Personality Archetypes: Nature and Demeanor

Everybody adopts roles and masks. We play the parts necessitated by circumstance every day. Depending on the situation, we may be children, lovers, warriors, students or teachers. Even in the underlying principles that make up "you," there's room for change.
Are you the same person that you were yesterday? Last month? A year ago? Ten years ago? For that matter, are you the same person when talking to someone you don't like as opposed to enjoying a conversation with friends? As a way of looking at your mage's personality, we give you personality Archetypes —broad definitions of various motives, beliefs and ways of dealing with the world.
A mage typically has a single Nature, representing her innermost emotions, and a Demeanor, the mask that she presents to others.

Archetypes are not designed to limit or pigeonhole your character. Rather, they are ways to get a handle on the character's motives, a sort of "default setting" from which you can play. The Archetypes allow you to play the character without having to fiddle with motive or direction constantly. Instead, you can take a brief look at the character's Nature and Demeanor to come up with a course of action that suits the character. Don't be limited by these conveniences, though. People surprise us all the time, and your character should be more complex than a simple phrase. Each Archetype has a particular strength and weakness.
The strength is essentially a "strength of character," the passion that moves the mage.
The mage can draw inspiration from her passion. The weakness is a character flaw that must be overcome if the mage is ever to achieve Ascension. From this flaw, the mage might find a new inner resolve as she fights to overcome her problems, or she may fall to her own hubris. Because a mage draws strength from her convictions, her Nature can also serve as a means for her to replenish her innermost defenses.
A mage who fulfills her Nature in some meaningful fashion (hopefully with strong roleplaying and a great deal of work!) may regain Willpower points, as suggested.

Architect

You desire to leave a mark on the world by building something that lasts. You try to create things of value — objects, buildings, philosophies. Not only are you a founder and a builder, but you intend to have a legacy that brings strength and a better life to those who follow after you.
Your strength is Purpose. You have a vision that will make the world better (for someone) after you've passed through. Your deeds will hopefully live on and help those around you. Your weakness is Obsession with your ambitions — you focus blindly on your plans. To Ascend, you must defeat this fixation and open yourself to new possibilities and achievements. — Regain Willpower whenever you create or establish something of import ance or lasting value.

Autocrat

You want control. To this end, you take charge, structure events around you and build in rigid hierarchies and procedures. Firmly convinced that nobody else has what it takes, you step in to guide and direct.
Your strength is Leadership. You have a natural penchant for authority, and this confidence causes others to recognize you as a leader to be respected or feared. You are ready to make the tough choices demanded of a true leader. Your weakness lies in Dictatorship. Though you have the will to lead others, you do not necessarily have the interests of the group at heart. You lead for the sake of leading, not to any given purpose. You must look without to find a reason to lead — or follow — if your leadership is to mean anything. Before you can master others, you must master yourself. — Regain Willpower when you take charge over a new group or organization.

Bon Vivant

Hedonist, sybarite, sensualist — these names and more describe you. Since we only live once, you live for the party! You aren't necessarily averse to a little work or waiting, but you want to have fun at the end of it all — a lot of fun. If you can have fun all the time, so much the better. Everyone should enjoy life. You certainly plan to do so.
Love of life is your great strength. You cling so feverishly to the joys of living that you are loath to give them up, and you infect others with your happiness and passion. Your weakness is Hedonism. As the old saw states, you can resist anything except temptation. If you're not having a good time, you're looking for one, and this desire for gratification can lead you away from duty or enlightenment. — Regain Willpower whenever you have a really good time and truly enjoy what you're doing, especially if you can get others to share your joy.

Bravo

It's a tough world, but the Bravo got going early. Nobody else will look out for number one, so you cultivate strength and power. With that power, you can do what you want, you can survive and thrive, and you can garner respect. Since the world revolves around the powerful, you respect only those who hold similar views. You might be a thug who roughs up everyone to test their mettle, or you might be a careful manipulator who pits your enemies against one another. Either way, you live by keeping the upper hand.
You have a great reservoir of Strength . Setbacks that would daunt others are just challenges for you to prove yourself. Since you've accepted that it's a hard world, you'll tough it out by whatever means are necessary. Unfortunately, your Anger often leads you into conflict. Unwilling to help others because you want to get ahead, you alienate people, cause problems and get yourself in a rut. You must leam to compromise and to deal. Life is not a zero-sum game. — Regain Willpower whenever you gain the upper hand in a long-running conflict, either through personal strength or the accumulation of power.

