Below is my first attempt to write up a saint, to go with the Devotion rules from The Church (since, as I have harped on at tedious length, I don't have RoP: Divine). Please give me an contructive criticism or suggestions you may have.
St Milburga
A famous nun, daughter of a Mercian king and founder of the Wenlock Abbey in what is now Shropshire. She is famed for her visions and her many miracles, including healing, levitation and a remarkable power over birds.
Divine Might 25
Powers:
Divine Restoration (cost 5, Init +5, Corpus): The saint instantly removes the crippling or malignant effects of any injury, disease, poison or aging. Decrepitude and Warping are not healed.
Levitation (cost 1, Init +5, Corpus): The saint lifts the petitioner into the air, causing them to float slowly upwards.
Command the Birds of the Air (cost 2, Init +5, Animal): Causes a flock of birds to obey the commands of the petitioner. The birds will not attack or behave in an aggressive or harmful manner. Most commonly, this power is used to command birds to avoid or leave a freshly seeded field, protecting the crops.
A saint has an area of interest. Appeals to a saint that was burned inside his house to bring some water down the sky and save your house and children are much more likely to be heard than if you appeal to Longinus to do the same. Saints have personality traits and situations that help you decide if they intervene or not.
I guess so at least; I have not read the church book.
Yep. Essentially, Saints are tied to certain virtues or morals or situations much as a ghost is tied to a haunt or a spirit to an archetype or demon to a sin.
Powers and miracles should be extensions of that. Of course, saints have more lattitude and may act beyond their "area", may have many areas or have a massive one.
Saints must demonstrate great virtue in some regard. They are often associated with that virtue.
For example, this Saint might be the saint of an area (anything from a single shrine to a whole country.)
Most Saints have such a geographical sphere.
So she'll be likely to hear appeals of folks in or from that area.
She might also have demonstrated great virtue in resisting temptation of courtiers trying to lure her into a lurid and raucous lifestyle, remaining humble and temperate against terrible temptation (perhaps arranged by a demon.)
She is therefore likely to aid those with the humble or temperate character flaws, especially when attempting to resist temptation, and likely to help those who have defied temptation to spend their wealth on more sordid luxuries, or who are seeking to avoid that temptation.
That makes perfect sense, and I would encourage it. Note that as the rules are written however they do not require this - in fact in ROP The Divine they all have the same personality traits - which I changed -- and that this is the purpose of the miracolous powers, to represent the sort of activities the saint is known for an interested in, and the patron rules in The Church and ROP The Divine.
