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] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[X] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
[X] Ask him if he knows anything about Demon-Spawn, and if not, talk to him about that…
 
[X] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[X] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
[X] Ask him if he knows anything about Demon-Spawn, and if not, talk to him about that…
 
[X] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[X] Ask him, and talk to him, about the Orders. He hinted that there were the same orders even back then.
[X] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
 
"And she is not. She is a Demon-Spawn. That's nothing against her, but the situation will only grow more fraught. No matter what Order you join, they are Orders for humans, and for Mages. They will suspect you, and your friend, if you keep this up." Jack shrugged. "Besides, this might not work at all. But if you want…"
Okay, so the problem isn't intrinsic, but Virginia is a poor escort because she's not a Mage(i.e. if she meets a Mage rated encounter we have to protect her instead), and the rest of the issue is...political(and thus annoying). No fundamental problems except if we run into a problem she can't solve it.

[X] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[X] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
[X] Ask him if he knows anything about Demon-Spawn, and if not, talk to him about that…
 
Okay, so the problem isn't intrinsic, but Virginia is a poor escort because she's not a Mage(i.e. if she meets a Mage rated encounter we have to protect her instead), and the rest of the issue is...political(and thus annoying). No fundamental problems except if we run into a problem she can't solve it.

[X] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[X] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
[X] Ask him if he knows anything about Demon-Spawn, and if not, talk to him about that…

I note that Demon-Spawn are major template level. And at the moment you have Mind 2, Space 1, and basically nothing in the way of combat Rotes. :p
 
[x] Talk about her life. About what it's like, though with no details that give away… too much.
[x] Ask him about his own life… no, not that. His own culture. No specifics, just what life itself was like back then.
[x] Ask him, and talk to him, about the Orders. He hinted that there were the same orders even back then.
 
Page 59: The Bitter Dregs of Life, Part 2
Page 59: The Bitter Dregs of Life, Part 2

"It's been a while, but some things stay the same. Or maybe I just think they do." Miriam frowned and admitted, "I study history a lot, but I've read that people make assumptions. They think that the ancients were like them. But then you look at pictures of how they dressed, or read about gladiator games and the murder of Christian martyrs, or you listen to tales of… well, my Uncle once told me about bull-baiting and burning cats."

"He did?" Anant asked, his voice careful.

"Yeah. It seemed so horrible. It wasn't something I could ever imagine doing, and it was boys, I suppose, or maybe I'm just assuming that. But I can't imagine it, someone doing that. And I just… I assumed then. Because men are warlike, or…"

Miriam realized that this wasn't good logic, and had realized it a long time ago, but she didn't want to think it possible, that a kind-hearted woman would cheer along as a cat died. But it wasn't merely men who were imperfect before the eyes of god. "I know it was foolish, but you think these things."

Anant snorted. "The most dangerous person I ever knew was a woman. I've been told about your peoples, or at least, I've heard a lot said. Mages come here, so at least they're not entirely blind to the spirit of the living world. But you are a Christian, are you not? The world was made for man to abuse, animals lack souls or anything like importance…"

Anant said each word like a declaration, stomping forward with each of them, his staff thumping rhythmically on the ground.

"I've never thought that way. I've seen too much of animals to understaimate them." Miriam held out her hands, innocently, as she heard the crow of some distant bird, possessed by a spirit. "But I admit, that we are not as you are."

"Then what are you like?"

"Well, I live with my mother, and my father," Miriam admitted. "I'm still learning. You know what colleges are?"

"Learning. Higher learning. Common for Mages, more common than it is for others," Anant conceded, with a wave of his hand. "So you're a learned girl, seeking to learn more. To become, what?"

Miriam didn't know what to say. His voice, the way he was moving, it all seemed to speak towards some contempt. "Someone who can help my people," Miriam admitted. "That's always what I've wanted." She spread her arms out. "I thought we might have that in common. You said you guarded a stream?"

