Honestly, looking into this was both fun, and I was left with a lot of lore.
I may have mentioned his shadow essence being a massive part of his path as a Mage, but there are five known paths. (theoretically, there are six)
Each path influences the Arcana a mage can use, but that doesn't mean that mages can't use others.
Watchtower Paths
1. Those who Awakened to the Watchtower of the Golden Key are Obrimos, whose ruling Arcana are Forces and Prime. They are also known as the Theurgists on the Path of the Mighty,
2. The Watchtower of Iron Gauntlet are Mastigos, whose ruling Arcana are Mind and Space. They are also known as the Warlocks on the Path of Scourging, which reside in the Realm of Pandemonium, Kingdom of Nightmares, and Abode of Demons. Their theme is Triumph Over Adversity, and their mood is Antagonism.
3. The Watchtower of the Lead Coin is Moros, a magical path whose ruling Arcana are Death and Matter. The path's followers are also known as the Necromancers on the Path of Doom.
4. The Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn is Acanthus, whose ruling Arcana are Fate and Time. Mages on this path are also known as witches and enchanters.
5. The Watchtower of the Singing Stone is Thyrsus. The ruling Arcana of Thyrsus is Life and Spirit. Thyrsus is also known as the Shamans on the Path of Ecstasy.
6. Finally, the path that the main character has is called the Lone Watch Tower, which is rumored to exist; if it does, then presumably, those mages called to write their names on its walls would follow an unknown path, which would be its shadow essence, which would be the most fitting.
Avatars
Mages experience the Avatar as a separate personality connected to the mage's soul, which drives the mage toward Ascension. It will often speak to the mage, usually as a "voice in the head" or via dreams. Avatars generally take on a humanoid form of the opposite gender to the mage, though this is not always the case and is highly dependent on the mage's interpretation. Avatars are also in control of a mage's Seekings. They will act as the mentor to guide.
Avatars were historically guided to their mages by spirits known as psychopomps, a spirit living in the Deep Umbra, also called the Deep Universe, a vast realm outside Earth's Umbral space. It is primarily an immense void. They bring the Avatar of a person when they Awaken. The presence of psychopomps was the direct result of the appearance of the realization, and they radiated forward and backward in time from that point. Psychopomps chose mages and Avatars so perfectly matched that many mages were utterly unaware of the presence of the Avatar, referring to it only as a sort of mystical Fount of energy. Unfortunately, this often meant the inner voice of the Avatar was rendered silent, and mages were free to pursue their own petty personal agendas. However, as time progressed away from the realization, psychopomps became less common, leaving it up to Avatars to find their mages.
But as two different souls fused, forming the Tristan of now: one native and without any ego or the ability to develop it, and the other foreign from the world of WOD and with a complete ego. Its Avatar has taken a completely different role. It does not abide by using psychopomps. The Avatar comes from its shadow essence, making its Avatar a foreigner who took on the role of a guide—basically, a hacker using the world's magic system to become a native. And P.S. I changed my mind; a psychopomp will stay with Tristan, and it isn't from deep Umbra or anywhere else; it comes from a different world altogether, and I am not spoiling it til around chapter five or six, and it will be used as a familiar.
Each Avatar has an Essence. These describe the Avatar's nature and how the Avatar seeks Ascension. An Avatar's Essence usually, though not always, complements the mage's desires and outlook on magic and life. Dahlia's essence is pattern, Julius's essence is Dynamic, Tristan's is ##### (It means never mind another essence four is enough, Tristan doesn't need another. Especially when it's unneeded entirely; his avatar and path are enough. I'll be tearing my head off adding another insignificant essence as the blank essence bodies them all in potential)
Dynamic - growth through change and freedom.
Pattern - strength through Order and structure.
Primordial - improvement through purification
Questing - striving for balance and purpose.
Council of Nine Mystic Traditions
The Nine Mystics council is an organization that is predominantly unified and united by a standard theory of magical Spheres and their common purpose: the defense of magic and myth against the oppressive, static, and safe Technocratic paradigm of predictability and control. They are not necessarily a hereditary organization, as they are political/philosophical groups that share interests, values, and organizational principles. Some teachers from one of the nine paradigms can influence the MC, but in the end, just about every mage is unique in how magic works for them. But the benefit of a tradition is there is a common ground with people in your traditions. (Tristan will create his organization full of anomalies someday.)
