Aspect Spotlight: The Magician

This post is part of a series focusing on the eight Aspects—the “playbooks” of Divination if you will. Learn how each one represents its tarot card in the Hero’s psyche and how it plays, including a spotlight on a couple Powers for each one. The entire series is linked at the bottom of the page.

The Magician is the symbol of decisive, creative power. They’re swift action, impossible goals, creativity, and willpower.

The Magician is what the Fool turns into if they live long enough to make it to adulthood. They gain a crown—the infinity sign—indicating the endless path of knowledge. They gain a table: a place to work, and a place to leave their tools, the symbols of the elements. The magician sees the world this way, in pieces, laid out to be rearranged and designed.

In Divination, when you play the Aspect of the Magician, you take on the voice of that decisive, goal-oriented spirit in the mind of your Hero. To the Magician, nothing matters but the pursuit of a divine goal, one that they’re called to create.

As the Magician, you adopt an existential ambition, a goal that may be so grand, it’s scientifically unattainable. That doesn’t matter. The Magician pursues ideals. To pursue those ideals, you’ll have a wide array of flexible Powers to alter Tests and make sure the group is focused on your goals.

When an Ace comes up in any Test, you can hold it in your hand using The Magician’s Tools—every Ace is representative of the tools on your table—and hold it for later. That will be useful when the unexpected happens down the line.

You can forge an Internal Alliance with any other Aspect of the Hero’s mind and share the rewards for the pursuit of your goals: sweet XP and all the promise of personal and emotional growth that comes with it.

For those moments when an Internal Alliance isn’t enough, you can just stop one of your fellow Aspects from taking Control of the Hero using Self-Restraint.

Despite playing hardball sometimes (you must if you’re in pursuit of greatness), the team looks to you to save the moment with Powers like Expert Edge, which allows you to raise or lower the number on a card after it’s revealed; a Power that can save the team from failure at any moment.

If you like being the decider of big moments, making tough calls, and pursuing the impossible, the Magician is for you. Will you show restraint with your other Aspects and help pursue their goals too? Or will you be a creative terror and dominate the Hero until everyone is on board with your passions? Will you achieve your lofty pursuits? Will you lead the Hero toward projects and goals they can attain?

Read about the other Aspects here: