I lost my father yesterday. So, on the drive back from the hospital I had a random fleeting thought. How do the relationships of magi change over time and does anyone play that out in their sagas?
My dad was 30 years older than me. Of course 35 to 5 is a huge gap, 50 to 20 is still very large, and 80 to 50 exists but feels smaller. How would things change when it's 120 to 90 and you have 70 or so years of shared experiences as adults in the Order?
First off, my most sincere condolences.
As for the actual question... You're right. We move closer and closer to those around us. At ages 120 and 90, I'd expect that some traces would still linger, old habits of behavior - even slight deference - but that it would be surpassed by agreements of distaste of/feeling better than those 'young whippersnappers' that have joined the Order over the last few decades. I swear, they're letting children speak the Oath these days!
Sorry about your father. Mine went in '19.
We've had multiple losses, PC and NPC, in our saga, and they seem to vary in reaction as much as real life.
I expect that mages who lose close friends - and some magi form friendships, while others don't - suffer the same as any mortal. A mage of 50 year career whose parens dies far away may well find it a matter of tradition and paperwork, or even relief that the tormenting madman is gone, but just as readily may suffer as a child of a parent.
For magi and mortals: imagine the loss felt of a kindly and dependent mage when his long-standing custos and servant dies after 40 years. Even a hard and cruel mage might find themselves at a loss when the one mortal they rely on dies, expectedly or not.
On the opposing side, consider the shock felt by covenfolk when the grand old mage, one hundred and forty-four, dies. A mage who first ventured forth with your young grandfather, saved your mother's life in childbirth, and matched wits with what seemed to be the devil himself, according to tales.
My condolences as well.
The other interesting aspect of this is how magi handle most of the people they know dying before them.
Years ago, I ran an especially poignant session where the characters came to terms with the passing of a many decades old shield grog, who died defending his magus (against a dragon that the magi underestimated).
He was so beloved by the magus that he had been given a longetivity potion, so the death was especially shocking.
I think the best part of the session was alternating between the different tiers of the covenant as we played through coming to grips with it.
We have a mundane at our covenant who's death will be a major event, as well.
I’m sorry for your loss.
I expect most magi will have a relationship with their parens that changes over time, just like the relationship between a parent and child does. After their gauntlet, many magi want to strike out on their own to prove themselves, just like kids do after college and high school. That’s where PCs come from. And after that period of separation the parens and the filius can get along as peer, in many cases.
Of course, that relationship going bad can be good plot. One covenant in my upcoming saga has fallen to winter because the senior magi couldn’t accept their grown apprentices as equals, and the apprentices went elsewhere.
On the other hand I have a Tytalus who has grown to be friendly with his formerly abusive parens and supports him in his old age.
Thanks for the various good thoughts from everyone.
It's nice to see people putting some of this into sagas. I've never been involved in a saga that actually took full advantage of the sweep of time that Ars can generate so the relationships between characters has never changed outside of specific plot related changes.