Rafael,
When you have finished compiling a final character sheet please post it there. The character thread should be structured with the following posts in order.
For Plot Hooks please provide at least three ways that are guaranteed to get the character into action, and then some development/explanation in particular for any Story Flaws.
Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre +3, Com +3, Str -2, Sta +0, Dex -1, Qik -2
Size: 0
Age: 21 (21)
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 2 (5)
Virtues: The Gift; Hermetic Magus; Self-Confident*; Sanguine Humor’s Blessing (+3); Persona (+1); Life Boost (+1); Social Contacts (Merchants) (+1); Well Travelled (+1); Puissant Intrigue (+1); Quiet Magic (+1); Inventive Genius (+1)
Flaws: True Love (-3); Deficient Technique: Perdo (-3); Proud (-1); Avaricious (-1); Weak Parens (-1); Unimaginative Learner (-1)
*House Virtue
Personality Traits: Love (Marie-Jeane) +6, Avaricious (vis) +1, Proud (being a Tytalus) +2
Reputations: See his personas below
Combat:
Soak: 0
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: –1 (1–5), –3 (6–10), –5 (11–15), Incapacitated (16–20)
Abilities:
Arts:
Cr 4, In 4, Mu 0, Pe 0, Re 2,
An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 6, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 6, Te 0, Vi 0
Twilight Scars: -
Equipment: Traveling clothes.
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Bind Wound (CrCo 10/+10)
Purify the Open Cut (CrCo 10/+10)
Revealed Flaws of Mortal Flesh (InCo 10/+10)
The Noble Visage (MuCo 10/+11)(S)
The Raiders Drop Their Weapons (ReCo 15/+8)
Perception of Conflicting Motives (InMe 15/+10)
Convincing the Raiders to Give up for Today (MuMe 10/+11)(S)
A Good Suggestion (ReMe 10/+13)(S)
*Sanguine's Humor Blessing (+5 to casting totals for spells to impress or persuade) applies to spells marked with an (S).
Appearance: Henry/Atheus is a young man around his 20's. He has high cheek bones, blonde hair and an aquiline nose. His eyes are pale blue, almost gray.
Casting Sigil: when casting a spell, Henry's body slightly shifts depending on the spell parameters. If eye, vision or sight, his eyes temporarily change color to a different shade of whatever the current color is. If touch or AC the skin on his hand undulates (think Mystique on the X-men movies, but really subtle, and not blue). In other cases, both his eyes and his face slightly shift. This is subtle enough that it can be confused with lighting or a natural movement of the muscles if one doesn't know what he is looking at. Under InVi spells the sigil manifests as an ever shifting undulation in the magic waves (again, think Mystique).
Voting Sigil:
Mathias the Counselor
Fedelm the Silent
Note: as stated under the Persona Virtue, a new persona starts with a reputation of 1 and any XP applied to the ability also increases the reputation of all the existing personas by the same amount. Due to that, Mathias already has a reputation of 2 and Fedelm starts with a Reputation of 1.
Atheus can change between personas (or go back to his original form) concentrating for one round and succeeding on a Stamina + Persona roll 9+. This detects to InVi magic as a lvl 10 MuCo spell, with the magnitude dropping by one at each sunrise or sunset. For other purposes the equivalent spell level is 5 x Score.
Henry was born in Limerick, on the English side of the city. His Gift manifested early, with his visage occasionally changing. He would return home with a different eye color, hair length, skin tone, all in an uncontrolled manner. It didn’t took much for his parents to abandon him, but thanks to his unreliable ability he managed to survive until rumors about the weird child reached the ears of a Redcap, who found him and sold him to a magus from Circulus Ruber.
At the age of six Henry had the Arts opened by Nobutes of Tytalus, a Leper Magus from Circulus Ruber. The magus managed to channel the boy’s ability to change himself into a subtle way of self-transformation known by House Tytalus, which allowed Henry the necessary control to change to and from his original face.
Nobutes then proceeded to the standard training of house Tytalus. Much of his proficiency with bargaining was learned by trial and error, trying to convince his master to change the ways of instruction (every time his master agreed and he thought he had succeeded the next day the training became even more unbearable). The boy’s talent for laboratory work and experimentation came as an opportune surprise, and lab time was the only moment when his master forgot about the unhinged training.
