Editing Lineage:House Lineages (section)

=House of Carolus=

[[Image:Swordandscepter.jpg]]

Positive Stereotype:  Glorious and courageous prince.

Negative Stereotype:  Ruthless opportunist.

Symbol:  Sword and scepter.

Signature Spell:  Lightning.  “Sword of the King’s Justice”

Magical Style:  Ancient Roman, with pagan French influences.

It was the House of Carolus that united Europe through military conquest and led it out of the Dark Ages and into the medieval world.  They spread order, education and Christianity, hoping to seize religious authority from other Houses.  Arguably, it was the power of the Carolus that prevented the House of Umayyad from fulfilling its ambition of taking Europe.  The empire of the Carolus was brief, but so glorious in their own eyes that they have never gotten over the loss of it.  Ambitious and daring, even in the face of overwhelming odds, they still seek to take back their rightful place as rulers of the western world.  Carolus has begun experimenting with the idea of using neo-paganism as a counter to Christianity, so as to seize religious authority for themselves.  Many of them are practicing pagans, though few have a genuine faith.  Carolus possessions include the Sony Corporation.  They have a controlling interest in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The House of Carolus first came to prominence when it seized the Frankish throne with Julii help in the 8th century, overthrowing and annihilating the House of Merovingus.  The Carolus were in turn eventually overthrown in France by the House of Capet in the 10th century and in most of Germany by the House of Hapsburg in the 13th.  The Carolus never forgot the scope of the kingdom they once held and have long dreamed of uniting all of Europe, especially France and Germany.  Their main political concern in the last thousand years or so has been to keep the peace between France and Germany, a task at which they have failed spectacularly.  Despite their reduced status, the Carolus remain powerful in the United Nations and in the administration of the European Economic Community.  They have taken a great interest in spiritualism and neo-paganism all over the world, looking for rebels with a glorified view of the past to recruit or manipulate.  It is this interest, along with a desire to keep an eye on the Capet, that led them to North America after World War I, and now they can be found anywhere, particularly in areas with many people of French or German descent.  

Mortal Politics:  The US needs to get out of the middle east.  Holding territory that far away just isn’t practical.  It makes much more sense to build your power base at home.  The United States government needs to spend more money to improve public health, public education and public transport.  To do otherwise is just to squander human and environmental assets.  The US government must stop favoring Christianity over other religions.  This includes removing “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Cost:  Being a mage of the House of Carolus is a disadvantage worth 1 point.

Disadvantages:  Ritual of the Blood.  Mages of the House of Carolus have an overwhelming compunction to periodically “bleed” themselves.  This involves cutting themselves and losing copious amounts of blood, leaving them in a helpless euphoric condition similar to a heroin high for 5d6 -HT hours, minimum 2.  The wounds never scar and the mage recovers completely at the end of the high, though often with a hangover.  Rumor has it that they are driven to revel in their own gore out of self-love.  In mechanical terms this is Addiction (Bleeding.  Cheap, Incapacitating, Totally Addictive.  Withdrawal begins after three days, not every day) (20 points).

Skills:  Current Affairs (Modern Paganism), Folklore (Germanic), History (Medieval Europe), Occultism, Riding (Horse), Savoir-Faire, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Theology (Pagan West-European).

Spells:
Air:  Air Vision, Create Air, Earth to Air, Lightning, Purify Air, Shape Air, Windstorm.
Earth:  Seek Earth, Seek Pass, Shape Earth.
Meta:  Counterspell.


Relations

The Houses

House of Anjou:  We may be able to tempt them with dreams of a more glorious age that we once shared.

House of Cain:  The epitome of deadliness without nobility or glory.

House of Capet:  In alliance with Hapsburg, they took our throne and brought to an end the most glorious kingdom Europe has ever seen.

House of Flavii:  They make wise advisors, but it is power over you that they want.

House of Hapsburg:  They, with their Capet allies, stole our magnificent kingdom from us.

House of Julii:  They lost the courage to be kings, so they became kingmakers.  Degenerate, but shrewd and influential.

House of Lancaster:  The bigger they build their technological nightmares, the more that the mortals will seek solace in our dreams.

Order of Lilith:  They stopped being relevant about eight thousand years ago.

House of Medici:  What kind of a mage has so little pride that they content themselves with business.

House of Romanov:  Our curses are strangely similar and it is said that our fates are strangely connected.

House of Stuart:  They have lost the majesty and mystique of kings, turning themselves into mere businessmen.

House of Trastámara:  Without honour, without glory.

House of Ummayad:  They are old enemies of ours.  When they wanted all of Europe, we denied it to them.  Niether side has forgotten.

House of Warwick:  They are too wrapped up in their British alliances to truly be friends to us.  If only Warrick could be won over, the whole British power bloc would collapse.

House of York:  Military might without glory.  They have forgotten how to be warriors and have become mere soldiers.

The Rebellion

Order of Boudicca:  They have a healthy sense of loyalty to the glorious past.

Order of Copernicus:  They have no idea what they are looking for, so they never find it.
Order of Darwin:  They love change for the sake of change and that might make them useful to us.

Order of Eve:  Sniveling weaklings but they serve a purpose.

Order of Jesus:  The last thing we need is another cult to compete with.

Order of Judas:  They are destructive enough, but difficult to aim at the right target.

Order of Siddhartha:  Even total religious faith does not give them courage to fight.

Order of Solon:  Let them rock the boat.  A reordering of the great powers could only be to our advantage.

Order of Spartacus:  If only they learned to fight for something instead of against everything, they would be truly formidable.

Order of Thales:  They stand for nothing and are no good for anyone.

Order of Utnapishtim: They prove that you haven’t lost until you give up.