Fate

The Arcana of Fate grants perception and control over the threads of fate. It deals with the bestowing of blessings or curses, the swearing of inviolable oaths, and the ability to perceive the destinies of others (though not their future). A mage learned in the ways of this Arcanum can level a geas on another, forcing this person to do the mage’s whim. He may increase his luck or that of another to incredible levels, or decrease the fortune of a foe. The control over the strands of fate granted by this Arcanum makes it quite attractive to the Acanthus, as they are deeply reliant on fortune in their itinerant lifestyles.

Briar Rose

(Apprentice)

Influences

Blessings, curses, destiny, fortune, oaths, probability.

Nature and Power

The Arcanum of Fate is the Subtle Arcana of the Supernal Realm of Arcadia, a realm that also generates the power of the Arcanum of Time. Arcadia is a place of chance and risk. Taking no risk whilst in the realm of the Fae will lead to disaster, but so will too many leaps into the unknown taken without thought of the consequences. There are two things that can be done to ward this off. The first is simply to moderate one’s risks, to only do what is likely if not certain to go in one’s favour. This works, for a time, but eventually random chance will catch up and something will go wrong, often disastrously so. The second, and better, route is to tip the scales of fate in one’s favour, to increase with magic the odds of an endeavour; this can be achieved by the use of the Arcanum of Fate. Within the Fallen World, actions carry less risk, as the material realms do not actively seek to foil the works of their inhabitants, and so Fate carries less power. The rise of the Abyss has weakened that power still. But chance still plays its part in the Fallen World.

When one takes a good long look at the universe, it’s easy to see why luck has been so important to humanity. Conditions on Earth were exactly right for life to begin. The species that would otherwise have kept us as small rodents scurrying in the earth were all wiped out by fortuitous mass extinctions, and our race has been fortunate enough not to have been on the receiving end of such an effect (yet). The entirety of human history is one long chain of coincidences, any one of which could have changed the nature of human existence if the event had gone differently. Chance’s hand is evident behind the nature of the world, and our existences upon it.

On a less grand scale, the Arcanum of Fate allows for the altering of the luck that runs mundane society. A mage can bless himself or others with great luck, influence events to bring an object into his possession, imbue an object with good or bad luck, act perfectly in social situations, bind oaths that must be fulfilled on pain of poor luck, and send others on Geases that draw a similar punishment. He may induce chaos in a given area, creating extremely improbable events that serve to make Sleepers more open to the idea of the supernatural, and so make them induce less Paradox. He may forge dooms - objects, places, conditions, events, or people that cause bad luck to a specific person when interacting with them - or he may forge godsends, similar happenings, locations, objects, or creatures that bring protection to a specific person when that person is around. He may even change the destinies of people, altering the fate of a living being or object any way he pleases.

Levels of Profiency

Initiate (●)

With the power of the first level of mastery, an Initiate of Fate may use the Mage Sight to detect the peculiar resonance of threads particularly woven into the fabric of destiny. He may examine common themes or links between objects, places, or people. The mage can mitigate bad luck to an extent, nullifying small factors of probability rather than making events transpire in his favour. He may also predict the outcome of random events, such as rolling a dice or flipping a coin. Finally, he may perform relatively inconsequential changes to his fate or that of another, enough to inconvenience or ease a happening rather than overtly harming or helping.

• Spells: Aim for the Dead, Counterspell, Interconnections, Modulate Frequency, Quantum Flux, Reading the Outmost Eddies, Sacrifice Fortune, Sharpshooters Eye, Study Final Name, Sybils Sight, Synchronicity, Winds of Chance
• House Ruled: Aim for the Dead, Study Final Name
• Banned: Sacrifice Fortune

Apprentice (●●)

The second level of mastery gives an Apprentice of Fate the power to bring about minor curses or give himself a little good luck, helping or hindering in a crucial task. He may bestow his perception of destiny onto another or create a field of protective luck around himself that causes bullets to go astray or melee weapons to slide off him rather than slice through him. He may imbue himself with exceptional luck in a social situation, allowing him to say and do just the right things in a given interaction. He can create plausible twists in the skein of fate, creating events that are reasonably likely, or he may cause a machine to function perfectly for a time. Lastly, the mage picks up the basics of swearing an oath, a magical contract that grants him the strength of will to perform feats of great mental fortitude when the oath demands it, at the cost of poor fortune if he acts against his oath.

