For Character. Development.
Let's Go!
Copying this over here since it looks to be a go:
Ciara Ua Márcaere was born to an Hibernian Redcap, whose family was thrilled she had the Gift. Having Mercere’s blood in her, she was destined to be apprenticed in House Mercere, and even a Bonisagus wouldn’t get in the way of that. But there were no Gifted Mercere in Hibernia, so she was sent to Durenmar for her apprenticeship. There she trained to be a Mercurian in the Cult of Heroes. When she was old enough for her macgnímartha, her parens agreed and sent her to Hibernia to explore and learn the ways of the land so that she might return after her gauntlet. Her gauntlet itself was to create a 10th magnitude Longevity Ritual for a Redcap. Since passing her gauntlet she has returned to her native Hibernia with hopes to provide more magic to Redcaps, help protect Hibernia from outside forces, open a Mercere Portal to Durenmar, and give birth to some children to carry on the Mercere bloodline.
I foresee a bit of a tightrope walk with keeping Hibernia free while not getting too political as a Mercere. The thought is to focus mostly on Cr, Mu, Re, Au, Co, and Vi. CrCo would be the main thing for healing and Longevity Rituals. CrAu and Cr(Re)Au would provide offensive and defensive options. ReCo would handle a lot of travel, though I’d probably want to work some MuCo(Au) in there eventually, as that would be faster and more subtle for flight. ReVi and MuCo are to do some fun stuff with Mutantum Magic. She should be able to provide some good buffing and healing for the covenant, and being a Mercere may make some continental magi think before just destroying this fledgling covenant.
A question for all the others: Should I make sure I’ve got AotH? Mercurian Magic will save some vis each year. My penetration with a level-20 one would probably be pretty low, though positive, at start.
Vorsutus isn't starting with it, but is starting with Imbued with the Spirit of Vim, and is Vim oriented. He will be learning a version of it soon I imagine. I wouldn't feel like taking it is urgent, but it definitely wouldn't hurt at all.
Well, if he’s got Imbued with the Spirit of Vim, then he can cast it even cheaper than she can. So I’ll avoid it.
Oh, wow, looking through the older ideas, this is all turning out extremely similar to the older one I’d settled into. That’s good. So this ends up being more a pile of tweaks to the same idea as before. I’m altering a few story details, but much of it was already looking the same.
Indeed. And the same potential compatibility and synergy with the Covenant, which in my view is strong.
Ciara Álainn inghean Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire
2: (mostly as before with some small tweaks)
While she has her own personal tastes and tendencies (like thinking all Mercere should use more magic rather than the Gifted Mercere holding back), for the most part Ciara is a Gifted Mercere through and through. She descends from multiple Mercere lines, was born into House Mercere, and has spent her life around Redcaps. She is the fourth child of Dáire Cú Ua Dáire Ua Mearcaire and his mortal wife he lost giving birth to her younger sister, Elen Bhodhar inghean Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire. 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, Ciara has always leaned toward a cautious approach to her magic. But what really stands out about her magically is the results of her being conceived in a fertility site, causing her to be infused by regenerative magical energy and also making magical energy feel invigorating.
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Personality Traits: Ambitious +6, Calculating +3, Hedonistic +3, Motherly +3
Small and weak, but intelligent, pretty, and driven:
- Int +3, Per +1, Str -2, Sta +2, Pre +3, Com +2, Dex -2, Qui -3
- Small Frame [-1]
House Mercere:
- The Gift [free]
- Hermetic Maga [free]
- Mercurian Magic [3] - Apprenticed by a Mercurian parens, Ophilio.
- Mutantum Magic [1] - This is from the other side of her lineage.
- Puissant Creo [free] - Apprenticed by a Mercurian parens, Ophilio.
- Ambitious (major) [-3] - She has lofty goals of bringing back more of the Cult of Mercury and raising a great many Redcaps, perhaps even elevating the status of the typical Redcap along the way. She also wants to ensure Hibernia is truly respected by the continental magi.
