Awakening makes use of Commands and BioChromatic Breaths to Awaken an object, which places some sort of Command in the object which it then carries out. Everyone on Nalthis has one Breath which they can bestow onto someone else. You can possibly power Awakening through other forms of magic, though it will be difficult to do.
You start with twenty thousand Breaths, knowledge of Awakening, and an ability to gain three Breaths every week.