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18thCenturyMage

2013-02-11T14:13:02Z

Sjaelkie:

=The Unforgiving=

''A historical Mage: the Awakening campaign set in mid-18th century Colonial America''

<center>[[image:OutdoorsAlbany.jpg]]</center>

This wiki supports '''The Unforgiving''', set in Heiderberg, on the outskirts of Albany, Province of New York in 1750, featuring the exploits of the Hermium Beacon. Affiliated with the Albany & New York Consilium, it is the duty of the Hermium Beacon to guard the northern frontier and bring the former domains of the Nefandus Haskallah under the Consilium's control. Their position close to the frontier also means they are well-placed to act as a line of communication to the Iroquois Consilium.

==Main Sections==

'''Player Characters - The Hermium Beacon'''

''Awakened Members''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |Caprice]]''' (Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière, now known as Hélène d'Arcy) - Mastigos/Guardian of the Veil - French highborn noble with a range of shadier talents and a determination to keep magic safe. Andrea’s childhood friend and Jacob's Iroquois-adopted sister. Two husbands, one living, one dead... both hopefully far away from where she happens to be.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Andrea |Coruscant]]''' (Andrea de Crussol-Shirley) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder - a half-British/half-French noblewoman who is an adventurer and natural philosopher. She is a skilled duellist and carries a parasol which conceals a sword.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Courtenay |Loquitor]]''' (Courtenay Dowling) - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow - an Englishman and former officer in the British army, he lost a lot of men in an ambush during King George's War. Resigning his commission shortly after Awakening, he still has good relations with the British authorities.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/John |Mason]]''' (John Allen) - Moros/Silver Ladder - an American Quaker minister and craftsman with utopian dreams of building the perfect society.

''Associated Proximus''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Jacob |Jacob]]''' - a mixed-race Iroquois tracker and warrior who is knowledgeable about spirits. A Proximus from an Adamantine Dynasty with a Thyrsus heritage. He is adoptive brother to Caprice under Iroquois custom. Acts as a liason between the Iroquois and New York consilia.

'''Awakenings and Backstories'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Crown_Point_Expedition |Crown Point Expedition]] - part of Loquitor's backstory: A failed attempt to take Crown Point in 1747.

[[18thCenturyMage/Caprice_Backstory |Paris to Albany]] - Caprice's backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil.

'''Other Characters'''

[[18thCenturyMage/NPCs |Notable NPCs]] - People of note the player characters have met.

'''Campaign Notes'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Protocols |Protocols of the Hermium Beacon]] - The Cabal's oaths, Great Rights and internal responsibilities.

[[18thCenturyMage/Sanctum |The Farrier's House, Heiderberg]] - The home and Sanctum of the Hermium Beacon.

[[18thCenturyMage/Mage_Politics |Politics of the local Consilia]] - The makeup of mage society in the Middle Colonies.

[[18thCenturyMage/Spirit_Courts |Spirit Courts]] - The local Shadow courts and their compositions.

[[18thCenturyMage/Twilight_Guardians |Twilight Guardians]] - The Adamantine Dynasty to which Jacob is a member.

'''Mechanics'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Alternate_Combat_Rules |Alternate Rules]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Combat_Regimens |Combat Regimens]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Arms_and_Equipment |Arms and Equipment]]

==Resources==

[http://www.edmaps.com/north_america_1750.gif Map of North America in 1750] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States Colonial history of the United States] - A general starting-off point on the history of America in this period. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies The Middle Colonies] - The region in which the game is set. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York Province of New York] - The specific province within the Middle Colonies in which the cabal is based. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George%27s_War King George's War] - The recent conflict which impacted the Middle Colonies and New England, counterpart to the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Le_Loutre%27s_War Father Le Loutre's War] - An ongoing conflict in Nova Scotia spilling out of the unresolved issues of the last war. 
[http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html Colonial Albany Social History Project] - A rich source of local history for the Albany area. 

==Links==

[http://insanitywetrust.wordpress.com/ The podcasts]. Here you can listen to the sessions, mostly as they happened (we've only edited out dead air, not the general blather, noise of clattering dice and so on) for yourself. All are broken into two parts for ease of digestion. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Podcast_listing |Podcast listing]] If you'd rather get them from here instead. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Blank_Sheet |Blank Character Sheet for use on the wiki]] 

'''Other works from us''' 
[[Mass_Effect_Transcendence |The campaign wiki for Mass Effect: Transcendence]] 
[[Mass:_the_Effecting |Mass: the Effecting]]

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-11T11:06:08Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

<center>[[image:Fan.jpg]]</center>

'''Grow Faster'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Into Nightmare'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*... the blackest rage, ranting he drinks, awake ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife, he doesn’t have it anymore does he... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards wading wading... feet tangled so slow, must get out, out... how to remember... so slow too slow the door at her back now but no latch, no, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his hunched back... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but his back now, too large, no space to breathe can’t breathe... no door... hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry but too slow, move and move, split your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where she has his knife but too late, boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way.''

*''And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly emerging ‘family’...

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]] | [[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |To character sheet]]

File:Fan.jpg

2013-02-11T11:04:54Z

Sjaelkie:

18thCenturyMage/NPCs

2013-02-11T10:59:17Z

Sjaelkie:

<center>[[image:Chaos-politics.jpg|500px]]</center>

==Albany & New York Consilium==

''Manticore's Seal'', Albany

'''Brandaen''' (William van Rensselaer) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder/Tamer of Fire - leader of the Seal and the '''Silver Ladder Councillor''', though he leaves a lot of the Council business to the Provost, Megiddo. Bad blood between him and the Hierarch. Also Coruscant's mentor.

'''Jäger''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Daoine - a huntress who doesn't stand on ceremony (or formal manners).

'''Chiaroscuro''' - Mastigos/Silver Ladder/Clavicularius - ambitious, well-connected and the person who gets things done in the cabal.

'''Skull''' (Harold Londontown) - Moros/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of the Stone - a sleazy sort who is a supplier to the British regulars.

'''Reynard''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - a better tracker and trapper than he is a mage.

''Areopagitica'', currently New York City

'''Helios''' - ?/Silver Ladder/? - has a printing press used by the Silver Ladder, and by the Guardians of the Veil (mostly for Labyrinth purposes).

''The Beneficient Society of St. Michael'', Palatine Town and Stone Arabia

'''Venator''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - the leader of the Beneficient Society of St Michael, '''Arrow Councillor''' and Adamant Sage of the Consilium. Said (by Aura) to still retain loyalty to the previous Hierarch Cataphract.

'''Aura''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - The '''Arrow Provost'''. Quiet mutineer.

'''Rattlesnake''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

''The Broken Chain'', mostly New York City

'''Crucible''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius - black woman who Awakened on a slave ship.

''The Eye Over The Pine Plains'', Schenectady

'''Glyph''' - ?/Mysterium?/? - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

'''Whisper''' - Thyrsus/?/? - Expert on spirits and other levels of existence (more versed in the wider world than the urban-focused Vigil).

''The Half Moon Disciples'', New York City

'''Lazarus''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Celestial Cartographer - the '''Hierarch'''.

'''Minotaur''' - Acanthus/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Provost'''. Expert on portals and space magics.

'''Hamadryad''' - Thrysus?/Silver Ladder/Tamers of Rivers - the '''Herald'''. Speaks with a slight stutter (affected, but so far only Jacob knows it isn't genuine).

'''Orichalcum''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Uncrowned Kings - Calm and self-possessed woman. Specialist on stones, metals etc, alchemy.

'''Effervescent''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - Married to a Sleeper judge who owns a boarding house in New York.

''The Lunargent Temple'', New York City

'''Saeftinghe''' - ?/Mysterium - the '''Mysterium Councillor'''

'''Megiddo''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Tamers of the Stone - '''Silver Ladder Provost'''. Specialist in architecture. Also Mason's mentor.

'''Vigil''' - Thyrsus/?/? - expert in spirit exorcism (more city-focussed than Whisper).

''The Yellow Talons'', Red Hook

'''Mara''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Councillor'''

'''Ysengrim''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius - Also Caprice's mentor.

'''Verminus''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Bearers of the Eternal Voice - The Interfector.

==Iroquois Consilium==

''Cayuga''

(3 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Oneida''

(1 mage - Tamer)

''Onondaga''

(5 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Mohawk''

'''Thunderhawk''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Storm Keeper - the ''de facto'' leader and Adamant Sage of the Iroquois Consilium.

(+5 others - 3 are Tamers)

''Seneca''

'''Raven''' - Acanthus/Mysterium/Tamer - a powerful mage and sole member of the Seneca cabal.

''Tuscarora''

==Others in Albany==

''Magical''

'''Mirror''' (Doctor Marcus Dunwich) - A Seer of the Throne with a "flowing, broken mirror" shaped spirit familiar in tow. Physician in Heiderberg.

