Perion, filius Rhea, House Tytalus
Age: 24 (currently in The First Wave at Tugurium)
Birthday: December 21, 1180
Astrological Sign: Sagittarius
Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Str -1, Sta 1, Pre -2, Com +2, Dex 2, Qik 0
Virtues: Hermetic Magus, Self-Confident, Major Focus: Spirits, Affinity for Rego, Cautious Sorcerer, Cyclic Magic: Fall and Winter, Inventive Genius, Puissant Mentem, Educated, Second Sight
Flaws: Dark Secret (failed gauntlet), Blatant Gift, Cyclic Magic (Spring and Summer), Weak Parens, Busybody, Pessimistic
Personality Traits: Secretive +3, Unhelpful -1, Pessimistic +2
Abilities:
- French (Norman) 5
- Athletics (climbing) 3
- Brawl (dodging) 1
- Swim (oceans) 1
- Folk Ken (peasants) 2
- Guile (looking innocent) 2
- Awareness (searching) 2
- Hunt (tracking) 1
- Latin (Hermetic usage) 4
- Artes Liberales (rhetoric) 2
- Philosophiae (moral philosophy) 1
- Intrigue (gossip) 2
- Concentration (spell concentration) 1
- Church Lore (personalities) 1
- Magic Theory (Inventing Spells) 3
- Parma Magica (Ignem) 1
- Magic Lore (spirits) 1
- Titanoi Cult Lore (politics) 1
- House Tytalus Lore (history) 1
- Second Sight (ghosts) 1
- Code of Hermes (Wizards' March) 1
Hermetic Arts:
- Cr: 0 (0)
- In: 5 (15)
- Mu: 2 (3)
- Pe: 5 (15)
- Re: 11 (48+24)
- An: 5 (15)
- Au: 0 (0)
- Aq: 0 (0)
- Co: 1 (1)
- He: 0 (0)
- Ig: 1 (1)
- Im: 5 (15)
- Me: 8 + 3 (38)
- Te: 5 (15)
- Vi: 5 (15)
Wizard's Sigil: Perion's magic produces a shudder, shiver, or shake in the target as they it was just hit by a cold, dry wind. No wind or cold is actually produced.
Spell:
- Agony of the Beast PeAn 15
- Aura of Rightful Authority ReMe 20
- Call to Slumber ReMe 10
- Coerce the Spirits of the Night ReMe 20
- Eyes of the Cat MuCo (An) 5
- Hide from the Sun PeIm 10
- Lungs of the Otter MuCo (An) 5
- Prying Eyes InIm 5
- Scales of Magical Weight InVi 5
- Sense the Nature of Vis InVi 5
- Snap of Awakening ReMe 10
- Wizard's Sidestep ReIm 10
- Words of the Unbroken Silence CrMe 10
Appearance: Perion stands at a slightly above average 5'7" (or 170 cm). He has a slightly fat belly, but otherwise seems to have an athletic build. He trims his thick, curly brown hair back behind his ears and within an inch of his head every month, but within a couple weeks it seems like he has already gone a little too long without a trim. He has given up fighting his beard, and now a thick patch of dark brown hair covers his face too. His eyes are a bright, emerald green color, and his bushy eyebrows often seem to betray a wide variety of expressions.
Childhood and Apprenticeship
Childhood
Robert was born the sixth of seven children in a peasant family near the coast of Normandy. From the start, ominous events seemed to dog Robert, as his oldest sister died the very same day of his birth by slipping from some cliffs and falling into the sea below.
Despite the rest of his family having brown eyes, Robert's eyes had a vivid green hue, and many people suspected his mother of infidelity or worse . As an infant, Robert developed a strange reputation, as he never seemed to cry. He simply stared, seemingly fascinated by nothing in particular. When Robert started to form words, he always tried talking to things or people who weren't actually there. His family found it increasing difficult to just ascribe this behavior to a child having an an imaginary friend or just playing pretend when Robert started to talk about the rather horrific things that his imaginary friends would tell him.
This seemed to take a more sinister turn when Robert started to say that he could see and talk with his oldest sister. He was able to describe her features and mannerisms exactly, despite never having had the chance to meet her. Rumors quickly began to swirl about Robert, and it didn't take long until Rhea ex Tytalus heard about the boy who could see ghosts. Besides being a hermetic maga of House Tytalus with all that implies, she also dedicated herself to the spread and propagation of the Titanoi. Ever looking for more potential apprentices, Rhea sent agents to test the boy, and they found he possessed the gift. Rhea sent her agents again, this time declaring themselves to be in the employ of a bishop at a cathedral school far off in Brittany. Having found that the boy had been given a great gift from God, "the bishop" offered the boy a place to study at a cathedral school "he" oversaw. Robert's parents agreed readily, thinking of the promise of a better life for their son as well as the relief of having his troubles brought elsewhere for a change. Robert left that very day for Brittany.
While Brittany proved to be rather similar to the stormy coast of Normandy that Robert was born on, the cathedral school was by far the grandest thing Robert had ever seen in his life. He quickly came to love his life there. He ate better and more often. Learning Latin and letters was much easier than having to haul rope to and from his family's fishing boat. Robert even enjoyed the physical activity pushed at the school, having had to do so much more of it as a son of a peasant compared to the children of nobles and townsfolk there. His successes produced no end of envy or jealousy from the other children. The more he proved his equal to them, the less the other children would include Robert. Despite his difficulties with the other children, Robert found a great deal of happiness at the cathedral school.
4 years passed in this manner, when a man, claiming to be sent from the bishop, arrived at the school and said he must fetch Robert right away, as the bishop has some urgent need of the boy. Despite the unusual nature of the request, most of the staff of the cathedral school were rather happy to see Robert leave. Despite his quickness at letters and his willingness to compete in athletic activity, Robert's presence seemed simply to cause problem after problem. The man left just a few hours after arriving, driving a wagon with Robert squeezed into the back.
Apprenticeship
Traveling well into the night, the man eventually stopped the wagon by a crouched figure standing near the side of the road. Robert felt a sudden sense of terror as he made sense of the figure: an old woman by the gray streaks in her hair, but she held herself with the vitality of one much younger. She tossed a sack to the man that clinked in the air and simply said "That's for a job well done." As she stared into Robert's eyes, he suddenly felt his body moving like he were a puppet. As he got out of the cart, the old woman chanted something briefly, touched him lightly on the shoulder, and he suddenly found himself in a dark stone chamber.
That year, Robert came to find out that he actually was going to become the "apprentice" for this woman Rhea. She did teach him like an apprentice, but she also forced him to do all sorts of things he had never heard any apprentice needing to do before. Robert still doesn't really understand what having to clean all the delicate glass equipment while crouching and biting a piece of wood had to with magic, but he had to do it a lot.
After 10 years of an increasingly cruel and difficult apprenticeship, Robert found himself wondering what it would take to end the ordeal. He found the answer sooner than most, as he made a rather severe mistake while his parens was attempting to summon some sort of powerful spirit. Exhausted from having to scrub the floors all night as punishment, Robert stumbled and spilled a vial of ink all over the carefully prepared summoning circle. The spirit Rhea summoned consequently broke free of its bonds and destroyed her. Robert watched in horror as his parens aged rapidly into nothing more than dust and a pile of bones.
Regardless, Rhea's sodales found Robert soon after the incident. Robert, expecting to be terribly punished for the crime, rather simply told the Tytali "I killed her". Instead of being punished, Robert was immediately invited to join the house, believing that he had actually managed to purposefully sabotage the ritual. Robert has since spent years since his "gauntlet" doing his best to remain unobtrusive without calling attention to the fact that he didn't actually kill his parens.