Character Sheet
Name: Miriam Green
Shadow Name: Morata
Age: Sixteen.
Gender: Female

Path: Mastigos.
Gnosis: 3
Mana: 4/12
Wisdom: 7

Arcana: Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 1, (In Progress) Spirit 1

Aspirations: Unlock the Secrets of the Fire.

Obsessions:

Virtue: Faith
Vice: Curiosity

Health: 8/8
Willpower: 7/7
Defense: 2
Destiny (Merit): 4/4

XP: 0
Arcane XP: 1

Attributes:

Strength 3, Dexterity 2*, Stamina 3
Presence 2*, Manipulation 2*, Composure 3*
Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4

Aspects:

Promising High School Student (4): She's smart and well liked around school. In fact, she has a pretty good grasp of not merely the basics of high-school learning, but even the things that are up to the senior year. Beyond what a person might learn in a she's a little lost, and so there are limits as to the kinds of things she'd know about, but if it can be found in a textbook she might have read, she's probably read it. As well, she knows how to plan her time, to get along with other people at school and not get into fights, and otherwise do well in this respect. She's best at history.

Preacher's Daughter (3): Growing up with a father who tells the gospel word, you learn how to mimic the way he gives sermons, quote the bible chapter and verse, and know more than a little about how to interact with people and their religions, faiths, and how churches function. Whether it is mingling after church, being a sounding board for her father's sermons, or playing games that involve reciting long passages of the bible from memory, she is good at it.

*A Bit of a Tomboy (2): She's really at the age where you're supposed to outgrow this sort of thing, really. But she still likes climbing things, she still likes running around the school, she still knows a little about getting into a scrap, even if she hasn't actually gotten into a fight since...well, a few years. She's keen, athletic, and very, very interested in baseball (boo, Kansas City Monarchs, boo!) which she read about, not having a radio, and that being fledgling besides. In any wise, it certainly isn't fading with time, and it's given her a set of interests and hobbies that meshes quite interestingly with her obvious piety and (reasonably, mostly) obedient nature.

Breaker of Chains (2): Abraham Lincoln was a swell guy, in her opinion. Her own father's involvement in the NAACP and her engagement in High School history has made it so that she's actually surprisingly knowledgeable on race issues, and quite talkative about them in the right circumstances. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, of course, around older white men or the like, but she has her opinions and she wears them on her sleeve, and that includes knowing a lot of things most girls her age wouldn't know about, academically and otherwise.

A Practicing Mage (2): While Morata has a lot to learn, and has only been practicing magic for a short time, she is now fully settling into magical society. She knows the Orders, and more than that she is starting to understand both the personalities and how magic truly works. It is a long journey, but she has taken another step forward.

Can We Keep Him? (1): She has had dogs and cats before, and currently has one of each, which she of course does all of the work taking care of, because her mom said that if she had to deal with that, she'd throw them out. She has a bit of a way with animals, and after the third or fourth stray, also with people and convincing them to go along with her quite innocent and well-meaning requests.

Problem Solver (1): Kids in her neighborhood and at school tend to trust and like her, or at least she's tried to be liked, and even go to her for help sometimes, whether of an academic nature or just to see what she has to say. She's not exactly a local guru or anything, but she's clever and tends to be able to help people with minor problems, or dispense advice, even if that advice is often enough 'Really, you should tell your parents, they're gonna find out, you know, and if they find out and you didn't tell them, they'll cane your hide raw.'

Sneaking The Cookie Jar (1): She's not a dishonest person, but being someone with a lot of friends means that you sometimes know how to lie for them, and more than that, that you know a little about sneaking an extra quarter here and there. Whenever caught she's full of contrition, and more than that she's not a fundamentally dishonest person, but...well, she knows plenty of people who deserve an extra cookie every now and then.

Mother's Teachings (1): Her mother has tried to at least teach her the basics of cooking, cleaning, and keeping house. The logic that she'll probably need it if she goes to college has been pretty persuasive, and while there are gaps, she's quite self-sufficient when it comes to balancing a budget or all of the other things a modern woman is expected to do, as far as it goes. She's best at cooking meat, and her recipes are all pretty simple, but it's food that'll fill a belly, and that's the most important thing.

To Dream A Dream (1): Morata has become a truly expert in the magic of dreams, and indeed has begun to truly explore what Demons and other denizens of the Astral can and will do. This is merely an extrapolation of what she can already do, hence the discount. Special: Can use Arcane XP for this.

Powers--

Mage Sight (Peripheral, Active, and Focused): She seems to be able to see something that others cannot. Magic itself, and her eyes seem especially attuned to distances and the spaces between things, as well as the minds of other people.