The leper magus eventually started to introduce spells on the boy’s life, but not to make it easier: to give him chores. Henry became responsible for assessing the health of the grogs (and occasionally of cattle, using spontaneous spells), and from time to time of accompanying them on short travels, in case anyone needed magical assistance. Around 1215 Nobutes began to tell Henry of his future-to-be, his participation on expelling the English from Ireland and taking back the covenant of Praesis. That was when Henry decided he had enough of his pater. He began to dedicate himself in Mentem and help himself to a few lab texts, planning an early end to his abuse/apprenticeship. If Nobutes learned of his intentions he said nothing, but Henry has the vague impression that his master tacitly agreed to let him go, because he started to get a few hints and clues on how to perform the Parma Magica from his master (the last step, however, was denied to him). Three years later, on the 12th year of his apprenticeship, Henry fled.
In the last two years Henry has travelled Ireland under the guise of one of his personas, Mathias. By luck or fate he ended up saving Simon, a traveling merchant, by managing to convince a group of raiders to give up the attack. That, summed with his knack to know when someone is sick and his ability binding wounds managed to build up Simon’s trust, opening the doors to make contact with several of his friends. As “Mathias the Counselor", Henry works as a broker, advising his contacts on actions and deals that are beneficial to them (those which he discovers through careful usage of Perception of Conflicting Motives).
It was Simon who introduced him to Guillouic, a wealty merchant, and that would end up being the most recent turning point in his life, comparable in importance with the beginning of his apprenticeship. Through his connection with Guillouic he came to know his daughter, Marie-Jeane, and fell in love. Decided to work hard to increase his standing in the eyes of her father he extended his network, mediating several deals... But realizing he was starting to stretch himself thin, he decided to go back to Inchmore, were Nobutes intended him to join, and count with the covenant’s support to further manage his network and marry Marie-Jeane.
Purify the Open Cut (CrCo 10) - Purification of the Festering Wounds at base 2, for a +3 bonus to recovery rolls.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +3 Moon)
The Noble Visage (MuCo 10)
The spell makes small changes to someones face to make the target appear more forceful, authoritative and believable. The person receives a +3 on rolls to influence, lead or convince others (as Aura of Enobled Presence).
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun, +1 Part)
The Raiders Drop Their Weapons (ReCo 15) - Spasms of Uncontrolled Hand at D: Diameter, T: Group.
(Base 2, +2 Voice, +1 Diam, +2 Group)
Convincing the Raiders to Give up for Today (MuMe 10)
The hostile intentions of the target are changed, as if he suddenly repented from them. Against a group of attackers Atheus uses this against the leader. Once the leader gives up attacking it's usually possible to drive the attackers away with a well placed argument and a bit of pleading (assuming the leader has good control over his men).
Usually this spell is used against raiders and robbers, but once Atheus used it to escape from a particularly intransigent city guard, and another one to make a merchant give respite to one of his contacts for a day.
(Base 3, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)
A Good Suggestion (ReMe 10)
The target gets more receptive to a verbal suggestion made right after the spell is cast, which need not be made by the magus. The spell subtly inclines the target to consider the good sides of the suggestion above the bad ones, but it won't make him agree to what obviously appears to be a bad idea. Someone actively scrutinizing the suggestion can ponder it as normal by making an Intelligence stress roll of 12+.
(Base 3, +1 Eye, +2 Sun)
True Love of Atheus, Marie-Jeane is a young and naive girl with very dark hair and blue eyes, just like her mother. Since meeting Mathias, a young and dashing business partner of her father, she has become infatuated with him.
It's still to be seen what will be her attitude once he learns he truth about "Mathias" (that he is a magus, and that the person she fell in love with is but a kind of magical disguise).
Marie is the other side of Atheus' True Love Major Story flaw. She has little agency and little power over her life, and can offer almost nothing to Atheus except for her undying love... and that's all he wants, really. But he realizes he will need to work hard to make sure they stay together.
If there's anything about Marie-Jeane that will bring her particular trouble it hasn't flared yet.
Nobutes is a leper magus from Circulus Ruber, and an expert on longevity rituals. He taught Henry how to exert himself to achieve higher magic (Life-Boost virtue), and he was also the one who chose his post-gauntlet name, Atheus, which the magus has already started to use despite not having sworn the Oath of Hermes yet.
Nobutes tacitly agrees with the end of Atheus' apprenticeship, but might pose some weak objection to him swearing the Oath just to keep appearances.
By all means, continue!