"That I did." Anant spat. "It held a goddess, and was the center of so much, so much that was passed. I was a Druid, I was a priest whose wisdom was respected by those you would call the Wise, and those you would call Sleeping. I worked all my life for it, and what did I get?" He laughed, showing off his mossy teeth as he did. He smelled of damp soil and strange plants. "This. They thought to be advised by me, and I thought to advise them, but what happened instead? What do you do with your elders, in this world of yours?"

"I don't know any," Miriam admitted. "Not in my family. It was just the three of us. Mom, Dad, and me." Miriam looked away. "I live in Chicago, and it's a big city, so there's a lot about it that I'm sure seemed odd."

"We had cities," Anant said, biting his lip and stretching himself out. "We were not what you would call barbarians. I knew of the Romans, and gave them little thought. They weren't worth much, those ancient luminaries, and the few Mages I met were more concerned with poking into places they shouldn't, rather than anything else."

"Oh?" Miriam asked.

"The sons of whores tried time and again to see the Goddess. It was as if they did not understand the deeper truth of her. She was in the spirits, and in the mana, she was in every aspect and every breath you took in the stream. You cannot just find her as if you were whistling up a dog to come a-trotting there." His accent grew harder to understand as he spoke, as if he were drifting back into old memories. "We had what you'd call kingdoms, we had clans and families, we had beautiful art, and we had our Gods. We had all that, and yet within a few centuries, we became Christian, and then fewer people came to me."

She understood where this was going. He was going to turn it right back to himself unless she brought it back around. "I… I'm sorry that you feel that way. I don't have any control of it. For me, Christianity is my community. My father is a pastor."

"Really?" Anant asked, turned off the track of his regrets and his anger at the world. "What sort of pastor? Is he learned? I spent over a decade studying the old verses, and the Gods. You had to be smart to be a Druid, learn you that."

"He's really smart. He knows Latin, in order to study old texts, and more than that." Miriam beamed. "He's taught me so much, though… I'm not sure if he'd want me to preach too. I'm not sure what he wants from me, but I've tried to memorize as much of the bible as I can. It's not like it was back with you: it was oral knowledge, wasn't it?"

"We had writing." Anant sighed. "But if you couldn't hold something in your head, what good were you? A person needs to be smart without a reference book. It's a tool, and like all tools, you can rely on it too much. When I was learning spells, that was always it: you couldn't just read it down, or write it down. Runes, yes, but that wasn't the same thing as holding it all in your head. The picture of what you're doing, the symbols and the…" he trailed off, waving his hand somewhat grandly. "And they understood it back then. Even if they couldn't see magic, didn't know it existed in the same way, they thought that there was power back then. The last person I met, decades back, who bothered to talk was some form of atheist."

He said it the way some people might have said cockatrice. Some mythological being, that couldn't possibly exist.

Miriam looked at him, feeling something like kinship. How would she feel if, lonely and cut off from those who believed as she did, in a place like here where every wound seemed to fester, she had been met by such a person?"

"Ah."

"So tell me, this city, this place. You clearly want me to know about your life. You think it means something to me."

Miriam hesitated and said. "Well, my Dad moved here from further down south before I was born, and I've spent my whole life in the city. I'm not sure how often you've been around crowds, but there's something to that. You get used to there being so many people, but knowing so ffew of them." Miriam waved her hand. "Dad was always studying, always trying to learn more about Christianity, as I told you--"

"What did he learn?"

Miriam wasn't sure how to say it, how to explain just what faith had brought, because it was more than just learning, but how did you define that. "He… got a better understanding of his own beliefs. So did I. I grew up, and people called me a tomboy. I liked playing in the streets and running and…" she paused, and admitted, "Showing off a little. There's pride there."

"And why not? When I was a lad, I ran everywhere. I'd say that I could run across the entire village in the time it took someone to stitch up a single tear."

"Could you?"

"Yes. Even before I became Thyrsus." Thyrsus, not a Thyrsus, she noted, not sure whether that meant anything or not. "After? I didn't go to war, but I traveled far and wide, when I was learning what I was, and one day I saw a spirit, and realized that I didn't understand the world. Ghosts, spirits? It was stranger still than any of the Gods had told mankind. The Gods are up there, in the Supernal, and I visited them, to speak of Spirits and the ancient lore, and the place that animals had in them."