1. The Akashic Brotherhood, also known as the Akashayana, represents the sphere of the mind. They believe that mind, body, and spirit are all part of the larger whole of the person, like, at the same time, that person is part of the whole of the universe. In other words, conflict is an illusion, and the same can be said of identity and dispute, so when the mind and body harmonize, the soul follows them. By honing their bodies, these mages make a temple for the mind that ultimately brings the comprehension of the spirit. The Brotherhood uses simple tools — exercise, meditation, practice, and study — to refine the simple man into a brother of knowledge. A perfect example would be martial artists and monks.
The mind sphere allows an archmage (rare, but not unheard of) never to be distracted and has perfect control of their emotions. They can create viral memes that alter personalities and spread from one target to another, changing an entire nation's outlook in a matter of hours or days. Spells become capable of reacting to conscious thought or can even remove another mage's ability to form an Imago. Archmages can also trap people in the Astral Realms indefinitely. They can replicate the mind of any creature that exists in the Fallen World(A world that turned into remnants because of a war between Atlanteans; they now hold what is left, basically a type of hellish domain with different corrupted beings), potentially even move one's entire form physically into the Astral Realms, cutting oneself off from theUmbrarial world. One can utterly destroy any mind born from the Fallen World and radically change one's own Oneiros. They can create a chantry rooted within the Astral Realms and even make a permanent psychic shell to withstand the weathering effect of the Dreamtime. Indeed, they can walk the world of dreams like walking down the street.
2. Celestial Chorus, also known as the faithful, holds the sphere of the prime. This group of mages believes in God. And God is real in the mage universe- as in, objectively, he, just like the Easter Bunny, is real. The entire bar being real isn't high at all, so these mages placed it to an even higher instance above the concept of something that exists outside of all the manifestations of human imagination that exists in the upper Umbra (which is a place that can broadly be considered a reflection of the consciousness of the entirety of humanity). They call this God The One. Because of The One, the chorus has supporters coming from all manners of Abrahamic religion. The main ones are Christians, Muslims, and Jews. They have been a little bit more open towards those who are a bit polytheistic, but they have to have some justification for all polytheistic gods coming from one.
Archmages of Prime sometimes emit a faint light. Archmages of Prime can create Hallows anywhere they want and even control the quality of the Mana and tass it produces. They can make permanent, self-correcting illusions, imbued items, and even endow others with supernatural abilities when combined with the penumbra arcana. They can dispel the magics of other archmages and create "overseer" spells that repair their creator's magic when they've been dispelled or breached. The sphere of prime is the creme of the top of magic in molding other magics together.
3. The Chakravanti, which holds the sphere of Entropy, was a fellowship of Indian death mages who later became part of a larger Tradition. This Tradition was also called the Chakravanti initially. However, its name was later changed to the more Greek Euthanatoi, intimately devoted to the forces of death, rebirth, destiny, and karma in the world, the guardians of the cycle of life and death. They represent a collection of thanatotic cultists, necromancers, priests of fate, assassins, scholars, gamblers, and healers. (Julius was originally an assassin and a gambler within the Chakravanti, with a talent for death and matter magic for creating weapons, and has used probability manipulation for stealing and gambling, but when it comes to manipulating or perceiving fate/karma, he isn't a fan of it even when he is talented for it, but uses it anyways when trouble arises. He is a perfect representation of the Euthanatoi, with the added matter manipulation for his weapons)
The powers afforded to an archmage of Death are many and terrible. An Archmage's voice takes on an echoing quality as if it were issuing forth from an open tomb; this ability allows the Archmage to call forth the shades of the ancient dead and converse with them, maybe even control them. This vocal quality does not affect living humans, animals, spirits, or werewolves, just the dead and undead, Kindred included, for a short time. An archmage can perform such feats as adding years to their lifespan without taking them off another or taking these years from the Awakened. They're able to raise armies of undead servitors or consume the whole of a victim's soul. Even these great and terrible powers pale in comparison to the full potential of Archmage of Death: the ability to bring people back to life. There are penalties, but they are negligible for immortals, and the new parent's resurrection will be unknown and spoilers. The way they died is beyond death and goes to the complete erasure of existence, soul included. 💀
4. The Hermes Faction, which resides as the sphere of force, is one of the pillars of the Traditions. A Fellowship during the Dark Ages, it draws upon a potent fundus of magical knowledge and has dramatically shaped occult history. Its failings, however, are equally grand. Hubris runs strong in the elitist Order, and with the Reckoning, many of their traditional ways are challenged. Old, carefully hoarded secrets are gone forever in many cases. At the same time, mystical items and powerful patrons are destroyed or locked away beyond the hostile Gauntlet (the barrier surrounding material reality, separating it from the Umbra, a realm existing alongside and yet separate from the material world.) Again, their arrogance led to a division, and smarter factions had the upper hand. They were fighting against themselves, too. One of their families, the Tremiere, used to be in the middle of the drama, and their huge ego cost them their very magic itself when the Founder of Tremiere turned himself and the rest of his leadership into vampires.
