Paulus Gorgiasticus of Jerbiton is a mystagogue of the Order of the Green Cockerel, holding the rank of Pelican. He acts an intermediary for the mysterious secret master, who has achieved the Great Work. He is intended to be located in an urban covenant, where he can influence and guide mundane alchemists as well as their hermetic counterparts. Schola Pythagoranis in the Stonehenge tribunal or the Coenobium in Provence are good choices, as would be several covenants in the Roman tribunal. A more unusual choice might be the Covenant of the True Cross in Egypt. Alternatively, Paulus can be placed as an eremite living in any major town or city, especially if it has many mundane scholars.
Paulus was trained as a Criamon but left the house shortly after his gauntlet. He rejects the cosmology of Empedocles, and the very concept of cyclical time. He is especially critical of the idea of hypostasis. In his view the hypostasis is no less than the dissolution of the self, the part returning to the whole. He unsure as to whether this is a desirable goal, but he is certain that it is not the escape from time the Criamon believe it to be. He remains on good terms with his former house, many of whom hope he will one day return to them, despite his criticism of their philosophy. He still sees the Criamon way of life to be fundamentally a positive one, even if it is based on what he sees as a flawed understanding of the world.
Having abandoned the Enigma, Paulus instead seeks to achieve a “perfection of being”. His belief is that through a process of transmutation and purification (of which the Great Work is an essential part) an individual can achieve a perfection of the body, and subsequently a perfection of spirit. This perfected being would be akin to the platonic ideal of man, an androgynous spiritual being encompassing within itself the entire essential nature of mankind, and thus transcend the material world, morality, and fate. The perfect being would at once be of one nature with the divine cosmos, and yet distinct from it.
These goals are of course almost absurdly grandiose, especially considering Paulus himself has not yet achieved the Great Work. Still, his goals strike a cord with many alchemists and his proximity to the secret master, who is rapidly attaining an almost mythical quality, lends him authority – especially among new recruits to the cult. This is only enhanced by him possessing a rare gift for teaching and oratory. Those who have been pursuing the Great Work longer remember a younger less confident Paulus and are significantly less impressed. Even they can’t deny that he is among the closest (besides the secret master) to achieving the magnum opus, however.
Paulus cares deeply about helping others along the path. As a mystagogue he is as focused on the spiritual development of the initiate as he is on the mysteries themselves. His compassion for “misguided souls” runs so deep he often becomes wrapped up in the troubles of others to the detriment of his work – initiates may find themselves forced to resolve all sorts of mundane troubles before Paulus can devote his attention to them.
NB: Paulus is (extremely loosely!) inspired by the real alchemist Paul of Taranto, who is one of the proposed identities for pseudo-Geber, the author of the Summa Perfectionis , perhaps the most influential single work of medieval Latin alchemy.
Characteristics: Int +4 (Visionary), Per +0, Pre +1, Com +4 (Talent for Summarising Complex Ideas), Str -1, Sta +0, Dex -1, Qik -1
Size: +0
Age: 102 (35)
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 6 (7)
Virtues and Flaws: Improved Characteristics, Great (Intelligence), Great (Communication), Good Teacher, Inventive Genius, Vow (Pacifism)*, Compassionate, Gender Non-Conforming**
*A remnant of his Criamon upbringing
**Paulus believes the perfect being would naturally be androgynous and has taken on many traditionally feminine aspects himself. Whether he acts this way due to his beliefs or if he is actually non-binary and his beliefs were shaped by this is left up to the storyteller.
Mysteries Known: Planetary Magic, Vulgar Alchemy, Unaging, Hermetic Alchemy, Lesser Elixir, Philosophic Alchemy, Major Potent Magic (Transmutation)*
*Paulus invented the initiation for this himself, but it requires Minor potent Magic (Self-Transformation) as a precursor – a virtue he learned from his parens. He intends to modify the script further to remove this requirement and introduce it to other cult members eventually, but other projects have distracted him. He will willingly induct an initiate into either of these virtues, but only if they allow him to experiment on the script. “Transmutation” means wholly transforming one thing into another thing, but not changing individual aspects or parts of a thing.
