Viola is the Merinita. Given that she's a fairly senior maga, she wouldn't mind another Merinita to be shoved into annoying faerie negot...er, mentor.
Seriously, though, the difference in ages could make a second Merinita viable.
Scott
Hi!
Sorry Scott but it seemed rude to just start posting in your game threads without talking to you in a recruitment thread or something first.
I figured out where the covenant is. I actually Google maps'd it to figure out how far my game's covenant is.
google.com/maps/dir/46.5985 ... 47.1748253
I had a few ideas for characters.
+Gifted Mercer who is working towards integrating Fertility Magic or with some original research that I would need to talk to you at length about.
+Gurnicus Headsman, he and a few other apprentices were trained in secret to be assassins, his master was marched and killed and the "apprentices" were either killed or swore the oath. He would have a lot of problems with magic in general but be really good at casting spells and Parma. Could also be a Path of Strife or "guest" Criamon. He would act a lot like a Flambeu or Tytalus but I don't think either one would adopt him given his origin.
+I haven't read Mercer or Gurnicus but if that stops me then I would need to make him a Merinita (and probably an apprentice of my magus in my other game) or Criamon (I ST'd our Crimon's mystery initiation session).
[size=150]Albus of Criamon, at gauntlet [/size]
Please review
Characteristics: Int +3, Per 0, Pre +1, Com +1, Str +0, Sta +0, Dex +1, Qik +1
Size: 0
Age: 20
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0
Confidence: 1(3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Flawless Magic, Improved Characteristics, Strong-Willed, The Enigma; Deficient Form (Ignem), Disfigured (Albino), Driven (minor, discover a breakthrough for the lesser limit of Time), Poor Eyesight
Reputations: None (yet)
Personality Traits: Compassionate +2, Sensible +1, Pious +1
Soak: +2
Fatigue Levels (human shape): 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties (human shape): -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Artes Liberalis 1, Athletics 1, Awareness 3, Code of Hermes 1, Enigmatic Wisdom 1, Folk Ken 1, German 5, Latin 5, Magic Theory 3, Parma Magica 1, Stealth 1
Arts: Cr 3, In 3, Mu 3, Pe 3, Re 3, An 2, Aq 2, Au 2, Co 5, He 2, Ig 5, Im 5, Me 5, Te 2, Vi 5
Twilight Scars: none yet
Equipment: High-collared robes with wide-brimmed hat, scarf, and cloak; walking staff
Encumbrance: 0
Spells known: (Note: due to Flawless Magic, all are at Mastery level 1; I need to choose their mastery benefits.)
Scales of the Magical Weight InVi 5
Sense the Nature of Vis InVi 5
Aegis of the Hearth ReVi 15
Gloom of Evening PeIg 10
Discern the Images of Truth and Falsehood InIm 15
Prying Eyes InIm 5
Wizard's Sidestep ReIm 10
Eyes of the Cat MuCo 5
Sight of the Transparent Motive InMe 10
The Unseen Arm ReTe 5
Maintaining the Demanding Spell ReVi 15
Shroud Magic MuVi 5
Gather the Essence of the Beast ReVi 15
Vis: currently none
Appearance: Perfectly white and red-eyed, Albus is an unmistakable albino. He has a lean frame of average height and nimble hands. He squints frequently both due to sensitivity and due to blurry vision suffered from eye damage over the years. His hair is white and usually kept short, and he tends to be somewhat clean-shaven. His Criamon stigmata appear as blue or indigo markings, though to date he has only the first from his initiation (more will develop as his Enigmatic Wisdom deepens, of course).
Voting sigil: A white tablet marked with a circle pierced by a line in one place (on the right side of its circumference).
Spell sigil: Unmarked (clean, clear, unblemished)
Early Childhood (years 1-5)
Josef was born to a pastoral family in the eastern Germanic region, with several siblings. He remembers very little of this time. His parents were unsure of how to deal with his obvious differences of appearance and consulted with the local priest for guidance. The priest took a stern attitude toward the child (both due to his albinism and his Gift) and suggested a strict Church-directed regimen to purge any infernal influences. As a result, Josef lived a strict, highly ordered lifestyle as a child, and learned to pay attention so as to avoid garnering punishment for slight infractions.
