SHARDS

By John Thompson (thompson@scripps.edu)

Description

Shards are people who can influence the local paradigm. They are not quite mages, and not quite human either. Shards are about as common as wielders of True Magick -- quite rare. Most are unaware of their ability.

In game turns, if a Shard is a witness to a Magickal event, she causes the difficulty to be biased as one toward her paradigm. If Michael Walks-Far, a Shard that follows the Dreamspeaker paradigm is around, technomagick is a +1 difficulty, and animist magick is at -1 to difficulty, because of the Shard's belief. This does not change the overall modification of no more than +3/-3 as stated in the rulebook.

Shards can follow any Magickal Tradition or Craft.

They are unable to influence the paradigm by their will alone; rather they can modify the local consensus. A shard has no other innate abilities. Like Mages, they could be ghouled and retain their ability, but being Embraced destroys the ability.

Being a Shard is a +7 Merit. You must choose a paradigm to follow, and your beliefs could change over time, but it is as difficult as changing Nature. Shards are very valued companions to Mages, and when discovered, rarely have boring lives.

It is hypothesized that Shards are the pieces of Avatars either shattered by Gilgul or Avatars becoming weaker and no longer able to do Magick, yet still have some power. Others see them as sentient Nodes.