Ezio

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Canaries Are Dying
1

Ezio
Characteristics: Int +3(-4), Per +1(-3), Pre 0(-4), Com +1(-3), Str +1(-3), Sta +2(-2), Dex -3(-7), Qik +1(-3)
Size: 0(-2)
Age: 6 (6), Height: 5'6'', Weight: 158 lbs, Gender: Male
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift, Hermetic Apprentice
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +1, Attack --, Defense +1, Damage --
Fist: Init: +1, Attack -3, Defense +1, Damage +1
Kick: Init: +0, Attack -3, Defense +0, Damage +4
Soak: +2
Fatigue levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Italian 5, Charm 2, Folk Ken 1, Stealth 2, Guile 1, Swim 1, Scots Gaelic 3 (Insula Canaria dialect) (2)
Arts: Cr 0, In 0, Mu 0, Pe 0, Re 0, An 0, Aq 0, Au 0, Co 0, He 0, Ig 0, Im 0, Me 0, Te 0, Vi 0
Equipment:
Encumbrance: 0 (0)

Characteristics and size in parentheses are adjusted for age. Otherwise, they are as they would be when he turns 15. I have not added any virtues and flaws. Totally open to input based on Apprentices.

2

Note, this is Ezio advanced from age 5 to age 6. I had him as 5 years old when Talia arrived. For his year of advancement (which I can revise to standard XP) I had him practicing Scots Gaelic.
At the time he is interviewed by Eilid, he has a score of two, and his specialty in Insula Canaria's dialect..

3

Peregrine, I noticed your thread in the ars forum. I don't really have a strong opinion. Septs seem to be a political construct within the House more than anything, but i'm far from a Bjornaer expert. :smiley:

Is my potential selection of an eagle heartbeast causing some concern? Or are you just trying to wrestle in the incongruity of the sept concept? This one came out of left field for me, I wasn't really even thinking of an NPC being his master if we decided he was to be Gifted. I was leaving Talia's son's name unmentioned because I was going to fit him to the particular master, and I thought it might be a PC. I had names sketched out and was going to just call him "my son" until someone called me on it OOC and I explained why he didn't have a name, or someone took him as an apprentice. I just went with Ezio because the name was handy, selected for Arya's character being his potential master. If you want Eilid to live long enough, I can change the heartbeast.

4

Only thing I don't like about septs is the idea you're always in the same one as your parens. Each heartbeast type would be assigned to one or two septs, were that the case. That's why Halie went and joined a different one than Corvus'. It shouldn't be that uncommon, imo.

5

No, it's not that. I was just glancing through the section of HoH: MC about Bjornaer apprenticeships, and the whole thing about septs has been bothering me for a long time. It's not that I have a problem with their tradition of sharing apprentices, I'm just trying to figure out how you can a sept of more than one or two people with as small as the book says House Bjornaer is.

I'm leaning toward scrapping the Sept entirely unless either I or someone else can come up with a good reason not to. And I'm not really buying Tugdual's theory that the clans are all mostly in one or two tribunals (like, one clan in a couple of Tribunals, another in a couple more, and like that). i would think they would be more spread out.

My kneejerk reaction when you mentioned Ezio's name being related to his possible heartbeast (once I checked behindthename.com and saw what it meant) was that it could be problematic, but that was before I reread the section on temperaments and the House being able to give an apprentice to someone with a more suitably temperamented heartbeast, and thinking that it was quite likely that they would give him to Halie (assuming she's still around), since she also has an Eagle(ish) heartbeast. A quick Google search indicates that eagles don't hunt deer (especially red deer, like Eilid, although I did find a couple links showing large eagle attacking the much smaller roe deer). So, barring any territorial conflict with Halie, his having an Eagle heartbeast shouldn't be a problem, but that's still like 16 years off, game-time.

But we can go ahead and pencil in "eagle" for now, and if we want/need to down the road, we can change it.

6

If the master loses an apprentice if the heartbeasts don't match, I can't see why they would wait for the Ritual of Twelve Years to find out. If I found a potential apprentice, I'd march him/her to Crintera and find out if we fit each other before investing time into training.

7

Ignoring the sept and focusing on the aspects...
Eagles are Sanguine-choleric.
Deer are Choleric-melancholic.

So there is some intersection, some points of agreement and disagreement? All in all, I have found the Bjornaer section of Mystery Cults to be confusing, contradictory and convoluted. I need a mystagogue. :stuck_out_tongue:

8

I always picture Bjornaer get-togethers to be pretty surreal and a little awkward. The young Katerina plays with Jon Arnsson's catullus... Jon walks along and admonishes the boy, "Don't play with your food, discipulus." Mikhail rushes over to his niece and drags her away... She says "But Unca Mikki, he LIKES me!" Poor Mikhail has to explain, "He's only after one thing..."

9

I'm rereading the section on "The Awakened Years" in HoH: MC (bottom of p. 16), where it says that the sept chooses the apprentice's master after his Awakening, although the House can decide to place him with someone else. And "a particularly valued apprentice may provoke fierce politicking, brawling, or Certamen" to see who gets him.

I'm thinking that an unremarkable apprentice will almost certainly stay with the maga who found him unless there's a compelling reason not to (for example, if a Deer maga finds out that her apprentice has a Wolf heartbeast, or a Bear magus finds that his apprentice is a Salmon, or they share a heartbeast that is very territorial).

If the apprentice is exceptionally talented (very high Int, for example, or Puissant/Affinity something-or-other), there may be some jockeying for someone trying to claim them, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, I don't see anyone ninja-looting Ezio.