Yikes! Um, the Legion of Mithras and the Knights of Seneca our local Flambeau sect) are not on good terms. Which is not to say "no" by any means. I am just warning you that you will be in for a rough ride.
Marko, I am totally clueless on the Knight sof Seneca?? Would it be better to be a member of them (as i like the concept of the legion, but the details are kinda lame...)
I've glanced through the wiki, and I cant see a dedicated Perdo specialist, so is it alright to run with that idea? If so, I'll be going for an anti-hero type of character 
Btw, I've looked through the forum section, and cant find rules for char gen apart from 40XP/year and ward house rules. Do you want the new characters to be made season by season or just 40XP/year and lab time?
Also, how do you want to handle twilight and mysteries?
Kal
It would be easier and quicker if you did it in bulk form. Just apply 40xp per year of advancement, plus the number of seasons for lab work.
For Mysteries, I believe the troupe has agreed on a benchmark of 2 seasons for a Minor Mystery and 4 for a Major (subtract one season for a Minor Ordeal and two for a Major ordeal).
Warping begins accumulating one point per year when you first take your Longevity potion (presuming you have no other continual effects). For Twilight, play it by ear. Sprinkle some Warping points on yourself and roll it out.
Quick synopsis on the Knights of Seneca: They were first established as a societas during the Schism War, and their initial members consisted of Delendar filius Flambeau, Valdarius of Flambeau (a Verditius magus who renounced his original house), and Julius filius Delendos. Julius led the KoS during the era of El-Cid, and was an ally of his. El Cid brokered a peace agreement between the Senecans and a band of Sahirs (who later went on to form the covenant of Estancia es Karida). With his Flambeau and Sahir allies, El Cid went on to conquer Valencia and sponsored a covenant for the magi. After he died, without the Cid's charisma to unite them, the covenant broke apart as the embers went there separate directions. There are less than 20 Knights of Seneca in the Order of Hermes, and they are mostly (but not exclusively) Flambeau magi of Mercurian descent. They believe that the old original Flambeau story is the truth, and the new story (the 5th ed revision) is a fabrication created by the Legion of Mithras in order to take control of the leadership of House Flambeau (thus the animosity). About a hundred years ago, some Senecans came to Andorra in search of the truth behind the mysteries and legends of their foundation. It turns out that Andorra was the covenant of Delendos and Valdarius during the outbreak of the Schism War. The Archmagus who currently leads the covenant, Antonio of Flambeau, is the current Grandmaster of the Knights of Seneca.
The KoS accepts magi of all schools of magical combat, and they even accept Mithrites who are willing to shed their false beliefs and convert. The school of Apromor (Perdo) is totally cool, as that is a Mercurian based tradition. They also pioneered the School of Delendos (Creo) and the School of Julius (Skilled Parens, reflecting intensive diverse training by multiple elders). The School of Valdarius is a Verditius lineage.
Flambeau’s vulgar name was Reculed Annaeus Seneca. His true master and mentor was Delendar. His origins are based in Mercurian and Visgothic magic. The Liars of Mithras falsely claim Flambeau's teacher was some Mithrite priest named Labarius. Flambeau died in battle, in a dramatic last stand against the Sahirs (after a truce negotiation went horribly awry). The claim that he retired to a monastery is false, and was fabricated by Elaine to protect the secrets of the Founder. Legend has it that Elaine was actually Flambeau's daughter, not his apprentice (she was schooled by Apromor and Delendos, the only two apprentices that survived after the final battle). This all connects to the legend of the Lumina, the supposed lost lineage of Flambeau. Many modern magi believe Lumina stories are merely an allegorical myth, but the magi of Andorra have reason to believe otherwise.
Ah, cool. Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I knew little about the Flambeau in previous eidtions (played Bjournaer & Bonisagus magi) so I'm guessing I missing alot about the differences in the background changes between 4th & 5th....
For my character, I was thinking either she is the eldest/2nd eldest filius of Philipus Niger, of Durnmear, or she is the youngest filius of Philipus's pater, not sure which way to go on that one atm, but along the lines of a direct lineage from Apromor in one way or another, originally born somewhere in the Iberian tribunal area....
Twilight wise, I have some ideas for accquired virtues/flaws, running along a theme. I'm planning on having Boosted Magic spell masteries, so I'll assume my warpping hits came from those spells going wrong....
As to mysteries, I cant really see a cult then that would work for the this character and saga, so I may jsut avoid them...
Kal
Let us take a look at the Jerbiton you are thinking about 
Philipius Niger is pretty old. If you want to attatch yourself to him, I would suggest that you may be his youngest filius, or perhaps the filius of his filius.
And yeah, Mysteries are overrated and can be a sticky widget sometimes. But if you want to play a Mithrite who has "seen the light" and wishes to separate from that cult, that could be interesting.