• Spells: Deathless Oath, Dialing the Lucky Number, Evil Eye, Exceptional Luck, Fates Justice, Fortunate Timing, Fortunes Protection, Granting the Sybils Sight, Loyal Possession, Perfect Moment, Platonic Mechanism, Querulous Minds, Reveal Enigmas, Scribe Final Name, Shifting the Odds, Swearing An Oath, Zone of Extremity
• House Ruled: Deathless Oath, Fortunes Protection, Perfect Moment, Scribe Final Name
• Banned: Fates Justice

Disciple (●●●)

A Disciple of Fate, using the third level of mastery, may grant his shield of protective luck on others, or bless them with minor good fortune in a similar manner to the blessings he could lay on himself previously. He may alter the terms of an oath, changing the nature of his service (but not absolving it altogether), or imbue certain objects with good or bad luck to anyone handling or using them. He may conceal a great destiny from the eyes of scrutinizing mages with the Arcanum of Fate, or change the appearance of that destiny so it seems to be a different sort of fate. Finally, he may bless himself with incredible luck, gaining the ability to perform feats of amazing skill or luck that defy credulity.

• Spells: Alter Oath, Bad Penny, Bestow Exceptional Luck, Blessing, Curse Object, Elegguas Notice, Fabricate Fortune, Grant Fortunes Protection, Heroic Effort, Instill Malediction, Lucky Coin, Monkeys Paw, Occlude Destiny, Sense Strength and Weakness, Shared Fate, Superlative Luck, Tangle the Threads, Technology Curse, Uncover Final Name
• House Ruled: Heroic Effort, Sense Strength and Weakness, Uncover Final Name
• Banned: Instill Malediction

Adept (●●●●)

An Adept of Fate, with the fourth level of mastery, may grant himself even greater luck than he could previously. He may unbind souls chained to a specific place by a wielder of the Arcanum of Death or other supernatural being or power, allowing a soul to be removed from a soul jar or unbound from a creature to whom it has been reattached. He gains the power to sanctify the oath of another in the place of that person (if said person cannot use the Arcanum of Fate to such a degree). Finally, he gains the power to completely annul a magical oath, freeing himself or another from the bindings of an unwanted oath or forcibly parting another from an oath they wish to hold up.

• Spells: Assuming the Name, Coincidental Travel, Destroy Bindings, Forbidden Fate, Fortunes Fool, Gift of Fortune, Probable Cause, Sanctify Oath, Sever Oaths, Transfer Destiny
• House Ruled: Destroy Bindings
• Banned: Fortunes Fool

Unfettered

The mage also gains an increased hardiness against supernatural attempts to control his actions or bind him in oaths^[1]. A mage with this level of proficiency with the intricacies of Fate has a sixth sense for powers intended to usurp control of his own destiny. The mage can reflexively repel deleterious magics that will or could harm his fate. He can resist falling under the sway of a geas, for example, or shrug off psychic control.

The mage can reflexively cast an instant countermagic protection under the following circumstances:

• His soul is being tampered with or attacked
• He is being forcibly bound into a geas
• Ill fate (a doomful item, as described under Fate 5) is directed at him
• A supernatural compulsion to do something he does not wish to do is directed at him

The mage needs only the Fate Arcanum to counter the attack. He doesn’t need to know all the Arcana involved in the attacking spell. Unfettered countermagic can be made against even covert spells. This applies to all supernatural powers of this type, not merely Awakened magic.

Master (●●●●●)

With the power of the fifth level of mastery, a Master of Fate can lay a Geas upon others, a sort of unbreakable oath with dire consequences for any who would seek to escape or avoid it. He may also break such a compulsion, freeing himself or another from service. He may create a doom, a magical object, creature, happenstance, place, or time that gives bad luck to a specific person upon that person’s interactions with it, or he may create a godsend, an article of similar nature that grants protection to himself or another when it is close by. He may bestow incredible bad luck on another person, causing them to fail at everything they try whilst under the power of the spell. He can radically alter the fate of another person, changing the course of their life in a severe way, or he may create random happenings of bizarre and unusual things, opening the minds of the Sleepers to the impossible for a little while and reducing their ability to generate Paradox.

