Anyway,
@MJ12 Commando and
@Quantumboost, I'm putting a backported Death-as-an-oWoD-Sphere up for scrutiny.
Death
Death, the Dead, decay and souls make up the providence of the sphere of Death. From this sphere comes knowledge of the doom which waits for all men, regardless of their power or wisdom and what comes next. The soul is a fleeting bird which nests briefly, and those who study this power can separate it from a host, cage it, or even slay it permanently.
Compared to its 'sibling' Entropy, Death is a rarer sight among the mages of the modern era. While it was not-uncommon in Europe before the Renaissance and there is strong evidence which suggests that the blood-mages of Mesoamerica who the Verbena claim as antecedents performed something similar, since the foundation of the Council it has been unfavoured – and sometimes worse. This is not helped by how dangerous it is to use it in the Dark Umbra, where it draws the attention of spectres. Wise practitioners in the arts of Death ward themselves against the dead before they venture into that forsaken realm.
It is often commonly assumed that the Euthanatoi are the masters of Death. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, this sphere is forbidden to most of their major factions, and viewed with extreme suspicion by the others. Perhaps the only people who learn this sphere more rarely than the Euthanatoi are agents of the Technocratic Union (because the kind of 'flexible' Technocrat who dabbles in certain not-permitted fields is much more likely to learn Spirit), who find this unabashed mysticism to be alien.
However, among the ranks of the Order of Hermes and Verbena alike it still possesses a fair number of practitioners. There is power in death, just as there is in life, and the Hermetics have never been ones to listen to people (especially the Euthanatoi) who tell them what to do. It can be found among Etherite Necronauts and Orphaned Ancestor cultists and while the mainstream Chorus frowns on it, there have always been undercurrents of its use among its ranks. Death may substitute for Matter in the spheres required to affect vampires and other such undead beings.
There are those among the Hollow Ones who are trying to make it 'their' sphere, and so solidify their claimed position as a Tradition. Hollow Ones who do study it too deeply tend to drift away from their old faction, however. It is one thing to talk about the briefness of life while drinking absinthe and wearing lots of black; it is another thing to live with the knowledge that this sphere brings.
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, masters of Death frequently gather less pleasant forms of Entropic resonance if they put their skills to certain ends. Those who abuse this sphere must wrestle with the looming spectre of Jhor – indeed, there are those among the Euthanatoi who assume that members of other Traditions who display that certain madness have been dabbling in this sphere. Certainly, practitioners tend to acquire a weighty air, and a certain solemnity which indicates their innate understanding of how fragile life is.
●
See Death
The mage may see immaterial ghosts in the real world, or see into the Dark Umbra to converse with the spectres of the long-departed. She may identify the presence of a possessing ghost or soul which does not belong there - though no other kind of spirit – and may try to identify it with whatever knowledge she possesses. Creatures of death, like ghosts and vampires, stand out to her senses when she chooses to look, because she is particularly attuned to morbid resonance and so can find creatures – and places – where it hangs heavy. Through this she can diagnose grievous injuries and dire sicknesses easily, and more minor ones with difficulty.
The future is always in flux, but the mage can predict roughly how long someone likely has to live – though the cause is much more difficult to establish. On those who are terminally ill or grievously injured, she may make more precise estimates and see the cause as well. For those who are already departed, she may see the last thing a person saw before they died - helpful if they were staring at the face of the person choking them, less so if they were shot in the head by a sniper from a kilometre away – and diagnose the cause of death (or destruction, in the case of an object).
The mage may examine the soul of another, searching it for damage or abnormalities, or note its lack (for example, in a HITMark). With extended study, she may even be able to determine its Essence, though this is much easier in an Awakened mage than a Sleeper, or the cloying stasis caused by addiction to vampiric vitae or other such conditions.
Correspondence with Death lets the mage find locations where creatures have died. Combining Time with Death might let a mage tell more precisely how someone is likely to die. With the aid of Forces, the mage might seek out weak spots with their shot or avoid those who are already injured.
● ● Touch Death
Firstly and most obviously, the mage may now touch - or strike against - immaterial ghosts, or reach into the Dark Umbra to retrieve an object. As with Spirit 2 she may ward an area against ghosts or ease their manifestation, though this only works against ghosts – other spirits may bypass such wards trivially.
The mage can encourage static patterns to rot and decay, hastening their natural ends if they are already damaged. They may not destroy an intact door, but one which is already rotten – well, that's another matter. This can also be used to cause minor inconvenience to dynamic patterns, though at this level of the sphere the caster cannot cause large scale changes - still, it is enough to snuff out a candleflame or cause a momentary feeling of unease in a human. More sinisterly, she may enchant an object to trap a soul unattached to a body within it - the so-called "soul jar" of folk tales. If the object is broken, the trapped soul may flee - and almost certainly will.
