Rotes & Procedures

(••• Spirit)

Our world is innately alive. This animistic viewpoint – an intrinsic part of shamanic practices – asserts that every object, place, or being has a spiritual element within itself. Most sprits slumber peacefully, dimly aware of their surroundings but more or less inert. An animist, however, can wake them up, granting fresh vitality to supposedly inanimate things.

As mentioned in the Chapter Nine sections about Awakening Substances see (p. 443), an awakened object works better than a normal, sleeping one. An awakened computer works faster and more efficiently; an awakened glass makes its drinks taste sweeter; an awakened car might literally go that extra mile if you treat it well, and so an animist knows how to get a little extra edge out of essentially material things.

Obviously, a mage wants to get on that spirit’s good side. To do so, she talks to it, chants while holding it, polishes it or tinkers with it or does whatever else the object in question might need in order to feel recognized. Maybe she reads her favorite book by candlelight to awaken the spirit within its pages, or she might clean a mirror while asking respectful questions about what it sees. In time, a favored object learns to recognize the mage and begins giving her small favors in return. A happy dagger might never cut its owner; a favorite sweater might look good and feel right and never snag or tear. Although most of these favors remain small and coincidental, a powerful shaman can rouse the spirits to perform clearly impossible acts: offering advice, running without fuel, locking

out trespassers who try to break into an awakened house, and other sorts of paranormal phenomena.

Awakened objects also have presence within the spiritual realm. An awakened knife, for example, can slice ephemera and accompany its mage into the Otherworlds. An awakened house retains its material substance on the other side of the Gauntlet, and it might even have a lower Gauntlet than the area around that house. (Storyteller’s option, unless the mage uses Spirit 4 to lower the Gauntlet herself.) A favored toy might glow in the Umbra… or perhaps even speak to the mage. In all cases, the awakened object or area has a stronger Resonance than an object or area that remains asleep.

System

Rousing an object typically requires an extended ritual – five successes or so for small objects, 20 or more for large areas or complicated machines. In most cases, the mage invests that object or place with her own Resonance, literally giving the spirit a part of herself. Typically, this spell remains coincidental. If the mage tries to rouse that spirit to do obviously uncanny things, however, then the Storyteller may decide that she’s invoking vulgar magick instead. As noted above, an awakened object exists in the Umbra as well as in the physical world and can be taken along with the mage if and when she travels into the Otherworlds.

A few words in the right ears (or the wrong ones) can change a person’s world. Hailing from the courtly intrigues of Renaissance Europe, this enchantment turns a simple rumor into a force of social destruction.

To begin the spell, the mage tells something (true or otherwise) to a “trusted friend.” Whatever that secret might be, its nature is innately scandalous. Although the spell caster begs her friend not to let that information slip, the spell actually compels the friend to pass the secret on to someone else… who tells someone else… who tells someone else… and so on, and so on, and so on…

System

Playing off the perverse urge to do forbidden things, this Chain of Whispers wraps the desired message in a magickal compulsion to share that secret freely. Mind implants the compulsion to spread the word, and Correspondence pulls the information from person to person; once that secret has been told, the urge to pass it on goes to the next person in the chain. Each success rolled compels two people to share the information… but after that, the natural human tendency to gossip keeps the secret in circulation long after the spell itself has faded.

In its original form, the Chain of Whispers required human speech and personal contact; these days, though, a phone call, text message, or Internet post can pass the word along. Mass media spreads gossip around as well, but the forbidden nature of the spell loses its potency when too many people get the message quickly. Unless the secret is clearly ridiculous and easily disproved, this spell remains coincidental. A character can resist the urge to pass it on (a simple Willpower roll would

be sufficient), but because so many people love great dirt, most folks won’t even bother trying to keep their mouths shut.