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Arcana in General

In Mage: the Awakening, mastery of the 10 Arcana are subdivided among 5 “tiers” of mastery.  Mechanically speaking, having a certain dot rating in an Arcana permits the Mage character access to certain Practices related to that Arcana.  The more dots a Mage character has on a given Arcana, the more the Mage is able to do with it.

This list of Practices highlights the inherent flexibility of Mages.  Rather than having a set ability per dot like in most other powers available to the supernaturals of the World of darkness even just a single dot opens the door to a host of interesting and useful effects.

The following list provides a rough backbone to the next series of articles discussing each of the Arcana in turn, and the kind of spells that a Mage can come up with given each dot rating.  Take note that when a “phenomena” is mentioned, it refers to any number of specific effects that could potentially fall under the purview of a given Arcana.  For example, Forces could control phenomena such as fire, sound, light and other kinds of forces.

1 Dot: Initiate

  • Gain knowledge and understanding of phenomena. (Practice of Knowing)
  • Elementary manipulation of phenomena, enough to activate and/or impart direction. (Practice of Compelling)
  • Gain sensory perception of phenomena (Practice of Unveiling)

2 Dots: Apprentice

  • Exert elementary command and control over phenomena (Practice of Ruling)
  • Conceal, camouflage or hide phenomena from scrutiny (Practice of Veiling)
  • Protect a target against attacks by providing points of Armor. (Practice of Shielding)

3 Dots: Disciple

  • Alter the capabilities or functions of phenomena (Practice of Weaving)
  • Injure a target (Practice of Fraying)
  • Fortify, bolster or improve phenomena (Practice of Perfecting)

4 Dots: Adept

  • Transform phenomena into a related phenomena or shapes, or replace capabilities or functions with different ones. (Practice of Patterning)
  • Significantly injure a target (Practice of Unraveling)

5 Dots: Master

  • Create Phenomena (Practice of Making)
  • Destroy or mutilate a target (Practice of Unmaking)