Miriam nodded, aware that his hoarse, harsh voice could turn at any moment from memories into bitter screeds. So she let it spool out, ready to intervene if he said something wrong.

"We're a people who understand spirits. And that's what it was like: like you, if you really are a Christian, you probably think of ways to fit it all together? Your belief and reality?"

"I do," Miriam admitted, though she wouldn't think of them as attempts, since that almost implied that it was all made up.

"Exactly. But wait long enough, and you'll see that things don't fit. I… I don't know if I still believe in the Gods. I wonder if they stopped believing in us, at some point, to let all this happen. I know nothing, and care nothing, about the modern Irish, but they seem to care about me. And it's the same thing," Anant said.

"Is it?"

"I abandon them. They abandon me. Perhaps we abandoned the Gods without knowing it." Anant turned away and said. "But tell me something about this life you value so much. You're risking it, and your safety, in making this deal with me."

"Am I?" Miriam asked.

"Of course." Anant turned, angry, frustrated, gripping his staff as he stumped off. "Come with me. Let's sit down, and talk further. You can tell me whatever tales you think will amuse me, since you're here for that purpose."

Miriam didn't respond to that, because she knew it was bait. She wasn't the most patient, or calm of girls, but even she wasn't that much of a fool.

*******

So she told about her friends, but not their names. He listened in a close, bunched up sort of way, his eyes going back and forth, as if looking for some second person. And as she talked, slowly she worked her way into hearing a little more about the village he'd been born in.

He had something poetic about the way he talked about the smell of horses that some people had, and the farms, the crops, the way that the small village lay huddled in an equally small valley, slightly protected by this, paying tribute to a Great King whose name he wouldn't speak.

The village had sprawled out, rough and tumble and yet filled, to a child's eyes, with mystery and wonder. He didn't speak of his parents, except as vague figures, except as outlines that existed in the background as he explored the village, and the ground beyond it, throughout the valley.

The huts were all small mud and wood places, that smelled horrible when the rains got into them, sod on the roof and yet there were small fires, and he remembered huddling up against one, in the house of a girl he had taken a fancy to, whose hair was soft, and whose smile was enough to turn his heart into butter.

The foods were simple, vegetable stews and other such dishes, and meat was rare enough that it was special, a treat.

He got sidetracked describing how goat tasted, a description that, at the end of it, left Miriam no more aware than she'd been before he'd begun. But again and again he wrapped around, talking about his home village with such longing that he didn't even have some harsh, dismissive word for them, the way he'd had for her own recollections, no matter how delicately she talked.

She tried to ignore it. He didn't mean it, and to the extent that he did, it wasn't as if he actually knew her friends to be so acid towards them.

"And this Virginia of yours? You mentioned her, but you're holding something back."

"She's a Demon-Spawn."

"A what?"

Miriam frowned, not sure how to describe it. "She had a… parent? An ancestor? I'm not sure how it works, but it was a demon, a being of vice and sin in the Astral, and she takes power from it. Or from having been its daughter."

"Oh. Ah yes. The Cionta, as some call them."

"Cionta?"

"Demons of disrespect to the Gods were common, they haunted us on those days, and I suppose they won in the hearts' and minds of the Irish. They took many, making pacts as their own Gods separate from the proper ones, and spread their influence far and wide. And cowardice, that weakened our people. Once my people came to me, half a century or… so after I was interred, and asked for help in slaying a Christianity Demon. But I couldn't help as much as I wanted."

"A… Christianity demon?" Miriam asked, baffled, and a little offended.

"It was an evil, a spreading belief that went against the heart and soul of our people, or so the dreams of our people said. These beings work like that, and it feels as if they must be your especial enemy, and they enjoy humans who make myths out of them. But the truth was that every society makes their own demons. Their spawn?" Anant shrugged. "They cannot be trusted, they will always trade between the borders of the two realms, they will always betray any hope of balance, but they're too native to those realms."