'''"Mr Chapman" aka The Tall Man''' - One of Haskallah's business contacts. Gangly over-jointed person, one of five former mages who used to be human but made certain pacts changing him. Reputedly friendlier than the Thin Man.

'''??''' - A shadow mage who scries and spies on the Beacon through his/her own detached shadow. May be hiding in Albany or somewhere else.

''Sleepers''

'''Richard Van Santvert''' - Property official and an alderman of Albany's administration. Temporarily Albany's mayor.

'''Robert Sanders''' - Albany's mayor-elect who hasn't yet taken up his post.

'''Major Tobias Solomon''' - Commandant of the British regular garrison at Fort Frederick, Albany.

'''Lieutenant James Cooper''' - An officer in the Albany garrison and a friend of Loquitor's from his prior military service. Regular at the Green Jacket inn.

'''Stephen van Rensselaer''' - The patroon and local lord, also Colonel of the Albany provincial militia regiment.

'''Alexander Drummond''' - A Scottish neighbour of the cabal in Heiderberg, a businessman with interests in lumber and a whole lot of land acquired outside town.

'''Jack Sorkin''' - A metalworker.

'''Mrs Nightingale''' - A weaver.

'''Harry Brecon''' - A fixer who has criminal contacts.

'''Obadiah Carrington''' - A preacher.

'''James Salton''' - An employee of Mr Drummond.

==Others in New York==

'''Barghest''' - Thyrsus of the Tides Lost Children cabal of the Atlantic Consilium, captain of the ship ''Ghost Wake''.

'''Alfred Silverneck''' - Sleeper Proprietor of the Silverneck Theatre. Recipient of the horse bridle; previous owner of the "magical cube stone".

'''??''' - the Ghostwalker porter of Effervescent's mage lodgings.

==Deceased==

'''Haskallah''' (Marcus Van Der Broek) - Moros/Nefandi - Collector and dealer in curia magical and mundane in Albany, killed in King's Landing. Previous owner of the Hermium Beacon's sanctum, Farrier's House.

'''Jack and Henrietta''': Farmhouse couple in Albany, murdered then half-remade by Fate fungus. Killed by the Hermium Beacon.

'''Cataphract''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Former Hierarch, presumed dead (lost at sea).

'''??''' (Sooleawa) - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of Rivers. Onondaga mage, Hamadryad's Legacy mentor. Jacob's mentor and briefly, Caprice's first mentor. Killed by a spirit apparently controlled by a white mage.

'''Jonas Blackwater''' - a half-Iroquois murderer hanged and turned into a revenant, out to kill selected pairs of white people in Albany to satisfy what he perceives as "the spirits of our future". Currently without a body and held in Mason's Soul Jar.

'''The Shadow Compact''' - NY Diamond cabal in Albany, disbanded after most members were killed during the last war. Surviving members Glyph and Rattlesnake left to join other cabals.

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-11T10:34:02Z

Sjaelkie:

[[image: Sohpie.jpg|350px]]

'''Shadow Name''': Caprice 
'''Real Name''': Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière (aka Andrea, aka Hélène d'Arcy) 
'''Age''': 20 
'''Concept''': 
'''Virtue''': Hope 
'''Vice''': Lust (as pleasure in beautiful things) 
'''Path/Order''': Mastigos/Guardian 
'''Experience unspent''': 16XP, 13AXP 

'''Attributes'''

Int:●● Str:● Pre:● 
Wits:●●● Dex:●●● Man:●●● 
Res:●●● Sta:●●● Com:●●● 

'''Skills'''

''Mental'': Academics●● Politics●●

''Physical'': Larceny●●●(Forgery,Locks) Stealth●●● Weaponry●●(Knives)

''Social'': Empathy●●● Persuasion●● Socialise●● Subterfuge●●●

'''Merits'''

English(French)(●) 
High Speech(free)(●) 
Fighting Finesse[Knives](●●) 
Mentor[Isengrim](●) 
Contacts[French,High Society](●●) 
Status[Guardians](●) 
Sanctum(●) 

'''Arcana'''

Mind●●● 
Space●● 
Prime● 

'''Gnosis''': ●

'''Mana''':

'''Rotes''' (WIP)

Mind●●● 8d Mask of Conformity (Imposter, p.211:INT+Subt+Mind vs COM+Gno) 
Mind●●● 9d Psychic Communion (Telepathy, p.212:WITS+Emp+Mind vs RES+Gno) 

'''Protective Spells''':

'''Advantages'''

''Willpower'': 5 
''Wisdom'': 7 
''Health'': 8 
''Initiative'': 6 
''Perception'': 6 
''Defence'': 3 
''Speed'': 9 

'''Nimbus''':

A scatter of shards of light, as of a mirror shattering.
If flaring, mixed with the above a crunch of broken glass, a spatter of red like blood, a death rattle.

'''Flaw''':

*That Wedded Thorn In My Side

'''Notable Equipment'''
Magical tool: fan
Knives
Hairpin-knife
Lockpicks

'''Biography'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Caprice_Backstory |Paris to Albany]] - Caprice's backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil.

'''XP Log'''

*17.1.13 2XP Sanctum

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T19:17:11Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Grow Faster'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Into Nightmare'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*... the blackest rage, ranting he drinks, awake ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife, he doesn’t have it anymore does he... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards wading wading... feet tangled so slow, must get out, out... how to remember... so slow too slow the door at her back now but no latch, no, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his hunched back... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but his back now, too large, no space to breathe can’t breathe... no door... hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry but too slow, move and move, split your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where she has his knife but too late, boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way.''

*''And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly emerging ‘family’...

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]] | [[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |To character sheet]]

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T19:16:29Z

Sjaelkie:

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-10T18:56:28Z

Sjaelkie:

18thCenturyMage

2013-02-10T18:45:33Z

Sjaelkie:

=The Unforgiving=

''A historical Mage: the Awakening campaign set in mid-18th century Colonial America''

<center>[[image:OutdoorsAlbany.jpg]]</center>

This wiki supports '''The Unforgiving''', set in Heiderberg, on the outskirts of Albany, Province of New York in 1750, featuring the exploits of the Hermium Beacon. Affiliated with the Albany & New York Consilium, it is the duty of the Hermium Beacon to guard the northern frontier and bring the former domains of the Nefandus Haskallah under the Consilium's control. Their position close to the frontier also means they are well-placed to act as a line of communication to the Iroquois Consilium.

==Main Sections==

'''Player Characters - The Hermium Beacon'''

''Awakened Members''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |Caprice]]''' (Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière, now known as Hélène d'Arcy) - Mastigos/Guardian of the Veil - French highborn noble with a range of shadier talents and a determination to keep magic safe. Andrea’s childhood friend. Two husbands, one living, one dead... both hopefully far away from where she happens to be.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Andrea |Coruscant]]''' (Andrea de Crussol-Shirley) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder - a half-British/half-French noblewoman who is an adventurer and natural philosopher. She is a skilled duellist and carries a parasol which conceals a sword.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Courtenay |Loquitor]]''' (Courtenay Dowling) - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow - an Englishman and former officer in the British army, he lost a lot of men in an ambush during King George's War. Resigning his commission shortly after Awakening, he still has good relations with the British authorities.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/John |Mason]]''' (John Allen) - Moros/Silver Ladder - an American Quaker minister and craftsman with utopian dreams of building the perfect society.

''Associated Proximus''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Jacob |Jacob]]''' - a mixed-race Iroquois tracker and warrior who is knowledgeable about spirits. A Proximus from an Adamantine Dynasty with a Thyrsus heritage. He is adoptive brother to Caprice under Iroquois custom. Acts as a liason between the Iroquois and New York consilia.

'''Awakenings and Backstories'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Crown_Point_Expedition |Crown Point Expedition]] - part of Loquitor's backstory: A failed attempt to take Crown Point in 1747.

[[18thCenturyMage/Caprice_Backstory |Paris to Albany]] - Caprice's backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil.

'''Other Characters'''

[[18thCenturyMage/NPCs |Notable NPCs]] - People of note the player characters have met.

'''Campaign Notes'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Protocols |Protocols of the Hermium Beacon]] - The Cabal's oaths, Great Rights and internal responsibilities.

[[18thCenturyMage/Sanctum |The Farrier's House, Heiderberg]] - The home and Sanctum of the Hermium Beacon.

[[18thCenturyMage/Mage_Politics |Politics of the local Consilia]] - The makeup of mage society in the Middle Colonies.

[[18thCenturyMage/Spirit_Courts |Spirit Courts]] - The local Shadow courts and their compositions.

[[18thCenturyMage/Twilight_Guardians |Twilight Guardians]] - The Adamantine Dynasty to which Jacob is a member.

