Character Creation for StephenFleetwood (OOC)

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: The Heir of Laimunt Valley
143

Note that hickory is not native to Europe - it is a North American tree. Hickory was removed from the S&M bonuses table in the errata.

The details of the effect should probably indicate that if more than a single item is inside the bag when it is activated, it won't work since the effect is T:Ind.

144

Typical! Remove that reference then :slight_smile:

I agree re: not working when more than one thing is inside

145

Marcusā€™s cult: Part 1 of x: The founder:

Sigmundus:

Sigmundus knows he is going to hell. A holy mystic told him when he was a young man and he would like to avoid being tortured for eternity, thank you very much. He also knows that if he can align his soul to the magic realm, then the infernal canā€™t have him. He was planning at a certain age to suicide by warping, using a creo vim spell, but then he came across the fact that some magi had become immortal magical beings through alchemy.

I am going to leave how he came by that fact entirely open. I donā€™t know and I would be happy for any SG to decide.

When he found out that alchemy can take you to immortality he started researching it heavily. He heard that the process was one of refining all of your weakness out of you, and had the idea when beating the imperfections out of a piece of iron, that with trials he might be able to beat the mortality out of his soul.

A while questing let him learn to draw mystic sympathy out of mundane items (vulgar alchemy) and hinted to him that he could probably do much much more with alchemy. But the quest nearly killed him and he's a bit of a coward. That fear of everlasting hell makes him extremely loath to put his life on the line. So he started to train apprentices to help collect hidden lore, to go into hidden places, and generally help him on his path.

He knew that he didn't have a functioning mystery yet. He is in the process of building the cultā€™s mysticism. Currently, he is looking for immortal magi or humans who do not age and looking for what they have in common.

His mystical thinking is platonic. He believes in Plato's realm of forms, and that the perfected human form is real. He also thinks that the perfected human would be immortal, and probably aligned to the magical realm. This is what he is striving towards.

Personality traits:

Demanding +3

Brave -2

Loving +2

Crafts known:

Weaving

Blacksmithing

Woodworking

1 Like
146

Note that the final version of this should make its way into Marcus' character sheet eventually, for after a while this topic will become so cluttered that it will become difficult to find the information about his cult.

1 Like
147

I am waiting for home and my laptop not my phone. Then I will do a grand reorganise, I just wanted to put drafts here if people wanted to comment/suggest/object

1 Like
148

I also need to update my character sheet, my lab texts, work out my present to the covenant and put spindra up on my thread. This comment is mostly a list to remind myself, mostly

149

Hi Stephen, my character arrives at Triamore in 1195. She is going to leave in a few years (maybe 3 or 4). I must admit I haven't read the 146 posts it took to create your character, but from when to when was he a member? It might give my character an additional rationale to come to our shared abode in 1205 if they had met.

1 Like
150

A lot of the characters seem to be passing through Triamore, to an extent that there are years it may not have enough space for visitors (particularly labs). I'd suggest keeping any visit there relatively short.

151

Okay, then I'll have her stay elsewhere. Triamore is suitable, because it is mid-sized and "average".

152

Indeed, which is probably why it has been a popular choice.

Feel free to invent a completely different covenant if you like. Such as in the Rhine Gorge, where your maga might have lived for a while.

153

If you want to have met at some other point elsewhere, I am happy to have! Past links are always fun, and with the personality trait of "clingy" Marcus is likely to remember anyone he got on with

154

If this character development goes as planned, she'll spend some more time in the Rhine and then move to Thebes in time to witness 1204.

155

Beliefs of the cult:

Alchemical:

  1. That everything has a platonic perfect and magical form
  2. That the magic realm can be used to bring things closer to that immortal perfect form
  3. That the platonic realm of form is part of the magic realm
  4. That humans a a microcosm for all of existence
  5. That the magical realm is ā€œaboveā€ mystically and better than the mortal realm.
  6. That humans have the most complex platonic forms, as they are a microcosm of everything.
  7. That you can enrich an item to be closer to its ideal form with alchemy.
  8. That vulgar alchemy helps bring things closer to their platonic form (which is why they get sympathetic bonuses)
  9. Hermetic alchemy is essentially converting an item into an item of virtue, thus making it perfect
  10. The great work is the use of vulgar alchemy on a human (the improved longevity potion) and then hermetic alchemy enriching them to a human of virtue (the greater immortality part)

Moral/mystical:

