Autumn

Moros; Mysterium (Neokoros); No Legacy; The Five-Fold Vigil (Edgetender)
Disciple
Christian Wells; Charity/Lust; Penitent Medium

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• Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 3; Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 4
• Abilities: Investigation 1, Medicine 1, Occult 3 (Awakened Magic), Science 2 (Chemistry); Athletics 1, Drive 1, Firearms 1, Stealth 1; Animal Ken 1, Empathy 3 (Motives), Expression 1, Persuasion 3, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 1
• Merits: Artifact 4 (Autumn Leaf Pendant - "Sniffing the Winds of Fate"), Supernal Tolerance 2, High Speech 1, Dream 1, Status (Mysterium) 1
• Advantages: Health 7, Willpower 7, Morality 5 (No Derangements), Size 5, Speed 9, Defense 2 (Armor +3), Initiative +6

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• Magic: Gnosis 2; Death 3, Matter 2, Time 1
  • Aura of Gloom: "Grim Sight", Death •, Wits + Occult + Death
  • Clamor of the Departed: "Speaking with the Dead", Death •, Wits + Occult + Death
  • Shield of Bones: "Entropic Guard", Death ••, Wits + Occult + Death
  • Light's Nemesis: "Animate Shadows", Death ••, Wits + Occult + Death
• Legacy: None; 1st — N/A, 2nd — N/A, 3rd — N/A
• Nimbus: Mages feel a cold wind blow by, carrying unintelligible whispers of the secret ending which awaits them in the lands of the dead. Accompanying this is a mixed sense of dread and hope, peace and fear. Mortals perceive only an unseasonably cold (or warm, in winter time) breeze blowing out of the east.

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• Possessions: X
  • Magical Items: X
  • Magical Tools: X
  • Weapons: X
• Other Notes: X

Character Questionnaire

1. Describe your character’s physical appearance. (If you can, please include a photo.)

2. Describe what it looks like when your character’s Nimbus manifests to those with Mage Sight. What does it look like when it bleeds over into mortal perceptions? (The Nimbus can be quite impressive to Mage Sight, but is always subtle to mortal perceptions.)

Mages feel a cold wind blow by, carrying unintelligible whispers of the secret ending which await them in the lands of the dead. Accompanying this is a mixed sense of dread and hope, peace and fear. Mortals perceive only an unseasonably cold (or warm, in winter time) breeze blowing out of the east.

3. Describe your character’s preferred Magical Tool, either a Path Tool or an Order Tool. If your character uses any Arcana Tools, describe those as well. Is there a background or back story to this item?

Autumn carries with him a small bowl made from a skull. He crafted this tool from the remains of the first person whose ghost he helped lay to rest -- his sister.

4. When your character’s Unseen Senses trigger, what kind of sensation does your character experience? (This tends to be individual from mage to mage; some examples include a slight headache, a raising of the hairs on the back of the neck, goosebumps, a sudden change in temperature sensation, etc.)

The hairs on the back of Autumn's neck rise and quiver as though they were harp strings being played by invisible fingers.

5. Describe how your character most often interacts with her Virtue.

While Autumn actively works to help ghosts find their peaceful rest, he is not without compassion for those still among the living. Now and then, when the spirit moves him, Autumn will take a keen interest in some project either for the betterment of the community in general or to help one person in specific. Sometimes his efforts on behalf of a specific person can indicate that his feelings for him/her are growing beyond mere friendship.

6. Describe how your character most often interacts with his Vice.

Autumn is prone to lingering on those he has lost. In his mourning, he shuts out the world around him. He is private with his grief and will attempt to isolate himself during these times. As he has grown in proficiency with the Ars Mysteriorum (sp?), he has occasionally taken to walking in Twilight during these moods, brooding on the eternal principles of loss and inevitability.

7. Describe your character’s Mentor, from her perspective. This is the person (not necessarily of the same Path) who brought you into the Order, and taught you the Order’s magical Praxis.

