Quintessence

See, mage Avatars absorb that Quintessence I mentioned earlier – the “fifth essence” referred to in arcane metaphysics. That essence fuels the latticework of all Creation, restoring the sublime energy within us. Just think of it as chicken soup for the Awakened soul.
Quintessence gathers along these knots and wells of reality.

Sometimes it manifests in material forms called Tass. Think of Tass as ice formed from watery Quintessence: what flows as one becomes solid in the other. Tass embodies our metaphysical chicken soup, with Quintessence as the nutrition within that soup. And it takes a multitude of forms – water, roses, blood, food – that can be held, carried, and broken down into the raw Quintessence energy that sustains our Arts and lives.

Unlike the things I’ve shown you up till now, Quintessence isn’t physical until it manifests as Tass… and even then, it’s only halfway there. Although mages who study the Sphere of Prime can understand such forces more deeply than most folk do, Quintessence slips out of the realm of concrete things and into the realm of seriously subjective reality. It’s slippery stuff, perceived by what people expect to experience. The nature of a Node often shapes the energy – the feel or flavor of Quintessence – but the ways in which that Quintessence manifests (if it manifests at all) can be wildly diverse. In that fountain over there, Tass feels like clear, cold water. A Node in Auschwitz or Wounded Knee, however, might give you blood, ash, or nightmares instead.

Quintessence is '''luminal.''' That means it exists at the threshold of what people call reality. It’s like a flow of spirit-water, except that even that description can’t capture what it truly is. You’ll hear many different definitions or descriptions of Quintessence because every human definition falls short. It exists in the realm of poetry and metaphor, a shiny spark of liquid God.

Outside the physical elements of the periodic table, this energy is essentially the world’s life force. It’s one of those things people can feel but not quite measure unless their measurement methods reach outside materialistic science. It’s as real as gasoline, but its properties transcend understanding.

Quintessence is literally as real as you believe it is, and each person experiences it differently.