Character Development Thread.
1: She is a Cruithnigh Mechanical/Rustic Maga with powerful, ancient blood. She uses tattoos for her own items and woodworking for items for others. She opposes the Anglo-Norman invasion and the push from continental magi. In addition to making a name for herself and defending Ireland, she already has several children and cares a lot about family.
2: Born the fourth child of Áed O'Neill, king of Tír Eógain, and his Cruithnigh wife, Ciara grew up well until her Gift started causing problems. By agreement with her father she was taken to be trained by a Mechanical who found her talents to lie with tattoos more than other crafts. She is small and weak, but driven with a strength to keep pushing through. Meanwhile, outside of being quite clever, she is pretty but unexceptional socially. Being very clever, a little weak, and having a penchant toward hedonism that includes her magic sometimes overwhelming her. But what really stands out about her magically is the results of her ancient lineages, Faerie from her father and druidic from her mother, strengthening her magic.
Personality Traits: Ambitious +6, Calculating +2, Hedonistic +4 (Set above the Compulsion's +3 due to Magic Addiction, too. But maybe it should be higher?), Motherly +2
She is small and weak, but also intelligent and pretty. She is driven and has ancient, powerful blood, brought forth by her Gift.
- Int +3, Per +1, Str -3, Sta +2, Pre +2, Com 0, Dex +3, Qik -3
- Faerie Blood: Dwarf [1] - On her father's side there has been periodic mixing with the faeries for ages, and she inherited this.
- Life Boost [1] - Another helpful effect of the ancient blood infusing her body is that she can use it to help power her spell casting.
- Major Druidic Blood [3] - Her mother is a descendant of powerful druids of the past. (Major Magian Blood reskinned.)
- Magic Addiction [-3] - As a consequence of the magical power in her blood, her magic can deliver a euphoric high. Her own hedonistic nature makes her fall prey to this more.
- Small Frame [-1]
- Susceptibility to Warping [-1] - Also due to her blood, magic infuses her body more easily than most, which is tied to why her magic is so intoxicating.
Mechanical / Rustic Maga of House ex Miscellanea:
- Craft Magic [free]
- The Gift [free]
- Hermetic Maga [free]
- Spell Foci [free]
- Weak Spontaneous Magic [free]
She grew up close to her family and has remained so. She has also given birth to several children and that brings in more family complications.
- Strong Family Ties [-1] - This is to broadly represent two things: 1) The issues of her own children, dealing with fathers, finding suitable paths for her children, etc. 2) She is still close with her mundane family and shares her father's protectionist view against the Anglo-Norman invasion.
Her personality is a mix of being incredibly driven toward greatness in general and simultaneously dealing with her own hedonism.
- Ambitious [-3] - She's always been the small, weak one. And now she's from a minor tradition in the Younger House. So all her life she's felt like she has something to prove. She also wants to ensure Hibernia, not just herself, is truly respected by the continental magi.
- Compulsion: Hedonism [-1]
With her intelligence she has a very scholarly feeling for Hermetic magic. In addition to generally learning well from books, this has given her an innate understanding of what lies beneath magic, both to harness it and to stop it.
- Affinity with Parma Magica [1]
- Book Learner [1]
- Puissant Finesse [1]
- Puissant Magic Theory [1]
- Puissant Parma Magica [1]
3: Ciara was born the fourth child and second daughter (first surviving) of Áed O'Neill, king of Tír Eógain, and his Cruithnigh wife. As Áed already had two healthy sons, he wasn't desperate for a boy so any child was a blessing. She was always such a tiny child that they worried a little for her survival, but she seemed quite healthy despite being so small. Overall she was able to learn a variety of skills through the broader exposure available to her.
- Area Lore: Hibernia 1 (Navigation) [5]
- Athletics 1 (Dancing) [5]
- Awareness 1 (Alertness) [5]
- Brawl 1 (Dodging) [5]
- Charm 1 (Seduction) [5]
- Folk Ken 1 (Debate [5]
- Guile 1 (Debate) [5]
- Language: Gaelic 5 (Ulster) [75]
- Stealth 1 (Natural Areas) [5]
- Swim 1 (Underwater) [5]
4: And so Ciara grew up in this household with two notably older brothers and then a brother three years younger than her. She wasn't strong enough to keep up with the boys, though. While she couldn't keep up physically, she decided to prove she was as tough as her older brothers with her first tattoo at when she was only six. She became intensely interested in tattoos at that point and displayed a talent for it, like the talent she had already shown with other crafts like woodcarving. But then at the age of nine her turbulences began. She was found by Mechanical who lived by himself, technically a covenant unto himself with a catthach and a cow and no vis sources.