'''Mechanics'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Alternate_Combat_Rules |Alternate Rules]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Combat_Regimens |Combat Regimens]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Arms_and_Equipment |Arms and Equipment]]

==Resources==

[http://www.edmaps.com/north_america_1750.gif Map of North America in 1750] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States Colonial history of the United States] - A general starting-off point on the history of America in this period. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies The Middle Colonies] - The region in which the game is set. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York Province of New York] - The specific province within the Middle Colonies in which the cabal is based. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George%27s_War King George's War] - The recent conflict which impacted the Middle Colonies and New England, counterpart to the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Le_Loutre%27s_War Father Le Loutre's War] - An ongoing conflict in Nova Scotia spilling out of the unresolved issues of the last war. 
[http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html Colonial Albany Social History Project] - A rich source of local history for the Albany area. 

==Links==

[http://insanitywetrust.wordpress.com/ The podcasts]. Here you can listen to the sessions, mostly as they happened (we've only edited out dead air, not the general blather, noise of clattering dice and so on) for yourself. All are broken into two parts for ease of digestion. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Podcast_listing |Podcast listing]] If you'd rather get them from here instead. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Blank_Sheet |Blank Character Sheet for use on the wiki]] 

'''Other works from us''' 
[[Mass_Effect_Transcendence |The campaign wiki for Mass Effect: Transcendence]] 
[[Mass:_the_Effecting |Mass: the Effecting]]

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:33:18Z

Sjaelkie:

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:32:18Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Grow Faster'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Into Nightmare'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*... the blackest rage, ranting he drinks, awake ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife, he doesn’t have it anymore does he... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards wading wading... feet tangled so slow, must get out, out... how to remember... so slow too slow the door at her back now but no latch, no, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his hunched back... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but his back now, too large, no space to breathe can’t breathe... no door... hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry but too slow, move and move, split your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, growing... she remembers where his knife is now but too late, boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way.''

*''And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly emerging ‘family’...

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:30:38Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Grow Faster'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Into Nightmare'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages, ranting, drinking, awake and ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife, he doesn’t have it anymore does he... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards wading wading... feet tangled so slow, must get out, out... how to remember... so slow too slow the door at her back now but no latch, no, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his hunched back... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but his back now, too large, no space to breathe can’t breathe... no door... hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry but too slow, move and move, split your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, growing... she remembers where his knife is now but too late, boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way.''

*''And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly emerging ‘family’...

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:29:57Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Growing Fast'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Nightmare Awakening'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages, ranting, drinking, awake and ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife, he doesn’t have it anymore does he... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards wading wading... feet tangled so slow, must get out, out... how to remember... so slow too slow the door at her back now but no latch, no, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his hunched back... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but his back now, too large, no space to breathe can’t breathe... no door... hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry but too slow, move and move, split your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, growing... she remembers where his knife is now but too late, boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way.''

*''And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly emerging ‘family’...

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:22:57Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Growing Fast'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Nightmare Awakening'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages... ranting, drinking... ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife... he doesn’t have it... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards... feet tangled in mud... get out... somewhere... how to remember... so slow to move... door at her back but there’s no latch, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his back filling her vision... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but the vision of his back now, can’t breathe... no door... the hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry can’t move, move... cut your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where his knife is now but too late... boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way. And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly created ‘family’...

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:22:16Z

Sjaelkie:

=Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil=

'''Growing Fast'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Nightmare Awakening'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages... ranting, drinking... ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife... he doesn’t have it... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards... feet tangled in mud... get out... somewhere... how to remember... so slow to move... door at her back but there’s no latch, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his back filling her vision... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but the vision of his back now, can’t breathe... no door... the hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry can’t move, move... cut your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where his knife is now but too late... boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way. And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
*As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly created ‘family’.

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:21:34Z

Sjaelkie:

==Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil==

'''Growing Fast'''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

'''Crossings'''

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

'''Nightmare Awakening'''

*Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages... ranting, drinking... ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife... he doesn’t have it... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards... feet tangled in mud... get out... somewhere... how to remember... so slow to move... door at her back but there’s no latch, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his back filling her vision... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but the vision of his back now, can’t breathe... no door... the hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry can’t move, move... cut your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where his knife is now but too late... boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way. And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

'''Friends Old and New'''

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

'''Veils and Emergence'''

*New York City, late Summer 1749: '''Grey Veil'''. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: '''Crimson Veil'''. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
*Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: '''Black Veil'''. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly created ‘family’.

18thCenturyMage/Caprice Backstory

2013-02-10T18:12:08Z

Sjaelkie: Created page with "'''Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil''' ''Growing Up'' *Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La ..."

'''Caprice’s backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil'''

''Growing Up''

*Paris 29.10.1729: Sophie Bernadette is born to the Duke and Duchess De La Vallière, youngest of three surviving daughters.

*Paris, Versailles, Nîmes, 1729-1745: Father, a high-ranking French diplomat, is usually away. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach Sophie that family reputation is everything and that even as a woman you can be and do mostly anything as long as the wrong people don't find out. Growing up, Sophie is close friends with Andrea. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, Sophie and Andrea keep writing to each other.

*Paris, 20.8.1745: Married to an ‘Italian count’ for what seems a financially and politically promising family alliance – a hope that swiftly turns to ashes as the man is revealed to be a skilled conman; not a genuine aristocrat at all but one Roman Papescu, a minor Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as in harmony with family philosophy, the De La Vallière family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with him. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning various skills of his trade.

*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' so in a worst case it will be her and not him who goes to the gallows. Avoiding Paris, she flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first self-sustained con. She is dreaming of creating a new life for herself, from which she will then be able to face her family without damaging their reputation or her own. But aristocratic Europe has become dangerous terrain for her with Roman stalking it.

''Spiraling into Nightmare''

*Liverpool, September 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Walloon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a ship bound for the Middle Colonies. Le Clercq turns out be more of a liability than an asset in trying to stay safe aboard the ship, as he drinks hard and hits harder.

*Beginning to Sleepwalk in mid-voyage, Sophie is noticed by Effervescent, a New York Guardian of the Veil travelling on the same ship, who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) in New York City. Bemused by the woman’s more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints but intrigued by the welcome excluding Le Clercq, Sophie keeps the woman’s card.

*New York City, late 1748: Back on dry land, Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Le Clercq's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out until Le Clercq stops looking for her. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Before a devastated Sophie can think further, Le Clercq arrives with several other men and drags her off, away from the town.

''Rough Awakenings''

*Daan Le Clercq’s farmhouse, Spring 1749: At her wits’ end as relations with her brutal husband spiral ever more into unrelenting nightmare, escape plan after escape plan fails and the world seems to tighten into a noose around her, Sophie-‘Andrea’ settles on more extreme measures. One night she doses Le Clercq’s bottle heavily with sleeping drops and as he proceeds to gets drunk as usual, she manages to sneak his knife away from his belt. Safety precaution purely, but in a few more moments it will save her life. Her plan was that he should fall asleep and sleep deep and long; she would not rue it if he never woke up again either, but she intends to be far from here come morning and never find out. Nightmare, however, proceeds as Le Clercq drinks himself into...

*''... the blackest of rages... ranting, drinking... ever more awake... what was in those damned drops... she must pre-empt him, must she not... there was a knife... he doesn’t have it... must remember but what... get away... think... wading backwards... feet tangled in mud... get out... somewhere... how to remember... so slow to move... door at her back but there’s no latch, no latch... he will hear, he will hear... his back filling her vision... a handle, the axe!... his bullish back... there is nothing but the vision of his back now, can’t breathe... no door... the hated firewood-making... not long now, hurry can’t move, move... cut your way out... through that back... neck... like the wood... head shifting round as the axe swings to meet him... so much blood... on his feet now weaving drunk howling mute... axe again, blood and gristle and it slips away... his drunk fingers grabbling for the knife that is somewhere... must remember... his fists fly and now she also is bleeding... stumbling... his booted feet now.... more boots than two, multiplying... she remembers where his knife is now but too late... boots growing more ever more as she shrinks in on herself –''

*''– there has to be a way. A way, a purpose. A purpose, a way. And with that, finally, the mirror shatters, the way opens. Why was it so hard?''

*''Walking through Grandmother’s Versailles garden. Sunlit, lily flowers dripping, crimson blood dripping... the crumbly back wall where Andrea and she once carved their names into the same stone... has she been here before? It is pristine this wall, lichen warm under her fingertips; as she lifts her startlingly red finger tracing her initials, the blood quickens, sinks into the stone, silvering; whose blood, merged bloods? Red lilies, quicksilver lilies. Clear. Beauty, tranquil, this is the way. Where is Andrea? It is clear her friend’s name lives elsewhere, and that is also the way. A moment of clarity and pure contentment; which will not last.''

*Back in the farmhouse, Sophie wakes drenched in blood, buried under the corpse of the man she has just killed. And screams.

''Old Friends and New Veils''

*Deep in the woods, a day or two later: Injured and fevered, fleeing in terror from the chaos of her newly Awakened senses as much as from the scene of the murder, Sophie is lost. Stumbling into a band of Huron up to no good, she is saved by the timely arrival of Jacob, who realises here is a newly Awakened mage who will need some help.

