Josephine Carrington

Josephine Carrington is a character in Victorian Era: Mage the Ascension, as portrayed by Jen Peters. A character music playlist with songs that speak to the player's idea of her character (tailored to the player's music tastes) has been created and can be found on Spotify.

Quirks and Fun Facts

 * Because Concordia is a city in a Horizon realm, Paradox (or the Straits in the Victorian Era) doesn't exist like it does on Earth. Magic is the reality there and technology is what would more readily cause Paradox. Therefore, Josephine has never really experienced it, and while she was told about it, she believes it to be nothing more than a children's 'boogeyman' type story.


 * In modern terms, Josephine might consider herself to be non-binary or gender fluid, and she may also be somewhere on the asexuality spectrum. However, in the Victorian Era, those concepts are less obviously prevalent (though still existed!) and the decision was made to make Horizon less concerned with the gender and sexuality ideas of Earth - having been removed from Earth for several hundred years - and allow Josephine to just exist without concerns surrounding misogyny or other bigotry, adding to her slight cultural 'otherness' and general confusion about the differences between Earth and Horizon.
 * In addition, an executive decision was made to determine that Enochian, the language of magic and used mostly by the Order of Hermes, doesn't have gendered pronouns. So Josephine doesn't particularly care what pronouns are used for her, but tends to go along with she/her since people generally consider her female. This wiki will use she/her for that reason.

Early Life
Josephine was born on December 12th, 18XX to Sionia and Patrick Evans. Those are not their true names, but they are the names they go by. They named her Azure Benedict Evans, nicknamed Azzie, though they knew she would likely also change her name at some point in her life. For Sionia and Patrick are also members of the Order of Hermes and live in Concordia - the main city of Horizon, a place built by Tradition mages, for Tradition mages - and Josephine's upbringing would be a little...different.

The Evans family had been a part of Horizon since the Grand Convocation sometime around 1460, though they weren't always known by that name. There is also a family tradition of being inducted into the Order of Hermes, save for a few black sheep over the years who found better fits with other traditions, and the rare individual who did not Awaken. There was no risk of that with Josephine, however, as the Order of Hermes begins training their apprentices young, when they can, and it takes a lot to remain Asleep in the face of every day magic.

Sionia is a member of House Flambeau - the warriors, skilled in the use of Forces magic for battle and defenses. She taught Josephine the basics of fighting and keeping her wits about her in a crisis.

Patrick is a member of House Ex Miscellanea - a group of Hermetics who don't quite fit the mold of other houses, but don't have enough in common with others to form a full house of their own. He works as an alchemist and taught Josephine the principles of alchemy when she was a child. There is out of character speculation that he may be a secret member of House Solificati (also known as the Children of Knowledge), whose leader was involved in the Great Betrayal of 1470 and the house never fully recovered (though there are some, possibly including Patrick, who continue their research in secret).

A tradition amongst the Order of Hermes is to have someone proficient in Entropy determine whether a child has potential to become a mage. These 'seers' are a part of House Fortunae in modern times, but in the Victorian Era, they were still a small sect of qabbalists and mathematicians in House Ex Miscellanea. However, Josephine's father pulled some strings and Josephine was assessed in early childhood. As the seer sensed potential in her, her parents arranged for her to start an apprenticeship when she was 14 in order to expedite her Awakening. Originally apprenticed in House Flambeau to follow in her mother's footsteps, it soon became clear that Josephine was meant for something else and when she was fifteen her parents negotiated with a member of House Tharsis - Master Ignatius - to have her apprenticeship contract moved to him. In the process, her parents used their family name and considerable capital in Concordia to take the spot of another potential apprentice.

When Josephine was thirteen, her parents had two more children - twin boys, Simon and Charlie - who are both Josephine's favourite people and worst nightmare, as twins tend to be.

Names
Names can be incredibly important tools in magic. They are a sympathetic link to a specific individual, and if someone learns your name, it means it is much easier to cast devastating effects on you from anywhere in the world.

