By Constantine Thomas (c.thomas1@lancaster.ac.uk)
Study of the Prime enables the Mage to affect the flow of Quintessence through and around himself or any other Pattern (although it should be noted that Prime cannot affect the Sphere of Mind). While Prime is not essential to Mages, it is a very useful Art, and most Mages understand it at its most basic levels. There are two types of Quintessence: Raw and Free. Raw Quintessence is the basic Quintessence that allows Patterns to exist. It is literally the energy of something's existence; without this energy, the object cannot exist. Free Quintessence is not tied down to any Patterns, but instead flows freely around the Universe. Occasionally, Free Quintessence concentrates in places called Nodes, and the existence of these is vital to Mages. Mages gain access to the universal pool of Free Quintessence at the lower levels of Prime. The ability to affect Raw Quintessence is not available until higher levels of Prime, and with it comes great power as the Mage becomes able to snuff something out of existence!
What is commonly referred to as an 'Avatar' is actually made up of two parts: the Flow and the Avatar Pattern, or Unique Configuration. The Flow is the Raw Quintessence flowing through the Living Pattern, while the Unique Configuration is the medium through which the Flow travels. The Unique Configuration determines how the Flow passes through the Living Pattern, as well as its magnitude; thus the Flow and the Unique Configuration are strongly interlinked.
To cast magicks one must have a large Flow, but one's Unique Configuration must also be structured in such a way as to allow this. Thus, Sleepers have a relatively small Flow; certainly it is enough to sustain their existence, but very rarely enough to allow them to affect their surroundings. Mages on the other hand have much more powerful Flows, far in excess of the amount required to merely maintain their existences, and Unique Configurations that allow such a powerful Flow to pass through their Living Patterns. Such a strong Flow allows the Mage to cast magicks, and is an inherent part of his Avatar.
A Mage can use his Avatar rating to regain Quintessence by meditating in a Node for at least an hour (Perception + Meditation, difficulty 7). The number of successes gained determines how much Quintessence the Mage taps from the Node, but the Mage can only hold as much Quintessence as his Avatar Rating. Thus, a Mage with Avatar 4 who rolls 6 successes on his meditation roll can still only hold up to four points of Quint in his pattern in toto. A Mage cannot gain more Quintessence than the rating of the Node as a result of one meditation roll; in other words, a Node can only provide as much Quintessence as its Node rating over the course of one hour. In situations where the Mage's Avatar rating is greater than the Node rating, the Mage would have to make an extended roll in order to gain more Quintessence points from the Node than allowed by its rating. This means he would have to meditate in the Node for more than one hour, slowly recharging his Quintessence. The Node rating therefore indicates the leakage of Quintessence Points from the Node per hour, and does not necessarily indicate the actual strength of the Node. Thus, a powerful Node holding large amounts of Free Quintessence may still only be classed as Node 1 if its leakage rate is very low. In this example, the Mage will have to make five continuous Perception + Meditation rolls, gaining at least one success on each of them in order to tap a total of five points of Quintessence from the Node (one per turn). If he fails any of these rolls, then all the Quintessence he gained in the effort goes back into the Node. A Botch means the same as a failure, but he also will be unable to tap Quintessence from that Node for a few days at least.
The Avatar rating does not allow the mage to recharge himself with Quintessence outside a Node (only Prime 1 allows this). A Mage starts the game with as many Quintessence Points as he has in Avatar rating for free. He cannot start with more unless he has Prime 3 to start with -- these must be bought with Freebie Points. The amount of Quintessence that can be spent in one turn to reduce the difficulty of a magickal effect is equal to the higher of either the Mage's Avatar rating or his ability in Prime. Thus, if a Mage possesses neither Prime nor Avatar, he cannot spend Quintessence on his magickal effects.
The Flow in an Avatar (described earlier) represents the Raw Quintessence flowing through the Mage's Pattern (see below). This in turn affects how much free Quintessence (ie. the number of dots on the Quintessence circle on the character sheet) the Mage can hold.
However, Prime 1 does allow the Mage to collect Quintessence up to the limit of his Avatar Rating without recourse to meditation in a Node. He does this by using Prime 1 magick to directly tap the pool of Free Quintessence that permeates the environment; however, this is usually a Vulgar magickal effect, since Free Quintessence is being taken from the environment in an unnatural manner.
If the Mage has no Avatar Rating, but at least has Prime 1, he can use his Prime Rating as an equivalent to Avatar; thus, a Mage possessing a rating of Prime 1 or Prime 2 but no Avatar Rating can still hold Free Quintessence, and gains it using Prime 1 Magick as described here. His Prime Rating acts as the ceiling for his Quintessence Pool in the same way that Avatar would. Note that at Prime 3, he can break through this ceiling and hold as many Quintessence Points as he has room for.
In addition, at Prime 1 the Mage can use Tass by converting it directly to Free Quintessence to lower the difficulties of a magickal effect. However, without Prime 3 he still cannot channel the Quintessence from the Tass into his own Pattern; at Prime 1 he just uses it to power his magickal effects.
It should be noted that Prime 2 as described here only allows the Mage to set up the Raw Quintessence framework or Flow to fuel the Pattern -- nowhere does it say in the Prime 2 description that the Mage can alter the flow of Raw Quintessence into a Pattern. Thus, the 'Rubbing Of The Bones' Prime 2 effect on Page 211 of the Mage1 rulebook is out of place -- this is now a Prime 5 effect.