• Spells: Break the Chains, Forge Destiny, Forge Doom, Forge Godsend, Geas, Great Curse, Infectious Curse, Swarm of Locusts, True Love
• House Ruled: Forge Doom, Forge Godsend
• Banned:

Additional Effects

Conditional Duration

Normally, a spell’s Duration is unconditional; it lasts until its time is up and then the spell ends. Optionally, mages can set condi- tions on a spell’s Duration, essentially setting up a particular circumstance whereby the spell ends early. The advantage of a conditional Duration is it conserves magical energy, giving a slight boost to a spell’s Duration factor at the cost of potentially ending it prematurely.

A mage specifies the condition to end the spell when casting it, and must state this condition clearly to the spell’s target(s) as part of the casting. For example, a witch casting a curse on someone might say, “You shall be so cursed for a turn of the moon, or until you receive forgiveness from those you have wronged.” For otherwise indefinite spells, the caster need only state the condition (since the spell lasts until the condition is fulfilled).

A conditional-Duration spell lasts longer than normal. Just how long depends on the probability of the condition. If it’s a common occurrence or an easy task, the Duration bonus is higher than if it is an extremely improbable condition.

Condition (Duration Bonus)

• Improbable (+1 factor)
• Infrequent (+2 factors)
• Common or easy (+3 factors)

A spell that normally lasts for one hour can be ex tended to two hours withoutcasting penalties if it is made conditional with an improbable condition. It can be made to last 12 hours with an infrequent condition, or a whole day with a common or easy condition. See “Duration”^[2].

The Storyteller also decides what constitutes a reasonable condition for breaking the spell. Virtually impossible conditions — “until the Moon falls out of the sky” or “until Atlantis rises again” — should be disallowed. Conditional spells are intended to add an element of storytelling and drama to spellcasting. Players should be enjoined from using them as just a way to squeeze a little extra Duration out of their characters’ spells.

Conditional Trigger

(Fate •• + Time ••) The mage can set a trigger that automatically activates a prepared spell (see Time ●● “Prepared Spells" ^[3]). Normally, the mage must activate the trigger himself, but by adding a conditional trigger, the spell automati- cally activates when the conditions stated in the trigger come about. Examples of conditional triggers might be: “When [the target of the spell] next sees the moon,” or “When the clock chimes midnight.”

The Mana needed to activate the prepared spell’s trigger must be invested into the spell during casting or the spell will not have enough energy to activate on its own. The normal rules for casting prepared spells apply.

Target Exemption

Mages are limited in their ability to control what people or things can interact with their spells, as de- scribed under “Spell Control"^[4]. This level of Fate allows a mage to cast his net wider and exempt whole groups from his spells’ effects — “everyone except my enemies” is now an acceptable condition.

He can now also exempt individual targets from his area-effecting spells. He suffers a –2 dice penalty per exempted target.

Conjunctional Arcana

Any Arcanum

An Apprentice of Fate can set additional clauses within any spell that he casts, allowing the spell to end when a particular circumstance is filled, rather than carry on draining energy until its duration expires. An Apprentice in both Fate and Time can set these conditions as triggers, only activating the spell when these conditions are met. An Apprentice in Fate may also control the targets of spells that affect multiple people, exempting whole groups from their effects.

Life or Matter

An Initiate of Fate and of Life (shooting at creatures) or Matter (at objects), as well as Space, may eliminate the natural or random factors that would normally impair the mage's shooting. He may ignore precipitation, darkness, or target size and speed, allowing for uncanny accuracy.

Space

An Adept of Fate and Apprentice of Space can alter destiny to bring a certain item into his possession, though he cannot control the exact means of acquisition and may even end up gaining the item illegally or even harmfully.

References

• Mage, pp. 147-161