You’re a walking travel guide, even in places you’ve never visited before. A combination of prior knowledge and innate savvy helps you spot cultural sweet spots and pitfalls before you (or your companions) trip over your own ignorance.

Unlike the Etiquette Skill, this Knowledge is less about making friends than it is about figuring out how cultures work as a whole. With it, you can grasp foreign manners, catch subtle cues, unravel complex social roles, and draw conclusions about the importance of gender, politics, ethnicity, and – perhaps most importantly – the cultural expectations of the people in question. In a chronicle that employs reality zones, this can be a subtle but important weapon in the global Ascension War. For details, again see Reality Zones in Mage 20, pp. 611-617.

• Dabbler: You read travel guides for fun.

•• Student: You’re a smart tourist.

••• Scholar: A cultural chameleon, you catch on fast.

•••• Professor: Versed in several societies, you know more than many natives do.

••••• Master: The world is your playground, your oyster, and your home.

Possessed by

Diplomats, Activists, Peace Corps Personnel, UN Operatives, Infiltration Specialists, Cultural Attachés, Missionaries, Jet-Setters, Globetrotters, Mages Without Borders

Specialties

Manners, Taboos, Social Graces, Social Castes, Local Politics, Subtle Cues, Religion, Regional History, Gender Politics, Unspoken Rules

Ratings