Finder, Autumn's mentor, was like an aunt to him. In the wake of his family's passing and his own resurrection, Finder took him into her home and treated him with warmth and compassion. One part grief counselor, one part personal tutor, one part spiritual advisor. She meant the world to him and provided him an island of safety and stability in the wake of his personal tragedy. Where his grief might have become rage, she channeled it into productivity; where it might have become self-loathing, she transformed it into service. Autumn was quite distraught when the Helots suddenly packed he and his cabal-mates off to Astoria. In many ways, it is like he is leaving home for the second time, and newly finding his way in the world without the support of his mother figure.

8. Choose the Mage Sight your character uses most often. Describe to me how your character interprets the occult information granted by that spell; for instance, some mages perceive various Mage Sights as strains of music, strange smells, memory flashbacks from their own lives relevant to the information gained, physical sensations or other similar sensory input. Each form of Mage Sight usually has its own set of sensory symbols, often in line with aspects of the character’s personality, occult praxis or background.

Autumn is most prone to viewing the world through Grim Sight. I think in his case, the sensory data that he perceives is likely most tied to his past and or the mementos of other people. I want to discuss his background a bit more with you (Joe) before I settle on this, though.

9. Choose a song that you think would be your character's theme song.

Given & Denied by Poets of the Fall

10. Does your character have any family?

No. They have all passed on.

11. Your character has, at some point in his life, had something to do with the Hotel Regina. It has been out of business since the 1940s, so you won’t have visited it while it was in business. Your character doesn’t even have to had any kind of major interaction at the location — you simply have to have a moment in your character’s history where the Hotel Regina played some role, even if it was just as a backdrop. Perhaps an uncle was a photographer that loved buildings from the Thirties, or your mother had a framed print of the building in the living room over the hearth. Tell me what the Hotel means to your character.

The first time that Christian met with his dealer about distributing drugs himself, their conversation was interrupted by a lengthy phone call. During that time, Christian flipped idily through a table book on classic architecture which the dealer kept around to seem more intelligent than he was. One of the pages that he looked at featured the architecture of the Hotel Regina.

Other Questions

The following questions can be answered as part of further development for the character once play begins. No more than two questions may be answered in between game sessions, and for every two questions answered the PC gains +1 point of Development Experience.

Background

1. Where did your character grow up? Briefly describe his childhood and adolescence.
2. What part(s) of the character's childhood most influenced the person he/she is today? Describe an important lesson your character learned as a child.
3. When the character was a child, what did he/she want to be when grown up?
4. What was your character's first, or most memorable, love affair? It can be anything from a pre-teen crush to a memorable love affair. Be sure to describe the object of your character's affection, along with the changes that your character went through in terms of feelings and thoughts about that person. Did it start out as maddening hatred? Instant love? Who fell for whom first? Was love a surprise? Assuming it has, how did it all end? How do all involved (your character, your lover, rivals, observers, etc.) feel about it now?
5. Assume your character is seeking companionship, and has the opportunity to write a detailed personal ad for an internet dating service (and was willing to do so, without fear of security risks or anything like that). Write the ad. Where would be the character's idea of a good place to take a date?
6. What is your character’s most precious pre-Awakening memory?
7. What is your character’s most traumatic or grief-inducing pre-Awakening memory?
   1. Autumn's worst memory was finding out that his parents and sister were gone and that his former associates had them. That was when the walls of the mortal life began to crumble.

Personality & Habits

1. Name five things your character likes to do that have absolutely nothing to do with being a mage.
2. Is the character sentimental about anything? If so, what? If not, why not?
3. What's your idea of getting "dressed up?"
   1. Working as a caretaker at a graveyard, Autumn owns a single black & white suit, which he wears on the rare occasion he wants to dress up for reasons other than work.

1. Does the character have any catch phrases, nervous tics, or personal habits that would identify him/her?
2. Does your character believe in true love? Elaborate.
3. Describe three public places that your character enjoys spending time at.
4. Describe your personal bedroom space. What might someone poking about find, both in terms of actual things and in terms of what the space says about you?
5. What moves your characters to anger or violence?
   1. Flagrant disrespect for the dead. Reckless waste of life. Anyone threatening any fragile stability that Autumn manages to build around himself.

