The tutor-apprentice relationship is a well-known wizardly archetype. A tutor can teach an apprentice to craft his soul. This teaching is called a Legacy.
Legacies are considered by many mages to be the next step in the evolution of their souls beyond Awakening. Learning a Legacy is a rite of passage into the “adulthood” of the mature soul, by which the mage chooses the mystical calling he will follow for the rest of his life. While he might be a master of many Arcana and an exemplar of his Path and order, others will come to identify him chiefly by his chosen Legacy.
At different degrees in his personal development as he follows his calling, the mage gains certain mystical attainments. These endowments move him beyond the need to cast spells — to actively draw down power from the Supernal World. They allow him to alter reality (within the specific parameters of his Legacy’s attainment) as if he applied a mundane capability.
While most Legacies are private practices, a matter between a mage and his own soul (with the tutoring of the sorcerer who taught the Legacy), some are social, fostering connections between followers of the same Legacy. They can even take the form of secret societies — yet another layer of social organization beyond a mage’s cabal, order and Consilium. The mage must decide which of these connections takes precedence in case they ever come into conflict.
At Gnosis 3, a mage can learn a Legacy and acquire its first attainment. At Gnosis 5 and again at 7, he can further develop that Legacy (there are three stages of attainment for each Legacy). At Gnosis 4, he can instead create his own Legacy, as long as he has not begun to learn another. He learns this unique Legacy’s extra stages at Gnosis 6 and 8.
Legacies are learned by way of a mage’s Path, although some orders can teach certain Path Legacies to members not of that Path. Once a mage learns a Legacy, he cannot learn another. He has chosen his soul’s true road and must now walk it to its end.