ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

One of the players in my Mage chronicle (a Dreamspeaker) bought herself three dots in Spirit early on. She quickly moved up to four and said she wanted to try her hand at some summonings. "Egad!" I thought, "The Mage rule book only has a couple of Umbra denizens, and they don't really fit with the Native American mythos this character would be familiar with."

Fortunately I had a week to prepare, so I hit the library and gave her a list of spirit types she was familiar with, and also what the game rules were for contacting them, etc. Here they are.

One note: I stole a lot of terms from Charles de Lint's Moonheart, an excellent book for any would-be Dreamspeakers out there. Some useful stuff for Celtic bard-types too. The gneechies came from Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger and I always thought it was kind of a cute idea. Good reference works for Indian mythology abound, if you've got access to a big library.

Types of Spirits

The Mage rule book identifies three classes of spirits in the Near Umbra: the staggeringly-powerful Umbrood Lords, medium-strength Preceptors and least-powerful Minions. Those names were obviously created by some dry, stiff Order of Hermes mage. Any true Dreamspeaker would call them (in order of ascending power) the quin'on'a, the honochen'o'keh, and the rathe'wen'a.

Quin'on'a

You've trafficked much with the Quin'on'a. They range from barely-sentient to low human intelligence. Individually, they're probably no match for a mage with her wits about her but they often work in groups and are often the pawns of more powerful beings. Some of the major types of quin'on'a:

Gneechies — These faintly-glowing sparkles of light seem attracted to strong emotion and powerful magick, although no one knows for sure. They flit about like Umbral mosquitoes, always at the edges of your peripheral vision. That's it. They're never harmful or even really annoying. On the one hand, they're the weakest of the quin'on'a, because they don't do anything really. On the other hand, they're seemingly indestructible and under no one's command. Some people say they see them, like motes of dust, in the mundane world as well.

Manitou — Location-based spirits, they possess intimate knowledge of a single domain (like a forest, a river or a city neighborhood) but are powerless outside it. They are adept at finding or obscuring things in their domain or protecting it from defilement. They must be bargained with to earn their assistance and this is done in one of two ways: forcing them or convincing them that their task is in the best interest of the domain.

Ur'wen'ta — These spirits are berserker-like warrior spirits who will fight if summoned. They appear as ghostly soldiers of a time period appropriate to the area they're summoned from. They require no inducement to fight but at the battle's conclusion, if they sense weakness on the part of the summoner, they'll attack her as well.

Tragg'a — These creatures appear as burly, hairless gorillas with dull, short horns on their heads and razor-sharp claws. They have the intelligence of smart, well-trained dogs but fight and do manual labor well. They require a bribe of Quintessence to command (one point per set of orders).

Honochen'o'keh

These are individual spirits and are roughly equivalent to an Adept or Master mage in terms of intelligence and ability. Their desires, motivations and morality are, if anything, more wildly divergent than that of humans.

Pukwudji — A trickster, a short little dwarf of a man who likes taking the forms of other, mundane animals. For some reason he's taken a liking to you, and usually comes when called. Full of mischief, he claims to be the nephew of Old Man Coyote. He's apparently quite powerful, but quite unpredictable too. He's never intentionally caused you harm and speaks to you with great affection. If you're intent on mischief, he'll even shown up now and then without being summoned. He loves to tell secrets but often speaks in riddles and requires a bribe to do so.

A'wa'rathe, He-Who-Walks-With-Bears — A giant man dressed in furs and with a spear in each hand. The spear in his left draws the blood of his foes, while the spear in his rights closes wounds. He's responded to your entreaties twice, both times when you felt your own life force ebb. He's never spoken or, for that matter, paid attention to anything you said. He merely appears, counts coup upon your enemies, touches your wounds with his spear, then returns from whence he came.

Other honochen'o'keh are known only by their names, although they may come if summoned: the creator, Hoth'ans, Elk-Sister
the healer, Shin'sa'fen, She-Who-Drums-Healing
the war-chief, Tep'fyl'in, Red-Spear-Of-The-Wind
the shaper, Ko'keli, Lake-Wise
the seer, Sins'amin, She-Who-Dreams-Waking

Rathe'wen'a

You've heard of the legendary power of the Old Ones, of course, but few Dreamspeakers have the temerity to disturb those so mighty. But while exploring the Umbra on one of your first vision quests, you believe you may have brushed against one of them, so powerfully, blindingly pure was the energy that charged the air during that meeting in the desert canyon. It was an old, gray-haired, wrinkled woman, no more than four feet tall, dressed in a light blue tunic and skirt. She turned to you, smiled and was gone.

Intrigued, you did all the research you could, and you believe that you encountered Ketq Skwaye, Grandmother Toad. Perhaps you could call her to you. Perhaps not.

Your mentor spoke of another rathe'wen'a: Mal'ek'a, the Dread-That-Walks-Nameless. He said Mal'ek'a would one day take him screaming into the Place of Dreaming Thunder. It was clear he was equally scared by and resigned to the idea.