Bestiary

A technomancer whose view of the world involves solving puzzles or tinkering with objects might have an Eidolon-like Jumble: a scattering of pieces or parts whose innate disorder invites the mage in question to build something functional out of apparent chaos.

Unlike personified Avatars, Jumble (a name of conve­ nience, not identity) consists of a bunch of disconnected parts whose form suggests intrinsic order if and when the mage figures out how those pieces fit together. Jumble does not speak, move, or act — it merely manifests at times when the technomancer seeks the solution to a problem, feels blocked with regards to his practices, or otherwise encounters unusual amounts of chaos that’s internal, external, or both. Once the mage decides to sort out Jumble, the Avatar begins to radiate a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Depending on that mage’s situation, the sorting process might be quick and fulfilling, challenging, downright frustrating, or borderline impossible. Ideally, the mage gains insights into his other problems while sorting through the pieces of Jumble. If noth­ ing else, the act of putting things to rights, or of discovering how apparently disparate parts can be joined together into a new and clever whole, helps the mage in question work through his dilemma. Sooner or later — again, depending on how chaotic the mage feels his life has become or how insurmountable the obstacles he faces appear to be — Jumble attains a satisfying form. The Avatar has helped its human partner overcome the illusions of meaninglessness that are inevitable parts of life.

Different mages experience various sorts of Jumble. A mechanically inclined technomancer could see a collection of machined parts, while a mathematically-inclined magus views a paper or whiteboard covered in dizzying calculations or designs. One mage could see broken bits of ancient wreck­ age, a second confronts a disordered library composed of real or imaginary books, and a third unravels a tangle of colored yarns, sorts through a CD collection, views botched code on her computer screen, or sets a tangled garden to rights in his Chantry’s backyard. Although Jumble Avatars tend to mani­ fest for tech-focused mages, the idea of sorting order from its opposite is a fundamental element of the human experience; thus, any mage could have a Jumble of their own.