Sky Edevane

         All that changed when the Supernatural came to town. A demon known as the Death Angel took control of people and ran amok. And, while it was handled (by some intrepid mages), Sky witnessed more than she could ever deny again. It prompted her Awakening. In one life-shattering moment she realized all that read about, all she had sort-of believed, was true. Indeed, it was only the top of the iceberg in a world far stranger than she could imagine.

         It also terrified her. Upon seeing the demon, her overall emotions were those of vulnerability and a terrible feeling that she wasn’t prepared for this. She was heartened to see people standing against this evil, but she knew she would not have been able to do so in their place. Her safe world…the world she thought she knew…was forever gone.

         She fled. Specifically, she left the city and went to stay with her brother in Boston. And there she stayed for several years. (In Boston, that is. She probably moved off her brother’s couch in a month or two.) But she did not stop seeking. Her new revelation lit a fire under her, and a voice now spoke to her, urging her ever onward in her journey of enlightenment. (Once she would have thought she was going crazy. Now she dismissed that thought from her mind.) She searched around for others who knew what she knew. She spoke about what she had seen vocally on the internet, risking the comments of those who thought she was a crackpot.

         Until one day the Verbena found her. They took her in and offered to teach her as a collective chantry. She told them what she had seen and they agreed to teach her the skills she needed to protect herself and others, and never feel that vulnerable again. Moreover, they warned her about talking too freely of what she had experienced, for there was another enemy out there who sought to stamp out all knowledge of things different and sublime. They warned her of the Technocracy, and of the Ascension War.

         Sky was shocked and appalled. As terrifying as the demon had been, the fact of her Awakening was a gift. The spirituality she had been searching for her entire life was now hers for the seeking. It was transcendent. It was joy. To deny others the chance to experience what she could seemed to her to be the biggest cruelty of them all. Sky thought of the long years she yearned for this, but found it ever slightly out of her grasp. She wanted to offer this enlightenment to everyone who had eyes to see it. That thought burned inside of her, and the voice who spoke to her of her actions, both present and future, compelled her to make that goal a central one to her life.

         In service of that, she branched out in her career. In addition to advising people spiritually one-on-one, she began writing books. Couched in just enough New Age spirituality that they fly under the NWO’s radar, they nonetheless explain the spiritual truths of reality as she sees them. They talk about spells, and the Goddess. And they also have insight into the true nature of reality…for those who have eyes to see the real message hidden within the text. They have become moderately popular (in certain circles). She is by no means a universally known author. But her paperbacks can be found in most New Age shops these days, and she has made a tidy sum of money upon their sale. More than that, she hopes they will help guide others to the Awakening she experienced. Her goal is to assist the Verbena in making their vision of Ascension come true, at least in part, by guiding the spiritually minded to the Truth.

         Her other goal is two-fold. To protect people from supernatural threats they do not know are there, and to fight back against the Technocracy’s stifling control. She trained with the Boston Verbena for a number of years, learning spells both beneficial and harsh, but her goal was always to go back to her home city. It was there that she had first experienced the beyond. She thinks fondly of the occult community there. Though it has been many years, and she does not know them anymore, she still thinks of them as her people. She is one of them and she wants to go back to them. And she wants to protect them. When she expressed this to the Boston Chantry, they told her of the Phoenix Rising Chantry. It sounded like it met her needs perfectly. A large chantry, filled with other mages united in purpose. A chance to continue her magickal learning. A chance to protect. And a chance to pursue her goals while returning to her roots. Her name was put forward and accepted. At long last, she is coming home.

Mind Magick: I took the Sphere Inept flaw. She has not been able to…and is incapable of, learning Mind magick. She does not know why. It has been an increasingly frustrating void in her knowledge….something she just can’t grasp no matter how much she tries. Per the flaw’s description, this is because of some sort of blemish or wound on her Avatar…however, she is unaware of this fact. She still thinks it is due to simple lack of expertise (I’m just not getting it!”). Were she to find out, she would have no idea where it came from.

…I like to throw at least one thing per character that I don’t have an explanation for…sort of a ready made ‘story hook it you want it’ to the Storyteller. Feel free to expand on this, or not. Your choice. 

