Character creation: Menatia of Tytalus

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Triamore
1

Menatia of Tytalus

Background: Lorence was born as daughter of Baron de Contay in Picardy in 1194. She was a beautiful girl and her parents had plans to marry her off to a family that would improve their noble status. However before that happened a local conflict in the region broke out and the girl was kidnapped in the turmoil by an elderly man calling himself Klycus. He was a wandering Tytalus magus who had been residing at the nearby Requis Aeterna covenant for some time to study Perdo. He had noticed the Gift in the now 10 year old girl while passing by the barony a few months earlier and had watched her since to get a chance to kidnap her.
The apprenticeship was hell, or the girl actually thought hell would have been a relief to the things she was put through by her master. She was used and abused in all possible ways and kept inside his laboratory and sanctum that he was borrowing at the winter covenant for the first two years of her apprenticeship. Requis Aeterna got very few other visitors and not many knew about her existence there.

Klycus named his apprentice Menatia and found that she had a very good aptitude for Mentem magic. He was himself a Perdo Mentem expert and he used it to take away her memories of her family and also used it as punishment. In her third year of her apprenticeship they moved to Spider's Palace, another vassal covenant of Florum, where they started to get more in contact with other magi and covenfolk. The sex-abuse by the older Tytalus and the control he managed to put on her while they were naked resulted in a strong restriction in her Gift. She is unable to use magic on a nude target. Klycus had always been deficient in Creo magic and he transferred some of this to his filia, but only partially.
The rest of her apprenticeship they spent in Flanders and Picardy usually with Florum and Spider's Palace as some sort of base without establishing themselves as permanent members. Menatia enjoyed Florum and the city of Ghent a lot and always hated when they were leaving there to go somewhere less populated.

In the last 3-4 years before her Gauntlet she developed her Persona ability. Something that came as a surprise to Klycus and he tried to discourage her from developing it further and make use of it. Only because he was jealous of her. Of course she didn't listen to him, they had always hated each other despite Klycus' attempts at changing her memories in the early stages of their relationship and they had different views on most things especially on the Calliclean/Hippian philosophies and which primi to support. Menatia is a Hippian/Buliste supporter and in the beginning when she learnt about the differences she took that standpoint based only on the fact that Klycus was a Calliclean/Harpax supporter. Now she thinks her choice was the right one nevertheless.

Menatia developed her first Persona as a merchant trading in cloth living in Ghent but of Picard birth. She named him Nicolas Truyart and started to establish him in the mundane city life. Klycus warned her of getting too close to the mundane. Well he tried to punish her for it, but as usual she often did the contrary to what he said or wanted. The other magi at Florum wasn't particularly anti-mundane themselves so they more or less encouraged her to continue this.

When it was time for her Gauntlet Klycus first didn't want to give her the final challenge for it. Menatia had to press him hard for it and even threaten to bring it up in next tribunal. Finally he told her the challenge was to beat him in certamen, plain and simple. The only problem was, Menatia knew it wasn't going to be plain and simple at all. Klycus was a master of several Arts so it would be very difficult for her to win no matter which Arts she managed to get. Klycus gave her a month to challenge him and when she did, the certamen would take place on high noon the day after.
Menatia had to use some tricks to increase her chances to win. She knew her master's weaknesses Deficient Creo and Deleterious Circumstances: when wet and she also knew she had to trick him so that he couldn't choose one of his stronger Forms that Menatia had not much training in at all, particularly Terram. If she could get Creo or Intellego/Imaginem or Mentem while he was wet the odds would be more even.

The scheme involved Menatia's brand new persona, a 17 year old boy she had named Pierre de Boves. Klycus had never met or heard of him when he entered Klycus' sanctum the morning when the certamen challenge was to occur. Pierre entered in company with the old magus' most trusted servant. The servant was tricked magically of course since Menatia knew her master's Parma Magica routines. Klycus was surprised when Menatia in this form suddenly erased a few words from his mind for Sun duration before he could set up a defense. The missing words made it impossible for him to cast the spell he usually used when drying himself from rainwater and also he wouldn't be able to pick Terram as his Form for the challenge.
Sadly it wasn't a rainy day but she had persuaded a covenfolk boy at the Spider's Palace covenant to be at the place of the challenge at high noon with a bucket of water and at a certain moment throw it over the two magi. The plan had a lot of flaws, but somehow it did work and Menatia won the Creo Mentem certamen after a long struggle. Klycus never accepted the win though and called Menatia a cheater. They had invited another Tytalus magus as arbiter and he didn't see anything wrong about the challenge so declared the Gauntlet finished. There is no cheating, just winning or losing.

