Talk:Lily Character Sheet
From Ars Magica
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Manor/Fief
I'm willing to try the Noble virtues as you have them, and see where it goes. I'll sort her out with a primary manor, upon which her steward can be overseeing the construction of a fortified manor house, or similarly expensive building (such as a tower, planter's castle, etc.) Though you may well have two manors, I'd rather leave the second one undetailed for now, and if for any reason we need to introduce it, we can do so with the benefit of having had the setting fleshed out. I'll check out Stokesay at some point before the saga begins.
Servants
- Man-at-arms - The 'Standard Soldier', page 22, Ars Magica 5th Ed. Core Rules.
- Lady-in-waiting
- Lady-in-waiting
The man-at-arms is just a random guard who has managed to appear to his superiors to be sufficiently reliable, and capable on the road, that he has been picked to accompany her ladyship. Lily was trained by an entirely different person, who has a somewhat unusual view of the role of women in society. Lily trained with him while an older, and trusted, female servant looked on, thus gaining the benefits of one-on-one training and a distinct lack of unpleasant gossip about her fitness for marriage (she lacks the reputation 'tom-boy', or similar...)
The decision to train Lily in martial abilities is a good source of background and story... without checking your background (I'm leaving momentarily) I'd assume it was made by her father, and that it was his authority which saw it was done, and done discreetly. Perhaps some nearby manors had been attacked by the Welsh (or he had some vague forewarning of the attack that killed him), and the horrible aftermath made her father (who was often seperated from his daughter due to having more than one fief) fear terribly for her safety.
These two young ladies in waiting have stereotypical skill-sets. I'll draw up the character sheet in concert with the two players I have in mind... :D They have been carefully tutored prior to recently entering Lily's service.
- I would like it if one of those ladies-in-waiting (who in the background I've named "Bronwyn" for lack of any good names) was paying far more attention than she let on, to the lessons of her tutor. Someone smart and discreet, who can be a close friend and confidante for Lily.
nb. Lily has other servants that she may send for, and these will be determined when she has need of them. All her grogs will be played by other players, and their personalities will thus be set by the writing style, etc. of the player. Feel free to make some suggestions though.
Education
House Jerbiton has set up a small number of academic schools where ladies may study mundane subjects, and this could work well for Lilly.
--I could see the girlhood friend of a Quaesitor being able to get into one of those schools, although I'd have to re-think how Lily and Mnem met, then.
House Jerbiton is a good reason for Lily to have a non-church inspired view of gender roles. A church education will just drive the stake deeper.
- As her background is written now, she's had both. She started in the Jerbiton school as a young girl, continued through her marriage as her husband indulged her. After his death, she went travelling for a while, taking with her a church-provided tutor.
- That sounds good. :D
Gender Issues
- 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.
Notes on Lily's Weaponry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_sword
- Given that the Longsword has yet to be developed (1350 or bit earlier), and the shortsword isn't a real weapon, I'm happy with calling an 'Arming' or 'Knightly' sword by the name 'Longsword', and having Lily use that.
- A lot of weapons are lighter and faster. What would a broadsword be?
Something approximate in size to a longsword.
Ruling that Lily can't use a longbow because she's not dedicated enough of her life to physical conditioning; that's fine.
- Well, this is moving into the realm of the character brief, and so shall have to wait until Perikles is available for comment.
Lily *is* heavily focused on study. If you would like me to drop her strength score to reflect that, and use weapons modified to cater to that.
- I think she is much better off with a shortbow, as it means her arms will be the same length, and she can better perform her role as a martial companion to Mnemosyne, as she'll have a weapon suited for skirmishes and ambushes that she can readily travel with.
She wouldn't use a bow in a skirmish unless she's far removed from where the fighting is taking place. I really hate seeing movies with these super "combat archers" running in and out of melee *cough*PeterJackson*cough*.
That's not skirmishing then, is it? :D
The times Lily will use a bow are in controlled situations; she might stick a few arrows in the ground in front of her, and shoot carefully while opponents are running up from some distance, but that's the closest to "skirmishing" with it as she should ever get. I'd like for her to be able to shoot a duck out of the air, as well, though I don't know if that would be longbow or shortbow.
Well, again, that's moving into the brief...
- Lily should be very, very green.
I don't think that is what Perikles has in mind, but it might well be okay.
