I'm thinking about sigils and having a problem coming up with some decent ones. Could you give me examples of sigils you have for your magi and for magi in your sagas?
Also examples of how these sigils affect various spells would be good.
I'll start the ball rolling. My current magus has the sigil Shadow and Darkness. spells such as Leap of the homecoming have a nifty "Night crawler" type effect. Visual spells such as eyes of the cat actually turn his eyeballs completely black and such like.
My current maga has "incorporeality" as her casting sigil - her spells appear to make things more translucent, light, or so on.
My Criamon magus (in a now defunct saga, unfortunately) had the sigil of "Enigmatic Runes", manifesting both in the spell's effect and on his body. The runes could actually be interpreted by someone with Enigmatic Wisdom, pointing to him and perhaps revealing something. (That's a flaw, there.)
My current Jerbiton magus' signature is that things appear to be more idealistic if at all possible; his magic is centered around the Chivalric ideals.
I had an Aquam Quesidor mage whos sigil was (simply) that things got wet when he used his magic, so a target under "Enslave the Mortal Mind" would seem to sweat, when he cast things on himself, he's leave watery foot prints, etc.
My current mage is a Criamon driven to study magical deaths, and who has a difficult Longevity Ritual, his sigil is that he seems to age a year for every Magnitude of spell he casts. Also food he creates seems somewhat stale, animals he summons seem old, etc.
Other magi in my saga:
A Verditious who is a ship wright whos sigil is a fancy swirling compass effect at his feet, hands or target.
A Jerbiton mage whose magic makes people thirsty. We actually sometimes have him cast a low level Aegis of the Hearth around the tavern we own in the nearest town to increase business (if we have the vis).
We have an African Bjornaer whose heart-beast is a lion whose sigil is "dignity", so that things he creates are always dignified looking, people he enchants are well mannered, targets of his spell tend to try to "suck it up" and not scream in pain.
our Criamon has his stigmayta as a sigil, when he casts a spell, his stigmata move, when he creates creatures they have odd markings and coloration resembling his stigmata.
Our Tremere has the mising eye flaw and all of his spells reflect his milky white left eye, his spell effects often have small white splotches on them, people targeted by his spells often appear to have a whitish film over one of their eyes.
A Gurnicus that I played in our last game had the magical focus of eyes (he was an intellego specialist). Raindrops that were deflected by his cloak of ducks feathers made ripples in the shape of eyes, when he created a wall of wood all of the knots in the wood took the outline of eyes.
Triamore Seeker - smell of old books
Musical, Magical Troubador Mercere - urge to sing and dance among those nearby
Verditius alchemist - smell of roses with a pin prick of blood from right thumb
Bonsigus Herbum specialist - flowering plants appear to blossom
Verditius swordsmith - brief sting of hot metal on his hands
Flambeau engineer - steam forms around caster
Flambeau bruiser - hair singes (keeps the hair fairly short)
Meritina necromancer - image of his lost love appear over his shoulder
Guernicus - feelings of judgment (emotion will vary depending on the state of grace of target - repentant, sinful, ...) briefly imposed on target
Verditius weaver - threads seem to spin out from her casting tools
Jerbitron shipcaptain and merchant - coins seem to pass from his hands
Verditius astrologer - specialized in clockwork mechanisms - sound of the whirring combined with a faint vision of rotating celestial bodies.
Wow, another african bjornaer... although mine's a Berber from the Maghreb on the North Coast and a leopard heartbeast. His sigil is always cat related... a distant catcry, the sounds of padded feet running by or claws on sand or wood, a change in appearance that is cat-like (eyes, facial hair, ears, nails...)
The Criamon Theurgist has a casting sigil of a sense of being watched...
The ExMisc with an auram speciality gives off a scent of ozone...
The Bonisagus Herbam focused mage (killed by an angry tree, the irony is not lost) had a rustle of leaves, or the whistle of pine needles, scent of some sort of plant appropriate to the area.
