I'm thinking of making an Apprentice that is Kaltheus's grandson. If that's not cool, that's fine.
The character will be a prideful little prick, obsessed with learning everything and being better than the other students at everything until he gets some maturity and sense knocked into him.
Virtues:
Apt Student
Book Learner
Flaws:
Prideful
Thoughts?
I''ll put the full write up when I get some feedback. 
I'd prefer that we save him for a later batch of apprentices.
I'm seeing a trend here of Apprentices being a student at the school being an element of fait accompli. Part of what I was hoping to do was to create an opportunity for a teacher to recruit a student, and have some inter-character interaction for bringing the student to the school.
Also keep in mind that teachers will have about 3 years of advancement to about 1270, after 1267, to prepare themselves for teaching at the school, so having apprentices ready to go in 1267 doesn't work and you need to reconsider your apprentice's back story. Recruitment would happen in 1268, and they'd attend the first year of school in 1268, learning the Latin and other stuff. And then in 1270 they'd have their Arts opened and start learning Hermetic magic.
So no comment. I'll take it that my idea of sending teachers to recruit apprentices is being nixed, and we'll just roll into the apprentices being at school.
Well...with the timing and all it seems that are main magi that we developed would not likely do the recruiting? Or would they? Who would I be playing for example? Babette, Fabrica, a third party? I'd mainly be interested in the first two choices, not the third and that's not clear to me yet.
Well, you would play both. In different threads, with different people. It is, perhaps, a bit ambitious to try and pull this off now, but instead do it later.
If it could be done, I'd be up for that. It's the timing and set up that threw me a bit.
It's ok I'll have the Dumbledore recruits Voldermort scene later on in the series...
Hector is a Gentle Gifted rebellious "cool kid" with a very high Presence and Communication who likes to manipulate others into doing dangerous things for him. I am thinking of starting him off at 5 years old prior to becoming an apprentice. Hector has the potential to be one of the most extraordinary leaders the Order has ever seen however he tends to just use and discard people who fall under his influence. He may try to form a secret mystery cult of students (similar to Skull & Bones) when he grows up a bit. His talents means he could be a great asset to a Jerbiton or Bonisagus (Trianoma) magus but if he can be disciplined then his true calling would likely be Tremere and if not then this mischief maker belongs in House Tytalus!
Hector 6 years old (-4 age modifiers applied) assuming starting in spring season so only Age 5 standard childhood XP
Int -1, Per -1, Pre +1, Com +1, Str -4, Sta -3, Dex -8, Qik -8
Virtues
Gentle Gift (Major Hermetic Inherited?)
Improved Characteristics x2 (Minor General)
Great Communication x2 (Minor General)
Great Presence x2 (Minor General)
Affinity with Leadership (Minor General)
Flaws
Driven to "Rule the World" (Major Personality)
Busybody (Minor Personality)
Envied Beauty (Major Story)
Susceptibility to Infernal Power (Minor Hermetic, Inherited?)
Poor Dexterity
Poor Quickness
Abilities
Greek (Swearing) 5 (0)
Charm (Children) 2 (15)
Folk Ken (Children) 2 (15)
Guile (Authority Figures) 2 (15)
Personality
Manipulative +3
Scheming +3
Rebellious +1
I had intentionally built my apprentice so that she could either be "recruited" or be showing up at the mansion doors (and didn't think the "fait accompli" was applicable to Margarethe), and am fine with it going either way. I've never played a future-apprentice-being-recruited before, and it could be interesting. I don't know if others want to be dropped in media res or have a prologue.
But if we're voting, I'm kinda leaning toward a prologue.
Let's add a few more years to him, make him at least 8, because that's the "traditional" minimum age for an apprentice.
He's using all of his Virtue points. My very first post may have buried this a bit, but finishing school Apprentices will have 10 (really 11 when counting the House Virtue) Virtue points.
I would suggest relaxing the use characteristic virtues, since you are using 6, or if you don't want to deal with the huge negatives (which all of the apprentices will have) consider taking Deft Characteristic, a child hood virtue that can be replaced after age 13 or 14. The penalties for the characteristic are halved (rounded down).