Hermetic mages take this risk seriously and create a handful of names to confuse and hold off potential threats.

Birth Name

This is, of course, the name given to a mage at their birth.

Azure Benedict Evans

Craft Name

The Craft Name is simply another name, often ordinary enough to pass as a regular name. Many Craft Names are quite elegant, and one would be hard-pressed to find a Hermetic claiming something as ordinary as William Smith or Jane Brown as a Craft Name. It may include their House or Tradition.

Josephine Hazel Carrington, bani Tharsis

Shadow Name

The Shadow Name is the mage’s Craft Name, with the mage’s given name inserted between the first and middle or last names of the Craft Name, succeeded by a list of accomplishments (stated in poetic and usually cryptic fashion) that varies in length, dependent upon the length (and eventfulness) of the mage’s career. Often, the arrogance (or lack thereof) of the mage in question also factors into how many honorifics are tacked onto the Craft Name.

Josephine Azure Benedict Evans Hazel Carrington, bani Tharsis, Daughter of Concordia, Mistress of The Arcturis

True Name

The True Name of an Order mage, on the other hand, is more than just a matter of pride: it is the ultimate self-definition. The True Name uses the entirety of the Shadow Name, followed by the words “In Caligine Abditus” (or “In Darkness Hidden”) and 10 syllables (which are not real words). Taken together, all of these sounds or written characters summarize the totality of the Order mage’s Awakened being, serving as a blueprint of his mystic nature.

Josephine Azure Benedict Evans Hazel Carrington, bani Tharsis, Daughter of Concordia, Mistress of The Arcturis; In Caligine Abditus, Kodyru Zaremot Aseut Bo


 * Pronunciation/Stress: (In) (Ka-Li-GII-Ne) (AB-Di-Tus) (Ko-DIE-Ru) (ZA-Re-Mot) (Ah-SAY-Oot) (BO)

Book 1: The Devil and the Doves
Chapter 1 (July 31, 2021): "A Most Peculiar Set of Circumstances"

Chapter 2 (August 7, 2021): "In Which Our Heroines Form Bonds and an Enemy Becomes Known"

Chapter 3 (August 28, 2021): "Wherein a Most Gruesome Murder is Investigated"

Chapter 4 (September 18, 2021): "The Devil's Hands"

Chapter 5 (September 25, 2021): "A Race Against Time"

Tradition
Josephine is a member of the Order of Hermes, bani Tharsis, Adeptus



Mages in the Order of Hermes tend to be your stereotypical wand-waving wizards, classic traditionalists. They're one of the oldest traditions, and that leads many of them to a superiority complex and narcissistic tendencies.

Hermetic philosophy is complex, and may change depending on the mage. For the most part, they profess a drive for perfection. This drive manifests through trials, tests, self-discovery, and the rejoining of fragmented patterns like disparate languages or mathematical conundrums.

'Bani' means 'of the House of' for the Hermetics (though "banī" is Arabic for "of the sons of"), and is used to denote a Hermetic's house, or a non-Hermetic's tradition or convention (though it's unlikely a Hermetic would take the time to give that sort of respect to any member of the Technocracy).

House Tharsis is one of the houses of the Order of Hermes. They were known as storm-wizards with a connection to the sea and often were often referred to as 'Buccaneers.' Their specialty is Forces magic, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, they were accused of diabolism in 1897 and, while the house was too small for a proper Wizards' March, they were renounced, attacked, and destroyed.

Adeptus is the Sixth Degree rank within the Order. It means that the mage has learned the third rank in any sphere (as well as at least one rank in a secondary sphere). To reach the Seventh Degree (Adeptus Maior), the mage must have the fourth rank in one sphere, the third rank in a second, and the first rank in a third sphere - at minimum (though it is very possible to have more ranks at lower levels since a mage must raise their Arete to four before they can learn the fourth rank in a sphere).