Caregiver

Since the world is so dangerous and hurtful, you've taken it upon yourself to look out for others' welfare. Perhaps you were once hurt, or you've seen too much suffering. Either way, you never want anyone to have to endure that pain again. You give of yourself to help others, and you mollify pain, take up others' problems and lend a caring shoulder to those in need.
Your Compassion is your strength. Your willingness to share makes a community, so that everyone can draw strength from one another. Even though you can't help everyone, you make a real difference for the few that you do encounter. Your weakness stems from Smothering. Although you really want to help others, sometimes the best help is to let them take their knocks and overcome their own problems. Unless you learn to let go, you'll keep your charges from making their own meaningful accomplishments, successes and failures. — Regain Willpower whenever you protect or nurture someone else.

Celebrant

A cause is at the heart of your soul, and that cause gives you joy. True enthusiasm drives you in a love, even a passion, for your chosen expression. You might be an activist or an artist, a scholar or a performer; your calling gives you a deep and abiding satisfaction. From this pleasure you are driven to move ever forward.
Passion is your strength: You love your chosen cause so much that you will push beyond the limits that would stymie others. You truly enjoy and care about your work, and you inspire others as well. Your weakness comes from Intemperance. Given a choice, you will indulge in your chosen pursuit above others. This immoderation can be unhealthy and distract you from broadening your pursuits and horizons. — Regain Willpower when you can follow the heart of your passion, especially if you convince another person to see the source of your joy.

Child

In response to the dangerous world out there, you never grew up. You rely on others to take care of you. You might just be incompetent, or perhaps you really are still a child. Immaturity is part of your nature, but so is innocence. You rely on others to care for you, but you also inspire them to be strong for you.
Your strength lies in your Innocence. Unexposed to the depths of the world's depravity, or unwilling to accept it, you are a beacon of what's best in people. Others are attracted to your innocence, often to protect and nurture you. Even hardened souls find that you bring out some measure of their own inner compassion and trust. Because you do not accept worldliness, your weakness is Immaturity. You can't make up your mind, you take people at face value and you're unprepared to deal with the world if you don't have someone holding your hand. You'll need to stand on your own if you're ever to accomplish things of true merit. — Regain Willpower when you bring out the caring, nurturing side of someone.

Competitor

Life is a challenge, and you are there to meet every contest. You don't necessarily have to "win" — and you can work with a team or see that everyone benefits — but in the end, you're in it for the excitement of overcoming the challenges. You rush to meet any obstacle, and you strive to succeed — and exceed. Your strength stems from Striving. You're never satisfied with "enough," you want "newer, faster, better, best." Everything's a chance to stretch your talents, learn something new, adapt and overcome. However, you have a problem with your Competitiveness. Life is not a game, and there are no winners or losers. You must accept that events can be more than just challenges, and that life experience can be grand just by living instead of fighting for it. Otherwise, you'll fight so hard that you'll never have a chance to breathe. — Regain Willpower when you succeed at a challenge that requires extended effort on your part.

Conformist

Others have already paved a safe way for you to go, so there's no sense in fighting or risking everything. You'll just take the blazed trail to success, thanks very much. You aren't averse to a little struggle, but you follow the plans and the footsteps already laid out, and you try to fit in with the group. There's no sense being on the outside or losing everything in some pointless exercise in rebellion, after all. You're happy to follow, to rely on the good old ways and to throw in with the group.
Your strength comes from Cooperation. You work well with others, and you encourage people to function in groups. In a community, you can achieve more than any separate individuals. A Low-Self Esteem is your real problem. You aren't willing to risk going outside the boundaries or against the flow. You'll do what the crowd does, even when it's dangerous or stupid. Sometimes you have to find your own path, and sometimes the group doesn't always show the best way. You need to find the strength of your own convictions instead of relying on someone else's vision. — Regain Willpower whenever you advance the cause of your group, especially when you get everyone to pull together.

Conniver

There's no sense in doing all the work when someone else can do it for you. As a result, you're adept at planning, manipulation and getting others to do things for you, whether with or without their knowledge and consent. You might play elaborate cons and dodges, or perhaps you just set up situations where you can avoid the hard work or have it all fall into someone else's lap.
It takes a quick and Clever mind to arrange matters as craftily as you do. Though not necessarily a leader, you do manage to keep your side moving, and your elaborate plans can even get your enemies working for you. You must overcome your weakness of Envy if you're ever to be truly satisfied. You're not really lazy, you just find it easier to get what you want by tricking others. However, doing so gives you no real satisfaction, since you don't achieve anything yourself. You must find that satisfaction by accomplishing something of your own and learning to be happy with what you achieve. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to avoid work or problems by tricking someone else.

