No, doesn't bother me. It did, but only a bit, when I thought there were more True Lovers than there are. But family admits many variations.
Andorra Saga has always and ever been about family and passion 
For Carmen, it is based on lust. Her father was Antonio Perez of Flambeau. His son, Alexandro, was born of his wife and is mundane (yet heroic). Carmen's mother is Golda, at the time a young party girl Antonio met at the winehouse where she practiced card reading. Call it lus, love, or passion. Result was a year latter, Golda shows up at the covenant with infant Carmen, with sparks emmitting from the eyes of the baby. Antonio takes his daughter in and raises her to be his apprentice, his wife kicks him out of the bedroom,
The generations turn.
But Carmen now regrets starting Longevity at such an early age out of vanity, for she wishes she had a family. Yet she is glad she never put her body through all that. Perhaps adoption?
Antonio and his daughter was role played out in 4th edition way back when.
It is a generational saga. When I an 70, I'll buy a copy of 9th edition and start Andorra again, push back the timeline of what who did what when and use you guys as backstory :mrgreen:
Fleur too is looking to start a family- but is wanting a bit more control and isn't sure her baby needs a father figure...
second draft:
Cata, the Vilano Herbam Pralician
Gentle
2x great per
puiss. Comprehend magic
improved characteristics
inventive genius
puissant finesse
cautious with finesse
*minor focus : extic magic
*comprehend magic
Dependents (major) – first one son, more kids later, father is beastmasterish companion PC
Study Requirement (major) – “nature” maga
ability block: martial (minor)
meddler (minor)
overconfident (minor)
harmless magic (minor) - explains why she doesn't take PeVi despite her tradition
weak magic (pralician)
Development:
Elionor Sala was born as the natural daughter Matieu Grony, the son of a Barcelona Patrician and Anna, a maid in the house of Matieu’s father. Although Elinor was never officially recognized, mother and daughter were allowed to stay with the Patrician household and she got even to spent time with her father.
Early Childhood:
Occitan (Catalan, Merchants) 5
Area Lore Catalonia (Barcelona) 2
Athletics (running) 1
Awareness (search) 2
Charm (wit) 1
Folk Ken (children) 1
Guile (disguise) 1
Stealth (inside a building) 1
Swim (sea) 1
Childhood (2 years: 40xp)
Elionor managed to charm Matieu into taking her along on some of his business trips through Catalonia, and she learned even more by just observing how business was done at the house.
Animal Handling (Horses) 1
Etiquette (Patrician) 1
Intrigue (understanding power constellations) 2
Leadership (children) 1
Riding (long distance) 1
Survival (cooking) 1
Apprenticeship:
She became a talented a Pralician apprentice renamed Cata, who preferred wandering through the forest with a herbam summa to learning magic to destroy wondrous creatures. There, she started dating a boy, Miguel, who could talk to animals and was to supposed to become the apprentice of the resident Bjornaer magus. Since his master insisted that he learn Latin first, she undertook it to open the boy’s arts herself. 
She totally ruined the boy’s gift. He forgave her easily, but his master didn’t. The Pralician magus (together with his troublesome apprentice) were expelled from the covenant they lived at and forced to move elsewhere. To add insult to injury, the apprentice turned out to be bearing the boy’s child.
5 Artes Liberales (ceremonial casting)
50 Latin (hermetic) 4
30 MT (He) 3
5 Parma (vim) 1
5 Profession: Scribe (hermetic magic ) 1
5 Magic Lore (hedgies) 1
5 Finesse (precision) 1+2
5 Order of Hermes Lore (ex Miscellanea) 1
- Comprehend magic (hedge magi) 1+2
130xp Arts:
21 Animal 6
21 Imaginem 6
15 Muto 5
28 Re 7
45 He 9
Spells:
MuAn15 Doublet of Impenetrable Silk
ReAq5 Cloak of the Duck’s feathers
ReHe25 Magic Carpenter (from Covenants 50)
ReHe25 Pinocchio (=Carved Assassin: TOME 55, errata included: lvl is 25 not 20)
MuIm15 Clothe the Wooden Puppet (Makes a wooden puppet look, sound, feel, smell like a child). A finesse roll is needed to make it look like a specific kid)
ReHe20 The flying log (Base4 ; +2 sun, +1 touch). Makes a single piece of wood fly quickly. Concentration is needed if it is to do more than hover in midair. Finesse roll is needed for fancy maneuvering)
ReHe15 Long Shot (Vilano version of Acorns for Amusement, range sight, TOME 55)
Post apprenticeship plans:
- Learn The Inexorable search to find the boy’s father and see if they have a future (true love and more kids)
- develop a pouch that stores wood as acorns (ammo)
- learn magic that helps with childbirth and children (maybe includes making wooden servants more intelligent using animal: using mentem would be too cruel because of the limited spell duration, I assume)
- learn communication magic
- improve parma, comprehend magic and finesse
- raise arts high enough to train an apprentice (InVi higher to open the arts well). One of her children will be gifted (I hope)
- develop some more low and mid-level useful spells
Miguel, the Beastmaster Companion, rough draft
He’s a guy that can call animals, and talk them into helping him.
