The medicine wheel, the sacred hoop, the wheel of the year, the sun cross. The symbol represents the flow of life, the-spirit-that-flows-through-all-things. It is a concept repeated ad naseuum throughout Sleeper history. The circle did not simply know this. They felt it. They journeyed into the wilderness, and they survived off the land. They fasted, and they exposed themselves to the elements. They tested the limits of their physical ability. Through this understanding they enhanced their natural talents.
They left the comfort of their communal fires to guarantee the safety and prosperity of their tribe. Often they left with only a knife on hunts that could last many months. They were the first frontiersman. Shamans who forged paths into the wilderness and shadow. They were the original trackers. Hunters who located the enemy and tracked game. They were the explorers who made first contact with alien spirits and the foreign tribes of man. They were the most skilled survivalists amongst the Thyrsus.
As settlements grew, and man began to struggle against their natural place in the pattern. The circle mission changed. They still sought to deliver man from the dangers of the greater world, but it became apparent to the circle they must also deliver man from themselves. The struggle between man and their place slowly began to erode the natural wonders and wild beauty of the world, and the possibilities that it represented.
The circle's crusade fell on deaf ears. People became less concerned with community, and they became more focused on themselves. The wild lands disappeared from Europe, and the Circle disappeared with them. The last known iteration of the Circle was in the New World. They formed secret medicine circles in several native societies, but they finally faded with native cultures.
The Original Circle
The original Circle of Four were descendants of the survivors of Atlantis. They sought to return to the natural world, rejecting the hubris that ended the age of magic. Cities were anathema to them, locations which led people from the path of wisdom. They founded a legacy based on this idea, hoping to guide humanity into a bountiful age of neotribalism. This ended when the majority of the masters ascended, leaving lesser mages to continue their work.
Now their legacy is all but dead, their works lost and many of their artifacts either destroyed or erased from time. It is known that three Wendings or lost Chantries remain: a primordial wetland, now sealed by Cicero; a vast woodland, long ago sealed away from the Fallen World where humans are turned into animals and hunted by wolves; and the jungle clad Dragon's Gate, whose entrance lies hidden in the Yucatan. An old woman and a shaman still dwell there, fragments of the original Circle, still bent on their mission but orphaned.
Of their other works few signs remain. The Antediluvian is dead, slain by the last of their legacy. Nehjarra was twisted and now has been destroyed. Little holds the god they imprisoned beneath Chicago...
Parent Path: Thyrsus
Attainments:
1st Attainment
Eyes of the Scout
Requirements: Prime 2 (Primary), Spirit 2 Trained Observer 3
In their solitude, members of the Circle gained the ability to refine their mage sight into a keener sense. By studying an individual, their mage sight reveals the deeper meaning behind their personal resonance. What is their emotional state? Have they eaten today? How long has it been since they last had sex? With enough time, all things can be uncovered. Resonance is not static. Every individuals resonance evolves over time, but every person's resonance does have a unique quality. A pattern woven by the long history of their experience. How much time is required for what information is up to the Storyteller. Wits + Investigation + Prime
Optional:
Requirements: Matter 2
The members of the Circle can track their prey by the tracks they leave behind. Even in the hardest of substances, a being's trail is left imprinted in resonance. Finding pressure releases in soft mud to reveal information about your prey is an art. Finding the same information in the edges and gullies of a hand print, foot print or scent perceivable only because of magically heightened sense can be a surreal sensory experience. To the scout, every surface a person touches leaves evidence of their passing and of their identities. The scouts ability to perceive the flow relies on their connection to the supernal. The tail is fresh for a number of hours equal to a mage's gnosis. Every hour after, they incur a -1 penalty to a maximum of -5. Wits + Survival + Prime
2nd Attainment
The Chameleon's Soul
Requirements: Prime 3, Spirit 3
A scout's resonance is extremely difficult to perceive. Once they don the cloak of the pattern, their resonance begins to blend in with that of the world around them. The scout gains a benefit similar to the occultation merit, except it makes his resonance blend in with the natural world. His aura seems off to those analyzing it, and his spells seem almost natural to the world. He gains the benefits of the occultation Merit equal to 1/2 his gnosis rounded down. In addition, he can temporarily disguise his resonance to appear as someone else's who he has analyzed. Wits + Survival + Prime
Optional: Life 3, Matter 2 - The Predator's Skin
The scout can use his sense of the pattern to blend into his surroundings. By altering the very nature of his own pattern, his body and clothes become transparent. He is little more then a glimmer in the corner of the eye, or a passing shadow. This ability is not true invisibility, but it does make it very difficult to keep track of. Close up it is easier to tell something is around, but from even three yards away the scout can completely fade into the background. When activated, the scouts Gnosis is subtracted from all rolls to perceive the scout.
Activation: Wits + Stealth + Gnosis