[Mage: The Awakening] Mage Sight Part 2: Active

 ((Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening v1.9
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Designed from MtA 2nd Edition Open Development documents on Mage Sight and Signs of Sorcery: Advanced Mage Sight as well ad house rules)) 

Part II: Active Mage Sight (Practices of Knowing)

Active Mage Sight is the next level, the mage deliberately opening her senses to the Supernal World. By default, this allows a mage to perceive the symbols of everything relating to her Ruling Arcana. Tthe experience is interpreted and filtered through the Mage’s soul into her mind as hallucinations and sensory effects – an Obrimos using his Mage Sight might see electricity glittering in the wall cables, see a halo of authority around the leaders of groups, and feel the burning, life-giving power in sunlight. The result is confusing or even overwhelming for new mages not used to it, and presents such an overload of information that it’s hard to make out details. 

What active Mage Sight does do is make glaringly obvious what was only a feeling of something strange in Peripheral Sight, as long as it can be seen in the Arcana used. and the presence of supernatural entities and inactive items and Merits that are covered by the Arcana used, even if in Twilight. For example, Fate Sight will pick up on the presence of destinies and fate-cursed objects even if those curses haven’t triggered. Concealment magic only works against active Mage Sight if it protects against the full battery of a mage’s senses — an invisibility spell that warps light will not mask a living human from a Thyrsus’ Life senses, but a vampire’s mental “ignore me” field, or a spell that uses Prime to hide its signature, will work. Even then, a Mage whose Sight includes the appropriate Arcanum for the concealment power (such as a Mastigos for the vampire or an Obrimos for the cloaked spell) gets a Clash of Wills roll. 

Active Mage Sight allows a mage to study her surroundings through the lens of her Path and the Arcana she knows. It makes plain supernatural beings and phenomena and reveals the nature of things under her Arcana's purviews. It does not offer insight into the nature or function of the Mysteries a mage observes — that's the role of Focused Mage Sight — but if the mage has encountered the phenomenon and successfully Scrutinized it before, she can recognize it with Active Mage Sight. A mage who has previously Scrutinized the victim of spirit possession, for example, recognizes the telltale signs when she sees someone else possessed by a spirit.

• Opening the Eye – Active Mage Sight are spells that open the mage’s senses to the interactions of the Supernal Truths all around them.  Baseline mage sight is cast like a spell and automatically incorporates the Mage’s ruling Arcana and is free of cost. Others can be incorporated into the same spell for 1 Mana per Additional Arcana. The mage sees the world as symbols and hallucinations feeding raw information into the brain on everything relating to the applicable Arcana.  This lasts one scene unless a willpower point is spent to keep it up for additional scenes.

• Mage Sight is a Proto-spell – Similar to both conventional spells and the passive Sensorium Arcanum, Active Mage Sights are treated as one spell-like ability even when multiple are activated.  Newly Awakened have no trouble stumbling onto how to use Mage Sights as an almost innate quality of being a mage.  These senses are very overwhelming and the flood of information can be maddening at first.  However, using Rotes to reduce cost mana for Active Mage Sight.

• Seeing the Unseen – Active Mage Sights are made to defeat attempts to conceal or mask the supernatural.  Active Mage Sights allow their casters to see the Immediate Nimbus of another mage when they cast magic and can also see their auras and any active spells.  The mage can also identify other supernatural creates on sight an any supernatural items even if they are not activated at the time. Different Active Mage Sights can also reveal things hidden like beings manifest in Twilight, invisible assassins that still displace air. It all depends on which sights are being employed and they can easily defeat attempts to mask or veil information.  If the concealment is directly opposed by one of the Active Mage Sights (such as Aura Perception and Obfuscate) it will ignite a Clash of Wills. 

• Sensory Overload – These data streams can be very distracting and while they affect sight the most all senses, including emotions are included.  No two mages see the world alike, the Supernal World is filtered through their souls and is biased as a result.  Mages using Active Mage Sight take -2 to all Attribute and Skill-based rolls due to distractions.  Also, after the first scene in which they are activated the mage must spend a Willpower Point per scene to keep the sights up.

What Active Mage Sight Detects: (note that these are combined and consolidated proto-spells.  If someone has Death Sight up they see everything under the death sight category)

Any Ruling Arcana Sight (Gnosis 1, Ruling Arcana 1)

• Detects supernatural creatures on sight unless attempts at veiling force a clash of wills
• Detects active spells within sensory range
• Detects supernatural items even if they are not being used
• Detects when a magic spell is cast and from who (if within sensory range)
• Detects the nimbus of the caster of any spell
• Can recognize the Signature Nimbus of someone they previously scrutinized
• Can be used to initiate a Clash of Wills to pierce concealment powers if the Arcana being is appropriate
• Assume any mage can recognize the effects of any supernatural ability common to the mage template: Mage Armor, Focused Mage Sight, Pattern Scouring/Restoration, and so on.
• Requires direct observation of the phenomena in question: it doesn't work on recordings or a live television feed. A mage can use Active Mage Sight through a scrying window or visions of the past from Postcognition or similar effects.
• Can identify the Resonance of supernatural people/place/things as long as the mage has scrutinized a previous similiar type before.

