For companion concepts and spitballing before a dedicated thread.
What do you guys think is a good number. I would prefer one companion/player I think.
One per player would be good, unless we want to try and encourage single magus stories in which case we might be better off with two or three companions per player...
I'd like a thread for Sister Prudence as a companion (note: she is about as much a real nun as father Sarducci is a real priest)
I agree on one per player and then if someone becomes important in the story they might be a "floating" one.
Regarding ideas for characters, I have a few ideas. I am thinking either:
An excommunicated scholar who has asked to join what he thought of as a group of traveling scholars and learned people.
A half-fae knight who has come to work with the covenant because his fae father has said they can be his key to greatness.
A shapeshifting irish wanderer who is cursed with lycanthropy and came to Rome looking for a miracle. Failing to impress the divine, he's hoping some magi can help instead.
The half fae knight would fit with sister Prudence (who is pushing the message of a faerie "Saint Sylvanus" (which is an actual saint's name as well as the name of a Roman deity...)
I prefer stories with more magi generally. But some single magi adventures can be fun.
For concepts I havent given it too much thought yet. Maybe I will make a !Severian. Having an executioner traveling with the covenant from city to city looking for work.
I'd enjoy building a kind of hulkish builder companion or grog who would work closely with Pentelli. Perhaps something of a foreman mason.
That makes a perfect sense for a companion for my magi. Since his very kind and gentle, are you thinking a gentle giant, or a hilarious mis match of characteristics?
I'm kind of open. I initially thought of a Hodor kind of companion or a Quasimodo but am leaning more toward organizing around the idea of an foreman, quartermaster kind of person but am fully open to throwing in ideas.
I'm wondering if there is some way to connect him to ancient mason rites or templars, Egyptian pyramid builders, etc. I don't know those backgrounds well, but there might be something there.
I think art and academia and craft and guild might have you covered
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actually, neither of those have any mention of the masonic order, which wasn't founded until centuries later- 1425 appears to be when they were established according to the oldest recoverable documents.
Nor is there any connection to pyramid builders, and neither contains any secret societies or mystery traditions.
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Is that a miss in ArM, Silver?
Isn't there a fairly commonly accepted connection between Masonry, Crusades, Jerusalem, going back to Egyptian mysteries and Egyptian masonry?
I may be just thinking about the current folk lore around Masonry.
I'm happy to steer clear of anything like that. I was just spitballing a bit on what might be an interesting background to warrant companion-status vs. grog status.
There is no official masonic lodge or mystery in ars magica. Obviously something like learned magicians or even some version of touched by (realm) could be adapted to serve. The folklore connecting the masons with pyramid builders is actually from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, though some people persist with it despite being widely dismissed.
That being said, as I mentioned we could put it into the game or even have our troupe embody the beginings of it in some way. Touched by realm is a virtue in C&G and there is Hermetic inclination in (form) from art and acadame that can both simulate the beginnings or the basis of such a society- though the original masons were in Scotland (hence Scottish Rites Temple, or Templars), some suggest they are descendant from the Templars following them being persecuted by the French inquisition in 1307 (Largely so the French crown could confiscate their lands), though this obviously leaves a significant gap in the history.
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I like the idea of the troupe being somehow connected to the origins of that folklore. As much a flavor thing as a game mechanics thing.
It would be very cool to be the connections of masons and weird magic things 
Also, I have decided on the half fae knight, unless anyone has a strenuous objection. He is specifically a son of Jupiter and will be able to handle talking a bit, commanding men, fighting and fae malarcy since we don't have a dedicated fae mage for him to step on the toes of.
For a name I am going with Cavileri Macus di Jovis, but I am happy to concede my quick look at medieval naming convention for knights might be wrong
I have an idea for a Jewish Usurer. Such a character can be a source of income, and gain the protection of the covenant from those who might feel like not paying the interest, or the loan.
Not to turn down sources of income, but one of my personas has the partner virtue, which indicates it provides "enough money to live as a minor member of nobility without the military trappings"- of course this persona will also need to maintain their own cover (including supporting the wife), and it isn't exactly specified what that income value is- from similar roles in C&G it could be supposed to be from 100 to 250 pounds, if we use the lesser noble as reference to Lords of Men it would suggest the ability to fund an estate and an additional 10 lbs free per year. Needless to say the books are not exactly in agreement.
I am not sure a professional Usurer would be a very mobile creature. Surely one would stay in a big city and let the interests build up. Moving to a new city seem like a total reset + loss on the old debt
It depends on a lot of factors not reflected in the rules, but foremost it seems to me that being an usurer in Italy is like being a pagan in Lithuania- not out of the ordinary. This is the region where banks and lending institutions originated, and at about this time (remember the 4th crusade started to go off track due to the conditions of a loan made to the crusaders by the city of Venice- also resulting in interdiction of Venice)