(as anotated by the Hermetic Order)
Avatar is the basic atribute of any mage. It ranks from 1 to 10:
I - Awakened
II - Apprentice
III - Disciple
IV - Adept
V - Master
VI to IX - Archmage
X - Oracle
Place your bets, gents. Who gets to be master first?
- Eliot Turner
The reasons why an Avatar awakens are a mistery, but being exposed to many diferent sets of experiences seems to help.The awakening may happen with anyone of any age. It can be described as an outburst of ressonance, a distinct aura of power that the mage cannot control and that fills his Avatar with essence.
Essence (or quintessence) is a primal universal energy that is gathered by a mage's Avatar and used to empower spells.
Essence is almost like a drug. It makes everything so much easier.
- Eric Elianov
A mage has a pool of Essence equal to his: Willpower + Avatar + 5
Essence fluctuates freely throughout creation, sometimes flowing through leylines, sometimes concentrating in nodes (that may generate vis).
In general, mages are aware of the presence of essence and other mages and they can explore that feeling with a: Wits + Avatar roll
(This simple awareness does not indicate exactly where any Essence is)
A mage without Prime is like a blindman trying to smell his way around.
The study of Prime is essential (pun intended).
- Susanne McAllister
It is through Leylines that essence flows throughtout creation, across and between all worlds.
Sometimes, a leyline may even cross its path with another leyline and, in that particular point, a Node is formed.
A node may be any place that is empowered by at least two leylines. With time, some nodes can even start to generate Vis, which is essence in physical form. At least three leylines need to power the node for it to form vis. Vis is essence taken form. It can be water, apples, jewels, milk, wool, electricity, wine, flowers, etc. It is commonly used as currency among mages.
With a good supply of Vis, a mage does not need Prime to quickly gather up his Essence.
- Maria Valieri
Like an Avatar, leylines and nodes can be ranked from 1 to 10, but it's very rare to find any higher than 5.
Higher than 5? I'm standing on it. No, you can't have any.
- Ferdinand
The ranking of a node is equal to the lowest ranking of the leylines that empower it.
A node's ranking determines:
- the amount of essence that can be drained from it per scene
- the amount of vis that can be taken from it per day
Normally, a mage can only retrieve essence from either a node or vis. This is done by concentrating on it for a scene. A roll of
Resolve + Avatar
may be needed, specially if several mages are tapping a node all at the same time. The mage with best roll gets to retrieve essence first.
That same roll is needed if a mage wants to retrieve multiple points of essence in one scene.
When gathering at a node, a higher ranking mage should always have precedence.
- Sarah Libberman