Mage M20 Reference

The Sphere Compendium

All nine Spheres, every level from 1 to 5, with concrete vulgar and coincidental examples for each. The shortest distance between "can I do this?" and "here's how it looks at the table".

Space, distance, connection

Correspondence

Reality has no edges. Correspondence reveals that all places are, in some sense, the same place — and a willing mage can act on that truth.

Correspondence 1Immediate Spatial Perceptions

●○○○○

Perceive distances, dimensions, and connections between places.

Vulgar

Eyes briefly glow as you measure a room without looking — observers feel watched.

Coincidental

You glance and say "about twelve metres, give or take." You were always good at this.

Correspondence 2Sense Space

●●○○○

Sense distant locations through links; touch what is far away in a limited sense.

Vulgar

A nearby phone rings before it's dialled, picking up your sympathetic touch.

Coincidental

You guess which drawer the document is in. It's an old habit; nobody questions it.

Correspondence 3Pierce Space

●●●○○

Open small windows between points; see and speak across distance.

Vulgar

A second mouth appears in the air; reality has a visible seam.

Coincidental

You wave at the camera in the hallway. The mark on the other side notices, somehow.

Correspondence 4Rend Space

●●●●○

Be in more than one place at once; teleport short distances with effort.

Vulgar

You step from one street to another, leaving an imprint of yourself behind for a beat.

Coincidental

Witnesses swear they saw you a block over moments before — must have been someone else.

Correspondence 5Mutate Localities

●●●●●

Reshape distances themselves; collapse or extend space, bend geometry.

Vulgar

The corridor stretches indefinitely as your enemies run.

Coincidental

They take a wrong turn and lose hours. The building was always confusing.

Decay, chance, fate, endings

Entropy

Every Pattern decays. Entropy reads the threads of probability, finds the weak point, and — at higher ranks — chooses when to pull.

Entropy 1Sense Fate and Fortune

●○○○○

Perceive luck, decay, weakness, and the threads of fortune.

Vulgar

Black halos crown the doomed; you say their fate aloud and they hear you.

Coincidental

You feel which one of the suspects is lying. People with a guilty conscience telegraph it.

Entropy 2Control Probability

●●○○○

Tilt random outcomes — dice, cards, the bounce of a wheel.

Vulgar

The slot machine pays out the jackpot three times in a row to your touch.

Coincidental

Your luck holds at the poker table. Hot streaks happen.

Entropy 3Affect Predictable Patterns

●●●○○

Hasten decay; cause inanimate things to fail, fall apart, rust through.

Vulgar

The locked door's hinges crumble to red dust on touch.

Coincidental

The lock you've been trying gives way — "this thing was older than I thought."

Entropy 4Affect Life

●●●●○

Cause sudden infirmity, sickness, or death in living things. The Euthanatos hand.

Vulgar

Your target's heart stops mid-sentence. Their eyes go grey.

Coincidental

The mark suffers a stroke. They had warnings, in retrospect.

Entropy 5Affect Thought / Random Higher Spheres

●●●●●

Erode complex patterns — memory, belief, even other spells.

Vulgar

A counter-mage's spell dissolves visibly into static.

Coincidental

Their key witness can't remember the testimony they wrote down yesterday.

Energy in all forms

Forces

Heat, light, sound, motion, electricity, gravity. Forces is the Sphere of physics — and the favourite of Etherites, Hermetics, and Adepts of the Verbena.

Forces 1Perceive Forces

●○○○○

Detect heat, electricity, kinetic energy, magnetism, light spectra.

Vulgar

Your eyes flare in the dark, mapping infrared.

Coincidental

You feel the warm hand-print on the doorknob. Anyone could, you say.

Forces 2Control Minor Forces

●●○○○

Manipulate small energies — bend light, deflect a punch, snuff a candle.

Vulgar

A streetlamp explodes when your enemy walks under it.

Coincidental

The flickering lamp finally gives out at the moment of confrontation.

Forces 3Transmute Forces

●●●○○

Convert one energy type to another; shape larger effects.

Vulgar

You channel a microphone's hum into a beam of focused sound that knocks a person flat.

Coincidental

A speaker shorts and feeds back painfully right when your enemy speaks.

Forces 4Control Major Forces

●●●●○

Wield destructive energies — fireballs, lightning bolts, controlled fall.

Vulgar

Lightning lances from a clear sky to strike the antenna.

Coincidental

An unseasonal storm rolls in; the lightning is unlucky for the broadcast tower.