Paradigm
Belief forms the core of a mage’s focus. Often referred to as paradigm, that belief reflects the way your mage thinks about the world, her place in it, and the things she does in order to spin that world to suit her purposes. The mage's paradigm is a model that reflects the way something works. They represent the various belief systems that Awakened and unAwakened people use to understand the world they share. Generally a mage will have one or two core beliefs about how the world works and rationalizes them into a combined paradigm.

''' Everything is Chaos, you only think it makes sense – so transcend your limits. You are Magick. '''

Josephine's paradigm is a combination of the classic beliefs "everything is chaos – you only think it makes sense" and "transcend your limits." These are two paradigm examples laid out in M20 and its supplements.

Everything is Chaos - You Only Think it Makes Sense

The core of existential philosophy, this paradigm insists that Creation is indifferent and possibly meaningless until and unless we choose to impose meaning on our small part of it. Magick comes from wrangling whatever cosmic mysteries or principles you believe in and realizing that your belief is the thing that gives them power. Ultimately, then, magick comes from within. The Universe is an Etch-a-Sketch, and mages learn how to twiddle the knobs. At its extreme, this view maintains that nothing means anything… and that, perhaps, everything exists only in a mage’s head. Who’s to say this view is wrong? After all, the Universe might simply be a game played out in some mad god’s mind…

Transcend Your Limits

We are, according to this paradigm, beings of unfathomable power and potential. They more we believe we can do, the more we are capable of doing. Humanity’s blessing is its ability to change the circumstances of our existence, and our curse is to remain blind to that ability… or worse yet, to fear it and allow ourselves to be shackled by that fear. Perhaps the most coherent expression of the Ecstatic creed, this paradigm asserts that the greatest – perhaps the only – boundaries on our potential are the limitations we place upon ourselves or have placed on us by others. Magick, then, is the realization of greater potential, the willingness (and Willingness) to expand our selves, and the results of doing so.

Practices
Practice means “to make” or “to do.” And so, a mage – guided by her beliefs – does her magick through a practice. As the name suggests, a practice is also practical, turning abstract ideas into useful activities. When your character makes things happen, she employs a practice that serves her needs and beliefs. In game terms, every mage has a practice; in story terms, that practice comes from that character’s culture, beliefs, and circumstances.

Josephine uses several types of Practices, the descriptions here have occasionally been altered from their book entries to both save space and more accurately portray Josephine's belief system (and yes, there are inherent contradictions):

Alchemy

From turning base materials into decaying messes and then moving them upward toward eventual perfection, the ancient art of alchemy has provided the basis for modern chemistry. Wrapped in elaborate codes, symbols, and metaphors that still remain open to interpretation, this Art depends upon the idea of transformation from lower to higher states of being. The common perception of the Art rests upon its old claim of turning lead into gold; in reality, though, that claim is both metaphor and a way of scamming money to fund alchemical pursuits. Sure, a skilled alchemist might indeed use Matter magick to change lead into gold; on a deeper level, however, the lead is the alchemist and the gold represents self-perfection. In all its forms, alchemy demands discipline. An alchemist studies principles, experiments with materials, deciphers codes, puzzles over symbols, works in his lab, creates useful goodies, and constantly challenges and refines himself. For him, the practical applications of alchemy – drugs, acids, and other chemical compounds; quick wits; foreign languages; and other techniques of transformation – take a back seat to the self-perfection at the core of this venerable Art.

Chaos Magick

It’s not what you think it is. It's more like improv. Like other mystic practices, it emphasizes knowledge, reflection, and other forms of self-improvement. This revolutionary inversion of traditional mystic disciplines, however, depends upon personal intuition and interpretation; individual freedom. Playful yet serious, each chaos-magick practice draws from the individual practitioner’s experiences and desires. Depending upon the individual practitioner, it can integrate formalized ritual or involve spontaneous improvisation… or both, or neither. Flexibility and personal investment are innate elements of the practice as a whole. Each mage is a vortex of potential whose Will spins energy into being. And if this sounds too abstract to be useful, then you’re thinking about it too hard.

