What happens to a magi’s body when they enter Final Twilight?
Durring twilight: “If the maga’s body remains in the real world while she is in Twilight, it is completely immune to magic, mundane damage, aging, and hunger.”
Thanks
I've always ruled it as at the higher end of Warping scores, magi disappear from the real world when they enter Twilight. That way you're never quite sure if they've disappeared for good or just a very long time.
If you're a fan of the "Tomb of the Archmagi" from the 3rd edition Roman Tribunal book, then magi leaving behind an incorruptible corpse (like that of a saint) leaves you with something to place in a suitable resting place.
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Thanks.
Is there anything from 4th or 5th edition about Final Twilight corpses?
I find things a little wierd before 4th Ed.
Maybe the Promises, Promises freebie (or maybe it was the other one) which starts with the founder going into final twilight. I cannot remember if it says what happens to the corpse.
I have another faint memory. Maybe in Antagonist with the papal legate who used to be assistant to a quaesitoris, who also went into twilight.
It could vary much more than that, keep reading. It also pointedly says "Magae with high Warping Scores sometimes disappear physically into the Twilight Void." [emphasis mine]
- An Ignem flambeau might leave an unquenchable flame that burns without fuel. and in final Twilight this could be permanent feature of the spot where they suffered the twilight. The flame thing is mentioned in the last paragraph of that section.
- Bjornaer often take the heartbeast shape and if they have attained the Inner Heartbeast they always become a Great Beast and wander the world, mentioned in HoH:MC. It is less clear if that beast has Human Intelligence of the Magus but changed priorities, the mind of a beast, or a new mind. Either way I don't think they usually talk about it.
- I could see an Herbam magus turning into a plant or a Terram Magus becoming a stone or statue or some other material, etc. Weirder ones might be magi specialized in Imaginem or Mentem, maybe an echo or a thought or emotion that pervades the area and any who walk into it.
- I think Criamon are the most likely to always disappear into the Spharios, Hypostasis, or Twilight Void depending on what you call it but they do also sometimes leave "Final Transmission sites" explained in the Criamon chapter of HoH:MC.
These are just a few of the possibly varied and more interesting Final Twilight possibilities, all except the 3rd bullet explicitly mentioned in 5th ed books.
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Do they ever leave a corpse behind?
I don’t know. Never saw a mention of that but why not? Not sure if corpse is the right term, nothing could affect it, it won’t rot or anything, etc.
based on my previous response might be particularly suitable for a Corpus Magae.
There's a Great Beast statted in Legends of Hermes (pg 78) which has Cunning rather than Intelligence.
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Great
Beasts have succumbed to Final Twilight
and become creatures of the Magic realm;
however, they were once human, and most
are still in possession of true Intelligence.
Despite this, they now possess wholly
different motivations and goals, most of
which are utterly inscrutable.
HoH:MC p29
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In my group we've been going quite Ad Hoc, so the (final) Twilight takes different forms. We did bring back from a fallen Covenant Crawl near Smyrna, with the 3m tall statue resulting from the final twilight of a Giant Blooded Te mage of the same Ex misc Tradition as one of the PCs, who, IIRC, set it in her lab as a feature.
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Darkwing, that false saint idea is genius.
I remember that in a previous edition, a character had gone into Twilight and left a corpse that could not learn and only spoke rote phrases (philosophical zombie). Some question in setting as to it's Finality.
One of the players in my Stonehenge saga was trying to deal with Immanola who is in (probably) final Twilight. She was just sitting there in front of a fireplace in a rocking chair, slowly rocking, stick in something akin to a time loop.
In a previous saga, the old guide NPC Criamon disappeared from reality, but his familiar turned to stone while he was in Twilight.
I've always either had the person disappear from physical reality during the twilight, or 'freeze' in some fashion (time-stuck, one instance of petrification). I try to take the magical flavor of the magus/their sigil into consideration when deciding the results.
tricky.
though in the Societas book, I think it said Immanola was watching a reflecting pool for something like 7 years before Final Twilight was declared.
Isn't that merely a Beast of Virtue rather than a Great Beast?
ie a Bjornaer not initiated into the Inner Mysteries of the House.
That is a Great Beast for sure. Why they also call her a Beast of Virtue is unclear.
I am away from my books at the moment, but don't only Bjornaer initiated into the inner Mysteries become Great Beasts on Final Twilight? The rest become Beast of Virtue without Int scores?
A Bjornaer that hasn't initiated the Inner Heartbeast will take the form of his heartbeast and become a mundane beast upon Final Twilight.
Beasts of Virtue are a specific kind of magical animals, that generally don't have much to do with Bjornaer magi.
One of the type variations of the Bjornaer Inner Mystery, the Mystery of the Epitome, is described (HoH:MC pg 30) as follows:
The Great Beast shows the magus how to perfect the form of his heartbeast so that it is a perfection of the base form and a closer reflection of the ideal form of that creature — a Beast of Virtue. A Beast of Virtue is a supernatural version of a mundane beast. In appearance it does not vary substantially from the mundane animal, although it may be larger and more impressive. This is the most common path of House Bjornaer, bringing the magus into closer contact with the essence of his true self.
So my guess is that the maga in question had been through that particular initiation, and the Final Twoilight result is then either a Beast of Virtue or something close enough to be described as such.
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I had forgot that mystery was described in that way, but on reflection it does make sense..