Faking Magus Status

Games Discussion Ars Magica
41

Let us say that some enterprising and foolhardy scholar with a minor magical talent has decided to fake being a magus and infiltrate the legendary and secretive Order of Hermes for some reason. He already speaks Latin and has a good Artes Liberales, and some Philosophy (otherwise he isn't much of a scholar).

He presents himself as Master Mimicus at a local covenant (somehow; in some sagas there are covenants that are, so to speak, out of the closet), asking for a few days of hospitality, explaining that he is from the other side of Europe, and does not speak the local language. That's not a serious issue, as the magi may well use Latin as their common tongue and there are probably a number of servants who have enough Latin to cope with their masters.

The servants and companions may note that Mimicus is not an off-setting sort (presuming he isn't afflicted such with a Flaw), the way the magi are, but it's possible that's not so odd, especially if they've dealt with Jerbiton magi. Redcaps are also magi (socially at least) and they don't set people off. The magi will not notice this; the Parma Magica screens the effect of the Gift out.

Mimicus has no OOH Lore, and probably does not think to give to give the name of his master; that's a little odd, but not very odd. There are magi who don't refer to their parents, for various reasons. Mimicus probably doesn't name his House either, unless he's done a fair amount of research and learned the names of Houses. This would be very strange; most magi formally introduce themselves by name and House. Here, Mimcus is in direct danger of being suspected.

Worse yet would be to name a House that he does not reflect: A Flambeau with a meek attitude in plain brown robes, or a Criamon in rich silks and a full head of hair with no visible stigmata and who speaks plainly, or espouses straightforwardly ordinary Christian philosophy. Now, he's in trouble.

Mimicus would have to set himself up pretty carefully to pull this off. He might be able to claim great ignorance of the Order as a new recruit; maybe the magi ask him helpful leading questions, but it seems like he's dancing in a minefield.

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42

It may seem that the Order is a bit more secretive in your saga, @TimOB, than I would assume for mine.

All it takes to get around the more serious traps you describe is to have met a couple of magi wearing suitable attire and making suitable introductions.

By canon there might well be books on OoH lore circulating outside the Order. This is described for the papal legate in Antagonists. However, the book does make it clear that the troupe has to find out just how unlikely that be in their saga, and how secret the Order wants to be.

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Makes me think of an outlandish scenario where every single magus in a given covenant is some kind of impostor and unaware of their brethren's treachery. That would be quite hilarious.

I agree that an university is a good starting point for knowledge requirements.

Also i just thought about something: age, a 18 year old boy claiming to be a magus would be suspicious, a 14 year old one would be suicidal.

Arthur's comment about social upbringing is interesting as well, faking the conditioning of 15 years of hard tutelage is probably a feat outside of the scope of peasant and even most mundane society.

This is surely an interesting story, poor Diedne magus maybe just wanted to study and contribute to the order, maybe he smuggles in his researches through his pawns into the order's library? And upon closer inspection this knowledge isn't tainted. Do the end justify the means? Should he be exposed for his diabolism or left to live for the good of the order, at a price of a few infernalist souls.
All in all, having an hermetic partner solves the "knowing about the order" problem. Wonderful!

Conforming to the stereotypes may be necessary, but avoiding being a caricature would also be one i'd say, which makes the deed way trickier. A particularly zealous Flambeau would raise some eyebrows as to why the covenant has never heard of him.

Considering the 15 years of apprenticeship, he would have to claim an equally ignorant parens as well.

And mundanes could also fall in the trap of following superstitions about magi.
A peasant claiming to be a court wizard of the local lord, thinking its a common practice, is just asking for trouble.

As for the secrecy of the order, that is obviously a YSMV matter.

What i'm wondering is if one could forge such a sigil, or is there a secret in their confection?

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I have often wondered about the nature of these sigils. They are described for some houses, but far from all of them. Even when they are described, it is not obvious that they cannot be forged. They probably carry some kind of mark of testimony from the parens or from a quasitoris or both, but this seems to depend on the house. There is no indication that they would be magical or otherwise difficult to manifacture. They have to fit the norms of the house of course, but I am not convinced that Ex Misc have any such norms.

