For the first few blocks of 5 years, assume that you are required to provide service to the covenant equal to one "task" every two years, for which you will receive a vis salary as set out below:
Gauntlet to Gauntlet +10 years: 1p of any form every two years
Gauntlet +11 to Gauntlet +20: 1p of any technique and 1p of any form every two years
Gauntlet +21 to Gauntlet +30: 1p of any technique every two years, and 1p of any form every year
Gauntlet +31 to Gauntlet +50: 1p of any technique and 1p of any one form, every year
Gauntlet +51 or highter: 3p of any Art, every year
To earn the salary you must do one "service" for the covenant every other year. This is typically discharged as a single season lab project, journey, adventure or the like. This could be creation of a lesser magical item, some charged items, or scribing of a book. Vis needed is provided, although projects requiring vis are usually done by magi 20 years or more post Gauntlet. With the council's permission (or request) you may do a single longer project to "pay ahead" your service for up to four years. As your character develops, he may eventually be asked to join the ruling council. Once a member of the council his "service" is sitting on the council, which takes no time. Feel free to suggest projects for your "service."
In developing your characters, please assume that you will lose about 1 season in 12 to travel or "adventures." During these seasons you may not study or use the lab, but do gain 4 XP to use as you see fit, including 1XP in four different abilities or arts.
I forgot to include, in addition to your salary, you may be assumed to acquire vis in the following ways:
Distillation- per Core ArM5
Trade- (Credit to Andrew Smith's excellent work on the subject)
Creo, Perdo and Vim trade 1:1 with each other. All other Arts trade against these as follows (Vim/Perdo/Creo:Art)
Intellego 2:1
Rego, Aurem, Corpus, Ignem (2:3)
Mentem, Imaginerm Muto (1:2)
Animal, Terram (1:3)
Herbem, Aquam (1:4)
Adventure:
For each adventure season you take, I'll award a random amount of vis (or other reward...)
I know everyone is excited with the prospect, but my term is starting and if we are to keep a very fast pace I might have to drop.
Caelarch, you said about 3 posts a week, which is fine. Should we reconsider or?
And then there are characters, one more interesting than the other. Congratulations everyone, great ideas all around! It looks like this will be a very, very interesting game indeed.
But what do I hear of ancient Diedne all the time... this is Normandy, and it's just begging me for a Diedne in hiding! But hiding where, do I hear you asking? Why, it is always best to hide in plain sight - in this case, as a Flambeau dodges whatever Mark throws at me who is very vocal in his dislike of the Diedne, and has in fact conducted several search parties to destroy (i.e. recover) ancient Diedne knowledge and items (possibly), and is commended by Chief Hoplite Valerian as a devoted and passionate member of the order and a reliable Hoplite in any situation.
Badbh Aonarán was an eremite magus of House Diedne, originally trained at Baiocassium, who hid deep in a faerie regio during most of the Schism War. But Thelonius of Flambeau, a very active member during the Diedne hunt and a member of the party which finally brought Baiocassium down found correspondence between Badbh and his parens Féath Fíadha, with indications of where he lived in the forest of Brix, northwest of where the Orchard of Sour Apples (and later Confluensis) would be built. Thelonius hunted Badbh down deep into the faerie regio, evading or killing both the wolf hunting lords and the noble boar fae that stood in the way. But Badbh had been following Thelonius' advance through his faerie allies, and he managed to prepare a ritual which trapped the Flambeau inside a Red Pine. Nothing was heard of Thelonius for over three decades.
In 1049 Thelonius returned to Sinapis after a very long Twilight episode while hunting for Diedne outcasts. The magi at Sinapis were glad for another sholdier in their conflict with the Tytali, although only two remain that knew Thelonius personally - both dead within the year, in what seemed to be an attack from Vexatores. Thelonius helped the Quaesitores track down and kill the Tytalus criminals and became a famous Hoplite in the Normandy Tribunal, his conduct during the Schism war muffled by the Quaesitores eager to gain support from House Flambeau.
The aged Thelonius trained a pupil named Thibalt before passing away into Final Twilight in a nasty accident during the hunt of a Bonisagus maga accused of harboring Diedne books and diabolist experimentation. Thibalt follows in his pater's steps and manages to destroy the former Bonisagus maga, earning a position among the Tribunal's Hoplites and beginning what would become a tradition spanning four Hermetic generations as his filius Gervais went on to become a prominent Hoplite in the Tribunal, as well as Gervais' filius Bertran, whose story we will follow.
