Pavo Ex Bjornaer

Retired Play by Post Campaigns Ars Magica 5th Edition: Bad Apples
2
Age 26

Virtues and flaws

Peacock heartbeast (0)
Flawless magic (+3)
Clan Ilfetu (+1) HoH:MC p37
Great Presence x2 (+2)
Improved Characteristic (+1)
Independent Study (+1) HoH:MC p86
Minor Magical Focus (healing) (+1)
Puissant Bjornaer House Lore (+1)

Difficult Longevity Ritual (-3) Hermetic
Disjointed Magic (-1) Hermetic
Mentor (-1) Story
Proud, Major (-3) Personality
Temperate (-1) Personality
Weak Scholar (-1) Hermetic

Characteristics

Peacock default (as per pheasant from lords of men, with mental characteristics of a bird) Size -2, Int n/a, Per +2, Str -4, Sta 0, Com 0, Pre +1, Dex +3, Qik +4
Human Size 0, Int +2, Per 0, Str 0, Sta +1, Com 0, Pre +5, Dex 0, Qik 0
Pavo in peacock form Size -2, Int +2, Per +2, Str -4, Sta +1, Com 0, Pre +5, Dex +3, Qik +4

Qualities: Vocal, Imposing presence x2. (Peacocks get quite loud, and they are one of the most physically impressive of creatures. As Pavo has such high Presence in human form, anything from imposing presence 1 to 4 will make no difference)

Arts

Cr 8 In 0 Mu 6 Pe 0 Re 0 An 6 Aq 0 Au 0 Co 6 He 0 Ig 6 Im 0 Me 0 Te 0 Vi 0
Total xp (arts) 120 xp

Ability

Romaic Greek (expansive vocabulary) native 5
Awareness (alertness) 15 2
Athletics (running) 15 2
Area Lore:Thessaly (villages) 15 2
Total (early childhood) 45
Brawl (dodging) 15 2
Charm (first impressions) 15 2
Chirurgy (wound treatment) 15 2
Folk Ken (villagers) 15 2
Leadership (villagers) 15 2
Swim (revisers) 15 2
Total (pre-apprentice) 90
Classic Greek(writing) 50 4
Magic Theory (Creo) 30 3
Parma Magica (ignem) 5 1
Artes Liberales (ceremonial magic) 5 1
Concentration (maintaining spells) 5 1
Penetration (ignem) 5 1
Finesse (aiming spells) 5 1
Code of Hermes (Theban) 5 1
Hermes lore (Theban) 5 1
Philosophiae (ceremonial magic) 5 1
Total (apprenticeship) 120
Gothic (rituals) 15 2
H. Bjornaer lore (self-initiation) 30 3+2
Magic lore (great beasts) 5 1
Total (Clan Ilfetu) 50
Heartbeast free 1

Spells
The Voice of the Bjornaer Magus MuAn 15 mastery 1(still casting) HoH:MC p36
Form of the Sanguine Heartbeast MuAn 20 mastery 1(still casting) HoH:MC p 36
Bind Wounds CrCo 10 mastery 1(still casting)
Purification of the festering wounds CrCo 20 mastery 1(still casting)
Disguise of the new visage MuCo 15 mastery 1 (still casting)
Lamp without Flame CrIg 10 mastery 1 (still casting)
Pilum of Fire CrIg 20 mastery 1(multiple casting)
Aura of Ennobled Presence MuIm 10 mastery 1 (still casting)

Casting sigil: an iridescent hue shimmers over the target

3

As a child Palaeologos enjoyed running around the villages of the mountains of Thessaly, which his parents served. His father was an apothecary and his mother a midwife, so he learnt a little about tending to wounds and a lot about being polite to people and taking in the surroundings.

He was a beautiful boy, and worked out how to phrase requests to people so they would do things for him. His attractiveness also made him insufferably proud. When strange things started happening around him, everyone thought he must have attracted the evil eye through jealousy. A Bjornaer of clan Ilfetu, looking for someone who might have a Heron heartbeast and make a future leader of the clan, saw that the truth was clear - the boy had The Gift, and had the makings of a mystagogue. He paid the boy's parents to take him away to become an apprentice physician in Constantinople.