Her veils of death also allow her to conceal her own Resonance to the eyes of others, or conceal the cause of death on a corpse by making it appear as if some other method was responsible. Obviously it is much easier to conceal something like a subtle poison than 'cut in half by a HITMark'!
In conjunction with pattern spheres, the mage may learn to work soulsteel or make magic items which can affect the Dark Umbra. She may repair something to the state it was in before it was destroyed, or draw on the necrotic echo of an object and make it real. With great risk and great skill with Forces, she may even affect the Maelstroms of the Dark Umbra, though such actions will draw the malevolent attention of spectres.
● ● ● Welcome Death
At considerable personal risk, a skilled mage may step through the Gauntlet into the entropic realm of the Dark Umbra. To do such a thing puts the life of the mage in great peril, but there have been no shortage of magicians willing to do it for the gains. Such mages are put at risk of the Avatar Storm even before they arrive, especially if they have a strong spiritual guide. Mighty rituals and weak places in the world are usually required for these workings. Human sacrifice – or at least nearby death – helps.
Even in the material world, the mage may temporarily shed solid form, becoming an unseen spectre who may pass through solid matter (and solid matter through them) as if it was mere mist. The mage's understanding of the processes of death allows them to use this level of the sphere on creatures of death as Life 3 may be used on living things. Ghosts are treated as Simple patterns from the perspective of this sphere. Ghosts may also be forced to flee the proximity of the mage, which is often used to cast them out of a restrained body they are possessing - a trick common to exorcists.
Much like practitioners of Entropy 3, the Disciple of Death may hasten the end of predictable patterns. Unlike Entropy, though, Death may only speed the destruction of predictable patterns at this level. It may not protect them against their inevitable end.
With the Pattern spheres, the mage can destroy predictable patterns and ensure that they leave ghost-reflections of themselves in the Dark Umbra – or with Life, ensure a human leaves a ghost regardless of their personal feelings. Prime lets the mage render ghosts down into quintessence.
● ● ● ●
Embrace Death
At this level, the mage may make permanent gateways to the Dark Umbra – or at least as permanent as anything is to that blighted place. Wise mages do not leave such things unwarded, for spectres and ghosts alike will try to enter the world through such a rift.
The control of the adept of Death extends to allow them to summon and bind ghosts. By binding a ghost to a soul jar, various magical items akin to spirit-empowered fetishes may be made. More sinisterly, a ghost may be bound to a corpse – or other things saturated with deathly resonance, like a rotten tree or funeral ashes – to create revenants.
A mage can delay their own death from natural causes, though they will still grow infirm and (if taken to an extreme) rot, suffering the indignities of old age. She may 'heal' herself and others, though in truth this is merely moving sickness and injury around, and if she cannot find another target to move her bottled death to or a soul jar to trap it in, it will afflict her. At this level they may also do the same to protect predictable patterns. More malevolently, they can force living patterns to rot and decay, inflicting Bashing, Lethal or Aggravated health levels or removing Attribute dots. They may even blight a soul giving its host points of Entropic Resonance.
With this level of Death combined with other spheres, a mage can make profound changes to the nature of a ghost, puppet it entirely or even wear it as a skin and walk in the Dark Umbra passing for a native.
● ● ● ● ● Become Death
Few things are forbidden to a master of Death. Many of the grim tales of this sphere and its abuse are grounded in their actions. A master may destroy a ghost utterly, or slay a mortal in a way which means no ghost may possibly form. They can cast their victims through the Gauntlet into the Dark Umbra in a way which leads to their instant death. They may unmake quintessence, scattering it from a source or spoiling a node. Even more feared is their capacity to remove a Sleeping soul and trap it in a soul jar, or carry out the rite of gilgul and destroy a soul entirely.
With this level of mastery, the mage may tamper with the very substance of a ghost. They can flense the Shadow from a wraith and make it into a separate being, or cause it to come to the surface and control a ghost. Their influence also allows them to rouse the Beast of the Kindred, or the po soul of the strange kindred of the East. They may cut out passions and rewrite the nature of their death.
With control of death comes immortality. Mages can steal the lifespan of others, remaining young while passing their mortality on to others. Some say that these mages can even defeat death itself and provide something akin to true life to a ghost if they bind them into a host. Certainly they can force a ghost to displace the mind and soul of their victim, who becomes a ghost in their own right.
Masters can excise curses from their own souls and lay blights of Entropic Resonance which follow the person even past the point of reincarnation. Hubristic masters of death who have studied the nature of time can even destroy periods of the past so they never happened – though such actions reap a frightful toll in Paradox. After the Avatar Storm, there are no masters of Death remaining on Earth, and this may well be for the best.
