OoC [Mage the Awakening] "After the 2003 Hoax"

[Cire]

I have no objection, but I think we had better see what AdamantineRapier has to say on the matter!

[Ashreyel]

I think rolling it out is an awesome idea if it goes ahead. Entirely up to the people directly involved though :P

[Cire]

I should reveal that my mention of the List of 13 and the Seer Violet are "Easter Eggs" from the last play by post game I ran on the White Wolf forums. I hope no one minds.

I should also explain that Violet is a Seer from Sovata, Romania. She is considered extremely dangerous, even for a Seer. However, in 2003, she had no knowledge of the Fate arcana. Other than that, she is a blank slate that can be used as anyone might see fit.

[Ashreyel]

Do we currently have a 'drop character sheets here' post? Or are we keeping them to ourselves.

[Cire]

I forgot to re-post that from the recruitment thread. Players should start out with nine Points of Arcana. Characters start with 3 Gnosis, and will also have eighteen points of Merits to distribute as they see fit. Attributes and Skills are not required to be selected, but some players may to do so. Most things will be decided rather than rolled due to the nature of the game.

Example format:
Name: of course. Birth name & Shadow Name.
Location: City/Town, Country, and Continent.
Path:
Order:
Virtue and Vice: Virtue & Vice give a quick glance at basic motivations.
Arcana: Shows what sort of magic the character has access to.
Backstory:
Additional Suggestions: Merits: Gives an idea of what sort of resources your character can bring to bear when solving problems. Strongest Attribute: Just name one, no need for dot levels. Gives an idea of how your character is likely to solve problems. Weakest Attribute: Gives an idea of what sort of situations your character might find particularly challenging.

This is the format used in the epistolary games and I think would work well for a play by post game.

[Winnersh 3]

Beep beep - full sheet coming through! I'm sorry, might be a bit too tired to get my post done tonight, but at least Doolittle's just got a relatively quiet day ahead of her - hopefully very few Seer attacks, outbreaks of vulgar magic, and Duels to fight.

---

Shadow name: Doolittle
Name: Geneviève Kateb
Concept: My Fair Awakened Lady/right hand of the Théarchs

Path: Acanthus
Order: Silver Ladder (rank: Claviger)
Legacy: Sisterhood of the Blessed

Vice: Lust. The privileges afforded to Doolittle by her station are extensive, and have largely insulated her from the consequences of her actions. This isn't always - or even usually - sexual lust, but she's not one to deliberate much or hold back if her blood's up and something's at stake.
Virtue: Justice. She doesn't only pursue power for its own sake (although that's mostly it), but also out of a sense of injustice at the Exarchs, the Seers, the grinding inequity of the Fallen World. Naturally, in her just view of the world, she and the Ladder are at the top of the pyramid, and people have criticised her - somewhat justifiably - as using this as a kind of portable moral high ground as a moment's notice. Nonetheless, she does have a deep-rooted sense of justice and dissatisfaction at the order of the Fallen world, even if it manifests in self-aggrandising ways more often than not.
Location: Doolittle originally hails from the Toulouse Consilium (France), although she's fairly peripatetic; her loyalties lie much more with her Order than her place of birth, and so she's travelled quite a bit around Europe and North Africa.
Magical Tool: Orichalcum Tiara

Strongest attribute: manipulation. If Doolittle had won her current position and status solely on the ground of her privileged upbringing, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Instead, it's only mostly because of her upbringing; she's canny enough to be able to take advantage of a good thing, and surf the existing currents of fate, society, interaction so that things always come up Doolittle.

Weakest attribute: resolve. For all that Doolittle may be unflappable and composed, she's a little flighty in the longer term; her post-Awakening life hasn't really persuaded her of the virtue of long-term dedication and steely resolve, especially since she can use her supernal will to shift the odds a little. It'll all turn out right in the end, anyway.

