Spheres

A Sphere is the word used for a concept of magic which represents a part of existence. It is differentiated from Paths and Pillars; Where Paths are an approach to magic unto themselves(A form of Numina that most anybody can use), and Pillars build upon themselves alone, Spheres are combined together to create mystical effects. They represent the abilities of Mages and most beings of the High Umbra, who call them Lores, rather than Spheres.

Different Mages and beings have different ideas to how divide the universe, if they even think so grand. As such, the Spheres have many organizations, three of which are detailed below; The Nine Cornerstones, the Seven Enlightened Disciplines, and the Lores of Creation.

The Nine Cornerstones
This is used by the Nine Traditions of Mages, an old-fashioned coalition of Mage Traditions from around the world who shared knowledge and history. They trace their organization to the Cupbearers of Isis, an ancient group founded in Egypt, despite the different Traditions having no connection to the Cupbearers. It's a sort of spiritual successor, in their eyes. They use the same Nine Spheres that the Cupbearers did, though with modernized names.

Correspondence
The Sphere of space and connections

Entropy
The Sphere of chance and destiny

Forces
The Sphere of fundamental and complex forces

Life
The Sphere of the living

Matter
The Sphere of the not-living

Mind
The Sphere of thought and the realms of the mind

Prime
The Sphere of energy

Spirit
The Sphere of spirit and the incorporeal

Time
The Sphere of time

Other Spheres
Some Tradition Mages, from their days before joining the Traditions, still employ Spheres outside of these nine. The Traditions pretentiously called them Minor Spheres, despite some of them having more practical use than the Nine.

The Seven Enlightened Disciplines
When the Technocracy was founded as the Order of Reason, these were the seven Disciplines they thought best could represent the universe... Well, six of them were. Technology wasn't a Discipline until it became apparent that mundane equipment wasn't accurate enough and didn't detect the forces and energies the enlightened sciences all-too-often utilize.

Biology
Study of the living

Chemistry
Study of physical material

Cosmology
Study of spacetime

Energetics
Study of energy

Physics
Study of movement and forces

Psychology
Study of the mind

Technology
Study of technology and engineering

Other Disciplines
The Technocracy is filled with Specialists; Mathematicians, Statisticians, even Economists, which utilize their own Disciplines in addition to the seven more universal ones.

Lores of Creation
The Lores of Creation are used by High Spirits, mostly beings of Faith and Ideal. The Lores are not a clean list, instead being a massive collage of different beings' powers and understandings. A list of the known spheres follows;


 * Fundament (Forces of the universe, such as gravity)
 * Awakening (Healing and Life)
 * Death (Death and Undeath)
 * Spirits (Naturae, Nature Spirits and the Spirit Wilds)
 * Patterns (Time and Destiny)
 * Longing (Emotions)
 * Humanity (Mortal Souls)
 * Uncanny (Immortal Souls)
 * Beast (Animal Souls)
 * Wild (Plant Souls)
 * Flesh (Physical Shape)
 * Realms (Travel and Portals)
 * Various Elemental Lores (Such as Flames, Frost, Storms, etc.)

Various Gods and other High Umbrood use very different lists, with most having a specific purview or purpose they adhere to. For example, Thor would likely know the Lores of Storms, Realms, Humanity, Uncanny, Fundament, Patterns, Might, War, and perhaps Flesh, as a god of lightning and valour, where an elemental Djinn might only possess Flames, Frost, Storms, and other elemental lores.

Other Spheres
Not every mage is part of the Traditions or the Technocracy. Indeed in the modern day, only half of all mages are part of these organizations, and less than a fraction are schooled by High Spirits. This means most Mages are simply left to devise their own system of Spheres based on their magical belief. These can be just about anything, but the most common are Elemental in nature, Yin and Yang are very common, and Spheres named for Gods, Demons, or Archangels are very common.

This is a good time to keep something in mind; The more specific a sphere, the better that Sphere is at doing the thing. For example, the Fire Sphere is much better at handling Fire than the Elements Sphere or the Yang Sphere, and can do more things with or around fire. The Fire Sphere could allow you to create, bind, or empower Fire Elementals, where the Elements Sphere at the same level could at most bind it as a generic elemental. Forces and "Elements" would both need a 3-dot level to create new fire from nothing, where 2-dot would let them manipulate it. This is also where Yang and other such Spheres would be. Fire, on the other hand, as well as Thermodynamics, and perhaps Michael (Named for the archangel of fire) would only require 2 dots to create new fires, and a most basic 1-dot level to manipulate that which already exists.

In this manner, Spheres of all sorts essentially fall into two categories; Broad and Focused. The generic format for what abilities are imparted with which dots are shown on the following table.

Pillars
Pillars are, in some ways, a precursor to Spheres. They were much more common in the past centuries, and while they are quite similar to Spheres, Pillars have fundamental effects, are much more focused, and are not combinatory without a Ritual. That is, a Pillar-Mage might have the Pillars of Fire, Water, Wind, Wood, and Earth; They would provide passive scaling benefits, and could not ordinarily be mixed. For example, a modern Mage with the Spheres of Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Wood could use Fire, Water, and Wood to create a tree which bore flaming fruit. Pillars cannot do such thing, unless the Pillar-Mage performed an extensive ritual to do so.

In return, a Pillar is more potent in it's own field than a Sphere of equal quality, and provides more foundational benefits, such as an increase to certain attributes. For example, the Water Pillar might impact Willpower, Wood to Health, Earth to Strength, and so forth. It varies by Mage and by Pillar.

Pillars of Divinity
Gods often use Pillars, which are part of the reason why they're so powerful within their domains, but less so otherwise. It is also why Gods tend to create lesser beings, like Angels, who use more variable Spheres. The Pillars used by the gods are greatly varied, but the following list encompasses the most commonly seen;


 * Animal
 * Chaos
 * Darkness
 * Death
 * Dream
 * Earth
 * Fertility
 * Fire
 * Forge
 * Frost
 * Guardian
 * Health
 * Illusion
 * Justice
 * Moon
 * Psychopomp
 * Sky
 * Stars
 * Sun
 * Time
 * War
 * Water