Effects of various breakthroughs

Games Discussion Ars Magica
43

Shedding warping, from a mythic perspective, would be a rejection of the supernatural and I'd expect it to involve the loss of supernatural and hermetic virtues and flaws (sort of a reverse of a twilight episode), talismans, familiars, possibly even the Gift is things go wrong.

Age and warping are the creeping bugaboos of the game. You don't resolve the problem of warping and age by removing their effects, but by transforming through the total embrace of a Realm (various forms of gaining Might, final twilight, dying and going to heaven, etc.).

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44

Realistically the only way to shed warping currently would be to transform into an entity with Might and the acclimating your way back down to being mortal. That being said there is a suggestion that there might be a connection between how those three things operate that would, of course, be entirely up to the troupe and/or SG.
Reverse twilight does sound like a interesting idea to discover as well...

45

Personally, I was at one point going go write a breakthrough that used the warping reactions of the Folk Witches and Gruagach as insight.

It was going to be a method of transforming your warping points into physical and supernatural flaws by channeling the supernatural taint into specific parts of your body and burning it off in a change to your nature.

The mechanics would be something like-

This is a Rego Vim lab activity. During this activity, form a transformation total:

(Stress die + Warping Score)

At the end of the season, the magus loses points of warping equal to their transformation total. If they lose less than ten points of warping, they gain a general or supernatural minor flaw. If they lose more, they instead gain a major general or supernatural flaw.

The flaw gained should represent the body of the magi becoming more inhuman or obviously supernatural, or be a general flaw that reflects a new way their behavior is being influenced by this supernatural taint.

Magi who know this technique always have a pattern to their transformation. The player decides what, exactly, their magi is becoming (though the magi has no such choice). They may be transforming into a huge human-faced bird, a heartless faerie queen or similar.

The magi's lab total reflects how well controlled the transformation is. For every five points of her lab total, or fraction thereof, the magi gains a poinf of safe transformation. If the magi's transformation total is equal to or lower than these points, the player or the character decides what flaw is gained. They may also reduce the number of warping points lost, to allow a lesser flaw to be gained, if they wish.

If the transformation total exceeds this amount, the transformation is out of control. The story guide picks the flaw gained. Additionally, they may choose to grant the magus another temporary flaw of the same magnitude. Any flaws chosen by the storyguide must still conform to the pattern of warping for the magi, as defined by the player. Temporary flaws either vanish after a year (as the hermetic duration) or after a suitably dramatic moment involving the story flaws of another character in which the magi resolves to cling to their remaining humanity.

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46

Kind of a Gattaca twist to Ars Magica.

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47

makes me think of a breakthrough that would adapt initiations for getting rid of warping points...
or even something akin to comprehending twilight where it will make you more magical as you 'convert' your warping- which could be a good thing or a bad thing...(virtue or flaw)

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48

Honestly one breakthrough which could be huge would be to find a way to summon magi (or their spirits) who have succumbed to final twilight. They are in the magic realm not the divine so it should, in theory, be possible, possibly akin to summoning daemons.

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49

While that is an extremely interesting idea, we would need to figure out some way to get around the lack of ACs. ACs are effectively cut into and out of the Twilight realm, so you would have to travel into the Twilight realms to cast a summons or some (most likely difficult) breakthrough which allows it would have to be completed.

EDIT: The easiest way I can see doing it would require gaining the Magic Realm magic Virtue first, so that a spell which opens a connection from the mundane to Magic Realm could first be cast. The the summoning spell (which YSMV but should require another breakthrough) could be cast through it.

50

I would think that either their corpse could be used as an AC or there could be some way of deriving a "name" as per daimon summoning to contact them a an AC without having to travel into the twilight realm. You certainly don't have to go to the realm of the dead to summon ghosts or into the twilight void to summon daimons who most definitely do live there. Now if it turns out that daimons have been snacking on mages stuck in twilight, then your just out of luck...

51

IIRC there is the Chaldean Magic in Ancient Magic that is a system that can summon the shade of anyone dead who hasn't passed on into Heaven. I don't know if it would cover Twilight or not. I am sure they spell it out, I just don't recall and am not near my books. Doesn't require an AC. Scares the Beejeezus out of Tremere, the concept, apparently, so there is some really good stroytelling to be had if this were to come about.

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52

Technically a magus in final twilight isn't dead... unless of course they are being eaten by daemons...

53

The Order does not even know if "Final Twilight" ("FT", what the Order IG considers final twilight) is actually final or not. Any twilight episode that last long enough to take the Magus out of circulation for an extended period of time could be called "FT". We as players can actually read and know the rules, where as the Magi of the Order do not have as clear a view. As far as they know all Magi in "FT" will actually return from it someday, though that day might be centuries or millennium in the future.

In the view of the Order deciding a Magus has entered "FT", is there actually a difference between mechanically entering Finial Twilight (FT, final twilight by the rules) and just botching a roll which ends a given Magus in Twilight for the next few decades? The Order has no way of telling the difference and tends to declare a Magus has entered "FT" after a few years have past.

You also find interesting tidbits in a few of the books talking about things like a chunk of the Order expects some Magi to return from "FT" centuries later. That could lead to interesting story ideas such as a Magus from the 9th or 10th century suddenly returning 300 years after they were last seen. It is actually possible that they are not actually physically very old or warped but suffered from a massive botch. However their actual age would make them easily the oldest Magus in the Order which could have significant political repercussions.

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54

Especially if the returning magus is of house Diedne...

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55

I love the idea of a student of one of the founders popping back into Durenmar after 300 years in Twilight, and them being super impressed by the state of the art. Contrary to period thought, where the Ancients always knew best, the returned mage reveals that Flambeau was an illiterate brute who could multicast the pilum and little else, that neither of the T siblings were such good necromancers compared to current masters etc

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56

On the other hand- is that because that's how they were or because of a massive failure to comprehend twilight? Imagine the panic that could ensue at the thought of coming back from twilight illiterate...

57

Non Ars, but reminds me of Gandalf and the Balrog - everyone thought he was dead. Likely did do what passes for death, and then was reborn.

I had a beloved Flambeau whose final spell consumed her, and the idea was to bring her back at some point since she lost her body but just needed to find a suitable vessel. No idea if it would then be of Magic Might, ot just something else.