High Ritual Magick

To achieve excellence, one must have perfection. To work one’s Will, one must have the discipline to master that Will and then direct it with utmost confidence. In an outsider’s perspective, the rigorous devotees of High Ritual Magick are a pretentious pack of OCD pricks. For those devotees, however, the truth is plain: you must be strong, courageous, disciplined, and wise to unlock Creation’s power. High Ritual Magick demands those qualities. In High Ritual Magick, everything has significance: the alignment of planets, the tone of words, the calculations necessary to discover the correct number of times to repeat certain phrases, the formalities of address, and the measure or angle of materials aligned just so for maximum effect. That precision has a dual purpose: in one regard, the relationship of those many elements is crucial for success. In the other regard, the precision tests and challenges the magician, forcing him to overcome his flaws and become the superior person whom such intricacies demand. This practice is both an Art and a Science whose expertise has withstood the tests of time. You cannot be weak or sloppy or stupid, goes the reasoning, if you wish to work your Will upon Creation. In all forms, High Ritual Magick demands preparation, discipline, and the finest materials a magician can acquire. Such practices connect the mage with greater powers – gods, angels, demons, elementals, and the faceless forces of the universe – and those powers demand respect. The wizard, too, must earn respect; such powers do not answer to fools. In practical terms, High Ritual Magick is slow and precise. The wizard might call upon the results of his prior work in the heat of the moment, but those results – enchanted wands, crafted staves, precious amulets, mystic scrolls, imprisoned demons, angelic favors, priceless statues, carved jade pendants, Otherworldly gates, fine robes, imposing tomes – must be prepared well in advance. Despite all those trappings, an accomplished Ritual Magus understands that it is his Will that commands those elements. He does not hope or beg – he commands. Spirits can be bargained with, dragons might be conjured, God Himself might slip the mage a favor, but in the end all of those parties respect the High Magus because, ultimately, he has shaped himself into the true instrument of Will.

Instruments
Belief envisions, practice inspires, and tools perform. All three elements allow a mage to focus Will and knowledge into Effects. And although any human activity can provide a tool for an imaginative mage – so long as that instrument fits the mage’s beliefs and practices – certain tools hold honored and popular places in magickal practices of all kinds. As suggested by its root word instruere (“to prepare”), an instrument is a tool or set of tools that prepares an act of magick or hypertech. That instrument doesn’t have to be a physical object – it could be a dance, a song, a prayer or invocation, an intense glance, a scent, a formula, a gesture or word or handful of ash. The potential variations among such tools are more or less infinite. If an object or activity can be used to capture an intention and bring it into being, then that object or activity can be used as an instrument.

Mages can have Standard Instruments, Personalized Instruments (generally for their affinity sphere to represent their training, but they could have more), or Unique Instruments (if the Mage loses a unique instrument or it is taken from them, they cannot cast magic with the sphere that instrument is linked to).

Standard Instruments

This is the collection of Instruments that Josephine is able to use - some items are related to certain spheres, others were simply a part of her training.


 * Alchemical Powders:
 * Gold - Generally for Prime magic
 * Silver
 * Antimony
 * Blue vitriol (Copper II sulfate)
 * Verdigris
 * Cinnabar (Vermillion/Minium)
 * Ferrous Oxide (Crocus of Iron)
 * Amethyst - Generally for spirit magic
 * Fulminating Gold – labelled as Sulpher/Brimstone
 * Lapis Lazuli


 * Ritual circles
 * Symbols and Sigils
 * Celestial alignment
 * Elements
 * Knots/Ropes
 * Languages - Latin, Enochian
 * Voice/Vocalizations
 * Writings/Inscriptions

Personalized Instrument: Rope

For the Forces sphere, her affinity sphere, Josephine will often try to use rope in her magic due to the training she received and the fact that as a Tharsis, logically she will spend a lot of her time at sea, where rope is readily available.

