Name : Angharad

High-Concept : Tarenti Spirit Seer
Trouble : Outlander or Primative


A couple of lines (no more, please) about the character
What makes them tick?  What haunts them? what do they want? What drives them?
Visions of natural spirits guide Angharad to places where the spirit world and the human one collide catastrophically. Recently she has been pushed toward Pennryn.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:46, Fri 16 Oct 2020.

Hey!

So, this game is set in the same world as the Intro to fate Core I'm doing elsewhere.   And you will, apparently, also be going to Pennryn.   But ew're pretty much off-leash when it comes to mechanics and concepts.  My GM style is very much broad-brush, meaning I don't, actually, have an adventure progression in mind.

What I do have is a bunch of loosely-formed ideas about the logical progression of things if your characters don't get involved.    Each chapter, you'll have a goal, but it's up to you how you'll get there.  And typically this will provide the light on the path to the next chapter.

So, welcome-aboard.

There's so much I can't tell you up front because, well, there's so much of it.  it's ultimately, just easier to do what we've done and put a concept forth than start tugging away at it.


First off, we have a Tarenti among our current PCs!    That means I'll probably be looking to rope Arui's player into things a little to help flesh out what your character is and what they can do in a way that will help complement her character.



A Word on Cosmology
So, first off,we'd had a discussion a long way back wherein the table had decided that we weren't dealing with extra-planar entities.  So, no summoning djinns or devils or efreets or demons or angels, etc...  The Gods, also, don't actually walk the land.

I'll need to refresh myself on my character discussion with Arui, because there was some stuff there that seemed pretty germane to this this character.  And I think it would be really cool if we can get differing approaches to a common idea on this, all within context of the same culture.

At the moment, I'm envisioning more shaman than warrior.  And my original Tarenti NPC was a horse-bonded Sentinel.  The idea that this cosmology and the Tarenti approach to it might get a lot mroe fleshed out really makes me kinda squee with anticipation!


Tabeta lost her mount.  That's like a emotional death-sentence for a Tarenti Sentinel.  Looking to be of some use (and feeling useless without her horse), she agreed to ride with one of the last trading parties to Druvir, then petition the Queen for aid against the Mondain which have also been coming down out of the hills there too (seriously, how could the Queen not see this?  Everyone's telling her the Mondain are coming!  Everyone!  Why won' she listen??).

It would make sense that Angharad was a part of the party along with Arui and Tabeta.    And if it gives her an excuse to talk magic theory with acquaintances at the College of Mages?  I'm sure that might be something she'd rally look forward to.


In general, I'm reminded a little of Gereint from Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Fionaver Tapestry", in the representation of a native-influenced mystic and the juxtaposition of Welsh names...  There's nice complement there, as one of the foundations of the setting (the duality between Khune and Kumlar) is also influenced from The Fionaver Tapestry.

So.. yeah.  Sorry. I like to talk.

Let me loop Arui into this.  A skim through the discussion I had in her character thread wouldn't hurt, but I'll summarize, anyway, 'cause I'm not assuming you want to read so much text that's not directly relevant.

I like the term, mystic, you came up with in the general chat. I struggled to find the right word that fit. Druid implies a different cosmology than I perceived for the Tarenti. Shaman was better, but I thought that was a gendered term. I like Mystic better.

I was working to connect the mechanical effects I wanted to produce to a metaphysical concept. I thought nature spirits would work for that. For example, if I wanted a stunt that caused plants to entangle my enemies, how could Angharad produce such a thing? As you said above, there's a limit to divine intervention. But what if there are spirits already in the world? Could Angharad get them to help her wrap the plants around her foes.

I'm not married to the concept of nature spirits, but I had a GURPS character that had Spirit Empathy, but the character was short lived and I never got to explore the concept.


I'm happy to be connected to Tabeta in what every way makes sense. Is it reasonable to read through other character's creation thread?

It's been a while since I read the The Fionaver Tapestry. I'll have to see if I have a copy on my shelf. To my mind " native-influenced mystic and the juxtaposition of Welsh names" sounds like a bunch of the stories of Taliesin : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin

It is not unreasonable, but only if you're really keen on it.  It's a fair bit of reading because I acknowledge that I'm pretty verbose.

I didn't get to do more than  quick key-word search through her character-thread.  I think I was pushing for something a little more down your line that hers, but there's enough there that should work well together and separately.

I suggest doing that... search for "spirits" in her thread to see a little of my thinking.

The idea of nature spirits and "spirits of reality" is workable in this game and doesn't run afoul of the ban on extra-planar entities.

Are you familiar with Werewolf: The Apocalypse/Forsaken  or Changeling: The Lost?  There's a bunch of concepts there I'd love to hijack for our purposes here.

