Lily Character Sheet

From Ars Magica

Revision as of 17:20, 22 February 2006

Characteristics

Intelligence 0
Perception -2 (near-sighted)
Strength +2 (well-toned)
Stamina +1 (conditioned)
Presence +1 (noble)
Communication +1 (well-spoken)
Dexterity +3 (nimble)
Quickness +1 (spry)

Statistics

Age: 19
Warping: 5 (divine)
Decrepitude: 0

Virtues & Flaws

Virtues

• Landed Noble (major, social)
  
• Wealthy (major, general)
  
• Privileged Upbringing (minor, general)
  
• Well-Travelled (minor, general)
  
• Unaging (minor, supernatural)
  
• Improved Characteristics (minor, general)
  

Flaws

• Raised from the Dead (major, story, supernatural)
  
  • Flaw from warping: Visions (minor, supernatural)
    
• Lost Love (minor, personality)
  
• Oath of Fealty: English crown (major, story, required)
  
• Compassionate (major, personality)
  

Personality Traits

Compassionate +3
Circumspect +1
Strong-willed +2

Abilities

General:
Speak Middle English: 5
Area Lore (Shropshire): 2 (15)
Awareness (alertness): 2 (15)
Charm (quick wit): 2 (15)
Craft (knitting): 2 (15)
Etiquette (nobility): 2 (15)
Folk Ken (common folk): 3 (30)
Hunt (tracking): 2 (15)
Leadership (inspiration): 2 (15)
Living Language: Welsh (conversational): 3 (30)
Ride (speed): 2 (15)

Academic:
Artes Liberales (grammar): 3 (30)
Civil and Canon Law (church): 1 (5)
Common Law (local laws): 2 (15)
Dead Language: Latin (academic): 4 (50)
Living Language: Greek (academic): 3 (30)
Theology (history): 2 (15)

Martial:
Bow (English longbow): 4 (50)
Single Weapon (longsword and shield): 4 (50)

Combat Information

Burden=9, Encumbrance=1
Armor: Partial chainmail suit; Soak=7
English Longbow: Init: -3, Atk: +12, Dfn: +6, Dmg: +10
Longsword and heater shield: Init: +2, Atk: +12, Dfn: +9, Dmg: +8

Approval Notes

Hard to overcome gender bias among academia without the Wealthy virtue.

I've written a post to explain this point. Wealthy works, but so does Landed Noble on it's own. Wealthy and Landed Noble is too much, but it is your choice which you choose to keep. I'd personally like her to just have Wealthy, but your background infers that you are far more keen on Landed, so I'm fine with that.

...hire a tutor...

Yes, the church seems rather mercenary, and I have no problem with Landed Noble granting you access to a tutor. The tutor will be male though, and your lessons will be conducted in the presence of your ladies in waiting, as it is unthinkable that you would ever be unattended whilst in the presence of a man.

Her learning was to have been seen to by privately hired teachers.

That is fine.

...but it was not unheard of for wealthy nobles to educate their daughters ... educating women (even nobles) had very little benefit at very high cost.

House Jerbiton has set up a small number of academic schools where ladies may study mundane subjects, and this could work well for Lilly.

As for Aramaic, it seemed that would be the academic language of choice among the clergy who tend to dote on her.

The local church is not going to like it if you are spending a lot of time with ordained members of the Eastern Church, but they don't need to know. Syriac is the academic language of the Eastern Church, and encompasses over half of all Aramaic texts. If Lilly knows Aramaic, then she knows Syriac, as opposed to other, more obscure Aramaic languages, such as Chaldean. I won't object to her knowing a bit of Syriac if her tutor is from Eastern Europe. Aramaic is not, according to my research, used by the Western Church, but I could be wrong.

On second thought, though, that would probably be Greek, as IIRC most of the New Testament was originally scribed in Greek.

Again, Greek is the language of the Eastern Church, and Latin is the language of the Western Church, according to what I've read. However, it will be far easier to find a tutor of Greek, than a tutor of Aramaic.

• can be the noble for one, possibly two local manors, neither of which can be Stretton. At this time, Church Stretton is a Royal Manor.

> Just pick them then, please?

You can have a single manor in the same part of Shropshire as Church Stretton, or two which are further afield. I'll need to go and rifle through my research...

Also, I believe this is incorrect, as Stretton would have been in the Earldom of Shrewsbury, and Robert de Belleme was stripped of title for treason a few decades prior to gameplay. Most of the area was split into fiefdoms that the crown sorta threw around for the next couple hundred years.

- Basically, the King wanted to build a castle to watch over a very important road, and so took possession of the manor.

"In the Middle Ages such importance as Church Stretton had derived from its location on the main Shrewsbury-Hereford road and its status as a royal manor rather than from the size of the settlement."

"By the mid 12th century there was a royal castle on Brockhurst hill"

- I have better quotes if I go digging through my research.

• Needs to lose the Wealthy Virtue. This won't be a problem, skillwise, as you already recieve 100 extra points from Priviliged Upbringing and Well-traveled.

> Skillwise, that *is* a problem, as it removes 70 points of skills; no small amount of re-allocation.

As Lily has Unaging, and is 19 years old, she can very happily afford to be three or four years older, and thus gain 60 or 80 experience points. Her apparent age is yours to freely choose with that virtue.

She doesn't need to be particularly youthful, as in order for her to be a female heir, I require her to be a widow, rather than unmarried. As a widow, she has the right to re-marry, so this doesn't affect gameplay, and merely adds one more body to the conflagration in your background.

I pose that Lily would _not_ outrank the majority of nobles she'd encounter with the Wealth virtue, by the very nature of being female.

They have sworn oaths to you, and you have the power to do bad things to them if they break them, or merely earn your displeasure. That's one of the reasons you can't be Lady of Shropshire. Your 'Royal Advisor' will be happy to do anything which weakens nobles, and creates conflict amongst them, as this empowers the King. The feudal hierarchy is very important, and any percieved gaps will bring power-hungry noble's attentions upon you, and the covenant.

The plan was that she is very popular among the commonfolk, loved among the clergy, entertains some leeway from her superiors due in no small part to her popularity with the church, but as far as her peers go, she's nothing until/unless she gets married. That's why she hides away from them. And again, as far as estates and soldiers come into gameplay, it's intended that she's given primary control over whatever manors she owns to the royally-appointed seneschals, and I am more than happy to cede that any soldiers loyal to her are tied up defending their own castles. Lily would not be going off to march into war unless she's explicitly ordered to, which wouldn't happen anyway because no one would follow a chick into a battlefield. Yeah yeah, they followed Jeanne d'Arc but that was two hundred years later, and even she was treated with disrespect as a mere figurehead until she proved herself a competent military commander (which Lily is not). As I see it, should Lily be Wealthy, that means she basically has the ability to pay for the instruction she wants, can afford to host feasts and festivals for the commonfolk, and she's not tied to her manors as far as running things goes. Wealth allows her three seasons a year to do what she wants; to me, that's huge. Playing a noble companion that can't ever go anywhere because they're tied up taking care of their own lands, well, that'd suck. As far as servants go, they're off doing their jobs; she should never have with her more than perhaps two ladies-in-waiting and a bodyguard.

Well, Landed Noble or Wealth, on their own, entail two seasons of 'work', and I'm happy for you to propose whatever mode of employment you like, given that her lands are administered for her by a representative of the King who doesn't have your best interests at heart. It isn't as though you have gained the benefit of an NPC properly managing your domain for you.

You can spend it visiting other nobles, knitting with your ladies, etc. As a noble, you at least get some choice over where to place your exposure points.

Please do not assume the worst of my intentions. I'm not choosing Wealth as some manner of being uber-munchkin powerful.

It isn't your intentions, it is merely that fact that if I inserted Lily into the saga's setting as she currently stands, the mere fact of her existence would have an effect on the game, and there will be times where it will seem irrational for her not to wield her power to solve problems with nobles, etcetera, given that she has that capability. Even without acting, the nobles, being aware of her, will act completely differently. If one noble begins to defy you, another may decide to act on your behalf, because it is a great political opportunity.

However, Wealth is fine... if you drop Landed Noble...

I want Wealth so that the character can have the leeway to learn what she wants, better the standard of living for the commonfolk, and have the freedom to adventure however much she wants.

The book seems craply written with regard to the wealth virtues, so I have tried to explain it on the forum. A character who has Wealthy or Landed Noble on their own, has plenty of cash to splash around.

I don't want to call on the king for tea or lead vast armies into battle.

Well, Lily certainly swore an oath to the King to provide him with a large number of soldiers, some of which are numbered among your fifty servants, but the bulk of which are numbered amongst the servants of the many lesser nobles who hold a portion of Shropshire, and thus must provide soldiers if you ask them.

If she is the 'Lady of Shropshire', the King will expect her to mobilise an army of at least 500 men within the first ten or twenty years of the saga, because He will command it.

It would probably be great fun to lead them to the battlefield, but I'm not sure whether it is permitted for Lily to do so.

There's quite enough fighting going on at our doorstep that whatever warriors owe allegiance to her are quite busy holding down the fort, and she's more than happy to let them keep doing that, because it frees her up to muck about playing with books and sharp objects.

Theoretically, the run-up to a war would be a very busy time for Lily, but given the administrator...

