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.
Initiate (●)
- Compelling: Elementary manipulation of phenomena, enough to activate and/or impart direction.
- Knowing: Gain knowledge and understanding of phenomena.
- Unveiling: Gain sensory perception of phenomena.
Apprentice (●●)
- Ruling: Exert elementary command and control over phenomena.
- Shielding: Protect a target against attacks by providing points of Armor.
- Veiling: Conceal, camouflage or hide phenomena from scrutiny.
Disciple (●●●)
- Fraying: Injure a target
- Perfecting: Fortify, bolster or improve phenomena
- Weaving: Alter the capabilities or functions of phenomena
Adept (●●●●)
- Patterning: Transform phenomena into a related phenomena or shapes, or replace capabilities or functions with different ones.
- Unraveling: Significantly injure a target.
Master (●●●●●)
- Making: Create Phenomena
- Unmaking: Destroy or mutilate a target
