The Invisible Pulse [Mage: The Awakening]

Mage: The Awakening, Open Development

It’s another layover week, and there’s one Path left, so it’s time to look at the Thyrsus. (It’s okay, though, we’ve got five Orders to get through before I run-out of emergency fill-in material.)

So. The Thyrsus. I know we’re not supposed to have favorites, and from a game design perspective I don’t, but let me put it like this – if I ever played Mage, I’d play a Thyrsus.

The mages on the Path of Ecstasy aren’t as changed as some of their fellows; a few shifting emphases here and there have gone a long way. The alternate name for Shamans of Ecstatics was something of a no-brainer. When we were giving the Paths themes independent of their Arcana, we quickly pegged the Thyrsus as Boundaries and Intercession – they’re the mages who reach out to join worlds and act on behalf of invisible interests. A Mastigos masters her inner demons, and a Moros puts ghosts to rest or uses them as raw materials, but a Thyrsus specializing in the Astral or the Death Arcanum treats them as she treats the Shadow – staring the inhabitants down without fear, and acting as ambassador from humanity to them and from them to humanity.

Everything’s connected. Everything’s alive. We are all part of God’s compost heap.

As is traditional for these Path spoilers, three spells for you – one from Life, two from Spirit.

Mutable Mask (Life ••)

Practice: Veiling

Primary Spell Factor: Duration

Suggested Rote Skills: Medicine, Stealth, Subterfuge

A Life Apprentice can use Veiling magics to alter her own features, albeit only cosmetically and temporarily. She can change the pigment in her skin, phenotypical features, hair color and texture, add or subtract some fat deposits or change the sound of her voice. Distinguishing features like scars and moles can be added or removed. Even at its most extreme, the changes wrought by this spell still leave the mage somewhat resembling her original form. If someone was to compare her masked and regular appearances side by side, they might notice an almost familial resemblance (even if the two are of obviously different races), but the changes are enough to fool facial recognition devices, sketch artists or even change her scent enough to throw off tracking animals. She cannot mimic specific people with the basic spell.

+1 Reach: The caster may change her gender with this spell.

+2 Reach: The mage can duplicate the appearance of a specific person, including scars and fingerprints.

Opener of the Way (Spirit ••)

Practice: Ruling

Primary Factor: Duration

Suggested Rote Skills: Athletics, Computers, Socialize

The shaman is not only intercessor, but also gatekeeper. This spell allows the mage to shift the Resonant Condition to the Open Condition, or vice versa.

Shape Spirit (Spirit ••••)

Practice: Patterning

Primary Factor: Potency

Suggested Rote Skills: Crafts, Medicine, Persuasion

When no tool is ready to hand, the shaman shapes one from what is available. This spell allows the mage to reshape a spirit’s fundamental nature. She may invoke a number of the following effects equal to the spell’s Potency:

Change the spirit’s fundamental nature; for example, making a mouse spirit into a spirit of bad luck and mischief.

Redistribute the spirit’s Attribute dots.

Redefine and redistribute the spirit’s Influences.

Add, remove, or replace one Manifestation.

Add, remove, or replace one Numen.

Rewrite the spirit’s Ban and Bane.

She can also alter the spirit’s size, shape, and appearance as she sees fit, within the limits of the spell’s Target Size Factor. The spirit’s new Traits must stay within its Rank-derived maximums.

Thyrsus Preview

And here is the Thyrsus section from Chapter One. As with the other Paths, this is as Malcolm Sheppard turned it in, not yet redlined, redrafted, or edited.

Link to Thyrsus Preview

So, now that you’ve seen the Paths, does anyone have any questions or comments?