AVATAR  PAGE
"I met a woman long ago, her hair the black that black can go
 Are you a teacher of the heart, soft she answered No
  I met a girl across the sea, her hair the gold that gold can be
 Are you a teacher of the heart, Yes but not for thee
 I met a man who lost his mind in some lost place I had to find
 Follow me the wise man said, but he walked behind
 Several girls embraced me then I was embraced by men
 Is my passion perfect, No do it once again
 I was handsome I was strong, I knew the words to every song
 Did my singing please you, No the words you sang were wrong
 Well teachers are my lessons done, I cannot do another one
 They laughed and laughed and said well child, are your lessons done?
 Are your lessons done?
 Are your lessons done?"
-- Leonard Cohen, "Teachers" 

CONTENTS:


Awakening the Avatar
        Some mages awaken on their own, due to pressure from their Avatars, occult enlightenment, or seeing one too many strange things, and are then recruited and trained by whatever mage has noticed them.  But that is only common among the lost ones known as Orphans; far more common among traditional mages is the ritualized Awakening, wherein their mentor readies the mind and will of the initiate and then forcibly rouses the Avatar into consciousness.  This is, in game terms, a Spirit 3 / Prime 3 effect, and there are many things that must be done before it can be performed with complete success.  It must be determined that the initiate has an Avatar of significant power and potential; this can be done with Prime and Mind by mages who specialize in the study of Avatars and Past Lives.  The Willpower rating must be at least a 5, otherwise the mortal ego will not be strong enough to take the strain of Awakening, wherein the mortal ego becomes a channel for a far greater superego, and the mage will go mad, becoming a Marauder.  
 


Avatars & Supernaturals
        Humans & Mages: Some believe that all humans have Avatars and are capable of Awakening, others believe that only a select few are given the Gift.
        Vampires: Vampires were once humans, with souls and Avatars of their own, however weak or dormant.  But with the introduction of the viral vampiric blood, the mortal dies -- allowing the mortal self to descend to the Underworld and either remain there, restless, or pass on through Oblivion and into possible reincarnation.  The Avatar, too, passes on through this mysterious process as the Eidolon, even if the wraith remains restless.  So what's left in the undead mortal shell on earth?  A viral spirit that vampirically usurps the identity of the deceased, a hungry thing that lives in the blood.  Some have theorized that this vampiric thing, this Beast, is the bloated Avatar of Caine, the first vampire from humanity's distant past.  Or perhaps it is only a portion of that ancient Avatar, as the Incarna and other totems are portions of Gaia.  
        Werewolves: Werewolves ostensibly have souls, but they are not their own.  When viewed with spirit-sight, the Garou often appear more bestial in some way.  But the werewolf's souls are bound up in their pack totem, so much that they seem to have a collective, group soul, which is that totem.  And that totem is a child of (and therefore a part of) an Incarna-level spirit such as Stag or Wolf, and those spirits are ultimately a part of Gaia herself... which leads to the realization that all shapeshifters share a common Avatar, which is Gaia herself.  When viewed in the Umbra, werewolves always appear in their Crinos forms, and one with Avatar Lore can see the pack's totem as well (usually either at the werewolf's side or melded with its own form -- eg, a Crinos with Stag's legs and horns).
        Wraiths: Wraiths are not, despite common belief, the "souls" of  the dead -- not per se.  Rather, they are the egos, the remnants of the mortal selves; the superego/Avatar portion of the Self is called the Eidolon in the Underworld.
        Faeries: Faeries have no souls.  That's a well-known fact; when a faerie is walking the earth and someone looks at it with spirit-sight, there's simply nothing there.  They have an astral form, because they are sentient, but they have no primal spirit-form, no Avatars at all.  They do occasionally have something similar to a "halo" -- an aura of energy and power like those surrounding mages, but the "halo" of faeries has a frenetic, glittering, wyld quality to it, as if the energies were not the potent Quintessence mages know, but something different, something wholly fae.  
 
