See the Keys to the Supernal Tarot book for all fluff.
Doctrine
Parentage:Acanthus, Free Council
Prerequisites: Life 2, Crafts 2 (with a specialty in Gardening), and 2 dots between Survival, Socialize and Politics
Initiation: Receive approval from members of the Legacy to join their ranks (even if not capable of initiating yet). Desire for power or laziness are seen as negative qualities, while newly Awakened Mages are never rejected.
After six or more months of contact with their tutor, and work either refining Rose society, or purging the evils from Sleeper society. At the end of that time, a small ceremony is held and the aspirant crafts their soul with the assistance of their Tutor. No trials are held, such things are relics of the past that Mages should rise above.
Magic:
Ruling: Life
Yantras: Succeed on a Crafts roll relevant to the spell (+2), engage in selfless works relevant to the spell (+2), refuse to rise to an instance of poor treatment (+2), work yourself to the bone for others (+1, +2 if this imposes a Negative Condition).
Oblations: Writing or reading philosophy, volunteering or doing charity work, gardening, reading non-Atlantean occult work, educating Sleepers (About any topic).
Attainments:
First Attainment Blossom’s Whispers
Pre-Requisite: Initiation
To say the Roses of Eden are unpopular would be to do a grave disservice to all truly unpopular people in the world. Many Consilii see them as nothing less than a terrorist organization, heretics against the Oracles, or willfully blind fools undeserving of the protection of the Lex Magica. In certain circumstances Noddists have been selected for assassination by Guardians of the Veil, or even other Orders (though rarely, if ever by the Silver Ladder).
In an attempt to protect their membership from such threats, the Attainment of Blossom’s Whispers is taught. This Attainment allows the Noddist the ability to hear the whispers of life about them, granting them a mystic understanding of the presence of all biological organisms in a short distance around them (rising to a large room at Life 4). This Attainment is perpetually active, and through focusing on a specific perceived target, and spending an Instant Action, the Noddist may learn the rough age, sex and species of that creature. This will also inform the Noddist if an otherwise seemingly alive entity is anything but.
Web of Life, Reach into Advanced Duration, secondary factors into Area Factor, centered on the Mage so it travels with them when they roam. Additional second ability is a more limited version of Analyze life, a bit more than initially offered. But meh, it’s fair. Simple enough to cast either of those spells anyway.
Optional Arcanum: Time 1
Many problems in one’s life arise merely from being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Through this
Attainment, Noddists never have to deal with this problem. Subtle timing of events is smoothed out of the
Noddist’s timeline, ensuring elevators and taxies arrive just as they need them, ensuring they walk out of the
bank just before it is held up, and that they arrive just in time to help a poor bystander who is suffering a
heart attack.
Green Light/Red Light, Reach into Advanced Duration, perpetual activity, as it’s pretty weaksauce.
Second Attainment: Blush of Vigor
Pre-Requisite: Life 2
Right or wrong, people react more positively to those who are strong, healthy or attractive. Given their
frequently hectic lives seeking to resolve the evils which beset the world, Noddists make frequent use of this
Attainment to ensure they are never seen as being as rushed as they invariably are. So long as the Noddist
has been engaging in physically or mentally engaging acts seeking to improve the world and the lives of
those around them, their body and mind will be eternally refreshed, entirely under their control. To activate
this Attainment requires at some point during this work, the Noddist must touch the Earth’s soil to draw
deep from its bounty. It is also possible for a Noddist to suspend the physical appearance altering element of
this Attainment, as may be required to avoid perceptions of not having engaged in physical work.
This Attainment contains various benefits, first and foremost the Noddist’s body never displays any physical signs of exertion or being overworked. They are never flushed, clammy, never develop bags under their eyes, or any other signs that anything has been negatively affecting them. Furthermore, the Attainment regulates their breathing, heartrate, metabolism and reflexes, halving their oxygen needs (quartering at Life 4), doubling the interval for toxin damage (quadrupling at Life 4), doubling the period before food and water deprivation checks (quadrupling at Life 4), increasing their Initiative by +1 (+2 at Life 4), and halving the interval for healing Bashing Damage (quartering at Life 4).
Body Control, and oldie, but a goodie. Added a little more juice in that they never seem overworked, as that was kind of the initial purpose of the 2nd Attainment in 1e.
Optional Arcanum: Fate 2
Perpetually rushed, Noddists need ever advantage they can get, with the odds stacked against them. Thus,
the second Attainment is taught to help ameliorate the cruelness of Fate, whenever an inconvenience
cannot merely be avoided through mere timing. When a Noddist enters a situation without planning a
course of action, they do not suffer untrained penalties to any roll. Furthermore, in unfamiliar social
situations their impression level is improved by one, as Fate ensure that their eager and motivated attitude
is well received.
Fools Rush in, Advanced Duration. Easy to activate, so I don’t bother saying it takes a ritual. Lasts for days at Fate 3.
Third Attainment: Tree of Life
Pre-Requisite: Life 3
The Tree of Life grants invigoration, rejuvenation. The power of the earth speeding the healing of those who
are not blind to its truths. By spending an Instant Action, the Noddist can draw upon the power of the Earth
to refresh the energy within the Mage’s subject. Activating this attainment require the Mage to be in
physical contact with the earth, and heals Bashing damage the subject is suffering equal to their Life dots
times two. Furthermore, this heals damage inflicted by deprivation, and charges the subject’s system as if
they had just received a full meal and plenty of water.