Attending tribunal, it is residency in the tribunal which is going to be hard to prove, much harder than proving membership. Novgorod might be easy, but in any other tribunal, I don't think you have a chance without having either a redcap or a covenant mate to vouch for you.

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45

I suspect you would have to establish yourself as a wandering magus first, probably one whose official residence is in another tribunal, and then find a covenant to join so you can pretend to leave the covenant you are not a member of in order to join.
Of course in Hibernia you might be able to pretend to be a magus on macgnĂ­martha might be your way of establishing yourself.

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How would that work? You would have to pass your gauntlet afterwards, and how do you do that without a master to vouch for you?

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Recruit. I did say Ex Miscellanea, did I not?

Edit: It was in an earlier post.

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I do not doubt they can be forged, but first you have to know about them, and they are a bit obscure. It's one thing to know what a red cap means and what a quaesitor does, it's another to know about a bit of administrative trivia. Usually a sigil is your magical sigil; voting sigils (probably) only appear in Tribunal, to vote. This is not the sort of thing to come up in conversation.

Of course, Mimicus may not have voting or even attending Tribunal in mind.

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49

Oh right, my bad, all my apologies.
I'm not too familiar with those practices yet. Until i started really reading about AM, i just assumed the Order murdered every gifted person who could not become an apprentice.

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Your average member of the Order is not interested in non-member Gifted who are not a threat. The ones who are interested are as likely to want to study them as "Join or Die!" them. Even the "Join or Die!" ones will ignore hedge mages who are not powerful, since they are not worth the time and effort (never mind the potential of becoming a laughing stock for bringing such poor beings into the Order).

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51

You simply let on that your master passed you when you have established the proper relationship with a covenant to join. It's not like they typically ask for a letter of reference.

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The tl;dr of this entire thread appears to be that getting a foot in the door is amazingly easy, but maintaining the cover for any length of time would be very difficult indeed.

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54

Then, of course, is the question of response, which could be slow and painful, swift and painful, fatal, humiliating, entertaining, educational, cautionary, or several combinations of those.

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There is an entire rpg based on such a setting (not Mythic Europe): Paranoia.

https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1431855571439.pdf

It is out for decades in different versions already.

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56

Yeah, paranoia's a classic, we have someone in my group that makes one-shots from time to time.

I guess @Cyborg accurately summed up the discussion.
Apparently, anyone could try it, even non gifted people, given sufficient basic knowledge of the order, but then the real deal is fitting in, and that's when the character's skills, knowledge and powers, influence their longevity in the order.

I thank all of you for this wonderful talk! I've learned a lot and i hope you all did as well.

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57

I have a question that follows from this statement. I have always assumed it's the Parma Magica that stops the effects of the Gift and not magic resistance in general. So a knight that carries a holy relic will have magic resistance, but still feel the negative social effects of the Gift. Does anyone play this differently?

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I agree. It is also evident from the fact that some magic creatures have a virtue not to react badly to the Gift, and that would be nonsense if their might sufficed.

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If blocking the social effects of the Gift was something done by all Magic Resistance rather than just the Parma Magica, it would be mentioned in the write-up of Magic Resistance rather than specifically in the write-ups of Parma Magica and the Gift.

AM5, p.76 when talking about the social effects of the Gift says "The Parma Magica blocks these effects (negative social) of The Gift entirely. A maga with a Parma Magica is not bothered by the Gifts of other magi, although other people are still bothered by her Gift. This effect may have been as valuable as magic resistance in aiding the foundation of the Order"

If Magic Resistance blocked the social effects of the Gift, it would be stated in places like this instead of specifically the Parma Magica. However at every location in the core book discussing blocking the social effects of the Gift, it is Parma Magica rather than Magic Resistance which is mentioned.

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All Hermetic Magi have Magic Resistance from their Forms even without the Parma Magica. Yet it is the Parma Magica which is always singled out as blocking the negative effects of the Gift.
Otherwise there would be little problem teaching a group of Gifted apprentices together if MR was enough.

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Even more, the core book has discussions of how creatures of the Infernal (p. 196) and Divine (p. 198) Realms are affected by the Gift. Which would have been much less relevant if their MR just blocked it.