("Light" is a reoccuring theme in this saga)
Oh, "Boosted" mastery is a Mutantes sort of thing (House Mercere). It is still possible that you could have it, you would need to explain how you gained access to it though. However, I do have a varient of Boost that I created for Mercurian magi, called "Amplify". Similar to oost, you can alter R/D/T. You can also use it to increase the magnitude of damage caused by a combat spell. However, it is more limited than Boost in that the maximum number of pawns you can use to "Amplify" is equal to your Mastery score.
Amplify seems very nice, maybe a little too nice even...as i cant see the mastery score as a vis limit that limiting...unless of course you go round casting 5 copies and boosting each one by several different factors....
I have a draft version of my Flambeau down - but i'll need to type him up for the forums (I use spreasheets to make characters), but I'm out most of tonight, so it will probably be midnight tonight or tomorrow morning.
I havent taken skilled parens in the end, so I doubt Philipus would be my paren...
Btw, how much vis down we have to play with during the 20 years, and I assume I can use that vis to comission enchanted items from house verditius (as my magus will suck at crafting items)?
Kal
You have the vis you need to make what you need to make (items, longevity, familiar, etc). No one else has comissioned items during CharGen, so I don't want to go down that road. You should be okay. Flambeau magi are generally pretty awesome at everything they do :mrgreen:
In game though, you can commission items from our local Verditius magus. If there is a specific item that the character concept requires, let me know. I can make it for you in exchange for a few seasons of service (meaning I will design the item and give it to you at the cost of adding a few seasons to your age).
The Amplify Mastery limitation works well considering that you need to dump serious xp into it in order to "boost" things to any sever degree. I also allow a Mastery called "Flex". You choose a single specific parameter and can flex it in a specific way, determined when you take the Mastery. You can take it a second time fr a different parameter, but cannot flex them both at the same time.
There are two items I would like.
The first is a Sword of Quality, +4 Atk, which I was writing he took early in his career (as they are relatively cheap to make, so I assume quite young veridtius magi can make them).
The second is a lot more potent/useful - a cloak of quality, +4 soak (aka protection) enchanted with Aura of Inconsequence that has extra magnitutdes added to it to increase the roll to notice the wearer...that one would have been accquired late in his 20 years, after a bout of twilight gave him the Balant Gift...
EDIT: Damn, just realised that the cloak would probably need to be lvl 30+, which means warpping each time its used, which is pointless and dangerous, os instead just make it a Cloak of Quality, +4 Soak, so another cheap item...
Apart from those, I need 3 pawns to enchanted a ring and 5 to open it, so 8 total....
Kal
A connection to Philipus Niger as his "grand-filius" would work. Marko informed us recently that there is an emity/rivalry between Philipus Niger and the local Archmagi at Andorra, however, so there may be something in the way of disapproval from Philipus Niger for working too closely with Andorra.
Unless, of course, the character has been sent to spy on Andorra. Which the local Archmagi will probably suspect.
I jacked the warping theshold to level 35, so no worries.
So, you want a sword and a cloak, and vis to make your own ring. The vis is yours.
The sword and cloak...
Take a year off of your development time and let me get back to you
Which would make for excellent story material down the road, and a good reason to take the Mentor flaw 
New House Rule
If you take the Virtues of Apt Student &/or Book Learner, you may benefit from them during post gauntlet development. This has already been established. But I want to reign in the effects a slight tad and balance them together.
So...
During a five year block of Advancement during character generation (200xp), you can take advantage of Apt Student (+5xp) 6 times, and you can benefit from Book Learner (+3xp) 10 times. Thus, either virtue provides a bonus of +30xp every 5 years.
The Rationale: Apt Student requires a Teacher, which is not as easily available as a Book. The allowance of six is generous and presumes you are playing to your strengths.
What about Independant Study, as I intend to take that?
Kal
The same applies for Independent Study, in the abstract of bulk development it provides an average of +30xp every five years.
Cool.
I have him all gen'ed up, with the extra XP for Independant Study, I'm just wiritng his background atm - coming up with names is a pain. Btw, I was going to go with Lucas Santiago, but I've got a feeling the Knight Santiago are already around at this time and Santiago is in NW spain, whereas I was planning for him to be from NE Spain (near Barcelona), so i may shorten it to Lucas Santo instead?
Kal
The Knights of Santiago are indeed active in this era, but that ist still a cool name. Lucus Santo works well also. I can dig it.
For languages: If you are from the Barcelona/Catalonia area, your native language is Catalan.
I also group Leonese, Castilian, and Aragonese together as Spanish (which is not yet a concept in this time, but these languages are indeed what we moderns refer to as Spanish). Spanish and Catalan speakers understand each other with a -2 penalty to their language score.
An effect designed for the person in question doesn't cause Warping, remember--just as long as you don't buy things "off the rack", you're OK.
Scott
However if it causes an effect on you, you can be warped by the constant magical effects.
In any case, presumably the effect would be on the cloak, not the person.
Scott