Well, I think I'm going to take ezzelino's advice and ask the sages of the forum for help with the three "surviving" magi of Insula Canaria...especially since I have basically no experience in making older magi (I made one who was 25 years out of gauntlet, but I keep finding things I missed). These characters are going to be used in my upcoming Canaries are Dying saga (which is technically a spin-off of Jonathan.Link's The Ruins of Bibracte, and mad props to him). Creation should be using normal rules (e.g. no house rules about post-gauntlet experience or burning vis or whatever), and using whatever books I have.
Thank you all in advance for your help.
All three magi have seen some screen time in The Ruins of Bibracte saga: in Fiona's prelude, and in her 1221 adventure thread Which reminds me: the saga start time will probably be Spring 1222.
[u]The Covenant Itself[/u]
[tab][/tab]Insula Canaria ("Dog Island") is located on the western shore of the south end of Loch Ness, about two miles north of Fort Augustus. There are actually two islands in the covenant, but the bulk of it is on the mainland. The small island is about 450 feet from shore, just large enough for a laboratory, and is within a Magic 6 Aura. The rest of the covenant, including the extant Cherry Island (where the manor house, for lack of a better word, which houses the council chamber), is in Magic 3. The covenant did, until recently, have a pretty decent library.
The three magi that I would like help making are Drystan ex Merinita, Ion ex Bjornaer, and Doineann ex Miscellanea. Drystan and Ion are about 75 years out of gauntlet, while Doineann is about 50.
Drystan ex Merinita is a Nature Merinita as opposed to a Faerie Merinita. Born and raised in Wales, during and shortly after his apprenticeship in the Stonehenge Tribunal, he found himself more and more appalled by the growing incursion of humanity into land that isn't theirs. If he had been found by a different magus, he could verily easily have become a militant Wilderist Bjornaer, as he shares their philosophy. The lands he grew up in and spent his apprenticeship became "civilized" before his eyes. As he did not yet have the power to effect any changes, he decided to move to Loch Leglean, as it was one of only two or three tribunals that had not yet been overcome by mankind's poisonous influence.
He was an aonaran when he first came to Loch Leglean, soon after his Gauntlet. He had been a magus for about five years when Faileas approached him about founding a covenant on the shores of Loch Ness. The Criamon convinced him that he had seen a Vision that led him to believe that for as long as the covenant stood, that the lands surround the Loch would not succumb to the virulent influence of mankind.
For many years, Drystan has stood against the encroaching tide of civilization, even if it was just in how the physical covenant was designed. But even in the time that he's known Fiona, it seems that age has mellowed him somewhat, and he has come to grudgingly accept that man's conquest of the earth may be inevitable...he may not like it, but he no longer believes that it can be stopped.
In both his arts and his abilities, he is very Nature-oriented. His favoured arts are Creo, Rego, Animal, and Herbam. He has Wilderness Sense, Animal Ken, and Survival, as well as other abilities that allow him to work more easily with plants and animals.
Ion ex Bjornaer is another of the founding members of Insula Canaria, although technically she has been a member for far less time than either Drystan or Faileas. She signed the charter with the others in 1145, but left the covenant ten years later upon her return from the Gathering of Twelve Years. Oddly enough, she then rejoined the covenant after the next Gathering...after Faileas inserted the provision about being a member for life. She is also incredibly old, having been Gauntleted some 85 years ago. It's possible that she may be on the verge of Final Twilight, as she has not been seen in her human form in over two years (as of when Fiona left). Even before then, she has long exhibited a preference for her Heartbeast (an Elk, or Moose in American)...it's possible that it may be due to vanity, as it's easier to spot an aged woman than an aged elk. She is currently in her human form, as she is on the verge of Final Twilight but her last change was extremely difficult and painful. She would like to take another apprentice, but is afraid that she will enter Final twilight before she finishes the apprentice's training.
Her preferred arts are Creo, Muto, Animal, and Corpus. She is also something of a lab rat (surprising, for a Bjornaer) and is responsible for most of the covenant's magical items...including the paired posts that create the bridge connecting the smaller island to the mainland, and the rug in the council chamber which is enchanted with a continuous PeAn to destroy her waste during meetings.
Doineann ex Miscellanea was the last maga to join the covenant before Fiona. She is a self-described Weather Witch, an Elementalist with Puissant Aurum and an affinity for Aurum.
Her other Art of Choice is Creo, but she is also quite skilled in the other ancient elements (Aquam, Ignem, and Terram) as well as the Technique of Rego. She is about 50 years out of gauntlet, and has been a member of Insula Canaria her whole Hermetic life. She can be vindictive, and is not above using her magic for petty reasons.
I tend to disregard PC characters in there since they tend to be much more focussed (read: obsessively so) than I like the characters to be.