A "new" Annulus Connectens

Anything east of the empire of Nicea and south of the Caucasus basically... so the majority of Modern day Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Sinai, Egypt, even into Iraq/Saudi arabia, though I personally think we should keep it within one of the crusader states.

ArM5 page 200-201 shows a huge gap between Thebes and the Levant so a good deal of modern Turkey is outside the Order.
Southern border I eyeball at around Acre and the eastern border seems to reach maybe Damascus. But Jerusalem is outside the Levant’s south-eastern borders.
I was thinking of finding a place near a large body of water, to allow for an Aquam magus even though we’re in desert lands. I mentioned the Sea of Galilea earlier. That’s in the north end of the Levant.

Natural Magician explicitly doesn't require you to be a Learned Magician - "With the exception of Mythic Alchemy, Mythic Hermetic, and Natural Magician, the list of virtues below is only suitable for learned magician characters or characters from a related magical tradition". (HM:RE pg 80). Doesn't help with Entreat the Powers, of course.

I agree an Ex-Miscellanea tradition based off the Learned Magicians is also possible.

Expanding on my character idea a bit more...

I'm thinking of a magus who was originally from the Suhhar's lands (probably Bedouin), but got rescued by a Redcap after his local Sahir got a bit "infernal-jinn happy". Then trained by House Tremere as an Assessor as part of a previous Primus' initiative to recruit natives for better infiltration (AtD pg 29). Believes that the Suhhar's tolerance for using infernal spirits is inevitably going to lead to the corruption of the entire organisation sooner or later, with horrible consequences.

Statwise, he'll be Gently Gifted and have the Persona Virtue, and will be spending time pretending to be ungifted and getting initiated into the Suhhar the hard way (and getting horribly flawed in the process, but he'll find that out also the hard way).

Hermetic magic wise, Mentem and Vim focussed, and interested in spells to defeat Solomonic magic (e.g. thinking about how the Creo Vim spells to supply false information can be made to interact with Solomonic Astrology) either designed by himself or in partnership with a more research focussed maga if anyone is playing one.

That could be my Pralixian magus, although I didn’t though to make him hyper-focused in research. But your character could give me a very good excuse to develop spells designed to counterspell and protect against Order of Suleiman magic.

Here
Here
Here and
Here

Are initiation scripts that I created for Adelbert (who was the immediate precursor to the first Annulus Connectens).

I'm happy with that.

This looks like a fun bandwagon I'd like to jump on. My current saga is excellent, but moving at a pace that suggests year 15 might not be reached, let alone year 75!

My current concept would be:
A Jerbiton magus with a magical focus in "Reflection". I think this is a minor magical focus, but happy to make it major if others think differently: it cuts across several forms (including parts of aquam, ignem, imaginem, and perhaps even MuVi mirror of opposition) but within each seems quite specific and limited. This seems roughly equivalent in scope to the canonical minor magical focus in 'self-transformation', to me.

A few factors attracting such a magus to the Levant could be: crusade-related Jerbiton mundane/clerical connections; access to Arabic texts on optics; bright desert light to reflect (and mirages to investigate!).

I undertand. The idea is to propose an initiatory script and suppose that the time and the sacrifices are enough. And that you find a suitable cult willing to admit and teach the desired mysteries.

I have caught a glimpse of the advancement of a familiar. How did you handle that? Have I read 10px per year? I suppose that I am doing wrong giving my player’s familiars 30 px per year.

Starting to ponder my character design and don't want to retread the same concepts, so thought to find the previous characters. I found the original character summary after I drafted this post, so kind of a duplicate. Might still be useful to have it in this thread. :slight_smile: Did anything change, anyone else join late who's character should be added?

And the majestically detailed Adelbert, a "Magi of Hermes" look at intellego and Astrology

A quick snapshot of the magi would be handy, but I should get back to work.
ps. and the Anulus Connectens last thread

If we abound the Sea of Galilee, maybe we could be placed at Capernaum, which was continously inhabited from 2nd century BC to 11th century AD, then abandoned. It has plenty of roman ruins, and is on the northern side of the Sea of Galilee.