Due to his albinism, Josef was very sensitive to sunlight and suffered damage to his vision before he learned to keep to dim places.
45xp+language: Athletics 1, Awareness 3, Folk Ken 1, German 5, Stealth 1
Apprenticeship (years 6 to 20)
Because the Alpine Tribunal is so well-situated, Hermetic magi are not uncommon in the region, and Albus was readily noticed both for his startling appearance and for his uncanny ability to navigate in the dark in spite of his weak vision. The offer to take Josef off the hands of the local Church and his family was met with some relief. The magus who discovered him had no interest in teaching an apprentice at the time (a commitment of 15 years was more than the mage wanted to deal with right then) and instead bartered the Gifted child to a Criamon magus, Demens, in exchange for various considerations.
Demens believed that conventional philosophy and reason were insufficient to solve the riddle of Criamon and thus was heavily invested in nonlinear, unconventional thinking. He attempted to shape Josef via this agenda, but had to tread carefully as the Code of Hermes required him to at least produce a functional apprentice without "abuse." Josef was initiated into the Enigmatic Mysteries of Criamon and taught their philosophy, but he came to have a different point of view than his filius: he believes that the Criamon theory of the cycle of time can only be reconciled with the Divine mandate of free will if the cycle itself is destined to be broken, thereby guaranteeing humanity the promise of free will as espoused by the Church. Ergo, the cycle of time has been/will be broken at some point. Criamon's sacrifice is the wedge to do so, but a full escape requires an understanding of the mystical attributes of Time, something that is not well-explained in Hermetic theory. As a result, Josef developed a strong drive to find a way to overcome the lesser limit of Time, or to incorporate Time somehow more rigorously into Hermetic theory.
As his personal theories on time developed, Josef broadened his magical studies to become a generalist. Since Time is not well-handled in Bonisagus' theory, Josef reasoned that he would have to be generally familiar with various forms of magic to figure out how to incorporate any new tangential discoveries.
During his studies he learned that he had a weakness to Ignem magic, probably because as an albino, sunlight is antithetical to him. He worked hard to try to compensate for this.
Josef also tended to focus on spells of the mind and of magic itself, as he thinks these are the most likely to interact with Time on a fundamental level.
Josef took the Hermetic name "Albus" ("white") as something of a joke upon his graduation from apprenticeship. It is, in typical Criamon fashion, also a bit of an enigma: The simplicity of the name and its outer obviousness bely the possibility of a hidden or personal meaning.
120xp: Artes Liberales 1, Code of Hermes 1, Latin 5, Magic Theory 3, Parma Magica 1
120xp: Arts: Cr 3, In 3, Mu 3, Pe 3, Re 3, An 2, Aq 2, Au 2, Co 5, He 2, Ig 5, Im 5, Me 5, Te 2, Vi 5
120 levels of spells
Now recently graduated, Albus has traveled to the distant Covenant because of something his filius told him: "Something important is going to happen there, and you aren't supposed to be there. So of course you must go." The young magus hopes that this will be something remarkable to provide him with an opportunity to expand his own theories.
Unlike many Criamon, Albus is a reasonably good communicator, and he has a keen wit. He is used to being distrusted and thus tends to be cautious when first meeting new people, but he enjoys meeting other Hermetic magi, as they are willing to deal with him on a personal level rather than assuming that he is demon-possessed or otherwise defective.
@Jesse: 2 personality flaws, 1 story flaw required
skipping years 6-7 and apprenticing earlier than year 8 is non-canonical.
Why not invent all those lvl5 spells yourself, or spont them?
I did not know of the requirement for 2 personality and 1 story flaws; that should be added to the "How to create your character" post. I will try to find some appropriate ones.
I went by the sequence of events on p. 31, where nothing states a requirement for how many years of life must pass between early childhood and apprenticeship. I am happy to modify this but I have not found anything indicating otherwise? Even the section on apprenticeship on p. 106 says that it is rare for children to start apprenticeship before age 7, but it does not say it is impossible. ("Rare" implies that it does happen, just not often.)
I didn't invent the spells myself because I didn't want to bother? And because they fit with the character's areas of study as things he would've tried to pursue during his apprenticeship?
Also, who is actually running this chronicle? I've seen multiple people make authoritative posts and I don't know who's actually taking point?
not running anything. sorry. forget about my advice. I overstepped.