- Ceremonial Spontaneous Magic [-1] - Apprenticed by a Mercurian parens, Ophilio.
- Covenant Upbringing [-1] - Born and raised at Leth Cuinn.
Clever and cautious with her magic:
- Affinity with Magic Theory [1] - Clever understanding of magic.
- Cautious with Artes Liberales [1] - Learned to be very careful with ceremonial practices. (Could be moved to category above.)
- Puissant Magic Theory [1] - Clever understanding of magic.
Conceived at a strong fertility site, leaving her infused with regenerative magical energy and also making magical energy feel invigorating:
- Imbued with the Spirit of Corpus [1] - Magic of the site infuses her body, which she can then use.
- Lesser Benediction: Unusually Fecund [1] - Magic of the site infuses her body, causing her to get pregnant easily. Even after a Longevity Ritual, she will still be able to get pregnant, though with normal odds, akin to the magi in the Rhine with their Faerie blessing.
- Minor Magical Focus: Aging [1] - Magic of the site infuses her body, which gives her a better understanding of aging.
- Strong Family Ties [-1] - Due to Unusually Fecund and Redcap practices, she will have a lot of children. So this isn't specifically an individual child or similar, but recurring issues of pregnancy, little children, dealing with fathers, finding suitable paths for her children, etc. It’s also about helping her extended Redcap family. But she’s also close with the Redcaps, and she tries to stay close to other fathers, so there are those she can count on. So this seems like a good, broad Flaw to cover all that.
- Magic Addiction [-3] - Magical energy feels extremely invigorating, even when it fatigues her. It may be exhausting, but it delivers a euphoric high.
3: (Again, mostly the same.)
Ciara Álainn was born at Leth Cuinn, south of Antrim and not far from Lough Neagh, in Ulster, to Dáire Cú Ua Dáire Ua Mearcaire and his late mortal wife. She was the fourth of their children, Dáire an Chogaidh mac Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire being the first, and Elen Bhodhar inghean Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire being the fifth and last. Dáire an Chogaidh is old enough he could have fathered Ciara Álainn, so she grew up with him a little more an uncle. Only Elen Bhodhar, born three years after her, is close to her age. At first her upbringing was fairly typical for the child of a Redcap, playing around with the other children and growing up in amazement of the magic around them. The most unusual thing, though not at the covenant, was that the religion in which she was raised was the Cult of Mercury, as the Cult of Heroes runs the covenant. But with the early emergence of her Gift, it was known she would become a Gifted Mercere since she was four.
Area Lore: Hibernia 1 (Navigation) [5]
Athletics 1 (Dance) [5]
Awareness 1 (Alertness) [5]
Brawl 1 (Dodging) [5]
Charm 1 (Debate) [5]
Folk Ken 1 (Debate) [5]
Guile 1 (Debate) [5]
Language: Gaelic (Ulster) [75-75=0]
Stealth 1 (Natural Areas) [5]
Swim 1 (Underwater) [5]
4: (Again, mostly the same.) 2 years
Things changed dramatically for Ciara Álainn when her Gift emerged at the age of four. She was fortunate to be in a Redcap covenant as it happened, so rather than be rejected by parents, she became a treasured child at the covenant, even if her turbulences and Gift's social effects could cause some problems. Knowing she would end up trained by a Gifted Mercere, the covenant made sure she received some training in Latin and a few other useful skills while they sent word to the leaders of House Mercere. But she was also sent off early, partly to stop disturbing the other children and partly so that she might be young enough to bear children for a while after her gauntlet.
Language: Latin 2 (Hermetic) [30]
5: (Again, mostly small changes.)
Maybe even before Ciara Álainn was really old enough, the Redcaps of Leth Tuin brought her to Ophilio at Aedes Mercurii, in the Provençal Tribunal, for there were no Gifted Mercere magi in Hibernia. There he was able to put her talents with Corpus to good use while training her to be somewhat his successor. Due to his great age, everyone figured Ciara Álainn would be his last apprentice, but as a master of Longevity Rituals it is certainly possible he could be around plenty longer and train another.