They are complete monsters in their own right, and at the highest, an archmage of Forces can see in all levels of the electromagnetic light spectrum, from microwaves to gamma radiation. They are immune to all forms of radiation and can reach into a pit of lava or cauldron molten metal and not even get singed. They can speak and hear in the UL and UH frequencies. They are immune to electricity, from static to lightning to dynamic. An archmage can move at the speed of light or beyond and mimic any sound perfectly. An Archmage of Forces can create a black hole if they wish. They can create an explosion equal to the energy output of a solar flare or bend the earth's magnetic field to their will.
Dahlia was from one of the twelve houses of the Hermes faction, the House of Merinita, which are Fae-mystics with nature affinities. Secretive and aloof, they have little to do with the rest of the Order except protecting the fae from other magi. The House declined after most of its dignitaries disappeared into the Otherworld, including the Founder herself. Leaving only Dahlia, a Kinain, a mortal that possesses faerie blood but is not a full Changeling as a gatekeeper of the Otherworld. Her specialty is the use of elementals, and she is a monster in certain types of forces to the point of creating inspiration for the fae; she was an ex-successor and would be considered a perfect representation of a powerful magic user from the Hermes faction, but without the disdain for the commoners. Who stayed until a particular rouge came along. And annoyed her and somehow landed her as a wife. RIZZ. (Dahlia and Julius are classed as masters of their class; archmages is the final stage, but there are classes above that.)
5. The Kha'vadi, also known as the dream speakers, represent the sphere of spirit, one of the most diverse traditions. Representatives of the ancient cultures of African, Native American, Inuit, and Aboriginal Australian societies stand alongside practitioners of Shinto, independent spiritual savants, and descendants of other forgotten tribes and civilizations. Though initially grouped by the other Eurocentric traditions, the disparate cultures within the Dreamspeakers have found common ground in their respect for and dedication to the balance between physical and spiritual reality.
Archmages of Spirit can force spirits to only feed from a specific type of spirit or Essence. They can alter the local Gauntlet to adapt, depending on the spirit testing it. Seekers can create, alter, or outright remove a given spirit's ban or numina (an umbrella term for the supernatural powers possessed by mortals in the World of Darkness. At present, three main groups of numina have been outlined and include psychic powers, sorcery, and True Faith.) and often have voices that take on an unnatural, albeit strangely compelling echo. This compulsion does not affect humans, ghosts, or vampires; they can only hear the echo when/if the Archmage wishes. They do more, but let's say they could cross any boundaries and control spirits.
6. The Virtual Adepts now hold the seat of correspondence/space. Originally, the Batini, a group of Arabian mages, held it. Still, they withdrew their membership early in the 20th century to focus on maintaining the Web of Faith and protecting the Middle East against the Technocratic (an organization that wants to get rid of magic) onslaught. The Virtual Adepts are the youngest members of the Traditions. Focused on the Digital Web, the Adepts search for a way to reach the singularity, the point where mankind can transcend into something post-human. They are the nerds of the tradition that sees mathematics as a metaphysical component of existence.🤓
Archmages of Space are the hardest to find. This is in part because if they are ever located, it's because they wish to be. An Archmage knows where everything in the universe is located, even if they've never been there, from the furthest stars to the closest electrons, the most massive black hole to the most microscopic germ. It's all in the back of their minds; all they need to do is reach into their imagination and pull it out. If they combine Space with Prime, they can create Chantries domains outside the known universe where Archmages can meditate without distraction. They can ignore the rules of sympathy because they can go anywhere in the Tellurian (the whole of reality, including the mundane world, the Near Umbra, the Dreaming, the Deep Umbra, etc) and can scry, ward, or strike at anyone as spatial defenses fail to hinder them. With effort, they can create a True Name for themselves, rendering them immune to magical targeting via identity. An Archmage of sufficient skill and power can stand at the Oroborus and teleport back and forth across the gulf of the Abyss, all the way to the Supernal Realms.