1. What moves your character to tears?
   1. Occasional moments of reflection/clarity during which Autumn can see with gratitude the blessings in his continued life. Conversely, sometimes Autumn weeps quietly while performing ritual magic, staring into the bowl he carved out of his sister's skull.

1. What makes your character very happy?
   1. Exciting and dangerous distractions (though he would never admit this). Spending time with people whom he believes genuinely care about him. Education and learning.

1. What makes your character depressed or hopeless?
   1. Reminders of his loneliness. Dwelling on his failures. Thinking of the pain and terror that his family suffered at the hands of their captors and the fire that consumed them.

1. What sorts of situations make the character feel awkward or ill-at-ease?
   1. Overly social or gregarious people make Autumn quite uncomfortable -- he doesn't understand how to interact at a surface level anymore. Small talk is anathema to him. He is also nervous around fire. Candles are an acceptable evil of ritual magic, but he always has a flask of water ready in his messenger bag to douse them should one fall over. He has not been faced with a conflagration like that which consumed his family, but it is likely that when faced with one, he would freeze in terror.

1. What's the best way to persuade the character to do something?
2. Choose five adjectives to describe the character.
   1. Brooding, insightful, observant, compassionate, intelligent.

1. Give me some reasons why someone might reasonably dislike your character on first impression. Why might someone come to hate them in the long term?
2. How would your character react if he or she was publicly humiliated by a total stranger? What if it was a private humiliation? What if it was a friend and not a stranger?
3. If your character could have one object for himself or herself (and not to turn around and sell), regardless of price, what would it be?
4. What kind of music does your character like? Does he or she like different kinds of music in different circumstances?
5. What is the character's favorite food?
6. What's your character's favorite color? Any particular reason?
7. What is your character's routine when he or she is not tending to Awakened business/crises?
8. Assuming they could speak, what would each of your character's parents (separately) say about him/her?
9. Who are you important to? Why?
   1. In a very real sense, Autumn is alone. When he moved west, he kept touch with only a few of his friends. As he became involved with the criminal underworld of the Pacific northwest, he lost contact with all of them. Upon getting into trouble with his new criminal companions, everyone that he had begun to socialize with cut ties with him. When retribution from his criminal contacts arrived, he lost his entire family. In the wake of his Awakening, he grew quite close to Rubedo, but aside from her, he became very private. In some sense, Autumn has become fearful of caring about people. Everyone he grows attached to goes away.

1. Assume your character is plagued with a recurring nightmare that awakens him or her in a cold sweat every time. Describe the dream. (This will not necessarily be the case, though many people do have frightening, recurring dreams.)
   1. Autumn is searching through a burning warehouse, looking for his family. He can hear them screaming, choking, calling his name and accusing him of killing them. The smoke clouds his vision and burns as it sears his lungs. Finally, he finds them, their bodies blackened and charred, the skin cripsing off their seared bones. And yet, despite having passed on, they continue to accuse him with anguished cries. At this point, he awakens, tangled in his sheets and weeping at his failures.

1. What aspect of him/herself is the character most uncomfortable with? What aspect of him/herself is the character most satisfied with?
   1. Autumn is most uncomfortable with what his magics make him capable of... and what he did to some of his old drug contacts in the wake of his family's murder. He is most satisfied with his work -- helping the echoes of the dead let go of their death helps him forgive himself for all of his failure.

1. Is the character an introvert or an extrovert? How does the character behave in group settings? How does the character behave around someone in whom he/she is interested romantically?

Awakening & Beyond

1. Describe your character’s Awakening.
2. How has the Awakening changed your character, other than the obvious kewl powerz?
3. Why did your character choose the Shadow Name s/he did?
   1. Because, upon returning from Stygia, he was holding an autumn leaf.
4. Name and describe three non-supernatural individuals that your character interacts with on a regular basis (such as a neighbor, best friend, co-worker, and the like). If you have any Contacts or Allies, these can be part of those Merits.