits exist, and that the world has a life beyond death, but feel no interest toward it. Death provides its own invisible kingdoms, and Matter moves even in the absence of will.

The Plane of Shadows

The Plane of Shadow is a world of black and white; color itself has been bleached from the environment. It is otherwise appears similar (but not exactly identical) to the Material Plane. While the Plane of Shadow is not evil in and of itself, it is home to a wide variety of foul creatures that hate the light and the living. The best known denizen of the plane is the shadow, an undead creature that sucks the strength from adventurers on either the Material Plane or the Plane of Shadow.

Obrimos

Ruling Arcanum

Forces

Countless legends of wizards conjuring lightning to smite their foes, dancing among pillars of unnatural flame, flying, and directing storms against their foes speak to the presence of raw power Forces represents. With it a mage can alter and control light, sound, fire, and electricity — even gravity, radiation, and weather patterns. Forces is rarely subtle, but clever wizards find ways to use it so: hearing a sound from across a room, deadening the noise spellcasting makes, or seeing great distances. Skilled practitioners of Forces can also unleash tornadoes, earthquakes, and devastating blasts of fire when subtlety gives way to quick anger.

Prime

Just as a language must have words to describe itself, so too must the Supernal have an Arcanum that defines it. Prime is that Arcanum. Its purview is the manipulation of magic itself. Through Prime, a mage becomes attuned to the Supernal Truth, capable of piercing illusions and calling forth perfected images of the symbol-thing of the Supernal. Arrogant Obrimos sometimes claim that this makes Prime the greatest of the Arcanum, but that is an oversimplification. Prime is the Arcanum through which the Supernal knows itself, but without the other Arcanum, it is as empty as a language whose only vocabulary is parts of speech.

Inferior Arcanum

Death

Death is an interruption, not an end. Obrimos represent the power that cleanses, and have little talent for the Arcanum of rot and stagnation.

The Elemental Planes

The Elemental Planes are a collection of 6 major sources of energy and the 12 minor borders between them. The 6 major sources have the Positive Energy Plane and the Negative Energy Plane as poles, with the planes of Air, Fire, Earth, and Water between them. Then there are the Paraelemental planes of Smoke, Magma, Ooze, and Ice - borders between the primary Elemental Planes. Finally, the positive and negative Quasielemental Planes borders between one of the poles and one of the primary Elemental Planes. The positive quasiplanes are the planes of Lightning, Radiance, Mineral, and Steam. The negative quasiplanes are the planes of Vacuum, Ash, Dust, and Salt.

Thyrsus

Ruling Arcanum

Spirit

What we do in this world has echoes that we cannot see or hear or feel, but which are no less real for all that. Spirit mages understand those repercussions, and know that it falls to them to act as intercessors between the Visible and the Invisible. Spirit’s purview is the Ethereal Plane and its denizens, the spirits.

Life

Life magic governs all living things, in fact, from viruses to titanic whales, even the nerve cells that allow thoughts to form Imagos. Life is tenacious in the extreme, capable of surviving anywhere, developing any trait to weather environmental stresses, and Life mages are comparably tough. By harnessing the endless adaptability of living forms, mages can gain perspectives on the world otherwise lost even to Awakened senses.

Inferior Arcanum

Mind

To imagine Mind as a coherent Arcanum asks Thyrsus to deny the holistic nature of existence. To a Thyrsus, human consciousness is an adaptation, like a thumb or biped’s gait. That people can imagine themselves as individual minds is no more relevant than a lion’s jaws. They’re functions, not truths of the soul.

The Ethereal Plane

One great danger of the Ethereal Plane is ghosts, which often call this plane home. Such creatures have a deep and abiding hatred of the living, and no love for those travelers who impinge upon their realms. Unlike most planes, the Ethereal Plane allows vision across the planar border to the plane it's coexistent with: the Material Plane. No matter where you are on the Ethereal Plane, you can see the corresponding part of the Material Plane. Vision is limited, however, to 60 feet both on the Ethereal Plane and onto the Material Plane. The reverse isn't true. An ethereal traveler is normally invisible and inaudible to an individual on the Material Plane. Spells and abilities such as see invisible reveal an ethereal object or creature

Custom Paths

While these five Paths accomodate the vast majority of Awakened Mages, there are always those who defy standard categorization.