In 1 (ex apprentice), Str 1, Sta 1 (outdoor guy), Pre 1 (manly), Com 1 (open), Per -2 (relies on his animal friends), Qik -1 (calm)
True love
Animal ken
Summon animals (major)
Puissant Animal handling
Educated
inoffensive to animals
alluring to animals
Failed apprentice
Magic air (good his wife has a parma)
dependents
oversensitive (cruelty vs animals)
carefree
weak characteristics
Inventive genius: Do I get the +3 when inventing a spell using a labtext, or only if it is a spell that is invented without a lab text?
The bonus is for originals only. No text.
First cycle completed. Changed MT (He) to (Re), I haven't added the stats at the end of year 7 to the sheet yet.
[b]comment: In a way it would make more sense for her to just have an enemy flaw then and resolve it in that cycle to gain a dependents flaw from the second cycle onward (when the lovers have kids). But I’m not sure if that would be acceptable. The only mechanical change would be year 1, spring, a season that I would have to fill differently (and make an arcane connection then). It would mean that her first son would only be born in year 8. That would have the advantage of her children being younger than 8 during the saga (rather than the first one being almost a grown-up). By the way - can I decide myself whether the kid/kids is/are gifted? And if yes, what about the rest of their stats?
The first cycle is called: Love and marriage and deals with Cata freeing her True love Miguel from the clutches of an evil Bjornaer magus (for whom I still need a stylishly evil name - suggestions are welcome!)[/b]
Cata
There was a talented a Pralician apprentice named Cata, who preferred wandering through the forest with a herbam summa to learning magic to destroy wondrous creatures. There, she started dating a boy named Miguel, who could talk to animals and was to supposed to become the apprentice of the resident Bjornaer magus. Since his master insisted that he learn Latin first, she undertook it to open the boy’s arts herself.
She totally ruined the boy’s gift. He forgave her easily, but his master didn’t. The Pralician (together with his troublesome apprentice) were expelled from the covenant they lived at and forced to move elsewhere. To add insult to injury, the apprentice turned out to be bearing the boy’s child.
123 Gentle
45 2xperc 2
6 puiss. Comprehend magic
7 improved characteristics
8 inventive genius
9 puissant finesse
10 cautious with finesse
Dependents (major) – first one son, more kids later, father is beastmasterish companion PC
Study Requirement (major) – “nature” maga
ability block: martial (minor)
meddler (minor)
overconfident (minor)
harmless magic (minor) -
Development:
Elionor Sala was born as the natural daughter Matieu Grony, the son of a Barcelona Patrician and Anna, a maid in the house of Matieu’s father. Although Elinor was never officially recognized, mother and daughter were allowed to stay with the Patrician household and she got even to spent time with her father.
Early Childhood:
Occitan (Catalan, Merchants) 5
Area Lore Catalonia (Barcelona) 2
Athletics (running) 1
Awareness (search) 2
Charm (wit) 1
Folk Ken (children) 1
Guile (disguise) 1
Stealth (inside a building) 1
Swim (sea) 1
Childhood (2 years: 40xp)
Elionor managed to charm Matieu into taking her along on some of his business trips through Catalonia, and she learned even more by just observing how business was done at the house.
Animal Handling (Horses) 1
Etiquette (Patrician) 1
Intrigue (understanding power constellations) 2
Leadership (children) 1
Riding (long distance) 1
Survival (cooking) 1
Apprenticeship:
There was a talented a Pralician apprentice named Cata, who preferred wandering through the forest with a herbam summa to learning magic to destroy wondrous creatures. There, she started dating a boy named Miguel, who could talk to animals and was to supposed to become the apprentice of the resident Bjornaer magus. Since his master insisted that he learn Latin first, she undertook it to open the boy’s arts herself.
