A big thing you probably want to bear in mind is that in the Ars Magica setting, God is very much GOD - he really is ultimately powerful and good. That does not, of course mean the the church is immune to problems (and they'll certainly always be a prime target of demonic corruption), but this will be contrary to God's will rather than with his backing. I apologise if this is stressing something you already know - the True Faith and Guardian angel suggest he's interested in doing God's work in the reforming the church, but that doesn't entirely tie up with some of the text.
Thoughts on the background in more detail:
Which bit of the east? Eastern Christianity is mostly the various orthodox churches, or possibly the coptic church in Egypt (but I don't know much about them). Or did you mean a more Muslim or even Zoroastrian area?
How did he see the corruption of the church whilst inside a monastery for five years? Was the monastery itself corrupt, and if so why did he decide it was a general rather than a specific problem? Monastic corruption is certainly an option, and The Church gives several potential scenarios of corrupt orders, but there's also the Albigensian Crusade or the utter disaster that was the Fourth Crusade sacking Constantinople as obvious options.
In Ars Magica, it's probably fairly obvious to magi who bother to take an interest that there is a quantifiable difference between the pagan and the divine religions - in particular, their agents and aurae belong to different realms.
Some of his ideas feel a bit modern rather than medieval - the hidden texts, and the idea of being ignorant and controlled by the church. It's worth bearing in mind that most of the greatest minds of the time were theologians, and that whilst there's certainly problems with some senior churchmen focussing on Mammon rather the God, that doesn't mean that the service of God shouldn't, ideally, be the focus point of everybody's lives. Because in the Ars Magica setting, the church is, at least in part, definitely right.
That said, they're pretty much clearly not wholly right, or you wouldn't have (at least, although I'll admit I was never entirely convinced by Zoroastrianism) three separate religions all of which seem to be in some way "backed" by the same power.
In summary, I'd probably recommend a view point of "the church has bad apples and bad moments" rather than the church being in and of itself a problem, and a focus on the question of "what is the truth all three (or more) divine religions are really imperfectly following?". The other question I'd recommend you think about is why is he coming to the covenant? (It's in the middle of the ruins of a pagan town, with a local Muslim village.)
Thoughts on the statting:
Dark Secret and Plagued by Supernatural Entity are both story flaws - you're only allowed one.
You need a minimum of one hermetic flaw.
You need the correspondingly named virtues to take Premonitions and Sense Holiness and Unholiness. They're both only minor virtues, so you've got room still.
I'm not sure what stage of his life the abilities are as at. Parma Magica is limited to 1 at gauntlet. Infernal Lore, Magic Lore, Penetration, Single Weapon and Theology need either to be taken as part of the apprenticeship or an appropriate virtue to be taken before apprenticeship. You'll want at least Magic Theory 3 and Latin 4 by the end of his apprenticeship
Now that Against the Dark has come out, I've made one very minor change to Gregorius' character sheet, to change his native language from "of Translyvania" to "Vlach" (since that's the language which is consistent with his birth name). I'm not planning to try and retrofit his background into the new book, as that would require more extensive changes. I will keep half an eye on it when playing him in future, though.
Mocking up "@ Gauntlet" version of mage atm. (Salutor, you were around when I had originally pitched the idea, before I fell out. Discussion starts on page 56(? or so?) and continues for a few page, until the midwinter break when I disappeared - apologies again.)
Any considerations pro/con now that the Saga is up and running?
The mage is gauntleted as a Boni, but had started life as a Tytalus and so is not exactly the Platonic ideal of the Bonisagus mage - so while he's all up for helping the Order in general, don't expect him to preach the high road as the only path to get there.
I've allocated points for a 2nd language (well, 3rd - Native, Latin and this one) at a Level 1 - would Greek be most approp? I figure in-story that might have influenced his choice of relocation a bit "since he already knew a bit of the local language", but I have no problem going with Arabic or Hebrew either. It was part of his "scholarly Boni training" as over-compensation for the Tytalus start, so is academics-oriented.
He has a lot of low-level skills and few at anything "real" - so he knows a little about a lot, but a lot about very little (and those are the predictable ones - MT, Latin - meh). A few support scores of "3" and that's about it.
He is strong in InVi but hasn't fully pursued it - yet. His magical focus (small "f") is mainly social-oriented - Corpus and Mentem and generally addressing "people" over most anything else - but he has a small blastum spell and several "save my bacon" effects, some that can even be used on others.
The local language is Turkic (Kipchak), so somewhat obscure (the covenant is very much at the outer boundary - or possibly slightly past it - of the Order). The covenfolk speak greek, though.
Will remind myself of the details of what's been previously discussed tomorrow.