"Native?"

"If they strengthen enough, they become a Demon itself. They repeat the cycle, again and again. It is folly to become a Demon-Spawn, but many are the people who fear their path."

"Fear?"

"You cannot become one if you do not fear and hate yourself. No matter what else there is. They're effective, and very dangerous. I knew Mages who tried to learn about them, but it was hard, because they had no buildings, no groves where they regularly gathered, except for a single forest, far from where I lived?"

"What was in the forest?"

"A place where dreams came easily. Any person who slept in it had dreams of Spirits and Ghosts, and more than that, of an Astral realm attuned to the place. And the opposite happened. You could easily turn the dream of gold to the real thing, there, without having to invest themselves in it."

"Invest themselves?"

"It takes effort, to go from dream object to waking object: it takes our magic, or theirs. But this came easily, and this came quickly, and so they gathered and became powerful. They offered Kings who would work with them wealth, and martial prowess, and all spoke of what they would do, and what they would plan. But the forest died, I'm told, one day. But not until after a great conspiracy in which they helped other tribes temporarily drive the Romans out of the islands entirely, for a time." He shook his head. "They won, in the end, but not thoroughly enough, or so I'm told. Not in the right way. They damaged the fabric, though, but Romans are tricky, and they won some long war in the Astral."

Miriam listened, both confused and fascinated. "Won a long war?"

"Think of how many people ask me about them. The dem' fools are still in love with a bunch of conquerors that have been gone for over a thousand years. Because in the Astral, the Romans won as they couldn't in the world." Anant spat again this time. "But that's not important, is it? You came here for another reason than to hear about the romans."

"No," Miriam said, fascinated. She wished she could record all of this, what she'd learned, because there were probably plenty of details to sift.

"Huh. A curious sort. I wonder what secrets you think I know? Of the dreams of Cerridwen? Or of stranger things still?" Anant shook his head, and then asked. "Are you still learning?"

"Huh?" Miriam asked.

"Are you learning more about Mind, or have you learned something of spirits. If you're going to be here, it's a waste to see a girl this incompetent in such a versatile art. If you don't want to be useless, I have time to talk to you a little of the art of spirits and the world. Though I doubt you'll listen to old Anant…"

Miriam waved her arms, "Of course I'd listen!"

"Well." Anant crossed his arms, and gestured for her to sit right next to him. "Then listen."

What does he teach about? (Choose one, obviously)

[] The kinds and nature of spirits, including examples from his life. This may unlock the rote "Know Spirit" whose effects are… well, knowing about a spirit.
[] The omnipresence of spirits in the world and in living objects, including tools. This unlocks the ability to learn the Rotes "Gremlins" (cursing an object by speaking to the spirits so that failures become dramatic failures) and Coaxing the Spirit, which makes a spirit act in accordance with its nature.
[] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.
[] Write-in if you have an idea of how to direct his thoughts on spirits that's more useful to you right now.

******

2 (Presence)+2 (Knowing Me)=2 sux, 1 sux, 0 sux
2 (Presence)+1 (Knowing You)=3 dice=1 sux, 1 sux, 3 sux
Convincing?: 2 sux

A/N: So yeah, things are going alright, I hope you'll agree. Anant really is lonely. Bonus points to anyone who matches the cryptic reference to the actual historical event it's talking about!
 
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[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.

I want to see and talk to them for ourselves!
 
"They cannot be trusted, they will always trade between the borders of the two realms, they will always betray any hope of balance, but they're too native to those realms."

"Native?"

"If they strengthen enough, they become a Demon itself. They repeat the cycle, again and again. It is folly to become a Demon-Spawn, but many are the people who fear their path."

"Fear?"

"You cannot become one if you do not fear and hate yourself. No matter what else there is. They're effective, and very dangerous.
@The Laurent, didn't you post a short story about Demon-Spawn in the World of Darkness thread a while back? I have a theory about this I'd like to explain, but I'd prefer if I could double-check some parts of it to make sure my memory of it hasn't gotten warped.
 
