I'm in the final stages of creating a mage for online play and have chosen to be a Criamon on the Path of Walking Backwards.
However, I would like the forum's opinion on how I see him. The description in HoH:MC suggest that they are rather religious and, although not Muslims, are probably monotheistic in their approach to life. I was thinking of playing him more as a spiritualist/humanist. Someone who believes the key to the Enigma lies in understanding the very nature of magic and the human soul/spirit. His main magical focus would be in healing and understanding magic (so, high scores in Creo, Corpus and Vim). He would also be attuned to the spirit world and strives to understand spirits and their nature etc.
I guess I see him as a sort of Hermetic Dalai Lama Someone who is immensely spiritual rather than someone who blindly follows a religion/God. In fact, just reading about it, I would imagine he would be a follower of Zoroastranism if anything - well apart from the whole fire thing!
Do you think this fits within the framework of the Path or is it deviating too much?
It seems fine, vanilla-setting. Just run it past your SG and fellow players to make sure they don't have a problem with it, but then, you should do that with any PC anyway.
Just make sure that whatever your character believes, it is as limiting, in your game, as what the more generic Criamon on this path believes, so that you aren't getting your flaws cheaper.
One of the things that I like about Criamon is that it makes religion.... irrelevant. My Criamon sees god, harmony, as a point on a circle - it's a nice point, but really it's all rather pointless if you keep going over the whole circle. The Path of Walking Backwards is the only one that clashes with this, making a nice counterpoint.
At any rate, I think your philosophy is actually more appropriate for what is a Magical, not Divine, tradition. If I understand it correctly you essentially identify perfection and healing with the Magic, or perhaps Platonic, realm, replacing the Divine concept of harmony with a Magical one. Were I the SG, I would approve it in a heartbeat. I would insist on maintaining the limitations provided by the stations, both in terms of virtues and in moral and spiritual strictures, if only for mechanical game-play reasons; or at least to come up with suitable substitutes.
Wow YR7, that's hit the nail right on the head! That's exactly how I want him. Focussed on the very nature of magic with an affinity towards healing and spirits. This is how I set him up, I think it fits with the idea...do you?
Virtues: Affinity with Creo, Affinity with Intellego, Free Study, Ghostly Warder, Puissant Art (Creo), Second Sight, Skilled Parens, Minor Magical Focus (healing), The Enigma, The Gift, Hermetic Magus
Arts: Cr 11(+3), In 8, Pe 3, Re 5, Co 7, Me 7, Vi 10
Spells
Purification Of The Festering Wounds +32 (Cr/Co 20)
Bind Wound +32 (Cr/Co 10)
The Chirurgueon's Healing Touch +32 (Cr/Co 20)
Whispers Through The Black Gate +26 (In/Co 15)
Unravel the Fabric of (Mentem) +25 (Pe/Vi 10)
Unravel the Fabric of (Imaginem) +25 (Pe/Vi 10)
Sense Of The Lingering Magics +30 (In/Vi 30)
Ring Of Warding Against Spirits +20 (Re/Me 10)
The Call To Slumber +20 (Re/Me 10)
Gift Of The Frog's Legs +23 (Re/Co 15)
I presume the ghostly warder is from the hypostasis? If so, it all seems very good. Otherwise, I don't understand what it's doing there.
You do not possess House Criamon Lore, in which you would need a score of 2 to reach the first station. I would suggest, with your SG's approval, picking it up at a score of 1 to facilitate speedy indoctrination into the path in-game as soon as possible.
For my sagas, I would recommend picking up a single protection spell, like Wizard's Sidestep; but then again, they're rather combat heavy.
I'll ask my SG if I can drop the point in Brawl for a point in House Criamon Lore then. It shouldn't be a problem as we haven't started yet.
It makes sense that the Ghostly Warder came from the Hypostasis. My character IS Twilight Prone so it could be argued that he has entered Twilight twice and received the Ghostly Warder and the Supernatural Nuisance as a result.
Frankly, since it is both a bought Virtue and a relative of the magus, I don't see why any explanation is needed aside from the one already given in your character description. If you spend the Virtue points on a Warder you have as much right to one as any other character.
And as regards Warping points, 1 would not be enough. In order to necessitate a Twilight roll you would have had to have acquired at least 2 points at the same time.
Hmm. Interesting arguments. It might be nice for "flavour" to give him some Warping points but, as Boxer says, there's no reason why I can just "have" it.
Actually, 3 points minimum as a simple dice of points is added during twilight. A reasonable amount would hence be 7 or 8 points.
I would, however, personally leave the Flaw (Malignant Magus) and Virtue (Ghostly Warder) as they are. The Flaw doesn't require warping points mechanically, so I wouldn't. This does involve an inconsistency, but I'm fien with that. This is of course up to the SG.
The flaw imposes some effects of twilight, adulterations, without imposing the others - twilight scar, effect, and warping points. If the event has been played out, i.e. a bad twilight would have been experienced in-game or using the extremely-detailed character generation option, the mechanical impact would have been quite different. This isn't all that bad as character generation doesn't really follow character advancement all that closely, but it is a relatively large inconsistency. Perhaps adding a twilight scar, warping points, and XP penalty can serve as a Lesser Malediction flaw.
Ah I see your reasoning. On the other hand insofar as this is a perfectly viable additional new Virtue available to starting Criamon players (or any magus I suppose if they really must have it), it coudl just as easily be explained as some abnormal reaction to the opening of the Gift by his Master or yet another manifestation of the oddities that occur at the junction between the magical and material realms.
I think it simply takes an otherwise vanilla by the book House character and provides it some unique quirks for the SG to mess about with throughout the saga.
Ah well, it doesn't matter now anyway. No-one else noticed it but I had two story flaws and three Personality flaws so one of Malignant Magus or Supernatural Nuisance had to go.........
Someone who is immensely spiritual rather than someone who blindly follows a religion/God. In fact, just reading about it, I would imagine he would be a follower of Zoroastranism if anything - well apart from the whole fire thing!