Unique Instrument: Telescope

For the Correspondence sphere, Josephine uses the miniature telescope that was gifted to her by her parents when she Awoke and became a mage. Without it, she will be unable to do any Correspondence magic.

Resonance
Through all of the editions of Mage, the idea of resonance has stayed more or less the same, though the mechanics have fluctuated. In the Victorian Era game, the players use a combined idea of Resonance that reflects both the system they're using (M20) and the system most of the players are used to (Mage Revised). They generally come in three main types: Dynamic, Static, or Entropic and can be recognized by mages using Prime Sight.

M20 Definition

If Quintessence is water and Tass is ice, then Resonance is the flavor of both. Here’s where the “subjective” part of subjective reality takes on a recognizable element. Resonance echoes the intentions and emotions behind the actions attached to that magic. Resonance can be extremely unpleasant too. That creepy feeling you get when you step into a child molester’s basement is Resonance. You might feel it on the molester as well… possibly even on his victims. Traumas linger in the form of Resonance, tainting battlefields with the hatred that forged them. Also like Nodes, Resonance isn’t limited to human activity. There are places that even the earliest humanoids could feel were somehow wrong, thanks to the Resonance around them. Remember this: we are not the only shapers of reality. Those things we call spirits, animals, aliens, and gods have powers as great as, and often far greater than, our own.

Mage Revised Definition

Resonance is the constant current of the Awakened soul's desires against the static reality. It furthermore describes the particular style of magic a mage uses. The more powerful a mage gets, the stronger and more pronounced his Resonance gets. Eventually her Resonance cloaks her in an aura of power that is noticeable and almost tangible. Humans often notice something odd, unusual or potent about mages; for the mage with high Resonance, this feeling is much more pronounced.

Josephine's Resonance Traits

Dynamic: Forceful

Spheres
There are nine 'spheres' of magic in Mage: The Ascension - each one relating to some aspect of reality. There is speculation that there is a 10th undiscovered sphere and some believe that learning it will lead to Ascension. The nine spheres are: Correspondence (Data), Entropy, Forces, Life, Matter, Mind, Prime (Primal Utility), Spirit (Dimensional Science), and Time. The names in brackets are alternative names — mostly used by the Technocratic Union — that represent alternative ways of conceptualizing these aspects of reality.



Forces

The Sphere of energetic Patterns, among them heat, light, vibration, radiation and gravity. In effect, Forces are constructs of Quintessence in motion.


 * Rank 1:
 * Perceive Forces: The mage becomes privy to Force patterns around them, transcending the limits of human sensory organs.


 * Rank 2:
 * Control Minor Forces: The mage can alter existing forces within sensory range. Applications are varied and allow a mage to warp light to make things invisible, change their colors by altering the spectrum of localized light, render them silent by bending sound waves in their vicinity, manipulate currents of electricity, make fires dance according to specific images and spread.
 * Includes creating shields
 * Rank 3:
 * Transmute Minor Forces: The mage can manipulate Patterns of Forces, allowing them to convert forces into other types, shift their intensity radically, or even create force from nothing.



Correspondence

Space, interrelationships and sympathetic links all become clear through the study of Correspondence. It can also be combined with almost any other sphere to create effects that span distances.


 * Rank 1:
 * Immediate Spatial Perceptions: Raises the mage's awareness of space to determine exact directions and distances, as well as distortions of the same. Allows locating things that the mage cannot perceive with their human senses.


 * Rank 2:
 * Sense, Touch, Thicken And Reach Through Space: Allows the mage to extend their senses beyond their current location. With adjacent Spheres of Life or Matter, they can draw small lifeforms or objects through space. Allows one to dampen spatial distortion that can be sensed on rank 1.



Prime

The Sphere of magic that governs the raw energy of reality, sometimes called Primal Energy, Quintessence or Odyllic Force.