 


Avatar / Mage Relationships 
        Puppetmaster -- The mage is a pawn, unwitting or unwilling, and the Avatar is manipulating its host to its own ends...however dark or kind those may be.
        Enigmatic Guide -- The Avatar is leading the mage to something, some knowledge or understanding, perhaps Ascension, perhaps simply a memory buried deeply in some past life... but the trail it leaves is ambiguous and uncertain, either due to interference from outside, problems with the mage, or the Avatar's own intent.
        Distant -- The Avatar seems unconcerned and uninterested in the mage and her life, instead drifting off into contemplation, fantasy, or even half-slumber.  This is the most common Avatar / mage relationship.
        Partner -- The Avatar willingly and effectively works with the mage, pursuing mortal goals as well as urging the mage on to more esoteric ones.  This is the second most common relationship.
 


Disharmony and its Effects
         What happens when a mage is not in harmony with her Avatar?


Quintessence: Crown & Halo
        The "Crown" is the portion of the Avatar that manifests to those with the ability to sense the Avatars of mages and even Sleepers.  This ability in, game terms, is a Talent or Knowledge (Avatar Lore) plus either Spirit 2 or Awareness 4, or both.  It is called the Crown after Sahasrara (the 7th Chakra, also called Ananda), that bright white nexus of Divine energy depicted in eastern texts as positioned directly above the head.  Those select few who are versed in the ways of Avatars can sense the relative power of a mage's Avatar, and perhaps even something about it's nature -- unless the mage has countermagicks or psychic shields up.
        The "Halo" is the aura of energy and power that surrounds every magus.  This is completely seperate from the Aura perceived with Mind 2 and Awareness 3, which depicts emotional and mental states and can be seen in every human.  Some Halos are so faint they can barely be seen; these usually describe a mage who is holding little or no Quintessence, has a weak Avatar, or  ...this either means a weak magus or a more powerful one that is laying low.


Avatar - Families

HERMETIC

ELEMENTAL THE PENTACLE

Avatars & Past Lives

Corruption and the Widdersliante
        The existance of Evil...

        FOR EVERY MAGE AN ENEMY:

        THE DARK SOUL: Anyone with an Entropy rating of more than 3 has a substantial "darkness" in their Avatar, faintly detectable to those with Prime, Spirit, or Mind sensing, and obvious to those with Entropy and Avatar Lore of 3 or higher.  These mages, many of them necromancers, are often accused of being spiritually corrupt, called demon-mages or widdersliante.  There have been times in the not-too-distant past when such mages were openly hunted by church-mages, and even Hermetics have waged wizard-wars against mages they thought were corrupted (they heavily censured their own House Tytalus in the 1100s for such dealings).

        THE SATAN SITUATION: Many mages, especially those of ancient ways and traditions such as the witches, the ecstatics, and the Hermetics, honor dark deities and observe strange and evil-seeming rituals.
 


