In Babylon, everything was thought to be the potential home of a demon, including materials used in ritual magic. Some Babylonian mages prepared their foci by yelling at the demons inside. The mage declared himself a representative of the gods and informed his tools that they had better obey him. Vague threats seemed to work best.

While this Effect is not yet in wide circulation, many Traditions are developing permutations to suit their paradigms. Sons of Ether seem particularly fond of berating their equipment, but so far it has only been effective on tools the berater created himself.

System: If the Effect is successful, the difficulty of the next extended ritual involving the berated foci is lowered by 1. Consider this a specific form of Magic Affecting Abilities (Mage Revised, p. 155). The Effect improves the spirit/material tie of the focus in question. Some speculate that egotistical willworkers have the most success with this rote.

The mage need not reach into the actual Gauntlet to perform this Effect, so it does not suffer from problems like the Avatar Storm.