I'm curious where you found the rules for initiating into a mystery during character creation? Everything I can find recommends against it.
I'm not sure what rules were used, but I do expect some leeway should be used here. First, there are Mysteries that are commonly initiated during character creation, though they're so common we tend to overlook them (Outer Mysteries of Mystery Houses). More importantly, though, let's see what happens if we don't use the special advancement stuff we'll be using, just sticking to the character creation in the books and disallowing any more Mysteries. The result is that the story guides cannot create Mystagogues because there is no way for any NPC to be built with anything other than the Outer Mysteries of the Mystery Houses. So there is clearly something missing from the core rules that explains how to pick them up when creating older characters. The basic idea would seem to be that you spend seasons like you would in the lab, but that these seasons go toward the initiation. As each initiation is different, the specifics beyond here are hard to gauge.
Page 20 of The Mysteries has a insert about the "Cabal Legacy" flaw, which allows for Mystery virtues to be taken as regular virtues. However, the character still needs to have the balanced allotment of flaws and virtues.
Page 19 starts another thing for making characters past the gauntlet with initiations, again in The Mysteries. However, it also says "it is not encouraged for player characters". If we want to go that route regardless, time must be spent to make each sacrifice and another season spent for each quest and another season to initiate the virtue. The example script on page 30 of Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults would eat up three seasons of time (or more). One or more for the sacrifice of time, another for the quest, and a third to be initiated.
I wouldn't recommend allowing Mystery Virtues to be taken as bonus virtues as a general rule. But, in the case of Darkwing's Taurus it doesn't seem unreasonable. First off this is a) balanced by a equal flaw b) it doesn't feedback into Hermetic Magic as far as I can tell. and c) is just one.
I took the assumption that there is no way a Mystery House member would make it to 50 years past gauntlet (the age you would be if you joined the covenant at its founding) without having at least one Mystery Virtue. In the couple of sagas I've played in with Mystery House members, they tend to get the first couple quite soon if they can.
I took one which was balanced by an equal flaw and knocked off the minimum amount of time required to do it. If you think I should take more time, let me know.
Also this is for a parens character who is going to be around for a while to train an apprentice, build up some stuff at the covenant, and then leave before 1220. The reason to not allow Mystery Virtues at character creation is to avoid removing opportunities for stories as they come up in play. Removing one story from quickly-played-through-prologue to backstory isn't going to damage your storytelling too much.
It also occurs to me the pair of a non hermetic major virtue, and a hermetic major flaw is what house misc gets.
My issue is that if there is not a RAW for it, it should be discussed here, not assumed.
Now being a house mystery makes it easier to find a mystagogue- especially if this was at the gathering of 12 years (which I expect you took a season for every 12 years...) the mystery in question requires that you have house lore at 5, which suggests it would not be as widely initiated as some, and furthermore indicates a need to do research into your own lineage specifically- which should take 2-3 seasons of work, convincing the heartbeast requires 10 adventure experience, which suggests 2 seasons for that, then the initiation which requires a major ordeal (major flaw)- so in total it would require 5-6 seasons of work and a major flaw to take the inner heartbeast mystery.
I didn't take a season for the gathering of 12 years every time it occurred, as every time it came around last time I played a Bjornaer either I had an adventure or was allowed to treat it as practice xp for Bjornaer Lore.
If you would be happier I can remove the virtue and flaw and add a few xp back to Taurus and whoever ends up running the character can decide which house virtues (if any) to pursue.
Is there any guidance on what house virtues the apprentice will be able to pursue post-gauntlet?
all of them.
Which ones he will be able to obtain will depend on how the adventure rolls go- however keep in mind that they will need to follow multiple steps- find a mystagogue, any quests or seasons of service associated with the ritual, etc. then the ritual itself.