*Jacob’s native village, Spring to early Summer 1749: Sophie, now calling herself Marie, is adopted into Jacob’s family Iroquois-style (not asking her permission), defining her position in the village and providing startling insights in how women can be respected in a matrilineal world. On the Awakened side of things, she receives healing and initial Awakened teachings from Thyrsus Arrow Sooleawa, Jacob’s relative and lifelong mentor.
As Sophie-‘Marie’ recovers and begins to wonder how she can ever find her way back to civilisation as she knows it, Sooleawa calls in Raven, a Seneca Acanthus, who pronounces cryptically that Sophie-‘Marie’ once had a Destiny but someone or something scoured it from her; he also tells her to expect her association with Sooleawa to end sooner rather than later.

*Shortly afterwards Sooleawa is murdered by what seems to have been a mage-controlled spirit. At the insistence of Mohawk Acanthus Thunderhawk, who does not want white people in her domain, Sophie-‘Marie’ is sent away to the white men’s world, with her Iroquois-adopted brother Jacob to accompany her.

*By a campfire not far from New York City, one night in early Summer 1749: The real Andrea catches up with the woman who’d been so impertinently travelling under Andrea’s name – Sophie! A tearful reunion occurs between two old friends who have much news to share; various names are untangled; and Jacob and Andrea are introduced.

*New York City, Summer 1749: Sophie, now Caprice, arrives in New York City together with Andrea and Jacob. She contacts Effervescent and is swiftly taken under the wing of the Guardians of the Veil, embarking on her training with the order. A way, a purpose; a purpose, a way...

*New York City, late Summer 1749: Grey Veil. Caprice is given samples of a person’s handwriting to practice. She’s not told whose. Once she can reliably reproduce it, she’s called upon several times at a moment’s notice to copy letters written in this hand, using materials provided by her Guardian contact. It seems clear these letters contain encoded messages of some sort. There’s time pressure in each case and this happens at varying times of day/night, which seems to imply the letters are being intercepted in transit to be swapped out in a hurry for the forgeries. Oddly enough, no change of wording is being required.

*New York City (?), Autumn 1749: Crimson Veil. The death of an errant Sleepwalker who had been warned...
Caprice is told this is part of a larger-scale effort in several locations. On the night, she is given a mundane disguise making her look like an older, worn-out serving woman. She is introduced to two male Guardians she has never seen before (nor after); all three are using Shadow Names that are not their usual ones. They go to the target’s house together, where Caprice puts on the housekeeper’s apron, then uses her Imposter rote to impersonate the man’s housekeeper; she poisons his wine and stands over him watching him drink it and die. Meanwhile in the man’s kitchen, the two men (besides presumably observing Caprice to make sure she’s doing her part) arrange matters to that the actual housekeeper looks to have hanged herself after poisoning her master.

*Dismissing the Imposter spell and leaving behind the apron as instructed, Caprice goes to a pre-arranged location, a Guardian safe-house, where she is debriefed, de-disguised (the disguise burnt), cleansed of sympathetic links and watched over for a couple of days until news gets out and it is clear that all has gone as planned (both with the murder and with her reaction in the aftermath of it).

*New York City, Winter 1749-50: Black Veil. The tutor in charge of ‘leading Caprice astray’ is Minotaur. On being given the ‘wrong’ instruction, Caprice smiles and goes right around Minotaur’s back to Ysengrim... where Minotaur steps out of the woodwork with a pleased smile.

*New York City, early 1750: Guardian of the Veil, Caprice joins her new Cabal and sets out for Albany to embark on yet another new life with this newly created ‘family’.

18thCenturyMage

2013-02-10T18:03:45Z

Sjaelkie:

=The Unforgiving=

''A historical Mage: the Awakening campaign set in mid-18th century Colonial America''

<center>[[image:OutdoorsAlbany.jpg]]</center>

This wiki supports '''The Unforgiving''', set in Heiderberg, on the outskirts of Albany, Province of New York in 1750, featuring the exploits of the Hermium Beacon. Affiliated with the Albany & New York Consilium, it is the duty of the Hermium Beacon to guard the northern frontier and bring the former domains of the Nefandus Haskallah under the Consilium's control. Their position close to the frontier also means they are well-placed to act as a line of communication to the Iroquois Consilium.

==Main Sections==

'''Player Characters - The Hermium Beacon'''

''Awakened Members''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |Caprice]]''' (Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière, now known as Hélène d'Arcy) - Mastigos/Guardian of the Veil - French highborn noble with a range of shadier talents and a determination to keep magic safe. Andrea’s childhood friend. Two husbands, one living, one dead... both hopefully far away from where she happens to be.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Andrea |Coruscant]]''' (Andrea de Crussol-Shirley) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder - a half-British/half-French noblewoman who is an adventurer and natural philosopher. She is a skilled duellist and carries a parasol which conceals a sword.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Courtenay |Loquitor]]''' (Courtenay Dowling) - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow - an Englishman and former officer in the British army, he lost a lot of men in an ambush during King George's War. Resigning his commission shortly after Awakening, he still has good relations with the British authorities.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/John |Mason]]''' (John Allen) - Moros/Silver Ladder - an American Quaker minister and craftsman with utopian dreams of building the perfect society.

''Associated Proximus''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Jacob |Jacob]]''' - a mixed-race Iroquois tracker and warrior who is knowledgeable about spirits. A Proximus from an Adamantine Dynasty with a Thyrsus heritage. He is adoptive brother to Caprice under Iroquois custom. Acts as a liason between the Iroquois and New York consilia.

'''Awakenings and Backstories'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Caprice_Backstory |Paris to Albany]] - Caprice's backstory, Awakening and induction into the Guardians of the Veil.

[[18thCenturyMage/Crown_Point_Expedition |Crown Point Expedition]] - part of Loquitor's backstory: A failed attempt to take Crown Point in 1747.

'''Other Characters'''

[[18thCenturyMage/NPCs |Notable NPCs]] - People of note the player characters have met.

'''Campaign Notes'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Protocols |Protocols of the Hermium Beacon]] - The Cabal's oaths, Great Rights and internal responsibilities.

[[18thCenturyMage/Sanctum |The Farrier's House, Heiderberg]] - The home and Sanctum of the Hermium Beacon.

[[18thCenturyMage/Mage_Politics |Politics of the local Consilia]] - The makeup of mage society in the Middle Colonies.

[[18thCenturyMage/Spirit_Courts |Spirit Courts]] - The local Shadow courts and their compositions.

[[18thCenturyMage/Twilight_Guardians |Twilight Guardians]] - The Adamantine Dynasty to which Jacob is a member.

'''Mechanics'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Alternate_Combat_Rules |Alternate Rules]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Combat_Regimens |Combat Regimens]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Arms_and_Equipment |Arms and Equipment]]

==Resources==

[http://www.edmaps.com/north_america_1750.gif Map of North America in 1750] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States Colonial history of the United States] - A general starting-off point on the history of America in this period. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies The Middle Colonies] - The region in which the game is set. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York Province of New York] - The specific province within the Middle Colonies in which the cabal is based. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George%27s_War King George's War] - The recent conflict which impacted the Middle Colonies and New England, counterpart to the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Le_Loutre%27s_War Father Le Loutre's War] - An ongoing conflict in Nova Scotia spilling out of the unresolved issues of the last war. 
[http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html Colonial Albany Social History Project] - A rich source of local history for the Albany area. 

==Links==

[http://insanitywetrust.wordpress.com/ The podcasts]. Here you can listen to the sessions, mostly as they happened (we've only edited out dead air, not the general blather, noise of clattering dice and so on) for yourself. All are broken into two parts for ease of digestion. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Podcast_listing |Podcast listing]] If you'd rather get them from here instead. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Blank_Sheet |Blank Character Sheet for use on the wiki]] 

'''Other works from us''' 
[[Mass_Effect_Transcendence |The campaign wiki for Mass Effect: Transcendence]] 
[[Mass:_the_Effecting |Mass: the Effecting]]

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-08T02:30:05Z

Sjaelkie:

[[image: Sohpie.jpg|350px]]

'''Shadow Name''': Caprice 
'''Real Name''': Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière (aka Andrea, aka Hélène d'Arcy) 
'''Age''': 19 
'''Concept''': 
'''Virtue''': Hope 
'''Vice''': Lust (as pleasure in beautiful things) 
'''Path/Order''': Mastigos/Guardian 
'''Experience unspent''': 16XP, 13AXP 

'''Attributes'''

Int:●● Str:● Pre:● 
Wits:●●● Dex:●●● Man:●●● 
Res:●●● Sta:●●● Com:●●● 

'''Skills'''

''Mental'': Academics●● Politics●●

''Physical'': Larceny●●●(Forgery,Locks) Stealth●●● Weaponry●●(Knives)

''Social'': Empathy●●● Persuasion●● Socialise●● Subterfuge●●●

'''Merits'''

English(French)(●) 
High Speech(free)(●) 
Fighting Finesse[Knives](●●) 
Mentor[Isengrim](●) 
Contacts[French,High Society](●●) 
Status[Guardians](●) 
Sanctum(●) 

'''Arcana'''

Mind●●● 
Space●● 
Prime● 

'''Gnosis''': ●

'''Mana''':

'''Rotes''' (WIP)

Mind●●● 8d Mask of Conformity (Imposter, p.211:INT+Subt+Mind vs COM+Gno) 
Mind●●● 9d Psychic Communion (Telepathy, p.212:WITS+Emp+Mind vs RES+Gno) 

'''Protective Spells''':

'''Advantages'''

''Willpower'': 5 
''Wisdom'': 7 
''Health'': 8 
''Initiative'': 6 
''Perception'': 6 
''Defence'': 3 
''Speed'': 9 

'''Nimbus''':

A scatter of shards of light, as of a mirror shattering.
If flaring, mixed with the above a crunch of broken glass, a spatter of red like blood, a death rattle.