She totally ruined the boy’s gift. He forgave her easily, but his master didn’t. The Pralician (together with his troublesome apprentice) were expelled from the covenant they lived at and forced to move elsewhere. To add insult to injury, the apprentice turned out to be bearing the boy’s child.
5 Artes Liberales (ceremonial casting)
50 Latin 4
30 MT (Re) 3
5 Parma (vim) 1
5 Profession: Scribe (hermetic magic ) 1
5 Magic Lore (hedgies) 1
5 Finesse (precision) 1+2
5 Order of Hermes Lore (ex Miscellanea) 1
- Comprehend magic (magic beings) 1+2
130xp Arts:
21 Animal 6
21 Imaginem 6
15 Muto 5
28 Re 7
45 He 9
Spells:
MuAn15 Doublet of Impenetrable Silk
ReAq5 Cloak of the Duck’s feathers
ReHe25 Magic Carpenter
ReHe25 Pinocchio (=Carved Assassin: TOME 55, errata included: lvl is 25 not 20)
MuIm15 Clothe the Wooden Puppet (Makes a wooden puppet look, sound, feel, smell like a child). A finesse roll is needed to make it look like a specific kid)
ReHe20 The flying log (Base4 ; +2 sun, +1 touch). Makes a single piece of wood fly quickly. Concentration is needed if it is to do more than hover in midair. Finesse roll is needed for fancy maneuvering)
ReHe15 Long Shot (Vilano version of Acorns for Amusement, range sight, TOME 55)
Post apprenticeship plans:
- Learn The Inexorable search to find the boy’s father and see if they have a future (true love and more kids)
- develop a pouch that stores wood as acorns (ammo)
- learn magic that help with childbirth and children (maybe make wooden servants more intelligent using animal: using mentem would be too cruel because of the limited spell duration, I assume)
- learn communication magic (which requires mentem anyway, so the plan above is not about saving xp)
- improve parma, comprehend magic and finesse
- raise arts high enough to train an apprentice (InVi higher to open the arts well). One of her children will be gifted (I hope)
- develop some more low and mid-level useful spells
Year 1, winter : Fix an arcane connection to Miguel’s ring (her lover). Miguel’s ring is a simple silver ring. Exposure MT 2xp
Year 1, spring: fixes an Arcane Connection to Miguelito (her son, age 1). It is a small wooden crucifix that can be worn around the neck (she had put it into his bed the day he was born). Exposure Vim 1xp, In 1xp.
Year1, summer: Miguelito starts walking, but is very scared by the other magi at her covenant. Cata improves her Parma and changes her specialty to “Sharing Parma”. The nursemaid reports that he is much happier now.
Year 1: Fall: Cata takes off a season to look after her son herself, which proves to be quite an adventure: She learns more about teaching (children) 1 and about medicine (children) 1 (10xp). She can’t really enjoy it, because she still misses Miguel and has no idea where he might be.
Year 2, winter: She wants to invent the inexorable search, but since she doesn’t know the magic to cast it, she first improves her Co to 5and In 5(1) (30xp).
Year 2, fall: She invents ‘The inexorable Search’ InCo20 using a lab text and learns where the Bjornaer magus has taken Miguel. She writes to the Bjornaer magus, begging him to return Miguel to her and even offering Vis as compensation. There is no answer. Exposure: MT 2xp
Year 3, winter and spring: To be able to watch her son while working and to see how Miguel is doing, Cata needs a scrying spell. Cata reads to increase In to 8
Year 3, summer: Cata invents ‘Summoning the distant image’ (InIm25) using a lab text. It is quite useful for watching her son (who gets a new nanny now she sees how negligent the old one is), but fails to reveal much about Miguel (who is often either outdoors – not in a room – or behind an aegis). Exposure MT: 2xp
Year 3, fall: Cata studies penetration to be able to see Miguel anyway Penetration 2 (using an arcane connection). With a bit of luck she manages to make a nativity horoscope for Miguel. Carving a figuring using craft magic is easy for her. Now she has a penetration ability of (2+1) and a multiplier of 9, which allows her to penetrate the Bjornaer’s covenant. The first time she watches Miguel, she hears him whisper her name in his sleep. She also sees that the bjornaer magus uses him as a lab slave: Deeply moved she decides she must free him as soon as possible. Before she mounts a rescue operation, she must prepare.