 * Rank 1:
 * Etheric Senses: The mage can perceive Quintessential energy, and is alerted when someone uses magic in their vicinity.
 * Effuse Personal Quintessence: Allows the mage to subsume small amounts Quintessence into their personal Pattern above their Avatar rating.
 * Consecration: Allows a mage to enchant an object to change with them during shapeshifting, stepping sideways etc., by imbuing it with their personal Resonance.
 * Rank 2:
 * Fuel Pattern: Allows the mage to store small amounts of Quintessence in an object.
 * Weave Odyllic Force: The mage can summon bolts of pure Primal Energy against Patterns. This spell is nearly always vulgar.
 * Enchant Patterns: Allows the mage to enchant the natural properties of a Pattern by tapping into its Quintessence, allowing it to interact with ephemeral objects.
 * Create Pattern: In conjecture with other Spheres, the mage can create a simple Pattern out of thin air, by diverging the flow of Quintessence in the Tellurian into the new form he wants to create.
 * Body of Light: Allows the mage to conjure an idealized self projected from ephemeral energy.



Spirit

The Sphere of the ephemeral stuff that is the building block of the three Umbrae, the realms between the pureness of unbridled Prime and the Patterned World of flesh. Required to talk to spirits or interact with the spirit world.


 * Rank 1:
 * Spirit Senses: Allows a mage to peek into the Penumbra and determine the local strength of the Gauntlet

Rotes
A rote is a magical effect that has been honed by a mage (or possibly multiple mages), and is often distilled into a recipe or checklist. This makes them easier to remember and, often, easier to cast.

 Other Latin Phrases 

Some of the other Latin phrases that Josephine uses in her magic - whether for fast-casting or perhaps for a future ritual.

Personality Archetypes
The personality archetypes provide roleplaying guidance, offer potential motivations, and give players a way of contrasting your mage’s outer mask with her inner self. Each Mage character has two Archetypes: the outward Demeanor and the inner Nature. Demeanor is how they present themselves to other folks, and Nature is how they see themselves when all their masks come off.

Demeanor archetypes are easy enough to change – they just start acting differently and choosing new priorities in life. Nature, on the other hand, is difficult to change. It takes a life-shifting circumstance to cause such transitions, and the character might not even recognize themselves in the mirror when such a shift occurs.

In game terms, the Nature also provides the players with an opportunity to refresh their Willpower Trait if they roleplay in a way that is consistent with their chosen Nature.

Every archetype has its strengths and weaknesses. That strength is the inner spark that inspires a character to persevere when things get rough. Their archetypal weakness, on the other hand, reflects a personal flaw – some obstacle in their Path to Ascension and a stumbling block in daily life.

Nature: Survivor

Nothing stops you. Hardened by previous ordeals, you’ve developed a sense of self-preservation that keeps you going when lesser souls surrender to the odds. You’ve got little patience or sympathy for people who won’t do whatever it takes to endure hardship. “Shut up and step up or get the fuck out of my way” is your motto. Other folks might not make it through, but their weakness won’t lead to your death.

Perseverance is your defining trait. You do what you need to do with what you have to work with. Obstacles are just logistics, and excuses never healed a broken leg.

Your weakness, though, is a profound Callousness. You’ve shut down so much in order to keep going that folks often wonder if you feel anything at all.


 * Regain Willpower whenever you survive a difficult situation through stubborn cunning and a refusal to give in.

 Demeanor: Romantic 

In a world filled with ugliness, you seek and find beauty. Said beauty could be tragic, but that sense of melancholy makes it pure. High drama is your heartbeat. Passion is your joy. In the words of Patti Smith, you “seek pleasure… seek the nerves under your skin.” This quest is often painful, but that pain tells you you’re alive.

That Passion provides your deepest strength. When other folks hesitate, you plunge in, reveling in the raw excitement of life’s dance.