'''Flaw''':

*That Wedded Thorn In My Side

'''Notable Equipment'''
Magical tool: fan
Knives
Hairpin-knife
Lockpicks

'''Biography'''
*Born Paris 29.10.1729. Father a high-ranking French diplomat and usually away. Two older sisters. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach her that family is everything and even as a woman you can be and do anything as long as the wrong people don't find out.
*Growing up close friends with Andrea, the two of them constantly in one scrape or another. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, they keep in touch by post for several years.
*Paris, 20.8.1745. Married to an Italian 'count' for a financially and politically promising alliance... family hopes swiftly turning to ashes as the man is revealed to be a conman and not a genuine aristocrat at all - Roman Papescu, a Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as the family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with the man. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning skills of his trade.
*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' in case he gets caught. Flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first own self-sustained con. Her more long-term plan involves her building a new life for herself, from which she can then return to her family without damaging their reputation.
*Liverpool, December 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Wallon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a voyage to America. Daan turns out be more of a liability than expected: drinking hard and hitting harder. Now beginning to Sleepwalk, Sophie is noticed by a Guardian of the Veil, a woman traveling on the same ship who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) if ever she happens to be in New York City. Bemused by the more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints from the woman but intrigued by the notion of being welcome without the man, Sophie keeps the woman's card.
*New York City, early 1749: Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Daan's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Daan arrives with several other men and drags Sophie-'Andrea' off, away from the town.
*

'''XP Log'''
*17.1.13 2XP Sanctum

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-06T14:18:02Z

Sjaelkie:

[[image: Sohpie.jpg|350px]]

'''Shadow Name''': Caprice 
'''Real Name''': Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière (aka Andrea, aka Hélène d'Arcy) 
'''Age''': 19 
'''Concept''': 
'''Virtue''': Hope 
'''Vice''': Lust (as pleasure in beautiful things) 
'''Path/Order''': Mastigos/Guardian 
'''Experience unspent''': 13XP, 11AXP 

'''Attributes'''

Int:●● Str:● Pre:● 
Wits:●●● Dex:●●● Man:●●● 
Res:●●● Sta:●●● Com:●●● 

'''Skills'''

''Mental'': Academics●● Politics●●

''Physical'': Larceny●●●(Forgery,Locks) Stealth●●● Weaponry●●(Knives)

''Social'': Empathy●●● Persuasion●● Socialise●● Subterfuge●●●

'''Merits'''

English(French)(●) 
High Speech(free)(●) 
Fighting Finesse[Knives](●●) 
Mentor[Isengrim](●) 
Contacts[French,High Society](●●) 
Status[Guardians](●) 
Sanctum(●) 

'''Arcana'''

Mind●●● 
Space●● 
Prime● 

'''Gnosis''': ●

'''Mana''':

'''Rotes''' (WIP)

Mind●●● 8d Mask of Conformity (Imposter, p.211:INT+Subt+Mind vs COM+Gno) 
Mind●●● 9d Psychic Communion (Telepathy, p.212:WITS+Emp+Mind vs RES+Gno) 

'''Protective Spells''':

'''Advantages'''

''Willpower'': 5 
''Wisdom'': 7 
''Health'': 8 
''Initiative'': 6 
''Perception'': 6 
''Defence'': 3 
''Speed'': 9 

'''Nimbus''':

A scatter of shards of light, as of a mirror shattering.
If flaring, mixed with the above a crunch of broken glass, a spatter of red like blood, a death rattle.

'''Flaw''':

*That Wedded Thorn In My Side

'''Notable Equipment'''
Magical tool: fan
Knives
Hairpin-knife
Lockpicks

'''Biography'''
*Born Paris 29.10.1729. Father a high-ranking French diplomat and usually away. Two older sisters. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach her that family is everything and even as a woman you can be and do anything as long as the wrong people don't find out.
*Growing up close friends with Andrea, the two of them constantly in one scrape or another. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, they keep in touch by post for several years.
*Paris, 20.8.1745. Married to an Italian 'count' for a financially and politically promising alliance... family hopes swiftly turning to ashes as the man is revealed to be a conman and not a genuine aristocrat at all - Roman Papescu, a Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as the family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with the man. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning skills of his trade.
*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' in case he gets caught. Flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first own self-sustained con. Her more long-term plan involves her building a new life for herself, from which she can then return to her family without damaging their reputation.
*Liverpool, December 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Wallon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a voyage to America. Daan turns out be more of a liability than expected: drinking hard and hitting harder. Now beginning to Sleepwalk, Sophie is noticed by a Guardian of the Veil, a woman traveling on the same ship who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) if ever she happens to be in New York City. Bemused by the more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints from the woman but intrigued by the notion of being welcome without the man, Sophie keeps the woman's card.
*New York City, early 1749: Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Daan's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Daan arrives with several other men and drags Sophie-'Andrea' off, away from the town.
*

'''XP Log'''
*17.1.13 2XP Sanctum

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-06T14:17:04Z

Sjaelkie:

[[image: Sohpie.jpg|350px]]

'''Shadow Name''': Caprice 
'''Real Name''': Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière (aka Andrea, aka Hélène d'Arcy) 
'''Age''': 19 
'''Concept''': 
'''Virtue''': Hope 
'''Vice''': Lust (as pleasure in beautiful things) 
'''Path/Order''': Mastigos/Guardian 
'''Experience unspent''': 13XP, 11AXP 

'''Attributes'''

Int:●● Str:● Pre:● 
Wits:●●● Dex:●●● Man:●●● 
Res:●●● Sta:●●● Com:●●● 

'''Skills'''

''Mental'': Academics●● Politics●●

''Physical'': Larceny●●●(Forgery,Locks) Stealth●●● Weaponry●●(Knives)

''Social'': Empathy●●● Persuasion●● Socialise●● Subterfuge●●●

'''Merits'''

English(French)(●) 
High Speech(free)(●) 
Fighting Finesse[Knives](●●) 
Mentor[Isengrim](●) 
Contacts[French,High Society](●●) 
Status[Guardians](●) 
Sanctum(●) 

'''Arcana'''

Mind●●● 
Space●● 
Prime● 

'''Gnosis''': ●

'''Mana''':

'''Rotes''' (WIP)

Mind●●● 8d Mask of Conformity (Imposter, p.211:INT+Subt+Mind vs COM+Gno) 
Mind●●● 9d Psychic Communion (Telepathy, p.212:WITS+Emp+Mind vs RES+Gno) 

'''Protective Spells''':

'''Advantages'''

''Willpower'': 5 
''Wisdom'': 7 
''Health'': 8 
''Initiative'': 6 
''Perception'': 6 
''Defence'': 3 
''Speed'': 9 

'''Nimbus''':

A scatter of shards of light, as of a mirror shattering.
If flaring, mixed with the above a crunch of broken glass, a spatter of red like blood, a death rattle.

'''Flaw''':

*That Wedded Thorn In My Side

'''Notable Equipment'''
Magical tool: fan
Knives
Hairpin-knife
Lockpicks

'''Biography'''
*Born Paris 29.10.1729. Father a high-ranking French diplomat and usually away. Two older sisters. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach her that family is everything and even as a woman you can be and do anything as long as the wrong people don't find out.
*Growing up close friends with Andrea, the two of them constantly in one scrape or another. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, they keep in touch by post for several years.
*Paris, 20.8.1745. Married to an Italian 'count' for a financially and politically promising alliance... family hopes swiftly turning to ashes as the man is revealed to be a conman and not a genuine aristocrat at all - Roman Papescu, a Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as the family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with the man. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning skills of his trade.
*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' in case he gets caught. Flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first own self-sustained con. Her more long-term plan involves her building a new life for herself, from which she can then return to her family without damaging their reputation.
*Liverpool, December 1748: Assuming Andrea's name, Sophie marries Wallon Huguenot Daan Le Clercq and embarks with him on a voyage to America. Daan turns out be more of a liability than expected: drinking hard and hitting harder. Now beginning to Sleepwalk, Sophie is noticed by a Guardian of the Veil, a woman traveling on the same ship who invites her to come for a 'tea and a chat' (without the husband...) if ever she happens to be in New York City. Bemused by the more occult (Labyrinth-ine) hints from the woman but intrigued by the notion of being welcome without the man, Sophie keeps the woman's card.
*New York City, early 1749: Sophie-'Andrea' manages to extricate herself from Daan's company and makes a dash for the real Andrea's old address, where she is hoping to hide out. Alas, the house has burnt down and Andrea is said to have died in the fire! Daan arrives with several other men and drags Sophie-'Andrea' off, away from the town.