Aheus keeps a network of merchants from whom he can gain information and request small favors. He intends to increase both the size and capabilities of his network, for the purpose of pursuing two main goals:
Atheus takes a few days every season to visit one or two of his contacts, just to keep in touch. Most of them are managed under the persona of Mathias.
Max Number of Contacts: [Pre 3 + Intrigue 5, - Gift 3] x2 = 10.
Current Number of Contacts: 6
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +2
Resources: Temporal Influence, Extraordinary Skill (Bargain 6+)
Hooks: Black Sheep
Simon is a traveling merchant, bringing goods to and from Dublin. His main product is fur and leather (a huge export of Ireland at the time). Atheus/Mathias has travelled with Simon a few times, and Simon was the one who first called him "the Counselor". A couple of months ago Atheus was forced to use overt magic against a group of raiders, making them drop their weapons and creating an opening for the grogs to deal with the raiders. Since then Simon has known that "Mathias can do magic". He has no idea on the extent of Mathias powers, however. Mathias claimed to have learned "a bit of magic from an old wizard", which is technically true.
Simon is the middle son of a minor noble, but has distanced himself from the family. He doesn’t enjoy a lot of material benefits due to that relation and a few people may try to cause him trouble for it, but he still has a few friends in the upper ranks of society who lend him an ear.
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Wealthy, Temporal Influence, Extraordinary Skill (Main ability 6+)
Hooks: Feud
Gael is a wealthy and competent Breton merchant, currently living in Dublin, who exports goods to England and Britanny. Simon introduced Mathias to him about one year ago, and since them they have cooperated a few times, resulting in very good deals, and leaving Gael very pleased. Thanks to his Temporal Influence (a natural result of his wealth), he has some say in how Dublin operates.
He is married to Denise, a woman of french heritage, and has four male sons and two daughters. Atheus has completely fallen for the youngest daughter, Marie-Jeane, and intends to take her as his wife as soon as he is confident Gael will agree to the proposal.
Gael has a long term feud with another merchant, and often they bring trouble to each other, both in open and hidden ways.
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Underlings, Magic Sensitivity
Hooks: Favors (to Ashenrise)
A merchant from Carlow with a network of his own, Killian has a finger on many of the local deals, and has even directly dealt with Ashenrise before. He has a modicum of understanding about the supernatural thanks to his Magic Sensitivity, but he has not discovered about Atheus’ nature. He owns a favor to Ashenrise, and he might call upon Mathias for help to pay it back.
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Gossip
Hooks: ---
A small peddler from Athlone, Niall can usually be counted upon to obtain the latest information around the city. He is grateful to Mathias for stopping a rival merchant from causing Niall’s bankrupcy (Niall still became impoverished due to the trouble).
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Gratitude +1
Resources: Protection
Hooks: Infamous
Mathias came to know Katie in the last fair in Kilkenny. There are rumors about hauntings in St. Canice's Cathedral; Atheus decided to keep Katie as a contact due to the suspect that this might be related to an actual supernatural entity, not just folklore. She is protected by a local priest, which means she can meddle in a lot of things with little opposition. Word goes around that she is his mistress, but no one knows for sure.
Social Status: Merchant
Bond: Blackmail +4
Resources: Extraordinary Skill (Dex+Legerdeman 8+)
Hooks: Blackmail
A small merchant from Carlow, Arthur was formerly a thief who managed to escape hanging and escape his old life… or that was the idea, but due to a bout of bad luck his former deeds came to be known by Atheus, who uses it to keep Arthur under his thumb. Atheus uses his true face (Henry) to manage Arthur, in order to avoid tarnishing Mathias’ reputation.
Arthur is a difficult underling (due to the blackmail hook), and will do what he can to escape the magus’ grasp. Atheus intends to eventually let go off Arthur if he becomes too troublesome to manage.
List of things that would move Atheus with no doubt.
Anything that jeopardizes his relationship with Marie-Jeanne or her well-being.
Eg.: a suitor appears asking her hand in marriage. She is kidnapped by faeries. She gets ill. A war breaks out, forcing him to ensure her safety.
The hook of one of Atheus' agents flares up, requiring him to intervene (or to cut the agent loose). Or an agent causes some other kind of trouble.
Eg.: Gael requests his help to damage the target of his Feud; Simon lets slip to a nosy priest that Mathias has magical powers.
An agent brings forth an opportunity.
Eg.: Simon needs help to find a buyer for what he thinks is a magical pelt. Killian mentions weird people arriving at Ashenrise by night.