I have posted a draft for my Tytalus mage. For suggested entry points, we can either have the mage living undercover in the Nottingham area try and join the covenant, or you could meet him in his persona as a cloth merchant and he could reveal himself to the other magi.
To enter promptly, he needs to venture into the peak district. A peddlar with donkey load of robust woollen and linen cloth might well do that, but a cloth merchant sounds like a posher breed to me. It is your call though ... just a question of the image you want to make of the cloth merchant.
Adventuring feels more likely if he follows the rumour of the sheriff's men hunting powerful warlocks. And being in the trade he may be able to follow clues that the mundane men-at-arms miss.
I think the two scenarioes you suggest are essentially the same. He would have found himself sole survivor of the war, and blending into human society as a cloth merchant seems as good a survival strategy as any.
Good draft.
I think you have 10xp and 20 spell levels still to allocate, is that right?
He has neither profession nor bargain to support his merchant's business; I am not sure if you may come to regret that!?
Simon aged five is fine; anything below ten is fine I think. Do we know what happened to his mother? Did she disappear when the covenant fell? I assume Simon is travelling with his father, anyway.
The 20 spell levels was deliberate, the 10xp was probably me reducing my persona as I thought I'd put the points into something to help me with the one persona I have. Is having Bargain 1 (cloth) and profession: merchant 1 (cloth) enough to get by?
For spells, can I devise new spells? I was thinking of using Intellego spells to help with lack of mercantile knowledge:
Touching Cloth, InAn 10 (base 5 "Learn the origin, age, and history of something made of animal products." +1 touch) By rubbing their fingers over something made of animal products and saying a few words of Latin, the caster can discern the details and quality of an item made from animals such as woolen cloth or leather.
"Knowing the harvest", InHe 10 (base 4 "Learn all mundane properties of a plant or an item made from plant products." +2 voice) Allows the caster the discern the properties of plant or plant products such as linen cloth or a flax plant waiting to be harvested.
Prof: Merchant 1 is enough to avoid making a fool of yourself, but probably not enough to make a living out of it over time. Bargain 1 is ok if your Com is good. Combined with negative Com you would still make losing bargains most of the time, I think.
No problem with custom spells.
Not sure about the base and generality here. I don't think it is primarily age, origin, and history you are interested in, but rather the quality and suitability (fitness for purpose) which would be base 3, cf carpenter's keen eye [Cov]. Or maybe provenance is important for the trade value!? I don't think one spell can do both details in its full generality and the quality and fitness for purpose.
You could make the spell cheaper, if you want, or, I would suggest, it gives details and quality only as far as it is relevant to trade value.
But then the second spell should cover the fitness and quality questions, so maybe you want the first spell to focus on its history? I think my concern just became moot when I read both spells.
Let's try this on for size for one of Luciu's shield grogs. I wrote this in a bit of a vacuum not knowing Luciu's background. Happy to make any and all adjustments. I also liberally stole the character sheet from this thread in the ArM forums. I made a couple adjustments (flaw swap). If something is wrong in the "numbers" I didn't do it. 
But I'm happy to fix it.
My thinking with basic
Name: Jacob "Jack" Burton
Background:
Jacob "Jack" Burton, sometimes called Jack the Giant, grew up at Cad Gadu, the son of a fisherman father and a fishwife mother who plied their trade on the lake and served the covenant well. Jack was big at birth and only went up from there. He was quickly taken in by the shield grogs of Cad Gadu where he trained to be a shield grog.
While Jack is a jovial fellow, his passions run hot whether seeking to bed every woman he sees to defending his responsibility in combat. Sadly, he's not terribly bright and that can get him into tough situations he's sometimes doesn't know how to get out of. He's a good soldier but not likely a good sergeant.
Jack came into Luciu's employ shortly after Luciu's arrival in England. (Note: not exactly sure how to connect Jack to Luciu so wide open to suggestions.)
Age: 26
Characteristics: Int -2, Per +1, Str +2, Sta +2, Pre +1, Com -1, Dex +2, Qik +1, Size +1
Virtues: Custos, Large, Learn Single Weapon from Mistakes
Flaws: Lecherous, Oversensitive (abusive behavior), Poor Student
Personality Traits: Brave +2, Loyal +1, Jovial +3, Determined +1
Abilities:
Area Lore: TBD (military) 2
Area Lore: England (roads) 1
Area Lore: London (taverns) 1
Athletics (jumping) 3
Awareness (searching) 2
Bargain (lodging) 1
Brawl (punch) 3
Carouse (staying sober) 2
Folk Ken (peasants) 1
Language: Latin (Hermetic usage) 4
Language: English (TBD) 5
Profession: Fisher (rivers) 2
Single Weapon (heater shield) 6 -- Learn from Mistakes
Stealth (sneak) 2
Survival (marshes) 3
Swim (underwater) 2
Thrown Weapon (knife) 1
Equipment: Longsword, heater shield, chain mail hauberk, dagger, throwing knife, fish knife, sharpening stone, fishing line and hooks.
