Background
Khumanashi, Gael
Raised by two Sidhe, one druidess, one hag
   - two immortals - polarized twins?
     - druidess: Sage of the houses of Sun and Silk
     - hag: Noble of the houses of Mystery and Shadows
   - three? triple goddess - who is third sister?
   - why?
     - mother slain by hag, druidess demands life price - raise the orphaned child


Setting
Where: Britain, Scottish Highlands
   Minael has a small house on the shore of Loch Rannoch
   Mariel has a small house deep within Rannoch Moor, which lies west of the loch
   The Black Wood of Rannoch stands on the southern shore of the loch

When: AD 1420, June
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:41, Sat 20 June 2020.

Magical Practice

Sorcerer
How? Humans don't spontaneously cast magic...
The immortals can't/wouldn't teach him as a wizard would so...

The labyrinth - a psychic construct built inside Wysk's mind by the immortals. Minael and Mariel blessed him with arcane knowledge that would be revealed as he matured.

Minael shaped the blessing as a great tree in a glade, every leaf inscribed with a spiritual or magical truth. Mariel demanded that the boy prove himself worthy. She reshaped the great tree into a labyrinth that appears as a hedge maze, amphitheatre, or library.

Wysk needs no spellbook because the spells he learns and research he studies are found within, in the areas of the labyrinth he has become familiar with.


Game Note: Perhaps Wysk doesn't need a mage's guild, coven, or circle. By going into a deep meditative state via the Trance advantage, Wysk's mind enters the labyrinth where he can increase Expertise (Arcane Lore) or do Spell Research.


Processes and Practices
I love the way you can build your own magical practice in M20 so I want to steal that.

Right, so, because Wysk wasn't taught by humans, he doesn't understand magic as they do. Most humans join an order and learn a model from them whether that's Kabbalah, Voudou, or Witchcraft. Immortals manipulate reality directly like angels and demons so their skills are based on abstract concepts instead of practices.

I've set the greater titans or cosmic forces to 6: Creation, Darkness, Life, Light, Space, and Time

The names are similar to spheres in Mage. I didn't copy M20 actually. I was trying to account for all of the subraces of elves and gnomes while stripping out cultural references. For example, immortals of darkness are more drow and driders than Entropy.

Anyway, so, Wysk is a storm sorcerer so his focus will be on Light, which is similar to Forces except it includes all forms of activity from thought to energy.

He would have Expertise (Arcane Lore) as a basic understanding of magic, the arcane, and the occult in general.

The basic default effect for Magic is
Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2) + Luck Control 1 - 5pt

Think of it like magic at its weakest or most subtle causes shifts in probability.
Or think of it as Coincidental Magic
Magicians have to learn how to conjure events before they can conjure the undead

PaxSup - when you're logged in and comfy, we'll go through M20 and build up a magical system for Wysk
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:59, Thu 25 June 2020.

I like the idea of them both being sidhe. Seelie and Unseelie, both sides of extreme passion.
For the sisters, you can go with the third sister would be the mother. Each of his faerie god mothers (disney plug there) suspects the other of having murdered the mother.

These are questions and thoughts only, I am exploring with you not against you.
Why the limitations for humans?
If we use the Sorcerer from DND as a reference, it is the 'dragon blood' for example the permits the sorcerer from having living magic within.
Would not the 'Sidhe' blood be enough in this case for him to have a more intuitive magic, like Rey knowing what to do with little to no training. Sorcerer's can't learn magic by rote, they feel it.




Hummm, so sorcerers are psychics (sp)?
Had a thought, maybe we could steal from lost souls and mimic the order of Azure wizards, elementalists, maybe the Sidhe are in tune with nature to such an extent that they wield elemental magics?


I guess what you mean by labyrinth is something akin to the arcana library, an astral place accessible only by 'wizards' or perhaps only sorcerers which pisses off wizards who need to physicaly see the 'matrix' to wield magic as opposed to Sorcerers who are one with the matrix.



Are we ditching MnM for M20?

NOt an issue, just need to know so I can rebuild my character.

Also, if we are keeping MnM, perhaps you could give me a basic all wizards/sorcerers should have this (template I guess) and then I can build my PC on top of that so it better reflects your vision of the arcane in your world.

In reply to Wysk Oran (msg # 3):



I see so Wysk is half-elven-ish? What happened to his father?

Actually, Scotland in the Late Middle Ages gives plenty of opportunities for dad to die and leave mother and child.

In reply to Wysk Oran (msg # 4):



Yeah, I was thinking out loud. I hadn't translated the Sorcerer because I was flipping back and forth between seeing Andul as a game world or as a world to write stories about. Absolutely, if Wysk's mother was an incarnate/Sidhe then he would have enough inner magic to not need the discipline and training of an order.



I was considering how Wysk learns.

If he were a regular human, he'd get into a magical order, probably by having wealthy parents. There he'd have mentors and a library. There'd be ordeals and tests, allies, rivals, and enemies.

