Character concepts, roles and development.
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Now that we have a rough timeframe, power level, and age determined, does anyone have character ideas? I think I saw one or two mentions about specific concepts, though not exactly what they are outside of one having a mental lab. I lean toward niche preservation, so if someone's got a solid idea, I'm happy to steer clear.
l'm thinking of some of those weird social magi.
One thing that I was thinking, based on the name of the saga itself (the "Heir"), is that each of the magi would have been selected based on a role or title they would occupy for the saga.
The covenant would probably need a Protector, an Ambassador, etc.
Edit: BTW, one of the covenant boons I was thinking would make perfect sense is Vis Grant - the covenant gives its magi a yearly allocation of raw vis (something like 1 to 3 pawns). That is the enticement the Heir used to recruit the members for specific roles.
I had an idea for an Ambassador, to the other covenants - possibly with Leap of Homecoming and gaining arcane connections to an area a bit outside each covenant so I'd quickly be able to travel back and forth, smooth over relations, gather some info, and "take the temperature" on the covenant - and then bring that info back to my sodales.
l could do Protector, easy.
other archetypes and roles might be: Ressource manager (herbam, animal, rego craft magic), Realm specialist (Magic, Dominion, Infernal, Faerie Lore), Face (specifically mundanes, Gentle Gifted)
Or Face.
Idk, l could do both and Face would need some ability to protect himself anyway.
However, l think, that it could be more fun if someone (who's gonna play Heir) would draft his character and then will announce who his character needs.
Every magus can (and probably should) develop the capacity to defend himself.
But I believe that the role of Protector imply the capacity to defend the covenant.
Basically, the role describes a theme for the magus. Which is not the same as a specialty, since the role can be fulfilled in many different ways. For example, the Protector could be a classical Flambeau or an Auram ex Miscellanea. Function over form.
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I mostly had two ideas for Magi, but I think I could pretty easily adapt to what is needed.
My first idea would be a Magi Trianomae who is interested in making sure that the covenant's existence doesn't cause big issues in the Order. They could easily fill some sort of Ambassador or Diplomat role, but I also could easily see them moving towards some kind of Seneschal or Steward kind of role.
A second idea I have would be a Mercere who is interested in the area since it's a big crossroads between covenants. There has to be all sorts of opportunity to be had in Laimunt that will benefit House Mercere. This magus would probably be some kind of manager type as well, although I think they could be pretty flexible.
Edit: How do we plan on doing companions and grogs? Or is that a discussion best left to the Saga Discussions thread?
That works for me, giving guidance as well as identifying niches. Outside of the younger heir, we'd want 6 roles, right?
Something else to note is that some roles can be quite separate mundane v. Hermetic or otherwise. Consider an ambassador. For mundanes something like the Gentle Gift would be really useful, while it would be useless for Hermetics. Consider a protector. There might be a Certamen duelist v. a combat specialist.
I have a couple of ideas, leaning toward Bjornaer - one is built around being an Elementalist, so I'll ask if we're using the new not-quite-official errata
Here is an attempt to identify needed roles, getting overly fine with the idea that some roles will be covered by the same character:
heir
builder
mundane ambassador
Hermetic diplomat
Quaesitor
Certamen duelist
protector v. masses (e.g. an army approaches)
protector v. singular threat (e.g. a dragon approaches)
healer
magic item maker
vis/aura specialist
Anything else I should edit into that list?
We can certainly design the roles to be as broad or as narrow as we want. I think fairly broad is best, considering there will be only 6 roles, but we could also define more than that and have individual magi occupy multiple roles.
Some possibilities include (but are not limited to): Protector, Ambassador, Steward (I like that better than Face), Librarian, Enchanter (not necessarily a Verditius, as it could be a rituals specialist), Purser (in charge of the covenant resources, including raw vis), Explorer, Gardener, Historian.
I would consider them official at this point. David sent them along to be posted a little while ago, so they'll be official soon enough. And they do fix a bunch of scattered problems.
Perhaps a better definition of what the covenant looks like would help us determine what roles are needed? 
I like those roles but I think many characters could tick more than one of those boxes, is that good or should we avoid it?
That's up to the troupe.
As I mentioned, I think that fairly broad roles would be good. Other magi can be called upon when they are more suited to a specific task (Certamen), but the main function would still belong to a single magus role (Protector). Much like deputies.
My personal opinion is that overlap would be fine if the way it's done is unique. For instance two magi who both act as protector with mastered combat spells would be a drag, but one who does that and another who approaches combat with a battle-worthy inner heartbeast or as an enhanced warrior in armor would be harmless overlap.
Maybe we're not ready for this yet, but it might be beneficial when we get to discussing specific characters to have a thread per person to keep things organized.
I only have vague ideas for two Bjornaer, two Criamon, one Verditius, one Guernicas, one Flambeau, and one ex Misc so far. Clearly I haven't even started settling on a concept. But that also means I can work around everyone else easily at the moment.