Enchanted by that dance, you can be pretty Careless about its effects. Like the original Romantics, your excesses hurt a lot of people. Eventually, you’ll need to develop a greater sense of responsibility and moderation if you ever wish to Ascend.

Merits
Catlike Balance

Your sense of balance has been honed – either through practice, magic, or other means – to uncanny acuity. System-wise, you reduce the difficulty by -2 when your character performs some physical act (rolling with a fall, walking a tightrope, etc.) that requires her to keep her feet.

Language: Latin

Beyond your native language, you understand another form of communication. Each 1-pt. Language Merit reflects a single language, typically in its written form as well as the spoken one. Mages – especially Hermetic wizards, Syndicate diplomats, and Technocratic field ops – tend to know a number of languages, both common (French, Latin, Mandarin, Spanish) and obscure (Old Kingdom Hieroglyphics, High Akkadian, Jovitos). If you possess five Language Merits or more, then you’ve begun to understand the principles of language itself and can try to unravel languages you don’t already know (Intelligence + Enigmas, difficulty 7 or higher). Characters should have background-based reasons for understanding various languages. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that a barrio teenager might know English, Portuguese, several dialects of Spanish, and possibly even Arabic. If she’s also got German, Sanskrit, and Classical Greek on her character sheet, however, then someone’s got some explaining to do.

Manifest Avatar

For most mages, the Avatar remains a mysterious figure, goading them from the sidelines and appearing primarily within a Seeking or during other moments of intense stress. For you, however, the Avatar is a vibrant presence in your life, as real to you as anyone else. Essentially a character in its own right, this manifested Avatar interacts with you on an almost daily basis. In certain situations, it might interact with other people, as manifestly real as any other person in your world.

The Manifest Avatar Merit embodies the Avatar as a full character under the Storyteller’s control. On its own, this Merit reflects that Avatar as a person who only the associated mage can see, hear, and interact with on a physical level; in conjunction with the Background: Allies, however, the Avatar becomes a character that everyone can see, hear, and feel. In both cases, the Avatar may come and go as it pleases, bound only by the physical laws with which it chooses to be bound. The physical Avatar’s shell can be injured or killed, but that in itself does not kill the Avatar – merely its body. For obvious reasons, that solid Avatar should have a guise that won’t be too vulgar or bizarre for the Consensus to endure – a cloaked, whispering figure, perhaps, but not a screeching, tentacled monstrosity. The manifested Avatar’s Traits depend upon the value of the Allies Background, as well as the physical form of that incarnation. An equine or lupine Avatar, for instance, will have different Traits than an Avatar that manifests as a crow, shadow, mirror, or child.

Your Avatar does not hang a sign around her neck that proclaims Avatar. In the first edition Cult of Ecstasy Tradition Book, for example, Cassie deals with a manifested Avatar named Aria who never reveals herself to be anything other than a wild child who looks disturbingly like an alternate-reality version of Cassie and knows things no one else should know about Cassie’s past, present, future, and inner self. (For details, see that book, pp. 5-45.) Unless either the mage or the Avatar announces its true identity, other characters don’t usually think that your manifested Avatar is anything other than what it appears to be. Mages or Night-Folk who can see auras or souls might catch on, but most other folks remain clueless.

An Avatar manifesting only for the mage can affect the material world only when no other characters or devices can see that entity, although it might appear to others as an online presence, a ghostly figure, as odd sounds, or through other phenomena. An Allies-based Avatar remains as solid as it wants to be, lacking the powers of a human mage but possessed (literally) of the power to fade in and blink out as it desires. Again, the Manifested Avatar is a Storyteller character, with agendas and behavioral quirks that confound both the mage and his player. Although that Avatar has its mage’s best interests at heart, it might play the role of a rival, lover, best friend, or nemesis... quite possibly all of them at once.

Flaws
Bad Sight

Literally speaking, an impediment interferes with your path by “blocking your feet.” System-wise, this Flaw reflects any sort of impairment that’s based on your character’s physical situation.

