Truly "Special" Children

Here's the situation. I have a Female player who's Maga has decided to engage in the art of child-bearing. She intends to have at least two chidlren, preferably a male and a female. As luck would have it she has accomplished this goal.

Now on to her second goal. She wishes to "improve" her children, permenantly.

In order of preference she would like to :

a] Give the best chance she can, besides thier birth to a Magi, to insure they have the gift.
b] Insure they are of superior to normal intellect.
c] Insure they grow up to be hale and hearty and free of disease(in general, barring unforseen circumstances)

The way I see it we are discussing some form of Creo Vim(Giving, enhancing the gift, though I realize there is no Guarantee of the gift), Creo Mentem (Lvl 35 + INt at the minimum), And some form of Creo Corpus for the body.

The Maga has insured the children were bron with PLacentla caul intact and harvested it(in Myth lore, possessing the placental caul was a guarantee of some form of Arcane connection throughout the lifepsan of the one who was bron in it) She obviously knows the name of the children and has a special blood relation to them.

Her desire is to take the Caul, and use it in a ritual to create a potion of some sort to give the chidlren that will somehow give one or all of the above traits to the children, using the power of smpathy and the Caul to impart these things.

Using form and effect bonuses as appropriate, can she do or have this done?

Is it possible to create a specially designed item/potion.whatwever to give the child that they can consume, and make a permantn change to said child.

I know it's possible to make magic items that are seperat and distinct that can impart various effects, but is it possible to do it the way she wants it? Via the rules available as they are now?

I am inclined to go along with giving them the Gift, +1 nt, and the virtue of Rapid Convelscence, The only issue is HOW to get this result through magical enchantment, via the rules.

CrCo and CrMe rituals would help with b) and c) by increasing their stats, but that's about the extent of it. A Mystery initiation might give them Rapid Convalescence.

If you are drawing up their character sheets, you are entirely free to create them however you want, stats, virtues and all, but if it has already been determined that they weren't gifted, Hermetic magic is not going to be of any help on that level.

While I like the idea of using the caul, I don't see any way of using it legally via Hermetic magic to aid in these matters. You might be able to use it with a Mystery (perhaps Potent Magic to use it as a Casting Item, or perhaps something allowing you to imbue Rituals into items, I'm sure I saw something like that in TMRE although I'm not sure with what mystery).

If you have TMRE, you might also try to seek out a way to imbue your children with greatness through Initiation. If I were your SG, I would take this opportunity to introduce you to the Cult of Heroes (in True Lineages).

At any rate, your ideas are very interesting but largely beyond Hermetic magic (which can only improve characteristics). You will need to work out how to accomplish them with your SG.

I got a PM recently about this from someone who wants to remain nameless for now, Because they are having a similar situation in thier game.

The suggested some form of Enigma's gift targeted on the unborn child with say a Years duration(I'll have to go over the spell again, it hasn't been used yet in my game). Forcing the Babies themselves to acquire a twilight poinit or so, and a Twilight Scar.

Such a thing might well imbue them with the gift itself.

As for the Placental Caul. I suppose it would make an excellent item for a aform and effect bonus of some sort. And a very strong one when dealing with the person born with it. But otherwise, you would be right about it not being very Hermetic in nature.

Maybe a ReCo spell which allows the maga to be pregnant only if her baby will be healthy, clever and having the gift. It means the spell would have In, Me and Vi requirements.
The spell must be active a very long time (warping!). Maybe years pass without the hoped result. And I would allow her 15% chance per year. 30% if the father also has the gift.
If she wants to choose the sex of the baby, the chance should be halved.

She don't need to know the chances of course but warn her the gift is very-very rare. And the more conditions leave the less chance.

If she is very desperate I suggest some Infernal interest.

Ah yes, this always works for the best. :smiling_imp:

Ah.. hahahahahah!

You know certain Infernal issues HAVE come up recently in the past. Where a demonic construct told her that "Power is not eveil, it's how you use that power in application".

She made a hard point of her character being Pagan, and not believeing all that nonsense about Christianity. She raeaizes Demons are evil spirit things, but she think the Construct may be right... if she learns form the thing, it won't be demoic, or Infernal what she learns unless she uses it that way. [Fortunately this is good Rp on her part... the player knows better].