[X] The kinds and nature of spirits, including examples from his life. This may unlock the rote "Know Spirit" whose effects are… well, knowing about a spirit.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.

I'll go with this as being able to interact with the spirits for me takes precedence, and it would Miriam greater understanding of Anant's knowledge itself.

Thanks for the update anyway Laurent, that was as excellent as I imagined it to be and the conversation flowed smoothly between the two. A question I have though is that given train spirit spirit won in the week vote, is that what this vote essentially is or is this an addition to that?

"Yes. Even before I became Thyrsus." Thyrsus, not a Thyrsus, she noted, not sure whether that meant anything or not.
I think one of those Thyrsus is meant to be something different, otherwise Miriam's next comment doesn't make sense.

A/N: So yeah, things are going alright, I hope you'll agree. Anant really is lonely. Bonus points to anyone who matches the cryptic reference to the actual historical event it's talking about!
St. Patrick's conversion of Ireland?
 
@The Laurent, didn't you post a short story about Demon-Spawn in the World of Darkness thread a while back? I have a theory about this I'd like to explain, but I'd prefer if I could double-check some parts of it to make sure my memory of it hasn't gotten warped.

I did. You should be able to find it in the WoD thread.

[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.

I'll go with this as being able to interact with the spirits for me takes precedence, and it would Miriam greater understanding of Anant's knowledge itself.

Thanks for the update anyway Laurent, that was as excellent as I imagined it to be and the conversation flowed smoothly between the two. A question I have though is that given train spirit spirit won in the week vote, is that what this vote essentially is or is this an addition to that?


I think one of those Thyrsus is meant to be something different, otherwise Miriam's next comment doesn't make sense.


St. Patrick's conversion of Ireland?

He said, "I became Thyrsus" rather than "I became a Thyrsus." Miriam was noting that.

And this vote is essentially the spirit-training vote.

Third and finally? Nope. Before that.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.
 
[x] The kinds and nature of spirits, including examples from his life. This may unlock the rote "Know Spirit" whose effects are… well, knowing about a spirit.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.

That rote is crazily useful.
 
[X] Knowledge of the "feeling" of a spirit, including a rote--though she cannot yet use it or quite understand it--for both Exorcist's Eye, which allows her to see and speak with spirits, and Peer Across Veils, which allows her to look across the Gauntlet.

That rote is crazily useful.

Exorcist's Eye is in the canon book. It has a Reach ability that lets you also do what Peer Across Veils does. Peer Across Veils is a fan creation, from when someone asked, "What if we just want to see across the Gauntlet without having to spend that valuable Reach when it's the main thing?

Notably, for the usefulness, Exorcist's Eye has this on top of it:

Exorcist's Eye (Spirit •) Practice: Unveiling Primary Factor: Duration Suggested Rote Skills: Occult, Survival, Socialize The first spell most Spirit mages learn, this spell allows the mage to perceive and speak with spirits in the physical world, whether they are roaming freely in Twilight, slumbering within an object (including discorporated spirits in hibernation), or possessing a living being. She can also sense any spirit-related Manifestation Conditions in the area. Finally, she can see the conduit of any spirit with the Reaching Manifestation, but cannot communicate across the Gauntlet. +1 Reach: The mage may shift her perceptions to see across the Gauntlet and into the Shadow (or into the physical world if she's in the Shadow). The spell is Withstood by the Gauntlet Strength.

Add Death • or Mind •: These benefits extend to ghosts or Goetia, respectively.
 
Know Spirit, BTW:

Know Spirit (Spirit •) Practice: Knowing Primary Factor: Potency Withstand: Rank Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Brawl, Socialize To command the spirits, one must first understand them.

This spell allows the mage to glean a number of the following facts about a spirit equal to the Spell's Potency: • What is the spirit's name? • What is its Rank? • What Manifestations does it possess? • What Numina does it possess? • What are its Influences, and roughly how strong are they? • What is its Ban or Bane?
 
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