(• • • • Life,  • • • Spirit)                                                                              Dead Magic  130

System:  The atitsiak ritual lets an individual take on the characteristics of one of the deceased.  Cast on young children, the ritual may cause the child to grow up with better abilities or talents like those of its namesake.  Scoring several successes on this rite might ensure that the child develops the positive characteristics of the decedent.

Also, a mage can briefly adopt the name of a dead person by means of this ritual.  This version is a recent Tradition adaptation.  The mage's successes allow him to channel into himself the physical characteristics of a deceased person whose name he knows.  The Life magic augments natural capabilities while the Spirit magic draws on the spiritual remnants of the deceased for power and a Pattern.

Note that the name borrowed from a deceased person by means of this ritual must come from someone truly dead -- a name cannot be borrowed from a ghost or vampire.

Of course, the atitsiak ritual doesn't allow a mage to easily borrow a subject's phenomenal prowess with just a simple success or two.  A good rule of thumb is that each dot gained requires one success on the Effect.  Additional successes are allocated to duration.  And Effect of this sort can't be made permanent, but it can be useful as a tendency -- that is, if a child is given the atitsiak of someone very strong, then the child may also grow up to become strong.  This is a good justification for a character to improve with experience points.