Creating a Daimon of Merlin

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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I'm trying to stat up Merlin as Daimon:

Magic Might :35 (Vim)
Characteristics: Int +2, Per +2, Pre +3, Com +5, Str -2, Sta +3, Dex 0, Qik +4
Size: +0
Personality Traits: Devious+3, Defender of Britain +5,Weakness for Women+5
Combat:N/A
Soak N/A
Wound Penalties:
Abilities:Magic Lore(Vis Sources) 10, Area Lore(Britain) 10, Faerie Lore (Britain) 8 Teaching 5, Pictish 5, Ogham 5
Powers:
Can Act as a Mystagogue to initiate Theurgy

Can Teach the spell to summon Aneirin the Bard (see TMRE:140)

Vis: Merlin Leaves behind 5 pawns of Vim Vis in a tail-feather when banished.

Merlin appears in the shape of a small bird of Prey (...a merlin...) and is dedicated to the mystical well-being of Britain. Due to his large might, his cult fell into disuse with the arrival of Diedne and their scourging of the native traditions, and noone was left who could perform the approprite rites. Before ascending he realized that he would be more valuable to summon (and hence summoned more often) if he had valuable knowledge to give, so he made himself a better teacher. He knows nothing of Bonisagus's Magic theory, but it will intrigue him.

The PC's will discover a monolith in a Regio with a ritual to summon him. details still a bit hazy on how to set this up if none have theurgy.

OK so my issues are

a: What magical and mundane knowledge would he have to give to his summoners?

b: Is his might OK (I've never used theorgy before, so is this too difficult to summon?)

c: What Magical Tradition would Merlin been exposed to already? I am leaning towards Gruagachan because the Shape and Vision Forms fit with the legends, but then there is the problem of how he moved the stones to Stonehenge...Maybe Viktir?

d: How would Merlin go about a long term plan to get his Hermetic Arts opened? This does not need to be resolved in saga, after all what is time to a Daimon, but would give him a series of mid term goals that might be useful in setting up bargains with hthe PC's.

e: He ascended to the hall of heros ages ago... and his cult was lost to time. How can he make sure that he get the lovely lovely Daimon points in the future and is not forgotten again, to make sure he protects his beloved Britain? My default is to become useful as described above (i.e. teach hermetic magic to summoners) but maybe there are more useful directions I have not noticed.

Bob

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Merlin is credited with an astonishing number of magical acts in the early stories, but he is most known for prophecy and shapeshifting. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophecies of Merlin (c 1135) was so popular and influential that it made Merlin’s divinatory powers his foremost trait. So you might give his Damion the power to grant Divination.

As for shapeshifting, Merlin adopted multiple forms including a stag, a child, and a wild hermit. His Daimon might be able to grant the Shapeshifter Major Virtue and/or teach a MuCo spell to alter your own or someone else’s body. Remember that one of Merlin’s most famous acts was giving Uther the appearance of Gorlois of Cornwall the night Arthur was engendered.

But these are just the most famous. I direct you to Kay’s King Arthur Companion for a great list but here’s some off the top of my PhD:

  • Bring an entire army of Frenchmen from France across the English Channel in one night.
  • Put Pellinore to sleep when he was about to kill Arthur.
  • Create a banner of a red dragon which actually breathed fire
  • Create a magical bed which drove any man crazy who tried to sleep in it.
  • Create magical chairs for the round table on which a knights name was displayed before they arrived
  • Knowing who anyone was and their backstory whenever they showed up at Camelot even if he had never met them before
  • Predicting the two dragons fighting under vortigern’s castle
  • Charm king Lot into a trance for a whole day
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Ohhh... Merlin was famous for a lot of stuff, but mostly for
a) glamour: this is a very specific type of magic, somewhere between true shapeshifting and illusion-with-substance, with a touch of what much later would be called mesmerism (enthralling/placing into an enchanted sleep).
b) doomsaying: prophecy, sometimes undistinguishable from a poetically appropriate curse.
c) a deep, almost supernatural knowledge of Britain: its people, its auras and regiones, its magics, its supernatural denizens (including how to call upon them for favours) etc.