It lies what...15-20km from Tiberias, the alrgest city in Galilee at the time, and could feasibly be said to hold a chapter of the Knights Templar (My character still want to play with them!). Or did we want to actually live with/on site with the Knights Templar?

I believe there was talk about a Templar outpost, as an excuse to be at the frontier and maybe also an explanation as to why the Order of Suleiman are enemies. I mean, if a covenant of magi mind their own business they might not want to antagonize local mystics. But by being in cahoots with crusaders it's going to happen. Part of our challenge could also to try and keep the Templars somewhat reined in?

Sounds Good Christian.

Are people comfortable with a magic Aura of +5, we had a standard +3 last time - we can amp it up? Might also be part of why the Order of Suleiman hate us being there - we have prime real estate...

A Templar outpost - everyone on board with that? Situated at Capernaum - so we could aptly call it the Covenant of Capernaum. The Templars could have moved there for their own reasons, to be a bit away from the hustle and bustle of Tiberias, and maybe have a training ground there for new initiates.

Description wise I reckon the first few years would be a mix of tents, military camp, then more and more buildings for the Templars and our grogs. Maybe rebuilding some of the roman villas if we wanted, and as we know there is bound to come a church at some point.

Would be make our money of usury? It is a sin, but the Templars were know to be bankers...

Works for me so far.
Anyone going to be decent at CrTe? (that is: "Making Money")

I had not envision being skilled at anything like that.
BTW it isn't usury if you lend money, but instead of interest simply require a payment in another form, is it? So if the Templar-bankers lend money to a farmer they get the money back plus grain or livestock. That would solve the problem.

Anyhoo I have sort of a magical concept, something that ought to further lots of spells to invent, but I haven't found much of a character concept or found any House that makes sense or gives synergy.
I want to be an Animal specialist - birds specifically - and use magic to conjure them up as needed, change them (or mundane ones) to grant useful skills, control them (or mundane ones) to actually get them to do what I want.
I want to use birds as messengers, as spies, and as weapons. But mostly focus on them spying and keeping tabs on our enemies. I'm thinking ravens.
The character would probably benefit from Inoffensive to Animals and Animal Ken

Tellus: This is kind of what I was doing with Fafnir back in that old RHine saga, only with serpents, lizards, and potentially dragons. But birds are more low key.

Also: If we build on ancient Roman ruins, would they contain a magical- or a faerie aura?

Did you read the Adelbert thread (especially the last 15 years)? From 91 years to 150 years (apart from a time out to create a better longevity ritual) it was all about using animals, specifically Ravens, as spies, conjuring them up, changing them to grant useful abilities, and controlling them to get them to do what he wanted.

I'm crossing my fingers that you have, and you've got a completely different way of going about it. (perhaps one more suited to a magus under 120).

Ah buggerit!
No, I have in fact not read that. :frowning: [Edit: I've browsed the last period now. No I have nothing as fancy as that]
But thanks for the warning
I based my idea off one I had with a serpent/lizard magus who was barely starting up in a sage back in 2012.
The only difference would be that I intended for the magus to do something useful way before the age of 120.

Something else then...I wanted to design a magus with some magic relating to a tangible, physical form. And Terram seems to already be very well covered, last but not least by Andreva last time around. Ignem may seems well covered in the published MoH. Aquam has been called already.

You only have the physical form of Herbam left.

Regarding setting:
I'm happy with Templars, I was initially suggesting some kind of link with a knightly order (whether Templars or Hospitallers, or having magi create their own fake knightly order).
Looking at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forteresses_templi%C3%A8res.png there is a fortress of La Feve - it appears to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merhavia_(kibbutz) so not a huge distance from Capernaum.

Ruins to build on - Roman is obvious, but there were also Greek influences, syrio-phoenician influences - we can get creative if we want an aura. Alternatively, we could find a place with some amazing natural tethers and then either have a magical creature live there or it be a traditional site for rituals, giving it the desired aura.

Sea access - Sea of Galilee is fine. The other area we could use would be Oultrejordain which was crusader-held from 1115 to 1187, so suitable if we start pre 1187 or if we're magi using old crusader castles in Arab territory. This gives us access to the river Jordan and its lakes, or to the Red sea.

I was thinking of Oak as a focus, but have not sussed the motivation yet. Don’t let that stop anything