Greetings all:
What are the mechanics of initiating Faerie Magic? (Mystery mechanics, i.e. specific initiation elements, is there Teaching Quality involved, etc). Perhaps this has been answered elsewhere, but I'm playing a Merinita apprentice and was curious.
Furthermore, if you are initiated into a Mystery, are you considered to know that script (to write down, to initiate others, to modify, etc...).
Thanks in advance!
Callout box on pg. 92 of AM5th. Looks to be like a simplified version of The Mysteries - you take the single flaw, and you get the virtue. But it needs to be roleplayed out. Which, in turn, implies that there's an implicit ceremony involved, but that it's trivial for anyone that already has the virtue.
EDIT - that said, this is pre TMRE, or even HoH:MC. Were I to house-rule it, I'd say that it's technically an initiation script that so well-written and fine-tuned that it has a base initiation of 0, and is so ingrained into the culture of the relevant MC that it's actually part of the base MC Lore. (ie, you'll know if if you put even 1 point into the relevant Lore ability, as it's literally on the first page of the first book that you read. Or else everyone who teaches it to you starts off with "...well, once I came up for air with the Holly on my head..." or whatever.
Thanks, I was looking for the post TMRE/HoH:MC mechanic. Weird that the Verditius and Bjornaer script for their basic Outer Mystery is detailed in HoH:MC, but not the Merinita's, when there are several paragraphs on Faerie Magic in that very book, expanding Faerie Magic's uses into a skill proper.
Specifically, does the Mystagogue have to teach you for the whole season (bringing up Teaching skill totals), or just the usual 7-day distraction?
Let's see, as a thought exercise: this is a Minor Virtue known by the Mystagogue, TN 15,
Script calls for Mystagogue's time (+3), you need Faerie Warping or Faerie origins to be initiated into it (+5 Sympathy, being extremely generous), Initiate sacrifices time serving the Mystagogue (+3) -apprentice serves her parens for 15 years?, Travel to a certain place of Faerie significance (+ 3). Thus, Script is +14, and parens need only have House Merinita Lore + Presence = 1
In this case, Mystagogue teaches House Merinita Lore (Teaching Advancement rules)*, and Initiates the adept into Faerie Magic skill 1 in the same season.
Does this make sense? Or is Faerie Magic initiated when the Arts are Opened?
And this Script needs to be modified (which can be difficult) to Initiate other Magi that join House Merinita. And that Script should be very well-known, as in canon this has happened often.
*Note that the Apprentice needs at least 1 rank of Mystery lore (by TMRE rules), in this case House Merinita Lore. However, the Verditius Initiation contradicts this ("A Verditius Initiate does not need a score in Verditius Cult Lore to be initiated into the Outer Mystery of the House.")
Yes.
I suspect that this is due to backwards-compatability with the core book's Verditius template. I'd suggest ignoring that sentence and requiring Verditius characters to have some House Verditius Lore; it's more colorful this way.
I would say that all you need is a point of warping from a Faerie source, just like it says in Core. Yes, it is VERY easy. Yes, the Merinita WILL teach anyone who asks, going so far as to provide the Warping if needed. They are eager to do so. Toooo eager perhaps?.........
My theory on this is that they're eager to teach it precisely because it is so easy. By teaching it, they can get folks to agree to be a part of House Merinitia, and thereby grants them a bit of control over its direction, including getting them to agree to the while "I promise not to spread the secrets of my mystery cult" idea. In contrast, f they didn't teach it, some (politically insensitive) Bonisagus would just take a point of warp, find an actual farie to teach him (outside of House Merinitia) and then spend a few years fully integrating it into Hermetic magic.
Sure, they've still got all the OTHER parts of their MC there - but taking out their Outer Mystery is a bit of a mood-killer.
Well maybe there is a hidden reason for that. One could just wavehand saying that Merinita are crazy folks that do things for no reason, but what if there is a purpose for that eagerness?
Faerie Magic is a wonderful virtue not only for Merinita and people interested in dealing with the Fae in a, let's say, peaceful way, but for Fae hunters, craving for vis that they will be able to spend with more efficiency that the usual limit of 2 x MT would impose. So I can see a lot of people trying to learn Faerie Magic for reasons absolutely opposed to those usually encouraged by most of House Merinita (I guess it's OK to kill a nasty fae from time to time, but I guess that the mass fae slaughter for Vis extraction is not a very sponsored attitude). So maybe at some point some Merinita had the idea of developing another initiation script, so there would be two kinds of scripts initiating Faerie Magic.
The first one would be like the one Ignes.Festivus wrote, to be used on Merinita apprentices, and people truly interested in dealing with the fae, who will actually become Merinita Magi.
The second one would be for these interested in things opposed to what Merinita magi encourage, and it would work pretty much like a sting to lure them into hunting fae or deal with them in bad ways, from a Merinita point of view... while in fact its working to make them interact with Faeries in a position that actually makes them mpre prone to being played by the Fae. For example:
Script to Initiate the Faerie Pawn: Initiates Faerie Magic, minor virtue known by the Mystagogue, TN 15:
Script requires Faerie Warping or Faerie origins (+5 Sympathy), Initiate sacrifices time serving the Mystagogue (+3), Minor ordeal (+3: Initiate unknowinly gets the Flaw Susceptibility to Faerie Power), Special place & time (+3), Initiate spends material goods or wealth (+1).
So in this way if a peaceful Merinita gets approached by a Flambeau wanting to slaughter a bunch of faeries to harves a mountain of Vis, he can deal with him without wasting too much of his time, getting a free season of a probably quite skilled lab assistant, gaining some goods like (a nice tractatus, some magical item or whatever), and send the guy right to the faes knowing that if he finally gets himself in the pressence of the Faerie Queen, his halved Parma will probably keep her safe, quite entertained whith her new toy and even grateful with the Merinita Mystagogue.