THE SHARD NEPTUNE
         Every planet in our solar system has a Penumbra, which is a sort of Realm of its own, called a "Shard."  Our world, the Earth, has three Penumbrae, four if you count Faerie.  To those who seek knowledge of Avatars, however, there is one Shard that is of utmost importance: Shard Neptune, called by many other names...Shard Neptune is an icy bluish-green world, with swift winds that rip across the outer layers of hazy clouds; but deeper down, as you sink into the endless layers of ever-thickening gases and mists, you eventually can find the surface of S.Neptune.  It is an ice-covered stone, worn smooth by millenia of winds and cosmic battery before the mists built up.  Frost rimes the many exotic rock formations, which can only be seen from any distance in the rare thinning of the greenish mists.  There are oceans here, it is reported, but since S.Neptune defies mapping efforts, it is hard to say how many or how large those frigid oceans may be.  There are countless Umbrood here -- ice-spirits, mist-elementals, emotion-spirits, angelics and demonics, even the occasional lune.  The Incarna Poseidon is said to lurk in one of the icy oceans, hiding from the possible sight of the tiny white sun in S.Neptune's misted green sky.
        On Shard Neptune, every Awakened visitor has Spirit Sight, and interaction with one's Avatar are amazingly clear and easy.  A witch traveling on S.Neptune may see the Crone's darkly-cloaked form moving slowly through the mists in the distance, a shaman might hear secrets in the screech of a silver owl that sweeps silently from above.  A Hermetic may sense the approach of his Holy Guardian Angel as the mists part, and converse briefly with the enigmatic spirit.  For some reason, Avatars that take the form of religious icons or apparitions manifest more strongly on Shard Neptune.  Another trait of the Avatar-manifestation, however, is that any communication on the Avatar's part is likely to be unclear, muddled, or even misleading.  The mage must untangle knots of illusion and seeming to reach the truth buried deep within.  Despite the clarity of the Avatar's presence here, the clarity of communion between Avatar and mage may actually be worsened.
        It is also quite easy to travel from Shard Neptune to the Shade Realm of Spirit, a vast, universe-sized Realm where Spirit is the primary buidling-block of reality.  The portal to the Shade takes many forms; it may be a flood washing over the traveler while on Shard Neptune, or it can be found as a sort of "shadow" cast by the planet on the Horizon, in which case it can take whatever form is expected by the viewer.  For more details on Shard Neptune and the Shade Realm of Spirit, see White Wolf's Beyond the Barriers: Book of Worlds, or my Shard Realms page.
 


Avatar Lore
        This Knowledge allows a mage (or even the occasional sorceror), to understand the intricacies and mysteries of the Oversoul, or Avatar.

        1 -- You are aware not only that it is the Avatar that creates magick, but that .  You are familiar with a few basic theories on the nature of the Avatar as subconscious or soul, and can tell a powerful Avatar from a weak one.
        2 -- You know about one or two of the Avatar Families, and can sense disharmony between mage and Avatar when it exists.  You can guess at the elemental association of a given Avatar-- fire, water, earth, or air.
        3 --  You can perform a basic Awakening ritual, and can guess well at past lives. You can usually tell a corrupted soul from a pure one (when aided by Entropy magicks).  You can see and understand most forms of disharmony, and can be sure about an elemental association.  You are very conversant in the Hermetic concept of Avatar Families, and can learn much from studying an Avatar's Crown (with Prime1/Spirit1)... you can see the form the Avatar takes, and tell how strongly its ties with the mage are.
        4 -- You can read the signs of the lives in the Avatar's past like rings on a tree trunk (this is aided by Time magicks).  You know the Avatar's place in various metaphysical systems, such as Kabbalah, Alchemy, and various religions.
        5 -- You are probably a member of the 12 Scholars of the Wheel, or at least a learned scholar of the Akashic Records.  You know the histories and paths of many Avatars, the ways in which they move from body to body and life to life, the deepest secrets of souls.  You have probably often walked Shard Neptune, and what you know about our Higher Selves could fill volumes.
 

KNOWLEDGE: AVATAR LORE

        1: You know that Avatars exist, and can tell a powerful one from a weak one.
        2: You know about one or two of the Avatar Families, and can sense disharmony between mage and Avatar when it exists.  You can guess at the elemental association of a given Avatar-- fire, water, earth, or air.
        3:  You can perform a basic Awakening ritual, and can guess well at past lives. You can usually tell a corrupted soul from a pure one (this is aided by Entropy magicks).  You can see and understand most forms of disharmony, and can be sure about an elemental association.
        4: You can read the signs of the lives in the Avatar's past like rings on a tree trunk (this is aided by Time magicks).  You know the Avatar's place in various metaphysical systems, such as Kabbalah, Alchemy, and various religions.
        5: You have walked the Shard Neptune often, and what you know about our Higher Selves could fill volumes.
 
 

Back to Paths...
Send me e-mail at [email protected]