Death is one of the ten Arcana of Mage: The Awakening, the Subtle ruling Arcanum of Stygia. As well as ghosts and the undead, its effects include things metaphysically associated with death, including darkness, decay and, most horrific of all, the stealing of souls. While it is not made explicit in the rulebook, it is implied that Death, not Matter, must be used to affect vampires and other undead. The Arcanum of Death deals, as the name implies, with the powers of death and undeath. A mage skilled in this Arcanum can steal and trap souls, speak with the dead, steal years from a target, raise zombies, and, with sufficient skill, even bring the dead back to life. It is primarily used by the Moros, as their epithet of Necromancers would suggest.
Death allows control and command of ghosts in much the same way that Spirit affects spirits. Mages draw a heavy distinction between the two, however: according to Atlantean lore, spirits are the native form of life in the Shadow, while ghosts are not proper beings at all. They are merely echoes, memories of a soul's passage left in the ephemera which only mimic consciousness, and as such few mages have qualms about using them for their own ends.
This Arcanum grants a mage unparalleled power over the soul, and is justly feared for this reason. Other Arcana can only affect souls in specific ways; for example, Fate can sever a soul if it is not bound to its original owner, and Spirit or Mind are able to affect unmoored souls drifting in Twilight.[1] Tremere mages steal souls as a matter of course, and so use this Arcanum extensively.
Its associated summoning is the Spectre and the Exarch that supervises it is the Psychopomp. Within Astral Space, Death is incorporated by the Aeon Typhon.