As a sorcerer, all of that is internal. So, I was thinking that maybe he had something like Sherlock Holmes' Mind Palace. A place in his mind where he has these resources, partially set up by the sisters because they have no idea how to teach a human magic. They kind of crammed their knowledge into Wysk's subconscious and he has to go digging it out.



No, no, not switching to M20. I simply realized that MnM doesn't have any support for magical systems so I'm adopting the framework from M20. Chapter 10, Part V11, Focus and the Arts (pg 565) is the section that outlines Beliefs, Practices, and Instruments. I use MnM rules for magic as a game system but M20 for the roleplaying fluff.



Sure

Expertise (arcane lore)
   - regular magi will have a practice skill like Expertise (Witchcraft) as well but since Wysk casts intuitively, he only needs the general arcane lore skill

   - I might have us go through the Magical Rituals rules (Hero's Handbook pg212) when Wysk wants to learn a new spell. I know DnD just lets you take spells but they control what level of spell you can choose from. I think using Magical Rituals will keep spell power appropriate to the character's skill level but it might be excessive.

Ritualist, (Artificer, Trance)
   - Ritualist is spellcasting. Spells that can be cast in combat are just rituals so deeply memorized that they can be triggered instantly.

   - Artificer is optional. Some mages are required to make their own instruments (wands, staves, etc.). As an elementalist, Wysk might use natural instruments (sticks, crystals, conch horns, etc) so he wouldn't need it.

   - Trance is also optional. Consider it meditation which would be a pretty rare skill in medieval Scotland. But if we go the Mind Palace route, this would be the way to go

Luck Control 1, Luck 2
   - It seems an odd way to go but consider that magick at its most basic creates synchronicities, coincidences, and wierd occasions. Luck 2 means that mage can influence probability in his favour. Luck Control expands that to include basic blessings and curses.

   - basically, it's coincidental magic that all magicians can do, from the highest archmage to the laziest dabbler. In fact, most dabblers stick to just that, using their magic to win at gambling, or catch the eye of a hottie.

   - and it costs 5pp so it's an easy buy-in for even PL2 characters so average people could learn the basics of magic (which is why these are usually kept secret)

   - oh, of course, I should mention that all of Wysk's spells can be bought as alternates of Luck Control

Metamagic
   if you want to get into Metamagic, we can do them as stand-alone Extras. So, you could buy Twinned Spell as

   Split 1, Variable Descriptor 2 (any cast spell)... 3 pp
   or Multiattack (up to rank), Variable Descriptor 2 (any spell), 3+ pp
   ... something like that. We'll figure it out
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:29, Fri 26 June 2020.

An idea, or is it a question?

Umm, okay, so, if we go with the three sisters, since they are spirits, there should be a theme, like the three Fates, nine Muses, the Morrigan, etc. So, to recap:

Minael - Noble (aka sidhe, elf) of Silk (speak with animals) and Sun (illusions), Seelie Court - she's very much a Disney princess

Mariel - Noble (aka sidhe, elf) of Silk (speak with animals) and Shadows (shadow limbs), Unseelie Court - very much a Disney villainess, she's a bit like Lolth, she speaks to animals but prefers those that hide in the shadows

I kind of built them as mirror images - same type (noble), similar stats and skills, and shared a subtype (Silk). They were both life spirits but had opposite biases. Immortals don't have to have two subtypes. I took the option to make the sisters more similar, well like sisters.

Sorry if I'm getting confusing. I've been at this a while so I'm comfortable with the terminology. I realize that you're not. So, the Houses were a way to do subtypes like forest elf, sea elf, forest gnome, etc. Silk is just the forest gnome ability to speak with animals. Immortals of Silk are spirits of communication between living things. Sun is the rock gnome minor illusion trait. Sun immortals are spirits of energy, that sort of thing. Shadows are the driders, extra limbs but player scale so shadow limbs not full-on spider-hybrid.

So, to add a third, I have two options to present:

1) All three sisters were spirits of Life. So, Wysk's mother would have Silk as half of her subtype. For the other, I propose one of the Space houses, the sea elf one (amphibious + swimming). I expand it to represent exploration, new environments (underwater, airborne, etc). The other house was built from the eladrin misty step, which represents territoriality, command of the territory rather than expansion.

OR

2) The sisters form a triangle. Life+Light, Light+Darkness, Darkness+Life. Wysk's mother would have had a polarized essence - Light and Darkness. I kind of like this because you can think of Light like Forces, it includes all types of energy and movement. So, Light and Darkness could be a storm - dark clouds pierced by lightning. Wysk would then be taking after his mother. He's a storm sorcerer because his mother was a thunder spirit.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:32, Fri 26 June 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 7):

There is also another option:
The mother was mortal, the father was mortal, but both of the Sidhe were enamored with the father.
One of them, leave that up to you murdered the mother, without realising she was with child.
Through their magics, they infused Wysk with enough power to turn him part sidhe, but without any of the attributes that would show this (no pointed ears, ect...)

So Human wizards find Wysk undicipined and probably jealous of his ease at casting what they call difficult magics, and the Sidhe other then his 'mothers' do not believe he is a sidhe.

