I am not sure what you are looking for that I have failed to provide. I have the picture clear in my head, so I need to get what’s in my mind into your mind. How about this: pose a series of ten questions, and I will try to answer each of them from the PoV of each different Persona.
Okay 
I say it is more like a fifth draft 
I am able and willing to make any revisions that are needed, but I need to know exactly what these changes are. The background can be rewritten and mutated as needed. No problem there. But as for the character sheet, what specific mechanical changes are needed?
But who knew that Pernoites even had an apprentice? What was his relationship with his covenant like? Did he even have a covenant?
Obviously Hyperion knew, he was waiting for me when I returned. House Tytalus knew too, but to them I was already a magus according to their traditions.
And if I were grabbed during these intervening years, I would not make a good lab assistant at all. Anthony would either slit your throat in your sleep or rig the lab to blow up. Not that the “grabber” would know this, he would have to find out the hard way.
Remember, at this stage of life Polyoppeties is almost a grown man, and as Anthony he is part of a gang of criminals. Setting the search for Peronite’s killer aside for now, the only way a magus would know I was gifted would be because he is casting random InVi “Find Gift” spells on people. Finding a Gentle Gift should be much harder, just as finding a Blatant Gift should be easier, and since it should logically require a specialized higher level spell, it would most likely be a Jerbiton magus casting the random search spells. But whatever his house, unless this guys got some serious spine, he is gonna think twice about gang-pressing me. More than likely he will approach with a subtle offer to teach me magic, not realizing that I already know magic. I ask him to step into my office so we can discuss it, then I slide a knife between his ribs. Puts a serious cramp in a wizard’s style y’know.
Yur view may vary, but I just don’t see it happening. Not randomly at least. The search for Pernoites’ killer is a different matter though…
We have no idea what his master’s covenant was like. Maybe it was an all Tytalus covenant, maybe it was a covenant of only two (and the other guy is senile). I pretty much never left the sanctum, so I have no way of knowing. Magi of House Tytalus won’t come looking for me just yet. They are most likely watching me and waiting to see what I do, but I have no way of knowing that so that information is purposefully omitted. Redcap mail, I dunno. Where was his real mailing address? Pernoites also had many cover identities, he just wasn’t all messed up in the head. What correspondences did the Pernoites identity have? Did he trust Redcaps or did he use other means of sending messages? Polyoppeties doesn’t know, therefore I don’t know. This is will either need to be determined by the SG, or will have to e incorporated into a later story I tell wherein Polyoppeties is finally exposed to the secret inner strings of his House.
Yeah. But Pernoites was a dick, everyone hated him.
But remember, Hyperion was waiting for me when I returned to the sanctum. Perhaps it was he who was watching me the whole time, and knew I was headed there so he went there ahead of me.
As I mentioned, it isn’t House Tytalus that I should be worried about. By their standards, I am just fine and can do whatever I want. They probably were watching me, but I do not want to say that definitively because the character has no way of knowing that.
Polyoppeties is the equivalent of a high school dropout who thinks he is smarter than the experts. But he isn’t. As I said, his House is most likely watching him at this early stage and pulling some strings as the young magus finds his way on his own (hey see him as a valuable future resource, and there is that whole prestige thing). But since the character has no knowledge of this, I don’t want any knowledge of it.
Notice I left a big gaping hole open for you. I should have destroyed the whole lab instead of just burning the notes that pertained to me (I may have even forgotten to mention that, more holes). That means House Tytalus had seven years to look though the lab for any AC’s or lab notes from the early years I didn’t know about or his secret mastermind journal containing my secret name. I am tying myself wholly to the intrigues of my House, inseparably so.
Yes, there are such spells. There were in 4th ed anyway. But I think that it would take a higher level spell to detect the Gentle Gift, requiring a special spell of a higher level and meaning that this person is specifically looking for the Gentle Gift. Now, if I am specifically being sought after, that is one thing. But being plucked out by a random “find gentle gift spell” is unlikely, and I already mentioned my contingency plan for that.
I am not trying to fight you on anything. Just providing point-counterpoint in a very Tytalus fashion.
Yes, but we both know young Polyoppeties sees wrongly and is being naive.
Whatever needs to be in place to make things look kosher; I am humbly asking you to take care of it and keep it secret from me.
Too late! It is in there because you requested it. It has become an essential pillar of the character’s design. It is too late to change it now. With the original Polyoppeties, I didn’t get to develop him to the point where the fourth persona develops. With this version, I am happy with the three, but I want the character to have Quadrophenia, like the album by The Who.
Overconfident needs to be seen in action, it cannot be described. When you see me attempting some crazy stunt that requires spending all my confidence points and even then will only succeed when I roll a “1” followed by a “0”; then you will see the Overconfidence.
I have really done this before!
I don’t see both of these being needed to be nurtured day and night. Sal has his business dealings and will certainly travel from time to time. The kids are grown so I can mostly ignore them. That’s what servants are for. Anthony’s early dealings are mostly at night, and wouldn’t require every single day.
