Talk about characters and concepts here.
At a high level, Leah is a Bjornaer hoplite. I will generally keep the concept true to her original incarnation. She is a huntress and particularly enjoys chasing anything or anyone that needs hunting.
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I'm not yet settled on a concept. Do the ASG and BSG have anything in mind already (so that I can avoid too much of an overlap)?
Given Inchmore's background I assume an Irish magus is mandatory, or at least strongly preferred?
I would say that if they are not Irish in origin they should have either some way in which they have established trust with the Hibernians, or bring some kind of connection to the Covenant that is strategic/political. Both more (though not only) to serve as justifications for why they were in included (and wanted to be included) in such a Covenant.
I am open to very different concepts, they just need to be suitably tied in and committed to the Covenant, its founding cause, and patrons.
Re: Concept
I am pondering, but I'm thinking about re-doing/designing my Vorsutus concept a bit here. One reason though is because it is a concept that is designed to be effective from a distance and thus inclined to stay home and scheme as it were. It justifies my magus not being in the scenes I may be running etc.
I was planning on waiting until everyone else firmed up their concepts before jumping in, so at present, nope.
And I agree with Vort. Given the Hibernian versus Continental conflict, there will need to be a good reason why a non-native was accepted. It's far from impossible, as for example, someone from Loch for example could certainly be a good fit.
That said, three entirely random ideas that I've been bouncing around in my head all morning are an Undine blooded Crannogman with a focus in Aquam (naturally). A Tremere member of the Burning Acorn Vexilation who is hard at work making sure that the Diedne don't come back (and not because he is trying to learn more secrets from the long-dead house or anything). And finally, a Mercere "Redcap". That is to say a Gentle Gifted Mercere who has done everything in his power to avoid having anyone know about his Gift, and thus, acts as a Redcap.
I'm flexible. I was doing a Flambeau before (gunslinger for a wild-west game, right?). I could go a few Flambeau routes. But I'm also willing to fill in gaps if that's helpful. I'll post my current Flambeau ideas in a bit.
I've sent you three character ideas. I can flesh them out more, if you'd like.
By all means.
And now we have our 6 players. So everyone you see here is going to be our intended long term composition at this point.
Here are my main ideas. I welcome comments from everyone to avoid stepping on toes or to help fill in gaps. I'm keeping them all really brief for the moment. The first three are more pro-island/anti-continental; the last one would get pulled toward the continent while strongly favoring the island and always returning to defend it.
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School of Apromor Flambeau, focusing in counter-magic. Small and weak for a Flambeau, but size doesn't matter when everything can be handled with Perdo and Mastery. Probably a good instructor of Perdo.
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School of Ramius/Raghallach Flambeau, focusing on physical combat. Wards and Muto to allow for strong attacks and defenses. Probably good at sponting.
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School of Raghallach Flambeau, focusing on animating objects. Best with Rego and Finesse. Probably working with wood mostly. (This is what my prior character had been, but I'm not set on it.)
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Mercurian Flambeau/Mercere strongest with Creo and seeking to find lost Mercurian secrets.
Thanks for having me.
My three ideas are:
- A Hermetic bard (female): Not completely sure about the House yet (Mercere? Younger House? Jerbiton? Merinita? Tytalus?). Of my three ideas, this would be the one most closely linked with Ireland. Gentle Gift, strong characteristics, performance magic, Satyr Blooded, Venus Blessing. Not someone who spends a lot of time in a lab. Not a particularly strong fighter. A "face". Strongest Art would be Mentem. Compared to other characters of mine, this one would be mechanically rather weak (but probably lots of fun to play). She's interested in founding a family.
- Mutantes Mercere (female): A shapeshifting user of (Creo and Muto) Corpus (and Animal) magic. Inoffensive to animals. Probably uses Flawless Magic to harness-master Muto spells so they can be ended flexibly. Deft Corpus, inventive genius. Focus on Self-Transformation. Hobby and Fighting style: Bees.
