Even more Legacies, updated to 2E

[wyrdhamster]

Seeing lately Legion TV series - I wanted to see Fangs of Mara...

[Tambov]

Right forgot the matter. That is what I get for responding without my books handy.

I actually remember Matter because my very first character concept's Magic revolved around E=mc² (he had Matter 3, Forces 2, Death 1). The current iteration is a generalist, partly because Plasticity (Matter 3) became Shaping (Matter 2) and partly because I hooked a dog Retainer on the Concept, so the 6th dot went to Life instead (and the Rote for Speak with the Dead became Speak with Beasts).

[Teatime]

Seeing lately Legion TV series - I wanted to see Fangs of Mara...

Seconding that.

[ArchonAres]

Celestial Master and Bokor were always my favorites.

[21C Hermit]

All right, so I have the following in my hands: Tamers of Blood (and Rivers, and Stone, and the Cave), the Illumined Path, the Celestial Masters, the Fangs of Mara, and the Bokor. Eight Legacies to work upon, preferably in that order.

Oh, and updated the Thread Cutters' Attainments, reflecting some criticism not in this thread. Just some Reach effects and fluff.

[21C Hermit]

Speaking of Tamers I'd be happy to see your idea of Tamers of Blood. I've yet to see it done in a way that really makes me happy, including my own attempts. And then I've got a home made legacy I'd like you to take a look at just to pick your brain or see where you run with it.

Any trait in particular you want to see or removed? I don't have The Left-Handed Path (...yet), so I'm blind on what the original looks like, for both the good and the bad. And I'd like to see your own homebrew as well if you don't mind - I'm grasping at anything that can help me.

[Mrmdubois]

Any trait in particular you want to see or removed? I don't have The Left-Handed Path (...yet), so I'm blind on what the original looks like, for both the good and the bad. And I'd like to see your own homebrew as well if you don't mind - I'm grasping at anything that can help me.

Well, the Blood Tamers are supposed to be masters of sympathy, but they've never actually been written up so you pretty much have to work from scratch.

[21C Hermit]

Well, the Blood Tamers are supposed to be masters of sympathy, but they've never actually been written up so you pretty much have to work from scratch.

Oh. They only had a brief mention all this time? Interesting...

[Mrmdubois]

And I'd like to see your own homebrew as well if you don't mind - I'm grasping at anything that can help me.

I've got one I've been mulling over for the past week. No name yet unfortunately.

This particular legacy is inspired by quite a few sources, the Chalice Compact of Toronto, Summoners, Proximi and the Tremere. The basic philosophy goes something like this: Once you have Awakened only Archmastery or Ascension can get you back into the Supernal, or so the rumors go. On the other hand, Sleepers transcend the Abyss with surprising frequency (Depending on your views) and come back filled with Supernal power, a newly Awakened. What if the process of simply sending a soul to the Supernal to learn the absolute Truths that it contains could be harnessed? If you think it's so crazy it'll never work then consider this, according to some ancient theories the soul is naturally Supernal anyways, possibly a microcosm of the entirety of the Supernal realms which is why it contains such vast power enough to even create immortality as the liches of the Tremere have. So everyone, all Sleepers at any rate, though tainted by the Abyss, have a sympathy to the Supernal that could potentially be exploited. Another ancient teaching says that souls which pass on move to Stygia, or perhaps elsewhere in the Supernal realms, no one knows for sure of course, and then after that something happens and it comes back, reincarnated. Mages of this legacy take a great deal of interest in these ideas, and also the ability to summon beings from the Supernal to the Fallen to learn from them. Beings from the Supernal Realms usually have an alien mindset that's difficult to understand fully, and souls are a mystery, but ultimately they're housed in humans and humans are much easier to understand. So if you can acknowledge the possible validity of the fact that souls can and do travel to the Supernal and back, then it should be possible to use magic to synthesize a similar process and glean knowledge from them.

The practices of these Mages lead to a tendency to cultivate Sleepers as Allies or Retainers, and appear to empower the Sleeping Soul with a glimmer of the glory of the realms Supernal. They appear to be benevolent, and in some ways they might even actually be. On the other hand a closer look at them would reveal that this is truly exploitative, enslaving the soul to their whims in their quest for knowledge and then discarding the burned out husks when they are no longer of use.

Do these Mages actually succeed in sending souls to other realms? It's a question open to interpretation with no clear answer. Their power is unquestionable, the methods that they use to gain it bears fruit, but like so many they are simply blindly following their own philosophies and assumptions in the Darkness. Because of the fact that Mages have limitations in understanding and sympathy to the Supernal realms imposed on them by being stuck on one Path this Legacy seeks followers from all Paths to broaden the depths of its collective knowledge. It's a Legacy most likely to crop up in the Mysterium and the Seers of the Throne, one because of the knowledge that can potentially be gained and the other because it's a model of the rule of the Exarchs over their Fallen World.

Attainment 1: Gnosis 3: Death 2: Like a Tremere Lich these Mages can steal the soul of a Sleeper following the rules for Sever the Sleeping Soul. However, they roll Manipulation+Persuasion+Death, though not always the case these Mages are likely to try and seduce their victims into eagerly giving up their souls in exchange for power and understanding beyond the scope of regular Sleepers. Additionally they are capable of creating a Soul Jar as per the spell. With this trapped soul they are able to add half (rounded down) its remaining Integrity as bonus dice on Resonance study rolls. The Mage may only maintain possession of a number of souls this way equal to his dots in the Death arcanum, and any soul that reaches 0 Integrity becomes impossible to use any of the attainments of this legacy on.