Hmmm. I may just make the gift part exceptionally rare.. *nods. Maybe every time she gets the Enigmas gift cast on the infant. wil result in a percent per warping point. Have the baby be BORN with some of those points, and the Twilight Prone Flaw if it has the gift? plus if someone can't spnotaneous it with a "part" requisite instead of indiviual.... she has to suffer through the twilight points too?

Oh, that's just evil.

I don't know if this would be worthwhile, but she could invent a familiar cord for use in blood relations. You can have faerie familiars as well as animal familiars, so why not a limited and 'one off' bond between the maga and each of her two children.

Set up the cords:
First to boost health, protect from illness
Second to share resistance from the parma no matter how far awy
Third ?

And can perform enchantments to give increased stats, limited magical ability, completely seperate from whether they have the gift or not.

Of course there would be complications and other unintended consequences.

Don't forget Petrus Virilis , page 59 in Guardians of the Forest.
A trip to Durenmar might be fun.
Having to fight all the other (pre-Longevity Potion) Maga
for the chance to have a Gifted Child could be amusing.

As for Infernal Interest , why not interest from all Four Realms.
Divine Interest , especially if she is a pagan would be all the more disconcerting.
"Yes , your Gifted Child will be Blessed beyond all others"

Ive' already gotten them deeply invovled in several directions with 3 of the realms. Which it;s interesting that it comes up in both MP's and here that Virlis should be mentioned. AS it appears the whole RHine orge thing seems pretty popular, since thats what they are dealing with.

I think the Divine issue might be gilding the lily a bit much in our game, as the very prideful , typical "Blowshituppis" Flabeua has been confronted with his own issues of the divine.

He has to comlete a divinely given quest to rebuild the Nehustan, using a Relic given him by a dying priest. Part of the quest includes him finally giving up his much vaunted pride...

It would seem to me that I might be going a bit "Far" adding in yet more Divine issues. Especially when you consider the Maga's husband(she got married for ... convience sake, really) is Torven. And the narriage was blessed by both King holly and King Oak. (Merinita mage playing both ends of the field as it were)

I suppose with the way things are going I could carte' blanche the gift into one or more of her children... but I have developed a bug lately for wanting things to be "in the book", even when in cases like this, I know they aren't.

[BTW I have been quite cruel, and just used all 4 of the reasons for the Rhine Gorge downfall in the back of Guardians of hte Forest. Which is why the Merinita is playing around with the Fae courts, and the Flambeau is working on the Nehustan. If he can put it back together. Not only will he become a holy Mage. but he can redeem the acts of the Merovingian Magus Kings.]

Many good ideas so far, I think I may have a solution that fits now. But I am open to more suggestions.

If you are a particularly tormenting ST ,
the Divine visitations can be kept from the knowledge of both Mortals & Fae.
(It is The Divine after all)

If one player is already involved in a Divine Quest ,
then i agree that it would take focus away from his story.

The chance is that Children could be born with a Might Score but not The Gift.
Or the Maga gives birth to a Living Ghost child.

Now that is twisted. I love the idea.

Prystus - watch out. If you allow spells to bestow the Gift, you are changing the face of the Order. If I were to include such a spell, it would be horribly non-hermetic, closer to Fenicil's rituals mechanics-wise, or possibly Infernal in origin, since Maleficia can give you the (False) Gift.

Let the Maga go through whatever rituals and ceremonies she want, decide whether the child should be Gifted or not, and let her wonder whether any of the things she did had an effect or if she did something wrong.

Don't forget mercury's blessing from page 103 of true lineages (children born during the duration have an increased chance of havingthe gift)

Still in "revive old threads" mode.

What do you guys think of adapting the "fairy godmother" trope and have hermetic magi (or any Gifted person, for that matter) come and offer their blessings and gifts to a newborn child? I would think the practice would be common in House Mercere, where they are all actual blood relatives, with only a small number of actually Gifted members.

Whether or not it has a game effect beyond justifying picking one virtue or another at character creation, I think it adds mythic flavour.

I love the idea, especially in the case where a "blood line" has yeilded the Gift before. Establishing a "prior claim" to such a child could ensure he is raised healthy and that you would be notified if anything became amiss.

An actual "Faerie Godmother" could be cool, too.

As with all Faerie Tales ,
someone is bound to be offended by not being invited to the Christening.
(or offended by the Dominion if they are)

Or we could all wait on "Ancient Magic."

If I'm not mistaken, there is a form of fertility magic to ensure that children are born with the Gift.

lol...

Try reading back up this thread...

(or here)