One request re PG chargen - there's one spell he "needs" that he can't easily invent, based off Maintain Demanding Spell, ReVi 30. I could spend 30 xp, but that's a full year (plus Arts) into learning that one spell - as a Bonisagus, any chance he can get access to a copy of what he needs so he can invent it from an existing text, maybe at Durenmar if nowhere else?
If he can get that, I think he has everything else covered.
btw - at gauntlet, his Arts/Spells currently look like...
In 8 (5 +3 Pussant)
Re 8
Co 5
Me 5
(Vi 2)
This leaves his ReVi total 8 short (50+ xp) of the TeFo 30 needed to qualify at gauntlet for the effect he wants.
(Note - most of the below have RDT tweaked up or down (and many w/ D = Conc), but the base effect is as listed)
o ReCo 25 Wiz Leap
o InMe 25 Pose the Silent Q
o ReMe 20 Sleep
o ReMe 25 Aura Authority
o ReCo 25 Fly
How long out of gauntlet is he? In the character creation instrutions for the saga, you'll note that pont #5 lets you take the equivalent of a Minor Virtue for each 10 years past gauntlet. That could include a small collection of lab texts.
I was thinking of either (a) making the reputation that I alluded to in the back story official (that of an upcoming muto magus in House Boni); or (b) adding something like Warrior to represent the fact I thought he was training with the previous covenant's grogs and fighting in his animal forms as well as with weapons and armor. I've not looked at how a person actually learns to fight in an animal form, and despite me thinking Fray has combat skills, he's lacking in everything except Brawl.
Neither is really critical. In Fray's pre-game seasonal activity he had already sent custom spells to the House library, as a way to contribute to the Order, and the lab text's I'd add now are really just things I might want going forward. I don''t want to rort the request.
I figured 10(+?) years for exactly that purpose, but had already earmarked that for a Social Contacts.
It's only 30 pts, and he doesn't need a personal library, just access to that one 30 pt spell text.
It's not that hard for Bonisagi to get some access to Durenmar, but otoh I don't want to whine for a freebie, so... If my character were to create/copy something to trade, put in the time, could that work? Or something else in backstory?
Or I could just take a couple more years and pump ReVi up to a much higher level than planned and just invent the thing - I noticed a couple very high Art charts on some of the past mage characters.
Whoops, I thought CH had posted that question. That's why I mentioned the lab notes
Warrior wouldn't work under rule #5--it has to be something you could pick up in the normal course of play, not something meant to describe pre-advancement background. At any rate, if all you want is XP in Martial abilites, you can plot out your pre-game seasons to learn and practice them. Besides, Brawl isn't a Matial Ability.
I think taking a season to copy or write something would be good, if you want that one spell badly enough. Don't Bonsiagus magi get some sort of Reputation bonus for writing stuff, anyway?
Mmmm - not any that I can remember, but I won't say I'm 100% sure on that.
They do have a (loosely worded) obligation to "share their work", but that has been interpreted a couple diff ways*.
(Edit - Don't have True Lineages in front of me (still searching for books >.< ), but now I'm remembering that, yes, there is an internal Boni Reputation/status factor that accrues as works are made public. But it's pure reputation, not a bonus to copy. It's important if the Boni wants to get props within the House, and/or ever run for office.)
(* Some say that means allowing any to copy their work, others that the Boni must arrange for a copy to be sent to Durenmar. I'm going to earmark 1 season out of the ~10 years to that end - it's just original stuff that's involved.)
I've reread the old posts on the apprentice-finding now.
One idea that occurs to me is that maybe there is becoming a problem with not enough apprentices being handed into the tribunal, and you're being hired by the tribunal in an attempt to rectify this problem? Only polites (a recognised citizen of the Theban tribunal) are eligable for tokens and shards, so if you were native to another tribunal, you'd have to be given some other form of recognition (i.e. vis).
I still haven't decided if he's going to have been open with the local Tribunal(s) about this practice or very secretive, working purely through [strike]co-conspirators[/strike] intermediaries. The forum thread has raised a lot of valid concerns for the safety of both the candidati and the mage doing the procuring, from extreme personal reaction if not a formal Tribunal judgement - using an amenable Redcap (or perhaps more than one) and keeping as much "behind the curtain" as possible has its attractions.
But his partner-Redcap could certainly fit that bill just the same, either as a resident of the Tribunal or no.
Boni have a contribution and achievement based internal reputation which allows for advancement within the House structure. Inventing and sharing spells is the early stages which is why Fray has already started doing that. Later all sorts of advancement is needed, including original research. Fray is planning on doing it to slowly raise House reputation, but in the ways that Fray values, rather than the recognition for the sake of status only.
That's why I mentioned the lab notes