Death Sight (Transition)

• Forensic Gaze (Death 1) – reveals what killed/is killing someone in detail
• Speak with the Dead (Death 1) – allows the caster to perceive beings in Twilight and speak to ghosts there regardless of language 
• Soul Marks (Death 1) – reveals the relative health of a person’s soul

Fate Sight (Chance)

• Interconnections (Fate 1) – reveals Sympathy between subjects and senses manipulations of fate and destiny
• Synchronicity (Fate 1) – reveals cryptic events and random input that provides guidance from fate itself 

Forces Sight (Power)

• Night Sight (Forces 1) – allows the mage to see in the dark using virtually no light
• Outer Music (Forces 1) – reveals electromagnetic signals from outer space
• Receiver (Forces 1) – allows the mage to hear sounds beyond normal volume or pitch 
• Tune In (Forces 1) – allows a mage to listen and see electromagnetic signals and data steams with an automatic decryption function for most signals.

Life Sight (Boundaries)

• Analyze Life (Life 1) – allows the mage to study and gain information on a lifeform
• Sense Life (Life 1) – allows a mage to detect the proximity, size and type of lifeforms

Matter Sight (Permanence)

• Crafter’s Eye (Matter 1) – reveals damage, wear and tear on an object and how to fix it
• Craftsman’s Eye (Matter 1) – discover the functions and how to operate any machine or device
• Detect Substance (Matter 1) – reveals the presence and proximity of a desired material
• Discern Composition (Matter 1) – reveals exact measurements and portions of materials and elements in a subject
• Find the Hidden Horde (Matter 1) – Reveals any hidden doors or empty spaces in a location.

Mind Sight (Confrontation)

• Aura Perception (Mind 1) – Reveals Auras and emotional states of minds
• Sense Consciousness (Mind 1) – Reveals sentience and sapience, including in Twilight
• Know Virtue/Know Vice (Mind 1) – Examine a person’s fundamental character

Prime Sight (Command)

• Analyze Enchanted Item (Prime 1) – Reveals what a supernatural item does and how it works
• Paths of Power (Prime 2) – Reveals Leylines and locates the nearest one.
• Detect Banisher (Prime 1) – Reveals the damage in the soul of a Banisher in relation to their Supernal Connection
• Discern Phantasm (Prime 1) – Reveals illusions

Space Sight (Transgression)

• Angle Vision (Space 1) – Allows a mage to look around corners of send his vision outside his body.
• Omnivision (Space 1) – Allows a mage to look everywhere at once.
• Correspondence (Space 1) – Reveals the Sympathetic Ties between subjects
• Finder (Space 1) – Allows a mage to flawlessly track an item in his immediate surroundings
• Spatial Map (Space 1) – Provides a tactical map of an area from above

Spirit Sight (Intercession)

• Alien Spotter (Spirit 1) – Reveals entities possessing or hidden in a subject
• Exorcist’s Eye (Spirit 1) – Reveals entities possessing a subject
• Spirit Tongue (Spirit 1) – Allows a mage to see spirits in Twilight and speak First Tongue with them.
• Analyze Spirit (Spirit 1) – Reveals detailed information about a spirit 
• Peer across the Gauntlet (Spirit 2) – Allows a mage to look into the Shadow

Time Sight (Consequence)

•  Momentary Flux (Time 1) – Reveals butterfly effects in the immediate future
• Precise Dating (Time 1) – Highly accurate dating of past events or subjects
• Temporal Wrinkles (Time 1) - Reveals temporal disturbances 
• Does not include Perfect Timing

Combination Sight Examples (Handled the same way, activate multiple Arcana-sights to be able to sense things others cannot.

• Abyssal Perception (Space 1, Spirit 1, Prime 1, Death 1) – allows a mage to detect the presence of Abyssal phenomena 
• Breach Point (Matter 1, Death 1, Space 1) – reveals hidden structural vulnerabilities in walls and barricades
• Eye for Destruction (Matter 1, Death 1) – discern the weak points in a machine or lifeless subject
• Sense Poisons & Drugs (Matter 1, Life 1) – Reveals any deadly substances
• Detect Alien Mind (Mind 1, Prime 1) – Detects possession of minds from outside normal reality
• Gauge Essence (Prime 1, Life 1, Death 1 or Spirit 1) – Reveals how much Essence is stored in an object or entity.
• Moving Target (Space 2, Time 2, optional Prime 2) – allows the mage to predict the movements and location of a subject over time.
• Track Projectile (Space 2, Time 2 or just Space 2) – reveals the path and location of a high-speed projectile
• Time’s Mark (Time 1, and Life/Matter 1) – Accurately know age of subject

New Merit: Supernal Taxonomy (••)

Prerequisites: Intelligence ••, Occult •••

Effect: Your character possesses a deep, intuitive understanding of Active Mage Sight. When she observes a phenomenon similar in either effect or origin to one she has previously Scrutinized, she can recognize the similarity. For example, a mage who has previously Scrutinized another mage's Psychic Domination spell, upon seeing the victim of a vampire's Dominate Discipline, would recognize the effect as some sort of mental control. If instead she saw someone under the effects of the Augment Mind spell, she would recognize the signature of Awakened magic. If she's Scrutinized the Signature Nimbus of another mage, she can now see it with Active Mage Sight rather than having to Scrutinize.

There are more examples of Active Mage Sights and while they use both the Practice of Knowing and Unveiling.  Many that require more effort than simply looking at the world around them require higher levels or Arcana or a legitimate spellcasting roll to determine its effects.