To define your own Arcane Path, choose two Ruling Arcanum, one Inferior Arcanum, and a plane of existence closesly tied to one or both of the Ruling Arcanum. Then, examine what the philosophy and worldview would emerge from a focus of these aspects of reality and how that might affect the personality and outlook of it's adherents. How might they view other Paths and vice versa?

Supernal Arcanum

Practices

Awakened Ranks

Mages divide the art of magic into thirteen Practices of increasing complexity. Demonstrating their expertise with these methodologies is how mages claim rank and privilege: A Thyrsus who has demonstrated the ability to cast Spirit Unmaking spells has earned the right to call herself a Master, for example. When they require further gradation, mages specify the number of Arcanum they have achieved their highest rank in: if the same Thyrsus also successfully casts a Life Making spell she may call herself a second-degree Master.

-- Mage: The Awakening (2e), pg. 123

Initiate: 1 Dot

Compelling

Compelling spells nudge a preferred but possible outcome into reality. A coin toss can be made to come up tails (Fate), a bored worker might choose now to visit the latrine (Mind), or a beast can be forced to avoid your camp (Mind). Making the coin hover and spin in midair, making the worker walk into her boss’s office and quit, or making the beast ignore its favorite prey are beyond the bounds of a Compelling spell.

If a phenomenon might reasonably occur given the current situation, a mage can guarantee it with Compelling. With Fate, a mage can guarantee heads or tails, with Mind a bored laborer might choose to visit the latrine now instead of later or a beast may avoid a camp rather than indulge their curiosity from the smells. At this level of control, you couldn't make a coin hover and spin in the air, a content worker quit their job, or a beast ignore its favorite prey.

Knowing

Knowing spells deliver knowledge about something directly to the mage (or to another target). A mage can divine the cause of a corpse’s death (Death), sense whether someone has a powerful destiny (Fate), or unerringly know which way is north (Space). This knowledge is a direct awareness of Supernal truth; the mage doesn’t have to interpret evidence based on her senses or try to divine the truth out of cryptic riddles.

Unveiling

Unveiling spells expose hidden things to the mage’s senses. She might gain the ability to hear radio waves (Forces), peer into the Ethereal Plane (Spirit), or see the flow of Mana across the landscape (Prime).

Apprentice: 2 Dot

Ruling

Ruling spells grant fuller control over phenomena than a mere Compelling spell. Water can be made to flow uphill or into unnatural shapes (Matter), animals (or even human beings) can be commanded (Life or Mind), or time can be momentarily made to accelerate or slow down (Time). A Ruling spell can’t fundamentally alter its target’s abilities: Water can be directed, but not turned solid or gaseous. Time can be altered, but not overwritten. An animal can be commanded, but not made stronger or fiercer.

Shielding

Shielding spells, sometimes called Warding spells, offer protection against phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview. A Shielding spell might make the mage immune to fire (Forces) or disease (Life), or allow her to survive in a caustic atmosphere (Matter). Mages protect themselves from general harm through the power of their Arcanum with the Mage Armor Attainment rather than Shielding spells.

Veiling

Veiling spells are twofold: they can hide the contents of their Arcanum or they can hide things from their Arcanum.

Firstly, they can conceal things under the Arcanum’s purview from detection: A target can be made to lose all sense of time (Time), a fire’s heat and light can be hidden from view (Forces), or a building made all but impossible to notice (Matter).

Secondly, they can conceal a target from concrete phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview: a mage can render herself invisible to spirits (Spirit) or walk unnoticed through a crowd (Life or Mind). Short of Archmastery, it’s impossible to Veil something against an abstract concept or force: a mage can’t Veil herself against death or hide from time or gravity, for example.