Year 4, winter: Cata improves her comprehend magic ability to 2 (hermetic magic). Using her spell, she studies the Bjornaer magus when he renews his parma and finds out his magical strengths (like herself, he is very good at Animal, followed by Herbam as a close second). He is weaker than Cata at Rego, and has big problems with intellego, which suits her just fine.
Year 4, spring: Although he’s almost 20 years out of gauntlet, she sends him an open heart-breaking letter to challenge him to certamen without using vis over Miguel at the beginning of the season and then delves into her Herbam books to prepare (10xp).
Year 4, summer: The Bjornaer refuses to duel, claiming that Miguel is rightly his and citing tribunal rulings to make it clear that he can get away with it. Magi from all over Mythic Europe write her to express sympathy for the young lovers. Miguel still has no idea about it all. She starts looking at the Code of Hermes (certamen) 1 (5xp), but sees that his argument is solid. She decides to kill him in a Wizard’s War.
Year 4, fall and
Year 5, winter, spring: She decides she needs to inform Miguel before striking against the Bjornaer. To do so, she needs a means of talking to him. She decides to invent a spell called “Voice of the distant lover” (ReIm20; base 15; +1 conc) that allows her to contact him. But since her lab total and concentration are insufficient, to do it in one season, she decides to raise both Rego to 8 and Imaginem to 7 first. She also improves her concentration (spells) 1. (30xp)
Year 5, summer: She finally invents the spell Voice of the distant lover” (ReIm20; base 15; +1 conc). Now she can talk to Miguel and listen to his answers. She asks him to get her an arcane connection to his master. Exposure: MT 2xp.
Year 5, fall and
Year 6, winter: Cata studies mentem 5(5) (20xp)
Year 6, spring and summer: Cata raises vim from 1 to 6 (20xp)
Year 6, fall: Cata invents “The Minute of Reckoning (ReVi10)” (HP 80), exposure: MT: 2xp
Year 7, winter: Using her new spells to stay in touch with her son, Cata summons a magical chair and flies it across Europe and back to pick up an arcane connection to her enemy that was dropped by an animal friend of Miguel’s. This improves her flying skills: Finesse 2 (10xp)
Year 7, spring summer fall:
Wizard’s War against the Bjornaer Magus: Wizard’s war is declared. Cata uses her spying and intangible tunnel spell together with her arcane connection (bolstered by name, horoscope, and figurine) to attack the Bjornaer magus hiding inside his lab at sunset. Since he is in his wolf heartbeast form, her newly acquired Mentem skills are wasted, but a spontaneous ReAn spell puts him to sleep for a diameter. She contacts Miguel, who is locked up for the duration of wizard’s war. That doesn’t stop him from calling on the covenant’s birds to attack the sleeping magus in his wolf shape. The birds tear the helpless magus to pieces.
Cata then flies to Miguel and informs the resident magi of the death of their sodalist. They come to an arraignment: The covenant gets to keep all of the Bjornaer’s possessions except Miguel. And the reunited loves? They take some time off and ride into the sunset… (2 Virtue seasons to gain: true love, one unproductive season)
Random thoughts.....
Love the level of detail in the first cycle, especially her reasoning for learning the things she did. I'm not sure I buy her winning the Wizard's War that easily, but it's just background anyway.
I think Marko has said we can't simply decide one of our offspring has the Gift, but that may just be an assumption on my part. If he does allow it, Vocis will have another potential apprentice in the near future.
What does that Intrigue specialty mean? By 'power constellations' do you mean 'social power structures'?
You may be a magnitude short on The Flying Log. We've kicked around several rule variants for flying, but I think we settled on a base movement speed of 'as fast as smoke rises', with one magnitude getting you to 'as fast as a man can run' and two getting you to 'as fast as a horse can gallop'. I think the ReHe base is 3 though, so you could get the second option with no magnitude change or the third option for one more magnitude. Fixer, can you take a look at this?
Finally, Clothe the Wooden Puppet is a little creepy, but a lot less creepy now that I've realized Pinocchio will let it move around rather than just lay there like a dead child. 
Thanks 
As Cata grows older, and her InVi total with her, she'll become better and better at opening the arts for other magi (without destroying supernatural abilities)
I tried to make it a perception specialty. It's when you observe a group and realize that the CEO is not the real boss, but that the secretary and the janitor really run the show. Seeing who works with whom and has how much power. No idea how to call that without sounding like the 21st century.