Optional Space 2: With this the Mage is able to subtly manipulate the sympathies of the soul to its original owner so that the two don't even notice that they're separated. If the Sleeper is given custody of the Soul Jar with his or her own soul in it then other than the original Degeneration for soul loss she suffers no further ill effects and does not continue to degenerate as long as she keeps the Soul Jar on her person. Separation from it induces an automatic Degeneration check. This technique is far from perfected, as long as the Sleeper's soul remains outside of its natural housing then the Sleeper may not raise his Integrity by any means. Finally, the Sleeper may use his own soul inside of the Soul Jar to perceive Resonance and scrutinize it with a number of bonus dice equal to half his remaining Integrity. If his soul's Integrity is lowered to 0 one way or another he receives none of the benefits of this or any other attainment.

Attainment 2: Gnosis 5: Death 3: This is pretty much the cornerstone of the Legacy, allowing the Mage to open a gateway to the Supernal and rather than summoning something from it sending a soul stolen with the first Attainment into the Supernal. This is an extended action and follows all of the same rules as the rules for summoning, including the possibility of an Abyssal intrusion with a couple exceptions. The Mage does not need extra successes for the presence of Sleepers and bringing the soul back for study effectively closes the gateway without risk of an Abyssal intrusion. Where exactly the soul goes, and why it experiences the changes it does are up to speculation. What is known is that the soul appears to go to the Supernal realm (or something close to it) for which the Mage has a sympathetic connection, in other words the realm of his Watchtower. There is no known way to send the soul to a different realm and it's because of this inherent limitation that the legacy seeks out Mages from all Paths in order to broaden its understanding of the Supernal realms. A soul sent in this manner automatically loses a point of Integrity. It is possible to simply leave a soul stranded in the Supernal by closing the connection on it before it has returned. What happens to the soul after that is completely unknown as none that has been abandoned in this manner has ever been recovered. Once the soul has been brought back it is changed, the subtle arcana of which it is composed that resonates with the Path of the Mage that sent it is prominently on display and if closely studied can reveal secrets and knowledge unknown to other Mages. Additionally this experience enslaves the soul to the one who sent it, he may now send it out or cause it to obey in a manner similar to a Familiar in Twilight. The soul however is unlike a familiar in that it has no numina, influences, no traits or skills, etc in the way that souls normally are. What it is capable of though is serving as a way of spying, information reminiscent of the Path subtle arcana of the Mage that sent it becomes imprinted on it during its travels and may be observed by the Mage upon its return. It also serves as a sympathetic connection for the Mage to cast through as a Familiar can, any magic so cast that threatens Paradox forces the soul to check for loss of Integrity.

Optional Space 3: If the soul is returned to its jar and the Sleeper who originally possessed it then the Sleeper gains a benefit from the experience as well. Because the soul's journey to the Supernal was heavily influenced by the understanding and Path of the Mage who sent it he becomes a Sleepwalker in regards to that Mage only. This is a boon and a curse, he can witness magic and remember it, but only from the one Mage. Every other Mage treats this "Sleepwalker" as a normal Sleeper and incurs Paradox and Disbelief as usual. Even though he has some protection from the powers of the Quiescience if the Mage who owns his soul incurs Paradox and he is present to witness it then a Degeneration check on his Integrity will occur.

Attainment 3: Gnosis 7: Death 4: At this level the Mage has refined and honed his techniques, increased his understanding and can more fully utilize the powers of the souls that he controls. He may use a stolen soul to establish a pseudo-Demesne or Annulity. This follows the usual rules for such things, the soul stone is actually the soul jar in which the soul is contained. These places of power though are sadly very temporary, the Mage must still check for Paradox on Vulgar spells inside of the Demesne, if the Paradox succeeds then the soul will automatically suppress it and automatically lose a point of Integrity.

Optional Space 4: The Sleeper who has custodianship of the soul jar containing his soul returned to him finds that after his soul's sojourn into the Supernal it maintains a link with that Supernal realm. He may obtain the Blessings of a Proximi that is aligned to the particular realm to which his soul was sent. The rules for the use of these Blessings remain the same, but whenever they are used they incur a degeneration check for loss of Integrity.

This was the home brew I had going. They're pretty Left-Hand, but are supposed to dress themselves up as respectable. They appear to impart a modicum of power to their Sleeper servants but are actually spiritually crippling them as they exploit the Sleeper soul's potential for Awakening. Whether or not they're actually managing to engineer an Awakening and then aborting it to glean more information about the Supernal is an open question.

[21C Hermit]

This was the home brew I had going. They're pretty Left-Hand, but are supposed to dress themselves up as respectable. They appear to impart a modicum of power to their Sleeper servants but are actually spiritually crippling them as they exploit the Sleeper soul's potential for Awakening. Whether or not they're actually managing to engineer an Awakening and then aborting it to glean more information about the Supernal is an open question.

Sounds a lot like the Echo Walkers, but with inverted purpose, and yet resulting in similarly cruel and Hubristic methods. Extremities meet at the far end, I suppose.

Right now I'll focus on this thread first, but if I ever set up a Fan-made Legacies thread this will be the first I'll get to.

[wyrdhamster]

Should not Tamers of Blood be Thyrsus based on Space?

[Mrmdubois]

Should not Tamers of Blood be Thyrsus based on Space?

There are two legacies being talked about there, one is the Tamers of Blood, the other is one I made up. No one said the Tamers of Blood weren't Space using Thyrsus.

[Hardwire99]

What is a good Legacy for Acanthus with Matter and Fate?

[21C Hermit]

What is a good Legacy for Acanthus with Matter and Fate?

No official Legacy with that combination exists, AFAIK.

If fan-made, I'd assume it could be about crafting lucky charms of all kinds.

[Hardwire99]

Right the matter and Fate can both manipulate tools and I like the lucky charms thing. Alright master Legacy Creators, if I can get help, In a different thread of course.

Make it an Irish Legacy, prone to the Little People "They're always after me Lucky Charms".