- A gently-gifted Pralician (female) with an interest in finding Gifted children and keeping their unique talents intact: Strongest arts, intellego, vim, Good at comprehend magic, strong perception. Uses mastered low-level PeVi spells for self-defense.
Are we going to have any house-rules on nerfing PeVi spells? One of my and several of callen's concepts seem to use PeVI, so I think it is a good idea to discuss this early.
Being new to this, I have another questions: Which characters exist so far? The answer might help filling "gaps" when considering new ones.
To be clear, all of this is just my thoughts personally, I'm not wearing any other hats as it were.
I'm rather fond of this concept still. If I remember correctly, @Pendry is playing something of a Bjornaer Ramius/Counter-magic type herself? Hence my preference for it over the first two. But it's also been a good while, so my memory could be playing tricks on me?
I'm partial to this one as it just screams Hibernia to me? And don't worry about 'power' level, just build something that you think will be fun to play! Beauty of Ars is that mages are often on relatively self-contained stories, so everything can be adjusted as needed.
The only character that is set in stone is Leah, our Bjornaer hoplite. Everything else is very much up in the air at present.
Yes, I was leaning the same way, too. I'd forgotten Leah was doing counter-magic. Having a different style warrior could lead to some fun competition, too (Think Legolas v. Gimly for fun warrior competition.), in the long-run. It's also that the fourth idea seems to have heavily overlap much of Pralix's. This wood-animating mage can also do a bunch of handy things around the covenant eventually in addition to being a good warrior.
I'll probably adjust some things a little. Partly that would be since we're just coming out of gauntlet. Partly that would be because of the lack of house rules on experience. And party I might want to focus more on trees/wood and less on Queen Medb, though I might keep both.
I would love to have connections to other magi like you suggest, Callen. Leah enjoys friendly competition. In truth, she likes all competition but that with her covnenant-mates should be friendly.
Connections all around make for a better game in general I think! I would encourage as many as possible amongst us all!
I've been considering reskinning Vorsutus to be a rather different type of character in some ways. To set aside the Astrologer/Diviner and "born seer" aspect of the character as such a core element and instead to focus on the "curse/hex-meister" element as being the most central idea.
To that effect what I've been pondering, given the Tribunal, is a variant of the Damhadh-Duidsan that instead was focused on Cursing/Hexing. So I submit the following as an idea for an alternative take on the Ex Misc. Tradition.
Major Supernatural: Hex
Minor Hermetic: Leadworker
Major Hermetic Flaw: Necessary Condition (Runes/Glyphs)
This would be intended to reflect a take on the tradition that emphasized doing "bad mojo" to people, often at a distance using Arcane Connections. Which ... generally seems to fit the overall flavor and theme of the Duidsan tradition I think. Yet for anything "nonstandard" I think Troupe consensus is important. Perhaps even more so for me, as I don't wish to appear to make rulings overtly in my own favor as it were. So please give me your opinions as you would any other player.
I think it looks nice, and makes sense for Duidsan indeed.
Could also be adapted to be rooted in norse traditions of cursing people with runes. That would tie well with Inchmore's story, it's cathach being of norse origin.
Speaking of the cathach, one of the ideas I'm toying with is a Bonisagus trying to investigate it with the rules for Insigh/OR (after all, this thing can creat essential traits!!!), but I'm not sure where exactly that would lead (as in, no idea what would result in case his research has a positive outcome). If so, I imagine he would be focused on CrMe, probably?
I'm still wondering about other options. There are a Criamon and a Tytalus cooking somewere in my head, just waiting to reveal themselves.
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Agreed on both fronts!
Maybe a set of CrCo/Me guidelines allowing for the creation of essential traits, much like the various stat rituals? But yeah, a very interesting take for sure!
Haha, you, a Tytalus? Never! And Criamon huh? It's a house I've always liked the idea of, but never managed to make work in practice.
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I am glad you find the Oath Stone interesting. 
That would be a very interesting and ambitious research project. Seeking to create such Guidelines that would allow for the CrMe ritual creation of such traits.