Menatia took Klycus' favourite dagger as her voting sigil and left him that day. She went to Ghent and Florum and hasn't seen her master since but she has heard from other magi that he will come after her to take back his dagger and force her to finish her Gauntlet. Menatia herself does not want to see anymore of him, ever.

Age: 26
Size: 0
Gender: Female
Confidence: 2 (5)
Warping: 0(1)

Personality Traits
Proud +3
Scheming +3
Asexual +2

Characteristics:
Intelligence +1 (logic reasoning)
Perception 0
Strength 0
Stamina +1 (hale)
Presence +2 (sex appeal)
Communication +2 (convincing)
Dexterity +1 (graceful)
Quickness +1 (swift-minded)

Virtues:
The Gift
Hermetic Magus
Self-Confident (Free)
Gentle Gift
Affinity with Mentem
Alluring to Faerie
Deft Mentem
Improved Characteristics
Persona
Privileged Upbringing
Puissant Intrigue
Venus' Blessing

Flaws:
Restriction: target is nude humanoid*
Tormenting Master
Continence (minor)
Incompatible Arts (Creo/Aquam, Creo/Ignem)
Loose Magic
Proud (minor)
Susceptibility to Faerie

Abilities:
Area Lore: Flanders 1 (geography)
Area Lore: Picardy 1 (prominent persons)
Artes Liberales 2 (rhetoric)
Bargain 1 [+8xp] (textiles)
Charm 3 (flirting)
Code of Hermes 1 (mundane relations)
Etiquette 2 (townsfolk)
Faire Lore 1 (faerie courts)
Folk Ken 2 (magi)
Guile 3 (elaborate lies)
Intrigue 3+2 (debating)
Language: French 5 (Picard)
Language: Low German 3 (Flemish)
Language: Latin 4 (hermetic usage)
Magic Theory 3 (inventing spells)
Parma Magica 1[5] (Mentem)
Penetration 2 (Mentem)
Persona 2 (Pierre de Boves)
Philosophiae 1 (moral philosophy)
Profession: merchant 1 [+3xp] (finding customers )
Single Weapon 2 (longsword)
Tytalus Lore 1 (history)

Magical Arts:
Creo 5
Intellego 6
Muto 2
Perdo 2
Rego 6

Herbam 5
Imaginem 5
Mentem 9

Spells:
Sight of the Transparent Motive (InMe 10)
Posing the Silent Question (InMe 20)
Loss of But a Moment's Memory (PeMe 15)
Trust of Childlike Faith (PeMe 10)
Confusion of the Numbed Will (ReMe 15)
Aura of Rightful Authority (ReMe 20)
Aura of Ennobled Presence (MuIm 10)
Aura of Beguiling Presence (MuIm 10)
Wizard's Sidestep (ReIm 10)
Clothe the Naked Form (CrHe 10) Creates a linen garment with limited details. (Base 2, sun +2, touch +1) [Invented post-Gauntlet]

Wizard's Sigil: A feeling of relief in those affected or being around when she is casting her spells.
Voting Sigil: Her pater's elaborately crafted dagger won in the Gauntlet challenge.

Equipment
A big wooden chest with a metal lock, full of different outfits for herself and her two personas.
Perfumes, brushes, combs and small mirror in a smaller wooden box.
A longsword (used primarily with Pierre)
A dagger (not the voting sigil)

Personas
Nicolas Truyart
Charming +3, Manipulative +2, Proud +2
A 28-year old merchant specializing in textiles. From Picardy, based in Ghent but travelling a lot.
5'5, slender. Dark brown hair kept short. Brown eyes. Wears the latest fashion from Flanders.

Pierre de Boves
Trash-talking +3, Proud +2, Rumourmongering +2
17 years old. He claims that he is a bastard son of the Baron of Boves in Picardy. His mother is dead but worked as chamber maid in the baronial household. Training swordplay.
6'0 tall and muscular built. Blonde, long hair. Emerald eyes. Wears trendy clothes as befits a lesser nobleman.