'''XP Log'''
*17.1.13 2XP Sanctum

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Sophie

2013-02-06T14:03:35Z

Sjaelkie:

[[image: Sohpie.jpg|350px]]

'''Shadow Name''': Caprice 
'''Real Name''': Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière (aka Andrea, aka Hélène d'Arcy) 
'''Age''': 19 
'''Concept''': 
'''Virtue''': Hope 
'''Vice''': Lust (as pleasure in beautiful things) 
'''Path/Order''': Mastigos/Guardian 
'''Experience unspent''': 13XP, 11AXP 

'''Attributes'''

Int:●● Str:● Pre:● 
Wits:●●● Dex:●●● Man:●●● 
Res:●●● Sta:●●● Com:●●● 

'''Skills'''

''Mental'': Academics●● Politics●●

''Physical'': Larceny●●●(Forgery,Locks) Stealth●●● Weaponry●●(Knives)

''Social'': Empathy●●● Persuasion●● Socialise●● Subterfuge●●●

'''Merits'''

English(French)(●) 
High Speech(free)(●) 
Fighting Finesse[Knives](●●) 
Mentor[Isengrim](●) 
Contacts[French,High Society](●●) 
Status[Guardians](●) 
Sanctum(●) 

'''Arcana'''

Mind●●● 
Space●● 
Prime● 

'''Gnosis''': ●

'''Mana''':

'''Rotes''' (WIP)

Mind●●● 8d Mask of Conformity (Imposter, p.211:INT+Subt+Mind vs COM+Gno) 
Mind●●● 9d Psychic Communion (Telepathy, p.212:WITS+Emp+Mind vs RES+Gno) 

'''Protective Spells''':

'''Advantages'''

''Willpower'': 5 
''Wisdom'': 7 
''Health'': 8 
''Initiative'': 6 
''Perception'': 6 
''Defence'': 3 
''Speed'': 9 

'''Nimbus''':

A scatter of shards of light, as of a mirror shattering.
If flaring, mixed with the above a crunch of broken glass, a spatter of red like blood, a death rattle.

'''Flaw''':

*That Wedded Thorn In My Side

'''Notable Equipment'''
Magical tool: fan
Knives
Hairpin-knife
Lockpicks

'''Biography'''
*Born Paris 29.10.1729. Father a high-ranking French diplomat and usually away. Two older sisters. Mother and maternal grandmother, both accomplished and successful salonières, teach her that family is everything and even as a woman you can be and do anything as long as the wrong people don't find out.
*Growing up close friends with Andrea, the two of them constantly in one scrape or another. After Andrea's family emigrates to America in 1742, they keep in touch by post for several years.
*Paris, 20.8.1745. Married to an Italian 'count' for a financially and politically promising alliance... family hopes swiftly turning to ashes as the man is revealed to be a conman and not a genuine aristocrat at all - Roman Papescu, a Romanian noble's bastard son. Potentially destructive public ridicule is nipped in the bud as the family keeps it all under wraps and sends Sophie off with the man. She spends a couple of years touring Europe with her ever inventive husband, learning skills of his trade.
*Vienna, Spring 1748: Sophie leaves Roman after finding he has once again set her up as his 'life insurance' in case he gets caught. Flees across Europe, covering her tracks as best she can in her first own self-sustained con.
*Liverpool, December 1748:

'''XP Log'''
*17.1.13 2XP Sanctum

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage

2013-02-06T13:38:02Z

Sjaelkie:

=The Unforgiving=

''A historical Mage: the Awakening campaign set in mid-18th century Colonial America''

<center>[[image:OutdoorsAlbany.jpg]]</center>

This wiki supports '''The Unforgiving''', set in Heiderberg, on the outskirts of Albany, Province of New York in 1750, featuring the exploits of the Hermium Beacon. Affiliated with the Albany & New York Consilium, it is the duty of the Hermium Beacon to guard the northern frontier and bring the former domains of the Nefandus Haskallah under the Consilium's control. Their position close to the frontier also means they are well-placed to act as a line of communication to the Iroquois Consilium.

==Main Sections==

'''Player Characters - The Hermium Beacon'''

''Awakened Members''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |Caprice]]''' (Sophie Bernadette de La Vallière, now known as Hélène d'Arcy) - Mastigos/Guardian of the Veil - French highborn noble with a range of shadier talents and a determination to keep magic safe. Andrea’s childhood friend. Two husbands, one living, one dead... both hopefully far away from where she happens to be.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Andrea |Coruscant]]''' (Andrea de Crussol-Shirley) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder - a half-British/half-French noblewoman who is an adventurer and natural philosopher. She is a skilled duellist and carries a parasol which conceals a sword.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Courtenay |Loquitor]]''' (Courtenay Dowling) - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow - an Englishman and former officer in the British army, he lost a lot of men in an ambush during King George's War. Resigning his commission shortly after Awakening, he still has good relations with the British authorities.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/John |Mason]]''' (John Allen) - Moros/Silver Ladder - an American Quaker minister and craftsman with utopian dreams of building the perfect society.

''Associated Proximus''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Jacob |Jacob]]''' - a mixed-race Iroquois tracker and warrior who is knowledgeable about spirits. A Proximus from an Adamantine Dynasty with a Thyrsus heritage. He is adoptive brother to Caprice under Iroquois custom. Acts as a liason between the Iroquois and New York consilia.

'''Other Characters'''

[[18thCenturyMage/NPCs |Notable NPCs]] - People of note the player characters have met.

'''Campaign Notes'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Protocols |Protocols of the Hermium Beacon]] - The Cabal's oaths, Great Rights and internal responsibilities.

[[18thCenturyMage/Sanctum |The Farrier's House, Heiderberg]] - The home and Sanctum of the Hermium Beacon.

[[18thCenturyMage/Mage_Politics |Politics of the local Consilia]] - The makeup of mage society in the Middle Colonies.

[[18thCenturyMage/Spirit_Courts |Spirit Courts]] - The local Shadow courts and their compositions.

[[18thCenturyMage/Crown_Point_Expedition |Crown Point Expedition]] - A failed attempt to take Crown Point in 1747.

[[18thCenturyMage/Twilight_Guardians |Twilight Guardians]] - The Adamantine Dynasty to which Jacob is a member.

'''Mechanics'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Alternate_Combat_Rules |Alternate Rules]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Combat_Regimens |Combat Regimens]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Arms_and_Equipment |Arms and Equipment]]

==Resources==

[http://www.edmaps.com/north_america_1750.gif Map of North America in 1750] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States Colonial history of the United States] - A general starting-off point on the history of America in this period. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies The Middle Colonies] - The region in which the game is set. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York Province of New York] - The specific province within the Middle Colonies in which the cabal is based. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George%27s_War King George's War] - The recent conflict which impacted the Middle Colonies and New England, counterpart to the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Le_Loutre%27s_War Father Le Loutre's War] - An ongoing conflict in Nova Scotia spilling out of the unresolved issues of the last war. 
[http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html Colonial Albany Social History Project] - A rich source of local history for the Albany area. 

==Links==

[http://insanitywetrust.wordpress.com/ The podcasts]. Here you can listen to the sessions, mostly as they happened (we've only edited out dead air, not the general blather, noise of clattering dice and so on) for yourself. All are broken into two parts for ease of digestion. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Podcast_listing |Podcast listing]] If you'd rather get them from here instead. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Blank_Sheet |Blank Character Sheet for use on the wiki]] 

'''Other works from us''' 
[[Mass_Effect_Transcendence |The campaign wiki for Mass Effect: Transcendence]] 
[[Mass:_the_Effecting |Mass: the Effecting]]

18thCenturyMage

2013-02-06T13:35:45Z

Sjaelkie:

=The Unforgiving=

''A historical Mage: the Awakening campaign set in mid-18th century Colonial America''

<center>[[image:OutdoorsAlbany.jpg]]</center>

This wiki supports '''The Unforgiving''', set in Heiderberg, on the outskirts of Albany, Province of New York in 1750, featuring the exploits of the Hermium Beacon. Affiliated with the Albany & New York Consilium, it is the duty of the Hermium Beacon to guard the northern frontier and bring the former domains of the Nefandus Haskallah under the Consilium's control. Their position close to the frontier also means they are well-placed to act as a line of communication to the Iroquois Consilium.