That includes neurological and internal chemical conditions like autism, dyslexia, chronic fatigue, significant allergies, and other maladies that may be “invisible” to others but which are rooted in the physical body, as opposed to in the psyche or the spirit. Such conditions might be linked to psychological and/or spiritual health too; those elements are interrelated, of course. For the purposes of this Flaw, however, an Impediment is something that hampers the character’s ability to function in the physical realm.

Story-wise, an Impediment can be any body-based condition – obvious or not – that interferes with your character’s ability to do stuff. Examples of obvious Impediments include a missing limb, a limp, a bent spine, missing teeth, heavy scarring, deformed features, and the like, while “invisible” Impediments would include chronic pain and /or fatigue, poor eyesight, asthma, internal tumors, sensory processing disorders, and so forth. The more that condition impedes your character, the more this Flaw is worth:


 * (1 point version) Like chronic headaches, impaired vision, minor arthritis or a few missing teeth, the Impediment presents occasional inconveniences but is not a major hassle in your life unless something worsens the condition or removes the things (glasses, dentures, pain reliever) that you use to compensate for it.

Cultural Other

In the eyes of your society, you’re clearly divergent. Disreputable. Other.

People suspect you of criminal, or at least unsavory, behavior; the authorities harass or detain you for little or no reason, and your loved ones probably “wish you could just be like normal people.” Granted, every mage is “other” to some degree. In your case, though, the othering threatens your life, liberty, and happiness.

Also known as Mistreated Minority, this Flaw reflects prejudice within your society. The amount of trouble it causes, and the frequency of said trouble, determines the value of your Flaw:


 * (1 point version) Folks around you tend to harass you in small but noticeable ways (acting uncommonly brusque, using slurs in your presence, taking uncomfortable liberties with your privacy, property or person, etc.) and seem to feel there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Other people might stand up for you, but more often than not they won’t.

Naïve

Surely, the world can’t be that dark...can it? (Spoiler: Yes, yes it can.) Oblivious to the depths of misery around you, you retain an intrinsic faith in the best possible outcome. And while this sort of optimism can provide the foundation for literally world-changing beliefs (see the paradigm It’s All Good – Have Faith! in Mage 20, p. 570), it can also blind you to the realities you face. When making a roll that could detect another character’s bad intentions or malignant nature, add +2 to the difficulty of your roll. Story-wise, you have a hard time believing that the terrible things you see around you could really be as bad as they seem, and may perhaps lack empathy for other people’s pain (+2 to the difficulty of Empathy-based rolls, at the Storyteller’s option) because you recognize so little about pain yourself.

Overconfident

You’re the best there is at what you do. If other folks disagree, then that’s their problem, not yours! Nothing is beyond your reach, and so you almost never back down from a challenge, no matter how absurdly outmatched you appear to be at the time. If things go poorly, of course, you can always blame someone else. After all, it’s clearly not your fault!

Rival

An associate of yours has it out for you, and while this rival cannot openly move against you (probably because of an external authority she doesn’t want to risk annoying, or social pressures that she can’t avoid), she’ll make your life as difficult as she can under the circumstances. Rumors, sabotage, exposed scandals, and perennial traps are just a few of your rival’s weapons against you. And while you can dance around most of them, a few still manage to hit their mark.

The value of this Flaw depends, as usual, on the amount of trouble this rivalry causes for you:


 * (3 point version) Someone of a lower or equal degree of power and influence wants to complicate your life.

Why does this person hate you? It could be a “simply business” sort of situation, like the rivalry between Syndicate executives or Hermetic Adepts. There may be a romantic tangle or family history involved, or perhaps an academic dispute, as is often found among members of the Etherite Tradition or Progenitor lab-groups. Chances are, this person doesn’t actually want you dead – just disgraced or removed from further consideration. Fatal rivalries do arise, however... and as Doissetep’s implosion proved long ago, such things can get really ugly when mages are involved.