Question Essence Gathering and Storage Devices

Wiz-type mutants innately draw Essence from their surroundings into themselves which can then be called forth for their magickal workings.

Essence derives from many varied sources, these energies are "tainted/natured" by the source that produces it. So, I believe we can safely assume depending on the location a Mage finds themselves in, the flavour of essence varies. Going by this logic, would it be possible for mages to collect flavored/natured Essene depending on the energies given off by the ecosystem around them? (For example: volcanoes, oceans, forests) As, let's say, an alternative to exchanging Essence with elementals to obtain unfiltered energies.

What leads a Mage to these Essence exchanges with these beings? When denatured/filtered Essence allows for the use of such a wide array of effects, even if on a lower power scale.

Could emotions and/or other humans work as Essence sources?

Could objects be enchanted to collect Essence on their own?

Can familiars collect Essence on their own?

(I've always felt like these are questions that would be answered in Urban Essence Gathering 212. )

Mages trade or use specialised types of essence for efficiency. A specific type is more efficient and produces greater effects when used for spells of its 'type'.

Yes, other humans (and indeed living creatures) can be used as a source of essence. Not usually a large one unless you're sacrificing people.

Familiars - depends on the familiar.

Can an object be made to collect and store essence? Yes, but its hard. A mage usually makes this sort of thing to store their own power. Getting it from the environment would be a much slower process (less essence), and might not work unless the level of essence around was above a certain threshold. Whether its sensible is a different matter - it wouldnt be cheap, and there are faster and more efficient ways for a mage. A permanent item needs to do this if its used, otherwise it runs out of power. Its why they are expensive to make, and recharging will be slow. Not suceh an issue for the mage, who can recharge it faster, but there's a reason they are scarce and usually low-power. An example would be Imps' magical disguise - its an illusion, so not such a high power draw, and she doesn't use it often. If she used it constantly she might well find it running out of power. Whether it taps into Imps essence or the environment to recharge over time is unknown.
Tying one into a paricular 'flavour' of essence would be more efficient IF you can leave it next to a strong source. So a fire item would benefit from being next to a volcano, yes, but only while its there.

My recent experiment with using the old Marvel Super Heroes TRPG "Ultimate Powers Book" to randomly create a possible protagonist offered up a pairing of abilities that actually ties into this topic in a way that I believe you two (and others more familiar with Whateley-style spellcasting than me) might be able to brainstorm with me about: two powers I rolled were "Absorption" (the "Superman is a solar battery" thing) and "Disintegration" (the UPB version that turns matter into energy, which can then be possibly consumed using the Absorption power). However, I also rolled "Power Simulation" in the Magical category, which basically turns all of her powers into Magic-based ones...so the idea I'd had initially was that her Abosrption power is used to consume essence, which is how she basically gets around being able to cast spells despite having a Reason stat that makes her kinda dumb.

So, my thought is: could physical matter be turned into essence if the proper mechanism (like her Disintegration ability) exists, and what would be the effect on the surrounding environment?

Related: is essence solely a terrestrial thing, or could it exist in off-world environments, such as alien worlds within our galaxy or even offworld? Is there, in fact, essence in outer space?

You'll have to wait and see

I will be dealing with a lot of essence issues in Morgana's stories, but not all at once