Mage Armor: Mind, Space

Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 2 (In Progress up from 1)

Spirit 1 (Will complete in two weeks)

Rotes--

Dividing the Mind (Mind 1): A rote to divide the mind in two, this means that it has extra reach to add to duration and so on, and that there is a two-dice Yantra that can be done to add to the power of the spell. Involves imagining the split in her mind to enact it.

Scholar's Little Helper (Mind 1): Scholarship is hard work, and it's often difficult to sift through a five-hundred page book on Astral adventures for the single passage on a threatening Goetic demon that's currently ripping the rest of the Cabal apart. Plus, cross-referencing other works can be difficult. Through this tiny little rote, the caster can input a word, phrase, or topic, mentally, and essentially search the book just by holding it up to the light, copying knowledge of what was said in those passages and the passage surround it into their brain without having to search. It does not grant perfect understanding, and sometimes the section requires context to make any sense, but it can save weeks on a big scholarship project. (Rote Mudra, Promising Student, +4) Reach: With each additional Reach, you can search an additional book in the same spell; You can absorb the entirety of the contents of the book, if not always parse its meaning, as if you read the entire book in the instants it took to cast the spell, cover to cover. It may take some hours of thinking and consideration to fully parse the contents, and of course at times understanding and applying it can be more difficult: but an entire book read in less than a second is still something.

Strengthen Mind (Mind 3): It does not, obviously, only effect the intellect, but any aspect of one's mind can be made sharper, as can one's social abilities. The key to doing this, or rather the Mystagogue form of it, involves closing one's eyes and pressing one's fingers against your forehead, as if trying to stimulate thought by motion. When you open your eyes, the spell should be cast. You cannot improve your mind or social abilities to superhuman levels (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4), Reach: You may divide the 'Potency' of the spell, eg: Potency 4, enhance Intelligence by 1, Wits by 2, and Resolve by 1; spend a point of Mana: temporarily, for as long as the spell lasts, Attributes can reach supernatural levels.

Scholar's Protection (Mind 3): Adapted from a famous Silver Ladder rote, this grants protection ot the humble scholar. They make a sign with their hands as if their hands are books, their palms pages, and then so long as they neither attack or order an attack, others struggle to gather up the will to attack them. If they do order an attack, or attack themselves, the spell automatically fails… but only for the target, and not any others. Automatons, or beings without thought are immune, but this potent spell makes it so that anyone with a Resolve less than their Mind +1 cannot bring themselves to attack. Those that can still feel hesitation, and it is as if the Mage has two points of Armor. Supernatural beings have an advantage: if they have a supernatural trait, they get +1 to the comparison of Resolve versus Mind, if it is equal to the Mage's, they get +2, and if it is greater, they get +3… even then, a weak-willed but powerful supernatural being might find themselves frozen in fear and doubt. (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4) Reach: Spend 1 Mana, the spell may now last for an entire day; You may spend Reach to increase the difficulty of overcoming the Protection, once; Attackers lose 10-again on rolls to attack someone, if that person has willpowered through the magic.

The Dedicated Will of the Just (Mind 3): A spell taught to her by her Uncle, it is in some ways an extension of previous spells. By touching the forehead and spreading one's fingers across it, yours or others, when someone grits their teeth and uses their will, they find it stretching out, like hitting a high note and holding it for longer than a single action, based on the power of the spell. (Rote Mudra, Preacher's Daughter +3) Reach: Willpower when spent can add +2 to all resistance traits; Willpower spent both increases one's ability to endure, and one's ability to 'act'; By spending a Mana, the caster can imagine the benediction and thus enact it in a single breath on themselves or any target, as fast as the speed of thought.

Determined Will (Mind 2): The Mystagogue must go through many hardships for knowledge. Whatever a materialist thinks, anyone experienced in Mind magic knows that willpower exists, and so by a series of invisible taps against either their own or--imagined--someone else's skull. By doing so the Mage can make sure that when they, or others, gather their will for a great task, as long as it isn't magic they will get a bonus to the will-enhanced roll (9-again.) (Rote Mudra: Preacher's Daughter, +3: Inspire others and inspire yourself), Reach: The bonus can be increased; the bonus might be able to be used even to enhance magic, strengthening the will that brings itself to bear in casting a spell.



The Bonds of Fate (Fate 1): It is one thing to look at someone and see them, it is another to be able to look at them and see the destinities, the curses, the broken oaths and more that mark their soul and their persons. Mystagogues imagine a cobweb of connections and strands of fate itself, and carefully reach out a finger to tap at the edges of the cobweb without breaking it, to see what creeps up. (Mudra: Can We Keep Him? (+1), the spider spins its web.) Reach: The Mage can know when someone is possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise has their destiny majorly influenced; the Mage can tell someone's Destiny and Doom, can know when the curse they're affected by will be lifted, or so on.