Enchanting Items: Mage2 introduces rules (on page 214) for Enchanting items using Prime 2. For consistency within these House Rules, Enchanting items (which involves an increase in the amount of Raw Quintessence held within the object) or creating Enchanted items is now only possible at Prime 4.
Enchanted Items: The Mage can also add Raw Quintessence to a Pattern above its natural state at Prime 4; this is known as enchanting an object, and makes it more 'real' and generally more resistant to Magick. Note that only Matter (and the occasional Forces Pattern) can be Enchanted; Living Patterns cannot.
Creating Enchanted Items: Enchanted items are not Talismans; they gain no extra magickal effects. They can be used by anyone though -- even Sleepers. Enchanting an item requires Prime 4 and at least one level in the Sphere corresponding to the item being Enchanted (ie. Matter 1 if the item is a knife, or Forces 1 if the Enchantment is being applied to a Forces Pattern). Items can be created in an already Enchanted state, but this requires Prime 4 and the appropriate Pattern Sphere (so to create an Enchanted Silver Knife would require Prime 4 and Matter 2); this is especially useful for creating Enchanted Forces Patterns (requiring Prime 4 and Forces 3 or 5).
The duration of the Prime 4 effect determines how long the Enchantment lasts; an extended and complicated ritual must usually be enacted if the item is to be permanently enchanted. Even if an item is created in an Enchanted state, the excess Raw Quintessence contained within it still returns to the Universal Pool; such 'overcharged' items are not usually stable in that state, and seek to return to the standard mode. The Enchantments powering such items can be undone by using Prime 4 to Unweave the effect (Prime 4 is necessary because Raw Quintessence is involved here).
Effects of Enchanted items: Enchanted weapons will inflict Aggravated Damage to all targets -- be they Awakened, Magickal, Spiritual or Sleeper -- even if they are not manifested in the Near Umbra or Shadowlands. Thus, a Wraith in the Shadowlands can still be damaged by an Enchanted knife even if the wielder is in the Skinlands. Enchanted weapons work by not only affecting the physical Pattern of the target, but by also directly affecting its Raw Quintessence framework. This is why damage inflicted by such items is always Aggravated, no matter what the nature of the target is. Enchanted items otherwise are more 'real' than their unenchanted counterparts, which can have a variety of effects. Such items are usually a lot more solid, tougher, and more opaque to magickal attacks than unenchanted ones. Thus, the enchanted denim jacket described in the example in Mage2 will certainly offer its wearer a number of free Countermagick dice or some magickal Soak dice. An Enchanted helmet would act to block incoming (and outgoing) Mind effects. However, such items would not provide any extra protection against mundane, non-magickal attacks -- the denim jacket would not be bulletproof (unless specifically made that way by Matter magicks).
Wraiths: It should be noted here that Wraiths are usually only affected by conjunctional Mind/Spirit magicks, since they are entities composed of pure mental will. Such magicks affect the Wraith as if they were Life Effects cast on living targets. However, even Wraiths have some element of Prime also sustaining their existence, though no Flow sustains them; Prime 4 is therefore all that is required to directly affect a Wraith (though this will affect in the same way that Prime 5 would affect a living target)
Reducing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a Pattern can give a Master great control over the magickal abilities of other Mages. The Master can reduce the Flow through a target's Pattern so that the Flow is too weak to allow it to wield Magick; the target essentially becomes a Sleeper (albeit a magickally aware one who does not count as a Witness for Vulgar magicks). Decreasing the Flow further requires more successes but it can be reduced to such an extent that it is extinguished completely, thus killing the target; however, the target's Unique Configuration will still be recycled unharmed. By increasing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through his Unique Configuration, the Master effectively increases his Avatar Rating; this allows him to spend more Quintessence on his magickal effects (this replaces 'Recharge Gift', which as using these rules is now a Prime 1 effect). In addition, he can use this to increase the maximum amount of Free Quintessence that he can store in his Pattern; however, this has the effect of 'supercharging' the Mage, manifesting as an aura of unbridled power. Objects merely touching the Mage may hurtle away at high speeds, and devices may spontaneously explode in his presence. In addition, Paradox may be drawn to such a large collection of Free Quintessence and may attempt to attack the Mage.
It should be noted that attempting the Gilgul is beyond the ability of mere Masters of Prime. Prime 5 affects only the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a target's Living Pattern; Gilgul however is the complete destruction of the Unique Configuration itself, such that it is lost forever to the Cycle of Life and Death (NB. All Residue within the Unique Configuration is also destroyed). Masters are completely incapable of affecting the Unique Configuration of living creatures, though they are aware of its existence at this level; the Gilgul can only be attempted by Oracles of Prime. The Unique Configuration can never be affected by any Prime 5 magick, and should death result it will always recycle, completely unaffected by non-Oracular magicks.
Also, Masters of Prime become aware of a connection between Paradox and Quintessence similar to that between positive and negative forces. Masters of Prime can use this to channel Free Quintessence in such a way that it cancels out Paradox energies that have not yet coalesced within a Pattern -- ie. remove incoming Paradox Points from an effect before the Mage gains them. However, channeling and focusing of Paradox into other Patterns is not possible until Oracular levels of Prime.
| Sphere | Effect |
| * | Perceive Quintessence. |
| ** | Fuel Pattern. |
| *** | Affect Free Quintessence. |
| **** | Affect Raw Quintessence. |
| ***** | Affect Raw Quintessence Flow. |