A mage’s spells come with a mystical stamp of his personality — his aura. Mages with this Merit “hide their light under a bushel.” Their resonance is so subtle that only expert or extended scrutiny can root it out. This effect even extends into the mundane world, making a mage incognito to Sleeper society.

When a sorcerer attempts to read the aura of one of your character’s spells, subtract a number of dice equal to your character’s dots in this Merit. This same penalty applies to any roll to analyze the aura of your character’s magic. See “Resonance,” pp. 277-289.

In addition, Occultation protects your character from spells that attempt to directly affect him at sympathetic range. His Occultation dots are subtracted from the caster’s dice pool. See “Sympathetic Spells,” pp. 114-116.

At the Storyteller’s discretion, this Merit can also affect other supernatural abilities to find the creator of a magical effect. For example, a vampire using Spirit’s Touch to analyze the results of a magical spell should have difficulty finding the occulted mage who cast it. When this trait applies, subtract a number of dice equal to the mage’s Occultation dots from the activation roll for that supernatural ability. Occulted mages tend to live on the fringes of mundane reality, as though they are an anomaly or aberration. Sleepers have trouble keeping track of their identities and activities. Records regarding an arcane mage tend to get lost, and the authorities are challenged to investigate his activities. Since most Sleepers find it hard to gather information about the mage, they won’t know many details about him. This also makes it harder for mages to research information about the mage through mundane sources. Whenever someone makes a roll to gather information about your character, your Occultation dots are subtracted from the researcher’s dice pool.

Drawback: If your character ever becomes well known to the public (such as getting caught on camera and being shown on television night after night), he loses his Occultation until the public at large forgets him (which could take many years, depending on how famous or notorious the mage became). Likewise, if he maintains a public persona at all among Sleepers, even to the degree of having many Sleeper friends, he cannot maintain his Occultation. The mage must constantly cultivate this Merit, working to remain away from the attention of Sleeper society. It does not affect his standing in Awakened society.