Post-Gauntlet Advancement
Autumn 2018: Study Creo for 8xp.
Winter 2018: Study Herbam for 8xp.
Spring 2019: Invented Clothe the Naked Form (CrHe10) in lab at Florum. 2xp exposure in Creo.
Summer 2019: Practice Bargain for 8 xp.
Autumn 2019: Adventure as Nicolas Truyart. 8xp in Profession: Merchant.
Winter 2019: Arriving at Triamore and searching for Felix in the faerie forest. 5 xp in Parma Magica, 4 xp in Creo and 1 xp in Herbam

*Nude means bare genitals and/or bare breasts for female. Humanoids are any race or creature that may have sex with a human (including faeries, satyrs etc.)

2

Some comments, which you can take or ignore as you wish.

Personally, I find "naked humans" to be a bit too narrow for Restriction. There are birds everywhere, and you could get attacked by birds (mundane or supernatural). Naked people aren't usually a threat and are seldom met. You should know that if it's the Restriction, the storyguide will have to use it against you at least once in a while -- it's a Major flaw, after all. If it was me, you'd get attacked by naked zombies at some point, for example. :laughing:

I would also expect that Restriction makes it difficult for you to affect these targets indirectly with your magic. So if you were to learn Invisible Sling of Vilano, I'd give you a hefty penalty to your Finesse roll. Otherwise it gets too easy to deal with them.

I would note that the character has basically zero ability to defend him/herself from non-human opponents. Well, she can wield a sword, but that's about all. Not even a single defensive spell, like Wizard's Sidestep, to protect her/him from even a rabid rat. :wink:

The former master would need to be fleshed out some, I think. Name, house, approximate age, where he lives. I assume he's an Hermetic magus? Seems more like the Enemies flaw than either Tormenting Master or Dark Secret. Or perhaps Diabolic Upbringing? And why is it that he's so obsessed about her that he would be looking for her for years, even decades? There must be more than simple carnal lust.

Still, the concept makes sense. Good character.

3

Maybe I missed them but your casting sigil is missing ( It can be quite important for gentle gifted character) as well as your voting sigil.

-I would take Tormenting master rather than Dark secret in your situation.
-The restriction seems logical to your situation but fairly limited, the exemple of bird makes sense If your wizard is investing on animalem otherwise this seems too limited, maybe make It work on partial nudity (breast and/or genitals from both sex visible ?) but that's SG call !

  • You miss some speciality in skills (awareness, charm, guile, intrigue, latin, magic theory)
4

Thank you for your comments.

This is what I thought as well and I actually think it's more suitable for the concept if her restriction is when she is naked herself. Her master was in control when she was naked when she started to learn the Arts. This is nasty stuff in real life and I don't want to go into too much detail about this but when I thought about the concept it made sense. Being naked herself feels like a pretty bad restriction for herself. She will do what she can to keep it a secret, but of course her master knows about it.

True. Being a Tytalus this may be odd. I might make some changes there.

I will flesh out the background and the details about the master. I think Tormenting master suits best when reading the descriptions of the flaws. I was also thinking about changing one of the Personality flaws to Hatred but that may be too much focus on him. She is more afraid of him and wants to stay hidden. I'll write up something that deepens their strange relation without going into too much detail on the sexual parts.

I will think a little more about these. The wizard's sigil is tricky when you want to hide your true self.

These are at the bottom. Different traits for the three personas but those for Atheas and Pierre are acts.

I think I will go with Tormenting master.

Changed it to when she is completely naked herself which shouldn't be too narrow and suit her concept better.

Fixed!

5

Oh and a question.
Can Clothe the Naked Form be made Personal? That would decrease it to level 5 and I can take Wizard's Sidestep as well.

6

Well considering It's your "own design" spell I don't see why you couldn't !

7

Nope. You are creating something seperate from yourself, so it needs to be at least Touch.

Then I'd suggest to making the restriction being completely naked. Even partial nudity might trigger it, perhaps, because she feels exposed.

8

Dammit you're right Arthur, sorry my mistake.