Driving Goal;  Sky has the Driving Goal to Awaken the Spiritually Minded. She is a great believer in people, and tends to be a bit of a idealistic dreamer in this aspect (thus the Visionary nature). Whenever she isn’t in the midst of plot, she will be working either on Life Coaching (and sometimes trying to teach tenets of willworking), or working on her books/book signings or readings…or will be going to events in the occult community, all with the goal of bringing this amazing knowledge to as many people as possible…with the hope that it will be enough for some of them to take the plunge. (This may or may not get her into trouble…)

Aspirations:

1. Personal Goal: To build something meaningful.

2. Real Life Goal: To make a place for herself in Phoenix…to settle in and find home and purpose

3. Magickal Goal: To Awaken as many spiritually minded Sleepers as possible. 

Personality: Sky is a visionary dreamer. She is an enthusiastic optimist that genuinely sees the good in people, and thinks they are endlessly capable if given the chance. She is all about the glass being half full. And she is all about the Next Big Thing in terms of her goals. She has a hard time living in the present because she is so forward-focused. A ball of energy, and a charismatic person…she nonetheless sometimes needs to chill out a little, but doesn’t know how. She is a little out there in terms of her spirituality and will talk about it forever if given the chance. She also has a temper, and a strong paladin-esque desire to protect people against things she perceives as wrong. She is driven by her Avatar…which she sees sometimes as a boon and sometimes as a burden. 

I used 2nd Edition Mage to create her. 

FOCI LIST

In general, anything Wiccan and/or New Agey are things that she uses. Ritual implements, crystals, aromatherapy, incense, herbs, etc. This stuff tends to not be the ancient tools of real-world pagan religions, rather the more modern versions of them. And the sanitized versions of it. Her athame (a jeweled dagger, in her case) is used to symbolically move energy around, instead of actually being used to cut and bleed, for instance. She’s not using rabbit entrails or crow eyeballs. No toad skins pinned to white rocks to make it rain (my favorite weird piece of “real” magic). It’s more about the philosophy that the Goddess is in everything, and there is energy that wells up in all things. And magick is about moving that energy around and directing it to take different forms. 

Basic sensory Effects just happen automatically, or she can access them using concentration and a quick prayer to the Goddess. 

She has some specific types of magick she tends to use, however, and I will hit on those as well as the foci she usually uses to do them. 

(ANY OF THESE EFFECTS CAN BE, AND OFTEN ARE, PAIRED WITH TIME TO SET THEM OFF IN THE FUTURE, WHEN TRIGGERING EVENTS HAPPEN)

Blessings and Curses: (Entropy and a spattering of other Spheres depending on the situation) 

~Simple rituals (such as calling the corners) can be used for either of these. 

Blessings:

~various crystals and or stones (ex. Hematite rings to drain negative energy)

~dried flowers, which she hands to the client…again different flowers depending on their symbolic meanings (sometimes, if she is using Life, and gets a lot of successes, when she pulls them out of her bag, they are alive, not dried.)

~A beneficial use of a poppet (voodoo doll), with symbolic positive objects tied to it, along with concentration. Easier if she has a sympathetic connection (see below)

(Note that they recipient doesn’t need to hang on to the flower, or crystal in order for the blessing to keep happening. They aren’t Talismans, just foci. It is the act of accepting the token that solidifies the spell)

Curses:

~Incantation combined with symbol tokens of harm or bad luck (ex. Something broken, something dead)

~A poppet that again she symbolically harms. Best if she can get something to tie some sympathetic magick to (a piece of the person’s hair, a drop of blood, an item the person owned). She can do without this if she needs to, though this makes the spell harder and requires a bit of a longer time to get the spell off (an extra turn, maybe?)

Healing and Harming Effects (Life, sometimes with Entropy)

Healing:

~She usually heals using crystals placed upon the person.

~Herby poltices

~Incantations to the Goddess

Harming:

~(see Curses. Similar sorts of things)

Quintessence Ideals (Prime 2)

~She needs to move energy around to do this. She typically uses her athame, moving it and drawing forth the power, and then tracing the patterns she wishes to make…in a pinch she can use a crystal or other symbolic receptacle of energy.

(Note, she uses this to create invisible messages that only other mages can see. It’s a good way to pass on a message in a pinch)

Enchanting Objects (Prime 2)

~Use of the athame again (or other symbolic…you get the idea)…making a small on-the-fly ritual of moving the energy into the object she is trying to enchant. 

