The City of LeClaire | home
Matter
*Matter Perceptions
The Disciple of Matter begins by recognizing the varioud Patterns of Matter, including the undrelying structures that give objects their shapes and physical properties. With these perceptions, she can detect things hidden from normal senses. In addition to senseing the composition and properties of Matter, the Disciple can discern structures hidden within structures; material no longer forms a barrier to her senses.
**Basic Transmutation
The mage may transmute one sustance into another, without changing its shape, temperature or basic state (solid, liquid, gas). Mages of mystick Traditions can chnge milk into cream or mahogony into oak, while scientists change water to acid or lead into gold. The more readical the transmutation, the more successes the apell requires. It's easier to change water into wine (one success) than into sulfuric acid (three), and more complicated to turn stones into bread (three successes) than sourdough into rye (one).
With an understaniding of Prime and the other Pattern Magicks, a mage may use conjunctional Effects to transform items governed by Forces, Life or Prime into basic Patterns of Matter, including changing living beings into stone or spinning moonlight into thread. With Prime 2, she may harness the ether to create (or uncreate) any simple. basic thing composed of one common homogeneous substance. A quartz boulder shaped vaguely like a woman is possible, but a dainty china shepherdess is not. With difficulty, a stick of plastique could be conjured (but not the detonator), though a couple plutonium spheres are out of the question (the highly radioactive elements cannot be creates until Rank 5). A bowlfull of oatmeal or even blueberry pancakes could be made to appear, but not a baroque wedding cake. The more rare and/or complex a given substance, the more difficult it is to create from pure ether. It's easier to create glass than diamonds and simpler to make flour than bread. Elaborate creations must wait until Rank 4.
Making things hoter or colder than they were originally, or to cange oe substance into another with a higher or lower potential enewrgy, requires a conjunctional Effect with Forces, though Matter alone can change ice cream or boiling water into hot soup. Transmuting solids into liquids or liquids into gas requires either Matter 3 or the use of Forces 3/Orime 2 (or some mundane means) to boil or freeze the affected substance.
***Alter Form
At the third rank of Matter, the mage can finally overpower the rigid Patterns of reality. By selectively altering different aspects of an object's Pattern, he can change its shape however he desires--compressing it to increase density, and decrease its volume while retaining the same weight, inflating it so as to decrease its density and increase the volume, or temporarily changing the state, so that the solids become liquids or liquids become gas. Permanent changes in state require Rank 5.
A mage who understands his rank may sculp matter into any shape she pleases, limited only by the physical properties of the materials she uses. Broken items may also be repaired seamlessly, if she has the mundane knowledge to do so.
****Complex Transmutation
Adepts of Matter may now perform radical changes to physical materials and craft complex and intricate items involving several common substances or one or two rare ones. Any sort of regular matter may be changed into any other--a squirt pistol into a loaded zipgun (three successes) or a trash dumpster into a small tank (five successes)--though as with Rank 2. the more radical the transformation, the more difficult the feat.
With conjuctional Effects, the Patterns of Life, Forces or Prime itself may be transmuted into Matter, allowing mages to turn pumpkins into gilded coaches, lightning bolts into swords or the Quintessential ether into master keys. Complex organic creations are also possible, including silk ballgowns, roast chickens and Persian rugs.
*****Alter Properties
At this pinnacle of understanding, Masters of Matter may create new substances which do not exist in nature by taking existing materials and altering their physical properties, such as boiling or melting points, density, ductility, transparency, viscosity, refraction index. etc. A sorcerer may even make one objct immaterial to some other substance, creating bullets which can phase through armor and killer robats that can walk through walls (leaving the walls intact).
All the substances of legends and comic books are possible with this level of magick. Masters build castles with paper-thin walls and wear clothes of indestructible armor that feel softer than silk and weigh less than a feather. The rare prizes of Technocratic science such as manmade radioactive elements, are also reserved for this level.
As with the Fifth Level of Forces, there are safeguards against Masters of Matter using their powers to run amok. Assuming a mage had enough extended successes, an eight ball could be given the density of a black hole, but such a vulgar creation would require may successes and draw serious consequences (angry mages, flying objects, Paradow, etc.) uopn the conjurer, as tends to happen with vulgar magicks of a suficiently grand scale. However, small, portable black holes--with event horizons of no more than five feet--are useful, if vulgar, toys of some Masters of this Sphere.