Paths to Power: Legacies

Of the three Paths to Power, Legacy is perhaps the most subtle. Contracting involves, through intermediaries or avatars, warping the soul to support the great power of their new duty. Artifacts transform their chosen master with their own sublime power. Legacy, however, is heritage - by birth, destiny, or will, power is received from one's predecessor. It need only be claimed to awaken the soul to wonder.

Legacy can indicate any of several means by which this can happen. A reincarnation of the soul is a legacy; those who wield might by the sheer fact that in another life, they ruled a magical kingdom, or fought a great war. Bloodline is also legacy - the son of a mermaid queen, or the granddaughter of a powerful wizard, both have mighty magic in their veins. In the right circumstances, even a mentor, investing an heir with all her wonder and all her duties, could be seen as a Legacy - though in practical terms that might be one of the areas where Contract and Legacy blur together. Even a birth under auspicious stars, blessed by the simple movement of the cosmic machine, can be a Legacy, albeit only in service to a more active path to power - a destiny to find an item of power; a fate to encounter a certain fairy.

Legacies are power as a birthright, and responsibility as inheritance. In a very real sense it is the passing on of a predecessor's destiny, whether that predecessor is your past self or your great-grandfather. Consequently, like all forms of great magical power, legacies come with responsibilities. Great ancestors never become great without making enemies; it is the responsibility of the inheritor to deal with the hate those enemies still harbor. A great mage defeated a powerful demoness; now his granddaughter unwittingly holds the final key to restoring her dark power! A strangely familiar fairy implores a young girl for aid; little does she know, in a past life she was the great champion who freed his people from an ancient evil, and it has now returned! A wicked mother imbues her child with all her strength and the legacy of her lifelong works! But her child wants only to repent for Mother's cruelty, one sin at a time.

There is something ephemeral in Legacy that somewhat belies its more direct definition. It is not a constant. A soul can live a hundred lives, but might only be called to service twice. Not every princess of a magic kingdom is imbued with the might of its protective guardian. Perhaps most well-recorded, predicting when and how a mage lineage's powers will spike is virtually impossible; rightful heirs vaulting to the heights of unfathomed greatness are set against just as many surprise, long-lost family branches suddenly rising to wondrous power, dwarfing more "legitimate" lineage heirs. Often enough, such a miraculous rising star forms the basis of her own new lineage - and so the cycle of Legacy continues.

There is no real explaining this inconsistency. Power comes hand-in-hand with the destiny to use it, and not even all those worthy can receive such a gift. Such words are little comfort to those thus passed over, however, and the jealousy of passed-over kin may be the single most common cause for falls to the darkness.

Whatever the case, bearing the mantle of Legacy brands a person. Magical beings with the right attunement - be they wizard familiars or fairies, or even some human mediums, sensitive to the right powers of spirit - always seem to know who has truly inherited Legacy's light. Often enough, it is these who come to the chosen person, and offer them their birthright.

That moment of choice is key. Every path to power has a moment of awakening, invoking the artifact or forging the contract, where its power transforms the chosen's life, soul, and fate. With Legacy, however, that potential is there from the beginning, but often dormant. It is the moment of presentation, when destiny's eye turns unblinking on the scene, that Legacy awakens. With rightly-inherited mage lineages, this is often simply a family coming-of-age ceremony, one of the many chances in a mage's life for the Magic Association's members to throw their weight around. For surprises, and for those whose Legacy is not so well-remembered, the moment of claiming a Legacy is often far more spectacular, more reminiscent of the dire circumstances of many Contracts.

Thus, Legacy is a path of inheritance, a road to glory paved by what has come before. It is not simply effort, for no amount of intense training will forge a Legacy; it is rather a destiny and power created by the events and wills, the wishes of predecessors, that go into its fateful weight.

Example Legacies:

• Sakura Kinomoto, heir to Clow Reed by his own wish and descended from his reincarnation. Awoken by contracting with the Beast of the Seal, Keroberos.
• Yohko Mano, the 108th Devil Hunter, heir to her grandmother Madoka Mano and many generations before that. Awoken by demons who attempted to murder her before she could take up the banner.
• Akko Kagari, one heir to the Nine Olde Witches and their Grand Triskellion, though she thinks of herself as the heir to Shiny Chariot (also true). Awakened by encountering the Grand Triskellion's Key, Claiomh Solais, though she calls it the Shiny Rod.
• Fakir, who inherited the destiny of the Knight in the Tale of the Raven, emblemized by the terrible birthmark like a scar across his body. Stirred by discovering Mytho as a young boy, awoken in full by taking up the Prince's sword, among various other horrible events. (Fakir also has another Legacy, but we're not evil enough to drop episode 20 spoilers from an awesome show on you like that.)

For more information, please see: Paths to Power, Theme