Initially Ophilio made sure Ciara Álainn was tutored in Latin, reading and writing, and some etiquette. Throughout her apprenticeship Ophilio moved between Provençal and Hibernia (the guest lab at Leth Moga), as the intention of House Mercere was that Áine would return to Hibernia to be the one Gifted Mercere there. With the exaltation give to a magus such as Ophilio, who had been even been high priest, she had essentially been prepared to be dutiful since birth and so was ready to serve him well.
But she unintentionally threw a kink into Ophilio's training. Ophilio brought her to the Flambeau tournament at Castra Solis in 1212, it being a good place for her to meet more Flambeau of the Cult of Mercury. Ciara Álainn spent most of her time with the Redcap apprentices who were there. Unbeknownst to Ophilio at the time, she was more than a little friendly with some of them. So it was that she became pregnant at the age of 14, and somehow by two different Redcap apprentices, though this was not discovered until after the children were born. At 15 she gave birth to fraternal twins Aoife and Bran. Bran’s obvious African heritage made it rather obvious he was fathered by the boy Nadim, while Aoife was less obvious except Ciara Álainn confessed she had also slept with Velasco. The Cult of Heroes took note of her fecundity. Ophilio couldn't really discipline her, as it is an important duty of a Mercere to give birth before undergoing a Longevity Ritual, but he had to make sure the apprenticeship would not be ruined. He worked to keep the Cult of Heroes at bay until after her apprenticeship, and through the Redcap network he searched for and vetted a number of girls who could act as Ciara Álainn's servant and a nurse to her children. He also checked to make sure whoever he found bonded well with Ciara Álainn to help keep her out of trouble. This is how Sadb became Ciara Álainn’s confidant, part-time lover, and midwife, as well as her children's nurse.
Area Lore: Provençal 1 (Navigation) [5]
Artes Liberales 1 (Ceremonial Casting; Latin) [5]
Concentration 1 (Spells) [5]
Etiquette 1 (Hermetic) [5]
Finesse 1 (Certamen) [5]
Language: Latin 4 (Hermetic) [50-30=20]
Magic Theory 4+2 (Spells) [33]
Organization Lore: Cult of Mercury 1 (Cult of Heroes) [5]
Organization Lore: Order of Hermes 1 (House Mercere) [5]
Parma Magica 1 (Sharing) [5]
Penetration 1 (Certamen) [5]
Philosophiae 1 (Ceremonial Casting) [5]
Profession: Scribe 1 (Latin) [5]
Creo 8+3 [36]
Rego 4 [10]
Auram 6 [21]
Corpus 9 [45]
Vim 4 [10]
Twister of Protection (Cr(Re)Au 20, Mutantum)
. . . Circling Winds of Protection @ Diameter, Harnessed
Toss of the Tempest (CrAu 30), Mastery 1: Multiple Casting [5]
. . . see below
The Miniature Mage (MuCo 15, Mutantum)
. . . see below
Wizard’s Bound (ReCo 20), Mastery 1: Stalwart Casting [5]
. . . Wizard’s Leap @ 500 paces
The Patient Ring (ReVi 15, Mutantum)
. . . The Patient Spell @ Circle, Ring, Harnessed, Tethered
Aegis of the Hearth (ReVi 20, Ritual)
Spells that aren’t just minor variants:
This first one was approved before:
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)
This second one is new. The MuCo base 3 lets you shrink by 2 Size levels. Shrinking goes by double the scale of growth. So additional magnitudes give -3x2=-6 each.
The Miniature Mage (MuCo, Mutantum)
R: Personal, D: Sun, T: Ind
The caster shrinks dramatically, to the size of a bug. The caster’s Size decreases by 14.