- Bargain 1 (Magic) [5]
- Concentration 1 (Spells) [5]
- Craft: Tattoo 3+1 (Craft Magic) [30]
- Craft: Woodworker 2+1 (Craft Magic) [15]
- Etiquette 1 (Hermetic) [5]
5: Niall Card an t-Éigse Measceal brought Ciara back to his personal covenant, which is quite a glorified name for his large shack on its own with a small barn. But his cathach and cow qualifiy it, so a covenant it is. There Ciara trained under Niall mostly in seclusion, though at times they might travel little bits for his pursuits, which sometimes even brought her to see her family for a short bit.
As normal, Ciara's initial training was in Latin, reading and writing, and Magic Theory. Once she had these down he was able to focus on other things. One thing that was notably lacking was exposure to the Order. Not being in a covenant with other magi around, she didn't learn so much about the Order and the Code. Her only exposure were Redcaps now and then or another mage on one of their infrequent trips.
One visit by the young Redcap Lugaid, just past his gauntlet and when she was 14, was of particular note, throwing a kink into Niall's training. Ciara's urges had set in through puberty only a couple years earlier, and this was her first time to be with a young man. She became pregnant with fraternal twins Aoife and Bran. Fortunately, with the Mercere interest in children, it wasn't hard for Niall to get Lugaid to get a nurse to take care of the children so Ciara could continue her studies.
After that incident Niall oversaw the rare later Redcap visits more carefully, being sure to avoid a repeat. While he didn't focus on all of the, partly due to the Code, Niall did notice Ciara picked up different Arcane Abilities with noticeable ease. But mostly he focused on training her in the Arts and giving her a number of generally useful spells. He did give her a little time in the lab on her own to develop a couple very minor spells particularly suited to herself, though.
Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting; Latin) [5]
Finesse 1+2 (Certamen) [5]
Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic) [50]
Magic Theory 3+2 (Spells) [30]
Parma Magica 1+2 (Certamen) [5/1.5=3]
Penetration 1 (Certamen) [5]
Philosophiae 1 (Ceremonial Casting) [5]
Profession: Scribe 1 (Latin) [5]
Creo 9 [45]
Auram 9 [45]
Rego 7 [28]
Corpus 2 [3]
Vim 1 [1]
Whirling Winds of Ware (Cr(Re)Au 20)
- Circling Winds of Protection @ Diameter
Toss of the Tempest (CrAu 30)
- R: Voice, D: Momentary, T: Ind
- Makes winds in a direction chosen by the caster, pulling one object, creature, or person up to 50 feet before letting that target drop, or flinging the target up to 80 feet horizontally or downward. Even a small building can be torn from its foundation, though such a building can be no larger than 20 feet to a side, and cannot be built out of a material heavier than stout wood. Uprooted objects land fairly randomly in the chosen direction, unless you make a Finesse stress roll against an Ease Factor of 12 to choose where the objects will land.
- (Base 5, +2 Voice, +2 unnatural, +1 flexibility)
The Itinerant Image (Re(Mu)Co(Aq) 5)
- R: Personal, D: Momentary, T: Part
- A tattoo on the caster’s body moves to a new location on the caster’s body. This is useful for placing tattoos in originally easy positions and then moving them to where desired or for hiding a tattoo in a new place. The Muto requisite is required to make the ink detach and reattach (see Dance of the Spidery Ink (HP p.93)).
- (Base 4, +1 Part)
Mercury’s Winged Sandals (ReCo 20)
Master of the Held Talisman (ReVi 5), Mastery 1: Multiple Casting [5]
- R: Personal, D: Momentary, T: Individual
- The caster may trigger an enchantment within Personal Range if the normal (non-environmental) trigger for it is known. Normally this is used to trigger enchantments on the caster’s Talisman while it is being touched, but it also applies to enchantments on the caster’s body.
