Prime Effects

• Heart's Blood — An initiate of Prime can easily sense the flow of Quintessence through his own body — his life energy. This energy flows

from the Tellurian, through the Life Pattern and back out to rejoin the cosmos. Each point corresponds to a health level, the last three on beyond

Incapacitated and their loss resulting in death.

In desperate times, mages skilled in Prime — typically the Celestial Chorus and the Verbena — can push themselves beyond their limits and

"give 'til it hurts," taking the additional health levels as points of Quintessence above and beyond what is stored in their Avatars. Such damage may

only be healed by time and bed rest, not magic, so most mages will usually only risk the Bruised health level. Mages of the Chorus, however, have

burned themselves out in acts of martyrdom to perform one last holy miracle, while Verbena with low Avatar ratings often use their Bruised health

level as a power reservoir, considering the sacrifice of heart's blood more holy than the spiritual energy used by most mages.