(Base 3, +2 Sun, +2 extra shrinking)
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I’ll explain the point of this shrinking spell along with The Patient Ring. The idea is to have a little disk of wood or metal with some etching in it. If you cast The Patient Ring, it delays spells cast inside it until the rink spell ends. But that means the spell actually needs to be cast inside the ring. That’s where the shrinking comes in, allowing her to stand on a little disk while casting the spell to be delayed. While the disk could potentially be broken, The Patient Ring being Harnessed and Tethered allows whoever she has given control to concentrate to end The Patient Ring to release the spell. This is a big way she plans to be able to give Redcaps and the covenant’s mundane folk the ability to set off magical effects.
By all means continue. I'll be reading through catching up.
6: (Again, small changes.)
For her macgnímartha, Ciara Álainn generally wandered Ireland, exploring. While she was unhappy leaving her children, she could teleport fast enough (potentially 175 mph with a clear route) to frequently return to Leth Cuinn to check on them now and then; and she knew they were in good hands with Sadb. 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 took to a tree, surrounded by a miniature tornado, and flung strong winds at the knight. She couldn't shake him, but neither could he hurt her. And he couldn’t catch her speed riding horseback. However, she would never be able to defeat him, either. But he did not know that, and offered Ciara Álainn a truce if she would walk with him and share stories. Ciara Álainn 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 Leth Cuinn. She only just arrived in time for Sadb to help deliver Cormac shortly before she would need to begin her gauntlet.
Ophilio did not put forth an easy gauntlet, though it was one for which Ciara Álainn was particularly well suited and he knew it. She was tasked with casting the Aegis of the Hearth for Leth Cuinn, traveling to Leth Moga, creating a 10th magnitude Longevity Ritual for the Redcap Muiredach there, and casting the Aegis of the Hearth for Leth Moga all in a season. With her ability to teleport quickly, Ciara Álainn took off across the country with the most direct path she could think of the day after casting Leth Cuinn's Aegis. She went up the Blackwater from Lough Neagh, cut southwest until hitting Upper Lough Erne, followed its feeder river south, turned overland to the west until hitting the outflow from Lough Ree, and then found her way to Praesis, where she spent the night. Despite her reservations about Praesis, she knew they would not act against a Redcap gauntlet, especially that of an apprentice to a great continental magus. The next day she crossed Lough Ree, followed the Shannon to Lough Derg, crossed Lough Derg, and turned northwest to find Elk's Run, again to spend the night. She felt much better there than at Praesis, even if Elk's Run did have a more questionable past; and she marveled a the library even though she could not spend time perusing its tomes. The next day she returned to Lough Derg, followed the Shannon to the bay, followed the Maigue upriver as far as she could, turned south to pass the Blackwater until she hit the sea, and followed the coast to Leth Moga. She was welcomed at Leth Moga, though still not yet a maga. After a couple days of rest she began on Muiredach's Longevity Ritual, using the facilities kept there for this and similar purposes. Of course, this required Ciara Álainn to work with Muiredach for the season, and she was far from Sadb, so she became pregnant before Muiredach became sterile. At the end of the season she cast Leth Moga's Aegis in the presence of Ophilio and Visioturpis, completing her gauntlet and becoming a maga upon swearing the Oath. Then it was back to Leth Cuinn to reunite with her family and head off to their new covenant, expecting to give birth there only several seasons after arriving.
Reputations: Red Mother 1 (Hibernian magi, faeries)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Certamen Style: Hoplomachus
Wizard's Sigil: A breeze
Other Characters of Note:
With Áine:
Aoife - Ciara Álainn’s firstborn of the fraternal twins. She is the daughter of Redcap Velasco. She is now 7 years old. Like her father, she is sensitive to magic but is not Gifted. As she doesn’t seem inclined toward becoming a Redcap, Ciara expects to have her trained to be useful around the lab.
Bran - Ciara Álainn’s second of her twins, who followed right after Aoife. He is the son of Redcap Nadim. He is now 7 years old. Due to his adventurous spirit and the Second Sight he picked up from his father, Ciara is hoping to get him trained as a Redcap.
Cormac - Ciara Álainn's third child, born after her time in Faerie with a Sidhe. He is not yet half a year old, though he already bears characteristics of his Sidhe ancestry.