So the aim is to use the fast advancement period rules. Ah, I thought the "personal reward - minor virtue if difficulty 20+" was to cover that. So I can say I want to do a "find a mystagogue" story when my character gets a hermetic or supernatural story, and if that story succeeds say I've found one, and then next time there's a suitable story for any quest say I'm attempting this as my quest, and then when I eventually succeed on a quest story get round to getting the virtue (subject to time needed if there's a "mystagogue spends season teaching the virtue")
OK. That seems doable, if potentially frustrating if I get bad die rolls on Quests. "Oh Look - a faerie adventure has turned up! I'll use that for my quest! rolls It's higher difficulty than expected rolls again and it has lots of parts rolls again including the area my magus is weakest in...." Still, we have 120 years to make usable characters in the backstory.
Do we get to choose losses from the table (so a tough character can deliberately choose wounds, and a Criamon choose warping to try and trigger twilight) or are they randomly assigned?
Personal quests can be taken without rolling, so you can go seek a mystagogue if another mandatory quest does not take over your time.
It does say that attending the Gathering of the 12 Years is worth 5 xp, but it will also count as a seasonal activity, so if you find something else to do with the other three seasons that year it is a net +5 points, if you do not it is a net -5 points. For reference, the gathering occurs in 1239, 1227, 1215, 1203, 1191, 1179, 1167, 1155, 1143, 1131, 1119, 1107, 1095, 1083,1071, 1059, 1047...
I don't have time right now to check everything or stuff, but I put it in the wiki. Class now!
I assume subtle casting means subtle magic
I get an age of 32 instead of 31
I also get a calculated age of 8 instead of 9 for anna
darkwing- let me know when you have edited the wiki to take into account the difficulty in initiating the inner heartbeast...
I didn't see any opinions on this. I think the more insidious version might be tempting getting marched (nigh-permanent emotion control of nobles and maybe even other magi). Meanwhile it couldn't hurt to have fabulous healing among our magi. So I should probably go with the nicer version.
So I should post the second idea I have: Pretty much a Italiano-norman Flambeau magus knight played pretty straight. He is a bit obsessed with finding/taking any magical learning not in the Order's hands, and probably has some sort of blood connection to (the cult of?) Hecate; (If I am remembering my greco-roman minor gods right..)
Just need to pick out spells but don't feel up to it tonight.
I had written up a character sheet but it seems I deleted the file or something..
when you say knight... the first thing that pops into my mind is the oath of fealty, which would be a problem for a magus character...
Flambeau knights can't be a problem, or the School of Ramius (HoH:S p26) wouldn't exist. The Flambeau societas of Milites (HoH:S p15) see themselves as the Hermetic equivalent of mundane knights. The Flambeau archetypes of Crusader, Duellist/Champion, Mercenary and Dragon Hunter all fit neatly with the idea of a Hermetic knight.
Mundane knights swear an Oath of Fealty because unless they hold land independently they owe fealty in exchange for the resources to afford armour and warhorses and the time to train for war. Some follow ideals of chivalry or a code, some don't. A Hermetic knight can get covenant support for all the accoutrements of war with no need for any oath other than signing a covenant charter. Far more important is the choice to follow whatever code of conduct they think a knight should, rather than studying in a lab or using mentem magics to control an army or building a giant automaton to crush monsters with.
Right. It would be a lot like a modern person holding themselves to the standard of being a good soldier even if the organization they work for is not actually a military.
It should maybe be called a "knight-magus" not a "magus-knight" because its fundamentally a magus who acts knight like, not a knight who is a magus.
Actually it would be more like a modern person calling themselves a marine when they are actually in a non-government militia. Knights were elite soldiers of their time as well as a title in nobility.
Well, I mean, at least in England and Scotland little bit later, hedge nights were a thing. And they are explicitly a knight that doesn't have land or a family liege lord, one that needs to go and find someone who needs another horseman. So its closer to calling your self a commando, it refers primarily to a set of training and equipment, secondarily to a social status, and tertiary to a form of behavior.
And I mean if a Mage wants to consider them selves a Knight of the Order of Hermes, the only people likely to call them on it are going to be other mages with a grudge, or mages that think they are drawing more wrath than the cowed foes and loot in books and vis is worth, or actual members of the aristocracy who want to annoy the person with magic powers. (and that would be /some/ of the time.)