The ghost of Hypatia of Alexandria

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hello,

I've been wondering about the ghost of Hypatia of Alexandria, as presented in Ancient Magic pag.86

My issue is that I really hate what has happened to her and the consequences that she suffered in canon. And so I began to think to what could a motivated Hermetic Magus do to at least restore her mental sanity as a ghost.

There could be several goals to be pursued. A maga could just want to simply give her finally peace. Or she could want to have her as an advisor, or a teacher for the Mechanica of Heron.

I don't want to just strip her of her Might. That would be somewhat easy with a might stripping spell, but it would also be like yet another torture for an already tortured soul.

I'd say that, in her current state of madness, no peace is possible for her until everyone she blames for her death has paid the price for it. The church that condamned her, the scholars that abandoned her, the mob that killed her and so on. In practice, nothing would be enough for her.

I was therefore thinking about an Hermetic Ritual, or a series of rituals, designed to (simbolically?) restore the integrity of the ghost.

I am not aware of guidelines that could be suitable, so I'll just have my maga experiment with something like Original Research. I also know that, being a magic spirit, she is locked in the current state and she would be resisting the changes.

The first step would be to deal with the circumstances Hypatia's death. She died in a horrible way, and she is conscious of that. I'm thinking about two rituals that could deal with these first two issues.

The first one would be something like this one:

Incantation of the Spiritual Body Made Whole
CrMe 40
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual
In analogy to Incantation of the Body Made Whole, this ritual heals all wounds that the spiritual body of a ghost manifests, restoring the spiritual body of a ghost to the true form she possessed while alive.
(Base 35, +1 Touch)

The second ritual would be something like this:

Drinking the Right Measure from the Lethe
PeMe 20
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual
Named after the underworld Greek River of forgetfulness and oblivion, from which is said that everyone must drink when they cross the Threshold, this ritual erases from the spirit it is cast upon the memory of the circumstances of their death.
(Base 15, +1 Touch)

My questions now:

  1. Would these two rituals be enough to restore the sanity of Hypatia ?
  2. Would they be permanent ? (especially the first one)
  3. If the rituals were successful, do you think more vis than the technical requested for it would be required, to overcome the spirit Might (25 Mentem) and its resistance to change (RoP:M) ?

The rituals would of course have to penetrate Hypatia MR, I'm just assuming the caster will have sufficient Penetration for them.

After that, assuming that indeed is possible to restore Hypatia sanity, I am thinking that she could become a Haunt for the place she is.

If the maga wanted her to be finally at peace, what could Hypatia want to finally move on ?

2 Likes
2

not relevant to your question directly, but I'll let you know what my players did when faced with the same horror.

They worked out that St Catherine is an inverted form of Hypatia (roles switched so now that the mob is not christian but the victim is), and that St Catherine never existed, it was just the church trying to tell stories to make itself look good (like they did with St Brigit of Ireland or St Thomas Cynocephalus from... who knows...?).

So they started writing and spreading tales and comissioning plays to spread the true tale of Hypatia. They were trying audaciously to try and merge the two stories, so that the magic ghost could draw sanity/comfort from the fae version.

The campaign is still running so they haven't found out if it has stuck yet.

Bob

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As an update for the thread, I developed the scenario and this is how it played out.

After an unsuccessful encounter, during which the maga had to run away and leave the Nightingale of Justinian under Hypatia control,
the maga devised a pair of experimental Charged Items and came back to the Serapeum.

  1. Water of the Blissful Lethe
    A phial of a swirling mercury-like silvery liquid. Pouring it over the incorporeal body of a ghost activates its effect.
    Blissful Ablution of the Lethe
    PeMe 55 +30 Pen.
    R: Touch, D: Moon, T: Ind.
    Named after the underworld Greek River of forgetfulness and oblivion, from which is said that everyone must drink when they cross the Threshold, this effeect erases from the spirit it is cast upon the memory of the circumstances of their death.
    Base 15, +1 Range Touch, +3 Duration Moon, +15 Level Penetration

  2. Spiritual Bandages
    A serie of linen bandages marked with symbols of healing, designed to be torn in half. Tearing the bandage activates the effect.
    Binding the Spiritual Wounds
    CrMe 75 +30 Pen.
    R: Voice, D: Moon, T: Ind.
    Similarly to what a Creo Corpus effect could do for a living human, this effect binds the wounds that a ghost would otherwise manifest, instilling while active a powerful conviction of healthiness in the targeted ghost.
    Base 35, +2 Range Vocal, +3 Duration Moon, +15 Level Penetration

After successfully activating in that order the charged items, while taking some wounds on herself due to Hypatia Death Agony power, the maga convinced Hypatia to follow her back to her laboratory, to try and stabilize the effects and make them permanent.

During the following years the maga produced a reserve of the charged items, and experimented with rituals based on them.

While stabilizing a discovery regarding the second effect the maga experienced a Twilight episode, from which she emerged with the knowledge of the Virtue Spirit Familiar.

After a few years, she produced these two experimental rituals:

Incantation of the Renewed Spirit
CrMe 40
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual
In analogy to Incantation of the Body Made Whole, this ritual heals all wounds that the spiritual body of a ghost manifests, restoring the spiritual body of a ghost to the true form she possessed while alive.
(Base 35, +1 Touch)

Tap into the Oblivion of the Mouth of Lethe
PeMe 20
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Ind, Ritual
Named after the underworld Greek River of forgetfulness and oblivion, from which is said that everyone must drink when they cross the Threshold, this ritual erases from the spirit it is cast upon the memory of the circumstances of their death.
(Base 15, +1 Touch)

She proceeded then to celebrate them in Alexandria, on the anniversary of Hypatia's death, in the place where she's been murdered. She had to deal with the Dominion, but with the assistance of a friendly Fairie (The Magnificent Prince of The Lighthouse) she had been granted a Fairie Aura for the ritual.

She will then bind Hypatia as her Familiar.

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A pretty epic road, but surely rewarding.