My Merinita magus has been making progress in the Arcadian Mysteries (House of Hermes - Mystery Cults), and is now studying Arcadian Travel and plans to learn Animae Magic. Our Storyteller has kindly allowed me to read the source book Realms of Power: Faerie.
I do have some trouble combining the rules and lore from those two book, and I have some questions. I'll start with only a few to not lengthen this post too much:
When a Merinita magus uses Arcane Travel to open a trod, is this a new trod or does the magus discover the closest trod nearby? In former case, does the trod disappear after the Merinita traveled through it, or is there now a permanent new trod in this location?
When using the Animae Magic to cast a spell to create/summon a specific Faerie, does that creature disapear when the spell duration is passed? If so, does the unfortunate Fay die? When summoned a second time by the same magus using the same parameters, is this then the same creature with the same personality and memories?
Based on the Faerie character generation information (RoP:Fp45), the advancement rules for Faerie characters (RoP:Fp63), Faeries being changed unwittingly during advancement (RoP:Fp64) and advancement options for Merinita who Become Faerie (HoH:MCp93), how much can the Merinita magus tailor a Faerie she creates with Animae Magic? Can its appearance as well as specific Virtues, Flaws and Pretenses be selected?
As to whether the fae dies, no, not really. It's probably not too different from a faerie casting off a role and disappearing back into Arcadia. Except there's no glamour item left for another faerie to pick up the role. And whether the next faerie is the same one, is a different one, or a different one pretending to be the same one is YSMV material, and something you may or may not be able to ever answer in game satisfactorily even if your table rules that, functionally, stats carry out. Unless you use ritual-level durations, such faeries wouldn't get enough table time to evolve, so the point may be moot.
This type of custom spells you propose is exactly what I was thinking of, but to at least get this on the table (pun intended) in our Troupe, I'd need some references I can point to.
For your Faerie Knight (I only found the one at RoP:F p78, not p102), how did you come up with +4 Duration: Might? Is that a rule I missed somewhere?
Regarding Merinita using Arcadian Travel - the crucial line is at the end of the opening paragraph on p92 of Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults -
"These paths occasionally occur naturally, as those who are familiar with regiones know, but with this secret magic Merinitae can cause them to appear at will."
So your Merinita is effectively creating a new entry way into Arcadia when they use this mystery, and I believe it will effectively disappear afterwards from the way the last few lines describing the mystery go -
"Besides the maga, a trod can affect a number of other people equal to her Faerie Magic score, so long as they all participate in the activation of the charm, concentrating upon it as the maga
does. While they are immersed in the experience, the maga leads them through the trod, and they immediately appear at its destination beside the maga. It is impossible for a person to enter a trod unwillingly, though it might happen unwittingly."
This sounds like the trod created by this mystery lasts as long as it takes for the maga to lead her companions through to the other side, and afterwards no-one else can use it, so I would rule that the trod vanishes. The Merinita creates something for the purposes of a journey and then it disappears back to wherever Faerie magic comes from, as if they had created a temporary bridge over something or ridden on Wizard's mounts.
It being magic, and Faerie, I'd expect it to have disappeared for the PCs, but to be all-too-available to the cruel Thistle Queen, the inscrutable Hedgehog Ambassador, or piratical goblin plumbers.
occasionally, meaning rather sparse and temporal. This would suggest that even the natural paths come and go. But crucially it does not specify how often nor how far in between.
appear, meaning become visible. That could indicate that they are always there, but invisible, and that the magus merely reveals them.
So, now you mention it, and by this vague description, I would come to a different conclusion: the connections between worlds are not discrete paths, but vast continuous plains. Crossing can happen anywhere but is infeasibly difficult. Only very few locations are naturally viable. The Arcadian Traveler can for a short instant weaken the resistance just long enough to provide passage.