Sadb - Ciara Álainn's confidant, part-time lover, and midwife, as well as her children's nurse. She is only a year younger than Ciara and was specifically trained to be a midwife and nurse when it was seen she had bonded well with Ciara Álainn. She seems to have a knack for knowing when those in her care need extra attention.
Elsewhere:
Dáire an Chogaidh mac Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire - Ciara Álainn’s eldest sibling, detailed in TCI p.100.
Dáire Cú Ua Dáire Ua Mearcaire - Ciara Álainn’s father and the head of Leth Cuinn, detailed in TCI p.100.
Donnchad - He is a Sidhe knight in Éire, the one who tricked Ciara Álainn to getting stuck in Faerie during much of her macgnímartha. He is the father of Cormac.
Elen Bhodhar inghean Dáire Cú Ua Mearcaire - Ciara Álainn’s younger sister (the youngest of the five siblings), who she grew up with for three years before leaving for apprenticeship, detailed in TCI p.100-101.
Ophilio of Mercury - Her parens is detailed in F&F p.85. He was the former high priest of Mercury and is a Longevity expert.
Redcap Muiredach - He is a Redcap of the Hibernian Tribunal, the one for whom Ciara Álainn made a Longevity Ritual as part of her gauntlet. He has just turned 36 and is the father of the child still in her womb.
Redcap Nadim - He is a Redcap of the Iberian Tribunal, only a little older than Ciara Álainn. He is Bran’s father. Due to his home tribunal and their apprenticeships, Ciara Álainn has only seen him a few times since Bran was born.
Redcap Velasco - He is a Redcap of the Provençal Tribunal, only a little older than Ciara Álainn. He is Aoife's father. As their apprenticeships were somewhat in the same tribunal, Ciara Álainn has seen Velasco periodically over the years, which has allowed him to check in and see how his daughter has been doing.
I was thinking of a companion for you, and a Redcap seems apt for obvious reasons. Still playing with things (so details are scant at best), but anything you want to add for me on that front would be fantastic.
Yes, a Redcap could certainly fit. I’ve got her designed so she can work with a variety of grogs and companions well, able to give them effects they can activate and turn off. For turning off, she can’t just spont those; she’ll need to develop a whole bunch of Mutantum spells. But I can adjust which ones based on who she might work with the most. So any idea that could take big advantage of such enhancements could work well.
Virtues: The Gift (F), Affinity: Magic Theory (1), Cautious: Artes Liberales (1), Hermetic Magus (F), Imbued With The Spirit of Corpus (1), Lesser Benediction: Unusually Fecund (1), Mercurian Magic (3), Minor Magical Focus: Aging (1), Mutantum Magic (1), Puissant: Creo (1) Puissant: Magic Theory (1)
Flaws: Ambitious (3), Ceremonial Spontaneous Magic (1), Covenant Upbringing (1), Magic Addiction (3), Small Frame (1), Strong Family Ties (1)
I think I captured everything?
I think the only major thing I want to dive into here would be the Minor Focus: Aging. What all would you see this applying to?
It seems like it would readily apply to Longevity Rituals, granted. How about Aging Crises and resolving them? How about artificially induced Aging? Reversing said artificially induced Aging?
What about accelerated Aging? There are examples in Animal or Herbam effects that cause something to rapidly reach maturity.
It seems like it would apply to all of these? (And likely a few things I haven't thought of yet.)
Do you have anything further to discuss or add? Further thoughts?
It occurs to me that you could perform this trick with a Ring duration Container spell that would have a more beneficial guideline (being additional Magnitudes base in the effect) and not require the shrinking spell, since you cast effects "into" Containers. (Not that a shrinking spell isn't cool and interesting on its own anyway.)
Circle of Spell Binding
R: Touch, D: Ring, T: Circle
Spell Container capable of holding (Level + 10) levels of effects.
Which ... seems rather interesting?
Also, do you still need your old threads or are you ready for them to be deleted?