The Unusual Path (Fate 1) : Fate itself can sometimes intervene in small ways. Through this spell, a Mystagogue can state a goal and then receive omens, sometimes faint and contradictory, on how to begin working towards it… and can even allow them to match strength with strength: subtly twisting fate so that their talents are just the right ones needed to advance upon the goal. Miriam uses it to occasionally leverage her way through a tricky social situation. The Mudra involves tugging on strands and pulling them in with a flip of a hand, as if examining something. (Rote Mudra: Problem Solver, +1) Reach: Can substitute any skill needed while under the spell for another within the same category, e.g. the character's religious passion turns out to be just what it might take to convince the homeless person to tell you where the body is hid, instead of a skill involving the streets or crime; Can, if taken further, substitute any skill for any other skill: your athletic prowess intimidates the homeless man, your knowledge of petty trivia charms the high society lady you need to steal from.



] No Shackles For The Scholar (Space 2): A Mystagogue cannot be stopped merely by a locked door, or being chained up above a pit of sharks while a villain monologues about how the Secret of the Amazon will die with them. So by imagining their own escape, and circling around that thought a few times as fast as possible, they can affect it. Any one barrier: locked door, handcuffs, barred window, or so on is fine… though it cannot get one through a bouncer or through fire. It can also be cast on an object, such as if you want to push a macguffin through a locked door and then face the enemy yourself. (Rote Mudra: Breaker of Chains, +2), Reach: Can pass through even shackles or objects they could not move through, such as being chained up, or trapped in a coffin, or anything else; subject can squeeze through narrow gaps that they should not physically be able to make it through: you can in fact drive a car through an open front door half its width if you cast this spell on it.
Merits--

(**) 'Profession'--Student
1--Gain 9-again on any roll that can be justified as having to do with one's profession.
2--Gain two dots of Contacts related to one's 'profession.'
3--+1 to rolls against any mental, physical or social stress that might get in the way of performing one's profession.[1] This cannot create a positive bonus.

4--8-again on rolls.
5--One special bonus based on the nature of the 'profession.

[1] Okay, in this case, imagine the college student who is good enough at class that he can show up hungover and still get something out of class, or the athlete who can go out not feeling 100% and still actually manage not to fuck everything up forever, even if he's not putting in his best performance.

(***) Parents: It may seem absurd to say it, but having parents in the picture who can help solve moderate problems is a boon. Obviously the drawback is that if they get involved and it's over her head, it could end badly, and that more than that, they obviously are sure they know best, but asking Mom or Dad is totally an option available to her, and one that can enlist their aid and ask their advice.

(***) Contacts:

She has contacts with both People She Knows At Church, a broad group but in some ways self-selecting, and among those kids she knows around the neighborhood, as well as People At School. People are willing to talk to her, ask her advice, and that goes both ways, doesn't it? If she wants to ask around, she could certainly do worse than asking when she's at church, with someone inclined to see her well already.

Egregore--Mysteriorum Arche (•): In a teamwork spellcasting roll in which the character is participating, she does not suffer the –3 penalty to contribute without the necessary Arcanum rating, and adds an automatic success if a full participant. All members of the ritual team must possess this Merit.

(*)Language: Latin

She knows Latin, read and spoken.

(*) Order Status (Mysterium)

She has been initiated in the first mystery of the Mystagogues.

(*) High Speech

She can use High Speech as a Yantra in spellcasting, and knows enough to be (roughly) conversational outside of the very formal language of Spellcasting.

(*) Egregore

1) In a teamwork spell in which she participates, she doesn't take -3 to the roll if she couldn't cast the spell on her own, and if she can she adds an automatic success to her dice roll for the purpose of granting the ritual leader the bonus dice. However, everyone involved in the ritual must have this level of Egregore. This represents her connection to magic, and through it, others of the Order.

(*) Resources:

She has a little bit of spending money saved up. Not much at all, but it's something. And it's more than a lot of people have, and so she knows to be grateful for it.

(****) Destiny

Effect: Miriam does not yet know the specifics, but she is destined for greatness and yet also doomed in some way.

Currently at 4/4.

(***) Astral Adept: Can enter the Astral far easier, by paying just a WP and meditating.

(***) True Friend (Virginia)

Effect: Miriam has a true friend. True Friend represents a trusting relationship that cannot be easily breached. Unless Miriam really does something to deserve it (really, really) Virginia will not betray her, and I, the QM, has to go easy on her in terms of throwing her into danger. Slightly kid gloves with her, as part of an implicit contract, though that does not mean that Miriam's mistakes or actions might not involve her in deeper problems than she should be facing. And any roll, natural or supernatural, that has the purpose of influencing Virginia against Miriam takes a 5-dice penalty. Additionally, once per...let's say week, Miriam can regain a point of Willpower by having a meaningful/heartfelt/important interaction with Virginia.