Forces 5Unleash Primal Forces

●●●●●

Earthquakes, tornadoes, weather on a regional scale.

Vulgar

The ground splits underfoot for half a block.

Coincidental

A long-overdue tremor catches the city by surprise.

Living matter, biology, healing

Life

From a single cell to a complex animal. Life is what Verbena know in their bones and what Akashic Brotherhood feel through breath. Healing is also harming, slightly redirected.

Life 1Perceive Life

●○○○○

Sense health, presence of living things, simple biological details.

Vulgar

Your eyes scan a body and you announce its illness aloud.

Coincidental

You notice they're favouring their left side. "Old injury?" you ask.

Life 2Alter Simple Patterns

●●○○○

Heal small wounds, alter plants and microorganisms, change basic biology.

Vulgar

A bruise fades from the skin within a heartbeat.

Coincidental

You apply a poultice; the bruise was "already much better than it looked."

Life 3Alter Complex Life

●●●○○

Substantial healing or harm, change vertebrate anatomy, sculpt animals.

Vulgar

A wound knits closed under your hand, leaving no scar.

Coincidental

The hospital report is surprised by their rapid recovery. "Lucky case."

Life 4Sculpt Self / Others

●●●●○

Major transformations — alter form significantly, restore mortal wounds, grow extra senses.

Vulgar

Your fingers lengthen into claws while a witness watches.

Coincidental

You've always been able to hold your breath that long. They didn't know.

Life 5Perfect Self

●●●●●

Create life from raw biological material; assume any living form.

Vulgar

You walk out of the lab as a different person.

Coincidental

The double in the photo really does look uncannily like you. Cousins, perhaps.

Non-living substance

Matter

Wood, stone, metal, plastic, ceramic. Matter is the Sphere of structure and substance — favoured by Hermetics, Sons of Ether, and anyone who builds.

Matter 1Sense Matter

●○○○○

Detect composition, density, structure, purity.

Vulgar

You announce the alloy mix of a sword by touch.

Coincidental

Years working with metal — you can usually tell from the weight.

Matter 2Basic Transmutation

●●○○○

Change properties — make wood waterproof, harden cloth, soften stone.

Vulgar

A piece of paper hardens into a steel blade between your fingers.

Coincidental

The folder you grabbed is heavier than it looks — sturdy enough to wedge the door.

Matter 3Alter Form

●●●○○

Reshape objects; bend metal, work stone like clay.

Vulgar

The crowbar reshapes into a key as you turn the lock.

Coincidental

The lock yields to a bit of clever bending. "Tools always loved my hands."

Matter 4Complex Transformation

●●●●○

Transmute elemental composition — base metals to precious, change material entirely.

Vulgar

The bullet pulls from the wound, melts in your palm.

Coincidental

The bullet is found, intact — but the gun-residue test comes back negative.

Matter 5Alter Properties of Matter

●●●●●

Defy normal physical laws — negate gravity, give matter new properties entirely.

Vulgar

The wall ripples and you step through.

Coincidental

The wall has a hidden door, of course. Someone left it open.

Consciousness, thought, perception

Mind

From flicker of intuition to godlike awareness. The Cult of Ecstasy lives here; the Akashic Brotherhood disciplines it; the Hermetics dissect it.

Mind 1Sense Thoughts and Emotions

●○○○○

Read mood, intent, and emotional state — empathy at supernatural intensity.

Vulgar

Your iris colour shifts as you read them. They feel watched.

Coincidental

You watch their hands. You're good at reading people.

Mind 2Read Surface Thoughts

●●○○○

Hear active thoughts, send simple impressions, build mental shields.

Vulgar

You speak the word they were about to say.

Coincidental

You finish their sentence and laugh. "Spooky."

Mind 3Mental Impulse

●●●○○

Plant suggestions, influence decisions, modify memory in narrow ways.

Vulgar

Their eyes glaze and they sign without reading.

Coincidental

You convince them. You always do.

Mind 4Control Conscious Mind

●●●●○

Dominate a subject, create powerful illusions, command behaviour at distance.

Vulgar

The guard walks calmly to the wall and stands facing it for an hour.

Coincidental

The guard finds an unexplained reason to step away from the post.

Mind 5Untether Mind

●●●●●

Project consciousness, link minds, wholesale memory work.

Vulgar

You speak from inside someone else's head, eyes glowing.

Coincidental

The medium delivers your message; she didn't know you sent her.