It's not a requirement, it's a limit - being under the limit is perfectly fine.
As far as "who's running the saga" goes - MTKnife is the alpha storyguide, and will make the final call on contentious issues. Myself and Ironboundtome are the other long-term players, with everyone else pretty new. I tend to do a lot of the review of stuff for rules and setting compliance, as I tend to be more focussed on the detail than MTKnife is (and a lot of things are fairly cut-and-dry once you find the right bit of the book). However, if people think I'm wrong (and I don't just agree once you point out what I've missed) it can be escalated to MTKnife.
Pralix: It's fine, I appreciate the advice, I just noticed that there are a bunch of posts about chronicle house rules and such by MTKnife, and there are also gameplay posts apparently being run by ironboundtome, plus a bunch of info posts from Salutor, so I don't know who's doing what, or if this is a round-robin chronicle, or the storyguide duties have changed hands, or...
Salutor: Thank you for the information!
Anyway, I can easily add years 6-7 to Josef (Albus) with:
- Church training at a young age consisted primarily of cleaning, carrying things, and helping to copy notices. Josef learned to stay out of the way of people, especially when they were angry or suspicious and ready to blame him for... largely anything. He learned to swim (rudimentarily) in the local river (usually wading) and also learned to blot out distractions, like getting a beating from an angry monk, when the need arose.
(30 xp = Concentration 2, 15 xp; Guile 1, 5 xp; Profession (scribe) 1, 5 xp; Swim 1, 5 xp)
This brings him up to age 22.
Any other feedback from the chronicle members?
I'm not sure either the Mercere or the Guernicus would work that well.
My concerns with the Mercere are that we've already got one magical Mercere (and they're meant to be pretty rare), and that this isn't an obvious place for fertility research - there aren't any local sites of interest for Insight, and I'd expect someone who was focused on lab research to want somewhere safer and more comfortable.
For the Guernicus, I don't think the idea of the quaesitors (or even a quaesitor) training secret assassins fits the tone of the saga.
What would the concepts for the Merinita or the Criamon be?
Looking at this, my thoughts are as follows:
- I don't have any very strong feelings on the +2 years pre-apprenticeship point; it's better to take them than not, but I'm not sure it's something I've checked previous characters for. Maybe pick up some church lore?
- I think you've currently got 5 points of virtues (not counting the Enigma), and only 4 points of flaws
- There's a high chance that breaking the limit of time isn't going to be possible. (There's also a very high risk that the saga never advances to the point where you achieve it even if it is possible). Are you okay with that OOC?
- What sort of thing do you see your character doing in stories (that aren't directly focussed on breaking the limit of time)? I'm a bit worried that you'll find the build ineffective - you've got a lot of low level spells, but nothing you're really good at. Obviously that's part of the concept with the generalist seeking a new Art - but is it going to be frustrating to play in practice?
- Quite right on the Virtues/Flaws situation. I started hunting for a story flaw and wound up in a hurry to post and hadn't found one yet.
- Not especially interested in Church Lore as Josef/Albus was never really interested in the structure and history of the Church, he was mostly interested in not getting yelled at or beaten and in praying for God to make him "normal." (He eventually got over the latter but he tends to avoid Church politics for obvious reasons.)
- Breaking Hermetic Limits is never something that people should be fixated on, but it's good to have goals. This colors Albus' research priorities and how he talks about his philosophy of magic and religion. It provides a push to determine where the character falls when making choices where he has no other priorities.
- As a generalist who is just out of apprenticeship, I expect Albus to be almost useless until he has some experience. He will apply his intelligence to solve problems where he can; magic is handy but it is not the breadth of his arsenal. So long as I have opportunities to discuss magical theory and history, talk about Order agendas, and participate in the activities and growth of the Covenant, I'll be happy.
Also I need to come up with a companion and some grogs. It's entirely possible that I might wind up playing mundanes for a good chunk of time while Albus is doing remedial magic study.
Ah, didn't realize there was a Mercer. Having 1/6th of their Gifted Magi in one place would be odd. But to answer your other questions a researcher goes the the hinterlands if he wants it to be secret and I don't really think distance matters that much to most Gifted Mercers.
