Dzinko: переводы

→The viewpoint of this magus will be severely twisted from the norm, and the player and storyguide should take pains to highlight the effects of this change in perception. Many human customs will prove puzzling to the magus, and he may frequently make errors in judgment regarding human behavior, similar to the Social Handicap Flaw. This unfamiliarity with humans will fade over the years, but never truly vanish. Feral magi can only ever achieve the Inner Mystery of the Epitome and regain a part of their virtuous form; they are so attuned to this mystery that they receive a permanent +3 to all initiation scripts to gain or refine the Inner Mystery of the House.

→Once the character undergoes the Ritual of Twelve Years it gains the Heartbeast Ability and can now become human. The human form is neither sanguine, choleric, melancholic nor phlegmatic, but a perfect mix between all four; the temperament of any attending magus acts as a penalty to the performance of the ritual, partially explaining why feral magi are so rare.

→Whilst much of its innate magic is transformed by being Opened to the Arts, the player can purchase magical powers appropriate to the mythic potential of her character's natural form. These powers are designed like spells, but cost the character a fatigue level to activate. A Minor Virtue offers up to 25 levels of effects, with the stipulation that the power must affect the creature itself rather than any other target. A Major Virtue supplies 50 levels of effects, with no such restriction.

→Only once magical training begins can the character acquire the minimum scores in Latin and Artes Liberales required for a magus, so these Abilities must be bought using the allotment of experience from apprenticeship. To Open the Arts of a Beast of Virtue, the master must have a Intellego Vim Lab Total of at least 30 because the pupil has the equivalent of a Major Supernatural Virtue (ArM5 page 107), and during this process the Beast of Virtue loses its Might Score. The master must have some means to communicate freely with her unorthodox apprentice (such as a spell, or the Animal Ken Virtue) to teach him any magic.

→To simulate a Feral magus, the character begins its life as a Beast of Virtue. Determine the base statistics of the animal form, and apply the normal allotment of experience points for a human character, buying the Abilities of the base creature before allocating experience points to other Abilities. You must buy the Feral Upbringing Flaw, and cannot spend experience points on language, social, or academic Abilities.

→One of the problems with this concept is that according to prevailing thought of the day, animals have no souls, so neither will the feral magus. Troupes may wish to ignore this uncomfortable fact, or else provide for it with the Simple-Minded Flaw, which represents the lack of higher cognitive faculties without inhibiting the character's functioning as a magus. If this option is taken, the Flaw should be in addition to the character's normal allotment, and does not yield any points with which to buy Virtues.

→At least one Bjornaer magus claims to have taken an animal as an apprentice; the Ritual of Twelve Years apparently awakening the human heartbeast of the creature. Many scoff at such tales, but such an individual might make an interesting character to play in a non-canon saga. The animal would have to have true Intelligence rather than Cunning, and would also have to be inherently magical — that is, be a Beast of Virtue. The process of Opening the Arts strips the Beast of Virtue of its Might score, and replaces it with a variant of The Gift allowing the creature to learn Hermetic Magic (this assumes the unorthodox position that a magus is a Human of Virtue, or alternatively that a Beast of Virtue possesses an animal equivalent of The Gift).

→You have spent fifteen years as an ‘apprentice’, and gained a total of 300 experience points in those fifteen years. If it is ever discovered that you do not have The Gift, your life may be in danger; and House Bjornaer will be severely embarrassed. The House will therefore deal with you favorably in fear of you revealing your secret (accidentally or ‘accidentally’), but if you push this latitude too far, they may decide they are better off without you. This Virtue may only be taken by a Companion character.

→You must choose either a Supernatural Virtue (Minor or Major) or the Latent Magic Ability Virtue to represent the innate magic which caused the House to assume you were Gifted. Your Sept has provided you with enchanted devices with fifty levels of effect, including modifications to the level due to factors such as number of uses per day (see ArM5, page 95). These will be upgraded and replaced by your Sept to maintain your cover as a Gifted magus, on average an extra two levels per year. You are trained in a similar manner to magi, and may take Academic, Arcane and Martial Abilities during character creation.

→You have mistakenly undergone the Ritual of Twelve Years despite having no Gift. You masquerade as a member of the Order of Hermes despite being unable to use Hermetic Magic. You must buy this Virtue with the Dark Secret Major Flaw. Your social status is equivalent to Hermetic Magus unless your secret is discovered. You have the Heartbeast virtue for free, and you may change shape just like a magus of House Bjornaer.

→Major Virtue, Social Status (House Bjornaer only)

→Feral Magi

→Such a character ends up as a Companion character with the Lost Cub Social Virtue (see below). No-one outside of the House knows that some 'magi' of House Bjornaer have never cast a spell in their lives. If the Order were ever to discover that some of its members are masquerading as Gifted magicians, the repercussions to House Bjornaer could be severe. However, House Mercere sets the precedent for the existence of unGifted members of the Order, and the House could probably weather this storm.

→Very rarely, a child without the Gift will have their heartbeast awakened by the Ritual of Twelve Years. This may be a result of a botched ritual, or the confusion of Supernatural Abilities with the true Gift. If using 'The Thousand Heartbeasts' story seed of the Bjornaer Chapter, these Lost Cubs may also be intentionally created by the rogue mystagogue. Such people cause problems to House Bjornaer: they are officially members of the House and have been adopted into the mystic family of the Bjornaer followers, and yet they are not magi and cannot officially join the Order. Further, they come about due to the negligence of a magus, a shameful thing in the opinion of the Bjornaer Council. As a result, their lack of The Gift is kept hidden from the Order, and they are provided with magical items which allow them to simulate the process of spellcasting. These 'apprentices' are even brought before the Order to swear the Oath of Hermes as if they were proper magi.

→Lost Cub

→Lost Cubs

→This article covers the first – Lost Cubs and Feral magi. The second and third pieces will be in future issues.

→Third, I present Ulf Bjornaer, the magus who is used in all the examples in the chapter. He is of a suitable age to be the master of a player character, or else he could serve as a story hook, protagonist or antagonist. Finally, I present an outline for a Bjornaer-oriented saga which was originally formulated when writing up the covenant of Crintera for Guardians of the Forests.

→First, there are two character concepts for playing alternate members of House Bjornaer, the Lost Cubs and the Feral magi. Second, there are some details of some more septs — I only had enough room for two in the final chapter.

→So, I'm sorry if this disrupts your prior concept of Bjornaer magi as experts in shapechanging, but I hope you can see the logic behind the change in the House. In an attempt to make amends, here are some bits and pieces which did not make it as far as Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults.