Editing Character:Isis

[[All_Roads| All Roads]]
[[Image:Luna_small.jpg|360x409px|thumb|<div style="text-align: center;"> Isis </div>]]
{{nMageCharacter
|name=Isis
|image=
|birthplace=Unknown
|birth=Between 1996 and 1998
|death=
|motivation=
|intimacies=
|occupation=student
|real_name=Unknown
|gender=female
|hair=light blonde
|eyes=blue
|height=5'
|build=
|panoply=
|type=Mage
|path=Mastigos
|order=Mysterium
|legacy=Sphinx
|aspect=
|nimbus=
|affiliation=The City and the Tower
|}}

'''Isis'''<br>
Real name: <font color="white">Lillian Theodora Byrne</font>

''A girl of perhaps fourteen years with strangely ageless blue eyes that make her seem much older than her apparent age at times,  long blond hair, and a light but healthy complexion. Her clothes are usually second-hand and often seem mismatched in styles and colours, though that appears to be a conscious if strange aesthetic choice most of the time. Faded jeans, socks of different colours, a too-large shirt with obscure designs or abstract patterns and an old cardigan for colder weather are a familiar sight on her. Isis is well-spoken with only the slightest hint of a Romanic accent to her English, but her demeanour sometimes seems quite foreign. She is never seen without her athame, an old damascus steel dagger she treasures over all other material possessions as a reminder of her mentor-guardian.''

''Isis' Nimbus when unveiled makes her seem dreamlike, appearing in slightly blurry soft-focus, trailing streaks of color behind her as she moves, and at the same time more real and vivid than normal. An unearthly wind can be seen whipping her hair and clothes, but those around her are untouched though they feel its power. At its height cruel whispers can be heard among the winds' howl, carrying an impression of Pandemonium.''
=Traits=
Path: Mastigos<br>
Order: Mysterium<br>
Legacy: Sphinx<br>
Virtue: Charity<br>
Vice: Wrath
==Attributes==
MENTAL: Intelligence 2, Wits 4, Resolve 3

PHYSICAL: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3

SOCIAL: Presence 1, Manipulation 1, Composure 4

==Skills==
MENTAL: Academics 1 (Philosophy), Investigation 4, Medicine 1, Occult 5 (Soriology), Crafts 1

PHYSICAL: Athletics 2, Larceny 2, Stealth 3, Survival 1, Weaponry 2 (Knives)

SOCIAL: Empathy 3, Expression 1

==Advantages==
Willpower: 4/7<br>
Wisdom: 5

Initiative: 8<br>
Defense: 3<br>
Speed: 9<br>
Health: 8/8

==Merits==
*High Speech
*Whispers
*Dream 3
*Quick Draw (Weaponry)
*Fighting Finesse (Knives)
*Language: English (native is Latin)
*Hallow 1
*Sanctum 1
*Order Status: Mysterium 1
*Mentor 3: Diana (real name: Andrea ???)

==Magic==
Gnosis: 4<br>
Mana: 3/13, max 4/turn

Active Spells (4/7 Active Spells, 2/3 Spell Capacity, penalty -0):<br>
*Sanctum Tripwired Wards (Space 2, Mind 3, Potency '''20''', indefinite duration) 
*Mindscape Maze & Oneiric Seal (Potency 10, 1 Month duration)
*Mind Shield & Misperception (Potency 5, 1 Month duration)


===Arcana=== 
'''Mind 4, Space 3, Fate 2, Death 2, Prime 1'''

===Rotes===
Mysterium Rote Specialties: Investigation, Occult, Survival<br>
*''Hero's Narrative'' -> Exceptional Luck (Fate 2, Manipulation+Occult+Fate, 9 dice - ''1 Mana'')
*''Reordering the Threads'' -> Shifting the Odds (Fate 2, Wits+Occult+Fate, 12 dice - ''1 Mana'')
*''Whispers of the Beyond'' -> Speak with the Dead (Death 1, Mind 1, Wits+Occult+Death, 12 dice)
*''Scales of Ma'at'' -> Soul Marks (Death 1, Wits+Medicine+Death, 7 dice)
*''Eyes of the Magus'' -> Supernal Vision (Prime 1, Int+Occult+Prime, 9 dice)
*''Unweaving'' -> Dispel Magic (Prime 1, Wits+Occult+Prime, 11 dice)