Knit, Instant Casting, and the food and drink boon, which is incredibly minor, and probably worth the “touch the earth” element.
Optional Arcanum: Prime 3
With sufficient knowledge of Prime, the Noddist can grow a true Tree of Life. This process takes as long as it
requires for the specific tree to grow, and require intermittent performing of a special ritual in order to
maintain its growth. This process cannot be enhanced by Life Magic, however some highly advanced
Noddists have noted that Mastery of Time Magic is more than sufficient for artificially enhancing its growth.
Once the tree has matured, the Noddist can touch it, and with an Instant Action imbue it with a number of
points of Mana up to their mana limit per turn. Over the next 24 hours, the Tree will sprout a number of
pieces of fruit equal to the amount of Mana invested in it (even if the plant was not one that could sprout
fruit in the first place). When eaten, these fruits will heal a number of points of Bashing or Lethal damage
equal to the Mage’s dots in Life, however if they are not eaten before the begin to rot, they will lose all their
mystic potency, and the mana contained within them will sublimate back into the universe.
Prime 3 option to modify the function of the Life attainment to contain it within Prime 3 Imbued item charges. Further modified with the option for healing Lethal damage, at the cost of lesser Bashing. Given the effort to establish a true, and the fact that any Mage with Gnosis 4 will likely already have Life 4, this is well balanced, to my eyes. Also, it’s the most faithful update of the 1e Attainment I could make.
Fourth Attainment: Living Communion
Pre-Requisite: Life 4
“Awakening is the act of eating of the Tree of Knowledge,” Abigail Mitchum liked to say. “We listened to the
Serpent, no matter what form he wore at the time, and we took a big bite. That’s not the Fall. The Fall was
assuming that eating that fruit meant we knew something that other folks didn’t, and could never know.”
Arrogance, elitism and pride are the enemy, and division strengthens that great enemy. This Attainment
seeks to ensure that people understand that Knowledge can heal, just the same as it can paralyze or divide.
With an Instant Action and a touch, the Noddist makes minor adjustments to the Patterns of all biological organisms within a short distance of them (a large room on the standard area table). This grants ever participant an intimate sense of the health and pattern of all other affected individuals, furthermore each becomes incapable of harming other affected individuals, though they can defend themselves (suffering -1 penalty to offensive physical attempts to do so). Furthermore, affected individuals become deeply linked and can make collective Reactions, and so long as one individual is not surprised by an action none of the rest are either. They also gain the ability to disperse damage amongst them, separating harm occasioned to one member across the link to the remainder.
If a subject does not wish to join this Living Communion, they Withstand its effects with their Stamina, which is contested by the Noddist’s life Dots. The effects of this attainment last for a single scene, and have been noted as extremely unsettling for those individuals who are not used to such an intimate sense of other’s bodies and physicality.
Life 3 Weaving spell to link the life forces of affected individuals. One Reach for Instant Casting, one reach for Advanced Duration, primary factor in Potency, Secondary Factors into Advanced Scale.
Optional Arcanum: Time 3
Unified as one, the Mage can go further, and pull his companions back with him a short distance through
Time. When the Noddist activates Living Communion, they may choose to shift themselves and all affected
individuals back full scene of time. This does not heal any damage, or return any mana or willpower points
expended in this time. The subjects all arrive in the past in exactly the state they left the future.
Shifting Sands, Reach into Instant Casting and Scene-Length capacity.
Fifth Attainment: Tree of Knowledge
Pre-Requisite: Life 5
The living world holds a great deal of information that few ever think to consider, the Tree of Knowledge
grants the Noddist three distinct abilities, drawing upon the this great bounty of information.
Firstly, as an instant action and by touching a living organism, the Mage can sense the symbolic marks which have been left on it by any action which it has been a participant of over the course of its lifespan.
Secondly, in a scene-long ritual, the Mage can transform their physical form into that of any living organism of size 15 or less which they have perceived in their life.
Thirdly, in a similar scene-long ritual, the Mage may fuse their physical form with that of any plant life. In addition to giving one a wonderfully change perspective on reality, while in this state, the Mage ages at a rate roughly comparable to that of the tree itself. The Mage still maintains access to their cognitive processes, though these may be slightly slowed, but not diminished, and may still cast spells, although bar further shapechanging they will doubtless be forced to rely upon mystical perception for targeting.
Look, I couldn’t think of anything hippie-eden-mage-ish for the 5th dot. So you get some past info, some Shapechanging, and merging with a tree to live for hundreds of years.
Optional Arcanum: Time 5
These powers are further enhanced by the Noddist’s understanding of the Time Arcanum. When perceiving
a past action, the Noddist can perceive precisely the event that occurred, and knows exactly when in time
this happened.
Secondly, when the Mage merges with a plant life-form, he unifies himself with its timeline on an intimate
level such that its past becomes their past, which they may peruse at will.
Thirdly, and most horrifyingly, given this unity of timelines, through a Scene-Long ritual, the Mage when
unified with a plant, may travel back along its timeline with it into the past, potentially hundreds or
thousands of years before the Mage themselves were born. While the Mage cannot disentangle themselves
from the plant without disrupting their access to the past, this does not limit their capacity to use Shape-
changing magic to render their plant-form ambulatory and capable of communication.
First option is meh. Second one is a set-up for the third one. And the third one? What can I say. I like goddamn ludicrous 5th Attainments. Tree-based time travel. Good fucking lord.