Consilium Status (*): Consilium--Increasingly she is a known entity, someone whose existence is no secret at all and whose fame is even harder to deny.

Contacts: Vampires (1)--Her work with vampires means she has a greater awareness of where she can go to talk to them, especially once she thinks through what she saw.

Allies (1): Guardians of the Veil--In the aftermath of yet another Interview with a Vampire, she has been contacted by the Guardians of the Veil, who are curious and who are willing to trade curiosity for curiosity.

Trained Memory (1): She has trained her mind to be something like a steel trap, though perhaps rather more effective than that, all things considered: steel traps can rust, because outside of stressful moments she never needs to roll to remember anything… she just remembers, and without Magic at all.

Minor Elements:

--Having studied a Spirit Bestiary, Miriam is now more able to tell some common spirits apart, even without using magic, and can call up basic facts about said common spirits.
--Has the Memories of a vampire in her head, which can be examined/considered later.
 
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[x] Yes, it's time to hear the gossip! It might well be politically relevant, after all, even if not immediately relevant to the attempt to find things in the Astral.
 
[X] Yes, it's time to hear the gossip! It might well be politically relevant, after all, even if not immediately relevant to the attempt to find things in the Astral.
 
[X] Yes, it's time to hear the gossip! It might well be politically relevant, after all, even if not immediately relevant to the attempt to find things in the Astral.
 
Page 5: Witch Hunts
Page 5: Witch Hunts

"Okay, I'll bite," Morata--who had never fished in her life--said, with a wry little smile that told Uncle Jack that she knew that he was trying to distract her, and that she wasn't even remotely fooled.

Jack's grin back told her that he didn't care about that, so much as getting back onto a topic he could fully talk about. "So, Graham was back on about the Neo-Timori topic."

"Really?" Wat asked, laughter in his voice as he stretched a little bit and stood up. "No wonder you want secrecy. If the Ladder knew you were telling tales…"

"It's not like the Chicago Ladder exactly follows the 'united front' doctrine all that closely," Jack pointed out, with a shake of his hands and fingers carefully hooked on his belt. "Either way, Graham's a mid-level Ladder, a very charismatic sort of person. The sort of person who might move up, one day, and cause everyone far too much trouble in the meantime. Either way, do you know about the Timori, Morata?" He looked over at her. "I know you've been through history, but… people don't talk about Banishers."

Oh.

Morata felt nervous, suddenly. Banishers were mentioned, but never in any real detail. They were some form of bad or evil Mage that killed other Mages and destroyed Mage society, and there was no use discussing why or how they did it, any more than you outlined exactly how a 'Lich' stole or gained immortality with magic. There was perhaps, Morata realized, a moral aspect to this.

But…

"Wait, I think I've heard of this? Does the Timori have to do with the question of subtle, careful usage of magic?"

"Only very indirectly," Wat said. "But that's more than most know."

"Alright, then," Jack continued, with a gesture. "The Timori are a legend, supposedly from Atlantis, of Mages who rejected using Magic except in 'harmony' with the universe by only using it to see and understand the world, rejecting even primitive technology and living in complete denial of humanity. It's a myth, a legend, and a philosophical argument… but there have been Timori, in the early days of the Orders. They were Banishers… and Banishers are… we don't even know. They don't spread like Mages should, they don't act like Mages should, their minds don't quite make sense and their spirits are injured, and they'll kill you for nothing. But not all Banishers are mindless Mage-killing, witch-hunting monsters. Sometimes they come to these beliefs, or so it's said, through ideology. At times it's even been said that believing the wrong ideology can turn you into a Banisher, or can encourage Banishers to show up."

Mage-killing Witch hunters? Did it have to do with Christianity? But that didn't make sense, since it didn't take all that mystical revelation to realize that God could not be against magic, not having made it. But… if they were deluded, or insane, then perhaps it would make sense?

"Mages who hate magic are pretty hard to understand, yeah," Wat said. "But people sometimes accuse the folk of being 'Neo-Timori' too. The idea is, if you're someone who believes this bad ideology, or believes it secretly and deep down, you're a threat to the Consilium and need to be dealt with."

"So this Graham's accusing someone of being a Neo-Timori?" Morata asked, with a decided sinking feeling. The sun was shining, the day was lovely, and she thought about all the reports she'd read about the summer of 1919, when paranoia filled the air.

"Oh, not somebody… some Order," Jack said, looking almost amused. "He says the Guardians as a whole are Neo-Timori and so should be sidelined. And it's true that they don't like obvious magic, and casting it in front of Sleepers. They think paradoxes are a sign of arrogance and sin, and should be punished. So obviously they're actually Neo-Timori, and don't even know it, a threat to the state of magic wherever they go."