Attributes:
Intelligence: •• Strength: •• Presence: ••
Wits: ••• Dexterity: •• Manipulation: ••••
Resolve: • Stamina: ••• Composure: •••

Willpower: ••••
Defence: 2
Health: 8
Speed: 9
Size: 5
Initiative: 5
Armour: 3 (Fortune's Perception)
Wisdom: 7

Skills:
Investigation: •
Occult: ••
Politics: •••• (Lex Magica)

Athletics: •
Weaponry: ••• (courtly swordfighting)

Expression: •• (rote specialty)
Persuasion: •••• (rote specialty)
Socialise: •• (formal etiquette) (rote specialty)
Streetwise: •
Subterfuge: ••

Merits: luxury ••, status (Silver Ladder) •••, striking looks ••, linguistics •• (English, Atlantean (Secrets of the Ruined Temple p127), library (Atlantean sociology) •, imbued/enhanced item (Durandal) ••••• ••• (Banishers p69). Free: High Speech.

Doolittle is what she is; one of the right hands of the Vox Draconis, a precocious, travelling Claviger of the Ladder ready to represent their interests and make sure the Théarchs get their representation in any Pentacle conflict or conclave. She's not independently wealthy - her financial backing comes from her Order, dress-maker's bills and plane tickets charged to the Ladder's accounts as a necessary operating cost of good Awakened diplomacy. To underline her status and the authority she represents, she's been given a basic training in Atlantean culture and the surviving rudiments of its language; her knowledge of English, while theoretically fluent, always seems to rapidly desert her whenever she gets into a tiresome conversation with an Anglo. The sword on her hip is a new, somewhat incongruous addition to her ensemble, that raised eyebrows when she appeared at Consilium with it, but Durendal's status as a historical symbol of power, majesty, and conquest is fairly meaningful to anyone who knows its history.

Arcana: Fate 5, Mind 2, Time 1 (assuming the fifth arcana dot costs two dots - if not, Fate 5, Mind 2, Time 2).

Gnosis: ••• (2 paradox dice)

Mana: 7/12, 3/turn.

Spell tolerance: 3

Nimbus: a dramatic musical sting - cymbals, strings, the works - which serves to accentuate her vulgar magic with dramatic flair and verve.

Rotes: Willful process (wits + academics + mind) = 5 dice
First impressions (presence + socialise + mind) = 6 dice
Fate's Justice (wits + politics + fate - composure) = 12 dice (adapted from the Libertine techné, to use politics instead of science)

Belongings: near-infinite supply of ever-more-elaborate dresses, with a platinum credit card in the matching purse for each one; a horrifyingly sharp sword.

Doolittle makes little pretense at being a widely-read mage, instead focusing her studies entirely on the careful cultivation of destiny and the art of serenditious mastery of her world. Mind adepts aren't entirely trusted at diplomatic functions, and besides, First Degree Mastery of the Arcana gives her more votes in Consilium elections.

Backstory: Rural France isn't a very nice place if you don't fit in. Geneviève Kateb learned that early on; a young mixed-race girl, living in poverty in Rocamadour, a little village in the south of France, she certainly didn't look like, didn't live like the others in her town. She lived alone with her dad, who was nice to her, but so seldom there - always working, sometimes not coming back at night, never there when she really needed him. She dabbled in a bit of petty crime to get by, but, ultimately, resigned herself to the fact that this place just wasn't for her. Petit-bourgeois insularity and anti-maghrebin slurs muttered behind her back would make sure she never escaped the largely hand-to-mouth existence she'd lived in for the first eighteen years of her life, would never even get the cash to move out. What was the point? It'd never change.

The point. While picking faintly wizened blackberries from scrubby roadside brambles, she pricked her finger on the point of a thorn, and it was that little moment of pain - of shock and drawn blood - that changed her life. A whirlwind Arcadian mystery play - full of rich, tantalising meaning and treasures just incomprehensible to her illiterate and untutored senses - commenced, and before she knew it, she had scrawled her name in mingled blood and pulped blackberries on the grimy porcelain of the bathroom sink.

As she Awoke, she was observed. She wasn't what the Ladder had been looking for, exactly, but she had awakened on their watch, and they were hardly going to pass up on the chance to sink their claws into a fresh apprentice. And so, a few weeks after she Awoke, she was taken in by her new tutor, the local Silver Ladder Councillor, Karolus Magnus - her father accepted the excuse that she was going to do maid work with depressing ease. Karolus was old money, scion of a long line of Proximi, and he liked the idea of sponsoring a young mage, tutoring her and building her up from nothing as a symbol of his own power. If he could make an examplar of the Silver Ladder's ideals of humanity's supernal perfectibility, then wouldn't that be a powerful example of his political status and skill?

Unfortunately (or perhaps not), things have got just a little out of hand of late in the Toulouse Awakened community. The young woman was only meant to be an experiment in human and societal malleability; a pet project of the local Théarch Councillor of a minor French Consilium to see how much difference old money and elocution lessons could make on someone who, at least until very recently, was very much not the ideal that the Ladder had expected of Sleepers. It seems that Doolittle learned her lessons well; perhaps too well. Between her grasp of Fate magic, her lessons in comportment and conducting herself, and her own raw talent and ambition, she's managed to manoeuver her way up the hierarchy of her Order, smoothing over political controversies, delighting visiting senior Théarchs, and keeping tabs on the other orders. Before anyone realised what was going on, she'd risen high in the Order, buoyed up on a wave of fortuitous coincidences that she'd always been best-placed to take advantage of, with everyone owing her favours.

But a Claviger's position - working as herald of the Order - didn't seem to have been enough for her. What good are favours owed if they're not cashed in? What good is power accumulated that moth and rust can destroy - that isn't used to better the world under enlightened leadership? And so, having been lifted up from obscurity once, she's seeking to do so again - but this time under her own power, acquiring the trappings and symbols of authority and slowly entrenching her political position. She's been travelling Europe for some time now, acquiring lore, power, artefacts, and simple political goodwill. One of her greatest prizes (and, indeed, the only one she hasn't passed on to her Théarch superiors) has been Durendal, the sword of Roland, prised from the hands of a nest of Banishers down in Ariége. The sword - at least according to legend - was wielded by one of the most famous knights and enforcers of Charlemagne, and was instrumental in the creation of France as a nation state (and, ironically, was used to kill many hundreds of north Africans and Saracens). For her to wield a nation-building sword is a fairly meaningful statement, but it's not purely symbolic either - the weapon's thaumium edge is razor sharp, and more than one Seer and political rival has learned that training in courtly etiquette includes a training in duelling.

The reason for her presence in Texas isn't entirely clear (a problem complicated by the fact that she tends not to tie herself to long-term plans in the first place). In reality, she travelled to Texas with the vague aim of simply throwing down against one of the Bound; slaying or imprisoning one of the legendary monstrous foes of Atlantis would be a significant feather in her own cap and that of her order. She's tried to disavow any interest in this quest since it was revealed to a be a hoax, and has recast herself instead as simply being there to offer the skills of the Old World Silver Ladder in serving, organising and wrangling the other Awakened. If she ends up earning a raftload of favours and intelligence from the Yanks in the process - that'd be fine ...

[Ashreyel]

Name: Birth name: [Unknown] Shadow name: Willow
Country of Birth: Switzerland. Currently residing in New York.
Path: Acanthus
Order: Guardians of the Veil
Virtue and Vice: Charity, Wrath
Arcana: Time ●●●, Fate ●●●, Space ●●●
Gnosis: ●●●
Merits: Contacts(Arms dealer) ●●●●, Resources ●●●, Allies(Interpol) ●●●●, Retainer ●●, Status ●, Mentor ●●●●.
Backstory: Willow had a quiet, relatively easy life in Switzerland between birth and 20. She was a fairly average girl, enjoying skiing, hanging out with friends and generally having fun. Her school grades were above average, but she never let that get to her head, if anything she pushed herself harder because of it.
Unfortunately for her, during a skiing trip she was trapped in inclement weather, she burrowed in to a snow drift to try and stay warm, but as the snowstorm raged on her core temperature slowly dropped until she passed out. During her chilly winter nap her latent magical abilities awakened. Several hours later she awoke in her snow drift cave, feeling strangely energised and full of excitement for the future.
Working hard, she went to college, receiving her bachelors in business management and interpersonal development skills before meeting her employer on a chance encounter and being recruited to work with him, and Scar.
Strongest Attribute: Wits
Weakest Attribute: Strength

[Ashreyel]

Also, lemme know if that's in the wrong place and I'll delete+move it.

[Cire]

It is in the right place.

[VectorFox]

I guess I'll repost this from the recruitment thread.

Name: Lar/ Guillermo Eduardo Muniz
Location: Colorado Springs , Colorado
Path: Thyrsus
Order: Guardians of the Veil
Virtue : Temperance
Vice: Wrath Although it is quite hard to anger him when does lose his temper it is comparable to an Uratha's death rage in its blind fury
Arcana: Spirit ••••• Life ••••

Merits: Language•( First Tongue), Status••(Guardians of the Veil), Familiar••••(Pistol Spirit), Spirit Status••••, Master Exorcist••, Resources••,FS: Combat Marksmen •(Shoot First) ,FS: Combat Marksmen••(Tactical Reload)

Strongest Attribute: Composure From his childhood he learned that it is better it is to control your violent outburst.Unbridled rage clouds judgment and usually makes a situation worse.
Weakest Attribute: Presence

Backstory: Guillermo always had strong connection to the spirit for some inexplicable reason. He could sense the presence of spirits roaming the world around round him sleeping in the objects he encountered. He rationalized this away that man sheathed in shadows was just a normal person wearing a lot of black clothing.That giant hognosed snake was a normal sized snake it just looked bigger due to a skewed perspective. That demon with sliver skin and gold eyes that phased right through the wall and over my bed was just a nightmare. Were all lies he told himself rather than confronting the truth. The connection Guillermo had with the spirit went both ways. Spirits were fascinated for him for reason the couldn't explain lucky for him it was mere an incredibly brief curiosity.

Well for most spirits anyways unfortunately for Guillermo this curiosity turned into an obsession for a love spirit. Intent to make Guillermo her lover she abducted him spiriting him away to the shadow. When she arrived in the shadow with her conquest another love spirit ambushed her. In the confusion Guillermo escaped and that when his soul ascended to the Primal Wilds. When he returned to the fallen world he found himself scribbling his name with a witches brews of blood , urine, feces and tears on a rocky outcropping of a sleeping hill spirit. Shortly after he was found by members of the Guardians of the Veil who had been keeping a watchful eye on him due to his strong spiritual connection.Unsurprisingly he proved himself a gifted wielder of spirit magic .Lar has focused his talents to guard the veil between spirit and flesh stopping men and spirit alike form abusing each other.

He has come to Paris Texas because he received a vision from a lesser god of fate not long before the rumor of the bound . The vision shown to him was a possible future where a wound would engulf in the shadow of Paris then spread all the way to the shadow of Dallas. From this scar would bleed foul spirits and demons that would wreak havoc upon the fallen world. When Lar heard news of the bound in Texas he feared the vision might come to pass. Despite finding out about the hoax he has remained because of what he has seen on both sides of the gauntlet. The spiritual landscape isn't the hellhole he had expected quit the opposite it perfect too perfect. Someone is hiding something and Lar needs to know what .

[Cire]

Looking over the game so far, I have noticed we have some information on the missing six pieces. I am putting this up to ensure that we are on the same page.

One piece is a white knight. According to Tuesday, it might be in Napier, New Zealand.

Two rooks are two of the pieces. One of the rooks is thought to be in the Shadow by the Seers. The Seers feared Lar will recover the piece in the shadow. The other rook is in the underworld on the bottom of the Urdabrunnr river.

At least one of the pieces is a queen, color unclear. No clue has yet been uncovered to its location. Naturally, this leaves two unknown pieces.

It has also been claimed by Tuesday that Oberon's changeling girlfriend has a connection to one of the six pieces. It is unknown if this connection is to one of the four known pieces or one of the two unknown pieces.

[Cire]

I have very much been loving the game so far. I realized, however, I might not have done a good job making clear that this story started in the Paris in the United States, in the state of Texas as opposed to the more famous Paris in France. To the degree that this has not been made clear, I take full responsibility and apologize. One of the great things about this site is the chance to interact with fans from around the world. I love it.

[Cire]

Unless there are objections, I might start the "next chapter" in a few days. I think it will be set in Napier, New Zealand. I will have a draft soon so people might comment.

[Mockery]

I have no issues. Winchester's said his piece and would be glad to have a couple days to convalesce.

[Winnersh 3]

Let me get my ritual off first, and then I'll be done !