Magic world Merits

'''Apprentice (***)''' An apprentice is a student devoted to study magic and learn of magical society under the tutelage of a more powerful and experienced mage. As opposed to Magical associates, an apprentice is bound by law(Light) or fear(Dark) to fulfil your desires and needs and in turn you must teach him of the Magical world, how to navigate it as well as to shape his magic. Apprentices usually stay with a mage for three to five years, before he’s promoted to Journeyman.

'''Broad Spectrum (*)''' Some mages magic is so unique and personified that it touches a broader or more unusual part of the spectrum. An Air mage that can throw lightning bolts, a fire mage with the ability to throw up a force barrier or something of the sort. Broad spectrum represents this, and allows the mage to choose one spell from other magic type, this usually doesn’t pass over the family boundaries but in rare instances it does. This spell is added to his base type of magic as a spell he can choose to learn, Broad spectrum can be taken more than once and each time it adds another spell. Each individual addition must be approved by the Storyteller.

'''Council Security (*** to *****)''' Mages of the light council often consider themselves above direct physical confrontation, making use of Council security instead. Council security is often Sensitives and adepts, trained in the use of one-shots, foci and firearms to protect their charge. At three dots you can request a security detail of three body guards, these are all sensitives equipped with a few one-shots and fire arms. At four dots the detail can increase to six or be made up of adepts instead, while at five the detail can be increased to fifteen sensitives, be made up of six adepts or two Keepers of Flame instead. ''Special: Requires Status(Light council) ** . With Status(Light council) **** or *****, you double the number in your security detail or at ***** dots you may have two Mantis golems as your detail instead.''

'''Dark cabal (*** to *****)''' Dark mages, as opposed to light mages, do not gather followers purely on merit of political status. Rather through pure power. Sufficiently powerful dark mages can pressgang others of their kind to join a Dark cabal, this is a group of like-minded mages or dark mages awed by the Dark masters power and serve him out of reverence or hope that once they’ll eventually gain their due. At three the Dark master commands 2 mages of significantly lesser power, at four the Dark master’s mages increase significantly in power or he can command four in total. At five the Dark masters cabal is feared far and wide, as he commands four mages of some skill or a total of six mages of lesser skill. ''Special: Requires Status(Dark Faction) ** .''

Foci (* to ***** ) Focuses are items made for the sole purpose of guiding magic to perform a specific effect, focuses don’t have magic of their own and need a mages power to shape and create their effect. Each dot of Foci allows you access to a Focus item of a level equal to the number of dots in the Merit, Foci can be bought more than once to represent an arsenal of Focuses.

Hybrid (***) Much as with Broad spectrum, Hybrid allows a mage to access a much bigger part of the magical spectrum. In Hybrids case, it allows a mage to choose another type of magic to pair up with their original, to create a third unique type of magic. For instance, Air and Lightning combined are usually referred to as Storm mages, however no single type combination has ‘dips’ on any kind of classification. As Air and Lightning can be storm mage, so could Lightning and Water or Air and Water. Hybrid can be combined with Broad spectrum to create truly unique types of magic. Opposed to Broader Spectrum, Hybrid has to be bought at character creation, with the approval of the Storyteller.

'''Imbued Item (*** to *****)''' For a long, long time mages had the issue of not being able to imbue items with magic of their own. This problem was primarily due to the fact that magic forms from personality and will, therefor it requires a live vessel. Finally some mage had a brilliant, or perhaps terrible, stroke genius to make the items themselves alive. These items are known as Imbued Items and are the rarest of the three kinds of magic items, where Focuses guide and shape the magic of the user and one-shots holds a single spell, imbued items have a permanent magical function tied to an agenda. As such, a mist cloak (***) has the ability to hide the wearer from magical detection and camouflage them, however if worn for too long the cloaks agenda of protection might go so far that it’ll literally cause the wearer to disappear forever to be lost and thus completely safe. Imbued items are often jealous and possessive, therefor wearing more than one Imbued item at time will at beast cause both of them to cease functioning and at worst be downright dangerous for the wearer.

'''Magical Associates (* to *****)''' You’re acquainted with one or more magical associate that’s ready to assist you in times of need, however these relationships aren’t one-way streets. Be it a business arrangement or a friendship, your associates will require tending and repaying. Each dot grants you one associate of power circa that of a starting Mage, you can spend more dots on one associate to increase their power. Remember though, associates tend to only help you within a certain field. So you might have Arachne the weaver (A three dot associate), while she’s powerful and knowledgeable she’s not likely to leave her lair or assist in combat ever. Her primary field is advice, crafting and clothing for instance. Each associate is uniquely crafted and should be discussed with the GM. Magical Associates can be magical creatures as well, such as a Pegasus (**) or Air Elemental (****) mounts, or a blink fox (***) as a familiar. One dot counts specifically as two adepts.

'''Magical Armory (* to *****)''' Some mages, particularly universalists, stand with very little actual combat defense or the ability to throw up shields. Such disadvantages can be alleviated through the use of One-shots. One-shots are single use magical items such as condensers, trail dust, stun rods and the like. Each dot of Magical Armory represent your increasing accumulated armoury, allowing you to pick One-shots to add to your inventory once per session up to the number of dots you’ve purchased.

Sanctuary (* to *****) Every mage worth his salt has some sort of Sanctuary, be it a Mansion on an abandoned heath somewhere, a glass-lined penthouse apartment or a Shadow realm of their own. A Sanctuary is a protected Haven of some description, each point invested makes the Sanctuary bigger and more secure. Sanctuary can be bought more than once, with one column showing size and the other security. While many might thing as secure as possible is the way to go, mages can ALWAYS find a way in and in mage society size actually means something.

Sanctum Size.
 * *: A small apartment or underground chamber; 1-2 rooms.


 * **: A large Apartment or small family home; 3-4 rooms.


 * ***: A warehouse, church or large home; 5-8 rooms, or large enclosure.

chambers.
 * ****: An abandoned mansion or network of subway tunnels; equivalent of 9-15 rooms or

Sanctum Security
 * *****: A sprawling estate or vast network of tunnels; countless rooms or chambers.
 * *:Your sanctuary has a good lock and a sturdy door.

high of ground.
 * **: The windows of your sanctuary is outfitted with grates, or the apartment is

location
 * ***: Your sanctuary is equipped with cameras, a few protective spells or obscure

wards to prevent unwanted teleportation.
 * ****: Your sanctuary has a host of security systems, wards for days and even gate

security systems. Remember you need some kind of item to gate to this location, so unless you have gate magic it’s suggested you grab Foci * for a gatestone. Special: Characters can share the cost of a communal merit, anchoring it in one single sanctuary. 
 * *****:Your sanctuary is in its own small shadow realm with it’s own wards and

Slaves (* to ***** )  Most mages, be they light or dark, view non-magical folk as sheep and tools to be used. Each dot in this Merit represent two normal humans that has somehow ended up as your slave, be it through magic, threat of violence or whether or not they’ve been bought by organizations that deal in such. Slaves aren’t more powerful than any other ordinary human.