==Main Sections==

'''Player Characters - The Hermium Beacon'''

''Awakened Members''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Sophie |Caprice]]''' (Sophie de La Vallière) - Mastigos/Guardian of the Veil - French highborn noble with a range of shadier talents and a determination to keep magic safe. Andrea’s childhood friend. Two husbands, one living and one dead... and both hopefully far away from where she happens to be.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Andrea |Coruscant]]''' (Andrea de Crussol-Shirley) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder - a half-British/half-French noblewoman who is an adventurer and natural philosopher. She is a skilled duellist and carries a parasol which conceals a sword.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Courtenay |Loquitor]]''' (Courtenay Dowling) - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow - an Englishman and former officer in the British army, he lost a lot of men in an ambush during King George's War. Resigning his commission shortly after Awakening, he still has good relations with the British authorities.

'''[[18thCenturyMage/John |Mason]]''' (John Allen) - Moros/Silver Ladder - an American Quaker minister and craftsman with utopian dreams of building the perfect society.

''Associated Proximus''

'''[[18thCenturyMage/Jacob |Jacob]]''' - a mixed-race Iroquois tracker and warrior who is knowledgeable about spirits. A Proximus from an Adamantine Dynasty with a Thyrsus heritage. He is adoptive brother to Caprice under Iroquois custom. Acts as a liason between the Iroquois and New York consilia.

'''Other Characters'''

[[18thCenturyMage/NPCs |Notable NPCs]] - People of note the player characters have met.

'''Campaign Notes'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Protocols |Protocols of the Hermium Beacon]] - The Cabal's oaths, Great Rights and internal responsibilities.

[[18thCenturyMage/Sanctum |The Farrier's House, Heiderberg]] - The home and Sanctum of the Hermium Beacon.

[[18thCenturyMage/Mage_Politics |Politics of the local Consilia]] - The makeup of mage society in the Middle Colonies.

[[18thCenturyMage/Spirit_Courts |Spirit Courts]] - The local Shadow courts and their compositions.

[[18thCenturyMage/Crown_Point_Expedition |Crown Point Expedition]] - A failed attempt to take Crown Point in 1747.

[[18thCenturyMage/Twilight_Guardians |Twilight Guardians]] - The Adamantine Dynasty to which Jacob is a member.

'''Mechanics'''

[[18thCenturyMage/Alternate_Combat_Rules |Alternate Rules]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Combat_Regimens |Combat Regimens]]

[[18thCenturyMage/Arms_and_Equipment |Arms and Equipment]]

==Resources==

[http://www.edmaps.com/north_america_1750.gif Map of North America in 1750] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States Colonial history of the United States] - A general starting-off point on the history of America in this period. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Colonies The Middle Colonies] - The region in which the game is set. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York Province of New York] - The specific province within the Middle Colonies in which the cabal is based. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_George%27s_War King George's War] - The recent conflict which impacted the Middle Colonies and New England, counterpart to the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Le_Loutre%27s_War Father Le Loutre's War] - An ongoing conflict in Nova Scotia spilling out of the unresolved issues of the last war. 
[http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/welcome.html Colonial Albany Social History Project] - A rich source of local history for the Albany area. 

==Links==

[http://insanitywetrust.wordpress.com/ The podcasts]. Here you can listen to the sessions, mostly as they happened (we've only edited out dead air, not the general blather, noise of clattering dice and so on) for yourself. All are broken into two parts for ease of digestion. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Podcast_listing |Podcast listing]] If you'd rather get them from here instead. 
[[18thCenturyMage/Blank_Sheet |Blank Character Sheet for use on the wiki]] 

'''Other works from us''' 
[[Mass_Effect_Transcendence |The campaign wiki for Mass Effect: Transcendence]] 
[[Mass:_the_Effecting |Mass: the Effecting]]

18thCenturyMage/NPCs

2013-02-06T13:33:29Z

Sjaelkie:

<center>[[image:Chaos-politics.jpg|500px]]</center>

==Albany & New York Consilium==

''Manticore's Seal'', Albany

'''Brandaen''' (William van Rensselaer) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder/Tamer of Fire - leader of the Seal and the '''Silver Ladder Councillor''', though he leaves a lot of the Council business to the Provist, Megiddo. Bad blood between him and the Hierarch. Also Coruscant's mentor.

'''Jäger''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Daoine - a huntress who doesn't stand on ceremony (or formal manners).

'''Chiaroscuro''' - Mastigos/Silver Ladder/Clavicularius - ambitious, well-connected and the person who gets things done in the cabal.

'''Skull''' (Harold Londontown) - Moros/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of the Stone - a sleazy sort who is a supplier to the British regulars.

'''Reynard''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - a better tracker and trapper than he is a mage.

''Areopagitica'', currently New York City

'''Helios''' - ?/Mysterium/? - has a printing press used by the Silver Ladder, and by the Guardians of the Veil (mostly for Labyrinth purposes).

''The Beneficient Society of St. Michael'', New York province

'''Venator''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - the leader of the Beneficient Society of St Michael, '''Arrow Councillor''' and Adamant Sage of the Consilium. Said (by Aura) to still retain loyalty to the previous Hierarch Cataphract.

'''Aura''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - The '''Arrow Provost'''. Quiet mutineer.

'''Rattlesnake''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

''The Broken Chain'', mostly New York City

'''Crucible''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius - black woman who Awakened on a slave ship.

''The Eye Over The Pine Plains'', Schenectady

'''Glyph''' - ?/? - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

'''Whisper''' - Thyrsus/?/? - Expert on spirits and other levels of existence (more versed in the wider world than the urban-focused Vigil).

''The Half Moon Disciples'', New York City

'''Lazarus''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Celestial Cartographer - the '''Hierarch'''.

'''Minotaur''' - Acanthus/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Provost'''. Expert on portals and space magics.

'''Hamadryad''' - Thrysus?/Silver Ladder/Tamers of Rivers - the '''Herald'''. Speaks with a slight stutter (affected, but so far only Jacob knows it isn't genuine).

'''Orichalcum''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Uncrowned Kings - Calm and self-possessed woman. Specialist on stones, metals etc, alchemy.

'''Effervescent''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - Married to a Sleeper judge who owns a boarding house in New York.

''The Lunargent Temple'', New York City

'''Saeftinghe''' - ?/Mysterium - the '''Mysterium Councillor'''

'''Megiddo''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Tamers of the Stone - '''Silver Ladder Provost'''. Specialist in architecture. Also Mason's mentor.

'''Vigil''' - Thyrsus/?/? - expert in spirit exorcism (more city-focussed than Whisper).

''The Yellow Talons'', New York state in mostly secret locations

'''Mara''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Councillor'''

'''Isengrim''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius(?) - Also Caprice's mentor.

'''Verminus''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Bearers of the Eternal Voice - The Interfector.

==Iroquois Consilium==

''Cayuga''

(3 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Oneida''

(1 mage - Tamer)

''Onondaga''

(5 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Mohawk''

'''Thunderhawk''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Storm Keeper - the ''de facto'' leader and Adamant Sage of the Iroquois Consilium.

(+5 others - 3 are Tamers)

''Seneca''

'''Raven''' - Acanthus/Mysterium/Tamer - a powerful mage and sole member of the Seneca cabal.

''Tuscarora''

==Others in Albany==

'''Mirror''' (Doctor ??) - a Seer of the Throne with a "flowing, broken mirror" shaped spirit familiar in tow. A physician in Heiderberg.

'''Richard Van Santvert''' - Property official and an alderman of Albany's administration.

'''Major Tobias Solomon''' - Commandant of the British regular garrison at Fort Frederick, Albany.

'''Lieutenant James Cooper''' - An officer in the Albany garrison and a friend of Loquitor's from his prior military service. Regular at the Green Jacket inn.

'''Stephen van Rensselaer''' - The patroon and local lord, also Colonel of the Albany provincial militia regiment.

'''"Mr Chapman" aka The Tall Man''' - one of Haskallah's business contacts. Gangly over-jointed person, one of five former mages who used to be human but made certain pacts changing him. Reputedly friendlier than the Thin Man.

==Others in New York==

'''Barghest''' - Thyrsus of the Tides Lost Children cabal of the Atlantic Consilium, captain of the ship ''Ghost Wake''.

'''Alfred Silverneck''' - Sleeper Proprietor of the Silverneck Theatre. Recipient of the horse bridle; previous owner of the "magical cube stone".

'''??''' - the Ghostwalker porter of Effervescent's mage lodgings.

==Deceased==

'''Haskallah''' (Marcus Van Der Broek) - Moros/Nefandi - Collector and dealer in curia magical and mundane in Albany, killed in King's Landing. Previous owner of the Hermium Beacon's sanctum, Farrier's House.