I think it's a bit on the high side, but still ok. I would probably lower it to 30 (or even 25: Aneririn's is 15, after all) and see whether one can "reskin" his abilities using Lasa Vegoia's, the closest "mentor of magic" daimon in TMRE, with a Might of 30) as a template.
Incidentally, I'd give him 1 pawn of vis per magnitude of Might (almost all daimons follow this), and I'd probably make it Intellego vis.

Possibly, Though it's not clear if, as a daimon and legendary magician, you want to "attach" him to a specific magical tradition rather than just give him broad, mythically appropriate powers.

There's nothing wrong leaving that as a mystery. But even with his "portfolio" above (or Gruagach magic):
a) he might have had help from some other creature.
b) he might have changed the stones into pebbles for the night and transported them thusly, only to have them spring back to full size in the morning after setting them in place.

Hmm. There are many possible ways to do this. But again, as a daimon, he's a bit "above" such mechanical concerns. I would first try to ask: what's the real purpose behind him learning Hermetic Magic? He can certainly have other uses for the PCs, including tasks that are apparently without purpose (but eventually produce a cascade of effects averting some terrible fate for Britain).

Merlin was notoriously stingy with his knowledge. I'd say one would call upon Merlin to ask specific questions related to Britain, including how to access its magical secrets and resources ("Can I borrow Excalibur for a little dragon-slaying?"). Alternatively, one could ask him to use his powers, some of which break Hermetic Limits - in particular, the limit of time - on one's behalf ("Tell me how I can become the king of X and marry princess Y."). The caveat is that Merlin would always twist the situation so that while accomplishing your mission you'd also end up, in a very roundabout way, helping his goals.

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Um gruagachan in etin form can carry the stones...

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Although one should not confuse Gruagachan with Muspelli, it's certainly true that Merlin Shapeshifted into a very large giant could have carried Stonehenge's stones. Now, I'd find more fitting for Merlin to have made the stones small, rather than himself big, but...

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Dang it, I have enough language problems with pseudo-Latin without needing to bring in Norse. I actually studied Latin, barely passed in middle school but I studied it.

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It's all a trick. He didn't move the stones, there was a regio on Salisbury plain, at the highest level of which is a stone circle tethering the high magic aura. He sent some adventurers to retrieve a casting tablet of "Stripping the superfluous realities" (from RoP:Magic) from an ancient Roman temple, got them to retrieve enough perdo and vim vis to use, and sent them into the regio. He just claimed credit for a stone circle appearing out of nowhere. Not that I've run a scenario like that or anything.

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So you don't need Ogham as a separate skill. Ogham is a scripture and is basically covered by Artes Liberales. Have a language that used it (like Pictish) and have a score in Artes. You can be literate in a number of scripts equal to your Artes score.

As for the other questions:

A) A lot, but most of what is already covered. Lotta Britain Lore, Magic Lore, etc. But the problem is that Merlin can do different things based on what itteration of the character you're looking at. Original that was based on Myrddin Welt had some Illusionary magic and shapeshifting. This later morphed into full on near omniscient half-demon anti-christ attempt. Pick what version is closest to your imagined "canon".

B) For a mortal-turned Daimon, its pretty solid. Not too difficult to summon.

C) What would he have been exposed to? Given the timing, quite a lot. Gruagachan and other assortment of Pictish Priesthoods (Cult of Sluag included). This one will be relevant for question d. Brythonic Elementlism (Witches of Strathclyde), Swynwyr (Columbae), Shapeshifters, Beast-Masters, more than likely Anglo-Saxon Rune Wizards, Diedne Druids (they were Druids of Breton-Gaulish origins), Folk Witches were most likely around too, Irish Spirit Summoners (Corrguineach), Melusines...to name those off the top of my head.

D) If he was aware of the Pictish Cult of Sluagh, and if he managed to pillfer their secrets, all he would have to do is reincarnate in a Hermetic Apprentice aaand the end result is him basically keeping all his past magics, but now he also has a gift opened to Hermetic Arts to boot.

E) Convince a couple of different groups across Europe / Britain of his identity, teach them (summoning) magic, give them / make a temporary AC of some variety, if not your True Name, aaaand let them do their thing.