A Seeking is defined as whenever a mage desires to raise his Arete Trait score. It is almost always a conscious choice to do so by the mage, reflected in the spending of experience traits by the player.

A Seeking is to be handled in the downtime between games, preferably through email. I will email the first part of a Seeking to each player who expresses that they want their PC to purchase more Arete. The player is expected to respond with what they have their character do and how they react to whatever is presented in the Seeking at this point. This exchange of emails will continue until the Seeking is completed, with either a success or a failure.

Until the Seeking completed, the experience traits are considered spent. If a Seeking is failed, (and yes it is very possible to fail a Seeking) the experience traits are returned to you.

In the event of a successful Seeking, the next session you will gain one Arete Trait. If the Seeking is failed, the next game session you will have your 4 experience traits back. You may then elect to spend them wherever you wish, including continuing the quest for Arete, by spending them on a Seeking for Arete once again.

Each type of Essence has its own requirements in Laws of Ascension to seek for Arete. Only when these are met, will a Seeking begin. Usually this requires the expenditure of an experience trait in a certain fashion (new ability, new attribute, another trait of an ability you already have, gaining a specialization in an ability, etc.).

Regardless of the success or failure of a Seeking, at the next game session following the completion of a Seeking, you will perform a Simple Test. If this test is lost by you, your character will gain another Resonance trait.