  1. That perfection is to be strived towards. The closer you are to perfection, the closer you are to the magic realm.
  2. That magi are more important and perfect than mundanes. The gift is a sign that your soul can be perfected, and thus that you have the potential to move to a higher realm. The lowest gifted apprentice is more important than the pope himself, because he has been given a chance to become perfect in a way the ungifted cannot.
  3. Magic is fundamentally sinful, because the Divine is jealous that a perfected human manages both perfection and free will. As such many magi will go to hell.
  4. The twilight void allows a magiā€™s spirit to be reborn after final twilight as another gifted child, hopefully closer to perfection. This can be done a limited number of times.
  5. That the soul can have impurities hammed out of it, like inclusions out of iron. This moves the person to a state of purity. This hammering is through a path of trials and tribulations. As the iron strengthens and perfects when it is carefully subjected to hammer blows, so the soul strengthens out of the wisly finding tribulations. Thus suffering and pushing towards your goals is good, as you are having the weakness forged out of you.
  6. Cheating, theft, treachery and wrath represent weaknesses in your soul. They are discordant notes in a proper being, and should be worked to be excised before you can become truly perfect. These are the greatest sins in the cultā€™s own thought (mostly because they are things Sigmundus despises)
  7. When you have removed your physical weaknesses, and you have worked to oppose your own sins, you are ready to become pure soul matter.
  8. This pure matter can then be woven into something greater. This is the stage of gaining wisdom, which is likened to taking in the warp and the weft of your form and experience, and creating something better out of it. For this to work you will require many different threads and dyes, here represented by different experiences and learnings. As such a true follower should be seeking out new lore, should be trying new things and experimenting, to make new knowledge. This gives them the materials to weave their soul into something perfect.
  9. This knowledge can be best found in the world. This is not a recluse's cult. It assumes you will find something worth knowing or weaving into yourself in the world, then study and refine it, before making it a part of who you are. The world is where you get the materials that you will make your perfection from.
  10. The path is not one to be taken alone. Just as the item being forged is worked on by a hammer and tongs, or the weave is hung upon the loom, so must you depend on the perfection of your brothers and sisters in the cult. The cult is intentionally very communal. Part of this is because Sigmundus wanted people to work with him towards his goal, and part is because of how he thinks anyway.
  11. Those in the cult and on the path are your closest kin. Because you are walking together towards eternal perfection, you should learn to love your fellow cultists, and be joyous in working with them towards their perfection. As you grow in the cult you will become more attuned to your cultic family.
156

@RafaelB

Your questions about the cult

As for Marcus, the cult exists, that is a fact. But it was created by a pater we know nothing about, except that he created the cult (I mean, he is a verditius, but I have no idea what his crafts are =P). Marcus is already "involved" in the cult, but his next steps in regards to this are not defined beyond "he will help Sigmundus when the time has come". That is it. He himself, until now, has not shown any in game interest in the cult, and we have not seen what the cult could help him achieve (no promises were made), so why is he on this boat? Because he feels indebted to Sigmundus? Because Sigmundus has agreed to share the secret to immortality? Does Marcus even knows what Sigmundus is after? It kinda seems he just joined the cult for the sake of joining and gave no thought to the matter. It could be an infernalist cabal, for all he knows, and he wouldn't be aware.

Anyway, you don't need to answer these right now, I'm mostly raising them up to help me think about the matter. ^^

I think it is important to define what Marcus know about the cult, what Stephen knows about the cult, what Stephen expects about the cult (but could be subverted by the SG), and what is entirely upon the SG to create (independently if the SG is going to be me or anyone else).

He himself, until now, has not shown any in game interest in the cult, and we have not seen what the cult could help him achieve (no promises were made), so why is he on this boat?

He doesn't know a lot about the cult. He wants to, because he loves his Pater honestly, even if he is a bit resentful of his pater showing him only a little favor. He is painfully clingy.

He also honestly believes in the cult's teaching. He was taken in from a very lonely childhood and then brought into a community of people who seemed to like and care for him. This left him to take on their teachings wholesale.

Marcus knows Sigmundus is seeking immortality, but he also believes that Sigmundus is a genuine authority on spiritual and cultic matters. He just doesn't strictly know what the teaching of the cult will turn out to be, but he rationalizes this in that he will learn this from his pater when Sigmundus thinks he is ready.

1 Like
157

@Arthur I think I am done, though of I am not please tell me so I can get done :slight_smile:

158

This lab text still lists hickory (errata'd out) as a component.

I moved Eduardo's stats to the Grogs and Covenfolk topic.

1 Like
159

Knew I forgot something! Will edit now.

1 Like
160

@Arthur prettied up edwardo, and made the edit!

1 Like
161

Am I good to go?

(Joke)
I'm ready coach, put me into the game!
(/Joke)

162

Are your magus stats up to date to the end of Winter 1204? If so, sure! Have him join the in-character story.

You should add the parts about the cult in a seperate post in Marcus' stats. We can update and modify the cult as we go.

The "Updated" dat in the stats should now indicate real date (meaning "End of Winter 1204") instead of "10 years after gauntlet".

:smiley:

1 Like