- (Base 5)
Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 20), Mastery 1: Penetration [5]
Sustaining the Demanding Spell (ReVi 20)
- Maintaining the Demanding Spell @ Moon
6: For her macgnímartha, Ciara generally wandered Ireland, exploring. While she was unhappy leaving her children, she could fly fast enough to frequently return to check on them now and then; and she knew they were in good hands with Sadb, their nurse. For a little while she passed through Leinster, intentionally making herself a good target for some Normans without actually picking a fight. The Normans that fell for her bait found themselves flung away forcefully by strong winds. While she got a little joy from this, it really wasn't what she was after, so she next moved northward to Meath. In Meath Ciara Álainn traveled more unassumingly just observing, until she came across a knight who seemed more clever than her Norman victims had been. She quickly surrounded herself with a miniature tornado, and flung strong winds at the knight. At first she couldn't shake him, but neither could he hurt her. So she took to the air and he couldn’t catch her riding horseback. The knight offered Ciara a truce if she would walk with him and share stories. She did so, having no idea the knight she now knew as Donnchad was leading her along the Slíghe Assail to his home. There they had a passionate affair for perhaps a week. But she came to the realization that something was amiss when she began showing as though she were in her third trimester. Using Creo magic to reconstruct some memories, she discovered the affair had lasted far longer than she realized, and that the reason she had not been able to unseat this knight with her wind is that he was actually one of the Tuatha Dé and she had been drinking Faerie wine and dining on Faerie food. So she disappeared, but it took her most of the next trimester to escape Faerie, figuring out where she was, and return to Niall. She only just arrived in time for Sadb to help deliver Cormac shortly before she would need to begin her gauntlet.
For her gauntlet Niall required her to follow a scavenger hunt while defending herself. She was able to use spontaneous, first-magnitude Intellego sense spells on herself to identify the various clues. Meanwhile, the flight and wind magic she had recently practiced gave her the mobility and defenses she needed to complete the journey.
I'll have to come back and adjust this as we go. I don't really want to bring any specific tattoo spells; I think it would be cooler for her to make them herself. Here are a couple I'm thinking of making in the lab eventually, just for vetting purposes:
Senses of the Animal Servant (InAn 25)
- R: Touch, D: Concentration, T: Individual
- This is Borrow the Eyes of Another (A&A p.33, ToP p.12) or Borrow the Ears of Another (ToP p.12), adjusting to work with animals rather than intelligent beings, to allow the use of all the senses, and to work at Touch Range.
- (Base 15, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration)
Born of My Body (MuAq(An,Co) 15)
- R: Personal, D: Concentration, T: Part
- This spell transforms a tattoo of an animal on the caster into the animal it represents, assuming the animal is no bigger than Size +1. Casting requisites may be needed if the tattoo is made of unusual material, such as wood. As with other non-permanent, created animals, the animal is not disturbed by the Gift.
- (Base 5, +1 Concentration, +1 Part)
Fading Ink (PeAq(Co) 15)
- R: Personal, D: Momentary, T: Part
- A tattoo on the caster’s body is erased, ceasing to exist.
- (Base 10, +1 Part)
Symbol of Substance (Mu(Re)Te(Aq,Co) 25)
- R: Touch, D: Concentration, T: Individual
- A solid object transforms into a temporary (henna) tattoo resembling the object on the caster’s body if the spell penetrates the caster as well. This will not work on things that are primarily liquid. Casting requisites may be needed for non-Terram solids. The free Rego and Corpus requisites are present
- because the tattoo must be placed on a human body.
- (Base 5, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration, +2 metal/gem)
.
And here are spells I'm considering bringing lab texts for:
The Incantation of Lightning (CrAu 35)
Mastering the Unruly Beast (ReAn 25)
Gifts of Speed (CrCo 35)
- Gift of Reason @ Circle for Quickness
Gifts of Strength (CrCo 35)
- Gift of Reason @ Circle for Strength
Gust of Mundane Silence (PeVi 50)
- Wind of Mundane Silence @ Individual
Sustaining the Demanding Spell (ReVi 35)
- see above
Incantation of Lightning was included in the previous list you gave, so it is already on the lab text list.