See Mage the Awakening 1e for all the fluff.
Doctrine
Parent Path: Thyrsus, or Seers of the Throne
Prerequisites: Life 2, 2 dots in Animal Ken or Survival
Initiation: Connect oneself with the Primal Energy of the world or something. IDK man, write it yourself, these people are rather devoid of purpose and honestly, even a philosophy. They’re really just shapeshifting modern primitives.
Magic:
Ruling: Life
Yantras: Succeed on a Survival or Animal Ken test relevant to the spell (+2), spend time contemplating your subject from a “natural” perspective (+2), disregard societal convention (+1), pursue a naturalist state (+1, +2 if this causes a Negative Condition).
Oblations: Perform a sacred hunt, ritually act out the behavior of an animal, ceremonially offer food to animals (like feeding pigeons, hilarious), ritual arrangement of rocks and stones, or sacred gardening.
Attainments:
First Attainment: Animal Tongue
Pre-Requisite: Initiation
The Orphans of Proteus first learn how to seek wisdom from the natural world, and with a scene's worth of activity can communicate with a specific breed of animals in their own language of behaviors, with grunts, growls, cues and/or markings. This Attainment grants a bonus to Animal Ken rolls equal to the mage’s dots in Life, and permits them to communicate as freely as their subject animal. This does not however render the subject capable of comprehending advanced topics, and all communications should be framed as such.
Simple Speak With Beasts spell as an Attainment, broke the rules of reach just a teensy bit. Takes a scene to cast, and allows communication with animals for more than a few seconds, while also providing an Animal Ken boost in excess of normal dots? Here’s the thing, who cares? Animal Ken is almost NEVER used, this is an EXTREMELY flavorful Attainment for the Orphans of Proteus, and to make it reasonable for it to be an Attainment for them, it has to be better than merely casting it as a spell, which given they’re likely to have Life as their most heavily invested Arcanum (likely doubling-down on it as a Ruling) that’s doubtless going to happen. So yeah, it breaks reach allocation, but without that the Attainment is almost worthless and no player in their right mind would consider it. Blame the system, I’m just trying to make it worthwhile.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 1
The Orphans of Proteus are not truly as primitive as believed by many, in fact according to their legends they
were some of the first mages to seek mankind to advance civilization, but were ultimately disregarded by
those they helped out of fear at their bestial nature. Modern Orphans have learned how to use this power to
shape the inert world as they did in ages past, smashing boulders with their hands, and breaking chains with but a single movement. After a scene’s worth of inspection, an Orphan of Proteus may determine the full
composition of an object as well as its structural weak points. An attack made immediately after discerning
this information temporarily decreases the target object’s Durability by 1 point for the purpose of that attack
per dot the Shifter has in Matter.
Kinda “fuck you technology”, but these guys are naturalists, and ultimately it may have been useful in the past for a Shifter to smash apart boulders and break out of cages. So, I went with that. Basically, Discern Composition with the Reach allocated to the durability decreasing option. Kinda an awesome power for a 1- dot spell, I’ve got to say. With it a Baby could snap a steel rod... Well perhaps not a baby, but a normal person could.
Second Attainment: Snake Skin
Pre-Requisite: Life 2
The Orphans of Proteus also learn how to quicken the passing of injuries from their body, shedding their skin
and wounds faster than others would believe. So long as the Shifter maintains frequent periods of
communion with nature, they decrease their healing time for Bashing and Lethal wounds by half for each
Dot in Life they have. For example, a Shifter with Life 2 would heal 1 Lethal damage naturally every 12 hours,
and one Bashing damage naturally every 3 minutes and 45 seconds.
Okay, this one going a fair way beyond the normal reach options, with one for advanced duration, one for swapping primary to potency, and 2 to modify lethal healing times. However, I think this is a reasonable trade-off, as it first provides no immediate benefits to the Mage being effectively a “downtime” or “recovery” power, cannot be used on Resistant damage from Paradox, and has none of the other benefits of Body Mastery. Plus, by the time the Mage gets to the point at which Lethal starts healing extremely fast (Life 4, one point every 3 hours), they can already heal that damage using Magic, and they can already wipe the slate clean of Bashing Damage at rank 3. So ultimately, this is a useful Attainment, but not broken despite the higher than “permitted” reach.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 2
Understanding the basic tools of Man by the clues left in their composition, the Orphan is capable of using
any item through an instinctive understanding of its purpose. This Attainment takes an Instant Action to
activate, and indicates to the mage the solution to puzzles, the combination to safes, but also the purpose of
incredibly advanced technology, and provides mage an 8-Again on all attempts to use that tool for its
intended purpose. This attainment lasts for rounds equal to the Mage’s dots in Matter.
Now this one very much calls back to the Orphan’s original role as promoters of early civilization. “Oh, hey what’s this strange tool in the neighboring village, oh right, a plow, watch me use it everyone”. It would also be hilarious to watch a primitive Mage with beetling brows and horrible body odor pick up an incredibly complicated physical puzzle a Mastigos had been struggling with for days, and solve it in a short few seconds.