Quintessence, the primal energy of magick

Prime

The substance behind all Patterns. Prime is the Sphere that lets a mage create something from nothing and refuel other magicks — and it is what the Celestial Chorus hears.

Prime 1Etheric Senses

●○○○○

See Quintessence, perceive Tass, detect magickal effects and resonance.

Vulgar

Your eyes flicker over an invisible signature; the mage you're tracking knows you saw it.

Coincidental

You feel something significant happened here. It's a hunch.

Prime 2Weave Quintessence

●●○○○

Channel Quintessence into your magick; fuel other Spheres.

Vulgar

Light flares around your hands as the working takes hold.

Coincidental

The candle was about to go out anyway; perfect timing.

Prime 3Channel Prime

●●●○○

Briefly create energy or matter from nothing; sustain effects without external Pattern.

Vulgar

A flame springs from your palm with no fuel and no source.

Coincidental

There's a heat source nearby you hadn't noticed. The fire catches on its own.

Prime 4Pattern Forging

●●●●○

Permanently create new Patterns of matter, life, or forces from raw Prime.

Vulgar

You speak a coin into your hand.

Coincidental

You find a coin. It is a coin you do not remember having.

Prime 5Alter Prime Energy

●●●●●

Reshape Quintessence itself; revoke magickal effects at the source.

Vulgar

An enemy Mage's magick visibly unwinds back into the air.

Coincidental

They simply lose the trail. The connection is gone, somehow.

The Umbra, spirits, the Gauntlet

Spirit

Between this world and the next. Spirit is the Sphere of the Dreamspeakers, the Verbena, and anyone who has ever felt watched by something with no body.

Spirit 1Spirit Sight

●○○○○

Perceive spirits, gauge the Gauntlet's thickness, see resonance.

Vulgar

Your eyes track an empty corner as the spirit shrinks back.

Coincidental

You feel the room's mood. Old houses get strange.

Spirit 2Touch Spirit

●●○○○

Speak to spirits, perceive across the Gauntlet briefly, bind small ephemera.

Vulgar

A muttered conversation, your end audible to bystanders, the other half silent.

Coincidental

You speak to yourself out loud; you've always done that when working.

Spirit 3Pierce the Gauntlet

●●●○○

Cross into the Umbra; bring small things with you.

Vulgar

You step sideways into another world; the witness sees you flicker out.

Coincidental

You step into a side-room nobody else seems to remember being there.

Spirit 4Rouse / Lay Spirit

●●●●○

Command spirits, bind them to service, exorcise the unwelcome.

Vulgar

A whirlwind of leaves coalesces into a face that does your bidding.

Coincidental

Things go your way. The poltergeist hasn't been seen since.

Spirit 5Forge Ephemera

●●●●●

Create, destroy, or fundamentally reshape spirits.

Vulgar

You speak a small god into existence.

Coincidental

The local legend persists. The story has always been there.

The flow of moments

Time

Past and future are not so far away. Time is the Sphere of Ecstatics and Euthanatoi — and of every mage who has ever wished for a do-over.

Time 1Time Sense

●○○○○

Perceive temporal anomalies, know exact time, detect magickal manipulation of time.

Vulgar

You know it's been three minutes and forty seconds; your watch was never wound.

Coincidental

You glance at the clock and call the minute. People assume you noticed.

Time 2Postcognition

●●○○○

See the past as it occurred in a location.

Vulgar

Ghostly replays drift through the room as you concentrate.

Coincidental

You read the room — splinter pattern, dust trail. Logical inference, mostly.

Time 3Time Contraction / Dilation

●●●○○

Slow your subjective time to act faster; speed others' time to age or hasten.

Vulgar

You move three times in the time anyone else moves once. Visible to witnesses.

Coincidental

You react faster than they thought possible. "Reflexes."

Time 4Time Determinism

●●●●○

Plant effects in the future or past; conditional spells timed to triggers.

Vulgar

A door you spelled an hour ago bursts open the moment they touch it.

Coincidental

The door swings open in the breeze right as they reach it. Coincidence.

Time 5Time Travel

●●●●●

Bodily move through time. The most dangerous Sphere effect, the most cited Paradox source.

Vulgar

You step out of yesterday into the present, in front of yourself.

Coincidental

You appear at the door, an hour earlier than your friends expected — you must have left early.

Roll your magick

The Paradox tracker takes Sphere + level + vulgar/coincidental and computes difficulty, dice pool, and the Paradox you stand to gain — before you commit.

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