There is a timeframe to keep in mind. For the first few years, Polyoppeties stays hidden (or so he thinks) as Anthony. It is only later that, after he is transferred and made boss of a crew, that he decides to go wandering about exploring the city. He decides it is best to do so disguised, so puts on the Donatella Persona (mind you, Polyoppeties now thinks that she has just discarded a disguise). But anyway, Polyoppeties switches back and forth for awhile, using the new “Grace D’Ambrosio” cover identity when Donatella. At first there is no conflicts on time, posing as Grace is a luxury (points of view: Anthony thinks having a secret social life is a luxury and using the Donatella disguise is a necessity; Donatella thinks that relaxing and just being herself is the luxury, disguising herself as Anthony is a necessity because these mobsters wouldn’t respect a female boss). As for Maurice, maybe he also used that “disguise” for socializing. But it is Donatella that made the lasting connection. She meets Sal; there is a courtship period; (maybe there is a scene where Maurice answers the door, claims to be her brother, runs upstairs to get her and comes downstairs as Donatella); and it is only the last year or two that she is married. Dealing with the dual lives is challenging, but it is manageable. But this is when Polyoppeties realizes that more magical study is needed in order to keep things going. So he returns to the sanctum, and that’s when he gets confronted by Hyperion.
That is when things get difficult, and this is where the character begins his life as a magus. It is over the course of the next seven year development cycle that Polyoppeties will learn how to deal with these challenges.
That scene hasn’t occurred yet. It is planned for the first year of the first seven year development cycle. I have many more, a whole bag of tricks, but these stories will be told one at a time as they happen.
This may pose a problem, as it will encourage me to not be at the covenant most of the time. And why only once a season? The minimum uses per day for an item is 1x/day. What if we made it a flying carpet or something simpler?
They are all RAW vanilla spells straight from the book. If you insist though…
I can add descriptions for the appearance of each persona, no problem.
Tony doesn’t have a sword, he has a knife. They all use the same knife, I just though that up. “Grace, your knife is all bloody, what’s going on?”
Yes, interesting.
Yes and no. You are still missing the point. There is no “they” and no cooperation involved. There is only one single person. That person is confused about who he/she really is, but at all times there is a single ego. For example, Maurice never thinks “Oh, that’s not my fault, Anthony did it”. Maurice knows fully well he did it, it was while disguised as Anthony but he was the one that did it. Why did he do it? Maurice was angry. He was disguised as Anthony when he was angry, and the mook probably deserved what happened to him, but Maurice will think of it as his anger at the time. He doesn’t feel so angry now looking back on it, but it was the heat of the moment probably.
So what you view as “cooperation”, I (Polyoppeties) see it as one single life that has various pieces to it. Polyoppeties realizes he has “mood swings”, but does not (yet) associate certain moods with specific “disguises”.
Polyoppeties is headed for an identity crisis one day, just like in Quadrophenia. But I want this to happen in play, not durning development. I don’t want it to happen right away in play either, let things get rolling a bit first and hit me with it later.
No arguing. That would imply that the Personas are different people. They are not. It is more a matter of having not made up my mind yet. I haven’t come to a decision.
When I am Anthony, I don’t believe my memories of my distant past are real. I think my current memories in my disguises are real, I just don’t believe the murdered family story ever happened. When I am Donatella, I find it to be an amusing coincidence, but I don’t spend time worrying about it. Right now, the current arrangement suits my purpose. I don’t love Sal, I just love his money. To Donatella, this is a sort of revenge, and puts her in the right place to strike when the time is right. Right now it is too soon, if I am going to take down the Cartel I will have to take it down all at once. Hit heavy and hit hard. As Maurice, I am ambitious enough to attempt such a daring escapade, but when I am Maurice I am involved in Hermetic concerns. I put it out of my mind and figure I’ll deal with it when I am in my Anthony disguise. Which puts be back to square one.
Mostly yes. My thinking is that the Anthony Persona emerges in the midst of a mental breakdown. He kills his parens and flees. He stays Anthony for a while, and after a while he becomes comfortable enough to be Donatella once in a while. Donatella develops a life, and eventually feels comfortable enough to become Maurice again. The complicated life slowly developed over the past seven years, it didn’t happen all at once. There was a “recovery” time I guess.
Polyoppeties would never psychoanalyze himself this way, but I can see it as the Anthony Persona coming out to protect the others. The murder of his parens was a traumatic shock, and he needed to stay Anthony for awhile to get over it. Donatella reemerges first because that is the Persona most comfortable in social situations. Maurice finally reemerges when his ambition to grow as a magus develops.
No, no. The house purchasing scene take place in the first seven year development cycle. That and the whole fake family thing develops as my initial solution to the complicated multiple life situation, which as I mentioned, starts getting complicated right after he is declared a magus. Anthony will have to deal with a similar situation as well, also within those first seven years. My solution for this will be a bit sneakier and a bit bloodier.