Disciple: 3 Dot

Fraying

Like Veiling, Fraying has two parts: you can use it to attack/degrade things in the Arcanum or you can use things in the Arcanum to attack/degrade other things.

For example, damping a fire (Forces), sapping Strength (Life), or eroding the barrier between worlds (Death, Spirit, or others, depending on the worlds in question).

They can also directly attack targets using the energies of the Arcanum: inflicting damage via the chill of the grave (Death), psychic overload (Mind), or a blast of electricity (Forces).

Perfecting

Perfecting spells are the opposite of Fraying spells in many ways: they bolster, strengthen, and improve rather than weakening and eroding. A Perfecting spell might repair damage to an object or a person (Matter or Life), allow a machine to function perfectly with no wear and tear (Matter), or make a modest destiny into an earth-shaking one (Fate).

Weaving

Weaving spells can alter nearly any property of a target without transforming it into something completely different. Solid steel can be transmuted to liquid (Matter), a sword can be enchanted to damage beings in the Material and Ethereal Planes (Spirit), or a few seconds of time can be rewritten (Time).

Adept: 4 Dot

Patterning

Patterning spells allow a mage to completely transform a target into something else that falls under the Arcanum’s purview. A memory can be replaced wholesale (Mind), the mage can turn herself (or a target) into an animal (Life), or she can teleport by “rewriting” her own location (Space). A spell that transforms the target into something that falls within the purview of another Arcanum, like transforming into a living pillar of fire (Life and Forces), requires a mage to know the Practice of Patterning for the destination Arcanum.

Unraveling

Unraveling spells can significantly impair or damage phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview, or directly inflict severe damage using the forces of an Arcanum, both to a greater degree than Fraying spells. A raging storm might become a calm summer’s day (Forces), or solid iron reduced to dust (Matter); even spells can be torn asunder (Prime). Mages can hurl fire (Forces) at their enemies, or cause aneurysms and heart attacks with a glance (Mind or Life).

Master: 5 Dot

Making

Making spells allow for the creation of whole new phenomena ex nihilo. The mage can conjure gamma rays (Forces), birth new spirits (Spirit). Time itself can be dilated by creating more seconds, hours, or even days (Time).

Unmaking

Unmaking spells annihilate subjects under the Arcanum’s purview entirely. Life can be snuffed like a candle (Life), two locations can be forced into each other by destroying the distance between them (Space). Unmaking spells are beyond inflicting direct damage with attacks; a successful Unmaking destroys the target altogether.

Fraying vs. Unraveling vs. Unmaking

Fraying damages things, Unraveling destroys things, Unmaking causes things to cease to be.

Fraying a wall with Matter might cause it to burst outwards, creating large chunks that a creature can crawl through.

Unraveling might turn the entire wall into sand, as near to complete destruction as you can normally have.

Unmaking, however, and the Matter of the wall is simply gone. No trace of it remains.

Many Roads

Astute players will likely figure out a multitude of ways to accomplish similar effects with different Arcanum, sometimes at different dot levels. This is okay. Just because a Fate 3 spell can do a thing doesn’t mean a Forces 1 spell that does a similar thing is “broken” or should be disallowed.

Take for example influencing the outcome of a coin toss. A simple Compelling of Fate can easily tip the odds toward either heads or tails, but it’s theoretically possible to use a Forces spell to alter the kinetic energy imparted to the coin, causing it to spin slower, or use a Matter Weaving spell to change the coin’s center of mass (or cause the appearance of both sides to your chosen side). Both are perhaps more complicated than the Fate approach, but they’re valid within the purview of their respective Arcanum.

Similarly, a Mind Weaving spell could force a target to feel love, while a Life Ruling spell could cause the target’s brain to release dopamine and other hormones that create a similar, but different, effect.