9

You could use an illusion spell with range personal to clothe yourself (as your one homemade spell) MuIm10

Your focus is a bit narrow indeed.
ideas for a sexual abuse restrictions on magic:

  • nudity: In the presence of naked, intelligent beings that can now or in the future have sex with humans (which includes naked fairies, satyrs and children, but not normal animals/familiars). Naked means displaying genitalia or female breasts
  • rapists: Her spells are useless against beings that have raped others (like her master, most satyrs, some humans) and have not repented their sin and reiceived absolution. These are comparably few (I don't really believe American statistics that say an American woman has a 20% chance of getting raped in her lifetime, and in the Middle Ages the church said that rape in marriage was no rape at all), but you never know if the knight charging you had the scullery maid after breakfast. -->my personal favorite, because it perfectly reflects the state of insecurity that is created by rape.
10

I have changed her background quite a bit and changed around a few ability scores plus one spell. Virtues, flaws and arts are the same except for the change in Restriction. Note that I changed the name of the thread to Menatia as that will be the only name she goes by among magi.

The main differences are:
Restriction is Herself being completely naked.
She is only herself as maga. The persona named Atheus has been changed to a mundane merchant named Nicolas. It is as herself she has been invited to Triamore and she is not hiding from her master even if he probably will come and torment her.
She has spent most of her apprenticeship at Florum and its vassal covenants in Flanders and Picardy.
She has had no direct contact with Eduardo at Montverte and Buliste at Fudarus and there is no scheme to hide from her master. She is a Tytalus after all and hiding is not very courageous for them.
I changed the CrHe spell to Wizard's Sidestep, but inventing a CrHe spell to create fashionable clothes from linen and other Herbam fabrics will very high on her priority list.
Switched Awareness 1 to Bargain 1 because of the new persona.
Switched Single Weapon 3 to Low German (Flemish) 3 since she hasn't had much time or interest in sword practice until she invented Pierre as her persona and she has spent a lot of time in Flanders so it makes sense with a higher rank in Flemish.

Here is my list of her goals for the first 10 seasons:

  1. Study Creo
  2. Study Herbam
  3. Invent a CrHe spell that creates elegant fashionable clothes from linen and other Herbam fabrics. Level 15 enough? If not possible at this stage then this one will be delayed to a later stage.
  4. Practice Bargain or Profession:merchant as Nicolas Truyart.
  5. Go on adventure as Nicolas Truyart with the goal to increase his reputation and earn money from trading.
  6. Practice Single Weapon (longsword) as Pierre de Boves.
  7. Go on adventure as Pierre for fun and as a challenge. She is not above using magic in her mundane personas of course but she will try to do it inconspicuously.
  8. Study Rego
  9. Study Mentem
  10. Study/practice Intrigue or some of the other social skills.
11

Here is her number of pre-game seasons but I'm not sure what it means technically. I got a little confused by your discussion earlier. I guess I will advance her a year and a season so instead of 25 she will be 26 in 1220 when the game starts.

1d10=5

12

Maybe I was too polite when I suggested a different restriction earlier.
So, here it is stated bluntly:

I dislike the newly phrased version of your flaw even more than I disliked the old phrasing, because a flaw is supposed to make the game interesting for you, not to be something that can be conveniently forgotten.

So since I believe you have difficulties setting yourself a challenge:

either forget about a nudity related restriction altogether
or choose one from the two I have suggested above
or come up with something that really makes her life more challenging.

Of course, this will increase the chance that your character is weak in some situations, but that is why rpgs are played in teams. A good storyguide uses weaknesses as challenges that can be overcome, not as a way to massacre her PCs (unless we're talking about the Paranoia rpg, of course)

13

I have changed the Restriction back to my original idea which is just as you describe nudity with a clarification of the wider meaning of who is included. I thought you didn't like that so changed it to a restriction I have seen in many other sagas (maga being nude herself) and therefore thought it was safe from being unchallenging. I'm much more happy with this though.

If you have other issues with the character concept then please say so and I change them. If there is anything I hate to be accused of in rpgs it is powergaming and I have no problem making my character weaker and more vulnerable. What I care about when making a new character game-mechanically is trying to stay as close to my concept as possible.

14

The persona virtue kind of kills that flaw. I think it works well now (I'm actually quite curious about it!).

15

Great!
Then I just have two questions left regarding two of my pre-game seasons. What lab level can i expect to have access to in season 3 when inventing a CrHe spell? And how are adventures treated, i wasn't sure when I phrased my season 5.

16

standard lab, aura 3. 8xp (or 10xp if you have any xp boosting virtue)