Well since we are an Atumn and Liege covenant, I figure it'll be a drop in the bucket. And I am planning for the extra labs to be stripped down and bear minimal cost.
And besides, I plan on having my Donatella Persona's husband finance my endevours. Imbezzlement if I have to, not to much as to be noticed.
Or, as "Grace" (Donatella), I have access to private business operations (money trasfers, goods being shipped, etceteras). As Tony Romo (Anthony), I can use this information to rob him as needed. The tricky part with this is that there are certain cares and concerns I will have as Donatella which Anthony will not share. I wouldn't want to disrupt my other cover nor do anything to make my other life uncomfortable. But, for example, let's say the courier to be robbed is one of Donatella's lovers (she cuckolds her husband with his servants, mainly to control these other men, not because of lust). Anthony simply won't give a damn about him, and unless he is a vital part of some future plan, would just as soon kill the guy and would feel no remorse for the man. Grand master plans can retain some continuity between Personas, but the particulars and details may have conflicts.
lol True. Even an ordinary king bee is busy as a, well, bee. His life is complete.
A spirit of worms solves that problem in a lot of ways; she becomes a physical anchor to the real world, allowing them to share a diverse and disturbing swarm. I'm thinking they sort of found each other, or maybe even the spirit found her during her apprenticeship, as her magic deepened: Blatant Gift, Monstrous Appearance, Greater Malediction.... She also won't be able to bind a Might 100 spirit.
Let's see. I'm beginning to think that she started off as a Criamon, but their initiation never took and she eventually became an Ex Misc. I like to think she killed the Primus instead of the usual Criamon 'gauntlet.' She spends most of her time pursuing her magics, because the Order has few resources for a maga with her interests. She likes her swarm, though sees individuals as chaff. She is even more protective of her covenant and likes to stay on her home ground. She is most protective of her disturbingly many children, which she bore and fostered out over many years of extravagant fertility before her longevity ritual kicked in, and her descendants (Major Story Flaw to get her out of the house, and... do you really want to know what her first time was like?) She is probably feared and grudgingly respected among magi, with a reputation as a fixer of last resort, someone the Quaesitori might call upon when methods no longer matter.
"You are a nexus of Harmony in a world of Strife."
"Everyone hates me, except the lunatics."
Her parens was first interested in her because of the spontaneous creation of animals that occurred around her. This excited him, because clearly she was the center of a nexus of increasing Harmony and creation! An excellent start for a Criamon maga! But the usual Enigma initiation didn't take. After all, she reasoned, maybe Criamon also makes the same mistake every time around and only thinks he has the solution. Besides, if everything was so harmonious before Empedocles goofed up, where did he get the idea to make claws? Why would he even be tempted to eat anything? Her own, more intimate experience with spontaneous creation and the pulse of the animal world led her to different conclusions. Her meditations became more solitary, to the extent that a girl surrounded by increasing numbers of vermin with whom she shares rapport could be said to be solitary. Her magical talent was less inclined toward worms than it would eventually become.
"I'm looking forward to completing your training."
Eventually, she found something. Perhaps something found her. Perhaps they had been together all along, slowly growing closer, each a reflection of the other. It wanted very much to share her life and experience in the real world, with a real swarm, and offered gifts of knowledge, of power, of fecundity, of perspective. She began to leave the anger and frustrations of her childhood behind and embrace whatever it is she is. She became more practical, more ruthless, more joyful. She had sex (do you really want to know the details?) and her first set of quadruplets and arguments with her parens about this. And in the end, she got the Enigma, but it took killing the Primus with the sword she named Sufficiency.
"Now you're on the Path of Strife!"
"Fuck that! I told you I'm Ex Misc. It starts with an Ex. But feel free to let me know if someone needs wasting, it's the least I can do."
She spends the next few years settling into her home. She does stuff. She accumulates vermin. She studies Arts. She binds the spirit as familiar--or it binds her. It grants her what gifts it can without damaging itself, and continues to do this over the years. It becomes increasingly difficult to tell where human ends and spirit begins, as accord grows. She has more children. She fosters them out. She does some dirty work for the Quaesitors and gets a really good Longevity Ritual.
"You have a great reputation and we'd be honored if you would join us."