Curmudgeon

The world isn't good enough for you, and you make that plain. You hold everyone to high standards, and you are quick to task them to greater and greater exertion. Anything can have faults under your scrutiny, and you're not afraid to say so. It's never good enough, dammit!
Your Critical Eye is your greatest strength. You're adept at finding problems or flaws and identifying them. From there, it's possible to improve, to innovate and to make things better. Your problem is your Lack of Imagination. You're so caught up in finding what's wrong that you don't see what's right, and you don't bother with how it could be better. You fail to acknowledge that problems often indicate places where new growth can occur. You must leam to be open to new possibilities instead of shooting them down. — Regain Willpower whenever you find a serious flaw or problem in something, especially if it stems from someone doing something really stupid.

Deviant

There's no real way to categorize you; you're a freak, a sideshow and an outcast. Whether by choice or by nature, you fit into no niche. You just don't mesh with the way that everyone else works, and you're unique for it. But it can be lonely, and you risk persecution for being so different.
You have the power to Shatter Boundaries because you aren't held to the limits imposed on everyone else. You do things that other people wouldn't even think of, and you forge new paths as a result. Your Perversion, though, drives you to test boundaries and walk outside the established norms constantly. Sometimes it's okay to be normal. Instead of beating your head against the wall of society, you need to learn to fit in occasionally. — Regain a point of Willpower any time you are able to "walk on the wild side" without retribution, and indulge in your truly deviant nature.

Director

You desire order. Whether by taking charge, building organizations or educating others, you seek to eliminate chaos and randomness. You want things under control so that you have a nice, evenly predictable world, where you fit in easily and shape things to your desires. By bringing separate visions together, you unify a group in search of classification.
From Organization you develop a hierarchy and a system under which everyone can prosper. Your aid establishes leadership, clear goals and a concrete means to accomplishment. In order to really unite a group, though, you must overcome your Lack of Tolerance. Your vision of order isn't the only one, or even necessarily the "correct" one. You must compromise and learn that not everything will go your way, and that a little chaos and creativity is a good thing. — Regain Willpower whenever you influence a group in the orderly completion of a task.

Fanatic

Duty calls you to a purpose higher than yourself. Out of a sense of love or devotion, you support a cause with total zeal. Your chosen cause occupies your entire life, and everything you do is devoted to furthering that cause. You draw strength from your incredible Dedication. In pursuit of your cause, you will give up life, hope, morality — anything to achieve your goal.
Your Stubbornness consumes you and keeps you from recognizing the merit in other ways, though. You are so convinced of the correctness of your cause that you can't compromise. You must learn to open yourself to other possibilities, lest you burn yourself out. — Regain Willpower whenever you accomplish an act that furthers your cause significantly.

Gallant

Flamboyance, artistry and glamour are yours! You seek to be the center of attention, and you're a shameless peacock in pursuit of your amoral gallantry. With word and action, you make yourself noteworthy and you crave the affection and attention of others.
Artistry is your great strength. In the pursuit of attention, you will break boundaries and seek powerful forms of self-expression. You can find what keys into your audience's souls and open the floodgates of adoration. Your weakness is Flamboyance. In order to get others to notice you, you'll take unnecessary risks, do stupid things and generally make a fool out of yourself. You need to tone it down and let people accept you for who you are. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to gain the attentions of others through some significant act, deed or show.

Judge

With careful insight and discernment, you hope to separate truth from the myriad multitudes of experience. Presented with facts, you make careful conclusions, hopefully to improve the system for everyone. By solving problems and cutting through extraneous matters, you get to the heart of disputes, resolve them and help people move on to more important matters. You ensure fairness and, often, justice.
Your strength comes from Justice. When you are truly concerned with the matters at hand, you apply impartial logic and wisdom to seek a true resolution and one that is fair to all concerned. Because you Lack Vision, though, you must step outside the boundaries. Sometimes there's no clear-cut case of right and wrong. Your logic and objectivism cannot free you of the need for personal experience and subjective development. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to put together clues or build an argument that allows you to solve a mystery or problem.