I don't get it - I propose making an apprentice that's prideful and wants to be powerful - which is shot down - and someone who wants to make a miserable psychopath is fine?
The whole family dynamic is why I want to wait. If you want to make that character without him being a relation to your professor, by all means.
Seems my post last night has disappeared. Must not have posted properly.
I was starting him pre-apprentice so he could play in the "Dumbledore recruits Voldermort" story line you mentioned earlier in this thread. Sounded like fun which is why I made Volder... um Hector 6 so that by time he finished the story line and latin training he would be around 8 years old to start apprenticeship. Is that pre-apprentice story line no longer an option? I do not mind being a few years behind the other apprentices in advancement.
I understand that the finishing school Apprentices will have only 10 Virtue points and I considered Deft Characteristic. I would still like to keep the characteristic virtues if possible. To tie Hector closer to the school, I would like to exchange Gentle Gift (I see there are already other characters with this anyway) with Blatant Gift since that makes him only popular while within the school's special Aegis. Hector is meant to be the Hermetic equivalent of the high school quarterback who's glory days of popularity in school do not necessarily translate into post graduation glory. Regaining that glory will be the eventual focus of the character in the form of starting a mystery cult (the notHogwarts Skull & Bones society) dedicated to learning the secrets of the teachers, in particular the secret of the special Aegis.
Here is my revised version:
Hector is a rebellious child with a very high Presence and Communication with a need for attention. Hector has the potential to be one of the most extraordinary leaders the Order has ever seen however his self-centeredness means he is unlikely to be a good leader. His talents means he could be a great asset to a Jerbiton or Bonisagus (Trianoma) magus but if he can be disciplined then his true calling would likely be Tremere and if not then this mischief maker belongs in House Tytalus!
Hector 6 years old (-4 age modifiers applied) assuming starting in spring season so only Age 5 standard childhood XP
Int -1, Per -1, Pre +1, Com +1, Str -4, Sta -3, Dex -8, Qik -8
Virtues
Inherited Affinity with Rego (Minor Hermetic)
Inherited Affinity with "notHowarts Skull & Bones Society" mystery cult Lore (Minor General)
Venus' Blessing (Minor General)
Improved Characteristics x2 (Minor General)
Great Communication x2 (Minor General)
Great Presence x2 (Minor General)
Affinity with Leadership (Minor General)
Flaws
Driven to "Be Popular" (Major Personality)
Busybody (Minor Personality)
Envied Beauty (Major Story)
Inherited Blatant Gift (Major Hermetic)
Abilities
Greek (Swearing) 5 (0)
Charm (Children) 2 (15)
Folk Ken (Children) 2 (15)
Guile (Authority Figures) 2 (15)
Personality
Self-centered +3
Scheming +3
Rebellious +1
Well, we can do it flashback style, as I suggested. This will help the players with teachers get a voice for their teacher characters, too.
So, what are your plans to do with those virtues? I understand why Great Com x2 and Great Presence x2 are good for Leadership, but how do you intend to lead the other apprentices. Perhaps I need to post this as a House Rule, but social rolls between players are guides, but can't be used to force a PC to act in a way contrary to the vision of his character. Those characteristics (and the Leadership ability) will be primarily used for maximum advantage on any NPCs that I run (or I ask another player to run). PCs have the ability to choose their own destiny, even if rolls of interaction between that PC and another PC suggest otherwise. I've just seen it too many times where one PC tries to put it over on another PC, and this is at a table, and it leads to acrimony. The anonymity of PbP play magnifies that greatly.
The Gentle Gift/Blatant Gift is part of the central conceit of the saga. Gentle Gift, as a virtue doesn't really matter, nor does Blatant Gift as a Flaw. In the spirit of "in general, characters cannot take Flaws which will quickly be removed in play" from page 36 of the main text, the Blatant Gift isn't a flaw. On the other hand Gentle Gift isn't really a virtue that adds to this game too much, but I'm still not going to make it a 0 point or 1 point virtue. Putting it another way, you can take Blatant Gift, and it can manifest late in your career, but you still have to take a Hermetic Flaw that has more of an impact on your character during play (and manifests when your first Art is opened). You'll note that the people who've selected Gentle Gift for their apprentices have generally agreed to "learn" it during play. And those teachers that have the Gentle Gift have existed within a world that the Gentle Gift has a huge impact on their back story.
