Hi Folks,
Thanks for all the help and comments. I'm starting to get a good picture of my character in my mind. I've decided, as mentioned, to forgo the Mystery Cult business, although he probably is involved to some degree with the Cult of Heroes, not necessarily as an active member, but with good relations.
I've worked him out as a relatively powerful magus, about 30 years post-Gauntlet. I hope this will be all right. Quite a number of seasons have been spent on creating Longevity Rituals (his specialty) for other magi. I'll show a record of how many, and at what level. Toward the end, he's capable of creating very high-level ones. At the end of the build, his Lab Total (with an apprentice, more on her later) is 81, which, if the magus he is performing it for also acts as a lab assistant, gives a +18 to aging rolls. Depending on what you think, this may make him one of the foremost experts in House Mercere, if not beyond.
In 'exchange' for some of these rituals, I've taken the liberty of accessing a couple of teachers and higher level spell lab texts. I haven't kept a strict accounting of what he would have been paid for each, but, with the troop's permission, we could hand-wave some of this. I forsee few problems with my selections, with three possible exceptions, Magnitude 12 Spells. You see, the Cult of Heroes has these lovely (Mental Characteristic) of the Heroes (CrMe 60). If I had my way, I'd have studied Int, Pre, and Com. Int is pretty vital to creating the extreme LRs, as I'd also cast it on my apprentice. The other two would help solidify him as a leader-type with far-reaching ambitions. Also, he could cast these on his Sodales
Let me know if you folks think this is out of balance.
On the subject of his apprentice, and his Dependent flaw, like every good Gifted Mercere, he had many children. The last children he conceived before performing his own longevity ritual were born twins, a boy and a girl. As they grew older, it became evident that his daughter possessed the gift, and that he would train her as his apprentice. His son, however, suffered from many inexplicable ailments, which he has thus far been unable to cure. Much of his research into healing magic has been with the goal of curing his son. At the start of the saga, the twins will be 22, with the daughter having four years left of apprenticeship.
I also took the time to bind a familiar, but I'm still trying to decide what it will be. Any thoughts on an appropriate CrCo healing animal?
I'll post the stats for the start of age 57 in another post. I won't give all the details of when everything was gained at this point, although that is available upon request. I just want to give folks a chance to look over the big picture before going into too much detail.
Thanks again for your comments.