Combat:
Dodge: Init: +1, Attack --, Defense +4, Damage --
Fist: Init: +1, Attack +6, Defense +5, Damage +2
Kick: Init: 0, Attack +5, Defense +3, Damage +5
Knife: Init: +1, Attack +6, Defense +4, Damage +4
Dagger: Init: +1, Attack +7, Defense +4, Damage +5
Longsword & Heater Shield: Init: +1*, Attack +11, Defense +12, Damage +8
Longsword: Init: +2**, Attack +10, Defense +8, Damage +8
Throwing Knife: Init: -1*, Attack +5, Defense +3, Damage +4
*Includes Burden penalty of 2 for encumbrance
**Includes Burden penalty of 1 for encumbrance (absence of the shield reduces Encumbrance by 1)
Soak: +8 (+2 without armor) Encumbrance: 2 (7)
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: Light -1 (1-6), Medium -3 (7-12), Heavy -5 (13-18), Incapacitated (19-24), Dead (25+)
I think Custos allows you to learn either Latin or Weapons, but not both. Thus you would need another virtue to support the skill set. (Serf's Parma)
I also cannot remember how long Luciu has been in Stonehenge. Probably close to ten years, which would mean that Jack would not be fully up to date with events at Cad Gadu.
The TBD Area Lore. The obvious would be Mercia or Northumbria, but it is a bit odd to have both England and a subset of England, and just a wee bit odd that he has no lore from Wales when he grew up at Cad Gadu. London is fine, since city lores will operate on a different level of detail.
Cad Gadu native language would be Welsh as well.
Most probably, yes, and it would be very strange not to speak any Welsh at all. However, it is easy to imagine a very multi-lingual Cad Gadu. It is a Domus Magnus probably recruiting far and wide. A lot of native Saxon speakers is very likely. In fact, Saxon/Welsh is a lot more likely than Latin/anything for a bilingual person from Cad Gadu.
Definitely seems plausible as a second language to have Saxon, for a peasant-ish character I can’t imagine Welsh not being the first.
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I could imagine Cad Gadu to be split, with a Saxon and a Welsh community, maybe 70% native Welsh and 30% native Saxon. It is a large covenant, and they only needed only a few magi arriving with medium sized turbs to establish a sustainable Saxon subculture. For instance Welsh farmers and Saxon fishermen.
But sure, a monolingual covenfolk culture may be even more plausible.
I leave the choice to the first player to design characters therefrom.
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I forgot to mention that 6 is much as starting score for a character this age. Recommended limit is 5 under 30.
It is also wise to take leadership, to be able to manage more grogs as a trained group.
Thus I would recommend to move 15xp from single weapon to leadership and 15xp to Welsh, if you do not want to make more radical changes.
I was wrong about Custos. You can take Latin on top of Martial abilities.
In the interest of advancing the story, I make the following assumptions about the two grogs.
Characteristics as designed above; Single Weapon 5; Leadership 2 (or more).
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I'm in on all that. Happy to have Jack more of a sergeant. I'll make the adjustments to the character sheet later today.
Do we have a Wiki where we are housing Grog character sheets? Not sure it warrants a whole thread.
One thread for shield grogs is good. The first post is wikified so you can edit Jack thereinto (is that a word?).
One post per grog, I think.
Jack does not have to have leadership, it suffices if Iago the Welsh has it, but then it makes sense if the one played the most has ...
I am tempted to say that Iago the Welsh has exactly the same charactersheet as Jack the Saxon, just swapping the two languages and replacing fishing with farming.
Rough draft , still incomplete.
Concept: A Pralician specialized in Perdo magic.
Summary Background: Born in a hedge tradition of England, his family was murdered by the Diedne while he was still young.
Virtues:
- Base (free): The Gift, Hermetic Magus, Comprehend Magic (Major Supernatural House virtue), Minor Magical Focus w/Exotic Magic (Minor Hermetic House virtue)
- Core Concept: Gentle Gift (Major Hermetic), Great Characteristic: Perception (Minor General)
- Other possible virtues: Improved Characteristics, Fast Caster, Quiet Magic, Subtle Magic, Skilled Parens, Well-Travelled
Flaws:
- Base (free): Weak Magic Resistance (Major Hermetic House flaw)
- Core Concept: Deficient Technique: Creo (Major Hermetic), Lesser Malediction: arrive late (Minor Supernatural), Hatred: Diedne (Minor Personality)
- Other possible flaws: Ambitious/Driven (Major), Missing Eye, Hedge Wizard, Magical Animal Companion, Visions, Disfigured
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Have you thought about his apprenticeship and where they have been after the family was killed? I suppose he could have been trained at Cad Gadu, which has kept largely out of harms way.
There is one hedge tradition introduced in the saga already, namely nomadic druids, similar to folk witches but they have a custom telepathy power and forest lore, instead of shapeshifting and one other canon witch power. Turold companion is an unGifted member of the tradition and could be a potential link, as distant cousin or something. These druid are likely ancient enemies of the Diedne too. Just an idea. I don't recommend either way.
Like I said in Discord, Highly recommend Flawless Magic for spell mastery sweetness. Also, Inoffensive to Magical Beings and Alluring to Magical Beings is a good combo for hanging with the Hedgies.
Obviously, you do you but you will get a lot more from being able to fast cast formulaic PeVi counterspells and apply the Unraveling mastery than you will from sponting those same spells.
The concept is now less focused in counterspelling in combat, and more interacting with hedge traditions to convince them to join the Order. So the Gentle Gift will make it much easier to interact with non-magi.
After a short period of initial training, partly at the now-destroyed covenant of Roma Nova and partly at Cad Gadu, his master spent several years in Pomenaria investigating the hedge traditions there, including shapeshifters. It is only once his apprenticeship was finished that my magus chose to travel back to England and join the fight against the Diedne.
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If they are part of a hedge tradition they will likely be magically-aligned beings, all you need is a magically-aligned supernatural virtue or ability and the cheaper Inoffensive to Magical Beings will do you fine.
If you aren't interested in counterspelling in combat then I'm not sure the point of Fast Caster and some of your other choices or even the purpose of counterspell specialist.