We could make the Father a Sidhe to, that died of a broken heart when the mother was killed, or he survived and hates the living reminder of his true love, and hunts down when he can the bastard.

In reply to Wysk Oran (msg # 8):

Hmm, what about...

Dad was half-Sidhe. I call them Cuckoo, after the bird. With Cuckoos, the faerie spirit possesses an unborn host and grows up with it. So, in his late teens/early 20s, Wysk's father would be eccentric, likely talking to an invisible friend, intuitively magical, and secretly wondering if he is Sidhe.

He's a local and gets invited to go fishing in Loch Eigheach, which is in the moor. Mariel spots him and becomes infatuated. She seduces him and lures him into an affair. When Wysk's mother finds out and presses him, Mariel becomes enraged and kills her.

Horrified that his mistress killed his pregnant wife, Wysk's father takes off, cutting ties with his homeland. Wysk would have died with his mother but Minael had become suspicious of her sister's frequent and hidden movements. She had followed her on that night. A spirit of Life, Minael can sense the fragile Wysk inside his dying mother.

Minael takes the mother back to her home and heals her. The two live together until Wysk is born. Having barely survived Mariel's attack, Mother Oran is exhausted by his birth and dies shortly after his first year.

Minael adopts the child and forces an oath of guardianship from her sister, as the prime cause of Wysk's orphanhood. Mariel sticks to her oath and acts like a mother to Wysk, but not a kind one. She may have taken Wysk into the Highlands and used him as a lightning rod to trigger any latent magical power his father may have left him.

(I kinda want to change the names of the sisters because it's a little confusing... but then I think it's kinda funny that they're almost mirror images of each other so even their names are similar)

Thoughts?

I believe you should reserve the truth behind the death of the mother. I think you could milk it and spawn great side quest or keep my pc grounded.

Also, me thinks you are really proud of your world, but think small squale when it comes to my PC, let me uncover the world, this way it is easier to improvise when those nasty characters go left instead of going where you wanted them to.

When do you want me to submit my revised character?

In reply to Wysk Oran (msg # 10):

Yes, good points. I was watching a video on YouTube about Hard Worldbuilding vs Soft. Hard is all about having all of the details beforehand, while soft worldbuilding starts small and builds out. I have a hard style, always looking to fill in details. Gotta ease back a bit.

You can submit your character any time.

Oh! Also, I have a rule that every PC gets a 5 pt Cultural package.

========================
Athletics 2  - Highland life, daily physical labour
Close Combat 2 (axe or sword)  - probably axe as Wysk is likely proficient enough to harvest wood
Expertise: Scotland 2  - Wysk knows his king, the major cities, y'know, citizen-level familiarity
Benefit 1 (Cipher)  - Not cultural but Wysk is an orphan raised by fae women; he's a bit of a question mark to the locals
Language 1 (Gaelic native, English learned)
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:08, Sat 04 July 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 11):

Good afternoon GM,

I can't find my excel file that I had created for Wysk (I had a CPU incident, and lost some files).
Could you resend it to me so I can tweak it?
Also, is that 5pt on top of the aloted points or we need to include it in the character?

Absolutely

The 5 pt package is a bonus.

I liked what HERO system did with Everyman skills, in which every member of a particular culture would have a list of skills they'd all have a basic level of understanding in. Like familiarity with fishing and sailing for Vikings, familiarity with driving for modern PCs, etc.

In reply to GM (msg # 13):

Ok, please be patient with me:

PL 5 = 75 points

and then I get an additional 5 points that is locked in package...correct?

Correct

No problem. Take your time. I have to reread the guts of the game.

Also, can you see the other characters or just your own? I moved them from the NPC thread into characters of their own. I want to write mini-threads for one or two of the NPCs coming to Kinloch Rhannoch, which is the hamlet closest to Wysk's home.

In reply to GM (msg # 11):

Question about the Benefit? Cipher? You mean my PC is an enigma or are you pulling from the Cipher System?

In reply to GM (msg # 15):

Yup I can see the 'cast'. Love goblins.

Btw, always good to know where the washrooms are.... (map)

The former. Because he was raised by fae, the locals' knowledge of Wysk is entirely up to him. Was his mother from Kinloch Rhannoch? Did he ever visit the town as a kid or did he stay close to his fairy godmothers?

Let's be honest. Few would ever want to visit Mary. Only the most desperate would try making a deal with a hag. Although they would remember Wysk as the one child she wouldn't eat.

As for the Lady, she has what I'd like to call High Tea, which is when she charms a bunch of animals and people to have brunch with her but it's one of those fae things where it's more like lost time than a fond memory.

So, Wysk may have become part of the myth of the sisters. The townsfolk may know of him but do they know him?

How much can you see? There's an image, bio, description, and character sheet.




Hehe, yeah, sorry about that.

I like Rhannoch because it has a river for the Lady, a moor for the Hag, the massive Caledonian forest, the mountainous highlands, and a scattering of mortals. However, Kinloch Rhannoch wasn't even recognized as a hamlet until the 1700s so map searching was a challenge but that's a great shot.