'''Jack and Henrietta''': Farmhouse couple in Albany, murdered then half-remade by Fate fungus. Killed by the Hermium Beacon.

'''Cataphract''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Former Hierarch, presumed dead (lost at sea).

'''??''' (Sooleawa) - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of Rivers. Onondaga mage, Hamadryad's Legacy mentor. Jacob's mentor and briefly, Caprice's first mentor. Killed by a spirit apparently controlled by a white mage.

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/NPCs

2013-02-06T13:31:06Z

Sjaelkie:

<center>[[image:Chaos-politics.jpg|500px]]</center>

==Albany & New York Consilium==

''Manticore's Seal'', Albany

'''Brandaen''' (William van Rensselaer) - Obrimos/Silver Ladder/Tamer of Fire - leader of the Seal and the '''Silver Ladder Councillor''', though he leaves a lot of the Council business to the Provist, Megiddo. Bad blood between him and the Hierarch. Also Coruscant's mentor.

'''Jäger''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Daoine - a huntress who doesn't stand on ceremony (or formal manners).

'''Chiaroscuro''' - Mastigos/Silver Ladder/Clavicularius - Warlock. Ambitious, well-connected and the person who gets things done in the cabal.

'''Skull''' (Harold Londontown) - Moros/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of the Stone - a sleazy sort who is a supplier to the British regulars.

'''Reynard''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - a better tracker and trapper than he is a mage.

''Areopagitica'', currently New York City

'''Helios''' - ?/Mysterium/? - has a printing press used by the Silver Ladder, and by the Guardians of the Veil (mostly for Labyrinth purposes).

''The Beneficient Society of St. Michael'', New York province

'''Venator''' - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow - the leader of the Beneficient Society of St Michael, '''Arrow Councillor''' and Adamant Sage of the Consilium.

'''Aura''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - The '''Arrow Provost'''

'''Rattlesnake''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

''The Broken Chain'', mostly New York City

'''Crucible''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius - black woman who Awakened on a slave ship.

''The Eye Over The Pine Plains'', Schenectady

'''Glyph''' - ?/? - Survivor of the Shadow Compact

'''Whisper''' - Thyrsus/?/? - Expert on spirits and other levels of existence (more versed in the wider world than the urban-focused Vigil).

''The Half Moon Disciples'', New York City

'''Lazarus''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Celestial Cartographer - the '''Hierarch'''.

'''Minotaur''' - Acanthus/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Provost'''. Expert on portals and space magics.

'''Hamadryad''' - Thrysus?/Silver Ladder/Tamers of Rivers - the '''Herald'''.

'''Orichalcum''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Uncrowned Kings - Calm and self-possessed woman. Specialist on stones, metals etc, alchemy.

'''Effervescent''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - Married to a Sleeper judge who owns a boarding house in New York.

''The Lunargent Temple'', New York City

'''Saeftinghe''' - ?/Mysterium - the '''Mysterium Councillor'''

'''Megiddo''' - Moros/Silver Ladder/Tamers of the Stone - '''Silver Ladder Provost'''. Specialist in architecture. Also Mason's mentor.

'''Vigil''' - Thyrsus/?/? - expert in spirit exorcism (more city-focussed than Whisper).

''The Yellow Talons'', New York state in mostly secret locations

'''Mara''' - ?/Guardians of the Veil - the '''Guardian Councillor'''

'''Isengrim''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Clavicularius(?) - Also Caprice's mentor.

'''Verminus''' - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil/Bearers of the Eternal Voice - The Interfector.

==Iroquois Consilium==

''Cayuga''

(3 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Oneida''

(1 mage - Tamer)

''Onondaga''

(5 mages - 1 Tamer)

''Mohawk''

'''Thunderhawk''' - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow/Storm Keeper - the ''de facto'' leader and Adamant Sage of the Iroquois Consilium.

(+5 others - 3 are Tamers)

''Seneca''

'''Raven''' - Acanthus/Mysterium/Tamer - a powerful mage and sole member of the Seneca cabal.

''Tuscarora''

==Others in Albany==

'''Mirror''' (Doctor ??) - a Seer of the Throne with a "flowing, broken mirror" shaped spirit familiar in tow. A physician in Heiderberg.

'''Richard Van Santvert''' - Property official and an alderman of Albany's administration.

'''Major Tobias Solomon''' - Commandant of the British regular garrison at Fort Frederick, Albany.

'''Lieutenant James Cooper''' - An officer in the Albany garrison and a friend of Loquitor's from his prior military service. Regular at the Green Jacket inn.

'''Stephen van Rensselaer''' - The patroon and local lord, also Colonel of the Albany provincial militia regiment.

'''"Mr Chapman" aka The Tall Man''' - one of Haskallah's business contacts. Gangly over-jointed person, one of five former mages who used to be human but made certain pacts changing him. Reputedly friendlier than the Thin Man.

==Others in New York==

'''Barghest''' - Thyrsus of the Tides Lost Children cabal of the Atlantic Consilium, captain of the ship ''Ghost Wake''.

'''Alfred Silverneck''' - Sleeper Proprietor of the Silverneck Theatre. Recipient of the horse bridle; previous owner of the "magical cube stone".

'''??''' - the Ghostwalker porter of Effervescent's mage lodgings.

==Deceased==

'''Haskallah''' (Marcus Van Der Broek) - Moros/Nefandi - Collector and dealer in curia magical and mundane in Albany, killed in King's Landing. Previous owner of the Hermium Beacon's sanctum, Farrier's House.

'''Jack and Henrietta''': Farmhouse couple in Albany, murdered then half-remade by Fate fungus. Killed by the Hermium Beacon.

'''Cataphract''' - ?/Adamantine Arrow - Former Hierarch, presumed dead (lost at sea).

'''??''' (Sooleawa) - Thyrsus/Adamantine Arrow/Tamers of Rivers. Onondaga mage, Hamadryad's Legacy mentor. Jacob's mentor and briefly, Caprice's first mentor. Killed by a spirit apparently controlled by a white mage.

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

18thCenturyMage/Protocols

2013-02-03T16:26:47Z

Sjaelkie:

<center>[[image: Oath.jpg]] [[image: HB seal small.jpg]] </center>

The Hermium Beacon was formally adopted into the Albany & New York Consilium in the spring of 1750, the swearing-in witnessed by Hamadryad, the Herald and Chiaroscuro of the Manticore's Seal. The ceremony took place in the Albany sanctum of the Seal, where the cabal were enjoying the Right of Hospitality, while their own sanctum was in the process of being purchased and prepared.

All members of the cabal were present, they being:
*Caprice - Mastigos/Guardians of the Veil
*Coruscant - Obrimos/Silver Ladder
*Loquitor - Acanthus/Adamantine Arrow
*Mason - Moros/Silver Ladder

In addition, the Proximus Jacob (Twilight Guardian Dynasty) was also present.

==The Hermium Beacon's Oaths, Great Rights and Protocols==

'''Great Rights'''

''Right of Crossing'': Yes. Amendments:
*Weapons must be sheathed or peace-tied.
*No vulgar magic without permission from the Cabal.

''Right of Hospitality'': Yes. Amendments:
*Guests must check in weapons at the door.

''Right of Emeritus'': Yes.

''Right of Sanctuary'': Yes.

''Right of Nemesis'': Yes. Amendments:
*Mages pursuing the Right of Nemesis on Cabal territory must do so solely in the form of a Duel Arcane, which must not be a duel to the death.
*The Cabal themselves will not engage in Duels Arcane to the death.

'''Cabal Responsibilities'''

''Doorwarden'': Loquitor.

''Edgetender'': Coruscant.

''Farseeker'': Not appointed.†

''Hearthmaster'': Mason.

''Lorekeeper'': Caprice.

†In the absence of a Farseeker, this responsibility is technically shared by all four Cabal members. In practice, these tasks are largely undertaken by the Proximus, Jacob.

'''Oaths Sworn'''

''Cabal Oath'' (as sworn by the four mages, Caprice, Coruscant, Loquitor and Mason):

As members of the Hermium Beacon, we shall work seeking to perfect ourselves and through that, others. To grow into a shining beacon of perfection.

''Loquitor's addendum'': To protect the Cabal.

''Mason's addendum'': To build something to represent the Cabal.

''Proximus's Oath'' (as sworn by Jacob): To support the work of the Hermium Beacon, to protect its members and to act as a bridge between the New York and Iroquois Consilia.

[[18thCenturyMage |Back to main page]]

File:HB seal small.jpg

2013-02-03T16:26:01Z

Sjaelkie: uploaded a new version of "File:HB seal small.jpg"

File:HB seal small.jpg

2013-02-03T16:24:33Z

Sjaelkie: uploaded a new version of "File:HB seal small.jpg"

File:HB seal small.jpg

2013-02-03T15:32:27Z

Sjaelkie:

File:HB seal.jpg

2013-02-03T15:29:10Z

Sjaelkie: