Character:Isis

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Isis

Isis
Biographical information
Birthplace	Unknown
Birth	Between 1996 and 1998
Occupation(s)	student
Gender	female
Hair color	light blonde
Eye color	blue
Height	5'
Statistics
Type	Mage
Path	Mastigos
Order	Mysterium
Legacy	Sphinx
Affiliation	??Cabal name??

Isis
Real name: ???

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 colors, though that appears to be a conscious if strange aesthetic choice most of the time. Faded jeans, socks of different colors, 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 demeanor 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
Order: Mysterium
Legacy: Sphinx
Virtue: Charity
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 0, Occult 5 (Soriology)

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

SOCIAL: Empathy 3, Expression 1

Advantages

Willpower: 7/7
Wisdom: 5

Initiative: 8
Defense: 3
Speed: 9
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

Magic

Gnosis: 3
Mana: 5/12, max 3/turn

Active Spells (0/6 Active Spells, 0/3 Spell Capacity, penalty -0):

• None

Arcana

Mind 4, Space 2, Fate 2, Death 1

Rotes

Mysterium Rote Specialties: Investigation, Occult, Survival

• Infinity Maze -> Mind Shield (Mind 2, Resolve+Occult+Mind, 13 dice)
• 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)

Legacy: Sphinx

Primary Arcanum: Fate

Attainments:

• 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
Order tool: None?

• A black silk scarf
• Candles and chalk of various colors
• A small mirror, 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 Aeternatis 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 artifacts 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.
• Since then Isis has learned much - about everything, including many things taken for granted by those growing up under more normal circumstances. She has entered an apprenticeship, finished it (mostly), and has now become a full member of the Mysterium. A whole world lies before her ...

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, or even an Ochema intervening.
But in the end how much of Isis' recollections are true remains up in the air. A master of Mind could have created the whole thing out of nothing, or maybe Isis really is an Astral entity (representing a dream or nightmare of such an experiment) that has fused with an empty body and somehow managed to Awaken, or ...

XP

XP gained: 60 (50 +10 for starting with Wisdom 5)
Arcane XP gained: 0
Spent: 60/0
Unspent: 0
Expenditures: Survival 1 (3 XP), 7 dots of Merits (14 XP), Space 2 (12 XP), Mind 4 (24 XP), Death 1 (7 XP)

Plans: Speak with Ghosts rote, Soul Marks rote, Medicine 1, Space 3, Investigation (Enigmas)
Earmarked Merits: Occultation, Meditative Mind, Lucid Dreaming?, Enhanced Item 2 (+1, Durability +2)?