Can familiars reproduce?

Hello All,

Assuming the creature could reproduce prior to being bonded and considering that the speed the age is thinkered with through the binding process, can they still reproduce or do they come infertile such as the effects of a longivity potion?

W

I haven't seen anything in the books. My pen and paper troupe decided it would be determined by the longevity ritual of the magus when it mattered, since the longevity ritual essentially affects them both.

While I've seen nothing on familiars, there is stuff on shape shifting in HoH:MC. That would apply with bond powers that allow shape shifting.

RoP:M p. 70ff has The Magical Lineages of Cats, that "can trace their ancestry - through generations of familiars and Warped, intelligent ancestors - to the familiars of the Founders or their earliest apprentices". So these familiars could reproduce.
And were Hérisson of LoH not a Bjornaer, there should have been a hint on Vitalizing and Invigorating your familiar as Stirps in his chapter: not to breed vis, but to make your familiar the ancestor of a new magical lineage.

Cheers

Good find, One Shot. That answers the Familiar part clearly. Now if anyone could find a similar statement with regard to the longevity ritual.

Brings up an interesting thought- that mundane familars gain a much increased lifespan by becoming familars, and magical animals gain fecundity.

TMK there is no hint, how the longevity ritual of a magus could affect the reproduction of his familiar: it looks indeed, like nobody ever saw a problem there, or a need to rule something.

One reason for that may be revealed in LoH: the Hérisson chapter there implies, that offspring of magic animals or plants are very rarely magic animals or plants themselves - hence also no familiar material.
Apparently the breeders of magical lineages of cats knew a little more than the average magus here, and Hérisson continued where they left off. While ruling about the litter of mundane kittens of a cat familiar of a magus with longevity ritual was considered "nailing down chamberpots".

Cheers

All interesting takes.

Thank-you All

W

Hermetic Projects put on another sense this issue.

YSMV, as always. In mine, I have set forth the following presumtions.

  • The offspring of two magical animals is a magical animal.
  • The offspring of a mundane animal and a magical one is a mundane animal with Magic Blood. This is more common. A Magic Blood animal and a magical animal still produce mundane offspring with Magic Blood.
  • A Familiar does not have to be a Magic Might type of creature. Inherit Magic (the qualifyier) may include Supernatural Virtues (such as Magic Blood).
  • Just as a Familiar's longevity is now linked to their magus, so is their fertility. So they can reproduce so long as their magus is not on Longevity Potion.

It works for me :smiley:

I think we need a large, Rolemasteresque table to cover many of the glorious possibilities.

Like, roll a 66 and get either a demon or drummer. :slight_smile:

Ok, not a 66, but a botch. One botch it's a demon, two it's a drummer, three the drummer will still be living at home when he starts making aging rolls.

Hmm.

Many pairings will not produce offspring, but many will, even if the partners are unlikely.

Two things of the same kind in a neutral environment will almost always produce offspring of that same kind. There is a tiny possibility for weirdness because who knows what surprises lurk within a lineage? The more a lineage is likely to have something interesting, the more likely a surprise will occur, such as Faerie Blood (so the stories about your mother's grandma and the seven dwarfs are true) or Heroic Blood (you are of the true line of David, Caesar, Simon Magus, whoever) and so on.

A conception or birth in a biased environment can change things, in proportion to the Aura or sympathy.

Dominance of Realm: When realms differ but are of similar magnitude, the offspring's primary realm from least to most likely is Divine, Infernal, Magic, Faerie, but some virtues and flaws might be aligned to the other realm. If one parent is mundane, the offspring is likely to be a mundane heavily aligned with the realm of the other parent. There is a chance that the offspring will have a small Might score instead and be a lesser being of that realm, such as a Demon Child or Naphil; the chance of this happening is in opposite order to the list above.

The offspring of animals is almost always an animal, but if the parents are of different kinds it will be some kind of hybrid or chimera.

The offspring of a human and an animal is likely to be a chimera with aspects of both parents, and is more likely to have Int than Cunning. Aspects can be physical, mental and emotional.

The offspring of a spirit and something other than a spirit is almost never a spirit.

When kinds mix, the dominant kind of the offspring from most to least likely is Human, Animal, Plant, Element, Spirit.

As before, environment matters. Two animals aligned to the magic realm but without might will probably produce the same... but if they happen to be in a +8 magic aura at the time, the offspring might develop Might.


Definitely agree regarding a familiar not needing Might. Also agreed regarding longevity, though I think there are many weird exceptions. I think I disagree regarding fertility. The LR affects Corpus, not Animal. The bond between magus and familiar also does not involve Animal; they share a lifespan because of the bond, but the familiar is unaffected by the LR.

Just me,

Ken