Bonus Feature: Extra Ideas
Here are a few ideas I also had but didn't end up fully developing, as a little end of event bonus.
Agnostos Theos, the unknown god: At one point the people of Athens were suffering from a curse that had inflicted a plague. They rightly assumed an angry god had sent the curse, so the Athenians sacrificed to every god they could think of but to no avail – they didn’t know and had utterly failed to find out which god had been offended. In desperation they made a great sacrifice to the ‘unknown god’ to lift the curse. Agnostos Theos answered and revealed to them the cure which was not known to any man or god. Agnostos Theos has very powerful divinatory powers, which grow stronger the less well known the desired knowledge is.
Appolonius of Tyana: A noepythagoranist philosopher and magician who lived in the 1st century AD in the eastern roman empire. Accounts of his life are muddled but it is often said he travelled as far as India teaching philosophy and working miracles. However, at times he was also accused of human sacrifice and the causing of plagues by magic. He is reported not to have died but ascended into immortality. He was briefly a patron of the rulers of Rome, being worshipped by the emperors Caracala and Severus Alexander. He has powers of scrying and can help teach second sight.
Abaris the Hyperborean: A physician-wizard of Hyperborea who travelled throughout the Mediterranean for many years around the 6th century BC practicing his craft. Renowned for his honesty, simplicity, and his great powers of healing and prophecy, he caused a great stir. He is said to have saved the cities of Sparta and Knossos from plague and to have been a colleague of Pythagoras. He supposedly was able to survive on only water and never ate. He carried a magical arrow or wand which was blessed by Apollo. As well as healing powers he has a detailed knowledge of Hyperborean magic but will not share it with Hermetic Magi who killed the last Hyperboreans in Mythic Europe when they refused to join the Order of Hermes.
A daimon of magical architecture: Standing stones, pyramids, Moai, Nazca Lines - there is a mystical significance in certain structures. This daimon would have some influence over this area, perhaps being a patron of hermetic architects.
Palladium: The Palladium was a wooden idol of Pallas Athena originally housed in Troy, stolen by Odysseus, and eventually finding home in Rome. The protection of Troy and later Rome was said to rely on this sacred relic. Palladium is a daimon who oversees the growth and preservation of settlements, having powers similar to those of virgilian magic (see Rival Magic). The method of invoking Palladium is lost to hermetic theurgists but a few seekers believe that if the roman Palladium itself could be found it would allow a ritual to be developed.
Amergin Glúingel: A legendary bard and theurgist of ancient Ireland. He and his brothers conquered the island from the Tuatha Dé, the faerie lords of Ireland. He was famed for his good relations with the faeries, for his cunning, for his powerful songs, and for his great knowledge. When his people, the Milesians, first tried to land on the island the druids of the Tuatha Dé called up a great storm to keep their boats from land, but he was able to use a song of his own devising to invoke the Genus Loci of the entire island which banished the winds and allowed the Milesians to land. For this act he is rightly famed as one of the greatest theurgists who ever lived, though stories of him are rarely known in the order outside of the theurgic cults due to his Gaelic origin. He is generally regarded as being the founder of the bardic tradition in Ireland, though the bards of the present day retain little of his magic. He is buried beneath a hill near Drogheda and can be most easily invoked there.
Lethe: The spirit of the river of oblivion. She was famously invoked by Pralix during the Spider War to destroy knowledge of the Pictish language used by the enemy Gruagachan, causing irrevocable harm to their tradition.
Ara, the Hunted: A daimon who embodies prey and the hunted. She can grant the theurge powers to escape pursuit, to hide, and over nature. In return she demands they refrain from causing harm to living things, or sometimes to perform a service in defence of someone or something being hunted.
She appears as a triskelion – three legs with a face in the centre where they meet. The legs constantly rotate and shift between the form of various animal legs but the face remains human and stable.
Gorelus, Patron of the Warped: A daimon embodying the concept of outcasts. He has powers associated with warping, raw magic, transformation, and social ties. He is a patron of those who have been touched by the realm of magic to their detriment, and those who have been cast out of society.
Mystery Tradition: The Cult of Isis
This faerie aligned mystery cult is of uncertain origins. Members claim that it is a direct continuation of the ancient mysteries of Isis popular in the late Roman empire but refuse to explain how they were transmitted or by whom. Those outside the cult who are aware of it assume, perhaps correctly, that it is either a modern invention using the name to lend an air of mystery, or a reconstruction of the ancient cult much like that of the Neo-Mercurians.
The Cult has only a small number of members. They favour house Merenita but faerie magic is not required for their mysteries. However, many members from outside house Merenita will eventually join it in order to learn the mystery of Becoming . Only avowed pagans are permitted to join - their rites are openly pagan in a way that would be uncomfortable or intolerable for devout Magi.
The cult believes that through special rites they can enter the “realm of the gods”, that is, the faerie realm, and by taking on the role of the heroes and gods of legend gain some of their power. In a sense they are theurgists, except that instead of invoking gods they invoke the story itself allowing a kind of controlled passage through faerie to attain a certain reward.
The cult teaches the Minor Virtue Names of Power, the Major Virtue Invocation Magic, and the new Minor Virtue Sacred Questing.
Minor Mystery Virtue: Sacred Questing
This virtual allows the magus to invent and learn spells which invoke the spirits of heroic stories. This allows the magus to enter faerie, complete the story, and in doing so gain some of the power of the legendary hero.
The magus must invent a spell for the story as follows:
Invoke the Tale of (Hero), ReVi General
This ritual spell creates an entry into the story of the invoked hero in the realm of faerie. The level of the spell must be at least equal to the might of the hero plus any modifiers (see below). If the spell penetrates for every point over the modified might of the hero the magus gains 1 point towards the invocation. When he has accumulated points equal to the modified might of the hero the story is invoked and he is thrust into faerie in the role of the hero.
If the magus can replicate the hero’s journey and defeat the same dangers they faced, they will emerge from faerie with newfound power.
(Mystery Ritual)
The might of the hero is modified based on what the magus is trying to acquire from the quest, with larger gains harder to invoke. This modifier adds to the might of the hero far the purposes of invocation, including their magic resistance. The magus may choose not to direct the outcome of the story, in which case no modifiers are applied but the benefits of performing the story are decided by the storyguide, not the magus. The modifiers are as follows:
The magus wants to gain experience in a skill the hero possesses: +1 level per point of xp to be gained.
The magus wants to gain a personal power, lesser power, or minor virtue the hero possesses: +15 levels.
The magus wants to gain a greater power, or major virtue the hero possesses: +30 levels.
The magus wants to gain points of sympathy relating to the hero: +5 levels per point to be gained.