Editing The Gift:Characters (section)

===House Burning Stone===

House Burning Stone is the oldest and most powerful house in the Council, claiming to have been founded in London in 1650.  The house is a religious fraternity, dedicated, at least in theory, to coming closer to God through mysticism.  The house does not insist that members follow any particular religion, although monotheism is required.  Burning Stone was the driving force behind the formation of the Council in the first place and many give it credit for the Council’s dominant position in New Spain today.  Burning Stone mages tend to see themselves as good shepherds for mages and mundane humans alike, tough but fair, living well but providing guidance and protection.  However, they are also very aware that their power only comes by the consent of the other Houses of the Council. Politically, the house tends to be on the side of big business, since they own so much of it.  However, the House includes influential cliques advocating abortion rights, drug legalization, environmentalism, foreign aid, gun control, and welfare, including a public option for healthcare.  The House officially opposes increasing eduational spending, on the grounds that science threatens to make the mundanes too powerful for their own good, but there has been growing support for education on both idealistic and strategic grounds.

Burning Stone techniques put great emphasis on the spiritual transformation and purification of the self and apprentices spend a lot of time studying the transformation of physical substances, looking for mystical insight.  To help achieve this insight, apprentices learn spells dealing with the elements earth and fire.

Cost:  33 points

Advantages:  Language (Arabic, Broken), Language (Latin, Native).

Skills:  Alchemy, Artist (Calligraphy), Chemistry, History (Medieval European), History (Medieval Middle East), Mathematics, Occultism, Poisons, Symbol Drawing (Western Hermetic), Theology (Christianity), Theology (Islam).

Spells:

Earth:  Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Essential Earth, Rain of Stones, Seek Earth, Shape Earth, Walk Through Earth.

Fire:  Create Fire, Essential Flame, Extinguish Fire, Ignite Fire, Fireproof, Rain of Fire, Resist Fire.


House Stances

Magic:  The purpose of magic is to grow closer to God through spiritual self-transformation.

Themselves:  Most mages do not understanding the purpose of magic and so are further from the goal than we are.  They should be helped.

The Council:  The purpose of the Council is to keep the Peace.  Nobody else can be trusted with the job.

The Old Houses:  Useful.  We must not underestimate them.  They may not quite grasp the ultimate point yet, but they have proved themselves formidable mages.

The Young Houses:  They get so caught up in the details of their sciences that they forget to look at the big picture.  They are more of a nuisance than a help, but they make up the numbers that keep the Council in control.

The Circle:  The harder they cling to the physical world, the further they get from God.

The Cooperative.  Fools who sell their humanity for power.  A human being is more valuable than a machine.

Independents:  The Bridewell Reading Group is primed to defect from The Cooperative to the Council.  They just don’t realize it yet.  They will get sick of their deranged companions soon enough. The Church of St. Christopher on the Mountain are sound and sane.  I wonder how we can convince them to join the Council.  Exeter are amoral and organized.  That makes them a serious threat.  It would be better if they did not exist.