Morata blinked. "They can't… say that, can they?"

"What do you mean?" Wat shook his head. "Course they can."

"The Guardians have a seat, they're clearly powerful in Chicago," Morata pointed out.

"Not as powerful as in other places, and obviously they're hated. Graham has his reasons, he lost a lot to Banishers, and he doesn't want them to come again. But he's always banging on about the 'Neo-Timori' when there hasn't been a Neo-Timori outbreak in Chicago, ever. All the Banishers are usually different than that. Different philosophies, different reasons, same murders." Jack shrugged and added, "So that's the big gossip, really."

"That'll be an annoying thing to deal with," Wat said with a roll of his eyes. "Especially if he goes around saying it in public."

"Well," Jack said, frowning thoughtfully. "Do you think I should tell the rest of the Cabal?"

Morata didn't understand why that was a question at all. Why wouldn't they tell the rest of the cabal?

"I am… not sure," Wat said, frowning suspiciously. "It could cause problems, couldn't it? I don't care so much, I'm in the Uprising for a reason."

The Uprising were radicals who wanted democracy for Mage society, and more fervent and firm action against the Seers and other threats. Despite this radical label, they were only growing in popularity; despite their leader Gabriel Breda's close brush with the law, they seemed only more respectable.

Of course, they might lose at least some of their popularity if the Seers were ever truly vanquished, but it was a battle that had been going on for decades, and wasn't going to end anytime soon. There were some among the Silver Ladder who were also advocates of democracy among Mages. Darn it, there were some among the Adamantine Arrows, Mystagogue, and Folk as well. If anyone in the Guardians Of The Veil wanted democracy for Mage governments, they kept it very quiet. Very, very, very quiet.

"Very well… keep it to yourself if you want to," Jack said. "You can tell others in the cabal, Morata, of course." He added the last bit hastily, looking a little nervous. He wasn't the boss of her, but he was her uncle, and these two facts certainly clashed, now and then.

"I can," Morata said, rather firmly, but with a polite smile that she hoped said 'but I won't, don't worry.'

"How is it going with your end of the cabal work?" Jack asked. "I haven't really been keeping up with anything more than my part of it."

Her Cabal, led by Civitas--it had no special name, mind--was interested in the intersection between sociology and the spirit ecology, with a hint of architecture and psychology (and thus also the Astral) thrown in. Putting it as simply as possible, what spirits were where determined a lot about how social structure worked, and the opposite was also true. So the goal was simply to both study and enact change in these systems.

This was difficult without any Spirit, but she found her own ways to help out.

What does Miriam do in the cabal, besides watch and learn?

[] She walks through neighborhoods every so often, before and after an alteration, to try to get a feel for what is going on. Hidden using magic, of course, so that the observer or scientist does not become part of the experiment.
[] She takes notes when others go to give interviews, for the more personal side of 'measuring sociological effects. In this, she's learned a lot about giving interviews, honestly.
[] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.
[] Luck-testing, the use of Fate magic in limited senses--there are certainly better choices, but she can fill in in a pinch--to see how slight changes of fortune can effect the spirits and their ecosystem in a sociological sense.
[] Use of Space to help further track and chart relationships, as part of the counter-proposal around the importance of 'linkage' rather than architecture of physical proximity.

*****

A/N: Mages are nerds. Neeerrrds.
 
[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.

One day we will be the greatest Pokemon trainer.
 
"Oh, not somebody… some Order," Jack said, looking almost amused. "He says the Guardians as a whole are Neo-Timori and so should be sidelined. And it's true that they don't like obvious magic, and casting it in front of Sleepers. They think paradoxes are a sign of arrogance and sin, and should be punished. So obviously they're actually Neo-Timori, and don't even know it, a threat to the state of magic wherever they go."
I mean, the Guardians are pretty profoundly gross, especially if the canon "psychopathic neo-Exarchic inverse Gnostic" shit is true here. Even if it isn't, they're still fundamentally self-imposed arbiters of morality and the common good, who consider it their right to determine what is and is not allowed in Awakened (and Sleeper) society. They're effectively a Seer Ministry that opposes the other Ministries and conditionally supports the rest of the Diamond.

I certainly don't think they're Banishers, though.
 
[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.

Get that spirit.

Mage-killing Witch hunters? Did it have to do with Christianity? But that didn't make sense, since it didn't take all that mystical revelation to realize that God could not be against magic, not having made it. But… if they were deluded, or insane, then perhaps it would make sense?
Hmmm. Banishers eh? A topic neat and dear to my heart.

Glad to see it being talked about as a phenomenon and philosophy. As opposed to a group of boogeymen.

And dear Morata. You've already run into some Banishers.

Though conflating those corrupted by the abyss with banishers is unwise on my part.

