Mind Effects

mage rev

• • • • Astral Projection — The Astral Realms are reaches of pure thought. Because of their ephemeral nature, it's often difficult to navigate or

survive in them. Adepts of Mind can make short jaunts into astral space; Masters can separate the mind from the body to make extended journeys.

In such realms, the mage experiences pure thought constructs, meets beings of thought and passes with incredible speed through the highest reaches

of the spirit world. Successes scored on such an Effect determine how long the mage can remain outside of his body, and how deeply he can

penetrate into the Astral Umbra.

Unlike Spirit magic, which allows the mage to enter the spirit world physically, Astral Projection releases the mage's consciousness as a freefloating

thought. The mage can be detected with Mind senses, but he is otherwise invisible and intangible. Since the mage has no body, he must rely

on magical senses to detect or influence his surroundings. He can still use other Mind Effects, of course, and he could take control of a subject thus

if necessary. Without recourse to ritual and magical foci, the mage may have difficulty with successive magic, but at least such magic is

coincidental in the Umbra.

If the mage draws his consciousness down to Earth (or just never heads for the Astral Umbra), he can zip about the material world as a formless

and massless entity traveling at the speed of thought. The expenditure of a point of Willpower enables the mage to manifest for a single turn as a

ghostly, hazy and idealized image, but he cannot interact with the world physically without using magic.

Astral entities can interact with other astral beings and similar thought-constructs only. Since the physical body means nothing, the mage uses

Wits instead of Dexterity, Manipulation instead of Strength and Intelligence instead of Stamina. Ghosts, spirits and other astral forms can do

combat with the mage. Such attacks injure the psyche of the mage and sap his will, draining Willpower points instead of health levels. If a

combatant runs out of Willpower, he is disrupted. A spirit or mummy would simply dissipate into the Umbra, while a mage finds that his silver

cord, the tether between body and mind, snaps.

A mage lost in the Umbra, fades away into the Epiphamies (realms of pure thought). A Master can avoid this fate for a time, but his will erodes

slowly, and the individual vanishes into the mists of the Umbra, never to be seen again. Mages have reported meeting once-human astral beings that

seemed quite capable of surviving as pure minds, but such an existence is beyond the capabilities of even a Master, The only recourse for a mage

Note that a mage who projects his awareness astrally has no sense of his physical body unless he uses other Effects (like Correspondence) to

maintain a sensory link to his body. Thus, the mage is well-advised to keep his physical form hidden and protected.