Not Quite what I mean with the Gurnicus. He was trained up by some other guy (probably an infernal Tytalus but it's not actually important). His master was marched and killed for (on paper) improperly training apprentices. So you have a dead mage and a few Gifted guys with magical flaws, a focused skill set, and the Parma Magica, You wouldn't kill off the apprentices, they would end up somewhere. Seemed reasonable that one of the quaesitor that marched the master would take on the apprentice to finish his education or that someone deeply wronged during their apprenticeship would want to be a magic cop. If they wouldn't let him join and he was in danger of being marched for houselessness Criamon will always allow people to 'join' or he would be a Path of Strife Criamon since they are basically the Criamon wet work guys any way, which fits just as well.
Long defense doesn't mean I am strictly married to the idea, I just didn't want to be misunderstood, I suppose i thought what you suggested I was suggesting reflected poorly on me since it redefined a pretty big chunk of the world. In a practical sense he would have some Incompatible or weak arts, Magic Addiction, Infamous parens, and probably some related personality issues. He would spend a lot of time mastering spells or experimenting on variations of spells he already knows to get good results. He probably has a hobby he is really into as well, since he was mostly robbed of his child/young-adult hood.
Not sure what I would do with a Criamon, Body is cool but the Criamon in my IRL group is Body so I get to vicariously enjoy it. Strife is the only other one that is interesting to me but I would probably do something similar to my Gurnicus, Maybe toned down on the back story if it causes too many waves in the world (games are about fore-story not back-story after all). I like the concept of Path of Becons but there is nothing written about it (nothing ever written about it according to the literal author of the Criamon book) and dropping in with a custom Criamon path seems presumptuous.
For Merinita... My current character is basically a faerie hating a Merinita. He uses them as tools basically. I could do his foil and make a Merinita that actually makes sense. She would probably be faerie blooded, have a significant score in faerie sympathy since i just found out how amazing that is. None of that is really a character concept. I suppose left to her own devices she would hang around and become a faerie queen with her 'court' of faerie familiars. I expect her to be a pretty good diplomat and rely on faerie thugs to deal with problems. She will probably have Magical Focus (Familiars).
Your familiar house rule implies they learn stuff like magic creatures and not "learn Abilities in the same ways as humans"? So I can dump Vis into a familiar and use the transformation rules? Faeries work completely different, so it wouldn't be a concern for the Merinita, I think.
If I make a magus of advanced age can he be further down a Mystery track?
As a note, I'm not trying to "power game" with the casting/combat focused characters, my IRL game is just very research focused so i'm trying to change the pace here (and it seems the game is well suited for that).
Wow, that was a lot.
I'm going to confirm that the person you most need to convince on rules issues is Salutor. I was once a rules lawyer, but now I have two small children, and I can't always keep up; thus, I'll follow Salutor's advice on rules interpretation most of the time.
Scott
I'm the Alpha Storyguide, but I encourage everyone to take a hand in running stories. I post the house rules and write the chronicles (the summaries of past stories) because I'm the Alpha, and taking on those tasks helps me to maintain the cohesion of the saga.
One more plug: make some companions! They make the covenant's community richer, and they provide a way to involve ourselves in stories without the work of running a magus. Unless you count Alcimus, who's actually a familiar-to-be, I'm the only one who's currently running companions (though I'd be intrigued to see Salutor stat up Ipek as a companion). There is, BTW, a companion created by a now-departed player who's still active in the saga, because of his position as grog captain--anyone who wants to take him over (his name is Miklos) is welcome to.
Scott
How out there/powerful do you want companions generally? Ungifted hedge mages? Appropriately powered Mighty creatures? Redcaps?
Oh, I didn't notice that either. So I'll have to try and create someone else...
Haven't got time to reply to most of the posts right now, but your character is the other gifted Mercere.
So if she's been accepted, can II copy her to the characters thread and write a character summary?
I will add on the Humble personality flaw to Albus and keep the year 6-7 mundane life additions; that should make the character complete.
Any other feedback? Is the character suitable for the chronicle?
For a companion: Are there any specific gaps in characterization, story, or skills that need to be filled? If the field is wide open I'm considering making a Varangian guard who got roped into the promise of "adventure" on the frontier.
As long as they aren't at magi-like levels of power, I don't care, as long as a new character doesn't crowd out any of the old ones.
Scott