We genned our Mage characters last night! Took hours....
Bells (aka Kito/Adam in Exalted/Aberrant) is playing a member of the Order of Hermes, while I'm one of the Euthanatoi, both recently completing their initiations. One thing that amused us at the end of character gen was when we realised he's playing a scientist, estranged from his family (like my Chrissie in Aberrant), while I'm playing an actor who's moved to LA from Europe (like his Adam in Aberrant...). Our Aberrant characters are rich and well-respected, while our baby mages are unknowns, struggling to make ends meet.
Here's my concept:
Ragna Halvorsen
Born and raised in northern Norway, Ragna discovered a passion for acting when away at school and knew she had to make it her career. In this, she was following in her grandmother's footsteps, who left her young children (including Ragna's mother) in her sister's care and moved to LA, where she found success as a film actress. Finishing compulsory education at the age of 16, Ragna went to stay with her to give her company and hopes to follow in her footsteps.
Her hometown is quiet, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else and will help when needed, but respects privacy. Family is important - her grandmother's action was particularly scandalous! Her mother is a website developer and her father a photographer; she has siblings, but I've not figured them out yet. She misses her family and friends a little, staying touch mostly using the internet, but is too busy to spend much time on homesickness. The town is vaguely Christian, but with a deep, almost pagan superstitious side brought on by the climate. She's well-versed in Nordic mythology.
That climate! The summer's midnight sun rarely breaches the clouds, and in the winter its light tinges the horizon but otherwise there's darkness. The sounds of the wilderness make it easy to believe in spooks and fairies, so seeing such things growing up surprised no one. Her secondary schooling involved moving to a more southern town, but she still isn't used to the heat and brightness that met her when she reached LA (she has a minor phobia of sunburn, having been warned repeatedly before leaving that it causes cancer, and constantly applies suncream to protect against it). The crowds and nosie of LA have also overwhelmed her, triggering her awakening (the actual awakening and various aspects of initiation are things we'll learn more about in flashbacks as we play, once we know the characters a bit better).
She's an eternal optimist - her paradigm is "It's all good - have faith". I've made her affiliation sphere Life, but I'm torn between that and Entropy and keep changing my mind. I think Entropy works slightly better with the belief that positive thinking will bring positive results, so I might switch... I put some other spheres in too, but forget which (time, correspondence and mind, I think; we were given an extra freebie sphere because our GM is nice like that).
For practice, she combines Yoga with Crazy Wisdom. I can't remember all the instruments I picked, but voice is important and I added runes even though they aren't listed under either practice to reflect the way she interprets Euthanatoi principles through her understanding of Norse mythology: part of Euthanatoi intiation includes undergoing physical death, which was an ordeal Odin undertook to learn the knowledge of runes.
She's alert and quick-minded (mental stats primary: perception 4 (uncanny insight), int 3, wits 3), and charming and beautiful (social stats secondary: charisma 3, manipulation 1, appearance 4 (pallid beauty)), but fairly average physically (physical stats tertiary: strength, dex & stamina all at 2). Under abilities, I made talents primary, knowledges secondary and skills tertiary, with a focus on the things that will help her develop as an actress and a mage.
As she's first language Norwegian, I had to take a languages merit for her to speak English. To an American ear, she probably sounds British. A Brit will hear a slight accent they may struggle to place (we don't hear Scandinavian English that often), as well as the inflection she's picked up from living in LA for 2 and a half years.
As well as the sunburn issue, we reskinned 'confused' to be 'naive' to reflect her fish out of water status in LA. She's also got a minor enemy, a flaw I've never taken before so was easily talked into (I've come to really enjoy giving GM's something like that to play with). I think there was something else, but I forget what.
Her mentor (someone we'll meet in our first session) is invested in her (3 point background), and her avatar is powerful (I think I put 5 in it) - I've suggested a Questing avatar with a raven form. I've also put a couple of points into Past Lives. She has no resources: the roles she's managed to get so far have all been as an extra, so she makes ends meet as a waitress. She lives with her grandmother (whom she calls Mormor); we said this should be a background or merit, but I forgot to buy it so need to switch out sanctuary.
I'm looking forward to building a relationship with Bells's character. He's a European American native of LA, so probably won't realise she's not British until he hears her speaking with her grandmother - that's also likely how he'll learn her name is 'Ragna', as she's anglicised it to 'Reagan' in the hopes of getting more work. It'll be fun, too, because he's well-educated and scientifically-minded, which means he's going to use words that just aren't in her vocabulary.
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