Bjornaer with a Heron heartbeast. According to the Medieval Bestiary, Herons love oysters. So I made his sigil the pearl. Generally his spells gave off a "pearly glow."
Flambeau with the flaw that he draws heat from his surroundings when he casts his spells. I incorporated this into his sigil. The more powerful the spell, the more heat he draws.
Fellow player has a magus who grew up in a drafty castle, and his sigil deals with wind. When he casts "edge of the razor" you hear the sound of a fine blade swishing through the air.
So there are two types of sigil, the one which is like the magus' logo or chop and the other that is an common feature of his spells. Do they have to be related, or is that more of a tradition?
Example, Argentius of Verditius has a sigil of a silver cloak and a casting sigil if a silvery tinge (and he has a magical focus in disguise, hence the cloak).
But would there be any reason other than basic dumbness to have a sigil (symbol) of a dog and have the casting sigil be the smell of garlic?
A wizards "casting sigil" is totally up to the player.
The sigil that the wizard uses to vote with is a different matter. This CAN be related to his casting sigil. If the players played through the characters' gauntlet, the voting sigil could be something created by the storyteller and handed out in-game.
In my first game, the voting sigil that was handed out to newly-gauntletted characters all had the symbol of the covenant engraved into the wood, and and then something special from the parens on the end, not related to the casting sigil at all.
A wizards "casting sigil" is totally up to the player.
The sigil that the wizard uses to vote with is a different matter. This CAN be related to his casting sigil. If the players played through the characters' gauntlet, the voting sigil could be something created by the storyteller and handed out in-game.
In my first game, the voting sigil that was handed out to newly-gauntletted characters all had the symbol of the covenant engraved into the wood, and and then something special from the parens on the end, not related to the casting sigil at all.
Volvulus - An extremely intelligent Flambeau and son of a baker who always had a hunger for knowledge and for food. Unfurtunately he has the Warped Magic flaw to an degree to actually at one time causing his master to forbid him to use magic anywhere near him (kind of problematic during an apprenticeship). The warped sigil is extreme bowl movement, regurgitation of food, belching, gas and at times soiling himself and possibly those nearby him.
Galeaestus - another Flambeau and former "twin-apprentice" to Volvulus. A former twillight in his young apprenticeship has caused his hair to grow hot or even flaming in response to his mood swings. He had a problematic childhood with a band of travelling Scottish merrymen (one of them being too merry toward the child) his sigil is a diversity of tricks, slight of hand and flambeuant gestures.
Virverus - Bjornaer - and the child that untill recently denied to grow up, his state of mental maturity somewhat at pause since his experience as a 9-year old in the Childrens Crusade. He has now finally let go and moved forward and his sigil has adapted to bring lightnes of steps, bold eyes and heads held high.
Gwion - Ex Miscellanea, his family's path of blood to power and influence in the Welsh Marcher territories, very proud, reckless and arrogant, his sigil is the falcon that keep spurring him on - through his Gauntlet and toward a realisation of the druidic roots of his magic.
Sarcorion - Jerbiton. Borne in affluence on a Cornwall stronghold. His father a lord but the family broken by diabolism and suicides. The child fostered at a monestary and possesed by the idea that angels and demons whisper his name. The shadows grow long and the darkness deeper when he does his magic.
Klaudia - criamon apprentice. True love of Virverus recently refound and liberated from her captors. Even as a young child see was odd an somewhat touched by some unearthliness. She fed her friends and kept them alive on even the simplest herbs. Her childhood too long gone, her sigil remains the herbs and small berries.
IMS I have a PC whose background included a diabolical master and being saved by the church. His sigil was churchliness, the sound of churchbells, the smell of incense, the light from stained glass windows... You get the idea.
After several twilights resulting from altercations with a demon he now has added to that a slightly diabolical air to the churchliness, sulphur in the smell of incence, menacing overtones in the bellsong, light from red stained glass windows.
It was after I added a silvery overtone to this (he kept rolling baddly on his twilights, I swear!) that the other PCs really started to suspect he had a hidden past... (and susceptibility to the diabolic)