===Legacy: Sphinx===
Primary Arcanum: Fate

Attainments:<br>
*Hidden Meaning: Study anything with a pattern for a few seconds to gain information contained, similar to ''Interconnections'' with 5 automatic successes; gain a +3 modifier to all Mental rolls involving puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc; hide meaning in seemingly random patterns, impenetrable to sleepers, readable by Sphinxes or through extended Fate castings.
*Hidden Meaning (optional: Mind 2): By studying a persons movement, the subtle patterns of their expressions, etc gain ''First Impressions'' effect: +Mind dice to first social roll

==Notable Equipment==
Path tool: An old damascus steel athame<br>
Arcana tools: A small bone flute (Death), an old silver coin (Fate), an iron blacksmith puzzle (Mind), a miniature compass (Space)

*A black silk scarf
*Candles and chalk of various colours
*A small mirror, a vial of water, pieces of string, foreign coins, and other odds and ends 
*Thick cloth jacket (Armor Rating 1/0)
*Damascus steel athame (Dmg 2L, Size 1/J, Dur 5, Str 1)
==History==
*Isis does not remember her parents. They died when she was only a few months old, leaving her without a family or anyone else to take care of her - luckily the Societas Aeternitatis took her in and raised her as one of their own. Most likely they were Proximi like she was before her Awakening, but the Societas has told her little and Isis has had no reason to doubt them.
*A Sleepwalker from an extremely early age Isis grew up within the hidden domain of the Societas, a place of wonders and terrors alike, alive with magic and supernal meaning. Mages lived openly there, with no Sleepers to interfere with their works, constantly improving on the small settlement they and their Sleepwalker servants had built in the concealed valley. Together with several other children Isis was raised to take part in their grand dream. Ghost and Spirits and stranger beings numbered among her tutors, chief among them the one she calls her mentor-guardian, who has taken the place of a parent in her heart.
*Despite the grandiose plans and magical conveniences Utopia wasn't without its darker sides, though. The teaching methods applied were harsh, the expectations high. Relentless pressure to internalize theories of magic and supernatural phenomena were supposed to pave the ground for dangerous dream quests, confrontations with demons internal or external, and drug-induced trips, at the end of which the full Awakening of a Sleepwalker might be accomplished. Not all of Isis' age group survived unscathed or even at all. 
*Nor was the enchanted valley without its own dangers and enemies. Creatures and forces from the strange to the utterly alien, from the playfully fickle to the darkly malicious populated the woods beyond the city and had to be dealt with in various ways to keep a precarious balance. And the maintenance of the incomprehensible artefacts at the heart of the city, something Isis with her intuitive aptitude for puzzles excelled at, had consumed more than one Sleepwalker or even Mage body or soul.
*For all that Isis was one of the successful, one of the lucky ones, and seemed destined to one day join the adult members of the Societas. So when her dreams began to show her premonitions of doom the magi listened, at first. But when they could find no corroboration in their castings of Time and Fate they began to wave her voice aside and Isis was admonished not to let her fears taint her oneiric talent. That's when the dreams became waking visions, stronger and mind-searingly certain with every day. Until finally one clear winter morning Isis could feel the doom's imminence in her bones so strongly that, despite being assigned to the Tiled Pillar for that day, she begged her mentor-guardian to leave the city with her. But whether it was his doubts in her or his bindings that would not allow him to come, in the end Isis fled alone.
*Isis did not look back. Beyond the city, beyond the woods, beyond the valley, and through the mountains she fled. Sharp stones cut the shoes from her feet and turned her footsteps red, but she did not stop. The path climbed wasted slope after wasted slope until her thirst became torture and her muscles living fire, but she did not stop. Through screaming winds that whipped her, with words that bruised and cut and festered, she ascended higher and higher until the path turned to nothing at the very peak, but she did not stop. Into the empty sky she walked until at last she stood alone above all. Silence reigned there that would see her self disperse like smoke, but she defiantly opened a vein with her athame, cast her blood across the emptiness in a blazing symbol and cried: "I am!" And the void trembled at her words.