7. The Seers of Chronos (Sahajiya), who holds the sphere of Time, were renamed to the Cultus Ecstasis in 1867, following Sh'zar the Seer's decision to change the tradition's name because they were straying from their true mission. The central philosophical paradigm of the Seers is the Hindu philosophy known as Sahaja, which is a Sanskrit word meaning "[passionate] nature". They are the weed-smoking hippies of the traditions with Time abilities. A healthier version of slaaneshes philosophy from 40k. So, these mages will use anything that heightens their perception of the world in order to grow their magic
Archmages of Time have looked fully in the face of time itself. They have learned the final and most fundamental truth about time and space; it may be fluid and inconstant, but it is one large piece. It is human beings who tend to cut it into consumable pieces: years-months, days-weeks, etc. Because of this revelation, many Seekers have a serenity about them that reflects in their gentle eyes. Archmages may shunt objects into the past and future. One can rewrite the histories of both themselves and others, changing their very souls. One can distort time so much that a scene from the past or future becomes manifest. And this isn't to speak of the most speculated upon the power of arch mastery: time travel. An Archmage of Time can walk back in time like most people walk downhill. If time is one piece and is equal to space, then the journey through time should be as simple as turning a corner. Another ability of an Archmage is to be able to hide between the moments or outside of time itself.
8. The Society Of Ether, which holds the sphere of matter, is a group of technomancers aligned with the Council of Nine. Originally part of the Order of Reason and the Technocracy(antagonists against mages and magic itself but are hypocrites that hide their magic with science 💀 And they are basically the SCP foundation of this world.), they abandoned their former compatriots after the Union aided the expulsion of the Luminiferous Ether from the Consensus, which was basically a book, its hard to describe this. Still, this society did a bunch of wild things toward the nine traditions, helped the technocracy when it came to imperialism, and took sh#t over with them. When they tried to put the philosophy book under the bus, they basically went BALLISTIC. Since then, the Sons have adopted several outdated technologies and incorporated them into their Paradigm. You would also expect that they wouldn't get along, but the nine traditions gave zero f#cks about their past and accepted them and accepted them
Now for an Archmage who holds the power of matter, as with the powers afforded to any Arcanum at the sixth level or higher, largely unknown. However, as with the abilities wielded by all archmages, the imagination generally fills in the gaps. Perhaps states of matter exist beyond solids, liquids, and gases. Maybe substances even more perfect than thaumium (An extremely hard metal that goes completely beyond iron and other known metal) can be manufactured. A mage with sufficiently enormous power may be able to create or destroy matter at a prodigious rate, gaining the power to create mountains out of nothing or render cities into dust. The powers of archmages may even go further; a mage at extremely high levels of power may create a new element known as Apeiron, the Grey lead of Stygia, which can replicate perfectly the function of any mundane object or machine of equal size. With sufficient power in Matter and Space, the archmaster may create his own personal planet or moon somewhere in the cosmos as a private sanctum.
9. The Verbena, which holds the sphere of life. a Tradition of mages in the World of Darkness dedicated to preserving the ancient crafts and wisdom passed down over the ages by witches and warlocks, druids and druidesses, shamans, mystics, and priests and priestesses of the Old Gods. They are similar to the kha'vadi but full of white folk; I mean, sure, their culture is equally as diverse, but they are all predominantly from Europe. But they don't care about spirits but for all life as they believe that all magic is in everything that lives, and they have a harder time adapting to the advancements of the world compared to the Kha'vadi, as Each member must find a way to apply the lessons and practices of the old ways to the modern world, or be seen by both mages and mortals as merely a fringe practitioner of a dying craft.
An Archmage of Life is very nearly indestructible, able to correct all physical imperfections within themselves; if they have bad vision, it becomes 20/20. All physical attributes are boosted: whether they're twelve or seventy, they gain the strength and vigor of an above-average twenty-year-old. Archmage of Life can feel the ebb and flow of life in the blood; they can communicate with all forms of life: microbes, plants, and other animals. They can regrow limbs within hours to minutes of losing them and can heal anything as long as they use the right combination of spells. It's conceivable that an arch master could create a bizarre life that doesn't melt away under the gaze of the Sleepers. Archmage can wield full control over humans, using them as puppets. Archmages can permanently regrow lost or damaged appendages and organs, making him/her truly powerful healer. An Archmage of Life knows the anatomy of every living creature and, with Prime, can potentially create a new species of supernatural creature.