But yeah, bottom line, it's doable without issue.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 20:19, Sat 17 Oct 2020.

I don't mind verbose in an asynchronous medium. I'll start looking Arui and Tabeta Character Creation threads. It might take me a bit. Thank you for the mantle explanation in Oswald's thread.

I am more familiar with Whitewolf's Mage game. I have passing familiarlity with both, but have not tried to build character's in either of those two systems.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:15, Sat 17 Oct 2020.

Ok, I like the Gnosis idea. It seems to be a power pool that needs roleplay to be maintained, but can be used for active effects in the game.

Given how closely Angharad would be connected to the world of spirits, I'm considering altering her trouble to something like :

There's a whole other world of spirits out there.

That would distract her. That would drive plot hooks. She could be put into moral choices as the spirit world demands a human's death with very real human consequences.

Ultimately, I've found it easier to nail down the basic character sheet first before getting too heavily into mantles.  Mantles do allow us to further capture and refine what it means to be a [whatever]...  In this case, a mystical shaman of the Tarenti.

So, my fundamental thoughts about spirits and the spirit world...


"Reality" is, at it's heart, an enormous series of interlocking agreements between elements.  The shaman of the Tarenti can interact with those elements and forge their own agreements.  The shaman might ask to borrow an Eagle's sight in exchange for nesting material.

It is through communion with the spirits of the world (not just animals and nature, but "the world" at a deeper level) that the shaman can come to understand the world..  Communion and understanding greater things, including non-physical abstractions, like "commerce" or "seasons" are possible, if not often sought out.

So, at a base level, the High-Concept Aspect provides us the narrative justification to talk with the spirits and to forge contracts with them.

Angharad might

• make a deal with a mouse to scout the farmhouse in exchange for an offering of cheese.
• might hitch-hike with a crow's sight in exchange for an offering of nesting material for it's rookery
• might "borrow" the form of a eagle in exchange for fresh-killed salmon (which, coincidentally, might be convinced to sacrifice itself via another contract)
• Might "borrow" the strength of a bear in exchange for a guarantee of protection while it hibernates

But this is all pretty personal and low-level stuff.  Angharad might also potentially:

• Make a deal with Rat (note the capital-R) to be told if there is a person in the keep who bears a silver thorned crown.  In exchange, she will b
• Make a deal with her weapon such that it will never injure a child, but in exchange she must feed it blood weekly...
• make a deal with the local forest, that it will guide her to food and safety provided that she neither hunts nor brings injury to it's denizens

I could go on and on...   But it's not just individual animal that Angharad can forge contracts with.  It goes right up the chain to big world-shaking fundamental concepts.  if you want it to.

Largely influenced by the roleplaying games: Changeling: the Lost, Werewolf: The Whatever, Elric, Nobilis and The Whispering Vault.

A Whole Other World Of Spirits Out there is certainly a potential trouble.    However, I would, right off the bat, worry that it's already too aligned with the high-concept.  This is part and parcel of the world suggested by the High-Concept.    And with only five Aspects to try to encapsulate the character, we really run the risk of being too narrowly defined.

I have a slight preference for Trouble Aspects that are actually personality issues that are a Trouble of the character's own making.  Such as:

• Bound By Promises Past
• Quick to Anger, Slow to Peace
• Love is the Always the Answer
• Trust is a Double-Edged Blade
• No Greater Pursuit than Truth

No, I'm not requiring that you take any of these... I just like making up Aspects and throwing lists out there.  It gives an idea of how I think.

For now, let's let the Trouble Aspect sit for a bit and put together a first-stab at a character sheet.  Then we can discuss and haggle.

Best way...  Tell me a little bit about your character?

If you like, I can encapsulate a little of hat I'd put together for Tabeta.  As I recognize that I deleted her character-thread (not that there was much on it, as a NPC).

Grumble. I lost power before I could submit everything. I'll try to recreate it this morning.

Angharad can perceive spirits within all natural things, plants, animals, stone, wind, et cetera. When her abilities first manifested she frequently would her own relationships to play with her spirit friends. Her tribe, the Hanjoo, had not borne a mystic in a few generations so they passed Angharad off to the Venti to apprentice to their mystic. Gajdibool taught her how to be a person with larger awareness but still be part of her tribe.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:23, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

After some years of maturity, Angharad found her balance and was able to rejoin her tribe only to be promptly tapped to be a Queen's Attendant. Those years were taxing for Angharad. The spirits that live around crowds of people have less interest in Angharad, so she ended up being quite lonely during those years.

A couple of Aspects jump out from what I have so far :

Respected member of the Hanjoo tribe

Student of Gajdibool

I think the latter is too limiting.