Loner

Whether by choice or design, you stand out from the crowd. Although you're not necessarily any different from anyone else, you just don't find any common ground with other people, or maybe you just don't like them. You're most comfortable when you don't have to deal with others to get your work done.
Self-Reliance is your major strength. You get by just fine, thank you, without help from others. No one can bring another to Ascension. It must come from within. Your weakness is your Lack of Empathy. All things and people have value. By interacting with others, you can find a rewarding place in the world. — Regain Willpower whenever you achieve something significant on your own, especially if it helps to forward the goals of your cabal or faction.

Martyr

When matters are so terrible that only the greatest sacrifice can hope to achieve anything, you're there, ready to make that sacrifice. You'll give of yourself to make things better and to save others, without ever a single thought to your own welfare. Discomfort, pain and even possible death do not dissuade you from trying to make a better world, and from trying to lighten the loads of others.
Your strength is Sacrifice. With your devotion to others, you make a better world. You give others opportunities by giving up your own. This same Self-Deprecation leads you into trouble. You need to develop a sense of your own worth, not just by giving up of yourself. If unchecked, you will give, give, give until you are consumed by others' needs. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to sacrifice yourself in a real and positive way to benefit someone else.

Masochist

To heck with helping others through sacrifice — you just need to feel suffering. Perhaps you're overwhelmed with guilt, or maybe you want to push yourself to the ultimate limits. Either way, you exult in striving through personal suffering.
Your strength is Devotion. You will drive yourself to incredible limits to see what you're made of. Better than anyone else, you know your own capabilities, and you will push to your limits and beyond. You have a problem with Self-Destructiveness, though. If left unchecked, you'll destroy yourself when you finally take on too much. You need to learn that pain isn't your only measure of accomplishment. — Regain Willpower whenever you push yourself to the limit in a new fashion and discover a new form of pain.

Monster

There is evil in this world — and you are it. You're a beast through and through, and you don't bother with civilized niceties. Your best tools are pain and suffering, and you're not above using them to secure your own base impulses.
Your strength stems from your Mirror of Villainy. As a creature of evil, you showcase the virtue in others by contrast. You drive people to rise above your example and to fight against the evil that you represent. Your real problem, of course, is your Depravity. You have no conscience, no higher aspirations and no hope. You need to get a vision of a better world, or you'll Fall. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to indulge in a specific atrocity.

Pedagogue

Nothing fulfills you like teaching others. You want to raise the young, inform the unworldly and spread knowledge and enlightenment. Through words and writings, you hope to bring the illumination of study to everyone. After all, you know so much and are so well-informed that it would be a disservice not to lend your wisdom to others.
Your strength stems from Knowledge. Even if you're not terribly bright, you are always eager to share, to learn more and to teach others what you know and they don't. Your weakness is Logorrhea. Once you get started, you don't stop, and you'll bore people to death with useless trivia. Some knowledge is useful, but not everything all the time! — Regain Willpower when you see or hear of someone benefiting in a discemable way from the wisdom that you've shared.

Penitent

You are consumed with guilt. To make up for some sin, real or imagined, you take burdens on yourself, try to make up for your miserable existence and generally suffer vociferously while flogging yourself for your slights. Nothing can erase your shame, though, and you strive constantly for some sort of absolution, both in the eyes of others and from your own conscience.
You gain strength from your Responsibility. You take up burdens and accept iheir weight, willingly. When others would shirk blame or duty, you are ready to accept what's come to you. Obviously, your problem is Contrition. Until you come to terms with your grief, your desperate need to make up for your past will drive you to dist raction and prevent you from making gains for the future. — Regain Willpower whenever you achieve significant absolution for some grievous deed that you did or imagined is wrong. A sufficiently strong redemption may result in a change of Nature.

Perfectionist

There's the best, and then there's everything else. You plan to be the best, and you'll hold for nothing less than that in everything you do, say, and experience. You keep the highest standards, and you make similar demands of the people around you. Exacting attention to detail is your hallmark; constant striving for the top is your way.
Your strength is Exactitude. Because of your unswerving desire to get things absolutely right, you have an incredible attention to detail and a consuming desire to make the best out of every situation that you dive into. You have a problem, though, with Incompleteness. You are unwilling to let go of a task until it's perfect or totally unsalvageable. You need to learn to accept "good enough" so that you can move forward instead of working on the same things all the time. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to accomplish a significant achievement without the slightest hesitation or flaw.

Rebel

"The system" is your enemy, so you take it upon yourself to break the rules and try to remake society in your image. Walking the fine line between perversity and anarchy, you bring a chaotic viewpoint to life, trying to tear down the old ways so that something better can be done. You may not have a good idea of something better. You just know that you're not satisfied with the status quo, and you plan to change it.
Individuality is your strong point; no one is going to force you into a static mold! Your weakness, however, is your Lack of Direction. Your power has no focus, and it cannot come to fruition without a goal. — Regain Willpower whenever your rebellion against the status quo turns out to be for the best.

Rogue

You learned one important lesson: Look out for Number One. Nobody else is going to give anything to you, and they're all just as set on getting ahead, so you have to take what you can get. Screw the rest! You're not going to be pushed around or ordered by others. You're going to make sure that you've got your own little piece of the world.
You have a strength of Valor. You'll fight against anyone who tries to control you or jeopardize your survival, and you will struggle against adversity to make your own safe place in the world. Your problem lies with Selfishness. You're greedy, plain and simple. There's no room in your world for sacrifice or making room for others. You need to open yourself to the worth of others to understand love and community. — Regain Willpower whenever you manage to gain something significant through your self-centered nature.

Survivor

No matter what, you'll always pull through. You have only a simple goal of survival, and you're good at it. The world can throw anything against you but you'll just keep on going. You don't need anything or anyone; you can get along just fine. When a curve is thrown your way, you just deal with it and get on living.
Few others have your Perseverance. No matter what the odds may be, you come out breathing, if not winning. How many warriors can say the same? Your weakness if your Lack of Trust. You must open yourself up to the world to transcend it. — Regain Willpower whenever you survive a difficult situation through your own cunning and perseverance.

Thrill-Seeker

You live for the next high, the adrenaline surge, the rush of victory. Over the next horizon and in the next battle you'll find the exhilaration that comes from challenge and the surge of really feeling alive. Only on the edge can you find real satisfaction, and that's where you live.
You have the strength of Daring. You'll rush in where others fear to tread. Danger? Risk? Life's nothing without them, and you're up to any challenge. Your weakness is Recklessness. Until you leam to weigh risks, you put it all on the line every day of your life. Some things are too valuable to be wagered so carelessly. — Regain Willpower whenever you undertake and succeed at some very dangerous task, especially when your life, position or important friends and possessions are at stake.

Traditionalist

You are an orthodox and conservative individual. What was good enough for you when you were young is good enough for you now. You oppose change for the sake of change — what point is there in that? You find the status quo preferable to uncertain risk.
Consistency is good to have. With the world in a state of perpetual flux, someone must hold the center. That someone is you. Excessive Complacency kills, however. A mage must summon the energy to enact new possibilities, rather than succumb to stasis. — Regain Willpower whenever you are able to protect the status quo and resist change.

Trickster

The universe has no meaning; life is a comedy, experience a procession of the absurd. You revel in this chaos, drawing humor out of senselessness and bringing a smile to tragedy. You can't face a world without reason or caring, so you invent your own meaning and plaster that leering, grinning face over everything. Better still is when you can convince others to see this artiflciality. As much as you try to deny the disorganized truth, you still see it, and you hope that others see it too. You make them laugh, but like any good clown, you make them learn, and you make them cry.
Empathy is your strength; with it, you can cheer up others and find the banana peel in your cabal's path. When you stop joking, this empathy can be put to other more constructive uses. Your weakness is Hypocrisy. Focusing the attention of others on happiness leaves a deadly potential to ignore the dreadful. You must make sure that your tricks and jokes teach and instruct instead of simply diverting. — Regain Willpower when you manage to lift others' spirits, especially if you can deny your own pain in the process.

Visionary

Dancing through your head are truly wondrous sights — worlds without name and fantasies beyond number. You can see these strange possibilities and elucidate them, opening the doors for others to live in a better, different world. Perhaps you seek something more than the mundane, or maybe you have a particular idea that resonates with potential. Either way, you give people inspiration for the future, in new and exciting ways that build on (yet differ from) the old. So determined are you to see your vision made reality that you fight to impress it on the world regardless of the cost.
Inner truth is your quest, and Imagination is your strength. With this vision, you may guide others who need such wisdom desperately. Your weakness is your Pride, pride in your ability to see and understand what others cannot. You must learn humility to Ascend. — Regain Willpower whenever you are able to convince others to believe in your dreams and follow the course of action outlined by your vision of the future.