I actally had it has ReHe25 first (before posting the draft), but then I looked at the TOME spells and thought a flying log attack spell that lasts for a day is a flight spell. Anyway, the character has anothe ReHe25 spell and a lvl5 spell that is just for atmosphere, so lvl25 wouldn't be a big deal either.
uh, yes.
I am loving it
If you are looking for a random Bjornaer that you may have beaten (but not killed), I suggest the name of Lord Featherbottom the owlbear. He is (was) incompetent and addled enough that beating him is plausible. That is also the name of a Bjornaer magus we once had to deal with. He won't be bothering anyone again 
If someone wants to run a story where one of our children or another child manifests the Gift, we can work that out. But I would shy away from dishing up gravy for yourself. Your kid as the apprentice of another maybe? And mind you, at the current point in time, Carmen is the only one qualified to open the Gift (not concerning herself with Supernatural Abilities, since her apprentice would be a classic School of Delendos Creo Flambeau.
How are you defining 'qualified'? Vocis and Arachne have the Arts for it, though Vocis can't take another apprentice until Mica is Gauntleted.
I read up on Lord Featherbottom, but I think I will make the adverary a certain Mr. Wolfe, a shortsighted, obese Anglo-Irish Bjornaer magus with a focus on breeding sheep (I still have to stat Miguel, so it does matter who the Bjornaer magus is).
I'm kind of surprised that you thought the Wizard's War too easy. It's always easier for the attacker and the Bjornaer is just a normal magus, not a hoplite. Sure the two level10 spells used don't look like much, but this is only possible because of the scrying spell, her ability to know his capabilities and her very capable inside ally Miguel, who hands her an arcane connection.
Traveling to a strong dominion aura or a strong parma would have been a good idea for Mr. Wolfe, who had enough time to magically or physically interrogate Miguel. He should have figured out that Cata has an arcane connection to him and he should have strongly suspected that she had the means to spy on him, but she's in her 7th year out of gauntlet, a mere journeywoman.
And apart from his underestimating the danger posed by her, traveling has its own risks, and if he knows her as a vilano maga, he may well suspect that a strong aura offers only limited protection (she hasn't created an item to use with her herbam attacks yet, but he can't know that - such an item would be easy enough to make).
Anyway, can I redesign it so that she starts out with the enemy flaw and swaps it for the dependent flaw at the end of cycle 1? It would make it easier to turn cycle 2 into a family cycle.
As for Arts, Cata only needs Cr Pe Au Aq Ig Te (3 years of experience) before she can start training an apprentice properly. I half expect her to be able to do so by the time she comes to Andorra.
I forgot abot Arachne and Vocis (and Vocis is the one with an apprentice for Pete's sake! egg on my face).
Nothing in the Code even hints at only having one apprentice at a time, so long as you can train them adequately.
Praelix, no need to change anything about the background. You asked for a name, and I randomly thought of that one :mrgreen:
As for the Wizard War, I can buy that you may have suckerpunched him. In theory you may have rolles well and/or he botched, and/or you were just that clever and/or he was not so much so. And perhaps we have had different experiences with magical conflict in our games that lead to different expectations. No worries. It is a big (fictional) world that we have to play with. Many different things have gone down different ways in different places.
But to paraphrase-quote Stan Lee...
Welcome to Andorra Praelix. Hope you survive the experience!
gravy?
I don't get it. And I've been deserted by my google-fu and my English-fu.
Gravy is a category of sauce, usually made with a combination of meet drippings / juice and flour to thicken it up. You pour beef gravy over beef wellington, turkey gravy and etcetera. Gravy. That little extra.
As a figure of speech, it is akin to saying "the cherry on top". Stuff that's nice, not needed, but a great extra perk.
In this context, I am suggesting one should not run stories just to reward their personal character. You can pour gravy on each other, not on yourselves.
I am loving this analogy.
So Praelix might run a story where Vocis realizes his grandson is gifted or Arachne takes her own character's child as an apprentice. It would be selfis if I were to run a story all about Carmen discovering her father had more than one bastard child and one of them has a gifted child she can take as her own apprentice and bloodline heir. I would suck if I did that :mrgreen:
And I love making mister green faces at every wisecrack I make, then smiling
I could have sworn I just read that in the core book a couple days ago, but I can't find it now. Never mind then.
"There is nothing to say that a hermetic magus cannot have more than one apprentice at the time" (HoH:TL 17).