The character will not learn the secret of the Aegis. There is no lab text for the Aegis that mutes the effects of the Gift. I'll tell you this now, so that you can build your character fully cognizant that one of his goals will not be realized. Also, his contact with Laterala will be limited. If you want to make it more likely to actually get access to the secrets, you need to design a character that will make you attractive to House Tremere generally and Laterala specifically. One way to get your character on her radar is to have a Supernatural Virtue which will require either she or Elizabeth to open your character's Arts, if it's something a Tremere would want, then all the better. She won't be teaching a class until 3rd or 4th year (of the Hermetic 6).
The teachers, other than she, don't appear to have many major secrets, Kaltheus might be the exception, but he's going to be a difficult nut to crack to get to his secrets. He's not going to be easily swayed by a child to reveal them (especially with the way I treat social rolls between characters). I'll also point out that all of the teachers here are very social creatures, anyway, and even with Great Presence x2, Great Com x2, Affinity w/ Leadership, you'd still be far below their totals at resisting your attempts to give them your secrets.
In the spirit of Full Disclosure...
Let me also add that the whole Mystery Cult focus, along with the Great Presence, Great Com, Affinity w/ Leadership reminds me of another player who has used alternate identities before. I have no evidence that you are or are not that person. I'm explaining this only because you have a huge obstacle to overcome with respect to the bad taste another player has left in my mouth (and a few other players here). It's not this saga that I'm speaking of, it's another saga, or perhaps several other sagas.
As far as I know, I have not played with anyone in this game before and I have definitely never played on this forum before. I am not the alternate identity person you are thinking of.
Character ideas are a dime a dozen and making apprentice level characters takes little time so I will come up with another concept which I will post later tonight. I was just trying to make a Voldermort style character based upon your post. I was looking to use high presence and high cult lore to be able to get high initiation totals to be able to research Initiation rites that could be used to lure other players into joining my cult. Leadership affinity was because Leadership is one of the most powerful abilities in the game since it allows more magi to work in a lab together allowing huge lab totals! I assume many other players have figured this out. It does tend to break the game as it allows lab totals well over 100 very early on but it is also internally consistent with the setting given the powerful magic of the original cult of Mercury which was based on many magi working together. If such high lab totals are not desired then just let me know and I will stay away from that style of advancement.
Your comments about Gentle/Blatant Gift implies that we are rarely going to leave the school grounds for the entire scope of the saga. I did not realize that was the intention. Are we just playing our apprentices until they graduate? Will we not be able to have them pursue their own interests outside of the school after graduation? Just curious.
The saga is about the school. Teachers are the ones who would stick around longest. We will have some adventures outside the school, and they may be the primary stories a couple of times during apprenticeship. Everyone gets to know each other without the penalties of the Gift, and any stories with apprentices may include enough chaperones to extend Parma, too.
As you say breaking a LT of 100 can be easy, that's not the goal of the saga. The goal is interesting stories and reasonably fleshed out characters. All of us can make a min-maxed monstrosity. The point is to make an interesting min-maxed monstrosity.
The whol Dumbledor/Voldemort thing was tongue-in-cheek, too. I know that may not come through well in writing. The initial character you proposed requires a lot of buy in from the troupe. That's only going to come after playing together for a bit. Once everyone who hasn't played together gets to know each other you can do a character like that.
So based upon your posts to date, my understanding is that:
Apprentices will start ready for Hermetic training
Hermetic Training will take 6 years
Upon Graduation most apprentices will leave the School
The saga is about the School so once the new magi leave they are out of the game
Is my understanding correct? If so then if I want my apprentice to be a long term character then his goal has to be to become a teacher.