So, in reviewing the Durenmar write up in Guardians of the Forest, (one of my players has a mage there at the moment, for a year) I note that the grogs there will tend to warp quite a bit, generally gaining a flaw at 5 and 30 years old, and a virtue around 75, depending on their specific exposure (custos may warp sooner, for example). So far as I can tell the magi at Durenmar do not make any effort to limit their grogs' exposure.
I'm curious if anyone has played to a warping pattern with their grogs based on the local aura. The Durenmar grogs are supposed to be a quiet lot, with some deformed, and possibly long-lived. That doesn't shout out a very clear pattern to me.
I also wonder to what extent these warping effects are passed along to the warped children.
(The mage and grogs won't be there long enough to actually warp. I'm just thinking ahead.)
In my saga, the players' covenant doesn't have an aura strong enough to warp the grogs (only magic 5). The grogs are dealing with warp due to a mass longevity effect, which I am running with a clear pattern of becoming dragon-like (avarice, sensitive to cold, etc). Should the aura increase to 6+, my plan is for the warping to be fairly random, but nothing that would adversely harm their livelihood/profession. I have passively ruled that warping effects are not inheritable unless the child is Gifted, or if the offspring becomes warped later in life on their own, then it's a 50/50 chance of the trait being similar to the parent.
It does occur to me that a child conceived, carried to term, and born in a 6+ aura should have magical gifts that render it immune to warping from auras...
That last one would not work for most sagas, I should think. It would hugely unbalance Mythic Europe, and basically hugely buff all the grogs of all longer-term covenants, plus there's that whole question over whether Magic beings still have souls. Warping is meant to be mostly a bad experience for mundane beings, though the normally negative effects can occasionally be taken advantage of by inventive magi.
Personally, I'd either consider the baby to not be their own being until they're born (Ancient Magic seems to treat it this way, with spells targeting babies being T:Part spells cast on the mother) and thus not start Warping until they're born, or just have their time in the womb count as normal time for gaining Warping.
... Yes it does. They are disorganized, yet efficient and capable, and also generally unobtrusive. This sounds much like a classic mage's stereotype of their servant-class.