Death

Purview: Darkness, decay, ectoplasm, shadows, cold, absence, enervation, endings, undeath, necromancy, and the Plane of Shadow.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling: Darkness, Chill Touch, Suggest Undead
• Knowing: Detect Undead, Find Cause of Death
• Unveiling: Speak with Dead, Banish Shadow

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Counterspell Eligibility

When considering what is eligible for this feature, imagine if the spell effect were an Awakened spell. If the highest dot of that imagined spell would be Death, it is eligible.

This eligiblity applies for all Counterspell Attainments.

Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling: Decay, Command/Turn Undead
• Shielding: Protection from Negative Energy, Gentle Repose
• Veiling: Corspe Mask, False Life, Feign Death

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Armor Effects

Only one Armor Attainment may be active at a time.

While an existing Armor Attainment is active, a mage may switch to a different one by spending 2 mana as a reaction.

This applies for all Armor Attainments.

Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying: Devour the Slain
• Perfecting: Enhance Infirmity, Inflict Wounds
• Weaving: Sleetstorm, Shadow Gate, Animate Corpse, Craft Shadow Items

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning: Flesh to Shadow
• Unwraveling: Finger of Death

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making: Create Undead, Create Shadow
• Unmaking: Empty Presence, Deny the Reaper

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Fate

Purview: Blessings, hexes, curses, probability, fortune, oaths, promises, intentions, destiny, and the Feywild.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Limitations of Fate

Fate is a controversial Arcanum in play. Care should be taken as players and GMs to establish boundaries on what it can, cannot, or should not do. While creating the 'fate' or 'destiny' of success of a task is certainly within the realm of the possible, it should not obviate the need to play the game or entirely bypass every encounter.

The more specific you are with Fate, the more likely you're abusing it in some way.

Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Forces

Purview: Electricity, gravity, radiation, sound, light, heat, fire, weather, movement, the Elemental Planes, etc.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Life

Purview: Healing, disease, food, animals, plants, evolution, metamorphosis, physicality, vigor. Generally anything organic and alive.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Matter

Purview: alchemy, gases, solids, liquids, shaping, crafting, transmutation, stasis.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Mind

Purview: Communication, language, hallucination, Goetia, thought, memory, mental projection, the Astral Realms.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Prime

Purview: Magic, the Supernal World, auras, truth, magic items, mana, revelation.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Space

Purview: Distance, separation, (mystic) connections, conjuration, scrying, warding.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Spirit

Purview: Essence, spirits, souls, incorporeality, the Ethereal Plane.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Time

Purview: Prophecy, change, postcognition, time travel, time contraction and dilation.

Initiate: 1 Dot

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• Compelling:
• Knowing:
• Unveiling:

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Apprentice: 2 Dot

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• Ruling:
• Shielding:
• Veiling:

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Disciple: 3 Dot

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• Fraying:
• Perfecting:
• Weaving:

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Adept: 4 Dot

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• Patterning:
• Unwraveling:

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Master: 5 Dot

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• Making:
• Unmaking:

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Creative Thaumaturgy

Spell Design and Factors

Spell Creation Examples

Alternative Mechanics

These mechanics are purely optional and subject to DM approval. They drastically alter the mechanics and power level of this class and are documented here but not endorsed for all play and settings.

Spell Permanency

The mage has learned how to maintain spells using their own life force. Any spell that has a duration longer than instantaneous may be extended by sacrificing part of their own vitality.

The mage begins by enacting a ritual appropriate to the Arcanum of effect to be persisted, lasting 1 hour, during which the mage temporarily lowers their maximum HP by a number equal to 3 times the maximum dot rating of the effect. At the conclusion of the ritual, the mage casts their spell. It's duration becomes until dispelled or dismissed and it no longer requires concentration.

The mage may at any time release the spell as a Reaction or the spell may be dispelled normally. When this occurs, the mages maximum HP is restored, but their current HP remains the same.

Spell Codex