Correction, “Polyoppeties is probably aware”. There isn’t multiple Polyoppeties-es. Only one singular individual that is confused about who he really is but never realizes or acknowledges this confusion.
I shall right now . Who is Eilonwy?
Not “Them”. It is never a Them. There is only one Polyoppeties. If you are ever confused about what pronoun to use, just insert the name. Polyoppeties refers to Polyoppeties in the first person all the time.
I didn’t mean to confuse you. I am trying to play the part of someone who is mentally ill but believes themselves to be totally sane. I can oly explain things from the point of view of the character, and the logic of the insane can indeed be confusing
Maybe it is a point of view thing. I see it as one character, sometimes he thinks this is his original identity, sometimes she thinks her original identity is something else.
You almost have it, but not quite. Donatella knows it is important to look good at the party, probably because of pride. But before the party, Polyoppeties needs to take care of business using a “disguise”.
Example 1: Turning into Maurice (thinking he has just shed a disguise), he remembers that it is important to look good at the party, but is not really sure why. He justifies it with social ambition, and after he finishes his business he picks up that fancy dress (telling the seamstress he is here to pick up his sister’s dress).
Example 2: Turning into Anthony (and thinking he has just shed a disguise), he remembers thinking it is important to look good at the party tonight. He doesn’t remember why, but it is always important to look good. He forgets about the dress because he gets distracted having to put the beat down on a street hustler for holding out on him. He realizes he is late for the party, cleans up really quick, and Donatella has to wear something already in her closet. Donatella is pissed at herself for forgetting the dress. From her PoV, she was the one that got distracted and forgot the dress.
Polyoppeties is not one person at a time with other people sitting in the subconscious. Polyoppeties is always one person. All the identities belong to me, I just wear different faces depending on the name I am using. When I am Maurice, I am still Donatella and Antonio. They didn’t disappear. If you ask me which persona came first (and I decide to be truthful with you), my answer will be whatever persona I am currently in. But I still recognize the other Personas as “me”. If you are a friend privy to my secrets (if there ever comes to be such a person), and you know me as Maurice; I will answer to the name Maurice even if I am Donatella at the moment. I know you are talking to me and that is the name I taught you to call me. I may correct you and ask you to call me Donatella, but I won’t get confused. You may get confused, but I’ll just shake my head and look at you like you are weird.
You really need to listen to the Quadrophenia album. “Can you see the real me?”.
I suppose you will need to see me role-playing each character before you get a full feel for it. Perhaps what you see as hollowness is what I see as part of being mentally ill. Insanity is always difficult for the sane to comprehend. And a lucid intelligent insanity is something scary to confront face to face.
There is a fourth Polyoppeties, but he is not “uber”. The Major Personality Flaw and identity of the fourth Polyoppeties is for you to decide.
This is difficult, because the way I view things, there is no “each” involved. There is only one perspective. It may be “colored” by whichever “glasses” being worn, but it is always the same pair of eyes.
Close. I don’t think the thought “I’ll never get this done disguised as Anthony” would ever cross Polyoppeties’ mind. The part about wrecking the project may happen though. Anthony’s thoughts would be along the lines of “what the hell am I doing this for? This is stupid”. Then later, Maurice may present the mental gymnastics you suggest, to justify why he wrecked the project.
But this is an extreme example. My different “moods” are not as contradictory as you may imagine. For example, the favorite color of Polyoppeties is always blue, Polyoppeties’ favorite food is always beef. The only real difference in “mood” is the Major Personality Flaw. Though this is the dominant aspect of a particular Persona, all of the rest of the aspects are nearly identical. Polyoppeties’ Overconfidence is omnipresent, and no matter what the Persona, Polyoppeties is self assured in his/her/his abilities. The differences, other than the Major Personality Flaw, are mainly situational. Anthony’s greater strength makes him a little braver, Donatella’s pride makes her more discriminating, Maurice is more loyal because he feels closer ties with House Tytalus. Situations can change and all of these minor differences are mutable and/or trasferable to the others.
I am hoping to help you to know Polyoppeties better by trying to get you to see only one version, for that’s all there is. A triangle may have three sides, but there are not three versions of the same subject. There is only one version of Polyoppeties. It is complicated with different parts (more of a square than a triangle), but there is only one complete whole. To know Donatella better is to know she is also Maurice and she is also Anthony. They never “go away”. For example, Anthony is Wrathful, but if you piss him off to a degree that someone without that Flaw would also be mad at you, Polyoppeties will still be mad when in the form of Maurice or Donatella. Maurice is the ambitious but still has a natural drive to succeed when Donatella or Anthony. Donatella is proud, but you can still stroke or offend Polyoppeties’ when in the Anthony or Maurice Persona.
How this all relates to the hidden 4th Persona, I don’t know. But Polyoppeties’ personality will still be mostly the same except for a different Major Personality Flaw.
And I hope you now understand them better still. I will include much of what we discussed here in the revised background.
If you would allow, I prefer to keep it as one single perspective with occasional side comments where the divergences occur.
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