Third Attainment: Call of the Wild
Pre-Requisite: Life 3
The Orphan at this stage can lean back their head and make an unearthly call, summoning to them specific
living creatures. The potency of this call requires the mage to undertake a scene to harmonize with the
natural world, and summons living organisms as specified by the Shifter. The call lasts for a day (rising to a
Week at Life 4) or until the Mage ceases it, and without specification will attract all living beings incapable of
resisting the call, which may cause issues. This Lure will attract all living beings within the designated
category with a Resolve less than the mage’s dots in Life.
Version of Lure and Repel taking away the Repel part, Orphans of Proteus are MORE than capable of making animals run off should they so desire without use of their Soul’s power. Takes a scene’s worth of concentration to make the call, and reach is allocated to Advanced Duration and swapping the primary factor to Potency (otherwise it’d be impossible to summon so much as a Domestic Cat. No, seriously, they have Resolve 3. So ultimately, Cats are more strong-willed than some of their owners. Fucking GOLD).
Optional Arcanum: Matter 3
The tools of man are blind to an Orphan sufficiently knowledgeable in their nature. With an Instant Action,
the Shifter may render themselves invisible to all inert sensory equipment. Cameras do not display them,
microphones do not pick up their voice, heat sensors cannot see them, they even do not register on motion
detectors. This Attainment lasts for a duration equal to the Mage’s dots in Matter on the Advanced Duration
table.
Pretty simple, but I would likely say this is an addition or modification to the Legacy’s standard practice engaged in recent centuries. Being able to escape from drones, be invisible on cameras, the blind to everything but the human eye (which is also easily tricked) is an amazingly powerful Attainment in the modern era. Especially when it doesn’t provoke Dissonance and Quiescence.
Fourth Attainment: Bestial Gift
Pre-Requisite: Life 4
At this level of Proficiency, the Orphan of Proteus takes on the true meaning of their name, gaining the
ability to take on features normally exhibited by other forms of life. She can grow claws, gills, become
resistant to toxins, gain a tail, or any other conceivable personal trait even including the bark of a tree or its
capacity for photosynthesis. This Attainment takes an Instant Action to activate, and lasts for a Week, the
Shifter can take on a number of living properties equal to their Dots in Life.
Utilizing the Bestial Gift or Beast Form attainments invoke subtle changes in the Mage’s appearance when they return to their normal form, depending on the traits or forms chosen, the Mage starts to reflect those elements of the natural world. These subtle changes become more profound as these Attainments are used more frequently, but subside should a significant period go without their usage.
Emulation of Transform Life, veeeeery simple. But ultimately since you can maintain these in front of Sleepers, also very useful. Please feel free to make up other elements not represented in the Transform Life section, it’s pretty retarded that they mention giving additional limbs to a creature without them, and then don’t offer the same chance to the player.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 4
In a true feat of ingenuity, the Mage may as well as bestowing themselves with bestial abilities, endow
themselves with properties of inert matter. Many will absorb the stone beneath themselves to grand them a
skin as hard as rock, many will grant themselves the lightness of air, allowing themselves to jump significant
distances.
I was considering letting the Orphans use this attainment to absorb inter matter tools into their own bodies as well, stuff like fusing flamethrowers with their mouths to breath fire, sticking a cellphone in their brain to be the envy of technophiles everywhere. But that’s taking the “they brought about civilization” thing too far. So, ultimately they can take on elements of matter, so go nuts, and talk to your GM.
Fifth Attainment: Beast Form
Pre-Requisite: Life 5
The ultimate gift of the Wild is to fully take on the shape of any flora or fauna. With an Instant Action, the Shifter can assume the shape of any creature or plant of Size 7 or smaller, including Bears, Horses, Great
Cats, and all manner for birds. This form lasts for at the very most a year, however most Shifters will grow
tired of the form long before then.
I ditched the “plants can talk to plant spirits” parts, so it’s now just Shapechanging with reach in Advanced Duration and Instant casting. You can’t get much larger than a bear, but larger than that and you’d really want to use a spell instead.
Optional Arcanum: Matter 5
The Orphan may instead of transforming themselves into a living animal transform, becoming an animate
creature consisted entirely of inert matter, maintaining all sensory functions (bar those they wish to lose)
while taking on an appearance or shape of any inert material of size 7 or smaller. While in many cases their
newfound shape will render them immobile (such as becoming a large rock for surveillance purposes), they
can also assume forms such as a Bear made entirely of Granite. A frightening prospect indeed.
Once again, fuck specific rules. I cannot be fucked, you cannot be fucked, I have neither the time or inclination. Also, the “talk to mineral spirits” is ALSO retarded. You’re a goddamn Thyrsus, you almost certainly have Spirit 2, at which point you can do that ANYWAY.