Sadly, when the Gathering of Twelve Years came around it turned out the boy had an unusual heartbeast - a peacock. He trained in the ways of Clan Ilfetu, and while in Crintera gained a knowledgeable member of the Clan as his mentor. He returned to the Theban Tribunal and to his parens' covenant. He turned out to be his parents' child, with an affinity for healing. He casts his magic very precisely, and uses spells to overcome difficulties in animal form. He was a bit too proud to make an excellent student - he learns best by doing, and doesn't get on with lab texts. When he is older he will create spells from scratch.

Virtues: Flawless magic - casts precisely, like his parens. Great Presence x2 and Improved Characteristics - he was beautiful and impressive even as a child. Clan Ilfetu and Puissant House Bjornaer Lore - trained to serve as a mystagogue. Independent Study - learns best by doing. Minor Magical Focus - has an affinity for healing, which guides spell choice and chirurgy as a childhood skill

Flaws: Proud - he was proud even before he developed a peacock heartbeast. Temperate - he is too vain to risk getting fat or ruining his looks through over-indulgence. Mentor - he has a Clan Ilfetu mentor to teach him further in the ways of Gothic and House Bjornaer Lore, and teach him rituals. Difficult Longevity Ritual - like many beautiful birds, he will not have a spectacularly long lifespan. Disjointed Magic and Weak Scholar - prefers to invent spells from scratch rather than build on similar spells or a lab text.

4

I need to practise my Voice of the Bjornaer magus to add a level of quiet casting so I can cast this reasonably well. I could also do with learning some defensive spells that I can apply fast-casting to. I haven't learnt any healing spells for animals yet, as the ones in the core book are quite high level and I only had 120 levels available.

Longer term, with my awesome presence I would like to get to the point where I learn Initiation scripts. With my mediocre intelligence, I probably shouldn't try creating ones from scratch unless there's no ordeals involved.

I would like to learn enough House Bjornaer Lore and Magic Lore to understand the Inner Heartbeast and locate a Great Beast at some point. I like the idea of the Epitome, and being able to perform mighty acts of presence, although there might be some interesting Chimera forms possible.

5

(Reserved for ST comments)

Looks very good. I tweaked Peacock a bit. Gave it Improved Characteristics, Inspirational and Proud. Clumsy applies only to flight (peacocks are not good fliers). Vocal is mostly for singing so took that out, gave it Pack leader instead (assuming its male). Imposing Appearance x3 and Extra Natural Weapons. See Announcement thread for stats etc.

I will need more clarity on his Parens. As Ioke has requested, he/she cant be clan Ilfetu if he/she is in the Tribunal (unless he/she then left). I assume Bjornaer choose their clan after apprenticeship, and Pavo was taught Ilfetu clan stuff from a traveling mystagogue (perhaps the one who found him). Please advise.

For the Mastery of the Voice, you could take some seasons to put xp in it?

6

I'm not sure Bjornaer choose their clan after apprenticeship, as Ilfetu must have the extra training and 50xp would be multiple seasons with a mentor.

For his parens, I'm happy with any Theban one. The vultures sound interesting, and I could be the apprentice who disappointed by only gliding rather than soaring with his fellow birds. Alternatively, as a healer maybe a Bjornaer of Clan Arelie joined Epidauros to widen their knowledge of healing to include animals, and is currently living there. As a recently gauntleted magus I would be a couple of hundred miles south of the new covenant, and interested in striking out on my own and learning a wider range of magics.

The Theban Tribunal met in 1214. If that was summer, then I will have spent autumn & winter 1214, and spring, summer and autumn 1215 doing things before we all meet in December 1215.

May I spend a season with a lab text for True Rest of the Injured Brute (CrAn 20) so I have healing available for fellow Bjornaer and people's familiars?

I have Independent Study, so my study totals are increased by 2 when practicing. I have Flawless magic, doubling total for spell mastery. If I spend two seasons studying Spell Mastery for Voice of the Bjornaer, I think each season gives me (5 basic + 2 from Independent Study) x2 from flawless so 14 xp, so I go from 5 to 33 xp, getting two more mastery levels which I can put into quiet magic. Do you think it should be (5 basic x 2from flawless) +2 Independent Study for 12 a season instead, leaving me on 29 xp?