"I have a reputation as an inhuman psychopath without a shred of compassion or subtlety, and the barest vestige of social skills."
"Exactly."
"Don't you have hoplites for that sort of thing? Call the cavalry?"
"That's not always the best response."
"Don't you have allies in House Tytalus for that sort of thing?"
"We like to think so." "Sometimes we don't want side effects."
"I don't want it. I have things to do."
"Please think about it."
"I already did."
"Not enough. You need this."
"That's not why you're offering. Give it to a drooler."
"We want you because you don't want it."
"I'm not an investigator."
"We have enough of those."
"I'd cut the baby in half and fine them for wasting my time."
"Then they'd best be reasonable."
That is very rare! I predict a lot of distillation, adventure and virtues that provide vis. (And that's what y'all get for specifying Normandy! )
How many xp per season? How will you work adventure? What's the aura? (I'm going to add 5 to the covenant's Aura, the better to Warp. I also get some vis from my familiar.) I assume that we're at this covenant right out of Gauntlet?
I plan to be available every day for the character generation, although my Persona in the real world won't let me keep up this furious pace for long either. My hope is that once characters and covenant are up and going we will settle down into a more relaxed pace of something like 3 posts a week.
Great background. Since you've got a name, I'll open up a character specific thread for you.
And I wholeheartedly agree, these characters are super interesting- should be a fun saga.
Even first place in the Tourney only nets 20-30 p/year, assuming prize pawns are spent on books or items. And a generous vis income in Normandy is 1p/magus per year. Frankly your covenant is pretty much required to do well in the tourney to avoid having to come out of vis stocks to make the paltry salary described above.
Each adventure will get you 4 XP per season. I have a fun secret table for "adventure outcomes" based on how awesome the description you give is, the better the outcome. There are negative outcomes on the table, as well. Think Ars Magica meets Traveller.
Although you do not have to be from this covenant, I would prefer that you apprenticed there or came shortly after the Gauntlet.
In terms of Aura, the base is 4, slightly stronger than a typical covenant from long use of magic and the presence of ancient megalothic structures.
Regarding the Archangel focus, I was mainly leaning against the Planetary and sign foci as mentioned. As is described in mysteries, a major foci has between 5-9 smaller foci in it, ie. Aries is: Adventure, zeal, dishonour, misfortune, nobility, leadership, propaganda and scandal, while a minor in a house like VIII Mors has Death, accidents and mysticism.
I will of course respect your decision, but I don't think it over the top to have a major magical focus with 5-8 of the minor areas that I described or a minor with 3 minor areas - as this is already how Astrological magic is working.
Geeze, go on a business trip and when you get back, it's a part-time job to catch up on posts.
So, I'm toying with the idea of my magus being a Seeker of some kind. Possibly a magus Triamonae, or maybe a Pralician Ex Misc. I envision Original Research in my future...
Sorry for the delay. Work, homebuying, and family are big time consumers.
Go ahead and start a thread for "Menoetius ex Tytalus", formerly Hypetus ex Tytalus filius of Seleria ex Tytalus of Fudarus. After the destruction of the Cabal that he followed Seleria into, he changed his name to Menoetius, meaning "ruined strength".
I am still strying to sqaure away some of the virtues and flaws. Why is so easy to pick up 12 virtues and 6 flaws. Time to go back to the drawing board and revise things. Everyone else is looking great.
I am planning on taking the enemies (magi) flaw to play into the whole paranoia and shifting fortunes thing.
I also have to catch up, and I have been reading everything! Havent had a chance to revise Maurice as French yet, or to write up more of his history. I have it in my head though. The initial stages of a PbP game are usually a flurry of posts of ideas and characters. I reccomend you mainly focus on your character and not stress so much about the others (except for curiosity). It is the SG that has the burden of reading and responding to everyone
In case anyone misses the discussion that has been going on in Aurelia's thread, the new rule of adventures is you gain a flat 10 XP per "adventure." Other rewards and effects based on the the story will be vis, books, items, wounds, warping points and the like.
You can only devote a max of 5xp from Adventure on any one single Art or Ability. So your adventure could yeild 5xp Mastery of BoAF, 3xp Parma, and 2xp Ignem.
I agree. I use the 40xp/yr rule in my games. 1) It seems more realistic, 2) It works out much better for bulk development calculations, and 3) you can divide 40 by the number four clean and even, making it easy to intersperse lab activities in seasonal development.
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