Character Creation Discussions (OOC)

Confirm any uncertainty that Wolfgang is a no.

They may know people in common through the Cult of Mercury, that's about it.

Regulus will arrive at the Theban Tribunal in the spring or summer of 1201, and will stay until a couple of months after the fall of Constantinople. Not sure about a covenant for now, but it is likely that he won't join Thermakopolis. Probably will stay there one or two seasons though, and travel around the Tribunal a bit, so he and Eikona could meet in a variety of situations.

He should spend the best part of the first year learning greek.

Then let's assume they met preparing for the fall.

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Ok. Just so you know:

Regulus will spend the better part of 1201 in Polyaigos, learning greek and helping to teach Latin and Artes Liberales to the Gifted children, and after that he might spend a few seasons at Hedyosmos. He will travel through the Tribunal a bit (having Polyaigos as his main safe heaven) and slowly realize that while there is much that he likes there is also much that he dislikes, and as 1204 approaches he will decide to return. With the fall of Constantinople he will stay a couple of months/seasons to provide what help he can before going back directly to Tugurium.

Wouldn't he need to get a reasonable score in Greek before he can teach Latin to others? How will they understand him if he doesn't already speak Greek?

There are teaching methods for foreign languages that can be done monolingually, like TPR. We, as foreign language teachers, are not supposed to use the native language in the classroom at all. Does he have a good enough teaching score to know 21st century cutting teaching psychology?
By the way, this works better in theory than in practice: I always cheat and use German.

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I was thinking of attaining a passable greek (3 would suffice?) before starting to teach Latin. Think of that one foreigner teacher with a really thick accent you had at college. =9

And teaching kids how to draw letters (Artes Liberales) doesn't require that much communication (well, I expect. I might be veeery wrong about this, since I'm no teacher).

Worst case scenario I point and grunt, and teaching becomes training. :sweat_smile:

EDIT: Reviewed the rules, I can't teach nor train until I have a score of at least 2 on the ability; that will stop me from teaching Artes Liberales (for a couple of seasons at least). Everything will work out in the end... somehow. Let's wait and see. =P

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@Arthur, I think there isn't a topic to organize Regulus stats yet.

Created!

General structure:

  • First post is current stats (age, virtues, flaws, abilities, etc.) - this post should evolve as the character does. You should clearly indicate at the top of the post the in-game date of the update (like "Updated to Winter 1203").
  • One or more post for final version of the background, from before apprenticeship through post-Gauntlet advancement.
  • Another post for a summary of the character's advancement (xp, vis, etc. by season)
  • A version of the character's stats at the time of Gauntlet, for reference.
  • Further post for whatever you need to describe for your magus -- magical items, lab, new spells, etc.
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Misfit ideas (some of these are not stat-able, at least as grog level characters. I think it may be best not to stat them at all):

The Doctor: An excellent physician resides at the covenant. He believes himself a magus, and his work to be magical, because people react to him as if he had the Gift. In truth, he has an immunity to disease and an entirely mundane talent for healing people. He insists that he is a magus and that he has a right to use vis and vote in council. He has announced to vote at the next Tribunal if the covenant has settled on a tribunal by then.

Spyro, the cloven-hoofed: Leonardus found him in the mountains when he was still a boy with strong fairie blood. The boy is a young man now. His one problem is that he has hooves rather than feet, his other problem is his fairie upbringing, which makes him appear even more suspicious to people. Leonardus insisted that he always wear boots, and he insists on taking his boots off when having sex, which happens often because of his Satyr blood, which makes him both attractive and lecherous. Rumors of girls being seduced by a goat-footed young man will cause alarm. On the other hand, he is a valuable resource, because he knows a lot about the area and has excellent contact to the local faeries.

Linda, the werewolf: She is a very responsible and competent shapeshifter (just wolf shape), but when she smells her own blood for the first time in a moon (sheā€™s female!), she turns into a dangerous predator. She might have an important function, like turb captain, or chief librarian.

Claude, the glass window-maker: Apprenticed at the Great Cathedral of Reims, a talent admired by many, he was kept down by the Master Glass Maker out of jealousy. A fairie (or demon?) offered him a deal: The entity granted him great skill but demanded his gender identity as payment. Now he is a full man on a full moon, and a full woman on a new moon, slowly shifting from the one to the other as the moon waxes and wanes. The church refused to employ him (they'd still do in 2022), and so he works for the magi now.

Magister Wilhelm, Leonardusā€™ old teacher: He lives in a remote part of the covenant, because he suffers from a twilight flaw caused by his longevity ritual. Anyone he is contact with (speaking, touching, etcā€¦) immediately loses all their hair. Leonardo had an item made for him that regrows hair, but it has only one use per day (or worse, has stopped working completely). Heā€™ still a good teacher of academic subjects.

Jean and Paul, grog twins: When Paul is wounded, the wound appears on Jean's body (but not on Paul's) and vice versa. The same is true for eating, drinking, or anything else that happens to their bodies except sensory perception.

the heretics: Leonardus offered refuge to a handful of hard-working and peaceful Cathars. They have multiplied since and married/converted others. Some have started talking about leaving the covenant and settling in a nearby village...

Alina, the alewife: Her ale causes occasional hallucinations, but you'd better stay on her good side, because she's a gossip and the covenfolk all love her.

Andrea, the asshole Turb captain: She is as competent a drill sergent as anyone could wish for, but she has an absolutely sadistic, brutal and unsympathetic personality.

More ideas tomorrow. We should kick out at least half of these!

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I have an alewife idea for a companion too, but if you really want I'll cede to you.

I don't think the turb captain is a good idea, she would meet a warm end at the hands of a small albino. Aside from the humanitarian issues (which would be enough), having a turb captain the grogs hate is a security risk.

