Recently I learned that Trianoma and Bonisagus had a son and figured his boy would be a pretty cool candidate for mythic blood.
I'm wondering what would be a good personality flaw and magical focus for the descendent of the two founders of the greatest magical organization in Europe?
Personality Flaws
For Trianoma, Busybody, Higher Purpose (The good of the order), or Meddler. For someone descended from Bonisagus - Seeker.
Magical Focus
For Bonisagus - Exotic Magic.
I think there's a known focus tied to Trianoma somewhere - and I don't remember where or what it is.
Could it be "snakes"?
From the witch of thessaly tradition isn't it "major focus in spirits" (and summoning)? I don't know where I found that information for my current saga.
I thought for a descendant of Bonisagus a suitable Minor Magical Focus might be Understanding Magic, which would apply to Intellego Vim spells for detecting and identifying spells, and for a Personality Flaw how about Noncombatant.
Thessalian Witches Ex Misc have the Major Non-Hermetic Virtue of Summoning along with the Minor Virtue Affinity with Vim and the Major Flaw Painful Magic (HoH:S).
(Infernalist Witches of Thessaly have Chthonic Magic, Commanding, Hex and Summoning as Favoured Abilities (ROP:I).)
Trianoma and Viea were good at curses, though that's probably too broad for a focus. Rival Magic suggests that Trianoma was better at curses (hexes), whereas Viea was better at summoning and commanding spirits. (Trianoma also had visions, though that would be a Supernatural Story Flaw rather than a Personality Flaw for Mythic Blood.)
I think Exotic Magic is far too broad a category for a Minor Magical Focus. It covers pretty much everything whereas a Minor Magical Focus would cover a narrow application of one Form or Technique and one or two others.
Take a look at HoH:S p.126: the Magical Focus for Exotic Magic is a Minor Hermetic Virtue for Pralicians.
Note that the actual meaning of the Focus in "Exotic Magic" is fairly specific. If I don't misremember, what it applies to is Vim effects targeting hedge magic. (I.e. not Hermetic magic, and not creature powers or natural phenomena.)
That seems like a reasonable Minor Focus to me.
Edit: It's also worth noting that the "name" of any focus is really only a shorthand, and it's always worth being clear about what it is intended to cover, to make sure the troupe is on the same page.
I have... it reminds me that I never cared much for the whole Lineage of Pralix concept as I had some ideas of my own that predated buying that book. That's why I skimmed over the Minor Magical Focus but looking again I still think it's far too broad. In the main rules it says the field covered by the focus should be narrower than a single Technique and Form combination, but this one seems to cover Intellego, Muto, Perdo and Rego as they apply to non-Hermetic magic. That's seriously bad news for hedge wizards.
Yep. But far less than Vim: no Hermetic magic, no beings with Might, no powers from Might, only Magic realm - and no Creo.
It's a reasonable rule - but might not apply in your sagas.
the parma is already bad news. The focus is just the cherry on the cake.
Even with those limits I still think it's way overpowered.
You're overestimating how many effects you can actually do. Intellego Vim doesn't require specific spells to analyse an hedge wizard's work. So the focus only applies if you're investigating an enchantment in the lab because you'll be using regular quaesitorial spells to detect them. Muto Vim doesn't work on non-hermetic magic. So any "change" you're making is done by using Rego Vim - which has a single guideline to handle to sustain or suppress non-hermetic magic. Then you can dispel stuff. Which is about as much as you get in Perdo. It's a decent niche focus for someone spending a lot of time integrating non-hermetic magic into magic theory, which Bonisagus did, and it was no doubt decent for Pralix breaking spells, except that, you don't really need a focus in dispelling non-hermetic magic effects in 99% of campaigns that don't involve a crusade against a rival tradition. Dispelling exotic magic - the hard part is typically understanding the tradition well enough to use the better PeVi guidelines and not go for stuff like dispel everything.
Most minor focus are broader than this.
or more useful. ("wards" cough cough.)
I totally agree with temprobe analysis.
On page 126 of HoH:S it says the focus applies when Hermetic magic is used to change non-Hermetic magic. You are of course absolutely right that Muto Vim can only be used on Hermetic magic because magi need to understand what they are trying to change, but Rego cannot be used to change anything. So I don't think this was especially well thought-out and it comes across as really niche - the kind of thing that's aimed at troupes who are all really into Ars Magica and totally get what's going on with House Ex Miscellenea, Pralix and hedge wizards. I have run various games with some really great players, but I don't know any who would get all fired up by the thought of playing a Magus Ex Miscellenea from the Lineage of Pralix and do stuff that affected exotic magic.
I was of that view too, and at one point believed the focus necessarily had some use for Muto Vim on hedge and rival magic, then someone pointed out that Rego induces changes in states (Water/Ice/Steam being the best example). Hence the sustain / suppress. Yes, change is a word most naturally associate with Muto for good reasons.
Unless you're doing a campaign that heavily involves the Order of Odin or the Order of Suleiman, the primary interest of the lineage is hermetic integration, yeah. The seeker game can be really fun. It's not the most useful focus, but comprehend magic and breaking into ancient tombs to research stuff can be rewarding anyway.
I Guess Higher Purpose would fit