Mystery Ordeal Flaws: None
Personality Traits: Compassionate +6, Patient Teacher +3, Enigmatic +1
Reputations: Strange Mystic +2 (Hermetic), Eccentric Master +4 (Order of the Green Cockerel), Secret Master +1 (Academic)**
**Mundane alchemists may be aware of the Order of the Green Cockerel, but only in the vaguest sense. If they recognise Paulus at all, they will only know he is a mysterious figure rumoured to have achieved the great work
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20)
Abilities: Arabic 5, Artes Liberales 3, Awareness 1, Charm 2, Code of Hermes 1, Concentration 5, Dominion Lore 3, Egypt Lore 1, Enigmatic Wisdom 4, Finesse 4, Folk Ken 6, Greek 3, Italian 5, Italy Lore 2, L:atin 5, Leadership 4, Magic Lore 3, Magic Theory 8, Order of Hermes Lore 2, Order of the Green Cockerel Lore 9, Parma Magica 3, Penetration 2,Philosophiae 10, Teaching 4, Theology 3
Arts: Animal 8, Aquam 7, Auram 6, Corpus 9, Creo 16, Herbam 7, Ignem 6, Imaginem 9, Intellego 11, Mentem 6, Muto 15, Perdo 14, Rego 15, Terram 9, Vim 10
Twilight Scars: Paulus’ old Criamon stigmata reappear whenever he gains warping points, and slowly fade over the next few days. Paulus’ sweat erodes metal. He wears gloves while working. People feel a mild compulsion to tell him their problems. He can tell the composition of any metal at a glance, and compulsively lists this property of objects near him (this can be resisted, with concentration). He is mildly resistant to mundane heat (-5 damage, enough to protect against a small fire or boiling water).
Spells and Trappings: Paulus is a generalist, focusing on broad knowledge instead of mastery of any particular art. He has a varied array of spells, mostly conventional and learned form lab texts.
Potent Spells
Paulus has invented several potent spells, each of which uses a potion of some kind for the material bonus. This is somewhat wasteful as it uses up some of the focal items each time as the potion is consumed or poured out, but also allows for the components to be stored compactly as powders and liquids. The specific spells are left up to the storyguide, but some useful material bonuses are:
Mercury: Muto +5, Terram +3, Aquam +3
(Powdered) Magnetite: Animal +3
Electrum (Dissolved in Aqua Regia): Terram +4
(Powdered) Amber: Corpus +3
(Powdered) Jade: Aquam +4
(Powdered) Basalt: Ignem +3
Powdered Bark from a Tree Struck by Lightning: Auram +2
Original Research
Paulus, perhaps influenced by his Criamon upbringing, believes that an essential part of improving the self is confronting personal failings. He likens this to how in an alchemical work the crude material must be putrefied until the prima materia emerges, so that it can be purified and uplifted. This is both more and less literal than students might initially expect. To aid in this quest he has invented the Putrefaction of the Spiritual Matter effect described below, based on original research. This took years of effort even with a highly specialised laboratory and a skilled assistant, so only one lab text for the exact effect below was ever created. Studying this may provide 12 points of insight into an appropriate breakthrough, at the storyguide’s discretion.
Paulus uses doses of the potion as components in initiation scripts he has devised and modified. Confronting the literal manifestation of their worst flaw provides a truly unique quest for each initiate.
Putrefaction of the Spiritual Matter Cr(Re)Vi 60
R: Arcane, D: Momentary, T: Special
This effect is designed to be instilled into a charged item in the form of a potion. It inflicts two points of warping on the target, who must consume the potion. In addition it summons an Eidolon, a spirit of emotion, based on the target’s most significant personality flaw (if they have no flaws the strongest personality trait or emotion being experienced at the instant the effect activates is used instead). This spirit has a might equal to (5 x Personality Trait), with a minimum of 20 for a minor flaw and of 30 for a major flaw. If the might of the spirit would be above 30 this effect fails.
If the target goes into twilight as a result of the effect then the Eidolon has the powers of an adulteration (see HoH:MC) – it will force confrontations with the target character, is mystically part of them and can ignore an Aegis they participated in, always knows where they are, and will have powers mocking or reflecting their favoured magics in addition to those connected to the emotion which spawned it.
(Base 15, +4 Arcane, +1 Requisite, +1 Complexity)
Writings and New S&M Bonuses
Paulus has developed several new material bonuses, using alchemical substances. He has written the following works, but it is left up to the storyguide if they have been distributed or are found only in Paulus’ collection. Paulus can also teach the contents of any of these books. He has undoubtedly discovered more than this, but the rest is disseminated enough to be common knowledge by 1220.
Toward the Universal Solvent is a pair of quality 14 tractatus (on Philosophiae and Magic Theory respectively) bound as a single tome. The first details the process to make aqua fortis which can dissolve any metal other than pure gold and includes a level 15 reagent formula. The second includes the following material bonuses for aqua fortis: Destroy metal (except gold) +5, Purify gold +6.
On the Philosopher’s Tree is a quality 14 tractatus on Magic Theory which deals with the properties of the lunar caustic , a substance produced with silver and vitriol and which can be used to grow an object call a philosopher’s tree out of metal. The creation of the substance is not covered, only the magical properties. It has the following material bonuses: Animate mundane matter +1, Create metal (except gold) +5
On False Transmutations is a pair of quality 14 tractatus (on Philosophiae and Magic Theory respectively). The first half deals with debunking various false claims about the transmutation of gold, including the use of orpiment to give metal the appearance of gold. The second part discusses the interesting magical properties of orpiment. It imparts the following material bonuses: Enhance appearance +3, Muto Terram to change base metal to precious metal +2