Foci

Integral to all paradigms, especially at the beginning of a mage's Awakened life, are foci: magical tools and rituals which focus the mage's will. Foci are the practical expression of the paradigm, the means by which the mage turns his internal understanding into reality. Foci may be anything from personal tools of power, like a staff or wand, to the use of catalysts or magical ingredients, to actions that must be performed by the mage, like dancing, sex or even martial arts (like Do). Inexperienced mages are often unable to perform magic without physical foci; more powerful willworkers still employ them quite often, as they make magic less difficult to perform.

Some Mages, especially of the Hollow One Tradition, use tattoos as the focus of their magic. This enables them to always have their focus with them and allows them to unleash great power without hesitation.


All mages with Arete 3 or less will need to use a foci or suffer a +1 difficulty penalty on casting.  At arete 4, the mage no longer needs foci for lvl 1 sphere effects, at arete 5 they no longer need foci for lvl 2 effects, and so on.

The exception to this rule are Technomancers.  Technomancers require their "foci" at all times.

Technomagic requires the use of tools and devices to perform. Enlightened science demands this, an Iteration X trooper does not see the forces of heat and energy around him, he pulls the trigger on his hyper-plasma rifle and pure energy emits from the barrel to vaporize his enemy. The origin and effect are the same, the difference is the belief and paradigm of the Mage casting. The rifle is the instrument, the conduit for the effect, but for Technomancers it goes abit beyond this. For them, the paradigm is enlightened science, or the ether, or the Code. For the later two, the trappings of foci can eventually be overcome (though why would anyone WANT to cast aside their ethereal bioptic goggles?!) to allow the mage to cast without such items. For Enlightened Scientists, the tools of the trade will always be required, as per the demand of their grasp over how the Tellurian works.