Comprehend Aura (sage ability)

Comprehend Aura is an authority-status sage ability in the study of Occultism. Auras are fields of energy that suffuse the substance of all Earthly matter, living or not, being emanations of positive, negative, elemental and ethereal energy that can be visually seen by those with the knowledge of how to look. Initially, this ability is limited in scope and should be considered very weak when applied to anything that falls outside the character's personal knowledge.

However, when applied to the character's amateur or greater knowledge, the ability to see the aura invested in that knowledge increases the character's observational powers.

Naturally, we would want a grand list that described exactly how that improvement is applied to each potential sage ability throughout the system — but rather than attempt this task, I expect the various applications to grow organically and be listed below on this page.

A few particular insights that occur immediately, however, would be a physician's ability to better know the health of a patient, the effectiveness of a cure or the degree to which the patient was suffering. An herbalist would be able to search for desired plants more efficiently and collect a better quality of product. A prospector or miner would have a better sense of where to sink a mine shaft. A skiier would sense better which snow was safe to traverse over, just as a mountain climber could see the more reliable handholds better. A thief practiced in stealth would recognize with better ability the disturbance in sound being caused by their footsteps. A preacher would know better the effectiveness of their sermon upon the congregation. And so on.

Each of these benefits would be slight, of small benefit and yet, when spread throughout the character's overall skill-set, meaningful. A small bonus here, a bit of time saved there, some adjustment to the safety of the participant or the effectiveness of the process. Each of these can be accounted for as the skill set that needs adjustment emerges. There's no need to work at length on the concept at this time.