Solium Speculorum Starting Obsessions

The Throne of Mirrors

Requirements: Any
You viewed it but once. Taken by your mentor to be introduced to the grand Hierarch of London himself, the Draco Cruentis XIV himself, seated upon his throne of red leather and carved teak with gold inlay. But it was not the powerful magus who rules London's Awakened - a monarch as surely as any in Buckingham Palace - that drew and held your attention.

No, it was the chair.

The Solium Draconis, the Dragon Throne of London. You scarce heard even a single word that they spoke, when your mentor and the elders of the Consilium exchanged introductions and pleasantries. You'd done something worthy of their attention, to be sure, but you recall none of it. You spent the whole of your time looking to the chair itself.

It engraved itself in your mind, so that even when you looked away, you saw it still, in all the colors of light, a kaleidoscope of thrones boring into your very psyche. You don't remember leaving, or being returned to your residence afterwards. For three days after, you were feverish, in and out of terrible dreams, of all kinds of horrors. When the fever finally broke, it did so with one thought in your mind:

You must have the chance to examine the Dragon Throne once more.

For You To Do: Decide what it is that merited a young mage such as yourself being welcomed and acknowledged by such an esteemed audience as that you got. It should be something relatively important or difficult for you, and something tied into your character's strengths or theme.

Traits: Take one dot in Consilium Draco Cruentis Status. This reflects not membership in the consilium, but an acknowledgement of their debt to you. Additionally, take the Nightmares Persistent Condition. When you sleep, you sometimes dream of it all over again, and wake sweating through your bedclothes, and unable to return to your rest.

Walking the Thames

Requirements: Any
It's not something you plan. It's not something you intend. Hells, it's even something you tell yourself, over and over, that you're going to never do again.

And yet, on some night, there you find yourself, walking the shores of the Thames, squelching through the mud and stepping over the gin-soaked, passed out poor (at least, you hope they're only passed out).

There is something uncanny and strange that calls to you. It doesn't always do this, mind - in fact, most of the time when you find yourself out on its shores, you're not following that call. You're looking for it. Because when you do hear it, that call overwhelms you with its beauty and power. You begin to understand a little about it already; you're sure it has something to do with why, since before Romans landed in Britain, folk have founded settlement after settlement along its shores.

History aside, you long to hear that call again.

For You To Do: Decide what state of mind or other situation leads you to being out walking the lengths of the Thames at night.

Traits: Take one dot in Contacts (River Folk). These are the people you've come to know, here and there, as you walk up and down the shore night after night. They call to you now when they see you, offer to share a sip of their rotgut and the warmth of their fires. From the way they talk, you think perhaps they hear the call sometimes too. Take the Fixated Condition. Its effects are not constant, however - it only comes into play when whatever it is that triggers your desire to hear the call again occurs. On nights when you do hear it, however, take the Inspired Condition.

Of Fogs and Miasmas

Requirements: Any
No one knows fogs quite like Londoners do. There are entire days where the city all but shuts down because of days worth of thick, roiling, yellowish-brownish fogs that roll in off the Thames, making it impossible to see anything outside of an arm's reach in front of one. It's not just a horror show for the eyes, either (though everyone ends up with red, itchy eyes for days after). It bounces and muffles sounds, leaves a grit on the skin, stinks of old smoke and gasses, and even leaves an acrid, hideous taste in the mouth.

But the fogs do more than that to you.

For whatever reason, your Mage Sight is terribly sensitive to the fogs. Your Peripheral Mage Sight is triggered perhaps an hour before they roll in off the river, and once they are there, it's awful. You can see nameless horrors stalking the deeps of the fogs, swimming silently past in blasphemous shapes like terrible sea creatures through dark waters. The fogs ripple with their movement to your Mage Sight. You know that you need to investigate them, but when you're the only one who can see them…

For You To Do: Decide how you react when the fogs roll in - what precautions do you take? How does your life change during the fog days?

Traits: Take one dot in the Trained Observer Merit. Your paranoia and fear of the mists has made you exceedingly wary and alert in general. When you are subject to thick fogs and mists, you immediately take the Shaken Condition.