*She was found straying through the streets of London, confused by the alien surroundings of the city, by a Mysterium Mage in the February of 2010. How she had come to be there, or how much time had passed since she had left her home she could not say. Recognized as a mage Isis was invited in and a higher-ranking mage quickly called in when none knew what to make of her - a mage seemingly barely out of childhood, speaking only in fluent Latin, claiming to have Awakened only 'a few days' earlier yet possessing uncanny knowledge of occult matters and Awakened society. Theories of deception, paradox and possession were brought up and discarded again, and the stories of her home greeted with equal measures of disbelief and horrified acceptance. In the end it was agreed to keep the matter quiet, debrief Isis (who refused to give any other name) thoroughly and then help her adjust to her new life.
**'''''Sidebar for the ST:''' The above represents Isis' recollections. Her Mysterium debriefing would have suggested a secret society of apostates from the Diamond Orders, likely originally hailing from the 18th century, engaged in an attempt to build a new Atlantis despite the universal and absolute proscription against any such experiments. They made extensive use of Demesnes as well as ill-understood artifacts like the Tiled Pillar, and may have located their city in a natural focus of supernal or otherwise supernatural forces. Cynical minds might conjecture that Isis may have been stolen from her Proximus parents, whose death may have been no accident either (if in fact they are dead and not still alive somewhere in the world, missing their daughter - plot hook, ahoy, either way!), but they'll not have mentioned the idea to her. The doom that came to the Societas - if Isis' dreams are to be believed - could be the weight of paradox accumulated but deferred over the decades, an Abyssal incursion of other sort, the collapse of the containing Chantry, the intervention of an Ochema, the erasure of its timeline, or ... who knows?''<br>
*Since then Isis has learned much - about everything, including many things taken for granted by those growing up under more normal circumstances - and has, for the most part, settled into this new existence. She has, after mere 15 Months, already moved beyond the tutoring and supervision of the apprenticeship phase, and even taking into account her education prior to the Awakening her advancement in the Arts has been extraordinary. A prodigy watched with both pride and some concern by her teachers from both Orders Isis wavered between the Mysterium and the Adamantine Arrow for quite some time before finally choosing the path of the mysteries. In the end, though she sympathizes with the Arrow's cause and Adept Diana of the Arrow was her favourite and closest teacher, the appeal of Knowing was greater than that of Protecting. 
*Having been initiated into the Atlantean Mysteries Isis has become a full member of the Mysterium, walking the path of her personal Sophiad. Nonetheless she remains on friendly terms with her Arrow acquaintances, foremost among them Diana who has continued as her teacher if in a different way than before - despite some manoeuvring from the Pathfinders among the the Mysterium Isis has chosen Diana as her master in the Sphinx Legacy. Due to the way potential students have always been expected to identify without help and actively seek out their prospective teachers in the Legacy there can be no open complaints, but there certainly has been some grumbling behind the scenes.

==Goals and Plans==
*Research Abyssal entities and their vector of attack / modes of infection as well as how to protect against them.

*Investigate the vision imposed by the Abyssal shard
**<S>Scry and locate the place of the Scelestus' Awakening</S>
**<S>Go there and use postcognition to investigate the event in question - is it true? intentions?</S>
**<S>identify the Scelestus - 'Jean' plus records of rent/ownership of the apartment at the time should give his true name if postcognition can't reveal it</S>
**<S>Test the name of 'Jean Garrinier'</S>
**<S>Seek more information on Alastair,</S> identify his partner/accomplice
**<S>put an end to the Scelestus' terror,</S> reveal Alastair's involvement or use it for blackmail?

