Character Development

I am thinking of a verditious, who is a worker in monumental bronze. He's moved to Italy because he had heard of the wealth and knowledge there but has ended up with the mobile covenant because he might be a bit of a heretic.

I have a few concepts:

A Seirenes (Ex Misc), mentem specialist, likely with the Gentle Gift, to be the social face of the group.

A Bonisagus, Intellego specialist, who likes to spy on mundanes, to ferret their secrets, and use that to the covenant's advantage. Likely, he was a tytalus apprentice, whose parens was marched for scrying on other Magi, and a Bonisagus took him.

A Jerbiton, Imaginem specialist, who uses his illusions to confuse his opponents, and is using intimidation to have people do his bidding.

I'm thinking a Tytalus who is in on the founding and sees the entire Roman tribunal as an arena for dominance between magic and the dominion.

All concept sounds fun.

Seirenes and Orphic probably couldn’t be at the same covenant of course but otherwise there shouldn’t be too many problems.

They can be, but it could definitely cause tensions. That's not always a bad thing.

But it's also why I offered several concepts

1 Like

Elymas Tytalus will be my character.

1 Like

Pentelli Verditius for me please!

Whaler, which of your concepts you wanna go with?

Personally, am debating between the Bonisagus and the Seirenes.

I am not sure yet. I will have an answer later today hopefully.

I will go with the Bonisagus.

Gilbert du Bonisagus will be my character

Hooray for a bonisagus!

I will go with the Cult of Orpheus concept then

Working on Paolo di Firenze aka Paulus ex Jerbiton.

Here's some early thinking:

The youngest son of four sons born to a noble Florentine family, Paolo di Firenze was born into advantageous circumstances that allowed him to catch the attention of a Jerbiton maga who recognized both his Gift and its gentle nature. As his apprentice, he was given opportunity to develop his particular talent with music, trained in the artes liberales alongside several Florentine monks developing musical traditions using musical notation and early music theory. Paolo develop, even as an apprentice, something of a rakish reputation as a troubador. His ability to combine both organized music theory with less structured troubadour music became the focus of his studies in the arts.

Paulus ex Jerbiton finds beauty in music of all kinds. He is a performer and collector of songs, willing to brave a Church to hear inventive, new music or a smoke-filled tavern or even a campfire.

Initial Virtues

The Gift Free Special
Hermetic Magus Free Social
Enchanting Music Minor Supernatural
Gentle Gift Major Hermetic
Improved Characteristics Minor General
Subtle Magic Minor Hermetic
Mastered Spells Minor Hermetic
Performance Magic Mnior Hermetic
Skilled Parens Minor Hermetic
Social Contacts Minor General
Gentleman Minor Social

Initial Flaws:

Visions Minor Supernatural
Proud Major Personality
Curse of Venus Major Story
Unimaginative Learner Minor Hermetic
Generous Minor Personality

Please advise, suggest, correct, coach, critize, etc. Very open to your expert guidance!

You've listed 11 points of virtues, one of which I assume is your Jerbiton House Virtue, but you didn't indicate which, and only 9 Flaws.

Social virtues which can be taken by a magus (magister in artibus) indicate that they may be taken together. Gentleman does not. Additionally gentleman indicates that you would need to wait on your (noble) familly, which would be a violation of the code regarding interference with mundanes.

Thanks for the wisdom and input. I hadn't really locked down on the virtue flaw balance yet. Was just listing out the flavors that seemed consistent with the character concept.

I'll so some more thinking and put an update in.

I was also trying to shape the concept to be both a fit and some level of help to the mobile covenant concept.

If there are some things you think would be helpful to have in a magus to help the covenant, I'm also open to those.

I guess part of the question i what you see your role being in the covenant. Elymas is a schemer, a musician suggests someone who can sway masses rather than someone of noble background, but if you have a different idea then by all means let us know what it is.

I'm thinking for a companion a Faerie magic-based character who wants to establish churches or sanctuaries dedicated to faerie "saints" that will hold their aura and lend them vitality as people congregate and become involved in their stories (also building her own power)

1 Like

I'm thinking about Paolo more as a bit of a rake, someone who likes to flow between the classes in his effort to hear the stories and songs that rise out of love affairs and intrigues.

I see him as something of an enabler of mundane relations for the covenant, able to engage on behalf of the covenant with low-born, mercantile, or noble groups. He could function as a "face" so to speak but I don't see him as a leader per se. He's too focused on music and playing for an audience.

Perhaps I'm being too heavily influenced by the minstrel in the Witcher series. :slight_smile: Paolo is a bit like Dandelion but not as frivolous or shallow, perhaps more politically astute, more driven by art (though Dandelion is pretty committed to his music).

The Gentleman idea was initially driven by the idea that Paolo can move between classes fairly easily, but that could also be driven by the music emphasis and a public role as troubador or courtly player.

If I went with something like Black Sheep and Social Contacts, that might support that background a bit better without the constraint of Gentleman.

I can also see him being used as something of a pawn/rook by Elymas to further his schemes, and even if he recognized he, he likely would enjoy the challenge/intrigue/fodder for a good song.

Better to keep him out of low-lifes, I plan to make my Bonisagus have that as his focus, being born to low-life himself.
Plus, keeping your character from engaging with them, means he can keep his hands 'clean'.

1 Like