Cathars is a good story hook... though they're a little far from home.

The others are also interesting.

Why would the turb hate her? She is fun, she is strong, she takes care of them, she is a good leader... The fact that a certain albino has problems with her is not a problem, is a story. =9

(I thought you were talking about the werewolf. Just realized there is another idea for turb captain. =P)

But if I'm understanding right these are not companion ideas exactly, these are covenfolk. Some of them would need to be companions if they were stated but , just like Julia said, it is best to not stat some of them. A few don't need anything except for "Craft: glass 5, Touched by Faerie" or "Medicine 7, Lesser Purifying Touch (common flu), Delusional".

Oh, write yours, I have plenty of ideas.

I think I'm going to reread Montaillou one more time (That's a book on an intensive social study conducted by the Churchinquisition in a French village with the aim to figure out whom to kill). I wish we could achieve that level of interconnectedness, with marriages and love affairs, and rivalries, and alliances.

The covenfolk have been living together for many years now, weirdos with nowhere else to go. There must have been marriages, and the place must be crawling with kids. So it may be a good idea if we knew how many adults we need, and then build families, rather than individuals.

That happens in faster paced sagas, and it's one of the aspects of the game I greatly enjoy. Dealing with the generations and the intermingling of families is a lot of fun.

I'm under the impression that the covenant was quite sparsely populated up until now, since there was just the one magus and he wasn't even there full time. So we're starting the growth of the "web" ourselves.

Ideas for simple people with complicated problems

Fighters

Timotheus, the Pisser: He's a competent grog, but when the situation gets emotional (e.g. battles, weddings), he pisses himself. Uses the Specialist stats (replace stammer with social Handicap: incontinent).

Florian, the Old Soldier: He used to be the grizzled veteran. Now, he's so old that he's rather incompetent (half-deaf, slow, etc). But he won't hear any of it and insists on serving in dangerous missions. Assigning him elsewhere would devastate a man who served the order loyally for all his life.

Paul, the spy: Everyone knows this oily bastard is spying for [insert here], but he doesn't know you know, so he can be fed fake news. Of course, he must be kept from witnessing important information. Use the Hunter Template and replace pessimistic with Dutybound or Higher purpose: Betray us.

Astrid and Inge, the Lesbian couple: Two Norse women who have fled here from the intolerance of society. Use the Berserker template and replace short attention span with social handicap (Lesbian warriors)

Civilians

Alis and Marie, the kitchen-maids: Came to the covenant as orphans. Want to live somewhere "normal", where they can find normal husbands and have normal kids, preferably a town with a market for shopping.
Isabeau, the blind tailor: Someone normal (by the standards of the time) for a change, could be married and have children.
Igraine, maid: Not particularly bright, has no sense of direction, which means she gets constantly lost. They've tied a bell around her neck, so she can be found easily without magic. Could be married and have children.
Big Eyes, the veterinarian: Ayoung woman that survived in the forest, she's unused to civilisation. She can talk to animals and has a knack for looking after them. She is now pregnant and no one knows who the father is.

I like some of the ideas (Jean and Paul, Alina, Timotheus, Astrid & Inge, Alis and Marie, Isabeau). These are easy to integrate. Big Eye is a bit borderline, but she might work (the villagers of Chastellion might be the ones who call on her services).

Others sound more like companion ideas than grogs or covenfolk, because they have story potential but would need a player to want to play them (Spyro, Linda, Claude, Andrea).

There are several that just don't fit well into the background of the covenant. This isn't a place that was really a covenant until now, which would mean Florian wouldn't fit. The Doctor couldn't act as if he's a magus, because this wasn't a covenant before.

We also aren't looking to add story hooks for the covenant (see the covenant's Boons and Hooks), so a number of the ideas would need to be toned down (the heretics, Andrea the turb captain, Paul the spy).

And Wilhelm couldn't possibly be alive, since Leonardus himself was well over a hundred years old when he succumbed to Twilight. The idea (and that of Florian) could be modified for any former trusted mundane (purser, scribe, cook or maybe the glassworker) who is now too old or crippled physically (arthritic, blind, lame).

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So, to summarize, I'm looking for colorful background characters, not story-generating ones. How do they not fit into normal mundane society?

  • Physical disabilities (such as hunchback, blind, mute, dwarf, with an evil-looking appearance)
  • Socially-isolated people (such low-key heretics or atheists, hermits, reformed but branded criminals, escaped slaves, defrocked monk who no longer believes in God, former prostitute of either gender)
  • People who did not get respect from mundane society (female stone worker)
  • People touched by the supernatural in visible or disturbing ways (cursed with hare ears by a faerie, horns due to faerie or magical heritage, sees ghosts, has Magical Air, blue-skinned)

Most of the children who did not inherit their parents' social difficulties probably left, or want to leave some day when they are old enough. A few may remain, and some may reconsider due to the arrival of the magi (or may become even more eager to leave depending on how they are treated).

One of the Boon for the covenant is Veteran Fighters, so the small turb of grogs (about 6 or 8) are probably well-trained and disciplined. But there must be a reason aside from loyalty as to why they have not to have left the valley after 7 years since the last visit by Leonardus.

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Josiah Levavi

Josiah is a rabbi, who was thrown out of the German city he had lived in over a doctrinal technicality. Being literate, he found work at the proto covenant as a scribe and archivist. He enjoys the relative safety from persecution that a Magus patron offered.

He has become more heretical since living with a magus, but in such a technical way only other Jewish theologians would be sure.

If we have heretics, they are more likely to be Waldensian than Cathars. That would get us a whole community of peace-loving weirdos: And their refusal to do oaths would nicely conflict with our swearing tree.