The English+Norman 5 were based on Michael de Verteuil's post to Berklist; he says lower nobility of England would be natively bilingual in the two, because their wetnurses would be common English folk but their families speak Norman French. If you disagree that's fine, I only added Norman on there after I read his post; I don't care too much about Norman, as she's to interact with the smallfolk far more frequently than the nobility.

If she is the 'Lady of Shropshire', then there is nothing lower about her title. :D She rules an important fief, packed to the gills with 32 (or more) castles, and the owners of all those castles (bar the King, Church, and Sarop/Shrewesbury) have sworn an oath of fealty to her, as feudalism incorporates a pyramid system of oaths. Norman French is, sadly, mandatory, and English is her second language.

I am tempted to give her Norman French 5, gratis, if she is merely the ruler of a manor, as she would be in a bi-lingual situation then.

• Craft (tapestry) doesn't seem to feature anywhere... :P :)

> Grrr. Well, can she knit instead?  :) Crafts normally denote an ability to work with a material, but may be more specialised. In both cases, we are talking about wool (I think :D), so I'm happy for her to make anything woollen with her knitting skill, including tapestries. It is one of the oh-so-exciting past-times that a lady and her ladies-in-waiting occupy themselves with, especially if the weather is too poor to go riding.

• I'll need to reassess the character once you have made changes.

The skills look good, though I'm finding it hard to imagine why she would be skilled in tracking :D. If you want to change it, I would suggest a speciality in hunting a specific animal, and if you don't, then I shall assume it is something you picked up once you began accompanying Mnemosyne (unless your background states otherwise).

Her virtues and flaws look okay:

• Could 'Lost Love' be her late husband?
• Her oath of fealty is ultimately to the King, but probably not directly (unlike your Administrator, or the Castellan of Brockhurst Castle)

Although Lily, if she learnt to use a bow and a sword, would learn the Shortbow and 'Shortsword' (the Longbow is not used for sports or hunting, and requires years of dedicated training which caused the skeleton of the archer to become warped to the point where Archeologists can identify a longbowman by just his bones), and the Longsword is a weapon designed for mounted combat (you can't hit them if your sword doesn't reach), I am happy for you to have the larger versions of these weapons.

It is just something to bear in mind when writing your background. It is likely that your bow has a much lighter draw than a man's longbow, but I will keep the statistics the same, as it is still a superior weapon to the shortbow. I only know one person who might be able to fire a longbow, and it would take them time.

I have some actual experience of battlefield archery, mainly the 'being charged and hacked to the floor' part, but also the 'running around madly shooting people in the face' part too. Longbows and Shortbows are very different beasts - and while the longbow can't be fired from horseback, and is really quite unwieldy, they do scary things to people. Longbow is for rank-and-file archery, and I've never used one (well, I did once, but I couldn't draw the string, funnily enough... :D), and shortbow is for skirmishing, as you can fire it hastily, while on the move, and use it in more "chaotic" combats, such as when being ambushed.

Ah, that looks like I'm trying to change your mind - but I'm not! :D

Notes about the Character

Stuck here temporarily.

• I'm investigating the gender issues, but they could be quite severe for someone of her class, compared with, say, the grogs...

> Yes. She should have very little respect from her peers; other nobles should be polite, kind insofar as they're trying to convince her to marry them or their sons, but otherwise disdainful. She should be viewed by other nobles as being a bit of a willful child, and honestly, she pretty much is. She's more concerned with her own fun, and she doesn't realize yet that in order to really protect the people she cares about so much, she *needs* to go out and find a good husband who she might be able to convince to act in their interest. Possible adventures I was anticipating would be scenarios in which she would become painfully aware of just how horribly the commonfolk are being treated by the royal armies marching through on their way to and from Wales; she tries to fix the situation but is utterly stymied, rinse-lather-repeat until she wises up and resigns herself to having to marry some soft-hearted chump. Then going off to seek out said soft-hearted chump. Hilarity ensues.

The reaction would be that, while it's unseemly for the times, Our Father Who Art In Heaven clearly has some plan for her, and they would really prefer that whenever the time comes 'round for whatever that is, she's as inclined towards the church as possible. So long as she remains discreet about being educated, they're willing to accomodate her odd requests. When you control what someone knows, you have enormous power over them

(yet another reason for Lily to become quite fond of the magi, and for that to cause conflict with the church); the clergy's feelings for her should be about 50/50 between genuine respect and their desire to have influence over her. This could be slanted more towards the genuine respect if you're less cynical about the church than I am. (I grew up in Catholic school as a "precocious" child, and having had no small amount of "friendly debates" with priests over the natures of worship, sin, and forgiveness.) Her education would be, of course, facilitated in no small part by the Wealth virtue, as she'd be giving generously to the Church to "prove" her gratefulness.