*<S>Build a first draft of the Thought Bottle</S>
**Find someone to help or learn enough Prime to create the bottle

*Investigate the mysterious spider golem (?) in the cabal Athenaeum
**<S>Experiment more with telepathic control</S>
**What is the 'primal energy pulse', where did it come from, and what caused it?
***Prime+Time -> Triangulation?
**<S>Can Kenan postcognate back to the thing's creation?</S>
***Find the ritual implements used to create it
***Find other creators, (mis-)created beings or hunters to talk to and/or dissect


*Who is the weaver and what is his design?
**Connection to Alastair's Guardian backer?

*Who was Jean's inside contact in setting up the Brewer's Hall incident?
**Who is the mysterious 'Operator'?

==Ties to NPCs==
*Diana, Mastigos of the Adamantine Arrow, Isis' master in the Sphinx Legacy and friend
*Tiferet of the Four Winds Cabal
*Sleeper/Sleepwalker/other friends at school??
*Her mentor-guardian, likely a ghost mage of some sort, lost along with the enchanted valley but perhaps not forever. 

==XP==
XP gained: 185 (50 +10 for starting with Wisdom 5; Sessions: 31x3+1x6+7x2+3x1+1x9)<br>
Arcane XP gained: 10<br>
Spent: 154/8<br>
Unspent: 31/2<br>
Expenditures: Survival 1 (3 XP), 7 dots of Merits (14 XP), Space 2 (12 XP), Mind 4 (24 XP), Death 1 (7 XP); Athletics 1 (3 XP), Mentor 2 (6 XP), Space 3 (18 XP), Death 2 (14 XP), Medicine 1 (3 XP), Athletics 2 (6 XP), Gnosis 4 (24+8XP), Prime 1 (7 XP), 2 dots of rotes (4 XP), Mentor 2->3 (6 XP), Crafts 1 (3 XP)

Plans: Academics 2 (6 XP), Mind 5, Space 4, Death 3<br>
Earmarked Merits: Occultation, Meditative Mind, Lucid Dreaming?, Enhanced Item 2 (+1, Durability +2)?

==NPCs==
*'''Diana:''' A lean, wiry woman in her early thirties wearing understated, practical clothes. Outgoing, straightforward, and quick to laugh and joke it's easy to forget that she is also a ranking Thunderbolt Guardian in the Adamantine Arrow. Nor will she make much of formalities, preferring a simple, informal cordiality. As a teacher she is equally demanding and encouraging, as a friend  supportive and kind, as an enemy relentless and unhesitating - but never cruel. Although secondary to her prodigious skills in intelligence and tactical support as a Sphinx and an Adept of Mind and Space, Diana has over the years honed her firearms skills to a remarkable degree as well. She is without a doubt a very dangerous woman, but also a good mentor and friend to have.
*'''Tiferet''' (Obrimos, Mysterium), '''Nacht''' (Moros, Mysterium) and '''Mojo''' (Thyrsus, Free Council) form the ''Four Winds Cabal'' together with '''Diana'''. 
**Tiferet is a thoughtful man in his fifties, slightly overweight but in good health, who speaks slowly and chooses his words very carefully no matter the situation. An artist, kabbalistic scholar, and a respected member of the Mysterium. He was the one to find Isis lost in the London streets after her Awakening and along with the other members of his Cabale one of her teachers.
**Nacht, a tall, gaunt woman somewhere between twenty-five and sixty, has little time or appreciation for humor. Favoring black clothes and the Arcanum of Death (but also Life) she lives up to the stereotype of the Necromancer in some ways, few getting to know her well enough to see beyond appearances. 
**Mojo, the youngest of the Four Winds at twenty-four, likes his food and it shows. In his oversized Hawaii shirts, long hair unruly, and an almost constantly amused expression he is far from the dignity of his cabal mates - but then the Primal Wild does not care about that.