What is an Avatar, and what does it do?
When a mage Awakens, he reaches a new level on understanding about the universe and its relation to him. However, the term is also slightly more literal: that person’s Avatar awakens (most theories agree that everyone has an Avatar) and it is through this Avatar that the mage learns how to exert his will on reality. The Avatar does not always manifest as a person or as anything coherent, and a mage may not even know that it is his Avatar that is manifesting. Some people view the Avatar as a soul or guardian angel, and others theorize that the Avatar is the thing that actually performs the magic, not the mage. As the Avatar guides the mage’s understanding of the universe, it from time to time needs to communicate a problem that the mage is having that is preventing him from reaching the next level of understanding (Arete). The period during which the Avatar is trying to communicate the problem is called a Seeking and are usually brought on by the Avatar, though mage-induced Seekings are