"But people sometimes accuse the folk of being 'Neo-Timori' too. The idea is, if you're someone who believes this bad ideology, or believes it secretly and deep down, you're a threat to the Consilium and need to be dealt with."
How this doesnt escalate out of control somehow.

*knock on wood*

"He says the Guardians as a whole are Neo-Timori
Standard Gaurdian behavior really.

Guardians Of The Veil wanted democracy for Mage governments, they kept it very quiet. Very, very, very quiet.
Also standard Gaurdians.
 
[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.
 
*Bernie voice* I am once again asking you to let Morata learn Spirit.

But seriously, I think it'd be good for her to learn Spirit, so I'm going to continue to vote for every option that could possibly justify it.

[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.
A/N: Mages are nerds. Neeerrrds.
I love magical nerdiness. It's got all the charm of regular nerdiness, plus magic!
 
[X] Use of Space to help further track and chart relationships, as part of the counter-proposal around the importance of 'linkage' rather than architecture of physical proximity.

Space as metaphorical links is always neat?
 
@The Laurent, I forget if I'm allowed to vote in this quest. If so:

[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.
 
[X] She walks through neighborhoods every so often, before and after an alteration, to try to get a feel for what is going on. Hidden using magic, of course, so that the observer or scientist does not become part of the experiment.

@ Laurent if you haven't read it, Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed has some excellent and fun 2e information on Banishers and other mage-specific antagonists.
 
[X] She walks through neighborhoods every so often, before and after an alteration, to try to get a feel for what is going on. Hidden using magic, of course, so that the observer or scientist does not become part of the experiment.

@ Laurent if you haven't read it, Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed has some excellent and fun 2e information on Banishers and other mage-specific antagonists.

Huh, how much if any of it is different from the 1e Banishers book?
 
[x] She's going along to explorations of the Shadow to find and relocate Spirits, and in doing so trying to learn more about the 'spirit bestiary' and the more intellectual side of Spirits, lacking the more direct abilities and affinity related to them.
 
Oh I never read 1e--I'll give it a skim and get back to you.

The 1e Banisher book is actually a lot of fun, though the Antagonists section, like most nWoD Antagonists section, is kinda trash tier.

But the fun thing is basically all of the most insightful, maybe-right, maybe-wrong theories about Banishers lie decades in the future.

So at the moment, most of the theory-crafting remains unwritten or open to older, kinda iffy paradigms.
 
Update: I spoke rashly I do not have the bandwidth to skim a book at this time. I WILL summarize what NH:NA says about Banishers though so you can see if it's any different, bc I've read that already and it's just like half a chapter.

"Banishers" is a catch-all term used by Awakened society for mages who hunt their own kind. Broadly, banishers do as they do for one of three reasons:

-Ideology. Regular ol' having opinions. This is often derived from magical trauma and/or mistreatment by Awakened society, but notionally includes any mundane ideological transformative process. Mechanically: normal mages.

-Hunger. An obsession with mysteries that involve consuming or possessing Mages, magic, or their byproducts like soul stones. Often belong to Left-Handed Legacies conceptually related to this like the Logophages, more prone to joining up with each other and forming secret social structures. Mechanically: normal mages, often with funky legacies.

-Harrowing Awakenings. This refers to someone who does sign the Watchtower, but something about them just...wasn't ready. This is often the result of Mages trying to force sleepers to awaken, an external force meddling in the standard vision journey that precedes signing, personal hesitation, pushing too hard, or Mysteries. Harrowed Banishers experience both perceiving the supernatural (including via their peripheral mage sight) and casting magic as deeply painful in body and mind. This drives them to suicide, isolation (but they have Obsessions just like normal mages so this mostly doesn't stick), or violence to remove the source of their pain--other magic users.

Mechanically...

"Harrowed Banishers have Integrity instead of Wisdom, just like Sleepers, and replace Wisdom with Integrity for any mechanics that require it, such as rolling to contain Paradox. Harrowed Integrity works like Sleeper Integrity, and cannot fall below 1. They also suffer a breaking point the first time each story they perform or experience a particular type of magic via spellcasting, Mage Sight, Attainments, and other Supernal phenomena, regardless of its source. The Conditions they suffer for succeeding on a breaking point are the same as a Sleeper's, but those for failing differ. On an ordinary failure, the Harrowed suffers the Berserk Condition. On a dramatic failure, he suffers the Persistent Mage Hunter Condition instead. See pp. 163-164 for these Conditions.

