My players are starting to think about companions now, at my urging.
One player has made a Faux French Nobleman who is actually a German Casanova; he bilks noble women of their money. This is the idea of Magnus' player.
I threw a few ideas at them:
A monk (more properly a Friar, as Fruny has clarified for me - thanks for the great idea) - possibly a repentant Crusader/Warrior, ala Brother Cadfael?
A Templar Knight on the trail of the mysterious Sir Guy and whatever relics he took from beneath the Temple.
And... well, then I ran out of gas.
So, I figured the Overmind of the Ars Magica Forum - the collective power of hundreds if not thousands of Ars Magica fans - might be able to throw some out for me to suggest or get their minds going as inspiration.
The Saga is set in the Rhine, so ones that mesh with the setting would be cool, but ANY ideas folks are willing to throw out here would be appreciated!
If you'd like to see the PC's to play off of, they're in the other, non-Saga-log After the Fall thread.
A Germanic Hero in Training. Someone with Mythic Blood, perhaps, who is following the path of the Teutonic Hero!
I had an image in my mind of such a person seeking out the covenant, asking for the whereabouts of a dragon so that he might slay it, and he figures wizards would know best.
Months later, a dragon appears at the covenant, and asks who directed Siegfried II towards his lair. It made me laugh.
Familiars! On of the coolest thing is an enchanted familiar with the ability to turn into a human, imagine a bug or a cat or a frog or a wolf which hangs out in his new form and also learns how to act in human society
Giant-Blooded fighter with true faith and a dark past about his father/mother who slowly becomes a benetictian (Benediktiner) monk
a womanizing, satyr-blooded master-healer with some new virtues allowing him to heal wounds permanently with vis or so
a werwolf with an unknwon past, whose transformations slowly gets worse (turning him slwoly into a true wolf, even when he is in human form), which was planed as a thief and fighter
a sister of one of the magus, which is part of the magus dark secret (and their child...), who wants to become the greatest weaponsmith in whole europe
a little, charismatic man with act as a butler most of the time, but is also a master assassin
a noble fighter who thinks one of the female chars is his "Lady of the Lake", somebody with a virtue like "true knighthood", something like a typical kight of the round table
a smart, beautiful and gentle lady who uses her body to get informations for the char and is in fact a maga who lost her gift and her memory
a ranger with way of the woods and with a vow to hunt the white deer of the woods, which is the avatar of nature itself and which sometimes allows exeptional rangers to hunt and slay him, but this is a quest whch could go on for hundrets of years, because the white deer is the haredst prey
a Magister in Artibus which once was the companion of a mage with a diabolic background and which is hunted by the church, but all he wants is salvation...
a priest who once was a rabbi but after his baptizes he is now a loyal christ, but his past might come to cath him, because he knows all the secrets about golems and the tora
Klaus van Eickels, Tania Brüsch
Kaiser Friedrich II. Leben und Persönlichkeit in Quellen des Mittelalters
Düsseldorf, ZürÃch:
Artemis & Winkler, 2000
ISBN 3-538-07093-8
Well feel free to pinch any of the companions from my saga.
So far we have
A dwarf minstrel, faerie blooded, enchanting music, has a very clingy eight year old daughter with the gift.
An ex crusader friar in the vein of brother cadfael (looks like i wasn't the only one to think of this), very tolerate of magi, lives in the covenant to tend to the spiritual needs of the grogs.
One of the NPC's. the ex Hlaford (Saxon landed knight) who has recently been deposed by the Norman invasion (we started play in 1060). He is a closet pagan, ferocious warrior and loyal friend of the covenant.
A womanising warrior by the name of edward whos dark past led to a few problems not long back. Edward started life as a shield grog but unlike all the other shield grogs somehow managed to not die and eventually the players got so fond of him that he was promoted to companion.
a hoary old spanish bandit, life long buddy of our spanish magus. Crude, rude, alcoholic and troublesome.
A knight who quickly came to appreciate the worry-less life we provided: th covenant's token noble.
A Moorish soldier and philosopher, the de-facto autocrat compensating for our figurehead's failings.
In another saga, I played a somewhat deluded alchemist, who fancied himself a Magus. He came complete with apprentice (Dependent) and "familiar", but was mostly a fraud in spite of some genuine magical knowledge (alchemy) and familiarity with the Order of Hermes. I was aiming to get him a sanctum and a lab, but the saga petered out prematurely.
Now, let's see:
A gentlewoman patiently waiting for the Tytalus she eloped with in her youth to come back from (Final?) Twilight. She has a Guardian Angel watching over her. [Lost Love, Guardian Angel, Black Sheep, Unaging?]
The current resident of the character's prospective Covenant location, who would not appreciate being expropriated and has Forest Lore enough to back him (or her) up. [Arcane Lore, Puissant Forest Lore, Affinity with Forest Lore -> can get a score of 9 (7+2) at creation]. Of all the Supernatural Abilities, Forest Lore is potentially the scariest. Yet it seems relatively easy to acquire in the Rhine (as an Arcane skill).
(I have posted that one before) A "knight", kidnapped in his youth by faeries while on his way to being fostered with some noble or other. They let him believe he had safely reached his destination and raised him, giving him perfect knightly manners (from the faerie point of view, at least). Being now 75 (obviously unaging) they let him go, his "education" complete. He is thoroughly convinced his whole life with them only lasted a couple years, so don't expect him to keep his chronology straight ("why yes, I did this on the winter solstice, and that too, and that too, oh, and that too.")
A fun little game is to start with a couple random virtue and flaw (in Metacreator), as well as a pair of random personality traits, and see what you can build out of that. Even when you roll something inapplicable, it can still be a basis for inspiration.
So: a Peasant with Student of Magic, Venus Blessing, Weak-Willed and Difficult Underlings. Proud, Convivial (both arbitrarily set at +2).
His natural success with the ladies probably explain the difficulties he has with his workers. His convivial temperament compound the problem, making him seem promiscuous. Since he needs to have underlings let's make him Wealthy and attribute his success to his knowledge of magic traditions and rituals, which guide him in the conduct of his business. That would explain his pride in his achievements, too. On the other hand, he has come to be overly reliant on omens for guidance and could easily be taken in by any charlatan professing to divine the future. We still need a minor flaw to balance, so a Prohibition related to the magic practices that keep his business thriving is probably a good choice.
He might be interested in tying his fate to that of the magi if they do not insult his pride. He could bring non-negligible income to a starting covenant, paying for magical advice and services. And he has story potential with the threats looming over his reputation and his business.
I got really lucky with the rolls there. Generally it produces characters which are more suitable as grogs or NPCs than companions.
You're welcome to my companion, the one from whom I take my name, the outcaste half-elven knight errant, forever banished from Faerie lest his years catch up with him threefold. Ouch! He's much like a cat in his demeanor. Pet me, let me lie in the sun, let me hunt something. A fun guy, if not a nice one.