I thought of another Aspect :

My friends are out of town

It's kind of sideways, but it's intended to be like animal friend.

After some years of maturity, Angharad found her balance and was able to rejoin her tribe only to be promptly tapped to be a Queen's Attendant.

I am intrigued by the suggestion that Angharad had to leave to "find her balance" which is fantastic way of sutbley suggesting she'd gone mad.  I say fantastic because so many mystics and magically-inclined folks in the real-world were thought of as having brushes with mental instability...  How do you reconcile the awareness of the spirit-world with a culture that doesn't share that?   It's so much mote than seeing, say, a higher visual spectrum...


...and was able to rejoin her tribe only to be promptly tapped to be a Queen's Attendant.
Your character is not required to have been one of the seven veils attending the Queen.  You can, of course, have this as a chapter in Angharad's history if you like it... but it's not at all a requirement.   This "cell" is the first conspiracy group in the Veiled Hand that's active and it makes sense that they would source people with the skills they need more than people specifically already in the network.  So, again... not a requirement.

The spirits that live around crowds of people have less interest in Angharad, so she ended up being quite lonely during those years.
This has it's own special fascination to it.  It's not that there's less spirits, so much as they were less interested and less forthcoming with her...


Respected Member of the Hanjoo Tribe
At the moment, this is providing a fish-out-of-water element.  But if we go with this, it will eventually require you to define what, precisely being a respected member of the Hanjoo tribe means (versus not of the tribe and versus not a respected member of the tribe).

I can see ways to invoke for various cultural throwbacks to your people-of-origin, and I can see ways to compel for the same reasons.


Student of Gajdibool
It is a little weak, you're right.  But only because it's a hook that we haven't defined.  Until we define who Gadjibool is and what he/she/it taught and, for that matter, what kind of real relationship they had (student isn't enough...  Did Angahrad revere Gadjibool?  Hate  him/her/it?  Did she buy into the teachings?  What kind of student was she?  Would she mourn at his/hr/grave or spit on it?)


My friends are out of town
We may want to further clarify the high-concept.  Because this has serious overlap with it.   I think we run the very real risk of having too many Aspects focused on the same thing, which makes the character one-dimensional.



So, Angharad left her people, the Hanjool family,, on the Plains of Taren, traveled south while trying to come to terms with her burgeoning awareness.   She found tutelage with someone/thing named Gajibool (that name is going to get continually screwed up, I can tell you that now).  Presumably, this person/thing helped equip her with the tools to contextualize her world with her expanded awareness.

If you're still keen on Angharad having served as one of the seven veils, then... how did that happen?  Out of millions of subjects, why her?  And the way the queen's men typically approach this is that the veil is usually an offer--never a conscription.   This is why the loyalty of the Veiled Hand Network is so high.

That leads to the question... what was Angharad offered?

Now, what does Angharad want?  If left to her own devices, what would she do and what aims would she pursue?

How do you reconcile the awareness of the spirit-world with a culture that doesn't share that?
My thought was that the Tarenti would share that belief even if they cannot interact with the spirits directly. In the more "civilized" world...she has learned to keep it out of most conversations. When it does come up she tries to not come off as the mad lady of Shalott.


...and was able to rejoin her tribe only to be promptly tapped to be a Queen's Attendant. <snip> Your character is not required to have been one of the seven veils attending the Queen. <snip> So, again... not a requirement.
Hmmm. I thought it was. It would be easier if she was not already an Attendant.


it will eventually require you to define what, precisely being a respected member of the Hanjoo tribe means
Hanjoo is the tribe she was borne into. She would have some respect by blood until some weakness burned through that. However, since she can interact with spirits....successfully, she has more respect by her abilities. Given that she sees a wider world, she is afforded more leeway in general.



Until we define who Gadjibool is and what he/she/it taught and, for that matter, what kind of real relationship they had (student isn't enough...  Did Angahrad revere Gadjibool?  Hate  him/her/it?  Did she buy into the teachings?  What kind of student was she?  Would she mourn at his/hr/grave or spit on it?)
Gadjibool was a shaman in Venti who could speak to spirits as well. He believed her and matched her perception, then taught her how to balance spiritual interaction with tribal interactions. She went from being an afflicted raving lunatic to a spiritual wise woman who embodies the beliefs of her people.


having too many Aspects focused on the same thing, which makes the character one-dimensional.
I did not think mystic would give me access to animal interaction. If you think it can, then I will drop it.



Now, what does Angharad want?  If left to her own devices, what would she do and what aims would she pursue?
She has been warned about the Mondain and would be investigating it's renewal on her own. She probably wouldn't have the assets to do much about them, but wants more information to advise her tribe and the Tarenti nation in general
This message was last edited by the player at 00:58, Tue 27 Oct 2020.