Peripheral Mage Sight imposes a –1 penalty on all rolled actions a Harrowed Banisher takes. Active Mage Sight imposes a similar penalty based on what triggered it. Sensing their own powers imposes a –3 penalty; sensing other Supernal magic imposes –2. Sensing non-Supernal supernatural beings and phenomena imposes –1. These penalties are not cumulative; only the highest one applies. They last for the scene, or until the source of the supernatural distraction is removed or destroyed, whichever comes first. Casting spells, using Attainments, studying something with Active or Focused Mage Sight, or using any other magical power deals one point of bashing damage to the Banisher with each distinct action she takes doing so.

A mage who develops a Strong sympathetic link to a Harrowed Banisher is at risk of becoming one herself. If her Long-Term Nimbus settles on a Harrowed Banisher whose own Long-Term Nimbus settles on her, she gains the Supernal Harrowing Condition (p. 164). If she cannot resolve the Condition, the mage could lose her own connection to Wisdom and become Harrowed herself."
 
Page 6: Shadow And Dust
Page 6: Shadow And Dust

Miriam Green doesn't talk a lot about what she sees in the Shadow. It isn't that there was such a thing as knowledge that man was not meant to know. But it was hard to describe it, even, or perhaps especially, to a Thyrsus. She cannot interact with the Spirits in the same way that a Thyrsus, or someone versed in spirits, could. Instead, she feels oddly like a supplicant, and oddly like a mortal enemy.

The Shadow doesn't make sense. It's a reflection of the world, but then some say that the world is its reflection as well. Everything there is alive, but most of it cannot think. The average emotion does not spawn, or reflect, a spirit. It is a world of motes, of bits of light and smell and scent. The ones that can think and feel and hope are exceptions. But they're very present, very powerful exceptions, and the most powerful of the exceptions, thousands strong, could challenge even a Mage. The very, very strongest, the ones nobody wanted to meet, could do feats of power that could defy all reason.

Supposedly, in some other universe, werewolves were the children of the Moon and 'Papa Wolf', two powerful Spirits far beyond and above the authority of any Mage.

None of this could be found in the Bible. None of it made sense. She couldn't find an answer, and yet nor could she bring herself to simply reject the question out of hand.

"You need to stop worrying," Wat said, shaking his head. "I can all but notice it. You're not violating anyone's privacy when you look around."

The strange thing about much of the shadow, Miriam thought, was that it was just a copy of the world. It stopped being so at random places. Buildings long since destroyed were shoved up against current ones, trees grew far taller than they should. Everything was a little exaggerated… but her house existed.

Miriam Green could go to her house, and probably not enter because with as much protection as the building had, it was no doubt basically unbreachable in the shadow.

But she could go to it, see it. She could reach out and touch it.

She wasn't sure if she could smell it, because the Shadow didn't smell quite right. It was a world without people, where food and animals existed without any sort of sense and order, and so it just smelled subtly wrong as they walked through the alleys.

Things were not distorted in the same way they were in the Astral. In the Astral, the size of something could depend on how they saw it: a child's nightmare of being lost in the city could make one feel like an ant, while the melancholy feeling of returning to a childhood home and finding it paltry and diminished might make one feel seven feel tall in a shabby movie set.

In the Shadow, everything was exactly what it was… but not. At least some of the lamps leaned over towards them when they passed under, and animals were far bolder than they would have been in the city. There was nobody to control the pests other than the ecosystem of the urban jungle, and suddenly the link between Life and Spirit seemed as clear as ever.

"We're looking for… ah, there we go," Wat said, pointing towards a fire hydrant in the street, gushing up water. "Last week, one broke and the kids all clustered around it. We're wondering whether the emotions that it caused have an echo in the Shadow, or whether they were too brief." He was dressed rather differently than normal, with a thick cloak on that looked remarkably itchy. Apparently it had some hidden meaning, as he had refused to take it off, even though the color of it clashed with his skin terribly, being too dark and splotchy, the fur deeply stained.

Miriam wasn't a fashionista, but after a while you started to have a taste of your own, to some degree.

Every thought about fashion left her head when they reached just the 'right spot.'

Before they could even take a step forward, a figure seemed to shift in view, engulfing the fire hydrant as the stench of a privy filled the air. It was a large mass of sewage and pipes, sticking out at random angles as if the jagged bones of a starved man. The creature was twice the size of a human, and had a huge belly leaking pus, and on that belly was a mouth, matching the one near its 'head' in both number of teeth and vicious, squirming tongue. It seemed to phase through the very ground itself, though as she looked down she saw that instead it was torn apart and crumbling, as if something had… indeed, it must have chewed upwards from the sewers.

"Morsels," one of the two mouths boomed. "Tasty morsels! Hungry morsels! Eat eat eat, brain brain brain! What? What?"

No, not What, but Wat…

"Again," Wat said, his voice growing harsh. "You're not going to just try to escape again, are you?"

"What is that?" Morata asked, fascinated, horrified, and about the vomit.

