Arete

ARETE     *  *     (Talented)
 

Summarized to mean the amount of Enlightenment one has gained. It is your magical potential to have successful Effects (1 die roll per dot). This must be teamed up with Willpower. To raise his Arete, Tae needs to go on Seeking (spiritual quests of a sort). 

At this level, Tae must Focus his Arete through a Paradigm, a Practice, and at least 7 Instruments.  

NOTE: Try to keep the magical acts looking as Coincidental as possible. 

 

Paradigm is the meaning or intention behind what Tae wants to achieve. This is the beliefs that inspire his magic to manifest. Tae teeters between believing the Pagan Paradigm of Creation is Innately Divine and Alive and Divine Order and Earthly Chaos. He doesn't actually see how these paradigms are different, usually considering them to be complimentary or almost... the same if you look deeply. The Yin/Yang of the latter is merely the Cycle of the former.

Practice is style Tae uses. His choice of style will depend on who is around him. Not everyone is comfortable with typical Pagan ritual styles, Witchcraft. That said, he often uses Pagan/Wiccan styles when he has the time to lay the Patterns. There is a prettiness to the practice that he enjoys. Most other times, he relies on Martial Arts, Meditation styles, and Do. They are far less flashy and less caught up in the 'trappings of the Craft'. Often he also relies on Medicine Work to get him through as a practice. It is reliable and predictable and patterned. These methods are the practice that directs his magic to manifest.

Witchcraft (the Craft of the Pagan or Wiccan) strives for harmony with the light and dark energies of the world. It is eminently practical, focused on everyday miracles and visionary craft.

Associated Abilities: Academics, Animal Kinship (which Tae does not have, his only kinship is with his Familiar), Art (not this either, even tho his Familiar makes him to artsy things as often as she can), Awareness, Crafts, Medicine, Meditation, Occult, Pharmacopeia (not Tae's thing).

Common Instruments: Artwork, blessings and curses, blood and fluids, bodywork, bones and remains, books, brews (TEAS), cards (or stones), celestial alignments, circles, crossroads, cups and vessels, dance, drugs and poisons, elements (and their associated tools), eye contact, group rites, household tools, knots and ropes, music, offerings, physical touch, sex and sensuality, social domination, symbols, True Names, wands and staves, weapons, writing and inscriptions.

Martial Arts is how he focuses his body to be a suitable channel for the power of mind and spirit, hones his mind, and nurtures his spirit. This is where he does most of his inner work and self-development. It compliments anything else he does and gives him the stability to see things thru. This is achieved thru martial discipline and practice, thru meditation, and thru his practice of Do. Thus, Tae can work on directing the Forces, altering Life, rearranging Matter (one day), perceiving Entropy (not sure he even wants to dip a toe in that Sphere), channel Prime, enhance Time and refine Mind.

Associated Abilities: Acrobatics (not something he ever worked on), Alertness, Athletics, Awareness, Esoterica, Etiquette (see him cringe), Intimidation (he is so NOT intimidating in any way), Martial Arts, Medicine, Meditation, Melee, Do.

Common Instruments: Bodywork, dance and movement, energy, herbs (in relation to teas), meditation, ordeals and exertions, symbols, wands and staves, weapons, voice.

Medicine Work is truly Tae's personal calling. Next to parenting, healing might be the highest human vocation. Many mages – mystics and technomancers alike – view their Enlightenment as an obligation to heal. To heal the planet, heal the people, heal the spirits, heal the Earth… perhaps all of them at once, if that’s at all possible. And so one of the oldest and most sacred Paths an Awakened person can pursue involves the practice of medicine work. This is Tae's intent to heal. Tae has a decent grasp of both Western and Eastern medical technologies and techniques. Tae is not a Doctor, but he hopes he can accomplish some healing with his magic to make up for what he is not in the learned medical field.

Associated Abilities: Academics (healing practices), Art (masks, dance, music, etc.), Awareness, Empathy, Esoterica (herbalism, energy work, bodywork, healing and meditative practices), Medicine, Meditation, Pharmacopeia, Science, Technology.

Common Instruments: Artwork, blessings and curses, blood and fluids, bodywork, bones and remains, books, brews and concoctions (TEAS), computers, cups and vessels, dance and movement, devices and machines (AED), drugs and poisons, group rites (operations), herbs, laboratories, languages (Latin, jargon, and that weird script doctors use when writing prescriptions), meditation, music, offerings and sacrifices, prayers and invocations, social domination, voice, weapons (surgical instruments), medical supplies (First Aid & EMT equipment).

Tae's Quick-Use Tools (Wonders) Tae hasn't really established any "Wonders" or quick-use tools. He keeps considering doing so, but the situations he would want to use them in would only cause Paradox by their use anyhow.  

Personal Tool carries Resonance and is associated with the Affinity Sphere reducing difficulty by -1... or by -2 if the tool is both unique and personal. So what is Tae's first go to? TEA... and thus his teacup. His Sacred Teacup with me a Unique Personal took. It is not pretty (because he made it himself), but it serves the purpose. Tea that he brews would be his general Personal Tool when he brews it with intention.

Instruments are the tools Tae uses to put that Practice into action. These are the tools through which Tae most often works his magic. 

Blessings (and Curses, but he rarely ever considers these)
Bodywork
Stones (for Lithomancy, but also for some crystal healing work)
Elements (and their tools)
Casting Circle
Physical Touch (tho he has never extended this to sensual/sexual practices)
Offerings (making offerings to elements and Divine/Spirit as if in prayer)
Jo Staff (eventually... but not yet)
Fountain Pens & his Grimoire
Energies (Primal/Quientessence)
Do (direction of Energies/Chi)
TEA (the selection, blending, and brewing)
Meditation
Voice (usually to help calm an injured person and help with healing)
Any vessel for water or tea)
EMT Equipment & First Aid Kit supplies
Prayers (etc verbal stuff)
Music (selected and listened to, not performed)

[read pp. 586-600 for more details]