Rubbing the Bones Rote (per Mage 2nd ed, pg 215: Prime 2)

~The athame again…often with sharper gestures and an angry tone. 

Life creation (Life and Prime)

~She creates the things using Quintessence, but she feels she needs to put a representation of the thing she is creating…some sort of symbolic link (honey for bees, a piece of wood for termites, a twig for a tree, etc.) to show the energy what form it should take. She *can* do without this in a pinch, but (due to paradigm, not mechanics), if she does without the symbol she believes the energy won’t be anchored, and will eventually fade away. So, otherwise permanent animals will disappear over time. 

(Note: She doesn’t have Mind, so when she creates creatures, they act based upon basic instincts…termites eat and breed, bees fly, sting and land on flowers, etc. She longs to create things with true minds, but has been stymied.)

Shapeshifting Minorly (Life)

~She often uses an Effect that can change her appearance and basic body type in order to mimic other people (Mystique-style)...or even make up a new person (although she is more comfortable…and the magick is easier for her…if she has a real person to use as a template). In order to do this she likes to have a sympathetic connection to the person (again, this is something of their physical body, or an item that they used to own). She *can* do without this in a pinch (using a longer ritual and a lot of symbolic items that represent the person as a workaround), but this is longer and tends to not make as precise a copy, so she prefers not to unless she has to. 

Casting this effect involves use of the athame to move the energy around as well, and is usually anchored into something she can wear on her person (a piece of jewelry or clothing usually). This triggers when she does something with the item (pulling a hood over her head, twisting a ring around, etc.) 

Due to the paradigm assumption that she needs an anchor, if she loses the item she has anchored the spell to, the spell fades away gradually (within 10 minutes or so)

(Note: Because many of her spells want a sympathetic connection, she keeps a satchel with her at all times where she collects small personal items of most of the people she meets (she’s a ficherer or small, unlooked-for objects) and just keeps them. So she often has a small reservoir of people she can turn into in a pinch.)

Wards (Entropy, Time, and various others)

~While immediate Entropy Effects can be cast in the moment (incantations, athame, symbols of luck, etc.), ongoing wards she sets up ahead of time. They usually are cast using small rituals (anchoring the spell on an item she has on her person) using, again, moving the energy, incanting, using crystals or other symbols of good luck or good health, etc. These are usually anchored using Time magick to do their thing when a triggering effect happens. 

*I’m thinking she has two Effects set up at all times (if she can). One is a straightforward Entropy Effect that shifts her luck positively when bad luck happens…a certain number of times before the ward is spent (maybe rerolling ones?)…and the other is a Life, Entropy Effect that curses somebody that harms her physically (triggering event) to suffer a similar fate. The Entropy Effect has x amount of charges before she’ll have to do the ritual to remake it again (where x equals number of successes) The Harming Curse I’m thinking is a one-shot Effect until she recasts in a ritual. These rituals take some time to do, and probably won’t be ‘in the moment’ casting. 

Better Body Effects: Per Mage 2nd ed. Pg 202.  (Life)

~Similar spellcasting as the shapeshifting, but with the focus on the body part that she is increasing (ex. around her legs to make her faster). Still anchors ongoing effects in items. 

Paradigm note: She doesn’t typically do things that make her less human (growing claws, wings, etc.)…it’s more subtle Effects that adjust her given Attributes (I’m taller, stronger, faster, etc.)…she probably *could* do those things…she’s no doubt seen other Verbena do them…but it would just feel *weird*…and therefore would be harder to cast. 

 Scrying the Future/ Affecting the Future: (Time and Entropy) 

~She uses tarot cards for this. If she has time, she’ll do a full reading for the most likely future, and multiple readings for multiple possible futures. She can also use them to use Entropy to then influence the future and make the outcome she wants more likely to happen. 

In a pinch, when time is short, she can draw a single tarot card and influence things towards what the card represents. 

Note: That she *can*…and occasionally does, use Tarot cards for other Effects as well (Ex. Pulling the Devil Card to curse someone with Entropy). It fits her Paradigm…it’s just not a foci she’s practices using much for other Effects…so it’s more of a ‘if my other foci aren’t available’ kind of thing.