"It's a broken spirit. When they eat the wrong things, they become something… different, something that's none of the above. Murder and gluttony and sewers shouldn't be associated with each other… and I don't know how they were, but it's left it powerful and dangerous. Which means we should leave."

"Leave? Wat leave? No."

"Why did it eat the happiness?" Morata asked, feeling oddly clinical despite her racing heart. She knew she was in mortal peril, but it didn't quite feel real.

"Perhaps it seeks to become even more insane… the more and more a spirit splits from what it is, the madder it gets. But perhaps happiness is the cure?" Wat asked. "Of course, a few motes won't feed an endless glutton."

This endless glutton entirely lacked eyes, but still seemed to be facing them at all times.

"I should have called the Arrows," Wat said. "Morata, please cast your protection spell, and give me a moment."

Morata focused, shifting her hands to become like a book, imagining the protection she wanted, so long as she didn't attack anyone, as she focused on the magic and cast it, feeling her will impact the world. Behind her she could year something sickening, like the cracking of bones.

Ahead of her, the unnamed monster growled and began to advance, though it seemed slightly cautious. Of course it was too powerful for her magic to stop, but it did seem at least a little bit slowed by it.

When she glanced back, she saw… oh. She smelled it too. Some sort of huge, ten foot tall ape-creature stood where Wat had been, its fur very similar to the pelt he'd been wearing. It had furless hands, and was so heavily furred that it had to be hot. It also cast shadow over both of them.

The Spirit creature hesitated even more now, faced with something larger than it was, and then Wat gestured. Into my arms, he seemed to say, without words, and--


"Wat," the Dancing Shadow said, eyes wide. "You didn't tell me any of this. You just said there were problems, and that you went and called the Adamantium Arrows. Not that Sewer-Devourer or whatever was running about." He had his hands on his hips, and Miriam stopped her story.

"Well, we got out," Wat said. "Unless you think we both died and were brought back." He shrugged his shoulders. "It's dangerous sometimes, and there's a reason I brought that pelt. It's a very useful little spell."

"I… suppose so," her Uncle said, though he was still glowering.

There was a reason she hadn't told him about the time she almost got killed by a garbage monster. Well, actually she wasn't even touched, but if she'd been on her own she absolutely could have died, even if she'd known enough Spirit to actually leave the Shadow.

The moment was intensely awkward, but Miriam had another decision to make as well. They were going to go inside, and then she could either take her leave… or she could use the soulstones and begin her Astral search.

Which to do?

[] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.
[] It is time to go to the Athenaeum, and get that Imbued item, as well as check in on what everyone else is doing. But it will mean precious hours out of her Astral search time, to say the least.

******

Scholar's Protection: 2 (Gnosis)+3 (Mind)+4 (Rote Mudra)=2 successes


A/N: So, there we go. Almost forgot to update it today!
 
[X] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.

I think we should search the Astral first. Get familiar with the area before we get the artifact. In addition, if people intend to interfere with the mission, it is better to do work before they are ready to interfere.
 
[X] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.

We're in a race and, knowing Uncle Jack, there's no way he didn't get a head start when he knew Morata was otherwise occupied.
 
[x] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.

Seems like the most efficient use of time, and that's important now that we're in a race. Not that I think it's the end of the world if Jack gets the prize (frankly, I trust him more than many in our Order), but it would be a blow to Morata's reputation.
 
[x] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.

Seems like the most efficient use of time, and that's important now that we're in a race. Not that I think it's the end of the world if Jack gets the prize (frankly, I trust him more than many in our Order), but it would be a blow to Morata's reputation.
Yeah, I know that the Diamond orders don't really get along, but saying it would be better for the loot to stay lost rather than end up with the Silver ladder seems sus. do you think the Mysterium are worried about losing the Hierarch position, since silver ladder are politicians and the loot would be quite a feather in their cap.
 
Yeah, I know that the Diamond orders don't really get along, but saying it would be better for the loot to stay lost rather than end up with the Silver ladder seems sus. do you think the Mysterium are worried about losing the Hierarch position, since silver ladder are politicians and the loot would be quite a feather in their cap.
It's possible, but I think it's more likely that the Silver Ladder has plans for the loot that the Mysterium doesn't approve of. The Silver Ladder is all about bringing as much magic to the masses as they can, whereas the Mysterium has a very dim view of Sleepers and believes they actively harm magic. They tend to clash pretty frequently whenever cool loot shows up, since the Ladder usually wants to put it to use right away (sometimes in very reckless ways) and the Mysterium usually wants to lock it away and study it (even if it would be really useful). I suspect we're just seeing that old tale play out again here.
 
[X] Start the Astral search now. It is true that she lacks the Imbued item to protect her from fire, but it shouldn't be that hard to at least locate where the 'Chicago Fires' are located to perhaps come back another time.
 
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