With my other 2 seasons I would like to practice Parma Magica - base 4 + 2 independent study so 6 a season, taking me from 5xp to 17, so my Parma Magica becomes 2. If you're not happy with me doing this before the saga start I'll happily study Creo from vis instead.

7

I am pretty sure they don't. What does happen occasionally, is that apprentices need to switch to a more appropriate master after the awakening. Before the awakening, they are usually trained by the sept in common, while afterwards they are trained by a single master (like other houses) compatible with the heartbeast. Now, in this case the awakening was probaly in 1203, at the previous Gathering, so it may not be so plausible to maintain contact with the original master and his sept, but possible it is.

There may be some incompatibility issues, between apprenticeship customs in the house and in the tribunal. What does the tribunal say if an apprentice has to be sent out of the tribunal to find an appropriate master? Having been presented in Thebes, he probably has a token or two. Is that enough to claim citizenship upon return after gauntlet? One could imagine Pavo being trained for three years in a non-Ilfetu sept in Thebes, then sent to a more appropriate Ilfetu master in Novgorod after awakening in 1203, and finally return for a formal, Hermetic gauntlet (which the house does not care about) in Thebes in 1214. I am not sure if this is appropriate, but it is a way to avoid another Theban Ilfetu.

Who has misunderstood? I thought we started in Winter 1215 and that the Winter season is the first of the year, i.e. January 1215 start.

8

[tab][/tab]You are both correct. An apprentice is found by a Bjornae and spends about 2 years with her. Then comes the communal teaching by the Sept. Then the Rite of 12 years. At that point he is given to the most appropriate Master to continue his apprenticeship. He almost always joins the Clan of the Parens. The Rite is in summer of 1215 and your apprenticeship started 15 to 17 years ago, that means 3 to 5 years as a sleeper. That might mean your Parens is a traveling Ilfetu. Or you just kept close tabs to the Bjornaer that found you first, I am cool with anything. Make the Theban Bjoarnaer, I want to keep those 5 others separate for the moment, I got plans for them especially the bird ones.
[tab][/tab] We start at February of 1215 when all magi arrive at the covenant. Extra learned spells, no (but you can take it as a lab text, see added character creation thread). The first calculation is correct [(5+2)x2=14] so total of 33 in the end for 2 seasons, congrats. You can study Parma or Creo whatever you like, if you got the seasons, just add the expenditures on the first post, so I can update the character.

[tab][/tab] Ioke points out a very interesting thing about Theban Tribunal and Bjoarnae Apprenticeships. You may have noticed something of a sort in the rumors section. I got plans for a subplot there (rubs hands evilly).

9

darkwing? Pavo had a tractatus of 12, I lowered it to 11, you have 1 more BP.
Also, make a sketch of the Ilfetu that found you. I'll use them later on (or I'll make one if I have to)

10

As I already have the maximum amount of vis, 1 BP isn't going to get me anything useful from the core book. May I have 1 BP worth of money as per the rule in Covenants? I can have a bag of assorted Byzantine currency as a gift.

The Ilfetu who found me, Leontopetalon ex Bjornaer, is a Bjornaer from the southern edge of the Byzantine empire who had a lion heartbeast. He wandered across Europe improving his grasp of Bjornaer mysteries and healing magics. He is a proud and courageous Bjornaer who may have made an excellent protector if he didn't have such a strong mystical bent. More recently, after finding an apprentice for the house, he has found an Ancestor and undergone the mystery of the Inner Heartbeast and realised his true form is that of the Griffin, and now has mighty wings. He still moves around, sometimes taking the life of a peregrinator in the Rhine Tribunal, sometimes living at Epidauros in Thebes (a centre of healing magics), and sometimes going into the Levant and the borders of the order. He is concerned about the continuity of House Bjornaer and worries about threatened Ancestor sites. He is particularly concerned that Ardea may die without another Ilfetu with the correct heartbeast being able to take over.

(ST EDIT) Sure, get some money. Leontopetalon, I will make him a tad more nomadic. He roams Theban, Transylvanian and Novgorod Tribunals