This is a heavily edited version of Sympathetic Names from Awakening 2e. It is edited because the version in the book does not correctly understand or represent how names exist in both society and philosophy.
A Sympathetic Name is something that someone forms as they come into existence, and is effectively the identifiable Sympathetic link to that person as they exist when they are not acting as a Mage.
This name is contrasted with the Shadow Name, the moniker that a mage adopts to better represent their awakening, their revelation that the world they have lived in is a lie, and their supernal identity.
Instead, the Sympathetic Name is a more fundamental element of the person, it is not just a performance of who they are but a closer representation to their inner self. It is the lynch-pin that ties all Sleeper Sympathy to them. Most mages will use their Shadow Name when around other Mages, but anyone who knows their Sympathetic Name will also gradually form Sympathy with them.
A Sympathetic Name can be both a weakness and a strength, a vulnerability and a shield, as knowing it can be used as a Yantra to ease casting of Sympathetic spells.
Equally, not knowing it makes casting spells on her at range more difficult, increasing the Withstand level against the Sympathetic Range Attainment by one.
As we morph and change throughout our lives, the Sympathetic Name is what remains the most constant. It does change for some, but for many their Sympathetic Links tie back to the name they were given by those around them when they were born.
For some, this is their birth name, although for a lot of people it’s often a bit more complicated than that:
- A trans person who changes their name will eventually begin to exist and be supernally represented as their chosen name, as that is how others around them refer to them and begin to think of them.
- Someone named Jason might go by Jace in his life so much that it becomes his Sympathetic Name, the name that he is most comfortable with around his closest friends, family, and lovers.
- It could also be a childish moniker that stuck around for someone: William Dart as a 47 year old man being called “lil’ billy” by his family and everyone who he knew as a child might cherish that name, and in turn despite going by William to all at his day job, his Sympathetic Name is “lil’ billy”.
Not all names we use are Sympathetic, someone could change their name 20 times in a few months, but none of those would be Sympathetic Names or Remnant Names as they would not have enough time to form the longer-lasting, more solid threads of Sympathy that are required.
Sympathetic Names can be traumatising for some; there are no small number of mages who, when they awaken, transition, and seeing their dead-name etched with sympathy can be a harrowing process.
In direct contrast to this horror, there is nothing like the joy a trans mage feels watching as their loved ones accept their coming out, as they move on from who they were, and as the Sympathy tied around that old name begins to move to a new name:
Their Name.
Remnant Name
Previously cast-off Sympathetic Names (or Remnant Names) are still usable, and are often part of hunting down an individual’s Sympathetic Name as it stands now.
They might lack the power they once did, but traces of their essence and tiny threads of sympathy still wind around them.
We are defined, in no small part, by not where we are but where we are going and where we came from. Remnant Names are the past we leave behind as we change, the title we once held but no longer.
These Remnant Names represent that change, and although they are tied to someone through the lingering threads of Sympathy, they cannot be used as a Sympathetic Name could be for spellcasting or Sympathetic purposes.
Sympathy is complicated, messy, and unclear, just like humans, mages and sleepers alike, our connections to one another, and our connections to ourselves.
This is, again, an edited version of Sympathetic Names with the goal of keeping all the flavour and the lore of Sympathetic Names, but just making it a little less foolish